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House leaders renew push for unicameral legislature under federal form of govt
‘Abolish the Senate’ F
or leaders of the House of Representatives, the Senate is proving to be a mere duplication, waste of resources and cause of delay in the legislative process that they would rather that the upper chamber is abolished. Proof of this, they noted, is the growing collection of House-approved bills and resolutions—close to 40 already a year-and-a-half into the Duterte administration—that is gathering dust at the Senate. This makes the proposed shift to a unicameral system of legislature under a federal form of government more pressing. Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez believes that a unicameral body is preferable to speed up the process of enacting needed laws, and enable the country to adapt to rapid changing developments and compete with other countries in an increasingly global economy. However, Alvarez said it’s still up to the House Committee on Constitutional Amendments’ four technical working groups to propose the features of the new federal government, including whether to retain a bicameral legislature or adopt a unicameral body for the purpose. Under the current legislative process, the lower chamber should transmit its approved bills to the Senate for its own deliberations and approval. Both chambers should also agree and pass one version of a bill through bicameral conference committee. House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability Chairman Johnny Pimentel of Surigao del Sur said that, with a unicameral system, it would be easier to accomplish its agenda. “It would be easier to pass bills if we have a unicameral legislative
system,” he said. The Congress of the Philippines is a bicameral body, which is composed of the House of Representatives and the Senate. “We have passed so many bills in the 17th Congress which is pending in Senate. Even the death penalty bill was passed several months ago [in the lower chamber], but until now no action has been taken by the Senate,” he said. For his part, House Committee on Bank and Financial Intermediaries Chairman Ben Evardone of Eastern Samar said besides bringing the key to countryside development and the attainment of peace in Mindanao, federalism will provide cooperation among members of Congress. “I support federalism. Under federalism, bills and other issues will also be acted upon immediately because of the regional assembly. The national legislative assembly will just focus on national concerns like foreign relations, national security, among others,” he said. Deputy Speaker Raneo Abu of Batangas said federalism will fast-track the process of lawmaking and expedite the implementation of government programs and projects for the benefit of the Filipino people. For his part, House Committee on Housing and Urban Development Chairman Alfredo Benitez of Negros Occidental said the Senate is only a duplication of legislative work of the lower chamber, “causing delay and wasting resources”.
No rift
Alvarez made it clear that he has no personal rift with the Senate headed by Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III. This, despite Alvarez’s appeal for the Senate to work harder and pass important measures on the legislative agenda of the Duterte administration that the House of Representatives already passed and are now awaiting action by the senators. Alvarez said there is nothing personal with his recent comments on the performance of the Senate. Pimentel defended the Senate, saying that when it comes to the deliberation and approval of proposed measures, the senators study the bills thoroughly before passing them. He said the Senate should just face reality and admit its shortcomings, citing the death penalty bill that the House has passed in March last year, but remains pending in the Senate. Restoration of capital punishment is one of the top campaign promises of President Duterte in the 2016 presidential election as part of his campaign against crime and illegal drugs. Alvarez said the slow passage of important pieces of legislation can be addressed through a shift to a federal form of government that the ruling party, Partido ng Demokratikong Pilipino, is pushing. Meanwhile, the bills and resolutions approved by the House on third reading and awaiting Senate action are: • House Bill (HB) 5675, “An Act Allowing the Rectification of Simulated Birth Records and Prescribing Administrative Adoption Proceedings for the Purpose”; • HB 6112, “Act Mandating the Installation of Safety Monitoring Devices in Public Utility Vehicles and Providing Penalties for Violation Thereof”; • HB 5784, HB 5784, “An Act Providing Universal Health Care for All Filipinos, and Appropriating Funds Therefor”; • HB 5828, “An Act Providing for the Definition of Public Utility, Further Amending for the Purpose Continued on A2
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By Jovee Marie N. Dela Cruz
Continued on A2
President Duterte attends a news conference with Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III (left) and House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez at Malacañang in Manila on March 13, 2017. AP/Aaron Favila
Study shows netizens spend more on health than food By Roderick L. Abad | Contributor
W
HILE the Philippines is among the highest sources of digital data for having social mediabuff people and strong mobile connectivity, the country is still catching up at a slower pace to become a global player in analytics, according to a homegrown digital research and consulting company. “When it comes to digital maturity, I consider the Philippines to be in the infancy stage,” said Allan Capulong, founder and CEO of Research and Tech Lab (RTL). In as much as Filipinos are very tech-savvy and the adoption of technology is high with Internet penetration at 60 percent to 65 percent, he noted that “we are still at the threshold, as international influencers, such as Facebook, Uber, Google, have just started operations by putting up
their offices here.” “Our neighboring countries in Asean are likewise at the tipping point, with the United States and Europe eyeing the region as a promising location for expanding digital opportunities,” he added.
On the rise
TECHNOLOGICAL advancements had the amount of data generated in the digital space growing exponentially by the minute. See “Study,” A2
PESO exchange rates n US 49.8790
MANILA-CLARK RAILWAY PROJECT BEGINS One of the biggest infrastructure projects of the Duterte administration, the Manila-Clark Railway Project, has officially
begun, as the Department of Transportation leads the groundbreaking rites of the first phase of the ambitious project that links Metro Manila to Clark in Pampanga. The groundbreaking ceremony was held at an open area in Maria Socorro, Marilao, Bulacan, and was led by Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Senators Joel Villanueva and JV Ejercito and other national and local officials. The landmark project will help ease vehicular traffic in Metro Manila and speed up travel from Manila to Clark to only an hour. Rail stations will be strategically located in key growth areas from Manila, Bulacan and all the way to Pampanga. Photo shows (from left) Philippine National Railways (PNR) Chairman Gen. Roberto Lastimosa, Meycauayan Mayor Henry Villarica, Japan International Cooperation Agency Chief Representative Susumo Ito, Bulacan Gov. Wilhelmino Sy-Alvarado, Villanueva, Tugade, Japanese Ambassador Koji Haneda, Ejercito, PNR General Manager Jun Magno, Bulacan 4th District Rep. Linabelle Villarica, Bocaue Mayor Eleanor J. Villaenueva-Tugna, Marilao Mayor Juanito Santiago and Bases Conversion and Development Authority President Vince Dizon.
n japan 0.4425 n UK 67.6110 n HK 6.3808 n CHINA 7.6808 n singapore 37.5850 n australia 39.2149 n EU 60.2089 n SAUDI arabia 13.3003
Source: BSP (5 January 2018 )
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A2 Saturday, January 6, 2018
‘Abolish the Senate’ Continued from a1
Commonwealth Act 146, Otherwise Known as the ‘Public Service Act,’ As Amended”; • HB 6221, “An Act Establishing the Filipino Identification System”; • HB 6177, “An Act Rationalizing the Income Requirements for the Creation of a Municipality, The Declaration of Highly Urbanized Status in the Case of Component Cities and the Creation of a Province”; • HB 6283, “An Act Recognizing the Observance of November 17 of Every Year as National Students’ Day”; • HB 4982, “An Act Prohibiting Discrimination on the Basis of Sexual Orientation or Gender Identity or Expression and Providing Penalties Therefor”; • HB 5747, “An Act Establishing the Coconut Farmers and Industry Development Trust Fund and Providing for Its Management and Utilization”; • HB 6276, “An Act Ensuring the Continuous and Uninterrupted Transmission and Distribution of Electricity, the Protection of the Integrity and Reliability of the Transmission and Distribution Systems, and the Promotion of Public Safety, and Providing Penalties in Violation Thereof”; • HB 5777, “An Act Strengthening the National and Local Health and Nutrition Programs for Pregnant and Lactating Women, Adolescent Girls of Reproductive Age and Teen-Age Mothers, Infants and Young Children in the First 1,000 Days, and Appropriating Funds Therefor”; • HB 5799, “An Act Reverting Fish Ponds Which Have Been Unutilized or Abandoned for a Period of Three Years to Forest Lands”;
• HB 1530, “An Act Requiring Government Agencies to Indicate the Blood Type of Individuals in the Identification Cards, Certificates and Licenses”; • HB 6396, “An Act Instituting Policies for the Protection and Welfare of Caregivers in the Practice of Their Profession”; • HB 6571, “An Act Establishing a Medical Scholarship and Return Service Program for Deserving Students and Appropriating Funds Therefor”; • HB 6589, “An Act Rationalizing the Requirements Imposed by the Department of Agrarian Reform Regarding Land Registration to Facilitate Speed and Efficiency in Land Registration”; • HB 6590, “An Act Amending Section 13 of Republic Act 3019, As Amended, Entitled The ‘Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act’”; • HB 6578, “An Act Establishing a Retirement Benefit System in the Office of the Ombudsman, Augmenting its Employee Benefits, and Appropriating Funds Therefor”; • HB 159, “An Act Strengthening the Right of Government to Expropriate Lands for Socialized Housing”; • HB 6550, “An Act Instituting the Magna Carta of Day Care Workers and Providing Funds Therefor”; • HB 6557, “An Act Promoting Open Access in Data Transmission, Providing Additional Powers to the National Telecommunications Commission”; • HB 6558, “An Act Strengthening the Powers of the National Telecommunications Commission, Amending for the Purpose Republic Act 7925, Otherwise Known as the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of the Philippines”;
• HB 6572, “An Act Institutionalizing the Philippine Qualifications Framework (PQF), Establishing the National Coordinating Council (NCC) and Appropriating Funds Therefor”; • HB 1616, “An Act Exempting the System Loss Charge Component in the Sale of Electricity by Distribution Companies and Electric Cooperatives from the Coverage of the Value Added Tax”; • HB 6570, “An Act Prohibiting Leaving Children Below Eight Years Old Unattended in Motor Vehicles”; • HB 6617, “Act Strengthening the Philippine Comprehensive Policy on Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (Aids) Prevention, Treatment, Care and Support, and Establishing the Philippine National HIV and Aids Plan”; • HB 6604, “An Act Regulating the Rates of Political Propaganda on Television, Radio and Print During an Electoral Campaign Period”; • HB 6702, “An Act Regulating the Importation, Manufacture, Distribution and Sale of Children’s Products Containing Hazardous Chemicals, and Providing Penalties for Violation Thereof”; • HB 6714, “An Act Regulating the Practice of Food Technology in the Philippines, Creating for the Purpose the Board of Food Technology, and Appropriating Funds Therefor”; • HB 3222, “An Act Establishing a National Vision Screening Program for Kindergarten Pupils and Appropriating Funds Therefor”; • House Joint Resolution 18, “Joint Resolution Authorizing the Increase in Base Pay of Military and Uniformed Personnel in the Government, and for Other Purposes”.
Study…
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continued from a1
They become so complex to process using on-hand databasemanagement tools or traditional data-processing applications. With the emergence of the socalled Big Data, analytics, as a multidimensional discipline, comes into place to interpret raw information. The insights produced in the process are then used to recommend action or to guide decision making rooted in the business context. Multinationals and other big companies have long tapped into digital-data analytics to boost their brands, know well their customers’ needs, enhance their products and services, identify risks and predict future trends.
Internet generation speaks
GATHERING the unlimited flow of information available in social media, RTL found out in its recent study that Filipino Facebook users are spending their hard-earned money on their well-being. More than one-fifth, or 22.49 percent, expressed that their topmost concern is their health and wellness when it comes to allocation of their salary. This is quite surprising as there is a 6.58-percent difference over what most would think to be people’s main priority, which is food. Food is only their second consideration at 15.91 percent, which could be attributed to the health and wellness trends—both previous and emerging, government health-awareness campaigns, as well as the proliferation of health and wellness products in the local market.
Internet and electricity came in at third and fourth, with 11.72 percent and 11.69 percent, respectively. Following closely at fifth is mobile plan, with 10.05 percent, showing how much people put a premium on connectivity. Such result is expected of Filipinos being active social-media users, thus earning for the country the No. 1 slot in terms of time spent on various socialmedia platforms, based on earlier reports. With almost everyone owning at least one mobile phone and social-media account, every thought or photo shared online becomes part of a treasure trove of data that can be translated into useful information or business decision. Meanwhile, 9.89 percent of local Facebook users said they are focused on spending on education. This is followed by utilities: water at 7.09 percent; cable, 5.87 percent; and rent, 3.25 percent. Completing the Top 10 is insurance with 2.04 percent.
