When you think about how the future will turn out, you probably think about hovering cars and things like teleportation. Although stuff like this might exist in the future, I believe that you should think about subjects that are more important when thinking about the future. You. Think about topics such as your career, your health, your residence, your family and so on. Then you should think about subjects on a broader view such as the future of the environment, advances in technology and medicine and the future of the world and governments. Although you may not be able to change these things, but they will have an impact on your life and if enough of us get together maybe we can have some impact on them as well. Lastly, you may think about positive changes in the world. On how our technology will advance or how our medicine will move forward. You may also think about negative things such as global warming, weapons of mass destruction and epidemics. You can see that the future gives you both challenges and opportunities. It is up to you and up to all of us how we leverage our tools to come up with solutions and control our future.
The whole point of school is to prepare you for the future. Every second you spend learning, prepares you for the future challenges. Most kids probably don’t realise this, but it’s true. The first eight or nine years of your life, may not seem to be that critical in terms of your future but when you think about it you would appreciate their importance. During these years we get exposed to many subjects from mathematics to geography, from LA to music. These years we have the best ability to learn and start thinking about which subjects we love most. This helps us to focus more on specific subjects which we want to learn when we go to the high school. The high school then helps us to start thinking about the university and our career. So you can see how the whole thing links up to our future – from the first grade all the way up to the university. If we do not take these years seriously, we are not building our future and we are losing the chance of controlling it.
In the future, current problems we have today will most likely grow into catastrophes. For example, global warming might slowly get worse. Today’s society really doesn’t care that much but they don’t realise that this will affect their children and grand-children. Right now you may think that global warming is the only problem that goes into that category, but no. Sicknesses are another. It started with the SARS sickness, then West Nile and then it moved on to Swine Flu. These sicknesses are going to continue to grow, and to get worse. The only problem with this happening is that we almost have no control over it. For example, the West Nile Virus was given to us by mosquitoes. We can’t just kill every mosquito in the world. It would completely ruin the food chain. However, maybe we can fight it another ways – by developing vaccines and by educating people. Basically what I am trying to say is that although we are unable to stop problems in the world, we may be able to prevent some by hard work, by trying and not giving up, by inventing and by teaching.
The future will not hold only negative aspects, but it will hold some positive ones too. Think about technology and medicine. The progress that we have made in these areas has helped us to live linger, safer and with better life style than our grand-parents did fifty year ago. These positive advances have given us the tools to fight the negative problems that our generation is facing. The interesting thing about this is that we have discovered more and invented more in the past ten years, than the thirty years before that. Think about what we can achieve in 50 years from now.
In summary, we have three things to deal with. The unknown future that is going to be full of challenges, the unknown future that is going to be full of opportunities and us at the present time with the certainty and the ability to learn, work hard, discover, invent and teach to achieve more control over our destiny and together over the destiny of mankind. The secret is always going to be how do we use our tools to solve our problems and how do we leverage our future opportunities to face our challenges. The only way that I can think of is to prepare ourselves for it.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Technology
One thing that is present in almost everyone’s life is technology. Almost every minute of your life you are being affected by technology. When you are being affected by technology though it can either be for the good or for the bad. After figuring this all out, you should think about how our life would be without technology.
Every second of your life, you are bound to be near technology. For example, if you are reading this, then you have some technology right in front of your face. If you are reading a printed version of this, then the lights on top of you are on; also you had to print it to be able to read it. I believe that I can say with confidence that currently most people in North America can’t live without technology. Everyone in North America has lived his or her whole life with technology; it has become a necessity. On the other hand, some people believe it has become a problem for our society.
One aspect of technology is that it can take over your entire life. Instead of being out there exercising, you are playing with video games. Instead of travelling, you are watching the National Geographic Channel. Instead of playing tennis, you are pretending that you are playing tennis in your room in front of the TV screen with a Wii controller in your hand.
Continuing from the last paragraph lets go at it from a different angle. What would our life be without technology? No computers, no TV, no video games, everything would have to be done by hand. I would have had to write this whole post by hand. Coming from that idea, think about the famous books in the world. Only one person in the entire world (1/7000000000 approximately) would be able to read it. It is also important to think that how technology has improved every aspect of your life. From communication to medicine, from art to engineering, from convenience to security and so on and on.
In conclusion, I can say that just like everything else if technology is used in a proper way and in a balanced way, it will become your servant. Otherwise there is the danger that the technology could become your master taking over every aspect of your. I also want you to think about millions of people who have been killed because of war technology and millions more that have been saved by the everyday technological advances in medicine. Do you see the dual role of technology?
