Jez's Blog

The Humorous Privilege

2011-02-26T18:45:00.000-08:00

In his 2004 book, Status Anxiety, Alain de Botton, a philosophical writer, argues that the chief aim of humorist is not merely to entertain but "to convey with impunity message that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly." Further, because society allows, humorists --including cartoonists, stand-up comics, satirical writers, hosts of television programs, etc -- to say things that other people cannot say or will not say, de Botton sees humorists as serving a vital function in society. I cannot agree more with de Botton's assertion.

The end of our beloved world is just around the corner of our lifetimes. Just kidding, but seriously. Just kidding, but seriously? So is this a joke or what? Unless you have never heard about global worming, the butterfly effect, the ozone depletion, the rapid climate change, or other global environmental issues that are in presence, otherwise you probably won't take it entirely as a joke. Humorists are able to say things that other people cannot say or will not say because, with humor, they are able to make an unpleasant subject, or critic sound agreeable. According to de Botton, performances of humorists do not only aim to entertain their audiences, they also convey with impunity messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly. These messages are often attempted to bring up people's awareness of certain issues in the society in order to "correct" the society. As a result, these messages may involve critics of the authority such as the government or important public figures. However, people do not accidentally do bad things. They knowingly do wrong. This is why these messages may be dangerous to state directly. For instance, stand-up comics often make fun of social issues, particularly about sex or politics which are usually very sensitive topics to talk about in public. Yet, stand-up comedians are able to get away from openly stating their opinions or critics about these topics because they are funny, their performances are funny, which in fact makes their performances enjoyable. Humor is like lubricants: it alleviates the tension between the speakers or writers and their audiences who object their ideas or opinions. It is hard to say no while laughing.

Nevertheless, the advantage which allows humorists to present messages that might be dangerous or impossible to state directly is also a disadvantage. Being funny, indeed, is a main factor that allows humorists to say what others might not be able to say. However, being funny might also make it harder for the audiences to take humorists seriously. But the problem is that who else can effectively present sensitive topics in the public? Certain topics that are related to the society, especially those that are concerning flagrant social issues that nobody wants to discuss about. The purpose of the messages given by humorists are to "correct" the society. However, if nobody wants to talk about the problems, or to bring up people's awareness about the problems, then how is it possible to find the solution for these problems?

Certainly, when things finally gotten out of control, the authorial figures of the society, such as the president, will have to present the issues of the society, solemnly, to the people. The seriousness of a presentation of an authorial figure will, without a doubt, attract people's attention to the topic immediately. However, such seriousness may also cause intense objections. For instance, it has been hard for the government, or even some media, to discuss about homosexual. This is because that they cannot encourage, nor can they despite homosexuality in public. On the other hand, though, humorists can easily joke around with this topic. Furthermore, by discussing the topic with a humorous and relaxing appearance, humorists would less likely to offend their audiences, or cause intensive objections from their audiences (perhaps from the actual homosexuals, if there is any). In addition, if there is anything that has gone to the point where it needs an authorial figure to publicly address it to the people, man, it has got to be very serious. Perhaps it would take a war to solve it! Just kidding, but still, it could be hard to solve. Hence, this is why is humorists serving a vital function in society -- they bring up people's awareness for current issues in the society, intending to encourage people to "correct" the "flaws" of the society before they get too serious.

Personally, I enjoy reading works from humorists, or watching their performances. I realized that the reason why people, including myself, find the contents that are performed by humorists funny is generally because that many of them are about the reality. In fact, a lot of them may be similar to many people's personal experiences, so people can relate to them easily. Different types of humorists use different techniques to present their presentations. Cartoonists uses cute, goofy cartoon characters; satirists uses exaggeration, irony, sarcasm, and understatements; stand-up comedians use great humor, and present personal awareness...etc. But, after all, they all serves for the same purpose: not only to entertain people, but also to bring up our awareness to our societies. I wonder have any of you ever go, "oh my goodness, that is so true!" when you read, or watch humorists present their works? I have.

Reference:

- http://www.americancorner.org.tw/americaslibrary/aa/twain/aa_twain_humorist_1_e.html

You Doublethinkers!

2011-01-30T06:02:00.000-08:00

People pray to god when they hope for comforts, good lucks, and other things. However, some of them might be atheists. I am technically a Buddhist, but I doubt the existence of Buddha sometimes. Am I a doublethinker? Or am I only a skeptic? Or are they the same? Referring to George Orwell’s novel, 1984, doublethink is “the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them.” For instance, in 1984, Winston Smith, the main character, works for the Ministry of Truth, where historical certain documents are destroyed, and are rewritten before bring published in order to fit the policies that are established by the “Big Brother,” or the totalitarian government of Oceania. Thus, he believes that the real history of Oceania is possibly not exactly the same as how it is written in textbooks, and how it has been taught to people. However, he is forced to believe that the history of Oceania is exactly how it has been written, and how it has been taught. Doublethink is considered as a crime -- thoughtcrime -- in Oceania, and doublethinkers will be punished by death. Is Winston in life danger? Is he committing doublethink, thoughtcrime? Is doublethink possible in reality? If so, how do we determine it?

In 1984, Winston, unlike other citizens under the Big Brother, does not follow Big Brother’s policies indiscriminately. Instead, he has his own thoughts. However, because having personal thoughts that are against the government’s will in any sorts is considered as a crime in Oceania. Thus, Winston kept his personal thoughts written, and hidden in his diary, and follows everyone else’s beliefs in public. In one part of the story, Winston questions the credibility of history textbooks in Oceania. Being enlightened by the content of his job -- destroying and rewriting historical documents -- Winston becomes curious about the real history of Oceania. He believes in both possibilities that the history of Oceania might be different than how it has been taught to people, and that it might be just the same as how the Big Brother says it is. The reason why Winston also believes that the history of Oceania might be exactly how it has been taught to people is because that, despite questioning the credibility of textbooks is considered as crime, he, himself, is also taught to believe that the textbooks are correct, and he has no historical documents to prove them wrong. Anyhow, Winston is accused for committing doublethink due to his ambivalence towards either or not to trust textbooks. According to this point, if ambivalence can be considered as doublethink as well, then doublethink is definitely possible in reality.

I am a Buddhist, but I doubt the existence of Buddha sometimes. I doubt the existence of Buddha because there is no hard evidence suggesting that Buddha does exist. The only “prove” seems to be the Buddhist legends, and stories. However, I accept the belief in which Buddha do exist because, as a Buddhist, I am supposed to. Further, when being inside a temple -- surrounded by the sacred atmosphere, and religious people who believe in Buddha by their hearts -- I automatically believe that Buddha do exist. Nevertheless, I am a skeptic about the existence of Buddha when I am on my own, in places that involves no religious matter. The definition of doublethink is the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one’s mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them. In this case, I accept my religious belief, which suggests that Buddha exist. However, I also accept the belief which suggests that Buddha do not exist due to the lack of evidence proving that it does. And this probably explains how a religious scientist may be the master of all doublethinkers.

Doublethink is not the same as belying. Doublethink is to accept both contradictory beliefs whereas belying is only believing in one of the two contradictory beliefs, but pretending to believe the contradictory one as well in order to belie one’s true belief. In the reality, there are several cases where people belie their true beliefs, usually under a force, or pressure of the authority. For instance, North Korea is a totalitarian state. Recalling a documentary about the reaction of cataract patients when they were cured by a professional American surgeon, each patient, and their families thanked the ruler of the country, Kim Jong-il, by cheering for him in front of his portrait, and promised to serve for him forever. On the other hand, the American surgeon was ironically left behind. No one thanked him. All the North Koreans believed that every goods that they receive, are granted by their great ruler. However, was it their true belief? Or was it out of fear? Fearing that they would be punished for not worshiping their ruler. In this case, if one believes that all goods are granted by the Kim Jong-il out of fear, it is not doublethink. Instead, it is belying -- one is only pretending to believe that all goods are granted by Kim Jong-il in order to hide their true belief, which might be that the American surgeon, rather than Kim Jong-il, is the one who people should thank for the remedy for cataract.

As a result, doublethink is not impossible. According to the cases of Winston doubting the credibility, and accuracy of history textbooks, and my personal experience as a Buddhist skeptic for the existence of Buddha, doublethink may seems complex, but is actually almost equal to doubting! When one is in doubt, they have two contradictory beliefs, and will accept both beliefs are true. Let’s take another example: a girl suspects that her boyfriend is cheating on her, but meanwhile, she also believes that he is not that kind of person. Doublethink. Either the girl’s boyfriend is cheating on her or not, she believes both that he might be, and that he might not be. However, doublethink shall not be confused with belying. Belying does not require one’s believing in both contradictory beliefs whereas doublethink does. Belying is, perhaps, common under a totalitarian state, or dictatorship nowadays. People would belie their true beliefs, that are against the authority's will, by pretending to believe in only the belief which is for the authority’s will, due to the fear of brutish punishments.

Reference:
- http://wethewarriors.wordpress.com/ [Image. We Are The Warriors if Freedom.]

Tai Hang's Most Stylish Granny

2011-01-10T06:46:00.000-08:00

Who says that one can no longer be stylish when he/she gets older? According to a CNNGO article by Bruce Foreman, Zoe Li, Hong Kong Editor on 18 November, 2010: 77-year-old Septuagenarian Cheng Shen Lai Fan "stands out on Tai Hang's Wun Sha Street like a gilded rose in a compost heap. This old looks geat every day."

Cheng is loyal to the traditional Chinese costume of the samfu, which she gets special tailored, favoring bright and bold prints. Cheng has lived in Tai Hang for her entire life, and is known by everyone in the neighborhood. Everyone calls he "ah lui," which means "daughter." It is a flitting nickname for someone who admits to vanity more suited to a young girl.

Under the reporter's encouragement, Cheng models her collection of samfu, the traditional shirt and trousers that were used to be worn by southern Chinese women. The outfit was a sartorial representation of the merging of the Han Chinese and the Manchu rulers during the Qing dynasty. Cheng says her mother was an advocate of this style of clothing. She also admits that she was once very embarrassed by her old-fashion mother. And so she found it ironic that later on, she has started to wear the samfu herself. Cheng's kids try to persuade her to give up the samfu. They even bought her modern clothes. However, Cheng has never considered of wearing them. Each of Cheng's samfu costs HK$200-300, depending on the material. They have lasted her as long as 3 decades.

In the society where I live in, many people have the same traditional belief of that one cannot be stylish anymore once they have grown old, or when they have had kids. However, I am not one of those people. "I just like to look pretty," says Cheng, in the article. A girl will always be a girl -- always likes to look pretty -- even at 77, and there is nothing wrong about it. In my opinion, no matter if one has grown older, has gained weight, has had babies, they can still be stylish if they want to. Of course, there may be certain circumstances where it may not be appropriate for some people to be as stylish as they wanted. However, despite that, being stylish is not young people, particularly young girls' priority.

Reference:

R.I.P. | S.T.D.

2010-12-29T08:40:00.001-08:00

I could share some very personal stories -- that have just happened recently -- here, but I decided not to because I do not want people to feel sorry for me. However, based on several personal experiences, I've realized that: like a wound, when it gets deep enough, you won't feel the pain; and the scar that the wound leaves, will recall the memory of that battle, and remind one that they are still alive -- when one has lost enough of what they have, they may become numbed about losing, but the memory of one and their lost ones will be forever irreplaceable, and will remind them that they are still alive, and capable of doing anything to make the best of their days.

Life is a cycle, people get born, get old, get sick, and will all eventually die. I remember having a conversation with my mother one day. I knew that she is quite scared of death, but I thought people may change, so I asked, "mum, are you scared of death?" She said yes, still. She said it's because that she thinks there are too many things to do in life, and once we die, we can no longer do anything. True. However, I think the reason why she would feel this way is because she is carrying a lot of responsibilities in her life -- her family, our family, her job, and her friendships with many people. Then she asked me if I am scared of death, too. I told her that I am scared of seeing, or even imagining people die, but I'm not scared of my own death as long as it is meant to be.

I have experiences of losing the loved ones, both people and things, either by death or other reasons. My feeling at the time was awful, deadly, heartbreaking -- the feeling of grief. However, once you've lost them, you can hardly do anything about it. And so, finally, losing loved ones become like getting scars from scratches. The very first time you get scratched, you may be all worried about that it might leave a permanent scar, and if it does, you may feel sad about having an ugly scar on your once flawless skin. But when you get scratched a few more times, you know that it will leave scars on your skin, and that you can do nothing about it, but to accept it; you won't see it as a big deal anymore. In fact, you might as well feel more alive when you see your scars because each scar has their own story -- I have different memories, and stories with each of the loved ones that I have lost. Each of them had, and will always have an irreplaceable position in my life. It is painful, indeed, to have lost them. However, I am now living with the fact that they are gone. Moreover, they remind me that we shall seize the day, make each day as particular as possible because sometimes, life is too unpredictable.

Reference:

http://weheartit.com/entry/5874297 [Image. weheartit.com. © All images are copyrighted by their respective authors.]

Dying Teen's Chance on Love

2010-12-22T18:12:00.000-08:00

A young couple, Sabrina Parker and Matthew Scozzari, decided to take a chance on love while there is still time.

Sabrina, 16 years old, suffered from ALS, which is supposed to be an "old person's disease." The disease causes muscle weakness in hands, arms, legs, or the muscles of speech, swallowing or breathing; twitching, and cramping of muscles, especially those in the hands and feet; impairment of the use of the arms and legs; "thick speech," and difficulty in projecting the voice; in more advanced stages, it also causes shortness of breath, and difficulty in breathing and swallowing. ALS has killed Sabrina's mother and grand mother as well.

On the 20th of November 2010, Sabrina and boyfriend Matthew had a "friendship ceremony," in which the young couple would exchange their friendship vows (click here to watch the video of the ceremony). By being set in a church, with the presence of a priest, and the family members of both Sabrina and Matthew, and the exchange of rings, the ceremony is quite similar to a wedding. Hence, considering that Sabrina would never be able to grow up to get married, I believe this ceremony meant a lot to her. Moreover, Matthew was very brave for being there for Sabrina. He is also brave for having fallen in love with Sabrina because - considering the fact that many of us may not bare to watch our loved ones dying - he had to face the fact that she would not live long.

Based on a few chitchats with some girlfriends of mine, I know that many people who are looking for a relationship are not necessarily looking for their "love of life." Many people just want to have a company who knows him or her well, and who he or she can share everything with. As a result, breakups and heartbreaks are very often seen. However, I am not suggesting that everyone should be looking for their "love of life" when searching for a relationship. No, that might give the relationship too much pressure. What I am suggesting is that everyone should cherish each and every relationships, even just friendships, that one had or have, with those that he or she loved or loves. Like how Matthew cherishes his relationship with Sabrina. Sabrina died in ten days after the ceremony, and Matthew was by her side.

"[Sabrina] changed me a lot. I change from somebody who doesn't really care to somebody who had something to live for and care for; and being around [Sabrina] just makes me smile. . ." -- Matt

Reference:

- http://www.astantin.com/sabrina-parker-and-matthew-scozzari-astantin-20101221/sabrina-parker-and-matthew-scozzari-photo2-matt-scozzari-and-sabrina/ [Image. Sabrina Parker And Matthew Scozzari Photo 2. Wifh Love, Sabrina Parker and Matt Scozzari Face a Deadly Diagnosis. © 2008 - 2010 Astantin.com]

You Better Watch Out. You Better Not Cry. You Better Not Pout. I'm Telling You Why...

2010-12-06T04:48:00.000-08:00

I have ran out of inspirations for blogs. Hence - since it is December, in which Christmas is just around the corner - I read an article, from Yahoo Lifestyles, Who is Santa? that talks about how should parents explain the truth about Santa to their children. In the article, eight-year-old Jack told his mum, Susan Stoddart, that he was wondering if the presents under the Christmas tree came from his parents. "Ir was a very positive conversation." Said Susan, "We talked about the values Santa represented and the idea of Christmas spirit."

