tidbits from my learning adventures
I enjoy collecting nuggets of information and someone suggested that I share it with an appreciative audience. That's you, right? Right?
Ahem, let's get started, then.
I shall apply Chatham House Rules, as I deem appropriate.
6 July 2025
I heard about SEA Punk. Like solarpunk, but with a focus on the region of SEA: South-east Asia.
This is the pain point: “We're in the same geographic region but we have no common identity! can we change that?”
source of Venn diagram: “What is Seapunk?”
8 July 2025
about the intersection between Intellectual Property (IP) laws, and creative practitioners.
I heard that design patents are only enforce-able in Singapore, if they are registered in Singapore. That means that a “pirate” in, say, China, can reproduce and mass-manufacture your designs without penalty, as long they operate within China (and possibly export to the world).
I wonder if the follow-up is to register your patents in China. However enforcement seems questionable even in this case, unless you have buddies in the enforcement scene in China. Or any other country, for that matter.
11 July 2025
About the impact of AI on voice-over artists.
I heard that someone – a voice-over professional – omitted a couple of words during his voice-over. (Not his fault, it seemed like there was a last-minute change in the script, and nobody among the crew noticed until the professional had stopped work and gone home.) Then the recording engineer said, “No problem, I can fix this”. And used AI to change the recording so that the artist seemed to say words that he, in actual fact, had not recorded.
Then the recording was released to the public audience.
The artist found out about it, and talked to the manager of the project – who gave the recording engineer an upbraiding. And then the manager gave financial compensation to the artist. However the damage had already been done, emotionally or otherwise.
The question on everyone's minds: “AI is a like a gun that anyone can buy, these days. And this is like the Wild West. Are there guardrails on the use of these guns?”
It seems that everyone is learning as they go along. There is no precedent to give us a sense of do's and don'ts. And people find out what the appropriate “etiquette” is, only later – at great cost to themselves and others.
Well, as a famous song goes: “Nobody said it would be easy.”
14 July 2025
I present to you, dear reader, a PDF from my hard-won travels.
“Ten Reasons to Care about Biological Diversity”. by David Braun. former State Director, The Nature Conservancy in Texas.
https://www.pcap-sk.org/rsu_docs/documents/10_reasons_to_care_about_Biodiversity.pdf
16 July 2025
In the field of coffee brewing.
I learnt that there is not only carbonic maceration for coffee, but there is also nitrogen maceration.
Nitrogen maceration intensifies the flavours (according to an anonymous barista).
As an example, here are some retail beans from the well-known Ona Coffee. Hyperlink here.
19 July 2025
I caught a performance by “24-year-old Swedish violin virtuoso”, Daniel Lozakovich, who performed Korngold’s Violin Concerto, (accompanied by Singapore Symphony Orchestra).
And, from the stage, I heard Hans Graf (conductor) introducing Tobias Melle (collaborator) as a “photographer with a musician's eye.”
I would like to share a professional review of the same performance, that has appeared in a national newspaper, The Straits Times.
(And I've made a back-up copy of the review, in Internet Archive.)
If you would like to hear more from reviewer himself, he has a blog:
https://pianofortephilia.blogspot.com/2025/07/an-alpine-symphony-in-images-korngold.html
The reviewer is a gentleman named Chang Tou Liang. (Chang being his surname).
And here is the website of the photographer, Tobias Melle: https://www.tobiasmelle.com/
22 July 2025
I learnt that others have taken the career path of Becoming a Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach.
https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/253958/become-coach.aspx
And here is an example of a Training Provider for corporates.
CliftonStrengths Workshop & Teambuilding: Discover & Unleash Strengths. URL: https://www.strengthstransform.com/cliftonstrengths-workshop-teambuilding/
Well, I've managed to recount the past month, more or less. Well done, me. Now it's time for a tasty snack! Until next time! Ciao.