Definitions of words often misspelled and used wrong;

-          Then and than

“Back then, I had more than twenty friends home for dinner”

-          Which and witch

“Which house is yours?” Are you a witch?

-          Through and threw

“I threw the ball through the open window”.

-          There, their and they’re

“There are two cats outside”. “Their house is blue”. “They’re all girls”.

-          To, too and two

“I am going to the zoo, are you going too?” “There were two monkeys in the cage”.

-          Lose and loose

“A lose is a pilot”. A tiger is loose in Paris.

A passage to India

Viewpoints page 265

1)      Look up the words “rural” and “urban” in a dictionary and find out what they mean.

Urban: Of, relating to, or located in a city, characteristic of the city or city life.

Rural: Of, relating to, or characteristic of the country, relating to people who live in the country: rural households or relating to farming: agricultural.

2)      What are the differences between rural and urban areas in Norway? In India?

The rural areas in Norway are characteristic of the country, like harvests (hunting, fishing, collecting etc.) and cultivating the ground. It is sparsely populated, often with agriculture and rural household.

The urban areas in Norway are characteristic of the city and the city life, where you can find population, production, byes and sales.

In India, to comparison, the rural areas are for the poor people and the urban areas are for the new middle- and upper class. 70 % of the India’s population live in rural areas.

3)      “If everyone in the world consumed as much as people in industrialized countries do, we would need eight (!) planets as big as the Earth to meet their demands”. Comment in this statement.

This statement is frightening, and it makes us think. Our consumption in industrialized are too high, and we have to do something about it. It is sad to see the differences and contrasts in this world, but if we all had been wealthy and consuming, this Earth would have been too small for our needs. We have to have clear differences between rich and poor if we continue this lifestyle.

If we start consuming less, reusing more and think about the future in a new way, we may give others the opportunity to a better life as well.

4)      Some people in Europe and America have changed their way of life to “simple living” in eco-villages or small farms in rural areas. The basic idea is to go back to nature, produce your own food, share and live in closely-knit communities. Can you think of reasons why people choose this way of life?

I can think of many reasons people would go back to nature, and the lifestyle that follows. In todays society we are under constant pressure from work, Medias, friends, family and society in general. Living up to the expectations is hard, and it may leads to health threats as well. By giving up this lifestyle, to live of the land and starting over with basic ideas, you can let go of many problems, worries and stress.

5)      Make a list of rules for “simple living”.

-          Give up the things you do not need

-          Live without electronically equipment not necessary

-          Cultivate your own vegetables

-          Live simple, give up worries

-          Appreciate life for what is worth

-          Recycle and reuse

6)      What are your three top priorities in life?

-          Help people through work and life in general.

-          Live a happy life, with a family I love and care for.

-          Feel satisfied with the things I have achieved, and myself. 

The Imitation Game

1. Give a description of Alan Turing. What were his weaknesses and what was his strength

Alan Turing, a man in his late twenties, was one of the best mathematics-students in Britain. He was hired to a secret mission for military purpose; his task was to solve the Germans’ enigma-code. The enigma-code itself was key to the end of the Second World War, and all the attacks in Britain. They could then prevent new attacks and save many lives.

Even tough Alan had many strengths, he had his weaknesses as well.

Throughout his school years, he was bullied. He was different from the others. An over-smart kid with a different way of thinking, understanding and perceiving, with other sexual attractions. He had one friend, Christopher. They had a close friendly relationship, that later developed into a love affair.

This was one of his weaknesses. He never got over Christopher, or the fact that he was gay. Homosexuality was not allowed on that time, and it was cause to prison or medical castration.

Another weakness of him was his autism. Autists have a different way of thinking, understanding and perceiving information, and life in general. He had trouble working with other people that had a different meaning than him. This gave him many difficulties.

If you see this with other eyes, his autism was one of his strengths as well. He was a fresh breath into the process, with new ideas and way of thinking. 

2B) Digital use - postitive or negative?

The Internet is a genius invention that we probably are more attached to than we would like to admit. It solves are problems, plans our days, saves time and is a good remedy in studying. If we use it right, it can do anything in our life. Do we use it right?

Too much time spent in front of a screen may cause serious health threats like insomnia, stress related problems and addiction. Is it worth it?

Many people today, especially the younger generation, are unable to concentrate without constantly checking the phone or the Internet. Is it as helping as we think, or is it just a distraction in our work?

