Visual over sound

My favorite Youtube video that I watch over and over again is Chopin's Revolutionary Etude played by Sviatoslav Richter. Last time, I was pretty sure that what I like about it was the sound of piano that Richter produced but after I read "Sight dominates sound in music competition judging" on BBC News, I realize it is not just a sound that I like.

The article reports about new scientific research on visual impact on music judgement which, through an experiment that let people judge a music competition by looking only silent video, it is found that  people decision is based on sight rather than sound, since they can make a better guess who is the winner when watching silent video and worse when watching video with sound.

I think of Richter's video again and try to think about what impressive about that clip. I don't remember much about sound except it is confident and firm which is a nature of this song. However, I can describe that Richter sit on a piano chair with his arrogant look, then he bangs the first note on the piano, his body bends back and forth, left and right and his fingers move so smoothly which make me feel like it does not move at all. Revolutionary Etude is my favorite Chopin song and I watched it played by many people. Probably Richter version is not perfect but, no one can erase his serious face and shaky body out of my mind. 

When I took piano lesson many years ago, my piano teacher didn't only teach me how to play piano, but taught me what the distance between a piano and a chair should be, where our butt should be place on a chair, how to lift our hands, how to move our body while playing piano, and even how to bow after finish playing. When I play piano, I used to struggle with all those rules because my back always bend and my body were usually hard like a piece of wood and I always fail piano test. Now I understand why teacher are so strict. Good posture could benefit me significantly if I have to play in front of people like in a concert and i would not fail so many test. Also, in other situation in life, visual appearance are very important such as how we dress at work or how we arrange a plate of food. 

__________

Reference

Sight dominates sound in music competition judging. (2013, August 20). BBC News Science & Environment. Retrieved August 21, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23717228

Writing Assignment 6. Is Jesus a supernatural entity? Adam and Eve? Sin?

In our discussion yesterday brainstorming supernatural entities in response to Hartmann and Blass's question 4 on page 20 (2007), we had some uncertainty and some controversy over whether or not different suggestions really were supernatural entities. The solution, usefully suggested by Mee, and followed up my My, was that we needed to sort out the meaning of the term supernatural entity. And we're getting better with practise: this only took about 20 minutes, whereas our earlier discussion of the term image took 30 minutes; with our definition in place and available to use, we could then come to agreement on which items to include as supernatural entities and which to cross out. Stories about the life of Jesus or Buddha were easy to exclude from our list when our understanding of supernatural entities had been clarified: stories such as Harry Potter might have supernatural topics, but the stories themselves are perfectly normal things in the natural world. Adam and Eve were fairly easily dismissed from the list: they were a man and woman, so not supernatural. Jesus was a little more difficult because we first had to clarify exactly what was meant (more definition!) by the name Jesus, but once clear that Christians think of him not only as a man but also as a god, we could decide that he did indeed belong on our list of examples of supernatural entities. And then there is the question of sin, which we left undetermined.

Since there was a unanimous agreement amongst the students, I did not raise the issue when we brainstorming examples of religions; however, as Wikipedia points out in "Buddhism", with plenty of supporting examples, there is in fact some controversy "on the question of whether or not Buddhism should be considered a religion" (2013, sect. 8.1, Is Buddhism a religion?). So, does Buddhism belong on our list of religions or not?

I also cut short our productive discussion of the noun image before we had actually written up a final definition - I thought that what we had was good enough to enable us to move on and brainstorm religious images, and images of magic. But as with so many seemingly ordinary words that we have all been using regularly for years (vocabulary, formal, etc.), our understanding of the word image is also in need of some clarification.

Finally, there is the general topic we have been discussing throughout chapter 1 of Quest these past weeks: culture. In a chapter titled "Cultural Anthropology" (Hartmann & Blass, 2007, pp. 3 - 43), just what does, and does not, the adjective cultural mean? Is, for example, wearing jeans Thai culture? Yes or No?

As we have already seen, the academic writing assignment for chapter 1 of Quest is to write a paragraph of definition (Part 5, pp. 38 - 43). We are going to revise this slightly. The academic writing assignment, assignment 6, is to answer one of the following questions in a short essay. As we saw when I tried to write up as a paragraph of definition our 40+ minutes discussion to arrive at a definition of the common word vocabulary, one paragraph did not make a very attractive answer: it was much too long and really needed to be split into two paragraphs (Filicietti, 2013). And once we have two paragraphs, it makes a lot more sense to add an introduction and a conclusion so that we have a full essay, albeit a short one. So that is what we are going to write, rather than Hartmann and Blass's solitary paragraph.

Academic writing exercise 
revised version of Quest, chapter 1, Part 5. = assignment 6
Answer one of the following questions in a short essay. Two, or perhaps three, body paragraphs should be enough. You might be able to write a good answer with only one body paragraph, but that seems unlikely to me.

Questions to choose from: 

1. Does sin belong on our brainstormed list of such entities? Is sin a supernatural entity?  
2. Should we include Buddhism on a list of religions? Is it a religion? 
3. We can certainly imagine them, but can we have an image of sound? 
4. Cultures are made up of many elements. Is wearing jeans Thai culture?  
5. Can a single word be a vocabulary? (I want to use this as an example. It is not an available choice.)

Now, you can: choose your topic, which is given in the question; get ideas about it, which might need a bit of time and perhaps a very little research; organize those ideas using the different techniques for defining a term that Hartmann and Blass list on page 40 (2007), perhaps also some etymology; and then write a first draft of your essay.

These questions all depend on the definition of a key term. The facts are relatively straight forward and are probably not controversial or in dispute. It is the different definitions of the key terms that cause the controversy. Consequently, the most important, and likely the most challenging, part of the body of your essay is supporting your preferred definition of the controversial term, and negating (correcting the misunderstandings) in opposing definitions. For example, in question 5, what is required is a strong definition of the word vocabulary, for which I needed two full paragraphs of definition (Filicietti, 2013). With that definition in place, we can apply it to the the specific situation the question asks us to answer. I will do this in an essay this evening (but I'm not guaranteeing a time).

