Oxfam's Shelflife links goods with past using QR Codes

Now, technology is continue developing in everyday. It is very useful in our life. It makes us live easier in the word of turbulence. Especially, the technology in cell phone. I think, we all use cell phone not just for

making a call but now we can do many things in our cell phone.

Oxfam is trying out a mobile phone scheme called Shelflife that lets customers find out the stories behind second-hand goods it sells. A Shelflife phone app links stories and pictures provided by donors to tags attached to the goods.Browsers in Oxfam shops can scan the tags using the app to find out about an individual item's past.The charity believes it can sell things more easily when they have stories attached to them.

I strongly agree with the charity that it can sell things more easily, if it has the story behind. Customers will know a little story about second-hand goods that they interested in. I think, if the goods has an interesting story, many people will want to buy it.It is a very good idea to attract customers. Personally, I have never use a second-hand goods but I like to watch a program in history channel name's "Pawn Star". It is about second-hand goods that people want to sell in this shop and if the goods has an interesting story, the price will be higher than the goods that has no interesting story.

Customers will be easy to look at the information about the goods by use the technology from their own cell phone. They can find the information about the goods even they are at home by login to the store website and find QR Codes then use their cell phone to scan QR codes to find the information about the good that they interested in.

I really think that technology is now a part of our life. It is important to learn to use these technologies.If we use it in a good way, it will be useful for us. And if you are the one that interested in a second-hand goods maybe you can find more information from the references.

References

Oxfam's Shelflife links goods with past using QR Codes.(2012, February 27). BBC News. Retrieved March 4, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17152221

Protection and development of a traditional culture

People living in historical cities modified life style from their old fashion to modern style including schedule for routine life, clothes and diet, even though historical cities are precious photos for a national memory to history, but there are just some architectures left from which people can image past people’s life in their mind. Fortunately, I found a special case When I read BBC news “Working Lives Kyoto”.

In “Working Lives Kyoto”, the writer introduces six different careers which are Geisha, Aikido, Mat make, Monk, Science and part time jobs. Most of them are traditional spheres and people working in these traditional spheres keep the same life habit in clothes, diets and most details for routine life because their jobs are not only a kind of job but also a kind of life styles. Besides traditional jobs, some hi-tech electronic companies provide new opportunities for young people in Kyoto which introduce modern culture and new lifestyle at the same time. Just as the writer’s conclusion, Kyoto is a city combining traditional culture and modern culture symbolize by hi-tech electronics.

The article provides a good example to protect and develop a traditional culture. Of course, each historical city should have some changes to fit new demands appearing in modern Age which isn’t involved in my topic. What I want to talk about is that Comparing some historical cities where traditional life style are gave up or kept for performance, Japanese old life style is still a good choices for modern people in Kyoto not for fun, not for surviving just because they really love traditional life style. That is the best understanding and respect to forefathers, moreover, it become a good reason for tourism because it reappears historical scenes in real life rather than in a movie. So, it is very important to teach descendants to recognize the vale and intelligence of ancestors which are not names carved in tombstones. Not only they gave descendants lives but also they left excellent culture as mental fortune.

The other point I want to say is I always am interested in Japanese culture and the mutual character as a nation even though everyone has their own individual personality. There is a sentence in philosophy material base determines the spiritual word, similarly, the mutual character of Japanese is determined by the location and material resource of Japan. Japanese have sense of urgency because of lacknesse of sufficient food and other resources in an island surrounded by oceans, this kind of worries make them heavy and serious which is different from optimism of Americans and slack of Chinese; as the same geographical reason there isn’t a model to learn from across the world, Japanese should resolve important issues about economy, polity, culture and etc by themselves so that they used to make decisions according to their own situation rather than copy policies from other countries simply, that is to say, Japanese are good at thinking independently.

Japan is a small country in areas but it is a big one and has deep impact to economy, polity, culture on the world, so did Japanese in Protection and development of traditional culture. Anyway, I like the place and people who persist in their own view about life and I will travel to Kyoto when I am free and convenient.

References
Working Lives Kyoto.(2012,March 2)BBC News.Retrieved 15:32,March 4,2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-radio-and-tv-17232545

posted by Crystal at 15:28

Health risk linked to early birth

Nowadays, baby that born just a few week early have a slightly higher risk of health problems on infancy. Doctors said their work challenged widely held views that babies born after 37 weeks had similar long-term outcomes to those born full term, but it looked at health outcomes including admissions to hospital and having illnesses such as asthma.

