Korea's Got Talent - Homeless Boy Steals Talent Show

Coca-Cola: Where Will Happiness Strike Next (The OFW Project)

For years, I've never been a fan of the local Coca-Cola ads here, because they've ranged from highly forgettable to just plain insignificant and silly. But now this local ad (Where Will Happiness Strike Next - The OFW Project) is worth praising.  Its content is relevant and best of all, it has heart.  Advertising-wise, it's a right step towards rebuilding product association.

 

Tweet and text for seniors

BUSINESS MATTERS (BEYOND THE BOTTOM LINE) 
By Francis J. Kong (The Philippine Star) 


Reporters interviewing a 104 year-old woman: “And what do you think is the best thing about being 104?” “No peer pressure,” she answered.

Young people today, the generation X’ers-digital natives, use codes like OMG (Oh my Gosh!) or LOL (laugh out loud!) in their text and Facebook messages, and also in their tweets. On the other hand, it takes great effort for the graying population, the digital immigrants, to shift from rotary type telephones to cell phones, and now to smart phones. Nevertheless, more and more digital immigrants are found to be texting, Facebooking and even tweeting! And this material from the internet suggests that should have their own codes too!  ...

If qualify for the senior citizen discount, then these STCs (Senior Texting Codes) are for you. Pass this along to your children and grandchildren, so they can better understand you!


ATD: At The Doctor’s
BTW: Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT: Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM: Covered By Medicare
CGU: Can’t Get Up
CUATSC: See You At The Senior Center
DWI: Driving While Incontinent
FWB: Friend With Betablockers
FWIW: Forgot Where I Was
FYI: Found Your Insulin
GGLKI: Gotta Go! (Laxative Kicking In)
GGPBL: Gotta Go! (Pacemaker Battery Low)
GHA: Got Heartburn Again
IMHO: Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO: Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL: Living On Lipitor
LWO: Lawrence Welk’s On
OMMR: On My Massage Recliner
OMSG: Oh, My! Sorry – Gas.
ROFL & CGU: Rolling On the Floor Laughing And Can’t Get Up
TTYL: Talk To You Louder
WAITT: Who Am I Talking To?
WTP: Where’s The Prunes?
WWNO: Walker Wheels Need Oil

Growing old can be better. It doesn’t have to be bitter. You don’t stop laughing because you have grown old but you have grown old because you have stopped laughing.  And everybody grows old, but not everybody grows up. Grow old gracefully, and always find ways to help make this world a better place. Old age is a blessing from God. And just like every other blessing, it is intended to be used to bless others as well.

50 Ugliest Athletes Of All Time

From Bleacher Report, featured columnist Ethan Norof  had quite a thing or two to say about each of the athletes, hehehe.  Click here for the slideshow.

Thought For The Day: Physicians

"Honor physicians for their services, for the Lord created them, and their gift for healing comes from the Most High.  The Lord created medicines from the earth, and the sensible person will not despise them.  By them physicians heal and take away pain, and through them healing spreads over all the earth.  My child, when you are ill, do not delay, but pray to the Lord to be healed.  Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly, and cleanse your heart from all evil.  Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and pour oil on your offering, then give the physiicians their place, for the Lord has created them.  Do not let them leave you, for you need them.  There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians, for they, too, pray to the Lord to grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the preservation of life."  

- Sirach 38:1-14

Jon Bon Jovi's charity restaurant opens in NJ

RED BANK, N.J. (AP) — In three decades as one of the world's biggest rock stars, Jon Bon Jovi has eaten in some of the world's best restaurants, savoring the best food the planet has to offer. Yet there's no place he'd rather have dinner than The Soul Kitchen, a "pay-what-you-can" restaurant he and his wife Dorothea established in a former auto body shop near the Red Bank train station in central New Jersey.

The restaurant provides gourmet-quality meals to the hungry while enabling them to volunteer on community projects in return without the stigma of visiting a soup kitchen. Paying customers are encouraged to leave whatever they want in the envelopes on each table, where the menus never list a price.

The restaurant is the latest undertaking by the New Jersey rocker's Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, which has built 260 homes for low-income residents in recent years.  "When I learned that one in six people in this country goes to bed hungry, I thought this was the next phase of the Foundation's work," he said.

The restaurant now rivals any of its competitors in trendy Red Bank, with entrees like cornmeal crusted catfish with red beans and rice, grilled chicken breast with homemade basil mayo and rice pilaf, and grilled salmon with soul seasonings, sweet potato mash and sauteed greens, many of which were grown in the herb and vegetable garden right outside the restaurant's doors.

