The Pandemic of the Swine flu

On April 30,2009 the World Health Organization (WHO) boosted the alert of  swine flu to phase 5."Phase 5" means the chance of a sickness or a plague going into a pandemic has a great amount of chance or inevitable. There have been 51 confirmed  cases in NY, 16 in TX, and 14 in California. It's spreading all over the country and fast, especially since it started in Mexico (or the first confirmed case).

            sources:statesman.com

Swine Flu Alert!

Swine flu (N1H1) is making people in the U.S. and Mexico sick. This flu is thought to be more severe than common garden varieties. The U.S. is about to declare Phase 5 of 6. Phase 5 is where many people have been infected in at least 2 different countries. Phase 5 has never been declared before! Many people think that Phase 6 will be declared. While this sounds vary bad, many people think this is no abnormal flu and no caution is needed. So far, 10 states (New York, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Maine) have confirmed cases of swine flu. However, Mexico has lots of cases as well. There are a few cases in Canada, Europe, and New Zealand. Stay alert of this flu and use basic hygienic cautions.

Cyberspace Has Wars Too!--JC

The US doesn't have the foggiest idea how to deal with cyberattacks on it's communication systems. Last Wednesday a group of scientists warned us that cyberattacks could be a problem. It might even start a cyberwar. Web sites have been important in military since 2000, and a cyberattack would be a big problem in Afghanistan. I hope my CPU doesn't suffer a cyberattack. That would not be good.

A long term place to be

Most people think that the bonus structure for bank employees is a main cause for the economic crisis that we're in.

The problem with the bonus structure is that the bonuses are making the employees look at short term earnings. For example of a short term earning, a banker sold mortgages to a home buyer who could just barely pay it's rate. If the home buyer took the mortgage, they would put themselves in a dangerous place to be. So they won't be able to pay the banker who was thinking he would sell lots of mortgages but he wasn't thinking about how responsible the home buyer was. But mortgages aren't the only example of short term bonus structure. There are many more. Even as the bank's income increases, they are still thinking short term or "cutting down the hedges"**** You would think that the banks would understand and take accountability, but apparently they don't really care because they would have stopped giving bonuses for short term thinking by now.

****A real life example is if you had an allowance of $1 a week, and you could earn $4 extra by cutting down the hedge & $3 more for cleaning your room. So if there was a big prize for the best looking hedge so you cut it every week, it would end up dying and so you wouldn't win the reward AND your maximum income for each week would be decreased from $8 to $4. SO FOR LONG TERM'S SAKE!!! DON'T CUT THE HEDGES!!!!!!!!!

source: NYT

The Senate is Nice to Us--JC

The Senate is nice. This is because they have dropped harsh interrogation under Obama's requests. Bush, however, while he was president, he would use harsh interrogation on terrorist suspects. Bush isn't very nice. I am glad that the Senate has opposed mean interrogation. It will help persuasion to answer the questions and the person will not get hurt. I don't know what Bush was thinking when he did that.  

Bicyclists' Small Victory by Marielle Bardon

Pedaling Influence 

by Pam LeBlanc

Austin-American Statesman

April 20, 2009

My neighbor Lane Wimberley rides his bike almost every morning to his work.  And also he rides his bike to many other places.  But sometimes he might have trouble with his bike routes.  When new developments are built, sometimes they forget about the bikers that might be going there. "Local development projects have traditionally been plagued with utter disregard for cycling issues," said Lane.  

Bicyclists sort of had a small victory because the Domain II has come up with this thing called "sharrows".  They are little signs that they paint on the road that show that the street is made for bicyclists and motorized vehicles.  At 15 miles per hour, both motorists and bicyclists feel safe.  

I am happy that my neighbor Lane had a small victory.  A good reason that I wrote this article is that bikes are good for the earth, so I'm happy, and happy earth day to all, and to all a good life!  

Earth Day!!

