{Topics on 04.13} Please Make Sure to Touch Topics in Advance & Post a Comment

[TOPIC 01] Airline to charge passengers by weight   Samoa Air has become the first airline in the world to base fares on a passenger's weight. The national carrier of the South Pacific island nation has discarded the traditional pricing model of asking fliers to pay for a seat and instead has moved to a price-per-kilogram structure. The airline flies domestically between the country's two main islands and has started international flights to American Samoa and Tonga. Travelers pay a price of around US$1 per kilogram on shorter routes, and over US$4 on longer flights. Samoa Air CEO Chris Langton said the new initiative would help promote health awareness in Samoa, which has one of the world's highest rates of obesity.   Reaction to the new pricing scheme has been mixed. A spokeswoman from the New Zealand-based campaign group Fight the Obesity Epidemic vehemently opposed the new fares. She said: "I think that's absolutely appalling. It's a stigmatization of people, and really, just powerfully discriminating." A Samoan community leader said he appreciated that weight was key for airlines. He told the New Zealand Herald: "I weigh 200kg. I would be okay to pay the fare, provided it's reasonable, but I don't think it's a good excuse saying that they're trying to promote healthy living - that's a lame reason." Many industry analysts believe other airlines will follow suit in charging overweight passengers extra.     1. What springs to mind when you hear the word 'air fare'? 2. What do you think of Samoa Air's new pricing policy? 3. What do you think is another form of discrimination? 4. If this pricing schme was proposed by an airport in Korea, how would the public receive this policy? 5. Do you think the airline provide enough service to passengers?   [TOPIC 02] Caffeine May Boost Driver Safety   Long-haul truck drivers who drink coffee or other caffeinated drinks are significantly less likely to have an accident than their uncaffeinated peers.   Australian researchers looked at data on 530 drivers recently involved in a crash, comparing them with 517 who had not had an accident within the past 12 months. All were driving tractor units with one, two or three trailers.   The researchers interviewed all the drivers, gathering information about various health and lifestyle issues, including caffeine consumption over the past month. The study was published online in BMJ.   After adjusting for age, driver experience, distance driven, hours of sleep, naps, night driving and other factors, they found that drivers who consumed caffeine were 63 percent less likely to be involved in a crash.   According to the lead author, Lisa N. Sharwood, a research fellow at the George Institute for Global Health in Sydney, Australia, this does not mean that caffeinated drinks are the answer for road safety.   “Clearly drivers are using caffeinated substances to help them stay awake,” she said. “While this may be useful for a period of time, it should really be seen as part of drivers’ overall fatigue and health management in a quite dangerous industry. It isn’t sustainable to go without sleep. But caffeine is useful as part of a wider strategy.”   1. What is your opinion on the effect of drinking caffeinated drinks before driving? 2. Are you a coffee drinker? Why are you drinking coffee? 3. If a driver is sleepy, what should he or she do? 4. There are studies which say caffeine is good and studies which claim that caffeine is bad. What do you think?