Artograffi #146
Diving in Thailand was turtelly amazing
This April half term holiday, I went to Thailand with my family as we still had money from a holiday we were meant to go on but couldn’t because of Covid 19. We stayed at a few different places in the country – Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Krabi and then Khao Lak.
Scuba diving in Khao Lak
Later in the holiday, we went to Khao Lak (Fun fact – Khao Lak can be literally translated to ‘Main Mountain’) where me and my brother completed our PADI open water diver course in a lake.
The lake wasn’t very interesting with not too many fish or plants but on the plus side, the water in the lake was a LOT warmer than any of the water in the UK (Which makes sense since the UK is close to the arctic circle whereas Thailand is definitely not). It was nice to be able to swim in water without having to wear wetsuits that are thick, hard to put on and make you look like an egg.
The day after the two dives in the lake, we took a boat ride to the Similan Islands which are a national park around an hour and a bit away from the shores of Thailand.
As soon as my brother, our diving instructor and I descended into the water, I was mind blown – there were more fish and aquatic life in general than I had seen in every single dive I’d done in England.
We saw fish like butterfly fish, triggerfish, parrotfish, angelfish and a bunch of other ones I don’t know the name of. We saw two clownfish in an anemone and a barracuda shortly after – just like in Finding Nemo!
At around 20 minutes into the dive we saw a green sea turtle which I was super happy to find since it was very cute!! And to make the first dive even more exciting, we saw something which was apparently quite rare – a leopard shark. It took me a minute to spot it because of its camouflage, but my brother pointed it out to me and eventually I saw it. The instructor even said it was the first one he saw in five years!
On the second dive, we went away from the boat after jumping off and descended straight to the bottom, which was around 18m deep.
There were a lot of rocks and coral, and within the first couple of minutes we spotted a giant moray eel inside one of the holes in the rocks, and not long after we saw a second one, which was also poking its head out of a rock – you could say we were r-eely lucky!
On the topic of eels, as we were swimming past some corals we spotted a ribbon eel swimming in the distance. Around 10 minutes later or so, we saw another giant moray which was also in a rock. I think eels like being in rocks.
Diving there was an amazing experience, and I think if you ever get the opportunity to learn how to go scuba diving, you should definitely consider trying it out.
By Grace
Cost of living is going up
Nowadays even us kids notice how expensive things are. Now if my parents go food shopping for our family of five it is costing over £100.
Many people are struggling to pay to feed their family and are now signing up to the Amble Foodbank. They told us they deliver to 45-50 households every fortnight. They have 90-100 households on their list.
We notice how much things have gone up such as buying sweets and so on. Issy and I looked, and Haribo sweets cost £1.25 and a Dairy Milk chocolate bar costs £1.35 in Herons. Nowadays, people steal food from supermarkets to feed their families which I understand why, but shops need to get a profit to get more stock. Also, bills are going up a lot and many people can’t afford the bills.
By Eden
Are you a baddie?
According to Northumbria Police, there were 65 reported crimes in Amble in February.
That averages to 2.1 crimes reported everyday in Amble.
Those crimes are: 18 anti social behaviour, 26 violent and sexual offences, two burglary, two theft, four criminal damage, 13 other.
We at Artograffi are hoping to talk to the local police soon, and find out more.
By Noah
Can you believe it?
The playground at the Welfare Park has been vandalised. Some people have been ripping up the rubber on the ground that cost £73,000 to fix in December.
I think it’s really bad because it’s just been done. It’s really disrespectful.
People are not being thoughtful and because they are not paying for it they think its ok.
By Issy
Tests & Exams
Me (Nina), Eden and the rest of Year 6 are doing SATs in May. We all sit on separate tables in case of cheating. If you do cheat that will end up in a fail.
The English tests
are on SP&G (Spellings, Punctuation and Grammar) and we also have reading tests. For maths tests, we have Arithmetic and Reasoning. Some teachers tell us not to worry about the tests, but (this is my opinion,) other teachers put pressure on people saying things like “It’s the most important test in your life.” Which it is not. SATs are actually a test on the teachers to see how well we are doing.
Grace is doing her German GCSE a year early because her school (Duchess Community High School) doesn’t teach it any more. She is very nervous for the speaking part of the test. Next year Grace will be doing seven other GCSE tests.
Here is a question from the Year 6 tests:
1,200 pupils were asked this question: How important is it to have a break when using a screen? This chart shows the results.
Not important 12%
Very important 47%
Quite important 41%
How many pupils answered ‘Very important’?
By Nina and Eden
Where do we draw the line with AI?
The moral panic of artificial intelligence has been in full swing for a few years now, but it feels like recent developments are putting the technology on unprecedented and scary paths.
Whilst it’s fun to make art from random prompts, and harmless to have conversations with Snapchat’s AI, where do we draw the line when AI blends into our everyday culture? The recent Willy Wonka incident is a prime example of concern around the ethics and implications of AI if it’s not handled correctly.
Image: Chris Alsikkan
If you haven’t heard of the Willy Wonka incident, or seen The Unknown, you are missing out on a hilarious yet relevant story. In February of this year parents and children were left sorely disappointed after a fun Chocolate Factory themed event turned out to be a thing of nightmares. The event was advertised using AI images, presenting a fantastical and bright wonderland, but when they arrived, paying customers were shown a sparsely decorated warehouse with a few jelly beans for the kids. Actors had been given AI-generated scripts that consisted of total nonsense and were then forced to improvise from the wild plot that AI had created. All later apologies from the company, House of Illuminati, had the suspicious air of a ChatGPT response.
The event became an immediate meme, and undoubtedly it was funny. But what has people concerned is the way AI has totally altered the way events like this are created.
Whilst this is only one example, it shows the ease with which things can go wrong when people become too reliant on AI; scripts and marketing require a human touch to ensure they are relevant to customers, and AI contains no ability to empathise with raging parents when £35 goes towards a bust event. To so blatantly con people and not even have the decency to write an apology yourself demonstrates the way people are becoming increasingly disconnected.
Although false advertising is obviously not a new phenomenon, the use of AI is inevitably going to make it infinitely easier. This may be a good thing- a musical artist I love, Arthur Hill, recently spoke about his use of AI to make the cover art for his singles.
Initially I felt a bit duped, but for a small artist with a low budget it means he can have high quality art without splashing out and spending days doing photoshoots.
Arguably this is what the Willy Wonka experience was trying to do, use the easily accessible resources to show an idea of what the event was supposed to look like. The problems come when there is no transparency about the use of AI, as it feels more like a trick than a sincere use of the platforms.
AI is one of the biggest issues in society today, but the extent to which it is a problem is in our hands; it is developing so rapidly with little understanding of the long term effects.
Therefore it’s important to acknowledge the loss of money, livelihoods, and human interaction and continue with great caution into the future of technology.
By Ava
