Piercing Pens

I just opened an e-mail from Carlos Conde of NUJP informing members of his PinoyPress group of another sad news in the media community: A young photojournalist in Mindanao was killed yesterday.

If you’re a Palm user who’s still sore about George Bush’s reelection, here’s something you could vent your frustration on: PortaBush!

It’s a tamagotchi-type program for Palm devices that lets you “control” the world’s most powerful–and most notorious–man.

A not-so-new hilarious software, I first learned about it at the m-ph editors’ blog.

Here’s a description of PortaBush from Handango.com:

“… You will always reap what you sow!” –Galatians 6:7

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday turned over an initial P221 million check from Pag-IBIG Fund to El Shaddai leader and Amvel Land Development Corporation chairman Mike Velarde. The check is part of a P353 million loan– reportedly the biggest loan ever from Pag-IBIG fund–granted to Velarde for the the construction Amvel’s condominium towers.

This photo from the Office of the Press secretary shows Arroyo and Velarde with Vice President and Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council chair Noli de Castro.

The Mozilla Foundation today released Firefox 1.0, the first major new product release since the Mozilla Suite’s 1.0 in June of 2002. Firefox 1.0 is the completion of roughly 2 years of work on the revolutionary new browser, which has raised the Mozilla Foundation’s profile greatly in its year of existance. The release follows up the hugely successful Preview Release which had over eight million downloads.

Included in the release is a new start page which was formulated from user research including the home page poll taken here. Futhermore, the release will feature over a dozen localized builds released at the same time as the main English build, a first for the Foundation. In coming days, the Foundation expects at least a dozen more to be available.

As of this writing, the world awaits for news about Angelito Nayan who was abducted together with two other election volunteers in Afghanistan. The deadline set by the Jaish-al Muslimeen, a Taliban splinter group has expired hours ag0 but there has been been no information yet on the hostages’ fate. Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas has expressed her high hopes that Nayan will be released since the Philippines have not deployed any troops to Afghanistan.

Robert Tarongoy, on the other hand, the OFW kidnapped by Iraqi rebels, has been reportedly released alongside Nepalese hostage Yunus Kawari. The Nepal government has confirmed the release of Kawari but officials here are careful to give any information on Tarongoy, a policy they have learned since Sec. Sto. Tomas’ too early announcement of Angelo dela Cruz’ release.

Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casino voted “no” on House Bill 3174 which seeks to increase the excise taxes on alcohol and tobacco products. He claims to proposed law is “not serious” in its aim to increase tax revenues and prevent tobacco and alcohol use. He suspects his colleagues were pressured by the big players in the tobacco and alcohol industries intro railroading a kinder version of the proposed law. Because of this he was also unable to introduce an amendment that would seek to earmark for health and social services proceeds from the tax measure.

Here is his explanation:

Journalist death toll reaches eight in the Philippines

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, has today called for the Philippines Government to investigate the murder of journalist Eldy Gabinales and to halt the growing journalist death toll.

According to information provided by the IFJ affiliate, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP), radio commentator Eldy Gabinales, also known as Eldy Sablas, was killed today, 19 October 2004 in Tandag, Surigao del Sur.