Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Hack the Climate: Manila - The Longest Hackathon in the Philippines

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"....we found ourselves staying up late in our common room discussing the possibilities of using technology as a tool for social justice, especially as it relates to the climate crisis. We wondered, what if the same energy that went into the development of YouTube or LinkedIn was applied to conservation, recycling or disaster relief?
Hackathons could provide the venue for coordinating grassroots efforts to create technology that solves the climate problem" -Jacob Scheer and Miguel Lachanski

"Hack the Climate: Manila" will soon be the longest hackathon happening in the Philippines. This is a coding marathon aiming to create an app (mobile/web/hardware) that can be used by an NGO whose main advocacy is to respond to the Climate Change problem such as Move.ph, Greenpeace, ReDraw the Line, WWF and others.

"The climate problem is complex and technological innovations, especially mobile applications will be instrumental in solving many of the challenges particular to the Philippines. The hackathon is designed to support the development of applications that include but are not limited to: day-to-day decision making (i.e. adjusting to shifting agricultural zones), crisis management (finding a hospital/food during extreme weather events like Typhoon Haiyan), or long-term adaptation efforts (migration away from rising sea level)."

The organizers target to get at least 250 to 300 Tech Rockstars to launch a technology that could help our country in responding to Climate Change.

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Ballet Philippines, the country’s premier classical and contemporary dance company proudly announces its 45th Anniversary – The Sapphire Season as it celebrates 45 years of sharing the gift of dance.

The exciting line-up of productions is as follows:

Agnes Locsin’s LA REVOLUCION FILIPINA
CCP Main Theater | July 25-27, 2014

Hailed by critics as “poignant and powerful,” Agnes Locsin’s modern dance masterpiece returns to celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of its lead character - Apolinario Mabini, the paraplegic, ‘brains of the Katipunan’.

Winner of Outstanding Dance Production and Outstanding Choreography for Agnes Locsin at the 2008 Gawad Buhay! Awards

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What is Tabang Tambayan?

Tabang is a Visayan word that means tulong in Tagalog and help in English. Tambayan is a Tagalog word, translated in english as a comfi (comfortable) place.

Tabang Tambayan is a project by The Silver Lining Project, Primarch Entertainment, SparkMyIdeas, individual organizers, Kamilla Sumagui, Bryan Favorito, Jansie Hernandez and Kris Garcia, and several volunteers. It is a series of events, whether gigs or workshops, aimed to bring together artists and artisans from the creative and music industries to pool together their talents as a means of providing assistance to our Yolanda survivors.

Together with beneficiaries, the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary-401 Squadron, PCGA-Coron and AirJuan, the fundraising drive is for the Relief-Rehab-Rebuild of the project's adopted community and barangay, Sitio Maricaban in Coron, Palawan.

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Members of the Travel & Tourism industry are being asked to participate in a new World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) campaign to help change the perception of a career in the sector.

People are being asked to create their own 15 second videos to explain why they love working in Travel & Tourism. Chris Nassetta, President & CEO of Hilton Worldwide is joined by other Industry leaders including Raymond Bickson, CEO of Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces and Thulani Nzima, CEO of South Africa Tourism in kicking off the Instagram campaign, which is intended to demonstrate the career opportunities available.

The campaign comes on the back of new research from WTTC*, which shows that Travel & Tourism holds opportunities for job creation to address the youth unemployment and gender inequality issues faced by countries across the world. The findings show that the sector employs a higher proportion of women and young people compared with the workforce as a whole. The high proportion of youth in the industry is forecast to remain the case for the next ten years.

However, serious challenges have been identified, when it comes to the understanding and profile of the sector**. As David Scowsill, President & CEO, WTTC explains, people need to be persuaded to consider Travel & Tourism as a career option; “Travel & Tourism helps transport people to all corners of the world, immerse them in different cultures and experiences and provides a livelihood to millions worldwide. It’s a fantastic Industry to work in but we need to increase awareness of career opportunities. Graduates need to be moved away from always only considering banking or finance or law as careers with opportunities for progression and security and see Travel & Tourism as an excellent career option. We believe this campaign can play its part in doing that”.

Sumilon Island, Cebu: The Epson Fusion 5 Media Appreciation Adventure

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Epson Philippines Corporation (EPC), one of my favorite technology brands, recently announced some really great news during its annual Media Appreciation Activity dubbed as Fusion and already on its 5th year, held last May 21 to 23, 2014 at Bluewater Resort of Sumilon Island, Cebu. The island is located at the southeastern tip of the Cebu mainland so it was just a boat ride away from Cebu, but about 4 to 5 hours drive away from the Cebu city airport. This was why we chose to take the Dumaguete flight so it will be less time-consuming to travel from Dumaguete to the Sumilon Island.

Several members of the media were among the first ones to hear about Epson's accomplishments for the past year as the No. 1 brand in three different categories namely projectors, inkjet printers, and dot matrix printers. Epson also unveiled 14 new products from four (4) different categories including: Visual Instruments (VI)/Projectors, Inkjet Printers, Commercial & Industrial (C&I) and, Business Systems.

Epson remains the undisputed leader in the dot matrix printer category, with a market share of 97%, it retained its Value (US$) Share Leadership in the Inkjet hardcopy peripherals (printer) market category with 33.1% share in 2013, and achieved the No.1 position in the projector category with a 31.84% market share.

But that announcement was just the tip of the iceberg with regards to a lot of other things to celebrate namely our adventure lined-up within the three days we will be spending starting off from the Sumilon island. Epson may have conquered the said technical categories, but we are set to conquer some water-related activities soon. The Epson management were excited to share with us their wonderful "stats," but we were actually more thrilled to begin our adventure in Cebu and relieve our body of some of our unwanted "fats."