In "Infancy health risk linked to early birth by research" of BBC news on 2 March 2012 reports that babies born very premature before 32 weeks may need extra attention. Also babies that born before 39 weeks have a slightly higher risk of health problems up to age of five. For example, only 15% of babies born full term experienced asthma or wheezing as children but 17% for those born just a few weeks early and they were also slightly more go into hospital. From the research Babies born early are at a higher risk of conditions and should be given regular health check-ups to ensure they remain healthy.

 After reading this article, i think this topic is very useful because it new knowledge for me and nowadays all around the world the numbers of baby that born early are increasing, which increasing health risk. So the need for the very best care to be given to all babies born preterm is very important.

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References

Infancy health risk linked to early birth by research. (2012 March 2). BBC news. Retrieved March 4, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17223874

Pet Booming In Hard Time

Economic crisis is expanding worldwide. People try to tighten their belt  instead of spending as much as they used to.Many brandname and luxuary product sales decline dramatically, but in this difficult period, pet industry is triving and flourishing especially in the US, where the economic is in the most down trend.

In "US spending on pets 'passes $50bn'", published on March 3, 2012 ,reports that the spending of Americans in pet industry including food ,veterinary services, pet services and pet insurance is increasing from last year and is expected to reach the highest record at the end of this year. The statistic from The American Pet Products Association (APPA) shows the pet expenses are exeeding $50 billion in 2011 and continuing to reach $4.11 billion by the end of 2012. The fastest growing sector is pet services,which consists of grooming, boarding, pet hotels, and pet-sitting with the figure  around $3.79 billion in 2011. During this uptrend period ,a wide range of pet's products such as bionic pet's toys, fancy clothes and accesories are produced to meet the need of  the owners. The reasons that pet industry becomes more popular are becuase of  taking care pets is time consuming and requiring more responsibilities. Therefore,the pet lovers are willing to pay extra money for their lover companians.

My family is a kind of dog lover. There are three dogs

in my house. We feel that they are our family members. I spend money for their food around 1000 baht per month, for grooming for my little puddle around 350 baht per month as well. The extra money that costs me each month seems not too much,but when I sum it up annually.It is quite expensive. However, it's a kind of happiness to have time with the different specie friends. They can't talk with me, but they can understand  my feeling. When I feel happy,they are also cheerful- running and playing around me. Sometimes, I feel sad, they seem to be understand and just sit quitetly nearby me. Therefore, this news does not surprise me at all. In contrast, I understand why the pet owners in the US willing to spend their extra money for them.

But, there is also a special people who are extreamly love their pet that I do not understand their thought. They take care their pet in  unusual ways. For example, last year, my vet friend called me to go to do root canal treatment for his one special dog-patient. Honestly,I was shock (even I am a dentist, I know the reason of this treatment-for keeping the tooth instead of pulling it out). I didn't understand why this dog's owner wanted the complicated practice for him or her. I also thought if this dog could choose the solutions for his or her tooth problem, which ways did he or she choose? . I just want to say that love and take care our pets are good, but it should have a limit.

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References

US spending on pets 'passes $50bn'. (2012, March 3). BBC News. Retrieved March 4,2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17243094

What is the most important language for future ASEAN?

This century, English is the most famous language in the world. If we consider the South-East Asia region, is English language the most important language for our future ASEAN? Since Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) economic community is going to establish in 2015 (ASEAN,2009),what the most important language for this region is?

“Is English or Mandarin the language of the future” is a title in BBC news on February 22nd , 2012. A author, Pak, explains that how Southeast Asia people study English and mandarin for their business perspectives such as in Singapore, Malaysia and Vietnam contexts. The Malaysia children are sent by their parents to study at private school and Singapore everyday because the standard English education in Malaysia was not meet their labour market demand. In addition, the significant important of English language among their native mandarin parents is strong. Whereas some new mandarin classes are opened since the global financial crisis and the China market are powerful in Singapore in last 3 years. Beside, young Vietnam people choose to learn English because they have long history conflict with China since 2000. Alternatively, bi-linguistic language seem to be recommended for global business sector. Even if, it still debate that whether mandarin is the language for the future of ASEAN or not, the English is considered as the basic requirement for business.

According to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are going to be ASEAN Economic Community(AEC) in 2015, “achieve greater flexibility in language” is stated in a road map of ASEAN community document (ASEAN,2009). It means they can use any language for communicating among ASEAN people . In another hand, the most important language should be English because the most information which available at the ASEAN website and its publication use English language. In addition, it shows in the Wikipedia that the working language of ASEAN is English(2012). The next languages should be Bahasa Indonesia and Thai language, relatively (Kaewmala, 2012).