Guess what!?! Today is a very special day called Earth Day!!! On Earth day you should Recycle and turn off all of your lights. Also you should clean up trash around your neighborhood. Earth Day is important for saving energy, a cleaner environment, and more fossil fuels. Go Green and save the environment!!                   --Ivy

"T.E.A." Parties

 On April 19, 2009 a nonprofit organization called FreeWorks led by Dick Armey a formal Republican House Majority leader of Texas went to the president and complained about taxes. "The thing that bewilders me that is this president [Barack Obama] just cut taxes for 95% of the American people..." said David Axelrod. And If you're wondering why they call themselves "T.E.A." Parties? "T.E.A" stands for Tax Enough Already (which I think doesn't make sense).

                                                         sources: statesman.com

Obama's view on carrying guns in wildlife reserves

The Obama administration thinks that people should not be able to carry loaded guns in wildlife reserves & national parks. Bush's view on guns and wildlife reserves was different. Bush's rule said that someone could carry a loaded gun into a national park or wildlife reserve if the person had some specific permit; the rule started to be enforced in January. Paul Helmke runs a campaign to prevent gun violence, and he was not happy about Bush's rule. He opposed it by filing a lawsuit that got all the way up to the federal court. He was very pleased with Obama's decision to agree with him on the lawsuit. Paul Helmke said, “Semiautomatic weapons have no place in the valleys of Yellowstone, on the cliffs of Yosemite, or under the torch of the Statue of Liberty.” And I agree; Yellowstone, the cliffs of Yosemite, and The Statue of Liberty are no place for guns!

Kids Too Young to Smoke by Marielle Bardon

Senate votes to raise tobacco age to 19 - April 15, 2009 - 2:17 p.m. CDT
Copyright 2009, The Associated Press

The Texas Senate is trying to make a law that kids 18 and under will not be able to buy cigarettes anymore. They voted 25 to 5 to raise the smoking age to 19 today. I still think that the youngest you should be to smoke is 21. I don't even think you should be able to smoke. My grandpa died because of lung cancer. He stopped smoking, but it was too late, so he died when I was 2 1/2 years old.

I'm happy that they are raising the age to 19 because usually there's only 17 and 18-year-olds in 12th grade. I hope less and less kids start smoking because they might end up like my grandpa.

Low Degree, Lots of Money

I checked out an article on yahoo about jobs that don't require a PhD or law degree but still pay over 100G. It listed jobs for bachelors, masters etc. At the end, it said to go with want you are happy doing. What is the point of making it into a long article when you can make it one sentence? Why would someone take advice from an unknown person anyway? Why wouldn't it be worth the effort to get a PhD? Many of the jobs they listed don't even get $100,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

PS:!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Blagojevich pleads he's innocent

  Blagojevich pleads that he did not try to sell Barack Obama's former Senate seat. He also pleads innocence for racketeering and fraud charges. His attorney spoke with the judge for permission to leave the country to appear on NBC's show called "I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!" where ten celebrities face various challenges in the Costa Rican jungle.

sources: statesmen.com

Poor Actress!-JC

If any of you have heard of the rock star Phil Spector, he was convicted yesterday of murdering an actress. The penalty will be at least 18 years in jail, and the jury took 27 hours to deliberate. Phil is 68 years old, so by the time he gets out of jail, he will be at least 86 years old! I am surprised that a rock star would murder anyone, let alone an actress!

War Can Change, And It Has.

