Only the lunatic French

Although if I go slowly and deliberately, I can write decently, my handwriting has always been pretty awful, as my unfortunate students sometimes notice so obviously that they have to ask what I've just written. But does my handwriting reveal anything deeper about me?

In "A French love affair... with graphology", Hugh Schofield discusses the surprising reliance that French businesses continue to place on handwriting analysis in employment decisions (2013). As well as giving background and speculating on other reasons than efficacy for its persistence, Schofield presents the views and reasons of both those who favour of graphology and those who think it foolishness.

As I was reading this article, which I think is a nice bit of fun, I had already thought of astrology and numerology even before I came to where Laurent Begue, one of Schofield's anti-graphology proponents, mentioned them. The comparison seems obvious: both using the heavenly bodies and numbers to predict personality, history, the future or whatever, have much in common with graphology: they are popular with large numbers of people, there are extensive and profitable industries around them, they give simple answers to complex, even impossible, questions, and there is zero sound evidence to support them. My guess is that they survive despite being at best garbage for a combination of two of these reasons: they do give answers to questions that worry people, such as whether a prospective husband will be faithful, whether a possible employee will get on well with customers, and so on, and they provide an opportunity to make money from providing these desperately sought answers. The fact that the answers have no solid basis at all and might do great harm because they are false is less compelling than the easiness of the answer. Sadly, human brains are not evolved to be particularly critical, rational or even just.

I am sure that most of the believers in card reading, astrology, spirit channelling and the like, along with graphology, are sincere in their beliefs, but honestly believing something to be true is normally irrelevant to its being true: no belief is normally true just because it is sincerely and strongly believed to be so. And people who believe in all of these sorts of things are wrong. The stars above us, Tarot cards, and mystical numbers cannot predict the future, tell us personality or anything else as claimed. But whilst I can believe that the many true believers are honest, I'm less sure about those who take money from them by pretending to be able to do what they claim: it's hard to believe that anyone could be that uncritical, irrational and ignorant of facts. I think dishonesty is a much more likely explanation.

As Bertram Durand, one of the pro-graphology "professionals" that Schofield quotes, says, "just because we cannot measure its success rate using mathematics or statistics - that doesn't mean it is not a valid tool" (2013, ¶ 18). But surely this is completely wrong: if there were any truth in it, reliable statistics would show that graphology really does work. Durand is being at best deliberately ignorant and irrational, so much so that I think we can reasonably say he is dishonest. And that is not a good personality trait. I wonder whether his handwriting reveals his dishonesty? We might as well believe that lunar astronauts and scientists are made lunatics by the object of their interest.

By now, it might be obvious what I think of ancient superstitions like astrology and numerology, but could you have deduced this from the handwriting you've now had ample opportunity to examine?

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Reference

Schofield, H. (2013, April 28). A French love affair... with graphology. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved April 29, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22198554

The Root of All Evil

Although we skipped over it this morning (we will look at them tomorrow, time permitting), the Thinking Ahead exercise on page 88 of Quest includes a third question, which  presents a list of quotations from famous authors on poverty for us to reflect on (Hartmann & Blass, 2007). Whilst not exactly on the topic of poverty, on which the following question 4 invites our ideas, I was reminded of a comment about money, something that was popular at the start of our discussion of economics, in the Christian Bible, which advises the faithful that "the love of money is the root of all evil" (KJV 1Tim. 6:10). In turn, this reminded me of "Should bishops run the banks?" in the business section of the BBC News yesterday, which I had already emailed to myself as being something I might like to respond to blog.

In "Should bishops run the banks?", Robert Peston tells us that recently appointed Archbishop of Canterbury  Justin Welby, who does have a relevant background in business, has recently argued that not only financial solutions, but an ethical response, including further state support prior to the splitting up of a major bank, is needed to properly solve "the UK's economic malaise" (2013, Ethical Argument sect.) by giving due weight to the social and moral aspects of the banking crisis.

