Pet Mummification; Loving or Gruesome?

When I saw a big mummified tiger that opened his mouth widely exposing his sharp teeth in a zoo, I was overwhelmed by his fear and panache. Several years after that when I visited my friend’s house, I happened to meet another innocent deer that was hung on the wall boosting spread her antlers, I could not watch her longer than 5 seconds because pitiful feeling waved in my heart. Yesterday, while surfing the internet, I read an article about mummification of pets by chance. The thing which interested me and made me frown was the word Pets not the word mummification.

The NYDaily News reports that “Queen Nefer-kitty: Expert makes dead pets into mummies, pyramids sold separately” A former forensic reconstructionist and embalmer named Cagliastro carries out her work all day which she makes mummies in her lab New York. She has mummified pets from small ones to big ones, such as frogs, birds, guinea pigs, cats, bunnies, and even armadillos, and so on. "To me, mummification is the ultimate honor because there is nothing that would keep your loved one around longer," she said. The price of the mummification is between $800 and $4,000 and a growing number of moaning owners want to seek for her. About 15 years ago, after five or so year's effort, she developed a complex salt formula which is a key secret to mummify pets. The mummies are put with a scrolled up piece of parchment inside, and then wrapped with linen and painted with semi-precious metals, and at last, decorated heirloom jewelry. Caglosastro who experimented on chicken wings at first also plans to mummify humans. She also opens classes at the Observatory in Gowanus, Briiklyn for those who want to learn how it works. "I'm fascinated by this thing called death," Cagliastro said. "It's sort of the only thing that everyone experiences.


While I was reading this article, I thought about what real love about pets is when they are dead. My result of this is that it is not definetely to mummify them. I also considered this question on the side of those who hope to mummify their pets. They will want to keep their dead pets at hand to remind them as Cagliastro said above. However, to leave dead ones at their side is just to show human's greed not to express love about pets. They just want to show how much they loved their pets before. I think that they are similar to the people who hung the deer' heads on the wall in the way that both of them are showing off themselves.


I called my sister who raises a dog and loves him very much like her children. I asked her if she want to mummify her pet after he dies. Her answer didn't deviate from my expectation. She said that to do so is that she Kills a dog after death and it is unnatural thing. She added to see the fixed eyes and to touch the hard body is eldritch and if she mummified her dog, she might want to forget her dog after time goes by. I strongly agree with her and also, I am courious about what my classmates think of this like.

References

Nelson, K. (2011, September 25). Queen Nefer-kitty: Expert makes dead pets into mummies, pyramids sold separately. NYDaily News. Retrieved September 30 from http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2011/09/25/2011-09-25_wrapped_up_in_death_shell_make_your_pet_into_a_mummy.html#ixzz1ZFWInEtd

Foreign Domestic Helpers' Suffering

The amount of total foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong is 300,000. It is thought that around 120,000 have lived here for more than seven years. The work of foreign domestic helper includes housework, cooking and care for the elderly and children. They work hard so that their employers could focus more on their work and leisure. The foreign domestic helpers are a part of the prosperity of Hong Kong.

According to "Philippine immigrant maid wins landmark Hong Kong case" on the BBC News website, today Hong Kong's High Court has ruled that a domestic helper from the Philippines should be allowed to apply for permanent residency in the city. The case was brought by Evangeline Banao Vallejos, who has lived in Hong Kong since 1986. But before that, while other non-Chinese nationals can obtain residency after working in Hong Kong for seven years, immigration rules exclude domestic helpers from seeking permanent residency. Permanent residency means that a person can remain in Hong Kong indefinitely, vote and stand in elections. Without the right to permanent residency, if a maid is dismissed by her employer, she must find another job as a domestic helper or leave Hong Kong within two weeks. Human rights lawyers and many domestic helpers argue that this is a discriminatory policy, so they are very pleased by the ruling. But some politicians and commentators warn that it would allow foreign domestic helpers to bring their children and other relatives to the city, who would require education and housing.

As far as I know, permanent residency is just one of the problems which these foreign domestic helpers had to face. The more pressing concern is working conditions. Some of employers make the work rules and relevant regulations which are considered strict and relentless, such as they are required to sleep in the living room or kitchen. Some foreign domestic helpers suffer from homesickness, employers’ blame and rude requirements, they feel the brink of emotional collapse. But because of the contract, they just comply with and don’t dare to protest.

