Fact or opinion? True or false?

I thought that the results of the survey we did this morning "Fact or Opinion? True or False?" (2015) were interesting for a couple of reasons. First, we clearly disagree about what these basic terms means, as shown in the pie charts for several of the questions.

But also interesting, and in need of some explanation, is the variation between answers. For example, most of us think it is true that killing people for fun is morally wrong; however, the very similar statement about abortion got a very different set of results.

And then there are the results for the fact - opinion status of 2+2=5, which contrast with those for 2+2=4.

What do you think? What definitions of the words fact, opinion, true and false are most useful here? Can something be both a fact and an opinion? Can a belief be both true and false? Can it be neither true nor false?

That I wrote two questions for each statement, suggests that I think the pairs of ideas in each are distinct. Do you agree? But is there nonetheless some connection between the two pairs: fact, opinion; and true, false?

As always, comments are welcome.

___________

Reference

Fact or opinion? True or false? (2015, December 10). [Survey results.] Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/a/auathailand.org/forms/d/1oobtPV8q1NoOivuHO2uatgRvveGkFBHmIn7iJNpLlws/viewanalytics 

Provisional proposition - Peter (3) - nurture persons first

Provisional proposition - Peter (3) - nurture persons first 

In the academic writing exercise that is part 5 of chapter 7 of Quest, "Medicine and Drugs: Addictive Substances," Pamela Hartmann asks us to answer one of the questions on pages 224 and 227 (2007).  

• I have chosen to answer the question:  
   What should be done about women who drink alcohol or take drugs when they are pregnant?  

________________________________________________

• My provisional proposition is: 
   Public health authorities should encourage women who are addicted to or have used significant amounts of drugs, especially alcohol, during early pregnancy to have an abortion. 

Briefly, I think this is one effective solution (there might be others) because:

• it is better for the continuing life of the mother
• it reduces the social problems of unmarried mothers
• it reduces crime and other social problems 
• it reduces children growing up in bad situations 
• it prevents a needlessly awful life being inflicted on a child 
• it saves the public money in ongoing health and other costs 
• although it kills a human being, it harms no person 

________________________________________________ 

___________

Reference

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

Provisional proposition - Union (wit is the best weapon.)

Provisional proposition - Union (wit is the best weapon.) 

In the academic writing exercise that is part 5 of chapter 7 of Quest, "Medicine and Drugs: Addictive Substances," Pamela Hartmann asks us to answer one of the questions on pages 224 and 227 (2007).  

• I have chosen to answer the question:  
   What can be done to persuade children not to begin taking illicit drugs?

________________________________________________

• My provisional proposition is: 
   We should provide the children with the information about the pros and cons of illicit drugs abuse as well as effect on their life.

Briefly, I think this is one effective solution (there might be others) because:

• Children's curiosity cannot be forbidden anymore because of the communication technology.
• Children may get the distorted or half truth story from the biased source.
• Children can access to the illicit drug sooner or later.
• Good, enough and well rounded informations they derive can lead to the better decision they make.

________________________________________________ 

___________

Reference

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

Provisional proposition - Tan ( As tormenting a person)

In the academic writing exercise that is part 5 of chapter 7 of Quest, "Medicine and Drugs: Addictive Substances," Pamela Hartmann asks us to answer one of the questions on pages 224 and 227 (2007).  

• I have chosen to answer the question:  
  What should be done about women who drink alcohol or take drugs when they are pregnant?

________________________________________________

• My provisional proposition is: 
  Pregnant women who have positive tests for drugs and alcohol should be arrested and prosecuted for tormenting babies. 

Briefly, I think this is one effective solution (there might be others) because:

• New born babies will be protected from the impact of drugs and alcohol.
• It will decrease the numbers of drug-abusing mothers.
• It will decrease the numbers of drug-affected babies.  
• The government will save money that could be spent for taking care of disable people who were harmed by the effects of drugs when they were fetuses.
• A fetus should be considered as a child, so a mother is responsible for its life.   

________________________________________________ 

___________

Reference

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

Provisional proposition - Na- Right of Non-smokers

Provisional proposition - Na (Right of Non-smokers) 

In the academic writing exercise that is part 5 of chapter 7 of Quest, "Medicine and Drugs: Addictive Substances," Pamela Hartmann asks us to answer one of the questions on pages 224 and 227 (2007).  

