Grading system for schools gets a fail from Australian Council for Education Research

Posted to The Age (27/4/2014) on 27/4/2014 at 12:44 PM
Commenting on "Grading system for schools gets a fail from Australian Council for Education Research"
http://www.theage.com.au/national/education/grading-system-for-schools-gets-a-fail-from-australian-council-for-education-research-20140426-37axb.html

Grading MUST stay. Why has Professor Masters a prefix in his name - Professor? It is because of his excellence in certain field, not because he is just a Mr Average.

If a student scores an E, he/she needs to know. More than that, the teachers and parents need to know as well, otherwise only HE can help this student to improve.

It is not only education has grading; almost everything in life has it, including things we eat; performance of athletes; racing cars and drivers; airline, train and cruise tickets; professions etc. What is the reason for Five/Six-star rating in hospitality, or energy savings? Why do national security rate people as high risk or low risk? Why are there different salary levels at workplace?

I still take keen interest in this subject, even though I am a victim of the education system (that's a different story). I consider myself an educator for about 2 decades, who dislike and protested on many occasions the Competency Based Training (CBT) "grading" in TAFE. Students (trainees) are awarded Competent (C) or Not Yet Competent (NYC). This is not sufficient for some universities to assess whether the student satisfies the entry requirement.

There is a disincentive for top students to excel, and in the meantime encourages the less than average just work slightly harder to cross the finishing line.

It is totally unfair and discriminatory to slow down the smart students in order to wait for the slow one to catch up. Every individual's intellect is different, and it is unwise to hide it or brush over it. Each class assessment is a diagnostic tool, and why wait until it is too late to repair the damage, or hold back those who can proceed to something more challenging?

Good students need encouragement!

Health dangers being ignored by blue-collar workers

Posted to Herald Sun (23/4/2014) on 23/4/2014 at 3:38 AM
Commenting on "Health dangers being ignored by blue-collar workers"
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/health-dangers-being-ignored-by-blue-collar-workerrs/story-fni0fiyv-1226892686534

Too much credit has been given to education, hoping that spending more time studying will reduce many physical and social ills. Unfortunately, education does not solve bad habitual problems.

Although smoke, drink and diet are contributory factors, one must not overlook that many blue collar workers' workplace environment is far less inviting and healthy. Furthermore, many blue collar workers do not earn as much as their counterpart which can lead to greater financial stress.

It is important to tackle the problem holistically rather than just target at their life-style and habit.

Melbourne plastic surgery clinic abandons competition asking women to rate their breasts to win tickets to the ANZC AFL match

Posted to Herald Sun (22/4/2014) at 22/4/2014 at 11:27 PM
Commenting on "Melbourne plastic surgery clinic abandons competition asking women to rate their breasts to win ticket to the ANZAC AFL match"
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/melbourne-plastic-surgery-clinic-abandons-competition-asking-women-to-rate-their-breasts-to-win-tickets-to-the-anzac-afl-match/story-fni0fit3-1226892728048

200,000 people on Facebook responded positively? Is the company sure that all the respondents are women? There could be Suomi wrestlers answering the post for all they know.

Very likely many are not Australians and have no idea what ANZAC means to Australia. If Australian women responded to the post, I am sorry to say "respect others if you expect others to respect you!"

Qantas not worried about fleet after second turnback incident

Posted to Herald Sun (22/4/2014) on 22/4/2014 at 10:17 PM
Commented on "Qantas not worried about fleet after second turnback incident"
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/qantas-not-worried-about-fleet-after-second-turnback-incident/story-fni0fiyv-1226892658801

Another day, another Airbus. Qantas may not be worried, but this does not give me any confidence to fly with an airline which does not come clean with what "operation issues" mean. Do they mean people "operating" the plane have "issues" (or problems in plain English) or are they not admitting that these are design faults need immediate recall of the planes like what happens to the car industry?

Is it too much to ask Qantas or Airbus to release the findings of their investigation? The next incident may not be as lucky or less dramatic as these.

