Let's Do The News! - September 30, 2014

The big scoop today...

- With so many trespassers breaching through the heightened security of the White House in Washington DC, the capitol of the United States, the Secret Service director, Julia Pierson, is scheduled to answer most of the solons' questions about why it wasn't well-guarded against trespassers.

- The CDC says that about 10 children from the USA were hospitalized between August 9 and September 28 with a mysterious limb paralysis that health officials say that this is not caused by the polio.

- The Sarangani Energy Corporation is almost finishing the construction of a coal power plant that is capable to supply 105MW to the Mindanao regions in late 2015.

- Daihatsu teases a new kind of kei minivan that is set for November debut but could it be a production version of the Deca Deca concept?!



- HE'S COMING! Lord Eddard Stark from the HBO hit TV series Game Of Thrones has spawned a 1/6th scale figure from Good Smile Company. Available this February, he's yours for just 16,800 Japanese Yen before tax. A must have for the Game of Thrones fans!

Game of Thrones Eddard Stark
action figure

- Yet another pointless KanColle stuff coming out from the press as Good Smile Company announced two new 1/8th scale figures of battleships Mutsu and Nagato. Yes, they're from a browser game mostly blabbered by otakus with no anime on sight before next year but both of these figures will go on sale this February starting at 15,000 Japanese Yen ($150) before tax each.

Nagato

Mutsu

- Last weekend, there was a fashion show happened at SM Mall of Asia and it's called The Naked Truth presented by wardrobe label Bench. In one part of the fashion show, there was Coco Martin pulling along a lady on a leash while on the runway. This part sparked fury from the online community and Bench issued an apology from last weekend's fashion show.

- The villain plane from Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, the SU-47 Grabacr, and the hero plane from Ace Combat 6, the F-15E Garuda 1, will be spawned into model kits courtesy from Hasegawa as part of the limited edition Ace Combat lineup of model kit planes inspired from the hit video game franchise.

- The F22 Raptor, the US Air Force's fifth-generation fighter aircraft, made its combat debut with its first air strike on enemy ground in the ongoing fight against the ISIS.

- Looks like Richard Hammond's going to be disappointed when he sees this: a Porsche 918 Spyder hybrid supercar just got barbecued at a gas station in Toronto, Canada. Ouch...

ACE COMBAT INFINITY & SERIES MUSIC BEST

ACE COMBAT Infinity & Series Music Best

Time to start the briefing.

Launched in mid-May 2014, Ace Combat Infinity is the series' first-ever free-to-play flight shooting game made exclusively for the Playstation3. Whether if its a veteran mercenary or a battle-shy rookie, Ace Combat Infinity pits players behind the cockpit of some of the world's best aircrafts from the F22 Raptor, F14 Tomcat, F15 Strike Eagle, Eurofighter Typhoon, Rafale, Mirage 2000, T50, or any other well-known aircrafts in history as well as fictitious ones as seen in numerous installments such as the Morgan from The Belkan War and the ASF-X Shinden II from Assault Horizon. Over 1.5 million users have been downloaded this F2P flight shooting game and engage in either campaign or online co-ops as well as the weekly challenges where prizes include special aircrafts, new emblems, research reports, or other prizes.

Ace Combat Infinity is just warming this series up as the Ace Combat franchise reaches is 20th anniversary next year since the first Ace Combat game launched in the original PlayStation since the summer of 1995. It was followed by Ace Combat 2 in 1997, Ace Combat 3 Electrosphere in 1999, Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies for the PS2 in 2001, Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War in 2004, Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War in 2006 as well as Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception for the PSP, Ace Combat 6: 解放への戦火 (Fires of Liberation) for the XBOX 360 in 2007, Ace Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion for the iPhone in 2009, Ace Combat X2: Joint Assault for the PSP in 2010, Ace Combat Assault Horizon for the PS3 and XBOX 360 in 2011, and Ace Combat 3D Cross Rumble for the 3DS in 2012.

As the series reaches is 20th birthday, there is now a special album featuring the best of Ace Combat. This 2-disc CD features a hand-picked selection of the best BGMs heard throughout the franchise as well as the Infinity Remix versions of Shattered Skies' Comona, Stonehenge, Invincible Fleet, and Blue Skies. And there's more. For a limited time, when they bought this CD, there's a product code where users can receive a special "Guitar Nuggets" emblem and 5 stocked fuel for use in the Ace Combat Infinity game. It is said that whoever has the Guitar Nuggets emblem on their planes will have the color of the missile smoke turned yellow. It maybe showy but this emblem shows everyone that you are a big fan of the Ace Combat BGMs.

Also, recon suggests that this is an ebten exclusive so you can't find it anywhere else and it's priced at 2,900 Japanese Yen.

