Ang Hulubaton

Mga Pagbag-o upod ang mga Litrato

2012-01-10T17:06:00.001+08:00

David Mikael Taclino Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Ang Bag-o nga profilr

2012-01-06T19:51:00.000+08:00

David Mikael Taclino Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Magagmay nga Salakyan Pangkahawaan

2011-08-24T07:07:00.001+08:00

Magagmay nga Sakayan Pang-Espiya, Nagbag-o sa Imahin sang Inaway

Pila ka kilometro diin una nga gintilawan palupad ang una nga eroplano sang bantugon nga Wright Brothers, ginahimo ang mauti nga pagtu-on nahanungod sa pagpagagmay pa gid sang mga espiya nga sakayan- diin may daku nga papel sa pagpalupok sang mga missles sa Pakistan kag subong man sa pagpang espiya sa Afghanistan- tubtob sa kaangay insekto nga kadaku-on.
Ginhingadlan ang sentro nga laboratoryo nga “microaviary,” nga may maayo gid nga rason. Diri ginahimo kag ginatun-an sing dugang ang pagdesinyo sang kaangay nga estilo kon paano ang natural nga processo sang moths, lawin kag sang tanan nga naga-istar sa kalibutan.
“Ginatun-an namon kon paano ka magpanago sa amon mga panulok,” siling ni Greg Parker, nga isa ka aerospace engineer, samtang ginakaptan niya ang isa ka mekanikal nga kaangid sang lawin nga mahimo gamiton sa ulihi sa pag-espiya ukon pagpangpatay.
Sa pihak naman nga bahin sang kalibutan sa Afghanistan, nahangawa gid ang mga militar sang America sa ila isa ka bag-o nga pang-espiya nga balloon nga nagalutaw sa kahanginan, mga 5,000 metros sa ibabaw sang pinakamadugo-on nga lugar sang inaway, sa Sangin sa Banawa sang Helmand. Ina nga balloon nga ginatawag aerostat, may kapasidad nga makapadala sang live video bisan 32 kilometros ang kalayu-on sa mga nagatanom sang bomba.
“Ini nakapabag-o gid sa akon pagpakig-away,” siling ni Kap. Nickoli Johnson. “Mas gusto ko nga may madamo pa nga kaangay sini sa akon,” dugang niya.
Halin sa kaangay balloon tubtob insekto, nagdamu pa gid ining magagmay nga mga nagalupad nga salakyan, nagbag-o sang pagpakig-away sang Amerika kag panimuot nahanungod sa giyera.
Ining wala sing tawo nga mga nagalupad nga sakayan, nagdominar gid sa matapos ang Set. 11, 2001 nga pagpang-atake kag sa sini nga katunayan ginakulbaan ang kalibutan. Ang kadamuon sining mga salakyan nga ginapanag-iyahan sang Pentagon ginabulubanta nga sobra 7,000 ka bilog kompara sang mas nubo 50 ka bilog mga 10 na ka tuig ang nagligad.
Pagdamu sang Pagkakinahanglan
Sa masunod pulo ka tuig, ginahaumhaum ang daku nga pagnubo sang mga sakayan pangkahawaan nga ginamaniobra sang mga tawo kag pagsaka sang kadamuon sang walay tawo nga sakayan diin may madamo pa sang mahimo kaangay sang “Reaper” – sakayan nga maka-espiya subong man makatiro- sa apat ka pilo.
Sa karon lang ginsiling sang US Air Force nga mas madamu ang ila ginatrain nga mga piloto nagamaniobra sang sining sakayan sa duta sangsa mga piloto nga nagapalupad sang mga eroplano sa kahawaan.
Ang Pentagon naghingyo sa Kongreso sang America sang kubos 5 ka bilyon agod sa pag dugang sang sini nga mga salakyan pangkahawaan. Ginabulubanta man nila nga sa tuig 2030, ang ginadamgo sang una nga “spy flies” ukon kaangay sang langaw nga mga espiya – upod ang sensor sini, magagmay nga camera, ang pagespiya kag pagpangbiktima sa kaaway, ang mangin posible na gid.
Kontra Terorismo
Sining nagliligad nga mga binulan, mas nangin daku ang papel sang mga drones ilabi na sa pagtapna sang terorismo kag giyera.
Ang Central Intelligence Agency ukon CIA nag espiya sa puluy-an ni Osama bin Laden sa Pakistan paagi sa video transmitted nga gamit ang bat-winged stealth drone, ang RQ-170 Sentinel, ukon mas ginatawag nga “Beast of Kandahar.”
Subong man ang isa sa pinaka-wanted nga militante sa Pakistan nga si Ilyas Kashmiri, ang ginbalita nga napatay paagi sa isa ka drone strike, tungod sang aggresibo nga opensa sang mga Amerikano agod matapna ang Al-Qaida.
Ginabulubanta man nga may masobra 1,900 ka tawo sa Pakistan ginpatay paaagi sa drones attack sang mga Amerikano sang tuig 2006 suno sa website nga www.longwarjournal.com.
Matandaan man nga sang bulan sang Abril, ang Amerika naggamit man sang armado nga Predator drone batok sa Gobyerno ni Moammar Gadhaffi sang Libya.
Sang nagligad naman nga bulan sang Mayo, ginapatihan nga ang CIA-armed Predator nagtuyo sa pagpatay kay Anwar al-Awlaki, isa ka nabun-ag sa Amerika nga cleriko nga nagapanago sa Yemen. Wala nangin madinalag-on ang pagpatay apang ginapatihan nga asta sa karon padayon ang pagpatrolya sini sa kahawaan sang Yemen.
Kaangay sang Isa ka Tumbaktumbak
Ang isa ka magamay nga helicopter ang nagahuni samtang nagahanda nga maglupad sa Wright-Patterson Aviary, isa ka laboratoryo diin ginahiwat ang pagtu-on sa sining mga salakyan, diin may madamo nga kamera agod matun-an ang kada hulag sini.
Ini nga helicopter, nga isa ka talampakan ang ka laba-on, ang gindesinyo nga makalupad sing kaugalingon paagi sa isa ka program sa kompyuter, kag ginapatihan nga sa dili madugay matabo gid ang ini nga handum.
Ang mga nagatuon nagagamit sang sini nga helicopter agod matul-id pa gid ang teknolohiya nga gamiton agod nga sa ulihi ini nga drone ang may kapasidad na nga maglupad, maghambal kaangay sang isa ka tumbaktumbak.
“Ang pag-angkon sang gamit nga makalupad nga ginapalupad lang sa bulig sang kompyuter sa tanan nga tion, kag nagalupad bisan may presensya sang makusog nga hangin kag sang nanari-sari nga kahimtangan, ang paghibalo sang sini nga gamit sa diin nga lugar apang wala nila mahibal-an kag ang mga teknolohiya nga kaaangay sini ang amon ginatun-an sa sini nga lugar,” siling ni Parker.
Nasentro sa mga Insekto
Tinutuyo subong nga maangkon ang “flapping wings” nga teknolohiya, ukon ang paghimo sang kaangay nga desinyo sang kinaandan nga paglupad nga nagasentro sa kinaiya ka insekto indi sang pispis.
Gin-ako nila nga may masibod nga mga maskulo ang pakpak sang mga pispis amo nga mabudlay ang pagilog sa sini. Kabaliskaran sa kahimtangan sang mga insekto, diin “mabudlay ang pagsunod sang desinyo sang ila mga pakpak apang mas simple ang paghulag sang ila mga pakpak,” dugang ni Parker.
Sang Pebrero, ang mga nagatu-on sa sini nga mga gamit nagpakita sang hummingbird type drone nga ginhimo sang AeroVironment para sa Secretive Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, diin maka lupad ini sin 18 kilometro kada oras. Apang yadto nga proyekto isa ka halimbawa pa lang.
Uwak
Ang isa ka pinakamagamay nga drones nga nahimo para sa patag-awayan amo ang isa ka metro nga kalaba-on nga kaangay uwak nga drone, diin gingamit sang mga Amerikano sa Afghanistan paagi sa pagtugpo kaangay sa eroplano agod magtan-aw sa piyak nga bukid.
Ginsiling nga may yara ini mga sulsobra 4,800 ka mga uwak nga drones ang ara sa military sang Amerika sa karon apang pila sa sini ang guba na.
Nagsaysay ang isa ka soldado sa Germany nagsugid nga naghinguyang sila sa pila ka oras sa kasiutan sa kakahuyan sang Bavaria sa pagpangita sang kaangay uwak nga mga drone diin wala na nakabalik gikan sa training exercise. Pagligad sang isa ka bulan, ang kaangay uwak nga drone, nadula liwat bangod sa programming error. “Ang una ko nabaton nga tawag nga ang Uwak pakadto sa Africa,” siling sang isa ka soldado nga wala nagpakilala bangod indi sya awtorisado nga magpaathag sa problema sang mga drones.
Midsize Range
Para sa mga midsize range, ara ang Predator, medyo daku lang sa Reaper kag mas gamay sa Shadow – mas nakilal-an nga ginamaniobra ka remote nga piloto gamit ang joysticks kag computer screens, madamo gikan sa base military sa Estados Unidos.
Ang ginapadayaw naman sang Navy sang Amerika amo ang X-47B, isa ka prototype nga gindesinyo sa pagpalupad kag paghugpa sang aircraft carriers kag paghulog man sang mga bomba. Gintestingan na ini gamiton sang bulan sang Pebrero kag naglibot sa kahawaan sang Amerika sa sobra 29 minutos.
Ang mas daku nga drone, amo ang Global Hawk, nga ginagamit agod bantayan ang mga aktibidad sang Nuklear nga hinganiban sang North Korea. Sang Marso, gingamit man ini agod tana-won kag bantabanta-on ang kahalitan nga ginadulot sang Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant sa Japan.
Ang Madamo nga Impormasyon
Ang makahalangawa nga palaabuton sang mga drones masaksihan sa sulod sang headquarters sang Air Force sa Joint Base Langley-Eustis, sa Virginia, diin ginatos ka mga telebisyon sa tagsa ka kwarto, nga naglaragway sang isa ka masako kag magamo nga lugar.
Sa kamutuoran, isa ini sa pinakasensitibo nga instalasyon sang pagproseso, pagtu-on kag pagpalapta sang madamo nga impormasyon nga ginakuha sa kahawaan. Nagtaas gid ang numero, sugod sang Septembre 11 nga pagpangatake, naghatag sing rason sa Air Force sang America agod tutukan ilabi na ang pangkahawaan nga misyon sang pagpangita sang impormasyon, paglaghap sang mga detalye, pagpanilag sa palibot kag pagpang-angot sang mga nakita kag naobserbahan ilabi na sa ginahatag sang sining pagtaas kag pagdamu sang tion nga ginahatag sang mga drones.
Kada adlaw ginakinahanglan sang Air Force sang Amerika nga i-proseso ang sobra 1,500 ka oras sang bug-os mga video kag masobra 1,500 ka mga imahin nga ginapadala sang drones nga Reaper kag Predator.
Narealisar sang mga nagatu-on ang mas daku nga problema para sa mga tawo sa pagtu-on sa mga naga-abot nga mga inpormasyon gikan sa sini nga mga gamit. Ginapatihan nga ang impormasyon nga ginahatag sang mga drones sa isa ka syudad, dapat pagatun-an sang di magkubos 2,000 ka manugtu-on, diin tama ka nubo ini sa kahimtangan sa karon nga may yara lang 19 ka manugtu-on kada drone.
Pagsunod sa Moth
Sa Wright-Patterson, si Maj Michael L. Anderson, isa ka doctor sa pagtu-on nahanungod sa navigational technology center, diin nakasentro ang ila pagtuon sa isa ka aspecto sang pagpauswag sang palaabuton nga drones- naga-ubra sang pakpak para sa drones nga naga-ilog sa paglupad sang mga lawin, nga mas kilala sa iya butyog nga paglupad.
“Makahalawhaw ang ila mahimo,” siling niya, “kompara sa kon daw ano ka balik-awot ang ginahimo ta sa karon.”