• I have chosen to answer the question:  
   Should the government be involved in the campaign to stop people from smoking? 

________________________________________________

• My provisional proposition is: 
  Non-smokers must be protected by the government. 

Briefly, I think this is one effective solution (there might be others) because:

• Smoking causes lung cancer and many other harmful diseases. There is a proven research that the 2nd hand smoker is heavily affected than the actual smokers. 
• It's a responsibility of the government to provide a harm free environment for non-smokers because they do not consciously making a harmful choice (smoking). 
• Part of the tax will be used to provide health care for the smokers which is not fair to the non-smokers which are more in numbers.    

________________________________________________ 

___________

Reference

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

Provisional proposition - Nori(to know drugs user experience is good for children? )

Provisional proposition - Nori(to know drugs user experience is good for children? ) 

In the academic writing exercise that is part 5 of chapter 7 of Quest, "Medicine and Drugs: Addictive Substances," Pamela Hartmann asks us to answer one of the questions on pages 224 and 227 (2007).  

• I have chosen to answer the question:  
   What can be done to persuade children not to begin illicit drugs? 

________________________________________________

• My provisional proposition is:  
  The government should  be had an opportunity to listen the experience of illicit drug user for children.     

Briefly, I think this is one effective solution (there might be others) because:

•  it can teach children about the fear of illicit drug as a one of real examples.
•  it is a good chance for children to think deeply about the fear of drugs.
•  children know  the end of  using drugs.  
•  after this opportunity, if children don't  begin illicit drugs, drugs user declese. .
• it is good chance for society to teach about illicit drugs with children and thier parents.

________________________________________________ 

___________

Reference

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

Provisional proposition - Ning (public service advertising for not smoking )

Provisional proposition - Ning (public service advertising for not smoking ) 

In the academic writing exercise that is part 5 of chapter 7 of Quest, "Medicine and Drugs: Addictive Substances," Pamela Hartmann asks us to answer one of the questions on pages 224 and 227 (2007).  

• I have chosen to answer the question:  What can be done to persuade children not begin smoking?
  
    _______________________________

• My provisional proposition is:  The government should make all kinds of public service advertising to prevent children from smoking.

Briefly, I think this is one effective solution (there might be others) because:

• It will make teenagers know exactly the dangers of smoking through all kinds of advertising on TV or on the wall in school: smoking can cause breath and mouth problems, increase the risk of cancer, waste money, pollute the health of others around you, reduce the sense of smell and taste, and so on.
•  Only the government has the power and money to make such public service advertising.
•  It will be good for both the health of new generation and the future of the country.
• It will help people pay attention to the healthy way of life.
• It will reduce the smoking rate and cancer rate as well as other illness caused by smoking.  
• It will encourage the parents to keep their children away from smoking.

_______________________________________________ 

___________

Reference

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

Provisional proposition - Toon (Be responsible for yourselves)

Provisional proposition - Toon (Be responsible for yourselves) 

In the academic writing exercise that is part 5 of chapter 7 of Quest, "Medicine and Drugs: Addictive Substances," Pamela Hartmann asks us to answer one of the questions on pages 224 and 227 (2007).  

• I have chosen to answer the question: 
   What is possible solution to the problem of alcoholism?

________________________________________________

• My provisional proposition is:
   The public health insurances and medical care services must not provide any benefits to treatments and medical cares due to chronic alcohols abuse.

Briefly, I think this is one effective solution (there might be others) because:

• It discourages prolonged alcohols consumption.
• It helps save government spending and reduce financial burden.  
• It stimulates personal health responsibility.
• Saved money can be used on alcoholism treatment programs.
• It is not inhumane.
• Social problems relating to alcoholism will decrease.

________________________________________________ 

___________

Reference

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

Provisional proposition - Peter (2) - more choices for all

Provisional proposition - Peter (2) 

In the academic writing exercise that is part 5 of chapter 7 of Quest, "Medicine and Drugs: Addictive Substances," Pamela Hartmann asks us to answer one of the questions on pages 224 and 227 (2007).  

• I have chosen to answer the question:  
   Should the government be involved in the campaign to stop people from smoking?  

________________________________________________

• My provisional proposition is: 
   Smoking may not be banned by law in restaurants and other privately owned property.  

