What made Lady Gaga become famous so fast?

   With her successful debut album, The Fame, released on August 19th 2008, topping many charts around the world, she became a world star overnight. It is not surprising that she became so famous with her fascinating songs. But Madonna and Britney spears also became famous for their good looking and their popular songs. Then what is so special about Lady Gaga? Her debut was no more explosive than that of any other pop stars. It can be said that she literally became a star overnight since her album had released. Now she has 10 million followers on her facebook and 6 million on her twitter. How can we explain this phenomenon? Is it just because many people like Lady Gaga more than Madonna or Britney Spears? The change in our environment is the answer. It is not because Lady Gaga’s debut album was better than that of Madonna or Britney Spears, but because of the environmental change in our society.

   When Madonna made her debut in 1983, it took weeks to top the billboard chart and make a mark because the promotion team had to merely rely on radio or television broadcastings. Twenty years later in 1999, Britney Spears released her debut album …Baby one more time and for her it took less to distinguish herself thanks to MTV which enhanced the exposure of her undeniable music video as well as traditional radio and television shows. However, television or radio broadcastings, which are intrinsically one-side media, were not effective as the Web do today. When Britney came out the Web existed but there were fewer households who had PC in their home, and also the contents on the Web were limited only to text and photos which we had to wait for minutes to load them.

   On the other hand, by Lady Gaga’s debut in 2008 the Internet played the most significant role, making her superstar overnight. YouTube allowed people to watch Lady Gaga’s eye-popping performance whenever they want to. It wasn’t a big matter if you missed performance at the MTV music award because in a minute it was on the YouTube. Thanks to the video-sharing website people could upload and share video clips of their favorite stars and those who just began to get interested in Lady Gaga ultimately become a fan by watching her fascinating performance. Facebook helped her promotion as well. People can share their interest on their walls and through this it took only few hours to make people know who Lady Gaga is, while it took several seeks at the time when Madonna came out. So it was a matter of accessibility.

   Next to the accessibility to her great debut album it was the Lady Gaga’s personality that attracted many people. Beforehand celebrities had promotion team that gave advices to them what to wear, how to speak and everything possible to make them attractive. Everything was controlled and images were made up so people looked up their stars in awe. However, the separation between celebrities and the public raised somekind of anti-sentiment against the celebrities. Social networking sites on the Web changed the basic relationship to some degrees. Since people are already exposed to many of Lady Gaga’s promotions, video clips in YouTube, fans did not stop there. They wanted to know more about her: what kind of personality she has, what she does in her free time, and what she is thinking right now. Twitter, facebook made this possible.

   On the Web the distance is drawn close between the fans and their stars. Celebrities use twitter or facebook just as other netizens and this made people think that celebrities are just like us. Lady Gaga’s open-minded and highly individual attitude attracted many people. As we can notice by her fashion, wearing innovative costumes, she knows exactly what she wants to do and makes it happen. Her unaffected attitude appealed to many people. She is not an imitation of Madonna or Christina Aguilera. She is Lady Gaga. Without being Lady Gaga herself she could not be famous as she is today.

Public Isolation Project

   What would it be like living in a glass house where everybody can see you? Literally, we are talking about a house with no curtains. These days, many architects design buildings that have large glass windows in order to enhance the natural light inside the buildings. In addition, some animal rights activists also did a performance of living in a glass house in order to denounce people’s unethical treatment of animals. This time, Christine Norine is ‘trapped’ in a glass house for one month for the purpose of a Public Isolation Project.

http://www.publicisolationproject.com/

   Public Isolation Project is kind of performance art consisting of two symbolic art pieces: Joshua Jay Eliott’s “An Examinable Life” and Christine Norine’s “the Future of Socializing.” The transparent window which enables people to view Christine’s life represents the current situation of modern people who have succumbed to the privacy of their home due to the comfort of the internet. People can now socialize through twitter, facebook, skype and other social networking websites without having to see the person face to face. Since Christine is unable to get out of the house and has no direct interaction with people, she can only communicate with her friends and family through these social networking websites. During the performance she will focus on examining her feelings and mental health, so that she can better understand how the social networking through the Internet affects her social life.

