To my beloved students, it is very likely I will be leaving Direct English in the near future. For those of you I am in contact with online, please keep in touch. For those of you who I have your business card, who knows what will happen to those, hahahah. In any case, I greatly enjoyed taking class with all of you, and you have made my time at Direct English great, so thanks! Don't be a stranger. Facebook me, or email me. You can find me in various places on the web like Twitter, Facebook, Google Chat etc. by searching my e-mail address: nathanksimpson at gmail dot com. Thanks again all. I will not be answering any questions regarding the reasons for my leaving here on this blog so do not ask.
I will leave this blog open for you go back and see what I'm up to, or review some resources I have put here. Perhaps I will keep updating it with my current events and daily life wherever I end up. Hope to see you checking back in often. Please leave comments.
P.S. tonight will be my last group class for a month. Hopefully my managers will let me have one last round in November or December.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Wednesday ATC: An Author's Path To Success: Quitting Your Day Job
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130101936
Before he became a writer, Sonny Brewer held the position of chief chicken fryer at Woody’s Drive-In in Millport, Ala.
He followed that up with a stint in the Navy, then as singer in a honky-tonk band. Brewer has also worked as a car salesman, a construction worker and a coffee house manager — but in his spare time, he was always writing.
One day, Brewer finally quit his day job. That was four novels ago. Brewer made it as a writer, but he never forgot his earlier jobs — and he figured other successful writers didn’t either, which is how his latest project was born.
Don't Quit Your Day Job is an anthology of 23 southern writers reminiscing about former jobs. Brewer tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about how he recruited writers for the project.
"I said to William [Gay], 'Would you write about hanging sheet rock in the hills of Tennessee, before you were what Stephen King referred to as an American Treasure?'" Brewer recounts. "And he said, ‘No, I’ll write about working at the pinball factory, though.'"
Appalachian Writer of the Year Silas House agreed to write about his time as a mailman; author George Singleton shared his experience as a garbage truck driver; and Winston Groom, of Forrest Gump fame, wrote about being an Army officer in Vietnam.
Groom tells Kelly that the novelty of Brewer's project was what initially made him want to be a part of it.
"I [had never] thought about anything like that," he says. "But you are what you do. I think that … experience in life is informed by all the things that you do, and work is most of it."
Groom says he had never realized how many different jobs he had held — and what he had gotten out of them — until he started looking back. His first job as a newsboy taught him he wasn't an early riser; his work in construction taught him he didn't like hard, manual labor; and the Army gave him enough experience to write a book about — his first novel, in fact, Better Times Than These.
"And that’s what got me out of the newspaper racket," says Groom, who had ended up a reporter at the now-defunct Washington Star. "That book launched my career. That was 30 years ago, and I haven’t worked a day since.”
Groom says that while the old adage "Write what you know" proved good advice for his literary debut, it shouldn't always be taken as a rule. After all, his book Only was written entirely from the point of view of an orphaned Old English sheepdog, and it's not like the sheepdog can correct him. (Though Groom insists the dog loved the book.)
Brewer offers some more advice for aspiring writers:
"Truman Capote just said, 'Write something true,'" Brewer says. "It doesn’t matter if it fits in the book or not, but if it’s true that the wind is blowing and that the sky is blue … write the truth for a minute."
"Then, start lying," Groom adds. "A very convincing lie."
Before he became a writer, Sonny Brewer held the position of chief chicken fryer at Woody’s Drive-In in Millport, Ala.
He followed that up with a stint in the Navy, then as singer in a honky-tonk band. Brewer has also worked as a car salesman, a construction worker and a coffee house manager — but in his spare time, he was always writing.
One day, Brewer finally quit his day job. That was four novels ago. Brewer made it as a writer, but he never forgot his earlier jobs — and he figured other successful writers didn’t either, which is how his latest project was born.
Don't Quit Your Day Job is an anthology of 23 southern writers reminiscing about former jobs. Brewer tells NPR's Mary Louise Kelly about how he recruited writers for the project.
"I said to William [Gay], 'Would you write about hanging sheet rock in the hills of Tennessee, before you were what Stephen King referred to as an American Treasure?'" Brewer recounts. "And he said, ‘No, I’ll write about working at the pinball factory, though.'"
Appalachian Writer of the Year Silas House agreed to write about his time as a mailman; author George Singleton shared his experience as a garbage truck driver; and Winston Groom, of Forrest Gump fame, wrote about being an Army officer in Vietnam.
Groom tells Kelly that the novelty of Brewer's project was what initially made him want to be a part of it.
"I [had never] thought about anything like that," he says. "But you are what you do. I think that … experience in life is informed by all the things that you do, and work is most of it."
Groom says he had never realized how many different jobs he had held — and what he had gotten out of them — until he started looking back. His first job as a newsboy taught him he wasn't an early riser; his work in construction taught him he didn't like hard, manual labor; and the Army gave him enough experience to write a book about — his first novel, in fact, Better Times Than These.
"And that’s what got me out of the newspaper racket," says Groom, who had ended up a reporter at the now-defunct Washington Star. "That book launched my career. That was 30 years ago, and I haven’t worked a day since.”
Groom says that while the old adage "Write what you know" proved good advice for his literary debut, it shouldn't always be taken as a rule. After all, his book Only was written entirely from the point of view of an orphaned Old English sheepdog, and it's not like the sheepdog can correct him. (Though Groom insists the dog loved the book.)
Brewer offers some more advice for aspiring writers:
"Truman Capote just said, 'Write something true,'" Brewer says. "It doesn’t matter if it fits in the book or not, but if it’s true that the wind is blowing and that the sky is blue … write the truth for a minute."
"Then, start lying," Groom adds. "A very convincing lie."
Sunday, September 26, 2010
ATC NOT Monday but TUESDAY: Driving into the American Dream - The Globe and Mail
We'll be discussing part of this article for class tomorrow Tuesday! We didn't use this on Monday: Driving into the American Dream - The Globe and Mail
Even without the escaped murderer roaming nearby, this was by any reasonable measure a terrible campsite. The grass was dry and mixed with thorns, the ground was dusty and infested with a plague of grasshoppers that twitched over everything. Worst of all, not far from the site, we had seen a snake that looked an awful lot like a rattler. Shotgun shells littered the ground, and lying next to them chunks of white plastic emblazoned with the NASA logo. There were no hot showers, no water, not even a campfire ring.
But somehow, we had stumbled into the American dream, or at least a version of it that remains surprisingly easy to find in the western states, where the fireworks are cheap, the beer even cheaper and, best of all, great parts of the sprawling landscape double as a giant campsite that is free of rules and free of charge.
The idea that we could camp just about anywhere was a wholly unexpected discovery – but, of course, so were the free copies of the U.S. Constitution at a Wyoming gun shop, and the man who insisted we hold his Honk If You Heart Drilling sign on a busy Utah street corner.
Sometimes, serendipity happens with a full gas tank and no real itinerary. We had left Calgary with a vague plan to thread through Montana into Yellowstone National Park.
Then, if we had time, head to parts beyond. We were two couples – my wife and me, plus close friends of ours – whose normal idea of adventure involves a place where English isn’t spoken. This time, we wanted to see if our own backyard might brings us the thrill of the far away.
We turned south with our camping gear, a dog-eared road atlas and fingers on the AM dial – conservative talk radio seemed like a suitable soundtrack for this foray into the heart of Red America and its odd attractions. We were, after all, pointed toward some of the continent’s strangest vistas – geysers and lava fields; red sandstone arches and salt flats.
Vocabulary
by any reasonable measure
littered
free of charge
serendipity
itinerary
dog-eared
AM dial
vistas
Discussion:
We will be discussing the themes here: freedom, serendipity, adventure, wilderness, friendship, road trip, camping
Even without the escaped murderer roaming nearby, this was by any reasonable measure a terrible campsite. The grass was dry and mixed with thorns, the ground was dusty and infested with a plague of grasshoppers that twitched over everything. Worst of all, not far from the site, we had seen a snake that looked an awful lot like a rattler. Shotgun shells littered the ground, and lying next to them chunks of white plastic emblazoned with the NASA logo. There were no hot showers, no water, not even a campfire ring.
But somehow, we had stumbled into the American dream, or at least a version of it that remains surprisingly easy to find in the western states, where the fireworks are cheap, the beer even cheaper and, best of all, great parts of the sprawling landscape double as a giant campsite that is free of rules and free of charge.
