New PAGASA OIC intends to sex up meteorology again. Try renaming the typhoons female, again. Hell knows no fury like a woman scorned.

Chinese embassy officials checked on the condition of 80 Chinese miners discovered by the police working without permit in Zambales.

They just dug their way from China’s flooded Luotoushan mine, owned by China's largest state-owned coal miner Shenhua Group, and surfaced at our Masinloc mine.

Erstwhile presidential candidate who decided to win as governor, Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., said he found a “diplomatic solution” with Chinese Consul General Li Qenfeng and asked him to tell his Ambassador “not to worry.”

Ebdane doing diplomacy with the Chinese? From Zambales?

Shouldn’t DFA Secretary Alberto G. Romulo summon the Chinese Ambassador and ask him to explain the presence of his countrymen who are mining what is not theirs?

Our consuls issue visas to aliens, Bureau of Immigration grants stay permits, and DTI gives the work permits. Gov. Ebdane can only issue barangay registration cards.

Mining in Masinloc seems to be taking the South China Sea issue a bit too far, n’est-ce pas?

If the Chinese can do that inland, imagine what they are capable of at Spratleys.

Confucion say: What is mine is mine, what is yours is negotiable.

If the following are news headlines, guess who’s in the best position to negotiate?

* Aquino gov’t’s talks with MILF to resume after Ramadan — Palace
* MILF to AFP: We have 60,000 weapons to fight you
* We’re tired of fighting, says military
* Ebrahim Murad, chair of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), warns he was prepared for war if peace talks did not resume.

HI-TECH. For the holy month of Ramadan, cell phone applications such as "iPray" or "iQuran" beeps reminder of prayer times, and the "Find Mecca" and "mosque finder" programs help Muslims find the nearest place to pray.

Technology isn’t new to Islam. When Europe was in the Dark Ages, Islamic civilization and science was at its peak.

Challenges posed by Islamic religious observances inspired enduring scientific discoveries. I have seen the enormous sextant of Ulugh Beg (1394-1449 CE) in Samarkand which plotted positions of over a thousand stars, that improved on Ptolemy's geocentric model of the universe.

Writer Samatha Henry concludes, “It is this legacy that Muslims must strive to revive and continue as science and religion converge toward the common goal of preserving our common heritage — the Earth.”

Global Property Guide rental-yield data shows property prices in Manila, Jakarta, and KL topping the list of best places in the region to be a landlord. In these capitals, the cost of buying an apartment is relatively low compared with the money that can be earned by renting it out.

Apartment dwellers and tenants of Makati, arise! Feedback: jaz@mb.com.ph