3/5 Nears end of Deployment in Sangin :D

The marines of third batallion fifth marines, left way back in September of 2010. Seven months later they are nearing their return. When they arrived they faced the deadliest month since the war began in 2001. Losing 9 Marines in 14 days, the men and woman persevered. They have been waiting to return and now the time is here. Four companies, hundreds of marines. Their families have been waiting months, and they couldn't be more excited.





http://militarytimes.com/blogs/battle-rattle/2011/03/21/35-reaches-the-end-in-sangin-afghanistan/

US Jet Crashes in Libya

As  the fighting in Libya rages, the third day of the allies air campaign took place.

An American fighter jet glided from the sky and crashed into the third valley of the Libyan east coast.The crash was the first major loss for the U.S. and European military air campaign, which over three nights appears to have hobbled Gadhafi's air defenses and artillery and rescued the rebels from impending defeat.

Radiation in Japan

Many importing contries of Japanese goods are begining to show their concerns. Researchers covering the radiation in Japan have already confirmed that the deadly breeze has already spread into the food supply, as well as the fish in the neighboring waters.

"It's safe to suppose that some contaminated produce got out of the contamination zone."-Japanese Prime Minister

"This is a growing concern for those of us in California who crave sushi"- Glenn Beck

Obama Supports Pro-Democracy in Egypt

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/08599206049400

Here is a link to an article that discusses President Obama's foreign policy that has been changed. Surprise, this article shows evidence on how our lovely President himself has promoted pro-democracy forces in Eypt, but that he has not done the same for the other revolution seeking countries, such as Libya or Yemen.

Freedon For All ?

Allies provide air strikes in Libya

Allies including the US, Great Brittain, and France officials said missile and aircraft strikes restricted  Qaddafi’s air force and \debated how far they can take military action against his regime. They also gained as protesters were killed by government forces in Syria and Yemen, indicating regional unrest is spreading.

This is leading many to grow worrysome. Will the United States be deploying our military units to Libya, in order to control the radical outbursts that are taking place, or will we be forced to nonetheless?

Many are also blaming the sudden increase in the price of gasoline the US, on the events that are taking place in Libya. Some say that if the revolution continues, that by summertime the price of gas would increase to nine dollars a gallon.

Here is a link to an article that discusses this matter
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-03-21/gasoline-heating-oil-futures-gain-on-air-strikes-against-libya.html

Family Reunion After Japanese Tsunami

There's not much good news in the wake of last week's devastating 9.0 earthquake in Japan. So far, the disaster may have left as many as 10,000 dead and half a million homeless, as well as sparking a nuclear crisis that is still unfolding. But amid the tragedy, some tsunami and earthquake victims have--against the odds--reunited with their loved ones and shared their incredible tales of survival.
Akiko Kosaka, who was studying English in California, had all but given up hope of hearing that her family had survived in the coastal village of Minami Sanriku. Nearly half the town's inhabitants are missing or feared dead.

How cute!

Japan's Nuclear Meltdown

Plant workers at Fukushima Daiichi are struggling to cool the three reactors and the fuel held in pools for spent fuel also held on site. Because of explosions caused by the build-up of hydrogen, it is believed that two of the containment structures that hold the reactors have been breached, greatly increasing risk of a release of large amount or radioactive material.
Although it's still an unstable situation, it's clear the damage at the Fukushima Daiichi plant is worse than the Three Mile Island accident in 1979 and will be studied for years to come. Based on comments from experts and published reports, this FAQ attempts to shed some light on the current situation, with an emphasis on understanding the health implications from radiation.
What is the latest on the attempts to cool the reactors?
Plant workers are using the improvised technique of pumping seawater with added boron (which slows down nuclear fission) into the reactors at Fukushima Daiichi. As of Thursday in Japan, officials said that a hydrogen explosion has occurred in a second building which contains the hot nuclear reactor core. The containment vessel, in which the reactor is held, may have been breached at both the number two and number three reactors, according to a New York Times report today. The explosions that have occurred are likely hydrogen explosions when hydrogen from the water mixes with the metal cladding over the uranium rods.


Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-20043865-54.html#ixzz1GmnsZbya

tenure in California

In California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger pushed the legislature to remove a firewall prohibiting the use of student test scores in evaluating teachers back in October. The new set of reforms that the legislature was expected to approve Tuesday was even more controversial, and includes an open-enrollment measure that would allow students in the lowest-performing schools to apply to other schools anywhere in the state, including in their own district.

It would also give a “parent trigger” provision, in which 50 percent of the parents in a low-performing school could force districts to adopt major reform plans, including closing the school, firing the principal and up to half the teachers, or turning it into a charter.

“This is a groundbreaking and historic new policy,” says Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution, the Los Angeles group that pushed for the measure, which has been vehemently opposed by teacher unions. “We think this is a 21st century roadmap to transform public education in
America … around what’s good for kids, and not for grownups.”

Wisconsin Union Curbs & My Opinion

Wisconsin's governor signed into law on limits on collective bargaining rights for the public sector workers that have ignited a national debate over unions.
I think that it will be a good thing, to limit the collective bargaining rights, because then it wont be such a monetarily based drive for a reform in education. I also think that unions interfere too much with the goals of education, and that they need to just chill out a little bit. Too many caps are put, which make it near impossible to implement change.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110311/pl_nm/us_wisconsin

Photos evolve of Hitler's wife

Ever since I knew who Hitler was, I have seen the images of him, the ones that poke fun of his moustache. But never until this day have I seen images of his wife, I didn't ever notice either. Didn't have a guess of what she could look like. Here is a link to her pictures, and actually....Adolf did well!

