Blackberry with a new step

What I found in the news
In “Blackberry stops designing its own phones” (2016), Chris Foxx reports that Blackberry is now focusing on outsourcing hardware development to manufacturers instead of building their own devices which the sales numbers are hardly improving. Foxx explains that featured phone with a physical keyboard is no longer suitable for the mass market because of its price which Blackberry are concerned and released a touchscreen only phone that less expressive but still cannot increase their sales.

_______________________________________ 

My response
After reading the news I thought to myself "Yes, it's finally happened" because I haven't heard of anybody who uses Blackberry anymore. I have thought about Blackberry every time when I see new android phones released and I feel like Blackberry is very far from the trend market and I don't think it's going to live long enough if they don't change.

If we go back to 2006 I think everyone will know what is BlackBerry or BB because it was so popular in Thailand at that time also everyone around got it. It was a good phone to a business people too especially for my mom who is a business person she loved it because of the design and feature which were new and fresh and easy to use. But now she's so in love with Apple products which I'm not wondering why because again everybody loves it. Even the death of Steve Jobs did not affect any problem on Apple sales' numbers.

However, I don't think it is a good enough for BB to just only helping other partners with hardware because they might come to this situation again if the sales growth of the devices they did develop was not coming out great. But I could not say what exactly will help them to continue the company neither do they I guess. So far I think it's good that BB tried to make the change of something and hopefully, I wish to see the new BB's phone again in the future when they found the great way to make it better that met with the great sales numbers.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Foxx, C. (2016, September 28). Blackberry stops designing its own phones. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37493566

Is it Really Easy to Become Uber Driver?

What I found in the news
According to Alexandra Cain in How to become an Uber driver in Australia (2016), it is easy for Australian who already had a car which less than nine years and had a single license to become Uber drivers. Working as Uber drivers have a lot of advantages such as flexible working time which available for people to do fulltime job and working as Uber drivers at the same time. Moreover, the system of Uber to connect drivers and passengers is easy to understand. After passenger had tapped calling botton on the application, the system will automatically send a notification to Uber driver to accept and pick up passengers.

_______________________________________ 

My response
In Thailand, we also have Uber application the same as Australia which allows everyone who already had their own car to become Uber drivers. However, being Uber Driver in Thailand is not as easy  as being Uber driver in Australia because Uber Driver in Thailand have to pass many verifies from Uber company before being an Uber driver.

One of my friends has many bad experiences with Uber drivers because they don't really know the destination and some of them want to flirt my friend which sometimes make her scared with Uber drivers in Thailand very much. However, she still insists on using Uber application because she believes that it is safer than normal Taxi driver in Thailand.

Uber driver is a people who being a driver as a part time job. That's why most of them don't know some direction which is easy to make passenger frustrated.

However, I still think that Uber application can be another choice for people who want to find a part-time job and passengers who don't want to transport by normal Taxi because it may be more dangerous than Uber drivers who need to pass many velifies before being Uber drivers.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Alexandra, C. (2016, January 20). How to become an Uber driver in Australia. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/small-business/trends/the-big-idea/how-to-become-an-uber-driver-in-australia-20160119-gm8w7l.html

Chinese fishermen killed in S Korea coastguard clash

According to"Chinese fishermen killed in S Korea coastguard clash"(2016)

The South Korean coastguard threw a "flashbang" or stun grenade into the boat which they doubted it was an illegal fishing of Chinese fishermen. Three fishermen were died, fourteen survived. Chinese authorities have requested a full investigation, and an autopsy has been ordered.

