Heathrow third runway opponents win court challenge

The article "Heathrow third runway opponents win court challenge " in BBC NEWS is catch my interest. THis article is about the high court's judgement on plans for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. The judge stated that said "the government's public consultation did not take account of the latest information on economic benefits and climate change and was based on figures which were eight years old". However, Prime Minister Gordon Brown said "the runway was still needed" and "entirely compatible with our carbon reduction target". Nowadays, Heathrow aieport runs at its full capacity. Therefore, airport expansion is necessary for UK economic growth in the future.

In my views, the Heatrow third runway expansion's plan should reviews. The govermant should consider public hearing to access the cost and benifit analysis of this project. However, the opponents should open up their minds for the benifit for their country. Althought, the expantion of the airports may cause undesired effects to the environment, the well-managed plan can absorb this effects.
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References
"Heathrow third runway opponents win court challenge".(March 26, 2010). The BBC News. Retrieved March 31, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/8588220.stm

new drug for HIV patients

"HIV patients 'need drug lifeline'" in BBC News states that a new drug can save HIV patients's life and money that they have to pay for the cost of drug because this drug can help them expand their life, and it is very cheap. Although a quarter of people who start taking this drug died in the first few weeks because of their weaken immune system, in long term the drug is very good to prevent the death. However, the problem is that people who need it cannot access it; the amount of it is not enough for every patient.

This is a good news; although some people cannot access it, they have more chance and more hope to continue their lives. When the scientists know how to make it, they can produce it more and more, and the cost will be cheaper. However, now people may try to get it by using money and power, so the international organization should be in charge of this situation. They may set the rule to give the drug for people who are going to die before other patients. What do you think about this solution? Do you have other solutions? Also, what do you think if you are the patient, will you take this drug? Because the risk of death from the drug is very high, I would like to know your reasons.

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References

HIV patients 'need drug lifeline'. (2010, March 28). BBC News. Retrieved March 30, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8589959.stm

Being unemployed by a tweet!

In the New York Times, there is an article called "Keeping a Closer Eye on Employees’ Social Networking" which instatnly caught my eyes. The article is about a newly released program named Social Sentry, which can be very useful for employers to keep an eye on their employees' habits on social networking. Not only what are tweeted or published on Twitter and Facebook , this intelligent program can help the company calculates times the employees are spending on those sites, too. Watching out on social networking of employees is not supposed to be only about laziness and incompetence of employees, more importantly it is about company confidential revealing via tweets or posts. Embarrassing information is supposed to kept in the company and not for the world to know, so, some employers are likely to think that it is their rights to know what are on their employees' facbooks. According to the article, the employer has the right to check, since it's nothing personal, those users put it on for the world to see, unfortunately that "world" includes the one who hired them. Even the president of the National Workrights Institute doesn't seem to be pity of those who got themselves into this situation, or getting fired because of posting things they're not supposed to that is, since “You’re putting it out there for the world.”, said the man.

This article at first seems to be hilarious to me; however, when I looked closer into it, it seems to be a real problem for salary men everywhere. Office-people are people who commonly use those social networking websites, and they would think of the sites as private and personal spaces to say and complain whatever they want to. Apparently, it's not, but some of them are unaware of the fact that when you posted things on the sites, even when you are not using your real name, everyone will be able to see it, including your parents and worst of all your employers. I saw lots of people complaining about their bosses on Twitter, that could cost you to lose your job, I think I should warn my senior friends from now on. If this program becomes popular, none of us will be safe, I am wondered what the social network sites have to say about this. I know that Facebook has system to protect your information, you can choose who can see your information. But this program is developing to include things you post on Youtube and other sites, too. It would be interesting to see how it effects our habits of using social network and also the social network companies themselves.

What are your opinion on this isssue? It's not illegal since you're the one choosing to post things for the world to see; however, it would destroy all the fun, isn't it? It would be like "Oh, my boss sent me a friend request/following request on Facebook/Twitter, and I must accept/allow it" and "What about my beach party pictures from when I lied to my boss that I was sick? Must I delete it all out?".

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References

BRUSTEIN, J. (March 26, 2010). Keeping a Closer Eye on Employees’ Social Networking. The New York Times. Retrieved March 28, 2010 from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/26/keeping-a-closer-eye-on-workers-social-networking/?ref=technology

Moral High Ground of US and Russia

The artical "US and Russia announce deal to cut nuclear weapons" in BBC News catch my interest.
US and Russia, the two largest nuclear powers in the world, finally agree to reduce the nuclear weapons. They are going to sign the treaty this April. US President Barack Obama said that it is the most comprehensive weapons agreement since first Treaty issued in 1991. This is a signal from the two leading countries to stop spreading of nuclear weapons and force countries with the weapon to follow. According to the new treaty, both US and Russia have to limit the amount of nuclear weapons, missiles and bombers. For example, nuclear weapons is limited to a maximum of 1,550. That means US has to cut around 25%, while Russia has to cut around 30%. It is estimated that it takes around seven years in reduction. Last year US president expressed his vision of getting rid of nuclear weapons. Therefore, this year is “The timing and symbolism of the deal are crucial, enabling both countries to claim some moral high ground going into next month's Washington Summit on nuclear security,” (π21). Moreover, US and Russia expect that the issuing will forces countries having the weapons, especially Iran, to stop develop nuclear weapons as well.

In my opinion, the agreement is a method that US use to suppress terrorism because US expects that the treaty will forces the enemies that US call Axis of Evil which consist of Iraq, Iran, North Korea to stop developing nuclear weapons. US think that these countries threaten to US’s security by supporting the terrorist. Therefore, US uses every measures to deal with these countries. We know that since the Cold War Era, US and Russia were the most powerful countries in the world. They tried to balance their power in every aspects for example science, economy, society, and politics. Developing Nuclear weapons is a line that they highly competed. This leads both countries to be the two largest nuclear powers in current world. I also think it is a good sign that both countries seriously manage with the issue and we know that last year US president announced to make the world has no nuclear weapons. In my opinion, the agreement make both US and Russia portray themselves as being anti-nuclear weapon by taking moral high ground of not agreeing with having the weapons. I think that this agreement cannot reducing a lot of their weapons in the countries. According to the news, US has more than 2,000 deployed strategic nuclear weapons, while Russia has more than 2,500, and the limitation is to reach 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear weapons. We know that there are many issues that need cooperation from countries across the world. But US neglects to follow such as carbon emission. It seem like she creates double standard that make other countries unsatisfied. However, no countries can deal with US because she is the only powerful country in our world now.

"US and Russia announce deal to cut nuclear weapons"(March 26, 2010), The BBC News, Retrieved March 27, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8589385.stm

The benefit of failure, nothing about being more experienced.

