Green Jaywalkers

Crossing the street out of the crosswalk is the problem in many countries, from my own way to solve this problem is pay the expensive in taxes, afford the drivers when they were injured, and afford for fixing cars. This idea usually a good way to solve jaywalker problems, but not the best way to fix it.

According to "Jaywalkers made to wear green 'hats of shame'" (2015), In the southern of Guangdong province, Chinese police caught jaywalkers to pay a 20 yuan fine and make them wearing green, hats and vest, and helping traffic for a while to ashamed them. In Chinese culture wearing green hat means a man's wife or his girlfriend has cheated on him, to wearing green hat in Chinese culture is embarrassing.

Not only the pedestrian can get injures from crossing the street but also the drivers, too. When drivers sudden turn the wheel to get out of pedestrian, their cars are highly to get out of control and get crash. Pedestrian is happily to walk back home, but the drivers need to go to the hospital and fix their own car. This was happen with my friend's sister, so many times that I saw people crossing street and having a pedestrian bridge over their head I always think it that we could do something for the jaywalker except paying the cheap fine.

It was surprised me that Chinese police have a very good idea to punish jaywalkers in a green uniform, which is a color that they do not like it, and making them to spend more in the traffic. I like this idea because they were stole the time from other person who walked to the crosswalk, and from the drivers, too , when they got caught they should spend more times than others.

__________

Reference

China: Jaywalkers made to wear green 'hats of shame'. (2015, August 5). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-33788143

Appearing of Stradivarius violin

When I was a student at Chulalongkorn University, I had a chance to study “Music Appreciation” that made me know a lot of music instruments and classical music, which are composed by famous composers of several periods including cantatas (a choral composition) by Bach, “The Four Season” by Vivaldi, “Messiah” by Handel, and also various symphonies and chambers by Mozart. One of the most well-known musical instruments for Western music is violin (fiddle) – a four-string instrument with high pitch – that is given amount of popular from past to present.

Roman's daughters and Stradivarius violin

According to “Stolen Stradivarius violin found 35 years later,” Nina Totenberg, a virtuoso Roman Totenberg's daughter, is reported about discovering her father's lost violin, the world best with high cost of over ten times rise since he bought in 1943, which is fabricated by Antonio Stradivarius, that her father had played until it was burgled after a concert in 1980. Nina does glad of the finding, which once was stolen and became a heritage of a widow, and decides to sell it to an artist for charming voice performances although the instrument reminds her passed away father (2015).

Roman Totenberg's performance

on his 90th birthday

Evaluation of thing is distinguished by two criterions: society and individual mind. In term of society, valuable item is judges by cost which depends on quality and rareness in the same way as Stradivarius violin, the first-rate fiddle sound in the world which had been owned by Roman almost forty years. As a partner of renowned violinist, Stradivarius violin is not different from Roman’s arm, for him the value of Stradivarius is beyond price. Although the violin will be hosted by another artist, the adorable memory which is a part of the violin is alive in the daughter's hearts. Functioning as the purpose of violin should be better than keeping in a box for show.

Plentiful archaeological evidences, the national properties, are thieves around the world such as Pharaoh's treasure, the crown jewels of King John, the art of Mona Lisa and historical Buddha statue because of greedy for individual benefits. The obscured importance of these objects is not cost, however a subject matter of them through periods. The equipment, craft and also building are traces of local human culture and development. Governments should give people consciousness in meaning of them.

Created product, one of the most be violated the law, should be protected. The process of a result comprise of variety steps for instance a movie which starting from casting, fitting, playing, recording, announcing by way of publishing or a novel which come out from the author’s imagination and experience. A production spends a lot of money and intends in every paces so, we should support by stopping illegal trade, an inspiration and concentration decreasing factor. Consumers, besides, should be careful when pay for those goods and services. It might be the better in reminding adequacy and getting free from being a market victim.

__________

Reference

“Stolen Stradivarius violin found 35 years later”. (2015, August 06). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-33808012

Britons 'love smartphones and selfies'

Nowadays, most people are addicted to use smart phone, and enjoy sharing their life in social sites, such as Facebook and Instagram, so selfies become a popular trend.

According to "Britons 'love smartphones and selfies'"(Kleinman,2015), Briton have a higher percent to use smart phone than laptop, and people also take selfies very often because smart phone's cameras are more advanced, that is why digital cameras replaced by camera of smart phone. However, for users who are over 35 years old show different habits compared to young people, they prefer to use digital camera for storing pictures and printed out pictures for display. Plus, there are also a large proportion of people using 4G Internet in smart phone or family wifi. Nevertheless, the percentage of people watching TV is not decrease dramatically.


