Perhaps another one technology that has become both a blessing and a curse is internet: being a mine for online marketers, legally, that is, the internet is now a big mine of gold for illegal online marketers - they not only take your money away from you with both eyes wide open - they do so with your "willingness and open participation"!
And with parents not at home, the supposedly 'safe abode' is easily penetrated and invaded by predators - all through the thin wire (literally) of internet.
Parents, beware.
With the internet wide open through our computers portal, no home is safe.
Read on...
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Keeping Your Child from Internet Drugs
James D. Zirin,Forbes.com
The drug culture of the fabled 1960s has now assumed a stark, contemporary reality. At the top of The New York Times Best-Sellers List this week is Beautiful Boy by David Sheff, a sadly typical tale of a father's "struggles with his son's meth addiction."
I remember years ago when my instructor in assembly language pointed out that one article on how to detect and combat computer viruses produced a contrary result: it instead taught how to create viruses - the very thing that it attempted to destroy.
However, this one thing that is freely available in the web - I kinda endorse sites like this: a would-be suicidal person looks for 'how-to' on carrying out the suicide, but finds help instead. Now that's something!
Read on...
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'Suicide' Internet search turns up 'how to' advice: study
PARIS - People searching the Internet for information about suicide methods are more likely to find sites encouraging suicide than those offering help or support, according to a study released Friday.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, replicated a typical search that might be undertaken by a person looking for instructions and information about methods of suicide. 
In addition, the three most frequently occurring sites were all pro-suicide, while the information site Wikipedia was fourth. 
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CASINO EXCLUSION ORDERS ALICIA WONG SOON after they held their customary wedding ceremony four years ago, the hongbao (red packet) money that they had been given went missing. That's when she had her first suspicions about her husband's gambling addiction. Since then, the 41-year-old crane operator has "relapsed" twice from counselling. Altogether, he has incurred a debt of at least $100,000. So when the opportunity to bar him from entering the casinos at the integrated resorts came up, Mdm Tan (not her real name) took it. "(His gambling addiction) is not easy to handle, it's a long process. That's why I decided to apply for the exclusion order," she said yesterday in a phone interview. Mdm Tan, also 41, and her husband are one of the seven families granted a family exclusion order - one of three types of exclusion orders - by the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG). The order allows a family to seek help to curb a problem gambler's behaviour and bars the addict from entering the casinos. The other two orders, self-exclusion and third-party exclusion, will be implemented later. Mdm Tan knew her husband had been gambling since his teenage years, but thought he was "just a social gambler". Her husband knows all types of gambling "but it's soccer betting that got him into trouble", she said. She only noticed things were amiss about three to four years ago, when they seemed to be in financial difficulties. "We don't have children, and we're both working. So we shouldn't have ended up in this state," she said. It was then that the office administrator found out about his $50,000 credit card debt and loans which he had taken from his insurance policy and from his company. Checks on her husband's mobile phone turned up text messages on betting tips. Often "black-faced" and "depressed", he would also wake up in the middle of the night to access online betting sites. They quarrelled when she confronted him, but he finally agreed to seek help. He knew "his mistakes" and would have agreed to a divorce had she asked him for one. But Mdm Tan decided to give him another chance. The couple went for marriage counselling but stopped after a few months. Almost a year later, her husband went back to gambling and racked up another $50,000 in debt in four months. This time round, they turned to gambling addiction counselling. But after about "a year plus, he relapsed again", said Mdm Tan. Spotting a Giro application form for betting with Singapore Pools that had been mailed to him, Mdm Tan "immediately talked to him and tried to understand (his struggles)". Counselling has taught her that her husband "needed time to cut off the habit". While the couple had quarrelled frequently and "almost wanted to separate a few times", the silver lining this struggle is her husband's willingness to change, she said. Their families and most of their friends are unaware of the couple's situation. Only her brother-in-law is aware of his brother's addiction, and attends counselling sessions with them. Their counsellor has also advised Mdm Tan's husband to tell his gambling buddies of his problem. For now, Mdm Tan continues to cut out soccer news from the newspapers and asks him to leave a party if she sees his friends gambling. "So far, so good," she said. The application process Madam Tan was granted the family exclusion order at the end of August, after waiting for about two months. Her counsellor at Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre prepared the report and submitted it to the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) secretariat. "They (NCPG) called me and sent me a letter to ask me to go down and sign documents," she recalled. She was initially told she may have to attend a hearing - where a committee of assessors will decide whether to issue a family exclusion order - but because her husband agreed to the exclusion, the hearing was not needed. "So he signed (the documents) and we sent it back (by mail) … After that, they sent us the exclusion order." The order can only be revoked after a minimum of one year. The NCPG will review the case and decide if it should be revoked. ALICIA WONG From TODAY, News – Wednesday, 23-Sep-2009
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Letter from Vasan S I REFER to the letter "Time to silence phones, game consoles and headsets on trains" by Mr Sam Ang (Sept 2). I would agree with Mr Ang on the disturbance from the headsets and, at the same time, would like to highlight the use of weird ring tones by some people. While I was travelling on the North East Line the other day, I observed a student using an emergency tone similar to the ambulance and police siren as his ring tone. Unfortunately, he received at least two calls during my trip. I could see that the people around him looked worried each time his phone rang. One of the passengers later spoke to the student about his use of the siren as a ring tone but it was no use. Should we allow the use of the emergency siren as a ring tone? From TODAY, Voices – Wednesday, 02-Sep-2009
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Letter from Sam Ang
THE SMRT has taken action against commuters eating and drinking on MRT trains. However a more annoying and pervasive daily problem is not about eating and drinking.