I find an article "Sabotaging Success, but to What End" in The New York Times, very interesting. It talks about the psychology of people who usually consider themselves under constant misfortune and mistreat from other people, known as "self-defeating". Friedman discusses the benefit of this behavior that this mechanism can help them feel "morally superior" to those who mistreat them. He gives an example of one of his patient who keeps thinking that her children and freinds does not care for her. When she meet the doctor, she predicts that he might not be able to help her too. One common theme of this group of patient is the variation of the phrase "Is it my fault that life is unfair?" The author concludes that when a patient reports failure and misfortune in many aspects of their life, therapist should take caution that it might be self-created rather than the effect from the outside.

This article addresses the problem similar to Dr. Seligman's learned helplessness. People who suffer failure many times in their lives tend to lose their confidence and expect a coming failure rather than a success. Another group is people who expect failure as a self-defence mechanism so that when they really get failure they would not be very disappointed. However, this concept is slightly different in that besides living in a miserable life, full of failure and mistreatment, they also push responsiblity to outside factors, including people and situation around them. These three groups share common characteristic in that all of them expect failure rather than success, and live in a gloomy world. Being psychologically healthy is one of the most important factors for well-being.

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References

Friedman, R. (March 22, 2010). Sabotaging Success, but to What End. The New York Times. Retrieved March 26, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/health/23mind.html?ref=science

Should Egypt bans VoIP services from operators such as Skype?

The topic “Egypt bans VoIP services from operators such as Skype” in BBC News make me wonder why Egypt has to ban the helpful service like voice over internet protocal (VoIP) services provided by Skype and other providers on mobile phone.

According to the news, free mobile calls via the internet provided by Skype or other operators have been banned by Egypt because Egyptian law states that all international call must pass through state-owned Egypte telecom (¶3). However, the ban doesn't cover vioce call performed on fixed line internet. At this weekend, Egypt's three mobile operators consist of Vodafone, Mobinil and Etisalatthis are going to apply this policy. Surprisingly, Egypt is not the first country to ban this services. The United Arab Emirates just annouced earlier this month that it would not give VoIP licenses to international companies.

In my opinion, I don't understand why the Egyptian's government has launched this law. What are they concerns? Why does the government ban only services on mobile phone but not ban on the fixed line internet? What different between both of them in term of security or something else? I think VoIP services are very helpful for people because they can save a lot of money on their international calling fee. Some people have to deal about their business every time and everywhere, so it might be inconvenient for them to use these services through fixed line internet.

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References

Egypt bans VoIP services from operators such as Skype. (2010, March 24). BBC News. Retrieved March 25, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8585998.stm

Raising the minimum price of alcohol 'benefits all'

Nowsaday, alcohol consumption has increased dramatically. In Thailand,Deputy Public Health Minister, Manit Nop-amornbodi, stated that the overall sale of alcohol during March 2009 was 219 million liters, increasing from the same period of 2008 which sold 197 million liters. Therefore, Thai government try to figure out an effective solution to reduce drinking among Thai citizens. The article "Raising the minimum price of alcohol 'benefits all' " showed a possible solution to curb the raising alcohol comsumption.

In the article, researchers said that "Raising the price of alcohol would have health benefits for all drinkers, not just the heaviest". If the policy was introduced,the minimum cost at 50p per unit of alcohol would save up to 50,000 people from illness in a decade. According to The Law of Demand,there is an inverse relationship between the price of a good and demand. When the price of alcohol increase, the consumer of alcohol will decrease. Thus, establishing a minimum price, as well as restricting promotions, would be the most effective way to reduce the harm caused by alcohol. Dr Robin Purshouse and his team calculated that a 50p price increase leads to 2,900 fewer premature deaths a year and 41,000 fewer cases of chronic illness.

In my opinion, the raising the minimum price of alcohol is a good way to combat the raising alcohol comsumption. If the Law of Demand applicable in Thailand, increasing the price of alcohol will reduce alcohol consumption.


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References
Roberts, M. (2010, March 24). Raising the minimum price of alcohol 'benefits all' . BBC News. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8582993.stm

Knowing what's best: Google v. China on ignorance

Over the past few days, the stakes have been raised in the conflict between the Internet giant Google, and the economic giant China. In January, Google announced that it was considering ending its conciliatory practice of censoring search results in China (Google stops censoring, 2010; Searching questions, 2010). This was seen as a threat by the dictatorial Chinese government, which responded with the expected threatening language.

Google has now made good its promise of providing Chinese citizens with uncensored search results, as reported both on the BBC News (Google stops censoring, 2010; Shiels, 2010) and The Economist (Searching questions, 2010). Although continuing to threaten, China has not as yet blocked its citizens from accessing the uncensored information. The world awaits the next move by China. Will it block mainland access to Google's Hong Kong servers, which are supplying the uncensored search results? Will it take legal action against Google? In his interview with Steve Lohr of The New York Times on Monday, Sergey Brin, one of Google's founders, sounds fairly optimistic that the plug will not be pulled, that perhaps China sees the move to Hong Kong as a face saving solution for itself in the face of ever mounting demands from Chinese citizens for the legal right to seek, find and share knowledge on matters that concern them, such as their own recent history (2010).
And as Brin makes clear in the interview, the decisive question for him personally was censorship and the right to free speech. This reminds us of John Stuart Mill's insistence in On Liberty of the requirement to allow free speech (Introductory & Of the liberty of thought and discussion), which he defines very broadly to cover not only the right to peacefully express an honestly held opinion, but also the right to seek other opinions and knowledge, to hold any belief and to make share those ideas with others, always, but only, provided that doing so does not harm any other person or infringe on any of their rights, of which that they not be offended is not a right. Having grown up in Soviet Russia, Brin realizes the evil of political censorship and he is clear that his personal experience there, and the harm that oppressive government policy inflicts on citizens, was at least a significant factor in Google's decision to no longer cooperate with China's unjust laws designed to keep Chinese citizens in a state of ignorance and to prevent them from sharing ideas with one another.

What I didn't get around to noting yesterday is that apart from any moral questions, it is foolish and harmful to censor the internet and to prevent citizens from discussing topics that really are important to them and the political and social structure of a society.

I would finally add that Earth's post today, "Should Egypt bans VoIP services from operators such as Skype?", seems to address a closely related issue.

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References

Google stops censoring search results in China. (2010, March 23). BBC News. Retrieved March 24 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8581393.stm

Lohr, S. (2010, March 22). Interview: Sergey Brin on Google’s China Move [Blog post]. Bits, on The New York Times. Retrieved March 24, 2010 from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/interview-sergey-brin-on-googles-china-gambit/?src=tptw

Searching questions. (2010, March 22). The Economist. Retrieved March 24 from http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15760510

Shiels, M. (2010, March 23). Google and China's chess game [Blog post]. dot.Maggie on BBC News. Retrieved March 24 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/maggieshiels/2010/03/google_china_chess_game.html

In The New York Times and on the BBC News, there are several other articles on the same issue, discussing it from different perspectives.

Good fat

This topic relates to my previous post, which is 'How many hours should we sleep?'. They are about fat.

