Pala-isip

For you tennis fans and entertainment fans out there. Check out this charity match by Will Arnett of "Arrested Development" and Andy Roddick vs Will Farrell of "Kicking and Screaming" and Andy Murray.

Read this report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It says that in the mid-year report, the Ombudsman 94 of the 194 person whose cases was resolved were acquitted. The cases filed against 44 respondents were dismissed without going to trial and 13 were dismissed during trial. The Office of the Ombudsman also withdrew 11 cases this year. Responding to these reports, the Office of the Ombudsman reported that in 2008 a high of 73 percent conviction rate claiming that 406 resulted in convictions while only 147 resulted in acquittals. But it turns out, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, that 221 of the 406 convictions in 2008 actually involved just one person, a mayor in Quezon province found guilty of ursurpation of official functions of the DENR for issuing permits to transport forest products. Not a very effective prosecutors are they? They very good at prosecuting small time cases from far away provinces, but none of the big graft and corruption case are ever successful in

Whoa! I just read that Disney is in the process of buying out Marvel Entertainment for $4 Billion . If the deal goes through, we could see Iron Man, Spider-Man and X-Men side by side with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck! Just kidding, but it could happen. :) The board of the Disney and Marvel has to approve the deal. But the merger will bring together Marvel's library of world-renowed characters like Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America and X-Men with Disney's creative skill and global portfolio of entertainment properties. So in the future, we might see Spider-Man rides in Disney theme partks. The deal includes Marvel Studios and we may even see a Disney Pixar made movie of Captain America or the Avengers. Maybe we'll see a Mickey Mouse doll in one of the future Marvel movies.

I've been watching this show called Goldmind with mentalist Haim Goldenberg. It's an intriguing show. He deals with telepathy, mind reading, etc. Some are basically dealing with subliminal messages and some are just unexplanable. I guess this shows us that whatever our mind can conceive, the body can achieve.

This guy is amazing.

Remember the Japanese game show with the MRI I posted? Apparently, there's 25 parts to it. Here's all of them. Crazy Japanese. Enjoy!

Imaginative use of CD case to make people buy his CD instead of pirating music.

The Arroyos has been cleared by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez on the NBN Deal. Meanwhile, Romulo Neri has been ordered suspended for misconduct. Benjamin Abalos is caught up in the middle and Jun Lozada is still fighting. This whole NBN thing is like a telenovela. If they were tv stars, they'd have the following roles. Merceditas Gutierrez stars as "The savior " Romulo Neri stars as "The Fall Guy" Benjamin Abalos stars as "The Scapegoat" Jun Lozada stars as "The Hero" It's like a John Grisham novel!

Reading " Physics of the Impossible " by Dr. Michio Kaku got me thinking about science. I always loved science. It's usually my best subject in school. I used to dream of being an astronaut or to be an astronomer. Sadly, there wasn't much opportunity for being any of those in the Philippines. Up until my first year in high school, I had dreamed of being an astronomer or even just owning an astronomical telescope. My dream of being an astronomer was dashed when I told my Uncle about it and he told me there was no money in it. That's true in a way, since there is no money to be made in being an astronomer in the Philippines. That plus the fact the chicks dig jocks more than geeks. Anyway, my interest in astronomy waned and got interested in basketball more than planets. They're both round anyway, but with basketball, you get to enjoy it with friends while astronomy is a lonely hobby. That plus the fact that chicks dig basketball players more than geeks. Second y

A contestant, Sally, on "Who Wants to be a Millionaire?" had reached thefinal plateau. If she answered the next question correctly, she would win$1,000,000. If she answered incorrectly, she would pocket only the $25,000 milestone money. And as she suspected the Million Dollar Question was no pushover. It was, "Which of the following species of birds does not build its own nest, but instead lays its eggs in the nests of other birds? Is it: A) the condorB) the buzzardC) the cuckooD) the vulture" The woman was on the spot. She did not know the answer. She had used up her 50/50 Lifeline and her Ask the Audience Lifeline.. All that remained was her Phone-a-Friend Lifeline. She hoped she would not have to use it because . . . her friend was, well, a blonde. But she had no alternative. She called her friend and gave her the question and the four choices. The blonde responded unhesitatingly: "That's easy. The answer is C: the cuckoo." The contestant ha

Interesting video of Dr. Michio Kaku explaining extraterrestrial civilizations and humanity's future into the transition to a type 1 civilization.

