Overcoming Odds

I recently read an article in the Charlotte Observer about a boy who was burned extensively on his body, 87 percent, with third degree burns. The boy was outside tending a fire when all of a sudden it blew up on him as well has his mother who received second degree burns on her face and third degree burns on her hands. He was placed in a medical induced coma while doctors tried to reconfigure all of his skin.

Connor, the boy who was burned, finally was taken out  of the coma after two months. His body was quite frail due to the extensive amount of time spent laying down and being still. He will have to learn how to walk again and regain the use of his muscles.

I think this reminded me a bit of Night because while on the way to Auschwitz, they see flames coming from the crematorium. 

Jo Talbot Balasco, Mary. "Burned teen is overcoming odds, but still has way to go." Charlotte Observer 15 Mar. 2009. 22 Mar. 2009 http://www.charlotteobserver.com/597/story/598757.html.

     

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Love

     I recently read an article on the Popular Science website about how the feelings of a long, old married couple, are quite the same to a new romance.  In  a study, 10 women and 7 men were scanned on their brain activity on how they loved their partner. The study then took another 10 women and 7 men who were much younger and asked the same type of questions.  Surprisingly, the researchers found out that the brain scans looked almost the same; showing that even though someone may be old, they still have a very deep love for each other.

     I liked this article because it shows that even though these people may be old, they are not boring old people who don't sleep in the same bed and go to sleep by 7 o'clock.

Durfee, Rachel. "Everlasting Love: Science Proves Initial Passion Is Far From Fleeting." Popular Science. 17 Mar. 2009 http://www.popsci.com/node/29595.

War

I recently read in the New York Times about the increase in the number of stray dogs in Baghdad due to all of the fighting. As much as 10,000 dogs have been slaughtered since january because there have so many dogs running around the city. Because the majority of people in the city are Muslim, they think that dogs are unclean animals that they cannot touch.

     Organizations have been poisoning meat and then throwing the meat all around the city so that they can get rid of all of the dogs. Even without the poisoning people have been beating the animals to death and even have been shooting them. Many people pity the dogs but don't do anything to help them.

     Lucky for some stray dogs, an international S.P.C.A has been formed where American Soldiers, after returning home, will be able to adopt some of these dogs so they are not killed.

"In Hard-Bitten Baghdad, Tough Tactics on Strays." The New York Times. 15 Mar. 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/15/world/middleeast/15strays.html?ref=world.

Japanese Persecution

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• persecution caused by the attack on Pearl Harbor
• 1942
• 120,000 people of Japanese Descent(2/3 american citizens)  put into internment camps
• Executive Order 9066; Signed by Franklin D. Roosevelt
• Most internees released after 1944
• abrogated 7 of the 10 articles of the bill of rights
• $1.25 billion dollars in reparations, and a formal apology from the U.S. Government
• Japanese people held as "Model Minority" of the U.S.; many feel it masks a persistent racism

Nakao, Annie. "Executive Order 9066." 1992. San Fransisco Examiner. SIRS Knowledge Resource. 18 Mar. 2009 http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307H-0-9230&artno=0000006269&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=Japanese%20American%20Internment&title=Executive%20Order%209066&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=N&ic=

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?

• fueled by tensions of churches and white supremacy groups
• Issei(first generation) and nissei(second generation) Japanese people were taken to camps
• Executive Order 9066; authorized military commanders to exclude certain groups of people
• Curfew set for only people of japanese descent
• Most people went but some refused; Fred Korematsu
• Fled and then tried and convicted. Brought case to Supreme Court for deprived of civil rights because of race
• 6-3 vote on Supreme court said it was not on race but of a military necesity
• As many as 30,000 Japanese Americans still served in both theatres of WWII
• $20,000 payment to all surviving internees

"THE BILL OF RIGHTS: JAPANESE-AMERICAN INTERNMENT." 1999. Mandarin Inc. SIRS Knowledge Resource. 18 Mar. 2009 http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307H-0-9230&artno=0000105857&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=Japanese%20%20Internment&title=The%20Bill%20of%20Rights%3A%20Japanese%2DAmerican%20Internm

Imperialism

New Imperialism is the idea of the European Powers splitting up and taking over different parts of the world. Most of these European countries did this for power, glory, but most of all "the white man's burden". Following the ideas of Count Gobineau, many of these countries believed that these "darker" colored races had once been part of the pure Aryans race, but after many years they had darkened in color. It was the right of these more powerful countries to help bring these people back to civilized life and the true religion of the world, Christianity.

     When all of the European powers began taking over Africa, almost everything was taken over, except for Liberia and Ethiopia. The taking over of africa caused much turmoil with these people and made many people mad.

"New Imperialism." Wikipedia. 10 Mar. 2009 .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Imperialism

Global Issue

I decided to write about the global issue of Global Warming. Global Warming is the increase in the average temperature in the atmosphere in the world. Almost all causes have been from something man-made, and very few being natural. Projections for humanity from  this event have been very grim; increased strength of weather events, increase in precipitation, and even the release of methane from the shrinking ice caps.

There have been numerous attempts to create a way to diminish the effect of the CO2. Among others, the biggest is the decrease of the carbon footprint from cars. As easy as it sounds, this "idea" has had very little progress. Apart from the decrease of what is already there, many people now are turning to the idea of natural energy like solar, wind, and even wave powered energy.

"Global Warming." Wikipedia. 8 Mar. 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming

Holiday

For my blog post I decided to write about the Holiday of Easter. Plain and simple, Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the Crucifixion. At around the year 325 A.D, Constantine I held the Council of Nicaea, which determined the date that Easter would be celebrated on. They determined that Easter should be celebrated on the first sunday after the full moon of the vernal equinox. But at around 1928 the British parliament clamied that the celebration of Easter would be held on the first sunday after the second saturday of the month of April. 

       The reason why Easter is always shown with the symbol of a rabbit is because one of the Anglo-Saxon goddesses of fertility was always shown with her symbol as a rabbit.e "The History of Easter." History Channel. 3 Mar. 2009 http://www.history.com/content/easter/history-of-easter.

Bollywood

After watching Bride and Prejudice, I decided to blog about how much these movies normally cost.  The average Bollywood film costs at least a couple million dollars to shoot. And even some higher end movies can cost an equivalent to around one billion dollars. In India, it used to be illegal for a bank to fund any kind of tv, music, or theatre production. But now the law has been lifted and the amount of money that can be spent on production is much more.

Even though many of the big movie making companies in Bollywood receive money from banks and other institutions, many smaller companies have been funded by the Mumbai Underworld. These people have been known to help pay for the movies and then try and put an obscured view on their kind of "patriotism".

Because there are so many people in India, there has been an increase in the number of bootleg copies made by illegal companies in their country. Many of the poor people there can only afford these versions and their involvement has only helped increase production even more.

     

"Bollywood." Wikipedia. 2009. 1 Mar. 2009. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood.