Blog Questionaire

Age: 19
Sex: Female
Degree Subject: English

'Being Bad' has related well to my other modules, and has given me many transferable skills such as writing essays, debating issues and expressing my views.

I have found 'Being Bad' to be at an appropriate level with a manageable amount of work.

I think a good selection of topics were covered in the module, and all were appropriate to 'Being Bad', i think it was good that we were able to make a suggestion as to what topic was lectured in week 12. The topic which was chosen was alcohol, and i think that it should be included as part of the module, because it is a central issue in modern society.

I think the format of classes has worked well, it was been useful to be able to attend the 5pm blog sessions, and i think it was necessary to have classes held as a whole group, because it allowed the topics to be debated more, with more people's opinions expressed.

I thought the module team worked well, because we had a different lecturer for each topic, meaning that we had someone who was specialised in that subject area.

I think it would have been useful to have small group discussions, because this would have helped with writing out blogs. I think the opportunity for discussion and debate among the whole class already existed, because we were encouraged to give our opinions on different subjects.

I think the module is a useful way of approaching the topics involved, English Literature is covered by the analysing of texts and writing essays, philosophy by looking at the morals of issues, film studies was covered when we watched the film, 'kids', philosophy by looking at the morals of issues, and politics by looking at the politics of issues and we were given the option to do a creative piece of writing for an assignment.

I think interdisciplinary modules are a good idea because it gives you more options to choose from and shows how different subjects can be closely related. I feel i have benefited from the interdisciplinary approach because it has made me look at things in different ways.

I think there should be more modules like this one, and i would like to take the follow on module ''It Shouldn't Be Allowed', at level 2, providing i can get it to fit into my timetable. I would recommend this module to a friend, as i have enjoyed it.

I must admit when i first learnt we would need to write blogs as part of the module, which would then be assessed, i wasn't very keen to the idea. However, after doing them i think they are a good idea, as they let you express your own opinions, it is also a change from your standard essay or exam, as a way of assessment. I thought it was a good idea to have two short assignments, especially as it was in two forms, as it let you show your skills in two ways. It also allowed you to correct mistakes if you didn't do very well on one assignment, because you had the chance of improving your grade with another piece of coursework.

The main thing i have learnt is to look at things in more than one way, and to understand why people have varying opinions. The most useful thing i have found about the module, is being able to hear and read other people's opinions, as its opened my eyes to other views, which helped when writing blogs.

I wouldn't say there were parts of the module that were a waste of time, the only thing i have really found that on a few occasions some of the lectures weren't that useful, and a blog could have easily have been written even if you hadn't attended them.

Overall i have enjoyed this module and found it stimulating, it has been one of the most enjoyable of semester 1 and 2 in year 1.

Obesity

Obesity is a major issue around the world, and looks likely to only get worse. It is estimated that one in five man and a quarter of women are obese in the UK. As many as 30,000 people die prematurely every year from obesity related conditions.

A BMI of 25 to 29.9 is considered overweight and one of 30 or above is thought of as obese, those with a BMI of 40 or more are considered morbidly obese. People who have a BMI of 19-22 live longer, then those with indexes 25 or more.

Experts believe that obesity is responsible for more ill health than smoking. Being obese is linked to a wide range of health problems, which include:

· Heart disease
· High blood pressure
· Arthritis
· Diabetes
· Indigestion
· Gallstones
· Some caners (e.g breast, prostate)
· Snoring and sleep apnoea. Stress, anxiety and depression

A study by the national audit office has estimated that obesity costs the NHS at least £500m a year! It costs the wider economy more than £2bn a year in lost productivity. Experts predict that if the current growth continues, three quarters of the population could suffer the ill effects of excess weight within 10 to 15 years.

It is tempting to suggest that more and more people are seriously overweight because they eat too much. However the reality is not as simple as that. A significant factor is that modern life is more sedentary than ever before. This is shown by a recent study that showed housewives in the 1950’s actually ate more calories than their modern counterparts. But were significantly slimmer because their daily lives involved fair more physical activity.

