This session marks the end of all TWC lectures/seminars/discussion/etc!
Mixed feelings, wonder if it's a good thing to reach session 12 so quickly!
Positive: Nearing end of Sem 1 ... 7 more Sems to go before i graduate! :D:D:D
Negative: Feels as though mid-terms just passed but guess what?! Final exams are coming in 2 weeks' time!
Today the last 4 groups did their presentations presented their websites.
*Note: My comments will most probably revolve around the same few points as there's not much points that comes to my mind*
The first group (Music) had interesting animations and navigation! Liked the idea of an auto scrollbar-slider-like thing. They had detailed information about the evolution of music, starting from the 18th Century. However, the words may seem a little too clustered because everything was placed in a single paragraph. Overall, it was great. Interested readers can check out their webbie: http://www.wix.com/keithngqq/18th-century#!page-3
As for the 2nd group (Vaccines), the website reminds me of how New York Times look like. (Probably due to the font). I thought it was good to put a timeline using the arrow to lead the reader on, from the history. They gave quite a lot of statistics, including charts to back up the information they put into the website. General comments would be that, it's easy to navigate around as well. Anyone who wants to read up about the various viruses can get information from them! And, here's their link: http://www.wix.com/twc2011/vaccinations
3rd group covered technology and food. Looks very neat as the words are quite aligned. Very structured and detailed with pictures to support as visual effects. Good job! :)
Finally, we come to the last group, doing on crime tracking technology. Really interesting topic which we haven't discussed about before. Great site with lots of information, for people who have no idea on how such technology works!
Now we're left with the final paper for TWC! Hopefully it'll be manageable for me :)
Alright, end of post! Thank you, Prof Shahi, for guiding me so much throughout this course. Overall I've enjoyed every lesson, gaining much information about technology and changing my mindset of future possibilities. :)
Monday, 7 November 2011
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Session 11 - Presentations, presentations and more presentations!
OMG I can't believe that I actually forgotten to write a post for this week's session! Luckily it's still in time!
Basically, there wasn't any lecture for this week and the next because the 3 hours will be purely for presentations! Time for the various groups to present what they've done after so many weeks of hard work!
My group was the 3rd in line and we were all quite nervous due to lack of time for rehearsal. However, overall things progressed quite smoothly and classmates didn't have much questions to ask. The only problem we faced was technical errors as the videos couldn't load. No worrieds! My group and I will get it done soon, and whoever's interested can take a look and explore around!
The other groups had very beautiful websites done up as well - filled with lots of details and analysis. They weren't too technical, so
I felt that it was easy for me to follow. Learnt quite a bit from the topics they covered. I liked the website which Gideon's group created. Although they did not use Wix (which was the most common template used by all groups), it still looks simple and easy to navigate, just that they lacked the 'back' button.
Wan Ting's group also prepared GM and non-GM food. Good way to get the audiences involved!
That's all for now since I could only comment on the presentations. Looking forward to tmr's lesson and after that, it's time for final papers! :)
Basically, there wasn't any lecture for this week and the next because the 3 hours will be purely for presentations! Time for the various groups to present what they've done after so many weeks of hard work!
My group was the 3rd in line and we were all quite nervous due to lack of time for rehearsal. However, overall things progressed quite smoothly and classmates didn't have much questions to ask. The only problem we faced was technical errors as the videos couldn't load. No worrieds! My group and I will get it done soon, and whoever's interested can take a look and explore around!
The other groups had very beautiful websites done up as well - filled with lots of details and analysis. They weren't too technical, so
I felt that it was easy for me to follow. Learnt quite a bit from the topics they covered. I liked the website which Gideon's group created. Although they did not use Wix (which was the most common template used by all groups), it still looks simple and easy to navigate, just that they lacked the 'back' button.
Wan Ting's group also prepared GM and non-GM food. Good way to get the audiences involved!
That's all for now since I could only comment on the presentations. Looking forward to tmr's lesson and after that, it's time for final papers! :)
Monday, 24 October 2011
Session 10 - A Peek Into The Future
Glad or not, we're approaching the end of Semester 1 in a few weeks' time! And life has been really tough..
Currently surviving on encouragement from friends around me. I want to enjoy school life! ARGH!
Ok anyway, shall start the actual blogpost or my rantings will just go on and on and on..
Just ended session 10 on Technology Assessment and Forecasting; Developing a Framework. I felt kind of lost during the lecture as it seems like a summary of the many topics we've gone through since week 1. However, this module really changed my way of thinking about possibilities. All I could say is that, I used to think that this world is filled with lots of impossibilities, especially with regards to technology but time and time again, I was proven wrong and in fact, many inventions have, no doubt, amazed me. Just simply awed by everything.
To progress well in this world, one has to have a forward-oriented perspective of things. And this means that we have to look ahead of our current situation and forecast our future; be able to see what we will be like many years down the road. As quoted from Winston Churchill, "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."