The idea that we could camp just about anywhere was a wholly unexpected discovery – but, of course, so were the free copies of the U.S. Constitution at a Wyoming gun shop, and the man who insisted we hold his Honk If You Heart Drilling sign on a busy Utah street corner.
Sometimes, serendipity happens with a full gas tank and no real itinerary. We had left Calgary with a vague plan to thread through Montana into Yellowstone National Park.
Then, if we had time, head to parts beyond. We were two couples – my wife and me, plus close friends of ours – whose normal idea of adventure involves a place where English isn’t spoken. This time, we wanted to see if our own backyard might brings us the thrill of the far away.
We turned south with our camping gear, a dog-eared road atlas and fingers on the AM dial – conservative talk radio seemed like a suitable soundtrack for this foray into the heart of Red America and its odd attractions. We were, after all, pointed toward some of the continent’s strangest vistas – geysers and lava fields; red sandstone arches and salt flats.
Vocabulary
by any reasonable measure
littered
free of charge
serendipity
itinerary
dog-eared
AM dial
vistas
Discussion:
We will be discussing the themes here: freedom, serendipity, adventure, wilderness, friendship, road trip, camping
Friday, September 24, 2010
Friday ATC: Spanish take first Korean proficiency test
BARCELONA, Spain -- Spain for the first time held the Test of Proficiency in Korean this month along with 23 other countries, becoming the 39th ninth in Europe to conduct the examination.
The TOPIK, administered by the Korean government, is a certification test on the use of the Korean language for people who do not speak Korean as their mother tongue.
A total of 39 examinees, most of whom were students of the Korean Language Department at the Official School of Languages of Barcelona, attended the test on Sept. 11 in the city to have their Korean language ability evaluated.
The department presently has about 85 students, most of them local Spanish youngsters who took an interest in the language through Korean pop culture, according to professor Hwang Seung-ok in charge of the department.
“Though the Korean language remains a minority foreign language, especially compared to Chinese and Japanese, it is significant that the students have been given a chance to have their level evaluated officially by the Korean government,” she said.
“This test is to be a major step in promoting Korea, its culture and its language here in Spain.”
A majority of the students studied Korean for less than two years and took the beginner’s level test.
“I started to learn Korean in 2008 after I was attracted to the pop group Dongbangsingi,” said 26-year-old Sara Martinez.
“Though I found the test quite difficult, I am excited that I took my first official test in Korean.”
Like most of the other students in her class, Martinez is learning the language out of pure personal interest and has no specific plan to pursue a related career, she said.
Some, on the other hand, have academic or career reasons for taking the test.
Oriol Pallares, 27, has been on an exchange program at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, majoring in foreign relations, and has long-term plans to go back with a teaching post.
Foreign students or job seekers may submit their TOPIK results in order to gain an advantage in joining Korean schools or public firms.
Ethnic Koreans, who do not speak the language as their mother tongue, may also apply to take the test.
“I wanted to see how fluently I could speak and write in my parents’ mother tongue,” said 21-year-old Anna Ban, who immigrated to Spain with her parents aged 5.
The test, however, has not sufficiently been promoted in the local Korean community, let alone the Spanish one, she also pointed out.
“I would not even have heard about the exam if not for my Spanish friend who learns Korean in the Barcelona language school,” she said.
“I hope that in the future, the test will be promoted through various channels other than the school.”
The total number of applicants who took the test this month was 81,076, a 14.6 percent increase from that of the 18th test which was implemented this April, according to officials at the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.
The test was first implemented back in 1997 when only 2,692 people from four countries applied. The accumulative number has, however, reached 710,000 people from 39 countries and is generally on a steep rise, said officials.
In response to the growing demands, the Korean Education Ministry decided to hold the test from this year on a quarterly basis instead of the formerly bi-annual basis.
The administering body is also to be changed from next year to the National Institute for International Education, in order to promote the test as a means to educate overseas Koreans and to attract foreign students, said officials.
The test is divided into the Standard TOPIK, evaluating basic knowledge of Korean language and culture, and the Business TOPIK, focusing more on the communication skills required in business transactions.
Applicants are to be tested in four categories vocabulary and grammar, writing, listening and reading.
The September results will be published on the website (http://topik.or.kr) on Nov. 3.
By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldm.com)
(Korea Herald correspondent)
The TOPIK, administered by the Korean government, is a certification test on the use of the Korean language for people who do not speak Korean as their mother tongue.
A total of 39 examinees, most of whom were students of the Korean Language Department at the Official School of Languages of Barcelona, attended the test on Sept. 11 in the city to have their Korean language ability evaluated.
The department presently has about 85 students, most of them local Spanish youngsters who took an interest in the language through Korean pop culture, according to professor Hwang Seung-ok in charge of the department.
“Though the Korean language remains a minority foreign language, especially compared to Chinese and Japanese, it is significant that the students have been given a chance to have their level evaluated officially by the Korean government,” she said.
“This test is to be a major step in promoting Korea, its culture and its language here in Spain.”
A majority of the students studied Korean for less than two years and took the beginner’s level test.
“I started to learn Korean in 2008 after I was attracted to the pop group Dongbangsingi,” said 26-year-old Sara Martinez.
“Though I found the test quite difficult, I am excited that I took my first official test in Korean.”
Like most of the other students in her class, Martinez is learning the language out of pure personal interest and has no specific plan to pursue a related career, she said.
Some, on the other hand, have academic or career reasons for taking the test.
Oriol Pallares, 27, has been on an exchange program at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, majoring in foreign relations, and has long-term plans to go back with a teaching post.
Foreign students or job seekers may submit their TOPIK results in order to gain an advantage in joining Korean schools or public firms.
Ethnic Koreans, who do not speak the language as their mother tongue, may also apply to take the test.
“I wanted to see how fluently I could speak and write in my parents’ mother tongue,” said 21-year-old Anna Ban, who immigrated to Spain with her parents aged 5.
The test, however, has not sufficiently been promoted in the local Korean community, let alone the Spanish one, she also pointed out.
“I would not even have heard about the exam if not for my Spanish friend who learns Korean in the Barcelona language school,” she said.
“I hope that in the future, the test will be promoted through various channels other than the school.”
The total number of applicants who took the test this month was 81,076, a 14.6 percent increase from that of the 18th test which was implemented this April, according to officials at the Korea Institute for Curriculum and Evaluation.
The test was first implemented back in 1997 when only 2,692 people from four countries applied. The accumulative number has, however, reached 710,000 people from 39 countries and is generally on a steep rise, said officials.
In response to the growing demands, the Korean Education Ministry decided to hold the test from this year on a quarterly basis instead of the formerly bi-annual basis.
The administering body is also to be changed from next year to the National Institute for International Education, in order to promote the test as a means to educate overseas Koreans and to attract foreign students, said officials.
The test is divided into the Standard TOPIK, evaluating basic knowledge of Korean language and culture, and the Business TOPIK, focusing more on the communication skills required in business transactions.
Applicants are to be tested in four categories vocabulary and grammar, writing, listening and reading.
The September results will be published on the website (http://topik.or.kr) on Nov. 3.
By Bae Hyun-jung (tellme@heraldm.com)
(Korea Herald correspondent)
Proficiency
Youngsters
Ethnic Koreans
Quarterly
Bi-annual
Basis
Discussion
- Why do you think there has been such an increase in TOPIK test takers over the past 5 years?
- Do you think this trend is good or bad, and why?
- What kind of influence do you think Korean culture will have globally in the next 5 years?
- If you were to choose to import a culture to Korea whose culture would it be and why?
- What aspects of that culture would you hope to import?
Friday, September 17, 2010
Friday ATC Class
Woah! Sorry folks I totally forgot to post what I had planned for this class!
http://www.flowtown.com/blog/idiots-guide-to-understanding-todays-marketing-catch-phrases
Great for getting into the English business world. We'll just be discussing these points and some of the language used in this article. We won't go over everything in detail.
http://www.flowtown.com/blog/idiots-guide-to-understanding-todays-marketing-catch-phrases
Great for getting into the English business world. We'll just be discussing these points and some of the language used in this article. We won't go over everything in detail.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Thursday ATC
We will be discussing the SLE article number 6: Illegal Plastic Surgery Ends In Death
You can find this article throught Direct English website if you want to preview.
You can find this article throught Direct English website if you want to preview.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Most of Gen Y Can't Identify Colonel Sanders
The geezer with the goatee that appears on KFC's logo -- real person or a cartoon character? In a new survey of Americans 18-25, more than 60% of respondents didn't know that the geezer, Colonel Harlan Sanders, was a real person and founder of the fried chicken empire. How fleeting is fame.
