Sharing Time- 8/4/14 (P.S Writing Contest Alert!)

Music and Videos

I'm not surprised this following video is from Canada, but in any case, its pretty adorable. I wish American banks would do this! Any chance I can get help paying off my schooling? 

Janelle Monae's "Cold War" music video.

"Do your bit! Skate to work!", New York City, 1940s pic.twitter.com/RPuJZ9O6dJ

— History In Pictures (@HistoryInPics) July 5, 2014

In the News
Coffee shop with no employees. - This article is kinda old but its a neat idea. This coffee shop doesn't have an employees because it runs on the honor system. People can pay whatever they want for the coffee and serve themselves.
Fail-This article deals more with design, but I thought that it can be applied to writers too. It talks about how its okay to fail.
What would you give up for world peace?- I thought this article was share worthy because it deals with "hive mind", the idea that we could share a collective mind- some animals like bees and ants have what is called a hive mind. In Night Lies, Faith joins a team where the team's leader has them join his hive mind.
25 free apps that help make the world a better place- Its a Buzzfeed article, so I take everything with a grain of salt on this site. I don't trust it, since they've been known to plagiarize, but it is entertaining and they share some pretty cool stuff regardless.


Writing/Book Articles/News
Double Standards for Journalists- This article deals with a topic I ranted about earlier. But it basically goes on to say that journalists need to treat social media like they do traditional journalism. Which includes fact checking and acting professionally. If they don't, they risk losing their reader's trust.
Unlimited Profit: The Math behind Kindle Unlimited- I'm not good at math, so I didn't fully understand this. But for the more math inclined brains out there, this article makes out the math behind Kindle Unlimited and how authors and Amazon stands to make a profit.
YA- The Changing Face of Marketing- This discussion I found during my marketing class. It deals with how authors in 2014 are marketing themselves and their books. Its pretty interesting and worth a look.

Contest Alert
Do you have a finished MG, YA, NA, or Adult manuscript? Looking to be published? Well Pitch Wars is going on and I thought I'd share. You can find the rules and mentors listed here Pitch Wars Mentors 2014.

Story Time
So I've had this story idea for a while now. But I thought I'd share it with you because its been going pretty well.

Beautiful Manipulation

Being against evil doesn’t make you good.

Rhielle Medley knew three rules. 1) When you got into trouble you called in your local superhero. 2) Superheroes can only be killed by their nemeses. 3) Don’t tell anyone you’re not perfect.

Since she was young, Rhielle, a fraternal triplet, knew she and her sisters, Sian and Ilvione were different. They always knew how to be perfect in public. Physically, socially, and personally graceful and flawless, the triplets could get away with anything and even a complete stranger would feel like they had known them forever. But on the inside, they are far from perfect.

When their parents' rocky marriage comes to light , suddenly everything seems to spiral out of control. Someone is killing the superheros, Sian is taking advantage of their power, manipulating everyone in her path, Ilvione keeps disappearing, and Rhielle just wants to finish her homework, and go to work.

But when their local superhero, Nest, asks her to help him find out who’s killing his colleagues, Rhielle will have to ask what’s the difference between good and evil? Can you still be good if you just stand by and do nothing? And if she, herself, is even worth saving before it becomes too late.

I'm not quite sure where I got the general idea from, but its a really fun story to write. I'm basing their power though off a Superpower Wiki entry though- Supernatural Beauty- and giving a new look to the power.

For more Beautiful Manipulation, you can check out the story at my Wattpad page or on my Pinterest Board. Also, here's a semi-depressing, but interesting article that I know Sian would use to her advantage- Being Attractive Pays Off.

Also, check out my friends' stories on Wattpad- Drunk on Love by natmarie, Clever Devils by EDcarrol, and The Dawn- The Aleron Chronicles Book 1 by Evelynn Grace.

Sincerely,
Sareh

Sharing Days! 6/13/14

Random articles, Music and Media

• A shipyard of cranes was turned into dancing oragami. 

I found a new (Its actually old but new to me) song by BOA called "Hurricane Venus".

• This post written by Lauren DeStefano about "manic pixie dream girls" and how girls can be girls and not an object to be attained. 
• A map that shows the entire world in stereotypes. 
• Studying is really hard when this happens: 

  

  If this doesn't illustrate studying, I don't know what does.
  Can she just absorb it for me and give me the knowledge?

Posts from Around the Web about Books

• Maggie Stiefvater's post about our apparent misconception and points out that books don't make you smarter.
• This post arguing that genre fiction can be just as good as literary fiction. 
• Lauren DeStefano's tumblr rant about the "Ugly Snobs of Publishing."
• A post about how your local bookstore is a privileged. 
• This post about what happens when kids see only white kids in books.