What it is trying to imply is that, if you can imagine it, then it can happen. Now, I'm really curious about teleportation, since this term has been mentioned several times during class, and even among peers. I would really like to see this happen some time soon. Imagining myself walking into a tiny little room, pressing a button and POOF! Gone and teleported to somewhere else! Seems too unreal or maybe I watched too much of Harry Potter kind of movies. Just so unconvinced that it can really happen. Also, I wonder what will the world come to if teleportation really exist because if that time really comes, it would mean that technology is far more advanced than anyone can think of. Life would be just like everything in the movies! Omg, too cool.
Back to reality now. We discussed the various drivers for technology assessment and forecasting, such as the exponential growth and significance of the changing world, the need to gain an understanding of the type of changes that new technology might bring; where and whether is it worth investing in them or not. There was another quote related to drivers of change is this: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay. Basically, it's trying to say that instead of being a victim of change, you have to drive the change.
As analysed, change is inevitable and that's extremely true. No matter how you want them to change. The only option is to ACCEPT and ADAPT. I liked the idea of the presenter in the youtube video. Here's the acronyms he used to represent the word F.U.T.U.R.E.:
Fast
Urban
Tribal (New tribes in the world; New interest)
Universal
Radical
Ethical (Ethics in business)
Those are the general factors about the future and true enough, we will also have insecurity in globalisation. As it advances, power will also be more diffused than before - Rising Power.
Prof also gave a simple analogy - A crumpled piece of paper VS a new creaseless paper. There are two approaches:
1. To start working from the current situation (resembled by the crumpled piece of paper)
2. To paint a new big picture on the creaseless paper; See what you want the future to be like.
We went on to discuss about Delphi Approach and the various foresight methodologies that are commonly used.
And this session has many many readings! Eight of them but I admit that I didn't really have the chance to read all of them as it has been a really hectic week for me (Been sleeping in the wee hours of the morning and waking up at 5.20am to prepare for projects, lessons and more)
Again, there were interesting and engaging presentations by classmates. The video on the hunter shooting the bear really caught my attention and I want to know how did the man in the video stick his hand out to get the correction tape! Here's the video to keep as reference!
Might not work here. Recommended to try it out in youtube itself. :)
Rating for this session: 8/10!
And that's all for now! 2 sessions remaining~
Currently surviving on encouragement from friends around me. I want to enjoy school life! ARGH!
Ok anyway, shall start the actual blogpost or my rantings will just go on and on and on..
Just ended session 10 on Technology Assessment and Forecasting; Developing a Framework. I felt kind of lost during the lecture as it seems like a summary of the many topics we've gone through since week 1. However, this module really changed my way of thinking about possibilities. All I could say is that, I used to think that this world is filled with lots of impossibilities, especially with regards to technology but time and time again, I was proven wrong and in fact, many inventions have, no doubt, amazed me. Just simply awed by everything.
To progress well in this world, one has to have a forward-oriented perspective of things. And this means that we have to look ahead of our current situation and forecast our future; be able to see what we will be like many years down the road. As quoted from Winston Churchill, "The empires of the future are the empires of the mind."
What it is trying to imply is that, if you can imagine it, then it can happen. Now, I'm really curious about teleportation, since this term has been mentioned several times during class, and even among peers. I would really like to see this happen some time soon. Imagining myself walking into a tiny little room, pressing a button and POOF! Gone and teleported to somewhere else! Seems too unreal or maybe I watched too much of Harry Potter kind of movies. Just so unconvinced that it can really happen. Also, I wonder what will the world come to if teleportation really exist because if that time really comes, it would mean that technology is far more advanced than anyone can think of. Life would be just like everything in the movies! Omg, too cool.
Back to reality now. We discussed the various drivers for technology assessment and forecasting, such as the exponential growth and significance of the changing world, the need to gain an understanding of the type of changes that new technology might bring; where and whether is it worth investing in them or not. There was another quote related to drivers of change is this: "The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay. Basically, it's trying to say that instead of being a victim of change, you have to drive the change.
As analysed, change is inevitable and that's extremely true. No matter how you want them to change. The only option is to ACCEPT and ADAPT. I liked the idea of the presenter in the youtube video. Here's the acronyms he used to represent the word F.U.T.U.R.E.:
Fast
Urban
Tribal (New tribes in the world; New interest)
Universal
Radical
Ethical (Ethics in business)
Those are the general factors about the future and true enough, we will also have insecurity in globalisation. As it advances, power will also be more diffused than before - Rising Power.
Prof also gave a simple analogy - A crumpled piece of paper VS a new creaseless paper. There are two approaches:
1. To start working from the current situation (resembled by the crumpled piece of paper)
2. To paint a new big picture on the creaseless paper; See what you want the future to be like.
We went on to discuss about Delphi Approach and the various foresight methodologies that are commonly used.
And this session has many many readings! Eight of them but I admit that I didn't really have the chance to read all of them as it has been a really hectic week for me (Been sleeping in the wee hours of the morning and waking up at 5.20am to prepare for projects, lessons and more)
Again, there were interesting and engaging presentations by classmates. The video on the hunter shooting the bear really caught my attention and I want to know how did the man in the video stick his hand out to get the correction tape! Here's the video to keep as reference!
