Al Wilson’s NIE Tips 2.21.12

AMERICAN HISTORY:

 

Item #1  Replicas of the Nina and Pinta are visiting cities along the Louisiana and Texas Gulf coast on different dates March – May, and along the Atlantic coast later in the summer.  For a schedule see:  www.thenina.com

 

Item #2  A “Mob Museum” opened in Las Vegas on the 83rd anniversary of the St. Valentine’s Day massacre in Chicago.  A second museum is scheduled to open later this year.  It will be “Mob Attraction Las Vegas.”

 

Item #3  The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati has been saved from closing by its merger with the Cincinnati Museum Center.  The Freedom Center opened in 2004, but has not been able to meet expenses.

 

Item #4  The S.S. Port Nicholson, a British merchant ship torpedoed by a German U-boat in 1942 during WWII, has been located 50 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.  The ship was carrying platinum bars that now may be worth more than $3 billion.

 

Item #5  King Charles II’s 1681 land grant to William Penn will be displayed at the State Museum of Pennsylvania, March 3 – 11.  This is the Penn Charter.

 

Item #6  Monday was Presidents’ Day.  You might like to look at www.mountvernon.org

 

DRIVERS’ EDUCATION:

 

Item #1  There was been an 11% increase in fatalities for 16 & 17-year-old drivers in the first half of 2011 over 2010.  Twenty-three states saw an increase; 19 had a decrease; and eight saw no change.  Source:  Governors Highway Safety Association.

 

Item #2  The U.S. Transportation Department wants to pit technology against technology to prevent accidents cause by distracted drivers.  They are saying cars should be designed to refuse to send tweets, texts or Facebook messages while they are moving.  For now, this would only apply to systems built into cars by the manufacture, not phones or gadgets installed by the owners.

 

GOVERNMENT:

 

Item #1  A USDA inspector opened the lunch box of a 4-year-old girl and deemed her lunch of a turkey & cheese sandwich, a banana, apple juice and potato chips not healthy because it contained no vegetables.  The girl was forced to buy the school lunch containing chicken nuggets, and mother received a bill.  Government regulations and over reach gone too far.

 

Item #2  General Motors earned record profits in 2011 of $7.6 billion.  How much in taxes will they pay on this profit?  According to the government bankruptcy bailout agreement, maybe zero.  Be alert for news of this and see if this is true.

 

Item #3  On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will rule on the Stolen Valor Act.  This should provoke an interesting class discussion before students know how the Court rules.  Is lying about your military record constitutional and protected by the First Amendment?   The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit said the Stolen Valor Act is unconstitutional.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit ruled the law was constitutional.  How can it be constitutional to lie to gain an advantage in something or over someone?

 

Item #4  Congress passed the “tax cut” bill this past week.  It makes political sense to call this a tax cut, but it’s economic nonsense because it is under funding social security which is already in big financial trouble.  One journalist said the statements the president has made about the “tax cut” is fiscal fraud.

 

HEALTH:

 

Item #1  Each year in the United States, 10,000 animals and 1,400 children die from anti-freeze poisoning.  Anti-freeze smells and tastes sweet.  This fact should be discussed in every health and social studies class.

 

Item #2  The cancer drug for children, methotrexate, is in short supply, and doctors are alarmed because it is a key treatment for acute lymphobastic leukemia, a common childhood cancer.

 

MATH:

 

Item #1  A state lottery reported that eight people won $5,397.00; 1,132 people won $56.00; and 24,200 people won $3.00.  What was the total payout?

Answer:  $179,168.00

 

Item #2  A minor league baseball team purchased 30 bats from an Illinois bat maker for $1,419.36.  What was the cost of each bat?

Answer:  $47.31  This made news because the bat company had trouble collecting their money.

 

Item #3  Carl Edwards won the pole for the Daytona 500 this Sunday by running 194.738 mph.  Last Saturday, Kyle Busch beat Tony Stewart in the Budweiser Shootout by 0.013 of a second.  Let’s assume that Busch was running 195 mph.  By how many feet or inches did he beat Stewart?

