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Real Superhumans
2007-12-10 02:57:00
Forget Heroes. Caught an amazing episode on Discovery Channel last night about Real Superhumans. Really mind boggling, I must say. Complete with Heroes-inspired artwork (below).There's Wim Hof, "The Iceman," who is able to withstand temperatures cold enough to kill ordinary people. And to prove it, he ran a half marathon barefoot, in his boxers, just 200 kilometers from the arctic circle at minus 30 degrees Celcius. He almost lost all his toes to frosbite but he was able to miraculously restore bloodflow to his feet. (There was no mention what happened to his "fifth appendage," though.)Then there's Rudiger Gamm, "The Human Calculator," who wasn't very good at math all his life then suddenly, at age 21, woke up to find his brain ugraded into a supercomputer. Now he has given me hope as I've always been terrible with math. I envy people who can understand math as it is said mathematics is the language of the universe. Understand math and you'll find the truth. Rudiger has proven ...

The Golden Compass Movie Review
2007-12-07 11:27:00
If you haven't watched Pirates of the Caribbean, Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Transformers and the Star Wars prequels yet, you don't have to slog through all those movies anymore. Simply watch The Golden Compass . Which does not necessarily mean The Golden Compass is better than all of those movies combined. See, the problem with this movie is that there's nothing in there to awe you. And I'm not talking about special effects here.The story of Lyra Belacqua, a smart, curious girl with a pure heart and a gift at finding the truth reminds you of Frodo. The Alethiometer--The Golden Compass itself--a very H.G. Wells-cyberpunk-looking techno gadget that points one to the truth, reminds you of The Ring in LOTR.There are talking animals all over the place, the daemons, the physical representation of people's souls. I thought that's very Narnia-ish. There are spy insect robots. Very Transformers-ish. There are flying steamships which reminded me of Coruscant in Star Wars. T...
More About: Movie , Movie Review , Review

How to mount another People Power
2007-12-07 02:29:00
A lot of people have been trying for years to evict President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from Malacañang with all sorts of campaigns from the laughable Starbuck's silent protest to the recent and similarly idiotic Manila Peninsula caper instigated by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.As an ad guy, my job is to influence a great number of people to buy a product through ads. And I'd like to think I've had a good measure of success in this for I have yet to see a brand I've handled go pffftt. (Ehem, ehem, ehem.)Now, I would want to share my "expertise" on how to move masses of people into action as I'm starting to pity all these people trying to oust President Arroyo.There are only three things to consider when you're trying to influence people en masse.First, STRATEGY. In the world of advertising, this is the blueprint. This is where everything takes a leap from. Who is the target market? What message should be communicated to the traget market? For example, Apple is all about cutting...
More About: Power , People , People Power , Mount

The future is now
2007-12-06 02:13:00
Seems like my obssession to live to 100 to see what the future looks like is totally unnecessary as the future, as imagined by Star Wars and Jetsons geeks, is here. Below, some of the amazing stuff now in development and will be around in less than a decade. The Chicago Spire. It is set to be the tallest skyscaper (2,000 feet) in the U.S. when completed in 2011.The Burj Dubai. Set to be completed in late 2008. It will become the tallest man-made structure ever built at 2,700 feet. (The final height is still a secret. Some claim it will reach even higher, at 2,900 feet.)Still under construction, the Burj Dubai has "unofficially" become the world's tallest building in 2007, surpassing Taipei 101. (585.7 meters versus Taipei 101's 509.2 meters) A cellphone inspired by Chinese bamboo scrolls, now in development. The technology now exists to make LCD screens that can be rolled and folded like paper.Now availabe. An MP3 player that opens like a switchblade. It can play CDs as well as ri...
More About: Future , The Future

Assumption school girl talks politics
2007-12-05 06:17:00
Ever wonder what an Assumption school girl thinks of the current state of affairs? Especially that Assumption College's most famous (or infamous, depending on how you look at her) alumna is no less than President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo?Found this post on the comment section of this political-cum-satirical blog. This stood out for me among the sea of overly emotional comments for its sheer wit and sarcasm.Assumpsionista said...I'm so inezz with maiingay people. Like duhhrrr...I can't understand what they're making satsat about. At least with Erap there's that jueteng thingy which my driver used to make taya and so I got so inis when I learned Erap was making nakaw my driver's money! How baaaddd that Erap guy, huh?! As for GMA, I don't know what the fuhzzz is all about. I mean duhrrr like hallerr, the dollar is so cheap I can buy my Balenciaga bags and Blahnik shoes much cheaper these days, devah? So she's doing something right naman devah?Why you people so nagpuputok ang buc...
More About: Politics , School , Girl , Politic

