Someone Overcoming Odds Post

For this blog post I picked to talk about the movie, Armageddon. The whole movie is about the world, and a group of people who are trying to overcome the odd of a whole meteor crashing into the Earth and destroying it. The group of astronauts become really close on the journey. With their loved ones back home, and their fate in the hands of each other and the meteor. They are sent up to destroy it so that when it explodes, the different pieces will branch off and avoid crashing into the planet. I though that this movie was very good. Its heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. Every moment is intense, especially when they've reached the meteor.

Movie Info

Love Post

For my post on love I chose to write about the movie August Rush. This is one of my ultimate favorite movies. It begins when this classical musician falls in love with a guitarist. Her dad doesn't approve of her choice and forbids her to see the guitarist. The girl later finds out that she is pregnant and ends up giving up their baby to an orphanage because of her dad's will for her to continue her musical career. About 12 years later the boy ends up running away from the orphanage and bands with a bunch of homeless kids in New York who are under the wing of Robin Williams character. Their son learns how to play the guitar and is really skilled and learns very fast. His mom starts looking for him after about 12 years too, the same time he ran away. She can't find him through the system because he isn't in it any longer. When August plays the guitar his mom, and dad can both feel it. The end up all reuniting at the Spring Concert in New York and get to become a family again.

Movie Website

War Post

In my AP World class we are doing a unit that covers World War I so that is what war I decided to blog about. The was started in 1914 because of the assassination or the Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife in Sarajevo, which then led to the current emperor Franz Joseph declaring war on Serbia on July 28, 1914. The alliances between countries caused the war to grow and expand more then expected. Since Russia was in alliance with France and Great Britain, that meant they would have their back when Russia protected Serbia. Germany was in alliance with Austria-Hungary and was then basically screwed because the powers of Russia, Great Britain, and France were much greater then those of Germany and Austria-Hungary. After a long 4 years the war finally ends in 1918. November 9th of 1918, Kaiser Wilhem II abdicates himself and the next day a German Republic is formed. Then at 11 o clock, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month the war is finally over when Germany sign an Armistice.

Source

Colonization Post

For this blog post I read an article on CNN.com called "Kofi Annan: Still watching over Africa." This article is about Kofi Annan, who was born in the Ashanti province in Ghana. His life was shaped by his up bringing when Ghana was struggling for independence from Britain. He has won a nobel prize and he was the former United-Nations Secretary General. Even after he left his post and being over 70 years old, he has still been actively participating in advocating policies to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries in Africa. Annan quoted, ""When the cloth of government is not seen as being stretched to cover everyone in society you tend to have these divisions, so the issue for me is not tribalism, but the way to handle governance, distribution of limited resources ... and equal access to opportunity for all." This was his point of view about the misconceptions about tribalism in West Africa being a hurdle to progress.

Link to Article

Global Post

For this blog I wrote about the environmental aspect of a global issue. I found a website that had all different types of environmental factors leading to the issue. One of the issues was biodiversity, and how human activity is causing mass extinctions from animals, to forests, to whole ecosystems. The World Resources Institute found a link between climate change and biodiversity. A type of ecosystem that has been neglected, and is one of the richest in biodiversity, is the coral reefs in the world. Twenty percent of the coral reefs have been destroyed and show no prospects of recovering. Many scientists have concluded that climate change may be one of the greatest threats facing the planet. With global warming on the increase and species and their habitats on the decrease, chances for ecosystems to adapt naturally are diminishing. Research has shown that air pollutants from fossil fuel use make clouds reflect more of the sun’s rays back into space. This leads to an effect known as global dimming whereby less heat and energy reaches the earth.

website: globalissues.org

Holiday Post

For a post on a holiday I chose to pick Christmas. The first thing I thought of was learning about how Santa Clause had different names all around the world and talking about them in elementary school. Some names are: Pere Noel (Belgium and France); Christmas Gnome (Norway); Grandfather Frost (Russia); and Father Christmas (United Kingdom). Another thing I remember from grade school was learning about different traditions around the world. The one I remember most vividly was putting our shoes in the hallway during nap time and waking up finding them filled with candy. This tradition comes from The Dutch when on Christmas Eve they'd fill their clogs with hay and set them by the fireplace for the reindeer.

Santa Names

Bollywood Post

For this post I read an article posted by CNN called Is Bollywood Coming to Hollywood, and it was talking about the new movie Slumdog Millionaire. Although this movie is not authentically a bollywood movie, or 100% Indian, it is still a celebration of India. Just like bollywood movies, it comes with the whole package of a love story, song and dance, and just overall a movie that you want to keep watching. The article also mentions how this wasn't the first movie from India to get a lot of attention from the media. Bride and Prejudice was mentioned as another movie from which it's actors have appeared in Hollywood movies.

Link to CNN Article