Blog+Reflections

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

Blogs for Fourth Quarter:

Blog Entry #5- More Americans on the Move: Why that's A Good Thing "Mobility is the cornerstone of the American economic backbone".....new news? 12.5 percent of the population moved in 2009. This many people take to be a sign that the recession is ending. Thats WRONG! That number is barely increased from the 11.9% in the previous year (also the lowest the US mobility, rate has been since the Bureau began tracking it in 1948) Because we dont know what the others number mean, we just assume that the economy is doing better. I mean yes, it's a good sign, but the increased number is in local moves, not-long distance moves. So it doesnt really help the economy that much. The recession has hit everyone but "it has been terribly hard on blue-collar men, people without college degrees. For them, its been a double whammy: Their jobs have disappeared, their equity has disappeared, and they're more likely to be stuck." It is a little depressing to think about how these people will be hurt more than everyone else.

Blog Entry #4- Lettuce Recall Doesn't Hide Progress On Food Safey, Experts Say Another E.coli outbreak? What is going on? It's a litle sad that another breakout has to occur in order to focus on the progress made in food safety. We'd like to think that there is always a big focus on our food safety. But we are the general public and I doubt that we question the FDA when there isnt a reason too, like an outbreak. This article says "A lot of progress has been achieved since the last reports of salmonella and E coli in 2007, say other experts. Farm groups, agricultural collectives, transportation firms, and processing plants have implemented voluntary regulations on cleanliness." Can we believe this though, since we have another E.coli outbreak?

Blog Entry #3- After Arizona, Why are 10 States Considering Immigration Bills? It's like global all over again. The domino effect has hit the United States. What has Arizona's immigration bill become? One simple word....INSPIRATION! Other states all are all looking to follow their example. I guess no other state representative had the ability to fight this and take action and make sure there was something put into place to control this immigration flow to the U.S. State immigration legislation is also being considered in Idaho, Utah, Missouri, Texas, North Carolina, Maryland, Minnesota and Colorado. Now not every state is following in the exact path as Arizona, some states have a different approach on what they want. Like Oklahoma, is looking at passing tougher penalties for illegal immigrants caught with firearms. And South Carolina (which I agree with compleletly) might make it illegal to hire workers on the side of the road. Arizona was just started the fire under the pot of a lot of immigration legislation.

Blog Entry #2- "r u online?": The Evolving Lexicon of Wired Teens The text messaging craze has been a round for a few years now and most teachers say its gotten worse over this last yerar. Now the new thing is instant messaging for te crowd under 17. This article spoke about how kids are writing to each other, with abbreivations like "brb" for "be right back" or lol for "laugh out loud" and with the passing days more and more come into play. I was surprised because I am person who texts a lot and use these abbreviations but some that were used in this article I had never seen before. "A negative, though, is that their grammar is becoming atrocious, and Net lingo is starting to show up on school assignments. I have caught myself type out on of these abbreviations whil writing a paper, and its so true that it wil only get worse, and the English in this country will just get worse. Some see thus as a form of "self- expression" but I see a scary situation for teachers.

Blog Entry #1- Nine Supreme Court justices? Why not stick with eight? As if President Obama isnt in the news enough and is being criticized all the time, another issue rises. Justice John Paul Stevens will be retiring soon, and it is Obama who appoints a new judge. What's to stop congress from changing the need of 9 judges to 8? They did it to President Andrew Jackson, why not to President Obama? I dont understand why they have to think about changing the number, its been 9 judges now since 1869, it should stay that way. But at the same time there is nothing in any of America's founding documents about how many high court justices there should be. The reasons for changes in America's histroy was a "power struggle between the president and Congress" now will this happen? Will congress try to change the number? Will that be the reason they try to?

New Blogs for Third Quarter:

Blog Entry #6- __**Even with New Credit Card Laws 2010, Americans are Cutting Back on Credit**__ The new laws on credit cards are good because card issuers can no longer raise interest rates. I think it is finally time that there are things like this set up to help the consumers. Although this credit tightening always comes with a recession, it will help. Of course though with any good idea, there is always a bad thing. New law may be a win for consumers, it comes as the amount of credit available appears to be shrinking. So for the generation getting ready to get their own credit cards, it is going to be tough. I think this will help though, and many economists say the strength of an economic recovery will depend on how fast credit starts to flow in a normal way. I think it can start to flow in a normal way with these new laws.

Blog Entry #5- **__Trendy doesn't Work in Middle School Education, Study Finds__** I found this article to be really interesting. I never really thought that how the school is organized would affect test scores. I went to a school that was K-8, and was separated into two buildings one for k-4 and the other 5-8. I never really thought that being with that many age groups would affect test scores. This has to do with President Obama's "college- or career-ready" idea. He wants to implement this readiness level at an early age, and the study was done to see why some schools scored high and others didn't. The study showed that there was no difference based on how schools were structured. I thought it was interesting that people even thought that the this would affect the students test scores. I guess that they think that if kids are with elementary school children they would have distractions and not mature as needed. Which makes sense, because if you isolate the students in middle school they are with peers and students of older grade levels, so they mature because they do not have children younger than them around.

