Proud PINOY does not claims any credit for any articles, news and/or photos posted here. All visual content is copyright to its respectful owners. All info's are not accurate and may contains errors. If you are the owner to any photos or articles, and does not want us to post it here, please contact us by e-mail

Friday, November 9, 2012

2 Metro Manila cities bag Int’l Health Awards in Australia



Marikina City
The city governments of Marikina and Parañaque bagged awards in the recently held fifth Global Conference of the Alliance for Healthy Cities (AFHC) in Brisbane, Australia.
The conference initiated by the World Health Organization (WHO) gives honor to members of the AFHC that have improved the health and quality of living of people in their city.
Marikina Mayor Del De Guzman lauded the Nutrition Section of the City Health Office after winning the Best Proposal award entitled “Advocacy campaign to prevent onset of non-communicable diseases.”
The proposal, authored by Cecille Manga, aims to make workers and consumers aware on the importance of healthy-eating habits as well as to promote health awareness to the public through proper nutrition labeling on food products.
“The Nutrition Section of the City Health Office aims to provide healthy eating programs at the workplace involving canteens, food establishments, and street vendors,” Manga said in a statement.
Likewise, the proposal contains plans of agreement between food establishments and the city government, higher visibility campaign, multi-sectoral approach including strong collaboration with street vendors and owners of food establishments, and stronger-community-based education and awareness.

Parañaque City
Meanwhile, Parañaque City also won an award in the same conference with its entry project “Urban Heart.”
The “Urban Heart” project is an assessment and response mechanism that the city government uses as guide in the formulation of health policies and promote equal access to services, utilization of health facilities, and quality care for all.
“Urban Heart has been an invaluable tool in determining and doing away with the health service inequalities in the different communities in the city,” Parañaque Mayor Jun Bernabe said.
The said project, in combination with the CHO’s reproductive health and family planning services resulted to a significant impact in terms of reduction risks in pregnancy, home birthing, maternal mortality ratio and infant death rate, and increase in full immunization of children.
The Alliance for Healthy Cities is an international network aimed at protecting and enhancing the health of city dwellers. The Alliance is a group of cities and other organizations that try to achieve the goal through an approach called “Healthy Cities.”
In order to cope with the adverse effects of an urban environment over health, the WHO has been promoting the approach worldwide.
(Story courtesy of the Philippine News Agency’s Jimmyley I. Guzman)

‘I am Filipino,’ Bruno Mars says on ‘Saturday Night Live’



Bruno Mars
“I am Filipino,” international singer-songwriter Bruno Mars declared on Saturday Night Live (SNL).
Mars, who is Peter Gene Hernandez in real life, said “I am Filipino”, in one number at SNL where he served as both host and musical guest, an Associated Press report said. The singer was born in Hawaii to a Filipino mother and Puerto Rican father.
In the AP report, Mars said he had so much fun doing the SNL show and would be glad to do it again.
The report also added that Mars’ October 20 appearance gave the NBC variety show the second-best ratings this season.
In the show, Mars showcased his singing and acting talents in the comedy skits where he impersonated other musicians like Michael Jackson, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry and Steven Tyler.
Last April, the Grammy winner visited the Philippines for a successful two-day concert in Manila and Cebu.
Among his many hits songs are “Just The Way You Are,” “Grenade,” “Marry You” and “Nothin’ On You.” Mars will release his upcoming album, “Unorthodox Jukebox”, next month.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

New planet discovered in habitable zone


LONDON - An Anglo-German team of astronomers has discovered a new planet orbiting a nearby sun at just the right distance for an Earth-like climate that could support life.
 
The team actually found three new planets orbiting the star 44 light years away, but only one of them is in the so-called Goldilocks Zone, the band around a sun where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for liquid water to exist.
 
"The star HD 40307 is a perfectly quiet old dwarf star, so there is no reason why such a planet could not sustain an Earth-like climate," said Guillem Angla-Escude from Germany's University of Goettingen, who led the research with Mikko Tuomi at the University of Hertfordshire in Britain.
 
The planet has a mass at least seven times that of Earth but it orbits at about the same distance from its sun, meaning it receives a similar amount of solar energy as Earth gets.
 
More than 800 planets have been discovered outside our solar system since the first was detected in the early 1990s, but only a handful of those have been in the habitable zone.
 
Even more rare are planets in the zone that rotate, as this one does, to create a day-time and night-time, which increases the chance of an Earth-like environment. Those that don't spin are said to be tidally locked, with one half in constant darkness.
 
