PLN #15

My 15th PLN was called "City Known for Fit Adults is Growing Fat" by the Associated Press, and it shocked me a little. As many people know, Denver is probably one of the healthiest states in the country, because we have so many athletic opportunities like the mountains and good weather. Now, after a recent article posted by "Men's Health" magazine, recent statistics show that Denver and Aurora are tied for eighth for the largest number of obese adults and Colorado Springs ranks sixth. Just a couple of years ago, Colorado was named number one in terms of the fittest cities in the country. "Health Day Fitness" reports that even though obesity has increased in Colorado, it remains the nation's fittest state.

How this affects me: I would say this affects me and our population, because if adults and our parents begin to get more and more obese then it is likely that their kids will too. After a couple of generations, our entire state will become obese. Not only will our state become more obese over time, but America will too.

My opinion: My opinion on obesity is that we should definitely have more awareness groups and commercials that promote a healthy life style. I think that there are to many fast food commercials. I question why there aren't as many health and fitness commercials. I think we need to start having more health commercials and more advertisements for playing sports and getting more physical activity.

PLN #14

I found the article, "Illegal Immigrants get N.Y. Citizenship" by the Associated Press to be very disagreeable. On Saturday, the Bush Administration and N.Y. agreed to create a super-secure driver's license for U.S. citizens, but it was also made for illegal immigrants. New York is the fourth state to reach this agreement along with Arizona, Vermont and Washington. The secure-license could be used as a license, as proof of citizenship, and as a passport-like document valid for travel in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. Homeland Security Secretary Micheal Chertoff said he was not happy that New York intended to issue IDs to illegal immigrants, but he said there was nothing he could do to stop it. "I don't endorse giving licenses to people who are not here legally, but federal law does allow states to make that choice." Spitzer, a New York representative, however has said that this ID will make the state more secure by bringing those people "out of the shadows" and into American society, and will lower auto insurance rates.
What I believe matters from this story is that illegal immigrants are slowly becoming more and more legal in our society today. I disagree with illegal immigrants getting secure drivers license, because they didn't go through the legal citizenship process like many prior immigrants have done.
Issuing drivers licenses to illegal immigrants makes it easier for them to obtain a social security card, to vote, obtain a birth certificate, and get U.S. government benefits like health insurance coverage. Non-U.S. citizens should not have the right to determine the outcome of American politics. Nor should they have the ability to impact the cost of medical benefits.

PLN #13

For my 13th PLN, I choose to read an article called "Discovery Rockets to Space" by the Associated Press. Tuesday, a crew of seven took off from earth and into space inside of Discovery in pursuit of the international space station where a construction job awaits them. The shuttle lifted off at exactly 11:38 a.m. carrying a giant elastic tube that needs to be installed before European and Japanese workers can begin working there. Although there were delays because of three panels with errors, there were no problems with the launch. It was recorded as totally successful. The mission this crew will have to complete is considered the hardest one in all of the nine years the space station has been active.
What I think matters is that we are continuously expanding our knowledge of space and improving the space station allows astronauts to do more long-term space exploration. As an example, astronauts now have the ability to refuel at the space station which allows them to travel further into space. They also have the ability to live for long periods of time in space and experiment how living in space affects the human body. I think space exploration will affect all of us in the future, because someday I believe that going to another planet in space will be just like taking an airplane someplace. It will take only a matter of hours to get to another planet. I also believe that space stations in the future may be a normal way of living for more than just astronauts. As the earth becomes more polluted, over populated, or warmer from global warming, space stations may become a way of life for human beings.

PLN #12

The article "Most Fake Bombs Not Found" by Jeanne Meserve made me think about how much the airports have truly improved from 9/11. Thursday the security administration reported that in local airports in Los Angeles only 25% of the fake bombs were found and in California only 40% of the fake bombs were discovered. Even though these numbers are low it is reported that these numbers are much higher than the ones from 2005. TSA now conducts daily tests adding up to 2,500 a day in which they say has improved great overall but won't release the test numbers. TSA also said that they are hoping to release even better machinery to help within the next year. What I think matters from this story is the obvious fact that even after 9/11 and the plane hijackings that took place that day you would think that the officials in charge would make necessary changes to where we're getting a lot better than 25-40% I mean if you think about it if terrorists sent two bombs at least one of them would get through, now that’s a scary thought. How it relates to me is I would say next time I'm going through the scanners at the airport I'll think twice before I feel safe because I used to think that after walking through them you were safe but now I probably won't.

