Students strive to make a living after lecture hours

VietNamNet Bridge – A lot of students did not return to home village to enjoy the summer holiday. They stayed in big cities to work hard to earn money to continue nurturing the dream about university education.

The student who drags a wagon

Dang Dinh Doai, a student of the power and recycled energy faculty of the Hanoi Water Resource University, looks skinny and black, because he has to work and study hard from the morning till the midnight every day.

The boy did not return to the home village last summer, but stayed in Hanoi to earn money to prepare for the next academic year.

In Hanoi, Doai stayed in a tent together with the construction workers from Yen Bai, which was made by the timber blanks to help them hide from frost and wind. Doai’s team comprised of 10 members, who worked for a contractor who received the orders on repairing roads and sewers.

Of the 10 members, Doai was the most undersized, weighing 42 kilos only. Therefore, Doai was assigned the easier works than other members: he had to drag a wagon or carry plaster.

A working day began at 7 am. Sometimes Doai and his team had to carry the concrete slabs from the store yard to the construction site on Ton Duc Thang Street. In order to save costs, the slabs, weighing hundreds of kilos each, were carried on wagon.

The team of workers had to join forces to push the wagon to make it start moving. After that, they walked five kilometers in the sun to the construction site and sweated profusely.

Doai said that he only stayed in the home village in Thai Binh province for some days and then left for Hanoi. He feels sorry for the parents, who still have to work hard in the rice fields in the old age. Therefore, he vows to work to earn money himself to pay for the rent room and food.

Though having to work hard on the construction site, Doai felt lucky that he could work and earn money. Especially, Doai did not have to spend money on meals, because he could have meals with other members of the same team

“My parents still can give me one million dong a month to fund my study. However, I cannot stay idle. I have to work to earn money,” Doai said.

However, Doai admitted that it is really difficult to earn money. He was paid only 500,000 dong for the last 20 days of working. Meanwhile, the job was stable, depending on the orders the contractor can get, while Doai and his team members always had to change their accommodations.

The exile parent who earns money to keep son going to school
Over the last two years, since the day the son began going to university, when the crop finishes, Nguyen Thi Lam from Thanh Hoa province traveled hundreds of kilometers to Hanoi, where she lives in a small rent room and works hard every day to get money.

As a vendor, the 47 year old woman has to ride a bicycle along the streets in Hanoi, inviting people to buy groceries. Lam weighs 40 kilos only, but she always carries a bag of goods weighing up to 10-15 kilos, or 1/3 of her weight.

“I can save one million dong a month with the job, after I pay for room rent and food,” Lam said, adding that she has to pay 11,000 dong for every night in the room, while she has to leave early in the morning.

When asked about the son, Lam declined to reveal his name and the school he goes to, because Lam feared the boy would feel ashamed if his friends discover that Lam is just a vendor, who collects every dong from the hard job.

Compiled by Kim Chi

 

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Vietnamese men are “lazy, eager for drinking” in foreigners’ eyes

VietNamNet Bridge – “In HCM City, I always see men gather in groups in coffee shops, restaurants or pavement beer shops to drink before or after the office hours. Vietnamese men are too lazy,” commented Alex, an Australian.

Alex, a businessman who goes to Vietnam very often, said that anytime he went to Vietnam, he saw coffee shops or restaurants were occupied by groups of men before, during or after working hours.

He said: “Sometimes I looked at the clock, it was 6pm. It is the time for men to stay at home to help their wives and children. If they have babies, they have to help their wives more. Why do they spend their time to drink together?”

According to a research work on alcohol abuse in Vietnam, carried out by the Institute for Health Strategy and Policy, 63 percent of alcohol users are men. Intellectuals account for high ratio among them.

Vietnamese people consume around 1.3 billion liters of beer and more than 300 liters of alcohol annually, worth hundreds of thousand billion dong (hundred million USD).

After nearly one year living in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Henry, a French, said he still did not understand why Vietnamese men liked staying at coffee shops and restaurants to drink, not returning to their home.

Henry, who is manager of a famous resort in Vung Tau city, said that as a businessman, he had to see and drink with business partners but he was always aware of his wife and children waiting for him at home, so he tried to return home as soon as possible to help his wife with some housework.

“I asked many people and they said that it is very normal in Vietnam. While women are responsible for taking care of their family and children, their husbands only have to earn money. Many men plead their business requiring seeing and drinking with partners to not go home until midnight. If their wives ask them, they even insult and beat their wives.”

Henry, 37, said that he has some Vietnamese friends who got married and have children. Though these women outstandingly take care of and sacrifice themselves for their husbands and their children, but their families are not very happy.

“Any man who can marry them are lucky but my friends still complained that their husbands were not at home after work. If they go home, they only go to bed and they never clean house or wash dishes for their wives. Do they think that family belongs to only women?” Henry wondered.

Saigon is the called the “sleepless city”. Restaurants are fully occupied at night by mainly men. With several dried squids and a bottle of rice wine, they can spend their time until midnight.

At 11.20pm, a snail restaurant on D2 road, Binh Thanh district, HCM City was still overcrowded with a hundred men who were clinking glasses together.

The restaurant owner said that the restaurant opens from 4pm to 2am. It welcomes around 300 people each night, on average.

“Not only my restaurant, but also other restaurants in this city work the same way. After drinking, some are drunk and exchange blows. Some women coming here to recall their husbands were beaten by their men,” the restaurant owner said.

It is very popular to see coffee shops and restaurants overcrowded with men after working hours in Hanoi.

At around 4pm, beer shops along Tay Son Road, Dong Da District, Hanoi began to having customers. Though the working hours would end one hour later but beer shops had tens of men. On their tables, there were 5-7 glasses of beer and several plates of roasted peanuts and grilled squids.

From 5pm, more men went to these beer shops. Each of them entered beer shops with a briefcase on their hands. Many people still wore staff cards. After a glass of beer, their stories became very lively and their voices began being loudly. They even talked about their love and sex affairs.

At over 6pm, restaurants along Le Duc Tho Road, My Dinh, Hanoi became extremely bustling. This was the best time for customers to go to restaurants. The adjacent My Dinh Square also entered the golden time of business. Besides male students, there were a large number of office employees. They came in groups, chose a table, ordered several cups of ice tea, a dish of roasted sunflower seeds or a dish of fruit and began chatting until midnight.

On a sedge mat on a grassplot of My Dinh Square, five men of over 30 years old ordered a bottle of rice alcohol, a grilled squid and began to chat.

One man began by telling others that his firm had just signed a big contract and he believed that he would be paid high commission. After that, another man said a group of on-the-job trainees had just come to his company and he was assigned to instruct a pretty girl.

While they were chatting very noisily, two cell phones suddenly rang. The two men immediately lowered their voices: “I’m busy at work. I’ll come home late.” “I’m stuck. I’m going home in several minutes.” One of them suddenly remembered that he forgot to pick up his son from kindergarten. The group quickly dissolved.

Architect Vo Trong Nghia and his journey to “seek failure”

VietNamNet Bridge – Returning to Vietnam to “seek failure” at the advice of his Japanese teacher six years ago, architect Vo Trong Nghia faced great difficulties at the beginning--to harvest stunning successes later.

