Immobilizer: easy but harmful

Technologies are affect in our lives, it can make us have more secure and comfortable. On the other hand, technologies can also harmful to our lives, if someone use in the wrong way. Car immobiliser is one of technology which variously use in new cars, it not only comfortable and easy to access in car, but also have a large vulnerability that can easily hacked.

According to "Car immobiliser easy to crack, say researchers" (2015), a security researchers from University in Holland investigated the encryption system used by the Megamos immobiliser, they found that car's immobiliser have a weak security system and easily to crack with a few minutes by using a laptop. The researchers were completely found this "trivial" attack three years ago before publishing to public for prevented publication.

I heard this vulnerability couple years ago from my friend, he told me that the researchers found that car immobiliser is not secure, so they told to the car makers about the security, they can get the cryptography key, but the car maker sue them.

My car have an immobiliser, too, it makes me comfortable and secure me to access the car because I do not to pick up the key to get in the car which thief can stole it from my hand and drive away. Having an immobiliser key, the key always in my pocket although when I start or stop the engine, car will authorised the key with the magnet in a key. Locking and Unlocking the car also use the magnet to authorised it.

Coping magnet for authorised is the hardest, and it is impossible. Then, the thief can not get the car and drive away. Thief also do not want the car, but they want money or valuable things in a car that why the researchers say it "trivial" attack. Thief can only use the radio chip to prevent locking doors, so they can access the car and get your stuff.

I always double check my doors before I left the car. At first, lock my doors with immobiliser and check the signal from my car. Then, try to open the door, if it locked is okay.

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Reference

Car immobiliser easy to crack, say researchers. (2015, August 14).BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33906051

Unexpected explosion in Bangkok

Have you ever face some situations that are unexpected - an unusual and impossible story likes a novel or a movie – of which you seem ignore and don't memorize before it happens much? An extremely good or bad experience which might make not only someone's existence but also the person’s family change forever; for examples, winning the first price lottery, getting a big amount of heritage; on the other hand, going bankrupt and being cheated by an admire person.

The Erawan Shrine
Source: www.novotelbangkokploenchit.com

According to "Bangkok bomb: Deadly blast rocks Thailand capital" (2015), a TNT bomb was exploding at the Erawan Shrine – an attractive holy place especially Chinese – on Ratchaprasong road where was full of Thais and National tourists at that time caused at least 19 people died added over 120 were injured. The purpose of this weapon which damaged around 30 meters far from a target point that had never appeared in Thailand before, is not only to stage an uprising but also to kill a crowd of people; in addition, there were two more artificial bombs nearby.

Upon the worst situation at the center of Bangkok with fear, sad and anxiety, admired people were helping each other without tiredness. I realized from sharing and reporting in generosity and helpfulness of them; for examples, doctors and medical officers backed to hospitals immediately when they knew the news and worked all night, using language volunteers went out from their home to be interpreters for the injured-tourist communication, over four thousand blood donators go to the Thai Red Cross Society although my brain was controlled by Sadness, Fear and Anger – three main characters from an animation movie Inside out. I do really respect them and proud to be Thai, to live in the public interest society.

On that day before the TNT exploded an hour I passed through the way because the location is not far from my house. It seems I am lucky several times. Once I memorize is the unexpected experience happened in my school. It was a morning Friday of ten years ago, when was a grade 8 student, a schizophrenia woman trespassed in a building and stabbed students in front of my classroom where my seat is the nearest. I was a lucky one who went to the school lately because of strange incidents. While I was finding my athletic shoe ropes, my father drove out because he thought that I already got into the car, then a dog barked at me that I could not go inside the transport a moment and that day was heavy traffic jam. I remember that I saw a student was carried to the hospital next to my school, and a pool of blood which I though that it was poured red drink Hale's Blue Boy in front of the class. There were also parents and teachers took long umbrellas and walked around the school to find the criminal. By the way, all of the attacked students are safe, that woman is arrested but I don’t know her punishment. As this happen, the school increases a security policy of visitors and time.

No one knows the last day of own life. Any accident may appear all the time. I may in luck previous but who know which day my name will be queued in the list of death so, “If you live each day as it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right” (Steve Jobs).

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Reference

"Bangkok bomb: Deadly blast rocks Thailand capital". (2015, August 17). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33963280

Brain game 'improves lives of schizophrenia patients'

In recent two weeks, our study is around the topic which is related to abnormal psychology that it is helpful for me because I would like to study Dance Therapy MA Program in the UK next year. Most people have not heard about dance therapy, actually I think that I am also not really understanding this subject before I start my study in the UK . Now, I just know that it is a subject which combines psychology and body movement. However, human is diverse, personal and unique that maybe no one can really understand all the subjects which related to individuals.

According to "Brain game 'improves lives of schizophrenia patients'"(2015), a professional in the university of Cambridge found that a small number of schizophrenia patients who experience cognitive problems are enhancing their memory and learning ability after they played brain-train games which has a wizard theme with various levels of difficulty over one month. Although the results are promising, the researcher said that it is a slow process for treatment which still need to develop a drug treatment in order to have a obvious benefits. Plus, the research team said more research was needed on larger groups of patients to confirm the findings.

