Sunday, 30 September 2018

We use smart devices smartly, don't we?

What I read


In "Study links restricting screen time for kids to higher mental performance", Hamza Shaban (2018) report that spending too much time on smart devices can lead to insufficiency of sleep and brain underperform. Due to the findings, children have better ability in thinking, communication and memory when they live in proper lifestyle. For examples, spending one hour for exercise, two hours or less on screens and nine to eleven hours for sleep daily. It is also suggest that parents help kids manage their time on smart device. Furthermore, relevant business sectors such as Apple and Google, launched a system that can control time spending on devices and programs. Although lower screen using rate has significant effect on children cognitive, more up-to-dated studies are needed to ensure the link between them.


______________________________ 

My response 

Technology have both advantages and disadvantages. Because of innovative devices, The world become seamless while life turn complicated simultaneously. We surf the Internet to explore the treasure of information and obtain a lots of knowledge from it. However, some of us get so addicted to social media and people in the virtual world that they look over people around them in reality.

In addition, spending too much time on smartphones may lessen our time to do other activities to improve physical strength or soft skills. For children, they definitely have less time running around playground if they obsess with running their fingers on smart devices.  



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My question

Do you think that screen overuse may also cause lower efficiency of brain work in adults?

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Reference 

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Saturday, 29 September 2018

Football, New Year's Eve and drugs: a bad mix for families and society

What I read

In "'One of our biggest nights': Police brace for spike in family violence," Melissa Cunningham and Chloe Booker (2018) report that police in the Australian State of Victoria blame alcohol and the high emotions for the 20% increase in domestic violence on the night of the Australian Football League (AFL) grand final, which is similar to reports by English police for major football games and the even larger increases in violence seen in New South Wales crime statistics for their State of Origin football game days. This is sharp increase in violence in families is exceeded only on New Year's Eve, with a 50% increase. The writers say that police are encouraging fans to keep their mates from drinking excessively and getting caught up in disputes. 

___________________________________ 

My response 

I chose this article because reading a few of the blog posts from last week, it appeared that some people think alcohol a less harmful drug than most, or possibly all, illegal drugs, and I'm sure this is wrong. 

 That alcohol is a common contributing factor in fights, domestic abuse of wives and children by drunk husbands and boyfriends, also wives and mothers, is well known. And in Thailand, such national celebrations as New Year and Songkran are famous for the horrifically high number of road deaths, in which alcohol is again a major contributing factor to destroying families, inflicting serious injury that puts massive costs on health care, and other harms to society.  
More of the regular proof of failure.
Source: Bangkok Post,
2018, September 26
Since these facts are clear, it is hard to see any good reason that can justify treating alcohol differently to other popular drugs that Thai people enjoy, such as yaa baa, marijuana or whatever. I'm sure there are still a few people who enjoy using heroin and opium, but the popular drugs I regularly read about in the news are yaa baa, or amphetamines, and marijuana. In fact, every week in the Bangkok Post, there are reports of massive seizures of these two highly popular drugs, usually with a photograph of lots of police standing around the proof of their failure to eradicate these popular drugs. These repeated reports show that the current drug policy is a total failure that is against the wishes of a very large percentage of Thai citizens, who are the willing customers for these harmful drugs, although an even greater number of Thai citizens are eager to harm themselves and society with alcohol. 

 Surely if the producers, dealers and users of less harmful drugs such as marijuana and heroin are arrested and imprisoned, the people responsible for producing and dealing alcohol, all those wine, beer, whisky and champagne dealers, should be in prison for much longer periods! 

 I can only think of one reason why many popular drugs of addiction are illegal when alcohol is not: for some reason, the politicians who make up the law are eager to support mafia groups and corruption, both of which are obviously thriving under the encouragement of the  monopoly that the law makers have kindly given them. To support mafia and corruption at such high costs to everyone else in society seems to me insane. 