The evidence from Pak’s article seems a bit bias. she may forget to seek some evidences from Thailand, which is difference culture. Most of Thai children was study bilingualism in English and Thai language whereas some of children are study in old style Chinese language schools by idea of their parents’ family lineage. English is the most famous for business sector in Thailand. It seems less influence of china’s trade growth in this country.

The growth of Chinese economy and Chinese’s family lineage seem to be the most influence in the ASEAN region. Refer to Pak’s article defend the important of Mandarin in Malaysia and Singapore where the majority of population is Chinese’s family lineage. The language for new economic recommendation is Mandarin but Malaysia’s parents do not consider this trend. Moreover, in the rest of countries may not concern this new trend because they perhap have small market trade with China and new generation of Chinese people themselves have been improved their English ability for a decade. Therefore, it is the high chance for English can turn to be the most spoken language for the ASEAN for now and the future.

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References
Association of Southeast Asian Nations,(2009). Roadmap of an ASEAN Community 2009-2015. Retrieved from http://www.aseansec.org/publications/RoadmapASEANCommunity.pdf

Association of Southeast Asian Nations. (2012, March 2). Wikipedia the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 3, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Southeast_Asian_Nations

Kaewmala. (2012, January 19). The search for a common language: Thai or Malay as ‘Bahasa ASEAN’?asiancorrespondent Retrieved March 3, 2012 from http://asiancorrespondent.com/74196/thai-or-malay-as-%E2%80%9Cbahasa-asean%E2%80%9D/

Pak, J. (2012, February 22) Is English or Mandarin the language of the future? Kuala Lumpur. BBC News, Retrieved March 3,2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17105569

Sleeping pills 'linked to increased death risk'

Nowadays people over a million were use sleeping pills, which is higher death risk and health problems। It's a story I read on the BBC News today morning, it might be remind the reader who always use sleeping pills, to realize how dangerous of this pills।

In BBC News article, The American study in BMJ Open compared more than 10,000 patients on tablets like temazepam with 23,000 similar patients not taking these drugs। Death risk among users was about four times higher, although the absolute risk was still relatively low. The investigators, from the Jackson Hole Centre for Preventive Medicine in Wyoming and the Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Centre in California, found that people prescribed these pills were 4.6 times more likely to die during a 2.5-year period compared to those not on the drugs. Overall, one in every 16 patients in the sleeping pill group died. This increased risk was irrespective of other underlying health conditions, such as heart and lung diseases, and other factors like smoking and alcohol use, which the researchers say they did their best to rule out. The researchers say it is not yet clear why people taking sleeping tablets may be at greater risk. The drugs are sedating and this may make users more prone to falls and other accidents. The tablets can also alter a person's breathing pattern as they sleep and they have been linked to increased suicide risk.

Seriously, I don’t understand why many people are insomnia. I'm not a person who uses sleeping pills; it is easy for me to sleep every night. One thing that pops up in my head is, if you do more work out or relax your mind it could be help to sleep. For example, I always do yoga because I read in magazine and health website such as yoga journal, women health or prevention health magazine and health website it made your mind clear and relax during you do yoga. There are many benefits of yoga, like you can burn more calories and burn more fat per day, made your body lean and strong, and it also good for your sleep. If you cannot sleep 5-8 hours per day it will reflect for your dairy life, you will eat more food, you will feel sleepy all day and your energy will be drop.

Today, the numbers of people who take sleeping pills are increase. Not only in UK but all around the world. Actually, members of my family are use sleeping too but now I knew the dangerous of this pill. So I will remind them that how danger it is of this pill.

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References

Robert, M. (2012, February 28). Sleeping pills 'linked to increased death risk'. BBC News. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17177005

Lady Gaga goes to Harvard

Although the writing is a bit more challenging and academic in style than on the BBC News website, The New York Times, which is strongly suggested by the TOEFL organization for students preparing to take that test, also  offers a great selection of articles every day on an even wider range of areas. A relatively short and easy one published yesterday is "Born to Not Get Bullied".

