Wednesday, October 27, 2010 | By: EmerGence

Google Donates $5 Million for News

By Y.C. Lim


Google has announced a donation of $5 million for innovation in digital journalism, where $2 million will go to the Knight Foundation and $3 million will go toward international news efforts.


Though the details of Google’s international news donation are to be announced early next year, the $2 million for the Knight Foundation - an organization that focuses on advancing and funding journalism in the digital age,  will be broken up by $1 million to help fund the Knight News Challenge and another $1 million for general grant-making for journalism innovation.

The Knight News Challenge is a worldwide news innovation competition that will be distributing $6 million in awards to contest winners. It’s currently looking for submissions with a focus on mobile, sustainability, authenticity and community, and one of the requirements is that they have to be open source, which aligns nicely with Google’s goals in the space. Last year, the Foundation awarded $2.74 million in grants that ranged from real-time ads, to crowd-funding, to reporting using social media. It’s also supported the likes of DocumentCloud, Spot.Us and Everyblock.

“This is an enormously important vote of confidence by the industry leader. We welcome Google’s support,” said Alberto Ibargüen, president of the Knight Foundation in a statement. “Already, more Americans get their information from the Internet than from newspapers. That trend will only intensify, making it imperative for our democracy that we find ways to effectively deliver the news and information people require on the new, digital platforms.”

As media companies struggle to find a sustainable model while more news consumption takes place on the web (with much through the social web), there’s a great need for innovative ideas and approaches to news. So why donate the money? In part, it is policy for Google to donate 1% of profits toward charity, but it’s also a peace offering of sorts to news organizations that have often blamed their woes on the technology giant.

As Megan Garber of Nieman Journalism Lab points out, despite years of having a dysfunctional relationship with news organizations, Google’s donation comes as a “multi-million dollar olive branch.” For years, some news organizations accused Google of stealing their news, but recently Google has been reaching out to news organizations for partnerships on projects like Living Stories, which it collaborated on with The New York Times and The Washington Post. Despite working on such partnerships recently, Chris Gaither told Garber the donation is an effort to “encourage innovation at a more grassroots level.”

Going forward, with major news organizations cutting back on international resources to produce news, it will be crucial to help fill in a gap.

Tweenbot - cutest robot ever

By M.K. Lim

http://www.likecool.com/Gear/Projects/Tweenbot/Tweenbot.jpg     Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.

Given their extreme vulnerability, the vastness of city space, the dangers posed by traffic, suspicion of terrorism, and the possibility that no one would be interested in helping a lost little robot. Tweenbots was initially invented as disposable creatures which were more likely to struggle and die in the city than to reach their destination. Because it was built with minimal technology, there is no way of tracking the Tweenbot’s progress, and so the first tweenbot was set out on the first test with a video camera hidden in the persuer's purse.

     The results were unexpected. Over the course of the following months, throughout numerous missions, the Tweenbots were successful in rolling from their start point to their far-away destination assisted only by strangers. Every time the robot got caught under a park bench, ground futilely against a curb, or became trapped in a pothole, some passerby would always rescue it and send it toward its goal. Never once was a Tweenbot lost or damaged. Often, people would ignore the instructions to aim the Tweenbot in the “right” direction, if that direction meant sending the robot into a perilous situation. One man turned the robot back in the direction from which it had just come, saying out loud to the Tweenbot, "You can’t go that way, it’s toward the road.”
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFzIcfTykimalzoqBEMGk6qSo9-1mT3rN7PMgwnknQ78YiJmaHdTPOQYgFkEnZeo0ZPnN_rqZiBjOlha69c-zMQjSIbuOtbfOo8t4zczun-ym9ECw_SWBM1GeCFSS7-K9c0vyLvBdkzaD8/s400/Tweenbot.jpg
     The Tweenbot’s unexpected presence in the city created an unfolding narrative that spoke not simply to the vastness of city space and to the journey of a human-assisted robot, but also to the power of a simple technological object to create a complex network powered by human intelligence and asynchronous interactions. But of more interest to me was the fact that this ad-hoc crowdsourcing was driven primarily by human empathy for an anthropomorphized object. The journey the Tweenbots take each time they are released in the city becomes a story of people's willingness to engage with a creature that mirrors human characteristics of vulnerability, of being lost, and of having intention without the means of achieving its goal alone. As each encounter with a helpful pedestrian takes the robot one step closer to attaining its destination, the significance of our random discoveries and individual actions accumulates into a story about a vast space made small by an even smaller robot.