Don't expect that ignorance to last much longer, though, as the company has announced one of the most esoteric PR campaigns in recent memory. The winner of the KFC Cooks Up Challenge will be commissioned to paint a portrait of the Colonel using paint supplied by the company, paint "infused with original recipe herbs and spices."
Don't try this at home, though -- your dog might lick the Colonel right down to the gesso.
Luckily, you won't be competing against Norman Rockwell (you do know who he is?), who painted the Colonel back in 1973. To enter the contest, you can upload a sketch of your proposed work to a dedicated website before the end of the month. The winner will get $1,100 (11 herbs and spices -- get it?) and the chance to paint the portrait, which will hang in the company's headquarters.
The contest could be an attempt by the company to emphasize its roots after taking heavy criticism from franchisees who felt that, in introducing grilled products and using KFC in place of the Kentucky Fried Chicken moniker, the company was abandoning the core of its market strength; fried food. Sales suffered as a result; during the second quarter of 2010 they were down 7% over the previous year among stores open more than a year.
As a result, franchisees represented by the KFC National Council & Advertising Cooperative have sued KFC owners Yum! Brands and attempted to take control of ad strategy. They should be pleased with this campaign, since it hearkens back to the days before we worried about cholesterol and obesity, when flavor was king and the Colonel reigned supreme
See full article from WalletPop: http://srph.it/dCStTE
Don't expect that ignorance to last much longer, though, as the company has announced one of the most esoteric PR campaigns in recent memory. The winner of the KFC Cooks Up Challenge will be commissioned to paint a portrait of the Colonel using paint supplied by the company, paint "infused with original recipe herbs and spices."
Don't try this at home, though -- your dog might lick the Colonel right down to the gesso.
Luckily, you won't be competing against Norman Rockwell (you do know who he is?), who painted the Colonel back in 1973. To enter the contest, you can upload a sketch of your proposed work to a dedicated website before the end of the month. The winner will get $1,100 (11 herbs and spices -- get it?) and the chance to paint the portrait, which will hang in the company's headquarters.
The contest could be an attempt by the company to emphasize its roots after taking heavy criticism from franchisees who felt that, in introducing grilled products and using KFC in place of the Kentucky Fried Chicken moniker, the company was abandoning the core of its market strength; fried food. Sales suffered as a result; during the second quarter of 2010 they were down 7% over the previous year among stores open more than a year.
As a result, franchisees represented by the KFC National Council & Advertising Cooperative have sued KFC owners Yum! Brands and attempted to take control of ad strategy. They should be pleased with this campaign, since it hearkens back to the days before we worried about cholesterol and obesity, when flavor was king and the Colonel reigned supreme
See full article from WalletPop: http://srph.it/dCStTE
| 1. Geezer 2. Empire 3. Fleeting 4. Esoteric 5. PR 6. Commissioned 7. Infused 8. Gesso 9. Moniker | · lasting for a markedly brief time conglomerate: a group of diverse companies under common ownership and run as a single organization a man who is (usually) old and/or eccentric confined to and understandable by only an enlightened inner circle; "a compilation of ~~~~~~~ philosophical theories" · public relations · given official approval to act · steep: let sit in a liquid to extract a flavor or to cleanse; "steep the blossoms in oil"; "steep the fruit in alcohol" · gypsum or plaster of Paris spread on a surface to make it suitable for painting or gilding · A moniker (or monicker) is another term for a nickname, pseudonym, or cognomen. Typically, the title is used as a personal or professional name |
Discussion
- What are some of your favourite brands/ads?
- What some brands that have tried to distance themselves from the negatives of their brand image?
- How did they try to distance themselves from that negative aspect?
- Are there some past commercial icons you think people of a younger generation will not recognize in Korea?
- How do you think advertising affects your culture?
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Announcements!
For the month of October, my schedule will be available for booking 7:30AM-9:30PM, Saturday Schedule TBA
Friday, September 10, 2010
Monday and Tuesday ATC Class
Monday Class: We will be using the materials which I passed out on Thursday, if you don't have them don't worry because I'll be bringing them to class. No preparation is required. We will be practicing and learning some English through dramatic exercises.
Tuesday Class:
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/09/09/most-of-gen-y-cant-identify-colonel-sanders/
Tuesday Class:
http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/09/09/most-of-gen-y-cant-identify-colonel-sanders/
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
ATC Class Thursday And Announcements!
To all my students in the Wednesday class, I would like to apologize for my lateness. I usually am quite strict about time for all my classes, and I will redouble my efforts to make sure this does not happen in the future. I appreciate that you pay good money to spend time with me, and should therefore get your money's worth!
To my, at this point, lone CC class student for this date we can do whatever you'd like but I have some drama activities that could be fun, or we could just freetalk. If other students show up maybe we can free talk.
To my, at this point, lone CC class student for this date we can do whatever you'd like but I have some drama activities that could be fun, or we could just freetalk. If other students show up maybe we can free talk.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Announcements!
To all students. Sometimes my name is hard to pronounce, and it feels a bit unfriendly to me. So instead you can call me Nate if you wish. It would make me feel much better. Thank you!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
ATC Monday: New Honeybee Breed Key to Combating Colony Collapse Disorder : TreeHugger
New Honeybee Breed Key to Combating Colony Collapse Disorder : TreeHugger
A British beekeeper has been working on creating a new strain of honeybee resistant to the varroa mite, a prime suspect in colony collapse disorder (CCD), and it looks like he's hit a high note after 18 years of careful observation and selective breeding. Ron Hoskins found that bees in one of his hives figured out what a great idea mutual grooming can be -- they learned to clean the mites off one another. Hoping that this learned behavior is hereditary, he spread the genes of bees from this colony to his other hives. It worked. Now, combating CCD could be linked in no small part to how quickly the new strain of bee spreads across the country.
Daily Mail reports that the British Beekeepers Association is excited about the work Hoskins has done, and the hope is the drones from his "grooming" bees will mate with wandering female queens to spread the heartier genes across Britain. It could take quite a long time, and a lot of generations of bees before the behavior becomes normal, but if it's a way to combat the mites that wipe out entire colonies, then it's quite an exciting evolution to witness.
Hoskins, who is from Swindon, has named the new strain the "Swindon Honeybee" and all his colonies consist of this new breed. And the behavior might be the only thing that can save honeybees from the verroa mite:
Martin Smith, president of the British Beekeepers' Association, said: "The varroa mite is probably the single most important factor that has caused the reduction in bee numbers worldwide. It has now become resistant to chemicals we have used in the past so we are being forced to look into other methods."
The evolution of natural behaviors is certainly a good method to fall back on, with a little nudge from beekeepers. It might not be a silver bullet for CCD -- the cause of which is still under hot debate -- but it certainly doesn't hurt to have bees taking care of mite infestations on their own.
A British beekeeper has been working on creating a new strain of honeybee resistant to the varroa mite, a prime suspect in colony collapse disorder (CCD), and it looks like he's hit a high note after 18 years of careful observation and selective breeding. Ron Hoskins found that bees in one of his hives figured out what a great idea mutual grooming can be -- they learned to clean the mites off one another. Hoping that this learned behavior is hereditary, he spread the genes of bees from this colony to his other hives. It worked. Now, combating CCD could be linked in no small part to how quickly the new strain of bee spreads across the country.
Daily Mail reports that the British Beekeepers Association is excited about the work Hoskins has done, and the hope is the drones from his "grooming" bees will mate with wandering female queens to spread the heartier genes across Britain. It could take quite a long time, and a lot of generations of bees before the behavior becomes normal, but if it's a way to combat the mites that wipe out entire colonies, then it's quite an exciting evolution to witness.
Hoskins, who is from Swindon, has named the new strain the "Swindon Honeybee" and all his colonies consist of this new breed. And the behavior might be the only thing that can save honeybees from the verroa mite:
Martin Smith, president of the British Beekeepers' Association, said: "The varroa mite is probably the single most important factor that has caused the reduction in bee numbers worldwide. It has now become resistant to chemicals we have used in the past so we are being forced to look into other methods."
The evolution of natural behaviors is certainly a good method to fall back on, with a little nudge from beekeepers. It might not be a silver bullet for CCD -- the cause of which is still under hot debate -- but it certainly doesn't hurt to have bees taking care of mite infestations on their own.
