Recently Read #8

I was reading through a bunch of fun facts of the day on a random website, and I found a lot of funny and interesting ones. 5 that I found were:
1. The game of checkers is banned in North Korea
2. The Cat in the Hat's first name is Abraham
3. When chiauas get stressed, they eat their young
4. The 5 dollar bill is the heaviest piece of paper currency in the U.S.
5. Professional sumo wrestlers pay income tax based on their weight

There were a bunch of other facts, and I had a good time reading through them.

Recently Read #7

I found a Time magazine about Australia, and there was an article inside about the things that make a 5-star hotel perfect. One thing was room numbers- the best number of rooms to have is 150 rooms, so that guests feel like they are number 1, and 200 rooms in Europe. Another thing is check-in times, instead of making a guest check in at a certain time, find out when they need to check in- they will spend more in bars, etc. One other thing was to keep it fresh, like polishing marble and fixing furniture. The best time do do this is in the middle of the day, when the guests are out or haven't checked in yet. I thought this article was interesting because I never really thought of the background work that goes into running a hotel.

Recently Read #6

I was looking through a Minnesota Monthly magazine, and saw a question someone asked about the weather recently. His question was- "It seems like every time I want to have a fire in my deck-side fire pit, it's too windy. Is it my imagination, or has it really been windier recently?" Paul Douglas answered, and said that it seems like it's been windier lately, but if anything, it's been slightly less windier over the past months. I thought this was interesting, because I haven't really noticed if it's windy or not, but now i'll pay more attention.

Recently Read #5

Something I have recently read is an article from cnn.com called "Depressed astronauts to find hi-tech comfort". Astronauts spend months at a time without seeing their families, friends, or getting fresh air, so some get pretty depressed. Scientists are trying to create a computer that will give the comfort and warmth of a human therapist. It's a recorded video therapists who helps the people identify their problems, and make a plan to fight depression. This program is going to take a long time to develop, but it's expected to be good. I think it's kind of a weird idea, but it will probably work.

HEROES IN A BOX.

YOUNG HEROES
Alexandra Scott- A cancer patient who decided when she was 4 years old that she wanted to hold a lemonade stand to benefit other people with cancer. By the end of her short lifetime, she had raised over 1 million dollars for childhood cancer.



Suzie Tipton- She was born 13 weeks premature, and suffered a bunch of strokes during birth. Suzie was adopted, and always needed lots of equipment, like wheelchairs. She realized these things were expensive, and that some families who needed this equipment couldn't afford it. She created a 'loan closet', where families could trade out old equipment for new equipment. She has won 2 1000 dollar grants, and continues to expand her foundation.






Kayla Cornale- She was motivated to help her cousin with autism to learn to read and spell, so she invented "Sounds and SyllablesT". This program applied pitch to the process of learning language, and helped many autistic kids. Kayla was one of 19 students from Canada to represent at the Science and Engineering fairs in Arizona























Bethany Hamilton- She was attacked by a shark off the coast of Hawaii in 2003, and lost her left arm, and almost her life. She has made her way through this tragedy and continues to surf and give inspiration to other people. She has written a biography called 'Soul Surfer', and a movie was produced about her. Bethany has been a role model for people trying to get through tough times.













Conclusion: Through reading about these different young people who have added great things to the world, I have learned that it doesn't matter how old someone is, they can still change the world and people's lives.

Recently Read #4

Something i have recently read is an article on msn.com called 'Kids less likely to graduate than parents'. This article is about how kids have become less likely to graduate than their parents, and how the states aren't doing anything to change this. More than half the states have graduation goals that don't let schools get better, and other countries in the world are passing us. It says that the reason states have set these goals so low is because they already are under pressure to improve test scores, so they are taking the pressure off grades. We also have one of the highest dropout rates, with 1 in 4 students dropping out before graduating. I thought this article was interesting because I always thought that our schools were really good, but I guess they aren't as good as they could be.

Recently Read #3

Something i have recently read is a short story called 'One Final Lesson', from the book Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul. This story is about a girl who's two best friends innocently died. They were out on a lake in a small boat on the last day of school, just enjoying themselves. The calm water turned choppy when a storm came, and the 3 kids were thrown out of the boat, 2 didn't make it. The way this story is written is in the perspective of one of the kids that died, and it gives an interesting look on dying. The boy sees search parties for him, his family mourning, etc., and doesn't realize he's invisible when he is trying to yell to everyone. As the boy watches his own funeral, he realizes he's actually dead. I thought this was an good (and sad) story, because it was a different way of looking at a death.

Recently Read #2

Something i have read recently is an article on cnn.com about the OJ Simpson trial in 1995. OJ was found innocent then, but now the jurors from that case are saying that they actually thought he was guilty. I thought this was interesting because if the jurors had said what they thought back then, then he would have been in prison all these years.