CAJ: Doomsday Preppers 7

My personal opinion:

When I first chose the topic "The Doomsday Preppers" for my CAJ I had this thought that Americans really are special. Today, I am under the impression that preparation is necessary. I do not say that we should prepare ourselves like the people in the TV Show Doomsday Preppers do but I believe that preparedness up to a certain degree could be helpful. 

I hope that through my posts you were able to learn something new about this topic. Maybe you even share my opinion that it is reckless of countries such as the US to not prepare themselves for potential EMP attacks. 

If you have a different opinion or know some useful or interesting information I did nott include please feel free to comment and let me know. 

CAJ:Doomsday Preppers 6

    vs.     

After explaining how an EMP works and what its after effects are I decided to look at EMPs in a more philosophical and psychological way. EMPs are caused by nuclear bombs. Therefore, I will compare the psychological aspects behind the usage of both weapons.

The initial situation for the scenario I will be working with is that China attacks the US with 1) a nuclear bomb 2) an EMP.

1^st scenario: China attacks the US with a nuclear bomb

Reasons: In case of an attack with a nuclear bomb China definitely wanted to hurt the US in a physical way. A country or government can deal with the loss of goods or equipment such as an unmanned battleship. However, a nation and therefore it government gets truly insulted and hurt when people die. The death of innocent people is something the president of the United States would not be able to tolerate.

Effect: Humanity clearly knows what the effects of a nuclear attack are. Many countries experimented with nuclear bombs from the first attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki up until now. A nuclear bomb would not only injure/kill a tremendous amount of the population of the attacked state but also make a vast area of land uninhabitable.

Conclusion: The only reason why a state would attack another one with a nuclear bomb is to damage it. They are probably not interested in negotiating with them. On the contrary, they want to fully subdue their opponent.

2^nd scenario: China attacks the US with an EMP

Reasons: The reasons for an attack with an EMP can vary a lot more than those for an attack with a

nuclear bomb. Firstly, an EMP does not kill people or turns land into an uninhabitable area. It solely destroys the infrastructure of a country. In fact this can be even more dangerous than killing someone.

Effect: As I mentioned in my previous post, an EMP is a weapon used for psychological warfare. The attacked country will be toppled in chaos and the consequence will be far worse than what humanity can imagine. Violence will get out of hand, the population will start to threaten each other and a number of people will try to make themselves the new head of the state.

In case the US decides to launch a counter attack it will not be as easy as normally. Due to the damages of their gear (communication equipment, battleships, tanks and other weapons) the American armed forces will have trouble in planning and coordinating their attacks on China. It will be harder, maybe even impossible, to communicate with allies and ask for their support.

When we think on a global level, the question arises how the rest of the world will react if the US is enveloped in darkness. If the US cannot provide themselves with electricity and cannot plead help from other states, the US vanishes. North America will become an easy target for any country that wants to attack them. Furthermore, states like Russia and the Iraq will run wild since no one has the power to control or threaten them.

Conclusion: EMP attacks are an easy way to conduct a war. In my scenario, China does not even kill or hurt anybody. An EMP does not even damage the land or the cities it just destroys its infrastructure. China has to wait for several weeks while the Americans destroy themselves. If China passes of the right moment they will not even have to attack, they just have to be there and offer help to the US. Unlike many fanatic believers of EMPs, I am under the impression, that China will not attack the US. If they are intelligent enough, they will wait for the time to come and then offer their help to them liberally.

In the worst-case scenario, the current head of state will refuse the offer. However, that is the moment when China will attack because the US does not have the resources or strength to protect themselves.

Overall, neither of the two scenarios above provide the US with the chance to get off without being overpowered. Which weapon is used, only shows what they have planned/ how they will use the US after conquering it. 

CAJ: Doomsday Preppers 5

In the last post I talked about since when the potential threat of an EMP has been known and how an EMP works. My explanation so far was rather physical. Therefore, I will now explain exactly how an EMP induced by a nuclear bomb works and which consequences it may have.

As I have stated before, an EMP is an electromagnetic Pulse, which means, in case of an attack with EMP, everything that has a microchip or is powered with electricity will be useless. The reason for this is that too much power/electricity flows through electrical appliances and wiring in a really short amount of time. This causes a short circuit. Therefore everything that uses electricity is damaged. To illustrate the malfunction of our modern infrastructure I will show you a list of equipment that will not work anymore.

• household appliances
• computers, mobile phones
• cars
• all kind of factories
• public institutions could become jails
• water supply, gas stations
• heating/ cooling systems
• backup generating sets would not work either
• processed food 

This list includes just a small number of aspects without which our infrastructure will not work. However, it would be impossible to live on the same way the population of an attacked country used to.

