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KING’S EYE ON THE WORLD Issue 12

Volume Four

16th May 2014

Editors:

Sophie Cliff

Arran Fearn

Journalists:

Sam Everett

Ruari McBennett

Alice Woodward

Rhiannon Jackson

Will Richards

Daniel Badeli

Isabel Beardwood

Barney Jones

Saffron Townsend

Katie McNamara

Louis MacDonald

Roberto King

Jack Sackett

Erin Morgan

Oliver Irvine

Charlie Clarke

CURRENT AFFAIRS ENRICHMENT………………READ ALL ABOUT IT!

We are very happy to be editing this week’s King’s Eye on the

World with a new team of journalists; we hope to offer some

interesting opinions and news. This week the main articles

are the EU elections, the Nigerian kidnappings and Jamie

Oliver visiting schools worldwide. In addition we have two

fuel related articles in the UK about our fossil fuel crisis and

mining riots in Turkey. Also, we offer our own opinions on

gender in education. This includes arguments against calling

teachers by their first name and a discussion of the lack of

girls taking Physics as one of their A levels.

We anticipate you will enjoy this,

The Editors

American Origins found

Underwater By Jack Sackett 3HL

The ancient remains of a teenage girl have been found deep underground in Mexico and could reveal secrets about the history of how humans came to inhabit the Americas.

Divers found bones of the teenage girl in a flooded limestone chamber on the Yucatan Peninsula. According to scientists, the girl

was 15 or 16 years old when she died, which was 12,000 years ago. Scientists have been analysing her DNA, which backs the fact that there is a link between the original Americans and the modern Native Americans. This theory states that Asia and the Americas were once linked by a land mass named Bernicia that existed 20,000 before sea levels rose. Siberian natives travelled south from Bernicia to the Americas and settled there as the first Americans.

The Genetics of modern Native Americans seem to be similar to the genetics of the body that was found. However the remains of the Yucatan girl, who has been named Naia (which is Greek for sea-nymph), share more similarities with modern Native Americans than other original American bodies that have been found previously. Scientists have been analysing the teeth of the body and have discovered that they share a gene with Native Americans called Haplogroup D1.

"This lineage is thought to have developed in Bernicia, the land that now lies

beneath the Bering Sea after its ice age occupants became genetically

isolated from the rest of Asia," says lead author Dr Jim Chatters. "Thus, Naia,

one of the earliest occupants of the Americas yet found, suggests that

Paleoamericans do not represent an early migration from a part of the world

different than that of the Native Americans. Rather, Paleoamericans and

Native Americans descended from the same homeland in Bernicia. The

differences between them likely arose from evolution that occurred after the

Beringian gene pool became separated from the rest of the world."

Scientists have speculated that she slipped in the cavern and died whilst looking for water as there was a significant drought during the time that she died. "Her pelvis is broken and it appears to have been broken at or around the time of her death because it's fractured in a way that relatively young bone would break rather than ancient bone," said Dr Chatters. "So, it appears she fell quite a distance and struck something hard. I think she died almost instantly, if not instantly."

What could this mean about the future of American history? Could this help us bridge the gap between modern human and ancient human? Only time will tell.

Why do so few girls take a science

A-Level? Rhiannon Jackson 3HL

Over the years more and more

students have begun to take a

science A-level, but the number of

girls taking a science after GCSE is

still worryingly low. Why?

Studies have shown that girls make

up only 20% of students who study

Physics. A study has begun to explore

the reasons why girls don’t want to take A-level Physics but there are a lot of

arguments about the reasons for this. The main argument is probably ‘gender

stereotyping’. After all, women haven’t always been able to take the

classically ‘hard’ subjects, and were rather pressed into learning skills like

cooking and ‘home economics’. Now that we’ve finally ventured out of the

kitchen and are able to study science, it’s pretty odd that not many girls are

taking this opportunity to widen their range of careers by taking a science. It’s

possible that girls still feel they aren’t clever enough to take a science. But

what – or who – is making them feel this way?

Some people argue that the teachers play a large part in the impression of

their subject that they give to their students. If they don’t make a science

lesson interesting, then students aren’t engaged and don’t enjoy the subject.

Sounds pretty simple, but surely this would affect boys as well as girls? In

some schools it’s reported that girls are made to feel as though they aren’t as

competent at the subject as their classmates, either by fellow pupils, or in

some cases, the teacher, which is really disturbing.

Sometimes the problem can just be subliminal influences on kids in school.

It’s true that girls have a lot less self-confidence than boys in their teenage

years. Another odd thing is that even in our Science department at King’s

there are fewer female teachers than male. However in the English

department there are fewer male teachers than female. Perhaps some

subjects just seem to be more of a ‘male’ subject, and some more of a

‘female’ one because of the gender of the teacher?

Personally, I think this is wrong. Usually you have more options of places to

work with a Science degree than with an English one, as it is considered a

more difficult qualification, so technically girls are being hindered from getting

a job that they probably would have been fully capable of having if they had

taken a science. Hopefully at the end of this study girls might have more faith

in their own ability and try and get over the barrier of sciences being a ‘hard’

subject.

Nigerian Kidnapping Barney Jones SHRL

On the night of the 14th April over 200 female students were seized from their

boarding school in North East Nigeria. The people responsible for the

kidnapping are members of a terrorist group called Boko Haram, which in

English translates to ‘Western Education is Sin,’ this being the reason why the

girls were abducted. In the days after the kidnapping, the Nigerian military claimed that many of

the girls had escaped and concluded only eight were missing but soon after

this statement was released it became apparent that over 100 were still

missing. As the time grew since they had been seen, and very little military

action had been taken, a lawyer started a new hash tag called

#bringbackourgirls. Within three weeks it had hit 1 million tweets and was

one of the most popular hash tags on Twitter. Even Michelle Obama was seen

advertising this. Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who is famous for

advocating for women’s education, is also promoting the hash tag.

Other countries then started to help the effort to find the children, British and

American experts came over to Nigeria to help track them down, more

nations soon followed.

On the 11th of May the terrorist group released a video showing the 130 girls

under their control. Many people are speculating about their whereabouts and

some people think they could have left the country and could either be in

Niger, Chad, Cameroon or Benin. The Nigerian government has announced

they are prepared to hold negotiations with the terrorist group, but some are

worried that all the publicity about the kidnapping may slow down

negotiations. Negotiations will be difficult as they are not a very sophisticated

terrorist organisation, meaning that they have few ways of communicating.

Sir or Sam, Martha or Miss

Will Richards 3PS

It has come to my attention that because of feminist beliefs about

equality between each gender the traditional titles of teachers, ‘Sir’ and

‘Miss,’ are offensive towards women. As a product of this, some schools

have encouraged pupils to refer to their teachers by their first name.

Experts said that “the use of ‘Sir’ for men or ‘Miss’ for all female

teachers – irrespective of marital status – was old-fashioned.”

The origin of ‘Sir’ for a teacher was made up in early British education

when women were not allowed to be teachers. ‘Sir’ was said to show

respect to one’s teacher. Later on, women were accepted into education

and with more female students and teachers, female teachers were

referred to as ‘Miss’. In this period ‘Miss’ was not thought of as

disrespectful or sexist as women were extremely happy, finally, to be

able to teach.

“If I am in a school where students don’t know me and they call me Miss,

I’m fine with that. They are showing respect by giving me a title.” Debbie

Coslett (Brook Learning Trust)

There is also another move that women would like to be called ‘Sir,’

which I believe to be a step too far, because this term is intended for a

man.

In my opinion calling teachers by their first name shows less respect

than ‘Sir’ or ‘Miss.’ I think that if you want to change this you should

refer to teachers by giving a title, (Mr/Mrs/Miss), followed by their

surname. However I don’t think that calling a man ‘Sir’ or a woman

‘Miss’ is at all disrespectful as they both simply a traditional titles.

Jamie Oliver Tries to Break Record Erin Morgan ShHB

Schools gather together to try and break a

world record, hosted by celebrity chef, Jamie

Oliver.

