What is the priority of having children ?

What I found in the news
According to the BBC News article "What should come first, a baby or a flat?

", Nowadays Singapore is facing a problem of an ageing population because of lowing birth rates so their government try to solve the problem by encourage citizens to have their children. One of politician, Ms. Josephine Teo, candidate was asked that if some reasons of not having children especially young Singaporeans was because they had to wait too long to have their own houses and It’s hard to have babies if they still live with their parents. Ms. Teo gave her viewpoint that Accommodation shouldn't be a priority and she also gave some examples of being family and have children process from other countries in otherwise in the formation tell about the price of accommodation in Singapore is very expensive and likely difficult to get their own. After that her suggestions instigated ferocious discuss in online society.

_______________________________________ 

My response

I think this problem is happening in many countries and it will effects to economics but when i was reading this article I thought about one point that she may forgot to think about quality of childern because sometimes accommodation can show that they are affordable.for Thailand I think we are facing with this problem too but in specific class of people , most graduated people have less children because they plan a lot of things and moreover people who have more children likely have  lower income and don't plan to have them and we can see it in the NEWS sometimes. 

_______________________________________ 

Reference

What should come first, a baby or a flat?. (2016 October 12).BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37627269

To fight with sugary foods

What I found in the news

According to "World Health Organisation backs tax on sugary foods and drinks", WHO supports the countries  that launch measures about charging tax on sugary products(2016). The WHO wants to improve a nutrition status of people by reducing a consumption of "free sugar" in sugary products . This "free sugar" is a kind of sugar that a producer add its on his products and it can lead to many diseases.

_______________________________________ 

My response
I hope that Thai government will launch this kind of tax measures. It may help reducing consuming sugar of Thai people. Nowadays there are so many sugary products in the market. If you walk into a convenient store and look for a drinking water in refrigerators you will realize most of them are sugary drinks. Especially green tea, that is suppose to be a healthy drink but the producer add a very high level of sugar on his products to make it becomes more tasty. Some green tea companies launch a campaign to increase their sale volume by using lottery gambling. For example, one company giveaway  smart phones or luxury cars to the lucky customer who drinks his product. This promotion is very successful, although the price of each green tea is not cheap but many bottles of green tea sold each day because customer want to get a prize even a chance of hitting a prize is very low. But I think the customers of this green tea will suffer from diabetes before they could win a prize. So It show that sometimes a price may not be a factor that customers decide to choose a product.

I think that charging tax on sugary products may not be the best way to help people reduces their consuming  of sugar. I think the better way is giving education to people and teach them about the negative effect of consuming too much sugar. It may help them avoid eating sugary products and choose a healthier food.

 _______________________________________ 

Reference

World Health Organisation backs tax on sugary foods and drinks. (2016 October 11) BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37620087

Stories - Skillful Reading and Speaking, Unit 8

Source background
On page 77 of Skillful Reading and Writing, the topic of fear is introduced in a unit with the same title. As usual, Roger and Wilkins open with a large photograph and some discussion points 2013). We will do that discussion here on our class blog. Clicking the image on the right will show it full size.

_______________________________________ 

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

1. Who are some of the most famous people or national heroes in your country? Are they writers, politicians, athletes, ... ? 
• One of the most famous people is ....  He/She is a ... 
• ... is a national hero. He/She was ...
   
2. What are the stories about these people? Does everyone believe these stories? 
• One well-known story about ... is ... 
• Most people believe this, but ...
   
3. Why do you think the facts in stories sometimes get changed? 
• The facts can change because ... 

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

Your writing might be more fluent if you do not interrupt it by adding numbers. It is not important in what order you address the questions, or even whether you cover all of them. Their purpose is to serve as prompts to start you thinking. 

___________

Reference

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

The future has arrived

What I found in the news
According to the BBC News article "China's elevated bus: Futuristic 'straddling bus' hits the road" (2016). After releasing the video of a mini - model of the vehicle in May, China started a test to run in Qinhuangdao, north China's Hebei Province. The road-straddling bus is 2 meters high, can carry up to 300 passengers and predicted to reach up up to 60 km per hour. Believed that only needed one straddling buses to replace 40 conventional buses. Online users of Weibo seem to be very excited about this new kind vehicle but China has not yet confirmed whether it will be widely used in China or not.

_______________________________________ 

My response

I first got interested about this vehicle when I saw the article about it on the Thai magazine called "Secret". After that I went home and searched for some more news about this road-straddling bus then I found many news about this on The Guardian, BBC News and The Washington post but I chose the latest news that was published on BBC News to write about in this blog.

