Do people have a right to kill handicapped person?

I understand it is controversies topic. However, I think John Steinbeck, who wrote the novel, Of Mice and Men, throws this topic to readers. Do people have a right to kill the person who can’t take care or earn oneself, such as Lennie? If you are moral person, you would say absolutely not. However, there are two opposite cases in Japan to consider about this topic. One is that people who has mental disorder hardly ever been excused, even if they commit a crime, such as murder. On the other hand, when the newborn baby has handicap and they need to be cured, the parents could refuse a treatment. To compare the novel, we can replace Japanese court in the first case with the worker in the ranch, and parents in the second case with Candy or George. In my opinion, it is hard to answer the question but we should consider about it forever because both of cases have a lot of disagreement. On that point, if I answer the previous question that whether this novel should be banned or not, I could say "No" because the reader should consider this topic as the response.
__________
References
Steinbeck, J., (2006). Of Mice and Men. London: Penguin Books Ltd.

The "ticket" to brain

According to “cancer’s one-way ticket to the brain” in Newscientist, there are three key genes to push up the cancer’s cells get into the brain in mice. Before, the scientists wondered that how the cancer cells can get into the brain because there is “blood-brain barrier” which locks the way of cells. Two scientists in New York found the reason how the cancer cells can get into the brain in mice. They discovered 3 genes which support the cancer cells. One of them helps the cancer cells cling to the blood vessels, another helps to make the gap on capillaries, and the last one helps the cancer cells move into.
.This research was done in mice so that they hope “the discovery could one day lead to drugs that cancel out a similar "ticket" in people”. If this research is all right in human, the cancer patients can have more hope.

__________

References

Cancer’s one way ticket to the brain. ( May 13, 2009). Newscientist. Retrieved May 15, 2009. From http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227074.700-cancers-oneway-ticket-to-the-brain.html

"The science of voodoo: When mind attacks body "

One day night, In Alabama cemetery, Vance Vanders had a qurrel with witch doctor , who stunk in the presence of people. He cursed him that he was about to die and never brought back to life. A few days later, he got sick near death, he was into hospital. A doctor who taken charge the patient couldn’t find a cause for his symptom. Only his wife told to doctor the truth about hex.The doctor called the witch and let him choked witch to know how the curse worked. The doctor found out a secret that was lizard’s egg inside his body. The doctor injected a powerful emetic drug into patient arm. Then he began to gag. Later he recovered after slept a deep sleep.
This is very interesting story. I think that is possible to happen many times. The important thing is how to cope with strange thing. Some people say that is a kind of voodoo nouveau another people says that is a kind of nocebo effect. Whatever the causes are, only good choice escape from injury or minimalise damages.


References

The science of voodoo: When mind attacks body ,
New Scientist, retrieved May14,2009 from
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227081.100-the-science-of-voodoo-when-mind-attacks-body.html.

Vitamin supplements may cut benefits of exercise

It can have been said that free radical can cause the ageing action for a long time. That’s why people intake of antioxidant vitamin. On the other hand, there are other researches that the antioxidants might make death happen faster. What can happen is that the beneficial effects of exercise are hindered.
What exercise makes an effect on insulin resistance is well recognized. “However, when Ristow's team measured the effects of exercise on insulin sensitivity, they found no increase in those volunteers taking antioxidants, but a significant increase in those who didn't take the supplements.” (¶ 5) Ristow also says "antioxidants are preventing the health effects of exercise". (¶ 7) He also says that it is impossible to use of taking antioxidants in place of having fruit and vegetable.
I am interested in this article because I take tablets of vitamin C in order to achieve whitening every day. Therefore, I am confused about new research. It is possible to get demerit at somewher else I don't know. Every time the new study is reported, I wonder which information I should believe. I think there are both advantages and disadvantages, but what important is different for different people. So, I have to acquire knowledge both merits and demerits, not to bother.

__________

References

Linda, G. (2009, May 11). Vitamin supplements may cut benefits of exercise. New Scientist. Retrieved May 13, 2009from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17108-vitamin-supplements-may-cut-benefits-of-exercise.html

how candidates' physical appearances influence our choice in leaders.

The article, “The Look of a Winner” in Scientific American tells that when people vote or choice their leader, physical appearances of candidates could be a very important factor for their elections. They also shows the interesting result of experiment, which was examined by psychologists in Switzerland, that Swiss children can predict which candidate are more likely to win French parliamentary elections according to candidates’ picture.

I think that is true. For example, the approval rating of prime minister in Japan could be high, when his look is nice, although it always appears only for the beginning. Moreover, when it comes to business, I’ve heard that some Japanese businessmen get facial treatment in order to make contracts with new client, and they succeed to get signs. They said that they could get a kind of confidence after they had facial treatments, then new clients tend to trust them because that confidence would appear in front of clients.What do you think of that? Do you think they are crazy or not?

