MSP's Mission for Safer Pavements

Last night I was looking in the paper and then I came across a story about a Glasgow MSP that wants to stop vehicles from parking on pavements. The article was in the Evening Times, on page 2 and it was written by Stuart Paterson, political correspondent. The article caught my eye because I've seen double parking with my own eyes, and I know how disruptive it can be.

Earlier this year, the Evening Times reported residents in Yorkhill who are frustrated by double parking, cars left on pavements and blocking the way for others. The Glasgow MSP, Sandra White, wants to cut down the amount of cars being parked on the pavements. Sandra has backing from charities that represent visual impaired people and disabled people. A spokeswoman for Guide Dogs Scotland said "I don't there is a malice but inconsideration. The time is right for this..." Ms White has proposed a responsible parking bill to introduce enforcement. She was quoted saying "Pavements are for people, not cars. There are parts of Glasgow that have problems with double parking. If you're blind or in a wheelchair or with a pram, it is ridiculous. It is criminal that you can't walk on pavements." Charities are supporting the plan for this bill in the Scottish Parliament. 

To conclude this story, I would like to give you my thoughts about parking on the pavements. I totally agree with Sandra White, parking on the pavements is a hazard for people with certain disabilities or children. The one thing I don't agree with is on her quotation, I think she was a little bit harsh when she used the word criminal. I agree that it shouldn't be happening, but I don't agree that it's a criminal offence.

Q1. Was it right to call it criminal? 

Q2. Why do you think people park on pavements?

Q3. Would you park on the pavements, knowing it might block pedestrians?

Gordon Lane: The most dangerous lane in Glasgow?

This week, I was reading the newspaper and I came across a really interesting article. The article I read was in the Evening times and was about a particular street in Glasgow. This street is being used for criminal activity. I think that this is tragic because all this crime is going to influence other members of society, especially children. Not only this, but crime makes people feel unsafe. I think people should be able to feel safe in their own city. However, it's clear that if something is not done about the crime, then the problem will only get worse, and the rate of crime will increase.

The street in question in Glasgow is called Gordon Lane. It runs from opposite the Lighthouse and Mitchell Street, onto Gordon Street. It was planned to be used for refuse bins. However, the lane has increasingly been used by convicts. Such as drug dealers, criminals, and drunks. Police figures show that there has been a signifcant number of crimes in the past year. These include the sexual assault of a young woman, possession of drugs, abusive behaviour, fouling, threatening and drinking alcohol.

Here are some of the facts and figures about Glasgow Lane:

The area around Gordon Lane had 2305 crimes and offences in 2011-2012.

The same area has the second overall crimes in Glasgow:

• It had 13 robberies.
• 24 serious assaults.
• And 248 minor assaults, all of which were in 2011-2012.
• There were 84 cases of possession of drugs in 2011-2012, which was up from 50 in the year before.
• There were 18 crimes of indecency in 2011-2012, which was up from 9 the year before.

In attempt to solve the problem, Glasgow City Councillors have agreed to put gates up on the privately owned lane. I believe that this is a good thing because the gates might help with controlling the crime in the lane, and then the crime might stop. However, these gates now stop people from using the lane, as a shortcut, or tourists, or otherwise. I think that the gates are a good idea, but they may not stop the crime. At the end of the day, people can jump over gates, and if people really want to use the lane for crime then they will, even if it means getting their head stuck in the gate trying to get through.

All in all, I think the gates are a good idea but I'm not sure if they'll stop the crime. However, something needs to be done about crime in Glasgow as it is obviously getting worse each year.

Q1. What do you think about crime in Glasgow?
Q2. Is there something more that the government could do?
Q3. Do you feel safe in Glasgow?

History of Chelsea FC

Chelsea Football Club was founded in 1905, based in Fullham, London. Their first major success was in 1955 when they won the league championship. They've won four league titles and seven FA cups since then. They are the seventh most valuable football club in the world, worth £473 million ($761 million).