When I read this article, I consider that a brain game seems like a similar treatment form with dance therapy. First, both of them are not needed to talk too much with psychotherapist that it is helpful to those patients who cannot communicate well with people such as autism, schizophrenia and dementia. Second, it is more interesting than traditional therapy so that patients might have more motivation on brain games or body movement, it would be beneficial to their healing. Finally, if it can use in conjunction with other therapies such as drugs therapy, it might have more effective results for treatment.

I personally prefer the psychological treatments without drugs because drugs might hurt our health in different levels. Although, sometimes taking drugs is a necessary treatment for certain patients in order to change their physical situation, I still believe that we can more focus on the power of mind such as concentration, creativity and mindfulness to reduce the dependence on drugs so that everyone already have the ability to heal ourselves. For example, there was a Japanese Professor who did an experiment on water. He found that if people said positive words to a cup of water that can become beautiful water crystals. On the other hand, if people said negative words that water would become ugly water crystals. Therefore, if playing a brain game or dancing can enhance our psychological situation, it would be a more steady and healthy ways to enhance patients ability for their life.

However, most people are more dependent on drug therapy and think that playing a brain game and dancing sound a ridiculous way for psychological treatments, but I think that we just need more experiments on it. I hope that people can more realize on our mind which is not a machine, it is an energy that we cannot see it, but it is real exist.
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Reference

Brain game 'improves lives of schizophrenia patients'.(2015, August 3).BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33736760

A Newborn War of Cyber Crime

It is undeniable that our lives have not been the same after the advanced technological development of computer, nowadays, we rely heavily on it : chatting with friends, social networking, sending e-mail, working, searching information and managing many of our routine activitiies. After computer software has been resized into a small and comfortable device as smartphone, people tend to crazily stick on it, functioning as one of human's organ that many cannot leave out, certainly, this leads to some disadvantages, giving more opportunities to some attackers who can reach your personal life easily.

According to "Police investigate 'first cyber-flashing' case" (Bell, 2015), a woman in the UK received two penis photos from stranger on her Iphone via Apple's Airdrop, which used for sharing photo between IOS operation, after she shared this function to public, and this may call a new form of cyber crime, certainly, she was the first victim in the UK. The police confirmed that there is still no way to track this crime due to lacking of technological support; moreover, the victim did not accept photos from the anonymous man, so it is unable to indicate the criminal contact and where he lives.

I strongly believe that new kinds of crime will continuously occur again and again in the future as long as creating new inventions will have been being developed. Recent years, a number of online harassment have risen significantly because internet can be found in most of developed and developind areas, and this is a powerful medium for hackers, so what they would like to know about you they can, and if they would like to destroy you they can, too. Many sexual online harassment issues can be seen on news and social network, while some users are curious to know who is the victim, the victim already lose their personal life, and what is published on internet, It will be there forever, even the original content is deleted, a copy still exist.

In addition, this news also reminds me to recall some situations that we can meet in daily life. Even I have never faced the sexual harassment, but I have ever got many messages that persuade to do online job through facebook messenger, it is very annoying and boring because every agencies use the same speech, for example, 'Do you have more free time?', 'Just using computer and earn a great income'. This does not happen only in facebook but also on line application, I sometimes received game requests from strangers that make I was wondering how they get others contacts easily and it seems like they do not respect individual's privacy at all.

Have you ever gained some experiences about online issue? and How do you handle with it?

Please share the lessons. Nowadays, people tend to take more considerations about privacy, but when we try every way to protect ourselves, there are still some gaps for online violation. I think the most effective way may be setting offine life, yet I cannot do it!

Reference

Bell, S. ( 2015, August 13) . Police investigate 'first cyber-flashing' case. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-33889225

Climate changes may bring us starvation.

According to “Global warming increases 'food shocks' threat” (McGrath, 2015), researchers found that global warming may cause the food shortage due to poor harvests and low stock of grains especially in Africa and the Middle East. Wealth countries may be able to cope with this problem because consumer in this region tends to ingest more processed food. Moreover, because of the fact that biofuel become increasingly popular, lands are used to produce this power instead of farming.

Recently, people have gradually realized the impacts of global warming in many ways. As we already knew that, in the long run, it affects the diversity of ecosystem and may make the iceberg melt rapidly causing the heavy flood all over the world. However, climate change may disrupt food production and drive us to face starvation in the near future.

Drought is one of the most significant impacts of climate change on food

For agricultural country like Thailand, weather play an important role in people’s life and economic growth. When whole country suffer from severe flooding in 2011, it took a year to restore the damages in farming business. At that time, many household choose to hoard processed food such as canned foods and instant noodle. In addition, a number of chain restaurant needed to be temporally closed down because the suppliers cannot manage to cultivate the ingredient. The market price of vegetable and other raw foods also raised at least 5-10 %. I can tell that it is a hard time for all of us and if this incident is going to happen again, I want to suggest some possible solutions.

“Say no to plastic bag” campaign may be considered out of date, but I still think it’s a good idea to tackle the global warming problem. I mean, as a one person on this big planet, there may be a little thing we can do to mitigate this situation. Another way is the sustainable food system. Nowadays, there is an organization that helps teaching people so they can provide food for themselves in a sustainable way. If their project is accomplished, the number of imported food will significantly decrease and the rising of food’s price will not affect them.

