30 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Horrible

Here's a tongue-in-cheek take on the most commonly misused words in English. I've had to answer these questions countless times, or worse, having to correct these mistakes in the students' work. The first step is to be aware, so please check if you're making any!

30 Incorrectly Used Words That Can Make You Look Horrible

Jeff Haden | May 13, 2014

Easy to get wrong. And easy to get right

Adverse and averse

Adverse means harmful or unfavorable; “Adverse market conditions caused the IPO to be poorly subscribed.” Averse means dislike or opposition; “I was averse to paying $18 a share for a company that generates no revenue.”

But you can feel free to have an aversion to adverse conditions.

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Affect and effect

Verbs first. Affect means to influence; “Impatient investors affected our roll-out date.” Effect means to accomplish something; “The board effected a sweeping policy change.” How you use effect or affect can be tricky. For example, a board can affect changes by influencing them, or can effect changes by implementing them. Use effect if you’re making it happen, and affect if you’re having an impact on something someone else is trying to make happen.

As for nouns, effect is almost always correct; “Once he was fired he was given 20 minutes to gather his personal effects.” Affect refers to emotional states so unless you’re a psychologist, you’re probably not using it.

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Compliment and complement

Compliment is to say something nice. Complement is to add to, enhance, improve, complete or bring close to perfection. So, I can compliment your staff and their service, but if you have no current openings, you have a full complement of staff. And your new app may complement your website.

For which I may decide to compliment you.

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Criteria and criterion

“We made the decision based on one overriding criteria,” sounds pretty impressive but is wrong.

Remember: one criterion, two or more criteria. Although you could always use reason or factors and not worry about getting it wrong.

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Discreet and discrete

Discreet means careful, cautious, showing good judgment; “We made discreet inquiries to determine whether the founder was interested in selling her company.”

Discrete means individual, separate or distinct; “We analyzed data from a number of discrete market segments to determine overall pricing levels.” And if you get confused, remember you don’t use “discreetion” to work through sensitive issues; you exercise discretion.

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Elicit and illicit

Elicit means to draw out or coax. Think of elicit as the mildest form of extract or, even worse, extort. So if one lucky survey respondent will win a trip to the Bahamas, the prize is designed to elicit responses.

Illicit means illegal or unlawful. I suppose you could “illicit” a response at gunpoint … but best not.

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Farther and further

Farther involves a physical distance; “Florida is farther from New York than Tennessee.” Further involves a figurative distance; “We can take our business plan no further.” So, as we say in the South, “I don’t trust you any farther than I can throw you.” Or, “I ain’t gonna trust you no further.”

(Seriously. I’ve uttered both of those sentences. More than once.)

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Imply and infer

The speaker or writer implies. The listener or reader infers. Imply means to suggest, while infer means to deduce (whether correctly or not). So, I might imply you’re going to receive a raise. You might infer that a pay increase is imminent. (But not eminent, unless the raise will be prominent and distinguished.)

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Insure and ensure

This one’s easy. Insure refers to insurance. Ensure means to make sure. So if you promise an order will ship on time, ensure it actually happens. Unless, of course, you plan to arrange for compensation if the package is damaged or lost — then feel free to insure away.

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Number and amount

I goof these up all the time. Use number when you can count what you refer to; “The number of subscribers who opted out increased last month.” Amount refers to a quantity of something you can’t count; “The amount of alcohol consumed at our last company picnic was staggering.”

Of course, it can still be confusing: “I can’t believe the number of beers I drank,” is correct, but so is, “I can’t believe the amount of beer I drank.” The difference is I can count beers, but beer, especially if I was way too drunk to keep track, is an uncountable total — so amount is the correct usage.

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Precede and proceed

Precede means to come before. Proceed means to begin or continue. Where it gets confusing is when an “ing” comes into play. “The proceeding announcement was brought to you by …” sounds fine, but preceding is correct since the announcement came before.

If it helps, think precedence: anything that takes precedence is more important and therefore comes first.

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Principal and principle

A principle is a fundamental; “We’ve created a culture where we all share certain principles.” Principal means primary or of first importance; “Our startup’s principal is located in NYC.” (Sometimes you’ll also see the plural, principals, used to refer to executives or (relatively) co-equals at the top of a particular food chain.)

Principal can also refer to the most important item in a particular set; “Our principal account makes up 60% of our gross revenues.”

Principal can also refer to money, normally the original sum that was borrowed, but can be extended to refer to the amount you owe — hence principal and interest.

If you’re referring to laws, rules, guidelines, ethics, etc., use principle. If you’re referring to the CEO or the president (or the individual in charge of the high school), use principal.

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And now for those dreaded apostrophes:

It’s and its

It’s is the contraction of it is. That means it’s doesn’t own anything. If your dog is neutered (that way we make the dog, however much against his will, gender-neutral) you don’t say, “It’s collar is blue.” You say, “Its collar is blue.” Here’s an easy test to apply: Whenever you use an apostrophe, un-contract the word to see how it sounds. In this case, turn it’s into it is. “It’s sunny,” becomes, “It is sunny.” Sounds good to me.

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They’re and their

Same with these; they’re is the contraction for they are. Again, the apostrophe doesn’t own anything. We’re going to their house, and I sure hope they’re home.

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Who’s and whose

“Whose password hasn’t been changed in six months?” is correct. “Who is [the un-contracted version of who's] password hasn’t been changed in six months?” sounds silly.

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You’re and your

One more. You’re is the contraction for you are. Your means you own it; the apostrophe in you’re doesn’t own anything. For a long time a local nonprofit had a huge sign that said “You’re Community Place.”

Hmm. “You Are Community Place”?

Probably not.

