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.     

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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.

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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.

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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? 

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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

go out or stay home ?

Recently we pay attention about cautions to terrorism, especially ISIS which caused terrorism in France.

According to the article, The State Department says travel alerts “American citizens should pay attention when in public places or using transportations, be aware of immediate surroundings and avoid large crowds or crowded places, especially during the holiday season and at holiday festivals or events.”

I feel this is quite serious travel alerts. There are many events in this season, for example, the Christmas, New Year. People are looking forward to enjoying this winter holidays. Many people crowded many places for celebrating each other.

If they avoid large crowds or crowded, this season’s holidays are very weird. But people crowd famous places, at that time, when terrorism happen, this area is very terrible and cruel.

If possible, give us winter breaks, terrorist ISIS , we need a break.

 What do you think about this alert?

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Reference

US issues travel warning in wake of terror attacks (23, November, 2015) the Washington post 

Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/us-issues-travel-warning-in-wake-of-terror-attacks/2015/11/23/fd5803f6-9240-11e5-befa-99ceebcbb272_story.html

Smartwatch for what?

Nowadays, Technology has changed all the time and many people try to follow it. Last year, many technology brands try to laugh a new product of smartwatch and they claim that product will make our lives better.

According to "What you need to know before buying a smartwatch", Washington Post, some people prefer give smartwatch as a gift or others want to have their own of this gadget because of the advertisement that shows about how smartwatch is useful. There are several reasons to get it or not such as for your looked, useful for your life or it does not make your life better, so depending on your opinion to decide to have it or not.

For me, this gadget is not useful for me now because of my experience, I used to see people who have smartwatch and they command it by using English such as asking about route, weather and their routine that why I do not decide to get smartwatch now but in the future, if my speaking skill has improved, I will get my own one.

Smartwatch are advertised that it can notice you about everything which comes in your smartphone but depending on each brand, model and price. If it is high price and be a top model of that brand, it maybe tell you many things or more than that you want to know.

What do you think about smartwatch? it is useful or has advantages to get it your own.

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Reference

Tsukayama, H. (2015, November 20). What you need to know before buying a smartwatch. Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/11/18/what-you-need-to-know-before-buying-a-smartwatch

Placing an importance on raising a child.

Decades ago, a husband had no chance to participate in raising his new born baby because the society did not place an importance on this matter. During the first couple of months after the baby was born, it was the most hectic and confusing part of the new mother even though they might already have a baby before. In contrast, now the father is more conscious about the difficulty his wife is facing and placing more importance in being a part of his baby first couple of months.

Facebook owner: Mark Zuckerberg is a prime example of a husband who is willing to be a part of newborn baby life and to face the trauma his wife will be facing as he announced his 2 months paternity leave to the world according to BBC's article Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to take two months of paternity leave. Facebook also supports their US employees to take a paid parental leave up to 4 months.

It would be great if this policy can be applied to all their employees, not just the US . However, this might be the starter for other big companies which do not give a precedence to raising a baby. A baby that is raised in a good environment will unlikely turn out bad. 

Today we will see problematic children who grew up without direction. Being a parent is not easy. It is a huge responsibility. Not only giving a birth, but also it comes with a duty of being a guide in their lives.
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Reference

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg to take two months of paternity leave. (21, November 2015). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34889535.

Open up: Finding the new possibility for the old shops in urban

Have you find your favorite shop disappeared and replaced with the new shop or condominium? Do you find the local food shop harder and can’t help heading to the convenience store to pick up the frozen dish for your dinner? Today we will talk about the local business from the picture of their storefronts.

Caputo’s Bake Shop Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn (2009). Photograph: SupplJames and Karla Murrayied

According to “Closing down: the couple chronicling New York's disappearing storefronts

”, the photographers James and Karla Murray keep on a project in order to catalogue New York’s most compelling storefronts which reflect the atmosphere of small business survival in the specific time. There might be some tragedy that is the disappearance of retail store as a result of the real estate development or discontinuation of the next generation because of the hardship running the business; in contrast, the trends can also be beneficial to the old business from the nostalgic or vintage trend popularity which lead the new charming to the newer or younger customers.

the newer chicken rice shop named "Mongkol Wattana"

Last month, My favorite chicken rice shop named “Mongkol Wattana” had been took over by the relatives and moved to the new place but not far away, because the owner aged around 60 y.o. wanted to retire and their children didn't want to took over their business. I’ve already tasted the new one, and the taste don’t seem to gone wrong; even though, I still miss the older shop’s taste of chicken soup. In short, I satisfy with the new one because of more amount at the same price with few noticeable change of taste. It can be replaced but we will miss the old one. 