Don't trade a living for a pile of junk

Posted to Herald Sun (13/4/2014) on 14/4/2014 at 3:30 AM
Commenting on "Don't trade a living for a pile of junk"
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/opinion/dont-trade-a-living-for-a-pile-of-junk/story-fni0fhh1-1226882726084

Having a degree from a university or college that offers higher qualification does not guarantee that graduate actually earns his/her mark.

Many universities of today are no better than a college with a facelift. TAFE and private colleges that offer Advanced Diploma as the highest qualification can no longer survive. Some have transformed into high-ed institutions offering degree courses, even though they are NOT universities.

The numbers game does not necessarily produce academics or achievers, but on the contrary it makes top students average, and unjustifiably lifts the non-deserving ones at par with the top graduates.

It is disgraceful that university standards have been lowered to improve pass rate. Plagiarism is so prevalent and close to epidemic proportion. Students pay professionals or past year’s students to complete their assignments. Hardworking and top performing students are frustrated by lazy and good for nothing team members in team project work; and unfortunately the genuine students’ outcome is affected negatively.

Australia needs more tradies, NOT university graduates who cannot fix plumbing, electrical works, or build houses. There are not enough upcoming tradies to replace the retiring ones. Whether it is about fixing a leaking toilet cistern, building a house, laying out NBN cable, etc, tradies’ charges will continue to soar unless more qualified tradies enter the workforce.

We MUST lift the educational standards from primary level onwards. A smart nation needs smart people. Unfortunately with our country run by not so smart politicians, things will never work out!

Am I cynical? Yes I am.

More surgery for Angelina Jolie

The Age (13/3/2014) - no comments allowed for the article. The following is not published by Newspaper
Commenting on "More surgery for Angelina Jolie"
http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/celebrity/more-surgery-for-angelina-jolie-20140313-34o26.html

We face risks at the time, whether we are sitting at home doing nothing fearing that a car may run over us if we cross the road, or getting out of the house to avoid the roof may fall onto us and crush us to death.

In Angela Jolie's case, she takes the pessimistic view that 50% chance she will get ovarian cancer or other form of cancers, instead of 50% chance that she will be alright and live a happy life without serious health issues.

Scientists and medical professionals believe that certain defective genes are likely to cause cancers to parts of the body. Is it that simple? Even after the target body parts are removed, the defective genes are still hanging around in the body. Are these nasties going to behave themselves properly or will they find others bad things to do?

Monistic approach in solving complex problems seems naive to me. The cause has not been eradicated and such time bomb will explode in due course. Every evasive and major operations cause damage to certain parts of the body, and resources within the body will have to be channelled to heal or replace those parts, thus compromising the wellbeing of other parts of the body.

If DNA has the genetic blue print of how the body should be built, how does the DNA handle such early termination of certain normal parts? Will the DNA try or send out signals to instruct the body to rebuild the missing parts. How sure are the scientists that the defective genes do not take note of these signals and cause trouble again?

Ticket inspectors won’t get guns

Posted to Herald Sun (8/4/2014) on 8/4/2014 at 3:40 AM
Commenting on "Transport Minister says ticket inspectors won’t get guns if plan for them to carry cash goes ahead"
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/transport-minister-says-ticket-inspectors-wont-get-guns-if-plan-for-them-to-carry-cash-goes-ahead/story-fni0fit3-1226877148082

I can remember the bus conductors and tram conductors collected cash from passengers for fares, but I can't remember they carried guns.

London-Bound MAS Flight Delayed Due To Technical Trouble

Posted to Malaysian Digest (3/4/2014) on 3/4/2014 at 11:02 PM
Commenting on "London-Bound MAS Flight Delayed Due To Technical Trouble"
http://www.malaysiandigest.com/news/495640-london-bound-mas-flight-delayed-due-to-technical-trouble.html

Encountered similar problem on United Air few years ago when returning from LA, transit at Sydney to Melbourne. All the passengers, including my party of six on the leg of our holiday, had already boarded the plane at Sydney.