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Officials of the Department and Transportation and Communications (DOTC), led by Secretary Jun Abaya, made full disclosures at the Congress investigation on the alleged Metro Rail Transit III (MRT-3) extortion attempt this morning, as promised by Abaya last week.

"We promised that we would be transparent, so we made full disclosure to Congress. We at the DOTC have nothing to hide, and are as interested as anyone else in uncovering irregularities, if indeed there were any," said Abaya.

It was revealed during the hearing of the House of Representatives (HOR) Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability that the MRT-3 maintenance contract which was awarded to CB&T was made to ensure the safety of its passengers.

"Safety is always our priority. That is our commitment to the public. We resorted to the simplied emergency bidding procedure so as not to compromise passenger safety," Abaya remarked.

This situation arose due to the refusal of the Metro Rail Transit Corporation (MRTC) - the private company which owns the facilities of the MRT-3 - to renew its maintenance contract with Sumitomo of Japan in 2012. The Emergency Procurement mode is provided for under Republic Act No. 9184 or the Procurement Law.

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Hashtag #MYOH2014 is an exclusive Make Your Own Havaianas 2014 event for the loyal Havaianaticos! Calling all footie fans! Havaianas has been touring around the Philippines to proudly bring you closer to Havaianas - the best rubber flip-flops in the world from Brazil!

Right in the middle of the summer season comes the colorful event that was open to the anticipating public from May 8 to 11, 2014 at Glorietta Activity Center. But a media launch was held last May 6 at the same venue where we spotted celebrities like Elmo and Arkin Magalona (along with their mom), Kathryn Bernardo, Azkal brothers Phil and James Younghusband, Lauren Young, the family of Maricel Laxa and Anthony Pangilinan, Janeena Chan, were celebrating with the crowd in true Brazilian style along with some Samba beats at the background, the cultural dance numbers and beautiful Portuguese speaking models that made a glorious noise inside the Glorietta Activity Center.

At the public launch, we caught a glimpse of popular faces like Sam Pinto, Vanessa Matsunaga, the Ateneo Lady Eagles, Daphne Oseña-Paez, Denise Laurel, couples Billy Crawford and Coleen Garcia, and a lot more, during the biggest four days of Brazilian flip-flops customization. Guess who else were also head over heels mixing and matching soles, straps, and pins of their Havaianas flip-flops?! There's too many of them to list down in just one blog post!

Swensen's Philippines Opens New Branch at The Block of SM North EDSA

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Our family has always been a fan of ice cream. Then again, who isn’t right? Living in a tropical country, it is almost a given that people here enjoy a bite of ice cream every now and then. However, there are only a few places here that sells quality ice cream. Thankfully, Swensen's came over and our problem of finding great ice cream has been solved.

My family and I enjoy going to Swensen's after dinner. It’s a great thing that they now have 3 branches. One is in Mall of Asia, the other is in Eastwood, and the newest one is located in SM North The Block which just opened recently and was formally launched last May 14, 2014. They have everything covered from the South to the North.

My son’s personal favorite is the Strawberry Sundae Parfait. He love the glass that they use. You see he’s very particular about presentation and the glass used for parfait. He feel that if its the wrong one, the experience is diminished if not broken. He also loves that they ensure that the banana is always fresh. It matters. No one wants a soggy banana on their sundae.

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"Dito ang sarap maging pamilya" at the Jollibee Family Bee Day grand picnic where the langhap-sarap goodness of Jollibee burgers, fries, and other treats exploded all over the place as many families enjoyed the true Pinoy taste that has even toppled the other fastfood chain giants of other countries.

Along with hundreds of families, my friends and I joined the festivities at the Quirino Grandstand of Manila one perfectly good afternoon that drizzled a bit like it the event was being blessed by the heavens. This is where I saw again more than one of their very familiar mascots like Twirlie, Mr. Yum and of course that big jolly bee that couldn't even sting but could only dance and give away burgers and fries especially to the kids.

Many other families converged in five different venues across the country and enjoyed a fun-filled afternoon during Jollibee’s Family Bee Day, dubbed as the grandest picnic ever!

Held simultaneously at the Quirino Grandstand in Metro Manila, Bayanihan Park in Pampanga, Nuvali football grounds in Laguna, Plaza Independencia in Cebu and Crocodile Park in Davao, the event was highlighted by performances from topnotch celebrity guests, live bands, side attractions and overflowing Jollibee treats.

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Nowhere does the cultural heritage of the Americas - the delineating design of popular culture—come more alive than in a classic pair of Lee Jeans. Inherited in the brands DNA is 125 years of craftsmanship, innovation and purposeful design. Lee Jeans has created history in ways that we see, wear and experience denim now. To celebrate this more-than-a-century of inventing functional fashion, the “Lee Archive Tour”, was created - a curated collection of iconic Lee pieces - to tour around the Asia-Pacific region starting with Beijing, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, India and Australia.

Building the exhibit from the ground up, the two-storey contemporary metal-and-wood structure will first be constructed in Glorietta and deconstructed to be put up again in Robinson’s Place Ermita and then to SM Mall of Asia. The Lee Archives serves not so much as a museum as a chronicle of fashion firsts, denim die-hards will see where much of the current jean innovations started from.

The exhibition space opens with a visual play on repetition: at attention are 125 limited edition “Buddy Lee” dolls wearing customized and shrunken to proportion 101+ denim replicas—complete with miniature hardware and stitch detail. “Buddy Lee”, 92 years old and cherubic faced as ever is the brands mascot and has been since 1922. In the earlier days, Buddy was used as an advertising product, a convenient traveling tool to showcase new styles but now he’s more of the brand’s symbol of heritage and an endearing icon for Lee.