__________

References

Christopher Olivola and Alexander Todorov (May 5, 2009 ). The Look of a Winner. Scientific American .

from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-look-of-a-winner&offset=2

Brainy men may be healthier men

Psychologist of King’s College UK, Rosalind Arden, found the new preliminary evidence that is genetic mutation related to intelligence and indicated overall health. She studied of “3654 Vietnam War veterans found that men with lower IQs are more likely to suffer from dozens of health problems” (¶ 2). In contrast, higher IQs will have better life style that lead indirectly to good overall health as Arden said “brighter people make better health decisions – they give up smoking when they find it's bad for you, they take up exercise when they find out its good for you, and they eat a lot of salad” (¶ 5). Other researcher, Mark Porkosch, a psychologist at Elon University in North Carolina his study revealed that “more intelligent men produce healthier sperm” (¶ 8). Therefore, it is necessary for further study to confirm the relation of genetic factors intelligence and overall health.

I think genetic factor are not related to all diseases. Some diseases are caused by other factor in the environment. Form the result of this NEWS, may stimulated Thai researcher to study more about the relation of genetic factors, health and disease because genetics come closer to our routine activity daily life. Do you believe in this NEWS? How much do you know about genetics?

References

Callaway, E. (2009, May 8). Brainy men may be healthier men. New Scientist. Retrieved May 11, 2009
from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17098-brainy-men-may-be-healthier-men.html?full=true&print=true

Many men suffer recession

Nowadays, almost countries in the world are facing economic recession."Men 'suffering recession blues' " on the BBC News website that I saw, show an interesting information. In England, a mental health charity found that 2.7 million men have a mental health problem such as depression, anxiety or stress.Almost 40% of men from the survey of 2,000 adult feel blues with the recession. Moreover, men were also less likely to seek help from their friends, their family, and a counselor because of the belief that being a breadwinner is important for male identity so losing job means men lose their identity. In addition, the cause is "too many men wrongly believe that admitting mental distress makes them weak and this kind of self stigma can cost lives." said Paul Farmer, chief executive at Mind Charity.

This news makes me think about the stigma that there are still stigmas against people with mental illness and this makes people are reluctant to solve their problems.

__________

References

Men 'suffering recession blues'.(2009, May 10). BBC News. Retrieved May 11, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8040699.stm

Ape escapes, then 'changes mind'

An orangutan, Karta, is 27 years old. She escapes from an Australian zoo by using a branch to “short-circuit” which I found on the BBC News website.Visitors tell staff that Karta has escaped from the zoo.Then the zoo move people to a safer place and close it for one day.Then Karta spend less than 30 minutes to change her mind and come back to her enclosure.Cause of problems is that,Karta is "an ingenious animal",in BBC news .And she stays in a place where she is not accustomed.Also,she always hung on the wall and “drop back”,in BBC news to show clearly what she feel.This is not the first time that Karta escapes from the zoo. After that,the zoo has to refund to visitors for closing a zoo.

I think, we should not think animals are always foolish. Sometimes, animals are cleverer than a human .Moreover; the zoo has to increase their security.

__________

References

Ape escapes, then 'changes mind'. (2009, May 10). BBC News. Retrieved May, 11 2009 from

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8042705.stm

Thrid death from swine flu in USA

The US has revealed that the 30 years old man with a heart illness who died in Washington state last week was discovered to have the virus. At present, the third death from swine flu is occur in USA. In addition, the other 53 years old man who died in Costa Rica is also infected the flu too. Moreover, in Norway, Australia and Japan are also have people who infect swine flu. The number of these cases increase from 1,639 to 2,254 in one day. While the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) think that focusing on trends is more significant than numbers.

I was very shock and sad to know this report. This flu is very severe and it spread to many country now. I hope we can control and cope with this situation successfully.

__________

References

"US reports third swine flu death" (2009, May 10). BBC NEWS. Retrieved May, 11 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8042374.stm

What is Abnormal? Fear, Phobia, and Stigma

I think the stigma attached to having a psychological illness is not as strong as in the past because a psychological illness is got more recognition as illness by public. However, I think that the discrimination for people who are having a psychological illness still remains deeply in my society.
I have been thinking why Peter said the novel we are reading supports this topic. There are no related between this topic and the novel because the main character, Lennie, looks like handicapped. I know this word is including of the expression of discrimination. I look up the word, which is handicapped, after that I found that it is one of the illnesses. It connects “abnormality” which a problem which is “serious enough to disrupt everyday life.”

