Jihad Jane *Class Discussion*

During class we watched a clip about Jihad Jane and her side of the story (interview). She was an agent for the US but married an American man to be able to become a US citizen. Now that we figured this out, the US people have been against her thinking she's a terrorist.
It's sad because now if you have some type of connection to the Middle East then you're automatically thought of as a terrorist or even shunned because of what certain people in that area are doing.

Dieting and better bodies

So All this week I've been crazy about eating healthier and just better in general but I find that dieting in cutting foods and eating certain things isn't helpful or key. You can't like your plan or even stay true to it if you are craving foods that you love but can't eat.
I've been trying to exercise regularly but with eating healthyer I seem to be eating more and having less self control over my eating. Also it seems like I've been getting thicker during the week.
Diets don't work right for certain if not most people and the keys to getting a nice bod is drinking tons of water, eating at the proper times ( big breakfast, medium sized lunch, and small dinner which should be before 7). The Americans seem to have the schedule backwards.

Smoking in Russia

There has been arise in cancer due to the increase of smokers. The percentage of adults and even teens smoking in Russia has increased dramatically over the course of time and now the Russian government it raising the prices on ciggarettes and trying to use anti-tobacco billboards around Moscow to down the percentage.
I think it's sad that tobacco products have a grip on so many people in all places of the world. I know people in school around me who use tobacco products and even worse and most likely it's going to change the society even more and soon cancer and different issues will be shown more clearly instead of being kept on the low. It's very sad though that a lot of people are getting into pointless things like that and ruining their lives most likely.

*Class Discussion* Propper Educuit

Today we started talking about how it's rude to wear a hat inside any building or even a place covered by anything. One of our classmates was talking about how when he's wearing a uniform for CAP he always takes his hat off during those times.
We also talked about using foul language. It's rude and now that I think about it we all use foul language too much. And another thing is that we use it in front of our superiors. It's rude and it'll probibly get worse with time.

Class Discussion 3/22/10 Health foods in School

As said in a previous blog the school food system has changed over the years. Now the lunches provided for us all is meant to feed us 'better' but really it's just getting more expensive and we're not getting enough food.
What we talked about in class is how this isn't a smart way to prevent obesity because students just go home and pig out defeating the purpose of this system of 'health foods'.
I think that if they need to keep the pricing and eat healthier then they should buy fresh produce and make fresh foods instead of buying frozen or premade foods.

*China Getting Hit by Sandstorms*

China got hit on saterday through sunday by a sandstorm from Mongolia and now their air is poluted. The view inside the city of Bejing is to about 3,000 yards as a visual.
I think this is important because I never heard of sandstorms happening in china. Also it helps me to be more knowledgable about the world and how the climates and storms and how it effects the people of those areas.

Volcano eruption in Iceland

On march 21 a volcano in Iceland erupted and the surrounding area was evacuated. There was no injury or death so everyone was safe but it makes me think about the earthquakes we've been getting through the earth. Either I've been hearing more about them or they've been increasing and if it's the second then that's a bit scary.

Food there not here

I've lived in the south and north of the USA and have noticed that it's harder to find more global foods up north whether it be a chain for fast food or store bought foods.
Up north we have to drive miles to the nearest city or oriental mart in order to buy foods where as in the south they're more numerous.
Maybe it's because there aren't as many Asians (which is what I'm mostly referring to) up north as there are in the south.

Education In the USA - Class Discussion-

During yesterdays class we were talking about issues and happenings in the USA and also relating them to other countries. Something though that caught my attention was education.
I think that education should be for everyone but I also think that our system should be similar to Japan's system. They have to take enterance exams and apply to the school of their choosing with would seperate the classes into the hard working and the middle and the people who don't really care. Even though this is sort of unfair to some by not exactly making everyone equal I think it'd be better to be in a school with the people on your level or who ALL care.
I also like the way China's system is. Their schooling is split up into two different types which are a sort of tech school and regular educational school. But also the way of how they throw the poor and such into tech is unfair.
We should have a sort of system where we can seperate students into the schools by 1) knowledge, 2) common sense, and 3) drive.
It would be more expensive and people would probibly argue but it would be a better system and more beneficial to most.