The record in question was to form “the most

people ever involved in a 24 hour cooking

lesson.” This included 9000 schools from

around the world, all cooking the same dish over a 24 hr period. The record

breaking attempt is hoping to teach children how to cook healthy food. This is

part of his Food Revolution Day, which is aimed at teaching people to cook.

Oliver will host a live YouTube lesson on cooking a rainbow salad wrap,

aiming to reduce child obesity. The wrap consists of many vegetables, some

cheese and fruit. The main ingredients being:

beets, carrots, cabbage, pear, whole wheat tortillas, plain yogurt making a

vegetarian and ideal lunch.

Jamie is known for the work he does to raise awareness about childhood

obesity and making school dinners healthier with what he calls his Food

Revolution. He is not just known in the UK for his work, but also, in the US

and other countries, last month he visited Australia, trying to spread the

message of healthy food further.

When asked, Oliver said “Now is the time to focus the energies of everyone

involved in Food Revolution Day on teaching kids and keeping cooking skills

alive at a time when we need them more than ever.

We need every child to understand where food comes

from, how to cook it, and how it affects their body.”

Friday 16th May, will be his third annual food

revolution day. The current record stands at just over

2000 people, and considering that around 9000

schools are participating, I think that the record has a

strong chance of being broken.

He also says, “This is about setting kids up with the

knowledge they need to make better food choices for

life” Jamie Oliver will continue to do this work and

help children in other countries learn about food.

Messi agrees to new contract Samuel Everett ShCM

Barcelona star Lionel Messi has agreed to a new contract at Camp Nou. The

previous deal agreed by the forward from Argentina in February last year was

due to run until 2018. This season he scored 41 goals in 43 games; at 26 he

is one of the best footballers in world history.

Barca has yet to give details

about the length of the

contract. The contract took a

long time to negotiate, during

which time it was reported

that Messi wanted to become

the best paid player in the

world. “The revised and

updated contract will be

signed over the next few

days,” said a Barca statement released last Friday. Spanish Media suggests

Messi to be tied to the club for a further year – until June 2019 – and will be

paid €20,000,000 (£16,300,000) a season, plus performance linked bonuses.

He moved to Barca at 13 years old and has scored 342 goals in 405

appearances for the club since making his first team debut in October 2004.

During that time he has helped the club to win 21 titles, including 6 La Liga

titles, three Champions Leagues and two Copa Del Rays.

News of Messi’s improved contract came a day before he could earn another

Spanish title winners’ medal.

“It should give peace to him and especially the club, who can continue to

count on the best player in the world,” commented by Barcelona’s coach

Gerardo Martino.

Barcelona host La Liga leaders Athletico Madrid this Saturday in a decisive

final game of the season. In this showdown another Barca superstar Puyol

will not be selected.

The reigning champions will retain the title through a superior head-to-head

record should they beat Athletico at the Nou Camp.

With Lionel’s new contract the argument is raised as to whether or not

footballers should be paid as much as much as they are. Footballers are

entertainers and there is an interesting comparison to be made with actors

such as Robert Downey Jr, who receives roughly £75 million a year. So why

does everyone dislike footballers’ wages when actors get paid substantially

more?

Animal Transplants in Humans

Isabel Beardwod 3PS In recent months scientific studies in transplants from

animals to humans has taken an unpredictable turn for

the better as astonishingly four baboons have survived a

heart transplant. Pig hearts being the alternative. The

baboons have survived for almost 600 days and

counting. This new study has given many people hope as

this may resolve a key current global issue- that we don’t

have enough organs, quite obviously, for everyone. At

least 18 people die a day due to inaccessibility to organs.

It has been evident recently that scientists have been

making breakthroughs in many related medical topics

such as the transplants and stem cell technology and research, although,

Xenotransplantation (transplantation between animals and humans) has

become a very appealing idea amongst scientists and members of the general

public as it has offered us a limitless supply of organs and where we may be

lacking in organs for a particular age category we would now be able to

supply organs of any size.

The hearts, which were taken from piglets, have been genetically engineered

by scientists in order to disguise them to the baboons immune system that

the organs are from another animal and to avoid blood clots and general

malfunctions in the organ. Unfortunately these modifications take a long time

to perfect, although less time than an organ grown from scratch.

Whilst some people are encouraging this new technology some people are

skeptical about the humanity of the research. There are those that say

despite the important role this would play medically in our day and age, they

this would be cruel to pigs as we would then be killing them essentially for

their organs. This is a very actively debated topic and is seen as controversial

by many as is animal testing in general. Would killing the animals be taking it

a step too far? Others would argue that this is a natural system and that since

the beginning of man we have developed to be at the top of the food chain

and mostly in control of all organisms.

In my opinion, I think that this is a very advanced discovery and that

scientists should continue with this breakthrough technology. I do agree that

it is slightly unnatural in the sense that we will be using organs from animals

and therefore will technically be part animal, although, we are all animals

anyway! I do believe that we can spread this idea to become more socially

acceptable and it will be very helpful in the future.

Horsebox collision leaving two

people dead! Saffron Townsend 3RC

A terrible accident took place at

about 2:15pm on the M11

between junction seven for

Harlow and junction eight for

Stansted Airport. The crash

involved a horsebox, a lorry and

three cars and killed two people

and left several others injured. A

woman was flown to hospital by

air ambulance as a result of

internal injuries and a man taken by ambulance because of head injuries.

The accident is said to have occurred because of dangerous driving and a

man has been arrested on suspicion of this.

The services involved were, east of England Ambulance Service, Essex Fire

and Rescue and Essex Police. When they arrived they managed to free three

people from their cars and release all eight horses from the horse box. They

were all checked over by an equine vet who reported that none of the horses

had been harmed.

The horsebox belonged to Brian Meehan who is a horse trainer; some of the

horses involved in the crash are named Pivot Point, Mustadaam, and Da Do

Run Run. Brian Meehan said: "I have my assistant, my travelling head lad and

an owner on site to coordinate the

situation."

The incident caused the carriageway to be

completely blocked.

Spokesman said: "The motorway will

reopen as soon as it is safe to do so but

the closure [was] expected to last for

several hours, through the evening rush hour and into [the] evening.”

I think this is a terrible event that has happened and I hope that anything like

this will not happen in the future.

Mary King: Imperial Cavalier

retirement Katie McNamara 3HL

Mary King’s Olympic team silver horse, Imperial Cavalier, is

soon to be retired. At the age of 17 years old he is to

complete his successful eventing career. Imperial Cavalier

(Archie) is an Irish bred bay gelding and has been admired by

many out on the eventing circuit. Archie is bred from the

Holsteiner stallion, Cavalier Royale, and having been produced

by Vicky Brake to a three-star eventing level, he was bought in

2007 for Mary King to ride. Since then Archie has competed at four-star level

(CCI4), was part of the winning team at the world equestrian

games in 2010 and won team silver in the Olympics at

Greenwich Park in London and a bronze medal at the

European Championships. Archie has also competed in many

top events including Badminton, Burghley, Blenheim and lots

more, finishing in the top six seven times at Badminton.

Both Mary King and Imperial Cavalier’s owners have come to

the decision to give him an active retirement in Cheshire.

This decision was made after an unfortunate refusal on the cross country

course and a near fall at the owl hole at Badminton. The combination

included a large step up, one stride and then over a keyhole-shaped hedge

continuing on to a skinny hedge on a slight angle. Archie unfortunately left a

leg at the hedge, unseating Mary, but luckily she

managed to keep her balance and Archie stepped

over the rest of the hedge. This left Mary in an

awkward situation because if she crossed her tracks

she would get penalties; she managed to recover

and jumped over the 3rd element. However after the

shock of the near fall Archie didn’t complete the

course after a refusal at the second element of two

hedges. Archie jumped huge over the first fence but

didn’t pick up for the second part. This unfortunate mistake meant he was

finally retired; Archie will be missed greatly on the circuit but will be

remembered for many years to come. Mary at the age of 52 will continue her

Eventing and keep bringing new horses to the circuit.

This horse has been such a star and is loved by many; he is now ready for a

happy retirement. I’m sure he will be greatly missed by Mary and her team.

He has been a true performer for the United Kingdom and is a fantastic horse.

Turkey mining catastrophe shakes

Istanbul community Alice Woodward 3PS

After a recent mining accident, protests have already begun over the tragedy

that took place in Istanbul, Turkey. ‘Handling’ police are firing tear gas and

cannons at the protestors in efforts to disperse the crowds of thousands of

angry family members, friends and supporters. The protests are mainly down

to the fact that people disagree with the small amount of money that is being

spent on the safety of the miners’ workplace. However these protests are

linked with protests aimed at the government as they disagree with the way

in which the government is being ruled, specifically at Erdoğan who is

claiming that they are part of a campaign to stop him from becoming a prime

minister

The explosion on Wednesday afternoon in Turkey killed more than 282 miners

but figures are still rising as the survival rate drops. 120 people are still

trapped underground without any ventilation systems. The power unit blew

up areas 2km deep underground causing huge

damage and loss to life.

On Wednesday evening the death toll rose again

which has now given the explosion the title of the

worst disaster in the country’s mining history.

The Prime minister of Istanbul has said to the press

that public unrest like this happens all the time. He

states that this has promoted the idea of strikes,

protest and angry mobs fighting for the miners

freedom at the same time as Erdoğan PM is having allegations thrown at him

saying that he is claiming that it is ‘ok’ to have a catastrophic explosion that

causes many loss to life.

Mining accidents have become more of a big deal nowadays as the Chilean

mining accidents made mining disasters global news with many support

troops helping to make things easier for the people of Istanbul and making

their best efforts to free the miners still trapped and yet to see their families

faces.

However these efforts will not bring the poor families of the deceased miner’s

justice or even bring them their children, fathers or uncles back. Supporters

are gathering around the site with pictures of their lost or trapped family

members pinned to their clothes. Miners from other mines are taking a one

day strike claiming that their working conditions are too dangerous. Their

views have been respected as who could blame them when 282 miners have

died from the latest of many explosions. Yet like Erdoğan says, it’s just a part

of everyday life...

Funny-Man Frank to Star on Doctor

Who Louis MacDonald 3ML

Comedian Frank Skinner is set to be a guest star on an upcoming episode of

the new series of the show alongside the new Doctor. The series will be

beginning in the Autumn with Scottish actor Peter Capaldi taking the keys to

the TARDIS from predecessor Matt Smith. On the 4th August it was

announced that Capaldi would become the new Doctor.

Skinner is said to have been a lifelong fan of the show and has said that he is

‘beyond excitement’ to have been given a guest role. The comedian is

currently travelling the British Isles with his new tour ‘Frank Skinner: Man In A

Suit’ which kicked off on 2nd April and concludes on 7th June at London’s

Leicester Square Theatre. He was on his tour bus watching an episode of the

show when he was called and given the news that he had been chosen to

appear on his favourite Saturday night programme.

Skinner will be starring alongside Samuel Anderson, Ben Miller and Keeley

Hawes, however the role he will play has not yet been confirmed. The script

for the episode has been written by screenwriter Jamie Mathieson and will be

filmed in the very near future. The show should be, as always, a very

entertaining one and I am looking forward to seeing Frank’s acting in action; I

hope you are too.

Frank Skinner

EU and local elections 2014 Roberto King 3AI

On the 22nd of May the whole voting population of the UK, 49 million, will be

allowed to vote for their chosen party. The Main four candidates, Labour,

UKIP, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, will fight to get their

campaign message across to the public. Voting is not compulsory but voting is

your right and it would be a waste to miss your opportunity. The voting is

based on proportional representation.