"This is not a soup kitchen," he emphasizes. "You can come here with the dignity of linens and silver, and you're served a healthy, nutritious meal. This is not burgers and fries.

"There's no prices on our menu, so if you want to come and you want to make a difference, leave a $20 in the envelope on the table. If you can't afford to eat, you can bus tables, you can wait tables, you can work in the kitchen as a dishwasher or sous chef," he said. "If you say to me, 'I'm not a people person,' I say, 'That's not a problem. We'll take you back to Lunch Break to volunteer with those people. If you don't want to volunteer with that, we'll take you to the FoodBank."

After volunteering at one of those places, a person will be given a certificate good for a meal at The Soul Kitchen.

"If you come in and say, 'I'm hungry,' we'll feed you," Bon Jovi said. "But we're going to need you to do something. It's very important to what we're trying to achieve."

That includes making people feel part of a larger community that cares about them, while still expecting them to contribute to society at large.

"This is not an entitlement thing," Bon Jovi said. "This is about empowering people because you have to earn that gift certificate."

 Click here to read the full article

Useful Dog Tricks by Jesse

dog

Thought For The Day

Found the following quotation posted on the facebook wall:

  

"Pray unceasingly. We must empty Purgatory." ~ St. Padre Pio 

 In response, a poster commented:

 Grateful for Purgatory.

 

 Another quotation was posted on the same wall a few minutes later:

" The chief plenary indulgence, which is within reach of everybody, and can be gained without the ordinary conditions, is that of charity--which ‘covers a multitude of sins.’ ”

~ St. Therese of Lisieux ~

 To which the same poster replied:

Grateful for Purgatory but aiming for Heaven!

 

Hiatus

There's some pressing matter that I have to attend to, so I won't be able to update my blog for a little while.   I would like to thank you for visiting and hope you enjoy browsing through the pages.  

Thought For The Day: Worries

"Every evening I turn over my worries to God. He's going to be up all night anyway."

- Mary C. Rowley

Thought For The Day: Miracles

“If your situation requires a miracle from heaven, you should ask for one. Miracles are not impossible when you keep company with saints. Saints, indeed, are all about obtaining miracles from God. God gives us these things, these miracles, because we suffered with Him while we were on earth.”

—	St. Margaret Mary Alacoque

Thought For The Day: Freedom To Choose

“Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way, to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement.”  - Viktor Frankl

Neptune Visible on July 12

Excerpt from GMANEWS:
 
When it completes its first orbit around the Sun since its discovery nearly 165 years ago, Neptune will be visible to stargazers in the Philippines this Tuesday. Stargazers will need binoculars or a telescope to see Neptune at about 1 a.m. of July 12.

“At 1:00 a.m. (of July 12), Neptune and Uranus will be glowing at magnitude +7.8 and +5.8. They will be located 53 and 31 degrees above the east-southeast horizon, and will lie among the stars of the constellation Aquarius, the Water Bearer and Pisces, the Fish, respectively,".

At 2:00 a.m., Jupiter will be easily located at the eastern horizon, shining brilliantly at magnitude -2.3 and will be found among the background stars of the constellation Aries, the Ram. Also, Jupiter’s four bright moons can be seen as they constantly change their positions as they circle the planet at different rates.

Meanwhile, Venus will appear low in the east northeastern horizon before sunrise in the early part of July.  It will then disappear from the sky view on the second week of the month until late September.

Mars will be observable throughout the month on the east northeastern horizon before sunrise. It will be glowing at magnitude +1.6 and will be located among the background stars of the constellation Taurus, the Bull.

In the evening sky, Saturn and Mercury will be observable in the western horizon before sunset throughout the month.They will be shining at magnitude +0.9 and +0.3 and will lie among the background stars of the constellation Virgo, the Virgin and Cancer, the Crab, respectively.

Neptune picture above courtesy of  NASA/JPL-Caltech. 

All About Faith

Excerpt from Society of St. Paul (365 Days with the Lord):

YOUR FAITH HAS SAVED YOU.

What does this mean? That Jesus has no hand in the miracle cures? That the sick people’s faith alone is enough to make them well?
 
Faith is believing in God; it is also believing in a God who believes in us. Believing that God believes in us can make miracles happen to us!

Two frogs fell into a well. Because of its depth they could not get out. Soon the other frogs heard them trying desperately to jump out. Upon seeing the two, these frogs started booing and teasing them to accept their sorry fate. One of the frogs in the well stopped trying. But the other frog kept on, despite the ridicule of the others. Inhaling a lot of air and gathering all his strength, he made one big leap and got out of the well—to the amazement of all.  The successful frog happened to be deaf and could not hear their booing; he thought they were cheering him.

