Should We Drill in Alaska?

Author’s Note: I wrote this piece because of the huge debate continuing on whether or not we should drill in Alaska.

There is a controversy remaining on drilling in ANWR which stands for Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Many are against drilling for the sake of our wildlife and many are for drilling because of their interest in our economy. I am against drilling because the refuge would cover 19 million acres and the oil could damage most of it (Source 2). Overall destroying most of our arctic wildlife and their habitat would be polar bears, grizzlies, Arctic wolves, caribou, the jeopardized shaggy musk ox and arctic tree lines.

If we drill in Alaska we could see a repeat of the gulf of Mexico oil spill from 2010, eleven people died and 82,000 birds and almost 26,000 marine mammals were killed or injured (Source 1). That could very well happen in Alaska except there is a possibility that even more animals would be killed.If you have ever watched a show on Alaskan wildlife you will understand because the creatures there are truly amazing.

Yes Alaska has oil but experts say that Alaskan oil will only give us a six month supply. Studies show that drilling in Alaska only reduces imports by 4%. Is 4% of oil imports worth killing hundreds of thousands of plants and animals(Source 3, Doc B). After the oil spill in the gulf how could it possibly be worth it?

Alternative energy is the answer; we can’t keep using fossil fuels as our main energy. Especially when we could run out of fossil fuels in as soon as 60 years (Source 3, Doc C). Although we haven’t perfected fossil fuels, it is the future of travel. If we can find a way to perfect electric or solar cars we will save many lives and resources.

All in all we should stop the people who want to drill in Alaska. This state is just too beautiful to ruin for such a small benefit. If we drill in Alaska people will regret that they ruined this astonishing sanctuary. The animals won’t exactly be too fond of it either.

Source 1-    "Gulf Disaster." Center for Biological Diversity. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Mar. 2012. <http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/program 

Source 2- Starr, Penny. "New Study Shows That Offshore Drilling Could Make Alaska the Eighth Largest Oil Producer in the World – Ahead of Libya and Nigeria | CNSNews.com." CNSNews.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Mar. 2012. <http://cnsnews.com/news/article/new-study-shows-offshore-drilling-could-make-alaska-eighth-largest-oil-producer-world>. 

Source 3- Should we drill in alaka's wilderness." Should we drill in alaka's wilderness. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <http://lake.k12.fl.us/16722057105751950/lib/16722057105751950/_files/Alaskan_Oil-Student_Packet.pdf>.

My Response to The Alamo

Authors Note: I wrote about the Alamo to try and show how courageous these men were in what they stood for.

The Alamo was one of the most historic battles in American history but was shadowed by the Civil War. Although the Civil War happened 30 years later most people think of the major wars in American history as The Revolutionary War, The Civil War and World War Two. Even though The United States - Mexican was a major war that gave us about 30% of the land America has today. I think the reason most people don't think of this as a major war is because America has a tendency to overcome great forces that try control us but in this war we were controlling Mexico and trying to gain their land.

The war was mainly for land but the Alamo was an attempt at freedom from Mexico for Texas because they wanted to join the U.S. Mexicans didn't want that to happen because America was on the rise and Mexico on the fall. If Mexico gave America any land then surely we would become the more dominant country easily. If that happened then Mexico's economy would surely suffer which is always bad.

At the time people in Europe got curious about the about the west and which country was the strongest and so not only was it a war for land but it was a statement war, which country could kill more of the other countries soldiers. A sick thing but both countries thought it was important for other countries to know what they could do with their military. Europe did take a little consideration that America was strong but not much it wasn't until World War Two that America became a world wide powerhouse. So a war that killed approximately 15,000 people could have been avoided.

All in all this war didn't need to happen but both sides governments thought they needed to tell other countries  that they were powerful. Back then all people really cared about was who was powerful near them because no one was going to cross The Atlantic ocean unless it was for a very important purpose such as the revolutionary war. Although America did get some land out of the war was it worth 15,000 lives? I don't think so because our nation might not be as powerful but it would survive without that land but obviously people back then didn't have the same opinion. 

Bullying

What do bullies try and get from bullying? It is hard to answer because there are so many different situations but in the story, even though this story is fictional the same problems come up in real life. A lot of bullies don’t realize what they are doing to the victims. All Summer in a Day written by Ray Bradbury he gave a nice example of a bully situation. Many kids and even adults have to deal with jealousy or low self esteem and that is why there are bullies in this world.

Many people don’t realize what an effect bullying has on the            victims, instead they focus on punishing the offenders which yes, you should do, but you should also try and help the victim. Sadly the victims suffer the most in these cases and need the most help. That is why many people need to step up and stop bullying if they see it happen or if they know of someone who’s being bullied: help them out and ask them how they are doing. You need to help them with all of the things they need to deal with when being bullied.