"This is the closest one to Earth in a habitable zone that is not tidally locked," University of Hertfordshire astronomer Hugh Jones told Reuters.
 
"Just as Goldilocks liked her porridge to be neither too hot nor too cold but just right, this planet, or indeed any moons that it has, lie in an orbit comparable to Earth, increasing the probability of it being habitable."
 
The planet, named HD 40307g, is part of a system that was previously thought to have just three planets, all in orbits too close to the star to support liquid water.
 
The astronomers made the discovery, unveiled in a research paper in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics, by examining data from the HARPS spectrograph, attached to a European Southern Observatory telescope at La Silla in Chile's Atacama desert.
 
The HARPS device is able to pick up tiny changes in the colour of the light coming from a host star as it wobbles under the gravitational influence of orbiting planets.
 
The team used a novel technique to filter out signals caused by the host star itself. "This significantly increased our sensitivity and enabled us to reveal three new planets around the star," said Mikko Tuomi. — Reuters

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Luzon, Cebu, Mindanao in Conde Nast’s Top 10 Asian Islands List


Luzon, Cebu, and Mindanao are among Asia’s top ten islands, based on international travel magazine Conde Nast Traveller’s annual Readers’ Choice Awards.
Luzon followed Bali in Indonesia and Phuket in Thailand as the third best island in Asia, with a readers’ choice rating of 78.9, ranking high in the criteria of friendliness, scenery, and ambience.
Cebu came in seventh place with a score of 75.9, and Mindanao ranked at tenth, with a score of 62.8.
Other islands that made it to the top 10 include Langkawi in Malaysia, Koh Samui in Thailand, Hokkaido in Japan, Malaysian Borneo, and Lombok in Indonesia.
At the same time, three Philippine hotels ranked in Southeast Asia’s top 20 hotels. Makati Shangri-la held the fifth spot, EDSA Shangri-la came in seventh place, while the Manila Hotel came in 20th.
Meanwhile, Shangri-la’s Boracay Resort and Spa was voted as eighth best resort in the Top 15 resorts in Asia category.
Conde Nast Traveller’s Readers’ Choice Awards has been running since 1988. This year, a record 46,476 readers participated in the vote.
(Story courtesy of Amanda Lago of GMA News)

Phl win Gold & 22 medals in Math, Science Olympiad in India


Filipino students won 23 medals during a Math and Science Olympiad in India.
The students bagged one gold, 12 silver and 10 bronze medals at the 9th International Mathematics and Science Olympiad for Primary Schools, which drew in 231 contestants from 12 other countries.
“Filipino students have once again shown their excellence in math and science,” said Simon Chua, president of the Mathematics Trainers Guild-Philippines.
Rechilda Villame stood in as the delegation’s team leader for Math, while Ruthela Payawal was the group’s team leader for Science.
The Philippines competed with China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nepal, Nigeria, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan and Thailand.
The following are the names of the students and their corresponding medals won:
MATHEMATICS
Gold medalist
  • Shaquille Wyan Que of Grace Christian College
Silver medalists
  • Tiffany Mae Ong of Immaculate Concepcion Academy-Greenhills
  • Emmanuel Paulo Santos of Colegio San Agustin-Binan
  • Jinger Chong of St. Jude Catholic School
  • Alyana Zoie Chua of MGC New Life Christian Academy
  • Vincent Angelo Suarez of De La Salle-Lipa
Bronze medalists
  • Mark Ebson Susana of Naic Elementary School-Cavite
  • Theresa Manalo of Morning Star Montessori-Calamba
  • Maedell Mosuera of G. B. Lontok Memorial School-Lipa
  • Fedrick Lance Lim of Zamboanga Chong Hua High School
  • Marksen Victor Lizarondo of Dasmarinas II Central School
  • Nathan Arthur Banatao of UP Integrated School
SCIENCE
Silver medalists
  • John Matthew Felices of Holistic Education and Development Center
  • Kristine Bernadette Nunez of Colegio San Agustin-Binan
  • Adam Christopher Chan of Grace Christian College
  • Youna Lee of Colegio San Agustin-Makati
  • Antonio Alexis Aldeguer of Colegio San Agustin-Makati
  • Ron Michael Acda of Binan Elementary School
  • Hans Leighton Liu of St Jude Catholic School
Bronze medalists
  • Thomas Spencer Balete of St. Stephen’s High School
  • Ronn Earnest Tullao of Early Start Learning Center-Lipa
  • John Joshua Babilonia of Dasmarinas II Central School
  • John Bien Angelo Uy of Montessori East of Tanauan