The business  section is not something I normally look at very closely, but the words bishops and banks in the title on the homepage got my interest: I was expecting some juicy scandal about the Vatican Bank again. My expectations were disappointed when I saw the photo not of the new pope but of the head of the Anglican Church - a much smaller and poorer version of Christians than the Catholics. But since I was there, I read it, and Archbishop Welby does make some sensible points. I really can't judge the financial soundness of his idea about breaking up excessively large banks, but I do agree with his insistence that banks and other financial institutions be held morally accountable, or at least that the people who manage them, the decision makers, be held to account not just financially and legally for those decisions, but also morally.

In the banking crisis that got everyone's attention a few years ago, and when a couple of large banks did fail, and as the banking and financial system in Cyprus is now failing, I was constantly changing my mind about whether or not the banks should get help from governments. On the one hand, I thought, as I'm sure many tax payers did, that the banks did not deserve any such help; on the other hand, if they failed, that might harm a lot of people a lot more, with disastrous social consequences. In the end, I decided that although they did not deserve it, the banks should be supported, but that strong laws should be written, perhaps in a constitution, to prevent any such help in future. I think part of the moral problem that led to, or at least contributed to, the seriousness of the problem was that the bankers taking absurd risks expected help from the government if they needed it because their decisions turned out to be bad. Had they known for sure that the governments would not help them, they might not have gambled so recklessly.

In fact, I think exactly the same about thinks like government support for rice farmers and others: propping up failing industries with tax payers' money only encourages deeper disasters. And the plain seen facts would seem to suggest, for example, that no Thai government has ever done anything to really help Thai farmers, who have remained far too poor for decades, despite a fortune in Thai tax money going into the pockets of someone. And perhaps I should stop here before I get even more controversial.

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References

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

Peston, R. (2013, April 23). Should bishops run the banks? BBC News Business. Retrieved April 24, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22260952

BAS's Academic Interests

When I was a child, I was excited by the experiment of electrolysis which my science teacher showed it to the class. At that time, I was fascinated how we can turn water to the burning gas (Hydrogen) and Oxygen gas. I has started my interests in sciences and had my passionate to lean about it after I watch that experiment. I'm curious to know  what the science description behind magic trick such as illusion.

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Sorn's Academic Interests

Although my study is a bit far from what I've interested in recently, Human Resource's become more attractive to me when I have conversation with my friend who work as HR staff in the organisation. I was surprised by the fact that nowadays my generation, I means who relatively close to my age, tends to consider  jobs more selectively. Some people work where suit neither their skills nor their interests. In contrast, some of them strive to do something they massively have passion on. One of my friend, for example, worked as an interior designer for three months after graduated. Now she transforms to be a chef, having her own small business which is food cratering.

Peace's Academic Interests

I am interested in art. It is actually started at my very young age and it motivates me to want to be a painter. I was always very happy to study art, especially painting when I was at school. I think I did quite well at it. I love watching paintings in art galleries or art museum. They inspire me to think beyond what I just see. Later on, my interest in art is not limited to only painting, but it goes beyond to fashion design. However, I haven't had a chance to study it in the university. As a result, I took a short course when I had free time instead.

Poom's Academic Interests

I am interested in food science ;however, I did not study about this in the university. I still like the quote the " you are what you eat", which always come to my mind when I eat. There are many kinds of food that I like ;for example, Thai food, Japanese food or Fusion food. It is important to eat food which contains 5 components in each meal and people should create good habit in eating. You should not eat only food that you like but you should eat a variety of food in order to get sufficient nutrition. Studying food science can lead you to know how to eat and know what is the component of food.

Ting's Academic Interests

I am interesting in movie and my undergraduate is also related into this field. I like to watch different type of movies from different culture, I especially like the movie from UK than the Hollywood, I think it has gain more deep thought after watching  UK movies. If I have enough time I also watch Bollywood's movie, because I like the atmosphere which shows in the movie and their colorful clothes, such as how they deal with the problems is very different from my own culture. I like to analysis the movie which discuss about the social phenomena in nowadays, such as the gender questions, the struggle part of finding who am I, and also the dirty part which is occur in every corner in the world. I think a movie can show the reality that was hidden.

