Space Jump Compare/Contrast

            Felix Baumgartner set out to be the first person to ever parachute from space and land safely on the ground almost 25 miles down. He rode all the way up their in a balloon which took about 2 hours and 21 minutes to reach its optimal height. The balloon was about 750 feet high. He hoped to make the highest jump history and be the first sky diver to break the speed of sound. There was over 300 NASA employees involved including 70 engineers, scientists and physicians who have been working on this project for more than 5 years. There was an extensive checklist that all of them had to follow to make sure everything went okay.
        Every other article I read had the same basic information. The jumpers name, why he wanted to do this jump, the records he was making and who helped him to accomplish this. The only difference I found was in another article it said that the jump took 2 hours and 15 minutes, but they could have just been rounding. After doing all of these compare and contrast blog entries I have learned that many newspapers take information from other newspapers and use it as their own. The often have the same exact structure and information except for a few minor details. 

Joe Biden Laughing Too Far?

   On Thursday October 11th both Joe Biden and Paul Ryan sqaured off in a heated debate between the two possible vice presidents. The debate was viewed by millions of voters. During the debate, a split screen was shown so that both candidates could been seen at once. So while one person was talking, we could see the reaction of the other person.

    Throughout most of the debate Joe Biden was seen laughing, smiling and smirking at the things that Paul Ryan was saying. However, Paul Ryan not being as well experienced in debates kept to the main topics and tried to say all of the "right" things. This was to ensure that Romney would not lose any points in the polls for his mishaps. While Biden had no problem speaking and saying what he wanted to.“With all due respect that’s a bunch of malarkey,” Biden told Ryan in one of his most memorable lines.

    Like we said in class and once again stated in multple news papers, Joe Biden is not afraid to be who he really is an excepts when he makes a mistake. That is one of the reasons that the common American can relate so well to Biden. He accepts his failures and instead of trying to erase or cover them up he just learns a lesson and moves on.

http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/5077d70a69bedd8d28000015-619-464/here-are-all-the-moments-when-joe-biden-laughed-at-paul-ryan-during-the-debate.jpg
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/10/laughing-joe-steals-the-show-at-vice-presidential-debate/
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/ticket/paul-ryan-didn-t-prepare-laughing-joe-biden-041921510--election.html

Tom Hanks Back on Broadway

    Just a quick tid bit about a story I read on Tom Hanks going to Broadway next year.Producers of Nora Ephron’s play "Lucky Guy" announced Thursday that Hanks will play Mike McAlary in the play. This play was decided to be preformed after Ephron passed away in the summer. The opening night is scheduled for April 1st 2013. Hanks is the star of such films as ”Forrest Gump," "Philadelphia," ”Sleepless in Seattle," ”Apollo 13" and "Saving Private Ryan."

     This article caught my eye because I feel like I could never see Tom Hanks on Broadway. It just seemed obscure to me.

Maryland Man Escapes Death Penalty

       An interesting story that I read the other day was about a man in Maryland that murdered his estranged wife that was 51and his son who was 11. This happened in Rockville Maryland and the man arrested has already been in jail before. Lopez, the ex convict, beat both the mother and son to death with a baseball bat and then dumped their bodies in a wooded area near their home.  The bodies were found nearly a week later by a hiker. A day after the bodies were found Lopez was found in a motel with his girlfriend.  He now faces two charges of murder. Although it has been confirmed that he will not get the death penalty he still faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
        Personally I am happy that he didn't get the death penalty. I think that he should have to suffer and live with what he has done instead of getting the easy way out and dying. I think emotionally it would be less painful for him to just die. I think serving a life sentence in jail is worse for him and seeing as how he is an ex convict and killed both of those people with intent, I have no sympathy for him. These were supposed to be people he loved, so how could he do something like that? Some people now a days are really messed up.

Female Quaterback Editorial

      Today I read an interesting story about a female high schooler that lives in Florida and plays quarterback for her high school team. Erin DeMeglio is a 17 year old senior at South Plantation High School in Florida where she plays QB for her high school team. Erin only being 5'5" and weighing in at 140 pounds has found her true calling in high school. Although she is not the starting quarterback, she is the third string quarterback which is also the first girl to ever play QB in Florida. She was first discovered by the coach of the football team when she was playing flag football at school. The coach thought she had some real talent so he invited her to throw at an off season workout. As time when on Erin fell more in love with the game and wanted to pursue the sport.The coach was worried about her safety but she kept coming back to practice time and time again until the coach finally gave her a spot on the team. Erin says that everyone pretty much treats her the same and the only difference is that she has to change in the girls locker room but is a price she is willing to pay to play the sport she now loves so much.
       I read about this article in Upfront Magazine which is a magazine that we have to read for English class but I really liked this story and wanted to share it. I think something like this is good for the school and diversity. It shows that no matter what you set your mind to you can achieve your dreams. Also I have heard many stories like this before where a girl has wanted to play on a boys team but has not been allowed. It is awesome that Erin got out there and actually did it. I think it will be a learning experience not only for Erin but also for the boys as well to deal with situations they might not be accustomed to. I can only imagine there were some boys on the team that protested Erin joining and some may have even quit, but for the ones that stayed I think it will be well worth it to be around a new atmosphere. 

