A Way Out for Kids’ TV Addiction

After I had read Hartmann and Blass’s factual statement on page 219 (2007) which is “3. American children watch an average of 21 hours and 42 minutes of television each week”, I was not surprised by this fact because Thai children have also faced this problem and I believe that it yields many disadvantages for their lives. Therefore, my responding proposition is that parents should limit TV time and provide useful recreational activities for their kids.

In modern society, it is difficult to reject that television has become an important part of children’s daily activity. The first and foremost negative effect on children’s life is their health problems. When children sit in front of a square screen, their common habit is eating snacks. This improper dietary behaviour is one factor that leads obesity seeing that this kind of foods, namely, potato chips, candy, cookies and crackers, contains high fat, calories and sugar. Moreover, watching TV consumes children’s time to exercise. They only sit inactively without even walking or playing any sports. As a result, getting fat attributes to this sedentary activity. Apart from obesity, children tend to have less time to sleep because of TV viewing. If a TV programme which they watch successfully attracts them, kids are likely to resist going to bed because they want to continue watching it.

In addition, children have less ability to allocate their time efficiently owing to watching TV. If most of their time is spent on TV viewing, they are not prone to have enough time for practising, doing homework, reviewing and preparing their lessons. Thus, their academic performance is affected and tends to be worse than others who do not watch television. Furthermore, spending time watching TV isolates children from society. Comparing with playing with their friends and talking with their parents, most kids think that watching TV is better. Consequently, they become unsociable and are likely to be grown apart from people around them.

From where I stand, limiting TV time is one of the most effective ways to cope with these crucial problems since it creates opportunities for children to do other activities besides sitting in front of television. The risk of health problems like obesity tends to be reduced and kids also have more time for sleep and learning. Moreover, if parents encourage their kids to participate in beneficial recreations, for example, playing after-school sports, joining football club and dancing, these activities not only yield advantages for their health but also generate their social interaction.

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Reference

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

Killing is killing, nothing else.

My proposition statement for "The religion of Santeria allows animal sacrifice." is that animal sacrifice for religion purpose should not be banned ; for example Santeria ritual of killing a chicken as the way to communicate with spirit must be treated as a justified act.

Although these kind of acts are invading animals' lives, we have no right to criticize that the Santaria performs immoral act while we all are involve and accept animal life taking process in other way such as eating meat, using leather bag. Is it right to give an unfair evaluation on each reason for taking animal lives? Why our reasons are justified, but others are not? Why the killing act of KFC company is acceptable, but Santeria is evil? Between killing for the pleasure of chicken taste and the kill according to religion belief , considering the number of chicken being killed, which one caused more trouble to the chicken breed?

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Reference

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

Modern home for orangutans

From Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2007), the fact is that " orangutans are endangered species";consequently, my response proposition to the fact is that orangutans should be captured to stay in a zoo.


According to Gill, orangutans in captive likely live longer, more well-being and happy. Their keepers and veterinarians pay attention to look after them closely; as the result, they have "better health". Moreover, the researchers hope that the work can help the other orangutans in the wilds.

Does he smile?

Changing their home from the wild to captive isn't bad and dangerous for orangutans; on the other hands, it's good way to protect them from extinction. That is, there are proper foods and caring from experts, veterinarians and trained keeper. It's safe house for them because nobody in zoos want to harm them. Moreover, if they live in zoos, it will be easier to do a research about them; for example, behavior, genetics, theriogenology and veterinary medicine, in order to increase their population. Finally, they are not endangered species anymore.


Orangutans should keep in captive in order to protect them.

Reference

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

Gill, V. (2011, June 29). Happy orangutans live longer in zoos. BBC:Nature. Retrieved January 31, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13925983

Jennifer's proposition of " A certain cigarette manufacturer uses a cartoon cacter in its advertising,"

 Government ought to intervene actively  in the advertisement strategy of cigarette manufacturers. Few years ago in Korea one brand of cigarett, Maison gained a big popular favor among twenties in a short time apparently. On one TV program that has dealt the current affairs most of the specialists interviewed insisted the rapid increase of the demand of the cigarett was caused by the advertisement stratege of the manufecturer. The firm used attractive cat as the cigarett's character; then the specialists argued that it was the one important reason of the supports among yonger generations. Of course, I agree that many kinds of ban have not worked well ;however, we should not give up even the trial to protect our teenager's health and the people who don't usually pay attention to their own health. Most of teenagers have tendency to be effected by the pretty,cute and attrative characters of the products. Therefore,the cartoon characters such as a Mickey Mouse ought be banned the use of the cigarett's character.

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

More TV time with Parents

The factual statement from Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2007), "American children watch an average of 21 hours and 42 minutes of television each week", bring me the propositional statement that not only American but also every children should not be allowed to watch TV alone. Since TV has both benefits and drawbacks, it is reasonably under parents' control.

For a young children, it was reported in BBC that if they watch TV, our brain will release Dopamine, a neurotransmitter for rewarding. This chemical substance makes children happy and want to watch more and more. The more they spend time on watching TV, the less they learn. Although these suggestions are not confirmed scientificly, watching TV with parents can help them learn a lot. Since parents can teach their children social interaction by explaining feeling in each scene.

Moreover, since new generation parents always work hard, it is hard to manage their time to sit next to their children. They often let TV as a baby sister. Children just stare on a screen. They might get some inappropriate media even on kids channel. The tendency that children will spend their time on TV is much more because on TV there are many attractive things such as next cartoon programs, colorful scene and, worse than that, junk food. Sitting nearby their children, parents can tell them to stop to do homework or to go bed. This can limit time on TV and can also suggest they to avoid junk food.

Finally, the main purpose watching TV with children is teaching them how to percept media wisely with consciousness. In a long term, it allows children can think reasonably by themselves in any situations.

References

Harmann, P. & Blass, L. (2007). Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill
Haeri S. & Kelly, S. (2012, November 23). In BBC News. Retrieved January 30, 2013 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/click_online/9768896.stm

To help to servive in the world

My propositional response to “2. Survey show that 30 percent of computer game players are under the age of 10,” is writtedn by Hartmann and Blass on page 219 (2007), is that we should encourage children of under age 10 to play computer game.

We have to pay attention to their age: under the age of 10. The age is still under relatively strong concern of parents. Do you think what kind of computer games these kids play? If you had young children, you would get my point instantly. Most young parents let their children play educational computer games to attract interest in their learning. This mean is not they make their children go around in various computer games. These educational computer games look like simple games to enjoy or spend time easily, but they contain educational contents. Some parents share the information of good software or websites. It’s a good tool for unskilled parents to give children both educational things and enjoyment.

Nowadays, computer is an important part in our educational system. The educational trend is using tablet pc or laptop in studying and playing. So, most children better use computer or IT machine than their parents. In school, most teachers use computer games to teach young students and not to lose interest on study. Some teachers use educational computer games directly in class, others use computer games as a reward. It maybe depends on teacher’s personal teaching style, but the using of computer games is same.
 

To help our children to adapt and survie in the world, it's not good attitude to restict to play computer games with hasty preconception. It could be traditional stubborn thought. We have to be wise to see where this world goes and where my children put in.

  

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Reference

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

Computer games and Children

At the first time when I read the statement that “Surveys show that 30 percent of computer game players are under the age of 10.” reported in an exercise of making a strong argument in Quest 3 Reading and Writing on page 219 (2007), my thought quickly responded that responsible organizations such as Governments, Schools, or Parents must do something in order to protect our children from computer games. However, after that, I spend time and carefully think of this factual statement, and I receive a lot of questions. For example, why is this figure so huge; that is, 30 percent of players? Are computer games always bad things? Should we restrict children under 10 years to play computer games? Finally, I tell myself that I was wrong, and we should not restrict them to play games, but we should choose good games and play these games with our children.

Having much free time of children who are less than 10 years old than other range of ages, and being easy to use and access computer applications are the factors that maybe drive the quite high proportion of game players of under 10 years children. Children who are less 10 years old generally study in or under a primary level; additionally, study loads of this school level are less than other higher level schools such as high school and undergraduate school. Therefore, they have much free time to spend to their hobbies. Furthermore, nowadays, the advance development of information technology leads it to be easier to use; for example, last two days, I heard the news that one zoo is practicing orangutans to use tablet PC in order to communicate with people.

Creative computer games can help children to develop their skills. For example, when I studied in the primary school, my teacher used the computer game to develop and practice students typing skills. (I am sorry that I cannot remember its name, but in the game, my target is that I must protect the city from letter bombs that are launched from an enemy jet by putting the exact letter on a keyboard to destroy the letter bomb.) I spent much time to practice this game in school’s computer lab in order to win the competition arranged by the teacher, and this caused me to have an advantage when I learned in the high school and the university because I can fluently and quickly type my academic works.

Restriction is not a sustainable solution. The more you restrict them, the more they are interested, and if children try to access games by themselves without a good guidance, the risk will increase exponentially. Therefore, the sustainable ways are teaching them, coaching them, building their logical thinking skill, and balancing their life. Children who are less than 10 years are as the white papers, and this range of age is the highest period that they will care and listen their parents (before they change their minds to care their friends), so they require parents’ spending a lot of time to live and learn with them. As a result, parents must catch this chance in order to root the good way to draw their papers by themselves into their minds.

All things considered, we should not restrict children to play computer games, but we should choose good games and play these games with our children.

Reference

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

No Mickey Mouse Matter

"8. A certain cigarette manufacturer uses a cartoon character in its advertising," write Hartmann and Blass on page 220 (2007) as a factual claim for us to respond to with a proposition that needs a strong supporting argument, or two.

My response is that cigarette manufacturers must be permitted to use the same advertising strategies that are available to the manufacturer of any other product.

Before we allow any government to interfere in people's lives, there must be good reason, and that interference must meet several criteria and standards. First, the facts have to support it. For example, if someone proposes that high school students must have driving lessons in school before they can qualify for a driver's licence and start practising on public roads, there needs to be a survey showing that implementing that proposal does actually improve the driving of young people,  who cause most traffic accidents.

So, does the use of cartoon characters in smoking advertisements even cause children to start smoking? In fact, is there even a correlation that might not be causal between the use of cartoon characters in smoking advertisements and child smoking rates? When Mickey Mouse was emblazoned on packets of candy cigarettes, did that increase the likelihood of child smoking? I'm not sure that there is any solid statistical evidence that it did, so perhaps the popular bans against cartoon characters fail even this first test. When the statistics are checked for the effect of teaching driving skills in high school, the results are clear: accident rates increase.

But even if solid statistics did in fact show a correlation that seemed causal between the use of a cartoon character and an increased incidence of child smoking, is that a good enough reason for a government to interfere in citizens lives to ban it? Popular laws banning some addictive drugs, such as heroin and yaa baa are well known failures: they do not decrease drug and addiction rates and only make all drug related problems much worse; however, even if such laws did in fact reduce drug use and addiction rates, they would still be immoral and should never be done. So, for the rest of my argument, I will assume that children can in fact be influenced by advertisements using cartoon characters to buy the product.

However, ...

to be continued 
I'm much happier with this version than the argument I started while you were writing about Steinbeck's presentation of the shooting of Candy's unhappy dog. I liked the argument I was developing, but it was going to be much too long, and was a bit abstract. 
Had anyone commented, I would not have made the radical revision here, which effectively rewrites it all. But no one had already commented, so it was OK to revise by deleting everything and starting again. I will add more to this version, but I won't delete or make any other radical revision to what's already here. (4:35 PM)

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Reference

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

Cats Among the Pigeons

If you've looked up Steinbeck's novel online, as I assume you have, you will already know that this classic of modern English literature is both one of the most often read novels in high schools and also one of the most frequently banned ("Of Mice and Men", 2013). Is it surprising that some of the things that make it great literature are the same things that offend and cause many to hate it?

One of it's strengths is the novel's disturbingly precise presentation of uncomfortable truths about society, deeply offensive truths that some parents don't want their children to know, which therefore prompts them to try to ban the book. One common ground for complaint begins on page 12, when George speaks of "a cat house". The same presentation of prostitution that begins there carries through George's discussions with Whit and then Lennie in chapter 3.

• How is prostitution presented in Of Mice and Men? 
• Do you agree with Steinbeck's presentation?
• Do you think it is accurate? 
• Should prostitution be presented in this way? 
• Is this a reasonable reason for banning the book? 
• Would you support or oppose a ban on this and similar books because of their presentation of topics such as prostitution? 
• Should high school children be set such books for study? 
• Should Thai (Korean) high school students read and study similar material about their society? 
• ?? What related issues would you like to discuss? 

