Join MikeLigalig.com!

Why Just Read When You Can Join, Post, and Read!

Menu

Show posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Show posts Menu

Messages - hubag bohol

#55601
Photos Unlimited / Re: super-cute animals here!
June 01, 2011, 07:18:18 PM



8)
#55602
Technology / The Internet And You
June 01, 2011, 07:13:05 PM



;D

#55603
Love Talk / Re: Mushy!
June 01, 2011, 07:05:42 PM
#55604
Photos Unlimited / Re: Cuddling In Soft Sunlight
June 01, 2011, 07:03:54 PM
...then doing it in the dark...





Fare thee well...  :'(
#55605
Talk of the Town / Re: China's Secret Weakness
June 01, 2011, 06:34:49 PM
The government should develop regulations explicitly banning public agencies purchasing cigarettes with public funds and accepting them as gifts and should encourage and protect whistleblowers."

Growers of tobacco leaf should be encouraged, through subsidies and other policies, to switch to alternative crops or move into other kinds of work, the report adds. "Assistance should be offered to the wholesale, monopoly and retail businesses to switch. Provinces highly reliant on the tobacco industry should be subsidized with funds from the central government during the transition period."

The document was prepared with help from a panel of 28 experts, 19 Chinese and nine foreign. They include Professor Lam Tai-hing, professor of the school of public health of the University of Hong Kong, and Dr Judith Mackay, senior advisor to the World Lung Foundation.

"What needs to be done, what is effective in reducing tobacco useâ€"especially price policy and legislationâ€"is very well known, and if China wishes to protect the health of its people, now is the time to implement these measures," Mackay said. -- http://www.irrawaddy.org/


#55606
Talk of the Town / Re: China's Secret Weakness
June 01, 2011, 06:31:39 PM
Currently, 1.2 million people die annually of tobacco-related diseases, of whom a third are aged between 40 and 69. "Tobacco-attributable deaths are estimated to account for 25 percent of total deaths among those aged 40 or older. Among cerebra-vascular patients who survive a stroke, three of four have lost some of their ability to work, with 40 percent suffering severe disabilities. Tobacco smoking has become the top killer of the Chinese population."

The report proposed a 20-year plan to bring out a gradual change in smoking habits. This would include raising taxes on cigarettes, which would cut consumption but maintain government revenue.

"150 million, 50 percent of smokers, buy one pack of cigarettes for five yuan or less and the expenditure for 100 packs occupied merely two percent of per capita GDP in 2009," the authors wrote. By contrast, a pack of cigarettes in Hong Kong costs HK$ 50 (US$ 6.41). In New York, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has pushed the price of cigarettes to US$11 per packet of 20.

Last year, more than 300 million of China's 1.3 billion people were recorded as smokers, almost the same as in 2002. Among men, the proportion of smokers last year among workers was 68 percent, farmers 60 percent, civil servants 52 percent, medical professionals 40 percent and teachers 38 percent.

Beijing ratified the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), which came into force in 2005, but has failed to meet its commitments under the convention, including a pledge to ban smoking from all indoor public areas.

"China is doing poorly in implementing the FCTC with a performance score of only 37.3 of 100 possible points," the report said. "The intervention of the tobacco industry is the underlying cause of the poor impact of tobacco control. It has distorted the Chinese version of FCTC, denied the scientific conclusions of the health hazards of smoking and claimed smoking as smoker's rights.

"It has abused the public powers of government to counteract tobacco control policies, used 'low tar and low harm' marketing strategies to mislead the public and encouraged tobacco consumption through disguised advertising and marketing effects of sponsorship and promotion."

A survey of adults in China last year found that more than 75 percent did not know the health hazards of smoking and more than two thirds did not know the hazards of second-hand smoking.

The report proposes a restructuring of the government, so that the department that includes the tobacco industry cannot take any responsibility for tobacco control. It recommends the establishment of a National Tobacco Control Bureau in the National Development and Reform Commission to take charge of comprehensive tobacco control nationwide.