Articles Dealing with Amazon's Bullying

• A post that deals with Future of Publishing and how Amazon vs Publishers can change who sells our books.
• Amazon's battle with Hachette was a big discussion at BEA 2014. 
• Amazon's Battle Against Hachette Escalates.

Articles dealing with YA

• My friend Rae wrote a wonderful post, Shameless: Reading YA, in response to an article in Slate about, another adult, arguing that there's something shameful about adults reading YA.  (If you may recall, another similar post was written a couple years ago that I wrote a heated rant about and then later turned into a speech that eventually won 6th place at a speech competition.)
• So Twitter and I guess the internet exploded this week when author, John Green, mistakenly said something offensive and misguided about a shot in his movie. Well an article was written about why "Our Fault in Our Stars" is not the savior of YA fiction.
• The Real Story Behind the War on YA.

In the News

• Here's a weird news piece that a friend showed me. Child Found Dead in Fridge, weighed 17lbs. And another one about A hospital patient lost for three days, later found in a stairwell.

P.S I know I'm posting on Friday the 13th, but you guys believe in any superstitions? 

Sincerely,

Sareh

Online Journalism and Bad Ethics

Image Link

I used to use Yahoo! for the majority of my news gathering. It usually gave me interesting news and different kinds of news. It was easy and right there to use. But I recently stopped using Yahoo! at all. One of the reasons was that I've found more news on Twitter (Twitter is apparently a hive for journalists) and its more immediate. But the biggest reason I stopped reading Yahoo! was due to the lack of professional standards I started seeing in their journalists. 

I'm not sure if Yahoo! wants to be more of a blog than a real news organization, but I have a problem when people who call themselves "journalists" (i.e professional journalists) start to turn the news into their own personal blogs and to further their own personal agendas. 

I saw it in other stories they reported on, but the ones I saw this the most in was in their reporting on LGBT stories. Now I'm fine reading these and was interested in them because its now a "hot button topic". Its big news and journalists are capitalizing on LGBT stories. 

See, these journalists when reporting on the topic would often insert their own personal opinions into the story and I finally got fed up when I started seeing them call people who disagreed with them, "bigots" and all sorts of other things. 

I'm not okay with this. Because Yahoo! doesn't clarify if this is really news they're presenting or opinion pieces. If this is a blog within the organization I'm reading, or if their editors are somehow letting this slide as an actual piece of news. 

I'm not okay with this because 1) the very first thing you learn in journalism classes (I should know, I'm a journalism student) is to NOT insert your opinions into a reporting piece (unless you're writing an opinion piece), 2) you shouldn't be calling your readers bigots in the first place on a professional website. Its not good PR, I believe. 

Now I know online journalism is usually written in a more "conversational" style, but that still doesn't mean that you can totally forgo all professional standards. If you want me to take you seriously as a reporter, then you have to act like a professional. 

According to my journalism textbook, The Society of Professional Journalists' Code of Ethics is considered a standard for most media professionals. This code of ethics rules that journalists should: 

• Examine their own cultural values and avoid imposing those values on others.

• Support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.

• Distinguish between advocacy and news reporting. Analysis and commentary should be labeled and not misrepresent fact or context.

• Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.

• Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.

• Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence news coverage.

And while there's no clear code of ethics for online journalism itself, the Poynter Institute has recommended a set of rules for online journalism.

• Journalists should avoid conflict of interest. 

• News Organizations should clearly label news and opinion. 

• Journalists who work for news organizations may keep personal blogs, but they should discuss their plans with an editor to avoid potential conflicts. 

 I don't care what you're writing, but if you're a journalist and you're writing actual news, leave your opinions out of it. If you want to write your opinions into something, clearly state that this is an opinion piece or get a blog.

So I even took the liberty of emailing SPJ's Ethics Hotline (you can also call them, but since I was writing this over the weekend, I emailed them) and the Vice Chair of their ethics committee emailed me back, agreeing that opinions should be kept separate from news and that opinions in news stories should be labeled as such.

So, have you seen other examples of bad journalism in the media lately? (I would show you the article I'm talking about and a few others but unfortunately, I didn't save them).

Sincerely,
Sareh

Sharing Fridays! 5/16/14

So I kinda forgot yesterday was Thursday (I blame summer break), so I'm sharing things today.

