Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Hi to my fellow KCCians Batch '96
hi there guys.... i miss u all, i miss my beloved kabankalan... i nearly lost my ilonggo accent now thanks to some ilonggo firends who keep talking to me with the dialect... at least i cud renew "pagkatikalon" hehehe.... hows kcc na pala... update me guys... these pics are the last pics i got from you.. thanks to steph for uploading some pics to our yahoo groups... nangawat lang ko didto hehehe... out of town get together ta para sadya....
KRIS Aquino...is this true? SUPER MEGA-BITCHY MONSTER OF ABS-CBN?
i just received an email from a friend... THIS WAS JUST FORWARED TO ME AND I DONT KNOW WHAT TE MOTIVE BEHIND ALL OF THIS... I AM A KRIS FAN MYSELF...
Subject: Bitchy Monster in channel 2
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 2006 00:13:40 +0000
A FAN OF KRIS
I never liked Kris Aquino. But I never disliked her either. I feel
indifferent where she's concerned... until recently.
You see, I have this 14-year-old niece who, only God knows why, is a die-hard Kris Aquino fan. Case in point, her name starts with a "G", but she wears a necklace with a "K" pendant. Also, she tells her friends that she's really an adopted child and that her real Mother is former president Cory Aquino. Crazy kid.
And of course, like any other fan, she buys stuff Kris endorses: bags, fragrances, jewelry? everything! So, when the family (meaning my brothers, my sisters, the whole immediate clan) learned of this "cute" idiosyncrasy, we were supportive. Kunsintidor, even.
My sister-in-law, who used to play bit parts in movies, (she's really pretty, by the way), arranged for us to get seats at the taping of Kris' show, Game Ka Na Ba? Needless to say, my niece was thrilled.
So, yesterday, a Wednesday, taping for the Game Ka Na Ba? Celebrity edition episode, my niece and I, together with her sister and some of my friends, went to ABS CBN to watch the absurdly (in)famous Kris Aquino.
Anyhow, I was happy to see my nieces really excited; especially since the younger one just got out of the hospital because of Dengue, plus the fact that I rarely see them since they stay in the province. They were chatting away endlessly in the cab on way to the studio about how they would embrace Kris when they see her; that they're sure she smells nice; that their friends back in Nueva Ecija would just die with envy when they see the pictures; that James Yap is the luckiest guy ever; that Josh must be spoiled with Kris' love; that she's just perfect; and so
on.
They both looked really pretty, too - new clothes, neat hair, clean nails, and with "just the right jewelry". They said they didn't want Kris to think they're from a "bad family." They wanted to impress her.
We were at the audience entrance by 4pm, and were fetched right away by one of the ABS CBN people (VIP, diba?). Unfortunately, kids weren't allowed to sit with the audience so my nieces were given "special" seats near Kris' dressing room, where they got a better view of the show that
was taking place.
Me? I was clapping with the audience in step with the Game Ka Na Ba? theme. Itchyworms was guest band so it wasn't that bad.
And so after being subjected to clapping till my hands hurt, I was advised that I could then take a picture of my nieces with Kris. It was 7.30pm. Despite the long wait, my nieces were really excited and they were smiling from ear to ear.
I could see that Kris, for some reason, was not thrilled at all with the picture-taking thing. I was hoping though that she would pretend delight for my nieces' sake; after all they're kids who adore her!
But as I was about to take the picture, she said: "That's not a nice angle, pa-vertical mas maganda." I adjusted my camera, but realized they were standing against the light. So I shifted to the original horizontal angle.
"Vertical sabi, eh!" She said, in her shrilly, irritating voice. I bit
my lip and shut my mouth because I wanted to the take the picture for my niece. So I angled the camera vertically as she said, but placed the camera lower, angling it in a way that the light behind her head won't be captured.
"Not like that," she shouted. "Up. Move it up! UP!!!" Motioning for me to move the camera up, so the picture would be taken top-view. Then she actually grabbed my arm and pushed upward!
The nerve of that woman to treat me like that!!! I wanted to slap her and say: "What the fuck for? You look like the same slut whatever angle it may be!"
Instead I said, levelly, "You're against the light, Kris, I can't take
the shot that way."
"Eh, may flash naman yan diba?" she retorted in her shrilly, nasal, voice.
I wanted to spit on her overly made-up face right there and then! For someone who pretends she's smart, that was a really stupid remark! With dripping sarcasm, I said. "Exactly, over-exposed yan. Move a little please."
