Do you think dressing modestly is a good way to reduce crimes against women, especially rape?

Source background

From India minister tells foreign tourists: 'Don't wear skirts', Mahesh Sharma, the minister of culture in India, made the headlines when he was giving the interview about a list of dos and don'ts, which the government provided to foreigners as a part of their welcome kits at the the airport. One of the tips for female tourists is do not wear a skirt and go out alone at night alone in the small town while you are in India.

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Do you think dressing modestly is a good way to reduce crimes against women, especially rape?

My answer is:
No, it's ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with clothing. 

Support

It's really annoy me when I see something like this. It's always depressing to see the news regarding gender-based attacks such as trafficking, domestic violence and rape but this kind of attitude is even worse. This is not the first time I heard about this though. It's also not the first time for this politician to hit the nation's headline with his brilliant idea. Last year, this person publicly criticize westernization as an ill of india society, saying that a girl's night out was not the part of indian culture. Without realizing it, the current version of the nation's traditional costume, Sari, was actually influenced by the British culture in Victorian era. In the past, Indian women used to wear minimal clothing. According to the article Dressing the Indian woman through history, woman in some part of the country such as Bengal did not even cover their breasts with clothing. They started to change later so that it suited with the Victorian society (2014).

Talking about the crime, one of the classic reasons I always heard from the arrested rapists is the way she behaves or the way she dresses is like she was "asking for it". And that provoked them. By hearing this I come up with a question like.. can we punch someone real hard in the face just because their stupidities provoke us? Of course not. Surely we are going to be charged with physical assault for doing so. I think those kind of people might have some kind of mental illness, something like a logical disorder. And it made me wonder what kind of society they have been growing up with. I mean it, seriously. I heard that there was a study of this some malfunction in their brain which may effect them on how they think. More importantly, the society plays a very vital role in crafting one's personality and how they perceive things. The law enforcement would help minimize the crime rate, but the idea is epidemic. It has long-lasting effect.

Referring to the international rape scale above, do you see anything unusual? Most of the red zone are countries that women are required to wear modest dress code, e.g., India, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and so on. So does clothing really associated with sexual violence?  What do you think?

___________

Reference

India minister tells foreign tourists: 'Don't wear skirts'. (August 29, 2016). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-37212219

Dressing the Indian woman through history.(December 6, 2014). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30330693

Do you agree with the US Constitution's strong free speech protection?

NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick

Source background
The BBC News article "Colin Kaepernick protest: Trump tells NFL player to quit US" (2016) reports on the continuing controversy surrounding the decision of NFL player Colin Kaepernick to refuse to stand as demanded by the US tradition that shows respect to the flag and nation at the start of every football games. According to the article, there are supporters and critics of the player's expression of his opinion about racial problems in the US, both among the general public and Kaepernick's NFL colleagues, with the latest outrage coming from US Republican presidential nomiee Donald Trump, who has said that "it's a terrible thing, and you know, maybe he should find a country that works better for him."

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Do you agree with the US Constitution's strong free speech protection?

My answer is:
Yes, absolutely. 

As I was enjoying my morning drug dose, this story caught my eye as a useful example of some points that are important to academic work that connect with the survey did last week on facts, opinion, true and false, and with the subsequent discussion on Friday. First, I can understand that Kaepernick's action is deeply offensive to many Americans. I can also understand why Aristotle, who was certainly a highly intelligent person and factually well-informed, would think that the Earth was at the centre of the universe, and that everything literally revolved around us. Aristotle's evidence and reasoning also make it understandable and reasonable that every educated person in the Western world would think the same for then next 2,000 years. But Aristotle and his followers were all wrong in their beliefs about material universe.

I can also understand why most human beings across the history of human cultures have thought that slavery was morally OK, being natural and even ordained by god or their preferred religion. That many, perhaps a majority, of Americans still held such a belief at that time was at least a contributing factor to the bloody American Civil War that raged from 1861 to 1865. But these pro-slavery groups were all wrong in their moral beliefs. As we often see, majority opinion, however understandable and seemingly reasonable, is not a reliable to right or wrong, whether in science or on ethics.

