Put down your torches and pitchforks, and wait until you hear (or in this case, since this is a newspaper, read) what information I’ve come to deliver.

Facebook is preparing to revamp their “news feed.” It’s the stream of information, links, text, video, pictures, and endless annoying farmville updates, that you look at on Facebook most often.

If you’re like me, when you get on Facebook, you keep scrolling down through all the information, viewing various memes, commenting on some posts, liking others, until you hit the last post you looked at the previous time you were on Facebook.

Well, Facebook aims to change the way you look at your newsfeed.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Facebook announced these most recent changes at a press conference on Thursday, March 7, 2013.

The Wall Street Journal wrote, “Rather than being greeted by a waterfall of tiny photos and dozens of links on your News Feed, you will now be shown large photos and lots of flowing white space. This allows each post to breathe a little, eliminating the claustrophobia of the old design.”

Facebook is trying to take a more minimalist approach to the way we all get our information, and I don’t personally see anything wrong with that. In fact, I like the concept. It’s almost like Facebook is taking a few notes from Google+ and Tumblr, both of which have larger images and more white space.

I included a screenshot with this article of the revamped news feed so you can see and judge for yourself whether or not you like the new layout.

The main changes will be larger and more clear pictures (Facebook’s research has apparently shown that users overwhelmingly love pictures; they just can’t get enough of them), more white space, and a menu in the top left corner that will allow you to sort what content you see in your news feed.

You’ll be able to sort by pictures, apps, events and more.

According to an article on Mashable.com, Facebook’s layout changes aren’t just on the computer. They’re going to be unifying their design across their mobile devices on everything from the iPhone, to Android devices, to Windows Phone devices, and more. That way, you won’t have as much of a difference between the desktop version of Facebook and your mobile device.

I’m actually in favorite of this too. If you have a sleek design that looks good, why limit it to computers? In August of 2012, DailyTech.com reported that 102 million users visited Facebook via mobile devices. So, it only makes sense that they would try to unify their desktop and mobile experience to be equal in performance. The ultimate question is whether or not that performance will be superior to Facebook as it currently is.

I recall when Facebook launched their redesign of profiles back in December of 2011 (timeline). It was met with much distaste from many users. And even that wasn’t new to Mark Zuckerberg. Several of his company’s updates and redesigns in the past have been met with harsh resistance (although since Facebook is a free product that users have absolutely no control over, can one really call an endless supply of whining statuses “resistance”)?

I didn’t really mind the Timeline update. Personally, I thought it was neat to go back and look at my first posts back in 2006 and 2007.

What I didn’t care for, was putting timeline on Facebook pages. I think it’s a fine invention for personal profiles, but for pages, I still have occasional glitches with it today.

Honestly, this new redesign of the news feed sounds like a good idea to me. I like Google+’s layout, and I appreciate the larger picture ideas from Tumblr.

I still foresee plenty of people hating this change and resisting it because it’s different, but eventually everyone will shut up, get used to it, and move onto more important things, like waiting for the next update so they can moan and complain about it.

As I already mentioned earlier, Facebook is a free product. It’s offered to you at no charge (and if you’re smart enough to use Adblock, you don’t even have to put up with pesky advertisements). When they decide to change something, there really is no point in griping and complaining about it. If you don’t like it, you’re free to migrate to Twitter, Google+, Myspace (ha, that’s a good one), or any other social network that doesn’t anger you with their changes.

Or, you can simply delete your account, rid yourself of all social media, and consider yourself morally superior to everyone else because you’re “liberated” from the burden that was Facebook. Either way, stay clear of me.

“The angel swung his sickle on the earth, gathered its grapes and threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath. They were trampled in the winepress outside the city, and blood flowed out of the press, rising as high as the horses’ bridles for a distance of 1,600 stadia,” John said in Revelation 14:19-20.

I grimace as I read this. It sounds just absolutely awful. The equivalent of 1,600 stadia is 180 miles. Can you imagine a river of blood as high as the mouth of a horse for 180 miles? I do not want to imagine it, and I do not want to believe it is real. This is one of those scenes in the Bible that it would be nice to dance over.

God is love, but he is also wrathful. If you believe in God’s love, mercy, grace and peace, then you must believe in his wrath. It is not a topic we can simply forget about in the Bible. If we truly believe the other parts of the Bible, then we must believe that this will seriously happen.

Jesus talked about this wrath in Matthew 13:24-30, through the parable of the weeds. Jesus described the kingdom of heaven as a man who sowed wheat in his field, but while he was away, an enemy planted weeds among the wheat. The man allowed the wheat and weeds to grow together until the harvest, when the weeds were to be burned and the wheat to be taken to the barn.

Jesus revealed the meaning of the parable in Matthew 13:36-43. “The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth,” he said in Matthew 13:41-42.

Not as graphic as the scene in Revelation, but both refer to the same group of individuals: those who chose to follow Satan.

“I am a good person. I do good deeds and am nice to people. I do not worship the devil or evil,” you may find yourself saying.