Difference between normal fear and phobia

In my view,phobia is an irrational and persistent fear that can effect on daily life. Furthermore,It can cause problem to the person who has probic.On the other hand, people are always have fear because fear in approximate level is useful for life; normal fear can protect and save life. As a result, when you can control your fear feeling and can live your daily life as usual without the harm of fear it is does not a phobia but it is a normal fear. For me, fear of dangerous things that can harm our life might be one example of healthy fear because normally people always avoid of some dangerous things and always protect our life so if we have the fear of dangerous things, we will careful and avoid those things.
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Banning Books: A Most Controversial Novel

Although it's one of the most famous novels of the past century, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men is also one of the most controversial, an honour that it shares with Harry Potter! What? You're surprised that Harry Potter is controversial? The American Library Association (ALA) keeps statistics on requests to ban books, and for the years 2000 - 2005, the Harry Potter series is the number one book that people in the US wanted banned (2006). And Of Mice and Men is number 4 on the same list, more than half a century after it was written!  Ever since he published it in 1937, there have been plenty of people who want Of Mice and Men banned, as the ALA statistics for the years 1990 - 2000 also show (2007). 

There are a couple of issues arising from this that I think are worth discussing. First, the general questions:

• Should books ever be banned? 
  
• Does your country ban books? What books are banned in your country? Why? 
• What might be good reasons for banning a book? 
• What are bad reasons for banning a book? 
• Who should decide whether a book is to be banned or not? Government bodies or private bodies? Why should they be the ones to decide? 

And the more specific questions about the controversial novel we are studying:

• Do you think Of Mice and Men should be banned? Why? Why not? 
• Why do you think that so many people have always wanted this novel banned? 
  Do you think those reasons are good or bad? Why? Why not? 
• Should we be studying a novel that is so controversial? Why? Why not? 
• Many American high schools also make Of Mice and Men a set text for their students to study. Do you agree or disagree with that? Why? 

And since this is a response writing, where the primary aim is to express your ideas in clearly written English sentences, you can wander around and away from the topic if that's where your thoughts lead. 

Whilst I think it would be preferable to post your ideas as a comment below, if you would like to write your ideas as a new post, you are welcome to do so. 

__________

References

American Library Association. (2006, September 21). Harry Potter tops list of most challenged books of 21st Century. ALA: American Library Association. Retrieved on May 10, 2009 from http://www.ala.org/ala/newspresscenter/news/pressreleases2006/september2006/harrypottermostchallenge.cfm

American Library Association. (2007, February 16). The 100 most frequently challenged books of 1990–2000. ALA: American Library Association. Retrieved on May 10, 2009 from http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/oif/bannedbooksweek/bbwlinks/100mostfrequently.cfm

An's opinion on abnormality.

What’s abnormal? We can’t find a right definition for abnormality because it’s up to the way people consider, it maybe right for me but maybe wrong for you. Normally, in our view we always think that those who have some different characters from others are abnormal. But according to Quest 2, that is wrong thinking, abnormality is a serious psychological problem it can disturb your daily life and others.
Normal fear is different from phobia. Normal fear is in everyone, we fear when we have danger but we still can aware and control our mind. However, those who have phobia can’t adjust themselves.
Nowaday, people don’t care much and distinguish abnormal people. But in the past, the one who have abnormality was distinguished and everyone thinks that this person maybe did some bad things so they get bad karma. Anyway, that kind of thinking has gone today.
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Binge Drinking

“Female binge drink rates ‘double”, in BBC, shows that the rate of binge drinking has been increased double in women since 1990 in UK. Another point is the rate of using alcohol of boys and girls at 11 to 15 years old that has been increased since 1990. In the societies which are more developing, there are more social problems. In my view, this result shows one of the reasons that make the value ethics of human is coming down.

__________

References

“Female binge drink rates ‘double” (2009, May 5). BBC News. Retrieved May, 9 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8034533.stm

Anorexia: Psychology or Physiology?

The article "Anorexia linked to 'autistic' thinking" published recently in New Scientist reports on research which suggests that autism and anorexia nervosa, along with other eating disorders, might in fact be closely related problems (Geddes, 2009). Although this is interesting for treatment options, what interested me more was the information that more than 50%, and up to 83%, of such disorders "have a genetic basis" (¶ 4). I thought this was interesting because it seems to conflict with the idea in Quest 2 that culture is the main causal factor (Hartmann, 2007, p.167-8). In "Culture and Mental Illness", Hartmann implies that there could be no such eating disorder without the cultural component of seeing "slender female bodies [as] most desirable" (p.167). However, if the disorder is in fact genetic, and is passed on from parent to child, then we would expect evidence of eating disorders to exist in all cultures, not just a few. 

My idea, also suggested by Geddes's report, was that because the forms of autism can vary widely, which is why they are called autism spectrum disorders, the cultural background was not really the cause of these disorders, but that it influenced how an underlying genetic disorder was expressed; that is, the culture could strongly determine the specific symptoms of the disorder caused by genes. Perhaps in the past, eating disorders took different forms, or real cases of anorexia nervosa did occur but were simply not recognised and recorded as disorders, as Geddes also tells us some reseachers now think might be the case with Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of autism that was thought to be more common in males, but which perhaps occurs equally in women, though with different symptoms.  