You've probably already noticed that the questions are all Yes/No questions. You do have to take a stand and say "yes" or "no". But if you send me a one word answer, your grade might not be very high.

__________

Reference

Buddhism. (2013, August 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:16, August 20, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Buddhism&oldid=568530289

Filicietti, P. [Peter F AUA]. (2013, July 30). I know that word: What does vocabulary mean?. Class Blog - AEP at AUA. Retrieved August 20, 2013 from http://peteraep.blogspot.com/2013/07/i-know-that-word-what-does-vocabulary.html

Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

The Daily Pursuit of Excellence

What does it take to be a great cook? What doesn't make anyone a great cook?

In "Usain Bolt wins relay gold but GB disqualified at World Athletics" (2013), we learn that Usain Bolt, despite a distraction from a competing British runner whose team was subsequently disqualified, has continued his track record of excellence as an athlete, where he is now on a par with the best runners of all all time.

Cooking and running? Yes, there is a strong connection. Usain Bolt has become the world's best sprinter in part because he practises daily. I am sure that he also does other things, including perhaps a few rituals, but more on that later when I blog an interesting recent article published in Scientific American. Whatever natural genetic and other endowments Bolt might have, he would not now be the world's best without practise. On the contrary, if he sat around all day doing things like reading about running, or watching video's on how to run, or thinking about ways to run better, then he would not be a very good runner; in fact, he would far more likely be an overweight slow coach who couldn't beat your average high school kid in a race to the corner store. And cooking is the same: reading cook books and watching videos of great chefs in action has never made anyone a great cook: creating the perfect omelette takes regular practice, as does running 100 metres in whatever time it is that Bolt has achieved (I don't normally read the sports section, and haven't done the research needed here.)

Now that I think of it, I'm rather proud of my own omelettes these days, but this was not always the case: when I first started cooking them many years ago, I turned out some pretty awful messes, but those days of regular failures or bare passing grades are now long past, and I need not fear offering my result to peckish visitors, being reasonably confident that they will not find them totally failures. Of course reading cookbooks, and looking for tips on how to do it helps, but without actual practice, my omelettes would be no better than the sprint speed of a Usain Bolt who merely studied how to run but didn't get out there and do it so that his coaches could spot the strengths and weaknesses in order to encourage the former and correct the latter.

__________

Reference

Usain Bolt wins relay gold but GB disqualified at World Athletics. (2013, August 18). BBC Sport Athletics. Retrieved August 19, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/athletics/23746309

Is retirement what people really want?

Many people with young age want early retirement while the elders want to keep working as long as possible. Why?

According to “Can Retirement kill you?”, Dr. Harry Prosen, an 83 year old man, is working as head of psychiatry at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and has no plans to retire because it is bad for his health, while the average age of retirement is between 60-75 years old. After retirement people don’t have thing to do much which make them suffering from depression, mental conditions, and having health problems.

This story reminds me of my grandfather who is 86 years old living healthy lifestyle and very strong. He goes for a walk every day for exercise. When it has a marathon charity he always joins and has fun, normally he walks around 6 km for each charity. Now, he retired from his work for along time, but he became a stock market player. When he analyses and considers stock market which let him use and practice his brain that make him far away from brain condition. Many elders retried and don’t have anything to do, so it tends to make these people brain go down. The elders might have brain problems from small condition to large condition, for example, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Dementia, Alzheimer's disease, Amnesia and so on. I saw many elders who stay home and have nothing to do tend to have brain problems, and the length to live their life is shorter than elders who have activities to do like my grandfather. 

Exercise is another solution to get away from any disease. Exercise makes you stronger, healthier, get in shape, and also make your mind relaxing while you work out. I am a member of one fitness club, when I go there I usually see many elders and housewives working out and do yoga. These people spend almost the day (between 10am - 4pm) here because they have group of people who have the same lifestyle.  In the group, there are variety of nationality likes Thai, Japanese, Korean, and Vietnam. So that they can share anything like how is their children school like?, the tips of cooking, healthy recipes for their children, how can get in shape after give birth and so on. I heard these things while I'm working out at my gym.

__________

Reference

Borzykowski, B. (2013, August 14). Can Retirement kill you?. BBC Capital. Retrieved August 18, 2013 from http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20130813-the-dark-side-of-the-golden-years

Money for free

Normally charity organizations would not give away money without any condition because they think poor people could not manage the money well. Instead, they give them education, medicine or food which is believed can help the poor in long term. But, is it true that give money to the poor will be a waste? According to “Is It Nuts to Give to the Poor Without Strings Attached?” by Jacob Goldstein, some organization think opposite.

GiveDirectly, an organization that choose to do charity in the poorest town in Kenya by giving them money with no string attached, found that two months after the money was given, almost everyone spent their money productively such as fixing houses and improving their business while only a few people didn't. The idea of giving money directly to the poor became popular after it was done Mexico which was proved to be successful according to research.

I always do not trust anything that is for free. Although there are evidences showing that poor people will not blow off the money on nothing, I still doubt whether it is a good way. From the article one person started their business being motorcycle taxi in the village and the other one bought mill and charge other villagers for using it. That's probably good for them for a while but what if there customers, which also the villager in the town, ran out of money? Do we have to keep giving them money? Goldstein said that at least it help them to at least being a little less poor. But, might there be any other way to help them in longer term?

