Football gets a kick from Azkals feat 2011

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Football gets a kick from Azkals feat. President Aquino yesterday asked for a review of the country’s football program, which will then be prioritized over other sports, including basketball, even as he lauded the Philippine Azkals 2-0 victory over the Blue Wolves of Mongolia in the opener of their AFC Challenge Cup qualifying tie late Wednesday in Bacolod.



The whole sports program is currently under review. My focus actually is can we not concentrate on sports where we have a good chance of excelling. The President told Palace reporters in a chance interview at the Heroes’ Hall in Malacañang yesterday.

We have heard horror stories regarding sports over the years and we want to rectify all of them. But we have a government that is not awash with resources,” said Aquino, who, however, stressed that this could be solved with the Public Private Partnership program.

Of course, football is on top of the list, given what they have already demonstrated in addition to boxing and perhaps shooting,” The Chief Executive, a known sharpshooter, explained further. Aquino could not hide his happiness over the Azkals feat, considering the odds that the Philippine team had with football not among the country’s favorite sports.



They demonstrated hard work. Football does not have that big a pool of players but they still managed to really how shall I put it. They inspired so many of our countrymen,” he said. “And I think the inspiration was reciprocated by everybody who watched both live and on TV.

He added: “Your two goals showcased both Filipino creativity and the hard work you put in to master your sport. You brought our people together and reminded us once again that, united, we can reclaim our nation’s glory.”

Meanwhile, the country’s top sports officials yesterday extolled the Azkals feat, saying the rebirth of the sport is within sight even as they stressed the need of the private sector to help in the development of the sport.

The highest finish by any RP men’s football team in the SEAG was fourth when the country hosted the event exactly two decades ago. Sports patron Manny Pangilinan said it’s about time the country enjoys a football renaissance.

We should encourage the development of football, it is truly a global sport and it fits the Filipino physique and temperament,” said Pangilinan, whose company Smart, through the MVP sports foundation, recently pledged Philippine football P80 million for a 10 year partnership.

Dwayne Johnson return to the WWE 2011

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Dwayne Johnson return to the WWE 2011. The Rock crowd at "WWE Monday Night Raw" got a big surprise in addition to the usual array of body slams and chair shots. The return of The Rock. better known these days as Dwayne Johnson, star of "The Other Guys" and the upcoming "Fast Five was announced as the host of Wrestle Mania XXVII on April 3. He took the ring in Anaheim, Calif., and showed that seven years away from the ring haven't diminished his ability to command a live crowd.

Rolling through his stock of catchphrases. Finally the Rock has come back to. It doesn't matter what you think!" and, of course, "If you know what The Rock will do it a dramatic pause is cookin. Johnson had the crowd pretty much eating out of his hand.



Whether The Rock actually climbs into the ring remains to be seen, although it's not necessarily a bad bet.

Kenneth Mars Passes away in the age of 75

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Kenneth Mars Passes away in the age of 75. Hollywood has lost another wonderfully colorful supporting player. The always enjoyable Kenneth Mars veteran of dozen of films.Has passed away at the age of 75 after a battle with cancer. To a big section of my generation. Mars was a face first and a "name" second but we loved him no less.

To a child watching like me "Young Frankenstein" for example, there's a lot of stuff that might fly right over his or her head. But the particularly silly contributions from Kenneth Mars and Marty Feldman stand out like huge neon flowers to an 8-year-old movie freak. His hilariously bizarre performance as Inspector Kemp was always one of my favorites, but once I got a little older and saw Mars' work in "The Producer" I knew that this man was a specifically gifted comedian. It takes some real talent to play a Hitler-adoring Nazi lunatic in a broad farce and NOT come off as ugly distasteful or unpleasant. Mr. Mars' performance as Franz Liebkind was none of those things.

But Mel Brooks wasn't the only employer who enjoyed Kenneth Mars. Disney tapped the man to play the rather important role of Ariel's over protective papa in 'The Little Mermaid. Woody Allen hired the man for 'Radio Days' and 'Shadows and Fog and Mr. Mars also provided strong character work for directors like Herbert Ross "Protocol", Michael Ritchie "Fletch" and Alexander Payne "Citizen Ruth". The man did seemingly triple the TV work that he did on the silver screen, but fans of both media have lost a fine companion today.



