Send Help!

Summary 

According to "Feeling hot hot hot: the weird things that happen to your body in extreme heat.", The line under the title is "Hello halitosis" which halitosis means the bad breath and how does the bad breath link with hot weather?. My curiosity drives me to continue reading the article. The writer, Ktena explains three things that hot weather could reflect on human body mechanisms. First, we could have bad breaths from dehydration if you drink more water, it would stop dehydration and halitosis. Second, sunbathing could gain you more vitamin D and prevent you from the brittle bone. Lastly, the heatstroke symptoms would stop you from sweating to save the water in our bodies. First aid is to put an ice pad around groins or armpits to save patients. The article tells me some interesting facts that I have never noticed it before.         

____________________________________ 

Response 

I enjoy reading this article because of the way that the writer presents to readers. Begin with humorous tone on an introduction and also there have many .gif files from twitter to illustrate people's jokes about hot weather in the UK. The one that made me giggle is from the vigorous pigeon who talks about tap water which is the cold tap has become hot tap and the hot tap has become a death tap and he or she asks for help which is so hilarious if we compare weather between the UK and Thailand. Next is the hot weather topic is related to me who lives in a tropical country where close to the equator line. I definitely understand their joke hence we have the same thing in common about the heat. Others from Finland may get our joke but they may not have strong empathy as same as I do. The final point is I have gained more general knowledge about bad breath which is a big issue that would affect our self-confidence among others.                                   

If your acquaintances have bad breath what would you do to help them? If they are my close friends, I will not mind to tell them the truth and I know that my action will not break their self-confidence, on the other hand, it would help them to have more self-confidence later. For others who we not close to, how would we react to this situation? How would you sort out the problem smoothly without heart their feeling or humiliating them? I could not come up with an idea to tell them, I would rather be quiet than tell the truth and I would regret to my reaction a bit.              

____________________________________ 

Question

Telling people that they have bad breath is harder than tell them that your zip is undone. Don't you think so?

____________________________________ 

Reference

Ktena, N. (2018 June 30). Feeling hot hot hot: the weird things that happen to your body in extreme heat. BBCthree. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/article/063dba1d-2ab2-40e3-9837-3d70481ef82c 

EV Revolution

Summary 

According to "Electric cars are coming: but where will you recharge?", it seems that the electric vehicle (EV) has been successfully introduced and now the trend of EV usage is increasingly among people in the United Kingdom; however, the whole nation needs to discuss how to prepare for this change. First, how do they refill the charge? Because the parking areas and the charging bays are limited, people of the UK need to upgrade the local facilities to add the charging point in their area. However, this leads to another question: will electricity in the UK be enough for supplying EV usage in the future? The government explained that the electricity demand is still manageable; however, it also has a chance of the electrical crisis. Therefore, a long term plan is required to sustain power consumption in the near future.

____________________________________ 

Response 

Electric vehicles, vehicles which consume electrical energy instead of fossil fuel, have become more interesting innovation recently. Due to the global warming awareness and the cost of ordinary fuel, people begin seeking for alternative solutions which seem less damaging to the environment and also more comfortable than public transportation. Therefore, electric cars have been introduced and many countries are planning to embrace this innovation. It seems that EV revolutions will become our future sooner than we thought; therefore, learning implementation progress from more technical advanced countries, such as the United Kingdom (UK), might be necessary for our preparations.

According to the article, citizens of the UK are ready to adopt this technology, but these 2 unavoidable problems push them back: the lack of charging bays and the risk of electrical crisis. Because this innovation has just been released to the public, the private sector might hesitate to upgrade the facilities for EV; however, it is possible that soon the number of EV charging bays will increase, due to the demand of electric cars usage. As a result, electricity consumption will be a great challenge for the government to manage the sustainability of electric power - in failure, it would cause black out in large areas. So, revolution of EV should be considered as a national issue which involves the government and private sector.

Because of plenty of resources in order to make a change, so shall we resist the EV revolution? In my opinion, we should support the EV revolution because it might be a good chance to save our world by reducing the greenhouse gas emissions released from transportation. Then we also need a discussion between government, business, and people to make a plan and handle possible incoming issues. From the news, we now learn how we should prepare for this change. However, in the next 5 years or a decade we might need to be concerned about waste management. Because the next generation of car will use a large capacity battery instead of fossil fuel, it is possible to see piles of hazardous waste instead of carbon dioxide emissions.
 

____________________________________ 

Question

Shall we support or resist the EV revolution and why?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Baraniuk, C. (2020, March 6). Electric cars are coming: but where will you recharge?. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51678830

Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 17 - Critical thinking on "How Permanent Is Your Personality?"

Summary 

In exercise E on page 17, Rogers and Zemach invite us to discuss three critical thinking questions that follow up ideas presented in "How Permanent Is Your Personality?" (2018, pp. 15 - 16).

____________________________________ 

Response 

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

____________________________________ 

Question

After thinking about them for a minute or two, write down your responses to Rogers and Zemach's critical thinking questions on page 17 in a comment below. 

• Did the results of the study surprise you? 
• Why or why not? 
• Do you believe the results?
   
• What are some factors that could cause someone to change [their] personality?
   
• What do you think the results of this study imply for ascribed, achieved, and chosen identity traits? 
• Can they all change do you think? Why? Why not? 

Again, a strong answer will relate this to your own experience with specific examples to support your main ideas. 

