Today there are many Muslim people that are discriminated in many places that they go. There was an incident in an airport where six Muslims were taken off the plane because of their religious faith. They were seen praying before they got on the plane, which was normal, but a passenger saw them and told the service attendant.

I think that the passenger probably thought that the Muslims were making their last prayer before they caused a terrorist attack. I think that the country should take the time to teach people the practices of the Muslim people. There are many things that they do that are not normal to many of us and that might cause some misunderstanding if you do not know what Muslim people are doing.

Muslims have been discriminated since the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Muslim people are being discriminated against for what only a few extremists were responsible for. There have been many terrorists in the past, but no one has discriminated another religious group like the Muslims for that cause. For example, the KKK was a Christian terrorist group that wants to destroy all people of color. They are Christian people, but you see that that does not mean that all Christian
people are terrorists! The Islamic extremists attacked us that day because their mission was to destroy George Bush. These people are called Islamic Extremists: They think that he is the evil and that they had to destroy him to save the world. George Bush is not really evil, but his actions have provoked many people in the Middle East to think that without his existence the world will be peaceful once again.

When I was on a plane for my first time, I had to sit next to a Hindu or Muslim, I don’t know which, but I did not act in any way that might have offended him. I first got a heartbeat, but then I thought about it: are all Muslims going to do the same thing that the ones in September 11th did? No. So then I was relaxed and did not even pay attention to it.

At the airport, the passengers were spotted by people, and then they were kicked out of the plane by security. We have to stop these situations. People of this country and around the world must not to judge these people by what a few has done, but for who they really are.

Information was gathered at the following website: http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/21/passengers.removed/

If you were to go on a long road trip, and there was nothing for you do in the back seat of a really uncomfortable car, try and get a video compatible Ipod or Zune to keep you amused and content. When watching a movie or T.V. show, you are most likely to better endure yourself for that long road trip. For instance, if you’re living in California city like San Jose, and it takes six hours to get to Los Angeles and see Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, then having a mechanism such as an Ipod or Zune helps out a lot.

Bruce Lee movies:

I’d prefer these movies because they have a lot of action and footage of the best martial artists ever.

Transformers (the movie):

The live action movie is great and should be watched. This movie has a lot of creative action that will make your jaw drop. The transforming scenes are awesome.

Lion King:

This movie is a Disney classic and must be watched by everyone. It’s basically a sweet Disney title.

Futurama (the movie and show):

This show is so hilarious and is recommended to be watched. If you can get into The Simpsons or the Family Guy, then you should definitely be in for a treat.

Pulpfiction:

This is a dark-humor movie because when something funny happens, it usually makes pain for a character in the movie. This is one of the top movies of the past thirty years.

Terminator 2:

This sequel to Terminator is a hit because it has action and humor. The action in here is like no other movie because it uses gorgeous technology.

Star wars (Return of the Jedi, A New Hope, and Empire Strikes Back):

The Classic Star Wars are what makes up the Star Wars phenomenon. These George Lucas films are masterpieces and should be in everyone’s ipod. Not only should people have them in their ipods, but on DVD forever.

Pirates of the Caribbean:

These movies are the best pirate movies and there all done by Disney. This series is full of action, humor and keeping you the edge of your seat constantly.

Smokin’ Aces:

Buddy ‘Aces’ Israel is the target of a million dollar bounty with wave after wave of hitmen to collect on his head. Look forward to complete action throughout the movie.

Fight Club:

This movie is a brain twister because it makes you think a bit. It’s not the biggest twist in the world but it’s big enough. This is a personal favorite of my top 20.

These are some movies that you can put onto your Ipod and have a long, nice and pleasant trip.

How was the movie, Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds, leading in the box office sales? This movie seemed to have reached out mainly to the
younger children between the ages of six and fourteen. Of course the parents took them so they had to buy a ticket for themselves. But why did this movie sell so much the first weekend it was out?