According to "'Good fat' cuts heart risk by a fifth, study shows", the polyunsaturated fats, which are found in some fish and vegetable oils, can reduce the risk of heart disease because these fats increase the level of good cholesterol, while the saturated fats, found in butter and meat, increase the level of bad cholesterol which blocks flowing of blood to heart. However, this research did not study about monounsaturated fats, found in olive and rapeseed oils.

From this research, we will see that some fats are good for our health, so we should consider that what we should or should not eat. Now we know that we should eat fish and vegetable to get the good fats, but we still don't know that the fats from olive and rapeseed oils are good or bad; therefore, we don't know that we should eat them more or less. However, although butter and meat give the bad fats, we should eat it; but not too much; to get other nutrients. We should balance our diet.

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References

'Good fat' cuts heart risk by a fifth, study shows. (2010, March 23). BBC News. Retrieved March 23, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8580899.stm

Smartphone overseas web warning

Nowadays, mobile phone became our part. With the advance technology of cellphone or smart phone, this make people access the internet anytime and everywhere. However, smartphone may cause a problem when you go aboard.

The article "Smartphone overseas web warning" show that going abroad with smartphones can make user overhang with the huge bills because your smart phone connect to the internet. The author say that "One German man was reported to have been charged £41,000 after downloading a television programme onto his phone" because the operator charge £8 for every megabyte downloaded. In order to prevent this problem,the European Union will impose limit bills for data downloading at the limit of 50 euros (£45) a month.

In my opinion, I support this idea to limit bills for data downloading. It would be better if operator in Thailand adopt this policy. Last month, when my brother bring Iphone when he travel in Japan, he was shock with the roaming data bill. Althought, the operator offer the 80% of the bills, he still need to pay for data roaming about two thousands.
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References
Milligan, B. (2010, March 20).Smartphone overseas web warning. BBC News. Retrieved March 21, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8576941.stm

Is it enough to apologize with only a cheesecake?

The article name of the news “New York police say sorry with cheesecake to pensioners” in BBC News catches my interest because it makes me wonder what happen to pensioners and why New York police have to bring Cheesecake to apologize them.

According to the news, Walter and Rose Martin, aged 83 and 82, have had to confront with 50 mistaken police visits to their home for eight years because of a computer technical problem which has occurred since 2002. The latest unwelcome visit happened on Tuesday. Officers moved along heavily and noisily to both front and back doors with shouting "Police, open up!" Therefore, a chief of New York police has brought a cheesecake to apologize them at their house in Brooklyn on Friday. Now, the Martin's address had now been flagged with alerts "barring officers" from questioning the octogenarians (¶8).

After I read this news, I think that how frightened I am if I have to meet 50 unpleasant visits by police together with shouting “Police, open up!” throughout eight years when staying home. Moreover, I don’t quite understand why the house owners haven’t informed related institutes to deal with this problem since these early happened eight years ago. How can they tolerate with terrible situations very long time? If they’ve already informed related institutes, haven’t they done anything to solve this problem? Is it enough to bring only a cheesecake to apologize this serious mistake? Should they do more anything to show their responsibility? What will happen if these two old people have a heart attack and they die because they shock? However, this is better than doing nothing because at least we know that police admit their mistake.

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References
New York police say sorry with cheesecake to pensioners. (2010, March 20) BBC News. Retrieved March 21, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8577579.stm

Inappropriate use of ambulance service

After I read the news “Emergency driver 'who gave revelers a lift' suspended” in BBC News, it makes me think about an idiom “Walls have ears” which is similar to a Thai idiom that means when we want to say or do something, we should be careful because someone may be listening or noticing.

According to the news, Freelance photographer Paul King can take photographs of a paramedic's vehicle in which the driver is picking a group of female revelers in Berkshire. This driver is an employee of MediForce Ltd which is a private contractor providing emergency ambulance vehicles and staff for South Central Ambulance Service. This inappropriate use of ambulance is considered a serious problem, so the driver would remain suspended until the probe is complete.

Actually, I don’t like the way that paparazzi work because it violates human’s private right. However, this is a good job because the photographer captured the incident that is morally wrong. The driver should not use the ambulance which is not his own car to pick up other people during his working period. The ambulance should be available to pick up a patient to a hospital, not to pick up others to their private places as taxi. Therefore, the driver should be punished if he used others’ asset as his own without owner’s permission.

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References
Emergency driver 'who gave revelers a lift' suspended. (2010, March 19) BBC News. Retrieved March 21, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/berkshire/8577425.stm

The battle for Thailand...

Today, I am frightened when a lot of red shirts drove along the street. The traffic is quite jam with the red. The article "The battle for Thailand" catch my interesting. In the article, the author mentions four possible ways of this situation ;however, I will discuss only three of them. First,the red shirts do enjoy considerable popular support, and not just in the poor north-east because the “Populism” policy from Thaksin' government benifit for those of prople. Second, whatever Mr Thaksin’s faults, his supporters have a point to defend his guity such as the current goverment is not democratic.Third,the political system has all but broken down, as the government itself tacitly admits when it argues that an election would not solve Thailand’s problems. Although there have a new election, the problem still exist. The PAD will not accept if Thaksin's nominee win the election or vice versa.

In my opinion, Thailand still cope with politic instability. The conflict between Thais still not solve because a large gap between Thai people and lack of education. Anyway, I pray for Thailand to be a peachful country soon.
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References
The battle for Thailand.... (2010, March 20). The Economist. Retrieved March 20, 2010 from http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15719095&source=hptextfeature

Greenspan Concedes That the Fed Failed to Gauge the Bubble

The article "Greenspan Concedes That the Fed Failed to Gauge the Bubble", in The New York Times catch my interest. Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve chairman,state that “For years the Federal Reserve had been concerned about the ever-larger size of our financial institutions” and he warned that big bank potential for “unusually large systemic risks”. In this article, Greenspan accepted that central bank failed to diagnose the housing bubble. However, he did not think that interest policy has a problem. He suggest that higher capital requirements and liquidity ratio were the crucial policy prescription. On the contrary,some people argue that argues that a global housing bubble was primarily caused by a sharp drop in long-term interest rates from 2000 to 2005 but Greenspan refuted this arguement.

In my opinion, I think every participants in the financial market take part in financial crisis. According to Liu article, financial companies on wall street have moral hazard. They take too muck risk in thir business for their large profits. Moreover, the regulator failed to monitor the problem and take action to limit financial institute risk exposure. Therefore, the participants take parts in causing financial crisis.

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References

Chan, S. (2010, March 18) Concedes That the Fed Failed to Gauge the Bubble. The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/19/business/economy/19fed.html?ref=business

some treatments cause death

In "Infection killing cancer children", Emma Wilkinson says that 25% of children who were blood cancer died because of infection, which was more than those who died because of cancer. This happened because the infection make immune system weak and the new target of researchers is finding new "therapies with fewer side effects on immune system" (¶ 18).