Answer:  3 ft. 8 1/2 inches.

 

195 mph X 5,280 = 1,029,600 ft. a car can travel per hour.

1,029,600 divided by 3,600 = 286 ft. per second.

286 X .013 = 3.718 or about 3 ft. 8 1/2 inches.  Find a picture of the exciting finish in your newspaper.

 

TECHNOLOGY:

 

Item #1  Who is monitoring the apps kids have on their phones?  The government has complained that software companies producing games and other mobile applications aren’t telling parents what personal information is being collected from kids and how companies are using it.

 

Item #2  On February 14, the Federal Aviation Administration switched from radar to an air-traffic control system based on GPS technology.  Not all people in the airline industry are thrilled with this.  What are the pros and cons of the new system?

 

Item #3  Physicists in Australia and Purdue University have worked together to build a working transistor from a single phosphorus atom embedded in a silicon crystal.  This quantum computer may lead us into a nanoscale world.  Quantum computers are built from devices called qubits.  No, I don’t know what all this means either.

 

WEIRD NEWS:

 

Firefighters in New Castle, PA, were called because an electrical outlet on the floor was smoking only to find the smoke was caused by the family cat urinating on the outlet.

 

A New York City school was fired because she faked her daughter’s death so she could take a Caribbean vacation.

 

A jury cleared a 67-year-old Pennsylvania woman of marijuana possession when she told them she simply tossed a hand full of seeds into her garden after a bearded man gave them to her.

 

A couple lost a $4,500.00 wedding ring.  It was found later in the stomach of their 10-month-old basset hound.

 

VOCABULARY:

 

nefarious, cairn, fiduciary, cretin, ephemeral, azimuth, denigration, dendrites, dereliction, castigate, divergent, renege, calamitous, prattle, diminution, platitude, pique

 

WORLD GEOGRAPHY:

 

Locate:  Honduras, Sri Lanka, Finland, Argentina, Chile, Austria 

 

Al Wilson’s NIE Tips 2.14.12

AMERICAN HISTORY:

 

Item #1  A portrait of Mary Todd Lincoln hung in the governor’s mansion in Springfield, IL, for 32 years is a fraud.  The story was Mrs. Lincoln had the painting secretly done as a surprise gift, but President Lincoln was killed on April 14, 1865, before she could give it to him.  The story and the portrait are a hoax created by Ludwig Pflum aka Lew Bloom.  The portrait was supposed to have been painted by Francis Bicknell Carpenter who lived in the White House for six months in 1864.

 

Item #2  In the 1600s, French explorer Samuel de Champlain brought the first cultivated roses to North America.  Happy Valentine’s Day.

 

Item #3  How will the Supreme Court rule on the use of religious symbols to honor fallen troops?  The Mount Soledad Memorial Association if fighting to preserve a 43-foot monument on federal land atop the San Diego peak overlooking the Pacific Ocean.  Search for the Mount Soledad Veterans Memorial.

 

Item #4  An uproar was caused by a Marine sniper scout team in Afghanistan posing before a flag with “SS” in it.  Critics say the symbol is similar to the Nazi SS troops of WWII that murdered Jews, Gypsies and others.  The Marines said the flag stood for “Sniper Scouts”.

 

CHEMISTRY and Economics:

 

Where will Shell Oil build a new “cracker” refinery?  A “cracker” refinery takes ethane out of natural gas and converts it into materials for hundreds of consumer items including plastics, fertilizers and antifreeze.  Sites discussed are Aliquippa, PA; New Martinsville, WV; and an Ohio site on the Ohio River.

 

CONSUMER ECONOMICS:

 

How high will the price of beef go by year’s end?  Texas and Oklahoma are the largest beef producing states, and the drought in those states has ranchers shrinking their herds.  The drought coupled with high feed costs and increasing overseas demand is driving up the price.  Ethanol production is increasing the cost of feed for cattle, chickens, hogs and catfish farmers.

