Merry Christmas & HAppy New Year

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

I hope everyone of you to have I great time with love!!!

Seminar Privacy Cases

Here, are some of the web sites on which I found some interesting ideas for our seminar.

• http://www.privacyinternational.org/survey/phr2003/overview.htm
• http://www.out-law.com/page-413
• http://infolab.stanford.edu/~mor/research/chi241-ahern-mediaprivacy.pdf
• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2330823.stm
• http://www.ico.gov.uk/what_we_cover/privacy_and_electronic_communications.aspx
• http://www.out-law.com/page-3434
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/freethinking/2008/festival-events/event07/

The last one, is a debate on the BBC radio about 'Is privacy Dead?' it's really nice to hear it!!!

''Privacy and security are those things you give up when you show the world what makes you extraordinary. ''

Margaret Cho Margaret Cho's Weblog, 07-05-04

Also, I read the article which Jim post on his blog and it help me to answer all the questions for the privacy definitions, why privacy is important, the situation in the UK and at the end for the impact of the European convention on Human Rights on UK law.

The question is If in our days there is privacy???

In my mind of view, no we don't have any kind of privacy. The main cause for this change is the technology and how it change our lives. For instance, we can think for a second the 'Facebook' and how many information we can find there for other people. I believe there is still privacy only in health problems! If there isn't we have to respect this privacy, because is sth personal which must me protect for all of us.

Good night!!!

The Parthenon

The Symbol of Democracy and Freedom.......


Furthermore

If you really like to watch at photos from different landscapes, countries etc...

Just visit this site there are some amazing photos!!!

http://si.smugmug.com/gallery/1674201_UxZmP#114390527_JuQmb

The above photo is from this site!!!

Good night.........

Task 11. Listen an online lecture

ANCIENT GREECE

I watch an introduction lecture from Yale University, about ''Ancient Greece'', from the professor Donald Kagan.

It was a really interested lecture with a lot of information about the Ancient Greece.

Below there are some of my notes and then a summary of the whole lecture!!!

WHY Ancient Greece deserve the attention of people in 21st century????

The truth is, there are a lot of reasons but the most important is because it's

TERRIBLE INTERESTING!!!

Position: the most significant starting point of the western civilization

Characteristics of the western civilization: institutions of science, law, politics, etc..

Civilization is NOT the result of inevitable process BUT a result of unique humanity.

Modern world: shaped by the western

West Science and Technology participating in:

political freedom (privacy of reason and pressure of objective communication, characterised as essential to freedom and characteristics of the western civilisation)

..............................

Summary

The professor Donald Kagan describes why people should study the ancient Greeks. He argues that, it is important because they create a big part of the Western civilisation with their achievements and contributions but also they create a lot of fields such as politics, law, science, health,etc..furthermore they had an unique perspective of humanity. In addition, the Greeks men were the vital element for the greatest achievements and the worst crimes he was both great and important but also mortal and fallible. All the modern world shaped sightly by the west basis.

In conclusion, according to the Donald Kagan ''to study the Greeks is to study the nature of Human experience'' (Donald Kagan, 1999)

Pomeroy, Burstein, Donald and Roberts. Ancient Greece, Oxford University Press: New York, 1999, pp.1-40

Task 17. Reflection Writing

A LECTURE

The last weeks we listened to many lectures, I found the two first lectures easy to understand and to taking notes, but the last one it was quite difficult, probable because the vocabulary it wasn't common to me.

I found very interesting and useful the way, which we used to taking notes, because in the past i used to take notes every day, but sometimes my notes were very confused. I think I will follow this way in the future, because it is very easy to understand from these notes!!!

In conclusion, I believe if you know something about the topic which you listen to or you watch on a lecture is easier to take notes than if you don't have any idea about the topic or if the vocabulary are very unknown!!!

A good advice is just to read some vocabulary before the lecture if you know the subject!!!

Subject-based resources for you subject

My subject area it was on Marketing!!
Some useful links are:

• www.emerald.com


• www.brandrepublic.com/marketing


• www.marketingessentials.co.uk/marketing.html
  

On this sites, you can find any common definition or examples on Marketing Field.

I read an article relevant to my undergraduate degree. This article it was for the cereal industry ''The ready-to-eat Breakfast Cereal Industry in 1994''. Usually, on Marketing, the authors analyse an industry, for instance cereal industry, car industry, clothe industry, etc.. or they write about one company (for example, how it seems to the market, the highlights of this company, how it reacted in a special situation etc..), which usually call this ''case study''.

