Criticism, ethics and philosophy behind the HBP

With great innovation comes great criticism.

Although the Human Brain Project has many supporters, it also has to cope with numerous critics. Many do not believe that it is possible just yet to build a specific simulation of the human brain because neuroscience is actually still at its launch. The coordinator of the HBP mentioned in 2009 that he plans establishing his ideas within 10 years. This time frame seems to be overwhelmingly optimistic for many people. Moreover, some argue that in stating this, it aids them to receive more funding. In addition, there are many people who are unsure about an emulated brain's value as it will not perform any cognitive functions.

Opposed to that it is also often argued by scientists that, even if simulating a single cortical column of a rat is a result nowhere near a human brain, it is still a significant start. Knowledge about the brain's functions is growing exponentially and at some point, although maybe not in ten years, the success of a simulation will become a powerful tool. Many believe that most likely, the first model will be a failure. However, any resulting failure in this model will bring neuroscientists closer to a better model.


With great Innovation comes great responsibility.

Bringing new technologies, such as artificial brains or new scanning devices for the nervous system, into our world naturally creates certain risks. There is always the possibility of abuse of knowledge, be it deliberately or involuntarily. There are a great number of other ethical questions, such as: it is ethically acceptable to treat patients with cognitive problems. But is it also acceptable to enhance cognition in healthy people to make them smarter?


With great innovation come great ontological questions.

• How does the mind work?
• Where does our mind come from?
• What is consciousness?
• Is there a relationship between the mind and our biological brain?

CAJ abstract

The study of neuroscience is advancing in a remarkable speed, in particular concerning development of innovative technologies. This Current Affairs Journal discusses, in the greatest part, how far neuroscience has developed to this point in time and what the estimated prospects for the future are. Supercomputing technology, brain scanning in order to locate mental illnesses, or memory implants are rapidly approaching a level where establishing them becomes a possibility. As these aspects are becoming ever more concrete, there is a wide variety of information resources, ranging from newspaper articles, documentaries, scientific papers, and videos. For this CAJ mainly articles, videos and information from the concerning institution were used. As a consequence of this wide variety of information, there is also often misleading material to be found. Considering all material found, it can be assessed that neuroscience, although it is making considerable progress, has still many obstacles to overcome.

HBP's attempt to build an artificial brain

In my last post I mentioned the Human Brain Project briefly and wrote that its major aim is to construct an emulation of the human brain. In this post, I am going to discuss in a little more detail how this project is going to do this and who stands behind it.

The HBP is funded by The European Union which contributed about 1 billion Euros and is coordinated by neuroscientist Henry Markram. The project is managed from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.

Henry Markram

In a nutshell, the initiative's major goals are to identify how the human brain operates and, based on this, build a digital model. On this it would ne possible to conduct experiments as conductiing experiments on animals and humans is limited. According to Markram, the researchers are trying to bring together a fundamental understanding of the brain which turns out to be a big challenge as all the knowledge on neuroscience is extremly fragmented. Data, that was published in neuroscience, needs first gathering before it can be applied to a computer.

Another challenge is to translate this gathered data into a computer model. The actual challenge here is to not only consider individual neurons but ro regard the whole picture, including all the connections between synapses. In other words, the first step is to harvest all the technological mysteries of the brain (how it transmits, processes and stores information) in order to, in the second step, construct a supercomputer.

In 2006, HBP developed a computer simulation of the neocortical column of a rat and it behaves precisely like its biological example. Although this column is only about 2 mm long, it contains about 10,000 neurons and 30 million synapses. This emulation is the most advanced supercomputer and is, compared to the neocortex, a huge construct.

The IBM Blue Gene/L supercomputer

Of course, the human brain contains many more neurons and synapses and its simulation would take up even more space. Not to mention the huge electricity bill.

Althoug this project is facing enormous obstacles, the actual outcome will be one of the most significant results in the study of neuroscience and medicine. By being able to conduct experiments in an innovative way and therefore understanding the brain's functions, it would also be possible for the future human kind to understand its malfunctions.