 

DRIVERS’ EDUCATION:

 

Distracted pedestrians?  Be careful when driving.  Look at the number of headphone-wearing pedestrians killed or injured by moving vehicles.

 

2004-’05 = 16

2006-’07 = 19

2008-’09 = 34

2010-’11 = 47  Source:  University of Maryland

 

ENGLISH – Creative writing:

 

Look at the “Dennis the Menace” cartoon of Monday, Feb. 13th.  Write a sentence or two as to what Dennis’ father is thinking right now.  What is Dennis’ mother thinking right now?

 

GOVERNMENT:

 

Item #1  President Obama and Health & Human Services (HHS) passed a regulation on January 20th, requiring church-affiliated employers in hospitals, universities and charities to cover birth control for their workers.  A firestorm erupted, especially within the Catholic church, and Obama revised his policy and now requires insurance companies to provide free birth control coverage in separate agreements with workers who want it.

 

One lawyer stated, “Nothing in health care is free.  The cost is going to be passed on.”  The Heritage Foundation said, “It’s an accounting trick,” as did Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri.  Many “Blue Dog” Democrats in Congress facing re-election are not liking the policy.

 

Constitutional scholars say these rules and regulations will be found clearly unconstitutional.

 

Item #2  South Carolina passed a law requiring voters to show some kind of government-issued photo identification to vote.  In December, the Justice Department rejected SC’s law.  On February 6, SC filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department.  What will be the outcome of this lawsuit?

 

Watch for hypocrisy.  For example, a Democratic member of Congress from Houston, TX, is against a voter ID law.  However, in a November rally he held, he required attendees to show a valid ID in an effort to keep any opposition from entering the rally.

 

Item #3  A headline reads, “Budget plan lays out election theme.”  The theme is to use government money to buy votes in this election year.  President Obama’s budget plan projects a deficit of $1.3 trillion in 2012, and $901 billion in 2013.  We have had four years of trillion dollar- plus shortfalls, and this budget plan keeps piling on to our $15 trillion national debt.

 

One writer offered this explanation.  This budget is like a family is earning $40,000 a year, but is spending $70,000 a year.

 

HEALTH:

 

Item #1  Doctors may soon be using high-speed tests to detect flaws in a persons DNA that may lead to colon and lung cancer, therefore, they can be on guard for early warning signs.  Scientists at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston said, “This is moving closer and closer to real personalized medicine.”

 

Item #2  Medicare has begun publishing the rates of complications as a step towards using them to set payments rates for thousands of hospitals, but many of the nation’s prestigious teaching hospitals are objecting to the approach.

 

The 2010 federal healthcare law will tie Medicare reimbursement to how closely hospitals adhere to basic guidelines for care.  After 2014, if you are over 70 and have a stroke, don’t bother going to a hospital, you are not going to be treated.

 

HUMOR or poor sportsmanship:

 

On Tuesday, February 7th, a Denver business placed 8,000 Butterfinger candy bars in Copley Square in Boston.  The stunt was to jab Patriots’ receivers for dropping passes in the Super Bowl.  The company thought it would be funny, but many fans were offended, so the company apologized on Wednesday.

 

MATH:

 

Item #1  The Conservative Political Action Committee (C-PAC) met over the weekend in Washington, D.C., and a straw vote of 3,408 attendees gave 38% of the votes to Romney; 31% to Santorum; 15% to Gingrich; 12% to Paul; and 4% to others.   How many votes did each candidate receive?  Can you show these percentages on a circle graph?

 

Item #2  A state lottery reported that 18 people won $2,022.00; 880 people won $61.00; and 19,722 people won $3.00.  What was the total payout?

Answer: $149,242.00

 

Item #3  The new federal budget is out, and so far the Government Printing Office has sold 2,500 of the document at $218.00 each.  How much revenue has been raised from the sale of the budget document so far?

