Hello from Inside!
Time flies… it’s February already and Insider apologizes for not sending you the 2013 greetings earlier.  Insider hopes that he/she can continue to assist your learning experiences and at the same time learn something himself/herself.

So the first features on the iUniv home page were our beloved TED series!  What we like about them is that while they cover an extremely wide range of subjects, every single presentation aims to describe enthusiast-friendly matters in a beginner-friendly manner.  Insider is not familiar with sciences at all so he/she picked up science presentations:

TED
Origins of Man
Harvey Fineberg: Are we ready for neo-evolution?
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/81282/pid/4481
How did we evolve into human beings and what are we evolving into?  Professor Fineberg’s presentation describes it with a great sense of humor.  The fact that the future evolution of human beings is within our hands was a very inspiring thing to find out.  As a Japanese, Insider was happy that he mentioned Professor Yamanaka’s name, the Nobel Prize winner who researches on iPS cells.

TED
Top 10 Most Viewed TEDTalks
Johnny Lee: Wii Remote hacks
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/81329/pid/4490
Recently, there was an incident in Japan where someone’s email account was hacked to hack a website.  So Insider was thinking it was about remote manipulation, but actually Mr. Lee explains and suggests a new way of utilizing Wii - in a very effective way. He says that those countries or municipalities that do not have enough educational budgets can benefit from this new method.  Even Insider, who has never touched the Wii even in the conventional way, was intrigued with his epoch making idea. 

TED
TED2012
Vijay Kumar: Robots that fly … and cooperate
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/81659/pid/4492
Professor Kumar makes hand-size flying robots in his laboratory.  The robots can function in many ways, such as detecting intruders, gas leaks, and working at construction sites to name a few.  He is also working on robots that can cooperate with one another, and shows a spectacular video of a group of robots flying in line.  The final part - a musical ensemble of robots - is also a must-see!

TED
Best of TEDxTalks
Marcus Byrne: The dance of the dung beetle
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/97536/pid/4491
Why do dung beetles like dungs and how do they know where to roll the dung balls?  He uses unique experiments to explain. 

Next time, Insider will feature humanities-related TED videos.

Enjoy!

Hello from Inside!
Long time no blog and now it’s almost end of the year.  It’s a nice thing that a year passes so quickly, but at the same time it makes Insider realize that his/her actual age does not match his/her maturity…  Oh well.  Learning continues a lifetime.  Let’s take advantage of the fact that the ways of learning has become diverse now, so that we can learn anything anytime, in any way that fits your lifestyle.

That’s right; you can learn ‘anything’!
This time, for the iUniv home page feature, Insider chose the keyword ‘traffic’ for a very casual reason - Just because December is a party month, and because Holiday gifts would be delivered across the country (Where’s mine?) - which may cause traffic jams.  And Insider was surprised to find a variety of interesting contents!

Among those featured on the home page, Insider especially enjoyed those two from the popular TED series:

TED
Best of TEDxTalks
Jonas Eliasson: How to solve traffic jams
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/93729/pid/4491
Sweden’s beautiful capital city Stockholm is formed from a number of small islands, and the bridges that connect the surrounding islands to the center of the city has always been jammed terribly.  How did the citizens tackle this problem in 2006 and what were the results?  See it for yourself.

TED
TED2011 part1
Bill Ford: A future beyond traffic gridlock
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/81989/pid/4495
Speaker is Mr. Bill Ford, the great-grandson of the founder of Ford Motor Company.
At college, one of the professors made a remark that the Ford family goes for profit not for progress, making money out of the causes of air pollution.  This remark made him think about how automobiles should relate to nature, and it opened his eyes to eco-friendliness.  Although his new thoughts were not accepted from the industry at first, he was patient and advocated sustainability, which now the entire industry has embraced and are conscious about. 
Mr. Ford also shows his concerns on the future of traffic gridlock, that it is not only the matter of automobiles or ecology, as it also stagnates transportation and the delivery of medicine - and eventually leads to the degrading of the entire QOL.  It was a very eye-opening comment for Insider, that QOL and traffic gridlock are connected not only directly but indirectly as well.

Although Insider is always Inside, it was refreshing to find the chance to learn in the course of his/her daily life. 
Insider recommends you to search on a word that suddenly popped up in your head.  Hope you find your own surprise of learning. 

Enjoy! :-)

Hello from Inside!

