AOW #15: On a Comet 10 years away, Philae Conks Out, Maybe for Good

This weeks article was kind of confusing to me.I guess it all started 10 years ago from scientist and NASA sending some kind of vehicle made for space to go up and transmit data and certain photos to earth to answer some of scientists questions and observe data from the comet. This “vehicle” is battery operated and ran by rechargeable batteries but the batteries only recharge by sunlight. I do not think this was a very good idea because what if there was not any sunlight near it for awhile, did they not think it wouldn’t get stuck and run out of battery? As of November, It went into idle mode from not having enough charge on the battery. Scientist think all their equipment and such they create to send up there is going to work what they don’t realize is they aren’t perfect. They can’t do everything to be sure that the equipment they send up to space is going to function properly or not. As scientist said in the article that it was supposed to have 7 hours of sunlight per day. How could they guarantee that it was going too? I would have made it with another back up plan when there was no sun around it. As stated in the article “The probe’s landing didn’t go as planned this week, after Philae detached from the Rosetta orbiter” (Brumfield 1). Now that it has detached from the orbiter, it has to run on its own now which caused it to go to the wrong spot and now has no direct sunlight to it. Without this it won’t work correctly to give scientist the information they need. So they have decided to try one last thing to fix it and that was to send commands that will supposedly rotate the “vehicles” body so that it can fix the solar panels. I think that it is going to take more than this to fix the problem.

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AOW 14: After a concussion, when can teens return to the football field?

This weeks article is about concussions from football especially in teenagers. I honestly do not think people realize how serious a concussion can be, it is nothing to be messing around with. I think that parents, kids, and coaches do not take it serious enough, I feel as if they think it is just a minor injury. What they do not realize is that a concussion is a traumatic brain injury that could cause severe brain damage such as memory loss if not taken seriously. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that they send the students back on the field within 7-10 days with still having a concussion. They are supposed to out a minimum of six weeks. All the coaches care about is winning the game not their players safety. I do not think minors should be playing football because their brains are still maturing unlike adults. “Nearly 1,500 high school football players in Missouri suffered concussion in 2012, and most of them returned to action within two weeks, according to Missouri high school officials” (Kansas City Star 1). If Missouri has that many football players with concussions than why do they take it so lightly? They only keep their players off the field 24 hours, how crazy is that? You should never send a player back on the field until they are cleared. If they go back on the field too soon, the player has a higher risk of getting a second concussion. The second concussion is always more dangerous, how would Missouri coaches feel if they put them back on the field too soon and they would die or have permanent brain damage from a second concussion. I think that it is a good idea that they are starting to take concussions more seriously and are starting to do testings.

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AOW #13: What Students Really Need to Hear

The article I read this week was really inspiring to me. I have always felt like not many of the teachers cared about their students until after reading this article written by a teacher who really showed his emotions and stressed his feelings about how he feels about his students. Thanks to him I have changed my perspective view about some teachers, but no matter what some still will never care. Being a high school student tends to get very stressful especially as you began to start your senior year, so it is always nice to know that the teachers care about us and want us to succeed in life. I definitely agree that we should be taught more everyday life skills in school instead of the pointless math, spanish, and other curriculums that we will never use after high school, i mean unless you are going to be living in a foreign country or something.

Honestly, why should teachers worry themselves like crazy about students who do not care enough about themselves to try to do their work and be successful in school. If they think not doing their work or even trying matters then let them be failures and worry about the students that do care and try. I always try to push myself to do the very best I can do in school with my work, but sometimes I do tend to give up to easy. School is very stressful and there are times I could use some encouragement to pick myself back up and continue to keep trying.

As the article said “Life will let you die alone, depressed, and poor if you can’t man or woman up enough to deal with hardship” (Mielke 2). This could not of been said any better, If one can’t own up to his or her mistakes and be able to continue to try harder to be successful than you’re going to live a miserable life without anything to show for.