In "Born to Not Get Bullied", Nicholas Kristoff reports on Lady Gaga's visit to Harvard University on February 28 to formally launch her Born This Way Foundation, when he also interviewed "one of the world’s top pop stars and the person with the most Twitter followers in the world" (2012, ¶ 16). Kristoff tells us that her own experience of bullying in high school motivated her to set up the foundation, which was well received at Harvard not only by academics in the field of education, but by leading US government officials such as the secretaries of the departments of health and human services and of education. As Kristoff notes, these people realise that bullying is both an important issue not only in education, where it affects up to one in five students, leading to lower academic performance for the entire schools, but also a health and human rights issue, too often leading to suicide and drug abuse, especially of alcohol. In his conclusion, Kristoff is hopeful that Lady Gaga will overcome likely cynicism to succeed in her aim "to start a bottom-up movement to try to make it cooler for young people to be nice" (¶ 11) rather than using official power to force change for the better.

The title of the article was what first caught me eye (one reason for writing a good title for your blog posts!), as well as the fact that I usually read Kristoff's articles, for the thoughtful and critical opinions he presents. He is a regular writer in the opinion section of The New York Times. When I saw it was about Lady Gaga, I almost left, but that opening sentence is a good attention getter, and when I spotted the words Harvard University, which has a fairly good academic reputation, I wanted the full story. I'm glad I read the full story.

And after reading it all, I am impressed by the approach that Lady Gaga wants her foundation to take. She doesn't want to rely on the government to do anything. And that seems to me a very good start. Too often, the first response that people have to any problem is: "The government should ... ", and this mistake usually leads to disaster, as Thailand's persistent experience of poor farmers shows only too well. Thai governments have been interfering to "help" the farmers for decades, and the result is obviously a total failure: the farmers are still far too poor and abused by those with power and money. Even clearer is the result of government control of education in Thailand, where the idiotic questions in the recent O-Net tests show the incompetence and dishonesty in the Ministry of Education, and where the result of decades of government "help" is again a total disaster for the Thai people - in case you  are upset that I used the adjective idiotic to describe the Ministry of Education, it isn't mine, I got it from the Bangkok Post's Kong Rithdee, who actually used it in the title of his article, "Thailand's idiotic mindset", which is likely a bit more offensive to some people (2012). I hope that some officials and others were offended; they certainly deserve to be. And as the local press, the Bangkok Post, The Nation, and the Thai language dailies constantly remind us, the top-down use of government force to "help" with the problem of drug use and abuse is another disastrous failure for Thai people and Thai society, with the law, police and other officials doing nothing to help and causing a lot of harm to people and society (a later chapter in Quest this term also addresses the issue of the problems of addictive drugs).

I seem to have got a bit off the topic of Lady Gaga, but it's a response writing, and it was fun. To be honest, I've only heard of Lady Gaga and seen a few photos. She certainly makes an impression. I don't think I've ever heard any of her songs, but I guessed that Kristoff's title is also a play on one of her song titles. If Harvard University thinks so highly of her, maybe I should go and listen to a song or two on YouTube.

And what do you think about the grammar "mistake" in Kristoff's title? I thought that was interesting, too, but I'll leave that discussion for another time.

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References

Kristoff, N.D. (2012. February 29). Born to Not Get Bullied. The New York Times. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/opinion/kristof-born-to-not-get-bullied.html

Rithdee, K. (2012, February 25). Thailand's idiotic mindset. Bangkok Post. Retrieved March 2, 2012 from http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/281473/thailand-idiotic-mindset

Crystal's academic interests

Architecture is my academic interest among all kinds of subjects. Firstly,it helps me to come true my dream which was to leave my track after death on the earth,ancient buildings still stand the same place as evidences for existence of historical figures including architects.Secondly,architectures are fruits of intelligence of human being more than a space to keep people from rain and sun,because they reflect people's religions,belief and understanding to beauty.Some famous historical buildings frequently needed several generations'effort and hard work to finish and became symbols of a city,for example,Notre Dame de Paris in Paris of France.Architects and laborers left their souls in their works so that these magic buildings can survive throughout several centuries without collapse.Lastly,studing architecture is interesting because students will be asked to learn photography and art which are more attractive and vivid than other subjects.In a word,I love architecture and I will recommend this major for the students who are going to study in a university.

References 10 Magnificent churches to visit around the world for their architecture (2011,November 10).Runaway Jane Travel Blog.Retrieved 18:30,March 2,2012, from

Sun's Academic Interests

My academic interest was business. when i was a high school student, i was studied about business and became to interested in economic and account. I enjoyed learning business while in high school, so it made me become to interesting in financial about stocks after i graduated from high school.

Mart's Academic Interests

My academic interests is about food industrial and marketing. I used to work at a food industry at production supervisor. It interests me and make me want to know more about this industrial. I think food industrial in Thailand is a nice idea because Thailand has a lot of and several material. In the country is plenty of agriculture, fishery and technology. All of these can be supporter at food industrial. Therefore, I now want to know more about marketing of this industrial.  

