Ted Kennedy 1932~2009 R.I.P

Ted Kennedy was the youngest out of eight children. He was considered the chubby baby of the family. He was a court jester that brought laughs to the family, he was also less talented then his older brothers, but when he helped his brothers' campaigns he met people and he turned out to be really good at that.
His family had the most political power in the 1960's. After his brothers died he was the only surviving son of the Kennedy's. As he grew older he served in the senate for 46 years. While senator he influenced a lot of laws, also he turned his main focus on civil rights, women's rights, and most importantly national health care. He effected the history of the senate and the state of Massachusetts benefits from that. He died of brain cancer late Tuesday night at his home in Cape Cod.

Bowling for Columbine (Movie review)

This is a documentary of America's obsession with guns. Michael Moore (the director, writer, and star of this movie) travels around North America and studies specific cases of gun violence. One interesting case was the shooting in Buell Elementary School. A six year old kid was staying at his uncles house. When he found a small pistol he decided to bring it to school. The next day he shot one of his fellow six year old students and she fell to the ground with a bullet through her body. It was the youngest school gun violence in American history.
When Michael Moore was comparing Canadian culture and American culture he found a huge cultural difference. Americans always lock their doors, no matter what, however Canadiens do not lock their doors even at night. Also Canada has a population of thirty million people and ten million people own guns. Canada has more guns for each individual then America but the gun death in Canada is very low.
This is one of the best movies I have ever seen this year. It showed the dark side of America. I learned that there is plenty of gun violence among children. Also death by guns in America is very common and it is the highest rate in the world.
I recommend this movie to everybody who loves guns so it makes them think twice.

Martha's Vineyard

I went to Martha's Vineyard with my friend's family last Saturday and came back yesterday in the afternoon. It was great, we went to the beaches a lot and the water was nice and cold. We saw Ernie Boch Jr's, mansion and his house was huge, and he had five or six llamas in his giant yard. We went into Edgartown and went to The Black Dog, which is a very famous restaurant. We ate fudge from Murdick's Fudge, it was really good fudge. The waves at the beaches were good for a few days then it was really disappointing. Some of the waves just barely could reach my waist.
Martha's Vineyard is an island that is just off the coast of Cape Cod, and you can only go to there by boat or by plane because there is no bridge. Most people take ferries and drive their cars into the ferry. It was very pretty. There were stars at night and a clear blue sky in the morning. Most of the time the weather was nice and warm. There were nice healthy green trees everywhere and there was a lot of wildlife. I saw moon jellies, hermit crabs, crabs, krill's, star fish, fly fish, eels, muscles, and clams. Also along the ferry ride I saw tons of fish and jelly fish. So many people go to Martha's Vineyard because the weather rarely breaks 90 degrees. Also it has famous vineyard wine, film festivals, wildlife, many beautiful beaches and a lot of famous people vacation there, such as the Kennedy's or the Obama's and much more.
I recommend you go there at least once in your life, because it is worth every minute of your time.

Would I want to be a spy?

I would definitely not want to be a spy, because of the risk of getting executed and the dangerous things that I would have to go through.
Some people want to be spies because of the money or the patriotism for their country, sand ome spies go against their country, because they think their country is doing the wrong thing. Everybody loves spy movies because of the action and the thrills. For example, James Bond is one of the most famous spies of all times. In his movies it's always guns, bombs, killing and money which are always good qualities for spy movies. Some young children watch movies like this and want to become spies, or become something like it.

Vocab from Spies book

1. Indian reservation: Land that the government gives to Indian tribes. On their reservation they can make there own laws, it's like a another separate nation in the U.S soil.

Foxwoods Casino is in the Pequot Tribe Reservation.

2. Transcribe: To listen to something and write it down.

The Japanese couldn't transcribe the Navajo language.

3. Missionary: Religious people who try to help the poor or go to different countries to spread their religion.

Philip Johnston grew up in a Indian reservation because his parents were missionaries.