Mammatus Clouds
2007-12-05 02:22:00
Back in school I remember having been taught that there are essentially four types of cloud formations--nimbus, cumulus, cirrus and stratus. Apparently there are freak clouds known as mammatus clouds (below). They are formed when the air is already saturated with rain droplets or ice crystals and begin to sink. The worst of the storm is usually over when these kinds of clouds are seen.Which simply translates to the existence of god. I mean come on, how do you explain nature behaving this beautifully?If only these clouds appeared over Makati last Thursday, Trillanes and gang would have been stopped dead on their tracks. They would have realized how small and insignificant they are in the larger scheme of things.(Yes, I won't stop mentioning the senator for as long as I am pissed. I am still going through a catharsis so bear with me.)
More About: Clouds

Christmas at The Manila Peninsula
2007-12-04 01:58:00
No wonder I was so riled when the Trillanes gang barged into The Manila Peninsula and messed up the place last Thursday. Dug up some Christmas photos of the Boo and I whiling away the Christmas holiday at The Pen a couple of years ago after discovering all hotel rooms in Boracay were fully booked as early as September.I'm pleased to read news of the place having been restored like nothing happened. I guess a lot of people hold this hotel dear to their hearts that's why many got pissed with Senator Trillanes and his barbarian hordes for thrashing the place. (Read another ad guy, Lilit Reyes, waxing nostalgic over The Pen) Never again was the cry during People Power I, referring to Martial Law not ever having to darken the motherland again. Now, it's the same cry albeit for shallower reasons. Never again shall a bunch of thugs mess up our dear hotel.
More About: Nila

Must have gizmos this Christmas
2007-12-03 10:05:00
Enough of The Manila Pen seige, standoff, stupidity or whatever you may want to call it. It's the Christmas season and our bonuses are more than enough to help us move on to more pressing things. Like Christmas shopping. I can't wait to get my hands on a few gadgets.First is this lovely Nokia 5310. I'm not into the iPhone nor the iPod Touch as I believe those two overhyped gizmos still have a lot of room for improvement. I think Nokia got it right when it decided to roll out its express music line. Personally, I think mobile phones should have only three strengths: image or camera quality, music and bluetooth capability. Anything beyond that are merely bells and whistles. With the Nokia 5310, all three are incorporated in a cool design. You have a respectable 2-megapix cam that takes decent photos, bluetooth 2.0 connectivity and of course, the music feature, which is this phone's main strength. Even with its predecessor, the Nokia 5200 which is my current phone, I'm superbly im...
More About: Gizmos

Why The Manila Pen caper failed
2007-12-03 05:28:00
Below you'll find the list of contributing factors to why The Manila Pen siege last Thursday and all succeeding revolts-cum-rebellions are doomed to fail in the future.But first, let me make this clear. This is far from a socio-political analysis. I am not that smart. This is merely the observation of a typical Makati wage earner--someone from the "apathetic middle class," as self-proclaimed patriots and idealists have branded people such as myself.iPods, N95's, iPhones, digicams, Macbooks, LCD TVs, Nintendo Wii's. Compare these items with politics. Who wants to preoccupy himself with politics when you have all these gadgets to fiddle with? Politics is so '80's. This is the digital age when hard drives are pushing towards the terabyte range. When it is so much more fun to update your Facebook, Friendster and blog or check out what's happening on YouTube than to give a damn to what those senile folks in the Senate, Congress, civil society or disgruntled soldiers have to say. I ...
More About: Nila

Senator Trillanes: Manila Pen to Las Vegas
2007-12-03 02:04:00
I'm cool now. Nothing like a three-day weekend.After my cuss-filled post which saw my blog readability rating drop from genius to post-grad level, I am now in the process of either humoring The Manila Pen incident or go all cerebral on it.I somehow find it hard to humor Senat or Trillanes' latest caper simply because I hate the guy. I hated him back in Oakwood and I hate him even more this time. As I've written before in my 2003 letter to then LTSG Antonio Trillanes IV, all of us have gripes against the government. But never has it crossed my mind to gather 300 armed soldiers and haul them off to a posh hotel and demand for a new government.It was stupid back then and it was still stupid last Thursday. Albert Einstein couldn't have said it any better: Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.Senator Trillanes is no different from the usual mental hospital patient with messianic tendencies or delusions of grandeur. I have no problems with ...
More About: Las Vegas , Vegas

