The world is going nuts!

I received a few images in an email recently, and thought that I should share them with you.

When pouring a drink for a couple, or in two different glasses, this unique jug allows you to serve them both at the same time. Perfect for a romantic restaurant when the waiter comes to serve you and your date a glass of wine.

The best type of light a boy could ever wish for! With this unique styled light, it "closes" allowing less light through its "petals", acting as a night light. It has a built in sensor, and so when your child wakes up in the morning, the petals open up, allowing more light to escape through with the result of a brightly lit room.

This crafty invention is useful for someone working with a busy schedule, who could forget to take the tea bag out of the cup before its to late. It has a timing device with will make the nose rise up, lifting the bag out of the tea cup. This makes the perfect cup of tea.

This strange invention is a two in one deal! You can have your searing hot tea inside the pot, and the heat that comes off it will be able to heat the bread, and turn it into toast. You won't need a toasting machine (or have to pay the electricity bills) ever again!

Ever heard of "singing in the shower"? Well, this sponge/microphone will let you do just that. As you enjoy your nice warm bath, you can hang onto the microphone, and sing to an imaginary audience!

With this kind of a chest, there's no need to grow up! Getting a shirt like this could fool just about any woman into thinking that you are older than you seem. Just make sure you don't have too many hairs on your chest!

Walking on a sunny day with your date when all of a sudden it starts to rain. This umbrella allows you to remain cute and cuddly with her, while avoiding the chance of getting wet!

Never really knew where to put my biscuits when drinking my tea. This cup has a littly dip in it, allowing you to store all your biscuits there as you drink your tea!

Taking a pitcure of you and your date has never been easier with this camera!

Its as if the tray was molded for your hand! Ever scared that you might fall while holding a tray, making you spill all the contents onto an unsuspecting victim? This tray reduces the risk of you spilling anything by having it molded into the shape of your hand!

Holding a glass has never been easier! Just follow the dents made in this glass, and you will know the trick forever!

What neat little inventions these are! If you have any, send them along and I can add them onto here.

One Universal Language

Well, a few weeks ago (ok, maybe it was a week and a half ago) our school had a Speech competition, and everyone had to take part in the first few rounds... I some how made it throught to the finals (even though i didnt win). There were only three people for each grade group. I chose the topic One Universal Language, and managed to say the speech without too many mistakes. Here is a copy of my speech (even though I might have changed a couple of the lines and stuff while I spoke...) Please leave some feedback as to what you thought about it. Thank-you.

**It has the bibliography and parenthetical references...just ignore the stuff in the brackets if they dont make any sense... **

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Bonjour, Ciao, Angyong, Kemcho, Hola, Jambo, Saluton, Hello. What are these you may ask? Well, they are all the same greeting said in different languages. But why do we have so many languages? Why can’t we all just talk in one language? Does it make us cooler to talk in all these different languages? The definition of language is “communication by voice in the distinctively human manner, using arbitrary sounds in conventional ways with conventional meanings;” (Language – Definition from dictionary). Language is supposed to aide communication, not complicate it. So there should only be one language that we speak in, making the communication aspect of this easier.

This speech is being spoken in English, but what if I were to speak in Kiswahili? Una fahamu wile ame aleziwa? Maybe a little French? comprenez-vous ce que je dis ? Or maybe gujurati? Thune Kuburche hu su keyuchu? Unless you already knew these languages, you would have no idea what I was trying to say. I just asked, in all three languages, Do you understand what I am saying?

There was actually an attempt at creating a Universal Language. L.L. Zamenhof, later known as Dr. Esperanto, spent many years creating the artificial language of Esperanto (Harold, Donald J.). He learned the rules and laws of many European languages, like French, Spanish, English, German or Italian, and then had to understand the common roots in order to create newer versions of the words for Esperanto. This took many years of research, but eventually he was done. In Esperanto, Esperanto means “One with Hope” (Harold, Donald J.). This was a good way to describe Dr. Esperanto, as he was a hopeful man in believing that everyone would pick up on his idea for Esperanto, the Universal Language (Harold, Donald J.). Unfortunately, he was wrong. The idea of this language did not pick up as well as hoped, and only a mere two million actually speak the language (Harold, Donald J). Esperanto failed because by the time it had been created, many schools were being taught in English, or the native language in that region (Harold, Donald J.). The two most common languages are English and Chinese Mandarin, with more than a billion speakers for each, and so it was impossible for Esperanto to compete with them.

But where did all these different languages come from? No one is sure, but there is a very interesting bible story. It is called the “Towers of Babel” (Tower of Babel – Genesis 11). Many of God’s people were gathered at one place, and so they all started to talk, and through talking with one another, they came up with the decision to build a tower that was high enough to reach god, and where he stayed (Tower of Babel – Genesis 11).. God came down to see the tower, and thought that if these people could build a tower because they could speak the same language, then they could do anything they want, because they can speak the same language (Tower of Babel – Genesis 11).. God didn’t like the idea of them being able to do whatever they wanted, and so he gave each and every one of them a different language, and put them in their own part of the world to live in (Tower of Babel – Genesis 11).. This is just one theory as to why there are so many different languages in the world. Another theory is that because many people lived in different locations, they had to learn how to communicate in their own way (Tower of Babel – Genesis 11).. Because they didn’t have Internet, or telephones at this time, and so they had no idea what other people were saying (Tower of Babel – Genesis 11).

This obviously led to problems in the later years. Once people started to interact, there were many communication problems. People had different meanings for different words, and sometimes when they tried to say something nice, they would be insulting another tribe, and vice-versa. A good example of this is when Bob wanted some eggs in Nairobi. He went to the kiosk down the road, and asked for some. Here I should mention that Bob speaks English, and no Kiswahili, while Mwangi (the man who runs the kiosk) only speaks Kiswahili. Bob went up to Mwangi and asked “Please can I have some eggs?” Mwangi had no idea what he was saying, and so ignored Bob. Bob kept asking Mwangi for some eggs, and after half an hour of trying, he gave up and went home. The next day he came back and asked for eggs. Again Mwangi didn’t understand what he was saying, and ignored him. The next day, Bob decided to try shouting at Mwangi, and Mwangi did not appreciate this. He punched Bob in the eye, and then laughed at him. In all of Bob’s pain, he could only shout out “My Eye! My Eye!”. In Kiswahili, “Mayai” means eggs. Mwangi then said “Oh, na taka mayai?” and gave him some eggs.

What do you think? Wouldn’t it just be easier if we had one language, instead of the thousands that we currently do? If we could all speak the same language, and not have any problems with communication. Everyone could be understood, and like Bob, no unnecessary pain will have to be felt. Dr. Esperanto had a great idea of trying to create a universal language for all of mankind to communicate in. Unfortunately his plan did not work as the leading languages were English and Chinese Mandarin with more than one billion people speaking each of them (KryssTal). Compare this to the world’s total population of six billion, and you can see that the numbers are very high. There is still a long way to go if the whole world were to adopt one universal language, and now the ultimate question, is this possible in our lifetime?

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So...honestly, tell me what you thought about my speech.

A poem I wrote

Here is a poem I wrote. I didn't spend that much time on it, but it's here nonetheless. Tell me what you think about it :)

These Feelings

These feelings I have for you
They're impossible to describe
As impossible as the moon outshining the sun during the day
And the sun beaming light down to us at night

No one can explain this impossible feeling to me
They all say that you know when you are in love
And you'll know who the right person is
Even if they seem wrong at the begining

The feeling of love is when you can plead complete insanity
While testifying for why you were killing to get his attention
To see him stare at you with his eyes
And feel his love right beside you

Describing it in one word is as hard as describing it with many
You could write a love song on how you feel
But keep changing it because deep down you know
That there is no way to write how you feel

By Aashni S

Tell me what you think about it, and if I should try and write some more poems...

Whats the point of English as a subject?

I was talking to one of my friends a few days ago, and he said "I like math because it all makes sense. Unlike English class which happens to be the most pointless class in the world." This made complete sense to me.

In maths, everything makes sense, and even if we aren't going to use the information later on in life (that's right! You are not going to use more than half the information you learn in maths later on in life unless you are a math teacher). Each problem has a solution, and can be solved even if it takes some time.

But English is different. In English, you are taught how to read and write. This is useful when you are younger, but when you are 15, I don't think you need to be taught this anymore. Also, you are asked all those comprehension questions. What's up with that? When I read a book, i'm not thinking, hmm what a strange onomatopoeia, or what a wonderful metaphor! I normally just read a book to read the book. So when we are told to analyze a book for English class, what's the point. we are told to read the book for homework, and then, once we forget everything that we have read, we are supposed to be able to analyze it! What's up with that?
Another thing is that in English, there is no right answer. One paper can be graded by two different teachers, and get completley different scores. This is because there is no one answer for the questions. There is also not one explanation for a question either, like in the tradegy of Romeo and Juliet. Act III sc. 3, Juliet's mother, Lady Capulet, is angry at someone, but its not clear who that someone is. It could either be Mr. Capulet, or Juliet. You could argue that out, and either answer could be right.

So whats the point of having an English class? "you have to know how to write a letter, proper use of words, or when to use a comma", but we learn all of this any way in other subjects like History. What do you think? Which is the most pointless class in the world?