She did so but impatiently and crossly, almost knocking my niece over. I took the picture and she smiled right on cue, then she fled. My younger niece, who I thought was oblivious to the tension, didn't pose with her sister and shouted, almost tearfully, "ANG SUNGIT MO NAMAN, KRIS!"
My heart almost broke. I wanted to kill Kris.
Then I looked at my other niece, the one who swore would change her family name to Aquino one day, and saw that her eyes were downcast. She looked like she was trying really hard not to cry. Then she said quietly, "Ang pangit pala ng ugali nun."
I checked the digital picture that I took: Kris' smile was flawless,
without a trace of the monstrosity she just displayed. And kid beside her, my niece, looked like she just realized that she was having her picture taken with a two-faced monster.
"Baka she's tired lang, Gelline," I told my niece.
"Kahit na! Kame nga galing pa ng Nueva Ecija tapos di pa kame dinner, naghintay kame para lang sa picture, tapos binastos ka pa niya! SALBAHE SIYA!" she replied, clearly bitter and sulking.
You know what's the worst thing about this whole scene? It's the fact that I'm sure Kris doesn't know and couldn't care any less that she just hurt two loving kids who did nothing wrong except chose her as their "idol".
And it's inexplicable how Kris can get away with her unacceptable manner: she's tactless, she's an advocate of gossip and scandal, and she's an epitome of a woman with loose morals.
Kris makes me sick.
Clearly, this proves the legends wrong, MONSTERS DON'T LURK INSIDE THE CLOSET OR UNDER THE BED. THEY'RE ON TV.
Do me a favor... Please forward these letter to all your mailing list. It will be greatly appreciated if you pass it ASAP!!!
P.S.
Isn't my subject title more appropriate?
Philippine TV Ratings... August 28, 2006
MONDAY RATINGS
August 28, 2006
WANSAPANATAYM 8.4
wanted porposal 8.4
HOMEBOY 12.2
sis 13.3
PRINCESS LULU 12.7
yellow hankerchief 19.9
PILIPINAS GAME KA NA BA? 18.0
WOWOWEE 17.2
it buluga 24.7
KAPAMILYA CINEMA 13
daisy siete 19.6
pinakamahal 14.4
PASION DE AMOR 10.6
now and forever 12.9
ang pagbabago 8.0
missing in action na naman sina Clla at Chuchi?
PANGAKO SA'YO 14.4
jewel in the palace 18.9
TV PATROL WORLD 26.0
24 oras 32.3
KAPAMILYA DEAL OR NO DEAL 29.5
captain barbell 39.2
SUPER INGGO (pilot) 32.8
majika 34.3
i luv new york 29.8
BITUING WALANG NINGNING 29.8
love story in harvard 26.1
PINOY DREAM ACADEMY 18.6
lagot ka 13.2
BANDILA 11.6
saksi 7.3
Who made it to the top on Philippine TV?
Top Ten Primetime Programs on Philippine TV
August 21-25, 2006
1. Capatain Barbel 36.9
2. Majika 34.1
3. Bituing Walang Ningning 33.2
4. Sa Piling Mo 32.4
5. Kapamilya Deal or No Deal 32.0
6. 24 Oras 29.7
7. I Luv NY 29.0
8. TV Patrol World 26.2
9. Love Story in Harvard 26.0
10. My Girl 25.8
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
HOw Sexy is ME...
me and my sis at sayaw, barili, cebu... water's so cool and clear... very pristine...
taken on the tomost portion of the hill
World's oldest person dies
World's oldest person dies
POSTED: 2114 GMT (0514 HKT), August 28, 2006
language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript">var clickExpire = "09/27/2006";QUITO, Ecuador (AP) -- Maria Esther de Capovilla, believed to be the world's oldest person, has died at 116, her granddaughter said.
Catherine Capovilla, 46, a property manager and real estate agent in Miami, said Capovilla died Sunday at 3 a.m. local time in a hospital in the coastal city of Guayaquil. She died two days after coming down with pneumonia. Her funeral was planned for Monday.
Born on September 14, 1889 -- the same year as Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler -- Capovilla was married in 1917 and widowed in 1949.
Robert Young, senior consultant for Gerontology for Guinness World Records, said Elizabeth Bolden of Memphis, Tennessee, now appears to be the oldest person alive.
"Guinness World Records will have to make an official announcement from London," he said. "For all practical purposes, the next oldest person is going to be presumed to be Elizabeth Bolden. She is 116, but she was born 11 months after Capovilla."
