Junk food

My opinion about fast food is very simple, junk food is the worst way to feed people especially children. The problem about fast food is that is cheap, fast and accessible. You can find a fast food "restaurant" on every corner, also you can eat quickly inside the restaurant, walking or maybe you can also order inside your own car. This is a crazy idea but it works because people are lazy or busy and they prefer to eat inside the car than walk a little bit to the restaurant.

But the most important problem is that junk food is very afforable and the companies take advantage of that. A burger is cheaper than a salad and that is unbelievable. The craziest thing is when you need to choose between a salad or a burger, the burger is cheaper and it cames with fries, coke and toys.

In Spain we have just started with the obesity problem. The kids are eating more fast food than mediterranean food and the obesity in kids has increased a lot. It is important to stop that and we should came back to our original and regional food instead of the foreign junk food companies.

My opinion about banning fastfood promotional toys

I agree with this new regulation. I often watch the news that many children love fast food and get extraordinarily fat. Promotional toys certainly lure children into fast food which causes a harmful effect on children's health. I also used to go and order happy meal for toys when I was a child. At that time, there were not so many McDonald's restaurants, however nowadays they have opened new restaurants everywhere and they are easy to stop by.
According to the article, from 11 to 18 percent of children are estimated to be overweight or obese. I strongly think the government must deal with this situation by some measures and this new regulation is an important step to improve children's health. In my country also, the government should enforce the same law because everytime McDonald's makes new toys, children want to go and eat there. The frequency of new toy production is once a month. This is because these promotional toys are a good distribution channel for toy and animation companies. One of the biggest challenges for banning promotional toys in Japan is how the government will persuade McDonald's from giving up this business.

Class work

I think this prohibition is very appropriate and necessary, because for children it is very hard to forsake a delicious but harmful temptation with toys.
Also, during childhood it is very critical to form eating habits. Children might want to eat not carrots and mushrooms but fries and coke right now. However, even so, it is very important to be accustumed to eat healthy food. Because once one develops his or her eating habit, it is very hard to break and this habit influences one's whole life.

The Story about Stuff

Hi everyone,
Here is the link for the annotated version of the Story about Stuff, replete with references.  Hope you take the time to check it out.

http://www.storyofstuff.com/pdfs/annie_leonard_footnoted_script.pdf

Sum1 (How not dumb is Gaga? from new Yorker)

When pop fans have a conversation about current popular musicians, they like to talk about pop musicians' endurance. Pop changes its manners frequently, so it is very hard to survive for even very popular stars.

However, we can find some exceptional stars who broke existing rules and became 'classic' such as Bob Dylan, Bob Marley and Prince. The author describes them 'Pop acts become classic when they reveal the contingent nature of classic.' We also can see some hit wonders who got tremendous popularity with 1 or 2 songs and disappeared but their songs became classic and influenced many other musicians and created a new trend in pop.

The author describes Lady Gaga 'a trained professional who tries to sell herself as one hit wonder'. Before acquiring fame, she used to perform songs in New York clubs and wrote songs for famous musicians such as the Pussycat Dolls and Britney Spears. So she really has ability to sing and write. Gaga's first album which is made by cleverly chosen prominent professionals changed pop's trend 'away from hip-hop back to disco'. Gaga knows odd 1 hit wonders are cooler than a long term musical stretch. She might obtain her name for both weirdness and endurance.

The Tao of Pooh (New York Times bestseller list for 49 weeks)

In the Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff uses the characters from 'Winnie the Pooh' to explain the basics of the ancient Chinese principles of Taoism through a conversation with Pooh and Piglet and the rest of them, as well as through short stories about their adventures.
The most important principle of Taoism is the ''Uncarved Block''. The Uncarved Block is that things in their original simplicity contain their own power, that power is easily lost when that simplicity is changed.He uses Pooh to explain that principle.
Pooh takes the good with the bad, doesn't struggle to understand every confusing aspect of life, and knows that '' life is good'' .
Pooh doesn't worry about matters, just lets life flow and is grateful for his honey and his friends.
Owl is the scholar who gains knowledge for the sake of appearing wise or knowledge for knowledge's sake. Hoff explains the character of Piglet by showing how he is always scared and hesitating. I f Piglet wouldn't hesitate, he would get things done in a much more efficient way.Rabbit is described as someone who gains knowledge for the sake of appearing clever.Eeyore is someone who gains knowledge for the sake of complaining.
He sums up on the back cover of the book, '' While Eeyore frets, and Piglet hesitates, and Rabbit calculates , and Owl pontificates, Pooh just is. And that is the clue to the secret wisdom of the Taoists.

Can you understand English?

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox becomes oxen, not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice,
Yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
Then shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I speak of my foot and show you my feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine: she, shis and shim!

Let's face it - English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger;
neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England.
We take English for granted, but if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square,
and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing,
grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend.
If you have a bunch of odds and ends
and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what other language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
We ship by truck but send cargo by ship.

We have noses that run and feet that smell.
We park in a driveway and drive in a parkway.
And how can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same,
while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language
in which your house can burn up as it burns
down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out,
and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

And, in closing, if Father is Pop, how come Mother's not Mop?

Gold - the true cost of a global obsession

The article is from Nation geography and written by Brook Larmer.
This article deals with many people who want gold and the bad influence of mining and consequences on environment. Many poeple want to get gold. But supply isn't enough for the demand. And the price of gold has been skyrocketing. So, miners dig up gold even though work is too hard and dangerous. They look forward to striking it rich and making a fortune. However mining has a bad influence on the environment. Many toxic wastes appear and they destroy the environment.

Finishing up collocates project

Phew, still working on the midterm exam, it's been very, very time consuming, but very interesting. 
As native speakers, we don't usually stop to think about small nuances in language, so this has been very worthwhile.

Meantime, one of my professors has turned us on to some great new resources on the web.  One of them is the Longman dictionary which I will link to our blog.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend and staying dry. 

Researching collocates in corpora

I am currently working on a research project for my corpus linguistics class and though it is quite tedious and time consuming I am enjoying it immensely.  Investigating the verbs prove, the difference between create and make and the different applications of think of, about and that.
Off to waffles this morning with friends, then back to the grind.

Very good presentations

Hey everyone,

Thank you very much for your presentations so far, they have been very informative and very fun.  I am looking forward to next week's presentations!

Have a wonderful weekend!