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I'm learning more about butterflies right now, and in particular I'm wondering about is: are butterflies a symbol of freedom? I was researching this question online, and this blog post caught my attention because it is part of my essay. Butterflies are free little creatures, they're so beautiful &amazing. I love butterflies. "Since a butterfly can make no sound, the butterfly can not reveal the wish to anyone but the Great Spirit who hears and sees all. In gratitude for giving the beautiful butterfly its freedom," The quote I chose here is basically saying butterflies were granted freedom from the Great Spirit.

"The cocaine trade has impacted Brazil and in turn its favelas, which tend to be ruled by drug lords. Regular shoot-outs between traffickers and police and other criminals, as well as assorted illegal activities, lead to murder rates in excess of 40 per 100,000 inhabitants in the city of Rio and much higher rates in some Rio favelas.[12] Traffickers ensure that individual residents can guarantee their own safety through their actions and political connections to them. They do this by maintaining order in the favela and giving and receiving reciprocity and respect, thus creating an environment in which critical segments of the local population feel safe despite continuing high levels of violence. Drug use is highly concentrated in these areas run by local gangs in each highly populated favela. Drug sales and use run rampant at night when many Favelas host their own baile, or dance party, where many different social classes can be found. These drug sales make up "a business that in some of the occupied areas rakes in as much as US$ 150 million per month, according to official estimates released by the Rio media.""

Farmers have seen profound changes in agriculture in the past 10 years, but revolutionary technology is just on the horizon. This is a interesting article about how the technology of farming have changed in the past 10 years, and how it is likely to develop in the next 10 years. With the more advanced technology, more food can be produced, this can definitely help food security. Although in "sucky" places like Africa, the people are very unlikely to gain that kind of technology even if it is developed...

"Within the hallowed halls of academia, one of the best futurists is Mike Boehlje at Purdue's Center for Food and Agricultural Business. He sees three types of technology at the farm level that are in the process of coming to market: technology to manipulate growth processes of plants and animals, technology for monitoring and measuring systems, and automated process control technology. On its own, each area is significant, he says, but it's their coming commercial convergence that will bring the most significant change." This is very cool to read. In my previous bookmark on diigo, I talked about how technology in general can't really help farmers, especially the whole idea of the cell phone but this... this is interesting. Going forward in providing this for farmers sure as "heck" can help farmers. I mean this is what farmers need correct? More of their supply to sell, how they are going to sell it and well pretty much the time it will take to sell it. The faster they get their money the better. I sure hope that farmers don't have to pay a lot of money to get this advancement or at least will be able to get their hands on it somehow.

Something that I have been interested in learning about had been Health. I remember my teacher talking about it I was in Elementary school, but she didn't really explain it clearly. Lately , the issue had caught my eye again. I know that many people feel that health is really not important. From what I have heard health is very important no matter what. Now that's just what I have heard, it may or may not be true. I like where it says:That changed in 2006 when he started CookieDiet.com. This year he began selling his cookies at Walgreens and GNC, and opened his first Cookie Diet store in Beverly Hills, Calif. He expects 2009 revenues to be $18 million, up from $12 million in 2008, thanks in part to endorsements from celebrities like Kim Kardashian, Jennifer Hudson and Kelly Clarkson. In fact, the cookie diet business has proved so lucrative that other companies have popped up: Smart for Life (six 105-calorie cookies a day; a 35-day kit costs $279); the Hollywood Cookie Diet (one 150-calorie cookie three to four times a day, plus a light dinner; $14 to $20 a box); and Soypal Cookies, marketed as "the most popular diet in Japan" (about 22 calories each; $49 a box). The popularity of cookie diets is hardly surprising in this culture of quick fixes. Who wouldn't want to exert the minimal effort to get long-lasting results? Who wouldn't want to lose weight by consuming something verboten on most diets? "The Cookie Diet is very appealing, because it legalizes a food - the cookie - that is banned from most weight-loss programs," said Jenni Schaefer, author of "Goodbye Ed, Hello Me: Recover From Your Eating Disorder and Fall in Love with Life" (McGraw-Hill, 2009).