According to the article, Claude Cyr, a professor of pediatrics at the Universé de Sherbrooke, in Quebec, explains that kids began to have doubts at about age seven. This is because that younger children engage in magical thinking, whereas older children (seven years old or above) begin to be able to distinguish fantasy from reality. In other words, older children are becoming concrete thinkers, in which they become more concerned with right and wrong, with what is true, and what is a lie. "Children want [parents] to tell the truth when they ask if Santa is real," says Cyr. Moreover, he suggested that listening to children's response is more important than the answer parents might give because it encourages them to express hopes, dreams, and fears. As a result, instead of answering the question, parents may sand the question back - ask them what do they think.

Six-year-old Kevin came home from daycare upset, one day, because an older girl told him that Santa is not real. "This upsets him because he still wanted to believe that Santa is real despite the doubts he had," explains Sibley, Kevin's mother. Sibley always tells Kevin to believe in what seemed right to him. As a result, he became much relieved and said he still believed in Santa.

I, myself, have never believed in Santa when I was little. This is probably because he is generally not part of the culture in where I come from - Taiwan. Therefore, as I read the article, it was a bit hard for me to feel the disappointment of the children who have finally been informed that this friendly, generous, and grateful old man who gives out gifts to every good child in town on Christmas Eves, is not real. However, I could imagine how hard it might be for these kids to overcome with such daunting fact. Also, I could imagine how hard it is for parents to explain it to their children while still keeping them open to hopes, dreams, and imaginations. I did not believe in Santa. However, I did believe in magic, and souls. I remember that when I was little, I was told, by my parents, that tables have their own souls. And so, due to respecting the souls of the tables, I shouldn't clime on it. I believed in that. In fact, I remember that I apologized to a table because I accidentally give it a stretch; and excused myself from a table before I stepped on it to turn on the fan on the ceiling. Yet, all these beliefs faded away from me, regardlessly. Only, perhaps, the realization of that magic is not real was quite daunting. I remember I have had imagined that I am a witch when I was little, and that I could heal the injury on my mum's hand by my magic power.

Anyhow, the "myth" in which tables have their own souls helped to create my respectful personality. Also, the belief in magic contributes to my imagination. Moreover, though Santa is not real, according to the Yahoo Lifestyles article, studies shows that belief in Santa encourages imagination, kindness, and co-operation; promotes family bonding; and increases the awareness of needs of others - children's letters to Santa often contain wishes for someone else, including the poor and the sick. Before reading to this point, I thought I would never let my children - if I am going to have any in the future - to believe in Santa.

Reference:

- http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/parenting/santa-article-k8ja.html

Holiday Em@il Checkers

2010-11-29T23:47:00.000-08:00

How capable are you to log off for the holidays? According to a survey done in New York, most people (Americans) cannot manage to take a vacation from their electronic devices on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and other days off. A poll of 2,179 people by Harris Interactive in early November showed that more than half of American workers check their email on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas, and other holidays. About 6 in 10 working Americans check their email at least once during holidays, with 55% percent saying they do it daily, and 28% admitted to checking multiple times a day. Nevertheless, most "damningly," suggested by the survey, is that 1 in 10 respondents admitted to checking email at the dinner table, in the presence of family members. Moreover, the study also found that 67% of men logged on during the holidays whereas only 50% of women did so.

Personally, I think the study has smeared the situation in which many people seem to stay "logged on" during the holidays. I believe, as me, myself, is an example, that many people, particularly workers, would stay tune on their jobs through the internet even during the holidays. I am not yet a worker. However, due to our school communicate with students through emails, I check my email multiple times a day. I also check my email with the presence of my family members, but I am not discouraged by the words "the most damningly," which the study uses to describe such behavior. I check my email during holidays as well, maybe not as often as work/school days, but I do. Personally, I only think this as a doing my job of keeping track on my work. Sometimes I do homework on holidays, and I know that I am not the only person who does so. The reason for this, is not to avoid family times, well, not usually, but to use the time provided by these holidays to do things that only work/school days won't be enough time to get them done. Also, the fact that more men logged on during the holidays than that of women do may just because that there are generally more men are involved in business than that of women do.

Anyhow, the survey shows that 42% of respondents said they believed that "staying up to date eases their workloads once the break is over." But Mattew Ingram at Gigaom suggests that staying plugged in "can also suck you into a vortex of work that leads to even more emails." If you have a Facebook account, you might actually agree with Ingram's point. I had a basketball game against another school yesterday. Our team won the game, so everyone were all excited about it last night. As soon as I opened up my Facebook page, I got 3 notifications, all for the posts on the Girls' Basketball Team Group. I replied some of them, because I myself, indeed, was also very excited about the victory. Then, immediately, another 3 notifications popped up. This time, they are for the comments on my posts, and people liking my posts. This urged me to reply the comments, and so I did, commented back. Finally, I spent an extra 10 (or more) minutes on Facebook. I was drawn into a vortex of replying comments on Facebook.

As a result, "About 6 in 10 working Americans check their email at least once during holidays." So what? It is not the end of the world. It is just a trend in people's living style as more people put emphasis on their businesses and jobs. Besides, according to the survey, 19 percent of the respondents actually said that they were grateful for the distraction that checking email brought from family time. However, I do suggest us all to spend as more time with our family as possible because who knows when are we going to miss them eventually?

Reference:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/theweek/20101126/cm_theweek/209679;_ylt=Al4F.x3F6kBoengBkpf_.br9wxIF;_ylu=X3oDMTJoZmw1YmpuBGFzc2V0A3RoZXdlZWsvMjAxMDExMjYvMjA5Njc5BHBvcwMxMQRzZWMDeW5fYXJ0aWNsZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3QEc2xrA3doeWNhbnR3ZWxvZw- [Yagoo! Opinion. Why can't we log off for the holidays? Nov. 26 2010. Copyright © 2010 Yahoo! Inc.]

Faux Fur? Fox Fur?

2010-11-20T15:51:00.000-08:00

Looking at the poster above, "here's the rest of your fur coat," how do you feel? It is obvious anti-fur ad. As people who are interested in fashion, and keep track on the latest fashion trend, we know that fur products has returned as a major trend in this season. However, look at the ad above again, even if the coat is absolutely fashionable, and gorgeous, wouldn't you feel any guilt for buying the coat, killing, or even murdering all those poor animals who have their skin, now, on you? Well, you wouldn't have to if you also look at the other side of the story.

According to the Yahoo News, Fur makes a comeback - with more humane claims, "some top labels including Chanel, Nina Ricci, put faux fur on the runway that was indistinguishable even by trained eyes from the real thing."Also, rabbit fur and lamb shearling that are used by accessory brand Be & D are byproducts of the meat industries. Though, Adam Roberts, the executive vice president of the animal deputy nonprofit Born Free USA is skeptical about the claims of fur only as byproduct of meat industries. "I think a lot of shoppers want to justify their chices They want to feel better about buying one product instead of looking at the industry holistically," says Roberts. I personally disagree with his opinion.

Sure, as he suggested, that there couldn't possibly be enough rabbit eaten in the US to meet the fashion industry's demand. However, those rabbit fur may be imported from other countries or, if the demand of fur products increases so dramatically that the company could no longer afford it (which I think is likely impossible), the company can always promote a seasonal collection which is only available for a limited period of time. Furthermore, Steve Dumain, Be & D's founder and creative director feels that "fur really goes back to protectivewear." He mentioned the hunter-gatherer period of our, evolution, the evolution of human. When humans were still hunter-gathers, the primary function of fur was only to keep ourselves warm during cold weathers. Today, in many places, especially places that have harsh winters, fur is still maily used in clothing for its warmth.

Finally, I agreed what Sasha Iglehart, the deputy fashion director at Glamor says, "wearing fur is a personal choice, but weather you prefer faux or real fur, it's a fashionable way to stay warm." I think as long as you have at least a little understanding about the background of where the fur came from, and as long as you accept it, fur is just another material that we ues from simplely clothing purposes or otherwise, for fashion purposes. Besides, don't we have the same "humane claims" about meat consuming? Keeping oneself warm is just as important as keeping oneself healthy. Like choosing to be a meat eater or a vegetarian, one can choose to wear faux fur, real fur, or no fur at all. The point is that no one has to become Curella in order to wear fur.

Reference:
- http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101119/ap_on_bi_ge/us_fea_fashion_fur [Yahoo News: Fur makes a comeback - with more humane claims. © 2010 The Associated Press.]

- http://adland.tv/content/shock-tactics-big-picture [Image: Shock tactics, the big picture. © 1996-2010 Adland.]

Thanks, But No Thanks

2010-11-13T21:50:00.000-08:00

Last year in Anthropology class, we have learned that chimpanzees are our closest relatives among all primates. There were studies, and experiments that show the similarities between humans and chimpanzees' behaviors. It is especially obvious when comparing a human child (around 3~5 years old), with a young chimpanzee. This is because that despite the advanced feelings and thoughts that we develop as we grow older, many of our, the chimpanzees and ours, initial abilities are very similar, or even the same. We seek for what we desire, and what we need.

30 minutes ago, I had an argument with my father. He assumed that I would need advices about college from a friend of him who scored above 600 (almost a full score) in his TOEFL test. However, I had, and still have, no idea about what I am going to talk about with my father's friend. And so, the problem is that my father is offering me "help" when I do not need it. The argument immediately reminded me of a video which I watched in Anthropology class last year. The video is a document of an experiment, which tests chimpanzees' resorting ability. In the experiment, if I still remember, the chimpanzee would have to remove a heavy weigh in order to get the fruit underneath it. The weigh is too heavy to be removed by the chimpanzee alone. The chimpanzee realizes this, so he seeks for human, the instructor's help. With the instructor's help, the chimpanzee successfully get the fruit he wants. And so, when the experiment is repeated with the same method, the chimpanzee does the same thing all over again. The result supports that chimpanzees will seek for help if they realizes that they need the help in order to achieve their goals (to get the fruit in this case).

If humans and chimpanzees are so much alike, then I believe that we will also seek for help when we know that first of all, we need help, and secondly, that with the help, we will be able to achieve our goals. So, I will seek for help if I need it, and if I know it can really help me. This is not being stubborn or being immature. It is just a matter of evolution. Besides, why helping someone who does not need the help? Thanks, but saving the time and the awkwardness may be more constructive.

Reference:

- http://www.thesharkguys.com/lists/top-10-pissed-off-primate-and-murderous-monkey-movies/ [Image: Chimpanzee. The Shark Guy. © Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 Canada]

Harry Potter's Invisibility Cloack on BBC

2010-11-04T22:44:00.000-07:00

If you have watched or read Harry Potter, you will then know the invisibility cloack which Harry recieves as a Christmas present in his first year in Hogwarts. According to BBC News, Invisibility cloak closer with flexible 'metameterial', scientists in the UK have demonstrated a flexible film that represents a big step toward the "invisibility cloak," made famous by Harry Potter. The film contains structures that form a "metamaterial," an artificial material engineered to provide properties which may not be readily available in nature, which can manipulate light to make objects invisible.

A metamaterial usually gain their properties from structure rather than composition, using the inclusion of small inhomogeneities (having a various structure throughout) to enact effective macroscopic behavior. The research in metamaterials involves such fields as electrical engineering, electromagnetic, solid state physics, microwave and antennae engineering, classic optics, etc.

In a work of metamaterial research, demonstrations of invisibility have occurred in light waves with a much longer wavelength -- a far redder color -- than we can see. This is considered as the most striking demonstrations of invisibility. However, this requires metamaterials with relatively large structures, which makes it easier to construct. Hense, the chanllage of creating a demonstration of invisibility for far shorter waves that we can see is that a metameterial requires its nanostructures - structures so tiny that they make manufacturing very difficult.

"The first step is imagining fist of all that this could be done," said Andrea Di Falco of St. Andrews University, the author of the New Journal of Physics.

Ortwin Hess, a physicist who recently took up the Leverhulme Chair in Metamaterials at Imperial College London, called the work "a huge step forward in very many ways". "It clearly isn't an incisibility cloak yet -- but it's the right step toward that," Hess told BBC News. He also added that the next stept woild be to characterise the way that the material's opical properties change as it is bent and fold; if the properties were sensitive to movement, the films may be useful for next-generation lenses; otherwise, if the properties were inpervious to bending and motion, then the film might be useful in contact lenses. "Harry Potter has to wait still - that's the huge goal," he said.

After reading the article, I have come up with two conclusions: first of all, it is that sometimes what matters is not the result in the end, but what may be gained through out the process of approaching the final goal. We do not know if an invisibility cloak could be actually invented, but at least we know that the film may be useful for several other things in the future.; and second, it is that we might not need to travel in the speed of light to be invisible.

Reference:
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11686303 [BBC News. Invisiblity cloak close with flexible 'metamaterial' BBC © MMX. Last Updated at 4 Nov. 2010.]

Nothing Lasts

2010-10-19T22:13:00.000-07:00

"Life will be so much happier if we grow younger each year!" I have heard this several times from either the same person or others. I wonder where did they get this thought. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button? The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a movie about a man who was born old, and the reason for his unusual birth is unknown. People thought that he will die very soon, but they are eventually proven wrong. Benjamin, the old baby, not only didn't he die early, but instead, he grows younger and younger each year.

While watching the movie, I caught the line which Caroline, Benjamin's girlfriend, said to him, "we will all end up with diapers anyway," after she asked him how is it like to be growing younger, which he did not respond. This made me ponder, perhaps to be growing older and to be growing younger does not make a lot of difference after all. It is like looking at a rope from the end to the head, and from the head to the end. The ends are still the ends. The rope is still a rope. Life is still life. We experience, we learn, we make mistakes, and we live through these mistakes. Then, in the end, no matter we are growing younger or growing older, our abilities decay. In either end, the youngest or the oldest, we will end up forgetting things that we have remembered, and losing things or even people that we have loved.

In the movie, as he keeps growing younger, Benjamin eventually forgets his wife, and as well as the life that he used to have. What can be worse than forgetting the person who you have loved so much, and who has always been loving you? What can be worse than forgetting the entire life that you have had, including all the best moments to be thankful for, and the worse moments to laugh about? So will life really be better if we all grow younger each year? I'd say no, and neither will it if we all just stays growing older. But this is how it should be. How life should be. Nothing lasts, and that's the beautiy of life. This is how we learn to cherish, how to regret, how to make and prevent mistakes, and finally, how to let go.

Reference:
http://exiledonline.com/page/7/?s=movie [The Exiled. THE EXILED–MANKIND'S ONLY ALTERNATIVE. 2010. All Rights Reserved. © ]

10 Things You Don't Know About Sound

2010-10-11T06:02:00.000-07:00

Noise is so common today that most of us have already gotten used to it. However, from CNN, Julian Treasure, the author of Sound Business, did a presentation on TED -- a nonprofit organization devoted to "ideas worth spreading" which it makes available through talks posted on its website -- to inform people about the 10 things we don't know about sound.

I think Julian's presentation is quite interesting. According to Julian, we are all chords, which are collections of vibration, and so that a definition of health may be that chord is in complete harmony. He said that listening does not equal to hearing. Hearing is passive. However, listening requires understanding. Julian suggests that "listening positions are a useful set of perspectives that can help people to be more conscious and effective in communication." The example that he gave to explain this point is that men and women have different listening positions that effect the contexts of their conversations. Men adopt a reductive listening position, listening for something, often a point or solution. On the other hand, women adopt an expansive listening position, enjoying the conversation, going with the flow. I think this observation is quite true no matter if it is really because that listening positions effect the context of a conversation. In fact, I think this statement might actually be another way around. Perhaps it is the context of the conversation that causes different listening positions. Let's take Julian's example, but apply my theory on it instead. The reason why women's listening positions are different from men, in my opinion, is because that the things that women usually talk about are different than what men do. Women's conversations are genuinely quite personal, whereas men might talk more about their business. Therefore, their listening positions shows that they are more open to each other.

Anyways, another thing that caught my attention in Julian's presentation is that "noise harms, and even kills." The statistics he brought up was shocking. The presentation mentions that "the WHO is also the source for the startling statistic about noise killing 200,000 people a year. Its findings (LARES report) estimate that 3 percent of deaths from ischemic heart disease result from long-term exposure to noise. With 7 million deaths a year globally, that means 210,000 people are dying of noise every year." Shocking, isn't it? The noises that we often negligent could actually cause us hearing diseases or even death! I remember that my dad used to tell me not to wear earphones all the time because it is going to sverely hurt my hearing. I guess he is not just overacting.

Reference:
- http://www.nj.gov/dep/enforcement/noise-intro.html [Image: NJDEP: What's All The Noise About? Copyright © State of New Jersey, 1996-2010]
-http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-10/opinion/treasure.sound_1_noise-vibrations-positions?_s=PM:OPINION [CNN: 10 things you didn't know about sound. CNN © 2010 Cable News Network]

A Solution? Or Another Problem?

2010-10-02T20:47:00.000-07:00

"Every solution creates another problem." I remember hearing this from my former biology teacher, Mr. Gumbay, and I even have it written on my notebook. "You can never make everyone happy." This is something that I've realized, and learned from experiences of being a SRC member. I remember these because I think they are so very true.

I was talking to a friend yesterday. She is the same age as me, 11th grade. She is an artist wannabe, and I am also interested in art, so I suggested her that traveling might help her to prepare for her portfolio. She agreed with me. Then we started to discuss which countries are worth to visit. She suggested Egypt. I suggested some countries in Europe. Then she asked me about my trip to Africa (Kenya and Tanzania) in this summer. "Have you seen people's lifestyle there?" she asked, "were they poor? Did you get to have direct contacts with the them? With all the diseases, life must be really difficult for them huh?" I expected every single question that she asked. It's because I've already been asked the same questions for a several times since I'd come back from the trip. However, I did my best to answer, and explain everything to her.

Yes, I have seen how people's lives were in Kenya. Generally poor, which I felt sorry for, but at the same time I was also impressed by the fact that they were still able to survive even thought life is hard. And because life is so hard for them, their view of values are very different from ours. They only get things that they need, not things that they want, but complete useless. I have learned this from a hotel manager's sharing of her own experience of opening a hotel in Tanzania. She is British (I figured it out based on her accent). She said that people's view of values are so different from hers that sometimes it made it difficult to manage them.

"With all the diseases, life must be very difficult for them huh?" Yes, even though life is already hard for the majority, the diseases has made it worse. HIV/AIDS, and malaria are fairly common in Kenya. 7.1 ~ 8.5% of the adult (age above 15) population in Kenya has HIV/AIDS. It is not rare for people to die from HIV/AIDS. Therefore, there are many orphans caused by HIV/AIDS deaths. I remember seeing a women sitting under a tree beside the road, with her likely-4-year-old daughter standing beside her, in her last stage of HIV. She was as thin as a skeleton, and the fact that I know she was dying broke my heart. We visited an orphanage called Nyumbani, which means "home" in Swahili. The orphans in Nyumbani are all HIV positive, and are all complete abandoned. I was lucky to have a chance to talk to the druggist who worked in Nyumbani. Through the conversation with the druggist, I was informed that the drugs have kept the children alive for much longer than the children before, when there were no drugs to help them yet. This gave me the weirdest feeling ever. I pity these children, yet they all seem so happy to be alive that made me feel like I shouldn't feel sorry for them.

"So... after the trip, do you want to become a doctor to help those people?" My friend asked me at last. I told her that I would if I am capable of doing it, but I'm not confident enough to say that I shall save a million lives from HIV/AIDS in the furure. If I'm not mistaken, I heard that there is now a posibility to figure out a cure for HIV/AIDS. However, a problem that came into my mind when I hear about the possible cure, is the problem of overpopulation. This might sound immoral, but in Kenya, families believe that the more children you have, the richer you are. It is not unusual to see a family with 5 children in Kenya. And so, will the cure of HIV/AIDS in Kenya lead to another problem, which is worsening the problem of overpopulation? Or maybe causing a high population density in Kenya, which may effect the wildlife with various reasons? As I said, every solution creates another problem, and I don't think people will be happy if they cannot continue to "be rich".

Reference:

How to Make Your Cell phone Greener?

2010-09-26T05:20:00.000-07:00

When we are asked about how technology is hurting our environments, how many of us think of cellphone? In the CNN news article: How to make your cell phone greener?, by Amy Gahran, CNN notes, "cell phones have become one of the most ubiquitous hallmarks of life in the 21st century, but they aren't necessarily good for the environment."

According to the author of How to make your cell phone greener?, the materials used to produce cell phones, from plastic to rare, powdery metal tantalum, which is now known as a conflict mineral due to its causing of local exploitation and violence in Central Africa (where the mineral is primarily mined), present a variety of environmental, and even human right issues. Further, energy is needed to charge cell phones, and also to transmit calls, texts/media messages and data across wireless carrier networks. Such electricity consumption adds up to greenhouse gas emissions.

Personally, I think cell phone is one of humans' greatest invention. It allows us to communicate, and to hear each others' voices no matter how far apart we are with the person in the other side of the phone. Communication has definitely become easier and more efficient with cell phones. However, like any other new technology, the industry of cell phone is hurting our environment. This has brought us to the question: how do we protect our environment while still being able to enjoy the services of cell phones? Here are some ways that are informed by How to make your cell phone greener?. Some of them I have never hear of, however, I think it is quite important for people to know them:

1. keep your cell phones out of landfills

2. sell or reuse your used cell phones

3. buy an used cell phone rather than a new one

4. choose cell phone models that claim to be greener than most; choose cell phones that are made of recycled or recyclable materials

5. text -- texting is the most energy-efficient communication option

6. call from an old-fashion land line, which uses less power to transmit calls

Save the Earth from that "one missed call"!

Reference:
-http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/mobile/09/24/greener.cell.phones/index.html CNN Environment: How to make your cell phone greener? CNN© 2010 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.]

2-Year-Old Child Smokes Marijuana

2010-09-18T20:39:00.000-07:00

"A woman has been arrested in America after footage was found on her mobile phone of her two-year-old daughter apparently smoking marijuana" -- Telegraph.co.uk

What the heck? This was the first thing came up in my mind when I saw this on the news. I was too shocked to realize what the mother has said in the video. However, as I watched the video again on YouTube, I caught the words "don't blow on it," and "bad". Also, I caught the mother's laughter, sounded satisfied and proud. I felt disgusted then. What is it to be proud about if your 2-year-old daughter smokes marijuana? What was the mother thinking about?

"It is everyone's first time to be a parent," a friend of my parents told me when I complained about my parents to her, "they've been trying their best to do it right." Her words made me stop complaining because I know what she said was true. I found a book called How to be a Parent on my father's bookshelf before. I thought it was funny, but I was also touched because I knew he bought the book because of me. He wanted to be a good parent, and he wanted to do it right, which was why he needed a book to teach him, that's all. However, because of this memory, it has become more confusing that a mother would teach her own daughter to smoke marijuana -- an action which may cause various health problems, such as heart attack and lung infections. I do not see how it is "trying to do it [to be a parent] right".

I have noticed the dressing of the little girl and the house in the background while watching the video. The little girl's dress seems too big for her, and the house seems dark, small, and unadorned. It is quite obvious that it isn't a wealthy family, and as most of us would agree, that poverty causes the lack of education, which causes recklessness in people's behavior. Perhaps, this is why the mother teaches her 2-year-old daughter to smoke marijuana. She might not know how dangerous marijuana could be when inhaled to one's body. I don't know... I really don't understand what the mother was thinking when she gave her daughter marijuana. Somebody should teach her that this is not right!

Reference:
-http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newsvideo/8008585/Two-year-old-child-smokes-marajuana.html [Telegraph.co.uk: Two-year-old child smokes marijuana. © Copyright of Telegraph Media Group Limited 2010.]

-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2W5H4mKPw50 [Video. YouTube: Video of 2 year old baby smoking weed, 'marijuana mom' arrested in Ohio. Source: Hamilton County Prosecutor's Office.]

A Bag of Everything

2010-09-12T00:35:00.000-07:00

Last night, while I was trying to finish my humanities homework, I found myself rather moody. There was nothing else but all these homework piling up on my desk, which I thought it might help reminding me how much work I had to do, and so that I had no time to be whiny and emotional. However, it was useless. I could not concentrate at all. Therefore I gave up trying to work, and decided to take a break. Then, as I dazed, a friend called. What a perfect timing? I thought. And so we started to chat.

I planned to mutter through our entire conversation, but apparently he was planning to do the same thing; and as tradition, when one complains, the other one automatically became the listener. In this case, I, the quiet one, became the listener as a matter of course. So I listened as he complained. He complained about all kinds of things in his life. It was too much to remember all of them, but I do remember one of them.

"My aunt once told me, 'imagine that you have a bag to put everything you have in it; and how heavy the bag is, is how heavy your pressure is,'" he said, "and everything includes your family, friends, school, job, books, clothes, and etc... it's everything." I loved this saying. It is basically saying that the more things you care about, the more responsibility you are taking. Yet you can never make everything all right, and that is where pressure comes from. However, before I could relate myself to the saying, he started to tell me how it relates to him. His bag is heavy because of it has his family in it. He told me how close everyone in his family is -- from his grand parents, to his aunts, uncles, father and mother, to his cousins and him -- and how this fact bothers him. "Everyone puts their attention on you," he said, "it's kind of stressful sometimes." Yeah, I agreed. I have a very big family on my mother's side, and I am the only person in the family who goes to an international school. So everyone has been quite curious about my future. They have been asking my mother about me, and of course, my mother always keeps them updated. This gives me a feeling as if I'm on a stage with a thousand audiences watching me. It enlarges every mistakes that I make. And so I'd have to be very careful of everything I do. Stressful, sometimes.

I have a discrepant mind. Thus, as I thought further of the saying, I thought that sometimes, on the other hand, what if there is nothing in the bag for you to carry? ". . . how heavy the bag is, is how heavy your pressure is." If you empty your bag just to avoid the heaviness, would you feel a since of emptiness? Could it be the more you are able to carry, to handle, the stronger you get? Like weight training -- the heavier you can lift, the stronger you become. Maybe it could be nice to have your "everything" after all. Besides, things that you would put into the bag are all the ones that you love, aren't they?

-http://www.selectism.com/news/2009/07/22/capsule-ny-shades-of-greige-bags-for-spring-2010/ [Image. Copied by Jez. 12 Sep. 2010.]

Bright Shiny Day Comes After The Rain: His Own Dad Tried To Kill Him!

2010-09-03T18:43:00.000-07:00

CNN reports, 30 year-old Chris Keith was 12 when he learned that his family didn't die in a car accident in 1985. Chris was explained, by his grandparents, that his father suffocated his mother, shot his brother, Mikey, in the back of the head while he slept, and the worse of all, before he committed suicide, Chris' father, shot Chis in the forehead. Medics had declared everyone in the house dead.

"It was almost like going through it again. I started feeling all these feelings again, of anger, of betrayal, of feeling like nobody wanted me. I was angry at the world, and mad at my grandparents for waiting so long to tell me," said Chris, ". . . . my own dad tried to kill me, so who am I supposed to trust?" These words struck me while I was browsing through the article. How would I feel if the person who I love, and that I trust, tries to hurt me? Shocked, angry, betrayed, and lost perhaps.

According to Chris, incident such as the one that Chris has experienced in 1985 still happens. For example, the resent case in South Carolina where a mother is accused of suffocating her two boys before putting them into their car seats and letting the car roll into a river. Why would a parent try to kill their own children, their own flesh? Chris wonders these questions as well.

Looking at news and stories like this makes people frown. Also, it may cause people to wonder about the morality of our society. What happened to morality among people that is causing parents to kill their children? However, fortunately that in Chris' case, he is able to bear his sorrowful memory, and stay positive about his life. "Doctors don't know why I'm alive. . . . I have a second chance in life, and I just want to make the most of it, and maybe help others who are internally suffering," he said to the CNN reporter. Chris married young, at the age of 19, due to his longing for a family. He believes that his 6-year-son is the proof of that good can come from evil. Now Chris tells his story to youth groups at juvenile justice centers. He tells struggling youth that they are not alone. "Even when we feel we have no inner strength left, you can make it," he says. I'm impressed by Chris' positive attitude toward his unfortunate past.

He's got many goals in life. At the top of the list: "To not end up like my dad."

Reference:
-http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/09/03/survivor.family.massacre/index.html#fbid=cxFA5Zf2tbH&wom=false [Picture, CNN News Article: My own dad tried to kill me. Copied by Jez. 04 Sep. 2010]

Captain Corelli's Mandolin Movie Follow-Up

2010-04-22T23:11:00.000-07:00

Few years after Captain Corelli leaves the island, he comes back to the island for Peligia. Things have changed since Captain Corelli leaves. First of all, Lemoni has grown into a fine young lady for no doubt. Further, no one have been seeing Mandras after the same night of Captain Corelli's departure, where Mandras last talked to Peligia. Some say he died of a broken heart. Yet others say he has started a family in Crete, an off-shore island of Greece, and is now a father of three children. The only person who knows the truth, perhaps, is Mandras' mother. However, she remains silent to any question about her son. Finally, The injury from the massive post-war earthquake that hits the island in 1953 slowly blinds The Doctor, Peligia's father. And so Peligia takes his place as a successful doctor of the island. Peligia is surprised to see Captain Corelli's returen. She is overwhelmed with joy. The couple realize that they couldn't live without each other. That night, Captain Corelli plays his mandolin to Peligia until she falls asleep on his shoulder. Then on the same day of the following week, they get married, and Lemoni makes a perfect made of honor.

Trip to 'Spring Pool'

2009-11-09T23:16:00.000-08:00

The 10th of November, Tuesday. Spring Pool is the name of a glass factory near the end of Neo-poo Rd., Hsinchu. Today, 3 classes from our school, the 8th grade art, the Chinese culture, and the art core class, which is the class that I'm in, went to visit Spring Pool. In the factory, I realized that there were only a several of workers, but many running machines. We had a tour going through the factory. We saw professional glass workers blowing glasses, and also making animals out of glasses. It was quite impressive that the worker could make a penguin out of glass in less than 5 minutes.

Because of the machines, the paths in the factory seemed quite narrow, however, every workers were being very careful in the environment. I've noticed that every workers were wearing gloves. Also, I've noticed, from each of their face expressions, that they were all very concentrated on their works. Further on, the works in the factory seemed to be divided. Workers had different jobs, and were to be responsible for each of their individual jobs. For example, I saw about 5 people working on a cup-making machine, and 2 women, standing near the gate of the factory, making sure that the surface of certain glass productions were even. As a result, even though I may not understand all the jobs that the workers were doing, but I could tell that they were all working together.

After the tour, we went to a room where they exhibit completed glass works, including cups, vases, goblets, and glass-made-arts. In the room, we met the manager of the factory. Through the manager's introduction about the factory, we were informed that the factory uses recycled, and reuses glasses. Also, we were informed that the typical style of glass-made-arts from the factory is things that are related to traditional Chinese culture. For example, a glass-made-Li Yu. And moreover, our tour, a professional glass maker called Joy Huang, explained the reason of why Hsinchu is famous for its manufacturing of glass. She said, 'Because of the resources of natural gas and silicon(glass sand), the government chose Hsinchu to produce glasses.'

This was an interesting experience of looking at the process of how the glass productions, such as cups that we use everyday, were made. Also, it's interesting to see how is it like to work in a glass factory, how does glass turn into different shapes, and especially, how glasses were blowen up like a balloon!

- http://www.libertytimes.com.tw/2009/new/sep/20/today-north18.htm [Pictures. Copied by Jez. 10th of Nov. 2009]

The Resent Nobel Prize Winners

2009-10-11T07:22:00.000-07:00

The resent winners of the Nobel Prize, for studies of the structure and function of the ribosome in 2009, are Venkatraman Ramakrishnan of the M.R.C. Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England; Tmas A. Steitz of Yale University; and Ada E. Yonath of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. These scientists showed how the information encoded on strands of DNA is translated into the thousands of proteins that make up living matter. Dr. Yonath set out to understand the detailed structure of the ribosome by growing crystals of the ribosome material from deserted bacteria known as Grobacillus stearothemophilus and then irradiate it with X-rays. Meanwhile, she has drawn others into the field, including Dr. Steitz. Dr. Steitz solved a key problem on how to explain the dots in the diagram of the large sub unit, aided by electron microscope images of the ribosome. Meanwhile, Dr.Ramakrishnan decoded the structure of the other half of the ribosome, which was the so-called small sub unit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/08/science/08nobel.html?hpw
[Picture of the Noble Prize winners. Copied by Jez. 11th Oct. 2009]
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/2009/
[The Nobel Prize in Chemistry. 11th Oct. 2009]

Current Events- Indonesia Quake Deaths Pass 500

2009-10-01T02:00:00.000-07:00

'At least 529 people are now known to have died in a powerful quake that struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra on Wednesday, the government says.' -- BBC

A 7.6-magnitude quake struck close to the city of Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province in of Indonesia. The earthquake has brought down hospitals, schools and shopping malls, cut power lines and triggered landslides. More than 400 people have been seriously injured, and the death toll is expected to rise.

The first earthquake of 7.6 struck at 5:16PM local time (10:16AM GMT) on the 30th of September, Wednesday. One of the biggest damage was a collapse of school in Padang. Police said that nine children had been found alive, yet that eight bodies had also been pulled from the rubble so far. And even moreover, David Lange, a doctor with Surfaid International, told the BBC one that of the hospitals was 'completely destroyed'. Then, on the next day, the 1st of October, Thursday, the second earthquake of 6.8 struck close to Padang at 8:52AM local time (1:52AM GMT). However, there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

People were trapped in destroyed towns with no food nor money. The rescuers struggled to find survivors in rubble of hundreds of collapsed buildings; and health ministry teams and Indonesian soldiers have arrived in Padang to aid the search for survivors.

In addition, the earthquake struck nearly 12 hours after a powerful quake in the South Pacific that triggered a devastating tsunami but experts said the two events were unrelated.

I felt a deep sense of pity after reading this news report. It reminded me about the Morakot Typhoon in southern Taiwan, August. The typhoon, just like the earthquake, has ruined thousands of people's houses and families. The typhoon has caused bridges and buildings to collapse, and a flood that whipped out an entire town. People were trapped, and the power lines were cut so that there was no way for the trapped victims to contact the outside.

However, these are the horrible things that we do not have the power to control. Like many other natural disasters that has caused certain changes in either environments, or humanities throughout the history.

- http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-indonesia-quake-pg,0,3901580.photogallery [Picture of the Indonesian Quake. Copied by Jez. 1st of Oct. 2009]

2012

2009-08-29T20:40:00.000-07:00

'According to the Mayan prediction, the 21st of December, 2012, will be the end of the world.' This is the main theme of an up coming movie called 2012. It might seems quite foolish to worry about something that happens in a movie, but what if it is real? 2012 is not as far from now as we thought. In fact, it's only 3 years later!

In the movie, there are scenes of hundreds of aerolites shooting down from the sky, buildings collapsing, ocean drowning the land, and earth cracking...etc. However, according to the information from So The Maya's Were Right After All, the Mayans had never predicted anything specific about what will happen on the day. The thing that is known, is basically that on this day, the Sun will be posited on an unique spot. Which the Sun will sit precisely on the heavenly crossroads between the Milky Way and the galactic equinox, forming a perfrctly alignment with the center of the galaxy.

Personally, I think what happens on the day, in the movie, is quite unbelievable, and unrealistic because first of all, everything just happens so suddenly; and further on, I've been thinking that maybe things are already happening right now, instead of all happening at once on the day. The climates have been changing oddly, and there are more and more natural disasters been occurring such as Typhoon Morakot in Taiwan on the 7th of August, 2009. Also, Earth's magnetic field is in a constant state of change. And so the Earth might have been gradually devastated until the day of the 21st of December, 2012. Though, what will happen specifically is still an open question. In fact, I believe that to many people, it's still a question that rather the day is real or not.

Hoever, What should we do if it is true that the world ends on the 21th of December, 2012? Should we just lay back, doing nothing, and wait for this very day to come? Should we start running around, screaming, and panic? Or, with all those highly progressed technology, and those smart brains that we have in our world, it is possible for us to do something about it?

- http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/Y2003/29dec_magneticfield.htm
[Info. of Earth's inconstant magnetic field, copied by Jez. 30th of Aug. 2009]

The Last Samurai - Be Proud of Who You Are

2009-05-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

The movie The Last Samurai was about Nathan Algren (by Tom Cruise), an American captain who had gone to many wars; and unfortunately, these memories of wars have happened to be his tragic flaw. However, one day, he was ordered to go to Japan, and so, he started his 'hero's journey'...

The setting of the story was around 1878, when the Japanese Empire was modernizing. Nathan Algren was ordered to go to Japan to teach the Japanese how to use modern weapons such as guns and cannons; and also to teach them how to fight with those weapons in a war. At the time, Nathan was alcoholic, apathetic, and had just lost his job... so basically his life was miserable, and he had lost himself. In the 1st war, He led the modernized soldiers to fight with the samurais, who refused to be modernized. And then, in the end, the samurais won the war.

After the samurais' victory of the 1st 'Modernity v.s. Tradition' war, somehow the samurai didn't kill Nathan, instead, they took him back to their village. In the village, the they took care of Nathan. They provided him a place live, provided him food, and also cure his injuries...etc. At first, Nathan didn't quite understand the culture of the samurai. In fact, he even belittled it sometime. However, as time went by, he started to love the culture of the samurai. Which I think, it's because that he found himself in this kind of honorable way of life, which everyone were tough yet respectful.

Then, after a few months, the samurais brought Nathan back to Tokyo, for him to return to his army. Also, on n the other hand, they went to Tokyo for the 'leader' of the samurais to meet the emperor of Japan. However, unfortunately either of these went well. Nathan didn't return to his army, instead, he chose to help the samurais to defeat modernization; and for the 'leader' of the samurais to visit the emperor, and talked about the conflict between modernization and the traditional, the 'leader' of the samurais turned out to become a prisoner.

While the 'leader' of the samurais was in the prison, Nathan, along with some other samurais, went to rescue him; and one tragedy that happened in this movement, was that the son of the 'leader' died. 'Father, it is my time, please let me stay,' said the son. Then, just before he died, he pulled out his swords, ran to the soldiers, and wanted to kill them with his last breath. However, he got shot to death in the end. And then after the 'leader' of the samurais was rescued, the samurais, and Nathan, returned to the village. They began to prepare for the 2nd war against the modernity.

In the 2nd war between modernity and tradition, the modernized soldiers were no longer weak as they were in the 1st war. They have learned better skills of using the weapons, and were better trained for fighting in a war; yet, the samurais stayed the same... Therefore I believe that most of the people could predict how the 2nd war ended.

Yes indeed, the samurais lost the 2nd 'Modernity v.s. Tradition' war.

However, even though the samurais lost the war, I was impressed by their spirits. They were always proud of who they were, no matter how much things have changed, due to the modernizing. In the end of the movie, the 'leader' of the samurais asked Nathan to kill him. He told him that he was honored to die in a war. And then, when he died, all the soldiers bowed to the 'leader' of the samurais. In which, I believe it was because that they were touched by the spirit, and loyalty of the samurais, to their tradition... and most importantly, like I'd mentioned that they were always proud of who they are.

Leofoo Village v.s. Frictions & Newton's 3 Laws of Motions

2009-05-09T18:08:00.000-07:00

Newton's laws of motions, and frictions, are everywhere in our daily life. Let me give you an example:

Last Friday was HIS' field trip to Leofoo Village amusement park. Let's pick on Newton's 1st law of motions, 'an object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force,' as an example: The first ride that Grace, my partner, and I went on was 'Volcano Adventure' (if u translate it from Chinese into English). How did Newton's 1st law of motions apply on the ride? Well it might be hart to see because everything was in controled by machines. However, the most obvious observation was that in the end of the ride, Grace leant foreward when the boat stopped; and the reason why was because that while the boat was stopped by the machine, there was no other force to stop Grace and mine motions of moving foreward.

Further, the ride on 'Volcano Adventure' was also an example for both kinetic friction, and static friction. When the static energy was greater than the kinetic energy, the speed of the boat slowed down. Which was what happened when the boat was stopping in the end of the ride. I think the machine had somehow increased the static friction between the track and the bottom of the boat, and then caused it to stop eventually. Also, in addition, I wonder if when the boat was sliding down from the ramps, its kinetic friction increases because when it slid down from the ramps, its speed increased. However, again, it's hard to prove this point from this case because everything was in controled by mashines. Hwo knows if they also controled the speed of the boats or not?

P.S. LeoFoo Village was FUNNN!! :D

Current Event of Climate Change- Geese decline 'caused by climate'

2009-03-26T08:05:00.000-07:00

The article, Geese decline 'caused by climate,' from BBC news, tells that the RSPB has warned that the decline in Hampshire's population of brent geese may be caused by climate change...

'To keep population levels stable, around 15% of a wintering flock should be young. This year, it's less than 1%,' said Chris Cockburn, the RSPB Langstone Harbour warden. These brent geese breed in one of the coldest place on earth, where it's extremely sensitive in any changes of its temperature. Therefore the climate change, which the general temperatures on earth are rising, has highly effected the breeding of the brent geese. They wouldn't be able to breed normally under such climate change.

In addition, I'd like to make a connection between what happened in this news article and what we've been learning in 09 humanities. We've been learning based on the topic 'why do civilizations collapse?' In which we've learned that one of the factors that causes a civilization to collapse is climate change. Therefore, as a result, in this case the climate change is causing the 'civilization' of the brent geese to decline.

P.S. The other possible reason for the decline of brent geese may also because that the Arctic foxes has taken the youngsters and the eggs.

Current Events

2009-03-09T07:23:00.000-07:00

1. Virus 'triggers child diabetes'

'Although genetics is known to play a fairly substantial role in a person's risk of developing diabetes, environmental factors must also be involved and the idea of a viral cause of diabetes has been considered for decades. '-- Virus 'triggers child diabetes', BBC News

The south west-based Peninsula Medical School and the University of Brighton allowed Dr. Alan Foulis to to look for evidence of the enteroviruses in tissue samples routinely taken during autopsy in 72 children and compare that with samples from 50 children without the condition. As the result, in those with diabetes who had signs of the virus, it was specifically found in the insulin-producing beta cells. Also, moreover, the researchers suggested that in children with a genetic predisposition to type 1 diabetes, enterovirus infection can trigger the immune reaction that kicks off the disease process; but with type 2 diabetes, the researchers speculate that the infection affects the ability of the cells to make insulin, which in combination with the greater demand for insulin in obese people, is enough to set off the disease.

However, the news Virus 'triggers child diabetes,' tells us that not only genetics have played a role in a person's risk of developing diabetes; environmental factors have been involved as a role that could cause a person's risk of developing diabetes as well. In specific examples, both genetics and obesity could cause diabetes, and effect ones' immune trigger.

2. Tsvangirai rules out foul play in fatal crash

'"It's certainly plausible that this was just one of those tragic things," he said.'-- Tsvangiral rules out foul play in fatal crash, CNN News.

The News Tsvangiral rules out foul play in fatal crash, is basically about that Tsvabgural, a person who has long been a leading opposition figure in Zimbabwe, but he joined a coalition government with Mugabe last month, had a car accident. But somehow, people are arguing that either the car accident was just an accident or it was a plan of taking Tsvangiral's life.

Noticing a car accident of a leader, such as Tsvabgural is normal. However, personally, I think being suspicious about this is quite unnecessary, yet, it is what strong political views give us. Therefore I think people should be more compromise-able, especially when dealing with things that are related to different political views. This way, we then may all live under a peaceful political party, isn't it?

SMASH Day- Toothpick Tower

2009-03-05T04:50:00.000-08:00

On the SMASH Day of the 4th of March, our task to build a tallest possible tower out of clay and toothpicks. We were instructed to draw a sketch of the design for the tower of our own teams, before we started to build our towers. Which was quite an important part of the scientific method because it gave you an idea of what you shall do next before you move on. However, we usually neglected it because we usually thought that we already had an idea of what we shall do in our head; or perhaps, sometimes we just wanted to try and see what happens.

Personally, I think that drawing sketches may be important, but not quite useful. Our team failed on the task, even though we've drawn a sketch of the design for our tower before we started to built it. Therefore I think sometimes you should just try different things as you move on; well, at least that's what we (my team) did at the end. We changed our original tower design a bit so that it could be built taller without collapsing. The reason of why we changed our design was because that our tower seemed to fall apart when we tried to follow our original design. And so, although we failed the task, we've learned another problem solving skill, which is to think of another solution when the original one was not working. :D

Apocalypto- Jaguar Paw’s New Beginning

2009-03-03T07:44:00.000-08:00

‘What are they?’ asked Jaguar Paw’s wife. ‘They bring men,’ replied Jaguar Paw. ‘Should we go to them?’ she asked again. ‘We should go to the forest, to seek for a new beginning,’ he said. Then both of them, with their two sons, left the cost and went into the forest, and leaving the Spanish boats breathing on the coast.

‘I’m Jaguar Paw, son of the Flint Sky. My Father hunted this forest before me. My name is Jaguar Paw. I and a hunter. This is my forest. And my sons will hunt it with their sons after I am gone,’ Jaguar Paw thought, ‘this is my faith...’ Jaguar Paw and his family walked deeper and deeper into the forest. Day after day, they continued their seeking of a new place to settle down; a place to begin a new community.

To seek for a new beginning was definitely difficult. However, since Jaguar Paw was a hunter, he was very familiar with the forest. Therefore he and his family survived quite well in the forest. Jaguar Paw knew where to get all the water, food, and even herbs in the forest. He also knew the easiest path to pass through the woods in the forest, where they shall travel on during days; and he knew the safest place in the forest, where they shall stay during nights.

Sometimes, when Jaguar Paw when out to hunt, his wife would stay at a safe place, and take care of their sons. One day, while Jaguar Paw went out to hunt, his wife and sons stayed in a cave and wait for him to return. BOOM! Suddenly, a gun was fired somewhere in the forest and made a massive thunder. Jaguar Paw’s wife was shocked, and so were their sons. But she stayed calm and quickly covered her sons’ mouths. ‘Shh..’ she looked into her sons’ eyes, telling them to be quiet. And then she saw something was moving behind the bushes, near the cave. ‘Jaguar Paw?’ she thought. But, just right before she decided to walk over and check things out, a jaguar, using his last breath, stretched his paw and roared…

‘Honey!’ Whispered Jaguar Paw, behind the bushes of the other side. Jaguar Paw’s wife quickly recognized the voice, and as well as where it came from. She looked at the place where the voice came from, and saw him putting a finger in front of his mouth, signifying her and their sons to be quiet. Then he pointed to the top of a tree, signifying them to climb up there. And they did so. Jaguar Paw’s wife carefully carried their little son on her back, and supporting their older son (who was already able to climb the tree on his own) while climbing the tree.

‘Ah… Mama!’ the older son cried soundlessly. But it was too late, he slipped from the tree and… A hand grabbed him just in time! It’s not his mama’s hand, instead, it’s a stranger’s hand. A hand of a unknown young man. This man looked terrified. He was also hiding from something, or someone. And so were his fellows, who were sitting right next to him, on the top of the tree. One of his fellows held Jaguar Paw’s wife and genteelly pulled her up. ‘Thank you,’ she said, scared but still very calm. ‘There’s no need to be scared,’
said the young man, who had just saved Jaguar Paw’s older son, ‘I belief that we are all here for the same purpose. We are all seeking for a new beginning of life.’

‘I’m Jaguar Paw, son of the Flint Sky. My Father hunted this forest before me. My name is Jaguar Paw. I and a hunter. This is my forest. And my sons will hunt it with their sons after I am gone,’ Jaguar Paw said, solemnly, standing on the highest branch of the tree, ‘I shall only share the forest with my sons.’ ‘Our home has been destroyed and overthrown by outsiders. We’d be willing to become your sons and daughters, just to find another home and a new life,’ said the young man. ‘Very well, I shall share this forest with you. And we shall all seek for a new home and a new life together, in this forest, our forest. My sons and daughters…’

Images. Copied by Jez. 3rd of Feb. 2009
- http://www.allmoviephoto.com/photo/2006_apocalypto_010_big.html
- http://www.theinsider.com/photos/10683_Apocalypto_Movie_Poster
- http://www.moviecritic.com.au/apocalypto-film-review/

Rain and snow bring relief to northern China’s severe drought

2009-02-23T05:10:00.000-08:00

According to the BBC news, Rain and snow bring relief to northern China’s severe drought by Matt Taylor, from the 22nd of Feb. 2009, I've noticed that the fact of climate change in the world is not only because of the Global Warming. It may also be effected by some artificial impacts as well.

'Last week’s snow and rainfall is being partly attributed to the recent cloud-seeding, which has been the government’s response to the drought situation. Cloud-seeding is a method of artificially enhancing precipitation by firing rain-producing molecules into clouds.'-- Rain and snow bring relief to northern China’s severe drought by Matt Taylor, BBC Weather

The wet season in China usually occurs in between May and September, and the weather is often very dry in the winter. However, the Chinese government used this method, the cloud-seeing, to create precipitation, in order to help alleviating the drought in northern China. But, nevertheless, even though the cloud-seeing has successfully alleviated the drought, isn't it going to harm the environment on another aspect? I'm pretty sure that it will, somehow. Yet, it's only a thought of mine. :]

Animal Farm- The Whisky Incident

2009-02-22T08:09:00.000-08:00

'No animal shall drink alcohol,' but there were two words that had forgotten. Actually the Commandment read: 'No animal shall dink alcohol to excess.' -- Animal Farm.

Napoleon and other pigs came upon a case of whisky in the caller of the farmhouse. After drinking, Napoleon became so ill that he though that he was dying. And so he animals started to worry about what should they do if their Leader were taken away from them. Also, meanwhile, rumors about Snowball has introduced poison into Napoleon's food, went around within the animals. Then finally, as his last act upon earth, Napoleon had pronounced a solemn decree that drink of alcohol was to be punished by death. But, Napoleon did not die, eventually, and he changed the commandment so that he wouldn't have to die. Hahahaha..(?)

- http://clipart-for-free.blogspot.com/2008/08/cartoon-clipart-animal-holding-beer.html [Picture of drinking pig. Copied by Jez. 22nd of Feb. 2009]

Mayan Technology v.s. Egyptian Technology

2009-02-13T22:06:00.000-08:00

As we all knew that the four factors, which are geography, society, economy, and technology, cause a civilization to rise. Therefore, by looking at a several of ancient civilizations, you may notice that for most of them, had similar geographies (such as rivers), social organizations (such as class systems), economy (such as trading), and technological skills (such as irrigation). However, in this article, it will be focusing on one of the four factors, technology.

I picked the technology of Egyptian Civilization to compare the technology of the Mayan Civilization. Both of these civilizations had developed their own counting systems/math skills. Even though these counting systems/math skills were different, both Mayan and Egyptian Civilization were able to use these skills to measure, to build. Therefore, they had both developed their building skills of their typical architectures. In which I'd like to mention that they had similar-looking pyramids; and these pyramids were used for a similar purpose as well --- in both civilizations, the leaders were buried under the pyramids. But, there were also some differences between the pyramids of the two civilizations. In the Egyptian Civilization, a pyramid might was simply a memorial of a Pharaoh. But a pyramid in the Mayan Civilization, it could be used as a calendar, a temple, or the place where ceremonies were hold.

Besides the development of math and architectures, city planning was also one of the main technological developments of a civilization. The Mayan Civilization, was well organized into city states, unlike the Egyptian Civilization, the Mayan Civilization was not a unified civilization. And so, obviously, the two civilizations would had different kinds of governments. Unlike the Egyptian Civilization, which only had one king at a time, the Pharaoh, the Mayan Civilization had different rulers being in charge of each city states in a time.

As a result, technologies of some ancient civilizations could be quite similar to each other, yet different from each other as well. Differences showed us the typical characteristics of each civilizations, and the similarities surprised us because it made us wonder how was it possible.

SMASH Day- Yellow Submarine

2009-02-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

We all live in the yellow submarine, yellow submarine, yellow submarine...

During last Tuesday's SMASH day, our mission was to build a periscope to see what's inside a box, which was placed on the table, from under the table. The materials for building the periscope were papers, card boards, scissors, tapes, and 4 mirrors.

Personally, I think this was the hardest SMASH day mission so far! Even though we've tried and kept on trying, for 1 hour. We kept changing the design of our periscope, and experimenting to see if it worked. But eventually, we still failed the mission. Oh, well, actually we semi-failed the mission because we could see inside the box, it's just that we couldn't recognize what the things were. I wonder if it was because the mirrors in our periscope were placed in a wrong way so they weren't reflecting effectively. :[

Climate satellite set for launch

2009-01-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

'A Japanese spacecraft is due to launch on a mission to help scientists understand and monitor how the Earth's climate is changing' - Climate satellite set for launch, BBC News.

I belief that fpr most of the people who lives on Earth, has noticed about the seriousness of global warming. In which the Earth's climates change unusually throughout years, and for most of the cases, the temperature on Earth rises.

In the article Climate satellite set for launch, it is basically talking about a Japanese spacecraft, Gosat, is to identify and monitor sources of CO2, to support compliance with international treaties and agreements. Gosat will measure 2 different greenhouse gases, CO2 and CH4, by 2 sensors. These sensors that Gosat will be using in order to measure the greenhouse gases are the Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS), and the Cloud and Aerosol Image (CAI). The purpose of measuring the greenhouses gases, is that it can help scientists to understand and monitor how the Earth's climate is changing. Which is one of the major global issues on Earth.

Gosat is set to blast off between 0354 and 0416 GMT on Friday from Tanageshima.

I'm glad to see that people are trying to figure out ways to solve global warming. I think understanding how the climate has been changing is definitely important because this way, people will know what exactly the problem is, and then it'll become easier to solve, or at least reduce global warming.

Big fall in UK inflation to 3.1%

2009-01-20T07:09:00.000-08:00

'The headline Retail Prices Index (RPI) measure fell to 0.9% from November's 3% rate, the biggest fall in 28 years.' - BBC Business.

One of the major issues in now-days' current event is that the economy of the entire world is collapsing. In the post Big fall in UK inflation to 3.1% , from the BBC Business News, it's basically talking about how serious the falling of UK inflation is today. In fact, not only how serious of a problem it is to the UK. Although such issue, the falling of inflation, is actually happening in every other countries on Earth.

In order to reduce the rate of inflation, there are discounts being displayed, especially during the days before Christmas. This reminds me about Taiwan, in which shops also do a lot of sales so that people will actually buy something during this horrible situation, when the world's economy is collapsing, many unemployed people, and poor people. However, doing sales is only one of the solutions for reducing the falling of inflation.

I have to be hones that there are a lot of things in this article that I don't understand. Such as some of the representing rates. However, I don't think there is any biases in this article because it's basically just telling how's the UK doing with the big fall of inflation effecting it.

Vedio Reflection Q&As

2009-01-04T23:26:00.000-08:00

1.How do Paiwan people show their respect to the animal they hunted?
Paiwan people show their respect to the animals that they hunted by wearing their tusks, teeth and even feather on their head.

2.Why archery is so important to Bunun people? How did fathers train their children to be an archer?
Archery is important to Bunun people because hunting is a part of their life. Fathers train their children to be an archer by teaching them shooting skills with deer ears -- before the 1st hunt, children practice their shooting and aiming skills on deer ears.

3.Why are bats welcomed by Ancient Chinese culture? But in western societies, why do people regard bats as nuisance?
Bats are welcomed by Ancient Chinese culture because they belief that bats can trace away evil spirits. However, western societies regard bats as nuisance because they are considered disgusting and dirty.

4.This video shows a lot of living extinct animals in Taiwan. Please choose one animal that impressed you the most and describe its habitat and its way to survive in the natural environment?
The frog that lives in a bamboo impressed me the most. I'm impressed by its habitual behavior. Which is that every male frog has their own bamboo; after mating, the female frog will lay her eggs in the male frog's bamboo and leave the bamboo; and then the male frog will protect the eggs until they become tadpoles, then he leaves the bamboo; then, the female frog comes back to the same bamboo (it's amazing that she's able to do this) in about once a week, feeding her babies (tadpoles).

SMASH Day Reflection

2009-01-04T19:39:00.000-08:00

During today's SMASH day, we did an activity which each group had to get their marbles, passing point-stickies, and into a cup at the end. There are point-stickies of 10 and 15 points, placing randomly on the table. During the activity, we could use anything to block, bounce, or lead the marble to the point-stickies. However, in one condition, we have 2 chances but could only flick the marble twice in each role -- flicking only.

I was a critical thinker and an effective communicator while participating the activity. It's because that first of all, we had to think of a way to get the marble passing as many point-stickies and get as many points as possible; and secondly, we were working in groups, in which communicating was a really important skill for us to succeed the task. For some specific example of how I showed that I was a critical thinker and an effective communicator is that I've been thinking how the marble would bounce if I put the plastic cardboard in a certain position, and then I discussed with my group mates about my ideas, then finally we tried if it worked together.

- http://www.5025488.net/bbs/thread-14508-1-4.html [Picture. Copied by Jez. 5th of Jan. 2009]

Taiwan Obriginal Tribes Q&As

2008-11-30T02:08:00.000-08:00

1. What do you think about Atyal’s facial tattoo? Do you have tattoo culture in your country? If yes, what are those differences between two cultures.
I think Atyal's facial tattoo is really symbolic to their culture. Although it is painful and inerasable, it's still one of the most marvelous thing that strongly symbolizes the Atyal culture. However, most of the Atyal people don't get their traditional facial tattoo anymore, but I belief that the elders of the Atyal will still hold fast to this tradition as long as possible, until the end of their life. Yes, there is tattoo culture in my country, Taiwan. In fact, Atyal is the aboriginal tribe in Taiwan which has tattoo culture. Other than that, some people in Taiwan also get tattoos, but it is not a tradition nor part of the culture, it's only for fun and fashion(?).

2. Saisiyat people choose their surnames from plants, animals and natural phenomena. In your country, do you think a person’s surname has special meaning which can reflect your own culture and why?
Again, Saisiyat is one of the aboriginal tribes in my country, Taiwan. Other than Saisiyat people, I don't think people in Taiwan, in general, chose their surnames from plants, animals and natural phenomena. The surnames of general people in Taiwan are mostly passed down from their ancestors, mostly from the main land China I suppose. However, I know that people do chose certain words in their first name. For instance, the word '麗' represents 'beautiful', therefore you might see this word in a girl's first name, blessing the girl to grow into a beautiful woman.

3. Lily is a symbol of RuKai. In your country, what’s your national flower and what it means.
Plum Blossom is the national flower of Taiwan. Plum Blossoms bloom in the winter, which represents that Taiwanese people are as strong as Plum Blossoms, we stay strong in harsh external conditions, and the worse the external conditions are, the strong we become, like Plum Blossoms, the cooler the weather is, more beautiful the flowers of plum Blossoms will be.

4. On Beian’s traditional weddings, you can see a prospective bride climbing a giant swing. And tribesmen swing her until the swing sails like kites. In your country, do you have any special ceremonies that are held on weddings? Please explain it.
In a traditional wedding of my country, people celebrate it by giving a meal to friends and relatives. The bride and the groom will drink in honer to each table of guests. Then these guests will give the bride and the groom red envelopes with money in them. Also, if the wedding is really really traditional, the bride and the groom would pray 3 times before they become husband and wife. The first pray is to the universe (god), second is to their parents, and the third is to each other.

Spirits of Orchid Island

2008-11-26T05:32:00.000-08:00

After watching the video Spirits of Orchid Island, here are some following questions with their answers, based on what the video was about:

(1) Please indicate the importance of the ocean to Tao.
The ocean seems to be a really important role in Tao's life. Tao lives on a island, which obviously is surrounded by the ocean. Therefore, the very first thing that Tao people have to learn, is how to get along with the ocean, especially for Tao men, they've already been playing in the ocean as if it's their playground since they were little. The ocean provides food resources, in which it basically provides sea foods, for Tao people.

(2) It takes a lot of time for Tao people to build a boat. How do Tao people make a boat? Do you think it is worthy or it wastes time? Why?
Tao people make their boats with woods on the island. First, they chopped down the tree that they think has the most suitable wood for their boat. And then they gradually shape and smoothed each piece of the boat with an axe. Finally, they combine all the pieces of the boat together. By only looking at the steps of making a Tao boat might seem quite easy, but it actually takes a lot of effort. And by the way, one thing about making one of these boats has quite impressed me, which is that all the pieces of the boat are joined together with wooden needles, the boat is actually made up with absolutely no metal needles in it!
I think it's a definitely worthy for Tao people to make these Tao boats because this is one of the most symbolic thing that represents the Tao culture.

(3) Explain the boat launching ceremony.
According to the Tao tradition, before a boat launches, a boat launching ceremony will be held. In the ceremony, Tao men toss the new boat, with its sailor, into the air, to symbolize how the new boat will break out the waves as it sails on the ocean. Also, all the Tao males, including little Tao boys, will dance around the new boat, acting as if they are in great anger, in order to drive the evil spirit away from the new boat(?).

(4) Explain the flying fish calling ceremony.
The flying fish calling ceremony is the biggest event that the Tao held in once a year. Tao people belief that the flying fish is the fish from the heaven, its God's fish. During this ceremony, Tao people will kill a piglet, then each person stain their finger with the blood of the piglet, and then everyone dip their fingers, with blood, into the sea water on the sea shore. By doing this, the flying fish will smell the blood and come nearer to the shore, and so its easier for the Tao fishermen to fish them. The Tao fishermen also use fire to lure flying fish. Some flying fish that are caught, were used to be the bait for fishing bigger fish. However, the rest of flying fish that are caught, have to be all eaten by the next day.

(5) How do Tao people live in harmony with the natural environment?
Tao people are not just living in the nature, they are also protecting it. For instance, they may have been chopping down trees to make their boats and houses..etc, but they were also planting trees in the forests. They also have this rule of not cutting too many trees from a certain place, in order to remain the forest. Moreover, Tao people do not normally kill other animals, not even snakes.

(6) The houses Tao people build are so special. Please compare their houses to those houses in your own country.
The reason why the houses that Tao people build are so special, is because that they are located on a island where there's not much natural barriers to block strong typhoons. Therefore, their house were built underground, to avoid the damage from strong typhoons. On the other hand, the buildings in the country where I'm from, Taiwan, is totally different then the Tao buildings. Although strong typhoons invade us sometimes as well, but because of the natural barrier of Central Mountain Region, we do not have to build our buildings under ground. And also, there is variety of materials to build the buildings in Taiwan, which most of them are quite preventable for typhoons.

(7) Tao people view eating a seasnake as a taboo because it lowers social status. In your own culture, do you have any eating taboos? Do you believe in it? Why?
I don't think there's really an eating taboos in my own culture. Perhaps eating dogs? Well, if eating dogs is really an eating taboo because it lowers our social status, I think I'll belief it because dogs are just like our friends, and high class people do not eat their friends!!

(8) So far only one big handmade boat is kept in Tao tribe because of modernization. Thus, some Tao people try to preserve their art culture. Please describe a vanishing art culture in your country that you would like to preserve.
Paper umbrella is a vanishing artifact in Taiwanese culture. Young people do not usually appreciate the beauty of these paper umbrellas, they might think they are meretricious. However, I think young people should learn more about these paper umbrellas, in order to appreciate them and actually wanting to preserve them.

- http://www.gio.gov.tw/taiwan-website/5-gp/yearbook/20tourism.html
[Picture of Tao hand made boats. Copied by Jez. 26th of Nov. 2008]

Children 'risking liver disease'

2008-11-21T18:58:00.000-08:00

I belief that everyone in the world knows about drinking is harmful for one's health. I've read this article called Children 'risking liver disease'. It has basically mentioned the fact that the amount of children in the UK who drinks is rising. Not only that doctors are seeing younger people with alcohol-related conditions, according to the new figure, 49 people died from alcohol-related conditions in their age of 20s in the year of 2006.

'We are sadly seeing young people in their 20s coming in with jaundice, with swollen bellies because their liver won;t process liquids.' Said Professor Ian Gilmour, of the Royal College of Physicians. 'These people didn't make a conscious decision to kill themselves.'

According to Ian's words, apparently that jaundice is one of the alcohol-related conditions, which may actually kill you when it becomes really serious. The other deadly alcohol-related conditions that are also mentioned in this article are liver disease, liver cancer, kidney failure and stomach rotting.

Stacey has passed away in her age of 24. Before she died, since she was 18, she drinkings every night, probably 5 liters, until she became totally drunk. The doctor had found most of the deadly alcohol-related conditions that I've mention previously, in her body. Stacey had liver diseases, kidney failure, and a hole in her stomach where the alcohol had rotten her stomach. These conditions, unfortunately, were all seriously enough to kill a 24-year-old young women like Stacey, and yet the doctor couldn't do anything about it.

I don't think there is any opinions in this article. This article is more like a reminder to people which reminds them to stop ignoring younger people having the issue of excessive drinking, in order to prevent death in younger ages.

- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7743265.stm
[Picture of drunk woman. Copied by Jez. 22nd of Nov. 2008]

Taiwanese Food Culture v.s. American Food Culture

2008-11-19T07:14:00.000-08:00

Comparing the food culture in Taiwan and America, I think the main affection to both of their food cultures was the people of each country. In Taiwan, people seem to have more rules in its food culture. Such as the arrangement of seating on a dinning table, which has to be arranged along the importance of each person. For example, if there's a guest visiting, he or she will be sitting facing the door, as the most important person, and the hosts will be sitting with his or her back facing the door, as the least important person.

Also, Taiwanese dishes are very concerned about the look, taste, and smell. Therefore, Taiwanese cooking requires loads of different cuisines, such as boiling, stewing in soy sauce, and frying...etc, and these cuisines are all requiring a many complicated techniques. Moreover, here is a very obvious difference between Taiwanese food culture and the American food culture, which is that Taiwanese people eat with chopsticks, but the Americans eat with knifes and forks.

However, I don't really know a lot about the American food culture, but I think there aren't as many rules or concerning of either the seating on a dinning table, the look, taste, and smell of the dishes, and the techniques of different cuisines. I guess its because that Taiwanese people are more conservative than the Americans. We keep our traditions and believes in our food culture.

- http://www.harbourfrontcentre.com/worldroutes/festivals.cfm?festival_id=20
[Picture of Taiwanese noodle. Copied by Jez. 19th of Nov. 2008]
- http://www.topnews.in/health/regions/united-kingdom
[Picture of fast food. Copied by Jez. 19th of Nov. 2008]

Racism 'would block a British Obama'

2008-11-08T04:08:00.000-08:00

As most of the people in the world have known that Barack Obama has won the USA presidential election of 2008. Yet, he became the first African American president in the history of the United State of America. I've heard from many sources, talking about how grateful it is to have Obama being elected as the president of the United State of America. I've also seen his victory speech, and sure it was extraordinary and touching. However, while some people are celebrating for Obama's victory of the election, talking about all the goods about such result, someone else are talking about different things..

Racism 'would block a British Obama', is an article that I've read, which is basically saying that people are surprised that Obama had broken through the 'institutionally racist,' and successfully became the first African American president of the United State of America.

'If Barack Obama had lived here I would be very surprised if even somebody as brilliant as him would have been able to break through the institutional stranglehold that there is on power within the Labour Party,' said Phillips, referring to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's governing party.

Thus, according to Phillips' words, people are judging their politicians by the colour of their skins instead of their politics? Don't worry, it's not true. 'I work with very talented, very able black politicians and I know from talking to constituents around the country, that our constituents are very sophisticated and we judge our politicians by their policies, not by the colour of their skin,' Khan told BBC.

This article has definitely shown different opinions. I personally agree with Khan's opinion, which is that people should judge their politicians by their politics and not the colour of their skins. Also, I personally think that judging politicians, or even other people by the colour of their skins, referring to the Labor's system, which Phillips has mentioned in the article, is a kind of bias.

- http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Barack-Obama-prime-minister-political-system-press-conference/photo//081108/photos_wl_uk_afp/8940b2452efa063c201755d7d4e0462b//s:/afp/20081108/wl_uk_afp/uspoliticsbritainracism/im:/081108/photos_ts_afp/be71f024b8cdf498ea9d496c8aaf1dac/#photoViewer=/081108/photos_ts_afp/be71f024b8cdf498ea9d496c8aaf1dac
[Picture of Obama in a meeting with the Transition Economic Advisory Board in Chicago. Copied by Jez Lee. 8th of Nov.]

Global 20/20

2008-11-04T00:53:00.000-08:00

Global 20/20.. what is Global 20/20??

Today we had the very first meeting of Global 20/20. In the meeting, we were talking about what is Global 20/20 about, and what we will be focusing on in this event. From the meeting, I've gotten some basic ideas about Global 20/20, which were knowing that Global 20/20 is basically an event of helping to solve global issues, and in our cases, we will be focusing on the issue of global education. However, no one was sure about the specific things that we would be doing in Global 20/20 yet, because we will be deciding what we are going to do.

Ms.Smith has told us that we will be working with the students from a school in the U.S. I think it's going to be a great opportunity to get a closer view of the world. But since we are to help solving global issues, we had to learn about the issue that we are to solve before we took any steps further, including to work with the students from the U.S. Therefore, the other thing that we did during the meeting was reading the 'Education for All' section of High Noon. This section of the book was basically talking about why is global education a global issue.

I found some of the information from 'Education for All' were quite shocking. I've never noticed that there are actually loads of people that are illiterate around the world. I kind of feel sad for these illiterate people, but why should I? Why should I even care about these people? I belief that there are definitely plenty of reasons for these questions, and the reasons are going to be related to economies, human rights, and governments...etc. Although we've already been discussing about this in the end of today's meeting, I still think that it will be continued in the next meeting. Hopefully, we can soon figure the answer and find the best way to solve such global issue.

- http://www.nais.org/conferences/index.cfm?ItemNumber=147262&sn.ItemNumber=148035
[Picture of an earth on a hand. Copied by Jez Lee. 4th of Nov. 2008]

What Skills Were Used on This SMASH Day??

2008-11-03T06:00:00.000-08:00

Today was a SMASH Day. Our challenge was to build a tower out of 5 pieces of A4 paper and 2 meters of tape. The tower had to be as tall as possible, and it also had to able to hold 15g on top of it.

Our group, Savanna and I, won the challenge. Our tower was 83cm tall, and it was the only one that has successfully hold 15g on top of it. In this challenge, I think the most important skill that we'd used was balancing. At the very beginning of the task, both Savanna and I were only thinking about how to make the base of the tower. It's because that both of us knew that the base of the tower is the most important part of keeping the entire tower steady and balanced.

The tower that we made sort of looked like a plunger. It's base was much wider than the other parts of the tower. The reason why we made the base so wide was because that the larger the area of the base was touching the surface of the table, the more steady and balanced the tower would be.

However, there were also other skills that we've used during the task, which was the 'combining skills'. You might ask: What did you mean by 'combining skills'?? Well.. what I meant was basically the skills of combining different parts of the tower. These skills were also very important because different combining skills could prevent the disconnection of different parts of the tower. For instance, instead of only using tapes to tape every parts of the tower together, we cut a hole and stuck the cylinder of the tower into its base so that they were better connected with each other.

As a result, balancing was certainly important in this challenge. You'd have to keep every parts of the tower balanced, including its base, its body, and its top plane where you put the weights on at the end. Also, the combining skills were anther important thing to consider. You'll need different combining skills to make the tower even more steady while it's balanced.

- http://www.3dnuts.com/tutorials/modeling_plunger.shtml
[Picture of plunger. Copied by Jez Lee. 4th of Nov. 2008]

Reflaction of The Food Videos

2008-10-26T23:58:00.000-07:00

After watching the videos in Taiwan Culture class, I realized that some of the foods in Taiwan could be quite ordinary or even disgusting. It seemed a lot of traditional foods in Taiwan are animal organs or bloods, like all kinds of things that most of the western people do not eat. For example, pig blood jello, chicken testicles, goose tongue and head..etc. I think I prefer western food, it's just looks and tastes better sometimes. For instance, there's not a lot of black foods from the west, but in Taiwan, there's like black soup, black chicken, and black chicken testicles. Even though these black foods might not taste bad at all, people will still feel a bit wired for eating them. However, some of the traditional Taiwanese foods are still really tasty, like those fried un-laid chicken legs. Yummy!! :]

Why Do Things Sink When Everything Is Floated?? Will The Mixed Liquid Be Separated On Monday?

2008-10-10T08:14:00.000-07:00

Why do things sink when everything else is floated? Well, I think it's because that somethings are heaver, or denser than the other things. Things that are heaver or denser will sink, and on the other hand, things that are lighter or less dense will float.

I wonder if 'heaver' can be the other word for 'denser' because from the experiment that we've done in science class, I found out that the pink liquid is actually lighter or less dense than the clear liquid, but the clear liquid is on the layer above the pink liquid, with the yellow liquid in the middle. However, I didn't test if the yellow liquid mattered on keeping the clear liquid on the upper layer, in which I think it does matter. I'd only tested that if there's a larger amount of clear liquid on top of the pink liquid, would it kind of like pressing down the pink liquid and keep it at the bottom, and it does, the clear liquid did keep the pink liquid at the bottom of the graduated cylinder. And what I've been thinking is that when the object has a larger amount than the other object, its density will be more than such object, in which also means heaver?

Anyways, the other part of the experiment that we've done in science class was putting different object into the graduated cylinder with the colour liquids in it (like the picture above), and see what happened. The result was that some objects floated while some other objects sank, and some objects even floated in the middle of the liquids. I think this appearance is due to the density of the liquids and the objects that were thrown into the liquids. I think the reason why certain objects floated to the top of the liquids was because those objects were less dens than the liquids, and for those object that sank directly to the bottom of the liquids were the ones that were denser than the liquids, and moreover, for those objects that floated in the middle of the objects, were the ones that have about the same density with the liquids.

Do I think the mixed liquid will be separated on Monday? Yes, I think it will be separated on Monday. The liquids with less dense will float towards the surface while the denser liquids sink towards the bottom of the graduated cylinder.

Is Air Martter??

2008-09-21T20:49:00.001-07:00

Rock is matter, water is matter, steam is matter.. Even you and I are matters as well! But what is matter?

Matter, is something that has volume (takes up space) and mass. Matter can be in 3 kinds of statements, which are solid, liquid and gas. There are loads of things that are considered as matters.. And now that you know how to manage whether or not a thing is matter, here's the question, IS AIR MATTER?

Air is in a state of gas, and according to the experiment Mrs.Smith has done during the class, which was blowing a balloon in a bottle with and with out a whole on the bottle. We proved that air does have volume (take up spaces). The balloon has gone bigger only when there was a whole on the bottle. Which means that the space in the bottle has already been taken by the air in the bottle, therefore, the balloon wasn't able to expend if there's no whole on the bottle to let the air in the bottle float out.

Okay, now that air has already fit in with 2 out of the 3 conditions of matter. The last condition is mass, does air has mass? According to the experiment, The balloon that is fulled with air is heaver than the balloon that is not fulled with air. Which has proven that air do have mass.

Therefore, as the result, is air matter?
The answer is, YES IT IS.

- http://wow.osu.edu/experiments/gases/airhasmass.html
[Picture of the experiment. Copied by Jez Lee. 23th of Sep. 2008]

Reflection on Movie- Shindler's List

2008-05-29T23:56:00.000-07:00

The movie Schindler's List is basically about how Schindler's factory kept the Jews employed, or alive during WWII. While the Nazis invaded the Jewish culture in Germany.
Schindler was a German, he frequently used his wealthiness to build relationships between the others and himself. He usually behaved like he was an important person, a person who had a higher position in the society.

He started this new factories of making pots. And the workers that he had hired were all Jews. Well in the beginning, he opened this factory was just for his own profit. But then, the Germen started to take the Jews into concentration camp, which turned out to be a 'death camp'. And the only way to keep those Jews alive, was to keep them employed, in 'Schindler's place (factory)'.

Jews were saying that 'Schindler's place is an haven!' And also been saying that Schindler was a good person. But by listening to these 'compliment' from the Jews, Schindler somehow felt pressured. It's because that he knew it's dangerous for him to be this 'good person' during the time.

However, after loads of encorigement from his account, which was a incredibly smart person who helped Schindler to held his factory, and also trying to safe as many of Jews as he could. He was trying to safe the Jews from the concentration camp by persuading Schindler to hire them to work in his factory. And although Schindler wasn't really agree with him at the first. But then, the good inside of him has gradually come out.

I think this movie is quite meaningful because it sends the message of the reality of how people have changed their behaviors in such extremed situations. For example, because of the strong prejudice between Germen and the Jews, there was a little German girl yelling 'good-bye Jews' when the Jews were forced out off their houses. And for some of the Jews, they've given up the thought of standing up for themselves. And instead of taking this risk, they decided to just follow the orders. No matter how depressing they were.

The movie is really quite depressing. Watching people got killed for no reason? It was just so sad.. Couldn't belief the Germen were being so cruel to the Jews. Doesn't it just showed how deadly powerful is prejudice?

-http://www.schindlerslist.com/buy-schindlers-list.html
[Picture for Schindler's List. 30th of May. 2008, copied by Jez]

Kim Jong-il, The Leader of North Korea

2008-05-21T18:27:00.002-07:00

Kim Jong-il, the leader of North Korea. Kim Hong-il got his leadership from his father, Kim Il-sung. Who was the Prime Minister od North Korea from 1948 to 1972, and the President of North Korea from 1972 to his death.
Kim Joung-il is a cleaver leader, he has been working on being a leader carefully. And by the way, he was known as 'Dear Leader'. He has a very secretive way of governing. But however, he still goes onto live TV shows, prestigious public works projects or large scale ceremonies. <Link>

-http://www.finfacts.ie/finfactsblog/2006/10/kim-jong-il-awaits-to-hear-whether-big.html
[Picture for Kim Jong-il, The Leader of North Korea. 22nd of May. 2008, copied by Jez]

Burma Dictatorship

2008-05-21T18:27:00.001-07:00

The government in Burma is in a form of 'military-dictatorship'. Which means that the military also takes parts in Burma government. The government doesn't really care about human rights. And in facts, in order to keep itself in power. It has been using rape and torture, forced labour and violent national oppressions. Also, I think the other way for it to keep itself in power is to limit incoming informations from the outside of the country. And for doing this, the Burma government may had forbidden several TV shows, such as news that are saying Burma is a very poor country. And blocked several international websites, such as YouTube, because there might be a video about being against to dictatorships. And therefore, the government is afraid of people start to follow these outside informations, and then eventually, they might rebel, and overthrow it. <Link>

-http://www.karmacino.com/story.php?title=Burma_satire_cartoon_collection
[Picture for Burma Dictatorship. 22nd of May. 2008, copied by Jez]

News Reflection- Cyclone Aid in Burma

2008-05-15T09:05:00.000-07:00

According to the BBC news post: Aid for Burma 'must be monitored'. The cyclone aids that are sent from the other countries may be seized by the military regime. Burma's media has now risen the official death toll to 43,318, with 27,838 missing. The affected area from the cyclone is still completely disconnected with the outside world. And yet, the regime is stopping the foreign aid workers from getting into the affected area.

When I finished reading this post, I feel quite bad for the citizens in Burma. Maybe it's just because that I don't understand why the regime were there, blocking the helps from the foreign workers. Is it because of pride? But people are suffering and dying in this situation!

'The state media New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the people "will not rely too much on international assistance and will reconstruct the nation on a self-reliance basis".'

The quote above is from the post, which made me thought of that the reason for the regime, doing such thing, was because of it wanted to keep its pride. It wanted to let its people think that they are strong enough to not rely on international assistances. But however, the facts is that.. the people were tricked by the regime. Of course they'll need international assistances. Well.. although not always, but at least now, in such situation.

News Reflection- Massive Earthquake In China

2008-05-15T07:07:00.000-07:00

The massive earthquake in China is one of the most followed current event in the world. It happened in Sichuan province, China. The rank of the earthquake was 7.9-magnitude. Millions of buildings and houses have collapsed or sustained damaged from the earthquake.

According to the CNN news post: China quake death toll could reach 50,000. The death toll in Southern China has now topped to 19,500; more than 4.3 million of homes have now collapsed or sustained damaged; 400 mostly small dams have also been effected by the earthquake; at least 201 students of the Muyu Middle School were killed when the school campus collapsed; and more than 30.000 people are missing or out of reach.
After I read this post, I was shocked. Shocked by how much damages have this earthquake actually cause. Loads of people were dying from trapped under collapsed buildings. People lost their home and families. I is terrible!
However, the government is trying it's best to rescue these trapped people. It had ordered 110 helicopters, dropping food and other supplies to the quake-hit area. And also, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Vietnam and Poland are among the countries providing assistance, according to Xinhua.

Reflection On Dictatorship Videos

2008-05-11T03:35:00.000-07:00

Vido1. Hitler's Speech to Youth:
In this video, Hitler was having a speech to groups of young Germany girls and boys. It seemed like a ceremony to me, which gathered every Germany children, for Hitler to give them his speech. In Hitler's speech, I think he was telling the children that the future of German depends on them. And so he wanted them to be strong and not soft. And while Hitler was having the speech, he was very agitated. Which might be the reason for why he could convince 'his little boys and girls'. Well.. although the children might be easier to convince than the adults. However, also because that the children were easier to convince, it was easier for Hitler to 'brain-wash' them. As part of the progress of turning these children into his faithful followers when they grew up.

Video2. Stalin:
In this video of Stalin, it only showed his painted pictures.
These pictures were all looked quite 'positive'. And what I mean by 'positive' is that these pictures have made Stalin looked good. A lot of them were drawn of people looking up at him, or giving him flowers. And in these pictures, Stalin was always standing strait. Anyways, my point is that for me, I don't really know the biography of Stalin. And by justing learning about him from these pictures in the video, I'd think that he's a good ruler. And probably not as cruel Hitler(which many of us had defined that Hitler is a terribly cruel man).
However, thinking of the purpose of having these pictures, were they real? Or were there to 'lie' to people, and make them trust him, to worship him?

My Why Dictatorship WebQuest Progression

2008-05-06T05:18:00.000-07:00

In my Why Dictatorship WebQuest Progression, My topic is The End of WWI. I'd typed down all the questions that I'm going to answer on my Mindmeister mind-map. And I'd also classified these questions into groups of 'Economics', 'History', 'Government', and 'Anthropology'. These questions included the ones that were asked by Mr.Carpenter and the ones that were asked by myself. However, now, I've been researching information, in order to answer the questions that I've already had on my mind-map, I was also thinking of new questions along with the researchings. But for now, basically I've only answered some of the questions on my mind-map, and I'm still working on the researchings in order to answer all the other questions.

Reflection on Newses About Burma (Myanmar)

2008-05-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Burma, as known as Myanmar, is also one of the few countries that are ruled under dictatorships. And by the way, the military has also controlled Burma since 1962. Although it has been blamed for wide-spread human rights abuses and violent crackdowns on pro-democracy activists.

News1. Cyclone kills 350 in Burma; dissidents call for aid
'Local reports in Myanmar say a cyclone killed more than 350 people and ripped apart thousands of homes, but tensions between the country and the West may make its military government reluctant to ask for international aid.'
'The Forum for Democracy in Burma and other dissident groups have called for the military government to allow aid groups to operate freely.'
- CTV.ca News Staff

News2. Canada to make Burma's dissident leader an honorary citizen
'Canada will grant honorary citizenship to Burma's detained dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday in recognition of her tireless struggle for human rights and democracy in the Southeast Asian country.'
- CBC News

In my discovery from these 2 newses, it seems that Burma gains quite a lot of aids from the foreign nations. But for some reasons, the government of Burma refused these aids itself. I wonder why it wanted to refuse these aids from the foreign nations. Maybe the government didn't want to let it's citizens to realize that they are poor and perhaps, not quite progressed. Otherwise, it might cause the citizens to start revolting the government.

Reflection on Newses About North Korea

2008-04-30T05:17:00.000-07:00

North Korea is one of the few countries that are still be ruled under dictatorships. Which means that the leader of North Korea takes all the power of controlling the country.

News1. North Korea Heading Towards Famine: Report
[By Reuters. 30th, Apr. 2008]
The soaring global food prise and the reluctant donors are pushing North Korea back towards famine. The leader of North Korea were focusing on developing nuclear weapons, which costs a lot of money. Therefore, the economic support for the other needs of the citizens has been terminated. Which included the economic support of the foods. In which is causing the citizens to die from hunger.

News2. Bush Says Syria Nuclear Disclosure Intended to Prod North Korea and Iran
[By Steven Lee Myers. 30th Apr. 2008]
North Korea is still developing nuclear weapons, secretively. However, there are not only North Korea that is having nuclear weapon developments. Syria and Iran are also being involved.

According to the 2 newses about North Korea, I found out that as an result, the citizens are suffering because the leader, or you can say the dictator, keeps focusing on developing the nuclear weapons. Even though the development is not allowed, and the U.N. had also negotiated with North Korea that if it (North Korea) quits the development of nuclear weapons, it (U.N.) will fully support the needs within the country (North Korea). And in which tells us that the leader in dictatorships might not be concentrating a lot on the needs of the citizens. And instead, they mostly concentrate on what they want.

8Hums Journal 25th, Apr. 2008

2008-04-26T23:38:00.000-07:00

Today in class, just as usual, we shared the current events that we'd found. And then, we continued to work on the researching for our individual topics. My topic was 'The End of WWI', I didn't think that it was a hard topic because the information about it as actually quite to find. However, for doing this assignment, there is still a part that was quite hard, which was to think of a question about the topic. I found it's hard was because that I still need to earn a lot of things about my topic first. I had to learn about the history of WWI, the Treaty of Versailles..etc. And although I'd already read some of the informations from the textbook, I still have a lot to learn. And by the way, as a active learner, I was also seeing that if I could learn something else from the website.

Animal Rights II

2008-04-25T00:01:00.000-07:00

Do animals have rights? If so, what're their rights applying to foods? Do we have the right to kill animals to eat?

I agree that animals have rights, especially the right of living. But when they are in the case of producing meat or other products for food, then well.. I think it depends..

It depends on how they were treated when they are producing these productions because there surely are more than just one way of producing animal productions.

Think about farming, farms are the most common source of animal productions. But there are also difference between these farms. The size of the farms, the processes of farming, and the animal cares...etc. And to compare a big farm with good animal cares and good farming process, with a small farm that lacks of animal care and with vise farming process, I'd say that obviously, the animals in the big farm has more rights than the animals in the small farm. And on the other hand, it seems that the animals in the small farm are not having any rights at all! So the products which are made from the animals that are having more rights, may be more expensive. And by the way, it make since also, because animals aren't living for producing animal products for humans. Therefore, we, as the humans, should respect their lives!!

And moreover, think about hunting, the other source of animal products. What right do the animals have during hunting?
Well, I'll say that they have a lot more rights than the animals in the farms. Instead of just the right of living, eating, and being somehow protected, they actually have the right to protect themselves by hiding, running or even attack the hunters. However, the hunters have the right to hunt for food, though they'll have to pay more effort for it.

Click HERE to see the TRUTH of the animal productions that we are using..

Thinking Levels v.s My Learnings

2008-04-23T05:04:00.000-07:00

After I went to this Bloom's Taxonomy website, here is a list of examples, of my learning that fits each following thinking levels.

Creating:
Using different elements to create a project. For example, the Greece Researching iMovie.

Evaluating:
Checking the rubric for the Greece Researching iMovie and tried to follow it while I was making the iMovie.

Analyzing:
Mind mapping on Mindmeister. Using the mind maps to break down a certain unit of Ancient Greece into different topics. And then penetrate deeply into each of these topics.

Applying:
Using my notes and the informations either from the textbook or the other sources to answer my own questions about the unit.

Understanding:
Summrize the informations that I've learned from the WWII movie into notes.

Remembering:
Reading facts on textbooks, websites, and other information sources.

What is a 'Right'?

2008-04-22T23:48:00.000-07:00

What is a right?
Well, a right is something that you deserved and allowed to, which means that you don't 'earn' a right. However, you can still somehow loose your right. For example, if you are a murderer, you may loose your right of freedom, or even your right of living because when you murdered a person, you'd just taken it's right of living. But different beings has different rights, for example, a mosquito has the right of sucking our bloods, and on the other hand, we also has the right of defending, which would usually be killing them. But in this case, we won't loose our right of living just because we'd killed them.

And now, for my animal anatomy, there are 2 following questions:
1. What animals would we have the right to dissect? Why?
2. Which animals don't we have the right to dissect? Why?

For question 1, what animals would we have the right to dissect, and why..?
Basically, I think the animal that we would have the right to dissect are the animals that has less rights, well.. at least in our point of view. I'm also wondering how can you define ones' right? I mean.. it seemed like the 'right' is already there, people define other beings' rights by their own point of views. For example, I love dogs, so I think that dogs has more rights than certain other animals, but for someone who eats dog, they might think that dogs has no rights because they've already define dogs as a kind foods.
Anyways, since we couldn't really define the actual rights for different animals, I'll say that the animal that we would have the right to dissect would be the ones that are defiantly not one of the endanger species, and perhaps, the ones that has already been 'used' for dissections, normally.

For question 2, which animals don't we have the right to dissect are defiantly the ones that are one of the endanger species, and ya.. basically, they are the ones that we think that has more rights.

Reflection on WWII Movie

2008-04-19T00:56:00.000-07:00

When I was watching the movie, I was quite shocked although I've already expected that we were about to see something 'fearful'.

In the movie, I saw different ways of how dictators take up their powers in each dictatorships of different countries. For example, the Nazis in Germany, led by Hitler. When I saw the mass parades of the Nazis, the education for the youth from the Nazis, and the way of people showing that they worhip Hitler, which was to rise up your right hand with fingers closed.

I wondered why would these people join the Nazis? It doesn't seem to make their life better anyway, and in fact, it has seemed to make people's life harder and meaningless! Because everyone in the Nazis were just following Hitler's orders. But however, on the other hand, the people that disobeyed the Nazis may somehow be killed. Because under Hitler's power, there were secret polices everywhere and anywhere, the scariest part is that they could be anyone! Which means that it could also be your best friend! And these secret polices would report to Hitler about whoever were insulting him or his dictatorship.

8Hums Journal 17th, Apr. 2008

2008-04-18T19:50:00.000-07:00

Today in class ,we were watching a movie about World War II for most of the time in class period. And then in the end of the class, Mr. Carpenter showed Jordan's and mine Greece researching video. I think I've been demonstrating as a person of high character because I prepared for the class by fixing my Greece reaching video, and for finding a way to fix it, I even went to Mr. Truchon for installing iMovie 08, the iMovie that I've been using before, which I'm more familiar with. But.. during this process, it didn't went through very smoothly. First of all, Mr. Truchon was in a meeting, when he lent me his iPod flash drive for installing the file. But the file loaded so slow so I was afraid that even the bus was leaving, it wouldn't be done either. Therefore, I quited the installing and returned the iPod flash drive to Mr. Truchon. After that, I sent an email to him to tell him that I quited it before it finished installing. And then, I couldn't find another time to meet him again because there was a field trip to the Taipei Zoo. However, as an critical thinker and problem solver, I used my flash drive and copied iMovie 08 from Lydia(my roommate at the time)'s laptop, and installed it into mine. Then, I used iMovie 08 to redo my video.
During movie in class, I was demonstrating as a person of high character because I was being quiet all the time, I only spoke when I was answering questions or giving my ideas in the discussions. And also, as an active learner, I was taking notes while Mr. Carpenter was brain storming the video.

Reflection on Currwnt Evevt - Wang's two-hitter leads Yankees to win over Red Sox

2008-04-12T22:33:00.000-07:00

Wang's two-hitter leads Yankees to win over Red Sox
12th, Apr. 2008 1:06am

Looking at the pictures of this current event, I saw Wang was having a 'good job' hand-shade with his teammate, Jose Molina, in the first picture. And for the second picture, Wang was celebrating with his teammates, Jason Giambi, Alex Rodriguez, and Jose Molina after defeating the Boston Red Sox. Therefore, befoe I read the article of this current event. I sort of had this foreshadow from the pictueres, which told me that this event is going to be a good news about the Yankees. And especially about Wang.

'He was as good as I've seen him,' Yankees manager told the reporteres.
'I think this is my best game so far,' said Wang.
Wang Chien-ming pitched a two-hit complete game to lead the New York Yankees to a 4-1 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Friday in the first meeting this season between the heated American League rivals.

[Writing by Gene Cherry in Salvo, North Carolina; Editing by Greg Stutchbury]

8 Hums Journal 11th, Apr. 2008

2008-04-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

Today in class, we were working on our iMovie for our project. I'd say that I was an active learner because I the iMovie that I was using was in a different version with the one that I've been using before my laptop was broken. And so, when I was using it to do my project, I was also learning to use this version of iMovie, by myself. I would have asked questions if I had any problems, but I didn't seemed to have a lot of problems. However, the only question that I've had was 'how to record my voice by this version of iMovie?' But Mr. Carpenter taught me before I asked him, so I didn't really ask him anything during class. Bascally, I was just working on everything on my own during the class. :p

Family Government

2008-04-09T21:12:00.000-07:00

Look at myself as a parent one day who has runs a democratic form of 'family government'.
My family will be ruled by democracy. My husband and I will basically take the leadership in my family together. My kids, as the 'citizens' will have the right to vote for that do they want, and of course, my husband and I will definitely listen to their voices and come up with a fair decision. The positives for this kind of 'governing', I think is that everyone in the family will be involved for everything that's going on within the family. They can share their voices and opinions to the 'leaderships', and enjoy the life in the 'society' of the family. However, the problem that may occur is that there might be too many different opinions from each members of the family, and so, it could be really hard for the leaders to make a certain decision without being disagreed by the ons that are having a different opinions.

My Greece Researching Progression

2008-04-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

For the Greece researching project, I've chosen my topics, which are Trading and The Athenian Revolution. For the topic-Trading, I've asked 3 questions about it. 1. How did they trade? 2. What did they trade? and 3. Who did they trade with. And for the other topic- The Athenian Revolution, I've only asked 2 questions about it. 1. Why did it happen? and 2. How did it end up?
So far, I've done my researching on all these 5 questions and I've put the answers as notes on my mind map os Greece researching. I've also finished the researching of images that fits my answers. And so, the next thing that I'm going to do, probably in class, is to work on my iMovie for the final presentation of this project. I'll put the images that I'd found into the iMovie, record my voice of answering the question and perhaps, introducing the images.

My Growth of Being an Active Learner

2008-04-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

Active learner
In Progress-Demonstrate.

When there's an assignment that contains researching, I do the researches on my own. I've been learning things from the websites, books and even from answers of people that I'd asked for help. I've also been asking questions during class, though it's not very often. And moreover, I started to read about current events from news websites and also been listening to them from the radio in the morning, on my mum's car during the ride to school.

8Hums Journal 21/MAR/2008

2008-03-22T03:38:00.000-07:00

Today in humanities class, we were doing the reaches for answering the questions that we've asked about ancient Greece.
As a person of high character, I did what I suppose to do during class. And I said this as a demonstration of a person of high character because we were doing the researches on the internet, which is very easy to distract people from their reaching. And also, as a person of high character, I asked permission from Mr. Carpenter for listening to musics during the researching. And of course I wore my earphones. Therefore, I wouldn't disturb the other students.

My Comment for 'Where do we draw the line?'

2008-03-17T08:37:00.000-07:00

This is the comment that I'd left for a post called 'Where do we draw the line?' at Students 2.0.

I wonder if the line should be drawn at all..

Without a doubt, I think that teenagers and adults are able to have good conversations. As long as they respects each other. However, some of the teenagers might have found strangeness for communicating with adults. I think that’s actually quite normal. But it doesn’t necessarily means that there should be a line between because the line would be stepped across by these teenagers eventually.(hopefully)

Rules for Blogging

2008-03-17T07:33:00.000-07:00

The following list is a list that shows a several rules for blogging. These rules were voted by us, the 8th graders. There were many of them, but these are the only ones that we all agree with:

- No personal informations (no last name or contact information)

- Write in ENGLISH

- Don't write inappropriate stuff in your blog

- Don't insult others. Be constructive in your commenting

- Don't plagiarize other peoples' ideas

- Cite your sources for images and ideas

8Hums Journal 11th/MAR/2008

2008-03-11T05:53:00.000-07:00

Today in class, we continued watching the movie about the ancient Greece. The purpose of watching this movie was to learn more about the ancient Greece, for us(the students) to find some interesting topics from it, ask questions, and be answering the questions eventually. As an active learner today, I took notes during watching the movie, and listen carefully to what the movie was talking about. And by the way, I was a critical thinker and problem solver when I took the notes because I know that I'm not a a fast-typer, so instead of typing down my notes on the computer, I wrote my notes with pencil on a piece of paper. And so I could be able to catch up the movie easier. I've written down quite a lot of topics, notes, and questions. Therefore I have more option of topics to choose and work on the answers later on. Then, the class ended before we finish the movie, so we are probably going to keep it continued in the next class.

Autobiography

2008-03-05T07:01:00.000-08:00

About Me
Jez

Hello! My name is Jenny, but I prefer people call me Jez. Therefore, everyone in this school calls me Jez. I’m the only child in my family. I live with my parents, 2 dogs and 2 cats. I like doing sports and other active activities. I also like musics, I can play guitar and piano. I like to eat fruits, Italian foods, and yogurts. I have a lot of good friends, and I love to hangout with them.

The reason why I prefer people calling me Jez is because that I think Jenny is quite a common name. There’re a lot of people called Jenny. My nick name, Jez, was named by my English teacher from the other school, Hsinchu American School, which is known as HAS. He gave everyone in the 7th grade a nick name, and used the nick names on a sheet of paper which shows everyone's grade. Since I'd mentioned about another school, just so you know, I’ve also been studying at Ivy Collegiate Academy, known as ICA, in Taichung. Anyways, my real name is Jenny, but I prefer people to call me Jez. And by the way, it’s spelled as ‘Jez’ not ‘Jess’ nor ‘Jezz’.

I live with my mum Sandra, and my dad Maple. I'm the only child in my family which means that I don’t have any brothers or sisters. My mum used to ask me if I want a younger brother or sister when I was in elementary school, and I said I don't because I assumed that having younger brother and sisters will be quite annoying because I'll have to babysit them, especially if we have a big age difference. Only if I really could chose, I'd like to have a older brother, but unfortunately, I didn't have the choice. However, I might be the only child in my family, but I got a lot of cousins from my mother’s family. Most of my cousins are older than me. Some of them even already had children. Therefore, I become someone’s aunt for some situations. And it makes me feels wired every time because some of my nephews are older than me. I also have pets to accompany me so I won’t be lonely. I have 2 cats and 2 dogs. I love my pets, even moreover, they are just like my brother and sisters.

Both of my parents has a lot of expectations for me. I think it’s because that I’m their only child. Although all those expectations may be quite annoying and stressing sometimes, I’ll still try my best to reach them. They always tell me that 'there are always people that are better, and skies that are higher.' Which they may meant that there's many 'competitors' outside that I have yet to meet. These 'competitors' might be my schoolmates, co-workers, or even my friends or other strangers. So I must be prepared to 'compete' with them in the future.

My interests are doing sports or other active activities. But I also like to do things that are relaxing, like listening to musics, playing with instruments and drawing...etc, without being forced to. For playing instruments, I can play piano and guitar, though my skills are not very good.Basically, I like to do anything without being forced to. I don’t like to be forced to do things because if I’m forced to do something, I could feel the pressures from it. For example, if I’m forced to dance, I won’t have and fun from doing it. But if I’m in a dancing party, where I would be dancing without being forced to, I could have lots of fun from it!

One very important part of my life, is my friends! I have many friends and I love my friends! I love hanging out with them! With my friends, sometimes we chat online, chat in the phone, or even go out to watch movies, shopping, or have lunch together. They've affected me as who I became. They let me realized that socializing is not just about oneself, you have to think more about 'we' and not just 'I'. For example, I have these really close friends since I was only in kindergarten. At the time, I was a spoiled brat. I cried a lot, and I loved to complain. However, being with these friends has changed me a lot because whenever I started to act spoiled, they reminded me to watch out my attitude. And if I didn't, they may just ignore me, as a 'punishment'. Until now, although we didn't get to hang out as often as before, I still remember their reminding. And still thanking them for changing me so much. That even when we got to meet each other lately, they ere shocked by my 'none-spoiled' attitude.

Other than friends, another important thing in my life is my educations of course. In fact, my mum always tells me that as long as I'm doing good in the school, and by 'school', she means 'grades', she won't care about any other things that I want to do. However, even if my mum doesn't care about my grades, I will. Because I wish that I could get into a good college in the future, and become a useful person! :]

My life is going well so far. My family has been supporting me a lot, my mum drives me to school all the way from Joungli to Hsinchu every morning, and picks me up after school every evening. Both of my mum and dad have been focusing on the works of his business, making money so that I could afford my tuition fee. School is quite busy, but still, I've been enjoying the all the flashy breaks for me to take a rest from the school works. However, the best part of my life is that I got most of my friends by my side, especially in school. Which has made my 8th grade school life better than other school years I'd been through before.

8Hums Journal 04/MAR/2008

2008-03-03T23:29:00.000-08:00

Today in humanities class, first, we've been sharing some interesting current events(news) in class. Then, we briefly read through the textbook just for reviewing the things that we'd read as a homework assignment. I was a person of high character in this case, because I'd finished my homework assignments before class. We've also had a discussion about the 2 questions from the text book. And as a community contributor, I shared my answers to the class, and by the way, when I was explaining my answers, I was demonstrating the ability of an effective communicator because instead just read the answer that I'd typed down in my google document, I've been answering with 'every-day language', and I think this way, it might be easer for people to understand me. Because as you all know that sometimes, writing and speaking are not quite the same. Which means that sometimes, something that you've typed or written down, could possibly be unable for you to just read them out loud, because people might not be able to understand you if you did. Then, after the discussion, we were working on our bloggers. I was an active leaner because mostly, we were working on our individual blogs, and for me, I looked through all the functions and trying around the them and see what happened. However, I was being quite careful when I was trying on these functions, because I knew if I accidentally deleted something, and never going to undo it, then it wouldn't be something good that has happened.

4 Reasons for 'Why We Blog?'

2008-02-25T05:55:00.000-08:00

1. Having a blog allows you to share your experiences with people that you might not even know. However, those people might can give you some comments to comfort you.

2. It's like a place for you to express your feelings by typing them down, roughly, without checking your spellings or grammars. It's fine as long as people know what you are talking about.

3. You may look at other people's post and learn their experiences from it.

4. You might get new friends from the connections of comments from strangers.

Humanities Journal 29/OCT/2007

2007-10-28T18:06:00.000-07:00

29/OCT/2007

Today is the due day of the class skit, I as nervous because I haven't really memorized my lines, and I'm good at acting because I've only had een in drama class for 1 sermaster when I was in 7th grade. But however, I couldn't avoid it, so I really desperaped. I think the thing that our skit had taught us about teamwork is that teamwork isn't always easy, you need to communitcate with your team, deal with different ideas from your team-mates and organize the ideas into one complete thought, and having a leader in a group is always a good thing, because he, she or they can help to organize the thoughts form everyone in the team and thay can also help to increace the communications in the team. And although we've used some of the information from the book to make our skit, by acting the skit, it feels like we were experiencing the live of a person from the Tang Dynasty, which let me have a stronger memorie about it. Our skit was going very well today but there's still some space for it's imprvoment. So if I want to improve our skit, I think we should rehearse for few times, prepare more, mabe make some things to help acting the skit. And most importantly, memorize the script!

Humanities Journal 15/OCT/2007

2007-10-15T06:24:00.000-07:00

Today in class, we didn't have any presentation, so finally, we could relax a bit in class. But still, we had a assignment for the next class. However, instead of doing another Keynote (Powerpoint) due next class, Mr. Burghauser gave us another kind of assignment, which was to writing a story of a person that loved long time ago in the Tang Dynasty. While we were all doing the assignment in class, which Mr. Burghauser told us to, he told us that this assignment isn't easy, even before we told him it was hard, so I think he just want us to try our best. However, I've done something like this before in my school last year, so I sort of knew how do I do this thing, and this time, we were working in groups, which had made this assignment easier then the one I did before, because I was working individually last time, and the think I wrot about was a diary of a Spartan girl. Anyway, today I put 100% of my guts into the working of the new assignment. And, when Grace and U were working on it, Mr. Burgauser came to see our work, and he said it was excellent. Which made me felt more confident. So will try my best on theis assignment, and just hope that it will turns out well.

Humanities Journal 11/OCT/2007

2007-10-10T19:21:00.000-07:00

11/Oct/2007

Today was another presentation day, everyone were nervous, well...I don't know the boys, but I know the girls did. I was nervous because I thought that this project that Grace and I had done wasn't very good, I saw Connie and Eunice's befre the class started, the did like 11 pages but we only did 7, and our topic, The Han Dyasty was sort of included all the other topics. And the project was on Grace's laptop, so I thought she might had add some informations or pictures on it to make it better, but unfortunately, she didn't. So even whe other groups started to present, I had to add somethings in it. However, Mr. Burghauser said that everyone's work were wonderful, so I guess we were just...wonderful, so I don't have to worry about it anymore. After the presentatoon, Mr. Burghauser told us a little about the Society Mobility 'Old Money' and the 'New Money', which was related by the question, 'How's the different between the Han's Society and nowdays?' But in one of the Chinese sayings said that 'one's wealthy won't last for 3 generations.' So, those people that lives with the 'Old Money' will have to beware about that.

04/Oct/2007 Humanities Journal

2007-10-03T18:19:00.000-07:00

04/Oct/2007

Today is the presentation day, I'm a bit nervous because Grace and I did it seperately most of the time, we only dicussed when we met at school, so I'm afraid that our presentation might be 'holly'. In the beginning of class, Mr. Burghuser sid that he's going to let us, the students to charge everything in class, it meant that we'd have to contral the timing of prepering, presenting and questioning. I was a it shocked when he told us that he would not be in charge of the class, I was thinking that if he just sit at the back of the classroom and do his own stuff, then how can he grade on us? But however, we just started to do it, to charge the class by our own. The first group presenting was the group of Connie and Eunice, they were presenting about the Daoism. They told about the believes and the founders in Daoism. The founders were Lauzi and Zhuagzi, and it believed that natural orders will rule the civilization well. Then, we were the next group, our topic was Legalism v.s. Confucianism, we told about some main points of Legalism and Confucianism, how is Confucius, the philosophies of both and the conflict between both. During presenting, Grace and I took turns to read the pages out loud, but because my throw didn't fell very good this morning, so Grace had read the most of them. After that, it's the time of questioning, and I think there were a lot questions of us, maybe we didn't do it very well so that everyone still got a lot of question, but when we'd finished the presentation, Mr. Burghauser said it was brilliant, so, I don't know...Anyway, there were a lot of questions, and I answered most of them, or you could even say that I've answered ALL of them. The next presenting group was the boys. Their topic was Legalism, whcs they had 'won' it in the last class. They talked about the rules of Legalism, Qin Dynasty because it was ruled in Ledalism, the rulers of Qin Dynasty and the Great Wall. Finally, in the end of this class, Mr. Burghauser became a thecher again, he told us that we were doing a great job, and we will do it agin next time. And for me, I hope I or we, if there is a group, could do it better next time.

Humanities Journal 1/OCT/2007

2007-09-30T19:17:00.000-07:00

1/OCT/2007

The homework foe today was to reread page 104 to page 109, so in class, we talked about basically the same thing last time. Mr. Burghauser wanted us to write 5 most important things in the Chapter, and again, we were devided into groups of 2, and the members in every group stayed the same. Connie and Eunie were in group 1, their 5 most important things were Confucius Great Wall, Other Ethical system, Qin Dynasty and Legalism. Grace and I were in group 2, our 5 most important things were The warring state period, Confucius-The 5 basic relationship-(1)ruler & subject (2)father & son (3)husband & wife (4)older brother younger brother (5)friend & friendFilial Piety is the respect for parents and ancestors, Daoism, Laozi, only natural order was important. And the Qin Dynasty replaced the Zhou Dynasty, Qin Sgi Haungdi. The two boys, Jordan and Kevin were in group 3, and their 5 most important things werer Confucius, Daoism, I Ching and Yin and Yang, Shi Haungdi and Legalist. After sharing all these 5 most important things in each group, Mr. Burghauser found out the common ones and told us to do a Powerpoient presentation about the selected topic of your group. The topics were Legalist v.s. Confucius, Daoism, and Qin Dynasity. At firt, everyone wanted to do Qin Dynasty, why? I don't know, but I know I want to do it because there is more informations about it, therefore It might be easer to do the researching. Then, I was thinking that someone has to grow up here, so I changed my mind and chose another topic, Legalist v.s. Confusius. And I hope it helped Mr. Burghauser a bit, because then he only had to throw the coin once. lol

Humanities Journal 27/SEB/2007

2007-09-26T19:57:00.000-07:00

27/SEB/2007

Today in class, we were talking about 'Reading Strategy'. First, we talked about it's meaning, then we divided into groups of 2, sharing our own reading strategies to owr partner, my partner was Grace, her reading stratgy was read, take notes of topics and write it on paper or type it down. After group discussing, we got to share our reading strategies to the whole class. Jordan's was to read it twice; Kevin's was to take notes of each paragraph; connie's was to pay attention to understand words, and also underline your own words that you think are connected to important ideas; Eunice's was to read tittle/heading, and understand how the ideas in that section connect to tittle/heading, and Mr. Burghauser said mine was a great one, which was to take notes on stickies and stick them in books.
And by the way, in a part of class discuss, Mr.Burghauser told as that he likes peanut butter cup, which I've never heard it before. He said it's an amazing ice cream and hope as could get him one on his birthday, on 20th of June, but I don't think there's any in Taiwan, so... sorry Mr. Burghauser! ;p

Humanities Journal 21/SEB/2007

2007-09-21T23:30:00.000-07:00

21/SEB/2007

Today in class, we were discussing about China's civilization.
Mr.Burghauser asked us why China is the oldest CIVILIZATION, but not CULTURE? I couldn't think of the answer of that question.
Then, we listed the 5 most important thing about China. I listed culture, dynasties, geographies, believes and civilizations. But we didn't talk about all, we'd only finished talking about culture, dynasties and geographies. While we were talking about geographies, Mr. Burghauser discribed China's king as him teaching us in an American football field sized classroom. That was a good discription because I really can feel how incredibilly big China is... and that also explained why people has to beware of buying things that are made in China. And people who has their factories in China really have to rule their workers.

Humanities Journal 18/SEB/2007

2007-09-21T19:11:00.000-07:00

18/SEB/2007

Today, we've been presenting the subject we had researched about
Taiwan. Connie and Eunice was the first group to present. They
presented their selected subject which was Superstitions in Taiwan,
with powerpoint and I helped a bit. Their presentation was awesome!
even though most of them I've known already. And Mr. Burghause
thought that it was so awesome that it had woke him from the
sleepiness in the early morning. Then, the second group was us, Grace
and I. We didn't use powerpoint, but I think our informations were
abundant. I think this project was easy because I've been in Taiwan's
local elementary school, so I know quite a lot about the our subject,
which was the Educational System in Taiwan. After us, it was Jordan
and Kevin's turn. They were talking about the Religion in Taiwan.
Well...I don't really know about the religions, so it was quiet
interesting for me.