Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 89 - Critical thinking on "Dangers and Opportunities in the Arctic Circle"

Summary 

In exercise E on page 89, Rogers and Zemach invite us to discuss three critical thinking questions that follow up ideas presented in "Dangers and Opportunities in the Arctic Circle" (2018, p. 87-88). We have already done question 1 as a quick response. We will skip question 3, at least for now.

____________________________________ 

Response 

As we have just done before, we will discuss Rogers and Zemach's question in blog commnets, which is likely to generate a wider variety of ideas in addition to giving us a more permanent record of our ideas while also getting in some practice writing for fluency in a less academic style, but still writing our ideas in grammatically complete sentences that clearly state our ideas.  
 

____________________________________ 

Question

After thinking about it for a few minutes, write down your response to Rogers and Zemach's critical thinking question 2 on page 89 in a comment below. 

• Climate change causes some problems, yet also brings some benefits. 
  Should people try to halt or reverse climate change, or let it happen? 

____________________________________ 

You have 15:00 minutes to plan and write a response to the three questions. I suggest you divide your time roughly as: 

• planning = 3:00 minutes
• writing = 9:00 minutes, and 
• editing = 3:00 minutes.

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education 

Beck's BBC Article

Summary 

Eater must use their chopstick to clamped the noodles 

According to "Where you must catch your meal with chopsticks" (Gorge, 2019). As we know the most famous summer food in Japan, Nagashi Somen. This food is invented in 1950s in the town on Kyushe island, in the past it’s only local famer dish for summer but now it’s famous in Japan on summer period.
The restaurant that has Nagashi Somen locate in beautiful nature areas such as waterfall, forest etc. Nogashi Somen is a group of moving noodles in bamboo trunk that has cool water flowing inside. Chef put noodle into the cool water for eating. So,the eaters use their chopstick into the stream, champ it and dip in their sauce. Nogashi Somen serves with green onion and ginger but sometimes, it’ll serve with mint, mushrooms, crab, shrimp or seaweed.

After they catch their noodle, they dip in sauce.

____________________________________ 

Response 

                My reason for choosing this topic is I like to see the special thing in another country such as food, culture, traditional, daily life. In my country, Thailand, we have summer food that is a Kaao Chae. Kaao Chae is traditional food in Thailand, Thai people usually eat it in Songkran Festival because it socks rice in flower cool water and serving with fish, pork, Thai onion or chili. And Now this topic shows us, which food does Japanese people choose to relax from the weather. Nagashi Somen is a local food at Kyushu island but now today it is well-known in every region in Japan.

               Nagashi Somen that is the most Japanese food that I want to try  because I have to see it many times in amine (Japanese cartoon in Thailand, you can call it “amine”) but when I have chances to travel in Japan, I haven’t seen Nagashi Somen any times . However, now I know the real cause that I haven’t see it because I go to wrong place according this article “The Nagashi Somen restaurant is locate in peaceful place such as waterfall, forest, local island”.
               Now, If I have a chance to go to Japan, I must try it by myself. Before this month, I think I’ll go to Japan in Dec,2020 but now in Thailand and in Japan we have coronavirus critically, my plan will be postpone it and Nagashi Somen is a food that we have to use a dish together – I think it isn’t good idea to eat it now.

 

____________________________________ 

Question

Which food do you eat in summer?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• George (2020, March, 7). Where you must catch your meal with chopsticks. BBC Travel. http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190306-where-you-must-catch-your-meal-with-chopsticks
  

Phing' BBC article Christian Louboutin - king of the killer stiletto

Summary 

According to "Christian Louboutin - king of the killer stiletto" there are the showcases of Christian Louboutin who designed red-soled shoes, one of the iconic items in pop culture. Louboutin created many products and had strong relationships with elite and celebrities in various fields. He had an outstanding childhood such as being expelled from a school however he was surrounded by many inspirations. His shoes were designer by his obsession such as an aquarium, museum, Egyptian and Bollywood movie. He was a rebellious person. The design of his signature red sole began at boring from the ordinary shoe model. After seeing it, he decided to paint lacquer-red to make it more attractive. Certain collections were influenced by gay liberation and punk. Style of using Colour in pop art also appeared on his design especially Andy Warhol and Allen Jones.

____________________________________ 

Response 

High heels have been the feminine symbol for a long period. Many girls around the world would like to wear it because having long legs and walking like a cat is their definition of beauty: However, stiletto heels lead to painful and some accidence. While a human is wearing, you are standing on your tiptoes, causing back and knee problems. I would like to call it 'the shoes of pleasure and pain'. 
A lot of famous women characters completed their outfits with stiletto shoes hence I'm not curious why high heels have a strong influence on girls midset. Cinderella story is one the most obvious example. The poor girl got a great opportunity duo to wearing crystals high heels. Dressing up in magical costume provided the spotlight and solution of all her obstacles. After launching of Cinderella Disney version, this fairy tale came to in many girl's mines. 
Moreover, stiletto heels also represent own social status. In the past, only elite and blue blood were possessed of this kind of shoes which used to be produced by sophisticated processes. Although nowadays the majority of creating high heels becomes mass production, it still has some feature to indicate the social status of its owners. People hunt for the outstanding high heels Which might be made from rare materials or designed in impressive style. Red-soled shoes of Christian Louboutin is one of the must-have shoes of 20-century girls and is predicted to continue popularity. Nevertheless, behind the classy and gorgeous design, the pricy prices of these shoes frustrate people to obtain.
Not only do women wear Christian Louboutin shoes but certain actors also choose it for themselves. Wearing this type of shoes isn't discriminated for only female or LGBT. For instance, Harry Styles, a well-known pop star, presented his red-carpet looks with loafer heels or stiletto shoes. This phenomenon shows the new role of these shoes. However, men wearing high heel isn't literally a new trend because first high heels were created for men to ride a horse. 

__________________________________ 

Question

How our childhood background affect ourselves or our inspiration? 