Obesity contains all kinds of 'bad'. It is dangerous to the individual, and costs the health system a large amount of money which could be spent on other things. There is nothing attractive about being obese, your health will be at risk, which will have an impact on your lifestyle.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/medical_notes/3189930.stm

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/health_advice/facts/obesity.htm

Swearing

Is sweaing bad? The BBC guidelines say the language that causes most offence includes

· Sexual swearwords
· Terms or racist abuse
· Terms of sexual and sexist abuse or abuse refering to sexuality
· Pejorative terms relating to illness or disabilities
· Casual or derogatory use of holy names or religious words
· Words for defecation

Swearing is though to have started as "a form of 'word magic', connected to religion, in early civilisations. People were more likely to believe in divine beings who had the power to punish them. So people called on divine beings in order to curse people they didn't like. This became a tabooed use of language, and sometimes, just saying the name of the divine being was tabooed." (Paul Baker, Lancaster University)

It is certain that swearing relies on being forbidden, a taboo. Whether the word refers to the genitals, a religion or to someone's race or colour, the intention is to shock and to offend.

Nevertheless, swearing has a powerful linguistic and emotional role in expressing shock and to repeat such offensive language paradoxically both reduces its power and risks offending readers.
Gratuitous swearing such as that by Gordon Ramsay in his TV series Hell's Kitchen (it is said he swore at least 5,000 times during the series) seems unnecessary to many, offensive to some yet Ofcom declined to uphold viewers' objections. It seems that the series traded on its notoriety and considered viewers should simply switch off if they didn't want to hear him swear.

The traditional phrase "sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me" may be a helpful playground riposte, but it is clearly untrue. Words describing other colours, races and creeds may be "just descriptions" to the speaker yet may be highly insulting to the receiver.

So swearing is usually insulting, certainly discriminatory and abusive, and is designed to show how little we care about the subject. Mostly it is unnecessary, best kept for the really emotional or painful moment instead of overused at every speech act. In that sense it is "bad language" because it is intended to hurt the listener.

On the other hand, from a purely linguistic perspective all we can do is to observe and describe it, because whether the language is "bad" or "good" involves a value judgment which is social rather than linguistic. The language here is doing the job it was intended to do - to hurt, insult and stir up anger. We may not like it, we may decrie it, but linguistically it is very effective.

http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language/13reg/swearing.html

Littering

It was reported in the news recently that postal workers who drop red rubber bands, which are used for bundling letters in the street are being targeted by anti litter campaigners.
Those caught doing this will be faced with on-the-spot fines of £80, Keep Britain Tidy also claimed that 6% of England’s streets are littered with rubber bands, a danger to animals if they are swallowed.

The figures come after the charity’s local environment quality survey, which records what litter is found on 19,000 streets across streets in England each year. Fines for littering can reach as high as £2,500, in cases which go too caught.

Litter is defined as anything that is thrown, dropped or deposited in public place, creating an eyesore and/or environmental damage. This includes

· Sweet wrappers and chewing gum on pavements
· Dog fouling
· Fly posters
· Fly tipping
· Abandoned vehicles

The most common types of litter are cigarette ends, sweet wrappers, matchsticks, drink cans and fast food wrappers.

Dog mess is a health hazard as it contains parasitic nematode that can cause blindness in babies and small children. Fly tipped rubbish can contain toxic substances. It is sometimes found in locations where it is hazardous to the public and wildlife. Chewing gum is very difficult and costly to remove from the pavements. It takes a lot of time and money to clear up litter, and costs around 5 million to deal with all the abandoned supermarket trolleys each year.

Littering is just generally bad. It is damaging to the earth, and can potenially be very dangerous to individuals. I also don’t think there’s any need for it. Are people really that lazy, that they would rather litter, and take risks than recycle is it really that difficult to dispose of litter in the correct way?


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7984849.stm

http://www.westsussex.gov.uk/environment/Litter.pdf

Bad Hospitals

As I live quite near to the hospital that was branded as appalling last month I thought I’d blog on it. To be fair I have had minimal dealings with this hospital, well with any hospital in fact, don’t like them! But anyone I know who has been all have their stories to tell, so I’m hoping I can carry on never having to go!

The healthcare commission looked into the care being provided by Stafford Hospital between the years 2005-2008, with the conclusion that patients died needlessly, this in its self I find shocking! A follow-up government review said the care was now safe, but there were still problems regarding staffing and equipment.