Click here to read the entire article.

Inflatable Shark Among 300 New Species Discovered in Philippines

From Livescience:

A treasure trove of hundreds of new species may have been discovered in the Philippines, including a bizarre sea star that feeds exclusively on sunken driftwood and a deep-sea, shrimp-eating shark that swells up to scare off other predators.

Scientists braved leeches and a host of venomous creatures from the mountains to the sea to uncover more than 300 species that are likely new to science. These findings include dozens of new insects and spiders, more than 50 colorful new sea slugs and a number of deep-sea armored corals "which protect themselves against predatory nibbles from fish by growing large, spiky plates," said researcher Terrence Gosliner, dean of science and research collections at the California Academy of Sciences and leader of the 2011 Philippine Biodiversity Expedition.

Their novel discoveries include a cicada that makes a distinctive "laughing" call, a crab whose pincers are lined with needlelike teeth, and a wormlike pipefish that hides among colonies of soft coral. In addition, they discovered a possible new species of swell shark — a shark that pumps water into its stomach to puff up — which unlike its relatives possesses a very distinctive camouflaged color pattern.

A number of species live in places rarely, if ever, visited by people, such as a primitive plant called a spikemoss from the perilously steep upper slopes of Mount Isarog and a snake eel from the bottom of the ocean. Many others have avoided detection in the past because of their diminutive size, such as goblin spiders and barnacles that all measure just a few millimeters long.

"One of the likely new urchins is very small — it's called a pea urchin, and yes, it's about the size of a pea," Gosliner said.

All these new findings help support the idea that the Philippines "is one of the hottest of the hotspots for diverse and threatened life on Earth," Gosliner said. "We found new species during nearly every dive and hike as we surveyed the country's reefs, rainforests and the ocean floor."

In fact, the researchers suggest the waters of the Philippines may house more species than any other marine environment on Earth. The deep-water channel they sampled is nutrient-rich, allowing life to flourish, and has existed for about 60 million years, giving species a great deal of time to evolve. "All of those factors together have led to the high diversity".

The researchers are sharing their results with Filipino agencies and international groups to develop strategies to best protect the island nation's extraordinarily rich life. This includes outlining the most important places for establishing or expanding marine protected areas, suggested locations for reforestation and reduction of plastic waste.

Click here to see pictures of colorful creatures found. 

Asteroid Buzzes Earth in Close Shave

Excerpt from Space.com:

An asteroid the size of a tour bus zipped by Earth today (June 27) in a  flyby so close that the space rock was nearer to the planet than some  satellites.

The space rock, called asteroid 2011 MD,  reached its closest point to Earth just after 1 p.m. EDT (1700 GMT),  when it crept within 7,500 miles (12,000 km) of Earth before whipping  away again like a slingshot. The asteroid was flying over the southern  Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Antarctica, at the time of its closest  approach.

The space rock is on the small side, with latest size estimates ranging from 16 to 66 feet (5 to 20 meters) wide. That means asteroid 2011 MD would likely be too small to survive the  fiery plunge through Earth's atmosphere, let alone reach the surface.

Asteroid 2011 MD is the second space rock to zip extremely close by Earth this year. The other object, called asteroid 2011 CQ1, passed within 3,400 miles (5,471 kilometers) of Earth on Feb. 4, making it the closest known flyby of an asteroid to date.

Catholic Church to change Mass liturgy in 2012

From CBCP:

MANILA ― Changes in the English translation of the Order of the Mass are soon to hit parishes across the country when the full implementation of the new liturgical text is adapted next year.

The adoption of the new English translation of the Roman Missal has been approved by the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) during its plenary assembly in January this year.

Some parts of familiar responses and prayers have been amended to reflect the true meaning in the original Latin text, the language of the Roman liturgy.

In the Introductory Rites, for instance, the response of the faithful “And also with you” to the priest’s greeting “The Lord be with you” has been replaced with “And with your spirit.”

Similar changes have also been introduced in other parts of the Mass, such as the Liturgy of the Word, Liturgy of the Eucharist and the Concluding Rites.

Also in the Eucharistic prayer, the text “…cup of my blood” has been changed to “…chalice of my blood.” Likewise, the text “it will be shed for you and for all men” has been changed to “which will be poured out for you and for many.”

English-speaking countries including the Philippines are currently using the 1973 English translation of the Roman Missal prepared by the International Commission on English Liturgy (ICEL) which followed a sense translation.
 