 And now I'm wondering why so many people seem to think that current drug laws make any sense either rationally in view of the evidence, or morally in view of the unequal treatment. To lock people up for using or dealing in something less harmful than alcohol, whose super-rich producers are admired for their wealth, is bad morals; in fact, the phrase that comes to my mind is moral corruption.  
___________________________________ 

My question

Should the sale and use of the addictive drug alcohol be criminalized in the same way as marijuana, yaa baa, heroin, cocaine and other drugs? 
___________________________________ 

Reference

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What I read

 Marijuana, known by South Africans as “Dagga”, is now legalised by the highest court of their country. This topic caught my attention as I was trying to find one to summarize, respond and discuss with my friend. According to https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45559954, Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo said that it would not be a criminal offense for an adult to be in possession of cannabis in private for his or her personal consumption. He also said that it would be illegal to consume in public, and to sell and supply it. However, the court did not specify the quantity of cannabis that a person can grow or use in private which makes the law seems unclear and inefficient.

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My response 

From my experience, I have been told that marijuana is an addictive drug and is illegal to possess or use it. But last year, one of my teachers told me that marijuana wasn’t a dangerous drug and that was the reason why many countries in europe had legalised it. I searched for informations from many websites to find out whether it was or not. As a result, marijuana is not quite dangerous compared to cigarettes because it is less addicting and contains less harmful chemicals.

     In my personal opinion, I think that South Africa’s highest court shouldn’t legalise cannabis use. It worsens many South Africans’ quality of life due to the fact that the majority of south africans are considerably poor, if they could purchase or consume it legally, many of them would spend their money to buy it and end up poorer causing higher crime rate

     I disagree the idea of smoking marijuana instead of cigarettes although it is less addicting. I think that not trying any addictive drugs is the best way to live our lives because it saves money, reduces criminal activities and makes us live healthier. But I support cannabis for medical use because the hospitals only give it to the patients at a small quantity which won’t make them get addicted.

___________________________________ 

My question

If you were the one who could legalise cannabis/marijuana use, would you do it? Why?
___________________________________ 

Reference

  •     (18 September 2018). South Africa’s highest court legalises cannabis use. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-45559954
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Sprawl: before reading "Solving the Problem of Informal Settlements" (SkRW4, p48)

Before we read

Before we read their chosen text on the topic of each unit, Boyle and Warwick invite us to activate our own thinking on the coming ideas by responding to a few questions. 
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Boyle and Warwick's questions

Look at the picture below and answer the questions in a comment. 
  • Why do people live in informal settlements like this? Think of three reasons.
     
  • What do you think life is like for them? What reasons can you give for this?
     
  • What name is given to informal settlements like this and the people who live in them in your language? Do you know any other names for them in English? 


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Reference

  • Boyle, M. & Warwick, L. (2014). Skillful Reading & Writing: Student's Book 4. Oxford: Macmillan Education
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Thursday, 27 September 2018

A New Discovery of the World’s Oldest Beer 

What I read

The BBC News article “World’s oldest brewery found in cave in Israel” (2018) illustrates that a beer history could be reviewed again. Beer production was considered to go back 5,000 years. However, it should have turned to discuss again after the latest exploration in a prehistoric cave near Hafnia in Israel. Dr. Liu, a professor at Stanford University, says that this finding may account for the oldest record man-made beverage in the world. Many clues found in the cave: wheat, barley and oat, indicate crops have been used for brewing over 13,000 years ago. Additionally, the researchers try to produce an ancient beer compared with a recent beer. It clearly confirms that two kinds of beer come from a fermentation process, but the recent beer possibly stronger than the ancient.  
___________________________________ 

My response 


   I had already read the article. I felt the latest discovery could force many people including me to get a new knowledge. I had been studied the history and production of beer when I was an
undergraduate student. It believed that beer had been brewed in the Egypt era- about 5,000 years ago- but now it should have reconsidered. After I read the findings of Dr. Liu and his team, it was very interesting. The evidences that they found such as cereals and crops milling in the stone mortar in the cave of Hafnia area, Israel showed clearly ages of over 13,000 years. In my point of view, I’d like to suggest that the beer history should have changed in the textbooks. It could be said that the beer brewing has been made in the Paleolithic and Neolithic period, not originally made in the Egypt period as recently thought.    
   Surprisingly, the researchers further had produced two kinds of beers, an ancient beer and a modern beer, for comparing. They found that two kinds of beers had made from the same process- fermentation- but the modern beer is probably stronger than the ancient beer. In this case, it’s not surprised me, it may amaze other people who were not studied in the major of microbiology or food sciences. The ancient beer was weaker than the modern beer because the yeast strains, eukaryotic microorganisms converting sugars to alcohol, using in the fermentation process are different. The yeast strains at present have been processed to genetic modification by environmental stresses or genetic engineering techniques, so the modern beer has better tastes and high alcohol. In summary, I think the discovery of the oldest beer in the cave in Israel might be led numerous researchers get ideas to survey more evidence of beverage in the Middle East for proposing novel knowledge and clearly improving the history of beer.        ___________________________________ 

