It is all about money.

All people are proud about their heritage. The French are not an exception. Now the French are going to have more Champagne as an alcoholic drink. What is more important for the government, it is control of substances that are harmful for the society or the money? on the BBC News (Hebbeletwaite. 2011).

Cardelia Hebbelethwaite indicated that French senate voted in favour of moving the ban of "the absinthe" incredible alcohol, that it was prohibited in France almost 100 years ago. Yet all is changing said Hebbelethwaite, after the government voted to allow sales of the drink nicknamed " The green fairy".Absinthe is distilled with the leaves of the herb Artemisia absinthium, known as grande wormwood, which contains the drink's "special ingredient", thujone, which reputedly has mind-altering effects. (2011,¶15). The drink absinthe has been allowed to be sold as long as not to be called absinthe, although it is made from extracts of abshinte,plant. Absinthe's boom was in the middle to late 1800's. It was the queen of the parisian boulevard, It was also cheap and the drink for the poor, like the artist Vincent Van Gogh. Absinthe was first made in Switzerland, and a Swiss judge recently approved to give the region exclusive rights to produce it, for the moment this rule only apply to Switzerland, but they could seek other markets across the board.

Is it fair for the government to approve a rule to giving free will to the society if they want to buy or drink some beverages or not it is their decision. . In this case I agree that the government shouldn't control everything in the people's lives. In other words It appears reasonable to me that the government, shouldn't overprotect the people with the excuse it is dangerous and unhealthy to the society. In this case where the buyer are adults and their decision does not affect to third persons; therefore, the rule of the government with the society is to give the items to the people in order that they have enough knowledge to take their own decision to buy or not buy something. For example the government need to provide of the education and information to the country But in my opinion this decision was not to give free will and more options to the society. It's decisons seemmore a market fight with Switzerland, because they want the exclusive right to use the name absinthe. To me it is ironic that they have allowed the product to be sold as long as it is not to be called absinthe and now to fight the Swiss they will remove the ban. In addition the society is divided some of them almost are forgotten the absinthe was that half century XIX the beverages national not the champagne. and other hands other wants France to reclaim absthine as part of their heritage. For all this points in short I think the decion to allow the absthine to be sold it was more one of material interests than benefits to the people.

References

Hebblethwaite C. (2011, May 4), Absinthe in France: Legalising the "green fair". BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13159863

Digital Book

Nowadays, there have been changes in many things especially as the technology. A digital book is one of the new technologies that people are interesting in. The sales of e-book and audio book download as we see in the article "UK general title digital book sales soar to £16m in 2010” on the BBC News.

According to the article in BBC News, in 2010, sales of general titles digital books in UK increase very fast, which are from £4m to £16m. It’s not only about general, but it is also academic and professional book that have the best seller in a part of digital books. “However, the increased digital sales suggests devices such as Amazon's Kindle and the Sony Reader are increasingly making an impact”(2011,¶4). Moreover, the consumer publisher continues to develop their product in order to new group of audiences. Print book markets are still popular, and both “will co-exist in the future”(2011,¶7).

In my opinion, technology can make people to live their life in the different way. They do not go to the shop for buying books because they have an online to buy. It is very convenience, and it can help you when you do or find something easier. A digital book is a good product to give knowledge in vary kinds of books that are portable and very light. You can take it in everywhere. In the future, the government in Thailand should use the digital book or some technology to help their citizen more literate and become a developed country.

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References

UK general title digital book sales soar to £16m in 2010. (2011, May 3). BBC News. Retrieved May 5, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-13262842

Teamwork of Football

Nowadays, The most popular sport in the world is football. The most important in football is spirit and teamwork. Football is the exiting sport that the viewer enjoy watching it. But football match usually have the excessive deceitfulness that can make a problem after, especially a big match which have a many viewer in the world. Spanish football has its problem too. You can see in the article “Will Champions League row affect Spain's Euro 2012 chances?” on the BBC News (Minshull, 2011).

