What is PisoBid and how does it work?

PisoBid is the #1 entertainment shopping site in the Philippines and is the country’s fastest growing website with over 10 million page views, 75 million post views and 188,000 Facebook fans. Consumers can save over 99% on brand new and luxury items such as gadgets, television sets, game consoles, designer brand items, beauty and fitness products, vacation packages and more. With its Facebook fans growing by the hundreds every day, it continues to feature incredible deals where more than 2,300 members have already won.

Auctions at PisoBid can be found at the main page www.pisobid.com.

The price of the auction item starts at 1 peso ₱1.00.

For standard auctions, the price goes up by one centavo (₱0.01) for each bid. Some auctions may require 2 bids or more for each click. The second item below (iPhone 4S), for example, requires 2 bids, whereas the first one requires only 1 bid

• Products to be auctioned are loaded on the main page ahead of time and the countdown timer indicates when these auctions are about to end. In the example above, auction for both items are ending in 02:34:12 (hours: minutes: seconds).
• When the countdown timer reaches 00:00:00, bidding officially starts and the timer will now indicate the number of seconds that bidders must place their bids for the chance to become the last bidder and thus, the winner.
• In the above examples, auctions are set with 10-second timers. The timer varies with each item and may have 8 seconds, 12 seconds, 15 seconds, etc. This timer resets every time a user bids to allow other members to place their bids (as compared to a traditional offline auction where the host announces: “Going Once, Going Twice… Sold!”).
• If you’re the last bidder when the timer runs out, and nobody else places a bid after you, you win the auction!

Venting

My daughter was near death when out of the blue, I was blindsided.

It occurred to me that some people are just downright mean inside. And no matter how sincere the gesture is, it will always be wrapped up in darkness.

I always believed that everyone is good and all they need is just understanding and patience. I have friends who have at times taken advantage of me but when push comes to shove, they were there to help. And there are some I have no strength to understand or even be patient with but overall, I feel that they aren't that bad. Just misunderstood.

No one would deliberately hurt anyone without reason. But I was wrong. It's not everyone. There will always be some that are just plain bad and evil. Regardless.

I had to go through a real harrowing experience just to understand this. But as my hands are tied, I have to eat crow for a real misjudgment of character. My fault totally. No one to blame but me. I have to carry this cross until all is settled.

Still, I feel sorry for the person. A whole life to live to spread malice and pain is not one I would wish on anybody. Because as anyone would say, you get back ten times more than what you dish out.

What I cannot forgive is making me doubt my core belief about the goodness in everyone.

NASA eyes power in Tropical Storm Washi, warnings in the Philippines

NASA's TRMM satellite measured heavy rainfall and powerful towering thunderstorms as Tropical Depression 27W intensified into Tropical Storm Washi today. Now, warnings are up in areas of the Philippines as Washi heads in that direction.

Now that Tropical Depression 27W strengthened into a tropical storm, it has been given two names: Washi and Sendong. Tropical cyclones within each ocean basin are named in six year lists, but some countries will also assign their own names to a storm, so following a storm can get a little confusing. Low pressure areas that form into a depression are given a number and Washi's was 27W, for the twenty-seventh tropical depression in the western North Pacific this season. Once it strengthens into a tropical storm it gets a name.

Tropical Storm Washi, or Sendong as it is known in the Philippines has residents there on guard as it continues to strengthen upon its approach.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) Weather Forecasting Section, Weather Division is responsible for forecasts of tropical cyclones affecting the Philippines. PAGASA noted in a bulletin today, December 15 at 5 p.m. local time (0900 UTC or 4 a.m. EST): "Tropical Storm 27W (called "Sendong" in the Philippines) is expected to make landfall over Surigao del Sur early tomorrow (Friday) afternoon and by Saturday afternoon, at 220 km East Northeast of Puerto Princesa City. By Sunday afternoon, it will be at 260 km West Northwest of Puerto Princesa City."

As a result of Washi's (Sendong) approach, PAGASA has posted warning signals. Signal One is in effect for Mindanao and Visayas. Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island of the Philippines. It is one of the three island groups in the country, the others being Luzon and the Visayas.

Included in the warning in Mindanao is the province of Surigao Del Norte including Siargao Island, Surigao Del, Sur and Dinagat Province, Agusan Provinces and Misamis Oriental. Included in the warning in Visayas are the provinces of Eastern Samar and Western Samar, Leyte Provinces, Camotes Island, and Bohol. Heavy rains and gusty winds are expected. Rainfall may cause flooding and mudslides.

On Dec. 15 at 0900 UTC, Tropical Storm Washi had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph/65 kmh). It was about 140 nautical miles (161 miles/259 km) west of Palau near 7.7 North and 131.5 East. It was moving quickly to the west at 20 knots (23 mph/37 kmh).

When the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over Washi early today, Dec. 15 at 0205 UTC (Dec. 14 at 9:05 a.m. EST) a "hot towering" thunderstorm was seen in the southwestern quadrant of the storm topping 10 miles (16 kilometers) high. Research done at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. has shown that tropical cyclones are likely to intensify within six hours of a "hot tower" being spotted in a tropical cyclone.

