Television Over Books

As is the case with most people my age, I really like to watch TV. I watch probably around 1-2 hours of it every night and then watch a movie on a portable DVD player when I am going to sleep. The way some people love reading books and can't get enough of them, I feel the same way about movies and television shows. In fact, I think watching stories unfold on a video screen is a much more productive and efficient way to go about learning instead of tediously active reading 500 page books like the Odyssey.

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, so now think about this. On television, there are about 29 frames per second that come across the screen. If we go by the ratio of 1,000 words to 1 picture, that would mean there are 29,000 words per second that you are acquiring in your mind. In a book, the fastest readers can maybe read 10 words a second tops. Television is increasing your efficiency by 2,900 times.

Another reason that I think movies/TV are better than reading is that they don't require the viewer's full attention at all times. When reading a book (which I rarely do), I often space out on what it is that I am reading and therefore don't comprehend entire pages at a time. With TV, there are commercials every 10-15 minutes which allow the viewer to take a break with their learning and learn some interesting things about weed-wackers and gold-jewelers!

My reccommendation to schools nation wide is that we remove literature from the classroom. The world is changing and becoming more technology oriented, and there is no reason that movies should not one day replace those old school things we call books.

The Dream Fight

Last night, in what was called a "Dream Matchup" by sponsors, Manny Pacquiao met Oscar De La Hoya in the boxing ring at MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas. In order to make it a legal fight, Pacman (as Manny Pacquiao is known) had to gain weight to put him around the 147 lb. weightclass while the Golden Boy (De La Hoya) had to shed some pounds. When the two weighed in before the bout on Friday, Pacquiao was 142, De La Hoya was 145. Somehow, an unofficial weighin right before the fight put Pacman at 148.5 lbs and De La Hoya at only 147. Before I say what happened, it is important to know what they were fighting for.

Manny Pacquiao was raised in the Philippines and began boxing as a professional at a very young age. Today, he is an icon for Filipinos and is a hero to all. They people there look at him like a Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods, Barry Sanders, and Muhammed Ali all as one person. Recently, Pacman has been named the best pound for pound fighter. Oscar De La Hoya on the other hand is a Mexican-American boxer who is world reknowned. He won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics, but if there's one thing everyone remembers about him is his loss to Floyd Mayweather Jr. last year.

So last night, the two faced off in what was supposed to be a 12-round fight, but ended up going only 8 full rounds. While the only way to see the fight in the U.S. was to purchase it on DirecTV, the fight was broadcast across the Philippines for free, so everyone there could cheer on their hero. For the first 8 rounds, the judges consistently scored Pacquiao at perfect 10's and De La Hoya a point or 2 below him. When the bell rang to begin the 9th round, De La Hoya didn't get up from his stool and forfeited the fight. He then got up to congratulate Pacquiao on his great victory.

Pacquiao's victory was celebrated world round. Even President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Phillipines called him after the fight to congratulate him. In this fight, it was clear that the bigger person won.

Space Spiders

On the space station that is currently orbiting our planet, two creatures that are not humans are making their home. No, they're not aliens from another planet. The 8 legged insects are actually spiders, taken to space to see how they live in a zero-gravity environment. Other insects like butterflies have also been put in orbit in the past.

Recently, one of the spiders reportedly went missing from its box, but astronauts aboard the station assured us that the spider had not gotten lost in space. Astronaut Sandy Magnus suggested that the spider is just somewhere else on the ship, and will probably be found in the next few days, weaving a web in some corner. So for all of you that were hoping to read about the first spider to actually go into outer space alone, you'll have to wait a little longer.

As for how the remaining spider is doing on the space station... According to observers, it has been weaving a web in containment. Unlike webs that are seen here on earth, where the web is generally 2 dimensional, in space the web is 3-D and branches out in all ways of the x, y, and z planes. However, she said that the web doesn't look like much of a thing of beauty, but rather "more of a tangled disorganized-looking web" that isn't so pleasing to look at it. Later this month, hopefully both of the spiders will be returning to Earth, aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour.

The NBA is Underway

The 2008-2009 professional basketball season began recently, and so far our hometown Chicago Bulls are looking like they could be contenders for the playoffs with a record of 3 wins and 4 losses (as of 11/11/08). The key move that they made in the past off-season was acquiring the guard Derrick Rose. The Bulls drafted him as the first pick of the draft out of the University of Memphis, where he became a leader in only his first year playing for them. He led the Tigers last year very far into the March Madness tournament.