Book Contests

• Lori. M. Lee is having a cover reveal and an international book giveaway! Check it out here.
• Beth Revis is having a huge giveaway and you have to check it out here.
• Jay Kristoff is having a cover reveal and a giveaway too! You can check it out here.

Media and Music

• Ted Talks to Inspire and Learn
• 10 Talks on Graduation and What's Next
• Unlock the intelligence, passion, and greatness of girls
• Why Domestic Violence Victims Don't Leave
• What We Learned from Five Million Books
• How Photography Connects Us
• Check out Peter Hollen's rendition of Brave by Josh Groban. 

Articles to Look at

• Snapchat isn't protecting your privacy
• (To make you smile) 100 Best Dog Photos
• Young People want Equality but Struggle to Discuss Bias
• Worst Ways to Begin Your Novel According to Literary Agents
• 31 Confessions Any Book Lover will Understand
• Why We Need to Care more about Library Funding
• My post on how to help show you care to the families of the kidnapped girls in Nigeria and websites to check out about ending human trafficking. 
• A high school student not only graduated from high school at 15, but he also did it with four college degrees. You can check out the story here.
• How Writers can Make Money on Etsy
• 11 Ways to Write Authentic Historical Fiction
• 7 tips on How To Writer Historical Fiction
• 8 1/2 Character Archtypes you Should Be Writing

Websites to Look at

• The Brits have established a website chock full of literature and other documents from the British Library's collection on Romantic and Victorian writers. You can check it out here.
• There's an awesome website you can buy books from for REALLY cheap. You can check out Book Outlet here. 

Sincerely,
Sareh

In the News- Making a Cardboard Monkey is Harder than it Seems.

Its for International Week at my school. We're making pinatas. Its going to be a blue monkey and I shall take a picture of it for you when I am done. Anyways, I haven't blogged in the past four days because I've been busy sleeping and getting rested from finals.

Popular Websites Shut Down
Starting tonight or tomorrow, if you have a question or need to look something up, you'll have to wait till Thursday or just do it tonight. Wikipedia, Reddit, Minecraft, Craigslist, and other sites will be shutting down four 24 hours to protest two bills in Congress. Although Twitter will be up still. SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and the PIPA (Protect I-P Act) are suppose to crack down on illegial sharing of content on the Web. But some people say that these new laws will be forcing sites to protal the online world.

Read the full article here.

British Airways cause panic acciddently among passengers. 

Traveling three hours into their flight, passengers flying from Miami to London on British Airways Flight 206, were shocked to hear that their plane was going to go down. The cabin went into panic mode as some started to cry and scream. But a minute later, another announcement told them to ignore the message. The flight then continued saftely to London where upon disembarking, the passengers were handed letters apologizing.

It is unclear whether the pre-recorded message resulted from human error or a computer malfunction. In any way, it is not the first time this has happened. In August 2010, 275 passengers were faced with a similar sitiuation while flying from London to Hong Kong.

To me, a simple letter is not enough. If that happened to me, I'd be terrified out of my wits. Although there's not much else the service can do expect a refund...and I doubt they'd do that considering the flight went well.

Read the whole thing here.

Its raining apples by Job!

On Dec 12, (and yes I'm just getting to this), more than 100 apples mysteriously rained upon a small British town. The apples covered 20 yards of city streets and windsheilds of the cars stuck in rush hour traffic. Upon hearing the news, many people compared it to the Bibical stories of raining frogs. But it was not anything otherworldly as some people believe, at least in this case, it was due to the fact that strong winds have been known to pick up objects and transport them many distances.

For example:

The BBC offers a roster of pertinent examples:
Frog falls were recorded in Llanddewi, Powys, in 1996 and two years later in Croydon, south London. In 2000, hundreds of dead silver sprats fell out of the sky during a rainstorm in the seaside resort of Great Yarmouth.
There have also been maggot downpours--in Acapulco in 1967 and during a yachting event at the 1976 Olympic Games.

Does anyone remember the occurrences last year when flocks of birds fell form the sky twice? Or how about this, in the 1800s, it was reported that millions of grasshoppers would seem to "fly" across the Midwest US and eat everything in sight. Apparently, these grasshoppers would get caught up in storms and end up other places. Read the whole article here.

Missing teen wrongfully deported. 

Jakadrien Turner, a Dallas teen, ran away from home in the fall od 2010 when she was fourteen. Now a year later, she's been found living in Colombia. Apparenlty she was arrested in Houston when she gave the police a false name. But this name just so happened to be the same name as a 22-year-old Colombian who had been living in the US illegally. And to make it worse, Colombia had a warrent out for the woman's arrest.