David Mikael Taclino Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Its Mexico

2010-08-24T14:51:00.000+08:00

A 22-year-old Mexico woman won the Miss Universe pageant Monday night after donning a flowing red gown and telling an audience it's important to teach kids family values.
Jimena Navarrete of Guadalajara was first contestant to answer an interview question onstage and the last of 83 standing in the headline-grabbing pageant on the Las Vegas Strip.
"I want to give my parents a big hug," she said at a news conference after the pageant. "There was a lot of effort and a lot of sacrifice."
The train of her single-strap dress floated behind her like a sheet as she walked during the evening gown competition. Before that, she smiled in a violet bikini as she confidently strutted across the stage.
Asked by Olympic gold-medal figure skater Evan Lysacek how she felt about unsupervised Internet use, Navarrete said the Internet is important but parents need to be careful and watch over their kids.
"I do believe that Internet is an indispensable, necessary tool for the present time," she said through an interpreter. "We must be sure to teach them the values that we learned as a family."
First runner-up was Miss Jamaica Yendi Phillipps, while second runner-up was Miss Australia Jesinta Campbell.
Navarrete said she didn't expect to win.
"I did feel surprised," she said. "I was like in a state of shock."
Navarrete — who's been modeling since she was 15 — is Mexico's second Miss Universe. Lupita Jones of Mexico won the title in 1991. Navarrete replaces Miss Universe 2009 Stefania Fernandez of Venezuela.
Navarrete's win thwarted Miss Venezuela Marelisa Gibson from giving the South American country a third consecutive victory. Neither Gibson nor Miss USA Rima Fakih made the top 15 finalists.
Navarrete was immediately congratulated on Twitter by Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his wife, Margarita Zavala.
"Congratulations to Jimena Navarrete for her deserved victory as Miss Universe," Calderon said. "This will serve Mexico, (and) our image as a country."
With fans in some 190 countries watching on television and keeping tabs on social networks, Navarrete and her competitors introduced themselves while wearing over-the-top national costumes. They then danced in silver and black dresses for the show's opening number before the top 15 finalists were announced.
The final 15 walked in swimsuits while Cirque du Soleil musicians played Elvis Presley songs including "Viva Las Vegas." The last 10 impressed in their gowns while John Legend and the Roots played a soulful medley including "Save Room."
By the end of the show, seven of the top 10 trending topics on Twitter had to do with the pageant, its contestants, its judges or owner Donald Trump. The mogul co-owns the pageant with TV network NBC.
The show was without any major gaffes, except for Miss Philippines' answer when asked what her biggest mistake in life was and how she fixed it.
"In my 22 years of existence, I can say there is nothing major," Venus Raj said.
Before the pageant, Raj was rated among the top contestants in an online poll on the pageant's website. She finished in fifth place.
Navarrete won a package of prizes including an undisclosed salary, a luxury New York apartment with living expenses, a one-year scholarship to the New York Film Academy with housing after her reign, plus jewelry, clothes and shoes fit for a beauty champion.
Campbell won the Miss Congeniality Universe award. Miss Thailand Fonthip Watcharatrakul won Miss Photogenic Universe and a second award for having the best national costume.
Fakih, a 24-year-old Lebanese immigrant from Dearborn, Mich., spurred celebrations among Arab-Americans when she won Miss USA. Pageant records aren't detailed enough to show whether Fakih is the first Arab-American, Muslim or immigrant to win Miss USA.
Miss USA has not been named Miss Universe since Brook Lee won the title in 1997.
Lysacek was one of this year's nine celebrity judges. The others were actresses Jane Seymour and Chynna Phillips; actors Chazz Palminteri and William Baldwin; magician Criss Angel; MSNBC anchor Tamron Hall; drummer Shiela E.; and supermodel Niki Taylor.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

New Daily Thoughts....

2010-08-19T09:35:00.000+08:00

This will be temporarily out. Visit my new Blogsite at

http://www.davidmikael.wordpress.com

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

Glee....I'm out of this world?

2010-07-15T19:54:00.000+08:00

What is Glee ?

I heard so many people was so inlove in this US TV series, its musical, and funny, though...I haven't seen any single series. They would say, last nights episode was so nice, and then I would just agree without knowing anything...and guess what, I woudn't dare watch any single episode of this series...
(That woman is Jane Lynch, starred in Glee and number 1 in yahoo trending..)

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Outstanding Ilonggo's named Pinoy Icons

2010-06-16T14:32:00.000+08:00

TWELVE outstanding Ilonggos who have valuable contributions to their community were cited as Pinoy Icons in a fitting ceremony on Saturday.
The awarding rites were held at the SM City Iloilo in time for the country's 112th Independence Day celebration. It was spearheaded by Jaycees International, SM City Iloilo and ABS-CBN Broadcasting Network.

Here are the 12 awardees:
Teresa Magbanua award for women’s and children’s rights was given to Sonia F. Cadornigara, a slum upgrading and urban poor champion who fought for the right to a decent home for the poor and the homeless and supporting the rights of women and children. Through her efforts, land had been acquired and houses built for thousands of the urban poor in Iloilo City.
Francisco Baltazar award for literature went to Professor Alicia Tan-Gonzales of the University of the Philippines Visayas. She is a fictionist, poet and playwright in Hiligaynon, the Ilonggo dialect. She also won several Palanca Literary Awards for Hiligaynon short story.
General Martin Delgado award for military service was given to 1Lieutent Reylan P. Java of the Philippine Army who was responsible for the capture of an rebel camp and a landmine kitchen in Igbaras, Iloilo, as well as successive encounters that led to the reduction of rebel activities in their area of responsibility.
Juan Luna award for visual arts went to Timoteo J. Jumayao who was the founding member of the annual Carabao-Carroza Festival of Pavia, Iloilo. A fine Arts graduate of the University of Sto. Tomas, his most valuable contributions to the Ilonggo art and culture are the “Oton Saga” historical mural relief at the Oton Plaza and the Iloilo Heritage mural relief depicting various epochs in Iloilo’s cultural revolution at the old airport in Mandurriao district.
Melchora Aquino award for civic works award went to newly elected Iloilo City Mayor Jed Patrick Mabilog who for years, sponsored monthly civic projects and programs, which enhance the educational, economic, health and professional lives of the people in Iloilo City. Selected as one of the 10 Outstanding Councilors of the Philippines in 2007, Mabilog continues to reap awards and recognition for his civic works and achievements as City Government official.
Emilio Aguinaldo award for government service went to Oton Vice Mayor Jose Neil P. Olivares who had led the Municipal Council of Oton, Iloilo in winning the National Local Legislative Award. He is not just a legislator but also a historian, cultural worker and arts enthusiast who transformed his own house into a museum of archives called “Balay Ogtong”.
Gomburza award for religious service went to Reverend Msgr. Meliton B. Oso who successfully initiated and facilitated the construction of housing projects for church workers and established several Botika sa Parokya, which extensively helped the needy. He also facilitated educational scholarship to children of poor families and conducted researches on technology of organic farming that benefited more than 3,000 farmers in Iloilo.
Julian Felipe award for music went to Virgilio “Pirot” G. Petcheller who has made a mar through his novelty songs and composition depicting Ilonggo daily life experiences with just a guitar as accompaniment. An enduring household name in Iloilo, Pirot has promoted appreciation of novelty music among the Ilonggos and written more than 100 songs to inspire the Ilonggos.
Jose Rizal award for medicine went to Dr. Manuel J. Posecion for giving medical consultations and free medicines to various communities in Iloilo. The first Filipino Fellow in Child Development at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, USA. Posecion was also the Most Outstanding Physician of the Iloilo Medical society in 1997.
Panday Pira award for Science and Technology Award was given to Dr. Jurgene H. Primavera for her researches and extensive work on prawn culture techniques and mangrove conservation, which helped local communities improve their economy. Through the years, Primavera has planted mangroves for coastal rehabilitation and advocated sustainable aquaculture.
Graciano Lopez Jaena award for media went to lawyer Rex Salvilla, who was considered as the "darling of the press" for having won more than 90 cases of libel against journalists pro bono and has written more than 300 articles on history and culture published in newspapers since 1973. A media practitioner and lawyer, he co-authored Press Freedom and the Risk of Libel published by the Philippine Press Institute for the use of mediamen in the entire country.
Apolinario Mabini award for education went to Dr. Ma. Helena Desiree Matulac-Terre, for introducing countless innovations in the teaching paradigms as well as effective educational management in the Colegio del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus in Iloilo City. In 2004, she was a national awardee of Gintong Ilawan: The Teodora Alonso Educator’s Award and also, one of Women Icons 2005 published in Women’s Journal.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Another MTV Kiss Award for Bullock