Might not work here. Recommended to try it out in youtube itself. :)
Rating for this session: 8/10!
And that's all for now! 2 sessions remaining~
Monday, 17 October 2011
Session 9 - Future Technology: Making the impossible possible!
Currently in the rushing-to-complete-all-my-assignments mode!
I had a wonderful TWC session today, with great presentations by classmates, of which I suppose, the champion of TWC individual presentation has emerged, with an outstanding full 10marks from 30 students! (Y)
Anyway, back to the main topic. I guess this is the session with the most number of videos played, not counting those during presentations. From being able to shape a disintegrating 3D model (in the case of the video, would be the car), to nanotechnology, 3D printing, holograms and such.. Interesting videos, i would say. If only I could print my BMW car... ahhhhhh!
Oh well! Prof inserted several quotes by famous people and I thought they were nice. The very first one was:
"You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" "
And another,
" Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
I had a wonderful TWC session today, with great presentations by classmates, of which I suppose, the champion of TWC individual presentation has emerged, with an outstanding full 10marks from 30 students! (Y)
Anyway, back to the main topic. I guess this is the session with the most number of videos played, not counting those during presentations. From being able to shape a disintegrating 3D model (in the case of the video, would be the car), to nanotechnology, 3D printing, holograms and such.. Interesting videos, i would say. If only I could print my BMW car... ahhhhhh!
Oh well! Prof inserted several quotes by famous people and I thought they were nice. The very first one was:
"You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" "
-Geroge Bernard Shaw-
And another,
" Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand."
-Albert Einstein-
Beautiful quotes. And what they are trying to say is that, we need to think out of the box and beyond the universe, beyond our horizon. It is through our wild imagination (then translating these ideas into reality) that technology can advance till the current stage we are at now. The major driver plays a crucial role in the future of technology. In order for that to happen, we have to solve a problem which people have yet to find a solution for. One might not even know that he/she needs it until the point where the person sees the thing.
Another quote by Prof's favourite icon stated in the slides:
" There is a space between man's imagination and man's attainment that may only be traversed by his longing."
-Kahlil Gibran-
Though simple, but it gets the message across well to readers that there is a gap between a man's dreams and visions as compared to what we actually have today. And it is the desire, passion and dedication that narrows this gap.
Overall, a short session indeed with 5 readings of which I've read one article from Reading 3. It was titled" Vibrating glove gives wearer superhuman touch powers.
Basically, it talked about people who wears the vibrating gloves could help to stimulate better sense of touch. And now that it has been successful, inventors are currently seeking to work on other parts of the body, besides the fingers. I feel that this glove isn't really much of a HUGE technology, given that such stuff is quite common nowadays, with all the massaging equipment, or some vibrating devices which could pass on little electricity into the body to stimulate blood circulation. And this glove seems to function the same way - meant for blood circulation. This could well be applicable to elderly who needs more circulation to prevent old age problems or problems which reduces their sense of touch. - Dexterity.
Now, moving on to the presentations, someone started off which introduction of transhumanism. It involves replacing our very own attached limbs with prosthetic/robotic ones. WHICH MEANS. you have to go through amputation! The first thing which came to my mind when this classmate posted the question for discussion on whether anyone would be willing to do this was: NO WAY. While it is true that the pictures look really cool and I think it would excellent to have it, but having to replace my own arm for that machine is madness. He raised the point regarding companies making it a requirement to have such robotic limbs in order to be hired. But I guess I would rather find another job. Imagine being born with well working limbs and such, but I destroyed myself by amputating them for fake arms which MAY be stronger (ignoring the fact that it might cause inconvenience / side effects).. Okay I guess you know what I'm trying to say, but no way am I going to do that.
And another presentation which I could remember was the future of Airbus. It shows how much one could imagine. If I have the money, I would like to gain the experience of being a passenger inside, enjoying every single minute of the flight. It would be nice to look to the side / ground and find that the materials of the plane is not opaque because you get to see through, with clouds just right beside you etc. But then again, I wonder if I could take the shock as I have extremely serious fear for heights. (Imagine how I would react if I say I don't even dare to look down from the 2nd floor of a shopping centre. That's how bad my fear is. But I do take roller coasters though. No idea what's wrong with me hahaha.)
It would be really costly to implement such a huge project and while many people think that such planes will exist in 2050, I feel that it would take a longer time. True that anything can happen over the next 39 years and I should remain optimistic about it, but most probably by 2050, only smaller scales technology might be implemented.
So much for my thoughts. I'll rate this session a 9 out of 10. Short yet interesting session which allows my mind to run wild and imagining the impossibilities happening. Cool indeed :)
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Session 8 - Depleting Energy Resources!
Back from the tiring recess week which didn't seem like one! After all the project meetingS and mugging for paperS, it's time to enter a blog entry today.
