WW2 comparison between USA and Norway

WW2 was clearly the most brutal war the world had ever seen. Millions of people died, millions of people were hurt. But in this blogpost I will focus on the comparison between Norway and USA. How many died in USA during the WW2? How many were hurt? How many died in Norway? How many were hurt?

I will start with USA. How many died and how many americans were hurt during the WW2? Most sources say that the American casualties were the following: 406,000 killed (including 6,000 merchant marine civilians;) 600,000 Wounded; 5,600 American civilians where killed in this war, mostly of them Merchant Marine Sailors that died in convoy wars, and ammo accidents. It is impossible to give true stats on this, because many soldiers were unaccounted for (too badly wounded and not even a dog tag could be retrieved) and, of course, there is no way one possibly could know how many innocent civilians were lost…

Then we'll move on to Norway.  11 500 lost their lives here, which is about 0.38 percent of the total population at that time.

The Trafalgar Square Christmas tree is a Christmas tree donated to the people of London by the city of Oslo each year since 1947. The tree is prominently displayed in Trafalgar Square during the Christmas season 12 days before Christmas. Why do the norwegians donate a tree? It is their way to say thanks.

So this was a little comparison between Norway and USA, and the tree.

11th hour

At school today we watched a documentary; 11th hour. The documentary was mainly about the global changes, and the problems we will face afterwards if we proceed as we do today. Every day we put a huge pressure on the earth, without knowing it. I will mainly talk about the global problems the documentary talked about.

The world is getting warmer and warmer. Many people don't think this is a big problem, but just get one thing clear; It is. Why? First of all the ice on arctic will melt, then the sea level will increase. When the sea level increases many countries will face floods and x-people will die and lose their home. The other Big problem is that the ecosystem may collapse, and then just a human brain can think what will happen next.

We build and destroy our own earth. We are geniuses, no doubt about that, but we are too selfish. Our (or many of us) biggest dream is to get rich and successful. But in this process we may be a part of destroying our own earth. For example oil companies, they often get greedy and provide too much oil... Which effect us, and our be-loving earth. Things like that build our earth economically but also destroy it.

The nature saves us for 36 trillion dollars! This was one fact that really got in to me. Most people doesn't appreciate the nature as we should do (I am one of those..). But after knowing this I will appreciate it much more! And I hope you also do.

The Edublog Awards!

The Edublog Awards works like that you first nominate the blogs you like, and then you can vote. Vote at the best blog!

I will recommend you guys to see these blogs; http://annmic.wordpress.com/ , http://english-passage.blogspot.no/

Was it necessary to use so much money and time to save 3 whales? (Film topic, Big miracle)

Was it necassary? From my point of view, I think it wasn't necessary to use so much time and money to save 3 whales. When they again only saved 2, and the main character (the girl from Greenpeace) was only exaggerating. How much money could they use at other things? Like help people in other countries, or generally something better than try to save 3 whales...

The iniuts meant that the smartest thing was to kill the whales and eat them. That is simply the best idea in my eyes. That's the way of life, people day, animals die, the life goes on. We can't just use thousands of dollars at each animal, that is just to dumb...

But this was my meaning, and only my meaning, so I hope no one feels offended. :)

Informal: Grades in subjects - is it right?

Okay, I know that this is a topic that is much discussed. But this will only be my meaning. So don’t hate.

Is it fair for the people who do well at the other subjects?

No it’s not. A single subject have the power to destroy your education, is that fair? Hell no. German f. ex are my biggest enemy at school, I was dumb enough to choose the “easiest” language German. Easy? No way.

In the end

In the end I think we should have grades, but we should choose our own subjects, already in the junior high-school, for example: Why did I have art or German? I hate them both, and I sucked at both of them. And art was the reason why I didn’t qualify to my favourite school…

Formal: Grades in subjects – Is it right?

Many people get bad self-confidence if they get bad grades and someone also thinks it can be very unfair if their teacher don’t like them. In today’s school reports show that allot of pupils are unsatisfied by the way the grades are set. Many of them also think that they should choose their own subjects.

Is it fair for the people who do well at the other subjects?

Many pupils do well at school and get good results in subjects like English, Norwegian, mathematics, science etc. But some pupils are bad in subjects like physical education. That it’s too unfair for the pupils who do well at school, but aren’t very god in for example football or other sports.

Living in Norway

I love to live in Norway, it's so peaceful but at the same time fun... I am native Indian, but was born and raised in Norway, which I am glad for:) I have visited India many times, but I still feel that Norway is my home. But I still feel strong attached to India, to see my family is a big joy.. Unfortunatly I don't see them so often.

The winter... I love the winter when it's just snowing and it's christmas, but I hate the cold, I hate the raining, and I hate to be the only one who don't get so many gifts... But in the end I love to live in Norway!

India&Lesotho group work

Lesotho

School system.

Lesotho’s school system consists of twelve school years. 1. to 7. grade is called junior or primary school. Then there are 3 years of secondary primary/junior school or high school. And the last 2 years are called secondary high school. Then the students can choose to take higher education in universities.

Citizens

Lesotho has about 2 million citizens.

President or monarchy?

Lesotho has a king. His name is Letso III.

National sport

Horse racing is very important in Lesotho.

What languages does you learn in school?

The two official languages is Sesotho and English (witch do you learn in school)

How do you celebrate your national day?

The 4. October is celebrated because Lesotho became independent from the UK. (how do you celebrate the national day)

What is your main economy?

2/3 of the income comes from agriculture. About 50% of the population. Mining and textile work are also strong economies.

India

1. How many vacations do they have in India? India only has 12 days as its minimum, but has the highest amount of public holidays with 16.

2. Are you satisfied with your school-system? Statistics from 2007 shows that 77% of Indian pupils are satisfied with their school-system.

3. Do they have many different activities to do in India? Yes, they do. There is a wide wildlife in India ready to get explored. There are also many attractions in India..

4. How do they celebrate their national day? 15. August. 1947 was the date when India got their independence day, this day is memorable for every Indian (Me included). They celebrate this day, with parades, military performance, dance, and singing.

Unexpected ending, typical Roald Dahl

Roald Dahl always ends his stories very unexpected. Today I’ve read the short story “The Man from the South”, and I have to say, this ending was very unexpected. The story is about the main character on a holiday in Jamaica, by the pool he meets a man with a funny accent. The man is from a Spanish speaking country in South-America.

They sit down together and watch the people splashing around in the pool. After a while one of the men gets out of the pool and joins the main character and the man from the south. He offers them a cigarette and the main character "obviously" don't refuse , while the man from the south says he prefers cigars and takes one out of his pocket. The man from the pool turns out to be an American soldier. The soldier offers to light their smokes with his “never-failing” lighter. The man from the south thinks the soldier is a bit cocky and wants to bet against him and his lighter. They agree to bet and the main character shall be the referee. The man from the south says that if the lighter lights 10 out of 10 times, the soldier wins his car. But if it fails 1 time out of the 10, the soldier looses his little finger on his left hand.

Together they all go up to the man from the south’s room and begin the bet. The way Roald Dahl has written the text it seems like the soldier will loose the bet and his finger. But -by the time the soldier flicks his lighter the eighth time a woman opens the door and runs over to the man from the south. She grabs his wrist and takes the chopper from him. She explains that the man from the south is mentally ill and can't stand bets. He has earlier taken 47 fingers from different people, and lost 11 cars. It also turns out that the car the bet belonged to the woman. And that the man has nothing left to bet. The woman won it all from him a long time ago. She says that it took a long time and was a hard job. In the end, the main character, spots the womans hand, and it has only two fingers.

I liked it, usually I don't read Roald Dahl, but after this short story, I will! :)

News from India, USA, Lesotho

India: 

Today two Bollywood stars will get married. Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor, the couple have been together for 3 years, and now decided to take the biggest step. The wedding will take place at Taj Hotel, where only the family-members are invited. I have watched several of their movies and they both are great, so personally I am very excited! :)  

Lesotho:
In this task I was supposed to find a local newsarticle from Lesotho, but it turned out to be quite hard and I didn't find any news form Lesotho. Therefore my teacher told me to find an article from South-Africa instead. After all Lesotho is surrounded by South-African territory.

The article I chose is from a large newspaper in the southeastern part of South-Africa. It is called DispatchOnline and the newsarticle is about a small baby who was reunited with her parents after being kidnapped last year.

22. of August last year the little girl was kidnapped by a 33 year old woman from the Eastern Cape. The suspect had, before the kidnapping, met the mother of the baby in a taxi and started visiting their home. The mother said that the suspect had visited three or four times before the baby disapeared. When the kidnapping happened the girl was only 3 three weeks old.

