Learn something about Bikini~

This is not about research, not about assignments, just have some fun from Bikini's history.

Bikini’s mother is a man. Bikini was invented in 1946 by Louis Reard who was a car engineer. He inherited his mother’s underwear shop, and one day he was sparkled by something nobody knows to take away half part of a common swimming suit, then, the belly button was revealed. Both men and women should thank him, since then, men get probable chances to watch a woman’s body in public places, meanwhile, women walk out of heavy and stuffy underwear with a free spirit of exposing themselves.

Bikini was named after the first nuclear test; similarly, it caused another explosion. In the first ten years, the world treated it as an immoral symbol. Only few actresses had courage to wear it in public places or movies for purpose of attracting journalists to report. However, its golden time came soon. After a Bond film in 1962, women began to love these tiny things deeply, with a dream of having a kind of exciting life.

Bikini is one of few wonderful gifts of women that given by men. For women, it is more than a body show; it is a kind of revolution. They let themselves get in touch directly to the wind, the sunshine, the sea and, the most important one, freedom, with an enjoyment of breaking rules and feeling themselves.

Teenagers rule!

This is a very interesting article about special fashionable rules of teenager in different times.

From 1955, you will find the core value of the young people changed every ten years with the influences of advertisements. Teen times began in the mid-1950s. As a result of “baby boom” and US’s economy expansion, teens had money from part-time jobs to spend on some private things such as cars, fast food, rock-and-roll records. Coca-cola made the first ad directly targeted at teenagers. In the 1960s, American teenagers played a leading role on policy and war. Movies and Top Ten hits began popular. The late 1960s and early 1970s were controlled by the Beatles, the Graduate, and miniskirts in teens’ world. Levi’s was born at that time. From then on, jeans were a sign of teens. The 1980s belonged to home electronics: VCRs, Walkmans, personal computers, CD players. Computer video games were the big craze emerging in the mid-1980s. And what’s the next? The author doesn’t give a clear answer which conquered the 1990s and 2000s; I guess it should be rap music, hip-pop fashions, mobile message and internet community.

Through these popular trends in different times, I get a general image of how teens’ cultures grow up and storm into the world. In the first decade from 1950, they begin to have an economic foundation which is a basic element in the teen fashions. The next ten years their activities for joining the policy and the war reveal that they have got a social position with their own customs and cultures. After that more spiritual productions are manufactured. Fashion, music, movie and book industries for teenagers develop quickly. The young have their own brands to represent them. At the same time, they adopt new techniques in a fast speed. Then the 1980s comes. Computer and information techniques are transformed to daily life own to the teenagers. They treat new tools as playing, learning and communicating resources. They are not easy to be leaded by marketing companies but try to build a new world by mobile phones and computers.


Review for:
Teenagers rule! (history of advertising targeting teenagers).
Author: Steven Manning
Date: May 7, 1993

Collecting memory of old classroom_idea about digital storytelling

I would like to instigate a project about collecting people's memories of high school classroom in my hometown. For students in China, especially in some small cities, the time in high school is the hardest, because they have to do their best to get a chance to go to University. My hometown is a small city, which means the score for getting access to University is much higher, and the competition is fiercer.

During those three years study, more than fifty students spent most their time in one classroom on lessons, doing exercises, and revising for endless exams. It is hard to image how so many people sit in such a crowd space to study from 7am to 9pm everyday when I look back. People who ever studied there have got unforgettable stories in the same classroom, maybe about a picture being drawn on the desk, a girl sitting next, a teacher’s old fashioned glasses, a tough exam or a broken window.

It is interesting to collect memories of that period from people who spend three years in one classroom together. If everyone takes their old pictures out and contributes a story happening in that classroom, the classroom will be a friendly gallery full of fun, not only gray exams.

Criminal records mix-up uncovered

The function of the Criminals Records Bureau is sending checks to employees to tell them who they should not recruit. This is very effective for keeping companies or shops away from criminals. But it is found some 2,700 people have been wrongly labeled as criminals because the CRB was confused by similar personal details. For example, Emma Budd lost on her job offered by a charity organization as she was wrongly identified as a convicted shoplifter. So far, The Home Office said more than 90% of disputes had been resolved within 21 days, but they would not apologize for the mistake.

