Windows 7 Beta Availiable to All

Microsoft had lift its expected limit to the beta release of its the new windows operating system, Windows 7, after a surge of visitors wanting to download it for testing. The said beta file will be available up to the 24th of January, after which Microsoft will reinstate its limit.

To read the full article about windows 7 please click here

Laarni: New Grand Star Dreamer

Laarni Losala (a.k.a Laarni Lozada as Director Joey Reyes had dubbed), an aspirant singer from Sultan Kudarat, was hailed as the top scholar of this year's season of the Dream Academy, Philippine Edition. Laarni, who was blessed with such superb vocal quality and prowess had impressed almost a million Filipino viewers, hence secured her their votes and support up unitl the last night's awards show where she was given the title Grand Star Dreamer.

A dreamer from the troubled province of Mindanao, Philippines, she now had fulfilled her dreams of becoming a singer and her longing desire to alleviate her family from their impoverished condition. Still she has a long way to go and a lot of obstacles to face in the harsh world of the music industry, but with the people's support I know she can conquer it all, just the way she had conquered it on the night of her proclamation as the next Grand Star Dreamer.

Congratulation to this years winners of the Philippine Edition of the Dream Academy, may all your career blossom.

Manny: Champion Again?!

Manny Pacquiao Won Again? Urgh! I just hate it! I honestly really do hate it if he won any boxing competition!

I hate him to win not because I hate him personally or what, but because every time he won all the necessary issues that needs addressing and answers are always set aside for the euphoria brought about by his success!

I as well do like him to win his bouts against his adversaries, but after that it's over. I don't want him to be treated like a hero that most Filipinos would think of; the kind of hero that would help them through all their ups and downs and alleviate their sufferings, when in fact every time he wins his bouts every national issues are forgotten and eclipsed by his triumph, until it is well forgotten by most Filipinos themselves.

Now what, will the issues pertaining to national problems be resolved? For example, the food shortage? Will his winning in the said sport bring about as many foods as before to the platters of the poor? Another thing, will this triumph against his adversary make the oil prices drop until each and every Filipinos suffering from it would be free from their burden? Will his success cause all those missing bodies in the sea to be found? No right.

Hence, I just hope that the euphoria would not extend to become like a festivities again that spanned for more than months covered by each national televisions. I just hope that Filipinos would wake up and snap to it early and go out and find the solutions to their own problems with their own hands.

Universal Studios Burned!

Universal Studios found in California State, famous for its world renowned movies and theme park, met some catastrophic accident early yesterday at around 4:43 am. The theme park which hosted replicas of some famous places like New York streetscape, the Wisteria Lane of the Desperate Housewives, the King Kong theme park attraction, Jurrasic Park and other areas including some studios where most Hollywood filmmakers shoot their creations was burned to ashes. Official report from the company itself suggests that the unfortunate event that had occurred to the Universal Studio was caused by accident and it was not intentional. According to them it would take days to assess the damage that was caused by the blaze, but it’s still business as usual.

The fire that had engulfed most of the studios, replicas, theme parks, and video and film reserves took about 12 hours before it was declared fire out. However since the fire was contained only on the back lot of the 400 acres area of the Hollywood’s famous studios, it hadn’t affected the 30 sound stages that according to the management of the Universal Studios would be too expensive to be rebuilt.

It’s really sad not just for the whole movie industry but the viewing fans itself who would love to come one day to the said studio to see for real the place where most movie makers film their creations. Let’s just hope that a thorough inquiry will be done to assess who had caused the fire and file proper legal action to him or her, and that the incident would never happen the third time.

Photo Source:
Yahoo!

Government takeover of Meralco

Why does Meralco had to be blamed for the government mismanagement when it comes to high electric bill? This appears to be a fact now, rather than a question. To be honest, every Filipino knows that in this corrupt country someone has to be blamed for the mismanagement concocted by the government itself, and the blame resides not on the energy department or any other departments of this stinking country, but rather on the huge power distributor, known to many, as the Meralco.

How did Meralco surface in the big picture is another story, but as you would view it in simpler terms, the said company was used as an escape goat to avoid further humiliation from the ever-boiling-and-pent-up-scandals brought about by the ZTE NBN (National Broadband Deal) deal, the swine scam, the agricultural scam a.k.a. fertilizer fund scam and the deceit and fraud brought about by the last presidential elections that was never resolved and never will be resolved until the current president exist in the seat of power.

It wasn’t a secret to the Filipino public that Meralco is partly owned and controlled by the Lopez family; and its sister company, the largest television network in the Philippines, ABS-CBN, has had released several exposes against the current administration ranging from minute evidence of fraud up to providing sufficient ones that can topple the incumbent corrupt president out of palace of Malacañang, provided the people empower themselves again. Hence, it’s no wonder why the current administration, a power leech for that, is trying to get even with the said family because of what they had done – to tell the truth to the unknowing Filipino people.

