News

BAMBAN, Tarlac – The aeta culture may be slowly fading away, but tribesmen remain optimistic on the future.

During the “Araw ng Katutubo” spearheaded by the UST Office for Community Development of last October 25, Fernando Mallari, 50, leader of Sitio Haduan, told the Varsitarian that many in the younger generations of their village no longer want to practice traditions inherited from their ancestors. “Dahil sa impluwensiya mula sa kapatagan, nahahati kami,” Mallari said.

One of the reasons for this is that younger aetas want to imitate the way the “unats” (straight-haired) wear clothes, especially those they see on TV.

Despite this, he still sees hope for their culture and traditions. Elders are starting to take measures to preserve their way of life, like greater use of the ethnic dialects, Mag-antsi and Sambal, in conversing with each other.

FOR BEING nowhere during that one week in November dedicated to promoting students’ rights, leaders of student organizations got a mouthful from no less than the “ARSA” or Assistant to the Rector for Student Affairs herself, Cristina Castro-Cabral.

At the twice-a-year dialogue called the “ARSA’s Hour,” Cabral used a 90-minute speech to take student leaders to task for the poor turnout during the much-hyped Student’s Rights and Welfare Week or STRAW, where only eight out of more than 170 accredited University-wide and college-based student organizations were represented.

Cabral also warned student organizations who have been conducting activities without approval, and even threatened to evict those who have not been taking care of their erstwhile spanking-new offices at the Tan Yan Kee Student Center.

ATTENDANCE and punctuality are now “technological” musts at the College of Architecture.

To better monitor the daily time record of professors, the college has bought a state-of-the-art device called the biometric bundy system.

Professors now have to have their fingers scanned by the machine, which has a fingerprint database, to record their attendance.

“Before this system was (introduced), the attendance of the faculty members was checked by a staff that would go around the building and check each classroom,” Architecture Dean John Joseph Fernandez said. “And because (Beato Angelico) is an eight-storey building, by the time (the staffer reaches a classroom), half of the period has already passed. So you wouldn’t know who came in late and if the classes are already dismissed.”

THE RACE to 400 books for the quadricentennial of the University continues with the release of this school year’s initial 25 titles in both fiction and non-fiction.

From theology to literature to medicine-related disciplines written in both Filipino and English, the books were launched last September 2 at the World Trade Training Center, where the authors got the first copies.

“We hope to publish 15 more books this coming January in line with the University week,” said John Jack Wigley assistant to the director of the UST Publishing House. “So far, we have been consistent in hitting the 40 books-a-year mark.”

The goal to produce 400 books by 2011 started in 2001 and as of the last count, 265 titles have been released.

IT’S ABOUT time.

For hardly showing the real time, classroom wall clocks at the Faculty of Arts and Letters have been removed and the dean is planning to install a Thomasian version of “Big Ben” that will finally give the exact time.

The clocks’ inconsistencies had brought confusion and hardly anybody could tell whether the professors or students were late for class. Classes have also overlapped because of disagreements over the correct time, adversely affecting the academic operations of the Faculty.

1. Switch on the wireless device.

2. Click the message that will appear on the system tray.

3. Select UST@400 Unending Grace at the window that will appear once the message is clicked. Another window will appear stating that the network type is being detected.

4. Click change advanced settings in the window. The wireless network connection 2 properties window will pop out. Select the wireless networks tab and click the advanced button.

5. Select access point (infrastructure) networks only in the window that will pop out and click the close button.

6. Click the properties button in the wireless networks tab. The UST@400 Unending Grace properties window will pop out.

7. Click the authentication tab.

8. Click the properties button. The protected EAP properties window will pop out

THE SANTO Tomas e-Service Providers (Steps) is set to embark on its biggest project to date – establishing the nearly high-speed wireless Internet connection in UST through Wireless Fidelity (WiFi).

WiFi provides wireless transmission of data through radio signals sent by a hotspot or access point, which is connected to a wired network. This will augment UST’s existing cyberspace connection and compensate for the fluctuation in cable and wire connections.

WiFi access has been approved for launching following a successful pilot testing at the Plaza Mayor in November 2006. The response from students was overwhelming, judging from the number of those who attended the demonstration, which prompted Steps to decide that the Thomasian community is WiFi-ready.

TO REDUCE potential dosing errors in children under two years old, local pharmacies, including the University of Santo Tomas Hospital (USTH) Pharmacy, are now pulling out Dimetapp oral drops, an infant cold medicine, from the drugstore shelves.

In an open letter, last October 17, Wyeth Philippines Inc, the local manufacturer of Dimetapp oral drops, stated that although many consumers are able to use the drug effectively, children under two years old are most at risk to overdose and accidental ingestion of the medicine.

ACCORDING to Augusto Morales II, Physics professor of the UST Graduate School, dark matter is matter that cannot be seen or touched. Because it cannot be directly observed, its presence can be inferred from the effect of gravity on visible matter.

“Since gravity holds almost all astronomical masses together, it is standard practice in astronomy to use gravity to estimate the masses of objects in space,” Morales said.

Morales claims that there is insufficient scientific basis on what dark matter is made that studies about its origin is limited.

The missing mass

According to Morales, in order to determine the existence of potential sources of energy in the universe, scientists must first determine the overall mass of the universe.