Food for Thought: Fake Boyfriends- Brilliant or Scary?

Link to podcast:

<< http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/food-for-thought-fake-boyfriends-brilliant-or-scary/ >>

Only recently, the gallant dragon has disappeared into a mist of fiery flames and given way to the gracious, yet, at least historically, deceitful creature that is the snake.

I am not, of course, talking about an episode which I have had under the influence of recently administered anaesthesia but am merely referring to what the year 2013 symbolizes in the Chinese Zodiac Calendar.

The topic of today’s entry, however, has very little to do with the Chinese Zodiac Calendar, dragons or snakes, for that matter.

It is, though, tightly connected to the celebrations surrounding the Chinese New Year in the 21^st century and a specific phenomenon that has developed only recently.

Since one of my best friends is from Hong Kong, I have been, for quite some time, aware that the celebration of the Chinese New Year has always been a massive thing in China.

I shall not go into any of the customs surrounding the celebration in detail; suffice to say, for the purposes of today’s discussion, that it is customary for the whole family to gather round a table and ‘catch up’ over a rich dinner.

Now, when I say ‘family’, I don’t mean your usual family of four plus a pet; the family referred to above includes grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, their pets, their pets’ pets and so on and so forth.

At such gatherings, as we are all painfully aware of, most of the relatives present are always interested in whom their ‘young offspring’ is currently dating, whether they have any serious intentions to start a family, when they are planning on doing it or, if they do not plan to do so, WHY they are not doing it, what is wrong with them, what problems they have, can they help me them out in any way, how many children they want to have…..

….oh, the horror of it all!

There are but a few things that are more painful than the above episode: those include following a person on twitter only to realise that he is tweeting about EVERYTHING that he is doing, including describing the taste of the food that he is eating and the ‘beverage’ that he is ‘consuming’ (God almighty…).

The only thing that it’s even more painful than the above is to be one of the few SINGLE people on such a family gathering.

As such, you will, undoubtedly, be bombarded with an array of questions, among which:

• Why did you split up with your ex-boyfriend again? What was it you did?
• Have you spoken to him since? Why not? or Why have you? Have you spoken to someone else then

• Whom did you speak to? How is that working out for you?

• When are you going out then? When can we meet him? When can he meet us?

Now, the above is as applicable to a girlfriend as it is to a boyfriend; I am merely using the latter due to reasons to be explained below.

Frankly, ANYONE would LOVE to avoid the above by, say, not showing up to those gatherings. This is, however, out of the question as, by doing so, you will spark your relatives’ curiousity even more; it will be like committing some sort of social suicide.

What you MIGHT do in China, however, is hire a ‘fake’ boyfriend for the day and do away with all of the above by carefully drafting a script for the night.

Even though that sounds rather humorous and farfetched, it would seem that quite a few people are doing it; and for a hefty price.

For more information on pricing and how the whole arrangement works, please visit:

<< http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-21192131 >>

<< http://www.marketplace.org/topics/world/bbc-world-service/fake-boyfriends-rent-chinese-new-year >>

The idea, in itself, is rather ludicrous; it might even be considered by some as degrading to both the payor and the payee.

Nevertheless, a good many people (worldwide and not only in China) are making use of such arrangements.

Furthermore, a lot of people have, well, gone into the business of ‘fake partner-ing’, some of them in the hope of finding people with similar to theirs interests and maybe even ‘true love’.

With view to the ever- changing social scenery of the twenty- first century, one would be justified in pondering whether the above is ludicrous or, indeed, quite innovative and ingenius.

It being a new venture, however, means that it is way too early to draw conclusions on its efficacy; for now, we shall just have to sit, wait and find partners in the normal way…

…online.

A Runt’s Rant: BEST ADVICE- Don’t give people BEST advice

Link to podcast :

<< http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/a-runts-rant-best-advice-dont-give-best-advice/ >>

So I went to this Starbucks on Liverpool Street in London yesterday; as you might probably imagine, I did not do so because I wanted to have a cup of coffee.

No- one goes to Starbucks to have a cup of coffee.

