Good morning, everyone. Have you ever noticed that when you log on to the internet, you nearly always see adverts for things that you are interested in? If you were looking for a new pair of trainers last week, suddenly youll see adverts for trainers all over the place. Well, this isnt random. The internet browsers and websites and apps that we use know a lot about us because they monitor how we use their site or app. This way they can work out what we like and dont like. Youve probably heard of cookies? When you visit some sites for the first time a cookie is downloaded onto your computer that keeps a track on how you travel around the site and exactly what you do. The next time you use the same site again your computer will check the cookies and adapt, depending on the information it stored from your last visit. So, without even thinking about it, we give out a lot of information that can then be used to personalise our online experience.
I saw a great presentation last week by the internet activist Eli Parisier and I want to tell you a little bit about it. He wrote a book a few years ago called 'The Filter Bubble' and I think its something that we should all know about. Heres the book, we have it in the school library if you want to borrow it. In this talk Im just going to give you a taster. He likens the filter bubble to an ecosystem and he claims it is something we should all be worried about. After reading his book and watching his talk, I think its something you should all know about too.
So, let me try to explain using a simple example. Imagine, I support a political party to keep this really simple lets call it the Yellow party. OK, so lets say I have lots of friends who also support the Yellows but some of my friends support the Reds. Now, on my favourite social media site I want to see the posts from all my friends but I tend to click more on the links that are posted by my friends who support the Yellows, like me. Even so, I do want to see what the Reds are posting about. Now, a few months ago, just before the big elections I noticed something weird happening on my newsfeed. I noticed that my friends who support the Red party had almost disappeared from the site and I was only being shown the posts from my Yellow friends! I wondered if all my Red friends had left this social media space and moved somewhere else, but when I clicked on their profiles to check, I could see that they had been busy posting links and talking to people, but their posts were being hidden from me. Now I understand why. I know its because I hardly ever clicked on their posts and I didnt interact so much with them. The social media site itself had decided for me that I wasnt interested in their posts, so they decided not to show them to me. Now, this is an example of what Eli Parisier means by the Filter Bubble - its when the websites and apps choose what information we can and cant see. Does that make sense?
OK. So, moving on, so if the social media sites can personalise the user experience, to block out things they think we dont want to see, well, begs the question, what else is being hidden from us? Well, in his talk Eli Pariser gives another example. Did you know that if two people type the same word into some of the most popular search engines, the results might be totally different?
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I know. Crazy, huh? Well, maybe you can try it one time with a friend. The example that Eli gave in his talk was two of his friends who have very different interests. They both typed the word Egypt into a search engine. One got results from news websites about recent events in Egypt and the other got mainly travel guides. The results were totally different and this is because some search engines record information about what we usually look at, what we like and what our interests are.
Some sites are now starting to personalise what an individual user sees. Now, sometimes, of course, it can be really helpful to have information personalised for us. It can save us time searching and often actually we do want to see the information that we are more interested in. It can make online shopping easier and it helps us to connect with like-minded people. But lets stop for a second and think. Do we really want the internet to offer us only what the internet thinks we want to see? Arent we going to miss out on a lot of really interesting and fresh information?
Well, whatever you think about the filter bubble, I think we all need to be aware that this is happening. By controlling the flow of information each individual receives, these algorithms mean we dont have access to all the information that is out there. So, arent we missing out on a lot of really useful stuff?
The question is what can we do? Well, I have to say, I agree with Eli Pariser. I think we need to try and step outside of our filter bubbles from time to time and try to get our information from other sources, as well as the internet. And actually, you can look for alternative search engines that dont filter the content in the same way. They exist too. There are also ways to depersonalise searches, but I will tell you more about that another day. For now, just try to make sure that you keep your eyes and ears open and learn as much as you can about how the internet actually works. Things change very quickly, but we should all try and keep up to date and learn more about how the wonderful worldwide web works. Thank you very much.
The Maasai and the lions
For thousands of years the Maasai people in Kenya had no doubts about their relationship with the lions who shared the land with them. They were enemies. The lions wanted to kill the tribes livestock and the Maasai had to protect the animals. It was even part of the coming-of-age ritual of young warriors to kill a lion.
But now things have changed and the Maasai are part of a new East African scheme to protect lions, called the Lion Guardians. The aim is for local people to be trained to manage and protect the lions without involvement from outsiders after the period of initial training. The Lion Guardians are taught basic literacy, how to manage data, how to deal with conflict between humans and lions, GPS and telemetry tracking of radio-collared lions. Some of them also learn how to speak in public and how to blog.
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The Lion Guardians monitor the lions and other carnivores and inform cattle herders when to avoid the areas where there are lions. They also help improve the livestock enclosures and educate people about wildlife. Helping find lost livestock is another important job. In the past these would often have been killed by carnivores.
