TBS - Throw Ball Shooter

TBS - Throw Ball Shooter (A New Kind of Basketball Gaming)
                          Clarence Astudillo, iReport.cnn.com

                          Posted: March 18, 2013 | Muntinlupa City, Philippines

Clarence demonstrating his TBS invention

A number of today’s children all over the developed world are involved in gun violence. Automatic rifles are no longer utilized for military purposes but are already available to the public where access to children, adult, and mentally ill people who are suffering from depression, anxiety and autism are unavoidable.

This type of violence can be attributed to the unending manufacturing of real guns, toy guns, war video games, sporting paint guns, and even reality television shows where high powered automatic guns and tanks are highly commercialized to the public. Gun violence and drugs are like cancer living in the houses of our society. It destroys family, it destroys hope.

Shocking news about massacres were no longer new to us. In fact one of the latest gruesome event transpired in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, USA, where authorities said: “A man armed with two automatic pistols kills 20 children at an elementary school in a rampage that left 27 dead and one injured in this sub-urban town before he took his own life.” With these events, gun laws are again widely debated by government officials to private sectors, hoping to find a solution in order to reduce or eradicate this kind of violence.

For me, debating, voting to change laws concerning guns are not the only solution. If we are going back to review our history, many individuals has made their own mark by transforming groups in our society to a peaceful and sports loving community. The likes of James Naismith (inventor of basketball) and Nelson Mandela who says: “Sports has the power to change the world, it has the power to inspire, it has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope where once there was only despair.

Mandela used sports to create change by increasing participation in sports among African youth. Mandela’s words inspired me so much, I believed that he envisioned this during his incarceration for almost three decades looking for solutions to end violence and racial discrimination.

Mandela’s vision towards sports drives me to write even though I am not inclined to writing. It drives me to present my invention, my “magnum opus” that I crafted in prison for almost 18 years.

The invention's certificate isssued by the 
Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines

For these reasons, I would like to introduce my invention I called Throw Ball Shooter. This is a kind of sporting goods that offers a unique new basketball game that virtually anyone can play and enjoy. Its special features is an adaptive equipment enabling people with disabilities to participate in a variety of leisure and recreational sports activities. It is a kind of sporting good that can be therapeutic to those who are suffering from autism, mental illness, anxiety and depression and it can be utilized also by the blind and the handicapped. It helps regain or develop fulfilling recreational lifestyle. This I believed is the only kind of sporting equipment where people with disabilities can compete with the physically in tuned athlete.

The Throw Ball Shooter can be a replacement equipment for shooting instead of guns, it helps kids to divert from running to war video games, from playing with toy guns.

To conclude, my invention for me is a craze inducing product, it serves as a trend to increase sports participation. With these reasons, I believe I have contributed something that will help reduce gun violence.

Source: 
Clarence Astudillo via CNN iReport

Photo credits:
Clarence Astudillo via e-mail

SALt Lamp

Pinay scientist creates lamp that runs on saltwater

                  Rhys Buccat, ABS-CBNnews.com

                  Posted at 08/02/15 4:43 PM

MANILA – “To light up the rest of the Philippines sustainably” was the vision of Filipina scientist Aisa Mijeno when she made the Sustainable Alternative Lighting (SALt) lamp. The SALt Lamp is an environment-friendly and sustainable alternative light source that runs on saltwater, making it suitable to those who live in coastal areas. It can also function well in remote barrios. With just two table spoons of salt and one glass of tap water, this ecologically designed lamp can run for eight hours.

“It is made of tediously experimented and improved chemical compounds, catalysts, and metal alloys that when submerged in electrolytes will generate electricity,” Mijeno explained in an interview with ABS-CBN.

Aisa holding her SALt Lamp

Because of its inspiring vision and ground-breaking innovation, the SALt lamp has received various awards and recognition from organizations in the Philippines, Singapore, Japan, and South Korea. It has also won in several competitions here and abroad.

