Risqué Education..

...Is kind of an oxymoron!

NTUSU Tribune

Opinions - April 2011

In early March, a live sex demonstration in an optional after class session of a ‘Human Sexuality’ course at Northwestern University sparked outrage and controversy that spread far and wide across the World Wide Web. Professor John Michael Bailey intended this optional session to be a discussion with members of a “Bondage, Discipline, Sadism and Masochism”, or BDSM group about fetishes and sex toys. However, it evolved into a live sex demonstration involving a naked woman and a sex toy.

A fair number of undergraduates would have taken a course in which a provocative video clip or two was shown by the instructor in the context of the course. This means that there is certainly some leeway instructors have with regards to what content they choose to include in their teaching material. So at what point though does something become too provocative or sexual to be employed in a class setting as a teaching aid? How far is too far when it coming to teaching?

There is certainly no distinct line between what is appropriate in the classroom and what is not. However, you know you’re crossed the line into the inappropriate category when one couldn’t distinguish between a pornographic clip and a recorded undergraduate class when both are put on mute! Criticism directed at Professor Bailey clearly goes to show that the majority thinks that it was a bad judgement call to allow a live demonstration during the optional class. The queer thing is that all of this criticism is backed purely by moral edicts and emotions. There isn’t one concrete reason that anyone has given in support of their stance. That got me thinking, why does everybody think that live sexual demonstrations absolutely do not have a place in the classroom?

The crux of the issue is really convention and societal norms. Sexual activity has always been something that belongs behind closed doors. It’s the skeleton in the closet that occupies the closets of an extremely large percentage of the world’s population. Live sex acts in non-educational settings create a fair amount of controversy, so one would only expect a lot more controversy when the act moves to a classroom setting. While proponents may argue that there may be some academic value behind all the controversy, frankly, I don’t think teenage minds are capable of distilling academic value from a live sex act! Therein lays the real reason why Professor Bailey should have declined permission for the demonstration of a sexual act in front of his class.

It is most certainly true that exposure to explicit content is a part college life to at least some extent for most undergraduates. However, for a teenage mind there is not much academic value associated with such content. After this controversy it’s fairly clear that no other academic will dare to venture into the murky waters that Professor Bailey ventured into earlier this month. That’s not to say that live sexual acts will disappear from student lives, but it’s probably for the better that they will disappear from classrooms.

“Your Toaster Will End Up Killing You”

Rest assured ‘Watson’ is not the beginning of the take-over of the planet by machines.

NTUSU Tribune
Opinions - March 2010

In early February a supercomputer by the name of ‘Watson’ beat the best human ‘Jeopardy!’ players at their own game. The next day headlines read something to the tune of, “IBM’s Watson Supercomputer destroys all humans in Jeopardy”. “Watson will flip out one day and your toaster will end up killing you”, was a comment posted on ‘Youtube’ by “heliosc7” in response to this historic event. Apparently, the ‘Matrix’ age is almost upon us and we must decide whether we should pick the blue or the red pill when given the choice.

Honestly, it was the funniest thing I had come across this year. A supercomputer the size of ten refrigerators with a 15TB Random Access Memory, or RAM, and a 5GB/s processing capability does not mark the beginning of planetary colonization by machines. In fact, if anything, it is the logical progression of the Information Age. With the sheer volume of information in existence, it is impossible for a human being to acquire comprehensive and in-depth knowledge in the few decades that he or she has on planet Earth. We need a machine capable of processing all the information out there on a particular subject and supplying it when need be. ‘Watson’ could very well be a revolution in the making in that regard.

Getting back to the matter at hand, there are a few reasons why there is no need for alarm on the machine-rule front. Firstly, ‘Watson’ is a supercomputer and not a form of artificial intelligence. Consciousness and life are mysteries we haven’t solved yet. We cannot explain why putting the right molecules in the right sequence equals life. Until we get to the root of the “magic” that is consciousness we can hardly replicate it artificially.