When I take the train to work in the morning, it is very common to hear irritating noises and music coming from electronic gadgets like handphones and handheld game consoles.
There are those who listen to music so loud that all those around them are forced to listen to it. The bigger audio headsets often give off loud noises and these should be banned. The worst scenario is to be seated next to someone wearing them.
Ring tones, too, can be loud but at least telephones do not ring all the time. On the other hand, one can be sitting near or next to a someone listening to music that is blasting away non-stop for half-an-hour or more.
As in the case of eating or drinking on the trains, most of this noise comes from teenagers and young adults.
This problem is getting worse because the culprits have been getting away with it. It is time the SMRT takes strong action to stop this nuisance. The culprits should be fined because, as in case of eating and drinking, warning them is not good enough.
Everyone would like to sit in a quiet train in the morning and concentrate on the day's work ahead.
From TODAY, Voices – Wednesday, 02-Sep-2009
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I say, this is hitting the 'self-righteous' on the head with a nail… ooopppsss! I mean hitting the nail right on the head of the 'self-righteous'! Errhh… Whatever, this is hitting the point right home. Kudos! ---------- You can't force people to care; neither should those in need be rude about it Letter from Esther Lim THERE has been much debate over the issue of giving up of seats on the MRT to those who are in need. In trying to encourage social graciousness and compassion, let's not forget that nobody owes anybody anything. It's not wrong to be hopeful, but I'm not sure you should expect someone to give up his seat for you when needed. It is simply impossible to command someone to be compassionate. It has to come from the heart. Why can't someone who's entitled to a seat sit comfortably? Why is he expected to be on a constant lookout for anyone who needs a seat more than him? If that's the case, I would rather stand at a cozy corner and do whatever I choose instead of being seated, lest I be judged for not offering my seat because I was too engrossed in my book or taking forty winks. Social graciousness is also about being tolerant, understanding and less judgmental of those who do not appear to have lived up to expected norms. I do not think it right for someone full of righteous indignation to fulfil his personal need to do good, regardless of whether the situation warrants it, such as by demanding that someone give up his seat for someone else. Perhaps the three groups - the needy, the passive commuters and the self-righteous - should strive to come to a common understanding. The needy can be hopeful but should treat kindness as a privilege, not an obligation. Commuters should be encouraged, and not pressured or made to feel obligated or be judged. The self-righteous should exercise discretion when deciding whether the situation truly warrants their interference, bearing in mind that their interference does not make them any more compassionate than those whom they victimised. Someone who is silently enduring a bad case of migraine might well need a seat more than a pregnant woman in her second trimester carrying a few shopping bags and chatting merrily on her mobile phone. From TODAY, Voices – Monday, 06-Jul-2009; see the source article here.
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Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 2-Jun-2009 06:47 hrs Having the television on constantly in a household with infants and toddlers is bad for brain and language development because it reduces the number of words the kids hear and say, a study showed Monday. "Audible television clearly reduces speech for both infants and their caregivers within the home and this is potentially harmful for babies' development," said University of Washington professor of pediatrics Dimitri Christakis, who led the study. The study found that for every hour that the television is on with the volume turned up in a household with small children, the children heard between 500-1,000 fewer words from adults. "Adults typically utter approximately 941 words per hour. Our study found that adult words are almost completely eliminated when television is audible to the child," said Christakis. "These results may explain the association between infant television exposure and delayed language development," Christakis said. Constant exposure to television could also explain attentional and cognitive delays in children, he said, since language development is believed to be key in brain development in early childhood. For the study, 329 children ranging in age from two months to four years wore special vests with a chest pocket that held a small digital recorder. The children wore the vests on random days for up to two years. The recorder captured everything the child said and heard during continuous 12 to 16 hour periods, and was only removed when the child napped or slept, was bathed or went for a ride in the car. When the researchers counted the number of words uttered by adults and vocalizations by children, as well as vocal interactions between grown-ups and kids, they found that having the telly on resulted in significant reductions in all speech, regardless of whether it was being actively watched or just on in the background. "Since 30 percent of American household report having the television always on, even when no one is watching, these findings have grave implications for language acquisition and perhaps even early brain development," Christakis said, counseling grown-ups against using the telly as a babysitter. "Television is not only a poor caregiver substitute, but it actually reduces the number of language sounds and words babies hear, vocalize and therefore learn," he said. "We are increasingly technologizing infancy, which may prove harmful to the next generation of adults." The study was published in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. — AFP From TODAYOnline.com; see the source article here.