This reminds me of Thai government's project many years ago. They give away one million bath to every village. I remember some news report that many villages did not spend there money wisely such as buying new car or gambling but I have not seen any actual research on this project and what was the outcome. From what I experience visiting poor villages I don't see much significant change from this project compares to royal project which aim to help people in long term. I went to a remote village in North of Thailand last June. People there benefits from both projects. Headmaster of the school in the area said that the villagers spent their million mostly on building houses and buying motorcycles and did not really make the money grow while the royal projects help them greatly in improving agriculture. The royal projects train people to improve soil, advise them to plant various vegetable and fruit in one crop to let the plant support each other, give them seeds, manage water resource and introduce them to plant winter vegetable that can be sold in a good price. I think the latter make better sense since it helps people to live by themselve and the knowledge will be with them all their lifetime.

__________
Reference
Goldstein, J. (2013, August 13). Is It Nuts to Give to the Poor Without Strings Attached?. The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved August 14, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/18/magazine/is-it-nuts-to-give-to-the-poor-without-strings-attached.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=magazine&

Check: Is it from an academic book?

This morning we left unsettled the question of exactly what the reading "Symbolic Systems and Meaning" is (Hartmann & Blass, 2007, pp. 12 - 16). Our final, but unchecked, idea was Neung's suggestion that it is from an academic book, which seemed fairly popular.

My question is whether or not we are happy with this answer. So, what do you think? As usual, when we are checking or questioning an idea, there are three different, more precise questions that we might want to answer:

1. Does it answer the question? 
2. Is it correct? 
3. Is it a good answer? 

And similarly to the important point that Law makes in the part of his introduction where he gives the important background information that are the three very different definitions of the word faith, the three more precise check questions above are independent. We often think that an answer is wrong, but still contains a good idea that we want to keep; for example, when we discussed the meaning of the word academic in the sentence: "A good academic questions everything," the first answer, that academic here means "concerned with higher education" is not correct, but it certainly has the right sort of idea. Conversely, an answer might be correct, but not a good answer. For example, if we say that the passage on pages 12 to 16 of Quest is from a book, that is certainly correct, but it's not a very good answer. It's too general: we want to know what sort of book it's from -  a novel, a children's school book, or what, exactly? And perhaps we want something else in addition. 

Thanks to your efforts this morning, we have a good starting point. But is it good enough? What do you think? Please share your ideas in comments below. And feel welcome to reply to the ideas of others. It is out of such discussion, practising important academic skills, that we can hopefully get a really good answer that we are happy with, and perhaps clarify a few other things in the process. 

• My original question: What is the Quest general interest reading "Symbolic Systems and Meanings"? 

__________

Reference

Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

But is it a reasonable belief?

In his essay "Faith in the Twenty-first Century", philosopher Stephen Law explores the value of different understandings, different definitions, of the word faith (2003). In the course of his discussion, he also discusses the notion of reasonableness, which immediately came to my mind when I read his essay, "Did Zeus Exist?" in The New York Times by academic Gary Gutting.

By presenting and answering a range of popular opposing arguments, Gutting argues in "Did Zeus Exist?" that we do not, in fact, have any strong reason to assert with confidence that the ancient Greek god Zeus did not exist then, nor, indeed, that he does not now exist (2013).

Apart from the fact that it fits so neatly with our reading both of Law (2003) and of the subject matter of the chapter on cultural anthropology in Quest (Hartmann & Blass, 2007, pp. 3 - 43), I thought that Gutting's short essay is both fun and also raises some very important issues not only for cultural anthropology and the argument over whether or not any gods, demons, souls, ghosts, pixies, tooth fairies or similar things exist now, have ever existed or could ever exist, but also for academic work and critical thinking generally.

When Gutting presents a series of five opposing arguments to his thesis, that we have no sound grounds for asserting with certainty that Zeus did not once or does not now exist, he gives a great example of the importance of seriously addressing by first stating and then answering the strongest arguments against the main idea for which we are arguing. This is always something we need to be alert to: the support for our own idea is greatly strengthened if we present and show the weaknesses in the counter arguments against what we think. Correspondingly, if we cannot answer, or simply ignore, opposing arguments, our own thesis is greatly weakened since readers will reasonably assume we did not include and answer the opposing reasons for the very good reason that we could not answer them. And if we cannot answer objections, perhaps we should also be reassessing our own idea.

But I also think that Gutting, a very capable academic, knows exactly what he is doing and that he has been a bit naughty, as a  few of his commentators on the article, which is actually a post in a blog that The New York Times hosts as a regular column, note: the same arguments apply to every god, ghost, demon, devil and other such supernatural entity that human beings have made up over the course of our history, and there are a lot of these: from the monotheistic religions of the despotic Middle-East, to the spirits, demons, ghosts, heavens, hells, souls and other strange entities of other types of religions. If it is true, as Gutting asserts, that the non-existence of Zeus cannot be absolutely asserted, any more than his actual existence, then so to is it equally impossible to assert that there is in fact any good reason to believe in Zeus, or any of the other wonderful beings and entities that populate the worlds religions past and present. It might well be true, but, as Gutting also points out, that is not evidence that can support a belief.

In fact, I think that Gutting's naughtiness goes a bit deeper: he must know that there is another strong argument in favour of asserting the non-existence of Zeus, past and present. But perhaps he left this as something to tantalise his readers as they first thought of it, and then realised that if true, it must also apply to every other such claim by the theistically or supernaturally minded. Can you think of it? A hint: it's something that Law discusses in the pages we have been reading over this pleasantly long weekend, and will hopefully get around to discussing in class tomorrow morning. But please feel free to share your ideas in advance in a comment, or two, or even three.

Should we really be open to the existence of Zeus? And Yahweh? And Jesus as god as well as man, and of Allah, and of souls, of devils, of demons, of vampires, of ghosts, or fortune telling, of spirit channelling, of reincarnation and the like?

And in case you can't access The New York Times article, I've also posted the text online here as a Google document, complete with the image.