Briefly, I think this is one effective solution (there might be others) because:

•   It respects owner's right to set conditions of entry to private property. 
• Acknowledges difference between public places and publicly property. 
• It allows smokers and non-smokers greater choice. 
• It does not impose any non-consensual risk on anyone. 
• It encourages personal responsibility for health and lifestyle. 
• Smoking bans are right for publicly owned property; therefore, right to equal access without health risk there is protected.  

________________________________________________ 

___________

Reference

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

Provisional proposition - Peter (1) - legalize all drugs

Provisional proposition - Peter (1) 

In the academic writing exercise that is part 5 of chapter 7 of Quest, "Medicine and Drugs: Addictive Substances," Pamela Hartmann asks us to answer one of the questions on pages 224 and 227 (2007).  

• I have chosen to answer the question:  
   What can be done about the problem of drug addiction? (p. 227) 

________________________________________________

• My provisional proposition is: 
   The sale and use of all illicit drugs should be legalized.  

Briefly, I think this is one effective solution (there might be others) because:

•   It will increase tax revenue. 
• It will save money on policing costs. 
• It will reduce corruption. 
• It will reduce drug related crime, especially violent crime. 
• Saved money can be used for education, rehabilitation and health care. 
• It will not increase drug use rates, and may in fact lower them. 
• It's also morally right - but this is not one of my supporting reasons, which are all solidly practical. 

________________________________________________ 

___________

Reference

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

Our drug addicted grandparents - how bad were they?

I noticed with my afternoon dose of caffeine that one of my FB friends had posted an amazing picture which fit so perfectly with our discussion this morning that I had to blog it. It's an advertisement for cough syrup from the 1930s - but look at those ingredients! If you sold or used it today, in most countries you would be in prison for years.

That prompted me to do a bit more research. A Google of the image search string "one night cough syrup heroin cannabis cocaine" turns up a wonderful collection of old time remedies that show how much our ancestors, at least my ancestors, loved their drugs.

The obvious question is: should our grandparents, who were the sellers and customers of these products, have been in prison? Were they raving drug addicts? Were the readily available hard drugs of addiction being sold in family corner stores and through news paper advertisements destroying society? Was all of this freely sold and used cocaine, heroin and other drugs destroying the young people of the 1930s and earlier?

Should the executives of the giant Bayer pharmaceutical company be in prison for the heroin that they used to sell along with aspirin?

___________

Reference

There is no reference citation for a Google or other search, but you can describe your method, which is what I did above.

A cat with enormous, long and curve teeth

If you had to choose between an ancient sabre-toothed tiger and a modern tiger, which one would you choose?

In “ Did our ancient ancestors ‘killthe cat’?”, BBC News (2015), Hellen Briggs tells us that the 300,000-year-old fossils of a sabre-toothed cat were found in Schöningen, north-central Germany, where early humans Homo Heidelbergensis also resided, indicating that Schöningen families may have to defend themselves from these giant cats with spears.

This article makes me think of my favorite cartoon animation Ice Age, in which one of the protagonists is a sabre-toothed tiger, who is a good friend of a sloth and a mammoth. This cartoon features a sabre-toothed tiger as a kind, funny guy which is, I think, the opposite of what real giant tigers were 300,000 years ago. Their enormous, long and curve teeth which were for ripping fresh meat could portray their vicious features.  

I have to admit that I did not know much about the history of a sabre-toothed tiger. But when I started to read this article, I decided that I had to do a little bit of research about this cat and our ancient cousins Homo Heidelbergensis who were the first of early humans to start to use wooden spears. I have to thank this article for helping me to educate myself. 

___________

Reference

Briggs H., (2015, December 2). Did our ancient ancestors ‘kill the cat’?. BBC News. Retrieved from

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34944560

China’s smog: “orange level” alert

For the fourth day in a row, large sections of northeast China are troubled in the smog. The sky is darkened and the invisibility is really low. In recent years, there will always be a period of time when the air is very bad in winter in the northeast big cities, especially in Beijing.

As the BBC News “Beijing pollution:schools keep children indoors” tells, schools in the Chinese capital city Beijing have been ordered to keep students indoors amid extremely high levels of air pollution.

people in Beijing wear a mask

Now PM2.5 is very popular among northern Chinese people. PM 2.5 is a measure of pollution, which refer to the concentrations of airborne particles smaller than 2.5 micrograms per cubic meter. The maximum limit WHO recommends is 25 micrograms per cubic meter. Now it can hit 900 micrograms, which means the air is really bad.

