My week has been hell: three long stories to finish and the deadline was last week. I’m a rebel. But really, one can never be too busy for YouTube. Awesome ad.

They must have loved that plane very much.

The Philippine Senate never fails to amuse me. As a background, yesterday, the Senate Committee of the Whole met to discuss a fellow senator’s (Sen. Manny Villar) alleged unethical conduct for “inserting” an additional P200-million in the 2008 national budget. The budget was used for the construction of a road that would pass through his property which thereby hiked up the value of his real estate. Those supporting and against Villar met head-to-head.

This mudslinging is entertaining as it is exasperating. And to think that Sen. Miriam-Defensor Santiago was out sick. That woman can give a soundbite.

Jump to 2:46.

Gloves come off in Senate session

Sen. Roxas: I say no. I had no insertion on any matter. In fact, I have no insertion, period. Because we’re in the minority! Let alone an insertion for a road to pass through any such property.

Sen. Pimentel: Well, well, I am sure that after your marriage, you had some insertions.

Pimentel FTW!

Jay Leno is an old hoot. I hope they release Conan’s seven months on The Tonight Show on DVD. It would be the fifth original DVD I would buy. If Triumph The Insult Comic Dog comes out with one, I’d definitely buy one…to poop on.

Conan’s Final Goodbye and a Look Back

On Conan’s last show last Friday (Saturday in Manila), one of his final guests, Tom Hanks, walked out into the show with the Beatle’s song Lovely Rita being played by The Tonight Show Band. According to Late Night with Jimmy Fallon house band leader Questlove, NBC paid $500,000 to play that song. It’s called royalties, or in this case, sticking it to the man.

“Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.”

Just a year old, Manor Superclub has already gained a cult following in the metro’s party scene, with partyphiles, and until recently, call center agents, entering its glass doors three nights a week, from 10pm to five in the morning. According to Erik Cua, operations director, Manor is “the premiere dance club in the Philippines with three areas where people can go to unwind, meet new people, and dance the night away.”

Launched in January of 2009 from the people behind the metro’s top clubs, Manor Superclub has gained notoriety among the country’s club-hopping and music-loving elite. The conceptualization process took around six months, while the construction of the three main areas, the penthouse, basement, and the terrace, took five months, with each area having its own distinct ambiance and music.

The guys behind Manor did more than just your simple party-planning. “First [was] finding the location we really wanted, then finding the right partners to complement each other,” says Cua. Thanks to Stephen Ku, marketing director, and Bingo Manahan, promotions director, they were also able to choose the right promoters to partner with. Carlo Aquino, Manor’s entertainment director took care of the music. The result was a place deserving of its name.

With its posh interiors, pulsating dance music spun by Manila’s top DJs, as well as a wide selection of cocktails for your enjoyment, it isn’t unusual to see long lines of people snaking around the corner waiting to be let in. According to Cua, Manor’s guests are usually college students, yuppies, industry people, businessmen, as well as models and actors. However, with the recent surge of BPOs in the country, particularly in the Quezon City and Pasig area, they’ve also gained a new client base. “It has actually gotten stronger since some of the call center agencies have held their parties in Manor.”

Open every Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday night, many call center agents in the area actually choose to go to Manor during their “lunch break” sometime between midnight and 2am to relax and escape from the stress and pressure of work. While they’re service hasn’t changed with the emergence of this new market, the team behind Manor Superclub has begun thinking of ways to bring more of them in. According to Cua, “We give nothing but the best party for call center agents.”

At the end of the day, which in this case, is at six or seven in the morning, all everyone’s looking for is a place to relax with perhaps some booze on the side. And in Manor, it doesn’t matter if it’s during your lunch break.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Manor Superclub
www.manorsuperclub.com
F1 Big Kahuna Bldg., Eastwood Citywalk, Libis, Quezon City
(02) 421-3180, info@manorsuperclub.com

PHOTO CREDIT
Dairy Darilag

***

From Entrepreneur Philippines´ December 2009 issue.

I’ve always admired Anderson Cooper. While Katie Couric has some journalistic chops, I think she’s gone to the corporate dark side. Anderson Cooper has the classic hard-hitting journalist attitude, but as his appearances on shows like Regis and Kelly have proven, has some angst and biting sarcasm that the people of my generation thrive upon.

There’s a video of Anderson on YouTube covering the Hurricane Katrina from New Orleans where, in the middle of his interview with a government official, he cuts her off and begins chastising her for taking the advantage of the air time to make herself look good and place the blame on other people. While the media strive to be unbiased, in the face of events like Katrina, and now, Haiti, you have to take a side.