From my point of view, we should take steps to solve this problem; otherwise we may have to face malnutrition.




__________


Reference

McGrath, M.(2015, August 14), Global warming increases 'food shocks' threat. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33910552

In fact, that's true in my opinion, so it can't be false. Or can it?

Academics in every field are concerned with the concepts called by the English words fact, opinion, true and false. Since we spend some time in class doing vocabulary exercises and today grammar exercises, it was useful for us to clarify our ideas about what exactly a vocabulary and a grammar are.

Similarly, as the summary of responses to the online survey we did this morning shows, although there is some agreement, there also seems to be some disagreement about our understandings of what facts and opinions are, and by the meanings of true and false ("Survey of Ideas," 2015).

One reason for the survey is that it gives us some specific examples to think about and work with. I tried to think of related examples from very different academic fields, and a couple that are not academic. I asked you not to discuss your answers before submitting them because that gives a more accurate view of what we think initially. Since there is considerable disagreement, some of us, perhaps all of us, might decide after some reflection to revise our initial ideas.

The first four statements (two really, with each repeated) come from the history of astronomy and physics. They are based on how our ideas have changed from the time of Aristotle to today. If you know a bit about the very dramatic history of that sudden change in our understanding of where we are in the universe, that might be helpful. I put these statements first because I thought they might be in some ways the easiest to deal with; however, as the pie charts colourfully and plainly show, there is already substantial disagreement here.

Can you help us to resolve this disagreement? What is causing it? What exactly are you going to present reasons to persuade your classmates to agree with?

Comments are welcome. Over the next week or two, we will also follow up in class the issues raised here. And if you think that there are related issues we need to discuss, feel welcome to add them to the list of things to be explained, clarified, given examples of and reasons for, and so on.

This might give you something more interesting to think about than the important but not-so-exciting grammar homework today.

As you might have noticed, I've now turned off the survey form we used in class this morning: we want to keep that set of responses as an unchanged record. If you would like to look at or do the survey again, there is a copy of it here, which you are welcome to try out.

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Reference

Survey of ideas on fact and opinion - AEP rw2 [Summary of responses]. (2015, August 17). Retrieved from https://docs.google.com/a/auathailand.org/forms/d/1BVn-gSUszQnHkqqj512vhxSpP3TgzisVanwc91lo5OA/viewanalytics

Talent or Practice?

Most people are inclined to believe that someone who is good at something would have natural talent; nonetheless, it may be not always true. In the case of Olympic athletics, if talent is a god's gift that makes them win and get medals in sports competition, why do all of them need to keep practicing regularly? Is only purposeful practice without any talents enough to become master of anything—sport, art, science, language and the like?

In “Can you succeed at anything with enough practice?”, Matt Pickles (2015) says an experiment about coaching a computer geek—who is not a sporty guy—ever day to make him become one of top table-tennis players in UK within one year to try to testify the idea that people can reach mastery in anything by a lot of continuous practice without any talents. Although at the end of year he did not still achieve this goal, there has been a great change in his ability, and he wants to further train so as to become one of the 250 highest-ranked players.

The results of this experiment seem that talent also matters to help achieve a goal more quickly. Only practice may take a long time and be achievable if one never intends to give up before. However, routine practice, good discipline, keen attempt in this case shows a great change and development of his ability even though he does not have talent at all. This would be because a human brain, performance and behavior are adaptable if trained appropriately and correctly, indicating that practice will help take one to reach his/her aim. Furthermore, perhaps it may be also difficult to explicitly answer what (talent or practice) is more important than what as people differently defined the word “success” and have their own definitions.

When I studied in the junior high school (around grade 7-8), I started to practically learn and use a computer, whereas my friend could use it well. At that time one of my major problems is that I typed very slowly and needed to look at each letter on a keyboard before touching them. In turn, some of my friends could type quickly, fluently and accurately without glancing at any buttons on a keyboard at all, considerably amazing me. Afterwards, I tried to practice this skill a lot through the program for practicing typing I gave from my computer teacher until finally I could type effectively for Thai keyboard with the use of all of my fingers (correct position on the keyboard) and without looking at any buttons on the keyboard—as my friends did. Since then, I am no longer worried about such a problem, and additionally now my typing ability has been also further developed for English keyboard. Therefore, I believe the full effort on routine practice would help bring about the great change in one’s ability despite no talent and lead to succeed in anything.

In addition, one thing that is important for attaining any achievements is belief. Belief is about law of attraction that makes one think positively and has hope to do and overcome any challenges and obstacles so as to reach successful aims. Not only that, but also well-defined goals will encourage and motivate oneself to keep doing with the best attempt. Both well-posed goals and firm belief improve nothing but the chance of success in one’s life. Finally, two meaningful statements for fulfilling one’s dream I want to share here are “Do something successfully is better than do nothing at all” and “People are more capable than they think they are.”

.....May the force be with you.....

