The Way of the Dodo

Apprenticeship & Workshops in the Renaissance

2010-01-12T06:46:00.000-08:00

Here's a website I found about the society in medieval times:
http://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/westciv/medievalsoc.html

It talks about the classes of the society of Middle Ages. There are priests, knights and small laborers. Then it describes the life of a child who goes to work and learn under a master by contract and aquires a technique to become a master in a town. In order to increase the level, some of the towns were even critical about the citizens dwelling in it. One must be a ruputable man or a master with great technique to live in the fussy towns. In that way, some people worked under other masters in their whole life. The life style of Renaissance was really interesting.

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Here's a good website about an artist's life:
http://www.renaissanceconnection.org/artistslife.html

The website talks about how an artist work from an apprentice to a master. Every single artist, no matter the famous or the nameless ones, has to work as a humble apprentice at first. Some of the talented apprentices can become greater and more reputed artists than their masters. The website also compares the artists of Renaissance, who worked for patrons, and today, who work with much freedom.

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The old apprenticeship-and-master frame is very different than the education system in Taiwan nowadays.

In old days, kids around twelve left their family and followed a master. The apprntices lived with the master, and they worked hard and learned through working. The apprentices had learned to be independent since they were teenagers. They strived hard to learn to assist their masters, and also learned to master the technique. When they grew up, they might leave their teachers and became a greater master. Then they took in apprentices and taught them all the technique he possessed and hoped them to improve. The impartation for generations made the technique constantly prograssed.

Comparing now, we've learned in schools since we were around seven years old. Everyone has the right and the duty to go to school. We get together and learn together, and we learn how to get along with others at the meanwhile. Nonetheless, we don't apply what we learn at school until we graduate from junior high school or even college. And usually, most of us are forced to study at school, not learning what we are really interested in. Maybe I'm too young and lacking of scope to estimate that, but I dislike the system right now. I know I would have to work much harder than now if I was an apprentice in medieval times, but I really hope to go with a good master and learn something freely and earnestly.

Renaissance Florence

2009-10-04T04:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a website about Michelangelo Buonarroti:
http://www.all-art.org/early_renaissance/michelangelo1.html

Michelangelo was a famous italian artist, sculptor and architect in 15th and 16th century of Renaissance. He was also considered as the most important artist ever lived. He did many great art works in Florence.

Michelangelo's father was an office, but he didn't want to . He chose to be an artist and became an apprentice in a painting school when he was 13 after graduating from school. Michelangelo learned a lot in the art school, and he even stayed in the academy of Plato and learned with older poets and scholars for a little time. After studying art for three years, he started to create some art works. He showed his talent on art and became famous. Then he was commissioned by church and popes to do many things, like painting the ceiling of chapels, sculpting statues and the tombs of the Medicis in the Medici Chapel.

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The Doni Tondo

by Machelangelo (1503 - 1504)

This is one of the few paintings Michelangelo did on easels. We can clearly see Michelangelo's unique style in the painting. He drew the outlines of people sharply and added a lot of light and shadow on them, separating them from the background. They don't look like real people. Instead, I think they are more alike to sculptures in the picture. Furthermore, we can claerly see the muscles on Mary's arms. She is lifting the baby Jesus on her shoulder, showing her muscles. We can see that Michelangelo liked to draw female models as women. Rather than mixing a variety of colors, it seems that Michelangelo liked to depict the beauty of human in his art works.

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David

by Machelangelo (1504)

This the most famous sculpture made by Michelangelo. It is about the young hero, David, who defeated Goliath the giant Philistine. He is holding a band which can throw stones, ready to fight the formidable giant. He stands confidently and faces his foe sideways. His muscles tense, and the veins in his hands are obviously exposed. He is the boy who stands out to fight for his nation, but he looks like a strong and mature man.

Michelangelo kept David completely nude, showing the beauty of men thoroughly. He not only looks handsome and strong, but also expresses the strength and the faith of a man.

This is the detail of David's face. He looks earnest but confident, concentrated upon a distant place. His regular features show his anger and his bravery. He is staring fiercely at his opponent, not having any fear. He focuses on the adversary, with a stone prepared in his hand, ready to land a deadly hit on him.

Painting of Siena

2009-09-23T07:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a website I found about Duccio di Buoninsegna:
http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/bio/d/duccio/buoninse/biograph.html

Duccio was a greatest artist of Siena of Renaissance before Giotto. Duccio's artworks are full of the style of traditional Byzantine. His paintings are less-colored and plain, emphasizing the solemnity and sanctity of God, not the true emotions of humanity. The characters in Ducci's painting are not as lifelike as in Giotto's, but both of their paintings are religious. In Duccio's paintings, the Virgin Mary and Jesus look vague and dreamlike, making people feel a sense of mystery.
Duccio had some problems in his life. He encountered political offense, problems of debts, and accusation of refusing military service. He was considered as an important changer of art because he instilled a new feeling of humanity.

Crucifixion

by Duccio (1308 - 1311)

This painting is about Jesus Christ's heavy penalty of crucifixion. Jesus is crucified in the middle, resigned of the pain. He spread an atmosphere of holiness and dignity. A row of angels are flying above him, as if they're welcoming Him to the heaven. On Jesus' both sides are two crucified criminals. They look very dark and sinful, contrasting sharply between the golden background.

On the left of the painting are the disciples and the Virgin Mary. The Virgin Mary lifts up her eyes to her son, almost can't stand. The disciples stand around her and look at Jesus respectfully, frightened of what their teacher has suffered. They stand calmly, grieving for His critical injury and enormous pain. On the other side of Jesus stands the headsman and a crowd of people who inflict injury on Jesus. They are shouting and discussing agitatedly, look perturbed and afraid.

The harsh contrast between the two sides of the people make the image intense and full of movements. It causes a fervent feeling surging in the audience.

Giotto di Bondone

2009-09-06T01:25:00.000-07:00

Here is a website I found about Giotto the famous artist in early Renaissance:
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/old-masters/giotto.htm

Giotto followed Cimabue as an apprentice when he was only 12 years old. Giotto did many frescos about the life of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary. Soon he became famous for the expressions of people's emotions in his paintings, and he even surpassed his teacher. Giotto became very famous and rich just when he was in his middle age, and he managed many workshops in Italy. Many influential and rich people commissioned him to paint for them. Giotto's most important deed was that he created a whole new way to paint lifelike people with their true feelings. He really has a subtle insight into human nature.

Giotto was so famous that he even had a biographer to record his life. He was very lucky that he could be so reputed just in his life because many artists became well-known after they had died. He lived a really good life. He was entirely devoted to art in his whole life, and few of us, modern people, couldhave done like him.

Here you can have a complete view of it :http://artchive.com/artchive/G/giotto/giotto.jpg.html

The Mourning of Christ

This is the detail part of The Mourning of Christ. It is a fresco made by Giotto at Cappella dell'Arena in Padua.
In the painting, The Virgin Mary leans to Jesus' dead body, holding his neck and looking at him grievedly. Many women are kneeling around Christ. One is holding Jesus' head in her palms, and some are holding his body tenderly. John the disciple stretches his hands, gazing at Jesus brokenheartedly, showing his feeling of despair for his death. And angels are flying above them.
This painting expresses the grief of Jesus' grave death and people's respect and love to Jesus Christ.

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Here is the website:http://www.artsender.com/artists/Giotto_di_Bondone.htm

It contains many details of Giotto's life, and it also introduces many of Gitto's famous paintings. Giotto was a Florentine painter, sculptor, and architect. He was considered as the first genius of art in the Italian Renaissance. He was very different from other artists because he saved most of the money he earned and became a rich man. Furthermore, Giotto had very good relationship between some famous Popes.

Even though most of Giotto's works were about the stories in the Bible, he still painted the people very emotionally. They are like the real person, and people can get into the painting as if we're one of the audience.

Here is Joachim's Dream by Giotto di Bondone.

Joachim's Dream

This painting is very simple and obvious. In the painting, Joachim is sleeping in front of a small wooden house. The house is just like linking to the rock which Joachim is leaning against. An angel is flying toward him, and the two shepherds look at the coming angel curiously.

The sleeping Joachimgives me a sense of dignity. The angel is staring at Joachim earnestly. I like this painting very much. The people in the painting is realistic, and that was the greatest skill Giotto possessed.

Code Breakers

2009-07-01T09:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a website about the German Lorenz cipher system:
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/lorenz/fish.htm

Germany created a new way of enciphering at that time. The pattern of the Vernam cipher is akin to logic, but it isn't random. Therefore, they tried to make it like random, but British still broke it by a mistake the German operator made. The operator sent the same message of about 4,000 letters in it again with the Lorenz machine. However, there were some differences between them. And British decipherers can compare them and recover them and break the code.

This is the Lorenz machine, which is also known as "Tunny Machine"

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Here is a website about enigma:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine

The enigma machine was invented in Germany at the end of WWI, but it was used commercially.

The plugboard, keyboard, lamps, and finger-wheels of the rotors emerging from the inner lid of a three-rotor German military Enigma machine

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This is a video shows how enigma works:

The enigma enciphers codes randomly. There are three rotors in it changing the result of typing the same word. Furthermore, there are about 100,000,000,000,000 possibilities of each letter. Therefore, it is difficult for someone to break the enigma code.

The POWs in WWII

2009-06-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a website I found about the American prisoners of war in Germany:http://www.b24.net/pow/default.html

The prisoners were shut in solitary cells which was about 2.5m x 3.5m x 2.5m big. Each prisoner had a cot, a table, a chair and an electric bell to call the guards. They weren't treated very nicely. Some of the prisoners were stripped, or even kept wearing the clothes when they had been caught. Sometimes, the POWs had to prove themselves as airmen rather than spies by telling some technical information about planes, or they would get killed. The POWs had two pieces of bread in the morning and two at night. None of the Red Cross parcels were given to them, but they could get free water from the guards. Many of the POWs didn't have enough care of health. Some of them had the same dirty bandage when they'd got caught. The POWs didn't have a nice time during the war or even after the war ended.

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Here is a website about Prisoner of War Medal:http://www.axpow.org/powmedal.htm

The POW Medal was given to the American soldiers who were taken prisoner and held captive.

The an American bald eagle stabding in the middle with pride dignity, surrounded by a barbed wire. It symbolized that the American prisoners seized the hope to regain their freedom.

The black stripe in the middle of the ribbon means the despair of being prisoned in the war. The two white stripes adjacent to the black one typify hope. And the thin blue, white, and red stripes represent America.

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A Japanese pilot dropped into the ocean from his crashed plane. The US soldier tried to pull him up onto the boat. Instead of being a prisoner and ashamed, he decided to end up his own life by a grenade. However, it seemed that the American soldier had shot the Japanese several times before he died.

Spies in WWII

2009-06-14T02:40:00.000-07:00

Here a website of the OSS in WWII made by http://www.americainwwii.com/stories/cloak.html

It talks detailedly about how the OSS started and what they did during the time. At that time, all of Germany's enemies in Europe were eliminated except England. D. Roosevelt worried about the columnists and traitors inside Norway, Belgium, Holland, and France. Therefore, he dispatched Bill Donovan all around Europe to get information of their enemies and search people that could be their allies. The searching was very successful and helpful, but there was no central intelligence office in the US. They established the COI at first. It onlt lasted a for a year. Then it was substituted by the OSS because the information of the COI wasn't including the potential of Japan's Attack in Hawaii. Roosevelt called in some experts and appointed them to make a school for spies, and the OSS was for trainning spies.

This is a photo of Bill Donovan.

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Here is a website which has some videos about the spies in the OSS: http://www.realmilitaryflix.com/public/209.cfm

It shows what is the secret agents in the OSS like. Before a person started his training, they checked his body. A spy in the OSS needs a haircut of the style in the enemies' area. Furthermore, there were many required equipments of a secret agent in the OSS. For example, the stickers on his suitcase, a handful of cigarettes and train tickets, etc. They were very small and common things, just like a hidden uniform. It was really cool to be a secret agent in the OSS.

Pearl Harbor

2009-06-10T06:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a site about how Japan attcked Pearl Harbor:http://www.pearlharbor.org/history-of-pearl-harbor.asp

It says about the Japanese's ambition to get mere territories. Japan invaded the southeast of Asia because of its lack of resources, which was caused by the US's embargo on steels and fuel sold to Japan. Japan started planning to declare war to the US. Japanese intended to attack Pearl Harbor because a bult of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, which was the key of the war, were there. Japan invaded Pearl Harbor. They fulfilled their purpose of damage to the U.S. Pacific Fleet, but they also killed or harmed about 3,500 people. Nonetheless, the invasion caused a critical situation to Japanese themselves because they didn't have enough fuel to fight with the US.

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Here is a site about Pearl Harbor was under attack:
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/pearl.htm

There are many pictures in this website. Here's one of them.

This is an image of the tragedy in Pearl Harbor. The USS Shaw exploded. The US navy in Hawaii was harmed gravely. More thana thousand and five hundred people died in the raid.

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Here is a website which is full of videos about the raids in Pearl Harbor by Japan:http://www.pearlharbor.org/

Here is one of the videos:

On December 7, 1941, Japan invaded Pearl Harbor. The raids were saperated in two waves. A lot of Americans died and many aircrafts destroyed. After that, Americans got angry and attempted to avenge and warn Japan.

