Sketchcast

Sketchcasting is a new way to communicate something online by recording a sketch, optionally with your voice speaking. Any sketch can then be embedded on your blog/ homepage for people to play-back, and you can also point people to your sketchcast channel here (or let them subscribe to your sketchcast RSS feed).

Sketchcasting is new but it's based on an old principle: the whiteboard (or the napkin in a bar) on which you sketch something to get a concept across... or to just have some fun. Sketchasting was invented by Richard Ziade on July 23rd, 2007, Creative Commons licensed.

Not sure how this will take off with Philippine Bloggers but it does look interesting. I guess down the line, we'll see people interesting sketches.

It does look useful for educational sites to illustrate a theory or point out a fact. I can see filipino scientists blogging their experiments thru this medium.

Or maybe not.

Here's a test:

Held Hostage

Here in the Philippines, something is afoot right now, specially in the Philippine Blog Universe. I've been busy maintaining my other site but this issue is a real fishbone for me and I guess other people as well.

I have read that if anyone mentions these names that person will be jailed.
a. DJ Montano
b. Celine Lopez
c. Tim Yap
d. Tina Tinio

I have read that if anyone posts a link to this blog, that person will be jailed.

The leading Philippine newspaper, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, has posted about this story but did not link the blog or mention these names.

The other newspaper, The Philippine Star, is quiet about this because some of the persons involved are their writers.

ABS-CBN did feature this but failed to mention any names and even reiterated the fact that no one can link or mentions these names lest the person wants to be jailed. It even mentions that the unmentionable ones are "victims", regardless if that statement is objective or not. The article fails to mention that one of the person involved is related to the owners of the media company.

I really am not that into what's happening or what these people have done. But to be told that I can't do the things above, it gives me a sick feeling in the stomach. It's as if I am put into a state of fear.


** Click here for an update on this issue. ABS-CBN News interview of the Australian blogger, Brian Gorrell **

Playboy Philippines

MANILA, Philippines -- A Philippine edition of Playboy will debut on newsstands next week, but the traditionally racy magazine will not show frontal nudity, the editor-in-chief said Thursday.

Beting Laygo Dolor said the monthly magazine -- synonymous the world over with centerfolds of bare-breasted women -- will feature "anything under the sun of interest to men," combining the work of investigative journalists and award-winning fiction writers...

...Dolor said Playboy Philippines would feature Filipino women as "playmates" in the centerfold, but won't show full frontal nudity or genitalia because that would run counter to Philippine business and cultural considerations.

"Maybe one nipple," he said.

Wow. Playboy Philippines. Filipina Playboy bunnies. hehehe

Another Famous Filipino Scientist

Baldomero “Toto” M. Olivera, a distinguished professor of biology at University of Utah in the United States and the Harvard Foundation’s 2007 Scientist of the Year, has been hailed for his work in neurotoxins which is produced by venomous cone snails commonly found in the tropical waters of his native Philippines.

The research conducted by his group became the basis for the commercial drug Prialt (generic name: Ziconotide), which is considered more effective than morphine and does not result in addiction. (But Olivera’s group was not able to patent its work, and it never profited from the sales of the drug.)

Whoa. Scientist of the Year. hehehe...

Filipina wins science award for ‘black holes’

MANILA, Philippines—Rather than be preoccupied with the flurry on Earth, 24-year-old Reinabelle Reyes has fostered a fascination for the bustle of outer space...
...A Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University in New Jersey, the Filipino astrophysicist was accorded the “Chambliss Astronomy Achievement Student Award” at the annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society in January...

Wow. Another Filipino milestone. Reinabelle Reyes should be accorded the same attention and honor as Manny Paquiao, don't you think?

Congratulations Rainabelle!

New Template

Seems that each time I get into a crossroad, I change templates. hehehe.

So therapeutic, so soothing, so relaxing.

As relaxing as it's going to be here in the Philippines with the coming Lenten holidays.

Talk about late

**Click here for an update (The ABS-CBN News interview of Brian Gorrell)**

Seems I have missed out on the biggest controversy to hit the Philippine blogging scene this year.

