Why The Hunger Games is so popular?

http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/movies/hunger-games-rakes-155m-box-office-opening-weekend-highest-history-article-1.1050622

As it reported, The Hunger Games’ rakes in $155M at box office opening weekend, third highest in history. It's amazing to see that how packed the movie theater is this weekend. Even during weekdays, Friday the first day it was released, already a lot of people went to watch the movie at 0 o'clock even though they had work or school next day! Why it is so popular? Why it attracts so many people!

The most appealing part is that it comes from a novel and the novel is extremely successful in demonstating the personalities of the characters. The story is so gripping that attracts a lot of readers to want to know more about it and decide go to watch the movie when it was first announced.

This reminds me of "Twilight", another movie comes from novel and is super popular. Directors noticed that these novels are so famous that it must be famous too as movie version. They use the reputation built by the readers to make movies to make huge profit and success.

What will you think if there are so many somany people going to watch the movie "The Hunger Games"? Will you feel like going too? So this is another result that the readers make: the comformity.

The box office of the "The Hunger Games" will apperantly rise up at an extremely speed. And this makes another notion and market for the directors and movie makers: using the successful novels and their readers to establish a huge atmosphere to release a successful movie.

 

Obama Visited South Korea for nuclear security

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-03-26/obama-visits-korean-observation-post/3911890

Recently, President Obama visited South Korea and saluted the American soildiers in the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea.

As we all know, North Korea with the total control of its dictator, has nuclear power that is massive enough to threat the whole world. To ensure that the security of nuclear power is esstial to the all human beings.

Nuclear power is always controversial during this decade. America has some disputes with Iran on the issue of building nuclear power. Why Iran wants to build nuclear power? Because it wants to improve its national power and the influence in the world. Why America doesn't want Iran to build nuclear power? Because America doesn't want any more nuclear danger in the world to threat its people and to ensure the position of the United States in the world.

Obviously, nuclear power with its deadly damage power, plays an important role in the world issue. When a country has nuclear power, it becaoms a threat to the other country without nuclear power. Therefore, the way and attitude a country treats its nuclear weapon is important for all the people

America knows that it has the duty to make security for all the people around the world so Americans will try their best to restrict nuclear weapon to make world a safer place. It's also a way to consolidate its power and reputation among the world.

Obama's visiting this controversial place to check this controversial power maybe a forceful example for his position in the recent election. Military Security is always the priority for a country.

Next time when we think about nuclear weapon, we should think about humanity first.

World Water Day 2012

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/

This year, the Water World Day was the biggest ever. More people followed the event and contribute to this whold world An increased number of people realize the current situation and started to take actions to protect the environment.

However, the status is still not promising. The official organization announced that There are 7 billion people to feed on the planet today and another 2 billion are expected to join by 2050.

This sounds urgent and dangerous for all the people. We now have the wonderful life with plenty of drinkable water. But this result is based on the sacrificing of the people in other parts of the world who don't have enough water and money to buy water to drink.

We actually are using the water that is supposed to be distributed evenly.

Therefore, we should dedicate more money and strength to the area which is lacking water terribly. Start the actions step by step. Taking a shorter shower, using less water to wash hands and turning the tap as much as possible can help reduce the amount of water we use everyday.

World Water Day is an opportunity to help us remind the importance of water for all the human beings and inspire us to contribute to world's event. So just share the resources that are supposed to belong to all the equal humans.

'Hunger Games': Why The Movie Beats The Book

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1681603/hunger-games-movie-vs-book-talk-nerdy.jhtml

Hunger Game is coming! At tomorrow 0 o' clock! What amazing news it is!

Today, everybody in the school is talking about going to see the movie "Hunger Game" at midnight and they are so excited that they can't even wait for couple hours. Which really shocks me is the time they choose to go. I asked them "Don't you have school tomorrow? How can you go to see a movie at midnight since the next day will be a school day!" The answers were almost the same: "I can't wait!"

"Hunger Game" first came out as a novel written by Suzanne Collins. It attracts millions of readers to have desire to learn more about it. That's why the movie is so discussing right now.

The reporter predicted that there will be over 120,000,000 people to watch this movie. But why? Why the movie seems to beat the book?

I am one of the people who haven't read the book but still want to watch the movie. Because a movie gives you more view to let you know what actually is hapening. To me, a lazy reader, the more important part is that it only takes less than three hours while a book will take at leat a month for me to read! However, a lot of crazy readers said that reading gave you more room to imagine and reverie. It has more details than those in the movie.

In my opinion, no matter which one you like better, we should always support a love for the thing that we have a desire to enjoy. We need the passion to live through this colorful world!

