And the space station and Atlantis shuttle viewing… was totally worth it! There was nothing disappointing abut it. Right before we went outside I got online and checked some more information out about it, and all the web sites were saying different things. So I was worried that it wasn’t even going to happen tonight, because some of them said that it was going to be on Thanksgiving night. So, I came inside for a second to get away from the cold, and my dad started yelling my name. I ran out there and saw them, they looked like two really bright starts that were moving at a decent speed, but close together. It was SO COOL. I am so glad that we heard about it on the news, or I would have never known to go outside at that time and look at the sky! We looked at it through the binoculars, which was really cool, but it was really visible just with the naked eye. I even grabbed my camera and zoomed in as good as I could, turned off the flash and got a good picture of both of them together that you can actually see. So, as I had anticipated, there was no disappointment in the viewing. And it was totally worth it to stand out in the cold to get to see that, because as I said, it’s not every day you get to see two man mad objects flying around in outers pace from Earth!

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Tonight at 6:51 PM, according to the news, we are going to be able to see the Space Station tonight from America with your naked eyes. As it makes this fly by, you can also view the Atlantis, which is the space craft that is currently connected to the space station. The Atlantis has been connected to the space station for a few days now, unloading a lot of supplies that they needed. My dad is sitting in the living room with his binoculars around his neck, waiting for the next 15 minutes to pass by so he can go out there and look at it. It is pretty exciting, it’s not every day you get to see two man made objects flying around in space just by looking up, but things like this always seem like they are going to be super cool and then you go outside and can’t even see anything because the clouds are in the way or it’s too bright outside. We are about to head out there and let our eyes adjust to the darkness, and then we’re going to look through the binoculars and see what kind of view we can get from Dumas. There really aren’t many city lights here to obstruct our view, but who knows how the weather is right now. Either way, I’m excited for the time being and I hope I’m not let down!

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It seems like the only time the news has something positive to tell us is around the holidays. While I appreciate the break from the constant stream of murder, death, war, thievery, and deceit, I wish the good stories would come around a little more often. I refuse to believe that humanity participates in more acts of violence everyday than acts of kindness. I realize that random acts of kindness are easy to overlook and usually not as dramatic as the bad stuff, but they are out there. It would be cool to hear just a few positive stories for every cluster of negativity they show us. I think it would be money well spent for a news station to hire a person who’s job is to go forth and bring back heart warming goo for us to listen to. The station could just wrap up the broadcast with a high note every night. Or at least have a good story ticker under all the other bad tickers on the screen. It doesn’t even have to be anything sappy, mushy, warm, fuzzy or sweet, just positive. Like how Texas has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the nation. That’s good news right? Or how New Mexico’s rate of accidents by drunk drivers as dropped in the past few years. All I’m lookin for is a few more pats on the back for America on a daily basis, not just during the holiday season. I actually don’t watch the news all that often, but every time I do, it’s negative. I’m just suggesting a new negative to positive ratio.

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Last week some Peruvian gang members were busted for smuggling human fat. Apparently the people involved have been murdering folks, stealing their body fat, and selling it to some undisclosed European companies for as much as $15,000 for a quart. Nasty. It’s no surprised that the gang involved is also facing weapons and drug charges. What is surprising though, is that there are companies that actually purchase human fat from Peruvian fat smugglers. Experts say the uses for human fat are few and far between. It might be used as a component in some cosmetics or in cosmetic surgery. However, doctors say that using human fat in any type of surgery is highly uncommon. We have all heard the stories about human skin being used for lamp shades during the Holocaust. Using people parts for anything other than transplants just seems archaic and heinous. Truth be told, it’s not such an outdated practice, and those who engage the harvest and exchange of people parts for cash are actually making some big bucks for the deeds. It’s a rough world we live in when people are killed for their parts. It makes for a rougher world when you think about the people who actually pay for people parts. There are folk out there who will pay to have kidneys reaped and fat removed for their own personal use. What if we are actually purchasing goods manufactured with people’s parts as components? Are humans naturally this barbaric, or has society created monsters like the Peruvian fat smugglers?

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I can’t say I have ever really seen anything “tragic”, I’ve seen a few car accidents, been in a bus accident, and been in a few car accidents myself, a few things like that. But I have never had to witness anyone dying, and I haven’t had to deal with a lot of deaths with people that were close to me personally. To those people who saw, 9/11, I can’t imagine not thinking about that every day for the rest of my life. This video is from Duzkoy, Turkey, taken on Saturday, November 21st. There was a really bad flood, and four people died as a result of the flooding. It’s hard to watch this video because of the sound of the man crying as he’s taking the clip, and the man in the front of the video makes it sad too. I’m so lucky to have never gone through anything this hard, natural disasters and human caused disasters both alike. I feel for these people and I pray that they are comforted soon.

