Penguin Papers Issue III
Editorial Dear Penguins,
Always inform yourselves, create a personal opinion on almost everything that surrounds you; this is the when we have fun, time flies. strongest power you can have on the future developAnd these days have not been an exception; we are al- ment of the world. Knowledge can never been taken ready at the last act of these experience. It is your time away but anyone. to shine, to stand up and to speak your mind without any fear. It has been a pleasure to share this experience with you and we wish you all the best for your future. On While focusing on your topic and gathering your behalf of the Media Team of the session we hope you ideas, merging them together to write your resolution, created memories that are bound to last and that TalPenguin Papers has tried to provide you with a fresh linn has really been your wave. approach towards some of the problems of the world we live in. From the potentialities of vaccines to the importance of gaming in our society, we never stop Elisa Martinelli and Oleksandra Gipsh, Editors of 3rd University Forum of EYP Estonia learning about the world around us.
Brought to you by Adelaide Di Maggio (IT/PL) Natallia Khenkina (BY) Rasmus Kriest (DE) Liza Skorobreshchuk (UA) KryĹĄtof Stupka (CZ) Karl-Joosep Volmerson (EE) Anna HagarovĂĄ (CZ) Oleksandra Gipsh (UA) Elisa Martinelli (IT)
Table of Contents Do we want waves? Journalism is not dead Failing without improvement Water your flowers to make them grow Universities in need Schools can kill creativity I did it all Hungry Milan Nothing ventured, nothing gained Unfair advantage Stay safe if you can Gamification
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Do we want waves? The modern world is dependent on something that can destroy us. by KryĹĄtof Stupka (CZ) Foreigners in Estonia tend to joke about having Wi-Fi everywhere. For most of the world it is still an exciting dream to fulfil in the future but, for instance in Tallinn, the environment is covered by wireless signal for almost 100%. However, hopes of a total coverage with wireless connection can become a nightmare.
Back in 2007, the European Environment Agency (EEA) published one of the first studies about the consequences of using cell phones and wireless. As a reaction to the worrying results, many elementary schools in the EU stopped using Wi-Fi. The former director of EEA, Jacqueline McGlade, supported this step and she even encouraged parents and teachers to The very first thing that affects all of us is the electro- protect children from wireless, because they are the magnetic radiation, which causes millions of cancer most endangered ones. From that time on many sciencases every year. This radiation is divided into different tists trying to bring this issue back to the table but the types of electromagnetic waves, which affect human World Health Organization (WHO) states that there body according to the various frequencies. Cancer is is no possible body damage caused by cell phones of generally caused by UV radiation, but we do still have WLAN. According to another study from an indemobile phones, GPS, medical scanners and Wi-Fi. pendent group of Swedish doctors, using cell phones means higher opportunity of cancer occurrence in a long term. Moreover, many people are suffering because of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EH), whose symptoms can be just headache, fatigue, stress or sleep disturbances. Whatever they are causing, EH symptoms are real and the majority of their cases are unknown. One year ago an Austrian artist, Anna Wohlgenannt, shot a documentary movie describing the lives of the patients as compulsory exile, running from modern technology trying to find places not yet covered by radiations. This can be very difficult in today’s world where everything relies on technology and progress. In a nutshell, it is still very possible that mobiles and wireless connection can be a danger for the human health. It is now a challenge for today’s world not to underestimate it with the excuse that we cannot be sure what the consequences are. We need to face the possibility that the world is in danger and support an open, objective and independent research, if those concerns find a solid ground in the upcoming researches results.
