Who's Next?

This morning, news about the the magnitude 7.0 earquake in Japan's Ryukyu Islands has spread. Now, an even greater magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile is dominating the internet.

The Chile earthquake is said to be 64 times greater than the one that hit Haiti. I can't imagine the damage.

I'm sure I'm not alone in fearing for safety. Wherever you are in the world, I'm sure you are asking the same question as I am asking now: "Who's next?"

So there's a fault that runs in almost the whole of the Philippines. How can I rest tonight knowing that an earthquake can easily hit us?

There are some earthquake safety tips on the net, please read them. And please let us all pray.

Meanwhile, if you wanna see the disaster the earthquake has left Chile, you can watch it on UStream here. It's in Spanish, though.

Another Reason To Love Dogs More

I'm sure everyone's now aware of the powerful 7.0 earthquake that rocked Haiti. But don't you know that our dogs can feel earthquakes (seconds) ahead before we actually feel it?

Watch this vid:

I'm lucky to have 3 dogs. I will sure as hell get out of the house if ever they start running out all of a sudden.

Efren Peñaflorida is CNN Hero of the Year

Efren Peñaflorida has been named CNN Hero of the Year at the conclusion of the third "CNN Heroes: An All-Star Tribute" held at the Kodak Theater Saturday night.

Efren, who started a "pushcart classroom" to bring education closer to the street children of the Philippines, was announced the winner by CNN's Anderson Cooper. He will receive $100,000 to help him continue the noble deed he has started.

The ten heroes was selected after seven weeks of online voting at the CNN website. Each selected hero was given a documentary tribute and was introduced by a celebrity presenter. Above photo shows Efren with Eva Mendes. Aside from that each of them receives $25,000.

The Top 10 CNN Heroes are Brad Blauser, Roy Foster, Doc Hendley, Andrea Ivory, Betty Makoni, Jorge Munoz, Efren Peñaflorida, Budi Soehardi, Derrick Tabb, and Jordan Thomas.

Congratulations Efren! Continue being an angel many and I'm sure more good things will come.

photo: cnn.com

Journalism Content Isn't Free

Since the dawn of internet, those who have access to it need not buy newspaper anymore. News is free - online. Blogs even make the news bigger.

But some newspaper publishers aren't happy with it. Next thing we know, we might already be required to pay for news articles we read on Google.

New call for Google to pay for content as it hints at payment aid for publishers in the Guardian, 11 September 2009.

The World is Round

17-year-old Zac Sunderland has just completed his 13-month solo sail, making him the youngest sailor to circumnavigate the globe. He completed the feat on Thursday morning by guiding his 36-foot vessel into Marina del Rey, to the presence of hundreds of admirers (perhaps mostly young girls). He started the navigation June 14, 2008.
 

Meanwhile, the Philippines will also do an expedition – aboard a boat believed to be similar to the one used by the Spaniards who first set foot on our islands:


the Balangay.

The navigation is aptly called the Balangay Expedition. The Mt. Everest team headed by Leo Oracion will set forth 2010 at the Southeast Asia region, on 2011 it goes to Mirconesia and Madagascar, and on 2012 it will navigate across the Pacific and Atlantic and around the world and returns to the Philippines on 2013.

God bless the team.

Afraid of the Rides

I loved carnival rides as a kid, especially roller coasters. But as I grew older, I became afraid of putting myself in danger by indulging in the short-lived thrill of those rides.

When I was young, we only had the Fiesta Carnival in Cubao. Then Big Bang sa Alabang was put up during Christmas seasons. If I'm not wrong, the original Big Bang location is where Honda Cars Alabang is now located. With the success of Big Bang, several other Christmas carnivals sprouted - Payanig sa Pasig, Boom na Boom, Star City, Enchanted Kingdom. Some even made it a regular theme park, and not just a Christmas thing.

I think Payanig sa Pasig had the first incident of a ride tragedy, and several others from other carnivals followed. Nakakatakot.

My last ride was like 6 years ago in Star City. And it was just on a ferris wheel. I was with my nephews and they kinda forced me to join them. I kept praying all throughout the ride and couldn't wait for it to finish, while they literally jumped from one seat to the other to make the cart sway.

