PLN 28

What matters in the world today is the article, “Our boys are falling behind in education” by Dottie Lamm. This article states that boys are falling behind girls academically because of verbal differences. It explained how girl’s brains are able to become verbally faster by 3½ years; where as the average boy takes 5 years. Yet, a school in Aurora separated kindergarteners into gender classes and the boys were just as successful as the girls. My feeling about this is that the verbal difference is not the problem but instead things like attention span. Being in two all boys classes myself, I find that there is no difference in my performance whether there are girls in the room or not. The article goes on to say that the world will have a switch in society and the women will be in more powerful poisons’. However I don’t feel this is true, because boys eventually reach the same level as girls and are currently still producing stronger results in math and science. Girls will some day rise to a perfectly equal level as boys in the executive world, but they will not move a head because of education difficulties. I personally think that the only difference between boys and girls is their ability to concentrate on learning. Thus I think that lessons should be made more interactive so that boys will stay attentive. Obviously, the struggle that guys are said to have can be fixed and just because guys may struggle in school that doesn’t mean that they will fail in the real world.

PLN 27

What matters in the world today is a shuttle launch preformed by the Air Force on April 21. The X-37-B was sent on a nine month unmanned orbital test mission and will be landing in California on an undisclosed date. This is a follow up to my previous post, PLN 19, about Obama canceling manned space flight and how the Air Forces X-37-B could be a hope for continued missions. Yet, president Obama just recently gave $6billion to NASA to develop a deep space manned space craft, which makes me wonder what the Air Force will use the X-37-B for. With the nine month capability and possible manned crews, I believe that it will be used as an intelligence gathering ship. It could easily be upgraded with equipment that can read satellite messages and pictures. This would allow for quicker review of information, which will lead to quicker action if necessary. This would be a great improvement to the defense of our nation. For example, if a nuclear war head were launched at the United States, satellites could pick it up, quickly relay the message to the X-37-B, who could then alert the Air Force, which could take the necessary action. This is just my personal hypothesis of what the Air Fore will use the X-37-B for, but it seems like the best logical use of the craft at this time.

PLN 26

What matters in the world today is an article on hotjobs.yahoo.com "Ten Phrases That Can Sink Your Resume" by Liz Ryan. The article is about things in resumes that may have been helpful at one point, but now fall flat and hurt your chances. In the article the author lists ten things that are traditionally placed in resumes, such as "Results-oriented professional." Ryan explains that anyone could say this, thus it doesn't gain you anything in the employer's eyes. She claims that it would be better to replace phrases like this with examples of things you have done in the past, or saying "I love to solve thorny supply-chain problems." I think that this is a very important article for kids our age, because we are searching for our first jobs, and we want to make a good impression. I personally will think about these things when I compose my own resume, and will most definitely recommend that my friends read this article for advice. I think this matters to the world, because a lot of people were fired or laid off during the recent recession, and many people are looking for jobs. This article could help people to regain employment, and by getting jobs, they would have money to invest back into the economy. In the end this would help the economy to rise back up to more comfortable levels.

PLN 25

What matters in the world today is the fact that Obama made $5.5 million in 2009. This all started with a memoir, Dreams from My Father in 1995. Then he wrote The Audacity of Hope in 2006, earning him $4 million in royalties. Then when he became the first African American president, his book sales sky rocketed making millions last year. He also makes $400,000 a year on the presidential salary. Now granted he gave his Nobel Peace prize money to charity so he can't be called greedy. Yet my question is, if he is already a millionaire, why should he be taking tax payers money in the form of the presidential salary? Ross Perot ran for president as a millionaire with the money from his company Electric Data Systems. As a millionaire he promised to not accept the yearly presidential salary. I don't know why, that in these economic times, Obama would continue to take tax payers money when he is already a millionaire. If he is really all into helping the economy, he wouldn't waste tax dollars he doesn't need. I'm not comparing him to Prince John from Robin Hood, but his pocket book obviously isn't empty like some Americans.

PLN 24

What matters in the world today is a high school football stadium in Allen, Texas. Allen high school is building a $60m field. A double decked, video score board, NFL worthy field. The money came from a state grant of $120m, which also went to building an equally expensive performing arts auditorium. This matters to the world because, one it is outrageous, and two it shows that people are having more confidence in the economy. Expanding on my first point, building a $60 million dollar stadium for college or NFL is just fine, but for high school it seems a little extreme. No high school, even in Texas, needs to have a $60million arena devoted to football. What it really comes down to is that poverty is still a problem and we shouldn’t be spending that amount of money on a high school football team. My second point about the economy is that if people are willing to spend $60,000,000 on a high school, then they must have more confidence in the economy. This is a good thing, if people start buying more, the economy will rise, taking us out of the recession; which in the end is good for America all around. So obviously there are better places to spend $60 million, but this is a good sign for America.