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AOW #12: The Nerd Science of Campaigning

So apparently there is a “nerd” science campaigning now where they go through data. analyze behavior, and pretty much just persuade us people to cast ballots and vote. I did not even know there was such a campaign until I read this article. I guess this science campaign is how we get all of our popular votes. This campaigning is how all of our presidents has won their elections, especially Obamas campaign in 2012.

“With advanced analytics and targeting, the Obama team in 2012 narrow casted its message to persuadable voters-- on facebook, on television, on Pandora, on well-placed billboards, on doorsteps, wherever-- and tilted swing state electorates in their favor” (Hamby 1). Oh really? I never once remember seeing any kind of campaign advertisements on social media or pandora with any Obama campaigns nor did he even try or care enough to come to door steps and deliver campaign signs. He did waste money on television campaign ads because I remember seeing them.

As much as technology has advanced nowadays, most of campaigning is done through the internet especially social media and believe it or not it has caught young people between the ages of 18-35 to start voting in the elections. They target the younger generation because they know advertising on social media and such is going to get our attention so we’ll go vote. It honestly has, we are the reason most of these idiots get elected.

What I did not know is there is a business that is getting paid millions of dollars to help all these presidents and such campaign for the elections and to persuade people to change their minds about a president so us people will vote for them. This is the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. Why would some company get paid that much to help campaign and advertise on the internet for presidents? In my opinion, this election stuff has always been irrational.

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AOW #11: Rise Of Machines

Today’s technology has advanced so much that it’s starting to take over the world. The first computer ever made was over a thousand pounds and was not movable, now we have computers that you can fit in your pocket and are way smarter than the first computer. I think computers are already smarter than humans they just don’t have emotions or senses. If you realize it when humans need help with something they go straight to computers for help, and it usually solves their problems. Now they have gaming systems such as xbox 360, xbox one, ps3, and ps4’s that have so much quality to them that its almost real. If the government would do anything about this they need to only let them go so far on advancing computers so they don’t take over the world. At this day and age technology is already the center of the world we use it for our satellites in space and even have it on the moon. If they start creating robots and advancing them to be like humans they could malfunction and destroy the world without being able to stop them. Computers are already lying to people and creating catastrophes such as social medias, about 90% of the things you see on social medias is a lie and people believe it. “Computers superintelligence could be a boon for the human race, curing diseases like cancer and AIDS, solving problems that overwhelms humans, and performing work that would create new wealth and provide more leisure time” (The Week 1). I don’t see computers curing diseases across the world that is something that humans have to use their brain on and think about what parts of the periodic table has to go into place to create this cure. Humans rely too much on technology and we don’t realize it, but humans have social problems because of technology. They tend to ignore what's around them and focus on what's in their hands.

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Poetry

I do not really mind poetry but I don’t like it either. Poetry really is hard for me to understand and confuses me.  I think it is hard for me to understand because it is not in modern day language; it is hard to pick out the parts to make out what the poem is talking about. I learned some poetry throughout middle school and didn't learn anymore with it until last year. Shakespeare was the hardest to understand, I usually broke it down into modern day terms by looking up the definitions of words I did not understand in the poem to put it into simple terms to understand. I also really hated Romeo and Juliet, I remember how freshman year, my whole English class had to read it together and the teacher by no means helped us understand it. It was so long and took over 3 weeks to read in class. I was so frustrated with it every day, nothing I read was even understandable. I hated poetry after that until my 11^th grade year when my English teacher started teaching us how to break it down and showed us how to turn it into modern day language then I really started to enjoy reading it. I don’t mind Poetry that is easy to understand and that’s written into simple terms. I love Nikki Giovanni’s poems; she puts deep thoughts and emotions in her poems and bases them upon how reality in life really is. She doesn't put any assonance or alliteration into her poems. My favorite poem from her was called balances.

