I Found Winter

A snowstorm hit the Great Plains early this week. The main target: Kansas. Topeka, Kansas received 15 inches of snow. Because of this amount, it forced closure of many interstates and businesses.

This storm also hit New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Oklahoma. 10 foot snow drifts were reported in Colorado. Everything in the affected area of Texas (mostly the Panhandle) was shut down. Some of Texas and Oklahoma even remained closed until late Wednesday. This is largely due to the fact that they don’t often receive snow so they don’t have sufficient (or any) great methods for snow removal. Many people were also getting in car accidents or ending up in ditches because of the lack of experience in driving in such icy and showy conditions.

At least 40 people were left stranded at an Oklahoma motel because the blowing snow had created drifts of two to three foot high on the main road. It was even reported that some people couldn’t even get out of their houses.

After some drifts of about 5 feet high were cleared, many roadways and interstates in New Mexico, Texas, and Kansas were able to re-open on Tuesday.

The storm was said to be blamed for at least six deaths. “Four people were killed when their vehicle collided with a pickup truck in part of eastern New Mexico where blizzard-like conditions are rare, and a prison guard and inmate died when a prison van crashed on an icy road in eastern Colorado.” (Boston News)

The surprising part of it is that many of these areas were enjoying 60 degree weather just 24 hours earlier. It’s shocking that the storm had come so quick, turning roads into ice and visibility down to zero.

The snowstorm had tapered off after hitting these regions as it moved towards the Great Lakes. Here in Iowa, we received some snowfall in the afternoon but nothing significant. This is because the storm had begun to die off after it showed its worst.

Although the storm had been quite fatal it was good news to hear that they were able to begin traveling again be Wednesday at the latest.

Is Iowa going to keep being avoided from these storms all winter? Or are we going to get hit in the near future? I’m real hoping that the next storm gets to us.

I do not like that storms kill and trap people. That part of winter I don’t just simply oversee but I do try to focus on the beauty of the snow. It is unfortunate when people lose their lives so I do hope everyone has safe holiday travels this winter season.

Where Did Winter Go?

One of my previous posts talked about how this winter in Iowa will be milder than our average winter. This still proves to be true.

If I can go outside wearing jeans and a hoodie and not shiver, it’s not winter. If I can get in my car and leave the house without even having to defrost or scrape the ice off of my car, it’s not winter. If we still haven’t had a snow day and December is coming to an end, IT’S NOT WINTER!!

I know people complain all the time about how much they hate winter because it’s cold and snowy. But that’s what winter is. It feels weird to feel like we’re still in fall and about to begin a new year.

The worst part of all is that it looks like we won’t be having a white Christmas. Chances are, it will not snow for Christmas and if it snow before Christmas, it will melt before the day actually arrives.

Last winter my car needed scraped off every morning, gloves and a coat (although I just double up on hoodies) were totally necessary, and there was a blizzard on Christmas Eve. I honestly would love for that to happen again. I really love snow.

This season, however, isn’t entirely strange. 2001-2004 we didn’t get snow on Christmas. We also didn’t receive snow for Christmas in 2008. So even though it happens every now and then, it’s not the holidays without winter.

Another reason that snow needs to come is because seniors don’t have to make up the snow days. I remember being a sophomore and not getting out of school until the second week of June. But this year it looks like everyone will be getting out in May. This is so unfair. I want a ton of snow days so the underclassmen have to suffer in school while the seniors get a head start on summer. That’s how it should work every year.

Successful Bully Reality Check

I had recently seen a great video. It’s about a boy named Jonah and how he has been bullied every day because he is gay. It’s a very touching and sweet video. I felt that it was very necessary to post because I feel like bullies never really get the reality check that they should.

Jonah had also showed up on GMA a few weeks ago and said all the bullies apologized and he’s been receiving a lot of support for his bravery.

Here’s the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkNn3Ei-Lg

Children Won't Commit Crimes if They are Taught not to

This past January a 10 year old boy in Ohio shot his mom and killed her. Not all details were put on the final printed report but extra details were reported on a television interview.

