Chicken itza

Deep within the jungles of Mexico and Guatemala and extending into the limestone shelf of the Yucatan peninsula lie the mysterious temples and pyramids of the Maya. While Europe was still in the midst of the Dark Ages, these amazing people had mapped the heavens, evolved the only true writing system native to the Americas and were masters of mathematics. They invented the calendars we use today. Without metal tools, beasts of burden or even the wheel they were able to construct vast cities across a huge jungle landscape with an amazing degree of architectural perfection and variety. Their legacy in stone, which has survived in a spectacular fashion at places such as Palenque, Tikal, Tulum, Chichén Itzá, Copan and Uxmal, lives on as do the seven million descendants of the classic Maya civilization

The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras. Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing. The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Maya were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples.
Around 300 B.C., the Maya adopted a hierarchical system of government with rule by nobles and kings. This civilization developed into highly structured kingdoms during the Classic period, A.D. 200-900.
Their society consisted of many independent states, each with a rural farming community and large urban sites built around ceremonial centers. It started to decline around A.D. 900 when - for reasons which are still largely a mystery - the southern Maya abandoned their cities. When the northern Maya were integrated into the Toltec society by A.D. 1200, the Maya dynasty finally came to a close, although some peripheral centers continued to thrive until the Spanish Conquest in the early sixteenth century.

Picture © Cliff Wassmann

(Source:http://www.mysteriousplaces.com/mayan/TourEntrance.html)

Statue of Christ the Redeemer history.

The Statue of Christ the Redeemer history starts in the XVIth Century when the Portuguese named the mountain Pináculo da Tentação (The Pinnacle [peak] of Temptation), alluding to the Biblical Mountain. A century passes and the mountain is re-baptized to Corcovado, a name derived from its form, which resembles a hump or hunchback. The next recordings of christ the redeemer history is in 1924 when Dom Pedro personally led the first official expedition to Corcovado Mountain, resulting in the opening of an accessable way up.

Then in 1859 the Vincentian father Pedro Maria Boss arrived Rio de Janeiro and was struck by the mystorious beauty of the corcovado mountain and suggested the the construction of a religous monument in honour of Princess Isabel, which in 1921 gave way for the idea of a great statue of christ viewable by all in the marvelous city of Rio. From 1859 to 1921, Dom Pedro gave his consent for the building of the Corcovado Railroad line between Cosme Velho and Paineiras, which would be an essential part of undertaking the Redentor.

In 1922, on the markation of Brazilian independence and a milepeal in the Statue of Christ the Redeemer history, the work began for fullfilling the ambisious project with the fundamental stone beeing put inplace on the 22.april.
After a hard competition, the project by the engineer Heitor da Silva Costa is chosen and in September, a national fundraising campaign for the works is organized.
Finally, in 1927, the construction of the statue begins after models of diverse sizes had been constructed. All calculations were done by Coast Hisses, helped by Pedro Viana and Heitor Levy, which during the years of construction, resided in a shed of wood at the foot of the monument.

RAILROADAll the necessary work material and workers who participated in the construction of the Christ statue were transported to Corcovado by the trains from the railroad that links the street Cosme Velha, which today functions as a tourist train to the top. The train was the first in Brasil appointed exclusively to transportation of tourists and also the first train to work by electricity.INAUGURATION

1931 – Is the famous year in the Statue of Christ the Redeemer history, where the monument is inaugurated on the 12 October. The final design of the monument was authored by the fine artist Carlos Oswald and the French Sculptor Paul Landowski was placed in charge of executing the sculpture. The monument to Christ, the Redeemer on the Corcovado mountain becomes the largest art déco sculpture in the world. Up till today, several reforms have been completed to ensure the quality of O Christo Redentor. Lighting has been added, and the latest renewal of September 2002 is the addition of a panoramic elevator and motorized staircase to ease the difficulty for elderly persons. ( It used to be a hard rise of 220 steps to get to the top ) All the equipment, bought from the Elevators Otis, will be painted in green. They are manufactured in the France and they produce little noise. The elevators are “politically correct”, by the fact that they will not use oils lubricants in the system. Projects are also underway to renewal of toilets and trashcans and the enlargement of the parking..

