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  Nuclear power, sure, it has it's pros to it - It's a powerful source for electricity, which is also very reliable and affordable. There have only been two accidents, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. While there are benefits to this form of energy, there are also many cons to it as well.

  The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant is a prime example of the irresponsibility's of people when it comes to building the Plants. Wikileaks, a website that's controversial for it's amount of leaked Govt. documents has information stating that these Nuclear power plants were incapable of taking hits from an Earthquake. This was disregarded during the placement of the Nuclear plants. Because of this, Japan has been facing a server pandemic of Nuclear contamination from their drinking water to dairy products, the results of this disregarded concern are still growing in effect.

  Belarus, a country that shares a border with Russia has recently invested their time into creating a Nuclear plant. Belarus is going to use Russian contractors for the creation of their Nuclear Plant. This plant is going to cost 9 billion dollars, which Belarus has gotten on loan from Russia. Belarus will most likely also have nuclear fuel supplied from Russia, and have their nuclear waste will have to be sent to Russia. This makes Belarus dependent on Russia for power, instead of becoming more independent. Their thrive to gain Nuclear Power has put them into a situtation where they’re relying on Russia for an essential, energy. 

    Nuclear Power Plants have the potential for causing massive amounts of destruction. The Chernobyl disaster was a Nuclear Power plant failure that happened in Russia back in the mid 80’s. At this plant, they were testing to see if the turbines in the plant were capable of producing energy. An unexpected incident happened where the plants power went down to less than 1% power. Afterwards, a surge of power came on, and the reactor’s emergency shutdown failed to work. The death tool from this incident is somewhere around 985,000, many suffering from cancer and various defects that were caused after the meltdown. Sudden changes like what happened with Chernobyl’s power, can drastically disrupt a Nuclear Power Plant. The city where Chernobyl Power Plant existed is abandoned now, with no one living there. Currently, it’s a tourist attraction to see the now abandoned city.

  Even though Chernobyl happened over twenty years ago, anything is possible. In France, they have fifty-eight operating nuclear power plants, and they get OVER SEVENTY FIVE PERCENT of their countries power from Nuclear power. If a Nuclear Plant were to face operating issues, or even a meltdown, the results would be critical for the country.  There are many health issues with contact to nuclear radiation, from cancer to birth defects, such as excessive bone growth, organ failure, and the growth of ligaments.

  There are many other options for power, other than Nuclear. For instance, there’s Solar energy, which has become more affordable in recent years. Wind Power,  which works incredibly well in windy areas.  Hydrop-ower, which is powered by damns. Nuclear Power isn’t the only source of energy, and it surely isn’t the safest. We, as people need to use safe sources of energy to not only protect ourselves, but our environment.

The shootings at Columbine high school were blamed on many things. Among drugs, alcohol and mental disorders was the first person shooter video game called Doom. Many people blamed the video game because there was not a lot of drugs or alcohol that showed up on the tests. Bill Manville on NY daily news said “"Doesn’t that sound like they were trying to rack up a record score in some video arcade?" This isn’t a very realistic idea, there is no way that a violent video game can make you think that on your own.

 

Many studies say that when testing violent video games on kids, they test whether the games made kids more violent. Almost all of the studies concluded that the kids who played violent video games became more aggressive after playing them. Many people who play violent video games become more aggressive, but they don’t make you act on these emotions.

 

The reality is that millions of people play violent video games, and there are not millions of school shootings or violent crimes every year, so it cannot be affecting people so much that they want to act on their emotions. Recently, video games have become more popular.  As an article on PBS says, “According to federal crime statistics, the rate of juvenile violent crime in the United States is at a 30-year low." This combined with the fact that many of the other studies only said that the people playing violent video games only became more aggressive supports the idea that it makes people more aggressive, but they don’t act.

 

Violent video games do make people more aggressive, but they don’t act on these emotions. If the violent video games were having such an impact so that they made the kids to things like the columbine shootings, then there would be a lot more juvenile violent crimes. The study was only for the United States, but these statistics could be different for other parts of the world. A lot of these studies are not 100% accurate because they don’t account for everything in the game players life. This is almost impossible to do, so the data will never be completely correct for these kinds of studies.