I just started reading a book called " Physics of the Impossible " by Dr. Michio Kaku . If you watch a lot of science shows like Discovery Channel or Nova. You may have seen him before. He is a theoretical physicist, best-selling author and co-founder of string field theory. I only read a couple of pages so far but the ideas are fascinating. He basically divides the impossibles into three categories. Class I, Class II and Class III impossibilities. Class I impossibilities are technologies that are impossible today but that do not violate the known laws of physics. They may be possible in this century or the next in modified form. These includes teleportation, antimatter engines, certain forms of telepathy, psychokinesis and invisibility. Class II impossibilities are technologies that sit on the very edge of our understanding of the physical world. If they are possible at all, they might be realized on a scale of a million years in the future. They include time machines, hyper

It’s easy to see how witty and humorous Pinoys can be. Simply look around and you can see them in the signs, such as the following listed for Funfare by a reader (who calls him/herself “bambiC”): • A parlor in San Juan: Cut & Face • A wholesaler of balut in Sto. Tomas, Batangas: Starduck • A small Internet café: Cafe Pindot • A laundry in Manila: Summa Cum Laundry • A noodle restaurant in Pampanga: Mekeni Rogers • A restaurant in Pasig: Johnny’s Fried Chicken, The “Fried” of Marikina • A boxing gym in Taguig: Blow Jab • A tombstone maker in Antipolo: Lito Lapida • A copy center in Sikatuna Village, Quezon City: Pakopya ni Edgar • A kambingan : Sa Goat Kita • A salon somewhere: Curl Up And Dye • A store selling feeds for chicken along Sucat Road: Robocock • A shoe repair in Marikina: Dr. Shoe-Bago • A shoe repair shop along Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon City: SHOEPERMAN (We will HEEL you, save your SOLE, and even DYE for you) • A petshop: Petness First • A flower shop: Susan’s

Here's and interesting infographic from Mozyblog on physical storage vs digital storage. We've come a long way haven't we? Soon we'll have holographic storage which can hold even more info.

I wonder what people are thinking when they did this to these poor animals. More photos here .

I found a video of trip to the Kingston Production Plant.

Just saw this website which has a collection of 80's music videos. You might enjoy this. 80's Music Videos

Just read from the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the passing grade for grade 6 has now been lowered to 66% from 75%. This was the average passing score in the National Achievement Test (NAT) administered by the Department of Education (DepEd) last year for Grade 6. Officials said that 66% was actually an improvement from the previous year. This is just pathetic. Since students can't pass basic elementary knowledge, they would just lower the passing grade to get more students to get to the next level instead of improving the learning conditions, schools and better teaching methods? Makes sense doesn't it? Let's just lower the standard so that by magic, now the problem is gone! This is the administration we are in, same magic that happened when the DepEd reported a shortage in classrooms and GMA got angry. A few days later, oops! We made the mistake in the calculation, there's not classroom shortage! This is like what they're doing in America with their "No chi

This is awesome! Steven Seagal has a new reality show called Lawman that will chronicle his life in law enforcment.

Nokia announced today the release of the Nokia Booklet 3G. It's a netbook using the Intel Atom processor with up to 12 hours of battery life. It features 10.1 Hd ready glass display, HDMI port, Bluetooth, SD card reader, webcam, just a little over 2cm thin and weighing 1.25kg. Because it's from Nokia, it includes integrated 3G/HSPA and Wifi. It also has a hot-swappable SIM card. It features an aluminum casing so they probably took some ideas from Apple but it has a distinctive Nokia look. The netbook market is getting more and more exciting. Here's the full press release .

A Well-Planned Retirement (From The London Times:) Outside the Bristol Zoo, in England, there is a parking lot for 150 cars and 8 coaches, or buses. It was manned by a very pleasant attendant with a ticket machine charging cars £1 (about $1.40) and coaches £5 (about $7). This parking attendant worked there solid for all of 25 years. Then, one day, he just didn't turn up for work. "Oh well", said Bristol Zoo Management - "we'd better phone up the City Council and get them to send a new parking attendant . . . " "Err . . . no", said the Council, "that parking lot is your responsibility." "Err . . . no", said Bristol Zoo Management, "the attendant was employed by the City Council, wasn't he?" "Err . . . no!" insisted the Council. Sitting in his villa somewhere on the coast of Spain (presumably), is a man who had been taking the parking lot fees, estimated at £400 (about $560) per day at Bristol Zoo for the

I read this article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer about Sen. Mar Roxas doing a town hall meeting. He spoke about the evils of corruption and the importance of sticking to rules in order to get ahead in life—except that in the Philippines, bending the rules is what seems to guarantee success. He was talking about how his grandmother was teaching him how to cook rice when he was young and that to cook good rice, you should follow the rule on how much water to put in. He said that following a set of rules in society should produce similarly good results. “That’s how society develops … If you follow the rules, you’d get ahead in life. But in our country, if you follow the rules, you’re at a disadvantage.” he said. That's funny. So I guess the reason he is doing pre-election campaigning and informercials is because he doesn't want to be at a disadvantage? Sure...he hasn't filed for his candidacy. Sure...he isn't campaigning early, just giving out info for the public. Sur

Apple is taking orders for Snow Leopard . Snow Leopard is available August 28, 2009. I guess the rumors sites are correct on this one. Apple originally announced it will be available September 2009. I guess they're trying to get in earlier to take the thunder away from Microsoft before comes out with Windows 7. Snow Leopard is available for $29.

Just saw this from CNET, Shenzhen Weibu Electronics is coming out with a Netbook that uses dual core Intel Atom 330 processor and the NVidia 9400M graphics, the same graphics used in Apple's Macbooks. The specs are Atom 330 1.6Ghz, 1Gb memory, 150Gb hard drive, webcam and 802.11 b/g. Selling for around $530 and no operating system installed. This is how a netbook should be. The slow Atom 270/280 are really insufficient for daily use and is one of the reasons I haven't jumped into the netbook market. Here's the article from CNET and if you can read Japanese, from the Japanese technology website Akiba Hotline .

Just read this news on the Philippine Daily Inquirer that 3 men of God are running for President of the Philippines. They are Eduardo “Brother Eddie” Villanueva of the born-again Jesus is Lord Movement; self-styled El Shaddai born-again evangelist Mariano “Brother Mike” Velarde; and a Catholic priest-turned-politician, Pampanga Gov. Eddie Panlilio. ............................................________ ....................................,.-‘”...................``~., .............................,.-”...................................“-., .........................,/...............................................”:, .....................,?......................................................\, .................../...........................................................,} ................./......................................................,:`^`..} .............../...................................................,:”........./ ..............?.....__........................

Just saw this show on BBC. Children are so lucky today, they have so many resources for learning.

The ongoing controversy about the Apple iPhone, App store and the rejection of Google Voice has brought a lot of bad press to Apple. Apple is also being investigated by the FCC. Today, Apple has put out a press release answering questions from the FCC. Here some summary of the answers based on the FCC questions. 1. Google Voice wasn't rejected. It just hasn't been approved yet. It's still under review because it changes the whole interface for calling which Apple has worked very hard to make. 2. AT&T has not decision whatsoever in approving or rejecting iPhone apps. 3. Apple alone makes the final decision on approving or rejecting iPhone apps. 4. Apple does not know if Google Voice has VOIP. But it has already approved several other VOIP apps like Skype, Nimbuzz and iCall. 5. Some other applications that has been rejected: Twittelator - Rejected at first because of crashed, later approved once fixed. iLoveWifi - Rejected because using undocumented application protocol.

Here's the full response of Google to the FCC regarding Google Voice and the iPhone. Google Response to FCC

Here is a summary of AT&T's response to the FCC regarding the iPhone. WASHINGTON, DC – On July 31, 2009, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) issued letters to Apple, AT&T and Google with a series of questions about the Google Voice app and Apple’s App Store approval process. AT&T today responded to the questions raised in the FCC’s Wireless Telecommunications Bureau letter. The following statement may be attributed to Jim Cicconi, AT&T senior executive vice president, external and legislative affairs: “We appreciate the opportunity to clear up misconceptions related to an application Google submitted to Apple for inclusion in the Apple App Store. We fully support the FCC’s goal of getting the facts and data necessary to inform its policymaking. “To that end, let me state unequivocally, AT&T had no role in any decision by Apple to not accept the Google Voice application for inclusion in the Apple App Store. AT&T was not asked about the matter by Apple

I was watching Star Trek:TNG and ST:DS9 last night. Both episodes were about time travel. In Star Trek:TNG, Picard was jumping to the past, present and future. Seeing things that may or may not have happened. In Star Trek:DS9, Chief O'Brien was jumping forward 5 hours into the future and then returning to the present. In both cases, there were some sort of sub-space anomaly that triggered their jump through time. I know these shows are science fiction and it's not real. But it got me thinking. Why is it that in these shows, most time travel happens in space or in another planet? Could it be that time travel happens whenever there is a phenomenon out there in the far reaches of space? From my understanding of physics, time is affected as gravity gets stronger. Such as Einstein's theory that if person A is travelling to the event horizon of a black hole and because of the strong gravitational forces, person A, near the event horizon thinks time is constant, but an observer, p

He never aged!

Someone called me a hypocrite today because I posted a link to Conrado de Quiros ' column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. She said that "Isn't it enough that you left the Philippines because you hate the country so much? Given that that's the case, why not just lay off all in constantly condemning the country of your birth. You're such a hypocrite!" She called me a hypocrite. No, I'm not a hypocrite. Asshole, maybe. Jerk, sometimes. Dumb ass...come to think of it, my wife calls me that a lot. But no, certainly not a hypocrite. Let's see now...according to the dictionary, this is the meaning of the word hypocrite. Hypocrite - a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, esp. a person whose actions belie stated beliefs. So a hypocrite is a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc that he does not actually posses. Let's see now

I read Conrado de Quiros' column in the Philippine Daily Inquirer all the time. He always writes in English. But he wrote an article the other day in full Tagalog and I must say, that's probably one of the best columns he's written. Read the complete column here .

Sinong mas sincere? Sino!? Nag tatanong lang Po.

Saw this on Youtube.

In this article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, Malacanang Palace is slamming the media on why they are quibbling over a few thousand dollars when, according to them, GMA has brought in billions of dollars in investments in return. On the article, it says “Whatever monies may have been spent for the appropriately ceremonious conduct of her official trip abroad are but a tiny fraction of the billions of pesos she has committed, and will continue to commit, to the alleviation of hunger and the amelioration of poverty in our country,” Anthony Golez, a deputy spokesperson of Ms Arroyo, said Thursday, reading from a statement at a media briefing. What does that the dinner have to do with the investments and the billions committed to alleviate hunger? This just shows how numb and insensitive they are. The Palace said that the dinner was paid for by Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez who had footed the bill at Bobby Van’s Steakhouse in Washington. If it was a Philippine Congressman that footed the

I was reading this article on the Philippine Daily Inquirer about a construction crane that fell from a building and hit a car below on Topaz Road near Robinson's Galleria almost killing the passengers which included an infant and a grandmother. The only protection for the construction was a catchment net to protect passing vehicles and pedestrians from falling debris. The company who was running the crane offered to pay to replace the damaged car. The writer goes on to say how this kind of settlement shows how primitive the state of the tort liability law of the Philippines and its enforcement. He also said that the measly settlement was an insult to the victims and the public. In the US, if something like this happens, the settlement would have been in the millions. The lawsuit would have been for criminal negligence and punitive damages. Based on what the writer said, the problem the Philippines doesn't have a stronger tort law is the fear that the Philippines might become

This guy is amazing.

Here's the second part.

Saw this guy on TV. Hilarious!

The $20,000 dinner spent by GMA and company at Le Cirque Restaurant in New York has spark an outrage. The palace got its spin doctors trying to justify the obscene amount. Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said it was a simple dinner. Let's see: Note: this is a theoretical breakdown of the bill according to the blog of Manuel L. Quezon III . Simple indeed. Here I thought the fried bangus and tinola I had for dinner was simple. I guess those food are now poor man's food. I should probably be setting my standards higher and eat caviar more often and chug Krug like beer. GMA's people have of course pointed out that the media is mistaken in taking a theorical computation for a fact. This is how hard they work in making sure GMA has a clean image. Whether theoretical or not, whether the bill is $10,000 or $30,000. We all know that amount is obscene in light of the fact that 3 million Filipinos are going without food. The mere fact that $20,000 can feed 3,000 families 3 meals a day s

Here's a screencap of the very first browser created by Tim Berners-Lee. Those were the days. I remember my first experience with the Internet. I bought OS/2 Warp and subscribed to IBM's Dial-up service just to try it out. It cost $90 for like 20 hours online or something. I used up the 20 hours and then had no Internet for the next few months. But I was hooked on the Internet and was surprised how much info one can get online. I got online again when a friend of mine told me he was subscribing to iPhil. I think we were client number 1 and 2. I can't remember how much we pay for it, but it was even better since the Internet has grown a lot more and I discovered Telnet, FTP, IRC, Sega Chat, ARCHIE, etc. The exploring was the fun part. Now, the Internet is so much a part of our lives, it seems like it's the TV and we take it for granted. We even have to buy magazines listing the IP address and website address of new sites. Those were the days, where every new site you go

I saw this commercial and I couldn't stop laughing.

Saw this report from the New York Post about Gloria Macapagal Arroyo with a large entourage enjoying the good life enjoying expensive bottles of wine and ending up with a bill of $20,000. What else is new eh? http://www.nypost.com/seven/08072009/gossip/pagesix/eat_and_drink_183333.htm

Check out this article. No wonder America is so fat. "Add Comments or Questions" These days, many of us have less money to spend on the necessities of life, like food. This means that when we eat out, what... View >>

Top Gear is one of the best shows ever. If you love cars and have a need for speed, nothing beats this show. It's episodes like this that makes it even better. If you are an adventure junkie, then nothing beats going to the edge of space on a U2 spyplane.

I don't know if this is real, but it is amazing. See more funny videos and Funny Videos at Today's Big Thing .