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Eva-Braun-private-photos/ss/events/wl/031011evabraun

Gifford's Improvement

Giffords has been told that she was shot. Her ability to walk and talk is improving. And there's "a good chance" she'll be able to attend her husband's space shuttle launch next month.

From a medical standpoint, it's just amazing for me to see such a speedy recover. Most people don't survive gun shots, let alone gun shots to that location of the brain.

As a CNA, who works in a convalesent skilled nursing facility, I have so many paatients that have the same affects that the bullet prokoked, and it takes these people years to improve their walking, and speech. Some of my patients are unable to complete their activities of daily living, and this congresswoman has been able to improve so quickly, which is amazing.

Ronald Raegan, the GREAT tapes revealed

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110311/ap_on_re_us/us_reagan_shooting_audiotape

A Secret Service audiotape 30 years old sheds light on the chaotic aftermath of Ronald Reagan's shooting when neither the president nor his guardians realized he'd been shot, and an agent's snap decision to get him to a hospital might have saved his life.

I chose to publish this article to my blog, because I have always admired Raegan as a President, and a republican icon. I think that he was the first President who really set a precident.

Earthquake hits Japan; Obama says USA will aid

DEAR OBAMA DON'T YOU KNOW WE ARE BROKE??

A tsunami unleashed by Japan's biggest recorded earthquake slammed into its east coast Friday, killing hundreds of people as it carried away ships, cars and homes, and made fires that burned out of control.

Hours later, the tsunami hit Hawaii but did not cause major damage. Warnings across the Pacific, putting areas on alert as far away as South America, Canada, Alaska and the entire U.S. West coast. Japan, the area around a nuclear power plant was evacuated after the reactor's cooling system failed.

bringing preschool to the slums

The slums of Argentina began to allow children between the ages of three and five into pre[grade]school programs.

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=31980.


My question that this article has raised was this; if we all began school between the ages of three and five, then would this allow children to value education more? Could this improve students learning abilities, as studies show that children obtain information like sponges at a younger age.

18 year old football star stabs his baby boy- SHOCKING

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1362818/College-basketball-star-stabs-month-old-baby-death-high-speed-police-chase.html


This article truely urks me. As I reviewed it, I recognized that the Los Angeles police department had so many apple opportunities to prevent this from happening. He was only allowed monitored visitation, so there needs to be larger obstacles for him to have access to the knowledge of the baby's whereabouts. Maybe he shouldn't have had contact with the baby's mother. Another thing I noticed was when the article said that the officers "It wasn’t until four hours later that police traced Glass’s car and sounded the alarm after he refused to pull over." ? 4 Hours? That baby's life was in hanging for four hours, and nothing was done? This was also written in the article "Investigators said that officers saw Glass’s arm going up and down over the passengers seat where the baby was sitting.". To me this implied that they just sat and watched this happen. It was THEN at THAT time that the boy's father needed to be apprehended and controlled, harmfully in fact.

Shelter Dog Cheats Death!

SO SWEET



Miracle dog Buddy cheated death three times after he twice fell down a 100ft cliff and then swam nearly a mile to the safety of a yacht.

The cocker spaniel's first lucky escape happened as he chased a rabbit over the cliff edge, tumbled down the steep rock face and landed in the sea.

Unhurt by the fall, he tried to make his way back up the cliff to shocked owner Steve Kingsley only to plunge 30ft back into the water.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1206019/Cocky-spaniel-Dog-cheats-death-times-twice-falling-cliff-swimming-mile-sea.html

Obama Tackles Education Reform

The U.S. education system needs to undergo dramatic reform, President Obama said today -- with new investments but also with new policies.

"You can't defend a status quo in which a third of our kids are dropping out," the president said this morning during a live interview on NBC's "Today Show." "You can't defend a status quo when you've got 2,000 schools across the coutry that are drop out factories."

The Obama administration has introduced a sweeping set of education reforms -- some of which have met some resistance -- such as the $4 billion "Race to the Top" initiative. The program offers educational grants to states that meet certain reform criteria. The president today called it "probably the most powerful tool we've seen for reform in a couple of decades."

While $4 billion is a relatively small figure to spend on education, Mr. Obama said it's "enough to get people's attention."

Furthermore, he said, money alone is not the solution to education reform.

"Money without reform does not fix the problem," he said.

The president said he expects "Race to the Top" to continue to meet resistance from politicians whose states may not be getting aid immediately. He also acknowledged that other players, such as teachers unions, can act as barriers to reform. Yet he said that many unions are cooperating with states to improve their education plans.

"I'm a strong supporter of the notion a union can protect its members and be a part of the solution instead of the problem," he said.

Part of the administration's educational reforms also include plans to close the poorest performing 5 percent of schools in the nation, turning some of them into charter schools.

"There's no silver bullets here," the president said. However, he said, "There are some charters that have figured out how to do a very good job. What we've got to do is look at the success of these schools and find out how do we duplicate them... What I'm interested in ... is fostering these laboriteies of excellence."

But while he said the education system needs to be revamped, Mr. Obama added properly investing in education still plays an important role.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20017666-503544.html?tag=currentVideoInfo;videoMetaInfo

No Child Left Behind

http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/esea02/index.html


Here is a link to a governmental website that holds access to a copy of the entire bill, in a web format.
I read parts of it and reviewed the main points. It was easy to operate navigating through this web page and it was pretty interesting.