How many hours a day do you spend under the sun? If you’re the average office employee, that time would be limited to some one to two hours on a sunny morning when you rush off to work; the few minutes during your lunch break if you eat outside your office and the one hour from 5:00 to 6:00 pm when leave your office and head back home.
That’s about three hours or less of natural and healthy sunlight, and it jibes with studies in the West that show most people spend 90 percent of their lives indoors.
And sunlight can indeed be healthy—it activates Vitamin D, for example—as long as it’s absorbed in moderation. The corollary is that most city dwellers spend most of their days indoors. That means our eyes rely mostly on artificial indoor lighting (which can sometimes be too dim) to get things done. Our eyes, therefore, tend to live in darkness everyday.
But how bright should artificial lighting or illumination be so it doesn’t harm our eyes? How healthy is artificial lighting for our eyes? And is there such a thing as “healthy artificial lighting?”
Good sunlight
Moderate and regular exposure to “good sunlight” (generally accepted as sunlight before 10:00am and after 4:00pm on a sunny day) does have healthy benefits. One of these benefits is that sunlight helps stimulate the production of more red blood cells thereby increasing the blood’s oxygen content. The sun’s ultraviolet rays are also antiseptic and can kill some germs on our skin, according to some sources.
Moderate and regular sunlight exposure might actually protect the skin by increasing its natural resistance to the harmful effects of ultraviolet light instead of aging damaging the skin. And, as many of us already know, ultraviolet light converts cholesterol in the skin to Vitamin D. This vitamin is essential for the proper absorption of calcium by the body and thus in the prevention of osteoporosis.
A number of scientific studies support findings that natural daylight helps hospital patients recover faster, improves their mood and helps promotes well being. One striking discovery is that the health of patients close to windows tends to improve quicker. As you can see, sunlight in moderation is healthy.
Lux and lumens
Technically speaking, full or the brightest sunlight has an “illuminance” of some 100,000 to 120,000 lux per square meter at the Earth's surface. “Illuminance” is the total visible light (or “luminous flux”) present in a given area. It’s measured by the metric unit called “lux.” A lux can also be defined as one lumen per square meter. The lumen, in turn, is the metric unit of luminous flux.
The 120,000 lux generated by brightest sunlight is intense and should be since it floods immense areas of the earth’s surface. The family living room, however, needs only a very tiny fraction of this total: an illuminance of just 50 lux. That 50 lux can be achieved by a single compact fluorescent lamp (CFL) of 40 watts that produces 1,650 lumens and is available at hardware stores and major retail outlets.
In contrast, offices need more illuminance (up to 500 lux on the table surface) and therefore more lights for the good quality lighting employees need to work effectively at their computers and at clerical work. Factories obviously need more illuminance in their work areas than do offices for safety reasons.
Christine Sicangco, a professional “lighting designer” and one of the pioneers in this now expanding profession, said there isn’t a hard a fast rule as to the degree of illuminance in a room or how bright a room should be.
“If I were to do the lighting design of a family room, my use of lights would depend on who the occupants are or are they elderly or young; their lifestyle; their needs and the tasks they do,” she said. “You also have to take into account the height of the ceiling and the reflectivity of the walls.”
As an example, she noted that today’s kitchen is morphing into a living room and family room since family members tend to congregate here regularly for meals and chit chat. Children also seem to like studying in kitchens (probably because it’s a yummy food source).
To light a kitchen/living room/family room ensemble, an illuminance of 400 to 500 lux (similar to office lighting) would be appropriate considering the many activities that take place here. She said her kitchen is one of these triple function rooms; it’s lit by six paired 26 watt ceiling CFLs for “general lighting,” which makes for a brightly lit room. She uses “dimmers,” however, to regulate the brightness of her general lighting.
One can also use traditional fluorescent lamps for general lighting. But select the newer “T5 lamps” that last longer and are cheaper in the long run rather than the old “T10” lamps with ballast still found in many Filipino homes. In the case of Sicangco’s kitchen/living room/family room ensemble, two 28 watt T5 fluorescent lamps should give about the same illuminance as the CFLs she currently uses.
Sicangco’s living room is an altogether different affair, however. She sees her living room as a place to relax. Hence, the room has no bright ceiling lights such as those in her kitchen. Instead, her living room light sources are generated by floor lamps with low watt CFLs and accent lighting, which together add up to some 50 lux, and make for a relaxing setting.
But if you want more light in your home, don’t use more powerful ceiling lights or add more CFLs or fluorescent lamps to your general lighting. Use “task lighting,” according to Sicangco. Task or job lighting consists of table and floor lamps (with CFLs) that only illuminate the area where they’re needed and not the entire room. That saves money by cutting electricity costs.
“Why would you want lighting that generates over 500 lux?” Sicangco asked. “”It’s a waste of energy and you won’t need it that much.”
Over illumination
The conventional wisdom that more artificial light is better is a myth, according to some sources. Mounting medical evidence shows “over illumination” could actually be bad for your health. Among the ill effects attributed to over illumination are more headaches, increased worker fatigue and more stress.
Good lighting contributes greatly to person’s sense of well-being and can positively affect office worker satisfaction and productivity, according to the International Association of Light Designers (IALD), an international association that promotes the virtues of professional lighting design.
IALD says lighting designers are resource for innovative, practical and economically viable lighting solutions. They understand the role of lighting in architecture and interior design and rely on their extensive experience and knowledge of lighting equipment and systems to enhance and strengthen design.
A new and sustainable form of generating illuminance harnesses sunlight. Called “daylighting,” this “green” concept means lighting an indoor space with daylight from windows and skylights and not relying solely on artificial lighting.
Daylighting saves energy as it uses less electricity, and could avoid the perceived adverse health effects caused by over-illumination from artificial lights. Some experts believe artificial office lighting plus daylighting can attain an illuminance ranging from 2-3,000 lux without significantly increasing energy costs. Daylighting is also another solution to the challenge of using artificial lighting to duplicate the visual advantages of sunlight.
Most offices, however, continue to turn to artificial lighting to produce the clear visibility needed for safe and efficient work. This approach ignores a growing body of evidence that seems to suggest artificial lights can cause health problems due to under-illumination (research shows poor lighting can cause depression) and over-illumination (clinical studies show excessive levels of artificial light could lead to health problems).
The need to bring the healthy benefits of sunlight indoors has led to a marketing gimmick in the West called “full-spectrum lighting.” Although current medical research tends to disprove the most outlandish full spectrum lighting claims (that it replicates sunlight and purifies the air, for example), this phenomenon highlights a growing consumer concern indoor lighting should be “healthy,” or about as important to a family as the healthy food they eat.
Scientific articles about full-spectrum lighting compiled by the National Research Council of Canada Institute for Research in Construction, a Canadian government research and development agency, conclude that full-spectrum lighting does not confer any benefits as regards performance, mood or health compared to typical cool-white fluorescent lighting.
Sicangco concurs with this conclusion. “I don’t think full spectrum lighting is healthy,” she said. “If you need Vitamin D, go out into the sunlight.”
Good indoor lighting protects your eyes from the dangers of under- and over-illumination. It also helps protect you and your family members from accidents, and the visual risks associated with old age. But if you want your lighting to do more than just light up a room, you’ll probably need the services of a lighting designer.
But if you do experience problems you think are being caused by too much or too little lighting, see your doctor for advice.
Monday, June 6, 2011
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Honor the 900
(Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, April 20, 2008)
WHEN THE CURRENT P500 banknote was first issued in 1987, my late father, Johnny Villasanta, noted with pride that here at last was a tribute to Filipinos who fought in the Korean War (1950-53), and who helped rebuild and protect Korea from 1954-1955.
The reverse side of the original banknote was replete with Korean War imagery: Ninoy Aquino garbed as a war correspondent, his portable typewriter inscribed with his initials and a reproduction of one of the many stories he wrote for The Manila Times while covering the 10th Battalion Combat Team (BCT), the first of five BCTs comprising the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea (Peftok).
My father (who was also a war correspondent in the Korean War but who worked for The Evening News) noted sadly, however, that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas had selected a story written by Ninoy that glorified the American instead of the Filipino fighting man.