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CREATIVE ADVERTISING
Print ads need to stand out to catch readers’ attention
These are some examples of how Today advertisers have thought out of the box over the years or — as Mr Philip Koh, managing director of MediaCorp Press, put it — “out of the traditional box-shaped ads”. He said that creative buys like these make a brand and its products or services more noticeable.
According to Mr Arthur Sung, general manager of Starcom Singapore, it is important for print ads to stand out now that readers are becoming more time-starved. This is more so for categories that have little product differentiation and face heavy competition from others in the trade, such as mineral water and shampoos.
“In this day and age, a killer message is insufficient. One needs to have eye-catching message-delivery tactics, too,” he said.
For instance, PHD Singapore’s managing director Ms Pat Lim recalled how an electronics brand once concentrated its ad spend in only one newspaper on a single day and bought out every ad in it. “This was not a creative execution per se but I thought it was creative in how the brand chose not to spend its money in several media. Instead, it made a huge splash in one medium so that readers would see nothing but their ads for that one day!”
That was what HP Singapore did in this paper in 2003. In fact, Today also turned the paper into a broadsheet for the day and used HP’s corporate blue in the masthead.
But getting more creative in print ads need not always be about using fanciful artwork or exploring new territories. Sometimes, it can be as simple — and even cost-effective — as deciding whether to run an ad in full colour or black and white.
“Colour is only one way to pull people in but it will not be effective if the creative message is not clear and desirable. If the creative idea works stronger in a black and white ad, then pursue it and save money on media costs,” Mr Robert Doswell, managing director of Ogilvy RedCard, told Today.
He should know. His agency was behind an innovative series of small, black and white ads for budget airline Jetstar Asia. The idea sounds incongruous at first: Placing ads in the classifieds pages, and in the pet grooming and car accessories categories. Besides being what Mr Doswell described as “a very strong example of an advertisement that we rolled out at the lowest end of the cost scale”, the Jetstar Asia ad campaign caught a lot of attention.
In this case, it was not the artwork or the ad size but the clever ad copy that did the job. For instance, the Jetstar Asia ad in the car accessories section read: “Fly Jetstar Asia to Manila for $99 or buy a tyre”. Said Mr Doswell: “The Jetstar Asia concept worked off the surrounding content rather than being driven by a colour image.”
But MediaCorp Press’ Mr Koh said that it can be tough for ad agencies to keep coming up with new creative ad ideas at times. Also, there are limits to work within, such as ensuring that the creative buy is inserted into or attached to the newspaper in time for it to be delivered to homes.
Added PHD’s Ms Lim: “Cost and, to some extent, the lack of technology, are huge considerations in Singapore.”
For Mr Doswell of Ogilvy RedCard, it is media censorship here that can potentially restrict the media buyer’s creativity. “However, there is always a way around this problem,” he said, citing the example of his agency’s tongue-in-cheek ad for Durex condoms. This showed two balloon-like figures constructed from condoms in a suggestive position.
“If this safe but playful sex education ad can run, then there is always a way for any brand to play within the guidelines.”
From TODAY, Impact – Tuesday, 19-May-2009
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05:55 AM May 12, 2009 LOSING your job may make you sick, according to new research findings released last week. From TODAY, Health – Tuesday, 12-May-2009
A researcher at the Harvard School of Public analysed detailed employment and health data from 8,125 individuals surveyed in 1999, 2001 and 2003 by the US Panel Study of Income Dynamics.
Workers who lost a job through no fault of their own were twice as likely to report developing a new ailment such as high blood pressure, diabetes or heart disease over the next year and a half, compared to people who were continuously employed.
Interestingly, the risk was just as high for those who found new jobs quickly as it was for those who remained unemployed.
Though it's long been known that poor health and unemployment often go together, questions have lingered about whether unemployment triggers illness, or whether people in ill health are more likely to leave a job, be fired or laid off.
In an attempt to sort out this chicken-or-egg problem, the new study looked specifically at people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own - for example, because of a business closure.
"I was looking at situations in which people lost their job for reasons that ... shouldn't have had anything to do with their health," said author Kate W Strully, an assistant professor of sociology at State University of New York in Albany, who did the research as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health.
"What happens isn't reflecting a prior condition," she added.
Only six per cent of people with steady jobs developed a new health condition during each survey period of about a year and a half, compared with 10 per cent of those who had lost a job during the same period.
It did not matter whether the laid off workers had found new employment. They still had a one in 10 chance of developing a new health condition, Dr Strully found. The New York Times
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