2,000 Descendants

                Can you imagine having more than a dozen kids? How about more than 200 grandchildren? What about so many great- and great-great-grandchildren that your family couldn’t even count them all. They had to guess that you probably had 2,000 living descendants. Yitta Schwartz had all of that and more. She was able to live during World War 2. Although some of her children were not so lucky and died in the concentration camps. I know that you are probably thinking, “Man, this woman is insane!” Well you can only believe that somebody who had so many descendants would have to be insane, but she wasn’t insane she was just trying to do what she was supposed to.

                She died last month at age 93. Her husband died 34 years before her and she never put her problems on anybody else. She did not like it when people took photographs of her. Her family was reluctant to provide more than one photo to the people who wrote this article. The people of her family say that she was a great example to them and she would always live in their hearts. Her family said that she used to say “Just keep me in your heart. If you leave a grandchild, you live forever.” Those are very inspiring words just think about them.

Uzbek Photos

                Umida Akhmedova is a photographer and documentary filmmaker. She was found guilty of slandering and insulting the Uzbek people for taking a picture of a boy lying down in an unfinished house. To me that is overreacting a little bit. I mean sure she was taking a picture that could send a wrong message about their country, but she was just being creative and spontaneous.

                “I can’t say my anxiety has subsided, I can’t say I’m suddenly O.K.,” she said. “There was a fear of going to prison. But to tell you the truth, I feel insulted, that’s the main thing. I still don’t understand how my creative work could have brought me to this courtroom.” She does not even know how she got to be in this situation. She doesn’t know what she did wrong. Punishing somebody for something they didn’t intend to do is just sick and wrong.

                Regardless, the photo that Akhmedova took was one that she thought was inspirational, turned out to be something that offended her country. Art should be something that you can have control in. Art is something that shows your interests and creativity. I don’t think that she should be sent to prison for being creative.

Loo's Journey

Alexa Loo started snowboarding at age 15. When she was 21 years old she started racing. She also worked as an accountant but the mountains were the most important dream of hers. She decided that she was never going to give up. In 2002 she missed qualifying for the Winter Olympics by 11-hundredths of a second. She was the first Canadian woman to complete in parallel giant slalom. She got so close to winning until she fell with only four gates remaining. She ended with 20^th.

            It all went downhill from there. She tore a knee ligament in 2007 and it made her change the way she raced. In 2008 she lost her financing. She would have to finish in the top 16 to qualify for her 18,000 dollar stipend from Sport Canada.

            Loo decided that she needed to tell her story better. When she tried doing that she got more and more famous. Now she tells her story along with the Kin brothers who were in a situation similar to hers. Loo goes around to schools and teaches them about determination and how you can do anything if you don’t give up. Even though Loo didn’t get to do her dream before she tore her knee ligament, she still goes snowboarding for fun and enjoys talking to kids and encouraging them.

The Libya War

The fact that the U.S is entering another war is just insane. We just got out of a war and now we have to deal with this guy Saddam Hussein. Is he a new Hitler? Lately that is the question I have been asking myself. 

If I came up to you and said, “If you don’t follow everything I do and say then I will kill you!” what would you do? Would you go against me? I sure would. This guy Saddam Hussein is not very intelligent for saying that. He should have known that everybody would go against him sooner or later. The fact that he didn’t know that is scary. He will now have to go into a war with all of the other countries just so that he will get shot down by them as well.

In these days nobody wants to hear bad news. Especially families that have family members in the army. Why would we put more soldiers out in the war when we know that it is a stupid war to start with? 

My honest opinion about this war is that, we should not have to fight. I know we have a great army force but we are just getting out of the Iraq fight and going into a new one! How long is this one going to last? Could it be World War lll? No, I honestly doubt it. This war that we are fighting in is honestly one of the most mindless thing we have done. 

I honestly don’t know what President Obama was thinking when he had us sign up for helping out in this war! It’s not like we are the “clean up duty”. I am not saying that Libya doesn’t need help, because it does. I am saying that we shouldn’t have to always be the police in this world! 

What our world needs is to be able to get along in harmony. We need to have peace in our world. Earth should not be a place of violence. It should be a place for us to learn and grow. If you want to be in the army that’s great for you, go and learn how to do that! I’m not saying that all wars are bad! Without wars I probably wouldn’t be here today. Utah had to fight to become a state. The United States had to fight to become a country! We all have to fight to get what we want, but sometimes a compromise is the best solution. Actually, most of the time it is. We need to learn how to be able to turn the lemons that life gives us and make it into lemonade for everybody. We need to discover how to be able to get along with our neighbor countries.

