Facebook Privacy Policy: Have YOU read it?

Facebook changes their look and privacy policies so much, that's it's hard to keep up with the ever changing terms and conditions. Earlier this year, Facebook took a turn for the better when they changed their privacy policy, not to mention, their home page (yet again). And it might have been because Mark Zuckerberg suffered quite a few lawsuits when fellow Facebook users found their profile pictures posted on billboards and other advertisements.

Turns out that up until this year, unless you specifically stated otherwise, Facebook could use your photos in advertising campaigns and market products. Whenever you posted photos to Facebook, you're actually giving them permission to use your personal content, including photos, and they have the right to use them in internet and television ads.

Now because Facebook didn't clearly state this information, they suffered a couple lawsuits. So in the new Facebook privacy policy, you give Facebook a "non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post..this license ends when you delete you IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with other, and they have no deleted it." So Facebook has the right to have your content on their servers AND serve it to others but ONLY in accordance to your privacy settings.

So in order to make sure your picture doesn't end up in one of the sidebar ads, you need to edit your privacy settings. Go to account settings, Facebook adverts, ads shown by third parties, and select NO ONE. This ensures that you won't see your photos anywhere except on your profile page.

College Students and Sleep Deprivation

After three years in college, I've definitely had my share of all-nighters. Mainly during finals week or during big projects. I try really hard to not to stay up all night anymore, because now I know how bad it is for your body, and your brain.

Sleep deprivation affects 60% of college students today, and that's not an exaggeration. According to one study, only 30% of students get at least 8 hours of sleep most of the time. 20% of students said they pulled all nighters at least once a month, and 45% said they usually stay up until 3 A.M. at least once or twice a week. Many students, including myself, will sacrifice precious hours of sleep so they can get their homework and projects finished.

The biggest problem is that students really underestimate the importance of sleep, and don't realize that they are sabotaging their mental and physical health. Everyone is different when it comes to the effects of sleep deprivation, but from what I've experienced, things can get pretty scary. Last year, I went 2 weeks with only about a total of 15 hours of sleep. From what I remember, I had really bad mood swings, I went from extremely tired to extremely hyper, I had a difficult time putting sentences together, and suffered from mild hallucinations.

Students are not likely to complete their best work while they are sleep deprived, and all-nighters have become more of a habit in recent years. Even if students pull one all-nighter and then use the next two days to catch up on sleep, sleep deprivation is still going to affect their ability to retain information and pay attention during class.

The good news, is that as college students become more mature and get older, most of them tend to grow out of all nighters and learn to prioritize their health while balancing appropriate times to study. I've found that all of my friends, that I've had since freshman year, don't pull all nighters anymore like we all used to. I think it's because when we're younger, we don't know how to prioritize our workload so we wait till the day before it's due and stay up all night getting it done.

The Benefits of Doodling in Class

While doodling in class may bother some people, there have actually been studies that show doodling can be beneficial, and even helps us pay attention more. I doodle pretty much every day when I'm sitting in class, and when I was younger I got yelled at for not paying attention. But I was paying attention (most of the time) and I thought it was strange that teachers saw drawing as a distraction for students to not pay attention. The reality is that given the way our brain functions, doodling is almost like a necessary tool to keep the brain from totally dozing off. You see, the brain is actually very active when people are bored, because we're constantly processing information. The problem is that when we're bored, the brain almost becomes stressed, because there's no stimulation for the information to be processed.

Now, doodling solves that problem, because doodling provides enough cognitive stimulation during an otherwise boring task and prevents the mind from completely dozing off and running into a fantasy world. So in a nutshell, when you're bored, doodling provides just enough so that you're still paying attention instead of going into a daydream-like state.

The funny thing about daydreaming is that even though it seems like a pointless, absentminded thing to do, it actually requires a lot of the brain's processing power. You start thinking about that awesome club you and your friends are going to tomorrow night, which then leads to you stressing about what you're going to wear, maybe you should go out and buy a new outfit, but you're stressed about spending money, and then maybe you should get a part time job, but you're worried about balancing school and work, etc. You see how these things start to pile up? And then the teacher calls on you and you have absolutely no idea what's going on because you've just essentially been shaken out of your daydream coma.

Doodling, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. As I said before, it requires just enough cognitive energy to keep your mind from daydreaming, but not so much that you don't pay attention.

APEC: The Local Standpoint

After a week of roads being closed off, fights breaking out, hundreds of secret service agents and police officers, and motorcades, the locals of Oahu are relieved for it all to be over. The Asia Pacific Economic Corporation really caused an uproar for locals who were just trying to resume their normal lives during the conference, but with all the road closures and intense police force, it made it quite difficult.

Even though I did my best to avoid the hectic craziness of Waikiki, the traffic and police force still caught up with me to interrupt and alter my plans for the day. For example, after dropping my boyfriend off at work one day that's just a few minutes from our house, I sat in traffic for 45 minutes so that protestors of APEC could cross the roadways. There were at least 70 people walking in the protest, and while the police force kept them under control, they couldn't do anything about the blocked traffic. The same thing happened on a day where I had class and was unable to get downtown because off the delays, I ended up turning around and not even bother going after sitting in the same location for over an hour.

I really feel that they could have done a better job controlling the roadways during the weekend, a lot of major intersections were blocked off and everyone had a difficult time getting to the places they needed to be. Even tourists who were on vacation had to walk several blocks to get to tour vans because the vehicles were not allowed to approach certain hotels. In the future, if I know another major event like this is going to take place in Hawaii, I might take a vacation to another island just so I won't have to deal with it again!

Go Vegetarian To Save Money...And Yourselves

I've always been a supporter for the vegetarian lifestyle, and in our society today with all the cheap fast food at every corner, going vegetarian might not be the worst idea in the world, and there's ways that it won't break your bank. My initial reason for going vegetarian when I was younger was because of the treatment of the animals that are raised for slaughter and to be honest, it didn't take long before I became committed to being a full time vegetarian for about 7 years. Unfortunately, I've since become a prisoner to my taste buds and have been a vegetarian on and off for the past 5 years. But that's a whole other story.

It's sad that a lot of people won't go vegetarian because they think it's too expensive and it also requires people to actually cook their food more than eating out. We all know it's much easier to go walk a block and go to your local fast food joint and pick up a value meal with a soft drink, burger, and fries, all for $5. It may not hurt your wallet now, but it will hurt your waistline and your health over time. If people were to drop meat from their diets, they would actually find that food would be cheaper than your average cut of steak. Rice, vegetables, fruits, and beans are not expensive items compared to meat which averages at $4.99 per pound, and that's just the cheaper cuts. If you were looking to get a nice cut of meat, you're looking at around $10 per pound and up.

By going vegetarian, you're less likely to suffer from diseases that stem from obesity and viruses that are transmitted from dirty meats in the factory. So having better health translates into lowering your health costs so you're not spending as much when you visit the doctor or even go to the hospital.

I don't expect the world to go completely vegetarian overnight, especially since eating some meat does have its benefits. For example, last year after I hadn't eaten meat in almost two years, I suffered from lack of iron and would wake up in the morning with bruises from tossing and turning overnight. My body actually started craving meat and I broke down one night and finally got some short ribs and rice. So at the end of the day, everyone doesn't have to go completely vegetarian, but eating less meat and incorporating healthy raw foods into your diet is a better long term solution for your health, and your waistline!