My question

1. Do you think that evidences can propose a new record of the world’s oldest beer?
2. Do you think that the modern beer is stronger than the ancient beer?
___________________________________ 


Reference

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Wednesday, 26 September 2018

What I read

The BBC News article "Anni Albers and the forgotten women of the Bauhaus" reports that, although Bauhaus has known as a forward-thinking design school of the inter-war era, it has a contradictory idea about woman as a designer. The number of woman staffs is less than 20% and women were barred from the 'considered' masculine subjects such as glasswork and metalwork. Anni Albers is among very few woman designers that are being seen for their innovative contribution to the design of the modernism. She started reluctantly at Bauhaus with textile design that she didn't aim for when she applied but in turn successfully made her gain reputation. Because of modernism attention is on architecture which had seen as discipline for men, women took a great move to textile discipline men wouldn't do.
___________________________________ 


My response 

The title of this article attracted me because I'm not familiar with any women names that has a connection with Bauhaus. Normally, mentioning about Bauhaus, I would think of Walter Gropius (founder of Bauhaus), Mies Van Der Rohe (architect) or László Moholy-Nagy (photographer). Thinking about Bauhaus, it made me think of the phase ‘form follow function’, the very modernism idea and with some reasons it made me think of ‘male’ vision. But I’m not sure about the exact reason why modernism made me think of masculinity rather than femininity. Why rationality quality belongs to men and irrationality quality belongs to woman.

Is it because in western, all the cultural movement has been set by male?

Thinking about art and design movement in (western) history, it’s true that more male artists and designers are mentioned. And it’s natural to talk about the work of male which connects to any subjects, not specifically point to only the subject of ‘masculinity’. But when talking about female artists or designers, it often connects with gender; female physical, mental or organic shape and forms. Why to be distinct as an artist or designer, women have to do something that men can’t do or can’t understand. Why women have to raise the subject like motherness to work with, why we have to be irrational in creating an artwork and why women have to create organic shapes and draw only fluid lines.

However, subconsciously and intentionally, I’m often drawn to the artworks by female artists. Subconsciously, by visual, I may be programmed to recognize some elements women often produced. Intentionally, by ideas, I want to know better the thoughts behind their works as the same gender.

For example, I was drawn to the sculptural works and drawings of Louise Bourgeois. For me, her works express the sense of femininity that I once appreciated. But lately, I started to question a lot about feminine quality in artworks. So, now I’m a bit skeptical about her success that does she take an advantage of being women in exchange.

For Anni Albers, I like that her work has no connection with the physical of women and her life tragic (according to this article). Only that she barred from glassworks class from school doesn’t make her revenge by express herself as a woman on her textile design. Even though, she chose more subtle way in against the rule of Bauhaus ‘form follows function’ by making decorative wall hanging textile without any function (but it doesn’t mean irrational, she incorporate her experience into her design according to this article). I’m personally impressed by her way of resistance to masculinity.

Lucky that I don’t struggle in the issue of gender discrimination like Anni Albers had as a designer. No oppression in the field of my profession that I face these days. Though, my struggle is on the issue of feminine style ideology rather than social factor. I prefer to work neutrality to femininity and not to take advantage from the femininity subject to get attention.
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My question

1. Do you agree that textile design is a feminine subject?
2. Are there still gender discrimination in any professions?
3. Do we really able to remove the ideology about 'feminine' and 'masculine' style out of art?
4. Do you think you are feminist? What does it mean to be feminist?
___________________________________ 

Reference

  • Dominic Lutyens (2018, September 20). Anni Albers and the forgotten women of the Bauhaus. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20180919-anni-albers-and-the-forgotten-women-of-the-bauhaus.
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What I read

Referring to the article in BBC News “An outrageous plan to haul icebergs to Africa” (2018) reports that, as the iceberg tends to melt every day, why don‘t we make use of it instead of waiting for the flood which will bring disaster to the world. In 2010, Mougine, a French computer-aided Design, designed the model in order to support the whole ice and could be transport to the destination within 141 days, but as the risk was so high according to the period it will be taken, therefore, no one approve his model. Even though many of ideas came up, but none of them has actually happened.

