NEWS #4

5 Things Americans Can't Have Because Of Sanctions (PHOTOS)

THE HUFFINGTON POST
by: Carlo Davis

CUBAN CIGARS
Cuban cigars have been banned in the U.S. ever since 1962 and is known to be the most recognizable sanction. The cuban cigars are said to derive their world renowned quality due to the temperate climate and alkaling soil of Cuba. And that gives the cigars a great amount of "earthy aroma".

IRANIAN PISTACHIOS
Americans have not been able to eat Iranian pistachios since 2010. Not only Americans do not eat these pistachios, but the rest of the World is also missing out. America has banned the import of these pistachios as a agressive round of sanctions, and according to the New York Times, this is what helpred accelerate Iranian inflation. Tehran banned all exports of Pistachios for six months in order to keep domestic prices low.

IRANIAN CAVIAR
Caviar is too good to even talk about it...

CYPRIOT RAKI
This is some weird type of Turkish drink that turns into a milky white when it is mixed with water, thank goodness, we are not allowed to have any of it.

NORTH KOREAN SOJU
This is a liquor very similar to Vodka, and is extremely popular in the Koreas, but it is not available in America. A Korean-American got a license to get some of this Soju and is very few, but according to some, this drink actually tastes horrible and people have lost interest due to its horrible tastes.

NEWS #3

NATO Plane Crashes In Afghanistan, Killing 4

The Huffington Post

By THOMAS WAGNER

In Kabul, Afghanistan a NATO plane crash in southern Afghanistan unfortunately killed four international troops. During that same day the Taliban announced that they will target military sites with suicide bombers and infiltrate enemy forces. The Afghan Defense Ministry said that their security forces are prepared for the Taliban's new campaign, which is some good news for the American soldiers. The ministry says that, "The Afghan National Army is ready to neutralize the offensive," which sounds like a lot of action. The Taliban gave an announcement, vowing to step up on their violent attacks due to the fact that the winter is over and it is now summer, which makes traveling and fighting a lot easier for them, but it most likely means the same for our troops. The Taliban also mention that they will use whatever tactics that they know against the "foreigners". Their Muslim military commander, Khalid ibn al-Walid, is also known as the "Drawn Sword of God," is supposedly a companion of Islam's Prophet Muhammad, just so that we know what we are dealing with.

4/20/2013 NEWS #2

North Korea Won't Give Up Nuclear Weapons, Pyongyang Says
The Huffington Post
North Korea says that they will not give their nuclear weapons and they have decided to reject our U.S. conditions for negotiating, but America's generosity seems to be at its peek and is still willing to discuss their disarmament. According to the way North Korea is acting up, it shows us a sign that they may be at a near end within a couple of weeks. North Korea has offered a list of conditions for both the United States and South Korea on Thursday. They are also demanding that the U.N. sanctions are lifted off them. The United States is not going to respond until there are "clear signals" that North Korea would stop their process of creating nuclear weapons. Unfortunately for Kim Jung-Un, he considers his nuclear weapons a "treasured sword" and continues to do nuclear tests.

4/20/2013 NEWS #1

The Huffington Post

By: Matthew Lee

Syrian Rebels To Receive $123 Million More In Aid From United States

This has been almost a two year war that the rebels have fighting against President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria. America wants to send 123Million with the intention of helping stop the violence as quick as possible, since more than 70,000 people have suffered because of the civil war. The aid America will send may include armored vehicles, body armor, night vision goggles and other defensive military supplies. There is also another twenty five million dollars worth of food assistance to any of the citizens that will be staying in Syria. Hopefully the rebels will have enough to stop this civil war and bring peace once again to Syria so that the citizens can go back to doing what they used to do and what they wish to do once again.

Blog #14

What factors contribute to such prejudice and how? (e.g., television, parental attitudes).
Factors that really effect the thought of many individuals usually comes from the media and those whom you are around. Parents should be the greatest impact on an individual, parents are your guideline to success and help you with what ever you need. However, media such as television or music can effect too, by showing an individual how different everything is and giving new options. Media and parents always make us think that what they say is alright and that we should follow along.