 For my observation, selfies are a  global phenomenon that is not only in Western countries, but also in Asia, such as Taiwan and Thailand. People enjoy uploading photos which seem like in the same place and check in in different places, it seems to be bored. Moreover, the majority of individuals prefer taking photos for meals in order to upload on social sites and check in. For some people, it is their hobby for taking beautiful food photos that are really look delicious. On the other hand, other people think that it is an annoying behavior, especially when you are hungry, but you need to wait. Therefore, smartphones is a double-edged sword which could make our life more fun and creative but  make some impolite behavior between person and person.


The article remind me that I used to like selfies but now I prefer to ask my friend to take photos for me, because it would be more nature and memorable. However, People enjoy selfies for following reasons: First, we can see our face in monitor of smart phone and know how to take a beautiful photo for ourselves, so we will feel more confident for taking picture. Second, we can use many useful apps to take selfies more fabulous and interesting in order to earn Facebook likes that can make people have more vanity because their friends leave a positive feedback. Finally, it might be the most important reason that people want to be loved and accepted and most people want to be connected with people, that is why Facebook so popular. Although, it looks stupid if someone posted a lots of selfies on his/her social cite, he/she might be want to attract people's attention. However, it is personal freedom that people should respect if take selfies did not hurt anyone.

__________

Reference

Kleinman, Z. (2015, August 6). Britons 'love smartphones and selfies'. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33777168

Not the Name of the Rose

I've loved pizza for decades, ever since I was at Sydney University, which is next to suburbs that have large Italian and Greek populations, and some great pizzerias providing the traditional food of poor people in Italy. I'm also fond of a philosophical puzzle, so couldn't resist the title of an article that offered both.
(55 words for my lead in - excellent!).

In "The day I ordered pizza that 'doesn't exist'," Dany Webb (2015) describes how her initial confusion at her local pizza maker insisting that it was logically impossible to make a "marinara with mozzarella" because "It doesn't exist." With some helpful explanation from a sociologist friend, Webb finally understood that it was like asking for "a black coffee with milk."
(And only 60 words for this summary of my chosen article.)

No rose, a classic marinara pizza - yum! 

And right now I'm feeling hungry, even though I've just eaten a whole leg of kai yang from the friendly woman who has sold it from a stall in my soi for years, followed by some bread and my large evening coffee. Happily, the original Scoozi pizza restaurant is just a short walk from my home if I'm still in need of pizza after I finish this blog post. Sometimes when I'm there with friends, we also pop into the Scoozi branch at Paragon. I'm not being paid by Scoozi, I just think their pizzas are way better than the dubious products at Pizza Hut and like - it's like comparing tasty kai yang from my street vendor to the tasteless muck at KFC.

But not even Scoozi can compare with some of the pizzerias in Sydney and in my hometown area in northern New South Wales. My ancestors, as you might have guessed from my last name, were Italian. They were the first Europeans to settle that part of Australia, around the Lismore area, about 130 years ago, and along with grape vines for making wine, they also brought their other culinary culture, including pizza. When I go home for my annual visit to the family during Songkran, our first stop after my brother or a sister pick me up at the local airport is to have dinner at one of the local pizzerias. I think this might be one reason my youngest sister's four kids are so eager for her to be the one who picks me up.

On the other topic that originally got my interest: we have already seen in some of our class discussions how important it is to clarify what the words we are using mean, and this is not always easy. So far, we've had to work on our understanding of the word conclusion, and that has involved not only giving a dictionary type of definition, but also explaining why a particular misunderstanding is so very common. And I'm sure that next week will bring as some more discussion where we need to focus on getting clear exactly what a word means, and does not mean.

But now, the pizza still calls.
(369 words - that's fine for the response part. It's more than 300.)

__________

Reference

Mitzman, D. (2015, August 5). The day I ordered pizza that 'doesn't exist'. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-33542392

Taking supplements for health balance

Several years ago my mother did a yearly medical check-up, and she found that she was at risk of osteoporosis, a disease that bone has become weak and brittle. The one of suggestions from her physician is she should consider taking some supplements which include vitamin D and calcium to increase the level of bone mass. Yet, she seems to not like taking supplements, which the size of pills is normally big, because she prefers natural nutrients to synthesized ones which she is also not sure whether they are safe enough.