__________

References

Geddes, L. (2009, April 22). Anorexia linked to 'autistic' thinking. New Scientist. Retrieved May 8, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227054.900-anorexia-linked-to-autistic-thinking.html 

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill ESL/ELT

How is a phobia different from a normal fear? What might be some " healthy fears"?

The symptom of phobia is the excessive, unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. Fear is an emotional response to threats and danger. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of pain. A fear is possible to control. As a result, fear is not disturbing daily life.
I think healthy fears are similar to hypochondriasis, sometimes referred to as “health phobia” Hypochondriasis is often characterized by fears that minor bodily symptoms may indicate a serious illness, constant self-examination and self-diagnosis, and a preoccupation with one's body. Many individuals with hypochondriasis express doubt and disbelief in the doctors' diagnosis.
References

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypochondriasis,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear
www.ilchokak.co.kr(pp308~312, p338)

Daniel, on dictionaries

Daniel, on dictionary



I have three dictionaries. One is electronic dic, another is “ LONGMAN Contemporary English and the others is “E4U English Korean dictionary.
That is, one is electronic dictionary others are all books. I like “LONGMAN” as book dictionary because there are many pictures for help understanding. In addition, book dictionary has many examples. So I like LONGMAN. Electronic dictionary has also many benefits. A benefit of electronic dics are extensive contents which developing of semiconductor. When I was student, it was impossible to choice a electronic dic. Because at that time, people couldn’t buy the electronic dic. What’s the good or bad dictionary? I Good dictionary come with many explains and examples. I think the most important thing is not a dictionary. Passions, will and effort to study are the best important keys.

Unification of carmaker

German Car maker Porsche and VW to merge

Have you ever driven Porsche? I read interesting news in BBC. That is German luxury carmaker Porsche and Volkswagen to merge in the near future. After moving, integration brand will be leading company in the world.

I think carmaker has so many that can not survive in the business circles.
Volkswagen has nine brands such as Passat, Golf, Jetta, Phaeten, etc. VW’s cars are not too expensive except Phaeten, Porsche’s sports cars are expensive. The vehicle such as expensive car and inexpensive one combine each other and then company produces new car, consumers are will be expect new car.

References"Carmakers Porsche and VW to merge" (2009, May 6). BBC NEWS. Retrieved May, 8 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8036748.stm

Abnormal

Answering the third question of exercise C on page 176 of Quest. Phobia is a strong unreasonable fear or hatred of something but fear is the bad feeling that you have when you are in danger. Fear’ll become unhealthy when you frighten about food such as you’re very worry about how clean in food that you eat? So that you cannot eat anything. Moreover, fear’ll become abnormal when it becomes serious enough to disrupt everyday life.For instance, you can’t go or do anything because you embarrass yourself in a public. Fear is normal and healthy when you frighten in something, which is unnecessary in your life. For example, frighten to drink too much alcohol. It is normal and to be good with your health. Nowadays, I think people that have a psychological illness will stigma attached as strong as in the past. They think that it is abnormal to having a psychological and a few of people go to seek the help of psychologists.

Abnormal in my idea

Most people always think that mental disorder patient are the same. Those people unable to distinguish the difference of an abnormal behavior. According to the passage, the three ways of defining abnormality which are deviations from the majority, an inability to get along in the world and prolong psychological stress. (“Quest 2”, 2007. ¶3-5,p.173). The passage helps me to understand the patient accurately such as how to deal with the mental disorder patient in case they are your parents. Refer to the passage, I realize that fear influence to health problem. When psychological problems stay longer and becomes serious enough to disrupt everyday life that it becomes an abnormality or illness (“Quest 2”, 2007. ¶5,p.173).

Thai people have bad attitude to the mental disorder patients. Most of them think that the patient and mad people are the same. Some parts of Thailand which are an uneducated still misunderstand about mental disorder patient. They believed that it belong to religion, spirit and soul the religion and treat in a wrong way. However, we can change the social attitude by improving the knowledge, education and public relation. Moreover, we can change our attitude by the time. Time change, social change people change, finally we can change attitude.

The famous writer who suffered from Psychological disorder.

Answering the third question of exercise C. on page 176 of Quest, I know one famous person who suffered from a psychological disorder. His name is Osamu Dazai who is considered one of the Japanese foremost fiction writers of 20th-century. Even though, he is famous for his incredible books, such as “Ningen Shikkaku (No Longer Human, 1948, translated. 1958)”, and “Shayo (The Setting Sun, translated 1956)” , he was known as having Borderline Personality Disorder which is a mild form of schizophrenia on the borderline between neurosis and psychosis. Then, he had so much alternative attitude, such as extreme dependence and against for the same person, and he tried to suicide such 4 times in his life.