Discuss Adolf Hitler's reported statement, "Who still tells nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?" Does this statement have any validity today?
Hitler uses the Armenian genocide as a perfect example of how the Turks exterminated nearly all of the Armenian race and that no one knows of it, and still do not today. Hitler thought that the same would happen with the Jewish people, but his mistake was killing in extremely large numbers, around a million and a half Armenians have been massacred due to the genocide, but for the Armenian population, those are extremely large numbers. It is a shame that more than half the world most likely does not know what and Armenian is.

Blog #13

Medieval Knight Found Under Parking Lot In Scotland; Mysterious Remains Thrill Archeologists

THE HUFFINGTON POST

by: Meredith Bennett- Smith

Archaeologists found a unknown body of a nobleman or a knight under a Scottish parking lot earlier this week. This body was well preserved and is able to be tested for DNA tests. It is explained how close it is buried to a church, and the closer the body is buried to the church or monastery, the more significant the individual is. There was also a sandstone slab found near it and they are both believed to date back to the thirteenth century, from Blackfriars Monastery. "The knight would have been buried in the graveyard associated with the monastery meaning he had money or was important in the society of time," Murray told HuffPost. After a DNA analysis, scientists say that the body found belonged to King Richard the third.

Blog #12

Comets & Life On Earth: Impacts May Have Jump-Started Biological Evolution

The Huffington Post

By: Mike Wall

There are many theories of how Earth has formed, many collisions and the most famous one would be the, Big Bang theory. The Big Bang theory is known to have been a colossal explosion and formed the Milky Way, and formed all of our planets. Here, we have a new theory of how Earth its self was formed, through the impacts of comets or meteorites. They have concluded that comets or meteorites might have "jump-started" our biological evolution on Earth. A team of chemists say that linked pairs of amino acids called dipeptides can be created in space conditions. Dipeptides was supposedly brought to Earth from either a comet or a meteorite billions of years ago. This is what just may have formed the even more complex molecules which are necessary for life as we know it, such as proteins and sugars.

Blog #11

Horse Meat Found At Taco Bell In UK

The Huffington Post
Taco Bell was first sued over a year ago for have less than forty percent beef and now they are putting horse meat in their beef? These DNA traces of horse meat were found by Britain's Food Regulators and are warning their citizens, I think think if they are just adding horse meat, they could be adding just about anything in their beef, this is way many of us should beware of fast food restaurants like Taco Bell, McDonalds, Carl's Jr., and Burger King, those are the main fast food restaurants with beef and they could have anything in the meat. An excellent point was made in the video, how Americans probably would not care at all, for as long as it tastes good, they will continue to eat it because obesity is a sickness and many are not paying for what they actually ordered. Once again, we should all stay away from sick fast food joints like this so that they parish, and quality can be restored in our food.

Party Blog #10

With a budget of  $100,000, one can cause such chaos in neighborhoods, and that would be no fun. So if I were to host a party with a budget that high, it would take place in a rented Mansion which would be $2,600 a night, and it would last two days. Guests would all be picked up at their own homes by a limousine company owned by close relatives, which includes Chevy Tahoes and Cadillac Escalades, which would be free on my side. Students of Rose and Alex Pilibos would be invited, excluding many morons. Everyone will be served finger food and it will be served by a dozen waiters. A DJ will be hired (professional) and there will be a room full of liquor, for all the crazy alcohol fanatics. That would include Blue label, Black label, all types of Vodka, Tequila and of course, Jack Daniels. All types of food will be served, BBQ will fill the stomachs of all my guests. There will be a separate room full of sand and scorpions where everyone will have a chance to dig up $50,000 worth of tiny gold nuggets in the matter of ten minutes per a dozen people. $5,000 dollars worth of liquor will be shot down and will harden everyone's hard working livers, and to make the pain sensation a bit more intense, Monster and Red Bull energy drinks will be served to all the fools who are daring enough to confuse the hell out of their over worked heart and liver. The $2,000 dollars worth of Energy drinks would most likely be consumed and there will be no drugs allowed whatsoever. People will enjoy listening to the greatest Hip Hop, Rap and any other requested songs they have ever heard of. I will not be held responsible of any of my guests deaths, as they are asked to sign a waver in the beggining, including private street racing and burn out contests, everyone will be given a pair of rear tires so they do not do damage to their original tires, or they can choose to keep the Pirelli or Michelin tires given to them, which will cost $500 for the pair. Only twenty people can participate in the burnout contest, for I am still on a short budget. Everyone will be given a gift as they leave, a simple golden ring, with a unique symbol resembling a special night that everyone will not forget, and that would destroy the remaining $32,000 left in my budget.