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Reference

Of Mice and Men. (2013, January 27). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 08:01, January 29, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Of_Mice_and_Men&oldid=535126949

Steinbeck, J., (2006). Of Mice and Men. London: Penguin Books.

Law, Laws and the Law.

Tying together some ideas in our reading of Stephen Law on faith, where he also discusses facts and laws of science (Law, 2003), with ideas in "Making a Strong Argument: Should, Ought to and Must" in Hartmann and Blass (p. 219 - 220), where we are instructed to move from factual statements to propositions or commands which might express a moral or legal imperative is a short online exercise by Jeremy Stangroom (2012), which you might find both fun and illuminating.

Stangroom's "Philosophical Health Check" takes only a few minutes to ask you some questions, and then gives a brief summary and analysis of the consistency of your ideas, which is also compared to everyone else who has already taken the test. Naturally, we hope that there is no or very little tension between our beliefs, that they are are consistent with each other.

I thought it also functions as a neat reading comprehension test. As Stangroom advises are the start, "each statement is carefully worded, so you need to pay at least a little bit of attention!"

Have fun, and if you like, share your ideas afterwards.

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Reference

Law, S. (2003). faith in the twenty-first century. In The Xmas Files: The Philosophy of Christmas (pp. 113 - 123). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

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

Stangroom, J. (2012). Philosophical Health Check. Philosophy Experiments. Retrieved January 28, 2013 from http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/health/Default.aspx

The best laid plans of mice and men

Perhaps because I'd been thinking about it in Quest, where The Mechanics of Writing section for "Heroes in Literature" begins with some discussion and exercises on parallelism (Hartmann & Blass, 2007, p. 218 - 219), but as I was reading an article in one of the Australian newspapers that I subscribe to (to which I subscribe?) an example of a faulty parallelism hit me in the eye. The offending sentence is:

"Bonny ... played cricket, loved the beach and water-skiing" (Wilcox, K., 2013, ¶ 6. The deletion is ", pictured, " which refers to a picture we don't need. I will ignore this in the following variations on the sentence).

There is no problem understanding this, but readers stumble a bit as they move along the sentence. It isn't smooth, even if we aren't sure why. As it's written, it's grammatically incorrect, which is sometimes a good thing, but probably not what Katrina Wilcox and her editors intended. One correction, perhaps the most obvious, would be to insert another and:

Bonny played cricket, and loved the beach and water-skiing. 

This has strictly fixed the grammar, but we might not like it. It's awkward and messy with those ands stuck in to hold it together. A better solution is to put the three component ideas in parallel:

Bonny played cricket, loved the beach and water-skied.
Bonny loved to play cricket, go to the beach and water-ski.
Bonny loved playing cricket, going to the beach and water-skiing.

A more sophisticated version, but getting a bit more formal, could be:

Cricket playing Bonny loved the beach and water-skiing. 

And thinking about grammar errors reminded me of The New York Times article I used when we practised writing reference citations. Everything in "When Spell-Check Can’t Help" is an example of mistakes or bad style committed by New York Times writers (Corbett, 2012). Finally, I often have to confess, when making final corrections to your work, that I'd missed something on my first proofreading - just as many minor mistakes in the NY Times don't get noticed even by their professional and highly experienced proofreaders. In fact, the After Deadline blog (Yes, it's a blog.) on the NY Times is devoted to examples of language mistakes that their writers make, whether it be of grammar, vocabulary, punctuation, or something else.

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Reference

Corbett, P. B. (2012, December 4). When Spell-Check Can’t Help. The New York Times After Deadline. Retrieved January 28, 2013 from http://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/04/when-spell-check-cant-help-16/

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

Wilcox, K. (2013, January 25). Cancer ad shown in cinemas often leaves young audiences in tears. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved January 28, 2013 from http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/cancer-ad-shown-in-cinemas-often-leaves-young-audiences-in-tears-20130124-2d9o4.html 

How well does Steinbeck in two paragraphs?

I've just written and emailed you some of my ideas about what Steinbeck manages to do in his first two paragraphs of Of Mice and Men (2006, p. 1-2). Initially, I was just going to write short answers that stated my main idea answering each question, but then I thought that a bit of support using the details in those two paragraphs would be better, so as well as the main ideas, there are some supporting sentences.

And since all of our answers there must be based on what is in two paragraphs, one of which is quite short, the research demands of those questions is very restricted - there are only two paragraphs that can be used - so I decided to invite you to move some of the discussion from class to here.

Question 2 in full on the discussion sheet, with a small addition, is:

2.  The first two paragraphs of the novel are set apart from the rest. From those two paragraphs only, what do we know or are able to infer (or reasonably assume) about the following questions? How do you know?

a.      Where is the novel set?

b.     What is the area like?

c.     Who are the people in the area?

d.    What do you think that life is like for those groups of people?

e.     What year or period do you think it is?

f.      What is Steinbeck’s main purpose in these two paragraphs? 

Although I've already given my ideas on a. and b., please feel welcome to add to or contradict anything I've said in your own comment or two below, where you can address one, or two, or more, of the specific questions here.

And we are also bearing in mind that our larger purpose in these questions is to evaluate Steinbeck: How well is he doing in his art? How well is he achieving his purposes? How good is he as a writer?

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Reference

Steinbeck, J., (2006). Of Mice and Men. London: Penguin Books.

Quest for Clarity, 2

Seeking clarity on exactly what he says, as I was just rereading Law's "Faith in the Twenty-first Century" (2003) (it's only the second time I've read this short essay this week) to check my own understanding, it occurred to me that we might find it useful in our discussion taking up from where Mo left off yesterday to make a further distinction.

Do you think that Law, in his discussion of faith defined as a religion, might say something different to what he thinks?  And if so, what are those two different ideas? And what is the support that there are two versions of Law's ideas about the value of faith as "a religious system of thought" (p. 114): for what is said and for what is thought by Law?

And, if it is indeed true that Law does not say precisely what he thinks in his discussion of  faith type 1, what other interesting questions might follow from this? What would you want to ask and discuss?

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Reference

Law, S. (2003). Faith in the twenty-first century. In The Xmas Files: The Philosophy of Christmas (pp. 113 - 123). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Quest for Clarity

The first part of the weekend homework involved interpreting the story "Alone on a Hilltop" (Hartmann & Blass, 2007, p. 29) in terms of Campbell's ideas on the hero as he explains them in the transcription "The Hero's Journey" (pp. 202 - 204). In my lesson plan, I thought that a review of Hartmann and Blass's questions 1. and 2. in the Comprehension Check, A, on page 204 would be useful preparation for this.