However modern psychological doctors say that it is incredible for that he could wrote such great books because, generally, people who are suffered from Borderline Personality Disorder can not exercise their ability well. I have read some of his books. I think he can describe his story as if real story but most of them are so serious that reader would feel depressed. As knowing his background, you would probably understand how hard his life with the psychological disorder was when you read his book.

__________

References
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Osamu Dazai"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osamu_Dazai

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia "Borderline personality disorder"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderline_personality_disorder

How is a phobia different from a normal fear??

A Phobia is different from a normal fear. Fear is a natural response to danger. Sometimes when people are afraid of something such as snakes and disgusted animals, people will protect themselve. For example, If you were attacked by tiger, you would fight it. Phobia is a severe fear and unreasonable. If people fear some objects that are harmless. This fear becomes a phobia. For example, people with a phobia is afraid of water, crowds, small rooms, lifts and flying.
They may not control their behaviours such as crying, trembling, nausea, stomach ache, and fainting.
__________
References
Lisa Fritscher."Fear or phobia" (February 7, 2009) http://phobias.about.com/od/symptomsanddiagnosis/a/fearorphobia.htm

Melody Arcamo Lagrimas. "Differentiating Phobia From a Normal Fear" (November 25, 2008)
http://www.healthmad.com/Mental-Health/Differentiating-Phobia-From-a-Normal-Fear.363265

Compare and contrast: "What is Abnormal?" v. Stuart's lecture

I thought that Stuart's lecture this morning sounded useful to us because it promised to discuss the sorts of questions about defining words and how words are used to label people and groups that we have been looking at in "What is Abnormal?" in Quest 2 the past few days. Unfortunately, this being a very busy term, I had another class and so was unable to attend. 

It would be great to get some comments on what Stuart said in his lecture, and especially if my idea that it raised similar questions to those we are looking at this week is right or not. Since it was on a completely different (is it so different?) topic, there must have been many differences. But were there many similarities as I expected? 

Any comments would be very welcome. 

Gauguin 'cut off Van Gogh's ear'

I am astonished and disturbed at the news “Gauguin 'cut off Van Gogh's ear' ", which I found on the BBC News website. It is said that Gogh cut off his ear because of mental illness. However, German academics Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans published the result of their research In Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence. The new report is that Gauguin hit Van Gogh's ear with a sword.
Ordinary I am not so much interested in this article, but I wrote first assignment which is the picture on page 165 of Quest 2 relating on the traditional theory. I’m not sure exactly whether the new result is true or not. This is my first experience that theory I believe is overthrown in time.

__________

Reference

Gauguin 'cut off Van Gogh's ear'. (2009, May 5). BBC News. Retrieved May 6, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/arts_and_culture/8033650.stm

Repair thee hence! But with heed.

But whatever you do, don't use repair with that meaning unless you're very sure it's one of the rare occasions when it would be OK to do that. I mean, of course, the meaning that the word repair has in the title of this post. 

Yesterday, I left a couple of comments on Mimi's and Dee's posts on dictionaries (Dee, 2009; MamiJung_Mimi, 2009). In both I reported my research and findings on how a few dictionaries report on the word repair. 

After doing that, I decided it would be a good idea to recheck the OED entry for the word. In fact, the OED lists  four separate entries for repair: two as nouns and two as verbs. It was when I was browsing the the first entry for repair the verb that I realised where the English-Thai dictionary at Longdo gives the very misleading definition of "[VT] ไปเป็นประจำ, Syn. go" for the meaning of repair (repair, n.d.). The OED's entry 1.b is "To resort to a place or person; to go commonly, frequently, or in numbers,"(repair, 2009) so my guess is that the editors who compiled the English-Thai dictionary that Longdo reports simply went through the full Oxford English Dictionary and translated into Thai all the main definitions for the words they had selected, even when those definitions were very rarely used. As I note in one of my comments on Dee's post, the editors of the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary made a better decision about which definitions to include, although they do give a separate entry for the phrase repair to somewhere, noting that it is formal. 

Why choose repair?  It's a word I often use to test dictionaries because it is a fairly common word in English, and one that we would expect native speakers and advanced learners to know. However, it also has a range of very uncommon meanings that most native English speakers do not know. I once tested it on a few AUA teachers, including supervisors: most do not know that it can be used to mean "go to". I think that how a dictionary treats words like this is something to look for in deciding how good they are. Of course, itwould be great to have all the definitions of all the words, but that is impossible. The 1989 edition of the Oxford English Dictionary listed 291,500 words, and the online version that I use contains all of that and a lot more ("Dictionary facts", 2009).  But there are a lot more words in English that are not there; many words that people use never make it into any dictionary.  And it would be confusing to have to sort through large numbers of words and definitions that you probably don't want because they are very unusual; that is the job of a good dictionary editor. 