I can imagine that the movie theatre will be packed this weekend everywhere just because of the "Hunger Game". I cheer for the crazy followers who have such passion to persue their happiness!

The significance of looking for Amelia Earhart

http://www.ksn.com/news/local/story/Group-begins-new-effort-to-find-Earharts-plane/dcbSCpAzYEyBW0pQdaFl-A.cspx

Recently, a new group started to find the plane of Amelia Earhart's and try to let the world know the mystrey of her death. A mystrey that has been left for nearly a centry is being explored again. I'm confused that why it is so important to find out this mystry and spend too much money and time on it.
Amelia was the first lady to fly across the Atlantic and Pacific and get the first award for female at that time. After doing some research, I think that the reason she is so important to this nation is because she represents something essential in nowdays life.
The major effect is that she made women equal to men by flying all around the world and becominga pilot and nflueced many women to follow her foot steps. Although she disappeared in her last attempt to fly around the world, her courage is what the contry needs badly right now. It evokes people to pursue their dreams undauntly and consistantly.
Looking for her plain is not a superficial technology investigation; it's more about the beliefe under the affair. The significance of this thing is to remind people of great courage to seek the future and realize the dreams.
Something we lack badly today maybe is the something that someone had before and it has been lost in this complicated world. Looking for the truth of something sifnificant is to help people to understand the world and change their minds towards a particular belief.
Hope the group can bring us some surprise of this mystery.

Invisible Competition Caused By the Price of Gasoline

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-gasoline-prices-20120319,0,4300163.story

These days, the price of gasoline keeps going up and there is no signal that shows it will stop at a particular time. The current highest price of gasoline is 4.48/gallon and it tends to be more.
When people feel the issue of the price of gasoline, they usually think about the efficiency of the administration of government. This leads to another controvisial topic in the society: the election of president.
The four candidates and the President Obama relatively talk about their own opinions on how to deal with the high price of gasoline. One of the candidates even promised that the price will go down to 2.5/gallon.
If you pay attention to these days votes, you will see that how intense the relationship between candidates are and how different their supports are. So catching the people's hearts and doing something really works for people is the priority of the president or the candidates who are trying to win this election.
Therefore, the price of the gasoline becomes the representitive of the part of the competition.
As I metioned above, a successful government is able to meet the requirements of its people while a bad governemnt only dictates its people. The election is not only a competition on the policy maker or law excutor, but also a competition on how to win the hearts and supports of the people.
As a resident of the city, I do want someone to make the price of gasoline drop and want a wise President to help people get a better life.

How Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 Convinced Thousands of Americans to Agitate For Military Action in Africa

http://animalnewyork.com/2012/03/how-invisible-childrens-kony-2012-convinced-thousands-of-americans-to-agitate-for-military-action-in-africa/

The author suggests that he doesn’t doubt that Kony is a evil guy and the program can help relieve the pain of the children in Uganda but he highly oppose this fake program which doesn’t tell us the truth and just try to cause attention to make profit. It uses different kinds of ways to persuade people to donate money to the program. This helps us think about the truth of the invisible children as they described.

How can this small incident touch everyone's heart and let people start actions? I think it's because of the nowdays society.
Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.

In this society, we are lacking more and more care and love for the people who are in drakness. The "Invisible Children" reminds us of the people in other part of the world are sufferring extremely unfair life. We have so much nici resources that they can't even imagine but we almost forget their existance. This video touches our sense of sympathy.

When a society tends to be colder and colder, it's time for an idea to evoke people's care and love for other people. So the most successful reason that the "Invisible Children" is so controversial is that it's time for this kind of donation to come to let people have a chance to show their cares for others.

‘Kony 2012′ filmmaker detained in San Diego

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/kony-2012-filmmaker-arrested-san-diego-205649394.html?fb_action_ids=2899514288479&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_source=other_multiline&code=AQDH2mEEWyPnrG4dnpQEf5sBSP7_CIiIKU4bU9ntcbqnNQaMhQKgREGLEqJ-Dd4W0jYzYyXMT0K9ousgw0lL7KnXjHhjqH2cfu2OvZCsapbqz1WyFH6QPwoVOnCw0zvxGoLizgaifpOQIDQUeeCoBQoBhaD2r9__bm7lLFeEFMBcLdUl7gCNMU5tfS9AxwB098UYKFW4FI0uBspRevpwTdax 

The author reports that Jason Russell, the filmmaker of the “Kony 2012”, is arrested in San Diego because some people saw him running through the street in his underwear, interfering with traffic, banging his hands on the sidewalk and behaving irrationally. This sounds ridiculous and funny. How can a normal person do this kind of crazy thing; moreover he is the filmmaker of the most controvesial video currently.

This incident shows that how stressful Jason is after being accused that the film he made is propaganda and it also reveals that too many people doubt the credibility of this program and how badly it influences the filmmaker.

It's hard to explain my feeling for him. If he does lie to the public, he deserves the punishment;if he doesn't lie to the public and just want to help children, then it's the fault of society to blame him too much.
So my conclusion is that we should think before we act and know the consequence before starting something unique. We have to pay for our actions so it's imprtant for us to act wisely.
Jason should think about the result if he's trying to fool the public and the society should explore more information before pushing so much pressure on him.

Productivity Methods to arrange time

http://lifehacker.com/5890129/five-best-productivity-methods

There is an increase of strategies about how to arrange time and keep it efficient. It is always hard for people to keep everything balanced in the timetable they make. And also a sudden change may break one's plan for today and even let him so disappointed that he wants to give up the timetable with strict discipline. Therefore it's important to know some effective methods to control the time.

First we should recognize what is most important to us and be able to concentrate on it more than other things. Spend more time on it and distribute the rest of the time equally. We can't make everything the best everyday but we can at least make the thing we think is the most vital thing for us the best. So we are able to cherish the time that God gives everyone everyday.

Then Keep the time balanced. We cannot just study without rest and cannot just play without study. It supplements each other. So distribute the limited time equally to different region equally. We can make sure we are not losing some important parts of the life.

Finally, we should always be adamant and tolerable. There are so many sudden changes in our life that we can never predict. When we are forced to change the plan we have, we should makeup it after the change is gone. We cannot give up the regular plan we have and just modify the plan.

With a persistant and determined mind, We can take advantage of timetable to give us better lives and be efficient to use the limitted time to create unlimitted treasure.

The 1990s in forty-eight pictures

http://boingboing.net/2012/02/23/the-1990s.html?

When we look back to the pictures we took 10 years ago, we may laugh how funny and dull we are in that picture. We might laugh at the clothes we were wearing, the poses we were acting and the old-fashoined picture style.

Nowdays, we have higher standard technology, more morden clothes and good looking smiles. We totally get rid of the old fashoin we have before and tend to develop new things faster and faster.

However, in my opinoin, the major function of these old pictures is not showing that we have improved our life a lot, but reminding us how fast the time goes.

Suddenly, I'm already 17 years old now and I'm even far away from my country. I still remember when I was in elementary school, I asked myself when could I go to high school and have much more freedom. I thought it would take forever to enter even middle school.

When we are struggling in our life, we always imagine how bright our future is. Nevertheless, it maybe joyful to think about future when we are young. For the people who are 50 or more, memory is always sentimental. They want to go back to the past which we think is dull and vulgar.

So whatever age we are right now, just cherish what you have currently. Don't feel regretful and sad after it has already gone.

Look at the photos we took several years ago,we will sigh: time does fly.





Recover from a Bad Night of Sleep by Faking a Nap

http://lifehacker.com/5887647/recover-from-a-bad-nights-sleep-by-faking-a-nap

Working out too much, doing endless homework, playing too much computer games, reading too much novels and staying up too late! Stop! Let me just take a break!

With the age growing, We have to do more and more stuff incluing studying, doing sports and having more entertainment. Time becomes tighter and tighter.

So usually our sleep time is condensed. We take out of our part of sleep time to play more and study more. However, it's obvious that we will get tired easily. In order to mantain energetic in the day time and be able to work and learn, what's the most efficient way to save or restore energy?

Take a nap.

 I used to take a nap in the afternoon in the school and I was amazed by the consequence the nap lead me to. I just felt great after 5 or 10 minutes nap even I didn;t actually fall asleep!

Our bodies need to be recovered after working constantly. A 5 minutes nap is enough for our bodies to get ready for the remaing work in the day.

So just try to squeeze out this 5 or more minutes. You will be surprised how fantastic you feel after the nap and you will be ready for the remaing work whatever how hard it is!

Burnout Is Real: How to Identify and Address Your Burnout Problem

http://lifehacker.com/5884439/burnout-is-real-how-to-identify-the-problem-and-how-to-fix-it

A lot of people always ignore an important reaction in the life; that is the term "burnout". We usually use that term to describe an exhausting experience.

In the mojority of lifetime, we always feel strss from diferent areas of life which can not be averted. We have to face the stress situation, using efforts and power to try to solve it. However, when we are out of power, we feel uncomfortable and weird because we are exhausted without even noticing it. So how to identify and solve the "burnout" situation?

