Comparing works of art. Quest 2, p. 90 - 91

These are the works of art on pages 90 - 91 of Quest 2 (Hartmann, 2007).

The Lamentation,
by Master of the Codex of Saint George, c. 1340 - 45.

The Death of General Wolfe, by Benjamin West, 1770.

Cooling Off by the Riverbank,
by Kitagawa Utamaro, late 18th century.

In the Omnibus, by Mary Cassatt, 1891.

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Reference

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

What's the Story? The Sacred Realm of Art. Quest 2, p. 72 & p. 78 - 79.

These are colour images of the works of art discussed in "Looking at Art: What's the Story" (Hartmann, 2007, p. 73) and "The Sacred Realm of Art" (pp. 78 - 79)

"Cult" Stand, Statue Anthropomorphic, Painted
800 - 600 B.C.E.

For more information see "Cult" Stand, Statue Anthropomorphic, Painted at http://www.antiquities.org.il/t/Item_en.aspx?pic_id=1&CurrentPageKey=106

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Standing Figure Holding a Baby,
Olmec, 800 - 500 B.C.E.

For more information, see Standing Figure Holding a Baby at http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/5073/Standing_Figure_Holding_a__Baby/right_tab/posse/

Bwa tribal mask and costume. Burkina Faso.

Bwa tribal mask. Burkina Faso.

Tathagatas Ratnasambhava,
Central Tibet, ca. 1200-1250

This is a different version of the work discussed in Quest, which I was unable to find. I think it's similar enough not to matter. I'm not sure that the reference information given in Quest is correct (p. 270). For more information, see Three Tathagatas at http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/svision/i23.html 

Madonna Enthroned
by Cimabue. c. 1285.

For more information, see "Santa Trinita Maestà" at http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Santa_Trinita_Maest%C3%A0&oldid=485139381

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Reference

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

Do Thai governments act to help Thai farmers?

As I brought up for discussion in class on Wednesday, and as you will have noticed reading the first drafts of your classmates' essays about an economic system, some people want to talk about the reasons why governments do what they do, and these are often moral reasons: for example, that governments should narrow income gaps between rich and poor citizens; or that they should stop wealth going overseas. Less directly moral but still citing reasons why are such ideas as: laws are made to protect local industry, or import taxes are used to discourage luxury spending, and so on.

Since a lot of us clearly do want to discuss these sorts of important questions, which Hartmann's much easier question does not require, this is a more relaxed place to hold that sort of discussion. I've thought of a couple of related issues on one, deliberately narrow topic, that I think might productively be argued.

• Should Thai governments help Thai farmers? 
• Do Thai governments act to help Thai farmers? 
• Do Thai governments help Thai farmers? 

Two notes: first, these questions are all different. I have not said the same thing in three different ways as I sometimes do for clarity. Second, they are simple present tense and refer to all Thai governments. I specifically thought of the current and every previous Thai government, or at least all for the past 30 years or so, but you are free to be less general in your responses. 

Please feel welcome to share your ideas on any or all of these three different, but related, questions. Not being from Thailand is not a problem: you can respond with comparisons or simply share your ideas from a non-Thai perspective. 

Lessons from art: The Godfather

It came up in class yesterday when we were discussing the effects of making popular recreational drugs of addiction illegal. Francis Ford Coppola's brilliant film The Godfather has long been one of my favourite films. It's one of the few films that I am always happy to watch again. Based on Mario Puzo's well researched novel of the same name, Coppola and Ruddy's film, along with part 2 in the trilogy, show how the mafia rose to power in the United States because of the enormous opportunities created by criminalising popular activities that many American citizens felt were not wrong: alcohol sale and use, prostitution and gambling (1972). The mafia did  not initially deal in other drugs, just alcohol. And since the police shared the common perception that people having a glass of wine with dinner were not harming others, they saw no reason not to take bribes to allow it. The result was massive corruption of US police, law courts and politics: a disaster from which American society has never recovered, and which they are now repeating at enormous socio-economic expense and total failure with the war on drugs, which helps no one except corrupt officials and mafia gangs. The intention is perhaps good, but that is not enough to make something good: the laws against drugs, gambling and prostitution are both immoral and irrational, making much worse all of the problems they are supposed to solve whilst turning decent citizens into criminals. This does seem a bit insane to me.

However,  The Godfather also teaches us an important lesson about killing. When Don Vito Corleone wants to kill a man, as he sometimes does for solid business reasons, does he grab a gun and start shooting? Never. Not once in the film does he hold a gun in his hand. Don Corleone sits in his office in the family home in New York and speaks into the ear of his trusted consigliere, who instructs the family caporegimes to send a man who will pull the trigger that shoots the bullet that stops the brain of the disagreeable business associate who "cannot be reasoned with."

Is the godfather responsible for killing the man who has been killed? Where was the real intention to kill a man: in the plotting mind of the godfather who gave the order, or the low-ranking soldier who pulled the trigger of the gun?  The answer to these questions seem to me to be that the intention to kill a man was the godfather's, and that it is the godfather, not the man who fired the gun, who is really responsible for the murder. The actual killer is merely a tool, like the bullet fired from the gun is a tool, of the intentions and plans of the godfather. It is the bullet in the brain that really kills, but we do not think that the bullet is guilty of murder: the guilt for the killing lies in the brain that had the intention to kill for a reason and which decided to act on that intention by giving the order to murder.