According to “Everyone 'should take vitamin D pills'” (2015), Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) recommends that everybody should take vitamin D tablets to prevent from deficiency, especially in the period of winter that sunlight level is low, and people are at risk to face with the lack of getting vitamin D from the action of sunshine through their skin, because general suggestion for taking enough vitamin D is focused on some particular groups—pregnant women, people are under five and over 65 years of age. Moreover, National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) also requires more free supplements and supermarkets to sell cheaper pills.

Unlike Thailand, UK and some countries has low level of sunlight during winter months, leading to the risk of deficiency of vitamin D. It would be helpful for British to take care and prevent themselves from rickets and brittle bones as suggested in the article. However, Thai people are still facing with those diseases even though sunshine level is quite high throughout all of seasons. This is because someone do not have eat unsuitable food—lack of vitamin D and calcium, someone have incomplete vitamin-absorbed system in their body, someone are pregnant, all children need vitamin D and calcium for growth and development of their bone and so on. All of these are why we need to take supplements to ensure that we get vitamin D and even others enough.

Yet, I agree with the content in the article to some extent because every coin has two sides. Sometimes people are not aware of using vitamin D and even other vitamins in the form of supplements and overuse them, thus likely to be dangerous to their health and life. To illustrate, high amount of vitamins would accumulate in a body until it causes acute kidney injury or liver failure—both kidney and liver are main innards of excretory system in a body. On the contrary, if consumers realize and understand correctly how to take them appropriately, they will not only bring health benefits, but also save one’s money from treatment of possible severe diseases in the future. 

These days it is somewhat usual practice for several groups of people in the world to take supplements for health balance. Current business of vitamin and nutritional supplements has been rapidly growing and providing varied forms of product—tablets, food, beverages and etc.—to cover a wide variety of customer targets. However, some of products have low quality and/or are sold expensively. People should be aware of these, where authority and organization relating to drug and food should inspect and control the standards and price of supplements. In addition, it is also significant to offer free supplements to some groups of people who are destitute and in the remote areas which they are difficult to buy. Should Thai government and ministry of public health pay more attention to this issue or promote eating clean, beneficial food and regular exercise instead?

__________

Reference

Everyone 'should take vitamin D pills'. (2015, August 3). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33757929

Statistics breaks Facebook's credit

How often do you play vdo on facebook? The answers may be varied from once per day, twice, to every single hour; however, I believe that most of you, including me, will reply that it is up to what kind of clip, and it can crash out attentions or not. Why, nowadays, people and brands tend to focus more and more on facebook's potential? Certainly, it is because facebook is powerful tool for reaching mass target in digital era, and this will be benefit to promoting products, services and people; nevertheless: there are some evidences which challenge us to rethink that should we still trust its professional?

According to "Facebook in video 'views' row" ( Foxx, 2015), the algorithm that facebook has used for counting users' eyeball is blamed because it cannot represent a real number of viewer, it has been revealed that facebook count as 1 view after users watch vdo only 3 seconds or only 1/10 of a total length, which cannot be called productive view; therefore, 4 brillion daily views, which claim by facebook, is inflated report. Moreover, 73% of vdo on facebook are stolen from others websites with represent as 17 billion views or fourfold more views than the daily ,which shows that facebook unable to handle copyright infringement effectively. 

Almost two years ago, I used to work as a social content editor in digital media agency. Work experience gives me many reasons why statistics is very important for commercial. It can be said that 'no view, no budget', brands will allocate more advertising budget for online community that have higher rate of attention. Afterward, cost that brands spend for promoting their vdo contents will be convert to cost per view to calculate that it is a worthwhile investment or not, but after we know that the number of view may be constructed for driving business objectives, is it possible to have a same standard for measurement view that can be applied to both kings of contents like facebook and youtube and also others sources? As a result, no content provider can cheat in this game.

However, if you are not a specialist who work in marketing or communication field, or having your own online store, what facebook does may not significant at all, Why do we have to care about a number of view on our facebook? Exactly, I have to say that we care! We may not focus on mathematical analytics behind facebook's system, but many people are waiting their family, friends, friends of friends to click like, left comment, share post or watch their online clip. It seems like people will get more self-confidence and feel pround when others pay attention on their life.

It can be said that, sometimes, we concentrate on a preferable result more than knowing how a process works. Do you think so?