Although Hartmann and Blass clearly think that their questions 1. and 2. there are different, we found it a little confusing when we checked in class last week, but some of the subsequent discussion over the next two days was helpful, which further led led me to think that it would be useful to go back and review those questions before we proceeded to check the interpretation of Lame Deer and Erdoes' story in terms of Campbell's hero concept.

There are two specific questions to consider:

1. From the language they use in their questions, how to Hartmann and Blass think that their first two questions in exercise A. on page 204 are different? What distinguishes the two questions?
   What do the authors do to help clarify the distinction they think is important? 
2. How does the grammar of the sentences where we find the answers to each question reflect this distinction? 

Please feel welcome to share your ideas in a comment below. 

__________

Reference

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

A Double-edged Sword

Modern technology is all around us these days and it has great impact for society as a whole. It is irrefutably true that everything has a good side and also a bad side, so does technology. I then tried inserting “Impact of Technology” as a keyword in The New York Times website. After spending an hour searching for an interesting article, I was finally attracted by the title of this article and did not hesitate to continue to read the rest of it.

According to “Are We Addicted to Facebook? It’s Complicated.”, Wortham says that although people in our digital world have grown closer owing to Facebook, it also has drawbacks since we have become more and more addicted to it. Looking forward to “Like”, updating photos of posh lifestyle and checking notifications every minute seem to be necessary tasks in our daily life. These activities turn into compulsions which are derived from our anxiety and one suggested way out to cope with this problem is to restore balance of usage by taking time away from it and spending more time with friends and family.

Many activities involved in Facebook are a reflection of my life in the past. I used to spend all day surfing on Facebook, waiting for “Like”, checking in and keeping myself updated on what’s going on. Even though I knew that it wasted my time, I couldn’t stand living without it. The first thing that I always did after waking up is checking notifications and if I found none of the notification, I sometimes felt disappointed, especially when I’d just updated my new status the previous night. I think that most of my Thai friends are likely to be like me. Some of them asked me to press “Like” and “Share” their photos. From my viewpoint, these obsessive actions come from the need of social acceptance and they also cause somebody pressure. Before taking an IELTS exam, I tried so hard to spend less time on it but, unfortunately, I couldn’t. Finally, I decided to stop using it and deactivated it for one month in order to focus on practicing for the IELTS. At first, it was very difficult but then I felt better after realising that I could save my precious time to do other beneficial activities.

Furthermore, due to communicating via Facebook, talking to others in person seems to be not necessary anymore. Consequently, the possibility of losing touch with friends and family is gradually growing. For instance, even if I had fallen out with my sister and we were sitting in the same area, I would chat with her through Line or WhatsApp instead of speaking. Thus, there might be a growing feeling of alienation between both of us.

Nevertheless, Facebook also has a large number of advantages. For example, my professor created a group on Facebook last semester and he always gave assignments and shared many beneficial articles on it. My classmates and I used that group as a space for discussion and updating some interesting ideas about the topics that we studied. Besides educational upsides, Facebook is one of the most accessible sources and people tend to rely more on it in order to get news, especially about social unrest and natural disaster. To illustrate, during big flood last year, some of state media might not cover full details but we could follow up actual details and facts on Facebook.

Considering all relevant ideas, Facebook is like a double-edged sword. It is good and also bad for us. In order to avoid being over-reliance on it, we should manage time effectively by trying to spend less time on online activities and more on other activities such as exercise and recreation.

________

Reference
Wortham, J. (2012, May 17). Are we addicted to Facebook? It's complicated. Bits: The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2013 from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/are-we-addicted-to-facebook-its-complicated/

Just entertainment?

Have you ever played man hunting video games like that Manhunt 2? Or have you ever watched the Saw film series? Which ones are more harmful to people?

According to the article Under Glare of  Scrutiny by Schiesell.S (29. October. 2007) while the worst slasher films or books which are full of brutal delieations go without remark in America, video games are dealed  very differntly at rating; however, revised Manhunt2 rated M will be released and this will be good the market of the  makers like that Nintendo or Wii.

The title of the video game Manhunt attracted my interest, because it looks very violent and horror ; in addition to this it seems also harmful. On the contrary my first impression while I was reading this article I changed my mind.

I remined my experiences relating video games. Although I don't usually play them often, the most of them are violent . I don't remember the title; however they are fighting games that are full  of kicking and fisting to fall down the opponent. They are very normal and simple games that are easily found out in the places for video games.

For the slasher movies I think what kind of person enjoy them; One face flashes me- my brother I remember he was enthusiastic like that saw films for a while; then I thought that his taste was very different from me. That's all. He's very normal and even very nice person.

I remember one research that violent video games don' t increase the violent tendency of human.  The result surprised me but I nodded then. I found that I also have more sensitive attitudes to the games than other kind of entertainments like that movies or books. We can choose what we want because we are adults.
However I don't want my kids spend their time with playing fighting games. There are good games for children but it's not easy to meet our ends.

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Reference

Schiesell.S. (2007, October 29). Under Glare of Scrutiny, a Game Is Toned Down. The New York Times. Retrieved January 17, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/29/arts/29manh.html?_r=0

Is Your Meal in Trouble?

After looking at the picture in which there were skinny legs stand on deadly arid cracked land, I first though that we are facing the big problem — the food crisis
— because land represents fertility. Could you notice higher food price two or three years ago? Does it mean inadequate food production?  Therefore, I search for the term food crisis on reliable websites. Then I found that this term was mention, at least, a decade ago and there have been articles discussed this topic interestingly up to now.

"Are We Having Another Food Crisis?", the article written by MacKenzie in New Scientist, indicated that natural disasters causing lower food production, — a flood in Pakistan and a drought and a fire in Russia — support of using maize as fuel instead of food in US, and uncontrollable market system worldwide were the causes of food crisis. However, Schiller, the writer of "What Food Crisis? We just need to make use of what we have", gave another interesting cause which was not owing to insufficient food production, but because of its wastage in harvest, transportation and consumption which is 30% to 50% of all food production. We can keep 60-100% more food by avoiding such losses.

