SpaceX‘s new Dragon 2 spacecraft——Zhiyuan Zhang

Days ago, the personal space company, spaceX, published their new spacecraft, the Dragon spacecraft version 2. Elon Musk, the founder of spaceX, said that this new spacecraft "allows rapid reusability of the spacecraft". Just by refilling the fuel, you can make it fly again.The new spacecraft can hold seven people and can soft land anywhere in the world accurately. The heat shield is improved ,compared with the Dragon V1, to protect the passengers during the process of reentering the atmosphere. The spacecraft can dock with the ISS without help of Canada arm, which is another different part from the version 1.The spacecraft also uses the first 3D-printed engine in the world and is going to fly in 2017.
In my opinion, this is a revolution in the area of space explore. Launching something into space was always expensive. The four failures in the expensive N-1 rocket force Russian to give up their moon-landing plan and the Americans design the unreliable space shuttle for getting reusability and save money. Of cause reusability is not a new word in the space area, we already have space shuttle, which only cost a fuel tank for each flight and the rest of space shuttle can be reused again. However, the space shuttle is not economic enough because each time people have to spend lots of money on fixing it. Meanwhile it is not safe enough since it have to land in an accurate process and it does not have launch escape system which make the passengers have little change to survive in the case like The Challenger Failure. Space shuttle is a compromise to the fact that the tradition rocket cannot be used again and it is not perfect and not what human looking for exactly.
But the spaceX makes the rocket can be reused. The First stage and Second stage of Falcon 9 rocket are designed to be able to soft landing on Earth. This can make the launching price fall to one ten of the current one (though the price of Falcon 9 has been much lower than other rocket). Weeks ago, the first stage soft landing experiment on the sea succeeded but unfortunately the rocket was destroy by the wave latter. Now we the human are going to have a reusable, safe spacecraft. It can be imagined that dozens of years latter, some ordinary citizens can go to space just like taking a plane.
PS: some people worry that soft landing ability will cost more fuel to launch a rocket but this is not true. In fact you have to prepare fuel that is able to accelerate 9000m/s to launch something in to Earth Low Orbit. But with the help of air drag, it costs only fuel for accelerating hundreds of meter per second to soft landing. And it even cost less when you are accelerating an empty and light tank(used rocket) than when you are accelerating filled with fuel and cargo. And more importantly, fuel like kerosene are much cheaper than rocket structure like engines and tanks.



http://techcrunch.com/2014/05/29/this-is-spacexs-first-ever-manned-spacecraft-the-dragon-v2/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DYQmvfThnA

Dare to Disagree--Wendi Fan

In her speech "Dare to Disagree", Margaret Heffernan states her notions that to make conflicts with others about work will make your friends to think it over, and help them to create new concepts. Maybe your disagreement will benefit your friends a lot for his new creation. In her speech, Margaret posted three examples to support her ideas. Three persons, who worked together in medical company, experienced disagree points of view with workmates. However, they gained more useful suggestion and thoughts from different thinkings and different arguments. The most important thing is that sometimes these disagreements can help to prove your result is definitely correct in different ways. Therefore, Margaret recommends us to select right workmates, then establish conflict thinking with them to make more progress.

China has a similar proverb saying that good medicines, which always taste bitter, but are right for health, and good advice, which is always harsh to the ear, but is beneficial to actions. From Margaret's speech, that something I found helpful to me is to judge my friends again, the one who dare to debate my thoughts is real friends, and I should treasure them a lot because they will help me to be perfect. On the contrast, the one who is always obey to my idea and never point out my faults, maybe I will far away from him or just keep the normal relationship with him. Only the persons who will help you to get better one by getting rid of flaws are your true friends. 

Actually, the most hard thing is to disagree with ourselves. We always believe that we are the best one, we can do everything. We become such a super man that we cannot hear others' voice and not bare different opinions. This will make us live in the ivory tower. Someone asked Socrates: " Since you are the world's most learned man, then you must know what is the height between the heaven and the earth." Socrates does not hesitate to answer : "three feet!" That people disagree: " Each of us has five feet high, only three feet between the heaven and the earth, is that not prick sky?" Socrates smiled and said: "so, anyone should understand this you are indeed over three feet high, if you want to have long standing between the heaven and the earth, bowing your heads first."

As we know that, in our lives, the person who view himself as a talent always fails to see the good of others; Cynics, often can not see the beautiful scenery of the world; Only the person who dare to bend and constantly deny themselves, learn more flaws from themselves continuously. And only these people will cheer for the success of others, glad for their own understanding others, feel comfortable in the sight of setbacks.

