Post #2

As i read further into The Whole Truth by David Baldacci, it has become quite apparent that Shaw is not going to be able to leave his job and marry Anna Fishcher. Frank, she man Shaw works for, says that the only way someone retires from what Shaw does is when they die. Anna confronts Frank and says that he is just angry because no one has ever really loved him. We also learn much more about Nicolas Creel's plan to start a was so his company can profit. He is going to attack somone, i have not yet foundout who, using Russian citizens to make it look like the russians are doing it. This goes back to how easily people can be decieved into believeing something that is an utter falsehood. Creel himself is an interesting person, someone that can be described as greedy, because he kills people to create wars that will earn his company money. Also, he is very demanding, and if things aren't done to his specifications, he get very angry. Shaw is also an interesting person, being an orphan with no family that he knows of. He has been a very large person all of his life, beating a child twice his age when he was in an orphanage. Anna Fischer is another interesting character, a semi genius that has published many books and works for an investigation company that Creel has recently taken an interest in. again, exactly 250 words, well it is now.

post numero uno

I am now on page 143 of The Whole Truth by David Baldacci, and it is quite interesting. I have found out that a billionaire named Nicolas Creel is the one trying to set up the Russian government to promote a war because he owns a company that invents new defense technologies. The way he is convincing world that the Russian government is guilty is by using the media to spread false news stories. This raieses interesting questions because many people do believe everything they hear in the media. Just because you hear something on CNN doesn't make it true. In this book, Nicolas Creel has just found an effective way of convincing the major news stations that the story is true, and by doing that, he lets the news outlets convince the rest of the world that the story is true. For many people, news stations is where they get many of their facts, and it is expected that the news they report is true. But what happens when they don't confirm their stories? People begin to regurgitate this false news and it is accepted as the truth. This is why the news outlets must be careful and do their research to make sure that the stories they report are true, and even if they aren't people are going to think that they are just because they heard it on TV or read it in the newspaper. I know i ususally believe whatever they print in the newspaper or on the news at night, but this book reminds me that even they are capable of being tricked and printing false stories. yeah 275 words.

Book Intro

The book i chose for my outside reading is The Whole Truth by David Baldacci(yes, i realize i read a lot of his books). I have read many of his books and they have all been pretty good. This book, so far, is about someone setting up the government of Russia to make it look like they have been killing some of their own citizens that were protesting the government. It is accepted by people all over the world, but they don't know that the Russian government really had nothing to do with these people and that many of the murders are fiction. I hope to find out what is really going on here.

Gender Roles

The article i read for this post was about the mistreatment of women that haven't been convicted of a violent crime. This study was done in Arizona detention centers on immigration officials that had been mistreated women that were being held there. Many women were in need of prenatal care, cancer treatment, ovarian cysts and other serious conditions. Some women also acquired injuries while they were being detained, even though the amount of forced used isn't always required because the women don't often present a threat. One woman that was abused in Africa was having bad abdominal pain and the prison wouldn't send her to a doctor, and when they finally did, doctors found a large ovarian cyst. The prisons say that they meet the federal standards, and that studies like this one are harmful to peoples understanding of immigration law enforcement; but hopefully studies like these will put pressure on the centers to change the conditions there.

Different Culture

The article i read for this post is about rice farmers in Africa and how they are very dependent on world food prices to decide how much money they will make. The problem is, that it costs them more to produce the rice because they do not get the government subsidies like many more developed countries. Prices now are fairly high, and rice farmers are taking advantage of that, but many of them borrowed a lot of money to be able to expand their production fields, and if prices don't stay high, they could all end up broke because they won't be able to pay off what they borrowed. The worry over world food supplies caused some countries to panic over food supplies because the price was rising, and their was no local production to replace the imports; so the government offered subsidized farming equipment, seed, and fertilizer to start local production. The higher prices also meant that the local farmers could now compete with the more efficient farms in Asia, allowing them to make a profit.

read the whole article here

Overcoming a struggle

Imagine if you lived in a remote part of Alaska, where many of the people didn't even have running water, and things at the store cost you twice as much as they cost here. This is the reality for the residents of Akiachak, Alaska. It is a small Eskimoe town of about 700 people that many issues that they must deal with. The cost of living in the town is very high because it is so remote, so it is more expensive to get the things you need, like food or gasoline. Also, some residents have been unable to vote because the ballots and polling stations don't have translations for the native language, Yup’ik, and have gone to court in a lawsuit to get the state to provide ballots that have Yup'ik translations on them. They recently had a rarity for the town; an Obama campaign member visited their town to shake hands and talk, which doesn't happen very often in the town.

Barry, Dan. "Remote and Struggling but Still a Bit of America." New York Times. 5 October
2008. 2 February 2009.

