News & Opinions: Interesting Articles To Read

Image from SCMP

I have dug up a number of interesting articles for reading these two days. The first one is titled, What does Starbucks say of your status? from South China Morning Post, in summary it talks about the kind of suits you can meet up if you hang around the right coffee shops like Starbucks, and if you want to run into some top level management hot shots, you should spend some 30 bucks to get a cup of coffee. Now if I am working in the finance field, I might want to do that, but I can't say for sure really because I'm not. Interesting suggestions though, worth reading.

If you don't want to meet movers and shakers, how about an environmental activist?

Beluga Whales
Image from NOAA

Georgia Aquarium in the U.S. plans to import 18 wild-catch beluga whales, their reason, for research and education, adding whale protections and sustainability into the equation, most people will say, "yeah, that sounds like a good idea!" But this article tells us that despite "saving" these endangered animals from their potential dangers in the wild, the belugas actually have much shorter lifespan than they do in the wild.

Alien Abduction
Image from dreamstime

Think of this whole idea of animals in captivity as alien abduction whereby we human beings are the aliens to these highly intelligent mammals, then it will all make sense when the scientists say we are the one who drive them mad and eventually lead them to their death. Inevitable!

Wired Science has this article, Georgia Aquarium’s Beluga Whale Capture Comes Under Fire which has many insightful viewpoints, definitely a must-read if you believe you should do something for these poor animals.

Talking about great articles, the New York Times has one on Apple.

Jonathan Ive, second from left, who will oversee the look of Apple’s software, is said to have criticized the images in the company’s mobile software. Image from Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

We know that Apple has recently fired Scott Forstall, a Steve Jobs' disciple, because he wasn't willing to take the blame of the recent Apple Maps catastrophe, but how will that affect the development of the iPhone, iPad software and therefore, the future of the iDevice owners? Authors of the article Apple Shake-Up Could End Real-World Images went the extra mile to research the history of the successor Jonathan Ive and predict the direction of Apple in this post-Jobs era. Exciting article to read! And that final line was the best,

“Clean edges, flat surfaces will likely replace the textures that are all over the place right now.”

Apple fans, take note, you might be owning the last device before Apple's paradigm shift.

Image from Microsoft

Lastly, not an article I am recommending, but just find it funny to know that Microsoft's innovative Windows 8 tiling interface which was dubbed to be the next big thing in desktop computer is being sued almost immediately for an infringement of a concept patent owned by another company since the 1990s.

Yesterday, I was still appreciating Windows 8 in the new Samsung ATIV ad,

turns out that now I'm once again overwhelmed by another news on intellectual property (IP) lawsuit.

I have used Windows 8 Developer Preview and at first I thought it was nice to have something new, but 5 minutes later I was forced to switch back to the tradition Window 7 layout. XDA Elite Recognized Developer Adam Outler has the truth,

Image from Adam Outler

I cannot agree more.


Vocabulary:
suit -- (n)[C] [C often plural] informal mainly disapproving a man who works in an office and wears a suit, especially a man with a high position in a company who is considered not to have human feelings and good ideas
hot shot -- (n) [C] informal an expert or someone who is very successful in their job, especially someone young:
buck -- (n) [C] (plural bucks) informal a dollar
mover and shaker -- (n) [usually plural] informal someone who has a lot of influence in a particular organization or group:
captivity -- (n) [U] when a person or animal is kept somewhere and is not allowed to leave 
alien abduction -- (n)[U] forceful capture by aliens
come under fire -- to be criticized
inevitable -- (adj) certain to happen and unable to be avoided or prevented
catastrophe -- (n)[C] a bad situation 
go the extra mile -- to make more effort than is expected of you
paradigm shift -- (n) [C] formal when the usual and accepted way of doing or thinking about something is changed
dub -- (vb) [T + noun] to give something or someone a particular name, especially describing what you think of them 
infringement -- (n) [C or U] an action that breaks a rule, law, etc
overwhelm -- (vb) [T usually passive] to cause someone to feel sudden strong emotion


Resources:
What does Starbucks say of your status? @ South China Morning Post
http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1072031/what-does-starbucks-say-your-status

Georgia Aquarium's Beluga Whale Capture Comes Under Fire @Wired Science | Wired.com
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/beluga-aquarium-controversy/

BRAD PITT FOR CHANEL N°5, INEVITABLE @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm4-lzICk5E

Apple's Scott Forstall ousted over Maps apology -- WSJ @ CNet
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57542297-37/apples-scott-forstall-ousted-over-maps-apology-wsj/

Apple Shake-Up Could End Real-World Images
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/01/technology/apple-shake-up-could-mean-end-to-real-world-images-in-software.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Introducing Samsung ATIV @ YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC9ZJf_CUTA&feature=g-hist

Adam Outler @ Google+
https://plus.google.com/u/0/104711040110222472212/posts

http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/suit_4
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/hot-shot?q=hot+shot
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/buck_1?q=buck
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/business-english/mover?q=mover+and+shaker
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/captivity?q=captivity+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/abduct?q=abduction
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/come-under-fire?q=come+under+fire#come-under-fire__1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/inevitable?q=inevitable
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/catastrophe?q=catastrophe
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/go-the-extra-mile?q=go+the+extra+mile#go-the-extra-mile__1
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/paradigm-shift?q=paradigm+shift
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/dub_1?q=dub+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/infringement?q=infringement+
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/overwhelm_2