Trillanes loses balls at The Manila Pen
2007-11-29 10:15:00
After all your bravado, here you are again, not dying for your principles, you fucking idiot.Fucking shame on you, Senator Antonio Trillanes IV. It's only fitting that the government go ruthless on you. In fact, they should get medieval on you. Like quarter and draw your sorry ass.Leave the premises of The Manila Pen at once. There's supposed to be a wedding there, not a frigging circus by fucking cowards. As part of your future punishment, you should never be allowed to set foot into a hotel lobby ever again. All you will be known for in the future is the rebel soldier who loved to thrash ritzy places. What an effing way to be remembered.You are such an ass and I hope you'll have the decency to bury your shameful face in your butthole, you moron.
More About: Balls , Nila

Senator Trillanes at The Manila Pen: Bitch!
2007-11-29 05:09:00
I can't help it, I have to switch to Quentin Tarantino mode. There's no other way to express my disgust so pardon my French.Yes, Senat or Trillanes, you are a fucking bitch. All you ever did since you gained infamy by warming your ass in posh Oakwood is bitch around.And now you're at it again, bitching in another posh hotel. What's up with that? What's with your preoccupation with high-end hotels? Why don't you dig up a foxhole along Ayala Avenue and die for your principles, as you bravely declared in your Oakwood mutiny?You call for us to fucking join you? Why, will you pay for our accommodation at The Pen? No, thanks, I'd rather sleep at home and you can shove your latest rebellion up your ass.You're the most pathetic bitch I've ever seen. To think you are supposed to be a battle-tested soldier and here you are whining like a fucking highschool cheerleader. For whatever shit you're trying to pull off this time, I hope you get a massive dose of diarrhea.And oh, read throug...
More About: Bitch , Manila , Nila

Marilou Ranario: Another OFW to the gallows
2007-11-28 02:10:00
So another OFW, Marilou Ranario, might soon suffer the same fate as that of Flor Contemplacion's, who in my mind is the martyr saint of all OFW's.If Kuwait's emir happens to have the same stone-cold heart that makes Singapore a dystopian state (Yes, it is far from utopian. One only has to watch V for Vendetta or Aeon Flux to know what I mean), then we'll see another one of our countrymen come home in a box.I can only wonder what cruelty Marilou has gone through to finally snap and murder her employer. I do not mean to be evil but I guess the employer deserved it. Come on, Pinoys are known for being happy people and not particularly the ranting types, especially if they're working in a foreign land.My dad who was a former OFW himself does not have kind words for folks in the middle east. Not to be all racist here but we all know most of them have a different mindset when it comes to people who do the dirty job around the house. Most see domestic helpers not as human beings but f...
More About: Gallows , Allo

Philippine Airlines TV ad 1987
2007-11-27 12:00:00
We don't make TV commercials the way the old timers in this industry used to make them. Just look at this old Philippine Airlines ad from 1987, way before computer graphics and digital manipulation made landscapes picture perfect (in fact, too perfect). Here, what you see is what you get.This TV ad beats any tourism ad currently airing today. It's hard to ignore and you feel a lump in your throat while watching it. I'm beginning to wonder, are clients and ad people smarter and more creative back then? This is just beautiful. (Sadly, I can't find the full one-minute version of this TV commercial)
More About: Philippine Airlines

The art of Kevin Mack
2007-10-31 03:26:00
What if Jackson Pollock did his art in the computer? I guess the work of Kevin Mack is exactly that--Pollock in the digital age. By the way, if you want to do a Pollock artwork even if drawing stick figures seems daunting enough for you, check out this cool Pollock site.

Latest billionaire: Facebook founder
2007-10-30 07:48:00
While most of last week centered on the Glorietta blast and Estrada's pardon (What's the official finding on the explosion, by the way? Has Ayala Land settled with the victims hence the sudden hush?), the latest addition to the world's billionaires slipped quietly past the radar of the wealth-obsessed such as myself.Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (below) joined the ranks of the superwealthy when Microsoft bought a $240 million stake in the social networking site, effectively valuing Facebook at a whopping $15 billion and making Zuckerberg $3 billion to $5 billion richer.Which only goes to show with enough geekiness you can become a billionaire in three years (for a complete biography of Facebook, click here). And oh, you have to have gone to Harvard and dropped out, too. (Sounds familiar?)Now the more I am incensed with social networking sites. As I've written a year ago, I think creating social networks online is a big, fat farce. A view shared by Joe Stein of TIME in his ess...
More About: Founder , Billionaire , Billion

