Daily Stuff--9/10/2012

Languages--Chinese:

I watched episode 54 of Travel in Chinese. This episode was about the Summer Palace again, specifically visiting it and the parts about it that are the best places to see while there.

Articles:

There were several interesting articles in the Wall Street Journal and Union Tribune today.

One from the Union Tribune was about the rising sea levels, which has been an issue for a while now. The different though is the rate at which the levels are rising and it's estimated that by 2100, the sea levels will have risen at least 3 feet. By then, parts of the coastline may be permanently underwater and what it means for right now is that flooding may be more aggressive in the event of heavy rain or high tides. This is a bit frightening to think about even though 2100 seems like a long way off.

Another article from the Wall Street Journal was about the right way to approach financial aid. Some common mistakes are assuming you don't qualify for aid, not realizing how much the "expected parent contribution" is, and thinking you'll get more aid from a safety school. People who assume they don't qualify for aid miss out on merit based aid. The "expected parent contribution" is often higher than most parents realize and that's because the estimate given to them doesn't always include the loans parents are expected to take out. And universities often know when a person is applying there as a safety school because their test scores will often be higher than average. If there's any suspicion that you aren't 100% committed to that particular school, you won't get as much money because they'll want to give it to someone who has picked the university as their first choice. Yet another common misconception is that grades determine everything. Good grades don't necessarily translate to merit scholarships. This article will definitely come in handy when I'm applying for financial aid in the next few years. It's a very confusing process and knowing what to avoid and what to make sure to do helps a lot.

Another Union Tribune article was about a company called Ocean Powered Technologies that has been working on harnessing the power of waves. Wave energy will hopefully be another renewable energy source next to solar and wind energy. The technology hasn't been streamlined yet as final testing is just now being done. But hopefully, if this attempt works, other companies can start to come up with their own methods of harnessing wave energy.

Philosophy:

I read about democracy as the protection of popular interests in Dewey's political philosophy. He believed that democracy should involve expressing interest in what the voters think and want. It's all about the voters otherwise a select few so-called experts will take control and the whole system becomes an oligarch. Democracy is meant to protect individuals from that fate.

Internships:

I looked at a software developer internship for a company called DentedEgo, LLC. They're a social networking support site and the requirements include knowing C/C++/C#, experience with JavaScript and HTML, and familiarity with the .NET framework.