Pala-isip

48. "You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.'' —Townsend, Tenn., Feb. 21, 2001 43. "I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." —Washington, D.C., Oct. 3, 2001 40. "Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties." —discussing the Iraq war with Christian Coalition founder Pat Robertson, as quoted by Robertson 37. "We need an energy bill that encourages consumption." —Trenton, N.J., Sept. 23, 2002 36. "After standing on the stage, after the debates, I made it very plain, we will not have an all-volunteer army. And yet, this week — we will have an all-volunteer army!" —Daytona Beach, Fla., Oct. 16, 2004 35. "Do you have blacks, too?" —to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso, Washington, D.C., Nov. 8, 2001 32. "It is white." —after being asked by a child in Britain what the White House was like, J...

Everybody loves math jokes. At least I think everybody does... Anyway, here are some funny ones. More here and here...

Here are a couple of stupid centre calls from Britain. Customer: "I've been ringing 0700 2300 for two days and can't get through to enquiries, can you help?" Operator: "Where did you get that number from, sir?" Customer: "It was on the door to the travel centre". Operator: "They're our opening hours". -------- Caller: "Can you give me the telephone number for Jack?" Operator: I'm sorry, sir, I don't understand who you are talking about". Caller: "In the user guide it clearly states I need to unplug the fax machine from the wall socket and telephone Jack before cleaning. Can you give me his number?" Operator: "I think you mean the telephone point on the wall". -------- Caller: Does your European Breakdown Policy cover me when I am travelling in Australia?" Operator: " Doesn't the name of the product give you a clue?" -------- Then there was the caller who asked for a knitwea...

Christmas is over, the parties, the food, the gifts, boxing day (December 26 in Canada), the endless cash outlay. Finally, I can rest and enoy the time off. No wait...we have work on the 27th! Darn, just when I though I can finally get some rest, I have to go back to work. Sometimes I wish I can just take a week off and do nothing. No laundry, no work to worry about, no cooking, no ironing. Nothing. Just sit around, watch TV or play Xbox or read a good book. But then again, I really hate taking vacations because it makes it harder to go back to work when your routine has changed. I was almost late for work this morning because I completely forgot I have work today. Today being the 27th. I wanted to stay home and clean my office, by office I mean the little corner I have in the house which is part of the living room that I call my office. I also wanted to clean up and backup my computer. But then I really didn't want to do anything during Christmas break. I really wanted to get a ne...

This is the funniest office prank I've seen. A fellow worker went on vacation and will return after Christmas, the boss and a co-worker wrapped everything on the guy's cubicle with tin foil. And I mean everything! Scissors, monitor, chair, mouse, pen, everything! Here are some pictures. This is just hilarious! Here's the link to the guy who made this prank.

It's amazing what you can find around the Internet (you know I can't think of any topic to write about). Here are a couple of things that might be of interest. Gigantic NES Controller - takes two people to play a game of Mario Bros. Movie Mistakes - check out the best movie mistakes made so far. Secret Worlds - move through space from beyond the milky way down to the sub-atomic level. Ad wars - ad wars between BMW, Audi, Subaru and Bentley. More ad wars - more ad wars between car manufacturers. Winnie from The Wonder Years - Stuff magazine's photoshoot of Danica McKellar who plays Winnie Cooper in "The Wonder Years". Oh by the way, she graduated Summa Cum Laude at UCLA in Mathematics and co-authored a scientific paper in a peer-revied physics paper. The paper proves a theorem that become known as Chayes-McKellar-Winn Theorem ( Wiki ).

Are you a geek? Are you a rich geek? Do you have a girlfriend who's also a certified geek? Do you want to really impress her this Christmas? Looking for the perfect gift? Look no further! Introducing USB drive that's a girl's best friend. A diamond encrusted USB drive that's solid platinum and loaded with 350 white diamonds of 5.8 carats. Only $40,000! I bet you no one will lose this baby!

