Category Archives: Consumer delights/complains
WARNING!!! WARNING!!! WARNING!!!
For those who take photos with their smartphone, and posts them online……..THIS IS FOR YOU!
Do you take photos using your smartfone? Do you post these photos online? If you do………..watch this video so you take extra precaution……..yes, you may still take and post your photos……………with this safe feature you will need to set.
Crt. Appeals voids FedEx Phil permit to operate
By Edu Punay (The Philippine Star) July 22, 2013
The Court of Appeals has effectively stopped the operations in the country of international forwarding firm Federal Express (FedEx).
The fourth division of the appellate court last week voided the permit granted in 2011 by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) to Federal Express Pacific Inc.
The CA ruled with finality that FedEx’s operations in the country violate the constitutional ban on foreign ownership of firms delivering public utility services.
In a two-page resolution released last week, the CA denied the motion for reconsideration filed by FedEx.
Instead, it affirmed its decision last Jan. 23 which held that FedEx is a foreign corporation and could not engage in public utility services such as international airfreight forwarding.
The court reiterated that FedEx’s operations are detrimental to the interest of local competitors and of the Philippine economy as a whole.
“We hereby declare respondent Federal Express Pacific, Inc., a ‘foreign corporation,’ disqualified in our country from operating as an ‘international airfreight forwarder’ which is clearly a public utility,” read the ruling penned by Associate Justice Danton Bueser.
Associate Justices Amelita Tolentino and Ramon Garcia concurred in this decision.
With the new ruling, the May 2, 2011 resolution of the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB) granting Federal Express Pacific Inc. a regular permit to operate international airfreight forwarding has been “null, void and of no further force and effect.”
As basis, the CA cited Article XII Section 11 of the Constitution, which provides that “operation of a public utility shall be granted to Filipino citizens or to corporations or associations organized under the laws of the Philippines.”
The CA was ruling on petitions filed by Merit Freight International Inc. and Ace Logistics Inc., questioning CAB’s decision to grant FedEx a regular permit to operate international airfreight forwarding.
In questioning CAB’s decision, Merit argued that international airfreight forwarding is a public utility reserved for qualified Filipino individuals and corporations as embodied in the 1987 Constitution.
Ace, for its part, said CAB erred in granting permit to operate to Federal Express Pacific Inc. despite the fact that it is a 100 percent foreign-owned and foreign-based corporation.
In granting the petitions, the CA also cited a previous resolution by the CAB dated June 1, 1990, directing Royal Cargo Corp., a company whose president then was a foreigner, to relinquish its top position to a Filipino national in accordance with Article XII Section 11 of the 1987 Constitution.
Royal Cargo questioned CAB’s resolution before the Court of Appeals, which ruled that the petitioner is covered by restrictions embodied in the 1987 Constitution.
The court also rejected Federal Express’ argument in its appeal that Merit has no legal standing to question its application for a regular permit and no personal stake in the outcome of the case.
The CA ruled that Merit, as a citizen, has the requisite locus standi – or the right to bring an action to be heard in court – to question the matter.
Petition to STOP Cruelty to dogs in China: Pls. sign in the comments area
Reposted from here
To: The CHINESE GOVERMENT
Through Mr. Obama (US President) and
Mr. Barroso (President of the European Commission),
We are all world citizens and were shocked to see how the Dogs are treated and killed in China, as you can see directly from the snapshots above and in this video below.
We do not need words, because we don’t have any word, to comment on the brutality and ferocity of what we saw, and we don’t have the courage and strength to review the video twice.
The DOG is always considered, by all civilizations, man’s best friend and it never hesitated to sacrifice its life for men.
For this and other many reasons, we want all together to make our voices heard because this senseless cruelty is stopped, the dogs’ dignity, as well as that of every living creature is respected, and it will be sent an official note by the European Commission and US Government to the Chinese Government because this brutal and uncivilized practice will be stopped immediately.
NAIA 1 voted world’s worst airport
The Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 was voted the world’s worst airport for 2011 by readers of “The Guide to Sleeping in Airports,” a site that reviews the quality and facilities of the world’s airports.
