Author: admin

Douglas Engelbart a technologist conceived the computer mouse and laid out a vision of an Internet decades before others brought those ideas to the mass market. Engelbart arrived at his crowning movement relatively early in his career in a winter afternoon in 1968 when he delivered an hour-long presentstion containing so many far reaching ideas that it would be referred to, decades later, as the ‘mother of all demons’.

Speaking before an audience of 1000 leading technologists in San Francisco, Engelbart, a computer scientist at Standford Researsh Institute, displayed a cubic device with two rolling discs called an X-Y position indicator for a display system. It was the Mouse’s public debut.

Engelbart then summoned in real time the image and voice of a colleague 30 miles (48kms) away. And he explained a theory of how pages of information would be tied together using text based links; an idea that would later form the bedrock of the Internet’s architecture.

At a time when computing was largely pursued by government researchers or hobbyists with a counter-cultural bent, Engelbart never sought or enjoyed the explosive wealth that would later become synonymous with Silicon Valley success. For instance, he never received any royalties for the Mouse which SRI patendted and later licensed to Apple.

He was intensely driven instead by a belief that computer could be used to augment human intellect.

Student: Raj Jaiswal

International Pink Tariff
Yaxin CHen

Pink, a color that has been commonly used as a representation of femininity, has become a form of widespread gender discrimination towards female consumers in the economy. The pink tax is not an official tax expense established by the government, instead, it often refers to extra price paid by women for the same goods or services as men, mostly with female-targeted packaging. This implicit discrepancy has existed for decades in the U.S. even though there have been efforts from some legislators to employ legal instruments to reduce the apparent gender-based pricing disparity. The unfair issue requires high attention because it not only presents gender inequality in the domestic commerce, rather, it has further expanded to international trade as the pink tariff, which would potentially undermine the relationship and economy of different importing and exporting countries.
Many Asian countries, taking China and Vietnam as examples, are powerful in manufacturing on account of their cheaper labor markets, therefore, international companies are more prone to set their manufacturing factories in these countries in order to save costs, and later export finished products to international markets like the United States. However, although producers may choose to export similar products between males and females at the same price, women and men often see different prices as they arrive in the domestic market. The gender-based pricing almost always requires women to pay a higher price compared to men because of the higher import tariff rate on goods that are particularly for females. The recent trade war between the U.S. and China has added an even higher tariff rate on already existing pink tariffs without the adjustment to inflation, meaning that female consumers generally have to incur more tax burden for purchasing goods to their liking, such as shoes and clothes. Consequently, after acknowledging the gender price gap, domestic female consumers would be likely to restrict their buying power for more expensive female-targeted products. This does not only impact the domestic economy negatively, but also affects the further expansion of the global economy, especially in developing countries that make a myriad of exports as they lose broader opportunities to trade.
Legal intervention is a possible effective means to solve the price discrimination against the overall female group. There have been past efforts from companies in the fashion industry attempting to fight against the pink tariff legally. Nevertheless, the courts encountered difficulties to provide satisfactory rulings, given the current insufficient legislations and precedents. Some legislators in the U.S. have introduced the Pink Tax Repeal Act multiple times in the Congress a few years ago, but it has not been successfully passed by the legislative branch. Therefore, federal laws banning all pink taxes on goods for females and international legal regulations on all pink tariffs in international trade would be helpful in promoting gender equality and a better economy. To achieve this goal, it is essential to educate more women about the existence of pink tariffs and urge for legal interventions. The benefits of removing pink tariffs do not merely fall onto female consumers. They would resolve the dilemma faced by industries importing and exporting gender-specific products; they would likewise protect healthy trade and maintain good relationships between countries through international trade.

在近年来富士康的跳楼事件中， 富士康公司的回应显得非常苍白无力。 在廊坊的富士康不但有人跳楼身亡， 更有童工意外猝死。 而公司的反应则是通知官方去控制媒体，禁止报道。但最后仍然被少数媒体报道出来。在2010年3月23日，23岁的富士康员工李伟在保定市区的一所高校的五楼跳下，经过医院抢救后脱离生命危险。而公司的反应则是让媒体禁止报道此事，在家人与廊坊富士康谈判后，被逼无奈与该公司签署了所谓的人道援助，家人获得了两万左右的现金，并签订了一份保密协议，被威胁不能将此事外传。前两年一段北京富士康保安殴打员工的视频在网上疯传，一位不愿意透露姓名的员工回应说：“在这边，安管经常打人，连员工见了都很害怕。”该员工说虽然安管的钱拿得没有正常员工多，但势力却比他们大，经常无缘无故生气打人。而员工们也只是敢怒不敢言。有一天晚上他和朋友回宿舍被安管拉到黑屋子打了一顿，被关了一晚上，第二天他们也不敢说，不敢报警。对此事富士康公司则是满口否认，说根本没有此事，并说“我们的保安有定期培训，素质较高。”

由此可见，富士康公司的回应与员工及其家属爆料出来的并不相符。从而我们就应该明白我们应该多关心此类新闻事件，给劳动者群众多一些的支持和鼓励，并且避免这种事件的发生。关于如果应对这种事件有几种措施：

1. 加强保安防范在发生自杀事件。
2. 加强心理辅导，派心理医生前往富士康公司给员工做辅导疏通。
3. 加强劳动监察。合理的工作时间安排，合理的工资发放等。
4. 加强员工的尊严教育。改善管理层对普通员工群众的态度，进行正面的交流。适当鼓励，不让员工有过多心理压力。
5. 加大公共设施建设，满足员工的精神层面。在劳动之余还能从别的地方获取快乐。
6. 构筑“关爱圈”，防范“社会疏离感”。富士康已经在反省和整改该类的教育，最终能让员工们互相关爱，在工作中得到温暖。
7. 加强企业基层组织建设，让员工更方便快捷的联系并勇于提出自己的意见。
8. 建设安全防护网。富士康已经在很多楼顶上建了高高的铁网，虽然是笨办法，但是也是防止跳楼轻生的一种措施。

富士康公司已经在相应方面做出了整改，但是光是公司调整是远远不够的。作为普通的人名群众，我们应该更加关注此类事件，而不是把它当成茶余饭后的一句闲话，听过就过去了，结束了。我们应该帮着那些无辜的劳动人民群众，多多关注劳动者身心健康的事件以及多多督促该类公司，给公司的管理层相应的压力，从而达到减少自杀率，不让劳动人民再受苦的目的，

J.Xia