Carte Blanche

Isn't it funny? Sometimes you say you dislike something/someone, for example a brand, a sport or person. Even though you never met that person, or have played that sport.

I told everyone I talked about computers to how Macintosh computers sucked compared to ordinary PC-computers. Even though I never ever had tried a Mac computer.

I think that this "phenomenon" is kind of ordinary in the world, and I keep asking myself why we do this? And I believe the most common answer to the question will be "fear". I believe that we don't want any larger changes in our existing personal environment or system, and that is why we fear that something or someone would fit better in our environment and we are afraid of a large change. We are afraid of the time it will take to adapt to the new environment if we change it. If we keep thinking like this when we're standing in front of a change, the world will never be a better place.


And isn't it funny? Now that I have tried Mac, I will never go back!

//J

Writing for posterity

People have been communicating through writing and drawing since way back in time. Why?

It's a very hard question to answer, but first you have to separate those who get paid to write and those who write as a hobby. I can imagine that people got paid back in the days as well to write different things (laws etc.).

But what about the people who don't get paid to write? I believe that people write because they want to "empty their chests'". Either they don't have any person to discuss their stories with, or else they just want to write it down because it feels better.

I believe that some people like to talk more than they like to write. And then you have people that like to write more than they like to talk. And I think that it has always been that way, and therefore we find different ancient documents with text and/or symbols.


If they would've had the technology to store sound back in time, we probably would've found that sort of findings too.

//J

The state of the planet

Is the planet Earth going towards an end or are we just overreacting about the climate change? This is a tricky question with no direct answer. I believe that something has to be done, but the decisions on how we are going to correct the state of our planet has to be made by the leaders of the world.

The only place that I personally have seen some results (and very drastic results) of the climate change is in one of the glaciers in Norway. Juvas, a glacier in Norway has suffered great damage from the heating of the world. Therefore I don't believe that all the talk of the climate change is just some hoax.

Juvas in Norway

I think it's hard to do big changes as an individual, and therefore you need more environmental laws, and commissions for all the countries, to prevent our planet from huge disasters that may be an outcome if we don't react. That is if no one finds a panacea for these problems.

It is hard to anticipate how huge our problems really are in the present situation, but I sure wish for our future generations to have a nice and healthy growth as we had, and not a spoiled and gloomy one caused by us. The only thing we can do is to either act against or support the government to take the right decisions in the big environmental meetings in the world.

//J

Valkyrie (2008)

This is a movie that is based on a true story. The story takes place in the end of the Second World War, and the actual event that the movie reflects is the July 20 plot. The plot was an attempt to kill Adolf Hitler and take control over Germany.

The German army officer Claus von Stauffenberg (played by Tom Cruise) was the man behind the plans for the July 20 plot. He was near getting killed in North Africa, and when he recovered from that accident he was given a new position as a colonel in Germany. Claus and some other officers, generals and highly positioned political people started to form a plan for how they would get rid of Adolf Hitler and take power over the country.

I have a thing for movies that are based on true stories/events, and maybe that is why I also think that this movie is really good. The movie is really thrilling and the actual plan that they had for taking over the country was really cool I think.

Trailer

Definitely a movie worth seeing!

//J

Will we be known (Earth: year 3000)

How will the world look like after a thousand year from now? Will there be any humans left? These are some questions you might wonder when you are daydreaming from time to time. I will give you my point of view on these questions.

If you take some time to look back in time, you can soon see that the technical development has been escalating to the present time. I think that this exponential curve of technique will keep on growing in the future.

One huge step when we talk about technique will be the development of the quantum computers. I sadly don't have time to explain all parts and all the technique in a quantum computer, but one thing that I know for certain is that this will be a huge point in our history, because the day when we have fully functional quantum computers, that day will forever be known as the day that we dug our own graves.

Why is this so bad? If you ever have heard of the singularity scenario you know what I am talking about. This is a scenario where machines with artificial intelligence become the leading creature on earth, and it is far from an impossible scenario.

On of the reasons why this could happen is that scientists of today are trying to find out if the human brain works like a quantum computer. And if we (humans) can combine the brain with a quantum computer, then the singularity scenario has begun. The machines create a mind of their own sort of speak. And the technique development on this planet would escalade more than even possible before.

Will there be any humans left? Yes of course, but we will not be the leading creatures of the world. The worst case scenario however, would be if the machines starts to be very hostile and you would get a scenario as in the "Terminator" movies. This is my view of how the earth will look like after a thousand years from now.

Picture from www.tdubel.com

//J

Video game addiction

My first assignment on this blog is to write something about "video game addiction". And this is my opinion and personal story about that topic.

Personally I am a sucker for "shoot 'em up"-games on Xbox360, and of course the ice hockey-game "NHL 09". My favorite "shoot 'em up"-games are "Gears of War" (GoW) and "Halo 3". Those two games can really get you game addicted, and I have spent days and nights playing these games over and over again because it's so much fun, and it's really good to abreact on shoot 'em up games.

Picture from www.gameguru.in

One thing with these type of games is that when you have finished a game at one level, you want to continue playing the next level to improve yourself and it feels like you get that immortal kind of feeling when you play at the hardest level and you know that you have thousands of enemies in front of you in the game and you think that no one can beat you or kill you. You get that adrenaline feeling in your body. It's like pushing yourself in a ski slope and you go faster and faster and push your limit to the maximum. It's hard to explain if you never have pushed yourself at anything. Just try it!

The other game I mentioned was the ice hockey game "NHL 09". I like it because ice hockey is a fast game and a tactical game. It's also a fun game to play when you have a couple of friends over hanging out. "NHL 09" is a game that can emphasize so many feelings which you never thought that you would get while playing a video game. When you loose a game against your friends, you just want to throw the controller through the window or the television.

Finally I just want to say that even though video games may take control over some of your days and nights of your life, you still can have lots and lots of fun if you can keep it on that level, so that the video games don't take control over your lifes instead.

Picture from www.consolenauts.com

//Jonas

ps. remember to comment on my story and my grammar, thank you!

What is this?

Hey World!

In this blog I (Jonas if you haven't figure it out already) will write some of my English works and tasks that I have to do for my springcourse "English for Science and Technology". It is a distance course, and all of the students in the course had to have a blog where we will do some tasks in the course. If any of you readers have any complains or if you want to correct my english spellings or grammar, please feel free to comment my articles. The other blog I have with Anton (http://foodbeforefriends.blogspot.com) will continue as previously. But as I wrote before, please comment if I write something incorrect.

Best regards
Jonas