robe a. blog

Response to TLW

2007-03-23T08:36:00.001-05:00

The International Teen Life Project was very interesting and very helpful, for me my partner, and everyone who participated, I think so. My partners and I learned a lot about our subject, and I am hoping to have our documentary done as fast as possible. I like the experience of sharing this project with other people in the world, which have other cultures, and thoughts. My partners and I learned a lot about terrorism, I know everyone in the group worked very hard in the project. There was a lot of teamwork, and I am sure everybody had a lot of fun, running the video and the recordings.

I am sure all TV channels must be interested in putting information of this project because it’s the first time in my school, and in my group there are people from the U.S. Malaysia, Canada, and of course Cartagena, Colombia. I hope other schools do the same because the people learn a lot and have a great time, with a new project with other people in the world. In conclusion, the project has been a great experience for me, and I hope it is going to be a great experience to the other people that do the International Teen Life Project. I hope many other people do the project; I surely enjoyed it.

Tactics of Terrorism

2007-03-02T08:03:00.002-05:00

Last week I mentioned that I wanted to research about the tactics of terrorism and what the world is doing to prevent those attacks, so this week I am doing it about tactics of terrorism. I was looking in the Internet for info and I found a web page of Wikipedia that told all about it.

Terrorist attacks are usually made to potential fear or/and publicity. The terrorist often use explosives or poison, a great worry about terrorist to use weapons of mass destruction. Terrorism organizations often plan attacks with anticipation, they may train participants, input undercover agents, and make money through organized crime or from supporters. Communication methods may include modern telecommunications like e-mail, or traditional methods such as mail.

All types of terrorist groups have different goals and objectives, but there is one tactic in common that all terrorist groups have, spread the maximum publicity into cities to spread intimidation by generating messages to attain the groups' objectives. Terrorist use violence to make fear in a large part of society; to make a change.

Usually damage is made with an explosive devise although chemical weapons have been used on very few occasions. Another worry can be the use of a nuclear weapon or biological weapons. In the attack of the 11Th of September 2001, planes were used as incendiary tools against the World Trade Center and the pentagon. Terrorist may arrange secondary tools to detonate at a shortly later time to kill emergency personnel that try to attend the dead and wounded at the place were the first device was detonated. Also the secondary tools may be used to stop or delay emergency personnel to arrive in time to heal the wounded, or to help the people that are in danger.

The preparation of major attacks such as the one of September 11, 2001 may take many years, mean while a simple attack depending on the fire arms, may be certainly spontaneous. Terrorists preparing for big attacks such as September 11, 2001 attacks, terrorist changed their appearance to avoid looking radical for the security at the airports.

There have been and there are many training camps for terrorist groups. For the September 11, 2001 attacks, the hijackers took flying courses. The quantity of the training depends on the level of support from many organizations and states, to the terrorist organization. The quantity of training affect a lot on how destructive the terrorist attack is going to affect. The training mainly includes physical fitness, combat or martial arts, firearms, explosives, intelligence, and field craft. More specialized training includes more cover to mix with the people, such as language, cultural familiarization, communications, and surveillance techniques. Almost in every instance the quality of training is extremely high and well organized.

My opinion is basically very simple; I think that the terrorist must have better systems of communications, with more technology. The training part is very efficient and very helpful. So the good cops and every armies must be very careful with what is happening and every move that the terrorist can make, The same as it said in my research, any fire arm attack can be spontaneous, so it can happen in any moment, and place.

I thought a lot about what to do in my next post, but I didn't have to do another one, but I wanted to do it about a terrorist that is still free, and is a leader of a terrorist groups, I wanted to investigate about that.

9/11

2007-02-24T21:47:00.000-05:00

On the Internet one of the biggest news seen this century was the 9/11. The 9/11 was the greatest terrorist attack in this century. What happened is that two hijacked airplanes crashes into the World Trade Center, another airplane hit the pentagon at the same day, 11Th of September 2001. That day nineteen Al-Qaeda terrorist hijacked 4 commercial passenger jet airliners that where in flight. As I said two airplanes crashes the World Trade Center in New York City, the other at the Pentagon in Virginia, the fourth plane crashes by the intent of control of the airplane by the passengers.

There were 2,992 deaths, including the nineteen hijackers; two hundred and forty six on the four planes, no one aboard of any of the hijacked aircraft survived, 2,602 in near and in the four towers, and finally a hundred and twenty five at the Pentagon. Four hundred and three people died trying to save civilians, including three hundred and forty three New York Fire Department firefighters , twenty three from the New York City Police Department officers, and thirty seven Port Authority Police Department officers, and other twenty four people remain missing.

Nineteen men got on the four planes, five on American Airlines Flight 11, five on United Airlines Flight 175, five on American Airlines Flight 77, and four on United Airlines Flight 93. Fifteen of the nineteen hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt, and the other from Lebanon.