Bombing Raids

2009-05-29T08:12:00.000-07:00

Here is a website about German bombing raids on Britain:
http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/blitz.htm

Hitler dispatched many bombers to invade Britain, trying to force British to surrender. The Luftwaffe revised their targets from industrial to civilian and the bombing time from day time to night time. Hitler anticipated that the British would be more terrified of the German armies because they wouldn't have enough sleep, and Britain would surrender very soon. On the other hand, Britain also had some ways to defend and revolt against German invasion. The British civilians hid in shelters when they heard the siren before the raids. The "blakout" is really a good way to make the bombers' targeting mission more difficult. Anyhow, Britain still recieved great damage. About 60,000 British died and 2,000,000 homes destroyed! German bombed Britain less and took less attention to Britain because he considered Russia as a more signifcant enimy.

These are people sleeping on London Underground during German's Blitzkrieg.

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This is a special website I found about someone's memory of WWII:http://www.germanculture.com.ua/library/weekly/aa051001c.htm

He experienced the terror of the bombing raids in Germany in WWII. He slept in shelters, enduring the thunderous sound of blasts. Then he hoped that he could see his home survive from the bombing. He saw his neighbors' house burnt and understood the shock and the grief of losing their home. In any case, the writer of this article coped with all the difficulties and went past the hard time. He also wrote a book about his experience of the two World Wars, "Laughter Wasn't Rationed". It contains much of his civilian life in Germany. During the horrible period of time, the civilians told jokes to encourage each other. Their difficult lives are so dreadful that I can't even imagine.

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Here's a video about a bombing raid on Germany in 1943:http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/autos_and_vehicles/watch/v6971121WQWzb89s #

The bombers B-17 took off from England and flew above Germany. The bombers flew through the mess of blasts of anti-aircrafts and threw tons and tons of bombs on the territory of Germany. The pilots could barely see the factories and houses they were targeting. However, they could not see that there were civilians' home burnt and destroyed beneath them and the people hiding underground in shelters were trembling in fear. Nevertheless, the motive of their actions was protecting their own home, though they were very sure that they would definitely not come back home again. The war was very brutal and harsh, but not the soldiers themselves as well.

Iroquois Nation

2009-05-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Here is a website I found about the Iroquois Nation:http://www.carnegiemnh.org/exhibits/north-south-east-west/iroquois/index.html

This website tells about the nation of the Iroquois. They were originally living in the southern part of Canada and a part of New York today at the end of 17th century, which had clear four seasons, a plenty of rainfall, fertile lands and everything they needed. The Iroquois lived there very well. All their lives were relied on the great nature environment. They hunted, caught animals, picked fruit, and farmed crops. Everything they did was in harmony with Nature.

To the Iroquois, corn beans and squash are the three sisters. They are the sustainer of not only their phisical, but also spiritual lives. The Iroquois people are very smart. They utlize the different features of corn, beans and squash to make the most yield.

In the society of the Iroquois, women are the managers of farming. Furthermore, women possess the political power. Clan Mother is the leader of the clan, who has the right of choosing the meber of the council members and chiefs.

The Three Sisters

Gregg M. Thomas (1952- ), Nedrow, New York, Wolf clan, Onondaga, 1996

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Here's a website I found about the Mohawk Tribe:http://www.indians.org/articles/the-mohawk-tribe.html

The Mohawk Tribe lived around the Great Lakes and some parts in North America, which are Canada and the state of New York right now. They were just like the protectors of Iroquois from the invasions form the east. They became the allies of Britain later and fought against the United States in the Revolutionary War. A long time later, some the Mohawk have blended into Canadian and American, but there are still many living in the reservations. The hair style of shaved sides and left a stripe of hair in the middle is characteristic of the Mohawk people.

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Here is a website about Joseph Brant, one of the past leaders of the Mohawk Tribe:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Brant

Joseph Brant was the most famous North American Indian at the end of 17th to 18th century when he was alive. He was a Mohawk of the Wolf Clan. He could speak at least three languages, or even all of the six nations' languages. Therefore, he was a translator between the Indians and Britain. He helped his tribe get back many lands from the Americans. That was his most well-known deeds.

This is a parinting of Joseph Brant. I'm not sure if he has Mohawk or not because his feather hat covers his hair.

The Battle of Britain

2009-05-20T08:24:00.000-07:00

Here is a website about the battle of Britain:

http://www.raf.mod.uk/Bob1940/background.html

It tells about the background of the battle of Britain. Germany invaded Poland by using tanks, troops, and aircrafts at the same time, which was called Blitzkrieg. Then he attacked France by the same way and won again. At that time, both British and German aircrafts suffered heavy casualties. Fortunately, a bult of British reinforcement in France came back to Britain. Britain trained as many pilots as possible. In July 1940, Brtish air forces, RAF, grew into 600 fighters, but the Luftwaffe had 2600 bombers and fighters. It must be very hard for Britain to fight against Germany.

This is a brief picture of how the Sector Control Rooms of RAF control the fighters, anti-aircraft guns and balloon barrage. They sent the information of the incoming raids to the fighters and bombers and dispatched anti-aircraft guns and balloon barrage to protect the aircrafts.

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Here is another website I found about the battle of Britain:

http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/worldwarii/a/wwiiblitz_2.htm

The Luftwaffe invaded Britain more and more inland. Germany wanted to bomb the cities which many civilians lived inside. Nonetheless, Germany was too urgent to destroy Britain, The interval between the fighters came escoting the bombers was too long. The bombers became fragile targets, and many of them were destroyed by that way. Finally, Germany decided to attack the Soviet Union rather than Britain. The RAF successfully protected Britain.

German Military Uniforms

2009-04-29T07:44:00.000-07:00

Here's a website I found about the uniforms of German soldiers and officers:
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/german-ww2.htm

It talks about the uniforms of different levels and kinds of German soldiers. There's a variety of uniforms that German soldiers wore. I like the cap of German Luftwaffe (Pic 1) best. It looks very cool! Imagine that I am the pilot of a fighter plane in WWII. I turned left and right in the sky and shot all the enemies off. Bang!

I also like the pattern of a belt buckle of German soldiers in WWI (Pic 2). There is even a swastika, the symbol of the Nazi Party under the bird.

This is the cap that German Luftwaffe in WWII. Isn't it very cool?

The Army's WW1 "God is with us" belt buckle made a
return with a swastika added.

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Here's another website I found about German army uniform:
http://www.grantsmilitaria.com/militariaphotos/militaria_images.asp?key=06

This is a fake WWII German D.A.K. Soldier. It is in the standard tropical uniform of German soldiers of Motor Reconnaissance Unit. The helmet was repainted later.

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Here is a website about German military uniforms:
http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-uniforms/germany.htm

It has a really detailed and clear illustration about different uniforms of different departments, levels and weathers of German armies.

This Waffen-SS uniform is in the "mouse gray" or "mouse brown" color. There are many badges on his uniform. In the left of his chest, ther is a Close Combat clasp (Pic 5) , which is made of gold. There is also a Tank Destroyer badge (Pic 6) on the upper of his right arm. It means that the soldier who earned it destroyed at least one enemy tank.

Pic5

Pic6

This is the uniform of Waffen-SS, in winter camouflage. It can be reversed into snow-white color.

German Occupation

2009-04-15T08:16:00.000-07:00

Here's a website I found about German occupation of France in World War II:
http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/German_occupation_of_France_in_World_War_II
It tells about the resistence of French under German's occupation. German extracted a lot of money from French by the armistice with French signed in June 1940. The power of French was weak. Even though there weren't a lot of French resisted actively, but many of them supported the members of resistence secretly. They also listened to the banned BBC, and even helped lost Americans escape and British airmen go back to British. French organized armed groups underground in late 1942 and 1943. They got aids of weapons from parachute drops and solo landings at night by RAF, too. There were also directions from British radio. After the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944, the French armed resistance groups destroyed railway lines, and bridges systematically. They also communicate the intelligence from British.

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Here is a website I found about Hungary under German occupation:
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005458

In Hungary in World War Two, the Jews were deeply harmed by Germans. They were centralized in certain cities, and they were forced to live outdoor with inadequate food and water. Furthermore, German soldiers tortured them very often. Without a week, these cities were eliminated. About 63,000 Jews died in the the German occupation in March 1944. A terrifying amount of people died just in a occupation. Moreover, they weren't soldiers, they were merely innocent citizens, including women and children. We can see how a cruel thing German did.

This is a deserted street in the area of the Sighet Marmatiei ghetto after the deportation of the ghetto population.
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And here's a map of Hungary under the occupation.
http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/media_nm.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005458&MediaId=346

German occupied most of the near countries, and Hungary was one of them. Some of the countries on the map are neutral: Spain, Switz, Ireland and Sweden.

Blitzkrieg

2009-04-06T06:30:00.000-07:00

Here is a website I found about Junkers Ju 87 Stuka: http://science.howstuffworks.com/junkers-ju-87-stuka.htm

Ju 87 Stuka was an important bomber of Germany in WWI and II. It caused a great damage to Poland in 1939, the beginning of WWII, with its horrible noise and terrifying accuracy. Nonetheless, the situation of the war had turned against it when fighting Soviet Union in the East.

There is also a cool video about JU-88A-4 in this website. It was the most important bomber of Germans in WWII. It talks about its advantage and disadvantage, too. Its maximum speed is 295 mph. It doesn't have enough payload and defense armament. When the pilot changed to use the machine guns, the stuka was shot by its enimies. It says that this stuka wasn't good at fighting the east part of Soviet Union, because of the terrain of mountains brought it inferiority. Therefore, it can only be rated as the 8th dive-bombers.

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Here's a website I found about the blitzkrieg:
http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/blitzkrieg.htm

After Hitler defeated Poland in 1939 and Norway in April 1940, France thought that they were safe behind Maginot Line. It was able to defend another world war. In May 1940, Germany began the blitzkrieg against the Netherlands and Belgium. Their defending troops kept retreating and retreating, and lots of civilians fled from the front of the attack in haste. The bombers of German were filled in the sky, striking the retreating troops and escaping civilians with machine gun and bomb. Thousands and thousands of people died then. Then, the German invaded France and reached the English Channel. Nonetheless, German stopped there and went to north to secure the coastal ports and destroy the trapped armies. During the two days, British prepared and was ready to defend the German's attack, though Britain was the rest of its allies.

We can see how bold Hiter was that he dared to resist the military doctrine. Germany even planed to cut the resource of iron ore of Sweden, we can see how far Hiter looked forward. Hitler attacked Poland, Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium and France, and he even planned to invade Sweden and British later. We can see how huge the ambition Hitler possessed. He did a lot of amazing things.

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Pic 1 The first Junkers Ju 87 Stukas flew in 1935.

Pic 2 German panzer troops reachthe French coast, June 10, 1940

Bomb Shelters and Air Raid of WWII

2009-04-01T07:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a website I found about bomb shelters in WWII:

http://www.codoh.com/incon/inconpressac.html

Poison gas was used a lot in WWI, thus people were very afraid of it and tried to prevent it after WWI. German bomb shelters were made to secure from both bombs and poison gas. Nonetheless, poison gas wasn't used much in World War II.

For a better quality:

http://www.codoh.com/gcgv/gcturen.html

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Here's a website I found about the remaining bomb shelter of WWII in Naples:

http://www.larryray.com/images/index_files/air%20raid.htm

The shelters were mostly improvised at that time. They are approximately 200 feet deep underground. Now the shelters are still there and even opened to visit.

This is the shelter in Naples in World War Two.

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Here's a youtube video about WWII Air Raid Siren in the US I found:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7QD-GCae94&feature=related

For no reason, I found myself hate the the sound of the air raid siren instinctively while I was listening to it. The siren gave me an agonizing feeling. My head ached, and I felt very dizzy and wanted to vomit. I can hardly type what I learned from this video. I feel really miserable now.

A World Devided

2009-03-18T07:00:00.000-07:00

Fascism: Here's a website I found about some countries like Germany and Italy changed from democratic into fascist: http://www2.ministries-online.org/thenewworldorder/aglobgov.html

Germany was a democratic country before. Hitler gained strong political by propagandas, and he also became the spiritual leader of Germans. Hitler was the belief of Germans. Later, Hitler became the sole leader of Germant, and his Nazi Party took control of the entire Germany. The Nazi Party was the only government of Germany.

The left picture, Fasces, was the symbol of imperial power in ancient Rome. It is a bundle of sticks bound together, which represented the "many bound together as one."

Communism: Here's a website talks about the rise of the Communism of China: http://www.allaboutphilosophy.org/rise-of-communism-in-china-faq.htm

There were lots of people died in Boxer Rebellion in 1900. After that, Chinese were in extreme poverty. Mao Zedong helped many poor farmers, and the people hoped that someone ccould change the political parties and the whole country. Therefore, he strated Marxism and in 1921 its members established the Chinese Communist Party sucessfully. People loved him at the beginning. The communism was basically common ownership and production. Nevertheless, in Soviet communism, both them were forsaken, and only atheism and tyranny remain.

The belief of Marx is that a man's worth is the efforts he has made. If everyone has the state of equality, no one would strive hard to do better. I really agree what he said. The efforts we make are brought up by our believes of making better achievements.

