Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Thursday, April 16, 2015

An Interview With One Championship's Ben Askren

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ONE Championship continues on its rapid expansion next Friday, as Manila plays host to one of the biggest sporting events this year. ONE: VALOR OF CHAMPIONS will feature ONE Welterweight Ben Askren defending his title for the first time against Luis Santos.

We sat down with Ben Askren ahead of his upcoming title defense to ask him some questions running through our heads before the big fight night on April 24.

We asked him what he thinks the people have to look forward to in his match with Santos, and he said his match will be the same as Suzuki’s. Santos' ground game will be a little bit better but not that much. He is confident he will take Santos down, pound him out, and have his hands raised and the belt wrapped around his waist.

When asked if he thinks Santos has anything new or more difficult to bring to the table, Asken believes there won't be anything new he can't handle. Even though he has 70 fights, Asken believes he is the one who brings something new to the table because he has a skillset that is unique that no one can really give him the feel of in practice. "So even with 70 fights, Santos is gonna have a tough time dealing with me" says Askren.

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Due to overwhelming public demand, Techbox Philippines will hold a second ‘Ultimate Nokia Sale’ on April 16-18 at 2299 Pasong Tamo Extension, Makati city.

About a month ago, Techbox Philippines offered a Nokia Sale where up to 80% discounts were offered to the public. Smartphones ranging from entry level to the sophisticated Lumias and Android handsets from Nokia were made available at an incredible low price, much to the public’s delight. Over 3000 Nokia handsets were sold on the last Nokia Sale, with thousands of people lining up to get their hands on the offerings.

“We thought it was the last hurrah – the final chance for Nokia enthusiasts to get smartphones with the Nokia brand on them, before Microsoft floods the market with their own handsets” said Angela Gutierrez, Business Unit Head for Techbox Philippines. “But after the sale, we were totally blown away by the compelling number of people who said they wished they didn’t miss their chance to get their Nokia phones. There were also a lot who knew of others who also wanted Nokias but for some reason weren’t able to come to our sale on those dates. The requests were just overwhelming,” added Angela.

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MTV, a unit of Viacom Inc., today announced the addition of two of the hottest West Coast hip hop acts to its performers’ line-up for MTV Music Evolution 2015 – Billboard Hot 100 hip hop artist, YG and award-winning DJ and producer, DJ Mustard, which currently includes Naughty by Nature, Gloc-9 and Abra.

Both YG and DJ Mustard are touted to bring some of the hottest new sounds to the hip hop scene with their West Coast flavour. They are no stranger to each other, as DJ Mustard is also YG’s main producer and has executive produced YG’s album, “My Krazy Life”. The first edition of MTV Music Evolution will be YG’s and DJ Mustard’s first performance in Asia.

Additionally, MTV announced it will be inviting Manila-based graffiti artists, Chichi Monster, Nick Automatic, Egg Fiasco and Chill to share their interpretation of music and street culture on four giant 3D MTV logo structures on Friday, 24 April 2015 at Eastwood Mall, Quezon City.

Thereafter, the completed 3D MTV logo art installations will pop up across different city hotspots in Manila, such as The Collective, Glorietta 4 and Quezon City Circle as part of the build up to the MTV Music Evolution 2015, before making its final display at the MTV Music Evolution event.

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New WD Purple NV 3.5-inch drives equipped for NVR Surveillance-system Environments

WD, a Western Digital company and storage industry leader, today introduced WD Purple NV, a purpose-built line of 3.5-inch, high-capacity 4 TB and 6 TB hard drives for the greater demands of scalable network video recorder (NVR) surveillance systems.

Compared with standard WD Purple drives, the new member of the WD’s surveillance video recording family of drives, WD Purple NV, is designed for larger-scale network surveillance systems utilizing higher hard drive bay counts and greater numbers of attached cameras, which demand increased storage capacity and durability. The new drives’ high capacities also enable long video retention periods for analysis and reference. WD Purple NV is also designed to withstand the demands of always-on digital NVR recording environments. It offers low power consumption and many advanced performance features typically reserved for higher end surveillance storage.

“The global video surveillance market is expanding with the increased accessibility to easy-to-use systems for small businesses and municipalities,” said Matt Rutledge, senior vice president of HDD marketing at WD. “WD optimized the WD Purple NV line of hard drives for NVR digital surveillance systems to improve high-definition video playback for high-camera-count applications. NVR surveillance systems can produce incredible amounts of data which makes the WD Purple NV hard drives a perfect solution for NVR systems needing high quality recording and playback and high capacity storage.”

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Vote for Your Favorite Act via SMS, Facebook and the Asia’s Got Talent App

Asia’s Got Talent, the biggest contest in the world, is heating up with the first of three semi-final episodes kicking off on AXN tonight at 8:05pm.

The first eight semi-finalists, who were painstakingly selected by celebrity judges, David Foster, Anggun, Van Ness Wu and Melanie C last week, will give it their all in the hope of winning the AXN audience’s vote to advance to the Grand Finals on May 7 at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

Viewers can vote for their favorite act in one of three ways: SMS, Facebook and the “Asia’s Got Talent” mobile app. Voting opens after the broadcast of each semi-final episode and will remain open for four days. Full details on how to vote can be found on the Asia’s Got Talent website: http://asiasgottalent.tv/vote/

Tonight’s semi-final episode of Asia’s Got Talent promises a diverse and dazzling evening of entertainment as contestants include the crowd-pleasing, tambourine playing entertainer “Gonzo” from Japan; the breathtaking acrobatic duo Gao Lin and Liu Xin from China; Three singing brothers from Indonesia; and 10 year-old guitar-playing pop star, Gwen, from the Philippines.

