Chile vs. Haiti

The earthquake in Chile was far stronger than the one that struck Haiti last month. But the deaths in Chile are much lower. Why? I asked myself. But then I found out the reasons are simple.
Chile is wealthier and better prepared. They have stronger buildings, fast emergency response, and a long history of handling catastrophes like this. I also found out that no living Haitian had experienced a quake at home when the earthquake last month crumbled their poorly constructed buildings. But still Chile was very lucky this time.

My Top 3 Movies of 2009

Now that the box office has been tallied for the movies in 2009, I would like to pick my 3 favorites.

My number one movie would have to be UP. Up is the story of an old man, Carl, and a boy, Russel. Together they attempt to put Carl's house in his dream spot for his wife who passed away but always wanted her house on the top of a waterfall. Did he accomplish his wife's dream or not? Why don't you watch Up and find out! My second favorite movie would be Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. In this movie Harry's in his sixth year at Hogwart's, and in his Potions class he finds a book with all the correct things to do and all the answers. There is an inscription that said it belonged to the "Half Blood Prince". Trying to figure out who that was, Harry goes on a long and treacherous journey where lots of things happen to him, good and bad. Did he find out who the Half Blood Prince was? Why don't you watch Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and find out! My third favorite movie would definitely be Avatar. In this movie a man named Jake Sully goes onto an alien planet as an Avatar, but he's a bad guy trying to help the humans. But he bonds strongly with the Na'vi people and soon protect them by betraying his own kind. Do the Na'vi people hate him and are they all safe? Why dont you watch Avatar and find out!
These were all great movies and you should watch them all! For the UP fans, you would want to put your house on top of a waterfall, it's so beautiful. For the Harry Potter fans this movie was so good it'll be like they cast a spell on you because when you watch it, you're in a trance! And for those Avatar fans... maybe one day we can all go to the Avatar planet, Pandora.

Piston Trainers Smart Move

Arnie Kander, the Detroit Pistons' coach, says he's never seen as many ankle, knee and groin injuries as he has this season. I laughed at first but he's not kidding. Three different Pistons guards Richard Hamilton, Ben Gordon, and Will Bynum, all missed time thanks to messed up ankles. He said he asked himself, "What's that saying? Two's a coincidence, three's a trend."

Then like any good NBA trainer, Kander quickly figured out that it was a specific brand of sneakers, Nike Hyperizes, that were making the Pistons' ankles go lame. He then BANNED them from being wore on the team!

The Annoying Orange Saw

OMG! THIS VIDEO IS SOOO FUNNY!!! In this video a Youtube user makes fun of Saw and it made me laugh several times because this is exactly how Saw is except the Annoying Orange made it funnier. Saw is always saying, "Let's play a game," and now The Annoying Orange gave definition to that statement! Watch to see what I mean!

Giant George

The world's biggest dog, who's ever been alive, is a Great Dane named Giant George! He is literally a 'Gentle Giant'! Giant Georgie measures 7 feet 3 inches from nose to tail. He's only 3 inches shorter than Yao Ming! I mean I'm taller than them both but they're still pretty tall. He also weighs a staggering 245 pounds. How can his legs keep that up!! My dog weighs like 70 pounds and when he stands on you it hurts really bad! I can imagine this dog! And he wouldn't even be able to sleep on my bed with me! He'd hog the whole bed! If I had this dog I wouldn't be able to take care of him either! He probably needs a lot of exercise and his business would be bigger than me! He wolfs down 110 pounds of dog food a month! Looks like I'll see this pup AROUND! Heh heh.

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, and school or college. Personally, I just downloaded Facebook yesterday and it's done wonders for me. I've caught up with old friends and already organized events on it! I wanted a Facebook because my teacher said raise your hand if you have a Myspace or a Facebook and everyone raised there hand... but me. If you don't have one yet I reccomend it!

Apolo Anton Ohno - Yawn

It was seconds before the biggest moment of his career... the excitement was too much for Apolo Anton Ohno. And apparently he couldn't hold it in any longer... so he yawned, and I laughed.
People started wondering why he yawned so I looked further into it and found that a friend of Ohno's, who asked not to be named because"Apolo might not like it", revealed Ohno's secret... that the yawning lets extra oxygen into his lungs in the seconds before bursting across the ice.
Ohno himself later confirmed, "It makes me feel better. It gets the oxygen in and the nerves out."
So I'm going to try that from now on. I wonder if my teachers will be offended if I yawn at the beginning of every class!

