RP129 Say Hello to Our New Mechanical Friends

RP129 Say Hello to Our New Mechanical Friends

For years we've been hearing it. "The robots are coming! The robots are coming!" Well, the long wait is finally over. The robots are no longer coming; they're already here.

The robotics industry has changed economies and lifestyles around the world. One area in which these changes are particularly obvious is manufacturing. Industrial robots (those robot arms that assemble things in factories) are becoming increasingly capable. Nowadays, these robots can assemble large items like cars with very little input from human workers. They can also work 24 hours a day without ever making a mistake. It's no wonder that factory workers around the world are losing their jobs to robots.

Of course that's not what comes to mind when most of us think of robots. We imagine personal, human-like machines that can cook our food and do our laundry for us. Fortunately, they' re here as well!

Tech companies are fighting tooth and nail to achieve the first big success in personal robotics. Japan's Sharp Electronics is betting on simpler, more affordable robots. For this reason it has launched RoBoHon, a cute little robot that functions similarly to a smartphone. RoBoHon can understand simple voice commands. It also knows some pretty sweet dance moves, which it shows off whenever it receives a phone call.

Other companies are targeting the high-end market with technologically advanced personal robots. Two examples are Honda's ASIMO and Softbank's Pepper. ASIMO can run, jump, and climb stairs just like a human being. It also has sensitive hands that can perform delicate tasks like pouring a cup of coffee. Pepper, on the other hand, can sense and respond to human emotions. This could come in handy when dealing with people who have lost their livelihoods to robots! 

RP128 The Pygmalion Effect

RP128 The Pygmalion Effect

“You get what you expect.” That's the Pygmalion Effect, in a nutshell. Studies show that people tend to live up to—or down to—the expectations people place on them. Our reality really is influenced by the opinions and expectations of others. When other people expect us to be great, we are more likely to be great. When we aren't expected to perform well, we usually won't bother. It is amazing how affected we are by the labels people attach to us.

Many studies have demonstrated the Pygmalion Effect. One study, by Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson, randomly selected students in several classrooms. Teachers were told that these students were especially smart. The teachers, therefore, expected high performance from these students—and they got it! At the end of the year, the randomly selected students had increased their IQs and performed better overall than the rest, even though they were actually no better or smarter than the rest of the class. Their teachers had believed that they had great potential, and that had caused the potential to appear.

There is a downside to the Pygmalion Effect, of course. Just as we rise to meet high expectations, we may be knocked down by low expectations. Jane Elliott conducted a famous test on school children. She divided them by eye color—blue versus brown. One day, the blue-eyed group was praised while those with brown eyes were told they were inferior. The next day, the roles were reversed. Students took spelling tests on both days. Most students did very badly on the day they were made to feel “inferior.”

Labels can create reality. People who are expected to fail often fail; people who are labeled as winners generally win. If you want to get the best from yourself, expect it! 

RP127 Wild Tasmania

RP127 Wild Tasmania

Where can you find wombats, eagles, devils, and 10,000-year-old trees? It's an island that goes by many names: Van Diemen's Land, Dervon, and Tassie. Have you guessed Tasmania yet? If you haven't, don't feel bad. Tasmania is still pretty unknown, even though it's the 26th biggest island in the world.

Tasmania sits below Australia. It looks like a miniature Australia, turned upside down. It is a state of the country of Australia, but it is separated from the rest of the country by the Bass Strait.

Can it really be so far from the real world that devils live there? Well, the Tasmanian devil does. The Tasmanian devil is a marsupial—an animal with a pouch, like a kangaroo. It looks a little bit like a very small bear. It's called a devil because it has a frightening growl that scared early Tasmanians. These animals also tend to be very mean, which makes the name Tasmanian devil even more appropriate.

Tasmania is home to lots of unusual animals. There are wombats, which look like furry little pigs and live in burrows underground. There are wallabies, which look just like little kangaroos. And then there are birds and frogs of all shapes and sizes, and strange little mammals that lay eggs! Tasmania also has amazing flora, or plant life. It has huge temperate rain forests and huge eucalyptus forests. Some Tasmanian eucalyptus trees are some of the tallest in the world—more than 300 feet tall and still growing! Tasmania also has a tree called the Huon pine that lives to be very, very old. There are Huon pines in Tasmania from 2,000 to 10,000 years old!

Tasmania is truly unlike anywhere else.

 

RP126 Hikikomori

 RP126 Hikikomori

There may be more than a million of them, but you'd never know it. They' re hidden away, locked inside houses or rooms. They' re hikikomori, the invisible people of Japan.

Hikikomori (in Japanese, “withdrawing,” or “being confined”) are people, mostly men, who go to great lengths to pull out of society. In the West, this would be called extreme social phobia, or agoraphobia (fear of being outside). But the hikikomori situation is more widespread in Japan. It is also mostly ignored out of shame.

