two weeks holidays, It ends that way....
I really hope the holidays will never end, even though I know it will never happen...
Lingering with friends, Playing my favourite sports -- Badminton, and do non-sense stuffs..
It is all fun to me,although seems like less meaningful..^.^
However, it ends too fast...
We have to get back INTI soon,to face new sem- a tougher and new semester..
Hope we all can get well to the new semester!!
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Red Sea oil spill continuing
Environmental activists say an oil spill off the coast of Egypt's Red Sea, which has left turtles and sea birds covered in oil, is continuing even though the government says it has been contained.
Government spokesman Magdy Rady told the state news agency on Monday the spill, which began last week, was "limited" and had largely been contained. It was one of the first government acknowledgments the spill was even taking place.
An environmental group based in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada told AP the government was trying to cover up the extent of the damage and the leak had restarted.
"Just today I received news that the oil had started leaking again this afternoon after it had stopped Thursday," said Ahmed el-Droubi, a biologist with the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association.
Founded by divers in 1992, HEPCA has been sounding the alarm about the spill, which it says has damaged environmentally sensitive areas.
"The northern islands protected area is very heavily impacted," said el-Droubi. "This area is very important because it is the last pristine spot, there is a lot of sea life there that will be harmed ... there are dead birds and dead sea turtles scattered across the island covered in oil."
Oil company officials in the port city of Suez said the spill was caused by a leak from an offshore oil platform in Jebel al-Zayt north of Hurghada and had polluted about 160 kilometres of coastline, including tourist beach resorts. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Hurghada is one of Egypt's top tourist destinations and was once a major diving site with extensive coral reefs, though over the past decades extensive development has caused some deterioration.
The government kept quiet about the leak for days. The silence could be a sign of concern that it might scare away tourists - a vital source of income for Egypt.
Mahmoud Ismail, the head of the environmental crisis department, said the impact on most of the beaches had been minimal and the clean-up would be done in a few days, although he admitted the situation was worse on the islands.
"The hardest work will be cleaning up the coral and Tawila Island, the beaches will be cleaned up in a few days," he said, adding that he had few complaints from local hotels.
AP
Government spokesman Magdy Rady told the state news agency on Monday the spill, which began last week, was "limited" and had largely been contained. It was one of the first government acknowledgments the spill was even taking place.
An environmental group based in the Red Sea resort town of Hurghada told AP the government was trying to cover up the extent of the damage and the leak had restarted.
"Just today I received news that the oil had started leaking again this afternoon after it had stopped Thursday," said Ahmed el-Droubi, a biologist with the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association.
Founded by divers in 1992, HEPCA has been sounding the alarm about the spill, which it says has damaged environmentally sensitive areas.
"The northern islands protected area is very heavily impacted," said el-Droubi. "This area is very important because it is the last pristine spot, there is a lot of sea life there that will be harmed ... there are dead birds and dead sea turtles scattered across the island covered in oil."
Oil company officials in the port city of Suez said the spill was caused by a leak from an offshore oil platform in Jebel al-Zayt north of Hurghada and had polluted about 160 kilometres of coastline, including tourist beach resorts. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.
Hurghada is one of Egypt's top tourist destinations and was once a major diving site with extensive coral reefs, though over the past decades extensive development has caused some deterioration.
The government kept quiet about the leak for days. The silence could be a sign of concern that it might scare away tourists - a vital source of income for Egypt.
Mahmoud Ismail, the head of the environmental crisis department, said the impact on most of the beaches had been minimal and the clean-up would be done in a few days, although he admitted the situation was worse on the islands.
"The hardest work will be cleaning up the coral and Tawila Island, the beaches will be cleaned up in a few days," he said, adding that he had few complaints from local hotels.
AP
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Global warming threatens whales: reports
A record number of whales is expected to be spotted passing Sydney this winter, but scientists warn that global warming could put their future at risk.
The first big-picture review of the world's oceans shows human activity is driving changes at a rate not seen for millions of years. Many species are threatened and increases in disease are predicted.
This could have dire consequences for hundreds of millions of people, a series of scientific reports concludes. Oscar Schofield, of Rutgers University in the US, said environmental change had been profound in the West Antarctic Peninsula and was altering the food chain on which whales in that region depended.
Blooms of phytoplankton, or microscopic plants, had declined by 12 per cent in 30 years and the size of their cells had shrunk. This had allowed jellyfish-like creatures called salps, which find it easier to feed on the small cells, to start to replace shrimp-like krill, on which whales depend for food. Salps also eat the eggs and larvae of krill, which magnified the problem, said Professor Schofield, the co-author of one of the scientific reviews in a series, Our Changing Oceans, in the journal Science.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, of the University of Queensland, the co-author of another review, said the world's oceans were the heart and lungs of the planet, but they were showing signs of ill health due to greenhouse gas emissions.