Powwow

2009-03-11T05:46:00.000-07:00

Here is a website which has a introduction about the Powwows (or Pow Wows) :
http://www.powwows.com/info/?p=47

A Powwow is a traditional meeting of different tribes of Native American people with dancing and singing. In a Powwow, the singers are the most important part. There couldn't be any dancing if there are no songs. The songs are varied. There are songs about their religion, the wars, and even their societies. During the fusion of different tribes, the words of the old songs even change into vocables with no words. The Powwows nowadays are public to watch, and the flags they carry include the US, the tribes and the Pow. The Powwow starts with the Grand Entry, which goes through the town the Powwow is in. Then the dancers starts to dance. After that, the Indians have a prayer. Then, they begin Round Dances. Their clothes are also changing as time passes, so the costumes they wear are the fashion ones of different Tribes. Then all the Indians from different tribes dances along to the beat of the drums.

And here's a video of a part of a song with a drum of Powwow I found:
http://tv.powwows.com/video/2201/Northern-Cree-At-Toronto-Pow-Wow-2008

Approximately ten people sat around a drum with a kind of special drumsticks, which is thin in the handle and thicker on the tip, in their right hands. They sang the song with turns of singing by one person or together while playing the drum. These songs the Indians sing remind them their old tradition and heritage.

Here is another video I found which has some Powwow dances:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNOMG-TeEDQ&eurl=http://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?p=powwow&vc=&fr=yfp-t-501&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fp_ip

There is a variety of their costumes of the dancers. Some of them has several rows of feathers on it, some of them wear clothes with different stripes of colors, and some of them wear a hat with feathers. They dance along to the beat of drums rhythmically.

The Nazi Party

2009-03-04T05:17:00.000-08:00

Here is a website I found about the rise of the Nazi Party with timelines from 1918~1933: http://fcit.usf.edu/HOLOCAUST/TIMELINE/nazirise.HTM

It tells about the depression of economy in Germany and the unstable German government after WWI ends. Hitler joined the right-wing political party in 1919 and became the leader of it. He not only encouraged the German nation pride, but also promoted the antisemitic feelings. The Nazi Party gathers approximately 3,000 members in 1920. Hitler went to jail after the attempt at an armed overturn of local authorities. In the prison, Hitler wrote Mein Kampf which shows his radical ideas of German nationalism, antisemitism, and anti-Bolshevism. It also became the basic belief of the members of Nazi Party. He began rebuilding the Nazi Party after he had been freed from the prison. The amount of the members of the Party grows from 27,000 in 1925, to 108,000 in 1929. The Germany goverment was almost collapsing. In the elect in 1932, the Nazi Party won 37% of the vote.

In the rise of the Nazi Party, I can see the Germany's government was filled with arguments, and the economy of Germany was declinong continuously. On the other hand, the Nazi Party grew bigger and stronger during the depression. Even though Hitler went jailed for a short time, it didn't wither away. Instead, more and more people joined the Party. Finally, the Nazi Party pushed the German's government.

Here are some videos I found about the Nazi Party: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/407190/Nazi-Party

We can see there were thousands and thousands of people joined the Nazi Party. They believed in the passive leader, Adolf Hitler, could change thier lives better. They burned lots of books about Jews, and Germans hated Jewish people very much.

In another video on the right side, we can see Germans killing Jewish families, including children, women and old men and women. I think they were really, really brutal. They killed thousands of people without any feelings. Fortunately, I live in this peaceful generation and place. No wars happen around me.

Adolf Hitler's Childhood

2009-02-25T05:09:00.000-08:00

Here is a website I found about Hitler's boyhood:
http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/riseofhitler/boyhood.htm

Hitler went to a primary school when he was 6, and his father, Alois, who was 58 years old, retires at the same time. Hitler was accustomed to the ordes from his strict father, and seemed that Hitler would have the same habit of commanding others as his father. He lived in a crowded farming family of the three sons. Hitler had an elder half-brother, an elder half-sister, and a younger brother. He was in the middle of his brothers and sisters. They had a quite hard life. The oldest son, Alois Jr., was the one who was hit by his father occasionally. In the next year, 1896, Hitler's younger sister was borned. Moreover, Alois Jr. left the family, unable to endure his father. Thus, Hitler became the next one who was hit by his father.

The same time, Hitler's family moved into Lambach. Now he had more free time without farm works. He attended a Catholic Benedictine monastery. He saw many swastikas over there, and he also admired and considered to be a priest, like Abbot, who had held a great power. Hitler read a lot books about a white person who had sheer power and defeated Native Americans. One day, he found a book from his father about military nature with pictures of wars. He was deeply bewitched by it. He believed that wars were very glorious events.

I can see that Hitler borned in a violent family. He had a critical father, and that where how his violence originated. During the time he attended the monastery, his idol was Abbot because he also admired strong authority. Hitler read many books of wars and military later, and they really made him into the wrong way of thinking of wars.

The Meaning Of My Life

2009-02-11T04:36:00.000-08:00

I think the meaning of life is dreaming. To find your dream,the biggest wish and the deepest desire that you crave to fulfill and improve, and do your best to accomplish it, and don't let your family, your friends, your own worry and fear, your surroundings or anything else stop you! Just try! Besides, we have to find the strong and stable belief, faith and conscience of ourself and never disobey them. The last thing I think the meaning of life is happiness. We need to be contented of what we have and treasure them, or we can't be happy at all. Sometimes, if we look to far away, we forget the things I possess. We must hold right now first, and then we can plan our future. To enjoy every moment we live and chase our dreams. During the life, there are still many important things we need to learn: to love people and everything around you, to take on duties, to get rid of vexation, to face and conquer any kinds of predicaments, to challenge ourselves, etc... There still many things and meanings of life I have to learn. We should find, or create the meaning of our own lives by ourself. No one can help you about it but yourself.

Here is a website I found about how to accomplish your dream:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2256791_accomplish-dreams-simple-strategies.html?ref=fuel&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=ssp&utm_campaign=yssp_art

It tells the necessary steps to fulfill a dream, and it also says that the only way to really accomplish your dream is to do it RIGHT NOW.

Now, I must do something for my dream. I need to learn more knowledge which helps me make my dream come true. Therefore, I have to study hard right now. I will be able to fulfill my dream someday.

Farming Myths

2009-02-04T05:37:00.000-08:00

Here's a website I found about a goddess of farming, Demeter:
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/demeter.htm

Demeter is the earth goddess for greeks. Her name means the mother of the Earth. She controls every growing things and gives it birth such as grains. Persephone is her daughter, and Demeter is the daughter of Gaia, or the Earth. Demeter is also the sister of Zeus, Poseidon, Hades and Hera.

Here's another myth about Demeter's daughter, Persephone:
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/persephone.htm

Persephone's mother is Demeter, the goddess of harvests. One day, Persephone was abducted by her uncle, Hades. He took her to the Underworld and forced her to marry him and be the Queen of there. Demeter was really sad and looked for her daughter everywhere and finally appealed to Zeus. He told Hades to give Persephone back. However, Hades said if Persephone really eat nothing in th Underworld, he would give her back. Finally, she just ate six seeds of pomegrante. Therefore, Persephone was accepted to go back to the Earth for six months. In the other half year, she has to stay in the Underworld. That's how the seasons come.

Persephone is just like the grains. She grows up in the first six months. Then, she dies and was harvested. The grains go back to the ground, and the farmers put the seeds into the ground. Demeter is very sad and cries, the tears are the rainfalls.

Egyptian myths

2009-01-21T06:24:00.000-08:00

Here is a website of Egytian myths:http://www.nekhebet.com/m_myths.html

The Story of Ra : The Creation
There was nothing but chaos of water in the begining of the world. Then, Ra, the god of sun, created the ground, the air, and the sand by naming them. He could create things with merely a call of names. Ra named Shu, his son, the god of the wind, and Tefnet, his daughter, the god of the rain. He also created plants and the animals., and his tears became the first humans. Then Shu and Tefnet made their own children, Geb, the goddess of the earth, and Nut, the goddess of the sky. After the creation, he came down and became the first pharaoh of Egypt. He ruled Egypt for centuries, but His secret name was revealed by Osiris, the son of Nut. Ra was forced to leave. Then Osiris became the next Pharaoh.

I think Ra was kind of strange because his done of the births of his great grandson, Osiris, is contradictory to himself. He was afraid that he would take his place of the Pharoah and forbad his grandson, Nut, to have any children because of a prophecy. However, he had to go back to the sky finally.

The Rise of Horus
Osiris became the new pharoah of Egypt. He had a son named Horus with Isis. Osiris taught people how to grow grain, make bread with it and brew it for beer. People were happy under Osiris' rule. Nonetheless, Osiris' brother, set, was envious of him. He trapped Osiris in a chest to suffocate him and dropped it into the Nile River. Isis fled into wilderness with Horus. She started looking for the chest because Osiris needed a funeral to go on the afterlife. However, Set found the chest and cut Osiris' body to pieces and spread them to many countrysides. Isis found each of them and performed the funeral ceremonies. Horus grew up gradually. He and his armies fought with Set, which transformed into a giant hippo. Horus killed him and became the next pharoah of Egypt. After Horus died, he had a battle with Set in the underworld. They're still fighting right now. If Horus wins, he can go back and regain the place of pharoah.

Isis tried really hard to find Osiris' dead body for that he could pass into the underworld. She didn't fear hardship and finally accomplish that. Horus was really brave to fight with the murderer of his father, and he triumphed at the end.

Myths of Heroes

2009-01-14T05:23:00.000-08:00

Here are the myths of the heroes that I found on the Internet:

King Arthur http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths.html

King Arthur is born of adultery of Uther Pendragon and Igraine, a duke's wife. Merlin raises Arthur away from his parents and teaches him. Merlin is also the designer of the Round Table of 150 knights. After Uther dies, Merlin tells that the person who can draw a magical sword out from a stone can be the next king. Arthur becomes the new king resorting to drawing it out. He routs the Saxons and becomes a kind and just king.

King Arthur also searches for the Holy Grail with his knights. Sir Galahad, one of his king finds it, but not Arthur.

King Arthur marries Guinevere, which falls in love into another man. She and her new lover run away. During the chasing, Arthur's nephew seizes the power and fights with Arthur. Arthur is heavily wounded, and he goes to Isle of Avalon and rests there.

Even though Arthur was born of a really lowly background, he still became the king of Britain. Futhermore, he was a good and well-loving king. Nevertheless, he was betrayed by his wife and nephew. His nephew fought with Arthur for the power. The power is always making people decayed. People are arguing for stronger power all the time.

Hercules http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/myths/herakles.htm

Hercules is born of Zeus and Alcmene, so Hera, Zeus' wife, tries to kill him. Hercules becomes the strongest man in the world when he grows up. However, Hera uses her godly power to drive him crazy. He kills his wife and children. In order to astone for his sin, he has to accomplish twelve labors for Eurystheus. After he has done all them, his crime is expiated. Furthermore, he can become a god after he dies for doing all the labors. Nonetheless, he falls into a trap of a centaur, and his whole body is burning by the centaur's blood. Finally, he kills himself to end the pain. In the end, he becomes a God in Mount. Olympos.

Fire proves gold, and adversity proves men. After the twelve labors, Hercules became a real Hero. People are like this. If there are no straits and predicaments, people can't become strong and brave.

Mythology

2009-01-07T02:32:00.000-08:00

Here is a website I found about hunting myth, "The Man Who Helped the Eagles":
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-mytheagles.html

Pueblo Indians lower an Apache with a rope to a nest of eagles on a cliff, and they pull up the rope of the Apache and leave. He stays with the little eagles and feels thirsty. Then a person a person appears and gives him a small piece of ice and satisfies his thirst. The father eagle comes back home and thanks the Apache,DagônadeL, for taking care of the little birds. And then the eagle calls another group of eagles. They carry the man up to the sky hole? and find their enemies-hornets. DagônadeL puts on the buckskin made by Panther, one of the eagle, to protect himself from fatal stings and uses a quirt to kill the hornets. Then DagônadeL, Panther's grandson?, and other eagles come back their home.

I think this story is about the braveness of the Apache. He stays with the little eagles fearlessly. And then a person laughs below him, and that person jumps up to him and gives him a piece of ice which can satisfy him. The story becomes really strange right here. Anyway, the Apache goes up with the eagles and fights with the enemies bravely. Finally, I have many other questions: What's a "sky hole"? And what is the relationship of the Apache, DagônadeL, Panther, other eagles, and the secret person who gives the ice to the Apache?

Samurai

2008-10-29T05:36:00.000-07:00

I searched around on the Internet and found this web page:

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2127.html

Samurai were the Japanese military warriors. They used many kinds of weapons like spears, guns, bows and arrows, but the most famous one that they used before and some Japanese still use right now is the sword. We can even say that the sword is the symbol of Japan. The Japanese sword has been famous for its sharpness and beauty since feudal times. Today, a Japanese needs to possess a permit if he wants to keep a sword.

Samurai also had to follow a way of warrior called bushido. It was strongly Confucian. They focused on being loyal to their master and being disciplined to themself and respectful to others. Furthermore, they cared about showing ethical behaviors, too. Some samurai would prefer to kill themselves resorting to stabbing the swords penetrated through their bellies than die in a disgraceful way when they were lost in a battle.

This is a whole-bodied samurai armor. It can protect almost everywhere of one's body, but of course it's very heavy because of that. Even though the armor is really old, it still looks cool.

TED talks

2008-10-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

I watched Philip Zimbardo about How ordinary people become monsters ... or heroes:http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/philip_zimbardo_on_the_psychology_of_evil.html
He tells about how people becomes bad, not they're evil originally. The private reason that he said which can change people wicked is power. Then, he asks about what's the line of good and evil? Then he shows some pictures about Abu Ghraib Iraq Prison. The police officers were very brutal, they abused their authorities to torture their prisoners. They humiliated them resorting to taking off their clothes and hurting them. Philip asks who is responsible or what is responsible? He says a person's concept, cognition and behaviors are influenced by people and the circumstances around him/her. And then he tells that a person isn't absolutely good or evil, he/she possess both features of them.

I think that people are all influenced by the circumstances around us. If a person becomes bad because his/her family doesn't teach him/her well, are the parents wrong? However, they also influenced by the circumstances around them, or even the person's grandparents didn't teach the person's parents well. I still can't understand.

I also watched Caleb Chung's talk, and the web page is http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/caleb_chung_plays_with_pleo.html
He is a toy designer, and he shows the world of toy designs by a film, such as some toys to make snacks, fighting robots(the coolest), robot animals and even a moving chair which can make fire(he says that is the most dangerous toy he's ever met). Then he tells about a project of making toys that he's tried to make: a picture like the diagram of Tai Ji. One of its side is Art, and the other side is Science. Furthermore, there is a circle of Business surrounds it. That's the symbol of his project.

He planed to create a toy called Furby, it's special because it has complex structures inside, just like a robotic life-form. Then, he shows his designs and ideas on some pieces of paper. Furby is even has to be fed, and its body, eyes, ears and some other parts are movable. He also created another dinosaur toy. He analyzed the bone fossiles of real brontosaur, and the muscles that it might has. The shape of the dinosaur and the exercising joints were done. After revising and revising, the toy dinosaur is complete. He brings two real one on the locale. They're so exquisite, and their actions are very lifelike. In the end of his speech, he tells about his thoughts. Caleb Chung thinks that the toy dinosaurs are made for humans loving them as real babies, but they are a lot easier to take care of. On the other words, they can help people practice how to love someone. Moreover, he says that people should dreams. Parents ought not to limit their children dreaming.

I learn some things about making toys of course, the processes of making toys are very, very complicated. However, there's something a lot more important that he discusses in the last minute. People's dreams are very important because they are the motivations of everthing. If there are no dreams, people wouldn't have any progress. This is according to a book that I'm reading right now, its title is "The Last Lecture" . The author, a professor, has suffered from a cancer, and he has no much time to live. Therefore, he wanted to tell about his own life experiences in his speech in his college. He could also teach his three young children (all under six) after he died. The major thing he said in his lecture is accomplishing dreams in the childhoods. He mentioned Armstrong landing on the Moon. NASA spent millions of US dollars for it, what a great number of money! If it was spent on helping poor people on the Earth, how a worthful thing would it be! Nevertheless, he said that it was rather to fly to other heavenly body than help the limited poor people on the Earth. Maybe dreaming is a lot more important than I used to think, because it can motivate other people pursue their dreams. Then they can help even more people (but I still think helping poor people is better).

Environmental Issues

2008-09-29T05:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a website which tells about global environmental issues:
http://www.globalissues.org/

I went into the web page Climate Change and Global Warming and Environmental Issues, and I looked through some of their articles.

The global warming is the average of the temperature of the Earth increases. This is caused by human activities and some natural events. People are raising the quantities of greenhouse gases like Carbon Dioxide (CO2) , methane (CH4) and water vapor (H2O).

The greenhouse effect is the energy from the Sun heat the surface of the Earth. At the same time, Earth also radiates energy back into the space. However, some atmospheric gases trap the radiating energy from Earth, and the gases calls greenhouse gases. The greenhouse effect is the advance of the temperature of the Earth.

The main greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O). Moreover, there are three other fluorinated industrial gases: hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6). Furthermore, water vapor is also a kind of greenhouse gas. In the greenhouse gases, methane is the most inflential one, which is 20 times as potent as CO2.

Actually, the greenhouse effect is necessary for the living things on the Earth, Earth would be a lot colder and organisms couldn't live on it if we don't have them. Nevertheless, if the greenhouse gases were too much, the heat from the Sun couldn't go back to the space, the Earth would also be unlivable. Even though CO2 isn't the most potent greenhouse gas, it is the momentous one of them. Humans have caused a imbalance of nature carbon cycle. We increase the amount of CO2 by fossil fuel burning and deforestation etc. People transfer carbon dioxide from biomass (the total quantity or weight of animals and plants in a particular area or volume) to atmosphere. Because of this, the quantity of CO2 on the Earth is a lot higher than before. There is a picture shows the transferals of CO2. We can see the quantities of deforestation and manufacturing are the main causes CO2.

Image source: NASA.(Note, values shown represent Carbon Gigatons being absorbed and released)

The differences of varied organisms on the Earth are their diversity, and the biological diversity calls "biodiversity". The different ecosystems are all a part of biologically diverse Earth. The protection and limited development are very important for the nature. People notice the importance of nature envirment, they need to maintain the biodiversity. However, power, greed and politics have affected the precarious balance.

"At least 40 per cent of the world's economy and 80 per cent of the needs of the poor are derived from biological resources." If the nature is more diversity, the medical science and the economy can be better. Furthermore, the climate won't be aggravated, and people can't live on the Earth.The biodiversity is relative to climate changes. The rapid global warming can affect an ecosystems chances to adapt naturally. This emphasize the importance of protecting and lowering the destruction to nature.

Gaius Julius Caesar

2008-09-24T07:30:00.000-07:00

Here's a web page I found about Julius Caesar:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Caesar

Gaius Julius Caesar (July 13, 100 BC ~ March 15, 44 BC) was a politician of the populares tradition, and he formed an unofficial triumvirate with Marcus Licinius Crassus and Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus which dominated Roman politics for several years. The Roman world became really huge to the Atlantic Ocean by his conquest of Gaul, and he also led the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55 BC. His triumvirate collapsed because of the stand-off with Pompey and the Senate. He led his armies across the Rubicon, Caesar began a civil war in 49 BC from which he became the undisputed master of the Roman world.

After assuming of control the government, he started changing Roman society and government. He was even called "dictator in perpetuity". He centralized the bureaucracy of Roman Republic. A group of senators assassinated the dictator on March 15 in 44 BC, trying to let the Republic run normally. Nonetheless, it only started another Roman civil war.The result was establishment of a permanent autocracy by Gaius Octavianus, Caesar's adopted heir. In 42 BC, the Senate officially sanctified Caesar as one of the Roman deities.

This is an engraving of Gaius Julius Caesar.

Roman gladiator

2008-09-17T05:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a web page that I found about Roman gladiator:
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/games/circus.htm

Ancient Romans loved looking people fighting, they believed their gods did, too. A lot of Romans went to amphitheaters and payed money to see big and professional fightings. The amphitheaters were really big, they could contain thousands of people. Therefore, there must are good seats which could see the battles clearly and bad seats that could only see with an eagle's eyes.

The first fightings were armed men against animals which had brought from other faraway places, such as lions, tigers, alligators, bulls or ostriches. Most of the time, the animals were killed, but sometimes there were dead people's bodies on the battleground after a combat.

There is a lunchtime for audiences to take a break, and there were vendors who walked around and selled foods. During the time, there were some shows, too. They were some shows of singers, dancers or even criminals. They used some ways to kill the criminals, like: head cutting off, stabbing, pushing off a high tower or letting animals attack them. The ancient Romans believed that their gods loved to see justice done, and also liked to see criminals being killed.

After lunchtime, there were another shows of men versus men. The criminals or sometimes even slaves were taken to the arena. They only had inferior weapons against the perfectly armed warriors. Mostly, the criminals or slaves were all dead, but in small towns, some of the fightings were continued until someone was injured.

This is a Roman amphitheater. It becomes incomplete now. The perimeter of it are full of cars, but it's still majestical. It's still worth to take a look at the arena.

This is Amphitheater of El Djem, in Tunisia of North Africa. Furthermore, it is the second biggest in the Roman Empire, after the Colosseum in Rome.

Roman Art

2008-09-11T03:40:00.000-07:00

Here is a web page I found about Roman art:
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/art/index.htm

Roman art wass basic on Etruscan, so it was similar as Greek art. The time Roman art really developed as its own type is 500BC, which was also the time of the beginning of the Roman Republic. Romans liked the portraiture particularly, and they focused on the reality of a statue. Furthermore, many of the Romans believed that having a good image of someone's face was important to keep its spirit happy and the spirit wouldn't haunt you after the owner died.

Around 200BC, Romans started conquering Greece, and their styles of art changed a lot because of that. When the Roman sodiers was marching through Greece, they saw a lot of Greek art in the temples, cemetaries, public squares and people's houses. They thought Greek art is better than their own's. Therefore, they wanted to learn some of it whatever it was. They brought some artistic productions and even some sculptors as slaves.

This is a statue of Marcus Tullius Cicero, the man generally perceived to be one of the most versatile minds of ancient Rome.

Roman Society

2008-09-03T07:08:00.000-07:00

Here's a website about ancient Rome:http://www.historyforkids.org/
I looked through the webpage of Ancient Roman People:
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/romans/people/index.htm

The ancient Roman Empire was very big. There were a lot of different people with different cultures lived in Rome, and Roman families had many different forms, too. Furthermore, the laws between men and women in Rome are similar than Greek and Islamic laws. The different cultures traveled around Rome interflowing with each other. It seemed good, it had multiple cultures. However, the variety a cultures sometimes caused some problems, and even more violent. There were many people forced to be slaves everywhere in Roman Empire. Nonetheless, not all the slaveries were really bad treated. It was depended on the time and the place. In Italy and Sicily, big farms were worked by slave field-hands, who were really bad treated of rich people. Moreover, some slaves were criminals. They worked in the mines or other hard labors as their punishment. On the other hand, most slaves were merely house servants. A lot of slaves also worked for the Roman government, or for private businesses, running a shop, working in small factories. They were also nice treated.

In Roman Empire, boys went to school mostly in city, but girl weren't allowed to study there. Nevertheless, in the countryside, people merely knew hoe to read and write. Yet many of them traveled to other places for education.

Most marriages of rich people were arranged by their parents, they couldn't marry the poor people except their parents agreed.

Baths of Rome

2008-08-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

Here is a website I found about ancient Rome:
http://www.therthdimension.org

In the webpage of ancient Rome, click another link of sanitation. The water that Romans used was originated from Anio valley, not Tiber river, and they were for public fountains and baths. Only the rich people in Roman could afford taking water with pipes into their houses. The rain water in Rome usually used for their household water, not for drinking. However, the poor Romans had to get their water from the public fountains, or by hiring an Aquarius, a contractor whose business was delivering water.

The public baths weren't only for poor people to clean theirselves, but also met their friends and socialized with other people. Moreover, it's a place to get an athletic workout, make their body healthy and warm.

Ehem!
(take a look at the webpage Epithets and Other Roman Interjections)

Islam

2008-06-25T23:07:00.000-07:00

I searched around on the Internet and found this website:

http://www.islamreligion.com/

I looked through the link What is Islam? (part 3 of 4): The Essential Beliefs of Islam in What is Islam of Beliefs of Islam.

Islams believe that there is only one God severely. Islam teaches belief in one God who doesn't gives birth and wasn't born himself, and has no share in his caretaking of the world. He alone gives life, causes death, brings good, causes affliction, and provides sustenance for his creation. Islams think their God is the only creator, Lord, sustainer, ruler, judge, and Savior of the universe. All the worship is to be directed to God and no one else.

Followers of Islam must believe in the Unseen world as mentioned in the Quran. From this world are the angels' emissaries of God, each of them have no free-will or ability to disobey; it is their very nature to be God's faithful servants. Angels are not to be taken as demigods or objects of praise or veneration; they are mere servants of God obeying His every command.

Christianity

2008-06-15T00:43:00.000-07:00

I searched around on the internet and found this webpage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/basics_1.shtml

The history of Christianity is approximately same as Judaism, they have the same God. But Jews only believe in the God in the Old Testament of Bible. And Christians believe in the Old and also the New Testament of Bible, and there is a son of God called Jesus.

Christians believe that there is only one God, whom is the same God as Judaism. And they also believe that Jesus is the son of God and the messiah who can save them. Jesus was the love of God and love of one's neighbour, and he said that he had come to fulfil God's law rather than teach it.

Christians believe in the Trinity - that is in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Some people may confuse with this and think that Christians believe in three separate gods, but they don't. Christians believe that God took human form as Jesus Christ and that God is present today through the work of the Holy Spirit and evident in the actions of believers.

Furthermore, Christians have a special holy day, Easter.

The Introduction of Easter

Easter is the commemoration of Resurrection of Jesus, it's the most important Christian festival. Churches are filled with flowers, and there are special hymns and songs. But there are some that aren't Christian, like the Easter Bunny, was originated from Pagan. The date of Easter changes every year, and some other Christian festivals also change their dates by reference to Easter.

The history of Easter

On Good Friday, Jesus Christ was executed by crucifixion that enforced by Jews. They took his body down from the cross, and buried in a cave. The tomb was guarded and the entrance was blocked by an huge stone, so no one could steal the body. On the following Sunday, some women visited the grave and found that the stone had been moved, and the tomb was empty. Moreover, some people saw Jesus on that day, and for days afterward by many people. His followers understood that Jesus had resurrected by God.

