Interesting Facts About The Equator

Most people know that the Equator is just an imaginary line dividing the northern and southern hemisphere of the earth. The Geography lesson which we had in school taught us that the latitude is 0 degree at the Equator and places in this region have constant high temperature, high humidity, high amount of rainfall and consistent amount of daylight throughout the year. The Equator is therefore perceived nothing more than just an important reference point on the world map. However, there are interesting facts about the Equator which our Geography lessons did not cover for unknown reasons.

Here are some of the interesting facts about the Equator.

Ideal Location For Spaceports

The earth bulges slightly at the Equator, making its diameter approximately 43 km greater than that at the poles. This feature makes places near the Equator ideal location for spaceports (e.g. spacecraft launching stations). As the earth regions around the Equator rotate at higher speed, less fuel is required to launch spacecraft.

Lesser Gravitational Force

It is believed that there is lesser gravity at places near the Equator than those nearer to the poles for 2 reasons. The first reason is bulging of the earth nearer to the Equator (similar to the point mentioned above) makes it further away from the centre of the inner earth, thereby reducing the gravity. The second reason is the presence of more centrifugal force at the Equator to reduce the gravity.

Absence of Coriolis Force

The Coriolis Effect is an important phenomenon that explains why water and air flows in opposite direction on the 2 hemispheres of the earth. In the northern hemisphere, water and air flows in the counter clockwise direction whereas in the southern hemisphere, they flow in a reverse direction. As mentioned above that the earth bulges slightly at the Equator, regions of the earth near the Equator spins faster than those nearer to the poles. As a result, air that travels in the direction of the Equator to the north pole gradually diverts to the right as the earth spins from west to east. The situation is similar for water flowing out of the sink. If you are still unclear, watch this video that explains the Coriolis Effect. Since the Coriolis Force acts in a north south direction, the Equator being the line that divides the north and south has no Coriolis Force. You would probably be interested like me to conduct a simple experiment yourself at home after learning about this Coriolis Force theory. I had observed that the water flows in a single direction downwards in the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub in my home. In fact, you really cannot rely on the sink, toilet bowl and bath tub for this simple experiment as which direction water would flow depends on the design of the piping system. Obviously, you would need a setup that eliminates all other variables which is shown in this video.

Due to the 3 interesting facts mentioned above, there are 2 interesting phenomenons observed at the Equator. As there is lesser gravity at the Equator, a person naturally weighs slightly lesser and would encounter difficulty walking in a straight line along the Equator because of conflicting gravitational pull from the north and south. There was also a simple experiment which a few poker cards (stacked together) placed along the Equator line were glued onto the palm of a man (without using any adhesive) when he touched them and slowly moved his palm upwards. It is also supposed to be seemingly easier to make an egg stand on the tip of a nail at the Equator. No where else on earth other than the Equator would produce such effects. The second phenomenon related to the Coriolis Force is that water neither swirl in a clockwise or counter clockwise direction. Instead, it flows downwards from a sink onto a pail when the experiment was conducted.

There are 11 countries in the world which are traversed by the Equator. These countries include São Tomé and Príncipe, Gabon, Republic of the Congo, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, and Brazil. Some of these countries have erected monument at their Equator line. Ecuador, being particularly proud of its equatorial location has a monument known as Mitad del Mundo located 26 km north of its capital city, Quito. Mitad del Mundo was built to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the arrival of the French Geodesic Mission, an 18th-century scientific expedition intended to help determine whether the earth’s circumference was greater at the Equator or around the poles. Every year, thousands of visitors flock to this attraction not because of its fanciful souvenir shops, posh cafeterias or interesting museum. Rather, these visitors are hoping to have photos of them with each foot on one side of the Equator taken and to witness interesting phenomenons along the Equatorial line. Unfortunately, this monument was built at the wrong place. The actual location is in fact 240 metres further north of this monument. This mistake was unknown until the invention of Global Positioning System (GPS) in recent years which helped to determine a more accurate position. Although many people argue that GPS may produce different readings depending on how it is calibrated and is subjected to interference, it is definitely more accurate than measuring techniques used during the 18th-century. Despite this big mistake, Mitad del Mundo remains as a tourist attraction because the mistake is too expensive to be rectified. Fortunately, for visitors who insist on getting to the real Equatorial line, there are two other sites available. The first site is the privately-owned Intinan Museum which the owner claimed that the real Equatorial line traversed through based on GPS reading. The second site is the Quitsato Sundial, a cultural-tourist place located 47 km at North of Quito. The location of Quitsato Sundial was also proven by GPS to be 00 00 00 0 degree north (i.e. true Equator). Google Map shows Mitad del Mundo and Intinan Museum are near each other whereas Quitsato Sundial is some distance away.

