Reflections on Seminar

Had I done enough research and preparation?	I think yes I had done enough preparation to participate in the seminar. Because it is clearly shown through my blog posts the links I posted for the articles I read and the documentries I watched.
Did I speak enough during the seminar?	Actually I spoke enough during the seminar and I tried to involve all of the members into the seminar by asking them their opinion.
Was I a good listener?	I tried to listen every one very attentively when the other members were speaking and tried to took some notes for myself to help me to in writing the introduction.
Did I argue my opinion clearly?	I tried to make some very clear arguments by explaining them through the help of different examples.
Did I give reasons, examples and evidence to support my opinions?	I tried to provide different examples and evidences to support my dialogues according to my preparation for the seminar.
Did I ask relevant questions to other people?	To some extent, yes I did ask a few members a few questions by picking up some points from their part of speech.
Was the language I used accurate?	Somewhere it was accurate but somewhere as I think I mumbled but I asked the other participants if they were unclear about anything, I could explain that again.
Had I prepared the language I needed before the seminar?	Actually I prepared the vocabulary for the seminar because I found that necessary while I tried to use seminar language somewhere, where ever I thought it is needed.
Did I direct the discussion or help keep the discussion moving in the right direction?	At some points yes, when I realized the discussion is going somewhere else instead of the actual topic, I tried to turn the other members’ attention very politely towards the topic we were discussing.
Could other people clearly understand what I was saying?	Yes of course, because when I saw some blank faces I immediately stoped my self there and asked them as if they were getting my point of view or not.
Did I work well with the other people in my group?	Yes I think because I tried many times to get every member attending the seminar involved in the discussion, just to let them express their ideas.

At the end I would like to say this seminar was much better than the previous one because everyone performed so well and at some points I experienced as if we were going to have a fight with each other and on the other hand the environment was really friendly sometimes. The arguments were strong and argumentative.

That’s all your honour

Suspect Nation - The loop holes of surveillance age

Preparation for the seminar

Very informative documentary about the surveillance cameras and other technologies monitoring us all the times as if we are living in a suspect nation. Good to watch you’ll learn many things regarding the seminar on Monday. The major questions I got in my mind after watching this documentary are, are they trying to fight with the criminals using these advanced technologies or are they trying to make their nation suspect? And the most surprising thing in the documentary was, the representative of Channel 4 who is presenting the documentary was bugged. Even the secure means of determining identity what they call is RFID so called revolutionary chip could be cloned. This is the same technology which is going to be used in upcoming British passports and British ID cards, not really secure.

I found it originally on Jim’s blog but copying it here for my friends who visit my blog. Please click the link below to access the documentary.

Suspect Nation

Please feel free to leave me some comments if you like it. :)

Fighting crime with science seminar - Preparation

DNA - Genetic material contained in every cell and unique to the individual
DNA profiling - Identifying people by visual representations of unique regions of their DNA
Frye standard of admissibility - Scientific evidence may only be considered in court if the type of evidence is generally accepted by the scientific community.
Gel electrophoresis - Technique used to separate pieces of DNA by size
Multiplication rule - Method used to obtain likelihood of more than one event occurring simultaneously
Restriction enzyme - Protein that cuts DNA at specific base sequences


-This is an exercise on crime vocabulary with answers but, please do the exercise first before checking the answers.

Crime vocabulary exercise


-I read this article and found very interesting about the CCTV systems at present and some future plans expected to be implemented in near future to cut the crime rate and help police to do their job as its best.

CCTV System in use and some future plans

Strong And Weak Points in Seminar

First of all thiking about the given time, before the seminar we all were thinking that 40 minutes are too much to speak about these topics. Surprisingly, most of the seminar members found the given time was less after the seminar. Overall I felt it alright and a bit more confident about doing arguments. Top of that getting to know how to convince people with my point of view giving them different examples.

Now about the contribution to the seminar (as I think) I would like to say, it was ok I was speaking properly taking my time and giving others the time to speak.

Most of the times when I used to start the sentences I was using seminar language like, To a degree yes, but...., At that point you are right, but... etc. In addition I tried to use the body language as much as I could sitting on the chair in a round.

I was listening very carefully by paying full attention to the speaker and continuing the argument by picking up some points from their part of speach. And the pronounciation was (I think) ok because in the whole seminar no body asked me to repeat something or they didn't catch anything I said.

There must be some grammar mistakes but I am not sure and I have a problem memorising new vocabulary words as I have already mentioned to Steve.

Feedback on Firday's Seminar

In our seminar held on friday on Television viewing habits around the world with the Jim's class I discovered different types of things for example "how much TV people watch around the world", "The kind of programmes people watch" etc.

The key points we discovered were like in China people watch the TV about 30 hours a week which is about 75% of the working week time in the UK. It was quite surprising for me because, how can people spare so much time only for Television? one reason I can understand is if they are related to media somehow they can watch the TV even for more than 30 hours because it is the part of their job.

Secondly in Japan and Iran the percentage of the young people watching TV is decreasing now a days. Which is higher among men as compare to women, which could possilbly be because of other technologies (like internet and video games) are taking over the TV industry and they have to struggle hard to get the people tune in the TV.

Speaking about the Television Images we found that most of the TV images are not quite correct. They show us the other side of the picture, the media doesn't mirror the society actually. One of the reason we discussed is may possibly be the most of the TV channels in most countries are under the government control and they just do what ever they are told to do. Even in the reality TV shows its just not reality. Most of the stereotypes really reinforce the society like some of the action heros for adolescents, superman for young children etc.

We found another interesting thing while The future of television and viewers was under discussion that the Media Literacy is quite important and it should be taught in the schools, interestingly all of the seminar members agreed on that point. Talking about the future of television we were uncertain like what could it be. This seems to be a result of the growth of different technologies such as computers and gaming industries.

Violence in Media Entertainment

This article can be found here Violence in Media Entertainment


In this article the writer talks about how our society is influenced by the media violence in the name of entertainment. A research was done in between 1993 and 2001, in which and increment of indecency by 378 per cent was reported. TV shows in 2001 averaged 40 acts of violence per hour most of them was before 8 pm which is the prime time for children to watch TV.

Other research indicates that media violence has not just increased in quantity; it has also become much more graphic, much more sexual, and much more sadistic. In 2001, only a quarter of the most violent television shows, and two-fifths of the most violent movies, were rated R. The majority were rated PG or PG-13. The description of the rating of movies can be found HERE.

According to UNESCO's research in 1998 conducted in 23 countries around the world including U.S., Canada, Europe, Arab states, Latin America, Asia and Africa they found that, More than half (51%) of boys living in war zones and high-crime areas chose action heroes as role models, ahead of any other images; and a remarkable 88% of the children surveyed could identify the Arnold Schwarzenegger character from the film Terminator. UNESCO reported that the Terminator "seems to represent the characteristics that children think are necessary to cope with difficult situations."

New words from the article

Main Entry: elude
Part of Speech: verb
Synonyms: avoid, baffle, ditch, dodge, duce, escape, evade, flee, foil, frustrate, hide, outwit, sidestep, slip

Main Entry: dominate
Part of Speech: verb
Definition: To occupy the preeminent position in.
Synonyms: predominate, preponderate, prevail, reign, rule
Idioms: have the ascendancy, reign supreme

Main Entry: societal
Part of Speech: adjective
Definition: Of or relating to the structure, organization, or functioning of society.
Synonyms: social

Main Entry: notion
Part of Speech: adjective
Synonyms: imaginary, notional, theoretical, unreal, visionary, whimsical