Earthquake

In early May of 2008 there was an earthquake that measured as an 8 on the richter scale and killed close to 70,000 people. Many chinese people believe that much could have been done to help prevent all the death and destruction that the quake caused, but chinese seimologist say that they still don't know how to predict natural disasters such as earthquakes. People that spread rumors over the internet have been arrested for saying that the government knows how to predict earthquakes and did know of this one. In the area that was effected, resiedents say there were warnings in the days befor the quake, such as the draining of ponds, frogs invading towns, and cows falling against their enclosures. This was one of the most devastating natural disasters of 2008, which was supposed to be a lucky year, and made many people in China wonder if their government really does know these things or if the simply do not care

Finally finished The Winner

The end of this book is good. First off, the police discover the identity of Jackson because he killed his sister and Matt Riggs called his old boss at the FBI and told them the situation, but they can't catch him and he escapes. When LuAnn sent her daughter away with charlie for a couple days to keep her safe from charlie, she didn't know that someone would be following her. So Jackson knows exactly where LuAnn's daughter is and goes and captures her until he can lure LuAnn to him using her daughter and kill LuAnn. But Jackson's plan goes wrong when the FBI shows up and he ends up fleeing into the woods where he is eventually killed by Matt Riggs. I liked this book, and i would reccomend it to anyone looking for their next book.

I swear im almost done with the winner

A lot has happend since my last post. LuAnn finally figured out who the man was that had followed her one day, the investigative journalist, and decided to meet with him. During this meeting she tells him the truth but then warns him that Jackson is going to be looking for him. He takes the warning but thinks that he doesn't have that much to worry about, which is a mistake because he ends up dead. LuAnn also sends charlie off with her daughter because she is scared for their safety and is left on her own to deal with Jakson. Then recruits Matt Riggs to help her because she finally found out what he used to do for a living and that he is in the witness protection program. I don't know if LuAnn can get away from Jackson this time, but i want to read ahead to see what happens.

Even More of The Winner

After being saved by the man contracted to build her fence, Matt Riggs, LuAnn goes to his house to talk to him and tells him to forget the whole thing. He has a hard time with this being an ex-cop, and still wants to help her and go to the police; and she tries to talk him out of it and he agrees to do so for the time being. Charlie goes into the town and tries to find out some information on the man that had followed LuAnn, but finds that he used fake names and adresses to rent the car. Also, Jackson finally finds out that LuAnn has returned to the US after 15 years against his orders and that someone has been trying to illegally find information on her. So he decides that he must go down to Virginia to investigate the mess that she has created. Alot of things happend in this set of chapters and i want to read more to find out what effect these things will have on LuAnn's future.

More of The Winner

The reporter that has been looking to uncover LuAnn Tyler waited out front of LuAnn's house and confronted her by telling LuAnn her real name, which she hadn't heard in over 10 years of hiding from anyone else except Charlie, or Robert as LuAnn learns his real name. When she hears this while she is in her car, she immediateley speeds away and is followed by the reporter and eventually rammed when the man, and ex-cop, she contracted to build a security fence around her property comes and saves her from him. The man returned to the estate, he finds LuAnn has not yet arrived. When she does, she denies that she was being chased even though she clearly was, and that intrigues Riggs, the fence man. After the chase, you also learn more about the reporter who was chasing LuAnn. He moved out of his house into a more secretive place and the car he crashed while chasing LuAnn was a rental. You also learn that he is very good at his job, he's been doing it for 30 years and won a pulitzer. Im excited to read on and see how LuAnn reacts to being discovered.

Part 2 of The Winner

After winning the lottery drawing of $100 million, LuAnn must quckly escape the country to get away from the 2 bodies found in her home. Jackson has a plan to get LuAnn out, but she may never be able to return to the US again. That is where part 2 of the book begins, after she escapes, and it is set 10 years later. LuAnn has just bought a house in virgina and is trying to move back to the US but it is very hard for her due to what happend 10 years ago. At this same time, an investigative journalist is writing an article on lottery winners, and he is looking at past winners and whether or not they declared bankruptcy. He notices something strange about the lottery winners from 10 years ago, none of them have declared bankruptcy, but instead they seem to be doing very well. He looks at the names, and notices one that is very interesting, LuAnn Tyler. After reading all this, the reporter thinks he has an idea of how to uncover where she is. I am looking forward to seeing how the reporter plans on doing this.

The Winner

I have gotten further in the book The Winner by David Baldacci since my last post. LuAnn finally made up her mind to accept the deal that Jakcson presented to her. Before she calls Jackson to tell him that she has accepted, she goes back to her trailer where she is attacked by a man that has already killed Duane over drugs and is trying to kill her. Then she calls Jackson and tells him she accepts and he tells her to buy a lottery ticket. She then decides to travel to New York for the drawing, but she does not notice that a man has been following her ever since she left the trailer. When she arrives in New York, she stays with a man that is worrking for Jackson in a hotel and waits for the drawing for a prize of $100 million, which she ends up winning with the help of Jackson. But she is not publicly known as the winner yet when the story of 2 dead men appears in the paper and the report that police are looking for her. I am excited to see where this leads as i continue reading.

