I was invited to deliver the keynote address at the College of Staten Island High School Commencement Ceremony on 24 June 2010.You may have wondered what I said. Here is the commencement address I delivered – warts and all.

Commencement Address

Thank you for inviting me to address the graduating class today. I am so pleased to be part of this memorable occasion. Congratulations, graduates!

Having spent many years as a college professor before joining the United Nations, I appreciate the dedication and sacrifice of your teachers and staff who have worked alongside you. To them:  Congratulations on a job well done.

And as a parent, I appreciate the support and sacrifice of your parents and family. I congratulate them as well.

When I first received the invitation to address this graduation ceremony, I was excited. Wow, my first commencement speech ever at CSI High School.

Then reality quickly set it when I sat down to draft my speech. What could I say that would be refreshing and new to a graduating class of bright young people? What grains of wisdom could I share that would inspire them?

Over the years there have been thousands upon thousands of commencement speeches all around this country that have been penned by people more eloquent than I could ever hope to be.

For example, Barbara Kingsolver opened her commencement address at Duke University with a quotation from her book Animal Dreams:

The very least you can do in your life is to figure out what you hope for. The most you can do is live inside that hope, running down its hallways, touching the walls on both sides.

Or the challenge posed by Paul Hawken in his address to the graduating class of Portland University

You are going to have to figure out what it means to be a human being on earth at a time when every living system is declining, and the rate of decline is accelerating.

Inspiring stuff. And, yes, these are tough acts to follow.

On a more modest scale, I decided I would talk about Time.

Kingsolver in her address offers an approach to shaping how you spend your Time after graduation.  Hawken in his address talks about how humanity is running out of Time to save our world from an environmental disaster. So Time and its utilization is a theme running through their messages, And if you bother to look, I think you will find many such references appearing in many more commencement messages to graduating classes in campuses around the country.

Use your time wisely. Don’t waste your time. How often have you heard these words directed to you?  I can see you understand what I mean.

While Time holds a unique place in science and the human consciousness, defining or describing it has been extremely elusive.  Philosophers and scientists have grappled with this problem from time immemorial.

Some define Time as an invention of the human consciousness that gives us a sense of order — a before and after so to speak.

Many physicists define Time in terms of the physical properties of a space-time dimension.

This can get really profound – and confusing.

So, let us return to this particular point in the space-time dimension – to this commencement ceremony, in this hall, on Staten Island, June 24^th 2010.

As an economist I have been fascinated by Time utilization – about decisions individuals and households make with regard to how to allocate their time between work and leisure in their immediate situations and over their lifetimes.

Part of this interest in Time allocation, I realized later in life, probably was inspired by the death of my father when I was nine which forced my mother to rejoin the labour force in order to provide for me and my three brothers.  Her life changed dramatically when my father passed and she had to reallocate her time between work, housework and caring for her children. At that point in her life she had very little control over how she would allocate her time.

Life is largely unpredictable, for the most part, and we have to go with the flow.

Shakespeare expressed this most eloquently in his play Julius Caesar, in a conversation between Brutus and Cassius

There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune

Your tide has arrived and you will be making some important decisions.

For a long time your allocation and use of time has been controlled or directed by your parents or your teachers. Time for bed, time for school, time for homework… But this is going to change, or has changed.

Only you can decide how you will best utilize this precious and limited time granted to each of us – the gift of life.

One decision I hope all of you will make is to go on to college.  I trust you will attend college not simply because of the scroll you will receive after four years but for the opportunities you will have to explore, question and reflect on a wide range of issues within a supportive community.  It is Time for personal development and introspection. I guarantee that it will be Time well spent.

However, college does not represent the end of learning. It is a first step.

Arthur C. Clarke, best known for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey which inspired the Stanley Kubrick movie of the same title, reflecting on the role of technology in society said

We have to abandon the idea that schooling is something restricted to youth. How can it be, in a world where half the things a man knows at 20 are no longer true at 40 – and half the things he knows at 40 hadn’t been discovered when he was 20?