 

The shootings at Columbine or any other school shootings are not majorly caused by the kids playing video games. Many people try to blame video games because they are something that many people can easily put the blame on, even though according to PBS 83% of video games that kids shouldn’t be playing are bought by their parents. Less of the blame should be put on video games, and more on other factors like illegal substances, or mental problems.

 

Overall many people find that violent video games are something easy to blame problems on. In fact the video games do make the players more aggressive, but not as violent. Although violent video games do hold some blame in violence today, there are many other factors such as drugs, alcohol, or mental problems that contribute to this violence more than violent video games.

​ Is the U.S. a helping hand?

 Does the U.S. actually help when it says its helping? Or do they do what ever they can to help? Let me explain. In the recent news the revolution in Libya has received some help from the United States and the United Nations.  Lately, they bombed government factories and government hangers hoping to stop Qadaffi’s reign of terror.  They hoped to give the rebels an edge on the government forces since they are barley making any headway. Many think this is going way to far to try to help the people of Libya.  Many more think this is exactly what is needed to stop him.  Is the U.S. helping the people Libya? Or are they helping their suffering?

 

The U.S. in particular has been in question of whether or not its actually helping when it says its “helping”.  Foreign Aid’s objective is to benefit countries by volunteering goods and services.  According to globalissues.org, in 1970 “the world’s richest countries agreed to give 0.7% of their gross national income as official international development aid, annually”.  Many of the countries in this agreement do not meet with this criterion.  As of 2009 the U.S. has been giving 0.2% of their gross income. Although, this does not meet the requirements the U.S is ahead 15 million dollars on other countries. 

 

In January 2010 a devastating 7M earthquake hit Haiti. Of course being the kind country that we are we sent 10,000 troops in the next few days following the earthquake.  Our Military leaders were too interested in securing the island to send groups like the Red Cross overseas first.  According to Slate, a news website, “Aid flights from Mexico Russia and France were refused to land” on the 18^th of January.  It took convincing from the U.N. to let airdropped aid reach Haitian soil.  Lt. General of the U.S. southern command told Associated Press “It is calm at this time”.  If it was calm couldn’t the forces be more directed toward giving aid to people?

 

Three weeks ago a 9M earthquake hit Japan followed by a ruinous wall of water that crippled the entire coastline up to 6 miles inward.  Since Japan is an important ally to the U.S., a relief effort was made to help the people of Japan bounce back from this two part natural disaster.  20,000 troops were sent to Japan.  Some of the 20,000 Marines cleared the Sendai airport, the biggest regional city hit by these calamities.  Now airplanes with supplies can land and deliver aid. "But I still have reservations about having U.S. troops in Japan. ... I'm happy today, and I appreciate their help, but it doesn't fundamentally change the way I feel", says Yoko Hiraoka from STL today.  Even though the U.S is making a good effort to get supplies there, their presence holds tensions of conflict.

 

            With all this evidence before us can we make a definitive judgment? The U.S. feels obligated to help other countries even if the ties with them are bad.  The U.S. makes mistakes by over estimating the problems, like what happened in Haiti, and tries to not show them. All in all, this help is great for countries that need support in times of need.  It shows decency to help Japan even though the ties are bad.  Just sometimes the U.S. goes about this wrongly but never the less it is help and it is needed.  Even though it doesn’t seem beneficial it actually is helping a lot, more than we know or think. 

​Here it is!

My old region was South America and my current region is Southeast Asia. The countries that I chose to work on in this project were Peru and Thailand. I picked these because they are both in very different parts of the world, but they have a few similarities. My process could have been better. I pretty much started working on this project on Sunday night. I completed my research on Monday, I wrote what I had to say last night, and then this morning I put it all together. I thought that this was a pretty straightforward project that wasn't too hard to do. There were some things that were harder to find information about than others. For example, it was not very hard to find information on Climate Change and Environmental Damage, but it was kind of hard to find information about Hostile Neighbors. If I could change one thing about it, I think I would make it into something more interesting like a movie. The information I have on my keynote is good I think, but it isn't very exciting and it could be a little bit more so.

