Blog #23

The Huffington Post
Afghanistan War: Suicide Attack On Kandahar Airfield Kills American Soldier, Two Afghan Civilians

A successful suicide bombing completed by the Taliban near a U.S. Military base. The suicide bombing has killed one American soldier and wounded three others. The bombing also killed two Afghan civilians and wounded fourteen. They say it is unclear whether this attack had anything to do with the U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta's unannounced visit to Khandahar Air Field earlier this Thursday. In that Air Field, there are twenty thousand service members and more than eleven thousand civilian contract workers. Later on we get an email from Taliban spokesman Qari Yousef Ahmadi, claiming responsibility for the suicide bombing. Panetta stayed at the base for three hours and watched as Maj. Gen. Robert spoke with his soldiers, the soldiers were asking questions and Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams answered everybody's individual question, possibly comforting them from the recent bombings. Maj. Gen. Robert Abrams spoke to only three hundred and fifty U.S. soldiers, the attack occurred after the Secretary, George Little, returned to Kabul. It is a good thing that the attacker did not reach the bases perimeter and was only near it, many more could have been wounded or possibly killed.  Our American soldiers need all the courage and morale they can get to stay strong and will not back out after witnessing bombings, because it is what it is and bad things will happen to a lot of us and we can not change that, random bombings should be an experience that strengthen our soldiers and that will defend us, and defend America.

Blog #22

Syria Executions Video: Rebel Reportedly Films Himself Shooting 10 Prisoners (GRAPHIC VIDEO)
From The Huffington Post
This article is about another Syrian issue from the rebels. These rebels completely do not know when to stop and are around the border of Turkey. There is this one disgusting rebel who decides to take away lives of ten innocent people to show that they are serious? I believe that it is completely getting out of hand by now. One of the men begged, "I swear to God we are peaceful", and what the man with the camera and Kalashnikov does is shoot that man in the arm, he lays on the floor with a bloody arm and it is difficult to tell what really happens in the video. Just sitting and watching the video itself is already difficult, but why would they do this, there needs to be an end to this. The thing about the video is that the Reuters can not immediately verify the authenticity of the video yet, because it is still a little difficult to tell whether this was just a little play to mess with our minds or to mean business.

Blog #21

A memory that has affected my life. This would have to be a memory I would never forget, when I was a little kid a tragedy occurred to me. I was about three to four years old and was playing in our backyard with my older cousins. My older cousin was riding his bike around the yard and started to ride the bike in circles around me, I was a kid, not even thinking and so was he. I was wearing jeans so my cousin got way to close to me and my jeans caught on to the chain and that ended up with breaking my thigh bone. I was crying like there were to be no tomorrow and my parents rushed me to the hospital once they realized I broke my bone. My recovery took about two months and thank God I was still extremely young and my bone healed properly and is stronger than ever. The thing is I was too young to remember that so let me tell you something recent. It happened three years ago and it was during summer, I was looking for something to quench my thirst. I found a Frappuccino mix and took out our GLASS blender. Being clumsy, the stupid thing slipped out of my hands and I tried to make a quick catch for it, but unfortunately I was too late and it already hit our granite table I was supposed to set it on. I was just looking at all the shattered glass and wondering how i was supposed to explain to my mom about the mess, I did not even realize that I had a cut about two inches wide and two inches deep into my right arm. Then I felt a tickling sensation on the arm and realized I got cut, nobody was home so I called my mom and my uncle rushed me to the hospital, for my father was out of town. I got eight stitches and laugh at the experience now and then, it really did not hurt, but I will not forget that moment.

Blog #20

HD 40307g: Alien 'Super-Earth' Planet May Be Habitable, Astronomers Say

Huffington Post

By: Mike Wall

 Out of all the planets in our Milky Way, we have found another planet out of the rest yet to be explored. This new planet that we have just discovered is said to be like "Super Earth" and is possibly habitable. They say there are signs of water and is huge. The planet was given the name HD 40307g. Not only does it possible have water, but this planet might be able to sustain life. Apparently, it is ,"...just a stone's throw from Earth". It mentions that the orbit of this planet is longer and that would mean that its atmosphere and climate may be "just right" for humans to live on. HD 40307g is only forty two light years away and there is a 50-50 chance that the planet has the same condition as Earth and may be either rocky or not. They analyzed this planet with a new instrument called HARPS (High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher). 

Blog #19

My Three Virtues
The three virtues that I attempted was Temperance, which is, "Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation", meaning that one should simply eat or drink not too less, and not too much. My second virtue is Moderation, which is, "Avoid extremes; forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve", which means that one should know their limits. My final virtue is Cleanliness which is, "Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation", which means to be clean. The reason why I chose these three virtues is because I am a messy individual, which likes to eat and take risks. By picking these virtues, I believed that I might improve in my sloppy side and achieve each of those virtues, some were unsuccessful.

