The Different Views on Controversial Topics

Hello, everyone, and welcome to a new segment of "Afternoon with Andrew"! Today, we will talk about the controversial things that we had been introduced to by various people around us. (ahem.... such as English and Art teacher....ahem...)

Anyways, our first order of business is the controversy that was raised by the Red Maple Book, [The Shepherd's Granddaughter], where parents of young children are writing letters trying to have it pulled from the Red Maple competition and off libraries' shelves, saying that it "seems to be designed to make children hate Israelis". Now, we have to understand that this is, apparently, a complex matter from all I've read for it involves a long history of conflict between many countries against Israel and it should not be a matter that is to be exposed to a child. However, I disagree! I'm pretty sure Israel has less of a history than China, which is 5000 years old with at least 1 quarter of that being bloody conflicts! If I, a 13-year-old boy, could get the gist of the history of China, I'm pretty sure that anyone at my age or above can somewhat understand the history of Israel!

Also, as well with the rest of my controversial stories coming up, they all touch quite a bit on my speech topic, freedom of information. By putting this book off libraries' shelves, it's basically banning or censoring the book from the public eye, and we know that according to the freedom of information act, and the fact that we live in a democratic country, censoring information is, in most cases, ILLEGAL!!! Besides, everyone deserves a right to know! (Also, to those people who wants the book off the shelves, the more you hide the book, the more curious people are going to become and the more exposed the book will be to the public...*innocent whistling*...)

However, everything has 2 sides to it. I can understand why people want the book to be banned for they think that some children could get the wrong message from the book, and I admit, it is quite likely for someone to misinterpret a key concept within a book. Therefore, if this post offends anyone, I sincerely apologize.

OK, moving on! Next on our list is the topic of [United States: The World's Lagest Group of Peacekeepers, or Bullies?]. You see, America is the mose powerful nation on Earth, or a Superpower, if you will. It is currently engaged in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, etc. on, what they said, are: "Peacekeeping missions to destroy terrorist organizations". However, how did these terrorist organizations start in the first place? You guessed it, it's with American companies taking their resources and giving almost nothing back to them, leaving their countries poor and in poverty. So really, the terrorists just want back what belonged to them in the first place and save their country. Is that such a bad thing? No, in my opinion, but the Americans don't seem to wish to negotiate peacefully! Instead, they started a war! That's not nice!

Also, the Americans need better soldiers that are more careful when engaging enemy forces! I say this because on July 12th, 2007, 2 U.S. Apache Helicopters in the Iraqi suburb in New Baghdad engaged about a dozen people using 30mm cannons. Now, some of these people had guns, but they were just engaging in peaceful conversation when hell rained on them. After the incident, a van came in to rescue whoever is still alive, but it was also blown up by the Apache helicopters, but luckily, the 2 children in the van were alive.

The U.S. military first claimed that all of them were anti-Iraqi forces or insurgents, but that's not true, as an anonymous personnel within the U.S. military leaked the video of the incident taken from the Apache helicopters onto WikiLeaks, which specializes in revealing confidential information to the public for it truly believes in the freedom of information as I do.

From the video, it was discovered that 2 Reuters news employee was killed in the incident and the pilots thought that the giant camera of 1 of the news reporters was a RPG, or a Rocket Propelled Grenade. (Seriously, they need better pilots who are actually not blood-thirsty and better eyesights....) Also, the U.S. military said that the pilots' actions were legal under the rules of engagement, but Wikileaks released the Rules of Engagement of 2006, 2007, and 2008, and the actions were in no way legal! This is madness! If the pilots can get away with killing more than a dozen innocent people, imagine what else they can do!

Here is the confidential video that was leaked onto the internet, with a shortened version that grasps the main idea in half the time of the full version (Something that Mr. Gould will like...) . However, if you have time and want to know the full story, go ahead and watch the full version!





Thanks for reading this segment of "Afternoon with Andrew"! See you next week

P.S.: "Afternoon with Andrew" has ran out of fundings and therefore, cancelled. The reason for our endorser's sudden decision to pull our fundings is unknown.... However, we do think it is government-related....

P.P.S. Some parts of said story is entirely fictional, and cannot be confused with reality, or there will be heavy consequences...

Earth Hour

As you people all know, Earth Hour is coming up at 8:30 tonight and we here at Andrew's Blog (OK!OK! So i twisted the truth a tiny bit... It's only me here! :D) recommend you to turn all eletronic devices off for 1 hour to show your commitment to helping global warming. Actually, forget about that. We here at Andrew's Blog is forcing you to commit in Earth Hour! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

Reader: Uhh.... OK..... Yeah, how does that work?