The new translation will be introduced throughout the Philippines on the first Sunday of Advent in December 2, 2012. The season of Advent is the beginning of a new liturgical season in the Church calendar.

Click here to read the entire article. 

Coca-Cola & WWF - Innovative Plant Billboard

Finally, a local ad from Coca-Cola that matters and worth the notice.  

Manila, Philippines - Coca-Cola Philippines and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF-Philippines) unveiled the very first plant billboard in the country.  The billboard now crowns the Adriano Building, between Buendia and Kalayaan Avenues in Makati City.

The 60 x 60 ft. plant billboard utilizes a thriving species of Fukien tea plant, which absorbs air pollutants. Each plant can absorb up to 13 pounds of carbon dioxide in a year, on the average. “This billboard helps alleviate air pollution within its proximate areas as it can absorb a total of 46,800 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, on estimate.”

Recyclable materials were used for the overall make-up of the billboard. 3,600 pots were used, recycling old bottles of various Coca-Cola products. These bottles were filled with a potting mixture made up of a combination of industrial by-products and organic fertilizers—a formulation that is stable and light-weight . These bottles were also designed to hold the plants securely and to allow the plants to grow sideways. Additional holes were made for proper drainage and for holding the drip lines in place.

A drip irrigation system, also known as trickle irrigation or micro-irrigation, was especially installed for efficient water distribution. This irrigation method saves water and fertilizer by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of plants, through a network of valves, pipes, tubing and emitters. The system is operated on a schedule to distribute water with nutrients to the plants. It provides the plants with what they need when they need it.

Ricky Lamanilao - Honest cabbie

In Jesus’ teaching about money and dependence on God, He is speaking of abandonment, trust in God, and surrender to God.  It is the attitude of Job who, after losing everything, exclaims: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord!"  

It is to expect nothing, to be grateful for what is there, to live according to one’s means, to desire less, and to need only the basic.  It is to be free.

365 days with the Lord 2011

 

From abs-cbnnews:

MANILA, Philippines - A taxi driver has returned around P200,000 to a British tourist who forgot his bag inside the cab.

Ricky Lamanilao, who has been driving a taxi in Metro Manila for 25 years, returned the cash, which was in British pounds and Philippine pesos, as well as the passport, credit cards, and other documents of Paul Ross.

The tourist said he rode in Lamanilao's taxi from a mall and asked to be brought to his hotel in Makati. He realized that he left behind his bag containing his valuables after he alighted from the taxi.

Lamanilao said he already had another passenger when he realized that his previous passenger forgot his bag inside the taxi. He then returned to the hotel where Ross got off to return the bag. Ross breathed a sigh of relief after he got his valuables back. "I will go back to the Philippines because of Ricky," he said.

Lamanilao said it was the third time that he has returned valuables left behind by passengers. He said he returned them despite being sometimes hard-up on cash. "Napuputulan nga kami ng kuryente. Minsan 3 buwan di nakakabayad...naniniwala ako sa karma,"  he added.

As a reward, Ross took him as his personal taxi driver while the British tourist is in the Philippines. The hotel where Ross stays will also give Lamanilao a commission everytime he brings in a guest.

Canine Boot Camp

Cancer Sniffing Dogs

From Huffingtonpost:

Scientists have put the incredible smelling powers of a dog to good medical use.

Sniffing out cancer.

Japanese scientists trained a black Labrador Retriever, named Marine, that they say can sniff out colorectal cancer with up to 98 percent accuracy, according to CTV News. Better yet perhaps, her abilities are more accurate than some tests currently used to diagnose the cancer, namely the fecal occult blood test, which accurately predicts the cancer only 10 percent of the time.

This isn't the first time dogs have been used to diagnose malignancies like this either. The idea has also been used to test for skin, bladder, lung, breast and ovarian cancers as well, according to ABC News.

So how were they able to hone Marine's predicting abilities?

Previous studies have shown that dogs have the ability to sniff out cancer in patients' breath, according to National Geographic. Using this idea, the female Lab was trained to sit in front of samples that contained signs of cancer.

From CTV:

Marine was taught to sniff cups of exhaled breath samples and then to sit down in front of the cup that contained the sample from the patient with cancer. When Marine got it right, she was rewarded with a tennis ball.

A dog's sense of smell is up to 1 million times better than a human being's. However, not all dogs have the same abilities.


From Bloomberg Businessweek:

A dog trained to sniff out colorectal cancer was almost as accurate as a colonoscopy in a study that suggests less invasive tests for the disease may be developed.

