Category: general news

Stuff having to do with the news in general.

Crow Craziness

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Currently, the human species is the smartest on the planet.

I repeat, currently.

I walked into the living room and my mom was watching a TED Talk on her iPad. About what you may ask?

How freakishly intelligent crows are.

Crows have the intelligence and communication skills of a six-year-old child.

Scared? I’m just getting started.

Crows have the ability to plan, recognize faces, hold grudges, conspire with one another, and have incredible problem solving abilities. 

A university in Seattle conducted an experiment where students wore face masks and tagged each of the crows with different colored anklets to identify them, which they didn’t enjoy.

Each time the students would put on the face masks, the crows who were tagged would find the student wearing the face mask that tagged them and proceed to swoop down and harass them

Talk about holding a grudge.

Remember that next time you shoo away a crow.

You’ll know who pooped on your car.

Photo Credit: thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com

 

Newsroom Newbie

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Photo Credit: keithsrevolution.com

Due to the fact that I am a seventeen year old girl, my general topic choice for T.V. shows is mainly based around drama and vampires.

Recently, in Journalism class, we began watching “The Newsroom”, realistic drama based around life in a newsroom. This show includes their struggle to have the most updated facts about major events that actually did occur in history.

I can honestly say no other show has intrigued me to this extent.

The realistic way this show is written involves it’s audience to the fullest extent. Every time our class has watched, I am completely zoned out and concentrated on the show.

The plot of “The Newsroom” consists of a team of news correspondents who work together to be the most updated broadcasting show on the air. Between trying their best to say the right thing (morally and politically), you learn about each of the character’s personal struggles along the way.

My blog does this show no justice, I guarantee it will be your next T.V. show obsession.

Now go watch.

I Don’t Really Know What to Blog About This Week.

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I have been in a rut about blogging.

I cannot come up with a writing prompt to save my life.

So this week, I’m just going to write about something that has been on my mind: Dogs.

I have two of them, I grew up around them, and I love them more than anything else in the world.

A few months ago, I began volunteering regularly at my local Humane Society, and have found myself falling in love with a dog named Dodger.

Dodger is a smooth-coated Chihuahua mix who’s chubby belly sways about an inch off the ground as he struts by.

Every time I go in to volunteer, I head straight towards Dodger’s play pen to say hello to him and his friend George.

I would adopt him in an instant, but my Husky Shepard mix and Chihuahua Terrier mix are a handful already.

Anyone want a cute, chubby Chihuahua?

 

Photo Credit: http://www.chihuahuawardrobe.org (not Dodger)

 

 

Defective Defense?

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52 years old, Kimberly Kreis of Santa Barbara has just been sentenced to one year in jail, three years of probation, and 250 hours of community service.

For what?

Killing three youngsters: Danielle Murillo, 17, Brian Lopez, 20, and Jessica Leffew, 17, in April of 2014 in a fatal car crash on the 101 freeway.

Erik August, the driver, had fallen asleep at the wheel, crashing his car with Ms. Murillo, Mr. Lopez, and Ms. Leffew all inside. The car flew into the railing, flipped over, and slid, coming to a stop still on the freeway.

All passengers were unharmed at this point.

Whilst attempting to escape the vehicle, under the influence of alcohol and methamphetamine, Ms. Kreis flew full force into their car.

This killed Ms. Murillo, Mr. Lopez, and Ms. Leffew in a matter of seconds and ultimately put Mr. August in a coma for a month. With serious injuries, he woke to months of physical therapy and mental and emotional pain from this accident for the rest of his life.

Ms.Kreis had a few scratches and walked away from the crash.

Although the already crashed car “could have” been avoided by Ms. Kreis, she had more than the legal limit of blood alcohol content to be operating a vehicle, and was on a high dosage of methamphetamine.

Ms. Kreis has a strong history of drug abuse arrests and charges, multiple DUI’s, and pleaded “not guilty”, but was prosecuted for felony charges of possession of a controlled substance in October of 2013.

The defense attorney claimed there was probably no way she could have avoided the already crashed car sitting on the highway.

This got her sentence reduced astronomically.

Accidents like this get me ticking for weeks.

Was this all Ms. Kreis’ fault?

Could the accident have been avoided?

If Ms. Kreis was not on drugs and had ingested alcohol would she have have hit the stopped car?

Photo Credit: http://www.noozhawk.com

We will never know.

“Like”

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Where on earth did this term come from? I’m not talking about Facebook likes or Instagram likes.

I’m talking about how one will be talking to a new person, a potential new friend, and everything is going great until they say it. Or rather, they say it half a dozen times in one sentence. And all of a sudden you feel like stabbing someone, but not the person because you want to be friends with them.

Img cred; sodahead.com

I’m pretty darn guilty of this myself, but I’m definitely noticing it and am trying to fix this habit. But when I try, I find it difficult to find words to replace “like.” Sometimes I feel like if I use any other word or phrase other than “like,” I’ll sound too formal and/or weird.

I wonder if any “likers” don’t notice this habit of theirs. I also wonder how many are aware and just don’t care. And I also wonder how many other people feel the irresistible urge to lash out in fury after the sixth “like.”

Cop Control

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In this day and age, police have an astronomical amount of authority. They can ticket, arrest, and charge people whenever they deem fit.

But at what point is the state giving police too much power?

