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One of the most discussed issues in American sports today is the current bowl system in college football. Majority of the Americans, especially fans, favor on having a playoff, just like in every other sports leagues, to determine a National Champion, rather than having multiple Bowl games. According to survey conducted by Quinnipiac University, 63 percent favor a playoff system while getting rid of the current system. Only 26 percent favor on keeping the BCS (Bowl Championship Series) system. Even the President of our nation, Barack Obama favors a playoff system in college football. This issue was even involved in the U.S. Congress. The House was planning on passing a legislation to remove the current BCS system and implement a playoffs to decide a National Champion. However, 48 percent of the fans do not think it's a good idea for Congress to get involved with this, while 45 percent do. The Congress hasn't done anything yet. I personally believe that the Congress should stay out of this and worry about much more important government issues. What exactly is the BCS? It is a selection process that creates five bowl games that matches up the top 10 ranked teams in the nation. The Number 1 and 2 ranked teams in the nation are matched up for the BSC National Championship game. The other teams are subjected to other BCS bowl games which are, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans, the Fiesta Bowl in Glendale, Arizona and the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Florida. From the season when the BCS was created, the National Championship game rotated among the 4 bowls. But starting from 2007, the BCS made the Championship Game as a separate match up from the other 4 bowls. How are teams selected to a bowl game? There are two types of qualifications, which are automatic qualifications and at-larger berths. The top 2 ranked teams automatically qualify for the National Championship Game. In college football, there are many confere

this article is relatey to me because mt throat also hurt from singing too muc hthe saddest part is i have a vocal lesson today and i ahve to go which is preety bad i shouldt have sing yestherday than maybe my throat wouldnt hurt today than i will get to sing as much as i want today. it hurts becuase too much air went though my throat or soemthing now it hurts to swallow hopefully it will beb etter soo n im goign to try not to talk for like the rest of the day well at least a while. im goign to have to take train and another train to get to the place where im goign hopefully i get to the early train thna i wont have to miss a train even though im not sure waht time the train is hopefully is not too long im finally going to learn how to sing like a real person hahahha.

"A phone can be used to call for help in a medical emergency, find information about crop prices, enable cashless transactions and banking services, or simply save someone from making a long journey when the only option is to visit in person. Professor Jeffrey Sachs, a leading development economist and director of the Earth Institute, has said: "The cellphone is the single most transformative technology for development." This is interesting. I know that smart phones help give so much information now a days; its like having a laptop fit your pocket. Just pull it out and have information given to you by simply looking up what you need to know. This would seem great for farmers to have but given the prices of owning a cellphone and paying the rate plan is kind of expensive. Especially for farmers who are poor. In Africa, times are very tough and there is a lot of poverty over there. "Matthew Elesu, 27, wearing an Arsenal shirt, explains that he buys a car battery from the town of Soroti for 150,000 shillings (£48). The journey there and back costs 4,000 shillings (£1.28), four times what it was only a couple of years ago. Elesu then charges 400 shillings (13p) to charge a phone, which usually takes four hours. The margins are slight. "I make money, but only enough to buy some bread," he says." This shows how even cheap technology affects the money farmers could make. Its a cool idea to help farmers but in the end it does little to no effect in my opinion.

I'm learning more about diseases like diabetes and heart disease now, and in particular what I'm wondering about is: Is is diet or genetics that determines if you get these diseases or not. I searched in the New York Times for "fast food and cancer" and I found this op-ed piece to be interesting because of how it connects personal issues out to big societal ones. "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, three-quarters of health care spending now goes to treat "preventable chronic diseases." Not all of these diseases are linked to diet - there's smoking, for instance - but many, if not most, of them are." Seventy-five percent of health care spending goes to things like heart disease and diabetes, which are preventable if we just had better diets!

"This is known as sleep drunkenness, when a person hovers between sleep and wakefulness, said Dr. Lisa Shives,"\n\nA very interesting topic about sleeping too much can cause you sleep drunkenness

I'm learning more about "Life on Mars" right now, and in particular what I'm wondering about is: Is there life on Mars? I was researching this question online, and this blog caught my attention because It said that there is a possibility that bacteria could live on Mars. I thought this discovery was ground breaking, and I thought that nothing could live on Mars. "The question of whether life in the form of bacteria (or something even more exotic!) exists on Mars is hotly debated, and still requires a resolute yes or no. Experiments done right here on Earth that simulate the conditions on Mars and their effects on terrestrial bacteria show that it is entirely possible for certain strains of bacteria to weather the harsh environment of Mars." The quote I chose here is basically saying certain bacteria may be able to survive on Mars, but this is only inferred after a series of experiments, conducted on Earth. I think this is interesting because it makes me wonder if Humans will ever be able to live on Mars, or if anything does exist there, or if anything exists even outside of earth. I first read this and thought, "wow!" this is really amazing. I continued reading and found out that it was not completely true. All of these experiments were conducted on earth, but the test(s) simulated to be like the terrain on Mars. I began wondering why don't they just attempt to place the bacteria, I am sure on less person wouldn't affect the population that badly. I know that is a bit harsh but I don't care.