Although many gadgets we are used to since they make life more comfortable would not function we can still live a peaceful live, right?

No, eventually this would not be possible. Humanities greatest and most feared opponent are humans themselves. The situation after an EMP attack would be similar to numerous disaster movie. Humans driven by fear caused by a lack of knowledge are the greatest weapon another state has.

Many of the people who were featured in the TV Show Doomsday Preppers are afraid of getting attacked by China. If China really attacked the US with an EMP they are clearly use a military tactic that works on the basis of psychology. An EMP attack would topple every country on this planet into chaos.

I will give you an example to illustrate how an EMP could look like/feel like:

Elisabeth, an 18-year-old student, spends a nice evening at the mall with her best friends. They just bought some ice cream and are now sitting at a little fountain in the middle of the second floor of the building. While they are eating their ice and chatting with each other the lights go black. At first, that did not really bother anyone, however, a few minutes later they realize that the escalators and elevators do not work. They decide to leave the mall and drive back home since they felt rather uncomfortable. When they reach the automatic doors they cannot exit the mall because the doors will not open. Some of the people around them start freaking out and scream that they are claustrophobic while one woman is even hyperventilating.

Suddenly, a man smashes the glass doors with a baseball bat from the store beside the entrance. They run out of the shopping centre to their car, however the car will not open because it is operated with a microchip, which was destroyed by the EMP.

Elisabeth and her friends decide to run home. On their way to Elisabeth’s house they come by a group of people vandalizing and robbing shops. They get really scared and start running faster….

The situation we will have to face is nothing compared to the outbreaks of violence and riots humanity witnessed throughout history. With the damage an EMP causes it is only a matter of time until a population weakens itself so much that another country can easily overpower them.

Source: 

http://lyle.smu.edu/emis/design/?p=1751 

CAJ: Doomsday Preppers 4

The extent of an EMP

The effects of an EMP occur within line of site of the burst. The higher in the atmosphere the atomic bomb explodes the larger the area covered by the EMP is. To calculate the extent of the effect of the EMP the following formula can be used. 

R(tangent)=R(earth) cos-1 ( R(earth) / (R(earth) + HOB))

where R(earth) equals approximately 6371 km

Here you can see the approximate effects radius according to the height of the burst:

 40 km (height of burst) =>  712 km

 50 km (height of burst) => 796 km

100 km (height of burst) =>1,121 km

200 km (height of burst) =>1,576 km

300 km  (height of burst) => 1,918 km

400 km (height of burst) => 2,201 km*

If an EMP hit a large part of the United States it would not cause just a temporary power outage. It could take months or even years to get power back to most of the United States. Electronic equipment and power generating equipment in power plants themselves would be damaged and there will be no way of easily replacing this equipment. Even if the blackout were only for weeks, the disruption to the United States would be immense.

A major EMP over a large part of the United States would cause all major transportation systems to break down. Most means of communication would not be possible.

http://www.thepropheticyears.com/comments/Imminent%20danger%201%20-%20Electromagnetic%20Pulse%20explosion%20(EMP)%20over%20the%20United%20States.htm 

http://www.google.at/search?hl=de&q=EMP+expansion&tbm=isch&ei=oh6rU_mxFI2M7AbVt4DoBQ#hl=de&q=electromagnetic+pulse&tbm=isch&facrc=_&imgdii=_&imgrc=c0DwPfbbDDh4nM%253A%3Bp8F_q9gZmFCZIM%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.shtfplan.com%252Fwp-content%252Fuploads%252F2011%252F06%252Femp_map_graphic.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.shtfplan.com%252Femergency-preparedness%252Fsuper-emp-capable-of-disabling-power-grid-across-lower-48-states_06202011%3B700%3B497 

CAJ: Doomsday Preppers 3

What is EMP?

EMP is the abbreviation for Electromagnetic Pulse which is a high-intensity burst of electromagnetic energy. EMPs occur after any kind of explosions of conventional high explosives. Therefore EMPs became a feared after-effect of nuclear detentions.

In the 1950s a first rise in awareness towards this consequence of explosions could be recorded. After several atmospheric nuclear tests in the US, EMP became known as the cause for malfunction of electronic equipment. After these tests scientists warned that EMP could also be a potential weapon. Therefore around 1962 the first simulators were developed which produced representative pulses for response studies.

Various scenarios exist which could cause an EMP that is strong enough to bring countries and even whole continents to a halt. The most probable situation would either be a high-altitude nuclear explosion or an underground nuclear explosion. The duration of the EMP and the area covered vary strongly. The higher in the atmosphere the bomb detonates the larger the expanse of the pulse.