The story in question carries the headline, “1st Cav knifes through 38th Parallel.” The 1st Cav is the U.S. 1st Cavalry Division, one of seven U.S. Army divisions that fought in the Korean War.
The 1st Cav also took part in the Liberation of the Philippines in 1945, and helped wrest Manila from the Japanese. But the 1st Cav is an American unit.
My father felt the BSP should instead have chosen a story about the 10th BCT, which was the unit both he and Ninoy covered. Ninoy wrote extensively about the 10th BCT and I have photocopies of some of his stories published by The Manila Times.
+in+the+ruins+of+Seoul,+1950.+Villasanta+covered+the+10th,+20th+and+19th+BCTs+during+the+Korean+War..JPG) |
| War Correspondent Johnny Villasanta (right) in Seoul, 1950. |
“Troops given big send-off,” (Sept. 3, 1950); “Ojeda leads Xth in heroic assault; Filipinos gain glory” (Apr. 17, 1951) and “PI Xth recrosses ‘38’; Ojeda recalls retreat; morale up” (Apr. 13, 1951) are but a few of Ninoy’s stories about our boys published by the Times.
The BSP could have selected any of these stories, or any of Ninoy’s many other stories about Filipinos, when designing the P500 banknote. My father, however, believed that reproducing a story about the Americans was due to the regrettable fact that BSP historians know precious little about our country’s involvement in the Korean War.
What is more ironic, my father said, was that Ninoy wrote hardly any stories about the U.S. Army in Korea. Checking old issues of the Times will bear this out. It is this fact that made BSP’s choice of the 1st Cavalry story all the more perplexing to my father.
The P500 banknote is now 20 years old. It was redesigned in 2002, and Ninoy’s typewriter was removed. It is probably due for a third redesign.
Should this be the case, might I request that the BSP replace the story about the 1st Cavalry with one that honors the 10th BCT, a Filipino unit.
The “Fighting Tenth” fought magnificently in the greatest battle of the Korean War—the Communist Chinese Spring Offensive, April 1951. The excellence of the Filipino as a fighting man was proven at the famous Battle of Yuldong on April 23, 1951.
At the nondescript village of Yuldong in North Korea, the 900 men of the 10th BCT withstood the massive night attack of a 40,000-man Chinese army and, in so doing, helped prevent the total collapse of the western front of the United Nations Command (UNC).
The 10th was one of the few UNC units on the western front not overrun in the first hours of the immense Chinese assault. The Americans, South Koreans, British, Turks and Puerto Ricans all gave way before the Chinese attack.
But not the Filipinos. Not the Filipinos who occupied their hasty defensive positions only one day before the Chinese attack!
Comparisons with the historic Battle of Thermopylae and its famous 300 are tempting, but unlike the doomed 300, the survivors of our 900 lived to fight again another day. The 10th was among the units that spearheaded the ferocious UNC counterattack that finally forced the communists to negotiate an armistice to end fighting in the Korean War.
Recognizing the great defensive victory won by the 10th BCT at Yuldong will not only honor the men of this battalion, and the four other BCTs (the 20th, 19th, 14th and 2nd) that served in Korea, but will also pay tribute to all Filipinos.
The Filipino deserves to be honored for volunteering to fight for democracy in Korea. We were the first Asian country and the third United Nations member country to send combat troops to defend South Korea.
Over 110 Filipinos died in this “Forgotten War” that saved South Korea from conquest by North Korea and Communist China. More than 400 Filipinos were wounded, some disfigured for life or rendered insane.
Of the 7,150 officers and men who served in Korea, only about 2,000 are alive today. Many of these heroes remain poor, and their number decreases every month.
There will be no Filipino Korean War veteran left alive by 2040. By then, the youngest will be 103 years old.
There are only two monuments in this entire country that pay homage to the Philippines’ forgotten role in the Korean War: the Korean War Memorial Pylon at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and the Marikorea Monument in Marikina (built in 2005).
The P500 banknote can be considered only the third monument to Filipino greatness in the Korean War.
But let the P500 banknote be an accurate reflection of our history by making it completely—and proudly—Filipino.
Other websites by Art Villasanta
Monday, October 25, 2010
Internet Telephony in the Philippines: the next Big Thing?
(Published in 2002)
LIBERALIZATION AND COMPETITIVENESS, like love and marriage, are supposed to go together like, well, a Filipino texter and his mobile phone.
The Philippines continues to learn the hard way that its expensive telecom services (an IDD call to the USA costs $0.40 versus $0.05 in Hong Kong) don’t go together with competitiveness and economic growth. Telecoms was the Philippine economy’s high growth sector in 2000 and 2001, accounting for over 10% of GDP.
Telecoms is again expected to fuel Philippine growth. The call center industry is booming, with estimated revenues of $173 million this year and $864 million by 2004. Mobile telephony growth is placed at some 30% this year from 11 million subscribers after rising 80% in 2001.
Analysts say further cuts in telecom costs will spur competitiveness, as will government moves to advance liberalization.
Looming on the horizon is the commercialization of Internet Telephony (IP voice transmissions over PSTNs or Public Switched Telephone Networks) within a year’s time. The Philippines is expected to jump on the Internet Telephony wagon as early as this year via government-led reforms to its restrictive telecom law.
Dr. Bill Torres, past president of the Philippine Internet Service Organization (PISO), said there are clear indications the government may issue a new interpretation of Republic Act 7925 (the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of 1995) allowing Internet Telephony to be offered in certain cases, including its provision by ISPs and other providers who do not hold Congressional franchises. PISO is the Philippines’ association of ISPs.
He said the interpretation would be made either by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo or by telecoms regulator, the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC).
NTC, however, has remained adamant in barring non-franchise holders from providing Internet Telephony. It also does not permit the use of telephones to receive phone calls made via Internet Telephony but allows PC-to-PC IP calls.
On the other hand, anyone with a private network can sidestep the law and legally provide an Internet Telephony service as long as the operator does not use the PSTN.
“I think that within a year, we will see the government come up with a policy that will allow IP Telephony,” Torres said.
“Optimists think this will happen in 2002; pessimists in 2003. I tend to be an optimist.”
RA 7925 authorizes the NTC to establish rates providing for the economic viability of the companies involved in the Service Area Scheme (SAS) and grants them a fair return on their investments.
“I have a feeling that if we can come up with an amendment to the law, maybe that’s an opportunity to relax the hold of telcos (on IP Telephony),” said Torres.
Torres does not believe Internet Telephony can be profitable as a stand-alone service, however. Profitability will demand that Internet Telephony be packaged with other services.
“Alone Internet Telephony will not make money . . . because of its cheapness,” he noted.
Torres also feels that the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), to be established this year, will go to bat for deregulating IP Telephony in support of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s goal of making ICT a key driver of the Philippine economy.
Cheaper phone rates result from Internet Telephony, with businesses and consumers benefiting the most from the lower prices. Although an exact comparison is not possible, the cost of an international long distance call using Internet Telephony would probably be about a few pesos per minute compared to the P20.40 (US$0.40) per minute charged by both Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) and Globe Telecom.
India surprised Asia by opening Internet Telephony to ISPs starting April 1, joining Singapore in this league. Indian ISPs are now allowed to offer much cheaper but lower quality Internet Telephony service without having to pay any long distance toll fees to state-controlled telco, Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
Satyam Infoway, one of the leading ISPs, is charging users $0.16 per minute during peak time for an Internet Telephony call to the United States, 80 percent lower than the regular peak time phone tariff of $0.80 per minute and $0.04 cheaper than a similar PSTN call in the Philippines.
PLDT, the dominant telco in both the fixed line and cellular markets, owns “Netopia,” one of the largest Internet café chains in the Philippines.
While a plus for consumers, Internet Telephony is not expected to be a killer app for the Philippine call center business because of its inferior voice quality.
“The quality of Internet Telephony is not good enough if your core business is providing good service,” said Domingo Guanio, general manager of SVI Technologies, which provides networking services to their call center.