From data to business
AS a general rule in data analytics, the key is to sift through the volume of raw information and find those that can be converted into insights, which, in turn, give companies and organizations the upper hand by making faster and better-informed decisions. Doing so, according to the study, enables these entities to come up with strategies that are directed at their audience. Armed with this information, business heads can allocate funds for marketing campaigns and ad-
vertising that can translate to high-value sales. Vertical-wise, those that belong to the health and wellness industry can take advantage of the netizens’ interest by keeping them engaged. They must provide for them products that are affordable and trustworthy that will help them be in control of their own health choices. The tech-savvy and hyper-connected Filipino Internet generation is among the prime movers today and will be chief decision-makers in the future. With this in mind, brands can capitalize on them by having a stronger online presence, thus, leading to brand awareness and, eventually, brand loyalty. The locals’ requirement for connectivity can, likewise, work well to their advantage as firms have a venue to establish stronger and more personal relations with their customers. Having real-time and personalized customer service can bolster brand image, which, in turn, opens up more opportunities for the business. Digital data analytics is a powerful and effective tool that can lead entities to the right path and mold decisions. In separate November 2017 Twitter and online articles read and analyzed by RTL, 73 percent of netizens believe that data analytics is a positive change in the Philippines. They believe that it can boost the country’s economic growth, complement traditional data sources and improve company strategies.
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2017 average inflation settled at 3.2%
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By Bianca Cuaresma
he pace of growth in the overall prices of key commodities in the country remained steady at the tailend of 2017, putting confidence on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’s (BSP) inflation track in the medium term. On Friday the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced that the country’s December inflation hit 3.3 percent, steady from the previous month. The December inflation is, however, an acceleration from the 2.6
percent in the same month in 2016. It brought the average inflation for the entire 2017 at 3.2 percent— well within the government’s target range of 2 percent to 4 percent. T he resulting head line inflation rate last December, ac-
cording to the PSA, was brought about by mixed movements in the annual growths among the commodity groups. “Higher annual mark-ups were posted in the indices of the following commodity groups: food and nonalcoholic beverages [at 3.5 percent]; alcoholic beverages and tobacco [at 6.4 percent]; furnishing, household equipment and routine maintenance of the house [at 1.9 percent]; and restaurant and miscellaneous goods and services [at 3 percent],” the PSA said in a statement. “Annual inflation in the rest of the commodity groups either decelerated or remained at their previous month’s rates,” it added. Although the average inf lation rate for the entire 2017 at 3.2
percent was significantly higher compared to the 12-month average in 2016 at 1.8 percent, it was still within the BSP’s target, dispelling concerns of an excessively high inflation, as earlier raised. Economists and analysts in early-2017 raised concerns over the country’s inflation track, saying it might hit the ceiling—or near the ceiling—of the target toward the end of the year if the BSP does not hike rates during the year. The Central Bank has, however, remained reluctant to move its key rates, keeping all monetary policy unchanged for the entire 2017. In a statement following the December 2017 inf lation announcement, BSP Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said they expect inflation to remain manageable
over the policy horizon as inflation settled within their target. “Meanwhile, inflation is projected to settle above the midpoint of the target range for 2018 to 2019. Robust domestic economic activity, ample liquidity and wellanchored inflation expectations continue to support within-target inflation,” Espenilla said. “Looking ahead, the BSP will remain vigilant against any risks to the inflation outlook to ensure that the monetary-policy stance remains consistent with the mandate of maintaining price stability conducive to economic growth,” he added. In its last monetar y-policy meeting, the BSP said it sees inflation hitting 3.4 percent, before going back to 3.2 percent in 2019.
Risks to the outlook, meanwhile, remain tilted to the upside for this year, according to the Central Bank, as higher inflation pressures from the approved taxreform program is expected. This is to be tempered by the proposed reforms in rice importation down the line.
3.3% The average rate of price hikes last December, faster than December 2016’s 2.6 percent
As Japanese smoke less, tobacco giant’s new CEO looks abroad J
apan Tobacco Inc.’s Masamichi Terabatake is in the hot seat. The 52-year-old started off 2018 by taking the helm of the world’s third-largest tobacco company. While the view from his new Tokyo office may be different than the one from his previous stint at the international unit in Switzerland, the obstacles the company faces will look familiar to the 28year veteran: tighter global regulations, slowing cigarette demand and competition to offer high-tech smoking devices. Terabatake, who becomes the fifth head of Japan Tobacco since it was privatized in 1985, has identified some of the issues he’ll have to grapple with. When appointed last November, Terabatake said
he wanted to focus on taking more market share in developed countries, entering new emerging markets and further developing the company’s next-generation tobacco products. Japan Tobacco’s geographic footprint is primarily focused on its home market, Russia and Europe, with about 70 percent of its sales volume coming from those regions. Terabatake will have to diversify that footprint to find growth, most likely through smaller deals, as opportunities for larger acquisitions are limited following consolidation in the industry. Japan Tobacco has already been busy snapping up assets in emerging markets. Terabatake was not available to comment, according
to the company. As Japan Tobacco’s international presence widens, Terabatake will also have to confront the new regulatory attitude toward
Confidence in peso back, seen ending 2018 at 50:$1
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he market’s confidence is back and will continue rising this year. Already, international bank HSBC said it sees steady movement in the country’s foreign-exchange market for the year. Earlier, concerns have been raised about the peso’s underperformance, particularly when it neared the 52-toa-dollar trading threshold in the last quarter of 2017. In its latest review and forecast of the Philippine economic dynamics, however, HSBC sees the peso ending 2018 no weaker than 50 to a dollar. HSBC also sees the peso stretching its trade within the P50:$1 territory up until 2019, on average. Latest data from the PDS Group showed the local currency hit 49.82 to a dollar on Thursday’s close, moving sideways from the previous day’s 49.81 to a dollar close. The total traded volume during the day was at $519.25 million. Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr. said the recent peso strength is brought about largely by the combination of strong remittances and equity inflows, as well as the weakness of the dollar due to the uncertainty of their own tax legislation’s impact on their economy. On shore, meanwhile, Espenilla said domestic fundamentals remain attractive, and even reinforced lately by the passage of the tax-reform bill.
While the global bank paints a rosy picture of investor sentiment on the Philippines, HSBC said the peso is not without risks for 2018. Among those cited that can dampen the positive sentiment on the peso include the failure to approve and break ground on key infrastructure projects this year and the threat of the government reverting to its historical pattern of underspending. “A realization of those risks could reduce investor and business confidence, and drag down growth,” HSBC said. Espenilla, meanwhile, added the BSP will continue its strategy in the foreign-exchange market, which bodes well for them and the peso in the volatile times of 2017. “In 2017 we also saw the peso’s depreciation. Even as foreign direct investments flowed in, a reversal of foreign portfolio investment flows, as well as loan prepayments, was felt in the financial account. The BSP’s first line of defense has been to maintain a flexible exchange rate while providing foreigncurrency liquidity from its ample supply of foreign-exchange reserves to manage sharp movements,” Espenilla said in a recent speaking engagement. “Maintaining a flexible and marketdetermined exchange rate can better insulate our economy from external shocks that could disrupt the pace of economic growth,” he added. Bianca Cuaresma
Maintaining a flexible and marketdetermined exchange rate can better insulate our economy from external shocks that could disrupt the pace of economic growth..”—Espenilla
tobacco products. The industry was rocked last summer by the US Food and Drug Administration’s plan to mandate nicotine cuts in tobacco products to nonaddictive
levels. Although Japan Tobacco was largely cushioned from the market impact as it has a smaller presence in the United States, the announcement prompted speculation that more countries around the world will become stricter on tobacco, as well. Health concerns and tighter regulations are part of the reasons for declining global demand for cigarettes. Faced with dwindling demand, global rivals are aggressively positioning for a future without traditional cigarettes. Philip Morris International Inc. and British American Tobacco (BAT) Plc. have introduced heated tobacco devices, which have pushed down demand for cigarettes in Japan Tobacco’s domestic market.
Philip Morris’s IQOS device holds 12 percent of the country’s tobacco market as of the end of September. Japan Tobacco’s own heated device, Ploom Tech, has lag ged behind in availabilit y and sales. The battle over heated devices matters, as the sector is expected to grow rapidly in the next few years. Japan Tobacco said it is currently working on developing another heated device more similar to IQOS and BAT’s glo. Shares of Japan Tobacco fell 5.5 percent in 2017, compared with a 20-percent gain for Japan’s benchmark Topix index. The stock dropped as much as 1.2 percent in Tokyo trading on Friday. Bloomberg News
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Saturday, January 6, 2018
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After Trump tries to block book, its publisher moves up release
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resident Donald J. Trump threatened legal fire and fury on Thursday in an effort to block a new book portraying him as a volatile and ill-equipped chief executive, but the publisher defied his demand to halt its release and instead moved up its publication to Friday because of soaring interest.