Blog Entry #4- **__Full Body scanners Arrive at Airports- along with skepticism__** Even though, I think the U.S. has to do more involving their security at airports, I think the full body scans will cause more backups at the airports and is very costly. They are giving the passengers a choice of whether or not to go through the full body scan. If the passengers choose to do it, and they pass they do not have to go through a metal detector or other security equipment. Those who decline the scan must walk through a metal detector and submit to a pat down. I honestly think this will just cause disputes among the passengers and the workers at the airport. There will be people who will not want to walk through the full body scan, and then will refuse the pat down after the metal detectors. Yes this will help with security but will only make more backups at the airports and cause many problems.

Blog Entry #3- **__Grace Stroller Recall Prompts Federal Review of All Stroller Safety-__** This article said that 1.5 million strollers have been affected. That is an enormous number of recalls. I was a little bothered by this because after the huge Toyota recall was issued people had to give in their vehicles and now the strollers? The strollers are supposed to be dependable and efficient. When shopping for a stroller parents should not have to worry about their stroller being recalled. They should make there decisions based on the needs they have and styles that they like. Its a little scary to think that these are being made with a hinge that can pinch the child, why cant more effort be put into making sure that simple things like theis dont happen. This is just directed toward strollers, every product on the market should be tested the problems should be fixed before mass producing the product and then making the sales only to issue a recall on it.

Blog Entry #2- **__How the Recession is Reshaping the American Family__ **"**The downturn is forcing the man of the house to spend more time at home, altering roles everywhere from the laundry room to the child-care center." "The changes taking place in the Benavides-Golder household are being echoed in different ways across the country, as millions of families restructure their lives amid the worst recession since the 1930s." I found it interesting to see that this recession that we are in affects the traditional roles of husband and wife. For hundreds of years it has always been the men "bringing home the bacon" while the women are "stay-at home moms." Family budgets having tightened, roles changing, and tensions rising means a big deal. Some people believe that domestic violence is increasing. For me personally, this is an ignorant notion. Just because in some families the men are staying at home and the women are working, doesnt mean that there is an increase in domestci violence. In fact, many family relationships should be strengthened by this. they are facing months of financial hardships and have to learn to adapt to new roles, these is where the families come together and work through this and build stronger ties. **

Blog Entry #1- **__Ulysses Satellite's Heroic Journey Comes to an End__** The Ulysses after about 30 years is finally going to end. It served an era of solar expolartion. It really saddens me to know that the satellite that helped scientists first learn about the sloar system and has also given weather reports is going to s top. Its almost as if it this satellite was the best employee in a company that helped gain the reputation of the company and they finally had to leave. Obviously there have been a lot of advancements in our time and now there are new more efficient machines, but I believe this is an important date. The machine that started it all has finished its term of service.

NEW BLOGS FOR SECOND QUARTER: "But sweeping changes that would accompany projected climate change mean that an animal's traditional range may no longer be habitable to it in a few years" WIth all the focus on "go green" these past few years, everyone's been caught up in recycling, planting trees, saving energy, but attention hasn't been brought to the dangers that the animals are in. The homes and the food supply of these animals wil be destroyed. Its sad to think that everyone has been caught up with our environment and climate change yet little concern has been shown to the animals. the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is leading the states to help. I like all of their ideas that are a part of the "adaption Management". Their idea includes creating 8 new regional landscape conservation cooperatives, all of them will enlist multiple partners to deal with global warmings expected effects. I think this would help because they would hold conferences and see the progress made in each of the landscapes and they can work together on oter things that would help.
 * //__Saving wildlife in a wamrer world:__//**

//** __Why US high school reform efforts aren't working:__ **// The gates foundation has invested more than one billion in improving US high schools.They know that reform will be tough and the challenge will be even greater to replicate success on a large scale. Honestly, I dont know how the US couldve let the High schools slip from the rankings they were in. The high schools are the most important level of education because these are the years that prepare the students for college and for future schools. This is where students learn the most and get interested into the areas that they may continue to study over the years to come. The US should really pay more attention to this problem. To know that their are programs set up to help get these schools into better shape is reassuring, yet can cause much worry. How long will it take to come up with the guidelines for a "perfect schol" and then how long will it take to put that plan of action into work and the spread it all over the nation? the Gates FOundation and any other organization trying to reform the nations' high schools have a lot of work cut out for them.

