Earth

1.       Earthquakes felt around the world

Just over 2,000 homes were rendered uninhabitable in parts of western Turkey by a 5.9 magnitude temblor that killed three people late on May 19^th. Two of the fatalities and many of the nearly 200 injuries around Kutahya province were blamed on shoddy construction. It would be frustrating and very nerve racking to realize that the area where you live is overall not safe due to the construction of the town which is out of your hands. Hopefully, with the new technology in architecture throughout the world, the reconstruction in Turkey will be more positive for the safety of the people. Elsewhere: Earth movements were also felt in New Zealand’s Christchurch aftershock zone, southern Sumatra, the northern Philippines, northeastern Japan, Rwanda and the San Francisco Area. Hopefully, people are aware of the natural disasters throughout the world and thus come together to help people in need. Be aware of the amount of earthquakes and also from this information be prepared for anything.

My Fans

Sorry for the hold up, my email has been down for quite a long time, and gmail would not allow me to login into my blogger account without resending a confirmed email. Sorry, my whopping two followers, I just wanted you to know that I did not forget about you. Blog on.

Fools

           Don't let people bring you down. I constantly have to remind myself that whenever certain people come back into my life. My feelings may be more exaggerated than the others around me, but I can't help the fact that I closely relate my emotions to others. I'm saying that positive and negative people both affect my emotions equally when said persons are around; I have always been able to feel the energy someone gives off when they are around me. Now I'm not trying by any means to sound like some pathological weirdo... I'm just saying that I know instinctively who is genuinely positive or negative as most people can. Anyways, the emotions they give off affect me immediately at the time and I really take it personally. It's kind of like the minor character in the novel Thousand Cranes by Kawabata. The protagonist, Kikuji, refers to the antagonist as a poison, setting off her venom every time she interferes in his life. Now this character is not as one would think - she is an average woman who was with his father and also who stays around to keep tradition in Kikuji's life. Despite this, she negatively affects his life which ultimately destroys his relationships suggesting that negativity comes in all forms. So, just because someone, anyone is a negative in your life don't let said person be the poison in your life. Put yourself in a position to only be surrounded by positive people because I know that overall your life will be positively affected just by seeing them. Don't let outside people hinder your happiness when you can do something about it. In the end, just make sure your a positive person without letting someone hinder your life.

   An excerpt from Irish Times interviewed this young man's sister stating:"The cart had been his livelihood for years, as he could not find a job after finishing his education, his 19-year-old sister, Samia, explains. 'The whole family is unemployed . . . Mohamed’s dream was to buy a car – not for pleasure, but a van to help the family,' she says as we chat near the white stuccoed family home just outside town. 'He was always laughing. He liked his work a lot, despite his difficulties.'”


            It is evident that they are poor and depended on this young man to provide for them. When the police came to the street where his cart was set up, they took away his cart. Frustrated, the young man pleaded for them give back his cart if stopped selling his products on the street until he got a permit. The men ignored him and took the young man's only lively hood away from him. In desperation, the young man went to the governor's office to protest and plead for his cart. No one would listen let alone acknowledge him yelling in front of the building. In complete desperation, the young man took the gallon canister of gasoline he brought with him, poured it over his body, and set himself on fire to burn in front of the office. This was the last straw for the people; the start of a revolution - even though this was not the first violent protest which was evident against the government. The young man did not die there, he was hospitalized suffering  third degree burns all over his body. He died three weeks after the incidence.


                It is a strong message portrayed by the 'burning man', one which should be told at least once to everyone so they can understand why there are new protests and revolutions in Africa. It is not because they decided they do not like their governments anymore, randomly one day, but because they have been suffering for decades with no hope for a future. The burning man is a shocking reminder of how desperate these people have become in order to get their governments to listen to them and also change their governments objectives to benefit the people. Enough is enough, and I hope that with all this effort, the people of these deprived nations will gain a government and lifestyle they deserve to live peacefully once again. The burning man will not have suffered and died for nothing.
                I hope you gain a better understanding of what the people throughout Africa are going through today.

Technical Difficulties

I don't know what went wrong with my last blog post but the words on the last half did not show up so here is the last part of my last blog... sorry my two followers

   An excerpt from Irish Times interviewed this young man's sister stating:"The cart had been his livelihood for years, as he could not find a job after finishing his education, his 19-year-old sister, Samia, explains. 'The whole family is unemployed . . . Mohamed’s dream was to buy a car – not for pleasure, but a van to help the family,' she says as we chat near the white stuccoed family home just outside town. 'He was always laughing. He liked his work a lot, despite his difficulties.'”


            It is evident that they are poor and depended on this young man to provide for them. When the police came to the street where his cart was set up, they took away his cart. Frustrated, the young man pleaded for them give back his cart if stopped selling his products on the street until he got a permit. The men ignored him and took the young man's only lively hood away from him. In desperation, the young man went to the governor's office to protest and plead for his cart. No one would listen let alone acknowledge him yelling in front of the building. In complete desperation, the young man took the gallon canister of gasoline he brought with him, poured it over his body, and set himself on fire to burn in front of the office. This was the last straw for the people; the start of a revolution - even though this was not the first violent protest which was evident against the government. The young man did not die there, he was hospitalized suffering  third degree burns all over his body. He died three weeks after the incidence.


