modern day savery at walmart?

I was very moved by the presentation about human trafficking. Before this i honestly didn't know what human trafficking was. I was shocked to find out that it was basically slavery. And what amazed me the most was that Walmart and Sears use human trafficking to keep their prices low. This was such a shocking fact to me I wondered what other big companies use human trafficking. I googled stores that use sweat shops and got the site behindthelabel.org and it listed some of the stores that use sweat shops.
some would be:

• Ann Taylor
• Abercrombie & Fitch (This includes Hollister and abercrombie)
• Eddie Bauer
• Gap (This includes Banana republic and Old Navy)
• J. Crew
• JC Penny
• and many more!

This is very shocking to me and I want to try and avoid shopping and these stores from now on. I hope that human trafficking can be eliminated because it is very crule and sad. ♥

2nd PLN: Female athlete triad

link to article: Sports and Women Athletes: The Female Athlete Triad -- familydoctor.org

I was reading this article while doing research on eating disorders for my position paper and it changed my thinking about my friend's anorexia. The female athlete triad is a disorder that affects one's eating habits, a girls periods, and the strength of one's bones. This is exactly what happened to my friend. The article also tells the risk factors for the female athlete triad and everyone on my swimming team has these risk factors (my friend that is anorexic is on my swim team). The signs of a potential problem for one of us was there but the coaches ignored them and continue to this day with the mindset that winning is more important than anything else. We could have prevented anything like this from happening by making swimming about doing our best and having fun not about winning at all costs. And my poor friend had to pay the price for our carelessness. She will always have the effects of her eating disorder such as osteoporosis in her back. She may never be able to be the same person she was before; she will always have to eat much more than a normal person and always have to have a lot of calcium to help her bones. It's a shame that nobody payed attention to the signs. Before I read this article I wondered how she got her eating disorder and why it was her not any other person. It's all very clear now; my whole team is at a big risk for the female athlete triad, she was just the poor girl who actually got it.

PLN

I have decided to begin reading the Da Vinci Code again. Last semester I planned on reading it last semester but never got around to it. So this semester I am going to read it. I just started on it and it’s pretty good so far. I have seen most of the movie (I fell asleep before it ended) and the movie was very good and I heard the book was even better. I have seen Angels & Demons to and that was really good. I hope I enjoy the book so I will want to read the others in the series.
So far the main character Robert Langdon has been asked to go to the Louvre late at night because a person he was supposed to meet with earlier that evening had been killed in the Louvre. Also there has been a part that switches to this albino person that seems nuts. This book has a lot about religion and the secrets in it.

3rd PLN post

One of the conflicts in Anthem by Ayn Rand is society versus man. In the book Equality 7-2521 harnesses the power of electricity which is not liked by the government.

Equality 7-2521 is a very curious person and rebels against the government. In the book it is not allowed to create new things or think other than what you are told. He is very proud when he discovered electricity. “We, Equality 7-2521, have discovered a new power of nature. And we have discovered it alone, and we are to know it.” This quote shows that he is very proud of his invention/ discovery and he does not feel guilty for breaking the law. Equality 7-2521 is very proud of what he created. “… We shall put before them the greatest gift offered to men…” He does not realize that the government will not like what he created. But this new idea did not go over so well. “’We have much to say to a wretch who have broken all the laws and who boast of their infamy!’” The council of scholars did not like Equality 7-2521 being a rebel and the especially did not like his idea. In all I think this is a major conflict in the book that is still developing.

Second pln post

Link to article http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/10/24/russia.bear.ice.skating.death/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
In the article Ice skating bear kills Russian circus hand by Yuri Pushkin it talks about a bear that ice skates and he killed his trainer. This article interested me because I never knew bears ice skated. Apparently there was a whole show in Russia where the bears ice skate. “It is unclear what caused the bear to attack Potapov, 25, nearly severing one of his legs while dragging him across the ice by his neck.” I thought this quote was funny because maybe the bear attacked him because the guy was making the bear ICE SKATE! I don’t think that bears want to ice skate. In my opinion training a bear to ice skate is like herding cats: not going to end so well. Aparently this is not the first show of this sort. “Russia has a long-standing tradition of training bears to perform tricks such as riding motorcycles, ice skating, and playing hockey. Fatal attacks are unusual.” Why Russia! Why! I do not get the point of training bears to do that. Bears are very large and have lots of teeth and claws why not train whales or dogs. Something more gentle. I also like how the end of the quote says fatal attacks are unusual implying that there are attacks just usually not fatal. In all I think this was a very interesting story.

(FYI this is the 5th or 6th time i have posted this; it keeps deleting itself and then sends me an email saying my post has been deleted)

I am currently reading My Sister’s Keeper By Jodi Picoult. It is a great book. When I first started reading this book I was on Anna’s “side” but then I got to the next chapter in the book. And each chapter is written from a different person. So I got to see her mom’s point of view and her dad’s. And my opinion changed because I was able to see others reasons for doing things.

I never realized how much people will do to save their child. Kate is constantly in and out of the hospital and fighting disease after disease and her parents think that they can “win”. Also the reason they have Anna is so she can give blood, bone marrow, ect. to Kate.