A passionate eye

Some people have strange passions. How many people do you know, for example, who collect replacement human eyes made of glass?

"Set of human glass eyes auctioned in Lichfield" reports that a vintage collection of prosthetic glass eyes in a range of colours, sizes and  vein patterns has sold at auction for several times more than the expected price, which auctioneer Charles Hanson says reflects the "great interest from collectors worldwide for such quirky collectables from" the 1920s to 1930s (2014, para. 8).

Although collecting glass ones worn to replace a lost eye does not impassion me, I kind of like the idea that someone is apparently happy to have obtained such a collection for what he or she presumably thinks is a good price, and the price, £940 (about 51,000 Baht), does seem reasonable to me. I've spend that much on a single pen that I was passionate about, and although my friends, and my mother, said some rather rude things about it, I've never regretted that or other amounts I've spend indulging my passions, some of which I'm sure some people think are very odd. But I still think that the fake eye ball collection is seriously odd, and a little bit creepy.

Cool or creepy? 

However, the photograph with the article in the BBC News is interesting. As the article says, it shows that the eyes, all single eyes, vary in colour, size and shape. I guess they were modelled after an intact eye that they were supposed to match. What interested me is that they are not actually spheres, which was what I had expected. They don't even look like squashed or stretched spheres, but more like eggs that have had a chunk scooped out from one side.

I am sure that they all served very useful purposes for their original owners before ending up in some stranger's strange collection. They reminded me of a a guy I knew at uni. who wore a prosthetic eye. I was very glad he did not pop it out for me to examine.

A group of my colleagues at AUA are passionate about science fiction films to a degree that I can't understand. I thought Avatar was great fun, and well-worth watching at least a couple of times, but I haven't felt any need to collect the very expensive figures and special edition Blu-rays and so on. Even less would I pay good money for Star Wars figures, books on the films, and such like, but my friends spend hours talking about these sorts of acquisitions with great pleasure. And I do like that. I might not be able to share their passion, or even understand why intelligent, educated adults would be so obsessed by such things, but I think it's great that they have this passion that clearly brings them much pleasure. And they probably think my mild obsession with ancient Greek and Roman philosophy and culture, not to mention some of my other passions, are also weird and incomprehensible. Would you pay US$400 (13,000 Baht) for a dictionary? (It's a very good dictionary, and much cheaper than one of my English ones.) Or would you save your money and buy a dozen vintage glass eyes instead?

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Reference

Set of human glass eyes auctioned in Lichfield. (2014, April 24). BBC News Stoke and Staffordshire. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-27142736

Welcome to AEP Reading and Writing 2AB, term 3, 2014

Welcome to our Reading and Writing level 2 class for the term.

Over the next six weeks, we will be working through a few chapters in Quest, which involve reading and writing several different kinds of texts. We will also add some extra reading and writing to keep things interesting every day; we will, for example, be regularly writing on this class blog.

Thank you for signing up for it; I hope you find the class useful and also enjoyable.

At 4:00 PM today, I will email you your invitation to join this blog. After you accept it, you can start writing posts and comments. In class tomorrow morning, we will write our first blog posts and comments for the term. In the meantime, you might like to have a look at the four blog posts below that I've written in the last couple of days. They all respond to articles in the BBC News over the past few days.

 Peter.

Astronomical Magic

If you look up at night in Bangkok, you see only a dull, greyish sky. But at my parents' home in the Australian countryside, kilometres away from any unnatural light, the night sky is clear, black and richly dotted with stars that always look the same against the waxing and waning moon. It's easy to understand why our remote ancestors found the night sky a source of wonder, and told tales to explain it.

How a gravitational lens works.

In "Dazzling supernova mystery solved," James Morgan (2014) writes that astronomers now hope to measure more accurately how quickly our universe is expanding. This results from confirming the theory that gravitational lensing by a massive galaxy between it and us explains the previously mysterious exceptional brightness of a supernova, although because the original supernova has now faded, scientists must wait for a similar cosmic event to be discovered.