This bus reminds me of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban there is a scene that Harry gets on the knight bus which is fast and can pass every objects even little space between 2 cars. I wanted the world to have that kinds of bus since I watched the Harry Potter. Today one of my wishes came true we have it the road-straddling bus.

Back to the road-straddling bus, I love the idea about this thing because it will help people to get out of the traffic jams. Traffic is boring to everyone especially the driver its painful even I'm the passenger feel sympathy for them. Also I believe that we can get a lot of benefits from this new transportation such as reduce the traffic congestion, lower carbon on the road and help less problems of climate change. As it said on the news that it tests to run in the north-eastern city of Qinhuangdao, China. I'm hoping that I could see this bus around the world in 5-10 years but for Thailand I think we'd take a long time to follow those technology.

___________________________________

Reference

China's elevated bus: Futuristic 'straddling bus' hits the road. (2016, August 3). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36961433

Will Google Succeed in Brand New Gadgets?

What I found in the news

The Pixel Phong

According to "Google Gets Aggressive With New Phones, Other Gadgets",  Google continues to release the brand new gadgets, which are the Pixel phone, Google wifi, Google Home(virtual gadget that can answer simple questions and perform some easier tasks), and Daydream View(VR), in order to beat Apple and Amazon. Google have changed the direction of company, which build both hardware and software, likes Apple strategy mastered for over 15 years.The Pixel will replace the Nexus phone, which google have never hailed as its own phone, but only the example of how best of android work; and the Pixel is highlighted a highest rated smartphone camera,  a 7 hours battery with 15 minutes changing, ultimate storage on google drives and a first smartphone with Google assistant, which go against Siri of Apple and Echo of Amazon. In addition, Google new Home's feature design to beat the Amazon's Echo.

_______________________________________ 

My response

Google Home

This advent could change the world. Google continue release the incredible gadgets. One of the feature that I think it will work well is the Google assistant. This feature is compatible for the Pixel phone and Google Home. I believe that this could be the best virtual agent in the world because of their database. Even though Siri and Amazon Echo are good, as I watch the Google Home advertising which Google home are better.

However I think the Pixel phone cannot get though the Apple customer because Apple got a very strong group of Apple's fans. Most of Apple fans use Iphone because the stability of their software and if google cannot make the android better than IOS, it is very hard to grab those markets. In stead of that, the majority of Pixel customers should be the Samsung fans, which use the same software, android.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Google Gets Aggressive With New Phones, Other Gadgets.(2016, October 4). The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/10/04/technology/ap-us-tec-google-event.html

Fears: The origins of fear. (Skillful, p.71, Critical thinking 2)

Source background
On page 71, Rogers and Wilkin ask a couple of questions  in the second exercise to develop critical thinking.

_______________________________________ 

Think about the ideas in the readings "Fears, Reactions, Coping" and "Superhuman Powers". Discuss the following question in a blog comment.

1. Do you think we learn fears and reactions, or are we born with them?

Useful language:

• It could be argued that … because …

You have eight minutes to respond to the questions. You might not want to spend time on all of parts of them.
Do try to use at least some of the useful language.

___________

Reference

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

Does android dream of electric sheep?

What I found in the news

What is like to wear Oculus Rift.

According to "'VR isn't a thing you do it's a place you visit': readers review Oculus Rift" , Rachel Obordo and Guardian readers are reviewing the brand new technology: Oculus Rift. The average score is quite high varies from four to five out of five. All of the reviewer are more than 24 years old and the highest is 57 year old. Most of them really love the feature of VR which transform the world around us in to the world of video game. Also, they love brand new experience of travelling in a graphic world because we as people never be in this kind of world where all the stuff around us are generated by computer.

_______________________________________ 

My response
Expensive. Still I want to have this gadget from Facebook. As a game developer. I found out that VR technologies are the future of gaming or maybe life. Imagine living/eating in the imaginary world where you are "god". You can do anything that you want because it is only an array of logic gates that control the whole world. How realistic it is? that's a problem. Can we really know we are living or doing homework in the virtual world? Is there anyone who is very smart and know every detail in some extend that trying to deceive us using this extreme-detailed VR world?

Imagine, there is someone who know everything in detailed. Every atom in this room. Every atom in people mind. With this we can imply that this person car predict the future. What people in this room will think/do with ease. This problem is well known as Laplace's demon. However, I have proven it wrong using one theorem of the universe: Chaos theorem and the power of irrational number.