Some American Christians expressing
their hateful opinions

If you care for honestly seeking truth on any topic, then free speech is a necessary condition, which is why academics have tenure at universities, and which is why universities are places where long cherished beliefs might be tested against opposing ideas. In an academic context, we are free to hold and express any opinion we like, but are also expected to support that opinion. Where opinions cannot be stated and supported, there cannot be knowledge, there cannot be informed opinion of worth. This is why Donald Trump is wrong and the US Constitution is right. This is why people in my country who want to make it illegal to burn the Australian flag are wrong. We might not like the disrespectful actions of people like Kaepernick; even more so, we should be deeply offended by the vile speech of the American Christian group the Westboro Baptist Church, who protest against the dead at the funerals of US soldiers killed serving their country, but the First Amendment to the US Constitution is right to give strong legal protection to such disgusting expressions of opinion. Such legal protection of free speech is not only a necessary condition for informed opinion of worth, so important to academic work, but is also required by democratic principle.

Obama is right to disagree with Trump, saying that the White House "disagreed with Mr Kaepernick's protest but that he had a right to express his views" ("Colin Kaepernick Protest," 2016).

___________

Reference

Colin Kaepernick protest: Trump tells NFL player to quit US. (2016, August 31). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-37223377

Comparing works of art. Quest 2, p. 90 - 91. 2016, term 5

These are the works of art on pages 90 - 91 of Quest 2 (Hartmann, 2007).

The Lamentation,
by Master of the Codex of Saint George, c. 1340 - 45.
Also see TheMet entry and WikiMedia entry.

The Death of General Wolfe, by Benjamin West, 1770.
Also see WikiArt entry.

Cooling Off by the Riverbank,
by Kitagawa Utamaro, late 18th century.
Also see mfa Boston entry1 and entry2

In the Omnibus, by Mary Cassatt, 1891.
Also see WikiArt  entry1 and entry2

__________

Reference

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

Can we predict the future ?

Source background
In "Death toll at 241 as search for Italy's earthquake survivors continues – live" Both Matthew Weaver and Paul Farrell are reporting in real time what is happening right now. Now, 241 people killed and 264 injured from the 6.2 magnitude earthquake (the latest update on 9:43 PM at 25/08/16).

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Can we predict the future?

My answer is:
No, and never.

"The fluttering of a butterfly’s wing in Rio de Janeiro, amplified by atmospheric currents, could cause a tornado in Texas two weeks later." - Edward Lorenz

Welcome to the 21th century, where or knowledge in mathematics, physics and computer is at the maximum level. Now, we can create a robot that can win human in Go. With this advance in such a technology field how come we could not predict the natural disaster. If we can get all the information of particles in the universe, we also know how these things interact and we can create the simulation. This is what Laplace's demon in the book A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities written by Pierre Simon Laplace- the great mathematician-suggests.

First, I am going to play devil's advocate to show how the argument work? I will introduce you on of the most awesome library in the world. "The Library of Babel". What Michel states in his Vsauce video, Messages For The Future. "Each page of this book is go through the algorithm which random a chunk of base-10 number which will be turns to base-29 number and the base number can be turns to characters (a-z and punctuation). And this mean all this content in the page is pre-determine. But there is the difference between the program permuting something unknowingly and people some meaning it"

And Yes there is a page contains my blog post!!!

Let's come back to computer simulation. Yes, chaos theory. In Wikipedia, Edward Norton Lorenz states that "Lorenz built a mathematical model of the way air moves around in the atmosphere. As Lorenz studied weather patterns he began to realize that the weather patterns did not always behave as predicted. Minute variations in the initial values of variables in his twelve-variable computer weather model would result in grossly divergent weather patterns. This sensitive dependence on initial conditions came to be known as the butterfly effect".

If we talk about the simulation that we cut some constant such as pi, Pi is irrational number. It got infinite number of digits. So how we should cut the minimal digits without changing the digit and how we can store all this number? Now, it seems impossible for us.

But does perfection comes from perfection? very interesting question to discuss in the comment/next blog post.

___________

Reference

Edward Norton Lorenz. (2016, July 9). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:29, August 26, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Edward_Norton_Lorenz&oldid=729071023 . 

Laplace's demon. (2016, August 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:35, August 26, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laplace%27s_demon&oldid=734838995 .

Stevens, M. [Vsauce] (2015, September 23) Messages For The Future. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDrBIKOR01c

Weaver, M. and Farrell , P. (2016, August 25). Death toll surges as search for Italy's earthquake survivors continues – Thursday's developments. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2016/aug/25/italy-earthquake-death-toll-rises-to-159-as-search-for-survivors-continues-live. 