If you are living in Asia, you may choose to visit the nearest Equatorial line in Indonesia instead of traveling a long voyage to Africa or South America. There are several places in Indonesia which the Equator passes as mentioned in this article. The nearest site from Singapore is Pontianak city which is about 631 km away. The best time to visit any Equatorial monuments is during the March and September equinoxes when the direct overhead sun produces no shadow.Similar to Ecuador, there are also controversies that some of these monuments no longer lie on the exact Equatorial line possibly due to the shifting location of the Equator (I really do not understand how this is possible). Perhaps if you have the chance to visit any of these monuments, you can verify the location yourself using the GPS function in your smartphone. All you need to do is to stand on the Equatorial line facing the east or west direction with a smartphone on your hands pointing to the direction you are facing. When the readings show you 0 00 00 degree north, congratulations for earning the experience to stand on the real Equatorial line! If not, please move northwards or southwards accordingly based on the readings. The real Equatorial line should not be so far away.



Despite all the controversies of the location of the Equatorial line, it is interesting to witness the phenomenons in all the sites which claim to be the exact location of the Equatorial line. This leads to questions of whether the location of the Equatorial line is constantly changing, whether readings from GPS is indeed accurate and whether the experiments conducted at those sites are conclusive. There is also a theory mentioning that the Equator itself is not a mere line of several millimeters thick but rather a line having a width of 5 km which explains why those phenomenons happen within the 5 km width. Whatever the case is, Equator monuments around the world continues to draw tons of visitors due to the fact that the Equator is an important reference point on the world map.  

Another interesting thing worth mentioning about the Equator is that there is a ritual known as the Line Crossing ceremony that commemorates a sailor's first crossing of the Equator. In this ceremony, sailors who have already crossed the Equator are nicknamed Shellbacks while those who have not crossed are nicknamed Pollywogs. Pollywogs are supposed to pay respect to King Neptune and endure a series of "hardships" administered by Shellback when the ship crosses the Equator. This tradition observed by ocean liners, merchant vessels and naval ships ensures that Pollywogs are capable of handling long rough times at sea in order to be promoted to a Shellback. Some cruise ships hold this ceremony for entertainment purpose as well.

Andre Rieu Orchestra

Recently, I am obsessed with watching YouTube videos on concerts performed by André Rieu, a well-known Dutch violinist and conductor. He is extremely successful in turning classical and waltz music into a worldwide concert touring act. I was glad to chance upon his magnificent concerts while searching for videos online.

Here are some of my favourite videos of his concerts and what I like about them.

Walking In The Air
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1-41Memra0

This is actually a song written for the 1982 animated film "The Snowman". This flim relates the fleeting adventures of a young boy and a snowman who flew to the North Pole in which this song is the theme for the journey. In this video, the concert itself was held during Christmas Eve at the castle which Andre lives in. Andre believes that nothing is more important than spending Christmas at home with his family, neighbors and loved ones which is the reason why this concert was held at his place of residence. This song was sung by 3 gorgeous soprano singers accompanied by a young magnificent ballerina who flew across the beautiful snow-filled castle during the concert.



Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWH3Hmsr5fM

This is a rather long and hard to pronounce word which is the title of a song from the 1964 Disney musical film "Mary Poppins". Although it may sound childish, it actually has the meaning of  "something to say when you have nothing to say". In this video, the singer "Mary Poppins" appeared by hanging in mid air and slowly made her descent to the stage. The song is humorous and very entertaining even to adults.


I Will Follow Him
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqN9aS2S3L0

This song has always been an all-time favourite after it gained popularity worldwide through being featured at the end of the 1992 flim "Sister Act". Similar to how it appeared in the flim "Sister Act", a group of ladies started by singing the chorus before the lead singer took over. As seen in the video, many female audiences enjoyed the song so much that they began to dance and sing along. 


Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZb-SVm7eLE

There are several versions of this song and I believe this one is the most popular. Although Hallelujah is a Hebrew word which means 'Glory to the Lord', you would unexpectedly learn that this version of the song can be interpreted as having a sexual connotation from parts of the lyrics as follows:

Your faith was strong but you needed proof
You saw her bathing on the roof
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew ya
She tied you to the kitchen chair
She broke your throne and she cut your hair
And from your lips, she drew the Hallelujah


Can't Help Falling In Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuH_90giGTQ

A pop ballad originally recorded by the legendary American singer Elvis Presley which took the world by storm was once again enjoyed by thousands in Maastricht, the hometown of Andre. I adore the way Andre played the tune on his violin while thousand of audiences sang this song while dancing with their partners. The dance performance which the male dancer carried the female wheelchair-bound dancer up in the air and swing was simply stunning. In fact, I can feel the solemness of the audiences and the performances reaffirming their love to their partners through this video. Hence, it is no doubt this is my favourite video of all!


