One last post :(

Hello all! It is with great sadness that I announce that I will taking a step back from sharing my thoughts on this blog. As I am wrapping up my first year of college I am also looking towards the future. Next year I will be taking on harder courses while also starting a new job. And if I hope to maintain my sanity any free time I have will go into sleeping or watching tv.

I have learned so much from being able to share my raw thoughts with you over the past three months. I have realized that it’s good to have an outlet for my thoughts which is why I have decided to take up diary writing. Or atleast try lol we all know those only last for like a couple days. I hope to one day be able to come back to all of this but for now I must say goodbye. I leave you with this picture of a happy puppy I found on the internet. Enjoy!

Image result for puppy

Response to Mirya Falamin’s post.

Hello all! It looks like yet again another week has come to its end. It seems like just yesterday I started my first year of college, which will be over in a couple of days. I was recently scrolling through my feed when I came across Mirya Falamin’s post about Pride month. I completely agree with everything that she said in her blog. Pride month is spectacular, and it’s all about celebrating who you are without being afraid that people will judge you. It’s a time where everyone shows their support for the LGBT+ community so that they can feel welcomed. Although I do wish that everyday people would show their support for the LGBT community because there are still so many reports about people being killed, bullied, and excluded for being part of the community.

I think that this month is a great time to call out corporations and politicians on their bullshit posts. I can’t believe how many companies and politicians, including the president, have made posts in support of the community and wishing everyone a happy Pride month when they have been known to be against the community. It’s evident that making posts like this are just tactics for them to sell stuff or gain approval, but honestly, at this point, it’s been made very clear who really cares about the LGBT community. People need to understand the Pride Month is not something to use as a way to promote your product. It’s about connecting with the people who support you and who care about you all of the days of the year not just so that they can rock a rainbow flag next to their Twitter name.

Something that Miyra also mentioned in her post was the article on the high ranking religious official who issued a statement saying that celebrating Pride Month was “promoting culture and encourage activities that are contrary to the Catholic faith and moral.” I’m actually not surprised that the Catholic church pulled something like this. I grew up in a Catholic household, and I attended church every Sunday, so I have some experience dealing with ignorant people like this. Thankfully it is not everyone, and some people are part of the church that supports the LGBT community. Religion is supposed to be something you turn to when you are feeling lonely; it’s not something that should push you away. Pride month is truly a time to celebrate who you are and who you love. No one should be made to feel as if they don’t belong somewhere just because of what they identify as.

Before I end this post, I wanted to share a quote from my favorite show, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Side note everyone should watch this show it’s so funny and it brings up so many good topics. Anyway, the quote was said by the character of Captain Raymond Holt, who plays an openly gay police captain, when one of his detectives came out as Bi. He says, “Every time someone steps up and says who they are, the world becomes a better, more interesting place, so thank you.” So don’t be afraid to be who you are; I promise you that there will always be somewhere you will be welcomed.

No More Movie Deals for Georgia!

Hey everyone! Another crazy week has gone by, and that means it’s time for me to talk about something that stood to me this week. Now if you have been keeping up with my post these past three months, you know that a couple weeks ago I kinda went on a rant about the new abortion bills that are being passed and are currently up for debate in various states. One of those states being Georgia. Recently the CEO of Disney was asked whether he will continue to film movies in Georgia given this new law. His response was a great one, in my opinion. He has announced that he will most likely not continue filming in this state because of the law. He said that he believes that because of this new bill, most of the actors and crew will not want to film there, and he will abide their wishes if that is the case. I don’t how many of y’all know this but Disney has filmed several movies in Georgia, including the movie Black Panther, Avengers: Endgame, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. All of which are among the highest grossing films in the world with Avengers Endgame being the highest grossing movie of all time. Stopping the filming of movies in Georgia will really take a toll on their economy, seeing as they gain a lot of money from these films. It’s been reported that Georgia earned 100 million dollars from Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and that movie didn’t do as good the other two, so I can only imagine how much money they made off of them. Honestly, it serves them right for passing such a stupid and inhumane law. I hope that by messing with their money they will see the light of day, but that’s probably highly unlikely.

It’s sad however that this will affect millions of people that live in Georgia, some of which had nothing to do with the law. Big companies pulling from any business with Georgia affects any carpenters, hairdressers, and small business in the state. Apart from Disney, Netflix has also said they will no longer film anything in Georgia and other states that have passed this law. To better gauge the impact that this will have on Georgia, the article also stated that the film industry provides over 92,000 jobs to people in Georgia. Although there has been no response from the state of Georgia about this news, I think we can expect a response soon given that it’s affecting their wallets. Which if you think about it, it’s the only way we ever get a response or any type of resolution, when there is money involved. Given all the backlash that Georgia has received, it makes sense if more companies choose to halt any deals with the state of Georgia. This will probably happen because companies know that if they support Georgia in this bill, there is a high chance that people will boycott their product.

Here is the link to the article!

*Response to Yellis*

It’s been quite the chaotic week, and this week my feed has been filled with tons of interesting stories. One of the ones that stuck out to me was the one yeellis posted on the unfortunate death of a small puppy. Jenelle Evans, one of the original Teen Moms, posted heartbreaking videos on her Instagram, mourning the loss of her dog. Now the dog did not die of natural causes, which is what caused such a stir, Jenelle’s husband, David apparently shot the puppy for biting his daughter. I understand why he would want to punish the dog for hurting his daughter. After all, we all want to protect our children and keep them far from harm, but this was certainly not the way to do it. The poor dog did not have to lose its life for something like this. It’s clear that the dog meant something to Jenelle as she was inconsolable and sobbing loudly in her videos. I honestly don’t understand why David had to go to these extremes, why couldn’t they sit down rationally and decide what to do with the dog. David explained that he reacted in the protection of his daughter but to be honest, ending a dog’s life, that way is cruel and should warrant a fee or jail time. They could’ve put the dog up for adoption or given it to someone that could actually handle the dog.

Looking at the videos that were posted, it’s clear that the little girl was bothering the poor dog. She was continually harassing it and would not leave it alone. I agree with Yellis on this one, the dog reacted how any animal would, and the little girl should not have been bothering the dog in the first place. I mean we wouldn’t go poke a lion and then shoot it down because it bit us. At that point, it was the little girl’s fault for bothering the dog. Yellis also brings up a good position in regards to the dog’s life. This being that although it is a dog’s life, it still matters. It was a living breathing thing, not some inanimate toy you can get rid off. Most people see their pets as part of the family, maybe even at the same level as a child. Which is why we must care for all living things and not go around with the mindset of oh it doesn’t matter because it is not a human with feeling. In my opinion, dog’s do have feelings, and they are capable of love. A thing which even some humans are not capable of.

Fans who follow the show were quick to point out that Jenelle’s husband David has a history of violence and is known to have a quick temper. Honestly, he should at least have to talk to someone and work out his problems before he is allowed to be near his daughter or family because who knows when he can erupt. The producers of the show have already released a statement and have removed the family from the show.

Surprise Pregnancy

Hello everyone! It’s been a week since I last posted something and for that, I apologize. I was taking a break from writing to study for my upcoming exams, but for now, I am back! Recently while I was scrolling through the news app on my phone, I came across an article that was updating the public on a genuinely appalling story I had heard about late last year. The original article divulged information on a 29-year-old woman who gave birth in December last year. Now you may be asking yourself, “well what is the problem with that? ” The problem ladies and gentleman is that this woman had been in a coma for 14 years. Meaning that someone from the care facility she had been a patient at had raped her and impregnated her. After a lengthy investigation, the culprit was found to be 37-year-old Nathan Sutherland, a nurse at the facility. Although he pleads not guilty, there is DNA evidence proving that he is, in fact, the father of the baby. As the story developed, more and more awful things came out of the investigation. First of all the lousy medical attention that she received was horrible, the nurses and doctors at the facility we’re equally as surprised when she went into labor, as they did not know that she was pregnant in the first place. They even gave her laxatives when they noticed she was gaining weight and ignored that her period had not come for nine months. According to the article, there were 83 opportunities that the medical staff had to diagnose the patient, but she was misdiagnosed as just having a hard mass in her stomach. Now, this was all information from the original article, the newer piece that I stumbled upon had more recent developments. The main one being that after running multiple tests at a different hospital, it was determined that this was not the first time that the victim had been pregnant. While examining her, they uncovered years of rape, sexual violence, and possible earlier pregnancies. Also, in this article, it says that although she was in a coma, she could still feel everything during the labor and was not given any medication to ease her pain. At this point, I am disgusted by everything that I have read about this case. It’s incredibly troubling that she was put through all of this and that that man took advantage of her situation for something so sick and perverted. It also brings up the question of whether we should trust facilities like this to take care of our loved ones. I think about facilities that deal with end of life care, the elderly, or those such as this one which deals with patients in comas and I wonder what else can be going on. I hope that this case will be able to shine a light into facilities like this so that they open their eyes and prevent things like this from ever happening again. I did also read that the baby is fine and healthy, which is, and I hope that there is someone to take care of it.