Nowadays With the uneven economic development, more and more people go abroad to be a domestic helper with their demand for better income and better life. They usually come from economically less developed areas and don’t have a good education. In addition to their physical labor, they don’t have real skills. They are difficult to integrate into the whole society. This is what we call vulnerable groups. I think the government should be more concerned about them. I have heard that Philippine government launches a blacklist plan especially for Filipino overseas workers, if a employer abuse his domestic helpers, he would have been recorded in blacklist, and then he will never be able to find other domestic helpers from Philippines.

On the other hand, Hong Kong government also has his problems to worry about. Hong Kong is considered to be a small place like a pill and the lack of resources. There are a number of foreign domestic helpers there, once the restrictions are canceled, then they would strain the native’s provision of health care, education and public housing. This is also a dilemma of choice to Hong Kong. __________

References

(2011, September 30).Katie Hunt.Philippine immigrant maid wins landmark Hong Kong case.BBC News.Retrieved September 30, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15090597

Effects of Business Failures

Do you know Nokia mobile phone? Have you ever used Nokia mobile phone?

I used to use Nokia mobile phone, which was the most popular mobile phone brand at that time, when I was a high school student in 1994. But I change to use a smartphone now. When I read " Nokia to cut another 3,500 jobs and close a factory" on BBC online news, this news make me shock and recognized me how big of effects of business failure or mistake is.

According to " Nokia to cut another 3,500 jobs and close a factory" on BBC news website, Nokia , which is giant mobile phone company, planed to close a plant in Romania and cut 3,500 jobs in its location division by the end of 2011. The sales of the company fell and margins were squeezed in the second quarter, the firm made a net loss of 368m euros or $521m in three monthes to the end of June, 2011. And Nokia has lost competitors such as Apple's iPhone and phones using Google's Android operating system. Thus, new stategies of the firm are 1bn-euro cost-cutting program and new feature development of mobile phone by focusing on smartphones.

Nowadays, business world changes rapidly so if a company don't adapt something to meet changed customer needs , the firm will not be successful. Nokia Corporation is a Finish multinational communucations corporation and it used to be the leader of mobile phone market with a well-known slogan , Connecting People. In July 2010, Nokia reported a drop in profits by 40%, which turned into an operation loss of EUR 487 million in second quarter of 2011. In the global smartphone competition, Nokia held the third place in 2Q 2011, following Apple and Samsung. I think, one of key success factors of moblie phone business is a development of new innovation which response customer needs quickly. That is one of Nokia's mistakes

Business failures do not only affect directly to firm's net profit, but they also affect to the company stakeholder such as shareholders, employees, customers, members of company's supply chain which are supplier, distributors or members of marketing channels, and so on.

For example, when a company suffer from losses of revenues, the company will cut losses by laying off their emplyees, decreased production capacity, decreased unnecessary expenses and so on. Moreover, unseccessful business plans are causes of increased unemployment rate and decreased economy growth.

What do you think about business failures?

References

Nokia to cut another 3,500 jobs and close a factory. (2011, September 29.) BBC News. Retrieved September 29, 2011 from http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15104959

Nokia. (2011, september 29). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrived 21.00 September 29, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia

The Problem that Affects the Growth of Children

There are many social problems that occur in every countries, especially is family problems. The cause is negligence of family. I think this problem should be considered strongly because the social foundation comes from a family that understands each other.

According to "Our children need time not stuff" on the BBC News website, the research suggests that parents in UK want to be good parents, but they do not have the time.Therefore, they often try to compensate for this by buying their children gadgets and clothes. The report argues that the pressure of the working environment and widespread materialism combine to damage the well-being of the children, most families give money to their children but sometimes they do not want. For this reason, UNICEF has a way to solve this problem. They want politicians to consider specific measures to support families. For example, reform of advertising laws, a living wage so that families earn enough to spend more time with each other, and protection of children's facilities so they have the opportunity to be active.

I think this is a serious problem and widespread in many countries. I absolutely agree that parents need more time with their children even though they do not have enough time, but they should find time to talk with them. In addition, the important thing is that parents should not assume that all goods which they buy can be able to replace the time that their children want. Moreover, I think this is the beginning to make children grow up lacking the warmth of family and can cause the crime problems in the future. For example, in Thailand, it has news about the controversy of teenagers, the reason comes from the fact that parents do not have time to teach their children what should be do and what shouldn't be do. Consequently, I agree with UNICEF's solutions, for I believe that this approach are able to create the close relationship of family even more and reduce the gap between family members.