Ploy's Academic Interests

When I was 8 years old, I was interesting in science. But I never learn about it when I'm growing up, it's too hard for me. I'm a lazy girl who want to sleep and play around with my sister and friends. I used to watch one tv program which made me excited. It's about doing an experiment for kids. I watch it on walt's disney channel. The man on that show do many experiment which interests me a lots. On that show, he used the real car to do an experiment. When I was that age, to do something interest with real car quite attract little girl so much. This kinds of tv show get my interest that one day I will be a scientist. In the real world the life is very hard, and I was too lazy to read a lot of books. So, my dream job is just an imagination:)

Hades's Academic Interests

I interested in Laws since I was in high school, after the social study class in M.5 it was always in my mine mind that Laws is something that really fantastic. But I continute studying in Science until the end of high school and going to study Medicine in university by the hope of my parents, Nevertherless Laws is my future goal. Laws is something that controls human activity,habit, and behavior that never have tools in the whole world can do. Since King Hambulabe found the law "an eye for an eye" long time ago, human society learn to live with law and develop it due to the developing of society.
Nowadays, our society is very complex; we are in the age of world society not only each nation or each region. Laws was improved to be a very complex law that can apply for any kind of activity we have done
and now human is very close to the law everyday we are keep in touch with it since we wake up till sleep,law is controls every action in your life.

Poom-___-'s Academic Interests

My academic interest is Science because, first of all, Science is a subject that we study to find out the mysteries that we do not know or understand. Studying Science is very helpful for us to discover something new which can improve our lives. According to the transportation which we use nowadays, they are made by engineers and engineers got the ideas from scientists who study Science. About myself, I have learnt Science since Prathom 1, grade 1. For the first time studying Science, I felt it was a very boring subject. However, when I grew up, I found this subject is very useful.Then, I changed my attitude of it. Finally, I think Science is very important for us and it is a very interesting subject which I want to study.

Punyawut‘s academic interests

My academic interests is about business. I usually read about a business book. Second, I am also about investment in the stock market. I plan to have my own business in the future. This is the reason I am interested about the it. In the near future, I want to study a master degree in MBA. I have a lot of  friends who work in the stock market. They explain to me.

Ai's academic interests

I'm interested in academic system that each paragraph relates to each other and also provide prime examples leading me to more understanding. Besides, those words in academic contents are specific to the readers who have knowledge and skill about it. Although it's tough for the new reader to understand the content due to tough words and complicated sentences, the academic information make the readers who already have the knowledge and skill can understand the exact and detailed meaning from the information right away.
That's why I'm here studying academic reading and writing skill in order to put me in those group which includes the skilled reader.

Peter's Academic Interests

As I just mentioned as an example, one of my academic interests is history, although I've never studied that at university. In fact, I hated history when I was forced to study it at school, but that was because my teachers were not very good. Had they been good, they could easily have made history an exciting subject - there is war, blood, intrigue, progress, and lots of other fun things to hold the interest, even of lazy students. But at the same time, I was reading about ancient Egypt, Greece and other cultures of the past on my own. But so awful were my school experiences that I dropped history as soon as I could, to focus on science and mathematics. Science and mathematics were my real loves in high school  and I went on to study maths and physics at university, but already in high school I had become interested in philosophy.

My interest in philosophy began when, surprisingly, one of the Catholic brothers who taught me physics suggested I read some work by Soren Kierkegaard - he probably thought that that Christian philosopher might save me from a growing tendency towards atheism, but the effect was the opposite. Kierkegaard led to a wider interest in philosophy, to Plato, Aristotle, Lucretius and the rest, and by the time I finished high school I'd given up on the unfounded and often nonsensical beliefs of Christianity.

As mentioned, my university career began with science and mathematics, but while I enjoying that, I continued reading history and philosophy, and they became more interesting until I switched majors to philosophy. I kept on the mathematics, but also added a couple of dead languages, and that meant reading even more intensely in the history of those ancient cultures. I'm not sure that it was the most practical option to follow my interests, but I've never regretted my choices, and I had a great time at university.

Tay's Academic Interests

I loved to study social since I was in grade 4, because I was very good on this subject.  I  read newspaper and watch the news on television everyday. I learned how government manage from many sources such as Internet and Library.Today,I am interested in democracy. I would like to know what the democracy means for Thai people.