But why blame one of the Lopezs’ companies for high electric bills? The answer is quite too simple and logical, it’s more like putting pieces in a jigsaw puzzle; the current administration is trying to win back people into trusting their flawed system of governance so that they can plunder the national treasury for the nth time. The government had used Meralco as a pawn to let the uneducated people of this country to believe that they were being deceived by the said company into paying high electric bills when in fact Meralco is duly and rightfully charging its consumers what they had used based on the set of laws and guidelines provided to them by the government per se. The government used their connections inside the company to throw malicious and never ending accusations and tirade on the management of Meralco by the name of GSIS president Winston Garcia to point out that indeed the company is doing something wrong and unethical with regards to charging its consumers, when in fact it doesn’t. The government used the issue of the country’s inflation and increasing prices of basic necessities and commodities including the electricity consumption as a leverage to shift the attention of the public from the scrupulous deeds that they had done and might have done that was already starting to surface.

But was the jigsaw puzzle near completion? If ever the change of management happened in Meralco, which God forbids, never happened as of the moment, then the farcical scheme of fooling the public might had come to light. Electrical bills will never decrease its current price but instead will sky-rocket because the government puppy will never manage to eradicate the government royalties and extended value added tax placed on the consumption of electricity, but instead the puppy might double the royalties the government earns for future funding for the next electoral fraud. The new management if ever the change will take effect will never help those poor Filipino people who were suffering from paying high electric bills but instead they will try to bankrupt them up to the last penny that they can muster. Imagine that if this takeover occurred, a repeat of what had happened in the dictatorship era will transpire, and the puppies associated to all those companies and corporations taken over will end up as the next cronies to amass and plunder the wealth of the national treasury.

But why do the Philippines had high electrical bill per household? Before the enactment of the EPIRA law and development of the independent power producers, this country was stuck by a massive problem of lack of electricity. To arrest such situation the former president had decided to let independent power producers to create their own source of electricity and to sell the rest of the electricity produced to the now bankrupted government corporation, the NAPOCOR, with which all electricity received by NAPOCOR, will be sold to Meralco, the largest power distributor to date, at a slightly higher price than that of the independent power producers. Since the government allowed the independent power producers to make their own electrical source, more than 20-50 percent of electricity distributed by Meralco came directly to their own independent power producers, rather than NAPOCOR, since it’s cheaper compared to the ones being sold to them by NAPOCOR. But according to the law passed in the Philippines that all produced electricity to date, be it used or unused, will still be paid and shouldered by the consumers. Meaning, with a lot of independent power producers creating their source of electricity, the Philippines has had surplus of electricity, and that surplus will be deemed sold by the IPPS with which the payment to that produced electricity will come to pockets of the people. Now add EVAT and the government royalties to that of what will be sold to Meralco, as compared to Meralco’s own IPPS, where will the power distributor buy the electricity, of course to where the distributor can save money but deliver the goods on time. But since the consumers pay all electricity that was generated then most likely the electric bill that comes every month is really high per household. Will change of management in Meralco change the fact that there is a surplus of unused electricity? Definitely it wouldn’t. No matter who sits on the board of Meralco, the same problem will exist because the government already had a bad managerial style.

20 Pesos Wage Hike Approved

20 Philippine Peso Wage Hike was approved by the government this month, however with all honestly is it enough to support people belonging to the poverty line? According to the church officials it's better than nothing at all, so why waste the blessing that was given. However to those who had been suffering entirely it's not even enough to sustain a living with all the inflation that is occurring in the country. To most of them a 125 Philippine peso across the wage board increase is highly adoptable to support a family belonging to the poverty line, with which most companies declines because of fear of closing their businesses.

It may be best to actually do a comprise between most of the companies and workers themselves to have a definite solution on the crisis that is existing in the industrial section. Both parties should not turn a blind eye or deaf ear to the needs of each other that should be addressed accordingly. It may be the only way to make things work. So if a 20 pesos increase in the minimum wage is the only thing that is viable at the moment, just accept it even if you perceive that it is not enough, and just hope that things would have improve the next wage increase when all other extraneous factors had been ruled out.

Image Source
Yahoo!

Philippine Congress Explosion

Breaking news today. According to ABS-CBN News, an explosion happened in the Philippine Congress sending about more than 8 individuals, inclusive of which were 3 congressmen, to the nearest hospital (Malvar Hospital). The said explosion, according to the news, happened around 8:00 p.m. GMT.