2010-06-09T03:01:00.002+08:00

Sandra Bullock (looking amazing) made her second appearance in as many days to pick up the Generation Award at the MTV Movie Awards, during which she locked lips with Scarlett Johansson.
Johansson, along with Bullock's former costars Betty White and Bradley Cooper, presented Bullock with her award. Johansson's husband Ryan Reynolds, who couldn't be there, was nominated with Bullock for Best Kiss. They lost, but Scarlett wanted a shot at a sweet kiss of her own.

WATCH:

Watch the 2010 MTV Movie Awards at MTV.com!

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Another Bad Name for California ; Carly Fiorina

2010-06-09T02:59:00.000+08:00

We're so lucky in California to have two wealthy women running for political office in our upcoming primary. Who says we haven't come a long way, baby?
But while I'm a big fan of eBay, the candidate I want to focus on is Carly Fiorina, who wants to be our next female senator and promises to bring jobs, jobs, jobs to our beleaguered state. As opposed to that liberal do-nothing Barbara Boxer.
Let's review her credentials. Fiorina is perhaps best known for running Hewlett-Packard into the ground when she was CEO, a feat she achieved by laying off thousands of employees, shipping jobs overseas, pushing an ill-advised merger with Compaq, trashing the stock price, and generally destroying HP's famously mellow culture. For this she got sacked in 2005 in a unanimous and highly publicized vote by HP's board.
Understandably it's still a touchy topic. After a Tea Party rally in Pleasanton, CA, in April, Fiorina snapped at some reporters when, instead of asking her about the wonderful response she got from the crowd, they asked her about the recent federal probe into HP's murky business dealings with Russia when she led the company. And another about HP's relations with Iran. Talk about a downer!
All of which raises a question: with California's economy in tatters, a $19 billion deficit, unemployment at a staggering 12.5 percent, do we really need a failed CEO with a chip on her shoulder representing us in Washington? Someone who was widely reviled for axing jobs rather than creating them?
I hate to bring this up, but it's not like Fiorina has been an avid citizen or particularly excited about government, either. (Unless you count that auspicious period in 2008, when she was one of John McCain's economic advisers and got in trouble for saying he couldn't run a company.)
As Connie Bruck wrote in The New Yorker of Fiorina's record,"she has failed to vote in two-thirds of local, state and national elections since 2000, including gubernatorial elections and Presidential primaries."
I know teenagers who have better voting records than that.
Call me picky, but it also seems a stretch to call yourself a populist, as Fiorina has done every chance she gets, when you walked away from your last job with $21 million in severance, have a yacht, a mansion, a condo in Georgetown, and have been able to funnel at least $5.5 million of your personal fortune into a Senate race. But let's not dwell on the obvious.
Aside from the lack of interest problem, the conservative Republican also seems to think she's running in Texas or South Carolina, and has been proudly touting her endorsements from everyone from anti-choice groups to the NRA to Sarah Palin. (Who in her typical oblivious fashion got her facts about Fiorina's "humble beginnings" wrong, saying her dad was a school teacher. He was a law professor and later a federal judge.)
At least Fiorina, who has said she would overturn Roe v. Wade if given the chance, hasn't dubbed herself a feminist, like her new BFF Palin did recently in one of her more comic moments.
In her effort to win the Tea Party vote and disgruntled Independents, Fiorina has been particularly intent on slamming Tom Campbell, a former congressman and the lone moderate in the race. (Chuck DeVore, the other GOP candidate, is pretty much toast at this point.) It seems like ages ago, but remember the delightfully tacky demon sheep ad, where Fiorina painted Campbell as a "wolf in sheep's clothing"?
At a debate in May, when the GOP candidates were asked if people on the "no-fly list" should be allowed to carry guns, Fiorina attacked Campbell when he very sensibly said no, sniffing, "That's why he has a poor rating from the National Rifle Association, right there."
The attacks appear to have worked. This week Campbell pulled his ads off the air, after Fiorina leaped ahead in the polls.
She's nothing if not tenacious. Faster than you can say "demon sheep," Fiorina was up with a new ad trashing Barbara Boxer. In the ad Boxer is shown saying that climate change is a national security issue. Is that ridiculous, or what? Then Fiorina comes on screen and gravely says, "Terrorism kills, and Barbara Boxer is worried about the weather."
Is that ridiculous, or what?
As for the newly resurrected wedge issue of the moment, Fiorina is all for Arizona's harsh immigration law. At a time when Californians are most worried about jobs and not who's busing their tables or picking their strawberries, that might not be such a swell move.
There's also the no small matter that one in six voters in November is expected to be Hispanic. And that most young Californians have grown up in a strikingly diverse culture where race-baiting not only is unusual but extremely uncool.
Maybe Fiorina should move to Texas?

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Who gets Game 3 - NBA Finals Update

2010-06-09T02:54:00.000+08:00

Ron ArtestI realize there isn’t an NBA team anywhere near Kansas City and that means there aren’t a lot of NBA fans – at least compared to MLB or NFL – who might be reading UFR. Nevertheless, I am a fan and so I’m going to report after each game in the finals. I would probably do it regardless of who the two teams were, but when it’s the Lakers-Celtics, you can’t go wrong.

Of course, Los Angeles won game #1 the way I expected – dominating at home. Game two was much more like the typical Lakers-Celtics wars of yesteryear – although nowhere near the scoring. Though the final margins of the two games were similar, game #2 was far more competitive.

Having watched both contests, I have a few thoughts.

Game 1: 67 Free Throw Attempts - Boooring!

Game 2: 67 Free Throw Attempts - Boooring!

As Ron Artest goes, so go the Lakers

Artest was an abysmal 1-10 from the field, 1-6 from the arc and 3-8 from the line. It doesn’t get much worse than that. He is important defensively, but you simply can’t begin to overcome a -3 EFF in 40+ minutes!

I don’t think I’ve ever discussed this yet on UFR. It’s one thing to get a -3 in two minutes of action, but something entirely different in 40 minutes. If you add all the Lakers individual EFFs you get 106. Since there are 240 man-minutes in a game, that means for each minute played per person, they should have racked up .442 EFFs.

Since Artest played 40:31, he should have had an 18 EFF to be consistent with the team. Even worse, take his 40:31 out of the mix and you have 109 divided into 192 minutes. That’s .568 EFF per man minute. If he had done as well as the rest of the team on a per-minute basis, he would have had an EFF of 23.

I can assure you that if he had a 23 instead of a -3, the Lakers would have won… easily. The loss of this game falls at the feet of one person – Ron Artest.

What is Artest doing jacking so many threes?

I looked at the last 30 games that each of the players have played – which includes 18 in the playoffs and the last dozen of the regular season. Here is a stat that will make you quiver in your boots if you are a Lakers’ fan.

COOL FACTOID: Ron Artest has taken more three-point shots than Kobe Bryant over the last 30 games each has played.

That might be ok if it was 2008 (38.0%) or 2009 (39.9%), but in 2010, he only shot 35.5% and over his last 30 games, he’s bricking them at 26.2%.

In Bryant’s last 30 games, he’s shooting treys at 40.3%! Huge difference. Here are the three-point stats for Fisher, Bryant, Farmar and Artest over the last 30 games.

Player	Treys.Attempted	3pt%
Artest	145	26.2
Bryant	144	40.3
Fisher	96	36.5
Farmar	81	45.7

Can anyone explain to me what a non-ball handling, defensive forward is doing shooting more threes than any of the guards on the team – including Kobe Bryant – especially when he’s only clanking them at 26% !?

It’s hard to believe Jackson likes it, but you have to figure he probably tolerates it in order to keep his (Artest’s) mind right.

Rajon Rondo was even better than Ray Allen

Rondo will get some props because he is the flavor of the month for the talking heads – not to mention a triple-double. But, most people will certainly make the blanket assumption that Ray Allen won the game for Boston. Although it was close by EFF, Rondo had a 28 and Allen a 26.

While it is true that Allen outscored Rondo 32-19 – including a finals record eight three-pointers on only 11 attempts, it’s also true that Rondo had nine more rebounds and eight more assists!

Besides, every one of those eight three-pointers came in the first three quarters. LA had the lead after that. It was Rondo’s play down the stretch that won the game for the Celtics.