At the same time, there also have many new business here too. The latest business is co-working space which quite surprise me too see such a trendy business in very old atmosphere like here, while we always see them in the hip area like Thong-lor or Sukhumvit. That might lead to draw newer pedestrian and more traffic to this very area.

The location of my vicinity is quite different from the time when I was young. I think this phenomenon is common around urban area in Bangkok. More modern trade, less local shop. Let me give you an obvious example, Sam-yan market. There were many shop houses and traditional market, most of the owner is Chinese Thai people. Some of them like Sam-yan steak shop community move to the newer Sam-yan market that is not far, but some shop like Joke Sam-yan (congee shop) move to Bang-Na, the south border area of Bangkok. Now the same popular market place turn to emptiness because of the estate development project of the landlord let the land abandoned under transition process not intervened from the law like developed country that prohibit and fine the owner of the abandoned land. Thai laws always convey the justice for the rich rather than the small persons.

The modern trade is also expanding more and make the small business became harder to survive. Many Chow-huay shop houses (groceries) turn to franchised convenient stores, so the giant corporate became bigger and bigger and the Jack is weaker and weaker. Anyway, business is like this. The winner takes all. But someday 7-11 storefronts picture may become history too, if they cannot adjust to the new customer’s behavior or cannot afford the rent to operate them. I’m quite excited about the newer retail shop in Bangkok and can’t wait to see.

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Reference

Moroz, S. (2015, November 19). Closing down: the couple chronicling New York's disappearing storefronts. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/nov/19/closing-down-chronicling-new-york-disappearing-stores 

Why study?

Social gap causes privileges, and the privileges even make the gap broader; while, scarcity of privileges makes the privileges privileged. Access to higher education is one of the privileges, in some society, which only the minority is financially capable of reaching it. In Britain the rate of access to education is contradictory to the increasing tuition fees.

The Economist publishes the article “Why tuition fees haven't held back poor students” that: in  2010, the policy of raising the tuition fee cap brought up the demonstration against and the protest was in line with the critics claiming it merely hindered the access of education for the poor students. They, however, went wrong; it turned out the otherwise: in 2014 the young form poor families went to colleges more than ever before because of the generous term, the study-first-pay-later program.

I used to contemplate about the significance of degree and diploma and it seems perplexing to me. In the past, maybe about 20-30 years ago, a bachelor degree graduation considered a privilege, requiring either money or intelligence, or both to accomplish it. When the time went by, it became more accessible thereby diminishing in value. Then, master degree comes. MBA, for example, has been mentioned more than ever yet. Not so long will the same pattern be repeated and I confidently presume that the next is PhD. My question is what about after that. I come up with two possible situations: first, the degree will be no more in concern for judging working performance, instead, pure experience is regarded. And, the second is the novel higher level of degree will be coined-to keep up with the growth of demand. By any ways, it implies a lot of hard work awaiting and requiring in order to survive in the future society.    

The problem of increasing societal requirements asserts me a hardship of human being’s life. A lot of philosophical questions follow- and answers quite contradict to one another after an attempt to answer. It might be because of my view not broader enough to comprehend them well.

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Reference

Why tuition fees haven't held back poor students. (2015, November 16). The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/11/economist-explains-9

Psychological disorders and social stigma. Quest 2, p. 176, x.C., 4 - 5

Rather than do Hartmann's discussion questions on page 176 (2007) of Quest, we are going to do them as response writing activities.

Now, questions 4 - 5, which we are also treating as one response writing prompt:

• Do you know of any famous people who suffered from a psychological disorder? If so, who were they? Do you know what disorder they had? 
• Do you think that there are fewer stignas against people with psychological disorders than in the past? Among whom? Why?  

