Dingdong Dantes to host MTV Exit Special

Kapuso star Dingdong Dantes has been chosen as the host for MTV EXIT's Filipino documentary film, ENSLAVED: An MTV Exit Special. The documentary tackles on the human trafficking and exploitation in the Philippines.

Dantes is known as an advocate of youth-oriented causes, including youth empowerment, which he espouses through his YesPinoy Foundation. He expresses that while working on the documentary was educational, filming Enslaved empowered him to face difficult realities and enlightened him about the harsh experiences of the survivors.

MTV EXIT (End Exploitation and Trafficking) is a campaign about the rights of human beings to choose freely and to do what we love. It aims to increase awareness and prevention of human trafficking, which is the second most profitable criminal activity in the world today, through television programs, online content, live events, and partnerships with anti-trafficking organizations.

Watch ENSLAVED: An MTV Exit Special's premiere on GMA News TV Channel 11 tomorrow, November 27 at 9:55 PM.

How to Cook the Perfect Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving to my friends in the U.S.!

The new GMANews.TV site

I browsed GMANews.TV site this morning and found out they did some changes to the site. First, the URL changed. Though you can still type "gmanews.tv' in your browser's address bar, the site redirects to "www.gmanetwork.com/news/". Font size, especially on headings, is bigger now and the layout seemed to be more "commercialized". No more Facebook feeds third tab (next to Latest and Top Stories tabs) and I thought the site loaded faster than before.

Maybe one of the reasons for the site's changes was due to the vulnerability of the site to hacking attacks. Last May, the website, as well as its Facebook and Twitter accounts were hacked. Technogra PH has a good explanation of how the site was hacked.

So how do you find the new GMA News Online site layout? I don't know why, but I like the old one better.

Dogwarts School of Arfcraft and Wizardry

The Harry Potter fever has been around for a long time. But who knew dogs can also dress up as Harry Potter, Hermoine Granger, or Ron Weasley? Look at the cute pictures below. They could be the latest recruits at Dogwarts School of Arfcraft and Wizardry.

Should I call the last pup as Hairy... Potter? :)

Pictures were taken from here.

Cool eco-friendly gadgets

The world generates millions of metric tons of electronic wastes each year, and this is something we should take into consideration. Since we get all our needs from nature, it would be better if we give thanks to Mother Earth's providence by using recycled materials that are bio-degradable, and replacing gadgets with solar counterparts.

We are in the era of technological savviness, but the advocacy to support nature-oriented gadgets would be a good step to saving energy and the earth. Here are some cool eco-friendly gadgets we'd sure love.

1. ASUS Ecobook

The ASUS ecobook ihas case which is laminated with bamboo strips. ASUS claims 50% of its parts are recyclable.

2. Miniot's iWood4




A protective covering/housing carved from a single block of wood, iWood 4 is neatly carved, and makes your device feel more like a wooden iPhone. Its contours provide a much better grip and safer handling.

3. 2C Solar LightCap

Hands-free light cap with no battery disposal and no battery emission, you can charge it during the day to give light at the night. All the collected energy for this light-emitting technology lies in the curved part of semi-flexible pre-bent beak of the cap, including solar panels and the NiMH batteries used to store them.

4. Sunflower outdoor speakers

Another solar-powered gadget, these speakers intended to be used in outdoor parties where harnessing the sun is not a problem. A Solar cell is positioned in the center of the Speaker and in order to ensure better music and spontaneous energy, a counterweight allows the user to rotate the speaker and also set the appropriate angle.

5. Grassy lawn charging station

Provides you with realistic artificial grass to cushion your gadgets while they charge. A compartment underneath hides all of the power adapters and cables. It looks like your phone is on charging vacation!

6. Woody Bamboo USB stick

The eco-friendly and 100% recyclable bamboo casing holds a high-capacity NAND flash memory with a maximum capacity of up to 8GB and body made of hard-impact wooden bamboo.

7. Eco cube speakers

Made out from 70% recycled material and you will not even need batteries for them to work as they’re powered by your MP3 player or Audio Source.

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If more people would go into these kinds of eco-friendly products, then sure we will be living in a greener and healthier world.

Justin Bieber in pink underwear

Having already released nail polish and perfume ranges, pop star and teen millionaire Justin Bieber wasn't afraid to show his "girlish" side as he exposed his pants down with pink underwear!

Reactions anyone?

Kennedy assasination remembered

November 22 will always be remembered as a day of infamy in American history. On a Friday afternoon in 1963, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed as his motorcycle went through the Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.

People of all ages commemorated the assassination of JFK in an annual moment of silence at Dealey Plaza, bowing heads as they remember this tragic event 48 years before.

JFK's death is subject to one of the biggest conspiracy theory in history.

Facebook cuts down 'six degrees of separation' to 4.74

Social networking giant Facebook together with the University of Milan have conducted a study which concluded that any two people on Facebook are only 4.74 connections away from each other, reduced from 6 of the 'six degrees of separation' theory which was conducted by American social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. Figuratively, this makes the world even smaller with only 3.74 "hops" (common friend represents one degree of separation) away to getting to know or connecting to another person.

