Chasing Nansen's Ghost

In "Chasing Nansen's Ghost", in National Geographic, January 2009, Peter Miller discusses the adventures of Borge Ousland and Johansen, a mountaineer and a photographer from Norway. These adventurs chased the memory of two famous Norwegion in 1895, Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Jonhansen.
To many Norsegian boys, the story of Nansen's exploits are bedtime stories. Ousland was inspired by these tales and that's why he made his journey.
From spring to summer in 2007, they started their exploration beginning at the North pole and ending at the Franz Josef land of Russia.
They had skis and kayaks just like Nansen and Johansen and they had parasails to go fast. Also they had communication and navigation equipment which made it easy for them to know where they were.
On August 13th, they ended their journey and went back to Norway. Actually Nonsen and Johansen pioneered the Franz Josef land. So it was a tough time to them, but Ousland said, "It was just like a holiday to us."

The Woodpeckers' Task

The short article, The Anatomy of Painless Peeking in The National Geographic of Oct. 2007, by Helen Fields discusses the task of woodpeckers who do their job of feeding themselves without any nasty headache or pain. She supports this argument by giving one statement from a doctor who studies about Woodpeckers' movement. It shows that their eyes are more tightly held in place by bone and surrounding tissue, totally different from human eyes which have room to move around. Furthermore, she was still curious if the woodpeckers would have headaches when they do their job for seeking food. Finally, Helen draws the conclusion from her studies that animals never do anything to hurt themselves.

New York’s Chinatown

Even though I did this summary long time ago I didn't post it. Sorry.. I was so lazy.. :).

Each year, 12,000 Chinese arrive in New York legally. If we were to include all the illegal Chinese in New York, the number would be huge. When the Chinese left their country, they had a big America dream and a firm ethos. They believe that if they could work very hard they would be successful in America. They also always remind themselves why they came to America and they say though I am here, my heart is in China. Chinese guys usually come to America by themselves and they try very hard to make money. So they can send money to their family. Their job’s environment is very limited and hard. They work long hours and they work in sweatshops or Chinese restaurants. So when they get in accidents their compensations are very weak. For example, a man lost several fingers his company only paid him $50 a finger. Even though their lives are poor and hard in America the Chinese are proud of their nation and never forget their nationality. In addition they are happy and positive because they can do something for their family as a father or a son. Also they never feel that they are lonely because they live in their second small country, Chinatown.

Silicon Valley inside the dream incubator

National Geographic Dec.2001 by Cathy Newman

According to Newman Silicon Valley is not an official geography but it is a 1,500 mile piece of northern California, a mecca of technology. There are lots of high tech companies there, such as Intel, CISCO, APPLE, HEWLET-PACKARD etc. and many people who believe they have developed technology for making human's life easier. Silicon valley is the perfect mecca of technology. Many companies there secure huge human resources, people who were educated from Stanford and Berkeley. Also, many investors invest there. These high tech companies have already invented lots of useful products and wireless networks. However they are never satisfied with their work. They want to invent better and faster and easier and smarter things. In addition, Silicon Valley's people are always open for business. They always crave to find new and creative ideas and they finally make dreams come true. They call that mind techno-optimism. That coupled with their openness to conduct business create ample opportunity. That kind of mind-set makes Silicon Valley still the top address for geniuses and entrepreneurs in the online universe.

Summary of article

In his article, "The pollution within", in National Geographic, october 2006, David Ewing Duncan discusses the issue of levels of toxicity present in our human bodies. According to his article, everyone is exposed to a number of toxic chemical by using nonstick pan products, sweet-smelling shampoos, plastic bags, and so on. These convenient things make our life much better, but they are also a shortcut to death.

People can be exposed to chemicals before they are born, in the womb of their mother. After they are born, they are affected by their mother's breast milk. And as the grow up, the gather many more chemicals through the air, water, soil and thousands of essential goods that are used in daily life.

People already know that the ocean of northern California contains mercury, so the author who usually doesn't eat fish, tested how much the level of mercury in his body changed after eating fish which is from the ocean just outside the Golden Gate. His level of mercury had more than doubled and the tester advised him to avoid repeating this kind of experiment.

We can't stop using man chemical products because these goods are necessary for our life. But many people have already known how much the exposure of chemicals are dangerous by reading articles, newspapers, or by watching the news. So we can try to reduce this exposure. For example, we can reduce the use of plastic bags or try to use public transportation or biking instead of using our own cars.

Hi, you guys!

Hello everyone. It's Kimika.