Temperance: I was not successful towards the end of my project. Saturday was a day of cheating on my actual diet. The pizza would look me dead in the eye and call my name from a distance, "Gevvoooo, Gevooooo... gevooo". I finally took a bite and took my taste buds to a journey they have not experienced for a while, I was unable to stop at that point, I had already gone too far and I felt as though there was no turning back. I feel bad because I promised myself I would not eat junk food anymore and I broke two things, my virtue, and by its side, my promise to myself. I will continue to work on myself after this experiment and will not eat junk food again for a really long time. For about two weeks I was successful and have lost some weight, and now I know that I am capable of accomplishing temperance, but I failed during the actual project.

Moderation: I was very successful with moderation, moderation can mean knowing your limits and that can also branch out towards subjects like, dangerous risks to drinking alcohol. I did not drink alcohol during the period of this experiment and still will not drink alcohol. I did not do anything stupid, which I am prone to do so. Taking risks is something that fuels my life, one can say, during this experiment, I was a good boy. I love taking risks and it is my passion, I love to have my adrenaline pumping and it really excites me. I can not live without going out into a wilderness-like environment and try and test my survival skills one day. I do not like to physically fight, but I do not mind getting into one, I believe in the survival of the fittest and wish that I can test myself. But there are some things like that, that will never be achieved, especially during these modern days.

Cleanliness: I was successful in being clean. I always clean my room, especially because I have to, but I got used to it and do not complain any longer. My room would always become a mess because I have two younger siblings that would come in and out of my room constantly and I would achieve anger every single day. They will come and play on the Xbox 360 and would have game CD's laying around everywhere, especially during the weekends. I always clean up not only after myself, but after others. If I see something is out of its place, I would put it back; example: Today I realized that my Dre beats were not in its case, what I did was I neatly put it back in its case and back into its box. Along with my Dre beats, I noticed the home phone was in my room; I also put that back where it belonged and went back to my business. I was successful in cleanliness and not because of this experiment, but because it bothers me not to be clean.

Blog #18

The Huffington Post: Guatemala Excavates Mayan Ruler's Tomb
It is amazing to see new discoveries that really do help explain ancient civilization, and for once we do not have anything Apocalypse related. What they found was a lot of rich jade jewelry and decorations, such as a necklace that depicts a vulture-headed human figure which means "ajaw", or ruler. It is discovered as one of the earliest rulers of the Mayan's, and that is proved by that necklace, "This symbol gives this burial greater importance," Orrego said. "This glyph says he ... is one of the earliest rulers of Tak'alik Ab'aj." They also dated this burial site to be about 2,200 years ago by carbon dating, in Southern Guatemala. As much of a great find this was, they did not find any bones of the ruler, they say it has probably decayed. One way the find of the jade can help explain something of the ancient civilization is of their production and trade patterns.

Blog #17

The Scarlet Letter: I feel sympathetic for both Roger Chillingworth and Arthur Dimmesdale. Although, I feel more sympathetic for Dimmesdale, because Dimmesdale had to suffer a guilt he could not have gotten rid of. I feel some sympathy towards Killingworth because; he did lose his wife and promised revenge towards Dimmesdale for taking his wife away from him. It seems like a painful death to die from drinking and feel Chillingworth's sorrow for his failures and sorrow. Dimmesdale, on the other hand, suffered greatly, more of which Chillingworth did. Dimmesdale had a daughter and had to pretend that it was not his daughter; he had a lover and could not be seen with her in public. I slowly realized how much Dimmesdale loved Hester and Pearl, and that is also why I feel sympathetic for him, he wanted to have a family and could not because Hester is known for her scarlet A. It is also sad that in the end, Dimmesdale revealed his chest with an A just like what Hester had on her, and Dimmesdale died leaving both Hester and Pearl on their own.

Blog #16

Los Angeles Times: Asteroid coming tonight! How to stalk it on the Internet: By Deborah Netburn
If you are one of those people who enjoy things that are out of this world, then you are at the right place. A asteroid the size of a small house will fly past Earth at a really close distance. Do not be alarmed though, for the asteroid may be close, but it is at a distance far enough that it will not have impact on our atmosphere. NASA researchers call this asteroid 2012 TC4. If one wanted to keep in track of when 2012 TC4 will pass by, one can simply just follow JPL's Near Earth Object Office's Twitter feed @AsteroidWatch. One may also go to Spaceweather.com, it give one information about near-Earth and near-Solar space events. Another option would be to subscribe to Tony Phillips to get email alerts about things that go on in the sky for a monthly fee of $6.95 a month.

