START OVER

Undying Poems: Dr. Romulo A. Ramirez

 

When you trusted God and walked His way;

When you’ve felt His hand lead you day and day;

But your steps now take you another way…

Start over.

 

When you’ve made your plans and they’ve gone awry;

When you’ve tried your best and there’s no more try;

When you’ve failed yourself and you don’t know why;

Start over.

 

When you’ve told your friends what you plan to do;

When you’ve trusted them and they didn’t come through;

And you’re all alone and it’s up to you;

Start over.

 

When you’ve failed your kids and they’re grown and gone;

When you’ve done your best but it has turned out wrong;

And now your grandchildren come along;

Start over.

 

When you’ve prayed to God so you’ll know His will;

When you prayed and prayed and don’t know still;

When you want to stop cause you’ve had your fill;

Start over.

 

When you think you’re finished and want to quit;

When you’re bottomed out in life’s deepest pit;

When you’ve tried and tried to get out of it..;

Start over.

 

When the years has been long and successes few;

When December comes and you’re feeling blue;

God gives January just for you;

Start over.

 

Starting over means “Victories Won”

Starting over means “A Race Well Run”

Starting over means “God’s Will Done”

START OVER!!!

See Also:

INSIGHT

MAKE IT UP

SMILES

Mother to Son

Rice pests destroy S. Cotabato farms

REST

Let America Be America Again

The Lockless Door

Cannabis

 

Cannabis, also known as marijuana^[1] or ganja (from Hindi/Sanskrit: गांजा gānjā),^[2] is a psychoactive product of the plant Cannabis sativa. The herbal form of the drug consists of dried mature flowers and subtending leaves of pistillate ("female") plants. The resinous form, known as hashish,^[3] consists primarily of glandular trichomes collected from the same plant material.

The major biologically active chemical compound in cannabis is Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), commonly referred to as THC.

Humans have been consuming cannabis since prehistory,^[4] although in the 20th century there was a rise in its use for recreational, religious or spiritual, and medicinal purposes. It is estimated that about four percent ^[5] of the world’s adult population use cannabis annually and 0.6 percent daily. The possession, use, or sale of psychoactive cannabis products became illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20th century. Since then, some countries have intensified the enforcement of cannabis prohibition while others have reduced the priority of enforcement.

History

Evidence of the inhalation of cannabis smoke can be found as far back as the Neolithic age, as indicated by charred cannabis seeds found in a ritual brazier at an ancient burial site in present day Romania.^[4] The most famous users of cannabis were the ancient Hindus of India and Nepal. The herb was called ganjika in Sanskrit (गांजा/গাঁজা ganja in modern Indic languages).^[6][7] The ancient drug soma, mentioned in the Vedas as a sacred intoxicating hallucinogen, was sometimes associated with cannabis.^[8]

Cannabis was also known to the Assyrians, who discovered its psychoactive properties through the Aryans.^[9] Using it in some religious ceremonies, they called it qunubu (meaning "way to produce smoke"), a probable origin of the modern word ‘Cannabis’.^[10] Cannabis was also introduced by the Aryans to the Scythians and Thracians/Dacians, whose shamans (the kapnobatai—“those who walk on smoke/clouds”) burned cannabis flowers to induce a state of trance.^[11] Members of the cult of Dionysus, believed to have originated in Thrace, are also thought to have inhaled cannabis smoke. In 2003, a leather basket filled with cannabis leaf fragments and seeds was found next to a 2,500- to 2,800-year-old mummified shaman in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China.^[12][13]

Cannabis has an ancient history of ritual use and is found in pharmacological cults around the world. Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at Pazyryk suggest early ceremonial practices like eating by the Scythians occurred during the 5th to 2nd century BCE, confirming previous historical reports by Herodotus.^[14] Some historians and etymologists have claimed that cannabis was used as a religious sacrament by ancient Jews and early Christians.^[15] It was also used by Muslims in various Sufi orders as early as the Mamluk period, for example by the Qalandars.^[16] In India and Nepal, it has been used by some of the wandering spiritual sadhus for centuries, and in modern times the Rastafari movement has embraced it as a sacrament.^[17] Elders of the modern religious movement known as the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church consider cannabis to be the Eucharist, claiming it as an oral tradition from Ethiopia dating back to the time of Christ, even though the movement was founded in the United States in 1975 and has no ties to either Ethiopia or the Coptic Church.^[18] Like the Rastafari, some modern Gnostic Christian sects have asserted that cannabis is the Tree of Life.^[19][20] Other organized religions founded in the past century that treat cannabis as a sacrament are the THC Ministry,^[21] the Way of Infinite Harmony, Cantheism,^[22] the Cannabis Assembly^[23] and the Church of Cognizance.

The production of cannabis for drug use remains illegal throughout most of the world through for ex. International Opium Convention of 1925, the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and the 1988 United Nations Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, while simple possession of small quantities is either legal, or treated as an addiction rather than a criminal offense in a few countries.^{[citation needed][dubious – discuss]}

Medical use

A synthetic form of one chemical in marijuana, Delta-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is a controversial treatment for medical use. The American Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-cannabis organization, claims that cannabis is an ideal therapeutic drug for cancer and AIDS patients, who often suffer from clinical depression, and from nausea and resulting weight loss due to chemotherapy and other aggressive treatments.^[24] Other medical uses may included fighting cancer, according to an isolated study by scientists in Italy. This study states that cannabidiol (CBD), a chemical found in marijuana, inhibits growth of cancer cells in animals.^[25]

The FDA and comparable authorities in Western Europe, including the Netherlands, have not approved smoked marijuana for any condition or disease. The current view of the United States Food and Drug Administration is that if there is any future of marijuana as a medicine, it lies in its isolated components, the cannabinoids and their synthetic derivatives.^[26]

A synthetic version of the cannabinoid THC named Dronabinol has been shown to relieve symptoms of anorexia and reduce agitation in elderly Alzheimer’s patients.^[27] Dronabinol has been approved for use with anorexia in patients with HIV/AIDS and chemotherapy-related nausea. This drug, while demonstrating the effectiveness of cannabis at combating several disorders, is more expensive and less available than "pot" and has not been shown to be effective or safe.^[28]

Glaucoma, a condition of increased pressure within the eyeball causing gradual loss of sight, can be treated with medical marijuana to decrease this intraocular pressure. There has been debate for 25 years on the subject. Some data exist, showing a reduction of IOP in glaucoma patients who smoke marijuana,^[29] but the effects are short-lived, and the frequency of doses needed to sustain a decreased IOP can cause systemic toxicity. There is also some concern over its use since it can also decrease blood flow to the optic nerve. Marijuana lowers IOP by acting on a cannabinoid receptor on the ciliary body called the CB receptor.^[30] Although marijuana is not a good therapeutic choice for glaucoma patients, it may lead researchers to more effective, safer treatments. A promising study shows that agents targeted to ocular CB receptors can reduce IOP in glaucoma patients who have failed other therapies.^[31]

Medical marijuana is used for analgesia, or pain relief. “Marijuana is used for analgesia only in the context of a handful of illnesses (e.g., headache, dysentery, menstrual cramps, and depression) that are often cited by marijuana advocates as medical reasons to justify the drug being available as a prescription medication.”^[32] It is also reported to be beneficial for treating certain neurological illnesses such as epilepsy, and bipolar disorder.^[33] Case reports have found that cannabis can relieve tics in people with obsessive compulsive disorder and Tourette syndrome. Patients treated with tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive chemical found in cannabis, reported a significant decrease in both motor and vocal tics, some of 50% or more.^[34][35][36] Some decrease in obsessive-compulsive behavior was also found.^[34] A recent study has also concluded that cannabinoids found in cannabis might have the ability to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.^[37] THC has been shown to reduce arterial blockages.^[38]

Another use for medical marijuana is movement disorders. Marijuana is frequently reported to reduce the muscle spasms associated with multiple sclerosis; this has been acknowledged by the Institute of Medicine, but it noted that these abundant anecdotal reports are not well-supported by clinical data. Evidence from animal studies suggests that there is a possible role for cannabinoids in the treatment of certain types of epileptic seizures.^[39] Marijuana "numbs" the nervous system slightly, possibly preventing shock. A synthetic version of the major active compound in cannabis, THC, is available in capsule form as the prescription drug dronabinol (Marinol) in many countries. The prescription drug Sativex, an extract of cannabis administered as a sublingual spray, has been approved in Canada for the treatment of multiple sclerosis.^[40]

New breeding and cultivation techniques

It is often claimed by growers and breeders of herbal cannabis that advances in breeding and cultivation techniques have increased the potency of cannabis since the late 1960s and early ’70s, when delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol was discovered and understood. However, potent seedless marijuana such as "Thai sticks" were already available at that time. In fact, the sinsemilla technique of producing high-potency marijuana has been practiced in India for centuries^{[citation needed]}. Sinsemilla (Spanish for "without seed") is the dried, seedless inflorescences of female cannabis plants. Because THC production drops off once pollination occurs, the male plants (which produce little THC themselves) are eliminated before they shed pollen to prevent pollination. Advanced cultivation techniques such as hydroponics, cloning, high-intensity artificial lighting, and the sea of green method are frequently employed as a response (in part) to prohibition enforcement efforts that make outdoor cultivation more risky. These intensive horticultural techniques have led to fewer seeds being present in cannabis and a general increase in potency over the past 20 years. The average levels of THC in marijuana sold in United States rose from 3.5% in 1988 to 7% in 2003 and 8.5% in 2006.^[41]