Do you feel stressed?

Source background
In "5 Natural Ways to Alleviate Anxiety", Euan suggests that when anxiety strikes, there are five recommended methods that not only bring you back from stress but also improve your well-being which are healthy diets, natural supplements such as B-vitamins, melatonin and ginseng, essential oil blends, focusing on breath and self-compassion (2016).

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Do you feel stressed?

My answer is:
Yes, quite often 

Tension is something that people at all ages usually face. Since we live in the capital city, seeing city dwellers, including me crammed in the public transportation, such as sky train, underground and bus, and worrying whether we will go to work on time or not causes me an anxiety. The situation might be worse if we all commute by private cars and have to get stuck on the road at least two hours a day. If we go to work late, this will adversely affect our job's stability, promotion and bonus at the end of the year. For the new graduates, high competition for job search is the main reason to make them stressed.

Therefore, stress management skill is of importance for everyone to apply to ourselves in order to live happily in the world's today. What Euan recommends in the article is interesting and I do implement a couple of her recommendation. They works quite well.

What do you do when you are getting stressed? I always have a concentrated Lavender oil bottle in my bedroom. Its fragrance helps a lot to ease emotional stress. Another one that I used to try is participating in a meditation camp. Last month, I went to the temple located in Chaiyaphum, the province in the North East of Thailand. During a 7-day camp, I did nothing but focusing on mind and body. It is called "Awareness". No internet connection there and mobile phone is not allowed to use. The participants rarely talked to each other. I didn't even know the name of the person sitting next to me. It's quite hard to focus on one thing in the first three days because it's not close to my rushing lifestyle. But when I really focus on myself without any distractions, I know immediately how I feel and how to cope with all emotion that pop up, including tension. I see the problems and know how to solve them.

Stress is an annoying emotion that I want it to be gone for good. However, we know that it is impossible so we have to try to live with it. I have my way to handle it, what about you? Do you have any interesting suggestion to ease tension?

___________

Reference

Euan, M. (2016, August 23). 5 Natural Ways to Alleviate Anxiety. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/monet-euan/5-natural-ways-to-allevia_b_11657450.html?section=us_healthy-living 

Do you concern your weight?

Source background
From "Why is it so hard to keep weight off?", a research published in "The Journal Obesity", suggest that our bodies actually resist weight loss. While dieting, we reduce our resting metabolic rate, which lowers the number of calories we burn when we are not doing much. The authors of the research warn that keeping weight off requires “vigilant combat against metabolic adaption” (2016).

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Do you concern your weight?

My answer is:
Yes, I think many people concern their weight. 

According to "How Your Metabolism Changes in Your 20s, 30s, and 40s", an article stated that most teenager enjoy their highest basal metabolic rate, in their late teens or early twenties. During your thirties, you aren’t producing as much human growth hormone as before, which also leads to a dip in your metabolic rate. Around 40, your levels of hormone decrease. So unfortunately, your metabolism follows suit. That means you'll have to focus on reducing your caloric intake during your forties in order to maintain your weight (2015).

Normally, many people want to lose their weight because they want to be more attractive and healthier. But, losing weight is very hard when you get older because your metabolism rate would be decline (2015). So, doing physical activities is the best way to maintain or lose you weight, especially after 40s. Doing exercise, such as aerobics, running and yoga, may help you lose your weight. Not only exercise but also keeping track of what you are eating could help too. For example, count calories for the food you eat to compare with average calories that you can eat in each day. Also, beware for the amount of calories you are eating and drinking.

Last year, I checked my Body Mass Index (BMI) in internet and I realized that I was obese. Actually, I was panic and shocked, then I looked at the internet to sort out this problem. And I found that running 6 kilometers would burn 200 calories. So, I usually run in public park for 3 days per week to keep my weight off. Moreover, I also track of what I'm eating because it reminds me that I shouldn't eat too much.

There are plenty of advantages by keeping your weight off. This would be more beneficial for people who face with obesity problem. Obesity could lead to some diseases; for instance, high blood pressure and diabetes. Therefore, obtaining a healthy weight would be better for fat people by doing physical activity and healthy eating planning. What do you think? Are you obese? Do you check your Body Mass Index (BMI)?