But I think that the problem of Laplace's demon is difference from this question about smart person who trying to make us think is this in a real world. Since the law of the universe is determine by this person unlike Laplace's demon where "fortune teller" has to obey the "real" universe law. Thinking about when we are sleeping. How do we know that we are sleeping? Our eye/nose and other sensing organ tell us so? Are we a program inside super computer? For me and other, it sounds easy that we are not dreaming and reading this blog post.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Rachel Obordo and Guardian readers. (2016, September 28). 'VR isn't a thing you do it's a place you visit': readers review Oculus Rift. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/28/vr-isnt-a-thing-you-do-its-a-place-you-visit-readers-review-oculus-rift

What makes good children?

What I found in the news
"To be good children "

According to The Washington post article "How to raise kinder, less entitled kids" , the way to understand why children act entitled and how to teach them to be more kind and less claim to receive or do something  by the research called behavioral economics which consists of four main point.First, teaching children to care other people's feeling ,don't make themselves to feel to be a center of the universe and teach them to appreciate whatever they got from others and don't expect it to happen all the times. Second,Always remind them whether thing around them is normal or not and they should realize their standard probably not be other standard because children usually have their standard if they see many example.Finally, teach children that they should help other without expecting money as a reward cause helping others with kindness is better.

_______________________________________ 

My response
The article shows us the result very clearly and sensibly and it's make parents what should they do. In this article have some cases are interested.I think if i have my own children it will help me very much because.
In the article "Fear, Reactions, Coping" developed fears by experience that if their parent have a fear of height so children tend to have a fear of height.I think it similar as habit and personality that children perhaps habit and personality like parent but of course some are different .
However, In my opinion the best way that parents can  teach children to be good peron are to be good examples because children like cleanness cloth so everything parents do they will remember and follow parent's actions.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Karen Weese (2016, October 4) How to raise kinder, less entitled kids (according to science). The Washington Post. Retrieved from  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/how-to-raise-kinder-less-entitled-kids-according-to-science/2016/10/03/1a74fa3a-7525-11e6-b786-19d0cb1ed06c_story.html

Fears: How might fear be positive? (Skillful, p.71, Critical thinking 1)

Source background
On page 71, Rogers and Wilkin ask a couple of questions to practice our critical thinking skills.

_______________________________________ 

Discuss these question in a comment below.

1. How might fear be positive in each of these situations?

• being near a dangerous snake
• giving a presentation
• running a race
• taking an exam

Useful language:

• Fear could be positive when … because …
• I think that fear would help you if you were … because …

2. Do you agree that fear can be positive? Why?

Useful language:

• I think that fear can be positive because …
• In my opinion, fear is always negative because …

You have eight minutes total to respond to the questions. You might not want to spend time on all of parts of them.
Do try to use at least some of the useful language.

___________

Reference

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

Addicted to Corruption

Marijuana farmer in central Jamaica

What I found in the news
According to Azam Ahmed writing in "Jamaica, Long Opposed to Marijuana, Now Wants to Cash In on It" (2016), there is now concern from the long-criminalised marijuana growers of Jamaica that they will miss out on a fair share in the profits as their government reverses decades of "draconian drug laws" to decriminalise the drug for the economic benefits of legal sale and use. Ahmed says that this follows relaxing of drug laws by the US administration of Obama, although under UN treaty obligations, the government of Jamaica can not technically legalise ganja.

_______________________________________ 

My response
The contrast between the sensible government of Jamaica, which follows the rapidly changing situation in many US states, and the morally evil situation in the Philippines could not be more stark. Like Thaksin in Thailand some years ago, the Philippines' President Duterte is eagerly killing his citizens against both reason and against good morals.

Unfortunately, the parallels between Duterte and Thaksin are even stronger. And since Duterte has himself already made the comparison, both share much in common with Hitler, who led Germany to murder, in accord  with strict rule of law, millions of Jews, gays, blacks and other social garbage. Like Hitler, both Thaksin and Duterte were very popular. They were all elected by large majorities and in all three cases, their policies to solve social problems by getting rid of social garbage were popular across society, from people on the streets to hi-so types. The ugly similarities here remind us that just because some policy has great popular appeal, that does not make it right - the Germans who eagerly supported Hitler as he set about cleaning up their country, the Filipinos who are supporting Duterte as he cleans up their country, and the masses of Thais who supported Thaksin's war on drugs are all wrong and are guilty of great moral evil against their own fellow citizens.

I have trouble understanding why anyone would think it is even just to criminalize some drugs, such as heroin or yaa baa, when the most harmful drug of addiction, alcohol, is illegal. When intelligent young people see this, how can they possibly respect such law that is hypocritical, against reason and against good morals?