I think that the nineteen men that hijacked the planes did it because of crazy or following there religion, maybe just because they want to hurt people. I didn't knew what was happening the day when the school was dismissed, until I arrived home and I saw the news. I think it's been the worst day of the lives of many people that had there families in the World Trade Center. When I saw the news I thought of when I was in the World Trade Center one month ago, I was petrified because we went there almost a month ago. I remember that the 11Th of September of 2006 a little private plane from a baseball player of the Yankees crashed a building in New York City, when I saw the news I thought it was a terrorist act, but it was only problems on the plane. I remember that the day after all the newspapers in the country talked about it, some people say the saw the devils face in the smoke that got out of the two towers. On the Internet you could find lots of videos of the crash of the airplanes and the collapse of the two towers.

In this project I want to learn and write next about other terrorist attacks all around the world, especially in Europe and Southwest Asia. To know more about the most famous and dangerous terrorist in history, and what acts did they commit. I want to know the tactics that the terrorist use and what the world is doing to prevent all these events.

Great Article

2007-02-17T23:29:00.000-05:00

Can Car Bombs Stop in Baghdad? That is the article I found. I was looking for articles, and this one seems very important and traumatic.

This article was made because the amount of car bombs in Baghdad a day, if it can be stopped or suspended. Baghdad is one of the cities with more car bombs per day in the world. So many people can be killed. In Baghdad its said that "Two Car Bombs Kill Over 100 in Baghdad," so many innocent people are killed each day. So the question is why, whay in Baghdad? and if it can be stopped?
The answer is yes. But it will take a quitely different military approach to help Baghdad fight against terrorism. You can find more about this article in the link on top of this post.

Just Like Terrorism...

2007-02-17T22:50:00.000-05:00

I found a very interesting article in the Internet about acts similar to terrorism.

A 18-year-old Muslim called Sulejmen Talovic, shot nine people, armed with a pair of low-tech firearms, a pump-action shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver. On six minutes, at Salt Lake City, Utah. Five of the nine people shot died and the other four where wounded, it occurred at a crowded downtown shopping mall called Trolley Square Mall, Monday night before he died after a hail of police bullets, six minutes after he got to the mall.

The FBI Special Agent Patrick Kiernan, a supervisor in the FBI's of Salt Lake City, has repeatedly said since Monday that Talovic's wild shooting rampage at the mall was not connected to terrorism.

"There is nothing that is throwing up red flags," Kiernan said "It's
just unexplainable. He was just walking around and shooting everybody he saw, it
was crazy."
The conclusion is that this attack was not related to any terrorist attacks,
it is a very similar situation to many others on the past, that weren't
related
with terrorism.

The Problem in Sri Lanka

2007-02-15T07:20:00.000-05:00

I found a very interesting article about the problems in Sri Lanka and India's help.

The article says that the country is extremely threatened by more suicide bombers as all Middle East Asia.

"Hardly a day passes without a time bomb, or a claymore mine or a hand
grenade being thrown at military personnel or citizens by the LTTE and its
supporters," said Palitha Kohona. "The government will deal with terrorism
firmly and decisively. All over the world, no country deals with terrorists with
kid gloves."

More than 67,000 people have been killed in Sri Lanka after conflict between the Tamil Tigers and the government started in 1983. Nearly 4,000 people have been killed since last year.

India's coast guard affirms it stopped a boat that is owned by the Tiger rebels, with weapons, bomb-making chemicals and a suicide belt. The officers say that five men including a top leader were on the boat captured on the south coast of India. Early this week the Indian Navy caught a boat loaded with materials for making landmines and other explosives. The government of Sri Lanka has vowed to destroy the entire Tiger rebels military machinery. The Tigers concluded their independence problem last December, the re-igniting fight, which is the intensest and prolonged fight since a 2002 ceasefire between the Sri Lankan government and Tiger rebels. The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam announced a new move to run their own independent state in 2006, ending the island's peace procedure.

Terrorism

2007-02-09T08:01:00.000-05:00

I found an article on the Internet that tells what is occurring in U.K. and the terrorist attacks. In the Internet there are many articles. All over the world a seriously problem is developing very quickly, terrorism, there is terrorism all around the world, including in the safer countries, for example, in U.K, the last few weeks there were various attacks of card bomb, especially in Birmingham, England. Terrorism is a word used to describe violence and/or other painful acts made or threatened against civilians by terrorist groups or persons with political or social goals. Terrorist attacks are often made for maximize fear and publicity among the entire world.