The Huffington Post
Iran Fordow Enrichment Plant Will Never Be Shut Down, MP Says
The last thing we needed in America or anywhere on Earth is for Iran to produce more Uranium, they say, "Fordow will never be shut down because ... our national duty is to be able to defend our nuclear and vital centres against an enemy threat". One can simply believe that if no one produced or enriched Uranium, we would not have trust issues with one another. It is seriously ridiculous at this point, they say it is their national duty to continue to enrich their Uranium and pollute their citizens by saying that this will keep them safe. No country will attack them for no reason, the fact that they have Uranium in their hands makes them a bigger target and it gets them on America's top list to watch out for. Israel is also taking action, "Israel has threatened to attack Iran if diplomacy and sanctions fail to curb its nuclear programme, raising fears of a regional war", that is the last thing we needed.

Blog #8

Gangsters: During the 1920's, there was Al Capone, the baddest and most wanted man in Chicago. One thing there might be in common for Al Capone and in The Great Gatsby is that Gatsby is the number one, richest man and Al Capone is number one most wanted, they are both number one in their own ways. In the 1920's in America, there was no alcohol, imagine America with no alcohol today, it would be absolute chaos and a lot of men would go insane doing things they should not, in the 1920's they felt the same way and that is a part of Al Capone's job. He would deal with all types of illegal matters and smuggling alcohol in every corner of America was one of them. Everybody went through a tough time and the same with Gatsby not everyone would know him if he was did not have his money. People would not know Al Capone if it were not for his accomplishments, either good or no good. 

Blog #7

Ford: New F-150 Pickup Truck Capable Of Crushing A Big Turtle In One Go
TheOnion
http://www.theonion.com/articles/ford-new-f150-pickup-truck-capable-of-crushing-a-b,30716/?ref=auto

The latest Ford F-150 series trucks have reached a new milestone! F-150's now have the capability to crush a large turtle in one pass. I believe that this is extraordinary news, especially for someone like me, who is a major Chevy and Ram fan. I think that a lot of the Ram and Chevy owners will definitely sell their old junk and get this new brand, it has caught my attention and I can not wait to have my own. Ford spokesman Walter Jeffries said at an outdoor press event as a professional driver steered the full-size pickup over numerous large reptiles, including a 130-year-old Galapagos tortoise. It truly is a huge expansion in their engineering and especially for their sales, I hope Ford engineers are awarded for their milestone and I say, their new goal should be to make their F series capable of driving on sand too.

Blog #6

The Daily Show: 12/4/12 in 60 Seconds
comedycentral
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcKswwkTVyE
This episode of The Daily Show is about taxes. They are saying taxes are the lowest that they have ever been, but of course it is going to go back to the way it was back in the 1950's when it was really high. This can be a problem, and I am understanding the humor he has and makes politics and other issues a lot more on the interesting side instead of being boring. The House Leadership, the Congressman have been chosen again and it mentions, "...all white male..." and John Boehner makes a great point with saying, "There is a great deal of diversity here!" He included a lot of sarcasm with his saying and it actually made me chuckle, that is a problem here to me, and hopefully for others as well, for I think that only white males for congressman show a lack of ideas, they will clearly see only one side of everything. They do need more diversity, it can do the country good. Our target here would be white men, multiple people, focusing on Congressman. The purpose is for our Congressman to become more diverse, having white males only is like a burned toast, dry and no creativity.The satire is definitely achieved, in the way of using sarcasm and exaggeration, he definitely did a great job making the point clearly, he wants us to know about the taxes raising and the lack of diversity in Congress.

blog #5

Israel Syria Strike: Chemical Weapons Transfer Could Bring Israeli Military Attack, Official Warns