Judaism

2008-06-11T06:42:00.000-07:00

I searched around on the Internet, but I couldn't find any website. Therfore, I found this webpage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/
The early part of the story of Judaism is written in the Old Testament of Hebrew Bible. It describes how God chose the Jews to be an example to the world, and how God and Jews worked out their relationship. Most of the time, it was a stormy relationship. God changed and developed his people alongside. Jewish history begins during the Bronze age in the Middle East. Abraham was the father that chosen by God of people who would be special to God. God guided the Jewish people passing through many troubles. And at the time of Moses, he gave them a set of rules by which they should live.

Jews believe that there is a single God who not only created the universe, but also whom every Jew can have a personal relationship. They believe that God has continued to work in the world, affect everything that people do. The Jews keep God's laws and seek to bring holiness into every aspect of their lives.

Daoism

2008-06-04T06:21:00.000-07:00

Teacher Aaron: Because I did the blog homework this time, and didn't do my last homework. I'm going do the last womework.

I searched around on the Internet and found this website:http://www.daoiststudies.org/
I clicked the link a short history of daoism.

I learned that Daoism is an organised religion, and it's been keeping chaging and developing since it originated from China. Daoism has spread all over the world, it becomes a world religion now. However, there aren't many people know what Daoism is now. Moreover, when people have an understanding of it, they often have quite different understanding from someone else's.

The history of Daoism can conveniently be divided into four periods: Proto-Daoism, Classical Daoism, Modern Daoism and Contemporary Daoism.

The first period, Proto-Daoism, was from antiquity to the 2nd century A.D. The Daode jing (I studied Dao De Ching in class), and the Zhuangzi (I studied Chuang Tzu in class) in particular, were written during this period. They were highly influential to the flourishing of the classical Daoist tradition. Many textbooks on world religions still take this period as representing the essence of Daoism.

The second period, Classical Daoism, started in 142 A.D. When Zhang Daoling established the Way of the Celestial Masters, he also known as the Way of Orthodox Unity, the first successful organized Daoist religious system. Daoist priests of today also claim in a lineage that stretches back to this original founder. This period between the 2nd and the 7th centuries called the classical period because scholars of Daoism look back to this time which also known as the medieval period of Chinese history, as the era in which many Daoist practices, texts and rituals initially took shape. During this period, Buddhism was brought to China by missioners from India and Tibet. Daoism took some ideas and practices from Buddhism. Nonetheless, there were also periods rivalry between them. The classical period of Daoism ends with the Tang dynasty--one of the high-points of Chinese civilization from the point of view of the development of art and culture. During the Tang dynasty Daoism became fully completed with the imperial court system particularly under the reign of the Xuanzong Emperor. During this time, Daoism functioned ahead of Buddhism.

The third period, Modern Daoism, started in Song Dynasty. On the syncretism that began in this period, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate out Daoism as a religious category from the popular Chinese religious culture as it functions on the ground. The most significant event in terms of elite Daoism was the founding of the Way of Complete Perfection by Wang Zhe.

The fourth period, Contemporary Daoism, since in 1914 A.D, it has been a near-total catastrophe for Daoism. Especially during the period of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution when many Daoist temples were destroyed and the opened functioning of the religion to all intents and purposes ceased to exist in mainland China. Daoism has begun to be practiced openly again in China and a new generation of Daoists are struggling to rebuild their temples and recover their tradition since 1980. In the other hand, a lot of Chinese people emigrate across the world, many
Daoist temples have been established in Europe. The Americas and elsewhere and many popular Daoist practices have taken root in the West. It wasn't certain that Daoism had survived this cataclysmic upheaval until recently. But the study and practice of Daoism is going to floursh again in China and all over the world.

Sikhism

2008-05-28T06:54:00.000-07:00

I searched around on the Internet and found this website: http://www.sikhs.org/
The word "Sikh" in the Punjabi language means "disciple". Sikhs are the believers of God who follow the writings and teachings of the Ten Sikh Gurus. The wisdom of these teachings in Sri Guru Granth Sahib are practical and universal in their appeal to all mankind. They believe that there is only One God, he is the same God for all people of all religions. They think souls go through cycles of births and deaths before it reaches the human form. The goal of our life is to lead an exemplary existence so that one may merge with God. Sikhs should remember God at all times and practice living a virtuous and truthful life while maintaining a balance between their spiritual obligations and temporal obligations. The true path for them to achieving salvation and merging with God does not require renunciation of the world or celibacy, but living the life of a householder, earning a honest living and avoiding worldly temptations and sins.

Guru Nanakwas the founder of the Sikh religion, and he was born in 1469. He preached a message of love and understanding and criticized the blind rituals of the Hindus and Muslims. Guru Nanak passed on his knowledgeable leadership of this new religion to nine successive Gurus. Guru Gobind Singh, the final living Guru, died in 1708.

Hinduism

2008-05-19T07:44:00.000-07:00

I searched on the Internet and found this website:http://www.hinduism.co.za/

I looked through the webpage Hinduism Brief Sketch. It is about the three religions now stand in the world, which have come down to us from time prehistoric-Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. And Hinduism was developed by Hindus. The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. Vedas mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons into different times. The law of gravity existed before its discovery, and exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual relations were there before their discovery, and would remain even if we forgot them.

And then I looked through another webpage Yoga. Raja-Yoga is the raja of Yogas, and as a sign of royalty it is often spoken of as YOGA without any further qualification or designation. It is the uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all pervading Soul is said to be Knowledge of the foremost kind.

My Book Report

2008-05-11T01:54:00.000-07:00

Summary
Harry is a simple ten-year-old boy. His parents died, so he lives in his uncle's house. On his eleventh birthday, a giant—Hagrid—sends him a letter from a magic school called Hogwarts, and says that Harry is a wizard. Then Harry knows that his parents were killed by the most evil wizard, Voldemort. However, he vanished strangely after he tried to kill Harry.

There are four different houses in Hogwarts:Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Revenclaw, and Slytherin, and Harry is in Griffindor. There are a lot of courses in magic that Harry has to learn, and he makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He also meets a boy that is in Slytherin, Malfoy whom he hates a lot. The teacher of Potions, Professor Snape hates Harry as well, and he always blames and sneers at Harry, favoring the students in his own house, especially Malfoy. Therefore, Harry hates Snape a lot, too.

Harry has a talent for Qudditch, a wizard's sport. In his very first flying lesson, Professor McGonagall sees he's good at Qudditch, and lets him on Gryffindor's Qudditch team.

In the middle of his first Quidditch match flying on his broom, his broomstick shakes out of control. Then Ron and Hermione see that Snape is cursing his broom. They interfere with Snape's curse by setting him on fire, and then Harry's broom flies regularly again. Harry catches the Snitch—a tiny golden ball, which earns 150 points for the team who catches it—and wins the game.

At midnight one night, Harry accidentally goes into the forbidden corridor on the third floor with Ron and Hermione. They see a wild three-headed-dog guarding something on a trapdoor. They are frightened and run away.

At Halloween, there is a troll in Hogwarts. Harry sees Snape runs into the forbidden corridor. Harry, Ron and Hermione discover that the dog is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone which can make things turn into gold and grants people immorality. Therefore, they think that Snape wants to steal it and give it to his master, Voldemort. Moreover, Harry even sees Snape bullying Quirrell, another professor.

Snape is going to steal the stone tonight; Ron and Hermione want to stop him. They unite together and go through the violent dog using music to soothe it, and pass the barriers the professors used to guard the stone. Finally, there is only one person who can go through the black fire in front of them, and it's Harry. However, he doesn't see Snape there. The person who wants to steal the stone is Professor Quirrell!

Quirrell tries to get the magic stone, but he can't get it from the magic mirror in the room. Harry sees that the stone is in his pocket in the mirror, and then he feels something real in his pocket. He has the stone. Quirrell unwraps the turban on his head, and on the back side of his face is Voldemort's face. He tries to catch Harry. However, when his hands touch Harry, they are burnt. Then Quirrell raises his wand to curse Harry, Harry jumps toward Quirrell and holds him bravely. He defeats Voldemort again. Harry's mother tried to protect him when he was baby, so she died defending him. The magic of Love has gone into Harry's body, and she protected him from her killer.

My Thoughts
I think that this book consumed a lot of the author's time and soul to write. The plot of this book kept building and building up to a high point. For example: when Harry, Ron and Hermione defeat the three-headed-dog, the dangerous plants, the room with thousands of keys—and find the only key to open the door—the giant wizard chess, and the potions with a logic riddle. Then Harry find Quirrell in the room, not Snape. It is a surprise. In fact, when the plot turns a bit dangerous or scary, it always surprises me. My heart always beats faster. I really enjoyed reading this book, so I just couldn't close it. Moreover, there isn't only good action in the story; there is also a lot of dialogue and learning. Sometimes their chats are full of humor, especially Ron's brothers—Fred and George. For example, their mother often can't identify the twins, and they usually joke that she's not really their mother. Even though their mother recognizes them correctly, they also trick her by saying she's wrong.

I had already seen the movie before I read this, and knew what would happen. Because of that, this book wasn't so exciting to me, but I still enjoyed reading it. Furthermore, the book is a lot more detailed and clearer than the movie. Therefore, I love this book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

I also think the characters are really good, like Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The author described them well: their appearances, the thoughts in their minds, and changes in their personalities. Moreover, they experience many things together, like defeating the troll, going to the forbidden forest, keeping a dragon, and passing the barriers that protect the Sorcerer's Stone. Then they grow up after going through these experiences. For example, Harry was a thin and weak boy in the beginning, and his cousin always bullied him. Later, he becomes a wizard, makes friends, and becomes a lot braver.
Ron's brothers had been head boy, captain of the Qudditch team, and prefect, so he'd been overshadowed by them. Then, he sacrifices himself and defeats the giant wizard chess created by Professor McGonagall. He becomes braver.

Hermione Granger was born in a Muggle family (people that can't use magic) family. Then she studies hard and reads a lot of books, so she becomes the smartest student in Gryffindor. Moreover, she becomes more unpretentious after she makes friends with Harry and Ron.

The setting of the story is in the modern world, though there is another magic world like beside it. I think it is fun that there are two worlds beside each other, and that there is a strong difference between them. The magic world still uses parchments and quills, and it also uses herbs and roots for medicine. Furthermore, its mail is carried by owls. The science of the modern Muggle world develops and changes with each passing day;—cars, steamships, airplanes and even spaceships—however, the other world can use magic to travel around in only a few seconds, which is actually a lot faster than us.

I don't have many criticisms of this book; I think there is only a bit of details that are vague. For example, there isn't any clear description of why Harry saw his family in the Mirror of Erised the he first time he saw it in the room, and the second time he sees it he takes out the Sorcerer's Stone from his pocket. Furthermore, there isn't any obvious description of how Harry gets the Sorcerer's Stone from the mirror. Otherwise, I think this book is pretty good.

The ending of this book is that the love of Harry's mother protects him and defeats Voldemort, even though she's dead. I think the ending is really great. The plot kept building up, and the ending was very surprising, and I was moved by it.

What I Learned
This story is full of courage, friendships, and unitedness. In the story of Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone, I learned that courage is important. We shouldn't hesitate and be afraid to try things; just do them bravely. If we don't try things, we'll never have a chance.

Friendships and unitedness are important, too. Two heads are better than one. If we can't unite together, we are a grain of loose sand in a state of separation from the beach. Wars will continue, and people will make stronger and more dangerous weapons to fight each other. That won't help anyone, only aggravating the environment. If many friends walk together, each of them can support the others. Furthermore, they can use the merits of their friends. They can also learn from the lessons drawn from others' mistakes.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione defeat the villain together, and learn more things during their adventures. This symbolizes that we can learn lessons after we've done things. In our life, we go through many things. When we're going through our life, we should gain knowledge and learn to face challenges as a result. If we try more things, we gain more experiences.

In the story, Harry looks at the Mirror of Erised to see his family, because his deepest desire is to be together with them. However, it doesn't grant truth or knowledge. Therefore, Harry stops doing it, but it isn't easy to escape the deepest desire in his heart. He always has nightmares when he is sleeping, but they vanish gradually. In real life, there are many temptations, and we have to learn to restrict ourselves.

In the ending the love of Harry's mother protects him and defeats Voldemort, even though she’s already died. Harry's mother sacrificed herself to protect him. I was really moved by this. We should learn a lesson from her sacrifice, and treasure the things that we possess, especially our families. They help us a lot and don't care about gain or loss.
When I started reading this English book, I read it at a really slow speed, like a turtle and had a hard time understanding the meaning. Moreover, at that time, I usually stopped to look in the dictionary. A few weeks later, I found that I could read it faster and enjoyed reading it more. Then I could read it as I was reading the Chinese version. Furthermore, I learned a lot of new words from it. My English got a lot better. Now, I can read English sentences and understand them faster, and don't have to translate them into Chinese in my mind. My translation of English to Chinese isn't better than before, but that's OK.

In conclusion, I think this book is really exciting and splendid. Furthermore, there are a lot of lessons we can learn from the wise saw and the courage, friendships, unitedness, love, wisdom and honesty in the book. Like the attitude to face the life and knowledge. I think this book worth a lot, and I suggest you to buy this book. Moreover, there are other six books of the sequel of this book, I also propose you to buy all them.

Buddhism

2008-05-06T07:07:00.000-07:00

I surfed the Internet around and found this website:

http://www.buddhism.org/

There are some dharma talkings of Venerable Master Hye-Am, and I looked through No Buddha-Nature Outside of the Mind of Bodhidharma's talk on lineage. It is about the talking of Bodhidharma and his students. A student asked "If we do not depend upon any written word, with what and how do we conceive the mind?" "When you are asking me, that is your mind. When I am responding to you, that is my mind; from the ancient, beginningless time, each and every movement in all different times and places is your original mind and your original Buddha." Bodhidharma said. It means that Self, as it is , is its own mind; the mind in itself is this Buddha. That is the reason it has been said, the mind in itself is Buddha in himself.

Buddhas have spoken the mind only:

Only the mind is Buddha,

Only Buddha is the mind;

Buddha exists not outside of the mind,

Mind exists not outside of Buddha.

It means that if you see Buddha is just your mind, then do not seek Buddha outside of the mind. Buddha cannot be liberated by Buddha, and Buddha cannot be seen if sought with the kind.

Ancient Persia

2008-04-26T01:28:00.000-07:00

I searched around on the internet and I can't found any website, so I found this this webpage and looked through it:
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/oldworld/middle_east/ancientpersia.html
It talks about before the Neolithic Period, the first communities in ancient Persia. The Persians domesticated animals and planted crops, like wheat and barely. There are many hand painted pottery of artifacts that found in many ancient Persian archeological sites. Persians was a really big and powerful empire, it ruled many other empires. Like Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, and some parts of Asia Minor and India. Around 520B.C., Darius I became the king of Persia, he made Persepolis the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenian Empire. Persepolis was developed more by other kings, and most of the credit was given to Darius I. Darius I also developed a government, including a tax collecting system, allowed locals to keep their own customs and religions and had its own system of roads. Furthermore, the new government also appointed the Persian Empire with two official capitals, one at Susa and one at Persepolis. Unfortunately, Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 331 BC, and the great palace of Persepolis was burnt to the ground.

I found another webpage:

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/forgottenempire/

It talks about the Persian Empire was founded in around 550 BC by Cyrus II, called Cyrus the Great. Cyrus founded the empire by conquering the Median kingdom, bringing together two powerful ancient peoples: the Medes and the Persians. He built capital cities at Pasargadae and Persepolis, and continued conquering new territory until his death in 530 B.C.

His empire lasted for 200 years, encompassing diverse peoples and reaching its greatest extent under Darius I. defeated King Croesus of Lydia, in modern Turkey, in 546 BC and capturing Babylon in modern Iraq in 539 BC.

I also found a picture in this website. It is the tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae. It is rather big, and in the cuture of many ancient countries, the tombs of kings are huge. I think it consume much manpower, although it isn't bigger than pyramids in Egypt.

Babylon

2008-04-05T23:57:00.000-07:00

I searched around on the internet, but I can't found any website. Therefore, I found this webpage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon It talks about the Babylon. Babylon was a city of ancient Mesopotamia, and we can find the ruins of it in Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, and about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad. Babylon was in the beginning a small town that had sprung up in about 3000 B.C, and it flourished and attained prominence and political repute with the rise of the first Babylonian dynasty. The town was the "holy city" of Babylonia by approximately 2300 BC, and the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 612 B.C. And there is a famous building--The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

And I found another webpage : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon This webpage is about The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, they were built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 B.C. He built the gardens to please his wife, Amytis of Media, who want the trees and fragrant plants of her homeland. The gardens were destroyed by several earthquakes after the 2nd century B.C. The Hanging Gardens were extensived documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. Through the ages, the place of them may have been confused with gardens that existed at Nineveh, since tablets from there clearly show gardens. Writings on these tablets describe the possible use of something similar to an Archimedes' screw as a process of raising the water to the required height. Moreover, I found this picture :

This is the ancient depiction of the Hanging Gardens. Irrigation on a man-made slope. It is the picture of The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, there are abundant of beautiful trees, plants and river beside the gorgeous building. It might waste a lot of money and manpower to build these huge and resplendent gardens.

Israel Current Events

2008-04-02T06:38:00.000-07:00

I looked around on the internet and found this webpage : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict
This webpage is about the Lebanon War in 2006. The war stated on July 12th of 2006, and formally ended on September 8th of 2006. It was a 33-day military conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel. The conflict began when Hezbollah soldiers fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence. Of the seven Israeli soldiers in the two jeeps, two were wounded, three were killed, and two were captured and taken to Lebanon. Five more were killed in a failed Israeli rescue attempt. Then Israel fight back with abundant of airstrikes and artillery fire on targets in Lebanon and damaged Lebanese civilian infrastructure. Hezbollah then launched more rockets into northern Israel and engaged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in guerrilla warfare from hardened positions. There are a thousand and more people died in Lebanon War, and most of them were Lebanese civilians. Moreover, there was a severely damage of Lebanese infrastructure, and displaced 974,184 Lebanese and 300,000-500,000 Israelis. After the ceasefire, some parts of Southern Lebanon remained uninhabitable due to unexploded cluster bomblets. On 11 August 2006, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved UN Resolution 1701 in an effort to end the hostilities. The resolution was approved by both Lebanese and Israeli governments the following days, called for disarmament of Hezbollah. It was for withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon, and for the deployment of Lebanese soldiers and an enlarged United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) force in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese army began deploying in southern Lebanon on 17 August 2006. The blockade was lifted on 8 September 2006. On 1 October 2006, most Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon, though the last of the troops continued to occupy the border-straddling village of Ghajar. In the time since the enactment of UNSCR 1701 both the Lebanese government and UNIFIL have stated that they will not disarm Hezbollah.

I think that we must stop wars, because it could kill many people, break many families, waste a lot of resources, contaminate the Earth and even a lot more problems......etc. Furthermore, the science is developed forward a lot, and the nuclear weapons would make a lot more damage and contamination in the world. Therefore, I think we should stop the wars and live peaceful. Not only for our own selves, but also for everyone in the world.

Ancient Hebrew

2008-03-27T00:08:00.000-07:00

Here is the website that I found:

http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/index.html

The Ancient Hebrew alphabet 4,000 year old Inscription was found in the land of Israel and is composed of three letters written in the ancient pictographic Hebrew script. Some of the letter of the inscription is the aleph.

The Hebrew Bible (called the Tenack by Jews and the Old Testament by Christians) was originally written in this pictographic Hebrew script byHebrews whose language, culture and lifestyle were very different than our own in 2,500 to 3,500 years ago. The word rain is a good example of how culture can influence one's view of a word. Nowadays, the word "rain" means a spoiled picnic but to the ancient Hebrews, "rain" meant life, for without it their nomadic life would end. Without a cultural understanding of the words in the Bible, much is missed or overlooked.

Drunk Driver

2008-03-15T02:10:00.001-07:00

Here are the websites that I found about drunk drivers :
http://www.madd.org/

The first website is made by 'MADD'. 'MADD' means Mothers Against Drunk Driving. It is about the actions to eliminate drunk drivings, like teaching the students not to drink alcohol and use drug, to take a step to save lives by participating in walk like MADD, teaching parents to take care the children.

Official website

2008-03-12T06:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the official website I found of J. K. Rowling :
http://www.jkrowling.com/en/

There are many introductions of J. K. Rowling's books and news. And there are many interesting links of J. K. Rowling's fans. And furthermore there are some manuscripts of Harry Potter there. Of course that there are some informations of her, she spents ten minutes to ten hours for writing a day. And she likes the charters--Harry, Ron, Herione, Hagrid, Jinny, Dumbledore, Fred, George and Lupin in Harry Potter, the story. Moreover, there are some hidden clicks that would jump out some pictures in the story of Harry Potter that she drew by herself.

Minoan Cretan Art

2008-03-05T02:24:00.000-08:00

Here is the website that I found about Minoan Cretan art:

http://www.crete-holidays.net/cretan_art_eng.html

The Cretan art originate in the Minoan period in 2500 B.C. In the early Minoan period, the Cretan civilization got ahead of the near contries. The Cretan even traded the Cretan art for hundreds and hundreds of years. The excavations that we discovered show that life on Cretan was about 5000 years ago. It means that there was only alittle finding is related to relagions, and there aren't any temples or important religious monuments were exposed. Nowadays the influence of the Greek Orthodox Church is present in many ways. We think that maybe this was the reason that the Greeks are not the trade people as in the past. And the website has a travel of five days of Cretan art, and there are some beautiful art pictures there.

Egyptian Mythology

2008-02-27T21:08:00.000-08:00

Heren is the website I found about Egyptain God and Mythology:

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/religion/mythology.htm

Ancient Egyptians tried to understand their place in the universe and their mythology centers itself on nature, the earth, sky, moon, sun, stars, and the Nile River. Heliopolis, the City of the Sun, is located in the ruins of Yunu in northeast Cairo. And the cosmic creation of Egyptian myth began here. Ancient Egyptian mythology states all began with Nu. Nu is the description of what the planet was before land appeared. It was a vast area of swirling watery chaos and as the floods receded the land appeared. The first god to appear out of this watery mess was Atum. This myth was probably created because of the large source of water from the Nile River.

Atum emerged from Nu as the sun god at the beginning of time and is the creator of the world. The ancient Egyptians found the bisexual act acceptable, as they found all types of sexual orientations acceptable. Atum gave birth to two children by spitting out his son-Shu and vomiting up his daughter-Tefnut. Shu represented the air and the principles of life and Tefnut represented rain and principles of order. Shu and Tefnut later gave birth to Geb, the god of the earth in which the throne of the Pharaoh would be decided. Nut was also born from Tefnut and Shu as the Goddess of the sky, the separator between earth and Nu. Nut was also born from Tefnut and Shu as the Goddess of the sky, the separator between earth and Nu. Then Geb and Nut gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys.

In ancient Egyptian mythology there is an established kinship of the gods and goddesses. Atum is known also as Khepri, the great scarab beetle, Ra-Harakhte, the winged-solar disk, Ra, the midday sun, Aten, the solar-disk, or Horus on the Horizon. Atum, is the one and only creator in the universe. The sun god Atum travels along Nut during the day and then is swallowed by Nut at night. At dawn it is seen as Nut giving birth to Atum as the sky opens up to the light.

One of the most famous Egyptian myths is the myth of Osiris. Osiris has been credited with many different titles, god of fertility, king of the dead, god of agriculture, god of the underworld, controller of the Nile floods, the rising and setting of the sun. All of these titles have one thing in common: life, death, and rebirth because the myth of Osiris is attributed to his life, murder, and eternal life after death. The myth of Osiris begins when he sets out to spread law and order across the land and to teach people how to farm. Because Osiris was a powerful king and popular with the people, his jealous brother lured him into a coffin and sealed his fate with molten lead. Seth then sent him down the Nile River in the coffin. Later the coffin washed ashore in Lebanon and a tree encased it. A king of Lebanon was impressed by the size of the tree and cut it down and put it in his palace.

Isis was the wife and sister to Osiris who gave birth to Horus and was the protector of the dead. When she received the news of Osiris's death, she knew the dead could not rest without a proper burial. Isis searched and found Osiris' body and brought it back to Egypt. Seth found this unacceptable and cut Osiris into many pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt. Isis set out again and had all the pieces she found made into wax duplicates. All the wax duplicates were placed in the temple to be worshipped. Isis preserved his body with linen bandages, used her magic and breathed life back into Osiris. Osiris then rose as a God-King and he chose to rule the underworld. This is where the roots of mummification and rebirth into the afterworld began.

Egyptian Mummies

2008-02-13T05:37:00.000-08:00

Here is the website that I found about the Egyptian Mummies:
http://www.worsleyschool.net/socialarts/mummy/page.html

Mummies are bodies that have been preserved after death.Although many long-ago cultures prepared their dead as mummies, the most well-known examples are the mummies prepared by the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians believed that it was necessary to preserve a body in order to allow the soul to survive.

The earliest ancient Egyptian mummies were preserved by heat and dryness, the heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly. Later, the Egyptians began putting the dead bodies into coffins to protect them from the desert. But the mommies dacayed in the coffins. Over many centuries, the Egyptians embalmed the dead bodies and wrapped them in strips of linen.

Egyptian embalming methods involved the removal of the brain and organs from the body. And then the body was immersed in carbonate of soda, and the cavities were filled with a mixture of herbs, salt, and other substances. Finally, the body was wound with cloths saturated with similar materials.

The mummification process took seventy days. Special priests did the embalming, and it took the detailed knowledge of human anatomy. The brain was removed by carefully inserting special hooked instruments up through the nostrils, in order to pull out bits of brain tissue. It was a delicate operation, it was really easy to disfigure the face when they did this.

The embalmers then removed the organs through a cut made on the side of the abdomen. They left only the heart in place, believing it to be the center of a person's being and intelligence. Next, moisture was removed from the remaining tissue by packing the insides with a type of salt. After this was removed, the mummy was made even more life-like by filling sunken areas of the body with linen and other materials. And then they added the fake eyes, and painted the bodies usually. And for adornment, they added the jewelry. And the wrapping of the mummy. Every part of the body was wrapped individually. For instance, the hands, head, arms, feet, legs were all wrapped separately from the rest of the body. Each mummy needed hundreds of yards of linen, along with warm resin to seal the layers of fabric.

The Egyptians were really good at embalming. The feet of mummies, when unwrapped after as much as 3000 years, are often still soft and elastic. The historians estimate that by AD 700, when the practice had died out, the Egyptians had embalmed approximately 730 million bodies. archaeologists believe that millions are still preserved in undiscovered tombs and burial places. Many are probably in their original coffins, which were often, if the deceased was rich, decorated to resemble the person who had died.

Egypt

2008-01-30T05:56:00.000-08:00

Here is the cool website that I found about Egypt :
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html

Daily life in ancient Egypt revolved around the Nile and the fertile land along its banks. The Nile flooded every year, and each flooding enriched the soil and brought good harvests and wealth to the Egypt land. The Egyptian built mud brick homes in villages and in the country, grew some of their own food and traded in the villages for the food.

The ancient Egyptians thought of Egypt as being divided into two types of land, the "black land" and the "red land". The "black land" was the fertile land on the shores of the Nile. The Egyptians grew their crops there. This was the only land in ancient Egypt that could be farmed because a layer of rich, black silt was deposited there every year after the Nile flooded. The 'red land' was the barren desert that protected Egypt on two sides.

The ancient Egyptians believed in many different gods and goddesses. The ancient Egyptians believed that it was important to recognize and worship these gods and goddesses so that life continued smoothly.

The earliest ancient Egyptians buried the dead bodies in small pits in the desert. The heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly, creating lifelike and natural "mummies". And later, the Egyptians started burying the dead bodies in the coffins to protect them not to be eaten by the scavengers. But the dead bodies in coffins decayed because the bodies in coffins were isolated with hot, dry sand of the dessert. Over many centuries, the Egyptians found their way of preparing the bodies. They embalming the dead bodies and wrapping them in strips of linen. And today, we call this process mummification.

The most powerful person in ancient Egypt was the pharaoh. The pharaoh was the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people. He owned all of the land, made laws, collected taxes, and defended Egypt against foreigners. Many pharaohs went to war when their land was threatened or when they wanted to control foreign lands. If the pharaoh won the battle, the conquered people had to recognize the Egyptian pharaoh as their ruler and offer him the finest and most valuable goods from their land.

Pyramids are the tombs of the pharaohs and their queens. The pharaohs were buried in of many different shapes and sizes from before the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the end of the Middle Kingdom. The Egyptian built about eighty pyramids that we have known until today. The three biggest and best-preserved pyramids were built in Giza at the beginning of the Old Kingdom. The most famous pyramid of them was the one built for the pharaoh Khufu. It is known as the "Great Pyramid".

The ancient Egyptians believed that temples were the homes of the gods and goddesses. Every temple was dedicated to a god or goddess and he or she was worshipped there by the temple priests and the pharaoh. The large temple buildings were made of stone, and they would sustain there for a long time. The walls were covered with scenes that were carved onto the stone then brightly painted. And they showed the pharaoh fighting in battles and performing rituals with the gods and goddesses.

The believed that it was important to record and communicate information about religion and goveancient Egyptians rnment. The most famous scripts of the ancient Egyptian are hieroglyphic. They used the crypts; scribes were able to preserve the beliefs, history and ideas of ancient Egypt in temple and tomb walls and on papyrus scrolls.

From the end of middle kingdom until today are more than 3700 years, we still not sure how could old Egyptian carried the heavy stones from the place far, far away without machines. And cut the stones perfectly, then built the huge pyramids perfectly by manpower. There are still a lot of mysteriousness that we don't know, and we'll continue looking for the answers.

Cuneiform Writing

2008-01-23T05:46:00.000-08:00

Here is the website that I found about the cuneiform writing:
http://i-cias.com/e.o/cuneiform.htm

Cuneiform writing originated in southern Mesopotamia, and was created in the Sumerian culture in C3100BC, and was used until about year 0. Cuneiform is made of wedge-shaped strokes, and inscribed on clay, stone, metal, wax...... etc. It was for writing in the Sumerian language, and it used for Acadian, Babylonian and Assyrian later. Cuneiform developed into the dominant writing style of the Middle East, and it even spread to Egypt, but it was normally and preferred to write hieroglyphic there. In first stages of cuneiform writing, it was based on pictographs, but for practical reasons, the system based on straight lines came to prevails. The pictographs changed into symbols made from straight lines, and numbers were represented by repeated strokes or circles. In its early stages, cuneiform was written from top to bottom. During the 3rd millennium BCE, this changed into writing from left to right. The signs also took on new form, being turned on their sides.

I learned that people invent the words gradually to connection with other people, and this is the progress of the civilization. "Every step leaves its print" people developed the civilization little by little, and become the modern world now.

Young Adult Fiction

2008-01-17T00:29:00.000-08:00

Here is the website about young adult fiction books that I found:
http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/2008/01/2007-young-adul.html
And here is the book that I would be interesting in reading:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/141692423X/cybils0c-20

This book is about a young girl--Billie Standish--'s story. She had a lot of heart and soul, and her life was about to change forever when the rains come pouring down. She has a friend Miss Lydia, whose her neighbor. And there were danger lurks close to them, but they didn't discover it. This story is about the friendship, courage, and devotion.

I like it because Billie Standish and her friend, Lydia were really good friends. When the adversities were coming, they still help each other in the rackets. They exhibited the friendships, courages, and the togethernesses. I think I would be vibrated by the heart-stirring story.

I seldom see the books of Chinese like this, it is pretty special.

I think it may be alittle hard for me to read this book, but I could read with my reliable electronic dictionary. Therefore, I would read it for a longer time, But I still love this book.

It's a New Year

2008-01-05T22:41:00.000-08:00

I was really happy in 2007 ! !

I went to Ken ting last year, we were so happy there. I still think of the time that I went there; I'm hope so much that I am still there. I read a lot of books in 2007, like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, many comic books and a variety of books of science, I was really enjoy reading them, and I learned a lot from them.

I have graduated from elementary school to junior high school last year; I missed the time during the elementary school and my friends very much. Even we study in different junior high school, we're still friends. I became a junior high school student, I met many new classmates, and made a lot of friends.

When I was studying in junior high school, I learned a lot more things that I didn't know in elementary school. But it means that my schoolwork would be a lot more than elementary school, Math Science, Chinese, English and Social studies are harder. And there are more tests in junior high school, too. Therefore, I must study harder in 2008, and start preparing the big test 3 years later. And I have to cultivate my ability of reading English, and then get a better job in the future.

Ecard

2007-12-29T04:40:00.000-08:00

Here is the website that I made the ecard to teacher Joyce :
http://www.hallmark.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/category11000110051147551147551ecardsunEcardandMoreE-Cards%20&%20Photo%20Cards?lid=unEcardandMore

It can make Ecard of New Year, premium, birthday, thank you, favorite charaters, everyday laughs or send with games. It's a really great website, there are a variety of Ecards that you can choose. But the defect is that some of the Ecards cost money, but there are many free Ecards that I can choose either.

The First Towns

2007-12-04T06:06:00.000-08:00

This is the website about Catal Huyuk:
http://www.ritualgoddess.com/aboutcatalhuyuk.htm

The people that lived in Catal Huyuk were around 8000 B.C.E. Their houses were built the honeycombed rooms and courtyards by simple bricks, and their walls are touching together. Nonetheless, there weren't doors between the rooms. MOreover, the people of Catal Huyuk entered their dwellings through the roofs by using ladders. The people lived in Catal Huyuk were wealthy by mine the obsidians from the volcano nearby. The wall paintings were abound there,for a ritual purpose, each year, when the residents repainted and replastered, they also covered or repainted many giant wall murals. The Catal Huyuk women were held in high regard and occupied high position. Everywhere is the presence of a female deity in Her many shapes and forms. To the ancients, death was a passage, transition. When the people died, they let the dead bodies decompositioned by sun and scavengers, and they buried them. The vulture was the Goddess who could actually transmute flesh. She had chosen priestesses to assist Her in this task.

I learned that Catal Huyuk is a neolothic farming village. The qualities of people to living were getting better and better.

Easter Island

2007-11-17T22:36:00.000-08:00

This the website thet I found about the Easter Island :
http://mysteriousplaces.com/Easter_Island/index.html

Easter Island is in the south eastern Pacific Ocean. It is one of the most isolated islands in the world but 1200 years ago, and wild speculation about UFO's, Atlantis, and vanished advanced ancient races has always been the debate of Easter Island.

The soft volcanic tuff was perfect material for statue of "Moai" carving. They used harder volcanic rock implements they were able to first sketch out the moai's outline in the rock wall and then systematically chip away at it until the moai was held in place by a thin "keel" . The production of the statues was most likely through conscripted labor with many rituals and ceremonies performed throughout the process. The stone carvers were ingenious in making the most out of sections of rock. Moai can be seen carved in all directions in the cliff face. If a defect would appear in the rock, the statue would be abandoned and they moved on to another area. They took advantage of fissures in the volcanic walls and also variations in colors. Ithink they are the best artist of stone carving.

But it would be very, very difficult to moving the giant statu, how did they move it? Some suggest that they were moved in an upright position and kept stable by crews manning ropes. But we still don't know that how did they do that correctly, and there are still a lot of questions we need to analyse.

Here are the pictures that I found:

Gamespot

2007-11-13T04:15:00.000-08:00

The review of the game that I found is "Fate" of Pc .

And the website about it is :
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/fate/review.html?om_act=convert&om_clk=gssummary&tag=summary;review

The games that are Diablo-style of Pc like "Fate" isn't a lot in recent years, so it's pretty special. Fate is a 3D game and RPG game mix together. Fate is very easily to get head inside of it, and the screen and the sound of Fate is really graphic. But the game is too random, and unsteady, and it doesn't have a story inside.

Fate is happen in the dungeon that in the ancient world, and there lives a lot of monsters. And the charater and his (her) pet are going to attack the monsters by swords, axes and bows......etc, or use the magic. The charater of it can learn the spells of magic, to attack or make the monsters to attack other monsters. Then get the experiences and treasures. The money and the qulities of Fate is kind of fair of it, and after read them, I really want to buy one for me.

Halloween

2007-11-03T20:08:00.000-07:00

This is the website that I found that explained about the meaning of Halloween :

http://www.inglewoodcarecentre.com/history/halloween.htm

In two thousand years ago, the Celts that lived in the Great Britain believed that people were dominated by God's. They believed that the God of death, Samhain would come back to the humane's world with dead people at Octorber 31th. The Celts burnt the animals and offered them to Samhain. And the Celts were dressing up by the animals fur, let them looked like ghosts. And led the ghosts to leave. After thousand years until now, it becomes into masquerades. Today, the Halloween in America and Europe, doesn't have any of the meaning of religions inside, it is the happily holiday for children.

My Chat Session

2007-10-28T05:44:00.000-07:00

岳嘉李: Hello!
毛孫: Hi! I am Brian
岳嘉李: I am Johnny
岳嘉李: So borning
毛孫: Yes　
岳嘉李: What are you doing now?
毛孫: Of course I am typing　
岳嘉李: Did you finish the Halloween cloth?
毛孫: Not yet　
岳嘉李: I finished it!　
岳嘉李: I made a cloth of killer...
毛孫: Killer? Cool　
岳嘉李: Aaron is a bubble...
毛孫: Hey! How it goi. . . oh. . .I thought you were someone else. . . but I guess I can talk to you.毛孫: I want to be a purple chicken　
岳嘉李: Danny made a purple chicken
毛孫: He is a purple chicken　
岳嘉李: It's cute　
岳嘉李: And.....
毛孫: Sup?　
岳嘉李: Why is your name that strange?
毛孫: 　
岳嘉李: Are you Ok?
毛孫: So,so　
岳嘉李: Don't be afraid....　
岳嘉李: Because I am Johnny!
毛孫: Ok　
岳嘉李: Johnny killer　
岳嘉李: Wohaha
毛孫: I am dying　
岳嘉李: Are you crazy?
毛孫: So,so　
岳嘉李: Did you finish your writing?
毛孫: Yes　
岳嘉李: Oh!I don't!　
岳嘉李: Ouch!Purple chicken is eating me!
毛孫: Danny?　
岳嘉李: Hey,say something　
岳嘉李: Yes
毛孫: (music) It's okay now, I'm here! 　
岳嘉李: Is 5 minutes after?
毛孫: Maybe more
毛孫: I think　
岳嘉李: Maybe we must have a watch to know the time!?
毛孫: Yes　
岳嘉李: Did you saw Lily's or Serena's blog?

Ancient Art

2007-10-22T05:25:00.000-07:00

These are two websites that I found about the ancient art :

http://www.ancientart.co.uk/

http://www.aldokkan.com/art/art.htm

And I found some stone pictures :
These are the old art that drew on the caves.

I learned about that the homo sapien sapiens' religions mostly are the women that are pregnancy, because the people living at that time were really difficult. The children would mostly die, so they wanted more children to grow up. And people recorded something that happened before, or drew something that they wished to happen either, because they think they'll all come true.

Piracy, a Complex Issue

2007-10-15T04:47:00.000-07:00

This is the website of discussion board that talks about the piracies and punishment of piracies :
http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/03/13/id_talks_piracy_at__GDC2007/

This website tells about the piracy is steal or not? The first person said that the piracy is stealing, and another person said that isn't theft. The first person means that it isn't the same as theft of stealing. Piracy is a copyright infringement. But the second person said "because piracy isn't walking into a store and taking the software doesn't not make it theft, you're still using software you haven't paid for ! ! "

I think the first person is right, and the piracy is stealing. And the second person has a really big mistake : First, Their invent something maybe cost ten years, but he just copy and copy, cost only five minutes to do that. Second, the piracy steals the company's brand either.

The top of the red word of the second person's talking is really, really wrong, because the piracy is not really a theft, but it steals the company's INVENTION AND BRAND ! !

Meet your meat

2007-10-08T03:03:00.000-07:00

This is the last page that I read :http://www.goveg.com/workerRights_dangerous.asp

I learned that the cows are very poor. Many of the people that beef the cows are really cruel. They shut lots and lots of cows in a crowded, dirty and obnoxious place. And they just eating, drinking and egests there for their whole life. And when they were sending to the slaughter house, they were been shut in small boxes by the way, and the cows couldn't move. And the qualities of the slaughter house are very bad. They didn't die by the gun, and died by the hot water. And we are really, really selfish, we killed the animals by the cruel way only because we want to eat them ! !They're lives are so bad. They are living in a foul place, and they died by the agonize way ! !

I am really disagree about that ! !

So I think we must stop them doing these kinds of terrible behavior. It is really not fair to the cows. The people are just eating the delicious meet and don't care about the poor animals. We are humane people; we're not cruel and uncivil. So we cannot continue eating the meet that made by the cruel people. And we could try the fake meet either; the taste is just like the same. Their lives aren't really good enough; we must help the poor animals, impeach the illegal factories.

The way to prevent the diseases

2007-09-25T04:20:00.000-07:00

The bad food searching could make your body get diseases. And the way to prevent the diseases of course is have suitable food searching for your body. The bad food searching would not even make your body fatter, it could distory your body. And this is the website to teach you how to control your eating :

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/pyramids.html

And here's the food pyramid to suggest you to your food searching :

So now, you, they and me must acquire to eating healther and make your body better. And the best way to be more healthy is
" Eating Vegetables !! "

Fire

2007-09-15T06:35:00.000-07:00

This is the website that I found about Prometheus stole the fire :
http://www.durand-gallery.com/pages/level_2/1996_2000/prometheus_stealing_fire.html

Prometheus used the dirt and water to made the people by Zeus' outlooks. He gave the animals braveness, strength, speediness and sharpness. But he didn't give people any thing, so he taught people how to farm, build and imparted people words, medicines and divinations. And then people got knowledge and wisdom. But Zeus didn't agree Prometheus to give people fire. So Prometheus used fennel-stalk to get fire from Zeus' fire car. Zeus bound him on the Mount Caucasus. And the big vulture eats his liver, and the liver grows at the night. Then the big vulture eats his liver in the morning..................until now.

I think this story means that fire is so........................ important; it can keep warm, cook foods and make light.........etc. And even Prometheus didn't get the fire on right way, but he helped the people.

Suspicious Imformations

2007-09-10T06:33:00.000-07:00

This is the website that I found: http://fusionanomaly.net/cropcircles.html

This website introduce how the crop circles raised? Aliens? Plasma? Vortex? The crop formations consist of geometrically organized regions ranging from 2 to 80 m diameter, in which the plants (primarily grain crops) are flattened in a horizontal position. Plants from crop formations display anatomical alterations which cannot be accounted for by assuming the formations are hoaxes. Near the soil surface the curved stems often form complex swirls with vortex type patterns. Significant changes in seed germination and development were found, and at the microscopic level differences were observed in cell wall pit structures. Affected plants also have characteristics suggesting the involvement of transient high temperatures.

I think the information on this website is suspicious because the crop circles maybe were made by aliens. But maybe they were just the pranks of someone's, even some people admitted that they did the pranks. But the plants were changed in high temperatures by raised. So no one knows that how did they arise. The productions of crop circles were still suspicious.

Wikipedia

2007-07-30T01:04:00.000-07:00

This is the word that I found: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biology

The word that I found is Biology. Biology is including the botany, zoology and microbiology.
Botany is the scientific study of plants' life. Botany covers a wide range of scientific disciplines that study plants, algae, and fungi including: development, structure, reproduction, growth, metabolism, development, diseases, and chemical properties.

Zoology is including ethology, behavioral ecology, anatomy, embryology, molecular genetics, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, systematics, cladistics, phylogenetics,phylogeography,biogeography, taxonomy,mammalogy, herpetology, ornithology, entomology and palaeontology.Biology is comparative anatomy studies the structure of animals.

Microbiology is the study of microorganisms. Microbiology is a broad term which includes many branches like bacteriology, virology, mycology, parasitology etc. Microorganisms includes eukaryotes such as fungi and protists,prokaryotes, bacteria and some kinds of algae.

I learned a lot from this website, I would get more information from it.

The Clash of the Titans

2007-07-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

The story is about a titan call Pursues, he is The King of the Gods-Zeus' son. He fell in love with the princess Andromeda, but the Poseidon let the Kraken eat the princess, or it would destroy the whole city. So Pursues had to kill the Kraken, and the one way to kill the Kraken is to kill the Medusa first. But the Medusa is very dangerous, if you look at her eyes, you would become a stone. Pursues killed Medusa by his wisdom and courage. And he rode on the flying horse-Pegasus and used the Medusa's eyes to let the Kraken become a stone, saved his love-Andromeda and the whole city.

I think the Clash of the Titans is pretty good, because the plot of the movie is very exciting and gripping. And characters are very brave. But this movie is so old, so the effects aren't very good like the current movies. But I think this movie is a real cliffhanger, and it tore my heart strings.

My Summer plan

2007-07-15T05:05:00.000-07:00

In this summer, I have to go to the Ming Ran high school and study there in 7/16 to 8/10 . So I have to working hard now and I could study easily when school opens.

And my family and me will go to visit Ken Ting and Tainan and live in the hotel for several days. I think it would be the funnest days in this summer vacation. I am so excited to visit KenTing .And the target of me is finished reading The Lord of the Rings .

This is the website of the hotels that we'll live in Ken Ting :

http://uukt.idv.tw/

TAURUS

2007-07-05T17:52:00.000-07:00

TAURUS symbolized by the Bull. The Taurus people are steadfast, determind and stuborn. They won't do things they dislike, and it's difficult to change their minds. They also placid, calm and stable, but sometimes they're indulgent and lazy. And they are materialism. They like things that exists in the material world, like money,beauty clothes, iewelry, diamond and artwork. But they're loyally to their friends, so they are trustworthy and reliable.

I think the discrbetion of TAURUS people describe me not really well. I am obstinate and stubborn ,and I cannot change my mind easily. I also be loyal to my friends. But I don't really like beauty things like beautiful clothes, jewelry that kind of things. Actually, I don't really care about the apparels and surfaces.

Out of Africa

2007-07-02T07:30:00.000-07:00

I think the people came from Africa because Africa was in equator, so it was warm there. And the animals could live there. So there would live a lot of animals and there were a lot of food. And the animals would develop faster. So the humen came from Africa.

The five brothers

2007-05-10T22:44:00.004-07:00

A long, long time ago. There was an old grannie that lived in a crude and hut looking over a remote village. She had sparse gray hair and beautiful blue eyes. She had five sons. The brothers looked like each other, only their mother could tell who was who. She was an affable mother. She always had a kindly smile, and she gave each son a name.

The five brothers had different abilities. The oldest brother had elastic hands and legs. His name was Michael. The second brother was Johnny. His body was harder than the strongest diamond. The third brother was the strangest. He was immune to heat. He was Danny. The fourth brother was Brian. He could see things away far clearly. The youngest brother could hear sounds, even from a long way off. He was Howard.

But the life of the people living in the village was impoverished, because the new Emperor there was very selfish. He used his authority and money to bully the people into paying a lot of taxes. The life of people was getting more and more destitute. And more people got diseases. The people suffered unspeakable misery. But the bad Emperor just used the money to make his castle bigger and more gorgeous, and spent a lot of money to buy the egg of a phoenix to put in his garden.

The Emperor was around 40 years old. He was short and thin. He had long, straight black hair, red eyes, a mustache and a long black beard. He was very arrogant. He took a lot of taxes from people, and used them to buy expensive and infrequently things.

One day, the old mother was sick. And the sons looked for the doctors didn't know how to cure her. There was one doctor; however that said“Only the egg of a phoenix can cure her.”
Brian had seen a phoenix egg in the Emperor's garden. He told his brothers. Then Michael stretched his hands longer and longer into the Emperor's garden. He grabbed the egg and stole it. Then he gave it to his mother. When their mother ate it, she recovered fully, like a miracle. When the Emperor found out, he was furious. He dispatched enlisted men to catch the brothers. They caught Johnny, and the Emperor decreed that he would behead. But when the big sword cut into his neck, he wasn't injured. The sword broke instead. The Emperor was very angry. He prepared a big pot of hot water to burn Johnny. Howard heard about this with his amazing ears, and told his brothers. Then Danny snuck into the palace and switched placed with Johnny. The next day when the Emperor threw him in the hot water, but he wasn't scalded, he happily swam in the hot water. The Emperor was very, very angry. He shouted, “Throw him in the ocean!!”

Brian saw that with his amazing eyes, and told his brother at once. Michael took advantage of the way the Emperor soldier, were taking Danny to the ocean to suites placed with Danny stealthily. When they threw Michael in the ocean, he sank in the water gradually. The Emperor was happy about that. But then Michael's legs grew longer and longer. He was taller than a mountain. He walked on the bottom of the sea, and each step made a big wave. The waves flushed out the Emperor's castle. The castle was destroyed by the waves. The Emperor was frightened. He thought Michael was a god. He stopped bullying the people from then on. The Emperor built a new castle, and he made the statues of the five brothers. He respected them. All the people in the village all prayed to the statues during times of trouble. Every time they prayed their dreams would come true.

A Review

2007-04-04T05:08:00.000-07:00

My favorite book is Harry Potter IV.I like this book because it has gripping epitasis.It is really interesting.I will lend it to my friends.If they like,I would suggest them to buy Harry Potter I to Harry Potter sixth.Now,I'm waiting the Harry Potter seventh,I think it would be really interesting.

This is the picture of Harry Potter IV

Interesting blogs

2007-03-25T02:10:00.000-07:00

Here are the interesting blogs that I found:
http://gs-ics.blogspot.com/
There are many interesting pictures like:funny fingerprint,the art of coffee(I think everyone would love it,especially my mother),the top 10 pictures of 2006 and the evolution of the panda(I think the panda is so cute),so I like this blog most.
http://games-daily.blogspot.com/
There is a funny game,my best score is 1216.7m.You can try to play it ,it's really fun.
http://dailyquotebyjeff.blogspot.com/
There are many pictures of nature,so I like this blog.

The website of dinosaurs

2007-03-13T23:42:00.000-07:00

The coolest dinosaurs website :

http://dinosaurs.com.sg/

I think it is cool because there are verisimilitude pictures and amply producings of dinosaurs.
It also has pictures of dinosaur models,I really want to buyone.But I don't know how to buy them and they are to expensive.I hope I can have all of them in the future.

My friends' blogs

2007-03-12T04:49:00.000-07:00

Here are my friends' blogs :
Michael:http://savanschoolmichael.blogspot.com/
Johnny:http://savantjohnny.blogspot.com/
Danny:http://savantdanny.blogspot.com
Lily:http://savantschoollily.blogspot.com/
Ruby:http://savanschoolruby.blogspot.com/
Serena:http://www.savantschoolserena.blogspot.com/

I think everybody's blog are very nice and interesting,and I like Jonny's and Danny's most because the pictures are cool.But I think everyone can be better.

The pictures of my vacation

2007-03-05T04:05:00.000-08:00

This is the picture we took in Taroko National Park,the scenery there was very beautiful.

I was fishing in the lake in the Hualien hotel,it was really fun!

We took a picture in the Hualien Ocean Park with a seal,it was so cute!

What if there hadn't been a great extinction

2007-01-31T22:32:00.000-08:00

If dinosaurs hadn't become extinct,mammals in the Earth couldn't evolve.
And the Earth would stuck in Cretaceous period and Jurassic Period,dinosaurs
would steel be the king of the Earth.

My favorite website

2007-01-25T22:52:00.002-08:00

This is my favorite website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/cult/sherlock/

The Beginng of Life

2007-01-24T05:32:00.001-08:00

I think the heat let chemical changed to protein.
And heat let protein changed to cell too.
I think lightning let the cell had enough heat and the life had begin.
Maybe the aerolite brought other planet's organism,
and the life in the Earth had begin.

cells{ Michael}

2007-01-23T06:15:00.000-08:00

Wow, cells are the smallest thing in our bodies.
I think cells are come from the flash,I agree the scientist said.
I think cells are in our body everywhere.
Is there any cell begin earlier than bluegreencells？
I also want to know how did the cells got togethere？

MICHAEL2007.1.23

The Beginng of Life

2007-01-22T05:50:00.000-08:00

I am arduously searching for the information.

Introduction of Brian

2007-01-16T23:30:00.001-08:00

Hi!My name is Brian.
I am 12 years old.
I am a student in Da Tung elementry school.
My favorite subject is science.
And my favorite sport is basketball.
I also enjoy reading and swimming.