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Ping's Academic Interesets

Since I stared to study my bachelor in Entrepreneurship, I am always interested in many kinds of management in many fields there are human resource management, financial management, innovative management, logistic management, and process management.  Nowadays, I am concentrating on financial management because I realize that how people manage their money will affect their long term success.  That is why I start to learn more how to invest and I found out that stock market is one of the best choices

ZENG's Academic Interests

_My Academic Interests is economics, anthropology and science because a lot of test use this  knowledge again and again .I think that when I learn them before as much as possible it can help me to up the test scores. In the same way,,I confidently to tell you that I can learn more academic writing from you so, it make me more confident in the wring  part of the test .Moreover i learn to writing faster and arrange my thought better.My friend said that you are the best teacher haha! 
Biology and Medicine are my interests too.I think that i will enjoy to learn these although it very difficult to understand.
     If i have a time machine, maybe i will go back to high school time and determine to learn in faculty of economics or medicine because i dont know why i choose to get rid of these faculty before others but now when my friend graduate from this faculty i feel green of envy.555

Op's Academic Interests

__________

Personally, I enjoy learning English because it help me alot in my everyday life.Nowadays, almost everything surrounding me not only have Thai languge but also English. Studying English help me to expand my knowledge either from my academic text book ,or daily news. I can understand more issues and article in English which sometimes it doesn't have the directly meaning in Thai. In addition, studying English help me to understand and appreciate the American movies which I love to watch in my free time. I feel more sophiticate and more understand the story.All are some of my reasons that make me interest in English language all the time. And I beleive

Peter'a Academic Interests

My first academic sort of interest was biology. When I was a first year high school student, was fascinated by ferns, cells, photosynthesis, bryophytes and all of the other exciting terms. I used to spend all of my time on the bus to and from school reading my science books and books I'd borrowed from the library. By second year, my interests were moving more towards chemistry. Cell biology sort of led that way, and I wanted to know what made up the cells and why they worked the way they did: chemistry seemed to offer answers. But as I learnt more about molecules and atoms, and how substances reacted with each other, there seemed to be deeper answers in physics, which became my next love, along with mathematics. I loved mathematics because we could actually prove things. It wasn't just "maybe" or "might" but 100% certainty.

Oddly, I didn't much like English in high school. When I first read Shakespeare, it was a real pain. But I did OK at it and after leaving school, came to love even the books I'd hated when we read them in high school. Near the end of high school, one of my Catholic brother teachers, my math and physics teacher, in fact, introduced me to philosophy. I'm not sure why. Maybe he thought it would help me be a good Christian, but it ... to be continued after lunch and a nap. But I forgot until Crystal just reminded me. 


... didn't work out that way. It gave me good reasons so suspect that all the thousands of gods humans have ever believed in only have one thing in common: none of them actually exist. They are great stories, but none of those stories are true. I don't think that makes the stories useless, but I do think it's important to be honest about the claims that religions make, and not pretend they are true just because they are old. Old and written in a sacred book does not make anything true. The idea that Earth is at the centre of the universe, or that it's flat (not believed in the West since Aristotle) might be very old, but that is irrelevant to whether it is true or not.

When I went on to university, I continued studying mathematics and physics, but also started philosophy, which became my major. I still read in all areas of philosophy, but my interests gradually settled on logic and moral philosophy. The logic went well with the pure mathematics that I continued to love, and ethics seemed to have practical relevance to everything. But what I also realised, and continue to see more and more, is that although specialization is necessary, the distinctions between academic areas are very blurry: I don't think you could to moral philosophy well without also having some interest in psychology, economics, politics, and a host of other areas, and the logic that underlies critical thinking is essential everywhere. 

Top's academic interest

My academic interest is about everything that I usually see or use in my everyday life, such as; the subject that i had learn before. It is about Thai's law. Or maybe anything that all around us. It is easy to explain about things that I familiar with. I had just graduated from faculty of law,so law is the most interesting topic f0r me. I think every job has rules and it related to law. Actually, the second that I am interested in is food because I like to cook. And if I have a chance, I will open my own restaurant. ^^

Cartoon's Academic Interests

My academic interests is English langauage. English language is power of knowledge. It gives a lot of benefit if I improve it. For the first example, I can communicate with more group of peoples and can make more friendships. Secondly I can understand the broader area of subjects which have not teach in Thai language such as Myanma-english language. Thirdly, I can travel around the world because in many countries use English language is the second language for communicate Next, I we also have better convenient life because new technology mainly develop in the western countries which always use english language to be their national language. This is the reason why I really interesting in English language.