__________

References

Gutting, G. (2013, July 31). Did Zeus exist? The New York Times. Retrieved from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/31/did-zeus-exist/

Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Law, S. (2003). Faith in the twenty-first century. In The Xmas Files: The philosophy of Christmas, (pp. 113 - 123). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

NSA is watching you.

Eavesdropping phone calls - land and cell, tracking e-mails, and recording all your actions on the internet. We see a lot of these when a hero tracking down a villain in a movie. How about the government keeping track all your actions and private information you've ever uploaded and shared on the internet? How would you feel? The NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden, exposed it all that US government has seriously been violating people privacy. He was granted asylum in Russia and closely advocated by Russian government which considerably worsen the tension between Russian and American as reported in The New York Times "Ties Fraying, Obama Drops Putin's Meeting".

According to the article, Snowden is a key factor that Obama called off Moscow summit meeting. However, some analyzed that Russian's escort to Snowden is only a factor that provokes the long-term conflict between Russia Federation and the United States.

President Obama and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia
at the end of their meeting in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, in June.

The United States and Russia has long been in conflict dated back in WWII - when USSR still existed - till now. The conflict is based on the opposite political views, communist and capitalist which led to the cold war. During the cold war the polar different point of views resulted in historical events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis, The Korean War, and the Vietnam War. However, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in 1991, the war was over. The news, on the other hand, still reports the tension between the two time after time, and up to now, the tension still continues.

I remember that there's a controversial video about exposing the National Security Agency or the NSA on youtube in June. I was surprised that Edward Snowden, who was a former NSA agent, actually shared confidential information that US government violated US citizens' privacy as the government had been conducting mass surveillance - keeping track on their data. A lot of people around the world were stunned by the shocking news and are curious whether they were being monitored or not. Obama had to make announcements that the US government couldn't do such thing and had to asked one's permission first. However, it is believed believed that Snowden's information was true and accused Obama of being deceitful. Millions of people admire him as a hero to expose such information to the world, but US government condemns him as a traitor. Personally, I don't think it's a right thing that other people can check and track any personal I have because personal means belonging to me and only me. I should be the only one who has the access.

Thus, America may be the land of freedom that everybody has full right to act, think, speak, or do anything at will, but everything you do, the government will record and analyze. It's like a warden keeping track all the data prisoners have ever had. Is it really the land of freedom? I doubt that.

__________

Reference

Baker, P., & Myer, S. L. (2013, August 7). Ties fraying, Obama drops Putin meeting. The New York Times Europe. Retrieved August 9, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/08/world/europe/obama-cancels-visit-to-putin-as-snowden-adds-to-tensions.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

Cold war. History. Retrieved August 10, 2013 from http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war

theta00 (2013, June 9). NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden: 'I don't want to live in a society that does these sort of things'. Retrieved August 9, 2013, from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yB3n9fu-rM

Bike or Drive?

Is it a good idea to have cycled lane? Of course, it is safety and planned very well for cyclist. There is one city that I can think of that use a bike, Amsterdam, Netherlands. They are using it even though they are old or young. What are the reasons?




According to “Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?”, there are two main reasons that Dutch ride a bicycle; which are the raising number of motor vehicles that killed people on the road, and the middle east oil crisis in 1973. Therefore, Dutch government starts to use a bike by improving infrastructure by expand cycle path, clearly mark, fixing road surface, and sign light for cyclist.

I went to Amsterdam two years ago, I was so impressed that more than 40% of people in this city are cycling. Some people dress beautifully, but they ride. They ride on high heels, sneaker, boot, flip flop, rain boot and so on. Even though they are going to the club or going to the party, they ride to their destination. That's why I saw very few people overweight. The strict rules and super infrastructure make cyclists might have a few accident. And you never see them wearing the helmet, and some bike doesn't have a brake. Except people cycling was impressed me, the weather there is very fresh and nice. Almost half of people in this city bike, so the pollution automatically low.

In Bangkok the pollution is very dense, and the dust is everywhere. If Thais people are concerning more about the weather, atmosphere, and pollution, Bangkok will be the better place to live. When I was in primary school, I always ride my bicycle to somewhere near my house, but now I cannot do that because of the pollution that will make me sick, the broken road that will make me fall, and the truck or other motor vehicles that might cause me an accident. In contrast, there are many people that obsess on bicycle. Last week, my friend got an accident because the truck doesn’t saw his bike beside the road, and the truck hit my friend. Fortunately, my friend had a little bit traumas on his left and right leg.
__________
Reference

Why is cycling so popular in the Netherlands?. (2013, August 7) BBC News Magazine. Retrieved August 8, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-23587916

Religion: not a reliable moral guide

I think that many people think that religion is a reliable moral guide, so that, for example, we get the Bangkok Post and The Nation encouraging a return to Buddhist values as a way to make society better, or to ensure that the young have good values. But is this true?

According to "Archbishop Tutu 'would not worship a homophobic God'," the famous former Archbishop of Capetown in South Africa, who was speaking at the launch of a UN campaign for the legal recognition of gay rights in countries where homosexual sex remains a criminal offence, which includes many African countries who use the excuse that it is against their traditional cultures to accept homosexual behaviour or people has said in the strongest language that a god who was homophobic does not deserve to be worshipped, preferring hell to such a morally evil god.

This article caught my interest when I first saw it a couple of weeks ago, since it is very much about the sorts of issues we are looking at in the chapter in Quest on cultural anthropology, so I emailed it to myself for later use, and today seems an appropriate time to respond to it here. First, I very much like the Archbishop's strong stance against homophobia, which does, as he clearly points out, have strong support from many Christians who do still teach that homosexuality is evil because that is what the Bible says. There are Christian groups in the US now who think homosexual acts are evil and should be illegal because that is what the Bible says, and they are right: that is exactly what the Bible says. But the Bible also supports slavery, sexism and other evils, as generations of men in power rightly said when they used it to support their immoral ideas and acts.

