Wazzup Pilipinas News and Events

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Philippines: The Gloves are Coming Off for Team Philippines

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The penultimate episode starts with all four teams taking a 14-hour train to Banyuwangi in Indonesia. On the way there, all four teams muse on their journey so far and what they have to do to get to the final three. Eric & Rona, Parul & Maggie and Yvonne & Chloe are seeing Treasuri & Louisa as the only threat to them getting to the final three.

“Everyone has to fight for the first spot and we will do whatever we can,” says Eric, not giving up.

“Being Filipinos, we have a pact with Eric & Rona. We were strategizing on how we can make it to the top 3,” say Maggie & Parul, hatching a plan.

In Banyuwangi, teams must head to Sanggar Genjah Arum to find Master Setiawan, the coffee brew master. When the teams arrive, they find out that the venue is closed and they all have to wait until the next morning.

The next morning, Yvonne & Chloe are the first to enter the coffee house. In a refreshing change of pace, the teams just have to have a cup of coffee with Master Setiawan before receiving the route info, which is to make their way to the top of Kawah Ijen and search for their next clue. The teams are warned that there’s a Yield ahead and they start to speculate who will be using it.

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BotFans rejoice!

The battle continues when BattleBots, the extraordinary competitive reality series that has garnered a huge following in the sport of robot combat, returns on AXN this December.

This year’s playing field boasts of contestants representing four continents from around the world. From NASA engineers to expert roboticists, from garage builders to teenage students, and even past competitors, this group of hardcore robot builders will design and build robots that will face off against each other in combat in the elimination rounds until one is crowned champion.

For the first time, audiences will be treated to an enhanced viewing experience with the use of state-of-the-art Onboard Technology and Cameras, which will also provide combat analytics.

Each episode is filled with high energy as viewers will see next generation robots – bigger, faster, and stronger than ever before – designed with new technologies and innovations, and with more destructive weapons, including drones and flying battle bots!

ESPN's Samantha Ponder hosts season two, with expert play-by-play analysis from veteran sports broadcaster Chris Rose and colorful commentary from former UFC fighter Kenny Florian. Alison Haislip reports on the sidelines and ring announcer Faruq Tauheed presides inside the arena.

BattleBots Season 2 airs every Monday-Wednesday at 7:55pm, First & Exclusive on AXN

AXN is available on Sky Cable Channel 49, Cable Link Channel 38, Cignal Digital TV Channel 61, Global Destiny Cable Channel 61, Dream Channel 20, and GSat Channel 51. AXN HD is available on SkyCable Channel 247.

Celebrate a Low-Carbon Christmas with WWF’s Green Holiday Tips

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Christmas is the season of generosity, but it doesn’t mean we should go on endless shopping sprees and host furious binge parties every night!

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) estimates that humanity is currently using the resources of 1.6 planets, meaning many of its resources are no longer naturally replenished. With the global population expected to breach nine billion by 2050, we need to learn to minimize our consumption today!

So this Holiday season, let less be more. Celebrate a green or eco-friendly Christmas by recycling decor, opting for energy-efficient lights and heeding these 10 quick tips to help minimize humanity’s holiday carbon footprint. After all – a fun, simple and meaningful period of reflection is our best gift to the Earth.

1. Buy local products and support homemade crafts - Flown or shipped in from distant locales, it takes more resources for imported goods to reach our homes and offices. Patronizing local products cuts carbon emissions while boosting the local economy. Support native handicrafts, particularly if the raw materials are sustainably-sourced, like twigs, leaves and pine cones.

2. Bring eco-bags when shopping for gifts - An estimated one trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year and most end up in landfills. This means over a million plastic bags are used every second – and most are used only once. Please don’t add to the waste by switching to eco-friendly canvas or recycled bags.