My Heart Will Go On
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3SfufW6D74

Many people are familiar with this theme song for the 1997 American romance-disaster film "Titanic". In this video, the song blends well with the stunning ice-skating performance together with the beautiful square in Vienna.


Once Upon A Time In The West
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf_KXyMaoB8

This was the soundtrack for the 1968 epic Spaghetti Western film portraying two conflicts that take place around Flagstone, a fictional town in America: a land battle related to construction of a railroad, and a mission of vengeance against a cold-blooded killer. It was composed by the renowned Italian composer, Ennio Morricone who is one of my favourite.


The Godfather Main Title Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSxxQcVd2MU

This was the soundtrack for the 1972 American crime film "The Godfather". Although I have not watched this film and the one mentioned just above, both soundtrack are melodious to me. I believe they relate to the aspects the the film very well.


Personally, I like the way which Andre held most of his concerts in an open area which ensures natural ventilation and gives his audiences some space to dance along with the music. All his performers are very well-dressed like him in regards to the concerts. Perhaps the most important factor for his success is the professionalism of him and his orchestra. Besides making the audiences dance and sing along with the music, some of his performances also make them cry. I certainly hope to attend his concert someday.

Gentlemanly Ladies

I attended a food fair at Sentosa last weekend with my parents. The food fair featured famous chefs, of whom some of them have appeared on TV or have obtained the prestigious Michelin star award. Each of these chefs prepared food at their respective stall setup at the event venue together with their helpers. There were 3 sections in this food fair, 2 of them were private and only available to ticket holders. The other one of them were open to public. Admission ticket to the 2 private sections consists of coupons to purchase dishes. A typical stall at the event caters about 3 or 4 dishes prepared by a chef. Every dish came in extremely small portion and cost about $16 to $25. When the ticket holders had used up all their coupons, they may continue to purchase dishes from these stalls using credit cards. As this food fair was setup at a crowded open area within a resort, there were limited tables and also long queues forming at the stalls even though the price of the dishes were ridiculously expensive.

After several minutes of waiting with dishes on our hands, we managed to find seats at 2 tables joined together after the diners who occupied them left to patronize the other sections. Each table has 3 seats. While we were happily consuming our food, a young lady with 2 guys (they were probably in their early or mid 20s) appeared. The lady asked whether they could occupy the other table beside the one we occupying. My mum told her that the table was unoccupied but one of the seat at the table was reserved by someone else. As there were no other tables available at that moment, the lady told the 2 guys to sit down while she went around to look for chair. She was indeed lucky enough to find a chair within a few minutes. The 2 guys were happily consuming their food as the 3 of them had already purchased some dishes. Even after the lady had found a chair, she did not sit down to consume her food immediately. Instead, she walked away for a while and then came back with 2 bottles of Coke which she gave to the 2 guys. The 2 guys were a little surprised and thanked her. As I was eating and observing the 3 of them, I realized this lady did not consume much food. Most of the time, the 2 guys were chatting and eating at the same time while this lady was away.

I do not know the relationship between this lady and the 2 guys. They were probably just friends. What surprised and caught my attention was how this lady behaved so gentlemanly towards the 2 guys. It is not a norm especially in Singapore for young girls to behave this way. From her looks and ascent, she seems to be a native Singaporean. As an appreciation, the guys could have offered to buy her some food after they had finish consuming theirs. Although this lady is not drop dead gorgeous in appearance, I would certainly find chance to befriend her if I were younger. Although my encounters with her was only a few minutes, her gentlemanly behavior had caught my attention and is certainly a very attractive trait to many men.

Overall, I do not really enjoy this food fair because I am not someone who knows how to enjoy and appreciate good food. Moreover, the long queues and limited seating were high turnoff. Worst of all, the price was ridiculously expensive. The money could have been better spent by dining at a restaurant with proper seating and people serving you.

Big Data Specialization E-Learning

The 3 areas that support the Internet of Things (IoT) are Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Cyber Security. Being enthusiastic in IoT, I began taking the first step to acquire some foundation knowledge for these 3 areas. Having prior knowledge and experience in data extraction and manipulation using relational databases (e.g. Oracle, MS SQL, Postgres etc), Big Data Analytics naturally became the first item on my learning roadmap.