Architect Vo Trong Nghia.

Since Nghia won the 2007 International Architecture Award (IAA) for his bamboo-made water and wind café in the southern province of Binh Duong, he has received around 30 international architecture awards. Among them are two gold medals of the Asian Architects’ Association, five International Architecture Awards (US), four Green Good Design awards (US), two Asia FuturArc Green Leadership Award, etc. So far this year, he has won seven international prizes.

Nghia was born in 1976 in a peasant family in the central province of Quang Binh. Graduating from the Hanoi Architecture University, he got a scholarship of the Japanese government in 1996 to study architecture at the Nagoya Technology Institute. He was the first laurette of the architecture faculty in 2002.

During his four years at Nagoya University, Nghia only attended class for the lessons that he thought of being useful for him.
“I don’t like trite and hollow knowledge. I only study what I like, so I used to go to libraries or famous architecture offices in Japan to work for free. In Japan, students are allowed to be free but they have to take responsibility for their acts,” Nghia said.

In 2004, Nghia won the Furuichi Award of the Tokyo University for his outstanding MA thesis. One year later, he was presented the Dean of The University of Tokyo Award for his PhD research work.

Nghia wrote his MA thesis at the University of Tokyo for only the last three months of his 2-year MA course. During these years, he was keen on designing a five-storey wood-made house but finally, he chose the thesis on aerodynamics, wind and water. This is the “formula” for his success in the future.

Nghia did not finish his PhD thesis to return to Vietnam, at the advice of his instructor, Prof. Hiroshi Naito, to seek “failure.”

“Stracking Green” house in HCM City.

Nghia was grateful to his Japanese professor, who taught him a lot of knowledge, which sometimes made him weary. He studied architecture but Prof. Hiroshi Naito taught him knowledge about materials, structure, landscape panorama and aerodynamics. He followed him to international architecture contests to understand how to prepare perfect files to pass strict criteria of international competitions.

Returning to Vietnam in 2007, he designed the water and wind café in Binh Duong province. This work uses wind and water as natural air conditioners. This bamboo-made work has been known widely at home and abroad. Nghia won several international prizes for this design.
However, easy and early success was accompanied with problems. Nghia faced a lot of difficulties when he started business in Vietnam, because of his peculiar personality. Two years after he opened his own company, he did not have any client. Young architects did not want to work for a boss like him.

Nghia did not have connection with the local community of architects. He did not have feedback against others’ comments on his works. He quietly learnt from the comments and did what he thought to be right. Thus, he seemed to be an “outsider.” As an outsider, he exerted effort to prove his talent through winning international prizes.

Nghia said he had tried his best to have Vietnamese architectural works be known in the world. “I’m a Vietnamese and I wish to devote myself to Vietnam,” he explained about his determination to come back to Vietnam after ten years living in Japan and refusing many attractive offers.

Nghia has trained and “driven away” many talented architects, who have been successful in their career after leaving Nghia’s company. He has earned a lot of money from architecture but he has also invested highly in architecture.

Nghia has invited many foreign architects to Vietnam to work with his young architects, in order to train young talented architects.

Nghia said that young Vietnamese architects are good but they do not have many chances to meet with their foreign colleagues. They also lack experience. They can draw very nice works but the real works are not as nice as drawings.

Bamboo Wing

Nghia’s first international accredited work was made from bamboo and he continued designing other works with bamboo. However, they are very different from each other. He wished one day, Vietnam’s bamboo architecture would predominate the world.

At present, he does not want to talk about bamboo. He is pursuing environmentally friendly architectural works or green construction works. A house in HCM City, named “Stacking Green,” the Phan Chau Trinh School in Binh Duong or the Pouchen Kindergaten in Dong Nai are tests for the new trend. These works, using many trees and aerodynamic principles related to wind, water and light, won international awards.

Nghia is making low-cost energy-saving houses, which are suitable to Vietnam’s climate and to the income of most Vietnamese. These houses are 40sq.m, costing from VND320 to VND 480 million/house ($16,000-24,000).

Nghia said beautiful works can be cheap works. Though they are big or small, each architectural work must convey a new message and idea and be appropriate to everyone.

Nghia’s goal in the near future is having his architectural works in the world leading books on architecture.

Nghia works for his passion and his passion is unlimited. He can work from 12 to 15 hours a day. He goes to bed early but he also gets up early to practice Zen meditation, to go swimming and then go to work for the whole day. He devotes his entire energy to work and creativeness.

“The success must be built from the courage to break down the past success to achieve new success,” Nghia said.

He compared himself as a gamer: “At work, I imagine myself as a gamer. Whenever I reach a level, I want to reach a higher, more difficult level.”

Impressive designs by Vo Trong Nghia:

The water and wind café in Binh Duong, which brought about the first international prize to Nghia.

After this work, a water and wind bar was also built in Binh Duong. It won many international awards.

Bamboo Wings at the Dai Lai Flamingo Resort in Hanoi.

Vietnam’s pavilion at the Shanghai Expo.

A pipe-shaped house in Gia Lai.

“Stracking Green” house in HCM City, which also won many awards.

Phan Chu Trinh School in BinhDuong.

Translated by T. Van

Researchers engineer light-activated skeletal muscle

Technique may enable robotic animals that move with the strength and flexibility of their living counterparts.

Jennifer Chu, MIT News Office

Many robotic designs take nature as their muse: sticking to walls like geckos, swimming through water like tuna, sprinting across terrain like cheetahs. Such designs borrow properties from nature, using engineered materials and hardware to mimic animals’ behavior.

Now, scientists at MIT and the University of Pennsylvania are taking more than inspiration from nature — they’re taking ingredients. The group has genetically engineered muscle cells to flex in response to light, and is using the light-sensitive tissue to build highly articulated robots. This “bio-integrated” approach, as they call it, may one day enable robotic animals that move with the strength and flexibility of their living counterparts.

The researchers’ approach will appear in the journal Lab on a Chip.

Harry Asada, the Ford Professor of Engineering in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, says the group’s design effectively blurs the boundary between nature and machines.

“With bio-inspired designs, biology is a metaphor, and robotics is the tool to make it happen,” says Asada, who is a co-author on the paper. “With bio-integrated designs, biology provides the materials, not just the metaphor. This is a new direction we’re pushing in biorobotics.”

Seeing the light

Asada and MIT postdoc Mahmut Selman Sakar collaborated with Roger Kamm, the Cecil and Ida Green Distinguished Professor of Biological and Mechanical Engineering, to develop the new approach. In deciding which bodily tissue to use in their robotic design, the researchers set upon skeletal muscle — a stronger, more powerful tissue than cardiac or smooth muscle. But unlike cardiac tissue, which beats involuntarily, skeletal muscles — those involved in running, walking and other physical motions — need external stimuli to flex.

Normally, neurons act to excite muscles, sending electrical impulses that cause a muscle to contract. In the lab, researchers have employed electrodes to stimulate muscle fibers with small amounts of current. But Asada says such a technique, while effective, is unwieldy. Moreover, he says, electrodes, along with their power supply, would likely bog down a small robot.