I think the explanation is that politicians and officials keep such disastrously failing drug laws because they are addicted to the drug mafias and corruption that come from such laws. After decades of evidence, it is clear that laws against the sale and use of drugs benefit exactly two groups in society: drug mafias and corrupt officials. So, why do so many politicians, police and others want to continue supporting these two groups in society? What is so wonderful about drug mafias and corrupt officials that they should get government income support denied other groups like farmers?

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Ahmed, A. (2016, October 1). Jamaica, Long Opposed to Marijuana, Now Wants to Cash In on It. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/world/americas/jamaica-marijuana.html

Big step forward in medicine

What I found in the news

In"Medicine Nobel for cell recycling work", Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi recieved the Nobel prize by identify genes that cause autophagy(2016). Autophagy or "self eating" is a normal mechanism of body to get rid of its own cells in order to survive in difficult situations such as infection or starvation. His finding  helps to understand more about some diseases such as Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer and also gives opportunities to cure this illnesses.
______________________________________ 

My response
This article shows a big step of medical advancements and it is also a good news for people who are suffering from that diseases. I think a development of science in medical field will never stop because people always search for a way to extend life, moreover, some people strive for immortality.

For a couple of year, I heard a about "Cryonics" This method will preserve a body of people who can not be cure by modern medicine in very low temperature, with hope that future technology will bring the dead back to life. It maybe sounds strange but from "This Company Will Freeze Your Dead Body for $200,000", there is a company that provide this method for people who interest in.

Moreover, few months ago, I heard about "head transplant" that Italian surgeon plan to cut off disabled man's head and put it on new body.

I can't say that this methods are right or wrong but I think we should concern about ethics

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Michelle Roberts (2016, October 3) Medicine Nobel for cell recycling work. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37540927


ZACK GUZMAN (2016, April 26) This Company Will Freeze Your Dead Body for $200,000. NBC NEWS. Retrieved from  http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/company-will-freeze-your-dead-body-200-000-n562551

Debates over the Missing Contingency in US Financial Report: Climate Change

What I found in the news
In A New Debate Over Pricing the Risks of Climate Change, Tabuchi and Kraus(2016) show disagreement within Congress over the topic whether all risks relating to climate change should be accounted in financial reports and whether quantifying these risk is pragmatic and useful. Trump deemed the idea as a practical joke, yet the practice is applied in Europe. Scientists estimated that to achieve the goal of Paris Climate Accord, three-third of fossil fuels need to stay underground.

._______________________________________ 

My response
Climate change? I think most people don't really aware of the climate change that gradually change our life. This topic make me think of many things many news that come across my eyes in the past few months. One of them is picture of animals suffering from junks we dumped like in the picture on the right hand side. I am not sure about the source because my friend send it to me via a private chat. Even though it's not really the result from climate change, it is a unarguably ramifications of human activities. For someone who are not convinced and might think that these have nothing to do with us, human who are at the zenith of ecological chains. you are wrong. The video from national geographic in this link will show you how do these affect us. Perhaps We are just an individual but many individuals can become powerful.

I was done taking about climate change and environmental aspects. Let's now move to Exon and its oil business. I don't think the name is familiar to Thais but it is really a big company in the US I think it ranks in top five of US business maybe next to Walmart. As we can see that the advent and improvement in technology of shale gas and other alternative energy sources such as wind energy, water energy, solar energy etc. make oil price plummet. This might be good news for people owning cars but might be bad news for climate change situation. Anyway I am happy that I don't have to pay a lot of gasoline cost recently.

When I heard of the word climate change and international convention I would think of Tokyo protocol. I don't know why but I think that it's good to know that there are also other convention relating to the matters.

Accounting system should be transparent and include everything in the report so that they can be easily comparable. Unfortunately accounting system now are divided into US system and international system. For Thai accountants, we also have another version of accounting system so I'd say that it's inviable to compare performance of companies that use different accounting system. I just wish there is only one system so that analysts can make a better judgement on companies' performance. I think it is a good idea to include everything in the reports even though it is hard to estimate, I think investors that is so fastidious that they read whole financial reports will know what is the risk that they should take into their calculation and what is not I think that they don't have to worry about accuracy of the estimation; just provide investor with assumptions and the number. I don't think there will be any problem.

Why Trump just pop out of nowhere in my summary? I don't know. I jus think that someone might be interested in the States' politics and talk about it in comments. His ideas are not really.... Well you may fill in the blank anyway.

My ideas was a bit scattered but feel free to share your ideas.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Tabuchi, H. & Klauss, C.(2016, September 26). A New Debate Over Pricing the Risks of Climate Change. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/27/business/energy-environment/a-new-debate-over-pricing-the-risks-of-climate-change.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fearth&action= click&contentCollection=earth&region=rank&module=package&version =highlights&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=sectionfront .

