Social studies: Swine Flu

An important aspect of our society is our health status, and as a new, and serious sickness is developing I fint it right to blog about it.

Health officials worldwide rush to contain a spreading swine flu outbreak. As many as 103 deaths in Mexico are thought to have been caused by swine flu.

Historians have always said that a new pandemic like the Spanish Influenza, the black death and SARS will strike our world and kill millions of people sooner or later in the future.

May this disease, the swine flu, be that next pandemic?

The latest news right now (14:23 GMT) is that four persons have been hospitalized in Denmark due to symptoms related to the disease, and one man is being tested in Haugesund.

I'm grateful for living in a priviledged country like Norway in which millions of vaccines have been stored for a situation like this, but I sure hope we never reach the step were our survival depends on them. My thougts go to victims in Mexico and to their families.

The Nothing-To-Do Generation

I recently read an article in which the author tries to determine what British youths are like today. The author uses the following words:
“Theft, burglary, twoc (1), assault”

Hm, kind of generalizing I would say, but the sad fact is that this is actually the case. Young Britons differ from other youths by how they spend their spare time. The typical British youth is a hanging around a lot, basically doing nothing at all. Sadly, many old people are intimidated by the attendance of these youths.
However, the youths are aware of their unusual existence. In the article (2), one admits: “There ain’t nothing for us to do. We would rather be sitting the warm”.
This could be the problem exactly.

Compared to youths in the rest of Europe, young Britons are living much more “rough” lives. In a poll mentioned in the article it is stated: “Measured against German, French and Italian youngsters, British 15-year-olds are drunk more often and involved I n more fights, and a higher proportion have had sex.” (2)

Personally I’m thinking that this article should inspire British politicians to advance this cause, yeah, to make an effort to change this negative trend.

NOTES:
(1): - Explanation of the term “twoc” – taken without owners consent
(2):- Article made by BBC NEWS

A little status update concerning Written Senior Project

As told earlier on the blog, I've chosen to do a project on suicides in the United States. The statistics show that the US has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Did you know that in the United States there's a person committing suicide every 16 minutes? Look at it this way; it simply means that 20 people have killed themselves during our English class today...

I've done research, gathered information and analyzed statistics. The writing remains.

In addition I intend to use the novel "The Virgin Suicides", by Geoffrey Eugenides; a fantastic and compelling novel about five bizarre teenage sisters who commits suicide.

The Power of Media: Barack Obama on Jay Leno Show

Jay Leno is a famous man in America. He is famous because of his success with his talk show called “The tonight show” – a show which is has become legendary in American television history. When someone like Barack Obama appears on that show, it can result in both positive and negative consequences.

One of the advantages is obviously publicity. The Tonight Show is a very popular show with many viewers, and guests have the opportunity to reach out to various people. The setting in the show is sort of informal, this is the time to chill and talk about other stuff besides politics. This setting enables the viewers to get an insight in how Obama is when it comes to his personality – they simply get to know him better.
I believe this is an advantage.

All publicity is good publicity, can’t seem to find any disadvantages about Obama’s visit.

Take a look at Obama's visit at Leno's here: http://online.wsj.com/video/obama-on-the-tonight-show-with-jay-leno/0EDC9754-D988-42FE-A131-EC9C8EDEFD6C.html

OneNote

OneNote is software developed by Microsoft to take and organize your notes. The program also provides opportunities for information gathering, and multi-user collaboration (this way members of a group can work offline, and all their work can later be synchronized).

OneNote can be used on any type of computer, but its full functionality is best suited for laptops, especially tablet computers (at which you can use your handwriting instead of a keyboard).

The interface is easy and reminds one of the classic old loose-leaf notebooks, and it can be used to collect pages which are printed with a virtual printer, information sent from other applications or files “dragged” directly into the application. The facilities I just mentioned combined with the fact that one can add media recordings or links, and that the program provides an ingenious print-screen-function, really makes this software suitable for collecting and organizing your information.

However, the thing I like the most in OneNote is its way of indexing, and how it allows me to search within all my information.

I will recommend OneNote – it is a VERY good program, but it’s kind of overrated. It won’t do the work for you even though someone describes it that way.

Northern Ireland situation

Rioting has been a part of Belfast's daily life since the arrests of three men in the killings of two soldiers in Northern Ireland. CNN, BBC NEWS and several other medias report that petrol bombs have been trown by angry men towards the police. Gangs of youths are occupating the streets, but no one has been injured... yet.

The two British soldiers were shot dead at a base in Massereene, in Antrim, while they were preparing for duties in Afghanistan. Two men with automatic rifles shot them as the soldiers picked up a pizza delivery at the barracks.

The situation is obviously difficult and I inted to follow it.

Written Senior Project

I've chosen to do a project on suicides in the United States. The statistics show that the US has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. The novel "The Virgin Suicides", by Geoffrey Eugenides, is a fantastic novel about five bizarre teenage sisters who commits suicide. I intend to use the book in my project.