Pony gives birth to twins, overcoming odds of 10,000-to-1 (Blog 15)

There was a 22-year-old New Forest Pony that has shocked experts with a surprising birth of healthy twin ponies and the reasoning for that was because there was a very slim chance of the twins surviving. In most cases, either one or even both of the ponies die in a twin pregnancy because the mother's uterus cannot support two babies. It is very out of the ordinary for a mare giving birth to two healthy twin ponies and the chances of that is about 1 in 10,000 according to experts today. But these two little baby ponies that are growing healthy have defied the odds by becoming the first twins to be born in the New Forest, Hampshire for many years. They are only a few weeks old but they are getting a lot of attention from many horse lovers all over the world. I may not be a huge horse lover but I thought this was a very interesting story about a horse giving birth to twins and surviving. Royal Beatrice gave birth to the pair at St Leonards Farm near Beaulieu after mating with a spotted Appaloosa Cockaroost Pazaz stallion. Not everyday do people hear stories about things with birth involving animals and I think it is quite interesting to learn things about other things then just humans and the many complications going on in our community. It is quite interesting how we are hearing stories about women giving birth to octaplets and in this article it is amazing that a mare is giving birth to twins. The British Horse Society's senior executive of welfare, Lee Hackett, said the overall chances of a mare giving birth to healthy twins are 1 in 10,000.

He said: "This is incredibly rare and it is wonderful news that both these foals have been born healthy."

"Pony gives birth to twins, overcoming odds of 10,000-to-1." Mail Online. 23 May 2007. 22 Mar 2009 <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-457179/Pony-gives-birth-twins-overcoming-odds-10-000-1.html>.

Town mourns death of soldier (Blog Fourteen)

No matter what the situation or condition, love always plays a significant role in people's daily life. A very touching article that I read was about a young man Matthew Pollini. Matthew was a private first class in the Massachusetts Army National Guard. He had many dreams that he wanted to pursue and wanted to give his wife the best life ever. Matthew planned to buy his wife a new home but when he set out for his first tour of duty in Iraq he died while riding in a Humvee. Pollini had left so many great memories with his family and they loved him unconditionally. He was the first to make his niece do a belly laugh and had a great future ahead of him. Erica, Mattew's wife had unrestricted love for him and would think of all the things Matthew would love to do. No matter what happens love is never lost and there are always memories that fill the lost moments or loss of time. In this situation, Matthew's death took a large toll on his family and his loved ones but that connection was never lost and he will always be in their hearts. Many people can relate to this story and sympathize with it. Matthew was a role model for his younger brother, but now that Matthew has passed away his little brother will become a role model for other people and will most likely have his brother's characteristics in him. Even though this horrible tragedy has occurred love is keeping this family together. 

Nierstedt, Jenna. "Town mourns death of soldier." Town mourns death of soldier. 24 Jan. 2009. 17 Mar. 2009
/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/01/24/town_mourns_death_of_soldier

Second Article Notes on Genocide Darfur

War in Darfur

• The combination of things as in decades of drought, desertification and overpopulation are a few of the causes of the Darfur conflict.

• In 2003 there was a rebellion that started against the Arab- dominated Sudanese government. It was with two local groups and those were the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLA). They were accusing the government of oppressing non-Arabs in favor of Arabs.

• On 31 January 2005, the UN released a 176-Page report that said there were numerous murders and rapes and they could not name it genocide because “genocidal intent appears to be missing.”

• In September 2004, the World Health Organization had estimated there had been about 50,000 deaths in Darfur since the beginning of the whole conflict, and they believe it was due mostly to starvation.

• On 21 September 2006 an article by the official UN News Service stated that "UN officials estimate over 400,000 people have lost their lives and some 2 million more have been driven from their homes.”

• In May 2006 Minni Minnawi's group, the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army, all can to an agreement to a draft peace agreement with the Sudanese government. On 5 May, the agreement, drafted in Abuja, Nigeria, was signed by Minnawi's faction and the Sudanese government.