“If it becomes very good, it can become a back-up to our regular leased lines.”
Guanio said that Internet Telephony was demonstrated to them and they weren’t impressed. “At this point it’s not good enough and quality isn’t negotiable in our business.”
PLDT is apparently making major moves towards introducing Internet Telephony as one of its mainstream telecom services.
PLDT has invested in frame relay infrastructure and is pioneering new services that will lay the groundwork for its eventual shift from circuit-switched network to packet-switched networks (the Internet), according to industry sources.
Philip Tan, network consultant of Cisco Systems Philippines, said PLDT is fully using a Cisco IP network but mainly to replace its existing and old PBX systems. The Cisco system allows PLDT freedom of choice as to its use, including Internet Telephony, said Tan.
He does believe there is a future for Internet Telephony and said it won’t make losers out of telcos “but they’ll have to re-engineer themselves. The technology is cheap but if you look at how the carriers are spending for infrastructure such as cables, that’s expensive.”
Edgardo Cabarrios, Director of NTC’s common carrier authorization department, said NTC was bound by law to restrict Internet Telephony to entities with Congressional franchises.
“Internet Telephony is not classified as a value added service,” said Cabarrios. “Therefore, any entity intending to provide Internet Telephony should have an authorization from the commission predicated on a valid Congressional franchise.”
By this definition, PLDT, “which is a duly authorized local, national and international voice service provider,” can provide Internet Telephony. “Other companies that have similar authorizations are Globe Telecom, BayanTel, Digitel, ETPI and Teletech and Philcom Corporation.”
“If an Internet Telephony service provider carries international traffic, then it is providing a service similar to that provided by an IGF. In order to level the playing field, those providing international Internet Telephony should also be required to install local exchange telephone lines,” Cabarrios explained.
NTC’s refusal to budge from its position has left it open to charges of being anti-consumer, anti-liberalization and pro-telco, allegations Cabarrios denies, saying that NTC “balances the interest of both the consumers and telecom service providers.”
Martin Enrile, telecoms analyst of ATR Kim Eng Securities, however, believes that IP Telephony is “a very clear threat to telcos.”
He feels that telcos will need to maximize their huge infrastructure investments, hence their continuing resistance to Internet Telephony and 3G.
“I guess there’s been lobbying by telcos to preserve their assets since there is an imperative to maximize use of these assets,” he said. He noted that PLDT’s move towards data and its low capex for fixed lines doesn’t seem to square with the company’s opposition to Internet Telephony being offered by ISPs.
PLDT and other telcos contend that Internet Telephony provides unfair competition because it allows its providers to bypass toll fees for international long distance calls. AT&T, one of America’s largest telcos, reported a loss of US$350 million in 2000 because of IP Telephony.
Research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the Asia-Pacific IP Telephony market will grow from US$213 million in 2000 to almost US$7 billion by 2005.
Worldwide, IP Telephony is projected to account for 135 billion minutes by 2004 from 27 billion minutes in 1999.
The International Telecommunications Union (ITU), however, believes the main use of IP telephony may not be for outgoing traffic but from incoming international calls because of incoming net settlements.
It also foresees that legal restrictions on IP telephony will disappear as countries liberalize their telecommunication markets. ITU said any ban is almost always based on the premise that IP telephony is a voice service (and thus the exclusive right of incumbents) rather than a data service or application.
ITU says this premise is becoming harder to sustain with the integration of voice functions into other Internet-based applications such as e-mail.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Clever marketing key to Internet TV growth
We can talk about IPTV tech specs all we want. We can also debate IPTV tech issues beloved by boffins (H.264, ADSL 2+, QoE, 1080p24 and whether 24mbps is sufficient bandwidth, among others), but in a region as diverse as Asia/Pacific (and anywhere else, for that matter), it’s the Quality of Experience (QoE) that will ultimately make or break Internet Protocol TV (IPTV).
Differentiating IPTV from digital cable and DTH will be the main marketing task, and could be the key factor in whether telcos have a mainstream moneymaker in IPTV, or just another cute, niche technology masquerading as a winner.
IPTV or Internet TV is one of two new silver bullets that should finally enable telcos to break cable and satellite’s hold on the lucrative, but very competitive, multichannel, pay-TV industry. The other is HDTV.
For telcos, however, IPTV is undeveloped territory, both in the infrastructure and marketing aspects. But as IPTV sits on the leading edge of IP advances, new infrastructure and applications give IPTV a leg up on cable. Cable remains (mostly) wedded to the old MPEG-2 codec — too slow for bandwidth intensive IPTV.
With world standards for IPTV more or less settled, attention is turning toward the tougher job of creatively marketing IPTV to subscribers with an abundance of multichannel pay-TV choices, and who mostly don’t give a hoot about IPTV.
Product differentiation is the challenge. Vastly improved QoE is the Holy Grail.
Toughest challenge
Clever marketing is seen as the toughest challenge telcos face in winning marketing share as they intensify their struggle versus cable and satellite offerings. Surprisingly, IPTV has made significant progress in the marketing fight. The DSL Forum last October said IPTV subscribers jumped a huge 179 percent to 8.22 million in June, up from 2.95 million year-on-year.
Europe accounted for most of this surge, with IPTV customers climbing to 4.98 million from 1.51 million for the same period. Some 660,000 broadband customers signed up for IPTV services in the Americas, giving the region a total of 1.07 million subscribers. Asia/Pacific added 1.19 million subscribers, giving the region 2.18 million subscribers. IPTV pioneers, such as Hong Kong’s PCCW and France Telecom, together account for around 1.5 million users. Both firms, however, have built fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks to support their IPTV offerings.
DSL Forum marketing director Laurie Gonzalez said they are excited about these figures.
“Even a year ago, people were asking whether IPTV would be a compelling application. Today, more than eight million customers are using it in every region of the world. It’s gone far beyond testing to a real rollout.”
DSL has a 66 percent share of broadband access customers, around 200 million in number. Fiber has an 11 percent share, while cable acquired approximately 22 percent.
Hong Kong leads Asian IPTV
The June numbers for Asia/Pacific are an improvement over the second quarter when it was reported the region’s IPTV penetration was “insignificant,” except for Hong Kong. IPTV success has been the greatest in Hong Kong where IPTV has 608,000 subscribers, these coming from PCCW’s NOW broadband TV service. NOW is the largest IPTV deployment in the world and accounts for one third of the total global IPTV subscribers.
Despite a rapid 66 percent increase in NOW subscribers, PCCW reported revenue losses from its TV and content businesses. PCCW also stated NOW subscribers increased to 608,000, but the losses rose to $24 million. PCCW is attempting to generate more revenue from its content services by reselling them to customers of its mobile phone network. This marketing move makes good use of NOW’s premium content, such as 24-hour local news, CNNI and mobile ESPN.
Japan’s Softbank BBTV, with its 180,000 subscribers, is the next Asian success story. Softbank BBTV claims it is adding 18,000 new subscribers monthly.
IPTV made it to Singapore this July when dominant telco Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) launched “mio TV”. Described by SingTel as the next generation of TV watching, mio TV provides a range of VoD titles, including movies from major Hollywood movie studios that include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox and Disney. The service will also offer HD content obtained from partnerships with Mega Media and VOOM HD Networks. The mio TV platform has the potential to allow communications using video conferencing and instant messaging, displaying photos and playing music from PCs, all on the TV set.
“We believe the launch of mio TV will open up more channels for interactive content creation and media services, benefiting both consumers and industry with greater choice and content flexibility,” said Christopher Chia, CEO, Media Development Authority of Singapore.
SingTel said new BBC channels such as BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle will make their global debut on mio TV. BBC Kids’ channel Beebies will also be launched. Singapore is among the world’s first to have a free-to-air HD channel carried on an IPTV platform.
South East Asia is Asia/Pacific’s current leader in IPTV adoption, with seven of 13 countries having rolled out some form of IPTV service, including NOW. Asia is expected to lead other regions with more than 40 percent of global IPTV subscribers by 2010. There were less than three million IPTV subscribers in the world in 2006, a third of which were accounted for by Hong Kong’s PCCW.
