The Most Unpopular School Subject

Some of us love math. Many of us just hate it. According to an AP-AOL News poll of 1,000 adults, almost four in 10 of those surveyed said they hated math in school. That's twice as many as felt that strongly about any other school subject, reports The Associated Press.But not everyone hates math. About 25 percent of those surveyed said it was their favorite subject, which is about the same number who chose English and history. Slightly less chose science. Of course, math is one of those subjects that appeals to people who like clear cut answers. One plus one is two. Those who find such a black and white process overwhelming, prefer subjects that have a bit of gray and allow for interpretation and debate.What's alarming about 40 percent of us hating math? It complicates efforts in U.S. schools to catch up with those math whizzes in Asia and Europe, notes AP. Math and science are critical to research, innovation and economic competitiveness, making it vital that students have a solid grounding in all subjects so they can become well-rounded citizens and skilled workers. How do we get kids interested in math? Fifth-grade math teacher Dianne Peterson of Merritt Island, Fla., told AP the key is to make it fun and capture their imagination at a young age. "I do a lot with music with them," Peterson told AP about how she teaches the multiplication tables. "I've got some CDs that go over the facts. Some of it is rap and some of it is jazzy songs."If you could do it all over again, to what subject would you pay closer attention? The overwhelming answer in the AP-AOL News poll is foreign language, a response that might be sparked by the growing number of immigrants in this country. More than half said children should get more education in both science and the arts.An even more apt answer to that question might be paying attention to what the teacher said no matter what the subject. The New York Times reports that only about half of high school graduates have the reading skills they need to succeed in college, while even fewer are prepared for college-level math and science, according to a yearly report from ACT, which produces one of the nation's leading college admissions tests. "It is very likely that hundreds of thousands of students will have a disconnect between their plans for college and the cold reality of their readiness for college," Richard Ferguson, ACT chief executive, said in a statement announcing the findings.

Movies and Life

Watching movies are one of my favorite forms of entertainment. Sometimes when you are really into a movie, you tend to forget that you are watching a movie and you believe that this is happening in real life. Sometimes movies are really creative like SAW or Minority Report, while other times they can be dull or boring. But the latter depends on the person and what type of movies he/she generally watches. When I really admire a character in a movie, sometimes I try to acquire that character’s personality and incorporated it or blend it with my own. For instance, I recently saw the movie 300 and the main character Leonidas, showed a tremendous amount of courage when he and his men decided to stand and fight the Persian army of one million soldiers. He fought even though he knew that odds were highly stacked against him and that he was in all likely hood going to die. That courage and determination he demonstrated throughout the movie was something I personally admired; I had this sort of temptation to try to be just like that and not complain about the daily hassles of life and its problems. Rather than mope around about problems with school work, stress, etc. I strive to fight all of these issues with everything in my disposal and even though I may not always accomplish my goal, I can at least tell myself that “hey you gave it your best shot and at least you didn’t just sit there and complain.” It's movies like these that sometimes motivate us to strive to be better in every aspect of our life and they may even bring out the best in us.

The Rudest Drivers in The USA

If you get behind the wheel in Miami, Fla., beware! Drivers in this city are the rudest in the country. They speed. And tailgate. They change lanes without signaling. And they'll cut you off without a second thought.

That's the word from the automobile membership club AutoVantage of Norwalk, Conn., which has ranked the top five U.S. cities with the worst road rage, reports The Associated Press. The results are based on a survey of 2,000 adult drivers who regularly commute in 20 major U.S. metropolitan areas.

The Worst Cities for Road Rage:

Miami
Phoenix
New York
Los Angeles
BostonCities With the Most Courteous Drivers:
Minneapolis
Nashville
St. Louis
Seattle
Atlanta

What do we do when we encounter road rage? The drivers who are most likely to react to a rude driver are those who are young or have long commutes. To show their displeasure, they honk the horn, curse or make an obscene gesture. What should you do? AutoVantage recommends remaining calm and don't make eye contact with an angry driver. Instead, call them one of the names below--if only to yourself. Hagerty, an insurance agency for collector vehicles and boats, conducted a nationwide survey to find out the top 10 things drivers do that frustrate and annoy other drivers. How many of these do you see on your daily commute?