Session 8's main topic was on Energy and World Change, focusing on the history of it, the current situation today and what we expect in the future.
Considering the huge amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, it has brought about issues concerning rising global warming. This definitely isn't doing anyone any good. Since it would be quite impossible to totally eliminate carbon dioxide, one alternative would be to make full use of it by giving it a value. We went on to discuss about solar panels to capture energy. I particularly like this diagram:
And I think it makes sense. Surrounding us are so many sources of energy, yet we focus a great deal on tradeable ones such as coal, oil and gas. How about rays from the sun? Or wind and waves? Well, I know the rays given out by the sun seems unlimited and there is a lot of energy that can be captured from it. Imagine maximizing the generation of electricity in one day. How much energy would that be? Someone mentioned during class that the energy that the sun provides in an hour would be able to last us for year or more. No idea how true that is, but if it's so, I guess we really don't have to worry much about depleting sources anymore (Not until the sun is gone. hmm.)
How do we reduce the consumption of energy resources, fossil fuels and other perishable resources, yet still able to maintain or increase the GDP growth rate? - Renewable resources is the way to go. However, solar energy is still not being fully utilized in the right way at this stage. Prof showed us a video on how Germany was so successful in utilizing solar energy. - Cash Incentives given to people. They buy a unit of energy at a low cost and sell it off at a higher price, enabling them to make a little profit. Solar panels were displayed everywhere on the roofs of their houses. Wonder how it would be like to have every HDB block displaying panels like that too. Or perhaps, our windows! Now that would be making better use of the energy from the sun.
There was a powerpoint slide on the Reva - India's first electric car. Seems that it can be charged up through a power socket. With the stored energy, it acts as a portable battery which is able to power the car to last for many miles! That's so cool. Generating electricity from the sun --- used to power up cars alone --- We'll be able to save so much on fuels. It led me to brainstorm for some random ideas related to my group project on kinetic energy too.
Session seems short. We then moved on to the readings. And I agree with what was said about having a fixed but wrong mindset. People can save (anything) as much as they want but if they don't change their mindset to consume lesser, it wouldn't make any difference. In this case, again, it would probably be most applicable to the U.S., whose people are still consuming too much resources. And basically, it is really also up to individuals to decide for themselves. For example, owning a vehicle. One per family would definitely be sufficient but still, there are many households owning 2, 3 or even more vehicles. It is true that people do feel that they have the right to own them but now it would be more of consideration for the future as a whole? Government's attempts to persuade citizens to travel by public transport instead; Building so many MRT tracks everywhere, having bus stops almost everywhere too but the amount of cars on the roads are just increasing; People still willing to pay high prices for COEs.
However, one thing I would like to raise, as part of my own opinion is that, I could probably understand why some people are just dead set on getting a vehicle. I admit I was one of them (though lacking of funds of course), but the public transport is really horrible. JUST TODAY (Monday), i checked SBS website on my iPhone for the estimated arrival time of the next bus. Shockingly, it says "42 Mins". Totally shocked -.-lll. Isn't the first time I'm experiencing this but 42Mins is way to crazy. After the 42Mins would be 45Mins. LUCKILY, there's another bus stop in my estate where I could go to take another bus to Jurong East. Otherwise, I would only arrive for class at 1.30pm instead of 12noon. This is really bad. Depending on my luck, sometimes buses arrive fast (as in 3 buses in a row). Otherwise, there would be none, for at least half an hour. And the fares just rose like 2 days ago. Really feel irritated by the high price but bad service. Not worth at all! Complaints to them doesn't work either. Oh well!
Moving on to the presentations, I like the questions raised for discussions. It allows me to start thinking about alternative ways in which we can store energy. And one particular idea, also given by Suresh, was the hard-disk. Imagine being able to store energy in such a portable gadget, we could bring it anywhere we want to, just plug the cable in and start draining energy from it directly. one advantage of this would be where power points couldn't be found and people desperately needs electricity. I would want to own one of these ( Other than the non-environmental friendly batteries of course).
And so, I shall end off here saying that through this session, I learnt that there are indeed many ways in which we can fully utilize what we have but we are just not doing so. If we could start right now, with the right mindset, that's going to save us from lots of worries. Overall, i rate this session an 8.5 out of 10. :)
Just saw Yahoo's article on the most polluted cities:
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/The-World-Most-Polluted-cnbcwp-694354027.html?x=0
Session 8's main topic was on Energy and World Change, focusing on the history of it, the current situation today and what we expect in the future.
Considering the huge amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, it has brought about issues concerning rising global warming. This definitely isn't doing anyone any good. Since it would be quite impossible to totally eliminate carbon dioxide, one alternative would be to make full use of it by giving it a value. We went on to discuss about solar panels to capture energy. I particularly like this diagram:
And I think it makes sense. Surrounding us are so many sources of energy, yet we focus a great deal on tradeable ones such as coal, oil and gas. How about rays from the sun? Or wind and waves? Well, I know the rays given out by the sun seems unlimited and there is a lot of energy that can be captured from it. Imagine maximizing the generation of electricity in one day. How much energy would that be? Someone mentioned during class that the energy that the sun provides in an hour would be able to last us for year or more. No idea how true that is, but if it's so, I guess we really don't have to worry much about depleting sources anymore (Not until the sun is gone. hmm.)
