Category: asumiy

The other day, we discussed a report on illegal music downloads. In the UK, around 7.7 million people have illegally downloaded music these days, and more than 1.2 billion tracs are pirated or shared. Furthermore, it is clear that more than three quarters of music downloaded in the UK is illegally obtained. Under these circumstances, the music industry has been fighting hard against piracy for about ten years. However, they have not stopped the flow. The reason for this is because technology moves much more quickly than measures of the music industry. Moreover, there is a generation that believes music is available to download for free on the internet today. Therefore, illegal music downloads are still rampant.

I think that it is impossible to exterminate illegal music downloads. There are two reasons for thinking that. First of all, as the article says, technology has developed very quickly. So if the music industry deals with some illegal downloading services, a lot of new ones will appear immediately. Second, many people have illegally downloaded music. So it is inconsistent with reality to control all the members. For these reasons mentioned above, the issue of illegal music downloads is too difficult to solve. Therefore, under these circumstances, the music industry should consider how to protect musicians, songwriters and music companies, I think.

The other day, we discussed a report on the plan of NASA. According to this article, NASA wants  normal people to apply to be astronauts, and some of them will work on preparation for their journey to Mars. However, there are some requirements for applying. First, they have to be US citizens. Second, they have to be pretty smart and accomplished. Thirdly, they have to pass the NASA long-duration spaceflight physical test. If someone fulfills all of these requirements, he/she can take part in the space missions. NASA thinks that U.S. astronauts will be at the forefront of the new and challenging space flight missions.

When I read this article, I felt that technology has developed rapidly. It is wonderful to go to Mars. At the same time, however, I think that NASA should work out the plan very carefully. At present, people have little information about Mars. Therefore, we don’t know how dangerous Mars is correctly. Under these circumstances, if NASA makes people go to Mars, serious accidents may happen. NASA wants to be at the forefront of the new and challenging space flight missions, but it should not be in a hurry. I think that NASA has to prepare carefully before their journey to Mars.

The other day, we discussed a report on resignation of Japan’s education and sports minister. In this country, its minister, Hakubun Shimomura has submitted his resignation because of troubles with planning of Tokyo’s National Stadium for the 2020 Olympic Games. In fact, the plan was too costly and delayed. Therefore, Shimomura wanted to take responsibility for the problems. However, decision making for this plan was prevented by a council of senior officials, including former Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori, local media said. Then, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decided to scrap its plan and to select a new stadium design in November. However, the delays in starting construction have raised the risk that the Stadium may not be ready by 2020.

In my opinion, resignation of the minister makes no sense. First of all, Japan has to construct the new Stadium by 2020, and the minister should make an effort toward this goal. However, it looks he shifted his responsibility onto another person. And his resignation makes construction of the Stadium all the later, I think. Not only Japanese people but also people around the world take part in the Olympic Games. Therefore, this problem of the new Stadium influences the whole world. So Japan must lose no time in going ahead with a plan for a new design.

The other day, we watched the presentation “Leather and meat without killing animals”. First, the presenter points out that maintaining a lot of animals for leather and meat will bring risks to our planets and ourselves. For example, global warming, bad public health, and decreasing food security. Therefore, he proposes the new way : biofabrication. This technique is that cells themselves can be used to grow biological products like tissues and organs. In short, biofabrication is a humane, sustainable, and scalable new industry. Then, he recommends that we should begin by reimaginig leather. That is because it is so widely used, because growing leather is technically simple, and because it is easy to receive for people. And finally, he expects that people will trust biofabrication and eat meat made by its technique without resistance.

In my opinion, we should use biofabrication for leather, but should not do for meat. At present, human beings raise billions of animals for ourselves. Because of this, greenhouse gases is increasing and disease is spreading. Moreover, there is a question whether it is morally OK to kill animals for our food and clothing. Therefore, under these circumstances, I agree to biofabrication for leather. As presenter said, we will be able to receive leather of rare material. If so, we should use its thchnique for clothing in order to solve above problems, I think. On the other hand, I oppose biofabrication for meat. Will we be willing to eat meat made by biofabrication? I think the answer is NO. There is surely resistance to eat “chemical” meat. Furthermore, not only human beings, but also other living things eat “real” animals. In short, it is natural that living things eat “living things”, I think. Therefore, we should not use biofabrication for meat. In conclusion, I propose that we develop biofabrication for leather in order to solve mentioned problems.

The other day, we discussed a report on satellites in Canada. In this country, the group “Urthecast” plans to put 16 satellites in orbit around the Earth. According to the Urthecast’s president, the purpose of this plan is to take vast amounts of Earth observation imagery, and to use it variously. In order to achieve this goal, Urthecast tries to develop new technology, radar sensors. These radar sensors will circle the Earth and lead the optical cameras of satellites. Moreover, these sensors will guarantee clear Earth imagery, because these sensors can lead cameras to the cloud-free locations. Thus Urthecast is going ahead with this plan.

When I read this artcle, I feel that technology has developed rapidly. It is wonderful to take vast amounts of clear Earth imagery. At the same time, I think that this topic suggests the gap between rich and poor countries. In rich countries, new technology is developed one after another, and people get more information. On the other hand, in poor countries, there is little money for the latest technology, and people can’t get information. Certainly, rich countries may want to keep new information to theirselves. However, today, the world is becoming globalization. Therefore, it is important to have new information jointly all over the world, I think.

The other day, we discussed a report on epidemic in West Africa. In this region, the number of new Ebola cases has gradually decreased: for example, that has dropped to zero in Liberia and to about 30 in Guinea and Sierra Leone. Then, President Omaba invited the presidents of these three countries, and said that the grobal measures against Ebola and future pandemics in West Africa must continue. In fact, on the model of the international leader, the United States made its military to build treatment facilities for Ebola in Liberia before. Now, besides Ebola, all three countries have struggled with malaria, measles and so on. Therefore, their challenge now is to figure out how to retool the massive Ebola response infrastructure to adapt to other health concerns.

In my opinion, the United States is cunning and selfish in this situation. It is true that American military built treatment facilities in Liberia before in order to support this country. However, at present, the United States doesn’t act concretely to West Africa, and only speaks in a public place. Fortunately. in developed countries, medical treatment makes progress and there are a lot of money. Therefore, there is not much risk of occurrence of the epidemic problems. However, in developing countries, medical treatment doesn’t make progress and there is not enough money. In this situation, developed countries’ support is indispensable for developing countries. Considering the circumstances mentioned above, developed countries must put themselves in the opposite position and act concretely to the epidemic problems, I think.

The other day, we discussed the report of religious conflict. In Burma, Muslim gold shop workers used communal violence and killed more than 40 people including Burma’s Buddhists. Therefore they were arrested. However, things have grown more serious. This incident triggered religious clashes between Burma’s Muslim and Buddhist communities. More than 12000 Muslims have been expelled from their homes and their whole areas have been destroyed. Moreover, Burmese president Thein Sein stated that the government would use force in order to prevent religious conflicts from getting worse. These are what the report said.

While I was reading this news, I couldn’t feel that this was close to me. Japanese people believe many kinds of religions and are tolerant toward them. Therefore there are no conflict in Japan. On the other hand, a lot of countries are troubled with religious problems. This is because various religions have long histories with bloody war and every believer has firm faith, I think. From these reasons, I suppose that it is difficult to stop these clashes. However, it must be possible to let various religions compromise little by little. In order to achieve this aim, Japan should spread all over the world its tolerant view of religions and be the center of active exchanges of many denominations. By Japanese roles like this, I expect that many people will gradually start to consider other religions.