Similarly, butchers do not kill animals because they enjoy killing or want to kill. On the contrary, when butchers kill animals, they are acting as tools for customers. The intention that leads to the killing of animals comes from the customer's desire to eat meat that they do not need. If the customer needed the meat to live, they would not have a choice and would not be guilty of a free and deliberate decision to have animals killed because they taste good at dinner. In the same way, when a woman shoots a man trying to rape and kill her, we do not think she is guilty of murder: she had no choice but to kill the criminal. It is not the simple act of killing that we look at to decide guilt or innocence, but the reasoning and intentions behind the act. The godfather who orders a rival gang member killed is guilty of that killing, and Tops' supermarket customers who buy steak, chicken and fish are the intentional causes of those animals being killed. The cows, the chickens and the fish would not be killed if the customers did not order their dead bodies for dinner, and the rival gang member would not be killed if the mafia boss did not order it to improve his business opportunities in the drug market.

And I've probably now filled in enough of the argument to explain why I agree with those Buddhists who think that a correct understanding of the first precept of Buddhism means that Buddhists should not normally eat meat. This precept is commonly translated into English from the Pali as "I undertake the training rule to abstain from taking life" ("Five Precepts", 2012). I think this discussion, and similar discussions, matter. Good people, well-intentioned groups of Buddhists and others, disagree about such basic questions, and since the answers are opposed, at least one group must be wrong. The only way to get close to an answer, even if it's not a final answer but only the best understanding we can get at this time, is to have this sort of discussion.

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Reference

Coppola, F. F. (director), Ruddy, A. S. (producer). (1972). The Godfather. United States: Paramount Pictures.

Five Precepts. (2012, October 7). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:39, October 18, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Five_Precepts&oldid=516511377

The Value of Criticism: Art, Drugs and Sex Selective Abortion

Although it was definitely not on today's lesson plan, I was happy to let the discussion that began with the question of whether or not parents should be allowed to choose the sex of their children run on for a bit because you conducted it extremely well: serious ideas about which there was very strong disagreement were presented, supporting and opposing ideas and facts were presented and taken seriously by all sides, and people refined and modified their opinions as evidence and reasons were presented.

As you will see in Hartmann's first reading in chapter 3 of Quest, criticism is an important part of the academic study of art. And when we come to read "Looking at Art: What's the Story?" next week, we might extend Hartmann's suggested definition of what characterizes criticism (2007, p. 73). In some of the responses that you wrote this in class earlier today, some of you did, in fact, go beyond the simple two part definition that Hartmann offers us.

Academic discussion, even in respected journals, is often also heated. This is because people care very much about the issues, about what is true and what is to be done, but even a heated academic discussion does not (usually) collapse into a shouting match, although academics, being only human, do sometimes shout, and worse. During this morning's discussion, I was reminded of a debate in 1946 between two of the greatest philosophers of the last century: Karl Popper, whose work continues to exert enormous influence on how we think about science, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, who did work on logic, language and philosophy of mind. In their friendly (!) debate at the  Cambridge University Moral Sciences Club (what better place) among other greats such as logician and philosopher of mathematics Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein is reported to have threatened to beat Popper with an iron fire-poker that was conveniently at hand in the chilly English weather. They behaved a bit better in the journals, where the same argument was carried on with equal passion but less iron waving.

Getting back to the topics this morning, I'd like to discuss the drug question first because I think it's the easier one. As Grace rightly pointed out, if I claim that legalising all drugs will not increase drug use or addiction rates, I have to support that opinion, and because it's a factual claim, argument alone is not good enough: an opinion about the way the world really is must be supported with relevant facts. I agree that it sounds very plausible, that it is very easy to believe, that legalising drugs must lead to an increase in drug use and addiction rates, but being easy to believe does not make any claim about the world true. Many ideas that seem obviously true are false. Aristotle, and every one after him for more than 1,000 years, believed that heavier objects must naturally fall faster than lighter objects; they were all wrong. Unfortunately, this became part of Christian belief supported by the Catholic popes who tortured, killed and threatened anyone who said otherwise, such as Galileo. This legally enforced censorship did not help the misunderstanding to be corrected; on the contrary, as such censorship always does, it guaranteed ignorance and worthless opinion on the topics where free speech was strictly forbidden.

Chieko then helped by pointing out that the relevant facts to consider to determine what effects legalising and criminalising drugs  have is to look at examples where some drug has been legalised or criminalised, specifically, at the situation before compared with the situation after. First, the US experience with alcohol prohibition provides a good example of what happens when a popular drug of recreation that is legal is made illegal. As Jeffrey Miron  shows in "The Effect of Alcohol Prohibition on Alcohol Consumption" making this drug illegal "had virtually no effect on alcohol consumption" (1999, p. 1). To see the results of legalising all drugs on drug use, and also related health, crime and social issues, Glenn Greenwald provides a solid collection of official statistics on the consequences of decriminalising all drug in Portugal in 2001. As Greenwald emphasises in his executive summary, "none of the nightmare scenarios touted by preenactment decriminalization opponents—from rampant increases in drug usage among the young to the transformation of Lisbon into a haven for 'drug tourists'—has occurred" (2009, p. 1). In other words, everyone's worst fears of what might happen if all drugs were suddenly legalised were proved completely wrong by the resulting facts. The impressive results for Portugal are also stated more briefly in the report and headline of the Forbes business newspaper's article by Erik Kain: "Ten Years After Decriminalisation, Drug Abuse Down by Half in Portugal" (2011). Although the longer and more solidly researched academic paper by Greenwald is a bit more persuasive for me, we don't expect conservative, business publications to publish such things without good reason. You might also find it instructive to Google the effects of decriminalising marijuana use in the Netherlands.