Some therapies have many bad and severe effects which can cause death. Even though a patient gets the best doctor and medical equipments, there is no guarantee that the therapy will succeed. Even some medicines, they have many effects and can make you feel bad. Therefore, the best way is keeping healthy by regularly doing exercises and eating healthy food.

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References

Wilkinson, E. (2009, May 9). Infection killing cancer children. BBC News. Retrieved March 19, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8040546.stm

Progress in a scientific research

The news “Glowing fruit fly sperm yields real time results” in BBC News updates us another achievement in a scientific research which maybe give big benefit to human life in the future.

According to the news, US researchers from Syracuse University can track seed’s progress inside female fruit flies in real time by using glowing sperm. They also can see competition between the sperm of the potential fathers as they try to fertilize the eggs in case a female mates with more than one male. This process is a main point of sexual selection which is a significant force for evolutionary change. Therefore, researchers expect that this discovery will help them deeply understand human reproduction and can help to solve problems happening in human fertilization as well.

This discovery is another success that might help human to reduce the number of disabled newborn baby in the future. At this time, researchers can track each sperm in female in the real time, so they can know how each sperm battles to the others. Therefore, in the near future, when the technology is more advance, researchers might be able to control each sperm during fertilization process and help the best sperm to fertilize with eggs which bring about perfect baby. However, I’m afraid that if there are only perfect baby in the future, how high competition will happen in our society?


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References
Glowing fruit fly sperm yields real time results. (2010, March 19) BBC News. Retrieved March 19, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8575648.stm

Do the commandments in each religion at the present less strict than in the past?

In Buddhism, there are five precepts that all Buddhist especially monks should perform strictly. One of them is a commitment to abstain from sexual misconduct. However, I always heard news that monks broke this rule. Therefore, the news “Pope to sign letter on Irish pedophile priests” in BBC News catch my interest because it shows that this problem happens in other religions as well.

According to the news, there are disgraceful events happening with Roman Catholic. Many countries including the Pope’s native Germany reported that Roman Catholic priests did the sexual harassment to children. Therefore, Pope Benedict has written a message to expresses his contribution for shameful behavior caused by priests not only in Ireland but also in America, his native Germany, Austria, the Netherlands and even Australia. Moreover, he has also written guidelines about preventing and punishing sexual abuse of children by priests which will be sent to publish at the Vatican on Saturday and to be read out in the Catholics of Ireland’s churches on Sunday.

In my opinion, our society has changed a lot in many ways including sex. In the past, I hardly ever heard the news about gays, lesbian, or sexual harassment to children, whereas in the present, we can hear this kind of news almost everyday. I don’t know what happen to our society despite the fact that our society should be better in every way. We have religions to be our guideline how we should perform in order that we will not cause any troubles to others. Therefore, persons who deeply study religious doctrine such as monks in Buddhism or priests in Christianity should be role model to others by performing well instead of doing something wrong like this news.

References
Willey, D. (2010, March 19). Pope to sign letter on Irish paedophile priests. BBC News. Retrieved March 19, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8575734.stm

The companies in Wall street

The article "Lehman’s Demise, Dissected" in The New York Times catches my interest. Cohan examines the root of the problem in financial sector in the USA. I think his explanation of the cause of the crisis is very accurate and get to the point. It can account for why many finance company made such a reckless decision about the risk. In his article, he points out that the companies in Wall street mostly reward those who generate the revenue for the company most without considering the risk that they need to bear. The article says that these companies are the few ones that pays out 50 to 60 percent of the revenue to employees. This situation occurs because now most of these companies become public companies. Unlike the past that the money came from the partners of the company, now the money comes from public. They would run business with less care in order to maximize the revenue, thus attracting more investors to buy their stocks. The article suggests that, instead of promoting such a reckless investment in order to maximize the revenue, the companies should reward the employees who make a prudent decision and make a long-term profit, not the ones that make most revenue with a great risk.

I agree with this article in that now such finance institutes take too much risk without considering that the money they invest belong to other people. Their actions are very irresponsible. However, this might be the nature of such a company in that they would generate as much revenue as possible so that they could attract large amount of investment from the public. This might take a long time to change the tradition of such a company. In the short term, strict regulations from the government might be able to prevent such financial disasters. On the other hand, the investors should keep their greed in check If the companies take too much risk, although the price keep skyrocketing, the investors should avoid them rather than jump to the bandwagon.

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References

Cohan, W. (2010, March 18) Lehman’s Demise, Dissected. The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2010 from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/18/lehmans-demise-dissected/

So, we're in the city of Voldemort's or what?

This article is based on the blood spilling incidents which happened in Bangkok. It is from the BBCNews, named "Symbolism and beliefs behind Thai blood protest", and features information and analysis on the events which have been troubling Thailand for the last few years.

As stated in the article, "red-shirt leaders said the blood spilling was a sacrifice for democracy and a curse on the government". There were even ceremonies created at the entrances of the house of parliament. Thus, the incidents actually were about the belief in black magic. There were also some of incidents happened before, which represent Thai people's beliefs in black magic which mean not only the red-shirt but also the yellow-shirt, Thai political leaders and military elites believe in black magic. Some of the protestors also wear large amulets and hope to be safe through out the protest.

I feel ashamed when I read this article. I don't want the world to see Thailand as a country fulled of superstitious nonsense, but sadly, it is. I don't get those people, we are Bhuddist, the Buddha taught us not to believe anything and anyone, not even him, instantly and without justly consideration of our own. The ceremonies are certainly not Bhuddism. Worshiping amulets because of hoping they would safe your butts is not Bhuddism. I feel sorry for Thai kids, they have very terrible role models and our education system is clearly terrible, too, terrible enough to produce elites who believe in black magic and curses. If the political elites are like this, how can we save our people from rubbing banana trees in hope to find ultimate numbers to buy lotteries?

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References

Symbolism and beliefs behind Thai blood protest. (2010, March 18). BBC News. Retrieved March 18, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8574225.stm

Teen Hackers

To follow up my yesterday's blog post, this blog is about another article in BBCNews called "Hacking "fun" for British teens". It is not surprising that teens can hack, since the majority of teens everywhere are likely to spend most of their freetime on computers, so they sure are good at computer. Also, teens always known for their curiousities, thus, it's natural that they hack, or try to hack, others' passwords into personal websites or information. However, from looking at the statistic, the situation must be taken into account. It turns out that in the survey "one in four young Britons attempts to access the Facebook accounts of their friends" and the reason for doing so is "for fun".

Encouraging teens to spend their freetime exploring how computer works is a good thing to do. Nevertheless, teens are so uncontrolable, without carefully watching from adults they might actually cause real harms somedays. Since the internet is so wide spread nowadays, schools must acknowledge students more. Not only how to use it, but also proper ways to use it, and maybe etiquetes and laws, too. Hacking is illegal, even if teens just do it for fun, aiming it to be pranks, and not really intend for any damages, it is still against the law.