During the huge snowfall we had two weeks ago, my son and I decided to build a snowman. He wasn't content to just build an ordinary snow man, but he wanted a snowman family. A Daddy snowman, a Mommy snowman and a little boy snowman. Not contented with that, I decided to do snowman inspired by Calvin and Hobbes comics. Here are the pictures...

I was talking to my friend the other day about movies we love and I never realized we liked pretty much the same movies. I'm talking about old movies from the 70s and 80s, so I decided to compile a list of movies that I love and perhaps someone else would discover them and love them as I do. 1. Trading Places (1983) - Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Murphy A funny movie about two wealthy brothers who own a Wall Street firm doing a social experiment to see if they can turn a snobbish investor (Ackroyd) into a bum and a street bum (Murphy) into a respectable member of society. This movie is the main reason I got interested in investing. 2. Coming to America (1988) - Eddie Murphy and James Earl Jones Eddie Murphy plays a wealthy prince who wants to find this true love in America. There are some reference to Trading Places in this movie. Like when Eddie Murphy gave $25,000 to two old guys on the street. They're the two wealthy brothers in Trading Places. 3. Brewster's Millions (1985) - R...

Here's an interesting article from Wired News . Google's Mountain View, California, headquarters is getting a 1.6-megawatt solar system -- enough to power about 1,000 homes -- that will feed about 30 percent of the complex's power demand. About a third of the 9,000 solar panels Google's installing will take the form of overhanging parking shades at the million-square-foot campus in Mountain View. Last year, Kyocera inaugurated the first ever Solar Grove in a parking lot in San Diego. The project used the empty space above the open parking area and built "solar trees" that provides shades to the cars and passengers as well as collecting solar energy and converting it into a 235 Kw Solar Electric Generating System. Just imagine, instead of building concrete waiting sheds, they built solar tree sheds instead that will provide shade from the sun and rain while collecting solar energy. Any country would have a sustainable and renewable supply of electricity. It...

I got this e-mail and I normally just delete forwarded messages. I thought this was worth posting. ====================== A little girl went to her bedroom and pulled a glass jelly jar from its hiding place in the closet. She poured the change out on the floor and counted it carefully. Three times, even. The total had to be exactly perfect. No chance here for mistakes. Carefully placing the coins back in the jar and twisting on the cap, she slipped out the back door and made her way 6 blocks to Rexall's Drug Store with the big red Indian Chief sign above the door. She waited patiently for the pharmacist to give her some attention but he was too busy at this moment. Tess twisted her feet to make a scuffing noise. Nothing. She cleared her throat with the most disgusting sound she could muster. No good. Finally she took a quarter from her jar and banged it on the glass counter. That did it! "And what do you want?" the pharmacist asked in an annoyed tone of voi...

For all you Mac lovers out there as well as you Windows fanatics. Parallels Desktop just released a free beta version of their new Parallels for Mac which includes a new feature called Coherence. Coherence allows you to run Windows programs within your Mac enviroment as though it was a local Mac application. It allows you to hide your Windows Desktop and lets you run the Windows app in their own window. Don't believe me? See the video below. I know my next computer will be a Mac!

I know this might be funny in the beginning, but it will eventually get annoying? I mean, a humping dog USB key? My only question is, what were they thinking?

James Kim, the senior editor of CNet was found dead on Dec 6, 2006. This is just so sad, though I don't know him, a lot of people who visit CNet are familiar with him. He's the senior editor of CNet and you usually see him on their videos reviewing products. I don't know why his death kind of had an effect of me just like the death of Steve Irwin. Was it because they seemed to be both familiar? Were they familiar because we see them on TV or the Internet a lot? Although we can't compare their contribution to society, but was it because we lost someone who did contribute to society in their own way? Or was it because like me, they're both fathers who love their family who left behind very young children? The reports say he climbed through a 5 mile canyon to find help for his family. The rescuers said what he did was "superhuman". Trekking through freezing weather with no food climbing down boulders, logs, icy creeks and nearly impenetrable brush. This is a...