Andrew's Blog technician: Ummm...Yeah.... We're still working on that...If we can't think of anything, we're just gonna shut down the blog for that 1 hour! How's that?

Anyways... Where was I? Oh yeah, Earth Hour! Here's what we want the world to about Earth Hour:

1. We can solve 3/4 of climate change by changing the energy we use.
   First step is cutting down our use. Do those lights really have to be on? Can the computers be turned off at night? Think before you switch on.
2. 10 million Canadians care about leadership on climate change.
   Every person who participates in Earth Hour is sending a clear and inspiring message to our leaders to take further action needed to help our planet.
3. We're in the hot seat this summer - and it's not on the beach!
   Canada is hosting the G8 and G20 Summits in Huntsville and Toronto in June, and climate change is on the agenda. Let's show the world what we are capable of.
4. Wildlife's best hope is avoiding 2 degrees Celsius.
   Global warming is already threatening our coral reefs, the base of ocean life. If we can limit the warming, we can stop 1/3 of species from risking extinction.

Now, here are some info about global warming:

1. Because of climate change, the loss of Arctic sea ice is destroying the habitats of polar bears and walruses, threatening their survival.
2. Because of climate change, in the Caribbean, warmer temperatures are skewing gender ratios of sea turtles, undermining the stability of the species.
3. While balmier climates may actually boost tourism in Canada, other key sectors of the economy - including fisheries, agriculture, forestry and oil and gas - won't be as fortunate.
4. Most of us will experience climate change in the form of extreme weather: floods, droughts, heat waves and stronger storms and hurricanes.
5. Globally, climate change is causing glacial melt, sea level rise, loss of Arctic sea ice, increased insect infestation, wider spread of diseases and extreme weather events.
6. Most greenhouse gases are caused by the burning of fossil fuels for electricity generation and transportation.
7. Deforestation is another major driver of climate change, responsible for more carbon pollution than the entire global transportation sector.
8. A carbon footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of carbon pollution produced.
9. Simple ways to reduce your carbon footprint include: walk more, use public transportation, only buy what you need and recycle.

Finally, here is some tips to live green:

1. Drive Less. Instead of taking the car, why not walk, bike or take transit. Cars and trucks run on fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
   
2. Buy local and sustainable food. The average food product travels about 2,000 kilometres before it reaches your table. Along the way it burns up energy - creating greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change - as it's packaged, shipped and stored. WWF-Canada has created Sustainable Food Buying Guides for regions across the country to help Canadians shop sustainably. The guides are free and available at http://wwf.ca/foodguide.
   
3. Recycle, reduce and reuse. Recycling saves a lot of energy needed to extract, process, transport and make new materials and products. Recycle 100% of your glass, aluminium, plastic, and paper and compost your organic waste.
   
4. Stay grounded. Airplanes are one of the biggest culprits for pumping carbon emissions high into the atmosphere. If you must fly, then purchase carbon offsets to reduce the impact of your flight. WWF recommends gold standard carbon offsets, such as Climate Friendly (https://climatefriendly.com/).
   
5. Make sure your dishwasher and washing machine are always full before you run them as this will save energy and money.
   
6. Weather-proofing your home is a great way to save energy. Caulk your doors and windows, add insulation or add shades to use in the summer!
   
7. Leaving your computer for a while? Put it on stand-by and it will take less energy than shutting down and restarting.
   
8. Fix leaking faucets. The constant drip wastes water, energy and money, so repair them as soon as possible.
   
9. Unplug appliances and phone chargers when they aren't in use. If they're plugged in, they're drawing energy and costing you money.

OK, now you can see how we might be able to break the record for most energy saved in an hour! Also, considering the fact that only 18% of all canadians would give themselves an A when it comes to conserving energy, we might actually prove to the world that we can be very eco-friendly and show them what Canadians are made of!

Here are 2 videos, 1 is the official promotional video of Earth Hour 2010 and the other one which is more specific towards Canada with a great background music by Coldplay (Oscar, don't get over-excited!)

OK, that's it for this post! And considering how my techinician failed at thinking of a way to force you to turn off your computer during Earth hour, we're just going to shut down our blog for the Earth Hour! Thanks for Reading!

How to Fix Internet Problems

Well, I'm really bored and I really can't think of anything to blog about, so I'm using my last resort of telling everyone how to fix common internet problems! (I know it's nerdy, but what the heck! I have way too many people asking me on how to fix internet problems....Ahem..Especially Oscar.... Ahem....)

OK! Let's get started! To fix internet problems, you have to understand the network in your house. A home network is something like this:

So, basically, you have a computer linked to a router, which looks something like the black box below (maybe yours have antennas), either with a wire or using wi-fi.

A router is handles all the requests from all the computers in your house and in turn, gives the information to the modem, which looks something like this:

The modem is connected to the internet through either telephone wires or television wires.

Now, the most common internet problems are: Slowness and no access at all. Let's start with slowness, which is easy to fix! (unless you or your parents signed up for really cheap internet service, in which case, I got nothing!) When you experience slowness, it's because of too many people using the internet at the same time and so, the router is too stressed and has a meltdown!

Now, if this ever happens, the first thing you do (Obviously), is get a fire extinguisher before it lights your whole house on fire! (And if you have people in your house that you don't like, you can "accidentally" blast them too! Not that I'm encouraging anything...) The second thing to do, that is, if it still works, unplug the router for 30 seconds and plug it back in! There you go! Easy fix!

The more complicated problem is when you can't access the internet at all! It can also be frustrating if you are downloading something or having a video chat or, in a more severe case, you can't get your english homework to Mr.Gould!

Usually, if you can't get onto the internet, it's because some part of your home network isn't working and the easiest fix would be to unplug the modem and the router for 30 seconds and plug them back in. If that doesn't work, then you're going to have to read on!

If the unplugging solution didn't work, then you're going to have to check if the blue cable behind your computer is and behind your router is loose.

If that didn't work, then it's probably your computer's fault. To fix that, you need to really dig into the computer (This is easier if you have Windows XP, you can do it on vista and 7 too, but it requires more work, and if you have a mac, I got nothing for I don't have one!)

For XP: Press Start--->Control panel--->Network Connections--->Right-Click Local Area Connection---> Disable---> After 5 seconds, right-click again--->Enable (or something that's close to these steps... I don't have an English XP, so that my best english guess...) The place should look something like the one highlighted:

For Vista or 7 (Windows 7 Rules, Vista stinks so bad that I want to toss it out the window... Sorry, I had to fit that in): Right-click on Computer--->Manage--->Device Manager--->Network Adapters--->Right-Click and press disable on all the ones that are there (Presuming that you have more than one, if you don't, then just disable what you have)--->After 5 Seconds, Right-click and enable them all again. It should look something like this (You might not have what's there):

Congratulations, you have just finished the basic diagnostic of internet problems! Here is your certificate!!!

If you still have internet problems, tell your parents to call the company that provides the internet and complain! If they won't do that, then just leave me a comment and I'll try to solve your problem!

Due to people complaining about the fact that you can't view this post if your internet is not working, here's a downloadable version: Click here

The Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games

Today is the final day for the Winter Olympics, and we Canadians have proven ourselves quite the adversary against the other countries by placing 3rd in terms of medals and by reaching the all-time Olympic record of most gold medals won by 1 country during a single Olympic games, and that amount is 13! Here are our gold medalists:

1. Alexandre Bilodeau (Men’s Moguls) with a score of 26.75

(Click here for Gold Medal Run Video)

Alexandre Bilodeau at Victory Ceremony

2. Maelle Ricker (Ladies' Snowboard Cross)

(Click here for Gold Medal run)
Maelle Ricker at Flower Ceremony

3. Christine Nesbitt (Speed Skating-Ladies' 1000m) with a time of 1:16:56!

(Click here for Gold Medal run)

Christine Nesbitt after the race

4. Jon Montgomery (Men's Skeleton) with a total time of 3:29:73
(Click here for Gold Medal Run)

Jon Montgomery holding Gold Medal

5. Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir (Ice Dance) with a totel score of 221.57 points
(Click here for Gold Medal Dance)

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir on the Podium

6. Ashleigh Mcivor (Ladies' Ski Cross)

(Click here for Gold Medal Run)

Ashleigh Mcivor at the Victory Ceremony

7. Kaillie Humphries & Heather Moyse (Women's Bobsleigh) with a time of 3:32:28

(Click here for Gold Medal Run)

Kaillie Humphries & Heather Moyse finishing in Canada 1 winning gold and Canada 2 Silver

8: Women's Ice Hockey Team beat USA 2-0
(Click here for the Gold Medal Moment)