Capovilla was confirmed as the oldest living person on December 9, 2005, after her family sent details of her birth and marriage certificates to the British-based publisher. Emiliano Mercado Del Toro, of Puerto Rico, retains the title as oldest man at 114.
Three of Capovilla's five children -- Irma, Hilda, and son Anibal -- are still alive, along with 12 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and two great-great grandchildren, Catherine Capovilla told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
In her youth, Capovilla liked to embroider, paint, play piano and dance the waltz at parties, the family said.
She always ate three meals a day and never smoked or drank hard liquor. "Only a small cup of wine with lunch and nothing more," Irma told AP last December.
For the past 20 years, Capovilla had lived with elder daughter, Hilda, and son-in-law, Martin.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Monday, August 28, 2006
How stars were born... from CNN... thanks to CNN
Editor's note: The following is a summary of this week's Time magazine cover story.
(Time.com
Tonight he intended to bag something most astronomers consider next to impossible: the most distant galaxy ever seen -- and not the farthest by just a little bit.
The current record for distance, held by Japan's Subaru telescope, is for a galaxy whose light started its journey to Earth a billion years or so after the Big Bang. But Ellis suspects he has found not one but six galaxies from an astonishing half a billion years earlier still.
A discovery like that would give astrophysicists their first real glimpse into a crucial and mysterious era in the evolution of the cosmos. Known as the Dark Ages of the universe, it's the 200 million-year period (more or less) after the last flash of light from the Big Bang faded and the first blush of sun-like stars began to appear.
What happened during the Dark Ages set the stage for the cosmos we see today, with its billions of magnificent galaxies and everything that they contain -- the shimmering gas clouds, the fiery stars, the tiny planets, the mammoth black holes.
When the Dark Ages began, the cosmos was a formless sea of particles; by the time it ended, just a couple hundred million years later, the universe was alight with young stars gathered into nascent galaxies.
It was during the Dark Ages that the chemical elements we know so well -- carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and most of the rest -- were first forged out of primordial hydrogen and helium. And it was during this time that the great structures of the modern universe -- superclusters of thousands of galaxies stretching across millions of light-years -- began to assemble.
So far, however, even the mightiest telescopes haven't been able to penetrate into that murky era.
"We have a photo album of the universe," says Avi Loeb, a theoretical astrophysicist at Harvard University, "but it's missing pages -- as though you had pictures of a child as an infant and then as a teenager, with nothing in between."
Ordinarily, you could never see galaxies a mere 500 million years after the Big Bang; they're just too faint for any telescope now in existence. But the universe itself has supplied a way of boosting a telescope's magnifying power.
The theory of relativity says massive objects warp the space around them, diverting light rays from their original path. In the 1930s Albert Einstein realized that this meant a star, say, could act as a lens, distorting and amplifying the light from something behind it. In practice, he said, it probably happens so rarely that we will never see it.
Einstein was wrong. So-called gravitational lenses have become a major factor in modern astronomy. They have revealed, among other things, the existence of tiny planets around stars thousands of light-years away.
If you look at a massive cluster of galaxies, Ellis figured, you might see amplified images of more distant galaxies, too faint to be seen otherwise. So a year or two ago he started aiming Hawaii's Keck telescope at galactic clusters and identified six candidate objects.
In order to be sure that these were truly far away, Ellis and his observing partner, graduate student Dan Stark, have come back to the Keck for a second, more intensive look.
"We want to be absolutely sure we aren't fooling ourselves," says Ellis. "Before we claim we've really found them.
For an hour or so, it looked as though he wouldn't get the chance. But the engineers this night have figured out the problem. When his assistant entered his user name in the online telescope log, he had made a typo. Every time the focusing routine came upon it, the program froze.
The typo has now been corrected. The Keck can focus again, and to his delight, Ellis is able to confirm that at least three of their faint galaxies do seem to lie hundreds of millions of light-years farther away -- and hundreds of millions of years closer to the Big Bang -- than anything ever seen before.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
From Youngblood of Philippine Daily Inquirer... worth a read...
Role players
Published on Page A11 of the August 26, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
HAVING been following football for the last four years, and having had the chance to witness it being played on the biggest stage in Berlin, I dare say there is little hope for us Filipinos in this game.
