School of Rock

Post-viewing Discussion Questions:

1. Mark Twain said, "Don't let your schooling interfere with your education." How far do you agree to this notion?

2. How should education instill creativity in students?

Evan Almighty

Evan is chosen by the Almighty. Transforming from a mediocre family man to a pompous and gallant congressman, Evan wants to change the world.

Evan adopts the hype of many politicians' : change. Is it for better or worse? It is for better from the point of view of capitalists while for worse according to environmentalists.

Man propose and God dispose. Evan's will clashes seriously with the Lord's. Evan wants to be a junior co-sponsor of a bill that proposes higher urbanization at the expense of natural heritage. However, the Deity wants Evan to build an ark to save all animals from an enigmatic flooding.

Will Evan make it? Will the bill go down the drain? Let's watch this hilarious blockbuster to get some clues.

(synopsis written by Anthony Cheung on 30th Sept 2008)



Post-viewing Discussion/ Writing:

Write your post-viewing thoughts on at least 3 themes below:

a. your experience in miracles and paradox

b. your point of view or experience on praying, Christianity, religion

c. tug of war between natural heritage preservation and urbanization (urban development)

d. tradeoff between quality family time and career ambitions

e. importance of appearance in your success

f. hard times when all people cast doubt over you




If many people cast doubt over you, why don't you get encouraged by the following poem:

[IF]

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you
But make allowance for their doubting too,
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream--and not make dreams your master,
If you can think--and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it all on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings--nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much,
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son!


--Rudyard Kipling

THE AGE OF TURBULENCE *(Alan Greenspan)

When Alan Greenspan speaks, the world listens!



Alan Greenspan was born in 1926 and reared in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. After studying the clarinet at Juilliard and working as a professional musician, he earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from New York University. In 1954, he cofounded the economic consulting firm Townsend-Greenspan & Co. From 1974 to 1977, he served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisors under President Gerald Ford. In 1987, President Ronald Reagan appointed him chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, a position he held until his retirement in 2006.


























Did Alan Greenspan decimate the middle class and widen the wealth gap?

Did he corrupt the Federal Reserve and bring crony capitalism into it?

Did he bankrupt the US Government and cause tsunamis in equities and property markets?


All these questions are left to historians and economists.

The World Is Flat 3.0: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century

Many would know this book is about GLOBALIZATION: there are 10 "flattening" effects and they converge in various situations.

Is it posing a threat or providing opportunities to us?

What do those Sept 11, in 1989 when Berlin Wall fell, in 1991 when George HW Bush coined the "New World Order" in the State of Union, and in 2001 when more than 3 thousand innocent lives were lost to a terrorist attack, reveal to us under this globalization context?


There's an inspiring African proverb/ wise saying:

Every morning lions have to make sure they run faster than gazelles so that the former won't fall prey to the latter, or the former will get killed.

Every morning gazelles have to make sure they run faster than lions which can be their breakfast, or they will starve to death.

Under this globalization, nations are in the same relationship between lions and gazelles: to kill or get killed, or to have or not to have, that is the question every day we face.


Anyway, if you don't go with the flattening effects, the Globalization Express is going to flatten you fair and square.

SURVIVAL OF THE SICKEST: THE SURPRISING CONNECTIONS BETWEEN DISEASE AND LONGETIVITY

Find out why deadly diseases are bred into our genetic code - and learn the answers to such provocative questions as:

* Can a person rust to death?
* Can sunglasses cause sunburns?
* Why do we need to pee when we’re cold?
* Can the tanning salon lower cholesterol?
* Who gets drunk faster-Europeans or Asians? And why?
* Why are African-Americans more prone to hypertension?

Survival of the Sickest reveals the answers to these and many other questions as it unravels the amazing connections between evolution, disease, and human health today.

This book turns our current understanding of illness on its head and challenges us to fundamentally change the way we think about our bodies, our health, and our relationship to just about every other living thing on earth - from plants and animals to insects and bacteria.

This revelatory book explains how, especially when you take the evolutionary long-view, many diseases are really complicated blessings, not simple curses. Survival of the Sickest answers the riddles behind many diseases that seem to be inexplicably wired into our genetic code, starting with the biggest riddle of them all: If natural selection is supposed to get rid of harmful genetic traits, why are hereditary diseases so common?

Through a fresh and engaging examination of our evolutionary history, Dr. Sharon Moalem reveals how many of the conditions that we think of as diseases today actually gave our ancestors a leg up in the survival sweepstakes. When the option is a long life with a disease or a short one without it, evolution opts for the long ball every time.

Survival of the Sickest explores earth, history, and the human genome to discover how environmental, cultural, and genetic differences shaped us through evolution and continue to play an active role in our health today.

Everything from the climate our ancestors lived in, to the crops they planted and ate, to their beverage of choice can be seen in our genetic inheritance. But Survival of the Sickest doesn't stop there – it goes on to demonstrate just how little modern medicine really understands about human health, and offers a new way of thinking that can help all of us live longer, healthier lives.

Survival of the Sickest is filled with fascinating insights and cutting-edge research, presented in a way that is both accessible and utterly absorbing. This is a book about the interconnectedness of all life on earth – and, especially, what that means for us.

Read it. You're already living it.

More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics

today I stayed at a bookstore in IFC and devoured this book: Make no mistake, this book is not about reproduction nor sexual pleasure. It's about paradoxical philosophies in unconventional Economics.

To illustrate, many jurors made the wrong verdict and sentenced the wrong persons. Why would this happen? It's because they don't need to face the consequences. There are so many phenomena that incur cost to a third party, which cannot halt the first party from erring.

What should we do to prevent this injustice? The jurors should house those suspects to whom they gave an acquittal for at least 1 month. The jurors would bear the consequences if the suspect is not as innocent as they thought.

There are myriads of examples like this to solve many global pervasive problems.

Was 9/11 an Inside Job? Did Bush Allow This Massacre to Act as a Pretext to Wage a War in the Middle East? Let's Watch "Fahrenheit 9/11"