Unquestionably, the headline(s) will read… Ray Allen this, Ray Allen that. In fact, the first person mentioned in every story I looked at was “Ray Allen”. It’s just one more example (out of millions) where the public and the reporter are fooled by scoring.

You will know (well, you won’t know because you will be dead of old age) that reporting has evolved when you see a game like this and the lead headline is “Rajon Rondo leads Celtics to victory”.

EFFs for games 1 and 2

Los Angeles

Player	Game 1	Game 2
Gasol	32	37
Bryant	28	19
Artest	18	-3
Bynum	11	25
Fisher	10	10
Odom	6	6
Brown	5	4
Farmar	5	3
Vujacic	2	5
Walton	1	—

Boston

Player	Game 1	Game 2
Pierce	28	9
Rondo	14	28
Garnett	14	13
Wallace	12	12
Perkins	11	16
R.Allen	8	26
Davis	4	7
T.Allen	1	3
Finley	0	—
Robinson	—	7
Williams	—	-2

I don’t have a prediction on game #3. However, I’m sticking with the Lakers winning the series. It will be tough to win in six, having lost one of two at home, but I still think they are the superior team.

One last item of interest. On the way home, one of those brilliant late-night radio hosts made a comment to this effect – meaning paraphrased: “I think it is important that LA win at least one game in Boston because they have to get back the home court advantage.”

Hey Sherlock! I’ve got an even better reason why they need to win at least on game in Boston. Because if they don’t… they will lose the series 4-1.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

GM Recall of Cars in Canada

2010-06-09T02:47:00.000+08:00

General Motors is the latest auto maker to deal with a major recall.
More than one million vehicles are affected in North America including more than 250 thousand in Canada.
The company says there are potential steering problems with some of its compact vehicles.
But GM insists the problem only occurs at low speeds and the vehicles are still safe to drive.
Vehicles affected by the recall include:
2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt
2007-2010 Pontiac G5
2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit
The company says an investigation has revealed "greater steering effort" may be required by drivers when the vehicle is travelling at under 24 km/hr.
There have been reports of 14 crashes and one injury in the U-S and three complaints in Canada.
Repairs won't be made until replacement parts are available from the dealership.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

What Can You saY? Angelica Panganiban buckled Up against Barreto

2010-06-08T21:30:00.000+08:00

Ano ma say nyo ?

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Guatemala Sink Hole...was it a mystery?

2010-06-08T19:32:00.000+08:00

The Guatemala sinkhole of May 31, 2010 appears to be one of the worst sinkholes in Guatemala City history. These extremely surreal photos are depicting an terrible crater that was said to be caused by tropical storm Agatha. The Guatemala sinkhole is being called a “hundimiento” or spontaneous sinkhole by the Guatemala City government. Their scientists say this is just a random occurrence that happens from time to time when major storms pass by. They generally only make slight depressions rather than this extremely deep freak of a sinkhole.

There is conflicting information so I will try to weed out the crap as the time passes. Some sources were saying a security guard was the only fatality. This is very sad if there were any deaths in the Guatemalan sinkhole, however this happened at an intersection so things could have gone much worse, especially considering how deep this beast of a sinkhole was. The Guatemala Crater will most likely be remembered for a long time to come as ones this deep are rarely seen. As it stands now they are estimating it is at least 18 meters wide, and 60 meters deep.
Update#1: According to a local named “Les” There used to be a house on the corner, and there was possibly up to three people in the house during the time of the Guatemala sinkhole. This is turning out to be more tragic than originally thought, however I still think this could have gone much worse being that it was in an intersection in the large city of Guatemala City.
Update#2: A body was just recently pulled from the giant sinkhole in Guatemala City, which has now been measured to be over 200 feet deep.
Update#3: A viewer was asking for the Guatemala Sinkhole Coordinates, and it is roughly in the north eastern part of the city at: 14° 39′ 7.5″ N, 90° 30′ 21.5″ W
Update#4: The Guatemala City Death Toll is up to 150 from Tropical Storm Agatha, mostly from flooding and landslides. According to the breaking news articles, it seems only one man has actually died from the sinkhole itself

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Will Pacquiao settle for Marquez?

2010-06-08T19:17:00.000+08:00

When people talk about Manny “PacMan” Pacquiao (51-3-2, 38KO’s), the first things that come up are his unprecedented achievements and his ferocious fighting style.

Astute observers point out the fact that he started professionally at 106 lbs and rampaged his way up to welterweight, plundering titles in seven weight divisions along the way. Others recite a litany of hall of famers and icons who have fallen at the hands of the Filipino great.

However, there are also those in boxing who believe that a certain fighter has had Pacquiao’s number and unofficially won twice against him. They think modern Mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37KO’s) has two victories over the PacMan regardless of how the official judges scored their two bouts.

Those who claim the Mexico City, Mexico native was robbed both times argue he won the majority of the rounds in the two fights with his excellent ring generalship and aggressive counterpunching. They matter-of-factly state that “Dinamita” schooled his less technically-proficient nemesis after suffering knockdowns early in the two fights.
However, there are also those in boxing who believe that a certain fighter has had Pacquiao’s number and unofficially won twice against him. They think modern Mexican great Juan Manuel Marquez (50-5-1, 37KO’s) has two victories over the PacMan regardless of how the official judges scored their two bouts.

Pacquiao and Marquez battled fiercely in May 2004 and again in March 2008, the first being adjudged a split draw and the rematch a tightly-fought split decision win for the Typhoon from the Pacific.

Such arguments may sway a neutral observer or those who do not feel strongly for either fighter into believing Marquez does hold two unofficial wins, because of the sheer gallantry of the idea of someone rising from the canvas to wage a savage battle to the end.

Furthermore, Pacquiao has been elevated into the highest pedestal in the sport because of his jaw-dropping dominance, and to see him in such close contests was an aberration so absurd that one might be tempted to entertain the notion he actually lost them in spite of the official scorecards.

The two fights with Marquez actually stand in stark contrast to Pacquiao’s other performances, with the exception of the first Morales fight that he actually lost.

How close to the truth are these impressions then? Those who champion this school of thought go as far as saying if one takes the knockdowns out of the equation both fights would be near shutouts for the Mexican.

That would be like having one’s cake and eating it too. For much of the weight their argument has lies in the fact that it is not an ordinary day for a boxing fan to see a fighter get stretched on the canvas three times in one round, and then still rise up to wage a highly competitive battle with his tormentor. This very fact then is what exactly magnifies his performance in the eyes of those who think he got robbed, to somewhat exaggerated proportions.

The shock one gets from seeing Pacquiao strike Marquez down thrice in a round is only matched by the awe experienced watching Marquez’ resurrection, and since this is relatively the more recent of the two events some people tend to give it more weight.

Take away the awe from Marquez’ heroic recovery, and what one will see is an epic battle of wills. The Filipino’s ungodly mix of speed, power and ferocity testing the Mexican’s uncanny mastery of technique, resilience and heart. Indeed, that first fight was never any sort of schooling that some haughtily proffer to unsuspecting recipients in the guise of “well-informed boxing knowledge”.

The second fight is an even hotter topic for debate, as this time the Mexican was dropped only once en route to PacMan eking out a close split decision win. Those proclaiming Marquez’ alleged robbery yet again, vehemently point to things that Marquez did to win the fight in their eyes but predictably ignore those that swung the pendulum more decisively in Pacquiao’s favor.

They argue Marquez controlled the action, was effective in his aggression and had Pacquiao hurt more times than he was himself hurt by Pacquiao, this last claimed by the Mexican himself in the postfight interview.

They do not however mention that Maquez would have touched canvas a second time in the third round were it not for the ropes, and indeed should have been properly called a second knockdown by referee Kenny Bayless as clearly stipulated in the WBC rules for a championship fight. Specifically, WBC Rules for Championship fights Section 11 on Knockdowns Item 5 states that, “If the ropes prevent a fighter from going down, the referee will call it a knockdown”.

The fighting Congressman-elect from Sarangani Province of the Philippines also had his opponent lurching on spaghetti legs in the tenth round with an improbable single overhand left while himself out of position. There were not only more instances where PacMan legitimately hurt Marquez, but also that these instances were of the near-knockdown varieties.

The eighth round where Marquez had his way with a vision-impaired Pacquiao was basically the one round where it can be argued the Mexican had his biggest round, but still at no time was the PacMan badly hurt or in danger of falling to the canvas. If anything can be gleaned from that round, it is that even with Manny hindered by a bloody cut the best Marquez could do was pot shoot him. Maybe he was simply wary of the Filipino’s power, but at times in that revealing eighth round he seemed at a loss on how to proceed. In that brief time when the roles were reversed and his opponent seemed vulnerable, Marquez couldn’t even rise to the occasion and score a knockdown that would have lent credence to his post-fight claims about who had hurt whom more.

A closely-fought split decision in favor of the fighter who scored a knockdown, had his opponent seriously hurt more times, and just plainly won more rounds is no robbery. Even some respected boxing journalists who happened to score the fight differently compared to the official verdict, admit a Pacquiao win was still a legitimate possibility and that they could actually see it in their own scorecards had they scored some really close rounds the other way. In the end, the history books will bear a footnote to the first fight which was officially scored a split draw, that official judge Burt Clements admitted erroneously scoring the first round 10-7 because he thought he could not give a 10-6 card even for a three-knockdown round. His final tally of 113-113 would have instead read 113-112 Pacquiao, and given Manny the split decision victory.
And it will also carry on its pages that while the second fight may have been as close, ultimately the verdict went to the fighter who truly deserved it, thus silencing once and for all any lingering questions improperly foisted on the outcome of this fight.
David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Airport security speedup program to relaunch

2010-05-08T06:57:00.003+08:00

The Clear program, which allowed members to breeze through airport security before it abruptly shut down last year, is expected to be up and running again by the fall.

