Outside Reading Quarter 2 Post #5

I read the next chapter and a half of The Kite Runner, and Amir continues to be selfish and ridiculous about the situation with Hassan. During the next chapter, Baba throws a big party for Amir and lots of people show up and give Amir gifts. Assef ( the boy who raped Hassan) also shows up and sucks up to Baba, Amir is rude to Assef and Baba is gets angry at Amir. One thing that I thought was interesting during this part of the book is how the author describes Assef's father as short and lanky and his mother as a nervous woman who smiled and blinked a lot. Hosseini (the author) also describes how Assef led his parents over to Amir like he was the parent which makes sense for his personality. After talking with Assef, Amir talks to Rahim Khan, who tells him a story and reminds Amir that he can tell him anything, but Amir keeps his mouth shut about Hassan.  The next day Amir opens tons of presents, but just throws them in the corner and ignores them. Later that day Hassan and Ali give Amir a new book, one of his favorites in which all of the pictures are hand drawn. The next day Amir decides he wants to get rid of Hassan and Ali so he frames Hassan for stealing a watch he got for his birthday, and then tells Baba.  Hassan confesses to the crime he didn't commit, but to Amir's surpise Baba forgives Hassan. After this however Ali tells Baba that they are leaving the house. Ali refuses to tell Baba why they are leaving and Baba breaks down in tears. I am angry that Amir continues to act selfish because now he instead of just hurting Hassan, he has hurt Ali and Baba too, all because he didn't tell anyone the truth behind Hassan's rape.

Annotation #2

Erlanger, Steven. "French Plans for Energy Reaffirm Nuclear Path." The New York Times. August 17,2008. 

France seems committed to building more nuclear power plants and now gets 77% of its electricity from nuclear energy. The French nuclear company Electricite de France is also trying to buy British Energy and is committed to building nuclear power plants in the U.A.E. and China. French president Nicolas Sarkozy argues it is a good thing saying that each nuclear reactor replacing a coal one saves two billion cubic meters of gas each year. The public on the other hand, isn't so sure. Bottled water sales have increased over the past year, and news has come out about 100 workers being contaminated in Tricastin and about nuclear chemicals escaping into tributaries of the Rhone river. The French government insists that the accidents are minor and have almost no effect, but the public continues to speculate.

Annotated citation #1

Hertel, Nolan."Has the Time Come for Nuclear Power? YES: It's Safe, Clean, Cost Effective. Atlanta Journal-Constitution. July 27, 2008.

Nolan Hertal of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution believes that America is ready for and needs for nuclear power plants. Hertal cites a poll that shows that 66% of Americans say they are ready for more nuclear power plants. Hertal also argues that nuclear energy is green stating that plug in cars could happen with nuclear energy and that what is referred to as nuclear waste can actually be recycled and used again. Finally Hertal argues that nuclear energy's safety record has been great during the past thirty years and that we have figured out how to keep things from getting out of control. 

Quarter 2 Outside Reading Post #4

I read the next couple chapters of The Kite Runner and Amir continues to look for Hassan through the streets of Kabul. Finally Amir finds Hassan with the blue kite but surrounded by Assef, the local bully and his friends. Assef demands Amir to give him the kite and when Hassan refuses to give it to him Assef rapes Hassan. Amir watches this happen, but is too scared to intervene so instead he leaves the scene and sees Hassan later and asks what happen but Hassan says nothing. After that Amir's dad becomes very proud of Amir and their relationship improves a lot. However Amir is still haunted by his decision not to help Hassan when he was being raped. Amir constantly thinks about this and doesn't want to play with Hassan anymore. Eventually this leads to Amir throwing lots of pomegranates at Hassan wanting him to throw one at himself and Amir asking his dad if they could get new servants, which his dad gets angry at Amir for. I think that Amir is being unreasonable and mean in these chapters because Hassan was willing to be raped to give Amir his kite and not only was Amir too cowardly to help Hassan, he is mean to Hassan after he is raped. I think Amir really needs forget the situation and stop being angry with himself because that just makes the situation worse. Hassan wouldn't even need an apology from Amir, he just wants to play with him like they used to. As for Amir and his relationship I think that they will never get along that well for long periods of time because they are too different and aren't able to accept each others differences.