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My response 

At first, after I read the articles, I felt really curious about how it could be that the ice is a fresh water, although, the surrounding is salty water, oceans,  but somehow found out the answer while I was browsing through the internet. It is stated that the ions that makes up the salt do not fit well in the crystal lattice formed by water molecules, by Mathijs Booden, PhD in earth science. This reason remind me of the importance of study the basics before going through the detail.


Consider the failure, which had written on the BBC‘s Website, the most regretful, and Amusive plan, belongs to Prince Fasai, is to tow the icebergs to Saudi Arabia, I would say that his idea indeed good for his country, but in the mean time, referring to the location of his country, the ice must tow across the equator in order to get into the country, of course by that time, the ice would be completely melted. Finally, the project shelved and remained no solution up until now.


I was so attracted by this incident and having questions, why don‘t people try to filter the seawater, make it drinkable? Or if the ice in the South and North Pole occurred by itself, with low temperature, with nowadays technologies, we also can control the possibility of ice creation shall we try another solution instead of boiling the sea water which will result as Salt (solid).


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My question

According to my article, do you think, Is it possible for handmade ice pole?
___________________________________ 

Reference

  • Tim Smedley (2018, September 21). The outrageous plan to haul icebergs to Africa. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180918-the-outrageous-plan-to-haul-icebergs-to-africa
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Can vinegar cure illness? Here are the facts

What I read

(Credit: Alamy)An article from BBC News “Can vinegar cure illness? Here are the facts”, (2018), many people wondered about the vinegar that it can cure illness, healing power or not. In  history, Hippocrates, Greek physician, suggested that the vinegar can relieve cough and colds. Tommaso (1348), Italian physician, recommended vinegar can be used to wash hands, face, and mouth for preventing infection. Nowadays,  some people are finding the evidences of vinegar, which they have advantages and disadvantages. For advantages, the vinegar can decrease sugar after-meal, reduce weight, fat mass, triglycerides, blood pressure, and for disadvantages, when consuming high vinegar will affect to unhealthy.
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My response 

        When someone says about vinegar, I always think of smell, the smell of vinegar is odor. So, I don’t like it, but I’m interested in how to treat, and how to reduce taking chemical medicine, I think, the vinegar is the one of organic medicine that affect to health less than chemical medicine. For pre-diabetic, the vinegar is useful when the people don’t have enough money for buying insulin or some humans who have high blood pressure, and high triglycerides, the vinegar can help these people, too. But I don’t know the quantity for reducing sugar, blood pressure, triglycerides, etc. I think, if we need to consume this vinegar, we should consume in the appropriate amount.
        In case of other people when they think of vinegar, they always think about ingredients for cooking, especially noodles, but I’m not. For me, the vinegar is a special substance that can wipe out deep stain. I know this solution from my friend, he said that if you pour the vinegar to the deep stain in a bowl, and rest around ten minutes, the deep stain will be disappeared. This solution is one method for me to clean the deep stains, and  you should know this solution, too.
___________________________________ 

My question

Do you think the vinegar is important for our health?
___________________________________ 

Reference

  • Neal, G. (2018, September, 26). Can vinegar cure illness? Here are the facts. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180924-can-vinegar-cure-illness-here-are-the-facts
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Business is trying to satisfy customers' pot need.

What I read


Referring to the The Economist News “Coca-Cola mulls cannabis drinks.” (2018) reports that, since it is not illegal to use cannabis as an ingredient of food and beverage in some part of U.S., small companies and startups have already added cannabis into their products. Some are also experimenting it. Even a big corporate, like Coca-Cola, is considering the trend of hashish consumption. However, there are 2 kinds of marijuana. One is cannabidiol, which is not psychoactive. Used as a food supplement, cannabidiol also benefits to people in both mental and physical health. Another is tetrahydrocannabinol. It is used for alcohol-drink industry to create non-hangover and low-calorie alcoholic drinks.
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My response 

In the past, some villagers in Northern Thailand was addicted to opium and their life quality became worse and worse. They was unable to work and got poorer and poorer. Therefore, I cannot imagine what it is going to be if people are allowed to consume products, contained cannabis, legitimately. Although companies may claim that they use just a little amount of cannabis, there is still a risk that people may get addicted to marijuana. We can be sure that companies will gain advantages from an increase in sale. However, apart from helping consumers relief anxiety and pain, is there any drawbacks from pot intake? This new product concept may drive business sector forward. Nevertheless, which direction will it bring our country and our people to, forward or backward?