The Labrador retriever was at least 95 percent as accurate as colonoscopy when smelling breath samples, and 98 percent correct with stool samples, according to the study, published today in the medical journal Gut. The dog’s sense of smell was especially effective in early-stage cancer, and could discern polyps from malignancies, which colonoscopy can’t.

“Most striking is the ability of the dogs to detect bowel cancer at its earliest stages,” Trevor Lockett, a bowel cancer researcher with the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Australia.

Most current non-invasive tests for bowel cancer identify later-stage disease far more efficiently than early-stage, Lockett said.

“Detection of early-stage cancers is the real holy grail in bowel cancer diagnosis because surgery can cure up to 90 percent of patients who present with early-stage disease,” he said.

Sniffing Samples

In the study, the dog sniffed samples from 48 people with confirmed bowel cancer and 258 volunteers who were either healthy or had survived cancer. The dog was asked by his handler to find the one malignant sample in a set of five.

“This study shows that a specific cancer smell does indeed exist,” the researchers said in the study. “These odor materials may become effective tools in screening.”

While dogs have previously been shown to identify skin, bladder, lung, breast and ovarian malignancies, canines are too expensive and too fickle to rely on for routine cancer diagnoses, the researchers said.

Advertisement

 

The $500 Million Golf Course Seafloor Walkway

Dutch Docklands, a player in the world of floating technologies, or making land where there was no land, has announced its plans to build a golf course on the ocean in the Maldives. There are lots of golf courses that claim to be “on” the ocean, but this one would quite literally be “on” the ocean.  It is scheduled to open in 2015.

The concept is a series of manmade islands with one or more holes on each, linked by transparent undersea tunnels through which golfers walk or ride, sort of a golf course meets Moonbase Alpha ambition.

Click here to read the rest of the article.  Picture courtesy of Forbes. Click here for the complete slideshow.


My initial thought is, will this place, its structures and designs, be safe enough in these times of frequent and increasingly intense earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions? 

Happy Father's Day - U-Zoo

TWO THUMBS UP - Pushcart Classroom

Excerpt from Wikipilipinas

Efren "Kuya Ef" Geronimo Peñaflorida Jr. is an educator and social worker in the Philippines. He has been named "CNN Hero of the Year" in 2009 for his outstanding advocacy to educate Filipino out-of-school youth through "pushcart classes." He founded the Dynamic Teen Company (DTC) at the age of 16 years old. He now works in a local private school during the week and continues his work with the DTC every Saturday. 

Dynamic Team Company started as a friendship club of around 20 members, with an aim of providing youth awareness projects, talent and self-development activities, and community services. They partnered with Club 8586, another community service organization operating in the area.

They eventually pioneered the idea of the "pushcart classroom", wherein pushcarts were stocked with school materials such as books, pens, tables, and chairs, and then used on Saturdays to recreate school settings in unconventional locations such as the cemetery or trash dump. 

Today, DTC's "pushcart classroom" also teaches basic reading and writing to street children.

Update #1: Pushcart classroom (Kariton Klasrum) to go nationwide. Click here to read more.

Update #2: KarBuil (Kariton Building) learning center opens where the daily tutorial for at least 150 children and mentoring program for their volunteers take place. Click here to read more.

The Swimming Song - A Canine Music Video

 

Welcome Home

Dog Goes Nuts During Soldier Homecoming - Watch more Funny Videos/a>


Dog Greets Mom Coming Home From War - Watch more Funny Videos

Nostalgia (IAWL) - It's A Wonderful Life (1946 movie)

"I've heard the filmed called "an American cultural phenomenon". Well, maybe so, but it seems to me there is nothing phenomenal about the movie itself. It's simply about an ordinary man who discovers that living each ordinary day honorably, with faith in God and selfless concern for others, can make for a truly wonderful life." 

James Stewart

Jimmy Stewart on "It's A Wonderful Life":

A friend told me recently that seeing a movie I made in 1946 is a holiday tradition in his family, "like putting up the Christmas tree". That movie is It's a Wonderful Life, and out of all the 80 films I've made, it's my favorite. But it has an odd history. 

When the war was over in 1945, I came back home to California from three years' service in the Air Force. I had been away from the film business, my MGM contract had run out, and frankly, not knowing how to get started again. I was just a little bit scared. Hank Fonda was in the same boat, and we sort of wandered around together, talking, flying kites and stuff. But nothing much was happening.

Then one day Frank Capra phoned me. The great director had also been away in service, making the Why We Fight documentary series for the military, and he admitted to being a little frightened too. But he had a movie in mind. We met in his office to talk about it. 

