Hope

The article I read was about american idol hopeful, Casey Carlson, and her coach watching her live performance. In this article, Casey Carlsons coach, Patty Peterson, watched in minneapolis, while her student was singing on national television in Los Angeles. In the article, it describes Peterson encouraging Casey from hundreds of miles away. After Casey's performance, Patty applauded with approval. Even though Patty Peterson thought she sung well, the American Idol Judges did not agree. All four judges felt it was the wrong song for her to sing. the next night, it didn't take long for Patty and Casey's hope to vanish. Casey was the first one eliminated from the show. Even though she got eliminated, there is still hope for her to move on, on account of the judges picking her in the wild card position. All that is left to do for Casey and her proud teacher, is hope. 

http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/39775502.html?elr=KArksUUUU

Bream, Jon "Eden Prarie's Own Gets Simonized on 'Idol' Ouch." Star tribune. 19 February 2009, 24 February 2009

Religion

In eighth grade, I read one of the greatest books i have ever read. The Diary of Anne Frank talked much about the holocaust, the fear of the Nazi army, but most importantly, the Jewish Religion. In this book, Anne Frank and her family are forced to move into an annex above in an office building . Her and her family lived there for two years. Over these two years, they had many scared days, sleepless night, and many hardships. The family would get food from the people that owned the house, who also let them hide there. This book shows how many hardships people of the Jewish faith have gone through. Even though all these hardships, the Jewish religion has survived many years. The Jewish Faith hardships have gone back thousands of years, to when Moses, parted the Red Sea and led the Jews though the exodus. The Jewish religion is a major part of todays society.

Gender Roles

This weekend I read an article about gender roles. This article described a immigration detention center, in Arizona. It described how almost three hundred women are facing dangerous health care delays. It also says that women were treated to aggressively when trying to be detained. Many of these women rarely posed a slight risk, but were still treated very poorly. These women also did not have prenatal care, no treatment for cancer and other big health diseases. In some cases, women were being mixed in with federal prisoners. This article shows how women trying to come to America, trying to chase a dream, get treated with such great disrespect and cruelty. This also shows that, even in today's society, women are still being treated with less respect than men, even though so many things have gone right for them. Hopefully one day, everyone will be treated the same way, with the same respect. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/weekinreview/21mishra.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2

Frosch, Dan “Report Faults Treatment of Women Held at Immigration Centers” New York Times. 20 January 2009, 16 Febuary 2009.

Rice Farming

In Senegal, rice in one of the most consumed products. Their population of thirteen million people consumed over 600,000 tons of rice each year. Some people there have based their whole lives off of the rice crop that they grow. They base their whole year and the coming years off of growing the rice. Another thing they base their lives off is how much the rice is selling for. The price has steadily dropped since its peal last year, which was thirty dollars for a one hundred ten pound sack of rice. In order for farmers to make a profit, they must sell their sacks of rice for twenty dollars or more. At the end of last year, the price was right around twenty two dollars a sack. Last year, when the price of rice rose, many bad things happened. There were riots over the high prices. The anger between people was so great that the Prime Minister of Haiti has to resign. Even though these high prices were bad, this let millions of farmers compete for rice selling. This competition led many people help make more money, which helped people a great amount. The rice crisis is a big problem that will hopefully one day be resolved.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/world/africa/26senegal.html

Polgreen, Lydia "West African Villagers Stake Their Fortunes On The Future Price Of Rice." New York Times. 25 January2009,12 February 2009.

History Project Websites

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/Castel_Del_Monte_Throne_Room.jpg

http://www.trullo-bello.com/it/immagini/castel_delmonte.jpg

http://www.liebreich.com/LDC/Images/HallOfFame/Frederick/Castelmonte4.jpg

http://www.worldheritagesite.org/sites/casteldelmonte.html

http://www.sitiunesco.it/index.phtml?id=638

http://worldheritage.heindorffhus.dk/frame-ItalyCastelDelMonte.htm

http://www.topcastles.com/kastelen.php

Struggles In Alaska

People in the state of Alaska are pretty much like People in other states. Nothing is really different about the state, except for one part. The city of Aklachak is still waiting for one of three parts to be connect to running water or a sewage system. People use water from a river just to bathe themselves. They also collect rain with tin cans. When people go into one of the two connivence stores they will see normal products that you would see at a normal store, except for one thing. One twelve ounce bag of Lays Potato Chips costs seven dollars and thirty nice cents. One nineteen ounce can of Progresso Soup costs four dollars and twenty nice cents. It also states that one twenty ounce box of Cheerios costs eight dollars and twenty cents. People are also moving away from the city of where there ancestors lived because it is two economically bad, and they are moving the the city of Anchorage. But, there are also many people still living in the city of Aklachak, trying to make the best out of things. 

Barry, Dan. "Remote and Struggling but Still a Bit of America." New York Times. 5 October
2008. 2 February 2009. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/us/06land.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

A Destructive Earth Quake

Tonight, I read the article Mrs. Jarret poster to her blog. On monday, there was a massive earthquake in China. It starts off by posing the question can an earthquake be predicted? It states that most scientists would insist that there is no possible way of predicting or preventing these deadly natural disasters. It then goes on to say that Chinese bloggers are starting to say, that in fact, the extremely high numbers of casualties could have been lowered by a significant amount. They go on to say that alerts that were reported seismology bureau were ledgy brushed off and not taking into account. Even though it says that the claim was debunked, many rumors have still been spread around. The rumors have come up numerous times, including at a live press conference. When a question was asked about the rumors, the television quickly switched to a clip of rescue footage. This just goes to show that even though rumors, most of the time are not true, they still get many peoples' attention. 

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/world/asia/16rumors.html?_r=1&fta=y

Jacobs, Andrew, "Superstitions About Quake Meet The Web, Irritating The Chinese Authorities" New York Times. 16 May.