News for the week of 4/4 - 4/10 (3)

NASA's Kepler Planetary Probe Powers Down to Unexplained Emergency Mode

      A $600 million space telescope discovered more than 1,000 exoplanets and officially finished it's mission in 2012. The mission went so well, that NASA decided that it would be best if they kept the telescope up in space but now studying stars, supernovae, and astronomical objects. In July of 2015, Kepler had found the most Earth like planet and some even called this new planet "Earth 2.0". However, on Thursday NASA had been notified that Kepler was in an Emergency mode and the probe has now gone into hibernation. The last contact NASA has received from the probe was April 4th of 2016. NASA had been in contact with the probe up in space for six long years.

    I found this article to be very interesting because it is amazing how there is another planet out in space that is very similar to Earth. Therefore, it most definitely gives us hope that in years and years from now, if Earth ever begins to "end", or changes occur that are not necessarily good for us as human beings, we could possibly send people to "Earth 2.0". Now obviously I am not talking about this happening in my own lifetime but at some point this may happen, and it is good to start teaching ourselves what is beyond our own bubble, what is beyond Earth. We need to continue to stay technologically advanced as well, because that plays a huge factor when flying, for example, a telescope in space.







MLA citation -
Johnson, Alex. "NASA's Kepler Planetary Probe Powers Down To Unexplained 
     Emergency Mode." NBC News 10 Apr. 2016: n. pag. Print. 

News for the week of 4/4 - 4/10 (2)

Vegetarian ancestors may affect your own cancer risk

     Most people never would think that you should actually pay close attention to what your ancestors eat, but recent studies show that what your ancestors had eaten can affect your risk for specific diseases in the future. Cornell University has done a recent study that provides truth to that fact and they explained that "people who come from a line of mostly plant eaters, actually hurt there bodies with a fatty acid overload" when eating foods other than plants, especially meats and oils. The result is an increased risk of heart disease and even colon cancer. However, depending on where your ancestors are from, the risk for such diseases is at a lower or higher risk. In fact there is even a gene that some people can inherit from their ancestors eating only plants (FADS2).

    This article actually amazed me because I would never have thought that what my ancestors had eaten, can actually affect my own life and could put me potentially at risk for diseases. I think this is a great article for everyone to read because it makes many people aware that not only you should be careful of what your eating for your own life but possibly the lives of your future grandchildren to come. It also made me wonder, that maybe there are more things that our ancestors have eaten, that could potentially put us at risk for a variety of other diseases. I think this is the first step into discovering a greater variety of how are ancestors majorly impact our own lives and futures.





MLA citation:  Dier, Arden. "If Your Ancestors Were Vegetarians, It May Affect Your Cancer 
     Risk." Fox News 31 Mar. 2016: n. pag. Fox News. Web. 10 Apr. 2016. 
     
     if-your-ancestors-were-vegetarians-it-may-affect-your-cancer-risk.html?intcmp=ob_ 
     article_sidebar_video&intcmp=obnetwork>. 

News for the week of 4/4 - 4/10 (1)

Sunday without Donald Trump

     April 10th marks the first Sunday since November that Donald Trump did not take part in the Sunday morning TV interview, which for those of you who don't know Donald Trump, seems extremely out of his character. Many believe that this is just one of Donald Trump's new approaches, due to his recent lead in the New York State primaries. The New York Post columnist even noted that "Trump is dominating the news by not even being there." Trump has been the most frequent guest overall in the Sunday morning interviews, with a total of 70 appearances, so him not taking part in the Sunday interviews has caught most off guard.

   In my opinion, Donald Trump clearly knows that he is doing well, especially in the New York primaries, therefore in his case it was probably best for him to stay on the down low. For him to go on the Sunday morning TV interviews would most likely not be in his favor because Donald Trump is known for having a strong opinion. His opinion at some points is so strong that it leads most people to either hating him or loving him, and not many people find themselves in between. It does lead into further questions as to whether or not this may hurt Trump in the New York State primaries. Whether it does or does not, we will all know after April 19th.



MLA citation: Stelter, Brian. "A Sunday Morning without Donald Trump for the First Time in 5 
     Months." CNNMoney 10 Apr. 2016: n. pag. Print. 

News for the week of 3/28 - 4/3 (2)

Race and Death Penalty in Texas

      A major known policy in Texas is that a person can only be sentenced to death, if and only if prosecutors can show that he or she poses a future danger to society. However, that was clearly not the case for Duane Buck, who is a black man from Texas. Duane was found guilty for killing his ex-girlfriend and a man beside her. He was clearly wrong for doing it and most definitely should be punished. But when Buck's defense lawyer called a psychologist, and the psychologist testified that race plays a huge factor in whether or not they should use the death penalty, it definitely raised a huge red flag in how the death penalty is distinguished. Duane was executed in 1995.