As for my opinion on Derrick Rose, I have respected him as a player since 3 years ago when his high school (Simeon) defeated mine (Glenbrook North) in the IHSA playoffs. At the time, we were sporting a great line-up with current Duke star Jon Scheyer. Derrick Rose made Scheyer look like a little kid as Simeon won and went on to win state, all of this being done while Rose was merely a junior in high school.

Derrick Rose was a great addition to the team, but in order for the Bulls to actually make something out of him, he's going to have to figure out a way to be one of the main leaders on his team. If he can accomplish this feat, I have no doubt that the Bulls will be able to beat out Lebron James's conference-leading Cavaliers by the time the season commences. They could even make a run against the defending Celtics if all things fall in line.

As the season is beginning, Derrick's Rose focus is hopefully an sign of what the Bulls will do this season.

"All I'm trying to do is win the game."-Derrick Rose

A Look at the Crisis in Darfur

This past week, my high school's STAND (Students take action now: Darfur) group held a meeting to the public in which U.S. Special Envoy to Sudan Rich Williamson spoke. I went to the presentation because I am learning about genocide in my social studies class, and I wanted to see our government thinks they are actually doing. Other than just being a boring speaker, he presented the idea that the U.S. has been trying to do a lot in Darfur, but can't really get anything accomplished. He said that the "situation in Darfur is very complicated," which for some reason means that we can't do anything. I know that there is a civil war going on between the north and the south, and there are about 500 ethnic groups in the country, but if we call a situation a "genocide" as Bush did, it is the obligation of our country to do something to help stop it.

At the presentation, Williamson also referred to a Chinese diplomat that he recently conferred with an "SOB," which didn't look good seeing how he is supposed to be impartial in his international affairs. Williamson also said that both Obama and McCain have plans for Darfur which well be more than has been done in the past 8 years, so that something to be aware of once the election has taken place.

Other than the speech given by Williamson, we heard from a Darfurian man who is now a leader in the Lost Boys of Sudan organization in Illinois. What he talked about as well as some of the stories Mr. Williamson told really hit the heart, which is what the point of the entire meeting was: raising awareness about the genocide in Darfur. To see more of about what is going on in Darfur, watch the video below. Also, if you want to find out what you specifically can do to help, click here.


(Movie) Youtube.com

Blog Action Day

For this year's Blog Action Day, the issue that is at hand is poverty. Now in the past few months, the economic crisis in the United States has worsened considerably, and more and more people are becoming part of the poverty. The unemployment rate has risen to 6.1% at the end of September, which is the highest it has been in several years. But the poverty of the United States of America cannot even compare to what situations other people around the world are facing.

Africa, home to over 800 ethnic groups, has many of the poorest nations on the earth. Specifically I will further examine South Africa's economy and lifestyle as a model for much of the rest of the continent. In South Africa, the unemployment is still at about 25%, which may be a decrease from a decade ago, but is still extremely high. After all, that means that 1 out of every 4 people there are unemployed. If you were to travel to South Africa, you might not notice that the poverty is so great, because the upper and middle classes are actually fairly wealthy. It is the lower class that fights poverty the most, and if you travel to one of their slums, you will see what I mean.

The poverty in South Africa can be traced back to Apartheid in the country, where blacks did not get to see any of the financial income of the country. Back then, unemployment was a crime equivalent to treason for a black person. Even with the end of Apartheid, the situation did not get much better. There was no way that the government could just take the land from the wealthy whites and hand it off to the blacks. So still today, millions of people in South Africa live in slums like these. Their houses are nothing more than shacks with metal walls and roof, and a dirt floor. The sewage system is virtually nonexistent other than the streams running throughout. And there is trash everywhere.

The conditions that I just mentioned are what many South Africans have to live through everyday of their lives. And the next time you think that America is in poverty, remember the slums across all of Africa.

