I find the article "Did You Hear the One About the Former Scientist?" interesting. The article talks about Tim Lee, a former biologist who switch to work as a comedian because he found out that he hate academic work after he finish his PhD. Before he starts his carreer as a comedian, he has worked as a computer programmer for a while, then he read biographies of some comedians such as Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfield and got interested in comedy. Later he wrote his own jokes by applying some scientific knowledge in his jokes. The articles also gives another two example of comedians who used to be trained in science such as Marlow and Goldblatt who used to be physicists.
I think it is quite very difficult to figure out what you really like. In the case of Lee, he has spent for such a long time to do his PhD in order to realize that it is not what he want. However, finally he can do what he like. Some people dare to switch to new carreer when they find that it is not what they want, unfortunately, some people do not have such opportunity. By whatever reason, they need to endure their unhappiness. Some people might not be able to find the job that they like, some people, on the other hand, cannot switch to new job due to financial or family constraints.
Even though they don't like being a scientist, they can apply their scientific knowledge in their jokes. Their experience can help them distinguish themselves from many other comedians. It is quite an advantage if you have been trained in disciplines different than other people in the field as long as you are willing to learn the important knowledge in the field. I believe that in the future a great variety of people from different disciplines would work at the same field. There would be new and innovative ideas occur more often due to such kind of drawing people from another field.
__________
References
Chang, K. (2009, December, 14). Did You Hear the One About the Former Scientist? The new york times, retrieved December 17, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/15/science/15comic.html?ref=science
Thursday, 17 December 2009
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Mercy or Hoax
A couple of days ago, I read the news about the Thai engineer, who had been prosecuted by Cambodian government for spying, was pardoned by Cambodian king, from ‘Cambodian Monarch Pardons Thai Held as Spy’, The New York Times.
Actually, Thai and Cambodian government have had some trivial conflicts for a long time, but it seems to be worse after Thaksin went into exile. Mr Siwarak was convicted of spying by sending the flight information of Thaksin’s arrival to Thai diplomat who was eventually exile from Cambodia. He’d been sentenced to 7 years in jail and fined around 100,000 baht. Strangely, his mother says that she’d seek help from Thasik and his nominee party in Thailand rather than Thai government. Soon after a verdict, the king who is apparently a puppet of Mr Hun Sen, prime minister of Cambodia, pardoned Mr Siwarak for his crime. Certainly, the pardon was granted before Thai government’s request. Then, who has mercy? The answer is Hun Sen, Thaksin and the nominee politicians. After the pardon, Mr Siwarak was treated too well for a convict who had commit a crime that seriously harms the security of Cambodia as they claimed. He was invited to Hun Sen’s place and allowed to continue to work in Cambodia, which was very different from my expectation that he will be exciled immediately. Pheu Thai Party, opposition party, use this situation to demonstrate that Thai government has no power, But Thailand do need a hero like Thaksin as he was coming back. More than that, Hun Sen also use this case to discredit Thai government for such crime. But this role play was so lame that almost everyone can notice. It’s like a game of politician as people are their tools or victims, so far, we don’t know they are parts of this show or not.
__________
References
MYDANS, S(2009).Cambodian monarch pardons Thai held as spy.The new york times, retrieved December 16, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/world/asia/12cambo.html?_r=2
How to make plastic with less Petroleum
The article "How to make plastic with less Petroleum" catch my attention. In general, plastic is made from Petroleum is the product from oil. There are a lot of attempt to find other raw material to produce plastic such as biomass. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and Novomer, Inc. support money to do research about Polypropylene carbonate (PPC) that is a raw material of plastic making.
PPC is the substance that combine CO2 and petroleum. In order to make PPC, CO2 is used as half as oil used. Therefore, the amout of oil used is smaller. Also, the required energy for the process is lower than the old process which used only oil as a raw material becuase of less pressure and temperature used. This material is not only used instead of the old type of plastic, but also help global warming.
The production of PPC will be expand in commercial scale. The PPC can be used to produce many kind of products which is a plastic base such as bottles, clear packaging wrap, and scratch-resistant coatings.Becasue of its lower production cost and its advantages, the production of PPC should be researched more to improve the quality of the products.
PPC is the substance that combine CO2 and petroleum. In order to make PPC, CO2 is used as half as oil used. Therefore, the amout of oil used is smaller. Also, the required energy for the process is lower than the old process which used only oil as a raw material becuase of less pressure and temperature used. This material is not only used instead of the old type of plastic, but also help global warming.
The production of PPC will be expand in commercial scale. The PPC can be used to produce many kind of products which is a plastic base such as bottles, clear packaging wrap, and scratch-resistant coatings.Becasue of its lower production cost and its advantages, the production of PPC should be researched more to improve the quality of the products.
__________
References
Greenemeier, L. (2009, December, 15). How to make plastic with less petroleum-just add CO2. Scientific American. Retrieved 14:46, December16, 2009 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=bioplastic-with-less-petroleum
Tuesday, 15 December 2009
If you look younger, you will live longer
When I was looking through the BBC News, I came across one eye-catching article, “People who look young for their age 'live longer'”, which shows the photo of my favorite actor, Leonardo Di Caprio.
The article is not about Leonardo Di Caprio’s story, but it is about the researches that explain the link between the perceived age and the survival period. Danish scientists studied 387 pairs of twins and found that the person who has younger looking tends to live longer than his or her twin. Moreover, they found that the important biomarker called telomeres represent the ability of cells’ replication which is related to how young people look. In addition, the researchers told that “perceived age, which is widely used by clinicians as a general indication of a patient's health, is a robust biomarker of ageing that predicts survival among those aged over 70" (¶ 13).
Before I read this article, I think that environment is the major factor of our skins that is reflected in our faces. Now, I realized that genes are the most important factor because, in the study, the twins who have different biomarkers have the difference in perceived age. I am also surprised that we can predict the survival from the perceived age. Thus, it is a good idea for the doctors to concern more about the perceived ages of the patients over 70 years old. If they look older than they years, the doctors may pay attention to them more than the ones who look younger.
Actually, I think this indication may not work because today there are many anti-aging technologies such as laser, skincare products and surgery which can make the older-looking people become younger. Hence, it is hard to predict people’s survival from their faces.
References
People who look young for their age 'live longer'. (2009, December 14). BBC News. Retrieved December 15, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8411329.stm
The article is not about Leonardo Di Caprio’s story, but it is about the researches that explain the link between the perceived age and the survival period. Danish scientists studied 387 pairs of twins and found that the person who has younger looking tends to live longer than his or her twin. Moreover, they found that the important biomarker called telomeres represent the ability of cells’ replication which is related to how young people look. In addition, the researchers told that “perceived age, which is widely used by clinicians as a general indication of a patient's health, is a robust biomarker of ageing that predicts survival among those aged over 70" (¶ 13).