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Dominic L. (2020, March, 2). Christian Louboutin - king of the killer stiletto. BBC News. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200228-christian-louboutin-king-of-the-killer-stiletto

US law attacks women in Covid-19 emergency

Summary 

Anti-abortion protesters in the US

According to "Coronavirus: Texas says abortions 'non-essential' amid pandemic" (2020), the move by US states Texas and Ohio to ban abortions during the Covid-19 emergency is opposed by women’s groups and medical organizations. Officials have ordered doctors in both states to stop performing abortions, arguing that they are non-essential operations, which have been banned during the Covid-19 emergency. Pro-abortion groups argue that abortions are essential operations for women, who might not be able to get the operation at all if forced to wait a few weeks, which would push them over the 20-week pregnancy period when abortions are legal in the Texas, or the six-week limit in Ohio

____________________________________ 

Response 

Abortion has been a controversial issue in the US for at least the last fifty years. It was made legal everywhere in a famous 1973 US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) opinion, Roe v. Wade, but opponents, including many politicians who want Christian and other religious votes, have tried to limit the right of American woman to a safe, legal abortion. Although I enjoy reading SCOTUS opinions, which are models of critical thinking in solid academic English, I don't always agree with the majority opinion. Roe v. Wade is interesting because although I think that women should have a right to an abortion when they want one, for any reason and at any time in the pregnancy, I don't think that a SCOTUS  ruling was the best way to achieve that. It would be better if the politicians changed the law themselves. But the same as with same-sex marriage in 2015, it was a decision by the nine justices of the Supreme Court that changed the law with their interpretation of the US Constitution. 

Although not so heated as the issue is in the US, abortion also remains controversial in Australia. In fact, it was only this year that parliement acted to finally remove abortion from the list of crimes that doctors or women could commit. However, in most Australian states, abortion has been legal, with restrictions, for many years. 

I think it's an emotional issue because it's about life and death, about religious belief, and about what people think makes an act morally right or wrong. I can understand why religious people are against abortion, but they are wrong. It's also a reminder that religion should not be used to make the law. If there is no good reason for making something legal or illegal that is independent of religious belief, then the law should not be made; otherwise, everyone's religious prejudices should have the same legal right to be forced on other people, and that seems wrong to me. Should steak be illegal because cows are sacred to Hinus? Should beer be a criminal drug because its against Islam? This leads to a lot of confused thinking because in the US, the First Amendment to their excellent constitution, which has lasted more than 200 years, forbids the government from either supporting or opposing any religion. This means that the people who oppose abortion because they are Christian or some other religion have to make up other arguments, and those arguments are all very weak arguments. For example, they argue that all life is sacred, but then they go out and kill pigs, cows and chickens to turn them into tasty snacks. Or they argue that human life is sacred, but then they need to explain what makes all human life, in particular the life an unborn human, so different to the lives of pigs, cows and chickens; they cannot give any good reason, I think that the honest name for the "pro-life" people who oppose abortion is really the anti-person people. It's being a person that makes our lives valuable, and unborn babies, while exerting a powerful emotional response from us, do not have any characteristic of human persons. They do not think They do not have plans. They are  not self-conscios. They do not have emotional bonds. They do not have any other trait that defines us as persons.  
 

____________________________________ 

Question

What is a controversial social issue in your country?  

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Coronavirus: Texas says abortions 'non-essential' amid pandemic. (2020, March 25). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/52012243 

Lives in History

Summary 

Acccording to "Why we can’t get enough of the Tudors" (Anderson, 2020) As we know most of entertainment industry especially, literature have influenced by Tudors era even that is around 400 years ago. Back to Tudors period, at that time Britain facing a great change, suddenly change, in every way such as political social or religious reform. We can say that is the age of unpredictable. According to this article, Hilary Mantel found the reason that make Tudors period more attractive and popular for long time than other history ever, Tudors emerged in pop-culture sine the Victorians, because the detail and element in Tudors history still can parallel to the modern situations particularly, Brexit. This way, Tudors history become the reflection for the past and helps people see or think about what their era might be next.

____________________________________ 

Response 

     History is lives as we know history is the collective story from past that written by human. Therefore, History is human self-knowledge which can play an importance role by told us about who we are? What is it mean to be human? If we learn from the past widely we can predict our future and make it better. Unfortunately, most of history is always focus on royal house, war heroines, famous people stories rather than ordinary people stories. 

     In my opinion, I think that the history and the past is not the same thing because history had been constructed by historians as known as grand narratives. its can be true or not? It’s depend on who tell that story and each generation looks at the past through their own gaze. For example, History of Thai Nation are developed by view of elite for the nationalize purpose, event it has many version of them but it still remind Thainess, the idea that portray every people no matter who you are, race culture religious as Thais whole nation. This idea is so stereotype, over-generalized about a category of people, it made somethings or someone invisible form their own society even in fact societies have many types of people who live together. Nowadays the idea of extremism that affect from nationalism, more become serious problem around the world. 

     Hence, I think that is the reason why I choose this article it’s because I’m interested in the gaze of generation that looks thought History. Everyone has their own perspective and interpretation which relate their background like age gender race. So, it makes History more interesting. Back to our acritical “Why we can’t get enough of the Tudors”, The House of Tudor was an English royal house that ruled England and Wales from 1485 to 1603. At that time, Britain have to facing a great change, they need to reform their country. For 400 years gone by same story same character still inspiring entertainment scene like fashion novel especially, Movie and TV series. Movie and TV series have many aspects of Tudors. Sadly, all of those stick around sexual desire, For example The Spanish Princess (2019) The Tudors (2007) The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972). It makes us learn nothing for that. 

     In this article point out that it’s still has novel name Wolf Hall written by English author Hilary Mantel. It's a trilogy that adapted fictional character for Tudors. This story covers the last four years of Cromwell's life, King Henry's ministers. this is the reason why I’m interested because the trilogy focuses about political games lives of ordinary people, I think it made Wolf Hall outstanding from any other.

 

____________________________________ 

Question

In your opinion, why are we so obsessed with period dramas?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Anderson, H. Why we can’t get enough of the Tudors (2020, February, 28). BBC Culture http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200227-why-we-cant-get-enough-of-the-tudors

Crowd control due to a hard time

Summary 

According to "Coronavirus: New York warns of major medical shortages in 10 days." (2020), the city's mayor, Bill de Blasio, warned that the hospital in New York would face penury of medical supplies in 10 days. It would lead to a significant death toll to raise up rapidly. The city's mayor wanted to increase awareness from the government. Even though, they had announced that the country is in a major disaster. Trump had sent medical supplies to the worst-hit state; such as New York, Washington, and California. However, Illinois governor declared that masks, gowns, gloves are insufficient for frontline medical teams and now we are against each other to get that, also Washington and California still required a load of ventilators. Recently, the Democrat vote for the rejection of an emergency stimulus bill to boost up an economy during the pandemic.                   