I went there to do some general browsing and research and to write up and submit my daily entry whilst sipping a Grande have- in peppermint whole- milk canella mocha which was, for some reason, also named Antoni.

As I was going through my LinkedIn profile, I noticed (on my home page) that many people had posted articles which began with ‘BEST ADVICE’ followed by something like ‘Breathe More Often’ (well not really but you got the point).

For instance, see:

<< http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130226122127-1291685-best-advice-if-it-s-meant-to-be-it-is-up-to-me >>

As a normal human being, the first thing that came to my mind was a rather simple question:

Who, on Earth, would be so brave as to give people BEST ADVICE?

I mean, the only people that I could think of, were various dictators and socialist regimes whose advice was ‘BEST’ mainly because it was the only one available.

Then I thought about my own articles, pondering as to whether I had ever referred my readers to a piece of BEST advice.

It took me about two and a half seconds to conclude that I had not.

The mainstream reason for that was that to give someone ‘BEST ADVICE’ was rather silly as it was grammatically incorrect.

I know that English is not my mother- tongue but, as far as I’m aware, the correct way of saying it is ‘THE best advice’; there’s good advice, there’s better advice and then there’s the best advice.

That’s how it works.

Further to the above, I was wondering whether it was a good idea for anyone to give people around him BEST ADVICE.

In the end of the day, it was perfectly acceptable to give people advice and even claim that the said advice was good or, indeed, better than someone else’s.

But to say that it is BEST ADVICE means that you are, at any point, ready to defend that title in comparing it to all other advice out there.

The above notion is, naturally, quite ludicrous in its entirety because there are not many people who physically have the time to defend their BEST ADVICE from the rest of the world.

Moreover, I don’t  think that many people will accept that the said advice is BEST ADVICE because, surely, there can only be ONE piece of advice in a given area that is THE BEST.

I have, however, stumbled across three BEST ADVICE articles on making the most out of social media yesterday which, naturally, confused the Hell out of me and almost made me want to order another Grande have- in peppermint whole- milk canella mocha, i.e. an Antoni.

In the light of the above, I would very much like to discourage people from giving BEST ADVICE and implore them to focus on proving those around them with GOOD ADVICE instead.

Also, on a completely unrelated topic, if anyone who’s in the publishing business is reading this, please stop advertising new shows on TV as the ‘Number One Hit Series in the US’ because, as already noted above, there simply CANNOT be twenty number one hit series in the US at the same time.

People are not as dim as you think they are; take my GOOD ADVICE and rethink your understanding of the number ‘1’.

Good Idea, Chap: Getting Rid of the Penny- a Smooth Move?

Link to podcast:

<< http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/good-idea-chap-getting-rid-of-the-penny-a-smooth-move/ >>

I walked into an M&S today in the hope that I could simply pop in, get my pack of chewing gum and leave.

As you might probably imagine, I failed rather miserably in attempting to do so through powers which were, naturally, beyond  my control.

That’s right...the infernal 8am queues in London.

When I finally reached the till and handed the pack to the shop assistant, I reached in my pocket and handed her a 50p coin.

She then looked at me inquiringly and said:

'That would be 51p, please.'

At that point, rather surprisingly so, I smiled at her, quite pleasantly, reached in my pocket again and...froze.

As it normally went, I did not, of course, have a penny.

You never did when you needed one.

‘That would be 51p, please.'

I was reminded of the above every fifteen- seconds as I was rummaging through my pockets to find some loose change.

In about two minutes’ time, I gave up and paid for the pack of gum on my debit card.

This whole episode reminded me of a couple of things.

Firstly, it reminded of why I never used cash to pay for anything.

Secondly, it reminded me of how much I...let’s say dislike....items priced 51p, 47p, 34p, etc.

Thirdly, and probably most importantly, it reminded me of how every shop assistant always expected you to have 1p and 2p coins on you.

I mean, I wasn’t a mint, was I now? I was pretty certain that I did not, at the time, look like someone who kept bags of 1p coins in huge supply (for those harsh winter nights).

All of the above made me think of a recent article I read about Canada’s recent decision to do away with the 1p coin so that it can save $ 11mln per year.