Articles such as this one, which talk of billions of years and billions of light years, amaze me. They remind me how far we have surpassed our ancestors in understanding the world around us, and how much more there is that we still do not understand. And just our ancestors, brilliant people like Aristotle, got almost everything completely wrong, I also wonder just how much of our best scientific understanding will also later turn out to be false. But we are certainly making impressive progress. We not only know today that the Earth circles the sun, not the other way around as Aristotle and everyone else thought for about 2,000 years, but we have accurate knowledge about the age of our tiny planet and of the entire universe. And almost all of this has come about in the last few hundred years of our species's short existence on this planet.

Back on Earth, our knowledge of life has also been revolutionized since 1859 when Darwin proposed his theory of evolution. We now know, something unimaginable to our ancestors of centuries and millennia ago, that every living thing on this planet is related to every other living thing because life only arose once. Actually, when I think about it, this was not unimaginable to all of our ancestors: the first century BC Roman philosopher Lucretius had a very similar idea to evolution, which he explained in his poem De Rerum Natura [On the Nature of Things], but this insight of Western philosophy was suppressed by the ignorance that the rise of Christianity forced on Europe and the entire Western world for almost 2,000 years.

Thankfully, we have been recovering from the long ignorance and superstition of Christianity for a few hundred years now, and the our progress has been amazing. What will we know and be able to explain tomorrow?

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Reference

Morgan, J. (2014, April 24). Dazzling supernova mystery solved. BBC News Science and Environment. Retrieved April 28, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-27118405

Good news: Major drug problem decreasing

Do you think that society is getting better or worse? For example, are drug problems improving or worsening?

According to "Victorian strangeness: The 3,000-mile drunken escapade" (2014), binge drinking of alcohol is much less of a problem today than it used to be in Victorian times, as seen in the example of John Wren, who normally never drank alcohol. When his friends persuaded him to have a glass, he woke up seven weeks later not only in a hospital he did not recognise in London, but in the United States.

Sadly, binge drinking is a problem. This drug problem has a long history in Australia. The only successful coup in Australian history was when soldiers, who were profiting greatly from illegal (corrupt) trading in rum and other businesses, arrested and removed the governor appointed by the English king. The famous Rum Rebellion lasted for almost two years before the rebel soldiers were defeated. On special occasions today, Australians often drink alcohol, whether beer, wine, whisky or whatever, with the purpose of getting as drunk as possible. This sounds quite stupid, and it is, but it's also seen as fun. I remember that some members of my high school class thought that the graduation party was a great success because they woke up the next day with very blurry memories and splitting headaches.

I was a little surprised to learn that this drug problem is actually improving, but when I think about it more, that does make sense. In the past, there was much less regulation and far less concern about people's private lives, and for the poor, as well as the rich, drugs have always been a popular way of avoiding problems and of enjoying life. Of course, some drug problems are getting worse today. Oddly, the drugs that are causing bigger problems are the ones that governments make illegal: the problems all seem much worse after the drug is made illegal. For example, opium, which is an unrefined form of heroin, was used in Thailand and China for centuries, apparently without any serious problems for society, but after the Thai and Chinese governments made opium illegal, both addiction and a lot of other problems increased massively. We see exactly the same with yaa baa - there was no serious problem before this dangerous drug was made illegal! Perhaps government policy actually makes most drug problems so bad for people and society?

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Reference

Victorian strangeness: The 3,000-mile drunken escapade. (2014, April 26). BBC News Magazine Monitor. Retrieved April 27, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-27161833

Bear's paws or dog's paws for lunch?

In his first discussion with Gaozi in the book named after him, the ancient Chinese philosopher Mencius (Mengzi) says, "'I like fish, and I also like bear's paws. If I cannot have the two together, I will let the fish go, and take the bear's paws" (Gaozi, I, 10, trans. Legge). This famous 4^th century BC follower of Confucius would be in serious trouble in today's China.

