Book Report 4

Book report 4:
Sold - Patricia McCormick
Is about a sweet young girl from Nepal. She tells of the rules of where she lives such as the city rules are "Don't drink the city water." or the fifferent customs they had to go through, the strangw way of life and how she had to through so much in order to make it through the world. He tells about the strigant security and what is gon on there. The danger that is also faced in her life. She is very elaborate and describes things in very interesting quotes, poems, words, journal enteries and limericks. fascinating
It is a fascinating book of copurage and different ways of life, It is essentially putting yourself in someone else's shoes.

I liked it, I found that it was very much eclectic in so many ways, it was an eye opener and I found that it was profoundly different then the USA. Luxeries are not always in other countries as they the U.S.

Book Report 3

Book Report 3: The Notebook

I read the Notebook by Nicolas Sparks, that has recently been made into a major motion picture.
About a young boy and girl. A fairly conservative young girl and a boy from the wrong sides of the tracks get together and hand do many wonderful things such as they go to an ice cream parlor, they spend nights together in Noah’s beautifully renovated southern mansion that he renovated with his own hands. They have a beautiful relationship, but, later in life they find that Alli the girl has Alzeimers and she can’t remember Noah. Their love lasted all their lives and they were childhood sweethearts , it even lasted through other relationships because their love was so strong that it even overcame the love Alli had for her fiancé. In the end throughout the hardships their relationship faces, Noah is forever by Alli’s side as he coniously reminds Alli of their love and relationship in little ways and details when her memory slips.
I really enjoyed the book and movies as it was a sweet preminse. Many cry at the though of the final ending and the story as a whole, however, I look at it realistically as very sweet and endearing love story.

Book Report 2

Colleen Hughes
Elika’s Humanities Class

Book Report: How To Expand Love, His Holinesss The Dalai Lama
I’ve read the book How To Expand Love by the Dalai Lama about widening the circle of relationships. It teaches that you have to think about people around you differently and with kindness. Instead of thinking about things they say to you think of it in context of moods, such as when they say you look nice, they are in a good mood. It teaches how to deal with enemies, how to deal with coworkers, or peers, relationships, family, and friends. It teaches you how to learn from tragedy, How to detach from being clingy or attached to material things and people, How to let go and let things slide of your back, tolerance, enlightenment and human rights as well as meditation. It was all fascinating, and I still re read it to make sure that these life lessons are engrained in my daily life and actions. I’ve been going through a lot of stress lately and this made me see from different view points. It brought me down to earth and made me relize that I could think about other things rather than suffer as I have been. Such quotes as these, get me through “Like salt water, pleasurable things increase attachment no matter how many times they are used The altruistic practice by viewing them as like a summer rainbow, appearing to be beautiful but, untrue. Thereby avoiding lust and attachment.” –Bodhissativa Tokmay Sangpo
Or “Demonstrate warm feelings for all, if you want a friend, demonstrate warmth and compassion.” And “Help anyone if you notice they are in their time of need.”
I really enjoyed this book as it’s helped me through troublesome times.

Book Report 1

Colleen Hughes
Elika’s Humanities Class
Book Report: Guidebook For Marines Eighteenth Revised Edition
I read a book called Guidebook for Marines. A friend of mine who is a Marine gave it to me and I learned a lot from it. The reason I originally picked it up was because I intended on joining the military. Through this book, I learned the intended excercises such as how to do a proper crunch at a 90% angle or an exercise called a dirty dog. It teaches you about all the clothing and equipment that Marines have to wear. How to properly clean equipment as well as displaying it, and different types of weapons as well as how to position them and how to properly shoot them. It also teaches you basic CPR training, amongst how to treat a snakebite, how to handle minor wounds, someone who is unconscious, how to transport a victim without a stretcher. Of course presumably this would be in combat and even though I am a woman, this is still important stuff to know even if I don’t end up going into combat. Amongst other first aid measures and instructions, I learned how to treat electrical shock, burns, jaw wounds, how to dress a wound and how to control bleeding as well as shock control by making a tourniquet. Amongst so many other useful things in life. Overall, I benefited by reading this book because not only have I learned alot in CPR, and how Marines operate in daily life, but, I set aside a misnomer in my mind that Marines don’t know much except for hand to hand combat or how to shoot guns. Fully assembling and unassembling a rifle is hard work, carrying a Marine pack is a lot of work and has a lot of complicated compartments, the impression of freshly pressed clothes isn’t just there, its precise dedication to creases and detail, you can’t operate weapons in all climates, shooting is not easy, there are many types of guns and many ways to shoot them, Marines fit and lean bodies are not just from running they put a lot of time and effort into the way they work. Finally, Marines are not just made, they put a lot of effort and dedication that goes along with being one and this book really helped educate me on proper responsibility. I gained a lot from this book.