3. Use LED Christmas lights with timers - Energy-efficient LED (light-emitting diode) Christmas lights are up to 90% more efficient than regular tungsten bulbs. They’re far safer and last longer too! Remember to plug them into automated timers to ensure they’ll turn themselves off a little after you go to bed, saving power and ensuring that in terms of your carbon footprint, you won’t be naughty but nice.

4. Make your own personalized Christmas cards - About two billion Christmas cards are wasted every December. Why not craft your own cards from recycled books, magazines or packaging? A little creativity with some crayons, paint brushes or colored pens can ease out your inner artist! It will mean more to your special someone, too!

5. Use recycled décor - With some tinkering and a touch of creativity, your old jars, gifts and gizmos can be converted into nifty Christmas decorations. This is not just cheaper – you’ll even ensure that each homey gift piece is unique!

6. Buy only what you’ll use - Hosting this year’s Christmas party? Then politely ask your guests to minimize leftovers and get only the food they can consume. Every year, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. Buy just the right amount of sturdy plastic cups and bring out a marker to assign cups. Minimize waste and your waistline this Holiday season!

7. Set that thermostat a bit higher - Your office doesn’t have to be like the North Pole! When the party’s getting too cold, you can increase your air conditioner’s thermostat by one degree Celsius. This will leave you feeling comfortable while cutting down the energy bill by as much as 10%. The ideal temperature range for homes and offices ranges from 24 to 26 degrees Celsius.

8. Recycle last year’s wrapping paper for this year’s gifts - Printed paper wrappers comprise one of the largest Christmas wastes. Use last year’s wrappers for this year’s gifts! Old boxes, ribbons and strings can also be repurposed to minimize waste.

9. Reuse old props for this year’s parties - Bring out old decor and leftover trimmings for this season’s celebrations. In need of refreshing? A little glitter and paint can go a long way. Why not ask your buddies to donate a few things for the party? This allows everybody to participate and spread the Christmas spirit!

10. Observe proper cleanup after partying - Before staging your next party, ensure there are enough bins and trash bags that are clearly marked with the right labels for proper disposal. Try forming a ‘green team’ and announce to everyone that this is an Earth-friendly Christmas party where their love for the planet will be appreciated.

Remember, everyone has a duty to the environment. These 10 quick tips can lessen your impact on the planet. Get more tips on reducing your carbon footprint here. Don’t forget to join the #WWFChristmasPanda contest here. Have a Merry Green Christmas!

HPE Aruba Drives IoT Adoption with Innovations in Connectivity and Device Visibility

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Aruba, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise company, announced continued innovation at the network edge. The introduction of new security solutions, ecosystem partnerships, and wired infrastructure products is designed to accelerate the move to the digital workspace, while addressing the security concerns associated with the adoption of IoT initiatives.

The explosion of IoT devices connecting to enterprise networks is making it critical to identify, connect, and protect all unknown mobile and IoT devices at the edge via enhanced security and threat remediation technology. The new Aruba ClearPass Universal Profiler and Aruba ClearPass Exchange partnerships, along with the 2540 Switch Series, are key components of HPE’s broader IoT strategy that was unveiled this week at the HPE Discover Conference.

According to Gartner, “6.4 billion connected things will be in use worldwide in 2016, up 30% from 2015, and will reach 20.8 billion by 2020.”¹Additionally, “By 2020, Gartner is projecting more than 300 million building automation devices and more than 400 million devices for energy management in buildings.”²

Key findings within a November 4, 2016 Gartner research report, Real Time Discovery, Visibility and Control are Critical for IoT Security, stated that “Lack of network and device visibility is a top concern of security and risk management leaders, both in consumer and industrial IoT verticals, as they don't know what assets they have and if protection is required. Discovery is a prerequisite to IoT security.” Also in the report, Gartner recommended that IT teams “Determine which discovery and visibility business benefits — such as reducing costs/risks, enabling postbreach response and recovery, enabling asset discovery, being more ready for regulations and audits, and complementing BYOD security initiatives — are most compelling before architecting use cases.”³

IoT-Ready: ClearPass Universal Profiler

To address these challenges, Aruba has developed a strategy to meet enterprise requirements for identifying, connecting, and protecting all mobile and IoT devices at the edge. With new software and hardware solutions, as well as new ecosystem partners, Aruba can now accelerate an organization’s move to IoT adoption in smart buildings across verticals.