On a deeper level, the bishop makes another point that I think is very important: that we should think things are right or moral because any god or other authority says so, but that we must, on the contrary, judge the authority and its rules according to independent moral laws. If some god or holy book, such as the Bible, the Koran, or whatever, says killing people who do not believe in your god is right, that is not a good reason to think such killing is right. It is, on the contrary, a very good reason to think that the religion and its teachings are immoral.

I'm also reminded of a Buddhist example from Thailand. Under Thai law, abortion is illegal, and one reason sometimes given is that this is because Buddhism teaches that abortion is immoral. I hope this reason is wrong, because if it is correct, it means that Buddhist teaching on this issue is immoral, since the Thai laws against abortion on demand are immoral, and they do not become moral merely because some authority, a person, a book, or whatever, says they are.

__________

Reference

Archbishop Tutu 'would not worship a homophobic God'. (2013, July 26). BBC News Africa. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-23464694

Kid Fashion Icon

Five-year-old style icon Alonso Mateo of Mexico (Photo: Instagram @alonso_mateo)

Have you ever look at old pictures when you were kid and feel embarrass of what your mother dress you up? Long pink puffy dress, big bow or superhero suit? I have, sometimes. I wish my mother have a little better taste. But some kids doesn't have to worry about this when they grow up.

Maya Singer reports on “Inside the world high fashion for children” that high-price childrenswear from luxury fashion brands is now a huge business. It was made to satisfy rich fashionable mothers which, Singer points out, view their children as their accessories by dressing up their kid to match with them.

According to Singer, Suri Cruis, the Beckham kids, the Jolie-Pitts kids and instagram celebrity, Alonso Mateo are today's kid fashion icon. Some magazine compares one kid with another such as Suri vs. Shiloh (Jolie's kid), Suri vs. Aila (Alexander Wang's niece) and so on. We love seeing their photo because they are cute and stylish, and the mothers love to show off their kid to present their taste and style. I have no surprise that more and more clothing brands will open kid line as long as people have purchasing power. Anyway, dress up nice won't hurt anyone.

When I read this article to the part when Pippa Voster, former fashion editor at Harper's Bazaar UK, talks about if her son get to an age where he can decide what to wear by himself, I almost crack up because this is so true for some people. This reminds me of my boss, Executive Creative Director of JWT Shanghai, who is vey much into fashion. His wife also works in creative industry. They both have fun dressing up their kids. I could say their kids are the most fashionable kids in Shanghai. But, it cmae to the day their heart was broken, his son ask them to buy Disney's “Cars 2” t-shirt. My boss strongly disapprove so his wife sneakily bought it and his son can only wear it when my boss was away.

This article also bring back another experience of mine when I did advertisement for children brand last year in China. The ad features 7 girls, age from 3-9 years old. When we photo shoot them we put on a little make up and dress them up with simple t-shirt, shorts and sneaker and a tough of accessory because we wanted them to look natural which, we think, was suitable for their age. However, at the end of the day, all girls changed to their normal dress, I was shocked! Their normal cloth is definitely not what I pictured. Glitter tee, feather Jacket, super short skirt, heels, fancy hair and lots of make-up were put on. Their mothers are over-dressed them and their normal dresses are like kids version of Lady Gaga. I can't imagine what would they become when they grow up. Looking back again, my mom's taste actually wasn't that bad at all.


__________


Reference
Singer, M. (2013, July 23). Inside the world high fashion for children. BBC Culture. Retrieved August 6, 2013 from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20130723-has-kids-fashion-gone-too-far

Potty politics

In the amazingly failing "war on drugs" so beloved of politicians from Thailand to the US, there was a colourful bit of humour in "Cannabis found among Newport street pot plants."

This BBC News story reports that police in the United Kingdom town of Newport are now looking for the criminals, possibly local teenagers, who planted, and have now apparently harvested, marijuana plants in the flower pots the town council placed to beautify busy streets ("Cannabis Found", 2013).

Cheerful leaves of ganja amidst
the officially approved pot plants.

I agree with quoted businessman Dean Beddis that, as the photograph shows, this natural plant so very popular with so many decent citizens in countries around the world is "actually rather a beautiful plant and [stands] out wonderfully" ("Cannabis Found", 2013, para. 6) among the flowers and other plants in the city pots. And traditionally, pot, also known as hemp, had other uses than looking attractive and being a relaxing recreational drug before it was turned into a criminal substance: until the discovery of plastics, ropes and sails for shipping were often made from hemp fibres. I remember that when I was at university, a friend came across an old pair of slippers made of hemp - her household had some serious discussion as to whether they should try smoking them or not. I never did find out what happened to them.

My guess is that planting the crop in government owned pots on full view to the public was more of a joke than anything, although it does also seem to have produced something for the good citizen farmers of Newport to enjoy, perhaps as they laugh at having received so much benefit from the government that is irrationally and immorally trying to stop them doing such things at the cost of great harm to decent citizens and to society.

Since alcohol is the popular drug of addiction that causes the greatest harm to others and to society, that is the one that should be illegal to own, use or sell if any addictive drug were to be criminalised. But I don't see red wine drinkers being thrown into prison, or champagne sellers being executed for dealing drugs, or beer manufacturers being treated as evil criminals intent on destroying innocent children and society. Is there something a bit weird going on here?

__________

Reference

Cannabis found among Newport street pot plants. (2013, August 4). BBC News South East Wales. Retrieved August 6, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-23566284

Nazi - as a symbol of wickedness

Discrimination is come together with human’s society, some discriminated against somebody to access something, while some just to distinguish his individual from others. In the era of Nazism, eugenics was used as a tool of racial discrimination which harmed millions people around the word at a later time.  