__________

Reference

Foxx, C. Facebook in video 'views' row (2015, August 5). BBC News. Retrieved from 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33794079

Lessons from modern art

In their blog posts this morning, Mei and Poy talked about their interests in arts such as music and literature, and Joyce is pursuing studies in dance. I've never studied art, but like many, I'm interested in it, and am particularly fond of Picasso, who I think is the greatest of all modern artists, and whose name appeared in a BBC News story title yesterday.

According to "Picasso 'national treasure' seized by French customs," a Spanish citizen has been prevented by his own government from taking a Picasso painting he owns to his own homes in London and Switzerland, with French officials recently seizing the painting, which a Spanish court has "declared a 'historical heritage asset of exceptional importance'"(2015).

Picasso, P. (1906).
Head of a Young Woman.

Although I've admired Picasso's work for decades, finding almost everything he did to have great artistic value, I wasn't actually familiar with the painting that the fuss is about, and it is an early work, which doesn't seem to me the best that Picasso created in his extremely productive long live. Head of a Young Woman isn't going to join the other Picasso works that I've printed out or got in larger format from calendars to decorate my walls with. My cheap copies don't do justice to the originals, but I don't have any spare hundreds of millions of dollars to buy the ones I really love. And even a small, half-decent copy can convey some of what makes Picasso so great.

Van Gogh, V. (1889).
Ward in the Hospital at Arles. 

On the topic of great art, the picture on page 165 of Quest 2 is also a fairly famous painting, whose style I thought some might recognise and use as supporting evidence. Van Gogh's original is in full colour, and the association with him, and the actual subject (the topic) of the painting seem to me to support its choice as an image for the opening page of a chapter whose topic is abnormal psychology, just as its title is "Abnormal Psychology." But you didn't have to be an art expert familiar with Ward in the Hospital at Arles to give a strong answer to the question. In fact, a few people do make good use of the blurry impressionist style to support their main idea about this topic.

When I read the article, I did also have a response more directly related to its content: I think the Spanish legal system is wrong to stop the painting's legal owner from taking it wherever he wants to. If he wants to use it to decorate his home in London or in Switzerland, he should be free to do that. I agree that it's a national treasure, but it's also the private property of the owner. If the Spanish are so desperate to keep it in Spain, they should offer him a fair price, or a very high price, perhaps $50 million dollars, and hope he agrees to sell it them. Then they can keep it in Spain in a public museum for the Spanish people to enjoy. I don't think that something being a national treasure is a good reason for governments to interfere with how citizens use their personal property. What do you think? Do you agree with the owner or with the Culture Minister and the courts and laws of Spain?

__________

Reference

Picasso 'national treasure' seized by French customs. (2015, August 4). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-33775337

Punn's academic interests

I am interested in international politics, especially between China and the U.S.. Besides, I would like to know more about business management and finance, because it is necessary to know about our financial management nowadays. Furthermore, I like listening to musics such as classical, pop and also like playing musical instruments like piano and ukulele. I believe that people can learn everything they would like to learn other than their graduation.

However, even if I am also interested to take care of cats, I cannot because I defeat to their furs. This time, I quite keen on singing, because I feel more relaxed when I have a lot of AUA homeworks to do.

Mei's academic interests

All of my life, one thing that I interested is novel. Many hundred of novels I have passed it; romantic, drama, fantasy, comedy or even sci-fi. I like to read a story which make me excited and following in each main characters. From reading a lot, sometimes, I can predict the end of each story I watching or guessing other people behaviors. My current favorite book is teenage book which I can read easier and to make sure that I can put it down when I have work.    

Peter's academic interests

Although my first real academic interest was biology, I've never studied that at university. It began when I was about ten years old, or perhaps a bit younger. I grew up on my family's farm, so there were lots of living things around. I was especially interested in plants. We had cattle, horses and dogs, but the plants interested me more. There river bank that surrounded us on three sides was thick with trees, vines and bushes. My father had also left some large, old trees, which we played under and in, and there was a large area of virgin shrub left. There were also lots of snakes, spiders and bugs, which did interest me. Maybe it was because they were more dangerous than boring cows, chickens and pigs.