____________________________________ 

Response 

Choosing the Covid-19 topic to write an opinion, now inadequate medical supplies have become huge trouble around the world and I wonder what the US government would react so I continue reading it. Firstly, I was scared by the headline, later on, the feeling leads me to think about how each country doing its crowd control among the worries. Focusing on China, Korea, and Thailand how did three countries individually coping with the issue.

Beginning with, China, Covid originates from Wuhan city, Dr. Li Wenliang was the first doctor warning about the virus, but the police claimed that he told rumor and investigate him. In addition, the government knew that was true but they censored the truth in every channel. Online platforms, for example, We Chat, people unable to search the word related to the virus. The anger spread wildly after Dr passed-away by one month, at that time thousands of people were infected. Censoring happens because China runs by communism, if anythings affect public security, it would be ban from their system. Keeping a citizen in claim stages might be a good choice rather than announcing the fact and let's chaos run the country. In contrast, covering important information once they need related to infect tolls, lacking accurate communication making people scared and confused, when people didn't know what was going on leading them to have less caution, No one knows that this spread easily without protecting themself and proper prevention, cause the virus spread wildly and rapidly not only in the country but it has become an epidemic and finally pandemic at the end. 

Second, Korea, super spreader started in the religious group, one of the plans was launched an aggressive and transparent information campaign to educate people about the virus. Dr. Justin Fendos, who work closely with the Korean government said that transparent information was the essential first step in any containment effort. The attempt had shown that the government worked differently with China. In addition, the government informed risk factors through everyone by phone text messages such as show them a list of the restaurants, shops or churches to show that how many people were there at the period of time to let others decide whether they should go there or risk or not. Another way was broadcasted daily general advice through every media and platform such as television, internet, and newspaper to remind people, avoiding crowded places. All this act did for preventing their citizens from fake news and rumors, so every people understood it clearly then they knew how to behave themselves and to prevent each other. 

Back in Thailand, the government should announce that we are in the third stage since the virus spread during boxing game in a big hall. When Mathew, actor, announcing that he infected the virus, however, the governor wanted to sue him back, this react told me that our government has a different mindset with Korean and also they were unaware of the disease enough this scared me that our leader was not educated about the virus clearly. The reaction that I wish from them is searching for a place that the actor got infected and announced it as a risk place and quickly inform others that might be risked because of Mathew. Before this case came up in the spotlight, many people still thought that healthy people won't be infected and there were not many people wearing a mask. Later on, I found that the army who runs the boxing stadium got a notification letter in advance to postpone the competition due to the virus issue but they decided to continue. I could say that I have no hope for my own government under the disaster.  

To conclude, I wish our country would pass the pandemic quickly, but to be frank I think we are not safe because our crowd is walking individually without strictly and powerful measures. Although the government had announced the curfew, thousands of people from Bangkok heading back to their home town, it could mean that the virus from the city spread throughout the whole country by migration.                                                                             
    
                                           
          

____________________________________ 

Question

What do you think is the best way to do crowd control in our country in this time?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Coronavirus: New York warns of major medical shortages in 10 days. (2020, March 23). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51998429

What's Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, ...?

Summary 

A US soldier carries Shakespeare
into the war in Vietnam

According to "Will Gompertz reviews Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro" (Gompertz, 2020),  American academic James Shapiro improves our understanding both of Shakespeare and of American history from its foundation as a British colony in 1620 to today under the rule of Donald Trump. Writer Will Gompertz says that Shapiro explains how Shakespeare quickly became America's most honoured poet, genuinely loved by his audience around the world, because his poetry treats issues that have always interested us, from love to murder, from war to sexism and other human prejudices, which are the same issues Americans have fought over for 400 years, with both sides of the battles often calling on Shakespeare's powerful expressions to support their causes: for or against slavery, for or against independence from Britain and so on, until today.

____________________________________ 

Response 

Like the ordinary soldier in the photo I added from the BBC article, I'm one of those people who love to read Shakespeare, so the title of Gompertz's article interested me when I saw it. Although I'm Australian, I'm also interested in US politics, law and history, although I'm sure I don't know US history as well as Tung does. When US history, politics and society were combined with Shakespeare, that was irresistible. I wasn't disappointed. I haven't decided whether to buy Shapiro's book yet, but since I have a lot more time to sit around at home than I had been expecting this month, I do need something to do, and reading an analysis by an expert academic of how Shakespeare reflects the development of America, and how America reflects the themes that Shakespeare deals with is attractive. 

My first experience with Shakespeare was Macbeth, which I studied in high school when I was 12. I had mixed feelings about that. The story is great: a greedy noble who is told be  witches that he will become king, an ambitious wife who pushes her husband, the noble, to kill the king when he sleeping at their home as guest, ghosts, battles, and an impressively tragic ending with lots of dead people — I think Shakespeare kills more people in his plays than a John Wick movie does. But the language was not easy. English is a living language, with no dictatorial authority saying what is correct or not, so it is constantly evolving as new users make up new words and change the grammar. Shakespeare is only 400 years old, but his vocabulary and grammar are different enough from modern English to need some help. I sometimes have a similar problem today when chatting with my young nieces and nephews. When they were talking about bogans a few years ago, I had no idea what they meant. I oculd guess from the context that bogans were some sort of people, and that it had a negative connotation. That was enough, and I notice that it's now listed in a couple of standard English dictionaries, including Lexico. It's a cool word, but probably not one you want to use in an academic essay, at least not this year. 

