Many followers of the "Lyra's Letters" blog may have noticed that the bloggers have not been very productive in the past few months compared to the months of May, June, and July.
This is because the most productive writers on the blog have been occupied with other things the past few months, such as on-line courses and, in the case of August, vacations.
This has also been due to the fact that the writers are writing longer posts than what was usual in June. Remember that we are are still a very productive team, writing on average a post per week, with hopefully as many as seventy posts submitted before the Lyra's Letters first anniversary. That is tens or even hundreds of thousands of words squeezed into seventy articles, some of which being many pages long.
For people who are new to the blog, you can read about its name in the article "Lyra".
Monday 19 January 2015
Friday 9 January 2015
Beaches on the Coast
The area in Australia that I live in is called the Central Coast. It is all of the small towns in between Sydney and Newcastle. It is a beautiful area, where there are many types of birds that stay there or migrate through. There are many hiking trails too, but the most fun thing in the area is the beaches.
Umina- The beach that is the closest to my house is called Umina beach. There is a playground there with a kiosk where I can sometimes get ice cream. I have been there many times. At any one day, the waves can be from tiny and breaking only at the shore to 2 meters high and sending up a huge spray of foam when they break. At the Southern half of the beach is an area where dogs are allowed. Lyra is walked there sometimes. At the South end there is a small rocky path that goes to Pearl beach.
Pearl- Pearl beach has the same waves all of the time- big, but they only break right on top of the shore. They seem to go farther in certain places, so the shoreline is kind of wiggly. It is not such a good place to swim because it is too dangerous, however a walk along the beach can be nice.
Ocean- Ocean beach is technically the Northern half of Umina beach. North of it lies Ettalong beach. All three are in a bay, which is why they have calmer waves than Terrigal and Avoca.
Terrigal- This beach has huge, dramatic waves. At my best guess they can be up to 4 meters high! Because of this, it is my favourite beach.
Avoca- Avoca beach is very big and long. Its waves are almost as big as the ones at Terrigal, but they can be powerful too. They can also be hard to catch in body surfing.
I love doing water activities at these beaches. It has been a great hobby ever since I moved to Australia.
 |
| Umina beach with Lyra in the foreground |
Umina- The beach that is the closest to my house is called Umina beach. There is a playground there with a kiosk where I can sometimes get ice cream. I have been there many times. At any one day, the waves can be from tiny and breaking only at the shore to 2 meters high and sending up a huge spray of foam when they break. At the Southern half of the beach is an area where dogs are allowed. Lyra is walked there sometimes. At the South end there is a small rocky path that goes to Pearl beach.
 | |
| Me, my brothers, and a friend viewing Pearl Beach |
Pearl- Pearl beach has the same waves all of the time- big, but they only break right on top of the shore. They seem to go farther in certain places, so the shoreline is kind of wiggly. It is not such a good place to swim because it is too dangerous, however a walk along the beach can be nice.
Ocean- Ocean beach is technically the Northern half of Umina beach. North of it lies Ettalong beach. All three are in a bay, which is why they have calmer waves than Terrigal and Avoca.
Terrigal- This beach has huge, dramatic waves. At my best guess they can be up to 4 meters high! Because of this, it is my favourite beach.
Avoca- Avoca beach is very big and long. Its waves are almost as big as the ones at Terrigal, but they can be powerful too. They can also be hard to catch in body surfing.
I love doing water activities at these beaches. It has been a great hobby ever since I moved to Australia.
Sunday 4 January 2015
The future
What will the future be like? Many people imagine a land full of gigantic, futuristic cities built in the air, where everybody drives flying cars, where the problems of war and poverty and global warming have been solved, where we can control the weather, and where we do not have to do anything.
All of these developments, however, are very unlikely to be made in the future. These thoughts came mainly from old movies. This is why none of that is very likely to be what the future will look like:
Land full of gigantic, futuristic cities
Most cities are very unlikely to grow much larger than they already are, and that is because the population is falling in Japan, China, and most of Europe. The birth rate is falling from 2.5 in Australia, the entire Americas, and most of Asia. The only continent with a steadily increasing population left is Africa, and its population will just start to drop by 2050. As for futuristic? Most buildings people are making are still stacks of little boxes. The buildings may become more beautiful later, but the old buildings are still much nicer than the new ones.
Built in the air
How the heck could you elevate cities in the air? I think there is a way, but it would be very expensive. It would be easier to make cities that orbit around the earth in space, or are built on the moon.
Where everybody drives...
Nobody will have to drive anything in the future, not even in the near future. Cars that drive themselves are already being used. A problem is, a car that drives itself would be very expensive. A solution to the the problem is taxis that drive themselves. Wouldn't that be great! No parking lots and narrower lanes would mean there would be room for other things, such as parks, cycleways (People may be biking more in the future!) and buildings.
