Bullish, Bully or Bull?

If you were born between approximately April 20 to May 20, your astrological star sign is Taurus (the Bull). And this bad luck for some people, who are more likely than others to be sickly children and to do worse in school. On the other hand, late Gemini or early Cancer means a better chance for Americans to have a successful sports career. So, is astrology true after all?

• Do you believe in astrology, or any other fortune telling method? Why or why not?
• If you do not, what would persuade you to change your mind?
• If you do believe, why? What makes you a believer?

Kitt's opinion on Poems

When I was young, I usually prefer to read something written clear and easy to understand. I never want to read anything required much imagination. But after a week indulging in poems in AEP listening and speaking class, my attitude towards poems had been changed. I am more patient to read poems and find that I can see the beauty from reading the poems not only from words but also from it subtle meaning behind. I started to appreciate the use of unlimited of interpretation and imagination.

Plato v. Protagoras

In his short essay, "Into the Lair of the Relativist", Stephen Law (2004) presents a concise account of the relativists account of knowledge, in particular, he gives the sort of answer that Plato attributes to Protagoras in answer to Socrates' question at the beginning of the Theaetetus: "What is knowledge?" In discussing Protagoras's answer, Plato also has to discuss the same topics that appear in Law's essay: truth, belief (or opinion) and justification (or how we come to know and support our beliefs).
As Law himself explicitly tells us, his opposing arguments to some of the relativists also come directly from Plato. In his discussion, Plato eventually has Socrates and Theaetetus reach a definition of knowledge as "justified true belief" towards the end of the dialogue. This understanding of what knowledge is was largely accepted by Western philosophy until 1963, when a very short paper, less than three pages, by Edmund Gettier upset things a lot. In his paper, Gettier did exactly what Roong did in her discussion with Liu when they were arguing about how best to define murder: he presented two counter examples that appear to show that the traditional definition of knowledge, in whatever form, was not good enough.
We don't need to worry about what came next. But the ideas of truth, belief and justification continue to be important in all academic work, and they are worth some reflection. That was one reason I set Law's short essay as our first class reading. For the exam this morning, I wrote the question to focus our attention on the meaning of those central ideas of truth, belief and justification; although it doesn't ask you about it, this inevitably also has implications for our understanding of knowledge: what it is, how it's acquired, when it is and is not possible, and so on. Again, no matter what academic area you study, these questions are central.
I also wrote the question because I was pretty sure the only way to write a good answer was to have read and understood Law's essay. The alternative is to have read Plato's Theaetetus, which is a bit longer and more challenging.

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References

Law, S. (2004). The Philosophy Gym. London: Headline Books Publishing.

Murder or Mercy? Free Speech or Corruption?

Two recent articles on the BBC News website have something in common with the essays we are working on this week: both hinge on the definition of words.

The first is "Frances Inglis killed son 'with love in her heart', " which reports on the awful trial and sentencing in England of a mother who killed her 22 year old son with a heroin overdose (Ryan & White, 2010). No one disputes the facts of the case, which Inglis freely admitted: she planned the killing carefully in advance, finding out where and how to buy heroin , planning how to lock herself securely in her son's room to ensure enough time to kill him, and so on. Her sole defence in court was, in her own words: "The definition of murder is to take someone's life with malice in your heart. I did it with love in my heart, for Tom, so I don't see it as murder. I knew what I was doing was against the law ("No Choice", ¶ 4).

The court was, of course, obliged to use the normal definition of murder in English law, which does not mention the content of the killer's heart. It does mention with "malice aforethought", but this is defined as "with intent to kill of cause grievous bodily injury." Clearly, as the judge noted, however understandable this loving mother's actions may have been, they constituted murder under English law.

What do you think? Did Inglis murder her son?

I was thinking of mentioning this in class this morning, as it seemed to me perhaps also relevant to the euthanasia question, but then I decided it might needlessly complicate things.

The second report caught my eye this morning. I'm a big fan of the US Supreme Court, even when I don't agree with the judges, who have just ruled by a 5-4 vote to lift some legal bans on companies contributing financially to political campaigns such as that of the US President, as reported in "US Supreme Court overturns campaign spending limit" (2010).

In this case, the main majority argument was that the previous 20 year bans on companies directly contributing to election funds were "a form of censorship" and therefore violated the US Constitutional safeguards on the right to free speech. Opponents argue that the ban is necessary to prevent corruption of elected institutions in teh US.

This is one of teh Supreme Court's decisions that I agree with. The far more famous 1973 abortion case of Roe v. Wade, which legalised abortion throughout the US according to what seemed to me a very stretched understanding of the Constitutional right to privacy, is one I disagree with.

