Monthly Archives: December 2014
A new way to cool down the building instead of using the air-conditioning
The article which I read last week was about the new way to cool down the building without using the electricity. The way was to set a special mirror on the roof of the building which let the radiation from the sun sent to the space by reflecting it.
When I read this article, I was very surprised because if we use this system in the future, the total of the consumption of the electricity will decrease. Like USA which use a lot of electricity in summer for the air-conditioning, I think this will do very effectively.Recently, it is claimed that the global warming is getting worse and worse. I think we can stop or slower the global warming by it. I think there are a lot of advantages to use this system. In this point, I am for this environmentally-friendly plan very much.
Transplant success: Boy under 10 gets heart of girl under 6 – My Reaction
Osaka University Hospital announced this successful heart transplantation. The donor girl had been hospitalized at Juntendo University Hospital. Her parents agreed to provide her organs after a doctor diagnozed that the child could be judged as brain dead after suffering from a brain disorder. Under the rivesed organ transplantaion law, organs can be taken from anyone regardless od their age with family consent. Then the girl was declared brain dead recently. Her organs were hervested for transplantation after her family gave their consent. The operation of transplanting a heart was smoothly succeeded, as a surgeon Yoshiki Sawa said at a press conference. The boy’s parents also expressed the hope that their son will live a new life always remembering the donor and her family.
There are many positive and also negative opinions about the transplantation of organs. For now I want to focus on a positive side of the transplantaion, and discuss possible opinions from religious perspective. In some religions, people believe in a cycle of life, in another word, reincarnation. The idea is that after you die, your soul will live a next life, and this will continue for long time. So why cannot we make a cycle of body, too? It seems quite efficient. Moreover, some Chiristian people believe the phrase “earth to earth; ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, which means when we die, we all return to nothing. It might suggest that it is acceptable to use the organs of dead people because it is better to use the organs to save other lives rather than let it returns to nothing. I am sure that this topic is very controversial, and so we need more discussions and considerations.
My reaction －about the selling a Nobel Medal－
Summery and Reaction
I read an article about the Nobel Prize. James Watson who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for a discovery of the structure of DNA sold the Nobel medal for $4.8m. It was the first case that a living winner sold the medal and its proceeds will be used for a donation for supporting scientific research. This selling would be triggered by his remarks which discriminate black people. He had been rid from scientific community and he became poor because he lost a job of some lectures. But according to some other reports, the motive of the selling was only to donate money for charities and scientific research as stated above. We can’t identify the real reason of selling.
Mr. Watson said it was free to decide how to deal with the medal. However, I think the medal is a proof of the award so it is a treasure which should be taken over for his descendants. So I don’t agree with the selling basically. In my opinion, an evaluation for Mr. Watson’s behavior depends on his motive to sell. If he purely wanted to donate money for science, I can sympathize with him because it is exactly a contribution for the society and it is a behavior like a scholar. On the other hand, poverty was not an appropriate reason because there would be other things to sell for money even he was poor. Possibly, he tried to let people recall his fame through a topic about the Nobel Prize. And perhaps he might want to express anger toward the scientific community.
In the end, the medal was knocked down to a Russian rich person, Alisher Usmanov. He said the medal should be kept by the winner and he returned it. In fact, he disagreed with the selling and he bought it to return to Mr. Watson. So practically, Mr. Usmanov contributed $4.8m to Mr. Watson. I think his behavior was a consensus of all people so he must be admired as an exactly donator.
My reaction about Twitter’s article
Summary
Twitter is making changes aimed at allowing users to report abuse or offensive content more easily.Twitter told Newsbeat the changes would give users “more control over their experience”. Twitter’s head of public policy in Europe ,Sinead McSweeney said “We’ve always said that users’ safety is a priority. It’s a job that we never regard as done. The social network said the changes will take effect gradually ” in the coming weeks”.
Opinion
Twitter is very popular among young people all over the world. Of course I use it almost everyday.But when I use Twitter , sometimes I see offensive contents and advertisements. Those bother me very much. So this article made me happy.Maybe I make use of this change , and control my experience. But I’m hoping that Twitter will not show any advertisement too.
My Reaction About the article “Hitler painting fetches ＄161000 at Nuremberg auction”
<Summary>
A watercolour thought to be painted by Adolf Hitler has sold at an auction in Germany for $161,000. An anonymous private buyer from the Middle East bought the work. Experts generally consider Hitler’s artworks to be of poor quality.The auction house said bidders from four continents had expressed an interest in the work.The original bill of sale was included with the painting, which contributed to the relatively high selling price,. Previous sales of Hitler’s art have caused controversy, and been criticised by some relatives of Holocaust survivors.