Angry at the publisher’s refusal to back down, Trump took aim on late Thursday at the book’s author, Michael Wolff, and one of his primary sources, Stephen K. Bannon, the former White House chief strategist, whose derisive comments about the president and his family stirred deep resentment in the Oval Office. “I authorized Zero access to White House (actually turned him down many times) for author of phony book!” Trump wrote on Twitter shortly before 11 p.m. “I never spoke to him for book. Full of lies, misrepresentations and sources that don’t exist. Look at this guy’s past and watch what happens to him and Sloppy Steve!” The president’s blast at Wolff came at the end of a day in which
Trump’s effort to stop publication failed. In an 11-page letter sent in the morning, a lawyer for the president said the book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, as excerpted in a magazine article, includes false statements about Trump that “give rise to claims for libel” that could result in “substantial monetary damages and punitive damages.” “Mr. Trump hereby demands that you immediately cease and desist from any further publication, release or dissemination of the book, the article, or any excerpts or summaries of either of them, to any person or entity, and that you issue a full and complete retraction and apology to my client as to all statements made about him in the book and article that
lack competent evidentiary support,” the letter said. Undeterred, Henry Holt and Co., the publisher, announced that instead it would make the book available for sale starting at 9 a.m. Friday rather than wait for its original release date of Tuesday. “We see Fire and Fury as an extraordinary contribution to our national discourse, and are proceeding with the publication of the book,” the company said in a statement. The book infuriated Trump in part by quoting Bannon, making derogatory comments about the president’s children. Bannon was quoted as saying that Donald Trump Jr. had been “treasonous” and “unpatriotic” for meeting with Russians during the 2016 campaign and that Ivanka Trump was “dumb as a brick.” Trump fired back on Wednesday, saying that Bannon had “lost his mind” and had “nothing to do with me or my presidency.” Bannon, who had stayed in touch with Trump sporadically after being pushed out of the White House last summer, sought to smooth over the rift during his Breitbart News radio show on Wednesday night. When a caller said that Trump had “made a huge mistake, Steve, bashing you like he did,” Bannon brushed it aside. “The president of the United States is a great man,”
Bannon said. “You know I support him day in and day out, whether going through the country giving the ‘Trump Miracle’ speech or on the show or on the web site.” T he president c ited t hose comments on Thursday morning when asked by reporters if Bannon had betrayed him. “I don’t know,” Trump said. “He called me a great man last night so, you know, he obviously changed his tune pretty quick.” Although he responded to Bannon’s flattery, that did not mean Trump was ready to forgive, as his late-night tweet made clear. About a half-hour later, Donald Trump Jr. seized on his father’s new nickname for the famously rumpled and often unshaven Bannon in his own tweet. “I have a feeling #SloppySteve is going to go big,” Donald Jr. wrote. “Branding gold.” Trump’s spokesman earlier in the day made clear that the president wanted Bannon punished for his disloyalty. Asked at her daily briefing whether Breitbart News should fire Bannon, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary said, “I certainly think that it’s something they should look at and consider.” Through a long career in real estate and entertainment, Trump has repeatedly threatened lawsuits against authors, journalists and others who angered him but often has not followed through, includ-
ing after such a threat against The New York Times during the 2016 presidential campaign, and it was unclear whether he would in this case, either. Wolff did not reply to a request for comment, but after his publisher moved up the release, he jabbed at Trump on Twitter. “Here we go,” he wrote. “You can buy it (and read it) tomorrow. Thank you, Mr. President.” Most presidents have avoided legal confrontations over unflattering publications out of fear of giving them more publicity and promoting sales, but it is not unprecedented. Former President Jimmy Carter, shortly after leaving the White House, threatened to sue The Washington Post over a gossip column item asserting that his administration had bugged Blair House, the government guest quarters, while Nancy and Ronald Reagan stayed there before the 1981 inauguration. The Post retracted the item and Carter dropped the matter. Trump’s threat generated a debate among advocates and legal scholars. “The president’s attempt to halt publication of a book because of its content is flagrantly unconstitutional,” said Suzanne Nossel, the executive director of PEN America, a group that defends free expression around the world. The New York Times News Service
Trump moves to vastly expand offshore drilling off US coasts
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he Tr u mp ad m inist ration moved on Thursday to vastly expand offshore drilling from the Atlantic to the Arctic oceans with a plan that would open up federal waters off California for the first time in more than three decades. The new five-year drilling plan also could open new areas of oil and gas exploration in areas off the East Coast from Florida to Maine, where drilling has been blocked for decades. While some lawmakers in those states support offshore drilling, the plan drew immediate opposition from governors up and down the East Coast, including Republican Govs. Rick Scott of Florida and Larry Hogan of Maryland, who pressed President Donald J. Trump to withdraw their states from consideration. Democratic governors on both coasts blasted the plan. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo called it “another federal assault on our environment,” while California Gov. Jerry Brown vowed to block “this reckless, short-sighted action.” Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the plan, saying that responsible development of offshore energy resources would boost jobs and economic security, while providing billions of dollars to fund conservation along US coastlines. T he f ive -ye a r pl a n wou ld open 90 percent of the nation’s offshore reser ves to development by private companies, Zinke said, with 47 leases proposed off the nation’s coastlines from 2019 to 2024. Nineteen sales would be off A laska, 12 in the Gulf of Mexico, nine in the Atlantic and seven in the Pacific, including six off California. “This is a draft program,” Zinke told reporters during a conference call. “Nothing is final yet, and our department is continuing to engage the American people to get to our final product.” Industry groups praised the announcement, which would be the
China seen keeping 6.5-percent growth target amid debt push
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hina will set its economic growth target at “around 6.5 percent” this year, according to people familiar with the outcome of a recent highlevel planning meeting. Top officials decided to maintain the same numerical goal as in 2017 at the Communist Party’s Central Economic Work Conference last month, according to the people, who asked not to be identified as the talks weren’t public. It’s not clear what the final wording of the target will be, including any qualification, such as 2017’s commitment to seek faster growth, “if possible,” the people said. The final wording will be released at a meeting of the National People’s Congress in March, they said. Economists surveyed by Bloomberg project a 6.5-percent growth this year, though some observers, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., have recently upgraded their outlook amid strong external demand. The growth target is usually officially unveiled following a meeting of the nation’s legislature in the spring. At the work conference, Chinese leaders criticized regulators and finance officials for not having done enough to prevent disorder in financial markets, a buildup of leverage and the growth of local debt that had escaped central government scrutiny. An official statement following the conclave echoed the need to do more, and declared a three-year campaign against financial risk, pollution and poverty. The world’s second-largest economy easily surpassed last year’s growth goal even amid Beijing’s broad crackdown on financial risk, and is poised for its first full-year acceleration since 2010. Fourth-quarter growth edged down to 6.7 percent, according to a Bloomberg survey before the report due for release on January 18, from 6.8 percent in the third quarter. The information office for the State Council, China’s cabinet, didn’t respond to a fax requesting comment. Reuters reported the growth target on January 4. Bloomberg News
Apple says all Macs, iPhones, iPads exposed to chip flaw
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In this May 13, 2010, file photo, pelicans float on the water with an offshore oil platform in the background in the Santa Barbara Channel off the coast of Santa Barbara, California. AP
most expansive offshore-drilling proposal in decades. The proposal follows Trump’s executive order last April encouraging more drilling rights in federal waters, part of the administration’s strategy to help the US achieve “energy dominance” in the global market. “To kick off a national discussion, you need a national plan—something that has been lacking the past several years,” said Randall Luthi, president of the National Ocean Industries Association. President Barack Obama blocked Atlantic and Pacific drilling under a five-year plan finalized in 2016. A coalition of more than 60 environmental groups denounced the plan, saying it would impose “severe and unacceptable harm” to A mer ica’s ocea ns, coast a l economies, public health and marine life. “These ocean waters are not President Trump’s personal playground. They belong to all Americans and the public wants them
preserved and protected, not sold off to multinational oil companies,” read the coalition’s statement, which was signed by leaders of the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters and other environmental groups. The proposal comes less than a week after the Trump administration proposed to rewrite or kill rules on offshore oil and gas drilling imposed after the 2010 rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. The accident on BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig killed 11 workers and triggered the biggest offshore oil spill in United States history. T he Trump administration called the rules an unnecessary burden on industry and said rolling them back will encourage more energy production. Environmentalists said Trump was raising the risk of more deadly oil spills. The Obama administration imposed tougher rules in response to the BP spill. The rules targeted blowout preventers,
massive valve-like devices designed to prevent spills from wells on the ocean f loor. The preventer used by BP failed. The rules require more frequent inspections of those and other devices and dictate that experts onshore monitor drilling of highly complex wells in real time. The Gulf of Mexico is still recovering from the BP spill, said Diane Hoskins, campaign director for the marine-conservation group Oceana. “Americans have seen the devastation that comes from offshore drilling,” she said. “Will we allow Florida’s white beaches or the popular and pristine Outer Banks to share a similar fate? What about the scenic Pacific coast or even remote Arctic waters?” Zinke’s announcement “ ignores widespread and bipartisan opposition to offshore drilling,” including from more than 150 municipalities nationwide and 1,200 local, state and federal officials, Hoskins said.
Scott, the Florida governor, said he has asked for an immediate meeting with Zinke to discuss his concerns. “My top priority is to ensure that Florida’s natural resources are protected,” Scott said. Hogan, of Maryland, said he would oppose the plan “to the fullest extent that is legally possible.” California was the site of the first offshore drilling in the US more than 120 years ago, but the region was tarnished by one of the worst spills in US history in 1969, when more than 3 million gallons of oil poured into the ocean near Santa Barbara. Thousands of sea birds were killed, along with dolphins, elephant seals and sea lions. Virtually all commercial fishing near Santa Barbara was halted, and tourism dropped dramatically. Public outrage generated by the spill helped spark the modern environmental movement, and no federal leases have been granted off the California coast since 1984. AP
pple Inc. said all Mac computers and iOS devices, like iPhones and iPads, are affected by chipsecurity flaws unearthed this week, but the company stressed there are no known exploits impacting users. The Cupertino, California-based company said recent software updates for iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches, Mac desktops and laptops, and the Apple TV set-top box mitigate one of the vulnerabilities known as Meltdown. The Apple Watch, which runs a derivative of the iPhone’s operating system, is not affected, according to the company. Despite concern that fixes may slow down devices, Apple said its steps to address the Meltdown issue haven’t dented performance. The company will release an update to its Safari web browser in coming days to defend against another form of the security flaw known as Spectre. These steps could slow the speed of the browser by less than 2.5 percent, Apple said in a statement posted on its web site. Intel Corp. on Wednesday confirmed a report stating that its semiconductors contain a vulnerability based around a chip-processing technique called speculative execution. Intel added its chips, which power Macs and devices from other manufacturers, contain the flaw, as well as processors based on ARM Holdings architecture, which is used in iOS devices and Android smartphones.
Bloomberg News
Sports BusinessMirror
Editor: Jun Lomibao • mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph
Saturday, January 6, 2018
A5
KLAY THOMPSON scores 28 points as the Golden State Warriors pulls away late in the fourth quarter for a 124114 victory over the Houston Rockets. AP
YUKA SASO capured her second professional tournament crown as an amateur. ROY DOMINGO
Marielle Jarata captures the girls’ 12-under title.
A6 Saturday, January 6, 2018 | Editor: Mike Besa
P
ATTAYA, Thailand—The course architects at Golfplan (www.golfplan. com) will unveil this spring their new 18-hole design here in the Silver Lake region south of Pattaya. Chee Chang Golf Resort (www. cheechangolf.com) will debut its flamboyant new layout in the significant shadow of the Chee Chan Buddha, the 110-meter spiritual anchor to an existing resort complex that already includes a water park, winery and shopping district. All of these amenities are arrayed beside white-sand beaches on the Gulf of Siam. “It’s been a delight to be so active again in Thailand, home to one of the most dynamic, diverse and sophisticated golf cultures on the planet,” says Golfplan partner David Dale, who has directed the project. “Our track record here is pretty extensive; Golfplan designs like Panya Park, Panya Indra and Mountain Shadow in Pattaya all remain popular and profitable. But those were built in the 1990s. “We’re eager to reacquaint Thai golfers with Golfplan because our style has evolved a great deal in 20 years and, frankly, the Thai golf market is uniquely discerning.” Dale and partner Kevin Ramsey are uniquely positioned to compare and contrast golfing cultures from country to country. Formed in 1972, Golfplan is the most internationalist design group in all of golf, creating more than 217 original designs in 32 different countries (if master planning is considered, make that 85 countries). This sort of sustained, diverse productivity is one reason GolfInc magazine named Dale and Ramsey among the “Top 10 Most Powerful People in Asian Golf” for 2016. “Golf cultures in Asia develop on different tracks, some on the American model, some on the British model—but Thailand is unique because it has created its own distinct culture, its own model,” Dale explains. “Japan and South Korea have done the same thing, but Thailand is the only such country in Asia that also serves as a golf destination, attracting golfers from all over Europe, from Australia and New Zealand. It’s also far and away the No. 1 golf destination for Japanese and Koreans, which speaks volumes. It’s just an amazingly diverse golfing destination, and we’re very pleased to be back.” The terrain in Pattaya along the Gulf of Siam is generally quite flat, but Dale reports that Chee Chan Golf Resort is a glorious anomaly boasting fully 25 meters of elevation change, just the right amount to create a challenging, visually dramatic and walkable resort course that measures more than 7,200 yards from the championship tees. The property’s perimeter is further accented by a series of enormous, partly vegetated escarpments, some standing 150 meters high. It is here, on one of these massive rock faces that the 110-meter Chee Chan Buddha looms so large, as it is carved directly into these rock faces. His serene visage is visible from multiple points on the property, including the entire opening hole. “We couldn’t afford to miss that opportunity: to start golfers at Chee Chan on their spiritual journey under the watchful eye of Siddhartha Gautama,” Dale says. “We have much to learn from the Buddha, who taught us a ‘Middle Way’ between sensual indulgence and severe asceticism. For golfers the message is clear: Relax and keep it in the fairway.” The IMG manages operations at Chee Chan GR, a stand-alone property in this active resort area. Brodie MacDonald, a Scottish national and member of the British Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA), was recently appointed general manager, joining by golf course Supt. Mike McKenna, an Englishman. Brodie and Mike both joined Chee Chan Golf Resort from one of Asia’s top tracks, Nirwana Bali Golf Club. Dale visited the course at Chee Chan last December, by way of South Korea, where another of his designs—The Club at Nine Bridges—recently played host to the inaugural CJ Cup, the first United States PGA Tour event even staged in the country (last September, GOLF Magazine issued its biennial World Top 100; Nine Bridges was ranked No. 41). Dale says he appreciated Pattaya’s tropical heat and the proximity of The Silver Lake Vineyard, located right next door to his soon-to-open design at Chee Chan. “I was pleased to discover a wonderful chenin blanc there, absolutely fantastic, which they serve chilled with a first-class bread stick,” says Dale, a serious oenophile and resident of Sonoma County, California, one of the finest wine regions in the world. “After a hot day out in the dust of course construction, or trudging through the mud after a 40 mm rain [in one hour], that was just the ticket.”