Here's a laptop that the Terminator will love to use. NEC designed this laptop that can withstand a 3 foot drop and temperatures from -56 to 50 degrees Celsius. Just makes me wonder, how rough do people use their laptops? I mean, if they're using it in Antartica, I can imagine something like that. But how would this look in the office? I'm imagining someone going to the office in battle fatigue to use this laptop. :) Find out more here...

This is I believe how skewed the priorities of the Philippines are. Over the weekend of Nov. 19, 2006. While the whole country stopped as they watched the "Pac-Man" beat Morales. Another group of young Filipinos brought victory to the country. Who are these people you ask? I'm talking about Kim Marco Perez, 14, Dan Joseph Garcia, 13 and Gabriel Nunez, 13 with their coach Merlina Placino. Never heard of them? It's funny, because I wouldn't have known about it until it got mentioned in by a reader on INQ7. And I had to dig deep into the website to find it on the website's " The Good News " section. What have they done to deserve praise? They just beat out 20 different countries including Japan, South Korea, Russia and Singapore in a competition we normally would not have thought the Philippines would be good at. They won the 2006 World Robot Olympiad in Nanning, China. These students came from First Asia Institute of Technology and Humanities (Faith) ...

I saw this on the web on the funniest analogies and metaphors apparently written by high school students and collected by their teachers. 1. Her face was a perfect oval, like a circle that had its two sides gently compressed by a ThighMaster. 2. His thoughts tumbled in his head, making and breaking alliances like underpants in a dryer without Cling Free. 3. He spoke with the wisdom that can only come from experience, like a guy who went blind because he looked at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it and now goes around the country speaking at high schools about the dangers of looking at a solar eclipse without one of those boxes with a pinhole in it. 4. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. Coli, and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. 5. She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up. 6. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. 7. He was as tall as a six-foot, three-inch tree. 8. From the attic came...

I am just psyched! One of the pictures I took in the West Edmonton Mall was included in Schmap. Schmap is a dynamic interactive guide for tourist, travellers or just about anyone who is interested in virtual tours of destinations worldwide. By installing a small software, it gives you reviews, pictures and virtual tours. You can find restaurants, bars or whatever suits your taste. There's guides for several countries like the US, Canada, Australia, Europe, etc. There's none yet for Asia but they made it so that anyone can contribute to add to the content. Not only is my picture added in the guide, my Welcome Canuck blog which is a guide for newly landed Canadian immigrants is also featured on their site as a blog partner . No wonder the page impressions on my site suddenly went up! So if you're a new Canadian immigrant, a long time immigrant or just want to learn something about Canada and life in Canada, visit my Welcome Canuck blog. Here is the picture that was includ...

For those who are into old school games, here's a site I found where you can download all those old Dos based games. They got shareware, freeware and playable demos. Popular games such as Doom, Quake, Prince of Persia and others are available for download. Check it out .

Are you tired of sliding out of your mouse pad while running to frag your opponent and struggling to get back your control? How about suddenly losing control of your WoW character at the critical moment you need to move aside to avoid getting hit? Or are you tired of the skipping control you have with the friction your mouse has while you slide over the table? Well, worry no more! There's a new mouse in town and it's frictionless! It's a mouse that hovers about 1 cm from the table using electromagnetic technology. This is especially made for hard core gamers who require that extra control and fluidity in their mouse. It features 6000 dpi optical engine and since it floats on air, there is no drag. Here's the link .