We should always be patient when we tend to be irritable. Some sufferings in the world are alsays irresistable and we must overwhelm it instead of escaping.

Just take a rest to cut off the source of the burnout when you feel stressed. Stop thinking about the burden and relax yourself for a short period of time and then come back to face the difficulty.

We will know how to speed up only if we know how to stop.

In addition, encourage the people around you who are also facing their burdens. Tell them to stop working to get rid of the ehausting status.

Don't speed up too much unless you know how to stop.

Improve Your Memory by Using Memory Foraging Strategies

http://lifehacker.com/5885293/improve-your-memory-by-using-memory-foraging-strategies

Memorizing is an important part in my life since I come to this new land and to speak a foreign language. Endless vovabularies and pharses confuse my brain and I keep fighting with these hateful words. I saw this article on the internet. I was curious what strategies can improve memory rapidly at first. After having read the article, I realize that the only way to improve memory is constant effort.

There are too many temptations in our life and we sometimes are addicted to it. Memorizing something that you don't want to memory requires durable perseverance.

We should make a list of plans everyday and force ourselves to reach it without excuses. However, there might be some sudden changes in daily life. We should makeup the miss work when we have available time.

Memorizing new vocabularies seems very boring to me so I always try to find some excuses to avoid suffering the pain of memorizing.

Therefore, when I feel tired or lazy, I will write down my aim and destination in order to remind me of the saying "No pain, no gain." When I overcome the challenge I'm facing by my patient and perseverance, I feel proud of myself.

In conclusion, the only way to improve memory is to memorize more and undertake the pain. Just let your brain keep training by adding more stuff to it.

Before she was Gaga

http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/24/before-she-was-gaga-the-unseen-photos/?hpt=hp_c1

Lady Gaga, as one of the most controversial artists in the US, is critiqued and discussed by the people all around the world. Her unique style and outfit create a strange reputation for her. A lot of people think she's gross and nasty. However, more people think she is an outstanding singer with distinguished talent and innovative music.

Recently, some pictures of Lady Gaga before she was famous was uploaded on internet and newspaper. I was pretty shocked when I first saw them. I cannot believe the meek and pure girl in front of me was changed to Lady Gaga on the stage.

So what caused her to turn to be the current Lady Gaga?

The anwser is unclear.

My point is that everyone has his own story and personality. Whatever purpose she has to be dressed in that style, her effort and works should be approved. She is a singer and her job is to bring relaxation or amusement for people. We don't need to critique her or even insult her style. It's her choice. We should focus more on her music and works that make her famous.

A real artist is not famous for discussion but for her impressive opus and the treasure he brings to this world.

Apparently, Lady Gaga creates a new style to this world and we should have a much opener opinion to accept different art.

Train Yourself to Become a Morning Person

http://lifehacker.com/5882993/train-yourself-to-become-a-morning-person-and-test-yourself-to-find-your-sleep-patterns

As time flies, the homework for everyday keeps growing all the time. Although it's not growing terribly,but I just can not go to bed on time every night.
10 minutes homework, then 5 minutes internet, 5 minutes bathroom, 5 minutes eating snack, then back to homework....
This is my current status....
This reminds me of my study life in China which is horrible and tough when compare it with American study. I had at least 3-hour homework everyday and the school ended at 5 o' clock.I was forced to stay up late and I always complainted about it.
Nowdays, I have much more free time but too many things attracts me. I could go to bed much earlier and have a good sleep everday. But I just addicted to the colorful world!
So I realize that we should have the ability to keep us away from the addiction and the attraction and should be able to tolerate the loneliness. Everyone has the potential mind to relax himself and avoid suffering pain.
Living alone without controling by parents, it is so easy to relax myself and do whatever I want. However, if I can avoid being addivted to different temptation, I can reach my dream.
One year from now, you will wish you had started today.

Chinese Hot Pot Recipe???

http://chinesefood.about.com/od/festivalsandholidayfood/a/hotpot.htm

Living in the United States, with totally different culture and eating habit, I think every Chinese student like me misses the Chinese food terribly. I have invited my Chinese friends in my American School to come to my house to have a hot pot together several times. It's a pity that we can not make the same one as we had in China, even the one we made cannot be compared with....

So this time, I looked up on the internet and found a recipe for hot pot which looks really good and close to the real Chinese flavor. To my surprise, the spicy sauce and the red soup really reminded me of the hot pot in China, and my friends also enjoyed it very much.

Nevertheless, I still noticed that we were lacking a kind of flavor. And I finally realized it was the atmosphere and the love of our families....

Exploring an unknown world alone, sometimes we lost ourselves on this unfamiliar land. No one will take care of us like our parents do. When I was in China with my parents, I used to complain about their wordy instructs and get mad at them. However, I realized how much I love my parents when I first came to this land without them.

I feel sorry for the way I treated them before. I want to tell them that I do love them and I will let them be proud of being my parents.

20 Minutes of Exercise a Day Is Enough to Get You Fit

http://lifehacker.com/5885620/20-minutes-of-interval-training-is-enough-to-improve-your-health

With life quality becoming better and better, more and more people are being lazier and lazier. Adiposity turns in to a serious problem. How to deal with it and lose weight? One of the major answers is obvious——Excercise!
However, how long should we exercise everyday in order to keep fit? There are tons of researches and reports to explain their answers. Now there is a new theory about ecercising only 20 minutes everyday. It illusatrate how it can work to keep people fit. The report includes a huge amount of researches and experiments so as to make it reasonable and credible.
I wander what is the best way to keep fit because there are too many different opinions that you can find or hear everywhere.
In my opinion, everyone's body is different. We can not determine the best way for everybody to keep fit. People should figure out their own ways to train themselves. We can not follow every new theory blindly. These theories are just the suggesions or the advice for you. They may not work in different body structure. So I think we should trust ourselves and evaluate the news carefully because the "best one" may not be the "best one" for your body!

Valentine Dilemma

http://xkcd.com/1016/

The annual Valentine's Day is coming again and it's time to prepare a surprise for the one you care about. However, it's always hard to choose a gift for him/her because he/she is really important to you and you want to make him/her feel happy. This gift is too cheap and that one is too dazzling; this gift is too dull and that one is too contrived. A dilemma happens.

In my opinion, a good present for lover is the one with unexpected surprise and real love.

For the former one, life needs surprise to overcome the frustation and depression. People usually get tired of routine and want to get something special, especially from their lovers. A certain sending time, a proper sending place and an impressive sending format should be considered.

For the latter one, we should put our hearts and mind into our gifts. It means that your lover might not care about the price of the beauty of the gift. They just want to know that you're still crazy for him/her. A homemade decoration, a manual bracelet and a moving written letter will impress him/her.

The significance of sending gift is not about the price or the usage, it is about how much effort you have put in it for him/her.

The Habits That Crush Us

http://zenhabits.net/crush/

"We don’t know how to cope with stress and boredom in a healthy way."

Different life styles and different personalities lead people to different habits. We use various ways to divert oursevers while facing pressure or trouble. As we all know, there are too many temptations which we have to face them in our life. Therefore, smoking, drinking, playing video games and other distracting habits become some people's bad hapbts.
In my opinion, a successful person must be the one who can tolerate the depression in the life and resist the different kinds of seducements.
There are a lot of healthy ways to help us overcome our troubles and lead us to a good mood. Listening to music, reading and talking with friends are all easy methods to relieve our pain. In addition, smile is the most powerful and beautiful magic in the world. Let a smile lead you through the trouble and get rid of bad mood. And it can also make the people around you feel comfortable. Let the habit of smiling guide you to cast off the bad habits you have already formed.
It will never be too late to correct the habits.

Why Apple's products are 'Designed in California' but 'Assembled in China'

http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/22/why-apples-products-are-designed-in-california-but-assembled/



     Having the biggest population in the world, as we all know, China plays an important role in the worldwide economy which requires endless and extremely cheap labor force. Why do the majority of developed countries choose China as an assemble base?

    In my opinoin, there are 2 major points. First, there is no developed country that can have such a big population and enable huge number of people to do such a job. Secondly, China has the cheapest labor force in the world. Most workers, working in an assemble line, are paid less than 10 dollars for more than 12 hours, which sounds ridiculous but does happen! In contrast to the valuable labor force in developed countries, apparently every big company will choose china to get their goods assembled though the shipping is very expensive.

    As a Chinese, I feel entangled. I think China and most developed countries such as the USA, are in a Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationship. Think that America forces Apple to get assembled in local labor company, what will happen to 230,000 people or even more people in China who work for assembling? And what will happen to Apple if they have to pay the high salary for the labor forces? Can they still make such a big profit? The anwsers are obvious.

    Which makes me ashamed and upset is that the core technology still belongs to foreign countries. We only have the qualification to assemble the stuff that others send to us. In a word, China still has a long way to go though it is developing at an extremely fast speed. I hope that one day I can see some famous products that are designed by a Chinese company!