Colleen's Junior Year of Math

Improvement in:

• Linear Equations - slope
• Geometry
• proabability
• Overall Algebra

Over the course of my Junior year I have overcome many of the obstacles I had in Algebra.

Problems: I've always had a problem with setting up the problems and doing the steps. Proabability problems, Linear equations, sequence of operations.

Through working with Samantha, I have really improved the way I work through problems. Like Chuck Norris...rather stopping at obstacles, I go through them.

How I've overcome or what works: relating, making math fun, learning to embrace a one on one atmosphere, laughing through the tension

Ex: seandor, Little Angry Leprechuam with a club, Labrinth

Colleen's Spring Internship

http://colleeninternship.blogspot.com/

2 Lawmakers say Computer HackedBy Chinese

By PETE YOST and LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writers 25 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Two House members said Wednesday their Capitol Hill computers, containing information about political dissidents from around the world, have been hacked by sources apparently working out of China.
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Virginia Rep. Frank Wolf says four of his computers were hacked. New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith says two of his computers were compromised in December 2006 and March 2007.
The two lawmakers are longtime critics of China's record on human rights.
In an interview Wednesday, Wolf said the hacking of computers in his Capitol Hill office began in August 2006. He says a computer at a House committee office also was hacked, and he suggested others in the House and possibly the Senate could be involved.
The FBI declined to comment.
Wolf said that in his office, the hackers "got everything," including all the casework regarding political dissidents around the world.
In comments to The Associated Press earlier in the day, Wolf suggested the problem probably goes further. "If it's been done in the House, don't you think that they're doing the same thing in the Senate?"
"I think this is very bad because you have the Chinese compromising and gaining access to computers of any number of members of the House and a major committee of the House," Wolf said. "We don't know how many others."
In calling for hearings in both the House and Senate, Wolf said there "probably are members serving in Congress whose computers have been compromised and they may not even know it."
Separately, U.S. authorities are investigating whether Chinese officials secretly copied the contents of a government laptop computer during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce Department computers.
The FBI declined to comment. In Beijing, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no immediate comment. Last week, China denied the accusations regarding Gutierrez's laptop and the alleged effort to hack Commerce Department computers.
Wolf said he has known about the hacking for a long time but was discouraged from discussing it publicly by people inside U.S. government, whom he refused to identify.
"The problem has been that no one wants to talk about this issue," said Wolf. "Every time I've started to do something I've been told 'You can't do this.' A lot of people have made it very, very difficult."
Wolf plans to introduce a resolution that he says will help ensure protection for all House computers and information systems. In a draft of prepared remarks he planned to deliver on the House floor Wednesday afternoon, Wolf says he is "deeply concerned that Congress is not adequately aware of or protected" from cyber attacks.
"My own suspicion is I was targeted by China because of my long history of speaking out about China's abysmal human rights record," Wolf says in his remarks. He said Congress should hold hearings, specifically the House Intelligence Committee, Armed Services Committee and Government Operations Committee.
Wolf's resolution calls for the chief administrative officer and sergeant at arms of the House, in consultation with the FBI, to alert House members and their staffs to the danger of electronic attacks. He also wants lawmakers to be fully briefed on ways to safeguard official records from electronic security breaches.
Speaking generally in May 2006, Wolf called Chinese spying efforts "frightening" and said it was no secret that the United States is a principal target of Chinese intelligence services.

Current Event

Sudoku addicts halt drugs trial
Wed Jun 11, 10:20 AM ET
An Australian drugs trial lasting more than three months and costing taxpayers over A$1 million ($947,000) has been aborted after a number of jurors were found to have spent up to half the time playing Sudoku puzzles.
Sydney District Court Judge Peter Zahra cancelled the trial of two men on drugs conspiracy charges after the jury foreperson admitted that four to five jurors had been playing the addictive number sequence game, local media reported. The judge was alerted after some of the jurors were observed writing their notes vertically, rather than horizontally. The game involves completing a grid of numbers in the correct sequence.
One juror said the game helped them to pay more attention by keeping their mind busy.
"Some of the evidence is rather drawn out and I find it difficult to maintain my attention the whole time," the juror was quoted saying by the Australian Associated Press.
A new trial is expected to begin in a few weeks once a new jury has been called.
(Reporting by James Thornhill; Editing by Alex Richardson)

Music project

My Genre is: Country western

The history of country western all started in the Southern United States and the Appalacian Mountains. Its roots stem from traditional Folk music, Celtic Music, blues, gospel music, hokum, and old - time music and evolved into more in thAnother type of stripped down and raw music with a variety of moods and a basic ensemble of guitar, bass, dobro or steel guitar and sometimes drums became popular, especially among poverty striken white southerners. It became known as Honky Tonk and had its roots in Texas. It would later be called "traditional" country. In this post WWII period "country" music was called "folk" in the trades, and "hillbilly" within the industry. e 1920s. There is all kinds of country music. Rocability, Country pop, hillbilly music, Honkytonk, Country Rock, etc.