I used to grow trees in pots, and to help my efforts, I started reading my mum's magazines, which had gardening sections. From these, I learned about Japanese bonsai, which fascinated me for a while. I started turning my plants in pots into scenes, and using wire to shape the fig trees that were my favourite. By the time I got to high school, I'd started reading more about biology: about how cells worked, and this led to my next serious interest, which was chemistry. But wanting to know why atoms and molecules behaved the way they did led to physics. And all the time, my real, long term interests were developing: early in high school, I fell in love with mathematics. Unlike every other subject we studied, it gave answers that were 100% certain: we could prove that 2 + 2 = 4, and that the sum of the squares on the other two sides of a right angled triangle equalled the square of the hypotenuse. This academic interest carried through to university, but by the end of high school, I had also started philosophy, which become my major at university.

Feem's academic interests

My academic interests are quite varied in the field of engineering, science and technology. I realize that the advent of modern technology and innovation will play an important role in the today's and future world. Some of my interests are focused on the process integration and optimization that will provide alternative solutions and help improve the existing process, especially for chemical process, in terms of economic and environmental impact. In addition, I am also interested in technology on a smart device . I expect that in the future an scientist and/or engineer could adapt the application on a smart device to integrate with the program for the process integration and optimization.

Ice's academic interests

.
Environmental issue is the academic subject that I am interesting now because I think environment is important for not only human but for all creatures on this planet. I have read about conflict of interest between power plant company and the villagers in Western part of Thailand. Due to the fact that this power plant produce a lots of pollution, the villagers have to face many severe health problem such as lung cancer. Not only in Thailand that forest river and nature are destroyed to provide the profits. Many countries have the same problem and many policies are created to preserve natural resources for our next generation. One of the most well-known policies  is the Obama's clean power plan which was launched recently. This plan aims to decrease pollution that U.S.A produce.

Joyce's academic interests

My academic interest is organized into three parts including arts, language and psychology.

First, I was studied in National Taiwan of Art University, the Department of Dance. Dance is a kind of arts which included the other forms of arts such as drama, music and art. Therefore, I would like to do the research which is related to art.

Second, one of my hobbies is reading, especially Chinese literature. For example, "The Dream of Red Chamber".  For me, the literature is an eastern philosophy, and related to human's personality. Therefore, I can understand life in a width aspect. It would be helpful to me if I would like to be a professional in the psychology field.


Finally, I hope I can being a dance therapist in the near future which is a subject combine dance movement and psychology. A kind of an art therapy express in order to heal those patients who cannot speak well, so they can express their emotion by creative work. 

Poy's academic interests

I interested in Music although I studied science in Microbiology. I applied the elective courses in "Music appreciation" and "Singing for theater" to enhance my knowledge. The first subject is about Western music periods and the main composers of each. The students also listened to their composed including beat, base sound and instrument voice. We had to do a research about a concert we went. The second one is my most favorite subject in the university. The teacher taught us about vocal used and singing. I joined this class when I was senior. The class has nineteen students from different faculties including arts, science, engineering and psychology. The teacher is sympathy and smart.

Ter's academic interests

When I am in the university, I interested in technologies in cars and technologies that we use in our daily life such as smartphones, computers. In my university I joined Autotech club. This club is about making a formula car for students and have a competition with many universities in Thailand. The competition is about cost&design, marketing, and insurance. Before, get a car to insurance we need to pass an inspection first.

Ling's academic interests

Marketing communication is a field that I have interested in since starting my bachelor degree. Many well-known commercial brands will not suceed in thier sales, if they do not use marketing strategies as their tools. It is undieniable that advertisment have signicant influence on consumer behaviour, changing thier habit to consume brand products or services. A common example for this is promotion at MCdonald. After a marketing team decided to use 'Minion' as ther presenter for happy meal set, its sales have increased dramatically because both children and teens want to collect minion figures, which have 10 different models. A pouplarity of minion among consumer leads them to buy more happy meal set even they do not eat it, and if all of them want all 10 models that means invidual have to buy 10 set.

Reform policies on drugs and censorship in sport!

Although I know that millions of people are passionate about their sports, whether as players or spectators, sport has never excited me very much, but every now and then a title interests me and I click through to read the article.

In the BBC Sports article "Leaked IAAF doping files: Wada 'very alarmed' by allegations" (2015), Dan Roan tells us that the initial response of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) to a recent whistle blower revelation of shocking facts about the use of performance enhancing drugs in the sport was to try to censor the information being revealed by the news media that had seen it. Both the IAAF and the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) have since admitted the truth of the extent of drug use among top level athletes.