"Skunk" cannabis is a potent strain of cannabis, grown through selective breeding and usually hydroponics, that is a cross-breed of Cannabis sativa and C. indica. Skunk cannabis potency ranges usually from 6% to 15% and rarely as high as 20%. The average THC level in coffeehouses in the Netherlands is about 18–19%.^[42]

The average THC content of Skunk #1 is 8.2%; it is a 4-way combination of the cannabis strains Afghani indica, Mexican Gold, Colombian Gold, and Thai: 75% sativa, 25% indica.^{[citation needed]} This was done via extensive breeding by cultivators in California in the 1970s using the traditional outdoor cropping methods used for centuries.^{[citation needed]}

In proposed revisions to cannabis rescheduling in the UK, the government is considering rescheduling cannabis back from C to B. One of the reasons is the high-potency marijuana.^[43]

A Dutch double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, cross-over study examining male volunteers aged 18–45 years with a self-reported history of regular cannabis use concluded that smoking of cannabis with high THC levels (marijuana with 9–23% THC), as currently sold in coffee shops in the Netherlands, may lead to higher THC blood-serum concentrations. This is reflected by an increase of the occurrence of impaired psychomotor skills, particularly among younger or inexperienced cannabis smokers, who do not adapt their smoking-style to the higher THC content.^[44] High THC concentrations in cannabis was associated with a dose-related increase of physical effects (such as increase of heart rate, and decrease of blood pressure) and psychomotor effects (such as reacting more slowly, being less concentrated, making more mistakes during performance testing, having less motor control, and experiencing drowsiness). It was also observed during the study that the effects from a single joint lasted for more than eight hours. Reaction times remained impaired five hours after smoking, when the THC serum concentrations were significantly reduced, but still present. When subjects smoke on several occasions per day, accumulation of THC in blood-serum may occur.

Another study showed that consumption of 15 mg of Delta(9)-THC resulted in no learning whatsoever occurring over a three-trial selective reminding task after two hours. In several tasks, delta(9)-THC increased both speed and error rates, reflecting “riskier” speed–accuracy trade-offs.^[45]

Legal status

See also: Drug prohibition and Drug liberalization

Since the beginning of the 20th century, most countries have enacted laws against the cultivation, possession, or transfer of cannabis for recreational use. These laws have impacted adversely on the cannabis plant’s cultivation for non-recreational purposes, but there are many regions where, under certain circumstances, handling of cannabis is legal or licensed. Many jurisdictions have lessened the penalties for possession of small quantities of cannabis, so that it is punished by confiscation or a fine, rather than imprisonment, focusing more on those who traffic the drug on the black market. There are also changes in a more restrictive direction such as the closing of coffee shops in the Netherlands, the closing of the open drug market in Christiania, Copenhagen, the Gonzales v. Raich rule in 2005 that the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution allow the federal government to ban the use of marijuana, including medical use anywhere in the United States.

Some jurisdictions use free voluntary treatment programs and/or mandatory treatment programs for frequent known users. Simple possession can carry long prison terms in some countries, particularly in East Asia, where the sale of cannabis may lead to a sentence of life in prison or even execution.

Effects

Cannabis has psychoactive and physiological effects when consumed, usually by smoking or ingestion. The minimum amount of THC required to have a perceptible psychoactive effect is about 10 micrograms per kilogram of body weight^[46] (which, in practical terms, is a varying amount, dependent upon potency). A related compound, Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabivarin, also known as THCV, is produced in appreciable amounts by certain drug strains. This cannabinoid has been described in the popular literature as having shorter-acting, flashier effects than THC, but recent studies suggest that it may actually inhibit the effects of THC. Relatively high levels of THCV are common in African dagga (marijuana), and in hashish from the northwest Himalayas.^{[citation needed]}

Health issues

While cannabis is associated with certain health risks, the Drug Awareness Warning Network Annual Report, published by the US federal government contains a statistical compilation of all drug deaths which occur in the United States. . According to this report, there has never been a death recorded from the use of marijuana by natural causes.^[47] A Swedish study showed however an increased risk for a violent death: accidents, suicides and homicides. ^[48]

A recent study by the Canadian government found cannabis contained more toxic substances than tobacco smoke.^[49] The study determined that marijuana smoke contained 20 times more ammonia, and five times more hydrogen cyanide and nitrous oxides than tobacco smoke. In spite of this, a recent large-scale study found no correlation between heavy marijuana use and lung cancer, despite noting that cannabis contains the same carcinogens as tobacco. The same study found a 20-fold increase in lung-cancer rates of smokers who consumed two or more packs of cigarettes per day.^[50] These researchers postulated that the THC present may have a "protective effect" by causing aging cells to die before they become cancerous.^[51] Other recent research suggest the cannabinoid CBD may stop certain cancers from spreading, although not in concentrations consumed during smoking.^[52]

In contrast, a study published in the January 2008 edition of the journal Respirology found that "regular" cannabis smokers who developed bullous lung disease[[2]] did so on average 24 years sooner than tobacco smoking counterparts.^[53] Researchers attributed this to the inhalation of a larger volume of smoke, and typically holding it for four times longer than tobacco smokers. Bullous lung disease is considered an uncommon cause of respiratory distress.^[54] In general, habitual inhalation of any kind of smoke is detrimental to lung health.^[55]

Cannabis use has been linked to exacerbating the effects of depression, psychosis, schizophrenia, bronchitis, and emphysema by several peer-reviewed studies for those who are vulnerable to such illnesses based on personal or family history.^[56] More recently, the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study published research showing an increased risk of psychosis for cannabis users with a certain genetic predisposition, held by 25% of the population.^[57]

In July 2007, British medical journal The Lancet published a study that indicates that cannabis users have, on average, a 41% greater risk of developing psychosis than non-users. The risk was most pronounced in cases with an existing risk of psychotic disorder, and was said to grow up to 200% for the most-frequent users.^[58][59][60]

A 2008 study by the National Institutes of Health suggested a link between chronic marijuana smoking and increased risk of heart attack or stroke.^[61]

Relationship with other drugs

Since its origin in the 1950s, the "gateway drug" hypothesis has been one of the central pillars of cannabis drug policy in the United States. One variant is that people, upon trying cannabis for the first time and not finding it dangerous, are then tempted to try other, harder drugs. These models of cause and effect has been debated.^[62] A 2005 comprehensive review of the literature on the cannabis gateway hypothesis found that pre-existing traits may predispose users to addiction in general, the availability of multiple drugs in a given setting confounds predictive patterns in their usage, and drug sub-cultures are more influential than cannabis itself. The study called for further research on "social context, individual characteristics, and drug effects" to discover the actual relationships between cannabis and the use of other drugs.^[63]

Some argue that the purported relationship between marijuana and more illicit drugs, as proposed by the "gateway theory", is methodologically flawed. A common argument is that a new user of cannabis who doesn’t find it dangerous will see the difference between public information regarding the drug and their own experiences, and apply this distrust to public knowledge of other, more powerful drugs. Some studies support the "gateway drug" model.^[64] An example from 2007: A stratified, random sample of 1943 adolescents was recruited from secondary schools across Victoria, Australia, at age 14–15 years. This cohort was interviewed on eight occasions until the age of 24–25 years. At age 24 years, 12% of the sample had used amphetamines in the past year, with 1–2% using at least weekly. Young adult amphetamine use was predicted strongly by adolescent drug use and was associated robustly with other drug use and dependence in young adulthood. Associations were stronger for more frequent users. Among young adults who had not been using amphetamines at age 20 years, the strongest predictor of use at age 24 years was the use of other drugs, particularly cannabis, at 20 years.^[65] Those who were smoking cannabis at the age of 15 were as much as 15 times more likely to be using amphetamines in their early 20s.^[66]

Analysts have hypothesized that the illegal status of cannabis is a possible cause of a gateway drug effect, reasoning that cannabis users are likely to become acquainted with people who use and sell other illegal drugs in order to acquire cannabis. But it is said that Marijuana is not as harmful or addicting as any other drug.^[67][68] Some contend that by this argument, alcohol and tobacco may also be regarded as gateway drugs. Studies have shown that tobacco smoking is a better predictor of concurrent illicit hard drug use than smoking cannabis.^[69]

A current doctoral thesis from Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, on the neurobiological effects of early life cannabis exposure, gives support for the cannabis gateway hypothesis in relation to adult opiate abuse. THC exposed rats showed increased motivation for opiate drug use under conditions of stress. However, the cannabis exposure did not correlate to amphetamine use.^[70]

A study^[71] published in The Lancet on 24 March 2007 was twenty drugs were assigned a risk from zero to three. Dr. David Nutt et al. asked medical, scientific and legal experts to rate 20 different drugs on nine parameters:

• Physical harm (Acute, Chronic, and Intravenous harm)
• Dependence (Intensity of pleasure, Psychological dependence, Physical dependence)
• Social harms (Intoxication, Other social harms, Health-care costs)

Cannabis was ranked seventeenth of twenty for mean physical harm score and eleventh for mean dependence score. Not shown is the mean social harm score, which rated ninth, in a tie with Amphetamine.

