New Monkey Discovery

A new species of monkeys was discovered yesterday, the 26th of october by biologists in the country of Myanmar. Monkeys were previously discovered by local hunters who gave the biologists tips on how to find them. According to the local hunters it is easier to find these monkeys in the rain because you can then hear the monkeys sneezing. The monkeys are very ugly in my opinion because their nose is actually upturned. it almost looks like the monkey is actually missing it's nose. The monkeys have to sneeze when it rains out because water from the rain will actually pour into their nose so the sneeze to keep the water from entering their nose. They have to sit with thier heads tucked between their legs and arms to protect themselves from the rain.

Apparently there is only about 330 of these newly discovered monkeys in the world today and they only live in one small region of Myanmar. Besides being an endangered species the monkeys have another threat; there is construction being planned on a new dam as well as new roads to go through the monkeys habbitat.

I think its crazy that there are still new species of animals being discovered today, this makes me wonder how many more new species are really out there throughout the world. I find it horrible that even with this endangered speices as well as other species living in this habbitat that people still want to tear it apart. Im no animal rights activist  but I think that Deforestization on the level its at today, especially with the rain forest needs to stop. Obviously the human population is growing at a large rate but to take so much away from these animals habbitats is really messed up in my oppinion.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39859947/ns/technology_and_science-science

NFL: Helmet to Helmet

This Wednesday the NFL will announce that players will be suspended from games if they commit “devastating hits and head shots” in a game against another player. There are many mixed thoughts about this new rule floating around in the NFL. Some people think that it is very necessary to have stiff penalties on players who commit one of these hits.  Other people think that the new rule is ridiculous because hitting hard is part of the game.

It is hard for me to really choose a definite side on this argument because I think that both sides have very valid points. I definitely think that intentionally hitting a player in the head should be penalized. There are too many players having to sit out of games with concussions due to being hit hard in the helmet.  I think that most of the time hitting a player in the head is completely avoidable and unnecessary. Players have been getting fined lately for these hits, but for a player that makes millions of dollars per year doesn’t really care about a 15,000 dollar fine. Players need to be suspended if the NFL really wants players to follow the rules.

On the other hand, football is a game, a tough game. This new rule is going to hit defensive players very hard. A defensive player has one objective, hit the player who has the ball. But now that you cant lead into a hit with your head, defensive players will have to think a lot more about how they hit some one. I think this is going to cause way more broken tackles and I think that defensive players are going to have a really tough time with this new rule.

Ted talk

After viewing the Ted talk                                                                              http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/gever_tulley_s_tinkering_school_in_action.html ), I found myself thinking that the style of learning that the tinker school uses is very close to mine. They use a hands-on approach to teaching.  I like hands-on learning much better than a more formal style of learning. For me it is easier to dive into something and start working on it than to try to read about it and remember everything or have a teacher lecture for an hour. I can learn in a classroom environment just not from a lecturing teacher or a textbook. I need examples of problems given and solved to get a good understanding of how something works.

This summer I had to do a lot of hands on learning. I landed a job at Breyer’s Sales and Service in La Crescent. Breyer’s is a shop that sells and repairs all sorts of lawn-mowers, chainsaws, trimmers, and many other products. I didn’t really know anything about engines or lawnmowers before I started working there. The other mechanics at the shop would slowly teach me different things about repairing lawnmowers and other machines and I caught on pretty quick. On the other hand if I am given a book on how to fix a lawnmower it takes me much longer to finish the project.

My job at Breyer’s made me realize that I am more of a hands-on learner than I thought I was. In Tulley’s video he said that they celebrate mistakes. Most of the time people think of mistake as bad things, and they are kind of right, but mistakes can also be good. I believe that when you make a mistake you can learn a lot. From knowing what not to do comes a better understanding of what to do.

1990 Rockwood

A friend of mine and I recently bought a 1990 Rockwood camper. This weekend we did some work to it and decided to break it in. It was a long and confusing journey to get to our camping destination but it turned out to be a very good time.

Once we got to the campground, we had to set up camp. As soon as we were done setting up we decided to go trout fishing in the creek that runs through the campground. Little did we know, the mosquitoes were bad enough to be a complete buzz kill. After catching a few fish, we figured it was better to quit fishing rather than catch malaria. So we packed up our gear and headed for the camper to clean our fish. We cooked the trout which served as a quite delicious and much needed feast.

With our bellies full we started up the camp fire and sat around and relaxed. The night seemed to go by pretty fast. We cooked some hot dogs, told some stories, and had a blast. I am very glad we decided to by the camper, so far it has turned out to be a pretty good investment.

Me

Hello, my name is Chris Horn. I Graduated from La Crescent High School last year, and I am taking my general courses here at Western because I do not currently know what want to do career wise. I am hoping that while I am taking my generals that will figure out what I want to do in life. I was born and raised in this area and I liked growing up here. I like to spend my free time outdoors. I enjoy hunting, fishing, camping, snowmobiling, four-wheeling, Jetskiing, snowboarding, and hanging out on the beach. I currently have two jobs. I am a truck unloader for Kwik Trip in La Crescent, I also work at Breyer's Sales and Service as a mechanic.