University.

It’s the next step for many of us after primary and secondary school. University is the goal for many of us. I finally reached it, after many years, along with millions of other students this year and the years before. This period can be exciting and overwhelming at the same time.  During high school there were days that I couldn’t have waited to get out of those four walls. Then there are some days like today, where I asked myself will I be able to do it, what if I’m not cut out for it? I still tend to have panic attacks occasionally about going to university, although it’s starting in three weeks.

I can’t speak for everyone but I have been looking forward to university, a lot. Especially “freshers” week where everyone gets to meet everyone and have a good time all week. I think going into university, this big transition shouldn’t be worried about, rather celebrated! We’ve made it this far, we don’t have much further to go, its just more school and then our jobs and thats all we need to see right now. I think if we look too much into the future, we won’t be able to enjoy what we have now and what we have coming for us in university — the learning, the fun, the parties,  the mistakes we are yet to make, we must look forward to those most of all. We finally get to learn what we wish to, subjects we always have enjoyed and loved, I think that is the biggest reward of all.

It’s intense — what happens in the one year and summer that passes by without us realizing before one of the biggest chapters of our lives. In between maintaining our averages, or upgrading our skills, filling out applications, planning for dances, and sorting the how and where you’re going to live for university, with the anxiety of waiting for the admissions letters and celebrating graduation at the same time studying for the immediate exams, it flies by. Most of my friends this summer spent their time with friends, going to new places, to festivals, just on adventures, and having fun getting lost in the moment. But I spent the summer job hunting, upgrading courses, seeing old friends, celebrating new ones and volunteering for the last time with the Calgary Humane Society.

I guess what I’m trying to say with this article that seems to be all over the place, is take a breather.  I know plenty of you are heading to university, many different ones in a few weeks, so what I am trying to say is just take a breath. Just take the breath and celebrate and just try to enjoy this in between stage where we have no impending homework, or due dates for projects or big exams as scary as diplomas. I think it’s important to right now even if you’re working, or buying stuff or moving in, just take a breather and enjoy it. Because from what I hear, this is the last time we get for just kicking back and relaxing without much stress or any for some.

For my entire childhood, I’ve associated the term “Artificial Intelligence” with Wall-E and Star Wars characters. But no longer. AI is not out beyond the horizon anymore, but rather it is a very plausible reality. Countries are flooding AI companies with federal grants. Computing power in our world is doubling every 18 months. In fact, at the end of July, Facebook had to shut down one of its AI experiments because two AIs started communicating to each other in a language that they created, that humans could not understand. With this development comes much excitement and much fear. Computing has finally reached a new level, that could potentially mean even greater accomplishments in the future. However, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Steven Hawking have all warned that AI could potentially have unforeseen consequences on the human race. At this potential turning point in technology engineering, let’s take a look back at what got us here.

1955 – The term “Artificial Intelligence” is coined

In a study jointly proposed by many scientists and tech professionals, they mentioned the term “artificial intelligence”, the first time that phrase was used. That one term really brought all of the work that had been done in the field over multiple centuries under the same banner.

1997 – Deep Blue is the first AI robot to beat a world champion at chess

This was the first time that many citizens learned about the true power of AI. Deep Blue, an AI machine made by IBM, defeated Garry Kasparov, the reigning chess world champion. It was truly a defining moment in AI history that brought positive publicity and awareness to the field of AI.

2009 – Google starts to develop a driverless car

This was the starting date of Google’s driverless car development. Many aspects of road conditions and other cars had to be taken into account during programming, making this task widely considered impossible. But Google defied all expectations when it became the first self-driving vehicle to pass a driving test in the USA in 2014.

These three events are widely considered to be the largest huge milestones in AI development history. With every coming day, more developments are made, and we get closer to a world where AI will eventually match, and perhaps even surpass, human intelligence. Until then, we can only wait in suspense and in excitement for the world that awaits us!

