Blog 4 (4th Quarter)

So far I am enjoying my 4th quarter outside reading book. It is entitled "More than Just the Catch." The book is a co-written autobiography about David Tyree; the man who made one of the most amazing catches in Superbowl history. In this week's reading, David talked about how his life was spinning out of control. Since he was signed to the New York Giants, he constantly was late and was basically the teams' slacker. Eventually he was fined $10,000 for being constantly late and missing practices. David turned to selling weed to try and pay the fine, because he says unlike some of the big football stars, he wasn't making that much of a salary. He was soon caught by the police with some of his friends with a few ounces of marijuana and taken into custody. His name was being butchered by the bad publicity and he was worried that he would have to face time in jail. He prayed that he wouldn't and it turns out he got off the hook. At that point, David began to turn his life around. He began going to church and believing in God, because he believed only a miracle could have really gotten him out of that situation. Soon after he also made a commitment and married his wife.

Blog 3 (4th Quarter)

Today I read more about Daniel Tyree and his life growing up into the man he is today. In it he talked about his life in college and his early relationship with his future wife. David talked about how he used to see this girl and thought there was something special about her. He tried a few times to ask her out, and eventually he was successful. This part of the story was also told by his wife, which gives her perspective on the whole relationship. Together they talk about how they got involved together and eventually she got pregnant. She says in the book that David had a problem with commitment and being faithful, which eventually led to them being seperated for a time period before they eventually got married. Both David and his wife address David's problem with alcohol, and the effect it had on their relationship. His wife tells about the night that she went into labor and how David came home before she left to the hospital and he was so drunk that he tried to trip her and was laughing while she was going into labor. Eventually he was able to sober up enough for the time when his son was born.

Blog 2 (4th quarter)

Today, I read about David Tyree and his later highschool life. He talked about a serious relationship that he got into, and then realized he couldn't handle. When David was young he realized that that wasn't what he wanted, and he didn't want a girl to control his life like that again, so he resolved to be more careful when chosing a new girlfriend. In the reading, he also talked about making it through the final years in highschool and at that point having many college scholarship offerings. With his options open, he chose to go to Syracuse University. This is when he found out that he was lucky to have gotten a scholarship, because his mother did not have any money left over for college.

Blog 1 (4th quarter)

Today, I read about David Tyree and his early childhood. When he was young he went through alot of tough times. He grew up in a family that lived in a poor area. Fortunately his parents had fairly well paying jobs, but when he still young his parents were seperated and then legally divorced. David was thankful that his father was still able to be a part of his life throughout his childhood, and he gives him credit for helping him grow into a more respectable man. Even though David and his family went through tough times he says that its shaped him into a good person. Also in the first 30 pages he talks about the difficulty of peer pressure and being accepted by other kids. He talks about how he hung out with some of the tough kids and thought he was cool when they listened to gangster rap and smoked weed, just like many kids still do today. And just like people now, he said he grew out of it and is thankful for the presence of sports in his young life. He says how thankful he is for his old Coach Aleem, who always helped him when he was going through a hard time, such as when his mother died. It was also that coach who noticed David's hard work and determination.

More than Just the Catch Intro

I will be reading the book "More than Just the Catch" for my fourth quarter outside reading assignment. The book is an autobiography about the life of David Tyree and the events leading up to his drafting into the NFL and the amazing catch he made which led up to the Giants' victory against the Patriots in their Super Bowl match up. I chose to read this book because I love football, and i'm interested in reading David Tyree's life story.

iPhone update 3.0 Improvements

iPhone and iPod Touch users will now gain cut, copy and paste features, thanks to the forthcoming iPhone 3.0 update. The new software will offer over 100 new applications/features, and it is expected to be released this summer. Another big win for long-suffering iPhone users: MMS, or Multimedia Messaging Service, support. This enables you to send and receive photos, contact information (using the vCard standard, which will automatically add it to your Contact list), audio files and locations. The new Messages application not only supports MMS, but it can also forward and delete messages, either individually or multiply. Landscape orientation is coming to all key applications. When you rotate the iPod Touch or iPhone sideways, the new functionality will enable you to input using a larger keyboard in Mail, Notes and SMS. The new release will be a free update for all iPhone 3G users, and will also work on the original iPhone — though Apple cautions that certain features, such as MMS and stereo Bluetooth support, will not work on the original model. A software update for the iPod Touch will cost $10, much as the 2.0 release did.

Space Shuttle Discovery Launch

Space shuttle Discovery is on pace for a Sunday launch after NASA engineers repaired a leaky gas venting system. The leak had canceled a planned launch on Wednesday. NASA is hoping that the seven-member crew can take off around 7:40 p.m. Sunday on a mission to the international space station, where they will deliver supplies needed to expand the station's crew to six people. The shuttle crew will be delivering the final parts needed for an expanded solar energy power system that will allow the station to double its crew to six people. The crew will also be dropping off Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who will replace NASA's Sandy Magnus on the space station. The shuttle also will carry a replacement for a failed unit in a system that converts urine to drinkable water. The crew, led by commander Lee Archambault, is expected to board Discovery at Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

Coast Guard ending search tonight

The search for Oakland Raiders linebacker Marquis Cooper, NFL free agent Corey Smith and former college football player William Bleakley is to be called off tonight after unsucessful eforts in finding them. Nick Schuyler, was found alive and sitting atop an overturned boat about 40 miles west of Florida's Gulf Coast on Monday afternoon. He is the only man out of the four that went on a fishing trip together that has been found. Schuyler, who, like Bleakley, was a former University of South Florida football player, told his Coast Guard rescuers that the boat they were in was anchored Saturday evening when waves overturned it. Schuyler told rescuers that all four men clung to the boat for a time but then became separated. Schuyler says that he last saw his three friends at 2 a.m. Monday and says that him and the three others were all wearing life vests. After days of searching and about 24,000 square miles of ocean scanned, the search is scheduled to be called off at sundown Tuesday, or around 6:30 p.m. ET.

