As we all know, sickness and disease are very common parts of our lives. Everybody knows that eventually they will get sick, most of the time it’s no big deal and all you need to do is ride it out. We know how diseases like the common cold are spread and what we can do to prevent ourselves from getting sick. But even with these precautions, people still get very sick each year.
One virus that has been in the news recently is known as The 2019 Novel Coronavirus or simply just the coronavirus, it is part of the corona family which houses other viruses such as the common cold, or influenza.
In the US, there are 5 states with confirmed cases of the coronavirus. According to the CDC, there have also been 29 countries with confirmed cases of the virus. China has reported 28,000 confirmed cases with more than 560 coronavirus deaths, according to The Washington Post.
There are more viruses that belong in the coronavirus family, such as the common cold, which was mentioned earlier, and the viruses that caused the global outbreaks of Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2015, and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003.
The best way to avoid getting sick is to avoid anybody who has been diagnosed with the virus, and your wash hands frequently while avoiding any unnecessary trips into crowded areas.
Kobe Bryant was an American basketball player. He entered the National Basketball Association right out of high school, and played for the Los Angeles Lakers. On January 26, 2020, Kobe Bryant, along with his 13-year-old daughter and seven other people, were killed in a helicopter crash, while on their way to a youth basketball tournament.
Before the helicopter went down, the pilot told air traffic control that he was climbing to avoid a layer of fog. Witnesses reported that they saw the helicopter flying through a layer of clouds and fog, seconds before it crashed. The helicopter slammed into a hill.
According to the radar data, the helicopter crashed at about 152miles per hour. It has been reported that the helicopter fell at a quick rate, and according to experts that was too fast for a standard landing.
The helicopter had a reputation as a safe aircraft. Investigators have said that the helicopter lacked a key warning, meaning the helicopter system didn’t warn pilots, if they are getting too close to the ground. Officials have said that it’s too early to know whether the lack of warning was the cause of the crash.
Fans around the world mourned the death of the star and his daughter Gianna; people gathered outside of the Staples Center to pay their respects. Alicia Keys, who hosted the 2020 Grammys, gave a tribute to him, and his teammates have also honored him and paid tribute to them.
Vanessa Bryant broke her silence on Instagram with a heartbreaking post with a picture of her, her husband, and their 13-year-old daughter, saying: “My girls and I want to thank the millions of people who’ve shown support and love during this horrific time. Thank you for all the prayers. We definitely need them.”
Australia is in a devastating position. Bushfire has been burning acres of land since October, 2019 and they have continued into January, 2020. Though lots of people are aware of the fires, here is some information to further educate you on the topic.
One of the first bushfires started on November 11, 2019. It burned roughly 49,000 acres of land in an area known as Ravensbourne.
But it does not stop there, since then more fires have ravaged more of Australia leaving $4.4 billion damage.
Why did the bushfires start? There are many different reasons for the fires that have overtaken parts of Australia. One of the biggest contributors is the extreme conditions. Australia is currently enduring its hottest, and driest, year recorded. Though the conditions do play a role, other components like humans actions and weather, such as lightning, have also started other fires.
The effects of these fires have been unfortunate. Approximately 18 million acres of land have been burned, including about 200 homes. Unfortunately, 27 people have died, of which three were volunteering firefighters. And lastly, a lot of animals have been put in severe danger posed by the fires. Though it’s an estimation, it’s possible that half a billion animals have been killed; some being endangered species threatened by extinction.
Recently, there was a project to help out the animals fleeing their natural habitats. They called it “Operation Rock Wallaby.” The Australian government of New South Wales dropped thousands of carrots and sweet potatoes, around 2,000 pounds in total, hoping to prevent the animals from starving to death.
So, what can you do to help Australia? The best way you can help Australia is to donate. Some of the best charities include Mission Australia, Oxfam Australia, and Sacred Heart Mission.
In January, it was announced that 1.1 million people have donated to Australia and raised $30 million to help repair the damage caused by the bushfires. Some of the biggest contributions came from celebrities or businesses, including Kylie Jenner, Elton John, Pink, and many more. Their money helped volunteering firefighters and their families, to get more emergency resources, and families who are in need.
