Next small step for Facebook fighting fake news

What I read 

Facebook has been blamed that its flooded with fake news and hoax stories, in 2016 it influenced US and French presidential election. Facebook has previously unwilling to take down potentially fake news stories. Now Facebook took more efforts to fight fake news on its platform by launching a new feature that provides alternative news links beneath articles that cause problems. But many experts said it is not enough and it does nothing to stop people who making money by creating fake news. Facebook use artificial intelligence (AI) and user to detect the problematic articles, then sent to fact-checkers who put a flag on fake news and may show the fact-checking stories below the articles. Offering more information to users. But if Facebook wants to stop fake news, it needs to support trusted sources.

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My response 

I use Facebook almost every day. Today you can use Facebook to find all kinds of information. At the beginning Facebook is for only social. But now it is almost everything. You can buy and sell stuff like Amazon, find information like Google or even reading the news, but you have to be careful of what you are reading. Because Facebook account almost anyone can sing up or even one person has many accounts. So, the information on Facebook is flooded with true and fault information. Unlike trusted news organizations that have many processes and experts to check and recheck their works before publishing. On Facebook, one can post anything and people are just sharing these stuff like thousands of shares. Sometime without even checking is it true or not.The Facebook feature that puts a flag on fake news are available in only 4 countries.  

My experience with Facebook, I did find lots of news on Facebook that, later I found it is not true. I strongly agree with this article that Facebook should have more feature to protect their users or else, maybe we should not trust anything on Facebook ever. Some fake news or hoax stories are sensitive, have bad impact on people. It can change the way people think or change how to live their life in a wrong and dangerous way. For example, A hoax story about food can make Facebook user eat something that they should not, or the hoax article about medical that can make people treat their illness with wrong understanding, the effect can be minor or lethal. As you can see that information is very powerful and should be treated with care. My thought is if anything is doing harm than good, maybe you should stop using it.

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My question for readers 
How are your experience with Facebook? Did you trust everything on it? 

Reference

• Facebook promises new fake news measures (3 August 2017) BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-40812697

When TV show influences on health issues

What I read 

Photo by Beth Dubber/ Netflix

In "Science says 13 Reason Why may be the public health scare people thought", Megan Molteni (2017) shows the controversies surrounding the teen suicide mystery series, 13 Reason Way. Recent data by John W. Ayers and his multidisciplinary team of scientists look at all searches related to "suicide" then compared the result to the same time that the series had never been released, so they got the shocking result. There was an increase of 20 percent in suicide queries on Google searches during the 19 days following the show's release, third of them were for specific methods for ending one's life. However, It is very hard to say that this series attribute intention to those suicide queries as Sean D. Young said, but the result might adopt a new approach to further studies and the way researchers monitor and predict health issues in modern societies.

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My response 
I came across this article in the Weird magazine online. I decided to write about this web television series because it was very quite popular in my society. I have seen it before, but not continuously. It is about the high school girl named Hannah Baker who committed suicide after suffering a variety of demoralizing circumstances brought on by her high school friends. She had recorded her thirteen reasons why she ended her life and sent these to her friends. I have never noticed how this series successful until I read the article that surprised me about current controversies this series has brought.

According to the article, the series has brought a lot of bad reputations about committing suicide. Parents sent messages to complain the graphic's reputations of suicide and rape. Psychologists wrote a counter argument about suicide portrayal guidelines. and also on the Tweeter. Johe W. Ayers uses what people search for on Google to show how the series influence on people in the suicidal aspect, and the result is quite unexpected. There were more than 11 million times in the three weeks following its premiere, and it was accompanied like "quick suicide,""how to kill yourself." I think nowadays it is very hard to believe media as accurate information. As Ayers said those comments were all based on deeply personal experience.

I agree with Sean D. Young that we cannot rely just on this information because it may not tell us if people search about suicide, they will take that it to the real world consequences. However, It quite sure that this is a good approach to adopt to monitor or predict health issue toward media that people use and also the media that people see such as TV Series. In the future, we could inhibit the bad situation. but not using just mental information but from what we search on the Internet.

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My question for readers 

How much TV Show can influence on societies? 

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Reference

• Molteni, M. (2017,May 17). Science says 13 Reason Why may be the public health scare people thought. Wired magazine. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/story/science-says-13-reasons-why-may-be-the-public-health-scare-people-thought/
• 13 Reason Why. Wikipedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/13_Reasons_Why

Fierce or funny predator?