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Reference

Can you succeed at anything with enough practice?. (2015, April 1). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-31945687

Cats rule the world

I love cats, but unfortunately I cannot take care of them because I have an allergy to their furs; any way, it can be seen obviously that cats are one of the most favorite pets in the world and I wonder why nowadays there are a lot of cats videos on YouTube, including on Facebook. Why do they become more popular than other pets?

 According to “Why cat clips rule the internet” (2015), a recent scientific study shows that looking videos of cats can improve your mood. When Jessica Gall Myrick, an assistant professor from Indiana University, asked 7,000 people how they felt before and after watching the cats’ videos, the results found that people felt happier after watching those videos.

For me, watching something cute like cats or babies always make me smile and more relaxed, and I believe that it is not only me who feel like this, most people like watching the photos or videos which lead them feel less anxious. A few days ago, I read the news about a Japanese news program on television which brought the cats walking around the broadcasting room during the news reporters were talking about the political topics, they said this technique can relieve the audience’s’ stress and feel more comfortable to watch their program.

 It is a very good idea and the TV program can gain more rating; however, if we talk about the popularity of cats, some cats’ owners, who published their videos or photos, can gain a lot of money too. Moreover, there are some people getting an idea to do business about cats such as cat café, cat spa, and cat stickers on LINE application, they made a big profit too.

 Supposing that there are not any social media to post the kitties’ photos and videos, will they still be popular?

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Reference

Why cat clips rule the internet. (2015, August 11). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/33848745

MH370 live in Maldives

Last year, March 2014, we heard about missing Malaysia airlines MH370, which was from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, before the communication lost they found that MH370 was changing their head out of the route then radar was disappeared. Australia was the first country that were looking to because of the head of MH370 that had turned and seems to heading to Australia,

According to "Malaysia sends experts to examine Maldives 'debris'" (2015), Maldives' newspapers show the small objects which found on Reunion Island and assume that are parts of MH370, Malaysia airlines, which was lost in March 2014, Without the evidence, it is believed that was crashed into the Southern Indian Ocean. Liow, transport minister, said "It was too soon to say if they were connected to flight MH370," so he send experts to examine the debris in Maldives to verify it.

Before we have an airplane we traveled by ship and many of them were crashed while they were travelling since the weather were bad. Nowadays, travelling by ships are more safer than in the past, but is not efficient because ships cannot sailing fast, so travel to another countries it takes for a long time at least a month. By the way, we are also use the ships to transport the items which cannot belongs to the plane.

Travelling by plane is the best way to travel overseas because of the efficiency and security. We were not heard lots of injured people from the plane crashed. From the article, we can easily to assume that the debris, found on Reunion Island, are parts of MH370. The other evidence, to assume this, is the radar from MH370 was disappeared near Indonesia.

__________i 

Reference

MH370: Malaysia sends experts to examine Maldives 'debris'. (2015, August 10). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33846493

Psychological disorders and social stigma. Quest 2, p. 176, x.C., 4 - 5

Rather than do Hartmann's discussion questions on page 176 (2007) of Quest, we are going to do them as response writing activities.

Now, questions 4 - 5, which we are also treating as one response writing prompt:

• Do you know of any famous people who suffered from a psychological disorder? If so, who were they? Do you know what disorder they had? 
• Do you think that there are fewer stignas against people with psychological disorders than in the past? Among whom? Why?  

Respond to these prompts in one comment below. 

__________

Reference

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

Fears, normal and phobic. Quest 2, p. 176, x.C., 1 - 3.

Rather than do Hartmann's discussion questions on page 176 (2007) of Quest, we are going to do them as response writing activities.

First, questions 1 - 3, which we are treating as one response writing prompt:

• In your opinion, how is a phobia different from a normal fear. What might be some "healthy fears"? 
• What are you afraid of? (High places? Crowds? Snakes? etc.) Can you think of when you first had this fear? How do you deal with this fear? 
• Do you know anyone who is phobic? How does this phobia affect her or his life? 

Respond to these prompts in one comment below. 

__________

Reference

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

Vegemite - Australian culinary icon

Vegemite - Australian culinary icon

I believe only Australian people or visitors have known 'Vegemite' well as their signature, they believe that it would be healthy if they eat everyday, especially in children because it might help their children be more concentrate in studying, therefore, if you occasionally go there once, you will see this product in every house. 

According to "Australia suggests Vegemite sales limit amid 'alcohol abuse'" (2015), Australia's government says that they consider limiting the sale of Vegemite since they found it has been an ingredient to make alcohol, Brewer's yeast is the key to produce beer or ale, which causes of addiction and domestic violence problems.  

I have been tried once by my friend's mother, I never forgot the taste for all my life, bitter, sting my tongue, it was worse than hundreds of Band's chicken soup altogether. I could remember one day in the morning, her mother convinced me to try the Australian breakfast style, toast with jam, nutella, vegemite and cheese so I didn't think much, at first I just thought that vegemite was a kind of chocolate because it looked black like chocolate mousse, so I put it down on my toast in thick one and suddenly I cried, my tongue was stung and felt numb, everyone on the table teased at me and after that I just knew how to eat it correctly by scooping in a small piece like you eat Wasabi in Japanese Shushi.

When I saw this news, I thought it was hard to limit vegemite because most of Australian people have consumed it , just only least would make alcohol so the government might only reduce the stock and limit purchasing per person. 

