MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine’s only national university is now most popular university in cyberspace, according to the latest ranking from Sydney-based academic search engine posted on 4ICU website (www.4icu.org/ph). UP Diliman campus website (www.up.edu.ph) was ranked number one in the Four International Colleges and Universities (4ICU), an international higher education search engine and directory, where ranking of the 11,000 universities and colleges websites in 200 countries was released early this week.

The Philippine list was made up of the 200 most searched university and college websites, with UP Diliman (http://www.upd.edu.ph) emerging on top. 4ICU listing however treated each UP campuses as separate institutions, as each campus has its own website. Second on the list was  the De La Salle University in Manila.

Other universities included in the top 10 were: the Quezon City-based UP System (3rd), which includes all seven campuses; Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City (4th); University of Sto. Tomas in Manila (5th); UP Los Banos in Laguna (6th); Aquinas University of Legazpi (7th); Mindanao State University’s Iligan Institute of Technology (8th); Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro (9th) and University of San Carlos in Cebu (10th).

According to the 4ICU, rankings were computed using an algorithm, including “unbiased and independent web metrics” from three search engines – the Google Page Rank, Alexa Traffic Rank and Majestic Seo Referring Domains.

The algorithm formula was not disclosed for copyright reasons and to prevent any attempts at manipulating the rankings, the website added.

No Philippine tertiary education institution made it to similar online popularity rankings of the top 200 universities and colleges in the world, as well as the top 100 institutions in Asia.

The 4ICU releases its rankings every January and July of each year and have been posted since May 2005, the website said.

Aside from worldwide and regional rankings, the search engine also computes rankings for the 200 countries in its database – all free of charge.

4ICU made it clear that the list was not an academic ranking and is intended to help foreign students in understanding how popular a certain university is in its country, “it should not be adopted as the main criteria.”

There were at least two  Filipino crew members were hurt aboard the Costa Concordia cruise ship that ran aground last Friday off the coast of Grosetto in Tuscany, Italy, according to the Philippine Embassy in Rome.

In a report to the Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine Ambassador to Italy Virgilio Reyes on Sunday said one of the seafarers had a broken arm while another suffered from hypothermia. They were among the 300 Filipino crew members from Magsaysay Maritime Corporation, the manning agency that supplied crew members for the ill-fated Costa Concordia.

Reyes did not identify the injured seamen.

But the envoy quoted a rescued Filipino crew member as having said “Filipino crew members are generally safe.”

“An official roll call (of the vessel ‘s 1,000 crew) is still being undertaken,” Reyes said.

The embassy had “dispatched a seven-man emergency response team to Grosetto to evaluate the situation on the ground and to provide the necessary assistance to Philippine nationals.”

“The Filipino seamen are being supported by Magsaysay Shipping Corp., their (Manila-based) manning agency,” according to the mission.

Initial reports reaching the embassy disclosed that the cruise ship ran aground “last Friday evening off the coast of Grosetto.”

“Around 4,000 persons were on board the vessel, including 4,000 crew members, around 300 of whom are Filipinos,” said the same reports.

“The Italian Coast Guard immediately responded to the scene to rescue the passengers, who were brought to the nearest island, Giglio, in emergency life boats. The passengers and Filipino crew members are temporarily housed at a church, hotels and schools in Giglio. Many of them have been transported to the mainland, the reports added.

Amateur video: Shocked Costa Concordia passengers escape sinking liner

Costa Concordia accident: Aerial video of dramatic rescue operation

Costa Concordia Panic, confusion aboard sinking cruise ship CNN

Anderson Cooper and Robin Lim

MANILA, Philippines – A Filipino-American midwife who helps poor women have healthy pregnancies and births in Indonesia, has been recently named 2011 CNN Hero of the Year.

In Sunday’s star-studded ceremony at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California, Robin Lim received the CNN Hero of the Year 2011 award from Anderson Cooper.

“Today on our Earth, 981 mothers in the prime of their life will die — and tomorrow again and yesterday. And I’m asking you to help change that. We don’t even know how many babies are lost, but all of us can help change that,” Lim said emotionally, as she accepted the honor.