Saddam Hussein was just trying to get control of his country. He decided to go all out and be so violent to those who needed a good leader. I think we should take advantage of our free world and show Libya that there is a way to compromise. There is always a way that you can get out of a fight. We don’t just need to stop the violence. We HAVE to stop the violence! There can be less intense fights. No, verbal fights aren’t the answer all of the time. We can make it so there are no more wars for foolish subjects. 

We have the chance now to make things right with the world. That is exactly what we should do. We need to be able to show everybody that there is a way to make it all work out! The people of Libya can have independence without having to fight! I think that is what President Obama was thinking when he signed us up for this war. I would have also. I know that in the beginning I said that war was not a good thing, but we need war in order to have peace. We need war to be able to be free. That is my honest opinion about the Libya War.

Japan

On March 11, 2011 an 8.9 earthquake hit the surface of Tohoku, Japan. The earthquake caused an extremely harmful tsunami with waves up to 97 ft. tall. They tsunami hit Japan just minutes after the earthquake. The tsunami waves went as far into land as 6 miles. The Japanese police agency has announced that there were 11,532 deaths, 2,873 people injured, and 16,441 people still missing. 

“In the 65 years after the end of World War ll, this is the toughest and the most difficult crisis for Japan,” said the Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan.

The earthquake moved portions of northeast Japan by as much as 7.9 ft. closer to North America. According to Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology, the earthquake shifted the Earth's axis by 9.8 in. The tsunami inundated a total area of approximately 470 square kilometers in Japan.

Some reports say that as many as 100,000 children have been uprooted from their homes, some of whom were separated from their families because the earthquake occurred during the school day. The earthquake caused a large number of displaced people. The number of the evacuees has once passed 300,000.

Some earthquake survivors died in the shelters or in the process of evacuation. Many shelters struggle to feed evacuees and are not medically sufficiently equipped. Fuel shortages hampered relief actions. In the first week after the earthquake, supplies of food, water, and medicine had been held up because of a fuel shortage and the weather condition. Food was limited for some unevacuated people, and as of late March, some were given one meal a day. There is a need for temporary housing, as the Japanese government are trying to remove evacuees from large shelters, where there have been reports of poor sanitary conditions. As of late March, 8 800 temporary units were planned in Iwate, 10 000 in Miyagi, and 19 000 in Fukushima.

Some analysts are predicting that the total recovery costs could reach $122 billion. The northern Tōhoku region, which was most affected, accounts for about 8% of the country's gross domestic product, with factories that manufacture products such as cars and beer, as well as energy infrastructure. It includes the northern Miyagi prefecture, where Sendai is located, about 300 km 180 miles northeast of Tokyo. The Miyagi area includes manufacturing and industrial zones with chemical and electronics plants. It is estimated that Miyagi accounts for 1.7% of Japan's gross domestic product.

An 8.9 magnitude is very big, and the U.S. Geological Survey stated that this was the fifth biggest earthquake in the world, and the biggest from the history of Japan. The earthquake caused a tsunami, and the reason for that was the fact that the seafloor from the fault was forced to move vertically all of a sudden because of the subduction. Japan is situated near the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is the most active earthquake belt in the world. This is the reason why the country and the region are often hit by earthquakes and by tsunamis. 

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan was a horrible tragedy. Many people were killed in the earthquake and tsunami. It was a horrible thing but it was out of our hand to stop it from happening. Nature comes in an interesting way. If there was a way we could stop this horrible tragedy from happening, we would have. Nature does what nature wants to. We cannot control what happens to us, but we can control how we deal with what does happen to us. I think the U.S should help Japan in any way possible. 

Photojournalism Part 2

Are Ducks the New Chicken?

Overall feeling: After looking at this I am craving a cupcake and some milk.

The artist (me) made me feel this way because I see the duck cupcakes and think about how i would just love to eat whats on the inside! The blue m&ms underneath the cupcakes (meant to look like water) make me want to eat it more! 

Everybody has heard the saying, “Mmmm tastes like chicken!” In this picture, I wonder if ducks are the new chicken. I say no. These ducks are actually cupcakes! They do not taste like chicken, that would be absolutely disgusting. The ducks on the outside look just like normal ducks. However if you look closely at the ducks in the middle you can see that they are diving in the water.

Baby and Mommy Seals 

Overall feeling: This picture makes me feel happy.

