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Science, Technology

P&G, EcoMatcher to tap blockchain for Forests for Good

P&G has partnered with social enterprise EcoMatcher to leverage blockchain technology for its Forests for Good campaign. Image credit: Procter & Gamble
Image credit: Procter & Gamble

Procter & Gamble Philippines (P&G) has partnered with social enterprise EcoMatcher to leverage blockchain technology for its Forests for Good campaign. Forests for Good is P&G’s campaign to actively protect nature by planting trees that help improve local ecosystems.

P&G will launch 12 pilot programs in 12 months across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa region. The programs will make use of blockchain technology to ensure accountability, traceability, and scalability in sustainability. In the Philippines, P&G is piloting the tree-planting activities in the Sierra Madre Mountain Range.

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3 Min Reading
A Life Less Analog, Science

Space travel: Are you ready to reach for the stars?

Technology column header

When space travel becomes more affordable, would you be willing to book a flight and go on a vacation that is literally out of this world?

Once the stuff of science fiction, space travel is becoming closer to reality as space tourism becomes the next frontier in the space race. In fact, you have Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos hoping to one-up his rivals Elon Musk and Richard Branson to become the first billionaire to go to space on board his own rocket. Bezos, a lifelong space enthusiast, isn’t just making his personal dream come true, but also helping his space company Blue Origin prove that space tourism can truly take off sooner than later.

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3 Min Reading
Science

Singapore startup wants you to book your flight to space

With the launch of its first consumer brand, QONN8Q (pronounced "Connect"), Singapore startup QOSMOSYS aims to make reserving a spot on a space mission as easy as booking a seat on a plane. Image credit: QOSMOSYS
Image credit: QOSMOSYS

With the launch of its first consumer brand, QONN8Q (pronounced “Connect”), Singapore startup QOSMOSYS aims to make reserving a spot on a space mission as easy as booking a seat on a plane. QOSMOSYS was founded in 2020 with the goal of helping usher in a new business era of peaceful space colonization.

“Where most space industry players explore vertical technologies with a B2B perspective, I see QOSMOSYS taking risks to rely on the capacity of digital platforms to empower every individual to contribute to create strong communities as a source of value to enforce the dreams and visions of the masses based on what technologies can give best,” said QOSMOSYS Founder and CEO François Dubrulle in a press statement.

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2 Min Reading
Geek Culture, Science

Neil Gaiman joins British Council panel on climate change

Award-winning author and activist Neil Gaiman, creator of the critically acclaimed The Sandman comic book series, also dreams of a better world. Image credit: British Council
Image credit: British Council

Award-winning author and activist Neil Gaiman, creator of the critically acclaimed The Sandman comic book series, also dreams of a better world. Gaiman will join The Climate Connection: Conversation for Change, a free online event on June 3 exploring the climate emergency, which will kick off the British Council’s The Climate Connection campaign.

“We will draw on our expertise in education, the arts, and cultural exchange, to support people everywhere to find innovative solutions to the biggest global emergency we face,” said British Council Interim Chief Executive Kate Ewart-Biggs in a press statement.

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4 Min Reading
Science, Technology

Mall culture in Philippines going green with solar power

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily disrupted it, mall culture has been ingrained in the Filipino psyche for decades. Image credit: Green Heat Corp.
Image credit: Green Heat Corp.

Though the COVID-19 pandemic has temporarily disrupted it, mall culture has been ingrained in the Filipino psyche for decades. Which makes it a huge deal for the renewable energy revolution in the Philippines that SM Supermalls, one of the biggest mall operators in Southeast Asia, has fully embraced solar power, with SM City Bacoor today becoming its latest solar mall, in partnership with Green Heat Corp.

While acknowledging that the mall operator has faced controversy in the past for cutting trees for mall projects, sparking protests from environmentalists and residents, SM Supermalls AVP for Operations for South 1 Region Lorenzo Leon A. Calingasan IV said the company is fully committed to sustainability and is working with communities to ensure this.

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4 Min Reading
Science, Technology

Headspace: Meditation, mindfulness minus mysticism

Image credit: Headspace
Image credit: Headspace

In today’s edition of The Wake Up on the Headspace app, Headspace Chief Music Officer John Legend — yes, that John Legend — walked the plank.

The multi-awarded American singer, who is the first Black man to win the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony), was using a VR headset to walk a virtual plank way up high under the guidance of neuroscientist Dr. Yewande Pearse. They were testing how music could make us feel less stressed. I found this episode of The Wake Up — a series on this meditation app that features different subject matter experts — very relatable because I have acrophobia, which I sort of overcame in college by climbing mountains. And it’s a perfect example of how Headspace demystifies meditation, and marries ancient wisdom with cutting-edge science and technology to help more people practice mindfulness.

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3 Min Reading
A Life Less Analog, Science

Earth Day 2021: Change the system, change yourself

Technology column header

As we celebrate Earth Day 2021 today, let us remember that while it’s true that the system needs to change, this doesn’t mean that our personal actions are no longer important.

