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.

Baths of Rome

Here is a website I found about ancient Rome:
http://www.therthdimension.org

In the webpage of ancient Rome, click another link of sanitation. The water that Romans used was originated from Anio valley, not Tiber river, and they were for public fountains and baths. Only the rich people in Roman could afford taking water with pipes into their houses. The rain water in Rome usually used for their household water, not for drinking. However, the poor Romans had to get their water from the public fountains, or by hiring an Aquarius, a contractor whose business was delivering water.

The public baths weren't only for poor people to clean theirselves, but also met their friends and socialized with other people. Moreover, it's a place to get an athletic workout, make their body healthy and warm.


Ehem!
(take a look at the webpage Epithets and Other Roman Interjections)

Islam

I searched around on the Internet and found this website:

http://www.islamreligion.com/


I looked through the link What is Islam? (part 3 of 4): The Essential Beliefs of Islam in What is Islam of Beliefs of Islam.

Islams believe that there is only one God severely. Islam teaches belief in one God who doesn't gives birth and wasn't born himself, and has no share in his caretaking of the world. He alone gives life, causes death, brings good, causes affliction, and provides sustenance for his creation. Islams think their God is the only creator, Lord, sustainer, ruler, judge, and Savior of the universe. All the worship is to be directed to God and no one else.

Followers of Islam must believe in the Unseen world as mentioned in the Quran. From this world are the angels' emissaries of God, each of them have no free-will or ability to disobey; it is their very nature to be God's faithful servants. Angels are not to be taken as demigods or objects of praise or veneration; they are mere servants of God obeying His every command.

Christianity

I searched around on the internet and found this webpage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/beliefs/basics_1.shtml

The history of Christianity is approximately same as Judaism, they have the same God. But Jews only believe in the God in the Old Testament of Bible. And Christians believe in the Old and also the New Testament of Bible, and there is a son of God called Jesus.

Christians believe that there is only one God, whom is the same God as Judaism. And they also believe that Jesus is the son of God and the messiah who can save them. Jesus was the love of God and love of one's neighbour, and he said that he had come to fulfil God's law rather than teach it.

Christians believe in the Trinity - that is in God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Some people may confuse with this and think that Christians believe in three separate gods, but they don't. Christians believe that God took human form as Jesus Christ and that God is present today through the work of the Holy Spirit and evident in the actions of believers.

Furthermore, Christians have a special holy day, Easter.

The Introduction of Easter

Easter is the commemoration of Resurrection of Jesus, it's the most important Christian festival. Churches are filled with flowers, and there are special hymns and songs. But there are some that aren't Christian, like the Easter Bunny, was originated from Pagan. The date of Easter changes every year, and some other Christian festivals also change their dates by reference to Easter.

The history of Easter

On Good Friday, Jesus Christ was executed by crucifixion that enforced by Jews. They took his body down from the cross, and buried in a cave. The tomb was guarded and the entrance was blocked by an huge stone, so no one could steal the body. On the following Sunday, some women visited the grave and found that the stone had been moved, and the tomb was empty. Moreover, some people saw Jesus on that day, and for days afterward by many people. His followers understood that Jesus had resurrected by God.

Judaism

I searched around on the Internet, but I couldn't find any website. Therfore, I found this webpage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/judaism/
The early part of the story of Judaism is written in the Old Testament of Hebrew Bible. It describes how God chose the Jews to be an example to the world, and how God and Jews worked out their relationship. Most of the time, it was a stormy relationship. God changed and developed his people alongside. Jewish history begins during the Bronze age in the Middle East. Abraham was the father that chosen by God of people who would be special to God. God guided the Jewish people passing through many troubles. And at the time of Moses, he gave them a set of rules by which they should live.

Jews believe that there is a single God who not only created the universe, but also whom every Jew can have a personal relationship. They believe that God has continued to work in the world, affect everything that people do. The Jews keep God's laws and seek to bring holiness into every aspect of their lives.

Daoism

Teacher Aaron: Because I did the blog homework this time, and didn't do my last homework. I'm going do the last womework.

I searched around on the Internet and found this website:http://www.daoiststudies.org/
I clicked the link a short history of daoism.

I learned that Daoism is an organised religion, and it's been keeping chaging and developing since it originated from China. Daoism has spread all over the world, it becomes a world religion now. However, there aren't many people know what Daoism is now. Moreover, when people have an understanding of it, they often have quite different understanding from someone else's.

The history of Daoism can conveniently be divided into four periods: Proto-Daoism, Classical Daoism, Modern Daoism and Contemporary Daoism.