Last Wednesday's storm created the single largest water advisory in Canadian history as Vancouver enters its fifth day of "boil water" advisory. A new storm on Sunday stirred up water supplies again. While no parasites or bacteria has been found in the water, people in Vancouver, Burnaby and the North Shore are advised to boil their water before using it to wash or clean their dishes. Because of this, there is now a shortage of bottled water all over the lower mainland. Prices for bottled water also has gone up. Richmond has less of a water shortage as the advisory has been lifted in the city since Friday, Richmond sources its water from a different reservoir. Bottled water is easier to find in Richmond than in Vancouver, although the prices are still higher than normal. Although it may not be advisable to drink the water, it is safe to use for washing or bathing. Restaurants around Vancouver are greatly affected because they are required to boil their water before they w...

George Martin, the legendary producer of The Beatles and who most consider as the "fifth Beatle" says that the "Love" soundtrack, which is a collaboration between George and his son Giles for the Cirque de Soleil Beatles show in Las Vegas will be his last album. The 26-track CD soundtrack is a mix of songs of only original Beatles music layered on to one another. Songs like "Strawberry Fields Forever" are combined with "Penny Lane" and "Hello Goodbye". George Martin who's turning 81 in 2 months said that he is thinking of taking early retirement. The Beatles website is offering everyone a chance to hear the full album online for free. Read here for the full story.

This article in INQ7.net is certainly something I did not expect but I'm glad it did. Its about a couple of students who qualified to join the Robotic Olympiad in China. For years, I have always wished that the Philippine school system take more measures to promote science and technology. I'm just surpised that a school outside Metro Manila took more of proactive approach to developing a class like that than one located in Metro Manila. It does seem that most of the better schools lately are located outside Metro Manila. Topnotchers in the nursing schools, doctors, lawyers, etc. I used to dream that when I got older, I would like to go back to my high school or college and teach. I would like to teach physics or a business course but I would take a different approach than what is on the curriculum. Instead of the boring physics class full of lectures and lab work that's basically meaningless. I wanted to give the students a more active approach in learning science. For exa...

I got into a debate the yesterday with my friend regarding the the value of an object. It started with this link I sent him about a voter in the US mailing in his vote with an " Inverted Jenny " stamp. A block of four of the rare stamp sold for $2.7m in October 2005. Going back to the subject of the debate, he said it was stupid that someone would buy a stamp like that and that it's crazy for a stamp to be valued at that price. I told him that the value of an object is relative to what another is willing to pay for it. He said that gold is a better value or diamond, I told him that the value of gold or diamond is also relative to what another is willing to pay for it. But he insisted that when World War 3 comes, that stamp would be worthless and that gold will be the only thing that would be of value. While I did not disagree with him, I told him that gold or diamond is only valuable as long as someone attaches a value to it. While gold would probably be more valuable co...

It's November and that means it's the NBA season again. I just love basketball and I wish I can play as much as I used to. I was driving the other day and was thinking back (I was paying attention on the road) when I used to play a lot of basketball with my friends back in college. We used to rent a gym and play twice a week. I used to never wake up before 10 or 11am, but I will wake up at 5:30am to play a 2 hour game of basketball at 6am, go figure. The biggest problem we usually have is finding some other teams to play as we don't have enough people on our team to play against each other. Usually what happens is we split the cost of the gym either loser pays or loser pays two-thirds. This basically amounts to betting and in the hope that everyone plays better because there's money at stake. The funny thing about it is that whenever an arrangement like that is made in advance, we start evaluating who the opponents are and what their strengths and weaknesses are. For su...

Neil Patrick Harris, the actor who played Doogie Howser, MD has come out as gay. All I can say is, man! I could not believe it. Playing the psychic captain in Starship Troopers, the sex craved guy in Harold and Kumar to to White Castle. Surprising isn't it? If you want to read more, here's the link .

"Come on down", that's one of the most familiar phrase on TV. Bob Barker, host of TV's "The Price is Right" is retiring after 50 years in television. The TV legend will be 83 years old on December 12 has decided that he will be retiring on June 2007. That will be his 50 year on television and 35 years as host of "The Price is Right". He said that he decided to retire while he's still young. I used to watch this show when I was younger and it's my grandmother's favorite show. It was a dream of her to watch this show live and hope to become a contestant there. She got her dream when my uncle brought her to the show. Although she wasn't called as a contestant, she thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It's nice to see someone who has such longevity, kind of like George Burns. In these times of 15 minutes of fame era, you hardly see anyone last so long. Thanks of the wonderful time Bob, cheers!