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Journalism is not dead BuzzFeed, Youtube and Facebook cannot kill it by Rasmus Kriest (DE) works and they do not advertise every article with catchy titles. Moreover, Facebook Inc. just implemented a reader mode into their social network, allowing readers to stay on the website, while consuming the content they are interested in. As a result, the original In the beginning of April, Markus Huendgen, CEO publicists lose money. of the European Web Video Academy GmbH which is hosting the German Web Video Prize on an annual However, people will eventually want to come back to basis, wrote on Twitter that the future of journalism the old concept of journalism. It might not be a printwill happen without it. While I immediately wanted ed newspaper or TV news, but more likely some kind to answer back I can see his perspective – many of of Smartwatch or intelligent refrigerator. While tabtoday’s YouTubers have more views than TV shows. loid journalism or the newest cat pictures do not need The subtext of the tweet simply stated that “our inter- to be curated and distributed by professional journalests are what is shared and liked, the content we like ists, fundamental news which are based on facts do. is less and less produced by professional journalists.” The conflict in Ukraine is a prime example of comThe German newspaper “BILD” or the British “Sun” plicated situations in politics and society in which the do not compete with “The Guardian” or the “New whole truth is not automatically disclosed. For this reaYork Times” anymore, they do not even vie with sites son, we need journalists who are able to reappraise all like “BuzzFeed” or “Mashable”. Sadly enough, the material objectively. Without any doubt, journalism true competitors of these magazines are the newest will continue its evolution in the coming years and it songs by Nicki Minaj, cat pictures and questions about already showed that written articles are not a universal the colours of a dress. They settle for anything that by remedy to the loss of objectivity when there can also any means could attract the audience’s attention. be tables, interactive images or infographics. However, even those clear overviews of information are assets of Every day there might be worldwide important news journalism that are hard to replace by amateurs. that ought to be shared like the voluntary crash of the Germanwings plane or another Frontex catastrophe Finally, it is clear that the situation of journalism in the Mediterranean Sea. However, would you be will not get better immediately. There currently is a able to say on whose page you read the news first? In huge surplus of news and information and the classome cases we even start wondering if we truly need sic journalism is not able to take up the challenge journalists in the established media landscape, where brought by the innovative concepts that are spreading everything seems a multiplier of something else that throughouot the various media. we have already read somewhere, sometimes. Ten years ago blogs were seen as the future of journalism, but today many of them eke out in lonely existence without readers. As big newspapers, bloggers also have problems financing their existence. Nowadays, it is not easy to get content onto the reader’s display if the writers are not active in all social net-
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Failing without improvement
Comparing the American and European jail systems by Karl-Joosep Volmerson (EE) the establishment of rehabilitation programmes in the prisons.
The prison system in the United States is considered as a failure; this simple fact is also visible to previous situations where the convicted person was eventually found not to be guilty. The problem is actual because the reoffending rate in the states is around 77% and people are more likely to commit a crime again after leaving the prison. One of the major issues is that the American prisons are extremely overcrowded. Some of the cells might have even up to fifteen inmates, living side by side with each other, having no individuality or privacy whatsoever. While some people believe that prisoners do not deserve decent living conditions because they have to suffer for what they did, others are convinced that they need to be properly reducated in order to be readmitted in society. Another aspect related to overcrowded prisons is the individual care or possibilities the inmates have. Right now the US system is concentrating on neither how to prevent or tackle the rising of criminal activitie nor
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On the contrary, most of the European governments do concentrate and focus on the topic by financially supporting the reforms of their prison system. Some European countries such as Germany and the Netherlands are good examples to take into consideration because the number of prisoners is falling. However, it is important to keep in mind that this applies only for small crime commitments, which could easily be fined. While in Europe there is a variety of laws and constitutions that address conviction, the US have overall a more strict justice system. For this reason, people are convincted more often, while they are also assigend by the court to attend community service and to pay fines. However, addressing this issue more carefully, it is evident that prisons are also a place for convicted people to be socially rehabilitated. This becomes inefficient if the treatement programmes are not organised or the prisoners live in unsafe living conditions. That is also the main reason why the European countries should keep in track and invest in reducational projects.
