Egyptian myths

Here is a website of Egytian myths:http://www.nekhebet.com/m_myths.html

The Story of Ra : The Creation
There was nothing but chaos of water in the begining of the world. Then, Ra, the god of sun, created the ground, the air, and the sand by naming them. He could create things with merely a call of names. Ra named Shu, his son, the god of the wind, and Tefnet, his daughter, the god of the rain. He also created plants and the animals., and his tears became the first humans. Then Shu and Tefnet made their own children, Geb, the goddess of the earth, and Nut, the goddess of the sky. After the creation, he came down and became the first pharaoh of Egypt. He ruled Egypt for centuries, but His secret name was revealed by Osiris, the son of Nut. Ra was forced to leave. Then Osiris became the next Pharaoh.

I think Ra was kind of strange because his done of the births of his great grandson, Osiris, is contradictory to himself. He was afraid that he would take his place of the Pharoah and forbad his grandson, Nut, to have any children because of a prophecy. However, he had to go back to the sky finally.

The Rise of Horus
Osiris became the new pharoah of Egypt. He had a son named Horus with Isis. Osiris taught people how to grow grain, make bread with it and brew it for beer. People were happy under Osiris' rule. Nonetheless, Osiris' brother, set, was envious of him. He trapped Osiris in a chest to suffocate him and dropped it into the Nile River. Isis fled into wilderness with Horus. She started looking for the chest because Osiris needed a funeral to go on the afterlife. However, Set found the chest and cut Osiris' body to pieces and spread them to many countrysides. Isis found each of them and performed the funeral ceremonies. Horus grew up gradually. He and his armies fought with Set, which transformed into a giant hippo. Horus killed him and became the next pharoah of Egypt. After Horus died, he had a battle with Set in the underworld. They're still fighting right now. If Horus wins, he can go back and regain the place of pharoah.

Isis tried really hard to find Osiris' dead body for that he could pass into the underworld. She didn't fear hardship and finally accomplish that. Horus was really brave to fight with the murderer of his father, and he triumphed at the end.

Myths of Heroes

Here are the myths of the heroes that I found on the Internet:

King Arthur http://www.pbs.org/mythsandheroes/myths.html


King Arthur is born of adultery of Uther Pendragon and Igraine, a duke's wife. Merlin raises Arthur away from his parents and teaches him. Merlin is also the designer of the Round Table of 150 knights. After Uther dies, Merlin tells that the person who can draw a magical sword out from a stone can be the next king. Arthur becomes the new king resorting to drawing it out. He routs the Saxons and becomes a kind and just king.


King Arthur also searches for the Holy Grail with his knights. Sir Galahad, one of his king finds it, but not Arthur.

King Arthur marries Guinevere, which falls in love into another man. She and her new lover run away. During the chasing, Arthur's nephew seizes the power and fights with Arthur. Arthur is heavily wounded, and he goes to Isle of Avalon and rests there.


Even though Arthur was born of a really lowly background, he still became the king of Britain. Futhermore, he was a good and well-loving king. Nevertheless, he was betrayed by his wife and nephew. His nephew fought with Arthur for the power. The power is always making people decayed. People are arguing for stronger power all the time.


Hercules http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/greeks/religion/myths/herakles.htm


Hercules is born of Zeus and Alcmene, so Hera, Zeus' wife, tries to kill him. Hercules becomes the strongest man in the world when he grows up. However, Hera uses her godly power to drive him crazy. He kills his wife and children. In order to astone for his sin, he has to accomplish twelve labors for Eurystheus. After he has done all them, his crime is expiated. Furthermore, he can become a god after he dies for doing all the labors. Nonetheless, he falls into a trap of a centaur, and his whole body is burning by the centaur's blood. Finally, he kills himself to end the pain. In the end, he becomes a God in Mount. Olympos.


Fire proves gold, and adversity proves men. After the twelve labors, Hercules became a real Hero. People are like this. If there are no straits and predicaments, people can't become strong and brave.

Mythology

Here is a website I found about hunting myth, "The Man Who Helped the Eagles":
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-mytheagles.html

Pueblo Indians lower an Apache with a rope to a nest of eagles on a cliff, and they pull up the rope of the Apache and leave. He stays with the little eagles and feels thirsty. Then a person a person appears and gives him a small piece of ice and satisfies his thirst. The father eagle comes back home and thanks the Apache,DagônadeL, for taking care of the little birds. And then the eagle calls another group of eagles. They carry the man up to the sky hole? and find their enemies-hornets. DagônadeL puts on the buckskin made by Panther, one of the eagle, to protect himself from fatal stings and uses a quirt to kill the hornets. Then DagônadeL, Panther's grandson?, and other eagles come back their home.

I think this story is about the braveness of the Apache. He stays with the little eagles fearlessly. And then a person laughs below him, and that person jumps up to him and gives him a piece of ice which can satisfy him. The story becomes really strange right here. Anyway, the Apache goes up with the eagles and fights with the enemies bravely. Finally, I have many other questions: What's a "sky hole"? And what is the relationship of the Apache, DagônadeL, Panther, other eagles, and the secret person who gives the ice to the Apache?

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.