"Justice" on the Internet

A drunk driver ,Master Yeh (葉少爺) killed three people and ruined two families in the early May. Suddenly, every news channel, newspaper, and website was full of the critique and discussion and webizens started to human flesh search (人肉搜索) this person, his friends and his family. Also, you could find a group of facebook users (more than 80 thousands likes) created a webpage to condemn him.  With the prevalence of the Internet, similar scenarios have happened for countless times, such as celebrity scandals and injustice social events. A group of people spontaneously gathered on the Internet to judge a person, debate a topic, discuss rumors, condemn, or defend points of view, usually disappearing before long. We call them “Internet mob” or call this behavior " Internet vigilantism." I think this phenomenon is worthy to discuss.

Reading Material:

1. 8 awesome cases of Internet vigilantism

2. Internet mobs

Discussion Question:

1. Do you think Internet mob bring more positive effects or negative effects to the society?
2. Did you condemn someone that you don’t even know in the real world on the Internet? What triggered you to do so? How was your feeling?
3. I believe that you must familiar with this famous saying from a Bible story. “And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” <<John 8:7>>                                                                                                         Some people believe being a Internet mob to condemn bad guys is a way to uphold justice; while others consider it is a lynching. The line between them is vague. What is your opinion on this issue?
4. The anger can be amplified as ripple effect through the message transfer. Under anonymous circumstance, the irrational behaviors of Internet mobs erupt easily. Do you think the freedom of speech on the Internet should be regulated?

4/29 Hero deserves a second chance?

Wang Chien-Ming was regarded by Taiwanese people as a national hero especially his achievements in baseball field. We were all proud to see his success abroad and proud to say he is a Taiwanese baseball player to our overseas business partners and friends. However, after he revealed his affair in USA with a girl, we know that he is just a normal man with fears, desire and other sensations. His hero image was broken into pieces in my mind and  I wonder shall I still support him? Fans on the websites have two completely different views toward his infidelity. Some people support no matter what he has done but some people like me have doubts on his personal behaviours.

Please read the article provided in the following link.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2012/04/25/338980/MLB's-Wang.htm

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1236435/Why-men-forgive-wifes-affair--theyd-expect-YOU-forgive-them.html

Questions:

1. As a normal person, do you think Wang's wrongdoing deserves forgiveness? As a national hero, do you think Wang's wrongdoing deserves forgiveness?

2. When Tiger's sexual scandal broken out, he was chased by a crowd of media workers and news about his scandals appeared on the news for quite a while. On the contrary, Wang's news about his affair with a girl only appeared on the media for less than 3 days. What do you think of this phenomena?

3. Wang's wife chose to forgive Wang (at least the news reported that she chose to forgive him). For female members, if your partner betrays you will you choose to forgive him and why? For male members, if your wife betrays you what will you react to her infidelity?

4. Do you think we as a human being can forgive and "forget"?

5. ?

Fuel Prices Hike

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2012/04/17/2003530504
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/04/19/2003530716

In the past few weeks, fuel prices hike causes some commodity goods to rise their prices. It seems to be a sign of inflation. Today we are going to discuss the impact of energy price rise to our daily life.


(1) Does oil and electricity price hike have any obvious influence on your life? What is your reaction to this wave of inflation?

(2) Do you think it is reasonable for government to adjust the fuel prices with large percentage increase?

(3) Do you have any share points to save energy and living cost? Or do you have any good way to explore additional income?

(4) From the article, a scholar said the fuel prices hike will cut the GDP growth by 0.22 percentage points. However, GDP cannot truely reflect life quality of most people. Where is the apple of our economic growth?

The Wang Family in Shilin District

Protest fails to stop eviction, demolition
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/taipei/2012/03/29/336119/Protest-fails.htm

TVBS news
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GOa5SZYD8OE&feature=related


Today let's share our opinion to Urban Redevelopment Project from the conflict happened to the Wang family in Shilin District.

1. To your own opinion, who's the beneficial side in the Wang family case?

2. How do you think about Urban Redevelopment Project?

3. If where you are living now was included into a Urban Redevelopment Project, what's your reaction?

4. What do you think the procedure should go if the whole Wang family case started over?

We need to be smart

I got my first smartphone last night--Sony Ericsson Xperia Ray.

It took me one and half year to finally make my mind to jump on the bandwagon.

Am I the last one to have a smartphone in our study group?

Please follow the link below to download the discussion article.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/19367394/20120404topic.pdf

Discussion Questions

1. Why and when did you decided to use a smartphone? Or why not?

2. What is the most useful benefit people can get from a smartphone?

3. What is the side effect of using a smartphone?

Brands v.s. Counterfeits

We can not deny the fact that we are living in a brand-obsessed world. In most of cases, brand represents quality and tasty, but it also means more expensive. Sadly, we are manipulated by the allure of brand in different way. Some get in debt or even bankrupt because cannot resist desire, on the other hand, some choose to buy cheaper substitutes. In order to meet the latter consumer demand for owing brand product in low price, counterfeits has skyrocketed in the past decade. Today we're going to talk about these two relative topics.

Question:
1. Have you bought a counterfeit product before? What did you buy and how did you feel about the quality of the product? Why did you choose it over a real product?
2. When you make a buying decision does brand matter to you? Why?
3. What is your favorite brand? Why do you love their products over other products?
4. Some people think that counterfeiting market helps stimulate the economy, while others think it would damage the economy. What's your opinion and Why?

3/11 Is Genius Born or Can It Be Learned?

Have you ever wondered why someone is successful and others are not? Or have you ever wondered can you be a Steve Jobs one day in the future if you work hard (not dead of course, I mean the achievements he did and personal influences to the world)? I believe success does not come without reasons and it definitely takes time to make it happen. However, what are these factors to success?

Links for reading materials:

http://www.forbes.com/2009/02/27/genius-innovation-oreilly-technology-breakthroughs_genius.html

http://www.businesswings.co.uk/articles/Genius-Born-Or-Made

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12140064

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1879593,00.html

Questions:

1. Have you ever met someone who is really talented (in music, painting, sports, etc.)? What distinctive characteristics did they have?

2. Do you have friends who were not exceptionally excellent at school but are successful when they grow up? Or the other way round? Share your stories with us.

3. In your opinion, do you think genius is born or can it be learned?

4. What kind of education do you think is best fitted with geniuses? (Invent one if it does exist in the real life)

5. If your life can be restarted, do you want to be a genius? Why?