Source:http://www.copacabana.info/Christ-the-Redeemer-history.html

the great wall of china

The Great Wall of China was built over 2,000 years ago, by Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China during the Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty (221 B.C - 206 B.C.).

In Chinese the wall is called "Wan-Li Qang-Qeng" which means 10,000-Li Long Wall (10,000 Li = about 5,000 km). After subjugating and uniting China from seven Warring States, the emperor connected and extended four old fortification walls along the north of China that originated about 700 B.C. (over 2500 years ago).

Armies were stationed along the wall as a first line of defense against the invading nomadic Hsiung Nu tribes north of China (the Huns). Signal fires from the Wall provided early warning of an attack.

The Great Wall is one of the largest building construction projects ever completed. It stretches across the mountains of northern China, winding north and northwest of Beijing. It is constructed of masonry, rocks and packed-earth. It was over 5,000 km (=10,000 Li) long. Its thickness ranged from about 4.5 to 9 meters (15 to 30 feet) and was up to 7.5 meters (25 feet) tall. During the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), the Great Wall was enlarged to 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles) and renovated over a 200 year period, with watch-towers and cannons added.

The Great Wall can be seen from Earth orbit, but, contrary to legend, is not visible from the moon, according to astronauts Neil Armstrong, Jim Lovell, and Jim Irwin.

The only wonder in the world from asia... what a magnificent landmark!

Source:http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/greatwall/Allabout.html

Jogging Boom

log Prompt: Write a 350-word exposition or argument on 'Health'.
(Expostion means a writing or speech primarily intended to convey information or to explain; a detailed statement or explanation)

Health...health what REALLY is health?????? I have thus gone to our trusted website, Wikipedia and I found the defination of health, the REAL meaning of health. Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. So, in short, overall health is achieved through a combination of physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being. (You can see for yourself at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health)

Do you know(source-http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/EN_WHS08_Full.pdf)

-that an estimated of 33.2 million people on the earth have HIV?

-that breast cancer account for 16% of the woman population?

-that tobacco kills a third or half of those that uses it and currently 22% of the whole population are smoking tobbacco?

-that out of 100 000 births, 400 mothers die?

???????????????????????????????????????

Can you ever believe this statistics????????

SOOOOOO many die due to health problems!!!!!!

Health REALLY gives us a headache! Don't you agree?

Recently there was a jogging boom that happened in Tokyo. I really hope that it can help in reducing the number of health problems. However, will there be a real stop to all these health problems? What do you think?

Anyway, recently I sustained a foot injury during my basketball training. I keep feeling the incessant pain. When I walk there is an overwhelming pain. Now I can't run properly much less walk properly! Anyone, can you imagine all the pain I am going through. If I had not gone for yesterday's training, and agravate my injury I would not have felt this much pain! This proves a point that health really gives us an headache. The minute I did not take care of my health, it proved costly for the suffering I have to go through! I have now vowed to myself that I would look after myself.

Health. Isn't it a really big problem.......

World Largest Dam

Blog Prompt:Discuss the socio-economic impact of the Three Gorges Dam.

Firstly, before discussing the socio-economic impact of the Three Gorges Dam, I would like to give you a brief explanation of this large dam which is located in Hibei, China. Below is the essential parts of the dam you should know:
Length:
2,335 metres (7,661 ft)
Height:
101 metres (331 ft)
Width (at base):
115 metres (377 ft)
Construction began: December 14 ,1994
Construction Cost: Estimated 180 billion yuan, (39 billion U.S dollars)

In my opinion, I think that this dam which has huge impact on the social and economic development has both pros and cons.

Pros:1. The dam can help us generate more electricity.(The dam's hydropower turbines are expected to create as much electricity as 18 nuclear power plants!)

2.The Three Gorges project is seen as an important future source of energy for China's growing electrical consumption. It is also expected to tame the fabled Yangzi River. The Yangzi's notorious floods have been recorded for millennia and have claimed more than 1 million lives in the past 100 years.

Cons:1.Corruption and poor construction have led to disasters at major building projects. Notable among the reports was the collapse of a steel bridge in the city of Chongqing in January 1999 that killed 40 people.

2.Environmental disaster - accumulations of toxic materials in the river.

3.The social element of Three Gorges has generated more questions than answers. The dam would "drown" more than 100 towns once the water started to rise in 2003. Government estimates say 1.2 million people will be resettled and that new land is being provided for 300,000 farmers. Some observers say the government may be underestimating by as many as 700,000 the number of people who actually will be relocated. (adapted from http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/1999/china.50/asian.superpower/three.gorges/)

4.Archaeologists and historians have estimated nearly 1,300 important sites will disappear under the reservoir's waters.

Judging from the number of pros and cons listed above, I think the Dam has more harms than benefits.

Loanshark runners.

Dear all,
Today, i will be talking about the latest problem of loan shark runners. Recently, another three loan shark runners were caught helping loanshark run errands such as helping the loanshark conduct illegal lending and helping loansharks do the vandalising work.
First let et me speak of my personal experience.
Once, i was studying at a nearby community centre, The community centre is situated beside a HDB flat when i reached the room, i could see that one of the units in that flat had been vandalised with red paint, police were taking down the statements of witnesses and the house owner. She was visibly disappointed.
After this experience, i have many reflection that i want to share with you all.
I want to talk about the borrowers. I feel that the borrowers are the main problem. I feel that they should not have lent money from these loan sharks in the first place. Most of the times, it is because they are not able to get a job and want to start a new business that is not feasible at all. Thus they borrow money from the loan sharks since they are not allowed to get loans from the banks. When their business fails, and when the loan shark come asking for the payment, they would shift house and cause the loan sharks to harass the wrong people too.
However, the lenders also have to bear the brunt of the blame too. I feel that they should conduct their business the right way and not the illegal way. They should follow the guidelines and limit their interest rates to at most at only 20% and they should lend money to to only credible people, people who have a stable salary. They should try to follow bank guidelines this will cause less 'misunderstandings'.
Lastly i would like to criticize the recruits of loan sharks also known as 'loan shark runners' i feel that these people have been used by the loan sharks. As these people are the ones who are caught and punished. I feel that they should have some social responsibility too, they should know that what they are doing would upset many people. i feel that they should not try to earn 'easy' money they should use their own talents and work hard to gain income and at the same time contribute to the society instead.
To conclude, i feel that if everyone plays a part to try to help the community instead of hurting it, i feel that this 'crisis' would end soon. I really hope that there would be no more of such incidents.
Signing of,
Matthias Ong
Links:http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_482208.html

Is progess necessarily beneficial for society?

Blog prompt: Is progess necessarily beneficial for society?

I think that progress is not necessarily beneficial for society, however, a bit of progress might be beneficial to the society.

What I mean by that is that, now, the society is progressing way to fast from a plain old diary to a blog, a cup connected by strings to a handphone, from a fishing village to a first-class city(Singapore), from washing clothes in a river to using a washing machine, from watching television in black and white to high defination and full coloured, etc.

The society is progressing way too quickly. Although there are many advantages there are also many disadvantages.

Disadvantages

1. The rich would become richer and the poor would become poorer.

-As the society progresses, people would have to develop their resources even more quickly, so the rich would pry the land of the poor and turn it into beautiful resorts, factories, shopping malls, etc. They will receive huge profits but they would only give these poor people meagre sums of money, that cannot even afford them another home! The faster the society progresses there will be more of such incidents happening.

Advantages

1. Easier to complete activities.

-New innovations can help us.

2.Mor options to leisure.

-Singapore's resort.

So in conclusion, I hope that the society will progress but not so quickly.

Fovourite poet: Edward Estlin Cummings

Fovourite poet: Edward Estlin Cummings

Some facts about him:

Date of birth: October 14, 1894

Bornt in: Cambridge Massachussets

Father: Edward Cummings, was a professor of Sociology and Political Science at Harvard University.

Died from: Cerebal hemorrage

Some of his works:

Ballad of the Scholar's Lament When I have struggled through three hundred years of Roman history, and hastened o'er Some French play-(though I have my private fears Of flunking sorely when I take the floor In class),-when I have steeped my soul in gore And Greek, and figured over half a ream With Algebra, which I do (not) adore, How shall I manage to compose a theme? It's well enough to talk of poor and peers, And munch the golden apples' shiny core, And lay a lot of heroes on their biers;- While the great Alec, knocking down a score, Takes out his handkerchief, boohoo-ing, "More!"- But harshly I awaken from my dream, To find a new,-er,-privilege,-in store: How shall I manage to compose a theme? After I've swallowed prophecies of seers, And trailed Aeneas from the Trojan shore, Learned how Achilles, after many jeers, On piggy Agamemnon got to sore, And heard how Hercules, Esq., tore Around, and swept and dusted with a stream, There's one last duty,-let's not call it bore,- How shall I manage to compose a theme? Envoi Of what avail is all my mighty lore? I beat my breast, I tear my hair, I scream: "Behold, I have a Herculean chore. How shall I manage to compose a theme?" a total stranger one black day a total stranger one black day knocked living the hell out of me-- who found forgiveness hard because my(as it happened)self he was -but now that fiend and i are such immortal friends the other's each Humanity i love you Humanity i love you because you would rather black the boots of success than enquire whose soul dangles from his watch-chain which would be embarrassing for both parties and because you unflinchingly applaud all songs containing the words country home and mother when sung at the old howard Humanity i love you because when you're hard up you pawn your intelligence to buy a drink and when you're flush pride keeps you from the pawn shops and because you are continually committing nuisances but more especially in your own house Humanity i love you because you are perpetually putting the secret of life in your pants and forgetting it's there and sitting down on it and because you are forever making poems in the lap of death Humanity i hate you My reflection: Cummings has different style of writing as you can see from the above poems. Some are long and some are short. There are a few events in his life that caused him to change his style of writing. Namely, his marriage, his father assassinated and mother's death. His father's assasination caused him to be deeply grieved and traumatised. He witnessed his father's assassination wih his own eyes. From then on he wrote a few poems that was grievous. However, he overcame all these difficulties when he finally got married, he felt like he was 'bornt again' ! He was very cheerful, shown here: i thank you God for most this amazing i thank You God for most this amazing day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything wich is natural which is infinite which is yes (i who have died am alive again today, and this is the sun's birthday;this is the birth day of life and love and wings:and of the gay great happening illimitably earth) how should tasting touching hearing seeing breathing any-lifted from the no of all nothing-human merely being doubt unimaginable You? (now the ears of my ears awake and now the eyes of my eyes are opened) ee cummings He was happy again...

Sec 1 to Sec 2

Secondary 1 has just flown past and soon i am now in secondary 2! Everything has changed compared to the last year, the classroom has changed, the topics that i have to learn and study has changed gradually getting tougher and tougher! Now, even my basketball coach has changed. The new 'coach', is actually a senior who has just graduated from junior college. Furthermore the people in my class has changed too!

I feel older and i feel that i have matured and grown a lot. I feel that i need to continue and maintain my results that I have achieved over the past year. I hope that i might do even better for the coming tests in this new year. Even though the score system has changed vastly, and may be detrimental to my results, i feel that i can still do well. My aim is to improve my Chinese and hopefully i can maintain my As. Even though i know it is a tough job but i feel that i can do it with hard work.

Even though since last year, the number of basketball training has increased, i still believe that i have to manage my time well and thus able to balance my work with my cca. Even though it is tough to manage i believe that i have to do it.

These are my few new year resolutions, and i feel that it is important that i fulfill it. Wishing everyone a happy new year and wish everyone will also be able to adapt to secondary 2 level as soon as possible!