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References

Ryan, M. & White, S. (2010, January 20). Frances Inglis killed son 'with love in her heart'. BBC News. Retrieved January 22, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8466140.stm

US Supreme Court overturns campaign spending limit. (2010, January 21). BBC News. Retrieved January 22, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8473253.stm

Earth's attitude toward poem

Acually, I am one of the perdon that dislike poem. In the past,when I was in school age, I feel that it is hard to understand the poem and it is useless to study about. Nevertheless, when I grow up, I realize that the poems contribute benifit to us. In the poem, the authors use their genious in presenting us the meaning that they want to tell us by using the creative language usage or "language engineering". Therefore, I have changed my attitute toword poems in positive way.

liu' s response

A good poem, for me, is a poem that cover a great deal of content in a very short sentence. I appreciate the succinct way that the poets express their ideas and the meaning that we can interpret from it. For instance when the poet says that he lower his head, we can imagine that he might feel sad. Another thing that I like about poem is word play. It shows the creativity of the poets. In listening class, Shawn gives us a poem called ygUDuh by E. E. Cummings. At first glance it seems very intimidating, but later after Shawn explain the trick of the poem, I appreciate it very much.

I quite like the kind of poems that need interpretation. I feel that they are like playing puzzles, when I can imagine the picture that seems like what the poet tells or when I can come up with the reasonable interpretation, I usually feel like I can solve a puzzle.

From Petch's perspective

To be honest, I did not have much idea about poem, but I have come across it recently which I consider it fantastic. I have read two poems: one is "All the world's a stage" written by Shakespeare and the other is the "memory" of morning composed by T. S. Eliot. These two poems is totally different. They were popular in the different age, but they both comprise with a meaningful perception of human life or some people might consider it a bit sarcastic. This experience has completely changed my way of life and the impression of poem. I hold the view that decent poets are able to gather their ideas by human behaviour. They must be very observant and have out-side-the-box approaches in order to make their poems successful and impressive; however, there still have myriad factors that make a sound poem.

Last but not least, if I have an opportunity to read another quality poem, I will definitely take that chance. Not only does it make me better understand life, but it also help me enjoy that the “true” sound of English.
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References
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Natalia's Opinion!

Before I start studying at AUA, I did not like poetry at all, I thought poetry was boring and dificult to undersantd, but now I know more about poetry and I undersatnd what is the magic of it, for example now I know about Edgar Allan Poe and his poem The Raven. I think poets get their ideas from what is around them, I mean they get their inspiration in nature, their family, feelings and historical facts. In my opinion a good poem is the one that let the reader make his or her interpretation and also had a magic story behind it.

Roong's response concerning poetry

I'm not that into poetry but I dare say I enjoy reading and writing poems. Back in my primary school days, my poems often won the first price in school's events. My classmates paid me to write love declaring poems or cursing poems. I only charged one baht per poem, so, it's not a very good business but I enjoyed it very much. I read poems which are qualified as worthy to be in textbooks when I was forced to, in Thai class. I didn't enjoy them but I understood each poem quickly and I, as a little girl, couldn't be more proud of myself.
I still write poems every once in a while, my poems are not beautiful, they are just some funny and sarcastic poems.
I think poets get their inspirations and ideas to write a poem via their own or other's experiences. I don't read many poems nowadays, but I love beautiful poems that show personalities or experiences of the poets. My favorite one would be Bai mai tee hai pai, a collection of poems written by Jiranant Pitpreecha, the poets wrote those poems in different ages of her life and they reflect the person she is at that moment. Those poems are so strong, yet beautiful, I just love them.
Good poems for me are poems I enjoyed. I hate abstract poems. I love poems with lots of rhythms and sound like a song when you read them aloud.

And I hate English poems! The words are too difficult. Moreover, they don't actually "rhyme". When you read them out load, they don't sound like they are poems, unlike Thai poems, for example, poems that written by Sunthorn-Phu, the words rhyme with each other. Regardless of the meanings, I think hip-hop music sound more like poems to me, it has rhythms and it rhymes.

Alina's opinion of Poem

In my opinion almost poem are boring; In China poem is a part of history literature that student need to remember lots of poem since a child. We need to underestand the meaning of the poetry. The poem also use the difficult word and the old word, so I don't like poem. I hear that the poet write the poem when they have afflatus. They can get afflatus from everythings. A good poem usually just use short word to include the feeling and it's come nature from the heart of the writer.

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References
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Is poem interesting or boring?

In the past, I don't like poetry. When I was in school, I have to read Thai poems and I hate them. I don't understand why I have to read it and it's so boring for me. When a teacher wants me to write a poem, sometimes I ask my friends write it for me. And I want to know why some people like it. Now I think that I feel better for poetry, but if someone don't force me to read, I still don't read it.
I think that most poets get their ideas from everything which is around them, such as their feeling, environment and event. And each poet has his own style. some poets play with the word, some poets use the rhyme or rhythm and some poets creates poems with the good contents. So there are many ways to make a good poem.