As IoT involves linking multiple devices together via network in order to communicate with one another, a huge volume of data would be generated in the process. These data must be analyzed in order to make further decision to achieve the intended purpose of having little or no human intervention. Another objective of Big Data Analytics is to discover hidden patterns or trends from huge volume of raw data for the purpose of making decisions to improve business processes or generate more revenue.

Due to limited time, the best way for me to acquire some foundation knowledge for these 3 areas is through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). The multiple advantages which MOOC provides includes having flexible schedule (study at your own convenience and pace), inexpensive (most courses are below USD 100) and having a pay-as-you-learn model which allows learners to pay to attend courses and stop whenever they wish to without incurring large sum of money. The best part is that everything which the learner has accomplished will be saved and he/she can choose to pay to resume anytime later from where he/she has stopped. These are major plus points for busy working professionals with full time job and family commitments. With MOOC, we can enroll for and study a course to gauge our interest and suitability before committing huge amount of time and money to pursue more in-depth courses for the same area. The major disadvantage of MOOC is the lack of recognition by employers and educational institution due to the difficulties in ensuring that the learners submit true copies of their own work and attempt the online assessments themselves without any assistance. Nevertheless, having MOOC certificates would show possessing initiative to learn which is something that employers look out for. If you expect to be qualified and eventually be employed for a particular profession after completing a course, you should enroll for a non-MOOC course.

Since I had already completed an online course through Coursera (the one mandated by my institution for all staff to attend), I made use of the same MOOC provider to search for and pursue a data analytics course. After 3 months of intensive studying online, I have completed the Big Data Specialization offered by Coursera. This is the first specialization from this course provider, Coursera which I had completed.

Here are some key points which I wish to share about this specialization.

About this Specialization

• Objective is to gain an understanding of what insights big data can provide through hands-on experience with the tools and systems used by big data scientists and engineers.

• Consists of 6 courses created by the University of California San Diego and offered through Coursera.

• No prior programming or big data experiences required but advantageous to understand SQL and how to work with relational database management systems.

• Subscription to this specialization cost approximately USD50 per month. Learners are expected to spend an average of 7 months to complete all 6 courses.

• Mode of learning includes video lectures, quizzes (theory & hands-on), peer-graded assignments and discussion forums.

• As this specialization requires the Cloudera Virtual Machine (VM) and some open-source tools to be installed, there are hardware and OS requirements to be met. 

List of Courses 

1. Introduction to Big Data 
2. Big Data Modeling and Management Systems 
3. Big Data Integration and Processing 
4. Machine Learning With Big Data 
5. Graph Analytics for Big Data 
6. Big Data - Capstone Project
   

About the Capstone Project

The Capstone project is about analysing the data set for a game and to make recommendations to improve the game or generate more revenue from the game.

The name of the game is “Catch the Pink Flamingo” and its key details are as follows.

• Online game created by Eglence Inc. (an imaginary company).

• Multi-user and multi-level game where players can choose to join or form a team.

• Objective​ of the game is to catch as many Pink Flamingos as possible. These Pink Flamingos randomly pop up on a gridded world map based on missions that change in real­ time. The levels get more complicated in mission speed and map complexity as the users or team move from level to level.

• Provides chat boards for the teams to keep in touch.

• Users are allowed to purchase items to be used in the game. This is a major source of revenue for the company.

• Another form of revenue is advertisements shown in the game. Users’ clicks on advertisements are recorded.

Tools used in the Capstone Project

1. Splunk - Tool for analyzing machine-generated big data.
2. KNIME - Open source data analytics, reporting and integration platform.
3. Apache Spark - Open-source distributed computing framework.
4. Neo4J - Graph database management system.

Processes used in the Capstone Project

Part 1 (Aggregation & Filtering using Splunk) Review the data sets (in CSV format) and the Entity Relationship Diagram provided. Perform aggregation on the items purchased and revenue generated. Perform filtering on the total amount of money spent by the top ten users (ranked by how much money they spent).

Part 2 (Classification using KNIME) Perform classification to predict which user is likely to purchase big-ticket items (i.e. cost more than $5). Generate the decision tree and confusion matrix. The decision tree shows the predicted number of users based on categories and the confusion matrix shows the number of correctly and incorrectly predictions. Conclude the analysis and make recommendations.