He said the idea came from a Christmas story written by Phillip Van Doren Stern. Stern couldn't sell the story anywhere, but he finally had 200 twenty-four page pamphlets printed up at his own expense, and he sent them to his friends as a greeting card.

"Now, listen," Frank began hesitantly. He seemed a little embarrassed about what he was going to say. "The story starts in heaven, and it's sort of the Lord telling somebody to go down to earth because there's a fellow who is in trouble, and this heavenly being goes to a small town, and..." 

Frank swallowed and took a deep breath. "Well, what it boils down to is, this fellow who thinks he's a failure in life jumps off a bridge. The Lord sends down an angel named Clarence, who hasn't earned his wings yet, and Clarence jumps into the water to save the guy. But the angel can't swim, so the guy has to save him, and then..."  Frank stopped and wiped his brow. "This doesn't tell very well, does it?"  

I jumped up. "Frank, if you want to do a picture about a guy who jumps off a bridge and an angel named Clarence who hasn't won his wings yet coming down to save him, well, I'm your man!"

And thus, production of It's a Wonderful Life started on April 15, 1946 ...

Click here to read full article.

Michael Nerandzic - Heroic Final Act

"Give a forceful witness of love for life, which is God’s gift. … Be ‘prophets of life’! Be such by your words and deeds,… and by concretely helping those who need you, and who might be tempted to resign themselves to despair without your help."

Pope John Paul II, Rome, 1996

Excerpts from Daily Telegraph:

AN AUSTRALIAN blimp pilot has been hailed a hero after he saved three passengers by ordering them to jump from the burning airship only to then die himself. 

Michael Nerandzic, from Balgownie in Wollongong, was attempting to land the A60 Goodyear airship at an airfield at Reichelsheim in Germany, when the blimp caught fire during descent. Realising the airship was only moments away from disaster, Mr. Nerandzic then made the heroic decision to put his own life on the line to save those of his passengers. Hovering 2m above the ground he yelled for the three passengers to jump from the gondola to safety below. 

That decision reduced the ballast weight of the airship which is believed to have caused it to shoot 50m into the air where it exploded with the burning wreckage falling to the ground. Mr Nerandzic was unable to escape and died in the wreckage.

Click here to read the full article.

Nostalgia (Pac-man) - Arcade Game

Excerpts from Wikipedia:

Pacman is an arcade game developed by Namco and licensed for distribution in the United States by Midway, first released in Japan on May 22, 1980. It  is considered one of the classics of the medium, virtually synonymous with video games, and an icon of 1980s popular culture. 

The game is regarded as one of the most influential video games of all time, for a number of reasons: its titular character was the first original gaming mascot, the game established the maze chase game genre, it demonstrated the potential of characters in video games, it opened gaming to female audiences, and it was gaming's first licensing success. In addition, it was the first video game to feature power-ups, and it was the first game to feature cut scenes, in the form of brief comical interludes about Pac-Man and the ghosts chasing each other around during those interludes.

Sardine Run

Sardine Run by Thomas P. Peschak. Photo taken from Time. For more pictures, click here.

Dunder

Just Something That Makes You Go "Hehe"

Unjust Filipino Racial Profiling

Check out Chyng Reyes' blog on the traumatic ordeal she and her friend underwent on their trip to Bali, Indonesia.

Volcanic lightning over the Puyehue volcano, Chile, June 5, 2011

Photos taken from Yahoo News and Euronews.  Click here for complete slideshow.

Just Something Silly To Smile About

A Little Piece of Heaven on Earth

Deliverance

By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:32:00 04/20/2011


...  Ha Minh Thanh (a Vietnamese immigrant), worked as a cop in Fukushima, the epicenter of the tsunami that hit Japan in the wake of the powerful earthquake. The depth of devastation was a sight to behold, or cringe from...

But amid the desolation, he saw this:

“Last night, I was sent to a little grammar school to help a charity organization distribute food to the refugees. It was a long line that snaked this way and that and I saw a little boy around 9 years old. He was wearing a T-shirt and a pair of shorts.

“It was getting very cold and the boy was at the very end of the line. I was worried that by the time his turn came there wouldn’t be any food left. So I spoke to him. He said he was at school when the earthquake happened. His father worked nearby and was driving to the school. The boy was on the third floor balcony when he saw the tsunami sweep his father’s car away.

“He said his house is right by the beach and that his mother and little sister probably didn’t make it. He turned his head and wiped his tears when I asked about his relatives.