Second Qtr. Post #3

I read the next few chapters of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. After overhearing his father talk about how he is weak Amir tries to be tough but still does not gain his father's respect. Amir often reads to Hassan in a tree because Hassan is unable to read. One day Amir makes up his own story instead of reading from the book, and to his surprise Hassan says it is his favorite story he has ever told him. Encouraged by this Amir writes a book, although his father doesn't even give his book a glance, Rahim Khan his father's friend tells Amir that his book is great and persuades Amir to keep writing. The book than skips ahead a couple of years to a local kite tournament hosted by Amir's neighborhood. Amir and Hassan have always been good kite fighters and the tournament is a big deal in Kabul. The night before the tournament Baba tells Amir that he thinks he has a chance of winning the tournament. Amir sees this is an opportunity to earn his father's respect and is determined to win. The next day after long hours of kite fighting Amir finally wins the tournament. Hassan has an uncanny way of finding opposing kites (or kite running) so he offers to chase down the last kite. Later Amir notices that Hassan still hasn't came back and frantically looks for him. My prediction is that Amir finds Hassan dead and the opposing kite gone because when Hassan goes kite running Amir says that is the last time he saw him smile. If Hassan ends up to be dead I am also curious about what will happen next because the whole book so far has been background information on Hassan and Amir and there is still a lot of the book left.

Second Quarter Outside Reading Post #2

So far I have read the first three chapters of The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. In the first three chapters of the book the reader is introduced to the main character, Amir, his father,Baba, Hassan, and Hassan's father Ali who works as a servent to Baba. Amir and Hassan are good friends and early in the book the reader learns that both Hassan and Amir don't have their mothers around because Amir's mother died giving birth to him and Hassan's mother left him when he was seven days old. In the second chapter the reader learns background information on Baba and how he financed his own orphanage, became one of the richest merchants in Kabul, married  a woman regarded as one of Kabul's most respected, beautiful, and virtuous ladies, and was a great soccer player. In the third chapter the reader learns about Amir and the tension he has with his father. Amir is awful at soccer and doesn't even like attending games, Amir also likes books and reads them often, and allows other kids to take advantage of him. Towards the end of the chapter Amir is enraged when he overhears Baba talking about him and saying that he is weak and he doesn't seem like he is his son. So far I like the book and I like how the first three chapters were written. I predict that Baba and Amir's relationship will get better because after hearing his father's complaints, Amir will try to not be weak. I also predict that many more characters will be introduced in the coming chapters  because I don't think enough characters are in the book right now.

The Rawlins Scene

I think that Cormac McCarthy puts the scene where you follow Rawlins instead of John Grady Cole because at the time John Grady Cole is really just sitting outside and what is happening with Rawlins is more exciting than what John Grady Cole is doing. I also think that because McCarthy has stayed with John Grady Cole the whole time the reader can assume that nothing significant will  happen to John Grady unless the reader is following him.

Quarter 2 Outside Reading

For quarter two outside reading, I decided to read the book The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. I decided to read this book because I have heard from many people that it is a good book and it was on the list of books on the blog. I also think that the situation in Afghanistan is interesting and will be interesting to read about.

Post #7

"Thousands Flee Rebel Advance in Congo".  This week rebel forces in the Democratic Republic of the Congo took over the city of Rutshuru (a territory capital) and moved within 12 miles of the city of Goma. Goma, one of the largest cities in the Congo, is the home of over 600,000 people and is a city that the UN is desprately trying to protect. Goma right now however is in choas, five rockets were fired at UN armored personal carriers and citizens have been throwing rocks at the carriers. The UN says they are in control of the situation but over 1 million people are now living in displaced UN camps and 150,000 of those people have came in the past two months. This is just two days after the rebels took over Virguna National Park, a park that is home to 200 of the remaining 700 mountain gorillas in the world. This is all part of a long war that supposably ended in 2003 and has killed 5.4 million people since it began in 1998.  I thought that this was an interesting article and I am suprised how little attention people pay to this war because it is a big deal and millions of people have died and yet many people around the world aren't even aware of this war and just continue on with their daily lives. If this war were happening in the US or Europe it would be all over the news and virtually everyone in the world would know about it.

