U.S. Government Shuts Down

Tuesday, the United States federal government shut down because congress could not come to agree on a government spending bill.  The spending bill for the government must be agreed upon by both the democrats and republicans, and neither side will budge.  Obama even talked to the Democratic and Republican leaders in congress Wednesday to try and help resolve the problem.  The U.S. government will not start back up until both sides of congress come to agree on government spending.

Personally, I think that there are much too many problems going on in the United States right now for the government to still be arguing like children over what the spending bill should be.  The only way the problem will be solved is if one side steps up and proposes an offer to meet half way on a certain spending bill. Both democrats and republicans are acting selfish if they have to spend extra time to come up with a spending bill when they could be using that time to solve other important problems that we have in the United States.

The federal government shutdown really has no direct effect on our lives, or so it may seem to most.  National parks are being shut down in Washington DC as well as all around the U.S. until the spending bill is decided upon.  Also, it would be awesome if you would not have to pay taxes because the government is shut down, but unfortunately that’s not how it works.  Taxes will still be collected and also federal bonds are still being issued.  Thankfully, all mail will still be sent and received like always.

One major effect that the shutdown of the U.S. government is having on Washington D.C. is that garbage will not be collected during the shutdown.  Because the government spending bill must have a budget for trash collection, no trash will be collected until the budget is agreed upon.  This could potentially be a big problem because the last government shut down lasted for 3 weeks, which would be an equivalent to about 1500 tons of garbage!  There is no saying exactly how long this shutdown will last though.  The issue could be solved as early as tomorrow but then again could still be an issue a month from now.  Hopefully for most tourists and people in Washington D.C. the issue is solved soon.


http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-02/u-s-government-shutdown-threatening-housing-recovery.html

Gittelsohn, John. "U.S. Government Shutdown Threatening Housing Recovery."Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 02 Oct. 2013. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.

Miley Cyrus Growing Up

Miley Cyrus, popular from her old Disney Channel show “Hannah Montana” has been getting a lot of attention lately.  It first started when she cut her hair off months ago, starting a big debate and getting a lot of attention from the media.  There was no saying why exactly she did it but many people have said different things about why they believe she did it.  Some people are saying it was because her parents were getting divorced, others saying she just felt like something new, and the rest saying it was merely for attention.  Whether she wanted the attention for it or not she sure got it, and that was just the start of things.

She was once a positive role model for kids with her Disney show, but now, not as much.  December of 2010, she was caught on video smoking out a bong.  The video went viral and eventually everyone found out about it.  Another dumb and inappropriate move she pulled was later, saying she would do a naked scene for a film.  At this time, she was not even of age to be doing this, but was still talking about it, which eventually went viral as well.  Another dumb move Miley has made is making a “slant eyed” gesture during a photo.  This move has been done by many people to imitate Asian people, but when Miley does it, a woman tries to sue her for $4 million.  Eventually, the lawsuit was thrown out of court but the stunt just showed some of Mileys immaturity.

However these things seem like they are a big deal, in actuality they really are not.  Usually whenever a star does something out of the ordinary they are immediately judged by the media, who we all know exaggerates things and does not say the full truth.  Now almost everything Miley does she is being targeted for and they are making her seem like a lot worse of person then she actually is.  For example, I bet most people did not know that Miley supports 39 different charities and foundations.  This is just one of several things that the media chooses not to focus on to portray her as not as good of a person.

Recently, the media has been targeting Mileys clothing choices and music videos.  This is yet another stunt by the media to try and portray Miley as not so good of a role model.  In her recent music video “wrecking ball”, she is shown almost completely naked swinging around on a wrecking ball.  Although this may sound like a little too much, there have been several other singers who have done things much like it.  Instead of targeting Miley, the media needs to start realizing that she is just growing up like everyone else.

http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2013/oct/04/miley-cyrus-bangerz-review

"Miley Cyrus: Bangerz – Review." The Guardian. N.p., 04 Oct. 2013. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.