The first period, Proto-Daoism, was from antiquity to the 2nd century A.D. The Daode jing (I studied Dao De Ching in class), and the Zhuangzi (I studied Chuang Tzu in class) in particular, were written during this period. They were highly influential to the flourishing of the classical Daoist tradition. Many textbooks on world religions still take this period as representing the essence of Daoism.

The second period, Classical Daoism, started in 142 A.D. When Zhang Daoling established the Way of the Celestial Masters, he also known as the Way of Orthodox Unity, the first successful organized Daoist religious system. Daoist priests of today also claim in a lineage that stretches back to this original founder. This period between the 2nd and the 7th centuries called the classical period because scholars of Daoism look back to this time which also known as the medieval period of Chinese history, as the era in which many Daoist practices, texts and rituals initially took shape. During this period, Buddhism was brought to China by missioners from India and Tibet. Daoism took some ideas and practices from Buddhism. Nonetheless, there were also periods rivalry between them. The classical period of Daoism ends with the Tang dynasty--one of the high-points of Chinese civilization from the point of view of the development of art and culture. During the Tang dynasty Daoism became fully completed with the imperial court system particularly under the reign of the Xuanzong Emperor. During this time, Daoism functioned ahead of Buddhism.

The third period, Modern Daoism, started in Song Dynasty. On the syncretism that began in this period, it becomes increasingly difficult to separate out Daoism as a religious category from the popular Chinese religious culture as it functions on the ground. The most significant event in terms of elite Daoism was the founding of the Way of Complete Perfection by Wang Zhe.

The fourth period, Contemporary Daoism, since in 1914 A.D, it has been a near-total catastrophe for Daoism. Especially during the period of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution when many Daoist temples were destroyed and the opened functioning of the religion to all intents and purposes ceased to exist in mainland China. Daoism has begun to be practiced openly again in China and a new generation of Daoists are struggling to rebuild their temples and recover their tradition since 1980. In the other hand, a lot of Chinese people emigrate across the world, many
Daoist temples have been established in Europe. The Americas and elsewhere and many popular Daoist practices have taken root in the West. It wasn't certain that Daoism had survived this cataclysmic upheaval until recently. But the study and practice of Daoism is going to floursh again in China and all over the world.

Sikhism

I searched around on the Internet and found this website: http://www.sikhs.org/
The word "Sikh" in the Punjabi language means "disciple". Sikhs are the believers of God who follow the writings and teachings of the Ten Sikh Gurus. The wisdom of these teachings in Sri Guru Granth Sahib are practical and universal in their appeal to all mankind. They believe that there is only One God, he is the same God for all people of all religions. They think souls go through cycles of births and deaths before it reaches the human form. The goal of our life is to lead an exemplary existence so that one may merge with God. Sikhs should remember God at all times and practice living a virtuous and truthful life while maintaining a balance between their spiritual obligations and temporal obligations. The true path for them to achieving salvation and merging with God does not require renunciation of the world or celibacy, but living the life of a householder, earning a honest living and avoiding worldly temptations and sins.

Guru Nanakwas the founder of the Sikh religion, and he was born in 1469. He preached a message of love and understanding and criticized the blind rituals of the Hindus and Muslims. Guru Nanak passed on his knowledgeable leadership of this new religion to nine successive Gurus. Guru Gobind Singh, the final living Guru, died in 1708.

Hinduism

I searched on the Internet and found this website:http://www.hinduism.co.za/

I looked through the webpage Hinduism Brief Sketch. It is about the three religions now stand in the world, which have come down to us from time prehistoric-Hinduism, Zoroastrianism and Judaism. And Hinduism was developed by Hindus. The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas are without beginning and without end. Vedas mean the accumulated treasury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons into different times. The law of gravity existed before its discovery, and exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual relations were there before their discovery, and would remain even if we forgot them.

And then I looked through another webpage Yoga. Raja-Yoga is the raja of Yogas, and as a sign of royalty it is often spoken of as YOGA without any further qualification or designation. It is the uniting together of Intellect and Mind, and all the Senses, and the all pervading Soul is said to be Knowledge of the foremost kind.

My Book Report

Summary
Harry is a simple ten-year-old boy. His parents died, so he lives in his uncle's house. On his eleventh birthday, a giant—Hagrid—sends him a letter from a magic school called Hogwarts, and says that Harry is a wizard. Then Harry knows that his parents were killed by the most evil wizard, Voldemort. However, he vanished strangely after he tried to kill Harry.

There are four different houses in Hogwarts:Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Revenclaw, and Slytherin, and Harry is in Griffindor. There are a lot of courses in magic that Harry has to learn, and he makes friends with Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. He also meets a boy that is in Slytherin, Malfoy whom he hates a lot. The teacher of Potions, Professor Snape hates Harry as well, and he always blames and sneers at Harry, favoring the students in his own house, especially Malfoy. Therefore, Harry hates Snape a lot, too.