When I think of food crisis, the first thing that comes to my mind is the drought in Ethiopia and thin unhealthy boys. But, within a couple of years, I concern that food around me changes. Price of a bowl of noodle grows up form 25 to 30 and to 35. Even if its price does not change, the quality and quantity change — worse taste and reduce its amount. I know that disaster can increase food price. I doubt why the price never goes down after recovering from that disaster. Perhaps a market system — demands and supplies — raise the price automatically, I think. Moreover, I know that bio-fuel crop is a controversial topic. Most government, including Thai government, support their farmers to grow such crop to reduce gas price. Although it seems to be good in cheaper transportation, it reduces land for food crop which means lower food production. I think that food crisis is a severe problem with which we have to cope immediately. In my opinion, the best solution is to increase crop yield dramatically without spreading an agricultural area to a forest because it can lead natural hazard to us.

After reading these articles, I agree with MacKenzie's idea since his is very similar to my old idea that the food crisis we are facing is lack of food due to natural disaster and a market system. This is quite far from me and too difficult for me to handle it. Nevertheless, Schiller's idea is very touching and more practical. He draw my attention to the way to solve this problem by clarify what food crisis we are confronting. He shows us that all food production nowadays can serve world hungers if we decrease food wastage. Therefore, our crisis is losses of food product in every process. Farmers, retailers and consumers can alleviate this trouble. Despite my agreement with MacKenzie, as a consumer, I will try not to waste food and even better water and energy.

What do you think about food crisis we are facing? Although you disagree with me, is it better to consume wisely — minimize losses — than still use it unconciously? 

__________

References

MacKenzie, D. (2010, October 28). Are we having another food crisis? New Scientist. Retrieved January 16, 2013 from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19653-are-we-having-another-food-crisis.html

Rudolf, J. C. (2010, November 24). World ‘dangerously close’ to food crisis, U.N. says. The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2013 from http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/24/world-dangerously-close-to-food-crisis-u-n-says/

Schiller, B. (2013, January 11). What food crisis? We just need to make use of what we have. Science American. Retrieved January 16, 2013 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=what-food-crisis-we-just-need-to-ma-2013-01

Bad boy maybe becomes better!!

I chose the topic- global warming, as an issue of modern life. Global warming is well-known issue  about which many people worried. But have you ever think about kind of good thing of it?

In "Looking to Cities, in Search of Global Warming’s Silver Lining", Gugliotta says that many researcher found out positive impact of increased heat and pollutant air; for example,carbon dioxide, ozone and nitrogen oxide, on plants growing; however, some researchers warn that it doesn't confirm ,in the future, the plants to survive trough drought or windstorms.

This news is surprised me that global warming isn't always bad. In the media, there are a lot bad impact of global warming; such as, a news, an advertise, a campaign. Many people, including me, think that global warming is seriously dangerous. After read the article, I have to reconsider about it. It's a good start of the research that try to find the way to deal with global warming. If the scientists improve the plant to absorb more carbon dioxide, it will decrease amount of pollutant gas.

But I agree to many campaign that try to decrease the emission rate of pollutant gases, because they is the cause of global warming. I think that it's not easy to do without cooperation worldwide, particularly developed countries. This is our world, so it is our responsibility to look after the world.

By the ways, if global warming is character, it may be "Megamind". That is, everyone evaluate that he's bad. But who make him bad?  Himself? or You?

Is he bad?

Reference

Gugliotta, G. (2012, November 26). Looking to Cities, in Search of Global Warming’s Silver Lining. The New Yorks Times: Environmental Space&Cosmos. Retrieved January 16, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/27/science/studying-cities-to-find-global-warmings-benefits.html

Megamind. (2013, January 11). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16:30, January 16, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Megamind&oldid=532577961

Hard works and Happiness

Approximate 12 years ago, I studied Manufacturing management, and learned manufacturing components; that is, Man, Machine, Material, and Method. In the last quarter in 2012, I studied Competitive strategy, and learned the way to create competitive advantages by the term of firms’ capabilities. A dimension of People is also one of components for creating an advantage. Both of these courses confirm that we cannot reject the claim that human is the one crucial factor in order to drive an organization to achieve targets. However, why do people around the world tend to work harder, but be less happy, or hard works and happiness cannot go together? Therefore, in order to respond today assignment for reading and responding an article related to modern life, I select to search the term of “Hard works and Happiness” in The New York Times website, and receive the article of Professor Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer.

In “Do Happier People Work Harder?”, Teresa and Steven report their research that productivity of working people have a relationship with their happiness; that is, the happier they are, the higher productivity they generate; furthermore, they give the guideline to succeed in building workers’ happiness by removing obstacles, giving help, recognizing strong effort, and the single most important one – making progress in meaningful work. Nevertheless, they also report that many managers do the common mistake by ignoring this supporting progress, but strongly using cash and benefit incentives instead.

I, myself, infer from this article that if people are happy, they will devote their efforts to their jobs, they will work harder by themselves, and they will generate more productivity. Furthermore, people do not need only benefits and compensations, but they also require heart fulfilment by being admired by their leaders and being proud of their works. I definitely agree with this statement, and I think most working people agree with it because most of them should face some situations similar to this statement. For example, if you start your working day with a serious and aggressive complaint from your boss or main customer, you will generally be depressed and lose your working focus until you can recover your consciousness, and this normally requires more than one hour, or you lose your productive hour at least 12.5% of one working day.

However, the question come next is that do management people really not know this happiness effect. I do not think so. I believe that most of them know and understand this positive effect, but they also know its negative effect; that is, slack. For instance, suppose that you work for the company that require your creative ability. Your company strongly commits on employees’ happiness, builds the office as if a living room with fully facilities and some entertaining devices, and allows employees to manage their own office hours. Do you think employees of this company will work competitively compared with firm’s rivals, and they will effectively arrange meeting time and cooperate with each other? The answer is that it might be yes if this company has a very great and excellent recruitment; unfortunately, generally in reality, this company has a high chance to be failure, and we can learn it from many cases in real business. As a result, managers have to balance all relevant perspectives in business such as firms’ performance, competitiveness, sustainability, and all stakeholders including employees.

Until this point, I have a lot of questions that required me to study more and deeper. For example, what does happiness really mean, what is the balance point in business and is it necessary to distribute equally between relevant parties, how can I manage team productivity and happiness, how can I lead my team to work hard by heart, how can I achieve the balance point, and is it by economic basis, psychology basis, or requiring other sciences? I hope I will find and understand all answers for these questions by this year, 2013.

