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Cheers! Manila may soon be known for more than just its traffic; thanks to 'Manila Sunshine', a signature cocktail "that will define the city of Manila."

Like the city itself, Manila Sunshine is a combination of the country's best ingredients.

"What makes Manila Sunshine distinctly Filipino is the base of lambanog, or coconut wine. This drink is mostly produced in the province of Quezon, which is known to be the biggest producer of lambanog; the process of making and appreciation of which has been a part of the Filipino tradition for centuries," Makati Shangri-La, the hotel that came up with it said.

Tourism Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said he was "very pleased that the Manila Sunshine drink is finally a reality." He said the Department of Tourism had approached the hotel to create and name a drink after Manila.

On top of the lambanog base are flavors of pineapple and mango, a hint of orange from triple sec, and the spice of Tanduay dark rum. The drink is also garnished with tanglad, or lemon grass, and a pineapple slice.

Makati Shangri-La also offers a non-alcoholic version, the Virgin Manila Sunshine. The drinks were launched at the hotel's Circles Event Café and is available at Makati Shangri-La’s bars.

The DOT has been promoting the Philippines as a top tourism destination. It has launched social media and international television campaigns to promote tourism to the Philippines.

According to DOT figures, more than 1.1 million tourists arrived from January to March, a 16-percent increase from last year's tourist arrivals.

"From this record, we have now achieved 25 percent of our international visitor target of 4.6 million for this year," Jimenez said when the figures were announced.
He said the increased arrivals show "the world is now starting to see that ‘It’s More Fun in the Philippines’ is not just a bunch of words on a streamer."..

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Video gamers geeked over release of 'Diablo 3'
12:55 PM, May 15, 2012

IRVINE, Calif. — Fans of "Diablo III" celebrated the midnight launch of the long-awaited video game.

A crowd of more than 1,500 gathered Monday night around a stage built underneath the Ferris wheel at the Irvine Spectrum Center, a shopping center located about a mile from developer Blizzard Entertainment Inc.'s headquarters, for the gritty role-playing sequel set in the fantastical world of Sanctuary.

Anticipation for "Diablo III" from publisher Activision Blizzard Inc. has bubbled over because the previous entry in the series was released 12 years ago, a lifetime in the gaming world when compared with franchises like "World of Warcraft" and "Call of Duty," which regularly receive updates.

"When we first started doing midnight launches, we didn't think anyone would come, but now we do them for all our games, and they get bigger and bigger," said Rob Pardo, Blizzard's vice president of game design. "It's great for not only the fans but also the development team. They get to be here when everyone is buying the game and see the excitement."

"Diablo" fans huddled around the stage to watch Blizzard artists sketch characters from scratch, view never-before-seen footage, take part in trivia contests and attempt to catch free swag during "loot storms."

Ian Noble, 24, wanted his collector's edition autographed by developers.

"There's nowhere I'd rather be tonight," Noble said. "I've been waiting for this moment for a long, long time."

So why did it take so long?

"We were just goofing off mostly," joked lead designer Jay Wilson over howls from the crowd. "No, it takes a long time to make a Blizzard game. We're very focused on quality. If we think something is not good enough, we make it better. We redo things, which is really uncommon in game development. If we build a level and don't like (it), we'll throw it out."

In the third chapter of "Diablo," players choose among five classes — barbarian, demon hunter, monk, witch doctor or wizard — and battle hellish minions across the landscape of Sanctuary.

Wilson hopes new sprawling battlefields, real-money auctions, a deeper combat system and increased online capabilities for "Diablo III" will appease even the frustrated fans.

"If we could have done anything different, we probably wouldn't have announced the game when we did," said Wilson. "We could have waited a little longer. We thought we were closer to release. We want people to get excited, but we don't want them to feel like they're strung along. We always try to have a dialogue with the audience and exceed their expectations."

Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhati said "Diablo III," only available to play on PC and Mac computers, not game consoles, has the potential to sell more than 4 million copies. He estimated Blizzard would sell 3.5 million copies this year. "Diablo II," released in the summer of 2000, sold 4 million copies in the year after it debuted.

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Marubeni-DMCI group bags $1B contract to build MRT-7

MANILA, Philippines (UPDATE) - A joint venture between Japan's Marubeni Corp. and DM Consunji Inc. (DMCI) bagged the construction contract for the $1 billion MRT-7 railway project of Universal LRT Corp.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange, DMCI Holdings said the Marubeni-DMCI consortium signed an engineering, procurement, construction contract for the Metro Rail Transit System (MRTS) and Intermodal Transportation Terminal of the MRT-7 Project with Universal LRT.

DMCI spokesman Elery Mendoza told Agence France-Presse the project would cost around $1 billion and start early next year.

"It will most probably take 42 months for the entire system to be completed," he added.

In Tokyo, Dow Jones Newswires quoted a Marubeni statement as saying it and DMCI received an order worth $1 billion to build railway tracks and stations in Manila.

The MRT-7 project involves the construction of a 22-kilometer train line with 14 stations from San Jose del Monte in Bulacan to the corner of North Avenue and Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (EDSA) in Quezon City. The project also includes a 22-kilometer, 6-lane highway to Bulacan.

The MRT-7 will be connected to the MRT-3 train line and the Light Rail Transit (LRT) line 1 through a common station in North Avenue.

Universal LRT is a railway firm controlled by diversifying conglomerate San Miguel Corp. In November 2010, SMC acquired a 51% equity interest in Universal LRT, which holds the concession for the MRT-7. It will have 25 years to operate the train line.

Manila's light rail systems currently serve about 1.3 million commuters daily

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Why Women Date Assholes

It's well known that women find sexy, rebellious rogues attractive. Duh. But until now it's not really been clear why women choose to turn that attraction into long-term relationships, when they know they stand a high chance of getting burned. New research, however, reveals that the secret lies in the hormones.

Sure, a woman might choose to mate with an attractive male because evolutionarily it means attractive kids. But that doesn't entirely explain things, as there's more to life than good-looking offspring. Now, research conducted at the University of Texas at San Antonio and published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that during ovulation hormones affect judgment of parenting potential. Kristina Durante, one of the researchers, explains to Live Science:

Essentially, during ovulation women are more likely to believe that rogues would make better potential fathers—so they specifically pick sexier men over obviously more dependable men—even if they're jerks.

To establish that, female participants were asked to view online dating profiles of either sexy or reliable men during periods of both high and low fertility. When asked to predict likely paternal contribution from the prospective partners close to ovulation, the women thought the sexy men would contribute most. In other words, that long-term, they'd make better dads.

The researchers backed that up with a second study, where actors played the role of sexy cad or reliable dad, and the result turned out just the same. So, if a woman starts dating an asshole, she will—at least once a month—be under the impression that he'll make a good long-term mate. One interesting aside is the fact that the effects only seem to apply to the individual. Durante explains:

The take-home message from the research? Timing, my friend. Timing is everything.

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