Harry has a talent for Qudditch, a wizard's sport. In his very first flying lesson, Professor McGonagall sees he's good at Qudditch, and lets him on Gryffindor's Qudditch team.

In the middle of his first Quidditch match flying on his broom, his broomstick shakes out of control. Then Ron and Hermione see that Snape is cursing his broom. They interfere with Snape's curse by setting him on fire, and then Harry's broom flies regularly again. Harry catches the Snitch—a tiny golden ball, which earns 150 points for the team who catches it—and wins the game.

At midnight one night, Harry accidentally goes into the forbidden corridor on the third floor with Ron and Hermione. They see a wild three-headed-dog guarding something on a trapdoor. They are frightened and run away.

At Halloween, there is a troll in Hogwarts. Harry sees Snape runs into the forbidden corridor. Harry, Ron and Hermione discover that the dog is guarding the Sorcerer's Stone which can make things turn into gold and grants people immorality. Therefore, they think that Snape wants to steal it and give it to his master, Voldemort. Moreover, Harry even sees Snape bullying Quirrell, another professor.

Snape is going to steal the stone tonight; Ron and Hermione want to stop him. They unite together and go through the violent dog using music to soothe it, and pass the barriers the professors used to guard the stone. Finally, there is only one person who can go through the black fire in front of them, and it's Harry. However, he doesn't see Snape there. The person who wants to steal the stone is Professor Quirrell!

Quirrell tries to get the magic stone, but he can't get it from the magic mirror in the room. Harry sees that the stone is in his pocket in the mirror, and then he feels something real in his pocket. He has the stone. Quirrell unwraps the turban on his head, and on the back side of his face is Voldemort's face. He tries to catch Harry. However, when his hands touch Harry, they are burnt. Then Quirrell raises his wand to curse Harry, Harry jumps toward Quirrell and holds him bravely. He defeats Voldemort again. Harry's mother tried to protect him when he was baby, so she died defending him. The magic of Love has gone into Harry's body, and she protected him from her killer.


My Thoughts
I think that this book consumed a lot of the author's time and soul to write. The plot of this book kept building and building up to a high point. For example: when Harry, Ron and Hermione defeat the three-headed-dog, the dangerous plants, the room with thousands of keys—and find the only key to open the door—the giant wizard chess, and the potions with a logic riddle. Then Harry find Quirrell in the room, not Snape. It is a surprise. In fact, when the plot turns a bit dangerous or scary, it always surprises me. My heart always beats faster. I really enjoyed reading this book, so I just couldn't close it. Moreover, there isn't only good action in the story; there is also a lot of dialogue and learning. Sometimes their chats are full of humor, especially Ron's brothers—Fred and George. For example, their mother often can't identify the twins, and they usually joke that she's not really their mother. Even though their mother recognizes them correctly, they also trick her by saying she's wrong.

I had already seen the movie before I read this, and knew what would happen. Because of that, this book wasn't so exciting to me, but I still enjoyed reading it. Furthermore, the book is a lot more detailed and clearer than the movie. Therefore, I love this book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.

I also think the characters are really good, like Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. The author described them well: their appearances, the thoughts in their minds, and changes in their personalities. Moreover, they experience many things together, like defeating the troll, going to the forbidden forest, keeping a dragon, and passing the barriers that protect the Sorcerer's Stone. Then they grow up after going through these experiences. For example, Harry was a thin and weak boy in the beginning, and his cousin always bullied him. Later, he becomes a wizard, makes friends, and becomes a lot braver.
Ron's brothers had been head boy, captain of the Qudditch team, and prefect, so he'd been overshadowed by them. Then, he sacrifices himself and defeats the giant wizard chess created by Professor McGonagall. He becomes braver.

Hermione Granger was born in a Muggle family (people that can't use magic) family. Then she studies hard and reads a lot of books, so she becomes the smartest student in Gryffindor. Moreover, she becomes more unpretentious after she makes friends with Harry and Ron.

The setting of the story is in the modern world, though there is another magic world like beside it. I think it is fun that there are two worlds beside each other, and that there is a strong difference between them. The magic world still uses parchments and quills, and it also uses herbs and roots for medicine. Furthermore, its mail is carried by owls. The science of the modern Muggle world develops and changes with each passing day;—cars, steamships, airplanes and even spaceships—however, the other world can use magic to travel around in only a few seconds, which is actually a lot faster than us.