Yet, continuous learning is not confined to coping or adjusting to technology but includes learning for our personal growth and development as active, contributing members of society and the global community.

In the last 30 years the material wealth in this country has increased steadily, but the self-described happiness of citizens has steadily declined. People who consider themselves very happy are in neither the very poorest nor the very richest countries. They are found in countries like Mexico, Ireland and Puerto Rico — the kinds of places with the most community.

Therefore beyond college and further into your adulthood I would urge you to think more about the Time you should devote to community – starting with your family and extending your personal involvement to the global community.

Devote Time to your friends and family, and when you are parents devote Time to actually listening to your children.

And your generation will need to expand its vision to devote Time and effort to think and act as a global community so that we can effectively address the political, social, economic and environmental challenges facing our lonely blue planet.

Success is not measured by having boatloads of money, but if you do achieve this, make sure you emulate people like Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett in this country who think of community and their social obligation to help build a better world.

You can be an active participant, or a passive bystander.  I know you will make the right choice.

Let me finish with these words of inspiration, once again, from Arthur C. Clarke.

The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.

Thank you and Bon voyage!

Henry passed away 12 years ago in March.  He would have been 58 years old in October this year. These are some early photographs which record his participation in an Outward Bound Course in Lumut soon after he had graduated from the University of Malaya.

Henry receiving his Certificate of Merit

Learning to sail

Taking a break..

Together with his team-mates

Henry took to the Outward Bound Course like a duck to water, and his experience there launched his life-long fascination with wind-surfing. An avid sportsman, Henry excelled in this sport as he did in competitive ten-pin bowling, tennis, golf and darts.

CHILDREN AND FAMILIES SPEAK OUT AGAINST POVERTY

The 2009 observance will take place on Monday, October 19 at United Nations Headquarters in New York.

There is an International Committee for the International Day which released their annual message recently to mark the Day.

Two American economists, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson, who study the way decisions are made outside the markets on which many other economists focus, were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics Monday.

Ms. Ostrom, who teaches at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ill., is the first woman to win the prize, which, before Monday, had been awarded to 62 men since it was launched in 1969 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Swedish bank. The judges cited “her analysis of economic governance, especially the commons,” the way in which natural resources are managed as shared resources. It is an area of research that she said was relevant to questions surrounding global warming, and suggests that decisions by individuals can help solve the problem even as governments work to reach an international agreement.

AFP/Getty Images

Elinor Ostrom, left, and Oliver E. Williamson

Ms. Ostrom “challenged the conventional wisdom that common property is poorly managed and should be either regulated by central authorities or privatized,” the Nobel judges said. “Based on numerous studies of user-managed fish stocks, pastures, woods, lakes, and groundwater basins, [Ms.] Ostrom concludes that the outcomes are, more often than not, better than predicted by standard theories. She observes that resource users frequently develop sophisticated mechanisms for decision-making and rule enforcement to handle conflicts of interest, and she characterizes the rules that promote successful outcomes.”

Ms. Ostrom, who was interviewed by phone during the announcement press conference in Stockholm, described the prize as “an immense surprise,” and said, “I’m still a little bit in shock.”

Her Ph.D. is in political science, but she said she considers herself a political economist.

Mr. Williamson, who is at the University of California at Berkeley, was cited for “for his analysis of economic governance, especially the boundaries of the firm” — the reason some economic decisions are made at arm’s length in markets and others are made inside a corporation.

“The drawback of markets is that they often entail haggling and disagreement,” the judges said. “The drawback of firms is that authority, which mitigates contention, can be abused. Competitive markets work relatively well because buyers and sellers can turn to other trading partners in case of dissent. But when market competition is limited, firms are better suited for conflict resolution than markets. A key prediction of [Mr.] Williamson’s theory, which has also been supported empirically, is therefore that the propensity of economic agents to conduct their transactions inside the boundaries of a firm increases along with the relationship-specific features of their assets.”