The father says in an interview that he can't thank the people who has helped and supported him and his wife through these difficult times enough. He is also very greatful for what the South-African police has done to find his daugther. The father said that he would like to talk to the woman, but otherwise he would leave everything to the police.

Invetisgations lead the police to the woman, who was asked to test herself to prove the child was hers. The suspect was found while she was heading for her home town, Tsolo. She had earlier stayed in Guateng withe the baby until about the beginning of October.

The suspect now faces charges of child abduction.

USA: 

This week it has started a police investigation in USA against two police officers that is supposed to have used unnecessary violent when they arrested a person for sleeping in a Jewish community center in Brooklyn. They hit the man in about two minutes before they stopped and handcuffed the man and reinforcements came. The police officers say that they used the violence because the man pushed one of the officers when they tried to handcuff him.

The man got charged for resisting arrest, obstruction and criminal trespassing, the family posted the $1 500 bail. The man have earlier been investigated for marijuana possession and harassment.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/10/15/2-officers-being-investigated-after-video-shows-them-beating-man/?ref=nyregion

Biblioclasm- An old hobby for the nazis

The Nazi book burnings were a campaign conducted by the authorities of Nazi Germany to ceremonially burn books in Germany by pacifist, socialist, Jewish, and other authors whose ideologies were seen to be subversive to the National Socialist administration. On April 6th, 1933, the Main Office for Press and Propaganda of the German Student Association proclaimed a nationwide "Action against the Un-German Spirit", which was to climax in a literary purge or "cleansing" ("Säuberung") by fire. Local chapters were to supply the press with releases and commissioned articles, sponsor well-known Nazi figures to speak at public gatherings, and negotiate for radio broadcast time. On 8 April, the students association also drafted the Twelve Theses which deliberately evoked Martin Luther and the historic burning of "Un-German" books at the Wartburg festival on the 300th anniversary of the posting of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. The theses called for a "pure" national language and culture. Placards publicized the theses, which attacked "Jewish intellectualism", asserted the need to "purify" German language and literature, and demanded that universities be centres of German nationalism. The students described the "action" as a response to a worldwide Jewish "smear campaign" against Germany and an affirmation of traditional German values.

Questions and answers about India

Hey, today I had an assignment, which was: 1. Discuss social and cultural conditions and values from a number of English-speaking countries.
So we could choose a several countries, but I chose India. Because I'm a native Indian, so it's pretty obvious. More specific the task was; Ask questions, and answer them by yourself.

1. How many vacations do they have in India? India only has 12 days as its minimum, but has the highest amount of public holidays with 16.

2. Are you satisfied with your school-system? Statistics from 2007 shows that 77% of Indian pupils are satisfied with their school-system.

3. Do they have many different activities to do in India? Yes, they do. There is a wide wildlife in India ready to get explored. There are also many attractions in India..

4. How do they celebrate their national day? 15. August. 1947 was the date when India got their independence day, this day is memorable for every Indian (Me included). They celebrate this day, with parades, military performance, dance, and singing.

Ramadan, a holy celebration

Ramadan, a holy month for the muslims, but what is the reason that millions of people fast? What is the reason to abstain food? Well, I'm not a muslim, but I think that this holy month is inspiring. To know how millions of other people feel. To feel how weak you actually are. To feel the hunger.

Ramadan is the 9th month of the islamic calender, which is also based on a lunar cycle. Ramadan begins and ends with the official sighting of the new moon. During the month-long fast, able-bodied adults and older children fast during the daylight hours from dawn to dusk. They also refrain from sexual intercourse during daylight hours. That was some basic facts about Ramadan.

I have also fasted, surprisingly, because I love food. That day I realised how much I love food, everything looked like burgers and pizzas... And chicken tadoori... But what do you think? Do you think that Ramadan is dumb and fasting is useless? In case, why? Actually, I think everybody should do it, when you are done and may eat... I swear it's the best feeling ever.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-19316454

Now I've also tested out several dictionaries, and I have found the best! http://www.thefreedictionary.com it had a broad amount of information about the word, and I found several words, the second one I tried was http://www.onelook.com, I liked it but the reason I chose the other one is; It had more specific information... And I also tried brittanica school edition, it was awesome, so good and so easy to use!