I don't have many criticisms of this book; I think there is only a bit of details that are vague. For example, there isn't any clear description of why Harry saw his family in the Mirror of Erised the he first time he saw it in the room, and the second time he sees it he takes out the Sorcerer's Stone from his pocket. Furthermore, there isn't any obvious description of how Harry gets the Sorcerer's Stone from the mirror. Otherwise, I think this book is pretty good.

The ending of this book is that the love of Harry's mother protects him and defeats Voldemort, even though she's dead. I think the ending is really great. The plot kept building up, and the ending was very surprising, and I was moved by it.


What I Learned
This story is full of courage, friendships, and unitedness. In the story of Harry Potter and Sorcerer's Stone, I learned that courage is important. We shouldn't hesitate and be afraid to try things; just do them bravely. If we don't try things, we'll never have a chance.

Friendships and unitedness are important, too. Two heads are better than one. If we can't unite together, we are a grain of loose sand in a state of separation from the beach. Wars will continue, and people will make stronger and more dangerous weapons to fight each other. That won't help anyone, only aggravating the environment. If many friends walk together, each of them can support the others. Furthermore, they can use the merits of their friends. They can also learn from the lessons drawn from others' mistakes.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione defeat the villain together, and learn more things during their adventures. This symbolizes that we can learn lessons after we've done things. In our life, we go through many things. When we're going through our life, we should gain knowledge and learn to face challenges as a result. If we try more things, we gain more experiences.

In the story, Harry looks at the Mirror of Erised to see his family, because his deepest desire is to be together with them. However, it doesn't grant truth or knowledge. Therefore, Harry stops doing it, but it isn't easy to escape the deepest desire in his heart. He always has nightmares when he is sleeping, but they vanish gradually. In real life, there are many temptations, and we have to learn to restrict ourselves.

In the ending the love of Harry's mother protects him and defeats Voldemort, even though she’s already died. Harry's mother sacrificed herself to protect him. I was really moved by this. We should learn a lesson from her sacrifice, and treasure the things that we possess, especially our families. They help us a lot and don't care about gain or loss.
When I started reading this English book, I read it at a really slow speed, like a turtle and had a hard time understanding the meaning. Moreover, at that time, I usually stopped to look in the dictionary. A few weeks later, I found that I could read it faster and enjoyed reading it more. Then I could read it as I was reading the Chinese version. Furthermore, I learned a lot of new words from it. My English got a lot better. Now, I can read English sentences and understand them faster, and don't have to translate them into Chinese in my mind. My translation of English to Chinese isn't better than before, but that's OK.

In conclusion, I think this book is really exciting and splendid. Furthermore, there are a lot of lessons we can learn from the wise saw and the courage, friendships, unitedness, love, wisdom and honesty in the book. Like the attitude to face the life and knowledge. I think this book worth a lot, and I suggest you to buy this book. Moreover, there are other six books of the sequel of this book, I also propose you to buy all them.

Buddhism

I surfed the Internet around and found this website:

http://www.buddhism.org/

There are some dharma talkings of Venerable Master Hye-Am, and I looked through No Buddha-Nature Outside of the Mind of Bodhidharma's talk on lineage. It is about the talking of Bodhidharma and his students. A student asked "If we do not depend upon any written word, with what and how do we conceive the mind?" "When you are asking me, that is your mind. When I am responding to you, that is my mind; from the ancient, beginningless time, each and every movement in all different times and places is your original mind and your original Buddha." Bodhidharma said. It means that Self, as it is , is its own mind; the mind in itself is this Buddha. That is the reason it has been said, the mind in itself is Buddha in himself.

Buddhas have spoken the mind only:

Only the mind is Buddha,

Only Buddha is the mind;

Buddha exists not outside of the mind,

Mind exists not outside of Buddha.

It means that if you see Buddha is just your mind, then do not seek Buddha outside of the mind. Buddha cannot be liberated by Buddha, and Buddha cannot be seen if sought with the kind.

Ancient Persia

I searched around on the internet and I can't found any website, so I found this this webpage and looked through it:
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/cultural/oldworld/middle_east/ancientpersia.html
It talks about before the Neolithic Period, the first communities in ancient Persia. The Persians domesticated animals and planted crops, like wheat and barely. There are many hand painted pottery of artifacts that found in many ancient Persian archeological sites. Persians was a really big and powerful empire, it ruled many other empires. Like Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, and some parts of Asia Minor and India. Around 520B.C., Darius I became the king of Persia, he made Persepolis the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenian Empire. Persepolis was developed more by other kings, and most of the credit was given to Darius I. Darius I also developed a government, including a tax collecting system, allowed locals to keep their own customs and religions and had its own system of roads. Furthermore, the new government also appointed the Persian Empire with two official capitals, one at Susa and one at Persepolis. Unfortunately, Alexander the Great conquered Persia in 331 BC, and the great palace of Persepolis was burnt to the ground.