The Huffington Post

By: Ian Deitch

Israel has kept out of the civil war that has engulfed Syria and killed more than 60,000 people, but it is concerned that violence could spill over from its northern border into Israel. That is the main reason Israel decided to do something, so that they will not have their borders breached. Syrians really have lost complete control at this point and are extremely dangerous. On Sunday the Israeli deployed their Iron Dome rocket defense system in North of Haifa, that city was bombed by Hezbollah rocket fire, this occurred in 2006 and their military called it a deployment "routine", this is perhaps their way of telling Syrians to back off of Israeli land. "Syria has a massive amount of chemical weapons, and if they fall into hands even more extreme than Syria like Hezbollah or global jihad groups it would completely transform the map of threats," Hasson told Army Radio. In my opinion, if the rebels do get a hand of chemical weapons, I hope American steps in to get everyone back into control, we are just kicking back and watching the show, but soon we will probably be effected by their selfish and stupid acts.

blog #4

Prince Harry Says He Killed Taliban Fighters In Afghanistan Tour
The Huffington Post
by:No name

Prince Harry, third to the throne goes to join the military and serves his country. Prince Harry pilots an Apache helicopter and truly does an extraordinary job at it, he has killed some Taliban Fighters and says,"... We fire when we have to, take a life to save a life". Harry seems to be right on that quote and as a captain he is treated the same as anyone else, just because he is royal that does not mean he gets special treatment, especially in warfare. From all the killing this is what he says, "I probably let myself down, I let my family down, I let other people down," he said of the Vegas incident. "But it was probably a classic example of me being too much army, and not enough prince." Harry's military role really did enhance his reputation and he earned a lot more respect than he had before, he had once wore a nazi uniform at a costume party and got drunk before and the military role helps to cover up some of his mistakes.

Observing Nature

I took thirty minutes of my precious time to sit outside and observe my surroundings. What I heard was a bunch of the neighborhood kids yelling, screaming and running around as if they have never seen each other before, this is only five minutes in and could not wait until my remaining twenty five minutes were over. Once the kids left I started to hear some cars pass by and heard one cars screeching its tires and heard no crash, thankfully. After such occasions, I finally heard some nature, some birds singing and it was a little windy at my side, It was truly great at the moment and I actually wanted to sit a little bit longer; unfortunately I did not stay any longer as my thirty minutes was fulfilled and so I drifted off to play some games and eat. I really felt like cutting my observations short from the neighborhood kids, since they were getting on my last nerve, but as I resisted, I felt like I was beginning to be a part of my surroundings and loved the sound of the birds singing, truly a moment of peace.

A Death Star Will Not Be Built

Death Star Petition Gets White House Rebuff
By Ethan Klapper
There are many Star Wars fans out there, unfortunately I am not one of them. But, there is this really cool thing called a Death Star and what it is, is that it destroys planets. People have signed a petition to get the white house to build one, mainly to create more jobs, but this is completely ridiculous. It seems as though the White House took it into consideration by even responding to it, there were about 35,000 signatures. The White House says that they do no support blowing up planets ( Thank you) and that a project like that would cost 852,000,000,000,000,000 American dollars, that is 852 quadrillion dollars. They are trying to decrease deficit, not increase it. Besides, our planet cannot stand a gravitational pull that large, enough to blow up a planet, something like that should not be taken into consideration and should only be an idea that stays in your own thoughts, blowing up planets should not be something to debate about because there will not be more than 35,000 people supporting it.

Independent Reading Projects

After listening to each and every one of the presentations, I have came up with the decision. I would most likely like to read Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos. I would take pleasure to reading that book because it really caught my attention, I like to read about books about mafia and drug dealers and this is exactly what it is about. It was the presentation that made a difference, compared to all the other depressing or boring books, this was the most interesting; if not this book, I would have chosen the book about Notorious B. I. G. The problem is I already have a good idea what the book is about and it is not as interesting. The book I would most likely not read is Fat Girl: A True Story by Judith Moore. I would not read it starting with the fact that it is a true story, just knowing that it is true and actually occurred, disturbs me. A depressing life of a girl that got fat because her mom did not treat her well is a book that I absolutely despise  I wonder why they would even write a book about their past and share it with others, no lesson to be learned and would only upset you as you keep reading it.