__________

References

Our children need time not stuff. (2011, September 13). BBC News. Retrieved September 29, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14899148

Should the wealthy people in USA pay high taxes now?

When I read  Who, what, why: How can an American pay extra tax ? on the BBC News website tonight, I am impressed by this group of wealthy people. They really want to help the country in the difficult situation now by paying tax more. I believe this idea is very good.

The BBC news report that Mr Doug Edwards, wealthy former Google executive wants Washington to raise his taxes. If Americans want to pay more than the law is asking, what do you think? He urged Mr Obama to stay strong in pushing for tax increases. He joined billionaire Warren Buffett in a public call for the US Congress to raise income tax rates on the wealthiest Americans.Very wealthy people are stepping up and saying they've been privileged to live in USA and they are willing to pay higher taxes.(P8) As you know that USA is facing budget deficit and national debt now. Mr Edward asked President Barack Obama, at a town hall-style meeting in Silicon Valley on Monday, "My question is, would you please raise my taxes? I would like very much to have the country to continue to invest in things like Pell Grants [an education programme] and infrastructure and job training programs that made it possible for me to get to where I am." In the other hand, Republican doesn't agree the proposal. If tax increase the people have to cut the spending. They believe if the rich people want to help, they can give donation.


In my opinion, the country is in trouble and need help. As a citizen who lives there have to help. This issue is not only solve by government but all. The country can't have loans anymore. You can imagine if you are using credit card and didn't pay finish. How can you start saving if you still have to pay your loans? If the situation getting worst, it will affect them soon. How the country get money ? Do you think they can get donation from other country around the world? USA is not poor country! Usually this country is the one who decide many issue in the world. USA is part of UN and have voice in it.

I believe this country is very strong in many things like education. You can see many international schools that have American curriculum or British. Parents are willing to pay much more because they believe that their children will have benefit from it. Many people from many background want to improve their language study in AUA

Honestly every time when they have to vote, I always in Republican side. But in this case I absolute in Obama side. if rich people want to pay more, they still rich and it's good for middle and lower people. This people need job! For example, worker can work if they have project to build. Many business give the opportunity for people to work. When they have money they can spend.

What is your input? do you agreed with me?

References
Who, what, why: How can an American pay extra tax ? ( 2011, September 28). BBC News.Retrieved September 28, 2011 from http://www.bbc.uk.news/magazine-15084671

How did the US debt get so bad (2011, September 2). BBC News. Retrieved October 2,2011 from http://www.bbc.uk/news/world-us-canada-14760684

Jobs act: Obama plan eyes taxes on rich (2011, September 12). BBC News. Retrieved October 2,2011 from http://www.bbc.uk/news/world-us-canada-14886689


US jobs plan: Barack Obama unveils $450bn package (2011, September 9 ). BBC News. Retrieved October 2, 2011 from  http://www.bbc.uk/news/world-us-canada-14841746


US economy: New Obama plan to tax wealthiest (2011, September 18). BBC News Retrieved October 2, 2011 from http://www.bbc.uk/news/world-us-canada-14962769


Hundreds of occupy Wall Street protesters arrested (2011, October 2). BBC News Retrieved October 2, 2011 from http://www.bbc.uk/news/world-us-canada-15140671

Listen carefully.

At the primary school, a game which I disliked most was Game-Ka- Sip (Ka-Sip means whisper). After all students stood in a line, the first student began whispering a sentence to the second, and then he quietly told the third the same sentence. The rest did so respectively until the last said the sentence. If it was not changed at all, we won the game. I disliked the game because the sentence was easily turned into another; as a result, we always lost. Yet, this game is a good example teaching me a problem of ineffective communication. Unclear communication sometimes causes an acceptable problem like failure in the game. But sometimes, it leads to a serious problem like the decline of call centre industry in India.

According to India's call centre growth stalls, India’s call center business has grown rapidly in the past decade. Today, however, many British and American companies are moving operations back home. Because of the unfamiliar sound of an India accent, the customer faces hardship to understand simple conversations. Customs also feel frustrated and annoyed with misunderstanding. Often, conversations become heated, irate or even abusive. Consequently, international companies trying to maintain customers decide to turn back their countries. It is estimated that the number of call center workers has fallen drastically.