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References

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Close bosom friends

I don't often read poetry, with one exception. The exception is Shakespeare, whose works I regularly read. I didn't much like his language when I was introduced to him in school, but that's because at 400 years of age, it's very different to modern English. The first Shakespeare I ever read was teh play Macbeth when I was twelve years old. The story was great, but the language really was a problem, and that made it difficult to enjoy. In fact, I didn't enjoy it. Happily, over the course of high school we had to study more of Shakespeare, and perhaps with experience, the language became less of a problem, and instead of the words getting in teh way, they started to contribute to the pleasure and joy that comes from Shakespeare: the meaning, the sounds, the rhymes and rhythms all work together to work their magic. Even Macbeth is now fun to read for the words as well as the witches, murders and general blood and horror. (I think it was a good choice for 12 year old boys, who would at least like the bloody and violent content.)

More recently, I was reminded of one of my favourite English poets when someone slipped the phrase bosom friend into his essay. I was trying to think of examples of when it might be used; the only one that came to mind was: "close bosom friend of the maturing sun", from the poem "To Autumn", a well-loved ode by the poet John Keats, extolling his experiences of the season of autumn. And that sounds like a nice title for this post: it neatly captures an important aspect of how I judge a poem to be good or not.
In case you are interested, Keats is only 200 years old, so his English is much more accessible than Shakespeare's. In fact, when I read Shakespeare today, I use the much more scholarly OUP editions rather than the little Penguin edition we had in the first form in high school, which merely glossed the most obscure words - I like to learn more about the language because it all helps to enjoy the poetry, and it's fun.

xxx - enter your new post here (delete this line)
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References
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Will Google stay or leave ?

China, one of the fastest growths in Internet market, earns more than 112.3bn yuan this year from advertising games, shopping and other activities on line. According to the BBC News, Gmail, owned by Google, was hacked by the Chinese government. Therefore, Google will discuss with Chinese authority that the former would like the government to allow Internet users search through its search engine without censorship and threatened that if it could not reach the satifactory agreement, it would not do business in China.

I am of the opinion that Google does not intend to back off its investment in China’s market. Probbably, It would like to advertise its brand by claiming that they are value the freedom of speech and human’s right and can weigh their support from users. Moreover, because China revenue in online market is so substantial that Google may lose a great deal of their income.

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References
Chinese online revenue up 30% in 2009 .BBC News. Retrieved January 18, 2010 from
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8465186.stm

Do they real want to talk with?

The BBC News reported that Notrh Korea said that they will restart the tourism and talk about the settlement of industrial area. for several years, South Korea and US gave pressure about nuclear weapon to North Korea through sanctions. And now they said that they are willing to talk about nuclear.

News about North korea always hook my attention, because I came from South Korea. Events in North Korea is not just a happening to us, South Korean. However, it is very hard to trust them, North Korean. They changed their words many times. They always try to take advantage through the relationship between North and South Korea. I don't know when they will change thier mind as showing ridiculous reasons.

References
North Korea: Sancions must end before nuclear talk (Jan 18th, 2010) retrieved January 19th, 2010 from BBC News http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8465341.stm

What is in the mind of Venezuela's President.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, is well know for all the awful things he has done to his country, for example he order military checks ones in a while, blackouts in some cities and price control, this is the main reason Venezuela has the highest inflation in Latin America. it is also important to mention the latest thing he has done, he is closing some businesses of those who do not agree with him, (Because if you are not with him, you are against him)in this case is the Exito a Colombian supermarket chain.

I wonder what is in Hugo Chavez mind when he pretend to close all the borders and Venezuelan international commerce. what is he going to do next?

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References

Venezuela's economy in further slide . (2010, January 18). BBC News.Retrieeved January 19, 20010.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8464960.stm

"All-you-can-drink" pub offers facing ban

The artical "'All-you-can-drink' pub offers facing ban" in BBC News mandatory identification in the government's recommendations to combat a drinking problem and introduced the inspection.

The artical also mention that "It is estimated alcohol abuse in England and Wales kills 40,000 people and costs the economy £55bn every year."(¶7) "Alcohol misuse leads to serious ill-health, premature death and is linked to violence and anti-social behaviour. It also costs the NHS millions of pounds every year," (¶19)

As my thinking, the alcohol drinking problem is happening in a lot of countries, every year there're a large group of people die in accidents after they got drunk. Drinking alcohol is not a serious problem, but the problem is after drinking alcohol, the people can't control themselves not to do the dangerous things, so it's a good for the goverment to combat the drinking problem; It can solve some promblem and life.

