Trash Turns Island Into Graveyard - Leah Nowell

12/3/16

Summary: Plastic has become a vital part of our lives of convenience. Yet the coffee cup lids, water bottles and bags we use once and throw away do end up somewhere,mostly in landfills, but also in the ocean. Nearly every piece of plastic ever made still exists today. More than five trillion pieces of plastic are already in the oceans, and by 2050 there will be more plastic in the sea than fish, by weight, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. Some 8 million tons of plastic trash leak into the ocean annually, and it's getting worse every year. Americans are said to use 2.5 million plastic bottles every hour.

Synthesis: This article addresses how terribly us as society treats our earth. It informs us that we all need to take action.


http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/12/world/midway-plastic-island/

Russian Spacecraft Fails after Launch by Macey Kanaman 8th Period

     Summary: Recently a Russian spacecraft failed to make it to the ISS from Kazakhstan. The spacecraft held expensive supplies for the crew in the ISS. The crew is fine and is not running low on supplies, however many valuables were lost. Much of the debris was burned in the atmosphere, but some fell down to the Earth's surface. Another spacecraft full of supplies will launch December 9th.


     Analysis: It's very scary to hear a spacecraft was lost. It just shows how dangerous it still is to go to space. Also, how dependent the ISS is on us. It makes me wonder what the crew in the ISS is developing and if they could find a way to grow food on the ISS. I am synthesizing this to when the colonists first came to the new world and how dependent they were on the old world. Eventually, they learned how to grow and make things on their own.


Sources:http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/01/world/russia-spacecraft-failed-iss/index.html

Rachel Bozalis - Nearly 600 Patients Exposed to HIV in Virginia

It was recently discovered that a dentist at Wisconsin Veterans Affairs medical center had been using his own, improperly sterilized dental equipment to treat his patients, purposefully going against the center's protocol of single-use equipment. Since the dentist, whose identity has yet to be disclosed,  began working at the center in fall of 2015, he has seen nearly 600 patients, all of whom are now learning they may have been exposed to HIV as well as hepatitis B and C. These patients are veterans who receive this treatment as partial compensation for their efforts to protect our country. House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin announced his disgust at the situation, voicing his belief that the Veterans Association needs to be reworked to prevent things like this from happening in the future. The dentist has been moved to an administrative position and is no longer seeing patients, however many are alarmed at the fact that he has yet to be fired. The hospital has announced that it will be providing free tests to those affected as well as follow-up treatment should it be needed. The probability of anyone being affected by this incident is very slim, however the medical center has decided to be extra careful to ensure that any possible damage is addressed.

It is shocking to know that a dentist working in such an important position as to treat veterans was so irresponsible and careless. Because of his actions, nearly 600 people will now have to take time out of their day to go and run tests, and should anyone be affected, deal with the consequences of this man's actions. It is shockingly unprofessional that the center did not fire immediately, as he has put so many lives in danger and went against the center's regulations for over a year. Just as medicine during the civil war was unclean and contributed to many cases of gangrene and other infections as well as diseases, the lack of sterilization will now affect many individuals. Hopefully no one was affected, however with a number as large as 600 that could possibly be affected, the chances of no cases of these horrible diseases is very low.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/02/health/va-dentist-exposure/index.html

Emma Lochabay- Trash Turns Island into Graveyard

The remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Midway Atoll, is covered with trash. This trash has washed up on the shore with the tide likely from the US or China, thousands of miles away. This island is a part of an enormous plastic garbage patch known as our oceans. Plastic waste is an increasing problem in our world. Nearly every piece of plastic ever made still exists in our world today and nearly 8 million tons of plastic trash leak into the ocean annually.

This article comes from CNN, a respectable and trustworthy news source. Before reading this article, I knew of trash being a problem in our oceans but I did not know it was to this extent. This makes me very sad to hear that our oceans and islands are so polluted! This article was written for everyone in our world to bring up the idea of the increasingly dangerous pollution problem. This article is important because it brings the truth of pollution on our earth to the surface. Something more needs to be done to address this increasing issue on our planet.