The Departed
2007-10-30 02:19:00
All Soul's Day is upon us. And I think it is only fitting to reflect on death as it is the only thing certain in life. As they say, the chances of you dying is 100%.The day of remembering the dead hasn't had much meaning to me until three years ago when my sister passed on. Her death wasn't tragic. But it was sudden.When the Grim Reaper suddenly takes away a family member, the only thing that stays in your head for the first 24 hours is disbelief. Your brain cannot make the connection simply because you were just having dinner with your sister the night before. And this morning, she's inside a casket.The whole thing is surreal.I didn't really cry throughout the whole ordeal. I was unmoved when the doctor told the family she's gone. But I do remember the big lump in my throat. And I perfectly knew the feeling of a heart that sank.When the time came we had to place her six feet under, the thought of not ever seeing her again never occurred to me. I somehow felt her death was jus...
More About: The Departed , Departed

On the Estrada pardon
2007-10-26 08:04:00
Tiny Singapore is the first country on earth to fly the giant Airbus A380. Meanwhile, GMA grants a swift pardon to former President Joseph Estrada.China is now building its own passenger jets. Meanwhile, many of our countrymen are questioning the pardon and the haste at which it was granted.Other than commercial aircraft, China is also setting its sights on the moon. Meanwhile, former President Fidel Ramos warns GMA about a possible resurgence of Estrada that might lead to her ouster.Malaysia has its SMART Tunnel, a wonder of engineering serving a dual purpose of both flood control and a faster way to get around Kuala Lumpur. Meanwhile, the payola scandal has been buried by the mall blast and yesterday's presidential pardon.Despite being "ground zero" of the 1997 Asian financial crash, Thailand is so back on track. Meanwhile, some civic-political groups are calling (again) for GMA's ouster because of the pardon.Whether I agree with the pardon or not is not worth yakking about anym...
More About: Pardon

$1M painting found in trash
2007-10-25 03:36:00
There was a time I got so bored with school, I asked my teacher, "What have all these things we study got to do with my dream of becoming a garbage man?" Of course I wasn't really aiming that low, but I found most of my school subjects absurd in the larger scheme of things.Take for example calculus or algebra. Never in the past two decades since I encountered those two subjects have I performed any calculation more complex than addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. To me, unless you're pursuing a math-based career, I've always thought students should be given a choice of not taking them.But after a one million dollar painting (below) was found in a trash bin by someone not familiar with art and thus naively letting the treasure hang on her wall for months, I now perfectly understand why I needed to study things that seemed irrelevant at the time.Who knows, one day I may find myself defusing a nuclear warhead to save the world and must perform complex mathematical eq...
More About: Painting , Trash

Michael Jackson mask
2007-10-24 11:32:00
Hard to tell which is scarier. The real MJ or this mask. Two decades after Thriller, Michael Jackson turns into a real monster. Fate can be cruel indeed. I guess it's too late to order for Halloween, though. But you can reserve it for next year. It's being sold here.
More About: Mask

Politics and the Glorietta accident
2007-10-24 03:17:00
I promise, this will be my last post on the Glorietta blast. I just can't help it. I find this whole thing to be one big circus, Pinoy style. What prompted me to write another post about the accident (Yes, it is an accident, people. Get over it.) is the hilarious devolution of the whole incident into a political debate.Take Manuel Quezon III's post. Read through the comments (288 at the last count). Majority of them have nothing to do with the explosion. People simply made the lame brain connection between the blast and the Palace payola scandal. Duh!Take Senator Trillanes and his crazy insistence that the AFP Chief of Staff is the mastermind of the blast. Nevermind if he has no evidence to prove his claim. And nevermind that back in 2003, he and his misguided minions were the ones placing bombs--guess where--in Glorietta! The guy's clearly neurotic, not to mention, paranoid. He would have been right at home with the Branch Davidians.Take The Inquirer and ABS-CBN. Their motivatio...
More About: Politics , Accident , Cide , The G

Final notes on the Glorietta blast
2007-10-23 03:02:00
Theories and musings about the Glorietta explosion are now at full capacity and I shouldn't add one more. But let me indulge in catharsis and allow me to write one last time about this incident before I move on with my life.First, I think it's an accident. The fact that no one has owned up to it until now (the RSG claim was a cheap prank) and not a shred of bomb fragment has been found points a very big finger to the gas-explosion theory. I don't care what those UP chemical engineers say. These types of explosions may seem improbable but one only has to look at similar freak accidents elsewhere. Most notable is the PEPCON blast in Nevada in 1988 wherein amonium perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel and is "supposed to be" non-explosive, caused a huge blast that measured 3.5 on the Richter scale and was felt 1000 kilometers away. We're dealing with chemicals here and by nature, chemicals are unpredictable. It's not a zero-sum equation. I think a series of leaks and sparks ev...
More About: Notes , Final , Blast , The G