​        Every morning I wake up at 6:30 a.m. and get ready for school. I am in tenth grade and everyday I dread this activity so much. But these feeling for an American teenager are normal. I have heard every kid in my class talk about how they much rather be home then be in school. Honestly, doesn’t everyone feel this way? Would you pick writing a paper or going to school over watching cartoons or a baseball game? Americans are lucky though, yet they don’t act like it. Do they understand that they seriously have it made?

 

            Look at the facts, In South America on average a child has fourteen years of formal education, but in Africa on average a child has four years of formal education. Ten years. Kids go to school for ten years less in Africa then they do in South America. Think, how much less would you know if you took away ten years of your education? In Africa they spend on average $48 US dollars annually per child where globally there is on average $629 US dollars spent per child for education annually. India spends 3.3% of its GDP on education while on average developed countries spent 5.8%.

 

            Since America spends the most on education, you would think they have the best students because of the amount of possible opportunities, right? In reality, the national drop out rate is 31%, 31 students out of every 100 drop out and never even get a high school diploma. That averages out to about 7,000 students that drop out of school each year in the United States. Our country spends so much money on education that other countries don’t have and our kids are just deciding not to attend?

 

            In China before 1949, the literacy rate was 20% of its people, but today they have a rate of 99% of their youth can read and write. In about 60 years China has increased their literacy rate by almost 70% and yet America can’t even seem to keep more then 75% of their kids in school until the end of senior year.

 

            In Afghanistan less then one third of the people are literate, but just this past month President Hamid Karzai, tried working things out with the Taliban. He and his men are having talks with them about creating peace for the schools in the war torn country. One of the people quoted in the recent articles said, "We are not afraid of guns and bombs, but don't burn the schools of your sons. Don't burn the schools of your daughters." Afghanistan is in a war state and yet the death of their selves is not the first thing on their mind, their ability to be educated is.

 

            We have countries struggling and can barely put out money for education, others that are fighting as hard as possible with their life on the line to maybe get education for their children, and some lucky countries that have climbed the mountain of hard ache and are still trailing along strong, and yet the one country that has it easy, can’t even have the honor of giving 80% of the country a high school education. Now explain it to me, to the whole world, how does that make sense? Why can’t we mange to make kids want have an education? There are kids dying to go to school and America has kids that decide not to go. The honor of education is placed in front of them and yet they aren’t able to look at it and be grateful enough to accept it and treasure it with their hearts. 

“Cannabis, what is that?” some people ask. Okay, how about Marijuana? Are the first things that come to your mind images of hippies and giggling potheads? If it is, then you need to turn your view around. The Marijuana Cannabis Hemp plant may just be the miracle that this world needs.

 “The War on Drugs.” This “war” started in 1969, and since then has cost the government (and American tax payers) more than 2.5 trillion dollars. Last year they spent over 15 billion dollars on the “war.” A little over 400,000 people have been arrested for drugs offenses this year. Half of them were arrested for Cannabis.

 Around the 1950’s marijuana laws were set into effect targeting the Mexican-Americans and other minorities. The media campaign that followed it was full of twisted truths and a plethora of lies. Movies like “Reefer Madness” were part of this campaign and delivered a false message that using marijuana would drive people crazy. The attack on Cannabis was full of racial hate and greed. Harry J. Anslinger, head of the DEA, made multiple racial and inappropriate comments. He used scare tactics by telling the public that “you would become violent and attack white women,” and “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”

 Drugs are put into different schedules. Each schedule is how helpful the drug is medicinally. The first schedule means there is no medical help from the drug and the higher the schedule the more it does help. Cocaine is in schedule two. It used to be used to numb gums at the dentist and in liquid form would stimulate your eyes at the optometrist. Marijuana is in schedule one meaning no good uses have been found for it by the Federal Government (yet). This means they are obviously ignoring the fact that many people self medicate with marijuana every day to calm pain arthritis, nerve damage, chemotherapy, etc. Tests have been done proving that it slows cancer, lowers blood pressure, and for some patients, it’s very much needed. A patient with Multiple Schlerosis who would shake so much he could not talk, after self-medicating, he was able to calm down and have a full conversation without shaking.