TRACK LISTINGS:

Disc 1:

1) Blockade
2) Comona (INFINITY Remix)
3) Invincible Fleet (INFINITY Remix)
4) Stonehenge (INFINITY Remix)
5) The Northern Eye
6) Operation Bunker Shot
7) Rex Tremendae
8) Megalith - Agnus Dei -
9) First Flight (Arranged ACE COMBAT 04 "Blockade")
10) Rendezvous
11) Ice Cage
12) The Unsung War
13) The Journey Home "ACE COMBAT 5 Ending Theme"
14) GLACIAL SKIES
15) MAYHEM
16) THE DEMON OF THE ROUND TABLE
17) ZERO
18) EPILOGUE - NEAR THE BORDER -
19) Blue Skies (Remix)

Disc 2:

1) Ace Combat 6 Main Theme
2) The Liberation of Gracemeria
3) A Brand New Day
4) Rising High
5) Fire Youngman
6) Dynapolis
7) Linkage
8) Replay
9) Montage
10) Revelation
11) Metropolitan
12) Fighter's Honor (Flying Remix)
13) Rebirth From Sand Storm
14) Keep Alive
15) Release
16) Release (Trailer Remix)
17) Gotta Stay Fly
18) Blue Skies (INFINITY Remix)
19) GH (Unpublished Track)

Let's Do The News! (September 29, 2014)

The big scoop today...

- The Armed Forces of the Philippines commemorated their first year anniversary on commemorated their victory on the Zamboanga Siege last year, the siege when government troops fought and defeated Muslim rebels in Zamboanga City.

- The Sandiganbayan third division rejected the request of Gigi Reyes to have her own laptop and Wi-Fi in jail as she stands trail for plunder over the PDAF scam.

- In an effort to ease out pollution in the Philippines, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has proposed advancing the implementation of Euro 4 fuel standards by June 2015 and the idea of junking out old cars that are 15 years of age.

- It's that time of the year again when the world's finest sportscars have been gathered for the World's Greatest Drag Race as part of Motor Trend's Best Driver's Car. For the fourth time, the GT-R NISMO takes on the Fiesta ST, the new WRX STi, the BMW i8, the BMW M4, the new 911 Turbo, the F-Type Coupe, the Camaro Z/28, the Alfa Romeo 4C, and the VW GTi. Who will win, watch this clip and find out!



- The 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 Kompressor is the highlight for this week's Jay Leno's Garage webisode. Check it out!



- There is a detuned version of the McLaren 650S that is available exclusively for the Asia-Pacific region, known as the 625C. As the name implies, the 3.8L turboengine is 25PS less than the 650S but mobility and stability are fine-tuned thanks to its ProActive Chassis Control.

2015 McLaren 625C

- Honda to display a near-production Civic Type R Concept at October's Paris Motor Show. Again, ignore this. It's not for Japan market. We're not going to talk about it.

2014 Honda Civic Type R Concept

- HAVE YOU TRIED THIS? There's a new Asphalt game and it's a spin-off to the wildly successful mobile racing game. Asphalt OVERDRIVE is the first ever spin-off from the franchise where you can outrun the cops, defeat bosses, avoid obstacles, perform impressive stunts, and more in an 80's style California. It's available for free on the App Store or Google Play.

- Area 88 meets Ace Combat Infinity as there's going to be a special collaboration event happening on the PS3-exclusive free-to-play flight shooting game this 3rd of October to the 14th of October, 2014. There's a special mini-ranking challenge where you can win Shin Kazama's F-20A plane as well as other prizes. Also, keep an eye out for special item drops where you can win special aircraft inspired from Area 88.

TTFN!!!

Renault Twingo III

2015 Renault Twingo

This is the brand new Renault Twingo and it's now on its third generation for Renault's city car that is small enough to do big things even rodents can't do in their spare time. Judging by the looks of it, the new Twingo isn't as good looking as the previous one and what shocked previous Twingo owners looking for an upgrade, the new model is now transformed from front-wheel drive to rear-wheel drive and the engine is now sitting on its bum rather than on the tummy or in the face. Which means, this compact car is now comes with the same layout as a Porsche 911 because the 911 has a reputation of having its engine placed on the butt.

A hatchback with an engine on the back? Wow, that was a rare sight and I wonder how does it perform well as a tiny car with a big attitude? I'll just talk about that later but for now, let's take a look on the outside first.

It may not be as good looking as the previous generation but the new Twingo is better looking than the first generation, which is the one with the hideous-looking frog eyes that is as creepy as French cars look in the 90's. Renault says that this new boxy look draws inspirations from the two concept cars; namely the Twin'Run Concept and the Twin-Z Concept but whatever you ask, don't think this is more of a spiritual successor to the ancient Renault 5 because both of them are from a totally different league in a totally different time. What's also bizarre is that unlike it's predecessors, the brand new Twingo is now available exclusively as a 5-door judging from the implementation of the secret rear doors that provides access to the rear seats.