Before I read this article, I think that environment is the major factor of our skins that is reflected in our faces. Now, I realized that genes are the most important factor because, in the study, the twins who have different biomarkers have the difference in perceived age. I am also surprised that we can predict the survival from the perceived age. Thus, it is a good idea for the doctors to concern more about the perceived ages of the patients over 70 years old. If they look older than they years, the doctors may pay attention to them more than the ones who look younger.
Actually, I think this indication may not work because today there are many anti-aging technologies such as laser, skincare products and surgery which can make the older-looking people become younger. Hence, it is hard to predict people’s survival from their faces.
References
People who look young for their age 'live longer'. (2009, December 14). BBC News. Retrieved December 15, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8411329.stm
Sunday, 13 December 2009
Loneliness makes cancer 'more likely and deadly'
The researchers of the National Academy of Science shows one evidence that loneliness encourage cancer growth. Even though this evidence can be found in experimental rats, lead investigator Gretchen Hermes, of Yale University, mentioned that the interest in relationships between the environment, emotion, and disease is growing, so that this kind of research can find the way of influences of disease from the social world. In addition, Ed Yong, of Cancer Research UK said that although this study was done in rats, loneliness could lead cancer growth indirectly because of unhealthy behaviors, such as overeating, heavy drinking, or smoking.
This article makes my belief of interaction between social environment and disease strength. I have read those kind of articles several times and I remember two significant evidences for those interactions. One evidence is that laughing makes patients healthier. This evidence came from Japanese medical research which found the interaction in 1992. In their experiments, the immune system of one cancer patients who had gone to see comedy show and laughed a lot there was found higher than ordinary levels. After the experiments, they showed results that laughing help relieving stress, secreting protein as painkiller in one's body, and activating of one's heart. And the other evidence is that the brain of people who have family tends to be healthier than that of people who don't. This experiments was held in US among 5,000 people who are dead and was spent 9 years. The researchers compered their brains between who have a family or friends and who are isolated. As results, brains of whom have family or friends were tend to be healthy when they are dead, despite the result is opposite way among the brains of whom are lonely. The researchers concluded that to love or to be loved with someone else tends to keep people's brain good condition during their lives.
Today, medical sciences are so developed that most medicines can help curing patients. On the other hands, taking accounts for our social environment has potentials for curing them from disease, and like this article, we can also prevent from disease growth with avoiding negative social environments. Therefore, I hope those kind of study can be more developed, then all patients can use both of curing way in their hospitals.
__________
This article makes my belief of interaction between social environment and disease strength. I have read those kind of articles several times and I remember two significant evidences for those interactions. One evidence is that laughing makes patients healthier. This evidence came from Japanese medical research which found the interaction in 1992. In their experiments, the immune system of one cancer patients who had gone to see comedy show and laughed a lot there was found higher than ordinary levels. After the experiments, they showed results that laughing help relieving stress, secreting protein as painkiller in one's body, and activating of one's heart. And the other evidence is that the brain of people who have family tends to be healthier than that of people who don't. This experiments was held in US among 5,000 people who are dead and was spent 9 years. The researchers compered their brains between who have a family or friends and who are isolated. As results, brains of whom have family or friends were tend to be healthy when they are dead, despite the result is opposite way among the brains of whom are lonely. The researchers concluded that to love or to be loved with someone else tends to keep people's brain good condition during their lives.
Today, medical sciences are so developed that most medicines can help curing patients. On the other hands, taking accounts for our social environment has potentials for curing them from disease, and like this article, we can also prevent from disease growth with avoiding negative social environments. Therefore, I hope those kind of study can be more developed, then all patients can use both of curing way in their hospitals.
__________
References
Loneliness makes cancer 'more likely and deadly',(2009,December,8), BBC News, Retrieved December 13, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8398728.stmThursday, 10 December 2009
No more play or you’ll fall prey
Back when I was a child, I played outside in our village’s old tennis court all the time. It was quite an experience for me and I learned lots of things playing with the kids in my neighborhood. Therefore, I feel really sorry for the kids when I read this article in BBC News’ magazine section, “How stranger danger changed the way children play”.
According to the article, after the 1960s, British children can no longer play freely in their streets because of a famous case of child sadistic murder which became such a sensational stories on TV at that time. Parents got more and more concern of their kids, so kids were not allowed to play too far away from home or too late into the night. Later on, the increasing of cars on streets hampered kids’ street playing because parents were alarmed of car accident. Moreover, replacing old style houses by high-rise buildings also is another problem for kids’ outside playing because this kind of housing style made extended family becomes fewer and relationship between neighbors were less. As a result, there was no extended family member or a neighbor to watch over kids’ playing and to keep them out of trouble. Lastly, regardless of low statistics on stranger danger, television has made the situation looked worse than it really was, with intense reporting on kid’s abduction and molestation. Children nowadays are rarely be able to have outdoor activities, they stay in all the time, they have no chance of learning social skills, they are isolated, and they have problems in obesity and aggression.
Being unable to play out as wish is such bad news. I was very lucky that I lived in a very safe village where everyone worked at the same place as my father. Playing out door with neighborhood kids taught me how to solve problems in groups of friends, how to accept the fact that you lose in a game without crying, and how to interact with older kids, in conclusion it was like a tiny model of social life I have to face when I grow up.
In
__________
References
How stranger danger changed the way children play,(2009, December,8), BBC News, Retrieved December 10, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8399749.stm
Should governments intervene to guide people to choose more healthy food
I found a very interesting debate in The Economist, the topic is about whether the government should play stronger role in guiding food choices.
The proponent, Brownell, gives a creative argument about the necessity of the intervention by appealing to the theory in economy. He states that we cannot let market adapt itself in this case because the costs of consuming unhealthy food are externalities, which are the costs that do not include in the price of the product. He argues that since the consumers are not aware of these externalities, which the society must pay later in term of, for example, health care, global warming ,etc.(paragraph 14,15), the goverment needs to take action to stabilize the market by discouraging people from taking unhealthy food. On the other hand, the opponent, Leech, argues that food and drink manufacturers can contribute to improving public health , for example they can reformulate their product to reduce the content of salt, sugar and fat in their product.(paragraph 30) She contends that this issue is quite complicate, most regulations, if issued from the government party alone, cannot avoid consumer backlash.(paragraph 22) She suggest that this campaign should be a collective action that require many partners, including government and food manufacturers, to work together.