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Aow #10: People are causing a mass extinction on Earth; some try to stop it

Supposedly, there has been five destructive events that have killed off almost all animal life on earth. Yes, I agree that mass extinctions have killed off life on earth, but what most do not understand or see is that us people cause some of this.It all started from asteroids to volcanoes. We cannot help natural disasters, but we could find other ways to help prevent pollution and global warming that changes the climate for certain species. There is some things in this article that I do not agree with like “We use more than half of the planet’s unfrozen land for the cities and logging or food” (Scientific American 1). So do they expect us to not eat or build places we need? We cannot survive ourselves without food and a place to live. I do not believe these natural habitats has killed off animal and plant life. They say that humans have caused nearly 1,000 species to go extinct, but my question is what have we done to cause that many to go extinct? Since back in the 1500’s we have supposedly killed off 322 types of animals, to some people that might seem like a lot but really it is not. If you look at it as of how many different types of species there was in each group of the animals, then I guess it might seem like a good bit. I do agree and believe that many of animals are endangered everyday, it has been happening for years but I don’t think it has happened as quick as scientist say it has. Recently, the only freshwater mammal left on earth, a dolphin went extinct in China. How did that happen, without people polluting the water it lived in? They say a sixth mass extinction is starting to occur, but I do believe people today can help avoid it, I think that we are starting to help save life on earth more and more everyday as much as we can.

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Aow #9: Hong Kong's Thwarted Democracy

In the article I read, Britain supposedly took over Hong Kong over a drug war in the 1830’s. Back then drugs were limited and people would go crazy for them. Late in the 1890’s Britain gave hong kong to the china to lease, after the policy one country two systems act with china for 50 years. The chinese were pressured to lease the island to london for 99 years. After the transfer hong kong already replaced the elected legislature by a select few of beijing businessmen. The government started firing people just because they advertised about their democracy, and the government was terrified of what was going to happen next.The banks thought that the decisions had become commercially based. Hong Kong tried to introduce a new school curricula into schools. They tried to change the education china had them on and change it into a “moral and national” education. “Some 90,000 students and citizens demonstrated against what they called “brainwashing” (Week 1). They were protecting against their rights and refused to be brainwashed by the government anymore. The city’s first direct ballot will be held in the year of 2017, which will be the election of Hong Kong’s chief executive. The voting will be a one person and one vote type of deal. Many people including the chinese are uneasy about this idea and are unsure of what kind of people Beijing will bring in. Beijing thinks that the candidates should be screened before allowed in Hong Kong. They also state that they never promised that Hong Kong could freely pick the candidates. So, then why are they letting them? Pro democracy people are worried about Hong Kong being like Iran and North Korea, But the chairman of the democrats says otherwise, and thinks that they will go by international standards. In my opinion this is all a mess and the country needs help or they are going to definitely be ruled by communist.

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Aow #8: Stand Up for Your Health

We live in a country that almost has one of the highest obesity rates out there. All Americans do is eat junk food and not worry about their health for the future.It has got so bad that obesity is considered a disability, you actually get a check for being overweight.Technology today has caused obesity to start rising fast because no one wants to go outside and play anymore, they would rather be trapped indoors playing video games or watching television, slowly watching their life disappear.American people are so lazy anymore, there are so many obese people who just sit on their butt all day and eat, most don’t even exercise or even have a job.People wonder why they have so many health problems or why they gain so much weight, well maybe if they would get up off their butts and exercise a little bit everyday then they would not have so many health problems or be so fat and out of shape. I hear many kids and adults complain about their weight, but not one of them exercise or have a job that requires moving. I am sorry but sitting around all day playing video games and eating tons of food is not going to get you anywhere in life besides straight to your grave.People who do not exercise and eat excessive amounts of junk food have a higher risk of getting diabetes and cancer. It is a proven fact that people who exercise and have a job that requires moving your body will live longer than people who sit on their butt all day.I understand that we need to be exercising more often but according to this article we should be standing to do everything we do in our everyday life, I think that's a little to extreme, that's like practically saying we should stand while we use the bathroom. Levine says, “I want us to have to find excuses to be sitting down”(Park 2). That is a little ridiculous and to the extreme. I don’t care what that guy says no one is going to listen to him. I know the obesity rate is high and people are definitely lazy, but it should be our choice if we want to be skinny and healthy or obese and lazy.