_______________________________________ 

My response
In recent years, illegal fishing has become a point of contention between china and South Korean. Sometimes it was difficult to prevent conflict between countries, even if it has nothing to do with political benefits. But for ordinary people, we always hope for a peaceful world where we live safely and harmoniously.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Chinese fishermen killed in S Korea coastguard clash.(2016.September30.)BBC News.from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37516098

Society where Everyone is an Entrepreneur

What I found in the news
In "We Need to Expand our Definition of Entrepreneurship", Hagel(2016) started with relating the story of the beginning of employee society--where workers worked routine jobs--since the time Ford established his company. The society has changed from that time into a more diverse one and thus "the unicorns", youths who quickly become billionaires, will become inevitably rare; despite lower incentives he still encourages entrepreneurship in all layers of society. Entrepreneurs that, in his opinion, are characterized by seeking opportunities, willing to burden risks, and contributing incremental values to the society are the most desirable and by this definition entrepreneur should be in such organizations as NGO, government agency, school, or corporation, where economy of scale and scope can be enjoyed. Hagel concluded that we are moving toward entrepreneurial society that the world, especially developing countries, will potentially benefit from.

_______________________________________ 

My response
I found this article on one of my friends' facebook timeline. I think the idea is interesting in that I am interested in entrepreneurship and if I had to choose my focus when I study in MBA I'll choose entrepreneurship or start-up.

The article reminds me of the economics class I took years ago. Lecturers talked on and on about Economy of Scale, Economic of Scope and I have to learned how to distinguished them. It was fun. However, when you are a small player in the market then you don't have much of options to promote  Economy of Scale nor Economy of Scope. After all you don't have sufficient resources to promote them. Luckily there are always options when you really want it that is to promote economy of scale by outsourcing and give them some portions of your profits if you are willing to do so. On the other hand, you may just let the business run its course and you just desert it and go to transnational corporation, or that of similar scale where you can harness your talent and give a greater incremental value to the society.

I always think myself as an entrepreneur, even though I never actually create any business. However I would always look for the opportunities that I can exploit my skills and talents in adding value to the society. I was once told that life only allow me to master and use only a few skills, but as persevere and obstinate as I am, it would kill me to follow the advice. I would prefer to attain all of my goals rather than cut off one to save the others.

Everyone has his or her opportunity costs, things that we need to abandon as we choose to do the thing we are doing. Although having a family business, I might be better off working in other corporations if they give much more than my marginal work in my family business. Unless the business has to be capable to run by its own, I won't call it a business. This way I can earn greatly outside then use the money I earn to invest into another business with leverage from banks. I think this way of expanding business can be faster and more efficient. This, however, requires me to find someone I can trust and can run the business as good as I do but cheaper than I do.

The article drew me in in that Hagel considered that entrepreneurship can be established in every layer of every form of organization. I think this way of thinking can contribute a lot to the society; unfortunately, the reason some people are still in the company is because they are afraid of coming out taking risks. If we build up a society where everyone are entrepreneurial then perhaps a few are willing to stay in the organization.

In my opinion, not every people can be entrepreneur. If everyone had become entrepreneurs, then I don't think being an entrepreneur will be attractive anymore and the resources will be divided more or less equally. I have an idea in my mind that when everyone want to become an entrepreneur, it might be better to choose the best entrepreneur and work for them. Because everything will eventually converge to equilibrium, when people largely start up their own business, labor force will be scarce and skilled labor will be so rare that compensation  will be sufficiently attractive. In my opinion, the society nowadays is not really far from that point.

Where do you think you will be when more and more people have aspiration to start up their own business? Do you agree with Hagel definition of entrepreneurship?

_______________________________________ 

Reference

John Hagel III (2016, September 28).We Need to Expand our Definition of Entrepreneurship. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2016/09/why-young-bankers-lawyers-and-consultants-need-emotional-intelligence.

Acne is not always bad.

What I found in the news

According to "Teens with spots tend to stay looking younger for longer, new research suggests" , Teenager who has acne is likely to look aged slower than those who has clear skin (2016). The research of  King's College London found the key of youth  is "Telomeres which are protective caps on the ends of their chromosomes" , these caps were found longer in acne skin than clear skin. When Telomeres are shot it will stimulate  "p35" ,which is a pathway of gene, to destroy cells that lead to aging of skin. So the Telomores are considered  protector of skin to fight against aging and we need more studies to clearly understand.