...Flying cars
Why need a flying car when small airplanes are much better? It should be "airplanes that drive on roads."
Where the problems of war and poverty and global warming have been solved
It may sound depressing, but there has always been a problem with the world, and there will always be.
Where we can control the weather
The weather is a very complex thing, and a terribly powerful one, too. It makes no sense to even think about controlling it for another two or three hundred years. And, when we finally do manage to control the clouds, imagine what a bad job we would do of it. Everybody always wants a blue sky and perfect heat, day after day. The plants would wither away. If we try and solve this problem and add rain, well, as I already mentioned, weather is a very complex thing. We would interfere with weather elsewhere, with more bad circumstances, and generate a negative spiral. The world would fall into chaos. Best to leave the weather untampered with.
The truth is that we are already controlling the weather, and the weather is on a due course for chaos in fifty years if nobody does anything quickly. How can we manage the world with much more power?
And where we do not have to do anything
All mechanical jobs will be replaced by robots, but most other jobs will not. For example, a robot can tell somebody information, but I do not think a robot would be a good teacher. People will still do science. Tours will not be taken over by robots, and that is good for me because I want to be a tour guide when I grow up. Robots are good for many other jobs, though, so watch out if you plan to work in a car factory!
The path of history has been a long, windy route, and there have been significant bends in the route, first at the beginning of agriculture, next in the discovery of bronze, then iron. The most recent bend has been the sharpest, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. There have been large forks in the path since, including the world wars and the cold war. At both forks, we went the right way. I wonder: Why, since the industrial revolution, have we been constantly in the fear of the world being destroyed? Anyway, the next fork in the path is very important. In World War II, it was not so extreme. Hitler was about to take over half the world, but, if he had succeeded, there would be more war that would rip the empire apart, so the only change would be in country borders. Even in the Cold War, it was not so extreme. This time, there will be a change in the way we live, no matter what we do. The problem is climate change.
The good news is, we are on the right path, if only we are given a nudge the right way. In future problems, we might not be so lucky. Along with more control over the earth, will come worse problems with more dire conditions if we go the wrong way. Mark my words, humans will destroy themselves sooner or later, if this row of problems continues. However, there is nothing one person can do, so the best thing to do for now about this is nothing. All we can do right now is avoid the problems that come in our way. Currently, this happens to be climate change, which should be one of the easier problems to solve, because we are causing it ourselves.
All of these developments, however, are very unlikely to be made in the future. These thoughts came mainly from old movies. This is why none of that is very likely to be what the future will look like:
Land full of gigantic, futuristic cities
Most cities are very unlikely to grow much larger than they already are, and that is because the population is falling in Japan, China, and most of Europe. The birth rate is falling from 2.5 in Australia, the entire Americas, and most of Asia. The only continent with a steadily increasing population left is Africa, and its population will just start to drop by 2050. As for futuristic? Most buildings people are making are still stacks of little boxes. The buildings may become more beautiful later, but the old buildings are still much nicer than the new ones.
Built in the air
How the heck could you elevate cities in the air? I think there is a way, but it would be very expensive. It would be easier to make cities that orbit around the earth in space, or are built on the moon.
Where everybody drives...
Nobody will have to drive anything in the future, not even in the near future. Cars that drive themselves are already being used. A problem is, a car that drives itself would be very expensive. A solution to the the problem is taxis that drive themselves. Wouldn't that be great! No parking lots and narrower lanes would mean there would be room for other things, such as parks, cycleways (People may be biking more in the future!) and buildings.
...Flying cars
Why need a flying car when small airplanes are much better? It should be "airplanes that drive on roads."
Where the problems of war and poverty and global warming have been solved
It may sound depressing, but there has always been a problem with the world, and there will always be.
Where we can control the weather
The weather is a very complex thing, and a terribly powerful one, too. It makes no sense to even think about controlling it for another two or three hundred years. And, when we finally do manage to control the clouds, imagine what a bad job we would do of it. Everybody always wants a blue sky and perfect heat, day after day. The plants would wither away. If we try and solve this problem and add rain, well, as I already mentioned, weather is a very complex thing. We would interfere with weather elsewhere, with more bad circumstances, and generate a negative spiral. The world would fall into chaos. Best to leave the weather untampered with.
The truth is that we are already controlling the weather, and the weather is on a due course for chaos in fifty years if nobody does anything quickly. How can we manage the world with much more power?
