my two cent worth

2006-09-03T16:15:00.000+08:00

News Commentaries 15
Video Games taken as serious medicine

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/technologynews/view/225986/1/.html

Patients that played Roxxi,a gutsy, fully armed nanobot that seeks out and destroys cancer cells throughout the human body, were more apt to take their medicine, undergo needed therapy and believe they could beat cancer, according to HopeLab
HopeLab is working on games to treat autism, depression, sickle cell anemia, and childhood obesity, according to Tate.
A study is underway in public schools in the US state of West Virginia to determine whether playing the game Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) made by Japan-based Konami Corporation helps children get fit.

My Opinion

I think its a great idea to use games to curb illnesses. By introducing games as "medicine", the producer behind these games are engaging with our IT-aavy generation and thus they can reached their intended purpose such as making one lose weight ,easier. Take for example, one overweight girl lost 30 pounds after playing DDR.

I think more of such games should be developed to encourage teenagers to adopt healthier lifestyle and good habits. Through DDR, exercising has never been that fun, thus, more teenagers will be willing to take up DDR as a form of exercise. Also, by producing games that appeals to the teenagers, it will be more effective than any naggings or scoldings.

Perhaps, these producers can produce video games related to our school work in order to spice up the contents of the subject and stir up interest in the subject. However, technology such as these type of video games is integrating into our lifestyle and has become increasingly indispendable in various levels such as education,work etc.,due to its effectiveness,speed,memory and entertainment level. Hopefully, we wont be too reliant on technology so much so that technology will be the one controlling our life, the way we think, and the way we work

2006-09-03T15:50:00.000+08:00

News Commentaries 14
Boredom in the West Fuels Binge Drinking

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/02/us/02binge.html?ex=1157428800&en=9a991fda80697027&ei=5087%0A

In Albany and Carbon counties, more than 30 percent of people under age 20 binge drink — 50 percent above the national average
An earlier federal study found that rural youths ages 12 and 13 were twice as likely as urban youths to abuse alcohol.

My opinion

There are a few causes to the increase in teenage alcohol intake:

Boredom
Following bad examples set by parents
Parties held which usually offer alcoholic drinks
Advertisments eg. At the nightly rodeo in Cody, beer signs are ubiquitous, and on the town’s main commercial strip, a giant beer banner welcomes tourists.
Flavoured alcoholic drinks which hide the taste of alcohol eg.alcopops
Incooperative parents who do not see their kids bingeing on alcohol a big deal

I think for cities like Cody, an age limit for the consumption of alcohol should be implement. Then as alocoholic drinks will be made less available to them, it will be more unlikely for under-aged teens to consume alcohol or engage in binge drinking.

Cities should also educate its teens about the negative effects of alcohol which will be detrimental to their health through mediums such as advertisments,flyers and giving talks in their schools. An example of a school that really needs this educational talk is Cody High School whereby 65% of the students drink. Educational talks should also reached out to the masses especially the parents. Then not only can they set a good example for their children to follow, they can also further reinforce the need to curb binge drinking in their children. Mr Ralph Boerner, who counsels alcoholics of all ages in Butt, Mont, indicates that his youngest patient is 5 years old. This calls for an urgent need for parents to play a part in educating their kids against alocohol drinking since they are young if not their health will suffer an impactful blow when they carry this bad habit with them when they grow older.

Cities can also introduce more night life for teenagers to engage in so that they will not resort to alcohol drinking due to boredom. This can be done through building more arcades, shopping malls, LAN shops.

2006-09-03T14:49:00.000+08:00

News Commentary 13
Bad Doctor get slapped on the wrist
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2006-08-30-bad-doctors_x.htm

Boards are particularly light on doctors who have committed insurance fraud and who have been involved in crimes related to drugs, including prescribing violations and substance abuse

My opinion

I think that the Boards are being biased here.A crime committed is a crime committed no matter what is the occupation of the offender. Punishments should be meted out according to the law and not give any leeways to the offender just because one is a doctor. If the board continue s to dish out lighter sentences to offenders who are doctors, I think it will be threatening the integrity of their law system.

Furthermore, not only will the citizen lose faith in the system, they may end up being the victims as the sentence meted out to the doctor offenders may not be sufficiently impactful to make them repent. In addition, it is not easy to find out if disciplinary action is taken out on the doctor as in many cases, the patients do not know if the doctor holds any criminal records.