I like Garth Brooks and Faith Hill so I might use them as muses, er inspiration for the type of country western song that I write, such as a slower country western song.


The history of country music, began in the early 1920s originating in folk music allegedly from the Appalachians in the first quarter of the twentieth century introducing a more sophisticated styling of the ‘hillbilly’ sound. Overall there are three types of country. Honky Tonk Sound, Western sound, and Rockability sound of country. HONKY TONK SOUND In the eighty plus years of country music history, its has gone through drastic changes. Honky Tonk was mainly defined by Guitars and drums. Al Dexter cut the first record with the actual words ‘honky-tonk' in 1936, ‘Your Cheatin’ Heart,’ cut by Hank Williams in 1953, is perhaps one of the best-known records of the honky-tonk era.
WESTERN SOUND OF COUNTRYCountry Western music is defined by a lonesome whistle from the flute or other mellow-sounding wind instrument. The lyrics centered around the pain and sorrow of life on the western frontier. Some examples include Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and Dale Evans.
ROCKABILLY SOUND OF COUNTRYIn the early 1950’s, rockabilly emerged with a mix of southern hills music and the blues. Famous examples are the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis Presley.
Despite the fact that many of my peers are doing cover and original songs. I decided to be creative and merge the two. I am performing my version of Sunny Came Home by Shawn Colvin with original lyrics by me. I call this “My Cheesy Country Song.”


"My Cheesy Country Song"

I walked in a room, saw you standin there
Heart fell to the floor as you stared through my soul
If I'd only known then what I know now
I need to move on and get over you
I tried to forget that I ever... loved you
I guess it goes to show, I just never knew
I can't shove you away and (get) rid of you
Your too much a part of what I used to know

Instead I'm stuck in a blast from the past... when I saw you sittin there
I find myself in the darkest.... fog of mind...

I can't help but think back to that day in the car
When you picked me up for our first big date
I see us swimming together as you pull me near
I felt your whisper grazing my ear
Then I come back here and we're apart
No longer my friend and my ripped up heart.

Instead I'm stuck in a blast from the past, when I saw you sittin... there
I find myself in the darkest fog of mind

Glimmer in your eye..., the love there
It's all a facade, all a cheap lie
That (corner)... smile of yours brings me back
I felt your eyes starin... at me

Instead I'm stuck in a blast from the past when I saw you sittin.. there
I find myself in the darkest fog, A memory, trapped in the past...

Trapped in a memory, I can't seem to bury
My long lost friend, my love from the past
Remnants of love that used to be there, I struggle on and on

Current Event 5/30/08

Japanese man finds woman living in his closet
Fri May 30, 4:41 AM ET

A Japanese man puzzled by food mysteriously disappearing from his refrigerator got a shock when he found out a woman had been living in his home for months without permission, police said Friday.
The 57-year-old man living alone -- or so he thought -- in the western city of Fukuoka installed a security camera and called the police when he saw images of someone walking around his home while he was out.
"We searched the house in the man's presence. We found the woman in the closet," said a local police spokesman.
The woman, named as 58-year-old Tatsuko Horikawa, was found in a flat storage space only just big enough for a person to squeeze into lying down.
She had sneaked a mattress and several plastic bottles into the cubby hole, police said, adding that the women had been arrested.
"She told police that she had nowhere to live," the spokesman said. "She seems to have lived there for about a year, but not all the time."
It is unclear how she managed to enter the home undetected. Police suspect she might have been closet-hopping, moving from house to house.


This is sad, it kind of scares me about an idea that a woman I don't know would be living in my house, under my nose. But, the poor woman, she had nowhere to live. It reminds me of the book "The Mouse and The Motorcycle". She was quiet and she just needed somewhere to live. A closet/ scary...in the corner... It shows that you just never know and that something like that can go on.