     This little robot with cardboard body and simple mechanism, will be set out with a definite destination written on the flag on top of the tweenbot with something such as

"Please help me!! i wanna reach XXXX"

It is said that, regardless of how long or how terrible looking is the poor robot, eventually, it gets its way into the destination

Creative Writing Competition - Fairytale

First Place by M.K. Lim

Everybody lived to tell tale. Whether the tale would have something to be learned, or something to be followed or even something just for fun, everyone who have lived, lived to tell a tale. Whether for your tale to be important and to be passed on for generations depend on how you live your tale and recite them.

Up till today, I've lived long enough to tell a short tale. So grab a coffee, put yourself on a couch, make yourself comfortable because i am about to tell you a tale. Just a short tale that took a long time to be lived in.

A tale about a girl who's faith was restored

Not very long ago, there was a girl who did not live in a castle, nor does she have beautiful complexion or extraordinary abilities. There was just a girl, like every other. A girl that was unnoticed because she blend so well in the crowd just like a chameleon that people could not see her existence. Some see this as a curse and some see this as a fortune. No matter what others saw, the girl saw nothing.

She lived her life not by waiting for a handsome prince to save her from evil dragons or waiting for a fairy-godmother to transform her into a beautiful maiden. She plainly lived through her life enduring everyday lives and in her era, there is no longer discrimination on female so her life was pretty much a bed of roses. But everybody knows that roses that are so beautiful have thorns that will make others bleed to enhance the "red" colour of the petals. So her life was pretty much a bed of roses no doubt.

However, this part is a little similar to a fairy tale. In her life, evil villain existed. And in her case, there were more than one villain. Every little thing she knows and every person she was ever fond of have a little villain side in them. Back then, the innocent her knew nothing of that sorts. She innocently got trapped by those evil villains and they took advantage of her. A sad case for her that she had to endure all that by herself and no one other than herself could save her.

So she learned about the cruel part of life by falling and she then decided to not fall again. But little does she know that that world that she was in was merely a zest of reality. Reality is nothing like a fairytale. Reality was the evolve "species" of fairytale and in this reality, fairytale only lived in dreams and movies.

Like everyone other tale you have heard, the one true prince will appear and then save the beautiful princess from her misery. This girl was no princess. Neither does she have any prince that will rescue her. So she when she realised that fairytale could never exist, she decided to not live in her dream. She decided to learn to live in reality. She learned to be a villain herself for she have to be one to survive among all of them.

Slowly and gradually she became immune to villains because right now she is already one of them. Fairytale for her is nothing but a mere desire of weak people who could not accept reality. But she, as a non-believer in fairytale will soon face a tale of her own that she would have never expect to happen.

Little does she know, her fairytale has just started. Just when she lost all hope and faith, a prince showed up. Her prince was not like in the storybooks. He was not riding a white horse nor was he carrying a sword. He doesn't know how to fight bandits or dragons but he was her prince. That prince who appeared in her life changed every single thing. She who lost her faith was showered with light and love. Before she knew it, she began to live in her fairytale.

There were no garden to dance nor beautiful castle to visit. There were no romantic time riding horses nor singing under the rain. But there was love and care from the prince's heart, warmth from the prince's palm and tenderness in the prince's soul that melted the girl's once stoney heart. And there, her fairytale lives on.

There would probably be no happily ever after but as for now, there is a fairytale in her.