In a previous post, I summerised a few neurologic disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease. One cane notice that there is no treatment for any of the diseases mentioned. If HBP succeeds, early diagnosis, personalized medicine and advanced medical research would be an advantageous consequence of the knowledge obtained from exact emulation of a human brain.


Sources:
https://www.humanbrainproject.eu
http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-incredible-challenge-of-digitizing-the-human-brain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0ZPFffdmXg

How neuroscience helps

The human brain still holds many mysteries concerning its functions and dysfunctions. Recently, initiatives in the U.S. and in Europe have been started to observe, analyse and finally solve them.

One of these initiatives is B.R.A.I.N. (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies). This is a collaborative project in the U.S. to accelerate development of new technologies for understanding the human brain's structure, functions and more importantly malfunctions. The aim is to cease the increasing number of mortality and burden of disease due to neurological disorders.

President Obama announced the initiative in April. Government and private organizations both contributed a high sum to it to get the project going. Critics say that there is not enough money to accomplish the goals, however, the leaders claim that the first funding is only figurative and the timetable and all costs are being throughly discussed just now.

The Human Brain Project (HBP) is the European pendant to B.R.A.I.N. and they have a very similar aim: to construct new technologies in order to facilitate neuroscientific research. One major goal is to reconstruct the human brain in a computer-based simulation. In addition, in order to identify and cure neurological diseases, it is crucial for this project to develop innovative computing and scanning.

sources:
http://www.nih.gov/science/brain/
https://www.humanbrainproject.eu
http://actu.epfl.ch/news/the-human-brain-project-wins-top-european-science-/

Neuropsychiatric Diseases

As mentioned in my introductory post, neuroscience is connected with many other studies. Medicine is a widely researched study which includes the study of psychiatric and neurologic disorders. Neuropsychiatric disorders are, for instance, Alzheimer's disease, epilepsy, Parkinson's disease, or multiple sclerosis. So neuropsychiatry is concerned with mental disorders due to diseases of the nervous system.

Alzheimer's disease
is the most common form of dementia. It is a progressive disease, which means that the symptoms worsen over time starting with difficulty remembering newly learned information. leading to difficulty speaking, walking and swallowing and eventually death. The cause for Alzheimer's is still, for the greatest part, unknown. Also, what exactly happens to the brain is not entirely explored. It is only known that some sort of loss of neurons in the cerebral cortex is responsible for the disease. There is no treatment to completely stop it yet, however, there is treatment to slow down the worsening symptoms.

Epilepsy
Characteristic for this disease are repeated, spontaneous epileptic seizures. It all takes place in the brain: normally, electrical signals are not synchronic but when the brain's neurons start transmitting signals in an unusual, synchronized way, the patient experiences a seizure. Although epilepsy is not 100% treatable, there are many ways to prevent seizures and there are medication possibilities.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
is a disease where the immune system within the central nervous system attacks myelin sheath, which protects the axon of a neuron. Therefore, signals traveling to or from the brain are interrupted. Just as with Alzheimer's, there is no known cure for MS only medication or therapies which soothe the symptoms. There are multiple symptoms and every MS patient experiences different ones. Most common symptoms include sensory, visual or motor problems such as numbness, double vision or bladder dysfunctions.


These are only three of a wide range of neuropsychiatric diseases which are a serious problem that should best be addressed as soon as possible. According to predictions by the WHO (World Health Organization) "(...) unless immediate action is taken globally - the neurological burden will continue to remain a serious threat to public health." An estimation is presented by the WHO which predicts a 12% increase of deaths caused by neurological disorders in Europe, including those shortly described above.

sources:
http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_1973.asp
http://www.nationalmssociety.org
http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/epilepsy-statistics
http://www.who.int/mental_health/neurology/chapter_2_neuro_disorders_public_h_challenges.pdf

Abstract for "When zombies attack"