Vocabulary
strain
mite
colony collapse disorder
grooming
heartier
fall back on
silver bullet
infestations
a particular type, a species
a small insect
a disease in which a group of bees suddenly and inexplicably dies
cleaning one's body
healthier and stronger
to use something as a secondary safety option
a solution that solves all the problems quickly
a group of animals living somewhere unwanted
a particular type, a species
a small insect
a disease in which a group of bees suddenly and inexplicably dies
cleaning one's body
healthier and stronger
to use something as a secondary safety option
a solution that solves all the problems quickly
a group of animals living somewhere unwanted
Discussion
This article is discussing the importance of something very small; what are some small things you don't think about often that if you lost them you would be sad about?
Explain.
What do you think would happen if there were no bees on the earth?
What is one small thing you think the earth would be better without?
Why?
This article is discussing the importance of something very small; what are some small things you don't think about often that if you lost them you would be sad about?
Explain.
What do you think would happen if there were no bees on the earth?
What is one small thing you think the earth would be better without?
Why?
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Lungs rebuilt in lab and transplanted into rats
In a lab at Yale University, a rat inhales. Every breath this rodent takes is a sign of important medical advances looming on the horizon, for only one of its lungs comes from the pair it was born with. The other was built in a laboratory.
This transplanted lung is the work of Thomas Petersen and a large team of US scientists. Their technique isn’t a way of growing a lung from scratch. Instead it takes an existing lung, strips away all the cells and blood vessels to leave behind a scaffold of connective tissues, and re-grows the missing cells in a vat. It’s the medical equivalent of stripping a house down to a frame of beams and struts and rebuilding the rest from scratch. The whole process only took a few days and when the reconstituted lung was transplanted into a rat, it worked.
This is important because the lungs are notoriously bad at regenerating and repairing themselves. If a person’s lungs are severely damaged, the only real solution is a lung transplant. But that’s easier said than done. The procedure is expensive, only 20% of patients at most are still alive ten years later, and the demand for donor lungs far exceeds their supply.
Peterson’s ultimate vision is to solve these problems by fitting patients with a transplanted lung grown using their own stem cells. The scaffold would come from a dead donor, or possibly even a primate or pig. Its own cells would be stripped away and the patient’s stem cells would give the scaffold a personalised makeover, seeding it with the various types of cells in the lungs. The whole process should only take around 1-2 weeks. Laura Niklason, who led the study, says, “The value here is that the resultant lung would not reject, which is the key that limits survival of lung transplant patients right now.”
The team’s latest success in rats is a proof-of-concept – it shows that the technique should eventually be possible. But as Petersen notes, there are many technical hurdles to overcome before it could ever used in humans. That achievement is still years of hard work away. “I think that 20 to 25 years is not a bad time frame,” says Niklason. “I previously developed an engineered artery that will be ready for patients next year. It was first published in 1999. If an artery takes 12 years from first report to patients, then a lung will take 20-25.”
Monday, August 30, 2010
ATC Class: Gourmet Food Trucks Racing To Serve You Lunch
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129357300
When customers walk up to the peach-and-brown Parfait ice cream truck, Chef Adria Shimada gives them a sample and a spiel.
Aspiring chefs usually have to prove their chops in the backs of kitchens. Now, some have found a fast track to culinary stardom. They're starting up food trucks.
If you stretch your arms out, you can just about touch the walls of Skillet. The mobile kitchen is crammed into a shiny, 1962 silver Airstream trailer. It heats up like an oven as three chefs scramble during the lunch rush in Seattle.
It looks like an episode of Iron Chef in a sardine can. Not exactly where you picture a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America. Yet this is exactly what Josh Henderson had in mind when he conceived Skillet.
A Different Kind Of Fine Dining
"I was tired of working at restaurants," he says. "I kind of wanted to do something that was a little bit more my style, which was a little chaotic. And I enjoy being outside. Some days we're next to a mountain, and other days we're in the urban downtown, you know, homeless people asking us for free food."
Good thing for Henderson, foodies are willing to shell out $11 for one of his burgers.
He starts with grass-fed beef and slathers it with buttery French cheese. His fresh linguini is topped with reggiano, asparagus and pine nuts.
"With cooking, there's so many different ways — you can cook on a boat, you can cook in an Airstream trailer, you can cook in a Michelin-starred restaurant," he says. "It really doesn't matter, as long as what goes in that box is something we can be proud of."
Henderson isn't the only chef making mouthwatering cuisine in a trailer. Cooks in New York, Portland, Ore., and Los Angeles have led the way in mobile gastronomy. Now gourmet vendors are rolling out from Austin, Texas, to Washington, D.C. And they're serving everything from appetizers to desserts.
When customers walk up to the peach-and-brown Parfait ice cream truck, Chef Adria Shimada gives them a sample and a spiel.
A Bakery On Wheels
"Have you guys had my ice cream before? You haven't?" she tells them. "I make everything from scratch. I'm 100-percent organic."
She says that otherwise, they might expect her mint to be green and candy-cane flavored.
"I infuse my ice cream custard with fresh spearmint leaves," she explains. "And then at the end, when I churn it, I drizzle in a warm chocolate stream into the cold custard, and it breaks up into these little, flaky, light chocolate chips."
The trained pastry chef says she holds her ice cream to the same standards as a high-end French bakery. She just couldn't afford the bakery part.
"The primary concern for me was the quality of the product I'm making," she says. "Having a mobile truck has really allowed me to keep that quality very high."
She says now that Parfait has built up a following in Seattle, she could go the more conventional brick-and-mortar route. Other food cart chefs have recently gone down that road. But the trucks themselves aren't leaving town anytime soon. Chefs say it's a great way to put the word on the street.
Vocabulary
Discussion
Vocabulary
Chops Scramble Fast-track Chaotic Mouth-watering Gastronomy Spiel Brick and mortar | 1. Inducing salivation 2. A quicker than usual path to success 3. An often repeated speech/story/other verbal communication 4. Lacking the appearance of order 5. The study of edible things or stomachs 6. A real building based store 7. Skills that require practice to maintain 8. To attempt to do quickly or in a rushed manner |
Discussion
- Do you prefer brick and mortar, or on-line shopping? Why?
- What kind of food would you buy from a cart/truck, and what kind would you not buy?
- What is the strangest food you've seen sold from a cart?
- Do you think cooking food in a movable trailer is sanitary?
- What are some of the advantages/disadvantages of selling from a trailer/cart?
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Gourmet Food Trucks Racing To Serve You Lunch : NPR
Gourmet Food Trucks Racing To Serve You Lunch : NPR
I'm thinking of changing this to do some activities instead. So don't sweat this article too much.
I'm thinking of changing this to do some activities instead. So don't sweat this article too much.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Slang For the Week
What up!/Up top! - This means "I said something witty, don't you think? Perhaps we should high-five in the up top position.*"
*(as opposed to what is called a low five)
You can see prime examples of usage of this expression by Barney Stinson in the sitcom, How I Met Your Mother.
*(as opposed to what is called a low five)
You can see prime examples of usage of this expression by Barney Stinson in the sitcom, How I Met Your Mother.
Monkey Business: Fairness Isn't Just A Human Trait : NPR
Monkey Business: Fairness Isn't Just A Human Trait : NPR
Showing your humanity usually refers to an act of kindness or charity. Treating someone humanely means treating him fairly and with dignity. But are these traits really unique to humans?
Psychologist Sarah Brosnan wants to find out. She argues that traits like fairness and curiosity are essential for any social animals to survive and live together. To show that, Brosnan works with capuchin monkeys at the Language Research Center, a part of Georgia State University.
The capuchins here are "living in a normal social environment,” she says. "So they spend the vast majority of their day out here running around playing together, and we just separate them out for the testing.”
The monkeys climb over branches in the cage, swing from the top of the cage, wrestle with each other. When it's time for testing, the animals go indoors.
On this day Audrey Parrish is testing two capuchins, Liam and Logan. The test tries to get at the concept of fairness in capuchins. It isn't too tricky: Audrey hands Liam a granite token, and he hands it back to get a food reward. Audrey alternates between Liam and Logan.
Equal Pay For Equal Work
Now here's the twist. Sometimes each monkey gets the same reward, sometimes not. And there are two different kinds of rewards: a scrumptious, extremely desirable grape, or a ho-hum piece of only somewhat desirable cucumber. Think ice cream cone versus celery stick.
Logan was perfectly happy to exchange the token for a cucumber when his pal Liam was getting a cucumber too. "The question is now how is Logan going to respond to that cucumber when Liam is getting a grape?" says Brosnan.