Chelsea Football Club have recently been in the news due to their manager's dismissal. This decision was made by the current owner of Chelsea Football Club, Roman Abramovich, a Russian business man  who took over Chelsea in 2003. He purchased 29.5% stake in Chelsea Village Plc for £60 million. He bought the remaining 12,000 shareholders at 35p per share, completing the £140 million takeover. At this time, Chelsea Football Club were in a lof of debt. Abramovich paid most of this debt quickly, to a sum total of £80 million. This year, Chelsea announced their first profit under Abramovich of £1.4 million.

Chelsea Football Club have had ten different mangers in the past ten years. Such managers include; Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant, Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas-Boas, and the manager who was recently dismissed, Roberto Di Matteo. Jose Mourinho was dismissed due to reports that he fell out with Abramovich, but Mourinho was reponsible for bringing back to back league titles for Chelsea. Grant led Chelsea to their first Champion's League final, however they lost on penalties to Manchester United. He was dismissed shortly after that. Di Matteo had one bad month of results, which ultimately led to his dismissal. Abramovich has been under the spotlight in the news due to this recent dismissal, with reports suggesting that Abramovich has high expectations of his managers.

 

I think Abramovich is a very demanding man who wants Chelsea to be successful. The only thing that he cares about is winning trophies, but he doesn't care about his managers. What do you think of this recent dismissal? Is Abramovich being unreasonable or too demanding? Or does he just want the best for his club? 

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Avatar: the last airbender is a TV series which focuses on the four classical elements of air, water, earth and fire.

The series is about this boy and his friends from the water tribe who set out on a mission to bring back peace and unity to the four nations. There are three seasons in the series. Each season focuses on a different element.

Aang and his friends, Kitara and Sokka, travel on a flying bison, named Appa. Aang seems 12 years old, but is actually 112 years old. He encased himself in a ball of ice in order to protect himself for 100 years, which stopped him aging. The story starts when Kitara and Sokka find Aang in the ball of ice.

 In book two, the group meet a blind earthbending prodigy called Toph. They recruit her to teach Aang earthbending.

The fire nation in the story are a powerful force and empire. With the nations at war in the story, most of the water and fire nation families help out. So I guess that you can say the Avatar series is like the real wars of the 20th Century.

This war between the four nations has been going on for years, so the question is "Can these four heroes bring back peace to the four nations?"

Find out yourself, the entire series is on Netflix. I think it is well worth watching.

Results of the US Election

The 2012 presidential election was the 57th quadrennial presidential election. The results of the election came in at 04:00am GMT. It was reported that this was going to be the closest election ever.

The candidates were as follows: Barack Obama, and his Vice-Presidential candidate, Joe Biden; and Mitt Romney, and his Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan. The campaign slogans were different; Romney's slogan was "Believing in America", whilst Obama's slogan was "Forward". I think Romney's slogan was better because Romney always said that he believed in America, and this made me feel that he wanted to help America on the whole, as well as the people. I believe that this made him the better man for the job.

The election came down to the five key swing states. These states were crucial on deciding the election. These states were Pennsylvania, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, and Ohio. A swing state does not always vote for the one person.

The debates leading up to the election were also key in deciding the results of the election. In these debates, the two candidates debate their key issues, whilst attempting to counter their opponent. So in the first debate, Romney came out on top as Obama didn't hold his own. However, as the debates continued, Obama started to fight back, and by October, he was leading on the polls. By this time, it was said that many people had decided who they wanted to win.

As the votes started to be counted, it was clear it was going to be a close election, until the electoral votes came in. Obama won most of the swing states, which gave him a lead. The results were that Obama won with 303 electoral votes, to Romney's 206.

On hearing the result, many people breathed a sigh of relief. However, I feel that America made the wrong choice. Obama made promises to the people of America, and he did not keep all these promises. Obama wanted to only withdraw troops that were on combat missions by 2014, and he wanted to increase the number of troops in Afghanistan. He didn't keep this promise, so I feel like I can't trust him or the promises that he has made. However, Obama is a people person. He wants to help the people, and he believes in the people as well. I feel that this is a good thing, and hopefully he might do some of the things that he has promised.

The presidential election was exciting, because of all the pressure, the tension and how close the voting was. The campaigning was amazing and always very interesting. I think this was a learning experience for the candidates, but I also learned a lot from this election.

World War I: The Italian Participation

There are a lot of great stories about World War I, like how it started to how it ended. Here is the story of how the Italians got involved.

