The book that I chose to read this week is a a personal biography on Dave Pelzer called A Child Called "it". It is about a boy who is abused the rest of his life after his parents got divorced. He is forced to do many horrible things and is almost killed when his mother even stabbed him. I think that this book shows great personal determination because even though he was tormented for over five or more years, he never gave up and he was finally able to escape.a child called it
I read recently in The New York Times that the Company Toshiba has recently reported a whopping 99% decrease in profits for the fourth quarter. These sales have been attributed to poor mainstay chips operations. I also read that its main competitor, Fujitsu has also had a sharp decrease in sales also contributed to the same fact.
As of now, there are going to be possible cuts to its plan of 367 billion yen(3.70 billion dollars) for improvements to the computing chips. Incredibly, prices dropped 45% in the 6 months leading up to september 30th. It has also posted a net loss of 26.9 billion yen compared to a profit of 25.0 billion last year
Toshiba is still quite hopeful about the holiday season and hopes to ride out the storm of bad sales and maybe pull out even.
quindali Many people fret over the fact that their computer starts in over three minutes. People seem not to have very good attention spans. But it may soon be all over; many companies are investing in computers that will start in 30 seconds or less.
HP, Lenovo, Dell, and the circuit board company, Asus, all have on their agenda to decrease the start times of their products in the coming year. As of now, only 35 percent of computers running the latest OS of Windows, Vista, have a boot time of under 30 seconds.
Hewlett-Packard has recently begun selling computers that boot in about 30-45 seconds(For a nice little $1,200), but the chief technology officer of HP says that in about 18 months the average start time should be around 20-30 seconds. Technology increases every single day and we never know what is going to come out next.
As you may have read in one of my earlier blogs, you would have seen that there is going to be some upcoming competition for the iPhone; the google G1. It is known yet how this new phone will face up to the mega seller, the iPhone.
As I read recently on msnbc.com, I saw that last month, the iPhone had overtaken blackberry in sales; a tremendous feat to do. Over the last three months Apple's stocks have increased tremendously for the major fact of the iPhone. Profits reached $1.1 billion dollars, or $1.26 per share and even increased sales by 27 percent, or $7.9 billion dollars.
Even though they have increased sales quite a bit, they actually missed Wall Street's expectations for sales; $8 billion dollars with $1.11 dollars per share. It seems that this phone is unstoppable, but we can't be quite sure what Google's phone will do to the market.
Still today, many people treat African-Americans if as though we are still in the eighteenth century as well as call them nasty names, especially with Don Imus calling some African-American women "nappy headed". Even though times are still rough, we would never have gotten close to this much "progress" without the heroes who really got the ball rolling for the betterment of African-Americans.
It all started with one of the most famous African-Americans, Harriet Tubman. She led slaves through a system called the underground railroad to help flee to safety. She helped transport over 70 slaves to safety. After the Fugitive Slave Law was passed in 1850, she even helped escaped slaves get into Canada and find jobs.
The next people who have been of great importance to us are the two great men who wanted to change this country; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were some of the greatest African-American men to have helped this country.
Malcolm X and MLK both believed that African Americans had just as much right as white person to ride on a bus, vote, or even eat wherever they wanted. Even though these men only met for only a minute in 1964, they both helped create a place where toleration could be a real thing.
Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech
This video really shows us how MLK really felt about the segregation and how he wanted to change it so much.
Malcolm X on the KKK
The Last person that I would like to talk about would be Rosa Parks. She was a woman who refused to give her seat on the bus to a white man, and because she did she was arrested for it. Many African-Americans were outraged by this and even caused the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Ms. Rosa Parks received many honors including the Springarn Medal, she was a courageous African-American woman who changed the way white people viewed African-Americans.
Ms. Rosa Parks' interview about her arrest
Poems:
Maya Angelou
THE BLACK FAMILY PLEDGE
THE BLACK FAMILY PLEDGE
BECAUSE we have forgotten our ancestors,
our children no longer give us honor.
BECAUSE we have lost the path our ancestors cleared
kneeling in perilous undergrowth,
our children cannot find their way.