I prefer the argument from Brownell. It give ample reasons for the intervention of the government in term of economical framework which opponents usually raise to argue against the intervention from government. Obesity and global warming problems are major concerns nowadays. This two problems are the hiddent costs of many activities that consumers do not realize. However, in term of real application, the matter of how should the action is still need the great extent of debate. Leech's argument is not persuasive for me. She says that food manufacturers can contribute to improving public health, then why today they still do not reformulate their product in the sake of health concern. Most food manufacturer still proudly produce and advertise junk food. In paragraph 22, she did not give examples of "consumer backlash" or any concrete disadvantages of the policy issued solely by government. Maybe, those problems occurs on the side of food manufacturers only.
__________
References
Vaitheeswaran, V, Brownell, K. and Leech, M.,(2009, December,8), Economist debates: Food policy: This house believes that governments should take stronger role in guiding food and nutrition choices. The Economist, Retrieved December 10, 2009 from
Wednesday, 9 December 2009
Text Message: digital lipstick on the Collar
Nowadays many people are more dependent on technology than in the past. Most of them have their own mobile phone that it becomes one of the basic things in their lives. The article "Text Message: Digital Lipstick on the Collar"shows that text message can be used as an evidence to divorce with their husband or wife instead of the mark of lipstick on a collar and the disappearance of credit card bill. Many divorced cases that one of the spouses use text message contact with their partner has increased since the number of people who use text messages becomes greater than before.This technology has many benefit when the fact is examined; however, there are some argument whether the text message that uses as an evidence is real or made up by someone else, and whether the message in mobile phone can be considered as privacy or not.
Text message is similar to e-mail that the message can be shown in the sender and the receiver' mobile phone in spite of deleting because the communications companies will keep that message after it was sending for days to a few week. Due to the fact that the message can be kept by the companies, it can be used as a strong evidence to support the argument in the investigative process. In case of Kwame Kilpatrick, he lied about his affair with politician, but at last the truth is revealed by the text message. On the other hand, if someone intend to persecute the one whom they don't like, they may create the fake evidence easily. For instance, husband'd like to divorce with his wife because he fall in love with a new woman, but his wife refute to divorce with him. So, he used his wife's mobile phone to send the abusive message to his mobile phone in order to claim that she is not appropriate to be his wife.
In addition, apart from being an evidence for divorced case, text message can be used in the other particular situation. For example, one couple are separate. The wife would like to take care of her child by herself. She claim that her husband went away from her and their child. Nevertheless, the husband argue back that he left her because she did the violent action. In conclusion, the lawer fnd the evidence to show that the husband is right by using the message that she sent to her husband to apologize what she had done with him.
Using text message can be considered as a private communication; however it may be not privacy as Mark Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy information Center, suggested not to use text message in the phone if you don't want anyone to know the message. Because people are not careful enough to show their personal information to the public, the text message becomes a popular information that is used in a court law to prove the truth. Generally, reading other people' message causes their lives lack of privacy. No one doesn't want anyone to pay attention to their own lives. Though it is neccessary to public individual's life if that can help solving the problem in society and family.
Communication technology like mobile phone have a lot of advantages to our society that it can use to prove the fact, and to communicate with a specific person although sometime it makes us less private lives, and it can make the deceitful evidences.
Text message is similar to e-mail that the message can be shown in the sender and the receiver' mobile phone in spite of deleting because the communications companies will keep that message after it was sending for days to a few week. Due to the fact that the message can be kept by the companies, it can be used as a strong evidence to support the argument in the investigative process. In case of Kwame Kilpatrick, he lied about his affair with politician, but at last the truth is revealed by the text message. On the other hand, if someone intend to persecute the one whom they don't like, they may create the fake evidence easily. For instance, husband'd like to divorce with his wife because he fall in love with a new woman, but his wife refute to divorce with him. So, he used his wife's mobile phone to send the abusive message to his mobile phone in order to claim that she is not appropriate to be his wife.
In addition, apart from being an evidence for divorced case, text message can be used in the other particular situation. For example, one couple are separate. The wife would like to take care of her child by herself. She claim that her husband went away from her and their child. Nevertheless, the husband argue back that he left her because she did the violent action. In conclusion, the lawer fnd the evidence to show that the husband is right by using the message that she sent to her husband to apologize what she had done with him.
Using text message can be considered as a private communication; however it may be not privacy as Mark Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy information Center, suggested not to use text message in the phone if you don't want anyone to know the message. Because people are not careful enough to show their personal information to the public, the text message becomes a popular information that is used in a court law to prove the truth. Generally, reading other people' message causes their lives lack of privacy. No one doesn't want anyone to pay attention to their own lives. Though it is neccessary to public individual's life if that can help solving the problem in society and family.
Communication technology like mobile phone have a lot of advantages to our society that it can use to prove the fact, and to communicate with a specific person although sometime it makes us less private lives, and it can make the deceitful evidences.
References
Holson, L. M.(2009, December,8). Text Messages: Digital Lipstick on the Collar.The NewYorkTimes. Retreive 3:32, December 9, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/09/us/09text.html?ref=todayspaper
Tuesday, 8 December 2009
The Personalised Vaccines
In the New Scientist, the article “Personalised vaccines could protect all children” catches my interest because nowadays, the genetic education is very popular.
According to the article, Charlotte King points out that although everybody usually get the same vaccines since we were born, not everyone produces enough antibodies in response to a vaccine to protect them against disease. People’s gene plays a major role of the weakness response to the vaccine. Berran Yucesoy’s team of the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown did a research by analyzing on the gene that code for cytokines, which are the molecules involving people’s immune response, of 141 healthy babies. They gave babies the vaccines and measured the levels of antibodies in their blood. In the final result, “they found single-letter variations in seven of the cytokine genes in infants who produced low levels of antibodies in response” (¶ 6). They will do a further research to confirm that these gene variants are the cause of a lack of disease protection.
Today, the knowledge of genetic can help the scientists to research and develop new medicines. This research is very useful because each person has the different DNA. When babies take vaccinations in the same doses, there is no guarantee that it can protect every baby from the disease a hundred percent. This experiment shows that, in future, we can develop personalized vaccines which are proper to an individual in order to provide an effective protection. I think that it is not only useful for the babies, but we can also apply this concept to other diseases such as influenza, the H1N1 flu, to limit the epidemic of disease. Therefore it can improve the quality of people’s lives in the world.
References
King, C.(2009, December 7). Personalised vaccines could protect all children. New Scientist. Retrieved December 8, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427373.500-personalised-vaccines-could-protect-all-children.html
According to the article, Charlotte King points out that although everybody usually get the same vaccines since we were born, not everyone produces enough antibodies in response to a vaccine to protect them against disease. People’s gene plays a major role of the weakness response to the vaccine. Berran Yucesoy’s team of the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown did a research by analyzing on the gene that code for cytokines, which are the molecules involving people’s immune response, of 141 healthy babies. They gave babies the vaccines and measured the levels of antibodies in their blood. In the final result, “they found single-letter variations in seven of the cytokine genes in infants who produced low levels of antibodies in response” (¶ 6). They will do a further research to confirm that these gene variants are the cause of a lack of disease protection.