The eradication of human civilasation due to a zombie apocalypse is a popular theme among modern movies, video games etc. As the science behind zombie outbreaks has hardly been examined, this paper presents the first mathematical analysis of different zombie outbreak scenarios. The type of zombie this investigation is modeled on, is comparable to those in movies such as Night of the Living Dead. It typically shows features such as slow movements or cannibalism. Smarter and faster-moving zombies from movies such as Dawn of the Dead are excluded from investigations. The intention is to show whether or not, in theory rather than in practice, human-zombie coexistence is possible. In order to calculate this possibilities Euler’s method is applied within five models: the basic model, model with latent infection, model with quarantine, model with treatment, and impulsive eradication. The results show that in all, except the model with treatment, coexistence is not possible. The paper suggests, in case of a zombie apocalypse, to act as fast as possible. The scenarios illustrated in this paper are obviously unrealistic, however, the models can be applied to real life, such as observations of allegiance to political parties or diseases with dormant infection. 

Evaluate Instructions

Link to our instructions evaluation text:

http://alexandrah3.blogspot.co.at/2014/05/photography-project-evaluate.html

CAJ: Tango and Neuroscience

Tango and neuroscience: you might wonder how these two things go together.

Suzanne Dikker, a neuroscientists, conducted a project which took place last March in New York, where she connected two pairs of tango dancers to EEG headsets (Electroencephalography) that measured the dancers' brainwaves. When the dancers' brainwaves were in sync it was visualized on the walls behind them. First the partners danced together just as they always do. After that, they changed partners and finally they got back together with their own partners and just imagined the movements.

Imagining movements:

While actually dancing with their own partners:

Researchers have been trying to understand how two brains work during social interaction. This project was limited technically, because EEGs are not the most reliable recording device as they are too sensitive. However, it surely was fascinating to observe which parts of the brain, depending on whether you are a leader or a follower, are activated during this special kind of social interaction.

LINK to the event NeuroTango: http://comebebrainy.com/brainy/neurotango/
Source article: http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39584/title/Ballroom-Brainwaves/

CAJ: Oxytocin

Oxytocin is a hormone that is usually associated with empathy, bonding, trust etc. While researching for my CAJ, I often stumbled upon articles that mentioned it, or nicknaming it a "love drug", "cuddle chemical", "moral molecule" and "bonding hormone". Oxytocin sounds like a very beneficial hormone we humans (and other mammals) posses. But what is oxytocin actually responsible for?

In a nutshell:

During childbirth it is responsible for uterine contraction which facilitates giving birth

After childbirth: During lactation oxytocin is released for a smooth muscle contraction. It also is responsible for the maternal bonding process between mother and child.

Bonding: It is not only relevant for maternal bond but for bonding between living creatures in general. Oxytocin evokes the desire to connect physically and is released during contact with a person or fluffy animal. In addition, it is known for its release during sexual orgasm.

Lying: When in contact with other people in a group, the hormone makes one's focus shift from oneself as an individual to the benefits of the entire group. In a double-bling study, where one group inhaled oxytocin and the other one a placebo, the results showed that the hormone boosts dishonest behavior if it is advantageous for the group.

Autism: Scientists hope that in the future oxytocin will be a possible treatment for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). As these children have difficulties with upholding eye-contact, and therefore with cooperation and interaction with other human beings the hormone, when inhaled, could be the key for establishing the ability for social behavior in autistic children.

Sources:

• http://markturrell.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/sex-and-the-brain-how-neuroscience-may-soon-change-all-our-relationships-6/

• http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.view/articleNo/39595/title/Oxytocin-Boosts-Dishonesty/

• http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/exchange/node/7087

Photography Project Description "Migrant Mother"

LINK to text click here

CAJ: Being Aware of Wrongly Interpreted Neuroscientific Data

It is common knowledge that the media sometimes outlines stories or facts slightly more different than they actually are. That is what journalists always did and always will do, we all know that. However, we must be aware that in articles, in particular on scientific issues, some news or advancements may be misinterpreted.