Because it asks you to relate the ideas in the second reading to the first, "Social Identity", the last question is important, so be sure address it in your comment. 

____________________________________ 

Reference

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

The Great Wall of Africa

Summary 

The Sahel region of Africa

In "The wall holding back a desert" (2020), Richard Gray tells environmental problems of Paga, a town in northern Ghana, at the southern edge of the Sahel region of Africa. Paga is facing the periods of drought caused by over-exploitation of agricultural and habitation. It is also at risk of desertification because the Sahara Desert is stretching to the Sahel region. Hence, there is an attempt to create tree barriers to hold back the desert, called the Great Green Wall. One of the tree barriers in Paga is baobab, a tree that develops community economics as its fruit is a popular healthy food. Accordingly, the new baobab is added on Paga. However, some people have concerns that the value of baobab can cause monocropping, which makes the desertification worsened, and there can be a better way to solve this problem.

____________________________________ 

Response 

At first, I think this article is only about building a wall that prevents sandstorm from the Sahara Desert in Africa. This story draws to my attention because once the Sahara Desert was green and humid with rivers and savanna grass around 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. Now, the Sahara Desert is the largest hot desert in the world, and it is growing every year. The drought area near the desert is becoming desertification faster as well. Therefore, I would like to know more about the drought area near the desert and its wall.

The Great Green Wall length.
Credit: https://www.greatgreenwall.org/ 

The wall holding back desert is actually the tree barrier that could  prevent the spread of desertification. The wall is made by humans, but it is not the same wall as the Great Wall of China. They plant trees instead of using rocks and concrete material. The African Union endorsed ‘the Great Green Wall’ project to grow trees across the entire width of Africa. It is not only save the drought of land but also hold back the desertification. Therefore, with 5,500 kilometers long from west to the east of Africa continent, the wall of the Sahel region must be wide and enormous. In my opinion, it is possible to see the green colour extending from the map in the next 30 years.

Although the world is covered by 71% of water, most water come from oceans, which is too salty to use. There is fresh water around  3% of the earth's water. The drought is a global problem. It happens around the world, including a place in a tropical climate as Thailand. My country is not facing desertification as the Sahel region, but the drought conditions in Thailand  earlier this year is evidence that the problem is getting worse every year. The tap water is still salty after using the home water filter. The farmers in the north and the northeastern are running out of water for their crops. 

Women harvest baobab fruits
Credit: Aduna

Back to Paga, people plant more baobab to create green barriers to save land and desertification. Although the baobab tree can bear fruits after 200 years old, it can live up to 2,000 years old. I think it is a good investment for the environment and community income. However, when an expert concerns monocropping, I agree with them. We should plant different types of tree species, so they can bring back nutrients to soil when the plants die. In contrast, planting the same crops in the same area for long terms can damage the nutrients of soil. For example, rubber trees and palm oil trees are popular among farmers in Thailand. Both plants create value to farmers, but little did they know that they would destroy soil fertility. In fact, the problem begins with deforestation in order to make agriculture in Thailand.

An avocado plantation in Chile.
Photograph by Alice Facchini

The drought problem from agriculture also happens in the Americas continent with avocado in Mexico and Chile. In Mexico, they destroy pine forests for planting avocado. In Chile, the land where farmers grow avocados are green while the land nearby are brown with drought. Moreover, the river in Chile is now dry because avocados require a lot of water to grow and produce fruits. As an avocado lover, I feel sad. 

Therefore, I hope people in Africa will be doing great with the Great Green Wall. Humans exploit nature too much and we have to fix it. It is our job to help the environmental problems together and we need to create a safe environment for our children to grow. Their future is not going to be worse than our generation. In addition, if you want to grow trees for your land, you should plant various kinds of native species that are friendly to our environment.

____________________________________ 

Question

What are your ideas to help Thailand from the drought?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Gray, R. (2019, September 3). The wall holding back a desert. BBC Future. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190902-the-wall-holding-back-a-desert

Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 53 - Critical thinking, q.2 = examples of emotion v. intellectual decisions

Summary 

Following our reading of "Emotional Thinking" (2018, pp. 51 - 52, the second critical thinking question that Rogers and Zemach ask us to discuss relates the ideas in the article to the evolution of human decision making.

____________________________________ 

Response 

As usual, we will discuss Rogers and Zemach's question in a comment, giving us a more permanent record of our ideas in addition to getting in some practice writing for fluency in a less academic style, but still writing our ideas in grammatically complete sentences that clearly state our ideas. 

Both of the critical thinking questions here are likely to stimulate ideas that will be useful in the coming writing task for this unit, so it will be worthwhile to read and think about your classmates' ideas responding to the same questions. 
 

____________________________________ 

Question

After planning for a minute or two, write down your response to Rogers and Zemach's critical thinking question 2 on page 53 in a comment below.  

• What are some examples of decisions that should be made: mostly emotionally, mostly intellectually, or equally emotionally and intellectually?  

____________________________________ 

Reference

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

A future to recover

Summary 

Poster for No Time to Die in Bangkok
- not in cinemas next month

The BBC News article "Release of James Bond film No Time To Die delayed amid coronavirus fears" (2020) says that the 25th James Bond film, No Time to Die, has been delayed from April until November to limit the financial and other risks threatened by the Covid-19 virus. The producers cited "a thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace" as the reason for the costly delay, with many cinemas in China, the largest market after the US, already closed due to the virus. Although some reports spoke of the need to protect fans from the virus, they also noted the studio would suffer a lot of bad publicity if an infection spread from the festivities that had been planned for March 31 in London to celebrate the opening of Daniel Craig’s last performance as James Bond.