 The Declaration of Independence, something you learn about in grade school, was drafted on hemp paper as most paper during this time was written on hemp. There are many products that hemp can make and the materials that it makes are ten times better then the competing products such as paper, cloth, pasta, milk, lip balm, and all types of oil. Hemp is a different type of cannabis then marijuana and you cannot get high off of it because there is no THC (Tetra Hydra Cannibunal) in the plant. Hemp was grouped in with cannabis because it is 99% the same plant except that it does not produce THC. This coupled with the fact that paper and fuel companies were losing money to the products that could be generated from the hemp plant.

 I could go on for pages about the Marijuana Cannabis Hemp plant. This plant is powerful and helpful. Yet we label it with terror and hate. The main thing is that this plant is getting a hard time because of ignorance and non-acceptance. 

​Prostitution goes on throughout the world. In some cultures and countries it is considered to be okay, however in the majority of the United States it is considered to be “not okay” and there for is illegal. It is still done however; it is done because people need jobs and if a person is really that in need of a job they will go to the lengths of selling themselves for sex in order to live. I don’t feel as though this should be kept from a person when it could be the only way they can survive.

            Cigarettes are a suicidal tool, nothing different then a razor against your skin. Yet, currently in the United States there are 3.4 million high school students smoking their lives away. Cigarette smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke result in approximately 443,000 premature deaths per year. This is something that is killing millions of people and yet it is legal? Why? Because the amount of taxes that the country gets off of tobacco is overwhelming. The state with the highest tax on cigarettes is New York. As of 2009 it was 4.35 dollars. Mix that with all the smokers and you have an immense amount of money. The total annual public and private health care expenditures caused by smoking is 96 billion dollars. That is insane. Cigarettes are a hole in wallets and lungs. Yet prostitution that doesn’t cause any harm is illegal. 

            Alcohol is another razor to the skin. It is an infestation of the liver and has caused a ton of deaths over the years. On October 5^th 2010 the state representative, Brad Bennet, from Delaware was charged for a DUI. This means that he was driving while drunk. A state representative drinking you might ask? Yes, it has not been the first incident like this. People of the law drink, and they drink because it is something they want to do. Brad went on to say, “ The past few months have been very trying for both me and my family dealing with personal issues.” I guess because he is having some problems with his family that everything is just okay. However in a case where Gordon Hintz, a Democrat, paid a $2,032.50 fine because he went to a massage parlor offering prostitution. He wasn’t even accused of using the service yet he got the fine.

Gay marriages have been a huge controversy for years. It is against religions and there for religion is running the government. The government is not allowing to have gays to marry because of “God’s rules.” People that are gay do not cause any harm to people. They do not cause problems and being in a marriage with someone of the same sex does not cause any disturbances. I was once told that a marriage should be between two people that love each other and that will do anything for each other. People who find love in the same sex are not wrong. They have just found something that has made them complete. Something that is hard to come by and taking that away from them because of a religion is absurd. Prostitution is also against religions for having sex before marriage would make you a whore.

            Prostitution is illegal because; you can’t tax it, want triumphs over need, there for the people running the government don’t want it, and finally religious aspects. These things run the government and make something that causes no harm to be illegal.

 

This is my project. Enjoy
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/593217/lbruce_globalization_benchmark.pdf

3/29
Sorry I for got to post about the process I'm making on my story. Well so far I have written everything down so my new story is completed. The part I'm working on at the moment is the media part and it's taking me some time but overall I'm on track.

3/30
I'm so excited because I'm going to Miami for spring break. The truth is I'm going to check out my college choice before making my final decision and sending in my acceptance fee. I'm happy because I'v booked my flight and hotel so I know for a fact that I'm going. Can't wait Miami here I come!!!