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References

Hacking "fun" for British teens. (2010, March 18). BBC News. Retrieved March 18, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8574259.stm

Pregnant male fish

Do you know some male fishes can pregnant? I just knew that male seahorses pregnant instead of females last year and "Pregnant male fish can choose to make good babies or abort them" caught my interest because I did not think that male fish can think, and then it can choose to abort its babies.

Pipefish which is a seahorse counsin will take care its babies better when it likes its mate. If it does not like its female much, it will invest fewer nutrients and effort, and may use its babies as food for future offspring with better prospects. In addition, this fish tends to like large female.

I think its behavior is the same as human because normally people love their child, but if their child is accidentally born, they may abort or do not take care their child. However, I do not think that this fish can think. Is its behavior instinct? The further researches about how it decides to keep its babies or abort them are interesting, but I think the researches will take a long time to study because it is very difficult to understand the fish's behavior and I would like to know what the researchers will do to find the answer.

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References

Harmon, K. (2010, March 17). Pregnant male fish can choose to make good babies or abort (and consume) them. Scientific American. Retrieved March 18, 2010 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=pregnant-male-fish-can-choose-to-ma-2010-03-17

Female's role in edcation of children

According to the article, "monkeys learn more from females", monkeys are able to learn more from female than male. Scientists said that "females are core group members with higher social status than males...".

I wondered that this result can be applyed to human being. When I think about educaiton of children, kids mostly learn more from their mothers than fathers, at least in my culture, because kids spend much more time with their mothers than fathers. I think that human being need to learn from both sides, males and females, because our society is much more complex.

References
Gill V (2010, March 17), Monkeys learn more from females, BBC NEWS. Retrived March 17, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8571318.stm

Is it easier to be dishonest when we're online?

In the BBC News' Technology section, there is this article, "Cyber crime losses in US almost 'double' during 2009" which reminds me of Ariely's essay on honesty issue. The BBC News reports that online crimes in the US has increased dramatically, the totall loss in 2009 is almost two times more than that of 2008 with the shockingly amount of $560m. Online crime includes scam, freud, and non-delivered merchandise. More than a half of the victims are in their forties or older.

Cheating on cyber space is nothing like doing so in reality, the criminals couldn't see the victims' faces and frequently they don't even know who are their victims, so, it's a lot easier to not feel guilty to cheat. I mean, like grabbing a pen from a convention, the superego doesn't awake when you sell some used books online, get the money and "forget" to send the buyer the books. Furthermore, unlike robbery or fraud, the cyber criminals don't have to use physical ability, so, they feel safer from being caught. When they use the cost-benefit analysis in this situation, they probably feel urged to cheat, since the benefit is not so far and the cost, of being caught that is. is very low.

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References
Cyber crime losses in US almost 'double' during 2009. (2010, March 16). BBC News. Retrieved March 17, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8569805.stm

lack vocabulary

Now we concern about global warming very much and today BBC News presents a new survey in "Africa 'lack vocabulary to deal with climate change'".

"people tend to blame themselves or their peers for local environmental degradation and some see the changes as a form of divine punishment" (¶ 10). Moreover, language is a big problem in some areas because many people do not understand the meaning of climate change; they do not have local words to explain this concept.

I wonder that why they do not have words to explain this situation. I think that normally, we have easy words to explain. Although the meaning is difficult to understand, we can explain it by using examples or comparison with other things that they knew. I believe that the problem is lack of giving information; is not lack of vocabulary. If the problem is lack of vocabulary, what will government do? Will they create new words?
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References

Mcgrath, M. (2010, March 17). Africa 'lack vocabulary to deal with climate change'. BBC News. Retrieved March 17, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8571589.stm

The utility of Bentham's Auto-icon

What would one do with his body after passing away? As we had a discussion about Utilitarianism a couple of days ago, I found an interesting story about Jeremy Bentham, the founder of Utilitarianism, especially about how his body is kept after his death.

Jeremy Bentham(1748-1832), the founder of Utilitarianism, befriended and was contemporary with Mill's father, James Mill. Adopting Bentham's idea, Mill was a strong advocate of Utilitarianism as we have seen in his writing, On Liberty. When he died in 1832, Bentham's remaining was preserved as the "Auto-icon". According to his will, he wanted his body to be kept in a carbinet in the same manner as when he was alive, that is to be "seated in a chair usually occupied by me when living, in the attitude in which I am sitting when engaged in thought in the course of time employed in writing." The Auto-icon was moved to University College London (UCL) in 1850. Nowadays, people can see this Auto-icon and get some inspiration at the end of the South Cloisters of the main building of UCL. People who visit UCL can enjoy priviledge to meet this late famous philosopher in person; however, they can meet him partly. Due to the failure in processing his body, the head got seriously disfigured and looked too horrible to put on his body. As a result, a wax head was placed with his body, instead of the real one.

There is an anecdote about this Auto-icon that it attends the meetings of the College Council. In the meeting, it is wheeled into the room and placed among the current board members. In the report, it would record that "Jeremy Bentham - present but not voting." However, the web in UCL just mentions this anecdote without confirming or refusing it.

People can still visit this Auto-icon and get some inspiration from him. If someone visit him and notice that his lip is moving, paying attention, he might be relating his philosophy to you "the greatest good for the greatest number of people."

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References

Nicoll, I. (2009). Bentham project. Retrieved March 17, 2010 from http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/info/jb.htm

The looming crisis in 2012

The article "Junk Bond Avalanche Looms for Credit Markets" in The New York Times, catches my interest in two respect. First, the name of junk bond is one of the most well-known causes of the current financial crisis. Second, I find its introduction which references to the predicted disaster from Maya in the movie 2012 very effective in catching the reader's interest.

The article tells us that in 2012, the three-year bonds, mostly junk bonds, will come to due date at the amount of 155 billions USD from the whole amount of 700 billions USD. The author expresses the concern that this could trigger the new financial crisis because when the large amount of debt due in the same time, it would be difficult to secure new source of money for refinancing the debt.

I think this problem might cause a difficult situation in 2012 as the author expect. However, it might not be as severe as what the author says. Given that now the USA already realize the scale of the problem as well as it would have already weathered the difficulties in 2009-2011, the situation in 2012 might not create the great damages to the whole financial system as it did in 2008. Furthermore, in current situation, many countries come to realize the importance of well-disciplined financial practice; therefore the coming crisis might not be as serious as it was. Although, in the long run, people might forget the current lesson and commit the similar mistake again, I believe that in the near future, people is unlikely to forget so easily that they would fail to prepare for the coming problem.

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References

schwartz, N. D., (2010, March 15). Junk Bond Avalanche Looms for Credit Markets. The New York Times, Retrieved March 16, 2010 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/16/business/16debt.html?pagewanted=1&hp

command by thinking

"Advances in brain-to-machine connections" in The Economist reminds me of news on TV last year. That news presented a technology which helps disabled people move their hands by thinking and that device had to be implanted in their bodies.

