TeXt Pr0ducTi0N #2

What are the potential effects of global warming in terms of climate change and how they can be arrested?

It is not unusual to hear someone complaining about a hot day or a freak storm. Most would say that global warming is the bane of all this misery. But, do people really aware about this? Global warming can be defined as gradual rising of the Earth's temperature due to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The changes are small, so far, but they are expected to grow and speed up. Within the next fifty to one hundred years, the earth may be hotter than it has been in the past million years. After years of scientific wrangling over the existence of global warming, experts are now in agreement that the problem presents a major risk for the future of our planet and point out several ways to tackle the problem.

One of the potential effects of global warming is it alter the weather patterns. Increase in atmosphere temperature will also increase the ocean temperature. In the film The Inconvenient Truth (2007), Al Gore, the main speaker, said that when ocean gets warmer, it causes a stronger storm as when water temperature increases, wind’s velocity and moisture content of the storm also increases. Case happens during the formation of hurricane Katrina, the one which hits New Orleans. Other phenomena that might happens is when the temperature increases, evaporation of the ocean will amass all the moisture up in the atmosphere and when the storm conditions trigger them out, more water will fall down as rain which means more intense rain events. In a long run, it will absorb moisture out of the soil and as soil evaporation increases dramatically, it brings more intense droughts.

Besides that, owing to global warming, it brings disturbance to the ecosystems. As the temperature increases, it lengthens the growing season. And, sometimes the temperature increases beyond the tolerance of plant or animal. Global warming will also modify the plants that can thrive in the Arctic. Around 50 percent of breeding habitats for some birds may disappear, threatening the species that depend on them (Woodford 2006). Also, the plants need to find more water to keep growing or else they will become extinct. The tropics are being affected too, for example, parts of coral reefs are in jeopardy because of warming of the oceans, and consequently perish other species that depend on them. Some predictions say climate change could make 30-40 percent of the world's species extinct (Woodford 2006).

Nonetheless, global warming can be controlled and rectified if we start now. First of all, we must reduce the emission of carbon dioxide gas. This can be done by using efficient electrical appliances, using public transport or practicing carpooling and if you can, buy hybrid car. Government can also help to solve this environmental issue by supporting the Kyoto protocol, an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which aimed at fighting global warming. However, it is not an easy thing to do since reducing the emission of carbon dioxide will also means that they need to sacrifice some of the current technology and thus, greatly affect the country’s economic growth. But, now, most of the advanced nation in the whole world has taken the initiatives to ratified Kyoto as they realise that saving the earth should be their first priority for the sake of future generation.

The bottom line is that the phenomenon of global warming is getting atrocious all the time. The ecosystem is being affected. Erratic weather patterns will be such a disaster and we have to be prepared for the impending catastrophes like Hurricane Katrina. We are all in a heap of trouble and the sooner we accept this facts the better. We should put serious effort to overcome the problems. Reducing the carbon emissions and government ratified the Kyoto Protocol are such a good steps to save our mother earth. Our earth is not the same place anymore compared to decades ago, it is now slowly dying and this is a very serious issue that all of us should pay attention to. So, we must stand up, no more procrastination and starts to fight for our kids’ better world. Well, are you ready to change the way you live?

Teachers warned against accepting students as Facebook friends

ONLINE CAUTION: Muirden Senior College student Eliza, left, with English teacher lauren Fisher. Picture: CHRIS MANGAN Source: The Advertiser

STUDENTS are trying to add their teachers as Facebook friends in what experts say is an extension of the way they show their admiration for those in charge of the state's classrooms.

But SA Primary Principals Association president Steve Portlock warned teachers against accepting the innocent request, most likely to come from upper primary school and lower secondary students.

"It's a bit of continuation of what we've always seen, like being invited by your students to birthday parties. While it's a nice thought teachers need to be really careful about accepting offers," he said.

"The best thing is just to gracefully decline any friend requests as you would anything else."

Several teachers told The Advertiser they are bombarded with Facebook friend requests from admiring students and some have slightly altered the name that appears on their online profile so students have more difficulty searching for them.