   It is a meaningful project to our society, given the fact that we are now witnessing ambivalent effects of the social networking websites. Thanks to these online services we can keep in touch with our friends and get information anywhere at anytime. On the other hand issues such as cyber-bullying and lack of privacy are increasing. People are aware of all these phenomenon, but there is no adequate solution to this problem. Since the positive effects are so enormous, some people tend to shrug off the negative impact of the social networking service as a trivial problem. It is inevitable to eliminate the problems because of the intrinsic prosperities of the internet – openness, connectivity, and fast diffusion. However, at least we can minimize the adverse impact. In order to come up with measures, more research must be conducted. In this sense, the Public Isolation Project has stepped off on the right foot of academic research on social networking services and also will open people up to think carefully about how to use the online services correctly.

It all started from a slow hunch

   It is a common belief that ideas of great innovations come from at the moment when a genius has the so-called 'eureka' moment. Charles Darwin himself wrote in his autobiography that he came up with his theory of natural selection when he was reading a book as usual. In addition, Wills Carrier, who invented the modern air-cooling system, described his eureka moment having seen the fog rolling in across the track when he was waiting for his train. Is it true that great ideas which lead to innovation just fall into the thoughts of genius at a sudden moment?

  

Steven Johnson, an American popular science author argues that it isn't true. In his new book <Where good idea come from> he tells about the shared patterns of the historic inventions including Darwinian evolution, the creation of YouTube, the London cholera epidemic, The Wire and much more. Having a closer look into these cases he found out a rucurring pattern they all shared. It was the 'slow hunch'. It refers to the long incubation period until the ideas are completed. This notion contradicts with the common belief of the eureka moment.

  

A great idea didn't appear in a sudden moment rather it was a result of accumulated hunches that were in the great thinkers mind. Since people want to hear about dramatic things, they are fascinated by the eureka moment. Every great thinkers had slow hunches in their mind. It had remained as an ordinary idea until they found the missing piece of their great ideas. Charles Darwins and Willis Carrier had the whole concept of their great ideas months and months ago when they allegedly had their eureka moment. This shows that ideas do not come from a sudden moment but from a collaborative process.

   What Mr.Johnson also emphasize is the notion of 'adjacent possible'. He argues that invention is dependent on the right circumstances. YouTube, which has changed our Internet media since it's launch in 2005, would have been a failure, if it had come out in 1995, when people used modem system and video cameras with extremely low resolution. Therefore, it can be said that good ideas have relative values regard to the environment.

Then, what can we learn from these theory and how can we apply them to our real life? I came up with ideas that we can follow.

   First, 'cultivate hunches'.

It means that you should consistently think. However, taken the notion of 'adjacent possible' into consideration. you should make sure that what we think is related to our own particular environment. Otherwise it won't appeal to other people. In addition, whether you think it is a bad idea or good idea, you should write everything down, because it could be the last missing piece of your great idea.

   Second, take on multiple hobbies.

It is important to have a multiple hobbies because the more activities you do, the more various information you will have. From these various information you can extend your ideas that you have wrote down on your notebook. This is the collaborative process, which are found in great innovations in the past. The multiple hobbies includes every kind of activity; reading books, doing art, physical activities , surfing the Internet and etc. Among these activities, I want to stress the Internet surfing especially, because Internet in itself is a system consisting of connections which means you can have almost every information that can enrich your ideas.

   Finally, find the missing part of your idea.

In order to complete your idea you should meet various people and talk about your idea. It would be more conducive if you meet people who have different backgrounds from yourself. By having conversation to those people, you are likely to break out of the box and might found the missing piece. Let them build on your ideas and then borrow it, recycle it and reinvent it.

YES for Reusable Coffee Cups

   Paper cups are designed for a single use and then thrown away or recycled. It is known that plastic cups are more harmful to the environment, but contrary to our conventional thoughts, paper cups can also have malign impact on the environment. Over 6.5 million trees were cut down to make 16 billion paper cups used by the U.S. consumers in 2006, using 4 billion gallons of water and resulting in 253 million pounds of waste. Paper cups are rarely recycled because of the concern of contamination. In addition, it is technically hard to recycle because of the plastic that covers the inside part of paper cup. It is the plastic film used to coat the paper cup prevent them from decomposing, although the paper cups are made from renewable resources. There are two kinds of paper cups; PE and PLA. PE is a petroleum based film coated on paper cups which can slow down the process of biodegrading whereas PLA is 100 percent biodegradable and its resources are generated from renewable resources, feld corn.