Lim, who was born to an American soldier and a Filipina mother, decided and pursued to become a midwife after her younger sister died from pregnancy complications some years ago.

She and her husband sold their house in Hawaii, and moved to Bali, Indonesia to pursue her “calling” to follow in the footsteps of her maternal grandmother, Vicenta Munar Lim, who served as “healer and baby catcher for her people” in Baguio, even after the second World War.

In Indonesia, Lim noted pregnant women are 300 times more likely to die in the next 12 months than women who are not pregnant.

Fondly called as “Ibu Robin” (Mother Robin), she has been running her free clinics Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth) in Bali and Aceh with Indonesian midwives since 2003. The clinic provides free prenatal and birthing services for poor Indonesian women. Lim also provides training for young midwives.

Christy Turlington Burns, model and founder of Every Mother Counts, introduced Lim as one of the Top 10 CNN Heroes during the ceremony. She recalled having a life-threatening complication during her own pregnancy.

“My wish is that every mother all over the world has the same chance surviving childbirth I had. My friend Robin Lim shares that wish and she spends her days and nights making it so,” Burns said.

With Lim being named CNN Hero of the Year, her non-profit Bumi Sehat Foundation will receive a $250,000 grant. This is on top of the $50,000 given to each of the Top 10 CNN Heroes.

The CNN Heroes awarding ceremony was also attended by stars such as Jerry Seinfeld, Sofia Vergara, will.i.am., Miley Cyrus and Kid Rock.

CNN Heroes is a multi-platform campaign that “shines a spotlight on individuals who go to extraordinary lengths to serve others.” This year, the campaign reportedly received over 10,000 submissions from more than 100 countries.

In 2009, Filipino Efren Peñaflorida, who started a “pushcart classroom” to bring education to poor children as an alternative to gang membership, was named CNN Hero of the Year. He was the first Filipino to win the award.

MIPS based Ainovo Novo7 Android 4.0 tablet is now out in the Asian market and will soon hit the  US market in the coming months. Folks at MIPS Technologies are offering the first Ice Cream Sandwich Android tablet at a cheap price of $99. The tablet is manufactured originally by Ainol Electron HK, which came to US under Ainovo branding.

the Ainovo Novo7 comes with a 1GHz single-core MIPS processor coupled with a powerful Vivante GC860 GPU chip, Wi-Fi and 3G (external) capability, front and back-facing cameras, a 7-inch capacitive multitouch touchscreen display, and of course best of all – Android’s 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system. It also boasted a 300 hour stand by battery life and ability to play demanding gameloft games like Spiderman Total Mayhem which comes in bundled with the unit.

“I’m thrilled to see the entrance of MIPS-Based Android 4.0 tablets into the market,” Said Andy Rubin, Google’s senior vice president of mobile, in a statement today.

Ainol created a buzz in the Android tablet market when it introduced the Novo 7 tablets, particularly the Novo 7 Advanced version (which I ordered and will receive the unit any time soon – watch out for my review soon here in Pinoy Live). The Ainovo Novo7 was also speculated in the Android community to be a rebranded Ainol Novo 7 Basic with ICS.  The Novo7 is available now in China, and IDG reports it will hit shelves in the US and Europe over the next few months, likely under brand names such as Leader International and OMG Electronics.

It’s all over the news and currently trending that apparently an iPhone 4 exploded and spontaneously combusted on a flight from Lismore to Sydney. The hottest gadget in the market literally became too hot to handle for one passenger aboard Australian flight Regional Express ZL319 on Friday.  According to a Regional Express statement, the iPhone 4 (not the latest iPhone 4s model) suddenly started “emitting a significant amount of dense smoke, accompanied by a red glow,”. The flight attendant immediately carried out emergency and recovery actions and the red glow was extinguished successfully. The plane was in the midst of landing when the incident occured.

iPhone 4 Explodes Midflight (credit: ABC News)

There are no official statement yet on what specifically caused the iPhone to combust but investigations are underway. In the past, most phone and gadget explosions were battery related, particularly Lithium Ion batteries overheating. In 2009, the European Union launched an investigation after multiple instances of explosions or catching fire midflight happened to iPhones and iPod touches in France, Holland, Sweden and the U.K. Similarly, in 2005 and 2006, Apple also recalled its first generation iPod nanos sold between September 2005 and December 2006 due to battery overheating.