Reference

Amabile, T. & Kramer, S. (2011, September 3). Do Happier People Work Harder? The New York Times Sunday Review. Retrieved January 16, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/04/opinion/sunday/do-happier-people-work-harder.html?_r=0

Just breathing: What I want

Recently, the frequency of smog-day seems like increasing. People ask each other, pointing the smog which is surrounded us in a little bit far distance, what it looks like? Just a fog, or a smog? I wish it were a fog. Also, I heard the news that winter air pollution made an emergency in my home town, Seoul. When I searched the “air pollution” in The Economist, I could easily find the interesting article of air pollution in Beijing: ”Blackest day”

In this arricle, T.P. says that Beijing suffered a day of extremely bad air pollution which could feel directly without how the readings of Air Quality Index (AQI) and the readings of the smallest and most dangerous sort of particulate matter, PM 2.5, indicated dangerous levels, after similar happening of last year, even though the authority had started the plan to improve air quality(2013). He argues that Beijing has to hurry to improve the air quality in right direction with hope.

This article reminds me of a memory of traveling of Beijing before the Beijing Olympic. At that time, all Beijing was busy to prepare the Olympic. They were building some skyscrapers, bridges, and roads. I could smell the industrial energy through the polluted air. At least, it regarded as an evidence of developing. I had expected the scene of the swarm of bicycles which usually was pictured on newspaper as a dynamic and diligent industrial worker’s example in China before traveling. However, the bicycles turned to the motorcycles which expelled exhaust fumes. I’m sorry that the development came to produce the pollution which is very menacing to the health of people. It seems like a fate of a modern city to be developed and industrialized.

People have being turned the limited resources in the earth into products and pollutions. We want to have more products without occurring of the pollutions. So, many researchers research on the renewable energy: biomass, geothermal, solar energy, tidal power, wind power, etc. These things might be one of right kinds of directions to solve the air pollution problems, if we want to hold the developed civilization.

After waking up in the morning, I usually open the windows to let some fresh air in. Most times I feel the freshness of the outside air, but sometimes, some polluted air comes in with bad smell. I’m afraid that, in the future, we’ll have to buy fresh air in a bottle to breathe. Actually, in the past, nobody expected to buy mineral water in a bottle to drink. I only want to breathe with decent air.

 

__________

Reference

P.T. (2013, January 14). Blackest day. The Economist. Retrieved January 16, 2013 from http://www.economist.com/blogs/analects/2013/01/beijings-air-pollution#comments

Getting Real

I decided to follow up on violent video games as an issue of modern life, but I'm also interested in links between violent video games and violent behaviour in society, so I went to The New York Times and entered the search words: "violent video games violence". This worked well. There were a few articles at the top of the list returned from the search that looked interesting. The one at the top was "Makers of Violent Video Games Marshal Support to Fend Off Regulation", which was published on January 11 this year. But in the end I decided that an article a bit lower down was more interesting to me: "Game Theory: A Year When Real-World Violence Crept Into Play".

Writing in "Game theory: A year when real-world violence crept into play", a largely personal reflection,  Chris Suellentrop argues video games are a communication medium able not only to thrill but to move players to tears as they address not only war but also relationships, and in so doing contribute positively to the lives of players. Suellentrop also admits and reflects on the issue of violence, often extreme, that is to be found in many video games, but here he also emphasis that research has not established any causal link, nor indeed even any correlation, between playing extremely violent video games and committing acts of violence in real like, leaving Suellentrop puzzling over why exactly he worries about allowing children to play such games. 

Having chosen this article based on a cursory skimming, when I came to actually read it I was first amazed at how little, really, really little, I know about modern computer gaming. I didn't know the names of the games or the people that Suellentrop refers to, and I had never realised that there was such a sophisticated discussion going on about the different values, effects, and other aspects of games. In my entire live, I've played one of these types of games - and that was about 15 years ago. I'm sure that what is available today is vastly more complex, and if Suellentrop is to be believed, and I assume he is an expert who knows what he's talking about, modern video games also now aspire to the status of an artistic medium. I'll probably take his word for it, but then again, I have this powerful computer I'm sitting in front of, and an equally powerful notebook sitting on the desk beside it: running a game or two might use up a bit of the available processing power that I probably never push to more than some small percentage of what is possible. I believe the tablet beside my bed (in case I want to do some quick research when reading in bed) can also play games. But they've just never excited me that much. 

The fuss about games, in contrast, does interest me. They are, like drugs, an issue of modern life where many people seem to prejudicially decide what must be right based on no good reason at all, and having invested a great deal of faith in that position, they resolutely ignore both reason and relevant facts as they set out on a crusade to safe other people, usually the youth of their society, from certain damnation. Sadly, this possibly well-intentioned (?) effort at redemption turns out like most: the victims to be saved end up as sacrifices to the ignorant, dishonest and unjust propaganda and laws of their would be saviours. The Jewish, Christian, Moslem and other churches, as law reminds us, often loved to "save" society and people from sin and from hell, even if that meant torturing and murdering many, as they also had ugly blasphemy laws made to protect their religions and themselves from any contact with evidence, with reason, with honesty or with justice and moral right. As Suellentrop concludes, although we might find the idea personally distasteful for some reason, is there actually any good reason not to allow kids to not only play video games, but to play extremely violent video games? 

Actually, I think that there might be a reason for saying, "Yes," that there is a good reason for restricting extremely violent video games, especially those with sexual content, to children over the age of abut 15, but I haven't thought it through in detail yet. In fact, it's an idea that might make a neat topic for a research paper: it's an idea that I might enjoy exploring as I learned more about it and the terrain it covers over a few weeks. 

I'm also wondering what other people think. Is there any good reason for banning extremely violent video games? Or any other sort of video games? Or indeed for banning films, and, to be up to date, TV soap operas of very doubtful merit? 

__________

Reference

Suellentrop, C. (2012, December 24). Game theory: A year when real-world violence crept into play. The New York Times Arts Beat. Retrieved January 16, 2012 from http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/24/game-theory-a-year-when-real-world-violence-crept-into-play/

Supporting non-support?