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References
"All-you-can-drink" pub offers facing ban (2010, January 19). BBC News. Retrieved January 19, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8465939.stm

new method to expand patient's lives

This news is very interesting because it's about health which I like to read. I always want to know about our world's improving, so "blood stem cell transplant hopes lifted" in BBC News can tell me about this.
In this article, the writer said that there is a new method for patients who have diseases such as leukaemia. In the past, the patients use stem cell from donor. It may be not match and the patient's body rejects it. The new method is using core cell which get form baby. It can match with everyone, but it still has two disadvantages. First, the core cell is not enough for every patients. Second, although the core cell can expand itself in laboratory, the core cell will become simple cell which cannot expand itself.
I think it's very interesting. Although this method still has a limitation, it's more useful than the old method. It can help people who cannot find the match stem cell. In the old method, patients stays with hope that they will receive the stem cell on a day. In the new method, if they really need at that time, they can use it.
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References

Cord blood stem cell transplant hopes lifted. (2010, January 18). BBC News. Retrieved January 19,2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8462488.stm

Is global warming the real deal?

There is an article named "Science must end climate confusion" in BBC News that I've found quite interesting and want to share it with my classmate.

Betts, the author of this article, is a scientist who focusing his work on global warming and he's getting tired of explaining to every single person he knows of the different between climate and weather. There are some skeptics who always arguing that there is no global warming and the scientists just made this issue up because they want to increase their fund. Betts disagrees with these people, he states that there is global warming, the climate is really changed, and you can not just look at one winter and jump to the conclusion that the world is not getting hotter! Indeed, according to Betts, the last decade is the warmest so far and the temperature has been sing up since 1980s. Not only the skeptics that Betts is tired of, but also people who blames every disasters on climate change and people who has hidden agendas behind their supports. However, Betts thinks that the most importance thing to do now is to "be very clear about what can be used as evidence for or against climate change."(Mixed messages, ¶11) He also gives example that the individual weather events such as heatwaves or big freezes are not meant to be used as an evidence to support global warming.

As for me, I strongly agree with Betts that the fact about global warming is not being communicated well nowadays. People just don't understand correctly and go panicking around whenever the weather getting strange, which some time has nothing to do with climate change at all, it's just a weather, people. Scientists are surely have responsibility to explain precisely to the public and I mean publish the expanation in the way that normal people can easily access to and understand. The scientists shouldn't be used by the press, actually they're supposed to use the press to get to people's mind.



References
Betts, R. (2010, January 11). Science must end climate confusion. BBC News. Retrieved January 19, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8451756.stm

Ambitious plan
The Greek parliament finally granted a plan for three year in order to discard the "contry's deficit from the current 12.7 percent of the country gross domestic product (GDP) each year to 2.8 percent.
Also, Greece strategies are to deduct the debts as the amount of 113 per of its gross demestic product.

Last week, the Greek parliament approved a three-year plan to cut the country's deficit from the current 12.7% of its annual gross domestic product (GDP) to 2.8%.
Greece also plans to reduce its debts, which amount to 113% of its GDP.
My opinion about there is a corruption conflict in Greece.







__________References

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8466903.stm Retrieved 19 January 2010

At this time, many news state that the global economy become recovering. However, no economist confirm strongly on the recovering, "IMF head in 'double-dip' global economy warning" (2010),
The head of IMF warn many countires not to trust in these pictures.
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References
IMF head in 'double-dip' global economy warning. (2010, January 11).BBC News. Retrieved January 19, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8464774.stm

I hate spam from friends!

Although more serious than my kind and well meaning friends forwarding sweet emails, "Ghana text hoax predicting earthquake prompts panic" (2010), is good example of why we should not forward a message just because someone asks us to.
The BBC New reports that an SMS message falsely claimed that NASA, the US space agency, had warned that a massive earthquake was about to strike teh African country of Ghana. The message included a request, or warning, to send it on to other people. THis was done and panic resulted. There was, of course, no earthquake and no reason to think that there would be.

This reminded me of emails I sometimes get from people. They have forwarded something to help my health, pointing out some awful danger I might be unaware of, or to raise money for some pitiful looking child, or whatever. In all cases, the email was forwarded for no better reason than the person who last received it was asked to forward it. No matter what the content, these emails annoy me. I think that they are spam, and as useless as spam. They are designed to self-propagate like a virus, and are much like any other computer virus in wasting resources .

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References

Ghana text hoax predicting earthquake prompts panic. (2010, Janaury 18). BBC News. Retrieved Janaury 19, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8465619.stm

The pretty woman get angry easily.

Are you a pretty woman?If you consider yourself as attractive one you should listen to this.This morning I have read the article about Pretty women'anger more easily'.The researcher from the university of California found that the women who consider themselves as a good looking person can get angry easily compare with the other.This research includes 156 female sample group .
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References
Pretty women 'anger more easily' (2010,January,18)BBC NEWS.Retrieve January 19,2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8464990.stm

India's business students on job hunt

Indian business students are now preparing themself job hunt after last year that they had to take any jobs available in market. At the moment, __________
References
India's business students on job hunt.(2010, January 18).BBC News. Retrieved January 19. 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8465792.stm

and enter your source reference citations here (If your post doesn't cite any sources, delete this entire section)

All-you-can-drink pub offers facing ban

This is an interesting campeigh to reduce alcohol's consumption in the UK,"All-you-can-drink pub offers facing ban:(2010), is provide good suggestion that we should implement this practice in Thailand. The BBC news reports that " All you can drink" promotion should be baned in order to reduce problem form drinking. The author mentions that alcahol abuse in England kills 40,000 people and lost on economy 55 billion pound a year.