Heed is probably in your dictionary, but it's generally only found in formal use. 

__________

References

Dee. (2009, May 5). Dictionaries. Message posted to http://peteraep.blogspot.com/2009/05/dictionaries.html  

Dictionary facts. (2009). Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved May 6, 2009 from http://dictionary.oed.com/about/facts.html

MamiJung_Mimi. (2009, May 5). About dictionary. Message posted to http://peteraep.blogspot.com/2009/05/about-dictionary.html 

repair (n.d.). Longdo dict. Retrieved May 6, 2009 from http://dict.longdo.com/search/repair 

repair,  v.1 (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary. (2nd ed.)  In OED Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved May 6, 2009, from http://dictionary.oed.com/cgi/entry/50202891  

Pam on dictionaries

In the present, I use Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary in 7th edition and electronic dictionary which has copy right of Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary in 6th edition. My favorite is the first one because I think it may be the latest edition so there are many words and many meanings that are useful for me. When I was young, I had many dictionaries. I used Thai-English, English-Thai,and English-English(Oxford Student's Dictionary) in my high school because I can understand the meaning quickly in Thai . But in my university life until the present I try to use only English-English dictionary because I think it is better to improve my English if I can remember the meanings of the words in English. Actually, I sometimes use Thai-English and English-Thai dictionaries if I can not guess or understand the meaning in English. I usually use dictionary when I have to do my writing and want to know word spelling or meaning of them but in my reading, I do not try to use it because it make me read not fluently. Actually, If I can not guess and it is very important to know the meaning, I use it. A good dictionary should has many update information of the words such as meanings,example of how to use word in the sentence,synonym, antonym, idioms, etc. And the important thing is the dictionary should be believable. I think who make dictionary is the group of people who are professional in this language. We should not use only one dictionary because other dictionary may have different meaning and it may have suitable meaning for you . Nowadays, I think there are many interesting things that attract you to use dictionary not only finding the meaning of the words but also grammar using or game for practice.

Dictionaries

I use only 1 dictionary.It's a oxford dictionaryIt's a electronic dictionary which is an oxford dictionary.My favourite dictionary is an oxford dictionary because it has many words and can describe clearly.I have used the electronic dictionary since I studied at high school because it easy to take and use.I always use dictionary for doing an English homework.A good dictionary must has a lot of vocabularies and describe clearly.If you can't find a basic word in a dictionary,that will be a bad dictionary.You should choose the dictionary which can translate in English-English,English-Thai because some time the dictionary translate in English-Thai is not clear so you must use English-English to make you understand.In addition,the dictionary which is expensive or translate in many language is unnecessary because you can't use all of them.if you don't sure about spelling word in the electronic dictionary.Moreover,some electronic dictionaries have a grammar exercise so you can practise in it.I think you can make your own dictionary.When you see a new vocab,you can write or draw it in your own book so that it will easy to find and remember.

About dictionary

Now I use only one dictionary.It is online dictionary from website http://dict.longdo.com/search/ For me, I have not found the dictionary that good enought for me.I used to use electronic dictionary and the dictionary book for student when I was in high-school.But when I was in the university I use electronic and online dictionary.My electronic dictionary is not quite good because it does not have many words so I turn to use online dictionary from then.In my view,Good dictionary should have a lot of word and the detail of the word such as part of speech,the meaning that easy to understand and how to use this word.I always use dictionary when I want to know the meaning of the word that I do not know and when I find some word to write on my writing.I think dictionary is important for the learner it can help the learner to find and know the whole meaning of this word.Now I looking for english-english dictionary which is good for me but I do not know which one is good.If you know and have some ideas please share with me,Thanks a lot.

Mexico to start China flu airlift

Mexico to start China flu airlift

This new presented that the Chinese official confined 70 Mexicans. Some were held in Shanghai and others in Beijing. This situation made Mexico official unsatisfy and condemn Chinese government. So the Mexican government would send the airplane to collect the citizens who have been isolated. By the way, the Chinese official denied any bias Mexican population because the government kept an eye on everyone and "this measure is purely a medical quarantine issue." (from paragraph 12)

I think that the Chinese government has done the right thing. Every traveller should be confined to look after the symtom. If any Chinese people becom sick with the swine flu, it would be a severe situation. This desease will be widespread very quickly all over China because of large population.

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References

"Mexico to start China flu airlift" (2009, May 5). BBC NEWS. Retrieved May, 5 2009. from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8033089.stm

Just doing complaint for unemployment?

Economic crisis is spreading out all over the world. As the result, a lot of people have been losing their jobs. Japan also faces to serious unemployment problem. As you know, Japan has been very famous for one of the middle classes countries, but nowadays the gap between rich and poor is growing. In the BCC News website mentioned about The Communist Party, which organized the people who lost their jobs or who are going to lose them, and complain the unemployment, already has more than 400,000 members and people are joining at the rate of 1,000 a month.