Hit the jump for some of our favorite Mars moments. And of course our deepest condolences to the late actor's family.

iPhone Nano 2011 with talk of me Mobile Me

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iPhone Nano 2011 with talk of me MobileMe. Apple is working on a smaller, cheaper iPhone insists the Wall Street Journal, as well as a "major revamp" of MobileMe that would see the cloud based synchronization service add a digital media "locker" and drop its annual $99 price tag.

Sunday Journal story comes on the heels of a similar piece from Bloom Bergs News. Which claimed that Apple was hard at work on a new iPhone that would be a third smaller than the iPhone 4, with older components and a lower, potentially no contract sticker price.

The new article in the Journal which, many suspect. Apple's newspaper of choice when it comes to strategic leaks) takes Bloom berg's bet and raises it, reporting that the new iPhone is only half the size of the iPhone 4, with an "edge-to-edge" touchscreen and "voice-based navigation."

Code named "N97" a none-too-subtle jab at the hulking nokia N97 from a couple of years back perhaps. The new iPhone would be "significantly lighter" than the current version, according to the Journal, and it would cost mobile operators half as much meaning carriers might go ahead and offer it for free, albeit with a two year contract.



The Journal story makes no mention of a couple of key details from last week's Bloom berg report, that the new iPhone might sell for $200 without a contract, and arrive with universal SIM technology that would let consumers pick a carrier themselves.

But the Journal goes on to revive another old rumor that apple. Which of course, refused to comment on the latest rumors is poised to relaunch its $99 a year MobileMe service as a free digital "locker" for iTunes music libraries, videos, and photos.

Word has it that Apple is still wrangling with the big music labels over licensing rights to stream their music, and indeed, the Journal says those talks are still underway. o, if you weren't keen on the idea of an iPhone a third smaller than the original with a $200, no-contract price tag, what would you say to a half-size iPhone for free but with a two-year contract. And what if it came with a free digital media locker in the bargain? Enticing, or simply more of the same, only in a smaller package.

Getting Closer To an HIV Cure 2011

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Getting Closer To an HIV Cure 2011. If you remember last December the first ever human went from HIV-positive to HIV-negative. The “cure” a stem cell transplant fortified with a particular sort of HIV resistant strain, was grueling, brutal, and risky. The patient had a one in three chance of dying from each of the two transplants. The therapy took two years, and it’s certainly pricey enough that you can be sure the insurance companies of the world will lobby hard to make sure it never gets beyond being classified as “experimental".

What I’m saying is that curing someone in this case doesn’t indicate that we’ve found a cure. But researchers in Australia at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute announced this week via a new study that the answer could be as simple as pumping up your body’s immune system. The potential cure has to do with a hormone called interleukin 7 which “reinvigorates” the body’s immune system when it’s faced with something as hard-core as HIV, or Hepatitis or Tuberculosis.



Viruses such as HIV and hepatitis B and C overwhelm the immune system leading to establishment of chronic infections that are lifelong and incurable,” [study author] Dr Pellegrini said. “Despite tremendous efforts long lived immune responses for some of these viruses are ineffective, because the body is so overrun by virus that the immune system, in particular T cells, just give up trying to battle the infection. Some people have coined the phrase ‘immune exhaustion’ to explain the phenomenon. Our approach is to discover some of the mechanisms that cause this immune exhaustion, and manipulate host genes to see if we can boost the natural immune response in order to beat infection.



“In an overwhelming infection SOCS 3 becomes highly activated and suppresses the immune response, probably as a natural precaution to prevent ‘out-of-control’ responses that cause collateral damage to body tissue,” Dr Pellegrini said. “In the case of these overwhelming infections, the immune system effectively slams on the brakes too early, and the infection persists.”

So the general idea then is convincing your body that it can do the damn thing and take the infection down. Sort of a pep talk and a Sparks for your T cells.