Qatar and Russia Beat out US and England to Host WC

therightliberalLeave a comment

Today, 22 FIFA members voted to put the World Cup in Russia and Qatar in 2018 and 2022. This comes as a bit of a surprise when there were countries like the US and Australia bidding against Qatar. Russia receiving the 2018 bid was not a huge shock after allegations surfaced that England FIFA members had possibly participated in unethical business practices (To put it nicely).

Sepp Blatter hands over the world Cup to Russian minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko

So some stats on Qatar. First for all of you who have never even heard of it, it is in the Middle East, a peninsula sticking off of Saudi Arabia. The population is just over 1.5 million with 4, 416 square miles of land, making it the smallest country in land and population to ever host a World Cup. Qatar has the second highest GDP per capita in the world, with wealth coming from its large amount of oil and gas reserves. The country is an absolute monarchy, being ruled by the al-Thani family since the mid-19th century.

Qatar

Obviously Qatar has the resources to build stadiums and other necessary infrastructure for the World Cup but there are some potential problems. First Qatar is a strict Muslim country, and soccer hooligans have a tendency to make religious people upset.

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Shorted Shortstop

shredicusmaximusLeave a comment

Ever since the offseason meetings began, Derek Jeter‘s contract fiasco with the Yankees has had more curves than many of the starlets he has dated in the past. Coming off the worst season of his career where he set career lows in Batting Average (.270), OPS (.340), and Slugging Percentage (.370), Yankees GM Brian Cashman told him to “Shop around the free agency market.”

Jeter NY Post Cover

This almost dooming quote stemmed after Jeter rejected the Yankees offer of a 3 year $45 million contract. His 10 year $189 million contract from 2000 has just expired and he has officially become a free agent. Most Yankee fans will agree with me that we love having him in New York, however we have to admit that a contract this lucrative is simply asking too much.

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The Beatles Are On iTunes!

yrreskrapLeave a comment

“Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget.”

Apple displayed this arcane message on their website until 10 A.M. Eastern Standard Time on November the 16th. It has been replaced with a large monochrome picture of the Beatles with black bold letters reading, “The Beatles. Now on iTunes.”

This message is still presented on Apple’s website today. The Beatles have reached the Top 100 downloaded songs on iTunes within the first few weeks and still stands strong in its ranking.

UCLA Bonfire

smackyjackjack2 Comments

Yesterday (Wednesday, Dec. 1), the UCLA Bruins held their annual beat ‘sc bonfire.  The bonfire is a burning of all things Trojan. The students at UCLA brought their old red shirts to burn. Any student who brought a red shirt was given a free blue one. The bonfire was held at Wilson Plaza at UCLA.

The great rivalry between the two schools has resulted in major pranks. The students at UCLA have been taking turns guarding the massive Grizzly Bear statue. This year, however, they failed to protect it enough. The bear was painted red and the surrounding fountains were spewing red dye.

Welcome to the Rest of Life

yourgingerkidLeave a comment

Lately I’ve been becoming more and more stressed. Not only are finals coming up, but college apps are due. College

As a California resident, my dad has me only applying to four schools, all in California. However I’ve seen people applying to maybe even 15 schools. To be honest, I question how they do it.

Here at the Ojai Valley School we use Naviance, a program that allows college counselors, teachers, and students to access the same program in order to lessen confusion and stress of the application process. Faculty can easily input their letters of recommendation and student can manage all their different applications. I haven’t really used Naviance to be honest, but I’m sure that I will in the near future. I’ll let you know whether or not I find it to be useful, because you care so much.

But really, college apps aren’t just stressful because of the application itself, it’s also the idea of going away, leaving home, and finally being independent. At least for me it is. I’ve been at boarding school for five years and having as much free time as college gives you sounds rather terrifying. What do you do when you only have maybe four hours of school a day? Here we’re booked solid from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep on the weekdays and plan days in advanced what to do on the weekends. Isn’t OVS supposed to be a “college prep school?” If so, it only prepares us for the academic side, not the real side.

Nerdfighters.

theycallmedameLeave a comment

Nerdfighter: (n) a person who is not composed of cells, bones, tissue, etc. but is instead composed entirely out of awesome.

Welcome to Nerdfighteria.