Instead, Asada and his colleagues looked to a relatively new field called optogenetics, invented in 2005 by MIT’s Ed Boyden and Karl Deisseroth from Stanford University, who genetically modified neurons to respond to short laser pulses. Since then, researchers have used the technique to stimulate cardiac cells to twitch.

Asada’s team looked for ways to do the same with skeletal muscle cells. The researchers cultured such cells, or myoblasts, genetically modifying them to express a light-activated protein. The group fused myoblasts into long muscle fibers, then shone 20-millisecond pulses of blue light into the dish. They found that the genetically altered fibers responded in spatially specific ways: Small beams of light shone on just one fiber caused only that fiber to contract, while larger beams covering multiple fibers stimulated all those fibers to contract.

A light workout

The group is the first to successfully stimulate skeletal muscle using light, providing a new “wireless” way to control muscles. Going a step further, Asada grew muscle fibers with a mixture of hydrogel to form a 3-D muscle tissue, and again stimulated the tissue with light — finding that the 3-D muscle responded in much the same way as individual muscle fibers, bending and twisting in areas exposed to beams of light.

The researchers tested the strength of the engineered tissue using a small micromechanical chip — designed by Christopher Chen at Penn — that contains multiple wells, each housing two flexible posts. The group attached muscle strips to each post, then stimulated the tissue with light. As the muscle contracts, it pulls the posts inward; because the stiffness of each post is known, the group can calculate the muscle’s force using each post’s bent angle.

Asada says the device also serves as a training center for engineered muscle, providing a workout of sorts to strengthen the tissue. “Like bedridden people, its muscle tone goes down very quickly without exercise,” Asada says.

The light-sensitive muscle tissue exhibits a wide range of motions, which may enable highly articulated, flexible robots — a goal the group is now working toward. One potential robotic device may involve endoscopy, a procedure in which a camera is threaded through the body to illuminate tissue or organs. Asada says a robot made of light-sensitive muscle may be small and nimble enough to navigate tight spaces — even within the body’s vasculature. While it will be some time before such a device can be engineered, Asada says the group’s results are a promising start.

“We can put 10 degrees of freedom in a limited space, less than one millimeter,” Asada says. “There’s no actuator that can do that kind of job right now.”

Rashid Bashir, a professor of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, says the group’s light-activated muscle may have multiple applications in robotics, medical devices, navigation and locomotion. He says exploring these applications would mean the researchers would first have to address a few hurdles. “Development of ways to increase the forces of contraction and being able to scale up the size of the muscle fibers would be very useful for future applications,” Bashir says.

In the meantime, there may be a more immediate application for both the engineered muscles and the microchip: Asada says the setup may be used to screen drugs for motor-related diseases. Scientists may grow light-sensitive muscle strips in multiple wells, and monitor their reaction — and the force of their contractions — in response to various drugs.

The other authors on the paper are Devin Neal, Yinqing Li and Ron Weiss from MIT, and Thomas Boudou and Michael Borochin from Penn.

This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, the RESBIO Technology Resource for Polymeric Biomaterials, the Center for Engineering Cells and Regeneration of the University of Pennsylvania, and the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology. 

Big History Project is Getting Bigger

This back-to-school season marks a major milestone for the Big History Project. After a successful targeted pilot program, it is now poised to expand and serve more than 3,000 students in 5 countries. After next year the hope is that the program gets even bigger – with free, online access for educators worldwide.

The Big History Project began a few years ago after I took an online version of the college-level Big History course. I was so impressed with the structure and approach of big history that I got excited by the opportunity to offer it to a broader audience.

Big history is different from other history courses in that it covers our complete 13.7 billion years of shared history – going all the way back to the Big Bang.  The course then progresses to cover the development of stars, elements, plants, life, humans and our modern-day civilization. These “threshold moments” all share common themes and patterns that are the foundation for the course. To understand the similarities, differences and implications of these thresholds, students have to use many different disciplines spanning cosmology, physics, chemistry, biology, anthropology and social studies.

By connecting different areas of knowledge into one unified story, big history provides a framework for learning about anything and everything. I really like how the course challenges students to wrestle with big questions – questions like how different time scales affect our perspective on history, how language transformed humanity, and what it means to be human. It’s a course I believe everyone should take.

The college-level course was originated by David Christian, an historian now at Macquarie University in Australia. After I talked with David, we set out to create a free, online version of the course for U.S. and Australian high schools. Our goals were pretty simple: by sharing “the big picture” and challenging students to explore the relation­ships between key events over time, we could help students develop the critical thinking skills needed to excel in more advanced study and to better understand our environment, culture, civilization and the world we live in.  For more background on the course, see David Christian’s TED talk.

Working with David and Bob Bain from the University of Michigan, we set off to develop a program from scratch, one that could ultimately be offered to everyone. This past year, the Big History Project’s high-school curriculum was used successfully by eight pilot schools in the United States and Australia. These schools helped us think through all aspects of the program – from the content and assessment strategy to delivering the program online. The feedback we’ve received from the eight pilot schools has been invaluable. It’s been quite an adventure; creating a new course, especially one that covers 13.7 billion years, is a challenge. But the teachers, schools and ultimately the students really responded and have helped to put together a great program. 

So far, we’ve developed a complete curriculum and launched a website designed for teachers and students that houses all the content and teacher support materials necessary to deliver the course.  The site is populated with more than 300 custom-designed and curated pieces of content. The content includes everything from infographics and texts to animations. Our approach is to validate how to best combine the content with specific formats to engage students and help them understand the content. The course is built for 9^th and 10^th graders, but other grades can also use a lot of the material.

The content is all built to align to the core Big History narrative. But it’s flexible enough to work in a wide variety of settings including STEM environments and classes focused on English Language Arts. This year we have also added new turnkey lessons and projects to the course to ease planning and delivery for teachers. For example, each of the course’s 10 units now has an “Investigation,” which challenges students to research a range of texts and other information to create and defend a point of view on a specific topic or theme.

We have been getting a lot of interest and feedback on the program, which is helping us make it better. For example, we are specifically responding to questions about how to align the course with common core state standards by increasing the use of texts and more specific activities aligned to the new ELA standards for 9^th and 10^th grades. We are also confronting the challenges of delivering the course in environments that have intermittent Internet access by making the content accessible in a wide variety of formats, and creating lessons plans that don’t depend on internet connectivity.

In the future we will be web-enabling the student assessments and working with the data we see from the pilots to help schools determine how to best deliver the course based on their specific learning objectives, student types and teacher profiles.  In 2013/14 our hope is that any school or teacher could come to the site, learn about big history and ultimately configure a course that’s right for them.

We saw some great results this year, with improvements in students’ perceptions of their ability to excel in the future, their desire to go further in subjects like history and science, and their content knowledge about Big History. One of the most encouraging signs was that students said big history was really teaching them to think and not just memorize things.

I want to thank our pilot school partners for their tireless support and commitment. They helped us on all facets of the course. It has been inspiring to see the program develop, and we owe it all to these schools and teachers:  

1. San Diego High School, San Diego, CA
2. Northville High School, Northville, MI
3. Lakeside School, Seattle, WA
4. Brooklyn Latin School, Brooklyn, NY
5. Greenhills School, Ann Arbor, MI
6. Rivers School, Weston, MA
7. Nossal High School, Victoria, Australia
8. Narara Valley High School, Narara, Australia

It’s a pleasure to welcome more than 50 additional schools to the pilot program during 2012-13. Our goal with this stage of the project is to test and validate our ability to scale the course, while we further refine certain aspects such as the online experience and content. We are adopting a cluster strategy, working with groups of similar schools or with regional groups so that teachers can work with and support one another. I want to thank these 50 schools and teachers for their support of and participation in the next wave of the program.