If anyone is about to carry out a lion hunt, the Lion Guardians try and persuade them not to. Since many of the Guardians have killed lions in the past and are very experienced, they are highly respected in the community and are listened to by their age-mates, or peers, and often by their elders. They explain the importance of the lions to culture and tourism and how they can now be arrested for killing protected animals.
One such Lion Guardian is OlubiLairumbe. He has killed seven lions in his lifetime. The last one was a lioness who was pregnant with five cubs. He regretted killing her very much, had a massive change of heart and volunteered to become a Lion Guardian. Olubis father used to hate lions and encouraged his sons to hunt them, but since Olubi became a Guardian, he has been advising them not to kill carnivores. Olubi was recently interviewed by Sir David Attenborough and appeared on the Africa documentary series.
Another Guardian, MingatiMakarot, is very good at tracking lions using his traditional skills and has a great knowledge of the area that acts as a refuge to many wildlife species. Mingati is a past lion killer but has completely converted to being one of its ardent protectors. His name, Mingati, is a lion name given to him meaning one who is fast and doesnt lag behind.
In the past, a Moran (a Maasai warrior) received a lion name after spearing a lion. In Maasai culture the name represents the characteristics of both the warrior and the lion he has killed. A warrior with a lion name feels that he has achieved something great. When the successful warrior brings the lions mane and tail back to his manyatta (his home in the community) to be put on display, he is treated as a hero. Other young men who dont yet have their lion names are called by the general name of Moran. They long to have recognition and dream about the day that it will be their turn to bring home the lion trophy.
Now, this naming tradition is changing. The Lion Guardians experimented by giving lion names to boys who had not killed lions and it worked. Other young people called them by the lion names, then the older people did so too. There were still some boys who wanted to do something to prove their bravery, and they were assigned conservation tasks to do. Now young men can earn respect by protecting lions, rather than killing them.
Another change is that the lions are now given Maasai names and each has a card explaining who the lion is related to and which lions they keep company with. Personalising the lions helps them to be seen as individuals by the community.
Since the programme began in 2007, no lions have been killed in the area patrolled by Lion Guardians. Compare that to a similar neighbouring area without Guardians, where 63 have been killed, and you can see just how successful the scheme is. The Maasai have managed to successfully adapt their culture to changing times without giving up their identity.
Unusual British festivals
Hello. Im going to talk about British festivals. Im sure youve heard about the Notting Hill Carnival in London and the Edinburgh Festival, but today were going to look at a lot more that you might not know about. Actually, a lot of these are not exactly festivals, but strange races or competitions. Some of them are ancient and some are modern.
So, lets start in January in the north of Scotland with the Burning of the Clavie. This is a whisky barrel which is set alight then carried through the streets as a bonfire. Its an ancient tradition which always takes place on 11th of January, the first day of the year, according to an older form of the calendar. The bonfire brings good luck for the coming year and people used to keep bits of burnt wood as protection against evil spirits. At the end of January, even further north, in the Shetland Islands, theres another fire festival, the Up Helly Aa. This seems like an ancient festival, but has actually only been going for about 130 years well, it is fairly old, I suppose. People carry fire-lit torches and a Viking boat through the streets, then set fire to the boat. Theres lots of dancing; its good fun.
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Now to the north of England. On Shrove Tuesday in February, otherwise known as Pancake Day, a special Pancake Bell is rung in Scarborough. Everyone goes down to the road next to the beach where they skip yep, they jump over long ropes, up to fifteen people to one rope. And they have pancake races. This is quite common in the UK running with a frying pan and tossing a pancake at the same time.
Another kind of race takes place in spring cheese rolling. In Gloucestershire, in the south-west of England, round cheeses in round boxes are sent rolling down a hill and people run after them and try and catch them. The hill is very steep, so people often fall over if you take part in this you need to be very fit and wear your oldest jeans. Nowadays this strange custom attracts visitors from all over the world, but the people from the local village are usually the ones who catch the cheese.
From people-racing, to animals, very tiny animals. World Championship Snail Racing takes place in a village in Norfolk. The snails have to race from an inner circle to an outer circle and the winner gets a lot of lettuce. Theres a party and barbecue for the snail owners and observers. This custom began in the 1960s after a local man saw something similar in France. In the UK we dont eat snails, by the way.