The H1N1 flu virus continues to disproportionately affect young people, with government figures on hospitalizations from August to October showing 53% were in people age 24 and younger." />

The way the Director Wes Anderson works and handles his films is amazing. He is, just a stated in the news piece, "a little sociopathic". I like directors that go out in their way. To be honest I'm not surprised. I've worked in a few film productions and not only is the director a bit "out there" but so are a few other of the crew members. Even my boss once told me "You have to be somewhat crazy to make it in this business"

I'm learning more about marijuana right now, and what I'm wondering about is that if marijuana was legalized the economy might not be as bad at it is now. i was researching this question online, and this blog post caught my attention because it told me somthing i was not aware of befor reading this post. "How legalization would help the economy: [More...] Alcohol is a $131 billion industry and marijuana is projected at $113 billion, which I think is conservative. Just like with alcohol, we would need people to produce the raw product, we would need truck drivers to drive it from one place to another. There are so many jobs. I'm starting to get calls from all of these lobbyist sharks. They're seeing it's a business." the quote i chose here is basically saying that the selling of marijuana makes alot of money if it was an actually job thats easy money for the economy.

I'm learning more about college basketball, and how and when it was created. What i am really interested in knowing more about is, what made James Naismith (the founder of the game) come up with such an idea? What made him decide one day to take a basket and throw something inside of it and make it a big sport. I decided to research my questions online and this one article in the NY Times caught my attention because it explained why he created the game. I chose the article i did because, what better way to find out more about the game then finding out more about the person that started it. "James Naismith and his wife, Maude, practicing basketball, a game he invented in 1891 as a way to keep rowdy students busy during winter." The quote i chose above basically is explaining James Naismith's reason for creating the sport and who he created it for. He wanted to get the kids that had nothing to do and were going down bad roads to discover the game and get interested in it. Over a winter break or a vacation instead of doing something destructive, they could go and play this sport. I think this is perfect because the game was invented in 1891 and still exists in 2009. It is my favorite sport and has changed a lot over time. It went from using an actual peach basket with no hole in the bottom to having metal rims with nets. The game has evolved into something great and with never go away.

I'm learning more about Queens sees huge surge in demand for emergency meals and food right now, and in particular what I'm wondering about is: why more than half of food pantries still had to turn people away because they ran out of food. I was researching this question online, and this news item caught my attention because it explains the problems about giving food to elder people. It also talks about Gillibrand and Sen. Chuck Schumer are co-sponsoring legislation to make permanent the Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax Incentive that encourages businesses to donate unused food items to food banks. It also states that another piece of legislation Gillibrand is co-sponsoring to help support food pantries and other charities is an extension of tax credits for seniors when they make charitable donations from their retirement savings. Such credits are set to expire at the end of this year. A paragraph that caught my eye was " Emergency measures taken in Washington over the past year dramatically increased the availability of food stamps and government purchases of food for emergency relief programs, according to Triada Stampas, the Food Bank's director of government relations and public education, but failed to fill the gap in the city." This is because it explains about food emergency. "Because of the bad economy, New York families that typically donate food, warm clothes and other basics to those in need just can't afford to this year," Gillibrand said. "As a result, food bank shelves have gone bare, and hunger and food insecurity have reached disturbing, historic highs." " The quote I chose here is basically saying the because of the bad economy that we are having right now sometimes it hard for them to find food. I think this is strong because without money sometimes it's hard to get food. But if people donate or give food that they don't eat then that's good.

I'm learning more about food security right now and in particular what I'm wondering about is Is there a food problem in Queens? I was researching this question online, and this news post caught my attention because it mentioned exactly what i wanted to know.\n\n\n"Queens sees huge surge in demand for emergency meals and food." "Queens has seen a whopping 106% sspike in the number of emergency mealss provided to hungry residents in the past two years."\n\nThe quote i chose here is basically saying that there has been a huge jump in the number of emergency food distributed to the people. Amny people are in a food crisis, and is worried about what they are going to eat in days to come. \n\nI think this is not good because what will happen when there are no emergencey food rations left then what will happen to the people? I believe New York State should do something about this before it gets worse than it is.

I'm learning more about food security in Africa as well as New York right now, and in particular what I'm wondering about is: why is food security a problem in New York City, the city that I live in. I was researching this question online, and this news article caught my attention because it shows how my community is suffering from food security. Food security affects the world and the people around us. "We need to make sure we're helping children and families who were hit the hardest by this economy,' Gillibrand said." The quote I chose here is basically saying that we as a country are suffering from hunger. This is very surprising because children and families are suffering and we should help them. The economy affected the rate of food security, because a lot of adults lost their jobs and now they cant afford to put food on the table. I think this is shocking because so many people lost their jobs in the last two years with the economic crisis that now, thousands of children and families are suffering. It makes me wonder how many people are suffering from hunger not only in the US or Africa, but the whole world. I found out that India is going through some food crisis and that many children are dying from hunger. I don't think this is an issue not many people think about. That's what makes me think.

About being charged for heavy bags in Europe, but not in America due to differences in kilograms and pounds.