Some of you have perhaps encountered some ("scientific") articles claiming that eating walnuts will make you smarter or orange juice will reduce aggressiveness in a person. (These examples are exaggerated by me) Nonetheless, we read them because everyone wants to become more intelligent or less grumpy in an easy way. Everyone knows that those claims can't, in fact, be entirely true but weirdly we want to believe them.

The other day I was reading THIS article by Jeremy Laurance, the author on health issues in "The Independent", about the findings by neuroscientist Molly Crockett. She and her colleagues conducted an experiment how serotonin, a neurotransmitter, could influence people's decisions when they are treated unfairly. They gave a lemon-flavored and protein-rich artificial drink to participants and this drink contained tryptophan, which is the preliminary stage of serotonin. The results suggested that people with low serotonin levels are more likely to avenge themselves than those with a high one.

Laurance mentions in his article that if you eat a sandwich you will get a pay rise. This argument does not speak in favor of the article's logos. Also, he only gains credibility in using the phrase "scientists have found" and in describing Molly Crockett's experiment. However, he draws rather far-fetched conclusions which were definitely not part of Crockett's results. On the other hand, Laurance appeals a great deal to the readers empathy in illustrating how easy it is to successfully make decisions. You only have to eat a simple cheese sandwich to make all your dreams come true.


Here is Crockett's explanation on this matter:

She talks about:

• Who she is and what she does
• her experiment founding: when tryptophan was low people are more likely to take revenge
• the headlines that came out after they conducted the experiment
• how tryptophan can also be found in cheese and chocolate which grabbed people's attention 

• how oversimplifying of scientific data happens all the time 
• neuroscience appearing more and more in marketing
• if there is a image of a brain next to something, it will sell better

• jumping into conclusions based on brain activity in one specific region which actually has many different functions 

• a scientist who claims boosting oxytocin increases trust and cooperation in people
• which is only one side of the coin

• SPECT imaging, including radioactive injection in order to track blood flow in the brain
• neuroscience is not able to track mental illnesses from a single brain scan yet

• there is potential for neuroscience to do all the amazing things many scientists or marketing-oriented people claim to be possible
• but neuroscience is not there yet and we should bring something into question before taking it as it is

And here is a picture of a cool brain. Maybe my post will be more appealing for you to read (and comment on) now.

source text and source video

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/the-cheesy-secret-behind-successful-decision-making-841419.html#

https://www.ted.com/talks/molly_crockett_beware_neuro_bunk

Narrative Article HW: Death sentences for gang-rapist in Mumbai

It seems like a day as any other in India. Not so for the judge who is responsible for the repeated gang-rape case trial which is taking place this afternoon in the Mumbai High Court. Nervously, she is pacing back and forth in her office just before she is to announce the sentence for the three offenders. “Their defence lawyers tried to play the they-are-still-so-young-card”, she explained. “But I don’t sees why to such gruesome and diabolical rapes one should show any mercy.”

Tucking her documents under one arm and carrying her bag, the judge made her way back to the  courtroom through the hallway. Muffled shouts can be distinguished from outside, where protesters are insisting on women’s safety in India.

The new law on rape penalty was intensified in 2013, which included a death penalty for repeat offenders. Vijay Mohan Jadev, 19, Mohammed Kasim Hafeez Sheikh, 21, and Mohammed Salim Ansari, 28 were found guilty for gang raping, first a 19.year old phone receptionist last summer and a second time a 22-year-old photojournalist. The very second after the judge passed the sentence, chaos erupted in the courtroom, a mother started to swear hysterically and so was brought outside and the men accepted their fate as they wrier escorted away.