Today, the knowledge of genetic can help the scientists to research and develop new medicines. This research is very useful because each person has the different DNA. When babies take vaccinations in the same doses, there is no guarantee that it can protect every baby from the disease a hundred percent. This experiment shows that, in future, we can develop personalized vaccines which are proper to an individual in order to provide an effective protection. I think that it is not only useful for the babies, but we can also apply this concept to other diseases such as influenza, the H1N1 flu, to limit the epidemic of disease. Therefore it can improve the quality of people’s lives in the world.
References
King, C.(2009, December 7). Personalised vaccines could protect all children. New Scientist. Retrieved December 8, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427373.500-personalised-vaccines-could-protect-all-children.html
What is the right thing to do?
Like my previous post, "Protecting the Young from Moral Corruption", this one is intended as a pre-reading question to get you thinking about some of the issues that come up at the beginning of our next class reading.
Imagine the following situation (A.):
You discover a loved member of your family, one who is doing well in everything, with no obvious problems, smoking marijuana with a group of friends one evening. She assures you, and you believe her, that it is the first time she has owned or used this drug. Since she has no previous record, a first offence for possession and use is likely to result in a permanent criminal record, but not a prison sentence.
- Is her possessing and using drugs such as marijuana in this situation morally right or wrong?
- Is the morally right action to report her to the police or not so that the law can take its course?
- Would you report her to the police?
- If your answers to 2. and 3. above were not the same (both "Yes" or both "No"), does that mean you would deliberately choose to do something you know to be morally wrong?
Another imaginary situation (B.):
You discover that your best friend has cheated on a final exam. If the university finds out, he will be expelled in disgrace.
- Is cheating on a final exam morally right or wrong?
- Is the morally right action to report him or not?
- Would you report him?
- If your answers to 2. and 3. above were not the same (both "Yes" or both "No"), does that mean you would deliberately choose to do something you know to be morally wrong?
If your answer to either of the questions 2. above was that it is morally better not to report the person:
- What is the reason that makes it morally right for you not to report them?
- Is it morally right not to report any similar crimes, or only in the particular situation above? If only in these situations, what is special about them that changes the morally appropriate response?
- How far along the scale of unjust (morally wrong) actions would you go before it would definitely be morally right to report anyone, even your caring and loving parents?
Would it be morally right to report them for tax evasion? For drunk driving? For stealing a chocolate from 7-Eleven? For killing a street dog? For beating a street dog to death? For hitting a stranger in a fit of understandable anger (he deliberately scratched the car or some such thing) ?
- Why is it morally right to deliberately act to harm someone you love and who loves you?
- Do you think most people would agree with you? Why or why not?
Please add your response in a comment below, either to this post or to any comment on it. You can of course leave more than one comment, and you can come back and reply to later comments that interest you.
Monday, 7 December 2009
Correlation between early puberty and cancer.
There is a study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed that if you was born with lower birth weight, you will more likely to started puberty earlier. Moreover, babies who gain more weight in the first two year will also have a tendency to started puberty earlier too. The study also reviewed that early puberty can increased a risk of cancer(breast and testicular cancer).
The researcher study in a sample of 215 boys and girls. The resault show that the babies who was born at 2.5kg-3kg (5.5lbs-6.6lbs) will start puberty earlier than heavier babies about seven months. And the girl who gain more weight as infants are likely to start their puberty earlier. Anyway, Professor Anja Kroke the leader of this study told that they will need more research to explain or support about the function of physiology that related to this study. Besides, he also suggest that the best way to prevent their babies in order not to have a cancer is try to give their babie to have an appropriate weight, consume healthy food and have a good habit of eating.
When I read this article, I was very surprised that the cancer are linked with us since we were born. Now cancer is one of the most serious health problem that can cause death. Therefore, this kind of study is very useful for everybody because they will concern more about their children since they were born. Anyway, if there will have more research about this topic to be clear of the mechanism that link between weight, puberty and cancer, it will be good for us very much.
References
Lower birth weight puberty link, (5 December 2009), BBC News. Retrieved December 7,2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8395008.stm
The researcher study in a sample of 215 boys and girls. The resault show that the babies who was born at 2.5kg-3kg (5.5lbs-6.6lbs) will start puberty earlier than heavier babies about seven months. And the girl who gain more weight as infants are likely to start their puberty earlier. Anyway, Professor Anja Kroke the leader of this study told that they will need more research to explain or support about the function of physiology that related to this study. Besides, he also suggest that the best way to prevent their babies in order not to have a cancer is try to give their babie to have an appropriate weight, consume healthy food and have a good habit of eating.
When I read this article, I was very surprised that the cancer are linked with us since we were born. Now cancer is one of the most serious health problem that can cause death. Therefore, this kind of study is very useful for everybody because they will concern more about their children since they were born. Anyway, if there will have more research about this topic to be clear of the mechanism that link between weight, puberty and cancer, it will be good for us very much.
References
Lower birth weight puberty link, (5 December 2009), BBC News. Retrieved December 7,2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8395008.stm
Contribute to reduce obesity in the US
Overweight is increasing in the United States and considered as a serious problem in recent time. In 1994 there was 23% people are overweight, but according to the recent statistics the rate of obesity is increasing up to 65% now, it means in 10 american there are 6 overweight. In this artical "US university links exam success to weight loss" from BBC News, it points out one of the "solution" for obesity problem.
According to the artical there are some students at Lincoln University are struggling to graduate because of their weight. Lincoln University is applying this method to contribute obesity rate in the US, that is the students who have Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30 have to take the course which includes walking, excercise and fitness game to help them loss weight. In case the student can pass this course or their BMI can drop under 30 they can not graduate from the university. The health professor of Lincoln university said that obesity is increasing and becoming a epidemic in the United States, it also causes many other risk of sickness such as heart disease, diabetes, strokes, selected cancers and muscular skeletal disorders, he believe that the total well being of student is also responsibility of the school or university , the school doesn't only give student the academic but also responsible for their health.
However, this method doesn't welcome by student especialy who are overweight. Sharifa Riley, a student of Lincoln university said that "the BMI requirement is ridiculous" because student comes to school to get an education, and they have to work hard for 4 years, then can not graduate because of their overweight problem. I absolutely agree with Sharifa Riley, it is so ridiculous that the university doesn't let the student graduate just because of something to do with their weight. In my view, the students are responsible for their health, their total being, it's not school's job. what happen if the student can't ever pass pass the requirement? No one wants to be over weight, thoes people who are obesity because it's the result since they were young and somehow it also relates to gene.