This Car Makes YOU Rich!

Last Thursday US researchers unveiled a vehicle that earns money for its driver, instead of guzzling it up in gasoline and maintenance costs. The Toyota Scion xB, is the first electric car to be linked to a power grid and serve as a cash cow. This car does not run on gas but it charges... with a charger suprisingly! The Scion was the researchers' way of introducing the "vehicle-to-grid" (V2G) concept. This V2G thing is beginning to gain momentum in the United States and around the world. "This makes the car useful not only when it's being driven, but also when it's parked, as long as you remember to plug it in," said Willett Kempton. Willet is leading a V2G project in a University in Delaware. A V2G car is connected via an Internet-over-powerline connection that sends a signal from inside the car's computer to an aggregator's server. A V2G car is connected over an Internet powerline connection that sends a signal from inside the car's computer to a server. This helps the car owner and power grid management companies, which are constantly trying to keep electricity output at a constant level. When the grid needs more power, companies usually draw from traditional power plants. Which in the United States are often coal-fired.
I was thinking, if everybody in the U.S had one of these cars... there would be no more gas stations and we wouldn't have to buy gas from other countries... then we'd have more money and we could have free health-care! This car could be the beginning of everything! I know when I get old enough to drive I'm buying this car, because it'll all pay me back in the end!

Super Bunny!

This super bunny, Ralph the Rabbit, set a new record for bunnies! Ralph lives in England. He wieghs 42 pounds and he's 4 feet tall! That's almost taller than me! This fat bunny has several biscuits, a huge bowl of rabbit food, cabbages, half a cucumber, apples, and two loaves of bread... for breakfast! This bunny has bit her owner on the leg, shoulder and face! Looks like this super bunny belongs on the villain side!

New Keyboard

What the heck!!! Wait, correction, wth! This new keyboard that was just invented has abbrievations for Instant Messaging. Like LOL is laugh out loud. FYI is for your information. TMI is to much information. L8R is later. So on so forth! When I first saw this keyboard I LOLed! Literally! So if you see this this keyboard in the stores show your mom and say, "Feel free to LOL at this new keyboard!"

Best Ski Crash in HISTORY

As I was watching the Olympics I observed Sweden’s Anja Paerson. She was Alpine skiing and ski jumping in Wednesday’s women’s Olympic downhill. When she finally soars off the final jump and flies over 60 meters... she crashes into the snow. I was looking ;for the video of that happening and I just happened to find this video. At first I was like :/ then I was like xD. It made me laugh and I wanted to share it with you guys! Enjoy!

Holy Shiz-a-liz-a-bing-bong

Jahlil Okafor is 14 years old. Why am I writing a blog on him, and why is HE so special? This giant is still in eighth grade, and he is already 6-foot-7! Doctors said he could end up at around 7-3!! That kind of height tends to catch quite a few coaches' eyes. A coach who saw this 8th grader offered him a scholarship. For college! This boy in 8th grade got a scholarship for basketball college! That's amazing!

I know I'm going to eat the same stuff he ate and do exactly what he does on a daily routine and maybe I'll grow out of my midget stage! I'm 5 feet tall in 8th grade! He's just amazing!

Ronald Pwnage

This video has 3.6 million views on Youtube, and I wonder to myself why! It's stupid, pointless, but at the same time I laughed at least 10 times. In the end, this video does have amazing sound and video editing. I would like to thank my brother for introducing me to this mindless video! I warn you, this video will kill a couple hundred brain cells, but you will definitely LOL.

President's Day

Did you know that President's Day is Washington's Birthday?! This holiday is celebrated in the United States and is a federal holiday! It's celebrated on the third Monday of February. I thank you George Washington, for you make me have no school on the third Monday of every February! Trust me, one day, it's not going to be called President's Day or Washington's Birthday. It's going to be called Alex Day! A day celebrated after me.

4 Foods That Help Your Heart!

Garlic: Yes, this good tasting stuff that makes your breath smell bad also helps your heart a lot! Some ways you can use garlic are using it as a seasoning for food so you can greatly reduce salt. I'm going to be eating a lot of garlic! Not because it helps your heart though, I have to keep the vampires and werewolves away that live under my bed!