"Public agencies are the largest buyers of premium cigarettes, a situation that has to be changed to earn people's trust in anti-corruption. Chinese Communist Party and government officials, civil servants and employees of public agencies must take the lead to ban smoking in public and work places.
#55607
Talk of the Town / Re: China's Secret Weakness
June 01, 2011, 06:30:31 PM
China's Smoking Problem
By MARK O'NEILL / ASIA SENTINEL    
Wednesday, March 9, 2011



A man smokes a cigarette beside the statue of Chinese philosopher Confucius at the entrance of the China National Museum in Beijing. (Photo: Getty Images)


The economic cost of smoking to China exceeded 70 billion yuan last year, creating what one critic called a country "with the biggest tobacco problem in the world."

The government should cut consumption by raising the cost of cigarettes, now only at 5 yuan (US$ 0.76) per packet of 20, which would guarantee its tax revenue, according to a report by the country's tobacco control lobby titled "Tobacco Control and China's Future. The report was written by Yang Gonghuan, vice director of the China Center for Disease Control (CCDC), and Hu Angang, Director of the Centre for China Study at Qinghua University and the China Academy of Social Sciences, and was posted on the CCDC website.

It is a direct attack on the State Tobacco Monopoly and China National Tobacco Company, which has just announced record results. In 2010, the state-owned concern's profits reached 604.5 billion yuan, up from 253 billion in 2006, and taxes paid to the state rose to 498.8 billion yuan from 194.4 billion.

The report said that the health costs of treating tobacco-related illnesses exceeded tax revenue from tobacco for the first time in 1999 and the deficit has been increasing each year since then, reaching 70 billion yuan last year.

"Tobacco-related medical expenditures and loss of productivity are increasing by the year at an expanding rate. The integrated benefit analysis shows that the net benefit generated by the tobacco industry is already below zero," it said.
#55608

Quote from: tohnichi007 on June 01, 2011, 06:05:24 PM
Hehehe dawaton ug naay ihatag oi...LOL

Di ba mas naay kagamitan kon sumpay pa sa lawas? ;D
#55609
Talk of the Town / Re: China's Secret Weakness
June 01, 2011, 06:20:27 PM
Such ferocious campaigns to put down crime ended in failure and were abandoned, especially since it seems they often led to the spread of corruption--at all levels of officialdom.

If, as seems likely, the expansion of the Chinese economy and the rise in living standards lead to further increases in the use of heroin and other drugs, how will Chinese authorities deal with the concurrent rise in organized crime?

The Chinese are learning that prosperity comes at a price. The Communist authorities ruling China today have immensely more powerful and repressive machinery at their disposal than had the 19th-century imperialist bureaucracy. However, experience has shown that mere repression does not work.

Meanwhile, more and more Chinese have more and more disposable income--and a significant proportion of it is going to drugs. -- http://www.forbes.com/




#55610
Talk of the Town / Re: China's Secret Weakness
June 01, 2011, 06:16:36 PM
Some experts believe that general prosperity in a society is always and inevitably accompanied by a comparable increase in drug-taking and cite the U.S. as an example. Certainly, since China entered the world market and its living standards began to rise swiftly, its consumption of addictive drugs has risen alarmingly. Australian researcher Susan Trevaskes, who has just published a book on Chinese crime prevention, Policing Serious Crime in China (Routledge, $125), estimates that 40% of the heroin produced in Afghanistan and Pakistan and a similar percentage of the drugs coming from Laos and Burma now go to China. Trevaskes also reveals that China itself manufactures "precursor chemicals" for ecstasy and other substances, for export and domestic use.

Drug use on a large scale attracts organized crime and corruption. Under opium's economic impact government corruption in China became more oppressive, which eventually led to peasant revolts, followed by the government's savage attempts at suppressing them by burning villages. The catchphrase describing this policy: "strengthening the walls and clearing the countryside." The imperial authorities then created "strategic villages" and forced peasants to live in them.