While the pilot program is closed for now, we will want to add more schools for 2013-14. If your school might be interested, email info@bighistory.com, and watch for an update soon on how to become a part of that wave of schools. Meanwhile, anyone can use the course components and other information available for free at the Big History website. There are also some samples of the content itself available here. While these pieces of content were built for the Big History Project, any teacher can use them.

Samsung’s Smart TV Isn’t As Smart As It Thinks It Is

More and more people are using their big, flat-panel TVs to watch Internet video, view photos, play music and casual games, and access apps, social media and websites. The trouble is, this is primarily being done via plugged-in PCs, or add-on boxes like Apple TV, Microsoft’s Xbox, and Roku players. They use separate remotes and are accessed via separate inputs on the TV.

Lots of people have been counting on Apple to unify standard TV with these apps and Internet content in a simple, elegant device. The company is working on it, but the major TV makers aren’t waiting. They are offering Internet-connected “smart TVs.” Their pitch is that you can switch between, or even combine on one screen, regular TV and Internet content, without adding extra devices and remotes, or switching inputs.

I decided to check in on the state of the smart TV by living for a few days with the latest version from Samsung. While competitors like LG, Sony and others also offer smart TVs, I chose Samsung for two reasons. First, it’s a powerhouse across the world of digital devices that run apps. Second, this year it introduced to its smart TVs a new kind of touch-based remote and a concept called Smart Interaction, which uses a camera and microphones built into the TV to support voice control, gesture control and facial recognition.

The Smart Hub with apps

I installed the smallest top-of-the-line Samsung LED model with these new features, the 46-inch ES8000. It costs about $2,000, after rebates.

My verdict is mixed. The Samsung Smart TV worked well for some functions, like watching standard cable TV, conducting Skype conversations with the camera and mics, and watching streaming television and movies via services such as Netflix, Hulu Plus and MLB.TV. I appreciated not having to switch inputs and remotes. I also liked the companion apps for the TV Samsung makes available for Android devices and for the iPhone and iPad, which act as remotes or can beam content onto the TV without an adapter.

But I found the new Smart Interaction—voice, gesture and facial recognition—unreliable and awkward. Many of the key apps, including Facebook, Twitter and the Web browser, seemed crude and hard to use without a keyboard, which Samsung sells for about $100. The Smart Touch Remote was disappointing. I focused my testing on the Smart Interaction, the new remote and the latest version of the Smart Hub, Samsung’s built-in interface for apps and Web content. I wasn’t evaluating the ES8000 as a standard TV, though it handled regular TV just fine.

Setup was easy. The TV easily hooked up to my cable box and linked to my home Wi-Fi quickly and reliably.

Smart Interaction

The Samsung ES8000 allows you to control many functions, like turning the TV on or off or launching apps, by saying “Hi, TV” then speaking a command. You can do this with the TV’s built-in mics, located with the camera in a small module atop the TV, or via a mic built into the Smart Touch Remote. When you say the trigger phrase, a list of possible voice commands appears at the bottom of the screen.

It was disappointing. In many cases, my commands were ignored, interpreted inaccurately, or had to be repeated several times—even in a quiet room and within the recommended distance. I could only get the TV to turn on via voice once in a dozen tries.

Gestures were similarly frustrating. You’re supposed to enable them by just waving your hand toward the camera, but this often failed. When it didn’t, I found using gestures to navigate among apps on the Smart Hub screen to be cumbersome. The exception was “Angry Birds.” It worked well with gestures.

Face recognition—mostly used as an alternate to a password for logging into Samsung’s Internet services—failed for me utterly, even when I left my chair and squatted with my face lined perfectly up to the camera just a few feet away.

Even the guy conducting Samsung’s online tutorials for Smart Interaction (at http://bit.ly/PYs1Dr) suffered some embarrassing failures in a video series called, ironically, “Keep It Simple.”

Smart Touch Remote

The Smart Touch Remote

I had better luck with the Smart Remote, which attempts to get rid of the typical plethora of buttons by using a touch pad. But I found this touch pad to be much less responsive than the best laptop touch pads. I sometimes grabbed for the standard remote that comes with the TV and preferred using Samsung’s Smart Remote app on my iPhone. It was responsive and performed the same functions.

Also, typing in things like passwords, search terms, tweets and Web addresses, was clumsy with either remote, and inconsistent, as it is on many TV-based apps. You have to peck out letters on an on-screen keyboard. The iPhone (and Android) remote app often was better, because it was smoother, and the phone’s keyboard could be used in some cases.

Smart Hub

This screen, separate from the main TV display, contains the ES8000 apps and Internet functions. It isn’t new, but has been improved. It contains some Samsung-based apps, like a family-photo and chat program, a kids’ game and learning app, and a fitness app for exercise videos and charts of results. You also can download third-party apps from a built-in store containing 784 choices, of which about 70% are free.

The Smart Hub screen features a small window that shows the TV program you were watching. But if it gets annoying, it can’t be turned off. There also is a feature called Social TV, which wraps a large TV window with a small display of your social network feeds. The feeds aren’t filtered to focus on whatever show you’re watching.

There are Facebook and Twitter apps, but they seemed stripped down. For instance, in Twitter, I wasn’t able to click on a link in a tweet and have it appear in the Web browser.As noted, the best-performing apps were those that mimicked TV, such as Netflix. I also liked a Samsung app called SwipeIt, which lets you take a picture or video from a phone or tablet and with a swiping gesture, make it appear on the TV. It worked perfectly on a Samsung tablet and an iPhone.

There are flashes of a great future merging regular TV and the Web on the Samsung Smart TV. But it needs work.

The Joy Of Feeling Valued

I recently received an email from a former colleague who had changed jobs.  “I haven’t worked this hard in years and have never felt so valued,” she wrote.  “What a strange combination.  I learn something new every day and am only worried my brain won’t hold any more information.  I’m exhausted by Friday and it’s just great.  Who knew?”

To me, by far the most important phrase in this uplifting note was “and have never felt so valued.”   I guarantee that if this individual had just changed jobs, were working harder than ever and felt totally unappreciated, her experience of this new position and the tone of her comments would have been entirely different.

“I haven’t worked this hard in years and have never felt so unappreciated,” might have been the content of an alternate (fictional) communique.  “What a combination!  I have to learn something new every day and am worried my brain won’t hold any more information.   I’m exhausted by Friday.  Who knew things would turn out this way?”

Management implications: It’s widely accepted in the business world that an employee’s relationship with his or her direct manager is the single most important factor in employee engagement.   If you dig deeper into employee engagement, there’s considerable excellent research that feelings of making continual daily progress are also key.  And my own conclusion after years of in-the-trenches management is that nothing is more important than feeling valued.