When it comes to serving one’s country, it took a lot to get women to where they are today. Throughout the years, women have been fighting to move up the ranks in the military. It took a long time, but finally, women can now enroll and serve their country in any rank or position.
Women have always held a role in the United States military, however for the majority of the time, the roles never involved combat. These women who wanted to serve were confined to jobs as washwoman, cooks, medical caregivers/nurses, seamstresses, and laudresses in the 18th and 19th century. These military roles were mainly taken part during the Revolutionary War and the Civil War.
Once World War l came around, women still were mainly just nurses. However, the women not already working medical positions were to enlist in the armed forces. During this time, most still served in a voluntary area. A select few ended up being hired by different branches of the military for work and aide in clerical positions. 35,000 women and counting served in the army during WW I.
During WW ll, women were once again recruited for the army. This time not only to be a nurse, or work in a clerical position, but to be hired as a weather forecaster, telephone operator, or linguists.
As time went went on, some faced a lot of hardships while being a part of the army. Congress decided to allow women to legitimately enlist in the Army of the United States. Because of the Women’s Army Corps, in 1943, women could attain a military rank and serve overseas.
Women served valiantly in WW ll. They were mocked, sexually harassed, and stigmatized. Through all that, they served bravely and some received medals and citations of their contributions. However, every woman who served was not considered a veteran or given benefits.
A few years later because of sexism in the military, in 1948, President Truman signed the Women’s Armed Services Integration Act into law. This meant letting women serve as full and permanent members in all branches of the U.S. military. However, women were still restricted. This act limited the number of women who could serve. This left only 2% to be women in the military. At this point, it would take years to get women to where they needed to be equally.
Slowly but surely, Women’s roles did expand from where they were. By the time it was 1970, women in the military could rise to command roles in non-combat units. Along with this, women and men began to train together.
In the year of 2013, women finally achieved full status in the U.S. military. They could now serve in combat roles. However, this did raise a new global question; should women be required to register for the draft?
Bees are very interesting insects. In one way they are defying the natural law of weight compared to flight and in other ways they are very efficient and precise little creatures.
They are built very large and have very small wings. Strangely, they can fly which is interesting because they don’t have the large wings that would be needed for its size.
Queen and worker bumblebees can sting. Unlike in honeybees, the bee can sting repeatedly without injuring itself; by the same token, the stinger is not left in the wound. Bumblebee species are not normally aggressive, but may sting in defence of their nest, or if it feels endangered itself.
There are many bees that have a complication. If a bee feels like it is in danger it will sting, but the stinger will be left behind. The bee needs its stinger or it will die.
Certain bees are in danger of going extinct and many have been put on the endangered list.
The main causes for the extinction of bees is pesticides and parasites. Ever since WWII the use of pesticides has increased by extreme amounts.
Easy ways to help protect them is to plant more flowers and plants in your yard, try to eat bee friendly foods that don’t contain too much honey and things, and most importantly, don’t kill them. You can easily find a safe way to move their home somewhere new or just let them stay where they set up camp. Always remember that if you don’t bother them, then they won’t bother you.
We love our oceans, or so I hope. The ocean is the heart of our great Earth. Water on this planet covers over ⅔ of the Earth’s surface. This huge body of water is our support system. It generates half the oxygen we breathe. It is also the largest ecosystem on Earth. The oceans must be protected at all costs. Without it, the world would be in a completely different place in life and evolution.
The ocean can’t die, but it can change. The marine environment has changed significantly because of climate change. Yes, climate change is real and it is happening. This biome is registering the impacts of climate change. Ocean warming is one of the biggest impacts it has. The ocean absorbs heat as a result of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The ocean has absorbed more than 93% of excess heat since the 1970’s. Ocean warming causes deoxygenation (a reduction in the amount of oxygen dissolved in the ocean). It also causes an increased rise in sea level. This expands the sea and continental ice melting.
Ocean warming is extremely harsh on the oceans many ecosystems. The global temperatures current increase is 0.7 degrees Celsius. The Intergovernmental Panel has a prediction that it will rise between 1.4 degrees Celsius and 5.8 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the average global sea temperature in the upper ocean has increased by 0.13 degrees Celsius per decade over the past 100 years. Along with this, the deep ocean is absorbing ⅓ of the excess heat 700 m below the ocean’s surface. Because of this, climate change will have a huge affect on the entirety of the ocean.