“When I born, I Black, When I grow up, I Black, When I go in Sun, I Black, When I scared, I Black, When I sick, I Black, And when I die, I still black.. And you White fella, When you born, you Pink, When you grow up, you White, When you go in Sun, you Red, When you cold, you Blue, When you scared, you Yellow, When you sick, you Green, And when you die, you Gray.. And you calling me Colored?!”

Last week, my son wanted to buy the Star Wars Transformer he's been eyeing for the last month. My wife finally relented and they went to Toys 'R Us. My wife called me up and told my son to talk to me to see if I'll allow him to buy it. I told him that he can buy it as long as he pays for it. Being 4 years old, he doesn't really understand the concept of money and exchange yet. But I thought this might be a perfect way to teach him the value of money. So my wife paid for it and I told him that I will take the money he spent for the toy from his piggy bank. So last night, I sat him down and we counted out the money he spent. At first I took out the the Dollar coins and quarters, but when I counted out $22 worth, it barely reduced the content of his piggy bank. Since he's only beginning to learn how to add, it's a little difficult to get him to understand if I took the actual amount. So I decided to count out the pennies and nickels instead, now we're talking!...

We've all heard the bruhaha regarding Jim Paredes migrating to Australia , with people saying he has abandoned the Philippines (although Jim Paredes says he's only taking a break from it). Who's this artist? None other than Dingdong Avanzado and wife Jessa Zaragosa . They migrated early this year to the U.S. living in Vallejo, California. With them is their 3 year old daughter Jayda. When asked why they migrated, they said that they were scared as their comfort zone is in the Philippines, but they're doing it for their daughter so that she'll have other options when it's time for her to pursue her dreams. Hmm...isn't that practically the answer of everyone who migrated out of the country who have families? That's the answer my Dad gave me when we asked why we're migrating. That's the same answer given by my friends and their parents. Is it really that hopeless in the Philippines? Do people really not see a good future for their children if they s...

In any culture, when people feel that everything seems to be hopeless, when nothing seems to be going right, there's only one thing to do. Laugh at it all! Even in conservative Iraq, with curfews and censorship. People turn into humour to laugh their problems away. Here's a report from the NY Times about a show in Iraq satirizing everything that's happening. From the American occupation to the Ministry of Water and Sewage planning to change its name to the Ministry of Sewage because it has given up on the water part. The show is the Iraqi version of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". I guess it's not only Filipinos who laugh at everything. Here's the report from the NY Times .

We all know the Philippine government is corrupt. But I was curious as to how corrupt it really is. Here are a couple of cases I found so far from the Office of the Ombudsman and other sources. I'll try to arrange them from the most recent going back to after Marcos was ousted. 2006 - P5 Billion - Dep-Ed Feeding Program (still under investigation as of this writing) 2004 - P1.3 Billion - Poll Automation Deal 2004 - P38 Billion (US$683 Million) - Recovered Marcos Wealth 2004 - P303 Million - Major General Carlos F. Garcia 2003 - P1.1 Billion - Diosdado Macapagal Blvd 2.3Km of road 2003 - P16 Billion - RSBS (Retirement and Separation Benefits System) 2001 - P130 Million - DPWH Vehicle Repair Scam 1998(?) - P5.3 Billion - Tax Credit Scam 1998 - P167 Billion (US$4 Billion $1=P41.97) - IPP Contracts 1995 - P3 Billion - PEA (Public Estates Authority) - Amari Scam 1991 - P10 Billion - Fort Bonifacio Land Scam Total money lost or unaccounted for P247.133 Billion. P247.133 Billion / 89,...

