Padre Burgos celebrates 94th foundation day

Padre Burgos will be celebrating its 94th foundation day on February 17. We at The Tamarind Tree would like to say congratulations!

May the good Lord bless our town and give our new local government leaders the wisdom they need to govern.

10+1

Book 10, get 1 FREE!

Book 10 people at The Tamarind Tree Resort, and get 1 FREE (Room only).

Inquire now at thetamarind3@gmail.com!

Hurry, offer is good until February 15, 2011 only. Applicable for Large Hilltop or Beachside Accommodation only.

3-6-9 frequent visitor program

Introducing our new 3-6-9 frequent visitor program! This enticing program is designed for those individuals who are seeking a regular weekend retreat away from the hustle and bustle of city life, but don’t want the expense of owning and the hassle of maintaining a second home. Make The Tamarind Tree Resort your weekend place.

Three visits to the Tamarind Tree Resort within one calendar year will earn you a 10% discount on your room on your fourth visit. Fourth visit must be made within the same calendar year.

Six visits to the Tamarind Tree Resort within one calendar year will earn you a 20% discount on your room on your seventh visit. Seventh visit must be made within the same calendar year.

Nine visits to the Tamarind Tree Resort within one calendar year will earn you a 30% discount on your room on your tenth visit. Tenth visit must be made within the same calendar year.

Offer applicable to each individual in a group, so make sure that you get your name registered at the time of check-in!

Take advantage of this offer during the off-peak season when our rates are low, low, low! An all-inclusive room plus three meals (or full board) starts at P1,000++ per person. For groups of 10 and above, we suggest you avail of our all-you-can-eat package. Contact us at (02) 772-4731 or (0921)838-3745 for Smart subscribers or (0915)256-6366 for Globe subscribers.

GMA says she likes geckos too

Here’s a recent article that ran in the Philippine Inquirer regarding the Philippine president and her love affair with geckos:

Gecko keeps Arroyo home pest-free

By TJ Burgonio Philippine Daily Inquirer

Posted date: May 22, 2010

MANILA, Philippines—Keep a gecko at home and help prevent global warming.In her home in Lubao, Pampanga, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has junked insect sprays in favor of a four-legged nocturnal creature to catch mosquitoes and roaches. It may seem odd to some, but this is a practical way to prevent global warming, Ms Arroyo said Friday before Lions Club members in Quezon City. She said climate change brings about risks to personal health, like the debilitating viral disease of dengue that is transmitted by mosquitoes, hence the need for environment-friendly pest control. “For instance, in my son’s home, and in my home in Lubao, Pampanga, we don’t use chemical pest control for mosquitoes and cockroaches. We use a gecko. We call that integrated pest management,” she said at the Araneta Coliseum. The speech was aired live over government-run dzRB. Ms Arroyo has won a congressional seat in her home province’s second district, a seat previously held by her son Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey” Arroyo. In her talk at the Lions Club convention, Ms Arroyo spoke about the adaptation and mitigation measures that the government and the public could take against the extreme effects of climate change. On adaptation, she suggested building “green homes” like those with gardens on their roofs, using less air-conditioning, harvesting rain for the season of drought and relocating people living in areas vulnerable to flooding. “That’s part of our framework strategies for climate change adaptation,” she said. To mitigate climate change, Ms Arroyo proposed energy efficiency and conservation, sustainable infrastructure, environmentally sustainable transport, measures to address forest degradation, and waste management. “We should put importance on materials recovery facilities (where segregated household trash is recycled). If you have facilities for street children, you should have facilities for MRFs,” she said.

tuko tuko

As a child, I was told that the gecko or “tuko” could predict the weather. Somehow, this old wive’s tale endeared this otherwise unappealing creature to me. I would never think of harming it.  Often, I would I would keep track of the number of times the gecko would say “tuko”.  Although I have done these countless times, I have never tested the theory that they could predict whether it was going to rain or shine.

Like humans, the sound they make which sounds exactly like “tuko,” thus their name, are their way of interacting with their fellow species. The sound is unique and distinct, but hardly threatening.

Provincial folks, or people like me who grew up in the province, take the tuko mostly foreranted. They are quite harmless and are fixtures in every home in the province. They eat mosquitoes, so in that sense, they are useful to have around, especially at night.

City folks, on the other hand, easily get frightened by the tuko. Yes, they are not cute creatures, they are lizards after all, and larger than the average. But unlike what many people fear, they won’t come down from the ceiling and attack you.

Their toes have a special adaptation that allows them to adhere  to most surfaces without the use of liquids or surface tension. According to Wikipedia, “the attractive forces that hold geckos to surfaces are van der Waals interactions between the finely divided setae and the surfaces themselves.”  Van der Waals interactions, named after a Dutch scientist, are the attractive or repulsive forces between molecules or between parts of the same molecule.

Every square millimeter of a gecko’s footpad contains about 14,000 hair-like setae , it says. Each seta or bristle has a diameter of 5 micrometers. Human hair varies from 18 to 180 micrometers, so a human hair could hold between 3 and 36 setae.

In theory, a boot made of synthetic setae would adhere as easily to the surface of the International Space Station as it would to a living room wall. Teflon, which has very low van der Waals forces, is the only known surface to which a gecko cannot stick.