-The end-

Blobfish

By M.K. Lim,

       Some of you may have not seen or heard about this before.  Let me introduce to you BLOBFISH. It is said as an ugly miserable fish by Ted Thornhill who writes an article in yahoo. But i think he looks perfectly fine [the fish, not the writer ==]

       Hei, beauty is at the eye of the beholder so you judge it yourself. At least now the blobfish have a vote for being a cutie from me. what do you think?
Sea-ing is believing: The extremely ugly blobfish
And this is what Thornhill wrote in his article
Extinction threat for world’s most miserable animal – the blobfish
No wonder he looks like the world’s most miserable fish… this unattractive creature, the inedible blobfish, is in danger of being wiped out.
These sad-looking creatures, which grow up to lengths of 12 inches, live at depths of 900m.
They spend most of their time gently floating around waiting for food to pass in front of them, which sounds like quite a nice life to us!
Because they live so far from the sea surface they’re not often seen by humans.
However, increasing levels of deep-sea fishing in Australia and Tasmania for crab and lobster mean that the sulky sea-dwellers are being dragged up with other catches in increasing numbers.
These gelatinous masses may not be much to look at, but the world would be a less interesting place without them, probably, so let’s hope the Australian’s don’t kill them off.
Hei, if this cute blobfish is at the edge of extinction, you sure did a good job in almost killing one in that picture [putting him away from water]. Imagine i put you in the sea water and try to take a good non-miserable looking picture.
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 | By: EmerGence

So You Think You're Short?

By M.K. Lim,

     There is no single person in this world that is satisfied with himself. Men are not satisfied with the size of their muscles. What more is there to say for ladies? Why do you think silicon was created?
    
      There are just things we cant change. If you’re fat, go on a diet. If you’re thin, eat more. But what if the things you’re not satisfied with cannot be changed no matter how hard you try? Try change from being short? Guy complaining not being tall enough, girls complaining being too short. Now, don’t you think it is better to just accept who  you are and get on with life? Life ain’t gonna get any better if you’re 5 cm taller or shorter.
But life sure is good for this man. Hei, he maybe once the shortest and smallest man on earth, but he sure made everything else in his life BIG.
he1 600x698 Worlds Shortest Man Dies Aged 21 picture


 This man is He Pingping from Inner Mongolia China. He was holding the record of being the shortest man alive in Guiness Book of records with the heights of 2′ 5″ or 73cm. 

he pankrtova1 600x960 Worlds Shortest Man Dies Aged 21 picture

     This is when he met the woman with the longest leg. Hei, you may think he is lucky because since he is the SHORTEST he gets all the publicity and money. Have you thought about how life would be difficult for him? Would anyone want a life so different from others just for some fame and fortune for a short time? Or would it be better to live the normal comfortable life peacefully? I believe many would choose the latter. 

     He Pingping died at the early age of 21 on March 13th. He was in Italy for a show and he complained a pain in his chest. He was sent to the hospital and died over the weekends as reported in this article. His record is now being taken over by Khagendra Thapa Magar who claims to be only 53 cm tall.
How wonderful and diverse out world is.

R.I.P. He Pingping.
Sunday, October 24, 2010 | By: EmerGence

Understand Bloom's Taxanomy Today!


By K.M. LEW 

Benjamin Bloom created this taxonomy for categorizing level of abstraction of questions
that commonly occur in educational settings. The taxonomy provides a useful structure in
which to categorize test questions, since professors will characteristically ask questions
within particular levels, and if you can determine the levels of questions that will appear
on your exams, you will be able to study using appropriate strategies.

As teachers we tend to ask questions in the "knowledge" catagory 80% to 90% of the
time. These questions are not bad, but using them all the time is. Try to utilize higher
order level of questions. These questions require much more "brain power" and a more
extensive and elaborate answer. Below are the six question categories as defined by
Bloom.

KNOWLEDGE
o remembering;
o memorizing;
o recognizing;
o recalling identification and
o recall of information
 - Who, what, when, where, how ...?
 - Describe

COMPREHENSION
o interpreting;
o translating from one medium to another;
o describing in one's own words;
o organization and selection of facts and ideas
 - Retell...

APPLICATION
o problem solving;
o applying information to produce some result;
o use of facts, rules and principles
 - How is...an example of...?
 - How is...related to...?
 - Why is...significant?

ANALYSIS
o subdividing something to show how it is put together;
o finding the underlying structure of a communication;
o identifying motives;
o separation of a whole into component parts
 - What are the parts or features of...?
 - Classify...according to...
 - Outline/diagram...
 - How does...compare/contrast with...?
 - What evidence can you list for...?