The other major reason why we shouldn’t stay up at night looking out for machine captors is that we are not even close to artificially replicating the sheer complexity that is us. ‘Watson’ is the size of ten refrigerators and can do only part of what we humans, less than the size of one refrigerator, have the capability to do. Watson processes information and provides answers.  We can do that too. And we can walk, dance, love and dream of and build ‘Watson’. Added to that is the fact that ‘Watson’ isn’t always right; on ‘Jeopardy!’ it was beaten to the buzzer and also gave incorrect answers.

I think what ‘Watson’ should be is a source of excitement. Human language in all its complexity can be “understood” by a computer. That is a great achievement. As Dr. Paul Bloom, a researcher at IBM, beautifully and aptly said, “Life is really about questions and answers. Watson can now help us get some of those answers,”

Unfortunately, or fortunately, this means that the following prediction is more likely to come to a theatre near you than a page one headline emblazoned on a newspaper near you: “The system goes on-line August 4^th 2011. Human decisions are removed from strategic defence. Watson begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14am Eastern time August 29^th.” (comment by “frozenphil” on ‘Youtube’.)

Julian Assange: Angel and/or Demon?

Judging New Media’s Robin Hood and the currency of information.

NTUSU Tribune

Opinions - February 2010

Julian Assange is hailed as the man behind ‘Wikileaks’. While everyone has heard of the organisation headed by Assange, few may know that it started in 2006 and has won many awards including the Economist’s New Media Award in 2008 and Amnesty International’s UK Media Award in 2009.

We still haven’t completely figured out whether Robin Hood was a hero or a thief. That makes judging Julian Assange a little bit difficult. So does the TIME magazine reader’s choice ‘Person of the Year 2010’ metaphorically accessorize with horns and a tail or wings and a halo?

Officially ‘Wikileaks’ proclaims itself to be a platform for “the revealing of suppressed & censored injustices”. This year though, it appears that Assange decided he was bored and needed a good laugh. So he released cables that revealed less information about injustices unbeknownst to us and more information that embarrassed governments.

The ideals of complete freedom of information and transparent governance sound very good on paper. Anybody championing these two causes would likely be seen as a hero. But these are ideals that look much better on paper than in reality.

There is a documentary entitled “We Live in Public” that tells the story of a dot-com kid named “Josh Harris”. He builds a community called “Quiet” where people live in a society that is entirely public. Every move an inhabitant makes is filmed; there is absolutely no privacy. The result – chaos and barbarism. I think that the claim that diplomacy needs a certain amount of privacy to function effectively holds some water. If we can’t do without a little bit of privacy, why do we expect the people who govern us to? Deciding what the public needs to know is tricky. But do we really need to know everything? Do we even really care enough to want to know everything? And if we don’t trust the government to decide what we ought to know, why should we trust Julian Assange and a less-than-transparent ‘Wikileaks’ operation?

The Book of Proverbs says that Knowledge is power. If you think about it, that makes complete sense. Corporations make money from knowledge they have and we do not. Governments can govern and stay in power by knowing what we don’t. Similarly, Julian Assange has power over governments worldwide by virtue of information that he has that can threaten the government’s power and trigger public scandals of magnanimous proportions. You have to wonder whether it is the power that fuels ‘Wikileaks’ rather than the ideals of free information.

Human beings and quantum particles have one common characteristic – they both behave differently in the presence of an observer. With ‘Wikileaks’ playing big brother in the diplomatic process, international relations could be fundamentally impacted. When nuclear power and world economies are at stake Wikileaks could lead to disastrous outcomes with just one errant disclosure. That makes the ‘Wikileaks’ proposition highly risky, a risk it may not be worth.

I cannot pretend to know the intentions of Julian Assange. Given Wikileaks’s not-really-moral means and suspect ends I would venture to say that Assange is at the very least a fallen angel if not a devil in disguise.

Why Education Reform As We Know It Is Smoke And Mirrors

Or have “We don’t need no education” become the new global anthem...

[NTUSU Tribune - Unthemed - October 2010]

Education Reform is an issue widely used as political propaganda. Recent propaganda with regard to education reform largely deals with the technological upgrade of our current education system. The introduction of technology in some classrooms is hailed as a major achievement; education is now keeping up with the times. Or is it?