9 Year Old Boy Sneaks onto Plane

Without a ticket or a boarding pass, a 9 year old boy made it onto a flight in the Twin Cities headed towards Las Vegas.  To make it through security is one thing, but making it onto a plane without a boarding pass just seems crazy, and the fact a 9 year old boy did it, makes the story sound even stranger.  Without and parent or guardian with the boy, he made it onto the plane headed to Las Vegas.  It took fight attendance a while to finally figure out that the boy was alone and had no ticket.  Once they had made it to Nevada, flight attendants finally realized that the boy was not supposed to be on that flight.

Before 9/11, it would have been a lot easier to do so, but now 12 years later to do that is something completely different.  Many precautions had been taken since then to try and keep people safe.  All in all, mistakes are made and the 9 year old boy would not raise any suspicion to security.  Still, the boy was alone and had no pass and should have been stopped at some point along the way and not after the flight.

Delta, the airline responsible for the boy making it all the way to Nevada says that they are taking the incident very seriously and trying to figure out what went wrong.

One part that makes the story seem even more out of the ordinary is that the boy was recording at the airport the day before as well.  While there, it was said that he took random bags from the carousel and would take them into restraints at the airport and leave them.  This is very surprising because you would think a little boy walking around and airport all day would raise suspicions but evidently not.  Delta reports that the boy did make it on a fight back to the Twin Cities and the incident is still being investigated

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/06/boy-boards-plane-without-minneapolis_n_4054174.html


Gates, Sara. "9-Year-Old Boy Sneaks Onto Plane Without Ticket At Minneapolis Airport, Flies To Las Vegas." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 06 Oct. 2013. Web. 06 Oct. 2013.

Man has Nose Grown on Forehead After Accident:

A Chinese man by the name of Xiaolian was in a horrible car accident and lost all availiblity to use his nose due to an infection cause by the accident.  Doctors said the only way for the man to regain his nose abilities was to surgically reconstruct it onto his forehead. The man, just 22 years old, only had this option if he wanted to be able to have a nose again.  However this is the first case for someone to have a nose reconstructed, there have been a few other cases like it, such as when a cancer patient had an ear reconstructed on their arm.  Also, I have read another odd story of ears being reconstructed on the back of a mouse!

The nose was reconstructed by tissue being expanded and placed under the skin on the man’s forehead.  This is not the final product though; doctors must take this nose and remove it, then implant it where the nose actually is.  The reason they use forehead skin for this procedure is because it is the closest match to skin found on the nose. 

I think if I, along with anyone, saw someone with a nose on their forehead would freak out.  Now me, not so much but there are some people out there and we all know someone who would have a panic attack!  However this procedure does seem very strange, it must be done in order for the man to ever have a functioning nose ever again.

Even if it may not seem like it, the easy procedure has already been done by the nose being grown on the forehead.  The hard part of transplanting the nose and keeping it healthy still remains and will be a difficult task.  Dr. Patrick Bryne says that there is a lot of things that could go wrong with this upcoming procedure.  Dr. Bryne says that the patient will need to be extremely cautious within the first 2 years after the operation take place.  Much can go wrong says Bryne, he goes on and says that “If he gets a little infection the cartilage can disintegrate” and “what was a nose, will now look like a blob”.  However, Bryne says the patients nose will almost function as well as before, making the procedure well worth the efforts.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/09/130928-nose-forehead-ear-arm-reconstructive-surgery-medical-science/

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/09/10/replacement-ears-grown-on-rats_n_1869825.html

Miller, Andrew. "RocketNews24." RocketNews24 RSS. N.p., 02 Oct. 2013. Web. 29 Sep. 2013.

Potential Ban of Beauty Pageants in England for Girls Under Sixteen:

Recently in France, the legislature has decided to try and set a new law on beauty pageants, not allowing girls under the age of sixteen to compete.  The reason that the legislature wants to outlaw this is because they believe that the pageants promote the “hyper-sexualization” of minors, or in other words, young girls acting like women.  The French senate has approved of this but it must next go through the lower house of parliament and also be approved for the new law to be set into place.

Personally, I agree with this potential change, because beauty pageants aren’t at all concerned with “beauty” to me, but are focused on who has the best make-up, clothing, and physical characteristics.  When I usually think of beauty, I don’t think of these things but usually think about natural beauty, not so much of who looks the best in fancy clothing or with great ammounts of makeup on.  Also, these girls are still very young, and they should not have these competitions because they will end up crushing these little girls and their dreams, even if they are beautiful.

