Men Stoned to Death in Iran(#15)

Recently i read an article on cnn.com called 'Men Stoned to Death For Adultery, Murder in Iran'. In this article it talked about how before it was banned, in Iran they would stone people to death. They would bury the person in a hole up to their neck so they couldn't get out then they would allow stones that are "large enough to cause pain, but not so large as to kill the victim immediately" to be thrown until they die which increases the suffering and time of the death. This was used as a punishment for many crimes, in this article it talked about it being used after the ban was set two men were stoned to death and a third one escaped his hole and is waiting for his punishment. In the past it was more common for women to be stoned because of their level of illiteracy they would sign confessions to crimes they did not commit because they could not read it. I thought this punishment sounded extremely painful and dragged out i hope that no more people have to face the same fate. I this article was also very informative.
link to article: cnn.com

Eclipse By Stephanie Meyer(#14)

Recently i started reading a book called eclipse by Stephanie Meyer. It is the third of four books in the twilight series. The series is about a teenager Bella Swan who just moved to Forks Washington to live with her dad, when she goes to her new school she meets Edward Cullen. Edward is a part of the very mysterious Cullen family who no one knows much about. In the first book Bella discovers their secret, they are a family of vampires. They are not your ordinary vampires they don't drink human blood they only feed off of animal blood. Throughout the first two books they eventually fall in love during the second book they go through some tough times but in the end they end up together. In the second book Bella makes friends with Jacob who turn out to be a werewolf. Werewolves and vampires are sworn enemies and that caused some issues when Bella and Edward get back together. So far in the third book nothing much has happened besides Bella trying to convince Edward to turn her into a vampire so she can live forever with him and never age. I like this series its pretty good it just takes me a while to get into the books but i am excited to see whats going to happen.

If smoking is so bad for you, who still does it?(#13)

It is pretty commonly known knowledge that smoking greatly increases you risk of getting lung cancer, emphysema,chronic bronchitis, and a lot of other health issues. But if you think about how much we hear about how bad smoking is and what it does to you you still see people on the street corners smoking, i recently read an article called 'If smoking is so bad for you, who still does it?' by Andrea M. Kane on cnn.com. It talked about how all we hear about smoking is how bad it is but there are still people smoking, it explains the main demographic of those people and why6 they do it. They talked about how as level of education increases there are less and less people smoke, a lot of smokers who are older started when it was the norm to smoke and no one knew how bad it was. They talked about people recalling how there were ash trays in church pews and you could smoke in the delivery room after giving birth to a baby. The article also talked about although it is viewed as something severely challenged people do even former presidents and our future president all smoke. I thought this was a great article because it made sense to me that why are people still smoking if it costs so much and you know how bad it is for you.
link to article: cnn.com

How to Add Years to Your Life(#12)

On cnn.com there was a blog posted by doctor Gupta called 'How to Add Years to Your Life'. It talked about the small and easy things you can do daily to add years onto your life and keep you healthy longer. One way he listed was to floss daily, gum disease has a direct connection to heart disease so flossing can help prevent two things, and it was proven to add an extra year onto your life. Another suggestion was to limit yourself to two cups of coffee a day, that would add one more year. Daily small doses of aspirin could add two years onto your life. Checking blood pressure regularly, cutting down work hours to 45 to 50 hours a week and excersizing three times a week adds a couple more years onto your life. If you do all of those things you could add up to a decade onto your life. I thought that this article was cool because of all of the easy things you can do to keep yourself around longer and healthier longer.
link to article: cnn.com

Jobless 'transformed' with right clothes(#11)

I read an article from cnn.com called 'Jobless 'transformed' with right clothes'. The article was about an organization called dress for success. Dress for success is an organization for the unemployed who are looking for a job or have an interview. If they can not afford proper business attire dress for success offers free donated business suites. The organization has been feeling the drop in the economy, this year the unemployed people coming for suites has doubled in most of the locations. Because of the layoff more people are in search of jobs and because of the economy most of the jobless don't have enough money to get suites. I think that this organization sound really unique. There are a lot of charities getting food which is important and houses which are also important but for those people in need to get out of poverty they have to get a job and this is an inventive way to help for the getting a job process. i think this article is a good thing also because it is getting the word out to people in need and people who well off financially and could donate the business attire that they don't use anymore. Over all this sounds like a great organization.
link to article: cnn.com

Charting the psychology of evil, decades after 'shock' experiment(#10)

i read an article called 'Charting the psychology of evil, decades after 'shock' experiment' from cnn.com by Elizabeth Landau. The article talks about an experiment con ducted by Stanley Milgram in the 1960's. He would take one person and put them in a room and told them they were to teach a student in the next room a pair of words and if they got them wrong the teacher was to turn on a shock machine which delivers innocent person in the next room a 450 voltage shock. Of course this shock was fake and there was no person in the other room there was a recording of painful reactions. But the teacher in the other room didn't know that but some people continued to deliver the shock until the person stoped making noises and some refused to continue. this experiment revealed that if someone seems to have some authority over a person the person will obey their orders no matter what.Recently the experiment has been recreated but they used people who were not familiar with the earlier experiment. In this case though they told the subject that they could stop shocking the student whenever they wanted to but there was really no large change in the results less that fifty percent of the subjects continued the shocking. This experiment displayed that good people can do evil things just based on orders given by a superior. i thought that this was very interesting article.
link to the article:cnn.com

Necessity vs. luxury: What makes resolutions stick?(#9)

I read an article called 'Necessity vs. luxury: What makes resolutions stick?' on cnn.com by Madison Park. This article talks about the most popular new years resolutions and how people justify cheating in their goals and how to keep on track. The article says that for example if someone it trying to lose weight and they skip a workout and have a dessert after dinner and they feel guilty about it so they make excuses for themselves like it was a long day and i don't feel good. But as they do that they makes themselves fell like that is okay to do then they end up putting it of and maybe never even reaching their goal. The top three new years resolutions this year are to loose weight, quit smoking and save money. All of those resolutions can not be achieved without determining what is necessity and luxury. In a study the subjects called bottled water, umbrella, laptop, lamps, suits, Internet service and mouthwash necessities and gym membership, soft drink, beer, coffee, cable and bicycle as luxuries. When i read this i was surprised i think that everything on the necessity list that belong on the luxury.The researchers recommended that when you set a goal you should make it specific with a plan of action so you can not justify all of you slip ups and achieve your goal faster.
Link to the article: cnn.com

Confessions of a gas station owner(#8)

Recently i read an article called confessions of a gas station owner by J.D. Both on CNN.com. The article talked about how the higher gas prices makes the gas station loose money. Gas accounts for 70 percent of the sales but accounts for only 30 percent or the profits. The rest of the profits come from food, drink and tabacco sales. When the gas prices get higher customers are less willing to go into the actual store and buy something that makes the gas station more money instead of the gas which they get the same amount from that no matter the price. Gas stations have put in ATM machines and sell lottery tickets to drive people into the store so once they are inside they will want to buy food a drink or a tabacco product which keeps up the profits of the gas stations. i thought this was a very interesting because you would think that the higher the prices the more profit but in this case it is the opposite the higher the price the lower the profit.
link to the article: cnn.com