Ang mga bagong salita na nadadagdag sa bokabularyo ng Filipino ay kadalasang nagmumula sa mga hiram na salita: Ingles, Nihonggo, Mandarin, at iba pa. Subalit, hindi natin napapansin na ang ilan naman ay nagmula rin sa mga wika ng mga katutubo – hinihiram ang salita at binabago lamang ang baybay. Alinsunod din sa panghihiram ay ang pagbabago ng kahulugan at minsan ay malayo na sa gamit nito.

“Kumakana ka na naman.”

Ang pangungusap na nasaad ay tila isang malabong pahayag. Ngunit para sa iba, madali nila itong naiintindahan at makakasagot pa – at kung minsan ay nagagawa pa nilang magtawanan. Ito ay madalas mong maririnig sa usapan ng mga magkakaibigang nag-aasaran. Sa makatuwid, ito ay salitang balbal.

Ang salitang kumakana ay nagmula sa salitang Cebuano: kana. Sa wika Cebuano, ang salitang kana ay ginagamit bilang isang panghalip na nangangahulugang “iyon”. Ito ay dinuduktungan ng “sila” at “naa” upang baguhin ang kahulugan nito.

Ang salitang sila ay isa ring panghalip na ginagamit para kilalanin ang mga pangngalan sa ikatlong panauhan (e.g. Sila ay namasyal sa Luneta park nakaraang pasko). Ang “kana sila” ay nangangahulugan din ng “iyon” subalit ang tinutukoy dito ay maramihan, sa madaling salita, ito ay katumbas ng pararilang “Ang mga iyon” at sa ingles naman ay “those.”

Sa kabilang banda, ang salitang “naa” ay hindi nanggaling sa wikang Cebuano. Ito lamang ay dinadagdag upang bigyan diin ang isang tiyak na bagay na nais ipahiwatig ng salitang “kana” – kana naa. Ito ay katumbas ng salitang Ingles na “those.”

Ang “kumakana” ay isang salitang balbal na maririnig kadalasan sa isang grupo ng magkakaibigan – bibihira itong marinig sa mga taong nag-uusap ng pormal. Ang salitang ito ay isang pandiwa na ngangahulugan ng isang gawain kung saan ang taong sumasalo ng kilos (receiver of the action) ay may ginawa o ginagawang kilos na hindi tiyak sa mga makakarinig – tanging ang dalawang taong nag-uusap lamang ang magkakaintidihan. Maaari na ang ibigsabihin nito ay bagay na-uuso o kilos na madalas na ginagawa.

Katumbas nito ang isa pang salita na mayroon sa diksunaryo subalit iba ang kahulugan sa isang balbal ng pag-uusap – ito ang salitang “ano.” Ang “ano” ay tumutukoy sa kahit anong bagay na tinatanong ng nagsasalita. Ginagamit ito upang pamalalit sa isang hindi tiyak na bagay– sa ingles, ito ay tinatawag na dummy pronoun: kung saan ang panghalip na ginamit ay hindi pumapalit sa kahit ano mang bagay; ito lamang ay ginamit para masabing mayroong pangngalan sa isang pangungusap (e.g. IT is raining.)

Subalit, sa salitang balbal, ang ano ay tumutukoy sa isang nakatagong kahulugan na kung saan ang mga taong nag-uusap lamang ang nagkakaintindihan (e.g. Nag-ano ka na naman ba sa iyong panliligaw?). Minsan, ginagamit ito kung ang taong nagsasalita ay nakalimutan ang tiyak na salita para sa isang bagay, tulad ng salitang kwan, o hindi kaya ay na-uulol sa pagbabanggit ng salita.

Bagamat, ang dalawang salita ay ginagamit sa magkaibang kahulugan. Ang salitang “kumakana” ay tila nangangahulugan ng may kasamang pang-uuyam o sarcasm samantala naman ang “inaano” ay tila nangangahulugan ng kilos na may kasamang dikit o contact sa isang bagay.

“Inano mo yung ano ni ano?”

Ang nasaad na pangungusap ay tila nakakatawa kung sa unang iisipin. Ito ay isang halimbawa ng epekto ng pabago-bagong kultura ng mga Filipino. Sa ngayon panahon, para sa mga kabataan, ito ay nangangahulugan ng isang bagay na may kasamang malisya. Ang salita ay ginamit ng tatlong bese upang itago ang tunay na kahulugan.

Isa pang gamit ng salitang ito ay nangangahulugan ng umaarya. Ang salitang ito ay alam halos ng lahat. Ito ay nangangahulugan ng “pagpapatuloy ng isang gawain” ngunit hindi ito magagamit sa maramihang salita. Nagagamit lamang ito sa pangunguyam at pangungutya. Halimbawa: ang pangungusap na “Umaarya ka nanaman” ay maaring nangangahulugan ng “‘Nagsisimula’ ka na naman” o “Ayan ka nanaman”. Sa makatuwid, ang salitang pinapalitan nito ay hindi masasabi ng deretso, kadalasan ay ang salita ay nakatago o implied.

“Nakanang! Galing mo, Pare!”

Isa pang porma nito ay ang salitang “nakanang” o “naks.” Ang mga salitang ito ay walang tiyak na kahulugan. Ang mga ito ay isang salita lamang na nagpapakita ng pagkamangha o pang-uuyam ng nagsalita.

Kumakana – salitang alam ng lahat, salitang maririnig kahit saan. Salitang ginagamit ng mga magkakaibigan o tinatawag na “inside joke.” Sa panahon ngayon, ang salitang ito ay nagagamit lamang bilang isang panghalip sa isang tiyak na kilos o galaw. Nakanang, naks, sumis-sige, at umaarya ay ilan lamang sa mga salitang may halos kasingkahulugan. Ito ay kadalasang nagagamit sa pang-uuyam o pang-aasar.
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May this day be memorable and be a starting point as we enter a new chapter of our lives. May I ask my fellow students to set our minds on this once in a life time event, a small part of our journey, a precious one at that. Let us make our dear parents proud as we offer the fruit of their sacrifices, a symbol of our hard work and patience for the past 4 years, our diplomas. Let us cherish this important day with our teachers, mentors, parents, and friends.

