Room 613 Student Blogs - 2005/2006

Could you believe that this… ugly thing resembles a lobster?

Well, it does and it was found near Paris, France by some American-led divers in the south pacific. Scientists named the animal the Kiwa Hirsuta. The animal is also said to be so distinct from many other species, that they made a new family and genus for it. The Kiwa Hirsuta was found in waters 2,300 meters - or 7,540 feet - deep at a location 1,500 kilometers - or 900 miles - south of easter island last year. This crustacean is 15 centimeters long and is white. CNN reports that it is about the size of a “salad plate”. One suprising characteristic is that it has “sinuous hair-like strands on its pinchers. The Kiwa Hirsuta is also blind and its family is named Kiwaida. Thats all the info I could get, but I’ll let you know if there is anymore on the Kiwa Hirsuta.

President Mwai Kibaki’s government had spent $12.2 million on brand new SUV’s. Nearly half of this amount was used to buy fifty-seven Mercedes Benz and the rest of the government had gotten four-wheel-drive SUV’s. Even when this happened, about 32 million could not afford a good meal. What happened was that after three years of horrible rains, Kenyans were almost at the point of starvation. “The part that’s annoying is that they’ve come in on a platform of change, but they have shown the same extravagance, the same disrespect of the people as the previous regime,” Maina Kiai, the chairman of the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, said.

My resource was www.cnn.com quote from cnn too

In London, England, the threat of climate change might be a lot worse than everyone first thought. Scientists have recently reported changes in global warming, and it is advancing to melt ice caps.

The UK government- commission report found evidence that says scientists now have “greater clarity and reduced uncertainty” about the problematic impacts of a change in climate. This evidence was presented at a Meteorological Office conference on climate change last year. Tony Blair, in the meeting, stated that it was clear that “risks of climate change may be greater than we thought”. He went on to write: “It is now plain that the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with industrialization and economic growth from a world population that has increased six-fold in 200 years, is causing global warming at a rate that is unsustainable”.

“Temperatures rose by about 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.6 degrees Celsius) during the 20th century. Computer modeling predicts increases of between 2.5 degrees and 10.4 degrees Fahrenheit (1.4 degrees and 5.8 degrees Celsius) by the year 2100, depending on how much is done to limit greenhouse gas emissions” the U.N. backed Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change claimed. These scientists expected that global warming will intensify storms, raise ocean levels, shift climate zones, and spread disease. Scientists are also concerned about the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets melting and the Gulf Stream shutting down. These are known to the scientists as climatic “tipping points”.

Other problems have also occurred, one British report warned that the huge west Antarctic ice sheet may be starting to disintegrate, an event that could raise sea levels by 16 feet! Clearly, there is a real concern amongst a growing number of scientists worldwide!

For more World News go to cnn.com. Just Click here.

A deadly strain of bird flu was detected in Northern Cyprus. The deadly H5N1 strain of Avain flu has been confirmed in a dead bird. Cyprus began killing free roaming poultry and disinfecting vehicles coming in from the Turkish areas. Hong Kong has also found birds that tested positive for the H5N1 strain. The bird flu has killed 81 people since 2003. The world health organization estimates this virus, or one similiar, could target humans. If this happens it could spread around the world in 3 months killing 2 to 7.4 million humans. It’s like the last flu pandemic called the Spanish flu. It occured at the end of World War 1 killing 50 million people around the world. Some doctors and scientists believe this is why the government should be making a vaccine to combat this virus when it becomes necessary. This info is from google news [bird flu]

In Iraq they have a USA reporter for hostage until we give them their 14 Iraq girl prisoners. If we don’t give them they (say) they will kill her. They sent us a tape of her. She is speaking but there are guys in black suits and black hats all around her with guns. As she stays there her family really misses her. As her mother speaks “We will always think (of her) and love her forever.”

Journalist Jill Carroll once said, ” All I ever wanted to be was a foreign correspondent”. Jill was working for the Christian Science Monitor until she was laid off and became a freelancer. Jill Carroll had once wrote that she wanted to write stories about a war. Jill Carroll, who worked in Boston, Massachusetts decided to go to Iraq to write about the war. Jill had visited the area before in 2002 when she moved to Jordan, six months before the war started, to learn about the area. In Iraq, many of her stories were published in papers throughout the world. She also was interviewed by National Public Radio. Jill, 28 years old, kept on writing until January 7, 2006, when she kidnapped in one of Baghdad’s roughest neighborhoods. Jill was on her way to meet a Sunni Arab Official when her car was ambushed by gunmen and her translator was killed while Jill Carroll became a hostage. The gunmen threatened to kill her in 72 hours unless the military of the United States released all Iraqi female prisoners that they held in custody. As we speak, Iraq representatives from an American Muslim Group, are working as they can to find freelancer Jill Carroll. The gunmen threatening Jill Carroll wanted to kill her even though she purely believes in what the Iraqi people believe in, she also supports them. The search for Jill Carroll continues. See you next time with more news on Jill Carroll and what happens in Baghdad!! Hope all goes well!

The source of my information for this story is www.CNN.com. The photo is from www.cpj.org