We all do make mistakes: These are my common ones

My mother tongue is full of twists

Full of grammar and sounds that I grew up to speak

Relating it back is hard to resist

When I write in English, it makes skills weak

 

For weeks I’ve learned the techniques

Through the days of English acquisition

And I’ve realized the mistakes “in” and “out”

Of my misuse of the prepositions

 

However, you see I placed a comma

Coz’ I learnt the error of comma splice

But I used to make a mistake so common

Not knowing the use of comma precise

 

The lengthy sentences are my style

When the thoughts flow like SMRT trains

Mistaking the subject-verb agreement

I start with daemons and end with saints

 

Modals are next in the list

Coz’ I wouldn’t know when I can use could

Now since I’ve learnt these twists

I would use the could pretty good

An Expert Opinion

Global warming has grown in to an issue that extends beyond the horizons of ignorance. And earth is calling for help. Therefore the environmental experts are giving us an opportunity to be awakened by their expertise and knowledge to tackle the issue of global warming. On 30^th January three distinguished speakers from National University of Singapore shared their views, addressing a crowd of engineering undergraduate students, on the issues of global warming, its causes and effects and solutions to the ongoing crisis.

 

Prof. Andrew Palmer shared his views and knowledge on, “Carbon Dioxide storage technology and politics”. He brought up certain ways of solving the issues regarding the climate change, i.e. fuel efficiency, mitigation, adaptation and storage of carbon dioxide. One of which he emphasized was storage of carbon dioxide, at depleted oil or gas fields or ocean beds. According to the latest discoveries from the experiments, scientists suggest to put liquid carbon dioxide in a membrane and store it at a depth of more than 2750m below the sea level. Another solution that Prof. Palmer mentioned was to manage the incoming radiation level of the atmosphere by installing mirrors in space or releasing of sulphate particles into the atmosphere. Though all these solutions show a high effectiveness to solve the issue, the high cost involved in continuing such a project discourages many countries who are still under development.

 

Second speaker Dr. Benjamin K. Sovacool, brought up two case studies in his lecture titled “Using STS to address Energy Problems”. Renewable Power was one of it. Due to economical, political, cultural and behavioral factors such as market failures & barriers, varying governmental standards, public unawareness the chances of making it a solution is lesser. Even though that the renewable energy are not perfect, it’s always a better choice than of fossil fuel. Second stand study was regarding the Electric vehicles which were an ongoing project before the economic downturn. Technological, economic, political challenges will still pull this being a solution for many countries.

 

Professor Rajasekhar Bala, the third speaker, shared his views on Climate Change addressing the steps that have been taken up by the governmental bodies. Supporting with the evidences linked to global warming Prof. Bala explained the rise in the average global surface temperature. According to 2007 IPCC report he further explained that 13 warmest years in the record occurred since 1990. He even pointed out that certain other natural phenomena caused by the global warming such as changes in glaciers, changes in rainfall patterns and recent hurricanes might cause major effects to the global weather patterns. Suggestion were made as contributions by the community in order to lessen the global warming crisis by being energy efficient, relying more on renewable energy and reducing the greenhouse gases. Prof. Bala also revealed that Singapore’s National Environmental Authority is going to build a ‘Singapore Green Plant’ in 2012 which could be a next biggest step made by the Singapore government to help to save the environment and make it conducive for a healthier living in the world.

 

With these words of wisdom by the three renowned professors, we can conclude that the world has already embarked on the mission to save the earth and its people from the global warming crisis. Tangible solutions are within our reach. Thus, we must act fast before it’s too late. 

Hot topic that we should stop and ponder: Global Warming!

Since the first signs of excitement during the 1880s regarding the hypothesis of a man-made global warming that could end in a disaster, it has been a topic that many have argued about till this day. And with the numerous research programs focusing on this fact, and with many environmentalists spending their days bringing the facts to the public, now we are all aware that a doomed future is upon us unless the correct measures aren't taken before it's too late.

When wise men or women ruled a nation it had always ended in good outcomes. Just as when Lady Thatcher first ran a campaign on the issue of global warming it became a worldwide controversy that influenced the other nations to change their policies to meet a solution to the foreseen crisis.

Apart from the many mistakes we have done that needs no re-run, or condemning, most nations and their governments have made global warming an issue with top priority, setting up their policies accordingly to tackle the problem.

The world’s technical giant, Japan has proven the dream of mass production of zero-emission electric cars or Hydrogen fuel cell cars is a possible reality as they adapt governmental policies to fund and increase the production, despite the fact that the economy is still in a crisis.
And as the sworn leader of the new American nation, President Obama pledged in his inaugural address that the United States will "roll back the specter of a warming planet" and "restore science to its rightful place."

This means, with the new environmental policies in hand the governments of various nations will have to change their normal course to new levels to eliminate the possible causes of Global Warming, such as fuel and power policy and industrialization.

"We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do."
-President Obama in his inaugural speech -

When the measures to reduce the causes take place, the situation will become controllable like the same crisis that rose up few years back, regarding the hole in the ozone layer.

When the people like, Mr. Al-gore continues to raise the public awareness on the gravity of the situation, the people will start to pressurize their governments to take immediate actions to help the situation. Apart from the government measures, the awareness programs can persuade people to take simple day today actions that can benefit the campaign to lessen the global warming.
Recycling the waste, saving the domestic energy consumption or planting another tree, are few simple steps that any individual can do, to contribute to the campaign to stop the global warming. And acknowledging the ignorant regarding the seriousness of the issue can be done in school level to major global campaigns such as "Live Earth!" concerts that were organized few years back.

"An Engineer's training helps to systematically analyze complex information and apply a holistic approach in designing solutions"

The conventional mindset of the people regarding the engineer has changed, since the engineers of this day are equipped with the skills that go beyond mere technical knowledge. Tertiary education has evolved to mold an engineer to stand out in the job market in a rather versatile approach.
Nowadays, an engineer is trained with the necessary critical thinking and analytical skills that helps them to tackle a crisis and act gracefully, and smartly to solve it without a panic. University education has given the freedom and the choice for the engineers to reach out to other fields of studies to gain further more skills, specially economics, business, and marketing to be named a few.
Hence the industry will have engineers with better product knowledge in a technical perspective, offering the services of a good sales person or a marketing person. In an era where health, environmental and sociological issues are facing serious crisis, an engineer who has the expertise to plan alternative plans for a better health scanning equipment or an environmental savvy fuel will stand ahead to provide solutions to such crisis.
For an example, an engineering student who goes through certain stages of a final year project from the idea, designing to the end product will possess the necessary skills to observe, and understand the end user needs well. With a vivid idea about the end user needs, then they create a design that goes to continuous review before the end product is being made. Though this sounds rather focused on manufacturing, the real life problems will have to be solved through a same approach. Analytical skills that an engineer earns through training help them to understand the problems of the day to day life, and design a solution. Be it a product or a service, the engineers process will save the day by solving it in a logical approach, earning them a higher advantage in the job market.