I agree that obesity should be prevented but this is not a good way to solve the problem and it's very unfair.
__________
References
According to the artical there are some students at Lincoln University are struggling to graduate because of their weight. Lincoln University is applying this method to contribute obesity rate in the US, that is the students who have Body Mass Index (BMI) over 30 have to take the course which includes walking, excercise and fitness game to help them loss weight. In case the student can pass this course or their BMI can drop under 30 they can not graduate from the university. The health professor of Lincoln university said that obesity is increasing and becoming a epidemic in the United States, it also causes many other risk of sickness such as heart disease, diabetes, strokes, selected cancers and muscular skeletal disorders, he believe that the total well being of student is also responsibility of the school or university , the school doesn't only give student the academic but also responsible for their health.
However, this method doesn't welcome by student especialy who are overweight. Sharifa Riley, a student of Lincoln university said that "the BMI requirement is ridiculous" because student comes to school to get an education, and they have to work hard for 4 years, then can not graduate because of their overweight problem. I absolutely agree with Sharifa Riley, it is so ridiculous that the university doesn't let the student graduate just because of something to do with their weight. In my view, the students are responsible for their health, their total being, it's not school's job. what happen if the student can't ever pass pass the requirement? No one wants to be over weight, thoes people who are obesity because it's the result since they were young and somehow it also relates to gene.
I agree that obesity should be prevented but this is not a good way to solve the problem and it's very unfair.
__________
References
Protecting the Young from Moral Corruption
Imagine that someone, perhaps an eager follower of a new religion or way of thinking, or a socially aware writer, were going around in your country teaching the young people to question old traditions, showing respected elders and social leaders to be fools, and generally upsetting the established moral outlook. Should that person be stopped? What punishment would be appropriate? What, if anything, could a democratic government justly do to stop such a person and her activities?
What do you think? Why?
Sunday, 6 December 2009
Google to limit free news access
Google is going to limit free access to news resources on web-sites of publishers. According to the article, "Google to limit free news access" in BBC News, the publishers of newspaper have been complained that user can see their contents of articles with free through Google, so that a new program is going to be introduced by Google in order to solve this problem. The program allows users free first clicking each article, but charges them who want to read(click) more than five articles for appropriate fee.
Because this kind of conflicts between web-media and publishers has been existed since internet become common, Rory Cellan-Jones, who is BBC technology correspondent, comments "This may still be a significant moment in the battle between old and new media" for this solution. However, the damage of newspapers from online contents has been so severe that it seems to be hard to regain their loss from fee collection by the new program.
Although I like Google's challenging for new technologies, this solution is not clever way and doesn't help publishers because few users would willing to pay for the clicks. To manage this problem, from my point of view, Google should help those of publishers rather than introducing this kind of programs because they has made much more profit by searching advertisements. Therefore, they have responsibility for sharing the profit of delivering contents or information through the internet because it is obvious that if all of publishers were disappeared, they should have lost much more profit than revenues to publishers.
We can easily find a lot of information from the internet. However, the amount of irreverent sources are increasing there. At this point, the quality of information of newspapers are not decrease as terrible as that of internet. Thus, reliable internet organization, such as Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo should have responsibility to find a fair way to get along with newspaper's publisher in order to keep qualities of information.
__________
Because this kind of conflicts between web-media and publishers has been existed since internet become common, Rory Cellan-Jones, who is BBC technology correspondent, comments "This may still be a significant moment in the battle between old and new media" for this solution. However, the damage of newspapers from online contents has been so severe that it seems to be hard to regain their loss from fee collection by the new program.
Although I like Google's challenging for new technologies, this solution is not clever way and doesn't help publishers because few users would willing to pay for the clicks. To manage this problem, from my point of view, Google should help those of publishers rather than introducing this kind of programs because they has made much more profit by searching advertisements. Therefore, they have responsibility for sharing the profit of delivering contents or information through the internet because it is obvious that if all of publishers were disappeared, they should have lost much more profit than revenues to publishers.
We can easily find a lot of information from the internet. However, the amount of irreverent sources are increasing there. At this point, the quality of information of newspapers are not decrease as terrible as that of internet. Thus, reliable internet organization, such as Google, Microsoft, or Yahoo should have responsibility to find a fair way to get along with newspaper's publisher in order to keep qualities of information.
__________
References
Google to limit free news access, (2 December 2009), BBC News. Retrieved December 6,2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8389896.stm
Is Online Technology Really Beneficial to Children?
Online technology changes our lives radically convenient. Children's lives are also affected, thus today, it is true that many children cannot live without computer technology, such as blogs, texts, and social networking services. Although we often face negative aspects of this phenomenon, "Technology boosts literacy skills" told us one of its benefits: developing children's literacy skills.
According to the result of a survey by the National Literacy Trust in UK, children who are bloggers or social networkers have better writing skills than children who neither blogged nor used social network sites. Jonathan Douglas, director of the National Literacy Trust, mentioned that it's because children who are engaged online users become enthusiastic writers for short stories, letters, song lyrics, or diaries. He also said "the more forms of communications children use the stronger their core literacy skills".
I agree with Jonathan since this result can apply to my studying English. Response writing I'm trying now has exactly the same purpose that he suggests. But I still worry about its harmful effects of children. Aren't there any long-term effects to children's eyes, brains, and physical developments? If I became a mom, could I encourage my children to spent many times with computers or mobiles to develop their literacy? Maybe not... How do you guys think if you ask the same question?
__________
References
Kleinman.Z(2009, December, 3). Technology boosts literacy skills. BBC News. Retrieved December 5, 2009 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/technology/8392653.stm
Thursday, 3 December 2009
Is Endangerment Dangerous?
In his earlier post today, "How liberals and conservatives determine morality", Liu summarizes some fascinating research and makes some thought provoking comments on the basis of our moral judgements and on morality.
This ties in neatly with the reading we will begin next week, but it also prompted me to think of another question that we might add to the list on page 235 of Quest, which is the opening page for chapter 7, "Endangered Species". On page 235, Hartmann and Blass ask us to consider what the word endangered means, and what we can do to save endangered animals (2007). I want to add another question that I think comes first: why should we try to save endangered animals at all?
Should we try to save endangered animals or plants? If we should, does the word should have a moral force here, or something else? Would it be unjust (this is where you might like to have a look at Liu's post) to let animal species become extinct? Would it be morally wrong to deliberately push endangered species to extinction?
__________
References
Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing, (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Myspace, Facebook, then Twitter. What's next?