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2016/12/world/midway-plastic-island/

Madilyn Weems - Starbucks CEO Schultz Stepping Down

http://money.cnn.com/2016/12/01/investing/starbucks-howard-schultz-resigns/index.html

In this article the author discusses how the most iconic entrepreneur and business man, Howard Schultz, is to step down from his CEO position. He will not be completely gone, and will become chairman, but it's time for someone new to come in and make it fresh. Schultz had already left before in early 2000, but the company seemed to lose it's way, so he came back to get the company back up in profits. Because of him, Starbucks is valued at $84 billion and it has more than 24,000 retail stores in 70 countries. The great man who paved the way for Starbucks has also been upfront about many social issues such as supporting raising the minimum wage, and he offered his employees free college and pushed Starbucks to open a store in Ferguson following the city's violent protest. The man showed humility when he was asked if he was worried the company would fail again and he said, "The difference between then and now couldn't be greater."Schultz said the Starbucks team didn't have the "capabilities and experience" to navigate the Great Recession, and he praised Johnson's skills and said the company should get ready to gain more. Starbucks has become a leading figure in many lives today, and often puts a smile on a face in the morning who's preparing for the long school day or work hours. More than often people don't recognize  Starbucks as a powerful influence but it definitely is, and Starbucks can relate to Apple and other large companies that have the potential to become a monopoly. We will always love our treasured Starbucks and the holiday drinks, and forever miss good old Schultz, who helped make it so known.

Columbia Plane Crash- Abbey Winiger

SUMMARY- LaMia Flight 2933 was just minutes away from its destination at Medellín International Airport.  One of the crew members, his voice reflecting growing concern, sends an urgent message to air traffic controllers at the Colombian airport. "Miss, Lima-Mike-India 2933 it's in failure, uh, total... electrical and fuel [failure]." Less than 30 seconds later, the crew was back in touch with a frantic call for directions to line up for the approach to the runway. The Colombian Civil Aviation Authority could not confirm the authenticity of the recording, which offers new details of the final moments of the Monday crash of the aircraft that killed 71 people. It was played Wednesday on Colombian media; it's not known how much more was recorded. Two sources familiar with the investigation who heard the recording confirmed the crew's reported electric failure and lack of fuel. Avianca Airlines co-pilot Juan Sebastian Upegui said he was listening to the radio as he watched the jet pass to the side of his plane "going downwards, fast as s---t," according to the recording. 

ANALYSIS/SYNTHESIS- Before reading this article I had read about the  horrific plane crash through social media and the news. The death of 71 were counted and that is so awful and not even know the cause of the actual crash. This incident reminds me of 9/11 although it was not a terrorist attack it is still a major crash. This was written on December 1st so it is up to date and current to the situation right now. The audio is a tragic reminder of the incident and hopefully will help bring closure to the families affected. 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/30/americas/colombia-plane-crash-recordings/index.html

Sarah Childs- Millions of Missing Girls Found in China

Summary: China, the most populated country isssues a one-child policy long ago to help with overpopulation. This one- child policy has resulted in almost 60 million "missing girls" that are undocumented and hiding from the government. But a new study shows that around 25 million of these girls aren't actually missing, but were unreported at birth, then appeared on government censuses at a later stage in their lives. "Most people are using a demographic explanation to say that abortion or infanticide are the reasons they don't show up in the census and that they don't exist," said John Kennedy, study co-author and professor at Kansas University. "But we find there is a political explanation." When China first forced the one-child policy in 1979, the government expected local family planning officials to enforce it. However, he proved that in villages, where officials were also members of the community, the law was very hard to enforce. They'd let them go unreported to maintain good relations with the villagers. By the mid-1980s, the Chinese government relaxed one child policy in rural areas, allowing for  villagers to have a second child if it was a girl.  Yet in the 1990s, Kennedy discovered that lax policy enforcement had allowed families in rural areas to bypass the law. Now, China is drastically lacking women for men to marry, so this is to encourage women to register and feel like citizens again.

Analysis: This article was published by Emiko Jozuka from CNN on December 1, 2016. The author uses a third person point of view to convey an unbiased article. Additionally, I had absolutely no preview knowledge of this topic, so this article made me realize how important our international relations are with other countries. If we could have maintained good relations withChina, we would be able to guide them through this difficult time. This article was written for any citizen of the US or the lost women of China to encourage them to register themselves and help solve China's next issue. China's one-child policy could synthesize directly to the controversial topic of abortion in our politics today. The question of abortion being legal or enirelt cruel is Avery hard decision to make, and this is the same issue that was used in China when they had too many people. They killed their children with abortion, or left them unregistered where they are left without any rights. 

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/01/asia/china-missing-girls/index.html