Automakers ask for more federal help

General Motors and Chrysler LLC said Tuesday they could need an additional $21.6 billion in federal loans between them because of worsening demand for their cars and trucks. GM said that by 2011 it could need a total of $30 billion, which includes the $13.4 billion in Treasury loans it has already received. GM will for sure need $9.1 billion in additional loans and could require another $7.5 billion in the next two years if auto sales don't improve. Chrysler said it now needs a total of $9 billion, up from the $4 billion Treasury loan it received in December. GM also said that it would eliminate 47,000 jobs over the course of 2009. The company said it would cut about 20,000 jobs in the United States, or nearly 22% of its left over U.S. staff. The company said it plans to close another five additional U.S. plants by 2012, in addition to the 12 planned closings announced in December. The plants that will be closed have not yet been identified. Experts have said that the request for additional money is not a surprise, given how bad auto sales have been since the December plea for help.

Gender Roles/Issues

Around 300 women held at immigration detention centers in Arizona face dangerous delays in health care and widespread mistreatment, according to a new study by the University of Arizona, the latest report to criticize conditions at such centers throughout the United States.
Researchers examined the conditions facing women while in the process of deporting them at three federal immigration centers in Arizona. An estimated 3,000 women are being held nationwide.The study concluded that immigration authorities were too aggressive in detaining the women, and as a result, they experienced severe hardships, including a lack of prenatal care, treatment for cancer, ovarian cysts and other serious medical conditions.

Pilot and five passengers missing after plane crash

The airplane took off from Casa de Campo International Airport in the Dominican Republic and was supposed to land at the Luis Muñoz Marin International Airport in Carolina to clear U.S. Customs before going on to the Isla Grande Airport in San Juan crashed on Sunday night.
A 911 emergency operator notified the Coast Guard at 6:51 p.m. Sunday that it had crashed into the waters off Quebradillas. Three male and two female passengers were returning to Puerto Rico after spending the weekend in the Dominican Republic, said Noemi Corporan, service manager for Tropical Aviation Corp. All five passengers and the pilot of the small, single-engine plane are still missing as of today. Rescue teams are still searching for the missing passengers and the missing pilot.

Arrested for Starting Rumors

Rumors regarding Monday's destructive earthquake in China's mountainous Sichuan Province have been started by chinese bloggers in online chat rooms. According to some of them, there were many signs that nature gave that could have saved thousands of people if the government had taken serious consideration to them. Ponds inexplicably drained, cows flung themselves against their enclosures and swarms of toads invaded the streets of a town that was later decimated by the quake. One online writer asked “Why did the government ignore the signs? Did they not care?” The Chinese government has been arresting people who started such "rumors" and said they would punish them. However, the government did not say what the punishments would be.

Bitter Cold Will Last

Freezing air gripped cities from the Canadian border to Florida on Wednesday, with some cities posting record lows. Snow in some southern states had rush hour traffic at a near standstill. Records were posted in the Michigan cities of Flint, at 19 below, and Saginaw, 10 below. Places like Hot Springs and Monticello, Arkansas, were in the low 20s. Minneapolis, Minnesota, posted a reading of 19 below zero, and it was 14 below in Fargo, North Dakota, where the wind chill made it feel like 31 below, said CNN meteorologist Chad Myers. Forecasters have predicted dangerously cold conditions through Friday morning in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Pirate's body washes ashore with $153,000

Five pirates drowned Friday when their small boat capsized after they received a reported $3 million ransom for releasing a Saudi oil tanker. A local resident said that one of the pirate's body washed up on the shore, and in his pocket was a plastic bag containing $153,000. The pirates had been holding a Ukrainian arms ship and it's crew hostage. A spokesman for the group of pirates holding the ship and crew for ransom has said that they will release them soon, and because of good negotiations; may lower the ransom.

Advice to Obama on battling presedential aging

Today I read an article on the predictions of how Barack Obama will age while in office. The article said that when a new president comes into office, he seems happy and ready for the job. After awhile, the pressure of big critical decisions, criticism, and public opinion chips away at them. After looking at notes of past presidents and their lifestyle, eating habits, bloodpressure and physical activity, a study was made and found out that the typical president ages 2 years for every 1 year in office. A picture prediction of how President-elect Obama will look is shown on the CNN website.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/06/presidential.health.aging/index.html

Police Shooting an accident or murder?

A group of young men were on their way home from a new years party on the subway when they were pulled from the car by police. Police then handcuffed a few of the young men, and pulled a tazer on 22 year old Oscar Grant. From a video taken, Oscar is heard to be saying "Don't Tase me; I have a 4-year-old daughter. " After that, officers began to handcuff him on the ground and when he struggled one of officers pulled out his gun and shot him in the back. The bullet then ricocheted off the groud under him, and tore through his lungs. Oscar Grant died 7 hours later in the hospital.

Teen trained to be a suicide bomber

In Afghanistan, a 14 year old boy has been convicted of plotting to kill himself and others as a suicide bomber. The boy, who's name is Shakirullah, (one name is given to people in tribal regions) is already a convicted terrorist for planning to carry out a suicide bombing. He says that muslim radicals lied and tricked him into becoming a would be bomber. Shakirullah says now that the only thing he wants the most is to just see his parents again. He has been sentenced to serve at least 5 years behind bars and will be switched to an adult prison after a few years. When asked about what kind of people he thought the British and Americans were, he said; "I don't know. God knows what type of people they are, whether they are good or bad. I don't know them."