"It's as if the Earth has been smoking two packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "We are entering a period in which the very ocean services upon which humanity depends are undergoing massive change and, in some cases, beginning to fail."
The oceans produce about 50 per cent of the oxygen we breathe but absorb 30 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions and more than 85 per cent of extra heat trapped as a result of global warming.
More acidic, warmer water, along with changes in circulation patterns, meant organisms such as corals, sea grasses, mangroves, salt marsh and oysters were starting to disappear, Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said. "Hundreds of thousands of species depend on these habitats."
Disease and invasive species were also becoming more common, such as the black-spined sea urchin, which has migrated south from NSW and is eating Tasmania's kelp forests.
NSW National Parks has launched a website, www.wildaboutwhales.com.au, with information about the giants as they journey north from Antarctica to mate and give birth in warmer waters.
The first big-picture review of the world's oceans shows human activity is driving changes at a rate not seen for millions of years. Many species are threatened and increases in disease are predicted.
This could have dire consequences for hundreds of millions of people, a series of scientific reports concludes. Oscar Schofield, of Rutgers University in the US, said environmental change had been profound in the West Antarctic Peninsula and was altering the food chain on which whales in that region depended.
Blooms of phytoplankton, or microscopic plants, had declined by 12 per cent in 30 years and the size of their cells had shrunk. This had allowed jellyfish-like creatures called salps, which find it easier to feed on the small cells, to start to replace shrimp-like krill, on which whales depend for food. Salps also eat the eggs and larvae of krill, which magnified the problem, said Professor Schofield, the co-author of one of the scientific reviews in a series, Our Changing Oceans, in the journal Science.
Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, of the University of Queensland, the co-author of another review, said the world's oceans were the heart and lungs of the planet, but they were showing signs of ill health due to greenhouse gas emissions.
"It's as if the Earth has been smoking two packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "We are entering a period in which the very ocean services upon which humanity depends are undergoing massive change and, in some cases, beginning to fail."
The oceans produce about 50 per cent of the oxygen we breathe but absorb 30 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions and more than 85 per cent of extra heat trapped as a result of global warming.
More acidic, warmer water, along with changes in circulation patterns, meant organisms such as corals, sea grasses, mangroves, salt marsh and oysters were starting to disappear, Professor Hoegh-Guldberg said. "Hundreds of thousands of species depend on these habitats."
Disease and invasive species were also becoming more common, such as the black-spined sea urchin, which has migrated south from NSW and is eating Tasmania's kelp forests.
NSW National Parks has launched a website, www.wildaboutwhales.com.au, with information about the giants as they journey north from Antarctica to mate and give birth in warmer waters.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
random
That's the end of our second semester~What a long long semester we have ever experienced, packed with researches, DI, assignments, quizzes and tests, But it really comes to an end for this semester...HooRay~
This is the first time I do not go back straight after final...I stay in Inti until Friday...Anyway, it is good~because goy DC++ for me to download and get myself toxicated with drama,@@....I am getting to the monotonous life in Inti and I can entertain myself well in this 'jungle'....Actually I can say that Inti has really changed me, from an outgoing girl into a home-staying girl....Inti is so success!(my mother should be shocked and feel happy because she can find me at home finally...haha)
I miss my dumpling so much....And home cooked food....wait for me~~~~~~~~
This is the first time I do not go back straight after final...I stay in Inti until Friday...Anyway, it is good~because goy DC++ for me to download and get myself toxicated with drama,@@....I am getting to the monotonous life in Inti and I can entertain myself well in this 'jungle'....Actually I can say that Inti has really changed me, from an outgoing girl into a home-staying girl....Inti is so success!(my mother should be shocked and feel happy because she can find me at home finally...haha)
I miss my dumpling so much....And home cooked food....wait for me~~~~~~~~
Friday, May 21, 2010
Artificial life warning: how it could get out of cArtificial life warning: how it could get out of controlntrol
The making of mankind's first synthetic cell is a form of genetic engineering that could open a scientific Pandora's box, some ethicists and scientists warned today.
Researcher and entrepreneur Craig Venter unveiled the self-replicating bacteria cell overnight in the US after 15 years of research, hailing it a "powerful tool" for designing biology.
Using the same method, scientists could design bacteria to help produce biofuels or to clean up environmental hazards.
But critics say Venter is playing God and exposing humanity and the environment to bacteria that could mutate, with unforseen consequences, or even be used as biological weapons.
"It's quite a radically different approach," biochemistry professor Ann Simpson of the University of Technology, Sydney said.
"You've got to be very careful when you willy-nilly send something into the environment and you can't control its spread.
"And you can't control a bacteria spread once you release it."
Professor Simpson said this form of artificial life was unlike other form of biomedical advances, where changes are contained within an individual, drug or crop that could be carefully checked before they are released into the environment.
"Bacteria have been known to mutate and change, and [this could] change into something that they didn't predict, and it could be a problem."
Venter, who is also the co-author of the first sequencing of the human genome in 2000, has defended his team's work, telling the BBC that "it's been a goal of humanity from the earlier stages to try and control nature".
"That's how we got domesticated animals.
"This is the next stage in our understanding, it is a baby step in our understanding of how life fundamentally works and maybe how we can get some new handles on trying to control these microbial systems to benefit humanity."
Professor Don Chalmers of the University of Tasmania, who specialises in ethics and biotechnology law, said regulation was the key to the safe development and use of the science.
"I think it's absolutely critical - as Professor Margaret Somerville, a very distinguished Australian professor of law at McGill University expressed some years ago - that we have to ensure that science time, which moves very quickly, is followed very closely [by laws].
"The ethical debates [should] be contemporaneous with the science and that the regulation is in place to enable the good science to go forward but to control some of those perils."
Professor Chalmers said it was essential the public should be consulted and involved in debates on how science could be developed responsibly.
Australia, he said, was already "in the forefront" of ethics debates on genetic manipulation, while current laws and regulations have helped to draw the line on what science is acceptable here, and what is not.
"The Gene Technology Act sets down very careful rules about licensing, about laboratory standards, about the proper scientific review of the work from a biosafety point of view," he said.
"Most importantly, the National Health and Medical Research Council, with the Australian Health Ethics Committee and the Gene Technology Ethics Committee ... are bodies that give the opportunity for the ethical issues to be examined.
"We want to see responsible science carried out ethically and responsibly, but there are times when we will in fact become quite strict."
The synthetic genome created by the J. Craig Venter Institute is "watermarked" to distinguish it from a natural one.
The watermarks included the names of 46 authors and scientists who worked on the project on the genome along with its own website address - so that anyone who decodes it can send an email to the team.
Three sets of quotations including "to live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life" from Irish author James Joyce were also included.
Venter told a press conference the team had started with a living cell, which had been transformed with the synthetic genome, adding that the cell had gone through a "million steps of replication" and was now frozen in a freezer.
"This is an important step we think, both scientifically and philosophically. It's certainly changed my views of the definitions of life and how life works," he added in a statement.
He also dismissed fears that such synthetic technology could be use for bio-terrorism.
"The technology is not for sale, the cells are not for sale," he told the BBC.
"We are trying to use this technology to advance vaccine protection, we are trying to use it to advance the basic understanding of cellular life."
- with AFP
Researcher and entrepreneur Craig Venter unveiled the self-replicating bacteria cell overnight in the US after 15 years of research, hailing it a "powerful tool" for designing biology.
Using the same method, scientists could design bacteria to help produce biofuels or to clean up environmental hazards.
But critics say Venter is playing God and exposing humanity and the environment to bacteria that could mutate, with unforseen consequences, or even be used as biological weapons.
"It's quite a radically different approach," biochemistry professor Ann Simpson of the University of Technology, Sydney said.
"You've got to be very careful when you willy-nilly send something into the environment and you can't control its spread.
"And you can't control a bacteria spread once you release it."
Professor Simpson said this form of artificial life was unlike other form of biomedical advances, where changes are contained within an individual, drug or crop that could be carefully checked before they are released into the environment.
"Bacteria have been known to mutate and change, and [this could] change into something that they didn't predict, and it could be a problem."
Venter, who is also the co-author of the first sequencing of the human genome in 2000, has defended his team's work, telling the BBC that "it's been a goal of humanity from the earlier stages to try and control nature".
"That's how we got domesticated animals.
"This is the next stage in our understanding, it is a baby step in our understanding of how life fundamentally works and maybe how we can get some new handles on trying to control these microbial systems to benefit humanity."
Professor Don Chalmers of the University of Tasmania, who specialises in ethics and biotechnology law, said regulation was the key to the safe development and use of the science.
"I think it's absolutely critical - as Professor Margaret Somerville, a very distinguished Australian professor of law at McGill University expressed some years ago - that we have to ensure that science time, which moves very quickly, is followed very closely [by laws].
"The ethical debates [should] be contemporaneous with the science and that the regulation is in place to enable the good science to go forward but to control some of those perils."
Professor Chalmers said it was essential the public should be consulted and involved in debates on how science could be developed responsibly.
Australia, he said, was already "in the forefront" of ethics debates on genetic manipulation, while current laws and regulations have helped to draw the line on what science is acceptable here, and what is not.
"The Gene Technology Act sets down very careful rules about licensing, about laboratory standards, about the proper scientific review of the work from a biosafety point of view," he said.
"Most importantly, the National Health and Medical Research Council, with the Australian Health Ethics Committee and the Gene Technology Ethics Committee ... are bodies that give the opportunity for the ethical issues to be examined.
"We want to see responsible science carried out ethically and responsibly, but there are times when we will in fact become quite strict."
The synthetic genome created by the J. Craig Venter Institute is "watermarked" to distinguish it from a natural one.
The watermarks included the names of 46 authors and scientists who worked on the project on the genome along with its own website address - so that anyone who decodes it can send an email to the team.
Three sets of quotations including "to live, to err, to fall, to triumph, to recreate life out of life" from Irish author James Joyce were also included.
Venter told a press conference the team had started with a living cell, which had been transformed with the synthetic genome, adding that the cell had gone through a "million steps of replication" and was now frozen in a freezer.
"This is an important step we think, both scientifically and philosophically. It's certainly changed my views of the definitions of life and how life works," he added in a statement.
He also dismissed fears that such synthetic technology could be use for bio-terrorism.
"The technology is not for sale, the cells are not for sale," he told the BBC.
"We are trying to use this technology to advance vaccine protection, we are trying to use it to advance the basic understanding of cellular life."
- with AFP
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Argumentative essay Television Viewing final version#
Television set has become an important entertainment instrument and a necessity household product nowadays. Almost every household owns at least one television set (Sharif 1999). According to ATUS (2003), US residents allocate most of their leisure time on watching television. This fact is also supported by UK Time Use Survey (2000) which found that full time workers in UK spent most of their spare time on television, video and radio. Since people spent so much time watching television, its potential effects are being disputed. I strongly believe that television viewing brings more harms than benefits. Television viewing triggers behavioural problems, affects development of thinking and leads to health problems.
Firstly, television viewing is the main cause for some poor behaviours among children. Most parents today prefer to leave their children in front of television when they are busying with their works. However, children are immature enough to interprete and analyse the content of the television programmes. Action movies can give a scenario to children that violence is a norm in community. Everything can be tackled with violence. They may end up being boisterous. Antisocial behaviour like lack of attention and patience is the other impact of short segments and colourful modern children programmes. Kids are shaped to depress and give up easily when they face challenges in life. In addition, teenagers tend to follow their idols blindly and imitate the characters portrayed in the movies (Sharif 1999) which may be disastrous.
On top of that, development of thinking process is severely affected from long period of television viewing (Sharif 1999). Imaginative and problem solving skills are not develop in the process of watching television as it is a passive activity. Colourful graphics and important messages are portrayed visually in the programs. It discourages critical thinking as all the dominant issues are showed directly (Leigh 2001). Children accept all the information conveyed and do not think via program shows. Moreover, Dr Geraldine, an educational psychologist asserts that students who watch excessive television programmes perform badly in school (Leigh 2001). It is believed that television distracts children from focusing in other works including homework.
Ultimately, television viewing can lead to health diseases. Sitting down to watch television is a sedentary lifestyle which is unhealthy (Rutherford 2002). This statement is supported by Sharif (1999) whereby extended period of television watching is physically inactive. Additionally, less time is allocated for sports and exercise as shown by data collected from ATUS (2003) and UK Time Use Survey (2000). Physically inactive is detrimental to our health as well. This situation is worsened as most people prefer to grab some snacks during show time. All these junk food is high in calories, fats, sugar and salts which can lead to obesity and related illnesses (Rutherford 2002).
In a nutshell, I strongly assert that the drawbacks of television watching outweigh its advantages. It is solely depending on how a person manages his or her time and what TV programmes he or she chooses to watch. Nevertheless, we human beings tend to pick up bad habits more readily than accepting new and educational virtues. Therefore, majority of people lost more than gain in watching television.
Firstly, television viewing is the main cause for some poor behaviours among children. Most parents today prefer to leave their children in front of television when they are busying with their works. However, children are immature enough to interprete and analyse the content of the television programmes. Action movies can give a scenario to children that violence is a norm in community. Everything can be tackled with violence. They may end up being boisterous. Antisocial behaviour like lack of attention and patience is the other impact of short segments and colourful modern children programmes. Kids are shaped to depress and give up easily when they face challenges in life. In addition, teenagers tend to follow their idols blindly and imitate the characters portrayed in the movies (Sharif 1999) which may be disastrous.
