Public school teachers can buy cheap laptops

DEP-ED BARGAIN: Good news for public school teachers! Pass a simple on-line examination and you may qualify to buy your favorite laptop for half the price and pre-loaded with a Microsoft Vista Home Basic software installed for only $7 or P345.

To make this possible, DepEd Secretary Jesli Lapus has signed agreements with Microsoft and laptop makers HP (Hewlett Packard), Lenovo (formerly IBM), Neo and Acer under the Adopt-a-School program of the Department of Education.

Making it even easier, teachers can pay the halved price of the laptops on monthly installment at zero interest. As for Microsoft’s Vista operating system, its P345 bargain price is an incredible drop from its retail tag price of P4,550!

The laptops have a built-in Learning Management Plan containing a lesson plan and student record book. Teachers can use interactive teaching guides stored in the computers to make classroom instruction fun and interesting.

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MICROSOFT: Lapus said that giving teachers the specially equipped computers will modernize the way they work. “This is indeed a worthy investment in the department’s human capital,” he said. “I’m grateful for the overwhelming private sector support.”

Microsoft’s involvement called Partners In Learning — Version 2 is a continuation of its Version 1 launched in 2003. Its five-year PIL program helps hone technology skills of students and teachers.

Related to this, Postscript has been suggesting also that high school students be taught how to assemble and troubleshoot personal computers as a vocational subject. Assembling computers is easy. It can be mastered in less than one school year.

While developing the youths’ livelihood skills, this course will save tons of money by having students assemble desktop computers needed by their school and then look after their maintenance, upgrading and repair.

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SOLAR PAROL: The famous kaleidoscopic Christmas lantern of Pampanga has metamorphosed into an artistic and electronic wonder that has found its way not only to urban centers but also into the porches and windows of many Filipino homes abroad.

Taking off from its basic design based on the star of Bethlehem, the parol now comes in stunning shapes, sizes and colors, always with enchanting effects.

Some Pampanga lanterns are so huge that they have to be trucked on flatbeds. Their myriad lights are tethered to an electronic contraption that makes them seem to flicker and dance with accompanying music.

And now comes another innovation — the solar-powered parol, courtesy of Greenpeace. Can solar cells or panels light up a Christmas lantern well into the evening after old sol has set? Find out today. Bring the kids.

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CLEAN, SUSTAINABLE: As part of the Global Day of Action for the Climate this month, Greenpeace volunteers and other pro-renewable energy groups are set to bring this morning a giant solar-powered parol to light up the Senate on Roxas Blvd.

Greenpeace said the activity, coinciding with the UN climate meeting in Poznan (Poland), is a reminder that renewable energy — not nuclear or fossil fuels is needed for the country to respond to climate change and energy security.

A Renewable Energy Act was passed by the Congress last October. Greenpeace has challenged government decision-makers to lead an “Energy Revolution” that will steer the country to a future of clean, sustainable energy.

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MELAMINE: I am still chewing the bone that some household dogs and cats may have developed kidney trouble, and some could have died, after eating over time pet food tainted with melamine.

This chemical is used mainly for making plastics and such items but is not intended for eating. However, some Chinese merchants wanting to boost profits had used it as an extender in food. When ingested, it lodges in the kidneys, forms stones, blocks the tubes and eventually kills the organ.

Some friends have had dogs and cats that suddenly died of ailments diagnosed as kidney trouble. Research in the United States last year showed that some pet food had been tainted with melamine.

Our Food and Drugs Administration does not seem to be interested in this pet food angle in melamine contamination. After all, dogs and cats are just minor animals?

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WHEAT GLUTEN: I am bringing up the melamine topic again, because some readers continue to react to my Postscript on the subject. Among them is pet lover from the United Kingdom, Annie Bygrave, who wrote:

“During my research for my affiliate marketing program, I found peaks of consumer interest in the market for pet foods during 2007 due to news articles on contamination of pet foods with melamine, which caused many pet deaths in the US. It was due to melamine contamination of wheat gluten from China, not milk.

“This wheat gluten was used as a filler for the chunks, a thickener of gravy in wet diets, in the manufacture of dry pet food kibble and in the extrusion process for wet and dry pet foods. The pets died of kidney stones, blockage of kidney tubules and subsequent kidney failure.

“Apparently Menu foods had tested the food in lab animals and they had died of kidney failure, but they put the products out anyway as they were not convinced that the food was the problem. I am APPALLED at this!

“The FDA also found pet food with rice protein contaminated with melamine a bit later.

“There has been more than one case of poisoning of pets due to contaminants in pet foods. Aflatoxin, overdose with Vitamin D and acetaminophen contaminations of pet foods have been reported in recent years, all of which have led to sick and dying pets.”

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