I am just about to do some refinements or introduce finishing touches on a research work that had kept me so busy these past couple of months, one that took me even towards places far away from downtown, snatching long bus rides and toddling into bangkas ang ferries, all these over and above my main duty of college instruction.

The premise of my study was simple and plain, yet I believe that to this day, scientific scholars have yet to fully took advantage of this approach, of clearly defining the socio-economic and political routines of rural population, especially on Muslim communities, as my work is specifically focused at right now.

How do they make their living there and what potentials that awaits them in their everyday economic endeavors? Are they involved in activities that becomes futile in the long run, trapping them in the notorious cycle of poverty, leading to the general lackluster movement of our national economic life? Or do they just need a little push on the back or some encouragement?

It is of so much irony to me that major aspects of my research involves information which could be – I am afraid – common knowledge and accessible through effortless means --- this is my worry. Yet, despite of this, I should be emphasizing that verification and confirmation on these matters, no matter how routine and prevalent they are, are ultimately necessary in order to take-off towards another important query of my research.

First is knowing the livelihood activities of my targeted respondents and then determining the manner of improving on such, inculcating progress and development, mostly economic in character.

Ironic as it may seem, we realize that rural economic activities partakes through the fertile soil and the abundant sea. If not farmers, then fishermen. Farmer, fisher.

Upon this precept, developmental strategies should be focused on inherent and practiced abilities of the rural populace, such as in the methods of increasing production and of course, exponentiation of income as an end-result. And not ever to introduce them alien concepts, unless when the foundation of their economics have been resolved fully.

These are the basic premise of my present research work. I hope it would have enough wind to fly.

The vast devastation wrought about by Typhoon Ondoy had left one lasting impression on us about climate change, as the enormous amount of rainfall that was left off by the now infamous tropical storm signaled the onset of a more cataclysmic scenario about our weather, and of our environment as whole.

There lies now the singular question: Is Mother Earth Now at the Brink of Extinction?

Is humanity’s existence threatened by these evolving circumstances especially that of global warming and climate change?

For certain, the specter of global warming is now more real than ever, a truth to be told like the sun in the sky, first as a doubtful phenomenon, even just merely a few years ago, yet now as a universal truth.

With this realization, citizens of the world should all be made aware and be conscious about the nature and implications of climate change, and most importantly governments should start addressing this issue just as any other salient social issue --- current and perturbing --- and every entity should heed and follow the directions towards minimizing its harmful effects, just like perhaps crimes in the streets, drug addiction, graft and corruption, housing or health concerns.

In actuality, it is of note that climate change as a weather phenomenon had already been happening even for millions of years and of ages ago, where the earth have already had numerous steep climate shifts so many times before, having had very cold environment during the so called Ice Ages in the Paleolithic Age while having very hot and warm weather on Interglacial periods. These radical shifts in weather are said to be as a result of the Earths changing position and distance away from the sun at any given period, having lengthened modifications in the so-called Equinox of the Earth in relation to the sun.

In fact, it was because of these shifts in climate that pre-historic humans were compelled to roam away from their natural habitat, as weather changes in those ages affects supply of food (herds migrating, vegetation disappearing), thus, the providing the basis for the scientific phenomenon of the human diaspora in pre-historic times.

An innate occurrence such as volcanic eruptions are events that could actually change the Earth’s temperature in a very radical manner, and in a very different way, as sulfur dioxides released into the atmosphere by these eruptions lowers global temperature and acts as a cooling effect, albeit provisionally.

Thus, the phenomenon of climate change is not actually an absolutely new observable fact that the Earth is facing as it had been actually happening to the earth many centuries and eons ago, through cycles of Ice Ages and Interglacial Periods, at times covering almost the entire Earth surface with ice while at other times it were heated deserts and barren plains that had dominated.

However, it is a notable circumstance that the ensuing weather alterations today are mostly due to human activities, anthropogenic in character, as against the entirely natural causes of climate changes in the past. It is unprecedented in this manner.

Waste and fumes expelled into the atmosphere resulting from the highly industrial and modern routine of today’s humanity remains the foremost cause of climate change, exuding enormous amount of carbon dioxide into the environment, trapping hot gases that should have been let-off into space naturally.

Now, it should be pointed out that since the recent version of climate change is almost purely man-made, then it could actually be reversed, of course similarly through man-made methods.

In this line, every citizen should be made aware of these circumstances, that thru collective action, the threat of global warming could be combated and dispelled away completely, by taking every day measures, like disposing garbage properly, not using harmful elements as much as possible, saving on power, and preserving natural resources. Governments on one hand should implement laws and infrastructure towards this end and execute them rigorously, such as in urban planning, an effective drainage system for one, prevention of deforestation, ban on the use of harmful chemicals, etc. --- thereon treating climate change as among the most pressing social concern that the society is facing today.