Every second of your life, you are bound to be near technology. For example, if you are reading this, then you have some technology right in front of your face. If you are reading a printed version of this, then the lights on top of you are on; also you had to print it to be able to read it. I believe that I can say with confidence that currently most people in North America can’t live without technology. Everyone in North America has lived his or her whole life with technology; it has become a necessity. On the other hand, some people believe it has become a problem for our society.
One aspect of technology is that it can take over your entire life. Instead of being out there exercising, you are playing with video games. Instead of travelling, you are watching the National Geographic Channel. Instead of playing tennis, you are pretending that you are playing tennis in your room in front of the TV screen with a Wii controller in your hand.
Continuing from the last paragraph lets go at it from a different angle. What would our life be without technology? No computers, no TV, no video games, everything would have to be done by hand. I would have had to write this whole post by hand. Coming from that idea, think about the famous books in the world. Only one person in the entire world (1/7000000000 approximately) would be able to read it. It is also important to think that how technology has improved every aspect of your life. From communication to medicine, from art to engineering, from convenience to security and so on and on.
In conclusion, I can say that just like everything else if technology is used in a proper way and in a balanced way, it will become your servant. Otherwise there is the danger that the technology could become your master taking over every aspect of your. I also want you to think about millions of people who have been killed because of war technology and millions more that have been saved by the everyday technological advances in medicine. Do you see the dual role of technology?
Monday, February 8, 2010
Vacations
One thing that everyone should experience is traveling and taking a vacation. When you go back to a school after holiday breaks, you always hear your friend talking about their travelling experience and how much they have learned from it. . Personally, this is why I find vacations to be essential in everybody’s life. First of all, it’s a chance for people to visit their relatives. It also lets you see other people’s customs. Lastly, it’s just a time to get away from all of it. It’s an opportunity to refresh the way you think and the way you appreciate life.
In my opinion, it so hard to have to stay away from your family, especially if they’re far away and you rarely get to see them. For me, this is one of the main reasons I go on vacations. You get to spend time with people you love. You can go out to restaurants with your family, or you can just go to their houses. As a quick side note, it’s amazingly fun when you can go and meet some of your relatives for the first time. It’s all positive except when you have to go back. It always gets so emotional when leaving.
When traveling to far away places on earth, you are able to see other customs, and you are able to see how other people live. This is such a healthy thing to experience at young age. You can see so many differing things, such as how much trouble places like Haiti are going through. You might be able to see racism in a place like South Africa. Yes, this can still influence you at an older age, but when you are young you are so prone to wondering, and you can get taught so easily.
Finally, its just a chance to escape all the trouble in the world. I find it so nice to just be able to go to a nice resort, and to just have the ability to relax in a hotel room. Also, I find it so nice to just get a break from of the school work. You can let your body recuperate, and then you can just return to your regular life. Your body would have rested, and at the same time it would let your brain rest.
As you see, vacation is one thing that everyone needs at one point in their lifetime. It lets you see how much trouble people are going through in the world. It also lets you see your family and friends, and just sometimes it lets you get away from everything. And now, I think that I am going to go on a vacation of my own right now.
In my opinion, it so hard to have to stay away from your family, especially if they’re far away and you rarely get to see them. For me, this is one of the main reasons I go on vacations. You get to spend time with people you love. You can go out to restaurants with your family, or you can just go to their houses. As a quick side note, it’s amazingly fun when you can go and meet some of your relatives for the first time. It’s all positive except when you have to go back. It always gets so emotional when leaving.
When traveling to far away places on earth, you are able to see other customs, and you are able to see how other people live. This is such a healthy thing to experience at young age. You can see so many differing things, such as how much trouble places like Haiti are going through. You might be able to see racism in a place like South Africa. Yes, this can still influence you at an older age, but when you are young you are so prone to wondering, and you can get taught so easily.
Finally, its just a chance to escape all the trouble in the world. I find it so nice to just be able to go to a nice resort, and to just have the ability to relax in a hotel room. Also, I find it so nice to just get a break from of the school work. You can let your body recuperate, and then you can just return to your regular life. Your body would have rested, and at the same time it would let your brain rest.
As you see, vacation is one thing that everyone needs at one point in their lifetime. It lets you see how much trouble people are going through in the world. It also lets you see your family and friends, and just sometimes it lets you get away from everything. And now, I think that I am going to go on a vacation of my own right now.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
School
Most kids shudder when they hear the word “school”. Parents, on the other hand, can feel like they have become young again. In all fairness, as an adult you still have to understand that, generally, kids are not big fans of school. The same goes for kids having to understand that school determines their future. In the end, you shouldn’t try to dislike or like school, you should find a way to bend it to your liking. In my opinion, though, there aren’t just one or two problems with schools; there are many.
The first and main problem is that it starts too early. For most kids, it’s very difficult to be forced to wake up at seven in the morning. The reason I believe this is because kids are used to going to bed around eleven o’clock and waking up around ten o’clock’. Then when they have to go to school, they usually go to bed around 9:00 and then get back up at seven. Doing this makes them lose one hour of crucial sleep. If you told your teachers this problem they would just tell you to go to bed one hour earlier, but no kid wants to sleep at eight or nine.
Moving away from sleeping, let us talk about a different problem: lunch time. Now, I’m not sure about high school, but I do know that in the middle school you don’t have nearly enough time. It’s risky to bring a microwave lunch because you end up wasting half of the time you have to eat lunch warming the food up, and then another quarter to wait for it to cool down. After lunch time, you will get a lunch recess, which is so much fun when you are in the mood, but when you just want to stay inside and hang out with your friends, you can’t. The only options are to either go outside or to go to homework club. Even homework club is a time to be with your friends, but as soon as you say even one word, “SHH” get’s implanted into your mind by the teacher running homework club that day. Okay, you have gone through the worst of the school day, but there is still some classes left. It’s the worst when you have a test at the end of the day, because you just don’t have any energy left in you. You’ve been tuckered out from your last classes. You end up thinking about what you might do when you get home, which drastically lowers your mark. It shows you that even though the school determines your future, it’s not doing the best it can to help you maximize your potential, so how can schools expect students to do their best?
From what you’ve read, you probably think that I am against school. Truly, I am, even though I still enjoy it a little bit. There are advantages to going to school for students too. As I said before, school helps you decide what you do in the future. This is why your parents want you to go to school. My favourite advantage is that you can make friends. Not only can you see them at school, but you can meet up after school and have even more fun with them. This is why some kids don’t just drop out of school. This shows how nice it is to have friends. It’s worth going through all of the troubles of school, just to see your friends.
Kids dislike school, but still they will go to school to see their friends. Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if they were to go for other reasons? By doing things like starting it an hour later or paying more attention to socializing and friendships, I believe school could be improved to become more enjoyable for students. This, in turn, would assist the students to enjoy school more and reach their maximum potential. This would require a joint effort between students and teachers, but I think it could eventually be reformed into a system that better-suits everyone.
The first and main problem is that it starts too early. For most kids, it’s very difficult to be forced to wake up at seven in the morning. The reason I believe this is because kids are used to going to bed around eleven o’clock and waking up around ten o’clock’. Then when they have to go to school, they usually go to bed around 9:00 and then get back up at seven. Doing this makes them lose one hour of crucial sleep. If you told your teachers this problem they would just tell you to go to bed one hour earlier, but no kid wants to sleep at eight or nine.
Moving away from sleeping, let us talk about a different problem: lunch time. Now, I’m not sure about high school, but I do know that in the middle school you don’t have nearly enough time. It’s risky to bring a microwave lunch because you end up wasting half of the time you have to eat lunch warming the food up, and then another quarter to wait for it to cool down. After lunch time, you will get a lunch recess, which is so much fun when you are in the mood, but when you just want to stay inside and hang out with your friends, you can’t. The only options are to either go outside or to go to homework club. Even homework club is a time to be with your friends, but as soon as you say even one word, “SHH” get’s implanted into your mind by the teacher running homework club that day. Okay, you have gone through the worst of the school day, but there is still some classes left. It’s the worst when you have a test at the end of the day, because you just don’t have any energy left in you. You’ve been tuckered out from your last classes. You end up thinking about what you might do when you get home, which drastically lowers your mark. It shows you that even though the school determines your future, it’s not doing the best it can to help you maximize your potential, so how can schools expect students to do their best?
From what you’ve read, you probably think that I am against school. Truly, I am, even though I still enjoy it a little bit. There are advantages to going to school for students too. As I said before, school helps you decide what you do in the future. This is why your parents want you to go to school. My favourite advantage is that you can make friends. Not only can you see them at school, but you can meet up after school and have even more fun with them. This is why some kids don’t just drop out of school. This shows how nice it is to have friends. It’s worth going through all of the troubles of school, just to see your friends.
Kids dislike school, but still they will go to school to see their friends. Wouldn’t it be nice, though, if they were to go for other reasons? By doing things like starting it an hour later or paying more attention to socializing and friendships, I believe school could be improved to become more enjoyable for students. This, in turn, would assist the students to enjoy school more and reach their maximum potential. This would require a joint effort between students and teachers, but I think it could eventually be reformed into a system that better-suits everyone.
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Haiti
Recently, there has been an earthquake in Haiti (Alleged to be the worst disaster to happen on the Western hemisphere of the world), and I need to put this in some perspective. First of all, I will explain the statistics of the earthquake; which occurred on Tuesday January 12th, 2010. Then I’ll talk about how hard it is for them to receive help.
From what I’ve heard, approximately three million people have been affected by the earthquake, and 200,000 of those people actually died. A reason those numbers might be so high, is because the earthquake was a horrible magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale. Also the numbers might be high because the earthquake occurred at the capital which is Port-Au-Prince (the most populated area of Haiti). Amazingly, after the earthquake, there was also an unexpected amount of 33 aftershocks, most of them having the magnitude of 5 to 5.9.
People weren’t the only things that were affected. Most major landmarks were either damaged, or even destroyed, including: Presidential Palace (President René Préval survived), the national assembly building, the Port-Au-Prince cathedral, the main jail, and most hospitals! The main problem with these building’s being destroyed, is that we can’t get them back. We might be able to rebuild some of the buildings, but they will never have the history they used to. They won’t be amazing antiques anymore.
To have a real idea of what Haitians are going through, we have to imagine ourselves in their shoes. Not only did they experience a horrible earthquake, but they were one of the poorest countries in the world to begin with. The big problem with that is that they don’t have the materials or equipment to help them “heal”. Because of this, other countries are sending troupes over to help, but what ends up happening is that there is no easy access to the Haitians, and the volunteers don’t have the system to deliver necessities such as food and medicine. The reason why this is happening is because other countries aren’t allowed to go through the airport to deliver the help. You might be thinking “why can’t they just land outside of the airport?” Well, the reason why is because Haiti is such a small place, that there is no space for them to land.
To conclude, the way we can help is by delivering food and medicine, and by rebuilding their landmarks, even though they will never be the same. We need to help Haitians to rise above all of this misery and poverty. We need to help the children who are going to be the next generation of Haitians. We can’t fix the past, but we can make the future.
(Sorry, still can't make indents)
From what I’ve heard, approximately three million people have been affected by the earthquake, and 200,000 of those people actually died. A reason those numbers might be so high, is because the earthquake was a horrible magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale. Also the numbers might be high because the earthquake occurred at the capital which is Port-Au-Prince (the most populated area of Haiti). Amazingly, after the earthquake, there was also an unexpected amount of 33 aftershocks, most of them having the magnitude of 5 to 5.9.
People weren’t the only things that were affected. Most major landmarks were either damaged, or even destroyed, including: Presidential Palace (President René Préval survived), the national assembly building, the Port-Au-Prince cathedral, the main jail, and most hospitals! The main problem with these building’s being destroyed, is that we can’t get them back. We might be able to rebuild some of the buildings, but they will never have the history they used to. They won’t be amazing antiques anymore.
To have a real idea of what Haitians are going through, we have to imagine ourselves in their shoes. Not only did they experience a horrible earthquake, but they were one of the poorest countries in the world to begin with. The big problem with that is that they don’t have the materials or equipment to help them “heal”. Because of this, other countries are sending troupes over to help, but what ends up happening is that there is no easy access to the Haitians, and the volunteers don’t have the system to deliver necessities such as food and medicine. The reason why this is happening is because other countries aren’t allowed to go through the airport to deliver the help. You might be thinking “why can’t they just land outside of the airport?” Well, the reason why is because Haiti is such a small place, that there is no space for them to land.
To conclude, the way we can help is by delivering food and medicine, and by rebuilding their landmarks, even though they will never be the same. We need to help Haitians to rise above all of this misery and poverty. We need to help the children who are going to be the next generation of Haitians. We can’t fix the past, but we can make the future.
(Sorry, still can't make indents)
Sunday, January 17, 2010
“Should the movies be exact reproductions of books that they are based on?”
Most movies start from with a storyline which is told in a book or is told in a script especially written for the movie. Sometimes the movies are true and accurate reproductions of the book from which the story comes from or they are loosely based on the storyline told in the book.
Most movies are made from popular books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which in my opinion tends to butcher the book it copies, but I’ve gotten so used to that fact, it’s grown on me. It seems like it would be a very big challenge to tweak a story from a book to fit under a certain budget, or possibilities. Sometimes the storyline is too long to fit in one movie and the movie makers tend to alter the story or make a series of sequels which are becoming quite popular. I find it really nice to have movies made from a series of books. Especially when they start to get so suspenseful, wanting you to know what is going to happen next.
From the people I’ve talked to, most of them agree with me that the movie reproduction of books, tend not to be as good in quality as the books, although, there are some exceptions. The Harry Potter series was not only an amazing series as a book, but it was equally amazing as a movie series. It is also true that sometimes the movie version of a storyline becomes more interesting than the book which it is based on. There is a series of books called “A Series of Unfortunate Events;” I read the first book in that series a long time ago, and I wasn’t that big of a fan. A couple weeks after that, I saw a movie version of the book which caused me to get hooked as soon as my eyes had contact with it. I ended up going back and reading the entire series of the book.
An interesting question comes up when there is a remake of a book as a movie; “should one watch the movie first, or read the book first?” There is no right or wrong answer and people have different preferences over this. Some people get disappointed if the movie is not an exact reproduction of the book so they better see the movie first. Likewise, some might prefer not to take away the surprise element by reading the book first. My preference is to see the movie first and if interested, I will read the book. It also happens that after reading a book that I really love, I anxiously wait for the making of its movie knowing that watching it would remind me of the book that I enjoyed reading.
In conclusion, I believe that one should not expect that the movies be exact reproductions of the books and one should enjoy both forms of arts as they are.
(Sorry Indents Are Not Working)
Most movies are made from popular books, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, which in my opinion tends to butcher the book it copies, but I’ve gotten so used to that fact, it’s grown on me. It seems like it would be a very big challenge to tweak a story from a book to fit under a certain budget, or possibilities. Sometimes the storyline is too long to fit in one movie and the movie makers tend to alter the story or make a series of sequels which are becoming quite popular. I find it really nice to have movies made from a series of books. Especially when they start to get so suspenseful, wanting you to know what is going to happen next.
From the people I’ve talked to, most of them agree with me that the movie reproduction of books, tend not to be as good in quality as the books, although, there are some exceptions. The Harry Potter series was not only an amazing series as a book, but it was equally amazing as a movie series. It is also true that sometimes the movie version of a storyline becomes more interesting than the book which it is based on. There is a series of books called “A Series of Unfortunate Events;” I read the first book in that series a long time ago, and I wasn’t that big of a fan. A couple weeks after that, I saw a movie version of the book which caused me to get hooked as soon as my eyes had contact with it. I ended up going back and reading the entire series of the book.
An interesting question comes up when there is a remake of a book as a movie; “should one watch the movie first, or read the book first?” There is no right or wrong answer and people have different preferences over this. Some people get disappointed if the movie is not an exact reproduction of the book so they better see the movie first. Likewise, some might prefer not to take away the surprise element by reading the book first. My preference is to see the movie first and if interested, I will read the book. It also happens that after reading a book that I really love, I anxiously wait for the making of its movie knowing that watching it would remind me of the book that I enjoyed reading.
In conclusion, I believe that one should not expect that the movies be exact reproductions of the books and one should enjoy both forms of arts as they are.
(Sorry Indents Are Not Working)
Monday, January 11, 2010
What does all this mean?
What does all this mean? Well, it means that the world is overgrowing. “By 2013, a computer will surpass the capabilities of a human brain.” Amazing! It really doesn’t seem possible, because remember the old computers? Compared to today they are horrible. The first time I saw this video, I was astonished.
The world is becoming more advanced, and info such as a new computer, is like hearing that it’s time to go to bed. People email, blog, tweet, and use Facebook and MySpace a lot in our world, and we are becoming dependent on that. Wouldn’t it be extremely annoying if you just wanted to ask your friend if he is coming or not to a party by just texting, and you couldn’t? You would have to travel all the way to his house just to tell him six words? In the past, when your family told you that they are getting a television, you would go and brag to all of your friends. We have to learn that the world is spoiled. This blog is a gift; it’s how people share their opinions. Every new item the public is given is another step forward in technology. Well yes that does sound cool, but... It’s also another reason for people to expect more from the world.
At the end of the video, it talked about things such as how many babies were born during the process of the presentation, think about the amount of babies are born during the duration of you reading this post. Something I find really amazing is that I’ve heard a rumor that every 3 seconds a person dies; yet the world’s population is still growing! The population is nearing 7,000,000,000 people! That means 7 billion people asking for more perks for their life.
Throughout this whole letter, I’ve been itching to type this. The thing that bothers me the most, is that the world cares the most about receiving, not giving.
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