Credit

Read: Why is Inequality the Hot Issue Right Now?

WHY IS INEQUALITY THE BIG HOT ISSUE RIGHT NOW?

Writer Jimmy Guterman takes society’s temperature and digs into the reasons we’re all talking about inequality.

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the 21st Century is a book of our moment. It may be the most unlikely egghead highbrow bestseller since A Brief History of Time – and it’s a lot longer than Stephen Hawking’s slender guide. Piketty’s 577-page tome (685 with index) argues that economic inequality is increasing and that’s a bad thing. That argument is resonating at a time when politicians of all stripes in democracies on multiple continents are also arguing that economic inequality is increasing and that’s a bad thing. The politicians are responding to something that their constituents know already.

This fascination with economic inequality is not an immediate reaction to an external event, but it might be a delayed reaction, an instance of cultural post-traumatic stress. By many measures, the world economic crisis began seven long years ago. It may have taken that long for the shock to be understood; the recent arguments that accompanied the release of the memoir by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner suggest that the wounds are still raw. But, just as the famous saying goes, “You don’t want a good crisis to go to waste,” will we let this increased interest in economic inequality turn into something useful or will it fade away?

Piketty’s book doesn’t define the moment so much as it is a symptom of the moment. U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren is touting her new book, A Fighting Chance, which is part standard political autobiography and part moral outrage at inequality. (Among American politicians in the recent past, John Edwards may be the one who has spoken most frequently and movingly on the topic of inequality, but he is too damaged a public figure to carry that banner any more.) Two recent short-lived U.S. political movements, Occupy on the left and the Tea Party on the right, were built on the idea that there is something fundamentally unfair going on. They offered drastically different diagnoses, but they both saw the U.S. as irrevocably moving away from fairness.

THERE’S EVEN MORE DISPARITY BETWEEN THE RICH AND THE POOR NOW IN SOUTH AFRICA THAN THERE WAS DURING APARTHEID.

And it’s not just in America that the rift is growing between the top 1% or so and everyone else. It’s a global issue. In Russia, 110 billionaires control 35 percent of the sprawling nation’s wealth (and 93 percent of the country have assets of less than $10,000). The global “race to the bottom” for labor costs leads to tragedies like last year’s Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh, the deadliest garment-factory accident in history, the sort of event that can occur only if an economy’s modus operandi is to exploit the many for the needs of the few. Even countries once lauded for their relative economic equality, like Sweden, are seeing the richest of the rich grab a larger percentage of the nation’s wealth. The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, shows there’s even more disparity between the rich and the poor now in South Africa than there was during apartheid. Perhaps the most vivid evidence of the global nature of global inequality is the new home, in Mumbai, of mogul Mukesh Ambani: a 27-story, 400,000-square-foot skyscraper, complete with a “health floor” and a full-size ballroom.

Of course, life has always been unfair. Utopian movements that promise to address this tend to either evaporate or morph into dystopias, as happened in the USSR. (To be fair, some argue that Piketty’s call for a global tax on wealth is Utopian, too.) Inequality has been a topic of best-selling books in the West at least as far back as the New Testament (the book of James in particular). The recent volumes by Piketty and his many comrades show that the inequality problem may have gotten worse in recent decades, but it has been bad, even worse than now, many times before. Inequality isn’t new. What is new is the attention it’s getting — and how quickly that recognition has moved rhetoric to policy. A national referendum in Switzerland has given shareholders more power in limiting executive pay. From a country whose wealth is based in large part on hosting the most opaque banks offered up by any democratic country, that’s an encouraging start.

CONSIDER THE CURRENT LIGHT BEING THROWN ON INCOME INEQUALITY AS THE ECONOMIC VERSION OF FASHION.

The desire, if not yet the will, to reduce income inequality might also be a fad, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad thing. Sometimes a fad can be a harbinger of change. Fads provide simple solutions that don’t necessarily address the nuances of complex problems (you’ll lose weight if you make only one change to your diet or behavior, your company will get bought out by Google if you follow these 10 laws of success), but they also shine a light on those problems.

So you can consider the current light being thrown on income inequality as the economic version of fashion, a change in hemline length that might make for a better world. It may seem ridiculous to compare something as elevated as economic research with pop culture, but they’re on the same continuum. It’s easy to make fun of well-meaning celebrities like Bono or Angelina Jolie who make inequality their public issue. It’s fair game to acknowledge that there’s some narcissism embedded in celebrity do-gooding. But the fact is that many, many more people know something about global issues of wealth and poverty because of celebrities. I don’t want to count on a rock star or a movie actor to lead a revolution, but I don’t want to bar them from the party either. Just because something starts as a fad doesn’t mean it has to remain a fad. Whenever a one-percenter acknowledges the problem and suggests a solution, be that one-percenter an entertainer, an astonishingly successful investor from Omaha, or a software entrepreneur who’s become the most important philanthropist of our time, a space for hope opens up.

Inequality is never going to go away. Redirecting a handful of super-rich toward the needs of the masses is only a small step in the right direction. But it is the right direction. Anything that can help turn around the massive, slow ocean liner we all live on, an ocean liner inching inexorably toward a waterfall, be it as weighty as Capital or as slight as a commodity item that gains some faddish meaning because it happens to be colored red, should be welcomed.

Jimmy Guterman is editorial director of Collective Next and a curator of TEDxBoston. He spoke at TED University in 2008 and at TED2012.

Read: Norway uses waste as eco-friendly fuel

Norway burns rubbish to get energy - and avoids resorting to landfill

Forget coal, oil, shale gas, even nuclear. The bin bag - full of your household waste - is becoming one of Norway's fuels of choice.