References

Dillner L. (2016, August 22). Why is it so hard to keep weight off?. The guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/aug/22/why-so-hard-to-keep-wieght-off-obesity 
 Fetters K. (2015, October 29). How Your Metabolism Changes in Your 20s, 30s, and 40s. Women's Health. Retrieved from http://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/how-your-metabolism-changes-as-you-age

Art as the Mirror of Everyday Life. Quest 2, p. 85 - 87. 2016, term 5

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.

__________

Reference

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

The Sacred Realm of Art. Quest 2, pp. 76 - 82. 2016, term 5

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.

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

__________

Reference

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

Are the death penalty and imprisonment effective ways to prevent crime?

Source background
In "Where the death penalty still lives," Emily Bazelon, the author, talks about Judge's insistent decision on James Rhodes' death penalty for murdering Shelby Farah and its implication on revising the rules that determine the culprit's life. The history and validated statistics show that the execution was racial biased and has killed innocent people. Despite the failed attempts to eradicate death sentence, the numbers of execution continue to decline in the past decade and many people such as Justice Stephen Beyer has been working on abolition of such cruel punishment. In this case, Angela Corey with history of giving debatably racist sentence insisted on death penalty although the victim's family after knowing the background of Rhodes decided not to pursue this case. (2016)

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Are the death penalty and imprisonment effective ways to prevent crime? 

My answer is:
No, they are not effective.

I feel safe in my home. I feel safe in my country because I know the government will make sure that criminals will be locked up in the jail, or be executed. However, is that justify for them? Can this antediluvian method really live up to what it promises? To evaluate the effectiveness of death sentence and incarceration, we have to examine two important points: the history of punishment and factors that govern people’s decision making.

Punishment such as execution, torturing, and jailing started from obsession of power. The leader uses power to control other people through political and military means. For instance, communists use military to control citizens, while liberalists engage in political war to gain people’s favors. It is impossible to gain everyone’s approval in such a big population; thus, laws were introduced. Communist uses law to control people's action. Democratism promises to make law. Laws were made for people to follow. Laws were invented so people stay in the line. However laws do not guarantee that everyone will comply. What should the leader do if people did not follow the law? The simplest solution is to terrify those who commit crime and to forewarn innocent citizens so that they will avoid breaking the law. Scoundrels’ heads were impaled by wooden poles, exhibited outside the village for everyone to see, for everyone to fear the law. This fear brings power to the leader. Our current model of legal system follows the similar idea: using fear to control people. However, the outdated punishments and tortures have been considered as inhumane in our current society. Therefore, we invented imprisonment as an alternative which is worse than the old punishments. This will become a bigger problem when we consider how people associate their decision-making with a sense of gain and loss.

People make their decision based off of interests, and benefit that they will get from performing certain action. For instance, we would go to restaurant because we don’t want to cook the food ourselves, not because we want to pay our money. We put our benefit not our loss in consideration. This theory becomes more believable after a statistical study showed in a book called Race to Incarcerate. The number of crimes gradually increased during 1970s despite efforts by US president to continuously increase severity of the penalty.  This phenomena was the result of depression after World War II. In such a dire straits, stealing is an appealing option. It showed us that the benefit of stealing, bribing, and other offences far outweigh the punishment that they will receive. People would steal money so they don’t starve without thinking what would happen to them afterward. To a shocking extent, in the book there are examples of men who were jailed for life without parole just for committing a relatively small offence of possessing illegal drugs. (Mauern, M., 1999) To be jailed for the entire life and stripped away the basic rights that every human should have is debatably worse than being executed. The exponentially more severe punishment and persistently increasing number of crime led to overpopulation of inmate. In spite of this obviously ineffective punishments, the government held on to this idea. They continue the same punishment, but with a little twist. They have included death penalty to get rid of excessive prisoners. The result follows the same trend. Death penalty makes people fear the law, but it does not stop them from committing crimes.

Imprisonment and execution are not an effective way to prevent criminal. If we consider that the root of the problem comes from unemployment and poverty, isn’t it better to improve the living quality of those people as a way of reducing criminals? Isn’t it better to provide free health care, food stamps, cheap education, government-funded project for jobless citizens? We are wasting our human resources on imprisonment and execution while those people, with proper guiding, can turn into good citizens that can contribute to the society. People don’t steal because they want to be rich. They steal out of necessity, and they could become good citizens if we gave them a chance.