Reflection on Architect Movie

Ya ya ya...This better be 500 words. Its not like we had other work and deadlines or stuff due for exhibition, or deadlines for the non profit organizations that we were dilligently working on. No, I forget, that we are just stupid kids sitting here that have to write this pointless reflection. We have to write this pointless 500 word reflection on a movie we can barley hear instead of actually getting work done. I have WORK THAT HAS TO GET DONE AND THIS IS TAKING AWAY FROM MY TIME.
Ok so, this architects son is in a quest to find out about his dad and in the process comes to find out about that his dad had three familys all within blocks of each other. weird. He had two sisters all older then him. His father had him when he was 61 years old.
His fathers name was Lou , he was Irish, German and Jewish, evidently so is his son. This movie is all about architecture where his son interviews other architects even though his father died 25 years earlier in Philidelphia. The son went to his father's architecture and some are very bland. Very mathamadcal and straight, semitrical, no pizazz or fun, nothing for it to get noticed, just the plain, brick, wood, or cement buildings occassionally with a waterfall. Yea...
Lou, the architect, this guys dad, was said to be very ambitious, secretive, perfectionalist etc etc. The architects that this guy is interviewing, make everyone in the room feel awkward, they are emabarrassed as well because they barley know him. It was said that his dad would phone his fellow architects in projects and asks them to make them for him at the last minute. Then he is nasty, and calls them up and says the model is nasty. (for lack of cursewords) Um, then we see the son rollerblading on his dad's architecture set to music...ok then...Louis I. Kahn, is the architecture he was found dead found face down in a restroom in manhatten at Grand Central Station. Suprisingly, it looks very familar to Union Station in Los Angeles, CA. Noblody knows exactly how he died, they are trying to identify him, and his son meets someone at the station to try and findout more, he finds out that his dad died from a heart attack...very sad.

Apparently Lou was born on an island, we can't really hear this movie, but it was North Philidelphia, the whole family lived on a top floor of a tenant. They were poor. He won a scholarship from Univirsity of Penselvania, he married Esther, sleek steel arhitecture, in 1947 he started his own office, we only see a few sketcheds, in 1941 he was invited somewhere important, though, I can't really hear because people won't stop talking. But, it involved architectiure and impacted his life. Then he worked in his office around steel.
We can't hear any of this movie and it pisses me off. Please give us a summary when you get back so we can understand this movie, because this is inadequete on its own.

Non Profit Organization

DARSAHFT - DATE AND ACQUAINTANCE RAPE SEXUAL ASSAULT HELP FOR TEENS

http://darsahft.wordpress.com/

Current Event 2

ABC7 Traffic Center
5 Freeway crash kills 3, injures 2
Friday, May 16, 2008







COMMERCE (KABC) -- Traffic was back to normal on the southbound 5 Freeway after being shut down for more than three hours Friday morning because of a head-on collision in Commerce at the Slauson exit.
A wrong-way driver slammed into an oncoming car full of teens, killing three people including himself and critically injured two others. The wrong-way crash happened Friday just after 3 a.m.
Click in the Eyewitness News Story Window above to watch Leanne Suter's report from the scene.
"Just scared to think of that. It is not suppose to happen that way. It just seems to young," said Brent Hellesen, a neighbor of one of the victim's.
Story continues below
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The CHP says that 27-year-old Steven Quintero was driving northbound in the southbound I-5 lanes. He slammed head-on into a silver Nissan Sentra carrying four people and died at the scene.
The impact of the collision was so powerful that 20-year-old Arielle Estremo, driver of the Sentra, was crushed to death, and passenger 20-year-old Chauncy Reid was also killed instantly.
Two male passengers, ages 18 and 19, in the Sentra were seriously injured and were rushed to Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center.
Investigators say several friends of the victims witnessed the crash as they were following behind the vehicle. The whole group had just left a club in Hollywood and was apparently returning home to Orange County when the Sentra slammed head-on into the wrong-way driver.
"They saw the headlights and the Nissan Sentra applied their brakes. They saw them veer over to the right and both cars went up in the air. That is what she said as she went past," said CHP Sgt. Brian Gonsalves.
Investigators do not know where Quintero entered the freeway going the wrong way or why. Officials are waiting on toxicology tests to determine if drugs or alcohol may have been a factor.
Friends say that the four in the Sentra were all part of a close group that worked together at Knott's Berry Farm's Halloween Haunt.
"I never thought that would happen to any of my friends. I feel bad for saying this, but I feel lucky that I wasn't in the car. And our friend Jackie could of gone last night to, but she said no," said Chelsa Mullins, one of the victim's friends.
The witnesses rushed to help their friends. CHP officers, who were close by at the time, heard the crash and also rushed up onto the freeway to help the victims.
The southbound 5 Freeway through Commerce was closed for more than three hours as morning traffic continued to pile on to the freeway. The scene was cleared and all lanes re-opened at about 6:40 a.m. on Friday.