Here is the link to the first article. The second article can be found here.

Another Week Another School Shooting *response to Blue501*

Hi all! First off I would like to say Happy Mother’s day to all the mothers out there. As the week comes to a close, it’s important to reflect on the craziness that consumes our world. Today I will be responding to the post made by blue501 titled “High School Student Saves Classmates from Shooter.” Earlier this week yet another student has tragically lost his life during a school shooting. 18-year-old Kendrick Castillo was just a couple days away from graduating high school when on May 8 two students from STEM School Highlands Ranch opened fire on the school. The two students have been identified as 18-year-old Devon Erickson and 16-year-old Maya Mckinney, who identifies as male and goes by the name Alec. Their motive for committing this heinous act has not been made public yet, but many sources are saying that it could have been a copy cat shooting. Given that the school is located near Columbine High School, where 13 people were killed in 1999, the 20th anniversary of this was only a couple of weeks ago.

Similar to what Scar had said in her post I have a hard time thinking of what I would do if something like that were to happen at my school. While I am not in high school anymore, there has sadly been plenty of college shooting. It’s incredibly troubling that this can happen at any time because really you never know what goes on in the mind of people who choose to commit these murders. Hearing the stories of these shootings makes me paranoid, and that is not how someone should feel when they are just trying to get an education. I’m also wondering what the hell is going through the minds of the people in power. Like do they honestly care more about their stupid guns than the lives of children? How many more kids have to die before we change our gun laws? At this point hearing about shootings on the news doesn’t even shock anyone because they are happening more and more frequently. One of the articles that Scar linked mentioned that a week before this shooting there was one where two people died nearby at the University of North Carolina. It’s unfortunate that this has become something we see every week and often no attention is brought to these shooting, so they get written off.

Kendrick Castillo is truly a hero, because of him no other people had to lose their lives. He did not deserve to die this way and given that today is mother’s day I can only imagine the pain that his mother is going through today. Events like this make me feel frustrated and powerless because the people that can actually do something are refusing to do anything to stop these events. The United States government should be looking at New Zealand for example, days after the Christchurch Mosque shootings their government banned the type of gun that caused the death of 51 people and made sure the shooter was brought to justice.

Here is the link to the website where I got my information. Also this is the link to Blue501’s post! Thank you for reading, see y’all next week 🙂

The “Heartbeat” Bill

The topic of abortions has always been a controversial topic, one that not everyone can agree on. Everyone has an opinion about this topic; personally, I think the choice is in the hands of the mother because ultimately it is her body. The reason I bring up the subject of abortion is not to impose my opinions on the world, but simply to inform whoever reads this on a new bill that has been passed which rips the right to decide away from the only person who should be allowed to choose. Recently Georgia became the third state to pass what is known as the Heartbeat Bill, a bill which states that “no abortion is authorized or shall be performed if the unborn child has been determined to have a human heartbeat.” The two other states that have passed this are Mississippi and Ohio. This bill is practically banning abortion all together because of the timeline of a woman’s pregnancy. The fetal heartbeat can be detected as early as six weeks after having sex, a time at which not many women know that they are even pregnant. As soon as the bill was signed on Tuesday, there was a crowd of protesters waiting outside, some of whom were also dressed in the famous red cloaks from the popular show The Handmaid’s Tale. A show in which fertility is rare and fertile women are forced to have sex with men in power to further the population their new world. This has often been used to show the extremes of restricting a women’s control over her body.