Italy had been allied with the Austro-Hungarian empires since 1882 as part of the triple alliance.

However the nation had it's own designs on Austrian territory in Trentino, Istria and Dalmatia.

The Austro-Hungarian government began negotiations to secure Italian neutrality, offering the French colony of Tunisia in return.

The allies made a counter-offer in which Italy would receive the Southern Tyrol, Julian March and territory on the Dalmatian coast.

Rome had a secret pact in 1902 with France effectively nullifying it's alliance. At the start of the hostilities, Italy refused to commit it's troops arguing that the triple alliance was defensive and that Austro-Hungarian empire was an aggresor.

Italy joined the triple Entente in 1915, and declared war on Austria-Hungary on 23 May. Fifteen months later Italy declared war on Germany.

By the end of hostilities in November 1918, the Italian military had seized control of the entire portion of Dalmatia that had been guaranteed to Italy by the London Pact.

Pokémon Profile: Golem

Golem: Pokémon Profile

Evolution: Geodude (Level 25) -> Graveler  (Traded) -> Golem

Type: Rock/Ground Pokémon

Moves: Starting -> Tackle, Defense Curl. Big Moves -> Rock Throw, Explosion, Earthquake, Magnitude

Habitat: Mountainous region (mountain peaks + volcanic craters)

Type Effectiveness: Immune to Electric Type, Weak against Water + Grass Type

This week, I thought I would write about something from my childhood, and hopefully something all of you remember from your childhood. Pokémon was a great TV show, and I really enjoyed playing the game. I hope this brings back some memories for you, and also helps people who still play the pokémon games.  

One of my favourite pokémon was Golem. In the anime, Golem's first major appearance was Bridge Bike Gang, under the ownership of Chopper, who used it against Ash in a battle.

Golem are able to withdraw their head, arms, and legs into their shell and roll at high speeds, usually causing small earthquakes when doing so. Golem are dangerous when doing this, as they are unable to see and may crash into or run over anything in their path. Golem’s body is so hard that even dynamite cannot scratch it. Golem is also capable of using Explosion.

I hope to write more about Pokémon in the future, but stay tuned for next week when I will be speaking about World War 1. 

FiFA 13 Summary and thoughts

                                             FiFA 13

In recent years, FIFA has been the top football game, selling more than Pro-Evolution Soccer. 

FIFA 13 Ultimate Edition is an Ultimate version of the normal format. The game itself is more updated than the FIFAs in the past years. For example, in FIFA 12 players who in real life were transferred late in the transfer window were not in at their new teams in the game but FIFA 13 has got all the players at their new clubs.

This FIFA has new features in it - for example, in career mode you can manage National Teams and also you can get goal news from other matches and the headline news is better.

Most of the old features are back too, like the old leagues and some new ones as well. The controls are still the same.

There is an interactive Fifa World Cup that you can play online and maybe win prizes in. Full details can be found in the leaflet inside the Fifa 13 game box but more information is available about it on the website at www.fifa.com/fiwc.

I think FIFA 13 is better than previous years. The new features are great and anyone who likes football games will really enjoy this. I look forward to seeing what changes there might be to FIFA 14 next year.

FIFA 13 ULTIMATE EDITION Summary

                                                               new post coming soon

Final day summary and thoughts

Final Day

 

 

On the final day of the 2012 Ryder Cup Europe were 10-6 down going into Sundays Singles Matches. All the commentaters and the studio panel of Colin Montgomerie and Butch Harmon had written Europe's chances of beating America off.

The European's had to go all out to retain the Ryder Cup and they did just that. The big name players were out first. Luke Donald, Rory McIlroy, Justin Rose, Paul Lawrie and last, but not least, the player that had kept Europe in contention, Ian Poulter.

With Europe 10-6 down they needed to win 8 out of the 12 singles matches and it looked impossible to do. Boy were the studio panel wrong with Luke Donald beating Bubba Watson 2&1 it was a good start for the European's. Then it was more good news for Europe as Ian Poulter, Justin Rose, Rory McIlroy and Paul Lawrie all won their matches to bring Europe back into it. Amercia managed to pull back with Jason Dufner, Zach Johnson, Dustin Johnson winning their matches.