_________________________________________________________________________



3 Dead In Wrong-Way CrashKTLA= News May 16, 2008, 1:19 PM PDT COMMERCE --


Three people were killed on Interstate 5 south of downtown Los Angeles Friday morning af


ter a motorist driving the wrong way crashed head-on into another vehicle.California Highway Patrol Officer Patrick Kimball says the driver of a Toyota sedan was heading north on southbound lanes of the freeway when he slammed into a packed Nissan sedan. Witnesses say both cars flew into the air.Authorities say 27-year-old Steven Quintero of Gardena was killed as were two women in the other car. CHP and coroner's officials have identified them as 20-year-old Arielle Estremo and 17-year-old Chauncy Reid, both of Anaheim.Two male passengers in the Nissan suffered major to moderate injuries and were rushed to the hospital. They are expected to survive.Investigators say the two men and two women were returning home from a night club in Hollywood when the Toyota appeared in their lane. An attempt to get around the vehicle was not successful and both drivers were crushed instantly.The CHP closed all southbound lanes at Slauson Avenue in the City of Commerce from 3:10 a.m. to 6:40 a.m. backing up traffic at the start of the morning commuter rush.Investigators did not find any obvious signs of drugs or alcohal in either of the vehicles. The crash remains under investigation.



One of my good friends, Arielle Estremo as the one who died on Friday :(
I inserted the pictures on the top. I don't haave alot to say, personally, I think that crash speaks volumes amongst us. I am angry and hurt and mourning her death. I hate the man who did this to her. :(

Current Event

Lost parrot tells veterinarian his address
2 hours, 33 minutes ago
When Yosuke the parrot flew out of his cage and got lost, he did exactly what he had been taught — recite his name and address to a stranger willing to help.
Police rescued the African grey parrot two weeks ago from a neighbor's roof in the city of Nagareyama, near Tokyo. After spending a night at the station, he was transferred to a nearby veterinary hospital while police searched for clues, local policeman Shinjiro Uemura said.
He kept mum with the cops, but began chatting after a few days with the vet.
"I'm Mr. Yosuke Nakamura," the bird told the veterinarian, according to Uemura. The parrot also provided his full home address, down to the street number, and even entertained the hospital staff by singing songs.
"We checked the address, and what do you know, a Nakamura family really lived there. So we told them we've found Yosuke," Uemura said.
The Nakamura family told police they had been teaching the bird its name and address for about two years.
But Yosuke apparently wasn't keen on opening up to police officials.
"I tried to be friendly and talked to him, but he completely ignored me," Uemura said.


Initially, I wanted to do a different current event, but, in addition, this one struck my fancy! It is sooooooooooooooooo cool!!! and it even had a last name...aww.... The world can benifit from this by teaching their pets how not to get lost either :)

Vocabulary Week 17

1.) interminable - having or seeming to have no end
Ex: As she clombed the rope, it seemed to be interminable.

2.) intuit -: to know, sense, or understand by intuition
Ex: My intuit friend had a bad feeling about going to a club last night, as it turned out, something bad had happened there.

3.)laboriously -devoted to labor : industrious 2 : involving or characterized by hard or toilsome effort
Ex: My grandpa works hard on their ranch, labourously woirking on the eight acres everyday.

4.)proximity -the quality or state of being proximate : closeness
Ex: The proximity of europeons to me, was too close for comfort and a little disturbing, compared to the distance between Americans and me at home.

5.)reticence -the quality or state of being reticent : reserve, restraint
Ex: My brother was put in reticence as a result of his violent nature.

6.)senescent -the state of being old : the process of becoming old
Ex: Many mothers are senescent quicker today, then, in the 50's.

7.)shroud -something that covers, screens, or guards: as a: one of two flanges that give peripheral support to turbine or fan bedding b: a usually fiberglass guard that protects a spacecraft from the heat of launching

8.)situation -relative position or combination of circumstances at a certain moment b: a critical, trying, or unusual state of affairs : problem c: a particular or striking complex of affairs at a stage in the action of a narrative or drama
Ex: The death of my young friend, was a horrifying situation, to happen to such a wonderful person.


9.) synchronously - happening, existing, or arising at precisely the same time
Ex: People are eating cookies synchronously at the same time around the world.