Education being an issue for modern parents, and for teachers such as myself, I went to The New York Times and searched on "academic success", but that wasn't so rewarding, and simply searching on "college grades" also returned too much, so I then tried something a bit narrower that was more focussed on parents and success in college: "financial support college grades", which, after I narrowed the results to the "Past 7 Days", gave a decent looking list. The first one looked interesting, and was very recent, so I clicked on "Parents' Financial Support Linked to College Grades", which led to an immediate surprise since the page that opened was titled "Parents’ Financial Support May Not Help College Grades" - however, looking closely at the reference citation information, it appears from the URL that The NY Times might initially have published this article under, or at least have given it, the title that appeared on the search results.

In this article, Tamar Lewin reports on researcher Laura Hamilton's surprising lack of surprise at the surprising result that children who receive greater financial support from their parents do less well at college (2013). Hamilton admits that this not what is commonly believed, but she explains that the result may be due to students who do not have to make any sacrifice or effort themselves simply wasting the opportunity to get a decent education, something that Hamilton had suspected from what she observed during her own earlier personal experience of life in a dormitory.

When I saw the headline on the list of returned search items, I expected it to be a study reporting exactly what most people think: that students who get more financial support from their parents do better at university than those who get less. I was one of the people who were surprised by the facts that the research reveals. However, when I thought about it a bit more, Hamilton's explanation does sound right, and in fact chimes with my own memories of some students I knew at Sydney University, who spend their four or more years there largely having a good time, and working only hard enough to get passing grades, while their devoted and sacrificing parents, or their rich parents, paid all the bills. Of course, as Hamilton also acknowledges, not all students whose parents were paying behaved that way, and I was rather glad that my parents were kindly paying all of my expenses so that I could concentrate on my studies. Perhaps it also helped that my parents allowed me the freedom to choose to study what I truly loved, which is why I ended up with a mixed bag of mathematics, physics, and dead languages along with my major in philosophy - not the most useful sort of degree for most jobs, but I did get decent grades as well as having the leisure to enjoy the non-academic learning experiences that go with being a uni. student.

Hamilton's research also reminded me of a similarly surprising statistic, this time from an economist, who, after a careful analysis of a massive amount of data from the California High School System, found that whilst having books on shelves at home correlated strongly with children doing academically in school, parents reading to their children did not correlate at all with academic performance in schools. This is another fact that initially surprises most people, especially parents, who are naturally concerned for their own children (my  own fascination was more strictly academic, although I would like my young nieces and nephews to do as well as possible). And of course, just as Hamilton felt the need to explain her surprising result, we also want an explanation for these surprising statistical facts about how books on shelves and reading to children correlate with how the kids do at school. What do you think? What is the explanation for the seeming odd facts that having books on shelves at home correlates with children doing better at school, whilst parents reading to them does not so correlate?

__________

Reference

Lewin, T. (2013, January 14). Parents’ financial support may not help college grades. The New York Times. Retrieved January 16, 2013, from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/15/education/parents-financial-support-linked-to-college-grades.html

Responding to "Old Country Advice to the American Traveller"

To complete our discussion of the introductory reading in Part 1 of chapter 6, "Old Country Advice to the American Traveller", please add a comment, or two, or three, responding with your ideas to any or all of questions 1. to 3. in exercise E. on page 199 (Hartmann & Blass, 2007).

These are

1. In what ways can another person's experience teach you something about life? Give an example of a time you learned something from someone else's experiences. 
2. Was there a time when someone's experience was not like your own? Explain your answer. 
3. What role do older friends and relatives play in your life? 

__________

Reference

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

Giant monster?

Could you imagine that you encounter some enormous mollusk in the deep ocean?  The scenery will be beautiful or scary?

Accorcing to the article "First images of giant squid in the deep are released" by Michael Winter of USA TODAY,  the swimming giant squid that is 9-foot  Iong;  if the two tentacles were not cut it would be upto 26 feet long and the black big eye is as big as a dinner plate  photographed in July Chichi island in Japan by a three crew from the National Museum of Nature and Science. This
film will be air on January 27, 2013 as a finale of this season of Curiosity ; more over, this is the first film of live giant squid in its natural state.

Abnormal giant things are enough to attract human eyes. I also remember since my childhood I have been caught by the stories of the giant humen or monsters like that huge squid or whale, but they were just only mythology or products of imagination of human for us.

Twenty thousand Leagues Under the Sea (1870) by Jules Verne who is called the Father of science fiction was very impressive so I still remember the
captain Nemo and submersible Nautilus, farms under the sea and the attack by the giant mollusk. Now most parts of the story became normal but the scenery of the squid will be astonish and unbelievable.

I think the three crew were very lucky because they could shoot without any
attack of the life. If they met in the past they couldn't report the feature was beautiful.


References

-"Jules Verne"(7.January.2013)from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia modified on January 2013 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jules_Verne

-" (Michael Winter)" First images of giant squid in the deep are released" (Michael Winter) USA TODAY 6:20p.m. EST January8,2013http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/sciencefair/2013/01/08/giant-squid-filmed-first-time-in-pacific/1818751/   

The Complicated Case of Banana Trade

Banana seems to be a common fruit that can be found in many tropical countries around the world, especially in Asia. Have you ever thought that bananas play a significant role for the nation as a whole?

According to “India bananas seek bigger share of global market”, Sivaramakrishnan says that due to an enormous number of bananas produced in Tamil Nadu, the southern part of India, the Confederation of India Industries (CII) plans to grab more market share in the worldwide banana industry by exporting them globally. Nevertheless, the barriers of this plan have been pointed out, including, post-harvest losses, a trust deficit, a low-tech productivity and competitive rivalry.

From my perspective, in order to effectively deal with the problems mentioned in this news, trust is one of the most vital issues which the CII, and also any relevant sectors, should not take for granted. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is what I learned in the Business course at my university. We have to concern about all stakeholders in the supply chain otherwise our business is prone to be in trouble. During my internship at Ministry of Commerce, for instance, there were protests of farmer unions almost every week. Some of them wondered whether they directly gained benefits from the policies while some suspected about the possibility of the schemes. In this case, the CII may help Indian banana growers solve some problems about the production or acknowledge them about advantages which they will gain when this plan is succeeded. If the CII cannot build trust, there will be no cooperation thus it’s no use trying to accomplish its plan.

Turning to post-harvest losses, banana normally ripens faster than other kinds of fruits. When I bought bananas from supermarket, their green colour at times turns into yellow quickly. I am fascinated by the bananas food processing. There are various kinds of those transformed products in Thailand, namely, banana chips, banana ice-cream, sun-dried banana and butter coated banana. I think there would be great opportunities for India to expand the banana product line and an amount of post-harvest losses tends to be declined.

