Octuplets celebrate first birthday

A single and unemployed woman, Ms Suleman, celebrated with her eight babies for their first birthday in California. According to the post, she felt that her family is growing to be too large for it could be.

Q1: What are the advantages and disadvantages of growing up in a large family?

Well, there are always pros and cons for anything. A large family would look crowded and children would not suffer from loneliness. Their childhood would be more interesting as they always have companion in case their parents weren't at home for them. However, children would get easily fall into jealousy especially when parents give more cares towards other rather than him or her as in to be left out. They could easily get into quarrel too.

Q2: Do you have a lot of siblings?

I do have a lot too. There are four siblings including me. I believe more than two is considered as "a lot".

Q3:What are the advantages and disadvantage of having a lot of children if you are a parent.

Having a lot of children would help to decrease parent's burden when they help out to do housework or helping each other in homework, as well as taking care of one and another. Somehow, it would be a burden too in terms of expenses.

Q4:Would you like to have a large family ? Why? Why not?

It depends on one's ability. If I have a good paid or a steady income and am able to take good care of my children, why am I not allow to have a lot of children?

Ling

Smokers might decrease through the ban of government

I found out that smoking rates in Britain and other European countries have been coming down in recent years and that decrease was reflectled the falling rates of deseases like lung cancer.

Q: How do the number of smokers reducing?
This is because of various policies including a ban of advertising, putting grisly pictures on packet and raising the age of sale of tobacco to 18. This seem like have changing consumer lifestyle choices.

Eventually,it would be awesome if our country follow the steps of them to ban the smokers. I absolutely hate the "smell" of smoke and hope that our government will take action to solve such problems. Our government should rely on"saves lifes and protect health".

Scientists to discuss alien life

Hi all

This article is a science report from Guardian, on a gathering in London regarding extra-terrestrial life. (For those who haven't seen the article yet, here is the link to the original web page on Guardian website: +). This scientific conference is held by the UK's national academy of science, and the possible effects of Extra-Terrestrial (do you remember ET and Spielberg?) life on humanity is the main focus of the discussion.

Among interesting things that the article has reported is Dr. Drake speaking, which claims that satellite TV and the digital revolution is making humanity more and more invisible to aliens from other planets. Which means the chance of us being seen by the far more advanced civilizations of the alien ETs is being decreased!

Two statements are proposed at the end, for further discussion:

1. Sending rockets, people and satellites into space is a waste of money - we do not need a space program.

I personally do not agree. At least, it is a part of science, as a human intellectual endeavor to discover, explore, understand and explain the world and universe in which he lives and exists. This knowledge and discovery may also have many benefits and utilities as a result.

2. Trying to discover new, and possibly hospitable, planets is vital for our future survival.

It could be a good -and interesting- suggestion to try finding some place other than the earth to live in, after fully exploiting it. But, apart from the possibility that we couldn't find a place so appropriate for human being to dwell as the Earth, if the way of exploiting new planet continues, we should also continue our searches for new homes as well.

Waiting to hear you on the topic!

Sadra

What the scientists are saying......

Does swimming make people fat???

after I read this article,I found out that certain form of exercise cause the participants to feel more hungry then others,with the result that any calories lost are likely to be replace quickly.
swimming in cool water,for instance,tend to make people crave high-fat foods.

Q.What kind of sport is the best for someone who want to lose weight?
a.running in a hot day is the best exercise to lose weight,because running on a hot
day actually suppressed hunger..

Organic food:grub for the gullible?

This article discuss that the "nutrient content" of organic produces is no higher than non-organic. It has been established that the organic tomatoes look as nutritious as a stubbed toe. This statement was agreed by Simon Heffer in The Daily Telegraph.

Q: Are the organic food now become commercial?
The organic food craze don't being nice to the environment.The businessman just grabbing a chance to "empty the wallets" of the gullible middle-classes.

Q: What is the reason of the impact on "environment stewardship"?
Modern farming tries to "crush,cradicate and blitz" the natural environment whereas organic farming methods work with nature.That might be a "hippy cliche".

In a nutshell, if agriculture is to develop then we must embrace new technologies.We can't just spurn away what is natural. If we don't,more many of us will go hungry.

NYPD

For your information, NYPD stands for New York Police Department. Supposingly, I intended to write this post last night as this topic would be my homework for yesterday. Somehow, I failed to sign in and this is my purpose of sharing to inform you that the password is not an "o" but a zero. Besides, do take note of the capital letter! I could only say few words about that as password is always confidential.

Somehow I feel this article is a bit difficult for me as I could hardly understand some of the paragraphs. The question goes: Is the article of Police Department considered as a discrimination? I would say that yes, it is. Rap could be considered as a culture which invented in U.S by the African-American, which in the first place, to stand out protecting the right for blacks, just like Martin Luther. However, according to the article, it states that the black should behave themselves and not to looked down for their performance. For my opinion, probably, they are yet not been kindly accepted by the white due to the contrasting culture and background, as I could not see any connection between rappers with the crime.

It's pretty confusing and one of the reason would be the insufficient of understanding about this article. Feel free to comment and share your opinion no matter you are agree o disagree on my points.

Ling

Smokers may face tougher bans

Hi folks

The article is a news report from Reuters (+), describing the new rules and regulations that smokers in Britain may face. The government launched these plans to reduce the percentage of the population who smoke. Removing branding from cigarette packets and banning cigarette vending machine are among them.

Three questions are asked at the end:

Q1. Do you think smoking should be banned?
Article doesn't say that the smoking should be banned, because the smokers have the right to choose their own way of life. I agree with the idea. The point is how to reduce the number of smokers with regulations the are not so much illiberal, like increasing the expenses or encouraging people to stop.

Q2. How can we encourage people to stop smoking?
With taking measures like banning vending machines, improving NHS Stop Smoking Services, tackling tobacco smuggling and maintaining awareness campaigns, as article has said.

Q3. Should smokers pay more for health care?
The question is not answered directly in the text, but in my opinion the answer is "no". Or you should do as the same for all the other activities that increase the chance of being harmed or becoming unhealthy. Think of eating fast food, just for an example!

Feel free to leave comments!
Sadra

Too old to be a mum?

Hi all. There are three questions from this article, i would prefer to share the information based on question:

What is the ideal age to become a mother?
- According to the article, fertility clinics,women above 45 are not suitable to be pregnant. For me, the age is not the vital fact but the mentality is the point.

What are the disadvantages and advantages of becoming a mother when you are old?
- to be honest with you, there is no answer from the article! For my opinion, the disadvantage is the mum might not be able to look after the child due to the physical constraint. The advantage could be a better bringing up for children as an older mum is more experienced.

What effect may having elderly parents have on children?
- Young children might feel lonely, helpless when the elderly parents have passed away

I was impressed by the elderly parents, especially mum because she is facing the greatest risk when giving birth as well as the illness developed after that. No matter what the elderly parents has decided, it should be for the sake of children.

Evan