There are twelve types of terrorism in the world.Agro-terrorism is the use of plants or animals to disperse a disease through a certain region. Anarchist is the normal use of small bombs in trains or buildings. Bioterrorism is the intentional release or dissemination of biological agents. Cyber-terrorism is attacks with the use and/or help of the Internet and computers. Eco-terrorism consists of threats and/or acts of violence to people or properties. Narcoterrorism is terrorist-type attacks against a nations anti-narcotics police or forces. Nationalist is when a group of people rebel against the government or any company. Nuclear terrorism can be two types of attacks, with nuclear or radiological weapons or and attack to a nuclear plant. Political is made to influence on peoples thoughts and statements. Racist is violence influences by ethnic or cultural issues. Religious is violence influenced by religious beliefs issues. State refers to violence against civilians by the government or nation. State-sponsored is a political term used to refer to bounties, equipment and intelligence material given across boundaries to terrorist organizations and the families of deceased militants for the purpose of conducting or rewarding attacks on civilians.

The five main tactics made by the terrorist are hijacking of public vehicles ( air crafts), or important people for money. Assassination is a very common method seen almost every day in the world, normally of important or/and famous people. Car bombing is now very seen in the countries in Southwest Asia, for example Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Lebanon. Suicide attack is not so common, but its used when there is a person that wants to kill someone and he is disposed to give his life for his decision or for religion. Kidnapping is very seen in large cities with a large number of crime rate.

The mayor terrorist attack in the 21Th century occurred in 11Th of September of 2001. Two airplanes crashes into the World Trade Center in New York,City, United States of America. There were 2,973 deaths in total: 246 on the four planes, no one aboard any of the hijacked airplane survived the crash, 2,602 people died in New York at the towers and on the ground surrounding them, and 125 people at the Pentagon.

The day of September 11 of 2001, the school had an early dismissal, when we got out of school, I went to my grandmothers house and me and my family saw the video on the TV. The two towers were totally collapsed, the land surrounding the towers was a complete disaster.

How is Our School

2007-02-01T07:27:00.000-05:00

Do you have a big school or do you have a small school? How many kids go to your school?

This question was asked by Amber in Ms. Baber's class, from Virginia, in the Teen Life Wiki in the section of School Environment. In this post I am going to respond that question. From Cartagena, Colombia, from Mr. Hide's class.

Our school is not so big, but its enough size for me. In the school there are about 500 kids, we have 12 grades, in every grade there are approximately 40 kids. In the school we have a soccer field, a basketball court and one that sometimes is used as soccer, kickball, volleyball, or other sports. In the school there is a building of 4 floors, in the first one there are the offices, the nursery, the library, and more offices. In the second floor is the high school class rooms, the computer room for high school and middle school, the principle's office and secretary's office. In the third floor there is middle school class rooms and a computer room for elementary, and in the last floor there are the elementary class rooms.

There is another part of the school were there is 1st and 2nd grade class rooms, another two high school classes, the drama class and the art class. There is a playground for elementary near the 1st and 2nd grade class rooms. Beside the building there is the cafeteria and the lab is in the other side of the building. Seriously the school bought a bigger place and they are starting to built the new school that is planned to be ready in two years, or so... The new school will be twice as big as this one, its going to have soccer fields, baseball field, basketball courts, etc... It is going to be very cool, but its a little far from every ones houses.

Hang Out Places in Cartagena

2007-01-26T08:08:00.000-05:00

Do you have any special places where you and your friends can go and have fun?

I found the question in the Teen Life Wiki in the Social Environment section. The question was asked by Anna in Mr. Fisher's class. Now I am going to respond that question, from Cartagena, Colombia.

Here in Cartagena my friends and I have a lot of places we go and have fun. One that is much known is the Campito, there we eat pizza and we play soccer at an artificial field. There is a baseball field too, but we don’t play baseball. The Campito is very important in our society; we go almost every weekend, sometimes we go two times a weekend. Sometimes we go to the movies.

We eat in many restaurants, like El Corral that is a king of Burger King, but Colombian. We go many times to Mc Donald’s too, I am pretty sure everyone in U.S. knows about it. There is another restaurant that is run by the family of a kid in 6th grade; the restaurant is called El Otoyal. I almost forgot Crepes and Waffles, which I like very much.

There are many restaurants; but there are clubs too. One club is called Club Cartagena, there we eat, we go to the pool, and we play soccer. Another is called Club Naval, there are many aquatic activities made there. Like sailing and fishing. Sometimes I go there with my family to lunch. I really like these places.

I'm Roberto

2007-01-11T07:34:00.000-05:00

Hi! My name is Roberto and I am 12 years old, and I study at Colegio Jorge Washington in Cartagena, Colombia. My school is also called COJOWA. I am Gemini and I study in 7th grade, I have a lot of friends. I like to do many things, to go to the pool, to watch TV, to hang out with my friends, to play piano, to play soccer and I am learning Italian. When I and my friends go to play soccer, we go to a place called Campito 2010, or sometimes we go to see a movie. I am learning Italian because my family comes from Italy; my great grand mother and father was born in Italy. I like a lot to go on a trip with my family to other countries or other cities beside Cartagena. I like very much soccer and I love cars, I go to auto shows and more. I am always seeing English soccer on TV and seeing the results on the Internet. I like many types of music, specially a Colombian one. My school starts at 7:00 AM and ends at 2:30 PM.