The economics prize is the only one of the six Nobel prizes not created in Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel’s 1896 will, and is officially known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.

The two economists will share a 10 million kronor prize (about $1.4 million). Ms. Ostrom said she hopes to devote the proceeds to supporting research and graduate students.

Cornell University’s Integrated Web Services
has good advice for web authors…

http://wpg.cornell.edu/iws2/resources/writing.cfm

1. Write for scanners and grazers.

• Research: According to Jakob Nielsen, only 16% of typical web users read each word. 79% of users scan a page, and then move on.
• Tip: To engage users, avoid using too many adjectives or jargon-heavy promotional language. Highlight the most important points and use the language that will reach the widest possible audience.
• Good Example: Penn Law School identified the unique qualities that they wanted users to remember about Penn. They made these points prominent on the page, and they didn’t dilute the message with too many words. The result is scanner’s delight, and each point receives the emphasis it deserves. http://www.law.upenn.edu/about/index.html
• Bad Example: Duke Law’s “About” section is a long unbroken text with no place for the eye to rest. Users must work hard to discover what is unique about Duke. http://www.law.duke.edu/about.html

2. Leave your users satisfied. Users become frustrated when they can’t find expected information.

• Tip: Think of a page from the user’s perspective. For instance, a user expects to find out how to visit a school in an Admissions section. This information is important for prospective students, prospective faculty, conference attendees, and anyone else who needs to find their way around. Of the top ten law schools, only Northwestern, Michigan, and UVA include easily accessible information about hotels and parking.
• Good Example: While Northwestern Law School’s site has some visual weaknesses, they’ve done a good job of satisfying users hoping to visit the school. http://www.law.northwestern.edu/mainpages/visit/
• Bad Example: Harvard’s site buries important information, including accommodations and parking maps for notoriously congested Cambridge. Users, including faculty visitors, prospective students, and vendors may become frustrated by the inaccessibility and lack of navigation to help find practical visitor information. http://www.law.harvard.edu/admissions/

3. Write for a global audience.

• Include content that appeals to international users.
• Good Example: Columbia Law School has a strong presence in international law. At all levels of their site, they emphasize their international connections and make their international audience comfortable. The site even lists current students and graduates who are foreign nationals. http://www.law.columbia.edu/intl
• Bad Example: Michigan Law School, despite requiring a course in Transnational Law and having a strong joint degree program in Japanese and Chinese studies, includes no information for international visitors or prospective students. Judging only from site content and navigation, Michigan feels like a regional school trying to cash in on global buzz words. http://www.law.umich.edu/curriculum/index.htm

4. Users want to know how you can help them.

• Make information relevant.
• Anticipate needs.
• Show, don’t tell.
• Good Example: Tuck, Dartmouth’s business school, prominently features photographs and quotes from alumni that discuss the aspects of Tuck that have helped them in their legal careers. http://www.tuck.dartmouth.edu/

5. Tell Your Story. Before you begin writing your content, develop a list of themes and important adjectives to incorporate into your copy, images, and captions.

• Tip: Be sure to maintain a consistent voice that develops your unit’s themes throughout the site.
• Good Example: UCLA Law changed a potential liability–their relatively short history–into a strength. On their “About” page, a lack of tradition became a “tradition of innovation.” The school extends the theme of innovation throughout their site. http://www.law.ucla.edu/home/index.asp?page=2
• Bad Example: Stanford Law’s website is a jumble of information. From the scrolling graphics to the difficult to read navigation, it’s hard to know Stanford’s story by looking at their site. http://www.law.stanford.edu/about/history/

6. Use an inverted pyramid structure. The broad side represents the most important information; the tip represents the least important.

• Get to the point immediately.
• Users want to know at a glance whether a page is going to either contain, or point them to, the information for which they’re looking.
• Think newspaper, not journal article.
• Good Example: The University of Pennsylvania’s site consistently uses pyramid structure and fewer words to tell their story. www.law.upenn.edu

7. Avoid complicated sentence structure and vary the sentence structure. Reading text on the web is much more taxing than reading it on paper. Don’t tire your audience.