Try to imagine the smell when a bin lorry passes you on the street on a hot summer's day. Breathe it in through your nostrils. Stinks, doesn't it? Now multiply it by a thousand.

That's what it is like inside the largest energy recovery facility in Norway, the Klemetsrud plant. A vast concrete hall of waste. Tens of thousands of tonnes of rubbish piled up. The conveyor belts clunk and clank as more pours in. Bin lorries reverse towards the chutes and tip out more plastic bags of waste.

A huge industrial claw swoops down, its pincers reaching round a tonne of rubbish, picking it up and transporting it to the other end of the hall, where it is dropped. A cloud of white dust builds, and soon fills the hall. It is not good to stay in here too long.

This is where the waste thrown out by millions of households from Norway, Britain and elsewhere is turned into heat and electricity for the city of Oslo.

Cheap heating

The rubbish is pre-sorted. Everything that can be recycled is meant to have been taken out, but even then they are still left with more than 300,000 tonnes a year.

They do not see it as waste here - they see it as energy.

"Four tonnes of waste has the same energy content as one tonne of fuel oil," says the director of the waste-to-energy agency in Oslo, Pal Mikkelsen.

"That means a lot of energy, and we use very little energy to transport it."

One tonne of fuel oil, Mr Mikkelsen says, could heat a house for half a year. In other words, take just part of an English bin lorry's maximum load picked up on the streets of Leeds or Bristol, turn it into energy here - and you can heat a home in Oslo for half a year.

The process is simple. The waste, tonne by tonne of it, is dropped into an incinerator. It soars to 850 degrees. Peeking through a small porthole of toughened glass, the fire burns bright orange with a fierce roar of flames.

Greener schools

Not everything is burned. Old tin cans and some mattress springs are left. At the end of the process they are left with ash, metal -which is recycled - and a lot of heat.

The heat boils water. The steam drives a turbine, which produces electricity. And the scalding water is piped off from the plant, to houses and public schools across Oslo.

Which means at Bjoernholt School the technical manager, Agnar Andersen, does not have to worry about fuel deliveries during the harsh Norwegian winter any more.

"We don't have to think about fuel oils or fossil fuels. They are phasing out the last school this year with fossil fuels."

At full capacity the plant will provide all the heat and electricity for Oslo's schools and heat for 56,000 homes.

An environmentalist's dream, you might have thought. Not necessarily, cautions the chair of Friends of the Earth Norway, Lars Haltbrekken.

"The overall goal from an environmental perspective should be to reduce the amount of waste, reuse what we can reuse, recycle, and then the fourth option is to burn it and use the energy.

"We have created such an overcapacity in these power plants in Norway and Sweden. We have made ourselves dependent on producing more and more garbage."

Send us your rubbish

Supporters disagree, and point out that, used together, all of Europe's current waste-to-energy plants could only consume about 5% of the continent's total annual landfill. Norway - they say - is actually helping to dispose of some of that waste in the best way possible.

That is certainly true in the case of the English cities Leeds and Bristol. Both export waste to Oslo. Rather than pay for it to go into landfill after the recyclable bits have been removed, they actually pay Oslo to take it off their hands.

So, Oslo is paid to dispose of the rubbish, and gets energy out of it as well.

The waste-to-energy revolution can also be heard on the streets of the Norwegian capital, as the number 144 bus rumbles past.

It is powered by biogas, created from the city's decaying organic matter. One kilogramme of food waste produces half a litre of fuel. Use all of the organic waste they have and they will be able to power 135 buses year-round in Oslo.

If this whole project were repeated across Europe, Pal Mikkelsen believes it would make a huge difference.

"I think it would mean we get a lot better level of self-sustainability when it comes to energy. If it's done properly it would also mean a lot more materials recovery. And a sharp decrease in the landfill."

With tight controls to clean up the gases from the burning, Oslo believes converting waste into energy will help it to halve its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions within 20 years - making a city, whose wealth was built on oil, one of the greenest on the planet.

- By Matthew Price, Europe correspondent, Oslo 

Read: See seniors as part of the solution

See seniors as part of the solution 
By Rosemary Khoo AND Chiang Hai Ding Published: May 29, 4:01 AM Updated: May 29, 4:10 AM

Many seniors in Singapore, more so in the heartlands of the Housing and Development Board (HDB) than in the bungalow belt, worry about their future. Where will they live in their old age? Can they pay their medical bills? Will their Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings last their lives? Will they die alone and uncared for?

Their worries are quite remarkable because Singaporeans have among the highest per capita incomes and, through the CPF, are among the world’s biggest savers. Singapore has one of the most successful public housing programmes and one of the most effective and cost-efficient health systems. It is also quite remarkable because senior issues have, in fact, received a lot of attention from our Government and there is a lot going for seniors here.

More than 30 years ago, the first study of our ageing population was made — the Howe Yoon Chong Report in 1984, which was followed by two Inter-Ministerial Committee reports, Healthcare of the Elderly and The Ageing Population, in 1997-1998. 

In 2003, the Committee on Ageing Issues was established and in 2006, a minister in charge of ageing issues was appointed. 

So, what are the reasons for the worries of senior citizens? 

There are two. 

NOT SEEING FULL PICTURE

On the part of some movers and shakers, there is, first, an ageist way of thinking. Singaporeans’ life expectancy of 82 years is the fourth best in the world. Yet, instead of celebrating one of the successes of the Singapore Story, they bemoan the impending “silver tsunami”; seniors are regarded as a “burden”.

They point to an antiquated statistic, the “dependency ratio” of the number of working adults who supposedly support one economically useless senior. This overlooks the fact that many seniors are, in fact, asset-rich, having paid for the HDB flats that they live in.