The best known implementation of the 'six degrees of separation' theory was the Kevin Bacon game, in which you are required to connect a certain Hollywood actor to Kevin Bacon, and shows how that actor is connected to Kevin Bacon through "hops". The higher the number of hops between the actor and Kevin Bacon, the higher the Kevin Bacon Number is. The game can be tested thru the Oracle of Bacon.

source

Facebook's latest findings shows that the game is quite providing accurate representation of social networks relationships, having found out that 99.6 percent of all pairs of users are connected by six hops - five degrees of separation - but 92 percent are connected by only five hops, which works out to four degrees of separation. That makes the average 4.74 hops, compared with the 5.28 hops recorded in 2008.

"And as Facebook has grown over the years, representing an ever larger fraction of the global population, it has become steadily more connected. The average distance in 2008 was 5.28 hops, while now it is 4.74," the team found.

Researchers also found out that people in the same country could shrink the distance further, most people being separated by only three hops.

source

Facebook pointed out however, that the results of its study and those of psychologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s are not directly comparable. Milgram's "subjects only had limited knowledge of the social network, while we have a nearly complete representation of the entire thing. Our measurements essentially describe the shortest possible routes that his subjects could have found,".

Facebook conducted the study with its 721 million active users, which constitutes to more than 10% of the current world population.

Train Live in Manila on December 7, 2011

American pop rock band and three-time Grammy award winning group Train is set to perform again! Yes, they're back in Manila on December 7th to perform at the Smart Araneta Coliseum their smash hits like Hey, Soul Sister, If It's Love, Marry Me, When I Look To The Sky, and Drops of Jupiter. Don't have tickets yet? Reserve thru the TicketNet website or call their office at 911-5555.

CLICK HERE TO RESERVE TRAIN LIVE IN MANILA TICKETS

Ticket prices are as follows:

Seat Location Price PATRON VIP (Reserved Seating) 4770 PATRON (Reserved Seating) 4240 LOWER BOX CENTER (Reserved Seating) 3710 LOWER BOX SIDES (Reserved Seating) 3180 UPPER BOX A (Reserved Seating) 2440 UPPER BOX B 1275 GENERAL ADMISSION 530

You can also visit Train Live in Manila Facebook page thru here:

https://www.facebook.com/TrainLiveinManila

Train was formed in San Francisco, California in 1994. The group is composed of Patrick Monahan (vocals), Jimmy Stafford (guitar, vocals) and Scott Underwood (drums, percussion). The trio recently won the Grammy award for Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal with their hit Hey, Soul Sister.

Train Live in Manila is presented by DAYLY Entertainment, Rockstar Touring and LAMC Productions in partnership with Smart, Mossimo Music, ABS-CBN, Star World, Fox and Myx.

DOM SABIO, Master Pogi, Sakristang Hiphop, MR. GREATMIND, and the other trolls of Yahoo! PH: Do we need to take them seriously?

For those who don't know what a "troll" means, let me share this snippet from Wikipedia about its meaning:

"In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion."

You can find a lot of them in Yahoo! Philippines' articles. Frequent commenters whose posts will either make or break someone's day. To introduce you the popular ones, here are:

DOM SABIO

Master Pogi

Sakristang Hiphop

MR. GREATMIND

In an article that boasts Sinag, Philippine basketball delegation to SEA Games, romping its gold medal against Thailand, DOM Sabio, with his usual "I condemn..." phrase, popularly received thumbs downs with his comment:

It was followed by comments of irritated readers:

Meanwhile, Sakristang Hiphop, who use to boast of himself (or herself?) posted a comment showing his statistics if ever he plays with the Sinag team. As usual, his comments were responded with raging reactions from the readers.

DOM SABIO, a few days earlier, commented on an article about childhood obesity.

With the latest news of celebrity couple having a baby, this article of Ogie Alcasid and Regine Velasquez's first-born was frequented with comments from our featured trolls.

I also can't help but get noticed TOPACIO's (yes, another troll) comment. Look at how people angrily responded.

Another showbiz article about pop star Sarah Geronimo being afraid to fall in love again, DOM SABIO and Master Pogi again appeared and commented.

In all fairness, DOM SABIO's comment about is decent and approved by the readers. Master Pogi, on the other hand, was curious - kind of unsure of the picture of the woman in the article.

Trolls do not only create their own identity, some copies the name and picture of a popular individual just to comment on a certain article. The news about Malacañang hoping for Ombudsman to file other cases against the hospital-detained former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, JM Arroyo (who mimicked GMA's husband and former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo) commented:

To present you the equally-loved and hated troll MR. GREATMIND, here are his comments about the Philippines being "calm" amidst the dramatic arrest of the former president and the subsequent political battle and investigations.

Trolls are everywhere. Their responses may be rude, sarcastic, inhumane, and indecent, but the big question is: How should we react with these kinds of comments? Should we let ourselves get mad with these people who obviously, intended to just spend a waste of their time? As what Wikipedia (not credible online source, but we all agree to agree that the definition was right) tells us - "..with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion" - Should we let our feelings be provoked with what they post?

Not all of their comments are rude by the way. Some, especially MR. GREATMIND's, are mind-boggling and honest. Some, when we look at its context, just intended to make a joke and put out the light moments of the serious, heavy exchange of comments in an article.

It's still our choice anyway. Whoever these trolls are, leave them with what makes them happy. At some moments of the stressful day, reading a Yahoo! PH article and scrolling by the comments from these infamous but somehow amusing trolls bring us at least, smiles on our faces.

Well for me, they just do not give me smiles. They give me laughter.