Phill Minshull report the champion league match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, which ended with Barcelona progressing 3-1 on aggregate to the Champions League final at Wembley on 28 May. Both of player in two clubs are important player for Spain. In This match have many problem such as an aggression, a tackling, a deception and a referees. The referees are big mistake in game. Some action is not easy to decide. It is a beginning of the tricky game. After the match, Two team have many argument. Spanish players from Barcelona and Real Madrid give an interview to mass media. They attack together. On this occasion, the breakdown would happen between the players themselves. One of the symptoms could be a very detrimental effect on Spain's Euro 2012 campaign. Spain national team coach Vicente del Bosque must concentrate with their problem.

In my opinion, It is a big problem for Spain to make a spirit in football team because The opposition of them are increase when the match end. I think, It is very hard to communicate between Barcelona player and Real Madrid player when Spain have a match to play in international. It is hard to play football with a person who you don’t like him. Its decrease the teamwork of team. If football team does not have teamwork, They will be loser and won’t to be successful. Vicente del Bosque must find a good solution for his team.

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References

Phill Minshull (2011, May 4).Will Champions League row affect Spain's Euro 2012 chances?” BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/philminshull/2011/05/will_champions_league_row_affe.html

Climate Change

Climate change is a real, urgent and increasing. It is not a problem that just occurred recently but it has been topics for discussion about 100 years ago, until it becomes an important issue of the world now, and it seems to be a crucial point in environmental awareness. Also, England is one of country that is facing with this problem as the article "Heatwave sees warmest UK April for more than 100 years" on the BBC News (2011).

The Met Office said that when compare the UK temperature last April with last 100 years, it found that temperatures were 3 to 5C higher than usual. This situation leads to a drought and rainfall problems as unexpected, and there might be an effect to some farmers because of the lacking of water for agriculture will effect to food prices may increase in the future. Moreover, a BBC Weather Centre spokesman referred to high pressure that made the direction of wind change which consist of the warmer wind coming across from the southeast and block the cooler wind from the west, finally it causes the climate was changed.

In my opinion, the major cause that leads to climate change or global warming is human behavior, although some people think it is naturally occurred. The attitude of some human that see nature is only substance and they never think they are a part of nature. Therefore, they do not feel that they want to preserve the environment. Besides, in daily life, human is always emitting carbon dioxide from driving a car, cooking for food, working in the big factory, and so on. I think all of these are the main factors for this problem. Also, there are many effects from climate change that we have experienced in recently such as unusual weather, severe natural disasters, floods, earthquakes or even severe storms, and it brings about a damage both property and life. Although there are a lot of high technologies to help solving climate change nowadays, we couldn't assure those technologies can be the real solutions. As long as human can't still change their behavior, technologies aren't the last answer. They just slow down the problem but they can't solve global warming truly.
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Reference

Heatwave sees warmest UK April for more than 100 years. (2011, May 3). BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13269741

The Great wall

The Globalization makes the world down scaling into your hand that everybody can access to all the information around the world by using internet. However, there is a barrier in one area that people cannot approach to the valuable resources as we see in the article “China tightens internet censorship controls” on BBC News (Chen, 2011).

Chen reports that the Chinese government has established the State Internet Information Office which is a new organization to verify the sensitive information from the internet within China. Chen informs that it is called “great firewall of China”. Wang Chen, who is in charge the information minister, used technical and political control for the internet network that make the new body to be ascendant organization which is predominant the other ministry. All the information such online news and information, new media business and internet access will have to pass stringent monitoring. In addition, the Chinese would like to access that information, unless, the government will face the problem seem as Jasmine Revolution in the Middle East and North Africa. On the other hand, the government makes use the internet to encourage them to the international level.

I think that the new organization is very important and essential for national security. However, it seems to be lack of freedom for people in China to access the information from the internet because the new organization has the strong checking process and system. Especially, the news is the main information that the Chinese have to know the movement and feedback from the global level. Therefore, the Chinese will miss some information that may useful for their life. Moreover, the new body has more and more power over the other ministries. Thus, the government should set up the mechanism for keeping balance that power. Finally, the government uses the internet as a channel to promote them to the world. Accordingly, their people should also have a chance to completely connect to the largest network in the world.