Golfplan track t at foot of Chee C
The Equipment
Drivers on N
By Mike Besa
ew technology and the latest manufacturing techniques have greatly enhanced what the equipment manufacturers have been able to do with a golf club. The year 2017’s drivers combined multiple materials using the most advanced manufacturing techniques to produce unique designs that send the golf ball further, straighter and with less spin than ever before. These circumstances came together last year to produce the best, most consistent drivers the game of golf has ever seen. Can the class of 2018 do better? What avenues of technology are left for manufacturers to explore? Can the new drivers really hit the ball further than ever even with the United States Golf Association’s (USGA) regulations limiting their performance? To the equipment manufacturers, the ruling bodies’ rules limiting the performance of drivers were a challenge for them to produce the most technologically advanced golf clubs ever made to try and circumvent those regulations. But with the limits imposed by the games governing bodies, it stands to reason that there might be just a little bit of distance, yet left undiscovered, and the best they can do is to make their drivers easier to hit. So what’s new for the class of 2018? Let’s find out.
Cobra F8
The Cobra F8 is the most compelling of the new 2018 drivers. Following up on its previous King F7 golf clubs, Cobra is back with its full line of King F8 drivers, hybrids and irons, and there are a slew of differences from its predecessors. Cobra has thrown the proverbial kitchen sink at the new F8 golf clubs based on about two-and-a-half years of research and development and many of the new technologies are quite visible. It’s also the first line of “smart” golf clubs, which you’ll learn more about below. Unlike just about every other driver face on the market, Cobra’s new F8 and F8+ drivers have multidirectional CNC-milled faces. The process, which takes roughly 25 minutes per head according to Cobra, allows the faces to be produced thinner to increase ball speeds, and it saves weight to be used elsewhere in the heads (mostly low and rearward to increase forgiveness).
www.pinoygolfer.com | Saturday, January 6, 2018 A7
to open Spring ‘18, Chan Buddha
PXG
t Wars Escalate!
n the horizon The surface roughness that the milling produces increases friction and actually lowers spin on drivers. Additionally, milling the faces tightens the tolerances, leading to more consistency and overall ball speed— since there’s a tighter tolerance, Cobra can get consistently closer to the USGA’s CT limit (a measure of spring-like effect). While we’ve seen “speed trips” on the crowns of other drivers on the market to increase their aerodynamic quality, Cobra was able to add trips without adding much weight to the crown’s structure. That’s because Cobra is using polymer decal tape to trip up airflow around the crown during the swing. The polymer trips, along with a redesigned, streamlined shape—Cobra calls this “360 Aero”—the company has reduced overall drag by 17 percent compared to the F7 drivers. According to Cobra, this leads to 1.1 mph more ball speed, and 4 yards in total distance. Rather than three weight ports in the soles of the drivers, as we saw in the F7 and F7+ drivers, Cobra has switched to two weight ports in the F8 (draw and neutral) and F8+ (forward and rearward) drivers. According to the company, fewer weight ports in the head allowed engineers to drop overall center of gravity (CG) in the head, thus making them more forgiving, while not giving up the ability for golfers to adjust CG to their swing needs All of the F8 clubs are “Smart”. Cobra launched its Connect system, in connection with Arccos Golf, in the F7 drivers. That means Arccos tracking system was embedded in the grips of the drivers, which uses vibrations to return club analytics. Now, Cobra Connect will be available in every club throughout the F8 line. When you purchase a set of King F8 or King F8 ONE iron sets, you will also receive a full set of Arccos 360 sensors for free; Cobra says this is a $249 value. With the new Cobra Connect system in every head throughout the set, golfers will receive stroked-gained stats and other helpful data in the app. You will need to play golf with your smartphone in your pocket for the system to work. The “nardo” gray color, which is an option in the metalwoods aside from black, is undeniably popular right now throughout the sporting world and beyond. You may have noticed American college football teams using the color recently for their alternate jerseys, and several automobile manufacturers utilizing nardo in their color schemes. It’s the hottest color in sports right now, so why not bring it into the world of golf?
M3 sole
TaylorMade M3/M4
For 2018, TaylorMade has abandoned the M1/M2 nomenclature. Say hello then to the M3 and M4. The new M3 appears to leverage a chassis construction similar to what TaylorMade has used in the last several iterations of drivers, however, the track weighting system has been updated with a unique Y-shaped design. The updated design would presumably allow for a slight amount of either fade or draw bias, while placing both weights in the rear should boost moment of inertia (MOI) by an appreciable amount. The apparent emphasis on greater forgiveness suggests TaylorMade may be done with low/forward CG in its 460cc models and, instead, may be following PING, Cobra and PXG into the higher MOI space. For players with a legitimate need for lower spin, the
M4 crown
upcoming M3 440 remains an option. The M3 and M4 will feature ball-speed preserving Hammerhead technology, while the M4 will continue using TM’s Geocoustic construction. The new M-series also features a new (for TaylorMade) Twist Face technology. Functionally you can think of it as offset or tilted bulge and roll. Unlike conventional designs, where the face roll is perpendicular to the horizontal face center, TaylorMade has twisted it a bit in an attempt to make it nearer to perpendicular (relative to the ground plane) at impact. Basically, TaylorMade is attempting to get better performance by designing its bulge and roll radii for how the face is positioned at impact (toe down relative to address) rather than how its oriented before you swing (conventionally square).
Callaway Rouge drivers The word on Callaway’s new drivers is that Rogue will not be a replacement for the current Epic. This part of the story certainly aligns with the current Callaway strategy. For all the talk of too many releases, the reality is that Callaway has shifted most of its lineup to minimum 18-month lifecycles. The timing is right for a new XR, but we’re hearing Rogue isn’t that. While Callaway marketing will offer the definitive word, the scuttlebutt is that Rogue is (supposedly/ allegedly) better in every way than Epic. Rogue features a number of enhancements that didn’t make it into the original Epic. As the story always goes,
another year of R&D gets you a better driver. The challenge for Callaway will come in trying to retain (and grow) its market share in the 2nd year of the Epic franchise amid the increased competition. That said, we’ve heard some very good things about the Rogue from people that have tested the new product so, again, this is a driver to watch in the coming year.
Callaway rogue
Following up its original 0811 driver launch, PXG came out with 0811X drivers earlier in 2017. Now, as of December 18, there are three new PXG drivers that have popped up on the USGA Conforming Driver Heads list. The new heads include all 9-degree models; PXG ZZ, PXG XXF and PXG XX. Based on the placement of its signature screw-like weights, it appears there is a fade-biased head, a draw-biased head and a neutral head. Following up its original 0811 driver launch, PXG came out with 0811X drivers earlier in 2017. Now, as of December 18, there are three new PXG drivers that have popped up on the USGA Conforming Driver Heads list. The new heads include all 9-degree models; PXG ZZ, PXG XXF and PXG XX. Based on the placement of its signature screw-like weights, it appears there is a fade-biased head, a draw-biased head and a neutral head. The PXG ZZ head appears to have a slightly more compact shape than the XXF and XX models, and it also has only six weights in the sole that are placed in the rear of the head on the toe and heel. The placement of these weights suggest both high MOI (a measure of forgiveness) and a neutral trajectory bias. The PXG XXF head has nine weights in the sole, with three weights placed out on the toe; this weight placement suggests a fade bias. And, with three weights closer to the face, this suggests a CG that’s more forward than the ZZ model, possibly to lower spin. Like the XXF head, the PXG XX head has nine weights in the sole, with three weights forward in the head. The difference is that the XX model has three weights in the heel, suggesting a draw bias.
PXGxxF
PXGxx
PXGzz
Mizuno ST-180 Mizuno has recently released a new ST-180 driver that we spotted on Tour at the 2017 RSM Classic. The company’s “wave sole” technology makes an appearance for the first time in a Mizuno driver; the design is used to push weight low and forward to reduce spin rates, and the construction contracts and expands during impact to increase energy into the golf ball. The result is a lowerspinning driver, especially for those who hit down on the golf ball, and increased ball speeds across the face. The ST-180 drivers have a new Forged SP700 Titanium face insert that allows the faces to be made thinner—saving weight from the face while increasing ball speeds—and they feature what the company calls a “Internal Waffle Crown” that saves weight to help shift CG low and forward in the head.
mizuno st180 driver
OurTime
A8 Saturday, January 6, 2018 • Editor: Efleda P. Campos
BusinessMirror
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Cavite assures continued assistance for elders
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RECE MARTIRES CITY, Cavite—The welfare of Cavite’s senior citizens is among the provincial government’s priority agenda for the coming year, with programs and assistance to benefit them.
Alvin Mojica, chief of the Cavite Provincial Cooperative, Livelihood and Entrepreneurial Development Office, who is also a Provincial Social Welfare and Development Office (PSWDO) consultant, aired this assurance before 635 members of Cavite’s Federation of Senior Citizen Associations during the year-end party for the elders at the provincial gymnasium here.