Poly drug use is not unusual among established users; statistics from Spain show that cannabis users aged 15 -34 also used amphetamine (9%), ecstasy (11%) or cocaine (18%) the same year.^[72]

Classification

While many drugs clearly fall into the category of either Stimulant, Depressant, Hallucinogen, or Antipsychotic, cannabis, containing both THC and CBD, exhibits a mix of all sections, leaning towards the Hallucinogen section due to THC being the primary constituent.^[73][74][75]

Methods of consumption

Cannabis is prepared for human consumption in several forms:^{[citation needed]}

• Marijuana or ganja: the flowering tops of female plants, from less than 1% THC to 22% THC; the wide range is probably one of the reasons for the conflicting results from different studies.
• Hashish or charas: a concentrated resin composed of heated glandular trichomes that have been physically extracted, usually by rubbing, sifting, or with ice.
• Kief: (1) the chopped flowering tops of female cannabis plants, often mixed with tobacco; (2) Moroccan hashish produced in the Rif mountains;^[76] (3) sifted cannabis trichomes consisting of only the glandular "heads" (often incorrectly referred to as "crystals" or "pollen"); (4) the crystal (trichomes) left at the bottom of a grinder after grinding marijuana, then smoked.
• Bhang: a beverage prepared by grinding cannabis leaves in milk and boiling with spices and other ingredients.
• Second Hand when marijuana is smoked in an enclosed area resulting in others to get "higher".

These forms are not exclusive, and mixtures of two or more different forms of cannabis are frequently consumed. Between the many different strains of cannabis and the various ways that it is prepared, there are innumerable variations similar to the wide variety of mixed alcoholic beverages that are consumed.

Smoking

Cannabis can be smoked in a variety of ways, some of which are more popular than others. The most common methods of smoking cannabis involve the use of implements such as bongs and smoking pipes, or rolling joints or blunts. These methods differ by: the preparation of the cannabis plant before use; the parts of the cannabis plant which is used; and the treatment of the smoke before inhalation.^{[citation needed]}

Vaporization

A vaporizer heats herbal cannabis to 365–410 °F (185–210 °C), which turns the active ingredients into gas without burning the plant material (the boiling point of THC is 392 °F (200°C) at 0.02 mm Hg pressure, and somewhat higher at standard atmospheric pressure).^[77][78] A lower proportion of toxic chemicals are released than by smoking, although this may vary depending on the design of the vaporizer and the temperature at which it is set. A MAPS-NORML study using a Volcano vaporizer reported 95% THC and no toxins delivered in the vapor.^[79] However, an older study using less sophisticated vaporizers found more toxins.^[80] The effects from a vaporizer are noticeably different to that of smoking cannabis. Users have reported a more euphoric hallucinogen type high, because the vapor contains more pure THC.^{[citation needed]}

Eating

As an alternative to smoking, cannabis may be consumed orally.

Although hashish is sometimes eaten raw or mixed with water, THC and other cannabinoids are more efficiently absorbed into the bloodstream when dissolved in ethanol, or combined with butter or other lipids.^{[citation needed]} The time to onset of effects is usually about an hour and may continue for a considerable length of time, whereas the effects of smoking herbal cannabis are almost immediate.^{[citation needed]}

Smoking cannabis results in a significant loss of THC and other cannabinoids in the exhaled smoke, by decomposition on burning, and in smoke that is not inhaled. In contrast, all of the active constituents enter the body when cannabis is ingested. It has been shown that the primary active component of cannabis, Δ9-THC, is converted to the more psychoactive 11-hydroxy-THC by the liver.^[81] Titration to the desired effect by ingestion is much more difficult than through inhalation.

Other methods

Cannabis material can be leached in high-proof spirits (often grain alcohol) to create “Green Dragon”. This process is often employed to make use of low-potency stems and leaves.^{[citation needed]}

Cannabis can also be consumed as a tea. Although THC is lipophilic and only slightly water soluble (with a solubility of 2.8 grams per liter^[82]), enough THC can be dissolved to make a mildly psychoactive tea. However, water-based infusions are generally considered to be an inefficient use of the herb.

 

See Also:

INSIGHT

MAKE IT UP

SMILES

Mother to Son

Rice pests destroy S. Cotabato farms

REST

Let America Be America Again

The Lockless Door

 

 

Car bomb

A car bomb is an explosive device placed in a car or other vehicle and then exploded. It is commonly used as a weapon of assassination, terrorism, or guerrilla warfare, to kill the occupant(s) of the vehicle, people near the blast site, or to damage buildings or other property. Car bombs act as their own delivery mechanisms and can carry a relatively large amount of explosives without attracting suspicion.

The U.S. military and law enforcement agencies often call a car bomb a "VBIED", an acronym standing for "Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device", or "SVBIED" if it is used in a suicide attack.

[hide]

• 1 Usage
  • 1.1 Assassination
  • 1.2 Attacks
    • 1.2.1 Suicide bombing
    • 1.2.2 Countermeasures
• 2 History
• 3 See also
• 4 Notes
• 5 References
• 6 External links

//< ![CDATA[ if (window.showTocToggle) { var tocShowText = "show"; var tocHideText = "hide"; showTocToggle(); } //]]>

Usage

Assassination

The earliest car bombs were intended for assassination. These were often wired to the car’s ignition system, to explode when the car was started. Ignition triggering is now rare, as it is easy to detect and hard to install — interfering with the circuitry is time-consuming and car alarms can be triggered by drains on the car’s electrical system. Also, the target may start the car remotely (inadvertently or otherwise), or the target may be a passenger a safe distance away when the car starts.

It is now more common for assassination bombs to be affixed to the underside of the car then detonated remotely, by the car’s motion or by other means. The bomb is exploded as the target approaches or starts the vehicle or, more commonly, after the vehicle begins to move, when the target is more likely to be inside. For this reason, security guards often check the underside of vehicles with a mirror mounted on a long pole.

Attacks

The effectiveness of a car bomb is that an explosion detonated inside a car is momentarily contained. If the force of the explosion were to double each fraction of a second and the car were to contain the explosion for one second before its chassis gave way, this would result in a much greater force than if the detonation took place outside the car. Therefore a greater amount of damage is obtained from a given amount of explosives.

Suicide bombing

In recent years, car bombs have become widely used by suicide bombers who seek to ram the car into a building and simultaneously detonate it.

Countermeasures

Defending against a car bomb involves keeping vehicles at a distance from vulnerable targets by using Jersey barriers, concrete blocks or bollards, or by hardening buildings to withstand an explosion. Since the height of the Provisional Irish Republican Army (PIRA) campaign, the entrance to Downing Street has been closed, preventing the general public from getting near Number 10. Where major public roads pass near buildings, road closures may be the only option (thus, for instance, in Washington, D.C. the portion of Pennsylvania Avenue immediately behind the White House) is closed to traffic). Historically these tactics have encouraged potential bombers to target "soft" or unprotected targets, such as markets.^[1] The U.S. State Department has published a guide on car bomb awareness.^[2]

History

It may be the first car bomb was the one used for the assassination attempt on Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1905 in İstanbul by Armenian separatists, in the command of Belgian anarchist Edward Jorris.

In the past, groups to use car bombs included:

• In 1920, when Italian anarchist Mario Buda parked his horse-drawn wagon filled with explosives and shrapnel near the corner of Wall and Broad streets in New York City, directly across from J P Morgan Company. The explosion killed 40 and wounded 200.

• In 1927, Andrew Kehoe used a detonator to ignite dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol which he had secretly planted inside a school. As rescuers started gathering at the school, Kehoe drove up, stopped, and detonated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent, and killing and injuring several others. In total, Kehoe killed 45 people and injured 58 making the Bath School disaster the deadliest act of mass murder in a school in U.S. history.

• In the late 1940s, the radical-Zionist Stern gang used car and truck bombs against Palestinian and British targets as an attempt to end peace discussions;
• The Viet Cong guerrillas used them at the end of the First Indochina War and throughout the Vietnam War;
• The OAS used them at the end of the French rule in Algeria;
• The Sicilian Mafia used them to assassinate independent magistrates in the early 1960s;
• The IRA used them frequently during its campaign during the Troubles in Northern Ireland and England. The Omagh bombing by the Real IRA, an IRA splinter group caused the most casualties in the Troubles from a single car bomb.
• Loyalist paramilitary organisations in Northern Ireland such as the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and Ulster Defence Association used car bombs against civilians in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The UVF bombs in Dublin and Monaghan.^[3][4] caused the most casualties in a single day during the Troubles.

• During the Soviet-Afghan war, at a variety of training camps in the tribal areas of Pakistan;^[5], the Pakistani ISI with the aid of the CIA trained mujahadin in the preparation of car bombs
• Agents of the Chilean intelligence agency DINA were convicted of using car booms to assassinate Orlando Letelier and Carlos Prats, who were opponents of the regime of Augusto Pinochet
• In the 1980s, the Latin American drug lord Pablo Escobar used vehicle bombs extensively against government forces and population centers in Latin America;
• In 1995, Timothy McVeigh detonated a Ryder box truck filled with an explosive mixture (fuel oil and fertilizer) in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City (see Oklahoma City bombing)
• In the late 1990s and early 2000s, vehicular explosives were used by Chechen extremists against targets in Russia

Mass-casualty car bombing, and especially suicide car bombing, is currently a predominantly Middle Eastern phenomenon. The tactic was first introduced to the region by the Stern gang, who used it extensively against Palestinian and British targets; it was subsequently taken up by Palestinian bombers as well.^[6]The tactic was widely used in the Lebanese Civil War by the Islamic fundamentalist group Hezbollah. The most notable car bombing was the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, which killed 241 U.S. Marines and 58 French military personnel. In the Lebanese civil war, an estimated 3,641 car bombs were detonated.^[7]

Groups that still use car bombs include:

• Palestinian militant groups, against both military and civilian Israeli targets.
• Tamil Tigers, in Sri Lanka’s long-running civil war.
• Al-Qaeda (see esp. 1998 United States embassy bombings)
• The Iraqi insurgency. Car bombs have become more frequent during the Iraq War. An estimated 578 car bombs were detonated in Iraq between June 2003 and June 2006^[8].