The new Aruba ClearPass Universal Profiler automatically discovers and fingerprints all IP-enabled managed, unmanaged, and IoT devices on multi-vendor wired and wireless networks. This gives IT organizations the ability to see clearly how many devices in total and per category are connected at any one time. IT departments no longer have to guess or use disparate tools to see what devices are connecting to their networks. Comprehensive information about device type, operating system, status, and location are displayed in an easy-to-read graphical user interface. This information can then be used for performance and security tuning across infrastructure components, and then shared with ClearPass Exchange partners to deliver user behavior analytics, deception intelligence, and firewall security.

For organizations that then require policy management, there’s a simple migration path to the Aruba ClearPass Policy Manager to enable automatic authentication and policy enforcement after devices are identified and fingerprinted. Devices that are exhibiting unwanted behavior can then be automatically remediated using data from Aruba’s partners to minimize the risk to networks.

Scaling for IoT with Aruba 2540 Switch Series and ArubaOS Enhancements

Aruba also introduced the 2540 Switch Series, along with enhancements to the ArubaOS-Switch operating system, both of which are designed to power and secure the intelligent edge, optimizing for mobile and IoT devices. These enhancements enable unified, role-based access across wireless and wired networks with the ability to identify and assign roles to connected IoT devices in order to prioritize business critical applications and secure the network.

The Aruba layer 3 switches (29xx/3810/5400) are also capable of user-based and port-based wired traffic tunneling to an Aruba Mobility Controller so that policies can be applied, advanced services can be extended, and traffic can be encrypted to secure the LAN, further reducing risk to networks.

To meet the demand for the rapid growth in IoT and connected devices in distributed enterprises, the cost-effective Aruba 2540 Switch Series (as well as the other Aruba switches) support Zero Touch Provisioning and optional cloud-based management to allow enterprises to simplify and slash network deployment and management costs.

New Aruba Ecosystem Partners Help Classify IoT Devices

The Aruba ClearPass Exchange partner ecosystem continues to grow, with new additions, Attivo Networks and Niara, both of which allow IT to identify IoT devices that demonstrate unwanted or suspicious behavior.

Attivo Networks is an award-winning provider of deception-based technologies for in-network threat detection, attack forensic analysis, and continuous threat response. The Attivo Networks ThreatMatrix Deception and Response Platform deceives attackers into engaging by turning the network into a trap with decoys and deception lures. Attackers who have circumvented prevention security systems, then reveal themselves and can be blocked and quarantined. The Attivo platform works with Aruba ClearPass to establish policies that automatically disable devices that are experiencing attacks from internal or external threat actors.

Niara is an innovator and recognized leader in the emerging user and entity behavior analytics (UEBA) market. The Niara Behavioral Analytics platform detects security threats on the inside such as compromised users, hosts and devices, negligent employees, and malicious insiders. Niara leverages Aruba ClearPass to identify and profile users, and IoT and IP-enabled devices, in order to detect attacks based on changes in normal traffic and IT activity, and to take action to remove the unauthorized devices or users from the network.

ClearPass Exchange ecosystem partners also provide user behavior analytics, deception intelligence, firewalls, mobile device management, enterprise mobility management, and solutions for managing security, user identities and network access events. They leverage ClearPass REST-based APIs, Syslog messaging, and a ClearPass Extensions capability to deliver end-to-end threat remediation and endpoint correction

One Lightweight World Champion Eduard Folayang Baguio City Parade

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Baguio City officials organized a parade for newly crowned ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard “Landslide” Folayang last Friday, 9 December. Folayang won the title at ONE: DEFENDING HONOR which took place 11 November at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore. The Filipino mixed martial arts (MMA) veteran defeated former champion, Japanese MMA legend Shinya “Tobikan Judan” Aoki via third round technical knockout.