Eleven million, I thought- that was almost fifteen million which, in turn, was almost twenty million which was close to fifty million which was not that far from one- hundred million.

One- hundred million pound- worth of savings; can you imagine?

But seriously, I was quite amazed to hear that the mint would save that much per year by simply getting rid of the 1p coin.

Surely, that meant that it produced a LOT of 1p coins each year (and, yet, somehow people never had a penny coin on them when they needed one...ah, well, one of the unsolved mysteries in life, I guess...)

According to the CNN report, it costs 1.6 cents to produce a penny which, in turn, means that producing pennies is not economically viable.

(see << http://edition.cnn.com/2012/03/30/business/canada-penny >>)

The above, however, was not the reason for my wanting to look into the matter in a bit more detail.

What surprised me was that the Canadian government proposed that businesses rounded their prices to the nearest nickel (5p) (see link above).

This begs a question: is the above supposed to be merely advice from the government or will it be imposed as a law of sorts...?

As we all know, it is a well- known marketing strategy for businesses to price their stock at, say, £ 9,99 rather than £ 10 as it instils in the customer the, obviously erroneous, impression that the product they are buying costs £ 9 and not £ 10.

Furthermore, when they pay for the product at the till, most customers do not want their penny back which means that the said penny is, more often than not, counted towards the business’s profit.

Yet, there are quite a few people who still demand their penny back (like me, for instance).

Mainly, because they know its worth (1.66 cents, to be exact).

In the light of the above, then, what would happen to retailers that choose not to follow the government’s proposal to depart from their pricing policies?

When the penny is discontinued, what will they give their customers back; 1p- worth of candy, maybe?

About seven years ago, candy might have well sufficed; in today’s economic downturn, however, most people tend to hold on to every penny they've got.

So, in the end of the day, one wonders whether the Canadian government’s plans to get rid of the penny are not a cunning way of indirect market control.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see; until then, keep a hold of your pennies-  they might cost a lot more than 1.6 cents in ten years’ time.

‘Academic’ Intelligence: Exam Techniques

Link to podcast:

<< http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/academic-intelligence-exam-techniques/ >> 

I was initially going to do an article on film noir today but, under the current circumstances, I decided that it would be much more appropriate to do a quick article on some successful exam techniques that I had tested throughout my studies.

The reason for my sudden desire to write on the above topic was sparked by my having an exam in Commercial Law and Intellectual Property today.

Furthermore, I should like to note that I am currently not only London- bound but also library- bound and am, thus, unable to produce the podcast until later on today.

As custom goes, I shall try to sound as academically eloquent and formal as possible, it being a Monday.

Rather than wasting everybody’s time with idle chit- chat, I should like to jump straight to the essence of today’s entry, namely, how to tackle exams successfully.

Study systematically and regularly

A lot of people tend to ignore that because they think that they will be able to prepare for all of their exams in a months’ time.

First of all, it is nearly impossible to read between 1000 and 3000 pages in a month's time.

Moreover, even if you somehow manage to do it, I can assure you that you will not remember much of it at the end.

On the other hand, if you study for two hours a day throughout the year, say five days a week, at the end, you will have accumulated a considerable amount of notes that you can refer to.

Finally, because you have gone through the reading before, you will be able to ‘revise’ and not start from scratch which will give you the boost of confidence you need.

Make notes; then make notes of those notes

As you go on, start making notes of the materials that you go through. At first, start making more detailed notes. Then, when you start revising, start making brief notes of those detailed notes.

In the end, you will end up with about twenty pages’ worth of notes for the whole module.

Not only that but you will have memorised (without even realising it) 70% of the information contained in those.

Do NOT panic

The mainstream reason is that there is simply absolutely no sense in panicking; it will neither help you study in a more timely and efficient manner, nor will it help you focus or relax.

I am fully aware that it is easier said than done; that is why you have to learn to see exams as an opportunity to show the examiner how much you know OR show him how little he has taught you.

Even though it might sound a bit harsh to the examiners, I have found that such an approach to exams really makes a big difference.