Top 10 Driving Pet Peeves:

1. Motor Mouths: Distracted drivers talking on cell phones.

2. Turtle Racers: Slow drivers in the fast lane.

3. Piggybackers: Pushy drivers who tailgate.

4. Wacky Weavers: Drivers who weave through traffic to gain one or two car lengths.

5. Gap Snatchers: Obnoxious drivers who speed up to keep you from changing lanes.

6. Space Invaders: Hasty drivers who change lanes without signaling.

7. Road Ragers: Those drivers who feel the slow burn and red hot anger of road rage--and then act on it.

8. Speed Racers: Motorcyclists who race down the middle of a lane between cars.

9. Driving Divas: Women applying makeup and men shaving.

10. Morse Coders: Drivers who leave their turn signal on for miles.

Empire State Building

I saw an interesting clip of a documentary yesterday in my DNY class about the construction of the Empire State Building. It showed workers walking on steel beams with incredible balance and skill. The majority of the workers were Mohawk Indian. I was shocked when I found out that these workers were not wearing any type of safety equipment and there was no net to catch them if they fell. The workers worked together in small groups on different parts of the building. They trusted each other tremendously and in fact if one of the workers got sick one day and couldn't make it to work, then the entire group would not show up to work that day. I was also surprised that out of the hundreds of workers, there were only 5 fatalities. The entire building took about 14 months to build which is shocking considering that some ancient buildings like the Great Pyramids of Egypt took perhaps a century. I admire those workers because they had no fear of working up there even though they knew the dangers of their job. I guess that if you are really determined to accomplish a goal like constructing the world's tallest building, then any fear or doubt you might of had leaves you. Too me this is a valuable lesson about confronting your fears and I hope I remeber this. One of the workers that is still alive today said that not one person didn't want to work on the Empire State Building. They considered it a privilege and honor to take part in constructing this exquiste building. I believe that we have come a long way in terms of human technological development and we are improving everyday.

Number 1 leisure activity

...reading!
Fully 35 percent of us cite reading as our favorite leisure-time activity, according to a new nationwide Harris Poll of 1,017 adults who were asked to name two or three favorite ways to spend their free time. That's a big increase from the 24 percent of those who listed reading as their favorite pastime last year.
Coming in second place at 21 percent was watching television, followed closely by the 20 percent who most enjoy spending time with their family and children. While the numbers have varied from year to year, these three activities have topped the list virtually every year since The Harris Poll began asking this question in 1995.
Here are our favorite activities ranked in order of preference:
Reading: 35 percent
TV watching: 21 percent
Spending time with family and kids: 20 percent
Going to the movies: 10 percent
Fishing: 8 percent
Computer activities: 7 percent
6 percent: Gardening, renting movies, walking, exercise (aerobics and weights), and listening to music.
5 percent: Entertaining, hunting, playing team sports, and shopping.
4 percent: Traveling, sleeping, socializing with friends/neighbors, sewing/crocheting, golf, going to church, and church-related activities.
3 percent: Playing music, housework, crafts (unspecified), watching sporting events, and bicycling.
2 percent: Playing cards, hiking, cooking, eating out/dining out, woodworking, swimming, camping, skiing, working on cars, writing, and boating.
1 percent: Motorcycling, animals/pets/dogs, bowling, painting, running, dancing, horseback riding, tennis, and theater.
Notable trends between the two polls taken in 1995 and 2004:
Spending time with family and children, reading, socializing with friends and neighbors, and exercising had the biggest rise in popularity since 1995.
Spending time on computer-related activities jumped 5 points from 2 percent to 7 percent in this nine-year period.
The biggest declines in popularity were in swimming, watching television, playing team sports, gardening, sewing/crocheting, and bowling.

VQ: What does "intelligent self-direction" mean to you?

What "intelligent self-direction" means to me is that we as students and human beings need to find our own method and path in life to learn new things. We should find ways to eventually teach ourselves once we get through high school, college, etc. Otherwise if just follow what others tell us to do, we will be boring and have no creativity in our life. And who know, if we find a new creative method to learn, other people might find that path intersting too and would want to take the same path. I learned in life that there is no one successful way of learning and that we all eventually learn things even if it means you have to learn it painfully or smoothly. Even people with no "education" learn things in their own way. That's because they found that path that teaches them. Once we go through "intelligent self-direction" we eventually learn about ourselves and all the things that interest us.

Riddle

I have a riddle for you.........

What can you lick but not eat?
It travels all over the world, but it stays in a corner?



If you think you know the answer......leave it as a comment.

Why I workout?

I go to the gym usually about 3 times a week, sometimes more and sometimes less. There are many reasons why I workout. Besides the fact that it is fun for me and gives me something to do, it also relieves my stress and anxiety. The gym helps me blow off some steam whenever I feel stressed or overwhelmed with things in my life. It also helps me focus on something besides all the worries and problems I might be facing these days. I've been working out for a year now and it has really paid off for me. I go to this small gym in my town called Valencia and it is probably the cheapest gym in all of New York. Sometimes when I go with my friends and they lift heavier weights than me, I may get tempted to try to exceed them and lift even heavier weights. Althought I know that I can't be the strongest man in the world, its just one of those guy things. Working out has also improved my health because I now tend to eat more healthier and more often than before. Of course, I can't deny the fact that I do have a desire to get more muscular and stronger, but I try not to obsess over that. Besides that, going to the gym is an activity for me that I enjoy doing for fun. Instead of watching t.v. all day when I'm bored I hit the gym.