On top of that, development of thinking process is severely affected from long period of television viewing (Sharif 1999). Imaginative and problem solving skills are not develop in the process of watching television as it is a passive activity. Colourful graphics and important messages are portrayed visually in the programs. It discourages critical thinking as all the dominant issues are showed directly (Leigh 2001). Children accept all the information conveyed and do not think via program shows. Moreover, Dr Geraldine, an educational psychologist asserts that students who watch excessive television programmes perform badly in school (Leigh 2001). It is believed that television distracts children from focusing in other works including homework.
Ultimately, television viewing can lead to health diseases. Sitting down to watch television is a sedentary lifestyle which is unhealthy (Rutherford 2002). This statement is supported by Sharif (1999) whereby extended period of television watching is physically inactive. Additionally, less time is allocated for sports and exercise as shown by data collected from ATUS (2003) and UK Time Use Survey (2000). Physically inactive is detrimental to our health as well. This situation is worsened as most people prefer to grab some snacks during show time. All these junk food is high in calories, fats, sugar and salts which can lead to obesity and related illnesses (Rutherford 2002).
In a nutshell, I strongly assert that the drawbacks of television watching outweigh its advantages. It is solely depending on how a person manages his or her time and what TV programmes he or she chooses to watch. Nevertheless, we human beings tend to pick up bad habits more readily than accepting new and educational virtues. Therefore, majority of people lost more than gain in watching television.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Bob Geldof slams Australia's 'absurd' treatment of Aborigines
SIR Bob Geldof has made an impassioned, off-the-cuff speech in Brisbane this morning, labelling Australia's treatment of Aborigines as "economically stupid" and "absurd".
The Live Aid humanitarian said Australia has "exiled" indigenous Australians from the nation.
"They were forced to be exiled from themselves and that must stop," he said.
"You need to pull them back into themselves because you've acknowledged them as being.
"The spiritual core of yourselves will only be filled when this is done."
Sir Bob was speaking at a breakfast for West Australian mining entrepreneur Andrew Forrest's nation-touring GenerationOne movement, which aims to halt indigenous disparity within this generation
He urged the "rich bastards" in attendance at the breakfast to contribute wholeheartedly to Mr Forrest's fight to end indigenous disparity.Sir Bob also took wry shots at a guest representative of Frank Lowy's Westfield empire and GenerationOne benefactor, casino king James Packer.
"You can build a small shop and then you can build very, very big shops. You can build a casino and then you can build five casinos, you're still building f***king casinos," he said.
He likened indigenous affairs in Australia to situations he'd witnessed in third-world Africa.
"I said on the radio back in 1984 that to die of want in a world of surplus is not only intellectually absurd, it is morally repulsive. Well let's add economically illiterate to that," Sir Bob said.
"You've removed from your society of 'having a go' 500,000 thousand of your own. That is absurd. It's economically stupid.
"Just like those 44 million African children (given access to education from the Live Aid campaign) will be a massive driving force in the world economy, so your own Aboriginal people require to be allowed in. The access point is education."
But three years after describing Australia's foreign aid budget as "pathetically embarrassing", Sir Bob has praised the Rudd Government's generosity abroad.
In its May Budget the Rudd Government lifted Australia's foreign aid contribution by $500 million to $4.3 billion a year, which equates to 33 cents in every $100 in national income.
The budget shows the proportion of aid has gone from 32 cents in every $100 to 33 cents in the past two years.
At the GenerationOne business breakfast in Brisbane on Wednesday, Sir Bob said Australia was on track to meet its international obligation of contributing 0.7 per cent of gross national income to needy countries by 2015.
"Australia is coming up ... they're on track," Sir Bob said.
"The Prime Minister said they'd get to 0.5 by 2012 which is necessary for the millennium development goals they all signed up to."
In 2007, during a visit to Brisbane, Sir Bob slammed the Howard government's aid budget, of 0.3 per cent of GDP, saying Australia was one of the "meanest" countries on the planet.
Sir Bob has also been a vocal critic of New Zealand's aid contribution, once describing it has a "disgrace".
"I know the economic situation down in NZ and I know the Australian one is a little more rosy, so it's an easier ask," he said.
"Australia is a responsible country, you're a member of the G20, there's a cheque that you write to sit at the top table.
"Co-operation not competition has to be the political paradigm.
"If you're co-operating then you're (helping) poorer countries bring their economy up to a level that their people are educated and you can trade with them."
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