"Damn, another 20 missed calls. I love her and I hate her. It's a funny twist y'all."

I am a little behind in starting the benchmark, but I have made a twitter account for the main character in my story. I have not yet  posted anything on twitter at the moment but I will start that tonight. I'm am still trying to figure out how to start the benchmark in terms of what part I should start tweeting from in my story. Th beginning of my story is sort of a flashback and I don't know if I should add that part yet. I still don't know if my benchmark will take longer than the rest of this quarter to finish. I haven't really been focusing on this benchmark as much because I am backed up on a lot of work. Starting tonight I will start to put more of my time into this benchmark so I can have a good finished project. 

​Cruelty Towards Our Heroes

 

"Raise Officer Patrick McDonald, Badge #2831 as 39-Pat-8, please. Radio, 39-Pat-8… Radio, 39-Pat-8… Radio, 39-Pat-8. Radio 39-Eddie there is no response from 39-Pat-8. 39-Eddie, can I get a time check please? WPRW578, the time is 1:00 p.m. and the date is September 23,2008. 39-Eddie, from his Police family, our thanks for a job well done. Radio; take 39-Pat-8 off the board for the last time. Received, thank you. *EMERGENCY TONE* All cars standby unless you have an emergency. Attention all Police, all units be advised at 1:25 p.m. this date, the 22nd District has retired the call sign 39-P (Pat)-8 for the final time. That’s repeating, at 1:25 p.m. this date, the 22nd District has retired the call sign 39-P (Pat)-8 for the final time. WPRW578, the correct time is 1:39 p.m."

 

            What just ran through your head? I’m guessing a lot. When an officer is killed in their line of duty their call sign or car number is retired permanently. That’s what was going on above. Its a tribute because Sgt. Patrick McDonald was killed doing something he loved helping the ones who needed him the most.

 

            Sgt. McDonald was an Officer I knew. He lived in my neighborhood. Every time I would walk by him or see him up Liberty Bell Field he would hold a conversation with me. “Hello, How are you?” or even just a simple, “hello!” He was there for everyone family, friends, or even complete strangers. He died at age 25 being so young, but dying doing something he loved.

 

Not only has this officer or sergeant put his life on the line but many other have done so as well. The only thing is most people do not appreciate what one individual Police officer does for his or her district. The rates of an officer getting shot are rising about 0.02% a year. Yes that might not seem like a lot but its said that officers should always go in knowing you will or might have a gun pointed to you and shot.

 

            Police officers need the attitude of, “were going in alive, and coming out the same way!” The 249 Police officers and Sergeants that were killed in Philly all had that attitude, but lost their job because some loser decides to shoot them for doing their job.

There are a selective few of people in the city or state where a Police officer dies, which do not care. Those select few of people are the type of people who trash talk cops and call them all kind of names such as “pigs”.

 

            What bothers me the most is when I hear teenagers going f*** the Police. Funny thing is that if they were in trouble I’m pretty sure the Police are the first people they will call. The select few of people that do not care about Police are the ones who are cold hearted enough to write on YouTube.com their honest truth on how they don’t like cops. I was reading comments on a tribute to Sgt. McDonald, and read the comment “I smell bacon, I smell pork, and run lil piggy I got a fork!”

 

            The things said about our heroes are wrong. The shootings, killings, and injuries need to be cut. People need to stop aiming weapons at police when they are called on a job to help the city. Officers need to put their foot down and by standers need to grow up. When you see an officer just bow your head in respect and realize what they do for you and your peers. When you hear about a fallen hero appreciate it. Just remember who was the savior for you at one point!

 

 

Click here to view my website.

I did my project on Japan located in East Asia and Australia which is located in Oceania. Furthermore, the process of creating my website was simple. It was difficult to find current reliable resources for Australia for some topics. For Japan, however, there was an abundant of information regarding the 5 point framework.