References

xxxxx add the reference citations for your sources here (in alphabetical order, as usual). If you did not cite any source, delete this entire References section.

Ploy's Academic Interests

My academic interests was design. When I was in high school, I'm not bad in design subject. I love to create a new product for my own or gave it to my friends. So I chose to study about design in university, faculty of architecture. Architecture is the building or housing that you can spend you life in. First and second year I was very enjoy with my field but after then I felt very depressed because I did not enjoy it anymore. The architecture design too large that I expected.

To Abstain from Causing Death and other meaty matters

Is it morally acceptable to eat meat, thereby causing animals to be killed? Does Buddhism's first precept to abstain from causing death allow Buddhists to eat meat? For the many people who choose not to eat meat for a variety of reasons, a story I read on the BBC News yesterday might cause them some concern.

According to "Many drugs 'non-vegetarian and need better labelling' ", about a quarter of the those who "preferred not to consume animal products in their day-to-day lives" (2012, ¶ 10) do not realize that when they take drugs they are often also consuming animal products, which might conflict with their moral, religious or other cultural beliefs. The article says that although less animal products are used in the manufacture of drugs than in the past, they are still often used as non-active ingredients which hold the active ingredients together, such as gelatine.  The authors of a recent report published in the Postgraduate Medical Journal suggest that clearer labelling by drug companies would help people make better informed decisions when choosing their drugs.

Happily, I'm not a vegetarian for religious or other reasons, so this is not something that worries me much personally, but I can understand that it would be a cause of concern for the many people who do choose not to eat meat or use the products of killed animals for whatever reason. I was a little surprised that so many drugs do still use products from dead animals, but when I read the article, it also sounds right: gelatin is a very useful thing in cooking, and it does have properties that would be useful in making drugs for people to use. And if people prefer not to cause the death  of animals by eating them, wearing their skins, or whatever, then they should be able to find out in advance whether some medication contains boiled up bits of dead animals.

It sometimes surprises me how serious, and even controversial, the use of animals and animal products can be; many Buddhists, for example, think that they should not eat meat because it breaks their first precept, whereas others are keen to eat steak and other delicious meats. I think that the majority of Buddhists, who don't eat meat, correctly understand and apply the first precept.  When I was at university some years ago (quite a few years now), one of my best friends was a serious vegetarian, and it was always a bit worrying inviting her to a dinner party. She didn't just avoid obvious meaty things like steak, but would also ask about such things as the base for the soup, which she would not eat if it was made from tasty duck bone stock. But the pleasure of her company easily made up for the need to prepare something special for when she came to eat with us. And her vegetarian diet certainly had no harmful effects on her health.

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References

Many drugs 'non-vegetarian and need better labelling'. (2012, February 28). BBC News. Retrieved March 1, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-17182625

What say you?

The lead story on the BBC News this morning follows on neatly from what I wrote in my discussion of global warming after dinner last night.

"French genocide law: President Sarkozy orders new draft" reports that after the rejection of a law which had made it a criminal offence to say that a "mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War I" had not occurred, a new law will be written for consideration by the French parliament (2012). France's Constitutional Court has struck down the original law passed on January 23, which had greatly upset Turkey, on the grounds that it was "an unconstitutional attack on freedom of expression" (¶ 8) to make it a crime punishable by a prison sentence or fine to deny that the historical reality of the genocide, which Armenians believe to mark the start of event of their modern history.

I was pleased to read that the French Constitutional Court has annulled this law, and saddened that Sarkozy is immediately going to try to replace it with another law. Did the Turks really kill a million or more Armenians in 1915 - 1916? I am sure that they did. It's the sort of bloody thing that dying empires do, especially despotic, authoritarian empires such as the Ottoman Empire. It reminds me of the very similar situation in Germany, where it is a crime punishable by a prison sentence to say that the Nazis under Hitler did not murder millions of Jews during World War II. I strongly disagree with this law, too, because it also violates the right to free speech of German citizens. I am certain that the Nazis legally committed all the murders and other vile acts that they are generally accused of, but again, that is not a good enough reason to punish people who disagree and peacefully want to state their different opinion.