Seems an Australian expat was divested of 70k Australian dollars by a filipino. Now, he's striking back by airing the dirty linen of this person and all his high society friends.

I just started reading the blog now after tons of posts and hundreds of comments have been made. It truly is rivetting. More so with the comments. Took me the whole night just reading them.

They sure aren't Paris Hilton caliber when it comes to riches but here in the Philippines, these people could pass off as the same in perceived stature.

I mean I owe a bunch of people some money but heck, i do intend to pay em all. But I feel sorry for this australian. I mean, that's his life savings we're talking about here.

Anyway, Philippine newspapers and other well known sites have written about em.
Here's a few:

"...AN Australian expat who was forced to flee the Philippines after having been caught in a nasty lover’s quarrel with his Filipino boyfriend and his circle of high society party crowd has struck back from overseas in the best way he could.

Brian Gorell started a blog, dissing out dirt not only against his ex-lover, ex-restaurateur Delfin Justiniano “DJ” Ocampo Montano II, but also against Montano’s friends Celine Lopez (daughter of Albertito and Emily Lopez), L’Oreal’s Tina Tinio, Wendy Puyat, and Marcel Crespo. ..."
Victor Agustin
Manila Standard

...Naming (big pop society) names and tagging them as cocaine users, freeloaders and wild clubbers, it makes "Gossip Girl" look like a Disney musical.

The cyber sensation, which logged over 40,000 hits in its first four days, chronicles alleged shenanigans of local sosi peeps -personalities that may be of little interest to those who worship at the altar of Entertainment.

Then again, a major character in this online telenovela claims to be the scion of a clan with major interests in media and show business....
Rushes
Philippine Daily Inquirer

"...The latest Manila society drama rolled out last week, not in Forbes Park salons, but on computer monitors across cyberspace. It has threatened to shatter dozens of names and reputations. The drama is that artifact of our times: a blog. An online confessional, although in this case, it’s more accusational.."
Zhou Zhiyal
Philippine Daily Inquirer

It has it's own Wikipedia post:

"The Gucci Gang controversy is a series of events that involved an Australian blogger Brian Gorrell who published his accusation against his former boyfriend, whom he identified as Filipino socialite and lifestyle columnist DJ Montano, of swindling him of money totaling US$70,000.[1] Gorrell's blog, which was first published on March 4, 2008, has also accused Montano's well-to-do friends, whom he identified as "Gucci Gang", of attempting to cover up the deed and striking back at him.[2] The blog has since become a major gossip topic in Philippines' capital city Manila, exposing its high-society youths' alleged freeloading lifestyle and addiction to cocaine.[3][4] It has also tested Philippine and Australian libel laws, and raised questions about the extent of freedom of speech in blogging..."

I even read that some international news agencies might pick this up. But man, the hits this guy is getting on his blog is phenomenal given that it's less than 2 weeks old.

Wonder if I could get hits like those. hehehe

Japan marvels at its Moon movies

Stunning high-definition movies of the Moon's surface have been sent back by a Japanese space probe.

Selene, or Kaguya, arrived at the Moon late last year and carries a large HDTV camera to shoot footage as it flies 100km above the lunar surface.

The video gives an idea of the vistas seen decades ago by the Apollo astronauts as they approached the Moon. ...

The moon. Japanese style. Not Philippine style. hehe. No robots or anime inspired characters. Just the magnificent moon. Looks real cool. Go check it out.

Australian Icon's burial site found

Scientists in Australia believe they have found the grave of 19th Century outlaw and national icon Ned Kelly.

His remains are thought to be among those of executed prisoners found on the site of an abandoned prison in the southern city of Melbourne...

...After two years on the run, police finally caught up with Ned Kelly and his gang.

The outlaw made his own armour by beating plough blades into shape and walked towards police with guns blazing. He was shot 20 times but survived....

So Australian outlaw Ned Kelly made his own body armor, Clint Eastwood did that same thing (well, almost..) in the movie by Sergio Leone, A Fistfull of Dollars.

If that movie seems a bit dated, well, Marty McFly copied Clint in Back To The Future Part III.

I wouldn't be surprised if someone also did the same in a Philippine movie.. hehe