Legal vs Moral

    I understand that times are hard before and after natural disasters, but I don't believe there is ever a time to steal. "We are suppose to come together as a community during times of crisis, not pick at each other like vultures" Troyano says. Back in the good ol' days, people would do whatever it took to help others out, not beat them to the goods like they do now. times have really changed. "they didn't even look worried" a Rite Aid employee comments. Even when criminals steal, they do it secretly. they don't just openly go in and grab whatever they want. Yes, it is a natural disaster, but you can still be arrested. legally, stealing should never be accepted, but most importantly, it should never be accepted morally.

Debt for Deaths

   When we pay our taxes, I can almost guarantee we don't expect that check we just wrote to go towards the death of millions of innocent, defenseless animals. 100 million animals are tortured or killed each year in the U.S due to experiments. Even every day people who don't normally take a stand still don't like animals to be expirimented on.
   On movies or on store bought products, why else would they put "no animals were harmed in the making"? Because it is appealing to buyers. Yet, the government still uses OUR money to fund expiriments. Ohio state university spends $1.9 million on heart attack expiriments for dogs. The Origan National Primate Research Center spends $5 million dollars for obesity expiriments on monkeys. I can understand maybe doing a few expiriments if you believed they would result in something like a cure or a way to prevent heart attacks and obesity, but we are still the most overweight country in the world, and hundreds are people are still having heart attacks. So what is their justification for these expiriments now?
   Our country is billions, if not trillions of dollars in debt, yet $16 billion of our taxes are going towards these expiriments each year. There is so many better things we could do for our country with that amount of money. For example, we could "provide $606 per month to the 22 million households in which senior citizens go to bed hungry." Or "provide $833 per month to the 1.6 million veterans who are homeless or at risk of losing their home." Here's one that any tax-payer would love: "give back an additional $190 per year in federal income taxes to 84 million households."
   One of the comments on this article makes a very good point. First of all, animal's biological makeup is obviously different from humans, so why test products on them? They are going to respond differently to them no matter how many times you try. Also, there are plenty of people who voluntarily commit their lives for expiriments to help a greater cause. Why not use them instead of creatures that, when put in this kind of situation, have no say in what is done to them or how their life will be treated?
   Like another comment points out to all of those poeple who support animal testing, what if that was your pet that was being tortured? Every day,  A precious little animal that somebody got emotionally attached to is suffering. For what? To improve knowledge to increase human life? Well, when there is no benefit from thse deaths, there is no justification. I agree with PETA and support them in their effort to prevent animal testing.


http://www.peta.org/features/more-than--16-billion-in-taxpayer-money-wasted-annually-on-animal-testing.aspx

"Gravity"

"Christian rapper Lecrae doesn't fit the typical model of a gospel artist." throughout this article, the author talks about many lessons that are talked about in this new album, but the main focus is on how what is on the inside matters, unlike what is on the outside. I believe that the purpose of this article is to explain to people why Lecrae does what he does. He takes his past mistakes and failures and uses them, combined with scripture, to spread the Gospel in a more modern, relatable way. Along with the lesson that you can't judge a book by its cover, the new Gravity album brings up many other common topics. "he raps that having an abundant amount of money doesn't always equal happiness." we hear it all the time, but when it is written out and put in a catchy song that people like, they are more likely to listen to words and understand the meaning. Lecrae throughout the years, has become very talented and successful, "earning praise by many in hip-hop, from veteran rapper Bun B to Lupe Fiasco." he doesn't sing about what the world wants, he sings about what the world needs. I chose this article because Lecrae is one of my favorite artists and I love his music. I love the fact that he can speak the truth in a way that will get people's attention.


http://www.boston.com/ae/music/2012/09/04/review-gospel-rapper-Lecrae-new-album-solid/

Book bucket list

13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher

A lot of my friends have read this book and said it was good. The story is interesting to me and I would like to understand her thought process better because I don't understand why somebody would want to take their own life.


The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

I started reading this book last year but never got to finish it. I didn't get very far into it do I didn't completely understand what was going on yet but I liked it enough to know I should read the rest. I have also heard others talk about how good it is so I don't want to miss out.


Black by Tedd Dekker

This Book has been recommended to me by many people so I might as well read it. Plus it is a Christian book but also sci-fi, which is exactly what kind of book I love. I looked up what the book is about and I really like the plot so I think I will like it.


Red by Tedd Dekker

A lot of people have told me I should read the Circle series, and I'm not going to read the first book and not finish the rest. Plus, the books actually seen pretty interesting. It amazes me how Dekker can make a Christian story sci-fi as well.


White by Ted Dekker

This is the third book in the Circle series so even if I didn't like the first two books, I have spent enough time getting that far into the story so I am going to finish the series no matter what. I do think I will like them though because I love the symbolism in them.


Green by Tedd Dekker

Green is the finishing touch to the circle series. I expect to really like the series so I will be anxious to see how the author ends the story. With a plot like this one, I already know the ending will be very unusual so it excites me to see different writing methods.


Unwinde by Neal Schusterman

This book was also recommended to me but I looked it up and it looks like it will be one of the best books I have ever read! It, like the Circle series, involves a lot of symbolism, which I love because I love to see different ways that people view things.


Unwholly by Neal Schusterman

This book hasn't come out yet but I am going to read the first book in the series so I can't just end the story half way through. A teacher recommended this book and said it is one of his favorites so maybe I will think so too.


Delirium by Lauren Oliver

You and savannah both read and liked this book so I figured since we all like the same kind of stories, I would like it too. I like to explore different kinds of books so it will be a great chance to find a new book and author I may like.


Pandimonium by Lauren Oliver

If I read the first book, I am obviously going to read the next one. If I like these books then maybe I will read some more books by this author or other books in the same catagory as these.

9/11 inference

i respect the fact that they are building a big 9/11 memorial and rebuilding the world trade center, but i believe that we are spending way too much money on them. the cost to rebuild the trade center is aproximately 3.1 million dollars! that rounds to about 1,200 dollars per square foot. the memorial pools each hold up to 450,000 gallons of water! i can only imagine the cost of that water bill! yes, i respect that we should have a memorial for all the people we have lost, but i believe we should use that money to take care of the citizens that are still here and in need.

day 2 q&a

when you have the ratio of the sides of 2 rectangles and you are trying to find the ratio of the area of those rectangles, you square the first number, which would make the ratio of the areas of the two rectangles in this problem 16:1. when you increse or decrease both rectangles by the same amount, the area changes but the ratio stays the same; 16:1.












in the picture, the ratio of the triangle's side lengths from left to right is 2:1. if you incresed both triangles sides by 3 times, the ratio would be 6:3.

in this article, the author says that arithmetics has a playful side. what he means by this is that there are things that suck you in. once you start thinking about it, you are hooked and can't help but wonder. the same thing could be true about geometry because there are so many things that are facinating that we dont know about. when you learn about it, you discover all the different things that make up our world. how the dementions and space can be everywhere and we don't even realize it. the latin meaning of calculus is a pebble used for counting. this goes along with the article because the author uses rocks as a visual way of showing squares. the easiest way of finding the sum of all the numbers from 1 to 10 is to use the dementions of tringle that the rows make up. a row of 1, a row of 2, a row of 3, and so on... multiply the dementions when you make a square. the hard way is to add them all up.