Safe alternative to traditional lamps

According to Mijeno, the idea behind the SALt lamp is the chemical conversion of energy. It utilizes the scientific process behind the Galvanic cell, but instead of electrolytes, the SALt lamp uses saline solution, making it harmless and non-toxic.

Compared with kerosene lamp, the SALt lamp is also a lot safer, Mijeno stressed since it does not have components and compounds that may spark fire. Moreover, it does not emit toxic gases and leaves minimal carbon footprint. “This isn’t just a product. It’s a social movement,” she said.

Although the SALt lamp is not yet being mass-produced, Mijeno and her team have been working intensively with non-government organizations (NGOs), local government units (LGUs), and charitable foundations, among others.

These organizations aid in the purchase and distribution of the SALt lamps to remote communities where electricity is scarce, or worse, not available.

A sustainable light for the Philippines

Mijeno said that her experience working with an environmental organization made her realize the need for an alternative source of light, especially in rural areas of the Philippines.

“I used to be part of Greenpeace Philippines and did personal immersions/volunteers across rural communities, and there I learned so many things. Most of these people are so poor and underprivileged that they endure long hours of walking just to get kerosene for their lamps,” Mijeno recalled.

Currently, for every SALt lamp that is bought, one lamp is given to a selected family.

“Our main focus is on the island communities that do not have access to electricity and have no financial capacity for acquiring alternative source of electricity,” Mijeno added.

Source:

ABS-CBN News

Photo credits:

PinasTrending.com

McJIM Leather Products - truly Filipino

Leather craftsmanship that is distinctly Filipino                                
                                     Tina Arceo-Dumlao

                                     Philippine Daily Inquirer, Aug. 3, 2013

If Jim Cham had his way, he would be singing all the way to the bank. That’s because music has always been his passion. He spent a good part of his youth singing in combos, as they were known then. He gladly sang for a pittance just to be able to share his love for music with his audience.

But family life, which started when he got married at age 19, nipped his singing career in the bud. Realizing he had to find a more stable source of livelihood to feed, clothe and shelter his young family, he set aside his guitar, turned his back on the stage and pursued another passion: leather goods.

McJIM is an expert when 
it comes to accessories for men.

That put Cham on the long road to build McJim Leather Goods to what it is today, one of the biggest local manufacturers of men’s leather accessories that are giving foreign brands a run for their money.

McJim specializes in men’s accessories, with belts and wallets accounting for the bulk of its sales. Founded in the backyard of the family home in 1968 with just three employees—Jim, his wife and a helper from Baguio City where the couple met during his guitar playing days—the company today has over 300 employees.

McJim marketing manager Bernadett Chang says that McJim has been able to grow significantly over the past 45 years because of its unstinting adherence to top quality standards.

Quality, the company says, is the first ingredient of a good product and a philosophy that guides its processes—from selecting materials to product design, the manufacturing methods to selecting the most qualified leather craftsmen to make the products by hand.

This means investing in fine leather from Spain and Italy, sewing machines from Germany, and high level of craftsmanship from the Philippines. While certain phases of the manufacturing process involve machines, it still takes expert human hands to fashion a leather product into something that approaches art.

Based on the company’s experience, machines are an inferior substitute to the work achieved by expert craftsmen. Jim, whose family used to distribute popular watches such as Rado and Longines, learned all about the leather industry through experience—trial and error being a hash taskmaster.

Initially, he ventured into belts. In the early 1970s, he did not put any brand but merely supplied to the department stores and other retailers who put their own brands on his products. But even if he did not have any name, he was already big on quality, and McJim was one of the first local manufacturers of leather accessories to go abroad to hunt for the best materials for its target market.  It went to Japan, for instance, to buy leather as well as buckles for the belts.

Among the first department stores to carry the leather goods was the former Otis Department store, which was partly owned by Jim’s sister. Jim’s wife, a Miss Baguio pageant winner, was instrumental in finding buyers for the fledgling company’s products due to her amiable nature. She could talk to anyone and everyone, and would easily convert cold calls to potential clients into sales, not just in Otis, but in other department stores such as the former Good Earth Emporium.