UKIP hopes to make significant gains in these elections, as they did in the last

European elections. This year UKIP hope to come first, however this is met by

fierce competition from Labour which also hopes to come first. The

Conservatives, likely to be beaten by UKIP, just hope to

retain their main core of voters. The opinion polls show

the Liberal Democrats languishing around 10%. After

the last general election the Liberal Democrats went

into government with the Conservatives. This lost

them a lot of their core vote, especially after they

voted to raise tuition fees to £9000 after promising

not to.

Currently the EU is composed of 274 MEPs from the

EPP who are a centre right party (illustrated in light blue), 195 MEPs from the

alliance of Socialists and Democrats (illustrated in red and Labour are

members of this), the Greens with 58 MEPs, the alliance of Liberals and

Democrats (illustrated in yellow and the Liberal Democrats are members of

this )– 85 MEPs, 35 MEPs for United left, 56 for the Conservatives and

Reformists (the conservatives are members of this), 33 MEPs for A Europe of

freedom and democracy of which UKIP are members of (illustrated in orange)

and finally non-inscrits who are 30.

UKIP lately have been accused of racism due to the fact that they have had

many councillors and candidates with racist views who have said racist or

homophobic things. This has led to Nigel Farage doing a speech trying put

across his point that UKIP is not racist.

The local elections are your chance to vote for your councillors and therefore

your council. Your council runs your local services i.e. rubbish collection and

the NHS. Your council consists of about 70 councillors normally.

Budget smart phones storming the

market? Charlie Clarke ShRA

As the huge tech market is expanding so is Android. It is now estimated that

it accounts for 37% of the market while Apple’s market share has dipped.

With the rise in popularity this means more and more first time companies

have decided to use Android to power their phones. Rather than talk about

the new fascinating smart phones with high specs and high prices, I’m

actually going to talk about the opposite. With the release of the Moto-g,

kestrel, one plus one, Nokia Lumia 520 and other low cost smart phones, is

the popularity of high budget devices decreasing?

So what’s happened? Back then it was a competition of the best phones with

fantastic build quality and great processing power but now it has simply

flopped. It seems like a game of who can create the cheapest phone with the

lowest specifications. The way the big companies are thinking is trying to

make a phone in reach of the majority of the public, although Samsung is still

trying to convince everyone that their new flagship device the S5 is the phone

to have. But this isn’t working. The popularity of ‘top notch’ handsets is

already decreasing with the average phone price of $450 in 2012 shrinking to

just $260 in 2014. This means the profit margins of big brands are going to

be hit hard and the only way to make more money is to sell more phones,

which means releasing more products. For example Motorola have launched

the Moto-x, Moto-g and Moto-e which are all made for the shallow pockets

and consequently they all have the lowest specifications.

To be honest I don’t blame the companies for making cheap phones:

Motorola were nothing until they released the Moto-g which rocketed them to

6% of the UK’s sales. But ask yourself, would you rather have a high end, top

quality phone or a phone with lower specs but an affordable price? I know

which one I would rather have, what about you?

Will The UK Actually Run Out of

Fossil Fuels in Five Years? Daniel Badeli 3ML

According to the BBC the United Kingdom has as little as 5.2 years of oil, 4.5

years of coal and as little as 3 years of gas remaining, even less if Scotland

decides to take independence, losing all north sea reserves.

As you might expect this is an extremely controversial assumption and if true

demands attention to avoid running out of our main sources of energy.

According to the Department for Energy and Climate Change the UK has

producing will be the same until 2019. However, some argue that after 2019

natural gas production by the UK would decrease by 5% per year, eventually

resulting in a gradual reduction, rather than dramatically dropping in five

years.

There is another problem with the BBC’s figures: we have five years’ worth of

mined coal currently available, which is hardly anything compared to how

much coal is left untouched. We have been told by the UK Coal Authority that

there is still 4,575 million tonnes of coal left untouched and if we look at how

much coal we consumed in 2012, 64.9 million tons, according to these figures

we should have at least seventy years of coal left.

Oil, another important reserve of energy, is mainly found in the North Sea

and is a big problem. If the Scottish independence vote passes, the UK may

lose all rights to this oil, causing many issues. There as many as 15-24 billion

barrels of oil left in the UK and if we carry on consuming oil at this rate we

will have between 30-40 years left. This further suggests that the research

reported by the BBC is extremely overstated.