How do we reduce the consumption of energy resources, fossil fuels and other perishable resources, yet still able to maintain or increase the GDP growth rate? - Renewable resources is the way to go. However, solar energy is still not being fully utilized in the right way at this stage. Prof showed us a video on how Germany was so successful in utilizing solar energy. - Cash Incentives given to people. They buy a unit of energy at a low cost and sell it off at a higher price, enabling them to make a little profit. Solar panels were displayed everywhere on the roofs of their houses. Wonder how it would be like to have every HDB block displaying panels like that too. Or perhaps, our windows! Now that would be making better use of the energy from the sun.
There was a powerpoint slide on the Reva - India's first electric car. Seems that it can be charged up through a power socket. With the stored energy, it acts as a portable battery which is able to power the car to last for many miles! That's so cool. Generating electricity from the sun --- used to power up cars alone --- We'll be able to save so much on fuels. It led me to brainstorm for some random ideas related to my group project on kinetic energy too.
Session seems short. We then moved on to the readings. And I agree with what was said about having a fixed but wrong mindset. People can save (anything) as much as they want but if they don't change their mindset to consume lesser, it wouldn't make any difference. In this case, again, it would probably be most applicable to the U.S., whose people are still consuming too much resources. And basically, it is really also up to individuals to decide for themselves. For example, owning a vehicle. One per family would definitely be sufficient but still, there are many households owning 2, 3 or even more vehicles. It is true that people do feel that they have the right to own them but now it would be more of consideration for the future as a whole? Government's attempts to persuade citizens to travel by public transport instead; Building so many MRT tracks everywhere, having bus stops almost everywhere too but the amount of cars on the roads are just increasing; People still willing to pay high prices for COEs.
However, one thing I would like to raise, as part of my own opinion is that, I could probably understand why some people are just dead set on getting a vehicle. I admit I was one of them (though lacking of funds of course), but the public transport is really horrible. JUST TODAY (Monday), i checked SBS website on my iPhone for the estimated arrival time of the next bus. Shockingly, it says "42 Mins". Totally shocked -.-lll. Isn't the first time I'm experiencing this but 42Mins is way to crazy. After the 42Mins would be 45Mins. LUCKILY, there's another bus stop in my estate where I could go to take another bus to Jurong East. Otherwise, I would only arrive for class at 1.30pm instead of 12noon. This is really bad. Depending on my luck, sometimes buses arrive fast (as in 3 buses in a row). Otherwise, there would be none, for at least half an hour. And the fares just rose like 2 days ago. Really feel irritated by the high price but bad service. Not worth at all! Complaints to them doesn't work either. Oh well!
Moving on to the presentations, I like the questions raised for discussions. It allows me to start thinking about alternative ways in which we can store energy. And one particular idea, also given by Suresh, was the hard-disk. Imagine being able to store energy in such a portable gadget, we could bring it anywhere we want to, just plug the cable in and start draining energy from it directly. one advantage of this would be where power points couldn't be found and people desperately needs electricity. I would want to own one of these ( Other than the non-environmental friendly batteries of course).
And so, I shall end off here saying that through this session, I learnt that there are indeed many ways in which we can fully utilize what we have but we are just not doing so. If we could start right now, with the right mindset, that's going to save us from lots of worries. Overall, i rate this session an 8.5 out of 10. :)
Just saw Yahoo's article on the most polluted cities:
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/The-World-Most-Polluted-cnbcwp-694354027.html?x=0
Monday, 26 September 2011
Session 7 - Genetically Modified Food or not?
Once again, stress level becomes higher as deadlines for projects and assignments draw nearer. Mid-terms soon too! Kinda on the verge of going bonkers but still trying to hang in there!
So today's session on Biotechnology - mainly Genetically Modified (GM) Food- was rather interesting. In fact, all 5 presentations were on the same topic, with each classmate covering different aspects of it.
With regards to the heading of this post, would YOU prefer GM food or not? What are the pros and cons of consuming them? Just in case you don't know, everyone have already unconsciously consumed GM food. The first question to probe into would be, What exactly is GM food?
Take a look at the picture above. Obviously, it has been genetically modified. What else? I only found out today that tomato ketchup is considered as one too. As much as i don't wish to consume GM food, I've been tearing at least six packets of ketchup each time I buy a burger from McDonalds. (However, I don't think I'll want to eat a blue or purple corn if there is..) Somehow the first thought that came to my mind when unnatural colored corn was mentioned during class was, "Are you sure that's edible? Looks poisonous to me." (Oh well, food dye could have been injected, isn't it?)