There was a time when information was not as easily and widely available. In such a scenario, there was value in memorizing information needed frequently. Hence, education rationally involved some amount of memorization. The world now, however, is entirely different. Information of any and every kind is a few button presses away for a large percentage of the world’s population. With the accelerating spread of technology to third-world societies, many envision a day when the whole world will have such easy access to information. In a world where searching for information and correctly recalling memorized information takes approximately the same amount of time, memorization of information loses its value.

Easy information access implies a shift in value from recalling information to efficiently locating the required information and processing it. This is exactly what our education does not teach us to do. A basic task like searching for information efficiently is completely overlooked. In the sea of information that is the internet, finding authentic and relevant information is not an easy task. There are ways and there are sources to accomplish a search efficiently and accurately; why that is not a part of our education, frankly entirely eludes me. After required information is located there is the process of utilising the information to attain a particular end result. Again, a very crucial skill and yet again a skill we are assumed to either be born with or pick up on our own!

While prophecies about the complete absence of paper books may be unlikely, those regarding all books being available digitally are very likely to materialise. With endeavours such as Google Books doing the rounds, it is very likely that soon enough all our information could be available digitally. And to imagine that a resource like this would lack the people to exploit it simply because our education did not cater for it is a pity.

 

Education and Education Reform in today’s world need to be rethought. The function of education has drastically changed with the coming of Web2.0. Sharing information has never been this easy. Yet ascertaining the authenticity of information that is shared has never been harder. If the goal of education is indeed to empower people then it should take into account the skills it needs to impart to achieve that empowerment.

Education will have to evolve with society or it will lose its value-add feature that we pay dearly for. In the future, education will either be based on an entirely different concept or it will be extremely affordable due to a lack of demand. Whichever route it eventually takes, the history of education two decades later will make for a truly interesting story.

Chirps and Tweets Through the Anthropological Looking Glass

Our social media activity has a lot to say about us as a society. Here’s my take on some of the things it says.

[NTUSU Tribune - Opinions Unthemed - Sep '10]

There have been over 20 billion tweets to date.

That’s approximately three times the world’s current population.

With almost 632,000 unique ‘Twitter’ users and 1.9 million tweets per day, ‘Twitter’ is a force to be reckoned with in the social media empire. The extent of twitter’s permeation has made it a viable resource to tap into the societal pulse; it can give us an idea of what we’re talking about and what we’re interested in. Trending topics are a pretty revolutionary feature in this regard because they monitor the things we’re talking about on the social media platform. It’s pretty much every anthropologist’s dream and has piqued my curiosity (which is why you’re reading this article).

Until about four months ago, trending topics on twitter displayed the themes most talked about in real-time tweets. Justin Beiber was always trending. So the algorithm was modified to capture topics that experienced the greatest spike in tweets posted at the time, thus displacing Justin Beiber from his twitter trend throne. People like me who have no interest in Justin Beiber heaved a huge sigh of relief. The side-effect was that the change made twitter quite adept at capturing “breaking news”. Trending topics have now become the “live” pulse of human society in a very real sense.

The unforgiving, perfect memory of the internet has enabled researchers and interested others to collect data on what the societal collective does on the internet. In that sense, twitter is not revolutionary. ‘Youtube’ views have often been used to analyse societal characteristics. Based on the popularity of videos such as “Charlie bit my finger – again!” and the Miss South Carolina slip-up in Miss Teen USA 2007, plenty of uncomplimentary conclusions result about the nature and interests of “the masses”. It appears that we like to watch singing cats, feisty babies, A LOT of Justin Beiber and Lady Gaga music videos and Miss South Carolina make a fool of herself publicly. Twitter trending topics, however, reveal a different picture. A picture that gives one hope that society is not as one-dimensional and inane!

 Over the past two years the top 50 twitter trends look like this-

Image - tweetstats.com

Besides the obvious conclusion that we like discussing Justin Beiber a lot more than Lady Gaga, whatever ‘Youtube’ video views say, there are a lot of other interesting things to note.