Be smart about your revision

Most exams in England have a section A and a section B; you have to do a question from each and a further question of your choice from either.

The best way forward is to look through the past papers (which EVERY university in England provides its students with) and go through the topics that have come up every year.

Often, it is physically impossible to learn everything; sometimes you have to pick and choose.

Please note that the above strategy does not apply to courses such as the Legal Practice Course or the Bar Vocational Course as the subject matter in those is entertwined and (I know that for a fact) every topic covered comes up in the exam.

Avoid talking to classmates before an exam

The temptation to go to a classmate and ask him a couple of things right before the exam is familiar to us all.

You should, however, avoid doing it at all cost because:

1.   The other person might be too negative and try to drag you down with him by constantly repeating how horrible the exam will be
2.   The person might be overly positive and chatty (like me, for instance) and might start talking to you about things that you have chosen not to revise for which will, naturally, make you panic and doubt your abilities

Do at least one timed mock exam

Try to do a whole past paper under exam conditions- timing, atmosphere, etc.

This will give you a feeling of the actual exam as well as a chance to evaluate not only your knowledge but also your ability to apply it under pressure and within the time constraints.

Avoid speaking to classmates AFTER the exam

From a purely logical point of view, there is nothing that you can change and finding out what mistakes you have made and what you have missed to point out will simply ruin your whole day, if not week.

Trust me, it is not worth it.

All in all, you should never be afraid of or worried about exams as they are your chance to shine.

You must never forget that university is neither kindergarten nor high school; your parents have not sent you there on their own accord.

YOU chose to be there, YOU chose what you wanted to study.

And, as with everything else, if you take a logical approach to tackling those, I can promise you that exams will be nothing short of an enjoyable experience.

Poet's Corner: The Clerk

You’re in a room.

And it is dark;

It reeks of doom.

You are a clerk-

A man of few

A nil for many

A sum of one

A one per penny

Devoid of some

But full of any.

You’re not the room.

But you are dark.

In your domain

You are The Clerk…

'Social' Intelligence: How ASSUMING made an ASS out of U and ME

Link to podcast:

<< http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/social-intelligence-how-assuming-made-an-ass-out-of-u-and-me/ >>

Now, before you say anything, I should like to note that the there is nothing obscene about today’s topic.

After all, it’s common knowledge that ‘ass’ is another word for donkey and that’s exactly what the above saying aims at.

Prior to diving into yet another monologue of mine, I’d like to give you an example of what I mean by the above; and example which has, unfortunately, stuck in mind for quite awhile now.

When I first came to England (which was round about donkey’s years ago), I really liked the international environment that I was suddenly in; mainly because, to that day, I had never ever been outside my own country.

I really enjoyed meeting new people; I was constantly asking them where they were from, what they were studying, whether they like the university, etc, etc.

All in all, I was incredibly annoying and, if I was to meet me today, I would most probably kindly ask myself to shut the Hell up.

That was all very well until one day, in my first law lecture, in fact, I was speaking to a chap who was not what you might call the sharpest tool in the shed (for the record, I am NOT judging; merely stating a fact).

It was a Constitutional and Administrative Law Lecture; at the end of it, the lecturer gave us a task to research the Portuguese Civil Code and its similarities and differences with the English one (trick question, of course, as England does not HAVE one...).

As I was just leaving my seat, the said guy tapped me on the shoulder and asked me:

‘Oy, mate, I swear, the tasks that they give us, eh? Why would I want to know about the Civil Code of some African country?’

All I could say was a ‘I’m sorry, what?’ .

He then asked me where I was from and when I said that I was from Bulgaria, he smiled, laughed heartily and said:

‘Well there you go then; you, at least, will have some use of it! By the way, no offence, chap, but how come you’re not black?’

You can imagine that, at that point, I was quite certain that the person was on crack, mushrooms or some other very strong substance; there was no other reasonable explanation for his behaviour.

I remember smiling, in the friendliest manner possible, and replying that my parents were white which was a pretty solid reason for my not being black.

‘Ah, all right then; I just assumed that Bulgaria being in Africa and all, everyone was black.’