How an EMP works:

After the detonation of the nuclear explosive device gamma rays emit from the deposition region. Due to the gamma rays a separation of charges occur which means that the area nearer to the deposition region is charged solely positive, whereas the area farther from the explosion is charged negatively. The outcome of this separation is an electric field.

 The strength of this electric field falls off as soon as it appears which is the reason why this pulse carries a considerable amount of energy. This energy is picked up by metallic and other conductors which suffer severe damages from the pulse. Concluding it can be said that an EMP destroys everything with a microchip in it.

Due to the rising usage of electronic devices our vulnerability increases. Only one nuclear bomb could decimate a continent's electrical and technological infrastructure back to the 19th century.

Rhetoric in: “Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now?

  

The article “Whoa, Dude, Are We Inside a Computer Right Now?” by Ben Makuch, published on September 11, 2012 on “vice.com”, discusses the question of  our world being a simulation. The author explains how far research has gotten up to now and introduces Rich Terrile as an important scientist in this field. For the explanation of the theory he uses both Logos and Ethos and uses them alternating. However, he also establishes a personal level with the reader through the usage of Pathos. By using Pathos he makes the topic easier understandable and at the same time expresses his own opinion in a sarcastic way. In the second half of the article Makuch’s sarcasm subsides and the reader gets the feeling that he himself believes more and more in Terrile’s theories. All in all you could say that the author takes his readers on a journey. In the beginning he influences the audience with his doubts, which leads the readers to scrutinize the whole theory of a simulated world. However, as the article goes on he chooses the right words to convince the readers of the actual possibility of this theory being truth.  

Narrative Journalism Article

"Suicide Forest- where death is a daily occurrence"

We meet a middle-aged Japanese man, Mr. Hayano, at the foot of Mount Fuji. We agree to follow him on his daily tour through the "Suicide Forest". This is the place where over hundred people a year choose to draw their last breath.

As we follow Mr. Hayano into the dense evergreens  the beauty of nature awes us and it becomes unthinkable to commit suicide. However, Mr. Hayano becomes restless because he is afraid of what is to come. He alone has found over 100 dead bodies over the last 20 years. At first it occurs as if he is doing this work due to some morbid fascination, however after wandering through the still forest, it becomes clear that he wants to understand the people committing suicide, in order to prevent suicides.

Hayano defines a "point of no return" for those committing suicide, since they cannot return alive from the forest because the forest seems like a labyrinth. When we reach this certain point, Hayano suddenly stops in his tracks as he sees...

Do dreams come true?

Every one of us has a dream. Some people however, are too insecure to say them out loud.. I personally, was too afraid too tell my family or my friends about my dreams because I didn't think that I would ever be able to fulfil my wishes. Over the last six months I talked too my old friends and even gained some new friends. While talking to them about my insecurities and my wishes I decided that it doesn't matter whether my wishes come true or not. I at least have to try to reach my goals.

I know that's creepy but just imagine that you will die in the next year, wouldn't you want to be sure that you tried everything to make your wish come true? Otherwise, I am sure that I would always regret not having tried my best.

One of my dreams is one most of you know about. Unfortunately,  my first attempt at reaching this goal failed and I was really depressed because of it. After a month of grieving I decided to do everything possible to succeed and since it took quite a lot to convince myself I wanted to show all of you out there that you aren't alone. Life doesn't always work out the way went it to but we have to try our best because life's too short to just sit around and let it fly by.

That's why I want to finish with a quotation to support you and all of your dreams. You should never be afraid or ashamed of your dreams.

It's a very big dream, but dreams are supposed to be big, right?
- Mblaq Thunder

Your home country vs. your home

Hey guys,

yesterday my friend Shirin read my latest post, in which I wrote that I feel more at home in South Korea than I do in Austria, and she asked why I feel like that. Actually I only stayed there for three weeks however, these three weeks were more than enough for me to decide that I want to spend a longer period of my lifetime living there. 

My answer to her question was "You know that feeling that one country is your home country, whereas another is your home?". She then told me "no", she said that she can't understand me since I didn't spend long time there. 

For me staying in Korea felt like coming home. This was probably the case because I know more about the Korean culture than about the Austrian culture. For most European or American people, coming to an Asian country, leads to some sort of a culture shock. Everything is different beginning with how people treat you and look at you. Of course you travel to get to know new cultures to be able to draw yourself your own picture about a country or a culture, however, a great number of people is overwhelmed with the impressions they get. 