What I read 

According to “Mighty T.rex ‘walked rather than sprinted’”(2017), University of Manchester scientists have calculated the speed of T.rex, ‘everyone’s favorite dinosaur’. Research suggests that although this carnivore could run 30km/h with its strong muscle, its speed drops to 20km/h when considering a ‘highly realistic model’ with skeleton strength assessed; otherwise, its weight would snap its legs. Prof William Sellers says running is impossible in T.rex but not all of them. It means that small one is fast but as it’s bigger, it becomes slower and might change its hunting style. Then he concludes that running isn’t tendency manner being found in massive predatory dinosaurs. Finding tells scientists a lot in ‘its hunting style’ and how life is in the Cretaceous.

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My response 

As I was finding one of many interesting news to read, I stopped at this topic, finding it interests me that, actually, T.rex isn't running as I know it. I saw T.rex in many films and its posture is likely to run and hunt its prey fiercely, and many ones must agree with me. It is a very strong dinosaur and it's not fine to be next to it.

After I had read almost half of this news, the picture of T.rex in my head wasn't as frightful as the beginning, but it is kind of funny animal. I understand that this kind of dinosaur doesn’t run as it tells me, so what is in the films mightn’t correspond with the finding. Then I thought of T.rex in the movie I had seen whether it was running or just walking in hasty step. It was quite a long time since I had seen T.rex in the movie. I couldn’t remember much, so I tried to imagine both running and walking T.rex. Then I found that, with its huge size and scary face, both walking and running are something that seems dangerous if it is T.rex. And that took the horrible hunting predator's picture back. It is still not good to know that it is outside my window. Then I doubted if it is really not fast, and it is. After I had finished reading, the article reminded me that its low speed, 20km/hr, exceeds human ability when compared with fastest runner's speed. Therefore, the T.rex in my head is now what I imagine before reading. The article just tells me the speed of T.rex, but it isn’t slow. Even though it says that running is impossible in 'hunting predator', T.rex's walking speed is still faster than me. It might change the way I think of their motion just from both walking and running to just walking, but, not all of them, finding says small T.rex is still fast, that is running.

For me, it is just my little new knowledge about the number of its speed, but it didn’t amaze me as much as I hope after I read the whole of it. However, for the scientists, this finding is very useful for them, helps them to get more information about what dinosaur life is like, grows the advancement in science, and clues paleontologist to further study. It is interesting to see how is dinosaur world. The more we study, the clearer picture we see.

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My question for readers 
Do you think T.rex still be a 'scary creature'? I mean the big one that doesn't run anymore.

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Reference

• Briggs H. (2017, July 18). Mighty T.rex ‘walked rather than sprinted’. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40632751

To be or not to be?

What I read 

 In the article "A long engagement: Weddings waiting for marriage equality", (2017) the author considers a very serious problem of our days. The problem of gay marriage is widespread in Australia, and, of course, in all over the world. A lot of people live together for a long time and they can't legalize their relationship, because that is prohibited in their country. The author gives us several examples of different couples, and for each couple the marriage is very important. Unfortunately, government laws don't allow this. The law allowing same-sex marriage is really necessary, but the vote takes time and a lot of money, and hate campaigns develop. And we can't ignore that by now more Australians have considerably increased their support for same-sex marriage. Many people are waiting for the adoption of this law because that could change their lives and, of course, this law will allow equalizing the rights of same-sex couples.

My response 

Many years ago it was illegal to be a gay. For example, in "The Imitation Game" (2014) movie we can see one of the saddest stories of that time. But life changes, and now we can already talk about legalization of same-sex marriage. And, you know, I think that this problem can be the easiest problem of LGBT society in the world. So, I know that the problem is important for Australians gay couples, and Australia is very developed country, where civil rights and freedom are highly valued. But I'm from Russia, and, unfortunately, I know another side of same-sex affair problems. In case of you are a same-sex couple in Russia - you have just only one real problem: how to keep your  freedom, health and even life. In Russia a person must carefully hide that he/she is gay. And I know some couples who choose to change citizenship and leave everything behind in Russia, but they would be together and they don't hide their feelings from society. This is very interesting question for me, but for a long time I can't understand why is Russian society closed? 