And so without furthering checking her identy, the fourteen-year-old was deported wrongfully in April 2011. Her grandmother is very angry and had been searching every night for her granddaughter on her computer. Jakadrien is now waiting for more information on her case in Colombia. And all I can say is maybe she'll learn its best not to run away from home. Read the full article here.

Sincerely,
Sareh

In the News- Doggies, and music!

Outrage over Christmas Carol

Christmas carols help us get in the mood to celebrate the holidays. But would they have the same meaning if we changed a few words? 

Apparently a music teacher at Cherry Knoll Elementary School in Traverse City decided to change the word "gay" to "bright" in "Deck the Halls" for thier children's Christmas concert. Why? Because the first and second graders wouldn't stop giggling at the word, "gay". Severel parents went to facebook saying:

"By taking the word 'gay' out of 'Deck the Halls,' you are making it a big deal. One word can have different meanings." Another parent voiced, "Can one word in a 150-year-old classic Christmas carol really offend someone?"  

The negative comments have since been deleted from the school's Facebook page, and wall posts have been disabled. Cherry Knoll Principal Chris Parker is on the parents' side, saying, "This would have been a great opportunity to teach that 'gay' has more than one meaning and is not a bad word." In response to the controversy over the word change, the original lyrics have now been restored.

Puppies go to College.
Students at George Mason Law School, located just a few miles from downtown Washington, D.C., are discovering new and cute ways to get through finals. GMU has teamed up with an animal rescue organization  A Forever Home to bring puppies to campus as a form of realeasing stress.

According to the Washington Post, studies show that the legal profession has above-average rates of depression and problems with substance abuse. So now, many law schools are not only teaching students about the course material, they're also showing students how to balance their school and life and preparing them for the legal profession. 

Their teachers agree that law school is hard and that its important to find outlets for stress. The dogs help relieve their stress and the ones brought in from Chantilly, West Virgina, were recently spared from euthanization.

Read this one and the one above here.

Airport worker fired after refusing to let a dog to on a plane. 

Lynn Jones who handled airport baggage, saw a sad, emactiated dog in a pet carrier one day and knew something was not right. Then she spotted that it was covered with sores and its paws were worn raw. Realizing that if the dog got onto the plane it'd die, she refused her supervisor's order to load it onto the plane bound for Texas. Afterwards, she was fired.

Now, a month after the incident at Reno-Tahoe International Airport, the dog has recovered. And Jones, while her former employer and airport officials have praised her for her actions, remains without her old job.

The 56-year-old loves animals. She once owned a dog gromming shop and has three dogs, three cats, and a bird- all who were rescued. After telling her supervisor about the dog, she told her to load it anyways, reportedly not even looking at the poor thing. The airport police called the animal welfare agency which took the dog into custody.

The dog belongs to a hunter who ships it to wherever he's hunting. His dog was returned to him in Texas after it was nursed back to health. Jones is disgusted that the animal was sent back to its owner. Saying that it's obviously abused. She doesn't know if she'll accept an offer to return to her job.

Read the article here.

So what do you think?

Sincerely,
Sareh

In the News- In the Future of Cars, Irag's New Culture, and Catholics are Facing a New Dilemma.

What has our military done to Irag?

Finally the American military is leaving after more than eight years in Irag, leaving behind not only a new democracy and bitter memories of war, but a new culture for the country's youth. Eight million, a quarter of the population, (and about one million people born each year if my math is right if we've been in Irag for eight years) has been born since 2003 and nearly half the country is under 19. Many youngsters have adopted hip-hop styles:

Calling themselves "punky," or "hustlers," many are donning hoodie sweat shirts, listening to 50 Cent or Eminem and watching "Twilight" vampire movies. They eat hamburgers and pizza and do death-defying Rollerblade runs through speeding traffic. Teens spike their hair or shave it Marine-style. The "Iraq Rap" page on Facebook has 1,480 fans.

To many of their fellow Iraqis, the habits appear weird, if not downright offensive. But to the youths, it is a vital part of their pursuit of the American dream as they imagine it to be.

Another youth,  Mohammed Adnan, 15, says that nobody minds the "U.S gangsta" look in his neighborhood. In fact, they get invite to weddings or other celebrations to preform break dancing.

It all adds up to a taste of the wide world for a society which lived for decades under Saddam Hussein's dictatorship that deprived them of satellite TV, cell phones and the Internet, and then through invasion, terrorism and sectarian killing.