SYNTHESIS
o creating a unique, original product that may be in verbal form or may be a physical object;
o combination of ideas to form a new whole
 - What would you predict/infer from...?
 - What ideas can you add to...?
 - How would you create/design a new...?
 - What might happen if you combined...?
 - What solutions would you suggest for...?
 
EVALUATION
o making value decisions about issues;
o resolving controversies or differences of opinion;
o development of opinions, judgements or decisions
 - Do you agree...?
 - What do you think about...?
 - What is the most important...?
 - Place the following in order of priority...
 - How would you decide about...?
 - What criteria would you use to assess...?

Breath Right

By M.K. Lim
     Almost 75% of people in this world are having the same problem as she is facing right now. In fact, some of you people out there may not even know that you have this problem until you have some people that come over for a sleepover or when you had to cramp in a small tent with a couple of friends. This could happen because you are plainly too beaten up or you have nasal congestion that block your breathing through the nose. What is this problem you asked? Haven't you figure it out yet?

     It is the snoring problem. Many do not even know that they have this problem because they just cant know it until someone tells them. Of course unless you have a magnificent brain that could detect the sound waves sent by your ear in the middle of the night when you are in slumberland.

     This clears the mystery for having a sorethroat each time waking up in the morning. When a person snores for the whole night, it is only normal that his/her throat becomes dry in the morning. So while browsing through There is a very nice product that helps in reducing snoring problem.
This is a Breath Right nasal strips. It is actually a flexible "spring-like" band that gently lift nasal passage open. It actually sticks on your nose and pull the walls of your nose higher. It is said to be able to improve airflow to 31%. In fact, it did not bother her at all while wearing them. 
     For those who have this little problem while sleeping, get one of the Breath Right nasal strips and see if it helps you. Of course it is better to have it healed now than to have your future spouse kicking you out of the room for disturbing their comfortable adventure in slumberland.
Friday, October 15, 2010 | By: EmerGence

Chasing Dreams : The L-Bird Interview

By M.K. Lim

Albert "L-Bird" Chuah
     Many would believe that dancing is a talent that certain people possessed. However, only those who have indulged themselves into this industry know that dancing is not based on pure talent alone. All dancers need to practice hard, be creative and optimistic at the same time to be successful. To those who danced in a crew, being able to work in a team is also very important. Equally, being a dance instructor requires even more skills as a dance instructor not only need to have talents and hard work in dancing, but also passion and patience in teaching. 

     An individual had to really practice hard, make researches and be creative at the same time. A dancer would have to brush up his skills from time to time. There are many genres of dance to learn and one would need to learn different types of dance to know which genre he belonged to. The interviewee Albert Chuah also known as L-Bird is a part time dance instructor. He had been teaching dance as a part time job as he would like to make dance as a hobby and favourable past time instead of work which could be tiring. Being able to work a full time job and to teach dance lessons is a very hectic job yet he managed to do it. Regardless of having a busy work lifestyle, he would still find time to teach his students as dancing is his interest and passion. This determination is not something everyone can do yet Albert clearly proved he is capable of doing so as he has been working both jobs for more than a year.

Penang State Street Dance Competition
     Albert grew up in a family where he is the only one who had a passion in dancing. He started dancing ever since from a very young age as he stated that he started dancing the very moment he could stand. The one reason that motivated him to dance was his idol who is the infamous King of Pop, Micheal Jackson. Albert’s very first competition was in a supermarket when he is at the age of 12 and he won first prize. He never had the thought to make dancing as a permanent career as he has always wanted to keep dancing as a hobby alone. However, at a certain time where he was jobless, he went to apply for a job as a dance instructor and after 3 months of proving his skills he got his very first job in the dance industry as a dance instructor.

      Albert does not have any education background in dancing as all this while he has been learning how to dance by himself. Not to mention at that young age, he does not have the financial securities to actually attend classes for dancing. Back then dancing classes were very limited and expensive. However, starting from last year which is 2008, he had started to take dancing lessons from instructors in Kuala Lumpur.

