LEGO is one of my favorite toy from when I was little. The creativities in those building blocks inspired my mind. Different series have different building blocks but they are all very creative and interesting. And now, they have come up with a new idea of LEGO-compatible tape. I think this is a very genius idea. This invention is a combination of age and LEGO building boards and I am amazed at people's ability of drawing useful connections between totally different object. I think it show how the advantage of making connections in human mind benefit our life and mindset. --Sissi (3/31/2017)

Flying cars have always been on the list of innovations that would be soon achieve. This is actually not a very new idea by now. Some people have made their own flying car out of their original cars. However, the manufacturing of this kind of car has not yet been accomplished. This is one of the innovative ideas that I have witnessed it developing from scrap to real life. As we learned in TOK that the ultimate goal of science should serve the common interest of human and improve human life. This is a great example of people using technology to solve daily problems. --Sissi (3/31/2017)

I found this article very interesting. Evolution does not happen physically. There is also evolution in the social behavior and relationship in a specie. Even simple organisms like single-celled bacteria have certain behaviors that suggest evolution in "social behavior" even though they don't have brain or intelligence. I feel like it is just like the hydrogen bonds in chemistry that it forms naturally without a doubt. Common good is the ultimate goal of the nature. I think the logic is evolution is very amazing as all the results are because of mindless discovery. --Sissi (3/30/2017)

As we learned in TOK, economics is a very hard to predict human social study. The depression and recession has already showed how market failure affect our optimistic prediction in economics. I think this also shows how the confidence of the general population is important for economics. We can not yet make a conclusion whether the departure of Britain from the Europe league is good or bad. --Sissi (3/30/2017)

After we watched about storytelling in politics today in TOK class, I think it is very interesting that people with good stories are often very popular. In entertainment industry, it is very common that the stars create stories intentionally to keep them hot and famous. Sometimes, they even create scandals and affairs to make their story interesting to the general population. I think the news are keep telling stories about Donald Trump, or Trump intentionally make himself a great story to be told. People that with different perspectives have different stories to tell about Trump. Trump is very "famous" in this sense. --Sissi (3/29/2017)

In today's class, we discussed how the parties now only have a shell and don't really serve as a safeguard of democracy. The parties become more like a entrance ticket to the election. Many people get in a parties not because the ideology appeals to them, but because by entering the party, it raise the chances and opportunity of winning an election. Now, money and power are played as stakes in politics and the general population is left to ignorance. Sometimes, I feel like the company are the real citizens who the government is serving, not the people. --Sissi (3/29/2017)

As the old saying goes: "natural world is our best teacher', the is a new science called biomimicry that dedicated in learning from the natural world. I found this article very interesting. It talked about the advantages of fish skin that can benefit the studies in bandages. As we discussed in TOK, the discoveries in science needs a leap of imagination and creativity, I think using fish skin as bandage is a very good example of that. --Sissi (3/25/2017)

Internet security has been a big problem since the development of internet technology. There are a lot of worries especially on the safety of the account. People put more and more things online and security risk become an issue. For example, there are a lot of pay online apps that enable you to pay without using actually money, just charging automatically from your bank account. Although it is very convenient to have everything online, it is very unstable and risky at the same time. --Sissi (3/25/2017)

I found this article very interesting  as this new residence of the United States talks about his belief in the liberal democracy. Nationality means a responsibility and loyalty. I really admire his courage to stand up. The author said how the government now didn't care for the minority and uses "people" as a shield and as a reason to justify all their behaviors. Inclusiveness is an important characteristic of the American government and the author thinks now the government is being exclusive. --Sissi (3/24/2017)

I found this article very interesting. The author was a strong woman and she wasn't able to switch her mode between her role as a successful businesswoman and a wife. People always tend to be eccentric. Although everybody knows that we have to stand from the perspective of other to make a better decision. It reminded me of that my mom complained to me many times that I didn't followed the time that she was going to pick me up. However, I was only thinking in my perspective and even think about how tired my mom was after a day of work. People should contribute equally to maintain a good relationship. --Sissi (3/24/2017)