Social networking becomes extremely popular recently, especially among teenagers. Some of us can not go anywhere without tweeting about it all on Twitter. Many more can not leave the house unless they water their plants on one of Facebook's famous game, Farmvilles, first. The innovation is not only addictive but also very useful for people to get in touch, it's wonderful that internet can be very beneficial. "Where next for social networking?" is an article I came across earlier today in New Scientist, it brings us some predictions of successful website investors about what is next in online investment. A founder member of Google, Ram Shriram, predicts that there will be no e-mail using anymore because people will facebooking instead and that the most popular way to use the internet will be via mobiles. Reid Hoffman, the founder of Linkedin says that in the future there will be the inventing of applications based on people's real information such as the application that can match people with suitable jobs. While, Biz Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, believes that social networking makes people opens with each other and feels involved with the world.
For me, I always get excite whenever new innovations have been launched, regardless of whether I'm going to use it or not. However, I think very less about what is going to be the next best things and just appreciate when the things come out. Reading this article made me realize why these computer geeks are very successful in the business. They have visions, they look into the future. We all are owing people like them for the conveniences we have in life. I never saw social networking as anything except stuff that made for fun but these aspects really made me think about it more and take it more seriously. I started to think how social networking will effect our lives, especially in the future when it is more developed, people would be drew closer together than ever and the world would seem much, much smaller.
Moreover, in online world, people never have to show their real identities, they can have fun disguising themselves or being someone else entirely, but in social networking the users will enjoy it better if they use the websites as their own selves, using their true information, because they can have fun with their real life friends on these website,too. Therefore, I strongly agree with Stone's idea about using real identity like this would make people be more open and more genuine with others , may be when social networking becomes even more popular than today, we could see dramatical changes of people's behavior in society all over the world.
__________
References
Simonite, T.(2009, November 25). Innovation: Where next for social networking?. New Scientist. Retrieved December 3, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18196-innovation-where-next-for-social-networking.html
How liberals and conservatives determine morality
One of major conflict in society stem from the different opinion between liberals, who emphasize freedom and the value of individual, and conservatives, who place great value on tradition and self-sacrifice for the whole society. Although in Thailand we cannot attribute all social conflicts directly to this cause, some controversies, such as social welfare, also have some relationship with this problem, especially the matter of how to define the meaning of "justice". The article adresses the problem of radical difference of morality between leberals and conservatives.
The author briefs the research of Haidt and Graham which proposes the explanation why liberals and conservatives think differently. Haidt suggests that there are "five psychological foundations of morality" (Haidt (2007)) which influence our belief about what is right or wrong, namely harm, fairness, loyalty, respect and purity. Then, the researchers asks people to do self-evaluation whether they are liberal or conservative and determine which components are important when they decide if something is right or wrong. The research shows that people who consider themselves as leberals place emphasis on harm and fairness more than the latter three items, whereas other group who identify themselves as conservatives regard all five items important. Haidt explains further that because justice(fairness) accounts for one-half of morality for liberals whereas it accounts for only one-fifth of that of conservatives, as a result, both groups usually have misunderstanding on the motives of each other which often ending up as conflict in society.
This reseach provides not only the scientific explanation of the different mode of thinking between liberals and conservatives, but also gives the framework that could lead to more understanding between the two groups. Each group should acknowledge the difference between their morality and seek the compromising acceptance between them.
__________
References
Shermer, M. (2009, December). Political Science: The Psychological Differences in the U.S.'s Red-Blue Divide. Scientific American. Retrived December 3, 2009 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=political-science-skeptic
Haidt, J. and Graham, J. (2007). When morality opposes justice: conservatives havemoral intuitions that liberals may not recognize. Social Justice Research. Retrived December 3, 2009 from http://faculty.virginia.edu/haidtlab/mft/index.php
The author briefs the research of Haidt and Graham which proposes the explanation why liberals and conservatives think differently. Haidt suggests that there are "five psychological foundations of morality" (Haidt (2007)) which influence our belief about what is right or wrong, namely harm, fairness, loyalty, respect and purity. Then, the researchers asks people to do self-evaluation whether they are liberal or conservative and determine which components are important when they decide if something is right or wrong. The research shows that people who consider themselves as leberals place emphasis on harm and fairness more than the latter three items, whereas other group who identify themselves as conservatives regard all five items important. Haidt explains further that because justice(fairness) accounts for one-half of morality for liberals whereas it accounts for only one-fifth of that of conservatives, as a result, both groups usually have misunderstanding on the motives of each other which often ending up as conflict in society.
This reseach provides not only the scientific explanation of the different mode of thinking between liberals and conservatives, but also gives the framework that could lead to more understanding between the two groups. Each group should acknowledge the difference between their morality and seek the compromising acceptance between them.
__________
References
Shermer, M. (2009, December). Political Science: The Psychological Differences in the U.S.'s Red-Blue Divide. Scientific American. Retrived December 3, 2009 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=political-science-skeptic
Haidt, J. and Graham, J. (2007). When morality opposes justice: conservatives havemoral intuitions that liberals may not recognize. Social Justice Research. Retrived December 3, 2009 from http://faculty.virginia.edu/haidtlab/mft/index.php
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Five eco-crimes we commit everyday
Global warming is the important topic that will be discussed between the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen next month. In the article "Five eco-crimes we commit everyday" in New Scientist, Dave S. Reay suggests us to prevent global warming by changing our 5 habit. The five habits are drinking coffee, using toilet paper, changing fashion, doing laundry, and wasting food.
Coffee itself isn't the cause of global warming; however, using cup of black filter coffee can produces CO2 152 gram. If we still drink coffe six days a week, The CO2 emission will be at least 175 kilograms each year. Also, milk added in the coffee is produces from cow that bleaches methane that is a cause of climate change. This fact is surprising. I have never thought that what a problem we have done with our world when we drink coffee. Drinking coffee is our daily habit that is difficult to change.
The toilet papers made from new wood use more electricity to produce than the recycle ones. Although recycled toilet tissues are used in many countries, most people still like the softest and fluffiest toilet tissues which is made from new wood. When the demand of soft toilet paper is high, the production company try to complete by producing that new toilet tissues instead of the recycled ones. If the consumers don't stop buying toilet tissues made from new wood, our world will be warm and warmer.
Fashion trends have changed very fast especially in the summer. Because of fast fashion, the clothing and textile company have to produce more and more product. The production of these clothes emits CO2 more than 3 million tones each year. We can stop the climate change by recycling our clothes so that we don't have to buy a new one. In addition, we can mix and match our old clothes to make it looks like the new one.