Water your flowers to make them grow What responsible leadership means and how to act accordingly by Adelaide Di Maggio (IT/PL) As we look up for the word “leader” on the Internet, the graphics show pictures of a rather strong, distinguished figure, dominating over the rest, who does not necessarily provoke in us positive feelings. We sometimes have a different perception of a leader; instead of linking it with a guide-like attitude, we often think it is an authority imposing orders and checking on other people’s work. To have a better insight on the different way of becoming a responsible leader, it is worthy to mention Morgan Stanley, a powerful U.S. Investment Bank, whose priority is to build a strong team based on cooperation. Mr Paul Nasr, the Senior Manager for Capital Market, decided to employ his ex colleague Rob Parson and promised him a promotion to managing director. Mr Parson worked extra hours for the whole year and managed to increase the bank interest rates by 10%. However, he was not able to integrate with the rest of the team, described by the rest of the team as rude and hard to cooperate with. When Mr Parson received those feedbacks, the dilemma begun. He knew Mr Parson was very talented and by not giving him a promotion he would have risked to loose an exceptional worker. On the other hand, if he ignored the firm’s core strategy, Mr Parson would most probably not be able to manage his team. In the end Mr Parson wasn’t promoted, but he still decided to stay. This happened because Mr Nasr understood that if his employee did not succeed to integrate in the team, that was his fault. He did not give him the necessary time to get acquainted to the policy of the agency, also making a promise without thinking about the consequences. In the meantime, Mr Parson understood that by leaving the bank, he would probably do the same mistakes in a new place, without learning
how to improve his teamwork skills. Little things, like being more polite with the secretary or waving at the colleagues, put him in a much better light and brought him a new promotion in a couple of months. When we rethink about the case after knowing its ending, we comprehend that in fact, this case is about the leader. If he had followed and supported his employ promptly from the beginning, the problem could have been avoided. If a gardener would only shout at his flower, ordering them to grow, instead of watering them and caring about them, they would never flourish, because they would not have had the conditions to do so. In a nutshell leadership is about the responsibility of creating the right environment for team members to work at their best and develop their skills.
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Universities in need
The world of online education
Do we need universities? That is a question that everyone can ask, especially today, when the modern age has provided us with information accessible almost everywhere. People are saying that universities are destroying creativity, that they are taking our youth from us, that they are not allowing us to fulfil our potential. For instance, Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal is now paying people for quitting their universities. In his mind, universities are nowadays working to satisfy the dreams of students’ parents, who are trying to find a solid carrier for their children. He also states that universities’ main target should be to put a student into an inspiring and provoking environment, where he can truly develop himself.
by KryĹĄtof Stupka (CZ)
are offering the same degree as a university. Why would a student enrol in a university, when he can get the degree while working and having more free time? Whilst universities are trying to stress out their importance more and more people are questioning it.
Many universities already changed their system, also publishing online courses on their own websites. Among those who successfully adopted this fashion we can definitely find the well known Stanford, Harvard and Boston University. Their courses feature on the Internet and are accessible for anyone. Even though very convenient, online courses cannot provide students with such an environment as universities can, they are not creating a place stimulate young minds and promote original thinking and creativity. Besides, it is necessary to take into consideration that universities are the main catalyst for expanding contacts and integrating in society. They are training youngsters to be more open-minded in order to prepare them for the The current rector of Oxford University has a clear changes that are going to happen in their life. idea on the great danger upper education is facing. This is happening not because there are people who However, changes are now awaiting also universities. think like Peter Thiel, but because universities them- This does not mean we do not need to study; it states selves need to step out from their personal barrier and quite the opposite. As the rector of Oxford University fulfil their potentially important role in society. This stated, leaving university for success is not something can be a very long and hard process due to the spread- very common. Not everyone is Bill Gates or Mark ing of online degrees. At the moment, the population Zuckerberg. has been provided with several online courses, which
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Schools can kill creativity Why is a five-year-old kid more ingenious than you are? by Adelaide Di Maggio (IT/PL)
The word school in Ancient Greece didn’t originally cause frustration in young people, being an expression associated with leisure activity, as this was exactly its meaning. Studying was considered as a way of dedicating free time to improve one’s skills, without being forced, which is a very different perception of what we have nowadays. When the first public schools were established during the industrial revolution, their main aim was to educate a future worker, who would have been able to efficiently accomplish his tasks. Pupils grew convinced that after such education they would have been well prepared for their planned job and learned what could have been useful. However, a student who completed his degree a couple of days ago, is most likely sitting on his couch and watching the television, with nothing to do except to stare at his rejected applications for new jobs. “There is an academic inflation” - states Prof. Ken Robinson, a British professor and TED speaker, emphasizing that we need a new degree level for every job we want to practice. Unfortunately teachers mainly aim at collecting more prestigious titles for the university there are working at and the school system is based on raising points and consider mistakes as something that needs to be avoided.