Health change in schools

The schools in the US are changing their menus to 'heathy food'. But is it really effective?
Personally I've stoped buying school lunches but when I did I usually went home and pigged out on junk food. I don't think this health change is worth it. It costs more and we get less food. Also It doesn't make us healthier it made me feel really bloated.
Our school lunch system isn't really working and just costs more money so I think they need to take a new approach such as actually taking the time to find out a more healthy balanced lunch as well as giving a proper PE education.

New School Schedule

I have been hearing about getting a new school schedule all week and about how other countries have longer days and more days. I used to have a penpal in Russia who only had Sunday off and had school all day including a ton of homework that would take up most of her time. The Japanese go to school longer and are extremely dedicated to schoolwork and have a system that helps the more intellegent/ harder working students to get into better school.
Even though the education in Hawaiian public schools isn't very good they have year round school which probibly helps them.
I think we shouldn't get rid of summer but maybe make the days a bit longer or somehow find a different way to teaching that will hit home with every student.
I also think that we should have a system where every student goes out of country as a foregin exchange student at least once before their graduation. Why do this? Because people need to better understand the cultures and peoples of other lands. We should be able to make connections in other countries and also learn how to cope and work with other cultures.
The american mind doesn't always think outside its borders but I think we all need to. Also we need to have the students see how different things can be in other places. I think that then students would be more interested in school and understand how the world works and understand the winds of change.

Can music Cause a person to act a certain way?

If you walk through a gym of people you could most likely find every type of music on the planet in that room liked. But could you actually 'steriotype' and pick out the people who listen to a certain type of music?
Not everyone dresses and acts like their music choice but a lot do. Such as goth (nothing against them but they're the easiest to use). Goth is normall associated with metal at medium levels, emos would be looked at to listen to depressing slower metal... You could split people into so many different categories. But you can't always tell who's a lover of different musics.
I listen to everything but I like dance and metal the best but many people claim that they'd never see me as the person to listen to metal.
It's not right for people to steriotype music groups but sometimes it's hard to not do. We should try to stop steriotyping but it's harder and harder to stop because new groups are emurging so the world is splitting more and more on that way.

Does culture have too much effect or not enough?

I for one am proud to say I am Japanese but some others would not even think about it. Yes that's ok to just not make a big deal but also it's important to keep the cultural diversity instead of just ignoring it. But it's not a beneficial thing if people take it far enough to reach racism.
I think we should all have a sort of cultural day in the schools of the US and be able to show off our ethnicity and enjoy our ancestory for a day. It'd be fun and even educational.

*NASA- are they telling us everything?*

People have been asking the same question for years whether or not NASA is being honest with the united states about their projects and studies and I posted an opinion question on yahoo this week about what others thought about it. Most of the answerers had a good aurgument about the case. Most however said that they are public about everything since funding is important and will only happen if the peopl find their projects interesting and such.
Some people seem to still think about the Roswell case and about how they found aliens and saucers and different things like that but haven't told us yet.
I believe they may have a bit more advanced technology and such that they are working on but I don't believe they're hiding something extremely huge like stargate. There's benefits and malefactors about telling the people everything. They may either take it wrong or just have a fit with whatever.
I think NASA's doing a great job with watever is going on now.

Nocturnal and daywalking students

I'm actually sitting in bed at 1 in the morning taping away on my itouch (which is super useful) trying to get math and other homework finished because I've been stressed all week and have a bad habit of doing homework at night. A lot of students seem to be doing this more often and you can find people logged into facebook chat in the begining of the night/morning. I of course am one of them righ now but lately with teenage issues I've been really off. Plus the snow days our school has been having are screwing most of us up. Our schedules are warped and our work is all due on different dates.
Yes the fact that half of us are just up doing homework is our fault more then half of the time but how can we fix our schedules and habits so quickly?
We all should either lengthen the day by an hour or so so that we could have a sort of free period or have no homework but work a lot harder in school. Of course I talk from a students point of view but I think it'd be better for most.

Earthquakes Increase

The amount of earthquakes has been increasing and decreasing but the amount of earthquakes worldwide this year ALONE has been 2080. Last year we ended with 14,788 earthquakes. In 2008 the amount of earthquakes was 31,777!
Yes the number of earthquakes increase and decrease but the amount of earthquakes seems to be increasing and we still have nine months left. Also the death toll this year (3 months) is almost the highest of every other year of the 2000's. The death toll is 222,531 this year and bound to increase where as last year was 1787.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/year/eqstats.php

The Victem of Rape at Fault?