Here is an eye catcher. Most movies that were out at the same as the Hannah Montana movie had at least 2,000 screens nationwide except for the movie, There Will Be Blood, which had only 1,507 screens nationwide. The Hannah Montana movie had only 683 screens nationwide. And they still racked up a huge 31.1 million dollars. That is more than Meet the Spartans and the remake of Rambo, which has been out for two weeks and The Eye which came out the same day as the Hannah Montana movie.

The people who managed the economics behind this movie were masterminds. Yes, every ticket cost about fifteen dollars but these guys knew that people would pay for it.

The popular demand for this movie was so high that the supply amount of screens was low. They did this so they could get more money for the movie. Let me explain. If you have a limited supply of screens, then the price is higher for the ticket. If they have a huge amount of screens, then the price of the ticket is cheap. If you have more people demanding to watch the movie, than you have in screens, then you would make more money setting the ticket prices higher than usual. If there is a low amount of supply, then you would pay more for it. If there is a high amount of supply, then you would pay less for it. While the kids of America are completely into Hannah Montana, the marketer’s are completely into the money.

In Halo 3, a game for the X-Box 360, there are many features for the gamer. These features include:

Matchmaking, which allows players to engage in “friendly” competitions between the players. 1up.com describes Halo‘s matchmaking as “With Halo 2, Bungie defined how games should be played online in the console space. The matchmaking system, its movable “couch,” and its series of ranked playlists were innovations in the console space that should have been ripped off consistently, since. When designing Halo 3’s matchmaking service, Bungie said that they wanted the experience to be as robust as the Halo 2 experience was on Xbox.”

Forge, allows the gamer to design individual maps which can be shared with friends and others on the Halo Community. Forge essentially allows the player to newly create an existing map by moving around structures, placing each and every individual grenade, weapon and object Forge even allows the player to chose where they will respawn after death.. Forge allows the player to create a map that can either be totally fair by having each weapon distributed equally, or one-sided ad having the most useful and powerful weapons appearing at there respawn points. Anything is possible.

Screenshots are the greatest new feature in Halo 3. Screenshots allow the player to take an in-game picture, of any kind or action. It s a feature that can produce many fun and hilarious pictures taken during times when a battle is at the peak of intensity. Imagine being able to take a picture of the sniper bullet just before it enters your brain, or a picture of a grenade exploding in your face. These are all possibilities which can be taken, manipulated and able to produce in any way, shape or form you see fit.

Scientists in Newcastle University, Northern England, created a three parent embryo consisting of one father and two mothers. By having two womenʼs DNA in an embryo, scientists hope to prevent genetic faults in the mitochondria which can cause over fifty diseases that can potentially cause life-long disability and can even be fatal. Mitochondria are responsible for processing food into energy and can cause serious problems if damaged due to the buildup of biological poison. About one in 50,000 children suffer from diseases cause by mitochondrion faults passed from their mother including fatal liver, muscular dystrophy, diabetes and deafness. This procedure would prevent these faults from developing in the fetus before it is conceived.

To avoid any moral backlash, the three parent embryos were allowed to develop without outside interference, then to be destroyed after six days. Despite the potential medical benefits it can draw, it produced critics with pro-life and other groups questioning the morality of the procedure. Does tampering with our genetic code for life saving medical advances outweigh the potential risk that might occur?

Sources
BBC News (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/
7227861.stm)
biotech-weblog.com (http://www.biotech-weblog.com/
50226711/threeparent_embryo.php)
Yahoo News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080205/
od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_embryo_parents)

According to the “SJSU, districts help Latinos prepare for college” article by Javier Erik Olvera on Saturday February 9, 2008 (http://origin.mercurynews.com/ education/ci_8222846) Latino students and parents attended a conference at San Jose State University to get informed about the road to attending college. Superintendent Glen Ishiwata from Moreland School District said, “The seeds need to be plowed early.” Organizers of this occasion want the students to get as much support as possible before their teenage years so that they know what classes they need to take to attend
college.