The article "Jail for eaters of endangered wild animals in China" says that Chinese who buy it to eat the meat of endangered animals, because they want to impress others or because they believe it is good for health, can now be jailed either for eating the meat or for buying it (2014).

The different species of bears mentioned in the article reminded me of Mencius, which I studied decades ago, although he didn't tell us exactly what sort of bear's paws he liked to eat. Perhaps be liked them all. The next thing I thought of, which is less directly related to the ideas in the article, was dogs because they are also popular items on menus in some parts of Thailand and in other countries, and I think for similar reasons.

I can't see any good reason for not eating dogs. However, the new Chinese laws to protect the bears, pangolins, pandas and other endangered animals seem reasonable to me because those animals are in danger of becoming extinct, so need protection. Dogs, on the other hand, are in no danger of becoming extinct - the streets are full of them. But I think it would be better to raise dogs on farms for customers who want to eat them. Street dogs are not hygienic. They are likely to be full of dangerous parasites and diseases. I'm not sure that stolen pets are very clean either, and stealing is definitely wrong, even if eating dogs is not.

They aren't really paws, but I love duck's feet. In Australia, when ducks are roasted, they feet at usually cut off and thrown away, or boiled up with other bits to make stock for a soup. But my mum used to leave them on. There wasn't much meat, but they were great to gnaw at and suck on for the tasty skin and flesh. There is connection for me between ducks and dogs. When my brother was travelling with me in Thailand many years ago, before I'd learnt any Thai, we called in a small restaurant in Chiangrai for lunch. When we asked him, the manager assured as that the duck was very good, and that sounded pretty good to us. But when our "duck" arrived, there was something very strange about it. As regular duck eaters since childhood, we knew that whatever spicy dish was in front of us, the meat was not duck. We called the manager over for a bit more discussion to check exactly what we were eating, and this time we realized that he had not been saying "duck" but "dog." Since we had already started, and it did taste good, we finished our meal. I don't think the menu offered paws. It was a fun story to tell afterwards.

A few years ago when I was again visiting Chiangrai, this time with a Thai friend, he very proudly produced some dog for his mum to cook up for a party meal, assuring me of its health benefits. Personally, I would have preferred duck, but to be polite, I did eat a bit of his mother's cooking, which was also a little more spicy than I normally like my food.

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Reference

Jail for eaters of endangered wild animals in China. (2014, April 25). BBC News China. Retrieved April 26, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-27155441

Academic excellence needs democratic principle

For Thailand, topics related to democracy, which many see as being under attack, have been in the news a lot these past few months. Indeed, the nature and needs of Thai democracy have been increasingly discussed for the past ten years or more. Thailand is not alone in this.

In "Dutch lap up Wilders' hardline message," Anna Holligan says that comments by political party leader Geert Wilders against immigration by Moroccans to the Netherlands, whilst deeply offensive even to some members of the Freedom Party, who have resigned, and to 5,000 people who want Wilders "charged with inciting racial hatred" (2014, para. 4) have nonetheless proved so very popular with a large percentage of the Dutch people that the Freedom Party is likely to win the coming European elections on May 22.

First, I think that Wilders must be allowed to make his deeply offensive comments. They are racist. They are ugly. They are narrow minded. They also seem to me immoral, ignorant, and false. But these are not good enough reasons to stop people from peacefully stating an honestly held opinion. If the law could be used to ban people saying things because the comments upset some other people then everything would have to be banned: Buddhists in Burma want Islamic ideas suppressed by law, Moslems in many countries want Buddhist ideas suppressed, some people want the idea that gay men and women be able to marry suppressed, some want the idea that gays and lesbians are hated by god suppressed. For most ideas that are important to people and society, some people will have one opinion and others the opposite opinion.