A girl wearing what most teens wear (wild shirts, dark eye makeup) works at her mother’s diner and asks an old woman if she'd like ketchup. The woman turns to her and says "even though nothing is showing, you're being ungodly. You make men want to be sinful." The Old woman hands the girl a pamphlet and she looks at it. It reads "Woman & Girls" and talks about how it's not only man's fault that some rape girls because the girls are provoking them with their clothing.
Rapes occur to people from ages 2-92+. So technically this assumption could be incorrect. It may have some play in rapes because teens have less concealing clothing and can be unintelligent in situations that lead to Rape but when Christians give out handouts like that it's wrong and not intelligent.
They need to just find out who started this and find all the people who agree and have a sort of debate about this and have both sides talk about it and acknowledge all the points.

http://www2.tricities.com/tri/news/local/article/blame_the_victim_religious_leaflet_claims_ungodly_dressed_women_provoke_rap/42253/

Shorter days from Chile

The destructive 8.8 Earthquake in Chile had the world worrying due to deaths and Tsunami's but I didn't expect to find out that that 8.8 Earthquake has sped up the velocity of the earth.
Now the speed has moved 2.7 millarcseconds which will make the days shorter.
In 2004 there was a 9.1 earthquake that sped up the rotation of earth by 6.8 microseconds.
It seems like the amount of natural disasters is increasing over the years and some time (thousands of years from now) the earth might be changed too much for us to live properly.

"NASA: Chile Quake Shifted Earth's Axis, Shortened Day - AOL News." Top News and Analysis From AOL News. Web. 02 Mar. 2010. .

*New Orlean back on their feet?*

On august 29, 2005 hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans with devistating force causing a massive flood and a lot of people to die. Naturally we expect ourselves to help one another and heal ourselves before we play as a savior for another country. But in this case the united states didn't offer as much help as New Orleans needed.
It's been close to five years after and we still rarely hear about how they are doing. They have built up their city again and are back in action but it seems like the number of murders and murderers and robbers and such have gone up. All over the New Orleans news paper I saw tons of articles about how someone's going to jail for something or how the people are still trying to find murderers and about people being shot. They may have built their city back up but they have deffinatly lowered themselves morally to the ground.
The levees were the reason why hurricane Katrina destroyed as much as it did. They were made for 3 point storms which wasn't strong enough and the design was poor. After the hurrican the people built it up again. But exactly how it was before. They should have changed the style of the levees because the previous style obviously didn't work and they are still too weak if some disaster comes up in that area again.

Russia in Olympics

The Russian's didn't seem to do so well in the winter Olympics this year and is going home with only 5 silver and 7 bronze medals. Russia was in 11th place for the gold medals table for the Olympics and was overshadowed by Canada, 13 gold medals, South Korea, 6 gold medals, and China, 5 gold medals.
Since the 1960’s Russia had been dominating in figure skating and ice hockey but this year those two was their weakest link.
The athletes were complaining about how they don't have some of the materials and places needed to practice certain sports such as Luge. They don't have a proper track for it and the sleds needed for the sport cost about $100,000 out of the users pocket and the materials are hard to find as well as the person who makes them.
Figure skater, Irina Rodnina, complained to the heads of the Olympic committee about the funding and ways of training and such.
Russia's ruler Medvedev was going to travel to Vancouver for the closing ceremony but he canceled due to Russia's poor performance which embarrassed him.

I think that Russia should just be happy for now with what they have. I have heard a lot about how the Russian's are very hard core about things and can't stand to lose but they worked hard and maybe over did practicing. They should be happy with what they got because not everyone can be a professional at what they do. They'll probably come back next year double the force.
Also maybe the people complaining might be able to convince the Olympic committee to change a few things about their training, funding, and facilities.
I wish them luck in their routines and practices over the next period of time until the next Winter Olympics.

"Russia Suffers Its Worst-Ever Olympics | Olympic Coverage | The Moscow Times." Main page | The Moscow Times | Daily newspaper. Web. 01 Mar. 2010. .