<Opinion>
First of all, when I finished reading this article, I thought “Why the bidders bought such poor painting at that high price?”, so I told my classmates about it and we argued about it. Our answer was that bidders are crazy about Hitler. I think this matter is related to how people value the things. I mean that the value of the thing is decided by someones preference, so even if some painting looks poor for you, other one may feel it great thing.
Secondly, we argued about “Can we value the painting of Hitler as great thing?”. This means that if we value Hitler’s painting as great thing thing and buy it at high price, it can also mean we value Hitler his own. Our answer was YES and the reason of it was that the painter’s personality doesn’t affect the value of the painting. But I think this is controversial.
My reaction to James Watson’s DNA Nobel Prize sells for $4.8m
Summary
James Watson is scientist who made the discovery of structure of DNA which encodes the instruction booklet for building a living organism with Crick. Thanks to the study, he received the Nobel Prize gold medal in 1962. But he was ostracized by the scientific community because of his remarks about race. After that he decided to sell his gold medal. It was first that a living recipient put his Nobel Prize medal on sell. The gold medal has sold at auction for $4.8m. Mr Watson said he used that money for donating part of proceeds to charities and to support scientific research.
My opinion
I think Mr Watson is great people. Many people who had been sick saved by study he made. In fact the buyer of his gold medal in auction returned the medal to him. That is because he respected Mr Watson in that leaving the achievement for study of cancer that is the cause of his father’s death. He cooperated with Watson’s plan to donate to charities and support scientific research. In sure criticizing about race is unlike action, but he receive that penalty and think about what he can do for scientific society. That is difficult way to do, so Mr Watson is a great people and that article is good news.
my reaction to twitter.
Summary
There are more and more people who use twitter. As the number of users is on the rise, there are many offensive content and users. Then twitter made changes that users can report abuse or offensive content more easily to twitter. The reason of the change is to put priority on user’s safety. There are 3 type of changes. First is reporting abuse. Users can easily report abuse which is not aimed to them directly. The way people report become simpler. Second is blocking users. If you block users, you need not see the user’s post anymore and the user can’t see your profile and post. This condition itself continue temporarily and permanently where necessary. Third is response to reports. There will be more staff and resources and better tools and systems for checking abusive content.
Opinion
I use many SNS including twitter. I can get useful information through twitter. But I hate advertisement. Many advertisement is on my timeline. These post interfere seeing my friend post. So I agree twitter’s change. However advertisement which I am interested in is not unnecessary. Therefore twitter make appropriate system which gives good advertisement for us. And there are some people who I don’t like. Due to new change, I block such users easily and silently. Personally I prefer twitter to facebook, instaglam. Twitter is more convenient than facebook in that we can post short sentence without pictures. And facebook have many pictures of my face. I take care my privacy. So because of safety such a block report or response, I like twitter.
My reaction for “Apple deleted songs from customers’ iPods”
In this article, Apple is reported to have routinely deleted songs the customers had downloaded from Apple ‘s competitors’ music stores. Therefore, a class of 8 million iPod owners argued that Apple abused its monopoly power in the music industry to force out competition and they are asking for 350 million dollars.
In my group of five members, all of us used iTunes and 3 of us used Mac book, one of the main products of Apple’s. According to this, Apple has big power among music industry.
I think that many people use Apple products and they are good. However, deleting songs downloaded from other companies’ site without telling the consumers is illegal and if Apple continued doing this, they will lose customer and society’s trust. Therefore, Apple should stop this.
My reaction about “Transplant success: Boy under 10 gets heart of girl under 6”
Summary
In this article, the girl under 6 was declared brain dead and her liver and other organs were harvested for transplantation after family gave their consent. The recipient boy has been suffering from left ventricular noncompaction and he was expected to be able to leave the hospital in three to six months if he does well after the operation.
So the donor girl had been hospitalized at Juntendo University Hospital in Tokyo and her family agreed to provide her organs after a doctor diagnosed that the child could be judged as brain dead after suffering from a brain disorder. Then it has successfully transplanted the heart.
Opinion
I think the problem of organ donation is very intricate thing. So I cannot decide that organ donation is good or not way to save people necessarily. In class, we discussed about the possitive point and negative point of organ donation.
At first, the possitive point of this is of course that it can save many people`s lives. In that point, I think this is a good way to save people.
But, the negative point is the criteria of brain death is very difficult. In other words, there is possiblity that the donor is still alive and organ donation kills him. So the way to save people`s lives may kill people`s lives.
These points are the possitive and negative thing we talked about. So above mentioned, I cannot decide organ donation is good or not way to save people necessarily.