BECAUSE we have banished the God of our ancestors,
our children cannot pray.
BECAUSE the old wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our hearing,
our children cannot hear us crying.
BECAUSE we have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering,
our befuddled children give birth to children
they neither want nor understand.
BECAUSE we have forgotten how to love, the adversary is within our
gates, an holds us up to the mirror of the world shouting,
"Regard the loveless"
Therefore we pledge to bind ourselves to one another, to embrace our
lowliest, to keep company with our loneliest, to educate our illiterate,
to feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all good things,
knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters.
We ARE our brothers and sisters.
IN HONOR of those who toiled and implored God with golden tongues,
and in gratitude to the same God who brought us out of hopeless desolation, we make this pledge.
I really like this poem because Maya Angelou portrays very well how African-Americans should come together with everything and learn and soak in as much knowledge as they can possibly soak up.
African-Americans have been treated quite badly but along the way, these heroes have helped to push away the view that African-Americans are bad people. Even though MLK's "I Have a Dream" speech is not quite fulfilled, we are on our way to truly understanding our differences and being able to live harmoniously together, side by side.
Lately many people have been turning to video to help ease the stress of the fumbling economy, and it could actually be helping. A recent study by NPR has shown that video game sales are up an amazing 41% since the same time last year.
During the depression, many people turned to Shirley Temple movies that would help cheer them up; for only a nickel a piece, it didn't dent their savings. While video game sales are up, moving sales have been the same for about the a decade; people would rather play a 20 hour game compared to a two hour movie.
Even though video game sales are up, the companies who make them are still in the same boat as many other businesses trying to get through this recession. This may not be the absolute answer to this recession, but at least are trying to enjoy themselves in a time like this.
Many leading researchers have discovered that bottled water may not be as pure as you may think. They have tested 10 brands and have found such things as caffeine, and even the radioactive element strontium. Even though this may not be from the actual water, the chemicals are still the same as they would be. At 1900 times the cost, wouldn't you want to have something with a little more quality?
The companies with the highest concentration of chlorine byproducts, known to cause cancer, were the Sam's choice bottled water from Wal-Mart and the Acadia brand from Giant's Food supermarkets. Many of the executives at Walmart were puzzled because they said that they had their water tested by another company and they issued that there was not anything wrong with the water that they wanted to sell; they are looking into it to try and fix the problem.
Many people are worried about this, but the best way to prevent from getting contaminated water is to use a carbon filter.
There has been a lot of talk recently about the new open-source t-mobile G1; the fully customizable and app-create-able phone. Created by HTC, the phone has just as many features as the iPhone, or maybe more depending on how the open-source/android phone works out.
As of now, the iPhone is clearly in the lead, only because of the fact that it has more applications to use as of now. Many of the future buyers of this phone like this phone more because since it it open-source, the user will be able to browse ALL of the created content for the phone; unlike the apple controlled and chosen applications.
No one knows for sure what phone will come out at the top, but it is a sure bet that it will be left to the consumers to choose who will win.
I'm sure that most of you have heard about the Tom Petters case; the man who is accused of mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering. A recent report was released say that a judge has asked Mr. Petters to remain in police custody while prosecutors build a case. This case is based on over billions of dollars of innocent investors money.
Robert White, one of the men also charged in the case, has pleaded guilty to wire and mail fraud in exchange for cooperation in the case; he admitted to setting up false documents for investors so that Petters would be able to receive money. Another one of Petters' associates, Deanna Coleman, was the informant of the case; she deeply regretted her involvement in the case and decided to turn the whole conspiracy in. Petters had reportedly paid Coleman over $5 million dollars over the course of her employment and even the authorities did not even know about this case until it was brought to the attention of the FBI and IRS.
I have started a book recently called The Drawing of the Three by Stephen king. Is it the second book in the series of seven called the Dark Tower Series. The book starts out when the main character, Roland, is walking along the beach and is in search of a way to get to the Dark Tower, who would have thought. As he is walking along the beach, he starts to see in the distance that there is a black door and that there is something written on it, "The Prisoner". He enters the door and realizes that he is actually seeing through the eyes of another and freaks out.
This is as far as I have gotten but it is such a good book that it is really hard to put down. I think that the title of the book says something about how many doors he will find on the beach, three. Once i finish this book I would really like to get the next book and try and finish all of the books in the series.
vice One of the things that I read this week was an article on the Vice-Presidential debate on yahoo.com; as well as watching the debate. Even though I do not agree with republican views, I believe that Sarah Palin did an amazing job with the debate; she has a demeanor that many people can recognize and feel as if she is talking to you. She is not one of those uppity politicians who answers a yes or no question with about a minute of explanations.
Joe Biden was also quite a good contender, yet he still has that "true" politician type. He had very good tone but, I believe, was not able to "reach" the viewers that Sarah Palin was able to do. He has a very stern and non-"slang" voice which is very clear cut.
I think that this election will be one of the most important events in U.S. History that many young people are starting to really focus on.
In the movie A Civil Action, Jan Schlichtmann is forced to discover what it means to find true self. When we first see him in the beginning of the movie, Jan is a very money-oriented person who tries to, literally, get as much money as he possibly can. In the movie, he states that the best person to be a lawyer for is a Man, 30-40 years old and hurt in a head on car crash(just what I think-probably not what is in the movie). He gets a call about a water contamination case north of Boston; he goes to this small town and truly is just a smarmy guy. He is on the lookout for himself, and himself only. He does not want to do this case because he knows that child death is the kind of case that will get him the least amount of money; he says no. He returns to his firm and realizes that if he does take this case on he will be able to rack up a huge some of money.
He takes this case on and right from the get-go, he puts his whole firm under and into debt. He soon realizes that money is not just the answer and that truly helping someone can be the best thing you can do. Jan puts the firm into a huge amount of debt but he never wants to give up, even up 'till the end. The Grace company is only willing to give the families 8 million for their losses( 8 million minus the debt the lawyers collected).
Jan was an arrogant self centered man at the beginning of the book, and transformed into a caring person who doesn't think about money 24/7; hae became a changed man for good
My favorite quote would have to be when Codi was reading the letter that Hallie sent and hallie said, "What keep you going isn't some fine destination but just the road you're on. and that fact that you know how to drive." I love how she blatantly says this to Codi; it's almost like she needed someone to do this so that she could finally get it through her head. Also this quote really shows that you really don't need to know where you are going, just as long as you know what to do with your life. I think that my favorite character would have to be Loyd; he is so down-to-earth and always knows how to treat things just right. He may have been a jock in high school, but he has changed a lot and it shows. He always knows when to say something and it always seems to be the exact thing to say, as well as he has the ability to try and feel what other people, like Codi, are thinking. My favorite scene in this book so far is during christmas when Loyd and Codi are at the festival thing. First off, it sort of shows some of the ignorance that Codi has; she might have been sad or lonely or depressed, but it still shows quite well. The other reason that I like this scene is that Loyd has so much insight to what is going on. He is able to understand what life is like and show someone what life can truly be.
The last thing that I read recently was Popular Science. I think that this magazine is very interesting and they always have something that is worth reading. One of the articles that I read was about using tide energy for an alternative energy. I thought that this was really cool and it showed me a new way that people in the world are creating different ways of harnessing natural energy
1. One of my all time favortie books would have to be Scarecrow by Matthew Reilly. This is sort of like a Tom Clancy book with thoe whole kind of army scene and weapons and other things. The main plot of this book is about a man named Shane Schofield who is a United States Marine; he is one of the top men in the marines and one of only nine men in the world who are able to disable a nuclear bomb. The book starts out as a bounty hunt; international bounty hunters go all over the world to eliminate the people. Each head, literally head, is valued at 18.6 million dollars. The bounty hunt is run by an organization called the majestic 12, who are all business tycoons.
They put these men on the list because they are all able to try and stop the plot that majestic 12 wants to start; start a nuclear war and gain money. Shane Schofield is really the only man who can stop it and is being hunted for 3 days while traveling around the world. picture:http://www.matthewreilly.com/images/covers/large/scarecrow_1.jpg