Its primary audience seems to be budget travelers who see sleeping in airports as one way to save money during their journeys.
Among the array of problems cited by international passengers who managed to survive the airport were theft, bribery, and the absence of toilet seats and running water in the bathrooms.
One reader had this experience:
“A big bucket with a dipper was by the front door (of the restroom) and about four attendants hassled me for a tip. When I asked a security guard where the smoking area was he told me to follow him… and he took me outside where he then insisted on a bribe before he let me back into the terminal.”
NAIA does have a recently opened Terminal 3 with better facilities, but “The Guide to Sleeping in Airports” reminded readers that it was deemed “structurally flawed.”
NAIA-1’s ratings worsened from the site’s 2010 assessment that it was the world’s 5th worst airport and the worst only in Asia.
“Earlier this year, some bad press regarding the state of the airport made airport officials promise to clean its Terminal 1 toilets and provide running water and soap. Imagine… they actually had to ‘promise’ to offer this!” the site said.
“The Guide to Sleeping in Airports” also pointed out physical hazards that recently plagued NAIA-1, including the collapse of its Bay 7 ceiling in May.
The basic design of its facilities poses risks. According to passenger Tiffycality, “Their arrival ramp is not user friendly because it slopes downward!! If you happen to be pushing your loads of baggages through this ramp watch out or your baggage might get to the bottom of the ramp before you!!”
The woes of NAIA-1 go beyond poor facilities, the site pointed out.
“The amount of corruption and bribery is just mind-blowing,” says Shizumasa.
“Airport taxes are collected,” the site explained, “but the money does not seem to go towards the betterment of the airport. Document holders have been told their papers are not correct, but a fee of x amount should clear up the matter.”
The site seems to share the same conclusion as this reader: “The worst airport on the planet. It has to be experienced to be believed.”
Blogger: Manila ‘a dump’
NAIA’s poor ranking received media attention at a time when a blog calling Manila “a dump” was going viral in the Philippines.
The brutally negative review of Manila came from Englishman Geoffrey James Quartermain Bastin, who claimed he has worked “on-and-off” in the Philippines since 1991 and tagged Manila as the “disgrace of Southeast Asia.”
The effects of such negative publicity on Philippine tourism remain to be seen, amid Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez’s campaign for Filipinos to sell the Philippine brandthrough social media.
Earlier, Jimenez said the Philippines is not difficult to sell. “This is the most beautiful country in the world. One of the ten most beautiful countries in the world. There is no reason we won’t succeed,” he noted.
With Paterno Esmaquel II/VS/HS
Long lasting Lip Gloss
How to obtain a long-lasting lip gloss effect?
Things You’ll Need
- Colorless lip balm
- Nude or clear lip pencil
- Sponge-tip lip applicator
- Lip powder or powder pigment safe for use on lips
- Clear lip gloss
- Lip brush
- Cotton swab
- Start with clean, exfoliated lips that are smooth and flake-free. Apply a light, even coat of colorless lip balm. Press lips together to help lip balm absorb into skin.
- Trace over your natural lip line with a creamy nude lip liner and fill lips in with the same pencil. This creates a blank canvas if you have a specific color to use that you wish to show up in its truest possible shade. You can substitute an invisible or clear lip pencil if color is not your main concern, as long as you give your colored lip products a base to stick to.
- Dip a sponge-tip applicator for lip products into a lip powder or into a powder pigment that is safe for use on lips. Use the color you want your lips to be. If you are keeping your lips nude, then a nude powder in the intensity that matches your purpose will suffice. Tap away excess before pressing product onto lips, staying within the boundary of your lip line.
- Dab on clear lip gloss onto the center of both top and bottom lips. Smooth outwards with a lip brush, using your lip shape as a guideline and being careful to not go past your lip line.