Apple Chairman and former CEO Steve Jobs is dead. The Apple co-founder who made personal computers, smartphones, tablets, multimedia and digital animation mass-market products passed away today October 5th, 2011 after a long bout with a rare form of pancreatic cancer. He was just 56 years old.

Steve Jobs has been suffering from many health issues as well after he was diagnosed and had surgery in August of 2004. Apple this year announced in January about his indefinite medical leave and eventually stepped down from his CEO role late August.

He also had a liver transplant in April 2009 while on a six-month leave of absence that year. He still worked for a year and a half after that before he announced himself stepping down as Apple CEO last August. ”I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.” Jobs told his employees.

A legendary businessman in American history and technology icon in the global computing industry, Jobs has  transformed computers not just as machines that not only anyone could use, but something that we would enjoy using. He made them something that would be part of our lives. And he did that again and again with the Mac, the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

Apple and personal computing originated with the launch of the Apple I in 1976. Together with Steve Wozniak, they started and formed Apple Computer in a garage. He continued developing the Mac which up to now continued to enjoy rapid market share.  In the early 2000s, legal digital music recordings were brought into the mainstream with the iPod and iTunes, then iPhone blew-up and revolutionize the  mobile phone industry in 2007. Jobs played an instrumental role in the development of all three, and still managed to find time to transform the best computer-generated movie studio Pixar. Pixar’s films were innovative and it pushed the boundaries of CGI to such an extent that even today its early films still look great.

Jobs attended Reed College in Oregon but dropped out after a year. He had a brief stint with Atari then spent some time in India furthering his interest in Buddhism. Back in California, Jobs and Wozniak founded Apple in 1976. By 1985, Apple CEO John Sculley whom he convinced to leave Pepsi and Joined Apple, removed Jobs from his position leading the Mac team. Jobs later on resigned from Apple. He founded NeXT which would later on be the development model for Apple’s software operating systems. He married Laurene Powell in 1991,  a Stanford MBA student whom he met on an entrepreneurialism speech Jobs gave in 1989. They had three children, Reed born in 1991, Erin in 1995, and Eve born in 1998. Jobs also had another daughter named Lisa whom he refused to acknowledge for the first few years but eventually reconciled with her and her mother Chris-Ann Brennan,  who was his girlfriend during high-school. In 1996, Jobs returned to Apple which is in shambles and losing money at the time. He immediately brought back glitter, buzz and profitability to the company making Apple today the most valuable publicly-traded company in the world surpassing ExxonMobil’s market capitalization in August.

n 2005, he inspirationally remarked in his transcript of speech to Stanford students: “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.”

Later, in 2007, Jobs and rival Bill Gates appeared together in a lengthy interview at the D: All Things Digital conference exchanging mutual praise with each other and prophetically quoting the Beatles: “You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.”

Jobs leaves behind his wife, four children, two sisters, and 49,000 Apple employees. We will surely miss him. Computing industry and technology will never be the same without him.

As a small tribute, you may want to download and use this simple wallpaper that we made for him. Goodbye Mr. Jobs. Job well done.

Steve Jobs wallpaper tribute. Click on image to download wallpaper.

MANILA, Philippines – “It was a dream come true”, Miss Philippines Shamcey Supsup exclaimed after entering the top 5 of the Miss Universe 2011 beauty pageant, and placing 3rd runner-up.

“I was so happy. I didn’t think that I would be actually part of 16 lang. I’m so happy and I owe it all to the Filipino people,” Supsup said in an interview.

This year’s Miss Universe title goes to Miss Angola Leila Lopes.