From Anderson Cooper’s blog:

As things got really out of control, I saw a looter on the roof of the store they’d broken into throw what I think was part of a concrete block into the crowd. It hit a small boy in the head.

I saw him collapse. More chunks of concrete were being thrown at the looters on the roof. The injured boy couldn’t get up. He’d try and then collapse again. Blood was pouring from his head. He was conscious but had no control over his body. I was afraid someone on the roof would see him lying there and throw another cinder block piece onto him. I was afraid he’d get killed. No one seemed to be helping him.

I ran to where he was struggling, and picked him up off the ground. I brought him to a spot about a hundred feet away. I could feel his warm blood on my arms. I stood him up, but he was clearly unable to walk. He wiped his bloody face, and I tried to reassure him.

In journalism, there is such a thing as “off the record.” I first heard it when I was interviewing a member of the President’s cabinet for a requirement in one of my journ classes. We were talking for about half and hour, when I asked him how it was working for the government. He took my recorder on the table, looked at it, and pressed the stop button, saying, “This is off the record,” and continued talking. I was a bit peeved at the fact he took my recorder without asking me, but was excited at the fact I was going to get some juicy government gossip. As my current editor once said, “off the record” means “for your information only.” It will only serve as a background to the whole issue and cannot be credited to whoever said it.

I have never encountered a subject (yet) who has requested to remain anonymous, probably because I’m in a business magazine and not a hard-hitting broadsheet. The only thing entrepreneurs want to keep secret is their capital, which I still ask (for reference), but don’t publish. But really, when you’re talking to the press, expect everything to get published, even what you’re wearing–it’s a great intro device, clothes.

Meanwhile, this is a perfect example of failure to protect your source’s identity. See, even the BCC makes mistakes. Anonymous fail!

Sorry, Abu Ibrahim.

Rhoel Dinglasan, a Filipino entomologist and biologist at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland has discovered a new vaccine against malaria. I’m no med student or doctor, but for millions of people–children–in Africa, this could save their lives. As an aside, how can you not mistake the name Rhoel for Filipino? I’m just saying.

Dinglasan has found an antigen, called AnAPN1, that causes humans to create antibodies that prevent transmission of malaria by mosquitoes. Get enough of these antibodies into mosquitoes, and you lock the disease up there and prevent it from infecting us. Sounds good, but how do you implement such a strategy? You can hardly vaccinate the mosquitoes themselves. Instead, you put the AnAPN1 into their food source: us. A mosquito that bites an inoculated person would pick up the antibodies and then be sidelined from the malaria-transmission game.

Continue reading here.

JWT, the world’s best-known marketing communications brand, released its list of 100 Things to Watch in 2010. According to them, the following things, people, and trends will make a mark in the next twelve months as leaders in their respective fields. Sounds exciting.

I’m still a bit of a skeptic with entries like (Number 7) Bacon Everywhere: I don’t hate bacon. In fact, I love it to bits, and strips. But I cannot imagine what exactly “bacon everywhere” implies? Bacon t-shirts? Bacon day?; (Number 40) Harry Potter in Orlando: Again, this entry begs the question, “WTF?”; (Number 99) The Wonder Girls: If you were one of those people secretly clapping their hands twice whenever the chorus of Nobody played on the radio, this wouldn’t be a surprise. But if you weren’t, this would be an insult; and (Number 44) Ironic Sports: How can sports be ironic? Is it like Tiger Woods, a golf player and a playah? I’d say that’s ironic