Most certainly, the support of family, friends and loved ones has contributed immensely to our success. They have provided and will continue to provide the inspiration and motivation that will take us further for years to come. I thank all of you.

is a good reason they call these ceremonies ‘commencement exercises’. Graduation is not the end; it’s the beginning.
My fellow graduates, you are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world.
Congratulations and welcome to the 26th Commencement Exercise! God blesses us all!

In poetic terms, darkness symbolizes the presence of evil, shadow, depression, and sin. It is commonly associated with the Hebrew/Christian fallen angel, Satan also known as “the devil.” In fictions, it defines the side of villains whose only motif in a story is destruction and denomination. Darkness is the absolute opposite of light.

However, darkness is not only a phenomenon whose effects only bring obscure. In fact, some animals do benefit from it: like the nocturnal animals, large-eyed owls, and cave-inhabitants bats. The absence of light allows these animals to focus their other senses: in the case of bats, they have the ability to use the sound waves or echoes to locate walls and objects.

Darkness can be associated with the word blackness. Darkness is the absence of light while black is the absence of color. The chlorophyll of the plants reacts to the solar light, in this manner, light is absorbed and produces color; otherwise, black is shown. However, in some cases, darkness differs from blackness. Though they both show in the absence of something, darkness cannot appear during sunlight or anything that emits light while black can (like the mere color of an ink).

The absence of light sometimes causes fear to children. It is proven that the imagination of humans turns wild during night time – what more for young ones. The mind of a child triggers the hormones to panic and to become nervous in such event where imagination starts creating foul and what-if images. For adults, darkness actually helps them to gain deeper sleep. Light can still penetrate the skin that covers the eyes which in turn can cause restless sleep.

In summary, darkness covers up anything which is not affected by light, likewise, the color is shown with black: connotatively speaking – death, fear, and evil. In some cases, darkness does not only bring negative effects but it also carry benefits to some.

Ang kaisipan, kultura, at lipunan ay nag-ugat sa mga karanasan ng mga katutubong Filipino – ito ang mga basihan ng homonisasyon o pagkatao. Maaaring ang mga ito ay hawig sa iba pang lahi, ngunit ang Pilipino, bilang isang pang-uri ng iba’t ibang sangkap ay may sariling hekusyon, estetika, at kaayusan – ang mga ito ang nagging pananda ng pagiging makabansa at isang lahi. Ang relihiyon, wika, at sambahayana ay ilan lamang sa halimbawa ng bawat larangan na meron ang mga Pilipino.

Ang mga Kastila at Amerikano ay may ambag sa akademikong disiplina sa Pilipinas. Ito ang dahilan kung bakit may roong maayos at magandang edukasyon sa bansa. Subalit, kabalikat nito, naging isip-kolonyal ang mga Filipino kung saan ang takbo ng pag-iisip ng bawat isa ay mala kanluranin samantalang taga silangan sila. Pinalaganap nila ang unibersalismo kung saan ang ethnic, parochial, at provincial ng bansa ay unti-unti ng nawawala o napapalitan. Subalit, kailangan din ng Pilipinolohiya ang akademikong disiplina upang mapalaya ang Pilipinong kaisipan, kultura, at lipunan at hindi ang kabaliktaran nito.

Ang teorya sa Pilipinolohiya ay nagbabalangkas ng mga datos upang magbigay liwanag sa pag-unawa ng tatlong larangan. Samakatuwid, pawang datos ang nagdidikta ng metodo sa pag-aaral nito
Ang dating Philippine Studies ay walang pantayong pananaw dahil ito ay nakatuon sa mga banyaga o sa mga naturingang Pilipino na nanaliksik ayon din sa pananaw ng mga banyaga.

Nag-ugat ang mga pananaw ng mga Pilipino sa mga katutubong kamulatan at kamalayan upang mabuo ang makabansang kabihasnan at hindi laman upang pag-aralan ang mga nangyari sa mga Pilipino at Pilipinas.

Ang makina ay isang mekanikal o de-kuryenteng bagay na naglilipat o nagbabago ng enerhiya upang makagawa o makatulong sa gawain ng tao. Nagmula ang salitang “machine” sa salitang Latin na “machine” na ang ibigsabihin ay “paraan, napapanahon, at lunas”.

Makakabalik sa mga unang taon sa Ehipto matatagpuan o nalikha ang mga makina. Mekanikal palamang ang mga ito sa panahon na iyon. Ginamit ang mga itong upang makapagbuhat o makapagtulak ng mga malalaking bato. Ang mga simpleng platform na may silindrong kahoy sa ibaba ay matatawag ng makina dahil ginagamit ito sa pagdala ng mga bato mula sa isang lugar patungo sa papupuntahan.

May iba’t ibang uri ng makina, ang ilan sa mga ito ay sumusunod: simpleng makina, mekanikal, clock, compressors and pumps, heat engines, heat pumps, linkages, turbines, aerofoil, at electronics. At ang bawat isa dito ay may kanya-kanyang importansya at gamit sa kasalukuyan. Ang mga simpleng makina at mekanikal ay sa pabrika. Ang mga compressors, pumps, engines, at turbines naman sa mga sasakyan.

Ang mga makina ay maasahan sa malawakang gamit sa industriya, komersya, pamahay, at transportasyon. Ang mga haydrolika ay lalong naging kapaki-pakinabang sa pagmamapaktura at konstruksyon. Masasabing sa bawat direksyon na ating titingnan, ay matatagpuan ang teknolohiya.