Moreover, to limit the vegemite product because of alcohol abuse, it is not a good way to solve the problem, the direct solution is how to solve people from addicting alcohol. Putting vegemite away does not mean these people cannot find another substitute instead, so why they don't focus on the person. Do you agree with that?    

Reference

Australia suggests Vegemite sales limit amid 'alcohol abuse'. (2015, August 8). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-33839742

The invisible things do not mean they are unreal

A campaign which is announced from Thailand Public Health for pathogen spreading prevention is popular and reminds Thai people by a dialect quote “Gin ron, Chon glang, Laang mue” that means eating hot food, using a scoop for a shared dish and washing your hands before consuming, is a signal of infection via a cuisine. Regarding to the campaign, it is well-known that saliva of a patient which full of either bacteria or virus is a main contagion by indirect contact; therefore, most people are received those microorganisms and may become a sufferer unless the immune system is weak.

According to BBC News “Lancashire homes forced to boil water to cryptosporidium bug” (2015) Lancaster households are reported to boil United Utilities bottled water because of cryptosporidium, a bacteria causes diarrhea and abdominal cramps which found in air, soil, food and faeces, contaminates that Robert Parker, Blackpool resident, doesn’t satisfy in neglect of infected diarrhea emergency and lately announce of the company while a representative of United Utilities denies the arraignment. Kate Brierley, Public Health England, suggests drinking replace lost fluid because of diarrhea.

Cryptosporidium in human's body
Source: http://www.nature.com/

Microbe is a group of living creatures which we cannot see by naked eyes even though they are everywhere; for examples, in the air and the soil, in the water of hot spring, on animal’s skin, including around our lash eye! None of these microorganisms, despites, can live and adapt themselves to suitable in the whole environment; hence, each strain also has a range that appropriate to grow up - increasing their mass and reproducing the progeny. Any human disease causing microorganisms greatly thrive at 37 degree Celsius, a human temperature, and have a range for slowly growth within 25-60 degree Celsius. They might endure lower or above the range.

In agreement with the distribution and pathogenesis of cryptosporidium from the news, boiling water is a basic step of decreasing its amount rather than getting rid of. Most of single cell bacteria will bud for the next generation because of its simple structure which is also easy to be damaged by high temperature. Reporting to Lancashire to boil water first is a good choice of stopping diarrhea occurrence from cryptosporidium but not its spore. Microbial spores have a special character to tolerate in the extreme humidity and climatic so, it possibly re-backs although the cryptosporidium cells are eliminated.

The boiled water arouses me of using warm water to scald a canteen spoon and fork; however, it is not enough for sterilization. When I go to a food center, I always observe consumer’s behaviors to the warm water in a pot, and the result is dipping their picked couples to a moment. With a hundred degree Celsius, bubble floating appears, for ten minutes or above effectively decrease an enormous of contaminated bacteria, is different from prepared water which is about 50-60 degree in an opened environment is welcome germs from divergent sources via the air. Regardless of the minimum temperature and time, if canteen administrators control the quality standard of them and attach a proper time suggestion, the procedure will capably decrease rate of infection.

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Reference

"Lancashire homes forced to boil water due to cryptosporidium bug". (2015, August 7). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-lancashire-33816989

Languages of the world

The most favorite word for me is 'Diversity', which means that there are many different type of things in the world including language, culture, ethnic and nationality. Nowadays, there are more than 7,000 different language around the world but only 100-200 languages are mainly used; however, in the age of globalization, English has been set to be a main worldwide tool for carrying message from Western side such as The US, The UK and The EU to others parts. Have you ever thought that those natives rely heavily on English?

Accoding to "Britons 'nervous to speak foreign language when abroad'" (Sellgren, 2015), The British Council's survey found that a quarter of British adult get nervous to use foreign language when travelling to others countries, and 40% of them are embarassed by their language skill; in addition, 36% of the UK hope local people communicate in English, while there are only 16% who said that they can speak others lanuages very well. This serious sign occurs in the university too, due to a significant drop in popularity in studying foreign langauge, which will affect competitive advantages of the country in the fields of international relation, economy and cultural diversity.

After reading this article, it seems like Britons are quite worry when travelling to countries that do not prioritise English for communication, this may happen because they do not familiar with social context, and cannot respond to what local people said to them. There are many countries arond the world that give precedence to their dialects rather than using English, even many of local people have to study English in class, especially China and Japan, which strongly preserve their national identity. However, I do not think that this is a big problem, as long as everyone treats English as global speech, traveller can find someone who can speak English everywhere, yet no guaratee for their proficiency.

On the other hand, I think, people who have never practise English will get more troubles because it is a standard qualitification, which is required by almost companies nowadays. Some organisations ask for a result of TOEIC, IELTS or TOEFL, and welcome for employee who aboard graduated. When I started my career at international media agency, I had to take English test set by my company and joined an interview in English too, while working there everyone are encouraged to use English for sending e-mail and creating presentation, whereas the third language skill is a plus.