Salmon: Salmon might not taste as good as a saturated fat burger, but it sure helps your heart A LOT MORE. Yes, some saturated fat is fine, but reducing it to a little goes a long way. The daily cheeseburger some tubby people eat has more than half a day's worth of the artery clogging fat that increases your risk for a heart attack. Sure it's ok to eat them sometimes, but when you eat salmon it lowers that risk thanks to heart healthy fats. Now when I eat my burgers, something fishy bothers me, telling me I'm doing the wrong thing!

Berries and Cherries: Yum!! One food on this list so far I think is yummy! I have to give props to nature’s candy. These sweet treats are high in polyphenols, trust me. (I didn't know what that was until I looked it up! It helps prevent cell damage!)
Hot Cocoa: You read right... HOT COCOA!!! Hot cocoa is brimming with antioxidants! Suprisingly, it has two times more than red wine and three times more than green tea. The cool February temperatures are no match for a mug of hot cocoa. I'm going to drink this every SINGLE day it's cold!

Seller's Shock!

It's not every day you see a real-life gold-in-the-attic tale play out on eBay. Last week, a North Carolina eBay thought she was putting up an everyday, 80s-era Nintendo Entertainment System. It turns out this system was almost worth more than me! And I'm very expensive! She sold it together with five games on the popular auction site, eBay. But less than an hour after the first bid, the price was over $6,000... on Wednesday, when the auction closed, the final selling price topped $13,000!

I asked myself, why? It turns out it wasn't even the game itself that was worth the bulk of the money. No, it was one of the games bundled with it - a 1987 release called Stadium Events, a highly sought after collectors' item. But wait. It wasn't the game either. It was the stupid original cardboard box! Collectors value the box at freaking $10,000. Fewer than 10 complete copies of the game are thought to exist. Gaming freaks consider it one of the hardest-to-find NES games ever made. Looks like this girl's got the gaming freaks all freaked out! Not for her, but for her game!

The Dark Knight Sequel

Ugh!!!!!!!!!!!! Another Batman?! A sequel to the Dark Knight?! No thank you! The first movie was long enough for me! Besides they can't have the Joker anymore, at least not a good Joker, now that Heath Ledger's gone! They don't have a lot of info yet, but the two villains that are probably going to be in it are going to be the Riddler, played by Johnny Depp, and Catwoman, played by Angelina Jolie.

The Last Airbender!

Ahh the most popular cartoon show with the highest rating of all time getting its own movie? And directed by M. Knight Shyamalan?! Woah!! This is going to be the greatest movie ever! Even the trailer gets me going! The movie looks like it has great special affects and great action scenes! I can't wait to see it and I bet you won't be able to either, once you watch the teaser above!

Real Life "Sleeping Beauty"

Recently, a girl named Louisa Ball was found with a rare disease named Kleine Levin, or the Sleeping Beauty syndrome. It causes her to sleep for days without awakening even if she is being shaken around! Her parents were shaking her and she still didn't wake up for 13 whole days! That must have been scary for her parents! The doctors told her that it would wear off in 8-12 years! Imagine sleeping for 2 weeks or longer for 8 to 12 more years! What kind of stuff would you miss out on?! Watch, one day she's gonna wake up and we're gonna be in the next millenium!

FCAT Writes

FCAT Writes. Kids despise it, parent's enjoy their kids taking it, teachers LOVE it! Luckily for us kids in Florida, the FCAT Writes only come 3 times in our whole school life! Once in 4th, once in 8th, and once in 10th! Unfortunately, today was one of the days I had to take it, and I have to admit my Language Arts teacher Mr. Gurreonero did a very good job of teaching me and I think I got a six out of six! Plus, I got a wayyy better prompt than I did in fourth grade! In fourth grade my prompt was, "If you had to be an animal in a zoo what animal would you be? Explain." I still remember that prompt, only because it was so stupid though! My prompt this year was much more reasonable and understandable. It was "What was the biggest change between middle school and elementary school? Explain." Yes, us kids despise the FCAT Writes but this year for me it wasn't so bad and it always comes back to help you in the future. So I thank you FCAT Writes!

The Wii Hurts!

The Nintendo Wii has helped tens of millions of gamers get into shape with it's Wii Fit.But Wii injuries aren't the first time Nintendo has been linked to medical problems! Gamers that play a lot will recall Nintendo thumb or Nintendinitis! This is a form of strain injury first noticed in heavy gamers. Get up off the couch you lazy bums! Then you won't have medical problems from playing too many video games!