“The boy was shivering so I took off my police jacket and put it on him. That’s when my bag of food ration fell out. I picked it up and gave it to him. ‘When it comes to your turn, they might run out of food. So here’s my portion. I already ate. Why don’t you eat it?’

“The boy took my food and bowed. I thought he would eat it right away, but he didn’t. He took the bag of food, went up to where the line ended and put it where all the food was waiting to be distributed.

“I was shocked. I asked him why he didn’t eat it and instead added it to the food pile. He answered: ‘Because I see a lot more people hungrier than I am. If I put it there, then they will distribute the food equally.’

“When I heard that I turned away so that people wouldn’t see me cry.

“A society that can produce a 9-year-old who understands the concept of sacrifice for the greater good must be a great society, a great people.”

... Some of the comments in my e-mail compared this with the Jan-Jan affair, marveling at the chasm between the way Japanese raised their kids and the way we did. They had a point. You have to wonder what kind of values we are instilling in our kids with Willie Revillame to guide them. A point made all the more urgent by TV 5 flying to his aid: While countries like Japan are telling their kids that anything less than the loftiest heights is not enough, we are telling our kids that anything more than the absolute pits will do.

I was already awed when the “Faceless 50” or “Nameless 50” volunteered to stay behind at the nuclear plants, braving levels of radiation five times what was considered safe for workers in the United States, to stave off a nuclear holocaust that would devastate neighboring places. The number of the faceless or nameless swiftly rose to the hundreds. This is behavior we are not likely to see here. And yet the Japanese do it so spontaneously, reflexively, instinctively. You truly have to wonder at the way they were brought up and the way we were.

The Japanese—and Vietnamese—are not Christians, yet they show more Christian charity than we do. Certainly, they show a capacity for self-sacrifice more than we do. Forget even that, they show a capacity to see beyond themselves, or a capacity to see others, more than we do. Which is what the Cross is supposed to represent.

Our own version of Christianity has only taught us selfishness. The very purpose of living an upright life, or a facsimile thereof—there are always the sacraments to wipe off sin—is to save ourselves, or our souls from the burning fires of hell. On the occasions we are compelled to, we part with land, with money, with children (for the priesthood) to buy a berth in heaven—but never up to the point that it becomes painful or inconvenient. We do not do things for others or sacrifice for others (other than family) simply because it is the right thing to do, because it is the only thing to do. Because, despite our desolation, there are others more desolate. Because, despite our loss, there are others who lost more. Because, despite our hunger, there are others hungrier.

A thing to ponder over the next few days. You look at the 9-year-old Japanese boy who gave despite having lost everything, you have to ask yourself who is more likely to rise again, he or us. You have to ask yourself who is likely to be saved, he or us.

In this life or the next.


source

Nature and Contemplation

"The contemplation of nature reveals not only the creator, but also our own role in the world.  In order to have life and have it abundantly, in order to re-establish the original harmony of creation, we must respect the divine image in all of creation, especially in human life itself."   - Pope John Paul II, Denver, 1993

SOURCE: The Mountain and The Aurora videos above are works of  Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sorgjerd.  For more info on and updates about his works, check out:


http://www.facebook.com/TSOPhotography 
twitter.com/TSOPhotography
http://vimeo.com/terjes 

Nostalgia (Coca Cola) - Polar Bears, Jingles & Ads

Don't you just miss those good old days when advertising actually meant something - successful product association and creation of brand equity.

The Mysterious Staircase of Loretto Chapel

Nature and Contemplation

"Jesus teaches us to see the Father’s hand in the beauty of the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, the starry night, fields ripe for the harvest, the faces of children and the needs of the poor and humble.  If you look at the world with a pure heart, you too will see the face of God."  - Pope John Paul II, Denver, 1993

Do Our Dogs Really Love Us?

This is the picture of the real Hachiko

Source: AOLanswers

Do our dogs really love us or is that just our human interpetation?

We say dogs give unconditional love and when they lick they are giving kisses and love us and when they lay or snuggle they are showing love and affection.Is that true or is that our human interpetation and dogs don't even care to love and just feel pleasure or displeasure and basic survival needs and only treat us well because we give them fod,water,shelter and walk them. Is it possible that they don't love us at all and don't know what love is? Do dogs love us the same way we love them or more?Do they have the same emotion of love as we humans do or is love more of a human emotion?

Let me tell you a story about a dog in Japan named Hachiko.

In 1924, Hidesaburo Ueno, a professor in the agriculture department at the University of Tokyo, took in Hachiko as a pet. During his owner's life, Hachiko greeted him at the end of each day at the nearby Shibuya Station. The pair continued their daily routine until May 1925, when Professor Ueno did not return. The professor had suffered from a cerebral hemorrhage and died, never returning to the train station where Hachiko was waiting. Every day for the next nine years the golden brown Akita waited at Shibuya station.