I came across another piece of information a couple of days later which dealt with more theories of why people love to watch horror films. This news article titled "Why Do People Love Horror Movies? They Enjoyed Being Scared" by ScienceDaily states that new research suggests "horror movie viewers are happy to be unhappy." Investigators generally use one of two theories to explain why people like horror movies. The first is that the person is not actually afraid, but excited by the movie. The second explanation is that they are willing to endure the terror in order to enjoy a euphoric sense of relief at the end. However researchers Eduardo Andrade and Joel B. Cohen have argued that those two theories are incorrect. Horror movie viewers are happy to unhappy because in their book, their "novel approach to emotion reveals that people experience both negative and positive emotions simultaneously -- people may actually enjoy being scared, not just relief when the threat is removed. As the authors put it, "the most pleasant moments of a particular event may also be the most fearful."

What I noticed most about, "Searching for Main Street's Flushing Pimp," was they managed to find out the reason Emanuel Milton behaved the way he did. He had schizophrenia and many health problems. He got schizophrenia after his mother's death. He believed that dressing well gained you respect so he made his appearance, his number one priority. We learned that he lived his life the way he wanted to despite his health issues. When the podcaster said, "When his mother died that trigged his schizophrenia," I was thinking how a single event can drastically change a person's entire life. I think this is interesting because I believe that Emanuel was traumatized by his mother's death and that influenced him to become the person that everybody on main street saw him as. Another part that caught my attention was: "I don't think he was a pimp, I think he just dressed like that to get attention." This stood out for me because as the podcast continued, they learned that this was actually true. According to his sister, he believed that dressing well allows you to get respect. In a way he did, from many people on Main Street, he was able to accomplish his purpose of being the way he was. Since, he was so eye-catching to everyone around him; he became famous and was titled "the pimp on Main Street," not necessarily because he was a pimp but his appearance said that. I do strongly agree that "the pimp on Main Street" brought life to the neighborhood because he caught everyone's attention by his outrageous and colorful clothing. One reason I say this is because most people in Main Street were able to recognize him. Another reason I agree is because no one else ever managed to dress in such a manner and maintain it over many years. Thank you for your podcast Helen Peng, Andrea Torres, and Rayon Wright. I'll look forward to seeing your work again because you had interesting thoughts and managed to gather a lot of information on such a vague topic

Dear Hiba, I liked "Mapping Main Street A Collaborative Documentary Media Project" because you talked about the Flushing Pimp. One sentence you wrote that stands out for me is: "I do strongly agree that "the pimp on Main Street" brought life to the neighborhood because he caught everyone's attention by his outrageous and colorful clothing." because it is true. Another sentence that stood out was: "no one else ever managed to dress in such a manner and maintain it over many years" because it is also true. Your post reminds me of something that happened to me. I was waiting outside a store and I saw the Flushing Pimp. I talked with him and he seemed interesting. Thanks fro your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next because what you wrote and what I think are similar.

Dear Hiba, I like how you picked out a lot of the main points in our story. It seemed that you listened to our story very well and understood what we were trying to say. After reading a lot of others' comments to our story, I suddenly feel a longing to see the Flushing Pimp again. Like you said, he is part of our neighborhood. He was truly a character even though he had schizo. Thanks for responding to our story! Your feedback is well appreciated! -Helen :]