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Aow #7: What is Ebola and How Do People Catch It?

What is Ebola? Ebola is a virus outbreak that started in West Africa and has infected 6,000 people in places around it. Ebola was first found in Sudan and Congo in 1976. How is this virus starting again after so many years? Scientists say they think the virus has spread by humans who had contact with animals bodily fluids or blood such as bats, monkeys, gorillas, etc..Seriously, this is the craziest thing I have ever heard. How in the heck did these kind of animals get this virus? Why would these people be in contact with wild animals bodily fluids? The Center for Disease Control thinks by early next year the virus outbreak could reach to 1.4 million cases.. this is an outrageous amount, why don’t they do something to try to prevent it from spreading like this? The symptoms start out as flu like symptoms such as fever, muscle aches, weakness, sore throat, and headaches. Some people can even start bleeding in the internal organs..Supposedly this virus is not contagious like cold and flu symptoms, and can only be spread by people from direct contact of bodily fluid.. I do not believe that one bit, if this virus is spreading as fast as they say than it has to be contagious. So really how hard is it to catch Ebola? Many Americans are worried that the outbreak could happen in the United States. “President Obama reassured the public at a recent new conference that the chances of this happening “are extremely low” (Bennett 1). He is so full of crap, there has already been an outbreak reported in West Virginia, so he does not know what he is talking about, he never does. Three American doctors working in Liberia were infected in July with it. They were over there trying to help with people infected with the virus. I think we need to stop sending our American people to other countries. They probably carried this virus back to the United States with them. Obama just needs to keep his nose out of the problems that are occurring in other countries that don’t pertain us.

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Aow #6: Is the world going nuts?

What has the world come to? Some people say the world is out of control. I believe this is true, we see terrorism everyday of our lives yet we ignore the things that we see. As we think about ISIS beheading American’s and nothing being done about it, but someone has to do something about it. We leave it up to our president, but he just sits back and laughs at all of this. In the future we will have to deal with all of America’s problems when we go to war with other third world countries. Almost all of the wars have been over oil and gas the other parts are religion, we can’t seem to agree with trades on oil so we go in debt and butt heads with other countries and we can’t get out of it. So then the other countries threaten the United States and we retaliate with war even though it’s the president’s fault. These countries are well prepared for wars and don’t mess around, and we just sit back and laugh until it actually happens. In the near future I look forward to china taking over the United States because of all the money we have borrowed off of them and their technology is way more powerful than ours. We as American’s need to find a way to stop all war with other countries and find a way to keep peace.  All the bad things happening in the world like ISIS, Russia, and the Middle East conflicts all need to stop. One day we will no longer be a free country nor have a government, and be controlled by people with weapons. As stated in the article “In Russia, the rise of oil prices has been empowered and emboldened President Vladimir Putin---and he wants a makeover on the fall of the soviet Union” (Zakaria 1). Oil prices aren't just rising in Russia it’s everywhere in the world, and I believe it’s because the supply is low and the demand is high.

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Aow #5, Spinosaurus: A huge predatory dinosaur, built to swim

Scientist has recently discovered a huge predatory dinosaur from long ago living in the North Africa, from the lower Cenomanian to lower Albian. This dinosaur is amazingly 9 feet longer than the Tyrannosaurus Rex, and it ranges from almost 100 million years ago. The spinosaurus live mainly in the water like an alligator or crocodile, but they can walk on land also. One thing that puzzles me is they found the remains to this dinosaur scattered miles apart, so who knows if these remains are even from the spinosaurus. Archaeologists have put this skeletal remain together to form this dinosaur but have no idea if it’s the right bones. As Lindsay Zanno said she was suspicious of the fact that the assembled from many different casts, and had very little doubt that these were for the same dinosaur. “This would have been an amazing sight that this thing was that huge and walked on all four legs” said Paul Sereno. Powering over the Tyrannosaurus Rex as we know of today was the biggest dinosaur on earth millions of years ago. I’m wondering how this dinosaur didn't eat all of the crocodiles and alligators making them extinct. “By contrast, the 50 foot long Spinosaurus had muscular arms with blade like claws that could have nabbed slippery prey, and shorter legs that were ill-equipped to walk on land." (Khan 1) This would have been very interesting to see a dinosaur way bigger than the Tyrannosaurus Rex, watching this animal maul down smaller prey like there was no tomorrow, and tossing its food around and eating it in one bite. They said it had 50 foot long arms with blades like a claw to snatch it’s pray. If these dinosaurs are actually real, there probably wasn't very many of these aquatic dinosaurs considering the size of them they probably couldn't get around very fast to get away from dangerous creatures.