According  to “How the Nazis undermined eugenics” (2013), Because Nazi regime’s eugenics programme had persecuted and killed large numbers of people during 1933 – 1945, it were condemned that this programme, which include sterilisation law, infringed human liberty and also was an expression of Germany turning into a totalitarian racial state, so the word “eugenics” become derogatory term to some eugenics societies and journals, but  it doesn’t a matter for eugenists to find out ways to improve humankind.

 This story reminds me of “Japan Deputy PM Taro Aso retracts Nazi comments”, the recent story on BBC news reported that Japan Deputy Prime Minister Taro Abe said Japan could learn from Nazi Germany in revising constitution which caused China’s anger and strained relation between two countries. I think Abe intends to show that he is against to China in the Diaoyu Island case but he made a mistake in the way he expressed it.  Japan was with German and Italy in WWII, starting with invading the Repulbic of China, which the history of these times are still affecting on Sino-Japan relationship. After Japan surrendered in 1945, it was under the US’s control and became U.S. alliance till now. So, when Japan’s saying about Nazis and WWII, it is historically a sensitive topic, not only to China but also to some Western countries like England or the US.

Hitler was a successful leader though he was defeated at the end. There are many researchers do their research on WWII, and Hitler is one of the most popular topic because Hitler is an important  factor in WWII. I’ve ever seen a movie about German’s surrenderer, the story talks about German in the last period of WWII, and focus on the story of Hitler before admitted defeat. His character and situation in the story made me think of North Korea chief leader which just became an interesting point in a field of International Politics. Because of power of totalitarian leader is extreme, their surrounding persons have to live with a fear and a desire in power, so many times they concealed the truth for their personal interest, and this brings the leaders about a lack of information and misconceptions, which make them become too vain, as we have seen in Hitler or Mr.Thaksin.

__________

References

Shah, D. (2013, July 12). How the Nazis undermined eugenics. BBC History. Retrieved August 5, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/0/23183272

Japan Deputy PM Taro Aso retracts Nazi comments.(2013, August 1).BBC News Asia. Retrieved August 5, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23527300

Should managers lie to their subordinates?

Big Fat Liar! a lot of people hate people like this that lie all the time and there's no sincerity to find. However, we all do lie depending on the circumstances we face. If they are white lies, the consequences may be minor, but may cause serious damages if otherwise; whatever types they are, the listeners definitely lose the trust they have to some degree. BBC Capital "When corporate cultures breed dishonesty" published details concerning this matter. 

The story can be summed that managers must be honest with employees even though they can't deliver all the details or they created mistrust among themselves and employees. Also, honest communications are more commonly found in retail sectors, and the level of honesty differs among countries depending on the cultures.


In personal life, white lies may be acceptable, but everybody may agree they prefer to avoid and seek the truth. I remember in part of Lady Gaga's hit music video, Telephone, she said "Trust is like a mirror, you can fix it if it's broke, but you can still see the crack in that reflection.", and I couldn't agree more on that. I think this applies well with a relationship, trust is one of the essential parts that keeps a couple together. If one lies and another finds out, the significant other that is lied to will considerably lose faith and trust he/she has. Similarly, friends shouldn't lie to each other or mistrust occurs. Parents lie to their children, on the other hand, is somewhat different and more forgivable. For instance, when a child loses a tooth, parents can tell him about tooth fairies to relieve his pain and fear. If otherwise, he may be in panic partly due to pain, and partly due to the amount of blood that he sees. Professional life, however, has different perspectives.


When considering a company's data, the situation is reverse as data leakage can cause the company disastrous consequences. If an insider slips some of the company's restricted details, or a manager shares highly restricted information to all employees, it's good that they are being truthful, however, if the competitors happen to know, the company can lose its deals or can be in financial trouble. I worked for a foreign bank and the code of conducts is really strict that if anyone breaks any of this, we will have high possibility to get fired. Some data is significant and really need to be concealed if that person doesn't involve. For instance, the company is bidding for an important deal, and the pricing leaks out to the competitor, the company is definitely in trouble. However, I really agree with Eric Barton that managers have to be truthful or they lose their subordinates' trust. Not that they have to tell everything but need to deliver the truth. One time during my performance review, I was surprised that my boss told me about how each department got its bonus budgets and how they were distributed. I didn't need to know this, but he told me anyway, so I felt that he was being extremely truthful and transparent, and I was excited to know another level of information, not that I would spread all the details, but at least he was being honest to me, and I could be honest with him too and could elevate problems other relevant details that he needed to know.


When it comes to layoffs, managers need to tell their subordinates to get prepared because these people need to know the information so that they can manage to look for their new jobs properly. Another actual circumstance that I faced was the historical layoffs of the company due to financial loss. More than 400 people was laid off and managers didn't tell them at all. Rumor spread throughout the bank but no announcement from the management team was made until the date was really close. A lot of people were completely shocked to know that. It's been 2 years since the big layoffs, some can't find their jobs yet. My department was on the list, but fortunately for me, I was rotated to another department before this happened. What I saw and heard from my ex-colleagues was terrible. Some elder colleagues didn't get jobs elsewhere because of their age. Some found the new work organizations that the bank prepared for utterly hierachical and new colleagues less reasonable than the former and finally resigned. Another extreme layoff is my friend's company - an American IT company. If the layoff announcement is made in the morning, people on the list need to pack their stuff, return access cards, and do other relevant things within that afternoon. I understand that the company may be aware of data leakage, but morally this is too extreme. Thus, if it comes to layoffs, managers have their obligations to inform employees because it's their right to know their status and they can cope with the problems in time. Companies may be aware of chaos it may occur, but keeping secret until the last day of employment is not morally right.

__________

Reference

Barton, E. (2013, July 16). When corporate cultures breed dishonesty. BBC Capital. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20130715-honesty-always-the-best-policy

Is art too expensive?