I also liked Gompertz's idea that the really great art, like Shakespeare, continues to be enjoyed. I still like to listen to some of the rock music from when I was a teenager and at university, but that's more for nostalgia than because it's great art. But Shakespeare, along with John Keats, John Donne and a few other English poets endure because their work offers us a way of understanding ourselves and our society in richly memorable language. (Other art forms use different media, but I can't cover everything in one post.) Some of the other literature I've loved for many years that also continues to be widely read, enjoyed and learned from is much older than Shakespeare: there are a few Latin poets whose work I enjoy, and even older is Homer, who tells us the story of Achilles fighting in the battle of Troy against the Trojans, led by Priam, whose Queen Hecuba grieves when the son of Achilles kills her husband in vengeance for her son having the awful hero Achilles. But that is not in Homer's Iliad, it's in the Roman poet Vergil's Aeneid. In Hamlet, Shakespeare reminds us of the great influence that ancient Greek poem, the first great work of literature in Western civilization (in my opinion) has had. When plotting how to discover the truth about his uncle, the King of Denmark, who has murdered Hamlet's father, the previous king, Hamlet learns a lesson about understanding himself from a dramatic performance of  Danish version of a Latin addition to Homer's ancient Greek story. More recently, Brad Pitt starred in Troy, a Hollywood version of Homer. 

 Almost 3,000 years later, Homer's story remains popular. 

You are welcome to experiment with images and videos (YouTube is easiest), but remember that the writing is what's important. 

____________________________________ 

Question

Does your culture have old works of literature that are still popular today? 

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Gompertz, W. (2020, March 14). Will Gompertz reviews Shakespeare in a Divided America by James Shapiro. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51827357 

Change for Livable City

Summary 

From the BBC article - Travelling by private car produces
more CO2 than travelling by bus or coach.
(Credit: BEIS Conversion factors 2019/Javier Hirschfeld)

According to "How our daily travel harms the planet," the private transportation sector emits the most CO2. The articles, therefore, offer several solutions.
Firstly, walking more on short journeys is an immediate action we can do. Cycling is also a popular alternative option. Nonetheless, the government should promote these journeys, such as make streets more pleasant or invest in cycling infrastructures. The other way is to use public transport. However, taxis and ride-hailing emit more CO2 than a private car because of the extra passenger-free driving, but the pooling drive can be more helpful. And for someone, that car is essential, such as the elders or people living in rural areas, should consider a smaller car which is more carbon-efficient. Finally, we should change our attitude and make changes at an individual and community level for our better environment.

From the BBC article - ride-hailing emits more CO2
because of "deadheading," or extra passenger-free driving.
(Credit: Union of Concerned Scientists)

____________________________________ 

Response 

I think everyone, even elementary students, knows that using cars hurts the environment. And I am not surprised by that. And the ways to reduce car using, some did surprise me, but not most of them. But what I would like to know from this article is the situation of environmental conservation in other parts of the world. Do people, in this case, Europeans, have a sense of preserving the environment? Do people and the governments of European nations take any action for reducing CO2 in their daily lives? This is what I would like to know and why I chose this article. So, in my response writing, I would like to compare the situation of lessening private transport in the UK and Thailand, and also to urge our society that what we should concern and take action on our environmental problem.

First and the most important things are citizen participation and people’s attitude towards environmental problems. The article mentioned many people’s involvement in reducing car usage in the UK. For instance, a charity called “Living Streets” aims to encourage people to walk in short journeys by campaigning “National Walking Month” in May. Besides, there is a group of parents advocates walking to school instead of car use on the school run. Residents in West London, similarly, push local council on installing electric vehicle chargers in their community. So, we can see some enthusiasm of people in the UK to their carbon issue.

Now, let’s move to the situation in our country. Recently, all the teachers in my school were asked to design new elective courses for students. I, accompanied by my science teacher colleague, desire to open a new class named “Living in the Environment.” Many of my friends told me that it is (f-word) boring! But I kindly replied to them with my course name, “Well, but you are now living in the environment.” My point is many people in Thailand now barely concern about environmental issues. But it is absolutely close to our lives. So, we should, firstly, changed our mindset that we all have a responsibility for our living world. 

Have you ever heard or known about “carbon footprint”? I bet that more than 90% of Thais do not know about this. Also, products in Thailand usually ignore a carbon footprint label. I even learned about this when I was in the last year of university. I think the two directly responsible sectors that shape people’s attitudes are education and mass communication sectors. I believe environment teaching today should be more active such as doing scientific experiments or asking students to work with community environmental projects. Moreover, students should learn and realize the tangible impact of environmental problems closing to our lives first before going through international issues, treaties, or organization things. And for the mass communication sector, I found that there are very few news or articles concerning environmental matters in Thai newspaper columns or broadcasters, while there are many on sites like BBC or New York Times. So, the mass media should take more action on urging society to realize more about environmental problems. 

Let’s move on and discuss the popular alternative option of reducing car usage, cycling. As we might already know, cycling is now more popular transportation in some countries, such as countries mentioned in the article, including the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany. Even in China today, bicycles are used in many large cities. Now, looking back to Thailand, the cycling trend was growing about four or five years ago. But now it is descending, and the cycling market is closing down gradually. The reason is people bike for health, not for transportation, and today, the exercise trend is moving to fitness centers and running.

Why is cycling not popular in Thailand? Everyone may think of the same reason; it is not safe because there is no segregated bike lane in Thailand. For countries that cycling is accessible, the government usually invests in cycling infrastructure. Copenhagen, for instance, there are cycling highways with an average of 15 km length, and its citizens are more riding electric bikes for farther distances. In the case of Bangkok, some Bangkokian might see bike lanes in the old-city district. But these are a total failure because car users ignore them, and these bike lanes now mostly are on-street parking. There is also the bicycle share program by Bangkok Metropolitan in the city’s central areas, but it is quite not popular because of inadequate maintenance and lack of bike lanes. In my opinion, cycling infrastructure should be more improved. Also, car users should be more conscious of traffic law, and the law should be enforced more strictly in order to make the cycling project in Bangkok more successful.

