25 things

FACEBOOK

Love:
1. A very easy way to socialize with your friends.
2. Being able to share the photos of a special occasion and comment on them.
3. Getting contact with friends you had not seen in a long time.
4. It's a quick way to find friends and contact many of them all at once.
5. You won't forget a friend's birthday because it normally shows it.
6. Being able to express yourself and having your own personal space which is only yours.

7. You can share links with anyone you want to.

8. If you send an inbox, people will answer you sooner than if you send it to their e-mails.

9. The News Feed lets me know the most "important" things that have happened without actually having to scroll to the recent activities.

10. You can at least look at the photos if you were not at a certain event, place, trip, whatever.

11. If you want to celebrate something or invite people somewhere, by creating an event you can invite hundreds, even thousands at a time. You don't have to call one by one, and the invitation is official!

12. Some games are pretty fun!

13. Sometimes it's interesting to see the mutual friends you have with a friend.

14. You can get hold of pictures of you that other people took and you didn't even know about them.

15. Privacy Settings. You can control who can see what.
16. Everyone has a Facebook.

17. Easy to use.

18. You can tag people on your status and comments.

19. It keeps modernizing and getting new features all the time.

20. Having contact with people with whom you would normally would not if Facebook didn't exist.

21. Causes. Millions of people can join for a good cause and actually do something about it.

22. You can get useful information about anything if you find a good app. (ex. your favorite band's next concert)

23. Its easy access.

24. Some very interesting gossip (we are humans and we are curious)

25. Finding funny videos, photos, status, etc.

Hate:
1. Unknown people adding you
(receiving a daily friend request by someone whom you have never even heard or seen in your life; it is very annoying how people add randomly just to have more friends)
2. Creating so much gossip in school and basically in the community due to Facebook, where people "see" things that are "worth so much" to talk about.
3. Seeing how many people waste so many hours of their lives with stupid applications that are really useless.
4. Having your home full of people becoming "fans" to whatever they do in their lives such as breathing air.
5. It shows absolutely everything other people are currently doing or recently did, creating a curious feeling when you never used to even care about certain people.
6. People may upload pictures of you where you look horrible and you can only untag yourself, but cannot actually take it off from Facebook.
7. Everyone can see your (comment) conversation you have with your friend. It's as if anyone could sneak on a talk you are having with your friend.
8. People create mean pages insulting other people or beliefs, among other things.
9. People put so many lame stuff in their statuses it's just embarrassing.
10. Relationships. Everyone knows whether you have a new boyfriend or if you guys broke up. There is no privacy, and there is a lot of vulnerability.
11. Your home page is so contaminated with notifications of people becoming friends with whatever people.
12. The friend suggestion bar in the right of your home page where people add anyone they "may know" but really don't.
13. It really makes you addicted to it. Even though there is not much to see, you keep being there.

14. It is very time-consuming.

15. It makes everyone's life a gossip.
16. Facebook Chat is very annoying.

17. Vulnerability to absolutely everything.

18. Jobs and acceptances can be based on Facebook.

19. You get soooooooooo many notifications for other people's comments or responses in a photo or an inbox.

20. Getting "spam" comments and e-mails thanks to the stupid applications.

21. Facebook and all its connections getting control over your personal information.

22. Pokes. What's with that? It's just plain dumb. Wow! someone poked you -.-

23. It is just unbelievable what some people put on their Facebook; it's so embarrasing. (very exposing pictures, details about their love/sex life, etc)

24. Teenagers who date for some months and put "engaged" on their relationship status.

25. People who write about every single thing they do in their day. Normally one does not care if you exercised or slept, you drank water or juice, we really don't care about those things..

What is the most serious environmental issue facing Earth?

There are so many, but so many environmental problems facing Earth today but the one that I feel most serious of all is pollution. There is both air and water pollution but the first one seems more dangerous to me. I feel the majority of our current funding must be put towards solving this issue, although part of it should also go to other problems such as the conservation of species, preventing the overflowing landfills, stopping rain forest destruction, energy depletion, among some others. Air pollution is probably the most serious problem of all due to its effects towards all living beings and the environment.

Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials into the atmosphere. They cause harm and discomfort to humans and other living organisms, and damage the natural environment. The atmosphere is a complex dynamic natural gaseous system that is essential to support life on planet Earth. Stratospheric ozone depletion due to air pollution has long been recognized as a threat to human health as well as to the Earth's ecosystems. (Wikipedia) In other words, air pollution harms not only humans but all living beings and the natural environment. It affects the whole atmosphere we live in. If the air is polluted, everything is affected. Most living organisms, including us, breathe air, therefore the more contaminated it is, the more harm it causes us. If our oxygen is continued to be polluted this way, our main living source will die meaning we will all die.

"Air pollution is not yesterday's problem. Thousands of deaths each year result from the UK's failure to keep air pollutants – especially from traffic – at safe levels" (Tim Yeo)

As this reporter said, this issue is not a problem that has risen today; it is something we have been exposed to for a time and it is certainly affecting our world. All these air pollutants are substances that cause harm to humans and the environment, and it is actually killing many people. Authorities should have more awareness and put more of their funding money to solve this humongous problem and keep air pollutants at safe levels. Traffic, factories’ wastes, trash, among other factors cause this terrible problem that has become such a threat to humanity and to Earth. Not only humans are dying because of it, there are millions of animals both in the earth and in the ocean that fall as victims of this monster. Also our plants and everything Mother Nature has given us has been affected and destroyed due to pollution. It has certainly caused damage to everyone.

The worst part is that pollutants can be found in any form; solid, liquid or gas. They are so abundant and they can be found everywhere, whether it is diesel from cars, smog from all sorts of sources such as automobiles and industrial emission, acid rain among other contaminants. Another reason they are so dangerous is because they are man-made and natural. There are occasions in which it is not our fault air pollution strikes, sometimes nature provokes it. For example volcano eruptions are dangerous due to the ash that pollutes the air. Moreover, there may be pollution inside our homes and working places, not only outside. Normal activities such as cooking and smoking can cause harmful pollutants and by breathing it, health is affected. One should definitely be careful with air pollution everywhere.

In conclusion, air is vital especially for us humans. It supplies us with oxygen which is needed every second of our lives to continue existing. We should try preventing this environmental issue that is contributing enormously to the Greenhouse Effect. If we really care about Earth, and think about our future generations, we should act now. People should receive more education regarding this horrible problem and create awareness in order to diminish this terrible threat to all of us. Go Green! J

IMAGES:

youngprotectors.com/air%20pollution_focus_0.jpg

specialnewsonline.files.wordpress.com

http://flatplanet.wikispaces.com/file/view/exhust_pollution.jpg/30556307/exhust_pollution.jpg

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Environment/Pix/columnists/2009/11/26/1259235642571/COP15--Black-clouds-hover-001.jpg

Unbelieavable Invention

We just watched "Prenav Mistry: The thrilling potential of SixthSense technology" and I was completely shocked with such an incredible invention. This new emerging technology is just fabulous and genius. When I was watching all the characteristics and functions of it I was totally amazed and thought that I would definitely like to use one of those. This new technology is so handy and useful in an infinite number of ways. Connecting the digital world with the physical world makes everything so much easier, interacting, and almost perfect.

I feel the greatest things about the technology are how it connects the digital world with real life; how you can physically do things being connected to a digital media. It is unbelievable how you can have access to so much information with just using your fingers and connecting the whole world with anything you do. You can be aware of absolutely everything you do, and make it better in all ways. I really loved how by just touching some objects such as your hand you can see a clock, or touching a book and you can know about it. When I saw how he read a newspaper and by just touching it, he could have access to videos and see life in paper. I also liked when he could copy and paste real life objects to the computer. Personally I did not see any limitations to this great invention; I just found its benefits.

