What can replace newspaper and pencil

As everybody you have certainly seen the new toy unveiled this week by Steve Jobs. Ipad is a superb product of technologies and very attractive. It is hard to believe that so many functionalities are possible and accessible in your hand and by simple touch.

I’m sure it will be a marketing success even if I do not see in what the tablet will be a revolutionary step for the computer world.

Cell phone, instant messaging, email have really change our day to day lives and have permitted to save lives in many occasions. Here I am more skeptical

Stop and think a minute about what kind of benefits it offer and the risks of the concept.

Ipad offers extensive multimedia functionalities. That’s fine. But where is the pleasure to watch a movie alone, read news stayed apart in your corner?

From a societal standpoint, I see the device as a new risk and factor of isolation in a world where loneliness is becoming a standard characteristic of the society and sometimes a real plague we have to take care.

I don’t know for you but to me nothing can replace the pleasure to read news in the news paper and share what I am reading with others around me or the watch a movie at home or to go to cinema with friends.

Ipad is said to be an electronic pad that will replace pad and pencil which explain the brand name chosen by Apple.

I have a MacBook and I love it. I like the graphic options and the finger touch. But when I have to think about a project, I still prefer to take my pad and pencil to draft my ideas. It is as if my brain was connected to may pencil. I do not have the same sensation when I formulate my ideas directly on my Mac.

I agree it is a new and superb gadget, very impressive from a technology standpoint. I am sure most will want to get as a symbol of ‘’must-have device of the generation’’. But to which extent it is a benefit to us, I would say that the demonstration still have to be made.

Absurd…

I would like to share my reflections about Haiti earthquake and the tragic aftermath regularly reported in the news. As an observer, I feel angry and sad with some comments and political controversies about why that happened, how much time each country brought help and support, the efficiency and poor coordination on the field….

It is hopeless to see people spending time and energy to endless critics while we are here in the utmost and clear demonstration of the absurdism of our life.

The only word I have to qualify my feeling about this human tragedy is absurd.

It is absurd in the concrete and realistic sense of the term as we know that this poor country has been struck by tsunami a couple years ago and that it is on the way of a high seismic activity.

It is absurd as I can not believe that the technology was not able to predict it first and then we were not good enough to prevent it.

As always in similar case of peril and human tragedy, it was good to see several nations use their power to bring help, compassion and support very quickly. However it was sad to see the critics and controversies arise on the efficiency of the help on the field.

It was good to see this worldwide concern and support at individual level often expressed as a financial contribution to help to improve the life of the Haitian people. At the individual level, I can’t help but thinking about the conscious and unconscious motivations of people giving money to Haiti. Is it unconsciously a way to recognize that this tragedy is a fatality and God as the master of the Universe can play a role her? In other words, it is a way to have clear conscious with God?

Is it to repress the idea that death is part of the human condition in other word a way to deny the reality of life’s absurdity?

Would Camus be still alive, he would have certainly commented the tragedy as absurd from a philosophical point of view.

To me, this kind of tragedy recalls us that death is unpredictable and gives us the right perception of life. In this sense, all human activity can be considered as absurd and the real sense of the life is to be aware of its actually and totally beauty and pain.

To drive or not to drive at 16?

"Do you have your driving license?"

Those who ask me this question always seem puzzled when I answer: “ No, and I am not in a hurry to take it”.

For the US students, it is essential to have the driving license as soonest as possible and in most cases at 16. I think I understand the reasons for that. USA is a huge country, railroad and subway systems are only available in certain parts of the US, and distances between two points often require a car.

I understand the point. However, it is interesting to note that in the USA the highest rate for car accidents concern new drivers below 18years old.

Recent medical studies have shown that below 18 years old, brain is not completely formed and more particularly the area of the brain that participate the evaluation of risk and decision is not completed.

This may explain the high rate of fatal car accident to the new and under 18 years old drivers.

Coming from Europe, I am used to have access to public transportation everywhere and there is no need for students to get driving license as young as 16years.

In France, we can start learning when we are 16 by taking theory classes and a minimum of 20 hours driving lessons with an instructor. Then a certificate is released that permit us to drive with a parent. Then, it is required to drive at least 3000kms before be eligible to apply for the test. You can apply for the test when you are 18.

I think the driving training in France is very robust and prepare you correctly to be a driver conscious of the risks and dangers that may arise from you or others if rules are not correctly applied.

Another reason why I am not in a hurry to get my license now is because I have no mean to pay for the lessons, get a car and pay the insurance and gas. I will have a car when I will be able to get it and maintain it.

If it is essential in the US to get the driving license before 18, I think it should be included in the curriculum as a mandatory class. Personally, I am thinking about the need to get it as I may need it when I will have chosen my future college.

Happy birthday

I don’t know for you but personally I don’t like birthday celebration and don’t even understand why it is so important for so many people. How can you be happy the day that rings a bell recalling you are closer to the end of your journey?

What do we celebrate? This is my question each year. I remember when I was five years old, my older cousins told me the day before my birthday that I will becoming a “grown girl”. I was so frightened as he told me that as I thought that something terrible would happen during the night that would transform me. I was so troubled that I could not sleep that night.

Should we consider birthday time as rite of passage as it was done in the past by several tribes to celebrate the important period of the life? It was more a test than a party. Young boys had to proof they were able to fight and survive in difficult condition and young girls were submitted to other female proves.