PSWDO chief Felipa Servañez said their office hosted the event as part of the various programs to help uplift the lives and well-being of all Caviteños, especially from the senior-citizen sector, in-school and out-of-school youth, persons with disabilities, displaced and homeless constituents, persons in crisis and all other constituents. Senior citizens, including a cen-
and gift items. Gov. Jesus Crispin Remulla issued a directive to pay respects to Cavite’s senior citizens and initiated various benefits and services for the elders as part of his social payback governance thrust from the people, for the people, to ensure people are provided with the adequate government services they deserve. PNA
Want to be happy? Think like a much-older person
Japan emperor turns 84, thanks people over abdication plans
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OKYO—Japan’sEmperorAkihito marked his 84th birthday on December 23, 2017, with a pledge to fulfill his duties until the day of his abdication in 2019, and to prepare for “passing the torch to the next era.” Akihito waved to thousands of well-wishers from a balcony of the royal palace. He was to attend birthday celebrations at the palace later. In his annual birthday comment at a news conference, Akihito thanked the people for putting together thoughts and efforts to achieve his abdication wish that had surprised the nation. Akihito still has a busy schedule, signing official documents, receiving foreign dignitaries and traveling to disaster-hit areas. But he said he will keep working until April 30, 2019, the day he is scheduled to abdicate. “Over the remaining days, I continue to carry out my duties as the symbol of the state,” Akihito said. “I would like to make preparations for passing the torch to the next era, together with the people concerned.” Akihito last year expressed his wish to abdicate, citing his age and health as a concern. He ascended the throne at the age of 56 in January 1989, after the death of his father, Emperor Hirohito, beginning the Heisei Era. The government has adopted a one-time law allowing for Akihito’s abdication, and formally set the date for the event. His elder son Crown Prince Naruhito will ascend the Chrysanthemum Throne the next day, on May 1, 2019. He will be 59. There will be more preparations ahead of the abdication, including deciding a new era name and a new home for the emperor and the empress. Akihito’s desire to leave the throne revived a debate about the country’s 2,000-year-old monarchy, one of the world’s oldest, as well as discussion about improving the status of female members of the shrinking royal population. The current male-only succession rules prohibit women from succeeding the throne. Women lose their royal status when they marry a commoner. Unlike his father who was worshipped as god until the end of World War II, Akihito has devoted himself to being a symbolic figure as defined in Japan’s postwar pacifist constitution while trying to soothe the wounds of war from his father’s era. Though spoken in soft language, his emphasis on the importance of peace and compassions toward the handicapped, the weak and the elderly as he himself grew older is often seen in contrast to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ultra right-wing, hawkish policies. In his birthday comment, Akihito also mentioned his sympathy for the suffering of those affected by volcanic eruptions and fatal rainstorms in southern Japan earlier this year. The last emperor to abdicate was 200 years ago—Kokaku in 1817. AP
tenarian aged 108, who was rewarded with her cash gift, enjoyed a funfilled day as association members rendered dance and song numbers and played instruments. A dance presentation from the Maragondon contingent prompted everybody to stand up and move to the beat, and nobody went home emptyhanded with the assorted raffle prizes
CARVING DOG IMAGES ON WOOD Lola Jacinta Gano, 79, of Irisan in Baguio City carves the likeness of puppies on wood, as ordered by some of
her customers. MAU VICTA
Elderly couple arrested for wanting
to give friends marijuana for Christmas
A
COUPLE in their 80s was recently arrested in Nebraska for allegedly transporting 60 pounds of marijuana, worth several hundred thousand dollars, which they told the police they intended to give away as Christmas presents. The couple, Patrick Jiron, 83, and his wife, Barbara Jiron, 80, were pulled over in their Toyota Tacoma pickup truck by deputies from the York County Sheriff’s Department when they failed to signal a turn. The York News-Times, a local newspaper, said they were arrested on Interstate 80, near the town of Bradshaw. Deputies searched the vehicle after smelling the strong odor of raw marijuana and found roughly 60 pounds of it, with an estimated
street value of more than $300,000, the department said in a statement. They also found what the department described in a statement as “multiple” containers of concentrated THC, the chemical compound found in cannabis that causes a euphoric high. The Jirons told the police they were traveling from their home state of California to Vermont, with a planned pit stop in Boston, and intended to distribute the drugs to family and friends as Christmas gifts. The use of recreational and medicinal marijuana has been legalized in several states, including California and Massachusetts, but not in Vermont, according to the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws. The couple were cited on charges of possession of marijuana with the intent to deliver and of lacking a drugtax stamp, the department said. Lt. Paul Vrbka told The NewsTimes that Patrick Jiron was being held in the York County Jail while his wife had been cited but not jailed “due to some medical issues.” A drug-tax stamp is a stamp displayed on a container used to hold drugs that certifies the dealer in possession of them has paid the drug tax, which Nebraska law requires dealers to pay “immediately upon acquisition or possession of marijuana or controlled substances,” according to the Nebraska Department of Revenue. New York Times News Service
ONAS Mekas turned 95 this year and won a lifetime achievement award in Frankfurt, Germany. Ping Wong, 92, learned new rules for playing mahjong. Helen Moses, who turned 93, mostly gave up talk of marrying Howie Zeimer, her steady companion of the last eight years. Ruth Willig, 94, broke a bone in her foot and feared it was the beginning of the end. John Sorensen’s ashes wait to be scattered on New York’s Fire Island. Fred Jones would have turned 90 in March. Nearly three years ago, I started following the lives of six New Yorkers over the age of 85, one of the fastestgrowing age groups in America. The series of articles began the way most stories about older people do, with the fears and hardships of aging: a fall in the kitchen, an aching leg that did not get better, days segueing into nights without human contact. They had lived through—and some were still challenged by—money problems, medical problems, the narrowing of life’s movements. But as the series went along, a different story emerged. When the elders described their lives, they focused not on their declining abilities, but on things that they could still do and that they found rewarding. As Wong said, “I try not to think about bad things. It’s not good for old people to complain.” Here was another perspective on getting old. It was also a lesson for those who are not there yet. Older people report higher levels of contentment or well-being than teenagers and young adults. The six elders put faces on this statistic. If they were not always gleeful, they were resilient and not paralyzed by the challenges that came their way. All have known loss and survived. None went to a job he did not like, coveted stuff she could not afford, brooded over a slight on the subway or lost sleep over events in the distant future. They set realistic goals. Only one said he was afraid to die. Gerontologists call this the
paradox of old age: That as people’s minds and bodies decline, instead of feeling worse about their lives, they feel better. In memory tests, they recall positive images better than negative; under functional magnetic resonance imaging, their brains respond more mildly to stressful images than the brains of younger people. John Sorensen, who liked to talk, brought cheer to every conversation, even those about wanting to die. Helen Moses and Ping Wong knew exactly what they wanted: For Moses, it was her daughter and Zeimer; for Wong, it was mahjong and the camaraderie it entailed, even if the other players spoke a different dialect or followed the rules of a different home region. Jones, Willig and Mekas all spent their energy on the things they could still do that brought them satisfaction, not on what they had lost to age. For three years, visiting them has been a lesson in living, and a rejoinder to the myth that youth is life’s glory, after which everything is downhill. Their muscles weakened, their sight grew dim, their friends and peers gradually disappeared. But each showed a matter-of-fact resilience that would shame most 25-year-olds. “It’s like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel,” Jones said one day in his apartment, a cluttered walkup in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, whose stairs he could barely climb. “The span is too long just to have a bridge, so they had to have a bridge and an underpass. So part of it you’re up here, and part of it you’re down here and, finally, you get to the Eastern Shore. Good days, bad days. But overall it’s good days.” So it went with all of them. Their message was so counterintuitive that it took a long time to sink in. But finally it did: If you want to be happy, learn to think like an old person. Their examples were so life changing that I wrote a book about it. But this is their story, not mine.
New York Times News Service
Change coming for Saudi women, but not all at once
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EIRUT, Lebanon—Saudi Arabia has long been known as one of the world’s most restrictive environments for women, where they could not travel alone, hold a wide range of jobs, show their hair in public or drive. That is beginning to change. A series of recent decisions by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s young, de facto ruler, could revolutionize the lives of Saudi women. They will soon be allowed to attend soccer matches at public stadiums. They have been named to prominent positions. In June they will be allowed to drive cars, even motorcycles, the government says. Women will probably even be able to join the traffic police. But how much these dizzying decisions will affect individuals will depend on several factors, including where they live, their age, their own beliefs and the willingness of their male relatives to give
up the control that many consider a religious prerogative. While the kingdom’s strict gender rules are often seen as an extension of its deep connection to its ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, they are, in many ways, deeply entrenched cultural norms. And, despite the speed with which the official decisions could potentially free up women’s lives, the culture could shift more slowly. Most public spaces in Saudi Arabia are designed to keep men and women apart. Restaurants have separate entrances for “families,” meaning groups that include women, and “single” — which really means “men.” One mall in Riyadh, the capital, has an entire floor for women only, called “the Ladies Kingdom.” With few exceptions, schools and universities are segregated, and many men and women who do not consider themselves particularly religious still mostly socialize
with their own gender. In conservative circles, men rarely mix with female relatives who are not their mothers, daughters or sisters. Some men live their entire lives without seeing the faces of their brothers’ wives. But, the rules are not as strict as they once were and, in many places, change has already begun. Saudi Arabia has a large youth population. About two-thirds of its 22 million citizens are younger than 30. Compared with members of older generations, young Saudis have grown up with unprecedented exposure to the rest of the world. Hundreds of thousands of them have studied abroad, including in the United States. And social media and satellite television have made even those who remain at home familiar with other societies. Many of the young Saudis have even come up with their own rules. Some young women have turned the
abaya, the baggy black gown meant to conceal a woman’s form, into a high-end fashion accessory. Others have adopted more revealing forms of the hijab, the head scarf that many Muslim women wear, donning it in a way meant to attract, not deflect, male attention. In public spaces, people tend to follow common rules about modest dress and interactions between unrelated women and men. But in private, Saudis can largely do as they please. Many young people have used that leeway to carve out spaces where they mix and engage in activities that others in society would object to. They hold concerts in basements for their friends or gather in mixed groups to play board games or to watch uncensored Hollywood movies. Others organize salsa dance classes where women dress in ways they never could on the street.
Changes in women’s status proceeded slowly under previous kings. In the 1960s King Faisal faced a backlash from conservatives for introducing public education for girls. He appeased critics by telling them it was not mandatory; in a few years, even the most conservative Saudis were sending their daughters to school. Under the reign of King Abdullah, who died in 2015, women were first allowed to work as sales clerks and in supermarket checkout lines. He also added 30 women to the kingdom’s Shura Council, an appointed body that advises the monarchy. In recent decades, the government has built many women’s universities, and enrollment has soared. But changes for women have accelerated under Mohammed, 32, who has emerged as the country’s most powerful and dynamic leader since his elderly father became king in 2015. New York Times News Service
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Offered a chance, Chan wants to return the favor Conclusion By Rizal Raoul S. Reyes
T
@brownindio
OWER cranes lured her back to the Philippines. Ten years ago, Katrina Rausa Chan graduated at the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) with a degree in materials science and engineering with additional major in business administration.
But the United States was still reeling from an economic recession and tensions against immigrants were running high. A Christmas trip to her homeland one day gave her a different view: Tower Cranes everywhere, she said. In an e-mail interview with the BusinessMirror, Chan, now 28 and the current executive director of Qbo Innovation Hub, bared her journey from an atmosphere of recession to a budding ecosystem of start-ups in the Philippines. In this question and answer, Chan also shared the roots of her patriotism, planted during her life as a student of the Philippine Science High School fondly called by alumni as “Pisay.”
What do you consider your “milestones” in Pisay?
As far as milestones are concerned, I think that just like any other high schooler, the most memorable moments weren’t necessarily academic—like directing in my first play, leading the debate team or attending the prom. That said, I was selected to be part of international science research fairs and competed and won my fair share of competitions. I won special citations for being the best in economics and biology in my year and graduated with high honors. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it does feel rewarding when you’re recognized for something knowing that
you were competing with some of the best and the brightest.
How did you prepare for Carnegie Mellon?
Entering college, I knew I wanted a different challenge. Graduating from Pisay, you were compelled to enter a Stem (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) course, but engineering and technology, in particular, appealed to me because it was practical. I wanted to build and create things and it was a lot more appealing to me than pure research or theory. I ultimately chose to go to (CMU) because I was looking for a toptier engineering and technology school that also had a good business program. CMU, perhaps, isn’t very well-known in the Philippines, but a number of people I admired I found out actually studied there and they were working on cutting edge stuff. Fortunately, I got admitted into the dual major for engineering and business, which were the courses I wanted to pursue. So it really made sense for what I wanted to do and learn, which was to build things but also make money doing it. In terms of preparations, to be honest, most of the work is in applying, writing essays, taking the SATs [Scholastic Assessment Test] and getting recommendation letters. I got accepted into a few top-tier US universities so I had to make
some tough choices. But once I decided to go to CMU, the preparation mostly involved buying winter clothing and finding a place to live since it was my first time being away from home.
How would you describe the CMU campus experience?
Campus was beautiful, especially since you start school in the fall and you get to see the colors in the leaves change. There’s a real sense of community, plus the facilities are everything one could hope for. The most impactful experiences though really revolve around growing up and learning to be independent—to live by and take care of yourself; to have to start afresh and establish new relationships when your family and everything that’s familiar isn’t there; and, to join organizations and pursue your different passions. That said, CMU was incredible and instilled an intellectual rigor that I’d never before experienced. It’s incredibly humbling but also stimulating to be in an environment where people are smart, have big dreams and are always pushing themselves. It brings out the best in you.
Did you become a more competitive individual in CMU?
I think your first instinct is to be competitive—after all, I was used to being good, if not the best at things—but in the end, I think to be able to thrive in a challenging environment one actually learns to be less competitive and more cooperative. Again, it’s humbling to realize there are so many out there that really are better than you. On the other hand, you also more fully understand your own strengths and the value that you bring. You’re optimizing for results and, over time, that leads to more collaboration once you learn you can achieve greater outcomes as a collective than what you might be able to get by competing and just looking out for yourself.
katrina rausa chan
How do you assess studying in a foreign school?
I do think studying in a foreign school changed me and brought out the best in me. More than the quality of education per se, I truly believe that in the same way that the best wine vintages come from drought years or diamonds are made through extreme stress and pressure, it’s pushing your limits and getting out of your comfort zone that makes you grow. I actually had a UP Oblation Scholarship so it would have been a lot easier to just go to school here where the path was well laid out, but I knew I wanted to see how I’d perform out there competing in a different country and testing my limits. I think being your best self involves pushing yourself to the point where it’s a bit uncomfortable.
What are prospects of start-ups in the Philippines?
As it appears to happen a lot in this archipelago, a lot of the Philippine start-up ecosystem is fragmented. It may take a lot more patience for me to realize the dream, but we’re working on it at QBO. I’m excited about a lot of the things we’re working on. It’s hard to believe it’s only been a year since we started, and I’m incredibly grateful that QBO in our very first year
has been recognized as the best accelerator for the Philippine Rice Bowl Start-up Awards. Just in the past month, we ran a project with the UNDP, called “Start-ups to the Resque,” our first competition where we gave out $16,000 worth of prizes, conjunction with Slingshot Asean for high-impact start-ups in the DRR space, and published the Philippine Startup Survey with PwC (PriceWwaterhouseCoopers), which is the first comprehensive report of its kind to examine the start-up ecosystem from the founders’ perspective. I think both initiatives really help elucidate on what’s happening here and drive more interest from partners and investors on a global stage. We’re definitely looking forward to continuing with more high-powered collaborations like these that can really add value to the ecosystem. I’m also looking forward to developing our “Qmmunity” (brand) further through our signature Q programs (Qlitan, Worqshop, Basiqs and Feedbaq) and, especially our Inqbation program. (In 2018) we plan to put together a platform to match investors with start-ups to create even more funding opportunities (Showqase), as well as bringing in top-notch mentors, both those that have achieved a degree of success in business (entrepreneurs in residence), as well as seasoned executives (executives in residence). The first “Philippine Unicorn-Revolution Precrafted” was announced earlier (December) and we’ll be looking to ensure we’re able to highlight Filipino achievements, and inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs through start-up champions. Finally, now that we have some momentum and experience under our belts, I’d like for us to expand our footprint, both locally and internationally. I’d love to bring our Qmmunity (brand) online so we can (collaborate) from around the world, and have QBO be accessible to every university and fledgling start-up community, even outside of Metro Manila. We’re really just getting started.