Apart from Fashion, laundary wastes a lot of energy especially during the process of cleaning. The cleanliness of clothes is an ideal domestic life. We use more energy from electricity, water, and detergent to clean their clothes. It's hard to decrease this habit because we need to wear cleaning clothes everyday and no one will like the smell clothes. What we can do is that we should not change our clothes every often by trying to wear only 2 clothes per day ; day thime and night time.
The last one is food wastage. People throw away 30 percent of their food. The CO2 is splitted out to the environment form the food wastage. Furthermore,every process of food production and transportation produce a lot of green house gasses. Thus, if we throw away the food, it means that we waste a lot of energy without any advantages. The solution of this problem is buying food in the amount that we can eat. Moreover, keeping the food in the suitable way can stop rotten food.
Although we feel that these habit is very common in our society, they can make a lot of green house gasses that are the cause of global warming in our world.
Reference
Reay, D.S. (2009, December, 1). Five eco-crimes we commit everyday. New Scientist. Retrived December 2, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427361.900-five-ecocrimes-we-commit-every-day.html?page=2
Coffee itself isn't the cause of global warming; however, using cup of black filter coffee can produces CO2 152 gram. If we still drink coffe six days a week, The CO2 emission will be at least 175 kilograms each year. Also, milk added in the coffee is produces from cow that bleaches methane that is a cause of climate change. This fact is surprising. I have never thought that what a problem we have done with our world when we drink coffee. Drinking coffee is our daily habit that is difficult to change.
The toilet papers made from new wood use more electricity to produce than the recycle ones. Although recycled toilet tissues are used in many countries, most people still like the softest and fluffiest toilet tissues which is made from new wood. When the demand of soft toilet paper is high, the production company try to complete by producing that new toilet tissues instead of the recycled ones. If the consumers don't stop buying toilet tissues made from new wood, our world will be warm and warmer.
Fashion trends have changed very fast especially in the summer. Because of fast fashion, the clothing and textile company have to produce more and more product. The production of these clothes emits CO2 more than 3 million tones each year. We can stop the climate change by recycling our clothes so that we don't have to buy a new one. In addition, we can mix and match our old clothes to make it looks like the new one.
Apart from Fashion, laundary wastes a lot of energy especially during the process of cleaning. The cleanliness of clothes is an ideal domestic life. We use more energy from electricity, water, and detergent to clean their clothes. It's hard to decrease this habit because we need to wear cleaning clothes everyday and no one will like the smell clothes. What we can do is that we should not change our clothes every often by trying to wear only 2 clothes per day ; day thime and night time.
The last one is food wastage. People throw away 30 percent of their food. The CO2 is splitted out to the environment form the food wastage. Furthermore,every process of food production and transportation produce a lot of green house gasses. Thus, if we throw away the food, it means that we waste a lot of energy without any advantages. The solution of this problem is buying food in the amount that we can eat. Moreover, keeping the food in the suitable way can stop rotten food.
Although we feel that these habit is very common in our society, they can make a lot of green house gasses that are the cause of global warming in our world.
Reference
Reay, D.S. (2009, December, 1). Five eco-crimes we commit everyday. New Scientist. Retrived December 2, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427361.900-five-ecocrimes-we-commit-every-day.html?page=2
The Electronic Health Record: Is It Worth It?
The US has had a plan to implement The Electronic Health Record (EHR), which is the way to record patient information by digitizing, standardizing, and computerizing it, into entire hospitals in the state for a long time. According to the article "will Electronic Medical Records Improve Health Care?" in scientific American, only 10% of hospitals in the US are using EHR. In early 2009, 19$ billion of economic stimulus package was passed by the Obama administration. This provides an incentive for hospitals or healthcare facilities to adopt an EHR in order to make healthcare service more efficient in many ways. EHR improves doctors to make better decisions that are based on easy-to-access information of patients, medical records of each patient that can be link together, and family history information that doctors can diagnose the potential of genetic illnesses. More than that, a time for doctors to find or ask such information from patient is reduced, and the information is more accurate. Most of all, D'Avolio suggested that recorded information must not be just information that store in unstructured formats which is impossible by using information technology for generating trends or statistical studies, EHR will be useless if it just automate the operation work and cannot achieve anything else.
However there are many arguments about installing EHR. The cost of implementing is the major factor. Ashish Jha, associate professor of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health, made a point that hospitals have to spend 20$ million to 200$ million to deploy EHR in their infrastructure. Typically, networks and computers in hospitals are manufactured by different vendors and are not connected together, which mean there is no standard for communicating and hard to organize. Another problem is that doctor and staff in the hospital themselves find a hard time to adapt from old-fashion work- paper- to a new one, and there must be a lot of training cost incurred.
I’m surprised that physicians or staffs don’t want to change the way they work just because they already get used to the current way. It’s not just healthcare industry that has to adopt IT in improvement. Most industries have already changed from paper-based work to IT-based work, and their workers have to adapt themselves to it altogether. It’s true that there will be slow starts. But consequences that come after would contribute to their industries greatly. Although IT and its infrastructure are expensive, in a long term those industries can save more money due to reducing of workload, and outcomes of their work will be more productive.
__________
References
Greenemeier L.(2009).Will electronic medical records improve health care?. Scientific American. Retrieved December 2, 2009 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=electronic-health-records
However there are many arguments about installing EHR. The cost of implementing is the major factor. Ashish Jha, associate professor of health policy and management at Harvard School of Public Health, made a point that hospitals have to spend 20$ million to 200$ million to deploy EHR in their infrastructure. Typically, networks and computers in hospitals are manufactured by different vendors and are not connected together, which mean there is no standard for communicating and hard to organize. Another problem is that doctor and staff in the hospital themselves find a hard time to adapt from old-fashion work- paper- to a new one, and there must be a lot of training cost incurred.
I’m surprised that physicians or staffs don’t want to change the way they work just because they already get used to the current way. It’s not just healthcare industry that has to adopt IT in improvement. Most industries have already changed from paper-based work to IT-based work, and their workers have to adapt themselves to it altogether. It’s true that there will be slow starts. But consequences that come after would contribute to their industries greatly. Although IT and its infrastructure are expensive, in a long term those industries can save more money due to reducing of workload, and outcomes of their work will be more productive.
__________
References
Greenemeier L.(2009).Will electronic medical records improve health care?. Scientific American. Retrieved December 2, 2009 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=electronic-health-records
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
The world looks different if you are depressed
When I was looking through the health section in New Scientist, the article “The world looks different if you’re depressed” catches my interest. Jessica Hamzelou gives the new information that I never known before about depression.