But that is not the way God works. You are either for him or against him; you cannot be both or neither. You are either his child and eternal or worldly and will face his wrath as described above. “He who is not with me is against me,” Jesus said in Matthew 12:30.

The incredible part is that we do not have to face this wrath. We are all guilty of sin and not one of us is good enough to earn eternal life alone. “There is no one righteous, not even one,” Paul said in Romans 3:10. He continued in Romans 3:23: “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

We can evade God’s wrath by accepting this and choosing to believe that his son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross as atonement for our sins and was resurrected. “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” Paul said in Romans 10:9.

God’s love is made whole when we realize that without his grace and mercy we would not receive eternal life. Without the promise of his wrath, we would not have the security of his love. Once we accept him, we are his forever.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” Paul said in Romans 8:38-39.

Picture our earth. There are awesome mountain peaks, deathly hot desserts, serene waterfalls and destructive tornadoes.  If God has created these worldly things, think of how much more effort he put into making what is eternal.

Do not force God to make you endure his wrath. Paul said in Galatians 6:7: “Do not be deceived; God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.”

At times I feel life is like the story of David and Goliath.

Saul and the Israelites were ready to face the Philistines until Goliath stepped out. “A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. He was over nine feet tall,” 1 Samuel 17:4 says.

The text also describes his fearless attitude. “Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight me and kill me, we will become your servants; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us,” Goliath said in 1 Samuel 17:8-9.

Just the fact that he was so tall would have made me run in the other direction. The Israelites shared the same fear, “dismayed and terrified” (1 Samuel 17:11).

David heard Goliath taunting the Israelites and defying God, and he would have none of it. “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him,” David said in 1 Samuel 17:32. “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine,” he said in 1 Samuel 17:37.

So the small shepherd boy took five small stones and his sling to fight Goliath, refusing the heavy armor Saul offered him.

David did not back down when Goliath began taunting. “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord God Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied,” David said to Goliath in 1 Samuel 17:45.

Relying on God’s strength, David slung the rock a Goliath, hitting him in the forehead and killing him.

David helped save the Israelites from the Philistines in this battle because of his dependence on God. He knew that without God’s strength, he would not defeat the enemy.

Though today we probably do not face physical enemies like David and the Israelites, we all face spiritual enemies. When doing work for God, Satan tries to attack us and make us feel that God’s power is inferior. Just as Goliath did, Satan tries to scare us into battle, where he knows he can defeat us.

We can choose to be like David and stand up for God, or we can choose to be like the Israelite army and run from danger. Standing up for God is difficult, but he promises to protect us.

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go,” God promised in Joshua 1:9.

God will give us his strength when we trust him to guide us over our struggles.

“I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him,” God said in Psalm 91:14-15.

It is easy to forget the power of God when we are in the face of our enemies. I let Satan get into my head, telling me that I am not good enough to overcome. It is true that alone I am not sufficient to defeat the enemy, but with the power of God I can.

When I face the temptation to run from Goliath, I will be reminded of the triumph of David because of God’s power. For when I am weak, the power of God will make me strong.

As Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:7-8: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord.”

College is really difficult, and I know I am not the only student who thinks so.

I easily get overwhelmed with all that I must do. Three articles due on Monday, three interviews to schedule and complete this week, a couple of quizzes, some blog posts to write, a midterm exam, a Spanish test…and I am just a sophomore journalism student. I know there are several others out there who have a much more intense workload than I do.

During these times, it is easy for me to forget that God is here to help me. I feel the weak under the weight of the world.

Though not necessarily physically weak, I often feel mentally, emotionally and spiritually weak when I begin to dwell upon my upcoming schedule. There are many times in Scripture where God says he will provide strength when we are weak, if we allow him to.

“He gives strength to the weary and increase the power of the weak,” God says in Isaiah 40:29. “I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand,” God says in Isaiah 41:10. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength,” Paul said Philippians 4:13.

God knows what he is doing when he lets us go through a busy schedule. His promises stand firm in that he is doing it for a reason. We may feel defeated now, but we can be assured that these situations are in God’s plan.

“ ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future,’ ” God says in Jeremiah 29:11.

God provides comfort in these situations. Paul stresses this point in Galatians 6:9, saying that we will one day be rewarded if we complete what God is pushing us through. “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up,” Paul said.

Though I feel like I go through tough times, it does not even compare to what the apostles endured during persecution after the resurrection of Christ. Paul faced trials unfathomable to us, yet never let them overcome him. He admitted his weaknesses and boasted in them, proving that God gave him the strength to endure.

Jesus spoke to Paul concerning his weakness: “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness,’ ” Christ says in 2 Corinthians 12:9 “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong,” Paul continued in 2 Corinthians 12:10.

Abstinence only education has failed.

This should be old news to anyone who has been paying attention. Numerous studies have been conducted over the past two decades to determine the efficacy of these programs, especially after 1996 when the Social Security Act of 1996 established Section 510 of Title V, the Abstinence Education Program. The Abstinence Education Program funneled federal dollars to schools to promote abstinence only sexual education. Since then, federal funding for abstinence only programs has grown enormously, with more than $1.5 billion given in that pursuit.