In the end, I know that in my false sense of security that our current law provides there exist fear of being punished, fear of falling into such a state that I have to steal money to get a meal, fear of being abandoned without any support from the government. Penalty is shown to be ineffective throughout the history. Using fear as a way to control people has never been a good idea. I think that it should be the time we move on from the obsolete jurisdiction system to a society where we support each other.


__________

Reference

Bazelon E. (2016, August 23). Where the death penalty still lives. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/where-the-death-penalty-still-lives.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=photo-spot-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0
Mauer, M. (1999). Race to incarcerate. New York: New Press.

Do you believe the life after you died?

Source background
In "China's ghost weddings and why they can be deadly," Grace Tsoi (2016) says that polices in the north-west area of China arrested a man who killed two women with mental disabilities to sell a family in which they wanted a dead girl to marry with their dead boy. This is a traditional culture which Chinese people in the northern and central country, such as Shanxi, Shaaxi, and Henan provinces, still practice. But some murderers can find an opportunity from this by killing a person and then they sell the dead person to families who want. It is very effective because a murderer can earn a lot of money from this selling around 30,000 to 50,000 yuan but it's illegal and immoral.

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:
Do you believe the life after you died?

My answer is:
No, I think it cannot be proofed and I haven't this experience before. 

In fact, I don't quite believe that they (I mean Chinese people who already died) will live with a dead spouse together in the afterlife. Everyone still can't answer the question that where will we go or how about our lives after we died? In China and many countries in Asia believe about the spirit. They still take care people who already died about their afterlife.

In addition, I think we may don't have a love to live together or even we died. But in the case that they love together or they already got a marriage are excepted. This news make me think about a news which I read few weeks ago that young boy and girl in Chonburi will be marrying but they had an accident and they passed away. In the funeral ceremony, their families created the marriage celebration for these dead young adults before the funeral. In my question, if you can't find anyone you love until you died, is it necessary for your family to provide a boy or girl who also died for you but you and him or her couldn't live together when you're alive?

In my idea, living as single is fine and freedom because you don't take care or look after your love. However, giving love, having a good relationship and a good memory when we're still alive (with your family, your friends, or your love) are the most important things which we need to concern a lot. I think it's less useful to provide these to dead people who may not perceive about what we do for them. I really understand about this Chinese's culture because I'm also a Thai-Chinese person, but I quite don't believe too much, and I hope that this business will be eliminated as soon as possible.

___________

Reference

Tsoi, G. (2016, August 24). China's ghost weddings and why they can be deadly. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-37103447

Can appearance hurt your career?

Source background

The article,“Eight female Egyptian presenters told to lose weight or lose jobs” Saeed Kamali Dehghan reported that the announcer who has worked for more than 20 years for Egypt television broadcasting, has been caught up in an unwanted controversy from the company. Eight woman presenters were given ultimatum to lose weight or lose their job. (2016)

_______________________________________ 

My Yes/No question is:

Can appearance hurt your career?

My answer is:

Yes, sad but it true.

Support

Even we can’t judge book by its cover but we can’t deny that people usually judge others on their appearance first. Especially, when it related to job and business. 

According to the research from Cornell University found that “when white females put on an additional 64 pounds, her wages drop 9%. And according to a 2007 paper from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there is a statistically significant wage penalty for overweight white women with a wage loss of 12%.”

Moreover, Michigan State University study “has uncovered an ugly truth about the American workplace: looks do matter. Researchers found that employees who are considered unattractive are more likely to be belittled and bullied in the workplace and were treated much more harshly than attractive employees." 

What are the reasons?  There are psychological reasons behind that. From the past, better looking person were thought to be more productive while being large, unattractive leads to negative stereotypes thinking that person is lazy,slow,ugly so it lead to discrimination.

One of my friend who worked in a recruitment company even said “Once she sent one of applicant profile that doesn't fit society's standards of beauty to the company and the company replied back “Why do you sent me this person and please sent us the new good looking one”

Even she was qualified but sad it the reality so she didn’t get a job. Discriminating against people based on their outer appearance is wrong but you can’t deny that it happened. The company want to make a profit out of you and employees are representation of the company so it crucial for a company too

There are many researches demonstrated positive biases toward attractive people but the truth is everyone getting older and become less and less attractive so I think we should treat others how we want to be treated, also considered their personality or attitude rather than appearance in order to have a long relationship. However, we can’t choose all the people in our life and also can’t change others but yourself so everyone can improve their outward appearance too, dress nicely and appropriate, wear make up, lose weight, put high heels on, wear suit and tie. You can look better, confident and there are many researches show that clothing can also affect trustworthy and success. 