Recipe for a Healthy Country?

I've never fit the stereotype Aussie image that was was usual when I was in school and at university - I hated football, both the Rugby version which was the norm and the newfangled soccer version which was for whimps too scared to play real football. Worse, I loved reading, learning and had a habit of enjoying mathematics after school. On the other hand, whilst a fondness for Chinese food wasn't ocker, it was at least becoming common even in my youth. I was pleased to see in a BBC News Magazine  story that Australia is moving in what seems to me a positive direction, with its economic performance being not the least sign of national health.

In "The changing face of the average Aussie", Nick Bryant reports that the most recent census data on Australian citizens shows the average to be more female than male, middle-aged, definitely not rural, with fully a quarter born overseas and almost half born of parents at least one of whom immigrated to Australia (2013).

I'm proud to say that my mother was one of the trend-setters in the move to female liberation and their rise to equality in Australia against the traditional culture of male dominance, although I'm not sure that this was through any intellectual commitment on her part: it's more that she enjoyed playing golf and the freedom that came from being a working woman in the 1950s before she married my father. On marriage, she decided from the very beginning that she was not going to give up her own interests, or follow the usual custom becoming known to their banks as "Mrs. Keith Filicietti", which was usual at the time. It seems strange now that such a custom could ever have been accepted, but it was, and I remember my mother's forcefully expressed annoyance with the regressive local bankers who sought to follow the traditional ways of their ancestors: she had and used a very rich vocabulary, decidedly not academic, and very much not what was expected of well brought up women at the time. She was sometimes an embarrassment, but looking back, that was my own fault for caring excessively about largely worthless customs and cultural traditions. But mother has won: my prime minister and governor general are both women today, as is the richest Australian. So much have things changed since my primary school days that I'm not sure those archaic titles Miss and Mrs are even used today, except by perhaps by mother's generation.

More surprising, and even better I thought, is that Australia is such an ethnically diverse nation, having long welcomed new citizens from around the world. In my youth, this was mainly European immigrants, although my own family had already been Australian for three generations when I came along, my great-grandparents having moved from Italy and opened up what was then unsettled bushland in northern New South Wales. As I was growing up, increasing numbers of Asian people were moving to settle in Australia, despite complaints about an "Asian invasion" from the older, white group of traditionalists. Thankfully, the Australian government did what was right, not what was popular, and ignored the ugly, racist views and irrational, false beliefs of the anti-immigration element, and continued to welcome in large numbers of new citizens from overseas. These new Aussies have not taken all the land, have not reduced job opportunities and have not undermined Australian culture; on the contrary, they have created wealth, more jobs and a more vibrant culture, helping to make Australia not only great place to live, but an economically successful and continually growing nation for decades. Had we given into ugly xenophobic fears of non-Australians and not let them in, Australia would not be the great country it is today, nor, I am sure, would the US be what it is had it not long welcomed new US citizens from around the world. It's the xenophobically fearful, closed nations (or just their repressive and despotic rulers?) who really do seem to do less well economically as well as socially and morally.

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Reference

Bryant, N. (2013, April 23). The changing face of the average Aussie. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved April 24, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22213218

Rhinoceros horn for superman: explaining weird beliefs

One of the major threats to the existence of the rhinoceros is that some men believe that eating its impressive horn turns them into sexual supermen, and perhaps more. Whilst I can understand how ignorant people in pre-scientific societies might have believed such things, I have trouble understanding how anyone could believe this today; the facts, however, clearly show that people will pay good money because they hold such a belief. This came to mind when I read "James McCormick guilty of selling fake bomb detectors" on the BBC News a few minutes ago.

This article, which is about the recent conviction for fraud of James McCormick, reports that McCormick made a  £50m fortune by selling fake detectors of  "explosives, drugs, ivory and people" (2013, ¶ 8) mainly at high prices to government defence agencies, whose users on the ground might still be at risk because they continue to believe that it works as claimed.

