Smoke

Smoking is the largest public health problem in the world. Five million deaths annually are directlylinked to smoking.

A single cigarette has about 4,500 chemicals, more than 60 of them carcinogenic. There areeven radioactive substances in cigarette smoke.Nicotine addiction produces superior to cocaine orheroin.

There are 2 billion passive smokers in the world, and half the child population is in that situation.Passive smoking is a major cause of respiratory diseases in children.
The act of smoking causes problems in virtuallyevery organ in the body, because nicotineinterferes with blood circulation. In smokers, thereoccurs an increased risk of heart attack, stroke,gangrene and even amputation of limbs. The skinbecomes drier, with more wrinkles, bones canbecome weakened further, with greater chance of osteoporosis. Blood flow can also be impaired inthe ovaries, testicles and penis, leading to infertilityand impotence. In the eyes, changes may occur inthe retina, cataracts and even blindness. Smell andtaste are also much changed.

Several types of cancer are directly related tosmoking (mouth, larynx, lung), while others are more likely to occur in smokers. The lung isattacked in a cumulative way by smoking, leadingto bronchitis, pneumonia and reaching the pulmonary emphysema.

Quitting smoking improves the quality of life of theperson and all around. Smell and taste arerestored. The risk of heart disease goes down: Ayear without smoking the halves, in ten years without smoke, reaches the level of those whonever smoked.

Claudia is Schwanz Orfaliais pulmonologist /pediatrician with a degree and expertise at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Foresight

[...] See you there, Doc spendthrift, paying the bill
I read somewhere a great phrase on theRepublicans' political skill to extract from BarackObama Wall Street bailout, while blaming him for favoring the bankers, after the 2008 financial crisis.

The fact is that since then there has been acontinued advance of the Conservatives, withsupport from the media, to hang to the crisis on workers.

We saw this in Ohio, the United States and Europe.

The British magazine The Economist sets the tonefor the attack on entitlements. First, preachedagainst the 'Maharajas' of public service. Now,attacks retirements. On the cover later, the old manbiker are you, full of "privileges" after a longworking life.

The magazine says that the minimum age forretirement should be 70 years of age. Thealternative? Bankruptcy.

Tablet

According to a report in Portuguese site TekSapo, a study by the marketing team of Google's mobile came to the conclusion that one in threetablets owners spend more time with the devicethan watching television.

The poll surveyed 1,400 owners and tablets,although the sample is not very significant, it ispossible to establish some trends that canadvance significantly and quickly.

Among the respondents, 68% use the tablets atleast an hour a day. In this group, 77% guaranteethat the time they spend on their desktops orlaptops was reduced with the arrival of the tabletsand 82% say that the tablet is used mainly at home.

According to research data, games, e-mail queryand search information are the most commonactivities done with the tablet. The index alsoshows that traffic originating from these devicesare increasing, as is growing within the advertisingindustry.

Sees

Twitter

[...] The prime time by day of week

When developing the infographic on the peak hours of Twitter in Brazil, we saw him a starting point for a series of new information anddiscussions that may arise from analysis of the amount of tweets monitored by scup during the entire year of 2010.

A first direct targeting of the initial study is to see how the "prime time" in Twitter be reflectedseparately by day of week. How do people useTwitter on Sundays? Is it the same way onMondays?

What we found was quite interesting. Take a lookat infographic Here

Education

Flying to the experts, journalists and many, many curious, those leaning to "belly on the counter" of several bars in Brazil, in attempts to identify the causes of failure and success of national education 

An old adage asserts that the success of the dealer is not good unglue the "belly of the counter" in a metaphor - unhealthy - on the need for the presence of responsible business conduct in this incessantly and tirelessly. In national education, as always occurs after the release of the results of indices, such as note ENEM IDEB and municipalities, flying to the experts, journalists and many, many curious, those leaning to "belly on the counter" of several bars Brazil, in attempts to identify the causes of failure and success of national education, mirrored in data from these instruments.
The cause is the lack of a policy meritrocacia for teachers, say some. Investment in education systems, others speak. Support equipment and educational structure of schools is also cited as a source of success. As another saying also says, at such times the "ugly son has no father," but parents are left to their children beautiful, where everyone wants to be part of a collaborative effort of the success of municipalities and schools, and few look at the navel, in search to find the causes of failures measured at other institutions.
Initially, the framework of national education-and local-made for these indices can not be connected directly to a cause or even a set of them. It would ignore the contradictions that prevail in our society, the historical issues involving national education and even the political and economic conjunctures, the result of geopolitical orders. Simplify it all in simple causes to explain the particular index would be nice, friendly conversation with the "belly on the counter," but would not withstand a more accurate analysis of the issue of Brazilian education.
But then, these indices and surveys are worthless?Absolutely! Are valuable information, and indicate situations that allow the monitoring of local and temporal impacts of educational policy in order to guide discussions and educational policy. These data are not oracles miraculous reliable mirrors of reality in numbers, but they serve as bases for the evaluation of educational policy and its actors, such as components suitcase.
Like any information expressed in numbers, information from these instruments deserve careful readings, contextualized than local labels and methods of teaching, or even serving as scientific evidence that a particular formula or pedagogical fad is really the solution. Who works with education, with social issues, know that it definitely does not exist. Education is embodied in historical time, the result of joint action of the state, family, teachers and the students themselves, in a socio-economic situation, where it is complex to identify the factors that contribute decisively to this success measured .
Despite this harsh reality, one of those actors involved are little remembered in the speeches made about the successes, despite making it always mentioned when speaking of those failures are detected. We speak of those who actually are with the "belly on the counter," when it comes to education: the teacher.
Proletarian in private, with historical difficulties of better pay in public. Wrapped in a customer-supplier relationship as a service provider, the primary education teacher works with people in their youth, and faces challenges to be there, as orchestrator component of the teaching-learning process, intensified and ancillary functions other roles in complementing the failure of other institutions. About teaching, personified form, rests the responsibility for education, not being remembered in moments of glory.
Thanks to his efforts incessantly all dedication to the belly on the counter, strengthening the processes of mediation in the work of Vigotzky quoted, follows the teacher from teaching fads, drugs, school violence, organizing events, family problems and another student multitude of tasks and problems, to yet, thinking about the future of those who sit in school, do their job.
Valuing the teacher is to value it socially. It's not just salary! It is worthy and attractive salary, ongoing training, material working conditions, career opportunities, rights and duties well established and respected, democratic management and also a process of evaluation of their work involving the various issues of teaching and learning and not simply measured by indexes.
Without real and effective appreciation of the teacher-education component, add little of modern equipment, schools, beautiful, well-nourished children, good teaching materials. These resources can not do without the intermediation of the professor, because the magic of learning can not acquire its excellence without the presence of another human being who has the task of engaging all the equipment, buildings and students in a dance of knowledge to be built . With much sweat 

Pray

[...] and watch

After an exhaustive session of prayer at DiocesanIguatu Briguilino the apprentice asked if theprayers were that God approached the men.

- I will answer you with another question - theblogger said - The prayers that you make will make the sun rise tomorrow?

- Of course not! The sun rises because it obeys auniversal law!

- This is the answer to your question. God is nearus, regardless of the prayers we make.

The apprentice revolted:

- You mean that our prayers are useless?

- Absolutely. If you do not wake up early, you'll never see the sun rising. If you do not pray, but Godis always close, you will never notice his presence.

Pray and watch: this should be the motto. If you justwatch, you'll start seeing ghosts where none exist.If only pray, do not have time to execute the worksthat humanity needs so much.