I argue for this idea; however, I don't think this idea is really work. Drinker still consume alcohol from another points of sale.Nevertheless,I support that government should increases sin tax on alcohol because government can get more money from drinker to use in national health service.
References
All-you-can-drink pub offers facing ban . BBC News. Retrieved January 19, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/8465939.stm

The present from human beings

It strikes me much when I see the article "Malignant malaria found in apes" in BBC News. This article raises the concern for possible new kind of infective virus as well as shows other evidence of how wild lives are disturbed by the invasion of human beings.

The article tells about the new malaria virus found in apes that is actually transmitted from human. Researchers found that this this lethal maralia virus, which used to be found only in human, now are found in gorillas in Cameroon and captive animals in Gibbon. This infection occurs because now people encroach much in forest, which increase the possiblity of contacting virus to the animal. However, the reseachers is still not sure whether the virus is transmitted from human to apes through mosquitoes or it becomes infective among apes. If it becomes the disease that can spread among apes, it could become another threat on their survival in nature.

This fact raises the worry not only that the new kind of disease that is spreading in apes, but also that it could mutate in apes bodies and might come back to human in a more horrible and lethal form like scientists' concern about bird flu or swine flu that might become the contagion disease in human. Moreover, it also shows another example of how human causes problems to wildlife. The encroachment of people on the forest amounts to not only taking away the animals' natural habitats, but also bringing new disease to wildlife.
References
Walton, D. (2010, January 18). Malignant malaria found in apes. BBC News. Retrieved January 19, 2011 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8465554.stm

Human Beings: a topic we all know well

We are all human beings. We have all had years of experience being human beings. We have, further, been observing, interacting with and generally learning about other human beings: family, friends, classmates, colleagues, and so on. I think it's safe to say that we are all very familiar with the topic of human beings.

To narrow the topic a little, I think we have all previously heard, and perhaps repeated ourselves, the idea that all human beings are equal. This equality is common in political and moral discussions - it's a foundation of democratic countries; we use it argue against the injustice of laws allowing slavery and the immorality of laws that treat women as inferior to men; and human equality is a main support for the idea that all human beings have dignity, deserve respect and must be treated in certain ways by governments, legal systems, society, other human beings and ourselves.

But this idea that all human beings is not clear or simple:

• What does it mean to say that human beings are equal? 
• In what way are we all equal? 
• What do we human beings all have in common that makes us equal? 
• Is it even true? Are all human beings really equal in any way that is politically, socially or morally important? 

Although this topic is one that I am sure is familiar to all of us, I am equally sure that the ideas I've raised in the questions are very complex. I'm sorry for starting off with something so difficult, but it will help our coming discussion to start thinking about these sorts of issues now, so comment!

Green tea 'may block lung cancer'
The article "Green tea may block lung cancer" in the Health section of the BBC News really interested me not because I am a tea person but in fact I have heard many times that the green tea is one of the anti-oxidant sources which prevent cancer.
From the article, "Dr. I-Hsin Lin,of Shan Medical University in Taiwan, found that among smokers and non-smokers, people who did not drink green tea were more than five times as likely toget lung cancer than those who drank at least one cup of green tea a day."(¶12) "Among smokers, those did not drink green tea at all were more than 12 times as likely to develop lung cancer than those who drank at least a cup a day." (¶ 13)
The findings might make the smokers feel released of getting less chance to be cancer patients. But Yinka Ebo, a of Cancer Research UK ,remind that the findings should notbe taken as an excuse to keep smoking. The best thing a smoker can do to reduce the risk of lung cancer is to stop smoking.
In my opinion,this findings is very useful as most of the public health policy makers nowadays focus more on prevention campaign rather than treatment function. Any government could save a lots on its annual budget if its people know how to take a good care of themselves either taking a good diet, a regular exercise and a well-balanced mental health. So, they will not easily get sick and depend on the treatment budget.
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References
Green tea may block lung cancer. (2010, January 13). BBC News. Retrieved January 13, 2010 from http://http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8453628.stm

False positive concern over prostate cancer

a new evidence has been found fromthe BBC News reeport








'False positive' concern over prostate cancer test (2010, January 11).BBC News. Retrieved January 12,2010 fromhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8448147.stm

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References

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Real bones?

The article "Turning wood into bones" from Duncan Kennedy in BBC News attract my interest. When I read it, I don't wonder how can wood become the real bones? Will people use the wood to instead of bones?

In the artice, it's about the way of creating new bones for humans. "Scientists in Italy have developed a way of turning rattan wood into bone that is almost identical to the human tissue." (¶ 2) "Within a few months, the real and the artificial bone will be like one continuous bone." (¶ 20) Mr Marcacci said that the accident with major trauma or cancer of the people can use it, the current range of alternatives may be weak, not with the existing fusion.