10.)tortuous -marked by repeated twists, bends, or turns

11.) tranquility-the quality or state of being tranquil

Current Event Option 2

Wis. man won't buy gas for 31 days, maybe longer

Fri May 16, 3:37 AM ET
Brian LaFave couldn't care less how high gasoline prices climb these days — he's parked his pickup truck and is refusing to buy gas for a month, possibly longer.
"The goal is to not use one drop of gas for 31 days," LaFave said, calling it his personal stand against the oil companies.
Now LaFave, 31, is riding his bicycle or walking everywhere he goes. He won't even let friends pick him up unless they already planned on being in the neighborhood.
"If they're not going out of their way, I can take the ride," he said. "But if they're going out of their way, then ... I'm still consuming gasoline so it kind of defeats the purpose."
LaFave started the effort May 11. He bikes to his third-shift job at Aldrich Chemical in Sheboygan Falls, a 9-mile commute.
"I did like a practice run ... two days in a row to make sure I could do it," he said. "I'm not in the greatest shape. The mornings are the worst. It feels like it takes forever. I get like a mile down the road and I want to die."
It's a big change for someone who put 300 miles on his truck the week before he stopped driving it.
LaFave fills out a chart each day listing how many miles he bikes, the destination and the gas price that day, among other things. He plans to compute his savings and donate that amount to a charity that provides food to children in Africa.
"I think just with the gas prices being so high, everybody complains about it but no one ever really does anything about it," LaFave said. "People continue to drive nonstop and not think about it, but I just wanted to take a stand and say, `I'm not gonna pay this much money for gas.'"

This is inspirational! Its like the bus revolt in the sixties! One man can make a difference!!! Yay!!
I wish I could run nine miles everyday, this is a good revolt I think everyone could benefit from doing something like this. This sounds like something I should do, I'm going to try to get back to running 5 miles per night.

Ok, I look forward to presenting this,

-Colleen

Current Event

Drunk 'Darth Vader' punished for Jedi attack


1 hour, 3 minutes ago
A booze-fuelled Briton pretending to be Star Wars villain Darth Vader was punished Tuesday for a bizarre surprise attack on two Jedi fanatics.
Arwel Wynne Hughes, 27 -- who has a chronic alcohol problem -- donned a black bin bag for a cape and used a metal crutch for a lightsabre when he impersonated the Dark Lord of the Sith on March 25.
He then lept over the wall of a "Jedi Church" where Barney Jones and his cousin Michael were duelling with lightsabres while filming a documentary.
The fans of the Star Wars films established the "church" last year in Holyhead, northwest Wales.
Hughes hollered "Darth Vader" as he swung his crutch about, whacking Barney Jones over the head with it and punching Michael Jones in the thigh.
The Jedi are guardians of peace and justice, and the force was with them at Holyhead Magistrates' Court as district judge Andrew Shaw punished "Darth Vader" with a two-month suspended jail sentence and a 100-pound (195-dollar, 126-euro) fine.
Hughes got off lightly compared to the film version of Vader -- who had a hand chopped off by his son Luke Skywalker and was finished off by bolts of Force lightning from the evil Emperor Palpatine.
Hughes, who has previous convictions for assault, had drunk the best part of a 10-litre box of wine and could not remember the attack, his lawyer Frances Jones told the court.


I like odd current events they are relevant, in my mind as I am a star wars fan and like darth vader. This makes me laugh, maybe I should choose better current events, I learned to curb my drinking if ever I drink and get into a fight....hahhaha..

Vocabulary Week 16

1.)amorous - strongly moved by love and especially sexual love

Example: The two lovers were quite amorous with one another.


2.)aroma -a distinctive pervasive and usually pleasant or savory smell

The aroma of fresh baked cookies is extrodonary.



3.)awkward -lacking social grace and assurance b: causing embarrassment

Example: I walked into a wall in fron tof my crush and it was quite awkward.



4.) consummate -complete in every detail

Example: The lovers consumated their love by getting rings that symbolized their intentions.

5.)inevitability -incapable of being avoided or evaded
Example: Fighters know never to accept the inevitable.


6.)acquiesce -to accept, comply, or submit tacitly or passively
Example: Sometimes I acquiese to others in an argument.


7.)delirium -an acute mental disturbance characterized by confused thinking and disrupted attention usually accompanied by disordered speech and hallucinations



8.)deleterious -harmful often in a subtle or unexpected way



9.) ecstasy -a state of being beyond reason and self-control
I jumped off the cliff into ecstasy as I was free falling.


10.) enamored -1 : to inflame with love —usually used in the passive with of

2 : to cause to feel a strong or excessive interest or fascination



11.) futile -serving no useful purpose : completely ineffective



12.) incantation -a use of spells or verbal charms spoken or sung as a part of a ritual of magic; also : a written or recited formula of words designed to produce a particular effect
Example: The girl was into the religion of Wicca and otften preformed incantations.