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References

Chen, S. (2011, May 4). China tightens internet censorship controls. BBC News. Retrieved May 5, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13281200

A Symbol of New York

Nowadays, not only new technologies have been increasing considerably, but also car manufacturers are raising steadily in order to serve the customers' need. As we can see in the article "New York City picks Nissan minivan as next taxicab" on the BBC News (2011).

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the business agreement is approximately $1bn. The design of minivan will be based on Nissan carmaker. In early 2013, the van of US Ford Motor and Turkish Karsan Otomotiv will be cooperated with each other for 10 years contract. He also mentioned that the yellow taxies are highlight of New York's cap. The new model of the van has an overhead window that easily see the scenery of city skyscrapers and charge stations for cell phones. Moreover, Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky said that the taxi will have satellite navigation in order to make the passengers feel comfortable if they don't know the route around.

I think there are many factors that make people need to adapt their daily lives to new environments. Everything has been changing all the time and they all can accept it. They also do things for their better lives. Currently, every house almost has a car, some house has more than one car that causes air pollution and traffic jam in the city. Everybody wants to use their own car to reach the destination quickly but they don't think about the global warming. Right now the oil price is increasing steadily, so they can save the world by taking a taxi or skytrains to reduce global warming and traffic jam. In the US, the taxi and limousine commissioner tries to serve the passengers such as providing the station of charging for cell phones. That makes more convenient for the passengers. He also tries to get more attention from the passengers by using new technology in the taxi. Thus, car manufutures should have a lot of options to add value of product in high competitive market to gain more profit.

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References
New York City picks Nissan minivan as next taxicap. (2011, May 4). BBC News. Retrived May 4, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13276404

The happily silver

The last thing in the world is getting older but you might want to change your mind after you read this article "Growing up about growing old" on the BBC News (Hughes, 2011).

According to Dr.Hughes, when you're getting older it can make you feel suffer but does bring the merriness to you. The increasing of the elderly seems to be a problem of physical and economy, but in fact it cause less trouble compare with the youth. Also they can be as a volunteer for the hospital or any other social services. The big society are mainly are supported by elderly people. Besides volunteer to work for the social, they're value more for their children. Dr.Hughes asks if 85 can live their life happily why we can't optimize like them.

I think it's possible that everybody prospects to grow up and become the healthy elderly in the future. Trying not to be problem for your offspring is a big worry for them. From this point, they should take care of themselves to be healthy before getting old. I wonder that we are really give them the respecting to be an elderly in accurately. Even in social, do they give any chances for the elderly people to work and let them function on what they do. Sometimes their own children don't think that their parents can do things after their retirement. Try to be advocacy for the elderly; it will help them to return something back to you. As Thai culture we're closed and are raised up in the big family. The elderly can be the one who teach lots of things to the kids that they can't find from the school. Somehow, someone doesn't' care how the elderly feel. The younger will leave from their hometown to work to get the better life and never come back. That's really sad for me. In Western culture, it doesn't matter for you to come back and visit the family once or twice a year. It made me think that the elderly who live in another country, they can take care of themselves and have the better quality of life compare with the one who live in Thailand. They can go out and do their own things. One of reason that support them to have such a lovely life because they still keep working and active to keep seeing the new people. For example the elderly loves to go to the church every Sunday to communicate with the others.

When your mind is full of happiness, it's not too difficult to have longevity and die peacefully.

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References
Hughes,J. (2011, April 21). Growing up about growing old. BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13093992.

Hell on earth

    Even though we are in the 21st century, there are several horrible prison camps in North Korea. Polotical inmates live under the most undesireble condition in this prison camps. As we see in the article, "North Korean political prison camps growing - Amnesty" on the BBC News (2011).

    Amnasty international( a rights group)has published the image of this prison camps and the document details accounts that covered torture, starvation and mass executions. According to Amnasty, the scale of these camps are increasing, "A comparison of the latest pictures with satellite imagery from 2001 indicates "a significant increase in the scale of the camps" " (2011,¶ 8). However, the North Korea goverment refused to accept that these prison camps really exist. The former prisoners at Yodok camp said that they had to work in a bad condition.Also, they had suffered violent torture and received inhumane treatment.

     I think these political prison camps should be cancled because they invade their prisonners' human rights. They should treat these prisonners in a proper way. Also, these camps show the violent of the undeveloped communist notion which is worsening the public image of North Korea.Other nations might ban North Korea from international trade. Moreover, the goverment need to provide more food to these camps. The goverment will reduce their budget if they let their inmates grow rice, vegetables and pigs for food. It is not fair to let their inmates eat rats or animal waste while the gorverment staffs and prison guards have better meals. Furthermore, North Korea has already had a bunch of rivals that want to have some excuses to interfere in the North Korea military. They might have a problem with other powerful countries because of their terrible prison condition.

References

North Korean political prison camps growing - Amnesty. (2011, May 1). BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13272198

World without border

Today, We live in the world without border with many ways of communication especially internet. We can communicate with people around the world. Unfortunately, the people in China do not have opportunity to use internet freely. As we see in the article, "China tightens internet censorship controls" on BBC News (Chen,2011).

Shirong Chen reports that China government establish new agency The State Internet Information Office to strictly control internet users in China about the information and news. According to Chen, The censorship in China named "great firewall of China"(2011,¶4). It is the tool by government to use blocked some website. However, Chinese government want to use the internet to publish itself .

I think it was unfair for Chinese people, they was diminish their freedom to receive news and world situation. They lose the chance to learn many things in the world and opportunity to meet new friend on social network. In addition, for tourist who traveling in China, it is inconvenient for them, when they want to contact friends and family in they countries,or they want to find some information. It can be problem for tourism in China. More than anything I think limiting of human rights that should not happen.

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References

Chen,S. (2011, May 4).China tightens internet censorship controls. BBC News. Retrieved May 4,2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-13281200

To Solve a Mystery

It is more commun falls of airplanes nowadays that last years but the problem is the same, the delay in discovering them causes of the accidents. In the article "Air France Cockpit Voice recorder recovered" on the BBC News demostrates this situation.

Acording to the news to discovery of the Air France cockpit voice the "Airbus A330 was flying from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil to Paris when it whent down on 1 June 2009, killing all 228 people on borad" (2011 paragraph 3), marks the end of the long search and also the victim's relatives wait for the explanations to the appened. Further, the French Transport Ministry Thierry Mariani told French radio he hopes to present a result with all the posible explanations regarding this accident, within of the next three weeks.

I think when have something, especially when someone deat with some familiarities or friends we waits anxious an answer about what happened and waits for this answer around the two years for undestanding what reason in this accident is a long time. For the other hand, discovery of the cockpit voice now makes to recall the whole suffering lived in the day of the accident when it is lost the relative and raisin again to suffer for this tragedy. However, in my opinion, the first idea I wrote here is better because do you have the answer for reason this accident. In continuity with my reflection, I think always when happen accident with plains had a long delay to locate the cockpit voice that is the fundamental piece to give us the exact reasons for the incident. In summary, today we have the modern tecnology, maybe is better the scientist search new equipments what can facilitate the investigation in case of the accident.

Reference

Air Franch cockpit voice recorder recovered. (2011, May 3). BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2011) from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-13264573

Heart Beating

In today's society, most people know that heart is an important part of our body and if heart is imbalance then those people might get some trouble or die immediately.Therefore, heart attack is a serious people. In the artical " Heart attacks 'are worse' if they happen in the morning " on the BBC News (2011) explains that time period affects the heart attack level.

The research was analyzed heart attack by Dr.Borja and his colleagues with 811 patients and they seperated them into four groups by using the different period of time that attack heart occurred. The result shows that since 6 am to 12 am is the risk time of heart attack, comparing in the evening (since 6pm to midnight). Also the number of patients who got heart attack in the moring had more that the average number by 50 people. In the article gives a detail that when people are walking up after they wake up in the morning it is time to get heart attack easily. Judy O'Sullivan, senior cardiac nurse concerns a lot of this illness by saying that " the quicker someone having a heart attack is treated, the less the damage they will have, which is why it is essential that anyone who experiences heart attack symptoms should call 999 immediately." (2011,¶14)

I believe that this is the first step to protect people who might get heart attack and also it can reduce the number of people who die from this cause, even though, it provides the time that has more possibility to get heart attack but I beleive that doctors will find out why it happens a lot in the moring and one day they will fine the best method for treatment those people in the future.