Hachiko was given away after his master's death, but he routinely escaped, returning again and again to his old home. Eventually, Hachiko apparently realized that Professor Ueno no longer lived at the house. So he went to look for his master at the train station where he had accompanied him so many times before. Each day, Hachiko waited for the return of his owner.

The permanent fixture at the train station that was Hachiko attracted the attention of other commuters. Many of the people who frequented the Shibuya train station had seen Hachiko and Professor Ueno together each day. They brought Hachiko treats and food to nourish him during his wait.

This continued for nine years with Hachiko- appearing precisely when the train was due at the station.

That same year, one of Ueno's students (who had become an amateur expert on the Akita breed) saw the dog at the station and followed him to the Kobayashi home (the home of the former gardener of Professor Ueno Kikuzaboro, where he learned the history of Hachiko's life. Shortly after this meeting, the former student published a documented census of Akitas in Japan. His research found only 30 purebred Akitas remaining, including Hachiko from Shibuya Station.

He returned frequently to visit the dog and over the years published several articles about Hachiko's remarkable loyalty. In 1932 one of these articles, published in Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, threw the dog into the national spotlight. Hachiko became a national sensation. His faithfulness to his master's memory impressed the people of Japan as a spirit of family loyalty all should strive to achieve. Teachers and parents used Hachiko's vigil as an example for children to follow. A well-known Japanese artist rendered a sculpture of the dog, and throughout the country a new awareness of the Akita breed grew.

Eventually, Hachiko's legendary faithfulness became a national symbol of loyalty.

Hachiko died on March 8, 1935, and was found on a street in Shibuya.

In April 1934, a bronze statue in his likeness was erected at Shibuya Station and Hachiko himself was present at its unveiling. The statue was recycled for the war effort during World War II. In 1948 The Society for Recreating the Hachiko Statue commissioned Takeshi Ando, son of the original artist, to make a second statue. When the new statue appeared, a dedication ceremony occurred. The new statue, which was erected in August 1948, still stands and is an extremely popular meeting spot. The station entrance near this statue is named "Hachiko--guchi", meaning "The Hachiko Exit", and is one of Shibuya Station's five exits.

A similar statue stands in Hachiko's hometown, in front of O-date Station. In 2004, a new statue of Hachiko was erected on the original stone pedestal from Shibuya in front of the Akita Dog Museum in Odate.

Hachiko's exact spot where he waited in the train station permanently has paw-prints there in bronze with text in Japanese explaining his loyalty.

Hachiko was the subject of the 1987 movie Hachiko Monogatari (literally The Tale of Hachiko), directed by Seijiro- Ko-yama, which told the story of his life from his birth up until his death and imagined spiritual reunion with his master. Considered a blockbuster success, the film was the last big hit for Japanese film studio Shochiku Kinema Kenkyû-jo.

Hachi: A Dog's Story, released in August 2009, is an American movie starring actor Richard Gere, directed by Lasse Hallström, about Hachiko and his relationship with the professor. The movie was filmed in Rhode Island, and also featured Joan Allen and Jason Alexander.

Hachiko is also the subject of a 2004 children's book entitled Hachiko: The True Story of a Loyal Dog, written by Pamela S. Turner and illustrated by Yan Nascimbene. Another children's book, a short novel for readers of all ages called Hachiko Waits, written by Lesléa Newman and illustrated by Machiyo Kodaira, was published by Henry Holt & Co. in 2004. Hachiko Waits was released in paperback by Square Fish (an imprint of MacMillan) in 2009.

Hachiko is featured prominently in the 2008 novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. The novel revolves around the extraordinary relationship between the title character, his family and the dogs they raise.

In 1994, the Culture Broadcasting Network (CBN) in Japan was able to lift a recording of Hachiko barking from an old record that had been broken into several pieces. A huge advertising campaign ensued and on Saturday, May 28, 1994, 59 years after his death, millions of radio listeners tuned in to hear Hachiko bark.

Each year on April 8, Hachiko's devotion is honored with a solemn ceremony of remembrance at Tokyo's Shibuya railroad station. Hundreds of dog lovers often turn out to honor his memory and loyalty.

If that isn't love, then you tell me what is?

Dog Volume Control

Translation:

-speak
-can you do it again?
-is that all you got?
-can you do it more quietly?
-more quietly more quietly!
-do it in a cute way