Miss Ukraine Olesya Stefanko was the first runner-up, Brazil’s Priscila Machado placed 2nd runner-up, Supsup placed third and China’s Luo Zilin was 4th runner-up.

Supsup ranked a place higher than her predecessor, Venus Raj, who was fourth runner-up in the 2010 pageant.

Supsup was topping the final fan rankings and was one of the strongest contestants in the competition.

In the crucial question and answer portion, American actress Vivica A. Fox asked Supsup, “Would you change your religious beliefs to marry the person you love? Why or why not?”

“If I had to change my religious beliefs, I would not marry the person that I love because the first person that I love is God who created me and I have my faith and my principles and this is what makes me who I am. And if that person loves me, he should love my God too,” Supsup answered.

Shamcey Gurrea Supsup was born on May 16, 1986 in General Santos City, the same town where world boxing icon, Manny Pacquiao came from.

She graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines-Diliman with a degree in architecture. She also topped last year’s Architecture Licensure Examination.

Sexy Shamcey in the swimsuit round.

Most elegant candidate in evening gown competition.

8-division boxing champion and Sarangani province Congressman Manny Pacquiao will seek a higher government position in 2013.

Pacquiao confirmed the report during his interview with ESPN Sports center that plans to run for a governor seat in the upcoming 2013 local elections.

When asked about his political and boxing career all mixed up, Pacquiao said he can handle both. “It’s very tough to be a public servant and to serve people… I believe I can handle that, and [at the same time] I can still focus on boxing,” Pacquiao said.

Pacquiao who is scheduled to fight arch-rival Mexican Juan Manuel Marquez in their third duel on November 12 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, also shared his experience as a public servant. “Being congressman in the Philippines added more responsibilities in my life, compared to my life as a boxer. I have to manage my time,” he said.

“It’s good to be a public servant especially in the Philippines, [where] a lot of people need help from the government,” Pacquiao added.

A recent report by researchers under the World Health Organization (WHO) have again confirmed that oral contraceptives can directly cause cancer. CBCP News mentioned this as a “setback for lobbyists seeking billions of pesos in yearly taxpayer-funded subsidies to distribute pills nationwide for free under the reproductive health (RH) bill”.

International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a research arm of WHO, classified the pill as a “Group 1” carcinogen, which means the highest level of evidence of cancer risk. Other Group 1 carcinogens include asbestos, arsenic, formaldehyde, and plutonium.

IARC Monographs are published to provide concensus evaluations and evidences about various agents that can cause or increase the risk of cancers in humans. Prior to this third report, France-based IARC previously formed working groups evaluating carcinogency in pills in 1988 and 2005. Monographs of these findings were published in 1989 and 2007 respectively.

The US National Cancer Institute also acknowledged that pills could cause breast cancer, advising women “who are concerned about their risk for cancer to talk with their health care provider.”

Pro-life groups in the Philippines have consistently called on RH bill lobbyists to bare information on the dangerous side effects of pills and other contraceptives such as the IUD to the public.

According to latest government data, only 16% of Filipino women use the pill. And only about 60% of contraceptive pill users know about “possible side effects.” It was also unclear what side effects were properly dissimenated by government health workers, and whether women were informed that pills are carcinogens.

Result of the July 2011 Nurse Licensure Examination was released by the Professional Regulation Commission where 37,513 passed out of 78,135 examinees.

Cebu Normal University (Cebu State College), together with West Visayas University – La Paz and University of the Philippines (UP) – Manila got the highest passing rate of 100%. The second highest rating goes to University of Sto. Tomas (UST) who got 99.79%, closely followed by Trinity University of Asia (Trinity QC) with 99.74%, Chinese General Hospital College of Nursing & Liberal Arts (99.71%) and St. Paul University-Iloilo (99.22%).

PRC will soon announce the dates and venues of oath-taking for new nurses at a later date.

The complete list of successful examinees of the July 2011 Nurse Licensure Examination can be viewed from the link below:
July 2011 Nursing Licensure Board Exam Result in PDF