One boy walked into his family's kitchen when he was 14, shut the door, and refused to come out. The family eventually built another kitchen to use. Takeshi, 19, spent four years in his bedroom, listening to music and playing video games. Y. S. actually stayed in his room for over 13 years! He was tired of being bullied at school and couldn't take being out in the world anymore.

Bullying, breakups, or tests are often triggers that cause these young men to snap and become hikikomori. Dr. Henry Grubb, who has studied hikikomori, says the Japanese way of avoiding confrontation makes it worse. In the West, hikikomori would be treated as being mentally ill, whereas in Japan, they' re seen as a family problem. It's also common for Japanese mothers to serve their sons. Instead of making their boys do something difficult, like go outside, Japanese mothers may simply attend to their boys' needs. Then when schools don't pursue children who don't attend, it becomes very easy for a society to pretend the hikikomori don't exist.

But hikikomori cannot be served for the rest of their lives by aging parents. Groups like New Start are trying to get these boys out and teach them how to fend for themselves before it's too late.

RP125 False Friends

RP125 False Friends

A Frenchman walks into a restaurant in Egypt. He doesn't know what he wants to eat. “Can I see a menu?” he asks. The Egyptian waiter says, “Yes, menu,” but he just stands there. The Frenchman asks, “A menu, please?” The waiter says, “Yes, yes, we have menu.” Finally, the Frenchman stands up and leaves while the waiter tries to understand what happened.

What happened was a “false friend.” False friends are words that sound the same, but mean different things in different languages. In this case, in French, a menu is a list of food offered at a restaurant. In Arabic, menu means “food.” So the Frenchman wanted a list, while the poor waiter just wanted to make him understand that he was in a restaurant!

False friends can be very dangerous for language students. In Spanish, actual means “happening currently,” not “real,” as it does in English. To ask in Spanish if something is “actually happening” means “Is it happening now?” rather than “Is it really happening?” That's a big difference, especially if you're talking about a dangerous event!

Bra is a funny one. In English, a bra is a kind of underwear. But in Swedish, it means “a good song.” Imagine the looks you'd get if you walked into a department store in Sweden and asked for a bra!

Demand is another example. In Italian, demand simply means “request.” In English, it is more like a command— much more forceful. Imagine walking into a cafe in the United States and saying, “I demand a cup of coffee!” You might get hot coffee spilled all over your lap!

False friends aren't really your friends. Be very careful of words that sound just like words in your language. They may not mean what you think they do!

 

RP124 Free Running

RP124 Free Running

Running, urban, acrobatics, and tricks—do those words seem to go together? If so, you may be a free runner. Free runners have taken tricks that are usually performed with a prop (or at least a net) and moved them into their daily lives and into public view.

Free running is a way of interacting with the urban landscape in an unusual way. Free runners use the city as a gym. Instead of following the typical paths or doing typical movements, free runners use urban obstacles as props for acrobatic tricks. Free running is related to the French idea of parkour, but parkour is about efficiency, speed, and self-preservation, while free running is more about fun.

The free running environment contains high and low walls, stairs, ramps, bars and fences, arches, and doorways. Therefore, most free running moves are designed to use these elements. There are a variety of different vaults for getting over low walls. There are running techniques to help scale high walls and flips to get down off them. Dives, rolls, and twists help protect the body when landing. And, of course, there are tons of ways to make each move more difficult, more athletic, and more pleasing to watch.

All of these stunts are the reason free running competitions are often held within larger stunt competitions. There are more and more competitions dedicated solely to free running, however. There are free running clubs in many urban areas, and free running fans are now active in many of the world's cities. If you see urban obstacles you can jump over, climb, or duck under, then there are probably free runners in your city, too. 

RP123 The Ancient Art of the Brush

RP123 The Ancient Art of the Brush

Throughout its long history, writing has been a big deal in China. Since the earliest dynasties, the skills of reading and writing have been highly respected. In fact, they form an important part of the Chinese art world. Calligraphy, the art of writing with a brush, is almost as old as writing itself. And though this art form dates back thousands of years, it is still extremely popular today.

How did writing become so important in Chinese culture? The answer most likely lies way back in the Shang Dynasty (about 1600-1046 BC). That's when characters were first carved in bronze and used in religious events. This practice conveyed a spiritual aspect which gave writing authority in the eyes of ordinary people.

Calligraphy spread during the Han Dynasty, when the necessary tools and materials became more widely available. First there was the brush, made from bamboo and animal hair. Early ink, or lampblack, was made by burning pine wood and mixing it with water. Early forms of paper were invented around AD 105. Finally there was inkstone, a smooth piece of stone used for mixing ink. Together, these tools were known as the "four treasures of study" in ancient China.

Calligraphy has been popular in China for thousands of years. Some say that it's an even higher art form than painting. Though foreigners may not always get it, there's something truly special about calligraphy. Every written character has a strict stroke order. When viewing the results, you can trace the artist's process, reliving every stroke of his or her brush. This allows for an intimate connection between artist and audience.

Calligraphy is something that's best experienced by doing. Luckily, this ancient art is still widely practiced today. So what are you waiting for? Get out there and find yourself a teacher