And where we do not have to do anything
All mechanical jobs will be replaced by robots, but most other jobs will not. For example, a robot can tell somebody information, but I do not think a robot would be a good teacher. People will still do science. Tours will not be taken over by robots, and that is good for me because I want to be a tour guide when I grow up. Robots are good for many other jobs, though, so watch out if you plan to work in a car factory!
The path of history has been a long, windy route, and there have been significant bends in the route, first at the beginning of agriculture, next in the discovery of bronze, then iron. The most recent bend has been the sharpest, at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. There have been large forks in the path since, including the world wars and the cold war. At both forks, we went the right way. I wonder: Why, since the industrial revolution, have we been constantly in the fear of the world being destroyed? Anyway, the next fork in the path is very important. In World War II, it was not so extreme. Hitler was about to take over half the world, but, if he had succeeded, there would be more war that would rip the empire apart, so the only change would be in country borders. Even in the Cold War, it was not so extreme. This time, there will be a change in the way we live, no matter what we do. The problem is climate change.
The good news is, we are on the right path, if only we are given a nudge the right way. In future problems, we might not be so lucky. Along with more control over the earth, will come worse problems with more dire conditions if we go the wrong way. Mark my words, humans will destroy themselves sooner or later, if this row of problems continues. However, there is nothing one person can do, so the best thing to do for now about this is nothing. All we can do right now is avoid the problems that come in our way. Currently, this happens to be climate change, which should be one of the easier problems to solve, because we are causing it ourselves.
Friday 2 January 2015
2015
Happy new year!
New years is celebrated in different ways all over the world, as you can see in Daniel's earlier post. It is normally celebrated with a fireworks show and a countdown in between December and January at midnight.
Technically, midnight is the opposite of noon, so it is the time that the sun is on the other side of the world. A time like that doesn't seem so important, and that is why my family celebrated the 2014 new year at sunrise.
December is the last month of the year, in which Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are celebrated. Thus December is the most festive time of the year and creates a special feeling for celebrating new year's eve.
Because new year officially starts on 12:00:00 PM, it gets pretty tense at that time. This is why a countdown accompanies most firework shows. There is a huge countdown on a lights display on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There is a famous ball drop at New York.
New years is probably the least religious holiday. Christmas is Christian in origin and every other holiday has its roots in some culture. Babylonian, Celtic, more Christian holidays, and so on. New years is based on a time at the height of winter(or summer) and celebrates every new year, or every circulation the earth makes around the sun.
This holiday leads into the first month of the year:January. It is named after the Roman god Janus, who has two faces, one for looking forward, another for looking back. The name of this month symbolises how people look back on the old year and remember how it went while looking forward at the new year with hope.
One thing I won't get into in this post is the tradition to think of new years resolutions and forget them overnight.
Think about how you feel when you see the following word. Wait for it...
2014.
That year has just passed. You must remember a lot from it.
Every January, the Gensemer family writes a 'Dear friends' letter that we e-mail to our friends and post on Facebook. It contains what each of us has done the past year.
This is the second word...
2015.
Yep, that is this year. The international year of light and light-based technologies. There is a whole year ahead of us. A little less than 365.25 days, to be exact.
New years is celebrated in different ways all over the world, as you can see in Daniel's earlier post. It is normally celebrated with a fireworks show and a countdown in between December and January at midnight.
Technically, midnight is the opposite of noon, so it is the time that the sun is on the other side of the world. A time like that doesn't seem so important, and that is why my family celebrated the 2014 new year at sunrise.
December is the last month of the year, in which Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are celebrated. Thus December is the most festive time of the year and creates a special feeling for celebrating new year's eve.
Because new year officially starts on 12:00:00 PM, it gets pretty tense at that time. This is why a countdown accompanies most firework shows. There is a huge countdown on a lights display on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. There is a famous ball drop at New York.
New years is probably the least religious holiday. Christmas is Christian in origin and every other holiday has its roots in some culture. Babylonian, Celtic, more Christian holidays, and so on. New years is based on a time at the height of winter(or summer) and celebrates every new year, or every circulation the earth makes around the sun.
This holiday leads into the first month of the year:January. It is named after the Roman god Janus, who has two faces, one for looking forward, another for looking back. The name of this month symbolises how people look back on the old year and remember how it went while looking forward at the new year with hope.
One thing I won't get into in this post is the tradition to think of new years resolutions and forget them overnight.
Think about how you feel when you see the following word. Wait for it...
2014.
That year has just passed. You must remember a lot from it.
Every January, the Gensemer family writes a 'Dear friends' letter that we e-mail to our friends and post on Facebook. It contains what each of us has done the past year.
This is the second word...
2015.
Yep, that is this year. The international year of light and light-based technologies. There is a whole year ahead of us. A little less than 365.25 days, to be exact.
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