Diesel is not your standard “tough guy.” He is, first of all, a huge nerd. He’s not just an avid Dungeons & Dragons player; he wrote the foreword to the commemorative tome Thirty Years of Adventure: A Celebration of Dungeons & Dragons. He told Jimmy Fallon that the game inspired him to become an actor. He taught Judi Dench how to play. He’ll occasionally produce a critically-acclaimed, award-winning Xbox game. He made an animated film with the guy who created Aeon Flux. He loves Tolkien’s The Silmarillion. He’s spent most of his career desperately trying to make a movie about Hannibal’s failed conquest of Rome.
via Vin Diesel in Furious 7: The actor is not a macho lunkhead, he’s so much more..
rePost::Protesting changes, Kidlat returns Cinemalaya award | Inquirer Entertainment
Not finger-pointing
“I know what it is like to be a first-timer trying to get your film across the finish line,” he said. “In my day, you had to find a festival that would give you a cold audience. It’s important for filmmakers to find such an audience. It’s easy to fill up an auditorium with your friends—they may like [the film] because they like you. A cold audience gives you perspective; you will be told where the bad spots are.”
This is not a case of finger-pointing, Kidlat said. “I’m not downgrading the achievements of Cinemalaya stalwarts. I appreciate what they have done so far. However, the money mentality seems to [indicate] that it’s more efficient to put together the little leaguers with the big boys. Then you forget your mission.”
Thoughtfully, Kidlat asked, “What was your mission, Cinemalaya?”
via Protesting changes, Kidlat returns Cinemalaya award | Inquirer Entertainment.
rePost:Red Meat Is Not the Enemy – NYTimes.com
Last fall, a meta-analysis of brand-name diet programs was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study compared the results from both the individual diets themselves and three classes, which included low-carbohydrate (like Atkins), moderate macronutrient (Weight Watchers) and low-fat (Ornish). All of the diets led to reduced caloric intake, and all of them led to weight loss at six months and, to a lesser extent, at 12 months. There was no clear winner, nor any clear loser.Where does that leave us? It’s hard to find a take-home message better than this: The best diet is the one that you’re likely to keep. What isn’t helpful is picking a nutritional culprit of bad health and proclaiming that everyone else is eating wrong. There’s remarkably little evidence that that’s true anytime anyone does it.
via Red Meat Is Not the Enemy – NYTimes.com.
BINAYaran Watch::‘Kuli-kuli’, Binay, and his humble beginnings
3 Hits and you are part of the list
MANILA, Philippines – We all know the story. Orphaned at a young age, Vice President Jejomar Binay lived with an uncle in a seedy area known as Kuli-Kuli in Pio del Pilar, Makati, helping with the household chores and working his way through high school and college, before finally obtaining a law degree at the University of the Philippines.
via ‘Kuli-kuli’, Binay, and his humble beginnings.
When Orange Calls for Black: The Racial and Sexual Impotence of ‘Get Hard.’ Plus: Al Pacino Is Great Again! «
Would love to watch good Al Pacino in a movie again.
But everybody here has that, especially Bening, who somehow finds a way to give the same clenched smile about 20 different meanings. It’s exciting to see a brilliant actor invent a character by thinking about what that woman does for work. Bening gets to reinvent customer service as a sterling personality trait. You get why she lowers her guard for this leathered, mildly obnoxious man, too: Pacino’s really enjoying himself.
Danny is miserable, but you can sense, immediately, that Pacino isn’t playing misery. The bottom that Danny has hit is spiritual. He needs to detox his soul. Pacino makes his way through this movie granting wishes and tossing out treats like a combination used-car salesman and leprechaun. It’s been years since he’s been this relaxed in a movie. You don’t care that he can’t make rock megastardom seem possible. Pacino makes himself seem plausible as a movie st
via When Orange Calls for Black: The Racial and Sexual Impotence of ‘Get Hard.’ Plus: Al Pacino Is Great Again! «.