Further Reading:

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August: Host of the dog days of summer, and quite literally the “Sunday” of summer. Whether you’re excited about school or not, the month can produce bittersweet sentiments. For some, school is unimaginable and the very thought of it makes you want to vomit. For others, school represents friends and cherished extra-curriculars. Whatever the case may be, August is the month of last ditch efforts to savour the sweltering sun and relax in non-sub-zero temperatures that Canadians are so accustomed to. With this in mind, having the perfect soundtrack to your summer can be a tedious and sometimes nearly impossible task to curate. Therefore, I’ve taken it upon myself to carefully craft a playlist for the last days of summer. Lay in the grass, live in the moment, and maybe give these songs a listen.

https://open.spotify.com/user/22uhrnzxzeyzop6wxqau5fwea/playlist/1yHT1ykiNxq5zVzPDdaT2O?si=zVWuQjjj

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Preface

I should say that I am in no way against Liberalism and any schools of thought associated with general modern Liberalism. A comparison could be made between schools of thought and physics is that there is a dichotomy between the classic approach and the modern approach.

In physics, the classic approach is the Newtonian style of physics where mathematics is useful and vector/scalar values are relatively small. It is the approach where the action at a distance concept applies. However, in modern physics Newtonian physics is virtually overhauled completely, and the action-at-a-distance idea is replaced by the concept of fundamental particles and the wave-particle duality. Not to mention in modern physics relativistic theory and quantum theory are used in which mathematics falls down completely nearing the apex of theory. Precision and accuracy in classic physics is instead replaced by quantum probability, namely Heisenberg’s Principle of Uncertainty (where velocity and position cannot both be measured exactly).

Much like modern schools of thoughts, there is a lot of grey area in between opposed to the clear distinction between the left and the right wings. To me, the modern framework of schools of thought does cause confusion since words like “liberalism” and “conservatism” are thrown around virtually every single day yet their original meanings have become distorted. As a result of such, in this article I will attempt to rigorously define the terms so that, at least to me, there will not be much confusion.

PART 1. POLARIZATION

I highly recommend reading Genocidal Organ as a thought provoker to understand the way that words and language work, as it truly makes a good premise for the current way the media functions. Words have a lot of influence, from the extreme to the moderate, on human emotions. Certain words incite stronger emotions than others, and leads to people feeling more inclined towards certain ideas than others. I suppose, to some extent, that is the power of the foundation of the human society as a collective. After all, communication is what we use on a daily basis. From how I see it, bias is inevitable as it is part of being human. Even those who claim to be ‘fully objective’ are biased and are inclined towards on ideology compared to another as a result of the subjectivity of objectivity. (See: researcher’s bias/confirmation bias).

Based on these biases, I usually do not discriminate or disparage people for their opinions unless it is polarizing and unjustified. However, something which I cannot tolerate is the current way the mass media functions, as it to some extent can be considered propaganda. Not to discredit the liberal ideology, the majority of media outlets are vastly left wing (i.e. in the modern sense that they trend towards equality and individual freedoms, or what many would consider nowadays, social justice.) While this has had its many benefits on society, such as the various advancement of civil and social issues, we have seen many drawbacks in recent years. I feel like in this case the United States of America would be a very notable case study since the left wing media has indeed contributed to many of the issues in recent years, ranging from the riots (if you read the article you once again notice the confusion between the different school of thought terms being thrown around) to the general suppression of different ideologies (read: Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber.)

If one were to do research on any recent social issues, any semblance of what we would consider to be objectivity, or the semblance to other ideologies that are not left wing is quite minimal, if not nonexistent. While I do not support nor go against the various issues that have occurred, I feel that general discussions need to be raised about the various social issues that have occurred, opposed to the blatant attacks on any persons or ideologies that do not coincide itself to what is the modern left wing thought. It does not take one to venture very far into the internet to see the effects of the media bias. The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Independent, CNN, MSNBC, and Buzzfeed are all pivotal to the promotion of what I would consider borderline extreme modern liberal ideology due to the immense media polarization of the majority of news articles written by their employed journalists. The Wall Street Journal just recently was the centrepiece involved in a fiasco involving YouTube which has led to a massive change in YouTube’s monetization policy. From these issues and more, I feel that the media bias has become more of a damage to society than it can be a good thing as it promotes a central homogeneous ideology that does not allow dissent.