After a few years of selling unbranded goods, Jim felt it was time to put his own brand on the products. He dared to brand the leather using his own name, an indication of how much he believed in his products.

He was also able to penetrate new distribution channels, such as the SM group. The Gaisano and Robinsons malls likewise carried McJim leather goods, which expanded in range from belts and wallets to bags and other men’s accessories.

“As the malls grew, the company did, too,” says Chang, adding that McJim’s wide range of leather products are now found in all department stores, under the men’s accessories department where it has its own section. From three, McJim now employs 350 people, including a full staff of designers, spread across four factories. Founder Jim, however, remains the driving design force.

The 66 year old frequently goes abroad to update himself on the latest trends and technology. For McJim, there is simply no compromising on quality even if it means pricing the goods above those of its competitors and exerting extra effort to impart on the employees the need to maintain product standards.

Today, McJim’s sales mainly come from the original belts, which account for 40 percent of annual sales, followed by wallets, with up to 35 percent. Bags and small leather goods, such as the occasional suspenders, make up the rest.

Chang says that McJim tried to produce a ladies line. But the company discontinued the line when the founders realized that ladies fashion required a different skills set. Thus it stuck to men’s accessories, which it knew by heart.

Chang explains that, unlike women’s accessories, those of men tend to be more stable and did not require frequent changes. Its market—professionals who have left their trendy days behind, according to the company—wants to be both fashionable and conservative, steering clear of anything flashy.

McJIM goes abroad in search of top quality
leather used to make bags, belts and wallets.

After 45 years in the market, its challenge today is to keep up with the times and penetrate the broader market to endear McJim to a new generation of loyal customers. This means possibly coming up with a separate brand that will feature products using other materials such as local leather and polyester.

But the core, however, will still be McJim Classic and all products will conform with the McJim philosophy of style, quality and elegance expressed in products of high quality but within reach of most Filipinos.

“We want everyone to enjoy great products with a great brand that is proudly Filipino,” says Chang.

Source:

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Photo credit:

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Young Filipino artist wins top prize in painting competition in Brunei

The Philippine Embassy in Brunei Darussalam reported to the Department of Foreign Affairs that a young Filipino artist won the top prize at the recent painting competition for children during the Celebrate the Sea Festival held at The Empire Hotel and Country Club in Jerudong, Brunei Darussalam from June 07 to 09.

Ms. Jamia Mei Tolentino, a second year student at St. Stephen’s High School in Valenzuela City, was given the Outstanding Award for all categories and the first prize for the 13-to-15- years age category during the painting competition for children based on the theme ‘Sharks are Friends’ held on June 08. 

Brunei’s Industry and Primary Resources Minister Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awang Haji Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar personally awarded Ms. Tolentino the top prize during the Celebrate the Sea Festival Awards Night held on June 09. Ms. Tolentino is a budding young artist who has already won major prizes in other art competitions, such as the 4th Green Bees International Drawing Contest with the theme “Let’s Play Together,” the Children’s Care International Annual Drawing Contest held in Montreal, Canada with the theme “The Future of the World is its Children” and during the 10th Mitsubishi Asian Children’s Enniki Festa Festival of Asian Children’s Art where she was awarded the Grand Prix award for her beautifully illustrated journal of daily activities. 

Brunei Darussalam organized this year’s Celebrate the Sea Festival to coincide with World Oceans Day, which is commemorated annually on June 08. The event aims to promote conservation, marine tourism, providing education and entertainment to create a greater awareness of the ocean environment. On World Oceans on Day June 08, the Brunei Government declared a ban on the importation of sharks fins and ban on all shark fins’ products in the country.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/dfaphl?fref=ts (June 14, 2013)

Bamboo Violin

Mr. Rosario Martinito.

The ONLY MAN that makes the ONLY BAMBOO VIOLIN in the WORLD lives in Brgy. Alta Vista, Ormoc City, Leyte, Philippines.