But not all Iragis are accepting of our (American) culture. One sociologist says that many of the youths are adopting the negative aspects of American culture such as rejecting school uniforms (okay really, since when do any kids willing accept those?), engage in forbidden love affairs (Um, hello? Kids are going to and have been doing that for centuries.), and rebeling against their elders (like that hasn't happened before).

Like many Iraqis, high school student Maytham Karim wants to learn English. But the English he hears most often from his peers — and mostly those who listen to American music — is laden with profanity. "The F- and the 'mother' words are used a lot, which is a very negative thing," Karim said.

Apparently the only thing these youth seem to have gotten out of "American culture" are the negative aspects. What about the good things? Why are those being reported on? To see the whole article click here.

New Mass Translations for Catholics. 
Yes, I'm Christian, but these changes do not affect me. I am a Lutheran and although we've never had our services in Latin before, we used to have them in German in the past because where I live most people come from a German heritage. Actually one church that I know of still offers services everyonce in a while in German. Anyways:

The Mass itself — the central ritual of the Catholic faith — hasn't changed, but the English translation has, in the largest shakeup to the everyday faith of believers since the upheavals that followed the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. A years-long process of revision and negotiation led to an updated version of the Roman Missal, the text of prayers and instructions for celebrating Mass, which originally was written in Latin. The new translation was rolled out across the English-speaking Catholic world on Sunday after months of preparation.

And what exactly are these changes? Well apparently the English translations are now closer to Latin. Most things haven't been changed, just a few words or pharses here and there, but it's enough to make some people dislike them. So much that some people fear that it may make people distance themselves from the church. Here's what some people have said:

Maribeth Lynch, 51, a publisher from the Milwaukee suburb of Elm Grove, said she was "distraught" over the changes and would refuse to "learn the *beeep*  prayers."
"It's ridiculous. I've been a Catholic for 50 years, and why would they make such stupid changes? They're word changes. They're semantics," she said.
"It's confusion. All it's doing is causing confusion," she said. "You want to go to church and be confused?"

Kathleen McCormack, a church volunteer and former school teacher, said she didn't like the new translation and didn't understand why the church needed a translation closer to Latin.
"Consubstantial? What is that word?" McCormack said, referring to a term in the retranslated Nicene Creed that replaces language calling Jesus "one in being with the Father." 

"It's more British in some ways," said Monsignor Michael Clay, pastor of St. Ann. "But this is the first time that every English-speaking country in the world will be using the same translation of the Mass." 

 (Why it's more "British in some ways" I don't get. Isn't it suppose to be more like Latin?) For the most part, what the priest says has been changed the most. But its not like this was thrown out all of the sudden.

Parishes and dioceses around the country have spent months trying to prepare Catholics for the change. Descriptions of the new translation have been printed in weekly bulletins, seminars have been held and, since Labor Day, many parishes have been gradually introducing the new translation piece by piece, starting with the parts of the liturgy that are sung.

 Apparently this choice was made by Vatican officials in 2001. To read the whole article, click here.
*The Beeep is a swear word and I won't put those in this blog.

Toyota unveils the ulitmate car ever.
One of Toyota's latest concept cars is the Fun-Vii, probably the most futuristic and coolest car idea I've seen yet besides hovering vechices. "Vii" standing for Vechicle, interactive, internet certainly shows one of the most interactive cars that could certainly put the "fun" back into automoblies. The wedge-shaped car is designed as a personal display space with both the interior and the exterior doubling as display screens. On the outside, the driver can change the car's color and design plus the car's color also changes depending on mood. And the car works like a personal computer with users able to connect to the internet wirelessly and to the roads around it, letting the car access future technologies like smart grids.

According to one news article:

And it's not just the outside of the Fun-Vii that looks like something out of a sci-fi movie, the interior is just as futuristic. Making generous use of augmented reality technology, the Fun-Vii will plot a virtual path for you right on your windshield, and even offer a virtual guide to help you on your way. Of course, many of these touches still reside firmly in the realm of fantasy, but the fact that a major car company is looking so far ahead gives us hope for a very tech-friendly future.

She looks like a flight attendant!

If you ask me, while being able to change the outside of your car is cool, I could see it causing a lot of distractions while driving. Especially if you change the outside of your car while your driving.

To see the whole pictures and articles click here and here.

But to let you get an idea of how awesome this car looks, I've provided pictures.
If you're having trouble seeing these, just click on them to make them bigger.

One company showing off

The cool interior. Only three people though.

Happy Birthday!

If you ask me, its actually an ugly shape for a car,.

Those little squares you see are interactive. 

In The News- Finally! A News Post that Doesn't have Anything to do with Animals!

