Grade 9’s Social Study Debate:

Japan should continue to rely on nuclear power as a major energy source in the 21th century

              In grade 9^th social study class, we will do debate whether continue using nuclear power in Japan. We will do this tomorrow 2013/05/24. So for my practice for debate I thought it will be good idea to share with my ESL class. If I have to choose I’ll be on negative, but in case it is coin flip to choose negative side or positive side. For my affirmative position, a lot of people are using electricity and 27% of Japan’s energy comes from nuclear energy, also, most of students and workers are using computer even you are using it now to look this site. Second, when tsunami comes we can protect with the wall that government makes, so that there won’t be damage to city, town and nature. For example, in 2012 Kansai announced that it would take over four years on defenses against earthquakes and tsunamis. However for my negative position, in the future there will be big earthquakes coming to Japan and nuclear power could explode again. In Chernobyl disaster, lots of people was affected after nuclear reactive blew up. Most of people and plants were harmed by this. For other reason, people are concentrating no nuclear plant too much. They shouldn’t use electricity too much; around 27%of Japanese are using electricity. In future in 2017, it will increase until 41% and 50% by 2030. 

China Calls for North Korea to Release Fishing Crew

New York Times

2013/05/21

HONG KONG — China on Monday repeated its call for North Korea to free a Chinese fishing boat and crew seized earlier this month, and the boat’s owner voiced concern about the safety of the detained fishermen, in the latest episode to lay bare recent discord between the two governments. The Chinese Foreign Ministry revealed on Sunday that the vessel’s owner, Yu Xuejun, had called the Chinese Embassy in Pyongyang on May 10 to seek help after North Korea captured the fishing boat, which operates from Dalian, a northeastern Chinese port city.

The ministry said it urged North Korea to release the boat and crew as soon as possible, and on Monday a ministry spokesman, Hong Lei, demanded that the North ensure that the crew members were kept safe.

“China is in close communication with North Korea over the Chinese fishing vessel held by the North,” Mr. Hong said. “China has made representations to North Korea through the relevant channels, demanding that it properly deal with the matter as quickly as possible and effectively safeguard the legitimate rights of the Chinese fisherman, as well as the safety of their lives and property.”

The ministry did not explain why it had waited so long to reveal the seizure, which has come at a time of brittle tensions with North Korea, an isolated country that depends on Beijing for diplomatic and economic support.

China has long supported North Korea, despite disagreement over the North’s nuclear activities, and many Chinese experts see the North as a strategic shield against potential regional domination by the United States and its allies, South Korea and Japan. But in recent months, signs of irritation have surfaced in the two countries’ relations.

The announcement about the captured boat promptly drew an outcry from Chinese media and citizens online, some of whom have already expressed increasing impatience with North Korea over its nuclear weapons ambitions and threats to the region. Since Saturday, the North has launched several short-range projectiles into waters off its east coast.

The Chinese media reports said that the boat was seized May 5, with 16 men aboard, and that the North Korean authorities demanded payment of 600,000 renminbi, or about $98,000, to release them and the vessel, apparently on the grounds that it was fishing in waters claimed by North Korea. The deadline for payment was Sunday, the Beijing Times newspaper said.

The owner of the boat, Mr. Yu, drew public attention to its capture through messages on Tencent Weibo, a Chinese microblog service. And on Monday he issued a message saying that he feared his crew had been beaten.

“The captain of the seized boat communicated using a satellite phone, and when I asked questions, it was clear that he didn’t dare speak,” Mr. Yu wrote. “We’re afraid that the crew have been beaten.”

Earlier this month, the state-controlled Bank of China said that it had ceased dealing with the North Korean Foreign Trade Bank, in what appeared to be a move supported by the Chinese government to show impatience with the North. Since then, other Chinese banks have taken similar steps.

In May of last year, Beijing disclosed that three Chinese vessels had been seized by North Korea, which demanded payment of a fine before it released them and the crew. They were freed several days after Beijing made the incident public.

Summary

              This news was published in 2013/05/20 which means yesterday, one of Chinese fisherman was fishing around China’s territory. However, fisherman was fishing pretty far away from China, so off course it is hard to go back. During he was fishing, the wind went to south to north. Boat went to north and went until North Korea’s territory. North Korea caught him and Yu Xuejun said to them to give back the fisherman.

Vocabulary

-          Fisherman : a person who catches fishes which is doing for a job or a sport

-          Territory : land that is controlled by that country or ruler

-          Detain: to somebody in official place, for example police station.

-          Ministry: a government that has responsible of that area.

-          Diplomatic: connected with managing relations between countries. 

Chris Hadfield: ‘Space was too good not to share’

BBC News

9-1

Cmdr Hadfield, 53, said his experiences in space were "too good" to keep to himself. He landed on Tuesday.

With nearly 1 million Twitter followers, Cmdr Hadfield said he was pleased with the interest in his work.

He had been on the International Space Station since December 2012 and in command of the vessel since March.

While in space, Cmdr Hadfield tweeted about his life at the space station, sharing striking images of the Earth from space.

"There is beautiful imagery, there's poetry in what is happening, there is purpose in what is happening," Cmdr Hadfield said of his work on the space station. "There is a beauty to it, there is hope in it and it's an international thing."

Sore and dizzy

His social media activities included singing a song with children around the world and filming a cover of David Bowie's hit Space Oddity.

But Cmdr Hadfield insisted his social media activities were secondary to his main functions at the space station.

He said life in space was extremely busy, with no spare time to be idle.

At his first news briefing in Houston, Texas, where the astronaut is undergoing rehabilitation, Cmdr Hadfield described the physical sensations of being in space and landing on Earth.

His first sensation of Earth was the smell of spring after landing in the Kazakh steppe on Tuesday, he said.

Emphasising the differences between life in space and "reality" on Earth, Cmdr Hadfield said he was "readapting to it physically and mentally".

Cmdr Hadfield added that upon his return to Earth he noticed the weight of his tongue and lips and was remembering how to speak under the force of gravity, while his neck and back felt sore from having to support his head again.

"It feels like I played a hard game of rugby yesterday or played full-contact hockey yesterday and I haven't played in a while," he said. "My body is just sore and I'm dizzy, but it's getting better measurably by the hour."

Summary

              Commander Chris Hadfield had land to Earth from space (ISS). He was there since 2012 December and when he landed there was 1milions of flowers. Commander Hadfield was working at ISS (International Space Station) and it was for to get information of space. Commander Hadfield was famous because he was an old astronaut and also by using computer, he answered questions from Earth’s children and he experimented. He said that he feels so dizzy, but it is getting better.

Vocabulary

Dizzy:  feels like you are spinning around and cannot stand still.

Commander:  a person who is in charge of something.

Idle:  not working hard

Gravity:  the force that makes you stands because of the center of the planet

Space:  the area outside of Earth atmosphere where all the other planets and stars are.

How did Facebook was made?

           Do you how did Facebook was made? Today lots of people are using it to communicate and share each other’s picture. Facebook was made in 2004 only in Harvard University and it was for to communicate each other and to help each other for students work. Facebook was second communicating site for school and first one was that students can know what subject there are in. By using this site, they can share their work and can teach each other. Mark Zuckerberg thought this idea by influence from his father. His father thought that connection between person and person is very important. This made Mark Zuckerberg into famous person in the world. First he made this only for Harvard University, but later this site got famous and other university said to use this site either. It got escalated and now almost all people are using .http://cdn.thenextweb.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2011/10/FacebookLogo-520x245.jpg

New Yorkers Short story

The Christmas Present

9-1

2013/05/16

Summary

              In New York there was woman called Della. She doesn’t have money, so her usual day of her meal is always cheapest foods. She is living with her husband called James Dillingham Young, off course he is poor too, but has job. Each one have special thing. Husband is gold watch and Della has a beautiful hair. On the Christmas day, they wanted to give special gift each other secretly. Della decided to sell her hair and to buy him a chain for his watch. After James came back from his job, he bought her a Christmas either except he doesn’t have his watch. He sold his watch to get Della a comb for her hair. And so, there relationship got deeper and they had Christmas day now.

              I won’t recommend this because it is a terrible story for me. First I don’t have feeling to feel for girlfriend yet, so I don’t really like it. However, if you get older you might know how lonely it is or if you were girl this book will be good. The book New Yorkers is short story, so there might be some other stories that you might like.