4. Gizmo: A tool or an invention.

Spies used the most latest and modern gizmo's on there missions.

5. Mata Hari: A famous belly dancing spy who spied for the French. She was executed on October 15, 1974, by a firing squad.

Mata Hari was a Dutch women who spied for the French.

6. Harriet Tubman: She was a spy who got her freedom and helped many other slaves become free.

Harriet Tubman was part of the under ground railroad and help many black slaves to freedom, some call her the black Moses.

7. Exotic: A new or foreign thing. A exotic flower can mean a imported flower or a foreign flower.

Many exotic plants from the rain forest are poisonous.

Secrets, Lies, Gizmos, and Spies: A History of Spies and Espionage

This book is non-fiction by Janet Wyman Coleman, and its about famous spies in world, such as Whitaker Chambers who was a Time Magazine journalist, and a spy for the Soviet Union. This book teaches you the history of spies and spying. One thing that was interesting was that the first American spy was George Washington. He knew that the only way to beat the British was to spy on them because the British had better trained men, better weapons, and a lot more men then the Americans. George Washington found out that the British were going to invade Rhode Island, and to prevent this from happening George Washington wrote a fake letter saying that he was going to invade New York. He gave it to one of his secret agents and told him to give it to the British general. When the British read this they changed direction and went back to New York while the Americans headed to Rhode Island.

There was another story about the Navajos during World War II. Philip Johnston read an article about how during World War I Canada used Native Americans as code talkers. So he told the military and they recruited Navajo Indians to be code talkers, because they have a very complex language. One word can mean different things depending on the pitch of the word. They were trained in San Diego and went to battle. When the Japanese tapped the message they couldn't transcribe it or decode it. One Japanese code breaker said that he thought he was listening to gibberish.
This book talks about spies, and how to spy also, and it shows pictures of people and spy gadgets. in chronological order throughout history. I love this book because it is easy to read and you learn interesting things on every page.

More Vocab: from the Percy book

1) Hinder: To prevent; V
Percy tries to hinder Kronos from invading the world and Destroying the Olympian Gods.
2) Agitation: A feeling of being upset; N
Percy felt agitation when Annabeth got stabbed by a poisoned knife.
3) Stooped: Bent over; Adj
Percy stooped into the River of Styx to became a great warrior.

The Drop of the Scaffold

Yesterday in Boston, MA two window washers almost fell to their death while washing windows at a skyscraper on State Street. They were on a scaffold washing windows on the 37th floor when suddenly their scaffold dropped 20 feet and tilted in a 45 degree angle. They were dangling for about 20 minutes before any help came. Finally fire fighters had to break windows to rescue the two window washers. Many people saw it happening from inside the building and from the streets. It doesn't say why it fell but it looks like one of their cables snapped.
Window washers get paid a median wage of only $18,790 per year, so is it actually worth risking your life to get paid that wage?

VOCAB: 10 words from Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Battle of the Labyrinth

1) Malice; Hatred: N
Kronos felt malice towards Percy.

2) Sheathed; in the sheath, something you put your sword in: adj
After the battle between monsters Percy put his sword in his sheath.

3) Reckon; Figure out: V
Percy reckon that Kronos was evil.

4) Hydraulics; Something to make it go up: adj
The car was bouncing up and down because it had hydraulics.

5) Spittoon; A spitting bowl: N
Pirates had Spittoons to spit in or spit out tobacco juice.

6) Cauldron; A big black witches pot: N
In the play Macbeth witches were making a special potion in a big black cauldron.

7) Skeptically; A way of talking that shows that you don't believe: adj
I was skeptical about scary campfire stories.

8) Shrewd; Smart: adj
Percy was very shrewd when he convinced his father to stop defending his palace and help send Typhon back to Tartarus.

9) Stalagmite; Pointy rock columns in caves: N
There were a lot of crystal stalagmites in Calypso's cave.

10) Dank; Wet: adj
When Percy was in the labyrinth there were a lot of dank places.