These week I started using Twitter and for my surprise this network it’s really getting useful. At first look, I thought it was just other stupied social network create to integrated people, but I started to change my ideia. Different from other social network like orkut, where users want to be social, get more and more friends and find beautiful people to meet, Twitter has the purpose to integrate people that have same interests and, sometimes, do similar things.
The idea is to post what you are doing at the moment with 140 characteres. Of course, if you just say “I’m having luch” or “I’m sleeping” this can get a little boring. However, if you post sentences like “Looking for free anti-virus, may anybody help me?” things start to become interesting. So, you can find quickly answers, references, links for yours questions or for something that you are doing at the moment.
As a normal social network, in Twitter you will have friends, kwown as “followers”, representing people that follow your activities, and “following”, representing people that you follow. So you can see what your friends are doing and vice versa. This create a network where you can share interets, doubts, links, and so on.
To learn more about it, go on http://twitter.com and to facilitate things you can also use a Twitter client, found in http://www.twhirl.org/
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Fernando
A team at London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital have carried out the treatment on the UK’s first patients as part of a clinical study into the therapy. The artificial eye, connected to a camera on a pair of glasses, has been developed by US firm Second Sight.
It said the technique may be able to restore a basic level of vision, but experts warned it was still early days. The trial aims to help people who have been made blind through retinitis pigmentosa, a group of inherited eye diseases that affects the retina.
The disease progresses over a number of years, normally after people have been diagnosed when they are children. It is estimated between 20,000 to 25,000 are affected in the UK.
It is not known whether the treatment has helped the two patients – both men in their fifties – to see and any success is only likely to be in the form of light and dark outlines, but doctors are optimistic.
Lyndon da Cruz, the eye surgeon who carried out the operations last week, said the treatment was “exciting”. “The devices were implanted successfully in both patients and they are recovering well from the operations.”
Other patients across Europe and the US have also been involved in the trial.
The bionic eye, known as Argus II, works via the camera which transmits a wireless signal to an ultra-thin electronic receiver and electrode panel that are implanted in the eye and attached to the retina. The electrodes stimulate the remaining retinal nerves allowing a signal to be passed along the optic nerve to the brain.
David Head, chief executive of the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, said: “This treatment is very exciting, but it is still early days. “There is currently no treatment for patients so this device and research into stem cells therapies offers the best hope.”
Source: BBC News
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Fernando
Everyone knows that this year we will see one more edition of the Olympic Games, wich will happen in Beijing – China. But allmost people don’t know that Google created a way to you to follow the traditional Torch Relay.
“An ongoing tradition from 766 B.C. has been to ignite the torch at the ancient site in Olympia, Greece. From March 24th until the start of August, the Torch Relay will travel across Greece, into Beijing, and then around the world through cities, oceans, and even the world’s highest mountain, Mt. Qomolangma (Mt. Everest). The relay’s purpose is to spread the Olympic spirit as well as the message of peace and friendship, and also ignite the passion of the people around the world.”
You can follow the Torch Relay in http://maps.google.com/help/maps/torchrelay/ , but unfortunately the Torch will not pass through Brazil this time.
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Fernando
Hello everyone,
I posted here about my desire of working abroad and what I’m doing to achieve it.
I commented about my english classes, about AIESEC and about passports.
Let’s do it in parts.
- English class: speak a good English is really important and one of my goals is the TOEFL Certificate. TOEFL isn’t essencial to apply to a company, but if you want to study at any English University, they will ask for it.
- AIESEC: I passed through AIESEC’s selective program, but I didn’t applied to it. My father and my English teacher talked to me about AIESEC and advised me on choosing another way to work abroad because some reasons.
- Passport: take your passport as fast as you can.
For those who want to be a AIESECer (AIESEC’s member), the selective program was divided in 3 parts:
- Test: students must do an English exam about text comprehension and vocabulary (10 questions) and an English essay about some Subjects (environment, China, unemployment). I choosed environment since I was reading articles about this subject to use in Imagine Cup.
- Dynamic of group: which people must integrate with each other. So we presented ourselves and later, divided in groups, we presented a project to help poor countries in some way.
- Interview: English interview with AIESEC’s members. In this part, they ask things like: “How do you know about AIESEC?”, “What contries do you want to go?”, “Define yourself in just a sentence?”. So, a little bit of training before the interview is always recommeded.
Now, maybe you are asking: Why didn’t you apply to AIESEC? Well, although I’ve refused becoming a AIESECer, I think they can help you in some way. AIESEC shows you what companies in what countries are needing employers. But, besides of the fees of R$1.200,00 you must contact the companies by yourself. It’s all up to you. As my English teacher said: “AIESEC is a way of finding work abroad, but there is others better than that.”
Now, I’m looking for other oportunities by myself, maybe it’s the cheeper way of traveling 
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Fernando