What she finds is that more often than not, a capuchin offered the less desirable reward after his partner gets the good one refuses to hand back the token.
"What we're really testing is how do you respond when you're the one that gets the lower salary, not how do you respond when you hear there's a discrepancy between salaries in the environment," says Brosnan. "So they don't necessarily have to have an ideal of fairness or an idea of the way the world should work. All they have to care about is they got less than someone else."
Showing your humanity usually refers to an act of kindness or charity. Treating someone humanely means treating him fairly and with dignity. But are these traits really unique to humans?
Psychologist Sarah Brosnan wants to find out. She argues that traits like fairness and curiosity are essential for any social animals to survive and live together. To show that, Brosnan works with capuchin monkeys at the Language Research Center, a part of Georgia State University.
The capuchins here are "living in a normal social environment,” she says. "So they spend the vast majority of their day out here running around playing together, and we just separate them out for the testing.”
The monkeys climb over branches in the cage, swing from the top of the cage, wrestle with each other. When it's time for testing, the animals go indoors.
On this day Audrey Parrish is testing two capuchins, Liam and Logan. The test tries to get at the concept of fairness in capuchins. It isn't too tricky: Audrey hands Liam a granite token, and he hands it back to get a food reward. Audrey alternates between Liam and Logan.
Equal Pay For Equal Work
Now here's the twist. Sometimes each monkey gets the same reward, sometimes not. And there are two different kinds of rewards: a scrumptious, extremely desirable grape, or a ho-hum piece of only somewhat desirable cucumber. Think ice cream cone versus celery stick.
Logan was perfectly happy to exchange the token for a cucumber when his pal Liam was getting a cucumber too. "The question is now how is Logan going to respond to that cucumber when Liam is getting a grape?" says Brosnan.
What she finds is that more often than not, a capuchin offered the less desirable reward after his partner gets the good one refuses to hand back the token.
"What we're really testing is how do you respond when you're the one that gets the lower salary, not how do you respond when you hear there's a discrepancy between salaries in the environment," says Brosnan. "So they don't necessarily have to have an ideal of fairness or an idea of the way the world should work. All they have to care about is they got less than someone else."
Brosnan sees this work as evolutionary proof that animals have some of the same complex social rules that humans do.
Curious By Nature
Clive Wynne isn't so sure. Wynne, an animal psychologist at the University of Florida, says you don't have to invoke ideas like fairness or inequity to explain the capuchins' behavior.
There's an older concept, a more basic concept of frustration that humans share with many other species: "The tendency to act up if something they were expecting to receive is not given to them," says Wynne. "So if a child is in the habit of receiving a piece of chocolate for completing their homework, and they don't get their piece of chocolate, they may throw a tantrum. And that kind of frustrative behavior is seen in any number of different species."
Brosnan says whether or not you accept terms like fairness or inequity to explain what the capuchins did in the fairness test, she insists you can see unmistakable echoes of human behaviors in her capuchins.
Take curiosity. Brosnan points to what the capuchins did the first time they saw me and my recording gear — they all came over to have a look. "They're curious about you," she says. "They haven't seen you; they haven't seen a mic before. So they want to see what it is. Is it going to do anything to them like give them food, or is it going to be a threat?"
"You're not acquiring food; you're not mating; you're not defending yourself from a predator," says Brosnan. But saying play is purely social is not to suggest it isn't important — it helps juveniles learn the limits of acceptable behavior in their groups.You can also see beginnings of another important human social activity in capuchins: the desire to play — to do things that have no immediate payoff.
Brosnan doesn't believe play is a behavior inherited from monkeys in a genetic sense "but instead is a behavior that all sorts of intelligent, socially living species that live in complex social groups — and need to know their ways around [the groups] — have evolved."
What humans and their big brains bring to the table is an ability to do more with these socially learned behaviors, to be curious about more things in our environment, and to extend concepts like fairness and inequity to make more complex societies.
"That probably explains why we're building city states, and other species are still in groups of 200," she says.
In other words, we had the human edge.
Curious By Nature
Clive Wynne isn't so sure. Wynne, an animal psychologist at the University of Florida, says you don't have to invoke ideas like fairness or inequity to explain the capuchins' behavior.
There's an older concept, a more basic concept of frustration that humans share with many other species: "The tendency to act up if something they were expecting to receive is not given to them," says Wynne. "So if a child is in the habit of receiving a piece of chocolate for completing their homework, and they don't get their piece of chocolate, they may throw a tantrum. And that kind of frustrative behavior is seen in any number of different species."
Brosnan says whether or not you accept terms like fairness or inequity to explain what the capuchins did in the fairness test, she insists you can see unmistakable echoes of human behaviors in her capuchins.
Take curiosity. Brosnan points to what the capuchins did the first time they saw me and my recording gear — they all came over to have a look. "They're curious about you," she says. "They haven't seen you; they haven't seen a mic before. So they want to see what it is. Is it going to do anything to them like give them food, or is it going to be a threat?"
"You're not acquiring food; you're not mating; you're not defending yourself from a predator," says Brosnan. But saying play is purely social is not to suggest it isn't important — it helps juveniles learn the limits of acceptable behavior in their groups.You can also see beginnings of another important human social activity in capuchins: the desire to play — to do things that have no immediate payoff.
Brosnan doesn't believe play is a behavior inherited from monkeys in a genetic sense "but instead is a behavior that all sorts of intelligent, socially living species that live in complex social groups — and need to know their ways around [the groups] — have evolved."
What humans and their big brains bring to the table is an ability to do more with these socially learned behaviors, to be curious about more things in our environment, and to extend concepts like fairness and inequity to make more complex societies.
"That probably explains why we're building city states, and other species are still in groups of 200," she says.
In other words, we had the human edge.
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Why A Brush With Death Triggers The Slow-Mo Effect : NPR
Why A Brush With Death Triggers The Slow-Mo Effect : NPR
When David Eagleman was 8 years old, he went exploring. He found a house under construction — prime territory for an adventurous kid — and he climbed on the roof to check out the view. But what looked like the edge of the roof was just tar paper, and — you can feel it coming — when David stepped on it, he fell.
Whoosh … Thud.
David was fine. But between whoosh and the thud, something odd happened. As David remembers it, he noticed every detail of his surroundings: the edge of the roof moving past him, the red bricks below moving toward him. He even did a little literary analysis: "I was thinking about Alice in Wonderland, how this must be what it was like for her, when she fell down the rabbit hole."
All of that happened in just 0.86 seconds. David knows that now because he has calculated how long it takes to fall 12 feet. David Eagleman is now Dr. Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, and one of his specialties is exploring how our brains perceive and understand time.
Several years ago, motivated in part by his childhood plunge, David started studying the way our sense of time distorts in crisis situations. He has gathered a huge number of stories from people who have survived falls, car crashes, bike accidents, etc. Everyone, he says, seems to say the same thing: "It felt like the world was moving in slow motion."
But what is really going on? David started to think that maybe, in a crisis, the brain goes into a sort of turbo mode, processing everything at higher-than-normal-speed. If the brain were to speed up, he thought, the world would appear to slow down. This would work just like a slow-motion movie; in a slow-mo shot of a hummingbird, for example, you can see each individual wing movement in what would otherwise be just a blur.
Taking The Plunge
So David decided to craft an experiment to study this "slow-motion effect" in action. But to do that, he had to make people fear for their lives — without actually putting them in danger. His first attempt involved a field trip to Six Flags AstroWorld, an amusement park in Houston, Texas. He used his students as his subjects. "We went on all of the scariest roller coasters, and we brought all of our equipment and our stopwatches, and had a great time," David says. "But it turns out nothing there was scary enough to induce this fear for your life that appears to be required for the slow-motion effect."
But, after a little searching, David discovered something called SCAD diving. (SCAD stands for Suspended Catch Air Device.) It's like bungee jumping without the bungee. Imagine being dangled by a cable about 150 feet off the ground, facing up to the sky. Then, with a little metallic click, the cable is released and you plummet backward through the air, landing in a net (hopefully) about 3 seconds later.
SCAD diving was just what David needed — it was definitely terrifying. But he also needed a way to judge whether his subjects' brains really did go into turbo mode. So, he outfitted everybody with a small electronic device, called a perceptual chronometer, which is basically a clunky wristwatch. It flashes numbers just a little too fast to see. Under normal conditions — standing around on the ground, say — the numbers are just a blur. But David figured, if his subjects' brains were in turbo mode, they would be able to read the numbers.