As I suggested in my blog post last night, every law for censorship, every law which restricts free speech, must also impose ignorance about the censored topic, so that laws against free speech must make worthless the opinion of people on the topic protected by such laws (Peter, 2012). While I am sure that millions of Jews were indeed killed by the Nazis, and that the Ottoman Turks legally murdered a million or more Armenians, it can only be possible to know such things if the opposing views can be stated and supported so that they can be taken into account, the evidence and arguments assessed, and then rebutted. It the opposite opinions cannot legally be stated, then it is impossible for any errors to be corrected, and whatever I or anyone believes about the censored topic is nothing but an unfounded, unbalanced belief: a worthless, ignorant opinion.

But there is also another reason why I greatly dislike such laws against free speech: they are deeply undemocratic. They deny the basic democratic principle that all people are equally human and that all people must be respected as human beings with the same basic dignity and worth. I think that the US does much better than Germany, and perhaps France, because under its excellent constitution, the US Supreme Court regularly knocks down government laws that would interfere with the free speech of American citizens; for example: Americans can burn their flag in protest; vile, stupid, ugly Christian groups can say gay people are sick and that God hates fags (gays); the US Supreme Court and constitution even protect the right of such evil  religious groups to go and protest at the funeral services of American soldiers killed fighting for their country; and just last year, the US Supreme Court rejected laws restricting the sale of violent video games to children for similar free speech reasons. Now, I don't like the violent video games, and I obviously dislike Christian groups spewing religiously inspired hate and deliberately offending people, but I am even more certain that a healthy democracy must protect the treat as equal the basic human rights of such people. In fact, I don't much like flag burning either, but again, such deeply offensive forms of speech must still be protected.

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References

French genocide law: President Sarkozy orders new draft. (2012, February 28). BBC New Retrieved February 29, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17196119

Peter. (2012, February 28). Why warmer means colder. Class Blog - AEP at AUA. Retrieved February 29, 2012 from http://peteraep.blogspot.com/2012/02/why-warmer-means-colder.html

Why warmer means colder.

Global warming has been a "hot" topic for some years now, and is regularly in the papers with people arguing about almost everything: Is it real? Is it caused by humans? How much is caused by humans? One of my American friends is sure that it's all a hoax, and he delights in asking why, if our planet is warming, so many places are having more severely cold winters than usual. And this certainly seems in need of an explanation. The BBC News report "Melting Arctic link to cold, snowy UK winters" might have some answers (Black, 2012).

In this article, Richard Black reports that recent research has shown a correlation between less ice covering a warming Arctic Ocean and such unusually cold weather as "persistent above-normal snow cover" (2012, ¶ 10) in much of Europe, North America and East Asia. The most recent study, by a Chinese and US team of scientists, both establishes the link between global warming at the Arctic, and the severe European winters in recent years, which have even seen snow falling as far south as Greece. The scientists explain that the correlation is in fact causal. They argue that the warming Arctic area reduces the usual flow of warmer weather from the south because the temperature difference is smaller than it used to be, so all the cold air remains over the northern areas, along with increased water vapour from the warmer sea, which in turn result in much colder winters for the northern countries, along with higher snowfall. However, Black also cites another report to confirm that climate change is a very complex issue, with multiple interacting factors.

I've been thinking about climate change and global warming for some time now, and wondering about many of the questions that people do argue about. Unfortunately, it is a very complex issue, and that is the main reason I now think that global warming is both real and probably human caused, at least in part. One of my American friends is sure that global warming is not real, that in fact the world is getting colder, as, for example, the much more severe recent winters suggest. And to be honest, that does, prima facie, seem like good evidence. But I think such arguments are seriously flawed for a couple of reasons. First, there is no good reason to think that scientists are all telling lies as my American friend seems to believe. The consensus of scientific opinion is that global warming is real and that at least in part is caused by humans. Could most scientists be lying or fudging data to get more money for more research? I don't think so. Science and academic journals respect free speech, so any such lies or mistakes, whether deliberate or accidental, would be quickly uncovered and revealed by the peers of people making such erroneous statements. Second, even if we had some reason to wonder about the motives of scientists and others who believe in global warming, that is not a good reason to think that they are wrong: just because someone has a motive to lie, doesn't mean that they are actually lying. In order to prove that the scientific consensus on global warming is wrong, it is necessary to analyse the data to show the mistakes. And I certainly can't do that, so I think the sensible option is to have faith that the current majority opinion of the competent specialists is correct. Of course, they might all be wrong, and scientists often are, but unless we can actually do the analysis at least as well as them, we can't have any good reason to doubt them, unless their free speech was being interfered with.

