|
Thursday, December 30, 2004
One good ending (or two or three)
By Althea P. Capacio
Not all news is bad news. At least not if you want to recall the good things that happened this ear. It’s one way to end the year. But the list can go longer. Just log on to Google and type “good news” as your search words. You’d be surprised how many there are.
The first one is surprising, given the number of high-tech toys and gadgets kids have these days. But according to the Good News Network website, children still love to read, after all. At least, as far as Harry Potter books are concerned.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix sold more than 1.8 million copies in one day in the UK. One seller dished out 220 books per minute.
Wall Street Journal was quoted elsewhere as saying that the book “made book publishing history this weekend. Barnes & Noble Inc., the nation’s largest bookstore chain, was on track to sell one million books in the first 48 hours, as much as it had expected to sell in a week…”
Since the book is some 900 pages, that means several days of reading for each child. That’s voluntary reading. Knowing how difficult it is to get students to read, this is a cause for celebration and leaves the heart warming to the less tech-savvy older generation called grandparents.
Technology is not bad, after all. Mothers are grateful, too, to technology for creating CD storybooks. Imagine the salabat one can avoid drinking because of the talking CDs. Plus, children not only get the right intonation patterns, they get the authentic speakers to listen to and imitate.
Another good news that this writer will be on the lookout for in the future is the story about old garbage becoming oil. This isn’t just fantasy, several companies are already making progress.
According to ABC News Futuretech, Startech Corp. in Connecticut and the Solena Group in Washington, D.C. use molten hot plasma to scorch garbage in an oxygen-starved container to a temperature or three times as hot as the sun. This breaks down the garbage “creating a stone-like material that can be used in pavement or kitchen tiles, as well as hydrogen-rich gases that are then burned as fuel.”
Changing World Technologies of Pennsylvania, meanwhile, places water on the garbage then applies extreme heat and pressure to separate the gas, light oil, heavy oil and solid carbon from the mixture. The gas is burned, the water is drained, and the oils and carbon are sold as energy sources.
The technology is fairly new and expensive so many companies are with a wait-and-see attitude.
“But in Europe, Asia and elsewhere, tighter environmental standards have prompted a greater willingness to test the new technologies. Plants using the plasma technology are operating or are under construction in Spain, Italy, Germany, Australia and Japan.”
Finally, for working moms out there, this should cheer you up. Times being hard has probably forced many households to have both parents work for a living. Well, this is not the first time a study like this was made. But the UK study helps reinforce old theories.
The recent study shows that kids “in day care facilities do not suffer negative consequences as a result of separation from their mothers.”
For 10 years, the study watched the development of 14,000 children in their first three years. They learned that these kids did not suffer any “measurable psychological or behavioral ill-effects because of their mothers’ absence.” The study looked into how active the children were and how likely they were to be moody, fussy or display other signs of emotional problems.
The working women apparently “still spent much time playing, talking and singing with their children, so their kids were likely to receive the same amount of stimulation as children who stayed with mom.”
(December 30, 2004 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
Join the Sun.Star message board.Click here. |
|
[return to top]
[home]
[network page]
|
LOCAL NEWS
BUSINESS
OPINION
SPORTS
LIFESTYLE
FEATURE
SUPERBALITA
WEEKEND
|