ONE Lightweight World Champion Eduard Folayang receives a Hero’s Welcome Parade in Baguio City with his cousin, three-time World Wushu Champion Divine Masadao Wally held 9 December, 2016, on a beautiful Friday afternoon. The parade was launched from Luneta Hill at SM Baguio, proceeding to Session Road and Magsaysay Ave., and ending at Baguio City Hall.

The parade featured performers in traditional Igorot garb native to the Benguet region and the Philippine mountain province as they trailed the float bearing a mock display of the ONE Lightweight World Championship belt attached to the bullbar of a pick-up truck. Folayang waved to fans as the parade traversed down the city’s most populous areas.

Locals lined the streets to catch a glimpse of the newly crowned champion Folayang with the ONE Lightweight World Championship belt draped over his shoulder. Filipino fight fans love MMA and have a rich martial arts culture particularly in Baguio City, where some of the Philippines’ finest warriors have originated.

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Call it magic, call it true! Coldplay recently announced their A Head Full of Dreams tour in Asia, including a stop in the Philippines for the first time in history. Presented by the #1 mobile brand in the country, Globe, the biggest Coldplay fans are in for a musical adventure as they countdown to concert day with the launch of #GlobeColdplay Sessions.

Globe and Coldplay recently gave its customers their first hymn for the weekend last December 4, 2016, with the kick-off of the first of three #GlobeColdplay Sessions that happened at the UP Town Center, Quezon City.

This event gave everyone a colorful afternoon filled with arts, music, and wonderful surprises. All Globe users had a chance to win exclusive Coldplay items and tickets to their concert next year by completing all the activities in the Globe booth.

It was a 360° #GlobeColdplay experience, starting off with live performances of renowned artists singing to Coldplay songs. Leanne and Naara, the dynamic duo and YouTube sensation, kick-started the event followed by Hans Dimagyuga, The Voice of the Philippines Season 1 finalist. Kai Honasan from the OPM band Autotelic, sang the night away with Eco del Rio, bassist of Pinoy rock band Chicosci. Independent musicians and live acoustic performers Bullet Dumas, and Johnoy Danao capped off the event with Coldplay songs alongside their own compositions.

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You may probably wondering how to protect your kids from mosquitoes this Christmas season especially that you might be staying outdoors more than you plan because of all the gatherings and reunions you will be attending. It could be challenging because most of the time, kids do not like sticky lotions as repellent or worse—they have allergic reactions from strong insect repellent lotions. So it was such good discovery to find a kiddie insect repellent that doesn’t need to be lathered into your kids’ skin as ATC Strike Patch is a very easy to use mosquito repellent!

ATC Strike Patch is a stick-on mosquito repellent. It simply looks like a sticker with cute designs that are made of 100% pure and natural essential oils. It is safe as it is 100% DEET-free and the effects last for 48 hours! Just one patch on the clothes and your children are already protected from the disease carrying, irritating and infectious mosquitoes! No more hassle, just stick it on the child’s clothing and all is well!

Strike Patch for Kids is high content 100% Pure and natural essential oils. It is a product of extensive research and development that guarantees top quality and excellent promising health results which makes it absolutely different from other repellents.

To keep you away from mosquitoes in different ways possible, we offer you other Strike variants! The Strike Coil Mosquito Repellent is very easy to use and does not give irritation as it smells good. Strike Liquid Mosquito Electric Repellent provides 40-day protection and can cover a 20-meter area. It does not emit smoke and disturbing odors. Strike Mat lasts for 8 hours and can cover a 12-ft area. Lastly, the Strike Multi-Insect Killer Spray which kills all insects in an instant, eco-friendly and does not contain cfc which is harmful to human health, pets and the environment. The Strike variants can instantly help you get rid of mosquitoes without harming the environment, people, pets, plants and furniture. It is proven effective and very much affordable compared to other mosquito killing brands! Para iwas dengue at ZIka, Strike agad!