This is, of course, exactly the same sort of fake device the Thai army wasted a vast amount on in the GT200 scandal, for which I don't think anyone has yet been imprisoned. And the most amazing thing about that, as with McCormick's fraudulent device, is how anyone could ever have believed it might have worked in the first place. There was never any reliable evidence that this device or the GT200 could do any of the things for which Thai tax payers and others spent a fortune, and which, at the same time, probably killed soldiers and others who mistakenly relied on it. I can understand an ordinary soldier in the field trusting his superior officer (maybe) if that officer said there was good evidence, but on what basis could any senior officer make such a claim? I can only think of two explanation: amazing stupidity or deliberate lying. Neither explanation is very nice, but what else is possible? Since the BBC News report also lists countries where McCormick was successful in making sales as "Iraq, Georgia, Saudi Arabia and Niger" (¶ 2), all countries with high corruption levels, I'm inclined to think that all senior army and other people who bought these things did so because they were part of a corruption scheme. On the other hand, these are also countries with low levels of education  where healthy critical thinking is also discouraged and in many cases is strictly illegal, so perhaps the stupidity defence is plausible after all. Still, that anyone would ever buy such things seems to me to reflect very badly on either their intelligence, or their honesty, and perhaps on both.

In level 5 last term, we read about magic, which is an important element of religions according to Hartmann and Blass (2007). These magical beliefs are also often rather strange, and yet the evidence is that many ordinary people do still take them seriously. The test, I think, is whether people will hand over their hard earned money, and many people do pay good money for amulets, medals, relics of saints and so on because they believe these things have some supernatural ability to protect or benefit them in some way. When I was a little boy, my parents, mainly my mother I suspect, insisted on keeping a small statue of St. Christopher on the dashboard of our car in the belief that the saint would then intervene to protect us from an accident. I think all of the good Catholic families of my friends did the same. It seems to have gone out of fashion now, perhaps a recent pope suggested that their might be some doubt as to whether St. Christopher really did one day carry Jesus Christ across a river. I think it's still a great story, but the likelihood that putting a statue in your car will bring down supernatural protection from a god, angel, saint, or any other such being seems to me as well founded as the belief that a piece of plastic and wire coat hanger can detect bombs and drugs, or that eating the ground up horn of a slaughtered rhinoceros will result in a boost to waning sexual vigour - modern drugs like Viagra have much stronger supporting evidence in their favour. But I would also agree with Hartmann and Blass that these sorts of beliefs, however weird and irrational, can effectively "fulfill people's psychological ... needs" (p. 23). Perhaps if they are not directly harming or threatening others, or doing anything else that is directly harmful, we should let people act on their beliefs in magic.

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References

Hartmann, P., & Blass, L. (2007). "The Anthropological View of Religion". In Quest 3 Reading and Writing (2nd ed.) (pp. 23 - 25). New York McGraw-Hill.

James McCormick guilty of selling fake bomb detectors. (2013, April 23). BBC News UK. Retrieved April 23, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22266051

Is wrong the most useful word in academic English?

We all know that Newton was wrong, along with Aristotle and pretty well everyone else (everyone else?) who is an ancient great in science and I suspect every other field of knowledge. But how often have you said to one of your professors: "that sounds wrong?"

In "Reinhart, Rogoff... and Herndon: The student who caught out the profs", Ruth Alexander tells the story of how graduate student Thomas Herndon detected an error with possibly substantial economic and social implications in a research paper popular with proponents of austerity economics policies by two Harvard University economics professors, who have now acknowledged their error (2013). Although motivated by initial scepticism of the academics results, Herndon, who was supported by his own professors at MIT, was nonetheless surprised when, after much painstaking investigation, he discovered "a basic error in the spreadsheet" calculations.

For a BBC News article, "Reinhart, Rogoff... and Herndon: The student who caught out the profs" is comparatively long, and although following their usual annoying practise of making almost every sentence a paragraph, some of those sentences are fairly complex, and even a bit long, so it was a little more challenging than usual to get a clear enough understanding of the whole report to be able to pick out the important ideas to include in my two sentence summary above.