In my opinion, if today cannabis drinks are available at convenient stores, I will not try them. I am afraid of getting addicted to cannabis as it is an addictive substance. Once I try them. I may want to take more of them, in terms of dose and frequency. Moreover, delicious dishes, healthy smoothies and other general products that used to make me happy may not satisfy me anymore. This will definitely cause me a big trouble.   

To conclude, marijuana may bring amazing joyfulness to us and a huge profit to companies. There are still some disadvantages that are worth to be concerned.
___________________________________ 

My question

Is it possible that products from marijuana will be legally available in Thailand in the near future? And what do you think about it?
___________________________________ 

Reference

Coca-Cola mulls cannabis drinks. (2018, September 24) Retrieved from https://www.economist.com/business/2018/09/19/coca-cola-mulls-cannabis-drinks


20+ Killer Pot Brownie Recipes To Lift Your Spirits. (2018, September 28) Retrieved photo  from  https://www.pinterest.com/pin/306244843401291363/ 


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 Plastic waste management in UK

 What I read

According to Wesley Stephenson in "All the plastic you can and cannot recycle"(2018) reports that, even though UK government have plastic recycle systems, the systems still have problems such as , plastic wastes in household sometime are contaminated with other wastes and hard to separate from each other , other problem is citizen can correctly define what are these plastic can even recycled or not .Another major problem is past several years government export contaminated plastic wastes to other counties ,but in 2018 there are countries that banned to import waste so, the government will come up with ideas to solve this problem in November.


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My response 

Plastic wastes is one of my concerns because thailand is one of countries that generate most of plastic waste in the world,so I think thailand should have waste management system that good enough  to separate waste form each other . Not only we need efficiently management system ,but also we should have policy that can reduce plastic used because in my opinion good management cannot be enough if wastes are much more than that we can mange it.

 In my opinion  plastic pollution will be one of the biggest problems that almost every countries around the world will face in next few years , so I think every country should have some levels of concerns or some kinds of policies that not only have excellent management systems we should develop some material that can be substitute for plastic.
Plastic pollution in ocean
___________________________________ 

My question 

Are we have any technology that provide us to recycle plastic much more efficiently ?
___________________________________ 

Reference

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Calories with people nowadays lifestyle.


What I read

Refer to Mr.Michelle Roberts in "Making sure you get the right type of calorie"  (2018) a recent report from BBC News about calories. The studies telling that there are many zero calorie foods that people still don't know. Robert suggests that women need 2000 calories and men need 2500 calories per day, he said that if you eat like this your weight will become lower. He also mentions about zero calories, empty calorie and hidden calorie.

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My response 

      Nowadays, people concerned about calories. Calories are the energy used to raise the temperature of 1 kilogram of water through 1 °C. People want to lose weight. Losing weight can do in many differences way, for examples exercise, cardio, and diet. I am the one that trying to lose weight by exercise, but it's not easy. If you want to lose weight through exercise, you should be disciplined. But you have another way to make your life easier. You can diet, by control calories that you eat per day.
        Many products need to add more choice for the customer. For examples, coke has made cock zero, milk company has made zero fat milk. Also, there has 0 calorie product, that can make you enjoy eating but not getting fat  In this article mentions about hight calories food and low calories food, it telling that "High-calorie foods are often less healthy but not always. And those sold as low-calorie may not be the healthiest". I like this sentence because it tells you the true thing that people still confuse, this sentence represents low calories food may not be the healthiest food.
         I have been trying to lose weight. First I worried about the caloric requirement per day. Until I met one guy, he is the expert about fitness. He told me that if you want to lose your weight but your daily life is changing your weight will not lose. I listened to him and thinking that noting going to be good if it doesn't be normal you always do. If I serious about the calories requirement per day, my body will have problems. The thing that we should do is learn and knowing what should we eat and what we shouldn't eat to make our healthy bad.
________________________________

My question

How much calories that people can lose in one week, if they run 30 minutes per day?
___________________________________ 