Mona Lisa by Da Vinci, La Reve by Picasso, The scream by Edvard Munch and many more. Most of the people heard about these renown masterpieces before, but how many know the stunning and unimaginable prices of these paintings? How expensive are they? We're talking about millions of dollars as BBC Culture publishes details in "Why is art so expensive?"

The story reports that art market is uncorrelated with the economy; even if the economy staggers, art market still prospers. However, only the first-class market, offering well-known artists' work, is making skyrocketed sales, bidding among billionaires, and nouveau riches, while the lower-market has little chance for such demand.

Picasso’s La Rêve (The Dream)

Modern art, which nowadays is minimalist and abstract, leaves a lot of controversy as it is considerably more subjective and far less sophisticated than renaissance's or other past era's. To illustrate this, I will compare Voice of Fire by Barnett Newman and Mona Lisa by Leonardo Da Vinci. Voice of Fire is undeniably one of the most controversial masterpieces due to its obvious simplicity containing solely three stripes on a canvas. Canadian government, however, bought the painting for approximately USD 1.8 million which was extremely extravagant that a lot of people critiqued whether it's a reasonable idea to do so. Mona lisa, on the other hand, undoubtedly is one of the invaluable realistic masterpiece that is approximately valued at USD 720 million and highly guarded at the Lourve. The latter is, by far, more complicated and beautiful to most of people around the world. However, to be fair with the Voice of Fire, I should compare it with other abstract art, let's say a Picasso's which is shown on above. The abstract piece portrays the idea that it is a woman. The artist surely requires artistic skills, unlike the Voice of Fire, which makes me think further that anyone can do that, and that any piece of paintings can be called an art? Concerning this, there's no clear boundary for that, it could be that I stick to the complicated and detailed portraits and paintings in previous era's art. The Red Ball Project by Kurt Perschke is another interesting piece. The idea is the that the big red ball is moved to community places in many countries. Sometimes I couldn't help to feel the giant ball doesn't fit European's classic beauty, it looks more like a huge red ball has lost its way to those places. I may sound conflicted, but the video on the that page is quite entertaining and the idea is pretty creative. By the way, my favorite modern art is the floating cloud, actually it is the forming of many types of gases and looks like the actual cloud, by Berndnaut Smilde. The artwork interests me because not only is the piece a phenomenon combination of art and science, but also innovative and unique.

The voice of fire by Barnett Newman

The floating cloud by Berndnaut Smilde

The fact that medicine has the average profit margin of 300%. The figure looks appalling. I remember when I first knew it, I felt cheated by the drugstores and manufacturers. However, on second thoughts, there are other costs they have to cover, but still that percentage is high. Now let's take a look at Artwork's, suppose all the equipments' costs add up to USD 600, if the piece can be sold at USD 10,000, that would be 1,567%. The figure is absolutely more intimidating and intriguing. Now I don't dare to calculate Mona Lisa's. Perhaps we should create an abstract artwork and let's see if it can sell on e-bay or in the market? Unfortunately, not everyone has that wonderful opportunity. I quite agree with Georgina Adam that most of the time the market only needs paintings from the late and top artists, and leave little room for lesser-known artists to shine. I think the new artists need to show that in the future he has the possibility to join the top panel because the art collectors buy artwork for speculation. I had a chance to talk with a mother of a 9-year-old Thai boy several years ago and his story is really interesting. The boy loved to paint with Picasso's abstract styles. His parents had the idea of putting his paintings on e-bay and it was phenomenon. A lot of collectors from the US bought his artworks to arbitrage. According to his mother, these people thought that the boy could be one of the world's most famous artists, so they bought a lot of his work just in case. By the way, the boy was a genius one as he could play violin professionally, excelled in mathematics that he was sent to join older students, spoke English fluently by self-study. Therefore, in order to be a distinct artist, one should have something that stands out from the crowd.

When it comes to a product whether it is expensive or not, many people perceive that if it has many digits or a lot of zeros following, it's expensive. However, considering from economic point of view whether a product is expensive or not, a buyer or an investor needs to calculate the future value it can provide, that is, if the product can generate more value in the future, then it's not expensive. Imagine you have to buy a studio room in a nice condominium for THB 4,500,000. It may seem quite a lot at first, but considering future value the it can generate, you may think otherwise. Suppose that you buy this room for other people to rent and it gives you THB 30,000 a month. That's add up to THB 360,000 a year. After a year, you decide to sell it, and suppose this condominium is nearby sky train, the value is higher to THB 4,600,000 as people still want a place that is easy to travel. The total figure add up to THB 4,960,000, then it's not expensive after all as you have THB 460,000 profit. In my opinion, a product is expensive or not depends on whether it can generate more value in the future. If you're a billionaire, of course, arbitraging on the artworks doesn't hurt your wallet, and still a good investment.

Reference

Adam, G. (2013, May 2). Why is art so expensive?. BBC Culture. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20130417-why-is-art-so-expensive

Geddes, J. (2010, January 21). Voice of Fire: Are we over yet?. Maclean's art. Retrieved from http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/21/are-we-over-this-yet/

Medina, S. (2013, June 18). Watch 6 Wondrous Clouds Float Inside Museum Walls. Co.Design. Retrieved from http://www.fastcodesign.com/1672814/watch-6-wondrous-clouds-float-inside-museum-walls#1

Does the nightmare of EU economy really end?

Does the nightmare of EU economy really end? Does EU economy actually recover? Are monetary policies employed by ECB  effective enough to solve EU economy? How will the world economy be if EU economy collapse? These are the crucial questions that people throughout the world are looking for the answers.
         
According to an article in BBC, writing in " ECB's Draghi sees recovery signs, as rates held at 0.5%" said the president of ECB, Mario Draghi, declared to keep interest rate at a historic low level of 0.5%, although there has gradual recovery signs in economy activity. His statement that rates would stay low because of reassuring market that ECB is not ready to follow the contraction policy of US Federal Reserve. Furthermore,  other  downside risks to EU economy are expected to be remained.