Second, there is the unfortunate tendency towards silo thinking on ageing issues — to look at seniors as a bundle of problems that have to be tackled one at a time. While many “solutions” have been attempted, they address specific problems and fall short of looking after the whole person, the senior.

Recently, about 60 National University of Singapore (NUS) senior alumni and friends — mostly over 65 years old – met at a forum, supported by the Our Singapore Committee, to examine and help propose solutions to issues of our ageing population. 

While looking to the Government to adopt a “whole-of-government” approach and to take the lead in some areas, the senior alumni also proposed how they, and other seniors, could themselves contribute to the solution. 

VERTICAL KAMPUNGS FOR SENIORS
One starting point is the success story that is the HDB, which houses more than 80 per cent of our citizens. However, Singapore seniors have four basic needs: Housing, healthcare, money and friends. As such, retired architect Andrew Tan proposes that the HDB build “vertical kampungs” — new senior housing units based on a modular design and are located in existing HDB estates. 

Seniors could be allowed to trade-in their HDB flats for these new type of units, which could come with a basic healthcare package in the form of health promotion programmes and periodic health screening, as well as a national insurance plan which pays for medical care. 

Assuming that an old three-room flat is valued at S$400,000, and a new HDB unit at S$36,000, the participating seniors would be able to afford their healthcare and medical needs and still have spending money left over. This holistic approach would require the HDB to work with the Ministries of Finance, Health and Family and Social Development. 

Living within such an HDB community, seniors can then be enabled to seek fulfilment in meaningful social activities. These could include volunteering and lifelong learning. 

It is a myth, stressed NUS Professor of Psychological Medicine Kua Ee Heok, that people over 65 are frail and of no economic value. Research shows that many seniors are involved in community activities as volunteers in schools, libraries, museums, children’s centres, seniors’ homes and so on. Indeed, most of the participants at the session were volunteers, and they believe more could be done to create awareness of the needs of society and to equip volunteers with proper skills. 

HEALTHY IN MIND AND BODY
What also helps seniors to enrich and prolong their lives is lifelong learning. One suggestion from a group led by NUS Senior Alumni Vice-President, Mr Chua Joon Eng, was: Why not create a fund for seniors to facilitate this — CogniSave, similar in concept to MediSave, since mental health is as important as physical well-being?

Most courses offered in educational institutions here are work-related. For seniors who are more able to enjoy their leisure, there is a mishmash of courses, forums and talks offered by disparate bodies of presenters. 

One promising development last year was the start of the Singapore arm of the University of the Third Age — where there are no assignments, tests or term papers. 

It provides a space for seniors to interact and where “those who teach shall also learn, and those who learn shall also teach”.

To have peace of mind, dignity and hope in their old age, seniors should be empowered to arrange for their own healthcare costs. One participant, for example, proposed Forward Planning Health Insurance on a national basis, in which higher premiums are paid earlier during one’s working life and premiums get lower as one ages.

Ultimately, as geriatrician Carol Tan reminds us all, good health is essential to ageing with dignity and hope. “Seniors will be less fearful when they are aware that there are services available, affordable and accessible,” she added. 

Can we transform the latter years of senior citizens in Singapore into golden years? We believe we can. 

Credits: http://www.todayonline.com/commentary/see-seniors-part-solution?singlepage=true 

TEDTalks: What it’s like to grow old, in different parts of the world

An interesting article that explores different attitudes and practices to the elderly in different parts of the world.

"There's an irony behind the latest efforts to extend human life: It's no picnic to be an old person in a youth-oriented society. Older people can become isolated, lacking meaningful work and low on funds. In this intriguing talk, Jared Diamond looks at how many different societies treat their elders — some better, some worse — and suggests we all take advantage of experience."


What it’s like to grow old, in different parts of the world
Posted by: Elizabeth Jacobs November 25, 2013 at 3:55 pm EDT

The world’s population is getting older. Across the globe, people are living longer thanks to improvements in healthcare, nutrition and technology. This population shift brings with it incredible possibilities, but also a new set of challenges. How do we care for our elderly?



In today’s talk, Jared Diamond examines the vast differences in how societies across the globe view and treat their senior citizens. Some groups revere and respect their oldest members, while others see them as senile and incompetent, making them the butt of jokes. In some societies, children care for their parents at home, while in other cultures, children put their parents in homes where others care for them. Some cultures even see their elderly as a burden and resource drain, and opt for more violent approaches to senior care.

The Western system for elder care is far from perfect, notes Diamond, and everyone stands to learn something from how different societies care for their seniors. Watch his talk to hear what he means, and below, read some further insights on how people across the globe treat their old folks.

Who is considered old?
As Diamond mentions in his talk, the perceived value of the elderly is an important factor in determining whether seniors are respected or not. And this may be a function of who is considered old. In the United States a senior citizen is defined as someone who is 65+. But in other parts of the world, like New Guinea, anyone 50 or over is considered lapun, or an old man. As Diamond points out in his book, The World Until Yesterday, this difference has wide implications, as the two age groups tend to have a different set of physical and mental abilities.

The United Nations recently turned its attention to developing policy to support aging populations around the world — and their line for elderly begins at 60. In fact, the UN has started celebrating the International Day of Older Persons in October, which acknowledges the contributions to society made by those over the 60-line.

Where do the elderly live?
The Confucian teaching of filial piety shapes the living arrangements of elderly Chinese, Japanese and Korean people. About ¾ of elderly Japanese parents live with their adult children, a pattern replicated in Korea and China. China’s new Elderly Rights Law mandates that children visit their parents frequently, no matter how far away they live. If children don’t comply, they could face fines or jail time. “We raise our children to take care of us when we get old,” one Chinese senior citizen told the BBC.

