Category: ryoheim

Summary

In Spain, a surprising new beverage showed up — a blue wine.  Wine is one of traditional industries in the country.  That blue wine, named “Gïk Blue”, is made from red and white grapes, organic pigments and flavors.  Co-creator Aritz López didn’t have a friend of an experienced wine maker, so he recruited some Human Resources from the University of the Basque Country, where as famous for a team of chemical engineering.  Literally, they tried to “merge nature and technology” by creating a blue wine.  Enhanced with non-caloric sweeteners, its resulting flavor succeeded to be a mellow, sweet, and slightly syrupy mouthfeel.  Of course, there are various opinions on this, from “I loved it” to “It is a terrible invention”.

 

Opinion

As I wrote above, it is a casual example of “merge nature and technology”.  I think this concept has both a good point and a bad point.  A good one is that technological improvement of something can make that more interesting.  In contrast, a bad one is that it may cause unknown risks.  For example, Genetic modification technology can be raised as an example which clearly has both side.  On one side, it is one of the effective ways to solve the food crisis with increasing mainly agricultural crops.  On the other side, it has risks to trigger human body’s problems like diseases or allergy, and to destroy ecosystem.  For that, “merging nature and technology” cannot be too careful and should be done with the most care.

(Sorry for late.)

Summary

The driver of a Tesla car died in Florida in May after colliding with a lorry.  In the accident, Tesla driver Joshua Brown died but the driver of the lorry was unhurt.  The car was a self-driving car, so US authorities are investigating Tesla’s Autopilot feature, which automatically changes traffic lanes and reacts to traffic.  In Tesla’s statement, a reason why the self-driving car was unable to recognize and avoid the lorry is “the white side of the tractor trailer against a brightly lit sky”.  The accident exposure imperfectness in the present system.  In addition, according to the news, the overconfidence of the driver on a self-driving system.  Mr. Brown posted a video on YouTube which recorded by a dashboard camera.  It shows a previous incident that the car steered to avoid a lorry in the next lane, and he wrote about safeness of the system with plenty of confidence.  The accident of this time went completely against his over-confidence.

 

Opinion

I partly agree with diffusion of self-driving cars for two reasons.  First, partly installation of a self-driving system can decrease the number of accidents result from carelessness.  In Japan, as to the increase in elderly people, the number of collisions increases, too.  According to Japanese Government’s Public Relations Office, big two of the cause of the traffic accident of elderly people are carelessness and the control impropriety by the drop of the physical ability and ability for recognition.  If the cars with the automatic collision avoidance function spread, such an accident will decrease in a considerable ratio.  Second, it is dangerous to completely rely on a program although technology progresses greatly.  It is impossible to be perfect since the self-driving system is made by a human hand.  Accidents like this may occur, and the unexpected situation for the program cannot be avoided because the car which isn’t automatic runs at the same time.  In conclusion, I think that partly introduction of the system assuming the constant driving skill leads to road safety.

I believe in the saying “The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”  This is one of American proverbs which means that the person who complains or protest the loudest attracts attention and service.  In other words, if you wait patiently, no one is going to help you.  Changing the point of view, in a real situation, a person who hesitate to say what he or she really want to say often irritates others and be ignored.  Many people have a better feeling toward a frank speaker, so do I.

The completely opposite proverb exists in Japan.  In Japanese, “Deru kui wa utareru”,  literally translating it into English, “The stake that sticks out gets hammered down.”  This means a person who stands out or with an outstanding talent or ability is often hated by others.  This truly illustrates cultural differences between the US and Japan.  Among Japanese people, it is virtue to refrain self-assertion and to go along with those around one.  Many people always obey to his or her senior or superior.  Therefore, confrontations don’t come into the open so much.  This idea is one of the bases of Japanese spirit of cooperation, I think.

Nevertheless, I agree with the former, an American proverb.  For me, Japanese one seems negative.  Of course, not everyone “gets hammered”.  People who are recognized for its prominent effort or charisma also exist.  However, in a lot of case, Japanese one’s situation comes from jealousy.   In schools in Japan, students seldom express their own view in a classroom for fear of not only mistake, but also doing a thing different from other students.  When I was a junior high school student, in such a situation, I presented a lot and got a high grade so easily.  In my high school, in spite of claiming my opinions which differ from those of teachers’, rather they look after me, and thanks to that, I could study efficiently for entrance examinations of universities.  From these good experiences, I believe in “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” strongly.

However valid “The squeaky wheel gets the grease” is, like the proverb “When in Rome, do as the Romans” says, we sometimes should refrain from too much self-assertion to get along with others, at least living in Japan. 　Though avoiding offending someone and making a compromise to some extent, I’m going to claim what I think important for me and can’t turn over.

Summary

On 27 May, a 16-years-old Chinese boy was found in the cargo hold of flight EK303 from Shanghai when he was hiding to go to Dubai.  As a reason of such a behavior, the boy had said he did it because he had hears beggers in Dubai could make 470,000 yuan a month.  The China Daily report said non-United Arab Emirates citizens were making fortune begging, some making 270,000 dirhams.  These ambiguous information were widely shared on Twitter-like Sina Weibo.  Against it, some online users were blaming the media for spreading rumours about riches of Dubai.

Opinion

In this article, ambiguous information midled a Chinese teenager.  These days, due to the spread of social networking services and smartphones, everyone can share information and their opinions easily.  Accompanying such tendency, anbiguous, incorrect, or intentionally distorted inmformation are flooding.  In such a situation, we should acquire media literacy.  Not accept information without question, but think it critically by own brain.  It is important to tell the difference between subjective information and objective one and not to share incorrect information.

Summary

In the early hours of Sunday morning, a police van was ambushed and eight policemen were killed.  Culprits of this affair were militants of so-called Islamic State (IS), and said they carried out the attack.  Recently, in Cairo, insurgents have conducted surprise attacks on police.  The group opened pictures that show horrible bodies of killed policemen online.  The IS statement said the attack was revenge on capture of Islamist women in Egyptian jails.

Opinion

In November 2015, IS declared that all Japanese people became targets of IS because of Japan’s support for the Allied Nations. This in no longer somebody else’s affair, but everybody’s affair today.  What should we do against a threat of Islamic State?  I think we should make up cooperation systems in international society.  We should not only bombing, but also adopt measures without arms.  Bombing inevitably kills a lot of ordinary people and increase the number of people who join IS.  It’s only “a rat race”.  For example, if other countries close borders, they can stop an inflow of new militants and resources into IS.  Each country’s  keeping  in close contact and cooperation  is needed to finish the threat.