Pedestrian-friendly features along Singapore's Orchard Road
(Credit: Centre for Liveable Cities Singapore)

Another interesting idea mentioned in the article is structural changes by local authorities and policymakers. People will not change their behaviors unless there are more favorable options. The article gave an example of making the streets more pleasant for walking. Singapore exemplifies the pedestrian-friendly streets. The country’s flagship street, Orchard Road, is developed based on the idea of “pedestrian first” and physical enhancing to promote walkability. For example, the street is covered by large trees to provide ample shade, and there are outdoor refreshment areas for pedestrians. Also, the government collaborating with the private sector invested in buildings of pedestrian links. For example, there is a walkway that runs through three buildings and connects with the underground and bus station. Moreover, the street usually hosts many festivals and closes for “pedestrian night.” These developments aim to attract more people to walk. (Centre for Liveable Cities Singapore, 2016)

In the case of Bangkok, some may have seen the picture in social media that photoshop Bangkok’s wobbly paving slabs with minesweeper. It is a sarcastic joke that reflects the quality of the city’s pavements. Not only loose paving but in some areas, even in the city’s central districts, garbage dumps can be problematic too. These cause the street unpleasant to walk, and the local government should concern more about these problems. However, there are some attempts of private sectors to develop the city’s walkability. The BTS skywalks epitomize these attempts, and it is totally successful. I hope there will be more developments like this in this metropolis.

Another matter that the local authority should be attentive is public transport. Using public transportation is the obvious way to reduce carbon emissions. I think Bangkok is now moving in the right direction, but still not enough. We have new blue buses running in Bangkok today, but also old buses with black smoke too. The extension of subways and Skytrain is absolutely appropriate. But the problem is the steep fare which is not affordable by many low-income earners. Though I agree with the government’s policy that helps social welfare cardholders to use public transport for free, still the fare should be economical for most people in society. And public transport should be improved for air and life qualities for all.

Finally, I totally agree with the conclusion in the article that reducing carbon emission should be started at an individual level. Cutting one or two journeys can make it different. A little tip from the article is trying to reduce just one short car journey a day and try to walk more in daily routines. Once we start to make a change for a week, for a month, and this behavior will sustain over time. And lastly, keep in mind that everyone’s small step can lead to significant changes for our future.

 

____________________________________ 

Question

What do you think the government should do to reduce private transport?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Centre for Liveable Cities Singapore. (2016). Walkable and Bikeable Cities: Lessons from Seoul and Singapore. https://www.clc.gov.sg/docs/default-source/books/walkable-and-bikeable-cities.pdf
• Timperley, J. (2020, March, 18). How our daily travel harms the planet. BBC Future. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200317-climate-change-cut-carbon-emissions-from-your-commute

Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 84 - Critical thinking on "The Panama Canal: A Brief History"

Summary 

In exercise E on page 84, Rogers and Zemach invite us to discuss three critical thinking questions that follow up ideas presented in "The Panama Canal: A Brief History" (2018, p. 83).

____________________________________ 

Response 

Ships in locks on the Panama Canal

As we have just done before, we will discuss Rogers and Zemach's question in blog commnets, which is likely to generate a wider variety of ideas in addition to giving us a more permanent record of our ideas while also getting in some practice writing for fluency in a less academic style, but still writing our ideas in grammatically complete sentences that clearly state our ideas.  
 

____________________________________ 

Question

Rogers & Zemach, p. 83

After thinking about them for a minute or two, write down your responses to Rogers and Zemach's critical thinking questions on page 84 in a comment below. 

• What are some reasons so many of the world's goods are transported by cargo ship?
   
• What positive changes does faster, easier shipping bring to the world?
• Are there any negative changes?   
• How would your life change if shipping were slower and more expensive? 

____________________________________ 

You have 15:00 minutes to plan and write a response to the three questions. I suggest you divide your time roughly as: 

• planning = 3:00 minutes
• writing = 9:00 minutes, and 
• editing = 3:00 minutes.

I thought that organizing your ideas into two paragraphs would probably work well, but you are the author of your response, so that is one of the decisions for you to make.  

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education 

Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 81 - After you watch

Skillful 3: Reading & Writing, p. 6

Summary 

In her "Introduction to the Student" on page 6, author Dorothy Zemach twice uses the adverb critically, reminding us that, in both academic work at university as well as in tests such as IELTS and TOEFL, critical thinking skills are important. Each unit of Skillful, accordingly, has critical thinking exercises that invite us to expand on issues raised in the readings and relate them to our own life experiences.

Similarly, the three questions in the "After You Watch" on page 81 of Skillful invite you to relate the ideas in the video to your own life and give your own opinions (Rogers & Zemach, 2018).

____________________________________ 

Response 

There are two reasons for doing Rogers and Zemach's critical thinking exercises as blog discussions. First, there is solid evidence that putting ideas in writing, especially online, improves the quality and variety of ideas since each person can formulate and write down their ideas independently, so that a single strong personality does not dominate the group and thereby suppress ideas that we want to get (Chamorro-Premuzic, 2015; Markman, 2017; O'Connell, 2010). Second, this is a reading and writing class, so it's sensible to practice putting our ideas down quickly in writing, which also gives us a chance to review them before publishing for others to read and respond to. 

Note: my cited sources on the value of independent and online brainstorming, which I think also apply to our critical thinking exercises, are all from the Harvard Business Review. Don't read them now, but if you are interested in following them up, the full reference citations, including the links to each, are in the list of references below. 
 

____________________________________ 

Questions to discuss

Rogers and Zemach ask us to respond to the questions: 

• What do you know about nomadic people living in your country?
    
• How do you think the lives of Darimaa and Tsogldragraleh are different now that they live near a city?
   
• Should governments do more to support nomadic lifestyles? What can they do?  

Think for a minute or two, making some quick notes if you like; then in a comment below, write a short paragraph or two, or three if you like, to tell us your ideas in response to these questions. You should spend most of your time on the last question, which the first two lead to.

You have 15:00 minutes. I suggest you: plan for 3:00 minutes, write for 9:00; and then edit for 3:00.

____________________________________ 

References

• Chamorro-Premuzic, T. (2015, April 2). Why brainstorming works better online. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-brainstorming-works-better-online
    
• Markman, A. (2017, May 18). Your team is brainstorming all wrong. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/your-team-is-brainstorming-all-wrong
   
• O'Connell, A. (2010, February 4). Sometimes, it’s better to brainstorm alone. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2010/02/when-its-better-to-brainstorm


• Rogers, L. & Zemach, D. E. (2018). Skillful 3: Reading & Writing (2nd. ed.). London: Macmillan Education 

Three aspects of Naam

Maenum Vs Mekong

I would like to introduce myself to you. My first name is Maenum which literally means river, and I have a big brother whose name is Phukaow which simply means mountain in Thai. Our father gave us the name. While he was an engineer at the royal irrigation department, but traveling to the site where dams have constructed was a part of his work, then he regularly saw mountain ranges and wide rivers. During my childhood, if I met dad's friends, they would greet me like "Are you Mekong river?" or "Chao Phra Ya river?", and my reply as my name plus surname. For vacations, my dad's first choice systematically was to have leisure time at any dam around the province that we passed by. He has accommodation welfare under his career to support if we would like to stay overnight. Even my dad reunion trip among his school friends, they would plan to visit a dam since they were irrigation college students and each of them would bring their family along together with them. So I have multiple chances to end up vacation trips at dams until now.     