      Even though Duane's case happened more than twenty years ago, this issue is still extremely prominent today. I have always questioned why people treat individuals differently based off of the pigment of their skin, especially in a topic as big as the death penalty. I think that the death penalty is too big of a consequence to just use on an individual that committed a single murder. It amazes me how this case happened several years ago and our society has remained the same as it was in 1995. The death penalty is already a huge controversy as of whether it should be used or not in the first place, but now we have to worry about if it's being used to discriminate another race.



URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/03/opinion/sunday/race-and-the-death-penalty-in-texas.html?ref=opinion
Editorial Board. "Race and the Death Penalty in Texas." Editorial. New York 
     Times 2 Apr. 2016: n. pag. Print.

News for the week of 3/28 - 4/3 (1)

The lowering of the cost of oil will eventually hurt our nations economy

      Many of Americans have began to feel happiness when paying at the gas station due to the cheap price of gas in the past few months. However, in reality, most of them do not realize that cheap oil, is actually bad for our U.S. economy. Morgan Stanley and Golden Sachs even have noted that they believe that the price will even plummet to as much as $20 a barrel in our nations upcoming future.

      It is all part of a rippling affect, that first starts off with many oil companies having to lay off thousands and thousands of employees. Along with supply companies for the oil industries, consumer services, and employee housing also having to lay off thousands of employees as well. Therefore many businesses will have to close. This all will drastically affect our nations economy in a bad way.

      All in all, laying off Americans, will leave many citizens without jobs. When businesses are forced to close down and Americans are forced without work, in actuality, our nation is predominantly better for some to suffer a little to pay more for gas, than our entire nations economy to suffer just because the gas price was not raised a little. I think that the oil industries and our average nations workers should both come together and discuss a price that is both beneficial for Americans and the oil industries to keep running.




 URL: http://thesovereigninvestor.com/exclusives/10-oil-in-2016-u-s-economy-doomed/?z=463472

Yastine, JL. "$10 Oil Will Trigger Economic Collapse, Warns Economist." The 
     Sovereign Investor Daily 31 Mar. 2016: n. pag. Print. 


   

Dairy Queen

A little too much: music           For DJ, growing up had been spent by going to school everyday, playing in the backyard with her older brothers, dreaming big, and setting goals. DJ had a great imagination and no obstacles were ever in sight, the sky was clearly the limit. Everything was normal for this young 15 year old athlete and student until, suddenly it wasn't.

               Life had taken a huge toll for DJ, a toll that would unfortunately affect her perfect life drastically. Her father had hurt his hip and when the family farm was suddenly on the line, she had no other choice than to give up her life, the way she had always known it to be. She would do this all in order to keep her family financially strong and stable. Showing no loss of confidence in her decision to help out, DJ remained to keep her head up high and stay strong.



              Thinking she would just be providing a simple, thoughtful gesture for a few weeks, she had no problems, at least for the first couple of weeks. But when the few weeks had turned into months, it suddenly became clear that maybe her whole life would be spent working on the farm. Not only was it hard to work on the farm at such a young age but it was extremely more difficult for her to work on her own everyday. She felt alone and hoped for some sort of light at the end of the tunnel. She was pulled out of school and only kept in touch with her one and only friend, Amber.

         It seemed like a tragedy but it quickly became a daily routine and almost felt normal for this 15 year old girl. Her interests were put aside, especially in football, a sport that had come close to home for DJ, after her brothers had played football all throughout their high school experiences. Until the day, she was pressured into training Brian Nelson, who was a current football player at a high school nearby. When it had seemed to his high school coach that the young boy had clearly needed some lessons not only about football but keeping his mind level as well, he knew the perfect girl to help him out. At first, there was hatred between the two of them and it did not seem like they would ever get along. But when Brian was forced to provide service in DJ's life and DJ had the privilege of providing service in helping Brian train, it seemed as if the two of them could firsthand understand each others problems and struggles. Learning that they both have different stories and backgrounds but similar feelings.




         







        It was beginning to look good for the two of them. But will Brian and DJ be able to come to an understanding and succeed together? And will it be possible, for DJ to start a life where her interests are put first, or will her whole life be spent providing her family? Well, I guess you will just have to read the rest of the book to find out.