However, this is not all. Have you heard about Chechnya? I have found that this place is, probably, the most dangerous area in Russia. So, in Chechnya STILL has at least six secret prisons for gays. And, if you are a gay... It looks like you don't have any chance to be alive. Of course, the republic has very strict laws, and nobody cares about  people feelings. I also can say that in Chechen Republic your family (father and brothers) may kill you if they assume that you are gay. And this isn't regulated by any laws in the Russian Federation! It's scary, but it's the reality. And we have only one chance to help these people: to draw the world's attention to the problem.

All in all, I want to say that all people can love, and that isn't important whom. I absolutely support same-sex couples and same-sex marriages. And I'm happy that everything in our lives does not stand still: 50 years ago we could not even think about same-sex marriage. I hope that in 50 years this would be normal. Our life is changing, moral is changing and - for sure - laws are changing too. And in my opinion our society has to give a chance for ordinary life to all people, without any "but".

My question for readers 

What do you think? Do you support LGBT society? Do you support same-sex marriage? Do you think is it a good idea to legalize a same-sex marriage in Thailand?

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Reference

• A long engagement: Weddings waiting for marriage equality. (2017, August 4). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-40737030
• Novaya Gazeta: Chechnya has at least six secret prisons for gays. (2017, April 24). Meduza news. Retrieved from https://meduza.io/en/news/2017/04/24/novaya-gazeta-there-are-six-secret-gay-prisons-in-chechnya
• The Real Russia. Today. A journalist is threatened for reporting millions spent on helicopters; a Krasnodar judge’s daughter gets married in style (and controversy); and Ramzan Kadyrov is laughing about LGBT people. (2017, July 17). Meduza news. Retrieved from https://meduza.io/en/brief/2017/07/17/the-real-russia-today

Wolves in human clothing

What I read 

Captive wolves gave humans
only brief attention

In "Why dogs are friendly - it's written in their genes", Helen Briggs (2017) says that by studying wolves, recent research on the friendliness of dogs, which has made them a part of human life for tens of thousands of years, shows that this friendliness to and related interest in humans is linked to specific genetic variation in the dogs. In human beings the same genetic variation results in a genetic disorder that makes "people ... highly sociable." In addition to giving a detailed genetic explanation to the cravings that human-evolved dogs have for human company, Briggs writes that similarities suggest to researchers that dogs might help research into human disease since "minor variants in critical genes in dogs result in major syndromic effects in humans." 

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My response 
When I first saw the image that I've copied from "Why dogs are friendly - it's written in their genes", it reminded me of the Twilight movies, which have similar scenes of wolves, actually werewolves, getting up close and friendly with humans. In fact, I'd always thought that wolves were more inclined to eat humans than to be friendly with them, but as I read the article and thought about it, I realized that I must be wrong about that. In the movies and stories I've read about wolves, and even wild dogs, the animals do attack humans, but of course that is also true of many (all?) modern dog breeds: German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Pit Bulls and other dogs are often used for security because they can be easily trained to attack humans. I guess that they only attack humans when wolves need food, and if, as the article says, they can simply wander into the human camp and get some free bits of tasty garbage, that is much easier than an attack. Remembering back to my childhood on the farm where my family kept work dogs and pets, they were all very friendly and loyal to us, but even the little Fox Terrier would bark and snap at strangers who turned up: I can't remember her ever biting me or brothers and sisters when we were playing with her. Still, whilst I might choose a German Shepherd, or even a Great Dane like my family used to have, a wolf would not be my first choice for a pet: a bit academic, since my condo does not allow even small dogs.

But what interested me most is that the article shows how progress in genetics continues to uncover the way in which genes, which are just chemicals, determine such intangible things as our personalities, emotions and so on. Not only this, but as we learn more, it becomes clearer just how closely every living thing on our planet Earth is related to every other living thing: since we share a lot of genes with wolves, perhaps there is more than only symbolic truth to the old werewolf tales. It's not just that we humans are related to other primates such as chimpanzees, we are also related to roses, carrots, cows, cod fish and bacteria, and these relationships can be increasingly read from the genes that we share with every other living thing. From this, it is a short step to an idea that you have probably already discovered is important in Steven Law's "Carving the Roast Beast": namely, is there any human characteristic at all that can justify the different ways we treat humans and our non-human relatives that we love to eat?