Even health-conscious millennials have limits
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O much for those kale chomping, kombucha chugging, gluten-free and organic twentysomethings: Millennials spend more of their grocery money on prepared foods, pasta, sugar and sweets than other generations, a United States Department of Agriculture analysis found. Kombucha is a variety of fermented, lightly effervescent sweetened black or green tea drinks commonly intended as functional beverages for their supposed health benefits, an Internet search revealed. That trend in spending is actually pretty explainable when one digs into age-group economics, and it’s the lead item in this week’s economic research roundup. We sum up studies that show how to make a San Francisco rent check look cheap and focus on one area where skills aren’t paying off the way they once did.
Weekly demo(graphic) Young people in Britain are now spending a third of their leisure time using a device, data from the United Kingdom Office of National Statistics showed.
Data: Young Britons spend a third of their leisure time on a device E
VER wondered how much time millennials spend staring at a screen? United Kingdom statisticians have come up with some answers. Young people spent more than a third of their leisure time—around 14 hours per week—using devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, e-readers and laptops in 2015, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said in note published on Tuesday. The figure for men aged 25 and under was 35 percent; for women, it was 29 percent.
Unsurprisingly, technology occupied far less of their parents’ time, with the figure for those age 56 and over falling to around 10 percent. The high use of devices among young people is partly explained by their heavy use of social media, the ONS said. One question raised by the analysis is whether there is a cost to personal well-being. Compared with 2000, people in 2015 spent less of their leisure time on activities like sports and cultural pursuits, with those aged between 46 and 55
recording the biggest decline. Britons were also less sociable, spending on average around six of their roughly 40 hours of leisure time in the company of other people. That’s a decline of 13 percent since 2000. “It’s possible that with increased device use, people are becoming less likely to go out of their way to meet up and socialize,” the ONS said. “Easy Internet access enables people to talk to friends via social-media apps, but they’re still doing so alone.” Bloomberg News
THE health-obsessed millennial isn’t a myth, but it also isn’t the norm. In fact, millennials spend more of their budgets on foods generally viewed as unhealthy than older generations. To be fair, consumption of nutritious goodies like fresh vegetables goes up with income, and money is in comparatively short supply for people who are just starting off in the labor market. Millennials who make more—$50,000 to $99,000—actually spend a bigger share of their budgets on veggies than their older fellow shoppers. Still, across income brackets, young people spend more on prepared food than older generations. That trend might be the result of lifestyle: Millennials are spending a lot less time cooking. If household formation picks up and the generation starts families, consumption choices could shift.
How to prep for the robot takeover
IN a wide-ranging paper on how robots might reshape the economic future, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz and his coauthor lay out a clear reason to worry about their distributional implications. It’s possible the already privileged could use artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance their own capabilities, catapulting their skill far above people at the bottom of the ladder. “Those who cannot afford the latest technology
will have to rely on what is in the public domain, and if the pace of innovation increases, the gap between the best technology and what is publicly available will increase,” according to the research. While humanity might be able to adjust to slow changes efficiently, AI may happen quickly—so society may need to be ready to ensure that the benefits are widely shared.
How do you make Silicon Valley rent look cheap?
HIGH-price markets like New York and California have low rents relative to the price to buy a home with similar characteristics. By contrast, buy-versus-rent tradeoffs look “quite high” in places like Detroit and Cleveland when compared to the yields on other financial assets, economist JP Morgan economist Jesse Edgerton concludes by analyzing Zillow data. Zillow calculates the implied sale value and rental value of properties, taking into account their characteristics and geographies. That makes it possible to come up with a price-to-rent ratio for each unit. Those ratios range from numbers less than 10 in Detroit and Cleveland to more than 25 in New York and California.
When skills don’t pay off
AS inequality in the United States rises, the skills divide gets a lot of the blame. But it may be more complicated than it seems, as the gap between people with similar levels of education has expanded. Some say increasing returns for unobserved skills—a worker’s adeptness at making widgets, for instance—is at least partially behind the divide. But new Bank of Canada research finds that the returns to so-called unobserved skills have declined by 50 percent since the mid-1980s—as jobs got automated, it pays less to be good at them. What’s causing the pay gap is skills dispersion. Some people are getting on the ladder and growing their skills dramatically over their lifetimes, while others are stagnating. “This may simply reflect a different type of technological change—one characterized by the frequent introduction of new tasks that makes others obsolete,” the authors write. “Alternatively, more able workers may simply be more capable of learning and adapting to new tasks.” Bloomberg News
Saturday, January 6, 2018
A9
How killing your ego makes you happier
Maxine Mamba
inspired
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OST people rely on something to make them feel important. You could say it’s their idol because it replaces God in their life or the place where God should be. Before, mine was being attractive or hot and I took it as a part of my identity. I was a product of the consumerist society that sold the “Barbie-Megan Foxx” ideal. Still, everyone has their thing: being smart, being funny, being rich, being well-dressed or well-read. It’s all the same. It feeds ego. The problem is, ego is weak. Ego is fleeting and meaningless. Most of all, ego-based confidence is on shaky ground. You get insulted and your world/ego comes tumbling down until you rebuild it in a wall of defensiveness and/or hate. You protect it with intellectualism that exclude the ego-manufactured other: “Only the smart can understand Nietzsche” or “Being this rich means I don’t have to talk nicely to people who don’t have at least one Louis Vuitton in their closet.” Divides are built from ego to society: Religions protect their own, capitalists protect their own, the models protect their own. From ego stems the brick and mortar that build prejudice and war. Even in businesses, the main problem isn’t productivity but the human factor of relationship and politics. Why can’t we get along? Why can’t we forget whose idea this was? Why can’t the boss be wrong? It is for ego that many an injustice has survived in the crevices of companies that calcify their progress to a standstill. This New Year I urge you to break free from the constraints of your burdensome ego. Allow your importance to fall, and accept your own unique strength as a child of God. When you see the greatness and goodness of God and take part in your belonging in Him, you become unshakeable. Your ego is dead. Yet, a dead ego allows you to love and serve others, be fully invested in outcomes, instead of power struggles, and fully serving others because you yourself are filled to the brim. You are not the brand you wear or the title on your desk. It would seem scary to an ego-centered person, but when you find the true you, the child of God that is greater than any property or title you might have, you will finally be completely solid in confidence. More than this, you will be free not to have to defend how important you are all the time. You will be free to just be you. You will be open to giving attention and kindness, and receiving the gains of stronger bonds with colleagues and lifelong friends. Stephen Covey speaks of “principle-centered leadership” where principles are your core. That is great because principles won’t change. The problem arises when one fails in implementing a principle like honesty or frugality. It is because their core identity is still not in line with that principle. When you start seeing your identity as a child of God, you will be a completely free person. An ego-centered individual will always be assessing and reassessing how he or she is coming off or appearing to others because they are out to protect their ego. With a dead ego, you can be free to be yourself, plan the goals that truly make you feel fulfilled, laugh at yourself and ignore mean spirited comments of people. With a dead ego, you can focus on turning your dreams to reality, connecting with the divine, finding your passion and nourishing your most loved ones. Where once ego was a blindfold that kept you in your own self-sense, being “ego less” allows you to view others with more empathy, kindness and understanding. Here are the fruits and symptoms of a dead ego: 1. You can appreciate the strengths and beauty of everyone around you. 2. You can be happy for other people’s success and blessings even if you don’t have them yourself. 3. You can laugh at yourself and the mistakes you make without feeling angry. 4. You can let snide or catty comments slide off you like butter on a hot pancake. 5. You freely compliment and support others. 6. You can interact with others without mentioning your idol/ego-strength. 7. You see yourself as a child of God or a special person, just like everyone else. Killing your ego is one of the best things you can do for yourself this 2018. Free yourself of the hassles of self-consciousness today by consciously doing any or all of these emotions straight from the heart. Knowing that you are more than your ego is just the first step to a richer inner life that is yours if and only if you take a gun to that ego now. Maxine Mamba is a regular contributor to the Millennials page of the BusinessMirror. The views expressed in her column, however, do not necessarily reflect those of the BusinessMirror’s. E-mail her at millennialuniverse@yahoo.com.
BusinessMirror
A10 Saturday, January 6, 2018
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Paper planner or phone: Which works better for organizing your life? PRIMETIME
DINNA CHAN VASQUEZ @dinnachanvasquez luckydinna@gmail.com
Taking high-tech entertainment to a whole new level THE world’s third-largest TV manufacturer and leading QLED TV innovator, TCL Multimedia (www. tclphilippines.com) conducted an exciting virtual racing competition, in partnership with Gameloft, makers of Asphalt Nitro, for mallgoers of the SM Mall of Asia Cyberzone Area in Pasay City. The three-day racing event gathered hundreds of participants, who competed for the coveted daily grand prize: a brand-new TCL 32” D2900 and a smartwatch from Gameloft. To win the race, every participant was put through a nerve-wracking round of the video game, Asphalt Nitro, with the goal of winning the race in the shortest possible time. Declared winners were Cezar C. de la Cruz Jr., Miguel M. Rabago and Paul Yap. During the racing event, the participants enjoyed the thrilling features of TCL C2 Android TV and the TCL X3 TV. These sleek, state-of-the-art TVs promise a whole new and exciting entertainment experience with its cutting-edge innovations in connectivity, picture quality, sound and multifunctional features. “Today, TV is more than just for watching your favorite programs. It is an experience that encompasses everything you are looking for,” said Eason Cai, CEO of TCL. “Consumers now want a TV that allows them to connect to the Internet, play their favorite games, watch live-streaming programs and even listen to their favorite tunes. TCL’s C2 Android TV and X3 offer multidimensional entertainment.” TCL C2 is the latest Android M-powered TV that allows users to access a wide range of content and enjoy many functions, including Google Play Store, games, music, movies, TV shows, with Netflix, Chromecast and voice-search built-in. The C2 Android TV delivers a stunning viewing experience with its HDR Pro, Wide Color Gamut (WCG) 4K UHD and Micro Dimming technologies. Superior sound is delivered via its front-facing Harman Kardon speakers and the Dolby Audio and Smart TV Volume that produce a studio-like sound quality. Another innovative offering is the TCL X3. Part of the premium XESS Series, this trailblazing TV combines many great features in one, and is also powered by Android TV. It features a 65-inch Quantum Dot screen display and a curved body that highlights a sleek, modern and streamlined design that’s slim and lacks edges. It has a metal frame giving it a premium feel and look and showcases six circular Harman Kardon speakers in the front. Some units come with a game controller and two remote controls with one featuring a motion sensor.