The Time Blur
The falling experience was, just as David had hoped, enough to freak out all of his subjects. "We asked everyone how scary it was, on a scale from 1 to 10," he reports, "and everyone said 10." And all of the subjects reported a slow-motion effect while falling: they consistently over-estimated the time it took to fall. The numbers on the perceptual chronometer? They remained an unreadable blur.
"Turns out, when you're falling you don't actually see in slow motion. It's not equivalent to the way a slow-motion camera would work," David says. "It's something more interesting than that."
According to David, it's all about memory, not turbo perception. "Normally, our memories are like sieves," he says. "We're not writing down most of what's passing through our system." Think about walking down a crowded street: You see a lot of faces, street signs, all kinds of stimuli. Most of this, though, never becomes a part of your memory. But if a car suddenly swerves and heads straight for you, your memory shifts gears. Now it's writing down everything — every cloud, every piece of dirt, every little fleeting thought, anything that might be useful.
Because of this, David believes, you accumulate a tremendous amount of memory in an unusually short amount of time. The slow-motion effect may be your brain's way of making sense of all this extra information. "When you read that back out," David says, "the experience feels like it must have taken a very long time." But really, in a crisis situation, you're getting a peek into all the pictures and smells and thoughts that usually just pass through your brain and float away, forgotten forever.
When David Eagleman was 8 years old, he went exploring. He found a house under construction — prime territory for an adventurous kid — and he climbed on the roof to check out the view. But what looked like the edge of the roof was just tar paper, and — you can feel it coming — when David stepped on it, he fell.
Whoosh … Thud.
David was fine. But between whoosh and the thud, something odd happened. As David remembers it, he noticed every detail of his surroundings: the edge of the roof moving past him, the red bricks below moving toward him. He even did a little literary analysis: "I was thinking about Alice in Wonderland, how this must be what it was like for her, when she fell down the rabbit hole."
All of that happened in just 0.86 seconds. David knows that now because he has calculated how long it takes to fall 12 feet. David Eagleman is now Dr. Eagleman, a neuroscientist at Baylor College of Medicine, and one of his specialties is exploring how our brains perceive and understand time.
Several years ago, motivated in part by his childhood plunge, David started studying the way our sense of time distorts in crisis situations. He has gathered a huge number of stories from people who have survived falls, car crashes, bike accidents, etc. Everyone, he says, seems to say the same thing: "It felt like the world was moving in slow motion."
But what is really going on? David started to think that maybe, in a crisis, the brain goes into a sort of turbo mode, processing everything at higher-than-normal-speed. If the brain were to speed up, he thought, the world would appear to slow down. This would work just like a slow-motion movie; in a slow-mo shot of a hummingbird, for example, you can see each individual wing movement in what would otherwise be just a blur.
Taking The Plunge
So David decided to craft an experiment to study this "slow-motion effect" in action. But to do that, he had to make people fear for their lives — without actually putting them in danger. His first attempt involved a field trip to Six Flags AstroWorld, an amusement park in Houston, Texas. He used his students as his subjects. "We went on all of the scariest roller coasters, and we brought all of our equipment and our stopwatches, and had a great time," David says. "But it turns out nothing there was scary enough to induce this fear for your life that appears to be required for the slow-motion effect."
But, after a little searching, David discovered something called SCAD diving. (SCAD stands for Suspended Catch Air Device.) It's like bungee jumping without the bungee. Imagine being dangled by a cable about 150 feet off the ground, facing up to the sky. Then, with a little metallic click, the cable is released and you plummet backward through the air, landing in a net (hopefully) about 3 seconds later.
SCAD diving was just what David needed — it was definitely terrifying. But he also needed a way to judge whether his subjects' brains really did go into turbo mode. So, he outfitted everybody with a small electronic device, called a perceptual chronometer, which is basically a clunky wristwatch. It flashes numbers just a little too fast to see. Under normal conditions — standing around on the ground, say — the numbers are just a blur. But David figured, if his subjects' brains were in turbo mode, they would be able to read the numbers.
The Time Blur
The falling experience was, just as David had hoped, enough to freak out all of his subjects. "We asked everyone how scary it was, on a scale from 1 to 10," he reports, "and everyone said 10." And all of the subjects reported a slow-motion effect while falling: they consistently over-estimated the time it took to fall. The numbers on the perceptual chronometer? They remained an unreadable blur.
"Turns out, when you're falling you don't actually see in slow motion. It's not equivalent to the way a slow-motion camera would work," David says. "It's something more interesting than that."
According to David, it's all about memory, not turbo perception. "Normally, our memories are like sieves," he says. "We're not writing down most of what's passing through our system." Think about walking down a crowded street: You see a lot of faces, street signs, all kinds of stimuli. Most of this, though, never becomes a part of your memory. But if a car suddenly swerves and heads straight for you, your memory shifts gears. Now it's writing down everything — every cloud, every piece of dirt, every little fleeting thought, anything that might be useful.
Because of this, David believes, you accumulate a tremendous amount of memory in an unusually short amount of time. The slow-motion effect may be your brain's way of making sense of all this extra information. "When you read that back out," David says, "the experience feels like it must have taken a very long time." But really, in a crisis situation, you're getting a peek into all the pictures and smells and thoughts that usually just pass through your brain and float away, forgotten forever.
Vocabulary
| · Prime · Literary analysis · Perceive · Plunge · Induce · Chronometer · Sieves · Stimuli · Swerves · Accumulate | 1. to move violently in one direction 2. to cause something 3. a time measuring device 4. ideal 5. a device with many holes or a screen in the bottom 6. thinking deeply about books 7. to gain more and more of something 8. to gain information through the senses 9. to fall or dive 10. things that cause a reaction |
Discussion
1. What is the interviewee trying to find out about how we'll perceive time?
2. What did they find out?
3. What do you think might be useful about a 'turbo mode' in a dangerous situation?
4. Have you ever experienced this kind of change in time perception?
5. What is the most dangerous thing you've ever done, and survived?
Sunday, August 15, 2010
Monsanto Caused an Estimated 150,000 Farmer Suicides
Monsanto Caused an Estimated 150,000 Farmer Suicides
A tangible consequence of India's shift to a neo-liberal economic model has been the flood of suicides among farmers. The vast majority of the world's second most populated country still farms for a living, but are caught between deep debt and the erratic nature of seasonal change. Lured by the promise of greater production, farmers are pressured into mortgaging their farms to purchase genetically modified seeds, pesticides, and fertilizer from American companies like Monsanto. Since GM seeds are patented by Monsanto, their repeated use each year requires constant licensing fees that keep farmers impoverished. One bad yield due to drought or other reasons, plunges farmers so deep into debt that they resort to suicide. One study estimates that 150,000 farmers have killed themselves in the past ten years.
A new feature film written and directed by Anusha Rizwi and produced by Bollywood megastar Aamir Khan, called Peepli Live, tackles head on this grim topic. The story is set in an Indian village named Peepli where one young debt-burdened farmer named Natha is talked into taking his own life after he learns that his family will be financially compensated through a government program created to alleviate the loss of farmers taking their own lives. What unfolds is a dark comedy of errors when a media circus descends on the tiny village, followed by corrupt politicians wanting to make use of the planned tragedy. Khan's credits as an actor and producer include Lagaan, the 2001 Oscar-nominated film about Indian resistance to the British occupation. His latest film 3 Idiots released last year became the highest grossing film in Indian film history.
Text of Sonali Kolhatkar's interview follows (with video and more information about Khan's film at the bottom of the article):
* * * * * *
Sonali Kolhatkar: The film Peepli Live tackles a number of issues in rural India which aren't always portrayed in Bollywood films. How important was it for you to make such a film about an issue that's not very well known especially outside India?
Aamir Khan: I feel that Peepli Live is not really a film about farmer suicides [but] that farmer suicides are a backdrop because the film doesn't really go into the issues that farmers are facing or why this epidemic really has been spreading for so many years now. It's a film that's more about the growing divide between urban and rural India and how as a society we are concentrating all of our energies, our resources, our wealth towards cities and are ignoring our villages and the rural parts of India which is where the bulk of our population lives. As a result our villages are not life-sustaining in a healthy manner. And that in turn results in a lot of migration from villages to cities. So in villages we don't have schools often, medical facilities, even basic stuff like water and electricity. I think this is what the issue in the film really is.
