Over the past 100 years we have seen amazing technological and scientific achievements .These are surley our modern wonders
INTERNET
The early Internet was used by computer experts, engineers, scientists, and librarians. There was nothing friendly about it. There were no home or office personal computers in those days, and anyone who used it, whether a computer professional or an engineer or scientist or librarian, had to learn to use a very complex system.
Nowadays is everywhere .More than half billion people use it,
and number of people who are increases by 100 every year.
In 1994 there were only a few hundred web pages .Today there are a billions.
It has revolutionized the way we life and work
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL
We are world on the move.Airlines carry more than 1.5 bilion people to their destlinations every year.It is estimated that, at any one time these days, there are as many people travelling in aeroplanes as the total number of people who travelled abroad in the whole of the nineteenth century. Mass tourism could only have developed with the improvements in technology, allowing the transport of large numbers of people in a short space of time to places of leisure interest, so that greater numbers of people could begin to enjoy the benefits of leisure time.
SPACE TRAVEL
People dreamed of spaceflight for millennia before it became reality. Space travel didn't become possible until the advances of the 20th century provided the actual means of rocket propulsion, guidance, and control for space vehicles.
.In 1969 Neil Armstrong stepped out of his space capsule onto the surface of the moon and made his famous statement.. Since than ,there have been space probes to mars,Saturn,Jupiter.So far , it seems that we are not alone in the unverse.There are no sings yet that is intelligent life outside our solar system.But who knows what the future holds ?
MEDICINE SCIENCE
Surley nothing has done more for the comfort nad happyiness of human race than the advancs in health care!
How many people millions of people heve benefited from the humble aspirin?How many lives has penicillian saved?Average life expectancy worldwide has risen dramatically over the past 100 years, from about 47 years in 1900 to about 77 years today.
What is the greates wonder ofmodern world???What do you think?
While some would call global warming a theory, others would call it a proven set of facts. Opinions differ vehemently. Let us consider global warming to be both a premise that the environment of the world as we know it is slowly, but very surely increasing in overall air and water temperature, and a promise that if whatever is causing this trend is not interrupted or challenged life on earth will dynamically be affected. The prevailing counter opinion is that all that is presently perceived to be global warming is simply the result of a normal climactic swing in the direction of increased temperature. Most proponents of this global warming ideology have definitive social and financial interests in these claims. Global warming is real. It is not the result of a natural climatic adjustment. It is a quantifiable set of environmental results that are in addition to any normal changes in climate. That is why the effects of global warming have catastrophic potential. Global warming is the straw that breaks the camel’s back. It is the difference between a category three hurricane and a category four. Global warming is an imbalance of nature. The premise of global warming is that industrial growth coupled with non-structured methods we as humans use to sustain ourselves has created a situation where our planet is getting hotter by the minute. We have seemingly negatively effected our environment by a cycle of harmful processes that now seem to be feeding upon themselves to exponentially increase the damage to our ecosystem.
Causes of Global Warming
Let us start our examination of Global warming with a study of its causes. Global warming is an overall state of existence that is the cumulative effect of hundreds of environmental factors. All of these join together in both a linear and random model to show global warming as a chain of events. Most modern attention to the problem of global warming began with discussion of depletion of the Earth’s Ozone layer. Ozone (O3) is a molecular form of Oxygen. The Ozone layer is a relatively thin strata of these molecules set in the lower portion of the Earth’s stratosphere.Depletion of the Earth’s Ozone layer has resulted in a large increase in Ultra Violet Radiation reaching the surface of the earth. Does this increase in UV rays equate to global warming? Not really. In fact most scientific opinion is that depletion of the Ozone layer results in cooling of both the stratosphere and troposphere. So why mention depletion of the Ozone layer as regards to global warming? Because it represents a needed balance between harmful radiation being allowed to reach the earth’s surface and our desire to stem the rapid increase in our air and water temperature. Remember, we are viewing global warming as a chain of events.
MYTHS of Global Warming
Global temperatures are rising at a rapid, unprecedented rate. FACT: Accurate satellite, balloon and mountain top observations made over the last three decades have not shown any significant change in the long term rate of increase in global temperatures. Average ground station readings do show a mild warming of 0.6 to 0.8Cover the last 100 years, which is well within the natural variations recorded in the last millennium. The ground station network suffers from an uneven distribution across the globe; the stations are preferentially located in growing urban and industrial areas ("heat islands"), which show substantially higher readings than adjacent rural areas ("land use effects").
Global warming will cause more storms and other weather extremes. FACT: There is no scientific or statistical evidence whatsoever that supports such claims on a global scale. Regional variations may occur. Growing insurance and infrastructure repair costs, particularly in coastal areas, are sometimes claimed to be the result of increasing frequency and severity of storms, whereas in reality they are a function of increasing population density, escalating development value, and ever more media reporting.
Receding glaciers and the calving of ice shelves are proof of global warming. FACT: Glaciers have been receding and growing cyclically for hundreds of years. Recent glacier melting is a consequence of coming out of the very cool period of the Little Ice Age. Ice shelves have been breaking off for centuries. Scientists know of at least 33 periods of glaciers growing and then retreating. It’s normal. Besides, glacier's health is dependent as much on precipitation as on temperature.
The earth’s poles are warming; polar ice caps are breaking up and melting and the sea levelrising. FACT: The earth is variable. The western Arctic may be getting somewhat warmer, due to unrelated cyclic events in the Pacific Ocean, but the Eastern Arctic and Greenland are getting colder. The small Palmer Peninsula of Antarctica is getting warmer, while the main Antarctic continent is actually cooling. Ice thicknesses are increasing both on Greenland and in Antarctica. Sea level monitoring in the Pacific (Tuvalu) and Indian Oceans (Maldives) has shown no sign of any sea level rise.
Have you ever thought that a simple spank given to your child goes by a formidable name of a ‘corporal punishment’?
‘Corporal punishment is the deliberate infliction of pain as retribution for an offence, or for the purpose of disciplining or reforming a wrongdoer, or to deter attitudes or behavior deemed unacceptable.’[1]
The history of this form of ‘straightening’ goes even farther than 10 000 BC.It was used in Greece, Rome, Egypt in both judicial and educational purposes. A state well –known of its extreme usage of this willpower–building and physical–strengthening measure is Sparta.
While defining this term we may have three types of punishment in mind.
Domestic corporal punishment (within the family)
The subject raises much controversy especially in the western world. A 2000 survey showed that over sixty percent of parents accept spanking as a form of punishment[2].Even at that time experts agreed: physical punishment may be linked to antisocial behaviors like cheating and misbehaving.
More recent publications[3] frown on this method of disciplining the child. Psychologists claim that one-years-olds treated with spanking are more likely to behave aggressively at the age of two and don’t perform well on thinking tests at the age of three.
Researches drew an interesting picture of the families social status pattern linked to the physical punishment phenomenon.
‘(…) spanking is more likely to be used by parents who are younger, less educated, of lower income, single, and⁄ or more depressed and stressed’ refers Lisa Berlin indicating the previous studies [Berlin, L. J., Malone, P. S., Ayoub, C. A, Ispa, J., Fine, M., Brooks-Gunn, J., Brady-Smith, C., & Bai, Y. (2009). Correlates and consequences of spanking and verbal punishment for low income White, African American, and Mexican American toddlers][4].
About 24 countries (mainly in Europe and Latin America) outlawed domestic corporal punishment, starting with Sweden (1979).
Judicial corporal punishment (as ordered by the court)
It’s a sentence applied to the offenders mainly in the Middle – East (Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan) and some African countries like Northern Nigeria. The form of the punishment may reach as controversial level as amputation but usually takes the form of public flogging as exemplified by quite a drastic case from Iran, 2007 (see the reference)[5].
It’s an official method of reproving students for their misbehaviors at schools. It is often connected to a methodical ceremony. The item used to punish the student is often a paddle, a cane or a strap. Sometimes, at the elementary levels, an open hand is used instead of any implements.
Of course there are opponents and followers of the concept. It seems that the second group has the basis to defend the idea.
The example of John C. Calhoun Elementary School in Calhoun Hills (see the reference)[7] clearly shows the advantages of a light physical punishment when the need for a reprimand appears. Spanking is described as an ‘immediate response’ as opposed to suspension which lasts longer and gives the student ‘a free holiday’. The results of using physical punishment are visible on students’ behavior charts compared to the previous years.
The questionable aspect of calling to the order by spanking in schools is appearing when trying to analyze the emotional bond between a child and its parent and a lack of it in the teacher–student relation[8]. It’s said that parents ‘have their children's interests close to heart’ hence can apply a proper intensity of the punishment not crossing the thin line of a children abuse. Parents know their children better than teachers for it’s their responsibility. It is also lighter for a child to get over the humiliation with a limited number of witnesses.
Corporal punishment in schools has been outlawed in Canada, most of Europe, New Zealand, Japan and others. It’s still legal in (among the others) Middle-East and south-east Asia. Critics say this way of reprimanding students is an 18th century technique and is inefficient in a longer period of time.
What do you think about corporal punishment? Is it a right method to be used at homes or in schools? Should it be used in modern times? Wrtie your opinions about this topic.
