Rearly, girls! How unedifying that our brightest and most privileged students should want to display themselves like this

Talk about making an ass of yourself! It seems that these over indulged young ladies, born with a proverbial "silver spoon" in their mouths, and with every opportunity going for them at Cambridge University, have been up to no good. What would entice anyone to strip to their underwear, post photos of their behinds, and submit them into a competition just to get attention? Are they really that shallow and bereft of male admirers that they have to resort to this to feel better about themselves?

They are the cream of the academic crop, the brightest young minds in Britain. But when it comes to extracurricular activities, these Cambridge students appear to have hit rock bottom. While their predecessors have amassed dozens of Nobel prizes and other intellectual accolades, the current crop of undergraduates is focusing on a rather less taxing competition – rear of the year.

Female students at the university have submitted risque photographs of their behinds in the hope of clinching the title. They insist it is innocent fun – and male classmates are quick to agree – but critics have accused them of harming the feminist cause and the university’s reputation. 

When you think about how much women have had to give up and in some cases are still fighting for equality, you have to wonder why some of the brightest minds in the country are belittling themselves as well as denigrating the causes of their mothers for such an inane and stupid reason? In order to get attention for their arses? It's insane and ridiculous and little more than soft porn! These girls should know better but sadly don't.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2148056/Cambridge-University-students-invited-rate-favourite-rear-year.html?ICO=most_read_module

Japanese man, 22, cooks his own genitals and serves them up to paying guests at a dinner party

I have to own up and say that I always thought the Japanese a bit odd in general but this really takes the biscuit! When I lived in Japan, I remember a TV show that aired during prime-time e.g. during family viewing hours where the object of the game was for schoolgirls to be catapulted unto the air by a middle aged man lying on his back to see whose panties showed the most! Err...um...yeah, right...perfect for family viewing!

Now it appears a man who had his genitals removed seasoned them before cooking them for five paying dinner party guests. Mao Sugiyama, 22, who is asexual, had voluntarily undergone surgery to have them removed. But the illustrator took his frozen penis and scrotum home from hospital and organised a grim party.

Grim: Mao Sugiyama, 22, prepares to serve up his genitals as dinner for five paying guests at a party he organised in Tokyo, Japan. He charged guests around £160 per person to eat his severed genitalia in Tokyo, Japan. They were garnished with mushrooms and parsley. Before tucking into dinner, guests sat down to listen to a piano recital and take part in a panel discussion, CalorieLab.com reported.

Mao, who goes by the nickname HC, had initially considered eating his own penis – but decided to serve them up instead. He cooked the genitalia himself as he was supervised by a chef. In a Tweet, he offered to cook his penis for a guest for £800. However, he ultimately decided to split the ‘meal’ between six guests. He wrote on Twitter: ‘I am offering my male genitals (full penis, testes, scrotum) as a meal for 100,000 yen (£800). I’m Japanese.

So, if you thought the Japanese were very prim and proper, now you know that there is something of a weirdness inherent in the Japanese psyche! 

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2149879/Japanese-man-22-cooks-genitals-serves-paying-dinner-party-guests.html

Inventor of TV remote control dies at age 96

You have to ask whether this should be celebrated at all given the very unhealthy way people go about their business nowadays? After all, a remote control is just another nail in the coffin in the fight against health related illnesses like obesity and other cardiovascular diseases. 
 

 

Eugene Polley earned 18 patents during his 47-year career

According to this article, TV watchers may want to hit the mute button for a moment of silence because the man who invented the remote control has died at the age of 96, the Chicago Sun Times reported Tuesday.

Eugene "Gene" Polley died Sunday in a Chicago hospital. Polley invented the first wireless TV remote control in 1955 while working as an engineer for Zenith Electronic in Chicago. He received a 2,000-dollar bonus for his historic innovation, but later earned an Emmy award in 1997 for his contributions to television.
 

 

The company marketed the device as the Flash-Matic. "A flash of magic light from across the room turns set on, off or changes channels," a company advertisement said. "And you remain in your easy chair!"

The device only worked with Zenith’s Flash-Matic TV, using a light beam that controlled photo cells in each corner of the TV. Historians credit the device with paving the way for TVs with hundreds of channels. They also note that the Flash-Matic had another innovative feature that just as many people might be grateful for: a mute button that allows users to turn off the sound during commercials.