Democracy is based on the belief that all members of a society have an equal right to a voice, to a say, in deciding what that society is like and how it is governed, and this basic principle of democracy requires that every opinion, even the most hateful, must be allowed expression. Indeed, a strong and healthy democracy must protect speech that many citizens, even a large majority, find extremely offensive and hateful. This means that when people like Geert Wilders make their ugly, immoral racist comments, their right to do so must be protected by law, even though they are themselves contradicting the basic democratic principle of equal respect for all.

Sadly, the majority is often wrong about both facts and morals. And this is another reason free speech is so important: the only way to correct mistakes, both factual and moral, is by allowing and encouraging opposing ideas stated and supported.

For the same reason, academic freedom is vitally important to all academic work that aims to make progress towards better understanding in every area of study. If the law of the nation or social sanction make it impossible for some opinions to be stated and discussed, then the law guarantees ignorance of all lawful opinion, and academics prefer knowledge to legally enforced ignorance, which must make opinion worthless. I hope that those who currently like Wilders' false and immoral opinions will listen to the opposing ideas and learn to think better about the question of immigration. It is good for nations to invite new immigrants to settle and become citizens.

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Reference

Holligan, A. (2014, April 26). Dutch lap up Wilders' hardline message. BBC News Inside Europe Blog. Retrieved April 26, 2014 from http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-eu-27133977

Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life. Quest 2, p. 85 - 87.

These are colour images of the works of art discussed in "Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life" (Hartmann, 2007, pp. 85 - 87)

Court Ladies Preparing Newly Woven Silk, by Zhao Ji, China, 12th century

Février des Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Illumination by the Limbourg Brothers, France, early 15th century.

Count of the Cattle, Tomb of Meketre, circa 2000 B.C.E.

John Brown Going to His Hanging, by Horace Pippin, 1942.

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Reference

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

Quest 2, pp. 76 - 82. The Sacred Realm of Art - images

These are the images shown or discussed in "The Sacred Realm of Art" (Hartmann, 2007, pp. 76 - 82).

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

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

Bwa tribal mask and costume. Burkina Faso.

Bwa tribal mask. Burkina Faso.

Tathagatas Ratnasambhava,
Central Tibet, ca. 1200-1250

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

Madonna Enthroned
by Cimabue. c. 1285.

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

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Reference

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

Looking at art: What's the story? Quest 2, pp. 72 - 75

These are colour images of the works of art discussed in "Looking at Art: What's the Story" (Hartmann, 2007, pp. 72 - 75). First is the Edomite figure shown on page 72. (There is a slightly fuller version here of this reading, using the same sources.)

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

For more information see "Cult" Stand, Statue Anthropomorphic, Painted at http://www.antiquities.org.il/t/Item_en.aspx?pic_id=1&CurrentPageKey=107_1

These are the three pieces of art that Hartmann presents in black and white on pages 74 - 75. 

The Art Critic by Norman Rockwell, 1955 

Aquila degli Abruzi 
by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1952.

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

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Reference

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

Your life, Your choice

Now a day, the mental illness can happen easily due to the environment of society, nearby people, or weakness mental, that make a lot of disease such as migraine, stomach pain, or specially popular depression disease. How can we protect or avoid them not to happen? Have way to cure this disease without suggest from the Doctor?

The article says "Depression is common and affects one-in-10 people at some point in their lives." (Gallagher, 2014) that show statistic of people in the society had an effect from their surrounding environment. It look like a small number, but if we compare with the society we live today, it represents a large number that is risk for this disease unaware.

Ketamine - one type of general anesthetic and also as a drug that is taken illegally for pleasure (องค์ความรู้เรื่องยาเสพติด, 2014), is a new choice for treatment the patient who has face with depression disease. But this is just the first result from researcher in UK, that Ketamine had symptom disappear in 1 hours- after taking drug. That make a new hope for the depression disease and show advantageous benefits of the drug, which at one time was called the prescription medications or dangerous drugs. Even though the result of first is still unstable, that depend on physical condition and mentally ready from the patient , it'll give new hope to cure the people who suffering from depression.