____________________________________ 

Response 

Just like mother's

I don't usually read the entertainment section of the BBC News, but the James Bond title caught my eye. I've been a fan of the Bond stories since I was 12 or 13 and read my first James Bond novel, Dr. No, which my mother owned. I don't remember when it was published, but I read it in the early 1970s, and my mum had bought it before she married my dad in 1959, so it must have been sometime in the 1950s. As I read it during the boring bus trip to and from my high school, it helped the 40 minutes pass quickly. I still remember the excitement I felt as Bond managed to get out of one deadly situation after another to save the world. I've also seen the movie version a couple of times, most recently about ten or so years ago. The story is still fun, but it definitely shows its age. What was high-tech. in the 1960s is very boring today. My smartphone is more sophisticated than the super high-tech. electronics of the spy world in the 1960s. And the sexism is so gross its funny, also the racism with the evil Chinese doctor. 

I've watched every Bond film, and was looking forward to the latest one. Of all the actors who have played James Bond over the last five or six decades, my two favourites are Sean Connery, the first one, who defeated Dr. No and other villians, and the current Daniel Craig, who I think is the best of them all. It will be sad to see Craig go, but I guess that with the rest of the world, I'll have to wait a bit longer for his farewell performance. I was also looking forward to seeing Rami Malek play the villian. I enjoyed his portrayal of rock star Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody last year, so want to see his super villian. 

From my bookshelves
- decades of memories

But one thing I do not want to do is reread any of the Ian Fleming's Bond novels that I loved in my teens. I think that they were great entertainment, but like the silly American TV series that I sometimes enjoy on NetFlix, they are not great art: they are not literature, and don't age well. Great writing or other art, in contrast, seems to me to get better each time you read, watch or listen to it. I've read Jane Austen's 200-year-old novels many times each, and they are more enjoyable every time. In fact, although I've gotten rid of most of my paper books, replacing them with the much more convenient Kindle versions, for sentimental reasons I've kept all of my old paper copies of Pride and Prejudice. I have multiple copies because I read each of them so many times that they fell apart and had to be replaced. My Kindle version stays in perfect condition, but the tattered old paper copies bring back a lot of memories, all the way back to when I was in high school, and also enjoying James Bond novels. I think if I read a Bond novel, I would be as disappointed as I have been with other novels that I once loved but which really aren't very good when read with a bit more maturity. It's better to leave my happy memories of reading Bond in high school as they are, and to enjoy the movies as they come out every few years.  

I wonder what my young nieces and nephews, who grew up with smartphones, would think of antiques like Dr. No? 
 

____________________________________ 

Question

Have you ever thought a piece of work was great and been disappointed when you came back to it later? 
(My initial idea was a response and question about the Covid-19 virus, but after when I sat down to write it, my response took an unexpected turn. After I had written the response, my title also had to be revised completely from the first idea I had had.)  

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Release of James Bond film No Time To Die delayed amid coronavirus fears. (2020, March 4). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51744374 

predicting the future of inflight service

Summary 

BBC article "Predicting the future inflight service" mentions about using advanced technology to improve inflight service. As the goal of inflight service is to provide the most comfortable experience to their passengers, some airline thinks about using technology to enhance the quality of services. Nowadays, Singapore Airline has already adapted technology in their flights. For example, the airline has success with an online chatbox that provide passengers with information in 24/7. Passengers can pre-order meal via Singapore Airline application. Moreover, the airline use AI to personalise their passenger preference, such as entertainment programs and pronouncing passenger's name correctly. However, using advanced technology on broad is still controversial. Although AI has a lot of potentials to understand the customers better, customers seem to be afraid of it.  Nonetheless, in the future, technology will be less obtrusive, and passenger and customers will be more familiar with cutting-edge technologies. As a result, the possibility to integrate them into flight experience will increase.

____________________________________ 

Response 

This passage interests me because I usually take flights one a year. I have not seemed much improvement on inflight service, but I have seen a lot in airports. When I was young, I checked in with frontline customer service with a real person. Then, When I was older, online check-in emerged. Last year, I went to England and everything was self-service with the machine. I had to scan the get the flight ticket and name tags by myself. The experience at London airport is impressed me and scare me too because I travelled alone and I do not know what to do with the machine. So I agree with the article that says "people may not feel comfortable with advance technology." For me, human interaction is important for a service job. Texting with a robot like Chatbox program of Singapore Airlines feel like we can not communicate because we are in different species.

However, the passage mentions many interesting points. For example, airlines can AI to personalize each individual so the airline can respond to their customer need. I think it benefits a lot on entertainment programs on board because the airline can add movies that I may like on my screen.
Advanced technology may have other applicants that facilitate passengers in the way we have never thought before. Anyway, I think that many airlines try to find a way to integrate technologies by frightening us less as much as possibile. I cannot wait to see the new version of inflight services.

