Article for Next Discussion (just in case)

Hi Maria and James,

In case we don't have articles for next discussion, here's one I found interesting, from Newsweek:

The Dirtiest Man in China: The success of cross-dressing comedian Little Shenyang shows that sexual humor is coming out of the closet. Is China ready for raunch?

If James can make it and be the host next week, then let's use the article he finds later. We can always use this one later on :)

Best,
Angela

Article for July 31st Discussion

Dear all,


I enjoyed last week's discussion where not only ufology but also religions, cultures, and issues of right to know are addressed. Thanks James for having the interesting article!


This week we are going to talk about issues of the conflict between mother tongue and English. Though the case the author addressed is happening in Indonesia, I think we may reflect what happens there to what may happen / has happened in Taiwan. As Maria is from Indonesia, it would help us better understand the situation if Maria can provide her personal experiences and perspectives. However, Maria can't make it on July 31st. That's ok. We still have alternatives. If possible, Maria you can leave you comments regarding the article below on this blog, or you can share your perspectives with us the week after.


Sorry Maria I did not intend to put you on the spotlight, hope you dont mind :P


So here's the article we are going to discuss on July 31st (Taiwan time):


As English Spreads, Indonesians Fear for Their Language


Talk to you soon :)


Best,
Angela 
 

An article for 7/24 discussion

Hi there,


Last week we had a great time talking our visible friends, pets, and I would like turn our focus to the "visible/invisible" friends for 7/24 discussion. UFO!!! Here is an interesting but a little bit long article regarding to UFO and science.

Science, Secrecy, and Ufology


Hope you enjoy the space travel.


James

Articles for July 10th Discussion

Hi Maria hi James,

Hope you have a nice weekend! In the coming discussion we're going to talk about bureaucracy, specifically international bureaucracy. We may start our discussion by sharing some bureaucratic phenomenon we encountered and talking a little bit about the G20/G8 Summit held in Toronto during June 25 - 27. Here are some articles we can take a look:

1. Secretariat Work: Bureaucracies grow faster than they can be pruned (on international bureaucracies, from The Economist magazine)
2. some more explanations on bureaucracy can be found here.
3. To quickly gain some ideas about G20 / G8 Summit in Toronto, see this summary report.
4. you can find more topical articles on G20 / G8 Summit here, from CBC website. 

For James' information, Maria will have a class to attend on this Saturday, thus she won't be with us then. She will be back the week after and host the discussion on pet again. 

Guess that's pretty much it so far. Have a good one :)

Best,

Angela 

absence

Dear all,


I will be absent for the following two weeks. On June 26, I plan to move to Taichung. It will be very busy on that day. On July 3, I plan to go to Taipei to attend a conference. I'm sorry that I can't participate our study group for the following two weeks. Hope you have a lot of fun on the puppy issue.

Best,
James

Topic for July 3rd: Is the Dog Human's best friend, or is Human the Dog's best friend?

As you know that I have a puppy now. When the first time we took her to a pet hospital to have a health check up, surprisingly, the venetarian called me "mother" ... because I am adopting a ... PUPPY.
So I wonder ... what is the social status of a dog in human society nowadays?

Found some interesting articles about this:

1. Our Dogs, Our Selves


2. Since dog usually is treated a part of the family, this article Why Can't We All Just Get Along? The complex dynamics of babies and pets has some interesting issues.


3. And if you are also interesting in having a dog as a pet, you might want to read this article Finding the Perfect Dog There is no such animal. So, stop looking

Hope you find this interesting ^.^

maria

Change the blog background and more :)

Hi dear all,


Just being notified by google that they have new template for the blogger, thus I changed a little bit. hope u like it :)

as i mentioned earlier, i can't participate for the following 2 weeks, for my mom and boyfriend are coming to attend my convocation. In the meantime, we will go to Rocky mountain and Baff National Park and some other scenic spots in great Vancouver. This means that I will be seldom around computer and internet during these 2 weeks. Sorry for not being able to participate on June 19th and 26th.

Last afternoon Maria and me hardly talked about the blind people articles, simply because we only had one hour and we talked a lot about elections, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia stuff (mostly, politics and history ha). I'm thinking that maybe James you can still use the blind people article on the discussion next time (i.e., June 19), given the condition that u can be the host and that Maria can attend the session. If any of you can't attend the session next time or the week after, please do feel free to postpone or cancel it. 

I'll be back on July 3rd. Hope to talk to you soon :)

Best,
Angela