Check these out:

MAKE IT UP

SMILES

Mother to Son

Rice pests destroy S. Cotabato farms

REST

Let America Be America Again

The Lockless Door

INSIGHT

 

IPHONE

-enabled multimedia mobile phone designed and marketed by Apple Inc.. It has a multi-touch screen with virtual keyboard and buttons. The iPhone’s functions include those of a camera phone, portable media player (iPod), in addition to text messaging and visual voicemail. It also offers Internet services including e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. It is a quad-band mobile phone that uses the GSM standard, and hence has international capability. It supports the EDGE data technology.

Apple announced the iPhone on January 9, 2007.^[16] The announcement was preceded by rumors and speculations that circulated for several months.^[17] The iPhone was initially introduced in the United States on June 29, 2007 and is in the process of being introduced worldwide. It was named Time magazine’s Invention of the Year in 2007.^[18]

Features

The iPhone allows conferencing, call holding, call merging, caller ID, and integration with other cellular network features and iPhone functions. For example, a playing song fades out when the user receives a call. Once the call is ended the music fades back in. Voice dialing is not supported by the iPhone.

The iPhone includes a visual voicemail feature allowing users to view a list of current voicemail messages on-screen without having to call into their voicemail. Unlike most other systems, messages can be listened to and deleted in a non-chronological order by choosing any message from an on-screen list. AT&T, O2, T-Mobile, and Orange modified their voicemail infrastructure to accommodate this new feature designed by Apple. A lawsuit has been filed against Apple and AT&T by Klausner Technologies claiming the iPhone’s visual voicemail feature infringes two patents.^[19]

A ringtone feature was introduced in the United States on September 5, 2007, but is not yet available in all countries where the iPhone has been released. This feature allows users to create custom ringtones from their purchased iTunes music library for an additional fee equal to the price of a song. The ringtones can be from 3 to 30 seconds in length of any part of a song, can include fading in and out, can pause from half a second to five seconds when looped, and never expire. All customizing can be done in iTunes, and the synced ringtones can also be used for alarms on the iPhone. Custom ringtones can also be created using Apple’s GarageBand software 4.1.1 or later (available only on Mac OS X)^[14] and third-party tools.^[20]

Apple has released a video explaining many of iPhone’s features through a series of demonstrations.^[21]

Multimedia

The layout of the music library differs from previous iPods, with the sections divided more clearly alphabetically, and with a larger font. Similar to previous iPods, the iPhone can sort its media library by songs, artists, albums, videos, playlists, genres, composers, podcasts, audiobooks, and compilations. Cover Flow, like that on iTunes, shows the different album covers in a scroll-through photo library. Scrolling is achieved by swiping a finger across the screen.

The iPhone supports gapless playback.^[22]

Like the fifth generation iPods introduced in 2005, the iPhone can play video, allowing users to watch TV shows and films. Unlike other image-related content, video on the iPhone plays only in the landscape orientation, when the phone is turned sideways. Double tapping switches between wide-screen and full-screen video playback.

The iPhone allows users to purchase and download songs from the iTunes Store directly to their iPhone over Wi-Fi with the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store, but not over the cellular data network.^[23]

Internet connectivity

Internet access is available when the iPhone is connected to a local area Wi-Fi or a wide area EDGE network. The iPhone is not able to use 3G or HSDPA networks. Steve Jobs has stated 3G would need to become more widespread in the United States and much more energy efficient before it’s included in the iPhone.^[24][25] By default, the iPhone will ask to join newly discovered Wi-Fi networks and prompt for the password when required, while also supporting manually joining closed Wi-Fi networks.^[26] When Wi-Fi is active, the iPhone will automatically switch from the EDGE network to any nearby previously approved Wi-Fi network.^[27]

The EDGE network provides greater availability than 3G, as GSM carriers based in the U.S. do not have full 3G coverage.^[28] In contrast, 99% percent of people in the Australia have access to 3G coverage.^[29]

The ubiquitous Internet connection offered by the iPhone has been widely utilized by users. According to Google, the iPhone generates 50 times more search requests than any other mobile handset.^[30] According to Deutsche Telekom CEO René Obermann, "The average Internet usage for an iPhone customer is more than 100 MBytes. This is 30 times the use for our average contract-based consumer customers."^[31]

Web accessibility

The iPhone is able to access the World Wide Web via a modified version of the Safari web browser. Web pages may be viewed in portrait or landscape mode and supports automatic zooming by pinching together or spreading apart fingertips on the screen, or by double-tapping text or images.^[32] The web browser displays full web pages as opposed to simplified pages as on many mobile phones.

The iPhone does not support Flash.^[33] Although the iPhone does not include Java technology in its out-of-the-box configuration,^[34] Eric Klein, VP of Marketing for Sun Microsystems, announced on March 7, 2008 that Sun would make Java available after June 2008.^[35] Klein later admitted that it may not be possible to port Java to the iPhone due to SDK licensing issues.^[36]

Apple developed an iPhone application for accessing Google’s maps service in map, satellite or hybrid form, a list of search results, or directions between two locations, while providing optional real-time traffic information. During the product’s announcement, Jobs demonstrated this feature by searching for nearby Starbucks locations and then placing a prank call to one with a single tap.^[37][38] Though Flash isn’t supported in Safari on the iPhone, Apple also developed a separate application to view YouTube videos on the iPhone, similar to the system used for the Apple TV.

E-mail

The iPhone also features an e-mail program that supports HTML e-mail, which enables the user to embed photos in an e-mail message. PDF, Word, and Excel attachments to mail messages can be viewed on the phone.^[39] Yahoo! and Google’s Gmail^[40] currently offer a free Push-IMAP e-mail service similar to that on a BlackBerry for the iPhone; IMAP and POP3 mail standards are also supported, including Microsoft Exchange^[41] and Kerio MailServer.^[42] This is currently accomplished by opening up IMAP on the Exchange server; however, Apple announced it has licensed Microsoft ActiveSync and will fully support the platform in June 2008 when the iPhone 2.0 firmware (currently referred to as 1.2) is released.^[43] The iPhone will sync e-mail account settings over from Apple’s own Mail application, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Entourage, or manually configured using the device’s Settings tool. With the correct settings, the e-mail program can check almost any IMAP or POP3 account.^[44]

Others

The iPhone features a built in 2.0 megapixel camera, without optical zoom, a flash or autofocus, located on the back for still digital photos, but does not support video recording. It also includes software that allows the user to upload, view, and e-mail photos. The user zooms in and out of photos by "unpinching" and "pinching" them through the multi-touch interface. The software interacts with iPhoto on the Mac and Photoshop in Windows.

The built-in Bluetooth 2.x+EDR supports wireless earpieces, which requires the HSP profile, but notably does not support stereo audio (requires A2DP), laptop tethering (requires DUN and SPP), or the OBEX file transfer protocol (requires FTP, GOEP, and OPP).

Text messages are presented chronologically in a mailbox format similar to Mail, which places all text from recipients together with replies. Text messages are displayed in speech bubbles (similar to iChat) under each recipient’s name. The iPhone currently has built-in support for e-mail message forwarding, drafts, and direct internal camera-to-e-mail picture sending. However, it does not yet have capabilities for delivery reports, instant messaging, MMS, or copy/cut/paste.^[45] Some of these functions are accessible via free Safari-based "applications" called "Web Apps", as well as by free "hacked" native applications, though at this time Apple only sanctions the use of Web Apps. Support for multi-recipient SMS was added in the January 2008 (v1.1.3) software update.

Interface

The display responds to three sensors: a proximity sensor that shuts off the display and touchscreen when the iPhone is brought near the face to save battery power and to prevent inadvertent inputs from the user’s face and ears, an ambient light sensor that adjusts the display brightness which in turn saves battery power, and a 3-axis accelerometer,^[46] which senses the orientation of the phone and changes the screen accordingly. Photo browsing, web browsing, and music playing support both upright and left or right widescreen orientations, while videos play in only one widescreen orientation.

A single "home" hardware button below the display brings up the main menu. Subselections are made via the touchscreen. The iPhone utilizes a full-paged display, with context-specific submenus at the top and/or bottom of each page, sometimes depending on screen orientation. Detail pages display the equivalent of a "Back" button to go up one menu.

The iPhone has three physical switches on its sides: wake/sleep, volume up/down, and ringer on/off. All other multimedia and phone operations are done via the touchscreen.

The iPhone interface enables the user to move the content itself up or down by a touch-drag motion of the finger, much as one would freely slide or flick a playing card across a table with a finger. Similarly, scrolling through a long list in a menu works as if the list is pasted on the outer surface of a wheel: the wheel can be "spun" by sliding a finger over the display from bottom to top (or vice versa). In either case, the object continues to move based on the flicking motion of the finger, slowly decelerating as if affected by friction. In this way, the interface simulates the physics of 3D objects, giving it a real world feel.

The photo album and web page magnifications are examples of multi-touch sensing. It is possible to zoom in and out of web pages and photos by placing two fingers (e.g. thumb and forefinger) on the screen and spreading them farther apart or closer together, as if stretching or squeezing the image. As can be intuitively expected from multi-touch sensing, the two fingers don’t have to be from the same hand.