  

   PLA coated paper cups can be an alternative to the existing PE coated paper cups. However, unfortunately, coffee shops are unlikely to use the 100 percent biodegradable paper cups because PLA's production cost is more higher than that of PE. Then what could be the solution? Now that people are more aware of the seriousness of climate change and have more interest in eco-friendly life-style, they are calling on coffee shops to deal with those unenvironmental paper cups. Starbucks company set up a goal of serving 100 percent of its beverages in reusable or recyclable cups by 2015. In order to achieve this goal the company might suffer losses, but considering that current preference of the consumers, which demands for businesses to come up with more complex than "cheaper and better", the benefit will exeeds its losses. Peace Coffee, a Minnesota based coffee company, is an good example. In 2008 and 2009, the company was growing at an annual rate of 20 percent, which is a miracle, given that every businesses were struggling at that time. What is it that consumers have chosen this company's coffee? It is the business philosophy that considers a tripple bottom line.

   Even though companies are responsible for what they sell, people should not blame coffee shops for using paper cups. It were ourselves who made companies only focus on lowering the production cost regardless of its harmful effect on our environment. Therefore, we should admit that the problem can be solved only when the company and the consumers cooperate. Coffee companies should put effort into developing technology that can produce biodegradable paper cups in a lower price and come up with programs that encourage people to use reusable cups. For their part, consumers should have more interest in campaigns which companies provide and  actively participate by giving ideas what they could do. Following can be a solution.

• Give a free cup of coffee to the customers who used reusable cups for 15 times.
• Give a 10-percent discount off the coffee price to the customers who bring reusable cup.
• Encourage customers to use reusable cups by running a campaign that informs customers about the negative impact of paper cups once a week. 
• Governments should give incentives such as tax cuts or subsidies to those companies who give discount to their customers who bring a reusable cup. 
• As a long-term solution teachers should give a reward to children who bring their own bottles at the school. This can make children adjust to bringing their reusable cups.

Human Rights Abuse in China

   Nobel Committee awarded this year's Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident, Liu Xiaobo, and this has raised an issue on the human rights abuse of the Chinese government. Chinese government and other countries and NGO's are having a dispute over the awarding. The Chinese government argues that awarding a crimnal in prison with Nobel Peace Prize is a violate intervention in its judicial sovereignty. On the other hand, many othe countries and NGOs claim that Liu Xiaobo deserves the Prize considering his contribution to improving human rights in China.

   Liu Xiaobo is a 54-year-old Chinese literary critic, professor and human rights activist who called for human rights protection and democratic reform in China. Recently, he has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to human rights. However, he was not able to attend the authoritative awarding ceremony because he is currently serving his 11-year imprisonment. He was arrested in 2008 on charge of inciting subversion of state power. Mr. Liu co-authored Charter 08, an announcement demanding Chinese government to reform its system into a democratic one and guarantee freedom of speech and free-elections.

   China is a single-party state governed by the Communist Party of China. Its president is elected within the party not by their people. Taking these facts into consideration, political freedom is strickly restricted. In contrast, economic and social controls have been greatly relaxed in China since the 1970s. China's economy is based on free market which means that private companies and housholds have a freedom in making a economic choice. However, even in the market the Chinese government does not guarantee full meaning of freedom when it comes to their national interest especially that is related to democracy and human rights. The dispute over Chinese government's censorship between the U.S. company, Google, and China is an good example. Any company can get into China's market but must follow China's law. This rule counts for every countries but it has become an issue in China because most of the foreign companies are from democratic state.

   Communist Party of China (CPC) does not want to lose its power that enabels  to control the people. Even though China has adopted its current constitution in1982, it seems that they still have an anachronical concept of ruling people of its former Kingdom. The Constitution states that it guarantees the "fundamental rights" of citizens. However, these provisions do not afford significant protection in practice against criminal prosecution by the State. In addition, some provisions such as provision 105 of the Chinese criminal code are  intentiously misinterpreted by the court. The provision 105 hans inciting subversion of state power. Since there are no further details of the provision it is likely to be used to judge political dissidents guilty. The judiciary of China has delivered Mr. Liu an 11-year sentence on charges of violating the provision 105. A spokesperson for the court said that Mr. Liu had written messages, which incited people to resist CPC on the Internt and recommed people to sign in support. He also said that leading the anouncement of Charter 08 was a violation to the law.

   Chinese government's infringement upon human rights is not restricted to political issues. The constitution includes provisions which state freedom of speech, freedom of the press, the right to a fair trial, freedom of religion, universal suffrage, and property rights. However, it seems that the concept of 'freedom' ,which is stated in the constitution, is different from the general notion. The government censor every articles of the press and even e-mails or messages posted on the Internet of netizens who are on the government's blacklist. Religious groups must be registered with the government in order to do religious activities in China. Even the number of children, which families can have, is also restricted by the government, known as 'One-Child Policy'.

