J Cook

JC

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  • I think it was about cats and dogs. They watch our every move ie study us! Harlow shows that everyone needs affection, which ties in.

  • I didn't think the Dove ad was patronising either, I was moved by the statistics - how many women, as a percentage of a population, don't see themselves as beautiful. If the stats are right and Dove is targeting them, I say go for it. When I was younger I was very interested in solving homelessness but it's not an easy problem to solve. Shelter is...

  • People love to share stories too, and do that naturally, while sharing information about products doesn't happen nearly as often.

  • There is a theory (I can't remember whose) that certain animals have domesticated us. They study our responses to what they do, and work out what produces food or attention and what doesn't, and reward us accordingly. If ads are manipulative, it seems to me it's in a similar way. We respond positively because we do, so why would someone put out content that we...

  • The votes confirm the statistics - we are all users after all. I wonder how much this will go up or down during COVID as more of use work from home? We use the internet at work and if we use public transport we probably use it then too, and then again when we get home. Perhaps when we get off the computer when working from home we'll do more gardening or...

  • You might think many things in the first place, including where you didn't communicate all of your thoughts to those around you at the time (most of us edit ourselves in company). If so, then when you say 'I thought that would happen' you will be speaking the truth, and even omitting to mention the other thoughts doesn't alter that. People often say, too, 'why...

  • Was the same experiment carried out with a 'don't know' option?

  • J Cook made a comment

    Caselaw is written law, a system of precedent that binds judges deciding like cases. Precedential cases are 'just' in the sense that all relevant factors have been taken into account. If novel facts emerge a new case may be 'distinguished' and decided differently to achieve justice and form a new precedent. Caselaw develops incrementally, but parliament can...

  • You're understanding seems to be based on the Berne Convention - England would have to treat the French film at least as well as it would be treated in France, which may simply mean applying English law if it is as good or better. Maybe Huntley is trying to say that is where you will find the author? The copyright law that is the baseline for equal treatment...

  • The NA is warning against using the contractual expression 'permanent loan' because it is a contradiction in terms and could result in the failure of the intended agreement. The NA is also raising the issue of public funds being expended to maintain private goods that are subject to being recalled by the lender. Rather than seeking permanent donations, this...

  • I would love to see a detailed analysis of this problem. Eg: 1. Piracy is a tragedy of the commons type problem - individual pirates think they are doing very little harm (only taking one video from a very large organisation) and they have no insight into how many other people are pirating the video and the ultimate effect of this on the producers. Perhaps...

  • A global citizen idea model intuitively makes sense - provided there were low-cost options for things like newly-released blockbusters (eg temporary or limited access), pirates should find it harder to rationalise their actions.

  • I have no practical knowledge, but the Society of American Archivists has some suggestions http://www.archivists.org/standards/OWBP-V4.pdf

  • That's not a great track record! I don't know if the copyright issue is what termed a 'wicked problem' but from an economics perspective, the problem is that there is material tied up by copyright laws that could be put to productive use. Economists care about incentives to make work (copyright provides the incentive), and facilitating the use of someone's...

  • J Cook made a comment

    Could the OWR be seen instead as an alternative to copyright registers? It appears to have the advantage that the registration comes into existence only when someone wants to use the work, whereas a copyright register might, over time, become full of redundant material. Either that or creators will lose rights in their works due to non-registration.

  • J Cook made a comment

    The advantage of the exhaustive list is that the law is relatively easy to understand and follow, however new exceptions may need to be added from time to time as new circumstances come to light. The more flexible approach in US law means fewer amendments but it could lead to more disputes. Litigation costs (stress as well as dollars) are borne by private...

  • Hi moderators, the subtitles are out of sync with the speakers - one speaker's subtitles may have been left out.

  • A good contract should balance power between the parties, or rather remove the need for a party to seek to exercise power over another in order to resolve a problem - in other words it supports the formation of a good working relationship by making the rules of the game clear. A good contract should also have an eye to dispute resolution through the courts, as...

  • In most organisations I have worked in, feedback runs in one direction - top down. In one that I worked in everyone was encouraged to give feedback on anything they wished to, twice yearly. The teams worked better together in this environment, and it didn't disrupt the command and control management structure - management was just better informed, that's all.

  • There goes that theory. Difficult issue!

  • I'm not sure that you need to know the other members of your in-group to gain a sense of group identity in the age of mass communication. Advertisers play on the idea that we like to belong to in-groups, and driving a particular kind of car (eg an expensive one) might be all it takes to get you into the club, and feel and act superior as a result. Sports have...