In his report “Emerging Answers 2007,” researcher and expert Douglas Kirby collects and reviews the various studies of the effectiveness of abstinence only education programs, noting:

“Results of the studies demonstrated that none of the programs affected initiation of sex, age of initiation of sex, abstinence in the previous 12 months, number of sexual partners, use of condoms, use of contraception, frequency of unprotected sex, pregnancy rates, birth rates or STD rates.”

In other words, abstinence only programs had no effect whatsoever, giving the same results as a control group that had no education in the matter. Money down the drain.

By contrast, comprehensive sex and STD/HIV education programs fared much better: about half of the studies of their efficacy found increased condom use, 63 percent found a reduction in unprotected sex, and 69 percent found that comprehensive programs reduced risky sexual behavior.

To some those numbers still might seem low, and they are: if half of the studies found comprehensive education increased condom use, that means the other half saw no increase in condom use, and so on. This is the fundamental problem of teenage sexuality, that which abstinence only education programs have tried to affect: teens have sex, and they don't always do so in a responsible and safe manner, leading to unwanted pregnancy, increased STD spread, abortions, and other effects deemed bad for society.

As a society, we have tried using abstinence only education to cure these ills. Alas, the evidence shows that this medicine is about worthless, while comprehensive sexual education is proven to help. As such, it is time for the United States to come together and embrace what we already know about sexual health and sexual education for teens.

In the political arena, the Democratic party has already moved towards this, with President Obama in 2009 ending the two major abstinence only federal funding programs and replacing them with comprehensive sexual education grants. Unfortunately, during the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka 'Obamacare'), Republican legislators inserted an amendment restoring funding for these programs from 2010 through 2014, effectively resurrecting the dead programs for a few more years.

This is not a one-off event for the Republican party; their most current statement of intent, the GOP 2012 national political platform, reads: “We renew our call for replacing 'family planning' programs for teens with abstinence education which teaches abstinence until marriage as the responsible and respected standard of behavior.” They later call abstinence only education “effective” and “science-based,” neither of which are accurate descriptors.

This means that our political arena has devolved into a situation where one side has decided to follow the facts and try new approaches to helping solve our nation's problems while the other side refuses to listen to things they don't like to hear, ignoring all available evidence about sex ed, because all of it points in one direction: away from abstinence only education.

'Give up the ghost' is an idiom in the English language, a phrase with a specific meaning that is not necessarily apparent based on the words, somewhat like an internet meme but with only words. 'Giving up the ghost' means to stop doing something that you know will fail. The Republicans as a party need to give up the ghost on sexual education and admit what everyone knows: abstinence only education has failed. Comprehensive sexual education is the only path forward for the nation.

Because as it turns out when it comes to teens having sex, it is the Republican party that needs to grow up.

With about 700,000 apps in the Android Play Store, finding the best apps to do a certain task can be daunting. As a user of Android since 2009, I have many must-have apps that I would be lost without.

Many of my favorite apps are Google apps, such as Play Music. Play Music is perfect for quickly choosing songs, making playlists, and re-discovering your music collection. After signing into a Google account, any music synced to the account will become available for streaming. The user can also choose to download the song to a phone in order to play offline.

In the action bar, or the top bar in the app, there are options to search, go to the Play Store and menu. Beneath that, there are tabs for playlists, recent, artists, albums, songs and genres. The user can tap on the words or swipe left and right to view these columns. At the bottom of the app is another bar that shows the now playing menu and options to skip forward, skip backward and play. Tapping the “now playing” will bring the user to an expanded version, showing more options, the album art, all songs on the album and the options to repeat and shuffle. Getting back to a previous page is as easy as touching the app icon in the upper left hand corner.

Another must-have app is Google Chrome. Although I have not been using it for long, I love it. One of the coolest features of Google Chrome is that anything saved on the mobile app will be transferred to the app on your computer, and vice versa. This makes using the web a breeze. Like other browser apps, it allows the user to bookmark pages, switch between different tabs and search the web. Also, there are many little animations that just make it look cool, such as when the user has more than one tab open. Swiping up and down in the tabs page allows the user to easily switch between tabs. The one down side to Google Chrome is that it is only compatible with Android 4.0 and above.

My next must-have app is Pulse. Pulse is a news app that makes it easy to tailor the news to the user’s preferences. The user can make an account and choose which news feeds to get. After making an account, the user will be brought to the home screen. The top bar has the settings, .me and menu options. Going to the settings option will allow the user to delete the stock news feeds and add their own in the order he chooses. The user can also add more pages to organize and separate feeds. For example, one might choose to have news, fashion, social, technology and sports pages. Each page would have different news feeds for that subject.

Pulse makes keeping up with the news quick and simple. Each feed shows a thumbnail and a headline. Clicking on one of these thumbnails will take the user to the story, where he can read most or all of it. Pulse also gives the user an option to go to the webpage. Another cool feature about Pulse is that the user can change the text size and switch between night and day modes. For these apps and more, visit the Google Play Store at https://play.google.com/store.