Today I Died (Documentary)

Today, I watched a science documentary called Today I Died which is about the possibility of the brain living on and remaining conscious even after clinical death. There was a lot of case studies on people who had experienced near-death situations. Most of the patients described that they saw a tunnel of bright light approaching them which why it happens is explained in the documentary scientifically. Furthermore, the patients feel very happy and peaceful, which is because large amounts of brain morphine is produced when the patient is under lots of stress when they are dying thus, they feel happy. Another common sight was that the patient could remain conscious and see what is happening around them when they were under anesthetics and were supposed to be unconscious. Even though it was not mentioned in the documentary, I believe that the patients were conscious as the anesthetics only reached the other parts of the body besides the eyes and the brain or were not enough there. I have personally experienced this, when I fractured my arm and went to the hospital, I was put under anesthetics and became unconscious. However, after a while, I could see what was happening, the nurses were twisting my arm but I could not feel any pain and was unable to move my body. Lastly, about the case where a blind person could see when she was in a near-death situation, I believe she just imagined everything, as she has never seen how the world actually looked like and can only assume that to be the world when it is really not the case. However, humans still do not know much about the afterlife, thus everything has a possibility of happening. In conclusion, I have learnt a lot from this documentary and hope there comes a day where humans fully understand the afterlife.

Link to video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IMGskL_bujE&feature=related

Paradoxes

A paradox is a self-contradictory and false proposition. For example, when someone says that "I am lying" , it is a paradox because if what he saying was true, then he would be lying, thus self-contradictory. However, if he was lying, then he would be lying about lying and would be telling the truth, thus it is a paradox. Many logic problems are based on paradox. However, there are several things that seem like paradoxes but are actually not. For example, one might think that there must be at least two barbers in a town in order for everyone's hair to be neat assuming everyone else besides the barber cannot cut their hair and the barber can only cut everyone elses' hair. However, the barber might be a female and do not need to have her hair cut. Thus, this is not a paradox.

Birthday problem(Desperate -.-)

The birthday problem is the probability of any 2 people out of n people having the same birthday. Did you know that out of only 57 people there is a 99% chance that 2 people have the same birthday? This is because every person must have a different birthday with all other people. The probability of 2 people having the same birthday is 1 x (1-1/365) x (1 - 2/365) x ... x ( 1- (n-1)/365). When you substitute n with 57, you find that its probability is 99%! This is hard to believe if you do not know the logic but it is true!

Colour Blindness

When people are colour blind, they cannot distinguish between certain colours, especially red and green. Bus drivers, taxi drivers, pilots are dangerous jobs if you are colour blind as you can't differentiate green light and red lights and might crash into something. Being a member of anti-bomb squad is also dangerous as you can't differentiate the wires and when you cut the wrong one the bomb might explode. Furthermore, some types of engineering are unsuitable as you might put the wrong wire in the wrong plug which may cause a short circuit and a fire may break out.

Recommendation to test whether if you are colour blind:

http://www.toledo-bend.com/colorblind/Ishihara.asp is a fast and simple way to test if you are colour-blind. It only takes about a few seconds. The test is just to see a number in the pattern of dots. Best of all, it is completely free! Try it now!

DotA 2 and my thoughts

Yay! The long awaited GamesCom has finally started two days ago featuring Icefrog and Valve's whole new game DotA 2 which is unrestrained by Warcraft III. This competition is the biggest thing in the whole gaming community. The prize is 1 MILLION dollars! Many of the top teams in the world are invited to participate in this competition. One of Singapore's team ,Scythe.sg, has been invited! Scythe.sg has been doing remarkably well so far in the competition, beating many of the top teams in the European scene(especially the far more experienced MYM)! China has always been the dominating country in the DotA scene but this time there might be a change! However, to be honest, I feel that this competition is more likely to be a marketing move by Valve rather than to feature the professional teams. I must admit that this is a good move as this has caused many people from all over the world to notice the game. Furthermore, I have a feeling that gaming may still become an investment for some people. For example, a rich son in China has bought 2 of the top China teams for a total of 9.2 million and reformed another team(iG)! Lastly, I would like to wish all the teams the best in the competition and I would definitely buy DotA 2 when it comes out!

Gaming smartly :D

Did you know that the grater the frequency of gaming, the grater the possibility of reduced social skills and the greater the chance of poor school performance?

Thus, today I am here to advise you on how to game smartly. Just to clarify, I am not here to advise you to stop gaming, but rather to game without affecting your life as well as learn useful things in the process.

First of all, I would recommend games that requires teamwork such as CounterStrike, DotA and strategy RTS games such as Warcraft III. These games help to increase your social skills through communicating with your teammates as well as train your reaction and test your mind. You may think that this games are less fun than MMORPG games such as Maplestory and WoW, but, this games can be quite fun and is much less addictive.

However, we should not game for too long for any type of games as it will affect our studies. We should play less than 10 hours a week and only after we have done our homework. Furthermore, rest your eyes every 45 minutes of gaming for about 15 minutes. However, one common sight is that when teenagers lose or win a game, they will tend to play more, either because they hate the feeling of losing or likes the feeling of winning and wants to play more.

This should not be the case as this will lead to being addicted to that game. One way to see if you are addicted to a game is by seeing if you always think and talk about it in conversations, classes and even dreams! When you are addicted to a certain game, you are often distracted by it and can lead to poor studies and being anti-social. Thus, we must cut our addiction as soon as we notice it. We can do this by : cutting down our gaming time, go for counseling sessions or go for supervised gaming sessions such as at Bukit Merah Care Corner.

Another good way to cut your addiction is to find out the reason that you game for. If it is for the feeling of winning and achievement, you can play sports and other recreational activities. If it is because of bad peer pressure, find some better friends or learn to say "no". If it is for meeting new friends, join some activities at community centres or go for exchange programmes.

All in all, I would like to remind you that everything is your own decision so decided wisely. Time cannot be gained back so treasure it.

Now, after listening to my speech, I hope you have learnt how to game smartly! Lastly, I would like to end with my motto " Work hard, Play hard". Thank you!

LA results

My LA has never been very good since primary school. From Sec 1 till now, my MSG has been always pulled down by LA. As always, this term, I failed my LA. D: I have been finding ways to improve my LA but all these methods do not work for me. I know that a language has to be learnt through practice and hardwork. However, both of these does not seem to work for me, I can't practice much English as my parents speak Chinese with me at home and because people in Singapore do not use proper English in their everyday conversation. Furthermore, whenever I do an exercise or read something, my mind becomes blank and I do not understand and remember what I have just done. This is probably due to my lack of interest. Now, I will try to read more books and hopefully, do better for my EOY.

Land pollution

Land pollution is the degradation of Earth's land surfaces often caused by human activities and their misuse of land resources. It occurs when waste is not disposed properly. Health hazard disposal of urban and industrial wastes, exploitation of minerals, and improper use of soil by inadequate agricultural practices are a few factors. Urbanization and industrialization are major causes of land pollution. Here are some factors of land pollution.

The first factor is increased mechanization. The major increase in the concentration of population in cities, along with the internal combustion engine, led to the increased number of roads and all the infrastructure that goes with them.

As the demand for food has grown exponentially with the increase of the human population, there is an increase in field size and mechanization. The increase in field size makes it economically viable for the farmer but results in loss of person and shelter for wildlife, as hedgerows and copses disappear. When crops are harvested, the naked soil is left open to wind after it has been compacted by heavy machinery. Another consequence of more intensive agriculture is the move to monoculture. This is unnatural, will deplete the soil of nutrients, allows diseases and pests to spread and, as it happens; it quickly exhausts all the natural resources in an area, causing the introduction of chemical fertilizers and foreign substances to the soil that poisons it. The chemical fertilizers in the soil cause its infertility.

The next factor is the use of pesticides. A pesticide is a substance or mixture of substances used to kill a pest. A pesticide may be a chemical substance, biological agent (such as a virus or bacteria), antimicrobial, disinfectant or device used against any pest. Although there are benefits to the use of pesticides, there are also drawbacks, many of the chemicals used in pesticides are persistent soil contaminants, whose impact may endure for decades.

The last factor is the increased waste disposal. When solid wastes are dumped in drainage channels and gutters, they block the flow of the sewerage. This may cause flooding. At the same time, solid wastes also affect soil drainage which hinders the growing of crops.

Next I shall be talking about how to minimise land pollution. We can minimise land pollution by the 3 Rs, reduce reuse and recycle. By doing so, we can minimise waste disposal. We should also refrain from using pesticides and try to find a more environmentally-friendly way to get rid of pests like using predators and genetically engineered plants. We should also use high-tech agriculture methods so that lesser land is used for agriculture. Technology has also allowed soilless agriculture like hydroponics. This will minimise land pollution caused by mechanization.

Does wealth bring happiness?

I agree to a small extent that wealth bring happiness. Although everything in the world costs money, food, drinks, etc and our ultimate motive in life is to get a job and earn money to support our family, we should not be obsessed with money as money cannot buy happiness. True happiness is when you spend time with your family and friends. Furthermore, financial conflicts have sown discords between many families, the members of the family think egocentrically, wanting the most for themselves. Lastly, as we all know, elderly and children need people to talk to and play with as they get lonely easily and they do not only want the things we give them. Thus, spending time with your family brings happiness, not only wealth.

Merchant of Venice on Facebook

1.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Portia/247366961963710

2.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bassanio/156771407735863

3.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Antonio/164193693655023

LA test and R & R exercises

Recently, I just got back my expository and R & R exercises' results. I did badly for both. I admit that I am weak in LA but I have never gotten so low before. Thus, I decided to reflect on what I have done wrong and try to learn from my mistakes.

Firstly, I will reflect on my expository essay. Even though I listened to my teacher's advice to use transition words, my language marks was still quite poor. I guess that this is because of my poor sentence structure. I will try to improve on it. Also, I misunderstood the question (I thought that Arts include LA) and could not provide any real life examples to prove my point. Thus, I scored badly.

About my R & R exercise, I couldn't understand the passage, even though I annotated!(I thought that the Camilla represents purity!) and thus I scored badly. I will try to re-annotate TKAMB if I have the time.(more carefully this time)

But these are all over already, no point crying over spilled milk. So during this 2 weeks, I will try to remember quotations and examples and hopefully do better for the mid-term exam.

黄城夜韵 Chinese Drama

After watching the Chinese drama "黄城夜韵" organized by our school , I feel that it is a very good show in total. It acts out problems that can occur in our real lives. From this drama, I have learnt a lot of things. The drama was about the problems met when producing a drama.

Firstly, I have learnt not to prejudge other people or assume anything in situations before actually knowing the person or understanding the situation. In the drama, a lot of people thought that the 2 directors were in love, never taking the drama seriously and being unfair to them as they are here to produce a drama. But actually, the female director was not in love with the male director. The 2 directors often stayed up late in the night together to do the scripts for the drama. The female director, after seeing how hardworking the male director is, admired him but not love. If we prejudge a person for example based on their looks. We will ignore those with average looks but that person may be kind in heart and we might have lost a good friend.

Secondly, I learnt to think for others and not only yourself, if not your friends will leave you. In the drama, the female director always thought that only her views were correct and that the people whose expertise was at that certain area was wrong and scolded them. This even caused some of them to sign a contract with another company to work there. When your friend leaves you, it is already too late for regret. We should cherish our friends, unlike the female director in the drama.

Lastly, I learnt about the importance of teamwork and perseverance which are probably the main theme of the drama. In the end, after the people producing the drama worked together and never gave up, they finally succeeded. In life, if there is a will, there is a way, we must persevere till the end. Furthermore, teamwork is very important. A famous Chinese saying: “在家靠父母，在外靠朋友”. At home you depend on your parents, but after going outside and working, you will depend on friends. A lot of things cannot be done by one single person, but with many people together, nothing is impossible.

Favorite Anime

My favorite anime is Detective Conan(mentioned in previous posts) and its name suggests, it is a anime about mysteries. It is about a famous high school detective, Kudou Shinichi, who was with his girlfriend, Mouri Ran, in a amusement park and he saw some men in black(black organization members) doing some illegal business there. As he was watching, he did not notice one of the men coming behind him, the men hit him with a bat and forced him to take a new experimental pill, APTX 4869 which was supposed to kill him. However, a rare side-effect happened and turned him into a child. Then, Kudou Shinichi changed his name to Edogawa Conan to hide the fact that he is alive in case the black organization searchs for him and to search for clues to apprehend the black organization and cure himself. Meanwhile, he stays at Ran's place(Ran does not know Conan is Shinichi). Ran's father, Mouri Kogorou, who is a novice detective, also lived in there. As Conan searches for clues, a lot of cases happened, as he cannot solve the crime as Conan, he has to use Professor Agasa's inventions- a wristwatch that can put people to sleep and a bowtie that is a voice changer- to solve cases. He often poses as Kogorou and thus Kogorou became a famous detective.

I recommend this anime to all of you especially those studying Japanese, as this is not only very interesting(every episode is unique) and EPIC(especially parts with black organization but it also helps to improve your Japanese. Lastly, it is still producing new episodes. Luckily, the author and editors of Detective Conan were not affected in the recent Japan earthquake.

Science Center

I went to the science center on 2th May. It was indeed a fun and enriching trip. We went around the exhibitions first. What interest me the most was the maths room where there were lots of interesting formulas such as e=mc2 and e^(i*pi) + 1 = 0 which I have no idea why. Besides going to the usual exhibitions that everyone have seen before, we also went to a science show which was about liquid nitrogen. Liquid nitrogen is a liquid colder than dry ice which boils at -196 degrees Celsius, so its actually boiling in room temperature. When we pour it on the floor, it instantly vaporizes. The experimenters also made a soft banana into a hammer by pouring liquid nitrogen on it, as the banana contains water which turn into ice, it becomes as hard as a hammer and successfully hammered a nail into a chair. But when they tried pouring liquid nitrogen on a flower, although it became hard, when we tried to hammer a nail into a chair, the flower shattered into pieces. This was because that the frozen flower was like a thin layer of ice, it is hard but brittle. Then, they poured liquid nitrogen on a rubber balloon, they used it as a nail and hammered it in. This was possible even though it did not contain water due to the properties of rubber, when rubber contracts, it loses its flexibility and becomes stiff. Next, they tried to contain liquid nitrogen, they poured some into a plastic container and capped it with a lid tightly but the lid still popped out. Then they poured some into a glass flask and covered the mouth with a balloon. The balloon inflated and finally burst. This was because when liquid nitrogen vaporizes, its volume increases by about 600 times. After that, they tried to squeeze in a lot of balloons into a small box by pouring liquid nitrogen on it, this was possible as the air contracts when it is cool and the balloon's volume becomes smaller. Then, they took out the contracted balloons and the air inside expanded and the balloon had a bigger volume. However, some of the balloons burst as the air inside expanded faster than the rubber becoming flexible. Finally, they created a giant cloud by pouring lots of liquid nitrogen into a big unsealed container and adding hot water to it, the liquid nitrogen vaporizes faster and created a gigantic cloud. As I was seating in the first row, I could feel the nitrogen vapor, it was very cooling and I could not see the thing in all of that cloud. In total, the trip was very fun and enriching, I hope to come here again.

Computer Game Addiction

I have known that a lot of my classmates are addicted to computer games such as "Minecraft" and facebook games. But only recently that I have noticed how serious the addiction was!

Tests were coming up, but these students did not even care. When the teachers was teaching, they would just hide their laptops under the table and play, some were even so daring that they played right in front of the teacher! On those days where Wireless@HCI was down, one even used the teacher's LAN cable so that he could play!

It takes a gamer to know another gamer. Previously, I was also very addicted to computer games, I would play from morning till night without food or water and in the end, my grades dropped to a record low. Seeing this, I knew that I should stop playing but I couldn't. I even kept thinking about computer games in class and when I want to study, I will have no mood! Luckily, in Sec 2 Term 1 Sabbatical, I attended a cyber wellness program. This program was very fun and helped to get rid of my addiction.

Everyday in that week, I would go to a center in Bukit Merah for that program. I expected it to be very boring. But unlike other programs, this program is not telling you to quit gaming, but rather, telling you that there are other interesting and fun things in life. We had various activities such as kayaking and games such as Wii. Unlike other cyber wellness programs, we were told to play our favorite computer games there. We had a lot of fun, getting to know each other at the same time. We also did a test to find out our talents and occupations we want to be when we grow up. This was truly helpful in getting rid of my addiction.

In conclusion, I suggest that those who are addicted to computer games to go to this sabbatical course next term(you have to tell Cao Lao Shi or Mrs May Chen) or find another hobby other than computer gaming which is just as engaging and fun but consumes less time. But ultimately, it is still about self control, gaming is fine but it is not when it consumes most of your time. For me, I still game quite a lot but I know when to game and when not to.

Third Language

I have been taking Japanese as my third language for a year and a half now. I have wanted to learn Japanese so that I can watch my favourite anime "Detective Conan"(名探偵コナン）without subtitles which could can take subbers half a year to sub Detective Conan movies. However, as I am learning Japanese, I have become very interested in their culture than just watching an anime.

Japanese lessons are very fun and engaging. Our teacher is very kind and not fierce. She would always use objects, games and PowerPoint slides for her class so that we are engaged. Our teacher has literally everything in her handbag.(plastic fruits, long pencils, even soft toys!) She uses this objects to teach us nouns, how to describe an action or object. In total, I think that she is a very good teacher.

However, all these fun has ended as our exams came. A lot of us did not study and was not prepared for the test. 2 weeks ago, we received our test results, half of the class have failed but I got 47.9/55 marks, 3rd in class. [Evil Akira Makino >:( ] Most of the students after receiving their terrible results did not even feel remorseful. Instead, they were even laughing and comparing to see whose score was the lowest. Even the new student who have quit Japanese for 1 year got higher than them. I feel that they should treat Japanese lessons more seriously, not as a place to chat and socialize or they would just be wasting their time there. However, all is not lost, let's all study hard and ace the next test!

皆さん、がんばってください！：D

Upcoming exams and competitions

Right after I thought that the tests were finally over, I saw the emb message that there were 2 more mid term exams for LA and IH both subjects which I am weak in. I think I will study very hard for these tests but there is a problem: Both of the tests requires us to remember alot of information , such as statistics; quotations; etc. And, I will tend to forget most of the things I studied unless I study the night before. Furthermore, I have not read a lot of newspapers and I know nothing about the general elections, so if it comes out I will probably fail it.

On the same week, there will be the SMO. I hope I would do well in this year's SMO as it is my last year participating in the Junior Section. Maths, unlike LA and IH, does not require one to conduct any research before hand. Thus it is much simpler for me as I only have to remember the methods.

Why couldn't Maths and LSS be our mid term exams? D:

Blog Comments

1.http://quekface.blogspot.com/2011/05/shakespearean.html?showComment=1305103936042#c8827505584498825810

2.http://quekface.blogspot.com/2011/05/two-weird-words-in-english-language.html?showComment=1305104345114#c8921952672638359644

3.http://behla2i2.blogspot.com/2011/05/my-feature-article.html?showComment=1305104869849#c4634786719556175479

4.http://sparkielamelife.blogspot.com/2011/03/term-2-new-term-xd.html?showComment=1305105201018#c4144847273622992880

5.http://blogofdavidwho.blogspot.com/2011/05/tennis-tournament.html?showComment=1305105412192#c4403569471040297916

6.http://lashirley.blogspot.com/2011/05/about-expository-essay.html?showComment=1305105718817#c2795419538527953484

7.http://behla2i2.blogspot.com/2011/04/how-can-i-improve-my-comprehension.html

8.http://quekface.blogspot.com/2011/05/migrate-immigrate-and-emigrate.html

9.http://isandcastler.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-05-02T19%3A26%3A00%2B08%3A00&max-results=1

Blog Prompt

How has learning about newsworthiness and types of news articles (straight news articles and feature articles in different sections of the newspaper) affected the way you read newspapers?

After learning about newsworthiness, I realised that broadsheets may not be so boring and unreliable after all, as I always thought that broadsheets were propogandas and were bias to one side or that it is very boring and reports about unimportant news. But, I found out that broadsheets can be interesting, especially those with titles that catches my attention and that sometimes, it can contain feature articles(not always straight news articles). Broadsheets are important and may report important events like the recent Japan earthquake which has a huge impact on our lives (one factor of newsworthiness) . Furthermore, days which the newspaper reported articles that were boring were usually because they had nothing to write about. Thus, I after learning about newsworthiness and types of news articles, I do not only read tabloids which contains a lot of feature articles, but also read some of the broadsheets.

The Maycomb Tribune

Fire Breaks Out at Atkinson's

A big fire broke out at Old Miss Maudie Atkinson's house last night burning it till nothing was left. To make matters worst, the fire even spread to some of her neighbours such as Mr Atticus Finch and Miss Rachel Haverford.

It was a little after one when the incident happened. The town fire siren wailed and woke every white in the town. The men of Maycomb all helped to save Miss Maudie's furniture. They include Mr Avery Dick who almost could not make it out of the fire.

Mr Avery Dick was trying to throw down furniture from the upper level of Miss Maudie's house. But, the stairs burned down and he was trapped in. He tried to squeeze through the window but got stuck halfway. After much struggling, he finally got loose and crossed the upstairs porch. He swung his legs over the railing and slided down a pillar but he slipped and fell. Luckily, he fell onto Miss Maudie's shrubbery and was not injured severely. But he will still be in bed for a week.

Soon, fire trucks arrived and after one night of fighting, the fire was finally stopped. Then, everyone went back to sleep.

Our reporters have interviewed Miss Maudie and she was not looking sad, she said "Always wanted a smaller house. Gives me more yard. Just think, I'll have more room for my azaleas now!" and when our reporters asked her why wasn't she grieving, she replied " Why, I hated that old cow barn. Thought of settin' fire to it a hundred times myself, except they'd lock my up."

Miss Maudie is currently staying at Miss Stephanie Crawford's and will be staying there until she has a new house. The firemen have not yet located the cause of the fire, but they suspect that the carpet which was near the fireplace burned and spread to the house. This incident is a reminder to citizens of Maycomb to keep flammable objects away from the fireplace. If anyone has related information about this incident, please call our hotline 5184 9589 or come to our office at Maycomb, Street 89, Media Centre, #03 -56.