1. 3D at Home
2. Airline Subscriptions
3. Alternative Measures of Prosperity
4. Alternative Metals in Jewelry
5. Asia’s Widening Income Gap
6. Augmented Reality
7. Bacon Everywhere
8. Bio-Based Airplane Fuel
9. Boeing 787 Dreamliner
10. Bogotá
11. Brighter Colors
12. Buycotting
13. Carey Mulligan
14. Coconut Water
15. Composting
16. Contemporary Indian Art
17. Cordless Power
18. Customized Pharmaceuticals
19. Deficit Neutral
20. Donald Glover
21. Dry Shampoo
22. East Africa Wired
23. Electric Car Networks
24. Electric Cars
25. Electronic Libraries
26. Ellen on Idol
27. Energy Dieting
28. Ethical Fashion
29. European Free Speech
30. Exotic Berry Flavors
31. Fermentation
32. Fernando Torres
33. Foursquare
34. Gambling in Singapore
35. Gaming Software
36. Green Retrofits
37. Greening the Palate
38. Hand-Me-Ups
39. Handwriting
40. Harry Potter in Orlando
41. Haute Fashion on eBay
42. Hybrid Boats
43. Impact of the U.K. General Election
44. Ironic Sports
45. Japan on the Sidelines
46. Japan’s First Lady
47. Jay Chou
48. Kindle Rivals
49. LED Bulbs
50. Li Ning
51. Lifestreaming
52. Lionel Messi
53. Little Boots
54. Local, Nonprofit Online Newspapers
55. Lost Series Finale
56. Luxury Goes East
57. Marina Silva
58. Mia Wasikowska
59. Michael Jackson Tribute Concert
60. Mobile Money
61. Mobile Ticketing
62. More Virtual Currencies
63. New Portrait of Hispanic America
64. “Nutrition-Washing”
65. Obesogens
66. Organic Fast Food
67. Pandemic Fatalism
68. Paying for Online Content
69. The Pirate Party
70. PlayStation 3 Motion Controller
71. Post-Lula Brazil
72. Pro Modding
73. Public Bicycles
74. Recycling Gray Water
75. Retail as Third Space
76. Return of the Water Fountain
77. Runaway Democracy
78. Silent Dance Parties
79. Ski Cross at Winter Olympics
80. Slow Beverages
81. Slow Communication
82. Spanish E-books
83. Spider-Man on Broadway
84. Spotify
85. Stephen Strasburg
86. Stevia
87. Tactile/Visual Design
88. Trip Bundling
89. TV for Tween Boys
90. TV/Web Integration
91. Urban Fruit Gleaning
92. U.S.-Cuba Ties
93. Video
94. Virtual House Calls
95. Volunteer Rewards
96. Water Footprint Tracking
97. The Waterless Washing Machine
98. The Wine-Tail
99. The Wonder Girls
100. Zach Galifianakis

According to The Guardian, 2009 was the year of Facebook. Time Magazine echoed this in their annual top ten of everything where they called Facebook “the site that ate everything.”

Personally, my vote goes to Twitter. It was from Twitter that Michael Jackson’s death rippled around the world, and let’s not forget the Iran elections, the woman they called Neda, and the tweets of protest, help, and indignation. It would suffice to say that 2009 was the year of social media–a term that barely existed a decade ago.

Still, I can understand why Farmville and Mafia Wars addicts genuflect in the presence of Facebook. Started by 25-year-old Harvard drop-out Mark Zuckerberg, the social network started the year with 150 million members. By April, that number rose to 200 million, and by September it had amassed 300 million — an average growth rate this year of about 550,000 new members a day. Facebook’s current net worth has been estimated by analysts to be at $15 billion

There is little doubt that 2009 was the moment that the site truly exploded. In January, Zuckerberg announced the “milestone” of 150 million users worldwide. Less than a year later, the social network has more than doubled and now boasts that more than 350 million people log on each month.

Remember Friendster? They’re still doing fine at close to 110 million members worldwide. But early this month news circulated that the newly-lay-outed social networking site (it’s green now) is looking to be sold to an Asian company for more than $100 million.

As a side note, in late 2008, Facebook approached Twitter about a potential merger. Zuckerberg offered company stock worth about $500 million but Twitter turned down the offer. Still, if there’s something we’ve learned from the internet, it’s that things, no matter how big or great, don’t last.

However unassailable Facebook’s position may appear today, history suggests that even the largest websites can fall spectacularly from grace in just a few years. A decade ago AOL was one of the most powerful companies in the world, worth so much money that it was able to force a $162bn merger with media giant Time Warner – the biggest ever seen

I think it was Conan O’Brien who said that in the event Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube merge, a gigantic new social media tool would emerge. It would be called You TwitFace.

Happy new year everyone. Make new friends.

The journey from the ground floor of the office to the Summit editorial office at the sixth floor of Robinson’s Cybergate Tower 3 is always a long and arduous perpendicular ride. If I’m not waiting for the elevator doors to open, I’m waiting for them to close, desperately pushing the “close” button hoping no annoying person attempts to squeeze through the six-inch gap and pushes the doors away.

The ride can be awkward as you try to not look at anyone straight in the eye, but the confined space leads you to stare at either the ceiling or blank aluminum in front of you–both making you look like an idiot. While you whip out your mobile phone and pretend to answer a message, the lady behind reads above your shoulder, muffled coughs attempts to drown out the uncomfortable silence, shuffling feet preparing to get off, the feeling that someone is staring at you from behind. The doors open, you get out, relieved. Then you realize you forgot to push your floor button so you end up five minutes late waiting for the next elevator to go down.