I had never heard of either Wada or the IAAF, and had to read the article carefully a couple of times to clear up what the acronym and set of initials stood for, although my first quick skimming of the article did confirm that it was worth reading properly. Nonetheless, had it not been on the front page of the BBC News website, I probably would not have seen it: I never click through to the BBC Sports section.

My first response was one that is similar to my ideas about drug use in society generally: the laws that make some drugs illegal, whilst most irrationally and unjustly leaving some drug use legal are the cause of much of the problems that come from drug use by individuals in society. Making marijuana and yaa baa illegal, for example, seems to be done only to benefit corrupt government officials and mafia groups: such laws certainly do not benefit any other group or help society generally, and I don't think that supporting corruption and mafia profits are good reasons for government policy. In the meantime, alcohol, which is at least as harmful as yaa baa and much more harmful to individuals and society is legal.

This seems both insane and totally immoral to me. And the same situation seems to exist in many (all?) sports. Players, especially at high levels, naturally want to win and to do their best. For these reasons, the train hard, they follow strict regimes in every area of their lives, which they largely devote to excellence in their chosen sport. It does not surprise that some (perhaps most?) top level sportsmen and women seek to also benefit from the use of drugs that improve performance. And I can't see any reason why this should not be accepted: current policy is obviously a failure, that only pushes sportswomen and men to be more dishonest and better at lying than their competitors. Are things like the Olympic Games really supposed to be contests in how well the participants can lie, deceive and trick? Perhaps one solution would be to have events where athletes are allowed to use whatever drugs they want, and other events for strictly natural players. I would be interested to see which proved the more attractive to spectators. Would sports fans choose the natural and relatively weaker players with only natural enhancements, or would they prefer the higher level performances of the drug enhanced players? I suspect the crowds would choose the better players.

The other thing that I thought of as I read the article was how similar the official response was to the ugly habit of politicians to unpleasant facts: try to censor and stop people learning the truth. I remember that former PM Thaksin loved to use the law courts to stop people discussing facts about him and his government that were not very good, and his sister Yingluck tried to use the law to stop the Thai press investigating and reporting on the rice pledging scheme and other embarrassing issues. Of course, the current Thai government, unelect and self-amnestied, is much worse than Thaksin and Pheuthai when it comes to using the law to block and conceal the truth from citizens: when a local newspaper in Phuket used information from the international Reuters news group to publish a story on possible human trafficking involvement by the Thai navy, they started a court case and had the editors arrested! Even worse is the large number of things that the Thai media cannot talk about today: this forced silence can only lead to ignorant and uninformed opinion on every censored topic.

We see the same in sports scandals: they shock fans because the ugly truth had long been suppressed so that sports lovers think people like Tiger Woods, Lance Armstrong and other sporting heroes are wonderful role models of good people and the like. These high opinions are then proved false and unfounded when the truth does come out, and too often, instead of honestly admitting mistakes and worse, the guilty try to censor to silence reporting what is true. I can't think of anything that helps corruption and other abuses more than laws that protect people from the results of healthy free speech. Isn't it better to know that Lance Armstrong was a great cyclist because he used drugs, even as he lied that he was 100% natural? Isn't it better to know that Tiger Woods was unfaithful to his wife with lots of other women, that he seems a bit of a sex maniac, who again lied to make millions from advertising products using his clean and wonderful image?

Perhaps I should have a look at the sports section more often: it certainly stimulated lots of ideas this time.

__________

Reference

Roan, D. (2015, August 2). Leaked IAAF doping files: Wada 'very alarmed' by allegations. BBC Sport. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/athletics/33749208

Welcome to AEP Reading and Writing 2, term 5, 2015

Welcome to our Reading and Writing level 2 (CD) class for the term.

Over the next six weeks, we will be working through a few chapters in Quest, which involve reading and writing several different kinds of texts. We will also add some extra reading and writing to keep things interesting every day; we will, for example, be reading a short novel and regularly writing on this class blog.

I hope you find the class useful and also enjoyable.

In the meantime, you might like to have a look at the three blog posts below that I've written in the last couple of days. They all respond to articles published in the BBC News over the past few days.

 Peter.

Is lying a good solution to historical problems?

The English used to pretend, as my primary school did, that their great kings of old, such as Henry VIII, were wonderful people who brought, unity, power and respect to their nations: but no one is ever that wonderful, especially not powerful rulers. On a more personal level, I have, as I'm sure we all have, done things in my youth, and later, that now seem stupid, and sometimes rather shameful: although I don't particularly like to remember some of these things, does that make it OK to fantasize and lie about my own past?

