Weird Map of the United States

                This map was made by: typing in each state's name on Google then labeling it with the first data that came up.  The states in red refer to newspapers such as the New York Times, Idaho Statesman, Washington Post, and the Missouri Compromise.  The states in green all contain important educational institutions.  Colorado State, Georgia Tech, New Mexico State, Arizona State, South Dakota State, North Dakota State, West Virginia, Virginia Tech, Mississippi State, Iowa State, and Pennsylvania State University.  The rest of the states are not grouped together by color.  Notice Nebraska is known for college football. 

Sub-Saharan Africa

         In my opinion, we should help them develop their government and military.  The Bush administration sent billions of dollars over there, and now they have somewhat become dependent on the money.  If we could develop their governments they would have not as much of a need or dependency on the money the United States is supplying Sub-Saharan countries with.  Setting up a government and helping it to get established is a very difficult task, as we have found out in the Middle East, and Central Asia (Iraq and Afghanistan).

Unrest in Libya

          Muammar Gaddafi is Libya's leader, he has been in power for forty-two years.  This makes him one of the longest serving rulers in history.   After seeing what kind of protests took place in Egypt with the people forcing the stepping down of Hosni Mubarak, the Libyan people came up with the same idea.  With the protests that took place in Egypt the military did not get involved a whole lot, so it was not as violent as the protest in Libya.  Gaddafi has used the military to try to stop the protests, that has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths.  After Gaddafi started firing on his own people, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization became involved.  NATO created a no fly zone over Libya, so Gaddafi could not use planes against the people.  NATO also shot missiles, trying to hit Gadaffi's palace.   The main reason for all of the protests in Libya is: the people want to overthrow Gaddafi, and install a democratic government.  With installing a democratic government they would have a lot more freedom compared to now.

Google Earth

          In this view, you can not see much land at all only the border of the continents, Hawaii, and a few other islands, all the rest is the Pacific Ocean.  I like this view of the earth because it shows how Hawaii is very isolated, and it shows how big the Pacific Ocean is.  If someone was going to Hawaii saw this view of the earth, they might get a little anxious about flying over the ocean for that long.  This view of the earth really supports the fact that the earth is about 71% water, and only 29% of it is made up of dry land.

The War In Afghanistan

         The war in Afghanistan has been a brutal war for the United States.  As we saw in the movie "Restrepo" the terrain is very mountainous, which makes it very hard for the U.S. soldiers to advance quickly.  The mountainous terrain also provides plenty of shelter for the Al-Qaeda insurgents to hide.  Another reason that makes this war so tough to fight is: the U.S. can't just go in and bomb the whole country because there are also a lot of innocent people, that had nothing to do with 911.  One positive point the soldiers brought up was; how they were glad that the war was in Afghanistan, and not in the United States.