Much people in Thai always take a pill like paracetamol in base of cure without observed of disease symptoms which is bad habit and very dangerous. Depressive disorder is a disease that symptoms difficult if didn't pay attention. And actually spread to own a glance for patients with increasingly severe, may lead to Alzheimer disease. We have to change our habit, as if over the age of 25 pears should be check your body every 1 year, mental observe all the time, or stimulating your mental by search new hobby or new activity. Choosing to live with your love person or comfortable society.You have to fine and to choose good things to your life, that make happiness sustain over than temporarily. And if you do all above, I guarantee this will lead you to live happily ever after.

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Reference

Gallagher J. (2014, April 2). Ketamine 'exciting' depression therapy. BBC News Health. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-26647738

องค์ความรู้เรื่องยาเสพติด (2010, May 17). In ศูนย์บริการวิชาการและพัฒนาบุคลากรด้านการป้องกันและแก้ไขปัญหาสารเสพติด. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://www.sri.cmu.ac.th/~srilocal/drugs/knowledge-details.php?knowledge_id=26

From Siam to Rohingya, does the name matter?

Languages is a crucial role in our everyday life. For example, in constructive ways, we use language to name ourselves and other which is flow our communication; however, in deconstructive term, when we decided not to name or call the name that other people are more prefer; such as you call the Native American as Negro, name can be a kind of stereotype. Also in Myanmar where the national census was hold since 1983; however, the use of language leads to sectarian tensions during the process. 

According to BBC News, “Burma census bans people registering as Rohingya” (2014) in order to count the number of Burmese people, people have to fill their ethnicity in the form; however, there are no such categories for Rohingya because the government officers are not allow Muslim Rohingya call themselves as Rohingya. In order to be recognized by the state, Bangali immigrants is more preferable than Rohingya.

This discrimination shows the concern of Myanmar government and also Buddhist nationalist on the exact population of Muslim Rohingya who had been recognized as the minority and the others. In recent years, the sectarian tensions has shown up many times as the conflict between two different ethnic and religious groups, Buddhist and Muslim; for example, in 2013, the riot of Buddhist 969 which is Buddhist Nationalist movement and was led by Buddhist monks in order to against Muslim for invading the country. This riot caused the death of 200 Muslim people and around 100,000 people are displaced (Buddhism and violence, 2014) The fear of to be outnumbered among the Buddhist majority has shown up as the attempt to not recognized the ethnic’s name – to destroy the sense of Muslim Rohinya’s roots by using language which means that the majority has created the atmosphere of otherness.  

In Thailand, we can see this kind of the use of language; for example, the debate between should we (Thais) call ourselves as Thai or Siam. Actually, Thais called themselves as Siam since 12th-century A.D. (history of Thailand, 2014); then, in 1939 ( just 75 years ago), the nationalist government decided to change the name from Siam to Thai (means free) in order to show the proud of free country, the country which has not been colonized (?) and to assimilate other ethnic group; such as Chinese, Mon, and so on into Thai. Because "Siam" represents the diversity of ethnic groups; for example, Siam was described as a kingdom where had a diversity of group of people - Thai, Mon, Viet, Kmer, and so on.

However, recently, a Thai well-known historian has criticized that "Thai- Thailand" leads to the ethnocentrism of Thais which also leads to conflicts with other shared-border countries; for example, conflict over Phra Vi Hear temple with Cambodia, and the feeling of Thais are superior than Laos, and suggests that we should change the name Thais to Siam in order to solve these problem. 

All of the above example show that language and name do matter, and I think we need times to trace back what lies behind the use of particular name or language. We should not take language for granted, because language is a container, the meaning that this container carry and why it is carried matter.