After Sergio Garcia beat Jim Furyk and Lee Westwood beat Matt Kucher it came down to Martin Kaymer to clinch one point to retain the Ryder Cup and he did this with a two putt on the 18th hole. The celebrations began. However, before the day ended Tiger Woods had a chance to win his match but gifted it to Europe who won 14.5 to 13.5  which meant that Europe actually won the Ryder Cup instead of just retaining it.

It was a sensational end to the 2012 Ryder Cup.

My final thoughts of the three days were that coming into this Ryder Cup the Europeans had something to play for that the Americans did not. That was the pride and passion of the late Seve Ballesteros. In winning the Ryder Cup I have to say this Ryder Cup is one to remember for a long time. This European team deserved the glory over the three days and it's safe to say that the future is bright for Team Europe.

Looking forward to the 2014 Ryder Cup coming to Scotland.

Ryder Cup day two summary & final thoughts

Day two

 

On day two of the 39th Ryder Cup, Europe put out two of the same Foursome pairings as on day one - McIlroy/McDowell & Poutler/Rose. The day started well for Europe going up in game one but then the American fightback was on, led by Mickelson/Bradley beating Westwood/McDonald in the second game of the Foursomes. Things became worse for Europe as Johnson/Dufner defeated Garcia/Colseart and also Furyk/Snedeker beating McIlory/McDowell. All was not completely lost for Europe thanks to Poulter/Rose who defeated Watson/Simpson to pull back a point for Europe going into the afternoon Fourballs.

The afternoon Fourballs saw some different pairings from day one and Europe were 8-4 down going in this session. It was the USA that got off to a flyer going up in all four matches at the start of the session but it was Garcia/Donald that started the fightback for Europe. With things still in the American's favour it looked like Europe were heading for another day of defeat.  However, towards the end of the day the fightback went from one game to two as Poulter's determination and excellent putting (making five birdies on the back nine) meant Europe went from winning one game to winning two making it 10-6 to America at the end of play on day two.

My final thoughts on day two are that if it had not been for Poulter's determination, Europe would been in a worse position. I also think that if some pairings had been different, Europe might not have lost so many points.

Ryder Cup 2012 Day one summary

Day one

Day one of the 39th Ryder cup at the Medinah Country Club, Chicago, between Europe and America. And day one of the Foursomes was good with all Europe going up in four matches in the early stages but then the momentum shifted towards the Americans. They came back in two games so the pressure was on Europe. Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell won against Jim Furyk and Brandt Snedeker so it was down to Ian Poulter and Justin Rose to tie the match at 2-2 to take hope into the afternoon Fourballs. Ian Poulter delivered a putt to tie the points at 2-2 so the morning session finished honours even to both teams. 

The afternoon session of the Ryder Cup started badly for Europeans Paul Lawrie and Peter Hanson who were destroyed by Bubba Watson and Webb Simpson. The problems continued for Europe but things were going well for America. They went up in three of the four matches and it seemed that Europe were heading for a 5-2 score but towards the end of the Fourballs Europe got a point back with Lee Westwood and Nicolas Colsaerts beating the American pairing of Tiger Woods and Steve Stricker. The day finished 5-3 to the US team. This gave Europe hope of a come back on Saturday's Foursomes and Fourballs.

Ryder Cup 2012

Three new posts coming soon

Characters in Batman

Damian Wayne

Age: Estimated 9 or 10 years old.

Physical Charactertics: Black hair, 4ft 10 inches.

Relationship to Batman: Claims to be Batman's son.

Personality: Hyperactive.

Issue: Batman and Son, 2007.

In this story, Damian has a mind of his own. He wants to think of himself as his father's son, but he has also got different ways of fighting crime.

In the Batman comics, Damian never grows ups, like a normal kid does with their mum and dad. He is educated in only one subject, crime pays by death.

 In this Batman story, Damian is a character who is just like a normal kid but he has not been disciplined by his mother. So, is Damian a misguided boy trying to prove his worth to his father? Or has Talia, his mother, trained him to destroy Batman? I'll leave that for you to decide.

All of you teenage boys and adult men who love comics about superheroes, this story is the one that gives you the most details about Damian Wayne and his life.

Getting Started

First post coming soon!