It has been said so many times that we Filipinos have what it takes to be successful in this beautiful game. We have the agility, the speed and even the cunning and creativity to do very well on a football pitch. However, it has to be pointed out that football is not won by such skills or traits alone. It’s already a cliché, but I must say that football is, more than anything else, a team game -- even more so than in basketball. And this is an area where, I feel, we Filipinos are lacking. To win in football, we must totally get rid of the “kanya-kanya” [every man for himself] system, which pervades our lifestyle and has even spread to sports. We have to shed our “me instincts” and develop our “team instincts.”
But can we get rid of this mentality? Have you noticed what sports Filipinos excel at? Manny Pacquiao is in boxing, Efren Reyes in billiards and Paeng Nepomuceno in bowling. All these are individual sports. There’s no doubt that we are strong individually, but can we win as a team? And when I say team, I mean a team -- not a collection of superstars or “galacticos,” as the Spanish press calls them.
Consider the case of Real Madrid in the Spanish Football League. Back in 2003, after the team signed David Beckham to a multiyear contract, it was said that the team of so many attacking talents would simply run over the opposition. With Zidane, Ronaldo, Raul and Figo already in the team and now Beckham, indeed that seemed to be a foregone conclusion. However, football is not won by individual talents, and Real Madrid quickly found that out by failing to capture the championship.
To win in football, there must be defenders who are not looking for goals and glory but staying back and defending the goal, much like Italy’s captain Fabio Cannavaro and Lilian Thuram of France in the recent World Cup. Their job is not glamorous, they may lack grace or juggling skills, but they are the rock upon which the team is built. To win in football, there must be people who do the dirty work, tackling in midfield and winning possession. Unappreciated though some of them may be, they provide the stability and the impetus for the attack to take place. Gennaro Gattuso of Italy and Claude Makelele of France come to mind. Their names may not make the headlines as much as, say, a Zidane or a Henry, but they are every bit as important to winning games.
Now my question and challenge to our countrymen is: Do we have Cannavaros and Thurams out there who will help us succeed in the sport? Can our Gattusos and Makeleles do the job? In fact, is anyone even willing to play that role? For our team to succeed, we need this kind of people.
I would love to see the Philippines make it to the World Cup. The feeling of solidarity, of togetherness, of being one is seldom more evident and more deeply experienced than on this grand stage. When we arrived in Europe, especially in those countries which qualified for the World Cup, the tremendous outpouring of national pride was so palpable and overpowering. National flags were flown by every passing car or draped on shops and windows. People were wearing their “national uniforms,” their teams’ football colors. Imagine a whole square in Amsterdam full of people in orange shirts!
This is what the World Cup means to people. They are bound together by one common cause, cheering for their countries. There was no Rome, Milan, or Torino, there was only Italy. There was no Manchester, London, or Newcastle, there was only England.
Had we played in the Cup, there would have been no opposition, no Lakas-CMD, no faction -- only one Philippines. Football would have brought to us something we desperately need: Unity and national pride.
But if we feel mortified by the state of our nation, who can blame us? What is there for us to be proud of? Almost every other guy I meet wants to leave. How can that enhance national pride? But that’s for another article.
In the meantime, I’m looking forward to seeing Cannavaro quietly do his thing in his own efficient and glamour-less way, and make his team better in the process. And somewhat ironically, this year he will be doing it for Real Madrid.
Ryan Fenix, 28, works as a salesman at Philcorn Trading.
Copyright 2006 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.| To subscribe to the Philippine Daily Inquirer newspaper, call +63 2 896-6000 for Metro Manila and Metro Cebu or email your subscription request here. |
Factual errors? Contact the Philippine Daily Inquirer's day desk.
Believe this article violates journalistic ethics? Contact the Inquirer's Reader's Advocate.
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Friday, August 25, 2006
Life's a Beach....
Now, Pluto, not a planet anymore...
What you see is what you get....
Pluto loses status as a planet... thanks to BBC, news source from BBC
 |  Pluto was discovered in 1930 by US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh  |
More detailsAbout 2,500 scientists meeting in Prague have adopted historic new guidelines that see the small, distant world demoted to a secondary category.
The researchers said Pluto failed to dominate its orbit around the Sun in the same way as the other planets.
The International Astronomical Union's (IAU) decision means textbooks will now have to describe a Solar System with just eight major planetary bodies.
Pluto, which was discovered in 1930 by the American Clyde Tombaugh, will be referred to as a "dwarf planet". 
There is a recognition that the demotion is likely to upset the public, who have become accustomed to a particular view of the Solar System.
Teary-eyed
"I have a slight tear in my eye today, yes; but at the end of the day we have to describe the Solar System as it really is, not as we would like it to be," said Professor Iwan Williams, chair of the IAU panel that has been working over recent months to define the term "planet".