The healthcare commission reported in March that care and management were so bad, that receptionists were carrying out initial checks at A and E. It was also discovered that the death rate was much higher than expected, with there hospital having an extra 400 deaths than the average for the health service. Another report also concluded that the organisation did not do enough to seek out patients data.

The problems surrounding Stafford Hospital to me are completely unacceptable; you go to hospital to receive the best possible care, because you are ill. So to be treated in such an appalling way is disgusting. The behaviour is immoral, irresponsible and dangerous. I don’t think any one thing can be blamed for the hospital being in such a poor condition, it’s a collection of things. Thank god the problem is being solved before anymore unnecessary death occur!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8026863.stm

Domestic Violence

Pop star Rihanna's beating by boyfriend Chris Brown sparked a national conversation about domestic abuse, a tragic issue that rarely makes it into the national spotlight despite the millions of women (and some men) who fall victim to domestic violence every year.

According to the National Center for Injury prevention and control women are the victims of about 4.8 million physical assaults and rapes by their partners every year. Less than 20 percent of battered women seek medical treatment following an injury.

Domestic Violence is a pattern of controlling and aggressive behaviours from one adult (normally a man) towards another (usually a woman) within the context of an intimate relationship. The violence can be physical, sexual, psychological or emotional abuse. The violence and abuse can be actual or threatened and can happen once every so often or on a regular basis. It can also happen at any time in a relationship, in new relationships or after years spent together. All forms of abuse are often from the abusers desire for power and control.

Rihanna's celebrity pushed the issue to the forefront of our national conversation, when a leaked photo of Rihanna's battered face reached the media. After reports that Rihanna returned to Chris Brown, after this incident much of the conversation shifted to the question "Why doesn't she just leave?" It seem reasonable enough to wonder why a battered woman would stay with an abuser. But it's also essential to consider the complicated power dynamics involved in abusive relationships, which make it difficult for victims to leave their abusers; on average, it takes a battered women six attempts to escape her partner for good.

Domestic Violence of any sort is wrong. It is immoral and dangerous. People who do it, do so in order to gain control, but no-one should be able to control someone in this way. It is completely unacceptable.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/relationships/domestic_violence/whathh_index.shtml

http://www.alternet.org/reproductivejustice/132169/rihanna_and_domestic_violence:_how_we_are_messing_up_a_teachable_moment/?page=1

Alcohol

Alcohol is considered to be a social norm, and it is used to brighten up almost any social occasion, from weddings to funerals, casual meetings to formal dinners. A lot of people drink at least once a week, some maybe every night, is one drink a night acceptable? How many drinks before it becomes a problem?

There are all sorts of drinkers, the alcoholics who drink everyday and have had their lives completely destroyed by alchohol . Super strength lager is only adding to this problem, being cheap and readily available it is wrecking lives. It contains almost 8% of alchohol, and for many of Britains alchoholics, it is the drink that starts and finishes everyday.

Then there are the binge drinkers, where people can drink more than the safe recommended consumption for two weeks. This effects around 30% of young women, and 40% of young men.

It is estimated that one in a hundred people are damaged by alcohol through no fault of their own. These are the innocent victims, who some medical experts believe mothers drank during pregnancy unaware of the potentionally devastating consequences.

British teenagers have a drink problem, they consume twice as much alcohol as they did 15 years ago. Half of 15-16 yeaqr olds told a recent survey they had been drunk in the last month, and a similar number said they had first been drunk at the age of 13 or youger. Where do they get ir from? We all know how strick showing ID has become, so its obvious they are not getting it for themslves.

Alcoholic liver disease can take decades of hard drinking to develop. It used to be a disease of old age but not any more. As recently as 1992 the average age of diagnosis was 69. But that has now fallen dramatically to just 49.

Remember alcohol is a posion and kills brain cells, it also has a large increase in people who commit suicide. Drinking can be dangerous behaviour.So why do people drink? For entertainment? To gain false confidence? To fit in socially?

Personally i think that drinking isn't a problem for the majority of people, it's just knowing how to keep it under control. I'm not a big drinker, but when i do, i probably do 'binge'. So whats worse drinking regulary or binging?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/4267548.stm