Now IPTV
IPTV is set to grow 26 fold by 2010, with 63 million subscribers worldwide, according to researcher firm iSuppli. The company also said the number of IPTV subscribers worldwide should more than double every year from 2005 to 2009, when it could reach 69 million.
Apart from Hong Kong and Singapore, so far IPTV rollouts in Asia have been small in scale and uptake has been puny in most markets. The reality on the ground is that IPTV faces tough challenges from incumbents and their relatively cheap cable and satellite offerings. Incumbents remain the key driving force behind IPTV growth in Asia/Pacific
Cable remains entrenched in Taiwan and Korea as the main method of TV access. In other countries, free TV broadcasts are also dampening incumbents’ interest in IPTV. Incumbents, however, are looking to provide improved broadband network and service penetration to fend off triple play services from cable players.
The bright spots for IPTV remain Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. China will continue to face strict regulatory constraints, while India will remain bedeviled by poor infrastructure.
China, which is IPTV’s largest potential market in Asia, is still years away from solving thorny regulatory issues that will enable telcos to create realistic business models where IPTV can compete against the heavily entrenched cable industry. Cable is dirt cheap in China. To IPTV’s advantage are indications Chinese subscribers appear willing to pay for some of IPTV’s premium services, such as VoD and interactive gaming.
China’s communist leadership still tightly restricts content, whose breadth is the key advantage IPTV offers subscribers. One executive working in China said that if China doesn’t relax on content, “there is no business model, and there will be no demand for IPTV”.
While Chinese telcos, most of which are state-owned or controlled corporations, attempt to persuade the central government to grant more leeway on content, they’re focusing on increasing bandwidth and improving the reliability of their access networks. Overall, the status of China as a feasible market for IPTV remains in doubt. Key issues such as regulatory hurdles, content restrictions and the government’s apparent focus on implementing digital cable services will tend to put a brake on IPTV growth in the short term.
IPTV over satellite
According to Northern Sky Research (NSR), IPTV via satellite is a niche offering likely to account for a relatively small percentage share of the market potential that terrestrial-based platforms are likely to generate.
Revenue estimates for terrestrial-based services are forecast at some $7 billion for 2010 alone. On the other hand, satellite-based total revenues from 2005 to 2010 are expected to exceed $1.6 billion.
Nevertheless, said NSR, IPTV does provide a unique and growing opportunity for the satellite industry to target. The growing preference for IP that satellite service providers are incorporating in their offerings, and the compelling role of satellite services in the video markets worldwide, make IPTV via satellite services a compelling value proposition for select regions.
“Given the proven broadcast economics of satellites in delivering content cost-effectively to large geographic footprints, particularly in underserved areas, growth of IPTV via satellite services should increase at a steady rate,” said Jose del Rosario, NSR senior analyst.
Firms setting up infrastructure to enable IPTV via satellite services will, for the most part, generate initial demand. These services mainly require transponder lease contracts from satellite operators for the delivery of content to IPTV gateways.
Once the infrastructure is in place, the market is expected to move quickly to retail business models. This is due to the fact that revenue-sharing arrangements between satellite companies and the owners of content will lead to higher margins, as satellite players participate in revenue sharing from the subscribers’ monthly service fees.
“Since ‘content is king’ in the pay-TV business, content aggregation and distribution rights are, and will continue to be, more important from a revenue generation perspective compared to actual service provisioning of IPTV,” del Rosario said.
“The ‘battle for eyeballs’ in any pay-TV platform is where the bulk of revenues will be earned, and IPTV is no exception. The market entry strategy for IPTV via satellite players is to provide a compelling business proposition to the owners of content. Once this has been established, the revenue-sharing arrangements will ensure a healthy market for satellite players”.
Written and published in 2007
Differentiating IPTV from digital cable and DTH will be the main marketing task, and could be the key factor in whether telcos have a mainstream moneymaker in IPTV, or just another cute, niche technology masquerading as a winner.
IPTV or Internet TV is one of two new silver bullets that should finally enable telcos to break cable and satellite’s hold on the lucrative, but very competitive, multichannel, pay-TV industry. The other is HDTV.
For telcos, however, IPTV is undeveloped territory, both in the infrastructure and marketing aspects. But as IPTV sits on the leading edge of IP advances, new infrastructure and applications give IPTV a leg up on cable. Cable remains (mostly) wedded to the old MPEG-2 codec — too slow for bandwidth intensive IPTV.
With world standards for IPTV more or less settled, attention is turning toward the tougher job of creatively marketing IPTV to subscribers with an abundance of multichannel pay-TV choices, and who mostly don’t give a hoot about IPTV.
Product differentiation is the challenge. Vastly improved QoE is the Holy Grail.
Toughest challenge
Clever marketing is seen as the toughest challenge telcos face in winning marketing share as they intensify their struggle versus cable and satellite offerings. Surprisingly, IPTV has made significant progress in the marketing fight. The DSL Forum last October said IPTV subscribers jumped a huge 179 percent to 8.22 million in June, up from 2.95 million year-on-year.
Europe accounted for most of this surge, with IPTV customers climbing to 4.98 million from 1.51 million for the same period. Some 660,000 broadband customers signed up for IPTV services in the Americas, giving the region a total of 1.07 million subscribers. Asia/Pacific added 1.19 million subscribers, giving the region 2.18 million subscribers. IPTV pioneers, such as Hong Kong’s PCCW and France Telecom, together account for around 1.5 million users. Both firms, however, have built fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) networks to support their IPTV offerings.
DSL Forum marketing director Laurie Gonzalez said they are excited about these figures.
“Even a year ago, people were asking whether IPTV would be a compelling application. Today, more than eight million customers are using it in every region of the world. It’s gone far beyond testing to a real rollout.”
DSL has a 66 percent share of broadband access customers, around 200 million in number. Fiber has an 11 percent share, while cable acquired approximately 22 percent.
Hong Kong leads Asian IPTV
The June numbers for Asia/Pacific are an improvement over the second quarter when it was reported the region’s IPTV penetration was “insignificant,” except for Hong Kong. IPTV success has been the greatest in Hong Kong where IPTV has 608,000 subscribers, these coming from PCCW’s NOW broadband TV service. NOW is the largest IPTV deployment in the world and accounts for one third of the total global IPTV subscribers.
Despite a rapid 66 percent increase in NOW subscribers, PCCW reported revenue losses from its TV and content businesses. PCCW also stated NOW subscribers increased to 608,000, but the losses rose to $24 million. PCCW is attempting to generate more revenue from its content services by reselling them to customers of its mobile phone network. This marketing move makes good use of NOW’s premium content, such as 24-hour local news, CNNI and mobile ESPN.
Japan’s Softbank BBTV, with its 180,000 subscribers, is the next Asian success story. Softbank BBTV claims it is adding 18,000 new subscribers monthly.
IPTV made it to Singapore this July when dominant telco Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) launched “mio TV”. Described by SingTel as the next generation of TV watching, mio TV provides a range of VoD titles, including movies from major Hollywood movie studios that include Sony Pictures Entertainment, Twentieth Century Fox and Disney. The service will also offer HD content obtained from partnerships with Mega Media and VOOM HD Networks. The mio TV platform has the potential to allow communications using video conferencing and instant messaging, displaying photos and playing music from PCs, all on the TV set.
“We believe the launch of mio TV will open up more channels for interactive content creation and media services, benefiting both consumers and industry with greater choice and content flexibility,” said Christopher Chia, CEO, Media Development Authority of Singapore.
SingTel said new BBC channels such as BBC Knowledge and BBC Lifestyle will make their global debut on mio TV. BBC Kids’ channel Beebies will also be launched. Singapore is among the world’s first to have a free-to-air HD channel carried on an IPTV platform.
South East Asia is Asia/Pacific’s current leader in IPTV adoption, with seven of 13 countries having rolled out some form of IPTV service, including NOW. Asia is expected to lead other regions with more than 40 percent of global IPTV subscribers by 2010. There were less than three million IPTV subscribers in the world in 2006, a third of which were accounted for by Hong Kong’s PCCW.
