A life Revealed: Unabridged version!

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2002/04/afghan-girl/index-text

A link to the full version of an interesting article we will be looking at tomorrow!

Ireland Inspires

Modern Art Masterpieces for 10 minutes

Idioms Practice: A flash in the pan

Oh well, there you have it.

Invasion Zone Map Prototype

Hello again,

Here is an example of a map I made which we can talk about tomorrow in class. Have a look if you have time. Have a good day.

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zpNIFB8vRW18.kpK1Rn3qxAdw&authuser=0&hl=en

Invaders Game

Hello all, the following is some information about a project/game I would like to do. Essentially it involves pretending you rare an alien and are gathering information about human culture, as though you know nothing, and later we deal with language issues in class. I have requested more info and game rules from the designer but it looks very interesting. Have a look at the video clip and photos and tell me what you think.

http://digitaldebris.info/invader/

Help! I'm pulling all my hair out!

Also known as Trichotillomania, this is an impulse disorder characterized by the compulsive urge to pull out and in some cases eat one's own hair leading to noticeable hair loss and balding, distress, and social or functional impairment. This is often chronic and difficult to treat.

One of more than a million women in Britain are tormented by the urge to tear out their own hair. Shame and secrecy are part of the condition, which makes it difficult to know for certain how many people are afflicted, but estimates range between two and four per cent of the population, including a small number of men.

The passion for cross-eyed ladies.

For Rene Descartes, the Father of Modern Philosophy, the greatest passion of his life was women with crossed eyes. As he explained in a letter to Queen Christina of Sweden, the cause of the obsession lies in his childhood when he fell in love with a slightly cross-eyed girl.

The moment he looked at her wandering eyes, he was moved by the passion of love. For a long time afterward, in seeing cross-eyed women, he felt more inclined to love them than others, simply because they had that imperfection.

Homework: News Story

So...news storys! Links to some papers you can use.

http://www.independent.ie/

http://www.independent.co.uk/

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/

http://www.irishtimes.com/

http://www.theguardian.com/uk

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/

Pillow obsession

Korean Otaku Marries Anime Body Pillow

A Korean anime fan has proudly tied the knot with a pillowcase featuring the image of his favorite magical girl heroine.

Heavy Rain asked the player, "how far would you go for love?" Would you go so far as to travel to another country? Would you kill a man? Or would you just decide that your soulmate was a fictional character and marry her image printed on a cotton pillowcase?

A Korean otaku opted to go with the last option, wedding a dakimakura body pillow featuring the image of Fate Testarossa, one of the popular heroines of magical girl show Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha. Not only has this particularly dedicated fan married his favorite pillowcase, he also takes her out on dates to restaurants and to amusement parts, as chronicled on media sites.

This isn't the first time we've seen die-hard otaku marry fictional characters: A Japanese man named Sal9000 married his virtual girlfriend in dating sim Love Plus back in November. While our natural inclination to these scenarios is to sit back, point and laugh (and boy, do we sit back, point and laugh), it raises some interesting philosophical questions about marrying inanimate objects.

Oh sure, it's not a problem now as long as you're marrying pillowcases and plastic Nintendo DS screens, but what happens when we invent realistic sexbots (other than the extinction of humanity, that is)? What happens when AI becomes sentient? Will convincing a computer to fall in love with us save us when the machines take over?

One has to wonder how long the happy groom will remain happy for - after all, judging by the popular opinion expressed in fanart and fanfiction, his new bride is a total lesbian. On the other hand, it's not like he has to worry about a pillowcase cheating on him, unless you count what happens when he puts her in the washing machine with his other body pillows.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98910-Korean-Otaku-Marries-Anime-Body-Pillow

It was a quite famous issue in Korea. We have been influenced by Japanese animation, so there are so many OTAKU who are obsessive with animation things. He was extremely obsessive with the character which is in the famous animation from Japan, so he has been famous after broadcasting about him on a tv show. 

Hello,

Welcome to ECM's Cyprus advanced class blog. Sit down and start posting!