The Dark Shadow Shrine

embrace the darkness; that you may see the light nestled within it......

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Internet downsides....

ARTICLE 1
Another internet sex crime about how a 31-year old engineer preyed on 31 victims over three years.
- useful stats about 2012 survey which unveiled that Singaporean youth spend 5.5 hours online daily.
-the danger of keeping silence
-the notion of building trust online (before the sexual assault)....contrast this with last year's 'A' level compre where writer says relationships online not built of trust
-inaccurate or unreliable info online as people can assume false identities to gain trust and attract attention
-contrast also with writer of last years 'A' level compre on her confidence that young people can control instead of be controlled by material online....are young people today really media-literate?

Qn: Consider the value of silence.

article 1a

article 1b

 
 

ARTICLE 2
This piece of news wasn't captured in the Straits Times, but I thought it was quite useful. Back to last year's 'A' level paper, the passage mentioned about how material online is unreliable. Here is a good example. It's about how there were warnings online that 200 Aids victims have been instructed to use their blood to contaminate the canned food produced in a factory. It even goes on to say that the Thai govt has confirmed this and has responded by clearing these canned food off the shelves of supermarkets in Thailand. But Singapore's AVA (Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore) has confirmed that this is just a piece of rumour.
article 2


 

ARTICLE 3
Nothing new here about a young girl who made a sex video of herself, and somehow this video was uploaded online and went viral. But what caught my attention is that this girl was just 13 years old when the sex video was made!!!! And it was a three-minute long sex video! Relate this to last year's 'A' level compre again, where the author concluded with such confidence that the young will be able to control rather than be controlled by the internet.

Have you used your eco-bags 11 times?

A useful eg of those purported green solutions that are not so green. Consider the parallels with nuclear energy and those green appliances with a lot of ticks that are energy-saving, and hence seen to be good for the envmt.

Note the magic number 11 times for the eco-bag to realise its envmt-saving quality.

Note also the stats that Singaporeans use about three billion plastic bags each year.

Useful Eg on FairPrice's Green Rewards Scheme. Compare it with the 'died-a-natural-death' BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag') campaign which penalises customers by making them PAY for the plastic bag instead of REWARD them with rebates for bringing their own bags.

Towards, the end of the article, a potential reason is given on why eco-bags may not pull off....the aunty-image!



Beautiful closing BANG!!!!

Note the colourful closing BANG used here....
and it's by Albert Einstein to boot, notwithstanding the already colourful imagery.

Content-wise, this article talks about the importance of differentiated learning, to teach according to one's ability instead of a cookie-cutter system that imposes the same expectations and benchmarks for every student, regardless of their inherent differences.

Consider this quote: There is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals.

You may want to know that our MM Lee Kuan Yew also suffered from dyslexia, as disclosed by his daughter in an article I've read somewhere. Would he have thrived in our education system today?

Bad luck Cancer

Note the statistics: 65% or two-thirds of cancer due to bad luck of random gene mutation that is unrelated to heredity or bad lifestyle habits like smoking.

Qn: The key to good health is lifestyle rather than medicine. How far do you agree? (Cam 2010)

Brunei Bans Christmas!!!


A further evidence of religious intolerance gaining force around the world. One of the pluses of globalization is the spread of culture as immigrants move into the country or via the dissemination through the media. But when these foreign culture prove to be a threat to the local culture, defensive mechanism kicks in in the form of intolerance. The Charlie Hebdo incident can be seen in the light of this too, but in a reverse direction. Whilst western culture is being singled out here, it is the muslims who are targeted in the  Charlie Hebdo episode.

Note also the harsh penalties of the Syariah law.

Consider also the use of religion and legislation to weed out foreign influence.

The Burqa

The burqa, sometimes termed 'the walking cage', worn by Islamic women in countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, etc. The Syariah law is invoked to make it compulsory for women to dorn this attire, which has long been seen as a symbol of female oppression. I've always found it to be an interesting comparison with the bound feet of women in feudal China.

Qn: Women have it easier than men in today's world. Do you agree?