Now IPTV
IPTV is set to grow 26 fold by 2010, with 63 million subscribers worldwide, according to researcher firm iSuppli. The company also said the number of IPTV subscribers worldwide should more than double every year from 2005 to 2009, when it could reach 69 million.
Apart from Hong Kong and Singapore, so far IPTV rollouts in Asia have been small in scale and uptake has been puny in most markets. The reality on the ground is that IPTV faces tough challenges from incumbents and their relatively cheap cable and satellite offerings. Incumbents remain the key driving force behind IPTV growth in Asia/Pacific
Cable remains entrenched in Taiwan and Korea as the main method of TV access. In other countries, free TV broadcasts are also dampening incumbents’ interest in IPTV. Incumbents, however, are looking to provide improved broadband network and service penetration to fend off triple play services from cable players.
The bright spots for IPTV remain Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. China will continue to face strict regulatory constraints, while India will remain bedeviled by poor infrastructure.
China, which is IPTV’s largest potential market in Asia, is still years away from solving thorny regulatory issues that will enable telcos to create realistic business models where IPTV can compete against the heavily entrenched cable industry. Cable is dirt cheap in China. To IPTV’s advantage are indications Chinese subscribers appear willing to pay for some of IPTV’s premium services, such as VoD and interactive gaming.
China’s communist leadership still tightly restricts content, whose breadth is the key advantage IPTV offers subscribers. One executive working in China said that if China doesn’t relax on content, “there is no business model, and there will be no demand for IPTV”.
While Chinese telcos, most of which are state-owned or controlled corporations, attempt to persuade the central government to grant more leeway on content, they’re focusing on increasing bandwidth and improving the reliability of their access networks. Overall, the status of China as a feasible market for IPTV remains in doubt. Key issues such as regulatory hurdles, content restrictions and the government’s apparent focus on implementing digital cable services will tend to put a brake on IPTV growth in the short term.
IPTV over satellite
According to Northern Sky Research (NSR), IPTV via satellite is a niche offering likely to account for a relatively small percentage share of the market potential that terrestrial-based platforms are likely to generate.
Revenue estimates for terrestrial-based services are forecast at some $7 billion for 2010 alone. On the other hand, satellite-based total revenues from 2005 to 2010 are expected to exceed $1.6 billion.
Nevertheless, said NSR, IPTV does provide a unique and growing opportunity for the satellite industry to target. The growing preference for IP that satellite service providers are incorporating in their offerings, and the compelling role of satellite services in the video markets worldwide, make IPTV via satellite services a compelling value proposition for select regions.
“Given the proven broadcast economics of satellites in delivering content cost-effectively to large geographic footprints, particularly in underserved areas, growth of IPTV via satellite services should increase at a steady rate,” said Jose del Rosario, NSR senior analyst.
Firms setting up infrastructure to enable IPTV via satellite services will, for the most part, generate initial demand. These services mainly require transponder lease contracts from satellite operators for the delivery of content to IPTV gateways.
Once the infrastructure is in place, the market is expected to move quickly to retail business models. This is due to the fact that revenue-sharing arrangements between satellite companies and the owners of content will lead to higher margins, as satellite players participate in revenue sharing from the subscribers’ monthly service fees.
“Since ‘content is king’ in the pay-TV business, content aggregation and distribution rights are, and will continue to be, more important from a revenue generation perspective compared to actual service provisioning of IPTV,” del Rosario said.
“The ‘battle for eyeballs’ in any pay-TV platform is where the bulk of revenues will be earned, and IPTV is no exception. The market entry strategy for IPTV via satellite players is to provide a compelling business proposition to the owners of content. Once this has been established, the revenue-sharing arrangements will ensure a healthy market for satellite players”.
Written and published in 2007
Monday, September 27, 2010
Surviving asthma
I’m one of the 12 million Filipinos that suffer from asthma. Although doctors say no one is born with this disease, some of my most vivid recollections of my childhood years in the 1950s were visits to hospitals after suffering from asthma attacks.
I remember having to endure painful injections of I don’t know what medicine to combat the disease. I remember the acrid and nauseating odor of emitted by a smoldering mound of “Dr. Schiffman's Asthmador,” a grayish powder made from a concoction of leaves whose smoke I had to inhale so I could again breathe freely.
I remember my delight when the tablet “Asmasolon”(theophylline) entered my world in the 1960s. It meant I no longer had to rely almost exclusively on the pungent odor of burning “Asthmador” since this tiny tablet would do its work.
But Asmasolon tasted so bitter I had to swallow it with sugar and with my eyes closed. I remember that some of my most fervent prayers to the Lord were to free me from asthma, Asthmador and Asmasolon.
I also remember how asthma affected my fondness for sports. When I was Grade 5 at the University of Santo Tomas, our physical education was a choice between basketball and baseball.
Our PE instructor had a simple method of determining who would go on to play basketball: anyone who could run crosscourt while dribbling the ball and not pant at the end went on to play.
I remember dribbling that ball but at midcourt began to pant so heavily I had to stop. Baseball became my sport, which was also good since my dad also loved baseball. I still wish baseball were our national sport, however.
I still have the disease but do not suffer as intensely as I did in my youth. Modern medicine has had a lot to do with this.
I bless those scientists and doctors that invented “salbutamol (Ventolin),” the fastest and most effective cure I’ve taken that combats my asthma. The salbutamol inhaler is a life-saver and I never leave home without it.
Salbutamol nebules, however, have done more to increase my life expectancy than any other form of medication. I have a nebulizer at home and my greatest fear is having a severe attack and finding the nebulizer won’t work. That would be lights out for me. For sure.
And one thing that also made it easier for me to cope with asthma, which generally struck at night, was Mercury Drug having some of its key branches open 24 hours. My dad used to rush off to Mercury's Quiapo branch when attacks found me without, or with insufficient Ventolin.
I did the same for my mother, an asthmatic like myself, and remember hurrying off to Quiapo after midnight one stormy night to buy nebules for my mother.
Defined by asthma
It seems my childhood years were defined by my battle against asthma. Doctors say it’s a battle I can’t win since there is no cure for asthma. Asthma will most likely kill me one of these days. At least, that’s what the statistics indicate.
I don’t fancy an asthma attack so severe it causes a massive heart attack that does me in. The painful fight for every life-giving breath will reach so terrible a stage in a severe attack that the body’s final defense is to give in and die.
I guess death is the only real cure for asthma, and I guess this is where I’m headed somewhere along the short road ahead.
But I don’t dwell on the inevitable. Patients with fourth stage cancer are forced to treasure every dawn that dawns.
Asthmatics are compelled to see life in the same light, but not with the same dreadful urgency. I do treasure each day and praise my Lord with each wonderful dawn.
My asthma is nocturnal and is caused by dirty linen (pillow cases, blankets and bed sheets). I used to think dirty meant dirty, as in dirty caused by dust and dirt.
Now, I know that dirty really means linen infested by dust mites and their feces carrying allergens that trigger asthma. So, I have to sleep in clean beds.
In my bachelor days, this meant I had to be very picky about where I (and my partner) slept. That usually meant going to first class digs known for their first class linen.
I guess few things are more embarrassing than having an asthma attack in the middle of you know what. Thanks goodness this never happened, although the fear remained at the back of my mind during those treasured moments.
Pollution and asthma
Now, in my middle age I find my asthma attacks are no longer purely nocturnal. I’ve had an increasing number of attacks while walking in a place far from the safety of my home and nebulizer.
I know air pollution from vehicle exhausts is the new allergen that triggers most of these away-from-home-attacks. But I have to travel to Makati City to do work for my clients, so my salbutamol inhaler becomes a life-saving device that always goes with me.
It’s also somewhat disconcerting to realize that some doctors view asthma as a “polygenic condition,” that is, a disease carried by genes and that can be inherited and passed on, and can be complicated by environmental factors such as pollution.
It’s also worrisome to learn that asthma and other allergic diseases have been on a significant rise for the last 50 years.
The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) project that disseminates information on asthma care and the results of scientific investigations said several studies indicate that multiple genes may be involved in the pathogenesis of asthma.