Coal is the major factor. It is used to support the factory production and some of the electricity system. What’s more the cold weather in November also increased the amount of coal burning, so the heating system is a major factor. A cold front or a wind, expected on Wednesday, should bring some relief.

Some factories are told to cut down the production and heavy duty tracks are not allowed in the central city. Many construction sites have stopped. The government has taken a lot of measures to change the environment and to reduce the pollution in the process of economic development. But it needs time to see the effects. Also, laws from central government are commonly ignored by lower officials, particularly when they might affect the economic growth. It is much easier to pollute than improve the environment, so more prevention measures should be taken before pollution occurs.

When I was living in Beijing, some of my friends and I try to go work by public transportation instead of driving a car. We think we should do our small part to help. Although environmental problem is quite hard and complex, it is not a thing that should be considered just by the prime minister.

To summary, as for environmental pollution solution, government policy comes first, especially the enforcement of policy. The smog comes as President Xi Jinping attends the opening of the UN Global Conference on Climate Change in Paris. We appeal to the government for environmental improvement. We are looking forward to see the efforts of the government and the effects.

___________

Reference

Beijing pollution: schools keep children indoors. (2015,December1st). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-34971642

AIDS to disappear, good for Thailand?

AIDS, caused by HIV virus, has been threatening people around the world for decades. If a person was diagnosed as HIV positive, his life would totally mean being ruined; however, it was true in 10 years ago. The terrifying image of the disease is altering to the otherwise as the treatment is becoming more feasible, but does Thailand, the land infamous for sex business, benefit from this?   

The Economist reports in the article “The latest report from UNAIDS shows great progress against the disease” that AIDS recently has faded away from the head due to continuously decrease in infection and mortality rate, yet it does not mean we are free from AIDS now or soon. UNAIDS announced officially plans combatting the disease that AIDS will reach level off and completely gone by 2020 and 2030 respectively; that is, we are closer to the end but still more work to do.

Apart from being well-known in beautiful beaches and rich cultural heritages, sex tourism is included if asking the about Thailand. Is Thailand meant to be so? Thais would say no. But we cannot argue that this business is so profitable that Thai officers are also irresistible to get involved, even though prostitution is against Thai laws as stated in Thai institution. And the consequence of this is not only human trafficking problem, but sexual transmitted diseases, too. AISD, no wonder, firmly inhabits in Thailand. For decades, Thai Health Ministry has vigorously and vigilantly been attempting to counteract the disease, which, however, seems to be in contrast to the present situation. Thailand, then, hosted the world AIDS conference several times. In the country, it is reported that the disease used to widely spread among the prostitute group and then shift to nightlife lovers, and not long ago did it highly find among LGBT group.

A typical scene found in nightlife areas in Thailand

As drugs and treatment develop, the rate of infection and mortality owing to AIDS fall. Then, people can become less worry about the disease. So will it be a good turn for the sex tourism in Thailand? I think it might not significantly affect this business sector. It is because people already aware of existence of the disease for a while and they are quite well-educated about how to avoid it. The development may cause a big change in somewhere else, certain countries in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, but not much in Thailand. The nightlife tourists probably get excited about the news, the number of tourists probably increasing initially, but it will remain stable afterwards. Not all people love to go for nightlife by their habit, so it does not actually stimulate the business by itself.

Anyways, the disappearance of the disease will be good news for everybody, but just do not too soon to say it: we still have plenty of other lethal diseases to handle.     

___________

Reference

The latest report from UNAIDS shows great progress against the disease. (2015, November 24). The  Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21679004-good-news-front-there-still-much-do-latest-report 

Too awful - happily, the source contradicts the BBC News paraphrase

I wasn't going to blog today, but when I got back this afternoon, I was browsing the BBC News and saw a new article that covered pretty much exactly the topics and ideas that we've been looking at in Quest for the past couple of weeks.

In "'I was disconnected from everyone,'" Ali Winters relates the personal stories of young women from different cultures to support the research findings that suicide, now the (third? - Winters appears to make the two contradictory statements) most common cause of death for women aged 10 to 19, is closely associated with depression and is even higher in cultures where there remains a stigma attached to having psychological disorders and also in cultures where social norms and economic problems are more likely to put women and youth from minority groups at greater risk of killing themselves (2015).

