MANILA, Philippines — Two recent events have drawn world attention to the country, once again. I'm referring to the landslide at Compostela Valley, which killed scores of small-scale miners and their families, and the 22-hour Black Nazarene procession.

While both incidents came with elements some quarters would readily dub miraculous — the landslide's casualty figures should have been much higher, while the procession, with millions of devotees climbing over each other and stampeding on at least one occasion, was a disaster waiting to happen — we might not be as lucky next time.

While both incidents displayed our people's resilience and tenacity in the face of hardships, they also highlighted how scarce common sense is on these islands.

Most of all, both incidents remind us all that discipline is not one of our strongest traits.

For Nokia: US or Bust

 After years of diminishing presence in the United States, Finland's mobile phone giant is now moving heaven and earth to reestablish a toehold in the land of honey and milk. Merely days after announcing the designed-for-the-midmarket smartphone, the Lumia 710, Nokia unveiled the Lumia 900 at the CES trade show in Las Vegas.

Designed to run on AT&T's 4G LTE network (imagine download speeds of up to 50Mbps), the Lumia 900 signals how serious Nokia is about its reentry into the American market. Apparently, with the Lumia 900, Windows Phone can finally stand toe-to-toe with the best of its iOS, Android, and BlackBerry rivals.

But will this phone, which comes equipped with a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack display, a 1.4GHz processor, and a polycarbonate unibody, create enough excitement among American consumers? Will the Lumia 900 convince them it's time to own a Nokia mobile phone, again?

Intel's Mobile Chip

Intel might have been king of the computer chips world for as long as most consumers can remember, but in the realm of smartphone and tablet processors, the semiconductor giant is practically non-existent. That is, until now.

At this year's CES trade show in Las Vegas, the microprocessor giant announced that electronics giant Lenovo will launch in China a new smartphone that comes powered by Intel's Medfield processor. Intel also announced a similar partnership with Motorola Mobility, under which the Google-owned hardware vendor will develop and manufacture smartphones and tablets using Intel chips.

Is it time for the other processor manufacturers, currently serving the mobile market, to press the panic button?

Hmm. We'll find out in the next few months or so.

Multi-Core for Mobiles

Nothing excites a geek's heart faster and more intensely than a gadget that comes with a multi-core processor. After all, nothing drives a tech-lover into uncontrolled or premature jubilation much quicker than powerful digital toys.

Some industry experts, however, are wondering if most smartphones and tablet computers need or can benefit from dual-core or quad-core processing prowess. In fact, Microsoft's partnership with Nokia is a virtual rejection of the "more is stronger and faster" premise of the multi-core platform.

But before Microsoft, whose Windows Phone 7.5 mobile OS does not support multi-core processors, can be accused of baseless prejudice against multi-core chips, the software giant set up a challenge at CES with PC guy Ben Randolph betting $100 that his Windows Phone (an HTC Titan) can run faster any apps than any other smartphone can.

Of the 20 CES attendees who took the challenge, only an iPhone 4S owner was able to beat Randolph by sending a tweet faster, by a hair.

That's all for the meantime, folks. Join me again next time as we keep on watching IT.