Blog #15 Someone Overcoming Odds

For my blog post about overcoming I odds, I found an article that talks about a Timothy Rau, 16-year old boy, who has the rare condition of ataxia telangiectasia, or A.T. This is a disease that slowly causes a portion of the brain to deteriorate. Even with this condition, he manages to do some of his favorite activities, like snowmobiling, whitewater rafting, and hiking. The main reason why I chose to use this article is the fact that A.T. causes many people to die even before their early twenties, but that doesn't seem so in this case. Charlie Rau learned from his son, "If you get a disease that is going to slow you down and you can't do everything you want, at least you have to keep a good attitude and keep going. Do what you can. Don't let it stop you." That is a great lesson that everybody should learn.



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Blog #14 Love

For my blog I chose to read an article about a ten-year old boy who annually raises money for people with cancer. His name is Tyler Bush and he lives in Carter County and in first grade, while watching a children's hospital infomercial he decided to annually raise money for children with cancer. Before Tyler the school raised about $1,000 a year. Now, they raise an average of $10,000 a year. The reason that I chose this for my article on love is because this person has no particular connection to people with cancer, but out of the kindness of his heart he helps thousands fight cancer. It is a great way to help and show you can make a difference.



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Spanish-American War

Blog #13 War

For my blog on the topic of war I found an article from CNN that talks about Pakistani protests. The article is about how the police had to fight running battles against protestors who threw stones and defied a government ban on rallies. It isn't necessarily on the topic of a more famous war, but it is a war between the citizens and government. The cause of the fighting is that the citizens were going to have a four-day march onto the capital of Pakistan. When the police heard about this they tried to stop them by waiting and firing tear gas. The government has way more power in Pakistan so there were a lot of arrests made. After hearing about what happened even Hillary Clinton tried to resolve the conflict. If the two powers could find a balance, it is a relatively easy conflict to resolve.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/03/15/pakistan.sharif/index.html


Sayah, Reza, and Zein Basravi. "Pakistan to reinstate chief justice." CNN.com. 2009. 15 Mar. 2009
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Group Assignment Russia vs. Georgia conflict

My first article is very informative from USA Today. What I have found out is that the main reason for this conflict is that Georgia launched a military strike on the province of South Ossetia, trying to reclaim the territory after 16 years of having slight independence. In return to this action, Russia sent tanks in. Originally, this shouldn't have been a problem because Georgia broke off of Russia in 1991, but the Russians feel that they need to have power over the bordering countries.

The other article I found was NPR.org. The information I obtained from this website was the different sides to the war. On the Georgia side, they believed that they needed to retake control because even though it is an independent territory, the crime rate is extremely high in South Ossetia. On the Russian side, like I said earlier, Russia was just trying to control the border to try to make things better. But by airstriking Georgia to gain control, it brought more countries into the mix and made the whole conflict worse.

Blog #12 Imperialism

For my blog on the topic of imperialism, I looked up an article about the United States and how we are an imperialist country. The main idea of the article is that America gained independence so we could be a our own country and not part of what was looked upon as an "English Empire" because of the monarchy system. For the most part we had maintained that until America became more populated which led to more money. Since then, we have taken control of armies, natural resources, etc. I don't entirely agree with this article for one main reason. We may be a powerful and unified nation, but that doesn't give people the right to say that it is imperialism. We just look out for the greater good of our country no matter how that may hapen. Overall, the article had some good points, but it was a little bit sided towards the non-Americans.


http://www.slate.com/?id=2075261

Hitchens, Christopher. "American Imperialism, Then and Now." Slate. 10 Dec. 2002. 10 Mar. 2009.
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Blog #11 Global Issue

For this blog I decided to post about an article on global warming. Ever since it was discovered global warming has been a big issue within society. The article I looked at came from TIME magazine. There were a few interesting facts. One was the level of carbon dioxide in the air. During the last ice age the level was just 180 p.p.m., after the glaciers melted the level went to 280 p.p.m., but now, the total is at a huge 380 p.p.m. the carbon dioxide level directly affects the temperature, and out of the 20 hottest years, 19 occurred after 1980. The other surprising fact I found was the amount of melting ice from Greenland. In last year alone, 53 cubic miles melted away. That amount of ice can be compared to about five times the size of Los Angeles. After reading this article, I decided that I should really be more careful about how I impact the environment because this situation is more serious than interpreted by the average person.

Blog #10 Holidays

For my ninth blog post about "holidays," I chose to comment on a poem called "Christmas Joys." The reason that I chose this poem was because I can relate to it really well. The first example is when the poem says, "Evergreen boughs that fill our homes
with fragrant Christmas scent." I chose this because when I think of Christmas, I think of a Christmas tree. This line basically says that if Christmas could have a smell, it would spell like a good pine tree. I totally agree. The other example that I liked a lot was when it said, "Colorful lights that twinkle." The moment I heard this I just thought about how my brother, dad, and I used to all go out looking for the best Christmas lights so we could take my mom on the grand tour. There aren't many poems that I can really relate to very well, so that's why this one really made me think.

Blog #9 Bollywood

For my eighth blog post, which is about Bollywood, I chose to talk about the movie Bride and Prejudice since we just saw it in class. People automatically think that if a movie is based on Indian culture that it is a Bollywood film. That's wrong. Since Bride and Prejudice isn't technically Bollywood, I will just focus on those elements of it. The movie does indeed take place in India. We see a more modernized, wealthy part of the country. The next aspect is that there are Indian songs and dances. The music is probably what really separates Bollywood from Hollywood. In traditional Indian films, there are plenty of dance scenes. These really keep the film exciting and up-beat. The last aspect of Bollywood is the wide variety of emotions that are involved. You start out with curious, then happy, then sad, then anxious, and you never know what to expect. Since watching Bride and Prejudice without knowing much about Bollywood, I learned that it the movies the business produces are actually pretty good.


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