8. Limit your great ideas to one per paragraph.

9. Chunk information.

• Research shows that people learn best with information presented in small chunks.
• Use formatting techniques, such as bullets, to chunk information.

10. Proofread your work. Then ask someone who does not work with the information to proofread it again.

11. Use bullets, but not too many.

• Bullets lead the eye down the page.
• Too many bullets are overwhelming, and detract from the prominence of each.

12. Use internal sub-headings as scan-able markers.

13. Use active voice and action words wherever possible. Avoid tired, promotional language. For example, on MIT’s Business School, they describe the faculty/student interaction as having “crackling energy.”

14. Create a style document for your section of the site.

15. Think before breaking multi-page documents into multi-pages. Sometimes breaking text into different pages causes user fatigue. Users don’t always want to click and wait for a page load. Consider whether breaking a long document into multiple pages will disrupt the flow.

This is an interesting story of the team that designed the UN logo.

Donal McLauglin, helped design the UN emblem, dies at age 102

Earlier this year iSeek posted a brief article on the history of the United Nations emblem, developed by Donal McLaughlin and a team of designers.  Mr. McLaughlin passed away in his sleep on Sunday, 27 September at the age of 102.

At the request of organizers of the United Nations Conference on International Organization, the historic 1945 San Francisco Conference at which the UN Charter was drafted, the U.S. State Department asked the Office of Strategic Services to help create all the graphics.

Mr. Oliver Lincoln Lundquist headed the team of designers tasked with creating an identifying lapel pin for the delegates.  The seemingly small task of creating an image for the pin went to a team of designers, including Mr. McLaughlin who has been previously profiled on iSeek.  Mr. McLaughlin went through dozens of designs until he created what became the prototype for the iconic UN logo we use today.

A revised version of the original design by Mr. McLaughlin was officially adopted as the United Nations emblem by resolution 92(I) on 7 December 1946.    

As we look forward to the celebration of UN Day later this month, we can seek inspiration in the contributions that many have made to the United Nations in the course of their day to day work that has resulted in a lasting impact – in this case the design of a small button that became recognized world-wide as the symbol of an organization dedicated to all nations working together for peace and development, based on the principles of justice, human dignity and the well-being of all people. 

Follow this link for the video

This speech will go down in history as one of the most convincing arguments for genetic modification for some members of parliament.

Victorian MP Jason Wood was supposed to be talking about genetically modified organisms when he ran into trouble.

And just in case anyone missed him talking about "genetically modified orgasms" the first time, he repeated it.

"I support the member for McMillan's call for the government to conduct an independent broad-ranging scientific investigation into the genetic modification of food and biotechnology to assess not only the health of the crops and the food, but also the potential for contamination, the commercial implications for Australian primary industry, and the benefits and risks associated with genetically modified orgasms, orgasms," Mr Wood said.

The La Trobe MP, who did not have the hallmarks of a great orator, sounded a little confused about the word, so tried pronouncing it two ways.

He did not correct his mistake, instead moving on rather hurriedly to the climax of his speech.

Later in the speech he did refer to "genetically modified organisms."

Perhaps fortunately for Mr Wood, who hails from Melbourne's outer east, he gave his orgasm speech at 9.25pm when the house was almost empty.

He was speaking in support of a motion moved by fellow Liberal Russell Broadbent during the adjournment debate, raising concerns about genetically modified crops.

It is officially the first day of SPRING!  But wait…it is snowing.

Keong Hee Huat Chye(Hokkien)
Xi Fa Cai (Mandarin)

The year of the OX kicked off today and New Year celebrations last for 15 days. For Hokkiens the 15th Night (Chap Goh Mei) – the last night of the New Year festivities – is celebrated in a big way since it coincides with the first full moon of the New Year.

Our modest dinner:

Steamed Red Snapper; Garlic Shrimps; Baby Bok Choy and "Joo Hoo Char".