mags

What stood out to me the most in the book was that Kino was willing to keep trying to sell the pearl no matter what happened. The thing that made him release what he was giving up for the pearl was when Coyotito died. Also, how Kino changed a lot. At the beginning of the book, Kino would never kill a man. At the end of the book, he did (4 people).

What I learned from the book is that We shouldn’t get our mind focused on something we want that puts other peoples lives in danger because of it. Kino was so focused on making his family’s life better and selling the pearl, he didn’t release how much Kino was putting his family in danger. When we want something we shouldn’t be so focused on getting it that its all we think about. The pearl was taking over Kino’s mind, and making that what he was only thinking about.

It matters because we should be thankful for what we have, and when we want something we have to think it through on how it could effect others around us. And if we get that, we have to constantly be thinking ahed on how it could effect us.

A Bangladesh garment factory building collapsed on April 24, 2013. The garment industry is a two billion industry for the nation and 77% of Bangladesh’s exports. Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of clothing. The Rana Plaza that collapsed was stated to be one of the deadliest in history of the clothing industry. People started noticing cracks in the walls. The owner, Sohel Rana, called an engineer to check it out so that the workers wouldn’t be concerned. The engineer was horrified when he looked at the pillars on the third floor. He told the owner no one should be inside the building. He didn’t listen and said, “this building will stand a hundred years.” The next morning the workers were still suspicious at the cracks in the walls. The mangers told them to go back to work and that it was just water damage. An hour later the power failed, there was a loud rumble, and the whole nine story plaza came down. A 19 year old girl named Reshma was in the building working that day. She couldn’t afford her house because her husband ran away. She moved into a tiny room and found a job at the Rana Plaza. The workers get about $60 a month, which is a lot compared to the average peoples wage in Bangladesh. Reshma was stuck under the demolished building for 17 days. She herd people yelling and she tried to help them, but then she lost went unconscious. When She woke up, and her hair was cought between concrete. She felt around, found a scissors, and cut her hair. Then she felt around for water. She didn’t know how long it had been sense she found a water bottle because it was dark. There were no cries around her anymore. She found more water on the ground. It turned out she had crawled into a flooded basement. She tells CNN reporters, “I told God, ‘Take me, if thats your will. If not, then save me. But don’t leave me here like this.’”. She finally found some crackers. That was all she had to eat in 17 days. Reshma’s mother heard the collapse on TV and tried to call her, but Reshma sold her phone three days before so she could pay for the rest on her house. Her mother checked the hospitals, morgue, and showed pictures to people, but no one saw her. Workers started giving up looking for bodies and survivors because they hadn’t found anyone alive in almost a week. Sometime later, Reshma hears people above her and finds a long pole. She pushed the pole upward through some cracks and people see the pole moving and hear her crying “Save me!” They manage to get her out after 45 minutes of hard work. Her mom says, “My heart bursted with joy. I begged Gods, and he returned her.” They stopped searching for people last Tuesday, and had a memorial serves for all the people who died. They found at least 1,127 people dead. They say 2,438 were rescued and 98 people are still missing. The owners of the factories in the plaza and the owner of the plaza were arrested. Some say they added floors to the structure illegally and built machines in the factories that wouldn’t support (were too heavy for the design). This issue has lead the cabinet to approve a draft of a law that will force factories to offer life insurgence to the workers. And Reshma has said she is never going back to garment business.
I think this tragedy could have been prevented if the owners of the factories listened to what the engineers said. This would be really hard for families to go through, knowing it could have been prevented. It would also take a really long time to clean up. Right now, Bangladesh is cleaning up and removing the remains of the building. I thought it was cool that Reshma and her mom are Christians, and that they made that clear to CNN. I also thought it was cool that whenever she needed something, she found it. She felt around for a scissors, she found it. When she needed water she found it. The people who found her also say the reason she is alive is because she didn’t know how long she had been underground because it was really dark. Hopefully she can be a witness to people who aren’t Christians, and people that are suffering from this tragedy.

Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/15/world/asia/seamstress-rubble-bangladesh/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/13/world/asia/bangladesh-building-collapse/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/world/asia/bangladesh-building-collapse-aftermath/?hpt=hp_t2

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2013/may/13/bangladesh1-collapse-search-over-death-toll-1127/

On Wednesday, May 1, our 8th grade had shadow day. I shadowed two people. First, I shadowed Mrs. Prins at Upper Cut. I got to watch her cut hair, and put color/highlights in customers hair. It was cool to go in the back room and see all the formulas they half to mix. There is so many different colors and styles. Next, I shadowed Kim, the owner of Studio K. She told me that every year she goes to New York three to four times to place an order for the clothes. If she goes in the Summer, she places an order for all winter clothing because it takes a while to make and ship them to her. It was fun helping her in the store, and getting to know some of the customers. Shadow Day was really fun! I hope they do it next year for the 8th graders.

If someone asked me what I really wanted in this world, I wouldn’t know what to say. There are a lot of things we could ask for, but it still wouldn’t satisfy us. Once we get something, we always want more. We always want more than what we have. Still, if anyone asked me, I would say I wanted to have lots of money. To use to help stop world hunger. It would be hard if you have lots of money because you would want to use it on yourself. But if I got enough I would want to try. Another thing I would want is a big house. It would be cool to have a bathroom as big as a family room, or a kitchen so big you have everything in it. Another thing that I would want is to have endless clothes (that don’t cost anything). Everything I pinned on Pintrest.

If I got all this stuff, I would feel selfish, and guilty of how much I had. It would also feel good though to have everything you have ever wanted! If everyone got what they wanted, people would be fighting over things, and lots of people would get lazy because they don’t have to work for what they get.

