mindless chatter

I recently went to savethewords.org and and adopted an amazing word.  The word is PIGRITUDE.  Pigritude means laziness.  I will definately use this word in the future.  It will most likely be to describe myself.  I have a tendency to be lazy.  Sometimes I am overcome with pigritude and I don’t want to do anything.  I chose pigritude because I think it is a very convenient word that I can use very often.  I am glad that pigritude is now a part of my vocabulary.

Laos is located in South-East Asia under Vietnam.  It is a communist country closely associated with vietnam.  The Lao people are mostly buddhists.  They are a very layed-back group of people.  Even in todays modernized world they still hold to buddhist traditions.  The staple food of Laos is sticky rice.  It is grown more than any other food in Laos.  Laos used to be known for elephants.  It is called “the land of a million elephants.”  The country is also known for its waterfalls.  It has some of the biggest waterfalls in Asia.  There is not a big tourist industry in Laos, even though it’s just as spectacular as the rest of South-East Asia.  It is not well known because of its size and insignifigance on an international level.  Laos is a very interresting country filled amazing things.

Hotel Rwanda is an excellent movie.  It tells the story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager at the time of the Tutsi massacre by the Hutus in Rwanda.  Paul struggles to keep his family alive while taking refuge in the hotel that he manages.  He also harbors over a thousand refugees.  This movie is very well made.  I especially liked the sound track.  The music always fits the music of the scene.  In some parts it has African songs sung by children.  Don Cheadle, who plays Paul, was an excellent pick for this movie.  He played the part flawlessly.  Hotel Rwanda is a great movie and i recommend it to anyone.

This video is about Laos.  Please, watch it.

laos

I recently made a survey on google docs for this class.  It is on the South-East Asian country of Laos.

Please click here to take the survey.  For every person who doesn’t take this survey, a Laotian puppy dies.

Laos is undeniably a third world country.  The people in Laos are significantly poorer than people in the U.S.  The Laotian GDP per-capita is only $2,100 compared to the GDP per-capita of $47,000 in the U.S.  The poverty of the country is shown all around.  Of the mere 42 airports in Laos, only 9 have paved runways.  Of the 29,811 km of roadways, only 4,010 km are paved.  Imagine almost always driving on dirt roads in your rickety donkey cart (if your family can afford a donkey).  That is what many people in Laos do every day.

            In 1975, a 600 year old monarchy was ended when the Communist Pathet Lao seized control of the government.  Laos was one of the countries that became communist because of the “domino effect” that took place in 1975 after U.S. forces withdrew from South Vietnam.  It was one of several South-East Asian countries that was overthrown by communism because there was nothing to protect them from the North Vietnamese and Chinese anymore.  The Communist Pathet Lao instituted a strict socialist regime and remained closely aligned with communist Vietnam.

            Laos is located in South-East Asia and is bordered by China, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam.  Laos has an area of 236,800 square kilometers, 6,000 of witch is water.  That’s slightly larger that the area of Utah.  Laos is 100% landlocked.  That means it is completely surrounded by land and has no coastline.  Laos’ climate is very different depending on what part of the year it is.  They have a rainy monsoon from May to November and a dry season from December to April.  Laos has a rugged terrain.  It is mostly mountains with a few plains and plateaus.  When I think about the conditions of the Lao people, it makes me very glad and proud to live in the U.S.

I recently read a few blog posts and web articles about twitter.  Most of them were about whether or not a person on twitter should follow all of the people who follow them.  One blog said that you would be sort of a snob if you did not follow all of your followers.  All of the articles and posts were written by educators, so that is why I’m surprised that the matter was taken so seriously.  Another blog said that it doesn’t matter how many people you follow; you should just follow people who interrest you and post useful infromation.  I agree with this person.  It is rediculous to criticize someone based on their number of “followees”.  I don’t understand what is the matter.

Anyway, twitter is very useful.  If you look, you can find all kinds of information.  It can also be used for social purposes.  You can check and see what a friend is doing or what’s going on in their life.

I read an article on CNN’s website today about a North Korean rocket launch yesterday at 2:20 PM.  According to the North Korean government, it was a peaceful launch of a satellite into orbit around the earth.  The launch was, however, unsuccessful.  The rocket and its mysterious payload fell into the Pacific Ocean just after flying over Japan.  The rocket launch may have been a failure, but in a way it was a success for North Korea.  They are now closer to being able to launch a missile over the pacific ocean and into the united states.  To me that is an extremely frightening thought.  Even though North Korea supposedely only has two nuclear warheads, that is still enough to completely destroy two cities, depenting on the size of the warheads in megatons.  What I found sort of funny was the fact that the citizens of North Korea have no idea that the rocket crashed.  They were told that the launch was a great success.  As far as every North Korean citezen knows (with the exception of high ranking government and military officials), there is a North Korean communications setellite orbiting the earth right now.  I think it’s sad that there is still a place in the world that information does not flow freely and the government does not only censor information, but creates it.  I feel sorry for anyone living in North Korea.  Hopefully someday, somehow they will be liberated from their communist dictatorship and realize how much they have been lied to.