However, Prof. Robinson believes that the approach towards mistakes is completely wrong. The educational system intents to minimalize them and puts everyone at the same level of thinking. By imposing strictly defined rules and frames, the potential and talent that lies in youngsters, is squandered; kids are deprived of their genius. “If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you will never get original” - says Prof. Robinson. As a matter of facts, artistic subjects are put on the last position of educational priorities lists and are never granted with proper attention, while their further implementation would most likely improve children’s performances in Mathematics and similar fields. Many people were brave enough to step outside of the system and either teach their children at home or create private schools which use alternative learning methods. One of them is “Sternschule”, a school near the Austrian city of Graz, whose tactic is not to force learning but motivating children to learn, because they believe that a child won’t be able to assimilate something uninteresting for him. Children receive weekly assignments to fulfil and they can decide when to do it, also having the possibility to fill additional, harder homework, if dare to undertake a challenge. Last but not least, cooperation and developing practical abilities are core factors in this system. Smaller kids eat meals prepared by older ones and there is a lot of free space for relaxing, crafting, playing games and attending extracurricular activities.
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I did it all Breathe, act, feel. Your heart is still beating. You are alive. by Liza Skorobreshchuk (UA) People are usually afraid of living and taking their chances. Only growing older and older we begin to realise how many opportunities we missed. The earlier we understand we can miss many chances because of fear of the unknown, the earlier we start living at its fullest. Sometimes we need to practically know how to be human, to stay a human in this often too cruel world.
Learn Life is all about experience and learning the lessons it provides you with. Life is also about education – work hard, play hard, take more, get more. Relax
Sleep under stars or at the beach. Or both. The deepWhen deciding between “YES” and “NO” there are est thoughts usually come into your mind when you at least ten things we should take into account are out of routine, pressure and other people’s influence. Connect you with nature and get your hands Conquer a fear free from all the things you had been worrying about. When someone knows their fears and is aware of their feelings, they have taken the first step toward gaining control over them. Try to recognize what affects you, define its borders and see what you really need to overcome. When you completely understand your fears, think about what exactly you want to change. Always be prepared to deal with failure, do not take it as a defeat, but as a chance for strengthen your personality. Go natural Eat healthy, do some sport and remember that you are not a robot. Yet. Expend your comfort zone Stepping outside your comfort zone might very well mean risking getting hurt, failing, and making mistakes. However, what are you risking staying within the borders of your comfort zone? There is a whole world out there that you may never discover in doing so.
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Start up Working for someone else puts you at their mercy and subjects you to their whims — and often their poor management skills. Not only that, but the profit of your effort goes into their pockets. Volunteer Helping people will make you feel better. Nothing disappears in this world – you get what you give. Sharing your love and energy with other means becoming purely happy. Follow a dream When it hurts, when everything seems to be a failure, when everything is ruined, you need to have a light in the dark to follow. Let it be your dream. Communicate
Remember this is your life. You are the only master in it. Make that be a gorgeous one. Hope when you take that jump, you don’t fear the fall Hope when the water rises, you built a wall Hope when the crowd screams out, they’re screaming your name Hope if everybody runs, you choose to stay Hope that you fall in love, and it hurts so bad The only way you can know is give it all you have And I hope that you don’t suffer but take the pain Hope when the moment comes, you’ll say I DID IT ALL.
It has become fashionable to say that our century is an information age, but that’s not quite right. In truth, we live in a communication age and it is time we start taking it seriously.
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Hungry Milan
The Universal Exhibition that wants to feed the world by Natallia Khenkina (BY)
Milan is well known for being a world hub for fashion industry, a leading industrial centre of northern Italy and the place to find “The Last Supper” by Leonardo Da Vinci. Being all of it and much more, Milan is assuming a new ambitious role this May, being the host city for the 2015 Expo, under the topic “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life”. The Universal Exhibition, or Expo, is regularly takes place since 1844 under a varying, though always extremely specific theme. The relevance of the topic is hard to estimate – especially with more than 140 participants investing their time and budgets to explore it. In a nutshell, however, it has a lot to do about not making an Interstellar movie out of planet Earth’s future. With the population growth that predicts reaching 9
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billion people by 2040, it is getting really important and complicated not to end up cleaning the dust out of our plates before having breakfast. The agricultural methods in use are extremely harmful for the environment, producing a huge share of CO2 emissions. There are numerous endangered and disappearing food cultures; even the number of bees has showed a decline over the last years, and although we don’t exactly eat them, this phenomenon can potentially leave us with no choice but to pollinate plants ourselves. Moreover, the principles of sustainability, appreciated as they are, do not really comply with the half of globally produced food being thrown away, while there are still approximately a billion people out there suffering from famine. Food has pretty much lost its value, while still having an enormous significance. Being discussed a lot, these topics are brought to the next level by Expo 2015 and are on the promising highway to a great and sustainable advancement, which will hopefully not include the usage of space wormholes.
