Current Events 5- Mayor Threats

Earlier this week,  Boston mayor Thomas Menino told a group of collage students that he would slowly torture three suspects accused of robbing and killing a pizza delivery driver. A student caught on tape him explaining why the death penalty was unfair when he got off track and started saying that if he caught the suspected murderers he would like to have a fight with them. Also that he would do something worse than the death penalty. The judge jailed the 3 students accused of the crime without bail. Thursday he said he regrets saying what he did and that his emotions got away with him. He also says that he is not in favor of the death penalty but this killing grabbed him the wrong way and that he was just angry about it.

Critical Thinking Question:
Should he be punished for saying this?

Current Events 4- Africa's Progress

   In the village of Dertu, Kenya, there is little electricity. Except for the cell phone tower on the edge of the village. This means that farmers no longer have to hours to get latest market prices, they can get them by text. It is one of the other 13 villages called Millennium Villages designed to show how simple technology can drastically reduce global poverty and boost education, gender equality and health by 2015. About 70% of Dertu's people earn less than $1 a day and most of them depend on food aid. Generators and solar energy provide only cell phone charging, not the school's nine computers. Though, there are improvements like 4 new heath care workers, free medicines and vaccines, a birthing center and laboratory and bed netting to keep out mosquitos. The malaria percent has dropped from 49% to 8% of people just because of this. Also double the boys and triple the girls school attendance and each village gets $120 to spend per person per year. Still there are complaints that there are still too few teachers and the water is still too salty. Dertu's ripple effect is felt kilometers away where nomads are being taught for the first time.

Critical Thinking Question:
Will Dertu be the first of millions of villages to get this treatment or will the Millennium Villages come crashing down?

Current Events 3- Obesity

    On Thursday the first ever obesity forecast was put into play by the OECD. The Organization for Economic Cooperation Development says that three out of four Americans will be obese by 2020 and disease rates and health care spending will grow immensely larger. One member says that because junk food is cheaper and quicker to get at restaurants, people are eating it more of it. Since 1980, obesity has grown by 20% because of less physical activity than back then. The lifespan of a obese person is up to 8-10 years shorter than a normal weight person, the same as a smoker.  OECD also says that by 2015, obesity related heath care costs will go up by 70%. However our country isn't the only with a growing obesity rating. Brazil, China, India and Russia are also growing in these rates.

Critical Thinking Question:
What will come of our country, and will we be able to stop it?

Current Events 2- Rhino Poaching?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39307338/ns/us_news-environment/

  South African police arrested 11 suspected rhino poachers earlier this week. The suspects include 2 veterinarians and a game farmer. Game farmer was released on a $140,000 bail while the other 10 were released with $700-$14,000 bails. 204 rhinos were killed this year in South Africa, which holds 90% of the rhino population. Rhino poaching has increased drastically because of the high demand for rhino horns in Asia. There was a peaceful march on Wednesday for the opposition of rhino poaching. Even professional hunters joined in and the Professional Hunters Association of South Africa donated $56,000 towards the cause.

Critical Thinking Question:
Will the rhino poaching stop, and if not, will the rhino's eventually become extinct?

Current Events 1- Penguins

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39150028/ns/technology_and_science-science/

  Out of all the 18 species of penguins on Earth, 13 of them are threatened or endangered. The New Zealand erect-crested penguins have lost 70% of there population and the Galapagos penguins have a 30% chance of going extinct in this century. One big incident could rid the world of a penguin species.
There are multiple reasons why the are becoming so rare. Some are pollution, human appropriation of habitats. Also fishers catch them in their nets, and take all of the fish so more penguins die of starvation. Oil dumping and algae blooms are helping to cause this. Most of all, temperature change is the cause of the penguins coming closer to extinction.
Temperature change isn't just hurting penguins, it's altering sea ice and diminishing the krill population which is the base of many animals that live in the tundra. This is just a little of what is happening in the ocean though. A major reverse of how humans consume may be necessary in the near future.

Critical thinking question:
Can we save the penguins by consuming less?