 

____________________________________ 

Question

Do you like the idea of using advance technology in inflight services?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Singapore airline . Predicting the future of inflight service. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/storyworks/future/imagining-the-future-of-air-travel/predicting-the-future-of-inflight-service 

Mo's BBC article

Summary 

“We’re worse with food waste than we think” (2020) presents us that the amount of food waste is researched by Dutch researchers, who use sources from the World Health Organization (WHO) and FAO, World Bank. When the researchers came over to the details at both of the sources and they found that original estimate of the FAO, 214 kilocalories per calorie per day is really an abundant underestimate of the global food waste like they determined it, since they had a factor two larger estimate of 527 kilocalories per calorie per day. The article, furthermore, suggests solution for this challenging as the shoppers could be changed buying behaviors as enough buying habits; thinking that can always shop more, not necessary buying in excessive demand.

____________________________________ 

Response

Recently, I have searched a news about food waste from BBC, then this news appeals me. At first, I definitely thought the news was about the food wate, probably it is kind of the world’s difficulties and we should solve this problem as soon as possible, otherwise the earth will worse from food waste. I am a person, who used to damage our world by Buffet dishes but now I would say that I do not eat them anymore. Therefore, the news make me realize about my grandparents’s quotes. Background of my grandparents, who are the farmers in baby boomer generation, have been struggled with several inconvenient, so they always tell me that I have to know how value of food is since, they know as before getting the gain of rice how exhausted must it be or think about homeless people who have no food, how their hardship are. Not only teaching about the value of food but also other values such as, money, time and people. Although my grandmother did not graduate, almost of her quotes are full of qualities from all of her experiences. The news, moreover, make me realize about “Sufficiency Economy”,which is a royal initiative of King Rama 9 that is about “how tend to be enough in the life as moderate practicing, precaution, consideration of moderation, rationality, self-immunity as well as using knowledge and virtue, which will lead to “ happiness” in life. 

Furthermore, the BBC mentions about solution to solve food waste problem as well, which tend to change behavior in populations by encouraging shoppers to switch extreme shopping to be “enough” shopping that is also relate to quotes from King Rama 9 as I have mentioned before.

To sum up, I still believe the quotes from King Rama 9 and my grandparents that Living with the word as “enough”, then the problem of not enough actually is disappearing. I really sure that the quote fit in every situation. I hope that every reader will get some benefits from this essay.

 

____________________________________ 

Question

Do you think food waste is the huge problem? Why?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Briggs, H. (2020, February 12). We're worse with food waste than we think. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51450727

The chaotic habit behind Picasso’s genius work

Summary 

According to “the chaotic habit behind Picasso’s genius work”, as for a majority of artists, chaos meant creativity. Picasso went beyond that because he used it as materials. He was a hoarder who accumulated everything. His workplace was full of ephemera. Many of Picasso’s art pieces were created by that stuff such as newspapers, bus tickets, and packets of tobacco. He would not draw on some materials which had a pattern or interesting contents hence the relationship between material and the object was represented. Despite the refuse, he recycled them and presented the beauty of daily life. Not only did he use collage techniques, but he also created art pieces in 3 dimensions from cardboard. Nowadays, some of his artworks were shown in a stunning exhibition at the Royal Academy.

____________________________________ 

Response 

There are some reasons why I picked this article. Firstly, Pablo Picasso is my favourite artist because such artist enhanced the style of modern art and created huge art movements. He always came up with brilliant ideas. He was also one of the most important figures in the 20th century in the art filed: therefore, I believe that the article about his behaviour might be useful and inspiration for posterity.

After reading the article, I find out that we can create artwork from various things. Art materials don’t have to be pricey. In addition, those materials also contain a variety of stories inside which are represented. In my opinion, this style of art suits nowadays situation that mankind is confronting waste management problems. we should be concerned carefully before tossing things away. 

Base on my knowledge, art was defined to be precious and hard to get in touch with normal people. Most artists in the past against using refuse to create an art piece hence Picasso’s behaviour was a rebel to traditional art. Although this article doesn’t focus on the art revolution, it brings us to deeper detail of the initial concept which helps understand the social context in those times and Picasso's eccentric thinking. 

To conclude, the normally chaotic habit might refer to negative however it can result in positive aspects too. People should read this article to get some different perspectives.

Moreover, the cognitive thinking process of Picasso is provided in the article which is extremely useful especially young designers or artists.

 

____________________________________ 

Question

Could you please explain have you ever had a chaotic habit and how?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Dunn, D. (2020, February 17). The chaotic habit behind Picasso's genius work Printed by BBC News. http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20200214-the-genius-of-picassos-hoarding-habit

Ipp's BBC article

Summary 

According to the BBC News,Coronavirus: World must prepare for pandemic, says WHO(2020),  The World Health Organization(WHO) suggests that every country should be more prepared for the Coronavirus spread which is possible to be pandemic. The word ‘Pandemic’ means the world wide spread of a new disease that can spread quickly from one person to another.

There are more than 1,200 confirmed cases and more than 20 deaths. The most affected country would be South-Korean, the country has the most confirmed cases outside China while Italy has the most confirmed cases in Europe. The WHO chief,  Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the number of confirmed cases is ‘deeply concerning’ but the WHO still think we have not reached the pandemic level yet although the virus has the possibility of doing so. 