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References

Heart attacks 'are worse' if they happen in the morning. (2011, April 27). BBC News. Retrieved May 4,2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13195209

The Nissan Yellow Taxi

Nowaday a lot of people like to use taxi for transportation and New York city realised that it has benefit to bring in the next generation of taxis. The benefits for this new taxis can be seen in the article " New York city picksNissan minivan as next taxi cab" on the BBC news (2011).

Mayor Michael Bloomberg announces that Japan's Nissan motor won a contract to provide taxis for New York starting in 2013. Further, this Nissan's NV 2000 with the yellow paint would give it the iconic New York touch. David Yassky said, "For the first time, we'll have a taxicabthat wasn't off the rack, but rather custom-tailored to create the best fit for the drivers, owners and passengers of our city" (2011, ¶ 7). Moreover, people are going to love this taxi and it is the most fuel-efficient.

I think it is very good idea to release the new cab because first, almost everyone prefer to sit in a new and comfortable than to sit in a old and small car, so the number of people using taxi will increase. Second it will make the city less poluted. For example, old cars release more cabon monoxide, which is very bad for health and environment, than the new ones. Finally, this Nissan cab is a saving fuel cab and it can run solely on electricity, so drivers can save their money and have more income.
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References
New York city picks Nissan minivan as next taxi cab. (2011, May 4). BBC news. Retrieved May 4,2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-13276404

Booming of study abroad.

Nowadays we live in high-technology age that we can travel across the pond within one day. Many students who have an opportunity will prefer to study in foreign country than native country.As we see in the article "Record numbers of international students" on the BBC News (Coughlan,2011).

Sean Coughlan report that the Unesco's Institution for statistics state that there was a rapid growth in the proportion of international students (12%) around the world. According to the Unesco ,the number of foreign students increase by more than three-quarters since 2000. "The United States is the biggest destination" (2011,¶4).In addition, Chinese is becoming big market group than Indian who used to be the first. But,Chinese government plans to encourage international students into China for being part of economy and becoming a "knowledge power"(2011,¶10) says Dr.Choudaha. However,some oversea students take a international degree in their own countries especially the UK degree. this is because there are online-degree ,partnerships and branch campuses in other countries.

I think studying in foreign country gives you many kinds of advantages ,even if sometime you feel lonely and home-sick. First of all, your perspective will be wider because you have to study and live with other students who have different background.Your thinking will be mature too. Following reason,studying abroad give you a good chance to get a job easier. In other words,employee who got degree from abroad will has higher qualification such as confidence,language,vision than people who completed degree in their own countries.Thirdly,you can learn other languages and cutlers. Last but not least,foreign universities hire teachers who are expert in their fields. Most of them are graduated PhD or successful person. Further, students can study from the origin of knowledge.On the other hand,studying international degree in their own countries might be good thing ,but they can't touch universal experience.

References

Coughlan,S.(2011,March 10).Record numbers of international students. BBC News.Retrieved May4,2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12671198

Waist fat "increases heart risk"

Nowaday, the fat disease is a serious problem in every countries. They realize this problem and try to solve it. Waist fat "increases heart risk " is one of the fat disease problem on the BMI Body Mass Index"Misses obessily risk" 25 February 2011, Health

According to the research of the Mayo Clinic team said that Waist fat is a new heart risk and can dead. From five studies data and involving 15,923 patients were found waist fat W increase heart risk" So the researcher disgree that the doctors measure BMI ,which comparing between weight and heigh, they should check the coronary artery disease . After that, they should advice the patients reduce the risk If people was carrying fat aroundthe waist.