_______________________________________ 

My response
This article really made my day it totally changed my perspective about acne because I have suffered from acne since I was 13 years old, I have visited many dermatology clinics and have tried almost every therapies such as taking pills , using antibiotic gel or injection . It seems good at the first time but not last long. And the cost of therapy is extremely expensive , I had to spend around 1000 - 1500 Baht per month for curing acne. So a problem of acne always annoys my life but after I finished reading this article , it make me feel better about acne.

When I was studying in the university , I have learn that the major cause of acne is hormone from our body it happen normally in every teenagers and quite hard to control. There is natural way  to reduce acne that is Changing Lifestyle.

For example:
- Avoid eating too much fat because consuming high amount of fat  lead to oily skin that is one of the cause of acne
- Eat more fruits and vegetables , Antioxidants in both fruits and vegetables would help clear up acne.
- Drink enough water at least 8 glasses per day to stay hydrated.

I have just stopped visiting dermatologist for 6 months and try changing lifestyle by eating healthy food and drinking more water combine with using anti-acne gels that buy from pharmacy. Although is not effective like using a medical therapy but I think it is more sustainable and save money.

Do you have a problem about acne like me?
Or do yon have others good tips to prevent acne?

_______________________________________ 

Reference

 Anna Collinson (2016, September 28). Teens with spots tend to stay looking younger for longer, new research suggests BBC News.  Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/37492432/teens-with-spots-tend-to-stay-looking-younger-for-longer-new-research-suggests

Samsung products and its qualities

What I found in the news

According to "Samsung’s ‘exploding’ washers raise serious questions about its quality control", Samsung top-loading washing machine was reported to explode. Even though this line of product is not related to the smartphone directly, Samsung has suffered from recalling Galaxy Note 7 since reported its explosion during charging, both two events raise questions to the company qualities' control and could significantly damage the company branding.

_______________________________________ 

My response
Personally, I am not the Samsung big fan because I also call into question about the qualities of this branding. However, I have been used many kinds of products under Samsung such as Television, and air conditioner. The main reason that I like this band is Samsung is good at technology inventions and developments, it comes up with many new technologies.

I think these two events would bring the suffer to Samsung, but Samsung could survive because they are many people who craze on Samsung brand and its strong developmental laboratory would provide critically supportive to the company. However, Samsung should focus on the quality of products and this would bring the confident back to the customers.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Hayley Tsukayama (2016, September 29). Samsung’s ‘exploding’ washers raise serious questions about its quality control. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/09/29/samsungs-exploding-washers-raise-serious-questions-about-its-quality-control/

So, do we need more humane fly spray?

What I found in the news

Do bees have feelings? Fears? 

According to Peter Singer in "Insects may have feelings, so do we need more humane fly spray?" mounting scientific evidence suggests that bees, if not all insects, might have brain structures sufficiently similar to those of mammals to create some basic emotional states such as fear (2016). Singer argues that if insects do have some degree of consciousness, they will also be capable of suffering, with consequences for how we may ethically treat them if we care about  following good morals.

_______________________________________ 

My response
After the serious and long (excessively long?) post about English grammars and points of grammar this morning, I was looking for something a bit more fun. First, the attractive green of the bumble bee photo caught my eye, then the title "Insects may have feelings, so do we need more humane fly spray?" interested me. Finally, when I saw that the author was Peter Singer, I knew it would be worth reading.

Singer, a fellow Australian, has long been one of my favourite living philosophers, and he well deserves the fame he enjoys. But the death threats he has regularly received since taking up his position as Princeton University in the US reminds us that 2,400 years after the Athenian democracy put Socrates to death under their rotten rule of law to protect young people from corruption philosophy can still be a dangerous business.

