Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! You interviewed each other in our last class. We asked questions about love and marriage to get into the Valentine's Day theme. However, Valentine's Day wasn't always about love.

Figure 1: Saint Valentine and his disciples

This day is named after two Christian martyrs named Valentine who lived around 200 AD. Only in the middle ages did Valentine's Day become associated with love. Today it is celebrated on February 14 in most Western countries. Many people think that like Christmas and Easter, Valentine's Day has become another way for advertisers to suck money out of us . . . another "Hallmark Day" (see this page http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Hallmark+Day&defid=1623139 ).

Do you really need a special day to appreciate your loved ones?

Should romance be confined to one day a year?

What are your favourite gifts to give and get on Valentine's Day (http://www.gifts.com/occasions/valentines-day/her/o7hFr6aicp816n)?

Top Tens

A fun interactive post idea is a top ten list. If you provide a link for every number on your list then your readers can get involved by reading more on each entry. Include photos and comments to add more depth!

Think of any superlative:

good best

bad worst

funny funniest

beautiful most beautiful

expensive most expensive

interesting most interesting

ugly ugliest

.............etc

Use this with an exciting topic and you have your list! For example: Top 10 Best Movie Endings of All Time or My 10 Most Beautiful Travel Destinations. You don't have to use a superlative in your list title, for example, 10 Reasons Why I'm Never Leaving Australia.

TIME Magazine has a great site with 50 of the best 10 lists from 2007 :

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/top10/0,30576,1686204,00.html

You like YouTube

YouTube is an excellent tool for us. You can find everything from online lectures to home videos. We all know how to use photos in our posts but do you know how to insert a video? 

Your next post assignment is to find an interesting, funny, exciting or cool video on YouTube and include it in your post. Tell your readers why you like this particular video. 

• A good place to start is to search for your favourite musician or band on YouTube.
  
• Choose a video clip of your favourite song.
• On the top right side of the page (when the video is playing) there is "About this video"
• Highlight and copy the HTML code under "Embed"
• You can paste this code in the "Edit HTML" window when you are posting (it's next to "Compose" in the posting window). 

Daft Punk are one of my favourite groups. This video clip is so amazing. I love how the dancers each represent a different element of the song. It's quirky and almost flawless. Make sure you watch all of it! 

Daft Punk:  Around The World

Another brilliant video clip is Basement Jaxx - Where's Your Head At? The faces on the monkeys are actually the faces of the band members. The computer graphics are fantastic in this clip and it tells an interesting story. Maybe this will be the next step after cloning!

Basement Jaxx: Where's Your Head At?

Making Slideshows

Check out my slideshow. This is a fun way to share your photographs of Australia with your friends. It's easy to make and you can link your slideshow with other social networking sites like Facebook or Myspace.

Sign up here and start uploading your photos:

http://www.slide.com/

What do you think of my cute pets Toby and Hermione (from Harry Potter)?

Bloggers

From left to right: Emeric, David, Hoi Ki, Richard, Chonticha, Yi-An, Leon, Dong Woo, Cho and Alexandra.

Clone Hunger - yum yum double yum

Are you hungry for a steak? How about a nice BBQ with lots of sausages and hamburgers? Perhaps you've lost your appetite after Tuesday's news? 

 

 Image: Cloned dairy cow and pork chop. By  Alessandra Petlin. 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the European Union have declared that cloned meat is safe for eating. Cloning is advantageous for meat producers because they can clone the best animals. However, it is unlikely that we will actually be eating the meat from a cloned animal or drinking cloned milk. Cloning is very expensive and the cloned animal would 

most likely be kep

t for breeding. 

Nevertheless, many ethical issues have been raised about cloning. Genetic diversity helps maintain natural immunity to disease. It is impossible to tell if the meat is cloned meat without tracking it from birth. This makes it difficult and costly to label cloned meat and clone-free meat in the supermarket. Some consumers have opposed cloned meat for religious reasons.

Check out this New York Times article on cloning for more information:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/business/16clone.html

?em&ex=1200632400&en=ebdeb3e8963998ae&ei=5087%0A

Would you eat cloned meat? Why or why not?

Do you like Brisbane?

B R I S B A N E http://www.ourbrisbane.com

How long have you been living in Brisbane? Where do you live and

where have you visited in Brisbane? What's your favourite place for shopping, eating, relaxing and studying?

Write a post about Brisbane. We want to see your pictures so include any photos you have!

Recognise this kangaroo?

Where have you seen it?