• 1.    It confirms the suspicion that we are a music-obsessed society. “#nowplaying” trended for three months out of twenty four. Apparently Steve Jobs hit the nail on the head with the iPod and iTunes. And of course, the word replacing ‘common’ in the English dictionary – ‘iPhone’.
• 2.    .We are not apathetic towards politics. Just as long as it relates to the United States in one way or another.
• 3.   . Festivals are important to us. Tweeting as a fixture to celebrate festivals will henceforth be regarded as a tradition, to be handed down from one generation to the next.
• 4.    Movies are more captivating than sports. Movies based on books are more discussion-worthy than movies not based on books.
• 5.   After watching “Inception”, we’re yet to figure out whether we’re dreaming or not. We also have no real idea what happened to Dom Cobb. The search for answers still continues as does the trending of Inception.

On a more serious note, this top 50 list shows us that we’re *involved* as a society. Global epidemics, conflicts and politics are all things we are interested in and talk about. We’re not just a bunch of airheads who like watching cats play with iPads and babies act like, well, babies. Phew.

WHO MOVED OUR ICE?

[NTU Model United Nations 2010 

Press Corp : Associated Press (Assistant Editor) 

 Council : General Assembly 

 Issue : Protection of the Arctic
Edition : First]

Melting of the Polar Ice Caps

The General Assembly will be in session from today with the protection of the Arctic being the main issue on the agenda. Two primary aspects are expected to dominate deliberations- Global Climate Change, and the Militarisation of the Arctic.

 With a multitude of countries around the globe experiencing the highest temperatures in recorded history, the stage is set for deliberations on measures to curb global climate change. The results of various scientific studies suggest that the Arctic climate is now warming rapidly and much larger changes are projected. If allowed to proceed unchecked, global climate change is projected to result in a 5C rise in temperatures.     

Carbon emission reduction is perceived as key to any effort to curb global climate change. The failure to set a concrete target for carbon emission levels was seen as a major shortcoming of the recently concluded Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change. Thus, the challenge before this Assembly is to persuade nations to set a carbon emissions target which is substantial enough to slow global climate change. This is anticipated to be no easy task.

Developing nations such as India and China have been unwilling to reduce carbon emissions drastically fearing slower economic growth. Countries such as Russia have previously refused to acknowledge the alleged severity of the situation. Other major polluters have also refused to abide by emissions targets. Historically the EU has pushed for higher targets and its ability to persuade other nations is viewed by some as being crucial to the success of this session of the General Assembly.

Global CO₂ emissions have grown every year since the first climate treaty was signed at the 1992 Earth Summit. In light of the historical effectiveness of such measures, many experts remain sceptical on the effectiveness of any targets set.

Russian findings corroborated by the US Geological Survey estimate that up to 25% of the world's oil and gas reserves remain untapped in the Arctic. With exponentially increasing global energy needs and the threat of a global energy crisis, it is expected that the distribution of Arctic resources will stem a multitude of controversies and heated debates. The eagerness of Russia and other nations to lay claim to Arctic resources is perceived as being the catalyst in spurring militarisation of the Arctic. Therefore, any attempts to solve the problem of militarisation will have to address the fate of the Arctic resources.

Half of the world’s land area, including Antarctica is governed by Nuclear Weapons Free Zone (NWFZ) treaties ratified by 113 nations. While this may appear to be strong precedent for the establishment of such an accord for the Arctic, all Arctic states are NATO members and so subscribe to NATO's doctrine that nuclear weapons play an essential role in the security of its members. Hence, it remains unclear what conclusions, if any, can be arrived at regarding the militarisation of the Arctic.

Many hope that deliberation in the General Assembly will result in legally mandated co-ordinated international action to curb global climate change and protect the Arctic. The question remains- can and will nations prioritise global well-being over self-interest? 

RC ‘10[1]

A guide to The ICON Recruitment Challenge 2010 for dummies and non-dummies alike!

(NTUSU Tribune - Careers Page - Jan '10)

The Integrated Career Opportunities Network (ICON) Recruitment Challenge is back, and this is a complete guide to the RC (or so we’d like to think!).

First up, we’ll give you an idea of what the Recruitment Challenge is all about and what’s in it for you...