So much for Winters' news story. But as I was reading, I realised that it was even more relevant to what we talked about in class this morning: the use of sources. As I read, I was thinking that the figures Winters cited from her sources, the generally respected World Health Organization and excellent academic journals, were depressing. Then they became incredible. When I say "incredible," I mean literally unbelievable. I was horrified to hear that "one in five girls in the country aged between 16 and 17 were suffering from a major depressive disorder, one in six had self-harmed and one in 20 had attempted suicide" (Winters, 2015), but the source for these figures was self-reporting on a survey, so we might reasonably suspect that 20% of Australian girls do not in fact attempt suicide as reported. People's self-reporting of their motives and behaviours on surveys is not a reliable way to find out either what they do or what actually motivates them: behavioural economists and I suspect Facebook are much better at getting to the truth of such matters. 5% of young women in my country might attempt suicide, but I would want to see some more solid evidence before I believed this claim. It's just too high.

If it was hard to believe the numbers of suicidal young Aussie women that Winters reported, her numbers for young men and women in India were completely ridiculous. Winters writes that "A total of 60% of women and 40% of men between the age of 15 and 29 commit or attempt suicide, according to a 2012 study published in The Lancet" (2015). I decided to quote her here because you need to see that she really did say that - it's not a wrong paraphrase by me.

At this point I was starting to have serious doubts about Winters' ability to read and write English, or to think critically - surely she can't believe what she wrote?  I read and reread the paragraph she had written very carefully in case I had some how misunderstood, but it's very clear. Winters apparently thinks that India is littered with the bodies of dead youth.

The Lancet is one of the world's most prestigious medical journals, so the next thing I did was check Winters' source. As the abstract for the article very clearly says, the number of suicides in India is indeed high: a total of 3% of deaths in India for those over age 15 are due to suicide, giving a number of 26.3 per 100,000 people for men and 17.5 for women (Patel et al. 2012). This is nowhere near the amazing figures of 60% and 40% that Winters writes. Her mistake, I think, is to have been confused by two other statistics in the Lancet article: 40% of suicide deaths (not all deaths, and certainly not all people) for men and 56% of deaths by suicide in women occur between the ages of 15 and 29 years. These figures and sound very believable, and I trust The Lancet, which is a rigorously peer reviewed academic journal.

It was, I thought, such a timely lesson on the importance of the careful use of sources and the need to check everything, especially when it is surprising, that I decided to blog it. Winters' mistake both in reading her source and then failing to understand it before she paraphrased is amazing: I had to go back and read her sentence several times to make sure it really did say what I thought it said. It does. it still does. I'm sure you will all do much better paraphrasing Kasschau this evening.

But Winters' errors are so obvious I wonder how they could have passed the BBC News sub-editors before going on line. Surely anyone who read it must have reacted the same way I did? Maybe they will correct the mistakes. The New York Times often revises articles to correct small mistakes, which are certainly easy to make, as you will have noticed in my writing. Naturally, when a correction is made, quality publications note when and what was revised. In case they do correct it, I made a screen shot of the BBC story at around 2:00 PM as evidence for my quotations above. My quotation is from the second last paragraph in the screen shot.

___________

Reference

Patel, V., Ramasundarahettige, C., Vijayakumar, L., Thakur, J. S., Gajalakshmi, V., Gururaj, G., ... Jha, P. (2012). Suicide mortality in India: a nationally representative survey [Abstract]. The Lancet, 379(9834), 2343-2351. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60606-0 (This reference citation follows the format on the OWL at Purdue website we looked at before. It's an online journal articles with a DOI.)

Winters, A. (2015, November 30). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34944454 

Marching Employee

Isn’t it great if there is someone hire you to walk with digital money that can exchanged into reality world money. You can get the better health and the city is also more green. All of these start with your own feet.

According to the BBC, another new business platform has born in digital world again the Bitwalking app pay more when you take more steps with the device, smartphone you already have or the new device (developing wristband providing from Murata—a Japanese electronics manufacturer). 

The Bitwalking app shows the steps taken and how much the user has earned.

I have heard about the digital money before; some are fake, but some are more famous and credible like bitcoin. But for this one, I really cannot imagine how this can actually happen. Isn’t it like a new platform for business like Facebook? Isn’t selling the privacy of the poor citizens?

The source say they will not disturbing your privacy so much. "We may explore offering advertisers the opportunity to focus on different groups depending on how active they are, but we won't pass on any information relating to individual's movements.” The news said it can sell some of their privacy information but not the local identification.