Rhetoric paragraph

Article analysis

In the article "Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now", written by Ben Makuch, one can clearly distinguish some persuasive elements in terms of ethos, pathos and logos. Introducing the hypothesis' scientist, Rich Terrile, as a "well regarded" scientist and the director of an influential department at NASA, it accounts for his credibility and is therefore persuasive regarding its ethos. The article also appeals to the readers' sympathy, although not through emotion, but rather through colloquial language, describing how a Korean boy might be controlling us from his Xbox or referring to a well-known film. In this way the article seems more casual and the readers can relate well to his statements. The article's logos, however, is sometimes lacking some convincing elements. Apart from the argument that there are observable pixelations as well as similarities between quantum mechanics and video games, the scientist does not draw an utterly comprehensive connection between his hypothesis and his reasons why he assumes that we might be in a simulated world. In other words, his arguments are not proof enough for the reader but the article definitely is a matter for reflection.

PATHOS! -> missing

to read the article, click HERE

CAJ: Neuroscience, Memory Implants

Imagine Alzheimer's disease, problems after a stoke, dementia or multiple sclerosis which cause severe memory loss for a person, would not be that huge of a problem in a not too distant future. Neuroscientist Theodore Berger's colleagues called him absolutely crazy when he told him about his plants to develop a silicon chip which imitates the signals neurons process in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is the part of the brain which is responsible for formation and retrieval of long-term and short-term memories. So, what Berger did the last two decades of his life is, to find out haw neurons function in the hippocampus and, therefore, enable patients to have the ability to form new long-term memories. Which turned out to be more difficult than it sounds.

Berger and a team of scientist have conducted experiments on rabbits, rats and monkeys which was a great success. They discovered that a computer could establish a long-term memory code from input signals recorded in rats' brains while they learned a specific task. After the researchers dulled the animals' ability to form long-term memories, they fed their brains with this memory code and they were able to retrieve the "lost" memory again.

The next steps in Berger's research is to implant memory prothesis into animals, which could result in difficulties as these memory codes stem barely from mathematical equations. His goal for the near future is to design memory implants that will be beneficial for humans.

We all possess two hippocampi 

For more detailed information, you can read this article by Jon Cohen: 
Memory Implants 

In terms of ethos the author illustrates Theodore Berger as an utterly credible person in two ways. Firstly, he introduces Berger (and his idea) in a very convincing manner in mentioning that he is a biomedical engineer and a neuroscientist (wow!) and that he works at the University of Southern California in LA (not too bad either!). Secondly, the author emphasises multiple times how nobody believed Berger's idea to work out and how it in the end actually did. I believe that the second point does not support the ethos although it would if it was not mentioned that often.

Concerning the pathos the author did a quite good job in mentioning that these implants might help patients in a not too distant future. Also, in mentioning that Berger's colleagues thought him a lunatic and he proving the opposite, it somehow arouses empathy in the reader.

Finally, the logos is very plain in the article. Cohen describes, very understandably, what Berger's experiments are, how they work (or did not work) and why it might not work out in the future how Berger has planed it, as he might stumble across certain difficulties.



source: http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/513681/memory-implants/

Neuroscience (CAJ) an introduction

Have you ever wondered whether you (should) feel or make decisions with your heart or your brain? A neuroscientist would probably argue it is the latter that is crucial for a human being.

But what is neuroscience? In a nutshell, it is the study of our nervous system. And our nervous system is divided in the central nervous system (CNS), consisting of the brain and the spinal cord, and the peripheral nervous system (PNS), consisting of nerves. Our nervous system is made up of billions of neurons, which are the transmitters that enable us to feel, think, learn and do almost everything we do. There are multiple types of neurons, however, they all consist of a cell body (or soma), dendrites, the axon which is protected by the myelin sheath and synopses or axon terminals.

Neurons transmit signals whenever there is some kind of sensory input. The dendrites' task is to receive the electrical signal, or action potential, and the axon passes it on to the next neuron through axon terminals. In fact, these axon terminals do not touch the next neurons' dendrite directly. So there is a little gap in-between. But if there is an empty space how is the signal passed further on?