I think the new wood bones is a good way to help the disabled or skeletal deformities people to be health again. These kinds of bones is easier than to fit the bones from other people. The bones are make from rattan wood, I think it won't more expensive than real bones, therefore people who have problem with this may try to catch the opportunity to be more available.

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References
Duncan Kennedy (2010, January 8). "Turning wood into bones". BBC News. Retrieved January 11, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8446637.stm

Light Triggered Migrained

Harvard Experiments found the reason that light can trigger their migraine-headaches to the blind people. They are also sensitive to light. There are two kinds of blind patients: one group is absoluetly blind and won't be affected by the light. The other group are although classified as legally blind because of their particular eyes diseases "retinitis pigmentosa", they can still detect light, especially in blue or grey wavelengths.

Some suggestion to second group of blind patients who are sensitive to light is that the photophobia stirs their optic nerve because it does not transmit light signal to the patients' brain
when they expose to light. This must trigger their severe headaches.

Health
__________
References
(Harvard tests reveal why light can worsen migraines. (2010, January 11). BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8449288.stm

New Rules For Passengers

Is hard to believe what is happening right now in airport security around the world and that is what BBC News report "Can statistics help catch terrorist?" (Ruth Allexander, 2010) is all about. this story show us what the government of England wants to improve to be more aware of who can be a terrorist and this way trying to make every flight safer, nowadays not only suspicious travelers can be call for a stringent checks is going to affect factors such as race and religion. "So although statistics could help catch terrorists, to some degree, they do not make it easy, and they probably will not get you through airport security any quicker."

I am very concerned about this new rules, because innocent people can be affected, and we only are going to remember those days when travel was more than a pleasure, now travel is a problem, and the traveler needs to be preaper for everything from a simple check to even things we do not imagine, and I just wonder how can statistics can detected whether a person is or is not a terrorist.

References

Ruth Alexander(2010,January 11). Can statistics help catch terrorists?.BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8452260.stm

A gender imbalance from wrong tradition

When I read this article, "Chaina faces growing gender imbalance", I can think about my country, Korea. easily because of similarity. The article reported that "more than 24 million chinese men of marring age could find themselves without spouses by 2020. The reason of this is the favour of male kid, a traditional concept. Chinese can have only one child according to thier law, so many parents prefer having a boy than a girl.

Many Koreans have similar thought as chinese'. Nowadays, although lots of things are changed, koreans still keep their preference of male kids. In reality, many males in marring age can't get thier spouses. Some have to visit other country lto get their bride, but in Korea, there are many social problem which are contributed to this; cultural conflict and misunderstanding between spouses, domestic violence, divorce, etc. Because they don't have time to take a good careful look each other. This gender imbalance will be kept, if the preference of boys are not abandoned.

References
China faces growing gender imbalance (2010, January, 11th), BBC News. retrieved January 12th, 2010 from Januaryhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8451289.stm

The Gay right

I have read the interesting Article that posted on BBC "NewsObama: Letting down gay supporters?" BBC Rajesh Mirchandani reported about Should Obama take action about Gay right.This report told us about how people,especially Gay react when they found that his President didn't do anything to support them.Many people seem disapointed in what they hear from the News.The president Obama more consider in Afgannistan War than the issue in his country.Recenly Losangelis was band the Gay marriage.
References

Rajesh Mirchandani ( 2009,October 10) Obama: Letting down gay supporters? BBC News.Retrived January 12,2 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8297500.stm

Good World News

The article " UK 'close to leaving recession' " in the Business section of the BBC News catch my attention because it confirms that the world economic downturn reach the peak and start to get recovering.

The news report that the UK economy show many good signs of recovering. After the country faced with the recession starting from the beginning of the last year, at present the economist evaluate that the UK economy is going to get recovering in the near future. It can be seen from many important statistic figure for example, the increasing of export's figure in manufacturing sector and the reduction of unemployment figure. The article also gives information that France and Germany have just escaped from the recession. (π12)

I delight to hear that many countries successionally start to get recovery from the crisis. Remembering that in the past few years, we continued heard about the bad news such as the company collapsing, the jobless workers.
Also in Thailand, in globalization, Thailand cannot escape from this situation, we also have got the impact indirectly. However, we can handle with them because Thais got some lessons from the 1997 Asian financial crisis that the cause is from Thailand and spread to Asian region and contagion to the world. However, some optimist still doubt that the recession is reach the bottom or not. However, it is a good news for many people who suffer from the crisis because it help to create confidence for getting better life in the near future.

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References
UK 'close to leaving recession'.
BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2010.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8453136.stm

It's a Miracle!

