Recently one of my favorite Celtics players has been traded to the Maverics. Rondo was the twenty first draft pick, and was drafted by the Suns in 2006. The following year he was recruited by the celtics to start as point guard. Rondo has had multiple achievements such as being a four time all-star, a one time all-NBA selection, and a four time all-defensive member. He as also led the league in assists and steals. During Rondos second year on the Celtics he earned his first league championship. In the 2009 playoffs Rondo averaged a triple double a game. He ranked fourth in Celtics history for assists and third in steals. Unfortunately Rondo was traded to the Maverics this year. At the end of this season Rondo will become a free agent and would have most likely (if he were still on the celtics) left for more money, so the Celtics made the decision to pull the plug and make a good trade to make money off of Rondos eminent departure. I am sure that like me most Celtics fans are disappointed about this trade considering that Rondo was basically Boston's best player but is excited about the possibility that this trade brings to the table. Lets just hope that they do not blow it.
This week I decided to write about North Korea. There is not a real reason for this topic, I just found myself running out of ideas and North Korea was one place that I was still curious about. For starters North Korea is a small country in east Asia that shares a border with china. Their capital city is Pyongyang which is also their largest city and is home to around three million people. Korea was originally one country that had been annexed into Japan in 1910. With the defeat of Japan in World War II Korea was divided into two zones, north and south; the north being occupied by the Soviet Union and the south by the United States of America. In 1950 war broke out between the two countries. Although a cease-fire was ordered in 1953 the two countries remain officially at war because a peace treaty was never signed.
The Current leader of North Korea is Kim Jong Un. Recently there was a movie made by sony about the assassination of Kim Jong Un. As result North Korea hacked Sony and stole computer files containing data on the movie and other Sony products such as the ps4. My view on this is that it was wrong for North Korea to hack Sony, but i wonder if it was their right considering Sony's upcoming movie is about the assassination of their leader. Fortunately Sony has released their movie and I look forward to watching it. The Thylacine or Tasmanian tiger has been thought to be extinct for many years; but there are many people who still believe that they are out there. There has been evidence that suggests that they may still be out there but no one can be sure. The Thylacine got its nickname "Tasmanian tiger" because of the distinctive black stripes on their backs. Tasmanian tigers had become extinct or extremely rare since before the British settlement, and could only be found on the small island of Tasmania. The extinction of these animals is blamed mostly on intense hunting encouraged by bounties. Although identical, the Thylacine is nor a tiger or wolf. As a matter of fact it is not even in the same mammal group. Most mammals are placental mammals any member of the mammalian group (cohort Placentalia) chadracterized by the presence of a placenta, which facilitates exchange of nutrients and wastes between the blood of the mother and that of the fetus." However the Thylacine is a Marsupial. Marsupials are "Any of various nonplacental mammals of the infraclass Metatheria, Typically bearing young that suckle and develop in the mother's pouch. These species were formerly placed in the order Marsupialia." The Thylacine was also one of the only two mammals that had a pouch in both sexes. To be honest I have no idea if the Tasmanian Tiger is extinct, but i would like to think that they are still out there. I chose to write about them because they seem cool and i recently watched a movie on them.
This week I decided to write my blog post on corruption in Africa. There are many war ridden countries in Africa, and almost all of them are corrupted. The definition of corrupted is ,"guilty of dishonest practices, as bribery; lacking integrity; crooked." One of the most corrupt countries in Africa is Somalia. For example, Somalian politicians set up rival refugee camps and make profit off of food donations by stealing and selling them on the black market. There are many more examples, but this is one of the big ones that landed Somalia on the top five most corrupt list. Another corrupt country in Africa is Sudan. Sudan has been engrossed in corruption, warfare, and terrorism for a very long time. The reason for this is that Sudan is run by warlords that will do anything to spread terror and corruption. Burundi is also a very corrupt country in Africa.
Last week I talked about Ebola and my thoughts on it, so this week I've decided to talk more about what it really is as a disease. Ebola is an ancient disease that has been effecting whole continents like Africa for a very long time, but has just now started to affect the United States. Ebola is caused by the ebolavirus and affects humans and other primates. Symptoms usually start between two days and three weeks of contracting the virus. Symptoms start out as, sour throat, fever, head aches, and muscle pain, but quickly change into diarrhea, rash, and vomiting which is usually followed by liver and kidney failure. It is not uncommon for people with Ebola to begin to bleed internally and externally. The host of this disease usually dies due to low blood pressure from fluid loss within 16 days of developing symptoms. The chance of a person surviving Ebola is between 25% and 90% depending on where you live. In all, I can not imagine how awful it must be to have Ebola. I have seen videos of people that can barely walk because they are so sick with Ebola. Luckily I live in Vermont so there is a small chance that I will catch Ebola however that chance does increase every time a doctor flies back from Africa carrying the disease.