It also said asthma became more complex in the presence of environmental triggers such as pollution that cause an asthma attack.
A Filipino pediatric geneticist believes asthma afflicts 155 million persons worldwide and that asthma cases are increasing in the Philippines.
It is comforting to note that nobody is born with asthma. One, however, can be born with the gene (or “genotype”) that causes asthma. It is this genotype triggered by environmental factors that causes asthma.
In 2003, the Asthma Genetics Group from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom reported an asthma susceptibility gene, PHF 11, which comes from chromosome 13. The gene appears to regulate the blood B cells that produce immunoglobulin E, the allergic antibody.
The study said there are some 10 genes that have a significant effect on a person's susceptibility to asthma.
What worries me about these findings is that they confirm asthma is an inherited disease. The last thing I wanted was for any of my six children to inherit the disease.
Unfortunately, one has inherited my asthma but the average interval in her attacks, thankfully, is measured in years, not days. Thankfully, our nebulizer stands ready to serve us when the need arises.
I can’t say with confidence that my asthma helped make me a better writer since it took much of any physical activity out of my life. But I can’t also say that I wouldn’t have stayed at home as much and read as much if I were a more physically fit man.
If I were a lot more physical, I’d probably have learned to love baseball; studied “kendo” and played NFL football with like-minded Pinoys (Are there any out there?). I’d also have probably run a marathon, which is a great ambition I realize I shall never accomplish. Especially now.
But I've learned to live with asthma. Life's still a beautiful work-in-progress, and I thank God profusely for every days that dawns.
I remember having to endure painful injections of I don’t know what medicine to combat the disease. I remember the acrid and nauseating odor of emitted by a smoldering mound of “Dr. Schiffman's Asthmador,” a grayish powder made from a concoction of leaves whose smoke I had to inhale so I could again breathe freely.
I remember my delight when the tablet “Asmasolon”(theophylline) entered my world in the 1960s. It meant I no longer had to rely almost exclusively on the pungent odor of burning “Asthmador” since this tiny tablet would do its work.
But Asmasolon tasted so bitter I had to swallow it with sugar and with my eyes closed. I remember that some of my most fervent prayers to the Lord were to free me from asthma, Asthmador and Asmasolon.
I also remember how asthma affected my fondness for sports. When I was Grade 5 at the University of Santo Tomas, our physical education was a choice between basketball and baseball.
Our PE instructor had a simple method of determining who would go on to play basketball: anyone who could run crosscourt while dribbling the ball and not pant at the end went on to play.
I remember dribbling that ball but at midcourt began to pant so heavily I had to stop. Baseball became my sport, which was also good since my dad also loved baseball. I still wish baseball were our national sport, however.
I still have the disease but do not suffer as intensely as I did in my youth. Modern medicine has had a lot to do with this.
I bless those scientists and doctors that invented “salbutamol (Ventolin),” the fastest and most effective cure I’ve taken that combats my asthma. The salbutamol inhaler is a life-saver and I never leave home without it.
Salbutamol nebules, however, have done more to increase my life expectancy than any other form of medication. I have a nebulizer at home and my greatest fear is having a severe attack and finding the nebulizer won’t work. That would be lights out for me. For sure.
And one thing that also made it easier for me to cope with asthma, which generally struck at night, was Mercury Drug having some of its key branches open 24 hours. My dad used to rush off to Mercury's Quiapo branch when attacks found me without, or with insufficient Ventolin.
I did the same for my mother, an asthmatic like myself, and remember hurrying off to Quiapo after midnight one stormy night to buy nebules for my mother.
Defined by asthma
It seems my childhood years were defined by my battle against asthma. Doctors say it’s a battle I can’t win since there is no cure for asthma. Asthma will most likely kill me one of these days. At least, that’s what the statistics indicate.
I don’t fancy an asthma attack so severe it causes a massive heart attack that does me in. The painful fight for every life-giving breath will reach so terrible a stage in a severe attack that the body’s final defense is to give in and die.
I guess death is the only real cure for asthma, and I guess this is where I’m headed somewhere along the short road ahead.
But I don’t dwell on the inevitable. Patients with fourth stage cancer are forced to treasure every dawn that dawns.
Asthmatics are compelled to see life in the same light, but not with the same dreadful urgency. I do treasure each day and praise my Lord with each wonderful dawn.
My asthma is nocturnal and is caused by dirty linen (pillow cases, blankets and bed sheets). I used to think dirty meant dirty, as in dirty caused by dust and dirt.
Now, I know that dirty really means linen infested by dust mites and their feces carrying allergens that trigger asthma. So, I have to sleep in clean beds.
In my bachelor days, this meant I had to be very picky about where I (and my partner) slept. That usually meant going to first class digs known for their first class linen.
I guess few things are more embarrassing than having an asthma attack in the middle of you know what. Thanks goodness this never happened, although the fear remained at the back of my mind during those treasured moments.
Pollution and asthma
Now, in my middle age I find my asthma attacks are no longer purely nocturnal. I’ve had an increasing number of attacks while walking in a place far from the safety of my home and nebulizer.
I know air pollution from vehicle exhausts is the new allergen that triggers most of these away-from-home-attacks. But I have to travel to Makati City to do work for my clients, so my salbutamol inhaler becomes a life-saving device that always goes with me.
It’s also somewhat disconcerting to realize that some doctors view asthma as a “polygenic condition,” that is, a disease carried by genes and that can be inherited and passed on, and can be complicated by environmental factors such as pollution.
It’s also worrisome to learn that asthma and other allergic diseases have been on a significant rise for the last 50 years.
The Global Initiative for Asthma (GINA) project that disseminates information on asthma care and the results of scientific investigations said several studies indicate that multiple genes may be involved in the pathogenesis of asthma.
It also said asthma became more complex in the presence of environmental triggers such as pollution that cause an asthma attack.
A Filipino pediatric geneticist believes asthma afflicts 155 million persons worldwide and that asthma cases are increasing in the Philippines.
It is comforting to note that nobody is born with asthma. One, however, can be born with the gene (or “genotype”) that causes asthma. It is this genotype triggered by environmental factors that causes asthma.
In 2003, the Asthma Genetics Group from the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom reported an asthma susceptibility gene, PHF 11, which comes from chromosome 13. The gene appears to regulate the blood B cells that produce immunoglobulin E, the allergic antibody.
The study said there are some 10 genes that have a significant effect on a person's susceptibility to asthma.
What worries me about these findings is that they confirm asthma is an inherited disease. The last thing I wanted was for any of my six children to inherit the disease.
Unfortunately, one has inherited my asthma but the average interval in her attacks, thankfully, is measured in years, not days. Thankfully, our nebulizer stands ready to serve us when the need arises.
I can’t say with confidence that my asthma helped make me a better writer since it took much of any physical activity out of my life. But I can’t also say that I wouldn’t have stayed at home as much and read as much if I were a more physically fit man.
If I were a lot more physical, I’d probably have learned to love baseball; studied “kendo” and played NFL football with like-minded Pinoys (Are there any out there?). I’d also have probably run a marathon, which is a great ambition I realize I shall never accomplish. Especially now.
But I've learned to live with asthma. Life's still a beautiful work-in-progress, and I thank God profusely for every days that dawns.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Your “hidden hairs” and what to do about them
"Hidden hairs” tend to get a short shrift in polite Pinoy conversation. That’s understandable since “hidden hairs” are “secrets” best kept hidden, both literally and figuratively speaking.
But it’s as unwise to let your “hidden hairs”—your nose hair and ear hair—grow wild and free as it is to totally get rid of them. Hidden hairs do serve a healthful purpose, as do all the other kinds of hair on your body.
To start with, the problem with hidden hairs seems to be they’re embarrassing. Nose hairs are a problem that literally “lie hidden beneath your nose” until someone notices what look like spider legs crawling out of your nostrils. Ear hair, on the other hand, seems proof of the adage that “What you don’t know won’t hurt you,” meaning in this case that you can’t be unhappy with something you can’t see.