Initial reports says that the explosion is still under investigation, and that the National Police hadn't released yet their official statement for the said incident. However, reports claims that Rep. Luz Ilagan of party-list group Gabriela was one of the casualties of the said incident. The said representative according to the breaking news might had suffered shrapnel injuries in the legs, while Congressman Ilagan's driver Marcial Talbo, died in the said blast.

Related News
ABS-CBN News

Mark Cortez reveals his long time secret.

Every actor in this country, as we all know reaches a point where they were intrigued of being a female-hearted male, and we all know most of them just shrugs them of, deny them or just let the issue die; just like what this actor now gracing this page did previously. This actor, a product of a television reality search, TV Idols, aired previously on the now dissolved show MTB, was accused of being a gay, and he vehemently denied such accusations causing the said issue to die. However, table turns and the issue resurfaces, hence, yesterday the said actor became true to himself and revealed his long time secret; that indeed he was gay. Read news here

There is no harm actually in being true to yourself, more so, admitting that you're indeed gay. However, the next question that should be address here was: Will he be accepted whole-heartedly by the same people he had previously be-friend with? We all know, that once you're out of your comfort zone, and revealed to all your darkest secrets, you'll end up being rejected, more so type casted, due to the double standard norms that our society have. The society sees you as something different, hence you're not easily accepted back to the community that you belong with. A thorough screen process will be subjected to you in order to see that you're not contagious.

The double standard norm of society exist in order to restrain people from being true to themselves and be happy with what sexuality they choose. If you know, to yourself, for sure that that you're not doing anything wrong, more so you're not stepping on others to attain your goal, then go live your life, the way you wanted it to be.

Former President Estrada: Free at last?

Yesterday, at around 4-5 in the afternoon an abrupt, and important announcement was made in the Palace of Malacañang where the president of the Republic of the Philippines resides. The sudden announcement aired in national television states that the former president, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, convicted of the crime plunder, was now given presidential clemency and hereby restores his civil status and his right to vote again given the fact that he will not run anymore to any electoral public office. Read news here

Presidential Clemency? Where in the so-called constitution can an ordinary citizen find that? As far as I know, the former disgraced president was removed from office by the people due to plundering the national treasury, was convicted by the court, and now what? He was free again, like an ordinary citizen! I just don't know if the executive branch really do have that absolute authority to rule over the judiciary system of the country. I'm now quite convinced that if you're a VIP in this country you can go away with anything.

I'm really not sure what to think of in this country. I just can't imagine they can do this, just to cover up the scandal brought about by the ZTE deal and the bribery of local government officials. Filthy politics rules here!

(Photo Courtesy of Hinduonet)

J.K. Rowling reveals Dumbledore's sexuality

Upon reading this article from Yahoo! that Albus Dumbledore, one of the main characters of the well acclaimed book Harry Potter series, was gay, caused distress to me, more so caught me off ground as shock sinks in within my line of thought. I never had the slight idea that what the fictional character, Albus Dumbledore's famous line about love refers no other than his own sexuality, his repressed feelings towards Gellert Grindewald! I never thought that, that was the reason why Dumbledore never had any partner in life towards the progression of the book. Now I feel irritated with J.K. Rowling since she ruined the fatherly image I view about on of her fictional character, Dumbledore. A thorough follow-up to the Deathly Hallows is really needed now.

(Photo courtesy of Yahoo!)

Glorietta 2 explosion: was it caused by islamic extremist act or just a freak accident?

Today at aound 1:40 pm (+8:00 GMT) the business district of the Republic of the Philippines, Makati City, had experienced yet again another explosive blast on the same ground of the previous explosion - the Glorietta Mall, owned by the Ayala Corp. According to ABS-CBN news the explosion happened in the storage room of one of the restaurants the said mall caters. Up to today, authorities are not sure whether the cause of the explosion was made by a leak on the LPG (liquefied petroleum gas) or was made by an improvised explosive planted inside the mall.

"This was a bomb. But beyond that we can't say anything else yet because we are still investigating. What I can say is it was not LPG that caused this," Razon told reporters.

However, there is still no clear evidence to rule out what was first thought of about the explosion that it was caused by the leak on an LPG tank, until the authorities had finished their investigation on the said site.

Due to the said explosion, 8 were killed while more than 56 were injured having different degrees of flesh cuts and burns. Moreover, according to the news 2 individuals were still in a critical condition confined in Makati Medical Center. I just pray that God may spare them and let them live to testify to the public on how horrendous the situation they had been if it was caused by extremist bombing.

One thing is for sure about what had happened today, that people should be more vigilant on the places they are going to since no one have any idea on whether the same explosion in the Glorietta 2 mall will be repeated on another place or another mall.