In a time where it is becoming more important to be aware of the various issues in the world from many different perspectives (such as the rivalry between the two superpowers, the United States of America and the Russian Federations), these media outlets which does not promote critical thinking abilities can only serve to create detriments and ultimately cause more harm than good if tensions do rise. Instead of destroying dissenting and opposing ideologies, we should be more open and accept more discussion pointers. Let us think critical, accept different ideologies to truly make an impact.

Part Two and beyond to come in a separate post(s). 

At 8 I was told I’m too dark.

At 10 I was told I look like a terrorist.

At 11 I was told I should shave my face.

At 15 I was told I am too short.

And at 17 I have finally made peace with myself and my body.

Having gone to 14 different schools, I taught myself to have thick skin, to over look the constant bullying and criticism that comes along with being the new “freak” at school. But somehow I was able to overlook the comments that would be falsely and harshly judging my character but I was never able to overlook the comments made on the way I looked.

When I first moved to Canada, I was studying at UHill elementary in UBC. But shortly after turning 8 years old, during the summer my family and I moved yet again, and I found out I am one of the three people of colour in my school. Because of the constant bullying, I ate by myself and some days I flat out refused to eat, I hated going out in the sun because I would only tan. When I went up a grade, my family said I was too skinny, given the fact you could count my rib bones through my shirt. Although things did start to get better for me because I made my first friend there, she was picked on for being too pale so she understood some what I was going through.

When we moved again, it was a fairly diverse school, and although I only went for three weeks, I wish I hadn’t. People called me a terrorist and called me worse names than before, names I would ask my parents about. At this point I flat out refused to get out of the house all summer. I was still not happy with the way my skin looked, so I wore mostly black to make me look lighter against the clothes I wore. When I moved schools again, I was happy because I was friends with many people right away and people were most accepting. Then in about a year, my friends started calling me a boy, because unlike them, I didn’t wear a proper bra yet, because unlike them, most of my friends were guys, and on top of all that the hair on my upper lip would stand out more than most.

Now although I wasn’t discriminated against because of the colour of my skin, I added another thing to my list that I didn’t like about myself. I still have people comment and point it out, but thankfully I don’t let it bother me anymore. In February of this year,  I started to go to the gym. And although I wasn’t seeing too many results I was losing weight and becoming lean. And when I initially started to try dresses on in March, I wasn’t too happy with the way my body looked in any dress. But around came April, and I went to a bridal shop with a friend and after trying on 17 dresses that day alone, I tried on an dark red mermaid dress and I was so happy with the way my body had started to look!

As time went on, I got more and more lazy with how many times a week I would go to the gym. Because of that and stress eating because of IB exams and diploma’s, I found I had gained unhealthy weight again. I became overly conscious about how much I was eating, and I began to eat very little. In June whilst my grandparents were here, they made me promise them that I would eat more and or they would leave early if I didn’t start eating more. I started eating about 2500 calories a day and going to the gym at least 5 days a week with next to no cardio, just moderate weight training and HITT (high interval intensity training) twice a week. Although I was still not seeing the big difference in my body I wanted, I didn’t realize that by the end of July, I had gained 13 pounds, even though I had lost a few inches off my hips and waist! Once I saw that I was 113 pounds finally, I was truly content with my body even if it wasn’t very curvy or strong yet. I started to feel more motivated after seeing that big increase in muscle mass. I started watching a lot of fitness journey videos and about how so many people had the same struggles with their bodies when they first started going to the gym. I did a lot more research about warm ups and exercises, and came up with a workout regimen. I tried my best to only have a cheat snack thrice a week. But the more I did this, the most I fell in love with the way my body is and the way it looks and performs. Instead of focusing on how my body looks, I focused more on how well my body was performing! I never stopped to appreciate how much my body can bear and how well it copes after a workout or how it doesn’t let me down.

For me, I don’t think I would have been able to love my body the way I do now if I had kept focusing on just the way it looks and the way it doesn’t looks like a fitness models (yet). Visual result and performance results takes time, and patience is key. I think we have to be able to love our body before we can start seeing true and effective results. For me, this was a long hard struggle of looking at the glass half full rather than the glass half empty.  From learning to loving the way I rock my skin and body type to the way I look in all clothes and how I look whether I stand or sit, I am finally and for once contented with the way I look.