I found another webpage:

http://www.thebritishmuseum.ac.uk/forgottenempire/

It talks about the Persian Empire was founded in around 550 BC by Cyrus II, called Cyrus the Great. Cyrus founded the empire by conquering the Median kingdom, bringing together two powerful ancient peoples: the Medes and the Persians. He built capital cities at Pasargadae and Persepolis, and continued conquering new territory until his death in 530 B.C.

His empire lasted for 200 years, encompassing diverse peoples and reaching its greatest extent under Darius I. defeated King Croesus of Lydia, in modern Turkey, in 546 BC and capturing Babylon in modern Iraq in 539 BC.

I also found a picture in this website. It is the tomb of Cyrus at Pasargadae. It is rather big, and in the cuture of many ancient countries, the tombs of kings are huge. I think it consume much manpower, although it isn't bigger than pyramids in Egypt.

Babylon

I searched around on the internet, but I can't found any website. Therefore, I found this webpage: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylon It talks about the Babylon. Babylon was a city of ancient Mesopotamia, and we can find the ruins of it in Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, and about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad. Babylon was in the beginning a small town that had sprung up in about 3000 B.C, and it flourished and attained prominence and political repute with the rise of the first Babylonian dynasty. The town was the "holy city" of Babylonia by approximately 2300 BC, and the seat of the Neo-Babylonian Empire from 612 B.C. And there is a famous building--The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

And I found another webpage : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanging_Gardens_of_Babylon This webpage is about The Hanging Gardens of Babylon. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, they were built by Nebuchadnezzar II around 600 B.C. He built the gardens to please his wife, Amytis of Media, who want the trees and fragrant plants of her homeland. The gardens were destroyed by several earthquakes after the 2nd century B.C. The Hanging Gardens were extensived documented by Greek historians such as Strabo and Diodorus Siculus. Through the ages, the place of them may have been confused with gardens that existed at Nineveh, since tablets from there clearly show gardens. Writings on these tablets describe the possible use of something similar to an Archimedes' screw as a process of raising the water to the required height. Moreover, I found this picture :

This is the ancient depiction of the Hanging Gardens. Irrigation on a man-made slope. It is the picture of The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, there are abundant of beautiful trees, plants and river beside the gorgeous building. It might waste a lot of money and manpower to build these huge and resplendent gardens.

Israel Current Events

I looked around on the internet and found this webpage : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Israel-Lebanon_conflict
This webpage is about the Lebanon War in 2006. The war stated on July 12th of 2006, and formally ended on September 8th of 2006. It was a 33-day military conflict in Lebanon and northern Israel. The conflict began when Hezbollah soldiers fired rockets at Israeli border towns as a diversion for an anti-tank missile attack on two armored Humvees patrolling the Israeli side of the border fence. Of the seven Israeli soldiers in the two jeeps, two were wounded, three were killed, and two were captured and taken to Lebanon. Five more were killed in a failed Israeli rescue attempt. Then Israel fight back with abundant of airstrikes and artillery fire on targets in Lebanon and damaged Lebanese civilian infrastructure. Hezbollah then launched more rockets into northern Israel and engaged the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in guerrilla warfare from hardened positions. There are a thousand and more people died in Lebanon War, and most of them were Lebanese civilians. Moreover, there was a severely damage of Lebanese infrastructure, and displaced 974,184 Lebanese and 300,000-500,000 Israelis. After the ceasefire, some parts of Southern Lebanon remained uninhabitable due to unexploded cluster bomblets. On 11 August 2006, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approved UN Resolution 1701 in an effort to end the hostilities. The resolution was approved by both Lebanese and Israeli governments the following days, called for disarmament of Hezbollah. It was for withdrawal of Israel from Lebanon, and for the deployment of Lebanese soldiers and an enlarged United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) force in southern Lebanon. The Lebanese army began deploying in southern Lebanon on 17 August 2006. The blockade was lifted on 8 September 2006. On 1 October 2006, most Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon, though the last of the troops continued to occupy the border-straddling village of Ghajar. In the time since the enactment of UNSCR 1701 both the Lebanese government and UNIFIL have stated that they will not disarm Hezbollah.

I think that we must stop wars, because it could kill many people, break many families, waste a lot of resources, contaminate the Earth and even a lot more problems......etc. Furthermore, the science is developed forward a lot, and the nuclear weapons would make a lot more damage and contamination in the world. Therefore, I think we should stop the wars and live peaceful. Not only for our own selves, but also for everyone in the world.

