Reaching beyond

Why is the Moon shrinking......?

2010-08-21T10:15:00.000+08:00

Cliffs discovered on the lunar crust indicate the distance between the moon’s center and surface shrank about 300 feet ......!

New images of the moon indicate it may be decreasing in size, NASA said this week.

Images taken by NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) show there are relatively recently formed cliffs in the lunar crust indicating the moon shrank in the recent past and may still be doing so. The space agency introduced the images and discussed the discovery publicly on Thursday. It's shrinking because it's cooling down.

The cliffs, called lobate scarps, formed less than a billion years ago, quite possibly about a hundred million years ago, which is young in terms of the moon, according to NASA. Based on their size, NASA believes that the distance between the moon’s center and its surface shrank by about 300 feet.

The scarps themselves are relatively small, with the largest being only about 300 feet high and extending for about several miles across small craters, according to NASA.

It’s the craters that have clued the agency in to their young age. Small craters on the moon’s surface don’t last long because it is constantly being hit with meteors that would destroy them on impact, the agency said.

Further, the scarps look relatively undegraded, also pointing to their young age, NASA said. The age of the scarps means that the moon could have been cooling and shrinking very recently.

So, NASA aims to use the LRO’s Narrow Angle Cameras to build a global map of the moon to identify additional scarps. Further research on them will try to determine if the Earth’s gravitational pull and tides are having any effect on them.

The Moon was hot at the beginning of its life. The most accepted theory—proved by simulations and analysis of its surface materials—is that it formed after a massive collision of a Mars-sized object with Earth, around 4.5 billion years ago. The material ejected in the impact accreted to form the Moon. After that, the lunar surface suffered a period of massive bombardment of asteroids and meteors, which combined with the decay of radioactive elements, kept it hot for a long while.

So long, in fact, that it's still probably cooling down today. Before, scientists believed the cooling and shrinking period ended early in its story. Now, new images by NASA's LRO show lobate scarps that are only one billion to one hundred million years old.

One of the remarkable aspects of the lunar scarps is their apparent young age. Relatively young, globally distributed thrust faults show recent contraction of the whole Moon, likely due to cooling of the lunar interior. [...] We can estimate these cliffs formed less than a billion years ago, and they could be as young as a hundred million years.

Lobate scarps—called that way because many of them appear to be lobe-shaped—form as inner parts of the moon collapse, forcing a section of the crust to crack and bulge out over another.

But how much has it shrunk? According to the data taken by the LRO, they believe the distance between the moon's center and its surface shrank about 300 feet in the last one billion years.

How did the astronauts go toilet......? (OMG!)

2010-08-21T09:50:00.000+08:00

Hi, all astronomy fans, today we will be talking about a rather amazing question. I know that most of you probably have this question in mind which you have not solved the mystery until now. So do you know how do astronauts exactly go to the bathroom in space? You may ask yourself whether even the potty chair is in place? So today, I am here to clarify all your doubts.

SO, HOW DO ASTRONAUTS GO TO THE BATHROOM AND TAKE CARE OF OTHER PERSONAL HYGIENE?

Do you know that each Space Shuttle actually has a toilet that can be used by both men and women. It is also designed to be as much as possible like those on Earth, however, the big difference is that the units use flowing air (co..coo...cooling!) instead of water to move waste through the system.

So, solid wastes are actually being compressed and stored on-board, and then removed after the space shuttle has landed. Waste water is vented to space, although future systems may recycle it. The air is filtered to remove odor and bacteria and then returned to the cabin.

As for their hygience, astronauts can actually brush their teeth just like how they do on Earth. However, they will be stinky as there is no shower on the Shuttle, so astronauts must make do with sponge baths until they return home.

So here is some answers by the Offical NASA website on this question.
I. The Official NASA pages:
A. There is a nice space shuttle web page at: http://shuttle.nasa.gov/ Digging in there I found a Q&A Web page. Here's what it says: http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/shuttle/reference/faq/living.html

6. How do you take a bath, brush your teeth, and go to the bathroom in space?

We do not have a bath or shower on the Shuttle, so we just wash off with wet washcloths, using soaps that you don't have to rinse off. When we brush our teeth, we can either swallow the toothpaste or spit it into a washcloth. Designing a toilet for zero-gravity is tougher. We use air flow to make the urine or feces go where we want, since gravity will not do it for us. You have to be more careful and think about what you are doing with the toilet in the Shuttle.

Resources:

Mayans Astronomy Crossword Puzzle (Ya......!)

2010-08-04T09:24:00.000+08:00

Once again, it's great to see all of you back here for more Astronomy news, interesting facts and more games!

So, in order to you to have a better understanding of the Mayans Astronomy, I had created an online crossword puzzle using EclipseCrossword software (it is a really good one!). This crossword puzzle is for you to learn the Mayans astronomy in a more interactive and interesting way. So please go to the following link for the crossword puzzle:

http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y09HCI0452/crosswordpuzzle(3).html

Mayans’ Universe (Amazing......!)

2010-08-02T09:17:00.000+08:00

Mayans’ Universe

Mayans believed that the world was multi-layered consisting of thirteen levels of the heavens and nine layers of the underworld. The Earth is in the middle and belongs to both the heavens and underworlds.

Layer of heavens:
Description

Layer 1 (Earth)
A large wheel surrounded by the divine water, which is an ocean that extends to the horizon.

Layer 2 (Ilhuicatl metzli)
Moon and clouds reside here

Layer 3 (Citlalco)
Where the fixed stars lie. Also where Citlallicue ("She of the Starry Skirts") lives

Layer 4
Occupied by the Sun (Ilhuicatl Tonatiuh)

Layer 5
Occupied by Venus

Layer 6 (Ilhuicatl Mamalhuazocan)
Occupied by unidentified constellations. This layer is also where comets come from, and where the fire serpents attend to their duty of bringing the sun from the east to the zenith.

Layer 7
The black or green heaven, fierce with winds or storms

Layer 8
The blue heaven, where dust lies

Layer 9 (Itztapal Nanatzcayan)
Where Stone Slabs Crash Together

Layer 10
Represents White

Layer 11
Represents Yellow

Layer 12
Represents Red

Layer 13 (Omeyocan)
Where the dual male-female god, who created space and time, lives.

The nine-layered underworld was where the Milky Way was believed to be. Some Mayans believed that the Milky Way was a road of souls travelling to the underworld (scaring!?), while some, thought that it was the umbilical cord connecting heaven and the underworld to the Earth.

Mayans Astronomy (Continued)

2010-07-21T09:16:00.000+08:00

What the Mayans Were interested in?

The Mayans more interested in the:

1) Sun

The sun was associated with Tonatiuh , a red eagle with a large and all-seeing eye. The Mayans managed to calculate the times when the Sun would rise and set. They even determined the length of the solar year to be 365 days. A tropical year is actually 365.2422 days long! How close!

2. The Moon

The Mayans were also interested in the moon. It was represented by a female deity. A waxing (growing) moon resembles a beautiful, ideal woman, while a waning (shrinking) moon was considered to be an old female deity who ruled over childbirth. Around 300 C.E., the Mayans calculated the interval between full moons (lunation). A Mayan astronomer calculated that there was an average lunation of 29.53 days while in Palenque, Mayans calculated that there was an average lunation of 29.53086 days. The actual average lunation is 29.53059 days. The difference is as small as 0.00059 days!

3. Venus

Venus was considered to be connected with the major deity Quetzalcoatl. Quetzalcoatl was said to be an essential god when creating mankind. Venus was also known as “Great Star”. The priest-astronomers determined that it took 584 days for Venus to orbit round the Sun, which was close to the actual period of 583.92 days. It is amazing how the Mayans managed to find out about other planets despite the huge distance between Earth and Venus.

4. Star clusters

Certain star clusters and constellations also held special meaning for the Maya. An example would be the Pleiades star cluster. When it appears in the morning sky around planting time, in late April, the Mayans used it as an indication to start preparing for the planting season. Since they could predict the rising of the Pleiades in connection to the appearance of other constellations on the horizon, they always know when to start preparing.

- Problems with calculations

However, do you know that actually small errors like 0.00059 days off in calculations can cause a calendar to be completely not accurate. A possible effect is that the calendar can be a month off every hundred years. But the Mayans continually update their records and predictions so that their calendar remains accurate throughout the generations.

Mayans Astronomy Introduction (Finally......!)

2010-07-21T09:10:00.000+08:00

Hi, all astronomy fans, good to see all of you back, now let us start on the Mayan culture Astronomy......!

Introduction:
Do you know that in the Mayans culture, astronomy was actually done by priests or "ilhuica tlamatilizmatini" ("the wise man who studies heaven"). All the observations were done, only using special buildings as reference points. The Mayans paired certain celestial bodies with a god and thus regard celestial events as an indication of their communication with these gods. Mayans also use to constellations or planets in the sky to indicate the planting season. This ensures that the Mayans will not starve. SMART!

So how did the Mayans exactly make observations in the sky? A common method called the Zenith passage of the Sun is used. Twice a year at noon the sun stands directly overhead in the tropics. The path in which the Sun takes then is called the Zenith passage. Mayans would place a column with exact vertical alignment to the Sun onto the ground or on the roof. When the Sun passes through the Zenith passage above this column, no shadows would be formed. Some Mayans also stay in Vertical Sighting, which are holes in the ground to observe the sky.

Vertical Zenith Sighting Tube

Calculation

After observing, one definitely needs to calculate some figures. On the whole, these calculations were simply done by counting, for instance, the number of lunar revolutions in a certain time period. For more complex calculations, however, mathematics was used.

M.A.Y.A.N.S Simplified Mayans Astronomy Intro Video

2010-07-03T08:38:00.001+08:00

Hi, all astronomers! To start on the interesting Mayans astronomy, I had created a short introductory video for you to have at least a idea of what the Mayans Astronomy was like. This video was made with iMovie and this was aimed to give a short preview of the Astronomy in the Mayans times and how it worked. We wanted to make the video as informal as possible, giving it a more "movie-trailer" like effect to further enhance the attractiveness of our project. We got all of the pictures from the internet and added many special effects and even some music! Hope you enjoy our video!

M.A.Y.A.N.S Simplified project product outcome - something new!

2010-07-02T08:28:00.000+08:00

Product outcome
Project website ( product outcome)

What a relief! Our project website is finally done! What has seemed like an impossible feat has now become possible. The website now consist of a main page, with our introductory video right in the middle of screen, followed by 4 links at the bottom. Namely :Quiz, Info, Blog, and credits.

I am quite satisfied with the outcome, as i have been working on this product for more than a month, and now, with every thing coming together, the website has truly become educational and interactive ( the main aim of our website) . However, despite me being in a temporary state of euphoria, i still have to get back to work, as the website still has some minor bloopers (eg. spelling error and FTP errors).

Here are some screen shots of our website :

So, all astronomy fans, now let us embark on a new journey to the...... Mayans Astronomy! Ya!!!

Mars now frozen, but when did it have liquid water? (Part 1)

2010-06-01T22:54:00.002+08:00

Once again, good to see all astronomy fans here hungry for more astronomy news, updates and interesting facts! Now today, I'm researching about the mysterious red planet - Mars......

As all of you should know, Mars is now frozen, with no single drop of liquid water as water is frozen solid. But there are still some evidences showing that there may have been liquid water on its surface when Mars was young, however, is this TRUE?

For some contextual knowledge, the average temperature of this Red Planet is actually negative 55 degrees Celsius (-67 F)! So freezingly C...O....COOL! However, do you know that when the temperature rises, the highest recorded temperature is a balmy 20 degrees C (68 F)! During this period, this thick layer of ice turns directly into a gas, skipping the liquid phase entirely because of the low atmospheric pressure.

According to scientific research, Mars may have had a thicker atmosphere and liquid water on its surface between 3.5 and 4 billion years ago. Satellites orbiting Mars have also taken images of ancient ocean shorelines, river beds and canyons - which are evidences of the presence of flowing water. In addition, the chemistry of the martian soil also suggests that liquid water may have been present once on the surface. Then if this is true, then perhaps life could have emerged on Mars during this time in its history.

Many scientists think Mars was cold when it was young - cold enough so that surface water should have been frozen solid. One way around this problem is if the chemistry of the water was such that it could remain liquid at lower temperatures. On Earth, the salt in seawater prevents it from freezing at the same temperature as freshwater. For early Mars to be cold but still wet, however, the water would have had to be much saltier than seems likely.

However, there is still another possibility that Mars was actually warmer in the past than colder. At first glance, you may feel that this idea does not make any sense to you, however, think again. You see, the Sun was fainter back then, long ago, so the planet should have been even colder in the past and then gradually warmed up as the Sun grew brighter. But sunlight is not the only way to warm a planet, isn't it?

An atmosphere can also help keep conditions toasty. Okay, just look at Venus, thick greenhouse atmosphere has actually raised its average surface temperature to a searing 464 degrees Celsius (867 F)! So can you see the effects of greenhouse atmosphere on the warming of planet?

Think again, could Mars also once have had a greenhouse atmosphere that warmed the planet enough so it is able to keep water flowing across its surface in the past?

However, some scientists do not think this way. Professor Brian Toon of the University of Colorado had discussed the possibility of a warm and wet Mars at the recent NASA Astrobiology Science Conference in League City, Texas.

"We've spent 30 years on the greenhouse effect and no one has solved the problem in a credible way so far,” noted Professor Toon. “On the greenhouse problem, we're just drifting into deeper and deeper complexity."

Why does the greenhouse climate work so well to heat up Venus but not Mars? The thick clouds of Venus also bounce a lot of sunlight off into space, and that reflection is why we’re not able to see the surface of Venus in the visible light spectrum. One answer is that Venus is much closer to the Sun, so it receives substantially more sunlight than Mars does. According to Toon, another reason is that Mars is little. The lower gravity of a less massive world reduces the rate that air cools with altitude. On Earth this rate is about 10 degrees Kelvin per kilometer, but on Mars the rate is about half that.

“This makes it harder to get a greenhouse effect, giving you less ‘bang for the buck’ for your greenhouse gases,” Professor Toon said. “Mars is hard to warm up because it’s so small.”

Also, Professor Toon believes that, rather than a greenhouse atmosphere keeping Mars warm and wet, the canyons and river beds we see on Mars formed due to periodic asteroid and comet impacts. In this scenario, impacts would have filled the atmosphere with vaporized rock and ice and resulted in several years of rainfall and flooding that created the erosion features on Mars.

“We know the impacts occurred - we can see the craters there,” said Professor Toon. “It's pretty much impossible to avoid there being large amounts of water coming from them.”

So, as you can see, this is one explanation by Professor Toon on the formation of flowing water on the red planet, Mars. However, you may have different viewpoints and opinions than what you see in this post. So feel free to comment in the discussion forum. Also, you will see another explanation on the formation of flowing liquid water on Mars very soon....... Good Luck!

Image resources:

Online Learning (26th May) War Poetry Task 2

2010-05-25T23:12:00.000+08:00

Task 2

Complete the template provided in Annex A, focusing on (1) Point of View; (2) Situation and Setting; (3) Language/Diction; and (4) Personal Response, and post your response to Task 2 on your blog. This template is based on John Lye’s ‘Critical Analysis of Poetry’, and you can make reference to this in Annex B when in doubt.

1. Point of View

In this poem, the speaker is an American soldier during the Vietnam War who wanted the war to stop and strongly against modern warfare. This can be seen in first stanza line 1 where the poet wrote “America did not foresee”. This shows that the speaker had felt angry and mad by the great impacts of ‘Agent Orange’ used by the Americans during the ever-lasting Vietnam War, resulting many generations to be affected. Perhaps, the speaker was an American soldier who had experienced the war before, hence, he was able to see the dire consequences of modern warfare on the innocent people.

In addition, in second stanza line 8, the poet wrote “Nefariously America led astray” which tells us that the speaker felt that all these consequences were caused by the Americans. The speaker felt that the actions of the Americans were brutal and inhumane as they had caused many deaths and harmed the younger generations. Also, the Americans wanted to win the Vietnam War badly and thus used the highly dangerous ‘Agent Orange’ on the Vietnamese, however, unfortunately, they were unable to foresee the consequences caused by the use of ‘Agent Orange’ themselves. This can be seen in first stanza line 3 where “expecting others (The Vietnamese) to pay a high price” but the price was just too high for Vietnam to pay. “All the deceit continues to spread”. The hatred and sadness of the Vietnamese would continue to spread to younger generations. Also, in first stanza line 4,"tolling on the innocent and unborn", this shows that innocent people were killed and harmed by the use of ‘Agent Orange’. Therefore, the Americans had to "think twice" as the ‘Agent Orange’ would not only affected the Vietnamese, but also would affect themselves, thus saying that this war would never end.

2. Situation and Setting
- Emotional: "Toll on the innocent and unborn."

As the poet talks about the negative impacts of war, he relates to the depression of the innocent people who were killed in the midst of war. In this sentence, emotional conflicts are conveyed through harsh words used such "toll".

“All the deceit continues to spread”

In addition, in this line, the poet felt that the Americans were too cruel and brutal to have used the ‘Agent Orange’ in the war and felt unfair for Vietnam to suffer this horrendous treatment. Also, strong emotional conflict is conveyed through diction with the use of harsh words such as ‘deceit’ which means hatred.

- Saddening: “Generations untold WILL pay”

This shows that the situation was very saddening and helplessness as the poet felt that the modern warfare used in the war would do no good but only cause more harm on the younger generations who would suffer a lot. Thus, this shows the sadness and cruelty of war on the innocent ones.

3. Language/Diction

- “Potpourri”

In first stanza line 2, the poet used “Potpourri” which means a mixture of materials or substances. Therefore, in this poem, ‘potpourri’ is used to refer to the large-scaled mixture of deaths caused as a result of war, thus showing the great impacts of warfare on the people.
- “Toll”

In first stanza line 5, the poet used “toll” which means a payment or price that people have to pay. However, in this poem, “toll on the innocent and unborn” is used to the sacrificial of innocent lives in the war. Also, this depicts the pessimistic view of war where people were all killed and hurt in the war. Thus, “toll” is used to refer to the sufferings and sacrificial of lives which the innocent people have to pay.

4. Personal Response

From this poem, ‘Rainbow Death’, I quite agree to the poet’s opinions that war is brutal, unjustified, harsh, and will only bring unhappiness, sufferings and cause deaths. In a war, as both sides all battled with each other to win, they will resort to anything that is able to defeat their enemy. However, this will only cause more harm to the innocent ones. In this poem, the Americans resorted to use the ‘Agent Orange’ which were gas attacks to defeat Vietnam in the war. As a result, Vietnam had to pay a huge price and even affected the younger generations. In addition, I agree with the poet that there are many sacrificial of lives in a war, hence, I believe that we have to think twice before starting a war and should not make the innocent younger generations from suffering as ‘war are not over when war are over’, meaning that war will cause dire consequences even if it have ended.

Online Learning 2 (26th May) War Poetry Task 1

2010-05-25T22:14:00.000+08:00

- War Poetry

Rainbow Death

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay –
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!

Hubert Wilson

Task 1
Based on your understanding of the selected poem, perform extensive web research and write a report detailing the conflict represented in the poem(s) of your choice. Bear in mind that this piece of background information will allow your blog audience to further understand the poem as well as your analysis of the poem in Task 2.