Women's Hockey Team photo

9. Charles Hamelin (Men's 500m)
(Click here for the Gold Medal Run)

Charles Hamelin waving the Canadian Flag

10. Men's 5000m Relay Team

Men's 5000m Relay Team on the Podium

11. Speed Skating Men's Team Pursuit
(Click here for Gold Medal Run)

Moments after the Gold Medal Race

12. Jasey Jay Anderson (Men's Parallel Giant Slalom)

Jasey Jay Anderson shortly after the medal ceremony

13. Men's curling
(Click here for Gold Medal Video)

The Men's Curling Team on the Podium

Well, that's our 13 gold medalists... Wait, I'm receiving news that Canada had just won another gold medal in Men's hockey! So now, our 14th medal:

14. Men's Hockey (Canada VS USA 3-2)
(Click here for Gold Medal Finals)

The Hockey Team shortly after the Medal Cermony

With the Hockey team Gold, it means that Canada will go down not only as the country having the most Gold Medals in these games, but as the country to win the most Gold Medals in a single Olympics in history! What a glorious day for Canada! Well this is the end of this blog post, even though the closing ceremony is still to come, but unfortunately I need to get off because I'm going to go watch too! Have a pleasant evening!

United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) Talk Show!

Hi! Welcome to Andrew's United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) Talk show! (Yes, I know it's a bit late, but global warming is an issue that should be discussed at all times! Plus, I saw info regarding this on a T.V. talk show...heh heh...)

So, first off, we need to know some key facts: the COP15 is a meeting attended by all the countries in the UN, and this meeting is largely pointed at the biggest polluters in the world: China, India, Brazil, South Africa and the U.S.!

Now, the entire summit was about 12 days of meetings when it's more like world leaders in a giant room arguing in each other's faces fighting for what's best for their countries instead of the environment like little kids in a playroom fighting over toys!

The most shameful country at this summit is none other than our home country: Canada! Who, if you would, is the kid who was sitting back while his big brothers fight, but the one who would eventually get picked on ! The above was done by our Prime Minister Stephen Harper and our Environment Minister Jim Prentice making little commitments and rarely scheduled to go on in the meetings. So, in the end, their behaviour made us get the fossil award: the award to the country with the least commitment to Global Warming.

Not so fast to think that Canada had completely failed! In fact, in my opinion, it didn't fail as badly as it looked at all! The fail is just about to happen…

At this point, it’s pretty much China VS U.S. in an Epic showdown! With the U.S. President Barack Obama demanding China to make a commitment and he was going to throw in $10 million U.S. as a contribution to help China reduce pollution. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was happy with this until the U.S. wanted to regularly check on their status and how they are spending the $10 million, where he said that it was unacceptable for it’s a foreign intrusion! Barack Obama then countered saying that if we don’t regularly check, then it’s hollow victory!

In fact, it was so intense and epic, some Chinese guy made fun of this argument between them and joked: (Translation) "China cannot let the U.S. into our country and look at how we are spending the money! How we spend it is our business! Heck, half of the time, we don’t even know where we spend the money! So how can we tell you something that even we don’t know!? Besides, we loan the U.S. tons of money! Can you tell me where you are spending it all? Hmm…?"

So it’s like this back and forth with no winner until it was announced that they have reached a "meaningful agreement", whatever that means, but before we start to figure out the meaning of this meaningful agreement, we have to turn our attention to the fact that none of these "agreements" are legally binding! Meaning that none of the countries have to do what they had said! Now should be the time for Pres. Obama to say that this is a hollow victory, but then again, he already left for America!

What has just happened was not the worst of all, there is even more to it! Like how the press from all over the world is pinning the failure of this conference on 2 victims:
1. The developed countries for demanding too much from developing countries.
2. The developing countries for thinking about their countries’ growth before the environment

Who’s to blame? I honestly don’t know! Whatever you choose is your opinion!

Now, onto the biggest and last fail! Now that the climate summit is over, statistics say that the amount of CO2 produced in the 12 day conference matches the amount of CO2 that Norway pollutes per year! FAIL! Talk about the supposedly green conference not being green!

Well, that’s all from Andrew’s COP15 Talk Show! Hoped you like it and tune in next time at some point in the near future! Thank You! Good Night!

Ski Day!!!! (What Fails!)

On Tuesday this week it was Ski Day! A day dedicated to (of course) the sport of skiing! Since it was extremely fun, it made it to #1 on Andrew's Blog post list!

So, off we go at 8 in the morning (8:15 actually due to the delay of Mr. Pattison) to the Dagmar Ski Resort! It was a boring bus ride where I tried to sleep and when I was about to drift into the peace of sleep, we got there... (If Oscar were here right now, he would say, ahem: "FAILBLOG!!!")

Apart from the sleep thing, they are other total failures that made my day, along with some good things that keep the karma in balance...

OK, back to the total failure thing. So, everyone got fitted for their ski or snowboarding gear, and went out for a lesson, and here is failure #1: WORST SKIER THERE IS!!! Fortunately, as the day and the rate of falling down increases, I became better! (As they used to say, if you don't take risks, you will never learn)

That was pretty much the morning: me practising on the bunny hill and falling at least 5 times, each time with my legs in a different, unthinkable position. After lunch, we had a retest to see if we can make it to the next level. Surprisingly, I passed (HOORAY! I'm not such a bad skier after all!)! So, I went to the Green slope with a lift. (Yay... BTW, I'm scared of height, especially movement when I'm not on the ground) Thank Goodness I went on with Aruuran, who was also scared of heights, so it was OK-ish. Apart from the lift, the way down was AWESOME! Feels like you can just lift up your arms and take to the skies! Also, it's addictive, so I went on it infinite times despite the lift!

Unfortunately, karma can't always be on my side, for Aruuran and I met Phoebe, and we were taking the same lift up, and here is where it went wrong: Aruuran missed the lift! So there I was, dangled in the air on a chair connected only to a thick metal cable! WITH PHOEBE! (Don't get me wrong, I got nothing against girls, but I do have something against girls who knows how to torture me!!!) And so, since she discovered my fear of heights, tortured me non-stop by rocking and swinging the chair! I screamed with all I got and everyone who was on a lift had heard me! (Just in case you're a girl, and you think I'm trying to discredit girls, I have witnesses: Aruuran who saw the whole thing from the lift behind and Mr. Pattison who heard everything from the front!)

Edit: OK, turns out that Aruuran was laughing too hard to see, so I'm without an eyewitness, but the good news is that Phoebe confessed so NO GOING TO COURT with Aruuran and Mr. Pattison! (Aww, that would have been fun...)

From the ski lift incident came the bad fall incident: We (Aruuran, Menan, Oscar, Phoebe, and I) skied down the Green lane in a friendly race, where my skis, for some bizarre reason, got stuck together and I fell over, nearly breaking my leg (Psst... don’t tell my parents, otherwise, I'll never play a sport in my life again...). Let's see, that brings my total up to... umm... over 20 FALLS!!!

The last fail of the day is buying hot chocolate that burnt my tongue and then forced to throw it out for we're boarding the bus and no food allowed! What a waste of $2.50!

Well, that was pretty much my failure ski day. Hope you enjoyed it! I know I did! (Well, the good parts anyway...)

Happy New Year!

Hooray! We are now in the year 2010, the new decade as well as the Year of the Tiger on the Chinese Zodiac! (I know it's more than a week since New Year, but what the heck! The spirit of the holidays should never die!)

The Taipei 101 unleashed a flurry of fireworks at 12:00am, January 1st, 2010

Now I know most people have a New Year's Resolution that usually dies after 1 week, well I'm the kind of guy that usually has resolutions that last several years, or I dropped it after half a year and picked it up later again.(At least I don't drop it in the first week...)

Well, since this post is in the spirit of the New Year holiday, I'll tell you about it in different cultures.

So, the majority of the world celebrates new year on January 1st of every year, but many cultures doesn't. In fact, some cultures celebrate new year in February (Chinese New Year, March (Iranian New Year), April (Tamil New Year), and even September (Rosh Hashana, or Jewish New Year)!

Well, I personally didn't experience many New Year holidays, so I'm gonna write about the Chinese New Year and the Rosh Hashana! (I know something about Rosh Hashana even though I'm not Jewish because my Gr. 6 teacher was Jewish and gave us a little taste of it)

So, We had some bread made without yeast (I don't have a clue how that's made) served with honey and then we played (Ahem...gambled....ahem) with the dreidel (See picture below) and we bet on which side it's going to land on and whoever wins gets chocolate that has a loonie wrapping from the other players (See what I mean by gambling?). When I played it, I had a incredible strong start, but in the end, I lost everything (Guess that would teach me and everyone reading to not gamble, you could easily lose everything you have...).

The Dreidel with a symbol on each side

Well, onto the Chinese New Year! We traditionally celebrate everything on the Chinese New Year's Eve with fireworks, festivals, and lion dances! We also wear 唐装 (pronounced Tang Zhuang) which is the traditional Chinese clothing we wear on the Chinese New Year. (The funny experience for me with the Tang Zhuang is that last year, I went to school wearing it for it is the Chinese New Year and discovered that Oscar had the exact same outfit as mine! Except his is hilariously too short for him!)

The Lion Dance

Well, that's pretty the end of my blog. Thanks for reading! To reward your patience and keen interest, here is a little Chinese New Year based e-card for you! Enjoy!