English Grammar in Use: Raymond Murphy Gets Honorary MA from Cambridge

And about time too!! It's hard to imagine that the writer of a book that has been used in millions of classrooms over so many years has only just been rewarded academically by one of the bastions of UK education, Cambridge University, which also happens to be his publisher! It also goes to show that even without a postgraduate degree like a masters, you can still achieve amazing things ina  classroom!


You have to ponder too what the EFL world would have been like without his contribution to grammar with his accompanying pictures and neat, concise examples? Surely one cannot seriously call oneself a true chalkie without having at least once pressed a copy of English Grammar in Use onto the platen of a Japanese photocopier and pressed return! Just like an aborigine needs to go out into the bush on walkabout to prove his manhood, so one is not IMHO, a real TEFL teacher without having thumbed the pages of a Murphy's English Grammar in Use!



Twenty seven years after writing a grammar textbook that has since been used by over 100 million learners of English, the university that publishes the work has awarded its author an honorary degree. Raymond Murphy, 65, above on the left, whose book English Grammar in Use and follow up, Essential English Grammar in Use, have become staples of classrooms around the world, received an honorary MA from Cambridge University last month.

Murphy had been working as a teacher for more than a decade when he decided to collect the simple grammar explanations and practice activities he had written for his students into a book, but initial response from publishers was not encouraging.Cambridge University Press eventually took on the book, which quickly established itself as a “bible” for both teachers and learners.
The success of English Grammar in Use took Murphy by surprise. “My main fear in writing the first book was that nobody would buy it anywhere. So when a few thousand copies were sold, I was very relieved.

“They were the only books I ever wanted to write,” Murphy said.

And as they say, the rest is history!

More here:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/feb/14/elt-diary-february-2012

The unfunny girls! Female bosses' jokes fall flat while men get all the laughs in the boardroom

It's seems that women cannot be funny. Well, not in the boardroom anyway. New research suggests that women use humour in the workplace in surprisingly different ways than men.

Research suggests that, while men are likely to get a chorus of laughs if they make a joke in the boardroom, a woman doing the same has more chance of being met with an awkward silence. This is because women’s attempts at humour are often seen as ‘contrived, defensive or just mean’, it claims.

Research shows women often struggle to understand the 'tribal' humour of the boardroom. In hit TV show Mad Men (pictured) Peggy Olson finds it difficult working with an all-male advertising team.

Linguistics expert Judith Baxter undertook an 18-month study into speech patterns at business meetings, including at two companies in the FTSE 100. She found that while 90 per cent of jokes made by businessmen triggered an outburst of laughter, at least  80 per cent made by their female counterparts resulted in silence.

It's probably not surprising then that Freud spent so much time analysing the basis for what makes us laugh and how humour works in everyday life as well as in power relationships as in the workplace.

Read More: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2147048/The-dreaded-awkward-silence-Why-womens-workplace-jokes-flop-men-excel-witty-banter.html?ITO=1490

Harvard plans to launch Thai studies initiative

Thai people must be very proud, "poom jai mahk", at the news that Harvard plans to launch a Thai studies initiative. 

It's good to have some positive news come out of Thailand after the dreadful and calamitous floods which seriously affected the economy and investor confidence, not to mention the riots of last year and the ongoing political uncertainty.

 

Apparently, Harvard is looking to raise $6 million in funds to support this programme. Michael Herzfeld, a Professor of anthropology at Harvard, who is spearheading the initiative, said the Thai Foreign Ministry has given a grant for an initial year with the possibility of renewal for a further year as seed money to jump start Thai studies at Harvard. The grant from the ministry will support lectures and Thai language instruction at Harvard.

 Read more here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/556609-harvard-plans-to-launch-thai-studies-initiative/

Printing pressed

This is a great read and discusses the future of the written word: from e-books to journals and from novels such as sci-fi, horror and romance to the way the books are disseminated.

29 March 2012

Dissemination of the written word is changing as e-books proliferate. But how will it affect academics and the publishing industry? Andrew Franklin reads between the lines...

Read more: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=419464#.T7CVJQfAFvw.facebook