Resource from: http://www.ted.com/talks/margaret_heffernan_dare_to_disagree

Naif what is conformity?

http://psychology.about.com/od/socialinfluence/f/conformity.htm


This article is about one of the psychology concept which is conformity. Conformity is changing in one person behavior because the influence of the another person or group. Mostly that concept refer to the group pressure. people usually conform for many reasons but the most common is it fit the surrounding and doesn't look odd. Deautsch and Gerard find tow main reasons for conformity: Informational and normative conformity. The first type happen when the person want to be correct.The second one happens  to avoid punishment. The author mentions type of conformity  like compliance , identification, internalization. The author mentions some experiment and example of  conformity like a collage student who drinks alcohol because his colleagues drink in the part although he doesn't like drinking.

 some times it is unnecessary to follow or accept the other behavior or do things to fit the group. I live here in America almost for one year  and i have some friends and observe some behavior changes. For example I live with two Americans roommate and the weekend they have party and drink every one come to the house drink ,but i don't  drink even they offered me many times to drink but i refused because i am convinced i don't have to follow their behavior and drink and stratify them.

  actually i think the person who doesn't conform all the time have strong opinion and also have good skill of evaluation and critical thinking , sometimes we have our own value and behavior that is doesn't fit the group but for our they are acceptable, but do we have to raise the question is it sometimes  more logical and the right thing to do is conformity ? sometime is is right because it is direct the person to the correct behavior. I think it is about the personality and way of thinking and evaluation.



http://psychology.about.com/od/socialinfluence/f/conformity.htm

Thoughts In Chinese Traditional Festival--Wendi Fan

There are eight lunar festivals in China, and yesterday we had one, Dragon-Boat Festival. From the article "Culture Immersion", Katherine Rodriguez states that how the Hutong people had the special festival together. The Hutong provides a place for expats, foreigners, and locals to meet and exchange ideas and experiences. The Hutong celebrated the Dragon Boat festival with two cooking workshops on traditional Chinese rice dumplings, or zongzi, traditionally eaten during the festival to commemorate the death of poet Qu Yuan. For just 250 RMB, foreigners and locals, young and old, joined in the kitchen and learned the methods of making the zongzi.

The dragon boat festival, which is on the 5th day of 5th lunar month, has many customs in that day. The first one is zongzi. Almost every Chinese family will prepare several Chinese rice dumplings to eat and to send friends in that day. Normal zongzi just made of sticky rice and red dates, otherwise, in southern, the zongzi has many different stuffings such as meat, fruit and beans. The second one is boating dragon boats. However, this activity only you can see in south of China. In northern, we often climb the mountain for the mugwort and wash eyes with river water before sun rise. 

Because the mugwort is useful for many kinds of illness. Its strange fragrance can drive flies, ants, also can purify the air. On traditional Chinese medicine, the mugwort as one medicine, has the function of warming uterus and expelling dampness. The leaf which reprocessed is one of the important medicinal moxibustion treatment.

Another custom of Chinese dragon boat festival is that taking

colourful strings on your neck, wrist and ankle before daylight, and dropping them in the water on the first rainy day after this festival. This means that you will get rid of all illness away for this whole year. But, in my opinion, customs are just customs, some of them are not followed science. 

One Chinese proverb says that a person will miss relatives deeply when he is travelling lonely out of home. No zongzi, no relative, no festival emotion here, the only thing I can do just giving a call home and feel how they are happy. In wechat, hundreds of festival pictures are on the show. This lonely feeling reminds me to treasure the relationship with my family. In such a special day, I can still remember the sight that when I studied in middle school, every dragon boat festival morning is a busy day because I ought to send zongzi and salty tea eggs to my grandmother, my aunts and my uncles. My mother always make hundreds of zongzi as a gift to every relative of mine. Everything happened in that time will be beneficial to my life. Thank you, mom.

Resource from: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/life/dragonboat/

To Know Chinese Culture Starts Your Bite--Wendi Fan

The Chinese culture has been developed more than 5000 years,  the Chinese Food and Cultural Festival should be one of the most famous parts. From the popular documentary video "The Bite of China" these days, we can see much Chinese culture and many Chinese elements which are all symbolizations of the central Chinese culture. In each video, it begins with a small part of Chinese historic introduction of the topic of current term. After this, there will be a photo of a specific dish of China. Then the details about which edible materials consist of it, what kind of edible materials should be picked, where the materials we can find and how to cook it together by some orders are followed. Next, the video will recommend you one of the most famous restaurant which serve you a true taste of this dish, and also tell you the story of the restaurant's owner.

This documentary video acted in the first channel of CCTV at 10:30 every night made a lot of people keep in front of the television on time to enjoy the "banquet". This mouth-watering documentary video brings a documentary boom from all Chinese people, and it even appeals to the eyes of "literary youth" who almost never watched TV,  making them back to the screen to watch it everyday.

I think the why "The Bite of China" is so famous in the worldwide should include the following two aspects. First and foremost, it is a diet which can trigger resonant emotion. As a food category documentaries, The Bite of China challenges the audience appetite to the greatest extent in the middle of the night. Even every Chinese person would have such an opinion that China should have so many delicious food I never heard about that. For example, the fried sheldrake, poach Worcester roe, the yellow croaker, the drunk lake crab and the plum burning flesh. Watching it, you can not stop watering. Actually, the cooking time which the video focus on is not much, opposite, the video shows more pictures about hunting the materials, the reproduce the ingredients and the making process. The picture is so attractive because it mixed with the hard work from laborer and the wonderful smell from food. This documentary is full of feelings for Chinese food and it is easy to trigger the resonance from both appetite and emotion.

The other reason in questioned is that it can remind the beautiful feeling of homesickness. Unlike traditional food programs, the bite of China adopted a wide range of beating in geographically. The dishes selected are not classified by cuisines, but each episode has its own characters such as an more than 70-year-old fishing man in Heilongjiang Province, the old man who sells the yellow steamed bread from northern Shanxi and the little girl who is from Zhejiang helps her grandmother to make rice cakes. All these descriptions recall Chinese people to think of the hometown.

Source from: http://english.cntv.cn/special/a_bite_of_china/homepage/index.shtml

Neo-NEETs in Jpan- Yuna Tsushima

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2009/07/19/editorials/neets-on-the-rise/#.U4ylQPnIbvw

 NEETs,which means people who are Not in Employment, Education or Training, have become one of the big problems in Japan. The word “NEETs” was born in UK and imported to Japan in 1990s, and is used daily by Japanese people now. In this article, the author argues that the problem is not only on the NEETs but also on the Japanese companies. Soon after the word “NEETs” came to Japan, the people who are not in employment, education or training were thought to be just lazy. But some NEETs are spoiled by their parents, have a difficulty on their physical or psychological condition, or simply they cannot find workplace. So the author says that while NEETs need to improve themselves, companies also should think about some improvement to recruit them.

 Actually, many of the NEETs have high education background, but they are not working. They live with their parents and get money to live from their parents. They have high pride and high expectation about jobs because of their high educational background, but Japan does not have enough good jobs for them.   After several years of having no job life, they almost give up their life. It is really difficult for Japanese people to get a good job after some empty years.    In the job interview, they will be asked about the vacant few years and they have no excuse. If it is revealed that they have just stayed at home and depended on their parents, they will be thought to be no good and failed person. And they cannot get the job. It is the problem in the very first step. Companies prefer healthy passion young people to recruit, so it is really important to get a good job at first step after graduation from schools.

Many people who graduated from University in the great recession in early 2000s became freeter or NEETs. It was the stereotype of Japanese NEETs that I described in the former paragraph.  But recently, new type of NEETs has appeared. They are called Neo-NEETs. They tend to enjoy their NEETs life and they don’t live with their parents. They have many friends and even earn money. But they are not engaged in specific work and that is why we clarify them as NEETs. Even though they are enjoying their life, they don’t have their own work. And without specific and steady job, it is difficult to get married and have children. While many Japanese students are afraid to be NEETs, some high educated students don’t try to get job and just live freely. They are a kind of new generation in Japan. The problem is that they don’t contribute to Japanese society as much as normal workers do. We have duty to work and pay taxes. If this type of people increases, we don’t know what will happen to Japanese society. They will threat Japanese economy or create new society.

Misa/ What Has Severe Drought Brought to California

Reference from: California Cuts Water to Some Farms and Cities
posted by Brian Clark Howard on May 29, 2014

California has facing a serious water supply problem. Severe drought for few years put California in a serious situation; as a result, the state has decided to limit the use for users of the Sacramento River. The restrictions involves ones who are engaged in agriculture. George Kostyrko, a representative of the state’s water broad, claims how the problem works. The water supply from the Sacramento River watershed does not provide to registered water users with enough water. The river is enormously important for them.