Maraming magandang naidudulot ang mga makina. Isa na dito ang mga teknolohiyang nagpapadali ng gawain tulad ng mga: washing machine, sasakyan, telebisyon, kompyuter, cellphone, bentilador, at iba pa. Isa sa rin na magandang bunga ng makina ay ang pagka-ibento ng mga life-supporters tulad ng mga artipisyal na parte ng katawan at mga extensions.

Meron din naman mga hindi kanais-nais na epekto ang patuloy na pag-unlad nito. Nabibilang dito ang pagkasira ng kultura at tradisyon ng isang mamamayan dahil unti-unti ng napapalitan ng teknolohiya. Nagiging sanhi din ito ng pag-usabong ng diskriminasyon. Nagkakaroon ang mga tao na tanging mga mayayaman lamang ang may kakayahan na bumili at ang mga edukado lamang ang pwedeng gumamit ng mga makabagong ito.

Sa mundo natin ngayon, masasabing “innovation” lamang ang daan para sa pag-unlad at paglaban sa kinakaharap nating krisis, kabilang na dito ang pagkain, langis, tubig, global warming, at iba pa.

Global warming is when the temperature on earth rises up more than normal. This hurts many people, animals, and plants. Many cannot take the change, so they die.

It happens when greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrous oxide, and methane) trap heat and light from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere, which increases the temperature.

Green house gases can stay in the atmosphere for an amount of years ranging from decades to hundreds and thousands of years. Global warming can cause the spread of diseases, warmer waters and more hurricanes, increasing of probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves, and melting of polar ice caps.

There are many ways are being pushed upon society in preventing global warming. Turning the lights off when leaving a room, turning the T.V. off at the plug, walk to the shop or into town, and buy a greener car. This is where the real green house gases and emissions are coming from. Yes of course, we need to do all the little things ourselves, it all adds up and we need to lead by example. But we need more pressure from the public and the governments on the large companies and corporations.

Due to human activities such as the combustion of fossil fuels and deforestation, and the increased release of CO2 from the oceans due to the increase in the Earth’s temperature, the concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide has increased by about 35% since the beginning of the age of industrialization. Most of the CO2 taken up by the ocean forms carbonic acid. Some are consumed in photosynthesis by organisms in the water, and a small proportion of that sinks and leaves the carbon cycle. There is considerable concern that as a result of increased CO2 in the atmosphere the acidity of seawater will increase and may adversely affect organisms living in the water. In particular, with increasing acidity, the availability of carbonates for forming shells decreases.

As the earth heats up, ocean evaporation and soil evaporation rate increases. As the ocean gets smaller due to evaporation, many sea creatures, land animals, and humans that depend on water are deeply affected. As well as the trees and plants living on lands, waters are evaporated from the soils.

Agriculture on lands is also affected where most of the human beings depend from this resource. Intense heat can dry up all crops before they are ready to harvest and massive deaths in poultry.

As a student and a concerned citizen, I can help preventing global warming in many simple ways including conserving electricity, throwing garbage to right places, and (as much as possible) using alternatives for things that can emit CO2 .

Right now in Philippines, we are experiencing a hot temperature even in the night, moreover, the suns UV rays are even more dangerous that we can’t even go out and stay under the sun by 7:00 am.

I would like to thank my Agricultural Arts teacher for showing us the movie clip entitled “An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning”. That movie gave me lots of information regarding the present earth problem. I believe that Sir Danilo’s motive is to awaken us and move to help our world.

Each people have dreams, goals, and ambitions. Accompanied by these are talents and skills. We can use these for the benefit of others or for our own selfish esteems. What happen to people who use their talents and skills badly? In religion, we have Heaven and Hell. People who loved, cared, and used their talents and skills to follow the teachings of Christ go to Heaven while people who abused these precious gifts are sent to hell. But here on Earth, we have something what we call prison. A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms.

The film entitled “Bunso” or “The Youngest” documents the day-to-day life of thousands of child criminals who are locked away to live in horrendous conditions in overcrowded cells with adult prisoners. It highlights the experiences of 13 year old Anthony and 11 year old Diosel and Tisoy (also known as Bunso) as they struggle to survive inside the jail. All three of them had been accused of theft and robbery. Anthony stole money to feed his siblings. Diosel was sent to jail by his father after he got caught stealing from a store. Meanwhile, Bunso, the neglected child, went from begging to stealing money in order to fund his addiction.

Inside the jail, 157 minor prisoners have alternate sleeping schedules to fit in a space suited only for less than a hundred persons. The kids could only get a shower when it rained. They would fight just to get enough food to eat during meal time. In this film, Carolino shows how the kids gradually lose their childhood innocence while drawing attention to the lack of guidance from parents and failure of the justice system in the Philippines.

I felt pity towards these three innocent kids. They were so innocent that they are having a hard time judging their actions: whether they are good or bad. All they think is survival. Another cause of their downfall was their parents’ lack of support and moral education. I could not blame these children.

The most striking part of the film for me was the part where the parent ignored the truth for their children and told them only lies. What an incredible face off. The child is gifted with clarity despite of all the pain, suffering, threats, and jeering. That scene alone says many things about this society we live in and the many myths perpetuated in this culture. Listen to bunso in how did he brought up the issue of rank—even police who have rank get imprisoned for beating others, what more his parents. And the mother replies by pointing out that she outranks the police simply because “I gave birth to you, so I have the right to kill you.” Bunso challenges her to do so and put him out of his misery. They try to shut him up and call his defiance misbehavior. They threaten him with isolation and imprisonment with the “crazies” but he has to speak his truth.

Prison cell is not a good ambience for a child. This may have psychological effects on the child and may cause a lifetime problem for the society. I want these innocent children be properly educated. I want these children know the love of Jesus Christ bestowed upon them.

