A review of my day as a teacher.

Yesterday I taught a class of 4th graders in P.S. 33 and the experience was just great. I took part in an event called Junior Achievement that the Scholars Institute offers. This event lets high school students teach elementary school children for one whole day. Since this event had already been postponed once because of the snow day, I was really looking forward to it and hoped that this time it would be 'for real'.

When we reached there, we were taken to the auditorium and the children gave us some information about Martin Luther King Jr.'s achievements. The children spoke very softly and weren't in sync, but overall they did good and even sang a nice song. When me and my partner, Ramanit, reached the class that we were supposed to teach, we found the children very welcoming. It was a really good class, except for some children that wouldn't stop talking (what else would you expect from elementary school children). But the teachers have good techniques to keep the children quiet such as the call bell, the countdown from 5 to 1(no one would dare talk after 3!), etc.

There were some kids in that class who knew almost everything that we were going to teach them, which became a little annoying after a while. But the children were all well behaved (They form two straight lines when going to lunch and gym) and have good manners. Also, once they know you, they will talk to you about anything and everything and are really fun to be with. Another amazing thing is that the children will get so attached to you and will love you so much that by the end of the day they won't want you to leave.

I think Junior Achievement is an absolutely amazing event. You go there to teach the children and you come back having learnt something yourself. It makes you realize that being a teacher is not easy at all and that they play such an important role in our lives. I always envied teachers because, I thought that while the students spent all their time doing homework and studying, the teachers simply sat in class, talking (they got to talk in class!!) about stuff that we never understood. But now I know what it takes to be a teacher (I was so exhausted by the end of the day that when I reached home I slept for at least 3 hours and was thinking of not going to school the next day).

I would love to do Junior Achievement again and I strongly urge you to do it if you have a choice. Its an amazing and a memorable experience.

What to do if you upgraded itouch or iphone to 3.1.3 firmware

Okay so recently many people told me that they fell for Apples firmware update to 3.1.3. Meaning that you accidently upgraded your itouch or iphone from w.e. firmware you had to 3.1.3. Once you upgrade your itouch or iphone, all the stuff that you downloaded "illegaly" will obviously get erased. But that doesnt mean you cant jailbreak it again. For the iPhone 2G,3G & iPod Touch 1st,2nd gen NON MC models you can jailbreak using redsnow.

But unfortunately, there is no jailbreak for the MC models. (If you dont know wether youve got an MC model, go to settings-general-about-model. ) Some people said that you could downgrade to 3.1.2 but thats not possible and Apples not gonna let you do that. So basically if you have an MC model, you have to wait for another jailbreak to come out for it.

But if you have a NON MC model, then you could look up the videos on youtube for jailbreaking 3.1.3 firmware. The one link I have is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rklxwqpKAVs

Killer whale kills its trainer!

This killer whale killed a trainer in Sea World, Orlando. And guess what? I've actually seen this whale and the trainer when I went to Sea World in Florida last year. They are called Shamus and the Shamu show is a must see if you go to Sea World. They are really well trained and the show is a lot of fun.

One whale, named Tilikum is also very well trained but i guess it was in a bad mood when it killed tranier Dawn Brancheau. This happened after a Shamu show, when Brancheau was massaging Tilikum and she slipped into the water. Tilikum then held Brancheau in its jaws and started swimming really fast around the tank. Just then the alarm sounded and the staff members rushed the audience out of the stadium. The park was also immediately closed. By the time help arrived Brancheau was obviously dead.

This isn't the first time that Tilikum was involved in a murder. In 1991, Tilikum was blamed for killing a trainer when the woman lost her balance and fell in the pool at Sealand of the Pacific in Victoria, British Columbia. Then in 1999, a man who sneaked in, was found dead in the Tilikums pool. He died of hypothermia but there were bites and scratches on him also.

But this doesn't mean that all Shamus are agressive and bad. When you see their show, they are so well trained, they perform tricks that you've never seen and that you will never see because only those Shamus can do them.

Schools spies on students!!

There have been numerous cases where a school was spying on its students through school-issued laptops; this is absolutely unacceptable. One example is Harrison High School in Pennsylvania. This school captured pictures of students and even their family members as they undressed!! The Macbooks that the school had given every student had security features that could let the school remotely activate the webcams to "track lost or stolen laptops". But the school used these laptops to spy on students and everybody is very upset about this.

But how did everyone find out about this? It started when the assistant principle of Harrison High School told a student, Blake J. Robbins, that he was doing "improper" stuff. She thought Blake was selling drugs because of what she saw on the laptop. But it turns out that Blake was just holding Mike-N-Ikes. Blake then filed a lawsuit against the school and when the other parents and students found out about this, everybody was really really upset. And they should be because a school can't interfere in your personal lifes and spy on you.

To read more about this article go to http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/tech/School-Spies-on-Students-at-Home-with-Webcams-Suit-84712852.html

Haitian man survives under earthquake rubble for nearly 4 weeks!

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12th, left many survivors deep under the rubble of buildings and houses.

One such survivor has now been found, 4 weeks after the earthquake hit Haiti! 28 year old Evans Monsigrace, a rice vendor, had just finished selling rice when the earthquake took place. He was rescued on Monday by some people digging under the rubble of the Croix Bossal market in Port-au-Prince. He was first taken to a Salvation Army medical center. He was then moved to the University of Miami hospital because of his critical condition. Evans suffered from extreme dehydration and malnutrition, but did not appear to have significant crushing injuries, the doctors said. He reported receiving water form a man in a white coat. But doctors cannot confirm this and say that he was probably suffering form hallucination. Scientists say that survival beyond 10 days, for someone who is trapped, requires an unusual combination of circumstances, including an uninjured, healthy victim and access to water and air. If Evans' claims are ture, it would make him the longest survivor so far in the Haiti earthquake.

Haiti is part of the island of Hispaniola, that it shares with Dominican Republic. It is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. More than 150,000 people were killed and 1.5 million left homeless in the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti on January 12th. Since then, aid from numerous countries and International aid agencies has arrived, and many survivors have been rescued.

For more information regarding Evans visit http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/02/08/haiti.rescue/index.html

For donating to Haiti victims visit http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6987704.ece

Spammers are exploiting users through mails about sensational new stories.

"Bomb Blast." "Jackson is still alive: proof." "Obama cursed by Pope." These are just a few of the subjects used by cybercriminals last year to trick people into opening malware-infected e-mails.

Spam that uses the latest news headlines was just one of the hot trends last year in the world of cybercrime, according to McAfee's "Q4 Threats Report", released Tuesday. The latest threat assessment also noted a rise in "hacktivism," or politically motivated cyberattacks.

The crash of an Air France plane and the death of Michael Jackson in June continued to be top themes for spammers to exploit throughout 2009, notes McAfee. The swine flu also triggered a slew of e-mails claiming to be from the Centers for Disease Control but which actually carried viruses in the form of Zeus Trojans. The surge in unemployment led to a rise in spam touting get-rich-quick schemes. And as always, terrorism and unrest around the world contributed to subject lines designed to scare people into opening malware in their in-box.

So learn to recognize these e-mails and do not be prompted to open it.

Conflict in Eastern Congo

The Dominican Republic of Congo is a country in Africa that is going through a civil war, fought between the Tutsis and the Hutus; one of the deadliest comflicts in Africa. DR Congo is very big in size (as big as Western Europe) and has many natural resources, but has failed to use them for the benifit of the people, and therefore has hardly any roads or railways and has a poor health and education system.

This Tutsi-dominated country is being attacked by Hutu millatia; a result of conflicts between the Tutsis and Hutus for generations. These millatias rape, mutilate and even kill civillians like savages. One of their victims is Chance Tombola whose parents were killed and sisters taken away by the millatias. According to Orphaned, Raped and Ignored, two months later the same millatia burst into her aunts house where Chance had moved. They shot her uncle and then sliced his belly so that the intestines fell out, and then cut his heart. Then six men began to rape her aunt, Jeanne Birengenyi, in front of Chance and the other children. Chance claims that one man raped her too.

Chance and her family are one of numerous families that have been raped, mutillated and killed. These devasting scenes happen in front of all the children in the house and have a traumatic effect on their lives, if they are left alive. In many cases the women contract sexually transmitted diseases. These women are rejected by their husbands and many also have difficulty marrying.

This war was driven by warlords, greed for minerals and ethnic tensions. Even though the war was officially declared over in 2003, East Congo is still unstable and lies in ruins. The UN and other peacekeeping organzations have been unable to stop the Hutu millatia's genocide in the east. More than 5.4 million people have been killed in this conflict since the beginning of the civil war in 1998. This war has been very brutal and devastiting for the innocent civillians, who have been victims of the Hutu millatia. This war is as devastating as the earthquake in haiti or the 9/11 bombings but has failed to gain simmilar popularity. I think this war should be recognized worldwide and international forces should come together and end this war, once and for all.

For more informaiton regarding the civil war in East Congo, go to http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/opinion/31kristof.html?scp=1&sq=Kristof&st=nyt or http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3075537.stm

Garmin nuvi 760 gps

You're looking for the best GPS money can buy, so long as that money isn't going to break the bank. We've always been pleased with the Garmin nüvi line, especially the widescreen models with built-in Bluetooth and FM. The Garmin nuvi 760 has a 4.3" touch screen color backlit display, Bluetooth for hands-free calling and traffic broadcasts via "silent" FM data channel for intelligent routing based on traffic conditions.

So aside from the super easy to use intuitive interface and excellent performance in the Garmin nuvi line, what do we like best about this particular GPS? Once priced for $399 the nuvi 760 is currently on sale on Amazon for $199 - which is what we paid for a measley nuvi 250W only a year ago!

Apple releases iPad

Apple recently announced the release of it's IPad which is going to be on sale in about 2 months. The IPad is basically an itouch on steroids.

Size and buttons: The iPad measures 7.47 inches wide by 9.56 inches tall by 0.5 inch thick, and weighs 1.5 pounds. A 30-pin dock connector sits on the bottom, along with a small integrated speaker; a volume rocker button and mute switch sit on the right side, and a screen lock, a headphone jack, and a pinhole microphone sit up top.

Battery life is rated 10 hours. The IPad has pretty much the same apps that have been on the itouch and iphone, except that they have been changed a bit to make full use of the larger screen of the IPad. The IPad photo app is very impressive as it has miniature stacks of images that you can unfold, browse, and manipulate very easily. Also it turns the IPad into a digital photo phrame when its docked in a charging station. Another interesting app is the Apple iBook app which turns your iPad into a real looking normal sized book.

Basically the iPad is a bigger verison of an iTouch but not bigger than a Mac. Its a portable mini touchscreen computer.

The price? The Ipad is available in 16GB ($499), 32GB ($599), and 64GB ($699). A line of iPads with 3G wireless data support (microSIM) are due out in May with the same capacity range, only it will cost $130 extra for each respective model (i.e., $629, $729, and $829). If you go the 3G route, you'll also need to pay for an additional data plan (currently provided by AT&T with no contract), setting you back $14.99 a month for 250MB of data, or $29 for "unlimited" usage. As data plans go, those prices are very reasonable, but they are tied to the device and can't be shared with your phone or other Internet-capable devices.