 

Item #4  Bell Helicopter will soon begin manufacturing a new helicopter, the 525 Relentless, and it will be capable of flying 400 nautical miles.  How many statute miles is this?  Answer:  A nautical miles is 6,076 ft., so that would be 460 statute miles.

 

SCIENCE:

 

Russian have drilled 12,366 feet under the Antarctic ice to find a fresh-water lake.  Scientists say this is equal to placing a man on the moon.  They say Lake Vostok could hold living organisms locked in icy darkness for 20 million years.  A NASA scientist said, “In the simplest sense, it can transform the way we think about life.”

 

SOCIOLOGY:

 

Item #1  Charles Murray latest book is COMING APART.  It examines family breakdown among working people, and a decline in what he sees as traditional values of diligence.

 

He says a big chunk of working-class America is being marked by drugs, despair, family decline, high incarceration rates and a diminishing role of education as escalators of upward mobility.

 

Among white American women with only a high school education, 44% of births are out of wedlock, up from 6% in 1970.  For black women, out of wedlock births are 70%.  How much of this can our society stand?

 

Item #2  If you are interested in volunteering and helping other people, find out what Project Linus is all about.  www.projectlinus.org

 

Item #3  If you have suggestions or ideas of how to stop bullying at your school, share ideas or questions with Pam Young at:  pamfwst12@gmail.com

 

VOCABULARY:

 

proprioceptive, pasha, gentry, sobriquet, vilified, jousting, innocuous, anomalously, castigated, fete, pervade, irascibility, pirouettes, indelibly, imperceptibly, austerity

 

WORLD GEOGRAPHY:

 

Locate:  Kosovo, Brazil, Guatemala, Venezuela, Spain, Norway, Greece, England, Romania, Israel

 

Al Wilson’s NIE Tips 2.06.12

AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY:

 

Strong blizzards have hit Colorado, and parts of Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska.  Avalanche warnings have been issued for slopes east of the Continental Divide.  Where and what is the Continental Divide?

 

AMERICAN HISTORY:

 

Item #1  A dozen wax cylinders from the laboratory of Thomas Edison have been found in West Orange, NJ.  The recordings are 120 years old, and contain the voice of German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck.  I hope you students in North Dakota know who Otto von Bismarck was.

 

Item #2  Related to Black History Month, there is news that the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center in Cincinnati is struggling to survive and may close at the end of 2012.

 

Item #3  Police in Yreka, CA, are investigating the theft of a $3,000,00 gold collection from the county courthouse.  Yreka was the site of an 1851 Gold Rush known as the second Mother Lode.

 

ECOLOGY:

 

Item #1  Burmese pythons are strangling the Everglades, and are ruining the area for the natural inhabitants, deer, rabbits, raccoons, opossums bobcats and fox.  Even having an impact on alligators.  Will they expand across the southern United States?  It’s possible.

 

Pythons were first sighted in the 1980s, but a breeding populations wasn’t confirmed until 2000.  Since 2000, 1,825 pythons have been captured or killed.

Find information from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS)

 

Item #2  Spicewood Beach, TX, population 1,100, has run out of water.  The drought of 2011 has taken its toll, and the situation is predicted to get worse in 2012.

 

ECONOMICS:

 

Item #1  Catfish production in Arkansas dipped 37% in 2011.  Arkansas is third in catfish production, behind Mississippi and Alabama.  High food cost because of ethanol, and government regulations are making it rough on domestic fish farmers.  There are few health checks and regulations on imported fish.

 

Item #2  Summer is coming, so watch your billfold.  The EPA wants to limit the production of R-22 (Freon plus other brand names), so the price increased 100% in two weeks.  The EPA says R-22 depletes the ozone layer.

 

ENGLISH:

 

Item #1  A department store ad has boys’, girls’, ladies’, men’s and children’s items.  All plural possessive.  Rewrite these five words as singular possessive.

 

Item #2  A mushroom hunting family in Oregon was lost for six days, but were finally rescued.  The father said, “But I wanted to make sure they seen us.  I wasn’t taking no chances.”

