COMMON SENSE

Kamal Dhillon, a Grade 12 student at Balmoral Hall School, is the 2010 Glassen Ethics Competition winner.

This year's essay topic was: "Is it OK to download music, movies and games without paying?" There were about 80 entries from high schools in Winnipeg and across the province. The contest, held annually since 2007, is jointly sponsored by The Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics and The Department of Philosophy at the University of Manitoba. The winner receives $1,000. The Winnipeg Free Press publishes the winning essay.

Please, read this essay and tell us, what do you think about Kamal's essay?
Was it easy to write about this particular topic?
Why has it spread like fire around the world?
Is it just good tools to write? Common sense? Clear ideas?

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 13, 2010 H11

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/not-wrong-just-illegal-84292007.html

Teaching a Foreign Language? Best Teach in the Accent of the Listener

ScienceDaily (Feb. 17, 2010) — Perception of second language speech is easier when it is spoken in the accent of the listener and not in the 'original' accent of that language, shows a new study from the University of Haifa. The study was published in the Journal of Psycholinguistic Research.

Many adult schools teaching second languages insist on exposing their students to the languages in their 'original' accents. However, this new study, carried out by Dr. Raphiq Ibrahim and Dr. Mark Leikin of the University of Haifa's Edmond J. Safra Brain Research Center for the Study of Learning Disabilities, Prof. Zohar Eviatar of the Department of Psychology and Prof. Shimon Sapir of the Department of Learning Disabilities, found that this system is not necessarily the best and certainly not the most expeditious.

The present study set out to reveal the level of phonological information that the adult learner requires in order to identify words in a second language that had been learned at a later age, and whether the level of phonological information that they require varies when the words are pronounced in different accents.

Read more:
Source:http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100216101326.htm

Do you agree with this?
Do you think you would then understand the natives' accent when talking to them?
Why does this seem to work better for adults?
Would you like to tell us about how this works for you?

FLY in the future with an electric self-launch sailplane

source:http://www.glider-one.si/

FLY in the future with an electric self-launch sailplane Electro Apis EA1

ELECTRIC APIS EA1 is one of the first sailplanes in the world and the first one in Slovenia EU (the first flight was 18. April 2005), which can take off with an electromotor and climb up to altitude 1800m at 50%DOD, even to altitude 3000m at 90%DOD. The altitude depends on the percentage of the discharging of the Li-Poly batteries. The best recomended discharging of the batteries is about 50%DOD. In this case the altitude is app 1800m and the batteries can give 1500 cycles http://kokam.com/english/product/kokam_Lipo_01.html

In the future solar cells on the wings will give enough nature energy for many take offs next day and to climb much over than 3000 metresof the altitude.

Have a look:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt8ISQC7aVY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydFo67O3dmw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPGeDAZHxMo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm3mliPyeeM


Electric sailplanes... the future?
Will they pollute less?
Is this kind of energy better?