Check out all of the semi-finalists performing tonight here: http://asiasgottalent.tv/semifinalists/

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With its aim to provide small and medium enterprises (SMEs) a venue to explore their options for growth, PLDT SME Nation hosted Tech Island 2.0 in Ocean Adventure, Subic. Industry leaders, business owners, and IT professionals gathered for the two-day event held from April 15 to 16 for discussions, workshops, and knowledge sharing on how to communicate in the digital sphere.

Tech Island 2.0 opened its first day to key business owners in a high-level forum that established the changing digital landscape in the Philippines. With the theme “Transformational Leadership in the Digital Era”, PLDT Executive Vice President and Head of Enterprise and International and Carrier Business Eric Alberto shared his insights on what it means to ride the waves of the increasingly digital world for SMEs to remain competitive in the market. Key speakers included Rappler’s Chief Executive Maria Ressa on her experience in taking Rappler to uncharted digital territories, and the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines’ Cardinal Luis Tagle on the responsibility that users and businesses need to take in maximizing the potential of the digital world. Alberto, Tagle, and Golden ABC’s President and CEO Bernie Liu also engaged on a panel discussion about what it means to be a transformational leader in the digital era.

A larger gathering of around 1,000 members of IT professionals, business owners, and developers took place on the second day for a plenary and workshops with some of the country’s top technology brands. Kicking off with the theme “Mastering the Digital Wave”, the talks aimed to bring businesses from the traditional to the digital scene with the use of the latest products and services that can empower SMEs.

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This month, Discovery Channel is finding out if it is ever possible to shortcut your way to the top. Each week, professional hustler Alexis Conran takes on three intense challenges against world class prodigies and experts to see if he can find a way to beat them at their own game – without going through years of hard work and training. MAN V EXPERT airs on Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m., beginning April 22 on Discovery Channel.

In MAN V EXPERT, Alexis endeavors to best a world champion angler, race a Slovakian rowing powerhouse, out-remember a memory champion, and win against England’s best-ever penalty taker. Alexis is also competing in a cook-off with a Michelin-starred chef, and attempts escaping an expert tracker, amongst others.

In any normal head-to-head contest, Alexis would not stand a chance—but he travels the world to look into science and technology, and will occasionally call on his con know-how in an attempt to come out on top. Driven by his ultra-competitive nature and desire to win at all costs, Alexis does not give up until he thinks he has a way to be victorious. He then shares the techniques and tricks used in his attempt to beat the expert.

MAN V EXPERT’s first episode encores on Thursday, April 23 at 2:00 p.m., and on Monday, April 27 at 7:00 a.m.

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Ocean Park Hong Kong has unveiled yet another exciting attraction, this time putting the spotlight on the best of South Australian wildlife in “Adventures in Australia”. The first-ever South-Australian theme park in Hong Kong, Adventures in Australia provides an immersive walk-through of the land down under featuring distinctive animals including koalas, red-necked wallabies and laughing kookaburras!
Mr. Leo Kung, Chairman of Ocean Park, today was joined by the Honourable John Tsang Chun-wah, GBM, JP, Financial Secretary, HKSAR; His Excellency the Honourable Hieu Van Le AO, Governor of South Australia; the Honourable Jay Weatherill, Premier of South Australia; Mr. Farhan Faruqui, Chief Executive Officer International Banking, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) and other guests to officiate the opening of Hong Kong’s first-ever attraction themed on South Australia – Adventures in Australia presented by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ).

Starting tomorrow, guests can visit the new exhibit to encounter animals unique to South Australia, including southern koalas, red-necked wallabies and laughing kookaburras in a setting reminiscent of the South Australia outback. Through the immersive walk-through experience, guests will be inspired to contribute to the sustainable future of the planet by practising LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability). Ocean Park today also announced that a female koala was given the name of “Yani” in accordance with the result of the extremely popular Koala Naming Campaign.

Other guests of honour at today’s ceremony included Miss Cathy Chu, Commissioner for Tourism of HKSAR; Dr. Peter Lam, Chairman of Hong Kong Tourism Board; Ms. Ivy Au Yeung, Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited; and representatives from the South Australia government and Cleland Wildlife Park.

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Madrid Fusión, one of the largest culinary events in the world, will make its debut in the Philippines as part of Visit the Philippines Year (VPY) 2015 through the efforts of the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Tourism Promotions Board (TPB). Madrid Fusión Manila is set to take place on 24 – 26 April 2015 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

Madrid Fusion Manila will have three simultaneous events: the International Gastronomy Congress, Trade Exhibit, and Flavors of the Philippines. A notable roster of Michelin-starred Spanish chefs and distinguished Asian and Filipino chefs will demonstrate modern and avant-garde techniques at the Congress.

At the Trade Exhibit, which will happen alongside the Congress, the Department of Agriculture (DA) will be promoting native products listed under the Slow Food Foundation’s Ark of Taste, a collection of rare productions that belong to the cultures, history, and traditions of the world. “These food products were included in the list precisely because they are produced in the Philippines. The manner by which these products are prepared reflects the traditional knowledge of Filipinos, passed down through generations,” said DA Undersecretary Bernadette Romulo-Puyat.

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