 

I, on the other side, was really looking forward to see how Korean people react to foreigners and how well I can fit in everyday life in Korea. All my expectations were fulfilled and the city, the people and the culture matched better with me than I would have thought. 

After thinking about the real reason why I felt completely at home in Korea I came to a quite surprising answer. I suppose that Korea and its culture combines all the things in life that I'm missing in Austria. Such as the tight relationship within a family, caring deeply for others and people helping strangers on their own accord. I liked how the lady who cooked at the food stall tried to converse with me in English and how the doorman at my dormitory greeted me with a smile every time I went out or came back. 

After the three weeks I was happy to have returned home but at the same time I wished to be able to go back to Korea.  I hope to be able to visit Korea soon and I want to stay longer than before. There are so many things I haven't yet experienced and seen. 

That is why I would say that Austria is my home country, whereas South Korea is, at least, one of my future homes. 

Vocabulary Notebook

Studying vocabulary is probably one of the things I hate most about studying English and Italian. When I was still in High School I studied 12 pages of vocab in one day and I remembered every single word. Today I feel like an old granny with a memory like a goldfish. Even if my life depends on knowing all of the 400 words we had to study for the PC2 I wouldn't be able to remember them. 

First I started studying with the vocab lists on vocabulary.com but somehow I wasn't able to get them in my brain. Then I started to work through the Porter book. I hoped that I would remember the meaning of the words because of the sentences in there. I used the same technique for PC 1 and, miraculously, it worked . However, I was trapped because I needed a lot of time for the exercises in the book and still didn't know the meaning of most words. Just before forfeiting I decided to write lists with the words I still had to study and that was the moment when I saw a ray of light at the end of the tunnel. 

 

After all this stress, I'm happy that my exam is over and I hope I did okay. No matter how much I want to I will never be able to remember all of the 400 Porter Words. The best thing out of the whole stressful situation was that I finally found a way to study vocab which actually works. 

I hope you didn't experienced the same situation! For those of you who still have to take the exam: Take it easy! Every one of us will survive and we get candy :)

Pronunciation Diary 2...

Pronunciation- no matter whether it's your mother tongue, your first foreign language or your second we will always be imperfect although we pursue perfection. To improve my pronunciation I developed my very own method. Hopefully this method will be good enough.

In the feedback I received from Hendrik he pointed out that I have to focus more on the difference between my p/b, t/d, k/g and my v. Now I am really trying to take the things he said to heart and I will honestly change as much as I can.

To exercise my pronunciation I am reading all of the texts I have to go through out loud. I am particularly mindful of my strong and soft consonants.  I also have to add that the links on the WBW for Part 1 helped me. I watched quite a few videos and tried to immitate what the speaker said and how she/he pronunced it. I hope it helped!! 

Actually, I have to say that it is harder than I imagined, however, I am positive about improving. After all, every one of us pursues perfect pronunciation.

Pecha Kucha Night

Today I want to start with a warm hello to all my lovely readers. Just to inform you this post will be about my Pecha Kucha presentation I had to do together with Shirin for one of my English classes. If you ask yourself what Pecha Kucha is, I can explain it to you!

It is a presentation which consists of a Power Point with 20 pages and every page is displayed for 20 seconds. 

It was really hard to plan the presentation so that everything works out but we did it. :)

Shirin and I thought that our special way of presenting our topic would leave a lasting impression; however, we now know that not everybody liked our PK. The feedback we received from our fellow students wasn't that bad. Actually, one person said that our presentation was amazing and that we did a really good job. Nobody gave us feedback on our pronunciation. I am not sure what the others thought about our pronunciation but I know what I have to improve about my pronunciation after receiving Hendrik's feedback on the pronunciation exercise we did in class. 

I definitely have to work on the way I pronounce my "v" and I have to make a clearer difference between my p/b, g/k and d/t. Other than that I hope that the presentation was interesting and, most of all, entertaining for our class mates. 

Pronunciation Diray 1: My pronunciation insecurities

To whom it may concern, (Sorry for writing this phrase. I know it’s not the right way to start one of my blog posts but, actually, I really like this sentence. So bear with me :)

Today everything is about pronunciation. Before my university life started I didn't really care much about my pronunciation because I tried to study tons of vocabulary but I never concerned myself with the right pronunciation of the words that were new to me. At the beginning of this semester my professor said that we should look up all the words that we haven’t yet heard from a native speaker. After this statement my only thought was that I have no idea which words I heard from a native speaker and which ones I just heard from fellow students or teachers at high school. After thinking deeply about what our professor requested from us, I became even more wary of my pronunciation than I already was. I have always been very insecure when it comes to my pronunciation because, from time to time, people ask me to repeat what I just said. This is, of course, perfectly normal but every time I think that I mispronounced a word or that I slur my sentences. 