Civilization, a video mural created for the elevators of the Standard Hotel in New York City, depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through modern film language using computer-enhanced found footage. It takes elevator passengers on a trip from hell to heaven as they go up or from heaven to hell as they go down. This epic video mural contains over 400 individual channels of looped video blended into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images that illustrate a contemporary, satirical take on the concepts of Heaven and Hell.

Civilization by Marco Brambilla

More here.

It’s like a publisher’s idea of an orgy.

Four of the biggest names in magazine publishing in the United States are joining forces to launch an online newsstand in what they’ve described as “iTunes for magazines.”

Time Inc., which has 21 titles like Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and People; Condé Nast, which holds 18 titles with popular ones like Vanity Fair, Vogue, GQ, Wired, and The New Yorker; Hearst which holds 15 titles including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, O (The Oprah Magazine), and Marie Claire; and Meredith which has 13 titles of its own, will be “equity partners” in the project that’s expected to launch in the next few months with other publishing companies expected to join the print orgy.

According to The New York Observer, “The company will prepare magazines that can work across multiple digital platforms, whether the iPhone, the BlackBerry or countless other digital devices.” The yet-to-be-named company will not, however, develop an e-book, but something similar to the music program iTunes, creating a store where you can buy new magazines.

Before you start hoarding your copies of Vanity Fair, Esquire, and other titles with Megan Fox or Robert Pattinson on the cover, rest assured that this venture doesn’t mark the end of the print version as they assure that they will still produce the print version, although–I have a feeling–in lesser quantities.

It isn’t a secret that the publishing industry in the United States is suffering from its own Great Depression with major newspaper and magazine titles closing down, as well as massive employee lay-offs. Gourmet, a popular food magazine published by Condé Nast for the past 50 years closed down early this year and was relegated to the web. Meanwhile, Time Inc. laid off 600 of its employees last year. More smaller and less popular titles have closed down due to a “steep drop in print advertising revenue, steadily declining circulation, and the migration of readers to free news online.”

With this attempt to rescue a stumbling industry, it is their (and perhaps mine, as well) earnest hope that this merge will bring in the print medium to a whole new, well, medium. I still like paper, though.

December issues come out this week. I’m giddy about seeing ours. In the foreign magazine section, Hearst Corp, big-time media company and magazine publisher, announced a few weeks ago that Esquire would launch a new “augmented reality” issue for release in December. And just the other week, they finally unveiled they’re newest invention that, while it promises some moments of pure fascination and awe, still begs the question, “What now?”

On the cover of Esquire’s December issue is the new Sherlock Holmes, Robert Downey Jr. in a three-piece suit, proudly showing the package between his legs. It is this device, along with a program you need to download off the Esquire website and a web cam, that enables the actor to literally jump off the cover. Awesome sh*t.

Once the AR program is installed, users will have to point the “marker” located at the bottom of the magazine towards the web cam to activate the feature. For the cover, Robert Downey Jr. does a song and dance, among other things. Inside, a fashion photo shoot changes the model’s clothes and the weather, depending on how you hold and rotate the magazine. Their monthly “Funny Joke from a Beautiful Woman” section has actress Gillian Jacobs tell another joke, and there’s an ad from Lexus, which reportedly shouldered the cost of the AR issue coming in at six figures according to Wall Street Journal.

Esquire’s Augmented Reality Issue: A Tour

While AR seems to be a huge leap in the print medium, attempting to tie in the web element of Esquire, Augmented Reality feels like another passing fancy. It’s a chore to download and install the AR program. And after viewing the few pages AR is featured in, you’re left with, well, a magazine. And no one buys one for AR and AR alone.

The tactile experience of holding a magazine is still a whole different experience. Augment it as you may want, in the end, it’s content that matters the most. And that’s what made and still makes Esquire one of the best men’s magazines in the world. And that’s why people still buy magazines. Great idea, but what now?

Still, if there’s one thing I’ll always like about Esquire, it’s their original content and the punk-ass attitude with which they present them. Only they can put “WTF?!” on their cover and get away with it.

I’m not a Macphile. The only place I use a Mac is at work. I remember picking up the Apple one-click mouse on my first day at work, staring at it for five minutes trying to decipher how to make a right-click. But I can see why millions of people around the world are obsessed with everything that passes through Steve Jobs’ hands. It’s white gold, and so damn sexy. Not his hands. The partly-eaten image of an apple has become as iconic as his black turtleneck sweater and denim jeans. If I had all the money in the world, I’d live in a Mac house.