The company was taken over by Alclear LLC, whose board includes Michael Chertoff, former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Alclear bought Clear's former owner, Verified Identity Pass, which filed for bankruptcy.

When the program shut down in June, there was a lot of concern among members because of the sensitive personal data they volunteered in exchange for quick passage through security gates.

Although the former owner, Verified Identity Pass, was private, Clear had to report personal information to the Transportation Security Administration.

The data is currently stored by a large unnamed security company. Former Clear customers will soon be sent a notice, asking if they want their personal data transferred to Alclear. If not, the data will be destroyed.

To join, passengers must be fingerprinted and have their irises scanned for positive identification, plus turn over information including Social Security numbers that the company shares with the TSA. In return, they get excess to shorter security lines at about 20 airports across the country.

Alclear said in a statement Tuesday that the subscription terms of nearly 160,000 previous members will be honored. Enrollment for new members will start this summer. It did not say how many airports will have the new version of the service.

A Clear membership will cost $179 for unlimited use.

Clear grew out of the Transportation Security Administration's Registered Traveler program. It was founded in 2003 by Steven Broil, the businessman behind media ventures such as court and American Lawyer magazine. Broil left the company in February when a group of investors took control of the company.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Apple sells 1 million iPads, outdoing first iPhone

2010-05-08T06:57:00.000+08:00

Apple Inc. said Monday that is has sold 1 million of its new iPad tablet computers in the month after its launch, meaning it's been selling more than twice as fast as the iPhone did when it was new.

Apple said it reached the milestone on Friday, when the new 3G model of the iPad was delivered to its first buyers. That model can access AT&T's cellular broadband network. The first models had only Wi-Fi access.

"One million iPads in 28 days — that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone," said CEO Steve Jobs. Demand keeps exceeding supply for the tablet, he added.

The iPad went on sale in the US on April 3. Apple has already the delayed the international launch of the device, saying sales in the US were unexpectedly strong. It's planning to start taking orders for the iPad from international buyers on May 10.

Apple shares rose $5.26, or 2 percent, to close at $266.35 Monday.

The iPad is half an inch thick and has a 9.7-inch screen. The Wi-Fi-only models start at $499, and the 3G models at $629.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Late CF card delivery won't imperil elections, Smartmatic says

2010-05-08T06:55:00.002+08:00

The late delivery of compact flash (CF) cards in several areas in the country — including volatile provinces such as Maguindanao and Sulu — would not imperil the conduct of elections in May 10, poll machine supplier Smartmatic said on Friday.

“We can make it. We have always said that we can make it, despite the new change in the schedule," Smartmatic Asia president Cesar Flores said in an interview on Friday.

Almost all ballots and precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines are already in place in town halls all over the country, while most reconfigured compact flash (CF) cards will arrive by Saturday, he said.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) pulled out and reconfigured all CF cards containing instructions to the PCOS machines after the automated counting machines failed to read votes accurately when tested last Monday.

Flores added that Smartmatic and Comelec are closely coordinating with the police to ensure that CF cards will arrive in time for the May 10 polls, especially in areas prone to election-related violence.

“We are trying to work with the police to make sure that the CF cards will arrive in these areas on time," he said.

The Comelec said on Thursday that vote-counting in five percent of all polling areas in the country might be delayed for a day because of late deliveries of reconfigured CF cards.

Transparency

Flores also assured voters that Smartmatic will be fully transparent about their operations on May 10, a day after the Supreme Court ordered the Comelec to disclose all preparations for the elections.

“Everything has always been transparent, and will continue to be transparent. Everything has always been public," he said.

Flores even toured representatives from the media on Friday inside the Smartmatic national support center facility located in the Antel Global Corp. Center in Pasig City.

The support center will receive reports on technical problems from Smartmatic’s 42,000 technicians on the field, Flores said.

He added that Smartmatic will give real-time updates on the status of different poll activities, such as the opening and closing of polling precincts, in the Comelec center in the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Pasay City on election day.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

In ‘City of Stars,’ celebs bring glitter to local race

2010-05-08T06:54:00.002+08:00

A star glittered over the village of West Riverside in Quezon City one Wednesday night.

For a moment, the residents — mostly dressed in tattered clothes and plain slippers — thought they can finally find out what it was like to see and hear a real, live star in their midst.

But it vanished as soon as it appeared.

“Nasaan na si vice mayor? Bakit biglang nawala?" said one surprised resident when Quezon City Vice Mayor Herbert Bautista, Liberal Party (LP) mayoralty bet, this coming polls, left a sortie in their area only a few minutes after he arrived.

NOW YOU SEE HIM, NOW YOU DON'T. Liberal Party Quezon City mayoral bet Herbert Bautista has remained silent on accusations of incompetence hurled towards him by his rivals. Andreo Calonzo

Bautista, a former actor who played the role of Quezon City vice mayor for the past nine years, showed how comfortable he was onstage during his brief appearance at the sortie.

He cracked a few green jokes, led his slate into dancing to the tune of his campaign jingle and gave an entertaining speech before the obviously star-struck residents.

Joy Belmonte, Bautista’s running mate and daughter of incumbent Quezon City Mayor Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., even talked about Bautista’s private life to engage the crowd during her speech.

She asked the audience to enumerate female celebrities who were linked to Bautista, to which the crowd willingly gave answers.

In contrast, when the younger Belmonte asked the people about Bautista’s accomplishments during his 15 years in the city government, the rowdy crowd went silent.

“Kapag tinanong ang love life mo, alam na alam. Kapag tungkol sa mga nagawa mo, tahimik," the LP vice-mayoral bet quipped.

Lackluster performance?

Bautista’s lackluster public service record may be something his running mate takes lightly.

But Bautista’s most vocal rival, former Cabinet member and Quezon City Rep. Michael “Mike" Defensor, has a different opinion.

Bautista “has done nothing" in his three years as city councilor, and another twelve years as vice mayor, says Defensor, who is running under the People's Reform Party.

“Sa tagal na sa gobyerno, wala siyang nagawa na kahit anong programa. Binuhos lang niya ang pondo sa pagkain at painom. On the basis of his office’s budget, he could have done so much," said Defensor in a phone interview with GMANews.TV.

(His long government stint has brought no programs. Instead, he merely spent funds on food and drink.)

Another mayoralty aspirant, independent candidate John Charles Chang, likewise questioned Bautista and the rest of the Quezon City government’s use of funds — a big chunk of which comes from the city’s high rate of tax collection and revenue generation.

“Ang Quezon City ay isa sa pinakamayayamang lungsod sa bansa, pero ang daming mahihirap… Mas malaki ang taxes ng Quezon City kaysa sa Makati. Saan napupunta ang pera natin?" Chang said.

(Quezon City is one of the wealthiest cities in the country. However, there are still lots of poor people. Quezon City collects more tax revenues than Makati [the Philippines’ premier financial district]. Where does all that money go.)

Despite these issues, Bautista has remained silent.

The former actor, who was so used to flashy lights and cameras before, has frequently evaded the media throughout his campaigns when asked about his rivals’ accusations.

In one television interview, all Bautista can say about the allegations is a succinct “I don’t want to talk about it."

However, Defensor is unhappy with the silent treatment.

He dared Bautista to prove that he is more than just a celebrity riding his popularity as a former television and movie star and as the incumbent mayor’s anointed one.

“I have no problem with him [Bautista] being a celebrity. He just needs to prove that he is not just banking on popularity," he said.

Star-studded campaign

Bautista is not the only celebrity candidate in Quezon City faced with such a challenge.

The “City of Stars," in fact, has the most star-studded local campaigns for the May polls, data gathered by GMA News Research said.

Of the 109 celebrities seeking electoral posts, 15 are running for positions in the Quezon City government.

It is only in this city where celebrities run in all electoral positions — from district representative to city council members.

These stars vying for electoral posts in the country’s largest city in terms of population come in different shapes in sizes: from a former sexy star and beauty queen to gay radio anchor and comedian.

However, these celebrities have one thing in common: their capacity to draw crowds.

Defensor himself admitted that he benefits from the star power of his runningmate, actress Aiko Melendez.

He said Melendez “complements" his campaign with a mix of mass appeal and political experience.

“Malakas talaga ang hatak niya sa baba, sa masa. In a way, we are complementing each other, since she has been a councilor for a long time," he said.

Not all candidates are happy with the star-studded Quezon City campaigns, though.

Independent bet Henry Samonte, for example, said he feels outshone by some of his rival’s star power.

“Ordinaryong tao lang po ako. Kaya lang ako pumasok sa pulitika kasi sumusobra na po ang gobyernong ito," he said in one forum.

Aside from former Quezon City Mayor Ismael Mathay Jr. and Quezon City Rep. Mary Ann Susano, two other candidates for mayors are relatively unknown: independent bets Roberto Sombillo and Engracio Icasiano.

Platforms over popularity

The campaigns in Quezon City may be the most stellar, but voters from the country’s former capital seem to put little weight whether a candidate is a personality or not.

Housewife Rose Torres said regardless of whether a candidate is a celebrity or not, all those seeking for electoral posts in the city are after one thing: Quezon City’s big budget.

“Wala naman akong masama sa mga artista, pero malaki ang budget ng Quezon City. Ke artista o hindi, they are all running for the budget," she said.

(There’s nothing basically wrong with actors and actresses running for public office. But since Quezon City’s budget is big, whether they’re all personalities or not, they’re after that.)

Torres, however, believes that star power has really played a huge part in her city’s politics.

“Kung pagkapresidente nga nanalo ang artista, salocal positions pa kaya?" she said, referring to former President Joseph Estrada, the first ever movie actor to be elected to the country’s top post.