On August 4, 2017, a soccer team spent 222 million U.S. dollars (193 million euros) on a single player.

For all those people reading this who are fans of soccer, you probably know that this transfer was one of astronomical proportions, a seismic shock that spread across the globe and pierced the hearts of every diehard fan alike. Also, Hi! I’m a soccer/football fan too.

For everyone else who doesn’t have a EPL app on their phone (just me?), lemme clear a few things up. Like any sport, soccer teams spend money every winter and summer season to either buy, sell or loan certain soccer players from other teams to join their own. In many ways, it is a rejuvenation of each team, to fix certain errors in play, and often a preparation for an exciting new season in August. (Which is starting THIS Saturday, by the way).

Usually, these soccer transfers go from 6 digit figures to 8 digit figures, notable ones being Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United to Real Madrid for around 94 million euros, Luis Suarez from Liverpool to FC Barcelona for around 64 million euros, and so on. However, let me  be the first to tell you 193 million euros (or 222 million dollars), is the first seen in history.

Neymar Jr (seen above), a Brazilian left-wing superstar at a mere 22 years of age, transferred from FC Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain, in the most expensive signing of a player since the beginning of time. The cost was so expensive, that various organizations and the federal government of France had to put the club owner, Nasser Al-Khelafi, on the watch-list in suspension of corruption.

For 99% of the world population, 222 million U.S. dollars is a pretty difficult number to digest, so let me help you with some helpful comparisons:

1. 222 million U.S. dollars can buy approximately 750 Ferrari’s. 

2. 222 million U.S. dollars can buy this mansion, and still have around 70 million left.

3. 222 million U.S. dollars is a higher GDP than the countries of Bermuda, Monaco, Venezuela and Libya in 2016.

4. The second most expensive private island in the world, Ronde Island, costs around 100 million dollars.

That means, with 222 million U.S. dollars, you could buy that island, as well as this Lincoln Park mansion too, and still have around 50 million left over… (just imagine putting this mansion on that island, then swimming in 50 million 1 dollars bills…heaven isn’t it.)

With a world record transfer deal like this, it is no wonder why some people are angered over the cost. Twitter users have taken to the internet to complain all about the exorbitant cost of this transfer, and what the money could have been used for instead. (Since anonymous, no link to the tweet…sorry)

But, let’s remember, that even though the cost is ridiculously high, soccer is fundamentally entertainment: one of the most expensive forms of entertainment. European soccer clubs make billions of dollars annually for ticket sales, sponsorships, merchandise and other revenue streams. According to Business Insider UK, PSG alone (the club that spent 222 million dollars on Neymar Jr.) earned approximately 1.4 billion dollars in 2016, the highest of any club that year. So with so much money, is it really a surprise that corruption runs amok? I hope not.

To a majority of soccer fans out there, like myself, there has been a disgusting pattern developing in the sport: the pursuit of money. Big name players, club heroes, legends of the game and young stars, all running off to different clubs and countries looking for a bigger paycheque. They ignore their loyalties and fans, all for an extra bit of back-pocket cash. But it doesn’t stop there. Organizations like FIFA have been overtly corrupt for the past 10 years, claiming themselves to be a non-profit, while possessing over a billion dollars in surplus.

Just when you thought the corruption could not get worse, it does. For the 2022 World Cup, the country of Qatar has reportedly had over 1,200 deaths in construction workers since preparations in 2010. If you are looking for evidence, Fortune International wrote an article talking about different stadiums that were built from “slave workers,” ones who earned pennies for their work, ones who suffer from a lack of basic human rights, and people troubled by other injustices. I highly recommend you have a skim. These are the people who work behind the scenes, the ones who put their lives at risk so we can enjoy 90 minutes of football. Ultimately, this has become the state of modern-day football, and for many like myself, it’s revolting.