First off, let me reiterate that I DID tell you that I was stating a fact, right?

Second of all, assuming something, as CLEARLY demonstrating above, lures you in a twilight zone that you can’t easily get out of.

By assuming something you, most often than not, make a complete clown out of yourself because, quite often, you are basing your assumptions on things that you have HEARD and prejudices that you have ADOPTED.

You are, thus, NOT sharing an informed opinion that is worth listening to; as you do that, about 60% of the people around you will automatically start ignoring you.

The remaining 40% will make fun of you for the rest of your life.

In the end, you will realise that you have made a complete ass of not only yourself but the person that you were making the assumption about.

Why?

Mainly because such things are not easily forgotten and, had someone heard the above conversation at uni, I could have been given quite a colourful nickname such as, say, the African Snowflake (not racial joke intended).

In the light of the above, I should like to implore you to avoid assuming anything about anyone; it’s a bear trap.

And even bears can’t normally get out of those unharmed.

'Everyday' Intelligence: Do More, Be More

Link to Podcast:

<< http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/everyday-intelligence-do-more-be-more/ >>

The most annoying thing just happened to me; I had typed up the whole entry when I, accidentally, pressed the ‘X’, closed the file and forgot to save it.

It’s times like these that make me happy that I am quite a happy and balanced person; had I not been one, my laptop would have been on a first- class flight to the backyard by now.

Anyway; we live and learn.

First things first, the reason for my submitting my entries so late this week is not because I have been overburdened with a gazillion things to do; far from it, in fact.

I have been doing so merely because I have been off work all week and have, thus, had the privilege of waking up at 2pm every day.

That is not to say, of course, that I have not been doing all of the things that I normally do outside work.

I still do my daily entries and the research for them whilst also preparing a research proposal for an LLM and failing miserably in attempting cook a Four- Cheese Roquefort Chicken at the same time.

Further to the above, I have recorded my first podcast yesterday because a friend of mine told me that, even though reading my blog was worthwhile, he was far too lazy to do it every day.

Contrary to common belief, I am not saying all of those things merely because I generally like bragging or because I want to make those around me feel bad about themselves.

On the contrary; I am doing so because I am trying to make a point, namely, that the more you do, the better you’ll feel.

Many people think that having a lie- in and doing nothing is a lot better than doing something productive, mainly because the latter tends to be rather tiring and somewhat time- consuming.

That, of course, is a common misconception. In fact, the less active you are, the more your body becomes used to such a lifestyle. Consequently, your organism finds it increasingly difficult to mobilise and operate to its full potential when you are involved in any physical or mental activity.

In turn, since you cannot operate your full potential, you are not happy with anything that you do which makes you want to do even less.

Vicious circle, really.

On the other hand, the more active you are, the more energy your body will have to produce to keep up. The more things you do, the more organised and focused you become; your brain suddenly begins to file and process information in a much more efficient manner.

Your mind clears up mainly because you know what to do, when to do it and, most importantly, how to do it.

Finally, it instils in you a feeling that you are capable of doing anything if you put your mind to it. This, in turn, greatly improves your general well- being and health and turns you into a happier and more radiant person with an aura of confidence that positively affects those around you.

I am well- aware that the above sounds like a twenty- first century fairy- tale/ American chick- flick to you; yet, I can assure you that, clichéd as it may sound, it is quite true.

In fact, it’s just one of those simple things that we tend to forget as we go along.

Like saving a word file before closing it down.

...as if anyone would do that...

Food for Thought: Online Gaming- a Man- Made Plague?

Link to the podcast:

http://www.mixcloud.com/antonipeychev/food-for-thought-online-gaming-a-man-made-plague/

We all have our dark secrets; mine is that, between the age of seventeen and nineteen, I used to play a game that, I am quite certain, you have all heard about- World of Warcraft.

Even though I most definitely wasn't as obsessed with the game as many others were, I used to spend about a couple of hours in the ‘virtual world’.

You might think that two hours a day is not a lot but I can assure you that playing the game is not the most addicting aspect of it.

The most scary bit is when you spend hours of your day thinking of those two hours that you are going to spend playing the game later on.

