Statue of Christ the Redeemer history.
The Statue of Christ the Redeemer history starts in the XVIth Century when the Portuguese named the mountain Pináculo da Tentação (The Pinnacle [peak] of Temptation), alluding to the Biblical Mountain. A century passes and the mountain is re-baptized to Corcovado, a name derived from its form, which resembles a hump or hunchback. The next recordings of christ the redeemer history is in 1924 when Dom Pedro personally led the first official expedition to Corcovado Mountain, resulting in the opening of an accessable way up.

Then in 1859 the Vincentian father Pedro Maria Boss arrived Rio de Janeiro and was struck by the mystorious beauty of the corcovado mountain and suggested the the construction of a religous monument in honour of Princess Isabel, which in 1921 gave way for the idea of a great statue of christ viewable by all in the marvelous city of Rio. From 1859 to 1921, Dom Pedro gave his consent for the building of the Corcovado Railroad line between Cosme Velho and Paineiras, which would be an essential part of undertaking the Redentor.

In 1922, on the markation of Brazilian independence and a milepeal in the Statue of Christ the Redeemer history, the work began for fullfilling the ambisious project with the fundamental stone beeing put inplace on the 22.april.
After a hard competition, the project by the engineer Heitor da Silva Costa is chosen and in September, a national fundraising campaign for the works is organized.
Finally, in 1927, the construction of the statue begins after models of diverse sizes had been constructed. All calculations were done by Coast Hisses, helped by Pedro Viana and Heitor Levy, which during the years of construction, resided in a shed of wood at the foot of the monument.

RAILROAD
All the necessary work material and workers who participated in the construction of the Christ statue were transported to Corcovado by the trains from the railroad that links the street Cosme Velha, which today functions as a tourist train to the top. The train was the first in Brasil appointed exclusively to transportation of tourists and also the first train to work by electricity.
INAUGURATION
1931 – Is the famous year in the Statue of Christ the Redeemer history, where the monument is inaugurated on the 12 October. The final design of the monument was authored by the fine artist Carlos Oswald and the French Sculptor Paul Landowski was placed in charge of executing the sculpture. The monument to Christ, the Redeemer on the Corcovado mountain becomes the largest art déco sculpture in the world. Up till today, several reforms have been completed to ensure the quality of O Christo Redentor. Lighting has been added, and the latest renewal of September 2002 is the addition of a panoramic elevator and motorized staircase to ease the difficulty for elderly persons. ( It used to be a hard rise of 220 steps to get to the top ) All the equipment, bought from the Elevators Otis, will be painted in green. They are manufactured in the France and they produce little noise. The elevators are “politically correct”, by the fact that they will not use oils lubricants in the system. Projects are also underway to renewal of toilets and trashcans and the enlargement of the parking..

Source:http://www.copacabana.info/Christ-the-Redeemer-history.html

Chicken itza

Deep within the jungles of Mexico and Guatemala and extending into the limestone shelf of the Yucatan peninsula lie the mysterious temples and pyramids of the Maya. While Europe was still in the midst of the Dark Ages, these amazing people had mapped the heavens, evolved the only true writing system native to the Americas and were masters of mathematics. They invented the calendars we use today. Without metal tools, beasts of burden or even the wheel they were able to construct vast cities across a huge jungle landscape with an amazing degree of architectural perfection and variety. Their legacy in stone, which has survived in a spectacular fashion at places such as Palenque, Tikal, Tulum, Chichén Itzá, Copan and Uxmal, lives on as do the seven million descendants of the classic Maya civilization

The Maya are probably the best-known of the classical civilizations of Mesoamerica. Originating in the Yucatan around 2600 B.C., they rose to prominence around A.D. 250 in present-day southern Mexico, Guatemala, northern Belize and western Honduras. Building on the inherited inventions and ideas of earlier civilizations such as the Olmec, the Maya developed astronomy, calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing. The Maya were noted as well for elaborate and highly decorated ceremonial architecture, including temple-pyramids, palaces and observatories, all built without metal tools. They were also skilled farmers, clearing large sections of tropical rain forest and, where groundwater was scarce, building sizable underground reservoirs for the storage of rainwater. The Maya were equally skilled as weavers and potters, and cleared routes through jungles and swamps to foster extensive trade networks with distant peoples.
Around 300 B.C., the Maya adopted a hierarchical system of government with rule by nobles and kings. This civilization developed into highly structured kingdoms during the Classic period, A.D. 200-900.
Their society consisted of many independent states, each with a rural farming community and large urban sites built around ceremonial centers. It started to decline around A.D. 900 when - for reasons which are still largely a mystery - the southern Maya abandoned their cities. When the northern Maya were integrated into the Toltec society by A.D. 1200, the Maya dynasty finally came to a close, although some peripheral centers continued to thrive until the Spanish Conquest in the early sixteenth century.

Picture © Cliff Wassmann

(Source:http://www.mysteriousplaces.com/mayan/TourEntrance.html)

First Wonder:Roman Colosseum

Colosseum (Rome)
The Colosseum is probably the most impressive building of the Roman empire. Originally known as the Flavian Amphitheater, it was the largest building of the era.
The monumental structure has fallen into ruins, but even today it is an imposing and beautiful sight.

The Flavian Amphitheater
Emperor Vespasian, founder of the Flavian Dynasty, started construction of the Colosseum in AD 72. It was completed in AD 80, the year after Vespasian's death.The huge amphitheater was built on the site of an artificial lake, part of Nero's huge park in the center of Rome which also included the Golden House (Domus Aurea) and the nearby Colossus statue. This giant statue of Nero also gave the building its current name.

The Building
The Colosseum in Imperial RomeThe elliptical building is immense, measuring 188m by 156m and reaching a height of more than 48 meter (159 ft). The Colosseum could accommodate some 55,000 spectators who could enter the building through no less than 80 entrances.Above the ground are four storeys, the upper storey contained seating for lower classes and women.
The lowest storey was preserved for prominent citizens. Below the ground were rooms and cages containing wild animals and mechanical devices. The cages could be hoisted, enabling the animals to appear in the middle of the arena.
Velarium
The Colosseum was covered with an enormous awning known as the velarium. This protected the spectators from the sun. It was attached to
large poles on top of the Colosseum and anchored to the ground by large ropes. A team of some 1,000 men was used to install the awning.

Food and games

Emperors used the Colosseum to entertain the public with free games. Those games were a symbol of prestige and power and they were a way for an emperor to increase his popularity.Games were held for a whole day or even several days in a row. They usually
started with comical acts and displays of exotic animals and ended with fights to the death between animals and gladiators or between gladiators. These fighters were usually slaves, prisoners of war or condemned criminals. Sometimes free Romans and even Emperors took part in the action.

Inauguration
Hundred-day games were held by Titus, Vespasian's successor, to mark the inauguration of the building in AD 80. In the process, some 9,000 wild animals were slaughtered.

The Ruins
The southern side of the Colosseum was felled by an earthquake in 847. Parts of the building - including the marble facade - were used for the construction of later monuments, including the St. Peter's Basilica.

Source: http://www.aviewoncities.com/rome/colosseo.htm

Seven Wonders

Everyone. In the days to come I am going to start a new series of posts about the seven wonders.
(Clockwise from top right hand corner: The pyramid of Chicken Itza, Christ the redeemer, Machu Picchu, Taj Mahal, Petra, Roman Colosseum, Great Wall of China)

Funny Soccer Video

FUNNY don't you think?

Learn some tricks from the master!

I hoped you enjoyed this vid!!!!!!

Blog Prompt 5: Jogging Boom

Blog Prompt: Write a 350-word exposition or argument on 'Health'.
(Expostion means a writing or speech primarily intended to convey information or to explain; a detailed statement or explanation)

Health...health what REALLY is health?????? I have thus gone to our trusted website, Wikipedia and I found the defination of health, the REAL meaning of health. Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. So, in short, overall health is achieved through a combination of physical, mental, emotional, and social well-being. (You can see for yourself at:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health)

Do you know(source-http://www.who.int/whosis/whostat/EN_WHS08_Full.pdf)

-that an estimated of 33.2 million people on the earth have HIV?