Link

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict

MLA Citation

"War In Darfur." 2009. Wikipedia. 15 Mar. 2009 <.">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darfur_conflict>.

War on Drugs (Blog Thirteen)

When I noticed that that our topic for this week was about war, I wanted to broaden the topic of war and think of war in different ways. For my post I decided to read on article called War on Drugs by Markis Gardner. This article brought up many good points that a strongly agree with. One was that many people don't believe they will be addicted to drugs if they taste them once, so, they try it once and then they become hooked. Drugs can ruin a persons life. They can be rich and have all the money in the world but once the start this deadly addiction they can lose everything. Another point this article brought up was many countries around the world are fighting a battle against the problem of consistent drug use and they try to make stricter rules or harsher punishments but nothing has been really helping this issue or making a large improvement. Overall I think this article brought out many good points and I hope soon the war on drugs will be successful.

http://ezinearticles.com/?War-on-Drugs&id=2035002
 

MLA Citation

Gardner, Markis "War on Drugs." War on Drugs. 25 Feb. 2009. EzineArticles.com. 11 Mar 2009. EzineArticles.com. 15 Mar 2009 .

Notes on Genocide Darfur

Genocide In Darfur

• There are about 1 million people suffering in Darfur, western Sudan
• It is said that what is happening in Darfur is genocide.
• Sudan is geopgraphically Africa’s largest country, and has been experiencing war with only a ten- year pause since they had independence in 1956.
• The fighting between the government in Khartoum and the rebels in Darfur has started to escalate.
• There have been hundreds of thousands of people being displaced and they are being cut off from humanitarian assistance.
• Violence against these people has been increasing as in the rape of women and girls.
• "Maybe around 20 men rape one woman," said one victim in a report cited by the prosecutor. "These things are normal for us here in Darfur. ... They rape women in front of their mothers and fathers."
• A good thing to say is it is too late to change the historical record on Darfur. But it is not too late to set a better precedent for the future.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20040712/booker

MLA Citation 
Booker, Saleh. "Genocide In Darfur." 24 June 2004. The Nation. 15 Mar. 2009.

Colonization in africa (Blog Twelve)

Since we are reading the book Things fall apart and is it based on the culture in Africa I think it would be good to stay on the same topic and find an article about colonization in Africa. I found an interesting topic on wikipedia about Africa experiencing colonization from Europe. For the early Europe expeditions they wanted to focus on colonizing places that are uninhabited islands, as in the Cape Verdes and Sao Tome Island, or the wanted to create costal forts as a base for trade. Parts of Africa weren't really invaded until later on during the late nineteenth century. A man named Vincent Khapoya mentioned a little about Ali Masrui's three reasons for European exploration of Africa and they were: to increase knowledge, to spread Christianity and lastly to increase national esteem. There were many countries as in Britain, Portugal and France that were already claiming areas for themselves in Africa. That really scrambled up Africa. In 1885 Berlin Conference established international compromises for the acquisition of African territory and that formed the New Imperialism. Between wars and everything it almost added up to 9 million square miles of colonial possessions. When I read this article on Wikipedia it really reminded me about what we have been learning in class about colonization in Africa and all the different countries that have invaded Africa. It really does make a huge effect on the country and over many years Africa has been colonized in numerous areas. I think that when we get further along in Things Fall Apart this article will relate a lot to what is going to happen in the book.