____________________________________ 

Response 

First of all, when I read the headline of the article, I wondered what a pandemic is but I later learned the meaning of the word as I continued to read the article. It started to terrified me more than it already is with the number of cases that are ‘deeply concerned and how fast it spread.  I have already known about the danger of the disease and how hazard it is since it is probably the world biggest news at the moment but after knowing that this virus has the potential to spread worldwide in a short amount of time makes me feel worse about the situation, especially when the virus can cause so many deaths. If the Coronavirus can be pandemic, it might cause a horribly large number of deaths in the future. 

I have a plan to go to South-Korea with my friends around the end of May 2020 but as the WHO reveals the number of confirmed cases in South-Korea, unfortunately, we are going to have to cancel the trip. Although the situation might get better by that time, we still do not want to take any risk. Luckily, we haven’t paid for anything yet and the hotel that we’ve booked was able to be cancelled without any charge. My family was also thinking about visiting our cousins in the United States, we had to cancel that as well. We don’t think it will be a good idea to be in an airplane for a long period of time and transit in either South-Korea or Japan is too much of a risk.

 

____________________________________ 

Question

What is your thought on the Coronavirus situation right now?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Coronavirus: World must prepare for pandemic, says WHO. (2020, February, 25). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-5161142

Theory about origin of Coronavirus

Summary 

According to "Coronavirus: The race to find the source in wildlife", many researchers are trying to figure out what is the source of Coronaviruses by believing that the disease might be originally found in animals. First, bats and pangolins have become suspects of being hosts of viruses. It is believed that a bat might have a large array of viruses due to its behaviour. In contrast with pangolin, scientists claimed that virus found in pangolins seems quite similar to Coronaviruses. However, many people are not satisfied with these conclusions. Because the outbreak was started in a Wuhan wet market, it is possible that the infection might be spread from other species in the same market as well. Even though the origin of the disease is still uncleared, experts believe that stopping trading wild animals might be the best prevention.

____________________________________ 

Response 

In late 2019, the Coronavirus outbreak started in China. Now over 80 thousand people are infected across many continents around the world. Because it was first discovered last year, the mystery origin of the virus has become a more interesting topic among scientists.

Because the outbreak started from a live animal market in Wuhan, many researchers believe animals might be the sources of the disease. According to Briggs's article, it seems people believe bats might be a host of the virus due to its behaviour. However, researchers are curious about the possibility that pangolins might transmit the disease to humans due to insufficient data. Therefore, the investigation for the source of COVID-19 has not concluded yet, and now scientists have to include other species as suspects as well.

According to the Coronavirus situation report from WHO (2020), "The new COVID-19 is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. The most likely ecological reservoirs for SARS-CoV-2 are bats, but it is believed that the virus jumped the species barrier to humans from another intermediate animal host. This intermediate animal host could be a domestic food animal, a wild animal, or a domesticated wild animal which has not yet been identified." (p. 2). With this piece of evidence, it reveals that Coronavirus might be a virus found among bats. For some reason, the disease just began spreading to humans; however, it is believed intermediate host is required.

However, is it possible that humans might be directly infected from bats first? In "Antiviral use and the risk of drug resistance", WHO revealed that the immunosuppression was found in H1N1 patients who had taken the antiviral drug for a long time. With this piece of evidence, it can be inferred that this kind of medicine makes us exposed to the disease. As a result, people might be easier to get infected from bats and become a new host for viruses. With accessibility to human DNA, it is possible that viruses adapt themselves to survive in new habitat, human hosts, and become a deadly disease for all mankind.

Since the mystery of the virus source is not revealed yet, it is possible that the theory of origin of Coronavirus might be changed and discovered one day. Hopefully, this knowledge can be a benefit on virus prevention and treatment.

____________________________________ 

Question

What is your theory about origin of Coronavirus outbreak?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Antiviral use and the risk of drug resistance. (2009). World Health Organization (WHO). https://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/notes/h1n1_antiviral_use_20090925/en/
• Briggs, H. (2020, February, 25). Coronavirus: The race to find the source in wildlife. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51496830
• Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) Situation Report – 32. (2020, February, 21). World Health Organization (WHO). https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200221-sitrep-32-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=4802d089_2

Is a lab grown diamond better than a mined diamond?

Summary 

Lab grown diamond process

In "The sparkling rise of the lab grown diamond" (2020), it tells us that the sales of mined diamonds are currently declining as a result of environmental problems and human rights issues. The mined diamonds cause soil erosion, water pollution and massive carbon footprints from their process. Many diamond mining violate human rights by paying low wages and creating unsafe working conditions. The transparency of the origin of mined diamonds can be unclear after cutting and polishing process. They may come from an illegally armed group. Unlike the lab grown diamonds, they are made in the lab and they create less carbon footprints because they use renewable energy. They are also cheaper than mined diamonds. Therefore, the popularity of lab grown diamonds have increased by humanitarian consumers and shop owners who are new generation people.

____________________________________ 

Response 

This story makes me curious about the world perspective towards lab grown diamonds and how it became more popular. I enjoy this reading because it tells you what lab grown diamond is and how it is more sustainable to the world. However, it gives more information than I expected. It tells us the despicable stories behind mined diamonds and their impact on the world.  As diamonds are valuable and desirable for people around the world, many companies in the mined diamonds industry ignore environmental problems and human rights. 

'Blood Diamond' film (2006)

Since I watched Blood Diamond many years ago, I feel terrible for people who work in the diamond mines. I read some stories behind mined diamonds and I was sad how the most beautiful things have the saddest stories behind. I question myself if it is really worth the life of an innocent worker for your precious stones on your body.