I am not surprised at all that Britons or US citizen hope others to speak English, but if we consider in term of politics and economy, it is necessary to understand what people in different area thought for protecting dipomatic benefits, so having skill in the third language is very important to the country. Furthermore, linguistic diversity represent varied beautiful cultures, and teach us to respect and adapt to live with people who have different background.

Since I was born, I have grown up in Chinese family, in the same time, I have learnt many thai traditions, both have its positive aspects, while I do not agree with some aspects. However, I can completely say that I love cultural hybridization and it is very charming. I believe that many people fall in love in cultural heritage too, and that why even some English speakers choose to study others languages; nonetheless, they may not use it in daily life, but he/she already helps those languages to survive and are alive!

Reference

Sellgren, C. (2015, August 6). Britons 'nervous to speak foreign language when abroad'. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33787756

Ice bucket challenge: What's happened since?

Do you remember that many people made their videos which having a bucket of cold water poured over their head, and uploaded on Facebook last summer? Do you think people really understand the meaning of this activity or just because of fun and trendy? Does anyone concern about that what is happened since?

According to" Ice bucket challenge: What's happened since?" (2015), we can know motor neurone disease (MND) is a disease that affects the brain and spinal cord, so people locked in a failing body, unable to move, talk and eventually, breathe and there is no cure. Plus, what is happened after Ice bucket challenge in the USA and the UK.

There are many opinions from many people as far as I know. On one hand, some people consider that Ice bucket challenge is a positive activity for following reasons: First, Ice bucket challenge is really raised money for helping people who is suffering from MND. Moreover, there are more people who pay their attention  for MND people that it is make MND patients and their family feel that they are not lonely. Finally, more people will learn the knowledge about what is MND, and included the other related diseases which is not commonly known.

 On the other hand, the other individuals have different viewpoints of Ice bucket challenge for following points : First of all, some people think that Ice bucket challenge wastes of water. Especially there lacking of water in some area last summer. Secondly, certain patients family claim that they are feeling offended for the activity because some people who shared their video are not really want to support MND but just for fun or trendy. Lastly, there are some individuals doubt about use of donated funds is not clear.

I personally consider that it is a positive activity, but people seem to focus on MND for just a period of time, but BBC News remind us that Ice bucket challenge brings how a successful achievement for charity. It might encourage more people to concentrate on charity continuously. In addition, we can see that social network such as Facebook, shows a effective power to make something happen. When I read this BBC News that remind me that my goal is to be a dance therapist, and I might be working with some people who need support from society, such as autistic, depression and cerebral palsy. That is why I choose this topic.

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Reference

Ice bucket challenge: What's happened since?(2015, August 4). BBC News.  Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-33640896

Nepal earthquake and Lesson for Thailand

Although Thailand is not much familiar with the earthquakes thanks to it’s location outside the Ring of fire, an area around the Pacific Ocean where a large number of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur, many countries including Nepal have to face this disaster. And that’s may be not the worst thing ever.

The earthquake that hit Nepal in 2015 claimed the lives of about 9,000 people
From BBC News Website

According to "Risk of future Nepal-India earthquake increases" (Morelle, 2015), the quake that just hit Nepal did not release all the underground stress caused by tectonic plates. Moreover, an earthquake might happen again westwards near India where there are more density of population. The researcher also suggested that the community should make sure that the building in those areas are constructed properly and teach children how to react in the event of an earthquake.


One of my colleagues is Nepalese whose family lived in Kathmandu when the incident happened. At that time, he could not contact his relative and was worried so much. Later on, after he had a chance to go back to visit his family bringing them canned food and instant noodles, he told me that although his mother and other people is safe, they have to stay outside their home and they also have a trauma thinking about the earthquake.


One of the reasons that there is so much damage is because the construction of architecture in Nepal is not strong enough to resist the shake. Normally, people in this country build their own house base on their own design. This mean there are neither architecture nor engineer to check basic structure. Another reason is that people are not well informed how to cope with natural disaster. They do not know how to hide and where to evacuate. Come to think of it, I am a little bit worried because we have the same situation in Thailand.

Thailand may situate on the safe area and never experienced such quake before. But it doesn't mean that we do not need to prepare our self. I think that thai educational institution should teach our children how to deal with such situation. In the country such as Japan where earthquake drills are held once a month, every little children know that they have to hide under their desks until the quake is over. As they practice, they will become more familiar with the process and in the real situation they will response automatically.

Like they said, Hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

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Reference

Morelle, R. (2015, August 7). BBC News. Risk of future Nepal-India earthquake increases. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33807791

Out with the bad old days

In her recent post about plans for ultra-rapid jets, Ice has noted in a comment that technology can change with surprising speed, using as an example the smartphones that many of us now carry around as normal. Rapid change can also occur in social attitudes, even if some traditionalists prefer the bad old ways.

"Uganda gay pride rally held a year after law overturned" reports on a gay pride rally in Uganda, whose leaders, like many in Africa, "have argued homosexuality is not part of African culture," when pressed by foreign leaders like Barack Obama (2015). According to the report, the rally expresses the fears and hopes of the gay and lesbian citizens of Uganda as they seek respect for their rights as human beings.