That is, until someone (hopefully, not the hot babe you’re dating) calls your attention to a garden of black shrubs sprouting out of your “tragus” (that rounded projection covering your ear canal). So, hidden hairs often become a real-world problem following a painful bout of public humiliation. Now what?
Don’t reach for the tweezers just yet. It pays to know something about the “enemy” you plan to eliminate. The first thing you’ve got to know is that hidden hairs are not your enemy. They might be embarrassing and might seem to have as useful a purpose as your appendix (a totally useless body part until it becomes infected), but they “Serve and Protect” like the upright policemen they really are. In sum, short hairs (like good cops) protect you from the dangers of the outside world.
The nose hair or olfactory cilia in the anterior nasal passage of each nostril is one of your body's first lines of defense against harmful environmental pathogens (germs, fungus and spores), and pollutants (dust, soot and particulate matter from exhaust fumes) that populate the dirty air we breathe nowadays.
When you inhale air through your nostrils, you also suck in whatever solid particles or pollution floats around in that air. Nasal hairs act as fibrous filters that help the nasal cavities and their mucus membranes (which secrete nasal mucus, a sticky substance) trap and prevent dangerous airborne particles from entering your respiratory system and making you sick. A lack of nasal hair could invite the transport of potentially harmful particles into the respiratory system.
"Air-conditioner"
Your can also consider your nose as an “air conditioner” and nose hair the filters in this air conditioner. This “air conditioning” is created both by the larger or macroscopic nose hair and by microscopic cellular strands or “nasal cilia” that line the interior of the nose. As inhaled air moves through the nasal passages, it is humidified by mucus and nose hair. Humidity is important because it prevents the respiratory system and nasal passage from drying up.
The nasal cilia also draw foreign particles and mucus up toward the oropharynx (the cavity formed by the pharynx at the back of the mouth) via a coordinated back-and-forth motion. At the oropharynx, these foreign particles and mucus are either swallowed or coughed out.
Filtered air continues towards the larynx and lungs. Nose hairs and cilia are, therefore, key defense mechanisms against harmful pathogens and solid particulate matter present in the air. This process, called inertial filtration, means the air we inhale into our lungs is very well cleaned.
That’s why some doctors discourage people from completely removing their nose hair either through plucking or cutting. Lightly trimming your nose hair using either a special scissors with rounded ends or rotary nose hair trimmers (manually operated or motorized) is the wisest choice, according to accepted wisdom.
On the other hand, some experts believe that although long nose hairs look unsightly, it would be best to allow their growth. A photo of Microsoft founder Bill Gates with blonde hairs sticking out of his nostril seems to vouch for this belief. Walking around in public with visible nose hairs, however, calls for superhuman courage in our perception-oriented society.
Frequent and constant nose hair plucking and cutting could weaken the respiratory system’s defenses and can cause breathing discomfort, according to some medical sources. Persons who choose to remove almost all their nose hair could also find themselves quite susceptible to allergy attacks, sinusitis and respiratory infections. Older people should minimize nose hair trimming because it often takes longer for the trimmed hairs to re-grow. Hence, the preference for light trimming.
An Adult Problem
While there’s a dearth of in-depth medical studies about nose hair, what’s out there suggests this problem occurs mainly among men beginning in their 30s and continues as they grow older. No one is quite sure what triggers this sudden growth, but one theory is that as men age, the hair follicles in their noses become more sensitive to the male hormone DHT (dihydrotestosterone) that stimulates unwanted hair growth. The exact relationship of DHT to nose (and ear) hair growth remains unclear, however.
And when is it time to trim nose hair? Before it becomes visible is the generally accepted answer. More specifically, it’s time to trim when nose hair falls below the line of the nostrils. Always avoid aggressive trimming inside the nasal cavities and don’t pluck out your nasal hair using your fingers or tweezers. This might lead to lesions that could result in a serious nose infection. And it’s a myth that nose hair (and ear hair) will grow back faster or thicker once you trim it.
What happens to the larger particles trapped in the nose by both the nose hairs and cilia? These wind up as “kulangot” (“snot,” “booger” or “bogey” in English). We expel boogers by nose picking (preferably in private) or by sneezing. Old dry mucus normally loosens on its own and causes a person to sneeze.
Sneezing forces out the old dry mucus through the nose. Once this is accomplished, new moist sticky mucus is forced to spread all over the nostril and nose hair, restoring the body’s first line of defense against air pollution.
Ear Hair: Not Your Crowning Glory
An American medical doctor described hidden hairs as “God’s little practical joke. . . He takes the hair from your head and puts it on your ears and nose.” Another pundit says the growth of nose and ear hair is the result of what he called “The Law of Conservation of Hair.” This “law” claims the loss of a man’s sexual energy as he ages is inversely proportional to the rate of growth of his nose and ear hair. That is, the less sexually active he is, the hairier are his nose and ears.
Kidding aside, it seems harder making a sound case for the benefits one derives from ear hair. The case for ear hair is similar to that for nose hair, however: ear hair filters out unwanted airborne particles from entering the human body, in this case the ears.
There is, however, no conclusive medical proof that men’s ears become hairier as they age. There is also no conclusive medical proof that having hairy ears makes one more susceptible to a heart attack. What is known is that some Asian ethnic groups (not Filipinos) seem more prone to having hairier ears.
Ear hair normally grows at two sites: the tragus (or the entrance of the ear) and the “pinna,” (or auricle) which is another term for the outer ear. Ear hair is more common in men than among women, for reasons that have yet to be fully explained. Some say this is another offshoot of DHT, the male hormone.
Plucking seems the best method of getting rid of unwanted ear hair regularly. Since you can’t do this efficiently by yourself, someone in your family or who loves you should do this for you. But the day when the average Pinay proves her love for her Pinoy boyfriend by plucking out his ear hairs is the day when the “uwak” turns into you know what color. It’s just not going to happen.
But it’s as unwise to let your “hidden hairs”—your nose hair and ear hair—grow wild and free as it is to totally get rid of them. Hidden hairs do serve a healthful purpose, as do all the other kinds of hair on your body.
To start with, the problem with hidden hairs seems to be they’re embarrassing. Nose hairs are a problem that literally “lie hidden beneath your nose” until someone notices what look like spider legs crawling out of your nostrils. Ear hair, on the other hand, seems proof of the adage that “What you don’t know won’t hurt you,” meaning in this case that you can’t be unhappy with something you can’t see.
That is, until someone (hopefully, not the hot babe you’re dating) calls your attention to a garden of black shrubs sprouting out of your “tragus” (that rounded projection covering your ear canal). So, hidden hairs often become a real-world problem following a painful bout of public humiliation. Now what?
Don’t reach for the tweezers just yet. It pays to know something about the “enemy” you plan to eliminate. The first thing you’ve got to know is that hidden hairs are not your enemy. They might be embarrassing and might seem to have as useful a purpose as your appendix (a totally useless body part until it becomes infected), but they “Serve and Protect” like the upright policemen they really are. In sum, short hairs (like good cops) protect you from the dangers of the outside world.
The nose hair or olfactory cilia in the anterior nasal passage of each nostril is one of your body's first lines of defense against harmful environmental pathogens (germs, fungus and spores), and pollutants (dust, soot and particulate matter from exhaust fumes) that populate the dirty air we breathe nowadays.
When you inhale air through your nostrils, you also suck in whatever solid particles or pollution floats around in that air. Nasal hairs act as fibrous filters that help the nasal cavities and their mucus membranes (which secrete nasal mucus, a sticky substance) trap and prevent dangerous airborne particles from entering your respiratory system and making you sick. A lack of nasal hair could invite the transport of potentially harmful particles into the respiratory system.
"Air-conditioner"
Your can also consider your nose as an “air conditioner” and nose hair the filters in this air conditioner. This “air conditioning” is created both by the larger or macroscopic nose hair and by microscopic cellular strands or “nasal cilia” that line the interior of the nose. As inhaled air moves through the nasal passages, it is humidified by mucus and nose hair. Humidity is important because it prevents the respiratory system and nasal passage from drying up.