Multispectral satellite imagery showed the banding of thunderstorms wrapping into the center of circulation - another indication that the storm is strengthening. The storm is strengthening because the wind shear is light (only 10 knots/11 mph/18 kmh) and the sea surface temperatures are very warm at about 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 Celsius) which is about 8F warmer than the minimum temperature needed to maintain a tropical cyclone.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center expects Washi to make landfall on Friday, Dec. 16 and then re-emerge over water in the Sulu Sea. In the meantime, residents of Minandao and Visayas need to prepare for Washi's arrival.

Source:NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Why do people defend unjust, inept, and corrupt systems?

Why do we stick up for a system or institution we live in—a government, company, or marriage—even when anyone else can see it is failing miserably? Why do we resist change even when the system is corrupt or unjust? A new article in Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal published by the Association for Psychological Science, illuminates the conditions under which we're motivated to defend the status quo—a process called "system justification."

System justification isn't the same as acquiescence, explains Aaron C. Kay, a psychologist at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business and the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, who co-authored the paper with University of Waterloo graduate student Justin Friesen. "It's pro-active. When someone comes to justify the status quo, they also come to see it as what should be."

Reviewing laboratory and cross-national studies, the paper illuminates four situations that foster system justification: system threat, system dependence, system inescapability, and low personal control.

When we're threatened we defend ourselves—and our systems. Before 9/11, for instance, President George W. Bush was sinking in the polls. But as soon as the planes hit the World Trade Center, the president's approval ratings soared. So did support for Congress and the police. During Hurricane Katrina, America witnessed FEMA's spectacular failure to rescue the hurricane's victims. Yet many people blamed those victims for their fate rather than admitting the agency flunked and supporting ideas for fixing it. In times of crisis, say the authors, we want to believe the system works.

We also defend systems we rely on. In one experiment, students made to feel dependent on their university defended a school funding policy—but disapproved of the same policy if it came from the government, which they didn't perceive as affecting them closely. However, if they felt dependent on the government, they liked the policy originating from it, but not from the school.

When we feel we can't escape a system, we adapt. That includes feeling okay about things we might otherwise consider undesirable. The authors note one study in which participants were told that men's salaries in their country are 20% higher than women's. Rather than implicate an unfair system, those who felt they couldn't emigrate chalked up the wage gap to innate differences between the sexes. "You'd think that when people are stuck with a system, they'd want to change it more," says Kay. But in fact, the more stuck they are, the more likely are they to explain away its shortcomings. Finally, a related phenomenon: The less control people feel over their own lives, the more they endorse systems and leaders that offer a sense of order.

The research on system justification can enlighten those who are frustrated when people don't rise up in what would seem their own best interests. Says Kay: "If you want to understand how to get social change to happen, you need to understand the conditions that make people resist change and what makes them open to acknowledging that change might be a necessity.

SOURCE

Being Wrong

Kathryn Schulz is an expert on being wrong. The journalist and author of "Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margins of Error," says we make mistakes all the time. The trouble is that often times being wrong feels like being right. What's more, we're usually wrong about what it even means to make mistakes--and how it can lead to better ideas.

For some reason, I like this video. As my friends say, I'm always wrong.

This seems to be my tagline on my other site. "I could be wrong..". I think I should change it to, "Bad as it may sound, prove me wrong.". It sounds better I think.

Who is Epifanio Delos Santos?

If Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) were not named as such, it could have been named “Avenida 19 de Junio.”, “President Ramon Magsaysay Avenue.” Or “Gen. Douglas MacArthur Highway.”

The People Power Revolutions that restored democracy in 1986 (Edsa I), and ousted then President Joseph Estrada in 2001 (Edsa II) happened on that stretch of road.

That 10 lane expressway runs 24 kilometers (15 miles) from Caloocan City in the north to Pasay City in the south. Edsa is the Philippines’ most famous and historic highway.

So who is Epifanio delos Santos?

Born to a wealthy family in Malabon on April 7, 1871, De los Santos studied at the Ateneo Municipal de Manila, where he acquired a bachelor’s degree, summa cum laude, in March 1890. In 1891, he began studying jurisprudence at the Santo Tomas Law School and obtained his licentiate in law in 1898.

He was considered one of the best Filipino writers in Spanish, and was the first Filipino to become a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of Language (a position that was denied Rizal), the Spanish Royal Academy of Literature, and the Spanish Royal Academy of History in Madrid.

But despite his love for the Spanish language, De los Santos was a fiery patriot who championed Philippine independence through journalism. He became associate editor of the influential revolutionary paper, La Independencia, in 1898, using the pen name G. Solon.
He cofounded the patriotic newspapers La Libertad, El Renacimiento, La Democracia and La Patria. Among his famous patriotic essays were titled “Filipinos y Filipinistas” and “Filipinas para los Filipinos.”

De los Santos also wrote extensively in Tagalog. He was a member of an eminent group of scholars called the Samahan ng mga Mananagalog, which was founded by Felipe Calderon in 1904.

His peers in this circle of great Tagalog writers were Lope K. Santos, Rosa Sevilla, Hermenigildo Cruz, Jaime de Veyra and Patricio Mariano.

Source: Inquirer

This trend of renaming streets after current heroes have got to stop.

Bohol Rep. Rene Lopez Relampagos filed a bill seeking to rename EDSA to Cory Aquino Avenue.

I remember what Isaac Newton said, " If I have seen farther it is by standing on the shoulders of giants...".

Relampagos best remember that we are where we are now because of giants like Epifanio Delos Santos. If we trivialize what our past heroes have done, we come out as an ungrateful nation.