PLN #11

While reading the article "Ruins of WW2" I found many things very interesting. The gist of the article is during world war 2 there was a large mass of relocatement for people of Japanese-American decent. The camps of these relocations are starting to decay all that is left of the Amache internment camp are the barracks' foundations, pedestrian walkways, empty koi ponds and the roads leading in and out of the site. After discovering this Japanese-Americans have decided to protest to preserve and restore these camps which I thought was weird because I thought to them these camps would be bad memories and they would want to get rid of them. The U.S. Congress has agreed to put 38million dollars into the project of restoring the main camp called Amache. What I think matters from this article is that the people that went through the camps and the poor treatment they received there should be repaid and deserve for their camp to be remembered.

PLN #10

The article I choose to read about was called "Gore wins Nobel Piece Prize" and as you may have guessed former Vice President Al Gore won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for their work in raising awarness on global warming. After winning Gore said he was "deeply hounered" and believes that global warming is not a political problem but a spiritual one. The nobel committee praised Gore as being one of the worlds most political environmentalists. Other president recipients include: Jimmy Carter in 2002, Woodrow Wilson in 1919 and Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. Gore who served as vice president for eight years under Bill Clinton then lost in the 2000 election to current president George Bush. In recent weeks Gore has launched a campaigned to enter the 2008 presidential election. What I think matters in this article is not the fact that Gore won the Peace Prize for global warming but global warming in general. I think a lot of people over look global warming and instead of preparing for it we kind of just shrug it off and hope it never gets to be really bad. I'm not saying that we don't notice it at all but there s ton more that we could be doing about it.

PLN #9

My ninth PLN entry is about the recent marathon ran in the Chicago, Illinois which was ran by over three hundred people one was found dead, two remain hospitalized in critical condition, and several more passed out or fainted. These fatalities were believed to be caused by the excruciating heat. At least 49 people were taken to the hospital, while 250 other people we're treated on site while 30 residential ambulances we're used. A couple days earlier when another race was held in Arlington another unidentified runner died. Finally after 3 and a half hours if you weren't at the half way point you were taken off the coarse. At 10am the temperature had reached about 90 degrees, a race day record. Interviewed runners sayed that the aid stations were always full and they quickly ran out of the water and Gatorade leaving people vulnerable to the continuelsy rising heat which got so bad firefighters were opening up firehydrents to cool people down and people along the coarse were spraying their hoses on the wary runners.

blogger reflection

I think I did a pretty good job explaining each entry and summarizing each of them. One thing I think i could've done much better on was making more eye contact with the audience and continued the conversation at the end of the presentation.

PLN #8

Reading the article "China will beat us to the Moon" intrigued me because it just shows that China is continuesly advancing more than the U.S. as time goes on. Fifty tears ago today there was a race between the U. S. and the Soviets to launch the first satellite into space and as we all know Soviets won but the U.S. put the first man on the moon. Now, nearly fifty years later there is a restored race in the universe world. Recently the Chinese and united states have figured out that they both plane to attempt to put a man on the moon within 1-2 years of each other and recently there has been an "unwritten race" to see who can do it first. NASA officials aren't very confident and believe the Chinese will slightly beat us. Both are expected to launch around the year 2020 but with setbacks it's expected to take a little longer. While the U.S. is much more technology advanced we don't have the political will that the Chinese do and therefore have less resources causing the operation to take much longer. China, who just launched their first space machine (becoming the third country to do so) is moving very quickly in their space economics.

PLN #7

Reading the article "Favre breaks record" inspired me after learning how much effort was truly put into accomplishing this record. While beating the Minnesota Vikings 23-16 and moving the Packer's record to 4-0 Favre threw touchdown passes number 421 and 422in the fourth quarter to Greg Jennings and rookie James Jones while going interception free. With the win the Packers tie the Dallas Cowboys for the only teams in the NFC as undefeated teams. With the Packers not having a great running game this season coaches expect Favre to have a great season. The Packers are 4-0 for the first time since 1998. The reason I believe this matters is that Favre continuesly never gave up and lately in his career hasn't been getting the best records or the beast of stats but he stuck with it and is now getting repaid.