Reference

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Tuesday, 25 September 2018

Alternative way of healthy eating

What I read

Plant vs Meat Protein
source : https://veganstreet.com
Refer to Dr. Michael Mosley in "Will going vegan make you healthier" (2018), a recent report together with the result of 10 previous studies claim that being vegan and vegetarians are healthier than omnivores as they decrease risk of heart disease and cancer. Mosley suggests that they should not be applied for the entire life, but we should allocate against being omnivores as well. Moreover, being vegan might make us lack of nutrition, e.g. vitamin D, vitamin B12 and Iodine, to prevent from it we must have a vitamin supplement. Key of balancing vegan with our life is to choose the recipes that is created for being vegan instead of changing the recipes that are normally eaten with meat into vegan version.


                                     ___________________________________ 

My response 

Sources of protein that I usually had
 when I went vegan
When I was in college, I’ve tried to find the most suitable way for me to lose weight as I was obese back then. I googled and read a lot of journals about nutrition, weight loss and alternative ways of healthy eating, then I found out “Vegan”. It was interesting as they were brand-new and many YouTubers claimed that the result of it was good. Therefore, I decided to try being vegan. I’ve been vegetarian for 2 years and 6 months for vegan, nonetheless, I have stopped because I found out it gradually ruined my life even my doctor supported me to go vegan for my entire life as claimed that it was beneficial. I was obsessed with it so much at that time, I chose what I'd eat and what would be a meat replacement for the regular recipes, googled the nutritional benefit of everything I ate to my body and did exercise hard to stay fit. However, the result was not as good as claimed. I was pale or sometimes yellowish with no clue, often fainted and easily fell. Even though my health check result was fine, it was written that I did not lack of neither vitamins nor minerals, I felt like my body still need something to replenish. It happened for a couple months, then I realized that were happened because I could not balance what I did and I needed to do some thing.

I didn’t oppose to what Dr. Michael says about how good the vegan is and do agree with his suggestion that being vegan should be allocated against omnivores because life should be balanced. I, however, think that vegan might not be the way of mine, I prefer being pollo-pescetarian, poultry and fish are edible, having more veggie, lessening processed foods to being vegan which consume only plant-based foods. After I could balance how I eat, now I have variety of foods, snacks, beverages but still be healthy and happy.
          
                                              ___________________________________ 

My question

Even if some Thais know that vegan is benefit for health, why doesn't it popular in Thailand ?
___________________________________ 

Reference

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Saturday, 22 September 2018

You can't beat full-fat Greek

What I read

According to Nick Triggle in "Yoghurts (even organic ones) 'full of sugar'" (2018), a recent report in BMJ Open says that many yoghurts, including organic varieties, contain very high levels of added sugar. Triggle says that although there has been progress in reducing the sugar content of yoghurts, the British government is still not satisfied with the high amounts of sugar in most brands of yoghurt, which is sometimes even higher than in sweet soft drinks. The report says that the lowest sugar content is in natural and Greek style yoghurts, which are accordingly the ones that the experts who did the research recommend. 

___________________________________ 

My response 

My family have always eaten yoghurt, along with lots of pasta and the wine that comes with our Italian heritage. In fact, when my ancestors migrated from Italy to Australia, they bought cuttings from their grape vines so that they could grow grapes to make wine in their new home, although these days we buy wine made by others. I remember eating yoghurt back in primary school, before it became a popular health food. And the yoghurt we ate was not full of sugar; it was natural, Greek style. 
My preferred yoghurt - tasty and
natural with added cream! 
My doctor recommends some daily yoghurt in my diet, and although he would prefer a low-fat one, I like an imported yoghurt from Australia. It's the Greek style Farmer's Union yoghurt, which has zero added sugar. My doctors worries because it has added cream, so it's definitely not low-fat. But it is delicious and healthily free of sugar. I usually eat a tub every day, except that sometimes it's out of stock at the Tops and other supermarkets near my home on Silom. I guess that means that other people in the area also like this product. 