PLN 23

What matters in the world today is that Obama just awarded NASA a $6 billion budget increase. The goal, according to Washington reporters, is to create more than 2,500 jobs in Florida. The article also says that Mr. President wants NASA to work on a "heavy lifting" rocket. A design will be decided on in 2015, and the new rocket will be employed to "carry astronauts deeper into space." This matters because he is completely going back on his word. Earlier he had canceled the manned space program, which I disagreed with. I am totally behind this new decision, but there is one problem with it. Our president is going back on his word. He made a decision and is now changing it; I do not believe that this is a good quality for someone who is in command of the most powerful country on Earth. Next he will pull back his healthcare bill, or his foreign policies. For all we know, he could start a war, and half way through decide it was a bad idea. I was never a fan of Obama in the first place, but now I am straight up disappointed. Although I like the idea of continuing manned space exploration, I have lost all confidence in our president. By doing this he is showing that he is inconsistent and is incapable of setting his mind to something. This could eventually be very bad for America, because other, more radical, countries may see this as a sign of weakness and decide to attack us. Presidents in the past may have made bad decisions, but they never turned around and contradicted themselves four months later. Like I said before, I am all for the continuation of manned space flight, but I have lost all confidence in Mr. Obama and I think America made the wrong choice.

PLN 22

What matters in the world today, is the destruction of the Dallas Cowboy's former stadium. With the construction of the new stadium, the old stadium was just taking up space. The precisely placed explosives caused the stadium to implode. This caused no damage to surrounding buildings. This big event was for one main reason. The owners of the stadium held an essay contest to find a kid to "push the button." What they found was a little boy of twelve that was into football and like all other boys his age, wanted to blow something up. But the important thing about this boy is the topic of his essay. He wrote about all of the charity work he had done, and it touched the owners of the stadium. The boy they found had been working in varied charities since he was 8, and this is what caused the owners to believe that he deserved to blow the stadium sky high. I think this is important because the boy is being honored for his hard work. This is special because he probably was not expecting his charitable services to be rewarded in such an amazing way. Personally I think it would be really cool just to have the chance to demolish a giant building, but it would be really great if I knew it was because I did something great.

PLN 21

What matters in the world today is a NYC pizza delivery man who fended off two armed robbers while delivering the pie. Assami Semde was delivering two pizzas and was stopped by two armed men. The men tried to take the pizzas from Assami, but he refused. One of the men hit him over the head with his gun, at which point Assami punched him and threw him into the wall. The other men punched Assami and the two began fighting. Assami screamed, which attracted the security of the apartment building he was in, and the two men fled. Assami is a recent immigrant to America from Africa, and has been told by his boss to just hand over the pizza if something like it ever happens again. This made me wonder, did Assami instinctively fight for the food because it was how he grew up? Most African countries are impoverished and most people starve every night. So maybe Assami was accustom to having to defend himself. If this really is the case, I think that more aid should be sent to Africa; not in the form of money because that is just consumed by corrupt governments, but in the form of things like the Peace Corps. People should be sent to hand out food and help as many people as they can. From my point of view, people should not have to fight each other for food, and although what Assami did was heroic, he should never have been forced to react in that way.

PLN 20

What matters in the world today, is the new defense system that has been developed by the Israeli government. The new system involves tanks that are equipped with anti missile systems that not only detect incoming projectiles, but shoot them out of the air. The system is called Trophy, and is so small that it can fit into any tank desired. Before this "active defense" system, tanks relied on increasingly thicker armor and a "reactive defense" system. The reactive defense system would set off a small explosion when impact occurred. This would counter act some of the force, but not all. The new Trophy system can defend any anti tank weapon, which will leave mines as the only threat to tanks. The Trophy is estimated to cost approximately $200,000 a piece; which isn’t much considering how many lives will be saved. This system matters to the world because it will not only keep all tank crews alive, but it will give Israel a great advantage in the future. With nearly unstoppable tanks, the only power that would be able to stop Israel from conquering the rest of the middleeast would be the United Sates. This new system matters to education because now engineers all over the world and far into the future will be studying how the system works. Trophy runs on a program that cannot only recognize a threat, but neutralize it all together. It is extremely hard for humans to hit a moving target, but for a computer, it would be even harder because of how long it would take to process. Obviously the new Trophy defense system will be put into effect in the future and used to protect the operators of a key battle field machine.