I don’t know exactly is it a good news or bad news, but as a citizen of modern world, we should know and aware about our own rights and benefit very carefully. In a world of change, there must be a winner and loser, because the win-win situation cannot be made in every time and place.

___________

Reference

Simmons, D. (2015, November 21) Bitwalking dollars: Digital currency pays people to walk. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-34872563 

Old memory

 Starting from around 12 years old, I went to see Taechew Opera with my parents at temple fairs. I fell in love with the acting, the music, the vocal acrobatics, the costume, hair and makeup even though I didn’t understand the operatic singings. Today I still watch old Taechew Opera from Youtube that are played by famous actors.

Right now, according to BBC’s article The youths out to save Hong Kong's unique opera, Cantonese Opera in Hong Kong is being performed by young people, with the support of Academy of Performing Arts. They have to learn to act and sing as certain character because main male character is always performed by female, but they are facing issues of decreasing audience.

These operas audiences are normally limited to old people who understand the mood of the performance because the language isn’t commonly used. Also, the audience has to know the meaning behind the body language in order to understand what the actors are expressin. In addition, each character’s costume, color and make up tell us who they are and whether they are good or bad.

Today Taechew Opera in Thailand is rarely performed by Chinese but mainly by Thai people from the Northeast. Even though these Thai people don’t know the Chinese language, they learn to sing, to act, to dress, to do make up by being with the theatre. If you would like to see Taechew Opera, you can only see at the Chinese temples. There is no longer a theatre for these Opera anymore.
___________Reference

The youths out to save Hong Kong's unique opera. (27, November, 2015). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-33784720

Perfect timing - accident, destiny or psychic influence?

Early afternoon coffee and croissants, and this was today's Dilbert cartoon (Adams, 2015). I think it's relevant to at least a couple of issues raised in recent blog posts, and it also usefully leads towards our next reading, which is not a novel.

Dilbert, Friday, November 27, 2015. Robot Must Reproduce.

From the link, you can also click back to earlier cartoons in this story.

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Reference

Adams, S. (2015, November 27). Robot Must Reproduce. [Cartoon]. Retrieved from http://dilbert.com/strip/2015-11-27

Should Lennie be in prison? Part II

A few days ago in "Should Lennie be in prison?" my response to the BBC News story about the most effective way to respond to paedophiles also asked a question about Lennie based on what we learn in chapters 1 through 3, where Slim's questions to George give us a lot more detail than Steinbeck's very general background in chapter 1.

As you read chapter 5 of Of Mice and Men, it begins with the story of how Lennie has killed his beloved puppy. This death is soon followed by a more serious killing, and the awful climax to the story at the end of chapter 6. As the novel concludes, both George and Lennie have killed people.

The question I asked before is plainly on George's mind when he becomes a murderer, and it now applies equally to George himself.
What do you think?

• Should Lennie be in prison for murder? 
• Should George be in prison for murder? 

___________

Reference

Steinbeck, J. (2015). Of Mice and Men (Online edition prepared for AEP classes at AUA). Bangkok. Retrieved from https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=5B4B50DD6DBCD1F2!7927&authkey=!AOTdR2q-aSLKLfg&ithint=file%2cdocx (Originally published 1937).

Should Lennie be in prison?

As a couple of your thesis statements suggest, Lennie is a threat to women in pretty dresses; he has already abused one woman, so shouldn't he be in prison for his attack on her?

In "Are paedophiles' brains wired differently?" the BBC News reports on the ongoing controversy as to whether paedophiles who abuse children do so because the structure of their brains gives them no choice, or whether they do have control of their sexual urges (2015). Some of the experts the report cites suggest that it would help children more if paedophiles were helped in advance rather than merely being punished after abusing a child.

The similarities with Lennie's psychological abnormality were what initially interested me in this article, although it also reminded me of a recent blog post here in which the author suggested that how children turn out, good or bad, was due largely to the parenting and home environment (Na, 2015). I thought that other factors, such as the genetic and first trimester in utero environment were far more likely to determine what sort of person a child became as they grew to adulthood. The article on paedophilia suggests the same: it's what happens before a child is even born that largely determines not only intelligence, but also personality, along with eye colour, and ear shape; what parents might do or not do after birth is much less influential. And I suspect that a child's friends are also more significant than parents. I do think parents are important and can exert considerable influence, but I also think that that parental influence is sometimes greatly overrated, more so than the evidence supports.

