Zac’s Blog

As you may know, there has been a small conflict over the territory of south Ossetia and Russia trying to seize it from Georgia. The Russians had taken south Ossetia and had pushed through the overwhelmed Georgian forces before the U.S intervened. Georgia’s breakaway regions - Abkhazia and South Ossetia - would never agree to being part of Georgia again, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said. Earlier, Russia said it had begun handing back the town of Gori to Georgian police but insisted its troops would stay in the area. A correspondent from the BBC said there were also reports of Russian military vehicles moving around the town of Senaki and the Georgian Black Sea port of Poti in western Georgia. Moscow had earlier denied the reports but Russia’s deputy chief of staff, Gen Anatoly Nogovitsyn, told a televised news conference it was legitimate for Russians to be in Poti as part of intelligence-gathering operations. Georgia’s Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze said a convoy of more than 100 Russian tanks and other vehicles was moving from the major western town of Zugdidi deeper into Georgia, but officials were later quoted as saying the column had turned back. 
 I think it is good that this conflict was short but i think that the U.S could have acted quicker to prevent more deaths.

With only 3 days to go until the Games most of the world’s eyes are focused firmly on Beijing. However, the pollution levels are still abnormally high and there are plans for all endurance events over 1 hour to be delayed if the pollution levels are too bad. Also, the fact is unknown how bad the pollution has to be before the event is postponed. Beijing has tried some drastic measures to clean the air up before the games like one-third of Beijing cars 3.3 million have been taken off the roads. on Monday, the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau called it a ‘blue sky day’. But the BBC’s own test found one major pollutant, particulate matter, was almost six times higher than the recommended level.The World Health Organization’s target is 50 micrograms per cubic metre. But they recorded levels in Beijing at 292 micrograms on Monday.

I think that Beijing needs to hurry up and take supreme measures to ensure that the games are not delayed.

It appears that China’s human rights have deteriorated on the days up to the games. When it was awarded the chance to host the Games, China said it would uphold the values of human dignity associated with the Olympian tradition. However, allegations have been made by amnesty international which state that China has done the exact opposite. The report says that Chinese activists have been locked up, people have been made homeless, journalists have been detained, websites blocked, and the use of labour camps and prison beatings has increased. I think that this needs to be dealt with as quick as possible or it will become out of hand.

Quotes from: BBC

URL: http://news.BBC.co.UK/2/hi/Asia-pacific/7529453.stm

With the Olympics not far away, Beijing is making a last-ditch attempt to clear up the pollution. They have brought in a system where odd-numbered registered cars use the road one day and even numbered on the next. They have put over 10,000 surveillance cameras in place and anyone caught breaking the rule is fined 100 Yuan [or $15] . They hope that about half of the estimated 3,300,00 cars will be forced off the roads in about 2 months with this new system. Another thing that they have done is forced air-polluting companies to limit production or shut down for good. I think that this is a good way to deal with pollution but it may be too late.

The 2008 Olympics begin on 8/8/08 and Beijing is tidying up the streets and has almost finished the two Olympic venues. The first, the main Olympic stadium to house the Ground sports has been nicknamed the “bird’s nest” and cost China 4 billion yuan or $500 million U.S dollars. The stadium was designed in a worldwide competition in 2002 and the designers were Herzog & de Meuron with Arup Sport and China Architecture Design & Research Group. the second Olympic stadium, The Water Cube, is the place where they will be housing the swimming sports. The water cube was designed by PTW architects, CSCEC and a number of others. The entire Cube is covered in ETFE, a kind of fabric that lets in 30% more light and heat than glass, making it a cost-effective investment. The ETFE is also made to withstand earthquakes so the it will not shatter like glass. The water cube cost about 1 billion Yuan, a quarter of the cost of the “Bird’s Nest”.The Birds Nest [left]

My goals for 2008 were:

1.To work on my time-management skills. 

2.To get better at maths. 

3.To put more effort into my work and to take care of what I am writing.

4. To concentrate on what I am doing and not talk.

5. To learn to play the alto saxophone.

6. To learn Japanese.

I think that I have not achieved my first goal as I am still lazy and I only just get my work handed in.

My second goal I think that I have achieved as I now find maths a lot easier.

I think that I may have achieved my third goal as my effort is slowly getting better.

I have not achieved my fourth goal as i still talk and get distracted.

I have achieved my fifth goal and i now play quite well.

I haven’t achieved my sixth goal as i have not done Japanese yet.

The Beijing Olympics are not very far away and China is getting ready for the games. They have been taking communist party members cars and putting them in a giant car-park in a last ditch attempt to clear the strange smog from Beijing and are encouraging people to carpool. However, we have seen a BBC program that showed farmers being extorted out of their homes and promised new homes only to have the government renege on their promises and provide them with poor shelter and food. We have also seen a video that shows people being evicted so the government can bulldoze their houses and sell the land to developers. Another one that we saw showed children without their parents as young as 3 because their parents had gone to work in the city to pay for their children to go to school because there were no jobs in the villages. Finally, we saw one that showed that the Chinese executed more prisoners in the world and over 60 crimes earned the death penalty like arson, fraud, speaking out against the government and a lot of others. I wonder why the Olympic committee decided to choose China when there are plenty of other countries to choose from.

As you may know, the Beijing Olympics are only 53 days from the 16th of June and the world is slowly turning it’s eyes to China. But in Tibet it’s a different story. Since the Dalai Lama fled Tibet with his 3000 followers in 1959, China has claimed Tibet for it’s own. With the recent riots, rumours have filtered down of Chinese soliders beating and killing innocent Tibetans. Even though China has denied killing any Tibetans, they have admitted to killing 2 Tibetans. The Chinese premier has also said that the Dalai Lama is responsible for masterminding the riots when the Dalai Lama says that he had nothing to do with the riots. He has also threatened that he will step down if the Tibetans start getting violent. Also, we have been watching videos about the China & Tibet situation and have heard that even though the Chinese have apparently given Tibet freedom, the Tibetans say that they have not been given freedom. We have also seen a video of some Tibetans fleeing over the mountains between Tibet and India to join the Dalai Lama. One of the shocking things is that children as young as 11 are crossing the mountains on their own! They send their children over there because:

1. Their children are apparently not getting a good enough education,
2. Not allowed to practice their religon,
3. And because India seems safer than Tibet.

So what do you think?

ElephantsThe elephant is the largest land animal on earth, but it is only the second tallest. There are two major types of elephant, the Asian elephant, and the African elephant. The African elephant is the bigger type, which can grow up to four meters tall and weigh about 7.5 tonnes. Elephants fully mature at the age of 25 and live until 65. Also, both genders of the African elephant have tusks, whereas only the male Asian elephant has tusks. The Asian elephant is the smaller type of elephant, and its ears are smaller and curved at the top. Sadly the Asian elephant is endangered because of poaching and the ivory trade. At the moment, there is thought to be only about 60,000 Asian elephants in existence which is only about a tenth of the African elephant population. 

Elephants have small eyes protected by long, thick eyelashes, but they are colour blind and they have limited vision in strong light. Their skin is 2-4 centimetres thick and it is grey and wrinkled. These wrinkles hold water that slowly evaporates, keeping the elephant cool. The trunk of the elephant is its most important sense and is used like a hand to pick up and move things as well as breathe. The elephant’s tusks are like teeth and can grow up to 1.5 metres and are mostly used for fighting and defending against predators and other elephants, lifting up heavy or large objects, and digging.Elephants communicate in a number of ways including touching each other’s trunks, trumpeting, bellowing, snorting and others. If danger is sensed, the herd will gather around the youngest elephants first.  

Elephants are naturally herbivores and in the wild they eat: grasses, leaves, and shoots. In captivity they eat these and hay, oats, potatoes and even some meat. Elephants can swim reasonably well, and they use their trunks as snorkels so they can go quite deep. Elephants live in many different places around the globe such as: the desert, the mountains, the tropical rainforest, Africa, India, and southern Asia. Each day, elephants spend 2-4 hours sleeping. Elephants are also used for various things, such as carrying people, objects, and for parades. Even though you may see elephants in circuses looking or sounding happy, they may have to live in poor conditions and with very little food. These elephants will then often catch diseases or starve and die.

As most of us know, the phoenix lander landed on mars on the 25th of may and is due to begin excavating the soil to find ice and if the planet can support life. The scientists expect the mission to last 90 martian days [or 92 earth days]. They want the lander to survive the martian winter so they can see the martian ice developing. Unfortunately, the Phoenix is not mobile like the other rovers because they reused older equipment, the area of Mars where the Phoenix is basically where the ice is, and the  equipment weight that would be needed to allow the Phoenix to travel can instead be used to hold more scientific instruments. The project cost $325 million [US] and is the most expensive project ever conducted so far by NASA. The lander landed at about4:48 pm but unfortunately, the lander only opened the parachute 7 seconds after it was due to open, so it landed about 28 kilometers away from it’s estimated landing point.

I will try and find out more about this.

Zac