Lee Kuan Yew and Jojo Binay | Inquirer Opinion
And by the way, I thought the Binays did not want the Senate hearings, because these were supposedly usurping the powers of the Office of the Ombudsman and the courts? “Let the courts decide,” the Binays said. So why are they fighting the Ombudsman and the courts every inch of the way? When the judicial proceedings to ferret out the facts are delayed by legal maneuverings, how are the citizens going to make an informed decision?
via Lee Kuan Yew and Jojo Binay | Inquirer Opinion.
FULL TEXT: Aquino's speech on Mamasapano at PNPA
Indeed: So much has changed in the way that government has treated our police. Now, there is high morale, accompanied by an extensive list of achievements. Senior Inspector Charity Galvez is a good example of this; she led her comrades in repelling the attack of around 250 members of the NPA on their precinct in Agusan del Sur in 2011. Our policemen in Mati City, Davao Oriental, likewise succeeded in defending their precinct against an attack of some 80 rebels. There is the story of PO3 Edlyn Arbo, who, without any hesitation, pursued and caught a criminal who attempted to hold up the jeepney she was in, even if she was off-duty and did not have her firearm with her. And during the ravages of Typhoon Yolanda, Inspector Marjorie Manuta walked six kilometers in order to render assistance to our countrymen who were victims of the storm. Perhaps you will also remember the story of our four rookie policewomen, who courageously confronted the Martilyo Gang, in the Mall of Asia, in 2014.
In our fight against crime, the results of the PNP’s operations under the supervision of Secretary Mar Roxas of the DILG, NAPOLCOM, and the rest of the PNP leadership have likewise been impressive. From the moment I tasked him to focus on reducing crime in the National Capital Region, and after he initiated Operation Lambat-Sibat last year, the general criminality rate has gone down, from 918 per week from January to June 2014 to a weekly average of 471 these past four weeks. This means that, every week, we are able to ensure the security of an additional 447 of our countrymen. On top of this, this past week, we reduced the general criminality rate to 400. Since we have seen the effectiveness of this initiative, we are now undertaking Operation Lambat-Sibat in other regions too. It is clear: As the state cares for the police, all the more have they improved in caring for the citizenry.
via FULL TEXT: Aquino’s speech on Mamasapano at PNPA.
rePost::The case for a State-owned newspaper in the Philippines | The Society of Honor by Joe America
We have a situation in the Philippines where the nation’s Fourth Estate, its popular media, are not fulfilling the vital role of fairly and accurately informing the public about what is happening. Indeed, they contribute to a form of hysterical tyranny. Even lead media outlets like the Daily Inquirer or ABS-CBN television give the news tabloid treatment that favors one political agenda over another.
It is the way “journalism” reporting is done in the Philippines. Conflict is featured and hyped. Sensational headlines are penned with little regard as to who is harmed by inaccurate words. The well-being of the Philippines, which is what ethics are designed to protect, is ignored. Complaints and anger accordingly run deep. Incidents are not framed in balanced and information-rich articles.
Is it any wonder why Filipinos are down on their nation even as the Philippines rises?
via The case for a State-owned newspaper in the Philippines | The Society of Honor by Joe America.
::What EMBO means
(The “embo” in barangays Comembo, Rembo, Cembo and Pembo stands for “Enlisted Men’s Barrio”.)
via How a Binay dummy got a P1B Makati property.
How a Binay dummy got a P1B Makati property
AT A GLANCE:
Valued at P1-billion at present, the 8,877 square meter commercial strip in Bgy Comembo was originally part of a housing project for military personnel and their dependents
Meriras Realty, owned by alleged Binay fronts, rented the area for a mere P9,157 a month
Erlinda Chong, Makati’s cake supplier and a friend of the Binays, acquired the rights on a silver platter to patent the property
Chong paid P17.75 million for the property
A complainant asked why the contested property was appraised at only P2,000 per square meter despite the prevailing price in the area being between P10,000 and P15,000 per square meter
via How a Binay dummy got a P1B Makati property.