The head of the ACLU for Georgia and others are already drafting lawsuits to take this bill to the courts. States like Montana, North Carolina, and Wisconsin are pushing for laws like the “Infanticide bill” which would require medical professionals to save babies who are still alive after an abortion. The problem with a bill like this is that it is trying to make something that rarely happens to seem like it happens every time there is an abortion. Now, of course, there is a reason that conservative states are now more than ever pushing anti-abortion bills and that is because of Donald Trump’s recent declarations about abortion at one of his rallies. Here Trump said something that really riled up the crowd stating that at abortions grown and healthy babies are being “wrapped up in blankets and then sent off to be slaughtered.” This makes no sense because abortions are not allowed after a certain point, usually 22 weeks, according to the supreme court decision in Roe v Wade. Saying things like that just further perpetuates the misconceptions society has about abortions. The idea that most people don’t understand is that banning abortions and criminalizing them does not stop people from having abortions. All it does is lead to abortions happening in unsafe conditions for women where a procedure that could have been completed safely in a hospital is done under unsanitary conditions. This is definitely a lot to think about feel free to reply to this post with your thought 🙂

Here are the links to the two articles in case y’all want to read them.https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/07/us/heartbeat-bill-georgia.html?action=click&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=Article&region=Footer&contentCollection=U.S. https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/07/health/georgia-abortion-bill/index.html

ASTEROIDS! *response to Ryan Sun’s blog*

Hi all! Today I will be responding to Ryan Sun’s blog post on a potential asteroid threat that was brought up recently by Bill Nye, my favorite science guy, at the International Academy of Astronautics’ 2019 Planetary Defense Conference. Bill Nye’s speech on asteroids revealed that the threat of an asteroid hitting Earth had been found, but no one is sure as to when. That’s super scary to me like it could literally hit whenever and we have no way to protect ourselves from that. I agree with what Ryan said in his blog we have to begin to look at ways to protect our planet from any space threats. The stakes as to what can happen are way too high as to ignore this threat, but given this country’s response to fighting Climate Change, we’re in for a long road of battles.

We all have had a science class, so we know what at asteroid did to the poor dinosaurs and the destruction that came after. Of course, after reading this I decided to scare myself even more (as I usually do lol I love watching natural disaster movies even though they scare me 4 life) by looking up what happened in the days, weeks, and years after Earth was hit by the asteroid, and trust me losing the dinosaurs was not the worst part :(. I came across this website called Smithsonian.com which gives this information in an easy to understand way. Cause trust me some of this astronomy lingo just ain’t it. Anyway, some of the things on here are crazy, and it shows the impact of what an asteroid hitting our Earth has done and will most likely do again. The asteroid that hit Earth over 170 million years ago landed in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with a blast that disturbed not only the crash site but led to earthquakes and landslides as far as Argentina. The oceans, of course, went crazy with massive Tsunamis along the coasts.

Following this, there was so much radiation and heat coming from these tiny rock particles called Spherules that the Earth began to heat up. These small rocks create so much energy and radiation, about the same power as a megaton Hydrogen bomb, which was transformed into HEAT. The Earth was literally on fire!!! Whatever life managed to survive this heat was then faced with an “impact winter” which was basically a year of darkness. Reading this makes me wonder how we can ever survive anything remotely close to this. Our planet is slowly dying from Climate Change, and if we don’t begin to protect it, there is no way we will ever survive external threats. Truthfully, I don’t think that an asteroid will only impact a small portion of the world, it will destroy EVERYTHING if we don’t begin to come up with solutions. I think it’s a great idea to use the asteroid that will be coming close to Earth in 2029 to study it and learn how to protect ourselves from these new dangers we are facing.