___________

Reference

Dehghan, S . 2016: Eight female Egyptian presenters told to lose weight or lose jobs”. (2016, August 17).BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-news-from-elsewhere-37100676

Brooks, C. 2013: Do looks really matter at work ?.(2013, June 21). BusinessNewsDaily. Retrived from http://www.mnn.com/money/green-workplace/stories/do-looks-really-matter-at-work

Looking at art: What's the story? Quest 2, pp. 72 - 75,b. Term 5, 2016.

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

And Hartmann's question that is exercise B. on page 72:

• Which of these pictures do you like the most? Why?
  Do you know something about any of these pieces of art? 

The Art Critic by Norman Rockwell, 1955 

Aquila degli Abruzi 
by Henri Cartier-Bresson, 1952.

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

__________

__________

Reference

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

Numwan's Favourite Work of Art

Ma favorite piece of art is Juicy Salif by Philip Starck. This citrus squeezer is one of the most famous piece of him.It's the icon of an industrial design and post modernism .Even others designers have developed high technology citrus squeezer but this one consider as the most aesthetics as their ergonomics is perfect.I really like the shape of it.The shape look like a spider to me even if it can't really use as the citrus squeezer but as a piece of art it look perfect.When you put many of them together it looks like army of spiders.Actually,he got ipiration base on the shape of squid while he was squeezing lemon juice in an Italian Pizzeria while he started eating calamari.He started drawing and at the end the drawing look similar to squid.Many people don't like it because they think product design suppose to used effectively but I think it can be both for aesthetics or functions.

Looking at art: What's the story? Quest 2, pp. 72 - 75. Term 5, 2016.

These are colour images of the first of the works of art discussed in "Looking at Art: What's the Story" (Hartmann, 2007, pp. 72 - 75). It is the Edomite figure shown on page 72. (There is a slightly expanded 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?CurrentPageKey=2&indicator=11&shalemid=589
________

__________

Reference

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

Pun's Favorite piece of art

Mona Lisa by Italian artist, Leonado Da Vinci is my favorite piece of art. As I don't know much about art when I have to choose one piece of art to talk about, Mona Lisa come up in my mind as the only one I know from the movie, The Da Vinci Code. Mona Lisa is realistic picture with a dimension and shading. It is a half-length portrait of a woman whom I heard from somewhere that she is the most beautiful woman. Actually, I think she is not that beautiful and a bit fat compared with woman in today's world when I search this image in the Internet. Some people said if we look at the picture in from the right and the left side, the view is completely different unlike other pictures. But this may be the artistic value. I mean several people looking at one picture can interpret in different ways. Some might like it, but some might not. Therefore, I wish I could go to Louvre museum where this piece of work is portrayed to look closely at this picture and and judge it myself. 

Bonus's favorite piece of art

My favorite piece of art is Kafka On The Shore. It's a novel from Murakami, a japanese author. I just started to read his novel this years and I love his style a lot. Although I have read about a few of his work including the famous Norwegian Wood, Kafka On The Shore is the best one so far. In contrast, I like Norwegian Wood the least. I don't like one character on this novel so much I can't stand to finish this book. However, Kafka on the shore is much more interesting for me. It's about a boy who ran away from home and took a train to other town in Japan. But the story is not that simple with Murakami style of little unrealistic story telling. And he make it more interesting by wrote two different stories that separated by each chapter. They seem unconnected at the beginning, but as I read the two different stories are gradually become connected to each other. Even though, the main characterless in each stories never met. The way he use the word make me feel very connected to the boy, named Kafka. I love this character a lot.   
  