In the article, Olvera stated that research and statistics demonstrates that many Latino students are not ready to attend college right after high school. They are the ones that overcome far more obstacles than anybody else. Many Latino students come from immigrant parents who never attended college and sometimes never
finished school because of economic problems with their families. For example Olvera reports: “Yolanda Montoya immigrated 15 years ago from the Mexican province of Michoacán, where she quit school after the fourth grade because she had to help her family financially.” She decided to take advantage of this event by taking her 13-year old daughter.

Yet another challenge that these families face is the lack of capacity to college tuition and fees in in addition to not being aware of the many scholarships and loans available. It’s critically important that parents attend these conferences and workshops with their students so that they can get the most of out it and know where to lookout for valuable resources.

Over 120 workshops were available for parents to learn how they can participate in their children’s education and support them to obtain higher education. Superintendent Ishawata said, “There is a whole population out there of Latinos that do not realize there is an open door to college and there is a path to get to it.”

This was a great opportunity for Latino students to have been part of so that they are aware of what’s out there and resources that can be great help. Students from LPS-SJ would have benefitted a lot from this type of event because it will help them look ahead and be aware of what’s next.

It will work as a head start for many of them because now they know what the college requirements are and the types of financial aid that is available. Our staff at LPS-SJ should be encouraged to attend these types of events as well as promote it to their students so that they know of resources students can contact. It would be a great help for teachers to attend so that students who aren’t able to attend the meeting they can receive the information from them. Students and staff, as well as parents, can try to contact San Jose State University and ask when their next workshop will be or if they know of other types of events like they one
they had so that people can attend to.

In almost every school there is a time that we must work, and a time that we want to joke around and chill. I didn’t like the work time, so I simply always messed around.

Because of that decision, I was always an F student. It was somewhat fun, no doubt, but I think it cost me more bad times than anything. It wasn’t fun at all struggling at almost everything besides English. Yeah, I got to know everyone in the class, and was the class clown, but I think back and wonder if it was really worth it. The only way I passed through the grades 1 – 5 was because they had to pass you.

The time that people can chill and the time that people must work is what everyone has trouble with. It can easily cause a person’s grade fall into a low category. What I’m trying to say is that you can chill, even if you have to do a lot of work.

Instead of just joking around, you could do the work first and have a few laughs after. It seems like a drag, but it’s really better. For example: whenever I was assigned work, I would usually wait until the last minute to do my work, or homework. I would really mess around all I can, but it wasn’t as fun because I always had to worry about homework.

Unlike now, I do my work when it’s assigned, and I get to chill for the rest of the time! It may seem like there isn’t any relax time if you do all your work first, but really, there is a lot more time than you think.

Some students mess around right off the bat and will end up either not doing the work at all due to procrastination, or in worse cases, not having it done at all. The downside is that the work might not be as good as it could have been if it was done right away with a fresh start. You’ll have a better chance of doing it right when everything you were just taught is fresh in your mind. Of course, that would be better than having work done with a blurry memory.

First pic – http://moxieday.com/characters.htm
2nd pic – http://www.wmnet.org.uk/resources/stern/stern/
pedusingtheweb.html

Every Vietnamese New Year people participate in traditional activities such as dragon dances, family meals, shopping, visiting certain places, visiting relatives, etc…But, mostly everyone gambles! People of all ages will play various games with either plenty of money or little amounts of money just to have a fun time. It’s actually so much fun for everybody, that it’s even considered a tradition! Even though it may be called gambling, it’s more of a way to spend time with family and celebrate the beginning of the year with everyone around you.

The Vietnamese New Year is an awesome time to gamble with friends and family at home or outside. Probably the best part is that it lasts for about two weeks!

Game Names and Explanations
Thirteen Warriors (13 for short):
This game can involve up to four players, having thirteen cards each. It’s like a battle of poker hands with three being the lowest and two being the highest. First to lose all their cards win.

Blackjack (21):
A common game that everyone knows of course. Basically you want to have a higher number than the dealer, but you don’t want to go over 21 or else you bust.

Bau Cua (Lucky Chess):
A fun game for everyone to play! This game has three dice that contain six pictures on each. There six pictures are what you can place bets on; shrimp, chicken, crab, bao, fish, and deer. If any of the pictures you bet on come up, you win!