At the end of the video, this genius inventor said that it is quite cheap to make and that he will be sharing his software via Open Source. "Open Source" is a term I am not very familiar with, but it is a way of sharing the product with the public; giving access to the object's invention (its process in making/materials). It is actually giving access to the source code. I believe the pro of sharing software in this way is that people all around the world will have an easier access to it. It will not be an extremely expensive device that only rich people will have; it will have more accesibility. It will be produced in greater amounts, so there exists a possibility we will be able to have it in some years. On the other hand, the cons of having it in this manner is that the author of such a great invention won't benefit as much as he could in other ways.

Commercials

We just saw some commercials in the Internet that were very funny, touching and most of them really amazing. I really liked them a lot. I think that was so because they contained very important messages that stuck in your head while watching it, and because some of them were very funny and caught your attention. Another commercial that had a profound effect on me was one I saw many years ago from MercadoLibre.com. It was about a girl buying a kiss from a boy online, and even though the idea sounds stupid, it was the cutes commercial I had seen. It is incredible we can find it nowadays even in Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeBhs47UBJQ

Some elements I am going to use in my own commerical are:
Nice background music, a meaningful message and some funny parts. I think my major challenges will be getting words and music into the video. Basically almost everything will be a challenge for me, except the filming part which will be quite easy.

Sexting

After reading the article of "Parents sue school for role in 'sexting' tragedy" in which the parents of Jessica Logan blame school officials and peers for their daughter's suicide, I realized the wrongness in sexting. Before this article, I hadn't heard much about sexting because I haven't have experiences related to it, nor the people around me. I knew there were cases in which heartless and immoral people made use of sexting to harm others but I hadn't put much attention to it. I used to think how stupid some girls can be in sending nude pictures of themselves. Now that I put more thought into it, these girls trusted their boyfriends and it is definitely not fair what was done to them. I think these guys showed cowardice and plain meanness in what they did. Poor Jessica Logan ended committing suicide because she was unable to stand people's bullying and harrasment due to her nude picture that was sent all over. I felt compassionate towards Jessica's situation and feel totally against sexting.
I support the decision of Jessica's parents suing the school. Jessica confronted the people who harassed her and tried to take measures to make them stop. She talked with the school officials, the school counselors and even shared her story with the public. Nevertheless, despite all her efforts, people continued to bother her mercilessly. I think it was pathetic what a police officer said, that there were no security measures to protect her because she was 18. I totally believe schools should take more control about it and make it stop. It would be horrible for your provacy to be violated in that way, and have no control over it. I think it is wrong to take someone else's phone and check it, but I feel it is necessary in cases like this.

Next project

For our next Computer class project, we will be creating a short film that we will edit in January. My proposal is to create a comercial related to cooking with Lea Purpon. We will advertise a cake and sweets like that, through this video in which we will show all the procedure of the cooking and talk about the product.

New Security Measure

Facebook has implemented some new security measures and I think they are very important and valuable and people should pay more attention to it. They are new measures that help you control your information in a better way for you to feel secure. It is a form of letting you decide which information to share and with who. I think they were created due to many problems around the world. Facebook has become too popular and conflicts have arised. I've heard that some kidnappers had gotten information from this social networking place and it has been used as a means of stealing people's data, ideas, etc. I personally am not sure if they will be succesful because firstly not all people will take their time in reading about it, and deciding which informatio nthey want to share with shich particular people. Nevertheless, I think I like them because it gives more control to people about their sharing information and offers a more "innovative" FB. I really don't think it will change the way I use Facebook; I will see and use it the same way I've always have.

There have been some postings on social networking sites such as Myspace and Facebook that have the ASPV community concerned. If I think about people posting videos and quotations of people without their knowing it, I feel it's wrong and needs permission first. I also think that it depends a lot on the video and the quotations. If they are insulting and humiliating in any way, of course it's wrong; but if the person would not mind because it is not bad, then I don't think people should react so angrily. However, yes, people should first give consent to someone if something about them is going to be posted, but I don't think that rule would be followed with social networking networks being so bewildered and busy. The community's reaction to the posting of student videos or work by staff members will be a complete revolt. People will be very angry and start demanding their rights and just express the unfairness felt with any way they find possible. They will definitely try to solve matters in one way or another. I don't think the school should let that happen, and forbid the staff post anything about their students' without their consentment.