José Contreras-Vidal and his colleagues at the University of Maryland did an experiment by using a cap with sensors. They found that the "sensor over the primary sensorimotor cortex, a region of the brain associated with voluntary movement, was the most accurate" (¶ 5). Moreover, Klaus-Robert Müller of the Berlin Institute of Technology said that if a person wants to get a thing, he do not need to think about moving his hand to get it.

I think it is a good news for disabled people. They can see the development of technology and will have hope. However, I wonder that what happens in the brain when we are thinking to do something. If I want to pick up a glass, is it similar to I want to walk? Because I saw only the test about controlling hand, I want to know whether or not these technology can be used to control legs. Besides, I think about two movies, which are the Surrogate and Avatar. In the movies, the characters can control robots by thinking. I think that the movies reflect the reality and in the future we will be able to do like the characters.

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References
Advances in brain-to-machine connections. (2010, March 11). The Economist. Retrieved March 15, 2010 from http://www.economist.com/science-technology/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15660882

HSBC admits huge Swiss bank data theft

Today, when I read an introductory of the assignment paper, I found this article is related to what's Ariley mentioned in his study.

According to article "HSBC admits huge Swiss bank data theft ",the personal details of HSBC's private banking in Switzerland was stolen by a former employee. However, HSBC had invested 100m Swiss francs in order to upgrade and improve the security of its data systems. In this article, the author state that the reason which some bank employees stealing account data is to pass the information to tax authorities.The US and some countries in Europe want to crack down on tax evasion for the sake of public interest.

In my opinion,this article shows about dishonesty of the people. Not only the bank employee dishonest to his customer by selling their financial information to goverment, but also the people who commit tax evasion are dishonest to their country.
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References
HSBC admits huge Swiss bank data theft.(2010, March 11). The BBC News. Retrieved March 14, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8562381.stm

slave wives in UK

This article remined me domestic violence problem in international married couples , the wives mostly came from south-east asia, in Korea.

Rahila Bano reports that many women came from South Asia are treated like as slave in Brtish home. They have to work inside the house and can not go out. In addtion, when they divorce, they will be deported, so many women do not report it.

Domestic problems are easily to be hidden, so it is difficult to reveal them if the victims don't say it loudly. Those women are minerity in British society. They probably came to UK with a dream that they would be able to make their own happiness. However, the reality is cruel. Even though, they are abused, they can not speak it in public, because they can't speak English well and they must be deported when they divorce. The situation is very unfavorable for the women. A few years ago, there were very similiar issues in Korea, wives came from South -east Asia were abused. Many reports suggested that this problem came from discrimination and misunderstanding of different culture in a family. There is a increasing of internation marriage in Korea, particularily in rural area becasue of surplus of male. According with this, domestic problems are getting increase, too. Many people worry that it will lead many scial problems.


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References
Bano. R (2010, March 14), South Asian 'slave brides' causing concern in UK, BBC NEWS. Retrieved March 14, 2010 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8566102.stm

Big mistake of Toyota

The article “California sues Toyota for faults” in The BBC News catches my interest because I’ve heard this news for a few months and I think this problem’s already been solved by Toyota. Therefore, I wonder why this problem still exists in the US. Moreover, some detail of this news also makes me surprise.

According to the article, hundreds of thousands of Toyota’s vehicles were sold to customers despite the fact that the company knew these vehicles had accelerating and braking problems. From these mistakes, it caused accidents in the US many times. Orange County District Attorney, Tony Rackauckas, said that "We'll be alleging in court, on behalf of the people of Orange County, that Toyota knowingly sold cars and trucks with defects that caused Toyotas to accelerate suddenly and uncontrollably," (¶6) Therefore, the prosecutors in California are processing to sue Toyota about these.

In my opinion, making mistake is normal that can be happened in production process. It is acceptable if producers try to eliminate and minimize their mistakes with their full capabilities, and they are not big mistakes and don’t cause any damages to other people. Moreover, if the company can detect faults occurring with their products after sales, the company should take responsibility to their customers by warning them these mistakes and change the new products to their customers immediately. However, in this case, in spite of defects detected by the company; they still sold them to their customers and didn’t take any actions to show their responsibility. On the other hand, the company tried to conceal them so it led to damages to other people’ life and assets. Therefore, suing is the right thing that California should do.

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References

Rajesh Mirchandani. (2010, March 13). California sues Toyota for faults. The BBC News. Retrieved March 14, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8565637.stm

Do you want to try this sushi?

Do you like to eat sushi? "Sushi chef, restaurant charged with serving whale" in Scientific American talks about sushi with whale in California. Do you want to try?

According to the news, a sushi chef and restaurant have been charged because the sushi chef served whale meat to two customers. He violated the Marine Mammal Protection Act; he sold illegally. U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr. said that "Someone should not be able to walk into a restaurant and order a plate of an endangered species," (¶ 4).

I think that everyone knows that whale is an endangered species and it is illegal to kill, buy and sell these meats. The following questions are that why the chef and restaurant sold it and why they were not afraid of the law. Do they think about morality? Moreover, in the news only the chef and restaurant got the punishment. How about the customers? I think we should punish them too. However, they might not know that this serve made from whale meat while they ordered or they might work for the officer.

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References

Sushi chef, restaurant charged with serving whale. (2010, March 11). Scientific American. Retrieved March 14, 2010 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=sushi-restaurant-whale

Should Chinese government block Google?

A few months ago, I heard news which Chinese government has blocked some popular websites such as Google and Facebook because of security reasons, but I don’t much understand them. Therefore, the article “China warns Google to comply with censorship laws” in The BBC News catches my interest because I want to know how Google will take action.

According to the article, Google started operating in China in 2006 in order to widespread criticism. Unfortunately, it broke China’s internet censorship law. Li Yizhong, Minister of Industry and Information Technology said "We need to preserve our nation's interest, our people's interest, we cannot be relaxed with any information that will cause harm to the stability of our society, to our system, and to the health of our under-age young people," (¶5) "So, of course, what needs to be shut down will be shut down, what needs to be blocked will be blocked." (¶6) Therefore, if Google want to continue providing their website in China, they have to comply and respect the Chinese government's laws and regulations otherwise they have to pay the consequences. However, Google declared to close google.cn in January and would not abide by China’s internet censorship laws anymore because of censorship and a hacking attack on the portal. Nevertheless, Chinese government said that although Google stopped providing their services in China, it caused small effects to Chinese because Google hold less than a third of the search engine market in China, while Baidu, Chinese search engine, hold about 60%.

I disagree with this China’s law because personally I think Google is a very useful website. I can search for everything that I want to know from every country around the world within a minute. I always start searching from Google when I have no idea about which website I can get information that I want. Therefore, Google likes a gateway to other websites for me. From these reasons, I think it’s not fair to Chinese people that they have no right to access this useful website. I don’t understand what Chinese government is afraid of if their people can access Google. Does government try to conceal some facts from their people? Moreover, government should not think that most of their people can use Baidu instead of Google, so it doesn’t matter that Google will quit from China. They should concern other foreigners living in China as well. These people cannot understand Chinese very well, so it’s difficult for them to search for information in Chinese website. Therefore, I strongly disagree with this policy.

