Super Bowl Sunday

The Super Bowl is the championship game of the National Football League (NFL), the highest level of professional football in the United States, culminating a season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year. The Super Bowl uses Roman numerals to identify each game, rather than the year in which it is held. For example, Super Bowl I was played on January 15, 1967, following the regular season played in 1966, while Super Bowl XLV will be played on February 6, 2011, to determine the champion of the 2010 regular season. The game was created as part of a merger agreement between the NFL and its then-rival league, the American Football League (AFL). It was agreed that the two leagues' champion teams would play in an AFL–NFL World Championship Game until the merger was to officially begin in 1970. After the merger, each league was redesignated as a "conference", and the game was then played between the conference champions. The day on which the Super Bowl is played is now considered a de facto American national holiday, called "Super Bowl Sunday". It is the second-largest day for U.S. food consumption, after Thanksgiving Day. In most years, the Super Bowl is the most-watched American television broadcast; Super Bowl XLIV, played on February 7, 2010 between the New Orleans Saints and the Indianapolis Colts, became the most-watched American television program in history, drawing an average audience of 106.5 million viewers and taking over the spot held for twenty-seven years by the final episode of M*A*S*H. The Super Bowl is among the most watched sporting events in the world, primarily due to mostly North American audiences, and is second to soccer's UEFA Champions League final as the most watched annual sporting event worldwide.

heart

In times of need, people come together with open hearts to care for one another. Certain life events stir emotions which enable people to drop whatever they’re occupied with in order to bring time back to order. This is an act of kindness and courage in a human being. Recently in our neighborhood, a loved one was killed. As soon as the scene occurred, arms were reached out to help this family. They experience a kind of pain that many people across the world feel by losing someone so close. The Mariemont community came full on with an act of kindness by holding a loving memorial for this woman and her family. All took the time to stop whatever was going on in their lives to secure love back into this household. As time passes, it is hopeful that this family will be able to go back to their regular daily routines and be supported by everyone in the community.

                Kindness and courage are two attributes that go hand in hand with helping those in need. After helping with these retreats with the kids I could tell that they have learned a lot. They really gave their heart back to the people they forgave. It was great to see this in these little kids. You may not see love everyday which is kind of sad, but when you have days like these, seeing the love makes you fell so much happier. Hopefully in today’s society people will find their hearts in themselves and give people more love around them.

The Social Network

Every age has its visionaries who leave, in the wake of their genius, a changed world--but rarely without a battle over exactly what happened and who was there at the moment of creation. "The Social Network" explores the moment at which Facebook was invented--through the warring perspectives of the super-smart young men who each claimed to be there at its inception. The movie moves from the halls of Harvard to the cubicles of Palo Alto to capture the heady early days of a culture-changing phenomenon in the making--and the way it both pulled a group of young revolutionaries together and then split them apart. In the midst of the chaos are Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg), the brilliant Harvard student who conceived a Web site; Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), once Zuckerberg's close friend, who provided the seed money for the fledgling company; Napster founder Sean Parker (Justin Timberlake), who brought Facebook to Silicon Valley's venture capitalists; and the Winklevoss twins (Armie Hammer and Josh Pence), the Harvard classmates who asserted that Zuckerberg stole their idea and then sued him for ownership of it. Each has his own narrative, his own version of the Facebook story in this multi-level portrait of 21st Century success--both the youthful fantasy of it and its finite realities as well.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12145381

"Dont Ask, Dont Tell"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101222/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_gays_in_military

Equality In the United States is what people have wanted for a very long time. There has been many flaws in having equality, like having the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. Gays have been discriminated in the military to a point where some have been kicked out and lost honors based on their choice of path in life. This is certainly not the kind of equality that a lot of common Americans and I are looking for in a day-to-day society and military which protects our country. How has this kind of enforcement been allowed all these years? This has been questioned over the last century and our new government is finally enforcing some action to change the prejudices of past societies.

President Barack Obama officially signed a law to allow gays into the American military line to encourage the face that “all men and women are created equal.” He felt this law would strengthen the national security and encourage men and women to continue to risk lives to defend our country in times of need without discrimination. Zoe Dunning, once a naval officer who is not associated with the advocacy group Service Members Legal Defense Fund, felt there is a need to a greater trust in the military especially in a time where troops are needed during the two wars our country is in at the present time. Obama made sure that all Americans knew that “your country needs you, your country wants you, and we will be honored to welcome you into the ranks of the finest military the world has ever known.” Gay activists are now highly supporting the president and look for an honorable future. Even the high standing president seemed to be overwhelmed by this new bill and change in our 2011 government. To all new members enlisting in the army and giving time to prepare in this New Year, everyone will continue to be honored for their courage and love for their country for the years to come. 