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My question for readers 
What do you think? Is there any uniquely human characteristic that justifies the different moral treatment we give to human beings compared to other animals?
This is actually Steven Law's question in "Carving the Roast Beast" (2003). I thought it would be useful to invite your responses here. 

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Reference

• Briggs, H. (2017, July 20). Why dogs are friendly - it's written in their genes. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40655634
• Law, S. (2003). Carving the roast beast. In The Xmas Files: The Philosophy of Christmas [Kindle Edition] (pp. 124 - 140). Weidenfeld & Nicolson. Retrieved from https://www.amazon.com/

In Love with Ignorance

What I read 

Authorities do not want citizens
woken from "the China dream"

According to Kerry Allen in "China gripped by censored essay on Beijing" (2017), an essay that Zhang Guochen published on WeChat, "Beijing has 20 million people pretending to have a life", has been deleted. The apparently censored essay was very popular: Allen tells us that there is widespread guessing by Chinese citizens that Chinese authorities forced Zhang to not only delete the essay, but to apologise for publishing it. Allen writes that such censorship is typical of the Chinese government, which wants only good things to be said of its rule. It does not like criticism or negative reports about how it governs or the social consequences.  Allen says that Zhang's description of Beijing as "a tumour" where many are only "pretending to have a life" likely annoyed authorities.

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My response 
I came across this article in the "Asia" section of the BBC News website when I was looking for examples for us to practice writing reference citations. One of the things that is great about democracy is that it allows citizens to be informed about national matters that are important, such as the controversial issues that Allen tells us were raised in Zhang's essay. I think that people should be allowed to have opinions that are well informed, and that have been tested by healthy public debate. When governments censor, they only ever do that for one reason: to keep people ignorant of something, and that suggests to me that they are hiding something rotten, perhaps corruption, perhaps abuse of power, perhaps a failure of official policy, or something else.

As I read the BBC News story, I was also reminded of a recent article in The Bangkok Post. In "Censure the censors for too much vaseline" the Post's regular opinion writer Wasant Techawongtham argues that government interference by rule of law to stop Thais seeing things that those holding power claim to be "immoral" or "harmful" is the same bad reasoning as the anti-democratic idea that Thai citizens "are not mature enough to behave responsibly in a democracy, and therefore their democratic rights must be curtailed" (2017). This seems to me totally wrong. I would go further and say that the pervasive censorship of sex scenes, of drugs such as alcohol, cigarettes and others on Thai TV and elsewhere shows that the laws that constantly talk about "good morals" are in fact morally wrong and only harm the Thai nation by keeping Thai people ignorant of things that healthy adults should know about. It is certainly a lie that such censorship can promote "good morals among people": it obviously does not when we look at Thailand's violent crime and other statistics compared to countries that do not have such censorship.

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My question for readers 
What do you think? Should governments make up laws to censor what adult citizens can see or speak in order to keep them ignorant of truths about their nation and society?  

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Reference

• Allen, K. (2017, August 1). China gripped by censored essay on Beijing. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-40778384 
• Techanwongtham, W. (2017, July 29). Censure the censors for too much vaseline. The Bangkok Post. Retrieved from http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1295867/censure-the-censors-for-too-much-vaseline 

All in the genes

What I read 

Click to see tardigrade image full size

In "Secrets of the world's toughest creatures revealed", Sarah Gabbott (2017) says that recent research helps us understand the extraordinary survival ability of tardigrades, small animals that "can survive radiation, freezing, extreme dehydration and even the vacuum of space." According to Gabbott, the scientists discovered that the genes of tardigrades respond to loss of water from the cells in their bodies by replacing it with special proteins, which are removed when water is again available and the animals "spring back to life", sometimes years later. Understanding this might one day enable live vaccines to be stored for medical use in areas without refrigeration. The same genetic research has also helped to determine exactly where tardigrades fit into the tree of all evolved life on Earth: they are most closely related to some species of worms. 

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My response 
My chosen article is from the "Science" section of the BBC News website. I don't normally look at that section because the "Technology" and "Health" sections usually have articles that interest me more, but I had seen the title a couple of days earlier, and when I read about medical technology in the next reading in Skillful Reading ("Do We Know Too Much", Bixby & Scanlon, 2013, p. 61), I thought there was an interesting connection, especially with the genetic basis of the research.

