The country used to own the latest air vehicles in the past but seemed to have stagnated in the past decades. The government might have seen the importance of having their own equipment in times of chaos and will not just depend on any other foreign help.

During times of disputes the recent claims of territorial islands and similar property issues, the country needs to display a strong armed forces so that no one could just simply belittle our capacity to defend ourselves.

The budget for the said acquisition is at approximately Php 18 billion and the contract may be completed by the end of February.

Strengthening the Air Force department is just one way ensuring everyone that living in the Philippines is safe and secure.

“This is good news and we at the PAF is very excited at this development considering our preponderance for internal defense for the past 11 years”, said PAF spokesman Colonel Miguerl Ernesto Okol.

This is an indication that the country is slowly getting up and sooner or later would be able to improve its overall status.

Although it was made sure that there were no oil leaks, there is a possibility that par of the reef obtained a slight damage. In an official statement that they released, they’ve already informed the Philippine government and assistance is already on its way.

The US embassy didn’t mention the cause of the incident but could be due to misnavigation as the ship was supposedly based in southern Japan’s Sasebo. They just assured everyone that all of the ship’s crew are safe.

The Tubattaha Reef is located 130 kilometres southeast of Sulu, in the southern Philippines and is known of be one of the world’s most visited diving site. It is one of the reasons why Philippines real estate for sale is of the most profitable businesses in the country.

Philippines is an archipelago and it is composed of a numerous beautiful islands surrounded by jaw-dropping beaches and all other natural wonders.

Whatever damage the US ship caused should be paid accordingly because they happen to destroy a natural sanctuary which is very precious and considered to be priceless.

Microsoft started the fight when it came up with a ad for its Bing search engine “to highlight Bing’s commitment to honest search results.”

Microsoft attacks Google Shopping’s ‘pay-to-rank” practice, informing web users the inherent danger involved in its online transaction. To do this, the company developed a web page called “Scroogled” which describes how Google has changed its policy of including paid ads in its search results.

“Google Shopping is nothing more than a list of targeted ads that unsuspecting customers assume are search results,” the Redmond based company says. Google announced earlier this year it would overhaul its product search to become a shopping service with paid listings. Apparently, this move eliminated notable merchants like Amazon.

Google said it finished the switch October 17 in the US, and will be rolling out the same model in Britain, Germany, France, Japan, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Brazil, Australia and Switzerland.

Microsoft vs Google
Image Credit: Talkandroid.com

“We think this will bring the same high-quality shopping experience to people – and positive results to merchants – around the world,” a Google blog posting said.

Microsoft is promoting its campaign online and offline with ads “demonstrating why consumers should be concerned and helping them take action” on the Google shift, a Microsoft statement said.

“We’re also calling on Google to stop this ‘pay-to-rank’ system for their shopping results and give shoppers what they expect – an honest search.”

Google argues that merchants will not see its rank increase by simply by paying more, and that sellers who have a financial stake in the results will keep their information up to date.

“Google Shopping makes it easier for shoppers to quickly find what they’re looking for, compare different products and connect with merchants to make a purchase,” said an email from a Google spokeswoman.

But some analysts say both companies are less than clear about how their shopping engines work, and that Microsoft is not blameless.

Danny Sullivan, analyst with the website Search Engine Land, said of the Microsoft effort: “Great campaign, if it were true. It’s not. Bing itself does the same things it accuses Google of.”

Sullivan told AFP that “at least Google has the fine print that you can read; Microsoft doesn’t have it at all.”
Microsoft, according to Sullivan, does not include new merchants from Bing product results results if they don’t compensate for its inclusion with its partner, Shopping.com, even though this is not fully transparent to consumers.
“Payment is a factor for ranking,” in Bing, said Sullivan, who argues that Microsoft’s campaign is deceptive.

Microsoft said its own shopping results through Bing are not influenced by payment.

“Bing includes millions of free listings from merchants and rankings are determined entirely by which products are most relevant to your query,” said Stefan Weitz, senior director at Bing, in an emailed statement.