The nasal cilia also draw foreign particles and mucus up toward the oropharynx (the cavity formed by the pharynx at the back of the mouth) via a coordinated back-and-forth motion. At the oropharynx, these foreign particles and mucus are either swallowed or coughed out.
That’s why some doctors discourage people from completely removing their nose hair either through plucking or cutting. Lightly trimming your nose hair using either a special scissors with rounded ends or rotary nose hair trimmers (manually operated or motorized) is the wisest choice, according to accepted wisdom.
On the other hand, some experts believe that although long nose hairs look unsightly, it would be best to allow their growth. A photo of Microsoft founder Bill Gates with blonde hairs sticking out of his nostril seems to vouch for this belief. Walking around in public with visible nose hairs, however, calls for superhuman courage in our perception-oriented society.
Frequent and constant nose hair plucking and cutting could weaken the respiratory system’s defenses and can cause breathing discomfort, according to some medical sources. Persons who choose to remove almost all their nose hair could also find themselves quite susceptible to allergy attacks, sinusitis and respiratory infections. Older people should minimize nose hair trimming because it often takes longer for the trimmed hairs to re-grow. Hence, the preference for light trimming.
An Adult Problem
While there’s a dearth of in-depth medical studies about nose hair, what’s out there suggests this problem occurs mainly among men beginning in their 30s and continues as they grow older. No one is quite sure what triggers this sudden growth, but one theory is that as men age, the hair follicles in their noses become more sensitive to the male hormone DHT (dihydrotestosterone) that stimulates unwanted hair growth. The exact relationship of DHT to nose (and ear) hair growth remains unclear, however.
And when is it time to trim nose hair? Before it becomes visible is the generally accepted answer. More specifically, it’s time to trim when nose hair falls below the line of the nostrils. Always avoid aggressive trimming inside the nasal cavities and don’t pluck out your nasal hair using your fingers or tweezers. This might lead to lesions that could result in a serious nose infection. And it’s a myth that nose hair (and ear hair) will grow back faster or thicker once you trim it.
What happens to the larger particles trapped in the nose by both the nose hairs and cilia? These wind up as “kulangot” (“snot,” “booger” or “bogey” in English). We expel boogers by nose picking (preferably in private) or by sneezing. Old dry mucus normally loosens on its own and causes a person to sneeze.
Sneezing forces out the old dry mucus through the nose. Once this is accomplished, new moist sticky mucus is forced to spread all over the nostril and nose hair, restoring the body’s first line of defense against air pollution.
Ear Hair: Not Your Crowning Glory
An American medical doctor described hidden hairs as “God’s little practical joke. . . He takes the hair from your head and puts it on your ears and nose.” Another pundit says the growth of nose and ear hair is the result of what he called “The Law of Conservation of Hair.” This “law” claims the loss of a man’s sexual energy as he ages is inversely proportional to the rate of growth of his nose and ear hair. That is, the less sexually active he is, the hairier are his nose and ears.
There is, however, no conclusive medical proof that men’s ears become hairier as they age. There is also no conclusive medical proof that having hairy ears makes one more susceptible to a heart attack. What is known is that some Asian ethnic groups (not Filipinos) seem more prone to having hairier ears.
Ear hair normally grows at two sites: the tragus (or the entrance of the ear) and the “pinna,” (or auricle) which is another term for the outer ear. Ear hair is more common in men than among women, for reasons that have yet to be fully explained. Some say this is another offshoot of DHT, the male hormone.
Plucking seems the best method of getting rid of unwanted ear hair regularly. Since you can’t do this efficiently by yourself, someone in your family or who loves you should do this for you. But the day when the average Pinay proves her love for her Pinoy boyfriend by plucking out his ear hairs is the day when the “uwak” turns into you know what color. It’s just not going to happen.
Monday, June 28, 2010
A bitter price Koreans must pay
(Published in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, June 1, 2010)
There will be no renewed fighting in the Korean War—halted by an Armistice since July 27, 1953—despite rapid preparations for war by both sides following the sinking of a South Korean warship by North Korea last March. North and South Korea never signed a formal peace treaty ending the Korean War (1950-1953). They remain technically at war, the world’s longest conventional war of the 20th century that has extended into the next.
It is ominous war clouds seem to be hovering over the peninsula as the world approaches the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War on June 25. Although military and political experts say war remains improbable, this latest escalation of tensions by Stalinist North Korea means similar provocations will recur in the future, probably in the Yellow Sea where the border separating both countries remains contested.
It seems almost certain one of these incidents could re-ignite a war that will re-shape Asia and the world in the first half of the 21st century. It is a war that might well weaken the economies of the U.S. and China (the world’s two largest) to such an extent a new and more horrible Great Depression will ravage the world unchecked.
Despite its overstretched armed forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.’ military leadership believes victory is possible in Korea given the U.S.’ immense superiority in military technology (especially those deployed by the U.S. Navy and Air Force). This reliance on sophisticated technology seems reasonable given that only 29,000 U.S. and 520,000 South Korean soldiers stand in the way of North Korea’s 1.2 million man mechanized army.
The world will definitely commemorate the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War on June 25. Further activities in September will mark the 60th anniversary of the landing of the first Filipino Battalion Combat Team (BCT) at Busan on September 19, 1950. Five BCTs mustering 7,500 officers and men from the Philippine Army served in Korea from 1950-55 as PEFTOK, the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea.
Delegations of our aging Korean War veterans are preparing to travel to a country where over 100 of their fellow soldiers died defending South Korea from aggression by communist China and North Korea. Some 400 Filipino soldiers were wounded in combat while 17 others remain missing-in-action to this day.
That Filipino veterans will march in celebrations honoring their noble sacrifice and that of the U.S., South Korea and 19 other countries that served under the United Nations Command is, however, sad proof only military power can guarantee peace in the Korean peninsula.
The unyielding aim of North Korea is to merge both Koreas under communism in a war of unification, the same aim it had in 1950. The goal of South Korea and the U.S. is to defeat this war of unification, thereby uniting Korea in the process.
But as the price of unification is renewed war, and since both foes are unwilling to risk that war, Korea must remain a divided country to maintain world peace. It is a bitter price the Korean people have to continue to pay. I sympathize greatly with the heroic Korean people.
There will be no renewed fighting in the Korean War—halted by an Armistice since July 27, 1953—despite rapid preparations for war by both sides following the sinking of a South Korean warship by North Korea last March. North and South Korea never signed a formal peace treaty ending the Korean War (1950-1953). They remain technically at war, the world’s longest conventional war of the 20th century that has extended into the next.
It seems almost certain one of these incidents could re-ignite a war that will re-shape Asia and the world in the first half of the 21st century. It is a war that might well weaken the economies of the U.S. and China (the world’s two largest) to such an extent a new and more horrible Great Depression will ravage the world unchecked.
Despite its overstretched armed forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S.’ military leadership believes victory is possible in Korea given the U.S.’ immense superiority in military technology (especially those deployed by the U.S. Navy and Air Force). This reliance on sophisticated technology seems reasonable given that only 29,000 U.S. and 520,000 South Korean soldiers stand in the way of North Korea’s 1.2 million man mechanized army.
The world will definitely commemorate the 60th anniversary of the start of the Korean War on June 25. Further activities in September will mark the 60th anniversary of the landing of the first Filipino Battalion Combat Team (BCT) at Busan on September 19, 1950. Five BCTs mustering 7,500 officers and men from the Philippine Army served in Korea from 1950-55 as PEFTOK, the Philippine Expeditionary Force to Korea.
That Filipino veterans will march in celebrations honoring their noble sacrifice and that of the U.S., South Korea and 19 other countries that served under the United Nations Command is, however, sad proof only military power can guarantee peace in the Korean peninsula.
The unyielding aim of North Korea is to merge both Koreas under communism in a war of unification, the same aim it had in 1950. The goal of South Korea and the U.S. is to defeat this war of unification, thereby uniting Korea in the process.
But as the price of unification is renewed war, and since both foes are unwilling to risk that war, Korea must remain a divided country to maintain world peace. It is a bitter price the Korean people have to continue to pay. I sympathize greatly with the heroic Korean people.
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