" The nation that out-educates us today is going to out-compete us tomorrow."- President Obama. A new goal from our president is to improve US students' mediocre ranking in math and science performance. They are going to train new teachers and put a focus on science, technology, engineering and mathematics classes. I think this UTeach program will benefit the country as a whole because I think it is true, the US does need to improve the focus on these topics and get more students interested. US students were ranked 19th in math and 14th in science out of 31 countries ranked by the organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). WIth increased focus in the mentioned areas the country's rate will rise and the country can match the number of foreign students enrolled in those courses overseas. A good way to look at this is that the UTeach program will not only help get teachers in certain topics, but the universities will have a new way to prepare STEM teachers which will benefit future teaching students. Overall this is a good approach to increase both the number and qualtiy of STEM teachers.
 * //__Obama directs $250 million for science and math education:__//**

Blog entry 11/16/09: = =
 * __Obama's nuclear option on China's yuan: Selling US dollars at a lower price than the exchange rate would do much more to balance trade than pressuring Beijing__**

China desires to keep the yuan pegged to the US dollar at a low value because it believes this is the best way to boost Chinese manufacturing and create millions of jobs. President Obama is right, we need to keep insisting that China stop manipulating its currency. This isnt fair to American manufacturers at all. If China agrees to raise the value of its currency this would benefit the trade deficit down. China doesn't have to raise their currency over night, over a period of time is fine. They do this and it may get over trade deficit to a more manageable level.

Economic Blog #4- I just learned that the United States supplied Iran with a small research reactor that is powered by uranium. That could be so dangerous! This was supposedly part of the “Atoms for Peace” nuclear program a while ago, but seriously, Iran can use the uranium for nuclear weapons. The article said that the reactor makes medical isotopes that are used in diagnosis and treatment of some illnesses. Now that I understand, I see that it is a good cause and that it can jump start the nuclear medicine industry, but that puts the US in danger too. What doesn’t make sense to me is that it says “Iran does have its own nuclear enrichment facilities, of course. These are of great concern to the West, which worries they could be used to produce uranium enriched enough to use in nuclear weapons.” So if they can have their own enrichment facilities then there is a possibility that Iran can indeed use the uranium for other things beside this reactor. I seriously would have been against the US giving them this. I think the West is doing what they should in not exporting any uranium to Iran. A little at a time is better because then Iran does not get enough of a supply to use it for nuclear weapons.
 * Why does Iran need more potent uranium? Medical care. **

Economic Blog #3 – I have to admit that this article scares me a little bit. The fact that more than 5% of jobs disappeared since 2007 really makes you stop and think for a minute. That is 7 million jobs across the country, seven million people with no source of income. Sure the government is trying to help but can the $787 billion stimulus plan work? Is it working? Can new tax credits and other policies create jobs? Or are we just assuming that the government will fix this? This recession is worse than the past 2 US recessions, this one will not be as easy to fix. The economy has to stop losing jobs before it can start making ones. The statistics show was the economy must ass 125,000 jobs a month to make up for the huge loss. Economists say the number of jobs needed is more than the government can afford to engineer. What will happen then?
 * What will it take to bring back 7 million jobs? With job losses this recession the worst since the 1930s, government stimulus can only do so much. **

Economic blog entry #2- Facebook attempts to measure the nation's overall mood. ** I cannot believe that someone would think of studying people’s moods from Facebook. Facebook is just a social networking website, but now they are trying to compile a Gross National Happiness index (GNHI). What? Why? There are over 300 million users on Facebook, and now the status updates that have words like “happy” or “awesome” are being monitored and counted. I guess it is a good way to measure the nations happiness levels since so many people use it. But honestly, why with Facebook? Whatever happened to surveys and focus groups and I don’t know…just not Facebook! Facebook is used to keep in contact with everyone and for people to stalk their friends wall and all their pictures, it’s not for measuring someone’s satisfaction with their life. The study that they conducted showed that those Facebook users who used positive words were more satisfied with their lives. I just think that is an obvious thing though. Obviously if a person is using positive words then they are pretty content with their life, right?
 * Are you happy? Facebook wants to know.

Economic Blog Entry #1 – ** Reduce drug traces in tap water ** ** One solution: Require that buyers return their unused pharmaceuticals to vendors. ** I cannot believe that they found traces of different types of drugs in the drinking water of 41 million Americans. That is just really shocking. It said that water from coast to coast was tainted by pharmaceuticals. Fifty six kinds of drugs were found in the water supply of Philadelphia! That is just appalling! All this found in the water because of improper disposal of unused drugs and a growing form of pollution. I understand that pollution is a little harder to control, but improper disposal of unused drugs? No that is just unbelievable. More steps need to be taken to properly dispose of these drugs. The report said that they range from over the counter drugs, to prescription drugs, to steroids and antidepressants. That is too much for our water. It is just a very frightening thought; to think that last sip of water you had had traces of steroids in it. This is a major problem that needs immediate attention, because it is going to be really harmful to people everywhere.