According to the article, depressed people don’t naturally have a neurotransmitter, which is a chemical substance in the brain, called GABA. This chemical has been related to a visual skill called “spatial suppression” (¶ 2), which helps us discriminate details surrounding the object. Julie Golomb, at Yale University, did the experiment with 32 people to watch “a brief computer animation” (¶ 3) and reply the way of moving. She found that the volunteers who recently recovered from depression had a worse response than the other group. While when the image was bigger, their responses improved. Therefore, she concludes that depressed people’s ability to discriminate fine details was impaired.
Depression is one of the most common mood disorders today. I think this article provides important information not only for the medical profession, but also the patients and their relatives who suffer from depression. The spatial suppression skill is a necessary perception that we use everyday to survive such as identification aspects, figures, colors and movement of things. Moreover we use it to detect the difference between objects to avoid dangerous things and animals. Thus this visual defect of depressed people can directly affect their daily lives. It is a good idea to give them a perception training besides drug therapy. I think this visual skill is like other skills that we can improve if we practice more such as writing and reading skill. Therefore doctors should help patients to improve their spatial suppression skill; even though: they recovered from depression by using only medicines.
Now, when you know people who suffer from depression, don’t misunderstand them if they see the world differently from you.
References
Hamzelou, J.(2009, November 30). The world looks different if you’re depressed. New Scientist. Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427365.000-the-world-looks-different-if-youre-depressed.html
According to the article, depressed people don’t naturally have a neurotransmitter, which is a chemical substance in the brain, called GABA. This chemical has been related to a visual skill called “spatial suppression” (¶ 2), which helps us discriminate details surrounding the object. Julie Golomb, at Yale University, did the experiment with 32 people to watch “a brief computer animation” (¶ 3) and reply the way of moving. She found that the volunteers who recently recovered from depression had a worse response than the other group. While when the image was bigger, their responses improved. Therefore, she concludes that depressed people’s ability to discriminate fine details was impaired.
Depression is one of the most common mood disorders today. I think this article provides important information not only for the medical profession, but also the patients and their relatives who suffer from depression. The spatial suppression skill is a necessary perception that we use everyday to survive such as identification aspects, figures, colors and movement of things. Moreover we use it to detect the difference between objects to avoid dangerous things and animals. Thus this visual defect of depressed people can directly affect their daily lives. It is a good idea to give them a perception training besides drug therapy. I think this visual skill is like other skills that we can improve if we practice more such as writing and reading skill. Therefore doctors should help patients to improve their spatial suppression skill; even though: they recovered from depression by using only medicines.
Now, when you know people who suffer from depression, don’t misunderstand them if they see the world differently from you.
References
Hamzelou, J.(2009, November 30). The world looks different if you’re depressed. New Scientist. Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427365.000-the-world-looks-different-if-youre-depressed.html
Many children addict to computer game.
The fact about a computer game player that surveys show that 30 percent of computer game players are under the age of 10. This fact make me concern about a problem of children who addict to computer game.
Now the number of children who addict to computer game is always increasing and the age of those children who begin to play computer game is very young. There are many study show that many young student always play on computer game more than other activities. Addict to computer game can clause many problem to children and society. For example, it can make children have an aggressive behaviour because they try to imitate behaviour or action from the computer game. For this reason, parent should not allow their children who are not 10 year olds play computer games and should spend more time with them. Moreover, although the children are over 10 year olds, parent should try to find other useful activities for them instead of let them play computer games.
For me, playing on computer game is not a useful activity for the children. They should spend their time with their family such as travel with their family or participated in useful activities such as playing sport or music. They should not waste their time by only playing on computer game.
Now the number of children who addict to computer game is always increasing and the age of those children who begin to play computer game is very young. There are many study show that many young student always play on computer game more than other activities. Addict to computer game can clause many problem to children and society. For example, it can make children have an aggressive behaviour because they try to imitate behaviour or action from the computer game. For this reason, parent should not allow their children who are not 10 year olds play computer games and should spend more time with them. Moreover, although the children are over 10 year olds, parent should try to find other useful activities for them instead of let them play computer games.
For me, playing on computer game is not a useful activity for the children. They should spend their time with their family such as travel with their family or participated in useful activities such as playing sport or music. They should not waste their time by only playing on computer game.
The gods won't be happy either
In The New York Times' front page "Swiss Sharply Criticized After Vote to Ban New Minarets", Nicholas Cumming-Bruce gives a concise summary of reactions, both domestic and international, to the result of a recent referendum in which Switzerland voted to ban allowing the building of any new minarets, those distinctive towers that clearly proclaim the presence of a Moslem mosque. As Cumming-Bruce reports, the general opinion, both amongst Swiss political commentators and politicians and internationally, is that the Swiss people have made a serious mistake in passing this law.
I am inclined to agree with the consensus that Cummings-Bruce presents with his quotations and paraphrases of comments from people such as Swiss justice minister, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, and France's foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner. I think that Cummings-Bruce and his sources are also right in speculating that the reasons for this awful vote are based on fear of Islam, which in turn seems to me to be based solidly on ignorance and intolerance, neither of which are good reasons for making law.
Of course, people who voted in favour of this unjust law give other reasons for what they did, such as that minarets are not simply religious tools and symbols, but are also political symbols of something that is not and cannot be a part of a healthy democracy. This seems wrong to me. Although it might be true that the religious symbol has also acquired political connotations, that does not stop it from still being a religious symbol, and one that is important to the followers of that religion. Unless there was some stronger reason, I don't think that the fact that something represents a political and legal system, such as Islamization and Sharia law, that are rightly loathed by many is a good enough reason to ban it. That would be equivalent to arguing that if we don't like something, it should be banned, in which case almost everything would be banned: there are many people who dislike any particular religion, so they would all have to be banned. Also, the cross seems to me to be at least as much a political symbol as the minaret, and whilst I would approve a law that banned the state from showing crosses or other religious symbols on public property, I think that a law that made it illegal to show crosses on private property, especially church property, must be an unjust law.
One final thought: this issue reminded me of a point that Roong made in her essay on the nature of democracy, that simply because a majority approve something does not make it either morally just or even democratic. In this case, I think the new Swiss law is democratic, and is an example of the fact that democracies are not perfect, that they too can and do pass laws that are unjust. But flawed as democracies might be, they are better than every alternative.
One final thought: this issue reminded me of a point that Roong made in her essay on the nature of democracy, that simply because a majority approve something does not make it either morally just or even democratic. In this case, I think the new Swiss law is democratic, and is an example of the fact that democracies are not perfect, that they too can and do pass laws that are unjust. But flawed as democracies might be, they are better than every alternative.
__________
References
Cumming-Bruce, N. (2009, November, 30). Swiss sharply criticized after vote to ban new minarets. The New York Times. Retrieved December 1, 2009 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/01/world/europe/01iht-swiss.html?_r=1&hp
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)