“While merchants can pay fees for inclusion on our third party shopping sites and subsequently may appear in Bing Shopping through partnerships we have, we do not rank merchants higher based on who pays us, nor do we let merchants pay to have their product offers placed higher in Bing Shopping’s search results.”

Sullivan argues that Google, ironically, may have moved to paid listings to deflect attention from regulators and others who complain it had been skewing its search results.

“If you have people complaining you search results are unfair, you can turn them into ads,” he said.

But Sullivan noted that Google merely adopted the same policies of most shopping sites, which use paid listings even if they appear to be an impartial search.

The overall message from the latest row, according to Sullivan: “You need to shop around. Use multiple search engines. All of them that suggest that they are gathering stuff from across the Web but may not be doing that.”

There are movies that have been consistent through the years but the winners were never been predictable. Over the years, entries are becoming world class just like the movie “Thy Womb” wherein the lead actress Nora Aunor grabbed the Best Actress award so as the Best Director nod for Brilliante Mendoza. The movie was able to make it to the Cannes Festival and a lot more award giving bodies in the international film industry. The movie didn’t only showcase the acting skills of the superstar but also showed to the world the actual Philippine living situation.

Other entries like “El Presidente” grabbed the most number of awards but the comedy film “Sisterakas” won the heart of the viewers by being the top grosser with more than 100 million worth of ticket sales on its first three days.

The film “One More Try” won the best picture and lead actor Dingdong Dantes won the Best Actor award.

Here is the complete list of winners:

Best Float:
“El Presidente”

Youth Choice Award:
“El Presidente”

Best Child Star:
Miguel Vergara, “One More Try”

Best Sound:
Michael Idioma, “El Presidente”

Best Musical Score:
Jessie Lazatin, “El Presidente”

Best Theme Song:
apl.de.ap and Jamir Garcia, “El Presidente”

Best Make-up:
Warren Munar, “El Presidente” by Warren Munar and company.

Best Special Fffects:
“Shake, Rattle & Roll 14: The Invasion”

Best Production Design:
Brillante Mendoza, “Thy Womb”

Best Editing:
Vito Kahili, “One More Try”

Best Cinematography:
Odyssey Flores, “Thy Womb”

Best Supporting Actor:
Cesar Montano, “El Presidente”

Best Supporting Actress:
Wilma Doesnt, “Sisterakas”

Best Original Story:
Henry Burgos, “Thy Womb”

Best Screenplay:
Anna Ramos, “One More Try”

Best Director:
Brillante Mendoza, “Thy Womb”

Best Actress:
Nora Aunor, “Thy Womb”

Best Actor:
Dingdong Dantes, “One More Try”

3rd Best Picture:
“Sisterakas

2nd Best Picture:
“El Presidente”

Best Picture:
“One More Try”

Being one of the sellers of Bushmaster, Walmart paid respect to the wake of the poor victims by removing the item in their online store. Although they didn’t directly disclose the reason of the removal, the intention is somewhat clear.

Gun sales in the past few months shoot up because they are thinking that Obama would revise the laws covering gun ownership or gun control laws in his second term.

After the Connecticut incident, gun sales might drop low and maybe those that are inclined in the business would start looking for another investment like security agency, investment opportunities in the Philippines and similar things.

Gun’s main purpose is to kill, whether for protection or otherwise. Bearer of guns should be responsible enough for that small piece of metal because within seconds, it can take away a precious life.

Her story is inspiring as she used the criticisms thrown at her to change her figure and lose weight from 186 to 120 pounds. That is 66 pounds in just a one year period. Definitely remarkable!

Before her remarkable lost of weight, she was used to hear the words ‘fat’ and ‘fat head’ being thrown at her.”Everybody at school would call me names. They would call me fatty, they would call me fat head,” Breanna said.

Breanna Bond Before and After Losing 66 Pounds of Weight
Image Credit: WebProNews

In a recent interview with “Good Morning America”, her mom Heidi Bond told how she have her daughter tested for any abnormality: “Her pediatrician always said that she’d grow into her body and then, after a while, we went and got other doctors’ opinions. We had her tested for everything from thyroid to diabetes – her endocrinology got tested – allergies, and everything came out fine so we knew at that point we had to step things up.”