- Clean up any color outside your lip line with a cotton swab. Avoid smacking or rubbing lips together to prevent breaking down your lip product. Your lip gloss should now last considerably longer and even stay on for most of the day, given that eating, drinking or kissing do not interfere. In these cases, touch lips up as necessary.
By Lea WhiteFeather
eHow Contributor
Ways to Speed Up Your PC
What You Can Do to Make a Windows PC Faster
Over time, the speed of computers with Microsoft Windows can decrease. This appears as the system taking more time to respond to a user’s actions like opening files, folders, surfing the Internet and other tasks. However, there are things you can do to speed up your computer.
The following is a list of ways you can improve your computer’s performance. These steps are intended to be used in order. The key is to do the simplest and least invasive thing first until your system starts responding better.
Golden Rule: Do No Harm
If you want to improve the speed of your computer, that’s great. However, above all, do no harm and beyond the scope of this Windows forum, ask for help from those you know if you get in over your head. Remember: you have time. You can stop most processes I discuss without causing harm. Caution and common sense go a long way when working with computers; problems are often much easier to fix than they appear.
Steps to Speed Up Your Computer’s Performance
1. Make Sure Your Hardware is Sufficient
Above and beyond everything you can do with software to optimize the function of your computer, making sure you have the proper hardware to support Windows is critical.
2. Clean Your Desktop
Is your Windows Desktop dotted with files? Have you noticed that your computer has been running slower and slower? Do you see the hard drive light often flashing while you wait for the computer to respond to an action? There are steps you can take to fix it. Read this article.
3. Scan Your Windows System for Errors
An operating system is a collection of files that perform different functions. It is possible, over time, that one or more of these system files has changed or become corrupted. If this happens, the speed of your system may decrease. By using a utility called “System File Checking”, it will inspect these files and correct any problem it finds.
4. Scan for Viruses, Spyware and Adware
Every Windows computer is vulnerable to viruses. Viruses are nasty little programs that cause both major and minor problems for users. Spyware and Adware are programs created by companies to find out more information about customers, so they can better market products to them. Usually these programs are not created for malicious purposes. Spyware and Adware can load into computer memory and slow it down. Periodically scanning and removal of Viruses, Spyware and Adware is a great way to improve computer performance.
5. Uninstall Unused Programs
Over time, you may have accumulated programs on your computer that you do not use. When a program is installed, it creates connections between the program and the operating system. Even if you don’t use these programs, they can slow down your system. If you have the original program’s installation disk or file, removing programs will free up space on your computer and may speed up your system’s performance.
6. Adjust Visual Effects for Better Performance
Windows provides a number of interesting visual effects including animated windows and fading menus. If you do not have enough operating memory (see above number 1), these effects can slow down your computer. Adjusting or reducing visual effects can make a difference.
To speed up Vista computers in particular you can disable features and function that are not used. For more information, read “How to Speed Up Windows Vista.”
7. Don’t Automatically Start Programs
Programs use operating memory (RAM, also called system resources). Unless you always use these programs, you can keep them from loading at Windows startup and speed both the booting of your computer and its performance.
8. Defragment Your Hard Drive (After you have tried everything else)
The more information and programs you have on your computer, the more it is likely that Windows has placed parts of the same file in different locations on your hard drive. It may do this for hundreds of files and programs, depending on how much space is available. Defragmenting the hard drive places all information for each file in one place. The result can be a faster computer experience.
Important Note: Before you even try this, backup all your work onto a different computer, hard drive, CD or disk. Also, you should only do this if you have a reliable source of power for your computer. Doing this when there is a brown out or power problem in the neighborhood, is not a good idea. If a computer turns off while it is defragmenting a drive, it will create more problems than not defragmenting it in the first place.
9. Reinstall the Operating System and Programs
If you have done all the above steps and your computer does not become more responsive, you might consider reinstalling the operating system and programs. This is a scorched earth option – basically you backup all your data and user settings, wipe your hard drive clean and re-install the operating system with your original disks. Next, install all your favorite programs and restore all your data and user settings.