Pat's Favourite Work of Art

My favorite work of art is "Pisa Tower" in Italy. When I was young, I had learnt about various kind of architecture in art class and I thought that Pisa Tower was very interesting. At first, I look at the picture and I had a lot of question when I saw this. How did it construct? Why did it incline? Then, I found the information on the internet and I understood the fact. Actually, the constructer built it straight, unfortunately it was inclined by unidentified reason. But many people guess that it was inclined because land surface subsided in every year. Also, Pisa Tower would be inclined in every year too. Last year, I visited the real Pisa Tower in Italy with my family. I thought that the real one is more beautiful than the picture. It has pearl white with extremely fine work. So, I took a lot of photos with it and got in to the Pisa Tower which cost approximately 20 euro. On the Pisa Tower, I could take a lot of landscape picture around the tower. Moreover, there is a white cathedral next to Pisa Tower which is beautiful too. I think that you shouldn't miss this place when you arrive to Italy.

Mieng's Favorite Work of Art

My favorite piece of art would be Robert Frost's work "The road not taken." It is one of the most popular poem in modern era. His initial intention of this work is to joke with his close friend who is the other poet. It is the narrative poetry, talking about the time when he walked into the wood and found two roads to be chosen. As he was thinking about taking the first road, he felt hesitation whether it's going the be the right path. But whether or not he needed to choose anyway to continue his journey. At the end, he tells the reader the the less travel path was chosen. But he still thought that he would be coming back to take the other choice someday. 

No one know what is the real meaning of the work he wrote except the writer himself. For my own interpretation, I think the poem reflects the real life situation that anybody in this world can relate to. Life is about making the decision and get rid of the other options. We don't know what life will bring or what we will be encountered in the future. Whether you want to choose or not, you need to make a careful decision in order to continue your journey anyway. We may regret of the path we have already taken but no one could really know if it's better or worse, comparing to the other options. The less travel path would be easy to travel but it might not be the best path, vice versa. 

Phu's Favorite Work of Art

For me, I have a lot of work of art that is my favorite. However, when I think carefully, I found Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the dystopian/utopian novel, and Lord of the files by William Golding (I did not put 1984 by George Orwell in my favorite piece of art because I haven't read it) to be very good piece of art. Sine I start in the new school, which is an international school,  I found that english liturature is way better in some of Thai liturature(maybe this depends on the teacher). I love when the teacher analyse the effect of the language on the reader minds. I found these novel to be meaningful and way beyond our imagination. I am now reading Brave New World when I got free time (no/finish homework). I also bought the essay by Aldous Huxley called Brave New World Revisted and the door of perception, to further my reading on this wonderful writing by Huxley. I could not imagine how the world changes throughout the time. 

Barave New World ask us many questions such as Is it ok to be happy but not free? It is started in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where many students are studying how human are made in the AF 261. People are desing to love each job their assign. The Breave New World Revisited talks about the author views on world today and the novel itself. The door of perception talks about his experience on the uses of mescaline.

Oat's Farourite Work of Art

My favorite work of art is cartoon, especially Tom and Jerry, because this cartoon makes me have fun and enjoy with the characters in the cartoon. Tom is a cat who tried to catch a mouse, Jerry, but it always couldn't catch and the mouse always survived from the cat. This classical cartoon which had been played for a long time in many countries can make many people and I would like to watch the cartoon without boring and everyone can watch it. I mean that this cartoon is easy to watch and doesn't contain any complex details.

In fact, I always like to watch comedy cartoons. There are many comedy cartoons which I love, such as Chin Chang, Doraemon, and The Simpson. But Tom and Jerry is the most favorite cartoon which I always watch with my parents when I have a free time.

Oil's favorite piece of art

My favorite piece of art is A Series Of Unfortunate Events. It is a Gothic, steampunk styled novel about the unfortunate things that happen to the orphans. It is the first novel that I read in English so it has a special place in my memory. I wanted to improve my listening skill so I borrow a film version of the book. 

The story begins in an unusual way. It start with a happy elf family in a forest. The main character frolicking around enjoying the chirp of bird and warm sunlight. However, everything turns dim. The narrator warn the audience that if we expect a happy story from this movie, we'd better leave the theater and watch other things. The real story begins with a conflagration. The house of the Beaudelaire family was burnt down so the three siblings become orphans. They have to move to relative's house. The story unfold and later the siblings discover that his relative is the one who burnt the house. their relative hunt them down and trying to marry the oldest sister to get the fortune of Beaudelaire family. The movie was intense and unique, so I decided to read the novel. The books did not disappointed me. The plot was good, and I really enjoy the reading. There are many plot twists which made obvious by the author as his style of telling the story. I thoroughly enjoy it not only because of its style, but also the benefit of learning new words, the exciting plots, and unfortunate turns of event.