 "Man loses 'right to be forgotten' Google court bid" tells us that an English judge has decided in favour of Google, the BBC News and other British news groups in rejecting a request by Malcolm Edwards, previously named Malcolm Edwards-Sayer, who had argued that news stories of his past crimes interfered with his "right to respect for private and family life" (2015), so should be deleted under European Union data laws. In response to such claims, the British news organizations side with Google in arguing that our record of past events must not be falsely altered to make some people happier with it.

I thought of a lot of things as I read this story. First, I can understand people's desire to have embarrassing things about them forgotten. In the age of Facebook and increasing live online, our memory of things past is also increasingly public access. When I got horrendously drunk at a valedictory dinner at my old university college in 1978 and then proceeded to do something that was talked about for years afterwards, at least it was only talked about by those who knew me when I was at Sydney University, and was never posted as a  most entertaining story online, where anyone might have read it; worse, where it might still be accessible by anyone doing a Google search today. (I checked before I wrote down this vague example - none of my friends, or enemies, from the time who might remember it have ever put it online, although that must always be a real possibility until all of us are dead and buried.) I was thinking of using as examples here some of the things that my young nieces and nephews have posted on Facebook and elsewhere in their late teens and onwards, but I think my own example is enough to show the point: like everyone (Are there any people so abnormal as not to have past embarrassments?) I've done things I would not want new acquaintances to know about, certainly not in my professional life. But is this a good enough reason to change the historical record? Does my desire to look better than the truth about me justify telling lies about the past? I think not. If I did something embarrassing that I now regret having done, that is part of what makes me who I am today, and making up a mythic past can't change that. I don't think that even such a good cause is a good reason for dishonesty.

The BBC News story Malcolm
Edwards wants removed from history.

As our Facebook future unfolds, I'm sure it will become more common that past indiscretions come back to embarrass people. It seems to me that a healthier response is to simply admit that they happened and trust that decent people can and do change, that they can and do make mistakes which do not make them bad persons. If my employer or new friends learned about what happened when I was 18 years old and new at university, their sensible and decent response should be something like: "That's interesting. No big deal." President Obama smoked marijuana at uni.? "Hey, who cares, the law and social attitudes were wrong." Henry VIII was a sex maniac who made up a new religion just so he could get himself a new wife? "Yes, he was pretty much a monster in many ways. He forced people into sex, killed his 'friends' for the slightest of imagined slights, and was generally an unreasoning monster who did not allow a bad word to be said against him. But he was also a great king who did set the groundwork for the growing British Empire."

I'm hoping, and expecting, that as it becomes easier for more people to know more about everyone, especially leaders, our judgements of people will become more balanced. Since we know that our own mistakes, even crimes, are recorded online for the world to look back at 30 years later, we will, I hope, become a bit kinder and more realistic in how we judge others, not damning them for a single idiotic or positively awful act, but looking at what and who they are today as they relate to us. And this will need some changes to social attitudes, for a start, an end to the obsessive and interfering concern with other people's sex lives, drug use and other personal behaviour. If everyone involved is acting freely and willingly, does it matter who has sex with whom? If no harm is done others, does it matter if Obama or others use drugs? In many cases, a lot of currently unjust laws will also need to change. I hope the possibility of personal exposure will persuade some that such laws really are wrong today and should be changed to protect the guilty.

As I read the article, George Orwell's famous novel 1984 also came to mind, but I've think I've written enough for now, so you can make your own connections with the historically untethered society of 1984, which systematic dishonesty we thankfully have not come to yet, except in such places as North Korea, much of modern China, and some aspects of society in other countries. In fact, now that I think about it, the spread of 1984 type lies about the past is perhaps something ever in need of combatting by free speech, a free press and academic freedom to learn and speak historical and other truths that might not be entirely flattering.

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Reference

Man loses 'right to be forgotten' Google court bid. (2015, July 30). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-33706475

A new window onto the world

Over the last couple of days, I've eagerly updated my computers, two laptops and a desktop, to the new Windows 10 operating system. Before making this move, I read reviews on the new system that promises so much, one of these reviews being a BBC News article.

According to Leo Kelion (2015), writing in "Will Windows 10 Prove a Winner for Microsoft?", the latest version of Microsoft Corporation's operating system went on sale on July 29 ambitiously hoping to offer users a unified and sophisticated computing experience on the very different devices that they might use in order to maintain existing customers and attract new users in the face of mounting competition from Apple's OS and Google's Android.