However, after I read this story on the BBC website, it is a good sign from people in my generation. They are concerned about the consequences of their choices to the world. From my perspective, the price of lab grown diamonds is not the only reason why they buy their diamonds. Currently, people take environmental issues seriously in their life as they want to build a better world for their children. People choose lab grown diamonds because they want to create environmental sustainability and human rights. A great example is Leonardo DiCaprio. He chose a beautiful lab grown diamond engagement ring for his girlfriend. 

People can learn the truth about mined diamonds and realise its problems. However, some people still prefer mined diamonds because of how it was naturally made over 1 billion years ago. Also, good quality mined diamonds can make profitable value in the future. It is not wrong to buy mined diamonds, but people should be carefully choosing conflict-free diamonds from ethical companies.

Therefore, lab grown diamonds is an alternative way to buy diamonds. People can help ending labour exploitation in diamond mining.

  

____________________________________ 

Question

Do you prefer lab grown diamond or naturally-mined diamond?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Constable, H. (2020, February 10). The sparkling rise of the lab grown diamond. BBC Future Planet. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200207-the-sparkling-rise-of-the-lab-grown-diamond

Hotel was shut down due to Coronavirus

Summary 

“Coronavirus: Tenerif hotel with hundreds of guests locked down” tells us that the hotel in Span’s Canary Island has been locked down due to Italian doctor who test positive for coronavirus. This situation make more than one hundred people were command to stay in their rooms to notice symptoms and test for coronavirus. However, there are some concerns about five or six hundred people who stay in this hotel during the time that Italian doctor stay and they left the hotel before it was locked down. Therefore, there are possibility that some people who left the hotel will be infected with coronavirus and spread the virus in their home town or wherever they go.

____________________________________ 

Response 

First time when I heard about coronavirus, I think it wouldn’t be very dangerous and this virus would be eliminated in a shot time because it just spread in small market in Hubei, China. However, in this current situation, coronavirus is very dangerous and it’s spread to other country so quickly. More than 84,000 people are known to be infected and more than 2,900 death as this disease is airborne and it would infect easily by spread between close contacts such as talking with patients or touch their droplets when the patients cough or sneeze. Moreover, nowadays there is no specific treatment, doctors just use existing drugs for virus such as Ebola and HIV to curing so it means you would be dead if you are infected this virus. 

Hence, I am very alert in all new news about coronavirus because it’s very close to Thailand and it would affect on all people in the world. From the news that I interested I think it very scary news because more than five or six hundred people who stayed in the hotel during the time that the man who has tested positive had been staying would be infected coronavirus and it would make situation worse than the present time. To illustrate, coronavirus would make people more ill or die; in addition, it would make economic crisis because many towns were commanded to shut down so that it probably make global economies would be bad. 

To conclude, I think coronavirus does not effect on human health only but also effect on other parts of their life such as economic, social and etc.

____________________________________ 

Question

If you are one of commitee in WHO. What are things you would like to do or suggest to the country which coronavirus is spread out?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Coronavirus: Tenerife hotel with hundreds of guests locked down.(2020, February 25).BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51627597

What happens when the internet vanishes?

Summary

In “What happens when the internet vanishes?” mentioned the issue of controlling the internet by government. This matter is controversial whether the advantages of this action far outweigh the disadvantages or not. In some country, governments decided to shut down the internet for security reasons. They believe that this action can be vulnerable to terrorist activity. However, the benefit of blackouts the internet is still vague. When the internet vanishes, it strongly affects economic value. The businesses cannot contact to their oversea partnerships and costumers. Also, businesses like online shop and delivery cannot run on. Shutdown the internet also relates to the human rights issue. As the UN state clearly that internet access is a human right since 2016, blackouts can mean limits people right. In 2019, the data showed that the most shutdowns happened in Asia and India has a far highest number of shutdowns.

____________________________________ 

Response 

At first, I thought that this article was about a psychological issue for example how internet addiction affects our mind. However, This was totally misunderstanding. There was nothing related to psychology. It is more about human rights and politic. I found out that this issue surprises me. In Thailand, some of the information is blocked, but we never have internet blackout by the government before. I could not imagine how people in those countries can live without the internet for months. Last week, I experienced an internet shutdown for 30 minutes because of technical mistake of TrueMove. I felt like I was blocked from the outer world. I could not know what happened to my internet connection because I could not reach Google. This was a bad experience. But what about people who cannot access the internet for a long time. How can they live?


From the article, I knew that internet blackout has a huge benefit on people security. This reason is understandable, but I do not whether it is the best solution. Shutdown situation reminded me about one of my high school essay “Security or Privacy.” I think Security and Privacy is a good point to analyse this situation. If people want security, shutdowns might be the answer because it can reduce terrorist activity, as mentioned in the passage. By the way, if people want privacy, the internet should be free for everyone, and this way will benefit economic growth. However, this is pretty idealistic because we want both. To be honest, I do not have the answer about whether blackouts is good. Also, in my essay, I chose to be in the middle, balancing between security and privacy and my grade did not turn out as good that term. So I do not think I am the right person to talk with either “internet shutdowns” or “Privacy or Security” issues. However, the article from the BBC opens my eyes and let me learn something new.

 

____________________________________ 

Question

Do you think government should limit internet accessibility for a security reason or not?

