24
Aug
 |
The Olympics are finally over and China has scored a major victory with a spectacular Olympics and a whopping 51 gold medals. However, two of those medals are still in question. Both of them have to do with the Athlete at the left, He Kexin and her age. While her passport says she is 16, there are other documents saying she is fourteen. The resulting complications have left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. |
This article will be a short one as to determine for sure how old a kid is. Its a medical process called Bone Marrow testing. It might sound painful but if the controversy is big enough, it may be necessary. I mean, we are talking about Olympic Gold medals here not the champion of your little league. Bone marrow tasting basically takes a sample of someone’s bone marrow and through a simple procedure, the substance in the marrow will tell the exact age. It works best on young people, which is perfect for the athletes in question. Some in the know-how of this method have explained it to me and say its kind of like the rings on a tree. The more rings, the older the tree is. I think to be sure no one was cheating, this method should be used. After all, you can fake passports and documents, you can’t fake bone marrow. Its a bullet-proof method to determine whether the athletes are eligible or not. If China has nothing to hide, they should do this just to prove to the world that they did not cheat.
20
Aug
 |
According to a recent study for on-the-job fatalities by CNN, fishing, logging, and flying were the three most dangerous jobs in America. Fishing was once again the most dangerous job and one that looks less appealing by the moment as the fishing industry has taken a hit. Fishermen face a variety of perils including ice, storms, and boat malfunctions. Yes, it may not be as dramatic as getting eaten by a shark, but these are very real threats. Next in line was logging. |
People die in this profession from being in the wrong place when trees fall and run-ins with equipment. The third most dangerous job went to commercial pilots. These are not the big jet-liners we often think about. Usually these are small pilots who do solo flights or ferry people in small almost bi-plane type aircraft. Such aircraft do not have the stability of a Boeing 747 craft and therefore is more prone to be effect by wind and bad weather.
What surprises me is that neither soldier or police officer made the list of the most dangerous jobs. I know many soldiers are home and not in combat zones but I would have thought that the deaths from those in Combat zones would offset it enough to make being a soldier one of the most dangerous jobs you can have. Police officers also fell way below fisherman and loggers and had about 1/5 of the deaths that fisherman did, I guess Fish are more tricky than criminals. I would have guessed that policemen suffer far more fatalities than fisherman if not for this report.
I suppose the reason why I think of soldiers and policemen when I think of dangerous jobs is because those are the ones shown on TV all the time. When these people die, they often become heros and the story is widespread. No one even knows if a fishermen or logger dies on the job.
