God's Children

Today we watched a movie about the poverty. There are a lot of poor people out there. They don't have enough money to buy food and go to school, even though they know education may be the only way to leave the poverty. Most of them live in the dirty dump, along with the garbage. One time, the garbage mountains collaped and it took many lives away. The government, however, shot down the dump. Instead of giving the poor people a place to stay and solve the problem, they decided to ignore and did nothing about it. In the end, the poor still did not have a place to stay, not to mention the healthy food and better living environment.

Aftering watching the movie, I feel that we are so lucky to have a good life here. Look around, we all have a decent place to live, all kinds of food that we can choose, and the more important thing is that we can choose which school to study. Compared to the poor people in the movie, I think we should appreciate more what we have right now, instead of complaining what we do not have.

Causes of Poverty by Anup Shah

Author Shah on March 22, 2009 wrote an article about the causes of poverty. At the beginning of the article, there is a list of the facts of the poverty. For example, nearly a billion people in 21st century are illiterate. Shah stated that the brief causes of poverty were mentioned more often than the deeper and more global causes of poverty. In fact, the global causes played an important role in the causes of poverty.

The writer believed that the globalization was needed to put into account. Since the globalization made the world connected closely, it also marketed the captalism all over world. So it made the wealthy and powerful even more wealthy and powerful. The poor countries still stayed poor and poor. In the end, the poor countries will not have any chance to improve their life, health system, lowering the rate of the illiterate, GDP, and etc.

I think the author made a good point about the causes of poverty. The poor countries had little chance to improve their own life when the rest of the more wealthy countries are interconnectedness. They had hard time to get involved in the global activities since the poor countries had little money and power. The global point of view was actually an excellent point toward the causes of the poverty, instead of the internal causes.

http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty

Aphorism #5

“Be hopeful but not foolishly hopeful.”

We are used to and asked to be helpful when we are in the negative emotion or in a bad situation. We try to think of the bright side of the situation and look for the good things happen soon. For example, right now the economy is bad and lots of companied bankrupts. But we are still hopeful and think that the bad time will be over soon. The market will be back and everything will be good again. This is what we mean “hopeful.”

However, we do not recommend “foolishly hopeful.” What is foolishly hopeful? When people are foolishly hopeful, they are looking for something that is not going to happen or doing nothing to them. For example, people who are in their 40’s are hopeful to be like 20’s or go back to their 20’s. This is foolishly hopeful some people have. They are hopeful to something that is not going to happen. It is almost like these people live in the unreal world and at the same time, they waste their energy and time in hoping something that will not happen. So I think the aphorism tells us that we should be optimistic and hopeful but not hopeful for something will not do anything good to us or even will never happen to us.

How do electrolytes work in our body?

There are electrolytes in our body and this is why we are conductive. Not only the electrolytes play the conductive role, but also play a very physical role in our body. If we are lack of electrolytes in our body, some of our body system will become imbalanced, such as our hydration and pH.

Electrolytes are mainly composed of sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), and chloride (Cl−) in our body. When they are released in the liquid, they will release the ions. Ions are the very important things to make the electrolytes conductive. So when our body is conductive, it also makes the heart beat, makes the muscle work and makes the nerve convey its messages. So electrolytes actually help our body keep working.

The sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), and chloride (Cl−) are also very important to keep our pH balanced. If there is an imbalance on the electrolytes, there will be an imbalance on the hydration and pH. So when we finish exercising, we need to replace some water and electrolytes. This is also the reason why electrolytes are usually found in sports drinks.

Aphorism #4

“When you are utterly frustrated or angry, express these feelings. You don’t have to be nice all the time just most of the time.”

We are taught to be nice to people even though we are mad or angry. I guess this is so common in the Chinese culture. Sometimes I am so angry, but I still wear a smile to the person I am angry at. However, in fact, we do not have to be so nice all the time. Once a while, we should express what we really think and just behave like it. There is nothing wrong with it. I think this way is healthier to our body.

On the other hand, when we express our negative emotion, we should keep in mind that we do not mean to hurt anyone. We just show what the current state in our mind, not trying to harm anything or cause damage to our friendships and other relationships to different people.
So, when we are angry, once a while we don't have to keep it, we can express it on our face. We express it but don't mean to hurt people. We can shout out loudly, or hit something, just don't hurt other people or ourselves.

Lightning & Rubber Shoes

It is believed that lightning is a form of static discharge. Static discharge means that some particles (usually electrons) leave its object and move to different place. So what does the lightning cause? It is has to do the static discharge in the storms. When there is a storm in the sky, it will make the clouds and particles in the sky dash to one another. When they push one another violently, their electrons and protons separate or the electrons move to somewhere else. After a while, all electrons and protons are separated. The positive charged will stay on the top of the clouds and the negative charged will move to the bottom of the clouds. When the negative charged are at the bottom of the clouds, it will induce the positive charged from the surface of the ground. Again, the negative charged from the bottom of the clouds move to the surface of the ground where the positive charged exist. When the negative charged move, there is some energy from the release of the discharging process. It is the releasing energy that causes the lightning.
During a storm, it is better to wear rubber shoes because rubber is one of the insulators. Insulator can make the charge difficult to move or pass. So when we wear rubber shoes in a storm, the charge cannot pass on our bodies and we can avoid the lightning or thunder on our heads.

Aphorism #3

“Don’t assume that it’s too late to be involved in something.”

It's always not too late to get involved in something if you really want to learn. Just work hard, then you will be good at something even you were not good at before. Just start it right the moment when you feel like it. Like some old men and ladies that do not work hard or can't study when they were young. But they continue their education when they are old. In few years, they also graduate from the schools. Just work hard if you really want to do something.

Sometimes we think we are too old to do something and think we are too late to do something we really want to do. But we do not realize that we are so conditioned in the culture and we do what people think we should do. There is no right time to do anything, instead of investment in a bad market. My point is that people should do whatever they want to do even though they are old. It is always not too late to do things that can satisfy one self.