Even though his job causes a negative effect on our nature, yet I have been growing up with a mindset that it helps agriculturists. In contrast, hearing the news about the Chinese dam alters  Mekong's erratic water flow, is a significant environmental obstacle for many countries under Mekong's river line in which we have been sharing the water resource from. Thus, agriculturists who are first-hand to be confronted with drought conditions.     
        

____________________________________ 

Cinema enlighten

Beside sleeping, watching movies is the second habit that I have spent most of the time in my life with. Over a decade, screening a movie change to many platforms, traditional screening was in cinema theaters, the next was outdoor screening, then change to videotapes, DVDs, U-torrent files until online platforms. I am happy to say that I had been watching movies on every platform. 

Going to the cinema theater would happen only for a special occasion when I was a kid. I remembered that there was a place near my house, and every new year's eve there had flea market and outdoor screening that ran overnight till dawn; our family joined the screening every year. My dad was the first person to introduce cinema to me by taking me there. In comparison, when I was a teenager, my mom forbade me from watching a movie in the cinema by myself, but I never listen to her. when I was in high school I went to the cinema with friends but we want to watch a different movie so we decided to separate from each other. Moreover, I favor to spend time alone, I was very happy once I was only one person in the cinema. At university time, it was my turning point toward my attitude about motion pictures, as a film student, we were expanding more rage of watching films in many categories and genres in our class. Such as documentaries, narrative films, non-narrative films even experimental films. I realized that the movie is a powerful media not only for entertaining its audience but also acknowledge them. In 1997, the Korean president had used movies as business tools for improving economies. He considered movies as export goods that could bring money back as same as selling a Hyundai car. Now, it is clear that Korean entertainment businesses spread through many parts of the world and earn billions back to their origin. I admitted that I impress with the vision of the president.       

 

____________________________________ 

Love me, love my dog.

Here is Snim, a famous female Thai dog from the Gluta story Facebook page where I have followed her daily life. A dog person is my third aspect. Watching funny clips of cats and dogs helps release my stress and spending the two hours for that is not too exaggerated. Now, I have silver Siberian husky. He always wakes me up in the morning by knocking my bedroom door or he might want to sleep in the room that still turns on the air-conditioning and I am the last person in the family to wake up. My dog usually sleeps in my dad's room which opens both fan and air-con. Unfortunately, my dad wakes up early in the morning and the chiller would turn off right after he awake that why my dog come to the second floor to knock my room. If I do not open the door, he would keep nonstop knocking it. He disturbs me every morning but I still love him.                     

Three aspects of Phing

Getting to know peaceful

First of all, I would like to introduce myself and my childhood a bit. You can call me 'Phing' for short. The tiny detached house in the middle of nowhere is my home which was constructed isolated from other neighbors. Even though I wasn't surrounded by much similar age friends, I never feel lonely. Because I grew up in an extended family and spent most of my time with them. My uncle has a small library beside his working room. There are thousands of books and abandon space for creating artwork. I binged stay inside that room. It was my guilty pleasure.
Nearly all my childhood memories were full of heartwarming moments. However, there was an exception which was the story about my grandfather. He passed away beford I was born therefore his story is so mysterious for me. The most significant memory about him is that he came from china and run business in Thailand. My nickname was given by him without any special explanation. Chinese works are extremely flexible. One word being able to write in many alphabets leads to several meanings. 'Phing' can refer to a flower with an attractive scent, peaceful and just an apple. No one is my family know exactly what does it mean. We can't predict what my grandfather was thinking about at that moment. Nevertheless, I think that being a puzzle might be better for me. I wouldn't like to be a delicate flower. I will decide the definition of me by myself.

____________________________________ 

My turning point 

Many people think that artists and illustrators are born with intense desire and inspiration. I wouldn't agree with them. Before making a decision to work in the art field, I occurred with some obstacles. Fortunately, my parents are willing to support me in every aspect although there were demons in my mind who put me off from my destination. To clarify this situation, I would like to mention my high school experience. Focusing on producing full-science abilities students is a concept of my school. The majority of students got a scholarship from the government with authoritarian conditions. To be honest, my school provided excellent laboratories for student experiments. In contrast, lacking of art and music facilities was weakness point. Insufficient exploring much in my interesting field resulted in an insecure feeling. I was afraid to confront my dream however in the last year of high school, a new teacher empowered me to join several art competitions. My confidence was bowled up and created my self today. 
  

____________________________________ 

Joining under the sea parade

At the beginning of the year, I always set the year resolution. Mostly those were tossed away however some of them were complete and became my most cheerful experience. One of the hardest achievement of me is getting a freediving certificate.  Normally, I really enjoy swimming in my leisure time. On the other hand, swimming for freediving practices are relatively different, a diver has to submerge to 10 meters under the sea with only one breath and come back to water skin by themselves. I had never thought that I can do it but I've done it. 
After that, I got a valuable reward. In the lively shallow sea, while I was being jubilant with swimming around the colorful corals, the sea turtle and shoal of fish came around me. They allowed me to join their trip for a while. That is the most impressive moment that I have had.

Three Aspect of Kiki

Just me

First, I would like to introduce myself before anything else. My nickname is Kiki. I’m 15 years old, studying in grade 11 this year. I am an only child in a single family, lived in the suburb but moved into the city four years ago. My great grandparents moved from China to Thailand in the mid 19th century. Most of my cousins live in the southern part of this country. My grandparents live in Yala, I always visit them during the new year breaks. My grandfather can speak four languages; Thai, English,Mandarin and Melay. He plays an important part in my childhood life. He encourage me to do many things.

