Humanities & Social Sciences Library

This BBC production is a dream come true for China fans.  Consisting of two DVDs, this 300 minute documentary allows viewers to embark on a visual adventure that brings them from the peaks of the Himalayas down to the rivers of Shangri-la and beyond.

Anthropology students would gain an insight into how the rural people of China live, work and play amidst their cave or forest dwellings. See how Yunnan minority groups harvest the versatile bamboo for food and material needs,  travel along the legendary silk road where tea horses used to tread, and harvest hornet larvae as a tasty snack.

Nonetheless, China’s wildlife are the main stars in this DVD set. Take a peek into the lives of pandas, bumblebee-sized bamboo bats (filmed for the first time), cranes, Chiru antelopes and many more creatures who live in the Middle Kingdom. World heritage sites such as the Great Wall are also featured.

Wild China is available at the Media Resource Library (call number: L576894).  For details about this DVD, check out the following:

BBC Science and Nature — Wild China

Wild China, the BBC’s new nature series, captures a vanishing world
Times Online
May 10, 2008

Sneak video preview

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Asiaone has just run an article about Mr Lim Wah Guan, a 28 year old PhD student currently studying at Princeton. Mr Lim also completed his Masters at Oxford University.

What is surprising, and even shocking to this writer, is that Mr Lim was rejected 4 times by NUS when he applied to enter the faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, due to his A Level grades. Mr Lim eventually went to study at the University of New South Wales, where he earned a first class honours and very strong recommendations from his professors which enabled him to enter Oxford, and subsequently Princeton. His professors recommended him for a postgraduate programme, not because of his grades, but because of his passion for learning.

Mr Lim’s mother also recounted that they believed their son did not learn well in a classroom and perhaps was not suited for the Singapore education system after his 4 failed applications to NUS and 2 attempts at the A Level examinations.

However time has proven that Mr Lim is a person with special, even exceptional talent. The Singapore examination system however has not allowed Mr Lim to flourish, as seen from his 4 failed applications 2 A Level attempts. In fact the current Singapore education system still places very heavy emphasis on examination results, not just for university admission but also for employment prospects later in life.

The question thus arises if there are “Churchills” in Singapore society who possess rare talent, but who are late bloomers, or who do not perform as well as they could in an examination environment. Mr Lim himself commented that he didn’t think a “three-hour exam is the best way to test any student’s ability.” Mr Lim himself is ambivalent about returning to Singapore, citing the disappointment of 4 failed applications.

Read the full article here.

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From Malaysia to France, there is an increasing spotlight on hymenoplasty, an operation to restore a broken hymen. This can be a life saving operation in certain conservative societies, where a woman’s virginity can be a serious matter concerning family honour.

The issue was reported in the New Straits Times on Monday, and has been reported on again by the New York Times. The matter raised is the same, and there are striking parallels between the concerns of the women interviewed.

One commentator believes the rise of hymenoplasty operations to be a result of young women caught between their conservative home societies and the more liberal attitudes of Western societies.

Read the article from the New York Times here, and the article from the New Straits Times here.

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A criminal trial of two suspects in Australia has been suspended by a judge after five members of the jury were found to have been playing Sudoku during the trial proceedings. There is usually a total of 12 jurors present.

The jurors were discovered when it was noticed that the jurors were writing ‘notes’ vertically rather than horizontally. What is disturbing is that the trial was for drug offences, which carried potential life sentences for the accused.

The jurors in their explanation said that they found it difficult to follow the evidence presented, which could be rather drawn out. However the fact remains that such inattention is disturbing, given the gravity of the trial and the potential sentences which could be meted out. This also calls into question the ability of the jury to understand complicated evidence, such as scientific evidence.

However this does not mean that there are advantages to a jury trial. Juries have been known to refuse to convict a person despite the evidence, in a process known as jury nullification, or jury equity. This could be done if the jury felt that a law was unjust, or if they felt there were strong mitigating factors, despite the evidence presented. Of course this also means that it is possible to win trials using emotional appeals to the jury.