An amazing story is in the BBC News report "Australian woman tells how 19th century nun 'cured cancer' " (Bryant, 2010). Nick Bryant's report is very short, and is mainly a video reporting on the experience of an Australian woman who believes that her cancer was cured by a miracle. The Vatican, under Pope Benedict XVI, has approved this miracle, so that Mary McKillop can now be made an official saint of the Catholic Church.
What seems to me most amazing about this story is the Pope's definition of miracle. According to the Pope, a miracle is something for which there is no scientific or rational definition. Now, this is a perfectly acceptable definition, but what it actually means is "we have absolutely no sensible explanation for what happened". In other words, the Vatican accepts as prove of a divine intervention anything about which they are perfectly ignorant. Perfect ignorance does not seem to me to be solid support for anything. If we don't know, the morally honest and correct thing is to admit that we do not know. Calling it a miracle and pretending that that is evidence of something does not seem honest to me.

I should add, I am very happy for the woman, Kathleen Evans, that she was cured of her cancer; however, as Kathleen herself clearly says, twice, in her comments in the video, "there is no explanation," which to me means that there is no explanation, not that a saintly intervention is known to be the correct explanation.

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References

Bryant, N. (2010, January 11). Australian woman tells how 19th century nun 'cured cancer'. BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8452403.stm

It is a matter of shape

An intriguing article derives from BBC News "Having a big bum, hips and thighs 'is healthy" . A snippet of new idea shows that it is a sound piece of advice for people's health to gain weight on hips, bum and thighs. A researcher Dr Konstantinos Manolopoulos, of Oxford University asserted "It is shape that matters and where the fat gathers. Moreover, people can have fat around their hips and thighs but around their abdomen. This can help prevent them from obesity and any kind of circulatory diseases.

In my opinion, this is very interesting discovery even it needs further research which may help people find a new approach to tackle health problem in people's lifestyles.

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References

Having a big bum, hips and thighs 'is healthy.(2010, January 12). BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2010 from http://peteraep.blogspot.com/2010/01/what-is-slave.html

The posponed of Airbus A440M

An update of Airbus A440M's project in the BBC News report"Airbus chief 'may cancel A400M".
BBC news reports that Airbus may cancel A400M military transport plane. This is dued to it's heavy weight and engine problem which cause project cost widen 25% from initial budget. Furthermore, a fixed price strategy is hurt a company. Therefore,Airbus' parent company EADS will make a decision whether company should continue A400M project or not.

What make me interesting about this story is the conflict of interest between shareholder of Airbus. On one hand,UK and France want Airbus to built A400M as soon as possible.On the otherhand,Germany want to extend the project to save cost.This will be a pressure on Airbus's decision. Furthermore,a cut throat competition in military aircraft industry by rivals make this decision more difficult. In my opinion, Airbus should go on this project because cancellation of the project may hurt Airbus's reputation. Moreover,the company may cope with financial difficulty if it decide to divest this project because a large accumulated project cost is written-off.
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References
Airbus chief 'may cancel A400M' . BBC News. Retrived January 12, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8452493.stm

Is the E-book era here?

I came across an article in the magazine section of BBC news earlier this morning. It's named Page-turning passion. Since I consider myself as a bookworm, this article caught my attention immediately.

According to the writer, this year, which has just begun, is being convinced to be a year of electric book which makes her thinks about the importance of a book to its owner, is the new innovation going to change it or not? She starts to examine the history of books, in the past, books are manuscripts and that makes a book very expensive, as though it is an art work. Then she starts to analyze two typical habits of book readers which are annotating in books, every space plausible, and sharing books, which are annotated, with acquaintances, and she believes that electric books couldn’t provide readers such the opportunities, which are active and social activities. Therefore, the writer states that “all of which should give us pause for thought as e-enthusiasts proclaim 2010 to be the year of the electronic book.” (Unpredictable, ¶ 1) She agrees that we can make use of e-book but it can not replace the physical one.

For me, I disagree with the writer’s reasons because I don’t write anything in my books, except for text books, and I don’t share my books with others, I used to but I stopped since my expensive books were totally ruined (and also the relationship between the borrowers and me). However, I don't believe that e-books could actually replace books, too. I just love the smell of fresh new books and also libraries and book stores, can an e-book do that? E-book also can not provide me the exciting feeling of turning pages of a book in the late of the night with only a lamp on, I don't want to push on the touch screen and wait for the page to be loaded, it just doesn’t seem right. Surely, e-book would be handy, it would be very beneficial when we have to travel for a long period of time, and also readers can have chances to read rare books which are very few and hard to find, but no, it will not stop people from buying books, just like MP3 can not stop people from buying CDs. Nevertheless, I think I will buy a good e-reader when it’s launched out and I also believe that book circulations will certainly be dropped when e-book becomes a house hold name.
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References
Jardine, L. (2010, January 8). Page-turning passion. BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8447996.stm

Bacteria spreads because of patients

The article "MRSA 'spread by patients moving between hospitals'" in the BBC News is interesting because hospitals should be clean places, but why the bacteria can spread between them.
According to the article, the bacteria spreads to other hospitals because patients who infect the bacteria from surgery in some hospitals move to other hospitals to cure, so the bacteria can be moved from a hospital to another hospital.
The article makes me have a question because the article don't give the backgound of the bacteria. I don't know how to infect it. Maybe breathe or get infective blood. My question is why patients are the most important carriers. Why not be hospital's staff? I think the staffs have more chance to infect it because they touch the equipment and patient's blood, and they also spend their time in the hospital more than patient do.
I think the article is interesting because if the research is real, it means that patients who are cured by surgery can easily infect the bacteria. I think the article affects to every hospital because many people will not take this risk and it makes everyone scare to go to hospital.