For 64-year-old Ludy Bustos, the Quezon City local elections should go beyond being a popularity contest.

“For me, platforms really matter. Personality is secondary. I hope the ones who will be elected can utilize the city’s resources wisely, so that the residents will benefit, especially the poor ones," she said

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Erap incredulous over latest SWS survey

2010-04-27T02:46:00.002+08:00

Former President Joseph Estrada on Monday expressed incredulity on the latest Social Weather Station (SWS) survey showing him still in third place in the presidential race in the May 10 elections.

"I don’t believe that," Estrada said after a press conference in Mandaluyong City when asked for his reaction on the latest SWS poll showing Liberal Party bet Sen. Benigno “Noynoy" Aquino III enjoying a double-digit lead over closest rival Nacionalista Party’s Sen. Manny Villar Jr.

The survey, which was conducted from April 16 to 19, showed Estrada stuck in third place with a 17-percent preference rating — a two-percentage point drop from his 19-percent rating a month ago.

Estrada accused the SWS of committing errors in the 2004 national elections when the poll firm said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo won in all Metro Manila cities.

"Noong 2004 elections, sinabi nila sa exit polls, panalo raw si Arroyo sa Metro Manila. Ano nangyari? Talo. Out of 17 cities and municipalities, isa lang ipinanalo ni Arroyo. Hindi error ‘yun," he said.

(In the 2004 elections, SWS said in its exit polls that Arroyo won in Metro Manila. But what happened? Of the 17 cities and municipalities in Metro Manila, Arroyo won in only one. I don’t think that’s an error.)

The former president added he trusts more the nationwide survey reportedly commissioned by Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno, which shows that he has overtaken Villar in second place.

"Six thousand ang respondents noon. ‘Yung respondents ng SWS 1,200 to 1,400 lang. Mas credible (That’s more credible because it has 6,000 respondents compared to SWS’ 1,200 to 1,400)," he said.

Estrada also said the electorate should not believe surveys and choose the presidential candidate who they think will serve the country best.

Senator Richard Gordon, another presidential aspirant, earlier sued SWS and another polling firm, Pulse Asia, for their alleged bias in conducting pre-election surveys.

David Mikael Taclino Inyu
Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Mosley trainer: Show proof Pacman used drugs

2010-04-27T02:43:00.002+08:00

Manny Pacquiao found a new ally in Sugar Shane Mosley’s trainer, Naazim Richardson.

Richardson, fondly called Brother Naazim, defended Pacquiao from accusations made by the camp of Floyd Mayweather Jr. that the seven-division world champion is using performance enhancing drugs (PED).

Brother Naazim, who is a devout Muslim, said the Mayweathers — along with Floyd Sr. and uncle/trainer Roger — should stop attacking Pacquiao, saying their accusations are baseless since they failed to present any solid evidence to prove their allegations.

"If I don’t have any proof on anybody about anything, I won’t say anything," said Richardson during the latest episode of HBO’s 24/7 primer for Mosley-Mayweather May 1 fight in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Pacquiao’s string of victories against bigger opponents and his refusal to undergo random style drug testing as a requirement for his mega-fight with Mayweather to push through led boxing’s flamboyant family to conclude that the reigning pound-for-pound king is into PEDs.

But Richardson doesn’t believe the allegations.

"I don’t care about this non-sense. All I care about is boxing," he said.

Because of the Mayweathers' claims, Richardson believes Pacquiao, and even his trainer Freddie Roach, have been on the receiving end of unnecessary criticism. "Guys hate (them), they (Mayweathers) hate Freddie Roach."

"But hey, they are doing a good job there over their man," said Richardson, who, ironically, worked as an assistant under Roach when he trained Bernard Hopkins in his 2008 fight against Joe Calzaghe.

Criticisms being hurled against the 30-year Filipino southpaw from General Santos City proves that indeed, he has arrived as a true boxing superstar, he said.

"They’re doing a good job," he said of Pacquiao and Roach. "You're doing your job, man, when you beat somebody’s ass and people watching think you’re on something because you beat that ass so bad. That’s when you know you’re at the top of your game."

While he has nothing bad to say against Pacquiao, Richardson, who also trains Hopkins and former cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham, he also has nothing against the Mayweathers.

Richardson referred to Pacquiao and Mayweather as "great athletes."

David Mikael Taclino Inyu
Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Pacquiao photo endorsing ally’s political rival, fake

2010-04-27T02:40:00.002+08:00

Manny Pacquiao was dragged into Visayan politics when pocket calendars showing him endorsing an ally’s political rival surfaced last weekend in Negros Occidental.

The pocket calendars showed Pacquiao, who is running for a congressional post in the lone district of Saranggani, raising the hand three-term Bacolod City Rep. Monico Puentevella.

Puentevella is challenging incumbent Bacolod City mayor Evelio Leonardia, who is running for election, in the May 10 elections.

Pacquiao's personal trainer Buboy Fernandez was shocked to see pocket calendars of the Filipino boxing icon raising Punetevella’s hand.

"That is not the way Manny raises hands. You be the judge," he said in an interview posted Monday on Bacolod-based news site Visayan Daily Star.

Fernandez, who was in Bacolod last Friday, said the photo was "doctored".

He said the "irregularities" in the photo showed that Pacquiao and Puentevella's hands are "not proportioned."

Fernandez said Pacquiao in the photo appeared to have a different hand and a different arm, while Puentevella appeared to be wearing two different coats.

The photo also showed the two have the same height, but Pacquiao is shorter than Puentevella.

Leonardia's campaign manager Councilor Greg Gasataya said the incident raises the question of character. "This may be just another photoshop job and a small thing to some people, but behind it is somebody who is running for mayor."

"This is about character... If he can doctor such a photo, what else do you think has Puentevella doctored, and will doctor in the future?" Gasataya added.

David Mikael Taclino Inyu
Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Villar’s Tondo roots were ‘definitely middle class’

2010-04-27T02:39:00.000+08:00

n 1961, when Liberal Party standard-bearer Diosdado Macapagal was in the midst of a victorious presidential campaign, today’s presidential aspirant Manny Villar Jr. was 11 years old and living with his large extended family in a rented three-story corner house along Tondo’s main tree-lined boulevard, Moriones Street.

Villar’s father, Manuel Sr., was a US-educated Philippine government budget officer and his mother was an enterprising fish dealer, one of a privileged few with a choice stall in Divisoria market, one of Manila’s busiest.

By that year, Evelyn Villar, Manny’s aunt and Manuel Sr.’s sister, had already been a leading lady in movies produced by the major studio LVN. Evelyn hung out with Rosa Rosal, Delia Razon and other LVN stars at the time, and would occasionally sleep over in the Moriones house.

It was also a time when, candidate Manny Villar would like voters to believe, his family was almost desperately poor, judging from the songs, rhetoric and political ads that have formed the main narrative of his political campaign.

"Ako, noong first 11 years of my life, talagang squatter kami noong araw. Lahat, dinaanan ko yan," the senator said two weeks ago.

In 1962, as Villar was turning 13, his younger brother Danny, then three, died of leukemia, after his family had already transferred from Moriones to the upscale San Rafael Village in North Balut, Tondo (San Rafael village spans the border between Tondo and Navotas).

But in a political ad that has stopped airing, Villar claimed that his family was so poor then that they couldn’t buy the medicines that could have saved his brother’s life.

A studio photograph taken of the Villar family when the future senator, standing right back row, was in college. The young child in the front is actually the deceased Daniel Villar, who was not alive when the original photo was taken. It was only recently that the Villar family had the photo digitally altered to include Danny's image. "Gusto kasi namin kumpleto kami sa photo," said Vicky Villar- Divinagracia. Danny died before the age of four in 1962.

His critics and political opponents have since challenged the veracity of his claims to childhood destitution, leading Villar and his allies to back track a bit and halt some of the more questionable ads proclaiming his pauper roots, including the now famous music ad about swimming in a sea of garbage and spending Christmas on the streets, as if Villar and his siblings were urchins caroling to motorists.

The argument about the Villar family’s true economic status has become one of the bitterest bones of contention in this overheated political season, and has led to spirited exchanges in the media and on the web about what constituted real poverty in the early 1960s.

GMANews.TV has spent the past month trying to get to the bottom of Villar’s childhood poverty claims, interviewing neighbors, family members, and retired and active fish vendors who used to source their fish from Manny’s mother, Curing. She was acknowledged by both family members and her fellow-fish dealers as the entrepreneur in the family, and whom the candidate credits for teaching him the rudiments of business.

Manuel Villar Sr.'s government income

We also obtained from government archives the partial government employment records of the late Manuel Villar Sr. from 1938 to 1961 (his records beyond that year have not yet been found). Together with accounts from Curing’s fellow vendors of how much she was probably earning at the time, a fairly accurate picture has emerged for the first time of the Villar family’s income and what it could be worth in today’s money.

According to Manuel Villar Sr.’s salary record in 1961 as a rising official in the then-Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, he was earning P448 a month or P5376 a year. It does not sound like much but the value of money was much different then. The minimum wage was four pesos a day, and an eight-ounce soft drink was 10 centavos or less. The elder Villar was earning an average of P22 a day.

Significantly, according to a household income survey in 1961 conducted by the National Statistics Office, the average annual individual income in that year was only P1,105. In other words, Manny Villar’s father was earning nearly five times the average income at the time.

Using the consumer price index from both 1961 and 2009 available on the National Statistics Office web site, we calculated the equivalent of P448 in 1961 to be P35,392 in today’s money, Manuel Villar Sr.’s monthly salary when adjusted for inflation. His rank in the civil service then was Budget Officer III.

