The Amazing Diversity

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I have been observing amazing diversity in my TA class.

In the start of the semester, each team will choose two information security topics and present one of them. There are about 14 teams and 18 topics. Initially I was concerned that if many teams choose the same topics, especially the hot ones, then we need to spend a lot of time to adjust. It turned out that the preference of the class is very diverse so that each team can present what they want. I am pretty sure there were no negotiations between teams, so such diversity occurred naturally. Why students' interests are so different? When did the difference emerged in their lives? College? High school? Despite the mystery of the origin, this diversity could put them into different positions in the future, which is a very good thing to see.

Another case for me to observed diversity is the project report. Each team is required to write a vulnerability analysis report of a fake company. Although the flexibility of this assignment is rather small, I still observed great diversity in their reports. The angles are different, technologies are different, format are different, etc...

And when I grade quizzes, I tend to think poor performance of some students as a sign of diversity, instead of a sign of lazy, stupidity, etc. Some answers are not wrong, but just different from the standard ones. And I do believe the students who provided those different answers are matched for some special tasks in the society.

It might sounds crazy, but I do feel that the world is so beautiful because of such diversity exists.

If I have time, I would definitely spend some efforts on studying diversity.


References:

[1] The picture. http://theragblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/mercedes-lynn-de-uriarte-supreme-court.html

Breaking Bad is Bad

Breaking Bad is one of the most successful TV shows in the history. It got 9.6/10 in IMDB and 94 awards including Emmy Awards.

After watching the first two seasons and the beginning of season 3, I have to say that I do not know why it is so successful. Is it because finally some bad guys become the main characters? Or it is because drug is a topic many Americans are interested in? Or most ordinary people have a hidden impulse to break bad?

But I do know why I don't like it:

1. Many episodes are actually unnecessary. Especially, the episodes related to Walter's family. You definitely know what gonna happen in his family: Skyler will find out the truth someday. However, at least 1/3 of the time is spent on conflicts in the family which won't push the main theme further. In other episodes where Walter and Jesse do the business, the story writer always try to insert some incidents to make their time harder. And it is really intrusive and make the show unrealistic.

2. The show has a negative emotion. I am not saying it is negative because it portrays drug dealers. I feel it is negative because the show is full of trivial arguments and fights, yelling, dirty words, losers, and frustrations. And it is especially sad to see Walter gradually changed from a decent teacher to a lunatic. I think this will make some audience including me uncomfortable after watching it.

3. You cannot learn something from it. While amusement is one motivation to watch Breaking Bad, I do want to learn something from it. However, I failed to remember anything valuable from it, even English. As a non-native speaker, watching TV show is a good way to learn English language. But Breaking Bad cannot help me with that because most of the sentences are short and simple...

I won't watch it anymore and instead resume watching Law and Order. It is a fairly old show but tells quite a lot about American legal system and the society. The sophistication of the language is also a plus for an English learner.


References:
[1] http://www.joblo.com/newsimages1/Breaking%20Bad%20The%20Soundtrack.jpg