How do we avoid a problem resulting from ambiguous communication? For me, one of solutions is that we learn to be a good listener. If we listen efficiently, the massage will be clear enough to understand. Good listening also helps us know what a question means or what speaker really want. This paves the way for replying with a right question and making a lucid conversation. There is an interesting exercise for listening practice that I studied while taking an acting course in the university. Students had to describe a story by saying numbers instead of words. To illustrate, I might say “one-six-five” when I meant “I love you”. The professor explained that she taught students to focus on meaning, not wording. Sometimes people say something but they refer to another. When you listen to a sentence, you can miss a few words but should get a whole meaning. I think this exercise help me more deeply understand the way to listen efficiently.

I have another example; when my mother says “I have seen a bit of dust on your bed”, she means “Make the room clean, now!” So, listen carefully.

__________
References

Vaidyanathan, R. (2011, September 27).India's call centre growth stalls.BBC News. Retrieved September 28, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15060641

Job's testing question

Although I think we discussed it enough in class to resolve the confusion between delusions and perceptual disorders, I was not entirely happy with the way we had to leave Job's question, so thought you might like to continue that discussion here.

In describing Maria's symptoms, Hartmann writes that "she hears voices that command her to do things" (2007, p. 175). The three variations on the check question that came up were:

1. Does Maria think she hears voices?
2. Does Maria hear voices?
3. Does Maria really hear voices? 

• Are these the same or different questions? 
• If they are different, what is the important difference? 
• If they are all the same question, what is the one idea that they all mean?  

As we saw, common words like see and hear can be very difficult to define exactly when we suddenly need a solid definition in order to answer a question, and the answers to the three questions about Maria depend on the exact meaning of the verb hear, just as a decision as to whether someone is abnormal or not depends very much the agreed definition of abnormal, which is why Hartmann spends three full paragraphs discussing that on page 173 (2007), as we saw this morning. We use these words all the time with little problem, but today, when it was necessary to actually specify a good definition, it was not at all easy to just give one. 

Please feel welcome to continue any part of the discussion from class here. 

__________

References

Hartmann, P. (2007, September, 28). Quest 2 Reading and Writing, (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Coffee may prevent depression

Are you a coffee lover? There is a good news for coffee lovers that drinking coffee can make you feel good. In fact, it is not only coffee but also covers all kinds of caffeine products such as tea, cola and milk chocolate. So, now, Have you being depressed?, get a cup of coffee!

According to "Coffee may prevent depression, scientists say" on the BBC news, Women who drink two or more cups of coffee a day are less likely to get depressed. There is no a clear reason that why it might have this effect. The author believes that the caffeine in coffee may alter the brian's chemistry while decaffeinated coffee did not have the same effect. There is evidence that Caffeine blocks adenosine, which produces a similar effect to increasing dopamine production. And it's becoming increasingly clear that the dopamine-rich areas of the brain are much more important in depression that previously thought.

This research remind me of the saying that eating chocolate makes you feel good. It may be a result of caffeine too. Coffee is not only a fascinating drink but also has a role in health too. In addition, many years ago I have heard about the many medical advantages of coffee such as reducing risk of Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer. I think it is good for everyone to prevent many diseases by consuming what they like instead of taking medicines. However, although there many benefits from drinking coffee, consuming too much caffeine can also bring about increasing high blood pressure, disturbed sleep and anxiety. You should realize that everything has both pros and cons. It depend on how you use or consume it. For this reason, you should consume it in moderation.

__________

References

coffee may prevent depression, scientists say. (2011, September 26). BBC News. Retrieved September 27, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-15059266

To Peter

I have some problem with logging in my e-mail which I can't login to my hotmail account, so, I can't get Golf's paragraph that you sent me.

I've already contact hotmail, but seems no response yet.

Tattoos: A lifelong commitment

What do you know about tattoos? Do you think people should get them or not? As you might know, tattoos are a kind of body decoration that made by inserting ink into the skin. Someone think tattoos are art and can be acceptable but someone not. However, no matter what people think about tattoos, nowadays, Tattoos are becoming very popular and more mainstream. Many people from Hollywood superstars to street beggars have already got at least 1 or 2 tattoos on their body, As tattooings are popular among modern society, they also cause the problem for both individual and society, especially teenagers and their parents since they are easy to get, but in terms of removing, it's just another story. So, the question is if people should test-drive tattoos first before their tattoos would cause them problems.

According to “Tattoos: Should people test-drive them first?” on BBC news online. Lucy Townsend gave a very interesting question of how people can ensure they don't end up getting one that they later feel they have to painfully remove. This question came after the popularity of tattoos, as for now, they are no longer the symbols of rockers, sailors, bikers, bohemians and criminals since they have gone mainstream. In the 7th International Tattoo Convention at London this year, around 20,000 people attended there- the world where ink equals art. However, not everyone is happy with their tattoos. For those who pick the wrong design, the wrong position or who get inked on impulse and regret it later, these become big problems and they want to fix by removing them. Nevertheless, tattoos remorse costs lots of money but its result is not so good as it should be. Tattoos can remove by laser, lasering costs between £50 and £150 a session, and between eight and 12 sessions are needed, but they won’t disappear completely and may become scars. Instead of suffering tattoos remorse if it would be better if they prevent the mistakes by test-driving tattoos. For Lucy, herself, has had the test-driving one, and she’s very happy of knowing feedbacks before to get the real one which she aren’t ready for now.

This article interest me so much because I like tattooings, and mistaken tattoos also really seem to be big problems even in Thailand. For me, tattoos are more than art, They're a lifestyle! I’ve owned 2 tattoos at my chest and my back, and used to have one but it was already covered up. Both of them are color tattoos in Neo-asian style which my chest’s tattoo represent Buddhist religious meaning and my back’s are Monju bosatsu and will be chinese sacred animals in the future. As I know, there are 2 ways for fixing mistaken tattoos, covered up by another design and lasering. Covering up will be the best way for tattoo lover because experienced tattoo artist may be able to transform the mistaken into the flashing one completely. However, most tattoo artists don’t like doing cover-up, and for the famous artists, they always refuse. By the way, some of my friends have done removing their tattoos by lasering, the results are very terrible which look like awful scars in the shape of their old tattoos, but they needed to pay 5 times more than they paid for getting tattoos! To prevent this, in my cases, I’d took over a month for considering before went to get an ink. First, I created the content that what my tattoos would represent for and what they are about, then I thought about design what they would be and what symbols that I could use. After that, I made pre-sketches and sent them to the tattoo artists for asking for making them into flashes (flash is a stereotypical tattoo design printed or drawn on paper), of course, I also had some pre-talk with the artist. Then the most important process would be stick that flashed on every mirrors that I use at least for 2 weeks, if I wasn’t bored with them, I would go to have tattoos, but if not, they would need to redesign. With this method, it can make me avoiding from regret them later. Therefore, I would suggest anyone who would like to get a new tattoo doing the same. In conclusion, I would say think more before you’re going to get some tattoos, tattoos are not fashion, they are a life-long commitment, you can’t change them to follow the trend. Instead, tattoos will be with you all your life.

What do you think about tattoos? Have you ever wanted to get some?

__________

References

Tattoos: Should people test-drive them first?

. (2011, September 26). BBC News. Retrieved September 27, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15060691

Tachyon. (2011, September 26). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 21:30, September 27, 2011, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tattoo

Smart Phone not Simple Mobile Phone

From a simple mobile in the past to a smartphone in the present, these changes drive communications among people over the world more closely and easily. The mobile phone recently does not only for the communications but also for entertainments like playing games, listening to music, checking e-mail and chatting via texting. Mobile developers have been continuing to improve the mobiles applications to meet people needs and suit for the era of globalization.

As "Smartphone to measure radiation" from the BBC news online states that a smartphone is being developed for measuring radiation levels. Since the Great East Japan Earthquake damaged Fukushima nuclear plant, many people are worried about effects of leaking nuclear. Thus, the Japanese mobile phone NTT DoCoMo has researched and developed changeable jackets to measure radiation levels. In addition, the jackets will measure bad breath, body mass and monitor level of skin-damaging ultraviolet light as well.

Mobile phones are not used as a phone call anymore. In my views, people also use them on various purposes, such as sending e-mail, checking traffic situations or stock exchanges. Because it is convenient to people to spontaneously come up with any information which they want to know. The mobile become a part of our life, I do not know when, but now it is. When I am on BTS or Airport rail link to go home, I always see many people do with mobile phone, especially, iPhone and Blackberry. Sometime, many students go home together but they talk to each other via text on BB. I do not understand well why do not talk to their friends directly. Is it good? I do not think so. Is it harmful our life or not? It depends on the way we use it. We should make a good adjustment. One thing I know, mobile phone- smart phone is the most pop culture in Bangkok now.

References

Smartphone to measure radiation. (2011, September, 22). BBC News. Retrieved September 27, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15023061