Internet: Fertilizer or Virus

After dismissing that alarm in your phone, what do you do? Is it checking your Facebook account? Your e-mail account? Or maybe, you check first your twitter account before leaving the house so that you’ll get update about the traffic flows.  Then in lunch, do you take picture and upload it in Instagram? Or maybe, the meal was ordered online. As for the night, do you spend it to communicate with loved ones through the virtual world?

Think about it. If your day was put in a pie chart, how much space would internet use take up? 90%? 25%? The tremendous increase in internet use has great implications on one’s lifestyle, one’s culture. Just look at the new features of different places. Restaurants and other establishments now offer free access to Wi-Fi. Now, businesses and transactions are not limited to face-to-face interactions and telephone conversations. These can also be done through internet. Even in the academic realm, students and instructors can communicate through the virtual world. Internet has been a source of inspirations and an avenue for faster and more organized submissions. Moreover, through the social networking sites, people can easily share their thoughts feelings and activities. The internet provides a wider audience for those who want to express themselves to a watching world. Clearly, the way people do things in the past have changed because of the power and influence of internet today.

Do you agree?

With the significance of internet use, the researchers, the authors of this blog, decided to conduct a study on how the Filipino youth use the social networking sites to see to what extent the participants are dependent on the internet. By internet dependency, the investigators mean to how much one rely the satisfaction of his/her physical, psychological and leisure needs through internet use. To do this, the researchers constructed a survey questionnaire and administered it to 132 students, Filipino youth, aged 16-25.

The study yielded results which shows that most of the participants are on the dependent part of the side of the scale. This meant that the use of social networking sites, namely Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, Twitter, Blogging and E-mail sites, truly became the bridge in the fulfilment of different needs. Internet usage had been fully incorporated into lifestyles of Filipino youth.

            To further support these findings, the researchers also inquired for their estimated number of days they think they could go on without internet, without affecting their needs. A very few said that they could go on for a month. And 43 of them only could do it for a day. This level of dependency would have a lot of implications, don’t you think?

            There are two possible effects of internet use.

It can be a virus that disrupts your own system and your relationship with other people (both in the real and virtual world). It is very possible that a person can be imprisoned with the use of internet and escape the real world. The different social networking sites can be used as means to abuse innocent people.

 It can also be a fertilizer that nourishes the members of the society to contribute for its betterment. Since a lot of people use the internet, one can see various inspirations. Internet makes creation and sharing of knowledge easier. The information is disseminated faster and it has a larger audience as well.  Internet could be the source of new innovations and technology.

To ensure that internet use will be a fertilizer, rather than a virus, the researchers advocate for a balance. There shall be a balance in the time allotment for the activity in social networking sites. Internet use shall help in the attainment of goals, not distract the users from fulfilling them. Moreover, there shall be a balance in the self-expression in one’s accounts. The government shall not prohibit the users from speaking their minds and hearts. But the institution still shall protect the other rights of the people. A friendly reminder upon posting will be to post something that shows respect towards self and others.

So, if your life revolves around the internet, make sure it is still healthy for you and the people around you! :D

The Good And Bad Effects Of Gaming

“Self-defense”

Have you ever experienced fighting? How did you protect yourself? Everyone must know how to protect themselves when danger comes and it is by self-defense - is a countermeasure that involves defending oneself, one's property, or the well-being of another from harm. The use of the right of self-defense as a legal justification for the use of force in times of danger is available in many jurisdictions, but the interpretation varies widely.

People especially girl should know how to protect themselves because nowadays, our world is full of crimes. When someone attacks unexpectedly, you should be aware enough of it, don’t panic and do the move. Many styles of martial arts are practiced for self-defense or include self-defense techniques. Some styles train primarily for self-defense, while other martial or combat sports can be effectively applied for self-defense. Some martial arts train how to escape from a gun situation, or how to break away from a punch, while others train

how to attack. To provide more practical self-defense, many modern day martial arts schools now use a combination of martial arts styles and techniques, and will often customize self-defense training to suit the participants' lifestyles, occupations, age groups and gender, and physical and mental capabilities.

References:

“Facebook”

What is facebook? Facebook is an online social networking service. Its name comes from a colloquialism for the directory given to students at some American universities. Facebook was founded on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverain, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes. The founders had initially limited the website's membership to Harvard students, but later expanded it to colleges in the Boston area, the Ivy League, and Stanford University. It gradually added support for students at various other universities before it opened to high-school students, and eventually to anyone aged 13 and over. Facebook now allows anyone who claims to be at least 13 years old to become a registered user of the website.

We all know that Mark Zuckerberg is genius because of creating this facebook thing. Before he invented facebook, he sees this social networking site as a fashion, fashion never stops and that’s the thing that he wanted in facebook, he want facebook to never stop, there is always something new in it.

Facebook is very powerful nowadays. It is not just about to post your photos or your facebook status, sometimes people tend to create a page for a specific reason. For example the Vhong Navaro case, people who idolize Vhong create a page to fight with him and to support him all throughout the process. Another thing is that some people use facebook only to hurt people like bullying to be specific and because of that, our government created a law such as the “Cyber Bullying” - is the use of Information Technology to harm or harass other people in a deliberate, repeated, and hostile manner, and because of this, facebook is one of the reason why our government created this kind of law and that’s how powerful the facebook is, but not all in facebook is negative, there so many games that you will enjoy and people from all over the world can easily communicate. When a member of the family is working or OFW for istance, you could just open your facebook account and and then chat with them and like what I’ve said, there is always something new in facebook and now facebook has an all new video call, In just one click you could see people you like in video in just one click. Facebook connects people and it made our life easier because of this technology.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook.com

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber-bullying

Are We Ready For Lightsabers?

Marine Conversations

                      

            Last February 7, Ms. Anna Oposa, Founder and Chief Mermaid of the Save Philippine Seas Movement gave a lecture on her experiences as a marine conservationist. In her lecture, she gave various points as to how and why we need to protect the marine biodiversity, most of which are related to how it affects us human beings. Also, she pointed out that maybe the reason as to why we humans fail to see the damage we caused and are continuing to cause to the marine life is because they are under the water surface, therefore not easily seen. Some points of her lecture also include some reasons why we must not keep marine animals captive and away from their natural habitat, and why we must not make a habit of being so close to the marine wildlife.

The things she said in her lecture are not new information for most of us. What was interesting, though, was that Ms. Anna Oposa did not have an extensive knowledge and background on marine biology and biodiversity. She graduated with a degree in English Studies, but the path that she has chosen to take strays far, far away from the path paved by her college education. Armed with passion and determination, she was able to make a big change in a big way. This remains a reminder for me that we do not need be experts in a field to be able to make a difference.

For information about Save Philippine Seas, visit:

http://www.facebook.com/SavePhilippineSeas

savephilippineseas.tumblr.com

or contact Ms. Anna Oposa at:

http://www.twitter.com/annaoposa

http://www.instagram.com/annaoposa

3D Printing: Paving the way for Heart Treatment

  

 

Taken from International Business Times article entitled: "3D-Printed Hearts From Human Fat Cells? Scientist Says ‘Bioprinting’ Organs Possible ‘In 10 Years’"

                3D Printing has opened the door for countless ideas and possibilities to take concrete form. It allows for the creation of a three-dimensional object of any conceivable form or shape to be made. These materials come out just as they are conceived in the virtual or digital models they are based from with no need for further refinement or removal of excess materials. Though this technology has existed for quite a while already, it is only recently that widespread attention has been placed on it due to it being made available to the public market and the steady decrease of the cost of making and operating such devices capable of doing it. This technology has been utilized for all sorts of means and  projects, but do you know that it has actually been used in the treating and prediction of cardiac disorders?

An international team of biomedical engineers have created a “3-D elastic membrane made of soft, flexible, silicon material that is precisely shaped to match the outer layer of the wall of the heart (epicardum)”. Old devices could not cover the full surface of the epicardum or maintain constant contact without sutures or adhesives. The team prints tiny sensors onto the membrane that has the capability to precisely measure the temperature, mechanical strain and PH levels of the Heart along with other markers. These sensors can also deliver a miniscule pulse of electricity in order to combat arrhythmia (or irregular heart rhythm)  With these sensors, doctor are able to more accurately assess and prescribe a treatment for a patient’s disease.

"Each heart is a different shape, and current devices are one-size-fits-all and don't at all conform to the geometry of a patient's heart," says Efimov, the Lucy & Stanley Lopata Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering. "With this application, we image the patient's heart through MRI or CT scan, then computationally extract the image to build a 3-D model that we can print on a 3-D printer. We then mold the shape of the membrane that will constitute the base of the device deployed on the surface of the heart."

 

This man-made membrane can be inserted into the heart “can be used for treating diseases in the ventricles in the lower chambers of the heart” and other disorders like atrial fibrillation. In the United States alone, this could potentially alleviate the plight of roughly 3 to 5 million patients. Lead scientist Igor Efimov, Phd says that “this is only the beginning”. Through the development and usage of similar devices, medical practitioners can now start to tackle and potentially treat diseases that were formerly non-treatable. 

Today, we are making ground breaking discoveries geared towards heart treatment. But maybe tomorrow, who knows? Some scientists believe that we are actually a decade away from having enough knowledge and technology to actually create a heat out of 3D printing that can be transplanted to a human being.

Source:
"3-D Printer Creates Transformative Device for Heart Treatment" - http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140225122223.htm

"3D-Printed Hearts From Human Fat Cells? Scientist Says ‘Bioprinting’ Organs Possible ‘In 10 Years’"

http://www.ibtimes.com/3d-printed-hearts-human-fat-cells-scientist-says-bioprinting-organs-possible-10-years-1483568