This so called “hyper-sexualization” these beauty pageants are promoting is actually very real.  The contestants in the beauty pageants are not performing in age appropriate ways, which was a main concern and eventually led to the potential ban.  With today’s world ’, you could probably guess these measures are being taken to the extreme.  Many places you go and even things you watch or see promote beauty and being skinny or losing weight.  All these things are ultimately leading to the problem and in the future will only continue to get worse.

Also, the potential penalties for allowing anyone under the age of 16 in a beauty pageant can be extremely costly.  Up to two full years in prison can be given depending on the seriousness of the crime can be given.  Even worse yet, up to $40,000 in fines can be given as well.  These harsh consequences will definitely be enough to stop most people from allowing minors under 16 to partake in their pageants in my opinion.

If someone really wanted to take measures to the extreme they could have false records such as birth certificates made.  With the total cost of participating in a competition between $3,000 and $5,000, and the rewards not much higher, will ultimately stop most people.  All in all, as I previously mentioned, the harsh consequences will be enough to stop most people from doing this as well, if the law is passed in England.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24224598

"Should the UK Ban Beauty Pageants for Children?" BBC News. BBC, 24 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.

Barilla Pasta Against Gay Families:

Last Thursday, the company president of Barilla Pasta, a very popular pasta company all around the world, said he will never allow for gay families to be shown on any commercials or advertisements.  Guido Barilla, the company president, said “We won’t include gays in our ads, because we like the traditional family.  If gays don’t like it, they can always eat another brand of pasta.  Everyone if free to do what they want, provided it doesn't bother anyone else”.

Shortly after this was said by Guido, on twitter the hash tag “Boycott Barilla” was trending.  Now several people all around the world, straight and gay, are boycotting all of Barilla’s products.  Guido later says in an interview that his idea of a traditional family was one with a man, woman, and children. 

To me, this makes no sense why Barilla would even make a remark about not letting gay families be in their advertisements.  First off, you never see advertisements of families with same-sexed parents anyways, so why feel the need to go public and say why you don’t want to include them.  All the other companies just do not include them in their advertisements, and do not go public to explain why, like Barilla did.  There just was no reason for them to say anything about it when they could have kept it to themselves and saved themselves a lot of trouble.

Guido Barilla also says that he does support gay marriage but is against them adopting children.  This is why he would have no problem having gay couples on his advertisements, but not gay families.  This is odd because usually if someone is against gay families, they are also against the marriage of same sexed people.

Not as huge of deal here in America, but in Europe, especially in Italy, it is stirring up a big debate.  Guido Barilla was even interviewed on a popular radio station in Italy after his comment about gay families in Barilla’s advertisements.  On this live radio broadcast he continued to talk about how he likes to feature the “traditional family” which to him is a man, woman, and children.  Later in the week Guido came to say that he was sorry for his comment and that he respects everyone.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/26/barilla-pasta-anti-gay_n_3995679.html

Sieczkowski, Cavan. "Barilla Pasta Won't Feature Gay Families In Ads, Says Critics Can 'Eat Another Brand Of Pasta'" The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 26 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.

Rihanna’s Instagram Post Gets Men in Trouble and Indicates Larger Problems

For those of you who don’t know, Instagram is an application on your Iphone or Android devise.  This application allows you to share photos and fifteen second long videos with people who follow you and has become insanely popular over the last year or so between many people.  Rihanna isn’t the first to be involved with conflict from instagram, many other stars and even people who aren’t famous, like students and adults, can get in trouble over Instagram along with other social media sites as well.  With Instagram getting extremely popular over last year, more and more people are starting to get punished for posting photos on instagram and tweets on twitter, and it is causing many people to get in trouble.

Currently Rihanna, a popular artist, is on her 5^th world tour, starting March 8^th in New York and lasting until October 22^nd in Israel.  Traveling through several countries all across the globe performing.  Tens of millions for dollars has been made so far and the tour still has a month to go.  Rihanna spent this last weekend in Bangcok, Thailand while on break from her tour.  After several tweets and a few Instagram photos that were posted, police were led to arrest two men for allegedly peddling protected animals.  In simpler terms, these men were accused of trying to sell animals that were illegal to have because they are protected for certain reasons like being close to extinction.

