Russian Ice Dancers

This year the theme for the ice skating original dance the skaters were to perform a folk dance. Some countries portrayed their own countries styles while others portrayed different countries. Oksana Domnina and Maxim Shabalin from Russia portrayed Australian aboriginals. They have performed this dance at other competitions and have always been criticized for it. First, the aboriginals said that their outfits were nothing like what they wear. Then, they said the dance contained no original moves and it was more of the ice dancers interpretation of the aboriginals. The aboriginal leaders actual found the outfits and dance offensive. They were offended by Shabalin leading Domnina around by her pony tail, the dancers sticking out their tongues, and the hand over the mouth gesture which is actually contributed to American Indians. After they performed at the European Championships and were criticized they said they were going to make some changes. They did change their outfits but almost no changes were made to the dance. They also fell from 1st place to 3rd so it was not a gold winning dance. I personally watched this dance and thought it was ridiculous.

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Sectionals

We have sectionals this weekend at Cardington. There will be 15 schools and around 129 wrestlers. Kevin didnt get his 100th win at ecol. He currently has 97 or 98 wins. We have really great brackets and it should be a great weekend. If a wrestler places at sectionals they make it on to districts. Then if the place at districts they make it to state! So hopefully we get some placers this weekend and we'll head to Heath next weekend for districts.

ECOL

Tomorrow is the ECOL wrestling tournament. It is our last regular season meet. We will then have sectionals, districts, and state. We were supposed to foil the lockers on Tuesday but since we didnt have school we couldnt. We plan on foiling them next Tuesday so they will be ready for sectionals. The 112 pound weight class will be insane tomorrow. Bertubin the 112 from Cambridge is ranked number 1 on the Brakeman report in his division. Langdon from Claymont is ranked 3 in the same divison. And Scherer from River View is number 15. There will be alot of intense matches. Bertubin and Langdon will be a great one to watch. Also Kevin Lepley is projected to get his 100th career win tomorrow!

Pluto

Hubble Space telescope images show that Pluto is changing color rapidly! It is showing more and more red color. In fact it is showing 20% more red color on its surface. These changes are unexpected because seasons can last up to 120 days on Pluto and it takes 248 years to orbit the sun. Scientists are saying that solar winds and other factors strip off the hydrogen in the atmosphere and leaves carbon-rich deposits on the surface which are red in color. These pictures were taken in 2002 but are just now being released because the scientist that found it thought he was wrong. After further examination he realized that these were real changes. Since Pluto's moon hadn't changed color it was not a equipment malfunction. They are still unsure of why the change happened so rapidly.

High Speed Railways

Today I heard of a plan to put new high speed railways all over the country. I think this is not a good idea. In our country too many people have cars and wont abandon them to ride a crowded public train. I also think that the system will take them a long time to build. Unless they are just going to pull up the old rails and put ones that can accomdate the high speed trains in they will have to aquire new real estate. This could take decades. I think it is a waste of money time and effort. The only good thing that will come from it is the new jobs it will create.