Red-Eyes is one of the most powerful Archtype in the game. It’s composed of Dark Dragon-type monsters, except for “Red-Eyes Wyvern” which is a Wind monster. As part of my deck, which is a Red-Eyes Deck, I created a Synchro card for this series, Red-Eyes End Dragon. As it’s name suggests, it has the ability of destruction.

Red-Eyes End Dragon

It destroys all monsters on the field of it’s owner and forbids him/her from summoning or setting monsters.

Plus, it can destroy all cards on the opponent’s side of the field by reducing it’s ATK Points to zero. However, it’s fire back may be to strong, it can be countered in different ways. One of the best way is to use “Forbidden Chalice”.

Not only it gives Red-Eyes a 400-ATK points boost, it restores Red-Eyes’ ATK back to 3000. Making a total 3400 points direct atack beatstick!

Planet GJ 1214b orbiting its red dwarf star. The Hubble telescope will reveal whether it is suitable for life. Artist's impression: David A. Aguilar/CfA

The planet is nearly three times as large as Earth and made almost entirely of water, forming a global ocean more than 15,000km deep.

Astronomers detected the alien world as it passed in front of its sun, a red dwarf star 40 light years away in a constellation called Ophiuchus, after the Greek for “snake holder”.

The discovery, made with a network of amateur telescopes, is being hailed as a major step forward in the search for planets beyond our solar system that are hospitable to life as we know it.

Measurements suggest the planet is shrouded in a thick atmosphere of hydrogen and helium that blocks visible light from its sun, plunging the watery surface into permanent darkness. The weight of the atmosphere keeps the water liquid despite it being a searing 120C to 282C.

Writing in the journal Nature, David Charbonneau at the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics describes how his team used a suite of eight amateur-sized telescopes to spot the planet as it moved across the face of its star, which is less than 0.5% as bright as our own sun.

The telescopes picked up a slight dimming in light from the star as the waterworld, named GJ1214b, passed in front of it every 1.6 days. The planet has a radius 2.7 times as large as the Earth’s and orbits at a distance of only two million kilometres from its star. Our own planet circles the sun at an average distance of around 150 million kilometres.

“It would be very difficult to imagine life as we know it on the surface. It’s hot and dark and there are probably no rocky surfaces like we have on Earth,” said Charbonneau.

Charbonneau heads the MEarth project, which trains telescopes on a class of star called M-dwarfs or red dwarfs, which are much cooler and dimmer than our own sun. Planets orbiting close to these can lie in what astronomers call the “Goldilocks zone”, where temperatures are neither too hot nor too cold for water to flow and life to flourish.

“We’ve found this planet in the first few months of MEarth being in operation, so we are either extremely lucky or these kinds of planets are very common,” Charbonneau said.

“In time, we expect to find planets that are further away from their parent stars and so are likely to have surface temperatures much closer to those found on Earth,” he added.

The latest planet is only a stone’s throw away in astronomical terms, meaning scientists will be able to turn the Hubble Space Telescope towards it and analyse its atmosphere, potentially revealing signs of life. Charbonneau’s team has already requested time on the space telescope.

“Using the Hubble, we can look at the atmosphere and say not only whether it’s habitable, but whether it’s inhabited,” Charbonneau told the Guardian. “If we find oxygen in the atmosphere things will get really interesting, because on Earth all the oxygen in the atmosphere comes from life.”

After spotting GJ1214b in orbit, the astronomers measured tiny movements in the parent star as the planet circled around it. From these wobbles they calculated the mass of the planet to be 6.6 times as great as the Earth’s. The most likely composition of the planet is 75% water, with 22% silicon and 3% iron forming a solid core, the scientists report.

In an accompanying article, Geoffrey Marcy, an astronomer at the University of California in Berkeley, said the extrasolar planet or “exoplanet” provides “the most watertight evidence so far for a planet that is something like our own Earth outside our solar system”.

Zachory Berta, a co-author on the latest paper, said: “Despite its hot temperature, this appears to be a waterworld. It is much smaller, cooler and more Earth-like than any other known exoplanet.” Some of the planet’s water is expected to be in an exotic form called ice VII, a crystalline form of water that exists under immense pressures.

Astronomers have discovered more than 400 planets beyond our solar system in the past twenty years. Two dedicated space missions, the French space agency’s Corot telescope and Nasa’s Kepler telescope have been launched to look for Earth-sized rocky planets in stars’ Goldilocks zone that could be hospitable to life.

A computer simulation shows how invisible dark matter coalesces in halos (shown in yellow). Photograph: Science Photo Library

For 80 years, it has eluded the finest minds in science. But tonight it appeared that the hunt may be over for dark matter, the mysterious and invisible substance that accounts for three-quarters of the matter in the universe.

In a series of coordinated announcements at several US laboratories, researchers said they believed they had captured dark matter in a defunct iron ore mine half a mile underground. The claim, if confirmed next year, will rank as one the most spectacular discoveries in physics in the past century.

Tantalising glimpses of dark matter particles were picked up by highly sensitive detectors at the bottom of the Soudan mine in Minnesota, the scientists said.

Dan Bauer, head of the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search (CDMS), said the group had spotted two particles with all the expected characteristics of dark matter. There is a one in four chance that the result is due to some other effect in the underground detectors, Bauer told a seminar at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago.

Rumours that Bauer’s group was on the verge of making an announcement surfaced on physicists’ blogs a few weeks ago. Though tentative, tonight’s results triggered an immediate wave of excitement in the science community.

“If they have a real signal, it’s a seriously big deal. The scale on which people are looking for dark matter is vast,” said Gerry Gilmore at Cambridge University’s institute of astronomy. “Dark matter is what created the structure of the universe and is essentially what holds it together. When ordinary matter falls into lumps of dark matter it turns into galaxies, stars, planets and people. Without it, we wouldn’t be here,” Gilmore said.