New Eye Surgery causes stir

Dr. Gregg Homer of Stroma Medical in Laguna Beach, California thinks he's finally found a way to change brown eyes to blue after nearly 10 years of research. Using a laser, he's discoverd that he can remove brown pigment from the surface of the iris and leaves the blue pigment underneath exposed. 

Apparenlty it takes up to three weeks for the body to fully change and adjust to the blue color. While the Dr. says that there is no signs of tissue damage during testing, there could naturally be side effects yet unknown. Even though he has about a year left to finsih the remaining research, he says that the operation will be avaible in the world in 18 months and about three years for it to arrive in the States. It's $5,000 for the 20-second surgery. 

Since this sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, we contacted Dr. Conswalla Shavers, a surgeon at Park Avenue Lasek in New York City, for a little medical insight. She laughed at the description of this procedure and said it was unnecessarily dangerous with many potential side effects. "I'd imagine that the risks would outweigh the benefits in a patient," she said. "It could release too much pigment into the anterior chamber that can clog up the draining system in the eye. This makes the pressure go up and causes glaucoma." 

Is the prospect of blue eyes worth permanent vision damage? We think not. And Dr. Shavers says there's no guarantee you'll even end up with baby blues. "What's to ensure there's definitely blue pigment underneath? You could remove brown pigmentation and there's just more brown pigmentation underneath." Blue eyes are a recessive trait, but even if your parents are carriers there's no way of knowing what shade, if any, lies at the bottom of the iris.

A far less risky option is contact lenses. And besides, with contacts you can get other colors besides blue. You can read the whole article here.

Jane Austen...Murdered?

 The famous author of Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Senseabilty, and Emma is believed to have died of bovine tuberculosis or Hodgkin's lymphoma (a type of cancer). But Lindsay Ashford, a crime writer, believes that famous author died of posion. When Jane Austen was in her 40s she had written six novels and while working on a seventh, she came down with a condition. Ashford read about the symptoms in some of Austen's letters where she states that she has been left with discolored skin. 

Because she had researched poison and contemporary forensic techniques for her crime novels, Ashford was able to identify Austen's symptoms as potential arsenic poisoning. Arsenic would also explain Austen's slow decline and fatigue. Asford's suspicions were heightened "after she learned that a lock of Austen’s hair on display in a museum tested positive for arsenic."

As Flavorwire reports, arsenic does not necessarily equate to murder, as we're so often led to believe, because "a doctor could well have prescribed a medicine containing the element." Still, Ashford wishes not to rule out the option.

You can read the whole article here.

Girl Survives being Stuck in a Car Wreck for more than Two Days. 
In North Carolina a nine-year-old girl was pinned in a car wreckage for almost two days, surviving off of pop-tarts and Gatorade. The crash unfortantly killed her father, thirty-nine-year-old Douglas Landon. Jordan Landon of Cove City was airlifted to a hospital Sunday night after she was cut out of her car that had been turned upside down since Friday night. 

Amazingly, the girl was able to stay calm throughout the ordeal and was reportd to be talkative. She is expected to fully recover. The police report that her father was going over 100 miles per hour but friends say that they don't believe that Douglas would ever speed. It appears to be unknown was caused the accident in the first place.  

You can read the whole article here.

Sincerely,
Sareh

In the News- Football Teams Violently Attack Ref. and a Giant Crocodile.

During a Florida football game a couple weeks ago, one referee was violently attacked by first the coaches and then the teams after making a call they didn't agree with. The teams were the Sarasota Gators and the North Port Huskies. A somewhat disturbing video was shot by one of the onlookers. This video was turned over to the police and began a criminal investigation.

At first one of the Gators coaches pushed the ref, but then a player tackled him. Both teams suddenly rushed in, some tackling and kicking the ref, and others just plain fighting. What I find disturbing is that there seems to be no one coming to the poor ref's assistance. Eventually they break up the fight, but still it's pretty sad.

But what I find the most disturbing about this whole thing is the lack of respect between not only the teens involved, but the adults themselves. Is this really what our society has led to when it's okay for a coach to push a ref just because you don't agree with them and then let your team violently kick and tackle innocent people?

And to the coach who got all huffy and started this whole thing: it's just a game. It's not like one bad call will ruin anyone's lives. Sure they might be disappointed, but they'll live. And if you have a problem with a call, fighting will not solve anything.

I have provided the video here although I'm warning you that it's somewhat disturbing, not that there is any blood or anything like that but the ref gets brutally attacked. So if you don't like watching this kinda of stuff, skip over it.

