How important are coral reefs? According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “coral reefs are some of the most diverse and valuable ecosystems on Earth. Coral reefs support more species per unit area than any other marine environment, including about 4,000 species of...
EDITORS DEKS Surprises may arise as the reporting landscape evolves, catching us off guard. After many years in the news industry, seeing changes in the coverage field is refreshing. I'm talking about a recent announcement by Gannett, an American mass media holding company based in Virginia,...
AVANT GARDENER Davao’s first shipment of durian to China was made available to the public early this week. This good news comes after it was shipped via chartered plane last April 6, 2023 then inspected by China’s strict customs officials. A program was held in China to commemorate this...
MEDIUM RARE Not a full moon, only a half-moon. It was a romantic enough touch to make Symphony at the Terrace memorable and, truly, one of a kind. But then Ed Yap, who deals in currency rather than music, is used to producing out-of-the-box events. A Christmas choral concert inside a church. Music...
MEDIUM RARE Forget your K-dramas. Walk away from thrilling, gory, violent crime serials. Documentaries are interesting but not all of them are fun to watch. Introducing Philomena Cunk, if you haven’t met her yet. She’ll make you cry when you laugh, and laugh when you should be crying. All...
WORD ALIVE A lady once approached a priest and confided, “I feel guilty, Father. This morning, before coming to Mass, I committed the sin of pride. I sat for an hour in front of my mirror admiring my beauty.” Will I have to do penance? The priest, looking at her, replied: “Not at all, my...
MEDIUM RARE It’s the end of an era when the good sisters of St. Paul University, one of a handful of schools offering bachelor and doctoral degrees in music, opens its doors for a concert, “the first time in three years,” according to Dean Raul Sunico. Opening-night honors on March 15 went to...
HOTSPOT Did you know that there were 18,087 positions at stake in the 2022 elections? Give or take a few positions whose terms of office exceed three years, this would be roughly the same number of positions to be contested in 2025. I again looked for this number after I saw a widely-shared social...
CLINICAL MATTERS Conspiracy theorists went into overdrive anew when several mainstream media outlets, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, published stories suggesting that the SARS-CoV-2 virus might have leaked from a Chinese laboratory. Anti-China rhetoric went into overdrive and...
DRIVING THOUGHTS It has been a week of talk about the old and the modern jeepney and all the issues that come with the transition. We’ve heard the jeepney drivers, operators, and transport groups protest the planned phaseout of the jeepney with the PUV Modernization Program (PUVMP) which was...
THROUGH UNTRUE When two or more events occur simultaneously, seemingly by chance and for no particular reason, we call it a coincidence. For instance, when you are about to call a friend and he suddenly calls you, this unexpected convergence of events can be a coincidence. Our gospel reading today...
HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRIPEVINE: OUR NEW ABNORMAL Let’s be honest, it’s not often we Filipinos can legitimately say we’re numero uno in the world in some category. Back in the early years of this century, I would hear reports about how we were number one in “speed texting” and text...
