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.