I think , nobody knows that waist fat is a severe disease which can make the peoole die. I just know the waist fat disease when I read BBC News. In generally, there are several causes of obesity, such as genetics, enviromental factors, medicienes and so on. The cause of obesity is simply when people consume more calories from food than the body can burn. Especially, fast food is a cause of obesity because of the ingredients have a trans fat, which it is the effect health such as heart risk,diabetes and fat. Morever, the chubby don't like to eat vegetables and love to eat desserts.Furthermore, some people like to watch TV or play games and eat the snack until the midnight, then they usually eat late meals in the night, after that they go to sleep. In addition, they don't take care of their healthy and neglect the exercise. In all of these factor this is the cause of obesity. Children in Thailand also have high-risk behaviors. For example, the parents spoil them by giving them snacks. All of these eating habits lead to the major fat problem . In my opinion, the waist fat is one of the fat problem.

References:
Waist fat 'increases heart risk'. (2011, May 2). BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13222192

Tip

Lelease from obesity

Nowadays, many people are suffering from obesity.They will be happy if they can reduce their weight easily.Fortunately,as we see in the article ''Scientists turn 'bad fat' into 'good fat''' on the BBC News(Roberts,2011),scicentists might find feasible way to solve this problem.


Michelle Roberts reports that there are two types of fat,which are bad white fat and good brown fat.According to Roberts, scientists have thought we can lose weight by making more brown fat than white fat.Finally, Dr Sheng Bi and colleagues at the US Johns Hopkins have found possibilitiy to be able to replace bad white fat with brown fat,althogh they have to experiment in humans.


I think obesity is one of serious problems for people of today.There are many convenience stores or fast food shops on the streets. They serve mainly fatty food.As a result,many people have too much fat in the bodies. Obesity can cause many disease such as diabetes ,heart disease,and so on.That's why many people try to lose weight to keep fit.However,it is not so easy to control weight. If the scientists succeed in applying this new technology to our body,many people will be released from obesity.

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References

Michelle Roberts(2011,May 3).Scientists turn bud fat into good fat. BBC News.Retrieved May 4 ,2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-13266196 

A Bad Smell

It is popular today for people to love the ugly communist notion that the government should control almost every aspect of everyone's life. China is no different as we see in the article "China ban on smoking in public places comes into force" on the BBC News (Hogg, 2011).

Chris Hogg reports that China has recently banned smoking in public places, although the Chinese people are largely ignoring the new law. According to Hogg, many Chinese do not realise how dangerous cigarettes are, so even in restaturants and pubs, you  "often ... find people smoking at the next table" (2011, ¶ 8). Further, the people who own the restaurants, pubs and other businesses do not want the laws because their customers don't like them. The purpose of the new laws is to reduce the number of deaths from cigarettes in China, where tobacco is a very popular drug of addiction, but as Hogg also says, the new laws do not actually punish people who break them.

I think that the Chinese people and Chinese business owners are right, and their government is wrong. It is very popular in many countries these days to think that the government should control everything, about everyone's life, and a popular excuse is that if something is unhealthy or dangerous, it should be banned. This whole nasty way of thinking seems wrong to me. It is only just and reasonable to ban something if it is unhealthy or dangerous to other people, not to the person who is doing it. For example, eating the very delicious fatty pork leg that is so deservedly popular on the streets of Bangkok is surely unhealthy - all that delicious pork fat can't be healthy - but does it follow that the Thai government should make khao kha mu illegal, fine the buyers and throw the sellers into prison? No, this does not follow. That fatty pork is unhealthy is not a good enough reason for the government to ban it because eating it only harms the person who is eating it. They might be increasing their chances of heart disease and other obesity related illnesses when they enjoy a plate of khao kha mu everyday, but they have the right to make such decisions. And in exactly the same way, people who happen to enjoy smoking cigarettes have teh right to decide to indulge in that unhealthy pleasure if they want to. Of course, they must not put other people's health at risk against their will. But if business owners make up the policies for their own premises, that will not be a problem. Many people, such as myself, hate the smell of cigarette smoke, and would not go to a restaurant that allowed smoking; however, my personal dislike of smoking is not a good reason to stop other people who like it from enjoying that very unhealthy activity, so they should be free to smoke in restaurants that allow it. I will just go to the non-smoking restaurants. This seems to me a much fairer solution to this problem than the government telling everyone how they may use their own private property and how they may live their own private lives.
Bangkok's fatty pork leg sellers are not criminals and should not be treated as such. They are hard working business people providing a much valued service, just like restaurant owners who allow smoking in their shops.