The young boy had gotten angry with his mother. He went into his room where 4 fully loaded guns were hanging on his wall on display. He took them all down and sat them on his bed. He picked up a .22 caliber rifle, walked into the living room and shot his mother in the head. He then proceeded to run to the neighbor’s house.

The neighbor called 911 to report the incident and the boy can be heard in the background yelling “I shot my mom. I killed her”. When the police went to investigate they found the mother face down on the living room floor and she was pronounced dead. They then took her 10 year old son into custody.

The boy was held at a juvenile delinquent center while the case was viewed. His lawyer believes that the boy is not guilty. The defense attorney plans to win the case.

Personally, I don’t think it is entirely the boy’s fault. It is probably 15% his fault and about 85% the parent’s fault.

First of all, putting four fully loaded guns in a child’s room that are easily reachable is incredibly stupid. You are just asking for trouble. It is one thing to have guns in a child’s room, which I do not think is a very good idea either, but to have them fully loaded?! What, is he getting early training for the Mafia?!

Secondly, if this child was raised correctly, he would not have killed his mother. The parenting needs to seriously be critiqued. Growing up, I was always told to never be rude or mean or hit adults. And if I ever was to my parents I would be in trouble. Like soap in the mouth, no television, stay in your room trouble. My parents always taught me that violence is never okay and it is never the answer. They also did not let me watch bad violence on television. It was just something I never grew up with.

But obviously, the child did grow up around violence. Either he was abused, his mother was abused, he got to watch violence, or he saw his mom being violent. Any of these or more could have been a factor. And if any of those were a factor then I could definitely see why he thought violence was okay. If he thought that violence was the solution to his problem, then his parents did not raise him correctly.

Now does this mean that he should be tried as an adult, or as a child?

Some say that he should be tried as an adult. He committed an adult crime: murder. He obviously knew he shot her and knew what a gun could do. He is mentally unstable and should be charged as an adult so that he can stay longer in prison.

However I think that he should be tried as a child. He is only 10 years old after all. Yes, murder is an adult crime but it also comes back to how he was raised. Is it his fault he was taught violence was okay? No, not at all. His mind is just beginning to develop and so any information he can take in will be kept. That is not his fault at all.

What I really think he needs is a therapist. He needs someone he can talk to about not only what he did, but the environment he grew up in. By doing this they can learn why he did what he did. They can also diagnose him with any number of mental illnesses and treat him for it.

He does not need to be punished. What he needs is to be treated. He is evidently mixed up about his morals and he just needs some help to get him on the right track. I really do not think jail time will help him in any way. If anything, he will just become a bad person.

I believe he does not need jail time, he needs a therapist. He is just a young kid and needs more direction than his parents had given him.

Your Health can Best be Supported by Swimming

Many people think that running is the best physical activity you can do to get in shape. However, this isn’t entirely true; swimming does more to get an individual in shape. Unlike running, it doesn’t cause as much stress on the knees and ankles. It’s really easy on the joints and it often recommended by doctors when an athlete is injured.

 Plus, swimming works every single muscle in your body. The only thing swimming doesn’t help develop is bone density. Otherwise, it benefits you in all other areas.

Swimming helps to develop general strength, cardiovascular fitness, and endurance. It is often used for cross-training. Swimming before a land workout will help you gradually get your heart rate up and stimulate muscle activity. If you decide to swim after your land workout, this can help you cool down, move blood through your muscles (helping you recover), and calm you down. It helps breathing because it will increase blood circulation because of the pressure of depths.

Swimming actually burns calories at a rate of about 3 calories a mile per pound of bodyweight. If you weigh 150 lbs. and it takes you 30 minutes to swim one mile (1,760 yards or 1,609 meters), then you will be using about 900 calories in one hour. It helps you develop muscles you wouldn’t normally use and can help your primary active muscles by making supporting muscles stronger. There’s even a lower risk of injuries in swimming when compared to other sports.

By swimming, you can boost your immune system. Most competitive pools have a water temperature that is below the human body temperature. Once the body starts adapting to these temperatures you could receive a solid resistance to colds and flus.