Ministers Approve EU Ratification of Paris Agreement.(2016, August 30). European Commission Website. Retrieved from http://ec.europa.eu/clima/news/articles/news_2016093001_en.htm .

Tanner, A.(n.d.). Are You Eating Plastic for Dinner? National Geographic. Retrieved from ://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/are-you-eating-plastic-for-dinner?utm_source=Facebook &utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20160819video-vodplastic2&utm_campaign=Content&sf33753102=1 .

Fears: When was the last time you were scared? (Skillful, p.70,"Superhuman Powers")

Source background
On page 70, Rogers and Wilkin ask us to reflect on and share our own experiences with fear.

_______________________________________ 

Discuss these questions in a comment below.

1. When was the last time you were scared? How did you react? 
2. Do you ever react in a positive way to fear?   

You have eight minutes total to respond to the question.

When I read the first question, my immediate reaction was that I definitely did not want to write the awful thing that first came to mind for public reading, which is a perfectly good response to the question, and will lead to the next idea to write in the next sentence, which will spark the next idea to write down, which will in turn bring another idea to mind to turn into a sentence. 

___________

Reference

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

Fears: something to worry about or a natural part of life? (Skillful, p.69, Critical thinking 1)

Source background
On page 69, Rogers and Wilkin present a couple of questions to practice our critical thinking skills. This is the first of those.

_______________________________________ 

Discuss this question in a comment below.

1. Do you think fears are something to worry about, or are they just a natural part of life? Why or why not?  

You have six minutes total to respond to the question. 

___________

Reference

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

007 will return with Daniel Craig?

What I found in the news

According to the BBC News article "Daniel Craig 'still first choice for Bond role," the team behind the James Bond film would love the actor Daniel Craig to return as Bond, since his debut in 2006's Casino Royale and latest on 2015's Spectre, but otherwise it dues to Craig's agreement. Speculation has been intense about who will replace the role. Also, Pinewood studios, where many of the Bond movies were shot, is celebrating its 80th years anniversary.

________________________________ 

My response

After I read the news I searched for Daniel Craig's response about this but I couldn't find the latest one. From Daniel Craig: I'd rather slash my wrists than play James Bond again  I guess we will definitely have a new James Bond but anyway it is the news from last year so he might change his mind already? What do you think?

A James Bond movie has never been on my favorite movies list but my dad loves them. Last Saturday, he just bought Spectre (DVD) which is the latest Bond films that released on 2015 but he didn't notice that we already had it.... (and it was right in front of the TV for a long time.) he bought it since they first released the DVD.... However, as a youth, I really enjoyed the James Bond movies because of
Pierce Brosnan(who played as James Bond:1995–2004), for me he's the best 007 ever!

James Bond can do everything. he can fight, drive, dismantle, shoot, and climb over anything or anyone that gets in his way and also get every woman he wanted, but if you watch the guy doing these things over and over again wouldn't you get bored? but those are also the reasons why some people love Bond movies so much as well. Anyway, I would love to know who will be the next Bond.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Daniel Craig 'still first choice for Bond role'. (2016, September 30). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-37517067

Daniel Craig: I'd rather slash my wrists than play James Bond again. (2015, October 8). The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/oct/08/daniel-craig-id-rather-slash-my-wrists-than-do-another-bond-movie

Why Placebo Problem is a Problem for Mindfulness Meditation's Experimental?

What I found in the news
In "How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body"(2016), although many people claim that mindfulness meditation can create many positive impacts on mind and body, it has few experimental based that can support these claims. J. David Creswell said that the challenge of investigating meditation is "placebo problem". After he had done experimental research for four months, he found that people who had practiced mindfulness tend to have lower levels in their blood compare with relaxation group.

_______________________________________ 

My response
This news can remind me about the placebo effect. I also like to think that mindfulness meditation can reduce stress; however, it may be not. I mean mindfulness meditation may can't really be able to reduce any stress. 

Moreover, this news can remind me about my pimples. When I have pimples, I always go to see the doctor because she can make me feel relaxed. Moreover, I believe that my symptom will be better after I had met her. 

 

In addition, I knew that many doctors prescribe vitamin C instead of the real drugs to their patients. This may be because doctors know that his patient's body can get better by themselves.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Gretchen, R. (2013). How Meditation Changes the Brain and Body (2016, February 18). International New York Times. Retrieved from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/02/18/contemplation-therapy/?contentCollection=smarter-living&hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news