Something that I have been interested in learning more about has been danger flowers. I remember my Science teacher in third grade talking about it I was very young, but I didn't really understand it because I was very young. Lately, the issue has caught my eye again. I know that many people feel that some flowers are very danger. From what I have heard, this is true. Some flowers are very danger and can harm you. For example, I heard that there is this specific flowers that can kill you if you touch it or eat it. Now that's just what I've heard, it may or may not be true. One thing that I know for sure is that some flowers are healthy and others are bad. Now I've studied my share of Environmental Science, and I believe that it's something that people should know just in case you don't know that some flowers are danger. Personally, it's funny to me how flowers that are mainly red are the ones who are poisen. This was immportant in the past because, back then there was many people dieing for strange reasons due to poisen flowers. What I know about this topic is that you should be very careful with kids because kids are the ones that usually pick flowers and sometimes end up eating it. The flower is the reproductive structure of angiosperms or flowering plants. Compared to the reproductive structures of other plants, the flower is unique in several ways. It consists of four kinds of modified leaves, two of which (stamens and carpels, the latter sometimes called pistils) bear pollen and seeds. According to the fossil record, flowering plants appeared only about 140 million years ago, although some recently found fossil evidence suggests that they appeared 80 million years before that. Being that I didn't have a lot of background information on danger flowers, I chose to do some research on the topic. As I searched for blogs and news articles on Google, I came across this one article: http://www.ansci.cornell.edu/plants/. This article provided a lot of info

Im learning more about college basketball and basketball in general, and what i am particulary wondering about is how different was the sport then (in 1891) to now. I was reasearching this question online and this blog post caught my attension because it explains the history of the game. "After rejecting other ideas as either too rough or poorly suited to walled-in gymnasiums, he wrote the basic rules and nailed a peach basket onto a 10-foot (3.05 m) elevated track. In contrast with modern basketball nets, this peach basket retained its bottom, so balls scored into the basket had to be poked out with a long dowel each time. A soccer ball was used to shoot goals. Whenever a person got it in the basket, they would give their team a point. Whoever got the most points, they would win the game.[2]" The quote I chose here is showing how the game evolved over many years. When the game was first created the basket was very different from the ones we have today, along with the basketball and some of the rules. Now everything is completly different but for the better. There are gyms, parks, rec centers a lot of different places all over the world where people can play the game for fun of try to actually make it a career. Before it was just something to do to get kids off the streets, now it has perks. Scholarships are given out, and many are getting paid millions of dollars to play the game. I think this is a perfect blog about the game then and now because a lot of people can really learn from this. It makes me wonder if people really know the complete history behind the sport even college and NBA players.

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.

you need to be aware of issues anywhere in the globe. And to solve these sorts of problems, you need to be in dialogue with people across the globe.

""People with Asperger's have a special ability to remember a particular event in a detailed manner. But they don't understand the social context of the situation," says Dr Rajendra Barve, psychologist. " This stood out for me because we can't remember things in details the next day. But they can remember things clearly.

"Jane McGonigal talks with Daniel Zalewski about alternate-reality gaming. From "Stories from the Near Future," the 2008 New Yorker Conference."

"Can the alllure of gameplay be a force that draws people together?" Mcgonigal talks about massively multiplay gaming. She believes that instead of building games that are very different from the reality, she wants to build reality within the games.She starts off by telling the history of game and the father of games, herotitus. She saids that the core focus in game play is to engage yourself within the system. She also states that she believes that people play games because when they're playing a game, they're not suffering. I think this is true because people feel happy when they play a game that they like. Whenever I'm bored and unhappy, I go to my computer and start playing one of my favorite games. I really like the examples that she gives. One of the examples is world of warcraft. Tons of people play this game and wish that it were to become true because people online are so much more cooperative than people in reality. Before watching this video, I never thought about this kind of stuff before. I've always wondered what kinds of new games they would create since games are starting to become boring. I think that there should be more reality games instead of make believes so that we can learn from those games to live a better life. We can treat those games as personal trainers. I think that it would benefit many people because because there is a high percentage attraction towards games.

Well right know, we are learning about gaming. I never really thought about the new technology that's going to be produce for gaming since I always really just thought about the games. I do wonder though what kind of technology would be produced. I hope it's pretty cool though like one of those future movies excluding the part where it takes over humans....I rather not be running around with little robots chasing me. Yeah, that really doesn't sound to appealing "This is ancient dice from the kingdom Lydia where Turkey is today. They used knuckle bones like from sheep to make dice." I find the dice very interesting. I really can't imagine the dice being formed from knuckle bones. I wonder how they do it. I'm going to guess that they used fire and pressure to form it? Not really sure, it's probably going to be similar to that I guess. "A future forecast: 2013. We increasingly live our real lives inside of massively multiplayer games." I find that pretty interesting for the fact of its 2010 and it kind of like that now. I mean people are playing massively multiplayer games even today. Mostly online. I think by 2013 something of what she's talking about will appear. It'll probably from Asia and it can be like that future movie where people live in a 3D world. They're like hooked onto machines and stuff. That would be interesting. Maybe dangerous.

This is important because it tells me about what music does and why it causes such emotions like happiness and anger. Knowing what sound waves trigger certain emotions and the effects it had on the human body