Upon learning that everything is normal, Breanna’s parents began their plan for their 9-year old daughter to lose weight. With the support from her parents, Breanna dramatically changed her diet limiting her fat intake to 20 grams per day, hopped on the treadmill for over an hour and 15 minutes every day and joined swim and basketball teams. Together as a family, they also began to walk the 4-mile trail near their home.

“There was nothing that stopped us. We went at night, in the rain, in the hail, in the fog, nothing. We had a zero-tolerance policy. We’re doing the walk, no matter what,” Breanna’s mother, Heidi, said.

True enough, Breanna’s determination and will to lose weight paid off. In less than a year she lost a total of 66 pounds!

“She is an inspiration to the world and all children who are having weight issues across America, that you can do it with a pair of tennis shoes and motivation,” Heidi Bond said.

The results of their studies which were published in PLos One, found out that by looking at few variables such as the child’s birth weight and whether the mother smoked, they could easily predict a child’s probability of being obese using a formula.

The formula considers numerous factors to approximate the risk of obesity in children.

It was previously thought that genes played a bigger role to later weight problems. However, scientists found out that only one in 10 cases of obesity is the result of a rare gene mutation that affects appetite.

Children Obesity
Image Credit: Omnimedcenter.com

Professor Philippe Froguel from Imperial College London, who led the study, said that prevention was the best course of action to prevent childhood obesity. Once obese, a child can find it difficult to lose weight.

Froguel told about the equation: “The equation is based on data everyone can obtain from a newborn, and we found it can predict around 80% of obese children.Unfortunately, public prevention campaigns have been rather ineffective at preventing obesity in school-age children. Teaching parents about the dangers of overfeeding and bad nutritional habits at a young age would be much more effective. The message is simple. All at-risk children should be identified, monitored and given good advice, but this costs money.”

Another childhood specialist from Leeds Metropolitan University supported Froguel’s ewuation. Professor Paul Gately, said a tool like this would help the NHS target individuals at risk rather than the “scattergun one-size-fits-all approach, which we know does not work”.

“Rather than spending money on a huge number of people, we can be more specific and spend appropriately. We may not save money in the short-term but it will be spent more wisely and could reduce [obesity-related] NHS bills in the future. We’ve done a great job of outlining that obesity is a serious issue but we have made the general public paranoid that everyone is at risk. Tools like this will help change that attitude. Once we use the tool, we need intervention programmes for children at a greater risk.”

This has been the scenario in the video prank currently being dubbed as the ‘scariest elevator prank’ set up by Programa Silvio Santos, a TV show in Brazil which known for “fairly run-of-the-mill hidden camera gags like ‘Magnetic Soup’ and ‘Pig Grinder’.

The Youtube video entitled “Extremely Scary Ghost Elevator Prank in Brazil” uploaded by dogproduction has become viral and currently has over 22 million views.

“Scariest” Ghost Girl Elevator Prank
Image Credit: Youtube/ Silvio Santos Program

A middle-aged woman who came inside a building can be seen in the first part of the video. She was then welcomed by the receptionist of the building and guided her towards the elevator. After the elevator has reached a certain number of floors, the lights started flickering until it turned off.

While the lights were turned off, a little girl which resembles “Sadako” of the hit movie ‘The Ring’ came in from a small door at the back, holding a baby doll. When the lights finally came back, the little girl was now inside the elevator looking at the woman. As the woman felt scared and unease trying to push button to open the elevator, the little girl horribly screamed at her causing her to scream too in horror. Soon, the lights turned off again and the little girl was gone when the lights went back.

The scenario went on for the rest of the victims in the video. At one point, the receptionist can be seen near the elevator and laughed while listening to the scream of the victims.

Watch the video below and let me know if you’re scared to death or you laughed on top of your lungs.

Brian Hoyt, senior writer for coupon code site RetailMeNot.com, says that the best way to find the best deals is to make a list of the items, check reviews, and compare prices at various stores. Then look for coupon codes for further savings. Try to avoid shipping costs and visit the retailers’ Facebook fan page by liking them or following their tweets on Twitter. Some of the best deals are only available to their avid fans online.