Since the 1980s the Chinese government has conducted similar campaigns, dubbed "Strike Hard," to put down organized crime and corruption. During the last quarter of the 20th century an enormous number of "criminals" were executed. Trevaskes puts the figure at between 2,500 and 15,000 a year and calculates that the total number may have been as high as 250,000. -- http://www.forbes.com/
#55611
Talk of the Town / China's Secret Weakness
June 01, 2011, 06:15:35 PM
by Paul Johnson, 02.23.11, 06:00 PM EST
Forbes Magazine dated March 14, 2011


With China's rapidly expanding economy and growing power at sea and in the air, some commentators have taken the view that it's not a question of whether but how soon China will replace the U.S. as the world's leading superpower.

This is nonsense. So long as America retains its freedom and thus its unique powers of innovation, it will continue to lead. Besides, China's elite is too scared to follow in the path of freedom because to do so would risk unity, threatening disintegration and a return to the terrible days of warlords and civil war, as in the 1920s.

Moreover, China has secret weaknesses. Its most serious: gambling and drug addiction. China's new prosperity is already producing a rapid expansion of the country's international gambling class, not to mention an appreciable increase in the number of drug addicts.

Though India was known as the "Mother of Opium" and during the 18th century produced large quantities of it, nearly all of India's opium was exported to foreign markets rather than consumed at home. The Chinese love of opium seems to have originated on a large scale with its 18th-century population explosion, when China grew from about 150 million in 1700 to 450 million in 1850. By that time China had become the world's largest consumer of opium.

This was highly convenient for the West. Although the West bought large quantities of silk and tea from China, the Chinese spurned Western goods, regarding foreign imports as immoral. As the authorities did everything in their power to restrict imports, China ran huge trade surpluses with the West. But then Western governments and trading firms discovered the Chinese appetite for opium and began to export it in large quantities through Canton. By the 1830s China's export surplus had turned into a growing deficit.

Alarmed by the loss of silver and the spread of addiction, especially among the ruling class, the imperial court in Peking sought to ban opium and prevent Western ships from bringing it in. The West--in the name of free trade--responded with naval force. Thus began the Opium Wars, which were fought mainly by Britain, to keep China's ports open. -- http://www.forbes.com/
#55612
Quote from: islander on May 31, 2011, 11:03:17 AM
fellow tblanders, may i request for a minute of your time to check the link below.  it is a petition for china's animal welfare law.  if you're up to it, and i wish and hope that you are up to it, kindly join the thousands of signatories who are appealing to the chinese government and its embassies for the law to be passed.  your signature matters as one more voice to add to the shout.  hallelujah! 

please?

http://www.change.org/petitions/message-to-china-pass-animal-welfare-law-for-western-acceptance






>:(
#55613
Jokes and Humor / Re: Cartoon of the Day
June 01, 2011, 06:06:08 PM



:P
#55614
Jokes and Humor / Re: Funny Animals
June 01, 2011, 06:04:50 PM
Quote from: Lollapalooza on June 01, 2011, 04:07:23 PM
kini unusual prensyip pod...


Traydor bakia. Paamigo-amigo, unya diay mangunay kay gustong dayegon... :P
#55615
Jokes and Humor / Re: Would you ride this bike?
June 01, 2011, 05:58:22 PM
He he, kini ang ampay ni Bay Bugsay... ;D
#55616
Health and Food / Re: A Gentle Reminder To Smokers
June 01, 2011, 05:54:34 PM



:P
#55617
Bible Study / A Sobering Thought
June 01, 2011, 05:50:38 PM



Think about it...  :-\
#55618
Photos Unlimited / Re: The Chameleon
June 01, 2011, 05:39:17 PM



:o
#55619
Quote from: tohnichi007 on June 01, 2011, 05:32:20 PM
Ning bakasyon jud ug perting dugaya heheheh

He he, I'm sure those were learning years, and you're back to share your knowledge, if not wisdom...
#55620
Photos Unlimited / Re: super-cute animals here!
June 01, 2011, 05:30:42 PM



8)
#55621
Photos Unlimited / Re: super-cute animals here!
June 01, 2011, 05:27:53 PM



:)
#55622
Jokes and Humor / Re: Creative Gadgets
June 01, 2011, 05:25:59 PM
#55623



Bwahaha!  ;D

#55624
Love Talk / Re: Mushy!
June 01, 2011, 05:15:55 PM



:)
#55625
Quotable Quotes / What Bukowski Really Wants To Say
June 01, 2011, 05:10:33 PM
He says...