The nice thing about doing this is that you essentially have a new computer, free of years worth of software and registry changes, additions and errors that can turn a fast rabbit of a Windows computer into a slow turtle. The bad thing about this choice is that it takes time and planning to do it correctly. If your PC is 3 to 4 years old and continues to run slower than it did when you purchased it, this might be the only action that will make a significant difference.
by Mark Baggesen
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Oil prices down in Asian trade
Crude prices were lower in Asian trade Thursday as investors awaited more data indicating the health of the US economy, the world’s biggest oil consuming nation. The US government is expected to release figures on jobless claims and inflation in the world’s biggest economy, which is struggling to avoid dipping back into recession. 
A stronger US dollar also helped push prices lower as it makes the dollar-priced commodity more expensive for buyers using other currencies, dampening demand, analysts said. New York’s main contract, West Texas Intermediate light sweet crude for September delivery, was down 33 cents to $87.25 a barrel in Asian morning trade. Brent North Sea crude for October fell 30 cents to $110.30.
“Jobs are where the angst resides, the inflation call is more benign, though not completely,” DBS Bank said in a market commentary on the US economy. “Poor sentiment of the past two weeks is bound to feed into some of the hard data and the fact is that labour/jobs data are the most prone of all to sentiment,” it said. “Another fact is that jobs data make for the biggest headlines and nobody wants to see more sand thrown into the wind just now. So if we can get through this week and next week without a surge in jobless claims, then the outlook for Q3 has just gone up by an order of magnitude.”
Investors are closely watching the health of US economy amid fears it could sink into another recession because it consumes more oil than any other country in the world. Victor Shum, an analyst with Purvin and Gertz energy consultancy in Singapore, said oil prices were also edging down “in parallel with the strengthening of the US dollar against the euro”.
Agence France-Presse
11:18 am | Thursday, August 18th, 2011
House acts on prices
The House of Representatives has approved on third and final reading a bill that will include bottled water, instant noodles, liquefied petroleum gas, and fruits among the commodities that will be protected against hoarding, price manipulation, and other unfair trade acts in times of emergency. Getting unanimous support from congressmen, House Bill 4801 seeks to amend the Price Act by adding more basic goods in the list of commodities and services that may be placed under automatic price control in areas hit by natural or man-made disasters.
The price ceilings may also be imposed in areas placed under martial law and in state of rebellion or war. The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus is also included as a condition for the price control. The bill provides that price ceiling may also be imposed when there is a threat, existence, or effect of an emergency, widespread acts of illegal price manipulation, impendency, unreasonable increase in the price of the basic necessity or prime-commodity and whenever the prevailing price of any basic necessity or prime commodity has risen to unreasonable levels.
HB 4801 is a consolidation of bills filed by Reps. Joseph Victor Ejercito (PMP, San Juan City); Teodoro Casino (Bayan Muna Party-list); Roman Romulo (Lakas-Kampi, Pasig City); Luzviminda Ilagan (Gabriela Party-list); Catalina Bagasina (ALE Party-list) and Elmer Panotes (Lakas-Kampi, Camarines Norte). Romulo said the measure seeks to enforce appropriate measures to stabilize the price of drinking and bottled water and strengthen consumer security especially during severe shortages, calamities, and economic crises. Ejercito has pushed for the inclusion of instant noodles as he noted that this has been “placed in the ranks of basic necessities such as rice, corn, bread, fish, and pork.” For her part, Bagasina stressed that the bill provides that prime commodities shall mean goods not considered as basic necessities but are essential to consumers during emergency situations.
“Traders who take advantage of crisis situations usually target noodles and LPG in their hoard list. We hope this bill will provide the government the necessary weapon against these unscrupulous businessmen,” Bagasina said. Panotes said the bill stresses that price control for basic necessities that are wholly imported and deregulated under existing laws will be limited to a period of 15 percent, unless sooner lifted.
In lifting price controls on such basic necessities, government will have to consider the current inventory or supply levels, the opposition lawmaker added.
By BEN R. ROSARIO
August 16, 2011, 6:33pm
Talk About Anything Under The Sun 