I found this article very interesting as it talks about the job of home inspectors. Home inspectors are the middle man between seller and buyer to make sure that all the issues of the home and pricing of the rent is transparent and clear for both sides. It reminded me of the rating companies we talked about in economics. In the film "Inside Job", the rating company is supposed to give good guidance and create transparency between sellers and buyers. However, some rating companies failed to give honest advice to clients and this lack of information is one of the reason that causes the collapse of the economics. Every market need a responsible middleman to operate efficiently. --Sissi (3/24/2017)

Since Trump took presidency, the policy on immigration became harsher and stricter. Many people are facing a choice, sty or leave. There are a lot of foreign students who want to stay in the United States and find jobs after graduation. However, it is getting harder for foreign students to get a chance as the time is very limited for them to find a job and companies have to consider whether they want to hire foreign employees and go through those complicated processes. Although Trump uses security as a reason, I think it is overly strict. --Sissi (3/24/2017)

I found this article very interesting as it discussed the logic fallacy and confirmation bias in humane mind.The danger of only seeing what they already believe is especially obvious in the era of Internet. More and more social medias use filter system to give viewers what they like to see based on their viewing history. Although this filter system can satisfy the viewers, viewers get a limited range of information. I think it limits the mindset of the viewers. --Sissi (3/23/2017)

I found it very interesting that the product of modern society is creating a new life style and life purpose for people in the modern society. I was very surprised that video games have such a effect on the life of people. However, there are new opportunities coming with the popularity of video games. Professional gaming has gradually become an industry. There are new jobs and opportunity arising with the development of video games, such as a the live-streamers. Although in this article, the author talked a lot about the downsides of the development of video games, I think there is also a good side. --Sissi (3/23/2017)

Restriction in social media has always been a controversial issue. I think this problem in the system filtering the videos of gay and transgender creator shouldn't be all blamed on Youtube. I think the system Youtube used to filter the video is not based on the sexuality information of the creators. It think the system might take in the comments and survey results from the viewer. I think this reflects that the mainstream community and mindset still reject and repel transgenders and gays. People don't want to be sensitive topics. --Sissi (3/20/2017)

As we learned in TOK, human social science is far more complicated than natural sciences as they are multiple factors leading to a phenomenon and the standard scientific method used in natural sciences are useless when applied in social sciences. The results of some social study are often found out of our expectation. For example, in tis article, the research find out that the growth in substantial economic is probably inversely proportional to the happiness of the residences. And in some cases, economics alone did not explain the high rates of happiness. As many countries put the improvement in GDP as their first priority, they should really consider improving other aspects such as social equality, educational system, and etc so  residences can feel happy from the bottom of their heart. --Sissi (3/20/2017)

We are often told that traveling can broaden our world view and benefit our mindset. There is also an old saying stating that travel a thousand miles is more beneficial than read a thousand books. The research in this article shows us the other side of the coin. before reading this article, I have never related immorality with short-term travel to multiple countries. I think this shows that how complicated human social studies are. Even two subjects that seems far away can affect each other. There is indeed a leap of imagination in human social studies. Transportation is very convenient now so people like to travel to different countries. However, many of those travels are just sight-seeing. In order to really benefit from traveling, we should stay longer and experience the local life from the perspective of a resident, not a tourist. --Sissi (3/17/2017)

I totally agree with the author that the read receipts should be optional. I personally have some issue with the read receipt because I don't like to reply instantly except it is a urgent message. I like to take some time to think about what I want to comment on or write back. Although the society now likes to be fast and instant, I am still a slow person. I feel the read receipt is forcing me and giving me pressure to be fast and instant. 

I think Shelley's idea is really interesting. The questions he asked about religion is somehow similar to the questions we ask in our TOK class. As we discuss in TOK about religion, we talked about that God is invented by human so religion is essentially a human invention. The ignorance that Shelly talked about in this article also reminded me of Song of Solomon, where Pilate said "ignorance is the only thing that can kill him (Milkman)". I think atheism is a belief that human should not avoid questions that cannot be answered by creating an answer to it. --Sissi (3/16/2017)

I think this research is very interesting. It takes a different perspective when discussing gender issues. It notices that there are actually a decline of men in the society. Although there are still wage inequality and other gender problems that women are usually in disadvantages, men are having more and more disadvantages now as the the society shift from physical work to mental work. As the society evolved, the social structure also evolves. Gender equality means we should put equal attention to all genders (there are more than two). --Sissi (3/16/2017)