In any case, doctors ought to be role models as most are highly respected and not commit crimes and tarnished the good reputation of doctors. Boards should also be impartial and lashed out appropiate punishments accoreding to the law.

2006-09-03T12:17:00.000+08:00

News commentary 12

http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2006-09-02-women-work_x.htm

Among women age 20 and older, 60.8% were working or looking for a job in July. That's close to the all-time peak of 61% that occurred in April 2000 and again in June 2003. In March 2005, the number had fallen to 60%.

My opinions

It was said by Vicky Lovell of the Institute for the Washington-based Institute for Women's Policy Research that women have been the workers fuelling economic growth. I am glad that the society is opening up to both male and female workers.Males are no longer the only ones responsible to bring in income while the females stay at home to cook and look after the child. The society is slowly but surely moving towards sex equity whereby both sexes will be provided with equal work opportunities.

There are many advantages for the influx of female workers in the workforce. One of the main advantages is no doubt the increase in workforce population. Women are not only capable to increase the workforce population and drive the economy further, they are also capable of climbing up the corporate and political ladders. Take for example entrepreneur Elim Chew of Singapore. She is the Managing Director of 77th Street (S) Pte Ltd, has 100 workers under her and has penetrated the foreign markets such as Beijing with her home-grown company. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf , the first female president of Liberia and Mary Robinson, the first female president of Ireland , are two fine examples of successful female who climbed up the political ladder.

Another advantages will be the increase in child birth. As written by Janadas Devan, senior writer of Strait Times, though it may sound counter-intuitive, there is a positive correlation in developed countries between high female workforce participation rates and high fertility rates: the higher the proportion of women in the workforce, the higher the TFR. This can imply that the more fullfilled educated women feel, the more likely they are to have children. Take for example, in Denmark,Finland,Norway and Iceland, women are more actively involved in the workforce than in Italy and spain.The sexes are more equal and women are producing between 1.74 and 1.94 babies per female, far above the EU average of 1.47.

In order to attract more women ito the workforce, i think employers should be considerate towards women and adopt policies that help women balance work and family such as child care assistance, flextime, compressed work weeks, job sharing and reduced work schedules for women returning from maternity leave.

Therefore, by encouraging women to enter the workforce, not only will it increase the talent pool, it will also increase the number of babies. Hence, helping to solve the problem of labour shortage and ageing population.

2006-06-16T18:30:00.000+08:00

Teen sentenced for killing girl's parents
MARK SCOLFORO
Associated Press
Posted on Wed, Jun. 14, 2006

Summary
- boyfriend,19 killed girlfriend,14,`s parents
- parents objected to their relationship due to the huge age gap

My take
I think that David.G Ludwig should not kill Kara`s parents. It is a very immoral act. However, I am very astonished by Kara`s reaction to this incident. Her parents had brought her up thus far yet she did not even bother to stop her boyfriend from killing her parents. In the end, she ended up not only losing her parents to her boyfriend but also losing her boyfriend to the long arms of law.

I think its high time we do some values check on our teenagers. For fourteen years, Kara`s parents had brought her up and spent money to groom her to what she is today. Yet, she dont even feel any remorse upon seeing her parents faced the devil of death. She sacrificed her parents just to be with her boyfriend. Is this an act of being faithful to her boyfriend? Is this an act of expressing her love for her boyfriend? I dont think so. I think it is more of sacrifising both her parents and her boyfriend just because of her own immature thinking. This unfillial girl could have done something. She could have stopped the boyfriend from killing her parents. Then, her parents will not die. And, her boyfriend will not faced a death penalty just because of her foolishness of not stopping him.

Even though Kara is not involved in the shooting, but, I think she is equally punishable by law. She was an onlooker who watched her parents died in the hands of her silly boyfriend. By not stopping her boyfriend, she had indirectly killed her parents. Now, she lost her loved ones and she has noone to blame but her ownself.

After this incident, I think that a boy girl relationship should only be encouraged only when both parties reached a level of maturity. Kara , for example, obviously had not reached this level. She was blinded by love and was very selfish to think only about herself. Her parents objected to their relationship because they care for her and do not wish to see her hurt. However, by allowing her boyfriend to kill her parents, is she showing any care and concern towards her parents? NO!

