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? 

Global Warming

Question - Mr Moussay's grandfather believes that due to global warming, fruits are ripening quicker and quicker every year.

Topic - Global Warming
Poor KQ - What makes Mr. Moussay's grandfather believe that the fruits are ripening quicker.
Intermediate KQ - Why does the early ripening of the fruits make him think its because of global warming.
Good KQ - How does he use intuition and memory to come to a conclusion that the fruits are ripening quicker each year because of the climate change, or global warming.

Subject Importance

Every day we question life, we always think of our actions and how they will help us in the future, will we succeed? Will we fail? There is a constant fear in the back of our minds that make us question our life's in our community. Being a Diploma 1 student, entering this vital course has opened my eyes. It teaches us how to manage our time efficiently and effectively as well as how to be an independent learner. For my 6 DP subjects, I chose the following: English, ITGS, Maths, Physics, Chemistry, French. To begin with, I chose English as the most important subject. Why? I believe that English plays a vital role in our life's, we must know how to communicate with others, learn how to socialise with people and learn how to speak aloud, in front of an audience. The second subject, in my opinion is ITGS. In the world we live in now, computers have dominated and without a basic knowledge of computers, there is no way one can survive in the world, especially with everything being computerised. In addition, my third most important subject is Maths. As I started the course, i would always wonder where I would use the knowledge I get from the lessons. Many people come to me and ask, "When am I ever going to use this in life?"  However, most of the things we learn in the classroom will help us in the future, but some topics won't, so why do we learn them? I recently realised why we learn such topics, they are used to sharpen our minds, they teach us fast problem solving, as well as processing numbers in batches, this will help especially if the job you want to do in the future involves numbers, such as accounting. The next most important subject in my opinion is Physics, the most advanced systems use physics, such as cars and airplanes, without physics, we would not be able to travel all over the world, or move from place to place in a matter of time without breaking a sweat. Moving on, Chemistry is used to give us information on how we live the life we do, such as how we breathe so it's important to know how we are living. Last but not least, French. I put French last, not because it's not important, it just gives us an advantage in life, for example, if we relocate to france, or any french speaking countries, someone who speaks french will have an advantage over one who does not.

The list above of subject importance is my own personal opinion. I came to the decision using Language. I know that english is spoken all around the world and for one to survive in the world, knowing basic english is a huge advantage. For the decision of I.T.G.S, I used reason because i know that the world is becoming more advanced and everything is becoming computerised. The rest of the subjects are in that order because it's my intuition, I placed the subjects in order of importance of what i think is needed to survive in the 21st century.