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It doesn’t necessarily mean that we have to be extra beautiful this Christmas season but it is something we can do not for others but for ourselves. You see, Christmas season is also known as “party season”. There are lots of gatherings and reunions with family and friends, and we don’t have so much time anymore to put on layers and layers of make-up just to hide the stress we’ve had for the past months. Imagine how helpful it would be to us if we don’t even need to put lots of make-up because of our effortlessly beautiful skin? That’s achievable especially if you are stocking up on Vitamin E!

Vitamin E helps maintain the skin’s radiance and healthy glow. Aside from that, it also helps in maintaining the functions of blood vessels, brain and nervous system. It strengthens the immune system and promotes good eyesight. Lastly, it helps in preventing cancer, heart disease and stroke.

With 400 IU of Vitamin E, ATC Vita-E is perfect for you! It benefits our body greatly and protects the cells from harmful effects of free radicals. Vitamin E—being a good antioxidant, maintains the radiance and glow which makes up for an even healthier skin despite too much sun exposure. No need to worry when you have Vita-E. For a healthier you and a healthier skin. For effortless beauty with ATC Vita-E.

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AFF Suzuki Cup 2016 title sponsor Suzuki Philippines (SPH) got avid football fans into the groove with fun games and activities during the group games held at the Philippine Sports Stadium recently.

With the excitement brought about by the Philippine debut in hosting the AFF Suzuki Cup, over 1,000 motorcycle club members, 500 Suzuki car club enthusiasts and 1,300 students gathered to witness the monumental event.

Welcoming the spectators and guests at the Suzuki Village located just within the stadium’s premises were a huge arc balloon and a larger than life soccer ball wherein fans can write down their well wishes and thoughts for the Azkals and the AFF Suzuki Cup.

Displayed at the Suzuki Village as well were SPH’s exciting lineup of automobiles and motorcycles. On display were the AFF-specially-dressed Suzuki Swift 1.2, the all-time favorite Suzuki Jimny, the multi-awarded Suzuki Ciaz, the well-loved Suzuki Ertiga, and the ever-stylish Suzuki Celerio. Smash 115 Fashion Colors, Address 115 Fi, and the Underbone King - Raider R150 were also among the motorcycles that have each captured tournament goers’ attention.

Fans were also treated with exciting games and activities as well as photo opportunity with their favourite Suzuki products.

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Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi today extended his congratulations and awarded outstanding establishments and energy managers who have undertaken or who were responsible for conducting energy efficiency and conservation programs resulting to considerable savings in their energy consumption.

"The entire Department of Energy family congratulates and holds in the highest esteem the recipients of this year's Don Emilio Abello Energy Efficiency Awards. They collectively represent the ideal standard of excellence that we want society to uphold, and that we want others to emulate and replicate in the fast-evolving field of energy efficiency and conservation (EEC)," Cusi said in his remarks.

"The other candidates and participants themselves are likewise deserving of praise for the equally commendable effort they have put in this endeavor. All is not lost for them because of the actual tangible benefits they have reaped for their organizations, as well as the altruistic feeling of having contributed to the common good and the triumph of the higher cause of ‎environmental preservation."

"Regardless of the results, all of you should be extolled as worthy examples and inspiration for the rest of your respective communities.

Cusi emphasized that "The success of this event proves not just the importance of our social objective, but more so the growing awareness and interest of members of society and their ability and willingness to join the movement."

Organized by the Department of Energy as one of its activities in celebration of National Energy Consciousness Week every December, this year’s Don Emilio Abello Energy Efficiency Awards held at the Passion Restaurant, Maxims Hotel, Pasay City recognizes the private sector’s effort to promote and to implement energy conservation.