Congress Passes Bill to Reduce flight Delays; Obama Will Sign It

Lisa Mascaro, Los Angeles Times

Congress voted on passing a bill that would drastically reduce the amounts of flight delays in the United States. Surprisingly, the House of Representatives approved the bill 361-41 which means it will later be passed on to President Barrack Obama to be signed and put into use. This measure would allow the Federal Aviation Administration to transfer $253 million from other funds in order to keep air traffic controllers on the job. The more workers that are on the job and working, means that air traffic is handled more precisely and quickly. The funding would also prevent 149 control towers, mostly in rural areas from closing down. These control towers were scheduled to be closed down later this year. Travelers around the United States were starting to get angered from the increased rate of delayed flights so a direct action had to be made. From recent information, President Obama is going to sign the bill. Without the President's approval, the measure would not be put into affect.

Eleven Men Sentenced in Britain for Terrorist Plot

Janet Stobart, Los Angeles Times

Today in Britain, eleven men were sentenced to fifteen years to life in prison. The reason for their conviction was that they had a terrorist plot which was going to surpass the magnitude of the London bombings in 2005 which killed fifty-two people. These eleven men were led by three main terrorists, Ifran Naseer, Ifran Khalid, and Ashik Ali. Naseer who was supposedly the ringleader of this plot was sentenced to life because of five previous terrorism plannings within the past few years. Khalid got eighteen years in prison while Ali got fifteen years. Naseer was accused of persuading people to go to Pakistan for terrorist training. The three men were also accused of obtaining $55,000 from Birmingham's Muslim community for charity but they used that money to fund their terror plans. These terrorists belonged to the notorious Al Qaeda terrorist group which openly stated that these bombing were going to kill many people. Even though there were no specific targets, the plans revealed that there were going to be eight bombs to be left in crowded areas to kill as much people as possible. This terrorist plan was going to turn the city of Birmingham into a war zone.

China Earthquake

Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times

A 7.0 earthquake struck the mountainous province of Sichuan western China. As of now the death toll of the earthquake is at 156 and over 3,000 people have been injured. Officials expect the death toll to rise by the next day until reports come in from more remote villages. They also told the villagers to be on alert for any possible aftershocks or landslides. 8,000 soldiers were sent to the areas  that were affected most. To add to the tragedy, an army vehicle carrying seventeen soldiers slid off a cliff. One soldier died and three others were severely injured.
This earthquake reminded the Chinese about the devastating earthquake they had five years ago in 2008. That earthquake was about the same magnitude, however over 90,000 people died because of it. It is great to see that not as many people died from the same earthquake. This shows that the government learned from their mistake of being unprepared and prepared the civilians this time. The government had a much quicker emergency response plan which saved the lives of thousands of people. Villagers knew what to do and immediately ran outside to open areas which are safer than their homes.

Bombing Suspects Are Brothers: Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev

Matt Pearce, Neela Banerjee, Laura J. Nelson, and Richard Serrano, Los Angeles Times

After long investigations by the FBI, the suspects of the Boston bombings have been found. They are two brothers, Dzokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. According to their uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, the two boys were born in Kyrgyzstan and later moved to Cambridge Massachusetts. They are from Chechan ethnicity which is a small region in southern Russia right by the region of Dagestan. Dzokhar Tsaraev graduated from high school and earned a $2,500 scholarship from the city of Cambridge to go to college. He was already going to med school and his friends and family were surprised that he would do such a thing.  Tamerlan, being the older brother, was killed in a shooting with the police on Thursday night in Watertown Massachusetts. The younger nineteen year old brother, Dzokhar is still on the run and police are spread all over the state of Massachusetts to find him. He is the suspect who was wearing a white baseball cap in the surveillance cameras where the bombings took place. All houses in Watertown have been searched by the police in order to find any clues to where Dzokhar can be found. The police notified the residents to call the FBI if they spot the suspect anywhere.

KKK and Growing Up With Prejudice

All children are born with no sense of prejudice inside of them. They perceive all people as equal and treat them the same way. However, during childhood, children are exposed to prejudice whether they like it or not. Experiencing prejudice especially from their parents, makes them think that it is the right thing to do. If they only see prejudice during childhood, then that s how they are going to grow up. Media affects the way children think as well. Indirectly, the media stereotypes groups of people and kids adopt that prejudice as their own.  That is why there is no way to completely avoid prejudice towards a group of people while growing to adulthood.
When these children become fully grown adults, and their mind is filled with prejudice against other groups of people, they become tempted to join racist clans such as the KKK. Becoming a part of the KKK means that the individual hates every single race other than the white race. In other words, it is white supremacy. People join these kinds of groups because they were taught that way when they were growing up. Not many people join because they have their own beliefs of white supremacy. Being brainwashed during childhood is the most common reason why individuals choose to be in the KKK.