Here’s a walkthrough of some of the best deals offered by various retailers this Cyber Monday 2012:

Cyber Monday Deals 2012
Image Credit: Foxnews.com

WALMART

Walmart is offering a “Cyber Week” starting at Small Business Saturday, November 24 until Sunday, December 2 offering as much as $1,000 savings on popular gifts online, including electronics, toys, video games and more. Shop at Walmart.com

BEST BUY

Best Buy is offering a 2-day sale from Sunday, November 25 up to Cyber Monday, November 26. There will be a free $25 savings code with store pick up on purchases of $250 or more. The savings code will be e-mailed to shoppers four to seven days after order has been picked up in store. Shop at BestBuy.com

KOHLS

Kohls Cyber Monday deals start on Saturday, November 24 and extend until Tuesday, November 27. There will be a 20 percent off on entire purchases at Kohls.com and free standard shipping on all online purchases. They are also offering $15 in Kohls cash for every $50 spent.

To excite customers, Kohls is also launching its “Dream Receipt” program where one winner will be picked every day from November 23 to December 24 in all of Kohls stores nationwide. Lucky winners will be able to shop for free as Kohls will pay for their entire purchase!

JC Penney

JC Penney is offering free shipping on all purchases with no minimum amount on its Cyber Monday deals from November 25, Sunday to November 26, Monday.

To kick start Christmas, the retailer is also offering early Christmas savings through its pin buttons where winners can avail of free vacation. Shoppers can get these buttons from a JC Penney team member at any register starting Black Friday until the night of Christmas eve. They will then need to find the 7-digit code at the back of each button. To find out if they’ve won, they need to enter the code at jcp.com/christmas up to two codes each day.

MACY’S

Macy’s is offering a 15% off for its shoppers this Cyber Monday by using the promo code CYBER. The sale is only good until Monday only.

SEARS

Sears is offering its Cyber Monday deals until Wednesday, November 28 at 6:59am CT. Highlights include a NordicTrack elliptical machine for only $500 (that’s $400 off savings), up to 50% off outerwear, and a Brenham 8? billard table for $470 ($430 off).

AMAZON

Cyber Monday deals won’t be complete without Amazon, the largest online retailer. Amazon calls it as “Cyber Monday Deals Week”. The online retailer is offering a $200 Amazon Gift Card with the purchase of select Ultrabooks and as much as 60 percent off a Panasonic VIERA 55-inch TV that’s usually priced higher than $1,000. Head on to Amazon.com for more of the hottest deals.

Macy’s will be opening its doors at 1 a.m. on Black Friday, November 23, 2012 offering a huge collection of discounted items from kitchen appliances, bags, home and bedroom accessories, clothes and jewelries.

Some of the items are marked down as low as $9.99 only which is very suitable to your budget needs. Below are some of them:

-> Tommy Hilfiger Mens Boxers (Assorted Styles)
-> Alfani Mens Tees (Assorted Styles)
-> Bella 12-Cup Coffee Maker
-> Black & Decker 2-Slice Toaster
-> Black & Decker Rice Cooker
-> Black & Decker Quick Press Iron (AS75)
-> Dirt Devil Hand-Held Vacuum
-> Platinum R/C Spinning Monster Car
-> Polaroid Headphones (Assorted Styles)

In addition to the bargained items, Macy’s is also offering more savings through its printable Black Friday coupons.

An After Thanksgiving Sale WOW! PASS coupon from Macy’s will provide you an extra $10 off from purchases of $25 or more. An additional savings of up to 15% can also be availed when you use your Savings Pass.

Note however, that these coupons are limited to one per customer and can only be used on until 1 p.m. on Black Friday or the next day, Saturday, November 24, 2012 until 1 p.m.

Macy’s WOW! Pass Black Friday Coupon
Image Credit: Macys.com

Check out the 20-page Macy’s Black Friday 2012 ad scan below. Browse at pages 17 and 18 for more printable Black Friday coupons to avail more savings.