Part 3 (Clustering using Spark) Select attributes from the CSV files provided and aggregate them. Perform clustering. This may be a repetitive task as the attributes selected may not reveal any significant differences between the clusters. The results also varies according to the number of clusters generated. Recommend actions to help improve the company’s business.

Part 4 (Analyzing graphs using Neo4J) Load all the CSV files containing chat data for the game to create the graph database. Query the graph database created to find useful information.

My Opinions on this Specialization

Pros

• Suitable for beginners who have no experience in data analytics.

• Flexible schedule that allows learners to learn at their own pace and availability.

• Subscription fees are inexpensive which allows learners to have an idea of Big Data Analytics in order to decide if they are interested to commit more time and money to pursue more in-depth courses in this area.

Cons

• Without proper assessments, the certifications obtained may not recognized by employers or academic institutions.

• Need to install VM and tools for hands-on. There are hardware and OS requirements to be met. The VM and tools consume huge amount of memory and disk space which slows down the computer.

• When facing difficulties in tools installation and/or course syllabus are encountered, only source of help is the discussion forums. After submitting a post in the forum, the learner can only wait for the instructors or fellow learners' reply.

• Certain chapters contain complex mathematical formulas which are intimidating to some learners.

• Course materials not up to standard (i.e. Theory quizzes too easy. Instructions not clear and contains mistakes).
  

A week after the completion of this specialization, I received the following email from Coursera Community inviting me to be part of their Beta Tester team. This is indeed a great opportunity for me to preview new courses in areas which I am interested in before their launch. I certainly hope to give constructive feedback to the course instructors to ensure high standards in the learning materials.

Adapting & Growing With Technology

It has been a hectic 3 months since I last updated my blog. Besides the increasing work load due to the academic cycle in my institution, I have been aggressively gaining knowledge and skills for the sake of my future. Some people are perhaps wondering why I chose to torture myself to take up courses when there is no intention to switch jobs or have any direct benefit to my work. The real reason is because I simply have no choice. Especially for professionals in the technology related fields, constant upgrading of skills is necessary to stay relevant in our profession. Although some people find it silly to be in technology related fields such as IT or engineering, I beg to differ. Technology is advancing at such a supersonic pace that half the jobs that exist today may be phased out in a decade or earlier. One good example of such job is  vehicle driver. Driverless cars and buses are already in testing phase and are expected to roll out commercially in a couple of years time. Many jobs are in the process of being replaced by technology. However, it does not necessarily mean that human intervention is no longer needed. When the North East MRT line started operating in Singapore more than a decade ago, the trains were driverless. Without the need for a staff to operate each train, there was however a need for at least one staff to be stationed in each train to maintain order and deal with technical glitches or emergency situations. In this case, there was no reduction in headcount. Instead, additional headcount is needed to ensure the well-being and safety of commuters. As the train system became more complex through the use of driverless technology, more technical expertise are required to perform the maintenance of the train system. In a way, the use of more advanced technology created more job opportunities for the workforce. As such, there is job opportunities for everyone as long as you are willing to adapt and grow. 

There are some people especially those in middle or upper management levels who gladly assume that their jobs are as stable as a mountain and refuse to upgrade their skills. This is certainly not true according to a theory from Charles Darwin, the famous naturalist, geologist and biologist which states that "It is not the strongest species that will survive but those that are adaptable to changes". A good example to prove the trueness of this theory is the acquisition of NK, the once renowned mighty mobile phone manufacturer in the world. Its products were so wonderful that in its hay days, out of 10 persons walking on the streets, at least 7 of them owned its phone. Since its products were great and the company did not make any mistakes or wrong decisions, why did it end up in such a pathetic state? The reason was simply because the company was not well adaptable to changes. Although the company launched smart phones during the era when iPhone and smart phones from other technology firms became popular, its products were disappointing. The company failed to incorporate innovative features into their 3G smart phones like how it did to include famous games to its 2G mobile phones which took the world by storm. Worse of all, the Operating System and software installed on its smart phones were lacking in user friendliness and full of bugs. Obviously, the company failed to maintain innovation and quality by adapting to the changes of mobile phone technology transiting from 2G to 3G. This is clearly an example of the fittest species which was unable to adapt to changes and being eliminated eventually.

