context: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/2489

I do agree with the author that major powers contributing the most to global warming are not taking actions, when ironically, ordinary citizens are left to feel guilty for wasting small amounts of electricity.

In big cities at night, office buildings are lit up, streetlights are on and advertisements flashing. Is there really a need for the city to be this well-lit dead in the night? Perhaps there can be timings at night, probably between 2am to 5pm in mornings, where they are the least number on cars on the streets, where lights excluding streetlamps would be switched off. Also, not all streetlamps need to be lit, perhaps lighting on in ever two streetlamps? With this consistent effort every night, much energy would be saved.

Also, the government is not putting in an adequate amount of effort to solve the problem of global warming. Choosing to fill the countryside with windmills is not sufficient as that only produces a fraction of what is needed. Turning down a more efficient energy source – the nuclear energy, thinking that it is politically unacceptable, and instead choosing an inefficient energy source makes the government appear as if their efforts are just for show. The government wants to show that they are helping the situation and hence, came up with an idea that does not help the situation much.

In my opinion, contrary to the author’s, the public should not stop their efforts in trying to fix the problem of global warming. Even if big organizations and countries continue to waste large amounts of energy, the public should stick to trying their best to help the problem. The combined effort may be limited but there is still an impact, the energy consumption would go down if everyone, personally, is willing to make an effort.

Also, I feel that major organizations should play their part in this global effort. These are the people most influential in the midst of everyone and they are, at he same time, the major energy-wasters. If these organizations and the governments are wiling to promote energy conservation and to do what they preach, the energy consumption level would have a significant drop and hence, help “save the world”. One example would be the lights out night in Sydney earlier this year where the government plays a part in raising awareness in its people of the global problem, and is willing to lead the people in conserving energy. 0 comments

I feel that the results of talent contests should not be decided by the general public but instead, by specially selected judges. ‘Talent’ is defined as the skill at something significantly above the rest and specially selected judges is defined as people particularly chosen with the required skills to decide on the winner of the talent contest. Also, I will only be touching on contests with subjective results like figure skating and singing, not on contests with clear results like running or swimming.

Firstly, I would like to show the benefits that using specially selected judges have in the long run. Letting the audience decide on the winner of talent contests dilutes the standard of competition. This can be observed when two very different but significant contests are contrasted; the Olympics and the American Idol series.

In the Olympics, the panel of judges comprise of retired athletes who have been very well-trained in the field of expertise. The judging by this panel is so critical and precise that the score goes into the two decimals. This evidently raises the standard of competition, as athletes perform with such professionalism that no one hardly ever smiles while participating in the event, because they recognize that they have to put all their efforts into perfecting their craft and not into thinking up strategies on how to please the crowd. The American Idol series, on the other hand, lets people decide on the finalists and the result of this is competitors focusing more on homing their charisma, personality and looks, rather than their pure talent of singing.

This comes back to my point because from what I mentioned above, when these highly experienced and highly successful retirees judge, they expect the best from the competitors, and thus the long term benefits of having specially selected judges will be the very obvious raising of standard of talents; pushing competitors to their highest potential, and in doing so sieve the very talented, from the mediocre.

Moreover, the very fact that they are specially selected means that only the best, most experienced and most successful are chosen to be a judge, and thus in summary, this point is that the best judges are critical and that this will raise the standard of competition to make contestants continuously work harder, so that the most talented are the winners in the talent contest of any nature.

On to my second argument, which is on the professionalism of the specially selected judges. The judges have significant experiences and many of them have qualifications in the particular field, showing us that the judges know what is talent and what is the correct attitude required in the area. Hence, the judges will decide on a winner who will be able to survive and sustain in the field, be it in sports, music or even in having a flair for writing.

Judges have adequate experience and skills that puts them a notch higher than any average Tom, Dick or Harry. Besides, it would be practically impossible to ask the major population to tabulate the verdicts of whether someone ought to qualify for the next round. Therefore, a couple of well certified judges would easily fill the shoes of the preponderant crowd as they are the best representation to say someone is hot, or not. There is a vital need for these judges because there is no straight forward judging.

The point is, if 3 judges do the scoring and scandalous controversies can rise up, what more can thousands of untrained ears that can actually send infinite messages in less than 4 minutes? How less corrupted is that? 0 comments

"The visual environment for the young has become confused, fragmented, and
unstable. Students now understand moving but not still images. The long, dreamy,
contemplative takes of classic Hollywood studio movies or postwar European art
films are long gone. Today, rapid-fire editing is the norm in commercials, music
videos, and independent films. Education must slow the images down to provide a
clear space for the eye. It must strengthen and discipline the process of visual
attention."

I feel that students now indeed understand moving but not still images. “Think out of the box” is one phrase students are getting a lot recently, as innovation and creativity are the keys to the 21st century. So what exactly is the box? In my opinion, the box would be the television, or the theatre screen.

Through the watching of programs, we are often supplied with the plot, the climax and all other details nicely laid out for us. In that case, we become “vegetative receptors” not thinking much about the program. When the whole story is put into a painting or a picture, we are often unable to get the details out. We do not have the ability to think deep into the picture to get the message, while on the other hand, the message is clearly given to us in television programs.

Another point to whether one can understand still images is how much one can see the details in the images. The details are things often thrown away by students now as we focus just on the big picture without observing the small details. Our observational skills are not good enough for us to observe a still image and be able to see the big picture. We’re all seeing but not observing these days. For example, how many people remember the colours and the details of Ms Wu’s clothes on Friday? I admit that I do not. We've been looking at her during lessons on Friday but we weren't observing her, were we? At the same time. I believe the people of older generations have this ability to see, observe and are able to list details of objects and people and most definitely, images.

Thinking out of the box… I believe that students nowadays should think more about just what they see in the box, the box is just a comfort zone that do not bring us far in the 21st century. Maybe students can turn to images, instead of just watching moving pictures, and try to understand them rather than to read the description first. Descriptions beside art works limits our imagination as we will be set just to think along that line, and in this case, the line becomes the box we must step out of. 0 comments

Kah Woon here! Introduction of myself...

I'm from Unity Secondary School, from ELDDS and netball previously. I dropped netball in upper secondary so as to dedicate myself into debates and drama, which was a decision I never regretted. What I enjoyed the most in secondary school was the daily till-late debate meetings we had during competition season and the after debates supper after every round of debates. Fridays have a special meaning to all of us debaters.

I’m one who enjoys MOST sports; sports would always bring out the spirit in me. Ironically one sport I do not like is plain running. Guess I’m that type that needs equipments in the sports I do. So maybe netball is the medium and game play is the entertainment [PW].

What else about myself? I love animation and manga. Though I have no talents whatsoever in drawing and graphics. I’m at a lost as what to write for now. Based on instructions, every post must not be less than 200 words. Hmmmm.

I’m actually quite scared of GP, not being strong in English and the fact that I would always put the reading of papers the last task on my list really freaked me out with regards to how able am I to do GP. I guess what I like most about GP so far, are the news articles we’ve to do. Somehow I just love developing my opinions and voicing my views. Maybe I think too much.

I’m currently taking Japanese lessons privately, guess it is quite crazy to do so when I’m in JC, but I will persevere. I’m hoping to study in Japan someday. By the end of J2 I’m sure I wouldn’t be good enough to go for undergraduate studies in Japan since everything would be held in Japanese. What’s chemistry in Japanese?!?!

I’ve hit my 200 words target!!! However, I’ll say a little tiny bit about my ambition. Since I see that Yan Ru did just that. I have the same ambition as her, wanting to be a teacher. I was given the chance to tutor my peers and my juniors since I was in secondary school and it was really enjoyable. I love the sense of satisfaction when I’m able to clearly explain certain problems and make them understand them. But the greatest satisfaction would be seeing them pass their tests and examinations, especially since they may have been failing or not doing very well. My passion is in teaching, passing on what I know about mathematics and chemistry. However, I’m beginning to doubt my abilitites, especially after getting my O level results. No matter what, I’ll still work hard.

YES! This is me. I think I wrote too much. Maybe I just want to run from the fact that I've to do my Chinese homework. 3 comments