It can be a difference maker, at times allowing employees to accept lower compensation, or longer hours, or the inevitable frustrations that accompany difficult tasks… than they otherwise might have… because they feel their efforts are recognized and appreciated.    Time after time I’ve observed how small gestures of recognition and encouragement can change attitudes from disgruntled to pleased (or at least okay) in the blink of a manager’s eye.

The implications for management are clear.

This isn’t an invitation to abdicate managerial authority; naturally praise should never be given where it’s not deserved.  But when it is deserved, there’s little for a manager to gain by being emotionally stingy.

If you value an employee, let him or her know it.   If you don’t make that explicitly clear from time to time, they may well not realize it, even if you think they do.

Sincere words to that effect cost nothing and can make the difference between disengagement and productivity.

To prevent China from bullying its neighbors

VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnam should use its diversified external relations to build a coalition of supporters among the major powers, advised Prof. Carl Thayer.

Tension has been rising in the East Sea, with China’s escalating acts: establishing the so-called Shansha city, organizing a government election there, building military station, sending more than 20,000 fishing boats to the sea, etc. To provide more information for the readers, VietNamNet held online talks with Prof. Carl Thayer, from the Center for Defense and Strategic Studies (CDSS), Australian, a well-known expert on security in Southeast Asia, the East Sea and China.

Commentators in the Philippines have accused China of using its advantages to bully its neighbors, following a recent standoff between the two countries in the disputed Scarborough shoal. Is a U.S. military presence necessary to balance out power in the region? How would the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT) shape U.S. involvement?

Prof. Carl Thayer: China’s bullying tactics were by civilian ships belonging to the China Maritime Surveillance and the Fishery Law Enforcement Command. The appropriate response is by the Philippines’ Coast Guard.

The U.S. is a maritime power and its interests dictate that no country – including China – dominate the sea lanes in the East Sea. It is clear that the U.S. Navy will assert its presence and deter China.

As a result of Chinese actions, the MDT with the Philippines is being revived largely due to initiatives by President Aquino. U.S. support is necessary to build up the capacity of the Philippines Navy and Coast Guard to protect national sovereignty and sovereign jurisdiction in its EEZ. The MDT also acts as a deterrent against China’s use of military force.

After the Phnom Penh incident, ASEAN appeared as a divided group in the issue. Some questions on the role of ASEAN in settlement disputes. Could you share your view?

Prof. Carl Thayer: There were three separate developments at the ASEAN meeting this July. Two positive developments were overshadowed by the failure of ASEAN ministers to reach agreement on the wording of their joint communiqué. This may have been a heated disputed between foreign ministers but it will not be long lasting.

The two other developments were: (1) prior to the joint communiqué incident, ASEAN foreign ministers unanimously adopted the key elements on the Code of Conduct and (2) Indonesia’s foreign minister successfully got all ASEAN foreign ministers to agree on ASEAN’s Six Principles on the East Sea. Talks with China may begin in September with the aim of adopting the COC by November.

Finally, ASEAN announced its “proposed elements” for the COC. Unfortunately, there is no legal binding in this outline as expected previously. How useful would a code of conduct be in reducing tensions? And in solving the dispute?

Prof. Carl Thayer: The draft COC has not yet been agreed by China. But the draft COC requires the signatories to seek a resolution of their disputes under the provision of the ASEAN Treaty of Amity and Cooperation if both parties are willing. Failing this, the parties in the dispute are to settle their dispute in accordance with international law, including UNCLOS.

China can always refuse either choice – the TAC or international law. But if a final COC is agreed it will serve to restrain China, if China is willing to abide by its principles. If China does not then the period of diplomacy will be bypassed realpolitik. The point is to reach agreement on how to behave until sovereignty disputes are resolved.

In July 2011, China and ASEAN came to an agreement on the guidelines for implementing the 2002 Declaration of the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea. These implementation guidelines were intended to decrease tensions and prevent any further escalation in the area. Recent developments in East Sea show that these guidelines have thus far been effective. With the drafting COC, do you think it effectively keep the status quo?

Prof. Carl Thayer: China and ASEAN have set up a working group to suggest projects in areas of cooperation listed in the DOC.

China has generously offered to fund cooperative activities. So far there has been no observable action. If and when joint cooperation begins there is hope that it would contribute to building up mutual confidence and trust. It is too early to tell.

ASEAN has adopted the “key elements” of the COC. Now ASEAN members and China must reach agreement on a final text. The COC will only work if the states concerned have the political will. The important element of the COC is to bind members not to use force or intimidation. But the draft COC really does not provide for a check on a country that does use force or intimidation.

Dealing with Chinese escalating assertiveness and divided ASEAN, what are the policy options for Vietnam? What should Vietnam do in order to protect its sovereignty and maintain peace and stability?

Prof. Carl Thayer: Vietnam should first continue to build up its self-reliance to protect its national sovereignty and maintain unity on the home front. Vietnam should continue to engage China – struggling and cooperating – in order to ensure that no side uses force or the threat of force in their relations.

ASEAN must continue to lobby individual ASEAN members to forge a unified ASEAN position on the East Sea. Vietnam should also use its diversified external relations to build a coalition of supporters among the major powers. Vietnam’s foreign policy must always be aimed at convincing China that cooperation will bring greater results than confrontation.

What should Vietnam do to defend its marine sovereignty while developing good relations with China, the US and Russia?

Prof. Carl Thayer: Vietnam should first rely on civilian agencies to protect its sovereignty. This means developing the Canh Sat Bien and building up its capacity.

The use of military ships, as the Philippines discovered in Scarborough Reef, was counter productive. Vietnam needs to build up its defense self-reliance by modernizing its navy and air force and making them operate jointly.

In other words Vietnam should develop an anti-access area denial strategy as China is developing a similar strategy against the stronger United States.

Vietnam should continue to use the dense network work of party-to-party, government-to-government and military-to-military ties with China to compartmentalize the East Sea dispute from their broader economic relationship.

Vietnam is raising its relations with Russia to a comprehensive strategic partnership. Vietnam should continue to import Russian military technology and expertise for its weapons system. And Vietnam should encourage more Russian investment in its oil, gas and nuclear industries.

Human rights are an issue blocking Vietnam and the U.S. from agreeing to a strategic partnership. But both share a convergence in strategic outlook and maintaining good relations should not be too difficult.

In my opinion, the Chinese government will be more and more assertive in dealing with the disputes with the neighbors in the issue of East Sea, and will not willingly renounce its claim on sovereignty of most East Sea. Apparently the Vietnamese government has many times stated a view that Vietnam does not ally itself with some country to be against another country. But you know that Vietnam is so weak especially in terms of military in comparison with China. So, what is your own view of this dilemma?

Prof. Carl Thayer: Vietnam needs to develop separate robust bilateral relations with China and the United States that focus on areas where their interests overlap.

Vietnam needs to maintain unity at home and develop its capacity for self-reliance. At the same time Vietnam needs to encourage ASEAN unity and cohesion.

Finally, Vietnam should develop its relations with all the major powers. In other words: diversification and multi-lateralization of relations and struggle and cooperate bilaterally.

Analysts comment that the US is in the dilemma on East Sea issue. Could you share your view on that (whether the US is directly involved in the dispute and how far will the US get involved)?