Giant Crocodile Captured.
For some reason, in both In the News articles I've posted recently, they've all had to do something with animals. Hm...

Anyways, in the Philippines, villagers, veteran hunters, and experts have recently captured a 21 foot long (6.4 meters) male crocodile after hunting it for three weeks. The crocidile is now being thought to be one of the largest crocs captured alive in recent years.

The crocodile was seen having killed a water buffalo and is suspected in having something to do with the disappearence of a local fisherman back in July. The croc will be turned into the star attraction at a ecotourism park. After having destoyed four traps, the crocoidle was finally captured using a trap with steel cables.

The reptile weights about 2,370 pounds, and took around 100 people to pull it out of the creek where it was caught, to a crane that put it in a truck. It was then put into a cage in the area where the park will be built for animals found in the marhy land surrounding the town.

All in all, it turned out to have a happy end. The village, although still on the lookout for other crocodiles, is happy it won't have this beast to endanger anyone else, and the croc wasn't killed.

Articles Used for this post:
Coaches and Players Violently Attack Ref.
Giant Crocodile Captured Alive.

So, what would you do if a team suddenly attacked a ref over a bad call? Would you like to visit a giant crocodile in a park?

Sincerely,
Peony

Blog News- August Issue

Happy September! 
With most of us in our first week or so of school, life gets busy. And along with the change of a new school year comes some changes to this blog. In this newsletter, I'll give you a short overview of some changes or updates in case you've missed anything. I've also provided a fun look at the top 5 stats of this blog.


Blog News:
Welcome New Members!
Welcome new members who have joined in the month of August! We love seeing your friendly avie there in the follower box! Last month we had a total of ninteen and this month we jumped to twenty-four.

Posting Schedule:
As I'm sure at least one of you noticed, I am now posting on Wedensdays and Jessika is posting only on Sundays now. Also, Mondays have gone to just book reviews due to the fact that I am busy with school. Tuesdays shall also now have a Disscussion post where I post your comments (anoymously if you'd like) to the Disscussion topic. If there is no answers to the topic or question, I won't post anything for that one. In the comments section of the post, I'd love to hear even more of your thoughts about it or get more suggestions for topics and questions. Your opinion matters to us!

Also due to the fact that school has started, I may or not be able to post. I shall try my best to post as often as I can, but there is not gareentees.

Wanted- Suggestions 
Did you recently come across an interesting article or piece of news? Do you have a favorite picture/video that inspires you or you think is just awesome? Is there a great site you visit all the time? Or do you have a great idea for a blog post or a topic you would like to see discussed? If you have a suggestion for something or maybe you would even like to do/see a blog post on something, please let me know though either the facebook page, the contact form at the bottom of the About page, or by emailing me (email address at the bottom of the About page).

Reminders from last month:
Resource Tab
Because it's already getting pretty long and so far I've only added books and websites to it, I was wondering if I should add a category for individual pages? I'm not sure if this new category would be organized at all. So what do you think?

Wanted- Writing Ideas and Prompts
My brain isn't great with coming up good ideas, so if you have any writing prompts or ideas you'd like to share, please do so! Or maybe you have a funny story or something random/cool, that works too. Maybe a picture or video?

Facebook:
Yes! We finally have a facebook page! If you haven't liked it so far, please do so! Remember that you can post suggestions and other stuff on it if you'd like but just remember to keep it clean and safe. No swearing or anything with offensive stuff. I'll try my best to keep it updated with blog posts from here and news or whatever else.

Stats...because I think you might find these interesting.
These are arranged by top five.

Members: 24
Public: 24
Private: 24

Post Views:
The History and Usage of Codes.: 46
How to Get Away with a Love Triangle.: 46
Wings (Wings #1) [by Apirlynne Pike]: 29
The Liebster Blog Award: 26
Movie Review- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2: 21

Page Views:
Post Archive: 22
About: 12
resources: 8
Writing Prompts: 4

Referring Sites:
Google.com: 180
Google.co.uk: 32
Google.co.in: 20
Google.com.ph: 17
Google.com.au: 16
Wow! That's alot of googles!

Search Keywords:
secret code alphabet: 5
books: 3
pigpen chiper: 3
pigpen code: 3
shape poems: 3

Pageviews based on countries: 
United States: 973
United Kingdom: 51
Netherlands: 51
India: 33
Australia: 24

Pageviews (Browsers):
Chrome: 629 (47%)
Internet Explorer: 324 (24%)
Safari: 167 (12%)
Firefox: 158 (11%)
Mobile Safari: 24 (1%)

Pageviews (operating System):
Windows: 1,079 (81%)
Macintosh: 74 (5%)
Iphone: 61 (4%)
Linux: 36 (2%)
Ipod: 36 (2%)

Post(s) with the most comments:
In 1988...: 5 comments
The Liebster Blog Award: 5 comments


So, did you enjoy this month's newsletter? Do you think something could be changed or added?