After five minutes, the passengers were told that the backup power supply malfunctioned, expected to be restored in a few minutes. It was rather warm and stuffy inside the plane.

More than half an hour later, the passengers had to get off the plane back to transit lounge. Another hour passed, but the problem could not be fixed. Finally, the passengers were informed to take a replacement plane to Melbourne.

Sydney Airport rated Australia's worst large airport

Posted to The Age (3/4/2014) on 3/4/2014 at 12:08 PM
Commenting on "Sydney Airport rated Australia's worst large airport"
http://www.theage.com.au/business/aviation/sydney-airport-rated-australias-worst-large-airport-20140403-35zue.html

This must be either the land of whiners or a country run by inapt authorities. Reports after reports, surveys after surveys, nothing has been really done to improve the facilities despite increased air traffic and therefore inbound and outbound passengers.

ACCC is a toothless tiger, the government is a sham and the operators are laughing to the bank. The day will come when the whiners whine no more, because they become too demented to remember what their grievance is or they can no longer afford to travel anymore because travel insurance costs more than the travel itself.

PM never said MH370 had crashed (Post 2 of 2)

Posted to Free Malaysia Today (31/3/2014) on 1/4/2019 at 8:49 PM
Commenting on "PM never said MH370 had crashed"
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/03/31/hisham-pm-never-said-mh370-had-crashed/

MH370 is not the first and will not be the last airplane to be missing mysteriously. Most people are really good armchair generals, and many more speculate without evidence or foundation.

Closure is one of those words with a modern twist that I can't really understand. No premature death can have closure. There are too many why's to be answered.

It took many years for Titanic, warplanes and warships to be located despite fairly well documented evidence and eye witnesses' account.

Commonsense tells us that even all the floating debris are scooped up from the ocean surface and proven beyond any shadow of doubt that they belong to the plane, the location of these finds bear no relevance to the point where the plane went down, if it did go down in the Indian Ocean.

After spending many hours watching many episodes of "Air Crash Investigation", I am no wiser than those poor frontline people that have to face the music.

To be fair to them, they are as much in the dark as everyone else including the so called experts. Finger pointing neither brings MH370 back, nor improve air safety. The crux of the matter is "no one knows what had happened to MH370. Did it take a different flight path? Did it end in the south of Indian Ocean?"

PM never said MH370 had crashed (Post 1 of 2)

Posted to Free Malaysia Today (31/3/2014) on 1/4/2019 at 8:38 PM
Commenting on "PM never said MH370 had crashed"
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/nation/2014/03/31/hisham-pm-never-said-mh370-had-crashed/

Ended does not necessarily mean crashed. A plane may have exploded in mid-air and fragments fell into the ocean, or like the US Airways Flight 1549 landed in Hudson River, Canada are technically speaking not "crashes".

Inmarsat blow for Malaysia, time running out for SAR

Posted to The Ant Daily (31/3/2014) on 1/4/2014 at 2:18 PM
Commenting on "Inmarsat blow for Malaysia, time running out for SAR"
http://www.theantdaily.com/news/2014/03/31/inmarsat-blow-malaysia-time-running-out-sar

MH370 is not the first and will not be the last airplane to be missing mysteriously. Most people are really good armchair generals, and many more speculate without evidence or foundation.

Closure is one of those words with a modern twist that I can't really understand. No premature death can have closure. There are too many why's to be answered.

It took many years for Titanic, warplanes and warships to be located despite fairly well documented evidence and eye witnesses' account.

Commonsense tells us that even all the floating debris are scooped up from the ocean surface and proven beyond any shadow of doubt that they belong to the plane, the location of these finds bear no relevance to the point where the plane went down, if it did go down in the Indian Ocean.

After spending many hours watching many episodes of "Air Crash Investigation", I am no wiser than those poor frontline people that have to face the music.

To be fair to them, they are as much in the dark as everyone else including the so called experts. Finger pointing neither brings MH370 back, nor improve air safety. The crux of the matter is "no one knows what had happened to MH370. Did it take a different flight path? Did it end in the south of Indian Ocean?".