Filipinos as seen by foreigners
2007-10-22 08:35:00
Dinosaurs On The Baywalk, a documentary-in-the-making by foreigners living in Manila. This is how they see Pinoys and Pinoy politics. We're poor, we're disorganized, we're crazy, we're hopeless, we're weird but, but, but...at the same time they really think we're funny and awesome and cool.Otherwise they wouldn't have used David Byrne's music.Also, read about how amazed they are with Pinoys' "elephantine" memory. Several explanations were postulated but I think the one about Filipinos being people-oriented hits the spot.
More About: Reign , Foreigner , Foreigners

Glorietta blast an accident?
2007-10-22 02:53:00
What if? Over the weekend, several geek friends of mine have put forward deflagration as the probable cause of the Glorietta blast, especially after The Inquirer published a composite image of the blast site inside the Glorietta 2 lobby.According to them, deflagration is just like a gigantic fart, wherein tremendous gas pressure is released similar to a gas-powered canon--meaning, in one direction--as opposed to the ripple effect of a bomb.They point to the damage directed above, all the way to the roof, instead of towards the surrounding areas. There was little shattered glass and not much debris that could have spread over a wide area if a powerful explosive such as C4 was indeed used.Victims weren't dismembered nor burned. Most died from internal hemorrhage from the crushing pressure wave of the explosion. In fact there was little or no blood at all on the scene. They said if indeed there was a bomb, we would see body parts and bits of flesh all over Glorietta 2. But no, all of ...
More About: Accident , Blast , Cide

10 things I hate about Commandments
2007-10-19 10:47:00
Don't want to end another week of blogging with the Glorietta blast. A number of people have already made the connection between Glorietta and Ate Glo but I really don't care anymore. Six years after 9/11, bombings have become part of an insurance agent's sales pitch.It's just another way to die. As common as dying from second hand cigarette smoke.So, I end the week with this hilarious trailer mashed-up using snippets from the 1956 Charlton Heston starrer, The Ten Commandments .It's especially funny for me since I can still remember those pre-cable TV days when I had to sit through broadcasts of this film whenever Holy Week comes around. Watching this trailer really left me in stitches. This is laugh-out-loud madness.
More About: Hate , Things

Blast rips through Glorietta
2007-10-19 08:59:00
Too close for comfort. And I was planning to treat myself to a nice lunch there earlier. Good thing the humid weather made me change my mind. Sirens keep blaring from the streets below. Really unnerving. Might as well take off early for home tonight.Four dead, 45 injured so far. On a fine day like this...
More About: Blast , Glorietta

Balut in Wired
2007-10-19 05:37:00
Yeah baby. Balut is slowly gaining fame (or infamy?) as perhaps the yuckiest snack on the planet. Recently featured in Andrew Zimmern's Bizarre Foods series, now our local favorite is in Wired as one of the most curious canned goods found online. Here's the write up:Tasty Tonic — Bottled BalutSure, it's not in a can, but bottled balut deserves a spot on our list based on the Fear Factor-esque motivation required to polish off a helping of these puppies -- uh, make that duckies. A popular Filipino street snack, balut is a boiled three-week-old fertilized duck egg, eaten straight out of the shell.A well-aged balut lacks feathers, beak and claws (all the tasty bits), and instead provides a palatable rich embryonic broth, the creamy yolk (and of course, the fetus), sure to satisfy even the most ambitious appetite. Bottled balut, sold at various Filipino grocers, comes in three flavors: brine and two spicy sauces.

Sinkachu's miniatures
2007-10-18 11:31:00
More on installations. While Head On (previous post, below) attempts to awe you with its sheer scale, an artist named Sinkachu mesmerizes you with his miniature creations that melds size relations in surreal ways. See more of Sinkachu's giggle-inducing art on his Flickr page.
More About: Miniatures

Head On (99 Wolves)
2007-10-18 07:39:00
Fantastic installation by Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang at the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin. It features 99 life-like wolves made from resin slamming against plexiglass.Why, what is it trying to say? How should I know, I'm not an art critic. But art critic or not, I think it's a joy to look at.
More About: Wolves , Head

Philippine Air Force Jets
2007-10-17 10:39:00
Those, ladies and gentlemen, are fighter jets as seen on Google Earth's sattelite image of Clark Air base in Pampanga. They look like vintage 1960's-era F-5 Freedom Fighters. Or maybe just leftover F-4 Phantoms.It's common knowledge the PAF no longer have fighter jets--only a few dozen Hueys, four MIG attack helicopters and a number of Hercules C-130 cargo planes. (Oh, are the Japanese Zeroes, popularly known as Tora-Toras still flying? God, I hope not.)Well turns out that's not true. We do have jets. Only that they don't fly.
More About: Force , Jets , Air Force , Lippi , Hili