Windows Live is such a heaven sent for those who necessitate online storage of files. As a college instructor, I always need to backup files online to counter USB flash breakdowns, as they often do, what with new form of viruses keeps on being invented. We all must have had that horrifying USB experience, one way or another. Sometimes, it makes me think that some mad genius out there is so mad about flash drives that he keeps on inventing and creating viruses just to break them down.

The most secure and guaranteed back-up measure would be to use our mail accounts, especially Yahoo! Mail, now with unlimited storage capacity. However, the sometimes drawn out log-in process could be so disarming when one need not to check mail anyway, but merely to store and backup.

I had for a long-time used Driveway as my storage facility before, it’s free and it has enormous capacity, allowing transfer or one-time storing of more than 10 MB files, which one could not do in other sites, like Yahoo! Briefcase for one.

Driveway was such a sturdy storage site and very efficient and fast. However, one day, I just could not log in and even if I had to request for a new password, it didn’t resolved my predicament. I had to contact support but no response came my way. I was hacked and they didn’t get me through it. And it was not easy to realize that a lot of my files---some of them I consider so pertinent---were gone in a jiffy, and since most of them were created eons ago, when I still had the old computer, some files are gone forever, as I had no other copy.

I thought that websites offering services should often have a very active and responsive support system and it ought to be illegal if they haven’t any. Otherwise, that’ll be tantamount to committing public mistrust and disturbance. It should be against web use policy.

Box.net, another online storage bin well-known for its sharp and smooth aesthetics, like fascinating dialogue boxes, has now shown some kinks as one could not log in to it as easily, one gotta try about five times to get through it. Now that’s not what I mean by efficient service. I saw that they have gone to commercializing their storage service for a fee now, so perhaps they make free accounts such a hassle that one who has it is summed up to get a price for it. That’s like a pointed gun.

But Windows Live comes now to the rescue, and it is not merely a free online storage bin, but offers lots of other nifty services, like photo and video sharing, email, browsing, instant messaging, and a horde of others. They even have free downloads for your mobile would you believe.

Skydrive, the portion there that offers free storage, ( click on ‘More’ to go to Skydrive’) allows a total of 25 GB of space and that’s more than enough for many of us.

And besides, we can rely on its reliability and long-term efficiency as it is being owned and operated by none other than the Microsoft Co., one who provides us all with the very nifty Microsoft Office. Just because of this, Windows Live should be the best free online storage bin that is available out there, and we need not look for anything else.

It is called that way because man had not known about its form and nature in a specific and categorical manner, at least not yet. It is said to be smaller than protons and neutrons and one of it has no mass at all, like the anti-mass “black hole” that is often predicted to occur incessantly throughout the universe.

A “black hole” are extra-huge and ultra-powerful spaces in the universe that is so lacking in mass that it seeps off every particle that is caught within it’s energy field, like a powerful magnet with force that is multiplied a million times; and if one goes anywhere near it, like a thousand miles even, he or she would be suck off within lightning speed.

Like those “black hole” (which remains theoretical in form despite the strong belief by scientists that it indeed exists in the realms of space), the so-called “God’s Particle” remains a very itchy mystery among scientists today as they fully believe that there should be smaller form of particles or masses other than the known matters like neutrons and protons, and they acceptably termed them as “higgs boson” .

Yesterday, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has finally tested a $ 3.8 Billion equipment that would further scatter the atom and in the process find out if there would be other smaller particles other than neutrons, protons and quarks. The gigantic experimental machine is called the Large Hadron Collider or LHC.

Initial results had showed some promise but the greatest scientists alive today, Mr. Stephen Hawking, bets that no matter what, this costly experiment would not be efficient enough to unravel and determine the existence of mysterious particles in the universe, known as “God’s particle”.

Some say that with this experiment, man is actually attempting to trespass into God’s territory, seeking knowledge that should be well-beyond human comprehension, trying to unravel the ultimate mystery of the universe, that is, the main elements that gave life to particles scattered after the Big Bang.

One of the main concerns with this experiment was that the LHC would merely lead to the discovery of more massive and more lethal weapon of mass destruction, much more malevolent than nuclear arms, and could destroy the earth possibly. And for me, that’s a very grave concern. I think man should stop at this. Man should leave God’s mystery or mysteries alone.

That way, we’d be a lot safer than we could be with finding out more powerful elements in the universe.

To know more about “God’s Particle” please read the full news article HERE and check out the CERN site.