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GIAN JAVELONA
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T’S no joke when I say my phone is my life because everything is there—from my appointments to the notes and recordings of my interviews. Truthfully, my phone has too much information on it. Perhaps, some information shouldn’t be there but I’m very dependent on my phone for everything. I think of it as a modern-day Filofax. Oh, the phone also serves as my alarm clock. So, yes, I’m not being overly dramatic when I say, “My phone is my life.” It’s true. My daughter, on the other hand, asked for a planner as a Christmas gift. She also asked me to buy a desk calendar for her. Every year, she buys a planner or places it in her Christmas wish list and she does use it the whole year. So I got her five paper planners. Disclaimer: This isn’t spoiling her. She graduated from college and I didn’t have a gift for her, so this is overcompensating for that. One planner is a small Moleskine one for her purse. The other is the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s (CBTL) 2018 Giving Journal, which has the theme “Leave a Legacy.” When you get the CBTL planner, you help the Real LIFE Foundation, which provides educational assistance to those who deserve a good education. The foundation has helped more than 300 scholars earn a bachelor’s degree. Of this number, over 40 went to school with the help of the Giving Journal campaign. I also got her Starbucks planners, which come in two designs (green and blue). Each planner is encased in a leather sleeve and comes with an exclusive Starbucks card, which features a design inspired by their Kape Vinta blend. Last, I got her one of the Starbucks Korea x Pantone planners via a friend. I wish I had also gotten her the Starbucks Singapore planner, a Moleskine, while I was there in September. On the other hand, I don’t have a single planner. I will continue to rely on my phone to remind me of appointments and everything else via Google Calendar. Millennials have been using paper planners again because they say it gives them a real sense of purpose as they go about their day. My daughter likes planners because she doodles on them. Aside from that, it inspires her to look at her reminders and lists, which are in her handwriting.
It’s just funny that in this day and age of online calendars, electronic alarms and conference calls, young people would go for something that was deemed obsolete just a few years ago. But I do understand the attraction of a paper planner: There is no pressure. If you don’t meet your appointment, then you don’t. If you don’t cross off anything on your to-do list, then you don’t. No alarms, no vibrations and no sounds. So which is better, a phone or a paper planner? Because I’m a person that likes writing lists, I will list down the pros and cons of each.
MOBILE PHONE PROS ■ Makes a sound to remind you of something. ■ No need to carry a planner and pen, meaning your bag is lighter. ■ No need to shift from phone to planner when you have to look at something. ■ You’re looking at a screen that’s lit and easy to read. CONS ■ What if you lose your phone? ■ What if you lose all your data?
■ What if your phone malfunctions? ■ Planners can be expensive. A phone is already there. Everybody has a phone.
PAPER PLANNER PROS ■ There’s nothing like the smell of paper. ■ You can personalize it. A paper planner is more flexible. ■ A paper planner is not dependent on technology. You will be reminded of your appointments whether it is charged. CONS ■ You have to write things down. ■ Paper planners can be expensive. ■ Carrying one around, plus a pen means extra bag weight. ■ It doesn’t make a sound. So in a sense, it is more peaceful. In the future, it would be nice to see a good crossplatform planner that we can view and use on paper and on our phones. I’m sure there are already some cross-platform calendars/planners out there. I’d love to know if you’ve already tried them. Please message me if you have. I’d love to hear from you.
Apple apologizes for secretly slowing older iPhones SAN FRANCISCO—Apple apologized for secretly slowing down older iPhones, a move it said was necessary to avoid unexpected shutdowns related to battery fatigue. Many customers had interpreted the move as a way for Apple to juice demand for newer iPhone models, their suspicions fueled by the fact that the company didn’t initially disclose the slowdowns or its reasons for them. Apple also said it will cut the price of a battery replacement by $50 to $29 through next year. New batteries had previously cost $79 for those who didn’t purchase the Apple Care maintenance plan. “We apologize,” the company said on its web site. “We have never—and would never—do anything to intentionally
shorten the life of any Apple product, or degrade the user experience to drive customer upgrades.” The replacement plan begins in late-January for anyone with an iPhone 6 or later that requires a new battery. Apple said it will also issue an update to its operating system early next year to give users a better understanding of the health of their battery, so they can see if its condition is affecting performance. Hostile customer reaction was swift after a report last December uncovered the intentional slowdown in speed tests. Only then did Apple acknowledge that the slowdown was due to a fix it rolled out last year. Shares dropped 2.5 percent on Tuesday—also dinged by analysts predicting
lower-than-expected demand for the iPhone X—and only partially recovered by Thursday. At least five groups seeking class-action status, involving consumers in Texas, Illinois, California and New York, have also sued the company in the wake of the slowdown revelation. Ben Bajarin, an analyst with Creative Strategies, said Apple found itself in a tough spot by having to explain what it did to cope with the reality that all lithium ion batteries degrade over time. “The error—if anything—was not being more transparent,” he said. “They were legitimately trying to make people’s iPhones last longer.” AP
Filipino techie makes it to ‘Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 “WHY isn’t there a tech company in the Philippines?” asked Gian Javelona, then a young and highly ambitious college student taking up computer engineering at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. Today, at 26, Javelona is CEO of OrangeApps, a company that brings together a School Information System, a Learning Management System and Data Analytics in a singular platform for better school performance. Javelona was included in Forbes Magazine’s 30 Under 30 Asia 2017, a prestigious list of young achievers and innovators in the region. OrangeApps is continuously on the up and up, with its latest portfolio of products expanding to include Khawna, an online learning platform that offers various courses to people who may need additional know-how in science, technology, engineering and
entrepreneurship, even in far-flung areas, as long as there’s Internet access. Other game changing and groundbreaking products are currently being developed. Javelona was invited recently as a panelist in a discussion organized by AXA (www.axa.com.ph) for its new offering: MyAmbition, the first investment-linked insurance product that is available online. At the event, Javelona talked about his path to becoming an entrepreneur and achieving his ambition. A major milestone in his life was when he was accepted in 2013 to the incubation program of Ideaspace Foundation, an initiative of businessman Manny Pangilinan to help nurture start-ups and “technopreneurship,” as well as innovation-technology development. AXA MyAmbition is a variable life-insurance plan that can be bought online for a one-time investment of as little
as P50,000 up to a maximum of P125,000. It lets you grow your money by investing it in a fund best suited to your investment personality. It also doubles as a life insurance, which means your loved ones will receive bigger gains in the future in case something unexpected happens to you. You also have the option to let your money stay with the company so it can grow further. You can check the performance of your investment by simply downloading the MYAXA app and registering your policy. You can avail yourself of up to 10 MyAmbition policies, and you can pay your premium via your credit or debit card. AXA encourages people of all ages and walks of life to have a game plan, in the same way Javelona does, to be able to live the life they choose.
BusinessMirror
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Saturday, January 6, 2018 A11
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THIS undated file image provided by Google shows the emojis the company proposed that highlight the diversity of women’s careers. Eleven of the proposed emojis were added and recognized by the Unicode Consortium during the summer of 2016.
Will we get a sad poop emoji? Well, there’s a process N
BY BARBARA ORTUTAY The Associated Press
EW YORK—We have a smiling pile of poop. What about one that’s sad? There’s loaf of bread and a croissant. But where’s the sliced bagel? How can our emotional vocabulary be complete without a teddy bear, a lobster, a petri dish or a tooth? These are the kind of questions that trigger heated debates and verbal bomb tossing—or at least memos with bursts of capital letters—among members of the group burdened with deciding which new emojis make it onto our phones and computer screens each year. And now more people are getting in on the act. The Unicode Consortium is tasked with setting the global standard for the icons. It’s a heady responsibility and it can take years from inspiration— Hey, why isn’t there a dumpling?—to a new symbol being added to our phones. That’s because deciding whether a googly-eyed turd should express a wider range of emotions is not the frivolous undertaking it might appear to be. Picking the newest additions to our roster of cartoonish glyphs, from deciding on their appearance to negotiating rules that allow vampires but bar Robert Pattinson’s or Dracula’s likeness, actually has consequences for modern communication. Not since the printing press has something changed written language as much as emojis have, says Lauren Collister, a scholarly communications librarian at the University of Pittsburgh. “Emoji is one way language is growing,” she says. “When it stops growing and adapting, that’s when a language dies.” Growing and adapting doesn’t seem like an issue for emojis. The additions for 2017 included gender-neutral characters, a breastfeeding woman and a woman in a hijab. For better or worse, the expanding vocabulary has given us an emoji movie, emoji short-story contests and books written in emoji—someone
translated Moby Dick into “Emoji Dick.” In 2015 Oxford Dictionaries declared the “face with tears of joy” emoji its word of the year. New York’s Museum of Modern Art has added the original emoji set to its permanent collection. Apple’s pricey iPhone X lets you send animojis, animated emojis that mimic your facial expressions and speak in your voice.
HOW DID WE GET HERE? THESE tiny pictographs became a part of our online language with the ascent of cell phones, getting their start in Japan in 1999—“emoji” combines the Japanese words for “picture,” or “e’’ (pronounced “eh”), and “letters,” or “moji” (moh-jee). At first, there were just 176: simplistic, highly pixelated icons, such as a heart, a soccer ball and a rocking horse. Today there are more than a thousand. Because none are taken away, their number only keeps growing. “Long after you and I are dust in the wind there will be a red-wine emoji,” said Mark Davis, the cofounder and president of Unicode Consortium who also works at Google. Anyone can propose an emoji. But for it to make it to phones and computers, it has to be approved by Unicode. The nonprofit group, mostly made up of people from large tech companies like Apple, Google and Facebook, translates emoji into one standard, so that a person in France, for example, can send an emoji or a text message to a person in the US and it will look the same, no matter what brand of phone or operating system they use. From the proposals to the design, a bevy of rules govern emojis. To submit a proposal to Unicode, you must follow a strict format, in writing, that includes your emoji’s expected usage level, whether it can be used as an archetype, a metaphor for a symbol (a pig face, for example, can mean more than the face of a pig and represent gluttony). There are many reasons for exclusion, too. Emojis can’t be overly specific, logos or brands, specific people (living or dead) or deities. A swastika wouldn’t be approved either.
New Dell Inspiron lineup unveiled WELCOMING the new year is Dell Philippines with new entries in mobile computing that provide the most immersive and comprehensive experience available. The new offerings include the Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 and laptop with new 8th Generation Intel Core processors, and new Inspiron 15 7000 gaming laptop. These new innovations demonstrate Dell’s commitment to providing the best audio and visual computing, virtual reality and gaming experiences for consumers. “Our new devices showcase Dell’s leadership in innovation across personal computing, gaming and virtual reality,” said Jay Ranola, Dell Philippines consumer head. “The beautiful new Inspiron laptops and 2-in-1 include some of the best designs with incredible visual experiences, exceptional performance and support to match.” Fashion-forward and design-conscious individuals would love this new Inspiron 2-in-1 under their Christmas tree. The new Inspiron 7000 2-in-1, available with 13-inch display in Era Gray brushed aluminum, brings stunning visuals and powerful performance in a small footprint. Enjoy a beautiful visual experience with a narrow border and FHD IPS touch display supporting active pen (sold separately) for digital drawing, writing and note taking. The Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 allows uninterrupted movie viewing or video chat, thanks to SmartByte streaming technology coengineered by Dell that prioritizes streaming and conferencing above other network activities.
For those who prefer a traditional laptop, the new Inspiron 13 7000 laptop is perfect for jetsetters, with the device’s slim, light and thin-bezel design in Platinum Silver or Pink Champagne. The laptop takes advantage of the outstanding performance, responsiveness and hardware-enabled security built into the 8th Generation Intel Core processor, as well as strengthened security with password-free biometrics login with Windows Hello and infrared camera or fingerprint reader. Finally, it offers a range of storage options. Meanwhile, the Inspiron 15 7000 gaming laptop is just one of the great products which demonstrate Dell’s leadership in PC gaming and its commitment to delivering the best gaming products for players at every level. The device is equipped with advanced cooling for extended play, and an overall high-quality experience—all at a modest price. Mainstream gamers will be thrilled to unbox this new gaming laptop to accompany their holidays. This new Inspiron gaming laptop offers NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 discrete graphics and NVIDIA Max Q Design technology, 7th Gen Intel quad core CPU options and dual fans to keep the system cool and quiet while powering through challenging games. Anti-glare IPS wide viewing angle FHD or 4K UHD display options provide excellent visual clarity, while Waves MaxxAudio Pro software delivers precise audio. To know more to know about Dell’s new offering in mobile computing, visit www.dell.com/ph.
Each year, a new version of the Unicode Standard is released. This year we got Unicode 10.0, which adds 8,518 characters, for a total of 136,690. It added the Bitcoin symbol, a set of 285 Hentaigana characters used in Japan and support for languages, such as Masaram Gondi, used to write Gondi in Central and Southeast India. And then there’s the dumpling.