It amazes me how very quickly the western world has made great moral progress in the law regarding gays and lesbians. When I was at school and university in Australia, it was illegal to have gay or lesbian sex. But even worse were the ugly social attitudes, which were strongly supported by all the religions at the time: the Catholics, including the nuns who ran my primary school, other Christian groups, Jews, and all the rest were strongly anti-gay and lesbian. There was no worse thing than being thought gay. And religion was largely to blame for this evil. Thankfully, many Australians stopped believing in religion, as have many Americans, and even more people in Western European nations have become atheists who no longer follow any religion. The results of getting rid of religion have been very good: now that people no longer take religion very seriously, politicians and morally decent people have been able to stop abusing minorities such as gays and lesbians, and the not only the unjust laws against them have changed, but social attitudes have changed. In the US, since a Supreme Court ruling a few weeks ago, same-sex marriage has been legal in every US state; Australia doesn't have that yet, but it's no longer illegal or socially deadly to be gay or lesbian in Australia, and I'm sure that same-sex marriage will come soon, however much the morally wrong Christian and other religious groups try to stop it.

But as the African example shows, there are still many areas in the world where their cultures are seriously immoral. However, with more of the world making more rapid progress, I think even the most backward nations will have to accept that change for the better must come. I wonder how long, or how short a time, it will be before Uganda, too, start to respect the basic human rights of all of its citizens?

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Reference

Uganda gay pride rally held a year after law overturned. (2015, August 8). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-33839050

The future of Uber and traditional taxi service in Thailand

Many people who live and work in Bangkok would have once bad experience in different aspects about most of taxi drivers who tend to reject passengers with several claims and provide service only for someone they are satisfied to make a trip within desired areas and routes. Undoubtedly, I am often one of those passengers, and that provokes me to support Uber taxi service in Thailand although this service turn into be withheld now, and it seems there is still no certain future of Uber service.

According to “Uber given new taxi licence despite hostility” (2015), Uber, an app for hailing a taxi as a trip requested, in Nottingham has received an official license from Nottingham City Council to provide legal service—other cities in the UK have also been given a licence, while demonstration of taxi drivers against Uber have also occurred in many countries—Canada, France, Hongkong, India, South Africa and the US. Nevertheless, now Uber is encountering with legal action by the GMB union since it is limiting basic rights to its drivers, and some traditional taxi drivers are not considerably satisfied due to unjust competition and loss of personal flexibility.

Currently, Uber has become a controversial issue in many countries due to taxi driver’s hostility. Therefore, it is somewhat interesting to figure out suitable solutions for making it possible and effective service. In Thailand, Uber has also become illegal and unavailable service, but it used to make most of Bangkok’s people satisfied because it is a new alternative as well as good innovation for public transportation service for consumers, whereas problems of traditional taxi service as said earlier still remain unsolvable.

It goes without saying that controlling taxi-service system is necessary and important to ensure safety, quality and efficiency of service. As far as I know, there are different ways to control, including limiting the number of taxi, controlling fare or styles of service and so on. Admittedly, there would be no the best solution. Instead, it depends on the current situation and designed policy and strict management. Reformation of the related organizations may be a potential way to address this problem.

To focus on dealing with Thailand’s taxi service problems, now there is no systematic management for the service in terms of company that hires chauffeurs as employees—as the bus system does—and the use of booking system on a mobile in order that taxi will not wait for passengers anywhere for a long time without income. In addition, using IT system and GPS may be good solutions for making high-efficiency service. Perhaps, the government should also study from the case studies in other developed countries and adapt them to improve the system complying with the city’s change and other related public transportation systems.

Regarding Uber taxi, banning it may be just claims in the aspect of law, and people cannot get any benefits of this action as long as the department of land transport of Thailand cannot confirm that regular taxi service is good enough and response to people’s demand of commute in Bangkok. On the other hand, it is limiting feasible alternatives that can help make a system in which taxi-service entrepreneurs can compete in terms of price and quality, and additionally people would not have more choices to get pleasant taxi service. Do you think Thailand should reconsider Uber service and also reorganize taxi-service system?

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Reference

Uber given new taxi licence despite hostility. (2015, July 31). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-33732614

Quantitative Easing Policy - QE

Quantitative Easing Policy

Nowadays, the world economy has been fluctuated rapidly, it seemed depressing down, especially in equity markets which were falling down in significantly such as Dow Johns, Heng Seng, Nikkei and even SET. However, the country which has been suffer slightly from this situation was United States because they just ended up QE or Quantitative Easing last year so they could control their economy quite well but they also had a few problems after QE strategy which were high unemployment rate and low interest rate.

According to "US economy adds 215,000 jobs in July" (2015), the US unemployment rate has been declined into 5.3%, a 7-year-low rate, which supported as the Federal Reserve said last month that it was continuing to improve, with solid job gains and declining unemployment.

US is one of influenced countries because of consumers, economy, technology, innovation or even politic factors which might control other countries be underneath by them. The QE strategy is a type of monetary policy used by the central bank to stimulate the economy when the regular policy has become inefficiency, thus, US has used it past years ago by cutting off interest rates, pushing a huge money to the economic system on and on until the economy could sustain themselves, so this solution could make money flew into the system, at the same time, the central bank also decreased the interest rate to encourage people to spend more and when people spent much money the industry section would get benefit and reduce a bankrupt risk. Therefore, the overall economy would be better by the government's interfering. 