Scientists have debated the existence of dark matter since 1933, when the Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky argued that a distant cluster of galaxies would fall apart were it not for the gravitational pull of some vast but invisible cosmic substance. It was named dark matter because it does not reflect or absorb light, making it impossible to observe with telescopes.

Last year, the Hubble telescope photographed indirect evidence in the form of a ghostly halo around a distant galaxy, caused by clumps of dark matter bending light from stars as it passed by. A year before that, scientists led by the British astronomer Richard Massey, at the California Institute of Technology, published the first 3D map of dark matter, which revealed how it clung around galaxies and held clusters of them together.

Dark matter is likely to be made up of a variety of invisible particles that not only explain the missing mass of the universe, but shed light on some of the most profound mysteries in science.

Some dark matter particles could explain why ordinary matter is not radioactive, while others may help scientists understand why time – so far as we know – always runs forward.

“The real impact of this is psychological, in that it shows we’re getting close to being able to do a whole new kind of physics,” Gilmore said. “We know there are properties of the universe that should correspond to new families of particles. One of the great mysteries is why time only goes in one direction, and one candidate to explain that is a dark matter particle.”

Many scientists believe dark matter particles will turn out to be proof of a theory called supersymmetry, which predicts that every kind of particle in the universe is paired with a heavier twin. Finding evidence for supersymmetry is one of the major goals of the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, in Switzerland.

Dark matter particles are peculiar because they pass through objects as if they were not there. Their aloof nature has led scientists to name them weakly interacting massive particles, or Wimps. Vast amounts of these are thought to be constantly moving through the Earth and everything on it, us included, as the solar system spins around our galaxy.

The detectors at the Soudan mine are buried underground to shield them from other kinds of particles that bombard Earth from space. To detect dark matter, scientists have to wait for the extremely rare occasion when a dark matter particle knocks into an atomic nucleus in the detector and makes it vibrate.

Detectors in the mine will be upgraded in the new year before the search for more dark matter continues, Bauer said.
The hunt for dark matter

What is dark matter?

The night sky might seem full of stars and planets, but what we see is only 4% of the stuff of the universe. Some three-quarters is dark matter, an invisible substance that scientists believe is there because of the gravitational force it exerts.

What does dark matter do?

Dark matter stretches throughout space where it attracts ordinary matter that coalesces into galaxies of billions of stars and planets. It forms a kind of cosmic skeleton that gives the universe its structure. Many scientists believe they will find a family of invisible dark matter particles, each of which plays a different role in nature. Some may even explain why time always goes in the same direction.

Who came up with the idea?

The Swiss astronomer Fritz Zwicky postulated dark matter in 1933. He noticed that a distant cluster of galaxies would fall apart were it not for the extra gravitational pull of some mysterious unseen mass in space. Astronomers verified his prediction by showing that stars swirling around distant galaxies zipped around so fast they must be held in place by extra gravitational forces.

Does everyone believe in dark matter?

A minority of astronomers and physicists dismiss dark matter as a fudge. Instead, they suspect that the strength of gravity varies from place to place, in a way that explains why stars do not hurtle out of spinning galaxies. The theory is known as Modified Newtonian Dynamics (Mond).

• This article was amended on Friday 18 December 2009. We said dark matter accounts for three-quarters of the mass of the universe; we meant to say three-quarters of the matter of the universe. This has been corrected.

“We are looking at 2010 with guarded optimism,’ Schumacher said after hearing the presentation of the leaders of these major growth drivers at the ECCP’s recent forum dubbed Economic Outlook 2010: The Philippine Business Environment in Light of Developments in the World Economy.

Presenting their respective industry’s projections for 2010 were Philippine Agricultural Development and Commercial Corp. president Mariz Agbon, Business Process Association of the Philippines chief executive officer Oscar Sañez, Jones Lang Lasalle Philippines Inc. chairman Jose Fernando Camus, Semiconductor Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. chairman Arthur Young, Philippine Travel Agencies Association president Ma. Paz Alberto, and Philippine Retail Association vice president Paul Santos.

Young said the electronics industry, which directly employs 450,000 individuals and another 1.20 million indirectly, expects a double-digit growth in 2010 and rake in $29 billion to $30 billion in export revenues. This, Young said, will help the industry recover lost footing in 2008 and 2009 when the industry suffered declining export receipts.

Young sees the uptick in consumer spending in the United States and increase in the purchase of hybrid cars, smart phones, PDAs, laptops, flat panels and medical equipment in fast-growing markets such as China and India as good reasons to be optimistic.

Sañez, meanwhile, said revenues from the BPO sector is expected to grow to $9.50 billion in 2010 and then $12 billion in 2011, especially with big investments spreading rapidly to the countryside. Aside from the voice segment, growth will be strong in back-office services such as publishing, finance, corporate services, design, and creative services.

Agbon, for his part, said businessmen from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Korea have expressed interest to invest in the country’s agriculture sector which makes the outlook over the next five years very positive.

Agbon said the 2005 to 2010 medium term plan of creating two million hectares of agricultural land is also almost accomplished with 1.60 million hectares already covered.

On the tourism side, Alberto said there will be a notable expansion in tourist arrivals over the next two years with major hotels slated to open next year. Arrivals, both of foreign visitors and balikbayans, could go up by 16 percent as they come here to enjoy shopping; eco-tourism; and from meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions.

The passage of the new Tourism Law, Alberto said, will help the country address its deficiencies in promotions, infrastructure and product diversity.

Camus said tourism and BPO firms will help the property sector intensify its growth with the need for more Grade A office spaces for the outsourcing firms, as well as new hotels and airports to service the influx of tourists.