Started The Winner

I started the book The Winner by David Baldacci (as you can see, im reading a lot of his books because my dad keeps buyin them) this week. The book starts with a man named Jackson, whom you find out likes to change his appearance as his business changes, offering a poor 20 year old georgian women named LuAnn Tyler a guranteed shot at winning a $50 million lottery. When he gives her the offer in his office, she doesn't believe him and to prove that he can come through on the offer, he turns on the TV on right before the winning lottery numbers for a $1 million jackpot are announced and tell LuAnn the winning numbers before they are announced. This makes LuAnn believe him that he can get her to win, but she thinks that if she accepts ths offer, she will be doing something illegal. While she is thinking about whether or not to accept the offer, she thinks about her 8 month old daughter and about how the money could get her out of the run down trailer she is living in and away from her alcoholic, unemployed boyfriend. I haven't read much of this book but i am looking forward to see if LuAnn will accept the offer or not and what Jackson really has up his sleave.

Finished Last Man Standing

I finished the book Last Man Standing by David Baldacci this week. After this, Web is reassigned to protect a family, named the Canfields, whose son was in a hostage situation at a school that Web took part in stopping, but in the process their son had died. Web has to protect them because someone is killing people that were involved with the presecution of the organization that took the school hostage. After this, Randall Cove, an undercover agent, is killed by the head of the Canfields farm who is using the horse trailers to smuggle drugs into cities. You also find out that it was Gwen Canfield that was killing the people involved with the death of her son and she is also the one that killed Web's team. She ends up dying in the end and so does the farm hand/drug lord. In the end Web is considering leaving the FBI, and meet up with his old father that he has never met and start a new life.

Last Man Standing

I'm about half way done with the book Last Man Standing by David baldacci, and it is a very interesting book. The media has taken an interest in Web London because at a funeral for one of his team members, the wife had come and screamed at him in front of the cameras. When he arrives back at his house and his house is surrounded by reporters and he pulls his gun on them and that makes him one of the top stories in the nation. Later, he decides to visit the home of the undercover agent that gave them the information on the building where his team got ambushed. The house is already being watched by the FBI and when he arrives, he finds out that the agent had lost his family due to a blunder made by the FBI and that he may be trying to get back at them and he may have set London's team up. When they are leaving the house, the agent watching over the house is killed right in front of London by a sniper in the forest.

Started Last Man Standing

I started a book today called Last Man Standing by David Baldacci. It starts out with a group of FBI agents going into a hotel to get a drug lord and his financing people. the team is led by a man named Web London who has sort of panic attack upon enterint the hotel that ended up saving his life because a trap was set to ambush he and his team when they entered the courtyard of his hotel. He was the only one to survive the ambush out of a seven man team and the FBI has no idea who is behind the attack or how they the ambushers knew they would be coming. This makes them want to questiont the undercover agent that they were getting their information from, a man named Randall Cove, but there is one problem, he was attacked and left for dead after the ambush and is nowhere to be found. The book is very interesting so far and i have only just started it but look forward to finishing it.

Withdrawl from Iraq

I read an article today in the Star Tribune that was about how on sunday, Iraq's cabinet accepted a plan that would allow the U.S. forces in Iraq to stay there longer. Under the U.N.'s current mandate, U.S. troops will have to withdraw from iraqi cities by the end of June, and fully withdraw from iraq by december 31, 2011. Although the bill was passed by a large margin in the iraqi Cabinet, it is expected to face more opposistion from lawmakers in Praliment. Some of both Shiite and sunni lawmakers oppose the law and some would like it to go on a public referendum for the people to vote on. The lawmakers are being pressured to make the descision before they leave to attend a hajj in Saudi Arabia. It is still unclear whether or not the bill will be passed, and if it is not, the U.S. troops still have 3 years to withdraw before the country is one hundred percent under iraqi control.

Transplants

I read an article in the Star Tribune today by HJ Cummins that was about how the first bone marrow transplant was performed 40 years ago at the university of minnesota and it was celebrating that fact. The article talked about a man named Dr. John Wagner who performed the first marrow transplant that was used to cure a disease other than a bone or blood disorder, which was a deadly skin disease. The University of minnesota medical facility is one of the best in the country, a fact i learned last august when my mom had a new kind of liver transplant where the took a piece of my mom's sister's, my aunt's, liver and put it in my mom, and not having her wait for a whole one from a cadaver. Medicine has come a long way in the last 40 years, and this article was written to show how much people appreciate the life saving work doctors all around the country do.

Bad ways to die

I was looking for something to read for my post for today and i came across a pretty amusing website, www.darwinawards.com. This site is a collection of articles and urban legends about the stupidest ways people have died. My favorite article was about a polish man who claimed he was the macho man in the world. When he and his friends were drinking one night, his friend sawed off the end of his foot, and the man just couldn't be outdone by his friend, so he took the saw and sawed off his own head. another good one i read was about a terrorist who didn't put enough postage on a letter bomb he was sending and it came back to him marked "return to sender", and he opened it and was killed. My other favorite was about a group of protesters who were protesting how pigs are sent to slaughterhouses so they freed a herd of pigs and then were trampled to death by 2,000 pigs.