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Aow #4: Crumbling Under Our Wheels

America had one of the greatest infrastructure systems in the world, but they weren't looking into future problems.  Such as President Dwight Eisenhower when he signed the Federal aid Highway Act. He signed this act so he would get re-elected not because of America’s safety. With all the bridges collapsing injuring and killing several hundred American’s. This cost them over 234 million dollars in repairs. America has over 607,380 bridges and most of them pass with a D+ which means most of them need repaired or replaced, but when they built these bridges they didn't think what they would look like in 50 to 100 years from now. Now that America is growing we have so much more traffic and pedestrians than we had in the 1950’s so the structures have to be stronger and last longer. America is now wanting to raise gas to 18.4 cents a gallon and using the tax to pay the government for bridge and road construction. If they raise gas more then what it is since it’s already 4 dollars a gallon, then no one is going to be able to afford to drive since we can barely afford gas now. They also mentioned that 1 in 9 bridges are structurally deficient with these kinds of safety conditions American’s should fear to drive on these bridges. If they get the funds, they need to build bridges out of aircraft aluminum so they don’t rust and would rarely need repaired. America is already spending about 91 billion dollars annually on the highways, and they say it needs to be doubled for all the repairs for damages on bridges and roads. Since the government has been supporting over 316 million people driving on these roads and bridges, and the government already has to share these funds with other companies and departments like the water treatment and electrical grids is going to be nearly impossible to fix everything at once.

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Aow #3: Who is Isis?

American Journalist is being beheaded by militants in Syria known as Isis. The Isis militants made videos of masked Isis militant killing journalist, James Foley, This American Journalist was kidnapped two years ago. How in the world could someone doing something this sick minded? The United States forces tried to rescue Foley and other journalist that are held hostage but Isis militants demanded and wanted $130 million for them to let him go. Isis members have threatened to kill other journalist if the United States do not change their ways in Iraq. In 2006, The United States troop surge in Iraq hampered the group’s ability to carry out terrorist actions. We should of done something different to solve conflict and then maybe we would not be in the situation we are today with Isis. The Al Qaeda broke ties with Isis back in February, but due to the Syrian civil war and the weak government in Iraq, the Isis group is expanding clear to the long border between Iraq and Syria. Why don't the government do something before they take over their country? This just seems crazy to me, now no one even knows how many fighters Isis has, some seem to think around 15,000 and maybe even three times more than that to fight if needed. How do they not know hoe many? It honestly sounds like to me they aren't taking this serious enough.. If it was my country i'd be wanting to keep close eye on how many there was for my own safety. This really angers me not even the United States is taking this seriously, CIA deputy director Mike Morell thinks that the beheading videos and such is just a way to intimidate the United States. How could you blow this off like that, they could still have a plan to attack us, we need to find a way to make peace with them for the safety of our people. He also says that we should mark that date down because its the first terriost attack against the United States. Sure, mark that date down but whats that going to do to solve anything? Someone or some people put the Isis flag unfurled outside of the White House. That to me is scary, if someone got that close to the White House to put an Isis flag then that should be a warning sign there. Why didn't they investigate or do anything about that? They should be concerned of their safety!
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My Personal Mission Statement

My purpose is to attend Nursing School and graduate at Davis and Elkins college. I will strive to do my absolute best to obtain the professional and technical skills needed for my occupation. I plan on being punctual and attend every class to ensure that I do not miss pertinent and important information. I hope to be able to be hands on as much as possible during clinical's and to master each clinical skill as they arise. I will strive to be the best nurse I can be. I will strive to carry a positive and compassionate attitude around my patients and co-workers. My goal is to make a difference in someones life.

