High Calories

 

In case you all did not know, in New York, many restaurants put the number of calories next to each item in their menu. This is probably an effort in order to persuade people to control their diet well as well as to let them know which type of food is healthier for them. Of course, this is a really great measure that will probably make sure people stay healthy.

Famous Fast-Food chain McDonalds has started to make its meals more healthy less calorie dominant, in an effort to make its calorie count on the menu lower. To achieve this, it had decreased the amount of fries given, and also started to add fruits to its famous Happy Meal. This actually helps a lot of people as this decreases their calorie intake.

However, there are a few downsides to this: Only a fifth of consumers actually take note of the calorie count, while the rest just simply ignore them. Worst of all, consumers that take note only seem to eat 100 calories less, out of a recommended 2540 calorie intake. It seems that the average American consumes nearly 3,500 calories a day, according the United Nations NAO, far exceeding the recommended calorie amount. Also, there are some restaurants whose actual calorie count of its dishes may be off to the point where it exceeds 1000 calories of the stated calorie count. The restaurants explained that the food prepared by each worker differs. However, I do not think that is an excuse. I am sure that there is no way that the food that each worker prepares can differ so much; of course some calorie difference will be expected, but 1000 calories is really pushing it.

Why is it that so many Americans refuse to reduce their calorie count?  Perhaps many of them are not aware of the serious consequences of taking in too much calories. Many of them probably know that there are negative consequences of taking in too much calories, but do not understand the extent of the consequences. As a result, 34% of Americans are obese, while another 34% of them are overweight (This does not even include the already obese americans). Thus, this leaves less than a third of Americans being physically fit.

I am sure that in order to solve all these problems, much better policies need to be implemented. New campaigns should be introduced while existing ones should step up on the process, before this already very serious problem gets worse and worse.

Going Vegetarian

There have been many talks around this area about vegetarianism. It now seems to be hot topic of debate. Why then are so many people talking about going vegetarian?

One of the most common reason for considering going vegetarian is because of health issues. Many people think of it as a primary way of losing weight, mainly due to the consumption of meat being a major obstacle in that. Meat contains extremely high amounts of calories, and thus cause the formation of large amounts of fats. Fats are okay in acceptable amounts, but to many people, excessive fat either makes them look ugly, or gives them a concern for their own health, as it increases the risk of diseases such as diabetes. In order to get rid of these, the obvious answer would be to stop the intake of meat, which means going vegetarian. 

However, a common argument to going vegetarian Is that people do not get enough  nutrients and proteins, which is one of the most essential things that our body needs to survive. Many studies have shown that protein is required for many manual activities, such as those which require huge amounts of strength. Also, it helps to build up our body. Last but not least, the presence of meat is one of the most important factors in taste, as it is arguably one of best tasting foods amongst all the others. It is impossible for any other foods to be able to replace meat’s taste. As such, many people eat meat also partly to find pleasure in eating.

There will definitely be many vegetarian supporters who will say that foods such as beans are not meat, yet can still provide a person with proteins to last the person throughout the day,  because these foods are also high in protein, and yet are low in calories as compared to meat, which makes it a healthier choice.

However, many people still complain that without the fragrant smell of the meat, it is very hard to enjoy a meal. Of course, everybody has different tastes, but I am very sure that most people have at least one type of meat why they really enjoy eating, compared with a lot of other food. Personally, I feel that there is no need to go vegetarian in order to lose weight. If you want to lose weight, simply control your diet; maintain your daily intake of meat, but make sure that you consume slightly less than normal. That way, you can still enjoy the taste of your meat for every day, and yet take in less calories. A balanced diet is the magic recipe to reduce weight. Going vegetarian helps speed up the process, only that you might have to bear with no more meat to go. Thus, a balanced diet is a little of everything.

Thus, I feel that a balanced diet is sufficient for a person to either lose weight, or maintain high current weight. Going vegetarian is a speed-up, that comes with some trade-offs.

               

Competence

Last week, the topic we had for our Secondary 2 panel discussion was about Non-Core Subjects in Hwa Chong. As we were talking about these subjects, we soon started to talk about sports(being a non-core subject). Then, Dr. Hon talked about competency, and asked various people to define what competency was. Some people said that competency was the ability to do well as compared to others. Others expressed that it was simply about reaching a certain set target(e.g. A*). However, I do have my own view about the definition of competency.

