On November 9th, I headed out to Santa Cruz Island with a small group of students and Ms. Davis. I am normally opposed to camping trips because of the intensive backpacking it calls for.
A student is expected to carry his or her own pack with all of their personal gear inside, along with the group gear such as stoves, propane, tents and food. A backpack ends up weighing around 50 pounds, which the student must carry on his or her back at all times for duration of their trip in the wilderness.
Chelsea suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Sunderland this past weekend. Steve Bruce’s side played a fantastic game, beating the champions 3-0. This was Chelsea’s first home defeat this season, also allowing the first goals at Stamford Bridge so far this year.
For the rest of the teams in the league, this comes as quite a pleasant surprise. Sunderland was not the team many would have picked to upset Chelsea at home, especially given Chelsea’s recent form.
Chelsea did not look like they wanted to be out on the pitch. They looked sluggish and non-potent. Sunderland was quite the opposite, creating many chances and playing a more aggressive style than many would have predicted.
Arsenal came away with three points against a disappointing Everton team. Everton has been lacking style and competency lately, barely staying mid-table. This result puts Arsenal two points back of Chelsea in second. Man United drops to third, three points back of the leaders, followed by Man City.
Nobody can pull of a combination of cool and classy quite like Crookers. This Italian DJ duo goes by the pseudonyms Bot and Phra. The twosome famously signed to Diplo’s oddball Mad Decent record label not too long ago. I see this as a well-functioning symbiotic relationship. Their unique electro house is catchy enough for the mainstream consumption Mad Decent needs, yet quirky enough to be…well…Mad Decent.
Crookers get common complaints of being repetitive, but personally I find it to be part of their charm. Compared to most straight house music, it’s incredibly varied. And no one can argue against the inventiveness of their baselines.
Both Bot and Phra are not only some of the most prolific DJs, but also the most sought after in all realms of electronic music. They are truly spectacular.
With exponentially growing advancements in technology, we have more access to information than ever. But moral struggles of how to handle this information remain the same. What happens, for instance, when we have comprehensive access to military secrets? This is why the Afghan War Diary published on the website Wikileaks.com is the most influential story of the year.
In 2006, Australian hacker Julian Assange was named editor in chief of a new website entitled WikiLeaks. The site steadily grew notoriety with each new release of exclusive federal information, culminating in their release of over 91,000 classified U.S. documents from 2004-2009 entitled “Afghan War Diary”.
Should citizens be entitled to explicit details of the military’s actions in the war? The military conceals a significant amount of information in the interest of public safety, though they are guilty of significant war crimes.
After holding many fund-raising events for Invisible Children, student council encourage students to participate in the Exchange Peace event. We can make peace pals with students from all over the world. Last year we exchange with students in Uganda.
This year we are going to exchange with students in India. It is very easy for students to be one part of this event. Every student receive a little card which requires them to draw a picture related to peace and write a short message to those students.
We will send the cards to India and later the Indian students will send the same cards to us. Although it is just a simple card exchanging event, the meaning for this event is to create a global peace, because there are still many children like those in Uganda are suffering from the civil war in their country.
Adjusting to different regions had always been my challenge.
Let me scratch, I mean adjusting to different “fashion.”
When I lived in my hometown in South Korea, different layers of clothing, matching accessories and intricate designs had been the major Asian style of dressing.
During my several years of residence in Southern California, the sunny weather helped me to define my “So Cal” fashion: thin layers of clothes, traditional pair of Rainbow flip-flops, and sunglasses.
As I entered a boarding school in Connecticut, “prep” was the word for my outfit. Blazers with khaki pants, classic patterned skirts, simple dresses, and pearl earrings had helped me to abide my school rules: knee-length skirts, shoes with heels, and no jeans.
An amazing new art project called “Silent Revolution” has just been installed at Isla de Mujeres, Mexico. The project is an artificial reef. The reef is made of 400 life size concrete people. The project has taken 18 months. The underwater people range from small children to old people. The project cost $250,000 to make and is now a prime tourist spot. Tourists can now go scuba diving and marvel at the underwater museum.
Sometimes we lose the ones we love. They die from disease or even get killed. Then there are the times when they are taken from us and we are forced to imagine all the awful possibilities.
But, sometimes fate takes a hopeful turn and our loved ones are returned to us. We can only hope for the best right? That’s all we can do. A girl was found today. She and three others had gone missing about a week ago and they found her “bound and gagged in the basement of a home in Mount Vernon, Ohio.” She is safe, but who knows where the others are. Another girl was abducted in July. The mother raced after her daughters kidnapper, hoping to retrieve her four year old. She was found just a few days after. There have been seven other abductions within the last four months. As far as anyone knows they haven’t yet been found.
Do you remember Polly Klaas? Polly was kidnapped on October 1, 1993. She was found, but not alive. Her death started a foundation that changed the lives of hundreds of families. The organization gives support to the devastated families of lost children. Some are never seen again. Some are found and return to the lives they once knew. So what can we do when our greatest fears come true. All we can do is hope. That’s all we can do.
My heart goes out to all families who have lost the ones they loved. Just remember there is always hope.
So it seems yet again I am writing about British transport. I’m such a patriot, but it does need some praise. Living in Ojai, California, there is no real public transport. It’s a shame really I thought Arny, (Arnold Schwarzenegger) really was trying to make a change to the environment yet California still does not have a sufficient public transport system. I admit the carpool is a clever invention to cut emissions, except nowadays it often seems just as busy as the regular lanes. Everyone still rides around in their fuel guzzling machines, unaware how much pollution they are creating.
A simple bus, train and tube system needs to be created. Why not stop putting taxes into nuclear weapons and war, and help towards a healthier planet rather than destroying it.
I believe the United Kingdom is a great role model when it comes to public transport. I admit we are not completely there in terms of “going green” but we are making a real effort. I appreciate it’s a lot harder to achieve on a larger scale, but surely that means there should be more motivation to make a change?
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