I think that birthdays and other traditional celebrations like Christmas or Easter have been captured by the marketing prospects and converted into pure product of consumption. Have you noted that the month of your birthday you receive bunches of special offers from stores you have visited even once? It is boring and sad to realize that you are considered only under the angle of potential profit for the society.

Another point that completed my disillusion is when I realized that birth date is often used as your social security number to check your identity. You are ONLY a number. No consideration for the miracle of the life that happen when you were born. You are a number.

The only pleasure I have with my birthday is to see the joy of my mother and the endless narrative she likes to repeat each year about my birth. I like to see her joy. This is the best present I can receive.

The taste of the clementines.

I like eating clementines in winter. I like the taste of this small fruit easy to take with you, easy to peel and full of vitamin C. I was peeling one of this delicious fruit, when my attention stopped on the label – Product for California -. Suddenly my delight faded and I started to think about how much my delicious clementines have contributed to the pollution, greenhouse emission and climate change. California, 2000 miles from Ohio. They have probably be shipped by air. How much does the transport contribute to CO2 emissions? Suddenly, my clementines had another taste and I started to feel guilty. I needed a calculator..

France has introduced Green taxes and regulation since 2006. I remember my mother at the supermarket looking at the labels to see where the products were coming from and giving preference to local product rather than product coming from Guadeloupe or Africa that had required air transport and thus largely contributed to greenhouse emissions.

I don’t know how the carbon regulation will be translated in our economy and day to day life. Personally, I feel concerned by the topic but completely lost as to know what I can do at a personal level. Let’s take an example. I like salmon. When you are in front of fish counter you have the choice between fresh farmed, frozen and wild salmon. Question: how to know which of them has consumed less fuel to fish it and to ship it? Should we have to become an expert in fishing methods to know the difference it makes on climate impact when you want to buy a piece of salmon fish?

Will CAP-AND-TRADE rules help to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% as it is claimed or is it just poised to become the next indicator of performance for the industries who will receive tax reduction in return and therefore able to produce ;ore and pollute more.

Save the planet will not be a business solution only. I think it will take time as it is a question of mindset with huge financial interest at stake.

In the meantime, we will have to learn how to count our carbon contribution in our day to day life and try to reduce it as much as possible.

As my first action, I said my mom that we will spend our vacations in the US this year rather than flying to Italy as we planed it to do.

What if I had to study in Israeli University?

While you are preoccupied with deciding which college you will attend, swaying between criteria like cost, the most far from your parent, extra curriculum activities and so forth, I wanted to stop a little bit and think about the student living in stressful countries exposed to stress factors like hostile countries around you.

Have you ever thought about the chance you have to live in a peaceful and prosperous country and what would be your life and future I other conditions?

I did some researches and learned that if you were in Israel for example, your next obligation after your senior year would be three years military service if you are a man and two years if you are a woman. While it can be seen as a penalty, I wonder if this could explain why Israel produces mush more High Tech companies and is rated number three after USA and China with 98 NASDAQ listed companies and has produced several Nobel contribution.

It looks like Israel Army can be a real stepping stone for the best students if you are chosen by the Elite Units. These units are as prestigious a Harvard, Stanford or MIT and open unique possibilities to the applicants.

Moreover the military service offers the possibility to create and nurture a valuable cross cultural network of expertise and knowledge useful in their future career. Several startup companies are founded from technology and knowledge discovered during their military service.

This is the case of the startup company who has revolutionized the genetic science by being the first able to map the human genome based similar date analysis used to analyze terrorist network.

Another difference between Israeli students and students from other countries is their higher level of individual initiatives and their multidisciplinary skills producing a reserve of high-skilled multidisciplinary entrepreneurs, and yet millionaire young people.

To me the main reason why Israeli students are much more mature than US students when go to the college and then when in their career is because they have grown in a country where they can loose life every minute and they have learned to make rational, quick and right decisions for their life. They have acquired incomparable and valuable skills compared to their counterparts.

However should we wish to be faced to similar situations to gain in maturity? I don’t think so. But I think we should think more outside our small box and be more open to what happen all over the world.

Sherlock Holmes and TOK?

TOK is the well-known acronym Theory of Knowledge. What does that mean? Does that mean that there is a theory on what should by known and how it should be learned? That point remains unclear to me and continues to puzzle me. Who better than I know what I would like to learn and retain?

This is the paradox every student has to face to get the diploma; accumulate a basic knowledge in a range of mandatory matters even if you have no affinity for the topic.

You have certainly watch the remake of Sherlock Holmes inspired from the Novels of Sir Conan Doyle in which Sherlock Holmes is depicted as an eccentric character with an ample knowledge in a wide range of topic and served by a strong and minute sense of observation. Besides that, Sir Conan Doyle depicts his main character as perfectly ignorant in literature, philosophy and politics. I like the theory he develops to explain paradox between exceptional knowledge and ignorance of Sherlock Holmes.

He says that ‘’brain is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with furniture as you choose. A fool takes all sorts that come across so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, so that he has difficulty in laying is hands upon it. Now the skilful workman is very careful as what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work. It is a mistake to think that little room has elastic walls and can be distend to any extend…It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones’’ - The complete Novels and Stories Sir Conan Doyle Vol1

What is the most important? I like Sherlock Holmes character as he appears as a strong and reliable figure. Too many people have the tendency to talk about topics they even don’t master, just to show up as a smart and interesting person.