New PLDT board

The following have been elected to the board of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., (PLDT) during yesterday’s stockholders’ meeting and annual election of directors. They are Manuel Pangilinan, Napoleon Nazareno, Antonio Cojuangco, Helen Yuchengco-Dee, Ray Espinosa, Sadao Maki and Shigeru Yoshida representing Japan’s NTT, Corazon dela Paz, Albert del Rosario, and independent directors Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, Oscar Reyes, Pedro Roxas, and Teresita Sy-Coson. It’s basically a reelection of the old board. Sources revealed that Pangilinan will be reelected chairman of the board while Poli Nazareno will remain as president and CEO.

Delivering The Promise (Part 2)

>Last week, we talked about how the new North Luzon Expressway has started to live up to its promise of accelerating socio-economic development in central and northern Luzon. Just look at the investments from Tiger Airways and Air Asia which offer daily international flights to and from the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport inside Clark and Ayala Land’ s decision to commence work on its new resort complex development in Bataan.

Just recently, we’ve learned of even more.

Property values in the regions serviced by the new NLEX have already risen. We’ve learned that within the Lakeshore Development located in Mexico, Pampanga for example, property values have more than doubled for the lucky ones who opted to buy early. Property originally acquired at P3,400 per square meter is now going at P8,000 per sqm. Demand has also increased for lots in adjacent extensions if they’re being pre-sold at prices 35 percent more than when the residential community was first started in 2000.

The Department of Tourism has decided to take advantage of the local tourism benefits the new NLEX can deliver. The DOT has been busy identifying and setting up new eco-tourism attractions that would cater even to the already jaded Metro-Manilans. There’s the already operating Mt. Pinatubo Wellness Spa in Capas, Tarlac. Another one soon to open is the Race to Porac Peak in Porac, Pampanga. This new project will treat backpackers to views of mountain ranges, valleys, waterfalls and Aeta communities while trekking to the crater of Mt. Pinatubo.

Epixtar, the international contact center group, also decided to set up operations inside the Clark Special Economic Zone. CDC information officials have estimated the new call center to provide 4,000 new jobs and the new NLEX is expected to open these employment opportunities to many beyond the borders of Angeles and neighboring cities.

Breakthroughs

IBM and The Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have joined efforts to take brain research to a new level via the Blue Brain project.

Over the next two years scientists from both organizations will work together using the huge computational capacity of IBM’s eServer Blue Gene supercomputer to create a detailed model of the circuitry in the neocortex – the largest and most complex part of the human brain. By expanding the project to model other areas of the brain, scientists hope to eventually build an accurate, computer-based model of the entire brain.

Relatively little is actually known about how the brain works. Using the digital model, scientists will run computer-based simulations of the brain at the molecular level, shedding light on internal processes such as thought, perception and memory. Scientists also hope to understand more about how and why certain microcircuits in the brain malfunction – thought to be the cause of psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and depression.

Researchers from IBM will use their experience in simulating complex biological systems to help turn this data into a working three-dimensional model re-creating the high-speed electro-chemical interactions of the brain‚s interior. Running on four racks of Blue Gene, the model will be capable of simulating brain processes in three dimensions with a precision never before achieved.

Blue Gene is by far the fastest supercomputing system in the world, giving scientists access to unprecedented levels of computing power. By using a Blue Gene supercomputer to run experiments in real time, Markram anticipates a substantial acceleration in the pace of brain research.

The system that will be installed at EPFL will occupy the floor space of about four refrigerators, and will have a peak processing speed of at least 22.8 trillion floating-point operations per second (22.8 teraflops), making it one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world.

The first phase of the project will be to make a software replica of a column of the neocortex. The neocortex constitutes about 85 percent of the human brain’s total mass and is thought to be responsible for the cognitive functions of language, learning, memory and complex thought. An accurate replica of the neocortical column is the essential first step to simulating the whole brain and also will provide the link between genetic, molecular and cognitive levels of brain function. The second and subsequent phases will be to expand the simulation to include circuitry from other brain regions and eventually the whole brain.

Elsewhere at EPFL, researchers will use Blue Gene to look at the use of plasmas as a possible method of energy production. Another team will use Blue Gene to research the folding of proteins and their role in the development of Creutzfeldt-Jakob (mad cow) and other diseases.

Tidbits

During the recent stockholders’ meeting of Cashrounds, Eduardo David and Mel Velarde were elected to the seven-man board, formalizing the entry of Velarde Group of Companies‚ subsidiary Gamboa Holdings into the publicly listed entity. Just recently, Gamboa Holdings acquired a one-third stake in Cashrounds and another one-third will be purchased sometime next month. There are strong rumors that the Velarde Group will be using Cashrounds as a backdoor listing vehicle for digital trunk radio company Next Mobile Inc. (NMI) which needs to raise funds for its expansion plans. NMI is controlled by the Velarde Group.

During the first quarter of 2005, total pre-need industry sales dropped 20 percent and according to reliable sources, the drop in sales is expected to reach 25 percent in April. The goods news though is the more reputable pre-need companies are better off than the industry average, which means that the planholders and new buyers are able to distinguish between the reliable ones and the not-so-reliable ones. The first half 2005 figures are however expected to be an improvement from the first quarter sales.

Employees of Platinum Plans Phils have not been receiving their salaries since April of this year. Instead, they’ve been getting alms in terms of a P500 cash advance given to rank and file members, and even this cash advance, the employees have to beg for it. The company also has reportedly not been remitting SSS, Philhealth and Pag-IBIG premium payments.

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