Hubert Wilson
Ssgt USAF, 1968-1972

In this poem, 'Rainbow Death', the poet is Hubert Wilson who was a Vietnam War veteran served in the USAF security service during the Vietnam War (American against Vietnam).When he was a young man, together with a dozen or so intelligence school graduates, they prepped for about 14 months at Kelly AFB in San Antonio, Texas. They were then sent to Vietnam or other places in Southeast Asia in 1970 to fight for USA in the Vietnam War and eventually stayed there for about 18 years. During his times in the war, his heath had started to deteriorate greatly and suffered from Parkinsonian type tremors, severe headaches, progressive limb pains, however, the doctors were unable to diagnose his disease. Also, having limb pains, Hubert Wilson’s mobility had deteriorated and thus later caused him to retire as a soldier. Like his father, Hubert Wilson then began writing poems as his pastime and wrote many poems, mostly about war which he had experienced as a retired soldier, thus wrote one of his best and famous poems, ‘Rainbow Death’.

This poem, ‘Rainbow Death’, speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare during the Vietnam War that has caused appalling death and suffering, not only to its intended victims - the Vietnamese people, but also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”. Thus, this shows that in a war, both sides, no matter what, will get hurt and affect in one way or another, hence, there is no such thing as ‘Win-Win’ situation in a war.

As trench warfare was still not common during that time, both sides, especially the USA, had used ‘Agent Orange’ which is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant, highly contaminated with TCDD. It is used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War. During the war, about 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in a total number of 400,000 deaths and disabilities, with 500,000 children born with birth defects.

Thus, this poem shows the impacts of modern warfare (in this case, gas attack) are great and had killed many innocent lives and affected the younger generations. In the poem, stanza 2 line 10, “Generations untold WILL pay”, this shows that the use of modern warfare would cause innocent unborn babies suffer from birth defects and in this line, the word ‘WILL’ emphasises on the great impact that ‘Agent Orange’ would bring to mankind during the war.

This poem, ‘Rainbow Death’ by Hubert Wilson, is written to remind everyone in the world that "wars aren't over when the wars are over". Although this sentence may seem contradictory, it generally means that even though wars have seemed to have ended, the effects of the wars still remains and would cause further problems to mankind, thus showing the danger of modern warfare. The modern warfare will not only cause harm and killed the soldiers on the battlefield fighting bravely for their countries, but also affect the younger generations. Hence, Hubert Wilson’ s intention of writing this poem is to emphasize the impacts and danger caused by war and modern warfare, and also tell people to think clearly before starting a war.

Resources:

- http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/2010warpoetry.html#Rainbow

Astronauts to Aquanauts?! Amazing!

2010-05-25T18:47:00.000+08:00

Can you believe it?! Astronauts to Aquanauts! AMAZING! According to a news article which I had read a few days ago, it is written that astronauts now have to work and live under water! Obviously, it is easy to conjure up images of astronauts working in deep black space, however, nowadays there are also astronauts living and working on the sea floor, where they conduct experiments to prepare for future space missions.

To prove this, a Canadian Space Agency astronaut, Chris Hadfield has actually spent most of the past two weeks about 19 meters below the waves off the Florida coast! During these period of time, he was leading a two-week NASA mission aboard the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory, which is run by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Chris Hadfield's team includes a NASA astronaut, an undersea engineer and a scientist. They live inside Aquarius and carry out experiments in the lab; at the same time, exploring the blue depths outside the porthole windows.

According to the news article, Chris Hadfield said that, "I found that when I was working outside here over the last couple of weeks, I would suddenly notice where I am while I'm working. I'm busy working on some part of a space suit design, and then an angel fish goes by or a ray scuttles across the bottom of the ocean, and it reminds me of both the comfort-level I've gotten to and the amazing difference of where I am,".

During the two weeks, Hadfield was on the sea floor inside the Aquarius underwater habitat's 122 square meters of living and working space which was anchored next to a coral reef, five and half kilometers off Key Largo in the Florida Keys.

Even on the ocean floor, Aquarius is still visible on the World Wide Web where Commander Hadfield can be seen via webcam on NASA's web site. He stands in a narrow white room with stainless steel equipment as he speaks to reporters using something that looks akin to a cordless phone.

It is the round window that looks out into the pale blue water that provides the biggest clue to Hadfield's whereabouts. The view might be serene, however, the undersea environment is potentially deadly to humans, just as space is. Just some contextual knowledge, he has completed two spacewalks in his 18 years as an astronaut and he said there are similarities between working in space and in the sea.

"They are remarkably similar. You are wearing gear to protect you from an environment that would kill you. Every breath is amplified so you sound like [famed Star War's character] Darth Vader when you're out walking around out there. You're listening to help from someone inside the vehicle and someone back at mission control, as they try to help give you advice as you work on something complex outside," he said.

In his 'vacation' underwater, it is said that the crew will have conducted a total of 52 so-called "space walks" in the sea! Chris Hadfield also said that these underwater tests actually help astronauts to figure out how much mass they need to propel themselves forward when in space.

So, as you can see, what astronauts have to do now is not just flying in space or making a first step on a planet, now they are faced with greater challenges and make mankind's first step on the seafloor...... (Well, perhaps lots of people had already done it.)

News Article: Monster Black Hole Flung Out of Galaxy?!

2010-05-17T20:31:00.000+08:00

WARNING!

ASTRONOMY FANS!

WARNING!

You may not believe what I am writing in this post, but I assure you will not regret reading this. Can you believe it? According to a new study, a monster black hole has been flung from its home galaxy and is now careening through space! Argh......!

Based on the news article on Yahoo news, astronomers had spotted a supermassive black hole, which is usually found lurking in the center of galaxies, hightailing it out of a distant galaxy at a considerable speed! The cosmic ejection is taking place more than half a billion light-years from Earth. This shocking discovery was made with archived observations from the Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Although you might think that black holes themselves do not shine, but the material they gobble up actually heats as it falls in and releases radiation in the form of X-ray light! Normally, these bright X-ray spots are seen in the centers of galaxies, but in this case, researchers had found one offset to the side.

The kicked-out black hole could result from a special set of circumstances, according to computer simulations. For your information, supermassive black holes can contain the mass of more than a billion suns! Just how they accumulate all that mass is unknown, but some astronomers believe that they are formed when two smaller black holes collide earlier.

Depending on the direction and speed with which the two black holes rotate before they merge, the resulting gigantor may be thrown out of the galaxy, resulting in the cosmic interloper spotted in the Chandra observations.

So what do you think we have to do now? Of course, RUN......! (Just kidding!) Although these astronomy theories seem to be quite simple and solid, yet mysteries still remain unsolved......

References:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100517/sc_space/monsterblackholeflungoutofgalaxy;_ylt=AuX417AwwmRbvMS6pFR6P5eHgsgF;_ylu=X3oDMTM5dTM0bDllBGFzc2V0A3NwYWNlLzIwMTAwNTE3L21vbnN0ZXJibGFja2hvbGVmbHVuZ291dG9mZ2FsYXh5BHBvcwM0BHNlYwN5bl9wYWdpbmF0ZV9zdW1tYXJ5X2xpc3

Image resources:

Can you see Venus - the 'Evening Star'......?

2010-05-17T20:15:00.000+08:00

Last Sunday evening, 16 May 2010, lucky people, probably you, might have recieved a "front-row seat" with a common and yet always awesome sight – the “evening star” visibly sitting on top of a crescent moon.

At that amazing moment, people were all abuzz by this breathtaking sight as people took photos of this astrological occurrence and posted it on social media sites such as yahoo.

As most of you may have already known, the “evening star” is actually one of the planets in the solar system, Venus. Based on my research, Venus is one of the brightest object in the night sky after Moon so people, in the early days (before we has astronomy), thought it was a star.

Actually, when Venus is seen in the easter sky before the sunrise, it is usually referred to as a “morning star” and when it is seen in the evening in the west after sunset which is similar to what had happened on Sunday evening, it is called an “evening star.”

So how does Venus appears as a star? This is due to Venus’ orbit which lies inside Earth’s orbit around the Sun. When the orbit of Venus passes between the Earth and the Sun, it also reflects the light of the Sun to earth at the same time so that when it moves from the evening to the morning sky, thus it becomes very visible to us and appears as a “star”.

Maybe, some people who have seen this view may think that some natural phenomenon might occur when the crescent moon and Venus are being so close together. But trust me, in my opinion, this natural phenomenon has no effect on Earth. These planetary alignments have been happening for the longest time and till now, there is never been a documented effect to our planet. So don't worry........

However, have you ever wondered why the crescent moon and star has come to symbolize Islam? If I am not wrong, the crescent moon and star symbol actually pre-dates Islam by several thousand years. Most sources say that these ancient celestial symbols were used by the peoples of Central Asia and Siberia in their worship of the sun, moon and sky gods. In this Wikipedia article, it says that possibly the symbol became associated with the Muslim faith when the Ottoman Empire became affiliated with the Muslim world.

So, now you can see how fascinating the 'Evening star' and the crescent moon are! Isn't interesting? And good news to astronomy fans who may have missed their chance to see this breathtaking sight, you may want to visit the following link for more images of the 'Evening Star' and the crescent moon: http://www.flickr.com/search/?s=rec&w=all&q=venus+moon&m=text

News Article: Studies show that spaceflight compromises immune system of astronauts?!

2010-05-15T22:41:00.000+08:00

After reading the stunning news on alien hijacking a spaceship, I believe you - astronomy fans are all hungry for more fascinating news about our space, right? Well, today, I've just read another astronomy news article from sifynews.com regarding astronauts (2010-05-15). Based on the news article, it is written that spaceflight actually compromises immune system of astronauts! WOW!

According to a new study, spaceflight takes a toll on the genes controlling immune and stress response, which apparently leads to more sickness among astronauts as compared to us - the 'Earthlings'.

These stresses that go with weightlessness actually confined the crew quarters from being away from family and friends and also have a busy work schedule which eventually cause most of them not having sufficient amount of rest, thus resulting in health problems on the immune system.

Here is what a professor said in his views: "Taken together, our results hint at the possibility that an astronaut's immune system might be compromised in space," said immunobiologist Ty Lebsack at the University of Arizona, the lead author of the study.

In order to support their hypothesis, they had actually compared gene-expression patterns in thymuses from four healthy mice that had spent 13 days aboard NASA's STS-118 Endeavour Space Shuttle to those from an equal number of control mice on the ground.

After the experiment, they found that 970 individual genes in the thymus of space-flown mice were up or down-regulated by a 1.5 fold change or greater! So, when these changes were averaged, 12 genes in the thymus tissue of all four space-flown mice were significantly up or down-regulated.

"The altered genes we observed were found to primarily affect signaling molecules that play roles in programmed cell death and regulate how the body responds to stress," said Lebsack.

Therefore, these results relate with experiments carried out on the ground to study how microgravity affects immune cells. Well, although astronauts seem to healthy on the news, they had actually suffered quite a lot in terms of their immune system. Perhaps, this news article may seem unrelated to you but I think it is quite important to know about this. So, being an astronaut isn't that easy anymore, right?

Here is the link to sifynews.com for the news article: http://sify.com/news/spaceflight-compromises-immune-system-of-astronauts-news-international-kfpnagedcgc.html

News Article: NASA spacecraft hijacked by aliens...?!

2010-05-14T14:50:00.000+08:00

Recently, I had read a SHOCKING, UNBELIEVABLE and ......STUNNING astronomy news from news.com.au. You may wonder how shocking it is, but I assure you will not believe what you are about to read. According to the news article on news.com.au on 13 May 2010, it is written that NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft which, according to German UFO expert Hartwig Hausdorf, may have been hijacked by aliens! OH MY GOD......!

Based on the news article, A GERMAN UFO expert, Hartwig Hausdorf has claimed that a NASA spacecraft, Voyager 2, may have been hijacked by aliens - who are now attempting to contact Earth!

Hartwig Hausdorf claims that Voyager 2 - an unmanned interplanetary probe that blasted into the space 33 years ago - has suddenly started transmitting some strange, unintelligible signals.

Last month, the probe had actually began sending back distorted messages from its location near the edge of the solar system that baffled NASA scientists who were unable to decode, Mr Hausdorf says

"It seems almost as if someone had reprogrammed or hijacked the probe, thus perhaps we do not yet know the whole truth," the author of UFOs - They Are Still Flying told Bild.

The signal from Voyager 2 - which takes 13 hours to reach the Earth - broke off fully on April 22.

NASA said engineers were working to solve a data transmission fault. The space agency has not commented specifically on Mr Hausdorf's comments, although it says the fault is likely to be a glitch in the probe's computer memory.

In my opinion, I do not quite believe Hartwig Hausdorf's claim as I feel that this is rather quite impossible! So, just imagine a big-headed alien controlling a spaceship, sitting on the chair, pressing buttons...... can this be possible?! I mean this sounds quite ridiculous and too imaginative to me. Well, of course, I cannot confirm and conclude that this is just his imagination, because miracle does occur! A rather strange one.

Well, personally, I believe this strange signals are actually some fault caused by probably some problems in the spaceship computer memory and system. Obviously, this sounds more convincing and persuasive to me, rather than an Alien invasion on a spaceship!

So, for some contextual knowledge, both Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, were offically launched in 1977 to explore Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Three decades on, they are the most distant human-made objects in outer space! Now, Voyager 1 is currently more than 8.5 billion miles from Earth! It will soon travel beyond the heliosphere - a bubble the sun creates around the solar system - into interstellar space, scientists say.

So if you are interested in this piece of strange news article, you may want to visit the following link on news.com.au: http://www.news.com.au/technology/nasa-spacecraft-hijacked-by-aliens/story-e6frfro0-1225865827901?from=public_rss

Image resources:

Who was Earth named after......? Any idea?

2010-05-13T22:48:00.000+08:00

Recently, I had just read a science research article regarding the origin of the names of the planets in the universe. In my opinion, it seems like almost all planets or stars are named after either Greek or Roman gods (strange......?!). So let's take Uranus for example. Uranus, one of the planets in the solar system, is actually named after the ancient Greek deity of the sky Uranus, the father of Kronos (Saturn) and grandfather of Zeus (Jupiter).

But then, why is Earth named 'Earth'......? And then who named the Earth 'Earth'? When? Why?

Perhaps, Earth is also named after ancient gods. However, this seems to be wrong! The Earth is actually the only planet whose name in English is not derived from Greco-Roman mythology! According to my research, the name 'Earth' originates from the 8th century Anglo-Saxon word erda, which means ground or soil.

However, in my opinion, I think it's quite impossible to find out who first named the planet 'Earth'. To be frank, I'm not really an expert on words and word origins of these planets, but this seems likely that people used Earth to mean 'land' and then it was the natural thing to refer to all the land and the planet. So that's why the Earth is named 'Earth'! If I'm not wrong...... :)

Image resources:

Check out for my latest photo album......!

2010-05-13T22:12:00.001+08:00

Hi all astronomy fans! Now that everyone knows at least something about our space, I think you will be even more fascinated by the marvellous photos of the space and the UNIVERSE! So, please explore the page on "My photo album" for more of these amazing photos! Here is the link: http://2p203chuasongyang.blogspot.com/p/my-photo-album.html
Enjoy.

http://comps.fotosearch.com/comp/UNC/UNC186/web-enjoy-site_~u17388259.jpg

What are BLACK HOLES?

2010-03-09T20:47:00.000+08:00

So what exactly is a black hole?

If a small star is very dense, it may begin to shrink under the pull of its own gravity. As it shrinks, it becomes denser and denser and its gravity becomes more and more powerful - until it shrinks to a single tiny point of infinite density called singularity. The gravitational pull of a singularity is so immense that it pulls space into a "hole" like a funnel. This is the black hole, which sucks in everything that comes near it with its huge gravitational force - including light which is why it is a "black" hole.
A giant black hole may exists at the centre of our galaxy.

- Do you know what happens inside a black hole?

Nothing that goes into a black hole comes out and there is a point of no return called the event horizon. If you went beyond this, you would be "spaghettified" - stretched long and thin until you were torn apart by the immense gravity.

* Interesting facts!

Do you know how big is a black hole? The singularity at the heart of a black hole is infinitely small. The size of the hole around it depends on how much matter went into forming it. The black hole at the heart of our galaxy may be around the size of the solar system.

We may be able to spot a black hole from the powerful radio signals emitted by stars being nipped to shreds as they are sucked in.

Now, let's watch a documentary on how destructive the black holes can be. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=leZdJmUF4lM

What happens when stars die......?

2010-03-09T20:25:00.000+08:00

After watching the documentary on the formation of stars, a sudden thought rushed to my mind. Have you ever thought that what will happen to us and this world when stars die? Will all of us die too? Although you might feel that this is ridiculous, I think since the biggest star is about 40000 times as big as the Sun, its explosion should be tremendous, thus I think it has great effects on us, isn't it?

Troubled, I decided to research on this topic and eventually learnt even more about stars. Stars die when they have exhausted their vast supplies of nuclear fuel. So when hydrogen runs out, the stars will then switch to helium. However, when helium runs out, they will quickly exhaust any remaining nuclear energy and either BLOW UP, SHRINK OR GO COLD!!! (Ah......ah!) This just depends on the stars themselves.

The biggest stars have masses of nuclear fuel but live fast and die young. The smallest stars have little nuclear fuel but live slow and long. A star which is twice as big as the Sun lives a tenth as long. The biggest stars live just a few million years.

- Process of the star explosion:

- Supernova

A supernova is a gigantic explosion and it finishes off a supergiant star. For just a brief movement, the supernova flashes out with the brilliance of billions of suns. Supernovae are rare, and usually visible only through a telescope. But in the 1987, for the first time in 400 years, one called Supernova 1987A was visible with the naked eye for nine months.

Now, let's watch a documentary of a supernova. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5lcKLUvLzQ

Here is anther interesting documentary on the star explosion. Enjoy!
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTRUDeJIZ0w&feature=fvw

What is a star?

2010-03-09T18:15:00.000+08:00

Stars are gigantic glowing balls of gas, scattered throughout the space. However, why do they give off light?

Stars burn for anything from a few million to tens of billions of years. The nearest star, apart from the Sun, is approximately over 40 trillion km away! (WOW!) They are all so distant that we can see stars only as pinpoints of light in the night sky.

- Do you know where are stars born?

Stretched throughout the space are actually vast clouds of dust and gas which are called nebulae. These clouds are 99% hydrogen and helium with tiny amounts of other gases and minute quantities of icy, cosmic dust. Stars are born in the biggest of these nebulae which are called giant molecular clouds. At this place, temperatures plunge to -263 degrees! Although these nebulae are think and cold, they contain all the materials needed to make a star.

- Formation of Star

* Interesting facts!

It is quite hard to know how many stars in the universe, for the vast majority of them are much too far away to see. But astronomers guess that there are about 200 billion billion!

- Do you know what are constellation?

Constellations are small patterns of stars in the sky, each with its own name. They have no real existence, but they help astronomers locate things in the night sky.

- Do you know how hot are the stars?

The surface temperature of the coolest stars is below 3500 degree celsius while the brightest star is over 40000 degree celsius! (OH MY GOD......! I'M BURNING!)

- Do you know what is the biggest star?

The biggest star in the universe is the supergiant. Antares is 700 times as big as the Sun. There may be a star in the Epsilon system in the constellation of Auriga that is 3 billion km across - 4000 times as big as the Sun! (WOW!)

Here is an video which may be useful to you in understanding the formation of stars. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fe7ui7IYNxU

- DISCUSSION TIME!
Here, you can voice out your thoughts or comments on the topic and we will discuss in this blog post.

Today's discussion:

Do you think stars are important and essential to our life? Why?

Should you have any comments to voice out, please type in the comment box.
Thanks.

Comets vs Asteroids

2010-03-09T17:04:00.000+08:00

So what is a comet? And what's an asteriod? We should not confuse comets with asteroids since they are two different things.

Asteroids are thousands of little space rocks that circle round the Sun in a big band from an asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. The biggest asteriod is Ceres which is 1000 km across. However, most asteriods are smaller. Till today, over 3200 asteriods have been identified!

As asteriods are too small to be considered as planets, they are known as minor planets. Some of them have orbits that cross Earth's path and some have even hit the Earth in the past! One of the best preserved examples is Barringer Meteor Crater near Winslow, Arizona!

Asteroids are actually material left over from the formation of the solar system. One theory suggests that they are the remains of a planet that was destroyed in a massive collision long ago. Asteroids may also be material that never coalesced into a planet. If the estimated total mass of all known asteroids was gathered into a single object, the object would be less than 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) across -- less than half the diameter of our Moon. However, there may have been more material originally.

- What is a comet?

Spectacular comets are just dirty iceballs a few kilometres across. Normally, they circle the outer reaches of the solar system. But occasionally, one of them is drawn in towards the Sun. As it hurtles towards the Sun, it melts and a vast tail of gas is blown behind by the solar wind. We may see this spectacular tail in the night sky shining in the sunlight for a few weeks unti it swings rond the Sun and out of sight. The most recent comet was Hale-Bopp in 1997.

When comets are near the Sun and active, they have several distinct parts:

nucleus: relatively solid and stable, mostly ice and gas with a small amount of dust and other solids;
coma: dense cloud of water, carbon dioxide and other neutral gases sublimed off of the nucleus;
hydrogen cloud: huge (millions of km in diameter) but very sparse envelope of neutral hydrogen;
dust tail: up to 10 million km long composed of smoke-sized dust particles driven off the nucleus by escaping gases; this is the most prominent part of a comet to the naked eye;
ion tail: up to 100 million km long composed of plasma and laced with rays and streamers caused by interactions with the solar wind.

Comets are invisible except when they are near the Sun. Most comets have highly eccentric orbits which take them far beyond the orbit of Pluto; these are seen once and then disappear for millennia. Only the short- and intermediate-period comets (like Comet Halley), stay within the orbit of Pluto for a significant fraction of their orbits.

Here is a documentary on comets vs asteriods. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=136r3OhX7Uc

What are outer planets?

2010-03-09T16:35:00.000+08:00

Now, you might have learnt what are inner and giant planets. But do you know about outer planets?

The outer planets are Uranus, Neptune and Pluto (not anymore). Unlike other planets, these outer planets were completely unknown to ancient astronomers. They were so far away and also so faint. Uranus was only discovered in 1781 while Neptune was discovered in 1846 whereas Pluto was discovered in 1930. Uranus and Neptune are both gas giants like Jupiter and Saturn.

- Uranus

Uranus is actually the seventh planet from the Sun in the solar system. Unlike any of the other planets, Uranus does not spin on a slight tilt angle. Instead, it is tilted right over and rolls round the Sun on its side, like a giant bowling ball.

Now, let's watch a documentary on Uranus. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbOZFpG2HEU&feature=PlayList&p=03C7260CB13D412F&index=9

- Neptune

Neptune is the eigth planet from the Sun in the solar system. As it is so far away from the Sun, it took 16479 years to orbit around the Sun. So Neptune's year is 16479 of ours. Neptune is also greeny blue as its surface is completely covered in immensely deep oceans of liquid methane (natural gas).

- Who found Neptune?

Two mathematicians, John Couch Adams in England and Urbain le Verrier in France, predicted that where Neptune should be from the way its gravity disturbed Uranus's orbit. Johan Galle in Berline spotted it in 23 September 1846.

Now, let's watch an interesting video on Neptune. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76xz74X4ivw

What are GIANT planets?

2010-03-09T16:09:00.000+08:00

After learning what are inner planets, do you know what exactly are giant planets?

Jupiter and Saturn which are the fifth and sixth planets out from the Sun are the giant planets in the solar system. Do you know that Jupiter is actually twice as heavy as all the other planets put together!

In addition, Jupiter is also 1300 times as big as the Earth. Hence, it is the largest planet in the solar system. Jupiter also has a ring system like Saturn but much, much smaller. High-speed winds whirl round Jupiter's surface, creating bands of cloud in the atmosphere.

* Interesting facts!

Do you know that Jupiter actually has 16 moons - 4 big ones which are discovered by Galileo as long ago as 1610 and thus these four moons are named after him the Galilean moons, and there are also 12 small ones.

- What is Jupiter's red spot?

The Great Red Spot or GRS is a huge swirling storm in Jupiter's atmosphere 40000 km across that has gone on in the same place for at least 330 years.

- Do you know how fast does Jupiter revolve on its axis?

Jupiter revolves on its axis faster than any other planets. Despite its huge size, it turns right round in just 9.8 hours, which means the surface is actually moving at an incredibly speed of 45 000 kph!

- Could you land on Jupiter?

Based on scientific research, even if your spaceship could withstand the enormous pressures, there is no surface to land on as the atmosphere merges unnoticeably into deep oceans of liquid hydrogen.

Now, let's watch an documentary on Jupiter. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ey8Jw7e4B2Q

- Saturn

Saturn is almost as big as Jupiter. Unlike the inner planets, both Jupiter and Saturn are made largely of Hydrogen and Helium and only their very core is rocky. This does not mean that they are vast cloud balls. However, it tells us that the enormous pressure of gravity means the gas is squeezed until it becomes liquid and even solid.

Saturn may be very big but because that it is mainly made of liquid hydrogen, it is also remarkably light with an unbelievable mass of 600 billion trillion tonnes! So this means that if you can find a big enough bathtub, Saturn would float on it!

Saturn also has rings which are made of billions of tiny chips of dust and ice - few of them are even bigger than a refrigerator and most the size of ice cubes. These rings are extremely thin - no more than 50 m deep, yet they stretch all the way above Saturn's clouds, and 7000 km high and over 74000 km out into the space. Do you know that one of Saturn's rings is actually as thin as a piece of tissue paper being stretched over a football pitch!

- How windy is Saturn?

Saturn's winds are actually even faster than Jupiter's and roar round the planet up to an amazing speed of 1800 kph. However, Neptune's wind speed is fastest!

- Do you know how many moons does Saturn have?

Saturn has at least 18 moons including Lapetus which is black on one side and white on the other side. In addition, one of its moons which is Enceladus is actually covered in shiny beads of ice and shimmers like a cinema screen.

- The Cassini division!

Saturn's rings occur in broad bands labelled with the letters A to G. In 1675, the astronomer Cassini spotted a dark gap between the rings A and B which is now called after him, the Cassini division.

Here is an interesting documentary on Saturn. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLXeUVCNoX8

What are inner planets?

2010-03-09T15:34:00.001+08:00

So do you know what are inner planets?

The inner planets are actually the four planets which are nearest to the Sun. These planets are the Earth, Mars, Venus and Mercury. As pluto has been considered as dwarf planet, it is now not included in the inner planets. These planets are planets made of rock, unlike the bigger planets further out which are made mostly of gas.

As these inner planets are mainly made of rock, they have a hard surface which allow a spaceship to land on. This is why sometimes these inner planets are called terrestial (earth) planets. They all have a thin atmosphere, but each of them is very different from one another.

- Venus

Venus is a soft pinkish white planet with no features visible on the surface through its thick atmosphere.

Venus's atmosphere would be very DEADLY for the humans. It is very deep so the pressure on the ground is huge. In addition, it is mainly made of poisonous carbon dioxide and is also filled with clouds of sulphuric acid.

- Do you know why is Venus called the Evening Star?

Venus reflects sunlight so well that it shines so brightly like a star. However, because it is qutie close to the Sun, we can only see it in the evening, just after the Sun sets. In addition, we can also see it just sometime before sunrise.

Here are some interesting documentaries on the deadly planet Venus. Please take some time to watch it. Enjoy!
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hg_NzWbsvxE&feature=PlayList&p=312B141A45F84457&index=28

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqFVxWfVtoo&feature=PlayList&p=312B141A45F84457&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=29

- Mercury

Mercury has no virtually atmosphere and its surface is pitted with craters like the Moon. Temperatures on Mercury veer from one extreme to the other as it has too thin an atmosphere to insulate it. In the day, temperatures can soar up to 430 degree celsius while at night, it may go as low as -180 degree celsius!

- Could living things breathe on Mercury?

You cannot breathe on Mercury without your oxygen supply as it has almost no atmosphere - just a few wisps of sodium vapour - as gases are burned off by the nearby Sun.

Now, let's watch a documentary on Mercury. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nK6ETuXgwb4

Another interesting video on Mercury which tells you more interesting facts about it. Enjoy!
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-doT9gNsI8

What canyon is larger than the Grand Canyon?

2010-03-09T14:56:00.000+08:00

Have you heard about the America's Grand Canyon? But do you know what canyon is actually larger than the Grand Canyon?

The largest canyon is actually on MARS! (COOL......!) The surface of Mars is more stable than the Earth's. Furthermore, there is no rain or running water to wear down the landscape on Mars. Hence, although Mars is only about half the size of the Earth's, it has a volcano which is called Olympus Mons 24 km high - three times as high as Mount Everest!

In addition, it has a great chasm which is discovered by the Mariner 9 space probe and called the Valles Marineris. This is over 4000 km long and four times as deep as America's Grand Canyon. Isn't that shocking!

Let's watch an interesting video on the Mars' Moon! Enjoy!
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Al_YHmIXx9Q

* Interesting facts!

Do you know what is so frightening about Mars' Moon? It was told that one night, an American astronomer Asaph Hall got fed up with studying Mars and decided to go to bed. However, his domineering wife bullied him into staying up - and that night was when he discovered Mars' two moons. Mocking his fear of his wife, he then named the two moons Phobos (fear) and Deimos (panic)!

- Do you know why is Mars red?

Mars appears to be red as it is rusty. Its surface contains a high proportion of iron dust and this has been oxidized in the carbon dioxide atmosphere.

Image source: http://www.energie-der-sterne.de/Mars.gif

The birth of the Sun (Interesting......!)

2010-03-08T20:51:00.001+08:00

The Sun is an average star, just like countless others in the universe. It formed from gas left behind after an earlier, much larger star blew up and now, in the middle-age, burns yellow and fairly steadily - giving the Earth daylight and remarkably constant temperatures. Besides heat and light, the Sun sends out deadly gamma rays, X-rays and ultraviolet, as well as infraredand radio waves. Fortunately, we are shielded from these harmful rays from the Sun by the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere.

- Solar eclipse

A solar eclipse is when the Moon comes in between the Sun and the Earth, creating a shadow a few hundred kilometres wide on the Earth.

- How big exactly is the Sun?

The Sun is a small to medium-sized star 1, 392, 000 km (0.86 million miles) in diameter. It weighs just under 2000 trillion trillion tonnes.

- What is the Sun's crown?

The Sun's crown is its corona, its glowing white hot atmosphere seen only as a halo when the rest of the Sun's disc is blotted out by the Moon in a solar eclipse.

- How hot is the Sun?

The surface of the Sun is a phenomenal 6000 degree celcius and would melt absolutely anything. But its core is thousands of times hotter at over 16 million degree celcius!

- What makes the Sun burn?

The Sun get its heat from nuclear fusion. Huge pressures deep inside the Sun force the nuclei (cores) of hydrogen atoms to fuse together to make helium atoms, releasing huge amounts of nuclear energy.

- How old is the Sun?

The Sun is a middle-aged star and probably formed about five billion years ago. It will probably burn for another five billion years and then die in a blaze so bright that the Earth will be scorched right out of existence.

- What is the solar wind?

The solar wind is the stream of radioactive particles constantly blowing out from the Sun at hundreds of kilometres per second. (The Earth is protected from the solar wind by its magnetic field, but at the poles, the solar wind interacts with the Earth's atmosphere to create the aurora borealis or northern lights.)

- What are solar flares?

Flares are eruptions from the Sun's surface that fountain into space with the energy of one million atom bombs for about five minutes. (They are similar to solar prominences, the giant flame-like tongues of hot hydrogen that loop 100 000km/60000 miles into space.)

- Sunpots

Sunpots are dark blotches seen on the Sun's surface. They are thousands of kilometres across, amd usually occur in pairs. They are dark as they are slightly less hot than the rest of the surface. As the Sun rotates, they slowly cross its face - in about 37 days at the equator and 26 days at the Poles. The average number of spots seems to reach the maximum every 11 years, and many scientists believe that these sunspot maximums are linked to periods of stormier weather on the Earth.

- Parts of the Sun

Now, let watch an interesting documentary on the formation of the Sun. Enjoy!

URL: http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=7914619942000727995

What is really Moon (Erm......)

2010-03-08T18:58:00.000+08:00

So do you know how does the Moon form?

The Moon is the Earth's natural satellite which has circled around it for at least four billion years. It is actually a rocky ball about a quarter of the Earth's size and is held in its orbit by mutual gravitational attraction. Scientists believed that the Monn formed when early in the Earth's history, a planet smashed into it. The impact was so great and tremendous that nothing was left of the planet but a few hot splashes thrown back up into space. Within a day of the smash, these splashes had been drawn together by gravity to form the Moon.

- Who was the first man on the Moon?

The first men on the Moon were Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of the US Apollo 11 mission who landed on the Moon on 21 July 1969. (As Neil Armstrong once said, "This a small step for a man, a giant leap for mankind.")

- What are the Moon's seas?

The large dark pitches visible on the Moon's surface are called seas, but in fact they are not seas at all. They are huge plains formed by lava flowing from volcanoes that erupted early on in the Moon's history.

- How long is a Moon month?

It takes the Moon approximately 27.3 days to circle the Earth, but 29.53 days from one full moon to the next as the Earth moves as well. A lunar month is the 29.53 days cycle. Calendar months are entirely artificial.

- What is a lunar eclipse?

As the Moon revolves round the Earth, sometimes it passes right into the Earth's shadow, where sunlight is blocked off. This is a lunar eclipse. So if you look at the Moon during this period of time, you will see the dark disc of the Earth's shadow creeping across the Moon.

- What exactly is moonlight?

The Moon is by far the brightest object in the night sky. However, it does not give off its own light. Hence, it simply reflects off the Sun light to produce moonlight.

- What is inside the Moon?

The Moon's surface is covered with a fine layer of dust.
The surface of the Moon is pitted with impact craters, obliterated in part by giant ancient lava flows called seas
The Moon's mantle is now very cool as compared to the Earth's.
The Moon's outer core is probably solid metal.
The Moon has an inner core of metal, very much smaller in relation to its size than the Earth's.
The Moon has a crust of solid rock thinner than the Earth's - up to 150 km (90 miles) thick on the side away from the Earth.

- Harvest Moon

The harvest moon is the full moon nearest to the autumnal equinox (when night and day are of equal length). This moon hangs bright above the eastern horizon for several evenings, providing a good light for harvesters.

- Why does the sea have tides?

The Moon's gravity draws the oceans into an oval around the Earth, creating a bulge of water on each side of the world. These bulges stay beneath the Moon as the Earth spins around and seem to run around the world, making the tide rise and fall as they pass.

- Phases of the Moon:

Now, let watch a video on the formation of the Moon:

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6A3BzWdd_o&feature=related

How did the Earth begin? (WOW......!)

2010-03-08T18:18:00.000+08:00

So do you really know how did our mother Earth form? Or why did it form?

- Formation of Earth

Around four and a half billion years ago, neither the Earth nor any of the other planets existed. There was just this vast dark very hit cloud of gas and dust swirling around the newly formed Sun. Gradually, the cloud cooled down and the gas began to condense into billions of water droplets. Slowly, these droplets then were pulled together into clumps by their own gravity - and they were carried on clumping until all the planets, including Earth, were formed. But it took about another half a billion years before the Earth had cooled enough to form a solid crust with an atmosphere around it.

- Process of the formation of the Earth

As the Earth orbits the Sun, the hemisphere of the planet which faces the Sun experiences summer while the hemisphere facing away from the Sun experiences winter.

- How long exactly is an Earth day?

An Earth day is the time when the Earth takes to rotate on its axis once. The stars come back to the same place in the sky every 23 hours 56 minutes 4.09 seconds (the sidereal day). Our day (the solar day) is 24 hours as the Earth is moving round the Sun and it must turn an extra 1 degree for the Sun to return to the same place in the sky.

- Why does the Earth spin?

The Earth spins as it is falling around the Sun. As the Earth hurtles round the Sun, the Sun's gravity keeps it spinning, just as the Earth's gravity keeps a ball rolling down hill.

- What is the Earth made of?

The Earth has a core of iron and nickel, and a rocky crust which is made mostly of oxygen and silicon. In between is the soft hot mantle of metal silicates, sulphides and oxides.

- How big exactly is the Earth?

Satellite measurements show it is 40,024 km (24,870 miles) around the equator and 12,578 km (7,927 miles) across. The diameter at the poles is slightly less, by 43 km (26.7 miles).

- Who was Copernicus?

In the 1500s, most people thought that the Earth was fixed at the centre of the universe, with the Sun and the stars revolving around it. However, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543) was the polish astronomer who first suggested that the Earth was actually revolving around the Sun and not the other way round.

Here, let watch an interesting video on the birth of the Earth. Enjoy!

Astrology VS Astronomy

2010-03-08T17:36:00.000+08:00

After reading about the instruments used in Astronomy, I think you might be interested to know more about another topic which seems to be confused by most people with Astronomy. This term is Astrology (this might be your first time hearing this word, right?).

The word, Astrology, actually comes from the Greek word astron meaning "star" and logy meaning "the science". Astrology is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer.

Since Babylonian times, people staring at the night sky were convinced that the regular motions of the heavens were indications of some great cosmic purpose. Priests and philosophers all believed that if they could map the stars and their movements, they could decode these stars and understand the patterns that had an effect on past and future events.

However, there is no evidence to support their belief that stars and planets have any effect on our personalities or our destinies. Astronomers now thnik Astrology is just superstition. However, its original noble motives should not be forgetten. For most of the so-called "Dark Ages", when all pure science was in deep hibernation and the desire to know about the future that kept the science of Astronomy alive.

- Rulership over organs

Until the discoveries of modern medicine, ancient people believed that the body was governed by four main different types of essence which were called "humours". An imbalance in these humours would result in illnesses. Each of the 12 signs of the horoscopes had special links with each of the hmours and with parts of the human body. One example is for a headache due to the moisture in the head (a cold), treatment would be with a drying agent - some plant ruled by the Sun or an "Earth sign", like Virgo -when a New Moon was well placed towards the sign of Aries, which ruled the head.

- Perpetual Calendar

In this calendar, the names for the days of the week show traces of astrological belief - for example, Sunday is the Sun's day, and Monday is the Moon's day. This simple perpetual calendar, which contains small planetary signs next to each day, shows the day of the week for any given date. The user can find out the day by turning the inner dial to a given month or date and reading off the information.

- Examples of zodiacs in Astrology

These 19th-century French constellation cards show each individual star marked with a hole through which light shines. Astrologically, each zodiacal sign has its own properties and its own friendships and enemies within the zodiacal circle. Each sign is also ruled by a planet, which similarly has its own properties, friendships, and enemies. So, for example, a person born while the Sun is passing through Leo is supposed to be kindly, like a lion.

Scorpio, the Scorpion

Most of the constellations are now known by the Latinized versions of their original Greek names. This card shows Scorpius, or Scorpio. This is the sign "through which" the Sun passes between late October and late November. Astrologers believe that people born during this time of year are intuitive, yet secretive, like a scorpion scuttling under a rock.

Cancer, the Crab

Cancer is supposed to be a home-body, like a crab in its shell. These hand-painted cards are collectively known as Urania's Mirror - Urania is the name of the muse of astronomy. By holding the cards up to the light, it is possible to learn the shapes and relative brightness of the stars in each constellation.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrology

Instruments used in Astronomy (COOL......!)

2010-03-06T19:46:00.002+08:00

Now that you have learnt the history of ancient Astronomy, I think it is always good for you to know the ancient instruments used in Astronomy. With all the tools of modern technology, it is something hard to imagine how people performed simple functions such as telling the time or knowing where they were on the Earth before the great invention of the clock, maps, or navigational satellites. In ancient times, the only tools available were those provided by the nature.

The astronomical facts of the relatively regular interval of the day, the constancy of the movements of the fixed stars, and the assumption of certain theories, such as a spherical Earth, allowed people to measure their lives. By calculating the height of the Sun or certain stars, the ancient Greek began to understand the shape and size of the Earth. In this way, they were able to determine their latitude. By plotting coordinates against a globe, they could fix their position on the Earth's surface. In addition, by setting up carefully measured markers, or gnomons, they could begin to calculate the time of the day.

* Interesting facts......!

- Measuring the size of the Earth

About 230 BC, Eratosthenes (c. 270 - 190 BC) estimated the size of the Earth by using the Sun. But how......? He discovered that the Sun was directly above his head at Syene in Upper Eypt at noon on the summer solstice. In Alexandra, directly north, the Sun was actually about 7 degrees from its highest point (the zenith) at the summer solstice. Since Eratosthenes knew that the Earth was spherical (360 degrees in circumference), the distance between the two towns should be 7/360 ths of the Earth's circumference.

- Ancient Sundial

Very early on, people realized that they could keep time by the Sun. Simple sundials like this allowed traveller or merchant to know the local time for several different towns during a journey. The altitude of the Sun was measured through the sight holes in the bow and stern of the "little ship". When the cursor on the ship's mast was set to the correct latitude, the plump bob would fall on the proper time.

- How a sundial works?

As the Sun travels across the sky, the shadow which it casts changes in direction and length. A sundial works by setting a gnomon, or "indicator", so that the shadow which the Sun casts at noon falls due north/south along a meridian. (A meridian is an imaginary line running from pole to pole and another for it is a line of longitude.)

The hours can then be divided before and after the noon mark. Hence, the terms "a.m." and "p.m." for morning and night actually originated from the Latin words meaning before and after the Sun passes the north/south meridian. So "a.m." actually refers to "ante meridiem" and "p.m." refers to "post meridiem"!

- Cruciform sundial

Travelling Christian pilgrims often worried that any ornament might be considered a symbol of vanity. They solved this problem by incorporating religious symbolism into their sundials. This dial, which is shaped in the form of a cross, provided the means for telling the time in a number of English and French towns.

- Celestial Globe

The celestial globe records the figures and stars of all the constellations against a grid of lines representing longitude and latitude. During the 17th and 18th centuries, all ships of the Dutch East India Company (E.I.C) were given a matching pair of globes - terrestial and celestial. Calculations could be made by comparing the coordinates on the two different globes. In practice, however, most navigators seemed to be using flat sea-charts to plot their journeys instead of celestial globes.

- Backstaff

The backstaff allowed a navigator to measure the height of the Sun without having to stare directly at it. The navigator held the instrument so that the shadow cast by the shadow vane would fall directly on to the horizon vane. Moving the sight vane, the navigator lined it up so he could see the horizon through the sight vane and the horizon vane. By adding together the angles of the sight and shadow vanes, the navigator could calculate the altitude of the Sun, from which he could determine the precise latitude of his ship.

Image source:

More about Stonehenge

2010-03-06T17:25:00.003+08:00

Stonehenge, constructed between 3100-2000 BCE on England's Salisbury Plain, may have been a Stoneage astronomical site (observatory is too strong a word), at least in part. Certainly the alignment of the "heelstone" with the rising Sun on Midsummer's Day (June 21, the Summer Solstice) represents a true astronomical alignment, and many other Megalithic sites have similar alignments. In Stonehenge Decoded, astronomer Gerald Hawkins argued that there exist a large number of astronomical alignments, though further study suggests that many of these are fortuitous.

Cosmologist Fred Hoyle has suggested that Stonehenge may have been used to keep track of the solar-lunar eclipse cycle. Far outside the still partially standing ring of Sarsen Stones is a ring of 56 holes, known as the Aubry holes. Hoyle has noted that movement of a marking stone by 3 positions each time the Sun rose over the heelstone (or by one position three times yearly) would complete a circle in 18.67 years -- approximately the period for the "nodes", the intercepts of the lunar and solar paths in the sky, to complete a cycle. Certainly ritual use of Stonehenge would have been more important that its astronomical functions and much of this interpretation must remain speculation.

- Recording Sun's movements

Even though the precise significance of the standing stones at Stonehenge remains the subject of debate, it is clear from the arrangement of the stones that were erected by pre-historic people specifically to record certain celestial events, such as the summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumnal equinoxes. Although Stonehenge is the best known of the ancient megalithic monuments (those made of stone in pre-historic times), the sheer number of similar sites throughout the world underlines how many pre-historic people placed an enormous importance on recording the motions of the Sun and the Moon.

- Parts of the Stonehenge

As seen in the above diagram, there is an avenue leading to the centre of the Stonehenge. Along the avenue, there is also heel stone which marks the original approach to the Stonehenge. After passing the heel stones, you will see slaughter stone which actually forms a ceremonial doorway for the Stonehenge. Around the Stonehenge, there are also some station stones with aubrey holes which are round pits that were part of the earliest structure. In addition, there is a barrow in it and a circle of Sarsen stones with lintels in the centre of the Stonehenge. In the circle, there is an altar stone which is found in the middle of it.

References:

http://cassfos02.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/History.html

History of Astronomy (Oh Yes!)

2010-03-06T16:55:00.000+08:00

As Astronomy is the oldest of the sciences, it has a long history which evolves from one stage of life to another.

In ancient times, early cultures identified celestial objects with gods and spirits. They related these objects (and their movements) to phenomena such as rain, drought, seasons, and tides. It is generally believed that the first "professional" astronomers were priests (such as the Magi), and that their understanding of the "heavens" was seen as "divine", hence astronomy's ancient connection to what is now called astrology. Ancient structures with possibly astronomical alignments (such as Stonehenge) probably fulfilled both astronomical and religious functions.

In the ancient times, calendars of the world would have usually been set by the Sun and Moon (measuring the day, month and year) and were of importance to agricultural societies, in which the harvest depended on planting at the correct time of year. The most common modern calendar is based on the Roman calendar, which divided the year into twelve months of alternating thirty and thirty-one days apiece. In 46 BC Julius Caesar instigated calendar reform and adopted a calendar based upon the 365 1/4 day year length originally proposed by 4th century BC Greek astronomer Callippus.

- NAMING THE PLANETS

The spread of knowledge tends to follow the two routes of trade and war. As great empires were expanding, they eventually brought their gods, customs, and learning with them. The earliest civilisation believed that the stars and planets were actually ruled by gods. How amazing!

One example is the Babylonians named each planet after the god which they believed had most in common with that planet's characteristics. In addition, the Greeks and the Romans soon adopted this Babylonian system, replacing the names of the planets with those of their gods. Hence, all planet names can be traced directly to the Babylonian planet-gods such as: Nergal has become Mars, and Marduk has become the god Jupiter.

- Babylonian records

The earliest astronomical records are in the form of clay tablets from ancient Mesopotamia, the "land between the rivers" Tigris and Euphrates, where the ancient kingdoms of Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia were located. A form of writing known as cuneiform emerged among the Sumerians around 3500-3000 BC. Our knowledge of Sumerian astronomy is indirect, via the earliest Babylonian star catalogues dating from about 1200 BC. The fact that many star names appear in Sumerian suggests a continuity reaching into the Early Bronze Age. Astral theology, which gave planetary gods an important role in Mesopotamian mythology and religion, began with the Sumerians. They also used a sexagesimal (base 60) place-value number system, which simplified the task of recording very large and very small numbers. The modern practice of dividing a circle into 360 degrees, of 60 minutes each, began with the Sumerians.

Classical sources frequently use the term Chaldeans for the astronomers of Mesopotamia, who were, in reality, priest-scribes specializing in astrology and other forms of divination.

The first evidence of recognition that astronomical phenomena are periodic and of the application of mathematics to their prediction is Babylonian. Tablets dating back to the Old Babylonian period [disambiguation needed] document the application of mathematics to the variation in the length of daylight over a solar year. Centuries of Babylonian observations of celestial phenomena are recorded in the series of cuneiform tablets known as the Enūma Anu Enlil. The oldest significant astronomical text that we possess is Tablet 63 of the Enūma Anu Enlil, the Venus tablet of Ammi-saduqa, which lists the first and last visible risings of Venus over a period of about 21 years and is the earliest evidence that the phenomena of a planet were recognized as periodic. The MUL.APIN, contains catalogues of stars and constellations as well as schemes for predicting heliacal risings and the settings of the planets, lengths of daylight measured by a water-clock, gnomon, shadows, and intercalations. The Babylonian GU text arranges stars in 'strings' that lie along declination circles and thus measure right-ascensions or time-intervals, and also employs the stars of the zenith, which are also separated by given right-ascensional differences.

A significant increase in the quality and frequency of Babylonian observations appeared during the reign of Nabonassar (747-733 BC). The systematic records of ominous phenomena in astronomical diaries that began at this time allowed for the discovery of a repeating 18-year cycle of lunar eclipses, for example. The Greek astronomer Ptolemy later used Nabonassar's reign to fix the beginning of an era, since he felt that the earliest usable observations began at this time.

The last stages in the development of Babylonian astronomy took place during the time of the Seleucid Empire (323-60 BC). In the third century BC, astronomers began to use "goal-year texts" to predict the motions of the planets. These texts compiled records of past observations to find repeating occurrences of ominous phenomena for each planet. About the same time, or shortly afterwards, astronomers created mathematical models that allowed them to predict these phenomena directly, without consulting past records. A notable Babylonian astronomer from this time was Seleucus of Seleucia, who was a supporter of the heliocentric model.

Babylonian astronomy was the basis for much of what was done in Greek and Hellenistic astronomy, in classical Indian astronomy, in Sassanian Iran, in Byzantium, in Syria, in Islamic astronomy, in Central Asia, and in Western Europe.

Now, let's enjoy a video on ancient astronomy which will help you to understand better of the history of Astronomy

Video Title: Ancient Astronomy
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-5dwJwau1Y

References:

Ancient Astronomy (The Study of the Heavens)

2010-03-06T16:03:00.000+08:00

The word, "Astronomy" comes from a combination of two Greek words: astron meaning "star" and nemein meaning "to name". Even though the beginnings of Astronomy go back thousands of years beofre the ancient Greeks began studying the stars, the science of Asstronomy has always been based on the similar priniciple of "naming the stars".

Many of the names originated from the Greeks, since they were the FIRST Astronomers to make a systematic catalogue of all the stars they could see. (Isn't that interesting......!)

From here, we can see that astronomy is actually one of the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious, mythological, and astrological practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with public and governmental astronomy, and not completely disentangled from it until a few centuries ago in the Western World.

In the early times, ancient astronomy used to be involved in observing the regular patterns of the motions of visible celestial objects, especially the Sun, Moon, stars and naked eye planets. An example of this early astronomy might involve a study of the changing position of the Sun along the horizon or the changing appearances of stars in the course of the year, which could be used to establish an agricultural or ritual calendar. In some cultures astronomical data was used for astrological prognostication.

In addition, a number of early civilisations remembered the relative positions of the stars by putting together groups that seemed to make patterns in the night sky. One of these might look like a curling river, so it was called Eridanus which is known as "the great river" in Greek. Another example will be the position of stars which look like a hunter with a bright belt and dagger. This is position of stars is actually called Orion, the hunter.

* Interesting facts......!

Do you know that the earliest astronomers were actually shepherds who watched the heavens for signs of the changing seasons! Those clear nights would have given them the opportunity to recognize familiar patterns and movements of the brightest heavenly bodies.

Ancient astronomers were able to differentiate between stars and planets, as stars remain relatively fixed over the centuries while planets will move an appreciable amount during a comparatively short time.

In ancient times, early astronomers realised that these repeating motions in the cyclic motion of the Sun, the Moon and the stars could actually be used to fashion the sky into a "living" clock (to tell the passage of the hours of the day or night) and a calendar (to mark the progression of the seasons). Ancient monuments, such as Stonehenge in UK and the pyramids of the Maya in Central America, provide evidence that the basic components of observational astronomy have been known for at least 6000 years! Ancient structures with possibly astronomical alignments probably fulfilled both astronomical and religious functions.

With only a few exceptions, almost all civilisations have believed that the steady movements of the sky were some sort of signal of greater plan to them.

One example is the phenomenon of a solar eclipse which was believed by some ancient civilisations that it was actually a dragon eating the Sun. Hence, some ancient people would make great noise to frighten the dragon away. Thus, we can see that different civilisations actually have different beliefs of the movements in sky.

Fun time......!
After reading my posts on Astronomy, I'm sure you have an idea of what is Astronomy. To deepen your understanding, let learn it in an interesting way through games & crossword puzzles!

To play the game, "Make-A-Planet", please click the link below:

http://www.kidsastronomy.com/fun/make-a-planet.htm

References:

http://www.astro.virginia.edu/class/oconnell/astr121/guide05-s04.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_astronomy
http://www.blogcatalog.com/blog/easy-astronomy-blog
Astronomy - Eyewitness Guide

Written by Kristen Lippincott

Definition of Astronomy (AWESOME!)

2010-03-06T00:13:00.001+08:00

So you may be thinking in your mind right now that "What is really astronomy?", I mean, you may think that it is a really complicated science? Well don't worry, you will explore the world of Astronomy in this website and this will enhance your understanding of it. Also, it may inculcate this interest of Astronomy in you.

You see, Astronomy is not only about planets, universes, stars and comets, it is more than just a branch of science as it ranges from ancient astronomy (How ancient people study Astronomy), the inner planets, outer planets, giant planets, the birth & death of star, black holes, galaxies, history of universe and instruments used in the study of Astronomy.

So before you even embark on the learning journey of Astronomy in this blog, I think it is best for you to know what is Astronomy.
Astronomy can be defined like in many ways:

Some say that it is the scientific study of the universe and the objects in it, including stars, planets, nebulae, and galaxies. Here astronomy deals with the position, size, motion, composition, energy, and evolution of celestial objects. In addition, astronomers analyze not only visible light but also radio waves, x-rays, and other ranges of radiation that come from sources outside the Earth’s atmosphere.

Other says that Astronomy is the science which investigates all the matter-energy in the universe: its distribution, composition, physical states, movements, and evolution.

* Distribution: The position, arrangement or frequency of matter (or energy) over an area or throughout space.

Movements: Any condition related to the positional change of matter in space or on a coordinate grid.

Rotation: Period of time a body takes to complete one spin about its axis.

Revolution: Period of time a less massive body takes to complete one orbit around a more massive object

Physical States: The conditions which permit matter to be found as a solid, liquid, gas or plasma.

Solid: Matter with a definite shape, volume, and some fundamental strength.

Liquid: Characterized by free movement of the constiuent molecules among themselves, but without the tendency to separate from one another.

Gas: A fluid that has neither independent shape nor volume, but tends to expand indefinitely.

Plasma: A gas which is ionized which means that it is not electrically neutral. This gas is composed of ions and electrons. The ions (atoms or molecules) which compose the substance have an excess or deficiency of electrons (negative charge) in comparison to the number of protons (positive charge) that they contain.

Composition: The qualitative and quantitative chemical makeup of matter.

Qualitative Example: The sun is composed of hydrogen and helium. Components are merely identified.

Quantitative Example: The sun by volume is composed of 95% hydrogen and 5% helium, but by mass it is composed of 78% hydrogen, 20% helium, and 2% heavier metals. Components are identified by amounts in a numerical fashion.

Evolution: The process of change of the universe in a certain direction. The Steady State (no longer accepted), Big Bang, and Oscillating Universe detail evolutionary sequences for the universe.

Steady State: The universe was always here, always will be here, is infinitely expanding, and appears the same from all locations. Hydrogen is created in the voids between galaxies.

Big Bang: The universe started with a blast and will expand forever.

Oscillating Universe: The universe started with the big bang, but possesses enough mass (gravity) to halt the expansion so that it will one day collapse upon itself.

As you can see, Astronomy is a wide topic and no one really know what is it as people have different definitions of it (that's why it is so interesting!). But in general, Astronomy is a fascinating science and a study of everything that is in outer space including stars, planets, constellations, comets, the solar system, etc.

Here is a video which is recommended by me for you to watch if you want to know more about the introduction of Astronomy: (Enjoy)

Video Title: Astronomy Online Course - UniversalClass
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewreKSiaW1I

So I would say that:

Astronomy is the study of everything in outer space

As you know, people who study outer space are called astronomers. So, if you are very interested in this study of Astronomy in the study of outer space, you could consider yourself an amateur astronomer.
So anything that's in space and can be studied is actually a part of astronomy. When you look up at the night sky and wonder about all those stars that you see, that's where astronomy starts at.

Astronomy, like every other science, begins with a curiosity about the world around you. So wait no more, continue to read my blog to uncover the fascinating world of Astronomy ahead of you......!

Photo of the day!

2010-03-04T21:36:00.000+08:00

Here, you will see all sorts of photos, ranging from breath-taking sceneries to sumptious food. As the saying goes, "A picture is equal to a thousand words", hope you will enjoy......!

Today 's photo (1-3-10):

Today 's photo (2-3-10):

Today 's photo (3-3-10):

Today 's photo (4-3-10):

Online Learning (2 March) Task B(ii): Intrapersonal

2010-03-02T10:10:00.000+08:00

b. Who would you want to be friends with in the novel? Explain.

If I were in the novel, I would definitely befriend with Atticus as I really admire his courage in the novel. I feel that he is very brave, smart and courageous which can be seen from his decision to defend Tom Robinson in the trail although everyone disapproved he. In addition, he also believed in equality and justice as he felt that the blacks should be treated equally as the whites. He is also fair to everyone despite the difference in skin colour.

Also, I would make friends with Atticus as I feel that he is quite hospitable, friendly and caring. This can be seen when Walter Cunningham went to the Finch house, he welcomed him. Also, Atticus is approachable to me as he is very caring to others and showered love to his children. I feel that he is approachable as he is not arrogant and is quite humble. This can be seen when he did not show any arrogance when Heck Tate said that he was actually the best shot in Maycomb.

In my opinion, Atticus is sympathetic and determined as a lawyer as he was willing to go against the social convention to defend Tom Robinson in the trail. He also had physical courage which was showed when he went forward and shot Old Tom. In addition, I believe that I can also learn a lot from his values and beliefs if I were his friend. Hence, I would definitely befriend with Atticus.

Image Sources: http://static.open.salon.com/files/atticus-finch_l1224079499.jpg, http://karatetraining.org/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/motivate-equality.jpg

Online Learning (2 March) Task B: Linguistic (2)

2010-03-02T09:47:00.003+08:00

2. Write a newspaper article / report on an incident that happened in the novel. Be sure to do your research on the language features of a newspaper report. (Please click "read more" to read the full news report written by me)

The Maycomb Times

Mar 2, 1960

Great fire devoured a house

By Joe Chua Song Yang

Investigations are continuing into what caused a massive fire that destroyed a two-storey house in Maycomb in the snowOn 2nd March 1960, a two-storey house was devoured by the flames and Maycomb was engulfed by a 100ft plume of smoke on Tuesday morning. Minutes later, the whole house collapsed like a pack of cards. Fortunately, there was no casualty in the incident.

For the first time in more than a hundred years, snow falls in Maycomb County. But that night, Miss Maudie, who has been living in Maycomb for more than 10 years, had had her house being devoured by the flames of a great fire. In a few seconds, smoke engulfed the whole street and this created commotion between the residents. After a few minutes, some of the residents were brave enough and went forward to help Miss Maudie to stop the fire. Fortunately, before anyone was injured, a fire truck from Abbotsville screamed around the street and immediately helped to put off the fire in time to stop the fire from spreading to other houses, but Miss Maudie’s house was already burnt to the ground.

After the incident, when Miss Maudie was interviewed, she said: " The snow was so cold and I was worried that this might freeze my plants. So I left the flue of my kitchen stove open before going to bed. But I had no idea who had put the fire."Despite having lost her house, Miss Maudie was still quite cheerful the next day. She said: "I really hated this old home that I actually wanted to set fire to it a hundred times myself. And I already had been planning to build a smaller house and plant a larger garden for my plants."

After the fire, investigations are being carried out to investigate the cause of this massive fire. However, some residents in Maycomb agreed Boo Radley who was also living in this street had intentionally set this fire.

Jem, twelve, agreed that Boo Radley was the culprit and said: "I know that it is Boo. It is him as he was the only one not at the scene."Despite of the massive fire in Miss Maudie's house, this showed the unity and teamwork between the residents. When the commotion alarmed the residents, they all rushed out of their house and went forward to help. Miss Maudie's neighbors also helped her to save her furniture. Every single person was out there in the snow, in their pajamas, doing everything they could to help, whether it be removing furniture or helping to control the fire.

Police forensics officers and fire investigators have started to look for the cause of the fire which, at this stage, is not thought to be suspicious.

Online Learning (2 March) Task A: Discovering your Learning Profile

2010-03-02T08:43:00.001+08:00

Finally, a new year, a brand new start...... Since October last year, I had not published any blog post but the good thing is I AM BACK! (Haha) To start off this year, I am doing an online learning assignment on my learning profile, Mulitple Intelligences.

After completing the Multiple Intelligences (MI) Test, I discovered that I am actually more Linguistic (word smart) and Intrapersonal (myself smart). In addition, I am also quite logical as number smart is my second best.

Actually, I think that this test is quite accurate to me as I know that I like to be independent and work with myself which is actually an example of Intrapersonal. In addition, I also know myself very good and do not really like going out with my friends. As for linguistic, I agree with it as I find myself learning better and more effective using words rather than pictures etc. In addition, I like writing and I just can't help it when doing a composition. Words seem to be engraved on the paper by my hands.

However, I feel that this test is partially reliable as in my opinion, humans are supposed to be extremely intelligent living thing which have our 5 senses to think, work and live. We all have a powerful mind which can adsorb almost everything, hence, I feel that humans can actually be smart in other areas than only in those areas in the test but we just need time to develop. Although one might be better in one area, it is not like when you are born, you are already number smart or spatial smart. Do you agree?

Thus, I feel that we should not over reply on this test as it is only a show of your abilities in different areas but do not tell us that we are always better in this area.Hence, I believe we should not be disappointed when we see our disabilities but use this test as a motivation to inspire us to seek to excel and improve in other areas. Moreover, no one is born smart, you just take time to be smart......

If you want to view the result of my Multiple Intelligences Test, click the link here: http://www.bgfl.org/bgfl/custom/resources_ftp/client_ftp/ks3/ict/multiple_int/questions/results.cfm

(Code: jxt2cs8kn87218hgj)

My final last words before......

2009-10-23T08:55:00.034+08:00

Sign...... One more week left. Indeed, time really flies......

flies

flies

flies

In a blink of an eye, the year 2009 is soon coming to an end for my secondary one life. In my opinion, many things, good or bad, happy or sad, had happened in this 365 days. Now, it is the time for me to reflect and review on my secondary one life. In my secondary one life, many things had changed for me in many areas. Firstly, I had to learn to adapt to a whole new secondary school life which is more CHALLENGING......BUSY......EXHAUSTING......

- Challenges & problems faced in my secondary one life

Not only do we have more subjects, but also more assignments and group projects to complete. Firstly, I had to learn to adapt and cope with the changes in our lessons. In addition, I also had to learnt to work independently. Besides these, I still had a very busy schedule everyday as I had to cope with my CCA - NPCC, Japanese (Third Language) and project competition. As you can see, this year is quite busy and challenging for me.

- How I had changed in this year

Nonetheless, despite some setbacks suffered during my secondary one life, I had also benefited and most importantly, grew to be more independent, matured and sensible. In this 365 days, I had also became an independent adolescent from a childish boy. In this meaning year, I had learnt Language Arts which includes English language and Literature. Through this learning course of taking Language Arts, I had learnt to appreciate English language and also improved in many areas. In less than 365 days, I had learnt the following different areas:

English Language:
Blogging
Letter-writing - Letter of complain
Narrative Writing
Comprehension
Summary
Letter-writing - Letter of response & request

Literature components:
Novel:

Little Ironies
Nothing But The Truth
Zebra
Village By The Sea

Poetry:

The Lesson
Last lesson of the Afternoon
Mid-Term Break
2 mothers in a HDB playground

In this whole course, I had first started on my blog and learnt how to convey my feelings to the readers effectively. I had also improved on my writing skills on letter-writing and learnt to understand deeper in comprehension. This also enhances my reading skills which enables me to understand the passage better. In addition, I had also learnt summary which is also one of the many important skills in life.

As for literature, I had read three enriching novels and a short inspiring story. This had certainly helped me in reading and comprehensive skills. In addition to this, we had also analysed Village By The Sea, which is written by Anita Desai, chapter by chapter which gave us a better and clearer understanding of the characters, themes, conflicts and all other elements in the novel. To make us understand more about the novel, my class had also put up a play based on this novel. Indeed, we had really enjoyed this play and thus know better of this novel,

In addition, we were also exposed to poetry which is really interesting to me. In this course, I had enjoyed a lot and also learnt much about poems. We had done quite a number of poetry analysis and examined the themes, purpose of writing, audience, voice, mood and many more ......

Hence, to sum up this academic year, I had to say that I had really gained an immeasurable amount of knowledge in Language Arts this year. My qualities and intangible skills have improved and changed for the better. In addition, my secondary school education system also encourages me to learn independently with initiative. Indeed through this course, I had become a more independent learner which is willing to hunt for knwoledge.

Of course with the ending of this year, there will be a beginning of a new year. As for my expectations for next year, I really hope that I can continue to improve and succeed in my academic and other areas. Nonetheless, I will strive for the BEST and improve myself further. I will aslo do more practices to better prepare me for another challenging year. As the saying goes, "Practice makes perfect". Although the next few years may be more exhausting, hectic and challenging, but I will always continue to work hard and will be prepared for it!

Reflections on expectations......

2009-09-24T22:52:00.015+08:00

Hi, everyone! In this blog, I will like to share about this big word - EXPECTATION and share my real-life experience. Speaking of expectations, the first thing which comes to my mind is our parents' expectations of us. Many parents, including mine, have high academic expectations of their children.

- High expectations of me

My parents start to have high expectations of me since I start going to school. Although their main concern is my academic, they also have expectations in several different areas such as behaviour, self hygiene and attitude. As parents of a student, they have high expectations of me as they want me to excel in my studies and have a better future. In my opinion, I believe this shows that my parents have the best interests for me and after all, having high expectations can also be an act of love to us!

In order for me to do well in my studies, my parents provide me with a conducive learning environment and buy a lot of assessments for me to revise. They expect me to work hard for my studies since I was young. Aim for perfection is what they want and they always tell me to strive for the best for everything. Well, I understand that they want me to be successful when I grow up, hence, their expectations are quite high. In fact, they always say that I must work hard and study well in order to get a good job. As a child, I will always try my best and put in all my effort.

In addition, they also want me to have a good learning attitude in order to study well, hence, they feel that having a high aim is a way for this. However, I must say that they do not have too high expectations of me, hence, they will try not to pose too much stress on me, especially when I am now secondary one (more assignments, exams, projects......).

What is different that I will always have high expectations on myself in academic. As a result of this, stress is inevitable and sometimes, I will really be unable to cope with my homework. But I will still do well for my exams, hence, I strongly believe that having a suitable level of expectations is good for us.

UCF psychologist Kimberly Renk once said, "that many parents and students hold different perceptions of what the parents' expectations are. Students often are trying to meet goals far tougher than the ideals their parents have in mind."

- What if I am a parent......?

Now, let's change our perspective. If I am a parent of two children, my expectations of my children will be quite similar to that of my parents. I will give them a suitable level of stress to help them to aim for perfection and nevertheless, I will have high expectations of them. In addition, I will hope that they will have good learning attitude and some important values such as perserverance and determination. I will expect them to work hard and strive for the best.

However, I will also understand their feelings and opinions of my expectations so that they will be willing to work hard for their goals. I will also hope that they will have their own expectations of themselves.

As you can see, both my parents and I have similiar goals for our children. This shows that although the generations are different, the goals and expectations of parents for their children are still the same and also tells us that all parents want their children to work hard to be useful adults who will make contributions to the society. So, I feel that all parents are the same and they all love and care about their children a lot as they will always find things which are the best for their childrens and have the best interest for them.

Book Review on Falling Leaves by Adeline Yen Mah

2009-09-07T10:36:00.029+08:00

Hi, everyone! Once again, I had finished reading another well-written novel entitiled, Falling Leaves which was written by a famous, talented writer, Adeline Yen Mah. As I started reading this novel, I was touched by Adeline Yen Mah's account of her terrible childhood which was supposely to be wonderful for most people. I could not stop reading since I opened it as I was captivated by the psychological drama in this book.

Background

Falling Leaves was first published in 1997 and written by Adeline Yen Mah. This novel is actually a memoir of an unwanted Chinese daughter which was the writer herself. In other words, it is actually sort of like an auto-biography of Adeline herself. Adeline Yen Mah (Chinese: 馬嚴君玲) is a Chinese-American author and physician. She was born in 1937 but her exact birth date is unknown, though according to her biography, she was later given her father's birthday, 30 November as mentioned in the novel. She grew up in Tianjin, Shanghai and Hong Kong with an older sister, Lydia (Jun-pei); three older brothers, Gregory (Zi-jie), Edgar (Zi-lin)and James (Zi-jun) and a younger half brother, Franklin and half sister, Susan (Jun-qing). She has stated in her book, Falling Leaves that she has not used the real names of her siblings and their spouses in order to protect their identities. However, she used the real names of her father, stepmother, aunt and husband. Currently, she lives in Huntington Beach, California and spends her time in London and Hong Kong as well. She is then married to Professor Robert Mah and has two children.

Adeline Yen Mah has been heralded as one of the most important contemporary writers to have emerged from China. Her novels represent a complex tapestry in which political, religious, cultural and economic strands merge inextricably to reveal a society heavily steeped in tradition. Undoubtedly, Adeline Yen Mah had a harrowing and at times, unbelievable childhood. In 1997 after a silence of more than fifty years, she published her first novel, Falling Leaves, a calmly eloquent account of a dramatic tale.Adeline Yen Mah’s novel, set in the context of considerable political upheaval, is lucratively enlightening. Her chief impetus was clearly to portray the devastating reality of a family life devoid of love and benevolence. However, within this autobiographical framework, Yen Mah also succeeds in stressing the turmoil and inconsistencies inherent in the wider structures of Chinese society. The result is a novel that works on a multitude of levels, appealing to an audience of a heterogeneous nature......

Books written by her

Falling Leaves (1997)

Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter (1999)

Watching the Tree: A Chinese Daughter Reflects on Happiness, Traditions, and Spiritual Wisdom (2000)

A Thousand Pieces of Gold: A Memoir of China's Past through its Proverbs (2002)

Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society (2005) "Chinese Cinderella The Mystery of the Song Dynasty

Summary of the novel
Born in 1937 to an affluent Chinese family, after one eldest sister and three brothers, Adeline Yen Mah was the fifth and youngest children in her family. She was born in a port city which was a thousand miles north of Shanghai. This is a story of an unwanted Chinese daughter growing up during the Communist Revolution who was blamed for her mother's death, ignored by her millionaire father and unwanted by her Eurasian step mother. But things started to turn even bad for Adeline since she was born. Adeline's mom died not long after her birth. As a result, people in those time believed that it was a bad omen when such a thing occur. Hence, her siblings hated and treated her very badly. Although Adeline's father loved her mother very much, he did not transfer those love to the children after Adeline's mother 's death. This persisted but got worse one year later.

One year after, her father remarried a beautiful, imperious and spoiled woman of half-Chinese, half-French lady who proceeded to turn him into an unfeeling brute as well as make the children's life a hell. As ordered by her father, the children had to call her Niang. However, little did they know that this marriage was like hell on earth towards the children, grandparents and the sister of the father, Aunt Baba. Unfortunately, Adeline's years of mental and physical abuse then began when her mother died shortly after giving birth to her, leaving Adeline to suffer under a cold and heartless stepmother, Niang whose sadistic acts were never questioned and responded by her husband.

At that time, Adeline's family enjoyed rare privileges during a time of politcal and cultural upheaval. But wealth and position could never shield and protect Adeline from a childhood of appalling emotional abuse by her cruel and manipulative stepmother. To make things worse, Adeline was even bullied by her older siblings as they sort of blame her for their first mom's death and also at that time, she was the youngest, hence, it was common for her to be bullied and be in disadvantage. However, when their step mom had her own children, one boy and a girl, the other siblings including Adeline were then bullied by their step brother who was spoiled by the luxury given by his parents.

In the novel, Adeline's family then moved to Hong Kong when the communist came into power not long after World War 2. In Hong Kong, the father became more successful in hs career but in the household, no changes, still a hell hole to Adeline. Although her father ran a wildly successful import-export business that survived the Japanese occupation and transforms itself into other businesses in Hong Kong after the Communist takeover, the children including Adeline were kept on a tight lead with little spending money but not the step mother's children who was living in luxury.

As young Adeline grew up, she tried her best to please her father and Niang in order for them to have good impressions of her. In school, she studied hard and was great in her school results. However, to her utmost horro, this caused her other siblings to be jealous of her. As a result, her step mother would divide and conquer the siblings as she did not want them to be united against her. Fortunately, Adeline's only refuge was her beloved Aunt Baba who was the older sister of Adeline's father but she was also much despised because she was a spinster and financially dependent on her brother. In addition, she was bullied and given little privilege in the family. This then caused her to leave the house for work. As a result, Adeline was then left alone and she had to stand for herself now......

In her studies, she was very strong in her English. Her stories was her getaway from hell at home. Determined to survive through her enduring faith in family unity, Adeline struggled for independence as she moved from Hong Kong to England and eventually to the United States to become a physician and writer. She then went back to Hong Kong to work, after a while she decided to go to US. She became successful after much hardship there. Even when she was successful, she still yearn for her father's love and step mom's acceptance. Sadly it never happened. Her father may have loved her but would not dare show it because of the step mom.

But her horrific childhood still continued to haunt her. Her father, who was a multi-millionaire, passed away in 1988, but Niang prevented his children from reading his will by telling them that he had died penniless. Niang herself passed away two years later, and the drama surrounding her death played itself out like a scene from Adeline's childhood re-enacted 40 years later. It was only through writing her memoir that Adeline could accept her roots and exorcise the demons from her past. By writing this story she wants to tell people that no matter how tough life is, there is always a silver lining out there and urge people not to give up on their dreams.

Written with a powerful voice that illuminates the complexities of Chinese society and family relationships throughout all cultures, Falling Leaves is a work of startling, heartfelt intimacy by Adeline Yen Mah. It is a story of greed, hatred and jealousy; a domestic dramais played against the extraordinary political events in China and Hong Kong. FALLING LEAVES Written with the emotional force of a novel but with a vividness drawn from a personal and political background.

My reflections
In my opinion, this novel is a compelling, painful and ultimately triumphant story of a girl's journey into adulthood. Adeline's story is a testament to the most basic of human needs: acceptance, love, and understanding. With a powerful voice that speaks of the harsh realities of growing up female in a family and society that kept girls in emotional chains, Falling Leaves is a work of heartfelt intimacy and a rare authentic portrait of twentieth-century China.

I feel that Adeline’s childhood in China during the civil war was a period of fear, isolation and humiliation. The cause of this was actually not political upheaval but systematic emotional and physical abuse. Therefore, it is precisely amidst the political turbulence that a little girl struggles to survive an oppressive and potentially paralysing childhood in search for love and pursuit for dream. To me, this is perhaps the most explicit example of this is the growing presence of Western influence on Chinese culture. Hence, FALLING LEAVES has become a surprise bestseller all over the world. Don't you agree......?

2009-09-02T19:15:00.002+08:00

Hi everyone! This is my updated online bookshelf which I believe is much anticpated. You can see 5 favorite Books, 5 Books which I have read, 5 Books which I am reading and 10 Books which I want to read. It is written as follow:

Poetry Analysis - The Lesson By Roger McGough (My poem)

2009-07-26T12:42:00.013+08:00

After reading the poem, The Lesson by Roger McGough, I was suddenly inspired to write another poem which somehow relates to it. This is a poem written by me and entitled "The attack". It describes how a student goes into the teacher's office and create a havoc, killing teachers with amazing weapons.

THE DEMONSTRATION

Silence ruled OK in the office
as bravely as a student walked in
the discipline master ignored him
stood helplessly in the middle of the scene

"The lesson today for my class was violence
and homework was set
I'm going to show you how our teacher taught us
one that you'll never forget

He picked on a teacher who was chatting
and throttled him then and
then garrotted the teacher behind him
and it never end

With a sword in hand he hacked his way
between the HOD rows
'First come, first severed' he declared
'heads, fingers, or toes'

He threw a sword at the headmaster
it struck with deadly aim
then taking a machine gun
and continued his game

The continuous shot cleared the VIP office
(where those who are important hang out)
they collapsed like rubber dinghies
when the plug's pulled out

'May you please leave the office?'
a trembling vandal enquired
'Not until I have finished, sir' he answered
put the machine gun to his temple and fired

The bully popped a head round the door
to see why a din was made
nodded understandingly
then tossed in a grenade

The student shot with a bazooka
with blood on every chair
silence shuffed forward
with its hands up high in the air

The student surveyed the carnage
the dying and the dead
he waggled a finger severely
'Now this is what my teahcer did' he said

Poetry Analysis - The Lesson By Roger McGough

2009-07-26T12:19:00.006+08:00

This is the poem, The Lesson by Roger McGough:

Chaos ruled OK in the classroom
as bravely the teacher walked in
the hooligans ignored him
his voice was lost in the din

"The theme for today is violence
and homework will be set
I'm going to teach you a lesson
one that you'll never forget"

He picked on a boy who was shouting
and throttled him then and there
then garrotted the girl behind him
(the one with grotty hair)

Then sword in hand he hacked his way
between the chattering rows"
First come, first severed" he declared
"fingers, feet or toes"

He threw the sword at a latecome
rit struck with deadly aim
then pulling out a shotgun
he continued with his game

The first blast cleared the backrow
(where those who skive hang out)
they collapsed like rubber dinghies
when the plug's pulled out

"Please may I leave the room sir?"
a trembling vandal enquired
"Of course you may" said teacher
put the gun to his temple and fired

The Head popped a head round the doorway
to see why a din was being made
nodded understandingly
then tossed in a grenade

And when the ammo was well spent
with blood on every chair
Silence shuffled forward
with its hands up in the air

The teacher surveyed the carnage
the dying and the dead
He waggled a finger severely
"Now let that be a lesson" he said

Well, after reading this well-written poem, you may feel that there is an irony in the poem. In the second stanza, the poet stated that the teacher who was frustrated and angry with his rowdy class wanted to teach them a lesson that his students would never forget. However, the teacher then took out his weapons and killed his students heartlessly. Most students were then dead in the carnage. As a result, no students would be able to remember this lesson by their teacher if they were already dead. Hence, here is the irony where the teacher was unsuccessful to achieve his objective.

Structure of poem (SLIMS):
In this poem, we can observe that it has 10 stanzas with 4 lines each. Each stanza has two lines that rhyme. Its sequence is couplet end rhyme, however, it does not have internal or sight rhyme.

After reading this poem, you may have some thoughts in your mind right now. You may be amazed by the way the poet describes how the teacher used his weapons and killed his students. I especially like the way the poet brings out the scene where students were shot by guns or killed by grenade. Hence, we can observe that the poet uses imagery in his poem to "put" the reader in the poem and helps the reader to "see" the scene in the poem. Imagery plays a vital role in a poem as it helps to create the tone and mood of the poem. It uses senses and figurative language to describe the scene in the poem. The figurative language used includes metaphors, similes, symbolism and allusion. One example of it is in the sixth stanza where "they collapsed like rubber dinghies".

Lesson 6 - Compulsory Blog Entry - Gambling costs more than your money.....

2009-07-02T23:58:00.010+08:00

After my previous blog entry on the dire effects of lotteries, I will be taking about gambling and its serious consequences on the youth. I will be also discussing whether the choice of building casino in Singapore is right in my point of view. Before I start, I have done a lot of research on the topic, gambling and will like to show the statistics.

-Situation of Singapore
Based a reading from MCYS Gambling Participation Survey 2008, I had realised that the rate of the youth getting addicted to gambling and lotteries is soaring as more gambling opportunities are found in Singapore. Here is the reading of the amount of youth starting to gamble:

KEY FINDINGS FROM MCYS GAMBLING PARTICIPATION SURVEY 2008

Age at first gambling experience: Approximately 75% of the respondents of the surveys who ever gambled began gambling as early as the age of 24 or younger -

These statistics also show a significant increase from 63% in 2005. Hence, we can infer from this evidence that Singapore is facing an early onset of gambling. This can be worse if there are more gambling opportunities.

Some gamblers might even:

Gambling longer than intended.

Gambling until the last dollar is spent.

Thinking of gambling losses causes stress e.g. loss of sleep, depression or even suicide.

Using income or savings to gamble while letting bills go unpaid.

Repeated but unsuccessful attempts to give up or control gambling.

Borrowing money to finance one's gambling needs.

Bankrupt

Source: National Council of Problem Gambing

In my opinion, I feel that gambling is really very harmful and dangerous at the same time as you may get bankrupt for just one bet. It may even lead you to more severe consequences and it may even cause your family relationships to turn worse. Hence, Singapore has finished building the casino, there will be more gambling opportunities and this will eventually cause a higher risk of the youth being exposed and addicted to gambling. As a result, problem gambling will soon occur, causing the youth of Singapore to be so obsessed with gambling that they might even gamble for their lifes and end up bankrupt.

-Severe Consequences of problem gambling
Problem gambling may be associated with mental health and well-being issues. These include feeling a loss in control, decision making, ability to cope and autonomy. In addition, gamblers may also engage in some other negative behaviours:

Personality disorders
Compulsive shopping
Anorexia / Bulimia / Eating Disorder
Psychiatric problems
Thoughts or fantasies of suicide
Depression
Anxiety
Substance abuse or other addictions
Alcoholism
Drug use

Source: TSheedy/FutureDirections/Singapore/July07

Hence, this proved that if Casino is ready, there will be more problem gambling cases which will also lead to an increase of mental health problems in the society. In addition, if more people are to be addicted to gambling and cannot restrain themselves, they will also end up being bankrupt or losing their homes. To make matters worse, building casino may also cause a high rate of crime. Since more people are gambling, some of them might lose all of their savings and cause them to be bankrupt. Then, they might end up stealing and even going to jail. These are some of the negative effects of building a casino.

Some people might think that building a casino might attract more tourists to Singapore, but in my opinion, most of the tourists visit Singapore as they are attracted by its nature. But do you really think that the tourists who have never been to Singapore will be delighted to see a concrete city with casinos? Do you think that a casino really attracts tourists?
I am not too sure about it but I know having a casino will somehow increase the crime rate as more people will want to get money to gamble. Since the crime rate has increased, the tourists will be feeling that it is unsafe to visit Singapore, hence, it does not really helps a lot in attracting more tourists.

-My opinion
I really condemn the construction of the casino in Singapore as there are many negative impacts on the youth, society and tourism. Hence, I will not support to have a casino in Singapore due to long-term issues.

Lesson 6: Compulsory Blog Entry - Lottery, it is a form of leisure or addiction?

2009-07-02T09:07:00.021+08:00

Quote from both of my parents:
"Buying lotteries is just like a form of leisure or enjoyment..... There is nothing wrong about buying lotteries. Just to not get too addicted to it, then it is ok....."

From the quote by my parents, it is obvious that adults nowadays are taking lotteries as a form of relaxation or leisure. Although I know that my parents are not very addicted to lottery, I think that this might only be an excuse for some adults. They might say that they just buy lotteries for leisure, but they might have not noticed that they had actually already addicted to it. However, a gambler will never admit that he/she is addicted to gambling as they were already so obsessed with it that they cannot even realise what they are doing. Playing with lotteries can also become a habit if the gamblers cannot control and restrain themselves.

Firstly, I will talk about the psychology of lottery gambling. Although many people will think that buying lottery is not really gambling, I think that the definitions of both terms are the same as both of them are making the gambler to "put their money in risk".

Why do I say so?

In my opinion, gambling or buying lotteries only makes the gambler to fish out their money and hope that "their money can get more money". Some gamblers are gambling despite losing many times due to greed. When the gamblers win any lottery, they will be ecstatic and will want more as they think that Lady Luck is with them now, hence, they feel that if they do not bet or gamble, it will be a waste of opportunity. In addition, some gamblers might bet or gamble because it is only pure leisure or interest to them at first but later as they bet more often, they will get addicted to it without realising it so easily just like being addicted to drugs. In my opinion, I feel that gambling or buying lotteries will not really bring much wealth to gamblers as what you have bet is not exactly what you will get in return.

This is my view on lottery and gambling: You may just want to bet for that one minute, but you may get bankrupt in a second.....

The psychology of lottery gambling

Lotteries have traditionally been regarded as "soft" forms of gambling which are assumed to have very few negative effects on the gamblers. However, that does not mean that lotteries cannot bring the same effect as gambling does. Lottery is actually a form of gambling and this type of gambling can be more dangerous than the common gambling when it is passed overuncritically without looking at consequences or effects from a psychological perspective. National Lottery is also introduced and this is also one example of lottery gambling to me. However, what seems to be so interesting is that in 1995, the Government of UK originally once argued that the National Lottery was not a realform of gambling because it was for good causes. But I still believe that any situation in which people intentionally risk and stake their money or savings on a future event in a risking attempt to gain more money is gambling. Therefore, buying tickets for a lottery is a form of gambling.

Over the years, there have been many claims that lotteries may be addictive. In my opinion, I absolutely feel that lotteries are addictive, hence, I condemn and discourage them in my point of view. Actually, there are quite many factors that led me to discourage lotteries.

One of the major concerns is that if a place has a significant increase in gambling opportunities, it will then be a potential rise in the number of problem gamblers - or gambling addicts. Addictions are always resulting from an interaction and interplay between many factors including the person’s biological and/or genetic predisposition, their psychological constitution, their social environment and the nature of the activity itself.

It has also been clearly shown from research evidence that any place where accessibility of gambling is increased, there will then be an increase not only in the number of regular gamblers but also a significant increase in the number of problem gamblers. This obviously means that not everyone is susceptible to developing gambling addictions but it does show that if there are more gambling opportunities, there will be more problems with the gamblers.

Problem gambling

Another factor that caused me to condemn lottery gambling is another big term, Problem gambling which is also known as ludomania. This is an urge to gamble despite knowing or experiencing some harmful negative consequences and effects. Problem gambling develops from social gambling and will worsen if probelm gambling persists. Problem gamblers will still gamble even though they have the the desire to stop. The term is preferred to compulsive gambling among many professionals as few people described by the term experience true compulsions in the clinical sense of the word.

In addition, problem gambling is often defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others, rather than by the gambler's behaviour. Severe problem gambling may be diagnosed as clinical pathological gambling if the gambler meets certain criteria. Once the gambler has been diagnosed of clincal pathological gambling, it will be vey serious and difficult to cure. Although the term gambling addiction is common in the recovery movement, pathological gambling is considered to be an impulse control disorder, hence, I feel that gambling will lead to many negative consequences and effects such as problem gambling. As a result of problem gambling, gamblers might even affect your family members who are innocent and should not suffer the consequences for the gambler. Thus, I will encourage people to think twice and carefully before gambling and buying lotteries and the consequences may be dire and severe.

Problem gambling can cost you your savings, house and even your family. But the message from counsellors is, you can recover.

The following quote is from Charles Lee on addiction of gambling:
"Clients often feel that they are fine when they manage to quit for a few months. They lac the in-depth knowledge that addiction is a lifelong recovery process, and skills learning and relapse prevention training are vital for long-term success."

Problem gambling, gambling addiction or pathological gambling is a progressive condition similar to alcohol or drug addictions. Those with a gambling addiction have difficulties controlling their gambling habit, even when it has serious negative consequences for them and their families. Their gambling behaviour will increase over time, both in frequency and amount wagered.

-My opinions

Hence, I feel that lottery is actually a form of gambling and you will also get addicted to it. Its consequences may be as severe as problem gambling. It may cause the loss of savings and lead to many other consequences such as bad family relationships. Thus, I do not encourage and condemn lottery in Singapore as many youths are prone to these addictions of lotteries which may even cost their lifes.

Literature Online lesson 3 - Analysing Poem

2009-07-01T22:31:00.002+08:00

The following poem is written by me on reminiscence of my primary school life:
My poem (Unforgettable memories):

Looking back on my primary school life,
There’s nothing but joy,
Six years on seventh heaven is what I call life,
Going through motions that are truly alive,

But the ride is not long-life,
Six years of primary school life,
Disappeared in a blink of an eye,
But things still continued and this is life.

School is like a daily routine for us,
Some will make a great fuss,
Some think that school is a torture chamber,
Some look forward to the holidays in December.

Life in Primary School is enjoyable,
It is never regrettable.
But some feel very bored,
And some feel that school is such a chore,

In my primary school,
I experienced many things, they are so cool!
I had seen people crying,
Seen people fighting.

I had seen friends playing,
Seen people laughing,
I had seen good friends helping,
And seen friendships been destroyed.

My primary school,
A home where I cherish moments.
Teachers are my parents,
Classmates are my siblings.

Now it's the end of my primary school life,
it's the beginning of independence.
I learned to cherish,
I learned to treasure.

Literature Online Lesson 2 - Historical & Biographical background of my favourite poet and his poems

2009-06-29T23:05:00.036+08:00

"We seem to always know where we are in a Billy Collins poem, but not necessarily where he is going. I love to arrive with him at his arrivals. He doesn't hide things from us, as I think lesser poets do. He allows us to overhear, clearly, what he himself has discovered." This was what a poet, Stephen Dunn once said about Billy Collins who is also a famous poet.

Being attracted to poetry, I knew several famous poets and some of their masterpieces. I had been enjoying peotry a lot and also impressed by how the poets express their feelings and mood in their poems so well. To me, peotry is the act of expressing one's thoughts in a short story or verses indirectly. Peotry really arouses my emotions as poets use figurative language and imagery to express their feelings or create an idea of the poem. Speaking of this, Billy Collins will be the one who is really capable of doing all the thing that I had mentioned earlier. He was one of my favourite poet(since I had to choose one) and this is proved by his masterpieces of poems.

Why is he my favourite poet?

Firstly, I am very impressed by his style of writing a poem which I had enjoyed a lot. All his poems have great fluency and are successfully able to bring out the mood and idea of the poems using imagery and some figurative language which include personification and metaphor. In addition, Collins can also express the idea, his feelings or a mental image of his poem well. In his poetry, Billy Collins wrote better than others mostly due to the unique style of writing he uses to create his poems. I especially like his way of using simplistic stanzas to try to create images or idea of the poems, pulling the reader away from real life and draw them into his "poetic world". I am also impressed by the number of awards he had recieved. In addition, Billy Collins also cherished American poetry and put a lot of effort into creating poems. Other than these, his poems also rarely follow a significant topic. Instead, they are just some thoughts and ideas that happen to come from his head. Since he loves poetry a lot, he also uses poetry sometimes to offer relief when he or the reader was troubled. Hence, I am also impressed by his great passion of creating poems.

In addition, Billy Collins is my favourite poet as he is already a talent when he was in grade school as at that time, he was able to express his feelings and thoughts on paper very well. Different from other poets who will be frustrated if they do not have any ideas to create poems, Billy Collins does not force himself to write if he does not have any inspration in order to produce great works. He usually does not force meter or rhyme into his poems to capture the readers' attention but he used clever and witty description and comedy which I enjoy very much. Billy Collins is really a writer with warmth and surreal humor which can be seen in his intersting and enjoyable poems.

Historical & Biographical background

Being a former U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins was actually the author of several poetry books. He was born in New York City in 1941. Collins then completed fellowships at the New York Foundation for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and The Guggenheim Foundation. He was already a talent in poetry when he was in grade school. He was then educated at College of the Holy Cross where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1963 and at the University of California, he received his doctorate in English. He was a current teacher at Lehman College now.

Billy Collins has been very successful in creating six published poetry books and they are featured around his country. His poetry is in many periodicals and he also does a lot of public reading in which he draws a large crowd. In addition, his poetry has actually appeared in anthologies, textbooks and even a variety of periodicals which includes Poetry, American Poetry Review, American Scholar, Harper's, Paris Review, and The New Yorker. His work has been featured in the Pushcart Prize anthology and has been chosen several times for the annual Best American Poetry series. Billy Collins has also edited Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry (Random House, 2003) which is an anthology of contemporary poems for use in schools and was a guest editor for the 2006 edition of The Best American Poetry. In addition, Billy Collins has also earned many awards for his incredible explanations and description using words in his poems. He actually won Best American Poetry twice for two of his books, which were once in 1992 and the other one in 1993. He also won the Bess Hokin award in 1992 and most recently, he was then named US Poet Laureate in 2001. This award is one of the greatest and prestigious ever recieved by a poet. He was then joined by former poets laureate Robert Hass, Rita Dove, and Robert Pinsky at the 2002 Dodge Poetry Festival. After that, Billy Collins still continues to strive as an achieved poet as people continue to find his simplistic poetry great. When he became an author, he eventually wrote several famous books on poetry which include:

Ballistics (2008)

She Was Just Seventeen (2006)

The Trouble with Poetry (2005)

Nine Horses (2002)

Sailing Alone Around the Room: New and Selected Poems (2001)

Picnic, Lightning (1998)

The Art of Drowning (1995), which was a finalist for the Lenore Marshall Poetry Prize

Questions About Angels (1991), which was selected by Edward Hirsch for the National

Poetry Series

The Apple That Astonished Paris (1988)

Video Poems (1980)

Pokerface (1977)

Later, he then served two terms as the Poet Laureate of the United States from 2001 to 2003. In New York, he has also been recognized as a Literary Lion of the New York Public Library (1992) and was selected as the New York State Poet for 2004. He was recently appointed Claire Berman Artist in Residence at The Roxbury Latin School, in West Roxbury, MA. He is a distinguished professor at Lehman College of the City University of New York.

How do people and poets feel about Billy Collins?

“The most important thing to say about Collins is that he is a deliberately minor poet, even a rebelliously minor poet, a poet who would reject major status if it were thrust upon him. Billy Collins has excelled his way through poetry fairly easy with his light verse style poems. ” This was quoted by Richard Alleva in his article of "A major minor poet".

His masterpieces

The Golden Years

by Billy Collins

All I do these drawn-out days
is sit in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge
where there are no pheasants to be seen
and last time I looked, no ridge.
I could drive over to Quail Falls
and spend the day there playing bridge,
but the lack of a falls and the absence of quail
would only remind me of Pheasant Ridge.
I know a widow at Fox Run
and another with a condo at Smokey Ledge.
One of them smokes, and neither can run,
so I’ll stick to the pledge I made to Midge.
Who frightened the fox and bulldozed the ledge?
I ask in my kitchen at Pheasant Ridge.

Source: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/20415

Fishing on the Susquehanna in July

by Billy Collins
I have never been fishing on the Susquehanna
or on any river for that matter
to be perfectly honest.
Not in July or any month
have I had the pleasure--if it is a pleasure--
of fishing on the Susquehanna.
I am more likely to be found
in a quiet room like this one--
a painting of a woman on the wall,
a bowl of tangerines on the table--
trying to manufacture the sensation
of fishing on the Susquehanna.
There is little doubt
that others have been fishing
on the Susquehanna,
rowing upstream in a wooden boat,
sliding the oars under the water
then raising them to drip in the light.
But the nearest I have ever come to
fishing on the Susquehanna
was one afternoon in a museum in Philadelphia
when I balanced a little egg of time
in front of a painting
in which that river curled around a bend
under a blue cloud-ruffled sky,
dense trees along the banks,
and a fellow with a red bandanna
sitting in a small, green
flat-bottom boat
holding the thin whip of a pole.
That is something I am unlikely
ever to do, I remember
saying to myself and the person next to me.
Then I blinked and moved on
to other American scenes
of haystacks, water whitening over rocks,
even one of a brown hare
who seemed so wired with alertness
I imagined him springing right out of the frame.

Source:http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/16497

Some Days

by Billy Collins
Some days I put the people in their places at the table,
bend their legs at the knees,
if they come with that feature,
and fix them into the tiny wooden chairs.
All afternoon they face one another,
the man in the brown suit,
the woman in the blue dress,
perfectly motionless, perfectly behaved.
But other days, I am the one
who is lifted up by the ribs,
then lowered into the dining room of a dollhouse
to sit with the others at the long table.
Very funny,
but how would you like it
if you never knew from one day to the next
if you were going to spend it
striding around like a vivid god,
your shoulders in the clouds,
or sitting down there amidst the wallpaper,
staring straight ahead with your little plastic face?

Source: http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/19753

“But if something does flash before your eyes as you go under, it will probably be a fish, a quick blur of curved silver darting away, having nothing to do with your life or your death.” This states Billy Collins in one of his famous poem, “The Art of drowning”.

Source: http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/278

Figurative Language in Poetry

2009-06-29T09:13:00.006+08:00

Literature Lesson 1

The following poem which is written by Roald Dahl who is a famous poet and writer. The peom is entitled "The Pig" and is written as follow:

The Pig by Roald Dahl

In England once there lived a big
And wonderfully clever pig.
To everybody it was plain
That Piggy had a massive brain.
He worked out sums inside his head,
There was no book he hadn't read.
He knew what made an airplane fly,
He knew how engines worked and why.
He knew all this, but in the end
One question drove him round the bend:
He simply couldn't puzzle out
What LIFE was really all about.
What was the reason for his birth?
Why was he placed upon this earth?
His giant brain went round and round.
Alas, no answer could be found.
Till suddenly one wondrous night.
All in a flash he saw the light.
He jumped up like a ballet dancer
And yelled, "By gum, I've got the answer!"
"They want my bacon slice by slice
"To sell at a tremendous price!
"They want my tender juicy chops
"To put in all the butcher's shops!
"They want my pork to make a roast
"And that's the part'll cost the most!
"They want my sausages in strings!
"They even want my chitterlings!
"The butcher's shop! The carving knife!
"That is the reason for my life!"
Such thoughts as these are not designed
To give a pig great piece of mind.
Next morning, in comes Farmer Bland,
A pail of pigswill in his hand,
And piggy with a mighty roar,
Bashes the farmer to the floor…
Now comes the rather grizzly bit
So let's not make too much of it,
Except that you must understand
That Piggy did eat Farmer Bland,
He ate him up from head to toe,
Chewing the pieces nice and slow.
It took an hour to reach the feet,
Because there was so much to eat,
And when he finished, Pig, of course,
Felt absolutely no remorse.
Slowly he scratched his brainy head
And with a little smile he said,
"I had a fairly powerful hunch
"That he might have me for his lunch."
And so, because I feared the worst,
"I thought I'd better eat him first."

Source: http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/roald_dahl/poems/7798

How are the figurative language used in the poem?

In this poem "The Pig", figurative language are used to give an element or object of human tracts or quality. The figurative language used the "pig" as the main character and give human tracts to it as in the poem, the "pig" is actually able to talk, work out sums and know how do aeroplanes fly. Hence, the "pig" is taking up a role which represented it as a human. Simile, one of the figurative language, is also used in the poem it mentioned"He jumped up like a ballet dancer." Simile is therefore used to compare and represent with subjects with "like" or "as".
Give the specific word(s), explain what type of figurative language it is and why the poet chose to use this figurative language?

In this poem, personification is used as a figurative language. The specific words or phrases to explain personification are "he(pig) worked out sums", "no book he(pig) had't read", "knew what an aeroplane fly" and "piggy with a mighty roar". The poet used personification as he wanted the "pig" to play a role as a human in the poem. This will enlighten the poem and make it more interesting as the poet used the main character, the "pig" which could not work out sums, read books and did not know anything about aeroplanes. In addition, the poet made the "pig" capable to do what humans are able to do in order to show that the "pig" is also a living thing. This poem brings out the cruelty when pigs are killed by humans for meat.
Tell us why you like this poem in no less than 100 words on your Blogsite.

In this poem, the poet successfully used personification and used the "pig" as the main character of the poem. I like this poem as it is unique and special from other types of poem as the poet used the "pig" to play a role of a human. I also like the figurative language used in this poem as the poet managed to make the "pig" able to do several things what humans can do which I am very impressed with. In addition, the poet had a style of writing and the whole poem flows very well. The speech which is said by the "pig" is also very interesting and flows very well. In addition, I am also impressed by the figurative language used in this poem as the poet is able to make a pig to speak and do things. Other than these, I also amazed by how the poem ended by a twist when the "pig" eventually ate the farmer instead of the farmer killing the "pig" for meat. The ending of the poem is much-unexpected and turned out quite well. In the poem, the poet also managed to bring out a sense of anticipation of what will happen next as I read. The poet also managed to write the poem with a bit of exaggeration but it is fine and worked out well. It is really interesting and I enjoyed a lot.

Book review: One Singapore 3 More Singaporean Stories - A book every Singaporean should read

2009-06-16T16:55:00.004+08:00

Once again, I am writing to introduce another well-written book to you after Robinson Crusoe, Animal Farm and Pollyanna. This book is entitled "One Singapore 3 More Singaporean Stories" and it is written by a famous local writer, Goh Sin Tub. Different from the three novels, this book is actually a non-fiction book with compilation of Singaporean Stories in the early times when Singapore gained independence. It is actually a sequel to two another books, One Singapore and One Singapore 2 which are all about interesting and touching Singapore stories. These authetic Singaporean stories are all actually told by real Singaporeans about the problems, encounters or stories that are so memorable that they cannot forget in their lifes.

-Story background
This story is written in 2001 by Goh Sin Tub who is a well-known pioneer of Singapore literature. Besides being a reknowned writer, he was a teacher, civil servant, banker, builder, social worker and former chairman of the St. Joseph's Institution (SJI)'s Board of Governors. In addition, he is winner of several national short story writing competitions. This shows that Goh Sin Tub really loves writing and he is very good at literature. Besides that, he also has more than a dozen books to his name written over the past two decades, including a collection of short stories in Malay. His past bestsellers include Honour and Other Stories, The Nan-Mei-Su Girls of Emerald Hill, The Ghost Lover of Emerald Hill, Ghosts of Singapore, Loves of Sons and Daughters, 12 Women and their Stories, Moments in a Singapore Life, and his One Singapore trilogy.

-Story Summary
This book compiles many true Singaporean stories during the early times of Singapore. The book includes many stories in six sections which are Singaporean encounters, in light vein, inspirations, family gems, dixcoveries by Singaporeans and memories. The author had actually interviewed some Singaporeans of their stories in the early times. The stories are all authetic and brings out Singapore's History. These stories are wide-ranging, from Singapore Colonials times, the Japanese Occupations, the return of British rule to the merger with Malaya and Singapore's Independence. In this book, there are some very touching stories such as how Singaporeans suffered from the Japaneses Occupations. Other stories are inspiring as they motivate readers with important life values. At the same time, this book also teaches readers of early Singapore and how Singaporeans lived at that time. It also help young Singaporeans to better appreciate and understand Singapore's past.

In the book, there are also some stories of some important people in Singapore's society such as the story of first Singaporean, which was the Singapore's first President Yusof Ishak. The author had mentioned his great contributions to Singapore and wrote his remarkable story. One of the touching stories in the book is Big Brother which is a touching story about the author's brother. In this short story, the author wrote that his brother always took very good care of him and stood for him when the author was in trouble. There was also once when the author was bullied by a well-built boy and his brother stood up for him and fought with the bully. He also got scolded from his mother after having bruises all over his body. Although the author's brother did not really show his care and love to the author in a direct way, the author could still feel that his brother really loves him very much. At the end of the story, the author also mentioned how much he respected and admired his big brother.

-My reflection
After reading this non-fiction book, it greatly touched me of the hardships experienced by the Singaporeans in the early times. In addition, I had also learnt some important life values from the short stories of the Singaporeans. Being very interested in Singapore's History, I had also enjoyed reading this book a lot as it brings alive Singapore's past. This book also gives me a sense of a Singaporean as I had read quite many of their stories. I am really proud to be a Singaporean......

Book review: Pollyanna - A amazing story about the power of optimism

2009-06-16T12:57:00.025+08:00

While you may be amazed by the previous two novels, I had also read another famous novel entitled "Pollyanna" and this story is written by a quite reknowned author, Eleanor H. Porter. This novel had left me great impression as it is really one of the finest piece of literature works in the world. This novel is actually about a miraculous story of a girl, Pollyanna who transform the lives of everyone she meets with her optimism. She always looks on the bright side of her life and never bear a grudge. But one day, a terrible accident caused her to be in great despair and she did not know how to be optimistic about it. "Pollyanna" is also one of those popular stories of the turn of the Century.

-Story background

This story is a children's literature novel written in 1913 about a girl, Pollyanna who uses her extreme optimism for her life. In a fundamentally honest and straightforward way, the author brings out the trials of life such as poverty, loneliness, and illness in the story and tells us that a cheerful child's presence and encouragement can alleviate social and personal sadness. In the story, Pollyanna makes use of her optimism to help people see the positive side of life rather than the sad and negative one. In addition, this novel is also a solid adventure romance tale and it encourages readers to be optimistic towards life.

The positive vision taught by "Pollyanna" can be adopted into everyone’s life without age, race, geographical or any other difference. The author successfully uses Pollyanna to evoke the texture of life in small-town New England in the early 1900s. In the story, the author uses the country dialect and the rich regional flavor to mark the dialogue of such characters as Nancy and Old Tom. The author also skillfully employs imagery and symbolism such as Miss Polly's "tight hair" actually represents her tight and aloof personality. The characters show the different personalities of different characters and the changes of their personalities as the story moves on.

-Story Summary
This novel is about a eleven years old orphan girl, Pollyanna Whittier, who transforms the lives of the people around her with her extreme optimism towards her life. Being the main character of the story, Pollyanna was a young, innocent and kind girl. She liked to help one another and encourages people to be positive towards their life. At the introduction of the story, Pollyanna was said to have led a hard life since her mother passed away when she was still young and she has been impoverished her life. But her father brought her up and taught her many important values. When Pollyanna was a very young girl, she once hoped for a doll in the missionary barrel as Christmas present but she was very disappointed uopn seeing that it was only a pair of crutches in it. She was sobbing uncontrollably but her father who was a traveling minister then introduced the "Glad Game" to her to cheer her up since she was so disappointed. Her father also played the "Glad Game" and told her that they should be glad as they did not need it. It was actually a game to find something to be glad about in everything even if it is a bad thing. After learning to play the "Glad Game", Pollyanna eventually enjoyed playing it and this changed her life and others too. She then learnt to appreciate what she had.

But unfortunately, her father also passed away some time later when Pollyanna was still eleven years old. After her father's sudden death, Pollyanna was later sent to her maiden aunt, Aunt Polly's house to stay with her in Beldingsville, Vermon. Her aunt was a weathy but austere and humorless woman who always does her duty but not anything more. Her aunt then relegated Pollyanna to a hot, stuffy and small attic without carpets and pictures to live in as she hoped that Pollyanna would not disrupt her household routine. But luckily, Pollyanna remembered the "Glad Game" which was taught by her father and remained optimistic of she had been recieved from aunt even she was left with nothing as both her parents passed away. She played the "Glad Game" when she was living in Aunt Polly's house. When she was stuffed in a small, almost airless attic, she said that she should be glad as she actually had a high window to enjoy the beautiful view. When Aunt Polly punishes her for being late for dinner and gave her only a bread and milk to eat in the kitchen with her servant, Nancy, Pollyanna said that she was glad and loved to eat bread and milk and like Nancy to accompany her.

With her cheerful and optimistic personalities, Pollyanna eventually brought much gladness and transformed her aunt's dispirited New England Town to a pleasant place to live in. While living in her aunt's house, Pollyanna also met some Beldingsville's most troubled people such as Mrs Snow and Mr Pendleton who was a miserly bachelor. She had also taught the people how to play the "Glad Game" and transformed their lifes. In addition, Mrs Snow and Mr Pendleton had also showed a significant transformation of their characters. Pollyanna had taught them how to be glad for what they had as compared to those who experienced worse things. When Old Tom the gardener was bent over with arthritis, Pollyanna told him that he should be glad as since he was so close to the ground, he would not have to muster so much strength to stoop down to do his weeding. Aunt Polly was also taught by Pollyanna of the "Glad game" and she at first resisted the game but later she became another player. Pollyanna also could feel the love and care of Aunt Polly after teaching her to play the game. Althought Pollyanna had experienced poverty, deprivation and initial rejection of Aunt Polly, she still could be optimistic and never gave up.

But all these happy times soon past by and Pollyanna faced a huge problem. Her robust optimism was then tested when she was hit by a motorcar as she crossed the street. She was then severly injured and hospitalised. At first, she was not that sad as she did not really knew her situation but when she overheard the specialist saying that she might not be able to walk anymore, she was taken aback and was in great despair. She did not know what to be glad about it. At that time, her little thoughts become shaky and she was scared. But luckily, all others who experienced the encouragement from Pollyanna and played her "Glad Game" came and encourage her to be glad that she still had her legs. Pollyanna then regained her confidence and became optimsitic as before.

At the end of the story, it is said that Aunt Polly is getting married to her former lover and Pollyanna finally learnt to walk again after the treatments and appreciated the use of her legs more after the accident.

-My reflection
After reading this novel, I really impressed by Pollyanna's optimistic personalities. She was very positive towards life and never gave up. I really enjoyed reading this story. It is worth-reading and well-written. In addition, I am also amazed by the style of writing of the author as the whole story really captures my attention. A good book, absolutely.

Book review: Animal Farm

2009-06-15T22:13:00.016+08:00

After reading Robinson Crusoe, the novel, another novel entitled "Animal Farm" captured my attention. This novel, Animal Farm, is written by George Orwell in 1945 and this might be the most famous work of political allegory ever written. The author wrote this novel to bring out a historical analysis of the causes of the failure of communism and using farmyard animals such as pigs, horses and dogs who overthrew the farmers in search of utopia to show that a state of equality is impossible to achieve due to the corruptive influence of the power required to necessitate it. This novel succesfully presents how mechanism of propaganda and brainwashing works in totalitarians regimes.

-Story background
Although the title of the novel suggests that the story is only about animals living in a farm, the story is actually a much more in depth analysis of the workings of society in Communist Russia. The farm animals are used to illustrate how the communist class system worked, and how the Russian citizens reacted to this, and how propaganda was used by early leaders of Russia, and the effect this type of leadership had on the behaviour of the people of Russia. The three pigs, Old Major, Snowball and Napoleon, are the main characters in the book and they are all used to be compared to different leaders in the Russian Revolution. In this novel, the author is trying to illustrate his own thoughts on Soviet Communism which is a hot topic.

-Story Summary
This story is about Old Major, the boar who was a much respected leader, started with a dream of taking over the running of a farm from the farmer by animals for animals. Old Major hoped that animals will form a rebellion and overthrew the human race and thought that there were liberty and equality for all in the farm. After since Old Major had passed away, the animals of Manor Farm were led by the two pigs who were also the protagonists, Napoleon and Snowball, and drove out Farmer Jones and his wife. After gaining power of the farm, the animals set up Animal Farm which their dream seemed to be coming true. After the revolution, the pigs became the leaders and gained power while taking over the running of the farm as they were the most intelligent animals. That was when the corruption started. The pigs started to control the animals of the farm and set down some rules which is the Seven Commandments to ensure equality and prosperity for all. The animals in the farm first agreed to these rules as they felt that they would get what they believe - equality and communism. It is written as follow:

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.

As the months and years past by, Napolean who was one of the leaders got the control of everyone and slowly exerted his influence. Napoleon began to twist what was once the truth but not now and used his trusty spindoctor to ensure the animals of equality and communism but eventually forgot what was agreed by all which was to be equal. As each passing day went by, this continued until eventually no animal could tell the difference between the man and the pig (Napoleon and Snowbell). Eventually, power corrupted and influenced the pigs. Hence, it appeared that the revolution was a failure from the beginning, even though it began in idealistic optimism. The pigs, however, being the leaders of the animals, managed to reverse the commandments, and through terror and propaganda established the rule of an elite of pigs, which was led by Napoleon which was the most revered and sinister pig.

In the story, Squealer, a pig "could turn black into white" was much responsible for propaganda caused. Squealer could speak very well and was persuasive as he could argue at some difficult points yet, he had a way of skipping from side to side. He managed to change the rule from "all animals are equal" to "all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others"which was presented in the story. In addition, he also managed to convince the animals that the pigs could eat more than the others as their roles were very important and they had heavy reponsiblities as they "helped the animals to run". As a result, this caused the gullible animals to believe what the pigs said and become thankful to Napoleon, for what they believed that Napoleon had "made their dream to reality".

A contributing factor to the propaganda showed in the story was that the pigs, which actually worked less but received more rations than other animals. This increased the confusion of the animals as they wondered why one species was receiving more than another in an equal society as the pigs promised. However, the other animals still respected and trusted their leaders and were willing to sacrifice to work harder for a better life. Here, the story brings out the situation in Russia which was more or less similar. In both the story and real life, greedy leaders took full advantage of the desperate commoners who were willing to sacrifice anything for them. The leaders were capable to turn matters upside down which were different from what they promised before. The commoners were then subjected to propaganda.

In "Animal Farm", Squealer and Napoleon which were he leaders decieve the animals that Snowball was a traitor and convinced them that he was a criminal through propaganda in order to gain more advantages for themselves. In the sotry, the horse, Boxer, actually represented the cruelty of how people are used for their skills and talents for others' advantages but as they turned powerless or useless, they were then disregarded as they were not needed anymore. Boxer which was the hardest worker on the farm as he contributed the most to the building of the windmill in the farm. But when Boxer was unable to continue work, Napoleon then got rid of him. This showed that the cruelty of human nature as man have the tendency to use other people to achieve their goals but disregarded them once they are useless or when man have found someone better. In the story, the author also presented the confusion of the animals as they all believed that Napoleon was right but they were confused by the better treatment which the pigs recieved.

-My reflection
After reading "Animal farm", I feel that this novel is more than a book but it can be seen as an analysis of the Soviet regime and shows the the situation of propaganda and totalitarianism in general. In my opinion, I feel that it is really well-written and might be the best book in the world to show the negative side of politics. In addition, I also like the ending of the story which was a warning to the society about propaganda which is written as follow:
"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which".

Book review: Robinson Crusoe - A wonderful classic of shipwreck and adventure

2009-06-15T17:54:00.017+08:00

Imagine yourself being stranded on an unhabited island alone. No food along with you, no money and no help. You are just the only human being on the island. How will you manage to survive and recover from desperation? Well, Robinson Crusoe could.

During the school holidays, my eyes are glued to the book entitled" Robinson Crusoe" written by Daniel Defoe. This novel is written in 1719 and the author was inspired to write this novel by a true story about a man, Alexander Selkirk who was rescued after spending about 3 years on a Pacific Island in 1709. This novel is about a magnificent classic of shipwreck and adventure.

-Story Background
The protagonist of this story is Robinson Crusoe who was born in 1632 and is his family's third child. Being not bred to any trade, Robinson Crusoe's mind started to fill with rambling thoughts and was very fond of sailing. But unfortunately, Crusoe's father determined that his son would become a lawyer. Undaunted, Crusoe once said in the novel that he "would be satisfied with nothing but going to sea." Still, his mother and father did not allow it. A year later, Robinson Crusoe decided to sneak away from his parents and accepted passage to London. He then left on September I, 1651. That was when a series of adventure and mishap began. To Crusoe's horror, the voyage started badly. His first ship was lost in a mighty storm, but he did not give up and tried again. Little did he know that his second attempt was even worse! To his utmost horror, he was abducted by pirates and sold into slavery. But he still eventually managed to escape and then travelled to Brazil, where he became a wealthy plantation owner. However, he could not resist himself from sailing again. Strong-willed, He decided to try another time. Once again, this voyage ended up in complete disaster. As a result, his ship was trapped in a great storm and it was lost in the sea. Being the only survivor of the shipwreck, Crusoe then found himself stranded on “The Island of Despair” which he called. To make matter worse, the island was not near any shipping routes. His adventure soon began as he was plunged into desperation without any help and support. He was alone to make a life for himself on the island.

-Story Summary
After Robinson Crusoe was left stranded on the island due to the shipwreck, he was in despair without any hope, but slowly as he was adapted to the island, he started to recover from desperation. To survive on the island, Robinson Crusoe began to gather food, such as grapes and melons. With patience and ingenuity, he constructed a fortress home and developed a farm. He domesticated animals and learnt to make the tools in order to continue living on the island. As the years past by, Crusoe improved his situation. However, he was lonely and he sought for companionship to no avail. He was alone on the island without human company for twenty-four years.

After more than 20 years on the island, Robinson Crusoe one day found a human foot print which he believed was not his, and he was scared to death by his discovery: he dicovered that he was actually surrounded by canibal barbarians living on the opposite shore of the island. Some time later, Crusoe witnessed a human sacrifice and saw one of the preys escaping from the barbarians. Eventually, he rescued the inhabitant of a nearby island from cannibals. Crusoe then named him "Friday" since he was rescued on a Friday. Since then, Friday became Crusoe's loyal companion. Friday was alos taught by Crusoe to speak English. In addition, he was also introduced to the Bible which was the only book Robinson found in his sunk and broken ship.
But for twenty-four years he has no human company - until one Friday, he rescues a prisoner from a boatload of cannibals.

Several years later, Friday once told Crusoe of the region where he used to live before. He mentioned that there were white bearded people, like Robinson Crusoe himself, that remains abandoned after another shipwreck. That was when Crusoe knew a mutiny on board left the captain of the ship marooned on the island. Crusoe and Friday then rendered aid to the Captain and his men to retrieve the vessel. Finally after 28 years stranded on the island, Crusoe was managed to return home to England with the help of the Captain and his men. In addition, Friday accompanied him home. When Crusoe was back in London again, Crusoe then learnt of the new life and the new civilization that had evolved since he was left stranded on an island for 28 years ago."

-My reflection
After reading this exciting, amazing novel, I had impressed by how the author written the novel. This whole novel is like a biography of Robinson Crusoe, telling his adventure in a diary format. I had been impressed by his style of writing. He could turn the story so exciting, amazing and unbelievable! From the novel, I had also learnt some important values such as perseverance. Despite Robinson Crusoe being left stranded alone on a deserted island, he could still survive and did not give up. This tells us that how he managed to cope with all the challenges and struggles. It also tells us how man cope with reality when they face challenges. Anyway, I really feel that this is a great, well-written novel and perhaps one of the finest literature works in the world. It is really worth-reading.

Check out my elctronic bookshelf for more updates!

My Electronic Bookshelf (updated)

2009-06-15T15:40:00.004+08:00

STTA (Singapore Table Tennis Association) VS Coach Liu

2009-05-25T22:44:00.003+08:00

As you may know, there was a hot topic recently in the newspaper and the media about the saga between the STTA and Singapore Table Tennis National Coach Liu Guo Dong. On 14th May 2009, the newspaper wrote "Table tennis saga continues with coach Liu getting more support". Now, you maybe curious of what is happening but I assure you that you will have a clearer view of the saga.

The saga started when there was a public debate on Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA)'s decision of not nominating the former Singapore National table tennis Coach Liu Guo Dong for the coach of the year. Despite winning a historical silver medal for Singapore in the Beijing Olympics 2008, Coach Liu Guo Dong is not nominated for the award. This caused the some members of public to feel unfair for Coach Liu Guo Dong as they think that Coach Liu deserves the award for his commitment to Singapore Table Tennis Association by clinging a silver medal for Singapore. He also helped Singapore to end the republic's 48 year Olympics Medal drought. However, STTA did not feel this way. Instead, the chairman of STTA, Ms Lee Bee Wah, said that Coach Liu's integrity and professionalism was in question and thus, she decided not to nominate him for the award. Her view of Coach Liu had become an insult to Coach Liu and caused him to feel unhappy and insulted.

Ms Lee said that Coach Liu was biased to the table tennis men's team and neglected Gao Lin who was one of the table tennis player. She claimed that Coach Liu focused more in the women's team than the men's team. This caused Coach Liu to feel unfair for himself as he feel that it is not true to say so. Hence, Coach Liu wanted to have an explanation from STTA as he felt that the claim by STTA might tanished his reputation.

The STTA could not be reached for comment, but Coach Liu also told the media he plans to meet the association's president over the next few days. And he said if he does not get a clarification, he would consider taking legal action. This caused things to go worse,

Mr Liu said: "She just needs to apologise. I will not ask for trouble. She just needs to clarify her remarks. I have feelings for Singapore."

STTA did not issue any public statements castigating Liu for lacking “professionalism and integrity.” Lee Bee Wah has to answer for her own words. Since she dared to hurl accusations at Liu in public, she must be prepared to substantiate them. Till now, Lee had refused to defend herself or comment further on the matter. Why do you think she is refusing to give any comments?

It is most unacceptable and unbecoming for a leader to walk away and leave her subordinates to clear up the mess she had created herself. This will even caused more problems. She can prevent all this fuss by explaining the whole thing to the media and Coach Liu instead of refusing to give any comments. In addition, she could have easily apologise to Coach Liu for the insult to him. She could have also retracted her statements and then, this whole saga would have been solved so easily.

STTA think they can bully a non-English speaking China coach into submission and let the matter rest. They cannot be more wrong.

It is also pointless for Liu to waste his time meeting STTA if all they want is to save the skin of Lee Bee Wah who continues to hide behind the association.

Coach Liu said: “The least you can do is to not attack me through the press, or to comment that I have moral issues. If it was said on a personal level, I would have dismissed it. But the comments were published in the papers, so you can imagine the harm done to me."

But now the coach has the support of Dr Tan Eng Liang, who had worked closely with him prior to the Beijing Games. Dr Tan does not doubt Liu's professionalism as he had delivered the silver medal for Singapore.

Do you think this whole saga could have been prevented easily if STTA have done what I have earlier mentioned? The moral of the saga is "Always think twice before you act".

A story that greatly affected my parents' life......

2009-05-22T23:20:00.002+08:00

Hey everyone, have you ever asked your parents before about their reading habits? Do you know what is their favourite book? Or do you know which book gives your father or mother the greatest impression that changes their reading habits or lifestyles? If you have not done so, try doing so as you will know more about your parents through their favourite books or reading habits.

As for me, I interviewed them about their reading habits and their favourite books and my eyes widened in disbelief as I could not believe their favourite books! My father had told me that when he was a teenager at about my age, he was so addicted to wuxia (martial) novels and comics that his eyes were glued to the books which he had borrowed from his friends. One of the novels which he impressed the most is The Legend of the Condor Heroes. My father said that he loved novels written by Jin Yong who is one of the most influential modern Chinese Language Novelists. His novels were all very exciting and most importantly, Jin Yong's novel are widely range, from wushu to romance. His novels are all so famous that quite a lot of movie companies used the story background for their movies. Artists also drawn out the wuxia novels Jin Yong had written.

The Legend of the Condor Heroes is a story set in the Song Dynasty and it is a novel about the friendship of two young men, Yang Tiexin and Guo Xiaotian who became heroes in their own right as they fought bravely the invading Jin soldiers in the war. They were very good swore brothers and they even swore to each other their unborn children would become either sworn brothers (if both were of the same gender) or be married (if they were of opposite genders). Then, the story focuses on the trials and tribulations of their sons following Guo Xiaotian's death and Yang Tiexin's disappearance. After that, the story tells about Guo Jing who was the son of Guo XiaoTian and Yang Kang. Later, Guo Jing was mentored by the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan in martial arts but he was a slow learner and only managed to master part of the skills he was taught. Yang was mentored by Qiu Chuji of the Quanzhen Sect. Then, the story tells the adventures of the two warriors and the story ended with Yang Guo, who was the son of Yang Kang and would become the protagonist of the sequel novel.

Jin Yong had also written many famous novels which captured a lot of readers' attention from all over the world. Jin Yong's novels includes The Book and the Sword, The Deer and the Cauldron, The Legend of the Condor Heroes, Fox Volant of the Snowy Mountain and more...... After interviewing my father, I am so amazed by his favourite novel and started to be interested of them.

If you are also attracted to Jin Yong's wuxia novels, you can visit this website as they have all Jin Yong's interesting, eye-glueing novels :http://www.ccler.com/jinyong/

Village By The Sea - Character Analysis

2009-05-22T22:17:00.004+08:00

While you all might be interested of my previous book review on "Village By The Sea", I think the characters in the novel might also capture your attention. In the novel, the characters played an essential, important and vital role as from their roles in the novel, they give readers a better view and understanding of the story background and tell us the themes in the novel. With their roles in the novel, they explain the problems and conflicts going through.

Here are some major characters:

Hari (protagonist of the story)

Hari was the older and only son in his family in a fishing village, Thul. Being the only son in his family, he had to work at the fields for his family to earn money even if he was still a child. He had also stopped schooling to work and this caused him to lose his childhood. With his family was dysfunctional, his father was permanently drunk and he could not play his role to work for his family. Hari's mother was also severly ill and could not look after her family. This caused him to bear heavy responsibilites and prematurely saddled with this heavy pressure.

Hari is responsible, obedient and knowledgeable as he knows what his family is going through. He knew he had to look after his family when both his parents could not. He also worked in the field at a young age and yet, he did not have any complains about it. He also knew he must quickly find a solution to solve the poverty problems his family was facing. 'He must have a job if he was to find his sisters a way out of this dark, gloomy house and the illness and drunkenness and hopelessness'. This shows that he knew he had to do something to solve his family's problems. In addition, Hari is also obedient. The story mentioned that Hari had listened to his mother and brought his younger siblings, Bela and Kamal.

Hari is hardworking, determined and iron-willed to work for his family. To support and earn money for the family, Hari had worked hard in the field. The story mentioned 'He (Hari) was soon sweating in the sun as he bent and pulled and tugged and dug.' In addition, Hari also was determined as he wanted to go to Bombay in search of job to earn more money for his family. He went to Bombay alone with determination to learn to adapt to the changes. Hari also determined to help Bela and Kamal out of this dysfunctional family as the story mentioned "He must have a job if he was to find his sisters a way out of this dark, gloomy house and the illness and the drunkenness and hopelessness that surrounded them like the shadows of the night." Hari was also determined to seek help in Bombay as he said that 'He would have to go to Bombay.'

Hari is also worrisome, pessimistic and doubtful about his future. He was unsure whether what he was doing would help his family. The story mentioned 'How? When? That was still not clear to him.' This shows us that Hari did not know what his future would like as he worried about it.

Hari was also caring and loving towards his mother and his siblings. While he was away in Bombay, he still did not forget about his family and worried them. This shows that he still cared for his family as the story mentioned 'I will save all my watch money for that (gifts for his siblings in Thul). When he was in Bombay, he remembered his family members. He also wanted to return on Diwalii to reunite with his family which shows his care and concern of his family.

Hari is also independent in Bombay and knows how to take good care of himself. He dared to got to Bombay by himself without any familiar faces. This shows he could be independent and do things by himself. He was also capable and independent as he could able work in Jagu's Eating house and My Panwallah's watchmending shop although he did not really

Hari was a reponsible, obedient, knowlegeable, caring and independent village boy from Thul. He had to assume both his parents' roles and work very hard since they could not take care of the family. As a result, Hari was prematurely saddled with these heavy responsibilites.

Headline Novel "Village By The Sea"

2009-03-10T19:12:00.005+08:00

Recently, I had read an interesting novel entitled "Village By The Sea" written by Anita Desai. After reading for a few weeks, I felt that this novel had benefited and taught me a lot. In this novel, it teaches us some important themes such as:

Poverty and wealth

Family

Benefactors

Urban and Rural India

Change and Adaptation

This novel is about a poor family living in the rural part of India which is in a small fishing village, Thul and this novel tells us about the poverty situation the villages were facing. It tells us Hari who was the only son and the second-eldest child in the family and he had to give up schooling to work to support his family as a both of their parents could not take care of the family. Hari's father was the sole breadwinner in the family and was actually a fisherman in the village but he was addicted to toddy and he even sold his fishing boat. As a result, this caused his family to lose their income as they all depend on fishing like other villagers. Hari had to bear all the heavy responsibility for his father since his father was permanently drunk. In addition, Hari's mother was also severly sick and was bedridden for a long time but they were too poor to pay for the medicine. Hari's elder sister, Lila had to look after the family where Hari went to Bombay to search for job to support his family. This shows their state of desperation and poverty.

After reading this novel ,I had learnt some life values such as perseverance and determination which will benefit us in future a lot. In my opinion, I feel that this novel is very interesting and worth-reading as it really taught me a lot. I think that everyone should read it and you will never forget for your life! Believe me!

Which one is more important? Health...... or money$......?

2009-03-10T19:12:00.003+08:00

Now, let's flip the pages of the newspaper and recall your memories of the illegal organ trading issue of Tang Wee Sung, the "famous guy" . If you can recall, this is what the news is about......

In July 2008, Mr Tang Wee Sung, a Singapore retail magnate. In the news report, it is reported that Mr Tan was revealed to have attempted to buy a kidney for $300,000 from an Indonesian man, who is in need of money desperately. He was "trading" the kidney with money illegally without abide the law. Hence, he was already wrong by trading in the ......"black market" . The underground economy or black market is a market where all commerce is conducted without regard to taxation, law or regulations of trade. The term is also often known as the underdog, shadow economy, black economy or parallel economy.

Apparently, we can see that Mr Tang was in the wrong at this stage but some people defended him with some important points. As they said that Mr Tang has a severe kidney failure and bad health, this is an only solution, attempt and method to get a new kidney without going through a long, time-wasting process which should be carried instead as they said that Mr Tang did not have a lot of time to solve his kidney problem. In the news, it mentioned that Mr Tang's health has been deteriorating by each passing day. In addition, he also has diabetes which is complicated by his heart problems, hence, he was really very desperate at that moment as even the doctor said that he can only give him less than five years to live.

Alright, let us put ourselves into his shoes! Let's say if you got a kidney failure, diabetes and you are desperate in searching for help, will you still be calmed and look for other fast solutions that will not break the law? Some will say that their health are more important and they do not care whether they have broken the law as long as they are still healthy.

But many people lambasted Mr Tang, saying that he is a prominent local businessman and can use his personal wealth to break the law and secure an organ for himself which the people are not very happy of. But anyway, do you agree that Mr tang deserved to be punished as he thought that...... money can buy everything? Or you believe that he had broken the law was due to insufficient time and he was forced and left with no choice to break the law......?

He was later fined $17,000 and sentenced to one day’s jail. He even falsely declared that the would-to-be donor was a distant relative. The would-to-be donor, Sulaiman Damanik, was jailed for three weeks. Wang Chin Sing, the man who was the "middle-man" arranged the meeting between the two, received fourteen months jail.

However, organ transplants are necessary to save lives. Practically, all countries in the world including Singapore all suffer from severe shortages in organs needed for transplant to save people. Legalizing the trade in organs may just solve all the problems. Is it moral or right to do so? Should Singapore legalize the trade in organs? How do you feel about this......?

This is a speak regarding whether should Singapore legalize the organ trading by the Minister of Health, Mr Khaw Boon Wan in parliament in July 2008.

“Over the past three years, there were 228 kidney transplants involving Singaporeans, and 63% of these were from deceased donors. During the same period, there were 33 liver transplants, 64% from deceased donors. There were 271 cornea transplants, all of course from cadavers. Currently, the numbers of patients waiting for cadaveric organs are 563 for kidney, nine for liver and 25 for cornea.”

Anyway, illegal organs trading should not be carried out as it will break the law but I feel that it is better if both parties, the donor and the buyer, agreed to a price and both of them will be satisfied. The ill buyer will be healthy after transplanting a kidney and the donor will also have money from the transplant for some urgent purposes. If it is like this, why not carry out.......?

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_market, http://www.todayonline.com/articles/309537.asp, ILLEGAL ORGAN TRANSPLANT- Hwa Chong Institution- Current Affairs Discussion

Literature Project

2009-03-10T19:12:00.002+08:00

Ah...... Do you want to check out my latest literature project on an interesting novel entitled " Nothing But the Truth"......?

This is actually written as Philip's Final Blog in his point-of-view.

(The blog entry as shown below is actually wrtten in Philip's point of view and this is also his last blog entry before leaving for his new school. His ex-teachers from Harrison High such as Miss Narwin, Coach Jamison, superintendent Albert and other characters' comments are written below his blog entry.)

As it is written on a new webpage, I will provide you with the URL. Here it is: http://www2.hci.edu.sg/y09HCI0452/literatureproject.html

Your attention will definitely be captured by this interesting blog entry written on a protagonist's point-of-view in a novel. Have a great time!

Birth of blogging (My Edition)

2009-03-06T18:10:00.004+08:00

Well, time really flies. In a blink of eye, time had past and I had already written 5 blog entries at this point of stage. Yes, this eventually motivate me to write more...... and this is when my interest of writing a blog had begun......

Well, when I started writing blogs, I first thought that it was some kind of writing a diary and we have to spend a lot of time in it. I was somehow confused with blogging and writing a diary and I also thought that it was quite tedious to blog. However, after spending some time to read on others' blogs, I finally knew the defination for "BLOGGING"(A Big Word)......

In my opinion, I feel that blogging is to write down your feelings, thoughts and views on something such as an event or news taken place recently. In addition, it can also used to be a central communication and discussion between one another. We can share our different thoughts and discuss on a topic or a theme. With blogging, communication will be eventually enhanced and more sharing will be carried out. In blogging, we can "speak" to each other indirectly......

Nonetheless, I believe that everyone will have its likes and dislikes. Yes, I find that blogging has advantages but...... some disadvantages. I feel that it is quite disappointing when not a lot of people made their comments and share their views with me as this is not what blogging is about! they do not seem to appreciate with our works. Sometimes, I will feel that it is rather effort-wasting to write a blog entry when only a or two precious viewers made their comments no matter how hard I had tried to make my blog interesting and captivating. I then feel the futility of my efforts, it was...... like healing a gaping wound with only a tiny strap of plaster. Do you know what I mean? Such as problems can be prevented by setting a function for all blogs in the world to get notified of all the newest blog entries which had been posted recently for comments.
But on the other hand, there are also quite many advantages. We can know many news around the whole world and feel free to share our thoughts with others. At the same time, we can also enhance our friendship and bonding with our friends.

Do you know that reading can also be enhanced through blogging? How this works? With blogging, we will get to know more good novels and put them on our electricity bookshelves. In my opinion, reading is one of the greatest and the most important factors to score well and succeed in our lifes. Hence, everyone should be reading for your own benefits. Don't be afraid to read...... you may want to try reading a great novel through blogging.

Anyway, blogging is very interesting and I will like to encourage people from all walks of life to blog and do not be too anxious about writing one. Just feel free to state your views and thoughts. Try it. You will never regret. A1

MATHEMATICS CLUB

2009-02-24T19:52:00.001+08:00

I like Mathematics ...... Let's have a Mathematics Club! Who wants to join......? Mathematics is my BEST!