The photographer made me feel this way because no matter what you are your mother wants to help you. This mother is teaching her baby seal how to swim. This baby seal was born this week. I know this because I took this picture in San Diego, California at the Childrens Beach. The seals took over the beach, there were about 75 seals on the beach.

I want the people who look at this picture to know that it is true that your mother will help you no matter who you are or what you are. I think this picture will make the people who look at it realize the love a mother has for her children. I love this picture because the mother is leading the baby seal into the water to help it learn how to swim.

Summer 2011 

Overall feeling: When I look at this picture I feel excited.

The artist and photographer made me feel this way because you can see the faint water ripples under the sun, the palm tree, the sun, the flip flops, the sunglasses, and the flower. All of those things make me think of summer! Just looking at this picture makes me so excited for the summer! 

I am the artist and the photographer in this picture, and what I think people will think of when the see this is summer. Without the Summer 2011 in the middle of the picture I think they would have still thought of summer because of all the other summer items in the picture. I think about going to the beach, and having my toes in the water and my toes in the sand. Summer makes people think of lots of different things. 

Photojournalism

This is Atom Bomb Test Bikini, Atoll

Overall feeling: The bomb puts me in a more sad mood and when I look at this picture it reminds me of Pearl Harbor.

I think that the artist wanted to make the dust from the impact look kind of like the clouds. It makes it blend in more with the picture. I think the artist wanted to show the wind blowing because the wind is making the palm trees blow sideways. You can also see the ships in the background. 

I think the artist wanted to show a story about Pearl Harbor. When I saw this picture the first thing I thought of was Pearl Harbor. I remembered when I first heard the story of how the Japanese bombed us right where it would hurt us the most, Pearl Harbor. This is exactly how I pictured it would look.

Dock and Palm Trees, Tahiti

Overall feeling: When I look at this I feel completely relaxed.

The artist made me feel relaxed by putting in palm trees. There is something about a beach, especially a beach in Tahiti, that makes you relaxed. The people in the picture look relaxed so it made me relaxed.

A story that this picture would tell me is, two couples, on their honeymoon, went to Tahiti to enjoy a carefree trip. They do all kinds of relaxing things. They go snorkeling, canoeing, and the lay on the beach. This would be a honeymoon I would like to go on.

Lake of Zug, Switzerland

Overall feeling: When I look at this I’m nervous yet excited.

The artist makes me feel this way because when I look at the picture I picture the dock as the road of life. In some places its very snowing and some places not so much. You have to stay on the road and not slip off from the snow and land in the water. 

The story I get from this is my life. For example you can walk and get stuck in the snow and slip up a little, but you have to stay on the dock. At some point life does end, and the way I look at it is that there are two places you can go when you die and that’s why it splits at the end. You can go to Heck or you can go to Heaven. My point is that every road has an end to it and you need to not slip up so you can go the right way and not get stuck.

Patten Pond, Maine

Overall feeling: When I look at this I feel happy.

The artist made me remember when I was about 6 or  7, when I had no cares in the world. I would do what I wanted and not get in trouble because I didn’t know any better. The reason I feel happy when I look at this is because I remember the good old days. 

A story this picture would tell is, when I was little my cousins or friends and I would get into my hot tub and we would stick our heads in the water and do that exact same thing. We would splash the house, the grass, and occasionally the dog. She didn’t enjoy it very much when we splashed her but we didn’t care.

Clouds Near Mt. Everest

Overall feeling: When I look at this picture I feel scared.

The artist made me feel scared by only using dark colors and white. Mt. Everest looks very pointy and sharp, and the clouds by it are not just white but they are dark too.

When I look at this picture I can just imagine a climber climbing Mt. Everest right at this moment. He keeps telling himself to not look down. He doesn’t look down he just keeps looking forward. Then he looked up, he noticed a dark cloud and sharp pointy objects. He realized that if he was going to make it to the top he couldn’t look up or down anymore, because the thought of falling and the thought of something falling on him scared him too much.

Bering Sea Sunset

Overall feeling: When I look at this picture I feel excited

When the sun goes down something in me just pops out and tells me that the day isn’t over and you still have a few more minutes of sunlight to do things! The wave coming over the rock like that, looks like a firework had just exploded! Everything in the picture just makes me want to get outside and do something while I still can!

When I look at this picture, I picture a little girl running out of her house, on the beach, and jumping into the waves and just playing in the water. She didn’t have her swimming suit on because she wouldn’t have time to change into it before the sun went down. She just played int the warm ocean water until the last stream of light fade away.