If I could change one thing about my website, I would add more media including images, videos, podcasts, etc. I feel like that would make the website more appealing to an outside audience and provide viewers with an easy way to digest information.

I enjoyed this project. Considering I am part Japanese, I was very interested in learning more about the country. Even more, I never knew a lot about Australia and this project allowed me to educate myself about the country.

View HERE.

El Salvador, a country from my region to-date, endures hurricanes and suffers from a number of human-induced environmental issues such as: water-pollution and climate change. Indonesia, a country from my previous region, experiences tsunamis (and the like) and deals with water and air pollution. There are many issues within these countries in addition to those that I mentioned. Deforestation is the main environmental commonality between Indonesia and El Salvador. Climate change and environmental damage afflict both countries significantly.

             I began this process by entering all of the guidelines for this project into a word document. I applied the five-point framework to each of the countries and researched information that corresponds to each. The document that I created was consistently referred to throughout this process. Google was of great assistance in acquiring websites that produce information that is essential to understanding and determining the “collapse-ibility” of the countries. I encountered websites like: U.S. Department of State and environmental organizations. The most tedious task, other than using the five-point framework, was settling on an appealing and informational layout. Other steps were to organize, form my bibliography, and incorporate pictures.

             The five-point framework was all of straightforward, difficult and perplexing. Categories (points) like: hostile neighbors and trade partners were open. I did not enjoy wrapping my research around the point framework because some of the information lacked. The process of indentifying recent, accurate sources was frustrating.

             Things I'd Change...I would address the 5 points in further depth. I made some connections to Collapse and mentioned the issues that support each category, but the paragraphs could be longer and more detailed. *The information was still adequate and well presented.

             The project was different, complex, and plenty other things. More time for completion is necessary for this project.

Lebanon vs. Philippines presentation 

Reflection:
The two countries that I decided to focus my benchmark on were Lebanon located in the Middle East and the Philippines located in Southeast Asia. Lebanon is a small country bordered by Syria and Israel. It has a lot of tourism which helps bring most of the money in especially in the capital city Beirut. The Philippines is a country created from groups of 7,107 islands.

The process it took for me to find information about these two countries required a lot of focusing and reading. I needed to receive a lot of my information for both of my countries in order to go in-depth about their situations based on the 5 point framework. Once the information was found I needed to read a lot in order to understand the information and make sure it is enough for me to prove why each country received the rating I gave it. It was also frustrating at times when I thought my writing was either not enough or it was too much because the information for one country was more abundant than the information for another country. 

The 5 point framework was not as difficult as I thought it would be, however it was not straight forward. Some websites such as the CIA WorldFact book gave you the environmental issues, climate change, and everything basically needed of my country. However to back it up I needed to do outside research and some of the frameworks the information was not available or abundant. I think the most difficult framework finding information for was hostile neighbors for the Philippines and Society's response to environmental damage for Lebanon. 


If I could change one thing about my project I would change the way I presented it. I felt the powerpoint was powerful in presentation but could've made the project more eye-catching with pictures and different ways of presenting information. I would also attempt to back up responses a bit more for certain topics of the framework. 
 

 

Here is the link to googledoc on South Africa & Haiti Collapsability.

For my quarter 3 benchmark I chose Haiti and South Africa. After I selected my countries, I decided to do some more basic research on the countries. Then I created a word document where I listed the 5 categories: environmental damage, climate change, trade partners, hostile neighbors and society's response. Under each I listed facts about the topics. Once I had my facts, I began elaborating on findings about the category. It was pretty easy to rate my 5 points. Most of the categories were either really well of or really bad the only one that seemed to be in between were climate change for both I picked 5 for Haiti and South Africa.

I ran into some trouble when I was doing my ratings. I mixed up the difference between 10 and 0 for Hostile Neighbors. I was more focused on the writing aspect of my project than choosing the correct number for my ratings For hostile neighbors 10 = no hostile neighbors and 0 = surrounded on all sides by hostile neighbors. Both countries have few hostile neighbors, Haiti has none because everyone is chipping in to help after the earthquake and South Africa hasn't been in a significant amount of trouble with other countries since the 1980's during the Apartheid.  So Haiti's rating is supposed to be 10 and South Africa's is supposed to be 9. I couldn't make this change in my digital product because it started off as a keynote then I turned it into a movie, for me to go edit this minor error I would have to edit the keynote, export it, re-upload it to school tube, then re-post it to the blogger, which would take an awful long time.