And then we also talked about organic food. This topic got me thinking, are organic food GM food? It depends. The seeds of these crops could have been genetically modified right from the start but grown the organic/natural way. Whatever the case, if it comes from a lab --> GM. The next question would then be the ethics. I would very much like to know, why people in the US are not allowed to know the origins of the food they consume? Don't they have the rights? What happens if someone ate something really toxic/harmful to the human body, then they won't even know how they died. oO. Personally, if the reason given was to have trust in the government in which they will not harm their people, I feel that it's not valid in any sense. One needs to know what he/she is consuming, just as how one needs to know what you are doing and not just follow blindly. Therefore, labels are extremely important, at least to me.
Moving on, we also covered scarcity of land. Take Bangladesh for instance, where land owned by people will be passed down from generation to generation. And this particular land will only become smaller each time it is being inherited by the younger generation. Why so? The land will continuously be divided which makes farming by each household within the whole generation tougher.
Should land be used to grow food or energy resources?
Many students chose the option to grow food, and so do I. In my opinion, although we have to strike a balance between these two options, but food is a greater necessity than energy resources. Without food, we cannot survive.
So today's session on Biotechnology - mainly Genetically Modified (GM) Food- was rather interesting. In fact, all 5 presentations were on the same topic, with each classmate covering different aspects of it.
With regards to the heading of this post, would YOU prefer GM food or not? What are the pros and cons of consuming them? Just in case you don't know, everyone have already unconsciously consumed GM food. The first question to probe into would be, What exactly is GM food?
Take a look at the picture above. Obviously, it has been genetically modified. What else? I only found out today that tomato ketchup is considered as one too. As much as i don't wish to consume GM food, I've been tearing at least six packets of ketchup each time I buy a burger from McDonalds. (However, I don't think I'll want to eat a blue or purple corn if there is..) Somehow the first thought that came to my mind when unnatural colored corn was mentioned during class was, "Are you sure that's edible? Looks poisonous to me." (Oh well, food dye could have been injected, isn't it?)
And then we also talked about organic food. This topic got me thinking, are organic food GM food? It depends. The seeds of these crops could have been genetically modified right from the start but grown the organic/natural way. Whatever the case, if it comes from a lab --> GM. The next question would then be the ethics. I would very much like to know, why people in the US are not allowed to know the origins of the food they consume? Don't they have the rights? What happens if someone ate something really toxic/harmful to the human body, then they won't even know how they died. oO. Personally, if the reason given was to have trust in the government in which they will not harm their people, I feel that it's not valid in any sense. One needs to know what he/she is consuming, just as how one needs to know what you are doing and not just follow blindly. Therefore, labels are extremely important, at least to me.
Moving on, we also covered scarcity of land. Take Bangladesh for instance, where land owned by people will be passed down from generation to generation. And this particular land will only become smaller each time it is being inherited by the younger generation. Why so? The land will continuously be divided which makes farming by each household within the whole generation tougher.
Should land be used to grow food or energy resources?
Many students chose the option to grow food, and so do I. In my opinion, although we have to strike a balance between these two options, but food is a greater necessity than energy resources. Without food, we cannot survive.
"There's enough on this planet for everyone's need but not for everyone's greed."
- Mahatma Gandhi -
I like this quote very much because I agree with the message that Gandhi was trying to bring across. While it is true that we actually do have enough resources , food, etc, but look! So much food going to waste! People using up the planet's resources like no one else's business! If this continues, what would happen to the future generations? Really wonder how it will be like to have all resources depleted. Completely. Because of the previous' generations' inconsiderate way of using resources.. Things aren't that simple; There's more to it than just these examples. As mentioned in one of my previous post, if U.S. could just make an effort to reduce as much consumption as they can, the future would probably be brighter. Otherwise, I guess we'll just have to hope for a new planet to appear from somewhere that it allows life on it. Meanwhile, in order to bring about sustainability, farmers / people would have to enrich the soils on their land with chemical fertilizers, to replenish all the nutrients lost. That way, it will not go to waste and people can reuse it over and over again for good purposes.
Talking about food going to waste, I believe everyone knows the amount of waste (in general) that the world have. Let's not look at the world as a big picture; Zooming in to just Singapore alone, how many incinerators/landfill sites do we need to have before all of our waste can be cleared? Are we going to have to reclaim more land for our rubbish? I remembered having an excursion to the incinerator when I was still studying in primary school. (Oh yeah, amazingly I can still recall because it was such a good experience.) Standing in an enclosed "office" with glass that allowed viewing of the dumping ground, I saw how much waste was in it! According to the staff there, that was considered little (on the surface) because we didn't know how deep it was. But I can't recall if he said it was 100m deep or something. Looking at the machines doing their work to scoop up the junk we contributed and releasing all into this chimney-like hole for burning, I seriously think we contributed far too much, in a negative sense. However, the sad fact is that, I don't know how else we can improve. Raising awareness or getting one person alone to work on this isn't going to help. And we have to accept the fact that this is just Singapore ONLY. How many countries do we have.. Just a random thought which came to my mind: How many percent of the Earth contains our waste? Food for thought.