So time flies… it’s mid-October already and the weather has become nicer these days in an undisclosed location in Japan where Insider lives.  And now we’re in our final countdowns for the the US presidency election!  Current president Obama has announced his support for same sex marriage and probably due to that, we hear more gender-related news in and outside Japan, which is a good thing.

Insider’s gender is undisclosed in this blog.  Of course Insider belongs to something in his/her daily life, and recently she/he finds himself/herself having a deeper understanding on the entire gender - man, woman, homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, transgender, you name it, thanks to the stories she/he hears on the news and from friends.

And yet again, lecture videos assembled on iUniv have been very helpful in the process of deepening the understanding of the gender issue.  This time Insider picked contents from American colleges (Note: Insider picked one content that has nothing to do with gender…  It just happened to be one of the search results when searched with the word “gender.”  Sorry for the confusion.)   It is wonderful that we can hear from the actual gender minorities themselves, about how they are looking at their gender/s.  Insider truly hopes such lectures be more common in Japanese colleges; gender diversity should be topics of ordinary lives.

So among the contents featured on the iUniv top page, this was the most inspiring for Insider:

New College Of Florida
NCF Lectures
My Life in Two Genders with Suzanne Clayton ‘88
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/87021/pid/1625

The speaker is an alumni, who used to be a man in her college days.  She went through a transsexual surgery and is now legally a woman.  At first sight, no one would believe that she used to be a man :-)  This is a retrospective of her ‘road to woman’ and she speaks the downright truth of how she found dysphoria in being a boy in her early days, and how she ‘gained’ her ‘woman’.  She does not only speak about the physical process but also the mental one - well she was mentally a woman from the beginning, but she did go through dilemmas of making her body match her mind.  Those who have begun to watch this video out of sheer curiosity will surely finish watching this with a deeper understanding on her and people like her.

Enjoy!

Hello from Inside!

Recently Japan has seen many headlines about territory disputes from north to south: namely the northern territories, the Liancourt Rocks, and the Senkaku Islands.  As you may know territory disputes are everywhere around the world; iUniv features some visual contents regarding them and Insider was especially interested in this one:

Case Western Reserve University
Stuff for Your Brain- I
Israel-Palestine: Beyond the Headlines
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/79740/pid/220
The speaker, who is an American journalist, has a neutral stance regarding Israel and Palestine.  Having lived in the Middle East, her perspectives have a good balance between the two territories.  However, this presentation is more focused on the Palestinian side as she notes that the US government and the media usually pays too much attention on the Israeli side, possibly due to the connections with the lobbyists.  She points out that for example, of all casualties seen in the territories in question, Israeli deaths are reported far more often than those in Palestine.  So she mentions that in order to look at this issue in a fair and balanced standpoint, just referring to American news is not enough.

Her presentation is heartrending in a way… It must be very painful to visit Palestine as an American.  But she does, and reports to us the truth that does not often make the article in America.  One impressive but shocking thing she said was that “America’s tax money is used (through its aid to Israel) to all these (bombings and killings in Palestine).” 

A Japanese journalist lost her life in Syria the other day.  Like this speaker, she was in the Middle East to deliver a close-up look of the truth that is not often available in the ‘West.’

iUniv keeps its neutral standpoint in many aspects, and we know that it takes knowledge and curiosity to stay neutral.  It may be a good idea to go through thousands of contents on iUniv, listen to opposite opinions, and think about what you think.

Enjoy!

Hello from Inside!

Good times pass so past and the Olympic Games in London is over.  Insider loves watching sports, although he/she is everything but an athlete…  That’s why he/she is Inside all the time.  Or is he/she bad at sports because he/she is Inside all the time???  It’s like chicken and egg. 

Anyway, according to the BBC survey, more than 80% says that the Olympic Games had a positive effect on the UK.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-19253303

This “positive effect” has been the main topics of the contents featured on iUniv home page during the Olympic Games.  Needless to say, to bring the Olympics to a certain city takes a lot of money and know-hows.  And just hosting the games does not conclude anything; it has effects to future bids of major international games, as well as the bids by surrounding countries.