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I always hated hearing about women who were pregnant and without someone to share the moment with. Situations happen, sometimes you and the father of the child break up and he wants nothing to do with the moment, maybe is has passed away during the pregnancy, or other situations that can happen. I always felt that if the father knew what was going on and had the option of being there during the birth of their child, that there was absolutely no excuse for him to miss the moment. No matter the relationship between the mother, it was still his child that was being born and he should want to be there and be a part of it. Well, until now. I think I may have found a pretty decent reason for the man to know what is going on and not be able to make it… maybe while he’s in space. Randy Bresnik’s baby was born on Earth, 220 miles below him this morning, while he was sleeping in outer space. He still has a week left in outerspace, he is part of the crew that is restocking the space station. ‘I will look forward to that landing … probably more than anybody has in the history of the space shuttle program,’ Randy Bresnik said. They woke him up on the space station with the song “Butterfly Kisses”, as a request from his wife, and they gave him the news. I think that this is a valid enough reason to not be at the birth of your child, but still a little disappointing I’m sure!

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A Canadian woman who works for IBM has been on a medical sick leave for a year now, due to her clinical major depression. She hasn’t worked in a year, and is still getting a benefits check from the company’s insurance while on her leave. I didn’t even know you could be on sick leave from a job for a year, unless you were in a coma or something. So, while on her sick leave at home trying to get better, the woman frequents her Facebook account in her spare time. Frequents it by doing random applications and, of course, posting pictures of herself. On vacation. At a bar. Or at her birthday party. And an agent from the insurance company decided that she wanted to check these pictures out. The woman decided that she found evidence that suggested the woman was not depressed, and that they are going to deny her claims for insurance benefit checks from now on. The woman is claiming that her doctor is telling her that she needs to go out and have fun with her friends to try and get over the depression, but the insurance company isn’t buying it. They cancelled her benefits, and now she is working with a lawyer to try to get them back. This is a sensitive subject, and I can see both sides. If she’s depressed, she should be trying to get over it with friends. But, I can understand why the insurance company would feel like they were getting taken advantage of after seeing the pictures of the woman vacationing and partying with the free money she was getting from them. It’s impossible to say either way who is right, personally, so I hope they just get this figured out as best as they can for all involved.

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I was a freshman in high school when ever the terrorist attacks of 9/11 happened. I was on my way to my second period class for the day, which was choir, when I saw my cousin walking toward the main building and she was crying. We didn’t get to talk about anything, so I hurried to my next class and heard the news. We didn’t have a TV out in the choir building, so we just heard bits and pieces of what everyone else had heard in their last class, and then went on with what we were supposed to be doing. I had only heard a little bit, so I didn’t think anything really bad had happened, but by the time I was in my next class they had all the TVs in all the class rooms turned on and I heard they were considering cancelling school that day. We were watching the news and they were talking about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center, and I couldn’t’ believe what I was seeing. It was horrible. I was in US history at this time, and my teacher filled us in on what was going on as best as he could, and then for most of the day we watched the TV in all of our classes. I always hear that you when something like this happens, for the rest of your life you will remember what you were doing and where you were, and I understand that now. It was horrible and I will never forget 9/11.

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In 2005 Natalie Holloway was on her Senior trip in Aruba when she went missing. They claim that she was last seen at a bar with friends and she left with some guys. They showed a special on E! with the main suspect, Joran van der Sloot, in the case talking with one of his friends on a hidden camera. It is absolutely disgusting. He had said the entire time that the last time he saw her was when he dropped her off at the hotel, and then changed his story to saying he left her out on the beach alone after they had messed around. Now, on this hidden camera, he is telling exactly what really happened that night. He says that they were about to have sex on the beach and she started to have a seizure. He freaked out and when she died, he had someone come and get her body and go out on a boat with it and throw it into the ocean. I can’t believe this guy. The situation wasn’t even his fault, she had a seizure and he should have just called an ambulance and tried to save her, and even if she died he wouldn’t have been at fault. I think he must have drugged her or something and he was scared to call an ambulance to come get her cause he would have gotten into trouble. This show is really sick, he is giving a candid description of what he did to her and how he got rid of her body, and how he’s gotten away with claiming to be innocent. Thank God for the people that got this whole hidden camera thing together, even though they aren’t using the tapes to punish him what so ever. They are saying that he made up the story on tape to make his friend this he was cool. At least her parents really know what happened and have some closure, even though he’s still off with out punishment. Some people are horrible.

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It’s always been said that women should begin getting their mammograms once they are forty and make sure that they are getting them once a year. By doing this, women are able to have the screenings help in detecting abnormalities and catch if anything is wrong before it might be too late. I can assume that this screening costs a bit of money, but I don’t think that really matters when it comes to saving someone’s life. This standard has been set for years by doctors and professionals all around. So, the sudden change of heart from experts saying that women should wait until they are 50 is surprising. These “experts” are claiming at not enough lives are saved by requiring the mammogram, so we shouldn’t deal with them. Do you think the women out there who got their tests done when they were 40 and found cancer agree? How can someone say that a few lives saved aren’t enough? It’s just people being stingy with money, as usual. Women who get the tests and face the common false-positive screening end up costing their insurance a lot of money in other screenings, biopsies, etc., and they don’t want to “waste their money” anymore. Ugh, people are sick. I guess some lives just aren’t worth that much when saving money comes into the picture.

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