As for anyone who might ask what I wanted to be, I must say I don't know at all. My parents want me to be an engineer but I dislike Physics and Mathematics. I think I need to think about it more seriously. There is only a year and a half left to decide what I want to study. I wish we have a gap year in Thailand.

____________________________________ 

Sinking in the world of letters

Growing up as an only child in a single family I spent most of my time with myself and a pile of books, entertained by letters and pictures. I first start with fantasy story and it eventually became my all time favorite genre of books. Lately, my friend have been suggesting a lot of books to me,Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky is one of that. I also have a plan to read 1982 by Gorge Orwell as well. Many people say that you are what you read but I see it a bit different. I believe that we read what we like and understand of what we experienced in our real life. We might read the same book but learn different things. Even when we would like to read something just for sake of entertainment, what entertain one does not did the same thing to others. I barely hate any characters. I sometime feel many characters annoying, frustrating or awkward, but hardly loath them. This is one reason why I oftenly have argument with my friends.

____________________________________ 

Sweet tooth

Eating sweets can always improve my mood no matter how bad the day was. Cakes, pastries and biscuits are the best thing I could ever have. Count out reading, baking is what I like to do in the weekends. Most of the time, I would bake cupcakes, cookies and puff pastries because my parents don't really enjoy anything other than them. My favorite cake is sponge cake with fresh cream and fruit. I spend my time after school with my friends trying to find cafe that suites our taste. Now, I am working to improve my carrot cake recipe. Last time, I put too much cinnamon in it and too much sugar in the frosting. 

I can bake only on weekends because I don't have an oven in my condominium. Only thing I can do is  bake a cake in the rice cooker.

Three aspects of Bird

Who am I?

     This question is look like a philosophical question, but don’t worry. it’s not.  Firstly, I want to tell you about myself. As you know I’m Bird. I am the only child in my family. I live in the house around Lat Phrao Road. I have 2 dogs, which is Pomeranian and 2 cats that I adopted from cat’s shelter. I graduated from Thammasat University in Bachelor of Social Work. The reason that I choose to study in Faculty of Social Administration, It always be my joke and silly story.

     At that time I was 17 years old graduated from Hight school. I was lost I don’t know what to do? Who I want to be? Or What is my real passion? It’s so blind. In my opinion, it’s quite bad situation that affect from Thai Tradition, which is we didn’t have a Gap Year. So I didn’t have much time to explore myself.  Then when I have to choose somewhere for do my bachelor’s degree, I make up my mind I going to pick the weird name of faculty among those. However, even I got Bachelor of Social Work, but I never got a job in field of social work before. 

____________________________________ 

You Are What You Watch

     In contrast, I graduated in Bachelor of Social Work. I can say that I got Sociology and Anthropology’s view form that. It’s a good one. Even I did master’s degree in communication art field about Aesthetics and Entertainment Arts. I still use point of view from that aspect to do my work. This time I really enjoy it. It’s my kind of things. Because when I was child me and my family, we love to watch movie together. For example, Star Wars Harry Potter Chungking Express Rosemary's Baby and Of course, Psycho by Alfred Hitchcock. We are Film lover. 

      However, I love to watch movie and series. On Weekend I usually spend time to Binge-watching on Streaming Online as Netflix HBO Go or Prime Video. The reason why I fall in love with Movie is Movie is Art is a magical art. In my view, I do not watch movie for only entertainment sake. Movie can show us a world that we never been before. We can get a new perspective from that. We can put in someone shoes for understand each other who might be has a different race ethic age in from of art.

____________________________________ 

You Are What You do

     For now, mainly I work as researcher at South Asian Studies Center of Chulalongkorn University (CUSAS) is one of the newest research centers. We work in South Asian area such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Iran. On the other hand, I still has many works to do sometimes I write the essay for website, sometimes I going to teach the organization in subject Art of Storytelling. So I think It’s hard to define what work I do but, it's fine cause I love jobs anyways.
     
    I just the one who are searching for myself.

Three aspects of Tung

“Past” : Chinese descendant with no more Chinese traditions

       First of all, I would like to introduce myself and my family. My nickname is Tung. I’m 23 years old now. I live with my parents in a house on Ramkhamhaeng Road, which is in the east of Bangkok. Even though my name sounds like a Chinese name, but actually nobody in the family can speak Chinese now. That is because I am the fourth generation descendants of Chinese immigrants. My great-grandfather was a Chinese immigrant who married an overseas Chinese woman in Thailand. However, my great-grandparents died even before my mother was born, so this is why my family cannot speak Chinese.
       Furthermore, there are no Chinese traditions practiced in my family anymore. For instance, my family does not celebrate Chinese New Year, which is one of the most important Chinese festivals that most Chinese families will largely celebrate. The sad thing about this was when I was a child, I always asked my parents for Hongbao (or a gift of money given to children during the Chinese New Year), but my parents also always rejected because we did not celebrate Chinese New Year in our family. Another example was the last few years when I went to the graveyard for paying respect to my ancestors with my parents and my relatives. I asked them where my great-grandfather came from. All of my relatives and my parents said that they did not know, but maybe Chaozhou (or Teochew), which is a hometown of most overseas Chinese in Thailand. However, at that time, I have already studied Chinese for a few years, so I was able to read the grave. And I figured out that my great-grandfather came from Fujian (or Hokkien), not Chaozhou, which surprised everybody in the family. This is still a joke in our family, even today.

____________________________________ 

“Present” : Happiness is in the class.

       I recently graduated from Chulalongkorn University with a major in History last year. And now, I am working as an 8th grade Social Studies teacher at Saint Gabriel’s College, near Samsen Road. After working for almost a year, I found both the pros and cons of my job. Starting with the pros, being a teacher is a work for others. I love being a teacher because I can help my students to learn and practice their skills in order to be an efficient citizen of the country and the world in the future. I love it when I see my students’ smiles and happiness in the class. I love the reaction when they have learned things that they never know. And not only students learned new things, but the teacher also did learn new things. Last semester, for example, I taught the geography of Asia. I learned many things that I never knew before. I have learned about desalination plants, which are the way they make freshwater in the Middle East. I have learned more about the vast but beautiful land of Siberia or even throat singing, which are practiced by people in Mongolia and some parts of Siberia. So, teaching helps me to know more and see the world wider.
       However, I also found some cons to my job. The first and biggest one is the educational system. I rather dislike the system that forces students to pass without respect to the quality. The subjects of English and Mathematics exemplify this problem of the educational system. Think of students who are not able to write even a basic sentence or students who are not very well at multiplying and dividing, how can they continue the higher level of paragraph writing or solving algebraic equations. This problem would lead to a long-term problem for the students. Another con is regarding the co-workers. In many Thai organizations, especially in schools, a seniority system in a workplace is highly concerned. The seniors usually have more privilege than the younger. Many times, bosses typically listen to the seniors and ignore the ideas of the younger. Despite these cons, I try to overlook them and do my best job as one of my most respected teachers (which is now my colleague and one of my bosses) said that the stage for a teacher is the class. I keep this word as my motto for working. So, when I had hard times with the system or the co-workers, I reminded myself that my happiness is in the class with my students.