I haven't visited this blog for a very~ long time since I changed to TOEFL class. Some of you may not know who I am, but I was in Denise's class for a while. I really miss my old classmate Anatoliy and Shu who left the school already. :{ I really had a good time when they were still at this school.   Now, I have good news for Denise that I just received today from Anatoliy. He told me he might come to school to visit us. :) (Wait! Should I have told you guys? Is this a surprise from him? oops :[])   Well, It's good news but, anyway, that's not my main topic. ;P            

My topic today is about a "Green Cup". If you know me, you might know that I'm a green person like Denise. ;) I really love to do recycling, and I've been recycling for at least 10 years, since I was in high school. So now if I don't do it, I will feel guilty and just "itching" to recycle. Yeah. It might be a kind of mental illness. Lol

Ok, The pic down there is the one what I want to introduce to you guys. Yeah, It's a reusable cup and it looks exactly like Starbucks' paper cup. More than just looking like one, even an employee can't tell that it's not made from paper by looking. I know because while I was at a Starbucks coffee shop reading my English book, an employee tried to throw my cup away when cleaning my table. :") 

The reason that I try to introduce this cup to you guys is because I notice that people use paper cups too much more than they need in this world. For me, I like to hold a paper cup because it's proof that I purchased something and it makes me feel satisfied psychologically. In fact we are all the same. So that's why people like to buy something that's tangible, instead of an intangible thing. ....Blah blah, what a bunch boring stuff I said.@@

I mean, you see, This cup is really cool, especially when you take this Starbucks cup to Tully's.  Everyone will stare at you. Oh, I mean in a good way because the cup is cool....;P  Tully's employees can even remember what kinda flavor I always order. And if you bring your own cup you can save $0.10 on each purchase not only at Tully's but at Starbucks too.

Come on guys, use this and save paper cups! @@ b    ~~please~~ `u^

I really like to go to Tully's because it is a good place for an artist. I see many of them around there and sometimes they come and chat with me. I've learned a lot of stuff there, and I even got a chance to make a tattoo design for a guy who saw my sketch.

BTW, If you purchase one item you can get points on a Tully's card, and you can get a FREE drink from the points you've accumulated. If you buy a coffee everyday you really need this to save ur money!!        ^-^ b

 

I bought this cup from Safeway not starbucks.

Ok, now I have to go to get my paycheck from Tully's!! They hired me to make this AD. 

Just kidding~~lol 

See you around school.

PS: It's made of porcelain, So it's easy to clean. :}   (I forgot to mention it.)

When Foreigners Pronounce Thai

Communication is very important for people to survive in society. I'm one who loves to learn another language to improve myself. In addition, I used to take Japanese classes when I was in high school however, I forgot everything because I didn't use it in my daily life. By the way, everytime when I hear some foreigners speak Thai, I am so surprised and proud of them. Also my brother in law, he can speak Thai too eventhough he's an American. Absolutely, he can speak very well.

More than that, I know a guy who is willing to be a missionary in Thailand. Last New Year's party I met him by chance at church and wanted to check his Thai accent. After having a conversation, I noticed that he studied Thai so hard and he ready to visit Thailand as a "Thai-American person". Unfortunately, he made a mistake when he wanted to say I was so beautiful. He said "Khun Suay Mak".He pronouned the word Suay with high tone and that meant you are unlucky. On the other hand, if he pronounced Suay with low tone, it would be correct. So, I quickly corrected him because I didnt want to be an unlucky girl.

Please remember this all you American!

Apologies for my absence Thursday

To those who went to class on Thursday, my sincere apologies.  I hope you were able to enjoy another class, or maybe you just took the day off.  See you all on Monday. 

signals can get crossed and other stuff

Signals get crossed when we miscommunicate.  This can happen even in your native tongue of course, but it happens more frequently in a new language we speak for many reasons.  Sometimes the problem may be lexical, that is we use the wrong word, sometimes it may be phonetic, when we say the word in the wrong way, or we mispronounce words.

I'm teaching you a lot of vocabulary on a daily basis because English is very, very vocabulary rich language, given its history and the great amount of borrowing we do from other languages!  I hope some of you are investigating some of these new words in the American Corpus, linked here on our blog.

We have also been spending a lot of time on pronunciation, and I appreciate everyone's attention and devotion to learning the IPA to effectively master the North American English phonetic system. Bravo!
I may want to record your reactions to the use of the IPA for my own personal investigation of pronunciation teaching.

I'm in the middle of studying for a final right now, back to the drawing board.

Oh, tomorrow is Rachel's last day and there will be a potluck, bring something yummy to eat or drink if you would like to participate.

Musings

I've been thinking about what I might want to do once I get my Master's degree - which is still one year away!  I've definitely thought about moving away to another country - my native Italy, or the Middle East to recapture childhood memories and regain some mastery of the Arabic language, or luscious, lovely Brazil where I can go swimming every day?  The possibilities are many and I feel so lucky to have so many choices.  Then again I think how wonderful the SF Bay Area is and how it has become my home for the past 30 years!  I also live in a super affordable home, a commodity that is hard to give up!  Time will tell and I relish how destiny will unfold itself.

Have something for you guys....

Hi guys~!!! How you guys doing?
I haven't posted something here for few months, hope you guys still remember who I am! I have been studying since I came back from US, I'm studying Business Management (ABE) here. It is quite an interesting course, especially Business Communication. You will learn how to communicate with people in business from this subject. Fortunately I had studied English in BEA before, so it won't feel too hard for me. I can handle it well! Thanks god^^ Beside that, I also started to learn photography and piano! I love my life right here, but also I miss the life and friends that I had in the United States last year. I really do want to meet you guys again. And here is some picture for you guys, please check it out!!



P.S: Welcome to visit Malaysia~! Tell me when you want to visit Malaysia :)