Then, suddenly, at some point of your life, the following happens:

Although I have not been even close to the above state, I have had the ‘privilege’ of knowing a couple of people that were.

That (and the fact that I had ‘outgrown’ it, apparently) was partly the reason why I gave up online gaming; out of the shear fear of becoming one of those mindless zombies that just walk around aimlessly, uttering a ‘yeah’ and ‘nah’ every now and then, pretending to take part in the conversation whilst actually thinking of the two hours’ of ‘questing’ that awaits them.

What I found out recently, however, was way scarier than the above: I found out that they might well be justified.

The prize for first- place in a tournament of an online game that a friend of mine is playing, called the League of Legends, is wait for it.......................... $ 1mln.

Since there’s a team of four, that’d be $ 250k each...

That horrid reality entertwined with an article that I recently read on how, in about twenty years’ time, machines (or robots) will take over 60% of our jobs. The person writing the article championed the above in that he said that it would allow people to focus on the more ‘creative and artistic’ side of work.

To begin with, with an unemployment rate of 25%, I don’t see anyone in Spain being particularly creative and artistic...

Furthermore, could winning an online game tournament be considered creative and artistic?

Also, does it, in any way whatsoever, contribute with ANYTHING meaningful to society or to humanity’s well- being?

Entertainment, people would say.

Are we, then, entering a new era of young people sitting in front of their PCs all day, observing real- time tournaments, taking notes with the hope that one day someone else would be sitting in front of their PC, observing them whilst taking notes?

And, if so, is there a practical way in which we can make young people play less games and read more books without prompting them to run away from home, trying to slay monsters, hoping that they’d drop a ‘good loot of better weapons, armour and medium- rare rib- eye steaks which temporarily increase your stamina by 3’.

Well, let’s have a look at A way of doing it, shall we?

<< http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/01/08/chinese-father-hires-hitman-video-game-addiction_n_2430306.html >>

That’s right, folks; a father had commissioned ONLINE assassins to continuously kill his son online so that he could give up the game and find himself a proper job.

In today’s world, would you consider the above ludicrous or ingenious?

Also, do you think that the father would have done the same, had his son come back home one day with the £1mln prize money that he had won as a result of his honing his ‘online gaming skills’ 24/7? Would he still want him to find a ‘real- life’ job?

Well, let me be ‘The One’ and break it up to you, my dear readers:

There’s no ‘REAL’ world anymore; welcome to the Matrix.

A Runt’s Rant: Two Exams in a Week- NO WAY

Oh, my dear Lord, a friend of mine just called me and said that she had these two horrible exams next week!!!

She said she was at uni all the time, like, two hours a day, and had to do all of these other things such as her fifteen- hour- a- week part- time job and it was all just all too much for her to bear and she just did NOT have the time to physically see to all those things simultaneously!

I felt so sorry for her; I mean, it must be horrible to have to go to uni whilst working part- time and preparing for exams; after all, not a lot of people nowadays do that.

That is, naturally, mainly because it literally costs pennies to go to university and because life in England has become increasingly cheaper during the last five years; so cheap, in fact, that some 12% of the population has chosen not to work at all.

And, no, it most definitely is NOT because of this ‘unemployment’ that everybody keeps referring to. After all, if it there WAS high unemployment, the government would not have decreased the benefits some people need in order to survive.

Right?

Also, to top it all up, exams are normally so horrible; especially in England. It’s not like you’re given the last five years’ worth of past papers from which you can pick and choose the topics to study.

Moreover, it was surely inhuman of the university to schedule TWO exams in the same week!

I know, for a fact, that in Germany, for example, people only have two exams PER YEAR.

Two exams in a week is, by far, the most stressful and horrible thing that I have encountered!

Most people have nothing to stress about in their busybody existence- they live their lives and enjoy every moment of them- from the huge amounts of debt to the looking after their children, worrying that you might not be able to bring them up in a proper manner.

And the most terrifying bit about my friend’s dilemma is that she only has five days to learn EVERYTHING for those two exams.

She’s not like other students who have had all year to prepare for their exams; her tutors only gave her those five days and did not ALLOW her to study throughout the rest of the year.