Just to keep some info. here, some interesting facts which I've learnt during class:
Biotechnology have different colors representing different sectors!
White: Industrial
Blue: Marine
Green: Agriculture
Red: Human
And finally, we touched on the last topic for the session: Food Security.
What's that? Some might ask. Here's the definition:
It refers to the condition where all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.
Basically, it means that there's no period where there's not enough food; That is, famine.
And how do you go about having food security? Notice that pests consume much of our food. This meant that a finite percentage of them had actually gone wasted due to the negligence of humans. Imagine that amount of food could have been used to feed the poorer rural areas. (Then a smaller fraction of the population would have to starve now!) Other than pests, food left to rot away. If we consider carefully, all these actually impacts us greatly without us knowing. We have been taking food for granted, always assuming that there's food somewhere out there for us but we ignored the fact that people are in fact, taking care of all these for us.
So, coming to the end, we went through 7 readings; and a question was raised:
How much land do we need to feed one person? On-the-spot research said 0.07 hectares - for vegetarians, and 0.5 hectares if we consume like how U.S. does, including meat consumption. The main aim of these figures was just to show the comparison. Therefore, conclusion: U.S. really really REALLY needs to reflect on themselves!
With that said, here's the end of my blog post. Rating for this session: 8.5/10 as we could have discussed more on environmental issues as well. But it's still good! As usual, looking forward to the next session in Week9.
Monday, 19 September 2011
Session 6 - Right Application of Healthcare?
Time flies! Week 6 now, and this means.. MID TERM IS COMING! I can feel the stress level increasing day by day, workload increasing minute by minute :/ Argh!
Anyway, today's session seems quite short, probably due to the many presentations during class. Basically, we covered the revolution of BioBusiness, in terms of healthcare and Biomedical Sciences. Prof showed us statistical figures of the market size of BioBusiness - Main focus on Global, South Asia, East Asia and USA figures.
If he had not mentioned about USA's spending on healthcare, I wouldn't have noticed that the number actually constitutes to more than half of the global spending on it! (Specifically 54%). And what's the reason for such a huge amount? Simply because, USA's spending the wrong way. While other countries would rather focus on investing in the younger generation to see how/ what more can be done to raise the life expectancy, USA actually invested large sums of money into life-saving measures for the aged.
Personally, I feel that it's a very big mistake to this move. It is similar to the case where someone is trying to salvage a never-ending situation instead of trying to prevent more from happening. How would it help to be able to prolong someone's (who had probably lived on Earth for say, 80 years) life by a little as compared to implementing some methods/ precautionary measures which could possibly enable the young.individual to live for over 80 years? You know that someone who has lived for 80 years would in a way, mean that their life journey should be nearing a full stop. And only when you just realized it that you start taking measures. Wouldn't that be a little too late?
But of course, I didn't mean that we should just neglect all the aged people. Rather, USA should change their perception or way of doing things.(I guess that it would feel as though trying desperately to save these group of people would be never ending too, as people are always dying and no matter how you try to save them, when they reach the end of their lives, it means the end. So why not, take a look at things from a different point of view. Start from the younger people.)
Next, we moved on to talk about the opportunity areas of BioBusiness. There are so many ways in which this industry can advance into. 4 main categories:
1. Biomedical BioBusiness
2. Environmental and Industrial BioBusiness
3. Agri-Veterinary and Food BioBusiness
4. Other BioBusiness Activities (which includes sub-categories such as Bioengineering, Bio-IT, Nanotech and Life Sciences).
Another point which caught my attention was the discussion on spiderwebs. An inch-thick of spiderweb has the ability to lift up a jet or something? oO. That's really amazing. Will probably do some research on it for general knowledge as it seems really interesting.
The last part of the session before all the presentations were the readings. We mentioned about the vicious cycle that escalates cost. For example, someone bought a healthcare insurance policy and due to some reasons, he/she fell ill; hospitalized. In order to grab the opportunity to make a worthy claim from the insurance company, this person tries to go for all sorts of treatment (be it full body screening or any important but unnecessary ones), staying over at Class A ward.. and then charge everything to the company. While the doctors are very willing to grant this patient his/her requests, it becomes really unfair to this poor insurance company. - and that's Moral Hazard.
The second point we discussed about was that, with the rising cost of healthcare, poor people are unable to afford treatment which could save their lives. As such, they are left to die. How cruel can this get?! Well, I feel that every individual should be entitled the rights to live on and hence, get treatment (some way or other even if they can't afford it). And an alternative where these people could turn to would be WHO. They should actually implement a policy where products, help and treatments should go to where they are needed.. and not be left neglected just because they couldn't afford any of such things.. :( I believe that there are still, many rural areas being left unconcerned for; fighting for own survival..