At the moment I am sincerely trying to overcome my insecurities and I hope to be able to speak more to native speakers to advance both my pronunciation and my accent. To improve my pronunciation I am actively looking up the pronunciation for words which I have been using for quite some time but I didn’t know how to pronounce correctly. When I study new vocabulary I listen to the right pronunciation then I say it at least three times and lately I record myself while doing that to be able to tell the differences between my pronunciation and the original. That’s how I try to correct myself and most of all improve my speaking skills. 

If you have some interesting ideas how to study pronunciation please let me know. Leave a comment and make me happy :) I really love to receive comments and to answer any questions. 

Yours, Sabrina 

How to study vocabulary in a funny way ;)

Dear all,

as some of you may know I had an English exam not too long ago. Actually, it was really hard and we had to study a lot for it. I studied about 600 words from the Porter Vocabulary Book and I was devastated because I couldn´t remember them until before the exam. However, one of my English professors showed us an entertaining and interesting method to study those words through a simple game. For this game you need a group of people a pen and paper. When the game starts every player has to write down one sentence including one of the words you have to study. Then you hand the piece of paper to the person next to you and this person has to draw a picture to your sentence. The next step is to hand the papers to the next person who sees the picture and has to write down a fitting sentence. You repeat this actions until no blank paper is left and afterwards read the sentences out loud.

It is extremely funny and you will remember the original, hopefully, correct example sentences for the word in question. Try the game and have fun :)


Here is an example for you:

What I learned...

Hey guys!

Last week I got my first corrected English homework from Hendrik back. To be honest, I was really unhappy with the outcome. I was sure, that the text was rather good but now I know better.

After going over the corrected text at home, I understand my mistakes and know how to improve, not only myself, but also my writing style. The most prominent problem was the lack of cohesion in my text. For me it was difficult to answer about 20 questions in a cohesive way. I tried my best but failed because I wanted to answer every question individually. While trying to improve my text I found a way to answer several questions in a more complex sentence. Another of my problems was that I used the wrong vocabulary to answer the questions, or from time to time, I even used quite a German way to write my answers. I tried to remodel my text and used texts, written by native Speakers, as reference material, to improve my style. At the end I asked my sister to read through both texts and tell me which one is easier to follow and understand logically.

I hope my rewritten version is better and that the rewriting helped me to improve my writing skill.

How I combine the EU with my interests!

Although many people may be under the impression that the EU is a boring topic to write or study about, I would say it is a challenging theme. I knew from the beginning that I wanted to combine my topic with Asia, since most of my regular readers know about my obsession for Asia, my choice shouldn't`t surprise any of you. Please tell me which topic sounds the most interesting!

 Asia’s economic relations with the EU:

The essay would include a short impression about the economic state the two countries were in, before they cooperated with each other. After that I would provide information about how they became trading partners and when. Which trading contracts they have and how the partnership changed the economy of both states.

The EU-Korea free trade agreement:

Due to my stay in South Korea and the Lectures I attended at university, I gained an insight on the economy of Korea. The Republic of Korea isn`t even half as old as the EU and the EU, still had to fight over 5 years to make a contract with South Korea. They decided on trading all kind of goods without taxes. This contract was a huge success for the EU because the Asian makes about a quarter of the European Import and Export up. I would also like to give special examples of how beneficial this trade relation is for every EU-citizen.

                                                       Japan-European Union relation:

Japan is an even more interesting trading partner for the EU than Korea. In the Japan- European Union relation it`s said that the EU and Japan not only exchange products but they also share academic- and civil-society contacts. During 2012 Japan and the EU started talks about technological exchanges too. In my essay I would be describing the whole situation first, to get an overview, and later I would be focusing to work out the advantages and disadvantages and possible problems.

Immigration of Asians in EU countries:

I am not yet sure but I would probably concentrate on one certain EU-state. The essay would deal with the reasons of migration from Asia to the EU. During which periods most immigrants arrived, taking in consideration the various historical happenings which led to migration. After arriving which cultural differences caused problems and whether migration increased or decreased?

Why was Germany able to be one of the founder states of the EU shortly after the second World War?!

Why was Germany able to co-found an institution like the EU, although their economy was highly unstable? Who was the political at this time and which thoughts and preparation can be found behind the founding of the EU? Who were the other heads of the states? How and how much did the economy of the founding states changed within 5 years?

Thanks for your help! J