But what he really means to say is...





;D


#55626
Jokes and Humor / Darth "Hello Kitty" Vader
June 01, 2011, 03:54:31 PM



;D
#55628
Jokes and Humor / Just So
June 01, 2011, 03:36:20 PM



8)
#55629
World Cup Football | Fifa Soccer / Unbeatable Team
June 01, 2011, 03:33:57 PM



8)

#55630
Weird and Extreme / Re: Weird Bodypainting
June 01, 2011, 03:28:43 PM
Quote from: Lollapalooza on June 01, 2011, 02:08:42 PM
delikado ni....ayaw gyud ni palaguta...saon na lang..

He he, kini ang elepante nga mas delikado ang trunk kaysa tusks... ;D
#55631
Inspiration & Hope / Count Your Blessings
June 01, 2011, 03:23:22 PM



8)

#55632
Technology / From Stone Age To Computer Age
June 01, 2011, 03:19:09 PM



;D
#55633
Jokes and Humor / Re: One-Liners
June 01, 2011, 03:16:15 PM



Naay uban, bisan first impression lang... ;D
#55634
Technology / Re: The Life of a Computer Addict
June 01, 2011, 03:11:28 PM
Quote from: Lollapalooza on June 01, 2011, 02:26:39 PM
sakita sa akong liog ug niliso liso oie....hahahahaha

He he, pangontra man ni sa tikig... ;D
#55635
Technology / Re: The Life of a Computer Addict
June 01, 2011, 03:05:16 PM
Quote from: fdaray on June 01, 2011, 08:27:22 AM
Ok lang ang addict sa computer. As I grow older the more I became intelligent because of the computer.

Attaboy!
#55636

Quote from: islander on June 01, 2011, 01:25:12 PM
ang one shot sa tawo mora nag one gunshot sa iro.  ayaw na lang gyod paimna imong iro ug dom perignon. 

Hmm, sigi, beer na lang...





8)
#55637

Quote from: tohnichi007 on June 01, 2011, 12:37:12 PM
Wow kwarto anyos na diay ang TB... murag tres anyos napod ko sukad niapil deri hehehe....aw taympa beh lili-on sa naku kanus-a ko niabot deri sa TB...;)

Hmm, 3 years na? Absenot diay kon maohon... ;D
#55638

Quote from: islander on June 01, 2011, 12:26:40 PM
hohum.  salig ra sa kawo aron ingnong tuli... ;D

He he, di na kawo, oi. Mao jud na ang porma sa ulo... ;D
#55639
Facts and Trivia / Re: OPTICAL ILLUSIONS GALLERY
June 01, 2011, 01:17:05 PM

You're welcome, Ms. Lolla. Hope you enjoy our gallery here...
#55640
Jokes and Humor / Tam-is Nga Pahiyom
June 01, 2011, 01:11:19 PM



He he... ;D


#55641
Technology / Re: The Life of a Computer Addict
June 01, 2011, 01:05:36 PM

Quote from: tohnichi007 on June 01, 2011, 12:44:37 PM
Partly yes and partly no maybe... but its a choice made... kalas kwarta ug mangitag laing lingaw... :D

As they say, only time will tell. Safe jud hinuon ni nga klase sa lingaw (not to mention inexpensive)... ;D
#55642

Quote from: tohnichi007 on June 01, 2011, 12:13:01 PM
Just simple rape with partial consent...haysssss

He he, karon pa pud ko aning concept of partial consent... Hmm, parehas tingali diay sa somewhat married... ;D
#55643

Quote from: tohnichi007 on June 01, 2011, 12:15:20 PM
Basin nakaingon siyag tubo pod bwahahah.....aws

Bwahaha! Naa tingali diay siyay hatagan nga gustong mopang-os! ;D
#55644
Photos Unlimited / Re: My Favorite Paintings
June 01, 2011, 12:53:32 PM




"De Sterrennacht"
Vincent VAN GOGH 1889
Museum of Modern Art, New York City.
Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest,