But the real question that I think the sort of facts reported in the BBC News article, and that Steinbeck establishes about Lennie in chapter 1 of Of Mice and Men,  is how we should respond to such horrifying crimes as child sexual abuse. In the past, many countries' legal systems saw passion as a mitigating factor for even murder: if a man came home and found his wife in bed with his best friend, he would likely receive a reduced, or no, prison sentence for the subsequent murder of both his unfaithful wife and cuckolding best friend on the grounds that the extreme passion affected his mind so that he had no control over his murderous actions. I believe that lawyers for the defence still mount such arguments to help their clients, who admit having killed, be nonetheless found not guilty of murder. We don't know exactly what Lennie did to the woman in Weed,  but it sounds as though it was enough to constitute assault according to the law, so should Lennie have been arrested and thrown into prison? And if a paedophile's brain is so structured that he cannot help but sexually abuse his brother's daughter (as the article points out, child abuse is most often committed by family members or trusted family friends), should be be thrown into prison?

George plainly thinks Lennie should not be prison. Do we agree with him? And if so, can we rationally think otherwise about a paedophile who has been made what he is by nature just as Lennie has been made what he is?

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Reference

Are paedophiles' brains wired differently? (2015, November 24). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-34858350

Turning mosquitoes harmless

In a few years, if all kinds of mosquitoes become harmless owing to the advances of medical science, and they transform into only annoying insects that love to suck your blood without passing any diseases on to you, the world will be a nicer place to live.

According to the BBC News article “Mutant mosquitoes'resist malaria',” Michelle Roberts tells us that the DNA of the mosquitoes Anopheles Stephensi was modified in order to breed offspring which is resistant to malaria. It is a promising method: if it works in the field, malaria could be stopped spreading to humans.

I am really scared of deadly diseases carried by mosquitoes: malaria and dengue fever. These infectious diseases are extremely dangerous, and many people are infected by them every year. At night, if I can hear these blood-sucking insects buzzing around my head, I am really concerned that they might be carrying those diseases. This makes me sleepless, unless I can eliminate them. It sounds like I am a terrible murderer, but I do not want to stay in the hospital for weeks.

When I read this article, I thought about a recent story in the news about a Thai actor who got dengue fever and his condition was very serious: he stopped breathing for a few seconds and had to have one of his feet cut off in order to prevent the infection passing through his body. I have heard of pe

ople who I know got this disease but their conditions were not as serious as his.

I hope that this method of genetic modification in mosquitoes will work well in the field and it can be done in other types of mosquitoes. Then all infectious, dangerous diseases would be wiped out, so that we would not have to be worried about them anymore.

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Reference

Roberts, M. (2015, November 24),BBC News.Mutant mosquitoes ‘resist malaria’. 

Retrieved from

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-34898931

Eating less meat is better for us?

Have you ever thought there is a connection between diet and climate change? Does meat consumption influence global warming?

According to a BBC News, “Can eating less meat help reduce climate change?”, our appetite for meet is a major driver of climate change and global meat consumption has already reached unhealthy levels.

I think public awareness of the link between diet and climate is very low. According to a new Chatham House report “Changing Climate, Changing diets: pathways to Lower Meat Consumption”, eating too much meat really has a strong influence on the global warming. I think both of the articles try to send us a massage: globally we should eat less meat.

We know that processed meat, including bacon, sausages, hot dogs, salami and beef jerky as well as canned and meat-based sauces, are very likely to cause cancer. The World Health Organization (WHO) is very sure about this. Some specialist has proved that red meats are also “probably carcinogenic” but there is limited evidence. So should we avoid eating meat to keep health and to slower global warming?

Personally speaking, I think we should cut down rather than give up red and processed meats. Avoiding meat is not an appropriate strategy against cancer and the focus should be alcohol, smoking and body weight. It is better to avoid processed meat and eat less red meet. Meat can provide us much protein, B vitamin, mineral, as well as other nutrition. We should always eats some meat for healthy benefits. Eating some lean meat, like beef, chicken, rather than fat, is a good choice both for body shape and healthy diet. We should also eat more fruits and vegetables to take in enough fiber. Exercise is essential to keep us physically active though out life.

So what’s your opinion? Would you like to make any change about your diet habits?

Reference

Laura w., (November 24, 2015). Can eating less meat help reduce climate change? BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34899066