Chinese Bingo:
People of all ages will play this game! There are ninety numbers, but they don’t have any letters before them such as “B3”. It’s just like the American bingo, but the only way to win is to have a straight horizontal row.

Bai Cao: Each person receives three cards. If you don’t get three pictures, which is the highest, you want to get nine points or a higher number than everyone else in order to win. Three pictures are the highest possible cards. What you need to do in order to attain nine points is just add your cards together. If you are tied in the end, then you will split the money with whoever has tied you.

These are the common games that are played during the Vietnamese New Year. If you have time on your hands and love to gamble, or just have fun with a few bucks to spare, you could learn these games and go at it! They might be a little confusing when you learn them, but you’ll get the hang of it
sooner or later. Perhaps you can get the family together and have your own family night with these games if you really
wanted to. Well, have fun!

Americans have recognized Black History since 1926, first as “Negro History Week” and later as “Black History Month.” February was chosen as “Black History Month” because of the events that happened during that month such as Frederick Douglas’s and Abraham Lincoln’s birthdays.

I remember that when I was in 5th grade, my teacher gave a mini lesson on Black history; she said that it was important to recognize the Civil Rights movements’ leaders.

The one I remember the most about is Martin Luther King Jr. He was born on January 15, 1929. He was a powerful speaker, and his speeches often motivated the people. The speech that I remember the most was the “I Have a Dream” speech, which was given at the steps of the Lincoln memorial. I personally like this speech the most because Martin Luther King expressed his dream. He had a dream that one day white and black people would be united as brothers and sisters. I think we should all have the same dream as he had and still has. Martin Luther King Jr. died on April 4, 1968.

Another great leader is Harriet Tubman. Harriet Tubman was born around 1820; around 1844, she married a free black man named John Tubman and took his last name. Her real name was Araminta Ross but she later changed it to Harriet, after her mother. She is perhaps the most wellknown of all the Underground Railroad
“conductors.” The Underground Railroad was a secret cooperative network that helped former slaves in reaching the free or Canada. During the ten years in which she was a conductor, she made 19 trips into the south and escorted over 300 slaves to freedom. During the Civil War Harriet Tubman worked for the Union as a cook, a nurse, and even a spy. She died in 1913.

Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King were a lot alike; they both helped colored people, in different times, to obtain freedom. Black History Month is usually celebrated by parades. We also celebrated it at school, by learning about it, we are celebrating it. Black History is very interesting, so why not learn about it? I mean it’s pretty interesting once you start learning about it.

During the last two months, we have been reading Martin Luther King’s speeches in Devin’s Academic Literacy class, and in Mr. G’s English 1 class. It has been interesting to know what Martin Luther King felt and how he expressed it with words that motivated the community to try and make a change.

Works Cited:
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/bhmintro1.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p1535.html
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1964/
king-bio.html
http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/
Underground%20Railroad
http://www.uawquad.org/images/heroes/Harriet_Tubman.jpg
http://www.aaronmartini.com

The NFC beat the AFC again 42-30 this year thanks to the Vikings’ rookie running back.

During the first a second quarter of the Pro bowl the AFC was up ahead 27-21. After the first half, the AFC were just trying to keep up with the NFC and their unstoppable running game. Adrian Peterson rushed for 129 yards on 16 carries. He is also the first rookie since Marshall Faulk in 1995 to earn the MVP award for the Pro Bowl.

The game was over for the AFC when Adrian Peterson rushed for a 6 yard touchdown with three minutes left to
play in the game.

This image is from: http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/getty/2008/09000d5d8069ea4b_gallery_600.jpg

This image is from: http://static.nfl.com/static/content/public/image/getty/2008/09000d5d806a02dd_gallery_600.jpg

This is Antonio Cromartie making his second interception of the game on a pass to Torry Holt of the St. Louis Rams. If it wasn’t for Adrian Peterson, the NFC would have lost the 2008 Pro Bowl, because the AFC was beating them.