Tattoo

One of the things I noticed when I came to Fort Lewis was the amount of tattoos you can see around campus. Fort Lewis is definitely a good example of how tattoos are now becoming a part of mainstream culture. Tattoos are no longer a sign of being a rebel or a part of the counter-culture, they are now just a way of personal expression, and ever developing art form, and many other things to many different people. The New York Times posted an article on tattoos that I enjoyed, here is a link.

Pakistani Troops Fire at U.S. helocopters

While two American helicopters were flying along the Afgan-Pakistani boarder offering air support for ground patrols they were fired at by small arms from an Pakistani boarder check point. The U.S. military claims that both helicopters were in Afgan air space when the shooting happened. Pakistani officials says that one of the helicopters flew into Pakistani air space while the other stayed in Afganistan. Warning shots were returned from the helisopters, and hit a hillside far from the Pakistani soldiers. Here is the full article from the New York Times website.

Congratulations Sam Blenkinsop

19-year-old New Zealander Sam Blenkinsop won the UCI world cup final in Schaldming. Sam is the first New Zealand native to win a DH world cup final in the history of the sport. Here is a video of his winning run, the announcing and editing is questionable, but it does show just how fast and talented Sam Blenkinsop really is.

Social Responsibility

The New York Yankees have a new stadium, across the street from the old one... The new one is the most expensive baseball stadium in the history or major league baseball (around 1.8 Billion). Not only is it completely unnecessary but it was also built on top of a public park which was used by nearby schools for there athletic programs and was a very important part of the community. Here is a link to a New York Times article about the stadium. The stadium is being built using a large percentage of tax dollars taken from people who can not afford to go to a baseball game, and who lost their park because of it. Here is an ABC news article about the funding for the stadium. I encourage anyone reading this to do more research and try to find the ABC nightly news video about this, it is very discouraging, and gives a view into the corruption of elected officials in the U.S.

Iraqi Constitution

Its been in the news for a long time now, but do you know what it actually entails? If you are curious, here is a link to a copy of the Iraqi Constitution.

Hybrid Hype

Hybrid Hype

With the ever rising prices in gas, fuel efficient cars are becoming more and more popular. The increasing popularity of this type of vehicle has manufacturers constantly developing and releasing new models onto the American car market. Hybrids have been around for years, but it wasn't until the last several that they have become very popular and somewhat trendy. Some people believe that when you drive a hybrid car you are doing the environment a great favor, that this somewhat new technology makes the driver environmentally conscious. Are the drivers of hybrid cars correct? Are they in fact going to save the world with their battery filled auto's? Or are they simply caught up in a fad that means well but in reality does not really fix anything? This article, published by CNN money in 2005 states facts proving otherwise. There are many options to avoiding high numbers on the pump, but buying a hybrid car just isn't one of them.

This video also offers good information about the hybrid hype.