-that breast cancer account for 16% of the woman population?

-that tobacco kills a third or half of those that uses it and currently 22% of the whole population are smoking tobbacco?

-that out of 100 000 births, 400 mothers die?

???????????????????????????????????????

Can you ever believe this statistics????????

SOOOOOO many die due to health problems!!!!!!

Health REALLY gives us a headache! Don't you agree?

Recently there was a jogging boom that happened in Tokyo. I really hope that it can help in reducing the number of health problems. However, will there be a real stop to all these health problems? What do you think?

Anyway, recently I sustained a foot injury during my basketball training. I keep feeling the incessant pain. When I walk there is an overwhelming pain. Now I can't run properly much less walk properly! Anyone, can you imagine all the pain I am going through. If I had not gone for yesterday's training, and agravate my injury I would not have felt this much pain! This proves a point that health really gives us an headache. The minute I did not take care of my health, it proved costly for the suffering I have to go through! I have now vowed to myself that I would look after myself.

Health. Isn't it a really big problem.......

Values (First)

This week, I had a chance to display some of the values when I attended the sec 1 camp. The camp was enriching, but I thought that the trainers should have been less bossy.

During the camp, I displayed the value of resilience many times.
Even though the camp was very tough, I persevered and did not try to quit halfway. During the Sarimbun Challenge, we built a catapult. We all knew that there was a uphill task in front of us. However, we did not give up but made a gigantic catapult which we named, 'multi-purpose catapult' as it could be used as a tent too! From this incident, I also displayed teamwork and excellence as we wanted to beat the other groups.

There was this activity 'Walk to Civilisation', during which we were supposed to walk through a trail. Resilience was shown too as we did not give up until we reached the end.

There was also joy in everything we did.

Values (Introductory)

There are many things I can learn from my school motto, and I should use them in my everyday life.
They are:

Source:http://www.hwachong.edu.sg/ContentPage.asp?SID=113

JOY-Joy is a state of fulfillment from pursuing one's passion, achieving our goals, and reaching out in compassion.

Behavioral statements:

Live with passion. Lead with compassion. Celebrate achievements.

TEAMWORK - We believe in working together and caring for each other. Behavioral statements:
Commit to a shared goal. Harness the team's collective talent. Think win-win.

INTEGRITY - Be ethical in thought, speech and action at all times.

Behavioral statements:
Be honest to self and others. Do what is right .Walk your talk.

GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE - The World is our Classroom, Singapore is our Home Behavioral statements:
Learn from the world.Venture beyond .Contribute to Humanity, Commit to Home.

EXCELLENCE - We will strive for continual improvement.

Behavioral statements:
Set goals that achieve breakthrough. Adopt a can-do mindset. Create and innovate.

RESPECT - Value self, others and the environment.

Behavioral statements:
Be confident, not arrogant.Appreciate and embrace diversity. Cherish the environment.

RESILIENCE - Welcome challenges and learn from adversities.
Behavioral statements:
Remain optimistic in times of adversity. View setbacks as learning opportunities .Adapt to change and persevere when faced with challenges.

Blog Prompt 4: Strange Cures

Blog Prompt: You are a student activist for animal preservation. You strongly believe animals should not be hunted for their body parts as medicinal ingredients Draft a speech which you are going to make at a plublic forum on preventing cruelty to animals.

Speech: Before I begin my speech, let us watch a video....



I am sure this video must have given you the creeps! Now we can see how cruel humans can be. As the saying goes,"Do unto others what you want others to do unto you." Can you all ever imagine yourself in the shoes of the animals? I am sure you can't. Imagine all the pain and agony the animals go through. Imagine the animals being skinned alive just because their skins have medicinal value. Imagine...

Ladies and gentlemen, we can make a difference. As long as we work hand in hand, I am sure, we can make the difference. Okay let me not nag too much, however I hope everyone has got the gist of my speech today. Four words. Just remember these four words, STOP cruelty to animals. Let the video be a reminder to everyone here today. Animals do have feelings.

Thank you everyone for your kind attention.