Prof. Carl Thayer: The U.S. dilemma is to decide how much support to give the Philippines to enhance their capabilities without becoming trapped by reckless actions by the Philippines. A dispute over sovereignty – who own islands and rocks – can only be resolved by the parties directly concerned. The U.S. does not take sides on this. But U.S. policy is to prevent any country from using force or intimidation to settle a sovereignty dispute. The U.S. has a national interest in freedom of navigation and over flight for its military and commercial ships.

What implications do the East Sea disputes hold for the US’ policy and interests in the region?

Prof. Carl Thayer: The United States is a maritime power and needs access to the East Sea for its military ships as they transit from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean.

China is challenging U.S. maritime dominance and attempting to drive it from the so-called first island chain off China’s east coast. The United States seeks to prevent China from challenging the U.S. presence. The East Sea disputes threaten the stability of the sea lanes as the dispute draws in both China and the United States.

China has built a major naval base on Hainan Island and the U.S. strategy of rebalancing is designed to give the U.S. military access in Southeast Asian to exert its naval power against China.

Do you believe an increased U.S. military presence in the East Sea serves to stabilize, or further destabilize, current relations between regional states?

Prof. Carl Thayer: Despite all the talk of rebalancing, it is unlikely there will be a marked increase in U.S. naval presence. But the nature and location of the U.S. naval presence will change.

The fundamental dynamic that destabilizes the East Sea is China’s military challenge to U.S. maritime supremacy and reaction of the U.S. to ensure it remains the dominant power. This is taking place at a time when China’s rise is causing a relative decline in U.S. power.

Many regional states are skeptical that the U.S. has the resources to maintain its supremacy. The U.S. is seeking to demonstrate that it has enduring interests in the region.

Based on China’s recently more and more aggressive actions and the comparison between the power of Vietnam and China, should Vietnam go further to be an ally with the United States to have a decisive support outside to confront China in the question of East Sea disputes?

Prof. Carl Thayer: Vietnam should not ally with the United States. Vietnam should develop its relations with the U.S. to advance Vietnam’s national interests. The United States has its own national interest in maintaining freedom of navigation in the East Sea. Vietnam can count on the U.S. to act on its interests.

What are the roles of regional powers such as Japan, India, and Australia in the East Sea disputes?

Prof. Carl Thayer: All three countries have a policy similar to that of the U.S. None wants to take a side in a dispute over sovereignty. All three are maritime countries; two are allies of the United States. All three share an interest in preventing China from dominating the East Sea and interfering with the operations of military and civilian vessels as provided for in international law, including the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea.

VietNamNet

 

General Vo Nguyen Giap’s health is still stable

VietNamNet Bridge – According to General Vo Nguyen Giap’s secretaries, the general is still sound in mind at the age of 102. He signed cards to present to visitors who went to Hanoi’s Army Hospital 108 to visit the general on his 102nd birthday (August 25).

Officials of the Ministry of Defence visited General Vo Nguyen Giap
on the occasion of the Day for War Invalids and Martyrs, July 27.

Lieutenant Colonel Le Van Hai said that to thank guests who came to congratulate the General’s birthday, thank-you cards with the latest signature of General Giap were prepared as presents.

Hai said the signature was made only several days ago. “Though the General’s hand quivered and the line was not sharp, it is easy to recognize the general’s handwriting,” Hai said.

He added that thanks to the Army Hospital 108’s careful care, Genera Giap’s health is still stable and he is still sound in mind. He recognized all Party and State officials who came to the hospital to visit him.

General Vo Nguyen Giap's signature on a thank-you card.

Earlier, the General personally reviewed a short message to the national seminar on teaching and studying history at schools in Da Nang city. The General is the honorary Chairman of the Vietnam Association of Historical Sciences.

“The General emphasized that teaching history to the young generation is an extremely important issue for the immortality and future development of the nation. He hoped that the quality of teaching and learning history at general schools would be improved clearly,” Hai said.

On the occasion of General Giap’s 102nd birthday, the Association of Historical Sciences and the National Museum of History organized a meeting with the people who have met with and worked with and experts who make research works of the legendary General.

General Vo Nguyen Giap's wife, Prof. Dang Bich Ha, welcomed guests.

Professor of History Phan Huy Le said that General Giap is among the most special generals in the world. He is the only one great general in the world who is alive. He is the only one general who has experienced the ups and downs of history in the nearly entire 20th century and the early 21st century.

He is one of several great generals who not only commanded wars of resistance but also reviewed them and summarized his experience in valuable books.

“He told us that understanding of and historical thinking was very useful for him in commanding the wars of resistance. He also said that there is a common point between military and history: we have to respect the truth even though the truth is bitter. We have to consider every matter based on historical viewpoint, with its dialectical development,” Prof. Le said.

The General’s wife, Prof. Dang Bich Ha, said General Giap is a very modest person. He did not want to talk much about himself. “On behalf of my husband, I would like to thank you everybody,” Prof. Ha said

On this occasion, 102 pictures featuring the legendary General were displayed at No. 93 Dinh Tien Hoang, Hanoi on August 25-26. The exhibition attracted a lot of Vietnamese and foreign visitors.

The pictures are selected from nearly 500 photos shooting General Giap’s meetings with veterans throughout the country, by photographer Nguyen Trong Nghi.

The photos were presented to the Museums of Truong Son and Military History and veterans who appeared in the pictures.

General Vo Nguyen Giap and General Dong Sy Nguyen.

Photographer Nguyen Trong Nghi (first from the right) at the exhibition.

Vietnamese cartoon makers work for Hollywood

VietNamNet Bridge – While Vietnam’s animated film industry is at its infancy, many Vietnamese people are working for European and American animated film companies.

A scene from "Igor", which had the participation of Vietnamese painters.

As one of the first cartoon painters trained in HCM City after the country’s unification in 1975, Mr. Ton That Thac is now 51 years old. Thac studied 2D cartoon techniques in France.

“In my age, animated films were produced on old-fashioned computers of the first generation, with the Unix operating system and the C programming language,” Thac recalled.

Thac worked for several years in Japan and the Philippines as a cartoon painter before foreign-invested small-sized cartoon studios were set up in HCM City, to exploit the low-cost, hard-working and intelligent laborforce here.

Pixi Box was among the first cartoon studio of this kind in HCM City. It was established by a French – Jacques Peyrache – in 1994. The studio was based in a small office in HCM City’s hub. It recruited several tens of Vietnamese painters, who worked under the supervision of foreign experts.

Pixi Box is a link in a chain of cartoon studios that involve in the process to produce animated films for Europe and Hollywood.

Thanks to Pixi Box, Thac and many Vietnamese painters who studied cartoon making techniques could return home to work.

Vietnamese technicians also contributed to this film.

This was also the time when cartoon studios in the world began to change 2D to 3D technique. Vietnamese staff of Pixi Box were the first Vietnamese who were trained with the 3D technique.

Foreign-invested cartoon studios like Pixi Pox, Hahn Film, Spart* and Virtuos-Spart* have helped train many Vietnamese technicians and painters who can participate in various stage of animation producing process.

Nobody knows that animated films like “Igor”, “Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas” and “Fairy Tale Fights” have the contribution of Vietnamese painters because they are distributed under the name European or Hollywood producers.