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Reference

Buddhism and violence (2014, March 22). In Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_violence

Burma census bans people registering as Rohingya. (2014, March 30). BBC News Asia. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-26807239

History of Thailand (2014, March 27). In Wikipedia. Retrieved on 2014, April 3 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Thailand

Screen Time

Nowadays, we can see that new gadgets are launched every month. I’m not surprise when I see almost every people play their smart phones or tablets in a subway every morning, including children. It’s very common today that young children own mobile phone or tablets. They spend more time on screen: playing games, chatting with friends, surfing on the Internet and watching movie. Therefore, this can cause bad health for children.

 
According to NPR news article “Why Playing Minecraft Might Be More Healthful For Kids Than TV”, the researcher from the University of Michigan said that when children watch TV, they see many advertisement about food, and tend to eat junk food and drink soda. Although playing computer is healthier than watching television, both of them can cause obesity and high blood pressure in children.

We all know that using computer or watching television too much is not good for not only children, but also adults. From this article, doctors say “children shouldn’t log more than two hour a day of screen time” In the past, I think most children can do that; not spend more than two hours, but now I think more than half of children spend time on screen excessively. For example, at school, teachers use instructional media such as e-book, Internet and video. During the way to home, especially in BTS and MRT, there are small televisions for advertising. Moreover, children have to do homework and maybe learn on the Internet. From all of these, we can see that children have to spend time on screen more than two hours a day.

From this article, it says play game on computer or mobile phone is healthier than watching TV because it doesn’t cause physical problem: obesity. But I think a computer game can cause serious mental problem. When we watch TV, there is a time to break, we don’t watch all day. For example, when we watch movie, if that movie ends, we normally finish watching too. On the other hand, when we play computer game, we will play continuously until we’re bored. I think this take more time than watching TV. Moreover, some games are violent and can make us addict. I saw news about people died because of computer games, but I’ve never seen people died because of TV. So, I think computer game is not more healthful than TV.

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Reference
Singh M. Why Playing Minecraft Might Be More Healthful For Kids Than TV. (2014, March 28).  NPR Your Health. Retrieved on April 2, 2014 from http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2014/03/28/295692162/why-playing-minecraft-might-be-healthier-for-kids-than-tv

Sadness has effects on our health

I believe everybody used to have an experience with a broken heart ; it might happen when you lost a lover, family member or pet.  Heart broken people will feel sad, hopeless or depress, but for someone it is even worst.  Therefore, the sadness which occurs at the heart can effect to their health, make them sick or die.      

According to the article “Can you die of a broken heart?” from  BBC (Jason G Goldman,2014) it says that extreme mental stress can be a reason of death which related to heart problem (p.8).  For over decades, there are examples of some relevance between mental stress and  physical illness.
In mid- 20^th Century, wildlife biologists and veterinarians observed animal reaction while it was facing with sudden attack from predator. They have found that when animal gets stress,  it will produce adrenaline to the bloodstream, and turn it into some kind of poison. Next stage, it will damage the animal’s muscles and heart. The result is, it can be death.

After that nearly ten years there were more researches on human, one of these was published in New England Journal of Medicine, It reported that extreme stress, which cause by the earthquake 6.8 magnitudes on 14 January 1994 in Los Angeles was the reason of the massive death related to cardiac abnormality.  

When the emotion gets sick the body will affect too. An easy example that I have heard is a royalty dog, when its owner past away or left it behind, it will stop eating. If the dog keeps living like this, it will get sick and die.  I think in this case, it’s because the dog loves its owner very much so it gets extremely sad.

On the other hand not different from animal, when people get heart broken we are in a deep sorrow. Some people lost appetite, can’t work properly or can’t socialize. All of these are negative behaviors; although these might not bad enough to kill us, we should be aware of our sadness and try to get out of bad situation as soon as we can to prevent damages to our health.         

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Reference

Can you die of a broken heart? (2014, March 31). BBC Future . From http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20140331-can-you-die-of-a-broken-heart