The need for a strict definition was deemed necessary after new telescope technologies began to reveal far-off objects that rivalled Pluto in size. 
Without a new nomenclature, these discoveries raised the prospect that textbooks could soon be talking about 50 or more planets in the Solar System.
Amid dramatic scenes in the Czech capital which saw astronomers waving yellow ballot papers in the air, the IAU voted to block this possibility - and in the process took the historic decision to relegate Pluto.
The scientists agreed that for a celestial body to qualify as a planet:
- it must be in orbit around the Sun
- it must be large enough that it takes on a nearly round shape
- it has cleared its orbit of other objects
Pluto was automatically disqualified because its highly elliptical orbit overlaps with that of Neptune. It will now join a new category of dwarf planets.
Icy reaches
Pluto's status has been contested for many years. It is further away and considerably smaller than the eight other "traditional" planets in our Solar System. At just 2,360km (1,467 miles) across, Pluto is smaller even than some moons in the Solar System.
Its orbit around the Sun is also highly tilted compared with the plane of the big planets. 
In addition, since the early 1990s, astronomers have found several objects of comparable size to Pluto in an outer region of the Solar System called the Kuiper Belt.
Some astronomers have long argued that Pluto would be better categorised alongside this population of small, icy worlds.
The critical blow for Pluto came with the discovery three years ago of an object currently designated 2003 UB313. After being measured with the Hubble Space Telescope, it was shown to be some 3,000km (1,864 miles) in diameter: it is bigger than Pluto.
2003 UB313 will now join Pluto in the dwarf category, along with Pluto's major moon, Charon, and the biggest asteroid in the Solar System, Ceres.
Named after the god of the underworld in Roman mythology, Pluto orbits the Sun at an average distance of 5.9 billion kilometres (3.7 billion miles) taking 247.9 Earth years to complete a single circuit of the Sun.
An unmanned US spacecraft, New Horizons, is due to fly by Pluto and the Kuiper Belt in 2015.
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Kenya's owl man defies superstition
By Wanyama wa Chebusiri
BBC, Nyeri, Central Kenya
The screech of an owl is a bad omen in Kenya, taken as a sign that death will strike soon.
However, in Kiawara village near Mount Kenya, Paul Murithi, 30, has defied his community's cultural and traditional norms to rear owls as a tourist attraction.
For the past five years, Mr Murithi has been feeding and protecting the owls in their natural habitation in a forest near his home.
While others make a living out of rearing chickens or ducks, the owls have become his main source of income.
"This was a childhood interest thing I started when I was nine or 10 years old," he says.
"I saw these birds in the bushes and was interested to know more about them."
He has no time for the superstition about owls being omens of death.
"I often used to hear these owls hoot, and I never had a relative die or anything like this."
Mr Murithi believes the owls have come to recognise him as the person who nurtures them.
"I try to protect their territory when they are nesting, and supply them food," he says.
"Owls are sensitive to colour. I have a red jacket which I always wear."
Tourists
In this owl sanctuary you may find 26 birds, some perched on tree branches and some living in caves across the forest.
Mr Murithi has erected roadside signs to direct his clients, especially foreign tourists who pay more than $1 to view the elusive birds with his guidance.
Locals are not charged, so as to encourage them to appreciate the immense value of the birds. 
"I did not believe at first that it was possible that someone was rearing such birds," said Patrick Njagi, a Kenyan visitor.
"I had to come and satisfy my curiosity that someone is rearing them and not fearing death. Now I have seen it is possible."
But among the residents of Kiawara village, people are sharply divided about the owl sanctuary.
Owls are nocturnal birds that feed, mate and migrate at night.
During mating, they make the loudest hoot that is considered a bad omen by many communities.
"If someone dies, the previous night those creatures cry a lot - so I just don't like it," said one woman in the village, who urged Mr Muthithi to stop tending the owls.
But another neighbour was more positive: "We think it will bring development to the area, as a tourist attraction," he said - a view which is echoed by the local authorities.
"There is nothing wrong with this young man as long as he has not broken any rule in keeping the owls," says Ben Kariuki, the area's chief.
"We urge other villagers not to associate this young man with anything sinister, as he is merely earning his bread."
People around me...
these guys area my friends at Commonweatlh Estate Inc, we are thye VDRM team, photo taken at busay, cebu city during our eco-challenge...
i took my shower then pat myself dry, have my morning coffee and fix myself up for today's office.
to be continued later....
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