Ancient Hebrew

Here is the website that I found:

http://www.ancient-hebrew.org/index.html

The Ancient Hebrew alphabet 4,000 year old Inscription was found in the land of Israel and is composed of three letters written in the ancient pictographic Hebrew script. Some of the letter of the inscription is the aleph.

The Hebrew Bible (called the Tenack by Jews and the Old Testament by Christians) was originally written in this pictographic Hebrew script byHebrews whose language, culture and lifestyle were very different than our own in 2,500 to 3,500 years ago. The word rain is a good example of how culture can influence one's view of a word. Nowadays, the word "rain" means a spoiled picnic but to the ancient Hebrews, "rain" meant life, for without it their nomadic life would end. Without a cultural understanding of the words in the Bible, much is missed or overlooked.

Drunk Driver

Here are the websites that I found about drunk drivers :
http://www.madd.org/

The first website is made by 'MADD'. 'MADD' means Mothers Against Drunk Driving. It is about the actions to eliminate drunk drivings, like teaching the students not to drink alcohol and use drug, to take a step to save lives by participating in walk like MADD, teaching parents to take care the children.

Official website

Here is the official website I found of J. K. Rowling :
http://www.jkrowling.com/en/

There are many introductions of J. K. Rowling's books and news. And there are many interesting links of J. K. Rowling's fans. And furthermore there are some manuscripts of Harry Potter there. Of course that there are some informations of her, she spents ten minutes to ten hours for writing a day. And she likes the charters--Harry, Ron, Herione, Hagrid, Jinny, Dumbledore, Fred, George and Lupin in Harry Potter, the story. Moreover, there are some hidden clicks that would jump out some pictures in the story of Harry Potter that she drew by herself.

Minoan Cretan Art

Here is the website that I found about Minoan Cretan art:

http://www.crete-holidays.net/cretan_art_eng.html

The Cretan art originate in the Minoan period in 2500 B.C. In the early Minoan period, the Cretan civilization got ahead of the near contries. The Cretan even traded the Cretan art for hundreds and hundreds of years. The excavations that we discovered show that life on Cretan was about 5000 years ago. It means that there was only alittle finding is related to relagions, and there aren't any temples or important religious monuments were exposed. Nowadays the influence of the Greek Orthodox Church is present in many ways. We think that maybe this was the reason that the Greeks are not the trade people as in the past. And the website has a travel of five days of Cretan art, and there are some beautiful art pictures there.

Egyptian Mythology

Heren is the website I found about Egyptain God and Mythology:

http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/religion/mythology.htm



Ancient Egyptians tried to understand their place in the universe and their mythology centers itself on nature, the earth, sky, moon, sun, stars, and the Nile River. Heliopolis, the City of the Sun, is located in the ruins of Yunu in northeast Cairo. And the cosmic creation of Egyptian myth began here. Ancient Egyptian mythology states all began with Nu. Nu is the description of what the planet was before land appeared. It was a vast area of swirling watery chaos and as the floods receded the land appeared. The first god to appear out of this watery mess was Atum. This myth was probably created because of the large source of water from the Nile River.


Atum emerged from Nu as the sun god at the beginning of time and is the creator of the world. The ancient Egyptians found the bisexual act acceptable, as they found all types of sexual orientations acceptable. Atum gave birth to two children by spitting out his son-Shu and vomiting up his daughter-Tefnut. Shu represented the air and the principles of life and Tefnut represented rain and principles of order. Shu and Tefnut later gave birth to Geb, the god of the earth in which the throne of the Pharaoh would be decided. Nut was also born from Tefnut and Shu as the Goddess of the sky, the separator between earth and Nu. Nut was also born from Tefnut and Shu as the Goddess of the sky, the separator between earth and Nu. Then Geb and Nut gave birth to Osiris, Isis, Seth, and Nephthys.

In ancient Egyptian mythology there is an established kinship of the gods and goddesses. Atum is known also as Khepri, the great scarab beetle, Ra-Harakhte, the winged-solar disk, Ra, the midday sun, Aten, the solar-disk, or Horus on the Horizon. Atum, is the one and only creator in the universe. The sun god Atum travels along Nut during the day and then is swallowed by Nut at night. At dawn it is seen as Nut giving birth to Atum as the sky opens up to the light.