AoW #2: The Origins of the Border Crisis

Most migrants were from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, but recently people have been crossing the Mexican Border illegally into the United States because Mexicans was looking for work. Mexico’s had the worst problem in the world for crime, drugs, and gangs until the government cracked down and eased the violence, I think it was a great improvement for the government and turned Mexico into a better country and less people started coming into America. The Mexico’s government crackdown has shifted the people back to El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Gangs now have taken control of towns, murder and rape is happening, and they force families and businesses to pay protection money. I think Mexico needs to get a better upper hand on their people and this situation. Why doesn't Mexico put these people that are committing these crimes in jail? In the late 1990s, the United States passed a law to force immigrants/non-citizens to get green cards, but if the committed any crimes they had to be deported. I do not understand why these people would want to hurt or kill one another or better yet destroy their own country. Many of them come to the United States as small children, and were made to go back to their own countries and ended up banded together in criminal gangs. If they grew up in the United States to have a better life, why make these people leave if they weren't causing problems here? Some just clearly want a better life. Gangs are going up to store owners and demanding payments from them and stealing anything they want while raping, murdering, or killing them. How could these people be so cruel? That’s not the worst part about all this, El Salvador children as young as 7 years old are forced as lookouts or couriers for gangs, and if refused they would kill them. No kid that young should have to go through this. People have come to believe it was safer to risk an illegal journey over hundreds of miles than to stay, I agree with these people because they are just looking out for their safety and trying to find a better life. I mean could you blame them? What has happened to the society in this world?

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How this year will be different from last year

Starting out my Senior year in school, I'm hoping for many more opportunities to arise for me than last year.  

I hope that I will get the opportunity to learn creative and hands-on skills that I may be able to put to use at whatever I choose to do in the future.  

Being so close to graduation and adulthood, I know that I have to buckle down and study harder, allow more time for homework and try to make better grades than last year and the previous years.  

To assure that I pass my English class, and all other classes too, I know that I will need to read and understand what I'm reading in order to improve my writing and communication skills, as that will help me in the future at college, work, and just everyday interaction with people and the public. 

I feel that my strengths in school are my willingness to learn new things and meet new people. My weakness is that sometimes I second guess myself at everything I do, especially, homework. 

This year in school, I am going to make sure every homework assignment that I get, will be turned in on time. I also, will allow more time than I used to for completion of my assignments, because I know the importance of the grades this year will mean the difference between graduating or not graduating school, and the importance of good grades will help me with getting into a better college.

I want to be sure that in the future Of my career choices, I will look back on my years in school, and be self-assured I did everything I could that I knew would help to me learning and growing as an adult. 

Aow # 1: Abducted Nigerian girls reflection

I agree with everything the United States is doing because there is not much else they can do to help. They have sent out military, law enforcement, and intelligence specialist and the First Lady, Michelle Obama and the house speaker, John Boehner tweeted "BringBackOurGirls" to raise awareness for the missing Nigeria girls. I think it was also definitely a great idea for Nigerian police to offer a $300,000 reward because it shows that their policemen are really involved. The social media propelled this organization and how it is a double edged sword. You put pressure on the government to act, but you also give the organization validation and free publicity. The Nigeria government claims to be doing everything they can but they do not have a handle on the situation. They are not helping much at all because armed militants killed three hundred civilians and set fire to houses, and now the total number of girls missing is unclear. I think the United States is more committed to helping find and free the girls then what Nigeria is. It seems that the United States Military involvement has been ineffective and no farther actions have been planned. As of right now it is a waiting game to see what will happen.