I've never used an Apple device, but I'm sure that it's iOS and products are as excellent as some of my friends who are Apple fans swear. But I have been using Google products and Android for a few years, and I think they're great. My tablets and smartphones are Samsung, and have been for a few years now. I'm not thinking of changing, but for more serious productivity, I still think that MS Office products and the Windows OS offer more. As you will discover in the next few weeks, we will use both Google apps, mainly via Classroom, and also MS Word, although in the computer lab, via the inferior Libre Office free program.

Although it is only a couple of days since I made the move, I'm already a happy Windows 10 customer. For a start, my computers all now look and work the same way. Before I had Windows 7 on my main computer, the desktop, and Windows 8.1. on my laptops. This wasn't a big problem, but now they are the same. More importantly, Windows 10 does seem to be very well designed. So far, I've only had one small problem since the upgrade: my old printer was not compatible, so this morning I popped into the IT City shop at Paragon and bought a new, up to date printer to complement new look computers. And the new printer is great. They've clearly developed a lot since I last bought one to fill my very small printing needs at home. The new Canon I've got can print through wi-fi. It also works with Google Cloud printing, so my Android phone and tablet can print directly through it!

In fact, the way that Windows helps to bring my different systems and devices together is one of its coolest features for me. My main contact list is the one from my main Google account, which I generally add to from the phone. Similarly, the Windows calendars easily synchs with and lets my edit my Google calendar, which will continue to be my main calendar to remind of things like AUA term dates and the like.

I don't play games on my devices, but I do occasionally enjoy a movie or a YouTube video on a topic that interests me, and a break for a spot of relaxation sounds good right now.

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Reference

Kelion, L. (2015, July 29). BBC News. Will Windows 10 prove a winner for Microsoft? Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33637586

Mindless acts of leadership

When I was a child, I loved watching ants as they followed their established paths, carrying food back to the their home to stuff into the mouth of their greedy queen. I even had an ant colony between two narrowly separated sheets of glass so that their tunnels and activity could be seen; but others proved far more observant.

The BBC News's "'Leaders and lifters' help ants move massive meals" (Webb, 2015), reports that a group of physicists, inspired by ants stealing cat food in a new apartment, carefully recorded and studied ants'ability to move large objects. They discovered that while the ants conform most of the time to the common effort to move an object, a small number act independently, running around and then returning to the work in progress, where their distinctive pushes add new information about the best direction to move in to lead to success, typically getting food into the colony.

These days I'm generally not so keen on ants, which occasionally come exploring in my condo.. I don't dislike them, so before I resort to chemical warfare, I try to cut off any contact with food, which usually means moving my table away from the wall, and spraying just a little insecticide around the base of the table legs. This usually works, and the and trail thins then disappears as these mindlessly intelligent (intelligently mindless?) animals stop sending hopeful messages back to head quarters. Just as when I was child, I'm still fascinated by the way they move along trails, which are often not the straight lines that would be the shortest distance between two points: there seems to be a lot of randomness, combined with some purpose, albeit mindless, in the way their trails are formed.

Did it surprise you that the scientists who did the research, on which they spent four years, were physicists? It did surprise me when I first read it, but when I thought about it a bit more, I thought, "Why not physicists?" Although I think the discoveries from the study ask interesting questions about evolution and how animals function, also the nature of intelligence, the physicists were interested only in questions about the behaviour of the bodies involved in the movement of an object of size X from position A to B. It isn't really that important that the bodies happen to be living animals, and the physicists certainly had the mathematical skills needed for the analysis.

As my title suggests, I liked the article because it is a good study in how an appearance of intelligent, organized behaviour can arise from no intelligence or planned organization. I sometimes think that a lot of human activities are similar, with unplanned for outcomes, often just good luck, being discovered to work by processes that are often not that well understood. An example that comes to mind is the rapid reduction by almost 50% of all types of crime in the US in the 1990s - lots of experts had been trying lots of things to reduce the crime rates, which had been rising since the 1960s, but nothing seemed to work, and then in the early 1990s, crime rates suddenly plummeted in the United States.

As a concluding exercise: What do you think caused the rates of all crime, murder, violence, theft, and so on, to rapidly decrease in the 1990s? And might it be possible to replicate the same thing in Thailand? Comments are welcome.

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Reference

Webb, J. (2015, July 29). 'Leaders and lifters' help ants move massive meals. BBC News.  Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/33692054