Today we have a digital lifestyle steered by our desire to the Internet. We are always available and reachable in every situations, and it is impossible to take breaks without missing out. You have to be on all the time. Many points out the possible consequences of health treats and possible bullying when not used right. It is a demand on the use of internet.

The Internet gives us all opportunities in the world, because we have the world in our hands and lap the entire time trough electronics like cellphones, tablets and computers. We are looking at different screens all day, and we fracture attention into smaller and smaller bits. It is both positive and negative consequences, and it may save us some time. If we use it right, it is the best tool we could have had in our stressful life. If not used right it may be the cause to health threats.

As I have mentioned, too much time in front of screens may cause serious health threats. Insomnia, stress and addiction, for instance, but also frustration and weariness. It is hard to live up to the expectations on the social media, and it is challenging always being reachable. We may understand the cause to our problems, but in the most cases, we cannot stop it. The digital lifestyle is our lifestyle today, and the younger generation grow up with it. In the worst cases the digital addiction is treated with digitally detoxify, witch is like a rehab for your addictive habits. People who have been to detoxing describes it as a peaceful break where the mind gets quiet. It is smart to unwind to lower the possible risks to develop illness, and to take breaks from digital distractions. The claim today is to be reachable. It is hard to unwind when your boss or other employees know you are only a smartphone away, and this is for friends as well. You are forced.

We multitask all the time. This may save us time, but this also lower the productivity. Students for example. They mainly use the internet as a remedy in the studying, but they also use it to social media. Students have less ability to filter out irrelevant information when they are switching between tasks and media. This definitely affects the result.

It is done some research on the possible impact digitally equipment has on children. “The content delivery by electric media is far more influential than the media themselves”. This is one of the discoveries from the article “Media and Attention, Cognition and School Achievement” from Marie Evans Schmidt and Elizabeth A. Vandewater. “The content in the TV-shows is crucial to the impact on childrens achievements. Educational TV is positive for the achievements, and entertainment TV is negative for the achievements. Video games can enhance visual spatial skills, visual tracking, mental localization and problem-solving skills”.

To summarize; our digital lifestyle brings many consequences with it. I have mentioned some health threats because of our digital use, and I have mentioned some impacts on skills and achievements.

We can then conclude with both advantages and disadvantages on our use.

It may spare us time by multitasking, or it may take up time trough social media and addiction.

Too much time spent in front of a screen is not good, no matter what.

Even tough our lifestyle demands us to be online and available, it is okay to take brakes and unwind for a moment. The consequences of a missed phone call or a message is in many ways better than the consequences of heavy digital use. Use your head and social skills more than your cellphone. 

Review of Disconnect 

The film “Disconnect” is a film about technology and our addictions because of the internet. People are addicted to it, abusing it and using it to their own good and others harm, just to get the satisfied.

In the film, we see different examples and cases on the theme.

Three boys, all with different lives, are followed trough the movie as they are making troubles connected to internet and bullying on the internet. The two friends are abusing the third boy by giving themselves out for being a girl, in love with the lonely boy. This happens to be a terrible mistake when a picture is spread.

A man, forcing young boys to share pornographic videos over the internet, is abusing an 18-year-old man. Trough this website the 18-year old comes in touch with a reporter in a local TV-station, a woman with intentions of a good story.  

A couple getting their identity stolen by an unknown person on the internet. They have troubles in their marriage as their many problems starts to get serious

I do not think there are any familiar elements to me in this film, but I see the message it is sending. People today are too into electronic devices, technology and internet. They seem to forget the real world they are actually living in. The issues in this film are real, they are happening every day, and many of us are forgetting abut the downsides of all this technical help. It is very easy to hide behind the internet, and to set up a scene. It may not be, as it seems.

I did like the film because I think the message of it is important, and I think we forget sometimes. It is easy to forget about the bad things about it, as the good things are more important to us. I do not mean that Internet is all wrong, but everything is connected, and it is affecting each other.

The part of the film that made most impression on me was when the bullied kid committed suicide. The two boys abused his trust by sending him pictures and messages on Facebook with the intention to harm the boy. They wanted to make fun out of him by playing with his emotions. This actually happens in the real world all the time. Many of the times, it is a good ending to the story, but too many times do the children feel the urge to take their life to end their problems

We have to stop the internet bullying as this is affecting too many people. 

Technology – online or offline

Our generation are more “on” than “off”. Always connected, always attached, always reachable. The many consequences of this is still unknown, but many are struggling because of the constant social media pressure.

Technology can be a genius thing, if it is used right, and with the intention to use it wisely. Many are unknown about the many risks that follows with the internet. People take advantage of the unknown. In the preparation material (page 5 of 12, text 3 “If You Log On To The Web Today…) it says that “For every site that ever there was will gather your data simply because on the web today a notion of privacy is for unintelligent persons. People will take advantage of anything, use anything against you for the purpose to harm you. When it is on the internet, you cannot take it away.

There are advantages and disadvantages to the Internet, and smartphones, and tablets, and all the technical equipment we have in our lives.

The “new thing” now is to do online dating over apps, such as tinder. Tinder is an online dating app where the purpose is to “swipe you to true love”. Smartphone apps have turned courtship into an addictive pastime. People says, after trying it, that they are not sure they can go back to analogue dating. It is the new thing, technology is everywhere, and all the time either you want it or not. People are infinitely upgradeable and are able to learn new things quickly.

Children today grow up with technical equipment that was not planned when we were little. We had to go outside to play, with each other and use our imagination to play. Today, children are attached to social media, TV, smartphones, tablets and games from early stage of life. They do not know about anything else, because they are grown up with all the technology. They are used to it. Many scientists have done research to find links between various types of electronic media and the cognitive skills of school-aged children and adolescents. Some founds are frightening. They have found that it may be a link between attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and media use, for instance.

(Page 10 of 12, Media and Attention, Cognition and School Achievement)

I agree with the thoughts in this preparation material, but I think it is sad that it has to be like this. That people today get sick of being available and online. It is a stressful world we live in, and many have problems with unwinding and taking breaks away from “their life”. Many today live a double life, one in the real world, one on the Internet. I do not think we can control it any longer either because the technology is everywhere. The development happens even faster. All we can do is to be careful, and think of out lives in another way. You can take breaks and unwind with good conscience. 

TASKS IN CLASS

1.       Do you think the colonies had good reason to declare Independence? Why?

I think the colonies had good reason to declare independence. No one should be

Submissive or feel inferior just because they were part of a colony founded hundreds of years ago. Thomas Jefferson said these words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. He did not want to be treated different and unreasonably by the founders just because he was a part of the inhabitants in the colony. They wanted to be a part of America, as an independent state.

2.       Should one country be able to colonize another? When should a colony be granted Independence?

I do not think a country should be able to colonize another because it takes away the rights and the privileges an independent has. They loose their ability to develop their society to the countries best. When a country colonizes another, they immediately starts to influent the culture and the society based on their culture and traditions.

The colonized country loose their identity.

A colony should be granted independence when they want so. It is almost breach of human rights when another country takes over and colonizes without permission. The minute they asks for independence, they should get it, if you ask me.

3.       The Bill of Rights guarantees Americans "the right to bear arms". Many Americans still feel this is important for personal safety and in case they need to revolt against their own government, they argue that the Minutemen and the local militias only won the fight for Independence because they had firearms.

What do you think?

Should everyone have the right to bear arms? All kinds of arms?

I do not think Americans need the right to bear arms. It is a safe country with functioning police and army, and they do not have to feel unsafe. In addition, they have an argument for weapon that says, “If they need to revolt against their own government, they need the right to bear arms”.  I do not think this ever would be a scenario when they have a working democracy. If this would be a problem, there would no longer be a democracy. When they also argument with events that happened under the Independence War, they have to little to argument for, and I mean the arguments against it weights more in this discussion.

All the school-massacres have happened because of the right to bear weapon for everyone.

If they absolutely need a system like this, I think they should test the persons and consider if they are suitable and responsible enough to handle a gun.

When it comes to different types of arms, I think it would be up to the person itself, but the government should approve it.

4.       If you were to present your nation's history in the same way as above, which events would you choose? Why?

I would have chosen to write about;

The Viking-era (800-1050)

This era began with the attack on Lindisfarne in North-England.

The Vikings lived of plundering, sailing and taking land.

The independence in 1814

Norway got a formal constitution in 1814 after being in union with Denmark.

The union lasted from 1380 to 1814. Norway later, that year entered a new union with Sweden.

The dissolution of the union in 1905

Domestic self-government, but they shared king with Sweden and their foreign politics.

World War 2 (1939-1945)

Started in September 1939. Norway declared themselves as a neutral country, but was occupied 9 April 1940. The occupation lasted for five years.