Boy, the fight between Malacanang and Mayor Binay is looking more and more like a Texas Showdown. I can just imagine it, Binay as the town's sheriff and GMA coming into town with a bunch of goons. As much as I would like to say that it's a case of the big guy trampling on the little guy, but I can't really determine which one of them is the little guy. :) But seriously, what is going on? Suspending 18 city officials in 1 day? Who do they expect to run the city? The opponents of mayor Binay like Brilliante? Or Lito Lapid? They were never elected for the post! Then again, I guess GMA thought that since she was never elected for the post that she can just put anyone on any post. Why can't there ever be anything good on the news like someone or the government doing some good for the country? Why is it always these bickering and political fights? Aren't the Filipino tired of these? Why don't these politicians do something else for a change.....like their jobs! By the...

I went to Goldilocks with my wife today to try out the food. I've been in Vancouver for over 8 years now but have never been to Goldilocks here. It's located at Broadway and Fir. Anyway, we just came from a school activity and my wife suggested we go to Goldilocks. I didn't really want to go but since this is one of the few times I was with my wife during the morning, I said ok. One of the reason I didn't want to go was that I had to pay parking just to eat there. It cost CAD$2.00 for one hour of street parking. But that is not the reason I'm writing. As we ordered our meal, I was sitting at a table about 20 feet away from the counter while my wife was ordering our food. As this is our first time there, we really don't know what to order. The last time I went to Goldilocks was in the Philippines over 10 years ago. While my wife was trying to decide what to eat, she asked the lady at taking her order "Anong masarap na pancit". Do you know what the...

I used to play a lot of video games when I was younger. I still like to play them, but finding the time to spend mindless hours in front of a video game is pretty hard when you have kids. Sure, we have some of the new game consoles like Xbox and PS2. But nothing beats those old games I used to play in the 80's. I did have an Atari once as well as an Intellivision. I don't know many people who have Intellivision, but I miss that more than the Atari. It has better graphics, better games and the joystick didn't keep breaking. Well, it had a numpad and a circular controller kind of like the iPod. But guess what, the games are now online! A website called Intellivision Lives has a collection of Intellivision games available for the Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube. Games are also available for Windows and Macs. They also have a couple of games available for download for the PC and Mac for free . Check out the website at http://www.webcom.com/inty/home.shtml

Here's an interesting article on CNNmoney.com on how the rich and powerful teach their children about money and not to grow up with the entitlement mentality. A couple of examples like part of their allowance is expected to be given to charity and to savings. Another where they are given a budget for shopping and a limit is set, if that limit is used up, tough luck. To read more, visit this site .

As yet again, GMA changes her mind on her previous order for a retake of the nursing board exam. Why am I not surprised? For someone who changed her mind after saying that she won't run a second term but did. Who also said that she will step down after her term ends but is gunning for a change in the system into a parliamentary one. Why would her changing her mind on the retake be any different? As they say, if you don't stand for anything, you'll fall for everything. The story of the life of this person isn't it? She doesn't stand for anything as long as some people make enough noise about it. The only thing she stood for is in clinging into her seat as President (kuno). Hay...Philippines my Philippines....

CREATION.EXE In the beginning there was the computer. And God said c:\>Let there be light! Enter user id. c:\>God Enter password. c:\>Omniscient Password incorrect. Try again. c:\>Omnipotent Password incorrect. Try again. c:\>Technocrat And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Sunday, March 1. c:\>Let there be light! Unrecognizable command. Try again. c:\>Create light Done c:\>Run heaven and earth And God created Day and Night. And God saw there were 0 errors. And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Sunday, March 1. And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Monday, March 2. c:\>Let there be firmament in the midst of water and light Unrecognizable command. Try again. c:\>Create firmament Done. c:\>Run firmament And God divided the waters. And God saw there were 0 errors. And God logged off at 12:02:00 AM, Monday, March 2. And God logged on at 12:01:00 AM, Tuesday, March 3. c:\>Let the waters under heaven be gathered t...