Regarded as the largest banana producing country, India should find some efficient means to obtain competitive advantages from its own natural resources. Not only the CII but also Indian banana growers need to take responsibility for this issue together.

__________

Reference

Sivaramakrishnan, P. (2013, January 3). India bananas seek bigger share of global market. BBC News. Retrieved January 9, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20888103

Can Mozart Increase IQ?

We all want be smart. Have you ever heard that listening to Mozart's music can strengthen your intelligence?

According to the neuroscience article, "Does listening to Mozart really boost your brainpower?" written by Claudia Hammond on BBC Future, the worldwide believe that Mozart songs can help baby or children more clever is a big misunderstanding issue since the study which spread this believe was taken in young adult students. However, listening to any kinds of music -- even if pop music -- can help adults raise short-term abilities to solving problems due to the pleasantness from beautiful rhythm.

In my childhood around three years old, I listened to a plenty of tale stories from cassette tapes. In each story, it was inserted with varied classical music, which I know their name later, such as "The Four Seasons" composed by Vivaldi, "Symphony No. 40" of Mozart, "Symphony No.  9" of Beethoven and more which I cannot remember. In that time, I though that these songs make me interested in the story and can imagine a clear scene without any picture books. Moreover, the tone of the music can impact on my mood; for example, the "Spring" (one of "The Four Seasons") encourage me in the action scene. On the other hand, "Fall" depress my emotion when it comes to the dramatical climax.

In these days,  I still listen to classical music but not frequently. While I am working or reading, I always listen to music from Youtube. It allows me relieve my tension and can be more concentrated with smooth mood. Therefore, now, I use music to improve my working potential.

Do classical musics raise my intelligence owing to my childhood familiarised with them? Probably not, I think that it is not a direct effect. I have more concentration while I listen to them. That makes me can understand more easily.

Although music cannot improve our cleverness scientifically, music is one of the most beautiful creation of humanity which can, at least, delight one's mind.

__________

References

Hammond, C. (2013, January 8). Does listening to Mozart really boost your brainpower?. BBC FUTURE. Retrieved January 8, 2013 from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20130107-can-mozart-boost-brainpower/1

Swaminathan, N. (2007, September 13). Fact or Fiction?: Babies Exposed to Classical Music End Up Smarter. Scientific American. Retrieved January 8, 2013 from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=fact-or-fiction-babies-ex

From London underground to Mother of river

When you think about London what come to your mind? BigBen, red telephone booth, London eye, tea shop, anything else? A red circle with blue thick line might be somewhere in your imaginary.

In “ Tube 150^th anniversary: Brand 'worth its weight in gold' ” in the BBC News website , Majumdar says that the London underground sign; a red disk with the blue strip, contains high value in the term of brand identity. Apart from its duty to unify different company of underground train companies into one brand, it become another iconic signature of London till many products with the logo can be sold as souvenirs.

This article reminds me of a cute Shinkansen doll I received as a souvenir from my friend after she visited Japan. A white and blue train with the big black eyes and pink dots on its “cheek”, is very cute illustration of one of the fastest trains in the world. I think the Japanese are very good at creating character for their products. They can turn product or everything around them into a cute character which brings many advantages from the marketing perspective. The consumer can easily remember the brand and they feel closer to the product because of the process of personification. Moreover, this technique can turn a simple item into a unique and precious one. It is called value adding technique. What Katie said in my previous blog post is a good example of this issue. Unpan man animation can create the fad of eating unpan. The normal bread is be added value by the animation.

Turning to another point of view, I think the characterize technique might start from a non marketing reason. The Japanese and Asian people (may be include the ancient European),in the past, they held a believe that everything around us have a spirit inside it. For example, the river, Thai believe that there is Pha Mae Kongka (Mother of river) who is the spirit who take care of the river. The forest, the house everything around us have spirit to protect them. Although it might sound unreasonable and unscientific, I think it is a good technique from the past to make people respect to the nature and feel guilty to destroy it just for satisfying human's endless need. Unfortunately, these useful believes were replaced by the thoughts from scientific world in the enlightenment era.

We have the ability to create value from 'almost nothing'; like, the Coke logo which is just some white line on red background. This logo worth billion dollars. In contrast, for the priceless nature of this world, we neglect to protect it by saying that characterizing nature is a fool believe from the ancient time. :(

__________

Reference

Majumdar, D. (2013, January 8). Tube 150^th anniversary: Brand 'worth its weight in gold'. BBC News London. Retrived January 8, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20916568

What I missed

One of all country’s dreams is having abundant natural resources. How about oil? Oil means money?

In “Oil Sands Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level”, Ian Austen says that oil sands development of Alberta, Canada, has increased levels of cancer-causing compounds in surrounding unexpected wider area according to Canadian researchers’ report, where they reported the cancer-causing compounds in layers of the sediment have been rising since large-scale oil sands production began in 1978.

This is sad news. Our natural environment has been destroyed for our convenience, but we already knew this. We have been concerned the spreading reckless using limited natural resources, environmental pollution, destruction of the ozone layer, the global warming, etc. These things are caused by human’s thoughtless production and consumption. I’m sorry that we live in the world where the consumption is a type of virtue in the name of development. According to the rule of cause and effect, after overuse our nature, we have to face the results. So, it’s sad news.

However, drawing my attention is not the sadness to the bad news, but it is the oil sands. What are the oil sands? It’s the first time I see the word. They are a type of “unconventional petroleum deposit” (Oil sands, 2012). They have recently been considered to be part of the world’s oil reserves because higher oil prices and new technology enable profitable extraction and processing, and are found in extreamly large amounts in Canada. Just before the reporting there was nothing proved harmfulness scientifically. Only there have been concerns which have been raised concerning the negative impacts on public health. I come to be a little bit more informed myself.

My mom says that she feels sometimes the world changes too fast to catch. Now, I feel like her. From now, I decide to pay more attention to the world.

__________

Reference

Austen, I. (2013, January 7). Oil Sands Industry in Canada Tied to Higher Carcinogen Level. The New York Times. Retrived January 8, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/13/world/americas/oil-sand-industry-in-canada-tied-to-higher-carcinogen-level.html?hp

Oil sands. (2012, December 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 15:09, January 8, 2013, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Oil_sands&oldid=527937485