Deakin University communications and social media lecturer Ross Monaghan said that while sites such as Facebook had minimal educational benefits, others were more useful.

Muirden Senior College is one of a growing number of schools using the Wikispaces social networking website so the school's Year 11 and 12 students can interact with teachers after hours.

Principal Barbara Harding said the site allowed teachers to post links and share resources with students, as well as respond to any school-related questions they had from home "almost instantly".

"Where it really comes in handy is if you've got a student at home who suddenly comes up with a great idea for an assignment, a question about an essay, they can ask that and get a very quick response," she said.

An Education Department spokeswoman said a cyber-safety policy was launched last year, outlining the need for teachers to ensure their online identities, including Facebook profiles, met the responsibilities of various industry codes of conduct.

Guidelines also ensure teachers keep within expected professional boundaries when dealing with students - letters, emails and text messages of a personal nature are considered as violations.

The spokeswoman said "teachers and students can . . . share ideas and learning outside school hours through online education forums".

M Y C O M M E N T S :

Interactive learning is such a good way to learn especially with the current advance technologies. Young generation tend to be more attracted to the uses advance equipment to study rather than normal teaching method in class. In this case, Facebook had been widely used by all generation as a way to communicate. Adding teachers as friends might lose some respect to them because we will treat them like our other friends despite the fact that they are our teacher. But, I think it is good in such a way that the students will be more comfortable to ask question or sharing their problems in terms of education.

TeXt Pr0ducTi0N #1

What are the potential effects of global warming in terms of climate change and how they can be arrested?

It is not unusual to hear someone complaining about a hot day or a freak storm. Most would say that global warming is the bane of all this miseries. But, does people really aware about this? Global warming can be defined as gradual rising of the Earth's temperature due to carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The changes are small, so far, but they are expected to grow and speed up. Within the next fifty to one hundred years, the earth may be hotter than it has been in the past million years. Several researches had shown that the problem is getting atrocious all the time but there are still ways to combat this.

One of the potential effects of global warming is it alter the weather patterns. Increasing in atmosphere temperature will also increase the ocean temperature. In the film The Inconvenient Truth (2007), Al Gore, the main speaker, explained that when ocean gets warmer, it causes a stronger storm as when water temperature increases, wind’s velocity and moisture content of the storm also increases. Case happens during the formation of hurricane Katrina, the one which hits New Orleans. Other phenomena that might happens is when the temperature increases, evaporation of the ocean will amass all the moisture up in the atmosphere and when the storm conditions trigger them out, more water will fall down as rain which means more intense rain events. Longer, it will absorb moisture out of the soil and as soil evaporation increases dramatically, it brings more intense droughts.

Besides that, owing to global warming, it causes disturbance to the ecosystems. As the temperature increases, it lengthens the growing season. And, sometimes the temperature increases beyond the tolerance of plant or animal. Global warming will also modify the plants that can thrive in the Arctic. Around 50 percent of breeding habitats for some birds may disappear, threatening the species that depend on them (Chris Woodford 2006). Also, the plants need to find more water to keep growing or else they will become extinct. The tropics are being affected too, for example, parts of coral reefs are in jeopardy because of warming of the oceans, and consequently perish other species that depend on them. Some predictions say climate change could make 30-40 percent of the world's species extinct (Chris Woodford 2006).

Nonetheless, global warming can be controlled and rectified if we start now. First of all, we must reduce the emission of carbon dioxide gas. This can be done by using efficient electrical appliances, using public transport or practicing carpooling and if you can, buy hybrid car. In addition, to redress global warming, governments also need to take a big step forward so that their people will follow. However, it is not an easy thing to do since reducing the emission of carbon dioxide will also means that they need to sacrifice some of the current technology and thus, greatly affect the country’s economic growth. Supporting the Kyoto Protocol will be such a big decision for the government. But, now, most of the advanced nation in the whole world had taking the initiatives to ratified Kyoto as they realise that saving the earth should be their first priority for the sake of future generation.

As a person who cares so much about his mother earth, we should spread this informations over. And, also do not forget to put our knowledge into action (Al Gore 2006). More and more problems that are happening around us are mainly because of global warming. Our earth is not the same place anymore compared to decades ago, it is now slowly dying and this is a very serious issue that all of us should pay attention to. It is a fact that we do not want a horrible kind of future of which our next generations are going to live their life. So, we must stand up, no more procrastination and starts to fight for our kids’ better world. Well, are you ready to change to way you live?

Blair Retallick, 8, hit by car in Townsville while fleeing bully

Parents had reported bullying
"Nothing had been done"
Fractured skull, lacerated liver

A YOUNG boy has suffered terrible injuries while fleeing a bully who threatened to kill him and his school did nothing to prevent it, his mother says. Eight-year-old Blair Retallick is in intensive care after fleeing a tormentor on a school bus and running into the path of a four-wheel drive outside a Townsville school on Monday. Patricia Retallick said her son was the target of a long-running campaign by school bullies and had been kicked, spat on, bitten, punched and verbally abused. But nothing was done despite her many complaints to Bohlevale State School and the bus company, she said. Blair remains in the Townsville Hospital with injuries including a fractured skull, a bruise to his brain, and a lacerated liver.

Mrs Retallick said Blair and her other children, including a daughter aged five, had been targeted by bullies on the school bus for some time. She said her approaches to the school achieved nothing, nor did her complaints to the bus company running the school service. "He was having an altercation with a child on the bus and it flowed out as the bus stopped," she told the ABC. "He was running as the boy was saying to him 'I'm going to kill you' and he ran straight into the path of a car as he was running away from the boy."

She said witnesses, including other children on the bus, had reported the tormentor's kill threat, and said kids from other families had also been bullied on the bus but nothing had been done. "It shouldn't have happened. It should have been dealt with," Mrs Retallick said. "The majority of families on that bus have had issues with those kids on that bus." Mrs Retallick said she raised the bullying issue with the school as recently as Monday morning, just before her son was injured. The incident comes just a week after the Queensland Government said it would create a new alliance to tackle violence in schools.

The announcement came after a government report found schools were not properly checking if their anti-bullying programs were working. In a statement, Education Queensland's North Queensland region director Mike Ludwig said it was premature to speculate on the cause of the accident.

Counselling had been offered to the family, he said. Mrs Retallick said she wanted action, including better systems to report bullying. "There needs to be changes with the education department on how we can report these things," she said. She said Blair could be in hospital for up to a month. "It's unknown at the moment. Some of his injuries are so extensive that anything could happen and it could change in the blink of an eye," she said. Monday was supposed to have been the last day her children caught the bus to school. The family was planning to move to New South Wales and the ongoing bullying had been a factor in the decision to move, Mrs Retallick said.

C O M M E N T S :

I would like to point out that bullying is a serious case which needs to be taken care of fast. People who was been bullied could suffered much worse that we can imagine. It might affect their whole life in the sense of mental health problems such as low self-esteem, stress, depression and anxiety. They may also think about suicide. Yet because older people don’t always see it, they may not understand on how extreme bullying can get.
In the case here, the school should play a big role as it happened during their services – in the school bus. They take no serious into this situation and clearly we can see that it cause a greater impact. The school should just confront the bullies and give them, maybe last warning or heavy punishment. It is unfortunate for the little boy who is trying to get away from the bullies but then being hit by a car.

Students threaten teachers on Facebook

Nicolas Perpitch
From: The Australian

FACEBOOK, the world's largest social network site, is under more pressure to tighten security after West Australian high school students used it to threaten teachers, calling for them to be "massacred by chainsaws".
The pressure comes after a Facebook memorial site for murdered 12-year-old Queensland schoolboy Elliott Fletcher was desecrated with images of child pornography and bestiality.
Users of two Facebook groups set up for past and present students of North Albany Senior High School, in WA's south, posted threatening and defamatory comments about current and former teachers.
One comment said: "If we get over two million people saying they hate (....) all staff and workers involved should be massacred by chainsaws and the school should be shut down."
It is understood the Department of Education and Training has identified the student who allegedly posted the comment, although no action has yet been taken in the case.