From US economic crisis, it also caused to Thailand's economy after they ended their QE because during US pushing dollar currency into their system, it would make people had more money but could not deposit as the low interest rate so they might invest in another countries which could offered the interest rate highly. Thailand was one of the countries that made a benefit, however, after the end of QE, everything definitely returned back, although, it has had another QEs such as Japan and Euro zone. Nowadays, Bank of Thailand has been decreased interest rate twice since 2015, because of the global crisis, which affect the Thailand's export downward. However, US plans to increase their interest rate if the unemployment rate is falling down to their expected, as quick as, I believe that the situation will become good immediately. 

Reference

US economy adds 215,000 jobs in July. (2015, August 7). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/business-33823904

The new Ultra-Rapid air vehicle and it's importance

These days, air transportation plays a big role in the mean of moving people around the world. Compared to the past when people have to spend at least a month for crossing the oceans by ship from Thailand to Europe, now it takes usually just 10-12 hours. However, that is not fast enough for some situation such as catastrophe and disaster and Airbus company is going to shift it’s rapidness to a whole new level.

In the BBC News article Could we fly from London to New York in an hour? (Jane, 2015) Jane Wakefield tells us that Airbus has won a patent for a hypersonic plane using hydrogen power which will be able to carry up to 20 passenger at a time and reach it’s maximum speed of 5,512km/h. This is just the conceptualization stage after all and it may take long time before the launch of real product.

Picture from BBC News website http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33786999

I choose this news because I love to travel and explore new place so I frequently check airline ticket promotion. When I gathered the information, I also take traveling time into account and that’s why I believed when this technology of Ultra-rapid jet is put in used, it will contribute significantly to the tourism industry especially in the term of the accessibility of a destination. For developing country such as Thailand, more tourists mean more income for country improvement and economic development. The short traveling time can also be benefit for business trip which companies can afford to pay a great deal of money to buy their executive’s times.

When disaster happens, we also need the rapid transportation to carry supplies and survival kits. Moreover in some severe situation, every minute means the chance of dead or alive. In recent Nepal quake, many international aid planes arrived in Kathmandu airports and helped many civilians from starvation. It also brought foreign tourists back to their home country – to their family and beloved one. Furthermore, after the recue period, the air transportation boosted the infrastructure restoration and provided the necessary technology which connected Nepal to rest of the world.

Although air transportation has many useful purposed, I preferred using it for travel purpose. And I would be great if I have a chance to ride this Turbo-jet someday in the future.

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Reference

Jane W. (2015, August 5). Could we fly from London to New York in an hour?. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33786999

Hong Kong: the Unclear Situation

Last month I had a chance to research about Hong Kong movement in the end of last year (2014) called the Umbrella Movement, and I wonder why this city also has the protest against the government like democratic countries in spite of the fact that it is under China (the Beijing government), which called themselves as “one country, two systems”.



Mr Wong leads the high-profile Scholarism student activist group

According to “Joshua Wong: 'We had no clear goals' in Hong Kong protests” (Liu, 2015), Mr. Joshua Wong, a well-known teenage political activist in Hong Kong, said that he did not have any clear goal or roadmap to protest for democracy this time, and he thought that there is not enough people who were willing to pay the price for protesting, so the activist group did not have enough bargaining power with Chinese authorities; besides, may be the next ten years he will mobilize something much larger.

Not only Joshua wasn’t clear about their strategy but I am not sure about Hong Kong’s situation in future also because at first I think the 2014 Umbrella Movement has already finished since December last year, which the polices cleared all protesters and their camps with no resistance and brought the movement to an end with no law change, but now it’s still alive. The protesters just wait for the proper time to fight for democracy again.

Ending the movement that time may result from various factors; for example, millions of protesters had to go back to their responsibilities - working for money, taking care of children, or studying. Furthermore, they might not want to pass the Christmas time with stressful political situation, the tourism revenue would be decline too.

However, it is very interesting that most of the pro-democracy activists are the new generation of Hong Kong people – students, workers, and professors, they want to see the new system of Hong Kong governance, which give them more freedom to vote the leader of their city. They did not agree that the Beijing government rejected the proposal for democratic election of Hong Kong’s chief executive in 2017; in other words, the city’s top leader will again be chosen by a small loyal group under the communist party.

This is a dilemma situation which is definitely unclear because if the Hong Kong chief executive can be voted by Hong Kong people, yes they will have more freedom to choose which policies they like, the “one country, two systems” are going to an end. Nevertheless, is it the beginning point to China’s political disorders? Because there are a lot of ethnic minorities in China too such as Uyghur, Tibetan, etc., how will they react to that Hong Kong change?

Sometimes, I hopefully want to see something “new” about the countries’ governance, rules, and orders not only within my country but also any other countries, yes I am a new generation too; in conclusion, is it possible that Hong Kong will be the first example of China’s new governance or the first city which is a completely democratic city both in economy and in politics under Beijing government?

 

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Reference

Liu, J. (2015, August 2). Joshua Wong: 'We had no clear goals' in Hong Kong protests. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-33729241