Sunday, May 31, 2009

How was nuclear war avoided

During the cold war there were some very close calls but one of the closest was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The leaders on both sides didn't want to go to war but they were being pushed into it by the war mongering generals. Now the way I believe they avoided this was with empathy for each other. President Kenedy was constantly looking at it from the other sides perspective and trying to keep from blowing each other up. They also used back road politics so that both sides get what they want and both sides look like heroes for it. For example the Russians would remove their missiles and in return the americans would remove theirs. But there was on condition the Russians couldn't say it was a trade off and the americans would only remove their missiles six months later. The empathy and back road politics kept the world from going to nuclear war.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

atom bombs

I think that the atom bombs dropped on hiroshima and and nagasaki were unnecessary. They could have easily have dropped a bomb on less populated area or on a more military populated area. Most of deaths were civilian and pointless. Truman could have dropped the bomb on the tokyo harbor. I feel that this would have been a sufficient show of the bombs power. Also at the time the bomb was dropped the japanese were about to give up anyway, and yes the americans did give the japanese the option to surrender but the japanese also didn't get enough time to respond. The bomb cause untold damage there are still areas which are too radio active for people to live and in total about 250,000 people. It was a tragedy that could have been avoided with some better judgement and planing.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

yellow submarine SMASH day

about a month ago we had a smash day. Our goal in the smash day was to create a periscope. This was so that we could see what was inside a box on top of a table. We were not allowed to have our heads above the table. 
before we started we were given a few supplies. They were a meter of tape, a piece of cardboard, ten pieces of paper and four mirrors. When we first received the supplies we thought about what we would do with them. The first idea was to make a traditional periscope but we quickly discarded it. Then we wanted to make a large mirror on a stick but the four mirrors didn't really give one solid image. since we all think in a similar way we didn't need to discuss our design modifications much. we just took the information and ran with it. we decided the a large mirror would not work. but we ran with the basic principle of mirrors and sticks. We then thought that we should make more than one periscope. But we didn't have enough supplies. Then we came up with he idea of being "cheap". At that moment it was decided that we should just make paper sticks with mirrors on the end. We rolled the paper very tightly and it was as hard as a regular twig or stick. We then made our mirror on a stick prototype. It was a success. We proceeded to each making one of these mirrors on a sick. In total we had three. When it came time to put our "periscopes" to the test they prevailed. We were the first team to get all of the objects in the box correct. After it was announced that we had won we looked at the other teams and one of the other teams had mashed their periscope so that it was also a mirror on a stick. It was nice to see that even though we were cheap the other teams ended up doing the same.

The modification of our design wasn't really necessary because we talked about what we should do before we stared. thats how we came up with the being "cheap" idea. we were inspired by the chinese. As in quantity before quality. We now apply this to every other smash day. We have not lost yet.
The way we new how to modify it was when we placed the four mirrors next to each other it didn't have a clear solid image. And also when we had a piece of cardboard with the four mirrors placed at different angles. It didn't seem to be effective. then we ran with the be "cheap" idea.

My only tip to some one doing this for the first time is THINK "CHAEP". 

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

South African Mercenaries

South africa is trying to keep the fact that there are thousands of mercenaries that are South African trained. Most of these men were trained before apartheid ended. The training they received was of the best training in the world. When apartheid ended they were relieved of their duties. Most of them had no other skills and went into the private sector of war. To this day the South African Mercenaries are some of the best in the world. they offer their services to the highest bidder. They are some of the biggest problems in wars today. The americans in Iraq have experienced some problems with them. They are best private soldiers in the world.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

taiwan

1.How do Paiwan people show their respect to the animal they hunted? 
they make wood carvings of the animals they hunted.
2.Why archery is so important to Bunun people? How did fathers train their children to be an archer?
best way of hunting. the fathers put deer ears and tellt he boys to shoot at them.
3.Why are bats welcomed by Ancient Chinese culture? But in western societies, why do people regard bats as nuisance?
they are considered good lucky. because they are considered dirty and disgussting
4.This video shows a lot of living extinct animals in Taiwan. Please choose one animal that impressed you the most and describe its habitat and its way to survive in the natural environment?
cloud leopard its habitat is the mountains it is probably dead but it feeds on smaller animals