When Singer wrote about the experiment which apparently suggested feelings of fear on the part of the bees, I was also reminded of the topic we have started on in Skillful. Last term we read a short piece of philosophy, "Carving the Roast Beast," where the author, Stephen Law, makes a strong case that it is morally wrong to eat meat, something most students at least initially disagree with. In the course of his argument, Law cites Peter Singer, although in fact Singer does agree entirely with Law that it's morally wrong to eat animals just because we have to kill them to do so. Singer argues that suffering is the decisive moral consideration, so provided animals are killed painlessly after being kept in humane conditions in life, it is not necessarily wrong to eat them. Of course, the same arguments mean that abortion is also morally OK, even after birth, since the human foetus of new born baby, although capable of feeling pain, does not have a sufficiently well-developed brain to be a person with self-awareness.

Should we fear philosophers? Or should we perhaps fear more the bad thinking inherited from our ancestors?

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Singer, P. (2016, September 29). Insects may have feelings, so do we need more humane fly spray? New Scientist. Retrieved from https://www.newscientist.com/article/2107536-insects-may-have-feelings-so-do-we-need-more-humane-fly-spray/

Book review: Practical English Usage by Michael Swan

What I found in the news on my bookshelf
Now available both  as a book or as an app (2013) for Android  or iOS, in the third edition of Micheal Swan's Practical English Usage, published by Oxford University Press in 2005, the author brings together a comprehensive selection of important points in English grammar for students of both informal, communicative oriented versions and of more formal or academic versions of modern English. He gives clear explanations with numerous examples to show the grammar point in action; in addition, there are frequent examples of incorrect usage, clearly marked as such with struck through formatting, to help correct some of the more common misunderstandings.

_______________________________________ 

My response
I also enjoy browsing, or researching a grammar point in more detail, the more substantial grammars of English The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language by Rodney Huddleston and Geoffrey K. Pullum and Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech and Svartik's A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, whose author's work we used to call "the punk grammar of English" when I was at university. These large works provide some fascinating insights into the workings of English from usefully differing approaches to the subject by their respective expert authors.

Swan on was/were in unreal conditionals

But when I have an actual question about the best way to write something, I usually refer first to my copy of Michael Swan's excellent reference grammar Practical English Usage, now in its third edition. Actually, I usually go for the more convenient and much lighter app version. For example, when I saw that Rogers and Wilkin (2013, p. 64) were explicitly advising the use of was rather than were for present unreal conditionals using be, Swan was the first thing I checked, even though I knew what he said. I guess I wanted to reassure myself that the text had not magically changed in some sinister Orwellian way under the influence of a malign Big Brother with power to rule in the present by rewriting the past. The screen shot shown here also includes, in §258.5 Swan also explains the point that prompted me to opt for real rather than an unreal conditional in my recent blog post on the imminent arrival of autonomous cars on the roads.

Swan on so

However, since Swan is happy to allow that Rogers and Wilkin are not wrong, he does not give any examples of struck out formatting to help readers correct possible mistakes. For that, let's look at a common among AUA students both in the AEP program and in the General Writing classes, the use of so to mean "very." Swan takes six pages, §§ 536 - 544, to cover the varied ways that English uses the word so. The screen shot from by tablet shows, in points 2 and 3, that so is not used in academic or more formal versions of English to mean, and the examples of incorrect use in point 4. help to clarify how the confusion might have arisen.

If you are looking for a solid reference grammar that covers modern English well without too much confusing details, Swan's Practical English Usage is the one I recommend. In the meantime, I wish everything was available in app or online versions: picking up either of the other two grammars I like gives me a serious muscle workout.

_______________________________________ 

References

Rogers, L. & Wilkin, J. (2013). Skillful Reading and Writing Students Book 2. London: Macmillan Education.