Asia Dance Explosion
Moving Force
      As a highlight of his career as a dancer, Albert has his very own dance crew called Moving Force. This crew consists of 9 members. Albert recruits members who are passionate and are willing to learn to dance. He does not only see a dancer on talents alone, but also on attitude and willingness to learn. Certainly, his crew has been competing in a lot of different competitions. They have competed in local and international competitions. Local competitions are Gurney Hip Hop Dance Competition, Gurney Street Dance Competition 2008 and I-Dance Competition 2008 and international competitions like Asia Dance Explosion 2008, Asia Dance Explosion 2009 and 6th National Ballroom Dance Championship. They have certainly won many awards such as Winner in Asia Dance Explosion 2009 and 1st Runner-up in Bukit Jambul Dance Mania Competition. 

     As many have recognized their talent in dancing, they were also invited to perform in big events such as HoChiak Charity and Fun Dinner, Penang International Dragon Boat Festival and the most recent performance will be the 30 hours Famine, Bukit Jalil. However, Albert would never want his crew to over perform as he would not want his members to end up being a performer without passion. He would want his members to be able to dance together, to learn and guide each other and never forget to have fun while dancing. Dancing would not be fun anymore if they would have to face the stress of having to perform too much.
Moving Force members [male]
       Being an old timer, Albert is no doubt recognized in the dance industry. He was also invited to be one of the judges in many different competitions. Albert is able to see young talents growing in his own hometown. He felt that the young talent nowadays is very lucky as right now, they have more exposure to different types of dance and they have many sources to find videos about dance such as youtube and mtv. Back in his days, even youtube has yet to exist. Thus, Albert is indeed glad that the dance industry is growing in Penang. Though it may not be as advanced as Kuala Lumpur or the United States but at least it is growing and there are many young talents who are beginning to involve themselves in the dance industry. Albert even has experience in teaching younger children. However, he has to admit that he does not possess the skill and patience to teach children. However, he is willing to teach anyone regardless of age as long as that individual is passionate and willing to learn. Albert also stated that he learned the most from his students. Whenever his student utters a question, he managed to get a deeper understanding of that question.
Moving Force members [female]
      Albert believes that he have yet to be called a successful dancer because he still have many things to learn. He believes that dancing is something for dancers to enjoy. As long as a dancer does not dance for fame but for his interest and passion, he would be successful. He said that he like a quote he heard which is “You dance not to impress but to express”. He strongly agrees that when you dance with passion and a strong feeling, you would be able to connect with the audience and thus that is a very great performance because if otherwise, this dance would be merely a dancer with different kinds of steps.

      Albert has been thinking himself should he consider dance as a permanent career. He had always believed that he should not take dance as a permanent career and recently he had just justified his own feelings. Perhaps it is because of the way he was brought up, or maybe just because of how he thinks he would still prefer to keep dancing as interest alone. Even if he were to take dance as a permanent career, now would not be the time. He has only see his future in the dance industry with his crew. He would not want to have any fame just by himself alone. In fact, it is his dream to be able to build a place where all dancers get to hang out and dance at the same time. It would be a place for all dancers to gather, meet up, exchange information, to get to know each other better and the most important thing is a place where the dancers will be able to get knowledge if they would want to excel themselves in the dance industry.
Saturday, October 2, 2010 | By: EmerGence

SEGi College Penang

By K.M. LEW

     SEGi College Penang offers a wide range of diploma, degree, post graduate and professional courses in the fields of business, accounting, marketing, human resource, early childhood education, mass communication, information technology, computing, hotel management and tourism. It currently occupies a seven storey city campus building located at the heart of Georgetown, the capital of the island state.

     Air-conditioned classrooms, a well-stocked library, networked computer laboratories with the latest Window Vista software and multimedia facilities, wireless and internet access, sea view cafeteria and auditorium will be provided for all the students.

     With its unique location, it enables student to an easy access to public transportation, banks, post-office, eating places, shopping complexes and other amenities.

      Furthermore, SEGi College Penang offers a unique learning experience to its students with its signature dedication from lecturers and staff. The Penang campus ensures that the students are given personal attention, in-depth coverage of the syllabus and
hands-on approach to learning.

     For further information, log on to www.segi.edu.my or contact 604-2622193.