Having a seven-day week seemed strange to sociologists since there was no corresponding geophysical event as there was with the solar day or the lunar month. They tended to attribute it to our cultures and not to biology. However, other organisms also have a seven-day cycle, and a week is, after all, a quarter of a lunar circle. At the end of the French Revolution, the revolutionary government wanted to establish a ten-day week, but the attempt failed to work. In the former Soviet Union, the rulers also experimented with modifying the week by trying five-day and six-day weeks. Again, people rejected to change the length of their week. They seemed to need to have one day out of seven in order to rest their body clocks. Weekly rhythms show up most strongly during times of stress. For the body to fight off a cold, it needs about a week. The symptoms of chicken pox show up about two weeks after the patient’s being exposed to disease. Health care workers expect to see patients with pneumonia and malaria at greatest risk after one week of fighting these diseases. By these evidences, sociologists have had reasons to reconsider their previous ideas about the origin of the seven-day week.

 Stop motion involves physically manipulating objects, making them appear to move on their own. The objects are moved in tediously small increments, and each tiny change in their position is photographed. When the series of pictures is played in a continuous sequence, the objects appear to move of their own free will. Because clay is a material that is particularly malleable, it is often used in films that utilize stop motion photography. 

The stop motion technique was first put to use in a film called The Humpty Dumpty Circus in 1898. Filmmakers used acrobat and animal toys to become pioneers in this new branch of the movie industry. In the 20th century, animators brought stop motion to the masses when the original King Kong film hit theaters in 1933. Decades later, Disney experimented with stop motion techniques character, Mickey Mouse, in 1978. Then, in 1993, The Nightmare Before Christmas, produced by the delightfully dark Tim Burton, became the first widely released stop motion feature film. 

Today, thanks to the Internet, entertaining stop motion films are always just a click away. One of the best the Web has to offer is T-Shirt War, which was made by Rhett McLaughlin and Link Neal. In the film, the two men use alternating images on their T-Shirts to push each other’s buttons. In all, it took 222 shirts to make the short video.

 Stop motion techniques have also infiltrated music videos, and one of the most impressive is Oren Lavie’s “Her Morning Elegance.” It consists of 3,225 still photographs of actors on a bed, which were shot by a single overhead camera. It took four weeks of meticulous planning to map out the computer animated storyboard for the video before a single frame was shot.

 In Taiwan, a stop motion animation video caused an online sensation. “Deadline”, a class project by Bang-yao Liu, a student at Savannah College of Art and Design, innovatively used Post-it notes. Bang-yao planned out the changing positions of over 6,000 Post-it notes for three months before beginning his four-day shoot. The moving notes tell the story of a young man dealing with a deadline as monsters, thunderstorms, and a submarine move across the wall in front of his desk. The works of Bang-yao and many other creative filmmakers show that there are no limits to this amazing method of movie making.

   Do you have difficulties getting work done because computer games or online chatting occupy a great deal of your time? Do you value chat-room friends more than real friends because most of your friends are from online contacts? The habits you develop from your computer use may cause significant problems in your life. For instance, feeling irritable or depressed when not using the computer, losing jobs or failing courses due to the lack of productivity on work or school assignments, and finally, feeling socially inept, since you lose the ability to interact with people face to face.

   Symptoms, such as obsessively checking e-mail, losing track of time while on the computer, and neglecting family, work, friends, or even personal health and hygiene, are all indications of computer addiction. This addiction can be described as compulsive.

   Not all people who spend hours each day on the computer, however, are considered addicted. That is, a person who spends 8 hours or more a day on the computer may not automatically be regarded as a computer addict while another person who spends less than 6 hours a day could suffer from an addition. It is important to note each case is distinct and, therefore, the number of hours spent on the computer is not considered to be the main factor in identifying computer addiction. Rather, the kinds of activities, the level of compulsion, and other ways of using the computer are the real determining factors.

   A person who is obsessed with the computer is likely to have the following experiences or feelings: craving for the use of computer excessively; feeling anxious or gloomy when computer time is interrupted; telling lies to hide that you are actually playing games online; and neglecting friends, family, or responsibilities when online. Physical discomfort, such as back and neck aches, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, difficulty focusing your vision, dry eyes, and severe headaches may also be observed. Look out for these signs and get proper treatment, so you will regain control of your life.