Tornado in OK

 A giant tornado, a mile wide or more, killed at least 91 people, 20 of them children, as it tore across parts of Oklahoma City and its suburbs Monday afternoon, flattening homes, flinging cars through the air and crushing at least two schools.  Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore was reduced to a pile of twisted metal and broken walls. Rescue workers were able to pull several children from the rubble, but on Monday dozens of students were still trapped. At Briarwood Elementary School in Oklahoma City, on the border with Moore, cars were thrown into the heap and the roof was torn off.

Please send your prayers to Oklahoma and for the families affected by this killer storm.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/us/tornado-oklahoma.html?_r=0

The few, the proud, the umbrella holders.

At a joint conference with the turkish prime minister, our president felt tiny droplets of rain so he called in THE MARINES to help.  "Why don't we get a couple of Marines," he said. "They're gonna look good next to us. Just 'cuz I've got a change of suits, but I don't know about our prime minister. There we go. [Gestures to press.] You guys, I'm sorry about."  The twitter slammin started shortly after.

How could our president feel that this was necessary?  He should be ashamed of himself.  Maybe it wasn't a purposeful slam, but in the end this is incredibly tacky.  Hold your own umbrella Mr. President or have someone that didn't go through Hell for our country hold it for you but marines? Seriously?

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/umbrella-toting-marines-protect-obama-turkish-pm-raindrops-184417144.html

Miracle in Bengladesh

A woman buried in the wreckage of a collapsed garment factory building for 17 days was rescued this Friday.  She survived in a Muslim prayer room in the basement of the eight-story Rana Plaza building.  Crews have been focused on recovering bodies, not rescuing survivors. More than 2,500 people were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. However, no survivors had been found in the wreckage since April 28th. When she was finally exposed by heavy equipment, she waved a pipe to attract attention. The women, Reshma, was given water, oxygen, and saline while they were trying to get her out.  She was promptly rushed to a military hospital.  This miracle had many religious implications also given that she was found in a Muslim prayer room on the Islamic holy day.

This really is a true miracle and I am hoping for her true recovery.  I am curious though if there was water that she could get to because it was not mentioned.

http://news.yahoo.com/bangladesh-workers-survivor-factory-rubble-104205204.html

Parenting Style and Depression

It has been seen that "Tiger Moms" are actually doing more harm than good.  "In her controversial memoir, 'Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother,' Yale law professor Amy Chua defended her draconian parenting methods, explaining how being a controlling "Chinese-style" parent drives Asian-American children to succeed in ways that permissive "Western-style" parenting does not. But a recently released decade-long study of 444 Chinese-American families shows that the effect tiger parents have on their kids is almost exactly the opposite." Compared with suppportive parenting methods, "tiger parenting" seemed to lead to lower GPA's, less commitment to family, symptoms of depression, and a greater sense of alienation. 

It makes sense that this method of parenting would not be the best way to raise a child.  Putting a little pressure on kids to succeed is one thing but as soon as there is too much, bad consequences will ensue. Kim Wong Ketner even stated "The typical tiger mom attitude, she says, is actually a lot like bullying -- and has similar devastating effects."

http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=1319159493936285220#editor/target=post;postID=6728932236752309423

The Cicadas are coming!

After 17 years, they're finally coming back.  "Colossal numbers of cicadas, unhurriedly growing underground since 1996, are about to emerge along much of the U.S. East Coast to begin passionately singing and mating as their remarkable life cycle restarts."  They are aparently supposed to swarm this spring from Georgia to New York.  Scientists say that the theory behind this incredibly spread out life cycle is to have so many cicadas hatch at once that the predators cannot kill them all no matter how hard they try. 

I love cicadas.  I cannot wait to hear them and watch them this summer.  It's always fun to watch a cicada molt.

http://news.yahoo.com/theyre-back-17-cicadas-swarm-georgia-york-141835694.html

Horrifying Runny Nose

Joe Nagy of Phoenix, Arizona suffered with a chronic runny nose for a year and a half and believed it to be just allergies.  It wasn't!! When Nagy finally went in to get his runny nose checked, they found that he was actually leaking brain fluid from a hole in the membrane surrounding the brain.  Right when he was ready to go in for surgery, he got meningitis! Finally, when everything cleared up, he went in for surgery and is fine and well but what a scare!

Well, thank you article for making me a hypochondirac about runny noses.  I will definitely be half way freaking out about a runny nose for like the next year.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/man-runny-nose-turns-leaking-211027041.html

Team disqualified for act of faith

A 4x100 team in Texas was banned from the state championships because one of the runners pointed to the Heaven's after their race.  “He put his hand by his ear and pointed to the heavens,” said his father. “It was a reaction. You’re brought up your whole life that God gives you good things, you’re blessed.”  It is not as if this is an uncommon thing to do either, you see it all the time in sports.  It was such a small and personal act that it really doesn't make sense to have these extreme consequences.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/texas-teen-points-heavens-gets-4-100-relay-181303156.html