Respond to these prompts in one comment below. 

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Reference

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

Fears, normal and phobic. Quest 2, p. 176, x.C., 1 - 3.

Rather than do Hartmann's discussion questions on page 176 (2007) of Quest, we are going to do them as response writing activities.

First, questions 1 - 3, which we are treating as one response writing prompt:

• In your opinion, how is a phobia different from a normal fear. What might be some "healthy fears"? 
• What are you afraid of? (High places? Crowds? Snakes? etc.) Can you think of when you first had this fear? How do you deal with this fear? 
• Do you know anyone who is phobic? How does this phobia affect her or his life? 

Respond to these prompts in one comment below. 

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Reference

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

The addictive drug recommended for blogging

As you know, I usually blog with my morning and afternoon coffees. I already knew this popular drug of addiction was healthier than things like green tea, and this morning I came across further confirmation.

According to Nicholas Bakalar writing in "Coffee Tied to Lower Risk of Dying Prematurely," a large study has shown that although the benefits do not exist for cigarette smokers, regularly drinking more than one cup of coffee a day significantly reduces the risk of death from heart and other diseases (2015).

When I was growing up, parents, including mine, were sure that tea was OK for kids, but that coffee was harmful. Over the last few decades, the evidence has mounted that this popular believe was wrong. In fact, if you want to get your kids hooked on a drug, coffee is probably the better choice.

Of course, there are problems with being addicted: if I don't get my daily hit of the drug, I start getting a headache which increases in intensity until I get some coffee into my system. I guess I've been dependent on coffee for about four decades now - I started drinking it in high school, and that only increased during my university days.

Happily, coffee is the only drug I'm addicted to, and the benefits greatly outweigh the minor inconvenience of physical dependence. There are much worse drugs to be addicted to, but perhaps the people who use those drugs also think that the benefits outweigh the problems. I'm not sure I agree, In the case of alcohol, the harms done to the drug user and others seem to me to make this a particularly harmful drug for society, much worse than many illegal drugs, which suggests that drugs laws are at least irrational, and likely also unjust.

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Reference

Bakalar, N. (2015, November 18). Coffee Tied to Lower Risk of Dying Prematurely. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/11/18/coffee-tied-to-lower-risk-of-dying/

Do you like frogs?

When we were young, we all loved the fairy tale The Frog Prince. But do you know that the populations of these amphibians have dramatically declined as a result of a devastating disease?

Researchers have found new means to tackle a deadly disease, caused by amphibian-associated chytrid fungi, which has reduced a huge number of amphibian populations worldwide, according to the BBC News article “Lethalamphibian disease killed off on island” (2015).

My family lives in a rural area in the south of Thailand. After rains, we saw a lot of tadpoles swimming in swamps. I used to collect them in a bowl and enjoy watching them grow up. Some of them grew two front legs before others and it did not take long for their tails to start to get shorter. I also enjoyed playing with little frogs, putting them in a bottle filled with water, but I do not think that they enjoyed playing with me. Now I think of them as poor little guys.   

I can recognize that the number of frogs has sharply deceased as the years have passed. Now when I go back home, I can only see a few of those frogs. My neighborhood has changed a lot: many families have moved in and many houses have been built. Another reason that I think might cause the number of frogs to decline is pesticides, which are used widely on farms. Even though frogs are not pests, they were also eliminated by these chemicals. It is quite a sad story.  

I like watching documentaries about amphibians, especially frogs and toads. I am fascinated by them, because they come in various sizes and colors and can live in different climates. In each area they even have unique characteristics which always surprise me. I have heard of one species of toad living in the mountains in South America, which has a peculiar strategy to escape predators. Instead of hopping to flee from them like most other toads, they simply roll down steep slopes. Because these toads have never evolved their ability to hop far, when a predator comes very near, they will make their bodies become rigid and fall below.

I know some people are afraid of frogs, maybe because they have slimy and wet skin, yet I think they are lovely. Do not think about their skin; just look at their cute little faces. The way they jump is also funny. 