Swan, M. (2013). Practical English Usage (3rd ed., version 1.0.9) Oxford University Press. [Mobile application software]. Retrieved from https://play.google.com/store

The two pillars of dystopian

What I found in the news

1984's Big Brother

According to "Police surveillance: The US city that beat Big Brother" , Brian Wheeler discussed about the mass-surveillance of major city in United State.(2016) The purpose of this is to prevent crime causes by radical groups. Also, this is associated with "Edward Snowden's revelations sparked a huge debate about privacy and data". Some people agree on using these cameras to prevent potential crime also they are gives some of the videos their private cameras to the police for crime investigation. Passage also explore the equipment that are used for "spying" on people such as Aerial surveillance, Crime prediction software and Stingray fake phone masts.

_______________________________________ 

My response
In this class people may have a question when I gave the title of book called 1984. That's a weird name when I first encounter this book through youtube when I tried to search for analysis of Lord of flies that I have to do homework for my English class. Brave new World also came out after I have looked at 1984 . After watching both of these books, I decided to buy Brave new World . There is a big similar and big differences between both books. Both of them are book about totalitarian society but the method of controlling people are difference one are soft ,while  another are way more harsh.

Would you rather be happy but not free? Aldous Huxley builds up his argument in his famous novel, Brave New World. People in this dystopian world are living in happiness because they are conditioned to hate books so they can stay in factory all day. Also they got be in moral teaching while they are sleeping called hypnopedia. The high caste people are condition to look down at the lower caste for example "Delta Children wear khaki. Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are still worse. They're too stupid to be able to read or write. Besides they wear black, which is such a beastly color. I'm so glad I'm a Beta." Deltas and Epsilons are the worker caste and Betas and Alphas are the high caste.

This kind of conditioning is repeated until
"the child's mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the suggestions is the child's mind. And not the child's mind only. The adult's mind too—all his life long."

Also these novel is associated with Ford, the father of mass production. Just like children that has been mass-produce in the world.

And when they got stressed the get a gramme of Soma - drug that is used for people to be "ecstasy". What a happy life.

If every people are happy is this the best solution? Aldous Huxley has answered in his collection of essays Brave New World Revisited. He believes that Brave New World is a nightmare for people. He describes this world of people becoming automaton and "Man is not made to be an automaton, and if he becomes one, the basis for mental health is destroyed."

Unlike Brave New World, 1984 has presented us as a "hard-totalitarian". 1984 society uses fear and punishment to control people, while Brave New World society uses science/mind control/sleep-teaching/drug to control people. Also, 1984 is also associated with "Big-Brother", a person who looking at what people are doing in every second of their life and control them.

What do you think?
Would you live in the world of happiness?

Maybe what Margaret Atwood saying is true:"utopia is the good place that doesn't exist."

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Police surveillance: The US city that beat Big Brother (2016, September 29). BBC News.  Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37411250


'Everybody is happy now' (2007, November 17). The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/nov/17/classics.margaretatwood

Fear - Skillful Reading and Speaking, Unit 7

Skillful, page 67

Source background
On page 67 of our text, Rogers and Wilkin introduce the topic of fear in a unit with the same title. They open with a large photograph and some discussion points. We will do that discussion here on our class blog. Clicking the image on the right will show it full size.

_______________________________________ 

Discuss these questions in a comment below.
There are also some useful language suggestions included in the image. You might like to use some of those expressions in your comments.

1. Look at the picture. How does it make you feel? 
2. What are you afraid of? Why? 
3. What What do you think causes peoples' fears?  

You have ten minutes total to respond to the questions here. For the next ten minutes, you may not open any book or look at any other website. We are responding to the questions, not writing an essay or doing a research project.  

___________

Reference

Rogers, L. & Wilkin, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing, Student's Book 2. London: Macmillan.

Machines Do It Better

What I found in the news

Coming soon to a road near you.

According to The Economist's "Who’s self-driving your car?" although their strong background in the computer science necessary to control the mechanics of wheels, engines and other parts of cars seems to favour IT companies like Google and Apple, traditional car makers and their suppliers "are involved in a bout of frenzied activity to keep control of the innards of self-driving cars" (2016). In this race to get products onto the roads, The Economist reports that alliances between technology and car companies are one solution; for example, BMW has partnered with Intel, and Volvo is working with Uber. Ford, in contrast, has instead been buying up technology companies to get the software it needs to compete in the coming market, with plans to have autonomous cars on the roads in 2021.