 

____________________________________ 

 “Future” : Chasing the dream

       Although I am now happy with my job, I plan to work just two or three more years. The reason is I would like to follow my dream, which is pursuing master and doctorate degrees in American History in the U.S. and then becoming college professors in a field of American History. Many of my friends keep asking me why I would like to study American History. The answer is straightforward because I love it. I began to learn American History when I was an exchange student in the United States because I had a great history teacher there, who made me passionate about the History of the country. My area of interest is the American West, which is the newly expanded territories of the country and the destination of not only White Americans but Asians also. My friends also ask me why I do not take a graduate degree in Thai or Asian History. In my opinion, in Thailand, there are many scholars in Thai and Asian History right now, whereas there are only a few scholars in American History in this country. So I would like to study in the area which not many Thais give attention and provide new knowledge to Thai academia.
      To pursue a graduate degree abroad, I have to prepare myself in many ways. First, I have to prepare for the university application. So, I plan that I will go to the U.S. next year to find a research topic and for some archival research. Not only in the field of interest, but English skills are also essential. I want to read and write academic text more effectively. So, I decide to push myself out of my comfort zone and take the EAP course at AUA in order to move towards my dream.

Three aspects of Peter

New Italy traditions

My great grandfather with his gang, 
making wine in the 1890s.
Click to enlarge images

First, I would like to tell you a it about my family's history, since my family gave me my last name, which you know is Filicietti. My family goes back a few generations in Australia, to when my great-grandparents left Italy in a group escaping the awful poverty and crushing abuse of traditional European monarchs in the late 19th century. The group poured all their savings into a venture led by an evil French nobleman, who dumped them to die on a barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Happily, Australia, still a British colony, agreed to help them move to Australia. After arriving in Sydney in the early 1880s, the group moved north to an undeveloped bush area, where their hard work formed a thriving community of small farms, which they called New Italy. (The link, in brown, is to the Google Maps' location.) I grew up on a farm about five kilometres from that original settlement.

After a great family meal, piling in to
go koala spotting on my brother's farm

Being Italians from a rural area in northern Italy, one of their most prized possessions on the long and dangerous boat trip to Australia were the cuttings from their grape vines. Almost the first thing that my ancestors did after cutting down the native bush, even before they built their small, simple homes, was plant grapes. What could be more important than making wine? Although educated and a successful businessman and local community leader, my father was also a farmer, who branched out into sugar cane, other crops, and dairy farming. Today, most of my brothers and sisters no longer farm, or they combine that with other careers. My youngest brother, for example, does graze a few cattle (I think about 50) on his property, which includes koalas and kangaroos competing with his beef cattle, but he also consults for businesses in the nearby country towns. When I make my annual visit to Australia to see my family and friends, I always stay at his home, which is about 25 km from where we grew up.

____________________________________ 

New tools for old habits 

If you had not already suspected it,
this shot of my work area confirms
that messiness is another old habit.

Although I started this blog post using my laptop in our class this morning, when I'm at home, I usually write on my desktop computer — the monitor is seriously big. And if I want to brainstorm, I do what Bird was doing in class this morning: I use MS OneNote on my laptop or tablet. In our quick discussion after we concluded our class today, someone asked about reading on a Kindle like Kiki does, and I said that I had not bought a paper book for many years. These days I do almost all of my reading on devices: computers, tablets, or my phone. Paper? About the only time I use paper is when I do a brainstorming exercise in a class. Paper has a long history, and it's still popular, but I think it's on the way out, except for Thailand's Immigration Office. Once a year, AUA's government liaison officer gives me a pile of paper to sign. I used to have thousands of books on shelves, and although they looked cool, a few years ago, probably five or six years ago now, I got rid of most of them. I gave the impressive looking ones to my brother, who now displays them on his shelves to impress his guests, and most I just gave away to anyone who was interested in them. I kept a few in my much less cluttered home in Bangkok, but only ones that have sentimental value for me: my well-read copies of Plato, Homer and a few other classics from my university days, and equally well-read copies of favourite novels that bring back memories. A couple of these are books I've enjoyed for more than forty years now, including four copies of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice that have fallen apart from being read so many times over the decades. The Kindle version is not subject to the same phyical deterioration. My reading and writing habits have not diminished, but I'm a big fan of the benefits that modern technology offers, as you might have noticed in our first class today.  
 

____________________________________ 

Just for fun

What is fun for you? When I briefly introduced myself in class yesterday, I mentioned that I don't watch TV. In fact, I haven't watched TV for more than 40 years. But I do like some things that were initially produced for TV. For example, at the moment, I'm watching the American series The Big Bang Theory (TBBT), which is the story of the lives of some super-nerds who are physicists, and their friends. I loved physics in high school, but it was not seen as a "fun" activity by most of my classmates. Even weirder was my love of mathematics. When I wasn't reading novels, I read sciecne books on the 40-minute bus trips to and from my high school in the city 30km from my family's home. And when I got home, I would do mathematics for fun. But I also liked silly TV shows, and I guess I still do. I do not, however, like the restrictions of TV, or the extremely annoying advertisements on commercial TV. I much prefer to pay the small subscription to NetFlix so that I can watch what I want when I want to, without ads breaking up the fun. My fondness for mindless action films is also fed well by NetFlix, for example The Equalizer, Black Panther, and similar films. They are not great art, but they are fun, and sometimes being fun is enough. 

TBBT: Sheldon and friends are more fun in full