Text input

For text input, the device implements a virtual keyboard on the touchscreen. It has automatic spell checking and correction, predictive word capabilities, and a dynamic dictionary that learns new words. The predictive word capabilities have been integrated with the dynamic virtual keyboard so that users will not have to be extremely accurate when typing—i.e. touching the edges of the desired letter or nearby letters on the keyboard will be predictively corrected when possible. The keys are somewhat larger and spaced farther apart when in landscape mode, currently only available using the Safari web browser. Not focusing more on texting has been considered a chief weakness of the iPhone, while at the same time others believe the virtual keyboard to be a bold step and a worthwhile risk.^[47]

David Pogue of The New York Times and Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal both tested the iPhone for two weeks and found learning to use it initially difficult, although eventually usable. Pogue stated use was "frustrating" at first, but "once you stop stressing about each individual letter and just plow ahead, speed and accuracy pick up considerably." After five days of use, Mossberg "was able to type on it as quickly and accurately as he could on the Palm Treo he has used for years", and considered the keyboard a "nonissue". Both found that the typo-correcting feature of the iPhone was the key to using the virtual keyboard successfully.^[48][41]

Hardware

According to The Wall Street Journal, the iPhone is manufactured on contract in the Longhua, Shenzhen factory of the Taiwanese company Foxconn.^[49] Conditions for workers at the factory have been a matter of controversy.^[50]

Multi-Touch Screen

The 3.5 in liquid crystal display (320×480 px at 160 ppi) HVGA touchscreen topped with optical-quality, scratch-resistant glass^[51] is specifically created for use with a finger, or multiple fingers for multi-touch sensing. Because the screen is a capacitive touchscreen, no stylus is needed, nor can one be used.^[52][24] Bare skin is a requirement; users wearing gloves would have to remove them to use the touchpad,^[53] unless they are wearing electrically conductive gloves.^[54]

The user interface also features other visual effects, such as horizontally sliding sub-selections and co-selections from right and left, vertically sliding system menus from the bottom (e.g. favorites, keyboard), and menus and widgets that turn around to allow settings to be configured on their back sides.

Audio

The iPhone’s headphones are similar to those of current iPods, but also incorporate a microphone. A multipurpose button in the microphone can be used to play or pause music, skip tracks, and answer or end phone calls without touching the iPhone. The 3.5 mm TRS connector for the headphones is located on the top left corner (as seen from front upright). Wireless earpieces that use Bluetooth technology to communicate with the iPhone are sold separately. The headphone socket on the iPhone is recessed into the casing and is narrow when compared to some headphone jacks, making it incompatible with most headphones without the use of an adapter.^[55]

The loudspeaker is used both for handsfree operations and media playback, but does not support voice recording.

Composite or component video at up to 576i and stereo audio can be output from the dock connector using an adapter sold by Apple.^[56]

Battery

The iPhone features a built-in rechargeable battery that is not intended to be user-replaceable, similar to existing iPods. If the battery prematurely reaches the end of its life time, the phone can be returned to Apple and replaced for free while still in warranty,^[57] one year at purchase and extended to two years with AppleCare. The cost of having Apple provide a new battery and replace it when the iPhone is out of warranty is US$79 and US$6.95 for shipping.^[58]

Since July 2007 third party battery packs have been available^[59] at a much lower price than Apple’s own battery replacement program. These kits often include a small screwdriver and an instruction leaflet, but as with many newer iPod models the battery has been soldered in. Therefore a soldering iron is required to install the new battery.

The battery is stated to be capable of providing up to seven hours of video, six hours of web browsing, or eight hours of talk time, depending on configuration. The battery life for music playing is stated to be 24 hours.^[51] The battery also allows for up to 250 hours of standby time. Apple’s site says that the battery life "is designed to retain up to 80% of its original capacity after 400 full charge and discharge cycles",^[60] which turns out to be the same as for the iPod batteries. When the battery reaches only 80 percent capacity, based on the original estimates, it would be rated for approximately 5.6 hours of video, 4.8 hours of web browsing, 6.4 hours of talk time, or 19.2 hours of music playing, depending on configuration.

The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a consumer advocate group, has sent a complaint to Apple and AT&T over the fee that consumers have to pay to get the battery replaced.^[61] Though the battery replacement service and its pricing was not made known to buyers until the day the product was launched,^[61][62] a similar service had been well established for the iPods by Apple and various third party service providers.

SIM card

The SIM card is located in a slot at the top of the device,^[21] and the device is activated through iTunes.^[63] The iPhone is usually sold with a simlock preventing the use of SIM cards from different mobile networks.

Storage

The iPhone was initially released with two options for internal storage size, either a 4 GB or 8 GB flash drive (manufactured by Samsung) model was available. On September 5, 2007, Apple announced they were discontinuing the 4 GB models.^[64] On February 5, 2008, Apple announced the addition of a 16 GB model to the iPhone lineup.^[65] The iPhone does not contain any external memory card slots for expanded storage.

Software

iPhone OS is the operating system that runs on the iPhone and iPod touch. It is based on a variant of the same basic Mach kernel that is found in Mac OS X. iPhone OS includes the software component "Core Animation" from Mac OS X v10.5 which, together with the PowerVR MBX 3D hardware, is responsible for the smooth animations used in its user interface. The operating system takes up considerably less than half a GB of the device’s total 8 GB or 16 GB storage.^[66] It will be capable of supporting bundled and future applications from Apple.

The iPhone is managed with iTunes version 7.3 or later, which is compatible with Mac OS X version 10.4.10 or later, and 32-bit Windows XP or Vista.^[67] The release of iTunes 7.6 expanded this support to include 64-bit versions of Vista,^[68] and a workaround has been discovered for previous 64-bit Windows operating systems.^[69]

The iPhone’s CPU is an ARM-based processor instead of the x86 and PowerPC processors used in Apple’s computers. This means applications can not simply be copied from Mac OS X and have to be written and compiled specifically for the iPhone. Additionally, the Safari web browser supports web applications written with AJAX, which, by design, are platform agnostic applications.

Applications

See also: iPhone SDK

There are several applications located on the "Home" screen: Text (SMS messaging), Calendar, Photos, Camera, YouTube, Stocks, Maps (Google Maps), Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings, and iTunes. Four other applications delineate the iPhone’s main purposes: Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod.^[70]

The YouTube application streams videos over Wi-Fi and/or EDGE after encoding them using QuickTime’s H.264 codec, to which YouTube has converted about 10,000 videos. As a result, the YouTube application on iPhone can currently view only a certain selection of videos from the site.^[71]

At WWDC 2007 on June 11, 2007 Apple announced that the iPhone will support third-party "applications" via the Safari web browser that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface. On October 17, 2007, Steve Jobs, in an open letter posted to Apple’s "Hot News" weblog, announced that a software development kit (SDK) would be made available to third-party developers in February 2008. Due to security concerns and Jobs’ praise of Nokia’s digital signature system, it is suggested that Apple will adopt a similar method. The SDK will also allow application development for the iPod touch.^[72] The iPhone SDK was officially announced on March 6, 2008, at the Apple Town Hall facility.^[73] The SDK will allow developers to develop native applications for the iPhone and iPod touch, as well as test them in an "iPhone simulator". However, loading an application onto the devices is only possible after paying a US$99 Apple Developer Connection membership fee. Developers are free to set any price for their applications to be distributed through the App Store, of which they will receive a 70 percent share. Developers can also opt to release the application for free and will not pay any costs to release or distribute the application beyond the US$99 membership fee. The SDK is available immediately, while the launch of applications will require waiting until a firmware update in June 2008. This update will be free for iPhone users, however, there will be a charge for iPod touch owners.

Many third party Safari "applications" and un-signed native applications are also available.^[74] The ability to install native applications onto the iPhone outside of the App Store will not be supported by Apple. Such native applications could be broken by any software update, but Apple has stated it will not design software updates specifically to break native applications other than applications that perform SIM unlocking.^[75]

Software updates

Apple provides free updates to the iPhone’s operating system through iTunes, in a similar fashion to the way that iPods are updated.^[66] Security patches, as well as new and improved features, are released in this fashion.^[76]

History

The genesis of the iPhone began with Apple CEO Steve Jobs‘ direction that Apple engineers investigate touchscreens.^[37] Apple created the device during a secretive and unprecedented collaboration with AT&T Mobility—Cingular Wireless at the time of the phone’s inception—at a development cost of US$150 million by one estimate. During development, the iPhone was codenamed "Purple 2".^[77] The company rejected an early "design by committee" built with Motorola in favor of engineering a custom operating system and interface and building custom hardware.