The Race Is On

We are only a few months away from the next Presidential Election, and the race is just starting to heat up. Last Tuesday night was the second of three debates between Barack Obama and John McCain. According to a poll by CNN, Obama came out of it as the victor. For anybody watching the debate at home, there was a clear distinction between the styles of both Senators. Barack Obama, who is a more charismatic public speaker, seemed to be more energized toward the entire audience, while McCain on the other hand, focused specifically on the person who asked the question in the town meeting style debate. McCain's main argument still deals with Obama's lack of experience as he demonstrated in this quote, "And in his short career, he does not understand our national security challenges.... We don't have time for on-the-job training, my friends." To watch the whole debate, click here.

With Obama's win at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, Obama is now ahead in CNN's National Poll of Polls with a lead of 48% to McCain's 44%. On CNN's Election Center, there is also an interactive link about the possible outcome given who wins which state based on the number Electoral College votes each state holds. To win the election, one must obtain 270 Electoral College votes. But as was the case in the 2000 election between Gore and Bush, the popular vote does not always get the most Electoral Votes. The third and final Presidential debate will be held on October 15, at 9:00 p.m. ET, at Hofstra University, NY.

Heartbreak in Wrigleyville

Throughout this past season for the Chicago Cubs, fans were very hopeful of the possibilities come October. The Cubs managed to win the National League Central Division with a record of 89 wins to 74 losses. In the month prior to the playoffs, Carlos Zambrano threw a no-hitter, and yet even this momentous game was not enough to drive the beloved Chicago team to its 1st World Series championship in 100 years.
When the playoffs began last week, the Cubs started off slow, losing their first two home games to the Los Angeles Dodgers. After the losses, it was a win or go home situation for the Cubbies, and only one team in the history of the game had pulled off an upset of coming back from a 2 game deficit, the Boston Red Sox of 2005. With this thought looming over the players' heads, they headed to Los Angeles to meet their fate. In a decent outing from star pitcher Rich Harden, the Cubs still could not manage to win, and lost their dreams of a championship with a 3-1 loss.
Perhaps the bad luck of the Cubs is from the curse of the Billy Goat, maybe it's just their destiny to not win. No one really knows why the Cubs have struggled so much for the past century, and no one really cares why. All the fans want is for the Cubs to win the World Series, and all I can say for now as big fan of the Cubs, is that we are very disappointed.

The Universe is Moving!

In the past week, a group of NASA researchers were observing about 700 different clusters of galaxies x-ray emitting gases. They came to a discovery that was very shocking because it didn't agree with many theories. This discovery is that the galaxy clusters are moving towards some thing with an immense gravitational pull that is not visible in our universe, and they're moving at about 200 million miles per hour. This observation was made using an experiment called the kinematic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (VS) effect which basically shows how much movement there is with a cluster of galaxies against the background.
Now, one might ask, what does this mean, and where is everything headed towards? Scientists have no definite explanation to this very odd phenomenon, they only have theories that are intertwined with how the universe came to be in the Big Bang. One of these theories is that when our universe was created, its twin universe (which is unobservable from this universe) inflated and spread out less evenly than ours did, which would make it more dense and give it a greater gravitational pull. This theory ties into the observations from the NASA team because all of these moving clusters of galaxies (by the way, the Milky Galaxy is included) are headed in the same direction. IT is very difficult to comprehend how our universe would be able tobe attracted to another universe, and that there even can be an end to the universe, but a good way to think abouthow this is possible is by using string theory, which is a very complex concept.
In reality, there's no real need for us to worry about this movement affecting our lives, because it isn't anything new that is happening in the universe, it's just something that was recently discovered.

Aaron Rodgers, The Next Brett Favre?

Last night, Aaron Rodgers started at quarterback for the Green Bay Packers, replacing Brett Favre who was traded to the New York Jets. Rodgers started his first game of the season against the rival Minnesota Vikings led by running back Adrian Peterson. Rodgers and the Packers had a generally good game winning 24 to 19, as for the 24 year old specifically, perhaps one of the greatest debut performances in the history of the NFL. First off, one can't look past the part of him scoring both a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown in the game, totaling at 178 passing yards and 35 rushing yards. He also completed 18 out of 22 of his passes which puts him around 81% for completion percentage. This figure is the 2nd highest completion percentage for a quarterback debut ever. Which brings us back to my original question, is he as good as Favre? My opinion is no. After all, he has had the past few years to watch and study the hall of famer Brett Favre. Anybody that has this opportunity should be able to pick up a few tricks. And while Aaron Rodgers may turn out to be a very good quarterback in this league, no one can replace Brett Favre.