As Singapore aspires to transform herself into a smart nation, many of her citizens and residents look forward to the benefits which the Internet of Things technology can offer. The government has been aggressively injecting funds for such projects and promoting awareness. However, the biggest obstacle in this transformation journey is probably the lacking in expertise. First of all, Engineering and IT have always been the least popular choice of study among the Institutes of Higher Learning in Singapore. A large portion of the students enrolled into the courses for these two technology related fields either achieved examination grades that do not qualify them for courses in more sought after fields (such as Business or Finance) or failed to secure a place in those courses which are more popular. Few students would choose technology related courses because of interest in this area. Due to the ongoing smart nation campaign, a lot of children as young as those in primary schools started learning basic programming but not many of them would eventually choose IT or Engineering related studies by the time they reach tertiary level in education. Secondly, although there are technology related students graduating every year, a large portion of graduates from technology related courses do not remain in the profession for long. The long working hours, unattractive salary and worse of all, little recognition forces most of them to switch to other professions. These factors resulted in an acute shortage of technology related professionals so much that the government has to accept foreigners to makeup the shortfall. The smart nation dream would most likely be a fantasy without people with the right skills to implement and support. Given such circumstances, development jobs which are outsourced to technology professions based overseas, quality control and communication becomes a challenge. Even after the project has been completed and the product successfully launched, it has to be supported by professions based locally for faster response. The route to a smart nation and thereafter certainly creates more technology related jobs for interested job seekers to fill. In fact, Singapore already has an oversupply of management professions and what is lacking most is technical positions waiting for people to fill.

I've Never Been To Me

When I listened to an old compact disc of a veteran Taiwanese singer, Tracy Huang, there was a song in her English album which made me ponder over its meaning. The title of the song is "I've Never Been To Me" which was originally sung by American pop singer, Charlene in the late 70s.

This song is indeed so popular that it was sung by few Chinese singers like Tracy Huang, Teresa Teng and SHE. This is Teresa Teng version of the song (Karaoke) with lyrics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etDSMin00sA

After doing some research online, different people have different interpretations of its meaning.

Here is the lyrics (in blue color) and my interpretation of its meaning (in black color).

Hey lady, you lady, cursing at your life
You're a discontented mother and a regimental wife
I've no doubt you dream about the things you'll never do
But I wish someone had a talked to me like I wanna talk to you

The listener is whining about her life as an ordinary housewife and is dreaming about how things might turned out if she wasn't married. On the other hand, the singer who had lived a life opposite of the listener wished that someone had advised her to lead the life of an ordinary housewife so much that she wanted to advise the listener not to follow her footstep.

Ooh I've been to Georgia and California and anywhere I could run
Took the hand of a preacher man and we made love in the sun
But I ran out of places and friendly faces because I had to be free
I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me

The singer visited numerous exotic beautiful places and even engaged in sexual affairs with a preacher man in broad daylight. In order to be free, she traveled around so frequently that she could never made any friends. She had been to many wonderful places but have never thought about what she wanted in life.

Please lady, please, lady, don't just walk away
Cause I have this need to tell you why I'm all alone today
I can see so much of me still living in your eyes
Won't you share a part of a weary heart that has lived a million lies

Without any friends and family, the singer is lonely and could sense that the listener still had much to envy about her. Being cheated by men many times, the singer asked the listener to share her sorrows.

Oh I've been to Nice and the isle of Greece
While I sipped champagne on a yacht
I moved like Harlow in Monte Carlo and showed 'em what I've got
I've been undressed by kings and I've seen some things
That a woman ain't supposed to see
I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me

During those days, traveling to the Mediterranean region and sip champagne on a yacht was possible only to wealthy people and was definitely not something which an ordinary housewife can afford to do. The singer had lived in a lap of luxury by gambling and showed off her wealth in Monte Carlo, a gambling city in Europe. She had been served by "kings" (it probably referred to hunks who served rich women).

[Spoken]

Hey, you know what paradise is? It's a lie. A fantasy we create about
people and places as we'd like them to be. But you know what truth is?
It's that little baby you're holding, and it's that man you fought with
this morning, the same one you're going to make love with tonight.
That's truth, that's love

The singer is telling the listener that there is no such thing as a paradise. A paradise is actually something which we imagined it to be. In reality, the listener's "paradise" is the baby she is carrying and the man she was married to.

Sometimes I've been to crying for unborn children
That might have made me complete
But I, I took the sweet life and never knew I'd be bitter from the sweet
I spent my life exploring the subtle whoring that cost too much to be free
Hey lady, I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me

I've been to paradise, never been to me

The fact that the singer cried for unborn children suggested that she may had abortions before. She felt that having children would made her life complete. She chose to lead an "easy sweet" life but never knew it made her life "bitter" towards the end. The singer spent her life working as a whore which was a heavy price to pay to achieve her luxurious lifestyle without any burden.

After reading the lyrics and my interpretation, it is time for you to ponder over your own interpretations of the lyrics.