#55645
Jokes and Humor / Re: Malfunction
June 01, 2011, 12:43:10 PM

He he, naay subtle tone of sadness...
#55646
Photos Unlimited / Re: My Favorite Paintings
June 01, 2011, 12:40:56 PM




"La Promenade, la femme à l'ombrelle"
Claude MONET 1875
National Gallery of Art, Washington


#55647
Jokes and Humor / Re: Funny Signs
June 01, 2011, 12:27:18 PM




:P
#55648
Jokes and Humor / Re: Effective Advertising
June 01, 2011, 12:23:59 PM




He he, gwapo jud tuod... ;D
#55649
Technology / Re: The Life of a Computer Addict
June 01, 2011, 12:20:25 PM

Quote from: tohnichi007 on June 01, 2011, 11:58:46 AM
I waste my time here on the internet because it was here I started to move on from being broken-hearted, not looking for partner but just friends to talk to... to ease some loneliness being away from my family... I continued to waste my time here because I found joy in my heart until it seems gone already yet still I'm here... :(

If spending time here helps you survive with grace this particular phase of your life, then it might not be a waste of time after all...
#55650
Technology / Re: The Life of a Computer Addict
June 01, 2011, 12:16:07 PM

Quote from: islander on June 01, 2011, 11:18:08 AM
wa gyod hinoon ko madani anang facebook sukad kay gawas nga wa ko kasabot ana, di pod ko interesado nga sayon-sayonon ra kog pangita sa internet.

He he, hadlok kang ma-trace sa imong gipang-utangan? ;D
#55651
Jokes and Humor / Re: Malfunction
June 01, 2011, 12:12:41 PM

Quote from: tohnichi007 on June 01, 2011, 12:06:04 PM
malfunction jud kaau...

Hmm, klaro kaayo nga voice of experience...
#55652

...and some modern ones as well...





8)
#55653
abs-cbnNEWS.com
Posted at 06/01/2011 10:15 AM | Updated as of 06/01/2011 10:30 AM


MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE) - Former Maguindanao Governor Andal Ampatuan Sr. on Wednesday pled not guilty to 57 counts of murder in connection with the Maguindanao massacre last Nov. 23, 2009.

Ampatuan, alleged mastermind of the massacre, was arraigned Wednesday at the Quezon City Jail Annex in Camp Bagong Diwa.

Members of the Ampatuan clan are among the accused in the massacre of 58 people, including 32 journalists, in Maguindanao province last Nov. 23, 2009. The victims were on their way to Shariff Aguak town to file the certificate of candidacy of now Gov. Toto Mangudadatu when their convoy was allegedly blocked at a checkpoint by police and militiamen of the Ampatuans.

Sigfrid Fortun, lawyer of the Ampatuan patriarch, earlier filed a motion asking Judge Jocelyn Solis Reyes that Andal Sr. and his son, Sajid, be arraigned on May 25.

Lawyer Harry Roque, who represents media victims of the massacre, said the delayed arraignment of Ampatuan is evidence of a dysfunctional justice system in the Philippines.

"Andal Sr's arraignment was made possible only because he voluntarily agreed to it. Never mind that the prosecution has had a pending motion to have all the accused in custody to be arraigned. The Court has not acted on this motion. This is alarming because seemingly, it was not the rules that compelled Andal Sr to enter a plea. On the contrary, it was only because he agreed to it- as if an accused can now rewrite the rules to suit his ends," he said in a statement.

Roque said the elder Ampatuan's decision to be arraigned is intended to deflect public attention away from the controversy surrounding the petition for reviews filed by Andal's sons in the Court of Appeals.