The iPhone went on sale on June 29, 2007. Apple closed its stores at 2:00 PM local time to prepare for the 6:00 PM iPhone launch, while hundreds of customers lined up at stores nationwide.^[78] They sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours on launch weekend.^[79]

Specifications

The specifications as listed on Apple’s website are:^[80]

• Screen size: 8.9 cm (3.5 in)
• Screen resolution: 320×480 pixels at 163 ppi
• Input method: Multi-touch screen interface plus a "Home" button
• Operating System: iPhone OS
• Storage: 8 or 16 GB flash memory (4 GB model discontinued)
• Quad band GSM (GSM 850, GSM 900, GSM 1800, GSM 1900)
• Wi-Fi (802.11g), EDGE and Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR
• 2 megapixel camera
• Built-in rechargeable, non-removable battery with up to 8 hours of talk, 6 hours of Internet use, 7 hours of video playback, and up to 24 hours of audio playback, lasting over 250 hours on standby.^[51]
• Size: 115×61×11.6 mm (4.5×2.4×0.46 in)
• Weight: 135 g (4.8 oz)
• Digital SAR of 0.974 W/kg^[81][82]

An analysis of the iPhone’s firmware has revealed that the main Samsung chip (designated S5L8900) contains an ARM 1176 processor, together with a PowerVR MBX 3D graphics co-processor.^[83]

Patents, copyrights, and trademarks

Apple has filed more than 300 patents related to the technology behind the iPhone.^[84][85]

LG Electronics claimed the iPhone’s design was copied from the LG Prada. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference, “We consider that Apple copied Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.”^[86]

On September 3, 1993, Infogear filed for the U.S. trademark "I PHONE"^[87] and on March 20, 1996 applied for the trademark "IPhone".^[88] "I Phone" was registered in March 1998,^[87] and "IPhone" was registered in 1999.^[88] Since then, the I PHONE mark had been abandoned.^[87] Infogear’s trademarks cover "communications terminals comprising computer hardware and software providing integrated telephone, data communications and personal computer functions" (1993 filing),^[87] and "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks" (1996 filing).^[89] Infogear released a telephone with an integrated web browser under the name iPhone in 1998.^[90] In 2000, Infogear won an infringement claim against the owners of the iphones.com domain name.^[91] In June 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Infogear, including the iPhone trademark.^[92] On December 18, 2006 they released a range of re-branded Voice over IP (VoIP) sets under the name iPhone.^[93]

In October 2002, Apple applied for the "iPhone" trademark in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the European Union. A Canadian application followed in October 2004 and a New Zealand application in September 2006. As of October 2006 only the Singapore and Australian applications had been granted. In September 2006, a company called Ocean Telecom Services applied for an "iPhone" trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and Hong Kong, following a filing in Trinidad and Tobago.^[94] As the Ocean Telecom trademark applications use exactly the same wording as Apple’s New Zealand application, it is assumed that Ocean Telecom is applying on behalf of Apple.^[95] The Canadian application was opposed in August 2005 by a Canadian company called Comwave who themselves applied for the trademark three months later. Comwave have been selling VoIP devices called iPhone since 2004.^[92]

Shortly after Steve Jobs’ January 9, 2007 announcement that Apple would be selling a product called iPhone in June 2007, Cisco issued a statement that it had been negotiating trademark licensing with Apple and expected Apple to agree to the final documents that had been submitted the night before.^[96] On January 10, 2007 Cisco announced it had filed a lawsuit against Apple over the infringement of the trademark iPhone, seeking an injunction in federal court to prohibit Apple from using the name.^[97] More recently, Cisco claimed that the trademark lawsuit was a "minor skirmish" that was not about money, but about interoperability.^[98]

On February 2, 2007, Apple and Cisco announced that they had agreed to temporarily suspend litigation while they hold settlement talks,^[99] and subsequently announced on February 20, 2007 that they had reached an agreement. Both companies will be allowed to use the "iPhone" name^[100] in exchange for "exploring interoperability" between their security, consumer, and business communications products.^[101]

Unlocking

While initially iPhones were only sold on the AT&T network with a SIM lock in place, various hackers have found methods to "unlock" the phone; more recently some carriers^[102] have started to sell unlocked iPhones. More than a quarter of iPhones sold in the United States were not registered with AT&T. Apple speculates that they were likely shipped overseas and unlocked.^[103]

On November 21, 2007, T-Mobile in Germany announced it would sell the phone unlocked and without a T-Mobile contract, caused by a preliminary injunction against T-Mobile put in place by their competitor, Vodafone. In Germany, a company is not allowed to lock the SIM card to itself.^[104] On December 4, 2007, a German court decided to grant T-Mobile exclusive rights to sell the iPhone with SIM lock, overturning the temporary injunction.^[105] In addition, T-Mobile will voluntarily offer to unlock customers’ iPhone after the termination of the contract.^[106]

The iPhone normally prevents access to its media player and web features unless it has also been activated as a phone with an authorized carrier. On July 3, 2007, Jon Lech Johansen reported on his blog that he had successfully bypassed this requirement and unlocked the iPhone’s other features with a combination of custom software and modification of the iTunes binary. He published the software and offsets for others to use.^[107]

 

Check these out:

MAKE IT UP

SMILES

Mother to Son

Rice pests destroy S. Cotabato farms

REST

Let America Be America Again

The Lockless Door

INSIGHT

 

 

 

International Atomic Energy Agency

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is an international organization that seeks to promote the peaceful use of nuclear energy and to inhibit its use for military purposes. Though established independently of the United Nations under its own international treaty (the IAEA Statute), the IAEA reports to both the General Assembly and the Security Council.

The IAEA has its headquarters in Vienna, Austria. Two "Regional Safeguards Offices" are located in Toronto, Canada; and Tokyo, Japan. The IAEA has two liaison offices, located in New York, USA; and Geneva, Switzerland. In addition, it has laboratories in Seibersdorf and Vienna, Austria; Monaco; and Trieste, Italy.

It was established as an autonomous organization on July 29, 1957. In 1953, U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower envisioned the creation of this international body to control and develop the use of atomic energy, in his "Atoms for Peace" speech before the UN General Assembly. The organization and its Director General, Mohamed ElBaradei, were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize announced on 7 October 2005.

History

The IAEA serves as an intergovernmental forum for scientific and technical co-operation in the peaceful use of nuclear technology worldwide. The IAEA’s programmes encourage the development of the peaceful applications of nuclear technology, provide international safeguards against its misuse, and facilitate the application of safety measures in its use. IAEA expanded its nuclear safety efforts in response to the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

The IAEA was headed by Hans Blix from 1981 to 1997. The current head of the organization is the Egyptian Mohamed ElBaradei. At the 49th General Conference, ElBaradei was confirmed as Director General until 2009.

The IAEA’s mission is guided by the interests and needs of Member States, strategic plans and the vision embodied in the IAEA Statute (see below). Three main pillars - or areas of work - underpin the IAEA’s mission: Safety and Security; Science and Technology; and Safeguards and Verification.

The Agency and Director General Mohamed ElBaradei were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005. In Dr. ElBaradei’s speech he stated that only 1% of the money spent on developing new weapons would be enough to feed the entire world and that, if we hope to escape self-destruction, then nuclear weapons should have no place in our collective conscience, and no role in our security. Nobel Lecture.

Structure and function

The IAEA is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN). The IAEA is not under direct control of any UN body, but reports to both the General Assembly and the Security Council; unlike most other specialized agencies, it does not do most of its work with ECOSOC. The IAEA’s structure and function is defined by its founding document: the IAEA’s Statute (see below). The IAEA has three main bodies: the Board of Governors, the General Conference, and the Secretariat.

The Board of Governors is one of two policy making bodies of the IAEA. The Board consists of 13 members designated by the outgoing Board and 22 members elected by the General Conference. The outgoing Board designates the ten members who are the most advanced in atomic energy technology and the remaining three most advanced members from any of the following areas that are not represented by the first ten: North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Middle East and South Asia, South East Asia, the Pacific, and the Far East. These members are designated for one year terms. The General Conference elects 22 members from the remaining nations to two year terms. Eleven are elected each year. The 22 elected members must also represent a stipulated geographic diversity (Statute). The current Board members are: Albania, Algeria, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, the People’s Republic of China, Croatia, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Ghana, India, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Russian Federation, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, United Kingdom, United States of America, (IAEA Board of Governors 2007–2008).

The Board, in its five yearly meetings, is responsible for making most of the policy of the IAEA. The Board makes recommendations to the General Conference on IAEA activities and budget, is responsible for publishing IAEA standards and appoints the Director General subject to General Conference approval (IAEA Fundamentals 2005). Board members each receive one vote. Budget matters require a two-thirds majority. All other matters require only a simple majority. The simple majority also has the power to stipulate issues that will thereafter require a two-thirds majority. Two-thirds of all Board members must be present to call a vote (IAEA Board of Governors 1989).

The General Conference (GC) is the highest policymaking body of the IAEA. The GC is made up of all 144 member states. The GC meets once a year, typically in September, to approve the actions and budgets passed on from the Board of Governors. The GC also approves the nominee for Director General and requests reports from the Board on issues in question (Statute). Each member receives one vote. Issues of budget, Statute amendment and suspension of a member’s privileges require a two- thirds majority and all other issues require a simple majority. Similar to the Board, the GC can, by simple majority, designate issues to require a two- thirds majority. The GC elects a President at each annual in order to facilitate an effective meeting. The President only serves for the duration of the session (Statute).

The main function of the GC is to serve as a forum for debate on current issues and policies. Any of the other IAEA organs, the Director General, the Board and member states can table issues to be discussed by the GC (IAEA Primer). This function of the GC is almost identical to the General Assembly of the United Nations.

The Secretariat is the professional and general service staff of the IAEA. The Secretariat is headed by the Director General. The Director General, currently Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, is responsible for enforcement of the actions passed by the Board of Governors and the GC. The Director General is selected by the Board and approved by the GC for renewable four year terms. The Director General oversees six departments that do the actual work in carrying out the policies of the IAEA: Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Safety and Security, Nuclear Sciences and Applications, Safeguards, Technical Cooperation, and Management. Dr. ElBaradei, together with the IAEA as an institution, won the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

The IAEA budget is two-part. The regular budget funds most activities of the IAEA and is assessed to each member nation (€280 million in 2007). The Technical Cooperation Fund is funded by voluntary contributions with a general target in the $70 million range.

The process of joining the IAEA is fairly simple. A State must notify the Director General of its desire to join. The Director then submits the request to the Board for consideration. If the State is approved by the Board, the GC must then consider the State. When the State receives final approval for membership, it must then submit its signed acceptance of the IAEA’s Statute. The State is considered a member when its acceptance letter is deposited; the IAEA’s other members are subsequently notified of the new member.

In 2004 IAEA developed a Programme of Action for Cancer Therapy (PACT). PACT responds to the needs of developing countries to establish, improve, or expand radiotherapy treatment programs and is raising funds to help countries save lives and reduce suffering of cancer victims.[1]

The IAEA exists to pursue “safe, secure and peaceful uses of nuclear sciences and technology” (Pillars 2005). The IAEA pursues this mission with three main functions: inspections of existing nuclear facilities to ensure peaceful use, information and standards to ensure the stability of nuclear facilities, and as a hub for the sciences seeking peaceful applications of nuclear technology.

Membership

The Holy See and many of the UN members are parties of the IAEA.

Not participating are:

Countries that have withdrawn from the IAEA are:

•  Cambodia (1958–2003)
•  North Korea (1974–1994)

Other entities not represented at the IAEA (ineligible due to not being recognized by many as independent countries).

•  Western Sahara
•  Taiwan

Past and present Directors General

Nationality & Name Duration

W. Sterling Cole	1957–1961
Sigvard Eklund	1961–1981
Hans Blix	1981–1997

 

 Check these out:

MAKE IT UP

SMILES

Mother to Son

Rice pests destroy S. Cotabato farms

REST

Let America Be America Again

The Lockless Door

INSIGHT

IN ANGER

Undying Poems: Dr. Romulo A. Ramirez

 

When I have lost my temper

I have lost my reason too.

I’m never proud of anything

Which angrily I do.

 

When I have walked in anger

And my cheeks are flaming red

U have always uttered something

That I wished I hadn’t said.

 

In anger I have never done.

A kindly deed, or wise,

But many things for which I know

I should apologize

 

In looking back across my life

And all I’ve lost or made

I can’t recall a single time

When fury ever paid.

 

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004. The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. The website’s name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some American colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while still a student at Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Ivy League. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. Peter Thiel was the first person to fund the company, with an initial investment of US$500,000. Features include a Wall for posting messages and Photos for uploading digital photos. More than 70 million people worldwide visited the website in April 2008.^[4]

Due to its popularity, Facebook has met with some controversy. It has been blocked in several countries including Syria and Iran. Privacy has also been an issue, and it has been compromised several times.

 

History

Mark Zuckerberg founded "The Facebook", originally located at thefacebook.com, in February 2004 while attending Harvard University as a sophomore.^[1] The company dropped The from its name after purchasing the domain name facebook.com in 2005.^[5] Membership was initially restricted to students of Harvard College, and within the first month, more than half the undergraduate population at Harvard were registered on the service.^[6] Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes soon joined Zuckerberg to help promote the website. In March 2004, Facebook expanded to Stanford, Columbia, and Yale.^[7] This expansion continued from April to June when it opened to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern University, and all Ivy League schools.^[7] At the end of the school year, Zuckerberg and Moskovitz moved to Palo Alto, California.^[7]

Facebook launched a high school version on September 2, 2005; Zuckerberg called it "the next logical step".^[8] Initially, high school networks required an invitation to join,^[9] but this was changed fifteen days later to allow anyone to join.^[9] By the end of the year, more than 2,000 colleges and over 25,000 high schools throughout seven countries including the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom had networks on Facebook.^[10][11] Facebook had expanded membership eligibility to employees of 10 preselected companies by April 26, 2006, including Amazon.com, Apple Inc., and Microsoft.^[12] Facebook finally became open to everyone on September 11, 2006, with the only requirements being a valid email address and a minimum age of 13.^[13][14]

Funding

Facebook received its first investment of US$500,000 in June 2004 from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel in an angel round.^[15] This was followed a year later by $12.8 million in venture capital from Accel Partners, and then $25 million more from Greylock Partners and Meritech Capital Partners.^[15][16] A cash flow statement was leaked, showing that during the 2005 fiscal year, Facebook had a net loss of $3.63 million.^[17] Microsoft approached Facebook in September 2007, proposing an investment in return for a 5% stake in the company. Microsoft would pay an estimated $300–500 million for the share.^[18] Microsoft announced on October 24, 2007 that it purchased a 1.6% share of Facebook for $246 million.^[19] On November 30, 2007, Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing invested $60 million in Facebook.^[20]

BusinessWeek reported on March 28, 2006 that a potential acquisition of the website was under negotiation. Facebook reportedly declined an offer of $750 million from an unknown bidder, and it was rumored the asking price rose as high as $2 billion.^[21] With the sale of social networking website MySpace to News Corp on July 19, 2005, rumors surfaced about the possible sale of Facebook to a larger media company.^[22] Zuckerberg had already said he did not want to sell the company and denied rumors to the contrary.^[23] In late September, serious talks between Facebook and Yahoo! took place concerning acquisition of the social network, with prices reaching as high as $1 billion.^[24] Thiel, by then a board member of Facebook, indicated that Facebook’s internal valuation was around $8 billion based on their projected revenues of $1 billion by 2015, comparable to Viacom’s MTV brand, a company with a shared target demographic audience.^[25] Other companies, including Google, expressed interest in September 2007 to buy a portion of Facebook.^[26] Amid the rumors, Zuckerberg claimed that selling Facebook was unlikely because he wanted to keep it independent, stating on July 17, 2007, "We’re not really looking to sell the company. […] We’re not looking to IPO anytime soon. It’s just not the core focus of the company."^[10]

Website

Facebook users can choose to join one or more networks, organized by city, workplace, school, and region.^[27] These networks help users connect with members of the same network. Users can also connect with friends, giving them access to their friends’ profiles.^[28]

The website is free to users, but generates revenue from advertising, including banner ads.^[29] Users create profiles that often contain photos and lists of personal interests, exchange private or public messages, and join groups of friends.^[30] The viewing of detailed profile data is restricted to users from the same network or confirmed friends.

Microsoft is Facebook’s exclusive partner for serving banner advertising,^[31] and as such Facebook only serves advertisements that exist in Microsoft’s advertisement inventory. According to comScore, an internet marketing research company, Facebook collects as much data from its visitors as Google and Microsoft but considerably less than Yahoo! when compared with other web companies.^[32]

Features

The media often compares Facebook to MySpace, but one significant difference between the two websites is the level of customization.^[33] MySpace allows users to decorate their profiles using HTML and Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), while Facebook only allows plain text.^[34]

Facebook has a number of features for users to interact with. They include the Wall, a space on every user’s profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see,^[35] Pokes, which allows users to send a virtual "poke" to each other (a notification that tells a user that they have been poked),^[36] Photos, where users can upload albums and photos,^[37] and Status, which allows users to inform their friends of their whereabouts and actions.^[38] A user’s Wall is visible to anyone who is able to see that user’s profile, which depends on their privacy settings. In July 2007, Facebook began allowing users to post attachments to the Wall, whereas the Wall was previously limited to textual content only.^[35]

Over time, Facebook has added several new features to its website. On September 6, 2006, a News Feed was announced, which appears on every user’s homepage and highlights information including profile changes, upcoming events, and birthdays related to the user’s friends.^[39] Initially, the News Feed caused dissatisfaction among Facebook users; some complained it was too cluttered and full of undesired information, while others were concerned it made it too easy for other people to track down individual activities (such as changes in relationship status, events, and conversations with other users).^[40] In response to this dissatisfaction, Zuckerberg issued an apology for the site’s failure to include appropriate customizable privacy features.^[41] Since then, users have been able to control what types of information are shared automatically with friends.^[41] Users are now able to prevent friends from seeing updates about different types of activities, including profile changes, Wall posts, and newly added friends.^[41]

One of the most popular applications on Facebook is the Photos application, where users can upload albums and photos.^[37] Facebook allows users to upload an unlimited number of photos, compared with other image hosting services such as Photobucket and Flickr, which apply limits to the number of photos that a user is allowed to upload. However, users are limited to 60 photos per album. Privacy settings can be set for individual albums, limiting the groups of users that can see an album. For example, the privacy of an album can be set so that only the user’s friends can see the album, while the privacy of another album can be set so that all Facebook users can see it. Another feature of the Photos applications is the ability to "tag", or label users in a photo. For instance, if a photo contains a user’s friend, then the user can tag the friend in the photo. This sends a notification to the friend that they have been tagged, and provides them a link to see the photo.^[42]

Facebook Notes was introduced on August 22, 2006, a blogging feature that allowed tags and embeddable images. Users were later able to import blogs from Xanga, LiveJournal, Blogger, and other blogging services.^[13] During the week of April 7, 2008, Facebook released a Comet-based^[43] instant messaging application called "Chat" to several networks,^[44] which allows users to communicate with friends and is similar in functionality to desktop-based instant messengers.