But of course, it doesn’t take Confucian ideals to place value on spending time with the elderly. Article 207 of the French Civil Code, which was passed in 2004, requires that adult children “keep in touch” with their elderly parents. The law was passed, according to a recent article in The Week, in response to a study that showed a high rate of elderly suicides in France, and to a heat wave in which 15,000 mostly elderly people died,

In India and Nepal, the tradition has long been: a newlywed couple moves in with the groom’s family, in what’s called a patrilocal living arrangement. But shifting economic forces are reshaping residence patterns, according to the University of Maryland’s India Human Development Survey. As parts of the country urbanize, children are moving hundreds of miles away from their parents. The Indian and Nepalese governments are addressing this by developing state-run elderly care programs.

What words describe the elderly?
A culture’s respect for the elderly is often reflected in its language. Honorific suffixes like –ji in Hindi enable speakers to add an extra level of respect to important people — like Mahatma Gandhi, who is often referred to as Gandhiji. According to Wikipedia, mzee in Kiswahili — spoken in many parts of Africa — is a term used by younger speakers to communicate a high level of respect for elders. And as this report reveals, the Hawaiian word kūpuna means elders, with the added connotation of knowledge, experience and expertise.

And then there’s the suffix –san in Japanese, which is often used with elders, reveals the nation’s deep veneration for the old. The country regularly holds Respect for the Aged Day, with the media running special features that profile the oldest Japanese citizens. The Japanese also see a person’s 60^th birthday as a huge event. Kankrei, as the celebration is called, marks a rite of passage into old age.

What special foods can the elderly eat?
Around the world, a number of traditional societies reserve certain foods for the elderly, Diamond reveals in his book. In Nebraska, only senior members of the Omaha Indians eat bone marrow — they believe that if young men do so, they will sprain an ankle. Similarly, the Iban of Borneo advise that only old men eat venison because, if the young taste it, it could make them timid. In Siberia, the Chukchi believe that reindeer milk will make young men impotent and young women flat-chested, so it’s reserved only for older people.

The group with the strongest food taboos: the Arunta Aboriginies, who live near Ayers Rock in Australia. Eating certain foods can lead to a “series of dire consequences for young people,” as Diamond notes in The World Until Yesterday. The Arunta believe that eating parrots will create a hollow in a young man’s head, and a hole will grow in the chin. If young Arunta men eat wildcat, they will develop painful and smelly sores on their head and neck. According to societal belief, young women who eat kangaroo tails will age prematurely … and go bald. Meanwhile, quail consumption will lead to stunted breast development, and conversely, eating brown hawks will lead the breasts to swell and burst, without even producing milk.

Do the elderly have special powers?
As Diamond mentions in his talk, many elders are respected because of highly specialized skills and knowledge. For example, Hawaiian grandmothers are revered for their unique knowledge and skill at creating ornate leis and feather accessories. Similarly, since an elderly woman in New Guinea was the only person alive who witnessed a devastating typhoon, her people looked to her for guidance on which plants are safe to eat if another disaster were to strike. Even Western societies revere the experience associated with age — the average age for a US President is 54; the average age for a Supreme Court justice is 53.

But certain societies take this a step further and attribute magical powers to the elderly. The Huaorani people of Ecuador believe that elderly shamans, called mengatoi, are endowed with magical powers, according to this Thinkquest article. This society believes that shamans can transform into jaguars. These elderly healers sit with the infirm to channel their animal spirits a cure for disease.

And what does the end of life look like?
End-of-life decisions vary drastically across cultures. Some societies do everything possible to keep their elderly alive. Other groups, however, see old and frail members as a burden, and thus take steps to end their lives. In his talk, Diamond notes that eldercide typically happens in communities that are either nomadic, or that live in harsh climates with limited resources.

According to a study in American Ethnologist, the Chukchi of Siberia practice voluntary death, in which an old person requests to die at the hand of a close relative when they are no longer in good health. And in The World Since Yesterday, Diamond notes that the Crow Indians in the US and Norse tribes in Scandinavia follow similar practices — the elderly put themselves in an impossible situation, like setting out to sea on a solo voyage. Finally, the Ache of Paraguay let their men wander off to die on the “white man’s road,” and — perhaps shockingly to some — they kill elderly women by breaking their necks.

On the flip side, the curious Greek island of Ikaria seems to have life-extending magic in its soil, notes The New York Times. Residents of this small Mediterranean island are four times more likely than their American counterparts to live to 90, and they live on average 8 to 10 years longer after being diagnosed with cancer or cardiovascular disease. Its residents don’t rush through life: they stay up late, eating Kalamata olives, drinking mountain tea and swimming in the crystal-clear water. The answer to this island’s longevity probably lies in its eating patterns and relaxed lifestyle, but nobody can definitively explain the magic behind this island of centenarians.

What are the traditions surrounding old age in your culture?

O Level English & JC GP: Materialism

Materialism: a system that eats us from the inside out 
Buying more stuff is associated with depression, anxiety and broken relationships. It is socially destructive and self-destructive

Owning more doesn't bring happiness: 'the material pursuit of self-esteem reduces self-esteem.' Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/PA 

That they are crass, brash and trashy goes without saying. But there is something in the pictures posted on Rich Kids of Instagram (and highlighted by the Guardian last week) that inspires more than the usual revulsion towards crude displays of opulence. There is a shadow in these photos – photos of a young man wearing all four of his Rolex watches, a youth posing in front of his helicopter, endless pictures of cars, yachts, shoes, mansions, swimming pools and spoilt white boys throwing gangster poses in private jets – of something worse: something that, after you have seen a few dozen, becomes disorienting, even distressing.

