Indigenous Knowledge Systems

One of the most bizarre indigenous rituals that I have seen is the ritual featured in the Satere-Mawe Tribe, located in the Amazon rain forest, in Brazil.What a boy has to do to become a man in this tribe is painful, to say the least, he has to withstand not being stung by one, but a swarm of bullet ants. Some say that being stung by this ant is the same as being shot by a bullet, they have the same pain index, which is immense for such as small creature. In preparation for the initiation ritual, the elders go into the forest during the day, these ants are dug up and placed, stinger first, into a glove that has been woven by leaves. This is when the boy will insert his hands into the gloves for a whole 10 minutes, not less. Even though it feels like your hands are on fire, the real pain starts after the gloves come off, and the venom effect takes place. After a few minutes, the pain rises while the hands become paralysed. Usually one time is enough for a boy to become a man, however, in his tribe, in order to become a man, the boy must not shed one tear, the day not one tear is shed, the boy is officially a man. This can also take up to 20 tries.

Is History A Science?

Is history a science? Well in my opinion, I don't think that history is a science. Scientists all over the world use existing formulas to come up with new theories. History on the other hand, is mainly based on predictions and we cant be 100% sure that the history that is published today is absolutely true. Moreover, history and science do have somethings in common, for example, they both use previous events to help their predictions that will turn out as a new theory, or an alternate conclusion to a piece of history. However, even though they use similar ways to predict outcomes, i still believe that history is not a science.

Moral Dilemma

A moral dilemma is a situation in which one has two options. One option is to go with your intuition, which may not always be right, however it's what you feel is right. The other way to go is to do what is right, but one may feel is not right, and in doing this, one may make others happy. One may also do this  because they feel sorry for the one's the situation is affecting. A couple of years ago, on a school trip, our bus was heading back to the campsite. We stopped at a small supermarket to buy some things for dinner that night. We all split up and did our own shopping, mostly junk food. So i was walking by and i saw this packet of chewing gum, i wanted it, so i took it. I kept on shopping, went to the cashier and paid, then i got onto the bus. Just before we left the supermarket, back to the campsite, i put my hand in my pocket, only to find the packet of gum, I had not paid for it. I just subconsciously put it in my pocket and forgot about it. Now i realised it before we left, but i was scared that i would get in trouble so i din't say a word. We all face situations like this in our daily life, and we all make decisions, sometimes they are not the right ones, but we tend to do what we think will help us. That's why i never said anything, i did not want to get in trouble. I made a choice which i knew was wrong, but better for me.

Greg Craven's Argument

Greg Craven is the creator of "The most terrifying video You'll ever see". In this video, Greg Craven talks about the Global Climate Change (GCC). In this video he explains the four possible outcomes that can happen in the near future, and the future of the world depends on how we act. First of, Craven explains how if we take action but there is no GCC, we will loose money and we will enter global depression, he then moves on to saying that what if we don't take action and there is no GCC, we will all be happy as we have lost no money and there is no GCC. He then states, what if the GCC is true, and we take action, there will still be a cost factor, however, we will remain happy. Finally he moves on to the final outcome, saying, what if we don't take action and GCC is true. The world will end up in a catastrophe, which involve social, economical, health problems. Now in group "A", we have cost and global depression, as well as, Cost but happiness to us all. In group "B", we have Happiness, however we also have a global catastrophe. Craven argues that group "A" is the right choice, even though we will loose money in both the outcomes, however, the risk of not acting (Group "B") far out weighs the risk of acting (Group "A"). He explains how the best choice will be "A" because that option has the chance of eliminating a global catastrophe. I agree with Craven's argument, why would we chose choice "B" which has a possibility of a catastrophe when we can chose "A" in which both outcomes are not so bad. Yes, we may loose money, but isn't it worth a shot to try and save the world?

Is seeing believing?

Is seeing believing? This question is a tough one to answer, however it depends on the individual. Seeing is a way of humans to interpret their surroundings making it one of the most important senses. Though sight is one of the most important sense, whatever we see is not always true, however in some circumstances, people refer to sight as a way of believing, when one says, "That's a lie, show me!" This statement explains how an individual does not believe what another individual has said, and asks to see it so he can guarantee it is in fact true. On the other hand, our eyes deceive us as well. If you have ever seen magic in real life, or an optical illusion, this is a way of our eyes trying to make out what has happened, and the result is an illusion. Many magicians depend on the audiences sight to deceive them, in order to make the magic trick work, however, behind every magic trick there is a secret, but at the time, our eyes see this trick, try to make sense of it and we see it as a trick, where as it is our eyes deceiving us. Recently, i came to know about the McGurk effect, in which, a man, produces the sound "Buh". Our eyes see his mouth movement and tell us that this man is infact saying "Buh". Then, the man changed his facial expression while saying the word, our eyes interpreted the mans face and it seemed like the man was saying "Vuh", but he was still saying "Buh". This occurred because our eyes saw the change in facial expression and thought it was a different word. This shows us that sight can be a way of believing, however, it may not be the best way.

Language Reflection

Language is a very sensitive topic because many people have their own opinions and this leads to a huge argument. So... what is language? Oxford defines language as "the method of human communication, either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured and conventional way." However, Collins dictionary defines language as "a system for the expression of thoughts, feelings, etc, by the use of spoken sounds or conventional symbols." Now, even though these are well known dictionaries, they both have different definitions on language. Whilst oxford defines language as a method of human communication, Collins does not limit it to humans. Many people believe that language is a human thing, while others think its not. The argument is that language involves communication, so if it is a human thing, what are animals doing, are they not communicating?      
Language is also said to be either spoken or written, consisting of the use of words in a structured way. With this definition, they are telling us that sign language is not an actual method of communication, because it says that language has to be written or spoken. Texting.... it would seem that texting would be a language, however it's not the conventional way of writing, therefore it's not a language, or a way of communicating. Many people believe that texting is a more evolved way of conventional writing, and it is. Majority of teenagers will text rather than write in a conventional way. In the words of John Mcwhorter, Teenagers use the phrase LOL when they start a sentence, rather than for it's actual meaning. For example:

John: Dude, I just failed my maths test.
Mark: LOL, I failed mine as well.

Now, in the situation portrayed above, two teenagers are talking about the test they just failed. One of the teens responded with the phrase LOL, but failing a test is not a funny thing, that's what John Mcwhorter was trying to say, teens have evolved texting, just like how texting evolved from conventional writing. To add to the point, many tribes and villages do not speak or write in the what we believe is language. Some tribes use a form of clicking, or whistling, this does not fall under the definitions defined above, this is their way of communicating which is a language to them. The point being made is that I believe language is a form of communicating in any form, sign language, speaking or writing.

Hydrogen Cars

RLS - Scientists are trying hard to come up with a way of storing hydrogen for the future cars that will replace the current, fuel guzzling cars.

Poor KQ - Is it possible to store hydrogen for cars?

Intermediate KQ - Using technology, how can the scientists create new inventions for storing hydrogen?

Good KQ -Using intuition and memory, how can we perceive the fact that scientists have the technology to advance forward?