Emerging Trends & Technologies in the Virtual K-12 Classroom

First of all, I would like to wish everyone a happy winter solstice and hope that you will be enjoying quality bonding time with family today.

In this blog post, I want to share the recent online course by Coursera which I have completed successfully. The course title is Emerging Trends & Technologies in the Virtual K-12 Classroom. Although this course is meant for teachers, my institution also made it compulsory for administrative staff especially those in the IT department to aware of the various technologies which could be used for teaching. The completion of this online course is another small achievement for me as we come to the end of 2016 and the beginning of my new job.

About this Course
Emerging technologies are quickly gaining momentum in the field of virtual K-12 instruction. In this course, we will explore how the latest trends in the use of technology affect student learning and engagement. What innovative learning spaces and tools are available to instructors?  How can instructors best utilize free and open resources to more deeply engage students in their learning? What impact can the use of emerging technologies have on student retention and performance?  We will discuss the possibilities and challenges of using technology in fully online environments, although many of the ideas can be applied to blended and traditional environments as well. Learners will compare and contrast tools for use in K-12 virtual instruction, as well as examine best practices for implementing and managing these tools.

Lesson Plan & Assessment 
The entire course is conducted over 5 weeks with video lessons and a short quiz (consisting of 5 multiple choice questions) for each week for week 1 to 4. Trainees are also required to complete a written assignment which will be reviewed and graded by 3 fellow trainees. Each trainee will be reviewing and grading the written assignment submitted by 3 other fellow trainees. For week 5, there is a video lesson on final course reflection and a final quiz consisting of 35 questions. The multiple choice questions are rather tricky and some require the candidate to select one or more correct answers. To complete the course, trainees are required to obtain a score of 80% or above for all quizzes and the written assignment. In addition, trainees must have reviewed and graded the written assignment submitted by 3 other fellow trainees.

My submissions for the assignment are described below. As the target audience for this course are teachers, I attempted this assignment in the context of a secondary 3 English teacher. There are 3 questions for this assignment as follows. My answers to these questions are written in blue color.

1. Briefly describe the particular activity or lesson you would like to create, improve, or change. Include the following information. Your response should be no more than two pages of text long.

• Grade level (or age of students) and subject
• Overview of the activity
• Up to three student learning outcomes this activity will address. If your institution is required to meet specific government-established standards, please also note them accordingly.
• Reason for creating, improving, or changing the activity

English, being the official language in many countries is estimated to be used by over 2 billion people in the world. In Singapore, English is the language of administration and is mandatory for all students who are grade 12 or below to pass its examination in order to advance to the next grade in education. The English language examination consists of essay writing which is a critical aspect in assessing the students' proficiency in using the language. As an English teacher in a secondary (middle) school, it is crucial for me to find ways to enhance my secondary 3 (equivalent to grade 9 in the United States) students' writing skill.

My class of 40 students are required to submit hard copy essay to me for review and grading on a fortnightly basis. The length of the essay is expected to be between 350 to 500 words. There are specific topics (either short stories or general issues) for the essay each fortnight. Some examples of the topic include "A Supernatural Encounter" and "Challenges Faced by Teenagers". After reviewing and grading the essays, I would return them to my students for their perusal. Only if time permits, I would share with my class during lesson some of the interesting essays or common mistakes made by the students in their essay writing.

There are 3 learning outcomes for this essay writing activity. Firstly, my students will be able to improve their grammar and build up their vocabulary which are the essential elements for writing. Secondly, writing essay facilitates the development of critical and analytical thinking skills through breaking down the topic into several subordinate ones in order to gain a better understanding. Thirdly, this activity fosters active reading by making my students do some research on the topic before writing.

As the essay writing portion of the English language examination has been amended to include a section that requires candidates to identify and then edit grammatical errors for a given text of continuous prose of not more than 250 words, it is now necessary to incorporate peer review of essay into my lesson plan. Moreover, with the introduction of the "teach less learn more" policy in Singapore, up to 20 per cent of content has been reduced from syllabuses. The shift of paradigm from feeding excessive knowledge to students directly to the students themselves learning through participation in innovative projects or activities allows teachers to devote more time to engage students in this area.

2. Identify the technology or trend you would like to apply to the lesson. In no more than two pages of text, answer the following questions:

• Why did you choose the technology?
• How will the technology enable your students to accomplish the stated learning outcomes?
• What challenges do you foresee in employing the technology?