He noted that Inquirer columnist Mon Tulfo revealed that at least P200 million circulated in the high court to effect the release of at least one of Andal's sons. -- http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/



#55654

Quote from: islander on May 31, 2011, 03:05:42 PM
The following foods may be dangerous to your pet:

    Alcoholic beverages
   

Just as in the case of humans, dangerous jud ni kon sobra, pero kon one shot lang...  8)
#55655
Jokes and Humor / Malfunction
June 01, 2011, 09:07:30 AM



8)
#55656
Jokes and Humor / Misunderstood
June 01, 2011, 09:02:46 AM



:P

#55657

Bitaw, mao jud nay mahitabo sa maikog mobalibad... ;D
#55658
Technology / Re: The Life of a Computer Addict
June 01, 2011, 08:54:37 AM

Quote from: Raquelproud boholana on June 01, 2011, 08:33:06 AM
Karong adlawa akong gi deactivate akong facebook kay murag makasayang sa akong oras ug makastress pud ning daghan mamayloay thru facebook hehehhe. Inay sila akong ipangblock ako nalang gi deactivate akong account.

He he, sa akong tan-aw good decision ni... :)
#55659

Quote from: bol-anon nga cebuano on June 01, 2011, 08:44:45 AM
unya pagkahuman gihatag sa pari.

Dayon simhoton pud sa pari, dayon ang pari moyango-yango ug mohatag og thumbs-up sign... ;D
#55660

He he, pakapinan pa jud og: Lagay napusgay... ;D
#55661
Love Talk / Re: A Loving Couple's Day Out
June 01, 2011, 08:40:04 AM

Kini maoy tinuod nga loving couple...





8)
#55662
Love Talk / Re: Kon ma inlove na ang Zebra
June 01, 2011, 08:36:20 AM

Zebra nga wa ma inlove...





:D
#55663

Luoy kaayo nga kuhaan lang sa ilang fins unya ibalik sa dagat. Segurado jud nga painful death...  :'(
#55664

Quote from: Mike Ortega Ligalig on June 01, 2011, 06:40:15 AM
Saysay pa sa bayaw sa biktima nga si Marilyn, una nang nahanaw ang biktima og usa ka gabii human sa iyang pagpanapas og tubo.

Human pagpanapas og tubo, basin ang iyang kinatawo na pud ang gitapas kay nakaingon siya nga ang maong parte sa iyang lawas way katam-is nga gikadalit...
#55665

Quote from: Mike Ortega Ligalig on June 01, 2011, 07:35:23 AM
Unsa man kahay sala sa iyang kinatawo nga giabis man. Kulang ang detalye sa balita.

Hmm, naa juy kalambigitan ang kinatawo... Basin sa iyang pangagpas way pulos...
#55666

Syarog wa pa jud motagam ning uban sa daghan nang estorya, mosul-ob gihapon og mahalon nga alahas kon mosakay og public transpo...
#55667

Niplete pa jud diay... :P
#55668
Philippine Provinces / Re: Collector Gipusil Patay
June 01, 2011, 08:06:09 AM

Hmm, di diay tuilis ang tuyo. Basin gitiklo para di na kapadayon pagpaningil...
#55669

Kining kumpyansa lagi. Maayo gani kay way gipataop nga lansang ang dos por dos...
#55670

Migahi ang lawas? Wa man isulti kon unsay sakit...
#55671

Pwede si Cong. Pakyaw ilang pangayoan og panabang...
#55672

Sigi pa diay ning problemaha... :P
#55673

Maayo kay naguyod ang t-bak. Pag-abot sa bride gipunit unta sa groom ang t-bak ug gisimhotan... ;D
#55674
Weird and Extreme / Re: Magnetic Boy!
June 01, 2011, 07:49:36 AM

Quote from: islander on May 31, 2011, 10:30:40 PM
mopilit diay ka ani niya, bai hubs. ;D

He he, naay putos nga anti-magnetic material ang akong itlog... ;D
#55675
Love Talk / Re: Mushy!
June 01, 2011, 07:47:00 AM

Kini mushy gihapon, pero di kaayo...





:)
#55676
Health and Food / Re: 15 Ten-Second Health Tips
June 01, 2011, 07:41:54 AM

Quote from: hubag bohol on May 17, 2011, 09:15:31 AM
1. Eat Bacon and Eggs for Breakfast





Regularly skipping breakfast increases your risk of obesity by 450 percent. Moreover, researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University found that people who regularly ate a protein-rich, 600-calorie breakfast lost significantly more weight in 8 months than those who consumed only 300 calories and a quarter of the protein.