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References

China warns Google to comply with censorship laws. (2010, March 12). The BBC News. Retrieved March 14, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8564822.stm

Greece's Difficult Task

The news about the problems in Greece last week make the article "EU close to Greece bail-out deal, officials say" in BBC News catch my interest.
EU countries agree to aid Greece in case the country request for any help. Greece has faced severe problems of the huge government's budget deficit that exceed the limit of EU rule by more than four times that make Greece has no money to pay back her foreign debt that will meet the deal in the next couple month. The rescue plan is amount to 25 bn euros which may include the provision plan, and a bound issue guarantees by EU. This help is only from EU country mainly from Germany and France where the the people in the former is strong oppose to this help. EU officials state that the problem in Greece will make harm to the creditability of EU countries. For Greek, they has been strikes and protest due to the government try to solve the problems by issuing austerity measures.

The main reason that make Greece encounter difficult time is from lacking sufficient discipline in government's spending. When government tries to solve it such as issuing incresed tax collecting, cutting government spending that make people be upset that lead to domestic chaos. After a long period of making decision whether to help the Greece or not, EU finally makes decision to help Greece, eventhough a big country like Germany disagree to the aid. I think EU intense carefully considering pros and cons of the situation. If EU does not help Greece, the country would get into economic collaspe that tend to spillover to other countries among the region like the situation that occuring in the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis. This will make the regions get worse and spread to the rest of the world. At the same time, the rescue scheme for Greece will make the country lack resp0nse to her mistake and the situation might happen in the future. Therefore, the strict rules such as austerity's measure should be included to help reduce the budget's deficit in the future. I think it is difficult task for Greek government to reduce deficit without making people get angry.
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References
EU close to Greece bail-out deals, officials say, in BBC News
Retrived from http://bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8565623.stm

Unpleasant Demonstration

This period, Thailand 's politic is in heated atmospere. Thousand of people from upcountry rally to protest againt the government. I found the article "Thousands attend anti-Berlusconi protest in Rome" in BBC News which match with this Thailand 's situation draw my interest.
Thousands of people gather in Rome to protest againt the Prime Ministor who was blamed of sending his electoral list missed the deadline but it was still in effective. The country is going to set the elections at the end of this month. He excused that someone try to destroy his party and he did this with the reason of the country's benefit.
I think everyone have freedom to express their ideas as their basic right, but it should be in the way that do not make harm to others's basic right. I agree with the protest in Itally because at this period I have heard the news of protest in Italy several times due to people are suffered from his several government's scandal such as corruption, Prime Ministor's scandal. Prime Ministor use his power to serve his own benefits. For example, Prime Ministor dominates the entire media of the country. Compare to Itally, Thailand also have similar problem of corruption, income inequality. Many people dislike the government's activities. I also think that government does not really try to solve the problems but I quite disagree with the protest in this period because the country is going to get recovery from economic problems. This politic's problem will make the country get worse.
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References
Thousands attend anti-Berlusconi protest in Rome in BBC News. Retrived from http://news.bbc.co.uk/

Study promising medicine for curing vegetative patients

I came across a very interesting article about new treatment for vegetative patients, the patients who cannot respond to the outside world and need to lie on the bed, in Scinetific america. The article "Consciousness-Raising: Kick-Starting the Brain's Dopamine System May Revive Some Vegetative Patients" tells us the new finding in treating vegetative patients by stimulating dopamine, the neuron transmitter, in their brain.

The article reports that Esteban Fridman find that the medicine called apomorphine can be used to treat vegetative patients. From eight cases, seven patients can regain their consciousness, among which one of them can drive a car by himself. Fridman makes a hypothesis that, since the neuron system in the vegetative patients cannot exchange data, if we can stimulate dopamine, which is one kind of important neurotransmitter chemicals in human body, to work again, the patients could recover from the state of unconsciousness. Fridman chooses apomorphine which when injected into body will binds to dopamine. Although there are other kinds of medicine that can bind with dopamine, the patients respond to none of them. Fridman will make a further formal study on the effect of apomorphine on vegetative patients.

This study would give light of hope to many families who live in misery due to their relatives who suffer this problem. Hopefully, this medicine can work in a larger scale so that it can be used to treat with other patients who are suffering from this symptom. Currently, we still have inadequate knowledge about how brain function, a lot of problems on brain damages such as alzeimer are still beyond our ability to cure them. Like in Fridman's study, although another medicine can bind with dopamine, it is only apomorphine to which the patients responded. The knowledge about the mechanism of medicine in human body is still speculative. We can know only if some medicine work, but not how it works. Maybe if the nanotechnology become more advanced, people can have better instrument to track medicine in our body, we might gain sufficient knowledge to explain what is going on in our body, so that we can cure the disease about brain and neuron system more efficiently. Personally, I feel afraid of this kind of disease most, it seems to deprive us the ability of thinking. I wonder if we cannot think, where would we be.

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References

Emspak, J. (2010, Mar 12th) Consciousness-raising: kick-starting the brain's dopamine system may revive some vegetative patients., Scientific American, Retrieved Mar 13th, 2010 from
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=apomorphine-dopamine-vegetative

Germany's robust economy

Since usually countries in Europe have high quality of welfare system, I always presume that the economics of these countries are be less competitive than those with less welfare system. The article "Europe's engine: Why Germany needs to change, both for its own sake and for other " in The Economists draws my attention because it gives me the new outlook about Germany.

The article gives information about Germany's economy. It says that from 2000 to 2008 Germany can reduce labor cost 1.4% whereas the US can reduce only 0.8%. Moreover, although countries in Europe suffer much from the economic cirsis in 2008, German' s economy is better than it was ten years ago. It is explained that Germany adopt many structural changes in the economy. And Germany benefits greatly from exporting in EU zone because now every country in EU use the same currency therefore they cannot devalue their money to increase thier competitiveness against Germany. Moreover, German prefer saving to spending; this causes great surplus for the country to invest aboard.

German are well-known for their well-disciplined and hard-working habits. Although now China substitute Germany as the world number one exporter, Germany still has greatest surplus. This reflect how strong and robust Germany's economy is. Germany can weather economic crisis while it can maintain competitiveness. Despite the fact that tax rate in Germany is very high, it can reduce the labor cost without causing much problems on laying off the native employee. This should be a good example for many developing countries which believe that they should avoid investment in infrastructure, keep labor wage low and let people live in bad condition so that they can maintain their competitiveness in international market.