My Greatest Struggle

Sometimes when I sit alone in my room with nothing to do and nothing to watch on T.V (like right now)........I start thinking about things. I start thinking about where my life is headed?, what kind of career I should pursue?, how to improve myself?, etc. Although I hate asking myself these questions because it gives me quite a headache, it is good for me that I do because then I can prepare myself with the answers I give to myself. By that I mean I can reflect on what I want and what I am interested in. This pops another question in too my mind (which I hate but can't stop) and that is how do I know what I want? How do I know that what I want right now is what I will want 10 or 20 years from now? Back in 5th grade I loved collecting pokemon cards and spent perhaps hundreds of dollars on them and after a couple of years have passed, I hated pokemon and threw away my entire collection. It's funny because my father always told me that eventually I'll lose interest in them but he still gave me money to buy them anyway. Although I may not know right now what will interest me throughout my life, I am still exploring and introducing myself to new ideas which may change my perspective someday and help me find new interests in life. Maybe one day I'll look back at this and thank my mind for asking me all of those questions. Perhaps you can relate to, but to me I consider this to be one of my greatest struggles.

The Link Between Prayer and Health

Is there a link between prayer and health? Recent studies conducted by scientists and other researchers have proven that there is a significant link between prayer and health. They have determined that those who pray more often and attend weekly religious services are more likely to receive health benefits than those who do not. Put simply, the more you pray the healthier you might stay.
Some examples of these benefits include improved physical activity, stronger mental health, and a decrease in mortality. One such psychiatric study conducted in 2004 by D’ Souza and A. Rodrigo demonstrated that people who use prayer as a form of therapy resulted in them having significant reduced feelings of hopelessness, despair, stress, and other negative feelings. Praying also provides a form of social interaction as well which can be beneficial to your health. When people pray in groups rather than individually, there is a sense of belonging to that individual and he or she can have a more optimistic outlook to whatever problems or issues the individual may be experiencing. Another study which was intriguing, examined people who were experiencing a “religious struggle” within themselves. Examples of some of these religious struggles include feelings of being punished by God, blaming God for his or her problems, or just simply being angry at God. The study concluded that these people were at a much higher risk of poor medical outcomes and a higher mortality than other people. Perhaps this is a sign that they should not look to find outside forces to blame for their issues, but rather they should seek to help themselves.
Medical schools are also taking heed of these studies and there are now nearly thirty schools around the United States that have included courses on religion and spirituality for medical students. Statistics have show that people that pray often were less likely to smoke or drink than those who are not. In fact, if an individual for example went to church and read the bible daily, then he or she is 990% less likely to smoke. When you smoke or drink less, this can translate into lower rates of lung cancer, cardiac problems, or liver problems. In the latter example, we see that praying and attending religious services are involved indirectly in benefiting our health. People who frequently attend religious services also have shown to have a much stronger immune system than those who didn’t. A stronger immune system could mean that you are less likely to fall ill or succumb to diseases like influenza, viral infections, or phenomena.
One particular study showed the effects of religious therapy used on individuals who were suffering from depression. Some of the methods the therapists used were using religious arguments and religious imagery to counter some of the negative thoughts the patients was exhibiting. As a result, the patient would feel better about him or herself and thus reduce the symptoms of depression. What’s surprising about this study was that the therapists themselves were non-religious. Mortality rates have also been proven to be affected by prayer. In one such study conducted by Oxman, Freeman, and Manheimer in 1995 showed that the mortality rates in the elderly that prayed often were lower than those who did not depend on prayer for strength. Even after all of the social factors were considered, the more religious individuals were about one third less likely to die than those who were not. Another report among thirty-three elderly people that were hospitalized for hip fracture showed individuals who depended on prayer were less likely to feel depressed and walked longer distances after they were released from the hospital than those who were not. Consequently, the ones who did not pray or attend religious services very often were more likely to experience more health problems and inevitably have an earlier death.
Of course with every person that supports a link between prayer and health there is usually someone who disagrees. They might say that these findings were inconsistent and that other factors were not considered when making the studies. However, I for one am satisfied with the studies and my faith has grown stronger because of them. I also admire those who make time in their schedules to practice their faith, whatever it may be. After all, we could all use a little prayer every now and then wouldn't you say?