The pictures are, of course, intended to incite envy. They reek instead of desperation. The young men and women seem lost in their designer clothes, dwarfed and dehumanised by their possessions, as if ownership has gone into reverse. A girl's head barely emerges from the haul of Chanel, Dior and Hermes shopping bags she has piled on her vast bed. It's captioned "shoppy shoppy" and "#goldrush", but a photograph whose purpose is to illustrate plenty seems instead to depict a void. She's alone with her bags and her image in the mirror, in a scene that seems saturated with despair.

Perhaps I'm projecting my prejudices. But an impressive body of psychological research seems to support these feelings. It suggests that materialism, a trait that can afflict both rich and poor, and which the researchers define as "a value system that is preoccupied with possessions and the social image they project", is both socially destructive and self-destructive. It smashes the happiness and peace of mind of those who succumb to it. It's associated with anxiety, depression and broken relationships.

There has long been a correlation observed between materialism, a lack of empathy and engagement with others, and unhappiness. But research conducted over the past few years seems to show causation. For example, a series of studies published in the journal Motivation and Emotion in July showed that as people become more materialistic, their wellbeing (good relationships, autonomy, sense of purpose and the rest) diminishes. As they become less materialistic, it rises.

In one study, the researchers tested a group of 18-year-olds, then re-tested them 12 years later. They were asked to rank the importance of different goals – jobs, money and status on one side, and self-acceptance, fellow feeling and belonging on the other. They were then given a standard diagnostic test to identify mental health problems. At the ages of both 18 and 30, materialistic people were more susceptible to disorders. But if in that period they became less materialistic, they became happier.

In another study, the psychologists followed Icelanders weathering their country's economic collapse. Some people became more focused on materialism, in the hope of regaining lost ground. Others responded by becoming less interested in money and turning their attention to family and community life. The first group reported lower levels of wellbeing, the second group higher levels.

These studies, while suggestive, demonstrate only correlation. But the researchers then put a group of adolescents through a church programme designed to steer children away from spending and towards sharing and saving. The self-esteem of materialistic children on the programme rose significantly, while that of materialistic children in the control group fell. Those who had little interest in materialism before the programme experienced no change in self-esteem.

Another paper, published in Psychological Science, found that people in a controlled experiment who were repeatedly exposed to images of luxury goods, to messages that cast them as consumers rather than citizens and to words associated with materialism (such as buy, status, asset and expensive), experienced immediate but temporary increases in material aspirations, anxiety and depression. They also became more competitive and more selfish, had a reduced sense of social responsibility and were less inclined to join in demanding social activities. The researchers point out that, as we are repeatedly bombarded with such images through advertisements, and constantly described by the media as consumers, these temporary effects could be triggered more or less continuously.

A third paper, published (paradoxically) in the Journal of Consumer Research, studied 2,500 people for six years. It found a two-way relationship between materialism and loneliness: materialism fosters social isolation; isolation fosters materialism. People who are cut off from others attach themselves to possessions. This attachment in turn crowds out social relationships.

The two varieties of materialism that have this effect – using possessions as a yardstick of success and seeking happiness through acquisition – are the varieties that seem to be on display on Rich Kids of Instagram. It was only after reading this paper that I understood why those photos distressed me: they look like a kind of social self-mutilation.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons an economic model based on perpetual growth continues on its own terms to succeed, though it may leave a trail of unpayable debts, mental illness and smashed relationships. Social atomisation may be the best sales strategy ever devised, and continuous marketing looks like an unbeatable programme for atomisation.

Materialism forces us into comparison with the possessions of others, a race both cruelly illustrated and crudely propelled by that toxic website. There is no end to it. If you have four Rolexes while another has five, you are a Rolex short of contentment. The material pursuit of self-esteem reduces your self-esteem.

I should emphasise that this is not about differences between rich and poor: the poor can be as susceptible to materialism as the rich. It is a general social affliction, visited upon us by government policy, corporate strategy, the collapse of communities and civic life, and our acquiescence in a system that is eating us from the inside out.

This is the dreadful mistake we are making: allowing ourselves to believe that having more money and more stuff enhances our wellbeing, a belief possessed not only by those poor deluded people in the pictures, but by almost every member of almost every government. Worldly ambition, material aspiration, perpetual growth: these are a formula for mass unhappiness.

Twitter: @georgemonbiot. A fully referenced version of this article can be found at Monbiot.com Credits: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/materialism-system-eats-us-from-inside-out

JC GP: Major Sporting Events - Yay or Nay?

Found an article which is great for your recent AQ assignment (RI Promos 2010). This article propounds Hitchens' ideas and highlights an issue that was not discussed in-depth in the passage. Read on and take some notes.

Pertinent issues are highlighted in maroon.


Anger and denial as Qataris defend country's right to host World Cup 
Organising staff continue work on stadium designs amid wave of home-grown conspiracy theories and international scandal

Reaction in Doha to the allegations has swung between blithe dismissal and a siege mentality as preparations continue. Photograph: Karim Jaafar/AFP/Getty Images 

Said Brahimi should be in his footballing prime when the World Cup kicks off in Qatar in 2022. He plays on the right wing for the national under-19s side and will be 26 when the tournament starts – the same age as Adam Lallana, the England attacker who is about to get his first chance at World Cup glory in Brazil.

But , as he pulled on his boots to train with the national side on a full-sized air-conditioned pitch, the 18-year-old had to face up to calls for his country to be stripped of the event, amid the growing furore over claims of bribery during the bidding process by a top Qatari football official.

"[To prevent us] from getting the World Cup, which is the biggest event in the world, would be really upsetting," he said. "I don't think that's fair because everyone worked so hard. They planned everything and now it has just gone because of some people trying to get the whole country down."