The main exhibition has settled in the outskirts of Milan; public transportation to the place includes taking an underground or a city bus within an extra-tariff travel zone. The place itself is an enormous exhibition centre, with a main street, the so-called World Avenue, being aligned with the self-built pavilions of the several countries. The amount and diversity of these pavilions is extreme and visitors can have a leisure walk and reflect on the respectful ways of interaction with our energy resources in the German “Field of Ideas” pavilion, or stop by the Belarusian exhibition, where methods and habits of local agriculture are promoted and folk music is playing. A must see is Bolivia’s pavilion, being completely dedicated to a single plant, quinoa. This crop grows on extremely salted soils, as well as in the fields at high altitudes, and has an impressive nutritional value, which makes it a perfect candidate to be the food of the future, after having fed the regions of Central and South America for more than last 3000 years.
cluster exhibition – every visitor needs to make sure to see the pavilion of chocolate, a rainforest full of cacao plants, and to try the chocolate products present there. The spices, coffee, fruits or cereals areas, the Mediterranean biodiversity cluster are also pavilions where classic and new products are presented. Apart from them, there are also a couple of themed exhibitions, among which there is an outstanding Future Food District, which uses advanced technologies to sell, produce, and even cook food together with professional chefs. Preparing your own meal with the technologies from the future? Seeing products being grown in front of you? Being assisted in choosing your food in a supermarket by robots? Yes, visitors can do all of this.
Milan is one of the most astonishing all-seasons destinations of Europe, but from May, the 1st to October 31st this year it is a must be, and not only because of the most amazing choice of the foodie-places that you can find over these six months. Awareness and consciousness are some of the main issues Expo 2015 is trying to raise. All in all, with the cause this exhibition is fighting, eating some ultimately environment-friendly products from the Future Food District might just as well be our first common test for reduce and eventualThe official website of Expo 2015 proposes its visi- ly defeat famine in the world. tors to choose a ticket for a duration from one to three days, but buying a one-day entrance does not seem reasonable. The countries that did not make it to their own pavilions were welcomed to take part in the joined
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Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained Stay with a local and get to know countries, cultures and people
by Liza Skorobreshchuk (UA)
First thing you need to do is to check the entire profile. People who are serious hosts will generally have a full profile, and if you make the same, then they also Ever wondered about that penguin from the session’s can learn who they are going to eventually host. Look Couchsurfing is mostly about combining the possibil- for some photos, general and specific information so ity to save money when travelling and experience the you can be sure to feel comfortable with this kind of country destination in all its traditions. The majority person. of hosts and couchsurfers is composed by great travellers. They are genuine, they can cook a meal with and Read every single review. Even if you are running out for you, and they can show you around. However, it is of time, take it to read all the reviews. If someone’s profile has no reviews, it means you have 0% chance not always going to be like that. to stay with that person. Check those who have from We see those headlines all the time: “Travellers and five to ten reviews at least, in order to be sure that the backpackers get raped or assaulted”. However, you registered person is trustworthy. need to remember that these are few isolated cases. Yes, this sometimes happen, but there are several Listen to your inside voice. If you do not feel right, do not think you are paranoid; just leave instead. There things you can do to reduce your risk. are plenty of other places you can stay and do not Couchsurfing comes with risks but they are no bigger worry to be considered rude or to feel obliged to stay. than the ones we can face while crossing the road. In There is also a Facebook group called EYP couchsurforder to go from one side of a street to the other, you ing; join it and search for your future long-EYP-life look both ways, you listen, you look for big buses and friends. You may not be able to get ride of excited EYtrucks and then you take a risk. The difference is that Pers, but the hospitality is 100% provided and you will there is a wider probability that you get hit by a bus have the chance to have wonderful partner for your adventure. than assaulted by a couchsurfer. Mostly aiming to find a host, people use www.couchsurfing.com – there you can choose the country city, and future host.
