News

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.

FEAR no more!

A 2005 study of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) in Washington, published in their newsletter Brain Briefings and official website www.sfn.org, provided a clearer treatment for the management of phobias. Breakthroughs in the treatment are introduced by redirecting the focus on the formation of new memories and targeting specific brain receptors and neurochemicals.

The phobia “antidote”

DOOMSDAY scenarios of a “dying newspaper industry” are exaggerated and the press will continue to thrive as long as there’s a crying need for truth and information, said Josephine “Pennie” Azarcon-Dela Cruz, executive Editor of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine.

A member of Varsitarian’s Batch 1976, Dela Cruz was keynote speaker of this year’s Inkblots: the UST National Campus Journalism Fellowship, the annual campus press meeting organized by the Varsitarian.

Dela Cruz urged Inkblots fellows to continue the practice of a crusading but responsible press.

“Inkblots is not about to dry up,” she declared.

AFTER over four centuries of existence, La Naval de Manila, the Philippines’ and Asia’s first canonically crowned Marian image, remains the Mother of all Marian icons for its miraculous reputation and its rich history.

The book, The Saga of La Naval: Triumph of a People’s Faith (Dominican Province of the Philippines, 2007), seeks to chronicle La Naval’s place in Philippine Church, culture and society. The 361-page coffee-table book was launched last Oct. 7 at the Santo Domingo Parish in Quezon City to mark the centennial of the canonical coronation of La Naval.

THE CANONICAL coronation is a special privilege bestowed only on a very special Marian image.

This is what Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco pointed out in his homily before the solemn re-enactment of the canonical coronation of La Naval de Manila, which was canonically crowned on orders of Pius X in 1907 in the first ever canonical coronation of any Marian image in the Philippines and Asia.

The ceremonial coronation was made during a High Mass celebrated by Ongtioco and 15 other bishops from across the country last Oct. 4 at the Sto. Domingo Church in Quezon City.

“Our saga as a nation has always been intertwined with divine faith and the story of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” Ongtioco said. “The venerated image of Our Lady of the Rosary of La Naval has through the years proven itself as a source of inspiration, and a symbol of faith and hope in times of despair.”

NO OTHER Marian image in the Philippines compares with the historical and spiritual richness of La Naval de Manila, whose divine interventions have been well-acknowledged from time immemorial.

Our Lady of La Naval continues to influence lives of Marian devotees as it did in the almost desperate but triumphant battles of Filipino-Spanish forces against the Dutch armada in the 1600s. After four centuries of devastating wars, natural calamities, and rampant sacrilegious Church robberies, La Naval has gained and received immense devotion from Filipinos, being the country’s patroness.

“We are full of gratitude because we have been bountifully blessed by God’s grace through the intercessions of Mary,” Cubao Bishop Honesto Ongtioco said in his homily during the centennial of the canonical coronation of Our Lady of La Naval.

AS I STARED at the white casket serenely adorned with white orchids, I saw my dead grandmother.

Still, things did not sink in even as I sat at the back row, staring at the people present in the wake. My aunt was crying beyond consolation, and so are my cousins. I looked away and sighed. I just didn’t understand. Why are they crying? And why don’t I feel anything?

The day of the burial came. We walked under the scorching heat of the sun, in the dusty road leading to the cemetery. It was a slow, agonizing walk and everyone around me was crying.

IS IT the task of the clergy to orient lay people toward government leadership?

According to Pampanga’s priest-governor, Eddie Panlilio, it is the clergy’s responsibility to heed this “calling.”

“We have family life ministries and youth programs, but endeavors leading to the conscious formation of potential lay public administrators seem to be non-existent,” said Panlilio, who spoke to seminarians of the UST Central Seminary during the Fourth Padre Burgos Memorial Lecture Series last Sept. 18 at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex.

“We have to admit that the clergy failed miserably in advocating these types of programs,” Panlilio said.