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References

MRSA 'spread by patients moving between hospitals'. (2010, January 12). BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8445777.stm

New genre of computer

I feel amazing with the new research describing in the article "Chemical computer that mimics neurons to be created. " in BBC News. I usually feel excited about the breakthrough technology that can change the world and this is a very promising one.

The article describe about the research which is the collaboration among scientists form many country to create a computation unit that is made of biological components. Unlike ordinary computing unit used among computers nowadays which is based on inorganic material such as galium or silicon, this molecular computation unit can be applied directly into human body without the need to create interfacing unit between machine and human body. The project collaborator Klaus-Peter Zauner of the University of Southampton foresee that after realizing the technology, we can find its biological application such as "controlling molecular robots, fine-grained control of chemical assembly, and intelligent drugs."( paragraph 8)

I think such a breakthrough technology can create a great impact on the whole human's lives. In future, based on this technology we might be able to find the new way to cure currently untreatable disease such as cancer or AIDS. Although, during the research period such project consumes resources so heavily that many people cannot tolerate such a project, in the future it could bring about plenty of unexpected benefits to the world.

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References

Palmer, J. (2010, January 11). Chemical computer that mimics neurons to be created. BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2011 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8452196.stm

What is a slave?

The article "Egypt tombs suggest free men built pyramids, not slaves" in the Science and Environment section of the BBC News caught my eye because it seems so wrong. Actually, it reminded of an article that appears in Quest 2 Reading and Writing which also suggests that the lives of the pyramid builders were not as bad as they are commonly believed to be (Hartmann, 2007).

The article reports on recent findings of workers tombs led by archaeologist Zahi Hawass, who says that the location near royal tombs "indicates these people were not by any means slaves" (¶ 5). Other evidence is that the workers were well fed, being provided with both beef and lamb on a daily basis. Hawass argues that the farmers who provided the animals for the workers' food were acting freely to contribute to a great national project, not paying royal taxes used to feed slaves.

I'm not sure how much I agree with Hawass. Perhaps the workers were not technically slaves, but I find if hard to imagine why so many would willingly give up so much of their lives unless there was some force being used, even if only social force. Unfortunately, the article is very short, and does not give more details about why the workers might have been devoting so much of their lives to such projects. I'm also not clear why Hawass thinks that the cattle and sheep provided were not taxes. If they really were being provided freely, what evidence is there for that? There doesn't seem to be any evidence provided in the article that would support this conclusion.

I think the idea is interesting, and it certainly seems that at least some of the workers were not slaves, but I think we need a lot more detail before we conclude that they were really free. In Mediaeval Europe, the peasants were not slaves either, but neither were they free. They were required to work their lord's lands and provide service as ordered. Although they might not have been slaves, they were not obviously much better off, certainly not very free.

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References

Egypt tombs suggest free men built pyramids, not slaves. (2010, January 11). BBC News. Retrieved January 11, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8451538.stm

Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing. new York: McGraw-Hill.

Welcome to AEP Reading and Writing 6.

Welcome to term 1 of 2010, and to the level 6 AEP Reading and Writing class.

If you have already had a look through Quest 3 reading and Writing [Quest], you will have noticed that every chapter includes two types of writing exercise: a response writing activity and an academic writing assignment. For example, in chapter 5, "The Nature of Poetry", the response writing is exercise F. on page 183, and the academic writing is Part 5, on pages 188 to 192 (Hartmann & Blass, 2007). Hartmann and Blass think that both sorts of writing are important; since I agree with them, we will be doing both on a regular basis. In fact, we will aim to do both a little more often than the one of each per chapter that Quest asks for.

The academic writing exercises are fairly straight forward, and we will do the preparation necessary for those as we come to them. This blog is where we will do the less formal response writings. In case you are new to blogging, don't worry. Once you've joined our class blog and written your first post, it will be easy. The instructions that Hartmann and Blass provide in exercise F. on page 183 give a fairly clear idea of what response writing is all about, as well as how to do it, including how not to do it, although we might change that a little for some of our response writings.

Just as we will be writing more than is included in the chapters of Quest, so too will we be reading outside of Quest. And having read something, we want to share our ideas about it, so that will also be a source of topics to write about, both here and in academic writing assignments.

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References

Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.