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Unfair Advantage
What is justice for you?
by Karl-Joosep Volmerson (EE) During a TED talk show in 2010, Michael Sandel, a political philosopher and a professor at Harvard University, asked the audience whether Casey Martin should be provided with a golfcart or not. It was clear that the audience had the same amount of ‘yes’ answers as ‘no’ answers by watching them raising your For king Hammurabi, justice was a concrete ‘eye for hands in favour or against the proposal. He therefore an eye’ situation. For Aristotele, it is a meritocratic proved that people have different opinions and aspects process, since it has to do with people receiving what on how to approach a problem, and they have to be is proportional to their value or their worth. For Karl taken in count. Marx, in justice everybody deserves judgement by their achievements. Throughout the time justice has Nowadays, reaching a solution is composed by a vabeen defined differently, but at the same time it has riety of personal and individual way of judging, also always been keeping small theoretical similarities. The when it comes to justice. This is the part where husituation has changed and therefore people can won- manity has a role in affecting the outcome or at least the discussion of a court progress. If Martin’s case was der what justice is today. not touched by a humane topic, laying on the social To have an example of the issue, a professional golf side of debate, then it would have been clear that it is player, Casey Martin, asked the Professional Golfers’ an unfair advantage. Association (PGA) for permission to use a golf cart in the tournaments. Casey Martin had a disability, more Each and every opinion is questionable. Justice today specifically a bad leg which made the walking on the is thought to be more colourful and wider than it was golf courses very painful and risky for further injuries. before. The perception of justice might look different However, he received an answer which said his request from individual to individual, but a country’s legal could not be satisfied since it was an unfair advantage. system applies for every citizen. It is just a fact that The case went all the way to the Supreme Court and judging now takes more time for discussion, because after long discussions the final answer was that Casey topics are debated from various perspectives, keeping in mind the different ideologies and moral values of Martin must be provided with a golf cart. the parts involved.
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Stay safe if you can The mythology of vaccination by Natallia Khenkina (BY)
April 2015 has been characterised by new discoveries and achievements, among which the eradication of rubella from the Central, Northern, and Southern America. However, the news passed almost unnoticed, being rubella just one of the many diseases. This virus is devastating in its own way and its consequences in pregnant women are dreadful, causing miscarriages and disastrous abnormalities in the newborns. The local vaccination programmes, however, have resulted in the last six years passing without any recorded cases of native, not-imported rubella; that means six years without pregnancies going under the dangers of this Sword of Damocles. It also means another success for vaccinations, which have already made it through smallpox and poliomyelitis; celebrations, however, are still long way ahead. What is a vaccine? Scientifically, any vaccine is a treated substance that is capable of triggering an immune response without causing the outburst of the disease itself. There are four main classes of them according to their composition. Some are made with microorganisms than can be either dead or weakened with chemicals and by DNA recombination. Other vac-
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cines are composed by only a little part of the microorganism and if it produces toxins, the latter can be used as the antigenic substance. The methods used to obtain an effective vaccine are different in each particular case. For example, poliomyelitis has traded killed vaccine for attenuated one in 1963. While attenuated vaccines are cheaper and are capable of producing a longer effect, they are also less stable and are potentially capable of re-activation in the human body. Even if the risk is often considered negligible due to its low probability, it still potentially exists. After their introduction in 1838, vaccines made a long way through being ignored, praised, opposed, and praised again. They are considered to be one of the main reasons for the decline in relative amount of deaths caused by infectious diseases, but they are most definitely not the only players in the field, with living condition, hygiene, societal organization having a huge role in diseases’ prevention and defeat. Vaccines have also been through all kinds of criticism and prejudices; the vaccine-free movements are going through regular ups and downs and some of them are quite interesting to observe.
The common belief that vaccines are capable of triggering the autism, for example, is based on a single paper published in the UK Medical Journal “Lancet” in 1998, which has created panic among parents. What is not just as famous as the article itself is that the author, Andrew Wakefield, was later accused of falsifying medical data and accepting money for doing so. The article got safely removed from the archives of the journal. However, the story has persisted, even though none of the later conducted studies has shown any connection of this kind between autism and vaccinations.
