Not a Pozo-Negro

Students of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) have taken to the Internet to express anger over allusion that UST is obstructing a government flood-control project.

In his last State of the Nation Address (SONA), President Aquino said a Manila university he did not name turned down a proposal to build a catchment basin under its open fields.

UST netizens lamented that as the oldest existing university in Asia and the largest Catholic university in the world in terms of population, UST has so many fragile historic buildings that could be adversely affected by such a catchment project.

“They want to turn UST into a giant pozo-negro in utter disregard of the damage such a project would pose to our cultural heritage,” blogged Neptali Samson.

“Poor urban planning and not UST is to blame,” twitted AB political science graduate and law student with the handle jerican231.

UST’s student publication The Varsitarian said UST rejected the catchment project proposed by DPWH because “UST's open spaces and other buildings are also National Cultural Treasures as declared by the National Museum in 2010.” 

-End-

Image by: Wikipilipinas

Signs of Chiz?

Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero resigned Tuesday as chair of the Senate Committee on Finance and as co-chair of the Joint Congressional Oversight Committee on Public Expenditures.

Submitting his irrevocable resignation to Senate President Franklin Drilon, Escudero said he did so out of “delicadeza” with his looming run for a higher office in the 2016 elections.

Escudero is being seen as a potential running mate of Senator Grace Poe, a leading contender for next year’s presidential election as an independent.

“I believe that it behooves me to step down at this juncture to ensure that deliberations on the General Appropriations Bill  are untainted by suspicions or perceptions of partisan politics,” said Escudero.

“It is, Mr. President, what propriety requires; it is, I believe, what our people expect from us all -- delicadeza,” he added.

Pundits are however, saying, that Escudero may be distancing himself from the administration, seen to field Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, against Poe and Vice President Jejomar Binay.

“He wants a way out because next year’s budget is criticized by former Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Sen. Serge Osmeña as being full of the ‘pork’ already declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court,” said an observer. –End-

Image by: Philippine Daily Inquirer

Ogling Ad Dollars

Want to draw more people into your website? Then put more video news feed on your contents mix because, as Facebook and Youtube would attest, video is king.

Internet analyst Gene Munster said Monday that Facebook is quickly catching up on Google’s Youtube on video views, adding fuel to their fight for advertising dollars.

Google has reported a two-year high on Youtube hits with eight billion views a day, but Facebook is fast catching up with a claimed increase of video views from one billion to four billion a day.

"Facebook has a powerful way of measuring the social graph on top of video, and they've really done a nice job of leaning into the news feed," said Munster.

"There are more ad dollars that are going to shift over to Facebook. The sense is that Facebook is slowly grabbing attention from advertisers away from Google and video in particular," he added. –End-

Image by: mobilecause.com

The new gold rush?

Startup ventures in Asia may soon tap crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter following the success of Internet-based crowdsourcing investments in Europe, reported CNBC.

Facebook’s purchase last March of virtual reality headset maker Oculus VR for a whopping $2 billion has made crowdfunding vis-à-vis institutional funding from banks, etc. as the new hot buzzword.

As a startup, Oculur VR raised a mere $2.4 million via Kickstarter.

“The percentage of early stage seed deals funded by crowdfunding is growing, and is beginning to cannibalize the volume of these deals funded by venture capital firms in Europe," said Robert Wardrop.

The executive director at   Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance in the UK, Wardrop said crowdfunding  for lending represents about 80 percent of the total market in Europe. 

–End-

Image by: CNBC

And now for our homily… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Lingayen-Dagupan Socrates Villegas has slammed the practice of many priests of giving long, winding and irrelevant sermons, describing it as “homily abuse.”

In his own homily as reported by Rappler, Villegas asked priests to be more prepared when giving the sermon after the reading of the Gospel, so as not to antagonize people, or worse, bore them to sleep.

Likewise, he asked priests to keep politics out of their homilies. Said Bishop Socrates:

“The first call of the times is priestly sincerity. You can preach to empty stomachs if the stomach of the parish priest is as empty as his parishioners.

“Our homilies will improve if we diminish our love for talking and increase our love for listening. When our homily is simply a talk, we only repeat what we know, get tired and feel empty.

“The second challenge of our times is simplicity – simplicity of message and even more, greater simplicity of life.