I think this situation will go on until Japanese economic is recovered. I feel sorry for the people who lost their jobs. However, I don’t think just complaining is good way. Even though we are in bad economic situation, some companies or organizations which do the business, such as agriculture, or welfare work still require employees. I don’t know why they are just complaining unemployment instead applying that kind of jobs. I’m afraid that the period of getting jobs whatever they want is over under this situation in Japan. We should more struggle for works in order to earn our lives.
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References
"Communism on rise in recession-hit Japan" (2009, May 4). BBC NEWS. Retrieved May, 4 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8027397.stm?lsm

Dictionaries can not help everything for languages.

In my point of view, dictionaries can not help everything for foreign languages. Before think about dictionaries, we should consider that why we should use dictionaries. Now we are studying English so that we need to find the meaning of the word we don’t know when we meet them. However, when we use our native language, we don’t often use any dictionaries even if some words are news to us because we can guess from the conversation or sentences. It means we would not need to use dictionary if we can understand foreign language as well as natives. In my case, I use an electronic dictionary because it is easy to bring and it is more quickly to find the word than book dictionaries. And also I use only English-English dictionary in order to understand new word in English because, in my opinion, the process of translating to our native language in my brain is not necessary when we study foreign language. Moreover, we can find how to use the words appropriately by referring the examples in an English- English dictionary. However, as Steven Pinker mentioned on his lecture “The stuff of thought”, in youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjQM8PzCEY0), the meaning of the words would be changed in the situation. It means, even though we can know the definition or how to use the words appropriately, dictionaries can not help the implicated meanings on a conversation or sentences. Furthermore, the words, such as slung are created new meaning day by day, then dictionaries can’t catch up their meanings as long as we don’t change to use new dictionary. In conclusion, if we want to use foreign language as well as natives, we should be used to using foreign language by talking with native speaker, watching the foreign movies or TV programs, or reading a lot of novels, newspapers, or magazines instead only rely on dictionaries.
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References
Steven Pinker “The stuff of thought” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjQM8PzCEY0)

My Dictionary

Dictionary is very important for everyone I have learned how to use the dictionary since I was young. My first dictionary is English-Thai. When I was at high school I use my first Electronic dictionary “Talking Dic” I like it very much and I feel it is very helpful and useful. I can find the meaning of words easily and quickly. Then I used English-English dictionary when I was in the university. Nowadays, I use three dictionaries which are Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 5th Edition, Electronic dictionary and Online Dictionary on http://dict.longdo.com . I think the effective dictionary which helps me to memorize words is dictionary in a book because it helps me to memorize the words since I have to find the letters one by one. If I want to learn and memorize the vocabulary, the traditional dictionary is the best option. However, in AEP Course, there is one way to memorize the word by guess the meaning by using context sentence, it help me when I read the passage or story. If I can guess the word that means I can memorize it. Moreover, I can understand the meaning of reading without dictionary.

Michiyo on dictionaries

I use two kinds of English-English Electric dectionaries which are Longman Advanced American dictionaly edition and Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary 7th editon. I like both dictionaries because the description are different, for example one has only one meaning, the other has more than two meaning. There are some different examples depend on the word. It is useful to understand the meaning of the word I don't know, so that I use both of them. When I was in university, absolutely I used English-Japanese dictionary. I didn't have enough vocabulary, so it took long time to understand only one word when I used English- English dictionary. In other word, I used dicitonary to find the meaning in the dictionary. I always use a dictionary, but I try to change how to use dictionary now. I used to use dictionry whenever I found the unknown words. However, when I find the unfamilier words, thinking is first by reading before and after the words. Sometimes I read the sentence and paragraph both before and after. I am studying Aacademic course, so I have to choose it for academic level. If I use a dictionary for high school level, I will never write an academic writing.
Recently I found it that I prefer English-English dictionary to English-Japanese dictionary to look up the meaning.

Respone on dictionaries.

I'm using two kind of dictionary. One is a electric dictionary and another is Oxford Student's dictionary Of English book, but I think none of them is good dictionary and I'm going to change another dictionary. I prefer to use the electric dictionary than the book because it's quick and convenient to carry. I think a good dictionary can give us the part of speech, the clearest meaning of the word, many diffrent meaning of the word, the synonymous words; and show us how this word is used, in which case? such as giving the examples. The dictionary which can give us only the meaning of the word is a bad dictionary. However, when I use dictionary I just look for the meaning and I usually use English-Vietnamese dictionary that why I could not remember new words easily, I did't look for the part of speech, or example; It's too bad. I'll try to change my bad habbit next time.
Please share with me if you have a good way to remember new words. Thanks.