Blog #15

 The Scarlet Letter: The type of quote that really earns my attention is one that consists of energy, and the type of energy that this quote consists of is, revenge. "Yea, woman, thou sayest truly!" cried old Roger Chillingworth, letting the lurid fire of his heart blaze out before her eyes. "Better had he died at once! Never did mortal suffer what this man has suffered. And all, all, in the sight of his worst enemy! He has been conscious of me. He has felt an influence dwelling always upon him like a curse. He knew, by some spiritual sense,—for the Creator never made another being so sensitive as this,—he knew that no friendly hand was pulling at his heart-strings, and that an eye was looking curiously into him, which sought only evil, and found it. But he knew not that the eye and hand were mine! With the superstition common to his brotherhood, he fancied himself given over to a fiend, to be tortured with frightful dreams, and desperate thoughts, the sting of remorse, and despair of pardon; as a foretaste of what awaits him beyond the grave. But it was the constant shadow of my presence!—the closest propinquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged!--and who had grown to exist only by this perpetual poison of the direst revenge! Yea, indeed!—he did not err!—there was a fiend at his elbow! A mortal man, with once a human heart, has become a fiend for his especial torment!"-Roger Chillingworth (page 117). This is when Hester and Roger are speaking to each other and Roger explains how Dimmesdale is suffering. Chillingworth is trying to explain basically through this quote that it would have been better for Dimmesdale to have died, rather than face the evil scrutiny he has made him endure for all these years.

Blog #14

The Huffington Post
From AP/CP: Syria Vows To 'Crush' Rebels As Tension With Turkey Rises
What happened here is that Syria's rebels have fired a couple mortar shells on Turkish territory and have killed around five people. Syria vows to 'crush' their own rebels. I want the Syrian rebels to be 'crushed', but on the other hand, I want Syria's rebels to succeed and continue to harm Turkey to the point that Turkey declares war. Why would I want such a thing? I want that to occur because, my personal belief is that if Syria attacks Turkey, Turkey will lose men and resources and I feel that if Armenia realizes that this can be a chance to use this as an advantage, we too can attack. With the upper hand, I would wait for the day that Armenia reclaims their historic land, nothing more, nothing less. A long with my conspiracy, Turkey has lined up dozens of military vehicles on the edge of the Syrian-Turkish border, with the tank barrels facing Syria as a sign, I suppose. I think that is an extremely dumb move for the Turkish people, if one simply just faces millions of dollars of military vehicles in one area, they can all be lost at once.

Blog #13

The Scarlet Letter:
I think that what will happen in the rest of the book is that Roger, Hester's "husband" will find out who slept with this wife and take vengeance on him, as he promised. Pearl, Hester's child, a girl of three now, very intelligent and her thoughts on religion is being tested and she replies with non-religious answers implying that she does not want to answer their questions. In the eyes of the older men, she is being raised in a wrong manner and I think that Pearl is going to be taken away and given to another family. Pearl is probably doing this on purpose, for she possibly does not like her mother and does not like the way she is treated from the kids of her age, because her mother has the scarlet letter stitched on her clothing. There is also the possibility of the father of Pearl can take her into his hands and raise her, and leave Hester in depression and solitude.

Blog #12

The Huffington Post: 'Human Car Seat' Fails To Trick Gaurds At Moroccan- Spanish Border
By Meredith Bennett-Smith
There was an attempted smuggle of a twenty year old Guinean man. The smuggling was attempted at the border into the Spanish city, Melilla. There were three men in the car, the driver, the Guinean man in the seat, and someone sitting on the passenger side (on the Guinean man). It is considered a major fail since the guards were not fooled from the hallowed out passenger seat, it must have been obvious. Melilla is an urban enclave in the Mediterranean Coast, and because of its geographic location, it is known to be like a connection for smuggling and is extremely dangerous. The two men were arrested and the Guinean man is expelled from the region. The Spanish City Guard said, "We've seen some fairly bizarre attempts to get across the border but nothing like this before."