 

GOVERNMENT:

 

The Senate, by a 96-3 vote, passed legislation that would ban insider trading by members of the legislative branch and for many in the executive branch.  The bill is not expected to have such easy sailing through the House this week.

How will your Congressperson vote on this bill this week?

 

HEALTH:

 

Item #1  The governor of Maine has formed a task force to battle prescription drug abuse in that state.  Deaths from pharmaceutical drug overdoses now exceed traffic deaths in Maine.

 

Item #2  There have been 38 cases of an outbreak of bacterial infections on the East Coast from drinking raw milk from a dairy farm in Pennsylvania.  The outbreak caused by unpasteurized milk is called Campylobacter illness.

At what temperature does milk become pasteurized?  Who developed the pasteurization process?

 

MATH:

 

Item #1  In the Super Bowl, Eli Manning was 30 for 40 in pass completions.  Tom Brady was 27 for 41.  What was the percentage of completions for each quarterback?

Answer:  Manning 75%  Brady 66%

 

Item #2  A state lottery reported that 20 people won $2,126.00; 1,169 people won $54.00; and 24,967 people won $3.00.  What was the total payout?

Answer:  $180,547.00

 

Item #3  Attendance at one of the nation’s largest stock shows will top 1,000,000 this year.  Past year’s attendance has been:

955,800 in 2006

875,300 in 2007

899,200 in 2008

926,200 in 2009

920,000 in 2010

930,300 in 2011

 

Round these attendance figures off to the nearest thousands, or ten-thousands, or hundred-thousands.

 

Item #4  Last Tuesday, GOP candidate Mitt Romney won big in Florida.  The vote was:  Romney 46%; Gingrich 32%; Santorium 13%; Paul 7%; write-ins 2%.  Show these percentages on a circle/pie graph.

 

PATRIOTISM and PRIDE:

 

On January 28th, St. Louis held a parade to welcome returning veterans, and it was such a hit that 10 other cities are thinking about having a parade.  The cities are:  Chicago, Denver, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Seattle, Nashville, Tucson, Greensboro. NC, and Clinton, Iowa.  What a great idea!!!

 

TECHNOLOGY:

 

Item #1  Students should be aware of what information they share via the Internet.  The FBI and Scotland Yards were having an Internet conversation regarding the preventing of hacking and more security on the Internet.  They had no idea the hacker group called Anonymous was hacking them.  The headline stated, “Hackers hack online anti-hacking session.”  Students should always remember that being online is like a window in a house; if you can get out, someone can get in.

 

Item #2  Technology and American history:  Now that more and more American beef is sold world-wide, it is necessary to find the source of an illness or disease quickly.  The USDA wants electronic (RFID) ear tagging on cattle, but many want to stay with the Old West tradition of branding.

 

Hot-iron branding was introduced to the New World in 1541 by Spanish conquistadors.

 

Research the pros and cons of Radio Frequency Identification.  Tags can be lost in fencing, on trees or rustlers can easily cut them off, and the cost of $2 – $3.00 per animal.

 

RFID is coming whether you like it or not, but discuss the pros and cons of its use in other areas.  Will it be use on driver’s license, passports and social security cards?  Electronic data can be stolen with a scanner from as far as 20 feet away.

For tracking purposes, all Goodyear tires used in NASCAR are embedded with a RFID chip.  This way owners only have to pay for tires as they use them, and the rest can be returned.  This keeps the race teams from having a whole stock of tires on hand at about $380.00 for each tire.

 

Item #3  This week, the Senate may be debating a bill to give the Department of Homeland Security more power to regulate computer security for critical industries.

The emerging proposal isn’t sitting well with those who believe it give Homeland Security too much power and those who think it’s too watered down to achieve real security improvements.  As the late Paul Harvey always asked, “Where do you draw the line between security and tyranny?

 

VOCABULARY:

 

mea culpa, philanthropic, fervent, lucrative, audacity, ambivalent, perpetuity, abhor, bacchanalia, defamation, audacious, garnishee, incremental prologue

 

WORLD GEOGRAPHY:

 

Item #1  Locate:  Somalia, Italy, Russia, China, Chile, Patagonia, Spain, Croatia, Gabon, Namibia, French Guiana, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hong Kong

 

Item #2  Study Venice, Italy.  Tourists brought in by cruise ships are straining the fragile city’s underwater foundations.

 

WORLD HISTORY:

 

The Magna Carta is now on display at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.  This copy is owned by the Carlyle Group, and is the only privately owned copy of this 1297 English document.

 

Al Wilson’s NIE Tips 1.30.12

AGRICULTURE – HORTICULTURE:

 

Item #1  The U.S. Department of Agriculture has established new hardiness zones for the United States down to as small as half-mile sections.  See:

http://planthardiness.ars.usda.gov/PHZMWeb

 

Item #2  AG & Economics:  The cow jumped over the moon.  How high will beef prices go in 2012?  Texas is the largest beef producing state, and the severe drought of 2011 and feed cost driven up by corn prices caused ranchers to sell or slaughter their herds.  Wholesale beef prices reached $1.97 in November, the highest price since 2004.  What will they be at the end of 2012?  The drought is predicted to continue in 2012 in Texas.

 

 

AMERICAN HISTORY:

 

Tapes have been found that covered JFK’s last months.  The tapes cover 260 hours of meetings and conversation.

 

The hearse that carried JFK’s body from Parkland Hospital to Air Force One at Love Field in Dallas has been sold at auction.  The hearse will become part of a collection in Longmont, CO.

 

BIOLOGY:

 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said 5.7 million bats have been killed in 16 states by the white-nose fungus.  The disease is thriving in northeastern states.  Stay aware of this situation.  Bats are a top nocturnal predator of night-flying insects.

 

CHEMISTRY:

 

Cadmium pollution is threatening a water supply in southern China near a city of 1.5 million people.  Cadmium levels are eight times higher than the safe limit.  There have been concerns about the cadmium level in imported toys in the United States.

 

DRIVERS’ EDUCATION:

 

Can you obtain a copy of “Dear Abby” from Tuesday, January 24?  The whole column is about teenage drivers just learning to drive and the apprehension many of them experience.

 

ECONOMICS:

 

All is not well in western North Dakota.  What do you students in Fargo and Grand Forks think about this?  North Dakota’s economy outpaced every state in the nation in 2011, in personal income, jobs and home pricing, but the dark side is it’s pushing rural North Dakota’s housing, electric, water, police and emergency services to the breaking point.  Now they have big-city concerns in rural communities.  Average annual salary in Williams County grew to $56,857 in 2011, up 70% from 2005.

 

EDUCATION:

 

Item #1  The headline reads,  “Students show they’re ahead of schools on technology.”  An idea other school districts should borrow.

 

The school board invited 18 students from six high schools in the district to input ideas on using Facebook, Skype, FaceTime and other technology to enhance learning.  The students complained about excessive homework and ill-prepared teachers.

 

Item #2  Public school teachers are seeing their traditional tenure protections weakened as states seek flexibility to fire teachers who aren’t performing.  Wow, this will be a loaded issue.

 

ENGLISH:

 

Item #1  Lawrence Taylor, ex-NFL star of the NY Giants, commenting on some mistakes he has made in life.  “We think that we can do certain things, and we still want to have that same life we did when we was younger, you know?”

 

Item #2  The police arrested a panhandler, but he couldn’t be charged because he was never known to ask for money.  He said, “I ain’t got to ask for nothin’ because the Lord gives me everything I need.”

 

GOVERNMENT:

 

Item #1  The Supreme Court has ruled that police cannot put a GPS tracking device on an automobile without a search warrant.  This tracking violates the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.  Police contend the automobile is used on public highways, so a warrant is not necessary.  What will be the extent of this ruling on camera surveillance, cellphone tracking, etc.?