I had already heard of the amazing survival abilities of tardigrades from my general reading in biology, so they were not new to me. What fascinated me was how modern technology explores the genes inside animals, plants and other living things to prove that every living thing on Earth is related to every other living thing; in other words, that life appears to have evolved only once on our planet, about 3.5 billion years ago, and that every living that has ever lived since, up to today, is a descendant of that first event. Even when I was reading biology in high school, it amazed me to learn that we humans were related not only to chimpanzees, but to cats, rats, bats, to roses, apples and rice, and even to the bacteria and viruses that try to kill us! But this is what the genetic evidence solidly proves to be fact.

In fact, if I had to think of one scientific advance that has done more to change how we humans think about ourselves and our place in the world, I would give Darwin's theory of evolution, which he published in 1859, even greater importance than Copernicus or Einstein, which were revolutionary, but perhaps not quite so humbling for we human beings as Darwin's solid theory is.

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My question for readers 
What do you think? What is one scientific advance that has had a major impact on human life? 

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References

• Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful reading and writing: Student's book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education 
• Gabbott, S. (2017, July 28). Secrets of the world's toughest creatures revealed. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-40752669 

Introducing Response Writing

What I read 
On page 66 of Skillful Reading and Writing Student's Book 3, the authors introduce online discussion boards, suggesting that students are often expected to participate in these online forums in addition to doing more formal academic writing such as essays (Bixby & Scanlon, 2013). 

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My response 
The Skillful series of books by Macmillan provide solid practice in important aspects of English in academic contexts, and they sensibly do not limit this to writing essays or other more formal activities. One of the benefits of online discussion boards, such as this blog, is that they are a bit more relaxed than other academic work. This allows you to play around with English, to try things out, and to see what works well and what might not work so well. At the same time, you are using the sort of English that is standard in an academic context.

A further advantage is that the response writing you do on an online discussion board does not take so much time as an essay might. We can write shorter pieces of work more often. Although our aim is to write something daily, five days a week, perhaps more than once a day, is probably enough. Don't worry: if you write in ten minute blocks, my suggestion that we write daily is not so terrible as it might sound.

The other great advantage to moving some exercises in the book to this class blog is that it's a great way to practice critical thinking, which is an important part of all academic writing courses. So don't be surprised over the coming weeks as you see some of the exercises in Bixby and Scanlon appearing here. This blog post is the first example of that.

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My questions for readers 
These are not really my questions, they are copied from the "Over to You" section on page 66 (Bixby & Scanlon, 2013). 

• Why are academic writing skills important for an online writing board? 
• How do you think an online discussion board might improve your learning in a course? 

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Reference

• Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful reading and writing: Student's book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education 

Sharon's Academic Interests

When i was in senior high school,i really want to be interior designer.I love to draw some unprofessional design diagram in my free times.Even went to books store to read lots of house design books after my class.I usually read some books about how to decorate or make more space in my room.And i enjoy to observe every space that the hotel i live or restaurants i went.IKEA is my favorite place to go in my vacation.There are many furniture and different design in both small space or even large space.

Afterwards i major in international business in the university.Because of some practical problems,like interior designer might be a unstable job.If no one likes my design or not popular enough,i probably will get unemployment.So it is quite a difficult question about the choice between interest and occupation.

Green house is a hot issue in every country.All the ingredients or elements might use environmental material or some technique to save energy.So its quite interesting to combine this two. It really attracts me a lot although interior designer is still my dream now.As a result i think when i have a stable job,i will start to study design.To achieve what i really want to do.

Bo's Academic Interests.

Actually every time when I look at the sky I always got a question and sometime got an answer. When I was seventeen-year-old I found myself fond of everything about astronomy; for example novels, movies, and I love to go to the planetarium when they have new astronomy movie on air. I learned how to read the sky by myself (sometimes) and with my zero astronomic education I got nothing much but imagination, and this is where my journey started.

In 2005, I was a fine art student in major of Thai Art at Silpakorn University and of course inspiration is power of expression. With my passions, the combination of art and the objects in outer space expressed in my every piece of art work until now. Moreover, I've learned about Thai Believe Astronomy and this thing change my life. As I learn more about the ideal of Buddhism and Buddhism astronomy I began to interest in Yoga and meditation, both are about the connection between ourselves and the universe.