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References

Hogg, C. (2011, May 1). China ban on smoking in public places comes into force. BBC News. Retrieved May 4, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/13251926

Blogging the BBC News

Over the next couple of days, we will be looking at the use of italics and quotation marks in academic writing; "Culture and Mental Illness", which we have read and are studying this week, has examples of both, and there are examples of both in this blog post. (What are those examples? Why did I use them?)

In academic writing, we use both italics and quotation marks for a limited number of specific reasons, several of which are related to an extremely important skill in all areas of academic work: the use of sources. Academics constantly cite sources containing other people's ideas, and sometimes their exact words, in their work: to agree, to disagree, for support, for a starting point, as a topic, and so on. Learning when and how to use sources effectively is one of our main goals in this course, and as we briefly saw yesterday, it is a primary focus of chapter 6 of Quest, which we are working through at the moment (Hartmann, 2007, p. 188 - 191).

In order to practise these essential academic skills, and also to ensure that we are reading regularly from a variety of sources and thinking critically about what we read, we will be making regular blog posts responding to articles published on the BBC News website.

Everyone gets to write up their response to an article once a week, according to the following schedule:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Art	Kukik	Nui	Pom	Thip
Guy	Kuriko	Oat	Pree	Tina
June	Neiva	Peter	Susana	Tune
				Wan

And don't worry, you don't have to wait until it's your day to respond to something from the BBC News, you can also comment on your classmates' posts every day.

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A few notes that you might find useful:

Remove formatting

• When you copy and paste into the blog from another website or other source, it's usually a good idea to use the "Remove formatting" tool.
  This is useful when you want to quote a few exact words, or to copy information for a reference list entry. 
• For the same reason, do not write in MS Word and then paste into your blog post (although I occasionally do do that, for example, the table above). There is no need to write in MS Word, but if you do, use the "Remove formatting" tool after you paste into your blog post. 
• I often email articles to myself as I'm reading the BBC News and other sites. Most online news sites offer easy tools to email a link  to someone, so I use it to send a reminder to myself of something that caught my interest. 
• Do not delete the pre-formatted reference section. You will definitely need it if you are writing a response to an article in the BBC News or elsewhere.
• Although I initially suggest the BBC News, you are welcome to check out and respond to articles from any of my list of approved sources. (The local papers The Nation and the Bangkok Post are not on that list because they are pretty much garbage and not good examples of writing for you to be reading, with the exception of material that they copy and paste form other sources.) 
• possibly to be added to if something else occurs to me later.

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References

BBC News at http://news.bbc.co.uk/
Hartmann, P. (2007). Quest 2 Reading and Writing, (2nd. ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill 

Carving the Roast Beast

I agree the Law with eating meat and I don't think that it's morally wrong because the animals are raised for human food. We are not to kill them purposeiy. If it 's morally wrong to eat meat, why are so many companies such as Charoean Pokphand Group providing Agro-Industry & Food. Morever, why the monk and the priest can eat meat. Even they know the morally better than others but they still eat meat. In addition, Doctors do suggest the patients to eat meat because the meat has highly protein that make your body healthy. The doctors are not intention to kill animal but to cure the patients.

tip

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References

Is Stephen Law right? Is it morally wrong to eat meat?

Now that you have read all of his short essay at least once, and hopefully a couple of times, you can directly address the reasons that Stephen Law uses to support his main idea in "Carving the Roast Beast", that it is morally wrong to eat meat (2003).

Although this is not strictly an academic writing exercise, it is a bit more serious than the last post here, where your only concern was to put your initial ideas into sentences as preparation for reading Law's essay. You will probably want to spend at least some time on the pre-writing steps of the writing process before you start putting your ideas about the strengths and weaknesses of Law's arguments down in sentences for your classmates to support or attack. If you agree with Law, you will need to be able to defend him against your classmates opposing ideas. And if you disagree with him, you want to present a strong argument showing where he is wrong or what he fails to cover in his essay.