2015 Renault Twingo interior

On the inside view, it's not so bad to look at considering that the top-range models will feature a sat-nav for the first time on the Twingo plus Renault's R-Link telematics system. The speedo's now change featuring a very high-tech digital thingy on the middle that tells the driver the fuel consumption, temperature, distance travelled, blah blah blah... And even though it's shorter than the old one, the added wheelbase makes it more roomier for your mates at the back.

Because it's an RR compact and the engine's on the back, you might think that it has room on the front, just like what Porsches and Ferraris do but no. There is little room in the front trunk because of such sizing and because this is rear-wheel drive, the rear boot space really suffers a bit, meaning you don't get to put a certain Ross Kemp on it just like what the previous Twingo did.

The new Twingo isn't like the 5 Turbo or the Clio V6 where the engine occupies the entire back room because for a small car with a 911-ish layout, the engine is located under the boot floor rather than exposing it like what the 5 Turbo and the Clio V6 do. That sounds genius but I had greater fears about putting stuff above the boot floor where the engine is placed under but let's put this fear under consideration for us so in the meantime, the performance.

2015 Renault Twingo

Now you may have wondering how the heck did Renault managed to made a rear-wheel drive city and the main reason why is that possible isn't from Renault but a joint collaboration from Germany's Daimler. Yes, Daimler's collaboration is the main point because thanks to the new Twingo's rear-wheel drive layout, it served as the basis for the next-generation smart car, namely the forfour and the fortwo compacts. These compacts are all developed by Renault and Daimler engineers at Renault's Parisian technical center.

Despite being a rear-wheel drive, the new Twingo feels so mild to drive. You don't get oversteering but it feels so agile, so quiet, so tight, and so nimble in all the right barrels and to explain what I'm on about, kindly refer this to Ridge Racer's Wild Gang. The Wild Gang. It's that little compact with a mild handling but you get the idea while driving the Twingo because...it's like that Wild Gang I mentioned.

For engine choices, there is a 1.0L petrol engine that produces 70PS of power and a smaller and turbocharged 0.9L petrol engine that delivers 20PS more than the bigger one but with lesser emissions as well. For the transmission, it has a 5-speed manual gearbox that does pretty decent in shifting gears, which is nice.

2015 Renault Twingo

So, should you buy it? The new Twingo starts at 10,800 Euros, which is more expensive than the modern city cars of today, especially the Peugeot 108 and the Citroen C1, but let's remember, this is a rear-wheel drive hatchback and you can have fun in the Twingo as much as you like as long as you need to take good care of it, no matter the outcome.

Available Colors: Blanc Cristal, Rouge Flamme, Bleu Pacifique, Noir Etoile, Brun Cappuccino, Bleu Dragee, and Jaune Eclair.

Photo: Renault

The Family Guy Simpsons Crossover episode

This is the first time I've ever witness two of Fox's hilarious animated comedies colliding with each other into one very special episode the whole world ever experienced since...well you know.

The Simpsons, one of the world's animated comedy greats that has been around for 25 years now, and Family Guy, even called a rip-off, it's Seth MacFarlane's biggest attempt to create a TV show that drives people crazy with its toilet humor, strong-ish language, sexual fantasies, and numerous references from other stuff. Now, what happens when they combine these two? The result, in all-out clash of two cartoon comedy greats showing who's boss, although there are a few trespassers popped out during this episode.

And yes, our dream of seeing Peter Griffin and Homer Simpson in a fistfight has finally came true. We've been waiting for this right moment to come in this special episode.

(sigh) I hope that's enough about that. One Family Guy Simpsons crossover is enough for us to satisfy our love for these shows.

Wow Mali! - September 28, 2014

On the September 28, 2014 episode of WOW MALI LAKAS NG TAMA!

- POGI POINTS: On this episode, the POGI POINTS are initiating the compatibility test or face a very wet consequence!

- EMOTE CONTROL - On this episode's EMOTE CONTROL, a celeb's foot massage is facing a bigger problem on foot!

- SIGN KA NATAWA? - The folks from Wow Mali showcased some funny signs around the nation!

- MALINTADONG PINOY - The boys are showing off their crazy talents for the televiewers!

- PHONE-AKIP BUTAS - Looks like girlfriend has cheated on her boyfriend and now he's blaming YOU!

Doctor Who S08E06

Doctor Who S08E06

This has probably one of the most mind-blowing episodes in this season because not only the battle to save Coal Hill from the imminent doom caused by a menacing robot called the Skovox Blitzer but it's the fateful encounter between The Doctor, Clara Oswald, and Danny Pink that got the viewers amazed.

Looks like The Doctor encountered himself a new gadget and it's an invisibility watch. At the touch of the bottom, the wearer will render him into stealth camouflage, but that gadget's too much when the Blitzer heavily spotted The Doctor empty-handed.

However, the Blitzer follow orders without question and while The Doctor managed to imitate as its superior using a clever gadget he made, he managed to shut the Blitzer down by command and send it back to space.

That episode really is action-packed and looks like that love story between Clara and Danny is starting to come unraveled.

Here's the BTS from this episode:

NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW: