Leadership

According to Joanne Ciulla, "Leadership is not a person or a position. It is a complex moral relationship between people, based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good." (1998, p. 30) Based on this opinion, people will think of many well-known leaders in this world, for example, Abraham Lincoln, who was the 16^th President of United States of America, emancipated slavery in U.S., and was a great leader who could lead people, especially rival groups, to achieve common goals, Deng Xiaoping, who was the Chinese President and significantly reformed politics, society, and an economy in China, and Adolf Hitler, who was the leader of the Nazi Party and brought people to catastrophe in World War II. Obviously, the leaders in these examples succeeded in building a complex moral relationship between their people, although there are two opposite results; in other words, Lincoln elevated human equality and living quality; meanwhile, Hitler destroyed human life. Furthermore, if we determine Ralph’s leadership in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies by this definition, Ralph does definitely not possess leadership. Even though he has been voted to be the leader of the children because of his charisma and possessing the conch, he fails to build a complex moral relationship between his colleagues. The strong evidence that shows his lack of leadership is the group meeting held by Jack in order to remove Ralph from the chief of group shown in “Gift for the Darkness” and “A View to a Death” in Lord of the Flies. After Jack and Ralph have come back from hunting the beast, Jack calls the meeting and requests the children to vote to remove Ralph from being the chief of the children. Although the children do not immediately respond to Jack’s challenge at that time and Jack has to leave the group, almost all of the children finally decide to be on Jack’s team and Ralph’s group decreases to only four people including himself. From the character in the novel to people in the real world, unfortunately, people generally love to have a leader who is charismatic, and they understand that this is the most important trait of leadership; in fact, we find a lot of examples that show charismatic leaders cannot lead countries or groups to achieve targets. Joseph Estrada, who was a film actor and became the 13^thPresident of the Philippines during 1998 – 2001, is a famous example of a charismatic leader who leads the country to face many social and economic problems, and he is finally sentenced to jail after being found guilty of corruption.

Reference

Ciulla J. (1998) What is Leadership? Centre for Leadership Studies.University of Exeter.

Excellent examples. Sad example.

Let's start with the good news, which is your excellent discussion this morning that followed from the excerpt from Chieko's introduction to her essay on abortion, which you will be able to read in a day or two.

The excerpt is:

According to “Rep. Todd Akin: The Statement and the Reaction”, U.S. Rep. Todd Akin tells in an interview that “it seems to be, first of all, from what I understand from doctors, it’s really rare. If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut the whole thing down.” What do you think about his statement? Why can such a man with wrong knowledge involve himself in abortion argument?

And the main questions were:

1. Is Rep. Akin entitled to his opinion? 
2. Is his opinion correct? 
3. Is his opinion reasonable? 
4. Is his opinion just and moral sound? 
5. Or is it completely stupid, being worthy only of contempt and ridicule? 
6. What does it mean to say that someone is “entitled to their opinion”?
   • What doesn’t it mean?
   • Why are these questions important to us? 

The question that took us the longest to answer satisfactorily was 3. And as Air helped us to see, the problem causing disagreement were the very different ideas people had concerning the meaning of the word reasonable. We had fairly easily agreed (only took about 5 minutes) that reasonable meant "having good reasons", but the problem then was to give some substance that very vague adjective "good".

A couple of examples quickly helped us to see that Air's group's first suggestion, that good reasons must be logical, was right. 

But although necessary, is being logical also a sufficient condition for a reason to be good, to be reasonable?   It's the solution to this problem that I want to focus on, since it provides another excellent example of the value of well-chosen examples to clarify and support an idea which is complex and abstract, as the idea of reasonableness is. 

Anne gave us a useful start when she suggested the idea of asking her mother for some money, and the need to give reasons for such a request. With a little creative thinking, and our purpose in mind, we came up with four different examples of reasons that Anne might give for a request for money. These were, in order, if I remember correctly, and slightly revised:  

1. I'm going register for the next term at AUA, which will improve my English. 
2. I want to buy an iPad, which will help me to study more effectively. 
3. I dreamt the winning numbers for the Australian lottery, so need to fly to Sydney to buy a ticket. 
4. The world will end on December 21, in ten days time, as we know from the ancient Mayan prediction that is now well-known on the Internet, and I need the money to buy a ticket on a spaceship from a man I met in a pub last night. 

When we then looked at these in order, we able to assign percentages for a rough measure of how reasonable each each is. There were:

1. = 90%  or more 
2. = 50%  or perhaps a bit more (we're trusting Anne on this)
3. = 0% or so. Perhaps a little more than zero. 
4. = less than 0% = -90% or so. 

With this array of data agreed on, we could look to see what was going on in this example. What were we doing when we assigned these percentages as a measure of how reasonable an idea was? 

Again, another example, this time what vets such as Mo do when they decide to use or not use a new drug (this example took a bit of revising to get it exactly right) helped to clarify the ideas that were floating around, and enabled us to conclude that the important extra thing in addition to being logical is that reasonable also means "having relevant evidence". The evidence can be experience (Anne's mum's experience tells her that when asked for some money to register at AUA, it's not a lie and leads to something useful), reliable reports from sources, and so on. 

This finally led us to a definition of reasonable as meaning "being logical and having (enough) relevant evidence". This definition makes sense of our responses to all of the examples, and sounds right. And with this definition in place, we can answer question 3. about Rep. Akin's opinion that  "a legitimate rape" does not normally lead to a pregnancy: it is not at all reasonable. 

And then we were ready to look at questions 1. and 6., for which we decided, again after some argument about the meaning of  entitled to an opinion,  that yes, he is certainly entitled to his opinion, but that without good reasons (reasonable reasons) to support it, he cannot expect anyone to take it seriously, or refrain from laughing at it. He certainly cannot expect anyone to accept it unless he provides support to show that it is reasonable. And since the facts are against him, he will fail. 

This matters for students in an academic English course, especially writing course, because in an academic setting, you are only entitled to have taken seriously an opinion for which you can give reasonable support. 

And as our example about a geocentric universe showed, being wrong does not mean that a belief is unreasonable. Aristotle believed the Earth to be at the centre of the universe, which was perfectly reasonable around 330 BC, and does not reduce our great admiration of and respect for Aristotle. The same belief, which some still hold in 2012, is perfectly idiotic and not remotely reasonable. Sadly, it appears that about 18% of Americans do believe the idiotic (Crabtree, 1999). And the reason for this unreasonable belief is typically religious, for example, in the case of Roman Catholic apologist Robert Sungenis, the supporting "evidence" is the Bible, verses such as "Joshua 10:12-14: 'And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, while the nation took vengeance on its foe' " (Moran, 2011, ¶ 9). Since this supporting evidence has a reasonableness rating of about  99% below zero (-99%), it cannot help much to support anything. 

Even more sad is the fact that 46% of Americans believe, on religious, usually Biblical, grounds "in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years" (Newport, 2012, ¶ 1). In the case of Republican voters, it's a whopping 58% who are so seriously unreasonable. I'm not sure that sad is the right word. Perhaps alarming is the more appropriate adjective. All of these people are entitled to their weird and wholly unreasonable opinions, but they are not entitled to have anyone else take them seriously or not laugh at such absurdly unreasonable opinions. Thankfully, American scientists do laugh at such nonsense, and American judges refuse to take it seriously when believers try to get their ideas taught in schools as science rather than fantasy. 

__________

Reference

Crabtree, S. (1999, July 6). New Poll Gauges Americans' General Knowledge Levels: Four-fifths know earth revolves around sun. Gallup.  Retrieved December 11, 2012 from http://www.gallup.com/poll/3742/new-poll-gauges-americans-general-knowledge-levels.aspx

Moran, A. (2011, August 29) Conservative Catholics say Galileo was wrong, geocentric is right. Digital Journal. Retrieved December 11, 2012 from http://digitaljournal.com/article/310901

Newport, F. (2012, June 1). In U.S., 46% Hold Creationist View of Human Origins. Gallup Politics. Retrieved December 11, 2012 from http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/Hold-Creationist-View-Human-Origins.aspx

From "Poo" to be our "Food Stuff"

Everyday. we eat and digest our foods from which the result is the nutrients and poo. Nowadays  poo is not only waste anymore but value more than you think.

According to "Extreme recycling turns poo into food", Coghlan say that growing maggots from manure, by maggot product to poo ratio at 1:10, which have a half protein and one fourth oil by weight of maggot, can use as a source of animal feeding with cheaper price than soy and fish meal.

I pick this news in "Newscientist", which is one of recommendation sources from Peter, that is use scientific language and research in easy way to understand and be interesting. 

I'm interested in this news about maggot because it remind me about one of my subject in university, Parasitology. Maggot is a parasite, which is lava stage of flies, that cause of interrupt wound healing called "Myiasis" in animals. Maggot is used to be a bad guy but not now; that is, it use for therapy which is named "Maggot therapy" to treat chronic wound by eating debris and necrotic or death tissue and make the wound to be healing. 

And now maggot can use for produce feed in farm animals with cheaper and good quality source of protein. I know that you will image some scene like pig eating fresh maggot, which isn't true. The animal nutritionist use maggot in maggot cake form or powder to mix it with other ingredient to be pallet. And interestingly, the maggot contain no bacteria, E.coli and Samonella from poo which is use to be food source of it. The waste poo from maggot products is deodorised and can use as fertilizer. In the future, I think maggot powder will be a source of protein to our companion animals like dogs and cats. 

If animals can use maggot to be their food. What's about us, human? Can we use insects to be a source of protein? There are more than thousands of insect species. In "Why not eat insects?" by Mercel Dicke, he suggest that we have to use insect to be a protein source with good for ecological system, which insect release Carbondioxide less than farm animals, and bring you to see insects menu. Maybe next week you will want to try one.

References:

1. Coughlan, A.(2012, November 21). Extreme recycling turns poo into food. Newscientists. Retrieved November 22, 2012. from: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628923.600-extreme-recycling-turns-poo-into-food.html  

2. Myiasis - fly larvae.(2009, April 9). University of Brsitol: School of Biological Sciences in Veterinary Parasitology & Ecology. Retrieved November 23, 2012. from: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/biology/research/ecological/vpe/myiasis.html

3. Sherman, R.(2009, May). Maggot Therapy Takes Us Back to the Future of Wound Care: New and Improved Maggot Therapy for the 21st Century. PubMed Central. Retrieved November 23, 2012. from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2771513/

4. Dicke, M. (2010, December). Why not eat insects?. TED. Retrieved November 23, 2012. from: http://www.ted.com/talks/marcel_dicke_why_not_eat_insects.html

Oasis in life

 There are many occasions and events in around  our lives. Are you usually willing to pluge into them?

  In "Bangkok's best festivals and events", the travel expert, Tom Vater introduces seven annual galas and functions from vociferous Chines New Year Day, to New Year's Eve, when, where, what rituals is held briefly ,yet clearly.

 If you were traveling in the desert and oasis was in front of you, dared you  pass by it?
I have read  a book, Shiftng Sands (Steve Donahue,2005, Kimyoungsa), in this book the author advises six guide lines to trip in the dsert depends on his experiences in his
twenties. Two of them were  impressive, the first is to follow inner compass and the next is to rest whenever you meet the oasis. Especially I like the advice related oasis, because it is really helpful whenever I hesitate to take part in and really enjoy it or not.

  I  hadn't  taken much pleasure facing some festivals and events. I was not interested in like that noisy functions but my attitudes for them now perfectly changed since last Songhkran.  My friends and I  planed to join the feast and decide to jump into them for the delightful  experience,so we chose the Cha-am beach as a safer and better place  with   children and friends. It was very successful, whenever remind that time I became happy and laugh. The latest one  was  the Halloween,  when I went for shopping for the party I bought a mask for me, and I prepared some treats for the little visiters. That night I wore the black clothes and the cat  mask and I waited the door bell's ringing. It was surprise for I guessed  before the event  it   would asolutely make me boring but I found that I was waiting with expecting how disguised people would press the bell. Sometimes chic cats, cute witches, scary witches, charming devil, splended dress up Dracula family... most of all, they didn't notice who was  I..
It was the moment that  I  realized why masks have been loved like that so much.

  Loi Kraton is comming soon, it will  be fist experience in Bangkok. Of course I am willingly take part in the party in my condo. The only thing I prepare is to buy gorgeous earings and opened mind.


__________

Reference

By Tom Vater3:48PM GMT 21.Nov.2012 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/festivalsandevents/9693738/Bangkoks-best-festivals-and-events.html
Shift  Sands(Steve Donahue, 2005, Kinyoungsa)

Nude and Shell

Some of our blogs’ topics are about our body and people who pursue its beauty and health. Nudes as art, are they so appealing?

In “The shock of the (male) nude”, Bethany Bell says that an exhibition where diverse male nudes are exhibited, at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, brought public outrage which shows attitude towards nudity - people get used to the female nudes, but naked male still can shock. However, there isn't anybody deeply outraged by the naked nudes.

A picture came into my eye when I flicked my phone in the MRT. The picture in this BBC article was a huge naked male statue and people taking a picture in front of it. How can I ignore it? Why can’t I ignore it? Male nudes are rare though they have existed from ancient times to modern times. So, it was attractive to catch my eyes, but I felt some embarrassments of seeing the picture in the public place since I was too engaged. If our culture gave us more experience of male nude, I would not pay attention to the article, or the article would not be written. Since I was accustomed to see mostly female nudes, I didn't think male nudes’ rarity in our culture is strange. It’s kind of a sudden awareness.

When I read William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”, I was busy to find each character’s characteristics and what kinds of symbols there are. The novel is not just about a story of isolated island’s life. It seems like our real world. However, there is no female character. When we talk about our world, don’t we need female who consist of half of the world? I’m not a feminist. What I am surprised at myself is the fact that I didn't notice non-existence of female until I think about why male nudes shocked to us. I was so docile to the author’s view of world in the novel.

While some prevailed ideas cover me, I don’t realize what I miss. Maybe we should struggle to go outside the shell during our life. Now, I’m just seeing round my world to find what my shell is.  

Reference

Bell, B. (2012, November 19). The Shock of the (male) nude. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved November 22, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20218094

Weird but compelling

Every famous place in the world has their unique and peculiar story which related to the place, native people, legend or history. The story doesn’t need to be exciting or be happy. Sometimes it can be a horror or a sad story. It is usually handed down by word of mouth. Apart from the story is whether absorbing or not, people are always interested in the story, and they want to see and experience the story by themselves.

In "A hijacker holiday in Washington" we are told that D.B. Cooper who hijacked Boeing 727 aircraft and 37 passengers in November 24, 1971 and asked FBI for ransom, $200,000 and 4 parachutes before jumping with a parachute and landing near the town Ariel, Washington in the USA. Although FBI can’t even find him so far and D.B. Cooper’s crime file is still investigating ("D.B. Cooper", 2012), Ariel people open D.B. Cooper holiday and enjoy that day with many visitors every year in Washington.

The story attracts someone’s interest. In fact, I didn’t know who D.B. Cooper is, but I often hear his name in the Hollywood movies. Lately, I’ve heard his name in the ‘Prison break’ which was a television serial drama made in the USA. It was not only a well-made drama but also a sensational hit all over the world several years ago. In drama, Jack Scofield, title role, was caught and was imprisoned in jail. Actually, he committed a crime on purpose in order to save his brother who was falsely accused by mysterious group. When Jack needs money before breaking prison with his brother, he said “if we find D.B. Cooper’s money, we could escape and hide safely without worrying”.

The story makes people curious. As soon as I heard his name, I searched on the Internet who D.B. Cooper is. When I found his story, I was shocked by the story which was really exciting and unbelievable. His story was overwhelmed my whole interest for a while. After that, I imagined going to Washington and finding out D.B. Cooper’s money. I knew that my fancy was an absurd and an unrealistic plan, but the matter was that I was mesmerized by the story. Perhaps D.B. Cooper’s story captivated everyone who was interested in fascinating story and mysterious places.

The story invites people to the place. Like D.B cooper's story, my birthplace in Korea has a strange story. “The Jeju Mysterious Road, also known as Dokkaebi Road, Dokkaebi means Korean hobgoblin, lies on a hill at the foot of a mountain, and connects two major highways on Jejudo Island. It has earned its name, as objects and liquid appear to roll and flow up the hill instead of down, when, in fact, such image of gravity defiance is an optical illusion rendered by the seemingly high surroundings” ("Mysterious Road", 2012). Before it was popularized, only some knww that story, whilst after broadcasting that story via major TV channels, a lot of visitors and foreigners have visited and experienced supernatural phenomenon.

The story is priceless. Although many countries in the world want to improve their economy, developing it is not easy but difficult, for it needs a lot of budget, efforts and well-educated human resources. However, creating stories is much easier than making products or making buildings. It does’t need oil, factories, a lot of budget and people who have Ph. D. It simply needs ideas. Despite small and tiny ideas, it could probably make a large profit on tourist industry. It wouldn’t be a difficult, if we change our thoughts.

All we have to do is to make people want to know more and curious about the story. Then, they would move voluntarily. Could the story be the answer to improve tourism?

References

D.B. Cooper. (2012, November 19). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 03.00, November 22, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

Lindsey G. (2012. November 21). A hijacker holiday in Washington. BBC travel. Retrieved November 22, 2012 from http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20121120-a-hijacker-holiday-in-washington


Mysterious Road. (Dokkaebi Road). (2012).Korea Tourism Organization, Destinations. JeJudo, Jejusi Retrieved November 22, 2012 from http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=1373714 

Can you throw things away?

Beautiful voice of Sarah Brightman echoes in my brain encouragingly. Yes, I admit I have been a “hoarder”. It is a time to say good bye to this disgrace name. OK, let’s start. But, from where? 

In “It’s Time to Say Goodbye to All That Stuff”, Jane E. Brody confesses that she is a person who has difficulty in throwing things away, and her three-story house is full of stuffs, which she bought on sale, claiming to prepare for out of stock and end of production, which so far hasn’t occurred. After reading about the characters who died under 100 tons clutter in the book, Homer & Langley, written by E. L. Doctorow, she decides to solve her problem with a help of the book, The Hoarder in You: How to Live a Happier, Healthier, Uncluttered Life, in which Dr. Robin Zasio suggests some good ideas how to throw things away.

When I was skimming New York Times homepage, the title of this article caught my eyes. I love the song, Time to say good bye, very much, and started to read it humming the song to myself. Then I found out that the article is something for me! It also comes to me “as if by fate”. 

Are you good at putting things in order? If you are not sure, please check your bookmarks on your computer. Are they well organized? Can you find the website you need to see without any problems? If so, you must be good at keeping things tidy and in order. Although I occasionally check my bookmarks and delete some of them, I always have difficulty to find the URL I need. I have to click some files until I find correct one. I know that I keep too many URL in my bookmarks. Yes, I am also one, who can’t throw things away. As Brody, it is difficult for me to decide which good should be thrown away, and which should be kept, so I keep it until I decide. Yes, I make “Undecided” box, which should not be done according to Dr. Zasio’s book. Also here in Bangkok, I have a problem. I can’t understand why the far much bigger apartment we live in is also overflown with goods as same as our small house in Japan. I know that a goldfish becomes bigger if it lives in a big tank, whereas it remains small in a small aquarium. Is there any kind of similarity here? Is there any formula about it? 

I know that not only me, but also quite a few Japanese have this problem. This is why people prefer houses with enough storage spaces, and TV shows and magazine articles about tidying up are very popular. There are some reasons (excuses)  why houses of Japanese are full of goods: first of all, on the average, Japanese houses are small, having four seasons requires different kinds of clothes, cooking not only Japanese but also Chinese and western needs different kind of tableware and cooking utensils, and also because of traditional mottainai thinking, which means “throwing away goods which still can be used is not good thing”.

While writing this post, I remember the book, Material World: A Global Family Portrait written by Peter Menzel and others, in which there are many “portrait of the family members outside their home, surrounded by all of their possessions”. of all over the world. When I saw the book, I was impressed the differences of each families possessions, and thought about things which we really need to live. I also remember that I tried to throw things away after reading the book, and gave away soon.

Anyway, a kindl which I ordered recently will be delivered around Chrismas, and I hope that at least I can stop the increasing of number of books by using it.

__________

References

Jane E. Brody  It’s Time to Say Goodbye to All That Stuff . (2012 November 21)The New York Times Health  Retrieved November 21, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/health/the-hoarder-in-you-a-book-that-can-help-cut-through-the-clutter.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Book description of Material World: A Global Family Portrait  Amazon.com Retrieved November 21, 2012 from http://www.amazon.com/Material-World-Global-Family-Portrait/dp/0871564300/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1353437449&sr=8-1&keywords=Material+World%3A+A+Global+Family+Portrait+%28Sierra+Club+Books+Publication%29 

Today's new word is atlatl

A week or so ago, when I read the term creative work in a title that included the word Africa, I was reminded of Hartmann and Blass's suggestion in chapter 2, "Physical Anthropology", that human art "dates back some 30,000 years" to a European origin (2007, p. 65). A claim which the mounting evidence suggests is false.

Pinnacle Point research site
on the coast of South Africa

John Noble Wilford, writing in "Stone Tools Point to Creative Work by Early Humans in Africa", reports that although there remains controversy about the evidence and what it supports, the consensus amongst anthropologists is that recently discovered stone tools at African sites show that distinctively modern human beings evolved both physically and mentally in Africa before moving to Europe about 50,000 years ago, where both their physical and mental endowments helped them against the more primitive Neanderthal groups already there, as well as giving birth to "the cave art and fine tools of Upper Paleolithic Europe" (2012).

So much for the main idea. What also caught my attention reading Wilford's article was the word atlatl paragraph 3, which he sensibly then defines in the immediately following noun phrase. It was that descriptive noun phrase that helped my get a much clearer image of the lifestyle of our African ancestors 71,000 or so years ago. The Australian Aborigines used very similar technology, except that they called it a woomera (in one major Aboriginal language), and I had learnt it in English as spear thrower. I was not at all surprised when I checked to find that the excellent Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary very sensibly does not have an entry for atlatl: nor was it surprising to find the massive Oxford English Dictionary [OED] does have an entry for this rather rare but wonderful sounding word. According to the OED, atlatl was first used in English by one E. B. Tylor in 1871, and comes from an Aztecan language of Mesoamerica, whose native people's also created and used such a tool ("atlatl, n", 2012).

Apart from the attraction of the word, I wanted to blog this article because it again shows how essential is argument to the advance of knowledge, why we must value controversy, and actively seek out contradictory opinions. If some evil law had made it illegal to question a European origin of uniquely human culture, it would be impossible to have learnt that that belief was apparently false, and even if the belief were accidentally true, a law or social taboo against saying and arguing for other views would necessarily have made the opinion worthless. We can only have knowledge and a worthwhile opinion on any topic when it is possible, legally and socially, to state opposing, and often shocking, ideas on that topic. Where contradictory opinions cannot be stated, every acceptable opinion, however sincere and often repeated, must be worthless.

__________

Reference

atlatl, n. (2012, September). OED Online. Oxford University Press. Retrieved November 21, 2012 from http://oed.com/view/Entry/12540

Hartmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007).

Wilford, J. N. (2012, November 12). Stone Tools Point to Creative Work by Early Humans in Africa. The New York Times Science. Retrieved November 21, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/13/science/evidence-of-persistent-modern-human-behavior-in-africa.html

Keep going

Are you now feeling tired of something? Are you now feeling frustrated in reaching your goal?  The story of a disabled runner may help to cheer you up.

According to “Indirect Path to Finish for Disabled Marathoner”, Andrew W. Lehren says that he was one of the guides in the Delaware and Lehigh Heritage Marathon/Half Marathon in Northampton for Eline Oidvin, a Norwegian disabled marathoner with limited eye sight, who initially excitedly intended to join the New York City Marathon, which finally was canceled on account of hurricane Sandy, however, Lehren helped Oidvin and her guides to sign up to the Delaware and Lehigh Heritage Marathon/Half Marathon, which made Oidvin very happy after she was disappointed by the cancellation of NYC marathon while she had already spent her money on a trip from Norway to the United state.

After reading this article, I truly respect Oidvin and appreciate her endeavor since she put so much effort in to marathon racing. Despite having a problem with her vision, which is a gigantic obstruction for runner, she has very high intention to join the marathon. Being a disabled athlete, Oidvin have to confront the difficulty not only on the racing day, but also during the training period. In order to achieve her goal, both her heart and her body must be totally strong.

Oidvin’s story reminds me of a proverb “where there’s a will, there’s a way” which means you can find the way to achieve everything no matter how hard it is if you are determined enough. In my opinion, it is so easy for people to give up or change their goals when they are at pains to reach them. A disable who can achieve their admiring goal, like Oidvin, is a very cheerful example to encourage me to keep going, as my difficulties seem to be very small compared to all apparent obstructions of them. According to “Indirect Path to Finish for Disabled Marathoner”, apart from Oidvin’s physical ability problem, which is the biggest obstacle that she had already overcome in the first step, she still faced another serious problem about the cancellation of the New York City Marathon, which was her dream race, as a result of hurricane Sandy. However, her determination leads a willing help to her that makes her ultimately very happy to join another race.

If you are the one who are now hesitating to keep stepping toward your goal, please bare in your mind that there are a lot of people who are able to accomplish their goal meanwhile they have less ability than ordinary people.

__________

Reference

Lehren, A. (2012, November 19). Indirect Path to Finish for Disabled Marathoner The New York Time. Retrieved November 19,2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/20/sports/eline-oidvin-a-runner-with-limited-sight-finds-her-marathon.html?pagewanted=1&ref=sports

Taking risk for a purpose on health

Being in a good shape is the admiration of many people, but now there is a trend in teenagers to use a shortcut for building muscle and losing weight.

According to Nancy Shute's "More Teens Take Steroids To Trade Fat For Muscle", the most recent study shows that the use of steroids in American teenagers this year is higher by 4.9 percent than 1.1 percent in 2011, most of them are students, especially school athletes such as gymnasts and ballet dancers. The most surprising finding is the misunderstanding among adolescence that protein powder can transform fat into muscle and many of them try it in order to lose their weight whereas the common suggestion is to work out more and to change eating habits.

A large number of the overweight intend to go on a diet and weight loss program, either by exercising or by food selection. However, some of them are accustomed to laziness and not willing to be tired from working out or even be sweaty. This mode of thinking drives them to choose a shortcut like steroid and protein powder as stated in the article. Almost 10 years ago my weight was up to 90 kilograms. After I consider overweight causes many health risks and problems, I decided to control my eating habits by reducing the amount of food particularly carbohydrates and also started working out by running in a park nearby my place.

Another tip is to realize that doing things can be an exercise. An ad on TV in Thailand says "Just move is equivalent to exercise" which I totally agree that it is true because I prove this suggestion myself. If I don't have chance to go exercise, I walk from BTS Saphan Taksin Station to my home about 10 minutes instead of using motorbike taxi. Or when you have time enough to go upstairs, avoid the elevator. We can adjust our behaviour to use energy from food we take in, but it is based on your volition. If not willing, it will definitely fail.

For ones who build up their muscle by taking steroids or whey protein I partly disagree because I am certain that they are able to pick natural protein to support their muscle building. In Thailand, males also build their muscle to represent their masculinity and also to reach their goal of being magazine models or models on cat walk. As I has been working out at a gym, I always see a group of them taking whey protein in a form of drink or shake. However, I still believe that taking those unnatural also means taking risk for their health.

Back to basic is better than relying on a risky shortcut.

__________

Reference

Shute, N. (2012, November 19). More Teens Take Steroids To Trade Fat For Muscle. NPR Health News.  Retrieved November 20, 2012 from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/11/19/165489465/more-teens-take-steroids-to-trade-fat-for-muscle?sc=17&f=1001.

Real charity or just marketing

 Don't ask what we will receive from the society but should ask what we will give to the society. Is really a charitable donation the another way to give back to the community?

According to the article ''Charitable mobile network The People 's Operator launches'', the writer says that a new UK mobile operator distinguishes itself from rivals by putting an emphasis on charitable donations. The People's Operator (TPO), a new mobile phone network, permits customers to donate 10% of their bill to the charity of their choice, and TPO also pledges to put 25% of its profits into its own charitable foundation.

I think in a positive way. TPO launches the good campaign to give back to the community. As I like to make merits and give donations, this campaign attracts my attention very much. TPO produces a business that is driven by profits, but actually it also provides people in communities with the benefit. The more TPO makes profits, the more beneficial people in communities get. However, I am worried that how long this campaign will be run. I am not sure that TPO just want to promote its campaign or it really aims to donate the money to charity.  What do you reckon?

Reference
Lee, D. (2012, November 19). Charitable mobile network The People's Operator launches. BBC News Technology. Retrieved November 19, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-20394691

Six pack : admiring or tragic

Have you ever thought that nowadays man's figure has become more important factor for attracting girl's attention? In the past, it is clear that women are more concerned about their shape than men did but nowadays, it is hard to say who win this race. due to the windows of fitness center always emblazoned with guys not girls.

According to the article "Muscular Body Image Lures Boys Into Gym, and Obsession", "There has been a striking change in attitudes toward male body image in the last 30 years". The survey also shows that the bodybuilding trend in male teenagers leads to some harmful habits such as taking supplements in dangerous amount and steroids in order to increase muscle mass.

The werewolf from the Twilight movies, and those shirtless scene reoccurring in TV series, music videos, and other feature films can assure us the booming of male muscle appreciation during this decade. Around ten years earlier, I think the six packs and the massive muscled body of men could be found only in those who were athletes but now most of the salary men are willing to pay the high price of fitness membership in order to make their body look good by building some muscles. In my opinion,it is a advantageous trend because it encouraging people to do more excising which is good for their health, comparing to the skinny trend in women which is, on the contrary, damaging those girls' health. However, when thing goes beyond the moderate line, it causes problem. Many of American teenagers take it too serious and turn out to be activity damaging their health.

Apart from the physical perspective, do you know that this trend conveys hidden meaning? This article reminds me about my conversation with my senior who is a film critique. He explains to me that this trend has the same social meaning like "white skin" trend in Europe before the industrial revolution. Both are tools for the upper class people to express their wealth and distinguished their group from the poor. At that time, white skin trend works as symbol of wealth because it show that you are so rich that you don't have to work in farm during daytime among the sun light which would turn your skin darker. Then the twist occurred after the industrial revolution, the poor had to leave farmland to work inside industrial building so their skin turned pale. The wealth's reaction was the new preferable skin tone for them is tan. They enjoyed spend time sun bathing on the garden sipping tea. Like the trend of men figure,the strong, muscled body used to belong to the labor class of the society, while the skinny body reflects middle class citizen who work in office. The wealth tries to distinguished themselves from other lower class by building their body. The muscle which is caused from labor work is different form muscle created by working out in gym.

After I heard his explanation and read this article, I felt sad that human are so eager to show that they are superior to other that they willing to harmfully distort their own natural bodies.

__________

Reference

Quenqua D. (2012, November 19). Muscular Body Image Lures Boys Into Gym, and Obsession. The New York Times. Retrieved November 19, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/19/health/teenage-boys-worried-about-body-image-take-risks.html

The Truth is Sweet, and Dark Beats Milky White

"Personally I feel that milk chocolate makes you stupid… dark chocolate is the way to go," says the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physics winner Eric Cornell (as cited in Pritchard, 2012). How could I resist such a tempting title as "Does chocolate make you clever?" and that tasty quotation?

According to Charlotte Pritchard writing in "Does chocolate make you clever?", studies inspired by evidence that cocoa is both healthy and improves brain function, show that there is a strong correlation between a nation's chocolate consumption and its number of Nobel Prizes in the various sciences, although she is also careful to note that correlation does not necessarily imply causation in either direction.

The specific figure for the correlation that Pritchard reports is r = 0.791, which is very strong. It is even stronger than the strong correlation between regular response blogging and final grades for an AEP Reading and Writing course. The statistics for last term (term 6, RW3) are below:

GPA	blog
12	105
9	82
7	80
10	78
8	54
8	47
8	21
9	19
4	19
5	10
8	8
3	6
4	4
2	4
-1	2
Pearson	0.74123

GPA = the final Grade Point Average for all academic writing assignments (Filicietti, 2012).

blog = the number of blog posts + comments over the six week term. 

 As with eating chocolate and Nobel Prizes, the correlation is very strong: although there are clearly outliers and the fit is not perfect (Pearson = 1.0), the students who did the most response blogging also tend to do best at  formal academic writing. I don't think that this is surprising: writing, and also reading, like every other skill, improve with practise and they require practice on a regular basis, at a challenging level, to improve. David Beckham was not born a great football player, nor do great chefs become great until after much practice. As with the chocolate and Nobels, I am cautious about interpreting the causal basis for the correlation behind response blogging and standard of academic writing, but that the correlation is real is proved by every terms' results. The students who blog the most tend to be the best academic readers and writers. 

The scientifically cautious Cornell later retracts his assertion that dark chocolate is superior to milk chocolate in intellectual efficacy as much as in excellence of taste, but although I don't have any supporting statistics for it, I'm still sticking with him and the dark side of the chocolate industry. I love really dark, high cocoa chocolate - even up to a whopping 99% cocoa, which is almost perfectly free of sugar and very, very chocolatey. Excellent to suck on, though perhaps not ideal for dessert making - Sacher Torte probably needs a little more than 1% sugar to be entirely wonderful. 

A tasty square of dark chocolate lasts just about long enough to write one or two decent blog comments.

For rw5,  weeks 1 - 2. Added November 19, 2012

I've just done the statistics for the class for the past two weeks. They are:

GPA weeks 1-2	Blogs weeks 1-2
9	21
8	17
9	17
9	16
6	15
5	11
5	11
9	10
2	9
6	9
8	7
10	4
3	3
Pearson =	0.378

This correlation of 0.378 is not so very strong as the usual correlation at the end of term, but it is a medium correlation ("Pearson product-moment", 2012), and we can already see a general trend developing, which we can track over the coming weeks.  

__________

Reference

Filicietti, P. (2012, February). Explanation of AEP grades. Retrieved November 18, 2012 from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FdEhVCNOEKlO1fFUzphC_dJARNeKvCIxhr3NkNXAzDg/edit

Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. (2012, November 4). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:01, November 19, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pearson_product-moment_correlation_coefficient&oldid=521414174

Pritchard, C. (2012, November 18). Does chocolate make you clever? BBC News Magazine. Retrieved November 18, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20356613