On a certain level it's also a film about survival. While it's a satire about civil society today and takes a humorous view of the administration, the political scenario, the media, or civil society in general, it's also on a certain level a story about survival. Each one of us: politician, journalist, civil servant, or a district magistrate, or even Budhia (a character in Peepli Live), who's a farmer, a villager - each one of us in our own environment, in our own situation, is doing what he or she thinks needs to be done in order to survive.
A tangible consequence of India's shift to a neo-liberal economic model has been the flood of suicides among farmers. The vast majority of the world's second most populated country still farms for a living, but are caught between deep debt and the erratic nature of seasonal change. Lured by the promise of greater production, farmers are pressured into mortgaging their farms to purchase genetically modified seeds, pesticides, and fertilizer from American companies like Monsanto. Since GM seeds are patented by Monsanto, their repeated use each year requires constant licensing fees that keep farmers impoverished. One bad yield due to drought or other reasons, plunges farmers so deep into debt that they resort to suicide. One study estimates that 150,000 farmers have killed themselves in the past ten years.
A new feature film written and directed by Anusha Rizwi and produced by Bollywood megastar Aamir Khan, called Peepli Live, tackles head on this grim topic. The story is set in an Indian village named Peepli where one young debt-burdened farmer named Natha is talked into taking his own life after he learns that his family will be financially compensated through a government program created to alleviate the loss of farmers taking their own lives. What unfolds is a dark comedy of errors when a media circus descends on the tiny village, followed by corrupt politicians wanting to make use of the planned tragedy. Khan's credits as an actor and producer include Lagaan, the 2001 Oscar-nominated film about Indian resistance to the British occupation. His latest film 3 Idiots released last year became the highest grossing film in Indian film history.
Text of Sonali Kolhatkar's interview follows (with video and more information about Khan's film at the bottom of the article):
* * * * * *
Sonali Kolhatkar: The film Peepli Live tackles a number of issues in rural India which aren't always portrayed in Bollywood films. How important was it for you to make such a film about an issue that's not very well known especially outside India?
Aamir Khan: I feel that Peepli Live is not really a film about farmer suicides [but] that farmer suicides are a backdrop because the film doesn't really go into the issues that farmers are facing or why this epidemic really has been spreading for so many years now. It's a film that's more about the growing divide between urban and rural India and how as a society we are concentrating all of our energies, our resources, our wealth towards cities and are ignoring our villages and the rural parts of India which is where the bulk of our population lives. As a result our villages are not life-sustaining in a healthy manner. And that in turn results in a lot of migration from villages to cities. So in villages we don't have schools often, medical facilities, even basic stuff like water and electricity. I think this is what the issue in the film really is.
On a certain level it's also a film about survival. While it's a satire about civil society today and takes a humorous view of the administration, the political scenario, the media, or civil society in general, it's also on a certain level a story about survival. Each one of us: politician, journalist, civil servant, or a district magistrate, or even Budhia (a character in Peepli Live), who's a farmer, a villager - each one of us in our own environment, in our own situation, is doing what he or she thinks needs to be done in order to survive.
Thursday, August 12, 2010
This Just In -- Dry Weddings Make People Angry - Lemondrop.com
This Just In -- Dry Weddings Make People Angry - Lemondrop.com
A chocolate fountain, a vintage photo booth, a congo band, a master cigar roller and an open bar ... Sounds like the most incredible wedding reception ever, right?
As a lucky guest at this, the unforgettable shindig of a friend, I can confirm that it was. But after the festivities were over and the headache subsided, I wondered if it would have been as much fun (or just plain dorky) without booze.
According to a recent CNN poll, 38 percent of wedding guests don't mind if the bar isn't fully stocked, but they do expect there at least be gratis beer and wine. Most are pissed by the prospect of a cash bar (5 percent won't even show up if they have to pay for their own libations). Brides and grooms trying to trim your guest list -- take note!
Yeah, it seems like a jerky thing to ask people to bring gifts and pay to toast you -- especially since a lot of us are also paying for a dress or transportation to and from the event. As a friend who is planning a wedding told me, "A cash bar is tempting because the alcohol is such a major line item in the wedding budget. But etiquette-wise, it's my party, so I should foot the bill."
"I always advise couples against cash bars," says wedding planner Aisha Gayle, owner of Con Gusto Events in New York City. "I'd rather see a limited bar -- a signature cocktail, plus wine and beer -- over a fully stocked cash bar. That said, rule number one remains 'Be true to thy budget.'"
Well, if things continue on as they are -- the U.S. treasury secretary recently warned that jobless rates may soar again -- the cash bar could become a real trend that guest may have to get used to.
No worries if you're inviting us to your wedding; we'll settle for one free glass of champagne. That's all we need to get our Electric Slide on and poppin' without feeling self-conscious. Besides, isn't a wedding supposed to be about celebrating the happy couple, not the happy hour?
A chocolate fountain, a vintage photo booth, a congo band, a master cigar roller and an open bar ... Sounds like the most incredible wedding reception ever, right?
As a lucky guest at this, the unforgettable shindig of a friend, I can confirm that it was. But after the festivities were over and the headache subsided, I wondered if it would have been as much fun (or just plain dorky) without booze.
According to a recent CNN poll, 38 percent of wedding guests don't mind if the bar isn't fully stocked, but they do expect there at least be gratis beer and wine. Most are pissed by the prospect of a cash bar (5 percent won't even show up if they have to pay for their own libations). Brides and grooms trying to trim your guest list -- take note!
Yeah, it seems like a jerky thing to ask people to bring gifts and pay to toast you -- especially since a lot of us are also paying for a dress or transportation to and from the event. As a friend who is planning a wedding told me, "A cash bar is tempting because the alcohol is such a major line item in the wedding budget. But etiquette-wise, it's my party, so I should foot the bill."
"I always advise couples against cash bars," says wedding planner Aisha Gayle, owner of Con Gusto Events in New York City. "I'd rather see a limited bar -- a signature cocktail, plus wine and beer -- over a fully stocked cash bar. That said, rule number one remains 'Be true to thy budget.'"
Well, if things continue on as they are -- the U.S. treasury secretary recently warned that jobless rates may soar again -- the cash bar could become a real trend that guest may have to get used to.
No worries if you're inviting us to your wedding; we'll settle for one free glass of champagne. That's all we need to get our Electric Slide on and poppin' without feeling self-conscious. Besides, isn't a wedding supposed to be about celebrating the happy couple, not the happy hour?
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
은/ㄴ 편이다 - More or less
For those of you who have have been taking the regular curriculum and maybe don't quite get the expression 'more or less', here's how it might work in Korean. She is more or less creepy, 그여자가 칭그러원 편이에요. You might also express this in English more literally as "She's a bit on the creepy side." or "She's on the creepy side." There you go folks. Try it out yourself in my class!
Monday, August 9, 2010
Is an Insect Diet the Cure for Climate Change?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/aug/01/insects-food-emissions
Saving the planet one plateful at a time does not mean cutting back on meat, according to new research: the trick may be to switch our diet toinsects and other creepy-crawlies.
The raising of livestock such as cows, pigs and sheep occupies two-thirds of the world's farmland and generates 20% of all the greenhouse gases driving global warming. As a result, the United Nations and senior figures want to reduce the amount of meat we eat and the search is on for alternatives.
A policy paper on the eating of insects is being formally considered by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The FAO held a meeting on the theme in Thailand in 2008 and there are plans for a world congress in 2013.
Professor Arnold van Huis, an entomologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the author of the UN paper, says eating insects has advantages.
"There is a meat crisis," he said. "The world population will grow from six billion now to nine billion by 2050 and we know people are consuming more meat. Twenty years ago the average was 20kg, it is now 50kg, and will be 80kg in 20 years. If we continue like this we will need another Earth."
Van Huis is an enthusiast for eating insects but given his role as a consultant to the FAO, he can't be dismissed as a crank. "Most of the world already eats insects," he points out. "It is only in the western world that we don't. Psychologically we have a problem with it. I don't know why, as we eat shrimps, which are very comparable."
The advantages of this diet include insects' high levels of protein, vitamin and mineral content. Van Huis's latest research, conducted with colleague Dennis Oonincx, shows that farming insects produces far less greenhouse gas than livestock. Breeding commonly eaten insects such as locusts, crickets and meal worms, emits 10 times less methane than livestock. The insects also produce 300 times less nitrous oxide, also a warming gas, and much less ammonia, a pollutant produced by pig and poultry farming.