Santos said retail expansion in 2010 will be more pronounced in the provinces as retailers have noticed that people are willing to spend money where they live if given the opportunity. Consumer spending will also go to higher gears due to the 2010 general elections.

(Source: Manila Bulletin)

By contrast, much about the human brain still remains a mystery. That is particularly true when it comes to understanding how the brain ages.

Part of the mystery is due to the fact that, until recently, people did not have the same lifespan as they do today-now an average 75 years, up from 47 years in 1900. This means there has been precious little time to study brain aging, says David Walsh, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology. He says, “Theoretically, this is a whole new world.”

But research on how this three pound organ ages is speeding ahead-pushed by the fact that 10,000 U.S. baby boomers hit age 50 every day. This huge group, which will soon swell the ranks of senior citizens to previously unheard of proportions, wants to know what can be done to preserve brain function as long as possible.

After all, the brain is considered our most vital organ, responsible for everything from involuntary life support functions like heartbeats and breathing to the essence of personality and memory. It contains more than 100 billion cells including neurons-the specialized cells of the nervous system responsible for the transmission of electrical impulses to and from the central nervous system. Neurons can send signals to thousands of other cells at a rate of about 200 miles per hour. Just how these neurons work-a complicated system involving various chemicals (neurotransmitters) and electrical impulses-is only slowly coming to light.

Until recently, brain aging-and everything that entails, from the annoying inconveniences of age-related memory loss to more serious conditions like Alzheimer’s and dementia-was equated with neuron failure. “I think historically the subject was thought to be very simple: that brain neurons were lost from birth onwards,” explains Caleb Finch, Ph.D., the ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging and a professor of gerontology and biological sciences. “Now it is really clear that if you don’t have a specific disease that causes loss of nerve cells, then most, if not all, of the neurons remain healthy until you die. That’s a big change, and it has only come about in the last 10 years.”

One reason for the change: improved technology like higher resolution magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) scans. These help scientists pinpoint the parts of the brain that function or fail as individuals age. The technology has also generated a wealth of information about the physical changes in the aging brain, including:

Brain weight and volume decrease. On average, the brain loses 5-10 percent of its weight between the ages of 20 and 90.

The grooves on the surface of the brain widen, while the swellings on the surface become smaller.

So-called “neurofibriallary tangles,” decayed portions of the branch-like dentricles that extend from the neurons, increase.

“Senile plaques,” or abnormally hard clusters of damaged or dying neurons, form.

Along with realizing these physical changes in the brain, one of the big surprises in recent years is data that suggests cognitive decline like age-related memory loss is not due to neuron loss, as previously thought. Instead, scientists now believe changes in function as we age have more to do with complex chemical interactions in the brain that occur over time.

For example, recent studies suggest plaques and tangles-long considered a cause of Alzheimer’s-may not turn out to be the culprits after all. A study in the Journal of Neurophysiology examined the brains of elderly people who were fully functioning up to their death and found them to have a large number of plaques and tangles that looked exactly like Alzheimer’s. But none of the subjects had displayed Alzheimer’s symptoms.

Instead, new research suggests Alzheimer’s may be connected to inflammatory processes associated with aging. Finch recently released findings of a new type of amyloid aggregates. Amyloid is a hard deposit that results from tissue degeneration, which forms in the presence of inflammatory proteins in the brain. The inflammatory proteins occur to a certain extent in all maturing adults, he notes. The soluble amyloid aggregates appear to form in the parts of the brain particularly affected by Alzheimer’s (including the hippocampus, the area responsible for forming new memory). Once there, they appear to interfere with the brain’s basic mechanism of long-term memory well before they reach a level high enough to kill brain cells, Finch says.

More evidence that brain aging is related to chemical changes in the brain comes from studies that suggest an age-related loss of dopamine, the brain chemical associated with pleasure and reward, slows metabolism in the regions of the brain related to cognition. Other research has explored conflicting data about the potential benefit of taking estrogen to reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease for post-menopausal women.

Further complicating the picture is that these changes do not happen to everyone at the same pace, notes Helena Chui, M.D., the Raymond and Betty McCarron Chair in Neurology. Chui is also co-director of the McCarron Clinical Research and Education Center, headquartered at the USC-affiliated Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center in Downey, Calif. “Certain brain injuries occur suddenly, like a stroke or head injury. Neurodegenerative processes such as Alzheimer’s disease, on the other hand, occur gradually,” says Chui. “Furthermore, different people develop plaques and tangles at different rates. At some threshold, symptoms become noticeable. At this point, we don’t know all of the factors that determine these rates. Genetics, however, play an important role.”

The genetic influence on the rate of brain aging is the focus of new research. Jeff Victoroff, M.D., associate professor of clinical neurology at the Keck School and director of neurobehavior at Rancho Los Amigos, suggests, “Genetic evolution may have even favored those who, once they hit the old age of 35, retained the capacity to teach and provide emotional support rather than those whose brains’ limited resources were devoted to new learning.” In evolution 100,000 years ago, he says, “It was probably rare for people to live past age 40 or 50, which means there was very little evolutionary selective pressure to make the brain work when we’re 60 or 70 or 80. That’s probably why all brains decline with aging.”

What is most intriguing about the new findings in brain aging is that they indicate that the rate of change may be hastened or slowed by lifestyle factors. For instance, maintaining a lower weight might affect brain aging. As far back as the 1970s, Finch’s experiments with mice found that those on restricted diets had lower rates of brain aging disease like Alzheimer’s. Now, “We’re trying to understand how cutting back the food intake in rodents slows the inflammatory process,” Finch says. “I think one possibility is that it lowers blood glucose levels. Blood glucose is very reactive as a chemical and can cause damage to proteins.” The opposite condition is diabetes-a condition with elevated blood sugar-and, Finch says, those with diabetes typically show more signs of brain aging than non-diabetic individuals.