So now the newest injury is falling off the Wii Balance Board. Although the board is only a few inches from the ground, a mishap can still lead to anything from soft-tissue damage to broken bones! I know I'm not playing that game anymore! (Not that I ever played it anyway! Too much work!)

Ramp Shot!

You crazy people! This wouldn't even occur to me! First, I wouldn't go off a ramp in water because I might drown, and I definitely wouldn't go off a ramp with a basketball! I would lose my concentration and have more chance of dying! But apparently, some people in this world have some guts. In this amazing video some friends build a ramp and ride off of it with rollerblades! The rollerblade rider doesn't even drown! But the exciting part is when he flies off the ramp! This would be an awesome X Game Event. Basketball ramp shooting!

Mudslide!!

Man, L.A really is really messed up at the moment! Some bad weather is happening, and the citizens don't seem to like it! Big mudslides swept away cars and pushed furniture out of homes!! We are in a crisis, people! At LEAST 41 homes were severely damaged! 500 more were deserted after the heavy rains overflowed the streets and carried away cement poles and swept cars into storm drains! Thankfully, no one was hurt, thanks to the brave heroes like the man up above saving a tiny, old, lady!

Whole Town Bought!

A Latvian deserted town was bought by a Russian Investor for 3.1 MILLION dollars! The town formerly known as Skrunda-1 was home to about 5,000 people during the Cold War, but it was abandoned over a decade ago! What would a Russian do with this deserted town?!The town contains about 70 buildings, including apartment blocks, a school, barracks and an officers' club. I would get lonely, but that's just me. Crazy Russians!!!

Expensive Art!

A rare life-size and life-time bronze cast, from 1961, of Alberto Giacometti's L'Homme Qui Marche I, better known as "Walking Man," became the most expensive work of art ever to sell at auction today. It sold for an amazing $104,327,006!!! The man sorta resembles me... skinny and scraggly!
The price barely edged out the previous record, set in 2004 by Pablo Picasso's Garcon a la Pipe, 1905, which went for $104.1 million at the time. I won't earn that much money in my whole life!
Estimated to sell for £12-18 million, the much-talked-about Giacometti figure of a spindly man, who resembles a survivor of an event, frozen in mid-stride, started bids at 104 million! Good God!! I'm gonna go carve a piece of rock myself and become a millionaire!!

Six Biggest Rip-offs!

Recently, I found out that 6 things can increase your bills by A LOT. These things are text messages, movie popcorn, free credit reports, name brand pain-killers, wine at restaurants and college textbooks.

First, text messages can make your bill much higher if you have a pay-per-text plan. The 160-character messages typically cost 20 cents outgoing and 10 cents incoming! This can mark the price up by as much as 6,500%!!!

Second, college textbooks are way over-priced! Students have no choice but to buy the textbooks for their courses, shelling out hundreds of dollars per semester on textbooks they'll use for only a few months! The supplies and books you need for college now totals up to about $900 of stuff a YEAR! I'd rather teach myself at those prices!
Third, Free Credit Reports... There's nothing free about handing over $179 a year for information at FreeCreditReport.com. Why would you even name the website that if it's not free! More like GetRippedOff_ForFree.com!
Fourth, brand name pain killers aren't worth a 900% markup over a normal brand of pills that's exactly the same. A 50-count bottle of 200 mg Advil tablets costs $8.49, versus just $5.29 for the exact same bottle of un-brand named pills.
Fifth, wine at a restaurant cost wayyy too much. Ordering wine in a restaurant can cost six times as much as drinking the same bottle at home! For example, a bottle of Sutter Home's White Zinfandel goes for $24, but it retails online for as little as $4 per bottle. Some people just want their booze bad!
Last, movie popcorn is a killer on your wallet! A medium bag of popcorn costs just 60 cents to make but retails for $6 at the movies! If you're an Avatar fan, that's enough to make YOU turn blue!

Toyota FAIL

Recently, Toyota failed making its cars. When you're driving and you try to stop, the brakes might not work! The car could get in an accident, run off the side of a cliff, drive into water... so many bad things could happen!

Now Toyota is out there giving people instructions on how to stop their car when this happens. You have to switch into neutral and hold down the brake pedal and pray! I feel bad for Toyota though they really messed up! They can say goodbye to their good reputation!