  • Since doing courses on teamwork I have become aware of the emotional states people go through in new situations. There is usually a 'storming' stage followed by a 'norming' stage. Knowing about the storming stage makes it much easier to be patient, to wait before making an assessment of someone's character or how well you will be able to work together, but...

  • I'm interested in your question, Elena. The aspect of my identity that I think is the most culturally conditioned is that I'm highly educated, because in most cultures I wouldn't be. But that didn't stop me getting fired from a job for falling pregnant (insurers wouldn't cover pregnant women in the old days and employers didn't want to take the risk of keeping...

  • If overcoming the monster is about problem solving, then it's as natural as breathing and infuses everything. If it's about overcoming or pacifying an adversary, then that's less common and much more exciting. So perhaps ad agencies play up the idea that problems are dangerous adversaries. The Nike and Ikea ads do this, and I don't think I've ever seen a...

  • It would have been more obvious that the users were heroes if you were watching the campaign in real time on Facebook, although I think there were lots of heroes with different rags to riches stories and I think Skittles was one of them, because each hero in the campaign gets their story written by their audience. Men figuring out how to ask their girlfriends...

  • I don't want to speak against rejection being a spur to trying harder (it works for me!) but she didn't speak as a child, dance was her only way of communication - and her talent was recognised. I think the monster was the age cut off which was probably based on the school's past experience. She used her love of dance plus a determination to succeed to...

  • Plagiarism is about ethical behaviour and I agree, the ethics of the situation can be different in different peoples' eyes. There are also copyright laws to consider. They are about making sure that the person whose original expression of an idea is used by someone else can get compensation for their contribution. Copyright 'disputes' are often settled...

  • Hi Monica, I think the case study is a cautionary tale about the point you make: "If you think you can do a course and become a perfect intercultural communicator that makes no mistakes, think again". Most people seem to be reading the story from Markus' point of view but as you note there are two stories - both Markus and Chen have studied each other's...

  • Hi SW, you may have a point.

  • I think the label refugee can be positive, for example it tells you that those people are likely to be stressed and then you can be more considerate than you might be otherwise. Another thing to think about is that labels often become entrenched because they are used by the government, for example to direct benefits to particular groups, and in this case the...

  • It seems to be about more than being misunderstood since you can communicate something (eg an insult) without even knowing there was any kind of communication going on. I would rather think of this as intercultural miscommunication and developing some kind of shared language or understanding as intercultural communication. All language is contextual and I...

  • Your course was so good there has hardly been any conversation about it - we all seem to be just looking ahead to our next interview instead. Thanks!

  • Thank you.

  • Recruiters in Australia sometimes do something similar. They interview applicants in a group, give the group a problem to solve, then watch what happens.

  • Thanks, I'd never heard of this happening.

  • J Cook made a comment

    Hi, I'm planning a career change but I'm unsure how to articulate my goals and how employers will receive my applications. We're supposed to have several careers in a lifetime now, and our economies are changing rapidly making career changes necessary for some, so I'm hoping there are some good tips out there!

  • I agree with Brian, but it might be worth keeping in mind that the heated version of an argument could stem from an unresolvable disagreement about premises. For example, an argument about whose turn is it to do the washing up could get heated if the participants agree about the structure of the argument but each has a different memory of who did it last time....

  • Employee: I was told this morning that no-one got my message yesterday that I was back in from the field, yet no-one called me or my contact person to find out why I hadn't checked out. I could have been lying in a ditch somewhere.
    Manager: But you weren't were you? Isn't what you're saying only hypothetical?

    Implying there's nothing wrong with the...

  • A and C. Perhaps that's framing too. I'm already thinking of 200 people living, and can't bear to put their lives at risk.

  • The maths would never have occurred to me, but then I don't speed and haven't wanted to work out how much time it would save me. Perhaps speeders don't want to either. Leaving aside impatience or anger, or perhaps because of impatience or anger, could speeders start with the assumption that driving faster will mean they get there faster, but they never find...

  • Statistics are difficult. If you don't have a television but do walk to the beach every day to go surfing, then angry dogs and hungry sharks will be much more likely to injure you than a television set, and there may even be a relatively high chance of being attacked by a shark during the next 20 years, except for the fact that from next year onwards shark...