And no, eggs and bacon aren't unhealthy. (Overeating eggs and baconâ€"or anything elseâ€"is what's unhealthy.) In fact, whole eggs contain more essential vitamins and minerals per calorie than any other food. They're also one of the best sources of choline, a substance your body requires to break down fat for energy. What's more, in a recent review of dozens of scientific studies, Wake Forest University researchers found no connection between egg consumption and heart disease. As for bacon, once it's been cooked it contains just 1 gram of saturated fat per sliceâ€"and one-third of that is the kind that has no effect on cholesterol levels.

Kini, unhealthy na...





;D
#55677

                     
#55678

Japanese women's legs telltale signs of differing walks of life
Friday, 10-Oct-2003 5:00AM PDT       
Story from AFP / Raphaelle Marcadal
Copyright 2003 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)


TOKYO, Oct 10 (AFP) - The sight of pigeon-toed, bow-legged young Japanese women, with a stomping, unsteady gait due to their high-heels, is arguably one of the first things about the country that strikes foreign visitors.

But Japanese women's legs testify to cultural, historical and fashion codes behind the cliche, as illustrated by an exhibition by a French photographer devoted to the subject.

"When you take photos of someone standing up, your eye is drawn to the fashion and you don't notice the postures," said Claude Estebe, an associate researcher at Tokyo's Teikyo University who created the exhibition.

"In Japan, there is total control of the upper part of the body, the face and hands, but there is a subconscious relaxation of the lower half. The legs really speak to you," said Estebe, 44, who describes himself as a photo-historian.

All candid shots snatched mainly in Tokyo, Estebe's pictures attempt to show the "cultural permanence" of Japanese women's postures, among which the pigeon-toed "uchimata" is most commonly seen on the nation's streets.

"In France, when a child walks with its feet turned inwards, it is systematically corrected, but in Japan, society encourages women to perpetuate this infantile posture," Estebe told AFP, adding that "in all of Asia, only Japanese women walk like that".

Traditional Japanese paintings of the 1930s celebrated "uchimata", elevating it to the height of elegance.

Kimono makers also recommend the "uchimata" gait because "its shows off the garment to better effect," said Francois Lachaud, a researcher at the Ecole francaise de l'Extreme-Orient (EFEO - French School of Far East Studies) in Kyoto.

Asked which image, in her opinion, was most representative of Japanese women, Naoko Arisama who teaches design at Tokyo's Sugino Fashion University, pointed to a photograph of a young woman kneeling down with the lower half of her legs bent back against the outside of her thighs.

"This "pettanko" way of kneeling is typically Japanese," she said.

Japanese have a wealth of precise expressions to describe either standing or seated posture, underlying the significance attached to deportment.

"Ganimata" describes feet splayed outward like the hands of a clock at 10 minutes to 2:00, while "yanki" is shorthand for a laid-back or slouching posture adopted by many young Japanese.

The traditional, formal way for women to kneel on tatami straw floors -- which, if practised from a young age causes bow-leggedness -- is known as "seiza suwari". Scuffing the sole of one's shoes on the ground while walking is "suriashi."

"Everything goes so fast in Japan: fashions change every three months but people's physical attitudes have remained virtually the same for centuries," said Estebe, who has published books of photography on geishas and the last of the samurai.

"Slenderness is also something which has hardly changed in the traditional Japanese concept of beauty," Lachaud said, as opposed to China where a degree of "plumpness" in a woman used to be more highly prized.

The way of emphasizing such traditionally valued attributes has changed beyond recognition, however.

Today adolescent Japanese girls wear their school skirts as short as possible and their knee-length white socks concertinaed down around their ankles to make their legs appear longer and more slender "like American girls' legs", the Asahi weekly magazine noted. -- http://quickstart.clari.net/qs_se/webnews/wed/bd/Qlifestyle-japan-france.R5K__DOA.html
#55679

Genu varum (also called bow-leggedness, bandiness, bandy-leg, and tibia vara), is a physical deformity marked by outward bowing of the leg in relation to the thigh, giving the appearance of an archer's bow.