Other lifestyle factors that may affect brain aging:

Education: Those who ‘use it, don’t lose it’ as quickly, according to studies

that compare brain function in adults who attended college and those who did not. “We hesitate to say the brain is like a muscle. But using patterns of connectivity over and over and having those patterns prove useful to us in our life probably makes the synapses broader and the connections between neurons in these valuable and well-used systems stronger, “says Victoroff. One recent study showed that cognitive challenge actually created new neurons in the adult rodent brain, “which means that the old idea that mammals have all the neurons in the brain when born is probably wrong,” says Victoroff. “We expect to discover which environmental stimuli such as physical and mental exercise, are most likely to turn on new neurons in the adult brain.”

Exercise: Those who walk rapidly for as little as 45 minutes three times

a week significantly improve age-related declines in cognitive abilities, studies find.

Rest: There is new evidence that suggests a regular pattern of eight hours

of sleep per night helps protect against age-related chronic illnesses including memory loss.

Hypertension: Studies suggest hypertension speeds up normal brain

shrinkage and loss of mental abilities. Even those on antihypertensive medication have accelerated aging and shrinking of the brain.

Stress: When under stress, the human body produces a hormone called

cortisol. In small amounts, it can improve memory-which is what helps emotional events stay vividly in our minds. In larger amounts, however, it wears away at the neurons in the hippocampus.

Head trauma: It has long been known that boxers get punch drunk and

their brains exhibit changes that mimic Alzheimer’s disease, only much earlier, notes Finch. A new series of studies show that former soccer players have declines in cognitive function in proportion to their use of their heads in propelling the ball. “Here is a sport that is becoming increasingly popular. Are kids setting themselves up for early mental deterioration every time there’s a sharp blow to the head? That’s something that needs to be investigated,” Finch says.

Does this mean taking these specific steps will keep your brain in top condition? Although they acknowledge that genes play a large role in predetermining your brain’s aging, researchers are beginning to agree that taking care of your health might help your long term brain function. This topic is explored in Victoroff’s new book “Saving Your Brain,” which Bantam will publish in spring 2002. In the book, he suggests steps like strict control of blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol, diet, the use of certain vitamins, physical exercise and mental exercise to help keep the brain functioning at its peak. “These are probably things 15 year olds should be doing, because the effect on the brain is cumulative,” he says. “It certainly helps if someone in their 40s, 50s or even 70s starts to take the right steps, but the younger you are, the larger an impact it will have on delaying brain aging.”

Finch, Chui, Victoroff and others are optimistic that the future will bring better understanding-and treatment-of brain aging and its associated symptoms. Drugs now in preclinical or Phase I human trials to treat Alzheimer’s, says Chui, may decrease the levels of amyloids in the brain. Other experiments now underway suggest that deterioration in critical brain networks may be restored by gene therapy-transplanting brain cells genetically programmed to release a protein called nerve growth factor. The research focuses on a particular set of brain cells deep in the brain known as cholinergic neurons, which are shown to deteriorate rapidly in those with Alzheimer’s disease.

“Studies show that the human brain is built to go for an amazing length of time,” says Finch. Ten years from now, “we’ll have a greater understanding of the long-term risk factors that have adverse effects on the brain. We’ll know which people are more at risk earlier in their lives because of their genes. Knowing more about genes and the environment is not likely to yield a magic bullet, but each decade will nibble away at the adverse aspects of brain aging.”

(source: http://www.usc.edu/hsc/info/pr/hmm/01spring/brain.html)

Richard Nicholson of the British Bulletin of Medical Ethics said that cloning research may well be “sowing the seeds of our own destruction.”

Human cloning involves many social, moral, and ethical considerations. It may be useful to experiment with goats, pigs, deer, rabbits, rats, cats, mules, and horses clones, but the scenario of human cloning chills my enthusiasm. I would like to state my position: No to commercial human cloning, we have made enough mistakes, and I am personally not ready for such trials of my humanity. Human cloning is perverse, abnormal, unhealthy and unnecessary. Unnecessary because it is an unjustifiable waste of human and material resources and efforts have statistically high failure rates. The more failures, the more it becomes less attractive those who want to be Nobel Prize winners. Human cloning is similar to nuclear weapons, dangerous in the hands of potential terrorist clones, controversial issue that is one of the hottest debatable subjects. I have studied websites to find out what people think of a designer human being. The opinions are divided. According to the survey conducted and has been posted on the website, some people are for human cloning as an emotional compensation for our lives’ naturally ending in deaths; others are horrified with this unhealthy idea.
Cloning is considered the great medical breakthrough of our age. As the definition says clones are copies of another human’s physical look or what he/she likes to eat, but a person’s whole personality is based on the experiences in his/her life and there is no method of cloning that can copy the personality of the host. There are medical disadvantages in human cloning, which make the benefits less effective. It was first thought that stem cells could only be harvested from embryos, but today’s researchers are finding that any human cell can be manipulated to replace any tissue of the body.

Health risks from mutation of genes – an abnormal baby would be a nightmare comes true. The technique is extremely risky right now. A particular worry is the possibility that the genetic material used from the adult will continue to age so that the genes in a newborn baby clone could be – say – 30 years old or more on the day of birth. Many attempts at animal cloning produced disfigured monsters with severe abnormalities. So that would mean creating cloned embryos, implanting them and destroying those that look imperfect as they grow in the womb.

One of the major disadvantages of cloning is on ethics, which is center of debates. The concept of cloning is hurting a lot of human sentiments and human beliefs. There are controversies on whether cloning is ethical or not. The controversy is storming the world and took a great shape. The whole world seems to get divided in the issues relating to cloning. The Christianity as well as Judaism does not support the destruction of embryo or the creation of artificial human being.
Human life on the Earth relies on the diversity of genes. And the diversity of genes come from parents having different sets of genes. The most horrendous part of identical genes is that it will weaken our power and adaptations, which make us subjected to great diseases easily. In addition, human cloning is just copying the identical genes, which means it will decrease the diversity of genes.