While on break this last weekend Rihanna posted a picture with a slow Loris, which is a squirrel like animal with large eyes.  This animal is protected in Thailand along with several other countries in the world, which raises suspicions after being posted by Rihanna last Friday night in Bangkok.  Several Tweets were also posted by Rihanna on twitter; some were talking about the protected animal.  All in all, Rihanna has a combined 41.5 million followers between twitter and instagram, and by posting anything can be seen by anyone in the whole world.

Just several hours after the photo was posted, local authorities were alerted of the photo that was taken by Rihanna with the protected animal.  Just a day later, authorities arrested two individuals.  These unnamed individuals had brought the slow Loris as a photo opportunity for tourists in Bangkok.  After arresting a twenty year old man and a sixteen year old boy, authorities found two slow lorises and confiscated them from the two men.  These two could face up to four years each in prison just for having these two protected animals.  Also there is a $1300 fine for being in possession of the protected animals as well.  To me, the those charges seem extremely ridiculous just for having protected animals with you.  Especially for the boy who is only sixteen years old and not even legally an adult, four years and $1300 dollars seems like too much.  If they were harming the two animals it would be a different story.  Therefore, the penalty just for these two men being in possession of the two animals seems like too much.

For many years, authorities have been on the lookout, trying to crack down on vendors trying to get money from people taking pictures with protected animals.  This doesn’t just happen there in Bangkok, it happens all the time all around the globe.  Mainly, this happens in areas that are very popular and full of tourists.  People may pay money to these vendors to take photos with different exotic animals, mainly while on vacations.  I can even recall an instance myself while I was in Mexico when I was younger and took photos with different types of birds.  It really makes you wonder if you have ever been around people doing this or even if you have taken a picture with a protected animal from a vendor as well.  The chances are if you have been to a foreign country, you have most likely witnessed it. 

This particular time it was a lot easier to solve the problem because the photo was exposed to several millions of people.  Authorities just had to contact Rihanna and talk to her about what happened so they could find the two men who were charging money to take photos with the protected animal.  Also her twitter revealed several places she was that night, giving authorities an idea of where the vendors were doing this at, and therefore leading them to make an arrest later on.  This case was very popular making it easier to solves, but every day things just like this happen and aren’t reported or questioned because they are on a much smaller level.

Rihanna’s run in with the vendors definitely wasn’t the first and is just one of several instances where people get into trouble over social media.  Today with all the social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Myspace, Facebook, and many more, more and more people are starting to get into trouble because of these social media sites.  There has even been laws made about them.  One I know of is that you cannot be friends with your teachers or students on facebook.  This is probably just one of several that are out there, but things like this are taken very seriously.  There can be cases where a teacher can even be fired over something as little as being friends with their students on Facebook.  I think that it is very hard to divide your social life from your work life, and as a teacher it would be even worse and they could have major consequences.  The only suggestion I have for teachers is to try to stay off of social media sites.  If that is a problem for you, like it would be for me, lock your profile so it is only viewable to people who you are friends with.

There are more problems with social media than just those involving teachers though.  Kids can get into a lot of trouble on social media sites as well, and It happens a lot more often.  Today with social media, it is a lot different than old times where there is no solid proof of who said or did what.  Now, when you post something on social media sites like twitter or instagram, it is out there for good.  Even if you decide to delete it, it’s been out there and chances are someone has seen it.  One person is all it takes, and once word gets out about something it spreads like a wildfire.  With texting and all the other technology we have today, word spreads a lot quicker.  When kids post pictures of themselves doing illegal things all it takes is one person to say something and it will eventually get around to people.  The majority of  people are on social media sites that are in high school and middle school also, making the problem even larger.  Therefore my advice to kids today is to be smart about your decisions.  These decisions you make as you go through life really reflect on everything you do.  Be wise and don’t do or post anything that you would not want the world to see.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/22/rihanna-instagram-photo_n_3971761.html

Leader, Jessica. "Rihanna's Instagram Photo With Slow Loris Leads Police To Smugglers."The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 22 Sept. 2013. Web. 22 Sept. 2013.