Finally, the question that started the very academic discussion that was not on my lesson plan: Should parents be allowed to determine the sex of their children? In my level 5 class, I give students a choice of essay topics for our major writing assignment, and one of the questions is on the topic of abortion; however, I've written the question very carefully to completely avoid the moral issues. Similarly, in the discussion legalising drugs, I generally avoid the moral questions and focus on the factual, practical issue of what is most likely to be an effective and successful police to solve the serious drug problems that affect many societies. The reason for this is that although I think the moral arguments are even stronger than the practical arguments, those arguments are also much more complex, so I try to avoid them in class until level 6 and higher. It's better to practise on easier topics first and move on to the more challenging ones. I would probably not have given a level 3 or 4 class an explicitly moral question like the one you were arguing, preferring to stick with something a bit narrower and more easily resolved. I might, for example, have asked: Would it be beneficial or harmful for a society to allow parents to choose the sex of their children? This question is interesting and challenging, but I think less difficult than the explicitly moral one.

In class, Frank and I disagreed about the facts in China. Frank, sensibly and rightly, wants me to provide some evidence for my belief. As I said in class, since the statistics I was relying on were ten years old, it was certainly possible that the situation had changed since I last did some research. However, when I checked this afternoon, it appears from their study published in the British Medical Journal by academics Wei Xing Zhu and  Li Lu from Chinese universities, and Therese Hesketh at University college London that sex selective abortion has continued to become increasingly common in China at least until 2005, as shown by the wildly skewed ratio of male to female births (Zhu, Lu & Hesketh, 2009). I could not find any reliable study suggesting that this trend might have changed in the years since 2005. It appears that, despite being illegal, sex selective abortion of females has been commonly practised throughout China, although less in urban areas than rural, since the determination of the sex of the foetus became medically possible.

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Reference

Greenwald, G. (2009). Drug Decriminalisation in Portugal: Lessons for Creating Fair and Successful Drug Policies. Washington D.C.: Cato Institute. Retrieved October 18, 2012 from http://www.cato.org/pubs/wtpapers/greenwald_whitepaper.pdf

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

Kain, E. (2011, September 5). Ten years after decriminalisation, drug abuse down by half in Portugal. Forbes. Retrieved October 18, 2012 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/

Miron, J. (1999). The Effect of Alcohol Prohibition on Alcohol Consumption. Working Paper 7130. Cambridge: The National Bureau of Economic Research. Retrieved October 18, 2012 from http://www.nber.org/papers/w7130.pdf?new_window=1

Zhu, W. X., Lu, L. & Hesketh, T. (2009, April 9). China’s excess males, sex selective abortion, and one child policy: analysis of data from 2005 national intercensus survey. British Medical Journal, 338 (b1211). Retrieved October 18, 2012 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2667570/

Art: Themes and Purposes. Quest 2, p. 71 - 75.

For the rest of the term in Quest, we will be reading about and discussing art.

Painting Van Gogh by T. F. Chen, 1991

An obvious first question might be: What is art?
However, Hartmann limits her discussion to a much narrower set of art: the visual arts, starting with the image above on the opening page of chapter 3, and we too can probably ignore the difficult question of what art is, even if we do not limit ourselves here to the traditional visual forms of art that are the subject of chapter 3 of Quest (2007, p. 71 - 104).

Write two comments responding to each of the following questions.

• What is your favourite work of art? Why do you like it? (p. 71) You need not limit yourself to visual art in responding to this question. 
• Look over the pictures on pages 74 - 75. Which one do you like the most? Why? Do you know something about any of these pieces of art? (p. 72)
  I've been able to find better copies online, as below. Click on the picture to open a larger version of the image. 

There is no need to do any research or reading to respond to these questions. Just write down your ideas. You might prefer to write two separate comments, and you are of course welcome to also reply to earlier comments.

The Art Critic by Norman Rockwell, 1955 

Aquila degli Abruzi
by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1952.

Street Scene, Haiti, by Laetitia. 20th C.

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Reference

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

Why is it so difficult just to go to school?

I wish I had been in Karachi, and one of the protest demonstrators there.

According to “Malala Yousafzai, schoolgirl shot by Taliban, now in UK”,14 year old girl who was attacked by Taliban bandit on the way home in Swatt, Pakistan, and injured severely, was moved to UK to have the medical treatment at the hospital in Birmingham. She was shot because of "promoting secularism", which means that she campaigned for girls schooling which was forbidden under the Taliban control from 2007 to 2009. In Karachi there was the largest protest demonstration against the terrorism on 14th October.

I always think that religion is very important for the followers, so, I have to respect it, even if it is difficult for me to understand its doctrine or customs. But in this case, I don’t know why the people can be so cruel and ruthless because of their religions.

Taliban and the incidents in Afghanistan and the countries around it were something I only knew from the news on TV or in the newspapers, until I read a book, A Thousand Splendid Suns written by Khaled Hosseini who also wrote The Kite Runner. In these two books, Hosseni describes the life of the ordinary people in Afghanistan, whose lives are totally destroyed under the soviet occupation, Taliban control, and the war after that. Especially in A Thousand Splendid Suns, I knew the harsh life of women in Afghanistan, and I resented knowing that women are treated as things there.