Even in 1957, when the candidate says the family was much poorer, his father was earning P3960 a year at a time when the average individual income was P924 per annum.

Manuel Villar Sr. had started out in the government service in 1938 as a laboratory helper and became a junior fish warden during World War II. According to his employment records, Manuel Sr. studied fisheries in the United States as a "pensionado" or government scholar in 1948-49. When he returned to the Philippines, he was soon made a section chief and he continued to rise in both rank and salary.

Being a government employee was a relatively comfortable situation in the 1950s and 60s, especially for the rare one who had studied abroad on a scholarship. Government officials were much better paid in those days and, without the reputation for corruption attached to government service today, they enjoyed greater prestige in the community.

“They were definitely middle class," said Dr. Cielito Habito, an economist at Ateneo de Manila University and a former head of the National Economic and Development Authority, or NEDA, who helped GMANews.TV convert the elder Villar's income to today’s money.

A double income family

But the father’s regular salary was just one income in the Villars’ double-income family. The main breadwinner was actually Manny’s now famous mother Curing. According to several fish market vendors and their children who worked alongside the Villars in the Divisoria market in the 1960s, Curing earned no less than P80 a day and could have averaged as much as P600 a day after building up a steady customer base that included restaurants and nearby offices to whom she delivered fresh fish.

Using the factor of 79, based on the Consumer Price Index, that’s the equivalent of P6,320 to P47,400 a day in 2010. The lower figure was recalled by Eduardo Artures, 69, who worked in the same market in his teens and who knew the Villars.

The higher figure was cited by retired fish vendor Lelet Buenviaje, 68, who worked in Divisoria for nearly 40 years and sold shrimp just a few stalls a way from Curing. She recalls Manny Jr. as a hard-working son who often assisted his mother.

Lelet Buenviaje, 68, began selling seafood at the Divisoria Market in 1960, the year she got married. She would regularly purchase shrimp from Curing Villar, who she remembers as hard-working and humble. DANNY PATA

Listen to excerpts from Lelet Buenviaje's interview here:

She vividly recalls Curing being one of the most successful Divisoria seafood wholesalers during the 1960s. She herself would buy seafood from Aling Curing on a nearly daily basis, which she would then retail.

“Kasi kung minsan tinatanghali ako, wala na kong aabutan sa labas eh," recalls Lelet. “Minsan kumukuha ako 20 kilos, hanggang 30 (kilos). Pinakamababa 10 kilos ang kuha ko sa kanya. Napapautang niya kami. Kinabukasan ang bayad. Mabait si Aling Curing."

Lelet remembers most of Aling Curing’s customers being seafood vendors themselves as well, not ordinary consumers.

“Halimbawa may naligaw na buyer na bibili ng tingi, nagbebenta din siya. Pero mas marami siyang suki sa mga nagtitinda," remembers Lelet.

However, Senator Villar has insisted that his mother was never a wholesaler. “We were not in wholesaling. We were ordinary vendors selling shrimps in public markets, which I’ve been saying for so many times," he has said. “Tatlong banyera lamang ang tinda namin. Noong bandang huli, noong ako ay nasa college na, medyo dumadami-dami na yung tinda namin."

Curing Villar and three of her daughters, who met GMANews.TV in an exclusive group interview in the family home in Las Piñas, don’t recall their income in those days, a time of low food prices and national optimism when the elder Macapagal, incumbent President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s father, was promising to lead a frugal and honest administration. But they were one in insisting that they were poor. The Villar sisters Baby, Vicky, and Cecile recall how during their years in Moriones, they had to forego luxuries such as new clothes and expensive food just to help their parents support their large family.

“Minsan, lalagyan lang namin ng patis ang kanin. Minsan, saging na may bagoong, mantika na may asin. Kung wala kaming ulam, kanin lang, okay na sa amin ‘yun sa araw-araw. ‘Pag may natira sa tinda (ni Nanay), yung mga hipon na nagkadurog-durog na ‘yung ulo, sisipsipin pa namin," says Gloria “Baby" Villar-Benedicto, one of Manny Villar’s three younger sisters. Baby is one year younger than the senator.

Manny Villar's three younger sisters Baby, Vicky, and Cecile (left to right) sat down for an interview with GMANews.TV last April 19.

Listen to excerpts of an interview with the Villar sisters.

‘No way they were poor’

The Villar family’s conviction about their own poverty in the 1950s and 1960s could simply highlight the different definitions people have of being poor. Having nine children, with one dying of disease, could have left an imprint of hardship on their memories.

With tears in her eyes, Curing Villar recalls the desperation she felt when her youngest child Daniel fell ill.

"Alam mo, kapag may sakit ang anak mo, kung saan maaaring gumaling, dadalhin mo," she recalls, the pain still fresh, even after nearly 50 years. She also remembers borrowing money for her son's medical expenses: "May nagbibigay ng 20 porsyento sa palengke noon. Sabi ko, 'Ibalik mo na pera ko. Kahit magkano na lang ibigay mo sa akin, ibalik mo. Kailangan na kailangan lang ng anak ko ang pera eh.' Pabalik-balik ako sa kanya noon.."

But according to researchers who have worked in Tondo, the Villars were clearly much better off than many residents at the time.

Dr. Mary Racelis, an urban anthropologist who did poverty studies in Tondo in the 1960s, says poverty cannot be measured by income alone. “Housing is a very strong indicator of poverty," she told GMANews.TV. “They (the Villars) were renters of a home made of strong materials. That does not make them poor."

“The really poor in Tondo lived in ramshackle homes of nipa and straw," Racelis added.

According to the poor themselves, she continued, “the poverty threshold is having three regular meals a day. That’s the threshold in Tondo to this day."

“The Villars had a double income, the father was a regular wage earner, they eventually owned a piece of land. They were in the formal sector - they could have been in the upper 10 percent," Racelis said. “There was no way they were poor in Tondo."

Moreover, according to Angelito Nunag, a UP-educated historian specializing in Tondo history, “Moriones was central to all activities, and near the church, market and pier. Kung may tirahan ka diyan, kahit rental, may sinasabi ka."

While recalling that they grew up without luxuries, the Villar children have never claimed they were hungry, admitting they always had three meals a day, thanks to their hardworking parents.

When asked how difficult it was back then to feed nine children, Nanay Curing recalls: “Hindi naman mahirap. Simple lang naman ang kinakain namin eh. ‘Yun lang mga isda na putol ang ulo, putol ang buntot, ang inuuwi ko. Hindi naman ‘yung mamahalin."

With a double income much higher than the nation’s average, the Villar couple could easily afford to feed their children.

Their fish dealer-mother also had easy access to unsold fish and shrimp from the market, which she often brought home for her family's dinner.

Nanay Curing’s humble origins

Despite Curing Villar's success, she never forgot where she came from.

While candidate Villar’s rags-to-riches narrative is debatable, his mother’s origins featured a major disaster that left her family with nothing.

While research conducted by GMANews.tv shows that the Villar family was technically "middle class," Curing Villar's own stories reveal memories of the hardship she endured to give her children a good life. In an intimate interview with GMANews.TV last April 19, she talked about her childhood in Bataan, love in the time of war, the secrets of success, and the pain of losing a child. Play the video to listen to excerpts from the interview.

Curita “Curing" Bamba grew up in the fishing town of Orani, Bataan where according to her own description, her father worked as an “influence peddler" at the municipio. But a cataclysmic fire before World War II nearly wiped out the town, including her family’s home, forcing her parents and two older sisters to migrate to Manila.

The Bamba sisters and their mother started out sewing dresses at the Hollywood shirt factory near Tondo’s Santo Niño church, a factory that still exists. But Nanay Curing recalls that shortly before the war, she found her opportunity to set up a small business when there was a public raffle for stall spaces at the Divisoria Market.

“Nung nakabunot ako sa Divisoria, nakakuha ako ng pwesto 2245," she recalls. Her future husband, Manuel “Maning" Villar Sr., was a war-time government fish inspector she met when he was ordered by Japanese soldiers to confiscate her fish to feed the troops. She persuaded him to bring the fish to his family rather than to the enemy.

That was the start of an entrepreneurial life that provided the seeds for her son’s rise to wealth and power. Manny has frequently called his mother “the original Mrs. Sipag at Tiyaga."

Lelet Buenviaje says that when she became a fish vendor in 1960, Curing Villar was already a wholesaler who supplied mostly shrimp from her native Bataan to retailers. “Maraming suki yan," Lelet recalls. “Laging walang natitira sa tinda. Ubos na ubos."

As the family breadwinner, Buenviaje says she earned as much as P300 net income on a good day, or P23,700 in today’s money, enabling her to buy a house in Tondo. She says Curing made at least twice as much as she did.

Even when Curing was already earning the equivalent of tens of thousands per day, she was not known to splurge on fancy dresses and worked on every holiday except for Good Friday, her only rest day of the year. Manny, as the second child and oldest son, was often at her side assisting her before he went to school.

Even up until Manny was in college, he would help his mother sell seafood. Curing recalls how a teen-aged Manny negotiated a business deal that marked her entrance into big-time seafood dealership.

“Kaya ako nakapagrasyon noon, kasi naging kaklase ni Manny noon ang anak ng namamahala sa William Lines. Sabi ni Manny sa kaklase niya, ‘Baka naman puwedeng magrasyon ng isda ang nanay ko sa inyo,’" says Curing. During the 1960s, William Lines was one of the largest shipping lines in the country.

Villar family moves to upscale neighborhood

Curing’s earnings, coupled with her husband’s regular salary, enabled the couple to buy property in the exclusive Tondo subdivision of San Rafael. According to the Tondo historian Nunag, San Rafael was a community built by Americans during the Commonwealth period to house the newly wealthy of Tondo.