I like to know soccer news and more. My favorite subject in school is math, P.E. is very fun too. I am very interested in knowing the problems that are occurring in the world. I really like to be notified of every event, I really wish to know more about news and events. I like the theme of knowing what is happening in my country, with the gorillas, the FARC and more things that are destroying the country from the inside. I like to know about the technology in the world and how it is progressing.

Some of the most important issues that are impacting a lot in the society right now are terrorism, contamination, child soldiers, wars, poverty, sexual abuse, pollution, and global warming. Many of these problems occur here in Colombia, like poverty, pollution, and sexual abuse. Surrounding Cartagena there are many neighborhoods, which are strongly affected by poverty. The people in the world are not concerned of what these problems can cause in the future. Another really important big issue is the drug and alcohol problems, being addicted to alcohol or to drugs, smoking too. Many people consuming drugs and alcohol, influence children and teenagers to consume too.

I really am very concerned of how these issues are going to affect in the future. The lack of literacy rate in the world is a big problem that can affect the world a lot in years.

My Experience at the Hershey's Chocolate Factory

2006-11-08T21:24:00.004-05:00

On November 8, my family and I went to the Hershey's Chocolate Factory. Before going my family and me went to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to visit my sister, Mariana, who is studying at the University of Pennsylvania(UPENN). The trip to the city of Hershey lasted 2 hours, the weather was very bad, we had fog and rain. In the trip, we couldn't see very well, but we could see many awesome landscapes. It rained all the trip, but we had instructions, so we arrived with very good time. The factory was huge, it had even roller coasters, and attractions that showed how Hershey was created. I think that putting a roller coaster at a chocolate factory, is not very intelligent, people would throw up after eating and then going in the roller coaster.

The climate affected a lot de trip, we couldn't go into the roller coasters, the trolley or any outdoor attraction. The city of Hershey was like a normal city with schools and restaurants. That day, the parking-lots were empty because it was Wednesday. There were many indoor attractions, including a tour that told how chocolate is made in the factory, a 3D show, that lasted 30 minutes, and a section of the factory that showed how the packets of kisses are made.

The 3D show was very cool because normally the 3D shows only are images, but in this one, there was water, things in your foot, that were in a moment rats, and the vibration of your chair. The tour of chocolate was cool because they used real chocolate to show how the chocolate is melted and formed. The last things wasn't very cool, because it was for little kids. The best thing was that we bought tons and tons of chocolate, including the largest Kiss of the world. It was crazy, we bought all kinds of Hershey chocolate.

Many of the chocolate we bought were for friends or for family. I think I have enough chocolate until New Year. The climate was the same in the trip back, still, having that horrible climate, we had a great and delicious time in the Hershey's Chocolate Factory. I hope you can go because its very cool. Really, I didn't ate many chocolate that day, only the free samples the people there gave us.

Response to Maple Street Monsters

2006-11-02T07:22:00.000-05:00

The message of the story, explains that people need light to have control over themselves, not only control, it can be friendship, peace and niceness. So the story says that you need to control yourself because you can harm everyone, not only the people you blame, it harms even children. This event occurs in the story because people lose control by trying to find the person that is guilty. Many bad things can happen, for example when Charlie killed Pete Van Horn, so people say the first thing that comes to the minds of the people. So people say that maybe Pete Van Horn wanted to say something important, maybe he was going to tell who was the alien. So all people blame Charlie until another weird thing occurs to another person and people start blaming other people. Another example is when almost all the houses light, so all the people start blaming everyone. So people aren't thinking right of what they say or do.

I think that the message is very well expressed in the story. The message is a very clear way to help humans to maintain control. I think that message is significant in the 21st century because humans don't change within 40 years, but instead of light it can be another things people lose control. I think instead of light it could be computers, cars and electronic things. If there is a power failure now, people don't do those kinds of things, but do others, may be if there is a building and power goes on, all the people of the building would go and talk to the administrator of the building. I accept that a problem would occur in this years, but not such things as getting a shotgun, or blaming people for reasons that aren't clear enough.

I think if The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street would be made for the audience today, it will change a lot. I think if a "meteor" would go into earth, the army would go and see what it is, and if there was a "meteor" going toward Earth, the NASA would detect the "meteor" and the NASA would send a missile to destroy the "meteor" so the "meteor" doesn't destroy Earth. In the blackout, many things would be failing, TVs, radios, video games, DVDs, CD players, computers, and more advanced cars and motorcycles. The people wouldn't be so worried about the meteor or the blackout. The story would be set maybe in Springfield, the story would say a city instead of a street. Tommy would not be ready comic books, instead he would be seeing TV shows about aliens. The story would change a lot if it was passed to this year.