13.) inevitability -incapable of being avoided or evaded



14.) infatuation -to inspire with a foolish or extravagant love or admiration

Week 11

Prosecutor says S.C. student to face WMD charge

By SEANNA ADCOX, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 45 minutes ago
An 18-year-old accused of planning to bomb his high school will be charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, which carries a possible life sentence, the top federal prosecutor in South Carolina said Tuesday.
Ryan Schallenberger also will face two lesser federal charges stemming from what authorities say was a scheme to detonate explosives in a suicide attack on his high school in the small town of Chesterfield. The straight-A student will be charged in federal court in Florence on Tuesday afternoon, said Kevin McDonald, the acting U.S. attorney for South Carolina.
McDonald said the federal charge comes into play mostly because Schallenberger ordered materials that can be used for bombs through the mail.
William Spencer, the teen's court-appointed attorney, did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Schallenberger was arrested on state charges Saturday. Authorities say his parents called police because he had ordered 10 pounds of ammonium nitrate, which they retrieved after getting a delivery notice from the postal service. Ammonium nitrate is a fertilizer that was a component in the deadly 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
Authorities have said Schallenberger could have assembled deadly bombs within minutes with the materials they found. Police said they also discovered bombing plans including a hand-drawn map of the school, a hate-filled journal lauding the Columbine killers and an audiotape that authorities say was to have been played after Schallenberger died.
Schallenberger has been charged by the state with making a bomb threat, and county prosecutor Jay Hodge planned Tuesday to charge him with possession of bomb-making materials.
Schallenberger was to appear in a Chesterfield courtroom Tuesday afternoon for a bond hearing during which state prosecutors said they planned to request that he undergo a mental evaluation. He was to be taken to federal court later in the day.
McDonald said the federal charges will be resolved before the state case.
Authorities said Schallenberger's journal did not specify targets of an attack, or a date that he planned to carry it out. Police Chief Randall Lear said Schallenberger was "just mad at the world."
Schallenberger's mother and stepfather, Laurie and John Sittley, are "heartbroken," according to Sheriff Sam Parker.
"They were very concerned about his future education. I kind of explained to them and told them we've got to deal with two options here, we've got to deal with his education or with his life," Parker told ABC's "Good Morning America" on Tuesday.
The Sittleys have not commented publicly on the case. Their phone number is unlisted, they did not attend a court hearing Monday and their home about 10 miles from the school was blocked by "No Trespassing" signs later that day.
McDonald said Schallenberger will be charged with federal counts of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to use explosives on a building that gets federal funding, and using interstate commerce to obtain explosives to be used against people and property.
Authorities have said Schallenberger bought the ammonium nitrate off eBay and that company said it's cooperating in the investigation.
Chesterfield is a town of about 1,500 people in northeastern South Carolina near the North Carolina line.
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Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia contributed to this report.


Ok, first off he was stupid to get caught. Second, HIS PARENTS CAUGHT HIM!!! I support the right to do what you want and be a patriot or Benedict Arnold. More power to you if you succeed in your endeaveors. But, he was stupid enough to order it from the internet, he didn't have a valid reason, he was gpot by his parents, he trusted mail carriors and the United Postal Service and eventually, the Media was notified and it became a widespread story. What the Hell! At least do it right! This was executed so poorly that it is almost a comedic, laughable situation. What is a terrorist anyway or WMD charges? The US is paranoid and I think it is like modern version of the salem witch trials, this is getting out of hand. As in, YOUR A TERRORIST! YOUR A TERRORIST! In 1692, it was YOUR A WITCH!! YOUR A WITCH!! tHIS IS MODERN PANDOMONIUM, I DON'T EVEN THINK THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS VALID REASONS OR CLUES AS TO WHO REALLY IS A TERRORIST. BECAUSE I BELEIEVE THE REAL THREAT OF A TERRORIST, ARE THOSE THAT DON'T FIT THE "STANDARD PROFILE". OR ARE UNPREDICABLE AND CLEVER.