 I wasn't very surprised that many yoghurts are not healthy because of the high sugar content. I've looked at the ingredients lists on the packaging in supermarkets, and they do report high sugar percentages.  I've often thought that being "organic" is not a very strong recommendation. Something might indeed be organic, but that does not make it healthy or good for any other reason, although it's a popular sales story these days. I prefer my food to be healthy and delicious than organic. I suspect that the production methods also means that organic food takes more land and more water to produce the same amount than using more high-tech. methods than organic, which makes organic worse for the environment. 
___________________________________ 

My question

Do you think that organic foods are healthier or otherwise better than non-organic foods? 
___________________________________ 

Reference

Posted by at 1 comment:

Learning about ourselves from our relatives

What I read

The BBC News article "Octopuses on ecstasy drug 'become more social'" (2018) reports that, although some scientists think the experiment should be redone with different procedures and more animals, the responses of octopuses exposed to the drug ecstasy, the psychologically powerful MDMA, are similar to the human response of increased sociability reflected in more physical contact. This has led the researchers to suggest that it might not be the sophisticated design of our brains that led to human socialization, but the effect of more anciently evolved chemical responses acting across nerve cells, which in the case of octopuses are not centralized as in human brains but spread out across their arms. 

___________________________________ 

My response 

I had already read a longer account of this research in The New York Times (NYT) last night, whose title, "On Ecstasy, Octopuses Reached Out for a Hug," had caught my attention as I was browsing with my evening coffee. The NYT article is a bit longer and gives more information about the human attraction to the party drug ecstasy, also called E, which I believe is illegal in Thailand and most other countries. (If this were a research paper or essay, I would do the research, but it isn't.) I also like the NYT's thought-provoking title more than the BBC's rather boring one. But the BBC article was useful for my class this morning, so I was pleased to see it as I was enjoying my morning coffee. 

 I hadn't known before that octopus brains are spread out across their bodies, being loosely connected nerve cells in the centre and in each arm. This is certainly very different to our own brains. We humans like to think that we are special, that we are better than other animals, mainly because of our brains, and I agree with this. It is, after all our brains that let us learn languages, make music, understand the world around us well enough to be able to control it and even to explore the world beyond Earth. No other species on our planet has ever known that it is 4.5 billion years old, or that they were related to every other living thing. But it's useful to be reminded that we are related to every other living thing on Earth, from monkeys, to dogs, to corn and bacteria, and this sort of research also helps us to better understand not only our connection to the rest of life on Earth, but how we work on the same evolved mechanisms, many of which are far more ancient than our very recent species that now dominates the planet, to the expense of most other species except those that are useful to us, like pigs and rice. 

 Perhaps it's helpful to remember that the bright young teens and others getting high on ecstasy at dance parties are doing what their evolved biology has programmed them to do over millions of years before we humans even existed. 
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My question

Is there anything thing that makes us humans totally different to other animal species, all of which are our relatives? 
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Reference

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Getting into Unit 5 = Sprawl (SkRW4, p47, Discussion point)

What we read

The authors of Skillful Reading and Writing 4 (Skillful 4), Mike Boyle and Lindsay Warwick, introduce each unit with a discussion activity, that is, an opportunity for us to share our ideas on the topic of the unit in a way that relates it to our own lives, ideas and experiences. Unit 5 of book 4 (Boyle & Warwick, 2014, p.47) does this for the unit titled "Sprawl."
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My response 

The research solidly shows that brainstorming or discussion activities for groups are more effective if participants start by working individually (O'Connell, 2010; Markman, 2017). In fact, experts at Harvard University's School of Management and elsewhere are sure that this can be very effectively done using online tools as Chamorro-Premuzic emphasizes in his 2015 article "Why brainstorming works better online" in the Harvard Business Review. Blogging is one effective way to do this, which is one reason I've turned Boyle and Warwick's discussion exercise into a quick blogging discussion.
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Boyle and Warwick's questions

Think about these questions for a minute, then respond in a three paragraph comment. 

  • Are you from the city or the countryside? Do you like where you live? Why or why not?
     
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in the city? Think of at least three of each.
     
  • What are some of the problems that exist in your city? How do you think they could be solved?  


 Write full sentences. You will also need to write a few sentences for each of your ideas, giving explanation, examples and other details to clarify and develop them. 

 You can answer the questions in any order, for which reason I replaced Boyle and Warwick's numbers with bullets. This is a fluency activity; that is, you want to quickly turn your ideas into sentences one after the other. Whilst the style should be similar to the formality of academic writing, this is not an academic writing exercise. Your aim is to write down as many of your ideas as you can in the allotted time. 
Open a new comment box and start writing. You have ten (10:00) minutes.   

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Reference

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