Plan B

Hi everyone,

I heard "American Life" from Chicago Public Radio.
Host Ira Glass presented a brand new episode about "Plan B".
There is something you plan to do. Unfortunately Plan A was not so positiv as you thought it will be and so you switched to Plan B.
Which I think how it goes from most of us.
Glass summarized the result of an informal survey. 100 people were asked whether they are living their Plan A or the back up Plan B. Only 1 person raised her hand for
Plan A. It was the youngest person in the room and 23 years old.

How many of you are still on Plan A?
Have you a Plan B in your head or already switched to Plan B?

The short stories are really funny:

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=205

Hi everybody, Shrbook is here again to give you a quick summary about a new technology for blinds or persons with low vision and deaf which was heard from a website. A GPS which is designed just for help blind to go to their places which help them to know how far from the store or the restaurant do they want to go for and its deliver for them by speech which someone describes everything for them. Also, If they are in the restaurant and they want to know what is in the menu today, they can take a picture for the menu and the GPS will describe everything in that picture for them. Another product which help deaf people to communicate with each other is (Vhad)+. Its a video conferences which made by Viable company. Those brand new technology are shown in Vegas before a month and they are very helpful for the blind and the deaf. However, its very expensive for them and its making them challenging to get it.


References:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=100029415

the resign of finance minister in Japan

Hello everyone,

The radio news I listened today's oral skill"s class was the following:
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/02/17/japan_fm/

This news is about that Shoichi Nakagawa,the finance minister in Japan, resigned his job just after his embarrassing performance in G7 conference in Rome. According to the news, he seemed totally drunk during the press conference just after the G7 meeting. After his performance in the press conference was broadcasted to all over the world, he admitted that he was drunk but he also justified his behavior by blaming the cold medicine he took in the plane to Rome.

If you are interested in this news and you want to watch his performance, you can check the following website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7893924.stm

Ice Climber

I just have listened to a broadcast from MPR radio station about a man climbing
an ice cliff, one the dangerous sports. The man is an ice climber expert.
He has climbing several ice mountains, but the last one that he climbed
seemed the most difficult ever. He was talking to with the radio station while he was
climbing; and he was about 30 to 40 feet up to the ice cliff he hadn’t gotten on
the top yet, but he was able to the university north of Iowa and even his house.
This sport is dangerous in many ways; if you fall you may not die instantly, but
you may have some broken-bones. You can have frostbite. You know what happen when you get frostbite? Doctor will cut the part because all cells are dead. It’s not a very easy sport; I figure that it requires a lot of energy to do. Whoever wants to listen to the broadcast can go on this link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=99844570

And there is a lot more to listen to, so enjoy it. Tell me if you find any thing interesting too.

Ahmed Alhammadi

I heard a question from female who had unprotected sex and she did the HIV test after 5 weeks so her question was after how long she had to do this test? She want to know if she did the right thing or not and her question was for a Proffessor whose major about health and science in Kinsey University and the Proffessor answered her by telling her that she did well and everybody made this test after 3or 4 months. Also, she told her about one type of testing that test a sample of blood or melth fluid to check the antibiod jn it and it takes from 2 to 3 weeks to get the result and it depend in the test centre, may be it become faster. In addition, she gave her some resources to check with like a phone number, website, and Doctor name. Also, she mentioned that thier is another illness that may be done by unprotected sex which name STIS and she have to ask her doctor. Finally, the proffessor give some advise for both genders to prevent those deseases by limiting their sexual partner and use a condom for all oral sex.



Refernce:
1-http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=18659325
2- https://moodle.umn.edu -> ESL 731 High Advanced Oral Skills -> NPR Podcast-> Health & science -> Kinsey Confidential

Budget-cut for education in California

Good evening guys,

This is Ryo Kanno.
Today, I checked NPR podcast and listened the following news:
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=13994805

This news is all about the budget cut for education in state schools in California. The news disscusses the bad effects on students who seek high quality of education. According to this news, an educational super-intendent in Calfornia state tries to persuade the board members of educational commitee, insisting that the plan of budget-cut must be rejected because the plan will ruin the students' opportunities for education and slowdown the effort to develop the equality to access to comuputer technology.

I cannot believe the news of the budget-cut for education in California, mainly because the government of the U.S. is now controlled by democrats -- not republicans. We usually expect that if the democratic party takes over the governmentality, the condition on education can be improved. It is because democrats usually distribute high budged for education in order to achieve the ideal of equal opportunities for education. But, the economical crisis in market and financial crisis, especially in California, seem getting worse and more serious than we expected before.

How do you guys think about this budged-cut for education?
If you are interested in the news, please check the link I put above.

See you, then.

dying a good death

hello everyone,

I have just heard mpr news and I hope it is not too strange discussing the topic here.
Medical science has made it possible to prolong physical life. Most in the step toward the end, there are interventions, people are put on life-machine. Under a pressure of time doctors and family members have to decide what is the best for the patient.
The two interview partner argued that there is a need for a discussion about "the way we die."

In my opinion prolonging life presents a moral and ethical dilemma for the medical profession and the family of the helpless individuum. Who can and should decide the end-of-life?

Here is the link for the article:
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/01/28/midmorning2/

What do you think about this?