Furthermore, I also impress in benefit of meditation and then my new journey began again. I read more book about mental and In began a philosophy interest and found the connection between my overall passionate fascinate which is about art, mind, and science. Since then I re-collection myself and set up my goals, I am going to merge all of my academic interest together and do something worthwhile.  

Melon's Academic Interests

My first attention is in Mathematics. I have studied many thousand hours in Math. It is like the required subject of any level and any curriculum. It started when I was grade 6 student. Actually, I am good in solving Math problem naturally but I noticed just when my teacher told me something. She called me to her office after class and told that she would make me a star and would send me to the contest. She said she saw my genius in this way, I could answer the question that the others could not. After that, I told my mom then she, who absolutely support me in studying, talked to my teacher, and I have extra Math classes every day(maybe it is not good to hear that) I admit that I am a bit lazy sometimes but I am still interested in it. Moreover, it is not the only reason; I also like the pattern of it. It is something that can be answered and proved. By this reason, I also like to find the answer to many mystery things.

I am also interested in Astronomy. When I was a kid, I found that I like to look for something mystery, maybe it is related to my beloved Mathematics. I first studied about the black hole in Science period in primary school. This brought me my new knowledge but is ambiguous that what is in it. I found it amazing which Science can not explain, until now. Also, I like to solve this mystery. It is challenging to know what is in the black hole, so I tried to find it on the internet. Suddenly, I knew that there are so many things outside the world besides the black hole that is still the mystery. After that, I became excited to see these phenomena, such as lunar eclipse, and to listen to NASA news. I became fascinated by Astronomy since then.

My another interest is music. Even though I am not a good-voice singer(I can not get to high-key sound), I love many types of musical instrument, especially the drumset. I like to listen to the music. Of course, almost everyone like the sound of music, but it is not everyone interested in playing it. For me, I want to play all of it but I give most attention to the drum. Unfortunately, I just started to love it when I was in high school, not in primary school that is plenty of time, so my drumming is not expert as I hope right now. Until now, I still have a little time but I share some of it to practice the drum. However, I planned that after I get graduated I will spend more time and will be happy to improve these skills. I am not throwing it away.

Stamp's Academic Interests

When I was in high school, as an ordinary student, I played football, computer games and also skipped classes. It was not until Mattayom 3 that I met my friend, Boss, who really like watching movies. He went to school with film magazine every day. I came to the school quite early, so we met and started talking about movies. I started watching a movie from Hollywood and European films in order to understand the concept of the movie. I have to read a lot of film magazines and novels because a lot of movies came from the novels. My favourite book in that time is Harry Potter. I stopped playing football and spent a lot of time sitting the library at afternoon break reading as much as possible and also on the weekend I spent most of my time watching a movie in a theatre.

After that, I decided to write my blog about movie reviews and music reviews (I have not mentioned about it much, but I also like listening to the music and passionate about concerts) I wrote without principle. It came from my experience as a reader. I have written for 2 years without readers. While I have to decide what I want to study at the University. I was confident that I will study about film and video. I study film at the faculty of architecture, so I met a lot of friends who have different interests. I started interested in other fields.

I started my internship as a writer for Thai magazine. Every year, I interned with different magazines all around Bangkok. While I internship my team invited me to join Philosophy class which is about Postmodern Philosophy includes art movement around the world. I really enjoyed it because I had learned about the history of society and art movement. After that, I was really passionate about art. I attend French Philosophy and learn a lot from them. It shows that everything involves with art and politics as someone said there is no art with out politics. Therefore, I interested in politics in many aspects. Especially, in young people who play important role in developing democracy in Thailand. I attend a lot of workshop about politicals, critical thinking, and art. Nowadays, I still interested in those fields. I absolutely think that I can immerse those different type of mediums in order to enhance people's knowledge and more understand in human being.

Peter's Academic Interests

Although my main academic interest is philosophy, I am also interested in many other subjects that are commonly studied at university. For example, science was the first academic subject I fell in love with. This began when I was still in primary school. I used to love growing trees from seeds on the farm where I grew up in Australia. This led me to an interest in biology. When I got to high school, I didn't actually study biology as a separate subject, but I read the books my classmates had and became especially fascinated by how cells worked, especially the genes. In high school, my interests soon moved from biology to chemistry: I wanted to learn how life and everything around me came from a small set of chemical reactions operating on a very limited set of about 100 elements. And by third year, this led me to physics, which remained my main scientific interest for the rest of high school.