The analyse of the article include:

• The history of the company or industry


• The environment in this sector (for instance, technologies which companies use, distribution, advertising, promotions and pricing, new product introductions)


• Competition ( here they have to analyse about their main competitors, for example Kellogg General Mills, Philip Morris, Quaker Oats, etc.. You have two include all the main competitors in your analysis because they will be a threat for your sales)


• The private label threat


• A turning point
  

All the above bullets are one part of a ''marketing plan'', a marketing plan usually include:

• product/services and your unique selling proposition


• pricing strategy


• sales and distribution plan
  
• advertising and promotion plan
  
  

Attention!!! you must be carefully, because a lot of people are confused with marketing plan and business plan, the main difference between these plans are that: ''marketing plan is a section of business plan''.

Analyse my own language abilities and skills

Very Good____________________________Very Weak

• Speaking ___________________X_________________

• Writing ______________________X_______________

• Reading _______________________X______________

• Listening______________________X_______________

• Pronunciation______________________X____________

• Grammar__________________________X___________

• Vocabulary_________________________X___________

• Academic Skills______________________X____________

In my mind of view, I can understand the whole meaning of reading or when someone speaking or on listening, but I can't understand something specific and this is my main weakness in English.

I find very difficult to understand the grammar and I can remember the new vocabulary or how the words work together. Generally, I believe in all the above sectors I have some severe weakness, which I need to improve, If I want to learn this foreign language. As a result, in the future, I have a lot of self study to do, because I want to do my master next year. So, I will try to do my best!!!

''Television is no way a true mirror of society''

Brief Essay outline

INTRODUCTION

As Alan Corenk once said “Television is more interesting than people. If it were not, we would have people standing in the corners of our rooms’’. It is sad but true to some extent at the same time. Nobody can argue with the fact that television has become an obsession of our society. Paddy Chayevsky refers to it as “a menace that everyone loves to hate but can't seem to live without”. And that is specifically what it has become today. It used to be a channel of information, enabling people to learn at any time what was going on anywhere in the world. Today there has been a lot of criticism whether TV is still educative and informative or has become just a useless piece of furniture. Some people believe that violence, sex, reality shows etc., gives us the exact duplication of our society.
On the opposite side, others think that despite some individual’s bad intentions, television does not in any way reflect who we are or the world we live in.
Indeed, in some cases, the images shown on TV are based on some real facts. The sad thing is that these images have been distorted and exaggerated. Every member of a society is not a part of an unemployed cast of a reality show, neither someone who spends time gossiping about celebrities or revealing his feelings on a talk show. This essay will try to fairly analyse the positive and negative effects of Television on our society. The next step will provide a logical explanation for this “hate” that started lately to surround the word “Television”.

PARAGRAPH 1: Negative effects of TV on our society

PARAGRAPH 2: Positive effects of TV on our society

PARAGRAPH 3: Reasons for negative perception of TV

PARAGRAPH 4: Impact of today’s Television on our society.

CONCLUSION: I agree with this statement, because even though Television does sometimes show some depressing images of our society, we have to understand that they are just exceptions. After all, if we were reflected by some TV images, we would not be able to define that “picture” of the society as wrong because it would look normal to our eyes.

References
The quotation page, 2007, [WWW], Available from: http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Alan_Corenk/, Accessed: 25/11/2008

Seminar Reflection No.2

Hello, everyone,

Yesterday, we had our second seminar about the 'surveillance society'!!

I think it was better in terms of quality and content than the previous one, because my group and I managed to communicate, discuss and in some cases interrupt someone politely, in order to add a different point of view. I believe that, all members spoke enough and were able to support their ideas with good examples and arguments!!!

Finally, it was a really good experience and we all learnt a lot about the surveillance society and how it affects our lives in London, as well as, in our countries!!!

• How good was I? 2
• Had I done enough reserach and preperation? 2
• Did I speak enough during the seminar? 2
• Was I agood listener? 1
• Did I argue my opinio clearly? 2
• Did I give reasons, examples and evidence to support my opinions? 2
• Did I ask relevant questions to other people? 1
• Was the language I used accurate? 2
• Had I prepared the language I needed before the seminar? 2
• Did I direct the discussion or help keep the discussion moving the right direction? 1
• Could other people clearly understand what I was saying? 2
• Did I work well the other people in my group? 1

Our conclusion for the seminar:

Generally, the students in my group feel safe in London, because it's considered as a surveillance society! Furthermore, we don't mind being constantly watched, because after all these years we got used to it!!!

Finally, we believe that technology has two different "faces". The sad thing is that the negative side always find a way to overcome the positive one. We, as humans are used to turn anything good into something bad especially when it comes to technology. After all, let's admit that we do need technology. Maybe in smaller "doses" but still, it has become an indispensable factor of our society so let's keep in mind the positive effects and try to get along with it!!!

I wanted to thank one more time all the members of my group for their lively interaction and participation.

Nightey night everyone!!! :-)