“Simplicity of life will also help us to stop talking about money and fund raising in the homily; money talk has never been edifying. Simplicity means resisting to use the pulpit as a means to get back at those who oppose us – patama sa sermon.”

Sorry, but it’s all the space we have. Errr, the good bishop’s own homily is rather loooooooong too.  –END-

Image by: The Catholic Movement

Sex and the BBC

If it was not carried by the respectable BBC, the piece The phenomenon of the musical ‘skin orgasm’  would have been dismissed as an article from the seedy underbelly of the Internet.

But no, in a scholarly piece with claim to being a part of psychology and neuroscience, David Robson asked the question:

“[If] some people feel music so strongly the sensations can be compared to sex, how does a good song move the body and mind in this way?”

As example, Robson cited the case of an accomplished female pianist and violinist Psyche Loui (yup, that’s her real name) who says that she gets off with one particular piano piece that strikes her body like a bolt of lightning.

“Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 2 came up on the radio and I was instantly captivated,” she said, adding that a chill down her spine, accompanied by a fluttering in her stomach and a racing heart.

“There are these slight melodic and harmonic twists in the second half that always get me!” she added.

Wrote Robson: You may know these physical feelings as chills or tingles – but some people feel them so powerfully, they describe the sensations as “skin orgasms”.  

Rachmaninoff’s so moves Loui that she became a psychologist at Wesleyan University and tried to decipher the science between the big “O” and music.

Here’s the link to the complete article:

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150721-when-was-the-last-time-music-gave-you-a-skin-orgasm  -End- 

Image by: BBC

Venus would approve

This shocking news from the male-dominated space exploration frontier: NASA has admitted that 25 percent of the team that sent the explorer New Horizons to Pluto are women.

In the 70s, such a scenario in the testosterone-reeking NASA would have had someone blurting out, “Houston, we have a problem.” But not anymore and definitely not now.

According to the principal investigator of the New Horizons project, Alan Stern, he actively recruited women and younger scientists to the team, drawing kudos from women empowerment activist Fran Bagenal.

Bagenal is known for mentoring young women and working for their increased participation in fields traditionally dominated by men.

"The Voyager and Galileo programs [to explore Jupiter], which got started in the 1970s, were lucky to have a few women,” said Bagenal.

      

“The Cassini [mission to Saturn] was better... And once you get a decent number, it feeds in and grows some more," she added.

      

“But it didn't just happen by chance. People worked very hard to increase the number of women," Bagenal told CNN. 

–End-

Image by: CNN                                  

Is it a miracle?

 

CNN has reported that a French teenager infected at birth with HIV has shown the ability to control the levels of infection of her body without being on antiretroviral treatment since age six.

The female, now 18, has been in remission for 12 years now, which means that she has maintained undetectable levels of the virus in her blood.

The seemingly natural ability of the teenager to control HIV, the virus responsible for AIDS, has provided hope that a “functional” cure for HIV may one day be possible. A functional cure is one where the virus is brought down to low levels but not totally eradicated

"This is the first [time] long-term remission has been shown in children, or adolescents," said Asier Saez Cirion who presented the findings at the 8th IAS conference on HIV pathogenesis, treatment and prevention, in Vancouver this week.

The teenager contracted HIV from her mother who was HIV-positive during her birth. –End-

Image by: HIV Support Group

Whoa! 37M nude pics?

 Hackers have threatened to release to cyberspace the nude photos, real names and addresses and sexual fantasies of all 37 million users of the adult dating website Ashley Madison, The Financial Times has reported, quoting Avid Life.

Avid Life owns the Canada-based website Ashley Madison, which has members in 48 countries and which has gained notoriety for its line “Life is short, have an affair.”

A group called the Impact Team has claimed responsibility for the hack, issuing a threat to release in public the photos and identifying details of Ashley Madison’s members if the website, along with its partner site Established Men, is not shut down permanently.

Ashley Madison is the second-largest dating website by number of users after Match.com. –End-

Image by: Ashley Madison

Be very scared of California bridges

Next time you drive through 119 “obsolete” and 79 “structurally deficient” bridges in Riverside County, California stretching 7,303 square miles from just east of Los Angeles to the Arizona border, think of the recent monumental collapse of the Tex Wash Bridge.