A number of times within the past year, news reports of police brutality have been popping up. For what you may ask? Police abusing their power and unnecessarily harming, who usually seem to be, African-American or Hispanic males.

This raises another issue: racial segregation.

Are police prone to act forcefully against different races? Although there are a good amount of African-American and Hispanic officers in the Force, there ARE more white than any other race.

Do these officers act so strongly because there is a pre-requisite for violence in these races? But what about Caucasians? Why is there no pre-requisite for them?

One of the most popular events that occurred was the shooting of Michael Brown.

Michael Brown was only 18 years old when he was shot by a Police Officer in Ferguson, Missouri. He, un-armed, approached a white officer’s police car and got into a short struggle that ended with Mr. Brown fleeing, surrendering, turning around face-forward at the officer, just to have the officer shoot him twelve times.

This caused an uprising all throughout Ferguson. Many rallies and riots were held even months after his death. Probably due to the fact that the white officer was not charged with anything.

Photo Credits: http://www.bet.com

More recently, two white officers in Philadelphia were charged with unnecessarily beating of a hispanic man, Najee Rivera.

Rivera required many stitches and staples in the emergency room after these two police just about beat the living daylights out of this man.

When does this stop?

Are the American people misunderstanding the intentions of these officers?

Are they just protecting their own?

Or are they choosing to abuse their power because they think they are above the law?

Social Prejudice

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Although terms such as racism and sexism are given negative connotations, any form of generalization, whether good or bad, falls under these categories.

Racism stems from discrimination against those who are not caucasian, especially in the form of slavery. Nowadays, just because all races are given equal rights, it is a common misconception that racism is no longer relevant. As long as there are different races, any division between them is racism. Grouping a race together and making a general statement about a huge number of individuals is absolutely racist, whether the statement is criticism or praise.

Photo Credit: images.sodahead.com

Sexism follows the same patterns. Former discrimination of women was obviously sexist, but modern-day feminism borders on sexism as well. Although it represents the flip side – the hype is about women’s rights – it still caters to one race much more than the other. Even if men or women as a whole are commended or put before another, it is segregating them from the opposite sex, a form of sexism. Any stereotyping of a gender, no matter the intention, is grouping and labeling an entire sex – a countless number of people – and is therefore perpetuating sexist behavior.

Both racism and sexism continue to be relevant in everyday life. A huge compliment may be given to an entire race or a single gender, but that is still a form of discrimination. These prejudices should not be a standard occurrence, and recognition of their existence is key.

The ISIS Crisis

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We have all heard the horror stories of terrorism – beheadings, genocide, suicide bombings and kidnappings. They happen every single day in many different countries. But when is it time for international forces to step in?

Within the past year, an especially violent extremist group called ISIS has been popping up in my news feed quite a bit, usually with a title including the word ‘beheading’.

Journalists, school-children, women and tourists are the central targets for ISIS kidnappings. These are the most profitable groups of people as women and young girls can be sold to wealthy men, and the journalists and tourists will have families back home willing to give everything for their return.

Often, journalists who are kidnapped at their hands will never return, but the gruesome videos of their death will.

ISIS’s signature horror is far beyond anything any extremist group has bothered to do before: publishing the videos of beheadings and slitting of throats on the internet for everyone to see.

Photo Credits: topinfopost.com

The scary thing about ISIS is the unpredictability of their beheadings. There is no negotiating with ISIS – if they decide to kill a captive, they will.

But why has nobody killed their leader already?

Because extremist groups this large are like a Hydra (to reference Greek Mythology). You can eliminate one leader, but when you do, another will just take their place.

Currently there is no way international powers or the UN can end this reign of terror.

Still want to go hike those Algerian Mountains?

 

Am I Right?

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Photo Credit to www.clipartlord.com

We live in a world where we have to be politically correct at all times to avoid offending others. One aspect of being politically correct is avoiding racist terms. Racism occurs when one race is referred to as being superior or having special characteristics that only they have. Calling an African-American person “black” isn’t considered proper by many people – most would say it’s racist. But is it worse than associating a group of people based on a region even if it has no connection to the person?  Personally, I would much rather be called white than European-American. I was not born in Europe, neither were my parents or my parents’ parents. I’m sure there are African-Americans that feel the same way. Many so-called African-Americans have no association with Africa; is it logical, therefore, to classify people that way? I strongly believe in equality, that all are born equal, but I don’t believe that it is okay for us to say that something is racist when we are simply referring to skin tone. I think categorizing people by region is more racist than calling a “black” person “black,” because you are saying that people with that skin tone are all from one region. This is classifying people as a whole and is still racist.

Superbowl Sunday

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I have been watching many friends and teachers walk around with a sad and slightly annoyed look on their face for the past week or so. Why? Apparently because with the close score of 22-28, the Seattle Seahawks beat the Green Bay Packers in the game to determine who will play in the Superbowl XLIX this year in Arizona.

The Patriots dominated in the finals to determine which teams face off in the Superbowl, and this will be their sixth time in the Superbowl since 2001.

However, there was some controversy over the massive 45-7 victory.

There have been many accusations of the Patriots team purposefully deflating the game balls used in the AFC title game.

One specific person has caused all this havoc for the Patriots; a locker room attendant who was one of the few people to have possession of the balls shortly before the game.

Ridiculous? Maybe.

But many say otherwise.

Photo Credit: http://www.mashable.com

It’s Patriots versus the world.