Thank you so much for reading this blog!
Peony

In the News- When Social Networking is Too Much And Glowing Animals.

In an article I read a while back and meant to post about, the topic is about living in what the article's author calls the "Conversation Age."

He goes on to say how it is getting increasingly harder to keep up with online conversations. Those conversations which happen to be with family, friends, co-workers, and other people that could be important. Not only that but with the increasing amount of social networks, it is hard to keep with who is on what and what is being said. There is Facebook, Google Plus, blogs, and many other sites where people are trying to talk to us on a daily basis. So with all of the conversations going on, and not just online, how does one keep up with it all?

You can't.

Or you can very much try. It could help by limiting how many sites you're on and who you talk to. For example, how many of those friends on Facebook do you really ever talk to? And how many of those people do you see every day? Is it really that important to talk to someone online when you can talk to them by phone or offline?

Anyways, I don't really use social networking sites all that much. I mainly use facebook these days to keep up with my friends far away or to manage the pages I've created. Most of them have turned into well faring pages the began as book reports and were never meant to become liked by anyone other than me. But now I have a following on those pages and I like to update them and talk to people about the books on it. I also have the facebook page for this blog which I try to keep updated.

But other than that, the only places I talk to people online is here on my blog, other blogs, on Goodreads, or on Inkpop. I sometimes use emails, but not as often. The really only person I email is a cousin's cousin. Personally, I'd be fine without talking to people online, but then, I'm fine with talking to people online too.

Anyways, I'm not exactly sure where I'm going with this topic anymore, so I'm going to turn to another subject.

Tegon, the glowing beagle.

 Discovery.com, reported a couple weeks ago that scientists have genetically modified a female beagle to glow. Yes, you read that right. The beagle, named Tegon, glows fluorescent green when under UV lights. And the whole animal glows when under these lights. But Tegon is not the only animal to be modifed by humans to glow. Another puppy named Ruppy, glows fluorescent red and a cat named Mr. Green Genes, glows...well green.

According to the article:

He and his colleagues achieved the feat using a five-step process. The scientists first inserted a DNA fragment that controls the expression of a green fluorescent gene into dog cells. They next extracted DNA from a dog oocyte (an immature female reproductive cell prior to fertilization) and injected the fluorescent-modified dog cells into it.

The third step was to use a process known as Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer to generate an embryo. The resulting embryo was then transferred into a surrogate dog mother. After 60 days of pregnancy, she gave birth to Tegon. When given a doxycycline antibiotic, the female beagle literally glows under UV light.

The animals are created because researchers hope to use them to improve benefits of humans. Dogs, especially, are good for this type of thing apparently. They have 268 types of genetic diseases that are close to what we get.

 "Also, the dog has physiological and anatomical similarities with humans. These reasons make them a good model for human disease."

Lee said the genes injected to make the dog glow could be substituted with genes that trigger fatal diseases. He and his team would then be able to chart the course of Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and more, better understanding how such diseases develop.

Dogs also make good candidates for this kind of research because they have "good communication skills with humans, which enable them to have good response skills to direct orders. They are also easy to handle." He added, "Compared to mice and other smaller animals, dogs provide a much larger sample collection." 

Injections? Glowing? Fatal diseases? I don't know about you but this sounds somewhere along the line of animal abuse. I understand that it is to help humans with diseases, but what about these poor animals? Even if injecting them with glowing genes doesn't harm them, I think adding fatal diseases to the mix does.

How would you like it if people injected you with diseases in order to save other people without your consent? You probably wouldn't like it.

Also, don't be surprised if glowing dogs and cats become a new pet trend in future.

As Ko said, the "technology could be used for producing a variety of unique cats and dogs, possibly creating a new area of commercial interest."

Hm, a glowing pet? While that would be interesting, I think it would get annoying at night when you're trying to sleep. Plus everyone would have to get UV lights and glasses just to see their pets glow. Unless, of course, they came up with another way to make the animals glow.

Resources
Conversation Age
Glowing Animals

So, do you have troubles keeping up with social networking? How has social networking impacted your life? Would you like a glowing pet? Do you think it's abuse to use animals for research and medical purposes?

Sincerely,
Peony