 

Item #2  President Obama was supposed to appear in court in Atlanta, GA, on Thursday, January 26, to prove he is a natural-born citizen of the United States.  He won’t attend.  Were you aware of this on-going story?  How did he get out of his court date as he was in Nevada?

 

Item #3  On Tuesday, Jan. 17, the Supreme Court ruled against two Pennsylvania school districts on a First Amendment issue, and said students can post malicious mockeries of their principals on-line from their home computers.

 

Item #4  The First Amendment of the Constitution states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . .”  However, on January 20, Secretary Kathleen Sebelius of Health and Human Services(HHS) introduced a mandate for insurance coverage that violates Catholic Church teachings and, therefore, Catholic conscience.  This should make an interesting classroom discussion.

 

How many czars have been appointed to enforce all the rules and regulations of Obamacare?

 

Item #5  The government is $15 trillion in debt, and the debt ceiling is going to be raised by another $1.2 trillion.  Many say we are on a road to financial destruction, following Europe over a cliff.

 

HEALTH:

 

The CDC reports that an estimated 7% of American teens and adults carry the human papillomavirus(HPV) in their mouth.  This may explain why rates of mouth and throat cancer have been climbing for nearly 25 years, but are still uncommon.  The data was published last Thursday in the “Journal of the AMA”, stating, “The evidence makes it clear that oral-sex practices play a key role in transmission.”

 

The report states that 27% of 15-year-old boys, and 23% of 15-year-old girls have experienced oral sex.  Dr. Phil has discussed this subject, too.

 

MATH:

 

Item #1  A state lottery reported that six people won $5,663.00; 846 people won $59.00; and 18,682 people won $3.00.  What was the total payout by the state?

Answer:  $139,938.00

 

Item #2  A church group raising money for poor children had their penny collection stolen.  Donors from across the country sent the church 300,000 pennies.  How many dollars is this?  Answer:  $3,000.00

 

METEOROLOGY:

 

Again, tornadoes have swept across the South, and hit Alabama especially hard.  This following the April 25, 2011, tornado in Alabama that killed 238, and about 100 people in other states.  What precautions should you take in case of a tornado at home, at school, at work?

 

SOCIOLOGY:

 

Item #1  As the late Paul Harvey used to say, “It is not one world.”  In Iran, toy stores selling Barbie dolls are being shut down.  This is a part of the decade-long crackdown against “manifestations of Western culture.”

 

Item #2  “It is not one world.”  It has been revealed that three sisters and a co-wife have been killed in Canada in an “honor” killing.  The females were killed because they dishonored the family by defying its disciplinarian rules on dress, dating, socializing and going online.

 

Item #3  The “shake & bake” meth labs are burning people frequently filling the burn units in hospitals.  The cost of treatment is about $6,000.00 a day, and the average cost of a stay is $130,000.  Most of these patients are uninsured, so hospitals are closing their burn units.  (sociology, health, economics)

 

Another headline stated:  Psychotic behavior spiking as meth use amps up.

 

VOCABULARY:

 

pugilism, inexplicable, postulate, egregious, contortions, reminiscent, irony, acerbic, crass, thrice, ensconced, corroborate, doyenne, voluminous narcissist, abyss, egalitarian, vitriol

 

WORLD GEOGRAPHY:

 

Locate:  Finland, Switzerland, Russia, India, Scotland, Philippines, New Guinea, Somalia, Turkey, Guatemala, Ireland, Brazil, Peru, Bahamas, Greece. Germany,

Sudan, Ethiopia

 

WORLD HISTORY:

 

There was a large protest on Sunday in Russia against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.  People are protesting election fraud.  Follow this story between now and March.  Will Putin regain the presidency in March?  Wanna bet?

 

Al Wilson’s NIE Tips 1.24.12

AMERICAN HISTORY:

 

Item #1  Comedian Stephen Colbert said regarding the possibility of entering the presidential race, “I’m a one-man Lewis and Clark; and I’m just looking for my Sacagawea.”  Discuss this comment.