One of the heroines of story is 15 year old girl, Laila、who is very smart, lively and confronts her harsh destiny bravely. Malaya reminded me of the heroin of the book. As the heroine became happy at the end of the story, I sincerely wish that Malaya’s injury will heal without complication, and she will become one of the women, who encourage the girls in severe situation.

Reference

Malala Yousafzai, schoolgirl shot by Taliban, now in UK. (2012, October 15). BBC News Asia. Retrieved October 16 2012
from  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19954043

China's influence on the world

The world never stops spinning, so there has been changing in everything in every minutes. China is also one of the best examples.

According to "Eight ways China is changing you world", Angus Foster indicates that China has been caught by people from all over the world. Many of them are focusing on China by following international news on China, especially high politics that is going to have a major change in paramount leaders or so-called the Central Politburo. Apart from domestic politics,  In addition, a magnitude of foreigners has started learning Chinese (Mandarin) language because it become more and more important in global economy in recent year.

China normally takes charge in significant issues in international affairs, including international politics. For example, China insists that the United Nations or other international forces should not intervene the current civil war in Syria. Because of the permanent membership in UN Security Council, China usually objects the resolution on intervention. This is its strong position of non-intervention or being threat against other nations. However, China has become a risk toward the United States as many academics and analysts predicted. 

Looking back to world history, America rose to the superpower at the same time of Soviet Russia's leading role in global politics. It was post-World War II period. Before the USA and the USSR, the United Kingdom and the French Republic had ruled more than half of the world as imperialists about a century. Hence, it is not strange whether China will become a superpower as the only one or one of the multipolar system. The rising China also benefits other countries and their people since the large number of China's population boosts global economy. The two examples in the article are travelling and studying abroad especially in the western countries or English-speaking nations. Besides, more open economy at this moment stimulates higher level of consumption in all economic sectors. 

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Reference
Angus Foster. Eight ways China is changing you world (2012, October 15) BBC News Asia, retrieved October 15, 2012 From http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19797989

The homeless or refugees

Although the homeless are people who have no place to live, refugees have not only no home but also no country. I do not know which the worst is?

According to The New York Times in "Refugees to Turkey top 100,000", Joe Parkinson reports that because of Syria conflicts, over one hundred thousand Syrian refugees suffering from cold weather camp along the border between Syria and Turkey, but Turkish government deny opening country for all refugees.

Many Thai homeless people are mental illness or drugs addiction patients. Although they have their nationality and country, most of them do not know who they are and do not have money. Some of them live along footpaths. Some walk freely through places to places and  rest in any place where nobody kick them out. Some beg for  food or find it in garbage can. However, in some parts of  Thailand, there are many camps for refugees and tribes. These group of people are identified they are no nationality. Fortunately, they have large supports from inside and outside organizations. It means they do not suffer from starvation. Beyond that, they are normal and study as much as they can. Their lives can be as normal as others although they will hurt from official communication. It is wondering whether living as normal or abnormal people is better.

Reference
Joe Parkinson (October 15, 2012, 7:46 AM). Refugees to Turkey top 100,000. The New York Times. Retrieved October 15, 2012 (10:30 PM ) from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443675404578058103242571138.html?mod=WSJASIA_hpp_MIDDLESecondNews

German Submarine in Chicago.

I like the idea which bring something from the past to be inspiration statue for people.

According to “Space shuttle Endeavour rolls through Los Angeles”, a story of last journey of Endeavour space shuttle which was retried from serving NASA’s missions is becoming settling in California Science Center Los Angeles to encourage inspiration for their future generations of astronauts, but it was delayed by some trees which were old and planted for honors of Martin Luther King beside the road.

This story reminded me that when I was in Chicago in 2006, I quite often went to many museums which were located around the city, but there was one of them that I preferred to see more than the other. Especially the Museum of Science and Industry Chicago, which is sci-museum and located beside the great Lake Michigan, I felt very exciting and fell in love with that museum because it shows the old German submarine which is U-505 inside of the museum.

 However, in that day I went to that museum very late and it quite closed, so that I decided to see its outside and plan to be inside the submarine in the day after because of ten dollars charged fee for be inside it.Moreover, I felt upset when I cannot did my plan to see inside of the submarine in the day after that. It might be a good idea to be inside it in the future.

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Reference

Space shuttle Endeavour rolls through Los Angeles. (2012, October 14). BBC News US and Canada, Retrieved October14, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19935264

Exams

Exams

Have you ever felt anxiety about an upcoming exam? If so, do you know that there is research found that being anxious in advance may increase your grade?

“Pre-exam anxiety 'can boost grades'” reports a result of a survey of 96 children aged 12 to 14 years about a relationship between anxiety and their abilities to perform tests dealing with working-memory skill. The researchers found that for people who have low working-memory skills, increases in anxiety led to decreases in their test scores. Conversely, for people who have high working-memory skills, increases in anxiety contributed to increases in their test performance.

I believe that everyone feels worried about exams but the level of anxiety is different. I also think that there are various reasons why individuals are anxious before taking exams. Some people know that they have abilities to do the test and perhaps reach the highest score. This is due to their study habits that they have been studying hard for a long time before their exams but they are worried that they may not do the test to the best of their abilities or get lower grades than they expect. On the other hand, some might be worried that they have not finished reviewing all materials before the test date. Also, they have potentials not to pass the exam.