Herndon actually started the process that led to the surprising result of proving a couple of respected Harvard academics wrong as a homework assignment, and it was a homework assignment that I like: checking what someone else has done to see if it's right. This is what academics do all the time: someone has a bright idea, whether a physicist, a philosopher, a historian or a an anthropologist, and they write up their bright idea with the supporting evidence and reasons. Other academics then judge the value of that piece of work, and one of the important criteria is whether it's right or wrong. A lot of bright ideas are wrong. For example, a popular solution to problems in society is that more education is needed. Smoking related problems: education is needed on the harmful health effects. Road deaths at Songkran: educate people about driving and drinking alcohol; and so on. Many people's immediate response to any problem, personal or social, seems to be to throw some education at it.

But is there any evidence that all this education is of any use? The road death reports during the recent Songkran remind me of a more specific example. Looking through the doubtless well-intentioned editorials in the local press, calling for better driver education along with demands for bans on this and that (likely equally useless), I couldn't help but feel that the writers were perhaps nice people but somewhat foolish. However, it does sound plausible that more education will both make people more aware of the dangers and, in the case of driving, give them the skills to better avoid danger. It certainly sounds plausible to me, so that introducing lessons on driving and road safety into schools for all teenagers before they get a licence to drive sounds both reasonable and sensible. The only problem is, it's wrong. When the relevant statistics are checked, the facts are that providing driving lessons in high school correlates with, and seems to cause, higher accident rates amongst new drivers (Williams & Ferguson, 2004). The bright idea is not just wrong, but is a very dangerous idea.

I wasn't planning to cite a second source, but I was worried that unless I did refer you to some solid evidence that the belief with which I might once have agreed is wrong, you would, quite reasonably, not believe me.

Finally, I think it's also worth noting that just because an idea is wrong doesn't make it worthless: we know that Newton's theories about the universe are wrong, but they are still brilliant explanations, vastly better than any  explanation of the world to be found in any religious text, which is why Newtonian physics is still taught in high schools, with the fact that it's wrong being clearly stated. Newton's mathematical efforts, on the other hand, are proof against being wrong, but they're a different sort of knowledge, arguably not of this world.

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References

Alexander, R. (2013, April 19). Reinhart, Rogoff... and Herndon: The student who caught out the profs. BBC News Magazine. Retrieved April 21, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22223190

Williams, A. F., & Ferguson, S. A. (2004). Driver education renaissance? Injury Prevention, 10, 4 - 7. Retrieved April 21, 2013 from http://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/10/1/4.full

Pesticides : affecting to honey bee and human

Food is the one of basic needs that are necessary for human being. Many agriculturists attempt to increase their products in order to be sufficient for customer's demand, so using pesticides is one of the possible choices to maintain the number of products. It is obvious that they do not consider other species which are not pests are killed from receiving the toxin in pesticides.

According to Rebecca Morelle's article in "Neonicotinoid Pesticides 'Damage Brains of Bees'", there are two dangerous pesticides, Neonicotiniod and Coumaphos, which damage the honey bee brain. they cause directly negative effects to the bees and users, and affected people are not treated with precise remedy.

Nowadays, there are many brands of pesticides which are used in different aspects. All of them are produced by mixing chemical substances and toxin. The purpose to use pesticides is to eliminate unwanted insects which harm agricultural products. Many agriculturists always use them because of easiness and convenience. For Neonicotinoid, commonly used in Europe that it can control the number of pests on oil seed rape and other crops, where as Coumaphos is often used in US that it can kill a parasite in honey bee.
These two pesticides obstruct the insect's ability to learn and recognize and damage the pollinator's brain, and if they are combined together, it is not only pests are killed brutally, but the surroundings, such as pollinators and users, are also affected dangerously.

However, many scientists are not motionless with this problem. they still find the best solution of the effects from pesticides and the effective remedy to the patients. They advise to the companies which are producing the pesticides must consider in the point of safety of the chemicals. They also search and find scientific evidence of Neonicotinoid and Coumaphos in order to prove that which species of honey bee are affected, compared to others, and how both pesticides can exacerbate human body. Nonetheless, many countries in Europe have not already banned using these pesticides because they would like certainty about the negative effects and other better pesticides which are probably replaced Neonicotinoid and Coumaphos.

Reference

Morelle, R. (2013, March 27). Neonicotinoid pesticides 'damage brains of bees' BBC News Science & Environment. Retrieved April 1, 2013 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-21958547