This is your opportunity to either show us why it's OK to keep eating kai yang and hamburgers, or why we should stop indulging immoral lusts for such tasty treats.

And you will want to keep track of the arguments, so turn on "Subscribe by email" before you post your first comment.

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References

Law, S. (2003). Carving the roast beast. In The Xmas Files (p.124 – 140). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.

Chewing on Law

We have just read his introduction to Stephen Law's short dialogue "Carving the Roast Beast", in which he tells us the topic and main idea as we expect a writer to do in an introduction. Law's topic in "Carving the Roast Beast" is eating meat, and his main idea about this topic is that it is morally wrong (2003, p. 124)¹.

What do you think about this? Is Law right or wrong?

• Is it morally acceptable to eat meat? 
• When is it right to eat meat? Why? What makes it right? 
• When is it wrong? Why is it wrong? 
• Is it ever wrong to eat meat? Why do you think that? 
• Is it ever right to eat meat? Why do you think that?
  and moving on 
• What do you expect Law to do next? If you think he is wrong, what does he need to do to persuade that he is right? 

This is a response writing to share our ideas on Law's topic and main idea. You cannot explicitly discuss Law's supporting ideas because we have not read them yet. Our purpose here is to start thinking about the topic and write down our ideas. That's all. It's a response writing exercise similar to exercise G on page 156 of Quest, so feel free to respond with whatever ideas you like on the topic, or even a bit off the topic, following the same guidelines that Hartmann gives (2007). The questions I wrote above were just some prompts to hopefully get you thinking. 

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References

Law, S. (2003). Carving the roast beast. In The Xmas Files (p.124 – 140). London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson.²

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

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Notes

The title of my post 
The phrasal verb chew on means "chew over" as defined in the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. It also suggests a weaker version of the idea in the verb phrase chew out. I thought that it worked well in the title of this blog post.  

^1. Parenthetic citations like this example are usual and are normally required in academic writing. If you use an idea from a source, you must cite that source. For more examples of parenthetic citations, see Hartmann, pages 151 - 153.  

^2. And if you have cited a source in your writing, the full reference citation for that source must normally be included in your list of references. Sadly, Hartmann completely fails to do this on page 153. (Why? Where is the expected list of references? Do  you agree with Hartmann's decision here?)

One of our main goals this term is to practise using and correctly citing sources. If this is new to you, don't worry. 

Response writing is not academic writing, so don't even think about parenthetic citations or a reference list as you write your comments. 

Welcome to AEP Reading and Writing 4 + Have Your Say

Thank you for registering for the Reading and Writing level 4 class in AUA's Academic English Program (AEP).

Over the next six weeks we will be working through two chapters in Hartmann's Quest 2 Reading and Writing [Quest] (2007), which is probably already familiar to some of you from level 3 last term, or perhaps even more familiar. We will be doing both a a bit more writing than Quest asks for and a bit more reading.

And this being 2011, we will be using the tools that are normal in modern academic institutions: email, the internet and so on; academics and students no longer submit their written work on scraps of paper, and we won't be doing that either.

I hope that you find the class both enjoyable and challenging so that our six weeks together will be productive and pleasant.

And if you ever have any question about anything, please feel welcome to ask us in class, email me, or write it up here on our class blog (Peter, 2011). 

Have Your Say

I have some overall plans for the term, and more specific class plans for the coming week and for each day, but since we can also be flexible, I have a couple of questions for discussion here.

The first one follows up the poll on the right - how should we spend our two and a half hours of Monday to Thursday class time? After you cast your vote in the poll, please feel welcome to add a comment below supporting your answer, and if necessary, explaining why your classmates who favour a different answer should change their minds. 

You are also welcome to share your ideas on what we should, or should not, be doing outside of class in the two to three hours of daily homework that I think is appropriate for a course in academic English.

You can start commenting as soon as you have accepted your invitation to join the blog, which I will email to you at 8:00 PM on Monday evening. 

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References

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

Peter. (2011, February). AEP, Blogging our class. Class Blog - AEP at AUA. Retrieved February 25, 2011 from http://peteraep.blogspot.com/p/blogging-our-class.html