More fun, in my opinion, are the onion-eating contest, also in Gloucestershire a race to finish eating a raw onion and the Black Pudding Throwing Championship, in Lancashire. Black puddings are like big sausages made mainly from dried blood. Contestants bowl three black puddings each at 21 Yorkshire puddings set on a six-metre platform; the winner is the one who knocks down the most. Another fun contest takes place in September at the Egremont Crab Fair in Cumbria in the north of England. The World Gurning Championship is a competition to pull the ugliest face. It sounds ridiculous but this is an ancient British tradition and the Crab Fair itself dates back to 1267. The man who won the title of best gurner the most in recent years had all his teeth taken out so he could make terrible faces more easily.
Finally, lets go back to the south of England. In Brighton theres a Burning the Clocks Festival to celebrate the winter solstice on December 21st. This custom started twenty years ago and is very popular. People make clock lanterns and time-themed figures of paper and wood, then walk through the town to the beach where the sculptures are set on fire and theres a massive firework display.
So, thats just a taste of a few of our old and more modern traditions. Would you like to take part in any of them?
What's in a name?
Presenter 1: Today we are going to talk about names, particularly fashions in names, you know, the kind of names famous people use for their children. Youve been looking into this recently, havent you Finn?
Presenter 2: I have indeed and its a fascinating topic. The US leads here with new names and we in Britain follow sometimes, but we tend to go for the more traditional names. So, the big trend is using nouns as names.
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Presenter 1: Nouns, what sort of nouns?
Presenter 2: Well they can be abstract qualities like Honor or Passion. Theres a long tradition of this kind of name, like Faith or Charity, which used to be common names. A new name is Haven, thats growing in popularity. And similar names like Shelter, Harbor and Bay also convey feelings of safety and warmth.
Presenter 1: Mmm. I suppose Passion is used to mean extreme enthusiasm nowadays, and people use the word a lot, so maybe its a good choice for a modern name. Haven has a nice, safe feel to it.
Presenter 2: OK, then there are names which come from nature or animals, although with some of these its hard to know whether they come from nature or a surname thats another trend. Here we have Frost, Wolf, Fox, Bear, for boys, of course. And a new name: Ridge.
Presenter 1: Ridge, like a mountain ridge? The top of a mountain range?
Presenter 2: Yes, weird, huh? Its seen as a tough, outdoorsy name for a boy. OK, then there are musical names. Harmony and Melody have been around for ages, but Lyric is a new one.
Presenter 1: Lyric, wow!
Presenter 2: Yes, it came in at number 325 in the US a couple of years ago. That doesnt sound very popular, but there are so many different names being used at the moment that it means it isnt so unusual. Other noun categories are months May, June and April are common, but January is uncommon and November very unusual. And then you have colours. Beyoncé and Jay-Z called their daughter Blue Ivy a very distinctive name, a colour plus the name of a plant. Blue is very popular for girls right now, and Red or Grey for boys.
Presenter 1: Ive just thought of another category. Food names, like Olive or Clementine.
Presenter 2: Yes, thats another one. Flower names are pretty common, but food names are unusual. Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin named their daughter Apple, of course.
Presenter 1: Yes, poor child.
Presenter 2: Actually, Apple is becoming more and more popular, although people think thats because of the technology connection, not the fruit. New names always seem strange at first, but you quickly get used to them, like all the names from places or jobs. Chelsea and Brooklyn seem like normal names now; they were strange when they were first used. Taylor, Mason, Cooper are all first names from jobs.
Presenter 1: And they are also surnames, I think thats how they started.
Presenter 2: Youre probably right there.
Presenter 1: What about the Beckhams daughter, Harper?
Presenter 2: She was named after Harper Lee, the American novelist who wrote To Kill a Mockingbird. Thats another trend, naming children after famous writers, musicians the British band One Direction have had an effect on names or fictional characters, like Bella or Edward from the Twilight series, or Hermione from Harry Potter.
Presenter 1: Sorry, can I just interrupt there. Ive just has a message passed on by the producer. A listener has just phoned in with a very strange story about a family in Holland with six children. Their names are all anagrams of the letters: A, E, L and X.
Presenter 2: Ah yes, Ive heard about this. This family are famous in the world of bloggers on names. Let me see if I remember the names Alex and Axel and Lexa theyre the easy ones Xela ('Zela') and Xael ('Zay-el') and the last one is Xeal ('Zeal') Im guessing about the pronunciations, by the way.
Presenter 1: You mean there are names X-E-L-A and X-A-E-L?
Presenter 2: Yes, but they are very unusual. I think the Dutch family are stopping at six children, but there are about eighteen more possible anagrams they could use.
Presenter 1: Nooo, youre kidding!
Presenter 2: All seem horrible to me, but all are possible names. This is similar to another trend of giving children names all starting with the same letter, like the Kardashian family, all beginning with K, Kim, Kourtney and so on.
Presenter 1: The Kardashians have had enough publicity, lets not talk about them. What about your name? Finn, that sounds like a good Irish name