In order to facilitate sharing and peer review of essays, a blog is certainly the best technology to leverage on since it supports long paragraphs of text. First of all, every teacher including me in my school is assigned a laptop computer which we can bring to classroom to conduct our lessons. Every classroom is equipped with a projector and Wi-Fi connection is available to teachers and students within the school premises. Majority (or in fact all) of the students own a smartphone and laptop or desktop computers at home. There are also several computer laboratories with high speed Internet connection in my school which can be used to conduct lessons. My students themselves have access to the Internet at home and also on their smartphones or tablets. There are in fact more than sufficient infrastructure to support our blogging activity. 

After considering a few blogging sites, Google Blogger was chosen due to cost, usability, popularity, accessibility and privacy. Without the need to pay a fee to use this blogging site eliminates the hassle and lengthy process of seeking the principal and parents' approval for funds. In terms of usability, Google Blogger provides an easy-to-use Rich-Text editor which the usage is similar to typing and formatting a document with Microsoft Word, the software which my students are already using to create documents for their project. One of the advantage of choosing Google Blogger is the fact that many people including some of my students already own a Google account and are able to start blogging without signing up. Google Blogger is also an asynchronous application which users can access anytime and anywhere using multiple platforms such as laptop and desktop computers, tablets and smartphones. High Internet bandwidth is not required by Google Blogger unless the blogger chooses to upload large-sized images or videos which should not be the case for our blogging activity. With the built-in privacy settings, my students may choose to grant viewing access to their blog posts only to authorised personnel like me and their fellow classmates.

With Google Blogger, my students can post their essays directly to this blogging site for me and fellow classmates to review and comment. The blogging tools enable them to include hyperlinks (useful for making access to additional information convenient to readers), pictures or even videos to make the content more interesting and appealing. My students will be more motivated to write essays if they are able to make use of technology to showcase their creativity. Naturally, their grammar and vocabulary improves after writing more essays. The ability to include hyperlinks, pictures and videos encourages my students to research on the topic and share their findings. Having the essays available online enables all students to have access and opportunity to review one another's essays without passing the hard copy around. This practice saves paper and in turn spare me the hassle of carrying them to classroom.
      
The biggest challenge I foresee is students spending enormous amount of time to decorate their blog. Although the design of the blog will not be taken into consideration when grading their essays, my students will insist on making their blog look as beautiful as possible in front of their fellow classmates. This will result in my students spending time to focus on the blog design rather than the quality of the essay. The way to overcome this challenge is to set a simple standard layout and design for my students to follow when writing their blog. Another major challenge I foresee is students who are weak in English or writing may not be willing to share their essay with everyone. In this case, the privacy settings can be used to control who can access the blog.

3. Identify how you will assess your students' work in the activity and the activity itself in no more than one page of text.

Every fortnight, I will give my students a choice of 3 or 4 essay topics to write by publishing the topics on my blog together with some keys points. Over the next few days, they will do their own research, write the essay on their blog and comment on fellow classmates' essays written on the previous fortnight while I review, comment and grade the essays which they had written on the previous fortnight. At the end of every fortnight, the students will be able to view comments (from me and other fellow classmates) of their essay in their blog. However, the grade I gave to their essays will be communicated to them privately. As the essays would remain in my students' blogs as long as they are not removed by the student, everyone can still continue to view and comment on one another's essay even after the essay has been reviewed and graded by me.

My submissions were reviewed by 3 guys. Based on their names, I could tell that the first reviewer (Reviewer A) is from Hong Kong while the the other 2 (Reviewer B and C) are from Singapore and in fact I found out that both of them are in the same institution as me (i.e. fellow colleagues) but from different departments as I could find their names on the MS Outlook address book. All 3 reviewers awarded full marks for my submissions. Their general feedback are as follows:

Reviewer A: Excellent!

Reviewer B: well done

Reviewer C: Clever use of blogs for student to post their work and allow a community to form within the class itself for the activity

As for me, I had reviewed and graded the submissions from Reviewer A (the guy from Hong Kong as I mentioned above), Reviewer B (also being mentioned above) and an Italian lady. From the submissions, I found out that Reviewer A is teaching Physics to 18 years old students and the Italian lady is a private tutor for students with dyslexia condition. Reviewer B is an administrative staff like me who is being forced to sign up for this course. He had attempted the assignment in the context of 18 years old students working on final year project in the institution we worked for. I had also awarded full marks for all 3 fellow trainees as they had really put in effort to produce clear and concise contents.

Overall, I achieved a final grade of 86.3% for this course.

Feel free to give me feedback on my submissions too. I would love to hear from you too especially if you are a teacher!