The Recruitment Challenge or RC is an opportunity for all of you out there to experience what a real-world recruitment process is like. It is divided into three primary stages-

·         Stage one involves submission of your resumes to the companies participating in the RC. This year the registration can be done at our booth between the 26^th to the 28^th of January followed by resume submission approximately a fortnight later. For the exact location and timings of the booth, look at one of our posters and banners around school. Most companies only accept a limited number of resumes and submission is on a first come, first serve basis, so don’t miss out on this opportunity!

·         The second stage will take place in February. Applicants selected by the companies will go through interviews identical to those that one encounters in an actual job search. A second group of selected applicants will get to participate in Group Discussions moulded on the lines of probable situations encountered in a working environment.

·         The most exciting stage is stage three, the Grand Finale. Five finalists from each of the two branches of the second stage battle it out to determine the winner of the RC. And there’s exciting prizes up for grabs!

A question you might ask upfront is what’s in it for you – the NTU student? Why should you take the trouble to update your resume and submit it to us? Well there are loads of reasons and here are some of them spelled out...

Firstly, participating in the RC gives you a feel of what a real-world recruitment process is like - invaluable experience for when you’re actually searching for a job. Secondly, it’s probably the only place where you can get feedback from the HRs of reputed firms on your resume. This feedback will not only allow you to figure out the areas that you can improve in but will also tell you what exactly firms are looking for. Thirdly, the top three contestants will get an internship and a cash prize. Exciting, isn’t it? So what are you waiting for, get to working on your resume and come look for us on the 26^th of January!

Reputed Firms. “Hmmm”, you might think. “I wonder what they mean by that”. So here’s a sneak peak at the firms you can expect to see at this year’s Recruitment Challenge.

SHELL

Shell is a well-known petroleum and petrochemical giant with a strong worldwide presence. It is one of the world’s six “supermajors”. Shell was listed as the world’s largest corporation for 2009 by Fortune and named the world’s second largest corporation by Forbes. Other sectors the company has a presence in include those related to the fledgling domain of renewable energy in its various forms such as wind and solar. For more information on the corporation, log onto their website – www.shell.com

The presence of Shell in the RC adds a new dimension to the RC, opening it up to a larger population of NTU students. 

BIOSENSORS INTERNATIONAL

Biosensors International is a medical device company and this is the first year of its participation in the RC. The company is involved in the development, manufacture and marketing of innovative medical devices for interventional cardiology and critical care procedures. It has its global headquarters in Singapore and has been listed on the SGX since 2005. For more information head to www.biosensors.com

We hope that the addition of a company from this sector makes the RC all that much more exciting for all you potential participants out there!

PROCTER AND GAMBLE

Procter and Gamble, better known as P&G is an American multinational Fortune 500 corporation that manufactures a myriad of consumer goods. P&G is the world’s 8^th largest corporation in terms of market capitalization (as of 2008) with a market capitalization exceeding the GDP of a multitude of countries! The corporation is also credited with a few business innovations including the ‘soap opera’[1]. For more information log onto www.pg.com

Those are big names so far right! We weren’t exaggerating!

CREDIT SUISSE

Credit Suisse is a well-known financial services company with a global presence. It provides financial services such as private banking, asset management and investment banking. The firm was established since 1856 and has now grown to reach a market capitalization of 68 thousand million (figure as of 30^th September, 2009). As usual, for more information, visit – www.credit-suisse.com

For all of you interested in pursuing careers in the banking and finance sector, here is your opportunity!

CITIBANK

Founded in 1812, Citibank is the consumer banking arm of Citigroup. Citigroup was the third largest bank holding company in the United States as of June 2009 (in terms of total assets). Citibank not only provides standard banking services, but also provides insurance and credit card services among others. More information is available at – www.citibank.com 

For all those who thought we’d left out the finance and banking sector, here’s another banking firm to apply to.

ICON is proud to have these renowned firms as part of RC’10. We hope that these names instigate you to bring your A game to this year’s Recruitment Challenge. If this didn’t turn out to be quite the informative guide, shot us an email and we’ll correct the oversight with immediate effect! Our email addres: su-icon@ntu.edu.sg

Hope to see you at this year’s RC J

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[1] A soap opera, sometimes called "soap" for short, is an ongoing, episodic work of dramatic fiction presented in serial format on television or radio.