Located just east of Palm Springs and sitting on Interstate 10 linking Los Angeles to Phoenix, the Tex Wash Bridge crumpled to the ground the other day on the weight of a single  black truck.

What’s alarming with the collapse of the Tex Wash Bridge is that it just received an “A” rating, according to federal sources, which means it was structurally sound and safe to use despite being built in 1968.

The bridge had a "sufficiency rating" of 91.5 out of 100, higher than dozens of other interstate bridges, according to the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), said USA Today.

The collapse of the rated “A” bridge raised questions as to the continuing use of the 119 bridges rated “obsolete” by FHA and the 79 tagged by the same agency as “structurally deficient.” –End-

Image by: USA Today

Two Laws to bouy the economy

Philippine President Benigno Aquino III signed today the 2015 Competition Act as well as an amendment to the  50-year-old Philippine Cabotage Law before 250 government officials, lawmakers and business leaders at Malacanang Palace.

The Competition Law prohibits anti-competition mergers and acquisitions, along with the fixing of prices during auctions or biddings. It also prohibits agreements that put a limit to production, market and investments.

The amended Philippine Cabotage Law would allow foreign vessels to transport and co-load foreign cargoes for domestic trans-shipment. It is expected to lower shipping cost in the country.

The penalties for violations of the Competition Law may reach P100 million to P250 million, and may include imprisonment. –End-


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Growing bigger vs China

Malacañang has welcomed the pronouncements of four US senators supporting the Philippines’ maritime case against China. Senators John McCain, Jack Reed, Bob Corker and Ben Cardin urged the US government to help Manila and other Southeast Asian countries in the struggle against Chinese maritime territorial advances. Press Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said more nations have lauded the legal and peaceful move of the Philippines to settle its maritime row with China in the West Philippine Sea/South China Sea. The UN arbitral tribunal heard last week the arguments raised by the Philippine panel on why it should declare it has jurisdiction over the case, citing maritime encroachments on Manila’s 370-mile exclusive economic zone, not to mention environmental degradation.  –End-

Image by: Rappler

About time

Sen. Juan Edgardo “Sonny” Angara has called on his colleagues to prioritize the passage of Senate Bill (SB) No. 61 that seeks to upgrade the salary grade (SG) level of teachers from SG 11 to 19.

If passed, the bill would double the salary of public school teachers from its current monthly base pay of P18,549 to P33,859. “I urge my colleagues here in the Senate to hear the sentiments of our teachers and immediately act on the pending bills seeking to increase the salaries of public school teachers,” Angara said.

The first-term senator explained the rationale for his bill: “Public school teachers are the heart of the Philippine public school system but they are among the most underpaid workers given their workload and service in the society. They receive a basic salary that does not commensurate to their contribution.”

The public school teachers are asking for a monthly salary of P25,000 from the current rate of more than P18,000. The militant Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) has vowed to lead its members in a mass leave if the government fails to act on their request.

Angara, former Aurora congressman, said once passed, SB 61 would provide financial relief to the 3.2 million deserving public school teachers. “I have authored this measure since my time in the Lower House and I will continue to file this in the Senate as one of my top priority bills. The Constitution guarantees a living wage and they deserve more than what they presently get,” he said. –End-

Mom's the best

In the face of alarming news report of food poisoning in the Philippines, a new US study confirms what our moms have been telling us since time immemorial – home-cooked meals are far healthier than fast food.

In a report by Reuters, a survey of 18,000 adults conducted by a professor of kinesiology and community health at the University of Illinois showed that fast food may be to blame for the obesity problem in the US and for a host of weight-related ailments.

About a third of the survey participants reported eating fast food, while one quarter reported eating at full-service restaurants.

With the survey participants who ate home-prepared food serving as baseline, those who ate fast food consumed an average of 190 more calories per day, 11 grams more fat, 3.5 grams more saturated fat, 10 mg. extra cholesterol and 300 mg. more sodium.

Those who ate at full-service restaurants consumed around 187 more calories, 10 more grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 60 mg. more cholesterol and 400 mg more sodium per day compared to those who ate home-cooked meals.

