Category Archives: Science and Environment

Science and Environment

CALIFORNIANS RELIEVED: NO 8.8 MAGNITUDE EARTHQUAKE ON THURSDAY

Leave a comment
Image: dreamstime.com
Image: dreamstime.com

SAN FRANCISCO, California (The Adobo Chronicles) – It was supposed to happen at 4 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday, May 28: an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in California, brought about by the alignment of the planets. The prediction came from Dutch Frank Hoogerbeets, the same man who predicted the recent devastating quake in Nepal.

By 3:59 p.m, many Californians had ducked under tables, filed into the streets and had abandoned high-rise office buildings and condominiums. Both the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge in San Francisco were surprisingly empty, but churches of all denominations were standing room only.

Then 4 p.m. came and went, but the earth was still.

imageApparently, Hoogerbeets got it wrong. It was going to be a 9.0 magnitude shaker, and it would happen a day after – Friday, May 29 at 1000 Van Ness and other California movie theaters near you — right where the San Andreas fault runs through.

(Disclosure: The Adobo Chronicles did not receive any fee for promoting the movie ‘San Andreas,’ starring Wayne Johnson, in this news story.)

 

 

 

Science and Environment

IN AUSTRALIA, IT’S RAINING SPIDERS!

1 Comment

spidersGOULBURN, Australia (The Adobo Chronicles) – Many of us have heard the phrase, “It’s raining cat’s and dogs,” and it’s really more of a figure of speech.  We’ve also heard “It’s raining men,” but that’s a 1980’s hit song by The Weather Girls.

However, in Australia, when one says, “It’s raining spiders,” it really IS raining spiders.

Residents of Goulburn, Australia, awoke this month to find their town shrouded in eerie, silken webs, while millions of tiny spiders rained down from above, local news reported.

“The whole place was covered in these little black spiderlings and when I looked up at the sun it was like this tunnel of webs going up for a couple of hundred meters into the sky,” resident Ian Watson told the Sydney Morning Herald. His house looked like it had been “abandoned and taken over by spiders,” he added.Capture

Australia is known as a country for all seasons. You can do practically anything at any time of year.  There are four seasons (winter, spring, summer and fall) across most of the country and a wet and dry season in the tropical north.

With this latest phenomenon, however, Australia will add a fifth season during the time when spiders fall from the sky and the ground is blanketed by white spider webs.

The new season will be called Arachnoid season.

Government, Religion, Science and Environment

PHILIPPINES: GETTING MARRIED, BAPTIZED OR BURYING SOMEONE? MUST FIRST PLANT A TREE

1 Comment

imageILOILO, Philippines – Catholics who want to marry, have someone buried or baptized will soon be required to plant trees, according to a Memorandum of Agreement among the Catholic Church, the local government and the Department of Environmental and Natural Resources in the province of Iloilo  in Central Philippines.

Not just any kind of trees, but Bonsai trees.

‘Bonsai’ is a Japanese art form using miniature trees grown in containers. Similar practices exist in other cultures, including the Chinese tradition of penjing from which the art originated.

The agreement, signed on April 22 (Earth Day),  was originally aimed to reforest the lands denuded by Typhoon Yolanda (Haiyan) in 2013.  Thousands of trees, including century-old ones, were uprooted when Typhoon Yolanda hit the province.

However, many Catholics in the province — mostly from low-income families — complained that they do not own any land and would not be able to comply with the tree planting requirement.

As a compromise, the archbishop of Iloilo relaxed the requirement by allowing Catholics to instead plant Bonsai trees on pots and containers inside their homes or apartments.

Taking advantage of the new rule, SM Department Stores in the province quickly added Bonsai trees to their list of available items in their gift registries.

Couples getting married or parents having their children baptized in the Catholic Church can now request their invited guests to give them the gift of Bonsai.

For Catholic burials, families of the deceased can now add the following line in the obituaries:

‘In lieu of flowers, please consider bringing a Bonsai tree to the wake or funeral.’