I feel that competency is the ability for someone to be able to do something well. Now, I will be asked to define 'well'. Personally, I feel that doing something 'well' is not to do something better than the others. For example, I feel that as long is someone is able to speak English fluently(rare pauses, grammar mistakes etc.) they are competent in it. It does not matter how many people there are in the world who can also speak as well or better than him. As long as he can do his job properly, without hiccups, he is competent.

My definition of doing 'well' is NOT being able to do better than others. Talk about transporting heavy loads. If I am the world champion, does that mean that I am competent? It depends on what you are talking about. If your job involves moving heavy sacks of rice, then I am competent and the man for the job. If you are talking about moving an aeroplane, then I am sure that I am not competent, and neither will anyone else. That is because nobody is able to do the job well at all. So what if I am a world champion. I am still unable to move the aeroplane, and thus putting me up to the jox`b will be totally useless.

There was a person who mentioned that competence is a measure of interest and talent of a person. However, I do not agree so. So what if the person may have an interest in the field, he might not perform well, if he does not have talent. Also, if a person has talent, but no interest, he will not be competent either. The criteria however, are not just limited to the talents and interest. There are many other factors too, like the amount the person's talent can be developed.

Some questions about Elizabeth I

        Elizabeth I and the Politics of the Elizabethan Era

 Elizabeth I: who was she?

-She was the queen of England, from 17 November 1558 until 24 March 1603(her death date). Her father was Henry VIII. She was 25 when she became the queen.

 What were England’s international relations like during Elizabeth’s reign?

-England during Elizabeth’s reign were not on good terms with the Spanish, and waged war against each other. However, England was in good terms with the Dutch, and both fought against the Spanish during the war.

 What was Shakespeare’s relationship with Elizabeth I?

-Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright. All these belonged to the Arts, and Elizabeth I had supported the Arts very much when she was in reign. It was said that she even wrote some poetry herself. Also, the queen was very fond of Shakespeare’s works. She even asked for people to perform his plays to her. It happened 32 times in total. Also, it seems that Elizabeth pretty much controls what happens in Shakespeare’s works, which make her like Shakespeare’s superior.

²  Compare Elizabeth I to Portia. How is Portia’s character a tribute to Elizabeth I?

-Elizabeth I was a very strong woman, who would not collapse upon any minor mistakes or setbacks. Also, she was smart, as she was able to defeat the Spanish Armanda during 1588. The Armanda was a 132 strong ship army, with approximately 30 000 men onboard. Similarly, Portia, when disguised as a lawyer, she was able to find a loophole in Shylock’s agreement with Antonio, being the fact that Shylock had to cut exactly 1 pound of flesh, no more and no less, or he would be breaking the agreement. That was obviously impossible for Shylock to do, so he was forced to drop charges against Antonio

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_1

www.luminarium.org/renlit/renaissanceinfo.htm

http://www.enotes.com/william-shakespeare/

www.elizabethi.org/

Antivirus

As you all know, since the first computer virus appeared in the 1960s, viruses have been bothering us so much to the point that we have to regularly reinstall our software or even buy new computers. That is why we need an antivirus software.

Recently, some Hwa Chong technicians posted up an EMB reporting that a high percentage of us have been detected to not have any antivirus software, through a check by the Hwa Chong network. Actually, at first I was not in favour of people collecting  information about our computer through the network. However, later I realised that this information was important. This just shows that how unprotected a lot of Hwa Chong's Student's computers are.

Why is it important to protect our computers with an antivirus software? Now that Hwa Chong has moved on into the future school programme, many of us are using laptops for our schoolwork. Just imagine if your research studies project work, analysis, thesis, presentation and literature review are all in your computer, a virus could just cleanly wipe everything out by corrupting our computers. Then, our weeks and months of hard work is wasted just like that. Thus, we need a reliable anti-virus software to prevent all this from happening.

Virus usually originate from the internet. And I believe that Hwa Chong students do a great deal of research and socialising on the computer. While doing all these, it is impossible for us to avoid a virus. All we can hope is that our antivirus can block it or that the viruses we get are not dangerous or can be easily busted. Of course in here, the width of the virus database of the antivirus matters here, and I urge that all people should be a reliable antivirus software as soon as possible. Do not buy a particular brand of antivirus just because it is cheap. You should buy an antivirus because it can protect your computer well.

Last Lesson of Chinese Drama

On Thursday, we had our last  chinese drama lesson. Many people from my class do not really have a positive attitude towards Chinese Drama and many of them say "Come on Chinese Drama sucks!" However, I think likewise. I think that Chinese Drama is actually a very fun lesson. Whether we actually feel it fun or not depends on our own attitude.

The main reason why I like Chinese Drama is because we rarely get a chance to practice talking properly, and because we get to learn interesting things we would never be able to do in order lessons. First off, we learn all the simple warming up like the mouth exercise, which I think is actually very useful, for preparation before a long speech.

Secondly, we get to watch very cool performances by classmates! Many times, classmates will induce an element of laughter and fun into their act, which always causes us to burst out laughing. Also, it allows us to understand more about how people react in situations and so on.

Lastly, on the last lesson we had a number game. It was a very simple game, where the rules were for us to stand in a circle, and then count from 1 upwards. However, we had to clap instead of shouting the number for multiples of 3 and numbers with 3 in it like 13 and 34. If a person did it wrongly, he would be eliminated and forced to do 10 push ups. Later, I discovered a flaw in the game that if the number of people playing the game is a multiple of 3, the game would be unfair, since some people will always get multiples of 3 no matter what, and all they have to do is clap for the whole game. Later on, my hard work paid off, and I emerged as one of the 4 survivors of the game! It was actually a fun game, which yet required a lot of concentration and the ability for our mind to twist.

I really hope that there will still be Chinese Drama lessons in the future!

On: Inconsiderate behaviour on the bus

There are so many inconsiderate acts on public transport nowadays. People keep breaking simple rules. Even if they do not break simple rules, they display behavior that have negative impacts on us. I am going to talk about so of this behavior.

First off, we have people vandalising buses. When these people vandalise buses, the content that they put in the vandalism usually tends to not be very appropriate. Also, they are making the bus uglier and dirtier by doing such things, and makes the cleaner's job harder. Worse still, if they carve their vandalism, then they have done permanent damage. What they write, they might see it as cool, but when other people see it, I do not really think they would think it is cool

Secondly, we have people not giving up seats to the disabled and the elderly and the pregnant. On nearly every bus and ever MRT train, we will see notices telling people that those seats are reserved for the elderly / pregnant/ disabled, and that we should give it up to them should they need it. However, just how many people will follow these instructions and give up their seats? I have seen many times disabled signaling for the person to give up his seat, but the person simply treats him as transparent, or pretend to sleep. I feel that this is very inconsiderate behavior. The elderly/pregnant/disabled need the seats more than them. It is harder for these people to maintain their balance while standing while the bus is moving. What if the person who needed it gets injured? Are they going to be responsible for it?

Thirdly, we have people talking loudly on public transport. In the past when I went to school by bus, there would always be a mob in the bus too, where they would talk loudly, use vulgar and inappropriate language, as well as cause a nuisance to others. Sometimes, they might also be eating on the bus. I feel that these people should not talk loudly. Some people want their rest when they get up onto the bus. If those people are going to be so noisy, how are those people going to be able to rest? Also, they used vulgar language. What happens if there are children around? Just imagine if the children decide to use vulgar language, and become influenced by the mob. It would be even more embarrasing if the children as their parents what those vulgarities meant. Also, they eat on the bus, which is very inconsiderate behavior, as it will make the bus dirty.

I really hope that people will stop committing such stupid acts and change for the better.

Types of news articles

In class, we learnt about many different ways and different writing styles which the newspapers use to tell us information Some of this information may not be always reliable, and it is up to us to interpret its reliability. So far, there are two types of newspaper articles. The broadsheet type and the tabloid type. I am going to compare both of them.

Broadsheet:


Broadsheet newspapers tend to be newspaper that are bulky, even though it is not always the case. Broadsheet newspaper articles provide us with more 'straight' news. 'Straight' news basically means these are all the raw facts, and that they have not been twisted or morphed by the newspaper to mean something different. So most of the time, broadsheets news are generally more accurate. They are also more informative. Also, they do not really go personal, and instead just covers whatever is important. They usually report breaking news or news that are important to us. These broadsheets are aimed at the working class.