Green Line Trolley Compare & Contrast

            Earlier this afternoon, a green line trolley derailed and hit another empty trolley but in the process sent the operator and a few passengers to the hospital. Although no one was killed, many people had serious injuries. Many people complained about serious neck and back injuries.  The incident occurred a little after 4pm and happened between two stops. Each of the trolleys had two carts on it and serious damage was done to each cart.
          It was confirmed that the accident was due to human error. The investigation showed at a certain section their is a crossover that was supposed to switch the cart but the switch was never flipped so it ran into the other car. The accident had nothing to do with faulty equipment.  The train is currently expected to remain derailed until next Tuesday. I got this story from the Boston Herald and it was just posted a few minutes before I went on the website. I checked various other local newspapers and no one else had a report on the derailed trolley. However since I have nothing to compare to, I would only assume that any other paper writing about this story would probably have something similar to what was in the Herald seeing as how it is such a small story.

Presidential Debate 2012

     Last night on Wednesday October 3rd, president Barack Obama and presidential candidate Mitt Romney had a debate at the University of Denver. This was the first one on one debate that Romney had ever been in of this magnitude while for Obama it was just another day. I posted this video to my blog so that everyone could watch the debate because I think it is important for our society to know what is going on. Although at some parts it was a little boring, each candidate did a great job and talked about the major points they wanted to discuss.

Meningitis Outbreak Multiple Stories Article

          Just recently, there has been a meningitis outbreak in the New England area. It seems as though some kind of drug was infected with the disease and was used by patients all over the United States. However it seems as though the drug was actually made in a facility in Massachusetts and shipped out to other states. As of early Thursday morning five people have been killed by the disease. Health officials say that thousands of people who got the steroid injection in 25 different states could be at risk of contracting the disease. Doctors and medical clinics rushed to tell any patient that may have used the drug to go to the hospital for test to be done to see if they had it.
           It is not exactly clear how the injections got tainted in the first place but the FDA is launching an investigation to find out. 35 people have actually contracted the disease and five of those 35 have died. Every person that has taken some kind of injection recently is urged to get tested to stop any possible outbreak that may occur. The FDA is nervous because they said the outbreak has just begun and has a possibility of spreading to hundreds or to thousands of people.
           However, the good news is that if detected early enough the disease can be stopped and will not cause any harm. Even if the person does not find out early, there are still plenty of treatment options that are available if they actually have the disease. Hopefully, this outbreak will be stopped soon because it is creating a certain type of hysteria for some states.



-http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2012/10/03/us/ap-us-meningitis-outbreak.html?hp&_r=0
-http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/10/04/health-meningitis-outbreak-investigation-expands-to-our-area/?flv=1
- http://centralillinoisproud.com/fulltext?nxd_id=277532&flv=1

Drinking and Driving Editorial

        This article is about a study that was done and that showed that fewer teenagers are driving and driving. It says that in the last two decades the number of teens drinking and driving has dropped by more than half. It is supposidly beacuse of the tougher laws against drinking and driving. In 1991, a study was done and students were asked in the previous 30 days if they had drank and drove and 22.3 percent of people said yes. Then in 2011, the same question was asked and only 10.1 students reported that they had drank and drove. Percentages ranged from 4.6 percent up to 14.5 percent. Now, this could be either because the driving and driving laws are stricter, people are being more cautious, or students were lying.
         Health officals say that about 54 percent of this is caused because the stricter laws such as junior operators cannot drive between the hours of 12:30am and 5:00am. Drinking and driving causes about 800 teenage deaths between the ages of 16-19 annually. Males around the age of 18 were the most likely to drink and drive while females around the age of 16 were the least likely to drink and drive. Health officals were happy with this study because it shows positive results.
       I liked this article because I think it is a very important topic for students in high school. There is a ton of peer pressure on kids to be cool and do the "cool" thing. People get so wrapped up in trying to fit in that they make stupid decisions like drinking and driving. I know of people who have made the decision to drink and drive and although nothing bad has ever happened, it still upsets me. I don't like that people are willing to put their life at risk for a 10 minute drive. If anything were to ever happen to someone I knew I would be absolutely devistated.

Students Safe at School?

        Alexandra Kogut, a freshman student at Utica College in New York, was found murdered in her dorm room last Sunday. The murder occurred late Saturday night and it was suspected that her visiting boyfriend is the culprit. Her tweets indicate that he was coming up for the weekend and that she was excited to see him. But early Sunday morning at 12:13am Kogut tweeted "should've known." indicating that something went wrong with her boyfriend. Later Sunday night her boyfriend admitted to killing her but the reason why is still unknown. I thought this story was interesting because college is supposed to be a safe place for students yet a girl died there. Also this story got my attention because two of the girls that I work with go to this college. It made me think that something like this could happen to anyone including the girls I work with.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/alexandra-kogut-murdered-college-student-left-ominous-tweet/t/story?id=17366495