Facebook launched Gifts on February 8, 2007, which allows users to send virtual gifts to their friends that appear on the recipient’s profile. Gifts cost $1.00 each to purchase, and a personalized message can be attached to each gift.^[45][46] On May 14, 2007, Facebook launched Marketplace, which lets users post free classified ads.^[47] Marketplace has been compared to Craigslist by CNET, which points out that the major difference between the two is that listings posted by a user on Marketplace are only seen by users that are in the same network as that user, whereas listings posted on Craigslist can be seen by anyone.^[48]

Platform

Facebook launched the Facebook Platform on May 24, 2007, providing a framework for software developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features.^[49][50] A markup language called Facebook markup language was introduced simultaneously; it is used to customize the "look and feel" of applications that developers create. Using the Platform, Facebook launched several new applications,^[49][50] including Gifts, allowing users to send virtual gifts to each other, Marketplace, allowing users to post free classified ads, Events, giving users a method of informing their friends about upcoming events, and Video, letting users share homemade videos with one another.^[51][52]

Applications that have been created on the Platform include chess and Scrabble, both which allow users to play games with their friends.^[53][54] These games are asynchronous, meaning that a user’s moves are saved on the website, allowing the next move to be made at any time rather than immediately after the previous move.^[55] Within a few months of launching the Facebook Platform, issues arose regarding "application spam", which involves Facebook applications "spamming" users to request it be installed.^[56] Application spam has been considered one of the possible causes to the drop in visitors to Facebook starting from the beginning of 2008, when its growth had fallen from December 2007 to January 2008, its first drop since its launch in 2004.^[57]

Controversy

See also: Criticism of Facebook and Use of social network websites in investigations

Due to its popularity, Facebook has been involved in several controversial events. In October 2005, the University of New Mexico blocked access to Facebook from its campus computers and networks.^[58] It cited a violation of the university’s Acceptable Use Policy for abusing computer resources as the reason, stating the website forces use of the university’s credentials for activity not related to the university. The school later unblocked Facebook after the website rectified the situation by displaying a notice on the login page stating the credentials used on the website are separate from the ones used for their school accounts.^[59] The Ontario government also blocked access to Facebook for its employees in May 2007, stating the website was "not directly related to the workplace".^[60]

A notable ancillary effect of social networking websites like Facebook is the ability for participants to mourn publicly for a deceased individual. On January 1, 2008, a memorial group on Facebook posted the identity of murdered Toronto teenager Stefanie Rengel, whose family had not yet given the Toronto Police Service their consent to release her name to the media.^[61] While police and Facebook staff attempted to comply with the privacy regulations by deleting posts mentioning her name, they noted it was difficult to effectively police individual users who repeatedly republished the deleted information.^[62]

Due to the open nature of Facebook, several countries have banned access to it including Syria and Iran.^[63][64] The Syrian government cited the ban was on the premise that the website promoted attacks on authorities.^[63][65] The government also feared Israeli infiltration of Syrian social networks on Facebook.^[63] Facebook was also used by Syrian citizens to criticize the government, and public criticism of the Syrian government is punishable by imprisonment.^[63] In Iran, the website was banned because of fears that opposition movements were being organized on the website.^[64]

Beacon

Facebook announced Facebook Beacon on November 7, 2007, a marketing initiative that allows websites to publish a user’s activities to their Facebook profile as "Social Ads" and promote products.^[66] When launching Beacon, Facebook stated "no personally identifiable information is shared with an advertiser in creating a Social Ad", and that "Facebook users will only see Social Ads to the extent their friends are sharing information with them."^[67] After Facebook was criticized for collecting more user information for advertisers than was previously stated, Zuckerberg publicly apologized on December 5, 2007 for the way Facebook launched Beacon, saying, "The problem with our initial approach of making it an opt-out system instead of opt-in was that if someone forgot to decline to share something, Beacon still went ahead and shared it with their friends."^[68][69]

ConnectU

Divya Narendra, Cameron Winklevoss, and Tyler Winklevoss, owners of the social networking website HarvardConnection, changed its name to ConnectU in September 2004 and filed a lawsuit against Facebook, alleging Zuckerberg had illegally used source code intended for the website they asked him to build for them.^[70][71] Facebook later requested the court case that ConnectU filed against them be dismissed, citing ConnectU’s "broad brush allegations are unsupported by evidence". The case was dismissed by a United States federal judge.^[72] ConnectU filed another lawsuit against Facebook on March 11, 2008, continuing the case; a resolution is still pending as of May 2008.^[73]

Privacy

Several concerns have emerged regarding the use of Facebook as a means of surveillance and data mining.^[74] Two MIT students were able to download over 70,000 Facebook profiles from four schools (MIT, New York University, the University of Oklahoma, and Harvard University) using an automated shell script, as part of a research project on Facebook privacy published on December 14, 2005.^[75] The possibility of data mining remains open, as evidenced in May 2008, when the BBC technology program "Click" demonstrated that personal details of Facebook users and their friends could be stolen by submitting malicious applications.^[76]

Privacy proponents have criticized the site’s privacy agreement, which states: "We may use information about you that we collect from other sources, including but not limited to newspapers and Internet sources such as blogs, instant messaging services, Facebook Platform developers and other users of Facebook, to supplement your profile."^[77] Another clause that received criticism concerned Facebook’s right to sell a user’s data to private companies, stating: "We may share your information with third parties, including responsible companies with which we have a relationship." This concern was addressed by Facebook spokesman Chris Hughes who said, "Simply put, we have never provided our users’ information to third party companies, nor do we intend to."^[78]

Concerns have also been raised regarding the difficulty of deleting user accounts. Previously, Facebook only allowed users to "deactivate" their accounts so that their profile was no longer visible. However, any information the user had entered into the website and on their profile remained on the website’s servers. This outraged many users who wished to remove their accounts permanently, citing reasons such as the inability to erase "embarrassing or overly-personal online profiles from their student days as they entered the job market, for fear employers would locate the profiles".^[79] Facebook changed its account deletion policies on February 29, 2008, allowing users to contact the website to request that their accounts be permanently deleted.^[80]

Reception

Facebook has more than 70 million active users worldwide.^[4] According to Alexa, the website’s ranking among all websites increased from 60th to 7th in terms of traffic, from September 2006 to September 2007.^[81] Quantcast ranks the website 16th in terms of traffic,^[82] and Compete.com ranks it 20th.^[83] The website is the most popular for uploading photos, with 14 million uploaded daily.^[4] On November 3, 2007, there were seven thousand applications on Facebook, with another hundred created everyday.^[84]

Facebook is the most popular social networking site in several English-speaking countries, including Canada^[85] and the United Kingdom.^[86] The website has won numerous awards and accolades, such as being considered one of the "Top 100 Classic Websites" by PC Magazine in 2007,^[87] and winning the "People’s Voice Award" from the Webby Awards in 2008.^[88] In a 2006 study conducted by Student Monitor, a New Jersey-based limited liability company specializing in research concerning the college student market, Facebook was named the second most popular thing among undergraduates, tied with beer and only ranked lower than the iPod.^[89]

See Also:

INSIGHT

MAKE IT UP

SMILES

Mother to Son

Rice pests destroy S. Cotabato farms

REST

Let America Be America Again

The Lockless Door

 

 

Badoo

Badoo is a multi-lingual, London based, social networking website. It offers users the ability to connect with people at a local and global level, allowing them to share photos and videos, create "reportages" of their lives, and promote themselves and their work. Their "philosophy," which they have trademarked, is I am here.

Launched in May 2006 (although the URL existed as a web portal since 2003), the site now has over 12 million registered users, ^[1] and is one of the top 100 visited sites on the net, according to Alexa Internet.^[2] It is also one of the top ten community websites in Europe.^[3] In September 2007, Badoo re-launched the site, promising users "upgraded features and innovative new tools."^[4]

Unlike other social networking services, Badoo does not incorporate advertising in any part of the site, thus a user’s profile contains only user-generated content. It generates income through a "Rise Up" feature which allows users to pay to have their profile given more prominance on the site for a limited time. 20% of Badoo’s 12.5 million users access this function once a month. ^[5]

 

HEALED AND WHOLE

Undying Poems: Dr. Romulo A. Ramirez

 

One day I dug a little hole

And put my hurt inside

I thought that I could just forget

I’d put it there to hide.

 

But that little hurt began to grow

I covered it everyday

I couldn’t leave it and go on

It seems the price I had to pay.

 

My joy was gone, my heart was sad

Pain was all I knew.

My wounded soul envelope me

Loving seems so hard to do.

 

One day, while standing by my hole

I cried to God above

And said, “If you are really there,

They say, You are a God of Love?”

 

And just like that, He was right there

And just put His arms around me

He wiped my tears, His hurting child

There was no safer place to be.

 

I told him all about my hurt

I opened up my heart

He listened to each and every word

To every sordid part.

 

I dug down deep and got my hurt

I brushed the dirt away

And place it in the Master’s hand

And healing came that day.

 

He took the blackness of my soul

And set my spirit free!

Something beautiful began to grow

Where the hurt used to be.

 

And when I look at what has grown

Out of my tears and pain

I remember each day to give my hurts to him

And never bury them again.

See Also:

INSIGHT

MAKE IT UP

SMILES

Mother to Son

Rice pests destroy S. Cotabato farms

REST

Let America Be America Again

The Lockless Door

 

ENDURING THE STORMS OF LIFE

Undying Poems: Dr. Romulo A. Ramirez

 

Sometimes it’s hard to take

The bitter with the sweet.

To face the raging storms with life

And not give up in defeat.

 

Sometimes we rely on worldly things

To help us reach our goals

We build our hopes upon the sand

And the storms beat on our souls.

 

But if we put our trust in God,

We’re are building on His rock

And all the storms of life can not harm

Anyone on His flock.

 

We still endure the storms of life

With faith and trust in His love

For he will set His lighthouse

To guide us from above.

 

Then whatever challenges we face

Whatever be our plight

He will guide us safely home

If we only follow in His light.