In the Philippines, home-cooked meals trump fast food in terms of freshness and in safety and hygiene of preparation. –END-

Image by: www.mothersrecipesbook.com

Gaming takes lead

Casino stocks surged after the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. said gaming revenue could increase 20 percent this year amid China’s anti-corruption crackdown which has curbed revenue in other parts of Asia. Stocks of Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which operates the Solaire casino in Manila, jumped 8 percent at the 3:30 p.m. close of trade, the steepest rise since September 2013 and the biggest gainer on the Philippines Stock Exchange Index.     Melco Crown Philippines Resorts Corp., operator of City of Dreams Manila, soared 8.8 percent, ending a three-day slump, while Travellers International Hotel Group, which runs Resorts World Manila, posted its first gain in eight days.

First-half gaming revenue at the country’s casinos increased by 16 percent to $1.4 billion, according to Pagcor chairman Cristino Naguiat. There’s a “good chance” it will reach $3 billion this year, he added. China’s crackdown on graft has dampened gaming revenues in Asia, with Macau posting a 37 percent drop in the first half of the year as the campaign kept away Chinese gamblers. Genting Singapore Plc has also been hurt.

“It’s proof that the Philippines has a good mix of foreign markets and that there are many who really want to come to the Philippines,” Naguiat said.        “Bloomberry is raking the numbers in, while Melco has been steadily bringing in the people,” Naguiat said, adding that it’s getting tougher for tourists to get hotel rooms at the resorts. Tourist arrivals in the Philippines increased 8.2 percent to 2.23 million in the first five months of this year, with many coming from South Korea, who accounted for 24.5 percent of the total, followed by the U.S. and Japan, according to official data. China is the fourth largest source of tourists, with a 7.1 percent share.

Philippine gaming revenue could have been higher if not for China’s anti-graft campaign, Naguiat explained. The nation’s gaming revenue rose 14 percent to $2.5 billion last year from 2013. Premium Leisure Corp., among Melco Crown’s Philippine partners, posted a one-month high of 3.1 percent. Alliance Global Group Inc., parent of Travellers, gained 1.6 percent. Belle Corp. gained 3.1 percent, the biggest advance in three weeks, while Leisure & Resorts World Corp. increased 2.1 percent to a three-week high. 

–End-

Image by: www.hotelroomking.com

Look who just moved in?

The Philippine Red Cross recently inaugurated its largest regional logistics and training facility in the Subic Bay Freeport Zone.

The hub will strengthen the capacity of its chapters nationwide to assist and respond to emergencies caused by natural and man-made disasters.  

The center, located a 1.6- hectare property donated by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority, houses a function hall-cum Convention Center, which can accommodate a maximum of 250 people and can be converted into a warehouse or two more training areas, two dormitory buildings, two classrooms and a mess hall. 

Dr. Gwendolyn Pang, PRC Secretary-General, said the new facility will also be used to offer various courses for volunteers and humanitarian workers to upgrade their capacities and strengthen community resilience.  

 “This facility serves as a hub for logistics support in local and international disaster response. We will preposition relief supplies here, both food and non-food items; also our equipment and our vehicles, such as water tanker, pay loader, ambulances, fire trucks and others, to facilitate prompt and efficient deployment in case of disasters, emergencies or mass casualty incidents,” PRC Chairman Richard J. Gordon said.

The new facility will serve as the operations hub of the Red Cross for Luzon and other parts of the country for providing humanitarian aid, with its strategic location, as it is 130 kilometers north of Manila and is accessible by land via the North Luzon Expressway and the Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway; by air via the Subic Bay International Airport; and by sea through the Port of Subic.  

Expansion plans are also on tap for this mega-facility, which aims to serve 15,000 people at any given time.  

 “The facility will soon have a hotel and a trade school, the construction of the latter to be supported by the Royal Charity Organization of Bahrain thru the Bahrain Red Cross,” Gordon said.  

The PRC Chairman thanked the members of the delegation sent to help victims of the earthquake in Nepal: “The Philippine Red Cross is the only humanitarian organization in Nepal that has complete facilities. Our feat has created a lasting impact on the international community.”

                                   * * *

Longest 3 Months

It could take three months before the international arbitral tribunal in the Netherlands can decide if it has jurisdiction over Manila’s maritime case against Beijing, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Monday. According to DFA spokesman Charles Jose, it was American legal counsel Paul Reichler who made the estimate based on the latter’s experience with previous cases handled by the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA). “Ninety days is the estimate. It may take 90 days for the tribunal to come out with decision on question of jurisdiction,” Jose said.

Image by www.interaksyon.com