While scrolling through the articles promoting vaccine-free attitudes you can also come by the belief that the diseases vaccines are used for are not at all dangerous – or can rarely be transmitted. If this statement is correct in some cases, it is terrifyingly wrong in the others. Tetanus, which is caused by bacilli that contaminate the soil and dust, and can be easily transmitted through cuts and wounds, results into a slow spreading of spasms through the body, having their climax in the block respiratory muscle and eventual death. One of the first symptoms of the infection in infants is the so-called “sardonic smile” caused by the The heavy metals in the composition of many vac- spasms of facial musculature. The disease was fatal cines are also often argued about. While it is partly until the late 19th century, and has almost ceased to true since vaccines may contain mercury or alumin- exist nowadays; all of that is due to a vaccine injection ium as preservatives, it is all about the details. The every ten years. form of mercury found in vaccines, ethylmercury, is not toxic, and no studies have ever proved otherwise. Prejudices and fears way too often arise from the lack Moreover, in the 90s, the substance got removed from of information, and issues around vaccinations are by the vaccines by the decision of European authorities. no means exceptions. To take or not to take the risk Ironically, this decision, which has been made for the vaccines bear is a decision we all have an exclusive sake of caution only, caused another wave of anti-vac- competence of doing. Being informed about it, howcines moods. The same happened with the usage ever, is always an advantage. of aluminium. While it is still present in vaccines, it cannot cause any health issued. In fact, we consume more aluminium with our dinner that we can ever get through any vaccination.
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Gamification Games can improve our lives
by Rasmus Kriest (DE)
Gaming has become mainstream. While consumers of video games were considered as nerds without social life who sit in their room all day long playing with some consoles, the recent success of smartphones made games accessible for anyone. People have played “Angry Birds”, “Fruit Ninja” and “Candy Crush Saga” for years now; you can see them doing so not only at home but also in the subway, at airports or during boring lectures in university. Even users who do not install any application from the AppStore Games’ section are gamers without knowing it. Whilst it is clear that “Temple Run” is actually being played, a “like” on Facebook or Instagram or a “re-tweet” on Twitter is nothing else than positive feedback as it is a round the player won. This concept is called “Gamification” and describes the use of game thinking and its mechanics in nongame contexts. It is being used in a variety of areas, with some of the main purposes being to improve user engagement, physical exercise or data quality, but also to teach students or workers as well as to entertain us-
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ers and buy their loyalty. The used techniques try to profit from people’s natural desires, such as socializing, education, competition or achievement. This explains why early strategies mainly used rewards for players who accomplished tasks or competition for higher engagement. Typical examples for rewards can be filling progress bars showing a clear advancement. This technique is being used in many loyalty programs such as the European-based “Miles & More” that gives a certain amount of “miles” points to the user for each flight that can be exchanged for many different goods, like a free Business Class upgrade or shopping vouchers. Since a certain amount of points is needed for the exchange, the player tries to use an airline that supports “Miles & More” more often and therefore is bound to the company. Another example for rewards is the geobased social network and recommendation service Foursquare that gives players offers and prizes. This reward and a progress bar is being displayed publically which leads to competition between different players of Foursquare.
highest score. As a result, participation grew from 5% to 90% and the recognition went up from 45% to an accuracy of 89%, resulting in 1780 faces recognised While those examples are a possibility of earning by every person. money for companies in a capitalist society, games can also be used for real world problems. According The most outstanding example of gamification is to Herodotus, dice games were invented in the king- probably “Foldit”, an online game that allows players dom of Lydia during a time of famine. As people were to collaborate and compete in predicting the structure suffering and fighting over food, the king of Lydia de- of protein molecules. Gamers solved the structure of cided that every other day everybody would have play a retrovirus enzyme that is part of an AIDS-like virus. games instead of arguing. According to Herodotus While scientists tried solving the structure for 15 years and did not manage to, gamers solved the problem they passed eighteen years in this way. within only three weeks. Coming back to today’s problems, the Volkswagen-funded research program Fun Factory created Although most people still see games as a leisure ac“the world’s deepest bin”, which makes a character- tivity that is consumed in breaks to slip out of the real istic sound every time trash is thrown into it. In just life, their mechanics and techniques are already used one day, 72 kg of rubbish was collected which means in many different fields in the real world. It might not 41 kg more than a normal bin. The Seattle-based Sla- be the solution for every problem, but after all it clearlom Consulting created an application for their 2,000 ly shows that productivity and fun are not necessarily employees in the U.S. that should help them to learn contradicting each other. the faces of their colleagues and improve internal communications. From a game mechanics perspective it also included a leader board, which showed the
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