____________________________________ 

Reference

•  Joe Tidy & Becky Dale(2020,February,25).  What happens when the internet vanishes?. Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51620158

Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 53 - Critical thinking, q.1 = reasons we evolved emotions

Summary 

Following our reading of "Emotional Thinking" (2018, pp. 51 - 52, the first critical thinking question that Rogers and Zemach ask us to discuss relates the ideas in the article to the evolution of human decision making.

____________________________________ 

Response 

As usual, we will discuss Rogers and Zemach's question in a comment, giving us a more permanent record of our ideas in addition to getting in some practice writing for fluency in a less academic style, but still writing our ideas in grammatically complete sentences that clearly state our ideas. 

Both of the critical thinking questions here are likely to stimulate ideas that will be useful in the coming writing task for this unit, so it will be worthwhile to read and think about your classmates' ideas responding to the same questions. 
 

____________________________________ 

Question

After planning for a minute or two, write down your response to Rogers and Zemach's critical thinking question 1 on page 53 in a comment below. 

• What are some reasons that people [human beings] might have evolved to make emotional decisions more quickly than intellectual decisions?  

____________________________________ 

Reference

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

COVID-19 IS CLOSE TO HOME

Summary 

According to "Coronavirus: World must prepare for pandemic, says WHO",  WHO announced that Covid-19 is not a pandemic now with the pandemic term it may cause fear, but we do need to prepare for it because it has the potential to become like the H1N1 outbreak. Currently, Italy has the largest number of cases in Europe. In the next two weeks, 50,000 residents will be locked down in place.  Furthermore, South Korea is the worst affected country outside of China. The disease widely spread due to religious activities. The main signs to detect symptom is fever, cough, and breathing problem. To prevent ourselves is often washing hands and avoid contact with people who are ill. Covid-19 originated from Wuhan's wild market in China which has more than77,000 infected people and the number of death tolls rises up to 2,600. 

____________________________________ 

Response 

I didn't acknowledge about Covid-19 virus issue until the patient no 31st from South Korea. She is aunty who joined a religious group activity. It has become a tremendous outbreak widely spread in the southern part of South Korea. Why this case draw me attention? Why not any other case from China the originated virus comes from? Because I used to live in Busan, South Korea for six months last year to study business and I have a lot of friends over there. It felt close to home for me in terms of mentally but not physically. So I kept tracking the news about the virus. Recently, in Thailand, there has big news about an old couple who got ill and they were hiding the truth that they went to Hokkaido, Japan for a vacation trip before came back to Thailand. Later on, the doctor found that they both were infected and they live around DonMuang which is 10 km away from my house so it has something to do with me physically now and it does not just only mental issues anymore.

After I study about the Covid-19, it is the fact that the virus spreads so easily from one person to another by touching and airborne transmission beside that the symptom will show after 14 days which is hard to notice and the symptom looks very close like normal flu. In regard to what Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO chief, said in the article "Using the word 'pandemic' now does not fit the facts but may certainly cause fear" I don't agree with him even now WHO does not announce as a pandemic yet but I do panic about the virus already. I cautiously protect myself and warn everyone in the family member to take extra care by wearing a mask and washing hands regularly. My doctor friend posted on Facebook that if Japan does not cancel an Olympic game this year, it might lead to pandemic-level.

____________________________________ 

Question

Could Coronavirus have an effect on the Olympic games in Japan during July 2020? 

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Coronavirus: World must prepare for pandemic, says WHO. ( 2020, February, 25). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51611422

Hana's BBC article

Summary 

    According to the article, Italy is the country that being the most significant carrier of Coronavirus in Europe. Many countries in Europe such as Austria, Croatia, Greece and Switzerland reported that their first cases who infected this virus had been to Italy before. Moreover, the first positive virus test is shown on Brazilian resident who just came bake from Italy. By this cases, reveals that Italy has become the worst affected country in Europe. However, UK have no plan to cancel the flights from Italy and that cause approximately three million British people travel to Italy each year. Thus, public health England advice the people who returning from Northern Italy should live separately from other people.

____________________________________ 

Response 

Coronavirus is one of a hazardous virus which cause serious illness symptom. It can cause people to death. Currently, medical profession still can not figure out the way to recover people who got infected from this germ.  Coronavirus has originated from China. Hence, the first continent that virus has been spreading out is in Asia. Therefore, the risky area where it emerge is not just in Europe or Italy but it is now spreading out all over the world. Presently, the most dangerous and risky country to be infected are in China, Japan and Korea. However, Thailand is also one of the most top ten country that got infected as well. As I am one of Thai citizens, I could tell that the situation in Thailand is still worrying. Thai citizens who have this virus are living all over the country. For this reason, Thai people can get infected easily. So, everyone must be aware and acknowledge the way to protect themselves from this virus. The simplest way to protect yourself is to wear a mask when going out. Wearing mask is the way to prevent yourself from any germs. On the other hand, it can also protect spreading out the germs from us to other people. Secondly, washing hands correctly and frequently can reduce the chance of getting the germs from the public places to yourself. Thirdly, avoid going to crowded places if not necessary. Moreover, the ministry of public health and governments of each country should cooperate together to have a strong defensive measure on Coronavirus and offer any protection of the disease sufficiency for their citizens.  

____________________________________ 

Question

In your opinion what are the best ways to prevent and protect yourself from Coronavirus? And why?