Post #6

"Gigantic River Cave Revealed in Laos". One of the largest and most spectacular river caves in the world; the Xe Bang Fai river cave was finally explored and mapped out this year on an expedition sponsered by national geographic and led by veteran caver John Pollack. The Xe Bang Fai river cave was little known before Pollack's crew spend ten day in the dark cave taking pictures and looking at the spectacular formations throughout the cave. The cave was first discovered by the western world in 1905  by a French explorer on a bamboo raft. Ever since then explorers have been wanting to study the cave but Laos constant war and political unrest kept them out. After their expedition one of the men of Pollack's expedition, Bob Osburn is making a detailed map of the cave, while the rest of the group is planning to go back to the cave to explore more in 2010. I found this article interesting and I was glad that there are still big natural wonders around the world that have never really been explored and mapped out. I was also suprised by this because there are so many maps of small towns and really unimportant places all over the world but nobody has been able make a map of an important natural place like the Xe Bang Fei river cave until now.  I also was suprised to find out that nine mile river caves exist around the world and it makes me wonder if there are any big river caves in the US that I could go to.

Blog 5

"Early Voting Suggests 2008 may see record turnout, expert says". Officals in the twenty nine early voting states are reporting record turnouts this year and have counted 2.2 million votes already. Many battleground states like Florida and North Carolina had record turnouts. Turnout in Charlotte, North Carolina was so big that fifteen new voting stations had to be opened up because voters were standing in three hour long lines. The counties of Martin, St. Lucie, and Indian River have had more than six times the amount of early voters than they had at this time in 2004. These are records in early voting, but experts don't expect the record turnout to stop before election day. "This will be the election in which the most people have ever voted in an American election in the history of our country" says Michael McDonald a professer at George Mason University. McDonald also said that there is a very good chance that more than 64% of the registered voters will vote which would be the highest percent since the nineteenth century. I thought that this was an interesting article and I before I read it I hadn't heard of voting before election day and I was suprised that to hear that it could be done. I also wonder what makes someone eligible to vote before election day and if the only criteria is that you are traveling over election day, than I am suprised at how many people travel over November 4th. I also was suprised to hear that states like Georgia and Texas are having record number turnouts because those states are usually huge conservative states and I thought that people wouldn't be as motivated to vote if their state leans so much to one way.

Post #4

"Iceland Teeters on the Brink of Bankruptcy". Iceland, the small country of only 320,000 people is in danger of becoming the first country to go bankrupt. Cafes and supermarkets across the country are half empty and retailers and real estate agents had very few sales. Earlier this week the government took over all the banks in Iceland and centralized them in an attempt to save their country. Iceland is also currently trying to get a 5.4 billion dollar loan from Russia. If Iceland were to go bankrupt, it would not only be a big problem for Iceland but the majority of Europe as well because many powerful Iceland banks have big investments in companies across Europe. Also many Europeans have savings accounts in Iceland banks and would lose all their money if Iceland went bankrupt. Iceland's economy's recent slide comes as a suprise to lots of people because it had been doing well over the past decade and was voted the best european country to live in just last year. But it turns out that Iceland's economy is built on borrowed money that is invested in companies, an economic strategy that is "high risk high yield" says Global Insight's senior economist Venia Spilia. I found it very interesting that an economic crisis much bigger than our own economic crisis was happening in Iceland, but all people talk about is the United States's economic crisis. I also wonder if it is in other country's best interest to not help Iceland and let them go bankrupt because nobody is offering them a loan. I would think that it would be in other country's best interest because if Iceland goes under, then some of their big companies go under, but maybe there is just some logical reason I don't know about. Overall I'm glad I read this article and I thought it was interesting to read about other country's economies after hearing about ours so much.