Not only does swimming help with physical aspects, but it also helps with psychological areas too. If you swim slowly through the water you can develop a rhythm and it’s almost a meditation method. Many people feel refreshed after a swimming workout. It’s also been proven that swimmers develop life skills such as sportsmanship, time-management, self-discipline, goal-setting, and an increased sense of self-worth from their participation in swimming. Swimmers seem to do better in school, in general terms, than non-swimmers as a group.

Overall, swimming is a physically and mentally healthy sport to take a part in. By continuously swimming you’ll tone your body and mind to places you couldn’t get them before.

Irena Sendler or Al Gore?

I learned something recently that kind of bothered me so this will go under the category of annoyances.

A Polish woman, Irena Sendler, who lived from 1910 to 2008 experienced life during the Holocaust. She worked in the Warsaw Ghetto as a plumbing/sewer specialist. Irena had found herself dedicated to smuggling Jewish children out of the ghetto. For infants she would hide them at the bottom of her toolbox and for children she would put in a burlap sack in the back of her truck.

She even trained her dog to bark when Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers wanted nothing to do with the dog so the barking covered up the infant and children’s noises. During this time she managed to save 2500 children. She kept all the children’s names in a glass jar buried in her backyard underneath a tree. After the war, she did her best to locate the parents to give the children back to. Many of the parents were killed however so she helped those children be put in a safe foster home or adopted by loving families. The parents that had survived were able to re-unite with their children.

Unfortunately, Irena was eventually caught. Her punishment included having both of her legs and arms broken and was beaten severely by the Nazi soldiers.

In 2007 Irena was a nominee to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She was not selected for it. Al Gore had won the prize for a slide show on Global Warming.

Now I’m all for Al Gore’s movement to become a greener country and pay attention to our CO2 emissions but I really believe that Irena deserved that prize over him. It’s people like that in this world that we need more of. It’s people like that who should always be rewarded for their selfless acts.

Musicians are More Intelligent

I think many people would agree that music is an important part of life. People that learn to play an instrument or sing can express their feelings in an artistic way. They can let their creativity grow and have an outlet for themselves. Not only do musicians experience this, but they often are more intelligent than non-musicians.

It has been proven through brain scans that musicians have significantly more grey matter in several brain regions. Grey matter is made up of neuronal cell bodies. The grey matter includes regions of the brain involved in muscle control, sensory perception such as seeing and hearing, memory, emotions, and speech.

However this doesn’t necessarily work the other way around. Just because you are born with more grey matter doesn’t mean you’re going to become a musician. But studies have shown that as someone learns an instrument the grey matter in their brain grows.

Now does this mean that those brain growths will affect intelligence? In the study of 9 to 11-year olds, (Schlaug et al 2005), musicians performed better on several tests than their non-musical peers. They scored significantly higher on tests of vocabulary and finger tapping. They also presented a strong, but statistically non-significant, trend towards better spatial and math skills. Other studies also show very significant differences of the intelligence of musicians vs. non-musicians.

In two studies, Schellenberg 2006 and Patel and Iverson 2007, it was proven that musicians performed significantly better on certain tests. These tests include: spatial-temporal skills, math ability, reading skills, vocabulary, verbal memory, pneumonic awareness, working memory, perceptual organization, and processing speed.

Another study, Hanna-Pladdy and Mackay 2011, had shown that the more years a person had spent playing an instrument, the better he performed on tests of word recall, visual (nonverbal) memory, and cognitive flexibility.

Many of these same studies had shown that music lessons might enhance intelligence because they train kids to focus attention for long periods of time, decode a complex symbolic system (musical notation), translate the code into precise motor patterns, recognize patterns of sound across time, learn rules of pattern formation, memorize long passages of music, understand ratios and fractions, and improvise within a set of musical rules.

This definitely can make the argument that music is important in children’s lives. If a child can become more intelligent by taking music lessons, it would be a wise decision to enroll them in music classes.

Groped in Good Nature or Attacked in a Well Thought-out Plan?

Airport security has gotten a lot of media exposure since the World Trade Center terrorist attack. But recently there’s been even more people upset because of the enhanced invasion of privacy.

