Hero dog draws sympathy

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—The one-year-old dog here whose face was horribly disfigured when she saved her young masters from being hit by a speeding motorcycle two months ago, has become a celebrity of sorts.

Kabang, a white-and-black “aspin” (short for asong Pinoy or native dog) shielded Dina Bunggal, 11, and cousin Princess Diansing, 3, from harm when she jumped into the path of the motorcycle. But her head got caught in the spinning front tire, causing her to lose her entire upper snout, including her nose and lower part of her eyelids.

Her deed has been described as heroic and her resulting plight has drawn a wave of sympathy. Despite the still open wound on her face, Kabang (a Visayan term that means spotty) is not showing any sign of trauma.

UPDATE:  ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines— The courageous canine who saved two girls from harm when she blocked the path of a speeding motorcycle here in December, is US-bound.

“Kabang,” a female aspin (short for asong Pinoy or native breed), will undergo major surgery to reconstruct her upper snout, which was mangled and ripped off in the accident, according to veterinarian Dr. Anton Lim.

“Kabang is going to the US with the help of many kind-hearted individuals and donors, who would like to see the dog … live longer. Her story inspired many people especially animal lovers,” Lim said, citing a confirmation from Ramona Consunji of the Animal Welfare Coalition.

Lim said among those helping in Kabang’s trip to the US, which could take place next month at the latest, aside from local veterinarians and humanitarian groups and individuals, was Animal Welfare Coalition US coordinator Karen Kenngott.

In an e-mail to the Inquirer, Kenngott said that they wanted Kabang flown to the US as soon as possible.

“The more time that goes by, the more Kabang is at risk of infection,” Kengott said. “Fungal infections can be especially difficult to eradicate and any infection in the bone can be a lengthy process to treat at best. Her chances are better the sooner she can get those wounds closed,” she said.

Lim agreed by saying that Kabang is losing one of her remaining upper molars–which is very important for chewing and grabbing food–because of a previous infection.

Kenngott said Kabang would be operated on at the Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital of the University of California in Davis, “under a team of multi-disciplinary doctors and surgeons led by Dr. Boaz Arzi.” Arzi is a maxillofacial and dental surgeon.


LATEST UPDATE (09/12/12): click here for Update on Kabang, The Hero Dog 

Lawsuit: KFC Franchisee Fired Employees For Refusing To Serve Expired Chicken

A former manager at a KFC eatery in Oregon alleges that the owner of his franchise not only ordered employees to serve expired chicken, but also that employees who refused to do so were fired.

According to the lawsuit filed yesterday in a state Circuit Court, KFC policy requires that all fresh chicken be served or discarded within 12 days of the "kill date" stamped on the box.

The lawsuit alleges that in 2010, a different manager had been ordered by the franchise owner to serve chicken that was "turning green and was several days beyond the expiration date." Instead, that manager threw away the chicken, against orders of her bosses. After the owner discovered the chicken had been tossed away, that manager says she was fired.

The plaintiff in the lawsuit alleges that he was directed by the franchisee to serve expired chicken as early as August 2010.

In Feb. 2011, he says one of his bosses changed the label on a box of fresh chicken to make it look like the chicken had been shipped frozen and thawed, and thus okay to serve.


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The Virtue of Patience

Excerpt from "10 Things Pope Benedict XVI Wants You to Know":


"Probably without being conscious of it, Pope Benedict XVI is teaching the world something through his own behavior.  He is exceedingly humble and gentle, which stands in stark contrast to the bluster and braggadocio often associated with global titans in the worlds of politics, finance, and culture.  He is living proof that one does not have to be an exhibitionist to lead and to inspire.

Perhaps more important, he's teaching a microwave world that expects instant results to slow down a bit, to catch its breath, and to look before it leaps.  Upon Benedict's election, there were fevered expectations of swift and dramatic action in many quarters.  Some expected a root-and-branch reform of the Roman Curia, the Catholic Church's central organ of government.  Others anticipated a sweeping crackdown on dissident theologians and liberal activists within the Church.  To this day, many pundits and commentators are still waiting for the "real" Benedict to emerge from beneath his patient, gentle facade; what they don't seem to appreciate is that what they regard as a facade is, in fact, the real pope.

Benedict is a man of deep faith, which means he realized that, ultimately, the vicissitudes of the Church and of the world are in God's hands, not his.  There's a serenity about him, a lack of what the Germans call angst, rooted in his belief that the final act of the story in which all of us are involved has already been written, and it ends well. Thus he does not feel the need to lurch from one initiative to the next or to resolve all the Church's problems in a single bound.  He understands better than most the complexities of those problems, both intellectually and pastorally, and he also grasps the importance of thinking carefully before taking steps that may have unforeseen consequences.

In an impatient world, Benedict XVI is a very patient man.  To paraphrase Saint Augustine, occasionally his very lack of deeds is an important "word" for the harried women and men of his time".

Thought For The Day: Gossip

"Careless talk against and about people can be like quicksand! 

Not only have such mistakes of tongue destroyed innumerable friendships 

but they have ruined marriages and cost many people their jobs and their future.”