Image result for asteroid images

A New Captain America! *spoiler warning*

Hello everyone and welcome back to my blog! It’s been a crazy week in the movie world with the release of the highly anticipated Marvel movie Avengers Endgame. I got to see the film on opening night which was AMAZING! I am a huge Marvel nerd but beware there is a small SPOILER in my blog post this week. It’s just something that has sparked a lot of conversation, and I really wanted to be able to talk about it. Near the end of the movie, we got to see Captain America pass on his shield to one of his best friends Sam Wilson aka The Falcon. Now if you have never seen a Marvel movie you may be a little confused right now as to why this matters. The reason this is such an important part is that it provides even more representation for people of color within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Captain America as we know is played by actor Chris Evans, a typical white man with blonde hair and blue eyes. The character is considered to be a symbol of America in all its glory so him hanging up his shield was quite a scene. Having him hand over the shield basically passing the torch to Sam Wilson, played by Anthony Mackie (an African American man), was a fantastic thing and it truly is a step in the right direction. To have this iconic role that has been by a white man since 2011 and has always been drawn as white man in the comic books be played by a black man is definitely different but a good different. It’s a fantastic feeling to see yourself represented on the big screen because often we don’t get to see that. It proves that anyone can be Captain America regardless of race. Captain America is a representation of the United States of America so having him be a person of color makes so much sense given that America is a mix of cultures and people. Anthony Mackie revealed recently in an interview how he feels about taking on the role of Captain America, and honestly, I think his words are the perfect way to explain the emotions that many Marvel fans are feeling. He says, “It means a lot to me for my sons to see Captain America as a black dude and for me to be that dude to my sons. So that moment was not just, ‘Hey, we’re acting.’ It was more of a thing. And then they cut, and I cried. And Chris cried. And the Russos cried. And everyone cried. It was an emotional day.” That basically sums up my reaction. As a side note, this movie was one of the best movies I have ever seen; it was so funny and just wrapped up the last 10 years of Marvel. I started crying when the lights began to dim and ai didn’t stop till the lights came back on. It’s crazy to think that we will never see Chris Evans as Captain America anymore, but honestly, I am happy with who will be taking on the responsibility next.

Here is the link for the article: https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/chris-evans-broke-big-avengers-endgame-news-anthony-mackie/

Image result for chris evans and anthony mackie
Anthony Mackie and Chris Evans 🙂

BLACK HOLES!!!

Hey everyone! Today I will be responding to Scar’s post on the incredible image that we got to see this week. At this point, I think everyone has seen it and if you haven’t seen it and have no idea what I am talking here is the image for reference.

When it comes to this image of the FIRST BLACK HOLE, we have been able to capture on camera my feelings/reactions are quite similar to what Scar talked about. I’m so excited to be able to see this. A couple of years ago I don’t think the world thought we would ever get to see something like this. Mainly because like it’s a black hole and any images before would be pointless to show because all you could ever see was the darkness of space. Black holes are super denser and absorb all the light around them which is why we weren’t able to capture them before. Now the process of how they did it is a little bit wonky in my mind mainly because I suck at all that techy engineering astronomy stuff. If you wanted to talk about Chemistry or Biology, then I’m your girl. But nevertheless, I am still psyched about this discovery.

I really enjoyed reading Scar’s post, and she did way better at explaining the sciency stuff. You can read her blog here if you want. But basically, they used 8 different telescopes to be able to capture the image, all of the telescopes had to work together. After programming them to work in sync, it took a week to be able to put together the image that you see above. Over 200 scientists from NASA worked on this project, but one of the most influential was Dr. Katie Braun. She was responsible for creating the algorithm that made all of this possible. Of course, her being a woman caused quite an uproar in the misogynist community. But honestly their comments are 100% irrelevant because this isn’t about them, it’s about being able to celebrate a scientist because of her work. Bashing it merely because she’s a woman just proves how stupid those people are. If anything I believe this will inspire more women to believe in themselves and to pursue a career in the STEM field. There’s not a lot of woman in this field, and we could always use more. I hope this is something that little girls will see and it will inspire them to be whatever they want to be.

And while we still have a lot of unanswered questions about black holes, I think that this progress is truly amazing. And honestly, after this even though it might take some time we will be able to answer more questions about this crazy universe we live in. I also really want to hear your reactions. What did you guys think about the image? Did you ever think we would be able to see a black hole? Thank you for reading my blog 🙂 Have a great weekend!!

Dr. Kate Bouman with her algorithm!