Enchanted Kingdom had a mishap a few years back while students in a field trip were there. No one died but it caused trauma to the kids.

We can easily blame Enchanted Kingdom, and go on to saying how careless they were. But accidents really happen.

Even in a world-class theme park.

Walt Disney World had a tragic incident Sunday morning. And it's not even a ride malfunction. A monorail driver died when two trains collided while visitors were leaving the the theme park. Read it here.

A screenie of the collision:


Watch the video taken by a Disney World guest here.

Jammie Thomas-Rasset Fined For Using KaZaA

Jammie Thomas-Rasset is a 32-year-old married mother of four. She has a bachelor's degree in business administration and marketing from St. Cloud State University. She is accused of illegally downloading and distributing 24 songs via KaZaA. Thomas-Rasset denies it.

Now she must pay fines totaling $1.92 million to the RIAA, as a penalty for violating the copyrights on 24 songs

Good grief. If there was a clear law here regarding the use of KaZaA, Limewire, torrent, and the likes, I think 80% of Metro Manila's population would be charged.

But then again, I guess they should go to the root of the problem. Why not imprison whoever made KaZaA?

This is like punishing those who use illegal drugs but letting the drug suppliers run free.

Photo via geek.com

Japanese Spacecraft "Selene" Orbits the Moon

The Japanese spacecraft Selene is currently taking pics and videos of the moon's surface. I always get this surreal feeling whenever I see videos of the outer space. I don't know why. Perhaps I was an astronaut in my previous life. LOL! But seriously, I would really, really love to be on a spacecraft to see what's out there. Even if it's not to the moon. A little above where the airplanes fly, where there's no gravity and where I can see the earth as a big ball of life, would be very much okay.

Now what happened to the fear of flying? LOL!

Here's another video:

De La Salle Suspends Classes Due To Swine Flu

Wow. Swine Flu has broken into DLSU! Heard it on the news a while ago. A foreign exchange student, a 21-year-old Japanese to be exact, was found positive of A-H1N1 virus. Enough reason to suspend classes in the university for 10 long days (until the 14th).

But what's funny is that the students of DLSU, having been in contact with the Japanese flu carrier or not, are advised not to go to public places like malls to make sure they don't spread the virus. LOL! I wonder how they react to that.

Anyway, DOH is still investigating whether the said Japanese student got the flu from whichever country she was in before she came here, or if she got infected here since she's already the 22nd victim. They're doing that because the Jap was reported to be here long enough already (about 10 days) before she showed signs of infection.

Let's just pray that no one else gets infected, especially from our family.

I'm Afraid To Fly... And I Don't Know Why...

I always have this fear of flying. I get paranoid everytime I would ride a plane, and more paranoid when my mom would ride a plane without me. The thought of crashing would always scare the crap out of me. LOL! I just tell myself, though, that life has its course and whatever happens, it happens for a reason.

But if Air France could have some electrical troubles, how much more trouble could our smaller, local airplanes have?



This makes my fear of flying even worse.

Shame Campaign

Oh wow. A shame campaign is being pushed by Senator Allan Peter Cayetano against Hayden Kho. I think the initial plan was to just constantly remind Kho of what he has done by showing him "shame on you" signs. But then some cities have declared "persona non grata" to Hayden. I heard Palawan (Katrina Halili's hometown) and Bohol are among those who don't want Hayden in their provinces.

But then the question is, how long will this restriction last? A lifetime? Hope so. But I don't think so.

After the media hype is over, I'm sure everything will again be normal for Hayden. People forget. One good deed and he'd be forgiven.

And then perhaps he'd have his own medical group. Come to think of it, the girls in the videos would make good endorsers. And the tag line? "Only Hayden touches my skin!"

LOL! Just kidding.

Save the Queen!

I saw this on 24 Oras a while back. It's like the Iraqi's human bomb, though this driver (Karst Tates) failed to kill his target - the royal family. Instead, 5 innocent people on the road died with him. I hope we can learn more of his motives aside from the fact that he had been recently terminated from his job. Okay perhaps it's all clear after all. He wanted to hurt the queen because he's unemployed.

Uh... we always have that here. Blame it on the higher ones.