   In the absence of democracy, how do Chinese citizens convey their frustrations to the government? Are Chinese citizens satisfied with their suppressing government? As China's economy is enjoying its boom, people with their increased income will demand more than economic gain. Being nervous with this situation, recently China has intensified its censorship and also is putting a great amount of times and efforts to develop an effective  firewall to block the inflows of democracy. However, this will only trigger Chinese citizens' zeal for democracy. Guobin Yang, an associate professor in Columbia University, reported in his book < The Power of the Internet in China: Citizen Activism Online> that Internet will power the democratic movement among the Chinese citizens.

   China has nearly 400 million netizens which is the largest in any other nation. Even though the government is trying to filter information, which is discontent to their government, vast amount of information flowing into China and ways to circumvent state controls will make its effort meaningless. With the technology, Chinese citizens' long for democracy will grow to the extent that the Chinese government cannot control.

   In order to win the title 'World Power', the Chinese government should solve its issues which are being met with opposition from other countries and also from its own citizens. Since democracy is regarded as an universal political system around the world, policies of the China ,whether it is a domestic one or a foreign one,  sould be implemented in a democratic way; otherwise, the rest of the countries will not join hands with China. Therefore, it is time for China to accept and guarantee the natural demand of its people and come up with measures to find the middle point that guarantees the fundamental human rights in China and the sustainability of its ruling party.

Global Financial Transation Tax

     Oncoming this thursday the G20 summit will be held in Seoul, South Korea. This summit-level conference has a significant meaning not only to Korea but also to the international community. These kinds of high level conferences were used to be held in western advanced countries. However, this time, South Korea is hosting the G20 summit which has gone from having a GDP lower than much of sub-Saharan Africa to being one of the world's largest economy. Being a chairman country means that they can choose topics of the agenda. Since South Korea was once a poverty-stricken country, underdeveloped countries, who are not invited to the conference and some civil society groups are hoping that it would include poverty issues in the agenda. However, it is expected that the G20 will mainly focus on issues such as global imbalance and the current precarious exchange rate. In contrast, little will be dealt with the issues on development.

     Recently, globalists came up with an idea of imposing taxes on global financial transaction. The so-called 'Global Financial Transaction Tax (FTT).' An FTT is a tax imposed on the global financial transaction to alleviate the poverty and preventing climate change. The tax will be at a rate of 0.005 percent which can produce more than $30 billion a year, roughly four to seven times the current level of overseas aid. People, who support FTT, argue that it can effectively raise funds to help indigent countries and at the same time have little side effects on the global market thanks to an extremely low rate of tax.
  
     However urgent the situation may be ,though , an intensive research on the effects that FTT will cause must be conducted. Unlike the FTT advocates insist, FTT can interrupt the international market. Since the international market is based on free competition, a slight difference in prices can determine whether exporting companies can be successful or not. Even at a rate of 0.005 percent can be a burden to small companies and discourage them from entering the international market. Eventually it will enable existing, multi- national enterprises easier control to the global market.
  
     On the other hand, FTT will only empower the international institutions. It is said that the money generated from taxes will go directly to World Bank and to other international institutions, not the developing countries to lower carbon emisssions or alleviate poverty. This can make global institutions easier to manipulate or intervene into domestic affairs of states, that are in desperate need of a capital. International institutions will lend money to states on a condition, which they think is a way to alleviate poverty. However, it has been empirically proved that measures reconmmended by economist in those institutions did not work in underdeveloped countries, because the economists had overlooked the differient situations in those countries and only followed the book. This approach may waste international aide. Also given the fact these institutions are mainly governed by people, who represent rich, western countries, it will only benefit the rich countries.

    Even if global institutions were to help poor countries, the problem of distributing financial assistance to public still remains. Considering that many poor countries are ruled by a dictator, the FTT will enrich corrupt local dictators and their cronies. This is an empirical problem that are found in current Official Development Assistence (ODA) system. Even though failures have been found in the ODA system, insisting yet another assistance system without a resolution seem to be irrational. Before implementing the FTT, an intensive research should be done and authorities concerned should reflect the results in devising measures to solve the issue. The measures should focus on enhancing the direct accessibility to fund for the indigent people.