  • And some of those customers might be happily experiencing the placebo effect. Confirmation bias might be a kind of checking system - you have a thought, and you check to see if it's right, the only problem being you can't recognise counter-examples because they aren't similar enough to get on your radar.

  • Robert, I agree. You can't always pin down facts so you have to make assumptions in order to make decisions. If you have to choose between conflicting sets of statements to base an assumption on, knowing whether a source is speaking for or against their own interest could be the tipping point, although not foolproof.

  • Managing more people than yourself and the family members and friends who help you out must be a huge learning curve for many business owners.

  • Could the robot be programmed to recognise a rogue pilot and save the day? That would even out the autonomy stakes, too.

  • Can we have a download version of the timeline?

  • That makes sense to me, and relates to the 'slave' or 'forced labour' root of the word robot.

  • J Cook made a comment

    Through an analogy, someone who is inflexible, meaning someone who is programmed to do certain tasks and will continue to do them in inappropriate contexts.

  • I felt similar concerns. The advice not to quote the report could be based on fact checking. People are either living longer or they are not, and if that's unclear then the report itself may be the story, or else it should be stated as the source of the information up front. Another concern is the use of the word 'abandoned', compared to say 'shelved' or...

  • The second quote has more information than the first because it shows why a decision to fire a missile will not be taken lightly. The first quote contains a bare promise, one you would expect the speaker to make.

    Barclays could be the who in the ATM story - they lost some of their investors' money and have asked for it back; some of the customers clearly...

  • A gather (n.) of robots.

  • So you could contact someone who knows the full Canadian story to find out how they identified that trees caused the fault, then ask the authorities in the UK cities: Have you ruled trees out? You could also ask questions about UK standards, whether they are met and how often compliance is reviewed. although not sure what you would do with that if it turns out...

  • Gather facts by listening with an open mind. Ask dumb and intelligent questions if you like, but let your interviewee tell you the facts by getting out of their way. When you write your story, quote your sources, don't paraphrase them. Check their facts and check your facts before you publish anything. Write well - get our of the reader's way too.

  • It might be possible to find out whether a particular company or cluster of companies is involved. For example, if you compared a map of the outages to a map of supply areas, a pattern might emerge. You could then ask affected consumers who their supplier is. (You could also start with the consumers and build up a picture that way, although it may take longer...

  • The reporter talks about going to the labs rather than the hospitals to get the story. You would think the labs would be less touchy, since they didn't cause the delay. There's a lesson there in demonstrating that you are being reasonable no matter what - don't have expectations about how people are going to respond. Going above heads was also important in...

  • It's difficult to know how to prioritise who to talk to, since we know that the electricity authorities don't know the cause. However I would start with them, if only to make contact with someone I can call to get updates, or better still who might call me. I would look on social media for stories rather than go out and talk to affected people straight away,...

  • The Australian Broadcasting Commission's website has links to news items organised by 'Top stories', 'Just in' and 'Most popular. The top stories and just ins are from all over the world, while the most populars overwhelmingly have Australian content. Yet the Corbyn story is the second most popular story running at this moment. We are in the middle of an...

  • If the news is now a numbers game dictated by guidelines, then the prediction that 90% of news could be written by algorithms by the mid-2020s is probably a fair one. Machine learning algorithms comb big data sets looking for certain information, and they teach themselves to get better at their job as they go. Judging by the comments here, human journalists...

  • J Cook made a comment

    My thoughts about what is news is that it is primarily factual but can contain some expert opinion to help readers/listeners understand why the facts matter, and that the story should be relevant to readers or listeners, even if they don't know it beforehand. Audiences gravitate to different media outlets, so news must be to some extent a coming together of a...

  • There are some differences in the viewpoints - presenting facts vs a considered analysis, building a reputation as a courageous and credible reporter vs working out the angles and putting them all in. The level of education or the state of political life in different countries may drive the different approaches, though in one way or another they all rated...

  • News reports or papers often contain a mix of real news (events we need or want to know about) and entertainment, so it will be interesting to find out if there's an approach that works in all cases. The only news items that really disappoint me are ones that deliver someone's opinion without giving me any information that I can use to make up my own mind, or...

  • There are lots of good suggestions here, which makes me think there are several stories that could be pursued concurrently and published as facts comes to light. A journalist might start by verifying the outages, finding out how those affected can help themselves or get assistance, and asking the authorities why they are baffled about the cause. If it's...

  • J Cook made a comment

    Hi, I'm here to learn how journalists bring us news, and to learn skills that will help me develop a documentary arts blog.