Youtube helps man deliver baby

On Friday BBC NEWS website presented the Top Technology Stories which is about one man used the internet helps him deliver his baby. In Cornwall England, an engineer, Marc Stephens, he was finding the instruction to deliver his baby. Then, he found the video instruction in Youtube. Actually, they planed a home birth but not like this method. When his wife, Jo Stephens felt uncomfortable, Marc Stephens called to midwife but they were busy. They could not come to their house, he called ambulance and it started before the ambulance coming. Marc decided to find the instruction from Google and he found it in Youtube. Marc said “the video gave his peace of mind and he think he would have coped, but watching videos made things much easier” (¶ 8). Finally, both mother and her baby are safe.

I think the technology is like two sides of coin. First, it is very helpful and useful for us to improve our knowledge or communicate between people. But the others side is sometime we use it in the wrong way and spend more time for it that is helpless. How about you, what does technology helps you?

References

Youtube helps man deliver baby. (2009, May 1). BBC NEWS. Retrieved May, 4 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8028625.stm

Antidepressants can use in patients who have mild to moderate depression

Normally, doctors may avoid give antidepressants to use in mild to moderate depressive patients but always give it to use in the most severe depressive patients.In the BBC news website shows the research which said doctors can use antidepressants called SSRIs in mild to moderate depressive patients.In the other hand,there is some researcher who disagree with this research.He said that using drugs may have a lot of side-effect for patients in mild to moderate depression.

I think this is a new information to me.For me,using Drugs in patients who have depression is not the best way to help them.I agree with the researcher who mentioned to the side-effect.For this reason,I hope they will have to study in this case in the future.

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References

Drugs 'can help mild depression'. (2009, May 2). BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8027440.stm

MS Windows 7

What’s the windows’ version in your computer, e.g., windows 2000, windows XP or Vista? Now, there are out of date. “MS windows 7 goes on public test” which I just saw on the BBC News website, the report details, Microsoft has already released a new version of Microsoft windows. It’s called “MS Windows 7”.The public can trial this version on 5 may but for a commercial it will release in the next 9 months. Microsoft designs Windows 7 to be compatible with Vista so that if your computer is able to run Vista, it will able to run Windows 7.Mirosoft hopes that, this new version will avoid a drawback of Vista. For example, the operating system didn’t work with all kinds of hardware or software. In addition, Microsoft ensures that the same problems won’t be occurred again.
I think that, this new version will spend a part of time to make it stable because Microsoft must learn the feedback from users. I hope that it will use easier than Vista because Vista has a beautiful image but hard to use.

References
“MS windows 7 goes on public test”.(2009, April 30). BBC News. Retrieved May 2, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8026736.stm
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Drinking water may decrease suicide

I know that lithium is used to treat people who have mental illness like mood disorders. But it is surprising that Japanese researchers found that if adding lithium in tap water it may reduce suicide risk, which I saw " Lithium in water 'curbs suicide' " on the BBC News website. In detail, this research found lower suicide rate in Oita area with having small amounts of lithium in drinking water, however, its side effects should be considerable.

I think what would happen if people have to drink water with lithium everyday and why the researchers do not find another ways to solve suicide problem instead of using this dangerous element.

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References

Lithium in water 'curbs suicide' . (2009, May 1). BBC News. Retrieved May 2, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8025454.stm

How long did you take to revise your writing?

In my case, it took only one hour to writ 1st draft from scratch including of thinking. On the other hand, it took a couple of hours to revise 2nd and 3rd each. I thought that revising was much easier than writing, but in fact, I think revising is much harder than writing. Answering Peter’s comment made me consider thoroughly whether my writing is well organized or not.
How long did you take to revise your writing? and nommaly how long should we take to do it?
I would like to know peer's opinions.

The influence of sleeping to child's behavior.

Have you ever wondered that why your children are easy to be impulsive? According to “Child behavior ‘linked to sleep” in BBC News that a good sleeping has an important role to help “improve behavior in healthy children and reduce symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder”.
So now, try to force your children to sleep if they don’t want to sleep early or take a nap because I know there are some children they don’t like to take a nap; give me like an example. Make sure that your children take an adequate sleep everyday, so that they will be good and healthy children.

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References

Child behavior ‘linked to sleep’. (2009, April 27). BBC News. Retrieved April 1, May from

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8016531.stm

MS drug as a cancer medicine

I found that there is new good medicine for multiple sclerosis which convenience to take a pill, “Cancer pill 'offers MS benefits' ” which I just saw on the BBC NEWS website is quite fresh. The reporter details, common cancer drug miracle decrease multiple sclerosis patients’ symptoms. The medicine is manufacturing in the UK.

I am very happy with this medical news. The disease of multiple sclerosis is almost an obstinate disease. Thanks to new medicine, many patients who suffer from multiple sclerosis are hope for cure. I hope to sale at a market as soon as possible.

References

Cancer pill 'offers MS benefits'. (2009, April 30).BBC NEWS. Retrieved April 30,2009 from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8023120.stm