If there was anything I could change about my project, it  would be making sure all of my ratings were correct.

For a comparison between India and Egypt and a detailed review on what causes countries to collapse, click here.

 

            Pow! Pow! Pow! Gun shoots rang in the East Wing of the school building. For the past 50 years, school shootings have happened all over the US. The first shooting was reported in 1966 at the University of Texas. By the end of the shooting, there were 16 victims. What inside gets people so angry that they want to shoot their peers? People are bullied almost every second of the day, but to open fire on people at school is no excuse. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

            In some cases, these shootings are accidents. People might carry the firearms for protection because they live in really horrible neighborhoods. When that happens  some students carry the guns in the backpacks, resulting in the gun discharging when the student sits their bag down. If that happens clearly the student did not intend on anyone in school getting hurt. This happened at Gardena High School in Los Angeles, CA. This is the most recent school shooting in the US taking place on January 8, 2011. The firearm was in the 17-year-old childs book bag when it went off. This left 2 students wounded, and now the teen is being tried as an adult for assault with a deadly weapon. He has a history of being bullied so he carried the gun for that, but had no intentions on using it in school.

            The city of Los Angeles as a large community can’t watch every student in each school. On the other hand they can get their school security system together. A school official said that over 3000 students attend Gardena High School. The security there uses a handheld metal detector on each student as they enter the school building, so it is very easy for a student to slip pass security with a weapon. Assuming this a pretty large building, there will be multiple entrances to the building. Therefore there should be security with handheld metal detectors on each entrance so it is much easier to catch a student with a weapon.

            Is Philly next? With all the shootings we have outside of school for fights that happen in school, you never know. One day someone is going to walk into a Philadelphia high school and open fire. So far there has been 4 school shootings in the state of Pennsylvania. There’s only a matter of time before the fifth one happens, and no one knows where in Pennsylvania it will be. 

            Some TV shows base episodes on school violence, and some movies are based on school violence. They want to express the fact that you shouldn’t bully people, shoot up your school, and commit random acts of violence in school. They want to keep things like that out of the school community. Now that doesn’t mean it’s ok to go outside and do the same thing. It’s not ok, and it can lead you down the wrong road in life.

         The US is supposed to be the land of the free. It can be that when you have people shooting each other in school, or bullying one another, or even cursing each other out. Not everyone is going to get along, but when you meet someone new, get to know him or her first because they might being going through the same things as you. If you don’t take the initiative to do that, it shows how much of a coward you are. You’re not fooling anyone but yourself.

School shootings are 100% preventable because the person getting ready to blast the school can make the decision to stop and walk away. It’s just a matter of if that person cares enough to. If you are a victim or suspect of school violence then you need to talk to someone and get immediate counseling. No one ever wants to be the one getting picked on, but it happens and life goes on. It takes one person to be that change, so why not be them?

    We’ve all heard the phrase “Life’s not fair”, and it’s true! The same commercial to help desperate children comes up with the same 1-800 number everyday. For the small child in Africa it’s not fair. For the kid working in a sweatshop to make those clothes you’re wearing it’s not fair. For the guy waiting in-line at the store with his groceries it’s not fair. Go up to anyone in this planet and ask them what’s fair and not. Many responses you would get are insignificant, while other ones are the reason the world is the way it is.
   
    You have two kinds of people in this world that determine how it’s ran. The people with power and the people without power. And there has always been a conflict between these two since the beginning of the term “leader”. They are like your “Spy vs. Spy” and “Tom and Jerry”, everyone has seen them.