My Trip to Argentina, Chile, and Peru

2006-10-31T16:29:00.000-05:00

In June of 2005, my family and me did a trip to Argentina, Peru, and Chile. First we went on airplane to Buenos Aires, Argentina, the flight lasted 3 hours. It was very cool, we went to many churches. Buenos Aires was very fun because we were with a family that were some friends of my parents, so it was cool. We ate many types of meat, because Argentina is the country were the meat is the most delicious. We went to many different restaurants.

We stayed 3 days in Buenos Aires. The next city was Bariloche, Argentina. We stayed 3 days there. We stayed at a hotel called Llao Llao, the hotel was very big and the bedrooms were very big. There was a huge mountain called El Cerro Catedral, it was the second time I saw snow. The second day we went to sky at the mountain. It was the first time I sky, so I fall like 20 times. It was very fun and it was very cool learning to sky. I was very cold when we were skiing because the top of the mountain was at -5 degrees.

When the three days in Bariloche passed we went to Santiago, Chile. When the airplane was going off, one of the motors go off and started again. We almost crashed; I was very scared when the plain almost collided with the floor. The plain was going to go at 9:00 P.M., but we lasted almost until 1:00 A.M. because we where waiting another airplane from the United States. The flight lasted like 2 hours so we arrived very late to the hotel.

Santiago was very bored compared to the other cities. We stayed in Santiago 2 days. The only interesting thing was that we went to a giant course of horse racing. We saw some races and we took some photos with the horses. From Santiago we were going to Cuzco, Peru, to take a train to Machu Picchu, Peru. I was very excited because it was the first time I was in a train of that kind.

Cuzco was a little strange, strange in climate. If you were in the shadow you 5 degrees, but if you weren't in the shadow, you were at 25 degrees. So we needed to have a jacket in our hands always. The train was very big and lasted like 3 hours. It was a very cool trip. When we got to Machu Picchu we got to the top of the hill in a bus. We walked in the mountain for almost 4 hours, it was very hot, and so we needed to have tons of water and hats for the sun.

Machu Picchu was the last city we visited. We stayed three days in Cuzco, and one day we went to Machu Picchu. I really liked and enjoined the trip. I learned a lot about Machu Picchu and Chile’s and Argentina’s history. I hope the person who is reading this considers doing the trip I did. I hope one day I visit the other countries of South America.

Lost!

2006-10-26T07:18:00.000-05:00

Joe and Brian were skiing down the hill with their sky teacher, Brian. They were having a lot of fun in the section for amateurs.

When Brian said "Lets go to the professional section!"

"Are you sure?" Kevin said, "Its dangerous."

So Joe said "Yeah."

To go up the mountain they needed to go in a chairlift because the mountain was too high and steep to climb on foot. The mountain was called the highest peak. When the boys saw the mountain they thought of going back, but they wanted to go. The three guys started to see the landscape that surrounded them.

Brian said "Look out, an avalanche!"

The avalanche dragged them like 200 meters down. When the avalanche stopped, they only saw snow, they didn't know where they were,they were lost! They recognized that Kevin had his leg broken, so now the boys were looking for a hospital for Kevin. They walk for almost 1 hour until they saw an old house. When they entered it started snowing outside. They looked if someone was inside. The house was completely alone, but in the house there was a little bit of food and there were beds so Brian and Joe gave Kevin some food and water, and a bed that they founded in a room on the second floor.

An hour passed and anyone came, so the 3 boys went walking down hill, until they saw a giant sled. They decided to go in the sled until they noticed that the sled had no dogs. So they took the no dog sled and they went down hill. Until they saw dark figures in front of them. So they stopped and they saw some dogs. The boys lasted a lot tying the dogs to the sled.

Brian said to Joe "The only good thing in the day".

When they were in going down, the sled start breaking apart, so they jumped out the sled. No one got hurt so they kept walking.

When they were walking, they heard a sound like a thunder, but there weren't clouds. They were afraid that another avalanche came again. So they went in a nearby cave that they saw. When they were in the cave, a avalanche came and trapped them inside the cave. They took some parts of wood and burned them, so they start melting all the snow to water. They lasted a lot melting the snow, so they were desperate to go to a hospital for Kevin.

They kept walking and walking for hours. They thought that they will never get to the hospital in the bottom of the mountain, so they layed in the snow like if they were sleeping with their eyes closed. They heard a giant crack and they thought going to a little hill or a cave, but they couldn't. They were trapped between the mountain and the bottom of the mountain and the avalanche. They ran in direction of the bottom of the mountain. Each second the sound got louder and louder until they saw the giant avalanche almost on top of them.

"Watch out!" Brian said, "Its another avalanche!."