Forget about big money or big achievements. I think parents should focus more on instilling the right values into their children especially traditional values like filliality. Without these values, no matter how successful one is, I think he/she is still a failure. This is because without their parents, the will not be what they are today. Hence, I hoped that parents should start their values education from young lest they ended up in an undesirable death like Kara`s parents.

2006-06-16T17:15:00.000+08:00

Developments bar sex offenders

Posted 6/15/2006 11:11 PM ET
By Wendy Koch, USA TODAY

Summary
- Increase in demand for sex-offender-free neighbourhood
- Sex-offender ban from buying house from certain private housing estate

My take
True, no one wants any sex-offender near their housing estate for fear that this might jeopardised their safety. However, I think that by baning sex-offender from buying house from private housing estate is not a good move. I feel that the society should try to help them to turn over a new leaf, to learn to accept them, to learn to give them a chance to prove that they are willing to change and not octracise them.

I do agree that by allowing no sex -offender to live in the nieghbourhood will reduce the number of victims in that area and make the residents feel safter. However, it does have its flip side of the coin. The sex-offender may felt that the world is discriminating them , octracising them. So, in order to gain attention from the society, they might commit similar sex crimes so that people will take notice of them. Hence, the ban might backfire and results in undesired effects.

In addition, I feel that one should always consider the consequences and the repercussions of one action. One is responsible for their own action. If you know that what you are doing is unlawful and immoral, yet you still want to do it, then, brace yourself for the consequences; you deserved it. However, if you have some problems and you have the urge to commit such crimes, I think you should seek professional physcological assistance.

Yes. Everyone makes mistakes and I think if they are willing to change we should try our best to accept them and not make them feel any worser, even though they deserved it. Lets make this place a gracious society and accept these ex offender if they are willing to change for the better.

2006-06-16T15:24:00.000+08:00

Smoking ban extended to food outlets from 1 July

Summary
- smoking ban extended to food outlets from 1st july
-prevent the second hand smoke blow over

My take
I think that this is a good move in reducing the number of first hand smokers and second hand smokers in Sinagpore. Smoking is bad for health, this is one thing I am sure even smokers themselves will agree. Through smoking, not only will it increase ur chances to get in touch with health problems, it is also bad for ur general physical appearance. This is because smokers have the tendency to have yellowish teeth, bad breath, red eyes and dark fingernails. Singapore is quite a superficial country whereby the first impression matters, especially during interviews. Hence, by implementing this ban, not only is the government trying to reduce the number of first hand and second hand smokers, they are also trying to help a smoker improved its physical appearance.

This ban is definitely beneficial for everyone. I think that man should not be selfish- if they chose to harm their own health, theres no reason why they should implicate others as well. By smoking in a public area such as coffeeshops, many eaters in the vicinity would have to breathe in the cigarette smoke blown over by other smokers nearby. Breathing in second hand smoke is detrimental to health. In fact, it is twice as deadly as first hand smoke. Hence, I think that one should be responsible for their own action and not drag others into this sinking mud as well. Thus, this ban is a good move to reduce the number of irresponsible and selfish smokers.

Lastly, I would also like to point out that a common public area like coffeeshop is where teenagers will go for an affordable meal. By smoking in front of these teenagers, it might raise the curiosity in them to try out this new stuff. Also, since many adults often preach about the disastrous effects of smoking and discouraged them against smoking, they should set a good example for the new generation to follow by not smoking especially in the public area.

2006-06-16T14:14:00.000+08:00

12-YR-OLD'S SICK BABY CARE FEAR
The baby girl of one of Britain's youngest mums may be taken into care if she wins her fight for life.

Summary:
- Baby of the 12 years old to be taken care of
- Girl got pregnant at 11 years old after having a one night stand with a 15 year old boy

My take
I think that many youngsters do not see the implications before having sex with the opposite sex. Just like the girl featured in this article, she is only 11 years old when she first get pregnant after having a one night stand with a 15 years old. I dont think she thought of the consequences before she went on the bed with another guy. Having a child is a long term commitment and I feel that a girl like her is too young to handle this commitment as she still has to invest her time on her studies.

Of late, there had been an increase in teenage pregnancy and I think it is high time one should review the effectiveness of sex education in schools and also at home. I think imparting sex education to the youngsters is not only the job of the school but more crucially, the job of the parents. Parents should maintain a good relationship with their child since young so that when they are older it will be easier to discuss matured topics such as sex. It was found that lack of supervision from the parents on their child contributed majorly to the cause of a rise in teenage pregnancy. Most of these girls who are pregnant at a young age are found to have a broken family. Either that or their parents are too busy at work. Therefore i think it is very important for the parents to supervise their child at this stage whereby their hormones are still raging high and that they are curious about whats sex all about.

