Nuclear Reactors- what can we learn

The Chernobyl nuclear disaster occurred in 1986 at a nuclear power plant in Ukraine, par of the then Soviet Union. A test of the reactor's system went out of control, resulting in a series of explosions which released a large plume of radioactive smoke into the atmosphere. The radioactive particles drifted over large parts of Eastern Europe, necessitating the permanent relocation of over 350,000 people from the most severely contaminated areas in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. A 30km exclusion zone has been maintained around the power plan to this date because radioactive substances can remain in the environment for a long time, up to 200 million years. It is difficult to determine the exact human cost of the disaster but it is believed to have contributed to thousands of cancer cases throughout Eastern Europe. Many children that were born from people with the radiation were born with deformities. Japan's nuclear reactor problem is not the first time they have felt the deadly effects of radiation. Atomic bombs were detonated over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of WW 2 to force the Japanese to surrender. 200,000 Japanese died within months of the attack from the lethal effects of radiation, leaving deep psychological scars on the nation. The ongoing nuclear crisis has raised many concerns about the safety of nuclear power generation around the world. Government leaders in the US, Germany and China are facing public pressure to shut down existing power plants and stop the construction of new ones. The Singapore has not ruled out the use of nuclear power in the near future. Considering the lack of space and the new risks shown by the Japan disaster, the decision will definitely require careful thinking and much discussion.

Tennis Tournament

Hwachong tennis team has never had any trophies since it began 20 years ago. But this year, my tennis team and i made history and managed to get 4th place in the national inter-school tournament. I was vice-captain of the team and playing doubles most of the way with our captain, we managed to get this magnificent result. We had gotten a new coach this year that just happened to be my private coach. We knew that we had a chance to get a trophy, so the whole team worked very hard to try and get the top 4 position. In the group stages, we had Powerhouses RI, Catholic High and SJI in our groups. RI had been runners-up for the past 2 years and catholic High had been 3rd place in the last 2 years. SJI had beaten us 5-0 last year as well. We were anxious but were excited to play as well. Knowing RI would be out of our reach, we aimed to get 2nd place. Our first match was against St Patrick's where we beat them 5-0. This really boosted our moral and we went in less nervous to play SJI. We took the first 2 matches with the second being a hard fought battle where we won 9-8. It was my turn to play doubles with my partner. We knew that we were vunerable as the last 2 matches would probably be lost so my doubles partner and i went into the courts with pressure building up. It turned out relieving in the end as we easily won a 9-0 victory over our opponents and celebrated our win which had brought us one step closer to getting in the top 4. Against RI, we lost 4-1 fairly quickly with my doubles grabbing the only win with a 9-8 victory. We knew that we would lose but we suffered a blow, one of our players had sprained his ankle. We were very anxious as the deciding match against Catholic High was the following day. To our relief, the next day he came ready to play. Shockingly, something surprising happened. It rained continuously for the next 4 days and we had to postpone the match. On the 5th day, we managed to play 3 matches, where we took a 2-1 lead, with my doubles win 9-1 and a singles win 9-7. We needed one more win the next day to ensure victory.

The match had been postponed to Saturday and we came back on the weekend to participate. About 20 parents of the Catholic High team arrived with none of ours. We were pressured by the audience but in the end we pulled through winning both the singles 9-4 and the doubles 9-7. We had a 4-1 win over Catholic high and made it to our first semi-final!!

Facebook good or bad?

Does Facebook have a positive or negative effect on students? This issue is very mixed and inconclusive.Recently, OnlineEducation.net, an online database designed to inform current and prospective students about education opportunities in the U.S., compiled a mound of research data on college students and their use of social media. After analysis,

Key survey findings include:

96 percent of college students use Facebook; Grades of students who checked Facebook while studying were 20% lower than grades of those who didn’t check Facebook while studying; 79 percent of students did not believe that multitasking in the way mentioned above negatively affected their grades; 20 percent of students that use social media reported feeling connected to their institution; 75 percent of college students reported wanting to collaborate online.

Nobody would deny that everyone that checks Facebook every few minutes would be distracted and be less engaged in learning, absorb less knowledge and thus get lower results for their exams.

However, if the student is using Facebook to improve his or her knowledge, for example, by participating in a Facebook group created by a professor for students of a particular class, than the social network may have a positive influence on education and spark the student’s interest in learning certain subject matter. For example, lectures could be posted on these networking sites and students could respond and it would become an interactive environment to improve one's education. This is thus a positive effect through Facebook. But this is rarely the case for many users of Facebook who mostly just use it to talk to their to their friends.

An important benefit seen in the statistics is the ability of Facebook to make students feel socially connected with one another, with a greater sense of community. This can be beneficial in boosting students’ self-esteem. This is another positive effect of Facebook.

But, as we have also seen in the news, social media can also have a negative effect on emotional health when abused by cyberbullies who harass and torment peers. Social networkings like Facebook easily allow someone to cyber bully someone else without getting into trouble or having to confront them face to face. This causes high stress and would impact negatively.

Ultimately, how social media affects students may come down to how it is used and the frequency with which it is used.

General Election Day!!

On Saturday, it was election day, one that would be passed down through history. My parents woke up early in the morning and proceeded to the polling station and went for the votes. Even with my sister and my incessant speeches for them to vote for the opposition, they remained loyal to the PAP and thought 2 votes for the opposition would not make a difference. I agreed that the West Coast GRC would definitely won by the opposition and stopped arguing. When it was night, my family invited our friends and we crowded around the television to watch the results. Although everyone was laughing and joking about how Yam Ah Mee needed to go for toilet breaks and could not, or the fact that he paused for 10 whole seconds after reading a mistake, we were serious when it came to the results. It was not that shocking of a result. The PAP had deproved in almost every single constituency, but what struck me was that Ang Mo Kio, led by PM Lee, managed to improve to 69%. This was important to see how much support the PAP actually had. My sister and I were all rooting for the opposition and were glad when Hougang and Aljunied were won claiming 6 seats in parliment. We were glad that there was some opposition in the parliment to keep the PAP "in order". This was a much improved number of people compared to previous year's of 2. But we felt pity as a gentleman such as George Yeo had to leave the parliament and made jokes about replacing Tin Pei Ling with him. There was some sadness though as Joo Chiat and Potong Pasir lost so closely, by ~1%. Overall, i felt it was worth it to stay up 2am in the morning to watch the results, with its ups and downs. I hoped the Government will really improve this results and this atmosphere really made me keen to the elections that i can vote in 10 years time.

PAP rally

The PAP rally was much different from the SDP rally. For one there were seats. At first my family were surprised but happy to see them. We soon realised what was the use for them. As the field slowly started to fill, we realised a trend. It was mostly populated by elderly. It showed how the young people these days were so much for change but the elderly still have their hearts at the PAP. The PAP was not that full with an estimate of only around 10,000 much less than their SDP counterparts. The PAP also carried out their speeches differently. Unlike the SDP, there was less rousing of the crowds than just claiming the improvements that would be made to their lives. This gave me an insight of what ideas the PAP had and also showed me the different audience the SDP and the PAP aimed their ideas at. This was also an interesting experience and taught me more than just the youths thinking of voting the opposition.

GE Rally - Holland Bukit Timah, (SDP)

With the closest fought elections with 82 of 87 seats of parliament being contested in this GE elections, my family and i were very interested in this year's elections. We went for 2 rallies, watching a SDP rally and a PAP rally. The SDP rally really caught my attention. It was held in a huge field beside a HDB flat and about 20,000 people turned up to watch the rally. The whole place was completely packed. The HDB flat's overlooking the field had 20 people per level lining up beside the railings to have a good look at the rally going on. It was certainly a very interesting atmosphere. When we first arrived, we had to drive around for 15 minutes, to get a parking space 6 blocks away! It was that packed. We had no clear direction on how to get there but the sounds of the gramaphone and the cheering crowd led us to easily find the position. My sister and I squeezed through the crowds to get to the booths first. The booths were filled with SDP supporting goodies and my favourite was a sticker saying "say no to 10% GST " with the 0 a PAP sign. 2 speakers really caught my attention. Ms Michelle Lee and Vincent Wijeysingha. Ms Michelle Lee was an RGS student and her points were most clear and silenced the cheering crowd when she spoke. Whenever something good was said the whole crowd would cheer. Vincent Wijeysingha was the most anticipated the speaker and thus spoke last. He made many jokes to rouse the crowd and soon it was clear everyone was interested in what he had to say. When i left, it really affected me and i saw how the opposition was thinking of the Elections. It was a very interesting experience and i their words made a great impact on my decision for electing 10 years in the future.

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The place was in ruins, the house that once lay was in crumbles. The trees were leafless, the ground was littered with debris, with brick and metal. The men in their heavy armour and camouflaged helmets carried their guns and ran to bring help to the areas of war. Their boots clanged on the metal as they made their way to the war zone. Looks of fear were in their eyes but determination kept them going. The air was acrid, from the fires and grenades that had gone off nearby. It stung the eyes and made tears well up. Gunshots sounded, "pop, pop, pop". Screams would signal a target being hit, and once in a while explosions sounded to cover the screams. Death was in the air and fear clung to everyone.