In fact, I remember her telling me that they once advised her to do, and I quote her quoting them:

‘Party all you can and don’t worry about studying at all; after all, it’s not like you’ve paid anything for it!!! Live la vida loca, you will have plenty of time to study before the exams!’

Well, obviously, they lied to her; mainly because all of your lecturers WANT you to fail an exam because they want you to re- sit it in August as they hate going away to warm countries to enjoy their holidays in the summer.

They’d much rather stay in, savour the mouldy taste of the air, and aimlessly walk around whilst you’re re- sitting the paper.

And because of all of the above things that have happened through absolutely NO fault of her own, she will now fail those exams.

But, in the end of the day, I told her that everything was going to be alright so long as she continued panicking and whinging as, after all, that WAS the best strategy for passing an exam.

That’s how I passed all of mine anyway; and then I thought...

NOT.

Good Idea, Chap: The Bionic Arm- a Future That Feels the Past

I might have not mentioned it before but I am of the opinion that working towards a healthy and fit body is the only way to achieve a healthy mind.

Thus, I have been going to the gym three times a week for quite some time now.

In fact, I went there yesterday; and that was where I got the idea for today’s article.

I was meant to do chest and triceps yesterday and was just about to do a set of dumbbell bench- press, using 26kg dumbbells.

Just as I was preparing myself to do so, I saw a person walking into the gym.

He was missing a leg and an arm; that much I could tell by seeing the prosthetics that he had on.

The man was in his late fifties, early sixties and, most probably, an army veteran who had lost his limbs in battle (he had a ‘Navy’ bag with him).

My eyes could not stop following him around; not because I was interested by his prosthetics or, indeed, by the way he walked or behaved.

It was out of sheer admiration and, admittedly, curiousity as to what he was going to do.

In somewhat of a daze, I soon realised that the man was in my vicinity and was doing 

something with the curl bar.

He was lifting it up.

Knee- height.

With 25kg worth of weights on it.

Using one arm.

I was stupefied; I was using the curl bar to do 30kg biceps curls using BOTH of my hands and I STILL found it quite difficult!

And then it hit me; if that person was so strong and determined with the use of only one arm and one leg, could you imagine what he would be like if he was to get his other limbs back?

Straight after my work out, I went online and I found that, through the marvels of bionics, this was now possible.

This was, of course, only the beginning but, to me, it still looked astonishing.

I shan’t go into any details or pretend that I am an expert on bionics; I shall, however, do my utmost best to explain how the bionic arm demonstrated above works.

When an arm is amputated, the nerves connecting the arm to the brain retain their ‘movement memory’; i.e. they remember impulses that they had sent the brain in order to move the muscles of that arm.

What scientists have done is connect that nerves that have been severed to the muscles of the chest so that, in time, the ‘movement memory’ can be transferred onto the chest.

Amazing and movie- like as the above might sound, within six months (as seen on the video above), the patients were able to give commands to their bionic arm by contracting their chest muscles.

Contracting the chest muscles, to which the amputated arm’s nerves possessing the ‘movement memory’ have been attached to, sends electronic signals through the nerves and onto the bionic arm, thereby, giving it instructions to move in a certain way.

What’s even more amazing is that the nerves connected to the chest muscles had also retained a ‘memory of feel’ which could also, potentially, be transferred onto a bionic arm so that the patient could feel whatever he was touching.

You won’t be surprised, I hope, to find out that the above has since been successfully implemented and there are now bionic arms which allow the patient to be able to feel and distinguish the surfaces or objects that he touches.

See << http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=225646 >>

I am fully aware that the above is not as exhaustive as you would like it to be.

Nevertheless, I thought that I’d share my little bit of newly acquired knowledge with you mainly because it made me proud to call myself human.

Maybe, just maybe, being human is not that bad.

‘Academic’ Intelligence: An Overview of Trademark, Part Two

As some of you might remember, last Monday’s entry opted to provide an overview of the basic characteristics of a trademark as well as outline the requirements for registering one under the Trade Marks Act 1994 (‘TMA’).