The following article was forwarded to me by my editor. I always get this ambivalent feeling whenever I encounter great writing: I get pissed that I write so crappy, and excited at having discovered something I can admire and imitate.

Fortune Magazine named Apple CEO Steve Jobs as CEO of the decade in their November 2009 issue. Good job, Job.

The decade of Steve: How Apple’s imperious, brilliant CEO transformed American business. Adam Lashinsky

How’s this for a gripping corporate story line: Youthful founder gets booted from his company in the 1980s, returns in the 1990s, and in the following decade survives two brushes with death, one securities-law scandal, an also-ran product lineup, and his own often unpleasant demeanor to become the dominant personality in four distinct industries, a billionaire many times over, and CEO of the most valuable company in Silicon Valley.

Sound too far-fetched to be true? Perhaps. Yet it happens to be the real-life story of Steve Jobs and his outsize impact on everything he touches.

The past decade in business belongs to Jobs. What makes that simple statement even more remarkable is that barely a year ago it seemed likely that any review of his accomplishments would be valedictory. But by deeds and accounts, Jobs is back.

It’s as if his signature “one more thing” line now applies to him as well. After a six-month leave of absence in the early part of this year, during which he received a liver transplant, he is once again commanding a 34,000-strong corporate army that is as powerful, awe-inspiring, creative, secretive, bullying, arrogant — and yes, profitable — as at any time since he and his chum Steve Wozniak founded Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) in 1976.

Superlatives have attached themselves to Jobs since he was a young man. Now that he’s 54, merely listing his achievements is sufficient explanation of why he’s Fortune’s CEO of the Decade (though the superlatives continue). In the past 10 years alone he has radically and lucratively reordered three markets — music, movies, and mobile telephones — and his impact on his original industry, computing, has only grown.

Remaking any one business is a career-defining achievement; four is unheard-of. Think about that for a moment. Henry Ford altered the course of the nascent auto industry. PanAm’s Juan Trippe invented the global airline. Conrad Hilton internationalized American hospitality.

In all instances, and many more like them, these entrepreneurs turned captains of industry defined a single market that had previously not been dominated by anyone. The industries that Jobs has turned topsy-turvy already existed when he focused on them.

He is the rare businessman with legitimate worldwide celebrity. (His quirks and predilections are such common knowledge that they were knowingly parodied on an episode of “The Simpsons.”) He pals around with U2’s Bono.

Consumers who have never picked up an annual report or even a business magazine gush about his design taste, his elegant retail stores, and his outside-the-box approach to advertising. (”Think different,” indeed.)

It’s often noted that he’s a showman, a born salesman, a magician who creates a famed reality-distortion field, a tyrannical perfectionist. It’s totally accurate, of course, and the descriptions contribute to his legend.

Yet for all his hanging out with copywriters and industrial designers and musicians — and despite his anticorporate attire — make no mistake: Jobs is all about business. He may not pay attention to customer research, but he works slavishly to make products customers will buy.

He’s a visionary, but he’s grounded in reality too, closely monitoring Apple’s various operational and market metrics. He isn’t motivated by money, says friend Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle (ORCL, Fortune 500). Rather, Jobs is understandably driven by a visceral ardor for Apple, his first love (to which he returned after being spurned — proof that you can go home again) and the vehicle through which he can be both an arbiter of cool and a force for changing the world.

Read the full article here.

PHOTO CREDITS
Diana Walker/Contour by Getty Images

I have to agree. Trust the Philippines to win when the winner is determined through online or text voting. I can’t seem to remember how many times we’ve won Miss Photogenic in Miss Universe, even without us placing in the top ten. If the next presidential elections were held online, everyone would vote, even the unregistered ones. However, that doesn’t lessen Efren’s win. It just means we spend more time  online.

Embodying the spirit of Filipino volunteerism that bloomed in this stormy year, Efren Peñaflorida Jr. was named CNN Hero of the Year, the international news network announced on Sunday (Manila time). The Cavite City native pioneered a brand of mobile education, or the “pushcart classroom,” for urban poor youth.

“Efren Peñaflorida, who started a ‘pushcart classroom’ in the Philippines to bring education to poor children as an alternative to gang membership, has been named the 2009 CNN Hero of the Year,” the world-renowned Cable News Network said in an article posted on its Web site.

The 28-year-old Peñaflorida will receive $100,000 from CNN. The network’s top anchor Anderson Cooper announced the winner at the conclusion of the annual awards ceremony.

Efren Peñaflorida wins CNN Hero of the Year

From GMANews.tv