Why don’t people stand up for the victims when they see bullying happen? Many people don’t want to because they don’t want to get pulled into it. Imagine being on the other side though if you were getting bullied and other people could do something but didn’t. That the bullying could stop just if one person stood up but didn’t. Imagine what that could do for a person.

All in all bullying needs to be held to a minimal or stopped. This can have a long term affect and can put people in bad places. Also bullies need to realize what they are doing to people. This can do a very bad thing to bullies victims and people who see it.

My project with Adam and Alec

Problem- We are trying to see if the size of a ball changes your shot and your form.

Hypothesis- I will make 5 out of 30 because I am not that good at basketball but I think will do better with a men’s ball. I think I will do better with the men's ball because I am more used to the men's ball and the women's ball might be a little too light so I might over shoot the basket!

Experimental Design-  

go to the gym and shoot basketballs 15 each ball per person

have all of us shoot 15 times

add the scores up

Variables-

The balls  

Basketball court

Hoop

Produces- The first thing we had to do was shoot which wasn’t very hard. But then we had to put all our info into bar graph which wasn’t hard again but the results ended up being really close to each other. We all got in 4 and below because it is hard to change our shot in like in like 10 min so we couldn’t make many. All our goals were to make 5 or more but that didn’t happen.  

Observation- What we were trying to do is see if a having to different size basketballs would effect our shoot which by watching it did alot because we were shooting all over the place and we didn’t even hit the rim that much because of the different balls. One thing I saw was how we were shooting because we had a different shoot for both balls. The hard thing is we had to get use to each ball as we were shooting. 

Conclusion

Charlie-  In my hypothesis I predicted that I would make 5 out of 30 and shoot better with the men’s ball than with the women’s. I did both of those I made 3 with the men's and 2 with women’s. I shot horribly but some how i still tied Alec but Adam blew us out. Overall I think we learned that women’s and men’s basketballs doesn’t really make a difference its more of what basketball size and weight you are used to.

The Badgers Controversal Loss

            On Saturday October 24, 2011 the Wisconsin Badgers suffered a heart breaking loss to Michigan St. The badgers had scored two touchdowns in the last several minutes to tie the game. Michigan St. had enough time left to heave up a Hail Mary and they did. The ball looked to be well thrown when it left the hand of Kirk cousins and it was, it reached the end zone and was tipped by the Badgers defender, deflected off a Michigan St. receiver and then caught by another Michigan St. receiver and he was at about the two yard line when he caught the ball and trucked forward to attempt to score and he did “score”. The Controversy in this is that the ruling on the field was that he did not get in and was stopped about six inches before the end zone. Then the referees decided to let the booth review the call and after about five minutes they decided that ball broke the end zone plain and was ruled a touchdown.

            I personally think the call was atrocious that first off they would overturn the call on the field when the main camera clearly didn’t have the right angle to make such an important call. Second of all this is two ranked teams that could go to a B.C.S. bowl and to make that important of a call that quickly is ridiculous! If I constantly looked at that play for 1 hour I still don’t think I would know if it was a touchdown or not and I’m not suggesting that they should spend an hour looking at it while the fans I am just saying that since the call on the field was no touchdown then they should stick with that because there was clearly no indisputable evidence!

            I still think that that was a bad call but since then things have cooled off and the Badgers are back on track. The Badgers still have big bowl hopes but if they don’t win out now I just don’t see that happen. The badgers have a good team but if they don’t improve their defense then it will put too much pressure on the offense. So the saying is true defense wins championships!

The Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers Have been the laughing stock of the league the past two decades,but now they are just about to lock up the National League Central and make the playoffs and are in a race that they are leading for first round home field advantage. The Brewers finally earned some respect around the league. We can only hope
that this will be a usual thing. With the team we have tough we might be able to assume this will be a normal thing.
      

Peyton Hillis

       Peyton Hillis is the starting running back for the Cleveland Browns. He is also on the cover of Madden 12 which is a big honor. Although there is a "curse" about being on the cover of Madden 12 where the player on the cover doesn't have a good season. I like Peyton so I hope it doesn't happen for him.
       Peyton Hillis is an absolute beast! One play last year he lowered his shoulder and ran over three defenders! It helps when your 6' 2" and 250 pounds.With all that weight its not surprising he can do that.   
       Although the Browns aren't that good I would still pay to go to a game just to see Peyton Hillis if I lived in Cleveland. His explosiveness and power are unbeatable. With two mediocre seasons with the Denver Broncos I think Peyton Hillis has found his new home. All-in-all Peyton Hillis is a beast