Within each axon terminal there are vesicles (little bags) that contain neurotransmitters, acting like a chemical messenger that diffuses from the neuron across a junction to the next neuron in order to stimulate it.

This is just a summery of how transmission of signals approximately works in our nervous system. I am sure, everybody has at some point heard about it in school, depending how intensive your grade of interest for the functions of the human body at that moment was. And I assume, as you were in puberty, your interest was well-trained although not the way it was supposed to be. Speaking of which, neurotransmitters and hormones also play a major role this.

As we know now, our nervous system is responsible for everything we perceive. In other words, everything you sense, think and feel is the result of how our nervous system works. You can be sure there is something incredible going on in your body when you, for example, taste the best piece of cake on earth, or have an interesting conversation, or when you are studying, listening to music, feeling depressed or completely over the top.

As our brain does all these things, the study of neuroscience has spread its wings to many other disciplines, such as medicine, linguistics, psychology, engineering and many more. In my further blog posts, I am going to give insight into several fascinating studies, new technologies and developments or just some delightful facts.

Public Service Announcement

The loss of a beloved person, be it family member or friend, is the worst that can happen in your life. Except from not being able to come to terms with your past.

 It is crucial to experience all five stages of grief, psychologists warn, as it brings along 

dangerous consequences otherwise. 

Never having to give up on a person you loved seems like a good idea. The first obvious reason why this is not the case is that an avatar is only a shell filled with information which are not complete. The more treacherous reason is that you will be stuck with an idea which will destroy you in the end. 

A day in the life of a sock

In the first drawer of a wooden wardrobe lived my favorite sock with his wife. It was not a nasty or dirty drawer, but rather one of the comfortable kind. By some curious chance one morning, when my favorite sock felt extraordinary fresh, he felt the drawer opening like it does every morning.

He and his wife did not care and minded their own business, when suddenly they felt dragged out of the drawer they had to face the bright morning sun. Puzzled, my favorite sock looked up at me so I explained: "Good morning, my dear favorite socks. I think it is way past time to accompany me on an adventure. And today's the day!" Not quite sure what to think about the overwhelming situation, my favorite sock said nothing and, without any objections, I put them both on. His first doubts about going on an adventure vanished the moment he looked into the mirror and saw how perfectly my foot fitted him. 

Confidently, he slipped into a shoe, realizing too late how much it actually smelled, and made his way to...indeed, he did not know exactly where they were going because it was awfully dark inside the shoe. That was when he started thinking about the true meaning of life. What is the point of going on an adventure and not being able to see, smell, taste, hear or feel anything of the world? Suddenly, he felt very upset about being trampled on his feelings and about not being able to enjoy the day in the drawer instead. Back home, I slipped out of my shoes and saw how angry my favorite sock was. Before he had the chance to yell at me, I said: "My dear sock, what a pleasure it was to experience this day with your incredible comfort. Without you, the adventure would have gone terribly wrong and my day would have been ruined. Thank you for your support and cosiness; and sorry for any inconvenience I might have caused you. So, good night now." Lying in the laundry basked, my favorite sock started smiling. Now he knew what the true meaning of life was.

Schengen text: link to final and corrected version

You can find our EU text we wrote about Schengen HERE .

Essay San Marino

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR SAN MARINO ESSAY

Studying Vocabulary

Just as many others, I have recently been cramming all the Porter Words we are supposed to ingest and then digest, metaphorically speaking. So, how have I been doing it?

My system of studying vocab is not very exciting. First, I create a chart where I mark the different columns with "WORD", "DEFINITION", "EXAMPLE SENTENCE and "FURTHER INFO", just as we did in SuK 1 and 2 last year. Then, I sift the vocab in the Porter book, because it is impossible for me to memorise all of the, and write them down in the first column. After sorting them alphabetically, the most tedious part begins: finding the accurate definitions and trying to remember the context a word is used in.