Coventry University
Arts, Culture and Media - Audio and Video
The Olympic Controversy - Olympics Day - Duncan Mackay
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/37838/pid/2896
For the 2016 Olympic games, mega cities such as Tokyo, Chicago, and Madrid, alongside smaller and developing cities such as Baku (Azerbaijan), were in the bid.  And Rio de Janeiro won it.  The speaker explains that just participating in this ‘bid’ brings a lot of benefits to the city, such as tourist attractions, even if they do not win.  However, the winning of the bid comes with many demerits as well.  In the case of Beijing in 2008, there were some political issues during the torch relays.  So it may be a little difficult to bring in other games (such as the World Cup) for the time being…

Another content from Coventry University…

Coventry University
Play the Game Sport and Society Conference - Keynotes
What we should REALLY expect in 2012 - Simon Chadwick
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/37909/pid/2897
On this content, you can hear about how the cities should get ready to welcome the athletes from around the world.  For example, the securities needed for the athletes during the training camp before the Olympic games is covered by the local government, not the country - which means that some money that usually goes to the ordinary activities of the citizens may be cut down. 

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
Knowledge@Wharton - Audio Interviews
Brazil’s Gold: How Rio Won Its Olympic Bid
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/52294/pid/3367
Rio has been hosting many international games recently, starting from the 2007 Pan American games, the upcoming World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016.  They were able to accumulate the know-hows while losing the bids for the Olympics.  Plus, they could reuse some facilities.  Furthermore, the economic growth in Brazil added value to the bid and they are hosting 2016. 
In addition, the fact that they were the first country in South America to host the Olympic games was a big benefit, as many other countries in the bid had already hosted them.  Team Rio are all the more excited and ready to put more efforts because if they can make 2016 a success, it will help other territories (Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia) bring their first Olympic games.

Last but not least, don’t forget to listen to a series of interviews with the living legend Usain Bolt!

IMD - Usain Bolt - The Art & Science of Coaching
Sustained success - A dialogue with Usain Bolt - IMD special event
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/74717/pid/983

Enjoy!

Hello from Inside!

It’s been quite a while since we began to enjoy all sorts of audio and visual contents on the Web.  At the same time, issues on “copyright” has been receiving more attention than ever.  Recently in Japan, a bill regarding illegal downloads have passed the Parliament and swept the headlines.  Protesters’ activities such as those by Anonymous created buzz as well (including their off-target strike…). 

On iUniv, we have been featuring contents surrounding the copyright issues.  Of all, Insider recommends you to check the following two:

TED
Secrets of Social Media
Margaret Stewart: How YouTube thinks about copyright
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/81285/pid/4482

Among the TED contents popular on iUniv, this is the presentation by a User Experience manager from YouTube. 
Many of you might have enjoyed old TV footages or music videos on YouTube and suddenly cannot see them anymore but a message saying that the content was deleted due to copyright infringement.  According to this presentation, about 20 hours worth of contents are uploaded on YouTube every minute, which adds up to a whopping 100 years worth in a year.  Then how do they detect copyright infringement videos?  Listen and you will find out.

DUKE UNIVERSITY
Duke Featured Speakers- III
A Song’s Tale: Mashups, Borrowing, and the Law
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/80778/pid/565

This content starts with a very interesting video - a footage from a Hurricane Katrina disaster relief charity telethon (I think), where superstar Kanye West spoke out of his frustration that appropriate helping hands had not been provided to people in the appropriate timing, especially when it comes to African American people.  His quote, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people” was mashed up with his own hit tune as well as other rappers’ rhyming.  And the mashup video spread to the world in no time.  By the way West’s hit song in question had been inspired by a Ray Charles song, which had been inspired by other songs…  Music lives on, changing faces and styles.  A very interesting story.  

Enjoy :-)

Hello from Inside!

With the recent preliminary competitions of World Cup soccer games and the Olympic games coming up soon, many people may be more conscious about ‘nationals’ and ‘countries’ more than usual these days.  Perhaps that has something to do with the increasing traffic to Japan-related contents (mostly history-related) on iUniv.  And so Insider selected some contents on the top page.

The following are Insider’s recommends:

Social Yobico (ソーシャル予備校)
東澤の日本史
【センター日本史】律令国家誕生への道① 厩戸王の野望
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/73033/pid/4467
Those who have studied Japanese history long time ago may remember Prince Umayado (Umayado-no-Oji) as Prince Shotoku (Shotoku Taishi).  As it turns out, Shotoku Taishi was a posthumous name.  So in recent years, Japanese students learn about him as Umayado-no-Oji. 
This series of Japanese history lectures are primarily for the National Center Test for University Admissions, however, it is recommendable for those people who wants to start learning about Japanese history in Japanese language - The lecturer’s way of speaking is soft and slow, which is probably very helpful for a hearing practice.  He includes many interesting episodes such as the secrets behind “land of the rising sun” and “land of the setting sun”. 