AN EMOJI TAKES SHAPE BACK in August 2015, journalist and author Jennifer 8. Lee was texting with her friend Yiying Lu, the graphic designer behind the iconic “fail whale” illustration that used to pop up when Twitter’s network was down. It dawned on Lee that there was no dumpling emoji. “There are so many weird Japanese food emoji,” she said, but she didn’t understand how there could be no dumpling. After all, dumplings are almost universal. Think about it—ravioli, empanada, pierogi, potsticker—all dumplings. The process took almost two years, including research, many meetings and a written, illustrated proposal that reads a bit like an academic paper, complete with research on dumpling history and popularity. But thanks largely to her efforts, the dumpling emoji was added to the Unicode Standard this year. And as part of her dumpling emoji lobbying, Lee decided to join the Unicode Consortium. It was an eye-opener. When she showed up at her first quarterly meeting of the Unicode Emoji Subcommittee, she expected a big auditorium. Instead, it was just a conference room. Most people there, she said, were “older, white male engineers,” from the big tech companies. The debates are as esoteric as they are quirky. Should “milk” be in a glass or a carton or a bottle? Pancake or pancakes? Many of the emoji decisionmakers are engineers or have linguistic backgrounds, she said, but very few are designers, which can mean limitations on how they think about the images. As part of their efforts to diversify emojis, Lee and Lu founded Emojination, a group promoting “emoji by
the people, for the people.” While it all started with a dumpling, the group also helped other food, clothing, science and animal emoji, including the woman in the hijab, the sandwich and the fortune cookie. Emojination has worked with companies like China’s Baidu, GE and the Finnish government to help them submit emoji proposals.
WHAT MAKES THE CUT BUT when they proposed the frowning poop, they met with some resistance. “Will we have a CRYING PILE OF POO next? PILE OF POO WITH TONGUE STICKING OUT? PILE OF POO WITH QUESTION MARKS FOR EYES? PILE OF POO WITH KARAOKE MIC? Will we have to encode a neutral FACELESS PILE OF POO? As an ordinary user, I don’t want this kind of crap on my phone,” wrote Michael Everson, a linguist, typographer, in a memo to the Unicode Technical Committee. Another member, typographer Andrew West, wasn’t happy with a proposal for a sliced-bagel emoji. “Why are we prioritizing bagel over other bread products?” he wrote. Clearly he is not a New Yorker. Got an idea for an emoji and are willing to fight for it? It’s not too late to submit one for the class of 2019. As for 2018, stay tuned. We’ll know in a few months which ones made the cut. And while there’s a desire to be funny and quirky, the diversity of emojis is a real issue. Amy Butcher, whose 2015 essay prompted Google to propose emojis to represent women as professionals—and not just brides and polished nails—thinks there’s more work to do. The Ohio Wesleyan University professor would like to see interracial couples and human in a wheelchair to represent a disabled person, rather than the wheelchair icon one might see on a bathroom door. “These tiny, insignificant images begin to create an everyday narrative, and it’s deeply problematic that one might consistently find their identity or demographic lacking, or pigeonholed, or altogether absent,” she said. ■
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THE Dell Inspiron 15 7000 Gaming beast
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THE Dell Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 is perfect for jetsetters, with the device’s slim, light and thinbezel design.
Apple apologizes for secretly slowing older iPhones A10
BusinessMirror
Editor: Gerard S. Ramos • lifestylebusinessmirror@gmail.com
Saturday, January 6, 2018 A12
Roku to chime in with voice-controlled assistant SAN FRANCISCO—Roku plans to add a voicecontrolled digital assistant to its streaming TV players in an attempt to catch up with Google, Apple and Amazon. Roku’s voice capabilities are currently limited to performing search requests and launching apps. The assistant will be able to field broader requests about video, music and other tasks tied to entertainment. Still, that’s a much-narrower scope than the assistants already available from its bigger rivals in the battle to build digital command centers in people’s homes. Google’s Assistant, Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa can perform tasks and control appliances that have nothing do with entertainment. Roku could fall even further behind before its assistant reaches homes. Although it was announced on Wednesday, the assistant won’t be released until this fall as part of a software update. By the time that its assistant comes out, Roku hopes to have an array of agreements to license its software to the manufacturers of smart speakers, sound bars and other audio devices. Roku also announced its plans to wirelessly connect its video players with sound systems on Wednesday, expanding upon the partnerships that it already has forged with television manufacturers during the past five years. TCL will be the first manufacturer to design a sound system tied to Roku’s video players. More details about that device will be released next week, when Roku and other technology companies gather for a major electronics show in Las Vegas. AP
Tech trends and social irresponsibility of Internet celebrities THE TECHNIVORE ED UY
whereiseduy@gmail.com
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Google discovers ‘serious’ flaws in Intel and other chips SANTA CLARA, California—Security researchers at Google say they’ve discovered serious security flaws affecting computer processors built by Intel and other chipmakers. Google’s Project Zero team said on Wednesday that the flaw could allow bad actors to gather passwords and other sensitive data from a system’s memory. The tech company disclosed the vulnerability not long after Intel said it’s working to patch it. Intel says the average computer user won’t experience significant slowdowns as it’s fixed. Both Intel and Google said they were planning to disclose the issue next week when fixes will be available. Tech companies typically withhold details about security problems until fixes are available so that hackers wouldn’t have a road map to exploit the flaws. But in this case, Intel was forced to disclose the problem on Wednesday after British technology site The Register reported it, causing Intel’s stock to fall. Google says it also affects other processors and the devices and operating systems running them. Although Intel cited rival AMD as among the companies it’s working with to address the problem, AMD said in a statement that it believes its chips are safe because they use different designs. Intel’s stock fell 3.4 percent on Wednesday to close at $45.26, while AMD gained 5.2 percent to close at $11.55. AP
HILE the rest of the world was “googling” about Hurricane Irma, the new iPhones and the royal girlfriend Meghan Markle, Pinoys were a bit more occupied with song lyrics and beauty pageants. Google released its annual “Year in Search,” highlighting the 2017 top trending searches in the Philippines and it shows just how much Pinoys love to sing. “Despacito lyrics” and “Versace on the Floor lyrics” emerged as the top 2 search topics on Google Philippines, while Miss Universe 2017 was third. The spooky story about “Lucia Joaquin” came in fourth, while the “death” of ex-Hasht5 member formerly known as Marlou Arizala became this year’s top trending male personality following his rebirth into Xander Ford. The Voice Teens TV and Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why were the most searched programs coming in at sixth and seventh place, while two other songs landed in the top 10: the national anthem for kids “Baby Shark” and Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect,” coming in at Nos. 8 and 9, respectively. Rounding up the top 10 is the Fiba Asian Cup. However, it seems that only a few even bothered to actually search for the English translation of “Despacito”—otherwise, no adult in their right mind would be cheering and encouraging their little ones to dance to such a sexually driven song. Well, “Macarena” then, “Despacito” now. The trending topics also reflect Filipinos’ persistent pageant craze. The Miss Universe pageant landed two spots on the list of trending events. Maxine Medina, who represented the Philippines at the Miss Universe pageant in 2016, is 2017’s top trending female personality. Joining her on the list of top trending female personalities are other beauty queens: Binibining Pilipinas-International 2017 Mariel de Leon, Binibining Pilipinas-Universe 2017 Rachel Peters and Miss Universe 1993 Dayanara Torres. In the world of tech, the iPhone X and iPhone 8 were the two most searched smartphones followed by the Huawei Nova 2i. Oppo had three phones on the list with the Oppo F5, Oppo F1s and the F3 at Nos. 4, 5 and 9, respectively. Samsung’s Note 8 might be the smartphone of the year for a lot of tech guys but as far as searches go, it was the Galaxy J7 Pro (No. 6) and Samsung Galaxy J2 Prime (No. 8) that made it to the list. Completing the list are two Nokia phones, the Nokia 6 (No. 7) and the retro Nokia 3310
“In a way, the Year in Search offers us a glimpse of what we liked as a people what issues affected us, what sparked our interest, and everything in between that appealed to our emotions the past year,” Google Philippines Head of Communications and Public Affairs Gail Tan said.
LOGAN’S WORLD DID YouTube “Maverick” Logan Paul just commit career suicide at the Aokigahara Forest? At the time of this writing, almost 100,000 people have signed a petition calling on YouTube to delete the channel of the Internet superstar. But with more than 15 million subscribers, do those numbers even mean anything to Logan, or the profits he makes for YouTube? Logan made headlines recently after posting a controversial vlog which showed a dead body. The YouTuber and his friends were in Japan, and decided to do a vlog at the Aokigahara Forest, which is known to be a suicide destination, and after going off-trail...surely enough, they stumbled across a man’s corpse hanging from a tree. The video had the “clickbaity” title, “We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest...”, and began with Logan’s poor attempt to censor himself by issuing warning, blurring the victim’s face and including several suicide hot lines, including one in Japan. Logan and his crew saw the suicide victim’s body hanging from a tree and, instead of turning the camera off, they went closer and continued filming, later uploading close-up shots of the corpse, with the person’s face blurred out. “Did we just find a dead person in the suicide forest?” Paul said to the camera. “This was supposed to be a fun vlog.” He went on to make several unfunny remarks about the victim, while wearing a fluffy green hat. Within a day, over 6 million people viewed the footage, while Twitterverse started to flood with outrage. Surprisingly, even though the video violated YouTube’s community standards, it was Logan who eventually deleted it. He then posted an apology, saying, “I should have never posted the video, I should have put the cameras down. I’ve made a huge mistake, I don’t expect to be forgiven. The goal with my content is always to entertain, to push the boundaries, to be all inclusive,” Paul says in the so-called apology video, where he claims he “didn’t do it for views” but rather wanted to raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention. I’ve actually never heard of Logan Paul prior to this controversy, but my 11-year-old nephew Calvin says he knows him, but isn’t subscribed to his channel. Logan’s claim to fame is being one (if not) the fastest YouTuber to reach 15 million subscribers. His early posts were a mix of goofy videos you’d come to expect from a young guy (he’s just 22 years old), mostly involving physical comedy like slipping on a banana peel, twerking in a space suit, and making
those splits in popular destinations. But with his meteoric rise to Internet stardom, filling malls with hordes of his “Logang” followers, he’s used his popularity and stunts to launch his own clothing line, called Maverick; create music, appear on several TV shows and win some Teen Choice awards along the way. In his 2017 year-end video, Logan shows off the fruits of his YouTube labors, including a $6.5-million mansion, a big Mercedes Truck he calls the “Yeti,” a “Cool (School) Bus” and a lot of other stuff. Logan has also been featured in mainstream publications, such as Wired, Adweek and Business Insider, where he often talked about his aspirations for fame. “I want to be a pioneer. I want to be one of the first digital stars to make the transition to traditional media. To be the biggest entertainer on the planet.” His quest to entertain, however, has often led to a lot of recklessness, and this is not the first time Logan and his more controversial brother, Jake Paul, have been bashed and criticized for their stunts. But his latest video has got to be the most appalling, not only because it involves suicide, but also because of the effect it could have on his mostly young fans, which are more influenced by social-media stars than traditional celebrities or media. It highlights the carelessness of online celebrity in the YouTube era. Which leads me to the question, why can’t YouTube assign someone to monitor the videos of each of their most popular content creators. With the profits they are raking in from their videos, I’m pretty sure they could require, or hire someone to make sure their “celebrities” strictly comply to their rules and regulations, instead of relying on some artificial intelligence and tick boxes. YouTube takes 45 percent of the advertising money generated via Paul and every other creator’s videos, and Logan could make as much as $14 million per year, according to Social Blade. Just like Hollywood stars who have “managers” and public-relations people to guide them, or journalists who have editors to make them follow strict editorial and ethical guidelines, I think it’s time to require YouTube to assign a representative to each of their most famous YouTubers and make them more accountable—kind of like an authority figure who’d check and manage their content—not to dictate and destroy their authenticity—but to make sure they stay in line. Because I think demonetizing or just deleting content and issuing a social apology won’t be enough to teach them a lesson. The question now is, “Does it mean that Logan Paul is finished, or will this just make him an even bigger star?” With the way things are going in the world, I’m betting on the latter. Black Mirror is quickly becoming a reality.
/ TECH THOUGHTS: “Again the greatest use of a human
was to be useful. Not to consume, not to watch, but to do something for someone else that improved their life, even for a few minutes.” —DAVE EGGERS, A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING