Samurai

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.