Children until the age of 3 to 4 have a degree of Genu Varum. The child sits with the soles of the feet facing one another; the tibia and femur are curved outwards; and, if the limbs are extended, although the ankles are in contact, there is a distinct space between the knee-joints. During the first year of life a gradual change takes place. The knee-joints approach one another; the femur slopes downward and inward towards the knee joints; the tibia become straight; and the sole of the foot faces almost directly downwards.

By the time a normal child begins to walk the lower limbs are prepared, both by their general direction and by the rigidity of the bones which form them, to support the weight of the body.

If a child is sickly, either with rickets or suffering from any ailment that prevents the due ossification of the bones, or is improperly fed, the bowed condition may remain persistent. Thus the chief cause of this deformity is rickets. Skeletal problems, infection, and tumors can also affect the growth of the leg, sometimes giving rise to a one-sided bow-leggedness. The remaining causes are occupational, especially among jockeys, and from physical trauma, the condition being very likely to supervene after accidents involving the condyles of the femur. --from Wiki
#55680

Quote from: islander on May 31, 2011, 10:25:21 PM
di tawon no.  ang uban mapingki intawon kun makaigith.

Mapingki kon nagpugong pa; mabakang kon mibuhagay na... ;D
#55681

Quote from: islander on May 31, 2011, 11:10:31 PM
As for his health, "I never eat frozen or canned food. I always go for the freshâ€"in fact my wives are also fresh because I never marry a divorcee or widow.  I cannot recall visiting a hospital for treatment."

Bwahaha! Marokoy jamo kanahana...  ;D
#55682

He he, peligrong naay TB members nga mobiya sa atong relihiyon aning estoryaha... ;D
#55683
Photos Unlimited / Re: A Dazzling Show Of Hands
June 01, 2011, 06:22:51 AM

#55684
Photos Unlimited / Re: A Dazzling Show Of Hands
June 01, 2011, 06:21:02 AM

Morag sa Thailand bitaw ni, mao man tingali ni ang gitawag og dance of a thousand hands...
#55685

Quote from: bugsay on May 31, 2011, 06:58:23 PM
ka swerte baya ninyo'ng mga iringa mo!!!! >:( ;D

Dia ra si Bay Bugsay nagpanilap, nagpairing-iring aron makasuksok...





;D
#55686

Quote from: Mike Ortega Ligalig on June 01, 2011, 06:01:27 AM
Pagkaluoy sa mga iring nga gigamit pagilok-gilok ni Inday. :)

Hmm, animal cruelty diay kon maohon...
#55687

Quote from: islander on May 31, 2011, 07:24:59 PM
number 8 ang cutest.  bahala na nang uban dinha nga ang background maoy gitan-aw, bahala nang ga-post ani nga way laing tuyo, basta cute tanang kitties unya ang number 8 nga wa pay dunggan maoy cutest.

Bitaw, no. 8 ang cutest. Pero cute pud ang no. 1, maayong pagkahuot... ;D
#55688

Quote from: chicogon on June 01, 2011, 05:51:32 AM
No. 7 kay kaluha  8)

He he, kaluha pud ang ilang gitungtongan... ;D
#55689
"So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today." --Matthew 6:34 (NLT)

#55690
Jokes and Humor / Just Do It!
May 31, 2011, 08:07:49 PM



:o
#55691
Quotable Quotes / Re: Quote For The Day
May 31, 2011, 08:03:12 PM




:)
#55692
Jokes and Humor / Re: One-Liners
May 31, 2011, 07:52:43 PM




:-\
#55693
Photos Unlimited / A Dazzling Show Of Hands
May 31, 2011, 07:38:29 PM


:)



#55694

Quote from: islander on May 31, 2011, 07:14:42 PM
simbako!  bugnaw lang silag style, wa lubatlubata.  unya symphony orchestra pa gyod ang duyog, take note.

He he, bugnaw bitaw, morag gihumol sa ice ang ilang mga itlog... ;D
#55695
Quotable Quotes / Re: Quote For The Day
May 31, 2011, 07:28:04 PM




8)
#55696
Quotable Quotes / Re: Quote For The Day
May 31, 2011, 07:24:21 PM



--Jim Jarmusch
#55697

#55700



;D