I am the one who always feel nervous about a forthcoming exam. I feel that I am not ready to take any exam; even though; I have reviewed all materials many times. I am worried that I might overlook some points which are important and then come up in the test. I remember that the first time I did a quiz when I was studying my bachelor degree, I felt very confident before going to the test room. However, during the exam, there were some questions that would not have been difficult to answer if I had read the book carefully and thoroughly. This is because the answer was obviously stated as a footnote in the book. After that, I felt guilty because I knew that the professor who issued that exam had a reputation in finding spots that people may not expect to be a question. Later on, I have never had such a confident before any upcoming exams but this situation encouraged me to spot every single point. Also, it changed me from a fast-doing test taker to be a last-doing test taker because I need to be careful. 

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Reference

Education news (2012, October 12). Pre-exam anxiety 'can boost grades'. BBC News Education Retrieved October 12, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-19895531

Panda

Most people like panda, but we can see it only few places.

According to “Washington zoo panda cub died of liver necrosis”, a baby giant panda which was born in Washington zoo in the U.S. was died right after its birth, but the mother panda shows her behavior as if she has still had her baby.

When I read this news, I remembered that a baby giant panda died 3months ago in Japan. I heard baby giant pandas are very delicate and weak, so breeding is very difficult. However, I think that people has made giant pandas difficultly breed because mother giant pandas have a lot of stress in the zoos.

First, they have stayed in their small cage long time. Most animals don’t like this situation, too. When giant pandas are in the cage long time, they would be disappointed their life. Second, many people have seen them every day. Most animals are very sensitive for being stared at from animals because of many enemies in their natural world.  Giant pandas might have thought that people are enemies, too. It would tire them. Finally, they become lazy. That’s why they get their food easily and cannot exercise for releasing their energy in the small cage. This is very bad thing. Some of them don’t like take care of their babies.

I think we only give the similar natural environment for giant pandas with their food and without natural enemies of them, so they will increase. As a result, we can see them many places in the future.

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Reference

Washington zoo panda cub died of liver necrosis. (11, October 2012). BBC News  BBC News US & Canada. Retrieved October 11, 2012 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-19916115

But is it healthy? Saving the Environment.

The discussion on tomatoes suggests that we like talking about food and eating, which I think is normal. And then eating was linked with cockroach in the BBC News a couple of days ago, it definitely got my attention.

"Man Dies after Cockroach-eating Competition" reports that after he won the first prize python at a local pet shop by "scoffing dozens of the live insects and worms in Florida" (2012), Edward Archbold, who had accepted legal responsibility for his own actions, died.

This contest is, as the BBC's headlines describe it, "unorthodox", although adjectives such as weird, kooky and peculiar also came to my mind. Then I started to wonder about the health benefits of cockroaches and worms. I suspect that both are probably very good sources of protein, and if bred in hygienic conditions, are perfectly clean, safe, and at least as healthy as beef, chicken pork, horse and red ants. In fact, for a planet stressed by the enormous economic cost of producing expensive meat from large animals like pigs, ducks, cows and kangaroos, the worms and cockroaches are probably far more efficient sources of healthy protein. It would seem that people who advocate lowering carbon emissions in response to global warming and our ecologically destructive food habits should switch to eating worms and cockroaches, if they don't give up meat altogether.

Thankfully, I'm not that sort of environmentally concerned person. I do think the environment needs urgent action, but I am also convinced that more, not less, science-based technological intervention is needed to solve the growing problems we humans have created. For example, more intensive farming of genetically modified crops can produce far more food from the same land and resources than the extremely wasteful and ecologically greedy organic and traditional farming techniques: scientists and big businesses tend to make much better use of scarce resources than small farmers following traditional practices and not using modern chemicals and species.

And now I've forgotten to talk about the whether such idiotic contests should be banned or not, which was what I had in mind when I started this piece of response writing. But there are the comments ...

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Reference

Man dies after cockroach-eating competition. (2012, October 9). BBC News Us & Canada. Retrieved October 11, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-19879379

Grace's Questions: Dilbert on why academics do what they do

Although Dilbert is on my list of sources for something to read and respond to, I wouldn't normally blog Scott Adams' daily offering, but last Sunday's was one of the ones that say something relevant to what we do in class every day, about what academics do.

Summary? I think the best "summary" is for you to read the whole cartoon. (Clicking on it should bring up a larger, more legible version.)

Dilbert, by Scott Adams, Sunday, October 7, 2012. 

When I read it, I thought that there might be a useful lesson in there about why academics do what they do. Those same lessons might also help to clarify Grace's highly relevant questions from our discussion about topics and ideas yesterday, which we are continuing this morning. If you didn't have time yesterday for your daily blog comment quota, you might like to share your ideas on these questions about the what and why of academic work before class this morning, perhaps over your tomatoes or whatever it is you enjoy for breakfast.  I'm enjoying a coffee as always and, less usually, oats with a banana and soy milk, although buttery omelettes with cheese are more enjoyable.

So, what does Adams's cartoon tell us about why academics do what they do? And how does this relate to the question about what is the topic of the essay whose introduction we read yesterday? (And which you will get in full this morning.)

__________

Reference

Adams, S. (2012, October 7). Dilbert. Retrieved October 10, 2012 from http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-10-07/

More tomatoes!

Do you like Italian food? If yes, you might not worry about having stroke in the future. Something red may be good for health. People say that one apple a day prevents doctors. Eating tomatoes every day may help you have healthy blood vessels. 

In “Tomatoes are 'stroke preventers’”, it is reported that after 12 years following research of 1031 men divided into four groups according to how much lycopene they had in their blood, researchers in Finland publish their study in the academic magazine, Neurology. According to the research, by eating lycopene rich fruits and vegetables, such as tomatoes, water-melons, and red-peppers could prevent blood vessels from clotting, and reduce the risk of having strokes by 55%. 

For many Japanese TV gossip shows, presenting of the healthy food is a popular theme which can attract audience easily. Different kinds of crops, dairy products and meats are featured as a good food for health. As far as I can remember, fermented soybean called natto, bananas, yoghurt, soybean powder, blue-skinned fish, sesame, almonds, and apples were introduced in TV shows, and were often sold out at the supermarkets after the telecast. Tomatoes were also recommended to the people who wanted to lose their weight in the telecast last February, and eating tomatoes became a craze. 

Until I read the article tonight, I almost forget the telecast in February. The title of the article caught my eye, because recently I have read some stories about elderly people who had strokes and suffered from long term damage after that. How to care those people is a serious problem in the aging society like Japan. My father also had a stroke several years ago. Fortunately it wasn’t a serious one, but he had some difficulties in speaking, which distressed him very much. After six months rehabilitation, he could speak almost as fluent as before having stroke. Now, he is very careful about his meal and lifestyle so that he won’t have a stroke again. I think, if he knows the article, he will eat tomatoes every day. I hope that more research will prove the effect of lycopene, and help elderly people live healthy. 

There are some related stories about tomato’s power at the end of the article. After reading some, I decided to eat more Italian food, which I like very much anyway.

__________

Reference

Tomatoes are 'stroke preventers' (2012, October 9) . BBC News Health .Retrieved  October 9 2012
from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-19869666

English killed by glocalisation

We are living in the changing world, so everything cannot stand still and reserve itself perpetually. Similar to a Buddhist principle, "the three characteristics of changing" or "the law of changing" consists of "arising", "existence", and "disappearance".

In "Viewpoint: English is dead, long live 'glocalisation'", Nathalie Nahai warns businesses to be aware of the changing habits of people all over the world. They tend to ignore English language toward the glocalisation which combine the word "globalisation" and "localisation" to show that people can live in their local area together with the globalisation, as well as adapt themselves to the new technology or innovation. Therefore, English is not the only one language that dominates the world anymore. There are a few languages such as Chinese and Spanish that rise in number of speakers and become more influential in the world communities, including global economy.

The article reminds me about the topic we have just finished last weekend, but I wouldn't like to comment on the same things. As generally known, there are thousands of languages existing and used around the world. It is quite a good idea to motivate everybody to speak the same language because it will help more understanding between the different social groups. However, one thing that everyone should keep in mind is that we have the right to choose our own way of life. The languages we speak depend on our own purposes. These couple of years, many Thai government authorities have pushed people to learn more than one language, especially English and other official language of ASEAN nations, together with claiming that it will benefit all Thais surely after 2015. I don't reject that it's good, but Thai government leads it obligatorily, particularly to young students, despite the fact that teaching staffs for languages are not enough.

Anyway, internet surfers write or post their messages in their languages because internet access has spread out to residents at every corner of the world. Consequently, English is not a must for internet users anymore. There have been more online services in various languages and dialects. For example, the UK's BBC News and Germany's Deutsche Welle provide interesting tidings and up-to-date information in 27 and 30 languages. Last year, I saw a news about liberalising domain names (name of websites) to other languages. That sounds wonderful and respectful to the diversity of our world.

__________

Reference

Viewpoint: English is dead, long live 'glocalisation'. (2012, October 4). BBC News Business. Retrieved October 8, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19801445

Zombie

According to Oxford advance leaner dictionary, zombie in second meaning means "(in some African and Caribbean religions and in horror stories) a dead body that has been made alive again by magic." There are many stories about zombies which appear in our world without magic.

In "Who's in charge inside your head," David P. Barash reports that there are bees behaved as zombie, called "zombee", but they are not real zombies. The bees fly out at night and then die because of flies, Apocephalus borealis. This fly lives and lays eggs inside bees until the larva fries are mature, and they consume bees from inside out. This is the reason why died bees can fly out at night.

This title is reminded about movies named The Mummy. In the movies, there is a large swarm of black bugs eaten meat. When a bad guy invade into a pyramid, he face to them. The bugs try to enter into the man body and then consume and lay eggs inside him. As a result, he disappear. These bugs in the movies are similar with zombees, but they are the human imagine.

About two years ago, a Thai man went to see a doctor because he itched and had some pimples on his skin, especially hands and legs. When the pimples were scratched, there were some flies fought out and disappeared. He admit at the hospital about a weeks with unknown causes how it happened. It is unfortunate for flies that human has the largest army to defend against invaders. Eggs of fly which lay inside human can not grow because of our killer T cell. If the pimples did not open, the flies would die inside or hibernate forever. 

However, the original of zombie may be the legend of Vampire. In the past, many vampire movies, people will become a vampire because they sell their souls to Satan. But, many vampire movies today, people will become a vampire because of virus infection. Continuously, human imagine is creative until a vampire develop to stronger monster, a zombie.

If any flies can defeat our immune, human  will be preys as AIDS. 