In 2009 on Christmas day, a Nigerian attempted to set of explosives that had been sewn into his underwear. Since this incident the need for airport security has been accelerated. Advanced Imaging Technology (or AIT) has been introduced to many airports in the United States. These scanners have the ability to see through a passenger’s clothing.

 However, if people refuse to go through these scanners then they have to go through an enhanced pat-down. A U.S Congressional Service Report said the pat-downs now "involve the use of the fingers and palm to search for concealed items and more detailed tactile inspection of areas higher on the thigh, in the groin area, and under women's breasts. The procedures routinely involve touching of breasts, buttocks, and genitals."

Many people across the nation have been upset by these new security measures. I stand up for the new security though. Yeah it may invade your privacy but is that really such a big deal compared to what would happen if they didn’t do these procedures?

Even though the full body scanners seem like the way to go without having to be touched, there has been research that these scanners can cause cancer. Obama’s top science advisor, John Holden stated, “There is good reason to believe that these scanners will increase the risk of cancer to children and other vulnerable populations. We are unanimous in believing that the potential health consequences need to be rigorously studied before these scanners are adopted. Modifications that reduce radiation exposure need to be explored as soon as possible.” These machines could possibly cause cancer, prompt sperm cell mutations, and harm fetuses.

David Brenner is the head of Columbia University's Center for Radiological Research and he had this to say about the new scanners, “There really is no other technology around where we're planning to X-ray such an enormous number of individuals. It's really unprecedented in the radiation world."

So personally, I would rather not have the risk for cancer. I don’t want to have to be x-rayed if some scientists aren’t saying it’s entirely safe yet. So yes, I would rather take a pat-down. Sure. It’s going to be awkward and not exactly what I’d like to have done to me but that is the only other alternative to the scanner. Plus, the security officials aren’t doing this so they can touch you and are perverts; they’re doing it so they know every passenger will not pose a threat to the flight.

I would rather have my privacy invaded than be on a plane with a terrorist or a life-threatening plan being unfolded. It’s scary enough to be on a plane in general because everyone hypes up the idea that plane crashes happen so often (even though car crashes happen even more frequently). So if the security guards can take out one less worry to board the plane, I’ll deal. I don’t have anything to hide and I know it’s only their job.

Homosexual Adoption

It’s been argued that homosexuals should not be adopting children. Many people believe that children should only be adopted into heterosexual families. This idea is argued upon a few reasons.

Many people believe that if a child is brought up into a homosexual household then they are significantly more likely to be gay themselves. I find this to be completely false. Like anything relating to being gay, you can’t choose it. That means whether the parents are straight or gay, the children that are meant to be gay will be. They don’t choose it because they see how their parents are. If that was the case there would’ve never been any homosexual on earth because the parents were always heterosexual. This idea is so stupid. There is also apparently ‘research’ to prove that idea. The ‘research’ fails to come to actual evidence of the claim.

Another idea is that it is an unnatural upbringing to be brought up by homosexual parents. The support to that is proposing the idea that nature and animals show only a mother and father. But we are humans therefore we have larger brains. We are more sophisticated and intelligent than animals. This means that we can open our mind to seeing that having homosexual parents is okay.

Those against homosexual adoption also claim that that a girl brought up by two men will fail to be feminine and a boy brought up by two men will fail to be masculine. I believe this statement is also wrong. Generally in most homosexual relationships there is a ‘girl’ and a ‘guy’. With men, one or the other is likely to be more feminine and with women, one or the other is likely to be more masculine. This shows that even though both parents are of the same gender, they can teach their kids as if they are any other straight parent. Plus, there is usually at least one close male (or female) of the lesbian (or gay) couple’s family. They can take advice or have that person come and help out every now and then.

I believe that a child raised by homosexual parents is just as okay as being raised by heterosexual parents. Gays are some of the most loving people to come across and would do a much better job than the heterosexual parents that are horrible parents.

After all, a child in adoption home just wants to come home to a loving family. That’s exactly what they would receive if a homosexual couple wanted to adopt that child.