The University of Tokyo
東京大学公開講座「成熟」
第5回：古井戸秀夫「歌舞伎―女形の成熟」　その1
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/58088/pid/3567
A three-episode lecture series of Kabuki, Japan’s traditional theater art. 
Why Kabuki, which was originated by a woman, Izumo-no-Okuni, is performed only by men today?  What does Izumo (the old name for Shimane Prefecture) have to do with Okuni?  The lecture takes a close look at those facts that many Japanese people don’t even think about questioning.  This may be for advanced Japanese language listeners, but it’s worth trying to listen.

Enjoy!

Hello from Inside!

Hope all has been well.  Japan has had a string of events these past few days, including the annular eclipse and the grand opening of Tokyo Sky Tree. 
Unfortunately Insider missed the annular eclipse, but saw the photos on Facebook and mixi pages, as well as people’s blogs, many of which had been uploaded from their mobile phones.  It made Insider realize once again that mobile phones have become capable of so many things over the past 15 years or so.

So, iUniv top page features were those contents that had something to do with mobile devices, including this one:

TULANE UNIVERSITY
Tulane Faculty Symposium on Digital Trends
Tulane Digital Trends: Mobile Fieldwork in Kenya
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/25344/pid/2018

The speaker has been doing field work in Kenya for many years and she tells the audience about the usage of mobiles in rural Kenya. 
What is interesting is that she began owning a mobile phone not in her native America but in Kenya, in 2003.  While big cities in Kenya (such as Nairobi, which is one of the largest cities in the African continent) have fully developed communication networks, the rural areas were still unequipped with electricity.  Therefore mobile phones came in handy.  (Note; this is as of 2003)  People who used mobile phones in such areas used dry-cell battery-operated mobile phones, and brought their PCs (desktops) to their local electronic stores to charge the batteries.  The devices were compromising well with the infrastructure circumstances.  At that time they were paying their phone bills on prepaid cards, and were using their mobile phones solely for talking - no email, no Internet.  Insider is curious to know how mobile devices are being used in rural Kenya today.

For your information, Japan’s Ministry of Affairs and Communications have a website called “世界情報通信事情 (Information-Communication of the World Today).  According to this website, Kenya’s population is about 40,000,000 and about 23,420,000 people are using “mobile communication”.

Hello from Inside!

So today was the Leap Day, once in every 4 years.  It turned out to be quite a memorable day in Tokyo, where iUniv’s headquarters are, with lots of snow (compared to the conventional weather here).  And Insider thought, hey, why not write an Insider’s Diary?  Next time Insider can write a diary on 2/29 is 2016!

This past month, we had Valentine’s Day.  As more people are giving chocolates to one another (in Japan it used to be the women who give chocolates to men, but now friends are swapping chocolates, regardless of gender), perhaps more people have eaten more sweets than usual in February.  In fact, staffs at iUniv’s headquarters have a weakness for this particular foreign-based doughnut chain…

The new batch of top page features is a fun selection this time, rather than serious educational ones:

INDIANA UNIVERSITY- PURDUE UNIVERSITY INDIANAPOLIS
News at IUPUI- II
“Glazed America”
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/12377/pid/1035
Professor focuses on doughnuts, America’s national sweet, from an anthropological standpoint.  It’s basically an introductory video to his interesting book.

Culinary Institute Of America
Culinary Intelligence from the CIA- I
Zucchini Pancakes recipe from the World’s Premier Culinary College
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/5464/pid/430
Abbreviated as CIA(!), this worldly renowned culinary school offers many recipes including this one, featuring cuisines from around the globe.  This one is from their Greek section.

JOHNSON COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Cooking With Class
How to Make Frozen Peanut Butter and Chocolate Crunch Cake
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/81555/pid/1071
Active pastry chef shows us how to make neat and classy cake from peanut butter - once again, America’s iconic spread.

KETTERING UNIVERSITY
Think Busters
Think Busters: Mentos
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/13227/pid/1117
A very playful video using Mentos and other chewing candies, and Coke.  Not something that you should try, though… ;-)

Enjoy!

Hello from Inside! 
Many regions including Japan is suffering from cold winter with lots of snow.  Hope you have been well.  It’s so cold that Insider has excuses to stay Inside!  Sorry for not saying hello for weeks.

In the meantime, we were featuring “Reproduction Medicine” on the iUniv home page.  The theme was inspired from a TV documentary about a Japanese diet member and her son, which had been aired last month.  Those who had actually seen the program would surely have different opinions, but on this feature on iUniv, we did not want to focus on whether reproduction medicine is a Do or a Don’t.  We just wanted to see what kinds of treatments are taking place today. 

(By the way, there was one featured content whose title sounded like having something to do with reproduction medicine, but actually not.  Insider apologizes for the confusion.  The audio ”Sex, Reproduction and Marriage Part I” is more like an anthropological content, comparing human beings with animals, one ethnic group with another, and so on.)

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND MEDICAL CENTRE
Diseases and Health Issues- I
Infertility - Advances in Treatment (Part 1)
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/29541/pid/2354
This is the first of the series that focuses on the advancements in fertility treatment.  It was a little surprising to find out that male infertility is quite more common than Insider thought.  This Part 1 describes the reasons of infertility, what would have risks to become infertile, and the methods of infertility test.

YALE UNIVERSITY
Yale Health & Medicine - Health and Medicine
Advances In Fertility
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/56127/pid/3452
This one is quite similar to the aforementioned audio.
Insider learnt that some advanced fertility treatments are done not only to revive the patient’s fertility, but also to maintain the cancer patients’ dreams to have a family by freezing the fertilized egg, the egg itself, or the sperms, before they go into chemotherapy. 

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
MiHealth - Audio
Hope for ending the pain, infertility of endometriosis?
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/51337/pid/3342
This audio focuses on endometriosis, one of the risky conditions.

These contents, although they are themed on reproduction medicine, include tips on daily health care from time to time.  They are highly recommendable not only to women but also to men.  

Enjoy!

Hello from Inside!

First of all, let Insider mention that today, January 17, marks the 17th anniversary of the Great Hanshin Earthquake.  Being the first Hanshin anniversary since the Great East Japan Earthquake, many people, including Insider, spent the day with a different mind-setting from the previous anniversaries.  Once again, Insider’s heart goes out to the ones who tragically lost their lives in the two devastating disasters…

It’s a little embarrassing to continue this diary with a totally different subject; in Japan, many books of very nutritional recipes are selling like pancakes (a food metaphor!).  Some of them were written by people at a famous weight scale manufacturer, women’s university, etc.  The boom even generated a ‘nutritional restaurant’ in Tokyo.  Come to think of it, Japanese have always been nutrition-conscious people, which adds to the acceleration of the boom, while some people are too conscious about losing weight and do not care about nutrition at all. 

Thus Insider decided to feature the following contents, focusing on nutrition:

Boston University
Science & Technology - Video
Measuring Calories on the iPhone
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/35744/pid/2801
An iPhone-compatible application that calculates calories by sending pictures of your meal.

UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA
MiHealth - Audio
The beverages you drink could be ruining your diet
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/51360/pid/3342
When you’re on a diet, you need to take care about what you drink as well.

Clemson University
Nutrition, Diet and Health - Audio Podcasts
Health Eating Habits   
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/37130/pid/2862
Eating habits are very important for weight control.

Arizona State University
Health-E - Content
Nutrition: Yikes what CAN I eat?
http://iuniv.tv/top/episode/eid/35036/pid/2774
“Yikes” sounds casual but it’s a very serious lecture.  It kinds of summarizes the aforementioned three.  If you don’t have time, perhaps it’s good to listen to just this one.

Insider also recommends to those who have time, revisit the Insider’s Diary dated November 17, 2011.

Dear iUniv users:

We have some new features on iUniv:

Learn!  Connect! - iUniv now compatible with social logins

• We have integrated iUniv accounts with “Castalia IDs”, and iUniv is now compatible with social logins.  You can now use your Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, and mixi accounts.
  By using your existing social network ID upon creating a Castalia ID or signing into iUniv, you won’t be wasting your precious time in enjoying iUniv’s rich library of over 73,000 audio and visual contents.
  We have also renovated the Create Account / Sign in / Settings interface.
  Check out iUniv’s new interface now at http://iuniv.tv/

• iUniv now available on iPad!
  An HTML5-compatible web application, iUniv is now available on “iPad”, one of the most promising tablet devices.  We would be happy if you enjoy the location-free learning experience with iUniv on your iPad.

We are also glad to report that iUniv was featured as a case study of the implementation of “cloudpack,” a Cloud management / maintenance service.
iUniv has implemented cloudpack’s management / maintenance / monitoring services to further enhance the environment of iUniv.
For further information, please go on to cloudpack’s website, where we have been featured as one of their case studies:
http://blog.cloudpack.jp/2011/12/news-casestudy-largeplan-iuniv.html (in Japanese)