Being cold-blooded, insects convert plant matter into protein extremely efficiently, Van Huis says. In addition, he argues, the health risks are lower. He acknowledges that in the west eating insects is a hard sell: "It is very important how you prepare them, you have to do it very nicely, to overcome the yuk factor."
More than 1,000 insects are known to be eaten by choice around the world, in 80% of nations. They are most popular in the tropics, where they grow to large sizes and are easy to harvest.
The FAO's field officer Patrick Durst, based in Bangkok, Thailand, ran the 2008 conference.
Durst helped set up an insect farming project FAO project in Laos which began in April. This involves transferring the skills of the 15,000 household locust farmers in Thailand across the border. "There were some proponents of a bigger dairy industry in Laos to improve a calcium deficiency," says Durst, whose favourite is fried wasp - "very crispy and a nice light snack". "But this is crazy when most Asians are lactose intolerant." Locusts and crickets are calcium-rich and 90% of people in Laos have eaten insects at some point, he says. Durst says the FAO's priority will be to boost the eating of insects where this is already accepted but has been in decline due to western cultural influence.
He also thinks such a boost can provide livelihoods and protect forests where many wild insects are collected. "I can see a step-by-step process to wider implementation."
First, insects could be used to feed farmed animals such as chicken and fish which eat them naturally. Then, they could be used as ingredients.
Van Huis adds: "We're looking at ways of grinding the meat into some sort of patty, which would be more recognisable to western palates."
One of the few suppliers of insects for human consumption in the UK is Paul Cook, whose business Osgrow is based in Bristol. However, no matter how they are marketed or presented, Cook is not convinced they will ever become more than a novelty. "They are in the fun element ... But I can't see it ever catching on in the UK in a big way."
The raising of livestock such as cows, pigs and sheep occupies two-thirds of the world's farmland and generates 20% of all the greenhouse gases driving global warming. As a result, the United Nations and senior figures want to reduce the amount of meat we eat and the search is on for alternatives.
A policy paper on the eating of insects is being formally considered by the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation. The FAO held a meeting on the theme in Thailand in 2008 and there are plans for a world congress in 2013.
Professor Arnold van Huis, an entomologist at Wageningen University in the Netherlands and the author of the UN paper, says eating insects has advantages.
"There is a meat crisis," he said. "The world population will grow from six billion now to nine billion by 2050 and we know people are consuming more meat. Twenty years ago the average was 20kg, it is now 50kg, and will be 80kg in 20 years. If we continue like this we will need another Earth."
Van Huis is an enthusiast for eating insects but given his role as a consultant to the FAO, he can't be dismissed as a crank. "Most of the world already eats insects," he points out. "It is only in the western world that we don't. Psychologically we have a problem with it. I don't know why, as we eat shrimps, which are very comparable."
The advantages of this diet include insects' high levels of protein, vitamin and mineral content. Van Huis's latest research, conducted with colleague Dennis Oonincx, shows that farming insects produces far less greenhouse gas than livestock. Breeding commonly eaten insects such as locusts, crickets and meal worms, emits 10 times less methane than livestock. The insects also produce 300 times less nitrous oxide, also a warming gas, and much less ammonia, a pollutant produced by pig and poultry farming.
Being cold-blooded, insects convert plant matter into protein extremely efficiently, Van Huis says. In addition, he argues, the health risks are lower. He acknowledges that in the west eating insects is a hard sell: "It is very important how you prepare them, you have to do it very nicely, to overcome the yuk factor."
More than 1,000 insects are known to be eaten by choice around the world, in 80% of nations. They are most popular in the tropics, where they grow to large sizes and are easy to harvest.
The FAO's field officer Patrick Durst, based in Bangkok, Thailand, ran the 2008 conference.
Durst helped set up an insect farming project FAO project in Laos which began in April. This involves transferring the skills of the 15,000 household locust farmers in Thailand across the border. "There were some proponents of a bigger dairy industry in Laos to improve a calcium deficiency," says Durst, whose favourite is fried wasp - "very crispy and a nice light snack". "But this is crazy when most Asians are lactose intolerant." Locusts and crickets are calcium-rich and 90% of people in Laos have eaten insects at some point, he says. Durst says the FAO's priority will be to boost the eating of insects where this is already accepted but has been in decline due to western cultural influence.
He also thinks such a boost can provide livelihoods and protect forests where many wild insects are collected. "I can see a step-by-step process to wider implementation."
First, insects could be used to feed farmed animals such as chicken and fish which eat them naturally. Then, they could be used as ingredients.
Van Huis adds: "We're looking at ways of grinding the meat into some sort of patty, which would be more recognisable to western palates."
One of the few suppliers of insects for human consumption in the UK is Paul Cook, whose business Osgrow is based in Bristol. However, no matter how they are marketed or presented, Cook is not convinced they will ever become more than a novelty. "They are in the fun element ... But I can't see it ever catching on in the UK in a big way."
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Mind - A Snapshot of a Generation May Come Out Blurry - NYTimes.com
Mind - A Snapshot of a Generation May Come Out Blurry - NYTimes.com
ATC: A Snapshot of a Generation May Come Out Blurry
Trying to pin down the character of a generation is a controversial and, some say, presumptuous exercise. Who’s to say whether 50 million Americans should be called the Me Generation, or the Greatest? Who’s to decide exactly when Gen X ends and Gen Y begins?
Never let it be said that psychological researchers duck a challenge. In recent years some have sketched a portrait of the current crop of twenty- and thirty-somethings that is low on greatness and high on traits like entitlement and narcissism. The Millennials, also known as Generation Y, may be a little callous, too: At a psychology conference in May, researchers presented data suggesting that college students today had significantly less “empathetic concern” than students of the 1980s.
Social scientists have been surveying young people for decades, looking for trends in thinking and behavior that might be attributable to shifts in the broader culture. Tracking behaviors and attitudes is relatively straightforward. Compared with previous generations, for instance, the Millennials are more tolerant of people of other races and different sexual orientations, research suggests. They appear to be more likely than previous generations to do volunteer work. Hundreds of thousands of them have signed on to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan
But assessing their motives, their traits — their collective personality — is a far more slippery territory. Thus the debate over the Generation Y character, and whether generations even have distinct characters.
It revolves around a recent finding that, on personality questionnaires, people born after 1970 are more likely than previous generations to see themselves as “an important person,” to say they’re confident and rate their self-esteem higher. “The research converges on this: that individualism is increasing, that it’s more acceptable in the culture to focus on oneself, and not to worry so much about social rules,” said Jean M. Twenge, a psychologist at San Diego State University, who in a 2006 book, “Generation Me,” described the trend and its possible upside (more opportunities for those who have lacked confidence) and downside (increased levels of anxiety, depression).
But a recent issue of the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science aired a backlash against this argument, in which psychologists bickered over methodology and offered alternative interpretations of survey data.
In one report, two psychologists analyzed a large survey of high school seniors that spanned decades and concluded that there was “little evidence of meaningful change” in questions related to self-esteem, individualism, or life satisfaction. “I think as a profession we need to be careful that we don’t stereotype or label a vast number of people unless the evidence is very strong,” said M. Brent Donnellan, of Michigan State University , who co-authored the paper with Kali H. Trzesniewski, of the University of Western Ontario
In another critique, researchers at the University of Illinois
Dr. Twenge and others have shot back, point by point, and the standoff is not likely to be resolved soon. For one thing, personality tests are themselves suspect. “We should keep in mind that personality tests are themselves cultural documents, idiosyncratic products of particular individuals that say more about their creators than about the people who take them,” said Annie Murphy Paul, author of “The Cult of Personality Testing” (Free Press, 2004)…
Vocabulary: Match the word with the correct definition
| Pin down Presumptuous Entitlement Narcissism Slippery territory Backlash Spanned Standoff Idiosyncratic | 1. a kind of characteristic, habit, mannerism, or the like, that is peculiar to an individual 2. a dangerous area where it is difficult to maintain any one opinion 3. to define clearly 4. the feeling of deserving something 5. a strong or violent reaction, as to some social or political change 6. unwarrantedly or impertinently bold; forward 7. to be extended over or across 8. inordinate fascination with oneself; excessive self-love; vanity. 9. a situation where neither party takes action or gains an advantage |
Discussion/Comprehension
1. What is the author saying about the character of different generations?
2. What kind of science is used to determine these kinds of characters?
3. According to the article has any definitive answer been reached? Why or why not?
4. Why do you think people believe in generational character?
5. What do you think about generations having a specific character?
6. Do you feel the so called ‘generation gap’ sometimes? If so when and where? If not why not?
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