Life Is Beautiful

Not until you realize that life itself is a beautiful thing will you really start to live. Although living combines tragedy with splendor, Life is Beautiful shows that even tragedies reflect something engaging. Even in a time of Nazi Germany, hope was still prevalent in the world and brought with it optimism. They struggled, they fought, they sacrificed, but they survived and were stronger because of it. Through the persecution and the hate that tormented men, it was love that overcame all evil and became something exalted. If you were simply to live, do more than that; live beautifully.

Through the sea of darkness, hope is the light that brings us comfort, faith, and reassurance. It guides our way if we are lost and gives us a foothold on our fears. If we have no hope, the direction through life’s path is darkened and we ourselves become an obscurity. Our struggles will present challenges that can only be overcome by hope but we must never give up. The moment we lose hope is the moment we surrender our will to live. Throughout Life is Beautiful, Guido only endured Nazi tortures because of his confidence in hope, and kept his son alive by showing him the hope in every situation. We live in a world that is disintegrating into a vicious hatred, where hope is needed more than ever but cannot be discerned. Finding that is rare while the world lives in fear, but the belief in something better, something bigger than this, is what keeps life worth living. Through the murders, theft, wars, famine, and corruption, to have hope in the goodness of mankind seems unreasonable. But then you hear a baby speaking her first word, you see seniors holding hands, you feel the first spring rain, or smell the pine tree at Christmas, and remember that no matter how awful it is, there is always hope. No matter how weak we are, we will always survive.

Our struggles are what define and strengthen a person, and survival through these becomes a b...

සත්ව අයිතිවාසිකකම් -- BE AGAINST ANIMAL TESTING

         ANIMAL TESTING                          

                 

                                                         Each year in the United States, an estimated seventy million animals are hurt and killed in the name of science by private institutions, household products and cosmetics companies, government agencies, educational institutions, and scientific centers. Animal testing is wrong and downright mean. Innocent animals should not be treated badly and caused pain for the sake of a human's safety. Many people think animal testing is good while others think it is wrong. I think it is completely and absolutely wrong. Some people argue that humans are not necessarily superior to animals, so why should animals be experimented on and made to suffer to protect human beings? Do you know what animal testing is, what condition the animals live in, and what some alternatives to testing animals are?

Animal testing is the use of animals in biological, medical, and psychological studies. Human beings and many animals have similar organ systems and body processes. Experiments on animals help scientists increase knowledge about the way the human body works. In the United States, scientists perform experiments on more than twenty million animals each year. That is way too many. Medical researchers study animals to get a better understanding of body processes in humans and animals. They use many animals to study the causes and effects of illnesses, such as cancer and heart disease. Vivisection is the most controversial issue of animal rights. Vivisection actually means “cutting a living thing”. Some popular companies that still test on animals are Band-Aid, Clorox, Febreze, Maybelline, and many more.

Right now, millions of mice, rats, rabbits, cats, dogs, and other animals are locked inside cold cages in labs across the country. They suffer in pain, ache with loneliness and long to be free. All they can do is sit in their cages and wait, in fear, for the next experiment to begin. The stress actually causes the animals to begin strange behavior like pulling out their hair and biting at their own skin. They jump in fear whenever someone walks past, scared that they will be chosen. After going through this terrible life, almost all of these animals are killed.

I feel animals are tested for meaningless numbers on a chart and then killed. There are many cheap, faster, and non-animal tests that can replace the ones that are out there now. The first realistic software models of human and animal organs are starting to emerge — potentially replacing some of the fifty to one hundred million animals used each year for scientific research. Human skin model tests are now being used, including the EpiDerm test, which has been accepted as a total replacement for skin corrosion studies in rabbits. Products could also be tested on cultured human cells grown in laboratories. This would be more reliable because they are actual human cells.

There are so many reasons to stop animal testing. All of these things are done to animals in laboratories but if they were done outside of these places, they would be considered crimes. The animals suffer everyday with no protection from cruelty. For one thing, it's wasteful because so many scientists have come up with humane and modern technology that is faster and cheaper than testing animals. Animal testing needs to be stopped immediately.