The Creek

I just hate it when I hear or read bad things about my country. But can we really blame them?

We're currently on The Sun.



Photo Source: Chuvaness.com

White House Bloggers

The White House website has added a new attraction: a blog! That's hip. Now we will know what's going on inside... or will we?

First post was last January 20 so it really must be an idea from the Obama team. I really, really think it would be a great administration. What with Blackberries and fashion senses. But I hope they'd look at the environmental issues first.

Pinoys are Everywhere Part 2

Charice Pempengco at Obama's pre-inaugural ball:

Ox

China may not enjoy the Lunar New Year which begins on the 26th. A second bird flu death this year was actually recorded at the province of Shandong. The victim fell ill on January 5 and died just last Saturday. It was less than two weeks after a 19-year-old girl died of the same virus (H5N1) in Beijing.

It was said that the H5N1 virus survives longer in the cold. And it's during winter when rural people bring in live poultry into their homes to shield them from the cold.

The year of the earth ox may be another year of bird flu. Hope not.

Two Pinoys in Obama’s Inauguration

Paul Michael Cruz is in Washington D.C right now attending the University Presidential Inaugural Conference (UPIC) which is attended by hundreds of students from around the world. UPIC is being held until the 21st in conjunction with Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration.

The 19-year-old college freshman from the Philippines was said to be chosen for his outstanding performance at a Global Young Leaders Conference in Washington D.C. and New York in 2007.

But it wasn’t free. The airfare and conference fees were reported to cost him $4,000.

Paul Michael looked so excited while waiting for his flight January 16. Well, who wouldn't be? But would you believe that he doesn't have any political plans? Attending the Global Young Leaders Conference alone would make you wonder.

But whatever his future plans are, he surely makes us Filipinos so proud. Go Pinoy!

And yea, Charice is also there.

The Many Uses of YouTube

Things are now more complicated with the pregnancy of Bristol Palin (daughter of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, vice president nominee for the republican ticket). A young man named Kevin has this claim that he is the father of Bristol's baby. He says he is from Los Angeles but visited Alaska for the summer (and from there, the pregnancy).

Russell Brand (host of VMAs last Sunday) even commented about the said pregnancy in connection with the Jonas Brothers' purity rings; that the incident could have traumatized the father of Bristol's baby that he will be afraid of sex all the rest of his life. "Use a condom, or become republican," the comic host said on national (and worldwide) TV.

This is Kevin's video from YouTube (God bless YouTube):

Olympics

I love Olympics, but I love China and its culture better.

NKOTB

The very first concert I saw was New Kids On The Block's at the football field of the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in 1992. I wasn't a big fan, but a fan nonetheless. I remember (unsuccessfully) trying very hard to reach Joey McIntyre's high notes and trying to look disheveled like Donnie Wahlberg. I also remember wondering why Jonathan Knight and Danny Wood don't have solo pieces, or if they did, why didn't it become as popular as the other three's.

I liked them. But it was something I could not tell my friends. It was the time when everyone was in the band scene. Eraserheads and the other sensible bands of the music industry aside from The Dawn seem to be from that period. Everyone was trying to learn how to play the guitar. My father bought me one, actually, to the delight of my brother. I never wanted to play the guitar until much recently that I even enrolled myself in a classical guitar course.

I also liked Eraserheads but my fondness came much much later when they weren't that "hot" anymore. I don't know but it seems that I don't like to be part of the norm. Just like how I digged NKOTB even if I knew my friends would have laughed at me if they found out.

New Kids On The Block is having a reunion tour, by the way. And that is why I am now reunited with the fandom. They're all grown up. The youngest of the group (Joey) is now 35. Not too old. I'm sure they can still do their old stuff. Would Manila be in their destination list? Hope so.

***

I was only able to watch the latter part of Good Times. Darn. I hope some good soul would post it on YouTube. And speaking of YouTube, what's this AT&T thing about the internet reaching full capacity by 2010? I was sad (really sad) when I read the article. They say that the current system won't be able to cope with the increasing amount of videos being uploaded. Blaming YouTube? Uhh, many people guess it's just their way of saying they should charge more. Or perhaps it's a strategy to "regulate" internet use. Too much freedom of expression?