L.T. Cheek and his troops had just climbed up a switchback road towards The Taliban's city, Wanat. Wanat is the location of the bloodiest battle ever fought between the US and Afghanistan since 2004 (trust me, that's saying a lot). Enemy lookouts watched from high ridges. They had devices like walky-talky(s). (Sort of like the "intruder" relay at The Great Wall of China). In the first stage of the war in Wanat, we had a mere 120 soldiers in extremely hostile enemy territory. We had a small outpost in a raging fire of however many Taliban troops there are out there. In the next stage, we will have multiplied the # of U.S. troops by 175(for a total of 21000 soldiers)! A majority of them will stay in the bases being built on the SE edge of Wanat. The dramatic increase in the amount of American troops can effect the behavior of the children and other citizens. It is surprising how much tolerance or intolerance could be shown or how different the same nationality of people can feel. Some children waved, some others stuck their middle fingers up into the air, and some even threw stones. (how abused would would you have to feel to throw a rock at someone holding a gun?!). But stones weren't the worst, there was a woman carrying an assault rifle and a 12 year old boy with a RPG (Rocket Propelled Grenade). It is a sad thing to see a war that has escalated to the point where 12 year olds are throwing RPGs at the U.S. Army.

My Source: NYT  

 

Rocket From North Korea

Today, (4/5/09) North Korea defied the US, China, and some of the United Nations resolutions by launching a missile into space that North Korea said was made for launching satellites into space. Most of the world didn't believe this; we thought it was an attempt to prove that they could launch a long ranged nuke. The three staged rocket flew straight over Japan. To see a rocket fly over you that looked presumably like a nuke is not a very soothing thing to see for a country that had been hit by the only nuclear bombs that have ever been used for military uses.

Source

Is the Ant Dead or Not? By Marielle

"Hey, I'm Dead!"  The Story of the Very Lively Ant

by Robert Krulwich in Krulwich on Science, All Things Considered, April 1, 2009

Have you ever wondered how ants know when other ants are dead?  Well, E. O. Wilson can tell you how.  He figured out that when an ant dies in the colony, if it is not squished, then the other ants just pass by it as if it were a piece of dirt.   This happens for two days, and then the dead ant makes this odor that is very stinky, and so the next ant that passes by notices that that is a problem, picks it up, and brings it to the ant graveyard, which is a pile of dead ants.  

The reason that he started this research is because he knows that most animals do not communicate as humans do.  Humans communicate with talking, seeing, feeling, etc.  But some animals communicate with smelling, touching, echolocation, etc.  But the ant, for one, is smelling.  The ant has little glands and each one has a different smell, so to communicate, instead of talking, they squirt the gland that has a certain smell of what they want to say, and then the other ant immediately knows what she is trying to say.  

Since the ants have a certain smell for things they want to say, Ed Wilson wanted to see if he could make a dead ant smell.  He tried a series of different stenches, and he found that oleic acid was the one.  That alone said to an ant, "I'm dead."  Just for an experiment, Ed Wilson put a few drops of oleic acid onto an ant that so unfortunately walked by.  Right when she went back into the colony, an ant picked her up with her legs kicking wildly around and took her to the giant pile of dead ants and threw her in.  The ant quickly climbed out and bathed herself like a dog.  After a while, she went back into the colony, and pretty soon after that, another ant picked her up and threw her in the pile of dead ants.  The same process happened again an again for about one or two hours, until the ant cleaned herself like crazy and rid herself of the dead stench.  She went back into the colony and everything was fine.  Ed Wilson said he did feel guilty, but he also said that "I was trying to see if I could create the 'Living Dead.'"  

Even though I believe it was a tad cruel to do that to the poor little ant, it was a little bit cool that he could make the ant seem like it was dead to the other ants.    

A New Start

Our president met with the Russian leader Dmitri A. Medvedev. They negotiated a fresh start. They also agreed to work together in the war against Afghanistan. They also talked a lot about arms. Obama pledges to continue his good relationships with other countries. He also met with Queen Elizabeth II. It's good that our president is meeting with other leaders and getting along with them. I hope he continues to do well!

From nytimes

AIG Bailout, Not Bonus

AIG was about to go bankrupt, and they needed a bailout fast. Can you guess who they turned to for money? The government of course. Do you know how AIG used that $165 million? They used the money as bonuses in the employees paychecks and not paying their debts. Now the government is suing AIG for not using their money for paying their debts when they were about to be bankrupt.            

sources: Canada.com