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References

Europe's engine: Why Germany needs to change, both for its own sake and for other (2010, Mar 11th), The Economist. Retrieved Mar 12th, 2010 from http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?story_id=15663362&source=hptextfeature

A problem has arisen about blogging our blog

In an attempt to redeem myself for not showing up in class the forth time this morning, I tried to blog a blog tonight and tried to make it a long one. I started by browsing through our class blog once and read my classmates' blogs that catch my instant attention, then commented on some of them. This process was to be done before I chose an article to write about because ,as far as I am concerned, we shouldn't be blogging on the exact same news, it's kind of violation of an invisible rule for me. I am quite certain that Peter never mention to us that we can or can not blog on the same article, so, it's just my assumption.

However, when I refreshed the page in an attempt to copy a reference to make my own reference I found out that Sunny has just blogged on the same news as mine! I was shocked but amused, and decided to publish mine anyway, since it took me so long to wrote it all and, according to the time shown on the page, I started writing before her. ( Sorry, dear.)

Thus, my question is can we blog on the same article that is also from the same source? I mean, may be in other situations, too. For example, when we read a classmate's blog and feel strongly urged to blog about the artivle, too, maybe on a totally and utterly different perspectives and it is too long and too creative to be just a comment. I do think that my blog and Sunny's blog is not about the same aspect and that's interesting, right?

So, what do you all think about this question?

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References
There is no references on this blog.

electric bike in Beijing

Usually, people think that riding a bicycle has many goodness; helpful for clean air, can avoid traafic jam, so on. However, information of this article suggests different idea.

According to this article, "Beijingers get back on their bikes", Chieses government does not like increasing of electric bikes in Beijing, because they worries that it will cause noise problem and increasing of car. The writer said that government considered seriouly how to define electric bike to reduce sale of electric bikes.

I never visited Beijing, but I know that the city is very big. Almost big cities have a common problem; a terrible traffic jam. Many people try to find out how to avoid it, and how to get to work comfortably. Beijingers chose electric bikes. It has many goodness; it can run faster than normal bikes, it doesn't afect on air pollution, it can help people to get to work on time, so on. Acrually, I don't understand the reason why the government disagree with increasing of electric bikes in Beijing. There would be negative factors such as noise problem, influenece the flow of traffic. However, using of electric bikes has more positiveness than negativeness, if the government find out appropiate definition of electric bikes and set up a good guidline for using it.


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References
Bistow. M(2010, March 11), Beijingers get back on their bike, BBC NEWS. Retrieved from March 11, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8538221.stm

Beijingers get back on their bikes

Do you sick of bad traffics here in Bangkok? Several times, I had to abandon my car or got off the cabs and took a motorcycle ride instead, in order to get to my destination in time. However, motorcycles are very dangerous and bicycles are even more dangerous in Bangkok, as we saw on the news, buses often crash bikes and drag them along the road. Then, when I read this article I thought it would be interesting, since Beijing is very famous as the kingdom of bicycles, now look at the dramatically change that has been happening to the city! This article is from the BBC News and called "Beijingers get back on their bikes ".

After economic development in China, people in Beijing became richer and they started to own cars instead of bicycles. The consequence of that is traffic jams become typical and now people turn back to the two wheels vehicle again, yet, this time the new version with rechargeable battery packs in it. This is when another problem arises, what should the government do to control and organize this kind of vehicle. Electric bike is something in between, it’s not car, though, it’s not as easy to own and maintain as bicycle. Now that electric bike becomes extremely popular, even if it’s friendly with environment, the government is still struggling about how to define it. If it is not defined, electric bikes would be very varied and it can be out of control, for instance, should the owners register theirs?

I just think that maybe electric bikes would be useful in Bangkok, too. However, apart from the part of energy source, I’m quite confused about the different between electric bikes and motorcycles. As I was reading, in the part that is about the defining of electric bike there is an issue about the speed of the vehicle, the example of the definition is that it should not be faster than 20km/hr, which is relatively slow comparing with motorcycles. Then, electric bike is not much faster than bikes but more convenient, no more use of pedals and physical power, it would be useful as replacement of bikes. Thus, on second thought, electric bike is not an ultimate solution for bad traffic in Bangkok, it would be too slow for the hurried life of Thai. My speculation is that it might even cause more troubles, since people would buy and use it easily without any control by the government and it might even be popular, at least more popular than bicycle, because we, Bangkokers, are a bit lazy when it comes to transportation, we always take the easiest and fastest way. Then, more accidents using electric bikes is my guess, and I have a sense that it’s about right.

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References

Bistow. M(2010, March 11), Beijingers get back on their bike, BBC News. retrieved on March 11, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8538221.stm

A new benefit from alcohol for women

In The New York Times, Tara Parker-pope wrote the "Woman who drink gain less weight" article, which caught my eye, because I wonder that what kind of drink and why the drink affects only woman.

A "new research suggests that women who regularly consume moderate amounts of alcohol are less likely to gain weight than nondrinkers and are at lower risk for obesity" (¶ 1) because women are "substitute alcohol for food", whereas men "add alcohol to their daily caloric intake" (¶ 5). Moreover, alcohol increases woman's metabolism. However, the researcher only did the experiment with women who are in US, and 39 years old or more. Also, "an overweight woman may gain more weight from alcohol than a lean woman"(¶ 8), so woman should not drink it to lose weight.

I think that this research is not reliable because it did the experiment with the specific group. I think that American women are different from Thai women both in eating behavior and metabolism. Furthermore, alcohol causes many diseases such as liver cancer and high blood pressure. Although, I have low blood pressure, and some doctors suggest that alcohol is good for me to increase blood pressure, I still do not drink it because I think that its effects are more serious than symptoms of low blood pressure. Besides, I think that its taste is not good.

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References

Parker-pope, T. (2010, March 8). Woman who drink gain less weight. The New York Times. Retrieved March 11, 2010 from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/08/women-drinkers-gain-less-weight/?em

Illegal file-sharing policy criticised by BT boss

Do you ever use bittorrent to load a series or musics? A popularity of the bittorrent come from develop of high-speed Internet. When Internet's connection speed increase, it is more comfortable to share high-definition movies, musics and ect. However, most of the files which sharing are intellectual property piracy.

The article "Illegal file-sharing policy criticised by BT boss " catch my interesting. It mentions that British Telecom plans to suspend the internet accounts of people who download music illegally. According to Ian Livingston,the accounts of illegal file-sharers should be fined instead of cut off in order to combat against online piracy. He said that "He said the money generated by fines could be used to compensate the creative industries or even to support the rollout of broadband across the UK". The new law would allow courts to use injunctions to force internet service providers (ISPs) to block certain websites that facilitate illegal file-sharing. However, it is a controversy issue that this law may "threaten freedom of speech and the open internet..." and also hurt UK online business.

In my opinion, blocking illigal file sharing policy cannot solve the piracy problem because people can access piracy software in the black market or access the file in public place such as internet cafes.
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References
Illegal file-sharing policy criticised by BT boss.(2010, March 10). BBC News. Retrieved March 10, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8559059.stm