- Jean E. Laird

The Untold Story Of The Titanic’s Catholic Priests Who Went Down Hearing Confessions

"May all Christians be found worthy of either the pure white

 crown of a holy life or the royal red crown of martyrdom"

- St. Cyprian

All three of the European-born priests – Father Juozas Montvila of Lithuania, Father Josef Peruschitz, O.S.B. of Bavaria, and English rector Father Thomas Byles – are said to have declined lifeboats in order to offer spiritual aid to travelers who perished in the shipwreck.

Fr. Thomas Byles

Source:  Lifesitenews

Amidst all the tales of chivalry from the Titanic disaster there is one that’s not often told.

It is that of Fr. Thomas Byles, the Catholic priest who gave up two spots on a lifeboat in favour of offering spiritual aid to the other victims as they all went down with the “unsinkable” vessel.

A 42-year-old English convert, Fr. Byles was on his way to New York to offer the wedding Mass for his brother William. Reports suggest that he was reciting his breviary on the upper deck when the Titanic struck the iceberg in the twilight hours of Sunday, April 14th, 1912.

According to witnesses, as the ship went down the priest helped women and children get into the lifeboats, then heard confessions, gave absolution, and led passengers in reciting the Rosary.

Agnes McCoy, one of the survivors, says that as the great ship sank, Fr. Byles “stood on the deck with Catholics, Protestants and Jews kneeling around him.”

“Father Byles was saying the rosary and praying for the repose of the souls of those about to perish,” she told the New York Telegram on April 22, 1912, according to the website devoted to his memory, FatherByles.com.

In the words of the priest’s friend Fr. Patrick McKenna, “He twice refused the offer of a place in a boat, saying his duty was to stay on the ship while one soul wanted his ministrations.”

Nearly two weeks after the disaster, The Church Progress in St. Louis, Missouri wrote this moving tribute to the heroic priest:

In almost every line that has been written, and in every sentence that has been spoken, there stands boldly out above every other expression a picture of sublime heroism that will be copied into the pages of history. And well it may, for it is deserving of that honor.

But when it is, mention should be made of one whom pens and tongues have almost forgotten in their accounts of this awful sea tragedy. Among those who safely reached the land again no one seems to have been aware of his presence on the ship, but we may hope that many who meet him in a blissful eternity will praise God that Father Thomas Byles was there to administer absolution unto them.

Thought For The Day - Science And Religion

"Science develops best when its concepts and conclusions are integrated into the broader human culture and its concerns for ultimate meaning and value. Scientists cannot, therefore, hold themselves entirely aloof from the sorts of issues dealt with by philosophers and theologians. 

By devoting to these issues something of the energy and care they give to their research in science, they can help others realize more fully the human potentialities of their discoveries. They can also come to appreciate for themselves that these discoveries cannot be a genuine substitute for knowledge of the truly ultimate. 

Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes. Each can draw the other into a wider world, a world in which both can flourish." 

- Pope John Paul II

Spectacular Solar Flare Erupts From the Sun

Video and News courtesy of Space.com and Yahoo News.

The sun erupted in an amazing solar flare today (April 16), unleashing an intense eruption of super-heated plasma that arced high above the star's surface before blasting out into space.

The powerful solar flare occurred at 1:45 p.m. EDT (1745 GMT) and registered as a moderate M1.7-class on the scale of sun storms, placing it firmly in the middle of the scale used by scientists to measure flare strength. The storm is not the strongest this year from the sun, but photos and video of the solar flare captured by NASA spacecraft revealed it to be an eye-popping display of magnetic plasma.

"Great eruption happening on the sun now," scientists with NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) wrote in a Twitter post.

The solar flare erupted along the sun's eastern limb (its left side) from an active region that may also be responsible for solar storm activity observed on Sunday, SDO mission officials said. The flare kicked up a massive amount of solar plasma in an explosion known as a coronal mass ejection, or CME.

"Such eruptions are often associated with solar flares, and in this case an M1 class (medium-sized) flare did occur at the same time, though it was not aimed toward Earth," officials with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., explained in an image description. The Goddard center oversees the sun-monitoring SDO mission.

When aimed at Earth, strong solar flares and CMEs can supercharge the planet's auroras, also known as the northern and southern lights. Extremely powerful CMEs can pose a danger to astronauts and satellites in space, as well as power grids, navigation and communications systems on Earth.

Astronomers measure solar flares on a letter scale, with the strongest events falling into three categories: C, M and X. C-class solar flares are the weakest events, with the X-class sun storms marking the most powerful events on the sun.

The sun is currently in an active phase of its 11-year solar weather cycle and is expected to reach its peak activity in 2013. The current solar weather cycle is known as Solar Cycle 24.

Loyal Dog Refuses To Leave Her Friend After She Was Run Over

Taken from Daily Mail Reporter:

A black Labrador retriever that braved traffic to stay by another dog that was fatally struck by a car has been hailed for its loyalty.

A concerned motorist who saw the dogs on a La Puente street in Los Angeles, California, on Wednesday morning put down traffic cones to alert other drivers and shot a video of the dogs. 

The footage released on Saturday showed the female Labrador lying next to a motionless, yellow Labrador as vehicles pass dangerously close to them.

Blood can be seen around the injured dog's head while the Labrador waits by its side. Animal control officials responded to the scene and took the frightened but unharmed dog to a shelter.

The Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC) said the two-year-old dog, who animal shelter staff and volunteers have named Grace, appears to have been well cared for. But nobody has come forward to claim her,  so she is up for adoption.