The last point was, approximately 40 million people in USA are not covered by insurance and these people without these policies are not entitled to treatment UNLESS they face life and death issues. Another unfair situation.. which I believe many would agree that healthcare isn't supposed to be run or provided for this way. Almost everyone who seeks treatment meant that they needed such services. So, how could they be turned away? I couldn't imagine a seriously injured person, fighting for his dear life and being admitted through A&E, be left on the stretcher and unattended to, just because he doesn't hold an insurance policy.. Hmmm. I could be exaggerating this situation (LOL) but just some pure thoughts - one of the worst case scenarios.
PS: With regards to the vicious cycle, just out of curiosity: Prof, since you studied medicine and also mentioned about dermatology during class, do you know of any special medicines or VERY effective cures for super acne face? Hahah. My brother who is one year younger than i am, has been visiting the skincare specialist for a long time (no idea how long, but very long). Somehow his face just doesn't get cured. Wonder if it is really due to super late nights or the doctor is trying to prolong treatment? lol.
Anyway, today's session seems quite short, probably due to the many presentations during class. Basically, we covered the revolution of BioBusiness, in terms of healthcare and Biomedical Sciences. Prof showed us statistical figures of the market size of BioBusiness - Main focus on Global, South Asia, East Asia and USA figures.
If he had not mentioned about USA's spending on healthcare, I wouldn't have noticed that the number actually constitutes to more than half of the global spending on it! (Specifically 54%). And what's the reason for such a huge amount? Simply because, USA's spending the wrong way. While other countries would rather focus on investing in the younger generation to see how/ what more can be done to raise the life expectancy, USA actually invested large sums of money into life-saving measures for the aged.
Personally, I feel that it's a very big mistake to this move. It is similar to the case where someone is trying to salvage a never-ending situation instead of trying to prevent more from happening. How would it help to be able to prolong someone's (who had probably lived on Earth for say, 80 years) life by a little as compared to implementing some methods/ precautionary measures which could possibly enable the young.individual to live for over 80 years? You know that someone who has lived for 80 years would in a way, mean that their life journey should be nearing a full stop. And only when you just realized it that you start taking measures. Wouldn't that be a little too late?
But of course, I didn't mean that we should just neglect all the aged people. Rather, USA should change their perception or way of doing things.(I guess that it would feel as though trying desperately to save these group of people would be never ending too, as people are always dying and no matter how you try to save them, when they reach the end of their lives, it means the end. So why not, take a look at things from a different point of view. Start from the younger people.)
Next, we moved on to talk about the opportunity areas of BioBusiness. There are so many ways in which this industry can advance into. 4 main categories:
1. Biomedical BioBusiness
2. Environmental and Industrial BioBusiness
3. Agri-Veterinary and Food BioBusiness
4. Other BioBusiness Activities (which includes sub-categories such as Bioengineering, Bio-IT, Nanotech and Life Sciences).
Another point which caught my attention was the discussion on spiderwebs. An inch-thick of spiderweb has the ability to lift up a jet or something? oO. That's really amazing. Will probably do some research on it for general knowledge as it seems really interesting.
The last part of the session before all the presentations were the readings. We mentioned about the vicious cycle that escalates cost. For example, someone bought a healthcare insurance policy and due to some reasons, he/she fell ill; hospitalized. In order to grab the opportunity to make a worthy claim from the insurance company, this person tries to go for all sorts of treatment (be it full body screening or any important but unnecessary ones), staying over at Class A ward.. and then charge everything to the company. While the doctors are very willing to grant this patient his/her requests, it becomes really unfair to this poor insurance company. - and that's Moral Hazard.
The second point we discussed about was that, with the rising cost of healthcare, poor people are unable to afford treatment which could save their lives. As such, they are left to die. How cruel can this get?! Well, I feel that every individual should be entitled the rights to live on and hence, get treatment (some way or other even if they can't afford it). And an alternative where these people could turn to would be WHO. They should actually implement a policy where products, help and treatments should go to where they are needed.. and not be left neglected just because they couldn't afford any of such things.. :( I believe that there are still, many rural areas being left unconcerned for; fighting for own survival..
The last point was, approximately 40 million people in USA are not covered by insurance and these people without these policies are not entitled to treatment UNLESS they face life and death issues. Another unfair situation.. which I believe many would agree that healthcare isn't supposed to be run or provided for this way. Almost everyone who seeks treatment meant that they needed such services. So, how could they be turned away? I couldn't imagine a seriously injured person, fighting for his dear life and being admitted through A&E, be left on the stretcher and unattended to, just because he doesn't hold an insurance policy.. Hmmm. I could be exaggerating this situation (LOL) but just some pure thoughts - one of the worst case scenarios.
PS: With regards to the vicious cycle, just out of curiosity: Prof, since you studied medicine and also mentioned about dermatology during class, do you know of any special medicines or VERY effective cures for super acne face? Hahah. My brother who is one year younger than i am, has been visiting the skincare specialist for a long time (no idea how long, but very long). Somehow his face just doesn't get cured. Wonder if it is really due to super late nights or the doctor is trying to prolong treatment? lol.
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