Like nature and nurture, collective and individual action go hand in hand. Both are important. Both are needed. And are, in fact, interconnected. As individuals, the choices we make can have an impact on the decisions of others, and together we can change the world. Those who belittle our individual efforts to take climate action and live more sustainably, who say it’s the whole system that has to change and that we can’t make much of a difference as a person, probably just want us to despair and not even bother to attempt to change the world. Maybe because they don’t want the status quo to change.

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4 Min Reading
Entertainment, Science, Technology

Selena Gomez to host Global Citizen’s VAX LIVE concert

To inspire vaccine confidence worldwide and help get COVID-19 vaccines to everyone, international advocacy organization Global Citizen has announced VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World, hosted by Selena Gomez. Image credit: Global Citizen
Image credit: Global Citizen

To inspire vaccine confidence worldwide and help get COVID-19 vaccines to everyone, international advocacy organization Global Citizen has announced VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World on May 8 hosted by Selena Gomez.

“I’m honored to be hosting VAX LIVE: The Concert to Reunite the World. This is a historic moment to encourage people around the world to take the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available to them, call on world leaders to share vaccine doses equitably, and to bring people together for a night of music in a way that hasn’t felt possible in the past year. I can’t wait to be a part of it,” said Gomez in a press statement.

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4 Min Reading
A Life Less Analog, Entertainment, Science, Technology

‘Seobok’: Gong Yoo, Park Bo Gum, and future of cloning

Technology column header

Streaming in the Philippines on the same day as its theatrical release in South Korea, “Seobok” brings together Gong Yoo and Park Bo Gum for the first time on screen for a philosophical tale about a dying human and an undying being. Billed as a sci-fi film, “Seobok” is actually a heartbreaking meditation on what it means to be human and what makes life worth living.

“Are you saying he’s a cloned human?” Gong Yoo’s character, a former intelligence agent named Ki Heon, asks one of the scientists. “I don’t know if we can call him human,” the scientist replies. “If potato roots sprout from a tomato plant, what should we call them?” Spoilers ahead.

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5 Min Reading
A Life Less Analog, Science

The Planetary Society: Take part in space exploration

Technology column header

While watching “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage” as a kid, I never dreamed that one day I would become a member of the organization that the late Carl Sagan co-founded, The Planetary Society.

“The cosmos is within us. We are made of star stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.” These words of wisdom from Sagan during the very first episode of “Cosmos” have inspired me all my life. That show was one of the reasons I fell in love with science, and developed a lifelong belief in technology for good. And I know that kid would be thrilled to know that while he didn’t end up becoming a scientist, he is still playing a role in space exploration as a member of The Planetary Society, the world’s largest and most effective space advocacy movement.

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3 Min Reading
Science

Earth Hour 2021: Join zero carbon initiatives via Globe

As the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment, Earth Hour brings together millions around the globe to clamor for a sustainable future at 8:30 PM on the last Saturday of March. Image credit: @Day's Edge Productions / WWF-US
Image credit: @Day’s Edge Productions / WWF-US

As the world’s largest grassroots movement for the environment, Earth Hour brings together millions around the globe to clamor for a sustainable future at 8:30 PM on the last Saturday of March.

In support of Earth Hour, Philippine telco Globe Telecom has not only launched sustainability programs with employees and partners, but also is enabling customers to take part in zero carbon initiatives through its products and services. Here are some of the ways Globe customers can support Earth Hour, which takes place tomorrow, March 27, at 8:30 PM local time.

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4 Min Reading
Science

Global Climate Strike: On ground, online and underwater

Today, March 19, climate activists are holding another Global Climate Strike to call on world leaders to stop making empty promises and take urgent climate action. Climate activist Shaama Sandooyea holds a placard reading: “Nou Reklam Lazistis Klimati” (Mauritian creole for “We Demand Climate Justice”). Image credit: © Tommy Trenchard / Greenpeace
Climate activist Shaama Sandooyea holds a placard reading: “Nou Reklam Lazistis Klimati” (Mauritian creole for “We Demand Climate Justice”). Image credit: © Tommy Trenchard / Greenpeace

Today, March 19, climate activists are holding another Global Climate Strike to call on world leaders to stop making empty promises and take urgent climate action.

Even prior to today’s strike, the world’s first underwater climate strike was held at the heart of the Indian Ocean by climate activist and Fridays for Future Mauritius Co-Founder Shaama Sandooyea. In the Philippines, Youth Advocates for Climate Action Philippines (YACAP) held a protest this morning outside the Standard Chartered office in Makati City together with other climate action groups, including 350 Pilipinas and Kalikasan PNE. The climate activists called on Standard Chartered to divest from funding coal projects in the Philippines. Holding Standard Chartered accountable and calling upon it to stop “fueling the climate crisis” is one of the aims of today’s Global Climate Strike, whose official hashtags include #NoMoreEmptyPromises, #CleanUpStandardChartered, #RaiseYourStandards, and #FridaysForFuture.

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7 Min Reading
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