Blog #11

The Huffington Post: Gliese 163C: Newfound Alien Planet In Habitable Zone Might Be Able To Support Life: By Nola Taylor Redd
This is about the fourth planet said to sustain a possibility of life, other than Earth. They are Kepler-22b, Gliese 667Cc, HD 85512b, and the most recent, Gliese 163C. Gliese 163C is said to be about fifty light years away and possibly contains water. It is about seven times the mass of Earth and could be a rocky planet, or researchers believe it may possibly be a "dwarfed gas giant"."We do not know for sure that it is a terrestrial planet," Bonfils said. "Planets of that mass regime can be terrestrial, ocean, or Neptune-like planets." Hopefully this can be a planet one can travel to, for Earth, has become quite overpopulated and there is a risk of not having enough resources to be provided for everybody, we really do need another planet to gain resources from. It is said that Gliese 163C has an orbital period of nine days, Earth's is 365.

Blog #10

Speech in the Virginia Convention: SOAPST

During the American Revolution, only one-thirds of the population wanted independence, one-third did not care, and one-third was still loyal to Great Britain. That one-third population that wanted independence worked extremely hard to earn it, therefore, the men in the Convention. The convention took place in the 1770's in Virginia, and these men have gathered there to discuss their fate against Great Britain. Patrick H.enry has gathered these men and is giving them the message of standing up and fighting. "Give me liberty or give me death", was the quote that inspired many of the colonists to unite and fight against the World's most powerful nation at the time. Henry persuades those in the colonies to earn their freedom through hard work and suffering, but it is not necessary to surrender now. If they were to give up now, those who worked against Great Britain, would have been accused of treason, meaning Henry along with the others could have faced brutal punishments. That is why independence was important, it was for their lives, and for the future or America

Blog #9

The Huffington Post
U.S. Marines Dead In Afghanistan Attack, Official Says: By Robert Burns
In a British air base in Afghanistan, two U.S. Marines were killed and many more wounded. The attack was detailed as heavily armed insurgents, with an estimated amount of sixteen Taliban fighters. Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne was also at the British air base for a four month tour and there are no whereabouts of him during the attack.  A number of aircraft had also taken major damages from the insurgent fires. U.S officials say that coalition forces are summing up the damages taken against the aircraft's and will report later. Unfortunately, it is said that two coalition members have also been killed in this attack. U.S. officials say the attack in Afghanistan's Helmand province involved a number of dangerous weaponry, possibly including: mortars, rockets, rocket-propelled grenades (RPG's), along with some firearms.

Blog #8

Los Angeles Times: Mexico Navy says it captured Gulf cartel leader: By Tracy Wilkinson.
Mario Cardenas Guillen, also known as, El Gordo (Fatso); is one of the top two leaders of the Gulf cartel.  El Gordo was found with a small amount of weapons, cocaine, and communication devices, El Gordo took over the cartel when his brother died from a gun fight against the Mexican Navy. Back in 1995, El Gordo would make drug deals through his jail cell until he was released in 2007. Mexican forces, foolishly, killed many important cartel leaders since the past and released military action against important gangs. "Cardenas (El Gordo) also faces charges in the United.States", stated by Jose Luis Manjarrez, the spokesman for the Mexican federal attorney general's office. It is a good thing that one by one, the streets of Mexico are getting cleaner, but there is still one more multi-billionaire, Joaquin "Chapo" Guzman, whom controls the Sinaloa Cartel.

Blog #7

Cookies and Cream! Cookies and Cream was granted to us as a gift from God. I worship this bountiful flavor and will be absolutely selfish with a cone full of its majestic flavor. Cookies and Cream is the eight of the fifteen most popular ice creams. Grab a blender and create a cookies and cream milkshake and I will bow down to whomever created it. The average American eats about 48 pints of ice cream per year. Nothing can be compared to Cookies and Cream in my eyes, for once one has feasted their eyes upon the all mighty Cookies and Cream, they will go into tunnel vision. Tunnel vision meaning, what you are looking at is the only thing you can see and are focusing on, therefore your soul is already sold to Cookies and Cream. If one has not tried this Gift, that one shall go and sell their soul to it, today.

Blog #6

Los Angeles Times: U.N report details Iran progress on nuclear development, by: Shashank Bengali. Iran is becoming dangerous by the day, according to the U.N, Iran has increased their stockpile of 20% enriched uranium by about a third since May. Investigators are assuming that Israel now may cause a threat of a military attack. Iran is believed by the World Powers that they may be creating nuclear weapons, but Iran had insisted that their nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. The White House, on the other hand, is determined to have Iran avoid creating a nuclear bomb. For a country which gains access to a nuclear bomb can signify that there can be possible negotiations in the future. America has avoided a situation like this for a while now, since we have sanctions that have blocked Iran from importing nuclear materials and have divided Iran’s oil exports by half, the oil experts were a major income for Iran. Now that Iran has unfortunately come to the greater hand of their 20% increase of uranium, it is only a sign of them being terrifyingly productive and they are not showing any signs of slowing down."They're doing it better and better, and nothing seems to suggest that either the economic sanctions or the sanctions aimed at preventing them from getting nuclear materials have been thwarting them," said Blaise Misztal. This thought can scare one to the point that they no longer want to read the article, and I hope that they are actually insisting on peaceful purposes.