A photograph of Moriones Street in the 1950s.

When they left the Moriones house, the less well-off Bamba sisters remained there with their children and their parents, Manny’s grandparents.

By that time, Manny and most of his siblings were enrolled in the then-Tondo Parochial School run by the church, which charged a modest tuition fee. Their cousins continued in the nearby public school Isabelo delos Reyes Elementary School, where Manny and his older sister Odette began their education before transferring to the private school.

In San Rafael, the Villars lived among the upwardly mobile of Tondo. The house still stands along quiet Bernardo Street, but is now owned by a Jun Borres who uses the structure to house workers employed by his company Jumbo Fisheries. The village has apparently seen its best days and vehicles can enter without a security check. Warehouses dominate the area, and the rainy season still brings floods. The newly wealthy would probably not live there any more.

But that is where Manny moved as a teen-ager and lived at a time when he claimed his family was too poor to save the life of his brother Danny, who got sick and died of leukemia after their transfer to San Rafael.

The Senator and his siblings explain that by that time their family moved to San Rafael, they had already begun to rise above the poverty they experienced when living in Moriones.

Cecile Villar-Feralino, the senator’s youngest sibling, explains:"Kasi si Ate Odette tumutulong nang magpaaral sa amin. May katuwang si Nanay. Tuition fee, siya ang nagbabayad sa high school namin. May mga tumutulong na. Si Kuya (Manny) tumutulong na din." Odette was the eldest among the Villar siblings.

"Nagkataon na noong nagkasakit ang kapatid ko si Danny, kalilipat lang namin. Transition period 'yun. Sabi nga sa (kanta), umahon kami. Unti-unti kaming umunlad. Ang Moriones at ang Balut, magkaiba. Ang sinasabing mahirap kami, sa Moriones 'yun," says Manny Villar's sister, Baby.

Whatever the true circumstances of Danny’s death, Manny Villar’s parents certainly had enough to give their oldest son a better education and upbringing than many in Tondo at the time, setting the stage for building a business empire and in 2010, a run at the presidency.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Supporter of mayoral bet shot dead in Iloilo town

2010-04-15T19:29:00.003+08:00

A supporter of a mayoral candidate in an Iloilo town was shot dead on Wednesday by suspected members of the New People’s Army, a local police spokesperson said on Thursday.

Lenny Liza, a supporter of reelectionist Mayor Salvador Divinagracia Jr. from Calinog town, was killed by a group of 15 NPA rebels in Barangay Agcalaga at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, Supt. Ranulfo Demiar of the Region VI police said.

Liza was in a convoy with the town mayor when their vehicles were stopped by the group of rebels, Demiar said.

The rebels immediately ordered all passengers to step out of the vehicles and held everyone in the convoy at gunpoint, he added.

The NPA members then searched for Liza in the group that accompanied the mayor, took the victim away from the others, and shot her in an instant, according to Demiar.

After killing Liza, the rebels disarmed Divinagracia’s two police escorts and allowed the convoy to leave, the local police spokesperson said.

Eight bullets from M14 rifles and 10 M16 rifle bullets were recovered from the crime scene, he added.

According to Demiar, initial investigation shows that the rebels killed the mayor’s supporter due to Divinagracia’s refusal to pay permit-to-campaign fees to the NPA members.

A special task force has already been created to further investigate the incident, he said.

Seventeen municipalities in Iloilo — including Calinog — have been earlier named as “hot spots" for the upcoming May polls due to intense political rivalries and active movement of armed rebels.

The military has earlier said that the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)'s extortion activities among politicians during the election season has become its main source of income for the past 11 years, earning for the group over a billion pesos during the said period.

The CPP however defended its “permit-to-campaign" policy, saying that it prevents election violence in certain areas known as NPA turfs.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

Ship that damaged barrier reef took 90 minutes to report crash

2010-04-15T19:25:00.000+08:00

The master of a Chinese coal carrier that ran aground and cut a long gash in the Great Barrier Reef didn't alert Australian authorities to the crash for an hour and a half, investigators said Thursday.

A preliminary report by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau said the Shen Neng 1 slammed into the reef and shuddered to a halt just after 5 p.m. on April 3, but noted it was not until 6:40 that the master reported the grounding to the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

The gap in time — and whether it was reasonable — is just one factor the bureau will examine in its investigation. The crash left a two-mile (three-kilometer) scar on the reef, damaging a shoal so badly experts estimate it may need up to 20 years to heal.

The 47-year-old master, Jichang Wang, and 44-year-old chief officer, Xuegang Wang, appeared briefly in Gladstone Magistrates Court in Queensland state Thursday.

Jichang Wang was charged with liability for a vessel causing damage in a marine park, an offense that carries a maximum 55,000 Australian dollar ($51,200) fine.

Xuegang Wang was charged with being in charge of the vessel when it caused the damage, and faces up to three years in prison and a fine of up to AU$220,000.

Both men were granted bail, and Xuegang Wang was ordered to surrender his passport. The next hearing was scheduled for June 9, but the men are not required to appear. Neither has spoken about the crash or investigation of their actions.

"We hope the Australian side will handle this in a fair manner," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in Beijing.

Coral shredded the ship's hull, causing it to leak 2-3 tons of fuel oil.

Most of the oil was dispersed by a chemical spray and did little or no damage to the reef itself, but officials said Wednesday they believe some has begun washing up on the beach of a wildlife sanctuary.

The crash happened after the crew decided to take a shortcut, and failed to correct course as planned, the transport bureau said in its report.

By the time they realized they had drifted into a dangerous area and tried to turn, it was too late — the ship was already shuddering as it slammed into Douglas Shoal.

The bureau said it will focus part of its investigation on whether fatigue played a role in the crash, and will examine the company's work and rest policies.

The report noted the chief officer was at the helm when the ship ran aground, while the master was in his cabin tending to paperwork.

The officer felt "very tired" shortly before the grounding, and had only slept around two and a half hours in the previous day and a half, the report said.

"There is no single contributing factor, there's a range of things," the transport bureau's chief commissioner Martin Dolan told reporters.

The Great Barrier Reef is a World Heritage site because of its gleaming waters and environmental value as home to thousands of marine species.

The accident occurred in the southern tip of the reef, which is not the main tourism hub.

The Australian Federal Police said officers executed a search warrant on the ship on Wednesday. It was not clear what they were looking for.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer

WePad launched to challenge Apple's iPad

2010-04-15T19:23:00.000+08:00

Neofonie GmbH's, a small German company of some 180 employees, is setting out to take on Apple's iPad with their new tablet PC that promises even more for your money.

The WePad offers a bigger screen, a webcam, and USB ports.

But Neofonie GmbH's founder and managing director, Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen, insists that the WePad is not an "iPad killer," as it has been dubbed in some blogs. "We are a different kind of device, we have more features, we are more flexible," he says.

Apple's iPad will go on sale in Germany at the end of April, according to the company's Web site. This would give the iPad roughly a three-month lead on its German competitor.

Neofonie claims it already has some 20,000 people interested in signing up for a pre-order, even though orders won't be formally accepted before April 27. The WePad is to be assembled by a manufacturer in Asia—which Ankershoffen refuses to name—that can ramp up production capacity according to demand.

But what makes the WePad so different from the iPad is its 11.6-inch screen (compared to the smaller 9.7 inch screen of the iPad). This is powered by an Intel chip and relies on a Linux software which is compatible with Google's Android and all Flash applications.

Ankershoffen says the WePad’s ability to play Flash will be a big advantage. "It is an alternative device to the Apple iPad, a so-called tablet PC with which you can consume multimedia at home, you can play (games) and browse the Web, also with Flash (applications)," he says.

Another difference is the system's openness: two USB ports allow users to connect all kinds of devices with the WePad, from external keyboards to data sticks.

The WePad's basic version, which comes with Wi-Fi and 16-gigabyte storage, is set to cost US $600, while the larger 32-gigabyte version with a fast 3G modem is US $770. In comparison, the iPad—which hit stores in the U.S. on April 3—is on sale there starting at US $499 for the smallest version, coming with Wi-Fi and a 16 GB storage.

Unlike the iPad, which can only use specific applications, the WePad will come with a complete open-source office package.

People who want to put music on their WePad do not have to have any particular software—a blow at Apple's devices that require particular Apple software like iTunes.

Neofonie casts the WePad as helping the media industry find a way to market paid content and hopes to appeal to publishers, some of whom are disgruntled with Apple's pricing policy and restrictions.

The device would allow publishers to sell their content on its platform without monopolizing the customer relationship, as Apple's iTunes or Amazon's Kindle do. For example, Gruner + Jahr, one of Europe's largest magazine publishers, already has a partnership with Neofonie, offering the company's flagship magazine, Stern, on the platform.

The WePad is thus also entering in competition with other e-book readers like the Amazon Kindle.

But the competition doesn't just ride on the iPad and the WePad.

Tim Danton, Editor of PC Pro, says Dell is next in line to launch their version of a tablet PC. And the company already has a clear image of the customer they're aiming for: the suburban mother.

"Dell is looking to create its own tablet and they think they found a completely new type of buyer. They think they found something called a suburban mum and they reckon that this suburban mum, she's currently got things like a phone in her bag and she's got a sat-nav device in her bag and they think they can throw that all away in favor of what Dell is going to be producing, which is a little 5-inch tablet device," he says.

However, all these companies will have to prove that these new touch-screen devices will not only amaze the tech-savvy early users, but will also appeal to mainstream consumers at a time when people bearing the brunt of the global recession are already hooked up to smart phones, laptops, e-book readers, set-top boxes and home broadband connections.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design
Creative Writer