_______________________________________ 

My response
If you had told me when I was a child that the stuff of sci-fi films like self-driving cars would happen in my life, I would not have believed it, even after we landed on the moon in my primary school days. Even less imaginable in those far off days last century was the internet, which quickly became a major disruptor of traditional ways of doing things. I can't remember the last time I actually went into a bank to do something. Actually, I can. When I was in Australia last July, I popped into my local bank to ask them to give send me a new debit card. But when I'm in Australia, technology has come so far that I never, ever use cash. I had been carrying the same Australian banknotes in my wallet for more than ten years. Every year when I went back, I put them the AUD $200 in my wallet in case I needed cash for something, but I haven't. On my last visit, I was also able to pay for almost everything with just a tap of a credit card! For bills or more than $100, I still had to enter a PIN, but I did not sign my name even once in a week with plenty of shopping and paying for meals.

Getting back to cars, I'm sure that the the self-driving ones really are coming soon, and I'm looking forward to them. I hated driving when I was in high school, and I pretty much stopped owning a car or driving when I moved to Sydney. I've never even thought of having a car in Bangkok. I would much prefer to pay a bit more to live on Silom Road so that I can get by perfectly well on foot or BTS for most things. If I need more, I grab a taxi.

I'm hoping that autonomous cars will, like most machines with expert intelligence in some area, do much  better than human beings at driving cars safely and in the most environmentally friendly way. I'm even optimistic that fleets of robo-taxis might replace both buses and private cars. I think people should still be allowed by law to own a car, although perhaps not to drive it themselves. But how many people will choose costly ownership if cheap robo-taxis are available on demand via an app?

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Who’s self-driving your car? (2016, September 24). The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/business/21707600-battle-driverless-cars-revs-up-whos-self-driving-your-car

Boxhead in the Lilly Pillies

Lettuce and other vegetables
on a farm in California.

What I found in the news
In "Why Industrial Farms Are Good for the Environment," Jayson Lusk argues that the massive decline in the traditional, small American farm over the past century, when almost half of Americans moved from farms to cities, has been largely positive for the environment (2016). Lusk reports that farmers long ago "dreamed about tools to make their jobs easier, more efficient and better for the land," and those tools now exist, from bio-technology to monitoring by drones. Lust says that these tools have enabled US farms, which remain largely family owned, to greatly increase food production while reducing the amount of land and labour used to produce that food.

_______________________________________ 

My response

Swan Bay and environs
 - my childhood home.

For me, the single most impressive statistic given in the article was that from 40% before World War I, the number of Americans now living on farms has decreased to only 1%. That got me thinking about all those people who no longer grow up on farms. I'm very glad that I did grow up on a farm My childhood was spent running around my family's dairy and sugar cane farm in Northern New South Wales, about 700 km north of Sydney. I have lots of memories, although not so many photos, of playing in the tussocks with my brothers and sisters, of having picnics under massive oak trees that my father had left untouched amid the fields, and most magical of all, of exploring in the patch of native scrub that he had left uncut.

When my ancestors arrived from Italy less than 140 years ago, the entire region was covered by the thick mix of trees and bushes. We weren't allowed to go there too often, which both protected it from damage and kept it special for us. The scrub on our farm was almost impossible to walk through, and the vine laden trees cut out the sunlight, as we explored tunnels and caves formed by the native plants. Sometimes we even saw possums, bandicoots, the spiny echidna and other small native animals. We had to watch out for deadly snakes, and it was best to avoid walking into the spider webs, although the spiders at least tended not to be deadly. Our parents also taught us which berries it was safe to eat, strictly warning not to eat any we were not sure about. It must be forty years now since I've enjoyed a crisp, tart lilly pilly, the small crimson berries we gobbled straight from the trees.