The trial itself has been scheduled to be reheard after a new jury is selected. Read the full article here.

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Hits and misses: the google generation
Times Higher Education
5 June 2008
By Matthew Reisz
Does the Google generation, which has grown up with a deluge of data just clicks away, lack the independence of thought and critical rigour needed for higher study?

This article is about the effect of Google and Web 2.0 on scholarly learning in universities. How can British universities capture the attention of the Google generation who believe in instant gratification and turning in term papers with plenty of references from Google result lists?

According to the article, academic librarians would have to make information literacy workshops one of their key mission statements. Additionally, academic libraries would have to reinvent themselves by carving out “learning suites” and “think tanks” –aka learning spaces — so that self-directed and group learning styles can be supported.

The writer also thinks that Web 2.0 tools like blogging might result in anti-establishment attitudes that may pose a threat to British university traditions and rituals. Especially when “the Google generation” is so focused on the here and now. In my opinion, to say that students create anarchy and chaos on campus via their blogs is a sweeping statement that supports the fallacy of hasty generalization! I’m sure not all students are bent on creating trouble for their universities;they just need an outlet to voice their problems and opinions.

The article ends off saying that librarians have to help students undo what the latter have learnt though Google and social-networking sites. The bit about teaching students about information integrity in Google result lists is quite clear but some elaboration is needed for the sematics behind the meaning of “undoing what [has been] learnt in social-networking sites.”

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The state of California in the United States has just become the second state (after Massachusetts) to legalise gay marriages, after a Supreme Court ruling. This decision willtake effect in 30 days, barring legal challenges.

In a marking of how contentious the issue is, California’s Supreme Court was heavily split (4-3). The decision was opposed by religious and conservative groups.

Coverage of the decision is available at the New York Times.

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Disgraced New York governor Eliot Spitzer has resigned following the expose that he contracted the services of a sex worker, after he campaigned against it himself. However a commentary from the New York times argues that monogamy is surprisingly rare in the animal kingdom.

Apparently many animals do raise a young together, but biologists have discovered that 10-70 percent of a certain brood of young may have been sired by another male. Paying for sexual favours is also not unique to humans: this behaviour has also been observed in birds!

This does not mean that animals approve of such philandering behaviour however: male and female animals have been observed to fly into jealous rages when infidelity was discovered.

Read the full article from the New York Times here.

Tip: Not sure what a word means? Double click on it (in the New York Times) to bring up an instant dictionary reference. Checking a Collins or Oxford dictionary is still better of course.

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A new study published asserts that religious people are more likely to be happy and contented. The main reason for this is due to a better ability to cope with severe shocks in life, such as unemployment or divorce. This in turn results in happier individuals overall.

A cautionary note is that uncontrolled factors may be partly responsible for the study results. These include the lifestyle or upbringing of religious people. Alternatively the access to a similar community of people in religious institutions may also be a factor. These factors are almost impossible to remove completely, and so almost all studies should be taken with a grain of salt.

An interesting side point to note is the reaction of different associations to this study. The National Secular Society goes to lengths to debunk and also suggests that happiness is a relative concept. The Theology for the Evangelical Alliance, however, warmly accepts the findings without much comment. A cynical person might find this quite amusing.

Read the full article from the BBC here.

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For two year, they operated as an unofficial club with more than 200 members, inviting speakers like Worker’s Pary leader Sylvia Lim to give lectures in NTU, among other events they organised.

 The NTU Sociological Society finally gained official status from the Student Affairs Office (SAO).

With this new standing, the Society plans for bigger projects and events. They are currently working on giving students a chance to be research assistants under the supervisions of professors.

Benefits in being official

1. Autonomy in planning events for the Society

2. A sense of recognition gives the club leverage in liasing with external parties such as guest speakers

3. Opportunities to get funds beyond the club’s division and faculty; for example, from NTU alumni affairs office.

** Extracted from the Nanyang Chronicles (Written by: Lee Yen Nee)

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