"The Thin Red Line"

http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/jjones.htm

The Thin Red Line is author James Jones's fictional account of the World War II Galloping Horse portion of the Battle of Mount Austen, specifically Hill 53, during the Guadalcanal campaign, which he experienced firsthand in the United States Army's 25th Infantry Division. The novel has been adapted for motion pictures twice, first in 1964 and then in Terrence Malick's 1998 adaptation. Like Jones's two other World War II novels, the story focuses on a number of characters and their differing reactions to combat; the central characters are actually the same in all three books but their names have necessarily been changed, since Pvt. Witt's counterpart in From Here to Eternity (Prewitt) died at its conclusion. While none of the characters are particularly attractive or warm, Jones effectively conveys the alienation and horror that characterized the Pacific theatre of war for the American Marine rifleman. Instead of a conventional military adventure story, the author presents a more realistic depiction of battle where ordinary people experience a mix of murder, fear, homosexuality, dread, helplessness, frustration, meanness, terror, and emptiness. The novel depicts (but is careful not to judge) acts most readers would consider repellent, such as disinterring a Japanese corpse for fun, summarily executing Japanese prisoners or extracting gold teeth from corpses. These acts are shown as natural reactions to the soldiers' environment. This article is mainly about how the book came about to what it is today. James Jones got his ideas from his own military experiences in World War II. This is why te book seems so real.

Suicide Bombings

“Suicide bomber kills 6 troops in Afghanistan”

By Ernesto Londoño

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, December 12, 2010; 2:58 PM

Ahmadulla, a member of the Taliban, created a suicide bomber attack surrounding a farming village in a Zahari district in Kabul where American troops were trying to restore Afghan government control for the country. This man drove a minivan filled with 2,000 kilograms of explosives into a building, which killed six U.S. troops. This was a newly built building in the Kandahar Province. This is just one of the many casualties the soldiers have been recently facing while trying to build small outposts in the country’s second largest city. This city is also the birthplace of the Taliban movement that has affected many for the past few years because of their want to regain stronger control. Two weeks earlier, Afghan guards located at the country’s border killed six U.S. trainers adding to the 670 NATO troops killed. Mines and roadside bombings have caused some of the deadliest incidences. Members of the country’s commission led by Fazl Ahmad Manawi have also been arrested based on fraud charges interpreted as signs of intimidation on the government during its recent parliamentary election. Even though the Taliban has caused so many deaths and troubles for the U.S. troops and citizens of Afghanistan, it is the courageous efforts of the American men and women that will strengthen and provide a just government for the country to abide. You have to sometimes think, what is going on in the minds of those suicide bombers? They must be really dedicated to their countries and leaders to do that, or they are just really messed up. There are definitely a lot of better ways to go about fighting, and not going about killing yourself. The United States troups have been very effective with their strategy without doing suicide bombings. I guess its just the Taliban that’s produces these crazy people to go out and fight against us. It is very scary sometimes to think what they will do in order to attack the United States.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/12/AR2010121200857.html

Auburn vs. Oregon

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2010-12-05-bcs-title-game-preview_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

This article is mainly about the new national championship contenders in college football. Oregon and auburn will be competing in January for the BCS title game. This is an unusual championship game because the two teams have never been in the nation championship. Will it be Darron Thomas, LaMichael James and Oregon or Cam Newton and Auburn who win the BCS National Championship Game? It's hard to pick against James or Newton, who will likely be the top two vote-getters in the Heisman Trophy voting. And it's hard to see either one of these teams get outscored for the first time all season. But someone has to win, and Auburn has knocked off five top-20 teams and four top-12 teams. The Tigers have also come from behind in eight of their victories. They define resiliency. Auburn will probably fall behind once again. And I don’t think that Auburn can come back this time because of the great second half team that Oregon is. Also it will be hard to catch up to Oregon fast offense. Another key for Cam Newton is to watch out for linebacker, Ryan Matthews. He is probably one of the better backers in the nation, and a true threat to any quarterback. In Oregon’s last game, Ryan Matthews crushed the quarterback the first play of the game! It is crucial for him to have a big game. With all this said, I think Oregon will win, but it will definitely be close with Auburns powerful offense.