Ladies and gentlemen, here are your fighters:

    On this corner we have the stereotypical money making tycoon everyone wishes to be, the guy that owns the company that manufactured your TV, computer, phone, or ipod (or all of the above). Variants of this opponent include government officials, or anyone with the power to impact the world directly. 
    On the other corner is everybody else. By everybody I mean the electrician, the baker, the gardener, the candle stick maker (we have machines for that now), you know... everybody! Yes, you and I are in there too.
There’s an advantage to being “everybody else”... we’re not alone. Without you there’s nothing. Why do you think voting is such a big deal? The people have so much power, we don’t know it. There’s always going to be a power that is going to take advantage of our numbers and make money in his/her pocket, while we are left with the leftovers of society. We let the system classify us by the money we get from our backbreaking jobs. Low class, middle class, upper class, what is that all about? Is the person who makes 10x more money than my own father automatically a better person?
    The problem in the United States is how we run this country. I can assure you that there are countless things going on behind our backs. And they are things the people as a whole can fix. When “We the people” was written in the United States’s constitution, it was a vow to make things better as a whole country. We could go for a  social-political view like Marxism or such, that can give the people actual power in their government. Many of them are possible solutions to inequality in the world. Too many beliefs and righteousness is in jeopardy for other people for them to agree with this. All of us have to represent the equality of us all. I don’t want to be judged by the color of my skin, where I live, or how much money my parents make. I want to be judged by the things I do around me. That’s certainly not what’s happening around us. We the people of the United States of America won’t be looked as profit for others, but a representation of how a society can work as a whole, co-operating.

Yesterday I was on the phone with Verizon customer service for 40 minutes. My mom made me call them because she is very impatient and quickly losses her temper on the customer service people. I on the other hand I feel bad for the people working there and am very polite and patient with them. People take there frustrations out on them, when there anger usually stems from their internet or cable connections. Nobody likes calling customer service because they are pissy and there problems, on many occasions, are not resolved, however this was not the case for me. Customer service fixed my internet connection problem and said they would be sending me a new router for free in the next two days. This was my biggest success this week.

World War 3.

You ever about if there will be a third world war? Well, maybe it’s in motion.  There’s a little place in North African, called Tunisia. A little vendor burned himself alive, and put in motion what could be the third world war. After the revolution in Tunisia happened, there was one in Egypt that was monumental, another uprising in Syria, and an uprising in Libya. In Libya fighting has broken out and the US has intervened, we can expect them to intervene in the Syrian situation as well. This could bring another war into affect, because of the positioning and the importance of Syria if The United States tries to intervene Iran, will step in, then causing another world war. To say that this isn’t bad for the United States, because war produces money, like in factories and produces jobs. 

Tunisia is where this all started, a street vendor. He went to college in Tunisia, but with Tunisia’s horrible economy he didn’t find a good enough job, so he had to sell fruit. “There were too many smart young people and too little jobs in Tunisia” Says Kim Marzouk. Who lived in Tunisia for the first 25 years of his life before coming to America.

In Egypt, the situation has calmed down to where they’re rebuilding their government. There military is in powerful, but a slip, and we could see something like what happened in Haiti? 

There has been tension between the United States and the Middle East for years, and this is just something to maximize that violence.

This is what America need. In the 1950’s America was facing hard times, they entered World War 2, which brought money to the United States. Money comes in from factories that make weapons of war like tanks, guns, warplanes and ammunition.  

If you think about what’s really good for our country this would be it But, it could also good for our enemy countries. Iran’s nuclear presence worries the United States, and an engage of the United States into Syria could prompt Iran into declaring war which will prompt all of The United States alleys to invade, like Poland, Qatar, Norway, Spain, and many more.

All and all. This might be a long shot, because the United States could be fearful to tamper with Syria because of the Situation it has with other Middle Eastern countries could prompt a nuclear war. My Parents have inside knowledge about the situation, and they agree. “If American touches Syria, then Iran will declare war, we will see action from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and his group, which will prompt other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, like Al-qudia. 

All in all, this might be the worst thing that could come from all of this, war, death and destruction. But, in the long run, it might be helpful for the United States.