____________________________________ 

Reference

• Coronavirus outbreak spreads in Europe from Italy. (2020, Feburary 26). https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51638095.

Flights of Madness

Summary 

Click to enlarge the image

"'Mad' Mike Hughes dies after crash-landing homemade rocket" (2020) tells us that his friend thinks that "Mad" Mike Hughes died as he lived, going to the limit to test himself and prove his ideas. The article says that because he was sure that the Earth is flat, Hughes wanted to prove that by flying a steam-powered rocket high enough to check that it was true. He had previously succeeded in flying in a rocket made at home to a height of 570m, but was aiming for 1,500m on Saturday, February 22 when a failure shortly after launch caused his rocket to crash, killing him.

____________________________________ 

Response 

At first, I thought this would be a story about someone who was building a rocket at home as hobby. They would be weird, but fun. It's certainly not a passion that I share, although one of my nephews does share a similar passion. He is a bit of a geek, and in high school, built rockets as challenges. Andy's also flew as planned, but they were a more modest size, and I don't think he ever planned to actually build one that he might sit in himself. I never shared Andy's passion, although remember following with great interest our species' successful landing on the moon when I was in primary school. I was also a bit geeky in high school, but my passions tended more towards theoretical physics than rocket science. I think it's good that we have things we are passionate about, even if I don't share most people's passions. One of my friends loves the Star Wars films and everything connected to them, but I can't stand them, and other friends play musical instruments, or are wine buffs and so on. I enjoy those things, but they are not really my passions. On the other hand, my passionate interest in philosophy and ancient history probably seems a bit weird to others, including my friends and family. I think that's OK. It would be boring if we all had the same interests. 

Aristotle was wrong about a lot, but
he knew the Earth was a sphere

But the BBC article is not about a man simply building a rocket for fun, as I discovered when I read it. Mike Hughes actually believed that the world is flat. I really can't understand how anyone could believe that in 2020. In fact, Aristotle knew that the world was a sphere more than 2,000 years ago, and gave good arguments based on the evidence in his book on astronomy. And about 400 years ago, Copernicus, Galileo and other scientists greatly upset the Christian pope by arguing that the Earth was not a sphere at the centre of the universe, about which everything revolved, but was really just one among several planets, all spheres, that circled the sun. I don't think any educated Western person has believed that the Earth was flat for about 2,500 years. Homer's hero Achilles might have thought it flat, but even that is doubtful. Yet there are groups on the Internet who say that is what they believe. They have conference to present their arguments and evidence, and most of us laugh at them. But Hughes appears to have been so serious that he invested money and work into proving his theory. And in the end he paid with his life. 

It reminds me of the much larger groups of people who refuse to believe widely accepted things, for example the conspiracy theorists who think that the US did not really land on the moon in 1969, or that the CIA actually blew up the World Trade Tower buildings in 2001. And in Thailand we recently had the bizarre case of people a court accepting a claim that the Future Forward Political party was run by a mysterious group of people called the Illuminati! These ideas are seem to me profoundly stupid, but clearly there are people who seriously believe them. More worrying are the large numbers who reject one of the main theories of modern science, the theory of evolution, which successfully explains how all life on Earth is related and evolving. But I don't think beliefs shouuld be banned just because they are unpopular, or minority opinion, or known to be false: it is healthy to let people keep trying to disprove accepted theories, even that the Earth is a sphere. After all, Aristotle was wrong about our position in space, although for more than a thousand years, society, and the churches especially believed we were the centre of everything, and they made it a crime to say otherwise because it was against their religious ideology. Perhaps we should be more humble about even our most certain beliefs. And if people want to risk their lives for their beliefs, as Girodano Bruno did for science when the evil Christian leaders killed him because of his scientific discoveries supporting Copernicus's theory that we are not the centre of everything in the universe, they must be allowed to do that, as Mike Hughes did. In fact, if people want to engage in dangerous behaviour for fun, I think that just law must let them do that as well, whether sky diving or doing drugs.  
 

____________________________________ 

Question

Should the law criminalize dangerous acts based on false beliefs such as those of "Mad" Mike? 

____________________________________ 

Reference

• 'Mad' Mike Hughes dies after crash-landing homemade rocket. (2020, February 23). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51602655

Note about reference citations: The APA style reference citation above is a little different to the previous ones. This is because in October last year, the APA Publication Manual's seventh edition was published, and as usual, it revised the way some reference citations are written. For the moment, both the previous 6th edition style from 2012 and the revised 2019 style are acceptable, with the former still in common use. (I only started changing recently.) 

Skillful 3: Reading and Writing, page 12 - Critical thinking, q.1 = rivalries

Skillful 3: Reading & Writing, p. 6

Summary 

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

In section 3 of the reading on page 11, "Dangers of Social Identity," the article introduces the idea of rivalry (Rogers & Zemach, 2018).

____________________________________ 

Response 

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

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

____________________________________ 

Question 1

In their first critical thinking question following the reading "Social Identity", Rogers and Zemach ask us to respond to the question: 

"What are some benefits of rivalry? What are some problems?

Give specific examples." (Rogers & Zemach, 2018, p. 12)

Think for a minute or two, making some quick notes if you like; then in a comment below, write a short paragraph or two to tell us your ideas in response to this question.

____________________________________ 

References

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


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