Today’s article will focus on the ways of challenging a trademark through s. 5 TMA as well as establishing a valid trademark infringement claim.

As noted last week, in order for a trademark to be registrable, the Intellectual Property Office (‘IPO’) must be satisfied that it is a sign, capable of being represented graphically and distinguishing goods or services, which falls outside the s.3 TMA categories.

If a third party wants to challenge the validity of the registration of a trade mark, it can do so under s.5 TMA. It must, however, be noted that s.5 can only be invoked by another party and is not look at by the IPO when someone applies to register a trademark.

Under s.5 TMA, a third party can argue that:

There is an identical mark which identifies identical goods (s.5 (1) TMA) and there is a likelihood of confusion ‘on the part of the public, which includes the likelihood of association with the earlier trade mark’.

Note that where two signs are identical and the goods that they represent are also identical, confusion will be presumed. Furthermore, it must be noted that there is no requirement of actual confusion; proving that there is a risk of confusion is sufficient.

There is an identical mark which identifies similar goods (s. 5 (2) (a)TMA ) and there is a likelihood of confusion (as per above)

Likelihood of confusion needs to be proved by the party replying on the section; there is no presumption of confusion under the above.

There is an similar mark which identifies similar goods (s. 5 (2) (b) TMA ) and there is a likelihood of confusion (as per above)

Likelihood of confusion needs to be proved by the party replying on the section; there is no presumption of confusion under the above.

There is a similar or identical mark which identifies similar goods and the use of the later mark ‘without due cause would take unfair advantage of, or be detrimental to, the distinctive character or the repute of the earlier trade (s.5 (3) TMA )

This can only be successfully invoked where the earlier mark is very famous and well- established, i.e. Coca- Cola, McDonalds, etc.

If a trademark falls within any of the above, its registration might be revoked by the IPO.

Another way of protecting a trademark is by bringing an infringement claim. As with copyright, a five- step process will best describe the stages of the process.

STEP ONE: Subsistence

All the claimant has to do is demonstrate that his trademark is on the register, that he is the owner and that it has been renewed (a trademark must be renewed every ten years (ss. 42-43 TMA).

STEP TWO: Infringing Act

The claimant needs to establish that the defendant has ‘used’ the trademark in ‘the course of its trade in the UK’ and ‘without the consent’ of the ‘trademark owner’ (s. 9 (1) TMA)

The infringing acts which are considered as ‘using’ the trademark are outlined in s. 10 (4) TMA and include packaging, offering to sell, import, etc.

STEP THREE: Comparison

The approach adopted in comparing both marks is the same as the one adopted by s. 5 TMA above, namely:

• S. 10 (1)TMA - see s. 5 (1) TMA above
• S. 10 (2) (a) TMA- see s. 5 (2) (a) TMA above.
• S. 10 (2) (b) TMA- see s. 5 (2) (b) TMA above.
• S. 10 (3) TMA- see s. 5 (3) TMA above.

STEP FOUR: Defences

The statutory defences are outlined in s. 11 TMA and include:

• S. 11 (2) (a) TMA - a bona fide use of the defendant’s own name and address
• S. 11 (2) (b) TMA - use of a trademark simply as an indication of characteristics of goods and services
• S. 11 (2) (c) TMA - use of a trademark where necessary to indicate the intended purpose of a product or service
• S. 11 (3) TMA - use of an earlier registered trademark in a particular locality

A defendant can also invoke a common law defence in that the claimant has not made his case or that the trademark should not have been registered in the first place.

STEP FIVE: Remedies

The remedies are outlined in ss. 14- 19 TMA and include an account of profits OR damages, delivery up or disposal of infringing goods, interim orders (injunctions, etc.) Further, under ss. 92- 94 TMA, it is a criminal offence to falsely present a trademark as registered.

In the light of the above, then, one will be justified in saying that protecting a trademark is a lot more straightforward and somewhat easier than protecting copyright.

Nevertheless, even though trademark is a registered intellectual property right, with view to ss. 1, 3 and 5 TMA, registering it can sometimes prove quite a herculean DIY task for an individual with no legal background.