News #2

The Guardian News

           Why We Sleep: The New Science of Sleep and Dreams by Matthew Walker is a book recently reviewed by Rachel Cooke. The book touches on the subject of the nature of sleep and effects of sleep deprivation. It seems that those effects are profound.  They range from Alzheimer’s disease to different types of cancer. It also affects our psyche. And, in a big way. Through lack of sleep we become more stressed, more anxious, more depressed, not to mention more hungry.

                It’s surprising that facts obvious to anybody are so gravely disregarded by doctors, employers, teachers and every single one of us  in turn. Sleep should be a prescribed medicine, yet nobody treats it seriously. I will never use lack a sleep as an excuse for not doing my homework just like no teacher would accept it. Still I will try Walker’s method for a week: I will set an alarm to go to bed.

Sources:
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/sep/24/why-lack-of-sleep-health-worst-enemy-matthew-walker-why-we-sleep

Flash Fiction

Decisions, decisions

The ring was missing and she was worried indeed. She might pay for it with another black eye or a broken rib. This one was definitely not going to end with only some offensive comment. He won’t just call her a stupid cow and say he regrets proposing.

The carriage door slid open. “I was wondering if you lost something,” said a handsome stranger. “Yes, an engagement ring. Did you find it?” She looked at him hopefully. “Indeed, I have. I’m only sorry not to have given it to you first.”

Who lived happily ever after? 

News #1

The Times News

In the article AI can struggle to detect sarcasm the author discusses different aspects of understanding sarcasm. He writes about new software that has been developed in order to do it and various problems arising from this task. One of the ways to detect sarcasm is listen carefully to the tone of voice: then it is easy to spot the difference between “Yes, please wake me up at 8am again” and “Yes, please wake me up at 3am again”.

However in my opinion it’s not all so simple. I can easily understand the difference between waking someone at 8am and 3am but other sentences used in the article as examples are not so easy to comprehend. In order to spot sarcasm you need to share a person’s cultural and historical background. I believe that for AI with a huge database at its disposal it should be easier. 

Source: 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/ai-can-struggle-to-detect-sarcasm-vprkpdfxl

Flash Fiction

Politics

 The time of new presidential election were coming. There were just a few days until the voting day. And there were two strong opponent parties that were going head-to-head. Both of them had a very dedicated adherent which were blindly following their words and promises. Backers of party A were arguing with backers of party Ball time. Some fanatics of one side were ready to fight for their leader. They were even ready to kill or die for him. The nation were totally divided.

Leaders of those parties were candidates who ran for President. They were everywhere. You could see them in the front pages of Newspapers or TV Shows. It’s curious but they were always talking about one thing: their opponent. Why people shouldn’t vote for him. When they were having a common discussions the only thing they were doing was insulting and criticizing each other. But when the show was ended and cameras were off, they talked friendly and made future plans of going out for a drink after the election.