A key impact of climate change and ocean warming is coral bleaching. Coral bleaching is the most visual effect of climate change. It is caused by high water temperatures that kill the ocean’s coral. In the most recent years, coral mortality had reached up to 70% in multiple regions.
When people ask questions about this, one they all have in common is – why is coral bleaching such a big deal? Some of the most biodiverse ecosystems on this planet is supported by coral reefs. Over thousands of marine animals depend on this oceanic plant. Animals such as fish, crabs, ea turtles, sea birds, starfish, etc. Coral reefs don’t just feed marine wildlife, they also provide much more. They provide spawning grounds, shelter, and protection from predators. These reefs support organisms all the way at the base of the food chain. With reef ecosystems collapsing, all of these species face extinction.
That is just one of the many impacts global warming has on the ocean. Imagine what else it is doing. Actions can be/are being taken to protect these coral reefs and the ocean all together. There are small daily actions to take that will definitely help. Smart things you can do are invest in renewable energy and energy efficient appliances, reduce water waste, reduce food waste, invest in better light bulbs, and pull the plugs in help reduce unnecessary energy use. The biggest action you can take to help stop global warming is to speak up. Take part in protests, sign a petition, donate to causes that are trying to replant coral reefs and plans for clean power. Everyone should help make this change.
On November 29, five people were stabbed in London, England, at around 2 P.M. The stabbing resulted in 3 injured and 2 fatalities.
The attack and stabbing occurred at a conference on offender rehabilitation that was held in Fishmongers’ Hall, which is located at the northern end of London Bridge. There was a celebration occurring to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Learning Together which is a program run by the Cambridge Institute of Criminology to help offenders transition onto the right path into society after they get released from prison. A former prisoner named Usman Khan was invited to attend and participate in the conference. He had previously attended the program before. Usman Khan was actually banned from entering London, but he was granted a one day exemption to attend the conference.
Right before 2 P.M., City of London Police were called to Fishmongers’ Hall after Usman Khan was seen wearing a fake suicide vest and was threatening to blow up the hall. He was holding two kitchen knives and shortly after he began stabbing people inside the building. A lot of people in the building fought back.
A chef working at Fishmongers’ Hall grabbed a long narwhal tusk from the wall to use as a weapon.
Usman Khan then fled the building and began stabbing people outside of the building on the north side of the London Bridge. Police later arrived and asked Usman Khan to put the knives down but he resisted, resulting in the police shooting him twice and killing him at the scene.
The two victims that lost their lives to the attack were 25-year-old, Jack Merritt and 23-year-old, Saskia Jones. 3 other people who were injured are now in stable condition.
As the great day of destroying and devouring a turkey approached, so did another holiday that I feared much more. Black Friday is came on November 29th.
I remember as a child hating Black Friday, when my mom would drag me around the overcrowded stores for hours. I still do hold a distaste for it, but it also intrigues me.
Why do we have a holiday for a day that is just stores selling all their items on sale? The day after Christmas isn’t a public holiday of this much renown. So why does Black Friday exist?
My research for this immediately became complicated with all the different origin stories I was inundated with.
I first found a History.com article that listed 4 different origins of Black Friday, though only one was listed as the “true” beginning of the holiday. The holiday apparently comes from Philadelphia, “Black Friday” being a term the police would use to describe the chaos of the day after Thanksgiving, when everyone would go out shopping in advance of the Army-Navy football game. None of the cops were allowed to take the day off, they would have to work extended shifts, and shoplifters would take this opportunity to do as shoplifters do.
The term eventually spread, and retailers found a way to spin it in a positive light for them with all the sales.
However, the term Black Friday wasn’t even used in the beginning to describe the holiday. Instead, it was first used to describe the collapse of the gold market in the 1800s because two stock-brokers tried to make themselves rich and it didn’t work.
The article listed other stories of how Black Friday originated, but says the one I repeated above was the correct one.
Yet, that still didn’t answer to me why Black Friday is such a popular holiday.
Wikipedia says that Black Friday marks the beginning of the Christmas shopping season, and that many employees are given the day off as part of Thanksgiving, which could be reasons for its popularity.