But what can we really do? Not much, but what we’ve always done best. Enjoy soccer for the sake of soccer. It is the world’s most celebrated sport, the most popular sport. A sport that can bring millions upon millions of people together under one roof: the love for soccer. And yes, while there is a fraction of the population that plays the sport for a career, the rest us play, for the competition, for the team work, for the moment when you score a goal.

It doesn’t matter how poor or rich you are, the emotions that surge within you when you play the game are the exact same. Whether you have the 100 dollar Premier League Nike Ball, or a hand-sewn ball covered in a trash bag, rolling on the dust. It doesn’t matter if you have your neighbour friend Bill, or Real Madrid’s Gareth Bale playing along side you. It doesn’t matter if you play on the Camp Nou, or pavement on the street. We play, to play. This is what soccer is truly meant to be. This, my friends, is entertainment.

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With many summer commitments, like summer school and SHAD, coming to an end, youth in Calgary are starting to find more time on their hands and starting to head out to the movies with friends more often. I personally have already watched a good number of movies this summer with both friends and family, and I must say that it’s probably one of the best ways to relax and chill! For those of you looking to start watching more movies, I’ve decided to help compile a list of the best summer movies (in my opinion). Don’t worry, the below introductions for the movies will be mostly spoiler free!

Spiderman: Homecoming

I’ll be completely honest, I’ve never been a huge fan of the Spiderman series. Ever since I was little, I always thought Spiderman was the least “cool” of all the Marvel superheroes (I probably just offended 500 people right there). In fact, the only reason that I saw this movie was because I do my very best to keep up with all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe lore, and missing a movie would mess up all the continuity that was already established in my brain. The movie was actually a lot of fun to watch, with lots of unexpected humour and new perspectives about the world that the characters live in. Tom Holland was a great Spiderman actor, and the storyline played perfectly into everything that was already known about the other Marvel movies. This movie made me even more hyped up for the next instalment in the MCU, Thor Ragnarok! You can read more about Spiderman: Homecoming in Ananya’s post from a few days ago!

Dunkirk

So one day I was flipping through the Wikipedia app on my phone and I went to the trending pages bar, to see that the Battle of Dunkirk was the top visited page in the last 24 hours. I was really quite confused about why a battle so long ago in WWII would all of a sudden be the most searched up article on Wikipedia, so I did a quick Google search and voila: it was Christopher Nolan’s new war epic. My first Christopher Nolan movie was Interstellar, which thoroughly impressed me, and so I decided to watch Dunkirk as well to see if it actually lived up to the reputation that critics were giving it. During the movie, the dialogue, explosions, and stressful music all kept me on the edge of my seat. I do have my criticisms for the storyline about the airforce. There were only three British Spitfires from start to finish, and so dogfights were not as exciting as I anticipated. It was also really hard at the beginning to tell which planes were German and which were British, so when a plane went down I wasn’t sure if I should have been happy or sad. The land and sea story lines more than made up for the shortcomings in the air storyline however. All in all, it was a really well made movie that had a perfect soundtrack, which I would highly recommend seeing.

Transformers: The Last Knight

One. Last. Time. Michael Bay’s last Transformers movie lived up to his reputation, with crazy amounts of CGI and an excessive number of explosions. It was an absolutely crazy thriller, and my love for the Transformers series through the years makes me a biased supporter of this movie. I used to be that kid with all the different Transformers toys lined up neatly in my room, and I absolutely enjoyed my first Transformers movie. I know that lots of people criticize the entire Transformers franchise for having an underwhelming repetitive storyline, and I have to at least agree somewhat with that criticism. That doesn’t stop me from recommending this movie to anybody who loves breathtaking scenes and epic robot-on-robot moments!

Despicable Me 3

I’ve been waiting for this one since Despicable Me 2. Way back then, I had a bet with someone that Gru would go back to evil. I don’t remember who that someone was, but if they are reading this right now, please buy me ice cream at McDonald’s like you promised! It was pretty much what you would expect from a good-guy-turned-bad-guy-turned-good-guy-again movie, with random wacky stuff like chewing gum all over the place and a real life (kinda) unicorn. As great as the movie was, I think that it didn’t quite top the Minions movie. Perhaps it’s time for a shift to more of the little yellow guys!

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