Current Event Week 7

YAHOO NEWS

World Food Program warns of 'silent tsunami' of hunger

By DAVID STRINGER, Associated Press Writer 17 minutes ago
Ration cards. Genetically modified crops. The end of pile-it-high, sell-it-cheap supermarkets.
These possible solutions to the first global food crisis since World War II — which the World Food Program says already threatens 20 million of the poorest children — are complex and controversial. And they may not even solve the problem as demand continues to soar.
A "silent tsunami" of hunger is sweeping the world's most desperate nations, said Josette Sheeran, the WFP's executive director, speaking Tuesday at a London summit on the crisis.
The skyrocketing cost of food staples, stoked by rising fuel prices, unpredictable weather and demand from India and China, has already sparked sometimes violent protests across the Caribbean, Africa and Asia.
The price of rice has more than doubled in the last five weeks, she said. The World Bank estimates food prices have risen by 83 percent in three years.
"What we are seeing now is affecting more people on every continent," Sheeran told a news conference.
Hosting talks with Sheeran, lawmakers and experts, British Prime Gordon Brown said the spiraling prices threaten to plunge millions back into poverty and reverse progress on alleviating misery in the developing world.
"Tackling hunger is a moral challenge to each of us and it is also a threat to the political and economic stability of nations," Brown said.
Malaysia's embattled prime minister is already under pressure over the price increases and has launched a major rice-growing project. Indonesia's government needed to revise its annual budget to respond.
Unrest over the food crisis has led to deaths in Cameroon and Haiti, cost Haitian Prime Minister Jacques Edouard Alexis his job, and caused hungry textile workers to clash with police in Bangladesh.
Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said more protests in other developing nations appear likely. "We are going through a very serious crisis and we are going to see lots of food strikes and demonstrations," Annan told reporters in Geneva.
At streetside restaurants in Lome, Togo, even the traditional balls of corn meal or corn dough served with vegetable soup are shrinking. Once as big as a boxer's fist, the dumplings are now the size of a tennis ball — but cost twice as much.
In Yaounde, Cameroon, civil servant Samuel Ebwelle, 51, said he fears food prices will rise further.
"We are getting to the worst period of our life," he said. "We've had to reduce the number of meals we take a day from three to two. Breakfast no longer exists on our menu."
Even if her call for $500 million in emergency funding is met, food aid programs — including work to feed 20 million poor children — will be hit this year, Sheeran said.
President Bush has released $200 million in urgent aid. Britain pledged an immediate $59.7 million on Tuesday.
Even so, school feeding projects in Kenya and Cambodia have been scaled back and food aid has been cut in half in Tajikistan, Sheeran said.
Yet while angry street protesters call for immediate action, long term solutions are likely to be slow, costly and complicated, experts warn.
And evolving diets among burgeoning middle classes in India and China will help double the demand for food — particularly grain intensive meat and dairy products — by 2030, the World Bank says.
Robert Zoellick, the bank's head, claims as many as 100 million people could be forced deeper into poverty. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said rising food costs threaten to cancel strides made toward the goal of cutting world poverty in half by 2015.
"Now is not too soon to be thinking about the longer-term solutions," said Alex Evans, a former adviser to Britain's Environment Secretary Hilary Benn.
He said world leaders must help increase food production, rethink their push on biofuels — which many blame for pushing up food prices — and consider anew the once taboo topic of growing genetically modified crops.
But Evans, now a visiting fellow at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, said increasing the amount of land that can be farmed in the developing world will be arduous.
"It's almost like new oil or gas fields; they'll tend to be the hardest to reach places, that need new roads and new infrastructure to be viable," he said.
The will to increase food production exists, as does most of the necessary skills, but there are major obstacles, including a lack of government investment in agriculture and — in Africa particularly — a scarcity of fertilizers, good irrigation and access to markets.
"Many African farmers are very entrepreneurial, but they simply aren't connected to markets," said Lawrence Haddad, an economist and director of Britain's Institute of Development Studies. "They find there are no chilling plants for milk and no grinding mills for coffee."
Haddad said the likely impact of food price increases should have been anticipated. "The fact no one has previously made the link between agriculture and poverty is quite incredible," he said.
Just as new land for farming is available in Russia and Brazil, new genetically modified crops resistant to drought, or which deliver additional nutrients, could be better targeted to different regions of the developing world, Evans said. "The solutions are more nuanced than we previously thought," he added.
Sheeran said developing world governments, particularly in Africa, will need to dedicate at least 10 percent of future budgets to agriculture to boost global production.
Some experts predict other countries could follow the example of Pakistan, which has revived the use of ration cards for subsidized wheat.
The production of biofuels also needs to be urgently re-examined, Brown said.
He acknowledged that Britain this month introduced targets aimed at producing 5 percent of transport fuel from biofuels by 2010, but said his government and others should review their policies.
Production of biofuel leads to the destruction of forests and takes up land available to grow crops for food.
Brown said the impact of the food crisis won't just be felt in the developing world, but also in the checkout lane of Western supermarkets. "It it is not surprising that we see our shopping bills go up," Brown said.
Many analysts, including Britain's opposition leader David Cameron, claim that people in the West will need to eat less meat — and consume, or waste, less food in general. Some expect the shift in attitudes to herald the end of supermarket giveaways and cost-cutting grocery stores that stack goods to the ceiling and sell in bulk.
Citizens in the West, China and India must realize that the meat on their plate and biofuels in their expensive cars carry a cost for those in the developing world, Evans said.
Sheeran believes many already understand the impact. "Much of the world is waking up to the fact that food does not spontaneously appear on grocery store shelves," she said.
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Famine is an intrigingly serious issue, often talked aqbout, but, never actually stopped. With all the donation going around, I would just figure that there would be problems settled. The issues stated by this article, do not need to be regurgitated by me, however, I feel this article pretty much sums it all up and in the end will lead to our demise as much of the World is very selfish and we often take things for granted. Hopefully, the many people who read about the world's growing problems in this article especially the overall message about food not growing in grocerie stores, will wake them up to better use of money, resources, and food.
If not this may add up in 2012...

Only time will tell...