 

Item #2  The year 2011 was the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.  You might like to look at the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, VA: moc.org  and the Louisiana’s Museum of the Civil War at Confederate Memorial Hall in New Orleans:  confederatemuseum.com

 

Item #3  Celebrations were held in Key West, FL, Sunday to mark the 100th anniversary of the Florida Keys Over-Seas Railroad.  The railroad that connected Key West with the Florida mainland.

 

BIOLOGY:

 

Scientists have found 314 slides from Charles Darwin’s research.  These specimens are 165-years-old.  What was his expedition on the HMS Beagle?

 

DRIVER EDUCATION:

 

Gadgets are now on the market to keep people from talking, surfing or texting while an automobile is in motion.  Check out:  Cellcontrol, iZup, Key2SafeDriving, Guardian Angel or Protector.

 

ECOLOGY:

 

The fight over water rights between Texas and Oklahoma is going to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Oklahoma has the water and Texas wants it.  Oklahoma does not want to sell it.  This should wake students up to many water shortage issues all over the country.  Will there be enough clean water in your city in the next 25-30 years?

 

ENGLISH:

 

If your newspaper carries the “Hagar the Horrible” comic strip, on Monday, Jan. 23rd, you might want to review the rules for adding the “ing” suffix with the words punching, kicking, gouging, smashing, cutting and biting.

 

GOVERNMENT:

 

Item #1  Governor Rick Perry has dropped out of the GOP presidential race.  Now there are four.  The South Carolina results were a surprise to everyone.  How will the Florida primary turn out?

 

Item #2  The United States largely abandoned the gold standard in 1933.  There was discussion of returning to the gold standard in 1981, but the idea was rejected.

Presidential candidate Ron Paul wants to return to the gold standard.  What are the pros and cons of this?  It’s an idea whose time has come, but it isn’t going to happen.

 

Item #3  President Obama rejected the Keystone XL pipeline.  It was stated before this was a lose-lose situation for him, so he punted.  Wait and see, he will make the decision when it is a personal and political opportune moment for him.  Would someone give a brief report on the Ogallala aquifer?

 

Item #4  The EPA is playing politics and not protecting America.  With the Clean Air Act of 1990, the EPA wanted reformulated gasoline to burn cleaner.  Science told them the addition of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE) would foul water supplies, but they carried on.  The additive was dropped when contaminated water supplies were found in 1,861 locations in 29 states.  The EPA used the Clean Air Act to violate the Clean Water Act.

 

Scientists and the EPA know the use of ethanol creates more smog, but it’s good politics to keep promoting ethanol.  Promoters say ethanol will get us off Middle Eastern oil.  We have not decreased our import a drop.

 

HEALTH:

 

Health officials are saying aspirin therapy can harm you as well a help.  Baby aspirins may help prevent heart attacks, but may cause internal bleeding.  Research is from the Gill Heart Institute at the University of Kentucky, and from St. George’s University in London.

 

MATH:

 

Item #1  As NASCAR gears up for the Daytona 500, fans were asked who they thought would win the championship in 2012.  Of the 7,493 fans voting, 14% said Kyle Busch, 35% Carl Edwards, 24% Jeff Gordon, 17% Jimmie Johnson, 10% Matt Kenseth.

 

Can you figure how many fans voted for each driver?  Can you show these percentages on a circle/pie graph?

 

Item #2  A state lottery reported that 12 people won $3,283.00; 1,058 people won $55.00; and 22,341 people won $3.00.  What was the total payout?

Answer:  $164,609.00

 

VOCABULARY:

 

orthodoxy, connoisseur, pejorative, pragmatism, gamut, trepidation, augur, auger, rowel, weir, pliable, hegemony, insatiable, procrastinate, precursor, anomaly

 

WORLD GEOGRAPHY:

 

Venezuela, France, St. Maarten, Somalia, Nigeria, Brazil, Finland, Croatia, China, Sri Lanka, Kuwait