China Hacker's Angst opens a Window onto Cyber Espionage

Barbara Demick, Los Angeles Times

A simple blog posted up by a Chinese hacker gives the United states a rare insight into China's plans on   cyber espionage. This has been a growing concern for the U.S. within the past few years. China is one of the biggest threats, if not the biggest threat to the U.S. A twenty-five year old man who was enlisted in People's Liberation Army's hacking unit carelessly posted a blog online that had plans of China hacking into the U.S. government. He got his inspiration from the FOX series "Prison Break" which ironically is an American show. From 2006-2009, he posted up 625 entries some of them including plans of hacking the U.S. According to thousands of people, this is the largest institutionalized hacking plan ever made. Some analysts even think that China's cyber hacking plans are more dangerous than that of Al Qaeda's terrorist attacks. If America gets hacked all the government plans will be compromised and years of secretive planning can go to waste in a snap. This just shows how other countries are planning on how to attack the United States and the government is not even aware of all these plans. More people like this hacker are needed in order for America to be aware of what is going on that can severely harm them.

Lion Attack: Woman's Wounds a Merciful Way to Go

Los Angeles Times

A week ago in Fresno County, a twenty-four year old woman was killed by a lion. She was an intern at   Project Survival Cat Haven where the lion was being held at the time. This site had numerous amounts of animals including other lions, tigers, jaguars and cheetahs. The animal was a four year old lion which had not even matured to its full size yet. When the coroner was examining the woman's body, he noticed that the death was a quick and painless one. By just one swipe of the paw, the lion had snapped the woman's neck and instantly killed her. According to the coroner, the lion attacked the woman slightly suffocating her but by one swing of the paw killed her on the spot. Another person tried to lure the lion away from the victim but it did not work. Project Survival Cat Haven is still keeping animals such as lions in order for them not to get extinct. It is tragic that a death of a human being would occur at a place with such good intentions. At the end however, animals will be animals and they can do the most unexpected acts at any time.

My Type of Party

Maybach

Playboy Mansion

The party that I will be hosting next weekend on the ninth will be the party of the decade. Since I have connections with Hugh Hefner, the party will take place at the infamous Playboy Mansion. Mr. Hefner will not be there himself, but has gave the mansion for a one night rent for only $20,000. Minimum age restriction is twenty one years old, and there will be a security guard strictly checking all the guest's ages. There will be over 300 people coming to this party including famous singers and athletes such as LMFAO, 50 Cent, Tyga, Lil Jon and Rob Gronkowski, who will most probably be the life of the party. Afrojack will be the main DJ of the night and with his LED lights enlighten the Mansion and will cost $10,000. Since the Playboy Mansion is in a private road in Beverly Hills, the guests will be escorted in with Maybachs that will cost $1,000 each for the night which will add up to $10,000 for ten Maybachs. The Mansion will be divided into a few sections. The pool will be available for everyone at any time. However, the male to female ratio must be at least 1:3 at all times. Food will be at every corner of the Mansion. Ribs, sushi, hot wings, and lamb chops will be available the entire night which was donated by Iron Chef, Bobby Flay. There will be different types of alcohol served the entire night ranging  from Ciroc, Patron, Blue Label and Dom Perignon Champagne. All of these would make a total of $15,000 for the alcohol. There would also be plenty of hookas that would be placed in a specific game room which also has a ping pong table and multiple televisions. The hookas will cost $5,000 including the flavors. Speaking of ping pong tables, there would be a beer pong tournament going on as well. However, it will have a little twist to it. Instead of throwing the ball using hands, the players must hit the ball with the ping pong paddle.The singers that will come will have their separate rooms to do what they do best. 50 Cent will be handling the candy shop which is another part of the party. LMFAO will be handing out champagne showers throughout the night. Tyga will be making it nasty in the room next door. Last but not least, Lil Jon will be handing out rounds and rounds of shots until the guests can not handle it anymore. These artists will not come free though, it will cost $20,000 for all four of them. Outside the mansion will be a race around Beverly Hills. Cars such as Lamborghinis, GTRs, Aston Martin DB9s and Bugattis will race around the city and the winner will receive a prize. This party will last until the sun comes up. Since all the guests will be drunk, they will be sent to their homes with helicopters that will cost another $20,000 reaching a grand total of $100,000 for this spectacular party.