                It is a strong message portrayed by the 'burning man', one which should be told at least once to everyone so they can understand why there are new protests and revolutions in Africa. It is not because they decided they do not like their governments anymore, randomly one day, but because they have been suffering for decades with no hope for a future. The burning man is a shocking reminder of how desperate these people have become in order to get their governments to listen to them and also change their governments objectives to benefit the people. Enough is enough, and I hope that with all this effort, the people of these deprived nations will gain a government and lifestyle they deserve to live peacefully once again. The burning man will not have suffered and died for nothing.
                I hope you gain a better understanding of what the people throughout Africa are going through today.

The Burning Man Revolution

            I myself, along with many other people who follow the news, wondered what started the radical rebellion in a majority of African countries. Well, I asked my parents, and after that I looked online to find any online articles for information to support the facts; what I found was shocking. Here's where the story begins... A young man who was born and raised in a small town near central Tunisia was working on the street selling food like he had for years. This was a common occupation for many men and their families in Tunisia, not by choice though. In Tunisia, and many other countries in Africa, dictatorships governing the nations have been depriving their people of almost all necessities to survive. Majority (and even more) of the population in Tunisia are simply dirt poor; they have nothing but their families; they work for hours upon hours just to have food at the end of the day. It's a lot different than how people in the U.S. live. The young man was no different than the majority of his people. Because all these people are so poor due to the corruption within their government, almost all food carts are set up without a permit; permits are expensive, and people have to move on from this law to make money. The dictator, Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali, had been in control of the country for over twenty-three years and sent many of his police officers to go into the streets to find any illegal events so more money can be collected for the government.

             An excerpt from Irish Times interviewed this young man's sister stating:
"The cart had been his livelihood for years, as he could not find a job after finishing his education, his 19-year-old sister, Samia, explains. 'The whole family is unemployed . . . Mohamed’s dream was to buy a car – not for pleasure, but a van to help the family,' she says as we chat near the white stuccoed family home just outside town. 'He was always laughing. He liked his work a lot, despite his difficulties.'”


            It is evident that they are poor and depended on this young man to provide for them. When the police came to the street where his cart was set up, they took away his cart. Frustrated, the young man pleaded for them give back his cart if stopped selling his products on the street until he got a permit. The men ignored him and took the young man's only lively hood away from him. In desperation, the young man went to the governor's office to protest and plead for his cart. No one would listen let alone acknowledge him yelling in front of the building. In complete desperation, the young man took the gallon canister of gasoline he brought with him, poured it over his body, and set himself on fire to burn in front of the office. This was the last straw for the people; the start of a revolution - even though this was not the first violent protest which was evident against the government. The young man did not die there, he was hospitalized suffering  third degree burns all over his body. He died three weeks after the incidence.


                It is a strong message portrayed by the 'burning man', one which should be told at least once to everyone so they can understand why there are new protests and revolutions in Africa. It is not because they decided they do not like their governments anymore, randomly one day, but because they have been suffering for decades with no hope for a future. The burning man is a shocking reminder of how desperate these people have become in order to get their governments to listen to them and also change their governments objectives to benefit the people. Enough is enough, and I hope that with all this effort, the people of these deprived nations will gain a government and lifestyle they deserve to live peacefully once again. The burning man will not have suffered and died for nothing.
                I hope you gain a better understanding of what the people throughout Africa are going through today.

ACT and SAT

            I just wanted to say that I am almost 100% against the ACT and SAT for many reasons. First I want anyone reading this post to know that I am NOT going on a rant because I did bad on the tests... I have not taken either one of them yet. I have opposed these two tests for quite some time now, actually. Here's why: one, the tests are made to trick you. Two, they do an extremely poor job in measuring who is intelligent and who is not as intelligent. Three, the restricted time and length is a little too unnecessary, and four, colleges rely to heavily upon these tests.

Explanations
One: It is a fact that the tests are made to trick you because it is stated at the beginning of all the ACT/SAT practice tests. In my opinion, why would it ever be a good idea to intentionally try and trick a student on a test? One that the student has never seen before, too?! I also don't understand why there are multiple right answers, but the student taking it is marked WRONG if they do not put the one the test makers put as the ultimate correct answer. So what the ACT/SAT is saying, is that a student will be punished for thinking on their own terms even if their reasoning is correct? Doesn't the IB Programme contradict this method of testing and oppose it?

Two: From point one, the scores on the tests do an extremely poor job of measuring who is intelligent and not intelligent. I personally know kids who do terrible in school, but get relatively high scores on their ACT, and vise versa. Even in booklets, the authors write that the test is faulty because you may be very intelligent, but a bad test taker, sick the day you take it, nervous, and therefore do bad, or run out of time which harms your score. It's a fluke to me.

Three: I'm all for having a time limit and broad number of questions to support that the student does or does not know what they are doing, but the really short time limit compared to the number of questions is a little ridiculous. I don't see why making kids rush as fast as they can to finish a test without reading it thoroughly is a good indication of their intelligence. Why not cut down the test so kids can decipher the questions and do better on the tests? Maybe that's too much to ask for...

Four: With all this frustration to how unreasonable these tests are, it is even more frustrating to know that colleges heavily rely on a students ACT/SAT scores to choose the right students to be accepted into their college. I would support these two tests much more if colleges looked at a students rating, class schedule, and overall academic performance before they looked at the ACT scores. It doesn't make sense, yet again, that one test is a better indication of a students intelligence and academic performance than their high school transcript.

As you can tell, I am against these tests (which are different than the OGTs - OGT is more reasonable and wants you to pass; although easy) and hope that someone will change it to better indicate someone's intelligence. In the mean time, I have to suck it up, study, and hope I don't get sick on test day.