April 29, 2011

Blogger Mission for April 21-30, 2011

Global warming is one of the most serious crises in the world. The global temperature is rising, and it will cause terrible problems to the planet. From the movies we can see that if the world warms by four degrees, oceans will rise and overtake heavily populated deltas which are homes to billion people. Egypt will be inundated. Venice will be submerged. Glacier will disappear. Northern Canada will become one of the planet’s most bountiful agricultural zones. The entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet could collapse sending sea levels rising even further. This could be our world plus four degrees. The planet will become unrecognizable from what we’ve known today. We’ll see the possible drying up of some of the most important rivers in the world. And this will endanger the survival of millions of people. If the world warms by five degrees, snow pike that feeds the world great cities: Los Angeles, Cairo, Lima, Bombay will be drying out. Hundreds of millions of people will become climate refugees. This could be our world plus five degrees. People will be unable to withstand that kind of climate shock. If the world warms by six degrees, desert will expand. Natural disasters will become common events. Some of the world’s great cities will be flooded and abandoned. This could be our world plus six degrees. Six degrees of warming is been called the doomsday Scenario. Our lives would never be the same again.

 

Global warming is a serious problem that all humankind have to face right now. Human activities cause carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases which will damage the atmosphere. We have to take measures immediately or our world will be destroyed. For individuals, we have to become more energy efficient. There are many things that we can do to save the earth. We should start using compact fluorescent bulbs which last much longer than the familiar incandescent light bulbs and are lower energy use. And while buying appliances such as refrigerators or air-conditioners, choose the one with the highest energy efficiency rating. Also, while buying cars, you should buy the one which is fuel efficient. Hybrids are cars that combine an internal combustion engine and a battery-powered electric motor. This kind of car is environmentally friendly vehicle. Buying cleaner cars can help reduce carbon dioxide emissions effectively, because the carbon dioxide emission from cars is one of the primary CO2 emissions. We should unplug appliances and electronic devices such as computers and TVs while not using them to avoid the " phantom load." The government should develop laws which can protect our environment. We only have one earth, if we don’t protect it, we will confront far more difficult situations in the future.


April 3, 2011

Mission of the Week March 21-27, 2011

When a tsunami strikes, the first thing that you do is to run away to higher ground. Go to somewhere far away from the sea. There is another important thing that you must remember to do is to bring your survival bag when you leave your house. It is the thing which can save your life. There are many things which are highly recommended for putting in a survival bag. Those must-bring things are water, energy bars, flashlights, a radio, batteries, clothes, tarpaulins, a tent, whistles, plastic sheeting, tissues, money, passport, first aid kit, portable stove for cooking, dust mask and bleach. Water is an indispensable resource for life, so you must put something like bottled water in the bag. A whistle can be used as a distress signal. Passport is the back-up ID card just in case if you do not have time to bring your ID Cards when you leave the house. First aid kit is a box full of medical supplies that you can use when you get hurt. Bleach is the thing that you can use to clean water, adding a few drops of bleach will do. If you have those things in your survival bag, you will get a better chance to stay alive during this kind of natural disaster.

Compare to the power of nature, human is so fragile. We build and make many things that we think are able to fight against the power of nature. However, most of the measures we take are useless. One of the examples is that we build dikes which we believe are able to stop the tsunami, however, the truth is that the tsunami can go over them. Another example is that we think the protection we built for nuclear power plants are strong enough, but after the strike of the tsunami, it was destroyed. What happen in Japan now is that the radiation is escaping from the damaged nuclear power plants. Those chemicals and radiation are harmful to human health. What’s worse, the radiation will probably spread to the entire world. Due to our lack of attention and care for environment and nature, such terrible thing happened. We have to stop causing damage to the planet we live in. Anything that can hurt the environment should be banned. One of the things that we can do is that instead of using traditional ways like coal-fired power plants or the one which will hurt the environment—nuclear power plants to generate electrical power, we should use renewable or clean energy such as solar technologies and wind turbines to generate electricity. We only have one earth, so let’s work together to protect it.


December 26, 2010

VEC3D asynchronous Mission of the Week December 20-26, 2010

This time we had a technical problem about earphones; there were many noises so that we could not here each other’s voice clearly. It took us over thirty minutes to fix this problem. There was a long existing problem which was that Active Worlds would break down easily, and it happened every fifteen to twenty minutes even though I did not do anything with the computer. This problem really bothers me because it breaks the flow of conversation. Another problem is that since Christmas is not Taiwanese traditional festival, most of us know few things about Christmas. So when Jason asked us questions about the details about Christmas, most of us did not know the answers to his questions.

 

I have learned many things about Christmas from the class. We have talked about the history of Santa Claus. Santa Claus relates to Sinterklaas which is a character from Dutch folklore, Holland which is The Netherlands, and St. Nicholas which is Christian figure associated with gift-giving. We also talked about Santa’s appearance and personality. He is a jolly old man with white beard; wears red suit with white fur trim and wide belt with a big, shiny buckle. He lives in North Pole and has a workshop. In the workshop, there are elves who are the ones that make toys. He carries gifts with a sleigh which is pulled by eight reindeers. People will exchange Christmas cards and sing Christmas carols. There are many Christmas decorations such as mistletoe which is a plant that is hung over the door, and one can kiss people under it. Another two Christmas decorations are wreath and holly. Wreath is a circular decoration made from leaves and hung on the door. Holly is a plant with shiny, pointed leaves and red berries. Stocking is one of the most important things during Christmas; parents will put gifts in it for their children. Parents will prepare milk, cookies, and carrots. Milk and cookies are for Santa; carrots are for reindeers. Parents will drink and eat these foods beforehand so that children will believe that Santa Claus really has come to his or her house. Making snow man is another important thing that people will do during Christmas. People will start making it by making a snow ball and roll it in order to make it bigger. And then people will prepare sticks, coals, and carrot. Sticks are for snow man’s arms, and coals are for the mouth and eyes; carrot is for the nose. It is interesting to learn details about Christmas. I enjoy learning them.


December 10, 2010

VEC3D Mission of the Week December 6-12, 2010

I have learned a lot of different dish names and table manners this time. Jason told us the dishes that Canadians usually have for breakfast, lunch and dinner. For example, a sandwich is one of the dishes that they usually have for lunch. The dish names I have learned were cold cuts, luncheon meat, roast beef, baked chicken, baked ham, ribs, pork chops, and rice pudding. Also, Jason told us a popular dessert that Canadians really like which was apple pie with vanilla ice cream and cheddar cheese. I once told my Canadian friend who came to Taiwan for several years this dessert that I learned from the class, she got really excited and said that she really missed this dessert. She said the taste of mixing something sweet and salty was really good. I have learned the words and phrases of different cooking methods such as “deep frying”, “pan frying”, “stir frying”, “baking/broiling in the oven”, “steamed”, and “boiling”. Knowing those words and phrases really helps me a lot, because I often had trouble while explaining how a traditional Taiwanese dish was made to my foreign friends before. I can introduce them to various delicious traditional Taiwanese foods without difficulty now.

 

Jason told us many table manners. For instance, he said that while eating fish; one cannot spit fish bones on a table. Instead, one should discreetly spit them into a napkin. In contrast, it is pretty normal to spit fish bones in a plate in Taiwan. Another table manner that he told us was that “no talking with food in our mouth”. However, as far as I know, it is OK to talk with food in one’s mouth as long as he or she uses his or her hand to cover his or her mouth while talking in Taiwan. There are also many table manners that both Canadians and Taiwanese will follow. For example, one will use serving utensils for dishes; one will try to stifle a burp as much as possible, and one will chew quietly. Burping loudly is a faux pas. Jason also taught us what we could say if we wanted to get the dish which was far from us; we could say “Could you please pass the _____?” or say “excuse me” if we want to cross somebody else to get the dish by ourselves. We also shared a table manner that Taiwanese would never do with Jason which was that we would not stick chopsticks in our bowl vertically. It was interesting to learn other country’s table manners.


November 27, 2010

Mission of the Week November 22-28, 2010

I’ve learned a lot of new vocabularies such as the words for different types of boats, furniture, and trees. I’ve also learned various adjectives to describe beautiful scenes, and words which relate to dragon boat festival. It was interesting to learn English in Second Life. The artificial environment in it was fascinating; the Avatars were very cute. I really like the topics for the class. The amazing scenery in Banff is extremely beautiful. And the discussions about different customs of dragon boat festival were interesting. Teacher Jason was very friendly, and he did a great job on leading the conversation. However, since everyone was to shy to talk; he talked for more than half the time in the lesson. And the weirdest part was that most participants used one word during talking instead of using a sentence. I think one of the possible reasons is that we were not used to use a headset and a microphone to listen and talk. It was really weird for me that I could not hear my own voice during talking, and it made me feel uncomfortable. To be honest, I was a little afraid to talk. I hope I can get used to the circumstance which I cannot hear my own voice during talking as soon as possible.

 

During the discussion about Banff Springs Hotel, we’ve learned different architectural styles. For example, there are many hotels with pointed roofs which look like castles in Canada. In contrast, there are few hotels which look like castles in Taiwan. We also discussed the room’s setting. Kyra discovered that there were no slippers in the room. Conversely, one can always find slippers in hotels in Taiwan. During the discussion about dragon boat festival, we talked about different customs. Taiwanese usually hang moxas on the front door. On the other hand, people usually hang mistletoes over the front door during Christmas. Tzung Tzu is the most popular dish during dragon boat festival. Instead, the most common main dish of a Thanksgiving dinner is turkey. One of the interesting customs of dragon boat festival is that people can buy sachets which can protect one from evil. Another interesting thing that people would do during dragon boat festival is that people try to stand an egg at noon. If one can do it; it’s a sign that one will be pretty lucky in the coming year. I’ve learned much interesting information about different cultures in the class.



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