Reference
David P. Barash (October 6,2012). Who's in charge inside your head. The New York Times. Retrieved October 8, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/opinion/sunday/whos-in-charge-inside-your-head.html?ref=science&_r=0 

60 years anniversary of barcode

I believed that everyone have to use or involve with barcode in our daily life even though many people never know about the history of barcode or how it works before. I though barcode system is a good inventory which provide a lot of convenience for the customer and the seller. Because we use a lot of barcode symbol in our life not only buying goods from supermarket, but also they are in our bills, such as paid for the electricity cost or water bills  which you can paid the debt at any seven eleven shop

According to “Barcode birthday: 60 years since patent”, the article is about the 60 years anniversary of barcode patent which nowadays it becomes ubiquitous after the first time when it was put in the packet of chewing gum in an Ohio supermarket and scanned in 1974.

When I was young, I noticed the barcode on the packet of many products and doubted about how the barcode reader works with barcode, how the machine knew the price of products when barcode was scanned at the checkpoint paid gateways. I knew that they use the red laser beam to read the barcode information out.

When I grew up, I studied in computer engineering. I realized that the red beam laser that barcode reader emission out  was reading signal which is the shaking laser beam  from left to right and right to left as many times per second. After the reader can read barcode number, the computer will use it to gather the information of the products such as product name and product price from databases and then the computer will display the name and the price of product on the screen to show the price.

Nowadays, we have the new generation of barcode which we call QR code, but it is a bit difference from the traditional barcode which is able kept the data morn than the old one.

__________

Reference
Barcode birthday: 60 years since patent. (2012, October 6). BBC News Technology, Retrieved October 8, 2012 from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19849141 

Talking Dictionaries

No, I'm not talking about talking dictionaries, but talking about dictionaries.

In our discussion on Thursday, Bas sensibly looked up the entry for the noun economy in a dictionary, which I'm guessing was the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (LDOCE). This dictionary lists four distinct uses of the word, all having in common the word "money" ("economy, noun", n.d.). My first reaction was not very positive: it seemed to me that a definition of the word economy which focussed on money was a bad definition; it would certainly not fit a traditional society such as the Sami, who did not use money. Surely we do not want to say that they did not have an economy simply because they did not use money, although something like this is exactly what Frank did suggest. When I did a bit more research, asking Bas how many definitions were listed and to then read them out, I felt a lot better about it. At least it's not wrong. But is it useful? Does it give us a good definition of the word?

Back home, I checked to see what the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (OALD) says. It's very similar to the  LDOCE's entry for the noun economy, except that the OALD has three definitions to the LDOCE's four. Two of the three OALD definitions include the word "money" ("economy, noun", 2011).

As we have already seen, in order to answer our questions about the Sami, and other questions, we need to clarify exactly what we are talking about when we use words like economy. This is not a particularly uncommon word. I am sure it's a word we all use and hear frequently in the daily news and elsewhere, and have been doing so for years. But as our discussion on Thursday showed, we might not have a very precise idea of what we mean when use this word. And none of the dictionary definitions I referred to above really agree with the definition that we agreed on when we started reading chapter 2 of Hartmann.

• So which definition of the word economy is better: ours or one of the dictionary definitions? Why?
• Do the Sami have an economy? Do they have an economic system? If yes, how does it work? 

As you share your ideas and supporting reasons on this question, a number or related questions, all of which are likely important for students in an academic English class, will probably also come up. Feel free to ask these questions and share your responses to them. They are also likely to be a bit deeper and more interesting than the useful dictionary exercises coming up in Quest next week.  

__________

References

economy, noun. (n.d.). In Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Online. Pearson Longman. Retrieved October 7, 2011 from http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/economy_1

economy, noun. (2011). In Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary (8th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Retrieved October 7, 2012 from http://oald8.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/economy

Facebook Users

I have used facebook almost every day since 2010 because I get in touch with my friends easily, and it has replaced email or other social networks for me.

According to “Facebook surpasses one billion users as it tempts new markets”, more than one billion people use facebook every month, and 600 million of them users access via a mobile device. Investors expect the company’s management strategy targets Asia and Africa markets for getting many users because their users are only about 6%.

Many people use facebook in Thailand, and I also use it. But 3 yeas ago, I used hi5. It was not so bad for me. However, many Thai friends recommend facebook. I didn’t want to change my account and have many accounts, so I kept using hi5 at that time. Someday, I realized most of my friends had facebook accounts, and decided to use facebook and closed hi5 account. I think that it was same as hi5, nothing special. I want to know why Thai people used facebook in place of hi5. That’s why hi5 users more than facebook ones about 3 years ago.

When I read this news, I was surprised because I thought many Asian people use facebook. I see many people use it in BTS, MRT and everywhere in Bangkok. I guessed more than 20% of Asian people use it. However, this survey showed only 6.68%. I cannot believe it, so I checked some websites. And I found out an interesting survey. The largest of facebook statistics by city is Bangkok in the world (socialbakers, 2012). I was also surprised because 104.74% of the people use facebook in Bangkok. I think Thai people don’t like alone, so they want to connect their friends all the time, and it would be good tools for them.

__________

References 

Facebook surpasses one billion users as it tempts new markets. (05, Octorber 2012). BBC News Technology. Retrieved October 03, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19816709 

socialbakers. (2012). Facebook Statistics by City (Beta). Retrieved October 5, 2012 from http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/cities/ 

Facebook

I believe that most of you have Facebook accounts and access them frequently.

In “Facebook surpasses one billion users as it tempts new markets”, Dave Lee of BBC technology reports that Facebook, which is one of most popular social networks, has recently more than a billion users all over the world, which accounts for one seventh of world’s population. The fast growing users make a little concern to facebook’s investors since they are worried about how the next billion users will come.