What he may not comprehend, partly because the allegations have only been cursorily covered in much of the press in Qatar, is the extent and seriousness of the claims that Mohamed bin Hammam, the former Fifa executive committee member who previously led Qatar's football authority, spent $5m in cash and gifts to international football officials in the bidding process.

But the disbelieving response of Brahimi, the Qatari-born son of an Algerian engineer for whom Qatar's successful bid is a huge opportunity, reflected anger and suspicion in Doha this week where reaction has swung between blithe dismissal and a siege mentality.

The Qatari press has reported the allegations but has focused strongly on the organisers' denials of any wrongdoing rather than the details of the claims themselves. On Monday, the Qatar Tribune led with the robust rebuttal from the Qatar 2022 supreme committee, while it relegated the story to a three-inch column reporting on how the head of the Asian Football Confederation, Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim al-Khalifa of Bahrain, believed the doubts about the bidding process raised by the allegations "will be cleared up soon".

"People here feel frustrated," said one Qatari sports official who asked not be named. "Why are people attacking us like this? It is our right to host the 2022 World Cup. It was voted for by the European delegations too. Are they corrupt?"

Another official said the claims in the Sunday Times were "ridiculous", "entirely predictable" and "nothing new". He added dismissively: "There's no reaction, people here are cool. Work is in progress."

But Tariq, a Bangladeshi driver plying his trade on the coastal Corniche road, summed up another strain of reaction to the bribery allegation: "I am 99% sure it's true. What they are building here is a bubble and it is not real. We are modern slaves here and only if you chose to ignore human rights should the World Cup go ahead."

Did he believe the bid was corrupt? "Yes," he said. "On the outside they wear white, but on the inside they are black."

Hosting the World Cup is a huge deal for the Qataris, who form a minority of the country's 2.2 million population, which is made up mostly of 1.4 million migrant workers. It has become a pivotal part of the nation's 30-year development plan, so the possibility that the tournament is in jeopardy has sparked serious concern.

In the supreme committee's headquarters in a twisting 40-storey skyscraper overlooking the Arabian Gulf, inhouse lawyers have been poring over the allegations in order to "take whatever steps are necessary to defend the integrity of Qatar's bid". A London law firm has also been retained. The atmosphere is tense. The committee repeated in a statement this week: "Mohamed bin Hammam played no official or unofficial role in Qatar's 2022 bid committee."

There was a sense of anger inside the headquarters that what the bid's leaders say was a World Cup won against the odds through hard work and meticulous networking was being tarnished. They also feel that it has been overlooked that Bin Hammam was also bidding to become president of Fifa at the time of some of his controversial activities.

The claims are just the latest wave of criticism undermining the embattled Qatar 2022 organising committee. 350 staff have continued to work on stadium designs and technical plans for the event as a wave of international scandals have swept over the proposed tournament , from labour rights abuses, previous claims about Bin Hammam's behaviour, and the admission, by Fifa's secretary general himself, Sepp Blatter, that it was "a mistake" to award Qatar the tournament on the basis of hosting it in the summer when temperatures top 46C.

The breadth of conspiracy theories in Qatar about the evidence contained in the email cache obtained by the Sunday Times suggests a degree of unwillingness to even consider the possibility the bid may be tainted. One sports official told the Guardian the story was to distract from the problems dogging preparations for the World Cup starting in Brazil next week. Some suspect an assault by the British media, apparently believing there is state control of the press in the UK as there is in Qatar. That theory is driven by the well-reported frustration in the UK at England's failed bid to host the 2018 event, which was awarded at the same time as the 2022 tournament.

Perched on a velvet cushion sipping tea outside a shop in the Souk Waqif displaying a five-foot high replica World Cup decked out in Qatari colours, Mohammad Hamad said he would be dismayed if Qatar lost the right to host the tournament.

"I heard this on the news and it's not right at all," said the Syria-born shopkeeper. "People in Qatar are very proud of this and live for football, and the Qataris want the world to come here and to see that this is a great place."

The extent of the damage will only emerge fully in July when a semi-independent report on the bidding process is due to be sent to Fifa. Before then, the Sunday Times is promising fresh revelations this weekend to coincide with the Fifa congress in Brazil.

Meanwhile preparations for the 2022 World Cup continue in the supreme committee's brightly furnished offices. A bid clock reminds staff it is 96 months, 9 days, 22 hours, 57 minutes and 44 seconds away. The question remains: will Fifa pull the plug?

O Level English & JC GP: Environment, Climate Change

Obama says carbon pollution caps will 'protect health of vulnerable' – as it happened 

• EPA unveils proposal to cut carbon emissions at power plants 
• Gore: 'most important step' on climate in US history 
• Plants to cut pollution 30% from 2005 levels by 2030 
• Critics say plan too costly – or cuts not deep enough

President Barack Obama will outline new regulations to cut carbon emissions to 30% of 2005 levels by 2030. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP

Summary of what was being said

• President Barack Obama unveiled a proposal for new limits on carbon pollution at existing power plants. It was the first regulation of its kind ever proposed by the White House.

 • Under the plan, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a goal of 30% reductions in carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. Reductions would vary by state.

 • The proposal was generally welcomed by environmental groups, but decried by business and the coal industry for potentially costing jobs and money while having limited environmental benefits.

 • The EPA has tailored its emissions goals state-by-state, taking into account each state’s fuel mix, its electricity market and numerous other factors. A text of the plan is on the EPA web site here.

 • Global leaders on environmental issues welcomed the move, saying it could jump-start a stalled international conversation.

 • Obama touted the health benefits of decreased carbon pollution. “In America we don't have to choose between health of our economy and the health of our kids," he said in a conference call. "We can do both."