One of the most famous Egyptian myths is the myth of Osiris. Osiris has been credited with many different titles, god of fertility, king of the dead, god of agriculture, god of the underworld, controller of the Nile floods, the rising and setting of the sun. All of these titles have one thing in common: life, death, and rebirth because the myth of Osiris is attributed to his life, murder, and eternal life after death. The myth of Osiris begins when he sets out to spread law and order across the land and to teach people how to farm. Because Osiris was a powerful king and popular with the people, his jealous brother lured him into a coffin and sealed his fate with molten lead. Seth then sent him down the Nile River in the coffin. Later the coffin washed ashore in Lebanon and a tree encased it. A king of Lebanon was impressed by the size of the tree and cut it down and put it in his palace.

Isis was the wife and sister to Osiris who gave birth to Horus and was the protector of the dead. When she received the news of Osiris's death, she knew the dead could not rest without a proper burial. Isis searched and found Osiris' body and brought it back to Egypt. Seth found this unacceptable and cut Osiris into many pieces and scattered them throughout Egypt. Isis set out again and had all the pieces she found made into wax duplicates. All the wax duplicates were placed in the temple to be worshipped. Isis preserved his body with linen bandages, used her magic and breathed life back into Osiris. Osiris then rose as a God-King and he chose to rule the underworld. This is where the roots of mummification and rebirth into the afterworld began.

Egyptian Mummies

Here is the website that I found about the Egyptian Mummies:
http://www.worsleyschool.net/socialarts/mummy/page.html

Mummies are bodies that have been preserved after death.Although many long-ago cultures prepared their dead as mummies, the most well-known examples are the mummies prepared by the ancient Egyptians. The Egyptians believed that it was necessary to preserve a body in order to allow the soul to survive.

The earliest ancient Egyptian mummies were preserved by heat and dryness, the heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly. Later, the Egyptians began putting the dead bodies into coffins to protect them from the desert. But the mommies dacayed in the coffins. Over many centuries, the Egyptians embalmed the dead bodies and wrapped them in strips of linen.

Egyptian embalming methods involved the removal of the brain and organs from the body. And then the body was immersed in carbonate of soda, and the cavities were filled with a mixture of herbs, salt, and other substances. Finally, the body was wound with cloths saturated with similar materials.

The mummification process took seventy days. Special priests did the embalming, and it took the detailed knowledge of human anatomy. The brain was removed by carefully inserting special hooked instruments up through the nostrils, in order to pull out bits of brain tissue. It was a delicate operation, it was really easy to disfigure the face when they did this.

The embalmers then removed the organs through a cut made on the side of the abdomen. They left only the heart in place, believing it to be the center of a person's being and intelligence. Next, moisture was removed from the remaining tissue by packing the insides with a type of salt. After this was removed, the mummy was made even more life-like by filling sunken areas of the body with linen and other materials. And then they added the fake eyes, and painted the bodies usually. And for adornment, they added the jewelry. And the wrapping of the mummy. Every part of the body was wrapped individually. For instance, the hands, head, arms, feet, legs were all wrapped separately from the rest of the body. Each mummy needed hundreds of yards of linen, along with warm resin to seal the layers of fabric.

The Egyptians were really good at embalming. The feet of mummies, when unwrapped after as much as 3000 years, are often still soft and elastic. The historians estimate that by AD 700, when the practice had died out, the Egyptians had embalmed approximately 730 million bodies. archaeologists believe that millions are still preserved in undiscovered tombs and burial places. Many are probably in their original coffins, which were often, if the deceased was rich, decorated to resemble the person who had died.

Egypt

Here is the cool website that I found about Egypt :
http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/menu.html

Daily life in ancient Egypt revolved around the Nile and the fertile land along its banks. The Nile flooded every year, and each flooding enriched the soil and brought good harvests and wealth to the Egypt land. The Egyptian built mud brick homes in villages and in the country, grew some of their own food and traded in the villages for the food.

The ancient Egyptians thought of Egypt as being divided into two types of land, the "black land" and the "red land". The "black land" was the fertile land on the shores of the Nile. The Egyptians grew their crops there. This was the only land in ancient Egypt that could be farmed because a layer of rich, black silt was deposited there every year after the Nile flooded. The 'red land' was the barren desert that protected Egypt on two sides.


The ancient Egyptians believed in many different gods and goddesses. The ancient Egyptians believed that it was important to recognize and worship these gods and goddesses so that life continued smoothly.

The earliest ancient Egyptians buried the dead bodies in small pits in the desert. The heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly, creating lifelike and natural "mummies". And later, the Egyptians started burying the dead bodies in the coffins to protect them not to be eaten by the scavengers. But the dead bodies in coffins decayed because the bodies in coffins were isolated with hot, dry sand of the dessert. Over many centuries, the Egyptians found their way of preparing the bodies. They embalming the dead bodies and wrapping them in strips of linen. And today, we call this process mummification.