Furthermore, the beauty of humanity lies in the differences we see in each other. Cloning would eliminate surprise and predict expectancy.

The clergymen opined human cloning is playing the role of god. Bishop of Catholic Albert Moraczewski mentioned that the power that God gives humans is over the fish, the birds, and all animals, domestic and wild, large and small. (Genesis, chapter1, verse 26). Adam and Eve have all the power, except they cannot eat the fruit of the tree that gives knowledge of what is good and what is bad. If they do so, they will die. So, Albert Moraczewski believes that human cloning is out of the God’s permission. There is no evidence that proves humans have the right to change God’s will.
Human cloning transgresses nature, because it is not via the natural reproductive process, which is by a man and a woman. Human cloning is creating life.

A clone makes no differences as us. A clone must eat, drink and carry out any other metabolic processes in order to survive. The clone may even be better than his original host. It would be inhumane to treat them as ‘special species’. If human is cloned, this will turn us to be a property which can be sold to anybody else. In other words, selling humans is unethical, inhumane and immoral.
The basic concept of a family is a couple falls in love and determines to care each other. Then the couple may decide to have children which they will love them dearly. But parents of clones might value their children according to how much they look like to themselves. Cloning, as a result, undermine the basic elements of loving, nurturing family and to accept each child as a unique individual.

Cloning may arouses social side effects. It is ridiculous that reproduction is separated from love and other human relationship. The entire world may use cloning for eugenics that would lead to efforts to selectively breed children who are of more intelligent, heavier and extraordinary.
As mentioned above, in human cloning, all human beings will be identical. Which means that entire human is at a risk of getting infected by the same type of pathogen. In scientific point of view, if everyone has the same type of genes and they are closed to each other they may not defend against the same kind of serious disease. Then cloning will be detrimental in terms of a great disaster.

Another negative effect of cloning is inbreeding, as everyone has the same genotype and keep reproducing among themselves. This would lead us to our own extinction.

Would you support the idea of cloning yourself? Why are investors moving away from human cloning?

California was the first state to ban reproductive cloning. Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Rhode Island, and some others followed it. Arizona and Missouri have restrictions on the use of public funds for cloning. Maryland prohibits the use of state stem cell research funds for reproductive cloning. Several states ban therapeutic cloning and cloning for research purposes. Virginia prohibits the possession of the product of human cloning.

Human cloning is not clearly defined as a human being. It is a created human life whose nucleus was transferred from a human cell. This unclear definition is purposeful, since it does not say directly whether a human clone is like us or not. I do not know why, but for me human cloning is associated with another creature of the same kind that would completely lack morality and ethics.

Ng makita ka sa silid-aklatan
Nanginig aking buong katawan
Tinangkan kong ika’y tabihan
Ngunit ako ay iyong iniwan

Mahirap man tanggapin
Ngunit ako’y tanga rin
Pinipigilan ang aking damdamin
Mga salita’y tila mamahalin

Ikaw ay aking iniibig,
Malayo’t ako’y manginginig
Manunuyot sa ilalim ng init
Ika’y pagkain at aking tubig

Kahit ako ma’y iyong pagtabuyan
Kahit ilang bese mong iwanan
Kahit pa man ako’y iyong saktan
Mananatili ako, kalian pa man

Monsters:

> Divine Dragon – Ragnarok x1

> Red-Eyes B. Dragon x2

> Ally of Justice – Cyclone Creator x1

> Dark Resonator x1

> Exploder Dragon x1

> Lord of D. x2

> Majestic Dragon x1

> Mirage Dragon x2

> Mystic Tomato x2

> Red-Eyes B. Chick x2

> Red-Eyes Darkness Dragon x2

> Red-Eyes Darkness Metal Dragon x1

> Red-Eyes Wyvern x3

> The Dark-Hex-Sealed Fusion x2

Spells:

> Allure of Darkness x3

> Dimension Explosion x1

> Dragon’s Mirror x2

> Future Fusion x1

> Polymerization x2

Traps:

> Birthright x2

> Declaration of Rebirth x1

> Destruction Jammer x2

> Elemental Absorber x1

> Escape from the Dark Dimension x2

> The Grave of the Enkindling x2

Extra Deck (15 cards)

> B. Skull Dragon x2

> F.G.D. x2

> King Dragun x2

> Black Rose Dragon x1

> Brionac, Dragon of the Ice Barrier x1

> Exploder Dragonwing x1

> Iron Chain Dragon x1

> Majestic Demon Dragon x1

> Majestic Star Dragon x1

> Red Dragon Archfiend x1

> Stardust Dragon x1

> Trident Dragion x1

I wish I could play every known tunes
Play it more than the Jupiter’s moons
Music will echo through thousand rooms
Bouncing back to back from room to rooms

I wish I could run miles of thousand
Travel from one island to island
Spread my love from ocean to sand
And I’ll share it with you, hand to hand

I wish I could sing a melody
And release the song inside of me
Shout to the whole world and let you see
That love is shared between you and me

How I wish I could take you tonight
Place where no one has ever laid sight
I wish I could hug and hold you tight
And wait ’til morn’, before the sun’ bright

Mahirap man tanggapin,
Ngunit ako’y tanga rin
Pinipigilan ang aking damdamin;
Mga salita’y tila mamahalin;
At siyang ayaw gamitin.

Ikaw ay aking iniibig
Malayo’t ako’y manginginig,
Manunuyot sa ilalim ng init
Ika’y pagkain at aking tubig
Ikaw ang anghel at pag-ibig