8) WEARING A HELMET
I confess to not having ever worn a helmet when I rode my scooter. Neither in winter, nor in summer. But for
several years I had been feeling inside me a sense of guilt, an unease that has given insecurity to me made
me feel insecure. Until I have made a radical choice: I have decided not to use my scooter anymore.
Suddenly I gave up the quickness of the vehicle and the ease of parking.
It happened that this way. A number of friends and colleagues, nobody none of them very young, nobody
none reckless have had some accidents on scooters. I thought sooner or later I would have an accident me
too. I was panic-stricken and I thought that I absolutely had to decide to buy a helmet. I was almost
persuaded. Then, one day in July, I found myself in a crowded street on my scooter, surrounded by a roaring
and stinking cloud of scooters and motorbikes that was waiting for the green light of the traffic lights,
touched by threatening buses and clearly hostile car drivers. I reached the garage, I abandoned the scooter
and I have never touched it again.
Finally the obligatory use of the helmet without limitation of age has become law also in our permissive and
backward country. The last in Europe, for a change, at least when it is about safety measures for the traffic.
Heaven knows why it has taken such a long time.
I understand that my choice is an extreme one: rather than wear the a helmet, I’d better rather give my
scooter up. That is really not that case. Maybe also because of the my age I didn’t feel relaxed on my scooter,
I feel felt too exhibited exposed. I wasn’t afraid of myself, I’m very prudent. I was afraid of the others that
sometimes all seem to feel all like 007 agents with the license to kill (and to be killed). Even my wife didn’t
want me to use my scooter. She said it was too dangerous.
If I had continued to use my scooter, I would have bought a super helmet, the best on the market. It is true
that the helmet doesn’t protect from everything, but it reduces enormously the most serious risk and
sometimes the most definitive one , the risk that concerns the head. Our cranium, the experts say, stands
impacts up to 10 km an hour. It can’t stand more than this. And it is really rare to stay under that speed when
you ride a scooter.
9) ANIMALS USED IN WARS
Gina, who is 2 years old and weighs 28 kilos, is a military dog of in the American Army, specialized into in
the research of bombs and explosives. Before she went to Iraq, she was a cheerful and calm dog. Nobody
could think Gina would come back from the war with a psychological trouble disorder, but after the mission
in Iraq, she was afraid of everything and everyone. She hid under the furniture with the tail among her tail
between her legs. It was difficult for people who had known her before the mission, to recognize Gina as the
same dog. Six months of war, and in particular the bombardment of the convoy on which she travelled, had
transformed her.
So Gina has started a new therapy in order to cure what the veterinary surgeons call “post-traumatic stress
disorder”. At the beginnings of the therapy her trainer Melinda Miller just wanted Gina to do take long
walks with Melinda and other friendly people. Then they made her jump some obstacles and they gave her
some little tasks such as, for instance, looking for hidden objects. In this therapy that lasts until today, to for
each success they do to pay her a lot of compliments. And above all they give her consolation every time
Gina is frightened. For several months Gina has been more cheerful and much less scared. She has started
also to regain some of her past abilities. However the experts say she won’t be able to go back to a war area
anymore. Gina’s case raises once more the matter question about the morality of the engagement use of
animals at war.
10) ROBOT TEACHER
In some schools, in order to save on the cost of teaching, principals would like the pupils to attend some
online lessons. However it is difficult to know if the pupils pay attention when they attend these lessons. In
person, teachers use a number of technics techniques for catching and keeping pupils’ attention alive such as
for instance changing the tone of their voices and gesticulating.
For some months it has been available also the Intelligent Protector Tutor, a new type of program, has also
been available (SUBJECT PRECEDES VERB! You cannot use “it” when there is a subject). Similarly
to the teacher it is enough for he Protector the Tutor to look into pupils’ eyes to understand if they are
following the lesson. It Is used an An electronic sensor is used that follows the movement of the human eye.
In order to make pupils pay more attention, the robot can change his tone of voice and gesticulate when the
pupil is distracted. The inventors hoped the Protector Tutor would be more effective. In fact, they have
demonstrated that pupils who used the Intelligent Protector Tutor remembered more pieces of information
than pupils who followed the lesson with a normal program.
11) DANCE DOUBLE
In many films actors use body doubles for action scenes or simply for having more beautiful legs, like Julia
Roberts in Pretty Woman. People who watch a movie have to believe to they see the actor, even if nowadays
the audience appreciates a lot the work of body doubles. Nobody thought the actor and the body double
could argue telling conflicting versions of the film. Instead it happened with the film about the dance, The
Black Swan. Natalie Portman and her partner Benjamin Millepied, the choreographer of the film, say that
85% of dance sequences of the film is are executed by the actress. But the body double Sarah Lane of the
New York City Ballet declares that Natalie has executes executed at most 5% of those scenes. “They have
diminished our work” has explained Lane, “making the audience think that you can reach a similar result
during in a year and a half of training. I would like the audience to understand that it isn’t possible. I’ve been
training for 22 years to succeed in dancing this way. Not all actors deny the use of body doubles. For
example Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart, the romantic young protagonists of the Twilight Saga, admit
that their fights are often executed by body doubles and they accept that these people are known by the
public. But this kind of recognition is still a rare phenomenon. The use of body doubles in the scenes in
which the actress is more or less undressed is frequent but hardly ever officially admitted.
12) WORKING FOR MARS
20 years ago, Howard-Yana Shapiro, an American man that today is 61, founded “Seeds for Change”, a little
company that sold seeds for organic agriculture. The business was good and the firm grew. Then, one day in
1997, an unexpected proposal came: “Mars”, the gigantic company known because of chocolate bars wanted
to buy “Seed for Change”. Though his friends didn’t want him to sell and called him “traitor”, Shapiro
decided to sell his company. Since 1997 Shapiro has been working for Mars as “”. His friends didn’t believe
that Shapiro could do good inside of a giant like Mars. Instead Shapiro explains his decision this way: “If
you are interested in defending nature, the scale of your actions has a decisive importance”. Shapiro’s project
is to make food industry change its behavior as regards the defense of the environment. Today one can say
that he has reached the first important result.
Mars, the biggest chocolate producer company in the world, has announced that henceforth all its production
of cocoa will follow the rules of the eco-friendly economy: minimum wage for farmers, biodiversity into in
the agriculture development of agriculture, preservation of water resources. This choice will be checked and
certified by the ecological organization Rainforest Alliance. Shapiro says: “I’m persuaded that following
Mars’ example the entire food industry will follow this way.path.