Before going any further, solid background of economic mechanism need to be provided. In terms of economy management, everything has trade-off. General speaking, in inflation targeting country which is the majority, when central bank plan to expand economy, they normally employ stimulation policy by reducing interest rate, in other words, center bank will inflate money into economy. On the other hand, if central bank plan to employ contraction policy, they will increase interest in order to get money out of economy. Because people will have more incentive to keep money in banks rather to spend on daily transaction or to invest. However, either increase or decrease interest rate, there are some opportunity costs. For example, when ECB decide to inject money into economy they will employ interest deduction. Yet, by using this policy means  the inflation rate will rise and tend to be above the targeting rate, which probably have a massively negative effect to overall economy. In addition, the government budget is limited and if government still continue employing this policy, its next option is borrowing. Then sooner or later its public debt will rise and eventually above its public debt ceiling  like what Greece and other EU countries are facing right now. On the other hand, if central bank decide to keep interest low, they will also need to trade off with slow down of economy as well. Therefore, it is important for policy maker to not only employ the right policy but also the right time period.

I think the main reason that ECB decide to maintain its interest rate at this low level because it believe that EU economy have not strong enough to stand alone without financial aid from central bank. Without this amount of money, its economy may likely seem to be in recession. However, personally I think it may be real challenge for ECB to stimulate EU economy by using inflating-money policy. Because nowadays the degree of openness among countries are more free. Money will flow to countries that give investors the highest return which are mostly in Asia. No matter how either US Federal Reserve or ECB will print money to their economy, some of those money will flow to Asia countries and cause the surpass and high inflation like what most Asia countries are facing currently.

The way that probably prevent those capital to flow out is ECB should increase rate of return. There are a number of way to achieve this. Firstly, increasing policy rate. However, like I did stated before, increasing interest rate may lead to recession if their economy have not been strong enough. What else that we can do!. ECB may cooperate with EU governments to employ fiscal policies. For example, increase productivity of good and be effective in using government budget. Rising tax perhaps is not a good choice for government to do so during given this current situation because their population already have a hard time of spending. In summary, recovery of EU economy is not something easy to be solve. It required both monetary and fiscal policy among EU countries to cooperate with each other. And hopefully some day those policy may work and recover their economy eventually.      

Reference

ECB's Draghi sees recovery signs, as rates held at 0.5%.(2013, August 1). BBC UK. Retrieved. August 1, 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23527900

What value has tradition?

When I saw the title on the homepage of the BBC News "Traditional technology looms large for luxury companies" I was immediately reminded of the similar issue for the Dogon: the conflict between progress and tradition.

Michael Millar (2013) reports that as modern technology becomes able to produce almost everything better than traditional production methods, from clothing to rugs to train travel, the increasing relative costs are forcing providers of traditionally produced goods to market ever more exclusively to more wealthy clients, and to claim special qualities for their costly, labour intensive products.

But are those special qualities really so special? Are they even real? One example that Millar discusses is the making of men's suits, where computer driven machines can cut fabric, assemble pieces and sew them together far more quickly and accurately than any human producers.  In response, Millar reports that James Sleater, who has just opened a bespoke men's tailor shop in London's prestigious Savile Row, argues that human tailoring can still beat machine tailoring in, for example, measuring customers because he can "ask people to relax then their waistlines" (Reminiscent of yesteryear sect., 2013). But I think Sleater is wrong. It would be a simple matter for a computer scan to ask the customer to do exactly the same thing, and since the customer is alone, with no other human around to feel embarrassed in front of, even more likely to be successful. Sorry, Mr. Slaeter, but I think the machines win again.

This article also seems to me to bring up forcefully the question of what it is exactly that we do value in tradition, and whether that makes any sense. In the  Rug for Obama section, Millar compares machine made rugs with traditionally hand woven Nepalese rugs, where Luke Irwin claims that his human made rugs are better because "the customer gets exactly what they want", and that "you can tell every time which is machine-made" (2013). Again, I'm not sure that either of these claims by the traditional producer is even true: I'm pretty sure that a computer could control a machine to introduce exactly the same sort of variations that inevitably occur with human rug making - who traditionally aimed to eliminate all such variation. And the even bolder claim, that human production gives customers "exactly what they want" seems even less likely to be true. In one sentence, Mr Irwin claims that humans are better than machines because humans are less accurate, and in the next he is claiming that humans are better able to deliver exactly what is asked for: he appears to be contradicting himself. I am sure his claim that the machines run by computers are more accurate than human beings is the correct one, and this will only become more true as technology rapidly improves. Even more, it is becoming increasingly feasible for customers any where in the world to design exactly what they want: the colours, the size, the design and so on, and for machines run by computers to create exactly that one-off product for that one customer.

So, if machine made goods are every bit as good as, or much better than, human made goods, does it even make sense to pay more for the lower quality human made goods just because they are made by human beings?

I do think that being made by a human can add value to something. On my walls, I like to hang artwork by my young nieces and nephews, and by the six-year old son of a Thai friend. These pieces are of dubious artistic worth, but their value is in the time and effort that someone put into creating them to give to me. Similarly, I appreciate the meals my mother cooks on my visits to Australia not because she is a great cook (she never was) but because of the thought and effort that she puts into doing it for me. In return, she appreciates the fact that I take her and my brothers and sisters out to nice restaurants.

But I'm less sure that a lower quality hand made rug is worth more than a higher quality machine made rug. And I'm very sure that I prefer my BTS carriages to be precision made by machine rather than roughly thrown together by hand.

__________

Reference

Millar, M. (2013, August 1). Traditional technology looms large for luxury companies. BBC News Business. Retrieved August 2, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23523599