යුද්ධයට පසු ලෝකය

 යුද්ධය හා සාමය WAR & PEACE

                 World Peace is something that will never happen. Too many countries have too much military power and don't want to give in to any other country. War is something that the world is going to have to deal with because there has been very few years over the history of the world that have been war free. Like one quote by an unknown author says, "Peace is rare: less than 8% of the time since the beginning of recorded time has the world been entirely at peace. In a total of 3530 years, 286 have been warless. Eight thousand treaties have been broken in this time." 

Albert Einstein, born on March 14, 1879 is one of the most influential people of the modern era. (Einstein) As a physicist he changed our understanding of the universe. He was very outspoken about the significant political and social issues of his time. As a Jew he advocated a moral role for the Jewish people. Over his scientific career, he was on a mission for the universal and indisputable laws that govern the physical world. Science was Albert Einstein's love, but he always found time to devote many of his efforts to political causes that were close to his heart. He strived for peace, freedom, and social justice. He became an active leader of the international anti-war movement. (Albert Einstein Archives) Einstein died on April 18, 1955. (Einstein) 

Einstein said, "I don't know what kind of weapons will be used in the third world war, assuming there will be a third world war. But I can tell you what the fourth world war will be fought with- stone clubs." This means that whatever weapons are used in the third world war will knock us back in time because they will be so powerful. That is also the reason he doesn't know what they will be because they will be so far advanced compared to his time. This is very possible because of the advances some countries have made in their military strength. For example, the United States executed 1054 nuclear tests between July 16, 1945 and September 23,1992. They also executed two nuclear attacks in that period although the number of actual bombs tested in that time period is far greater. The nuclear tests were conducted on an intermittent basis in groups called "operations" or "test series." Each was conducted in a distinct operation and totally separate from all other operations. The first nuclear test was done in Alamagordo, New Mexico in 1945, it was called Trinity and one bomb was tested. The biggest non-underground one was from 1962-1963 at the Nevada Test Site at the Nellis Air Force Range. It was called Storax, and 56 bombs were tested. In 1963 they started underground testing. Operation Nougat was the first underground test series. So with all of that testing it wouldn't surprise me, if there was a third world war, that it would send us back in time or even totally demolished the world to the point that it is no more. (Gallery of U.S. Nuclear Tests) 

Billy Graham was born on November 7,1918, near Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1947 Graham became the president of Northwestern Schools in Minneapolis. In the next ten years Graham held evangelistic campaigns in all major U.S. cities and a series of rallies in Africa, Asia, South America, and Europe. Graham always had an interest in education and training Christians in the methods of evangelism. As his fame increased, he, his wife, Cliff Barrows, Grady Wilson, and George Wilson incorporated the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). In 1962 the BGEA began to investigate the possibility of holding seminars in combination with crusades. In 1974 the BGEA agreed to donate funds to build the Billy Graham Center on the campus of Wheaton College. In 1980 Graham dedicated the center. In 1992 it was announced by the BGEA that Billy Graham had Parkinson's disease, and he would be easing back a little on his busy schedule. (Billy Graham Center Archives) 

Billy Graham once said, "We must have military power to keep madmen from taking over the world." What he is trying to say is if a country has a lot of military power that will deter someone from trying to take it over. It will make people think twice about trying to take over a country with a powerful military, but it won't prevent all attacks from outside enemies. Just look at what happened on September 11, 2001. The U.S has one of the most powerful militaries in the world and still got attacked. Hijackers ran two jets into the World Trade Center towers. Eventually the two towers came crashing to the ground. President Bush stayed in the air on board Air Force One shortly after the attacks, but later addressed the nation and said that he condemns evil and despicable acts and vowed revenge on whoever did it. (NYTimes) Some of the witnesses described the scene as follows: "I'm so scared", "It took an hour to get out. Sometimes it was calm and orderly, other times it was complete bedlam", " I thought it was an earthquake at first", and " People just kept jumping and jumping and jumping and you could still see they were alive because they were flailing around." (ABC News) Those were just some quotes from eyewitnesses. That is just one example of how a country with a powerful military can be attacked, but I think a powerful military is a good thing to have because it stops many of the attacks that would otherwise happen. 

Countries are constantly trying to find ways, through nuclear testing and other types of testing, to become more powerful. They are doing this to protect themselves from things like the September 11th attacks, and every country wants to have the reputation of most powerful. That is why there will ever be peace throughout the world