Around the time I started primary school, we switched from dairy farming to sugar cane, but we continued to keep a few house cows for milk, and we also had cattle for our own meat supply, although we sent the slaughtered animals to a local butcher for converting into steaks, mince, roasts and other fleshly delights. Since there were so few cows, we had names for them all, like Boxhead, named for the unusual shape of his head. Boxhead and his mates would hang around the scrub, but spent most of their time eating the grass on strips of land between the cane fields and on the paddocks set aside for them. The chickens that gave us eggs and the ducks that made tasty additions to the menu were not usually named. Our house and its associated buildings beside the tree-lined Richmond River were as fun a playground as the farmland. What Google Maps shows today has changed a bit from what I remember.

But like the 40% of Americans who decided they preferred city life to the farm, I also escaped as soon as I could. Since finishing high school and leaving the area to study at Sydney University, I have loved living in large cities. It's great to enjoy the quiet, green beauty of my brothers farm, complete with koalas, when I visit family, but traditional farming was also very hard and isolating work, as I also remember well from getting up at 4:00 AM to bring in the cows for milking in all weather and the tedium of days spent on a tractor ploughing large fields. I never wanted to be a farmer, and am happy for traditional small farms to continue to disappear as larger ones more efficiently use less of our limited environment to feed us better than ever. I don't know, but suspect that the same is happening in Thailand as the children of farmers sensibly opt for better lives in the big city. Who, given a choice, would not escape life on the farm?

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Lusk, J. (2016, September 23). Why Industrial Farms Are Good for the Environment. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/25/opinion/sunday/why-industrial-farms-are-good-for-the-environment.html

Deadly Serious Beliefs

What I found in the news
According to "Jordan writer in blasphemy case Nahid Hattar killed" (2016), although the Jordanian government has officially condemned his killing, supporters of murdered writer Nahid Hattar, an atheist, blame the government for his murder by a devout religious leader because he was arrested under the country's blasphemy laws when he posted on a Facebook an image that made fun of "radical Islamists' view of heaven."

_______________________________________ 

My response
This sad story is a bit more serious than my post about the marital difficulties that the Pitts are experiencing. The Brangelina story is still in the news, although I haven't read any more on that: the titles and pictures are enough.

First, I have to say that religion commits far too many crimes, and those crimes are often violent, like the murder here. People always say that their religion is about love, or about caring, or about good morals. But what we see in practice is religion being an excuse to commit great evil. Everyone knows that Islam is a source of teaching that inspires terrorism, and the sort of killing we see here. But I agree with the murdered man's supporters: the Jordanian government has also made morally wrong laws to protect religion. Arresting people and putting them in prison because they say a religion is false or silly or a cause of terrorism and other evils is unjust law. Rule of law that violates the right to free speech of citizens is morally wrong and is against basic democratic principles. Such bad laws also support exactly the same sort of thinking that religious believers use as an excuse when they kill or commit terrorism.

And it is not only Islam that causes such evil. If we look at history, it is not difficult to find examples of other religions also being sources not of good morals but of very bad morals. Christians have a long history of going to war to kill for their god. And Christians until very recently persuaded governments of many countries to make up laws against blasphemy to protect themselves from critical examination. Catholic popes liked to throw people into prison, to torture and to kill them if they disagreed with the official teachings of the popes. Their victims were often scientists and other great thinkers whose work suggested, as the murdered writer Nahid Hattar did, that some religious belief is false or worse. Buddhist teaching seems much less supportive of violence than the teachings of the Middle Eastern religions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, but as we see in Myanmar, even Buddhism can be turned into something truly immoral and blood thirsty as radical Buddhists seek to harm non-Buddhists using unjust rule of law.

