BP Settlement

BP has agreed to pay the U.S Government over $4 billion for the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010. BP has pleaded guilty to 14 criminal charges that include deaths off 11 workers and lying to congress. Two BP employees will face manslaughter charges for the death of the 11 workers.  This settlement between the U.S. government and BP includes payments to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation for $2.4 billion, the National Academy of Sciences for $350 million and the Securities and Exchange Commission for $500 million.

from justiceforall.com

The three sources I used were Seattle pi, The Washington Post, and The New York Times. All three sources did a good job covering the story, but Seattle pi and The Washington Post provided the most information.  The New York Times just gave the details of the settlement and how this affects not only BP but possible organizations looking for a settlement from BP.  The two other sources give very similar information and both give background and more details into the whole BP crisis.  Since both the Washing Post and Seattle pi were similar, I would recommend both.

This is important because the BP oil spill caused a lot of economic damage, environmental damage, and loss of life.  This could have been avoided if BP would have stayed within safety regulations.  The settlement that BP has to pay should be used as an example for other companies to make sure they don’t let a catastrophe like this happen again.

Disney buys Lucasfilm

Disney is buying Lucasfilm for a little over 4 billion dollars.   That means Disney will be owning the great franchise Star Wars.  George Lucas is the complete owner of Lucasfilm and will be paid half of the 4 billion dollars in cash and the other half will be paid by issuing Lucas 40 million shares of Disney.  After selling Lucasfilm George Lucas is retiring.  Also included in the deal is Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, and the video game company LucasArts. Kathleen Kennedy who is the co-chairman of Lucasfilm will still keep her job and will help work on new projects that Disney has for Star Wars.

from hollywoodreporter.com

The three sources I used were USA Today, Fox News, and the Huffington Post.  The Huffington Post gives just a brief cover of the story and talks about how this will effect the Star Wars franchise.  On the other hand the other two sources cover the stories very well and I like both of them equally.  They both give information on how this will effect not only Star Wars but Disney as well.  As well they both give quotes from George Lucas for why he is selling Lucasfilm and deciding to retire.

This is important because both Star Wars and Disney is recognized around the world.  The fact that the two will be combining in a way could make it possible that both of them get even bigger and more popular. Personally, I am very excited to see what Disney is going to do with the Star Wars franchise.

Thoughts on “Securing the Future Through Education: A Tide to Lift All Boats”

In this article Ruth Kagia gives reasons for why education is very important to a person and for the world.  She explains that educating people helps them in the long run with things like jobs that pay more and being aware of health concerns like HIV. She believes that in certain countries for people to achieve a good standard of living they should be educated in what will help them get a job that relates to their countries economy. She goes on to talk about how increasing the overall education of people in a country will help grow the country economically.  This would be a huge step in ending poverty.  I agree with what the author is saying.  It is very important for people to get their education because it opens up so many more opportunities for them.  It is away for kids that grew up poor to achieve something great in life and be able to have a better life then their parents.  I feel confident that since I’m attending college, my life will be better in the long run.

Hurricane Sandy heads for the East Coast

Hurricane Sandy is a category 2 hurricane that is currently moving over Cuba.  Two people have died as a result of the hurricane and many more are without power and are in shelters.  After the hurricane passes through Cuba it will head over the Bahamas and then up the U.S. East Coast.  The hurricane could mix with a winter storm that is brewing in the north east and cause a storm that could possibly be worse than the “perfect storm” that caused $200 million in damage.  One meteorologist believes that this storm in the U.S. could cause $1 billion in damage.

from Huffington Post

The three sources I used were cnn, Fox News, and the Huffington Post.  All the sources are pretty much different with the information they give.  Cnn just gives a little information on how the hurricane affected the Caribbean and then says that it’s headed for the U.S.  Fox News mainly gives information on how the hurricane affected the Caribbean area.  That being said the Huffington Post gives a detailed story on how the hurricane is going to affect the U.S. East Coast.  I like Fox News and the Huffington Post the best.

This is important because hurricanes are very costly and deadly.  Being able to know what hurricanes are doing to other countries will make people more aware of how truly bad they are.  It also shows that no matter how technologically advanced society gets, there is no running away from Mother Nature and its overwhelming strength.

“The Banking Concept of Education”

In “The Banking Concept of Education” two styles of teaching are described.  Those two styles are “the banking concept” and problem posing education.  The author is in favor of the problem posing education and believes that “the banking concept” is not the right way to teach.  Problem posing education is where students learn by thinking critically about the problems presented to them.  This in a sense helps them get ready for the real world.  “The banking concept” is where teachers just give information to the students for them to remember and then make them repeat what they learned when needed, without having them realize why it is actually important.

I don’t agree with everything the author has to say.  I believe that to be able to think critically about things, people first have to have a decent understanding about the material so they will be able to have the critical thoughts on that specific subject.  This is why the banking concept is important. People knowing the information before hand allows them to question things and allows them to answer difficult questions that other people pose.  This is why a good education will have both a good balance of “the banking concept” and problem posing education.

Earth-like planet found near solar system

Scientist have found an Earth-like planet that is around 25 trillion miles away.The new planet circles Alpha Centauri B, which is part of a system that has three stars.  The planet orbits Alpha Centauri B in a little over three days. As a result of this the planet is very hot and has a surface temperature of over 2000 degrees Fahrenheit.  This means that the surface is molten-lava like.  Scientist believe that their might be other planets that are circling the same star that are in the zone where it’s not to cold or to hot for water and life to be sustained just like Earth.

An artist’s impression shows a planet orbiting the star Alpha Centauri B a member of the triple star system that is the closest to Earth from telegraph.co.uk

The sources I used were usnews, cnn, and The Telegraph. All three sources had similar information as well as having a little information another one didn’t have.  Some of the similar information the sources had were different though.  For example while cnn said the new planet was 23.5 trillion miles away, the other two sources said it was 25 trillion miles away.  Since that is true cnn is my least favorite source, while The Telegraph was my favorite sources because it gave a more detailed story and reaction from many scientist.

This is an important event because if we can find planets just like Earth in other solar systems that means there is a good chance that their is life on other planets.  This would make us change how we looked at the universe I believe. Also with this discovery there might be more of a push to invent new technology to help reach the planet in different ways.

The Other Wes Moore… Chapters 2 and 3

In Chapters 2 and 3 in The Other Wes Moore, Wes Moore gives details on how both him and Wes Moore 2 moved to different houses when they were younger and in a way shows how their different surroundings affected what they did in their life. The author Wes Moore moved with his family to the Bronx to live with his grandparents.  This both helped and hurt Wes Moore in his growing process. He had the watchful eye of grandparents to keep him out of trouble while his mom was gone, but at the same time he would still be out on the rough streets of the Bronx.  I believe this is part of the reason why early on Wes Moore only got in trouble at school and not the law.  He had the bad boy attitude possibly because of his friends but didn’t get in horrible trouble because of his grandparents.  On the other hand Wes Moore 2 moved into a decent neighborhood, but his mom was working a good bit of the time so he was by himself a lot.  The only person he had to watch over him was his brother who wasn’t much of a role model.  This caused him to get in with the wrong crowd and become part of the drug game as well getting arrested by the cops at an early age. I believe in these two chapters that the author Wes Moore is trying to show that the environment you grow up in has an affect on how you grow up.  I definitely agree with this and I think it’s part of the reason that the two Wes Moore’s went down different paths in life.

Greek Unemployment Rate 25.1% in July

The Greek unemployment rate hit 25.1% in July. This is up from 24.8% in June.  There are approximately 1.26 million Greeks without jobs.  This is a staggering number, because a year before Greek’s financial crisis broke out there were only around 364,000 that were registered as unemployed. An even worse statistic is that the age group from 15 to 24 has an unemployment rate of 54.2%.

from businessreader.com

The three sources I got information from are Fox News, newser, and Business Insider.  By far the best source was Fox News. Not only did Fox News give statistics on the unemployment rate, they even gave some back story of the recession that Greece is in and how it is getting worse and how the leaders of Greece plan to fix it. The only good piece of information that the Business Insider had to offer was a chart showing the unemployment of Greece which can be seen above. Other than that it’s just a small article giving almost no information.  The worst source was newser.  It only gave me the basic information and it looks copied from the Fox News source.  Since it looked copied, I looked at other sources and found that they had the exact same thing that Fox News had as well.  So since this story happened on Thursday I’m going to guess that there hasn’t been enough time for other sources to write their own story.

This is important because economies across the globe effect the United States’s economy.  So if the economy in Greece keeps getting worse than it won’t help our economy get any better.   That’s a problem because I would like for the United States’s economy to get better, so that when I get out of college I can find a job pretty quickly.

Facebook reaches 1 billion users

Facebook finally has over 1 billion users.  This is double the amount of users that Facebook had back in 2010.  Most Facebook users live outside of North America and many of the users use a mobile device to check their Facebook.  Even though Facebook has over 1 billion users, Facebook is still not used in China because the government in China has blocked its use.

from Facebook.com

The three sources I used were CNN, ajc, and Daily news.  All the sources give the fact that Facebook has final reached over 1 billion users, but after that the information starts changing.  The Daily News doesn’t give information on the accomplishment, but rather talks about how Facebook is looking for ways to make more money after its disappointing IPO in May.   Both CNN and the ajc give more background information on the amount of Facebook users but both give some information the other doesn’t have.  With the ajc that information is the average amount of friends that people have on Facebook.  While CNN gives a stat that more than 10% of Facebook users only use the mobile site.

This is important because Facebook is a site that connects the world.  If I wanted, I could easily Facebook chat a person that lives in Australia if I was a friend with him or her.  Facebook also allows people to be more aware of what is going on around the world, by seeing news that is posted by friends and certain pages they like.  This is important because people should be more aware of the problems in the world and their own country.

NFL and Referees Close to Labor Agreement

Talks about the labor agreement between the NFL Referees Association and the National Football league was very productive on Wednesday.  The NFL locked out the referees back in June so that a new labor contract could be made.  The talks on Wednesday allowed the two groups to come to an agreement with hiring new referees for back up. This particular part of the contract was wanted by the NFL, so they could replace referees that are under preforming.  A big road block on both sides is an argument between, keeping the pension plan which the referees want, or moving to a 401(k) which the NFL wants.  It is believed that if the two sides can get pass this the referees will be able to come back this Sunday.  This is a good thing because right now the NFL has replacement referees which has caused a lot of controversy because they are not very good.

Example of fans making fun of the replacement refs for how bad they are… from venturebeat.com

The three sources I used that covered this story were the New York Times, Fox Sports, and the Chicago Tribune. None of them go into great detail of the whole lockout but just gave the important details. All the sources explained that the progression on Wednesday was probably due to the fact of the bad call in the Monday night football game. None of the sources really impressed me. This is important because the NFL is a multi-billion dollar company that has many fans.  If the NFL does not get back the original referees, they could lose their credibility with the fans.  Also I love watching football and I am tired of watching these poorly officiated games.