After reading this article that Facebook has now reached more than one billion users did not surprise me at all. since most of the people I know have their own Facebook accounts. Also, a Facebook application in a smart phone give its users easy access to their accounts any place and any time. Moreover, Facebook has many interesting and useful features such as “Like” button. I really like “Like” button because it is convenient for me to share my idea without having to say anything at all. Also, I can draw my friends’ attentions by tagging them in my comments or captions. Besides, there is a location indicating where you are under your comments in Facebook page, so you can see how amazingly close you are to your friends by observing your friends’ current location.

Personally, I am benefited by from using Facebook because I could reconnect with my friends whom I have not contacted for a long time. This is because when I created my account, I had to fill in my information. Then there would be a friend suggestion popped up in order to let me know that the people who had something in common with me already used Facebook. Therefore, I could add them as friends and started chatting.

However, overuse of Facebook during the day can reduce your ability to work efficiently. For example, you may be distracted by other people sharing pictures of yummy food or attractive places. __________

Reference

Facebook surpasses one billion users as it tempts new markets. (2012, October 4). BBC News Technology. Retrieved October 5, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19816709

Productive Exchanges

   As I've already noted in my email earlier today, your discussion in class as we were checking exercise B. on page 39 of Quest (Hartmann, 2007) was an excellent example of an academic discussion. It showed strong critical thinking, a very close, careful reading of the source, and the combining of relevant ideas from other sources or previous experience. It meant we didn't get through quite as much as was on my lesson plan for today, but we almost never do do that anyway, and it's not a problem. It's much better to spend our time in class productively practising useful academic skills than rushing through to fit some arbitrary schedule.

   Exercise B. checks important details about groups of people in different types of economies. First, Hartmann asks us what the people of the North Pacific Coast of the Americas gave away or sold in their traditional potlatch, a ceremony that Hartmann describes as "a famous cultural and economic event" (2007, p. 37, line 14). It is  clear that Hartmann thinks the potlatch was part of an economy. And it is also clear from the description that it was a way in which goods were distributed: they went from the hosts, who had a lot, to their guests, who had little. But other types of goods, intangible goods as Cee pointed out and Hartmann expects us to answer, moved in the other direction: in exchange for giving away their material goods, such as "blankets, food, boats and ... copper" (lines 21 - 22), the hosts "received high status" (line 24). And these are the answers we fairly quickly agreed on for the traditional economy of the tribal peoples of the North Pacific.

  We then came to check important details about how distribution worked and works in the changing economy of the Sami tribes of Northern Scandinavia. Prompted first by Grace's concerns, we improved on Hartmann's simple question by making a distinction between the Sami's traditional practices and what they do today. The modern situation, which is probably what Hartmann had in mind, is the easier, and after getting clear what time we were discussing, we agreed that in the lifestyle they practise today, the Sami sell reindeer meat and receive money, which they then use to buy modern goods like snowmobiles. That is, the reading told us that today's Sami sold reindeer meat and received money. There was a problem with the tenses, which Pun brought to our attention. Hartmann could have made her meaning clearer than simply writing in her instruction "On pages 37 - 39, you read [past tense] about three examples of ... ." Rather than assuming that we are all familiar with the peculiar tense changes possible in indirect speech in English, Hartmann could have written "Sell/Sold or Give/Gave Away". I suggest you not spend any more time worrying about the tenses, but if it is worrying you, see the explanations in Practical English Usage (Swan, 2005, §275, esp. §275.4). The next question that Grace and Pun focussed our attention on is much more interesting and worth spending time on, which is why I let the discussion run on in class.

   Did the Sami sell or give things away in their traditional economic system? After a bit of increasingly confused, and confusing, discussion, Bas drew our attention to lines 48 - 49, which say that the Sami "didn't have to exchange goods with the outside world" in their traditional way of life (p. 38). It was clear that there was another important distinction to be made, this time between: 1) the Sami and other groups, and 2) within the Sami social group. Hartmann did not expect us to have this discussion, but it raises deeper and more interesting questions, gives us a much deeper understanding of the Sami people and how their social organization has changed over the centuries, and pushes us to exercise our reading and critical thinking skills more strenuously: you did very well. When this distinction was made clear, we could agree that the Sami did not traditionally exchange goods with other societies. But what about within their own society? This is where Pun reminded us that we needed to remember our previously agreed on definition of the noun economy, which contains the verb distribute, and compare that verb with the definition of the verb exchange, which Hartmann uses in line 48. At the end of class, the list of words or phrases whose meaning we needed to clarify also included: sell, give, give gifts, share, social system and communism. Although Chieko contributed a very useful example to support her answer, I don't think the remaining question was settled to everyone's satisfaction at the end of class, which was already running overtime. So you can continue the argument in comments below.

We want to agree on an answer to the question:

• Did the traditional Sami sell or give things away within their own social group? 
  As well as giving your own answer and its support, you also need to reply to the opposing answers and reasons of your classmates who disagree with you. 

   When I started writing this blog post, I was also going to include some points that arose from Bas's citing and quoting from the Longman's dictionary (Which one?), and a related point Frank raised, but it's already long enough. I'll post a new blog tomorrow or Saturday. Comments here count towards your daily response writing quota, although it is a bit more explicitly academic than blogging the news.

__________

References 

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

Swan, M. (2005). Practical English Usage (3rd ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.