This week I have decided to write about Ebola for my weekly blog post. I have been putting off writing about Ebola for a long time because everyone else has been talking about it constantly and to be honest I was kind of sick of it. However there are not very many things to write about other than Ebola. My view on Ebola is that it is definitely a very dangerous disease and if one person gets it it could effect everyone else. This is why I think it is stupid that we keep sending doctors to treat people with Ebola in other countries, because then when they come back they are a risk to everyone else. My opinion is that we should focus more on teaching the people in those countries to treat Ebola, than going to those countries to treat them ourselves. I feel like this is an unnecessary risk that puts our entire nation in danger when one person brings it back. Could you imagine if Ebola began to spread in NYC because one man brought it back from Africa. Everyone would get it and soon our entire country would be infested with it. The only reason that the death rate for Ebola is so low is that it has been in our country for a very short while. In all, Ebola is very dangerous, and I feel like our government is playing hot potato with our lives and sooner or later if we do not get more careful we could all be at risk.
Today a man attacked four police officers with a metal hatchet. The suspect was said to have been stalking them. The police officers were reportedly posing for a picture on the side walk when the man attacked them. Two men were hurt, one was hit in the right arm and the other in the head. The two men that were not hurt shot and killed the man who was later identified to be Zale H. Thompson. Thompson had a criminal record and had been discharged from the navy for misconduct. Authorities believe that this may be connected to the recent calls by radicals posing a threat towards military and police officers. Thompson converted to Islam two years ago and is now being accused of being an Islam terrorist. He was unemployed and his parents said that he was depressed and spent most of his time on the computer. I believe that Zale H. Thompson is probably not the last Islam radical to try something like this and if it is not stopped soon there may be many more like it.
This week I decided to do my current event on foot golf. Foot golf is a fairly new sport and is only played at a few golf courses in America. Although it may sound funny It looks like a lot of fun and I certainly hope that at some point it comes to the upper valley. Foot golf is pretty much the same exact thing as golf only with a soccer ball and a bigger hole, other than that the rules and everything are all the same. Although it sounds really cool there are just a few problems with the sport. One problem is that golf is played by a lot of old people that can not kick a soccer ball that well, and since they pay the courses the majority of their income it would not be smart for companies to invest too much money in foot golf courses. Also since the majority of people that play foot golf are fairly young they could become a liability and companies are worried that they might get out of control and damage the course. One benefit of foot golf is that it does not require too much skill especially if u played soccer as a kid, where in golf it could take you many years to acquire the skill and muscle memory that it takes to send a small ball 100 yards down a field with a club. I think foot golf would be pretty cool especially for soccer coaches because they could bring their teams to a course for a practice once in a while or something and it would be a fun pass time on weekends. I bet it would be a big hit and I hope it comes to the upper valley some time soon.
This week I decided to do my weekly report on Nuclear energy. Nuclear energy was originally used in the mid 1900's by the United States to bomb Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the Second World War. Soon after the UN established the UN Atomic Energy Commission to deal with the questions raised by nuclear energy. The president of the United States, "Dwight D. Eisenhaur also established a landmark address, "Atoms for Peace" in 1953 which led to the establishment of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1957. Today there are 439 nuclear power plants that produce fourteen percent of the world's electricity and in 9 countries they produce forty percent. In 1968 the UN passed a treaty between all countries on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons. The IAEA conducts onsite inspections to enforce this treaty and ensure that nuclear materials are only being used for peaceful purposes. Up until the Iraq war in 2003 their inspectors played a key role in discovering Iraq's banned weaponry. In 2005 the agency was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for their efforts and concern towards preventing nuclear war. One unhealthy product of nuclear energy is nuclear waste. Nuclear waste is the product of nuclear fission and nuclear technology. Nuclear energy is hazardous to most life forms but is sometimes used in small doses to create medicine and treat diseases like cancer. Nuclear waste is also regulated naturally decays over time. In conclusion there are tons of good uses for nuclear energy and tons of bad uses for it. If we use it safely it could save thousands of lives and produce valuable energy for countries around the world. If it is used dangerously it could kill thousands of people or destroy ecosystems, and as we saw during the Cold war and in japan during World War II it could end the world as we know it.
This week I decided to do my current event on natural disasters, more specifically forest fires. Forest fires are some of the most powerful natural forces known to man. One of the reasons I chose forest fires as my global issue for this week is because I can remember hearing about forest fires all the time when I was younger and seeing a smoky bear sign at almost every beach i went to, and I have always wanted to know more about it. Although some forest fires are caused by lightning strike most are human-caused. Climate change also plays a huge role in forest fires all over the United States. As climate change gets worse we get warmer and warmer weather, causing drought which dries out the forest, shrubs, and grass causing more and more forest fires. Forest fires can burn thousands of acres of land using weather wind and dry underbrush as fuel. They can move at speeds up to fourteen miles per hour enveloping everything in their path. For a forest fire to burn it needs three things, fuel, oxygen, and a heat source. The more an areas fuel load the larger and more intense the fire. If the heat source is not hot enough the fire will not burn because it has to be able to dry out the fuel to burn it. To put out a forest fire the fire fighters have to take away one of the three essential things. The most commonly used methods are to clear out shrubbery to deprive the fire of fuel and to douse it with water and or fire retardant. Forest fires are a very serious thing and occur in almost all fifty states. They destroy thousands of homes and farm land every year. If climate change does not slow down and drought out west continues, I do not think that we will be seeing a shortage of forest fires anytime soon.
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