Regardless, we still need to work on having a more efficient energy program

and the amount of fossil fuels we are using must be cut; even if only to

address global warming. We must act soon!

Sewol Goes AWOL Oliver Irvine ShRL

On the 15th of April, the Sewol ferry was due to set off from Jeju, at 18:30

hrs. However it was delayed by fog and eventually set off at 21:00. There

were 476 people on board, the majority of these, 325 in fact, were school

children and their teachers. By morning, the ship was safely sailing through

the infamous area of water around Jindo Island. Suddenly, the Sewol took a

sharp turn and began to list severely.

Manning the bridge was inexperienced third officer Park Han-Kyul, while the

captain was off duty. No one knows why the turn was made, as it didn’t

follow the ship’s course. What we do know, is that it wasn’t intended, and as

the ship started listing, a distress call was made, not from the crew, but from

a teenage boy who called the national emergency line. The boy pleaded to

the fire officer, ‘Save us! We’re on a ship and I think it’s sinking!’. A few

minutes later, a member of the

crew contacted the Jeju Harbour

Affairs, and an increasingly

desperate interchange took

place between the ship and the

shore.

Meanwhile, an announcement

was sounded, telling the

passengers to stay where they

were, as Captain Lee rested on

the assurance that help was

coming and a rescue was at hand. He later said that he was, ‘Concerned that

people would get swept away by the cold water and swift currents’.

As the ship slipped beneath the waves, 172 passengers and crew were

rescued, but many were still trapped. The crew on the bridge were trapped as

the list made objects fall against the exits. The crew then recommended

passengers to escape if

they could, and some

were seen by helicopters

to be escaping on the

port side.

After the initial shock of the disaster had worn off, people began to question

the state of the ship. Cargo had become a big business for the Sewol’s

owners, as the budget airlines had cornered the passenger market, and it was

drastically overweight. An off-duty captain even told the company that the

ship was unstable.

There have been a lot of man-made tragedies, and could this be another one?

Fires rage across California Ruari McBennett SHRL

For the second consecutive day, wild fires continue to rage in southern

California, causing thousands of people to evacuate their homes. The fires

thought to be caused by months of very dry weather.

After burning through 10,000 acres of land the fires went on causing only one

casualty. Fires in San Marcos have been reported to have been contained to a

reported 5 percent leading to 21,000 evacuations. Also in Escondido some

15,000 homes also received evacuation orders on Thursday.

Speculations around the cause of the fire include the possibility of arson, after

the County Sheriff Bill Gore explained sparks from vehicles could easily ignite

bush. That mixed with intense heat

and months of drought, linking in

with the sudden flare in San Diego.

Others believe the fires were caused

by a wind change; as only days

before wind blew from north east,

and then a change to a North

Westerly wind.

Fires began on Tuesday with low

humidity and Santa Gusta winds, by Wednesday nine fires were raging across

California, spreading from San Diego to just east of Los Angeles in Fontana.

The fires were also seen from space: a blaze spreading across a 10km

squared area.

As for the action taken to subdue the fires, it included several helicopters

dropping gallons and gallons of water with even military aircraft getting

involved in the fight. Also hundreds of fire fighters worked to put out the

blaze house by house. But still with bone dry conditions and drifting winds the

fires are still very unpredictable. As the hours go by the fires seem to be

threatening more homes.

Damage is to the extent of nearly $22 million. Carlsband has lost power and

workers are still working to restore it. Even a couple of amusement parks

were closed for short periods of time.

Twitter and other social media sites are packed with pictures and tweets of

the aftermath of what they have experienced, such as damage, evacuation

and even pictures of the blazes.

Fire fighters have been working up to 36 hours, working hopefully to contain

the fire to 60 percent in the near future. But the damage is still visible with

thousands of houses burnt, charred and destroyed, fields’ burnt black and

power cuts around the proximity of the fire.