In the Senate Session, I enjoyed hearing what everyone had to say. Everyone had different opinions and comments. Some of them helped the people presenting realize what they could change or do differently, while other comments were said just because they think it would be funny. Everyone’s opinions were helpful. We all got to vote and see what the majority of us liked better.
I learned that our class has some people that take the Senate Sessions seriously, and others don’t. I also learned that it is probably hard sometimes to be in a real Senate Session for our government. There are some disagreements, so everyone I’m sure gets a little frustrated (like our class). I also learned that everyone’s ideas/opinions do help. We all compare what we think, and make a compromise.
This will shape how we interact with people because we realized we all have different opinions, and we have to respect that. We shouldn’t make rude comments about an idea someone suggested because thats just what they think. We should give them the reason why the other plan works better (in a nice way).

Procedure
– My favorite part was that everyone got to have a specific job they had to do, and then we got to share it with everyone. Some people’s job fit some of their hobbies, and others didn’t. No matter if they liked their job or not, it was fun how we got to be a part in “shaping” our “country”.
– I really liked how it worked. I can’t think of anything that needs to be changed.

We did glacier erosion. There are two types of glaciers. A continental glacier, and a valley glacier. A valley glacier is long a narrow, moving slower, wile a continental glacier is big (covers most of a content or big island) and covers 10% of the earth today. In our demonstration we did a valley glacier.

Glaciers can shape the land in many different ways! Plucking, abrasion and a surge take place during a glacier. There are many aftereffects such as a horn, drumlin, U-shaped valley, kettle lakes,cirques, aretes, and outwash.

Here is the picture of our project, and the keynote.

Erosion (Glaciers)

Last week Thursday (February 28, 2013), a man was swallowed up by a sinkhole near Tampa Florida. The Hillsborough County, on the south side of Florida, is known as the “sinkhole ally”. A county administrator told everyone it wasn’t a normal sinkhole because it was so big. Usually sinkholes don’t cause this type of tragedy. Sinkholes are somewhat common in Florida because the ground is made up of limestone and other carbonate rock. Acidic groundwater ‘eats up’ the rock, and it collapses when there is too much weight above it. In this case, the house above was too heavy for the limestone to support, so it swallowed up a lot of the house. Jeff Bush, age 36, was sleeping when his bedroom started collapsing into the sinkhole. Everyone woke up because it was so loud. Jeff screamed, and his brother, Jeremy, came running into his room. Everything was gone including his brother and his brother’s dresser, T.V., and bed. Jeremy shoveled away some rubble as he was trying to get his brother out. The floor was going into the sinkhole, so the sherif’s deputy pulled him to safety. Nearby, neighbors were evacuated for safety reasons. There were five people injured in this tragedy, including Jeremy Bush and a two year old. On Sunday and Monday workers carefully took down the one story home, trying to save some of the family’s belongings. They couldn’t find Jeff Bush’s body, because the sinkhole was 20 feet wide, and 30 to 50 feet deep. It would be to dangerous to keep looking. They tried to stabilize the hole with gravel, and then later recommended raising the house because it could collapse into the sinkhole at any time. Not only did the family lose their brother, but they also lost a lot of their possessions and memories. Jeremy Bush says “It’s not just I lost my brother. There are so many memories in this house, my wife and her brother and the whole family. Every holiday, we gathered at this house. Her grandmother passed away. All the stuff to remember her by is in this house, and we’re losing it all. You can’t replace that. You can’t replace a life being gone.”

It would be really hard to be the family who is going through this. It would be so unexpected, and unusual to be swallowed by a sinkhole. As Jeremy Bush states, all their possessions and memories were in the house. It would be hard to lose almost everything you have, especially a sibling. The neighbors next door are probably worried and wondering what might happen to their home. If the sinkhole caves in at any time, it might damage their house and property around it. I would imagine some of them would consider moving, but it would be hard to sell their home because no one is going to want to live near the location of this tragedy. I think scientists should come up with a way to detect whether the water in the ground is eating away the limestone. With that information, they may be able to prevent this type of tragedy.

Sites:

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/04/us/florida-sinkhole/index.html?hpt=us_c2

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/01/us/florida-sinkhole

There are different types of governments that countries have. One thing that I was surprised about was how Somalia had no political parties, and France had around twenty to thirty political parties. It also was interesting that different country had a different legislative system. Japan’s legislative branch consists of The House of Councillors and the House of Representatives. And France’s legislative branch consists of the Senate and a National Assembly.Japan’s judicial branch is simular to the U.S’s judicial branch because it consists of the Supreme Court. Somalia’s date of independence is the closest to the U.S out of all the countries I chose (July 1, 1960).

One of the issue in Japan is how the consumer prices are falling. Some people don’t buy things, waiting for the prices to go down. Instead they go up. Japan’s economy is slowly going down because of this. If the people start buying things now than later, they could save money, and it might boost the economic growth. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told Japan’s central bank to do more to flight the deflation. He also told them to print more “unlimited yen” to help stoke consumer prices growth (the people will buy more). Sometimes are economy is lower, but the government treys to help it grow as well.

Our volcano is a Composite volcano. It formed by alternating layers of lava, volcanic ash, cinders, and bombs. Its on a transformed boundary, and its tall and symmetrically shaped, and it has steep sides. On our volcano we have the magma chamber which “holds” the magma underneath the ground. We have a side vent where the lava comes out the side of the volcano. We also have the vent on the top of the volcano where the lava comes out. We put cotton balls for the smoke, and we have crater where the mouth of the volcano is. We have the pipe where the lava travels up in the volcano, and rocks that spit out of the volcano when it explodes. We labeled magma, which is underground, and lava which is above ground.

Spanish Volcanos