This is how it looks like then:

Just the good ol' method.
As we do not only have to know what the definition of the word is but also how to pronounce it, I printed out the document and marked all nouns, verbs and adjectives. This is the first important step, as we all know that there are many nouns, verbs and adjectives that are written the same but are pronounced differently. Then, I highlighted the words I either had no idea how to pronounce or was not sure and asked our reliable vocabulary.com how he would pronounce it.

Summary "Europe already has one foot in Japanese deflation grave" corrections

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, (date is missing) the author of the article in The Telegraph, analyses the European deflation crisis and compares this situation to Japan's deflation failure that happened due to policy errors. Dept in Europe is on the increase and is becoming a serious threat to the European economy. Since the debt in western Europe rises faster than nominal GDP, these countries may face disastrous consequences. Deflation can cause dangerous runaway debt, which is already the case in Italy and Spain, and this debt is even more problematic to repay.

Policy errors throughout Europe are one of the main reasons why the prospect of solving the deflation problem seems very unlikely. One possible solution for this dilemma is proposed in the article, namely, to let inflation drift up in order to prevent deflation. However, countries which are not affected by this danger, such as Germany, are against this solution. Therefore, instead of establishing stable policies, Europe is drifting uncontrollably towards its deflation grave. The author then suggests that France, Italy, Spain and Club Med should ally and force Germany to enforce reflation policies. As they fear Germany's quitting, this solution is improbable to be implemented. Furthermore, the author suggests the economy recovering by itself, which is also an inappropriate solution.

[207 words]

With teacher's corrections:

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, the author of the article published in The Telegraph on the 23th of October, analyses the European crisis and compares this situation to Japan's deflation failure that happened due to policy errors.  European debt is increasing and is threatening the European economy. Since the debt in western Europe rises faster than nominal GDP, these countries may face disastrous consequences. Deflation can cause extremely dangerous runaway debt, which is already the case in countries like Italy and Spain, and this debt is even more problematic to repay.

Policy errors throughout Europe are one of the main reasons why the prospect of solving the deflation problem seems very unlikely. One possible solution for this dilemma is proposed in the article, namely, to let inflation drift up in order to prevent deflation. However, countries like Germany are against this solution. Therefore, instead of establishing stable policies, Europe is drifting uncontrollably towards its deflation grave. The author then suggests that the Club Med should ally and force Germany to enforce reflation policies. As they fear Germany's exit, this solution is unlikely to be implemented. Furthermore, the author suggests may recover spontaneously, which is also an inappropriate solution.

[196 words]

Dear pronunciation diary...

...I got back feedback on the pronunciation activity we did a few weeks ago. And guess what? Apparently I did "excellent" and "very good". I only had difficulties with one word, namely aluminum.  Which does not surprise me as I do not know the word. I only know the other version of the word, aluminium.

I have made some progress with my tongue twisters. Actually I had a good time challenging my friends to learn them. Only then you feel as if, in fact, you have absolutely no control over what you are babbling.

Anyway, this is the second part of my pronunciation diary and I'd like, after I focused on sounds in the English language, to have a look at how English words are pronounced. We all know how absurd English spelling really is. It has the same absurdity level as French grammar, some Facebook status or me trying to bake cookies. In contrast, it is claimed that English pronunciation has some rules that you can stick to. For example, you can pronounce the letter "G" in a word either as /d͡ʒ/ (before E, I, Y) or /g/ (before U and A) such in giant and George or garden and guacamole. 

Sounds easy, doesn't it? Alright then, I challenge you to try to read aloud a poem by Gerald Nolst Trenité, a Dutchman. Here is the link, there is a phonetic transcript beside it but I'd try first without looking at the right column. 

Do you now doubt your competence in English pronunciation? Don't worry, this poem was surely created to trouble us, all the willing people who want to acquire a good English. I think if anyone can read this poem with not a single mistake can call himself/herself King or Queen of pronunciation. 

Here are two videos that might help, the first one is performed in American English the second in British English. Whatever you prefer. 
You might prefer the first one in any case as the performer is a bit more entertaining.