The most powerful person in ancient Egypt was the pharaoh. The pharaoh was the political and religious leader of the Egyptian people. He owned all of the land, made laws, collected taxes, and defended Egypt against foreigners. Many pharaohs went to war when their land was threatened or when they wanted to control foreign lands. If the pharaoh won the battle, the conquered people had to recognize the Egyptian pharaoh as their ruler and offer him the finest and most valuable goods from their land.

Pyramids are the tombs of the pharaohs and their queens. The pharaohs were buried in of many different shapes and sizes from before the beginning of the Old Kingdom to the end of the Middle Kingdom. The Egyptian built about eighty pyramids that we have known until today. The three biggest and best-preserved pyramids were built in Giza at the beginning of the Old Kingdom. The most famous pyramid of them was the one built for the pharaoh Khufu. It is known as the "Great Pyramid".

The ancient Egyptians believed that temples were the homes of the gods and goddesses. Every temple was dedicated to a god or goddess and he or she was worshipped there by the temple priests and the pharaoh. The large temple buildings were made of stone, and they would sustain there for a long time. The walls were covered with scenes that were carved onto the stone then brightly painted. And they showed the pharaoh fighting in battles and performing rituals with the gods and goddesses.

The believed that it was important to record and communicate information about religion and goveancient Egyptians rnment. The most famous scripts of the ancient Egyptian are hieroglyphic. They used the crypts; scribes were able to preserve the beliefs, history and ideas of ancient Egypt in temple and tomb walls and on papyrus scrolls.


From the end of middle kingdom until today are more than 3700 years, we still not sure how could old Egyptian carried the heavy stones from the place far, far away without machines. And cut the stones perfectly, then built the huge pyramids perfectly by manpower. There are still a lot of mysteriousness that we don't know, and we'll continue looking for the answers.

Cuneiform Writing

Here is the website that I found about the cuneiform writing:
http://i-cias.com/e.o/cuneiform.htm

Cuneiform writing originated in southern Mesopotamia, and was created in the Sumerian culture in C3100BC, and was used until about year 0. Cuneiform is made of wedge-shaped strokes, and inscribed on clay, stone, metal, wax...... etc. It was for writing in the Sumerian language, and it used for Acadian, Babylonian and Assyrian later. Cuneiform developed into the dominant writing style of the Middle East, and it even spread to Egypt, but it was normally and preferred to write hieroglyphic there. In first stages of cuneiform writing, it was based on pictographs, but for practical reasons, the system based on straight lines came to prevails. The pictographs changed into symbols made from straight lines, and numbers were represented by repeated strokes or circles. In its early stages, cuneiform was written from top to bottom. During the 3rd millennium BCE, this changed into writing from left to right. The signs also took on new form, being turned on their sides.

I learned that people invent the words gradually to connection with other people, and this is the progress of the civilization. "Every step leaves its print" people developed the civilization little by little, and become the modern world now.

Young Adult Fiction

Here is the website about young adult fiction books that I found:
http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/2008/01/2007-young-adul.html
And here is the book that I would be interesting in reading:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/141692423X/cybils0c-20

This book is about a young girl--Billie Standish--'s story. She had a lot of heart and soul, and her life was about to change forever when the rains come pouring down. She has a friend Miss Lydia, whose her neighbor. And there were danger lurks close to them, but they didn't discover it. This story is about the friendship, courage, and devotion.

I like it because Billie Standish and her friend, Lydia were really good friends. When the adversities were coming, they still help each other in the rackets. They exhibited the friendships, courages, and the togethernesses. I think I would be vibrated by the heart-stirring story.

I seldom see the books of Chinese like this, it is pretty special.

I think it may be alittle hard for me to read this book, but I could read with my reliable electronic dictionary. Therefore, I would read it for a longer time, But I still love this book.

It's a New Year

I was really happy in 2007 ! !

I went to Ken ting last year, we were so happy there. I still think of the time that I went there; I'm hope so much that I am still there. I read a lot of books in 2007, like Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, many comic books and a variety of books of science, I was really enjoy reading them, and I learned a lot from them.

I have graduated from elementary school to junior high school last year; I missed the time during the elementary school and my friends very much. Even we study in different junior high school, we're still friends. I became a junior high school student, I met many new classmates, and made a lot of friends.

When I was studying in junior high school, I learned a lot more things that I didn't know in elementary school. But it means that my schoolwork would be a lot more than elementary school, Math Science, Chinese, English and Social studies are harder. And there are more tests in junior high school, too. Therefore, I must study harder in 2008, and start preparing the big test 3 years later. And I have to cultivate my ability of reading English, and then get a better job in the future.