Its Official: Benedict Becomes Pope Emeritus

Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times

Today, February 28, 2013 marks the first time in six centuries that a pope has stepped down from his position voluntarily. Pope Benedict XVI stepped down as Pope of the Catholic Church and gave his least speech to his people at Vatican Square. He flew around in a helicopter in a town south or Rome for his last hours as the Pope and began to prepare for his new life. The eighty-five year old Pope gave his speech while thousands of people and church officials wept because of their love towards him. They did not want him to resign because he was that one person that millions of people around the world look up to and find a connection between themselves and God. The cardinals will have their meeting next Monday to vote for Pope Benedict's successor. 115 cardinals will cast their votes and the new Pope will be appointed according to their votes. Only church cardinals can cast a vote and that is the only way a new Pope will come up. Pope Benedict XVI pledges to be loyal to the new Pope and have an alliance with him whoever it may be. This shows his commitment and dedication to the Catholic Church that he served for.

The Prohibition: Early 1900's

From the day men found out how to use alcohol, alcoholic drinks were made to satisfy people who could afford it. Rich men bought expensive alcohol, while poor men bought the cheaper kind. However, the consequences to drinking too much alcohol have been the same from the beginning until now. People do not have complete control over their minds and act differently. This caused many problems in the early 1900's which made congress pass the Eighteenth Amendment. Prohibition of alcohol. This amendment was passed in 1920 which made the sale of alcohol illegal. Even with this amendment there were ways of obtaining alcohol. If a person was rich, they could illegally buy alcohol without the government knowing. The same concept was used in the book The Great Gatsby. Since it took place during the prohibition, the only way to get alcohol was illegally. Gatsby having huge amounts of money, managed to somehow acquire large quantities of alcohol into his house and have parties. People who could not afford the illegal alcohol would come to his parties for the sole purpose of obtaining something that they could not on their own. Methods like this showed the government that there would be no way to completely stop the sale of alcohol, which led to another amendment to stop the prohibition.

Russian Scientists Collect, Study Pieces of Meteor

Sergei L. Loiko, Los Angeles Times

Last Friday, a fairly huge meteor fell from the sky onto a small town in Russia. By the time this meteor reached its final location, it had already split up and the size had decreased by a large amount. One part landed in a frozen lake called Chebarkul, which made a twenty foot hole in the ice. The other, more destructive piece, hit a building with many workers there at that time. This meteor caused millions of dollars in damage and injured over 1,000 people in which hundreds were critically injured. Russian scientists recently went to the site of impact to recover the remains of the meteor. They did not come up with much findings however. The largest piece they found was seven millimeters long and possibly the surface particle of the meteor. With such small findings it is difficult to conduct research and find something important. The scientists said that the divers who went into the water looking for the pieces did not know what they were looking for. For this reason, the scientists have proposed an idea to make programs on this topic. They have also sent a proposal to the government for an early warning system to protect Russia from space dangers.

Colbert Report: One Direction

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ejgq0r0SEU

In the two and a half minute video, Stephen Colbert talks about the new British boy band, One Direction. In these two and a half minutes, these five boys get satirized by Colbert. He talks about them as a whole group and never as individuals. The main point of his video about the band is to show the audience how simple and nonsense their lyrics are for their famous song, "What Makes You Beautiful". Colbert is trying to make the One Direction fans "wake up"and not listen to the pointless songs that they are singing. He distorts some of their lyrics, and by taking those specific lyrics out of the song and isolating them, he makes it more clear on how those lyrics contradict each other. Being a good satirist, Colbert knows that distortion is a productive method of revealing flaws of other people. Even though he arranges all his thoughts in a funny way, he still gets his message across to his audience and satirizes his targets. Colbert does not only want us to know about One Direction, but he wants his audience to realize that most of the new songs are like the one he talked about.

Obese Salmon Unable To Swim Upstream To Spawn

Nov. 14, 2013, The Onion
http://www.theonion.com/articles/obese-salmon-unable-to-swim-upstream-to-spawn,30373/

After seven years of hard work, a chinook salmon gave up on swimming upwards to reproduce with other male salmon. The reason for this is quite unusual. The salmon was too obese to swim against the current in order to get to the place where it needed to spawn. Even though the currents were relatively weak at this specific spot, it still could not manage to swim against it because of its obesity. The salmon quoted, "But now I'm so fat I can't even leap out of the water to overcome a natural obstacle. And when I  try, my fins are super sore for a couple days." This quote shows the frustration the poor fish is going through just to do its daily routine. Years of late-night snacking have made the fish what it is today."What kind of salmon gets stuck in rapids, for God's sake? A fat one, apparently. A big, fat, ugly salmon."It is clear that the situation of the salmon has not only affected its physical being but also its mental being. The salmon's appearance has deflated his self-confidence and self-esteem as well.