There is a big group of Vietnamese-origin technicians working for cartoon studios in Hollywood. The audience can read Vietnamese names like Huy Nguyen, Quan Tran, John Truong and Dennis Duong in the introduction of the most famous animated films like “Madagascar”, “Ice Age” or “Brave.”

Foreign-invested cartoon studios in HCM City are dependent on their overseas parent firm. There was an event in late 2011 that the domestic film industry neglected: Virtuos Group, a big provider of digital entertainment software products in the world, bought Sparx* cartoon studio in HCM City and re-named it into Virtuos-Sparx.*

Virtuos-Sparx* is one of Virtuos Group’s cartoon studios in Shanghai, Chengdu in China, Paris and Tokyo. This studio employs around 100 Vietnamese.

The number of well-trained cartoon makers in Vietnam is not low but who can group them up to build Vietnam’s cartoon industry?

Khai Tri

High-ranking Apple engineer cancels retirement, others promoted

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple (AAPL) said Monday that Bob Mansfield, a top hardware engineer who announced his retirement in June, is staying on to work on "future products."

Mansfield, who oversaw the team that developed Mac products like the MacBook Air, will report to CEO Tim Cook, the company added.
Apple also said Craig Federighi, vice president of Mac Software Engineering, and Dan Riccio, vice president of Hardware Engineering, were promoted; they become senior vice presidents.
Federighi and Riccio will report to Cook and serve on Apple's executive management team, according to the company.

NASA to launch smartphone-operated nanosatellites

LOS ANGELES -- NASA is relying on a small team of engineers at its Ames Research Center at Mountain View's Moffett Field to develop three nanosatellites operated by smartphones.

The space agency said it plans to launch the nanosatellites this year. The devices are being built with off-the-shelf hardware, which is reducing the cost of each prototype to $3,500.
Nanosatellites are cube-shaped miniature satellites. They're smaller and lighter than other satellites, measuring about 4 inches and weighing less than 4 pounds.
By going with commercial products, NASA said its engineers will launch the cheapest and easiest-to-build satellites ever to fly in space.
Out-of-the-box "smartphones already offer a wealth of capabilities needed for satellite systems, including fast processors, versatile operating systems, multiple miniature sensors, high-resolution cameras, GPS receivers, and several radios," the agency said online. The agency is using phones running Google's (GOOG) Android operating system.
NASA said it has built two types of smartphone satellites. The nanosatellites are being operated by cellphones, which provide the operating system and the communications capabilities.
The mission of the first, the PhoneSat 1.0, is simply to stay alive in space. NASA said the PhoneSat 1.0, which runs on the HTC Nexus One phone, will take pictures of the Earth and send them back, along with information about its health.
NASA's PhoneSat 2.0 will have a few more capabilities. This nanosatellite will run on the Samsung Nexus S smartphone, and it will include a two-way S-band radio so engineers can control it from Earth. It will also include solar panels to extend its mission duration, and it will include a GPS receiver.
The three satellites -- two PhoneSat 1.0s and one PhoneSat 2.0 -- are set to launch onboard the Orbital Sciences' Antares rocket, which is expected to lift off from Wallops Island, Va., later this year.

Apple-Samsung court battle was part of larger war between Apple, Google

Score this round in the battle for world domination: Apple (AAPL) 1, Google (GOOG) 0.

While Apple won a billion-dollar jury verdict last week in a patent dispute with Samsung, experts say the trial was just one front in a broader war between the Cupertino computer-maker and its Mountain View rival, Google, whose Android mobile software outranks Apple's as the world's leading smartphone platform.
The jury's verdict is widely seen as a setback for the "Android ecosystem" of hardware manufacturers, including Samsung, and application developers who use Google's mobile software. But it's not a death blow, according to industry experts, who say the outcome won't end a growing rivalry between Apple and Google that extends from smartphones to online maps, books, videos and even tools for seeking information online.
"Samsung is just collateral damage," said Roger Kay, a longtime industry analyst. "I think Apple's going to try to use this victory as a way to beat on Google further."
Android's success is vastly important to Google, which developed the software as part of its strategy for delivering lucrative advertising, information and services to the growing numbers of people who use smartphones and tablets instead of personal computers to go online. Analysts say any blow to Android is a threat to Google's ability to keep pace with the mobile computing trend.
A nine-member jury in San Jose's federal court concluded Friday that several of Samsung's Android-based devices infringed some of Apple's patented designs and technology. Some experts say the verdict could force Samsung or other manufacturers to change their products or even negotiate licensing payments with Apple. But several analysts also said that's unlikely to stop manufacturers from using Android.
The verdict "is unambiguously negative for Google and the Android ecosystem," Bernstein Research analyst A.M. Sacconaghi wrote in a report Monday, adding that the outcome is likely to "embolden Apple's legal strategy" against other smartphone and tablet-makers.
"That said, we don't think it's a game-changing loss for Android," he added, because the verdict only affects certain older Samsung models sold in the U.S. market, while Android is used in a wide variety of gadgets sold around the world.
Despite the iPhone's phenomenal success, the number of smartphones sold by all manufacturers using Android is even larger. Android has become so popular, in part, because Google doesn't charge device-makers to use the software, which can lower the price for consumers, too. Google makes money by selling ads and targeting services to consumers who use its software, although it closely guards the details of its mobile revenue stream.
Several analysts said it shouldn't be difficult for Samsung and other smartphone makers to alter designs and replace features that infringe on Apple's patents.
"None of these patents are impossible to work around," said Van Baker, a mobile technology expert at the Gartner research firm. "This won't require anyone to go back and completely redefine their products."
Apple's late CEO, Steve Jobs, launched a series of patent infringement lawsuits against Samsung and other Android device-makers after famously complaining that he felt Google had copied Apple's iPhone. Jobs vowed to wage "thermonuclear war" to destroy Android, even though Google maintains it developed Android independently.
While Apple applauded the jury Friday for protecting its intellectual property, Google issued a statement Sunday that essentially cautioned against reading too much into the decision.
"The court of appeals will review both infringement and the validity of the patent claims. Most of these don't relate to the core Android operating system, and several are being re-examined by the U.S. Patent Office," a Google spokesman said. "The mobile industry is moving fast and all players -- including newcomers -- are building upon ideas that have been around for decades."
Some observers believe the flurry of lawsuits over mobile software patents will end only when all parties agree to financial settlements, in which some companies agree to pay royalties for others' technology.
Faced with the prospect of paying royalties for using Android, manufacturers might consider switching to software made by Microsoft or someone else, Sacconaghi wrote. But that seems unlikely, he added, since Android is already popular with so many consumers.
Manufacturers will also hesitate to abandon Android's deep inventory of software applications that run on its platform, he noted. Android has far more apps than Microsoft, though still fewer than Apple.

Contact Brandon Bailey at 408-920-5022; follow him at Twitter.com/BrandonBailey

Police kill heavily armed drug trafficker in shootout

Police in Hoa Binh Province have shot an aggressive drug trafficker who opened fire on police officers who were trying to chase him. The criminal died before he could be hospitalized and police seized a large quantity of drugs and weapons.

At 10:30 am on Sunday, an anti-drug police unit in Cao Phong District signaled for a suspicious Toyota car on National Highway 6 to stop for examination, but the driver sped away.

A chase ensued and the driver fired his guns to scare away other police units as well as locals who were trying to stop his car. When he entered Yen Phuc Commune, Lac Son District, he rushed out of the car with an AK assault rifle and then set the vehicle on fire.

He ran to a house, threatened its owner with the gun, robbed a motorbike and drove off. But he wasn’t able to travel far as the vehicle ran out of petrol soon after. He then stole another bike and rode it into a forested hill area.

Police surrounded the area and called on the smuggler to surrender through a loudspeaker, but he responded by firing a series of rounds towards them. A firefight occurred and the criminal was injured and seized.

Police check the cakes of heroin found in the car of the drug trafficker (Photo: VnExpress)

The police took him to a local hospital but he died on the way.

On searching the car, police found and seized 100 cakes of heroin weighing about 35 kg, 800 synthetic drug tablets, two grenades, 120 bullets, and five guns, including an AK assault rifle, two K59 guns, a Colt gun, and an American gun.

Police also seized 10 mobile phones, three laptops, US$20,000, VND150 million, a fake car number plate, and numerous fake personal papers.

After an initial investigation, police identified the dead criminal as Ta Van Hung, 47, a native of Bac Giang Province, who was previously convicted of robbery two years ago.

Police are working to track down the origin of the drugs and the weapons.

Works on Vietnam’s first subway start in HCMC

Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee this morning held a groundbreaking ceremony for the US$2.4 billion Ben Thanh – Suoi Tien metro project, the first of its kind in the country.

The metro system is expected to be 19.7 km long, including 2.6 km underground in District 1 with 3 terminals and 17.1 km above ground with 11 terminals in other places.

The metro line will run through District 1, Binh Thanh District, District 2, District 9, and Thu Duc District in HCMC before reaching Di An Town in Binh Duong Province.

The project’s investment capital is estimated at VND48 trillion ($2.4 billion), most of which is sourced from Japanese ODA, and the rest from the State budget.

The metro system is expected to be completed in 2017 and put into operation one year later.

Upon completion, the metro route can transport 186,000 passengers a day and the figure will increase to 620,000 by 2020 and 1 million by 2040, said Nguyen Do Luong, head of the city HCMC Urban Railway Management Board.

 The groundbreaking ceremony for Vietnam's first metro project in HCMC (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

The travel time on the entire route is 30 minutes and trains will depart at five-minute intervals.
By the year’s end, a second metro system will also be built to link Ben Thanh and An Suong, with a length of 20 km. It is also scheduled to be completed in 2017 and will cost about $1.37 billion, Luong said.

The building of the metro line marks a milestone in the modernization of the city’s public traffic system, contributing to boosting the city’s economic growth and reducing environmental pollution, city People’s Committee chairman Le Hoang Quan said at the ceremony.

Transport Minister Dinh La Thang said he hoped the first metro line will rank first in all construction works in the country in terms of quality, progress and safety, so that it can become a good symbol of the friendship and the strategic relation between Vietnam and Japan.

Attendants of the groundbreaking ceremony look at the layouts of the first metro system in Vietnam (Photo: Tuoi Tre)

Mathematician Vu Ha Van receives Fulkerson prize

Professor Vu Ha Van of Yale University, who is also a member of the Scientific Council of Vietnam Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics, has been awarded the prestigious Fulkerson Prize 2012 for his group work determining the threshold of edge density above which a random graph can be covered by disjoint copies of any given smaller graph.

 

Professor Vu Ha Van left and his family in the US 

The prize was presented to Van and his two colleagues Anders Johansson of Sweden and Jeff Kahn of the US at the International Symposium on Mathematical Programming in Berlin to recognise their published work on Random Structures and Algorithms No 33 in 2008.

The Fulkerson Prize was established in 1979 to honour outstanding papers in the area of discrete mathematics. Up to three awards of $1,500 each are presented every three years. The prize is sponsored by the Mathematical Programming Society and the American Mathematical Society.

Van, 42, was a gifted mathematics student in Vietnam before attending univeristy in Hungary and receiving his PhD from Yale University in the US. He has worked in many research institutes in the US including IAS and Microsoft Research, as well as at Rutger and Santiago universities.

Van, who is currently in Vietnam to attend a mathematical symposium in Hue City, also received the George Polya award, presented by the US's Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, in 2008

Experts recommend that climate change inform development policy

Vietnam is one of the countries most susceptible to the effects of climate change and should weigh its impacts when planning development strategies, an expert said.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thuc

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thuc told DTiNews at an international conference on climate change in Hanoi on August 17 that socio-economic development should be carried out in a way that would minimise the effects of climate change, especially on poor and disadvantaged communities. He added that, “The wealthy are able to afford certain protections such as well-built homes, while many poor people in the country live in houses that are more vulnerable to bad weather conditions. If we can improve the living conditions of the poor, the effects of climate change could be dramatically reduced," he said.
The official pointed out that ministries and agencies have been so busy with activities such as poverty reduction and HIV/AIDS that they have not given enough attention to climate change issues. Many urban planning projects are designed without consideration of climate change because it could raise costs, he said.
At a recent forum, some environmental experts also mentioned this lack of consideration in HCM City’s recent urban planning, saying that the city does not consider climate change as the real danger that it is when carrying out municipal projects. Most focus on inner-city areas, while largely disregarding outlying districts. This is the cause, some said, of the flooding problem on many roads after heavy rains. At the same time, the number of high-rise buildings in the city is increasing rapidly, while parks and green public spaces are disappearing.
Both urban management and limited awareness among the public are largely blamed for the neglect, along with budgetary limitations.
“The State has too many issues on the agenda with limited means. We have a national programme and sci-tech development programme for climate change. Still funding is short, despite foreign grants and investments from large international organizations such as the UN and the ADB," Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thuc  said.

Universities adopt new methodology

More and more universities in Vietnam are using a well-known teaching methodology to improve training quality and improve learning in the classroom.

Since 2010, the conceive-design-implement-operate (CDIO) model has been used at three universities in the country: in the engineering faculty at HCM City University of Technology, the information technology faculty at HCM City Natural Sciences University and the foreign economics faculty at Hanoi University of Economics.

At a two-day national conference discussing the CDIO model organised by the Ministry of Education and Training in co-operation with Vietnam National University-HCM City, experts said the model has helped the schools to successfully redesign training programmes and improve the professional capacity of its lecturers.

The international CDIO Association has more than 90 member universities in five continents, including HCM City National University and Duy Tan University in Da Nang .

The model is also being used at the University of Banking , University of Technical Education , University of Economics , Van Lang University in HCM City , Duy Tan University in Da Nang , An Giang University and Lac Hong University in Dong Nai Province .

Students in the IT faculty at HCM City Natural Sciences University said the methodology has provided them with a clear career orientation, as well as better professional skills to support them in the future.

Lecturers' teaching methods are more lively, and students have more opportunities to practise what they learn.

Dinh Ba Tien, of the IT faculty, said that his students thought the CDIO-based classes were more interesting.

Conference attendees said they hope that the gap between schools' training and employers' demands could be narrowed with the use of the CDIO method.