I just found a website which contains a database of superhero based movies and TV series. It contains movies from all over the world including the Philippines. Remember " Alyas Batman en Robin " with Joey De Leon and Keempee De Leon? How about Rene Requestas as "Joker" and Panchito as "Chu-Pa-enguin"? There's even a movie called " The Indian Superman ". The website is categorized into movies based on Marvel, DC, Independent as well as original movie or TV superheroes. There's even movies based on international superheroes like UFO Grendizer , Gundam Saviour and there's even a movie about Astro boy ! Take note, these are real people and not cartoons! Of course, TV series superheroes from the Philippines are listed as well like Mulawin , Lastikman and Darna . It's a great site with photos and screenshots of the show. Check out the website at Superheroes Lives .

Pirate Capital LLC, an activist hedge fund manager said Thursday that its investment staff will be cut in half and its fund will be closed to new investors. Another hedge fund manager, Amaranth Advisors LLC loss a whopping US$6 Billion betting on the wrong side of the market. Add to this several other hedge funds which has either closed down or stopped accepting new investors due to poor returns. The bull market in commodities created a slew of hedge funds banking on investors wanting to get into the game. A lot of Income Trust and REITs were also established to capitalize on the real estate boom as well as the oil boom. Most of these funds have a track record of less than 5 years. Yet investors are willing to invest in these funds just because they are the darling of the fund rating companies or they achieved spectacular returns in their first few years, some making over 105% in one year. It seems to me that people never learn. Don't they remember the recent crash of the stock mar...

Sony has come out with a new e-book reader that displays pages like a book. Using Sony's "E Ink" technology, the display looks more like paper than an LCD display. The display can be viewed from every angle and can be viewed in bright or dim lighting. The text can be magnified as well. The built in memory can hold up to 80 books but you can plug in a Memory Stick or an SD card for more memory. It also MS Word documents, PDF, blogs, newsfeeds and JPEGs, so it can double as a newpaper as well. Not only that, it also plays MP3 and AAC audio files as well. It comes with a dock to you computer and you can purchase ebooks via the Sony CONNECT site. The Sony Reader retails for US$349.99 not including the cost for ebooks. The only drawback I see is if this is a closed system where you can only buy ebooks from Sony CONNECT. As what usually happens with Sony, a lot of their systems are proprietary that its either too expensive or not enough people use it due to its closed nature th...

GMA declares that the Philippines is now a second world or middle class country. Is this like when she declared that there is no more classroom shortage (by fixing the numbers)? Or that the government has defeated unemployment (by fixing the numbers, again)? Just because she said it doesn't make it so. Read her delusions here .

Originally posted at Secular Change on Jun. 8, 2006 As I type this, the stock market has been going down for the last 4 days. The Dow Jones is down to 10,938.82. It's down over 500 pts from it's high of 11,259.96 on June 5 to a low of 10,757.55 on June 8, 2006. The media says the market are reacting to fears about the Fed raising the interest rates. But is that all there is to it? If we are to look at the overall market. Nothing is really keeping the market up. The U.S. Dollar is getting lower, earnings seems to be slowing, cost of goods are up due to the high cost of commodities like oil and metals. In short, the cost of everything is rising. So how can companies sustain their earnings? Dividend yields of the S&P is at 1.94%. That's lower than what you'll get in a high-interest savings account. P/E ratio is current at 17.57 while historical P/E of the S&P500 is 13.7 which means the market is overvalued by 28.25%. Bond yields have been rising, although I think w...