Woman is Rescued After Falling Onto Subway Tracks in Spain

Lauren Frayer, Los Angeles Times

Yesterday, a normal commute for a woman went drastically wrong. In Madrid, Spain as a fifty one year old woman was walking close to the subway tracks, she fainted and fell onto the tracks. No one pushed her on the tracks but somehow she fainted and happened to be right by the subway tracks. Before the next train came to that specific part of the tracks, an off-duty police officer alerted the train driver about the situation. Another officer jumped on the tracks and dragged the unconscious body of the woman to the other side. When the media interviewed the police officer who dragged the woman out, she referred to her as "completely dead weight". Without the help of that officer the woman would have just laid on the tracks because she was not able to move herself. There was only eighty meters left between the train and the woman's body. Considering the speed of the train, that would take only a few seconds to go eighty meters. Without the quick thinking of the officer to call the train driver, that train would have gone over the woman for sure. After the woman was helped off the tracks she was immediately revived and taken to the nearest hospital to cure minor injuries.

2012 Was Among the 10 Hottest Years on Record Globally

On average, the global temperature was relatively high the past year. All the way from North America to Asia, people experienced higher than average temperatures. 2012 was on the top ten list of hottest global temperatures since 1880, when they first started keeping track of this statistic. The average temperature around the world annually is 57 degrees. In 2012, this average was 58.3. The 1.3 degree difference might not seem much, but the slightest difference in the temperature can have devastating effete on nature. Only by a one degree difference, the ice sheets in the north pole can melt which can cause two major problems; one being the habitat destruction of polar bears, and two, being the rise of water levels in the oceans. 2012 was the 36th year in a row that the global temperature was over the average by at least one degree. The reason for this is simple. Humans have been taking advantage of their environments and started to abuse it immensely in the past century. The only way this problem of global warming is going to be solved is if humans decide to go back to the way they were 100 years ago. Clearly, with today's standards, that is never going to happen.

"Nature"

Sitting in my balcony at the back of my house, I closely observed what I live in every day. As I looked to my right, I saw mountains that towered into the skies. As I looked to my left, I saw the flat city with all its cars and commotion. I felt that it is amazing how the terrain of the land can change so abruptly. One side being calm, green, peaceful and natural and the other side being polluted, grey, noisy and filled with machinery. There was a rose bush close by and the scent of the pink roses kept on hitting my nose from all the wind. Every now and then I kept on hearing cars, motorcycles, and trucks drive by my house and make a rumbling noise. When I looked directly forward, I saw my neighbor's blind pit bull which was barking at me. Somehow it knew I was there without even seeing me. Its non-stop barking was getting on my last nerves and disturbing my observation on the beautiful nature surrounding me.

Book I am Most and Least Likely to Read

From all the stories that were presented this week a few of them caught my attention and seemed interesting to me. The one that I would actually sit down and read with pleasure however, would be Gevo's book, Crocodile Hunter: The Incredible Life and Adventures of Steve and Terri Irwin by Steve Irwin. This book appealed to me because of the subject of the story. Since it is about adventure and making the most out of life, it seems like an interesting book to read. First of all, it gives the reader knowledge about animals and how they live. Other than that, it teaches the reader and important life lesson; do what you love to do no matter what. The book I had read was about mountain climbing, which is also an adventurous topic, so I think I will enjoy reading Crocodile Hunter just as much as I enjoyed reading my book.
     Even though most of the books seemed interesting to read, there had to be some that I would never read unless I am forced to. One of these books would be George's book, The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath. From what I understood about the book, it did not interest me to a point where I would enjoy reading it. I would like to read a book that is adventure and action filled and this book has neither. I am sure that there are many people who would love reading this book, but I would not consider myself one of those people.

Mexico Considers Marijuana Legalization After Ballot Wins in U.S.

Richard Fausset, Los Angeles Times

Mexico has a notorious reputation for having problems on illegal drug sales. The Mexican drug cartel causes numerous problems in Mexico and also for the United States. The border between Mexico and the United States has become a very dangerous place because of the drug wars. Many people die each year because of the cartel and even innocent people fall victim to this. After Washington and Colorado legalized marijuana within the state, Mexico is now considering legalizing marijuana as well. Even though legalizing marijuana will cause new problems to come up, officials think that the drug wars will be less violent and decrease the people. The new president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, was against legalization in the beginning, but after seeing the two states successfully legalizing marijuana, he is now rethinking his strategy towards this new idea. It is a great deal to think about for Mexico. Throughout the years, Mexico has lost over 60,000 people due to the drug wars. Other than just the Mexican citizens falling victim, many tourists in Mexico who have nothing to do with the drugs get killed for no reason. If legalization of marijuana does what they think it will do, crime rates will decrease and people would be more likely to come to Mexico. This will be great for their economy and also raise the reputation of the country.