In the end, I don’t think the endurance of Black Friday will ever make sense to me, and I will just have to live with it, and the shopping my mom will drag me around for.
On November 14th, there was a school shooting that occurred in Southern California, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, in the city of Santa Clarita. The school shooting occurred at Saugus High School and the suspect pulled out a gun from his bag and started shooting at students in the outside courtyard at around 7:40 A.M. right before classes began that morning.
The perpetrator was a 16-year-old, who was named shortly after the shooting, Nathaniel Berhow. Berhow shot 5 of his classmates and ended up killing 2 out of the 5 classmates he had shot, and wounded the other 3 before shooting himself. The shooting only lasted 16 seconds. The other 3 wounded students, whom were in critical condition were transported to nearby hospitals.
The shooter, Nathaniel Berhow, was transported to a nearby hospital as well but he was in grave condition. A day after the shooting, he was pronounced dead.
The LA sheriff, that was on scene, said that Berhow shot himself right after he began shooting the others, and that he doesn’t know what the motive was.
The Los Angeles Police Department and authorities went to Nathaniel Berhow’s home to see if there were any problems at home but there was none. It was Berhow’s 16th birthday and 2 of the other victims, that lost their lives, were were 14 and 16 years old.
The Los Angeles Police Department said that he used a .45 caliber pistol and there weren’t any bullets left. They also said that he wrote on his Instagram bio saying “Saugus have fun at school tomorrow.” It was taken down immediately after reports from students and others on Instagram that had seen it.
A 15-year-old sophomore at Saugus High School said that she kept running because she didn’t want to get hurt.
Saugus high students Katie Thanaet and Tyler Wilson look over items left at a memorial in front of the school Tuesday, November 19, 2019. Students were allowed back on campus to collect their belongings left behind after the tragic shooting last Thursday. Classes will resume at the high school on December 2nd. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A 17-year-old student said that when he initially heard the gunshots, he used his metal water bottle that he was carrying as a weapon. Students also were hiding under their desks crying in fear. He also said that the school taught them to put a book in front of your chest.
Another high school student said that she was in the courtyard when she heard what she thought was “balloons popping” and she immediately found out that it was not balloons popping and that it was gunshots and immediately started running.
After the shooting, all the other schools in the same area of Saugus High School heard what was occurring at the high school and immediately went on lockdown and officials told others to lock their doors to stay safe.
Parents of students that attend Saugus High School and schools nearby insisted that schools to do more to insure safety in schools and have active shooter drills.
Classes at Saugus High School won’t resume until December.
This past decade, in the US, school shootings have been very common. The second most deadly school shooting, behind the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007, just occurred 6 years ago, at Sandy Hook Elementary school, killing 27 people. The deadliest high school shooting occurred just last year in 2018 in Parkland, Florida, at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School killing 17 people.
This shooting makes it the 373rd mass shooting in the US in 2019 alone.
Trees provide many things for humans and are very important to the world. They produce oxygen from CO2 for us to breathe in, they provide shade, and they provide materials that we use every day, like wood.
Trees make life nicer. Studies have shown that spending more time around trees and other environmental spaces can affect a person’s mood and reduce the stress in our daily lives. Other research shows that children have less issues in school if they spend time outdoors and in green spaces and areas with trees. Hospital patients have also been shown to recover faster when the window in their room is facing trees.
Trees also have many environmental benefits. Planting more trees not only means more oxygen will be released into the world, but less CO2 emissions in the world. CO2 emissions released from the burning of fossil fuels, such as coal and gas, will be stopped by trees, which will transform it into oxygen. Trees are crucial and are one of the frontrunners in the battle against climate change. Trees improve our air quality which can prevent diseases and toxic gases that can be transferred through the air, such as carbon monoxide and sulfur.
Believe it or not, planting more trees can also have some economic benefits as well. Planting trees near businesses and buildings can reduce cooling costs, like the costs of AC units. Studies have shown that cities with well planted trees near buildings are cooler than cities without trees. Trees can help to combat the hot summer heat, and can reduce temperatures by 11°. Trees can also increase the retail value of houses or properties.
Planting trees can have a great effect on the world. Whether it’s just for your neighborhood or for your city, every little bit matters. Planting trees can provide economical, environmental, and health benefits, and, overall, can make the world a better place.
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