The map is of West Africa in 1736 and is the expanding of what belongs to countries from Europe like Holland Denmark etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonization_of_Africa

Today, over 26,500 children died around the world: Blog Eleven

Today I found an article from the website global issues and it really opened up my eyes to a subject that I never really thought of or was well educated on. This article was stating that over 26,500 children died around the world today. This is equivalent to 1 child dying every 3 seconds, 18 children dying every minute, a 2004 Asian Tsunami occurring every week, an Iraq-scale death toll every 15–36 days, almost 10 million children dying every year, Some 60 million children dying between 2000 and 2006. The main causes of all these children dying is hunger, poverty, diseases that are preventable and other causes. This topic is not very big in the media, however it is usually only brought up during concerts or global meetings. There are about six countries that account for about 50 percent of the worldwide deaths. Some more key points to this issue is the importance of undernutrition as a very big cause of child deaths associated with infectious diseases, the effects of multiple concurrent illnesses, and recognition that pneumonia and diarrhoea remain the diseases that are most often associated with child deaths. A better understanding of child health epidemiology could contribute to more effective approaches to saving children's lives. 

This is a chart about child deaths in 2006 and most of the child deaths in 2006 just occurred in two regions. 

This article definitely reminds me of the book Nectar in a Sieve when Rukmani was losing her children due to starvation. She could hardly afford food and she lost two sons because of that. It was preventable if people would have given them money or if the community would have worked together to help people in need but it seemed as if most people were just about helping them selves wether or not they had money.  

http://www.globalissues.org/article/715/today-over-26500-children-died-around-the-world

St. Patrick's Day Fun: Blog Ten

Since St. Patrick's day is right around the corner I thought a perfect fit for this blog post would be a find a fantastic poem about St. Patrick's day.

One green shamrock, in the morning dew,
Another one sprouted,
and then there were two.

Two green shamrocks, growing beneath a tree;
Another one sprouted,
and then there were three.

Three green shamrocks, by the cottage door;
Another one sprouted,
and then there were four.

Four green shamrocks, near a beehive
Another one sprouted,
and then there were five.

Five little shamrocks, bright and emerald green,
Think of all the luck
these shamrocks will bring.

I really enjoyed this poem and I believe it had much joy behind it. It was describing shamrocks in a nice thought out rhyme.   Shamrocks are supposed to give you luck and in this poem after finding the fifth shamrock it is supposed to bring a wondrous amount of luck. In my opinion I think this was a simple poem that described the joy of St. Patrick's day and luck. It also reminded me of the novel Nectar in a Sieve when they had their own celebration with fireworks and all the men drinking and the kids having fun and playing games. Each culture has their own celebrations that make them special and unique in their own ways and St. Patrick's day is an annual feast day which celebrates St. Patrick one of the patron saints of Ireland

http://www.dltk-holidays.com/patrick/songs/mfive.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Patrick's_Day

Alam Ara Bollywoods First Movie: Blog Nine

On March 14th 1931 the Bollywood movie Alam Ara, which means the light of the world, was the first Indian sound film to be produced. Ardeshir Irani directed it and he recognized the importance that sound would have on the cinema. Irani wanted to finish his movie as quickly as possible because had realized how important sound was to a film and wanted to finish it before several other contemporary sounds films were completed. This movie was so popular and brought such amusement to the crowd that, "police aid had to be summoned to control the crowds." This movie was extremely important because that is when music started impacting Bollywood movies. Both the movie and its music were extremely successful. The hit song was De de khuda ke naam per, which was also the first song in the Indian cinema. Something different about this movie then modern Bollywood movies is this song was sung by actor, Wazir Mohammed Khan, who played Fakier in the film and the song was recorded live with musical accompaniment of a harmonium and a tabla. The film director, Shyam Benegal said, "It was not just a talkie. It was a talking and singing film with more singing and less talking. It had a number of songs and that actually set the template for the kind of films that were made later." The movie was actually based on a love story between a prince and a gypsy girl. It focuses on an imaginary, historical royal family in the kingdom of Kumarpur. There is a whole bunch of problems that goes on between the characters and love but in the end Adil is released, Dilbahar is punished and the lovers marry. I think this movie definitely can relate to the movie we are watching in class, Bride and Prestige, because that movie was filled with musicals and singing and Alam Ara is the movie that started the whole template for these kinds of movies. Both movies all had the same kind of plot and ended with two lovers getting married.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alam_Ara

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021594/