Blog #5 SOAPST

"The Declaration of Independence", a document that changed our nation. Thomas Jefferson was the primary writer of "The Declaration of Independence" and his ideas for this document were based from John Locke. The speaker here is not just the men who signed the Declaration, nor not only Thomas Jefferson, but it was sent to England speaking for all colonists. It was July 4, 1776 when the document was published. The purpose of the document was to inspire the colonists, because at this time it was the Revolutionary war and morale for our brave soldiers was extremely important to keep fighting and conserve hope. So that one day soon, they will benefit independence from England. It was to persuade King George III to give the colonists their freedom, and to prove to him that what he was doing was wrong. In the document, they are informing that there are eighteen statements, showing everyone why they need to be independent and showing why England was at fault.

Blog #4

Los Angeles Time: Neil Armstrong, first person to walk on moon, dies at 82, by Eric Malnic. Neil Armstrong was definitely a hero to not only Americans, but to everyone. When Armstrong landed on the moon, there was an estimated amount of 600 million people watching him take a "lunar stroll". It is known that he has died due to a cardiovascular surgery in early August. Armstrong calls himself in a rare public appearance in 2000,"I am, and ever will be, a white-sock, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer." This quote tells me something about Armstrong, that he is a leader, someone who looks forward and never back. He is the type of person that will admit to one thing and will not be ashamed of it. Armstrong was sixteen when he received his pilot’s license, and it was even before he had earned a drivers license. This tells us that Armstrong was clearly dedicated to become a pilot and astronaut to dominate any goal he had in mind.

Blog #3

“Salvation” by Langston Hughes is a short story, written about the inexperienced and adolescent he trying to connect with Jesus for the first time. The occasion here is in Church followed by the rest of his family waiting for Hughes to finally connect with Jesus and be religiously accepted into his family. As Hughes waits for the connection, he does not feel anything and starts to question Jesus. As Hughes stands up and faces his family pretending to be connected with Jesus, causes his family to cheer for him and results with him crying. He is crying because he feels guilty for lying and not actually connecting because of the confusion and questioning of Christ. The purpose is to inform us as readers that lying can lead us to guilt and can also result to us regretting our decisions, therefore we must think before we make our decisions. And doing so it can change the way it reflects on others. The subject here is the loss of faith, Hughes lost faith in Christ as he waited for him in Church for his first connection and did not feel anything and saw that others got up and pretended to be connected; that caused him to think maybe there is no Christ and he should lie like the others.

Blog #2

In The Huffington Post, John Ward posts an article about Tom Coburn, The Most Frustrated Man In Washington, Updated on August 18, 10:17am. Tom Coburn, a Congressman has stated that our leader, Barrack Obama is not doing his job too well. Coburn mentions that Obama for the last year and a half has been running the reelections and not running the country. Coburn’s main interest is in the National Debt which is nearly sixteen trillion dollars; Coburn always is trying to do something for the Nation and complains that no one seems to care about it. He believes that the presidential term should be six years in order for them to work on the Nation other than working on achieving reelected. One thing we lack in his opinion as a nation is, Leadership. “What we have on both sides of the aisle are groups of people who refuse to make the hard choices. And in that case the country suffers.” With that Coburn makes an excellent point, the goal is out there and no one is willing to run after it.

Blog #1

My favorite book is The Count of Monte Cristo. The reason why The Count of Monte Cristo is my favorite book is because it shows adventure, excitement, and emotional all in one. That is all that is needed to convince me that this is a great book. I have always loved adventure and sometimes try and imagine that I were to be in their position, a great book is one that takes my imagination to another level; this book did just that. A quote that I chose was a spiritual change that occurred in Dante,"Dantès was now thirty-three years old, as we have said, and his fourteen years in prison had brought what might be described as a great spiritual change to his features. He had entered the Château d'If with the round, full, radiant face of a contented young man whose first steps in life have been easy and who looks to the future as a natural extension of the past All that had changed utterly. Edmond smiled when he saw himself. It would have been impossible for his best friend—if he had any friends left—to recognize him; he didn't recognize himself". The quote shows one can be changed significantly throughout a period of time in prison, especially if one did not deserve it, these years caused him to swear revenge and make the ones who put him there regret their decisions. One of my favorite parts in this book was when the treasure was discovered, a truly exciting moment. That is a position that a numerous amount of people would have loved to experienced, so would I.