Since Wednesday evening, issuing warming to 2,648 keepers of “junior water rights”; many farmers and land owners and even water authorities must quit consuming water from the river. While they will definitely suffer from the insufficient water supply, ones who has “senior water rights” living in lager cities are not affected by the new restrictions. Peter Gleick, an expert of water issues at the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California, points out the difference between water supply and the amount of water allocated to citizens. Various type of restrictions were taken place when the most serious drought from 1976 to 1977 was happening. In addition, smaller scale restrictions were issued from the late 1980s for 12 years in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers Delta.One of the cause is low snowpack in the Cascades and Sierra, says Mt. Shasta Ski Park says.

Although there are exemptions made for some cases such as protecting health and safety, David Guy, president of the Northern California Water Association says that many including farmers, duck hunting clubs, and small cities, will struggle with their water right reduced in the Sacramento Valley. They will have to leave their lands where they live on. He also points out the possibility of new alternatives like groundwater or transferring water from other areas. Kostyrko claims the prospections of further restriction spreading over endangered species of fish or migratory birds to live and migrate in the Sacramento River system. The water affects not only on the economy but also the environment, says Guy. Actually the situation of the severe water drought will get worse. Jerry Brown, California Governor, mentions that the governor has called for all people living in California to limit water use by 20 percent, planning a way to promote voluntary transfer of water for people including farmers. Many local entities have been asked to restrict water use especially on grass lawns. Gleick praises the measure; however, he also sighs for the lack of interest and knowledge about how important waters is of citizens.

Having read this article, I got an idea; why does the government not promote the restrictions for people who have own grass lawns needing a sprinkler, and even pools. While many who are engaged in agriculture which of course needs a lot of water, and animals struggle with the lack of water are asked to stop using precious water, the people who have recreational facilities needing water does not care about the issue so much. I think this is a real problem. I have seen many rievrs without water since I came here. For example, a liver in Los Angels has a little water in some parts but no water in other parts. In Joshua Tree National Park, there was no water where sufficient water used to be; consequently, many cactus were dying for the extreme drought.

Virtual Classrooms

By: Ayesha Aldoghan

6/1/2014

 Many schools and businesses have rolled out virtual classrooms. Other schools and businesses are thinking about it, so what the virtual classroom is, how the virtual classroom works, and what the benefits of the virtual classroom are.

What is the virtual classroom? The virtual classroom is typically like the real classroom but with some advanced technology in the sipper space, and without face to face meeting. 

The virtual classroom work process simulates what happen in a physical classroom. A teacher explains information taking place by using microphone to talk with, board to write in by keyboard or touch board, and monitor to present some information or picture. Student ask for permission to put a comment or answer a question by clicking a bottom then he writes his comment in a space in a chat room after he got the permission. Users or students want to interact with others within a virtual classroom. They want to share their ideas at a point in the discussion when those ideas are relevant, and they want to see how other participants feel about the discussion taking place.

There are three major advantages of virtual classroom. First advantage is the cost of virtual classroom is less than physical classroom. Students save money by not having to commute to class thus saving time, gasoline, childcare, and travel expenses.  Another advantage of the virtual classroom is time. People who are motivated and/or quick learners may be permitted to move ahead at a faster rate than in a normal in-class setting. Communication via virtual classroom is also considered as a time benefit because most contact with instructors will be done via email, messages can be sent faster and at any time day or night. The last advantage is the notion of distance. That is acting as an actual aid to the teaching and learning. The technology used increased group cohesion and mutual support especially in the remote classroom.

In conclusion, the virtual classroom is an easy tool to use in work and education. It is cheaper, it is able to use at home, and it is faster. Therefore, we can expect to see more virtual classrooms in future.http://www.clarktraining.com/content/articles/HarnessingTheVC.pdf

Gray Hair in Young People / By Doha Shaabien

Many people think that stress is the cause to turn hair to the gray color. In fact, it could be one of the causes but not the main. In addition, there is no scientific evidence until now. The main cause is that the hair follicles ( that produce the melanin that responsible for give the color to the hair ) start to make less melanin than before and this is one essential stage of the hair natural cycle when the person become older. Then these follicles totally die so hair stars turning in gray.  This stage start to appear after age 35; however, some people have gray hair when they are still young in their early 20 and this condition medically called canities. 

Probably, the main cause of this hair color changing could be genetic. Moreover, there are some other factors might cause the hair color changing in early age. For example, gray hair in young people could be indicator for some illnesses or health problems such like Vitamin B-12 deficiency, Neurofibromatosis, Tuberous sclerosis, Vitiligo and Alopecia areata. Some researches show that the gray hair might be an indicator for heart diseases or osteopenia. In addition, smoking could increase the chances to get gray hair in young age. 

In conclusion, the main reason that play a role in turning the hair to gray or white in the young people is genetic more than any another factor like stress for example, and to check your situation you have to know your family history and  when the gray hair started to appear in your parents because you can inherit the gene that responsible of turning the hair to gray from your parents or grand parents.

http://healthyliving.msn.com/health-wellness/why-does-hair-turn-gray  

What is Social Networking Addiction? / By Doha Shaabien

Social networking addiction is a situation when person spend a lot of time surfing Facebook, Twitter or any other kind of social media in the way that influence his life. Although there is no medical admission that classified this addiction within disorders or diseases, this issue is becoming focused on researches and discussions. This mandatory behavior could achieve undesirable results like any kind of addiction that harm the basics of a person's life such as school and work. In the same track, the addicted person might overuse social media by checking people updates and follow their profiles for hours. But we can’t decide exactly if those activities lead to addiction or harmful habits.  

 

Researchers from Chicago University found that social media addiction could be more intense than smoking or drinking alcohol addiction. After researches on sample for weeks, people desire on social media more than smoking and drinking alcohol. Other researchers from Harvard University scanned sample of people’s brains with MRI and let them talked about themselves like what the people say on social media. They conclude that detect some of self-aspects activates the pleasure centers on brains. It’s effect is just like sex and food effects on brains. A lot of clinicians found anxiety, depression and psychological disorders symptoms on people who use internet too mush but they couldn’t relate it to social media. The information on this track are little. Some sociologists and psychologists asking if social media influences people lives and relationships and if it leads to divorce. The Wall Street Journal published that 1 in 5 couples ended their relationships because of Facebook. There was no evidence endorse this data. Moreover, Sherry Turkle, the Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology focuses on the bad effects of technology in people relationships. She has a theory that technology makes us isolate at the time we think we are more connected. On the contrast, some researchers have opposite opinion about the issue. They see that social media helps people to communicate with each other and feel good towards themselves.

 

 Finally, Using social networks too much is considered as "Internet Addiction Disorder," nowadays. In the 90’s, people started to notice internet overusing could impact people in works, schools and relationships between family members. Till nearly years, people can’t decide if spending long time surfing is disease or just medical disorder.

http://personalweb.about.com/od/socialmediaaddiction/a/Social-Networking-Addiction.htm 

The problem of the air pollution / By Doha Shaabien

Polluted air can caused many of health problems!! Yes, this is fact. Moreover, polluted air could affect the life around us like animals, plants and even the water surfaces in very harmful way. 

How we pollute our air?

The manufactures and smoke sources cause the most of the air pollution by producing toxic gases like benzene and vinyl chloride. Those gases particles stuck on air and cause real respiratory diseases like asthma and internal organ damages like brain or nerves system when people breath them in addition of some other symptoms such as eyes and nose burning.

On the other side, some chemical gases are damaging our planet. The Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) is the main cause of the ozone layer depletion or “hole” (the layer in the stratosphere that surrounded the earth and protect it from the dangerous ultraviolet radiation that come from the sun). The Chlorofluorocarbons can be founded in the cooling machines like A/Cs and refrigerator. The ozone layer started to disappear already over some regions in the earth and this thing reflected on the living beings on the planet. The range of the skin cancers has increased in addition of the eyes problems. Furthermore, the forests, animals, crops and water bodies are damaged by this environmental defect. 

All those problems lead to big economic losses. When the air pollution impacts the agriculture, the income from this sector will decrease. Moreover, the countries governments will spend money to find cures for the diseases that caused by air pollution and also the workers will lose days in work which means less financial gain. 

The Congress in 1970 made an initiative by establishing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and gave the federal government the green light to fix the problem and stop this harm. The EPA and civil society and also the factories cooperate to decrease the air pollution in the United States. The Clean Air Act that passed by the Congress has succeed to change some of the bad habits that harm our air and environment. 

http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/global-warming/ozone-depletion-overview/ 

http://www.epa.gov/airquality/peg_caa/concern.html