Post #3

"Scientists Debate Possible Cell Phone Link to Brain Cancer". On September 25th 2008, congress debated about whether cell phones can cause brain cancer. Ronald Herberman and David Carpenter, the directors of health and cancer for Pittsburg University and Albany University were brought in to testify. Both of them agreed that they couldn't say cell phones were defiantly dangerous, but they also couldn't say they ere defiantly safe. Both also agreed that further testing was needed but pointed to a study done in Sweden that showed that people under twenty get brain cancer five times as often as others and that people who use cell phones are twice as often as others to get brain cancer. "Are we at the same place we were with smoking and lung cancer thirty years ago?" Carpenter asked. However Dr. Robert Hoover, who is the director of the national cancer institute, disagreed with Carpenter and Herberman, noting that brain cancer in children has not increased much from the late 1980s to now. I thought that this was an interesting article because I had never heard of cell phones causing cancer before. I don't think that this will stop me from using my cell phone because most experts still believe that cell phones cause no harm. But I do think that the US government should start tests on this like Sweden did because even though it is a small chance that cell phones do cause cancer there still is a chance and tests could save many peoples lives.

Outside Reading Post number 2

"After Hurricane Ike, Finding the Coastline Rearranged, Again". About two days after hurricane Ike hit the gulf coast on September 13th 2008, some scientists from the United States Geological Survey were unable to find Ship Island even though according to their maps they were right above it. After further searching, it turns out that the whole eastern half of ship island had been submerged and only half of the island remained. Ship Island is an important island in the area because brown pelicans used to build their nests there and now all those pelicans will have to find somewhere else to live for a while. This is just the latest blow to the Chandeleur Islands (the group if islands that Ship Island is a part of ) which have continued to steadily submerge over the past few decades. Scientists mostly blame storms and global warming for the submerged islands, but also say that government dredging projects are hurting the islands. Scientists also say that building the Chandeleur Islands back up is a costly and difficult project, and will likely not happen.

I think that this is a big problem not only in the gulf coast but also around the world and yet many people still aren't even aware that it's a problem. I think that the government needs to be at least mindful of the problem and not just ignore it by taking their dredging projects somewhere that is away from islands that could be hurt. I also think that the government needs to do more about global warming so effects like this can be slowed down as much as possible. I also think that people in general need to be more aware of islands disappearing  so they can make little changes in their lifestyle to keep it from happening.

Outside Reading Post #1

"Mother to ask Congress to Award Son Medal of Honor" A marine named Rafeal Peralta who died in 2004 in Iraq was denied the medal of honor and given the Navy Cross, the second highest award for a Marine, instead. His mother, Rosa Peralta, was told in 2007 that her son would get the Medal of Honor and is now going to appeal congress on the decsion and says she may not accept the Navy Cross. Allegedly Rafeal Peralta grabbed an enemy grenade while searching a house in Fallujah and took the blow himself, saving his fellow Marines' lives. The argument is whether or not Peralta was alrady shot in the head before this and if his body just fell on the grenade instead of him grabbing it. I think that Rafeal Peralta deserves the Medal of Honor either way because he died bravely for his country and either way his actions saved other Marines' lives. I also think that it is ridiculous that it takes over four years to get the Medal of Honor and the $1,000 a month pension for his family that comes with it, because his family seemed poor, immigrated from Mexico and has moved often. I realize that not everyone who dies in wars could get the medal of honor because that would take the greatness out of the award, but I do think that anybody who sacrifices their life for others deserves the award. I also think that congress doesn't need a say in the awarding, and the awarding could be done by the military themselves.

Carter,Chelsea."Mother to Ask Congress to Award son Medal of Honor".Yahoo.com.2008.