Originally posted at Secular Change on May 11, 2006 I can finally say that yes, China's economy really is booming. And I saw it with my own two eyes. When I went to China 20 years ago, everywhere I look people were wearing basically the same clothes or uniforms if you want to call it that. Everyone was riding bikes or mopeds. If ever you see any cars, they were either farm tractors or dilapidated cars. There were very few buildings and almost everywhere the roads are made of dirt. Getting in to the country was a pain as the immigration officials were suspicious of everyone. Even if you're a Chinese tourist. Now, everyone is wearing modern clothes and buildings are sprouting everywhere. They even have Mercedez Benzes for taxis. Immigration is more lenient and fast. Shanghai has built the fastest train in the world. More and more people are driving cars like Audi, BMW and Benz. Outside our hotel window, I saw six buildings over 20 stories high each being constructed, and the cons...

Originally posted at Secular Change on May 11, 2006 With China's booming economy, the country can afford to build big and tall. Here, the building behind the one under construction is called the Jin Mao building which stands 88 stories high or 421 metres. It is listed as the 5th tallest building in the world. It is said that the top floors are usually above the clouds and that when it rains, the people on top usually call downstairs to see if it is still raining down below. Not content to having just the 5th tallest building, the building under construction in front is said to rise up to 103 floors topping "Taipei 101" located in Taiwan which is currently the tallest building in the world.

Originally posted at Secular Change on May 11, 2006 Here are the tracks of the Maglev train. No rails, just rows and rows of magnets which pushes and repels the magnets on the train to take it to 431 km/h.

Originally posted at Secular Change on May 11, 2006 The growing wealth of China can be seen here, the fastest train in the world. This MagLev train uses no wheels but instead floats on air using magnets. The top speed of this train is 431 km/h which takes you from Shanghai Pudong Airport to Longyang Rd. Station 30 km away in only 8 minutes.

Originally posted at Secular Change on May 3, 2006 I'm back in the Philippines for a vacation today and things have changed a lot. Some for the better and some for the worst. I live in Binondo and Plaza Binondo has been changed by Mayor Atienza from a grass covered plaza to all concrete and tiles. Aside from a few big trees that was left, all the greenery is gone. Not only that, since the redevelopment of Baywalk, a lot of the greeneries has been reduced. It seems like that Mayor Atienza has an aversion to all things natural. So he's changing everything to concrete and tiles. Manila has really changed into a concrete jungle. Though Manila always has thing drive called "Clean and Green". The only thing green I usually see are green painted walls and paint. There's also a lot of development of new restaurants and stores. A new McDonald is here, KFC, Yellow Cab Pizza and Starbucks. I'm going to China tomorrow. I'm excited to see what all the things that has g...

Originally posted at Secular Change on Apr. 15, 2006 Do you think you can get a house for one red paper clip? Well, Kyle MacDonald is doing just that. His goal is to trade his one red paper clip for another item until he can trade a whole house. He traded his red paper clip for one fish pen, the pen for a door knob, the door knob for a coleman barbeque, the barbeque for a generator and so on. So far, he's up to a house in Phoenix for one year, rent free. He now has offers for an apartment in Hollywood for the summer rent free which includes the use of a Porsche. Another offer is for a lap dance for 24 hours, a car and a 30 second TV commercial. Now that's thinking outside the box! Check out his website. http://oneredpaperclip.blogspot.com/

Originally posted at Secular Change on Apr. 13, 2006 Think that all those garbage lying around are worthless? Well here's two Filipino-Canadians who turned waste into money. Rafael Diego and Julio Macaraig found an innovative way to use sawdust and other waste fibers into a new product. They set up a company called JER Envirotech (JER.V) where they recycle waste plastics and sawdust, combine it in a patented process and out comes a new material with the properties of both plastics and wood. This compound is called Wood-Plastic Composites or WPC. The new materials can be molded into various shapes just like plastics, but has the look of natural wood. Currently, their main products are panel boards which can be used as an alternative to ply-wood. This panel board is well suited for tropical countries such as the Philippines since it is resistant to moisture, termites and highly fire resistant. It also doesn't fade, warp or shrink. The best thing about these panel boards is that ...