And that last point is very important. Knowledge always requires free speech. We can be 100% sure that on every topic where there is censorship, that the people whose access to sharing ideas, opinions and information is censored are ignorant. They cannot have knowledge about the topic protected by censorship from free speech. For example, in Soviet Russia, biologists were not allowed to freely publish material about evolution, but were only allowed to publish praise for a false theory by a Russian scientist, Lysenko, for political reasons ("Trofim Lysenko", 2012). The result was that Russian people were largely ignorant of the most important theory underlying biology, so of course all of their opinions on that topic were worthless. Because of the censorship that did not allow any criticism, the frauds, errors and lies could never be corrected. We see exactly the same thing in North Korea today: the press and citizens are not allowed to say anything critical or negative about their weird leaders, so the ordinary people are ignorant and, I guess very sincerely, belief a lot of lies about their leaders, but the censorship means they cannot have any knowledge about those leaders and that their opinions about them must be worthless because their countries strict laws enforce such ignorant and worthless opinions. Violating the right to free speech isn't just immoral, it's seriously irrational.

Thankfully, the academic press in most Western countries zealously guards its freedom to publish without any political interference or forced censorship, even if governments often hate what gets published or when it offends many people. And this free speech is absolutely essential to all honest academic work. And it is also the reason I am now prepared to believe that global warming is both real and to some extent caused by human beings.

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References

Black, R. (2012, February 27). Melting Arctic link to cold, snowy UK winters. BBC News. Retrieved February 28, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-17143269

Trofim Lysenko. (2012, February 24). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14:15, February 28, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trofim_Lysenko&oldid=478595502

Artistic Wealth - Political Poverty

We've all just been studying the painting on page 165 of Quest 2 (Hartmann, 2007), and when I was browsing the BBC News after class yesterday, I saw another story about art; again, it's a painting, this time by Manet.

In "Ashmolean Museum heads campaign to save Manet painting", the writer says that Oxford's Ashmolean Museum is trying to buy a famous portrait by Manet to keep it in England (2012). The descendants of painter John Singer Sargent have already agreed to sell  the painting of Fanny Claus to an unknown person outside of the UK, but the Ashmolean has won a special deal from the British Government, which will not collect the usual tax, to reduce the price by more than £20 million pounds to make it easier for the museum to collect enough to buy the painting for its impressionist collection.

The first thing that I thought was that this painting is, like the one in Quest, in an impressionist style. It might be a bit more detailed, but it's hard to say from such a small copy, and I couldn't quickly find a larger version. But what most caught my attention was the appalling government interference. First, the state imposes an absurdly high tax on the sale of paintings.  Out of a total sale price of more than £28m, the British government would steal more than £20m. How can this interference in private matters of citizens possibly be just?

But worse, after imposing this unjust policy on the sale of art, the state then breaks the law to give special help to a private organization. Now, I think it's very good that the Ashmolean Museum wants to buy the painting for public display, but why should the government be making special conditions to help them do that? It seems to me dishonest and unjust. Some British tax payers probably do want the painting to stay in England, but others likely don't care. Why should those citizens who don't care be forced to help others to buy a very expensive painting? The proper and just way to proceed is for the government to abolish its unjustly high taxes and then let private citizens donate to the museum or not so that those who want the painting to stay in the UK will freely support that, and those who don't care will not be forced to help them.

In fact, I think it's a serious mistake for governments to either ban or support painting and other cultural activities. If some element of culture is important to people, say the traditional Thai dress, then the people will save it, and if they don't care, it should be allowed to die, as many traditional customs in every culture do die. It is unjust for governments to force people to live some way and not to change just because a few old fashioned dinosaurs want to force everyone to live the way they like. The British government should abolish it's absurdly high taxes which harm the art world, and let citizens decide freely for themselves whether they want to support some arts or not, without using tax money. And the Thai government should get rid of the awful Ministry of Culture, which does nothing to help Thai culture, but instead interferes in people's lives to tell them not to dress in a certain way, not to speak in a certain way, or, really silly of the Ministry, not to plank on YouTube because it's against Thai tradition. This reminds me of the related fuss about a couple of recent ONet exam questions, but I'll leave my comments on the Ministry of Education for a later post.

I almost forgot to mention that I like both paintings, but I don't think I'll ever be able to afford either. I don't know which is the more expensive, but my personal preference is for the Manet, although I'm pretty sure the painting on page 165 of Quest is the more famous. Both artists are also very famous, but again, I think the painter of the Quest image probably wins over Manet.

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References

Ashmolean Museum heads campaign to save Manet painting. (2012, February 25). BBC News. Retrieved February 28, 2012 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17156588

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