The avalanche was enormous, it dragged trees, rocks, houses, etc.. The avalanche dragged them a lot of time downhill. A tree hitted Joe in his arm, so he was screaming.

Brian said "If you don't move, the avalanche will not make you go below the snow!"

The avalanche was very strong and it was getting bigger each second. The snow covered Brian so he couldn't breath very well. The avalanche started decreasing in power and size when it was almost at the bottom of the mountain. Joe remember he had a radio deacon, which the rescue team could detect, so he send a S.O.S. message. The rescue team carried them to the hospital located at the bottom of the mountain.

They went very fast to the hospital, Kevin had his leg broken, so he was translated to the emergency room. Joe's arm was injured, but not broken. Days past and injuries healed. Joe at the end, kept skiing and became a professional, Kevin couldn't sky again, so he became a poet. Brian became a singer and everybody ended very happy.

Air Plain Crash in New York

2006-10-13T08:37:00.000-05:00

This week an air plain crashed into a 80 floor building in New York. The plain was a private plain, inside there were two people the baseball pitcher, Cory Lidle and his flight instructor, Taylor Stranger. It seems that the plain had motor problems. Cory Lidle was a major league pitcher for 9 years. Lidle was 34 years old. He has a wife called Melanie and a 6-year-old son called Christopher. Cory Lidle was in the New York Yankees.

"Its very tragic" Bloomberg, the Yankee coach, said.“We have to say a little
prayer for those we lost."

Lidle and Stanger left a small airport in Teterboro, New Jersey, around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. The plane circled the Statue of Liberty and then headed north up the East River, along the eastern shore of the island of Manhattan. The plane veered off its path as it approached East 72nd Street, crashing into the high-rise apartment building at about 2:45 p.m. Residents in and around the building said they heard a huge explosion. Many people saw large flames coming from the windows high above the street. Pieces of debris from the plane and the building fell to the street as the fire spread. Mayor Bloomberg said 11 firefighters were injured while fighting the blaze. The life of Cory Dible was very good and all the Yankee players are praying for him and his family. That is how life is.

Info. from http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=7684

The Worst Holiday

2006-10-13T08:04:00.000-05:00

My worst holiday would be like going maybe to (1.)Tomboctou, India, or Iraq. We needed to go (2.)by car, by ship, or by plain, but we went by plain(the only good thing in the trip). When were in the flight, the plain losses control and it goes down and we land in water, and then we see an island and its abandoned. Another bad holiday is maybe we are going in car to a city of Colombia and the car's gasoline finished, so we need to go to a hotel. The hotel is (3.)old, creepy, and very boring. There wouldn't be computers, TV or someone to do something. We would stay a week there and in the hotel the signal on the cellphones will be dead, so it will be very boring.

Then I would do my homework because in the last day of school (4.)the teacher gave us a worksheet, she explained a project, and she told that the things were for the first day of school.
(5.)Under a pile of garbage, I saw many giant rats. I think there were 7, but instead of seven, there were 10. When my mother told me if I finished my homework I said "(6.)Yes, I finished like ten minutes ago, (7.)but I saw some big rats, when I was doing my homework". She told me that (8.) I need to kill a rat, if I see it. That would be the worst holiday of all.

1. Series of objects
2. Series of phrases
3. Series of modifiers
4. Series of independent clauses
5. Introductory prepositional phrase
6. Introductory no, yes, or interjection
7. Introductory participial phrase
8. Introductory adverb clause

Conflicts and Solutions

2006-10-05T07:18:00.000-05:00

Everyone makes mistakes, and many of those mistakes create bigger and bigger problems. When I have a problem I try to solve it, if it doesn't work I try to do it again in a different way. Sometimes when I have problems that I can't solve I do bad things, like bad habits. Sometimes I get very angry because I think that I am going to fail in the work or job I am doing, and that I ignore problems when people blame me: for example, I blame my sisters. Sometimes when I can't something and everything results bad, my sisters or my parents (specially my sisters) help me.

I remember one time when I had a project that at the last hour I realized the project was horrible, so I did it again with the help of my sisters and it was very good. I am a procrastinator in some things, stuff that aren't from school, I have many problems with homework assignments or writings.

One time when I was like 6 or 7 years old there was a painting that my sister was making for homework, but it had no color, so I thought that she wasn't going to color it. So I tried to color it when she was in the bathroom, to help her, but the painting got horrible, I tried to fix it, but I couldn't. When my sister realized she didn't talk to me much. I tried to say sorry to my sister, but she was too mad with me. I think that doing that wasn't such a good idea. The next day I did a card to my sister saying sorry for my actions, and she forgot me. That was one of the problems I've had with my sister, don't blame me, everyone makes mistakes, we're not perfect. Who in this world doesn't make mistakes?

The United Nations

2006-10-03T18:32:00.000-05:00

I've had many experiences with UN and MUN that is Model of United Nations model of United Nations that is an international organization that helps countries in need, my academic elective is MUN and I had been in two conferences, one of the school (JMUN) and an international one of South America (CAMUN). In both conferences they gave prizes like best dressed, cutest eyes, cutest smile, etc... I won in both conferences best dressed of men. In the two conferences I had been in the same council that is called the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the school conference I was France and in conference of South America I was Czech Republic, I learned a lot of things of Czech Republic that I didn't knew.

The conferences last like 7 hours because you do many things like voting for resolution, discussing crisis and much more. The conference of the school was very fun because many people were laughing and didn't use parliamentary language so the people that did that went out of the meeting for 5 minutes. The other conference was fun but was very serious. In all the conferences they give you breakfast, because it was in the morning. There are many people in the school that participate in MUN, there are many people in 8th grade. I really like this topic, because it is very interesting. In 7th grade are 4 people that have been in conferences, Augusto, Daniel, Luis Carlos, and me. In MUN you can learn a lot about the UN and many more features of a country. It can be a great and interesting experience to anyone, I hope I have many more conferences.

World Cup 2006

2006-09-30T22:25:00.000-05:00

This year’s world cup was very exciting. At the beginning of the world cup I wanted France and Italy to win, and I couldn’t decide which more. I think that this year's world cup, France deserved to win. The new soccer ball of this world cup was called TeamGeist, made from Adidas and as everybody knows it was in Germany, there were 12 stadiums, the best and most beautiful ones where Allianz Arena in Munich and Olympiastadion in Berlin were the final was played. In this cup there were 32 teams and 8 groups of 4 teams each.

The favorite teams to win the cup were Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, Argentina and England. This worlds cup was had some of the best goals in history, the best one was the goal of Maxi Rodriguez from Argentina in minute 115 versus Mexico. I was really exited for the tournament, when I knew that the final was France versus Italy I was like confused, I didn’t know to what team have as favorite, but at last it was France even ought that my family is Italian, so everyone was disappointed with the decision.

There was a big surprise; it was that Brazil was eliminated in quarterfinals. Something not very good about world cups is that you wait for 4 years to see something of 1 month, it passes too quickly. The final passed very quickly, like just at the beginning the goal of Zinedine Zidane at minute 9, then Marco Materazzi’s goal then minutes later It was a shame that Zidane head-butted Materazzi, so the referee gives the red card to Zidane, that was his last match in his career.

I was very disappointed when David Trezeguet missed the penalty shot. The celebration of Italy was gigantic, Italy almost exploded. Thierry Henry, the French forward was angry because he loss two finals in a year, the world cup and the Uefa Champions League. I really enjoyed this year’s world cup; I hope that the next one would be better.

My Blog is Very Helpful

2006-09-29T08:33:00.000-05:00

My blog has helped me a lot with many things, especially with all that I said in my first post, Education and Technology, it help me expressing my thought to other peoples posts and to improve my writing skills with grammar and spelling and to know more people, in America. My blog has changed a lot my expectations by helping me and at first I thought it was very boring, but its very cool. It was very easy to control, do and maintain your blog I think anyone could do it, its being a little dificult to every week do 2 posts and 3 comments, but it is very interesting and fun. I feel very good of doing and having a blog, and it is very interesting to see others peoples comments and posts.

Compared of how I felt about blog at the beginning and now it’s very different, now its better. I really feel godd in all technical aspects and how to do everything is very easy.I am very surprised that my feelings changed about the blog, because I think it was very boring to do two blogs per week and comments. Ive learned many things in blogger, to control a blogger, to know better about blogger and some words that other people post and I don’t know, so I learn many other words. It is a really good experience to do a blog, so I feel good for doing it.

My Trip to Italy

2006-09-22T08:06:00.000-05:00

This summer I went to Italy with ,my family the trip was 10 hours long, 1 hour to Bogotá and 9 hours to Madrid. In the flight I did almost everything, I slept, I saw two movies and I had a breakfast, a dinner and a meal. It was the longest trip I have ever been. When we arrived to Madrid, Spain, we waited like for five hours or more. I liked Madrid a lot because it was huge and we passed beside the stadium of a soccer club of Madrid, called Real Madrid. The plain had a delay of an 1 hour and a half, so we went in another flight of almost 3 hours to Milan, Italy.

We arrive to Milan at 2 in the morning and I was very tired, we arrived to the hotel an hour later, and we ordered room service, and we start watching MTV until the food arrived. The food arrived, it was like a sandwich with a horrible cheese, so I didn’t ate it. That day we woke up at 7 A.M. so I slept only like 3 hours. When we woke up we went to Hertz (the car company) to rent a car. Then we went with the car to Venice, the trip lasted like 4 hours.