Next, I think that the media got to play a role in an increase in teenage pregnancy. Shows like Desperate Housewives and OC glamorised casual sex and this may wear down one`s stigma of losing virginality. Hence, I think parents should also monitor the television programmes that their children watched, lest a wrong message about sex is conveyed to them.

Lastly, many teenagers have sex because their peers are doing it. Since their peers are doing it, they have this misconceptions that having sex is cool. Hence,I think that the message "Having is not about being cool but accepting the heavy responsibility that followed" should be clearly put across to them.

2006-06-16T13:28:00.000+08:00

Police Accused of Sleeping on the Job
By Matt Lait and Joel Rubin, Times Staff Writers8:48 PM PDT, June 15, 2006

Summary
- Dark skinned policemen caught sleeping while on duty[ patrolling the school campus]
- Case filed by an ex-white policeman and two Latino policemen who are treated differently in their predominatly African American policemen
-None of the sleeping policemen were disciplined
- a dark skinned policeman was sent to investigate

My take

I think that this is outrageous. These policemen were paid to patrol the school campus to curb vandalism and other campus crimes, However, they did not take their job seriously. Instead, they slept during their shift and neglect their duty.

Security had been a major concern after the 9-11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre. These policemen are our law-enforcer and also the one safegarding the security of our country. They are paid to protect the security of our country and to reassure the citizens that this country is safe with them around. Now, if the citizens caught them slacking on their jobs, it will reflect badly on the image of the policemen and the citizens might lose faith in their law enforcer. Hence, I feel that a policeman should not protray a lackadaisical attitude during their job and definitely should not sleep in the public.

Another issue I would like to comment about is the racial discrmination in the police department. In the face of the law, if one is proven guilty of any crime, he/she should be punished, regardless of skin colour. It is ridiculous to send the accused to investigate in a case related to him. Obviously, he would verified that his case is not justifiable. Furthermore, photographs are taken to prove that these policemen are sleeping during their job. Yet, the officers chose to close one eye and let the policemen off unscathed just because they are African American. This is totally unacceptable and is an obvious case of race biasness.

2006-06-16T11:14:00.000+08:00

Battle over New York school cell phone ban
Thursday, June 15, 2006; Posted: 11:12 a.m. EDT (15:12 GMT)

Summary
Reasons for ban of cell phone:

-Source of distractions during lessons:
->to send and receive text messages
->taking photographs
->surfing the Web
->playing video games

-Aid students in unlawful acts
->using phones to summon friends for fights
->cheat during exams
->to take illicit photographs

Against the ban:
- Parents need to contact their children to ensure their safety

My take:
With the improved technologies, everyone is connected everywhere via a gadget- the cell phone. With just a punch of a few numbers, one can contact another party who might just be very well at the other corner of the earth. And with increasing affluence and the convienence of contacting people, cellphone has slowly integrate itself unconciously into our lives.

One might argue that this communicative gadget is only meant for the working adults and students do not need it at all. However, I feel that students do have a need for a cell phone. In any case of emergency, their parents could easily contact them. Furthermore, the activities in the school are quite hectic. Hence, with a cell phone around, it will be easier to update your parents about the activites that are going to take place that day and what time it will end. Therfore, with a cellphone around, parents will feel more secured about the safety of their child as they can just call their child up anytime to check on their well being.

No doubt one might argue that students may misued their handphone for unlawful acts. However, this is just a sweeping statement as not all of the students lack that maturity and self discipline to use their phone appropiately. I think to prevent the usage of cell phone for wrong doings, the education system should instill the sense of responsibility and self displine in students rather than banning of cell phones in school. A murderer could easily obtain a knife to kill someone. Does this mean in order to prevent such murder from taking place, we should impose a ban on knives? Thus, I think that the banning of cell phone is quite unnecessary. Furthermore, by instilling the sense of responsibility and selfdiscipline in students, students will have a higher maturity in their thinking and they will be able to make decisions which are well thought through.

Hence, I am against the decision of banning of cell phones in schools.

2006-05-28T22:20:00.000+08:00

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