In a class in academic English, any violation of free speech should worry us because it is not only against  democratic principle and against good morals, but such violations of free speech are against the critical thinking that is an important aspect of all academic work in every field, from art history to physics. Our textbook, Skillful Reading and Writing, recognises the importance of critical thinking with exercises in every unit. As aspiring academics, we care about what is true and how we know that it is true, or why we believe that it might be true: rule of law that violates free speech makes informed, critical opinion a criminal offence; such law prefers ignorance to knowledge, which is of course why religions love laws against free speech. They are terrified that healthy, critical investigation will show many of their beliefs to be false or worse, so they want the government to make up laws to protect them from honest truth seeking.

Religion often inspires great good and is a source of comfort to many people, but healthy, moral societies do not give it any special legal protection. Good religions and healthy beliefs do not need such protection under the law.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Jordan writer in blasphemy case Nahid Hattar killed. (2016, September 25). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-37465656

Rich and Famous - Skillful Reading & Writing, p60

Source background
These are the questions on page 60 for discussion before we read the article "Rich and Famous" on page 61.

_______________________________________ 

Discuss these questions in a comment below.

• What jobs do most young people in your country want to have? 
• Do you think the following can be considered jobs? Why or why not?
•  actor 
• athlete
• pop star
  useful language: Being a ... is / isn't a job because ... 
• What problems might be caused if most children want to have jobs like these?  

You are not writing an essay here, so although you should write your ideas down in sentences, don't spend ten minutes worrying about the whether your language is correct: just write!
You have a total of six minutes.  

___________

Reference

Rogers, L. & Wilkin, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing, Student's Book 2. London: Macmillan.

Dissolving the Stress

What I found in the news

The official divorce filing

According to the BBC News article "Angelina Jolie to divorce Brad Pitt," this famous Hollywood couple have decided to end their marriage and relationship "for the health of the family," although the official reason given on the divorce papers is  irreconcilable differences (2016). The BBC reports that both Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie Pitt, known as Brangelina since their relationship began in 2004 before marriage in 2014, are successful actors who are also well-known for producing films and for their charity work, with Jolie also having made the news for her medical decisions to have both breasts and her sex organs removed to reduce her high risk of cancer.

_______________________________________ 

My response
I don't usually read the entertainment section of the BBC News with my morning coffee, but this story also featured on the front page. In fact, "Angelina Jolie to Divorce Brad Pitt, Ending ‘Brangelina’" was also at the top of the more substantial, and more academically written, New York Times' trending stories list.

Sexy street scenes - Bangkok last week

I think both Pitt and Jolie have made some great films. My favourite film starring Brad Pitt is definitely Fight Club, which is a reasonably close film adaptation of the novel. Pitt's acting the role of the one of the persons that are Tyler Durden is brilliant, and it's a great story. I read a couple of days ago that this film has apparently inspired a fight club group in Bangkok. Unfortunately, and most unjustly, although I'm sure according to the rule of law, the freely consenting adult Bangkok fight clubbers were promptly interrupted by the interfering police. The Bangkok Post also published an editorial piece on it last month, "Fight Club Skirts Law," showing their usual weak critical thinking skills as they argued that it should be under more official control by the law (2016), which contradicts a basic premise of Fight Club.

I also thought that Pitt's performance in the very dark Seven was brilliant, although the real stars were Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey. I don't think Jolie is such a good actor, although she has starred in some fun films. I enjoyed the Lara Croft movies, silly as they are, and she did very well in the comedy Mr and Mrs Smith, where she stars in the film during which the couple met and became Brangelina. Like Fight Club, I've been happily entertained a few times by Mr and Mrs Smith, although Fight Club and Seven are both much better pieces of art, so more rewarding to watch again and again.

 After a hard day's work, the anarchic Fight Club sounds good for dissolving stress tonight.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Angelina Jolie to divorce Brad Pitt. (2016, September 20). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37422843

Fight Club skirts law. (2016, August 27). Bangkok Post. Retrieved from http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1072048/fight-club-skirts-law