View the full coverage here

O Level English & JC GP: Racism

Article from http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/28/racism-is-still-with-us-lying-britain-survey-racial

Racism is still with us – let's stop lying to ourselves 
Our vision of ourselves for global consumption is one of a post-racial Britain. But a survey shows that it's patently false

The 2012 Olympics, with images of Jessica Ennis and Mo Farah happily draping the union jack around their brown shoulders heralded the dawn of a post-racial Britain. Or so went the script. The image of ourselves presented for global consumption was one of a rainbow nation in which hard work and determination could overcome racial prejudice. After the heat of that summer, we strode along boasting of how much had been achieved, likening racism to an endangered species soon to be fully extinct within our progressive society. A survey of British social attitudes by NatCen, reported in this newspaper, proves otherwise: racism is on the rise.

The survey shows that three in every 10 of us describe ourselves as being "very or a little racially prejudiced". Though the number is lower than figures from 30 years ago (36%), it is higher than in 2000 and 2001 (25%). The highest recorded levels were from 2010, when 37% labelled themselves as racially prejudiced.

From such data, it's evident that merely plastering images proclaiming Britain's racial diversity as evidence of the eradication of racism rings hollow. Perhaps it is time for the government to reinvest in the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which in 2012 had its budget and staff halved. On the basis of the funding decision, the government must think racism is not that much of a problem any more; indeed, nor is discrimination based on disability, sexual orientation, age or religion.

Discussing racism as something still in existence has become hotly contested. Those who label acts as racist find themselves on the receiving end of accusations that they are overly sensitive and paranoid. We are the ones who are the real racists, we are told, breeding division where there should be cohesion with our desire to see racism everywhere. Yet when only 4% of British Pakistanis can say that they are not at all worried about being harassed because of their race or religion, and 65% of black Africans are very or slightly worried about religious or racially motivated attacks, then we need to remember that talking about racism as if it doesn't exist is in fact another instrument in the silencing of black and minority ethnic (BME) voices. It is yet another sign that we don't share in the myth of equality that is so readily served up to us. In fact, experience tells us that our reality is very different from that rendered on advertising billboards and magazines.

NatCen's research makes for especially interesting reading on racism and class. Old assumptions are seemingly affirmed. It is older men in manual work who are most likely to admit to being racially prejudiced. For women, those who work part time are more ready to admit their prejudice. Why? Dr Grace Lordan from the London School of Economics suggests it is related to the poor working conditions such women are forced to endure. Again, this is a formula for racial discrimination that we are happy to accept – it is primarily the problem of the poor, too unenlightened to understand that the nonexistent R-word is passé, to say the least.

This is another lie, an act of hypocrisy that is breathtaking when fully considered. It was the middle class and very learned historian David Starkey who espoused – unchallenged – 19th‑century ideas about the inherently violent nature of "blacks" on national news. Most recently, the multimillionaire friend of David Cameron, Jeremy Clarkson, continues to enjoy a contract funded by the public that permits him to "humorously" jabber racist rubbish at us. And of course, Ukip's public school-educated leader, Nigel Farage, believes it mere common sense to worry about Romanians moving next door. On top of that, there is always the dehumanising language of hordes and swarms.

Farage, with his German wife, proves himself to be rather pathetically predictable – there is the right type of immigrants, who don't look and act too foreign, and the wrong type, who do. It is the latter that have always proved problematic for Britain.

Our largely middle class media and political class are happy to sing variations of this tune but reluctant to claim their share of responsibility when such talk inevitably comes home to roost. It is no surprise that there is a correlation between spikes when people admit their racial prejudice and when anti-immigration rhetoric and Islamophobia are dished out as reasoned stances against impending doom.

To see racism as singularly the problem of one social class is another refusal to view it as a pernicious issue that is supported by structures within society. Though this report gives voice to the resentments of powerless individuals, it shouldn't blind us to the fact that racism is at its most damaging when institutions are at fault.

Around 50% of young black men are unemployed compared with 20% of their white counterparts. In 2010, over 50% of black seven-year-olds and nearly three-quarters of their Pakistani and Bangladeshi counterparts were living in poverty. Gypsies and Travellers have a life expectancy that is 10 to 12 years lower than that of the general population. Black pupils are three times more likely than any other groups except Gypsy and Traveller children to be permanently excluded from school. And on and on the stats go. It is not individuals but institutions that are perpetuating racial inequality. If NatCen's survey does anything, it should be to make us stop lying to ourselves. There isn't anything post about racism: it's here and now.

Essay Transitions

Too often students use the same old transitions over and over again in their essays. Firstly... Secondly... Thirdly... Anyone? 

Good transitions can form strong links between your paragraphs and show readers the relationship and logic in your points.

Try your hand at some of these words and see if it makes a difference in your essay!

Addition

• furthermore
• moreover
• too
• also
• in the second place
• again
• in addition
• even more
• next
• further
• last, lastly
• finally
• besides
• and, or, nor
• first
• second, secondly, etc.

Exemplification or Illustration

• to illustrate
• to demonstrate
• specifically
• for instance
• as an illustration
• e.g., (for example)
• for example

Comparison

• in the same way
• by the same token
• similarly
• in like manner
• likewise
• in similar fashion

Contrast

• yet
• and yet
• nevertheless
• nonetheless
• after all
• but
• however
• though
• otherwise
• on the contrary
• in contrast
• notwithstanding
• on the other hand
• at the same time

Intensification

• indeed
• to repeat
• by all means
• of course
• doubtedly
• certainly
• without doubt
• yes, no
• undoubtedly
• in fact
• surely
• in fact

Summary

• to summarize
• in sum
• in brief
• to sum up
• in short
• in summary

Credits to https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/Transitions.html