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Reference

Lethal amphibian disease killed off on island. (2015, November 18). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-34850807   

Is your thinking?

Today,I cannot look for any stars in Bangkok thus I have to shelve the Alien or some story about stars. However, I find some information that interests me.I have a question before we focus on the detail.It is good or bad if someone can control you do something by mysterious science (like a psychology)?

According to "Software better than humans at guessing how you feel from speech" (2015) Anna Nowogrodzki reported the graduated student of  University of Rochester developed the software that can identify the emotion of speaker from their speech.The propose of the software is for understanding the effects of emotion in parent-child interactions however,The experimental result showed this software wasn't perfect.

I really interest in the supernatural or thing that cannot prove by Scientific method such as ghost, alien, or something like that. After I read this report I think of people who can read someone's mind
 
Around 10 years ago, Thailand has a man who can control people do something by science called Mayajid-a kind of Parapsychology.His name is Win Eiam-ong. He said this science is not same as magic because he use speech and action or every thing that he can for control people do the things that he want. For example, He ask a man to choose pictures and cards and he know and write the answer before the man choose.

In addition,Win can do other things such as bend a spoon by two finagles, lift a thing by mental power, and forecast future. Do you thing have people do the thing that I mention (like win do)? It is real?
         
Now I have to practice badminton for attention a competition. Then I think I will enjoy with video clip about him.  

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Reference

Nowogrodzki, A. (2015, November 13) Software better than humans at guessing how you feel from speech. new scientist. Retrieved from https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28490-software-better-than-humans-at-guessing-how-you-feel-from-speech/

Islam joins the Aussie party fray

How easy is it start a new political party in your country? In Australia, it is very easy; as well as the ugly, racist Love Australia or Leave Party, there is also the successful Motoring Enthusiast Party putting up candidates for us to vote for in federal elections.

In the BBC News article "Australian Muslim Party's tough road to representation," Jon Donnison tells us that, despite the timing following the ISIS attack on Paris, Australia's 60 plus federal political parties have now been joined by the Australian Muslim Party, which hopes to improve the under-representation in politics of the Muslim population of Australia, although their likeliest chance of election is to the Australian senate (2015).

Australian Muslim Party
founder Diaa Mohamed 

I agree with the man behind this move that it's more important than ever for the voice of Australian Muslims to be heard, especially when they can present a more morally decent version of Islam than the terrorist variety. I do think that the religion, like many religions, is to blame for teaching violence, hatred and intolerance, just like Judaism and Christianity do, but good people have a choice and do not have to follow the morally bad teachings of their religion. Unlike in the past, most Christians today are decent people, perhaps because healthy democracies do not allow religions the power they once had to commit evil, when popes and other religious leaders led crusades to kill the followers of other faiths, when sincere believers had laws made up to punish with prison, torture and execution by law people who thought and spoke different opinions on religious matters, and so on. Religion is often a bad thing, but a healthy constitution must not ban it: we should, as the US does very well, and Australia, allow freedom of religious belief, but a good constitution will never allow the government to support any religion.

After the bombing of Paris by religiously inspired terrorists, I saw a lot of comments on the internet blaming all Muslims and saying immigration should be stopped. This is wrong. It is true that Islam, like other religions, can be a terrorist inspiration, but not all Muslims are terrorists. Most are decent people who want to live in peace, to follow their religion in a mild and peaceful way, and live productive lives that help society. In particular, immigrants desperate to escape the holy states of ISIS and the like are people in great need and we should not treat them more harshly because they share a religion that some people use as a political weapon - that would be like saying all Buddhists are bad because monks in Myanmar use Buddhism as a political weapon against the abused Rohingya minority, or because some Thai Buddhist monks use Buddhism as a political weapon to oppose some groups of Thai citizens.

In my reply to a comment by Union earlier this morning, I also commented briefly on the security issues, specifically official access to encrypted personal information online, raised by the Paris attacks, and before I'd finished my morning coffee, I came across a great article on that in the New York Times, but that blog post can wait until tomorrow, or maybe later this evening, or maybe for eternity.

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Reference

Donnison, J. (2015, November 17), Australian Muslim Party's tough road to representation. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-34840780