Albany police said they were not involved at this stage.
In one discussion, past students referred to a teacher by name, claiming he was a "pervert" and had "sleazed" on to them.
State School Teachers Union president Anne Gisborne called for tighter protocols governing the use of Facebook and similar internet sites.
"What you've got potentially is the setting up of a kangaroo court, without the opportunity for any witness statements to be made or any defence," Ms Gisborne said. "It can be the ruin of an individual and their professional integrity."
Facebook refused to comment.
State Education Minister Liz Constable said she was appalled at the students' postings and they should be punished.
The school's principal, Sharon Doohan, indicated staff were being instructed in the appropriate use of social networking sites.
She urged parents to be vigilant over the potential misuse of the internet by their children.
Federal Education Minister Julia Gillard said yesterday a $3 million pilot program to combat cyber bullying in schools would promote "smart, safe and responsible use of technology".


MY COMMENTS:

From the article, what can I say is... 'Say NO to FB!' lol..

No, that's not my real comments.

Nowadays, facebook (FB) has a great influence among people in the whole world. Every post that you made may change the world. (Wow! never thought that I gonna write that..)
I know some of us are quite addicted to FB. As long as we know the right way to use it or more specific, the safe way to use it, maybe or just maybe, FB are beneficial to us.
Like what Mr. Yee had once said in the class, it is alright to indulge ourselves with those things as well as we know how to limit ourselves so that it won't bring us harm.
So, the next time you are online, watch out your mouth! [^.^]

Attorney-General Michael Atkinson vows to repeal election internet censorship law amid reader furore

Greg Kelton, Derek Pedley
From: The Advertiser
February 02, 2010 10:30PM

ATTORNEY-GENERAL Michael Atkinson will move immediately to repeal controversial laws which sparked an outcry over censorship of the internet. After backing down late last night to say the laws would not be put into effect, Mr Atkinson told reporters he would follow the advice of Opposition legal affairs spokeswoman Vickie Chapman and use a section of the Electoral Act to immediately repeal the section.

Earlier, Mr Atkinson said it would be repealed but could not do it until after the election and had promised that no action would be taken against internet users during the election campaign.But after comments from Ms Chapman that it could be done, Mr Atkinson said he had decided to act immediately and paid tribute to Ms Chapman for her suggestion.Mr Atkinson was continuing to accept full responsibility for the furore today saying he was embarrassed but he would not stand down from Cabinet "unless Vickie Chapman stands down with me''.He said she had been fully aware of the provisions of the Bill when it passed through Parliament last year."This law was supported by all 69 MPs of Parliament and some of them are now running away from it faster than others,'' Mr Atkinson.

"I have come here today to say we listened to what people of the blogging generation had to say and we changed our policy accordingly.''Mr Atkinson said he had not been told by Premier Mike Rann to change the policy which has sparked outrage from media organisations, including The Advertiser and AdelaideNow, and civil liberties groups across Australia.He said he had rung the Premier last night and said while most South Australians supported honesty and integrity in accountability during election campaigns, there was an up and coming generation of young people who had grown up with the right to say "pretty much anything on blog sites'' without constraints and that was a right they were going to cling to very fiercely."It would not be effective to continue to resist them,'' Mr Atkinson said.

How Atkinson backflippedAfter a furious reaction on AdelaideNow to The Advertiser's exclusive report on the new laws, Mr Atkinson at 10pm last night released this statement: "From the feedback we've received through AdelaideNow, the blogging generation believes that the law supported by all MPs and all political parties is unduly restrictive. I have listened."I will immediately after the election move to repeal the law retrospectively."Mr Atkinson said the law would not be enforced for comments posted on AdelaideNow during the upcoming election campaign, even though it was technically applicable."It may be humiliating for me, but that's politics in a democracy and I'll take my lumps," he continued in the statement."This way, no one need fear now that they are being censored on the net or in blogs, whether they blog under their own name or anonymously. The law will be repealed retrospectively."I call upon all the other political parties who supported this review to also review their position.

"The extraordinary backdown followed Mr Atkinson's flawed defence of the law on radio 5AA earlier in the day.He said the new law was necessary because people such as Aaron Fornarino, who regularly posts comments on AdelaideNow, were Liberal Party plants.After the backdown was revealed on AdelaideNow last night, Premier Mike Rann posted three Twitter messages: "AG has listened. So no debate will be stifled. No political censorship of blogs or online comments whether named or anon.""All MPs and all parties voted for Electoral law. Hope Libs, Greens, Family First, Independents etc will join us to support repeal.""For many young people, and even the not so young, internet is their parliament of ideas and information.''

This is all because of internet..

SEAN FEWSTER
From: The Advertiser
January 30, 2010 12:01AM


CARLY Ryan's mother has refused to surrender to despair, vowing to dedicate her life to saving others from the fate that befell her murdered daughter.
Speaking for the first time since the teenager's killer was convicted, Sonya Ryan said urgent action, such as compulsory seminars for Year 8 students, was needed to educate children about internet dangers.
Ms Ryan, 38, also threw her support behind new federal laws, proposed by independent senator Nick Xenophon, that would make lying to children on the internet a crime.
Yesterday, Ms Ryan told The Advertiser her focus "had to be" on the future, not the past.
"A future without Carly is just too terrifying to imagine, like someone switched off the light that she brought into our lives," she said. "You can either fall into that blackness and completely give up or you step into the light and do what you can - and that's trying to help others.
"What else is there? It's pretty much the only choice I have. If I have to be here without Carly, then my aim is to help create awareness."
On January 21, Ms Ryan sat in the back row of the Supreme Court and watched as a jury found a Victorian man guilty of murdering her 15-year-old daughter.
It was the first time she had seen the 50-year-old since she kicked him out of her home three years earlier.
At that time, she had believed the man's name was Shane and that he was the adopted father of Miss Ryan's internet boyfriend, Brandon Kane.
In truth, both "Brandon" and "Shane" were personas the man had adopted to seduce Miss Ryan into a sexual relationship.
Ms Ryan ordered "Shane" to leave her home after finding him sleeping in the same bed as her daughter.
Weeks later, the man would use his cyberspace alter ego to convince Miss Ryan to go with him to Port Elliot, where he bashed and drowned her.
"Carly would be utterly horrified to know the level of deception of that man," Ms Ryan said yesterday.
"A lot of people believe whatever they read on the internet is true, especially children . . . they believe what they see, but there is just so much deception out there and on so many levels.
"All it takes is for a trusting teen to believe what a predator is saying to them and their safety is instantly taken out of their hands.
"Carly was a very compassionate young lady and she would be wanting all of us to do whatever we can to stop this happening again in the future to another young girl."
Ms Ryan said parents had to educate themselves about the internet.
"I think that parents are unaware of what their children are doing online," she said. "They need to be more actively involved and checking their children's websites, looking at the mediums they are using, checking their profiles and who they are speaking to."
Teachers and governments, she said, had to work together to warn children about online predators. "Kids put whatever they like on their MySpace and Facebook pages - their schools, their telephone numbers, their movements - just completely unaware that anybody can look at that information," she said.
"The internet is getting bigger and bigger, and this problem is only going to get worse - something needs to be actively done and people need to start taking this seriously.
"I think there should be compulsory school seminars on internet awareness and safety for Year 8 students."
Ms Ryan said she would create a foundation, in her daughter's name, to further internet awareness and child safety. She called on the public to contact her with suggestions and initiatives.
"There has been enough suffering over the past three years," she said. "Not just for me but for Carly's family, her friends, the lady who found her on the beach, the police and the prosecutors.
"Now, the best thing I can do is get out there and try to help others prevent this happening in the future.
"I just try to always think `What would Carly want me to do?' and I know, in my heart of hearts, that is getting this message out . . ."