Hank and John Green, proud founders of Brotherhood 2.0 and Nerdfighteria, are two brothers who wanted to reconnect using only video blogs. The Vlogbrothers promote being weird or a bit off-center, proudly stating that being a nerd is one of the best things to be.

With three videos a week, Hank and John are still able to keep up with their “day jobs.”

Hank Green is the creator of the website ecogeek.org and is a comical musician, writing songs about Harry Potter, selling dogs on eBay, and giraffes.

John Green is an award-winning author, writing the books Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, Paper Towns, and the co-written Will Grayson, Will Grayson.

Their videos are humorous and sometimes rather informative.

I am very proud to be a Nerdfighter and encourage anyone to watch the Vlogbrothers’ videos and join Nerdfighteria.

DFTBA*, Nerdfighters, DFTBA.


*An initialism: Don’t Forget To Be Awesome

North Korea Terrorizes South Korea

yrreskrapLeave a comment

Bombs ignited infernal flames. Buildings were shaken, violently convulsing with each heavy missile. Cameras caught people scrambling, the fear so clearly portrayed. Tensions were at an all time high. Families were packing, boarding ships to evacuate the island to the safety of the mainland.

This is a country in war.

Last Tuesday, South Korea’s Yeongpyeong Island was bombed by North Korea. North Korea had sent warnings to South Korea, advising the South Korean military to stop military exercises. However, the South Korean military continued to train their soldiers. The bombs were a result of South Korea’s disregard of these orders.

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Afghanistan Women Cry in Fire

vabenissimoLeave a comment

To burn is the only form of expression allowed to Afghanistan women.

Having been Married and suffered at young age, they fail to find an escape.

Gulbar, for example, was rushed into a local hospital in Northern Afghanistan with horrid burn on her nearly deformed body and face. Her internal body scans and blind eye narrate the story themselves: she had been brutally abused by her husband.

In another case, after an argument, Salehah’s husband poured gasoline over her tied up body and set it on fire.

Zarghona was also burned by her father-in-law for not washing her husband’s clothes thoroughly. She was fifteen.

However, these three are not the only victims. So far, about 800 cases have been “officially” recorded for the abuse cases.

The unfortunate social, mental, and physical suppression continue to bring greater depression and slavery for these women.

So, they burn themselves in fire.

If they get to survive with a slim chance, they cry muted again.

Meat.

smackyjackjackLeave a comment

It all started with Upton Sinclair‘s “The Jungle.” This book showed how cramped and dirty meat stockyards were in the US. Food sanitation, and more importantly, food safety, has been a big concern of many people in America.

Even today, the agricultural business has a very bad rap. The cows, chickens and other animals used for food are treated horribly. The animals are put in cages that do not allow them to move. They are forced fed food to become as fat as possible. They know nothing about being outside or being able to run, or even walk. When they are good and plump, they are slaughtered for food.Old Chicago stockyards

As sad as all of this is, there still is some hope. The senate just passed a new bill that increases food safety regulations. This is the first change in food saftey laws in a very long time. The bill was passed by a vote of 73 to 25.

Traditions Lost.

YourcupateaLeave a comment

It seems Christmas has come early.

We still have a month left until the big day yet the craze of Christmas has already been unleashed upon us. We have just waved goodbye to thanks giving and now we’re already onto Christmas. Where’s tradition nowadays? It’s not even December and already people are going crazy for gifts, food and Christmas music.

Yes those good old songs are back in the shops, repeated for a month until those great classic Christmas songs becoming ruined due to being over played. How many times can you listen to such songs as “little drummer boy” and “Rudolph the red nose reindeer” before they become truly irritating? The answer is not long.

Wasn’t it always traditional to prepare the feast, gifts, tree’s etc a couple of weeks before the big day? Yes in the past it was, or at least wait until the first door of the advent calendar had been opened. Today the masses bundle into the shops to get the best toys, bargains and sales. We have lost the true tradition of Christmas.

Christmas is not about gifts; it is about coming together in order to enjoy a celebration with family and friends. It’s about unity. It is an occasion for members of the family put behind past feuds and join in with the festivities rather than concerning themselves with what presents they will get, who got which present etc.

Today in a world full of materialism it seems, in many cases, that the simple traditions of Christmas have been lost, due to presents and greed.

Christmas Shoppers.