Tabloid:

Tabloid newspaper tend to be newspaper that are not too bulky, easy to hold as they are small in size. Generally, tabloid newspapers do not provide us with straight news, and instead tell us information that has been morphed through the personal opinion of the author. Thus, we can sometimes clearly see that the article is biased against one side. As a result of that, these newspaper articles are not so accurate. Also, tabloid newspapers have a fantastical writing style, so as to appeal to the young, since the young like to read newspapers that look nice to read. However, they are usually less informative, and focus more on writing style. They may also go very personal and cover many personal things. I found that tabloids also like to cover many subjects about human interest.

Hwa Chong students eating ice-cream on bus

Not too long ago, there was an article on STOMP which pictured three boys with the Hwa Chong Institution badge bringing ice-cream up the bus. According to the mood statistics in STOMP, it shows that many people are furious at this incident. This incident has caused much negative publicity to our school. The STOMP article has also attracted comments from many members of the public, even though it is believed that many of the comments belong to boys from Hwa Chong Institution.

I feel that this article and its photos will negatively affect Hwa Chong. It makes other people think that Hwa Chong produces students that cannot understand and adhere to simple instructions like this. It reflects very badly on our school reputation. Our school reputation was built over decades, not within a day. But, it can be ruined just in a day.

Secondly, from the public's viewpoint, the boys were wrong to have even brought the ice cream up in the first place. The must consider that the ice cream is a sort of food that could melt. If the food melts, it might  drip onto the bus and create a huge puddle of mess. Such behavior is just inconsiderate! The boys had to truly reflect their actions

After that though during assembly, they apologised to all the students in Hwa Chong Insitution. After listening to all three of them, I felt that they were really sincere in their apology and that it was not just some slipshot job just to make the teachers happy. Thus, I decided to forgive them, and I believe others will too.

As for the comments by boys from our school, I feel that they should stop commenting, since this incident has already caused much negative publicity and commenting on it will only make matters worse for us. As Hwa Chong students, it is our duty to uphold our school.

The Miss Jiang Lai Incident

If you remember, not too long  ago, a Singaporean blogger called Miss Jiang Lai became famous for posting on her blog that ACS(I) boys were easier to date. This post was then publicised by many newspaper articles such as The New Paper. After that however, she was put in the limelight again, for asking the principal of Hwa Chong Institution for permission to "let her take full care of the boys" through her blog. She had said that because a boy from Hwa Chong Institution had gone up to her just to prove to her that Hwa Chong Institution boys were not ugly. This led Miss Jiang Lai to change her view towards Hwa Chong boys, to what she had first described as "all ugly". As a result, she has reportedly made undesirable movements towards him, and now when he was to break away from her, it was too late.


Personally, I think the reason of what happened did give Hwa Chong some embrassment, and I feel that the boy has been too rash. Firstly, he had no considered what type of person Miss Jian Lai was, and what she would do to him. The boy did not think about the consequences of his actions, and because of that, he has got himself into a lot of trouble. Just by reading her blog posts, I can already tell that she does not seem to have a normal mind and she seems to be out of her mind. This is mainly because she was so bold in posting all these on her blog, without fear that people might sue her, and even so, she seemed proud of it. I think that she should feel ashamed for her own actions, as many people view it as despicable. Of course, she received many negative comments on her blog, which she just simply ingored and scolded those people, using her uncle as a backup.

However, there seemed to be positive comments on her blog too. We have every right to believe that some of those comments were from students from our own school! I feel that the boys should stop trying to incite Miss Jiang Lai to continue her actions, and instead should just not comment on her blog at all. We do not want Miss Jiang Lai to cause harm to any of our boys again.

Rats!

Today on stomp, I saw a news article write-up showing a rodent on the table of a chicken rice stall. Upon further look, I realised that it was actually a rat! In fact, I have never seen such  a big rat. Soon, someone reported the rodent, and it was exterminated.

Rodent infestation like these bring people a lot of trouble.Not only do they scare other people away from the food court, it endagers our hygiene. Rats are generally dirty animals, which scavange for food.in rubbish  dumps, where it is very dirty, unhygienic. And now, we are eating all this dirt into our stomach. Just thinking of that is enough to put anyone off.

The National Environment Agency should check the hygiene of these stall owners more often. If they had been checked regularly, and found that there has been hygiene problems, they would have detected all these hygiene problems. This shows that the NEA had not been entirely careful in their inspection, which let them to overlook this incident.