With our full and utmost respect and condolences to the passing of our former president Maria Corazon “Cory” Cojuangco Aquino (January 25, 1933 – August 1, 2009), this is a small tribute to honor her memory. A well-known advocate of democracy,  she was the 11th president of the Philippines and the first female president of the country, as well as in Asia.

With her address to the US Congress in 1986 being shown on TV, it was a fitting testimonial to what she fought for and the kind of person she was. Her pureness of heart and deep love for her people was felt all across her 6-year term as well as years after that. And thus we as a people mourn for her death today, yet are very thankful for being bestowed with a president such as she. May her soul rest in peace and her ideals be forever lived by the Filipino people.

One of the big reasons why Google is such a successful company is because of the way it drives innovation and how it generates great ideas out at the shortest amount of time possible. This month, as Google celebrates it’s 10th birthday, it unveiled yet another huge project as part of its push to help change the world by helping as many people as possible. Project 10^100, pronounced Project 10 to the 100th, asks any individual from anywhere in the world to submit their ideas until October 20, 2008, for ways to improve life and bring happiness to the largest number of people possible. And as a reward, Google has committed up to $10M to fund the 5 best ideas that come out of the initiative.

So how does it work? You can visit the link above for the complete details of the project. But in summary, Google will choose the 100 best ideas it feels should be included from the submissions. And then it will let users vote on which out of the 100 should be short-listed to the 20 finalists. A panel of judges made up of five to seven individuals who are experts in the required categories will then choose the FIVE ideas that will receive funding. The categories for the project include, but are not limited to, community, energy, environment, health, education, shelter and opportunities for people to better provide for themselves and their families.You can view the complete category list and descriptions for each, HERE.

Google said that the ideas can be big or small, and does not have to be technology-driven either. It just needs to have a very positive impact on the world. One of the examples of such an idea that is helping change the world was from a company that invented the Hippo Water Roller. It enabled millions of people to carry water across long distances using a relatively inexpensive 24-gallon container that could be easily wheeled on the ground. So what used to take a lot of time, not to mention a lot of pain, in moving water from one place to another was totally alleviated, and helped make the lives of thousands much easier.

I’m pretty interested to try and figure out what idea I could have that may actually help change the world. Who knows, maybe you have one too. The great thing about it is that Google enables you to do this now. We all know that sometimes great ideas are set aside because there’s just no way you could do it yourself. So with this initiative, Google tries to help change the world in the way that they can. As their tagline for the project says, goodluck, and “May Those Who Help the Most Win.”

I don’t really post Gossip News but this one got me curious. I was listening to RX 93.1 this morning on the way to work and I heard that Mary-Kate Olsen is asking for immunity to shed more light on the untimely death of Heath Ledger to the Feds.  Now that’s pretty weird especially if she has nothing to do with his death, and it definitely isn’t something an innocent person would do, is it?  Since Heath Ledger’s death, Olsen has apparently checked into rehab due to the emotional distress brought about by Heath’s demise.

The story is that the masseuse who discovered Heath in his SoHo apartment apparently called Olsen first.  And instead of Olsen calling 911, she called her bodyguard to try and remedy the situation.  Sources say that Heath was still conscious when the masseuse found him and his life could have been saved if proper medical attention was given to him immediately.  The issue now is Olsen’s hand in this may be that she naughtily slipped Heath the bottle of OxyContin that potentially contributed to his prescription cocktail overdose.  And if this is the case, she should rightly feel very, very bad for herself.

And on separate news yesterday, Morgan Freeman, also of the same movie, has been hospitalized following a car crash near midnight yesterday and was in serious condition.  Emergency crews had to break out the jaws of life to remove Freeman from his car.  I didnt’ even notice, but apparently he’s already 71-years old.  He remained in serious condition after breaking his left arm, elbow, and hand, but is now recovering from surgery done today.  He is expected to make a full recovery from the accident.  Whew.

Not that I’m being a gloombug or anything, but it’s a peculiar coincidence that two people from the same movie have had really bad accidents that resulted in a serious condition or death.  Let’s see what happens on that Olsen case though, as Freeman is now in the clear.

I know, I know, it’s a bit of old news from the past week, but I wanted to be sure that this wasn’t some hoax so I waited until I knew for sure that it was real.  For a 52-year old, I was still skeptical about him retiring, but I guess with all the success and money he had, what reason would he have to still be working right?  So what’s next?  Gates says that his core competencies are in software and technology, particularly in biotech, as a hobbyist, and he goes on saying that he could never go and make a world-class contribution in another field besides the aforementioned.  Also, his passion in philanthropy by running the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, aimed at fighting poverty all around the world, will also be where most of his time will go to.  So let’s see which one it’s really going to be…

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates was set Friday for his last day of full-time work at Microsoft – the company he founded 33 years ago on a hunch that personal computers would become an integral part of everyday life. The world’s largest software company said that it was not planning any public events to observe the transition, though the change would be marked by internal events. Gates, 52, will continue to hold the title of non-executive chairman and work about one day a week at Microsoft. He intends to devote the rest of his time to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the wealthiest charity in the world, which is aimed at improving health care around the world and reducing extreme poverty.

Gates handed over his role as Microsoft chief executive to his long-time partner Steve Ballmer in 2000, when Gates became the company’s chief software architect. Under a carefully planned succession programme, Gate’s duties will be taken over by two top Microsoft executives. Ray Ozzie will be in charge of day-to-day management issues, while Craig Mundie will be in charge of long-term planning. The company, whose Windows operating system powers some 90 per cent of the world’s personal computers, has a market capitalization of about 260 billion dollars and employs more than 78,000 people in 103 countries.

Links: “Doomsday Seed Vault” in the Arctic Built by Gates

I can’t believe it’s the end of the weekend already! It’s exactly midnight right now and I wanted to finish off this review for “the Kingdom” before I go to bed. In 7 hours, I’ll be getting up again to go to work. Another 1 and a half hour drive to start the week, perfect!

What’s happened this week? Well… if you like boxing, Manny Pacquiao just won a thrilling 12 rounder to be the first Asian champion to capture 3 different weight divisions! The title he won earlier was the WBC super featherweight title belt. That was a pretty close call and a darn good fight I thought Pacquiao had conceded defeat when the scorecards were being read, because his face was in absolutely shock when he heard he had won the split decision.

Other tidbits that happened this week, well, the grand lotto in the country is quite HUGE now, I believe it’s around 150 million pesos or 3,658,536 million US dollars now because no one has won it in quite a while. Mmmm mmmm. I bought 16 lotto tickets earlier because who knows! Winning 1 million pesos is more than good enough for me, what more if you have a chance to win 150 million! Of course, the chances are pretty darn slim, but at least it’s still a chance! I will NEVER have to work again and I can sit around and buy anything and everything I want Hehe. Results are tomorrow! Let’s see!

In any case… back to my review… have a nice week ahead!