I think there is no excuse for a government organization to make this sort of mistake. They should check out every details of their work as they are responsible for citizens. Although they find out it and then resolve this problem in a short time, they still need to give a reasonable explanation and apologize for their errors. Otherwise, it is unfair for people who lost their jobs just because of this. As their lives are disturbed and their reputation is ruined, they deserve to get apologies. But The Home Office’s attitude really makes most citizens disappointed, which was described as “fiasco” by a spokesman of Liberal Democrat home affairs.

Child TV and computer use warning

One investigation revealed that a fifth of 3000 school children’s time was spent in front of the screen in Britain. Playing games, watching TV and using computer have become their main activities in their spare time instead of physical ones. In addition, many of them ate meals in front of the TV and skipped breakfast to watch their favorite programmes. This has worried many experts a lot. Because if the situation continue, one in five boys and one in three girls will be obese by 2020.

I think the high-tech environment has droved children gradually away from a healthy life. It seems they have been controlled by the screen. They need to work in front of the computer and after that they go to TV programmes to relax themselves. There is not so much time for them to do more outdoor activities except PE classes once or twice a week. Even though they cannot be cut off from digital products, schools and parents should try to take more time to solve this problem. Actually there are many ways to lead children to an active lifestyle. For instance, if the school is nearby, parents can consider giving up cars or buses to let their kids walk there everyday. Schools can also provide a lot of help, such as reducing high-calories in foods of canteen and making regular times for meals. Besides these, both parents and schools should encourage children to do physical excises and outdoor games.


Here is the original one, please hit:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5036600.stm

Battery recycling

How to deal with waste has been a problem concerned by many countries’ governments. Old batteries are one of the dangerous waste including hazardous metals. In the past, they were usually buried or burned, which actually has considerably damaged the environment and polluted the atmosphere. Recently, a new EU directive decrees that, by 2016, 45% of all batteries sold will have to be collected rather than dumped or burned. At least half of the collected batteries will have to be recycled.

Right now battery recycling is still a challenge for governments. There are mainly two reasons: firstly, it will be a high cost as recycling batteries is currently at least 10 times more expensive than burying them in landfill sites; secondly, the low collection rate led to limited recycling capacity which made some batteries have to be send abroad to be recycled. It is thought a few new policies will be made to solve these problems, such as to levy a tax on batteries to cover the recycling cost, and to run recycling scheme efficiently.

Consumers also should take a responsibility to support batteries recycling. I think firstly they need to understand why this project is so urgent. And then the local authority should encourage them to buy rechargeable batteries and provide recycling bins in certain areas. Once these principles are set up in people’s daily life, recycling work will be run efficiently.

If you are interested in the original one, please visit:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theissues/article/0,,1768502,00.html#article_continue

The magic of the Internet

Recently a song called “I wish I was a punk rocker” has risen to the second place at the chart. It is the Internet giving 24-year-old Singer Sandi Thom a big success overnight. She lived in a basement in south London before and began to give her gigs through the Internet from March of this year. Actually the reason she went on the Internet just because she was too skint to put on a proper tour. But the power of the Internet is amazing, her audience increased quickly from only 60 people the first night to 70,000 the next two months. These 21 gigs not only bring her fame but also send her a big contract with RCA/Sony BMG.

The website which provided her a space to do special performance is www. Myspace.com. I know this website last month because of my research topic. It is many British girls’ favourite website. Through this website you can upload your videos, write blog, make new friends and chat with people fancying same things. It is no daunt that Sandi Thom takes a great advantage of this free sauce. She is a modern Cinderella in the digital age with magic from the Internet. Although some people think that her success is not by accident but a designed publicity campaign, more and more young audience have still become loving “I wish I was a punk rocker, with a flower in my hair”.

Here is the original article:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/london/content/articles/2006/03/13/music_sandi_thom_interview_feature.shtml