Edit: Sen. Trillianes states on the news that it was the Arroyo government that should be blamed for the said explosion. Instead of blaming the government Mr. Trillianes, why not find the real culprit if the said explosion was caused by a bomb? Instead of blabbering about nonsensical things that are baseless more so factless why not work as a senator and use your connections to get to the bottom of this incident?

Related links:
ABS-CBN news
BBC News
Inquirer News

Mariel Rodriguez: Big Brother Philippines Housemate!

Mariel Rodriguez, the host of the Big Brother Philippines Celebrity Edition show Uber, is now an official house mate! The said twist in the show was really unexpected, not just for the viewing public but for the host herself, since she wasn't notified early on that she would be included as a house mate. Poor Mariel, she had the intuition already that she might be forcefully be included as one of the house mates but she still worked as the Uber host up to today not knowing that it's her last day as its host and the start of being a house mate. By looking at her reaction, she really didn't expect it and least to say made her cry. I pity her for being so unprepared, imagine she doesn't even had any clothes with her as she entered through the confession room, since she was coerced. Well this is a new and exciting chapter on the said show, so I'm going to stick my eyes glued on the said show up until it's end.

Go! Go! Mariel! We, the viewers of your show since season 1 up late will miss you.

P.S. Do your best, whether you're going to be a temporary house mate for a while, or a permanent house mate.

Monet's Le Pont d'Argenteuil: Damaged

Honestly speaking, I had never seen a work of art most revered by the world with my own eyes, so close as to even touching it. That's is why I'm so heart-fallen when I had read from BBC News that one of the paintings of Claude Monet, a renowned painter of the Le Pont d'Argenteuil, had been damaged at the museum it had been placed under custody with.

It's such a shame that instead of looking at the paintings with admiration and fascination, five unknown people who had broke in the Musee d'Orsay gallery had managed to put a four (4) inch hole on the said painting. How in the world could the possible destroy a cultural artifact that was known not just in France, but in the whole world? I'm so saddened by the fact that I haven't even seen a real Monet painting, and then now I would read that It's now damaged! Those people were blessed to see such a work of art but why vandalize it?

Read full story here.

(Photo Courtesy of: Interagir.com)

Manny Pacquiao Won

The much awaited second fight of Manny Pacquiao and Antonio Barrera has finally ended, and for the second time it's still Manny Pacquiao who had won! So what will happen to Marco Antonio Barrera after he had eaten what he had said in the pre-fight? According to the GMA 7 news, he might be forced to retire due to his failure to win for the second time against Pacquiao, more so due to his consecutive loses against other boxers. Ain't I hearing the same escape goat of an alibi again? As I recalled promptly and correctly, Erik Morales also had said the same thing when he lost to Manny Pacquiao before.

Anyway, the Filipino's Boxing Champ won in a unanimous decision from the 12 round fight, and the score cards were as follows:

Judge Tom Schreck scored it 115-112 for Pacquiao, while Jerry Roth and Glenn Trowbridge both favoured Pacquiao 118-109. The Associated Press also gave it to Pacquiao, 116-111.
(Chronicle journal)

Isn't that what boxing analyst had viewed prior to the fight, that Manny Pacquiao had the upper hand against his opponent? True to what they'd all been blabber about, it does end up the same as what they had expected, but the turning point of the fight was not about who had won, but instead who was the one who had shown the will to win. Both players had remained standing up to the very last round, which is of course very unexpected since both refused to be knocked-out, and this is, I think the best part of it.

But the question still remains the same anyway, am I going to be proud for him? Well, part of me wanted to go and rejoice since another Filipino had made a name in the field of sports, but at the end of the day, it's still just Manny Pacquiao achievement, and not the rest of the community.

P.S. Don't get me wrong, but this is what I'm feeling right now. I'm feeling kind of indifferent.

teri hatcher's derogatory remark

Transcript: “Okay, before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? Cause I would just like to make sure they are not from some med school in the Philippines.”

Uhm... like what is this? Is this an acceptable desperate housewives script aired over the US and a few select countries airing the said show? Is there such a moderating body in the US that check every DISCRIMINATORY remarks made by the said show?

I think there isn't, because you all know what? It reached the news of the country that the said show discriminates! How dare the producers and writers of that show to include that demeaning and derogatory line Teri Hatcher had said? Are they too stupid enough to not even think that most of their health care workers are Filipinos! First and foremost can they present valid evidence that Filipino Medical Doctors are way too incompetent as compared to their doctors?

The Philippines may be a third world country that faces a lot of global issues, but how dare them (the script writers) think that they're far too superior than the rest of the world combined! Not all the time, a first world country produces the best of the crop, sometimes even third world countries does and it's far better!