In Venice you need to park your car in a giant garage for approximately 200 cars. Then we took a boat to the hotel, which was very cool because you could only arrive in boat or walking in the bridges. In Venice we went to a giant glass factory called Murano. We stayed in Venice for 3 days, and then we went in car to Florence, that they say it’s one of the most beautiful cities of the world. When we were in Florence we did a trip in car to Pisa and we saw the Pisa tower and many other cities beside Florence, and we went to the best winery in Italy that its called “Castello Banfi”. We went to almost 5 museums in Florence, in one of those museum was the sculpture “David”, that is a pretty big sculpture, like 5 meters tall and we saw the Fontana di Trevi, that I liked a lot.

We stayed in Florence for 3 days, the next trip was to Rome, that trip was super boring, it lasted 5 hours. In Rome we did a lot of things. The first day we went to see the pope, Benedict 16 and to go to the Vatican and the Vatican Museum. We went to see the coliseum that was very big and amazing and we went to the biggest church of the world, which was almost 130 meters high and 170 meters in length. My opinion was that the best
city was Rome.

We stayed in Rome for 3 days and then we went to Madrid in a plane that lasted 3 hours, in Madrid we stayed one day in a apartment of a friend of my father, and the next day we returned to Colombia. The plane lasted 10 hours, I saw almost 4 movies and I slept and I ate dinner, breakfast and a meal, it lasted too long! It was the best trip and the one that has been the farthest from home.

Suspense and Action Stories...

2006-09-21T07:23:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed reading this story a lot because it has suspense and action, two things that I like in a story. I like a lot the part when the men kill the rats with knives, but I dislike the fact that a man died and I didn’t like the end of the story, its not a happy ending, I really recommend this story, specially to the people that like suspense and action, because it is very exiting and very different from the other stories. I dislike it a little because the story passed to slowly.

I wonder why Itchoua died and the narrator and Le Gleo didn’t, maybe he was bitten more or he was weak. I didn’t like the fact that there were rats, not cats or a wild animal, but rats! When I was reading the story and it was in the part when there wasn’t crew in the boat I said "¿what?", but when I read there were rats, it was still strange, but less. Me being the narrator I wouldn’t go back to the lighthouse, he’s crazy.

I was surprised when the boat came to rescue them; they were almost dead when the boat arrived. Unbelievable that there were sharks all around the island, you know that it false it wasn’t a coincidence of the story. Really this story has a lot of fiction, like sea rats, that the rats where giant and some things more. I say to all the people that like fiction, action, and suspense that read Three Skeleton Key.

Roger Federer won the 2006 US Open

2006-09-15T17:08:00.000-05:00

Last week Roger Federer, the best player of the world, defeated Andy Roddick, the 9th player of the world(recently 6th because of his results in this tournament), in the final of the US Open in New York, U.S. The stats where 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1. It's the third time in a row Federer wons the US Open. There was a surprise in the US Open, In 3rd round Mikaihl Youznhy defeated Rafael Nadal. Youznhy was then defeated by Andy Roddick in Cuarterfinals.

Meanwhile Maria Sharapova, the third best player of the world, defeated Justine Hennin-Hardenne. The stats where 6-4, 6-4, This is Sharapova's 2nd US Open. Hennin-Hardenne is the only tennist player that has been 4 times in a row in the US Open final.

Response post

2006-09-15T08:01:00.000-05:00

I found this amazing article about scientist that discovered a dinosaur in Brazil. They say it’s the biggest dinosaur ever discovered in Brazil. They say it’s a Maxakalisaurus topai of 13 yards, there has been 4 of that species so far discovered in Brazil. I think that is very exiting to discover a dinosaur, I would like to discover a dinosaur.

"If dinosaur species were soccer goals," says scientist Andrew Kellner, "Brazil would be getting pounded."

I agree with Andrew Kellner`s comment. This is a great discovery for Brazil and for scientist Andrew Kellner that is very happy. This dinosaur was discovered near Prata.l

My Friend´s Blog 1

2006-09-01T08:11:00.000-05:00

This are 3 of my friends blogs. This are the first links I have done. This are Friends of my homeroom.

This is Miguel blog. He likes soccer and he is in my homeroom class.
http://mm1994.blogspot.com/

This is Julian blog. He is a very good friend. He is one of my best friends.

This is Stefano blog. He likes soccer and he likes the same team as me.

Education and Technology

2006-08-24T07:34:00.000-05:00

Blogger can help in many things example it can help in expressing people’s thoughts or to improve in writing and to know more people and know more about people in Colombia, but not only in skills and spelling in Colombia but in many other many places. So having a Blogger it is a new and instresting adventure.

Specialy now its good to have a Blogger because is know the world based on technology, so their is a lot of technology all over the world. Blogger can be a very good expierence for everyone including an adult. So now almost everyone can make a blog so it is very good.