But with my interest in science, i was also fascinated by mathematics. Unlike the theories of science, mathematics was absolutely provable. We knew, without any experiment, that 1+1 = 2, and we could prove that for a right angle triangle, the sum of the squares on the other two sides = the square on the hypotenuse - there was zero doubt that Pythagoras's famous theorem was true. It was a more solid fact than any result in physics, chemistry or biology. Mathematics remained a passion for many years, and I continued studying it and physics at university, but even at the end of high school, my interests were evolving.

In my final years, one of my teachers, a Marist Brother at my good Catholic high school, suggested I read some philosophy. This teacher was the mathematics and physics master and also taught my class religion, meaning the Catholic version of Christianity. I suspect he was worried that my love of science was going to destroy my belief in Christianity. If that was his reason for suggesting philosohpy, it was a total failure. Although he suggested a read the work of Soren Kierkegaard, a deeply Christian philosopher, I soon learned of Plato, Aristotle, Hume and other great thinkers, whose ideas were not very supportive of religion. By the time I got to university at age 17, philosophy was my main academic interest, along with some of the dead languages in which much of it used to be written, and this has continued to today.

Thun's Academic Interests

My academic interest is science. I like to read science books since I was in second grade. In Thailand, there is a monthly science magazine called "Go Genius". There are many interested columns every volumes, such as how to distill oil from seaweed and an island made by tons of garbage. The most interested column for me is space discovery column. It is a column which updates news from space organizations around the world. For example, a discovered of a new planet that human might be able to live in and a new satellite. Moreover, when I was in elementary school, my science teachers conducted many science experiments for us to make us interested in their class. For example, an experiment to see how an electric circuit work. Because of these things, they make me love science.

I also interest in history. In Thailand, students need to learn Thai history since they were in first grade. Most of my classmates hate to learn history, because they think it was unnecessary to learn history. However I think different. In my opinion, history is the reason why the present become like this. Everything happened in the past effects the present. If something in history was changed, our present will be changed too. Moreover, history is a note that record human's activities. There were good things and bad things in this record. We, the human who live in nowadays should learn history and do not make the same mistakes as the human in the past.

I think that science and history is related together. We can see that science is growing together with human since in the past. Many science discoveries and inventions affect human's culture and lifestyle. For example, the invention of aircraft has a great effect on human's transportation way to be easier and faster and the discovery of electricity change lifestyle to be convenient. Most of discoveries and inventions make our life quality better. However, some of them cause million of people die, such as the invention of a nuclear bomb. It means that science can be useful or harmful to human depends on how we use it.

Celia's Academic Interests

When I was a high school student I really interested in pharmacy and biology for there are two reasons,the first one is that in Taiwan we have some medicine commercials on TV,however,many old people usually depends on it to believe the myth.For example,my grandma used to buy the ointment to cure her wound on her leg but it still couldn't be recovered until seeing the doctor.Some medicine sold on the TV may not be safe so that I want to check the ingredients.Second,in my opinion,the composition of body is really mysterious and I far much admire the doctor could save people's life.

In fact, English literature is my major in university. Actually,I want to major in Business Application English at first because I think it is more useful for me to use in the future work but finally I get into the English literature. Although literature is a little boring for me,I still have patience to study in it and try to enjoy it and finally I become a little bit interested in it.I also enjoy the time listening the story about these history.The reason why I become a little bit interested in literature is that when the teacher taught us the Western Literature about Trojan War,The Decameron,Montaigne,and so on.
The most impressive one is Don Quixote for he was really a madman at that time and he always immersed in his knight world but I think at that time maybe the society is too chaos that made him not want to face the reality.But in the end, his illusory world eventually broke up because he was defeated. It is interesting to think about the history and the thoughts from these Old Western people's view points.

Now, I'm in the second year of the college,besides English literature,I also learn Japanese in the college because I am fond of learning different languages.I also intend to learn Financial Management as the result of having the willing to learn some aspects about business and I want to know the working of the economic and the market of the investment.Above all,I hope I could do well in these what I interested and go all out to do it.

Pa's Academic Interests

Astronomy is the academic I am interested in. I enjoyed looking at the sky at night since I was very young. Especially, at the time when my family and I were traveling to the country sides where the stars shone much brighter than urban areas.

I have learnt the basic astronomy when I was in primary and high school. This makes me more interested in the space knowledge. I was amazed when I found out that the Earth is the only planet in the solar system that contains the living things which makes this planet very special. From that point, I started questions, if there are creatures on the Earth then why could not have the living things on other planets? The answer came up in my mind, it is not that there are no lives on the other parts of the space, it maybe just have not been found yet.

Space is full of mysterious things and enormous. There are millions more mysteries waiting for human to find out. Thinking that humankind, a small creature on the Earth, but has abilities to discover space and studies stars from billions miles away is very powerful. It is inspire me to dream high and believe in my abilities.

Kate's academic interests

So... This's is quite interesting question for me. I think a lot about it now, because I want to go to an university, but that's not easy to choose what exactly interesting for me, and what is really relevant today.

I'm very interested in political science, I like to read about government organization in different countries. The world is going crazy now, we are surrounded by huge number of world problems - and most of them are problems of governments. I started to study public administration in a school, and continued later in my university in Russia. I'm especially interested in options of interaction between government and society and government and business. For example, my graduation work was about comparison of GR technologies in Canada and Russia.  After almost 4 years after this work I'm still very curious about it. I think more about PHD now.
This may seems strange, but I also like physics. "Why is it strange?" - you can ask me. That's easy! I understand in physics a little more than nothing. But anyway, this is my little hobby - try to understand "string theory" or "black hole theory". I find it is very interesting. And I want to know how works Large Hadron Collider, and - of course - I love to watch video with Stephen Hawking on TED. I will never become a professional in physics, it is obvious. But why not to try to observe interesting questions?
And finally, I'm very interested in studying languages. It's not a secret that in our days English is one of the world's languages.  And, for sure, I like English, this language is very useful everywhere around the globe. I have a lot of friends from different countries and we can keep in touch, because all of us use English! But my real passion is French. I'm totally in love with this beautiful language, and I spend a lot of time to study academic French. In my opinion, French language is difficult to learn, and much harder to learn than English. But it's my little dream - to speak the language of Antoine de Saint-Exupery.

Rung's Academic Interest

The Academic Interest that I'm so really into so far is Psychology. I remembered the time when i was in university, Even it's not my major, but i spent most of the time studied it. I found that the more i know about psychology, the more i understand people's feeling. And, the most important is that i tried to understand people around me more since i knew psychology.

Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behavior. So, every emotion and behavior that people show, it exactly came from some reasons. I would like to give one example from my memory which is really happened to me personally in the past which is called 'spotlight effect'. This phenomenon  is used to explain when people feel like they are being spotted more than they really are. With many studies, i found myself being part of that effect, i was so afraid to do many things because i was too much care about how do people will look at me and what do they going to talk about me after i decided to do something. In presence, i feel more relieved and open my mind to do new things because in fact people won't care about me that much. I only have to questioned myself first to make sure that it isn't exactly harm anybody.

In my opinion, I think psychology is really interesting because it made me understand people more but if someone sticks to the theory of psychology and don't really understand people more, it makes me annoyed

Welcome to AEP Reading and Writing 2 CD, term 5, 2017

Welcome to our Reading and Writing level 2 CD class for the term.

We are aiming at units 6 – 10

Over the next six weeks, we will be working through a few units in Skillful Reading & Writing 3 by Jennifer Bixby and Jaimie Scanlon, which involve reading and writing several different kinds of texts (2013). We will also add some extra reading and writing to keep things interesting every day; we will, for example, be regularly writing on this class blog and reading a text from outside of Skillful Reading & Writing (Skillful).

I hope you find the class useful and also enjoyable.

In the meantime, you might like to have a look at the some of the posts on this blog by my students in previous classes.

Peter.

___________

Reference

Bixby, J. & Scanlon, J. (2013). Skillful reading & writing: Student's book 3. Oxford: Macmillan Education

A late start for 2017

Busy with other things, I haven't taught a class in English for Academic Purposes for a few terms, but in term 5, I'm back, so the blog is also back.

See you soon.

Welcome to academic English in 2017

After a refreshing three week break reading more novels than I usually have time for, I'm ready to get back to some more serious reading and writing. And you?