Sunday

Fun Day By The River

Yesterday, since it was a wonderful day, my dad and I decided to walk by the Susquehanna River. We took a lot of pictures to share with you! (Instead of sentences like these we are using captions.) P.S: The arrangement isn't exactly perfect. 


Look at that blue sky, only 3 small clouds. 



Here's me climbing on some rocks. 

We saw a really awesome moving ice block.
Only half the river was frozen, I found that cool.






Thanks for visiting,

Noor



Some cool rocks. (The ones I was climbing on)

Saturday

My Role Models

I have a lot of role models. People who inspire me to believe in myself. Today I am going to share with you a few of these role models and what they taught me. 


1. Martin Luther King Jr

Martin Luther King taught me to be powerful. He taught me the powers of a great speech, how it can affect so many to believe. He was a believer and because of his teachings, I am too. 















2. Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela taught me to stay strong and work hard. I admire that he stayed positive and believed while in jail for 27 years. 




3. Eleanor Roosevelt

She supported many important topics during her time like women's rights, and social justice. She taught me to be someone's number one helper at the time of need.  















4. Mia Hamm

Mia Hamm is my all time favorite athlete of all time. She taught me to do my best at all times. 



Thanks for reading,
Noor




Friday

Let"s Be Eco-Friendly This Year!

I know I'm a bit late, but you know what my New Year's Resolution is? To make 2014 the Year of The Earth. I'm inspiring my family, my friends, and you, my readers to go eco-friendly this year! So in honor of this resolution I am going to share with you 7 ways you can be more eco-friendly this year! P.S: Eco-friendly does mean animal friendly in my mind!

1. In the summer, don't leave your dog/cat in the car. (Or any animal really) They can get dehydrated too! Plus, they will get very hot and will faint. So, if you respect and care for your animal, don't leave them in the car on a hot summer day.

2. Recycle what you can recycle. Check for that recycling sign on your containers. (Bottles, cans, boxes, etc) To know what to recycle, check out your local recycling guidelines. Mine are taped right above my recycling bin.

3. Limit your time of showers. This will save SO much water. Did you know that the average American's shower water for a year can fill 50 pools?

4. Look for the Leaping Bunny logo. Lots of companies test their products on animals. This could possibly hurt the animals or if the product wasn't made very well at all, kill them. (Death is very rare but it could still happen.) Check the products you use for a Leaping Bunny. This means that the product you are using has not been tested on animals. 

5. Pick up litter! If you pick up 5 pieces of litter every day, you will make a HUGE difference on this planet. 

6. Use eco-friendly cleaning products. 

7. Buy eco-friendly stuff. When I shop for school supplies I always look for the eco-friendly stuff. They are pretty cool and are great for the environment. 


Thanks for reading,

Noor

Monday

Guess who changed the template?

I decided to mess around with the template of my blog. I came up with the thing you are seeing now. The colors are cool and the text is wow. I'm trying to decide what to do with the sidebar there.... different font? If it gets out of hand, I'll change it. Do you guys like it? Tell me in the comments below. I think this template is cool. 

Thanks for visting

Noor 

(This is totally going in the Posts About Me section.)

Happy 16th Birthday, guess what your present is?

You are a 14 year old in a South Asian country, and tomorrow is your birthday. Your parents say they have a huge present for you. On the day of your birthday, your parents present you with a....... man? It turns out in about 2 days you are getting married to this man. What's his name? Doesn't matter. What's his age? Doesn't matter either. By the time you're 17, a happy baby boy is born. But why so early?

  • In Niger, 77 percent of women were married before the age of 18. That's a lot. This is because the girl's family is probably poor and they need the money from the boy's family. 

  • The boy/man that the girl is marrying is usually 5-10 years older than his wife. 

  • 100 million girls will marry over the next decade. That's about 25,000 every day until I'm about 19 almost 20. 

  • Girls younger than 15 tend to die because of childbirth. Younger than 15! 

I'm thankful that I get to choose when I want to get married. 


Thanks for reading!

Noor


Friday

All About Me

I've finally decided after not so much thinking that I should write a more detailed About Me...

Hi! My name is Noor Akhter. I'm 10 years old and also in the middle of the 5th grade. 

I started this blog because I wanted to share with people my opinions and how its like to be 10. Another reason was because i wanted to share fun tutorials with kids. Also, i want to be known for something good before i reach college so there's something under my name that says: Noor Akhter: sucessful blogger since the age of 9. I love writing and reading. What do I dislike? Child labor, labor, bullying, and math. (That was supposed to be funny, the math thing. No? Okay.) 

Sometimes I do decide to steer my posts the other way to the me side. Then it gets a bit more, kiddish... that's not a word is it?


Anyways, thanks for visiting and bye!

Sunday

I Can Recycle This?

Of course, we all know we can recycle the obvious cans and plastic bottles. But what about these 4 things? I bet you didn't know you could recycle these things!

1. Packing Peanuts

These annoying little guys are a great recyclable material. Some mail delivery services encourage people to bring in their packing peanuts to be reused!


2. Ink Cartridges

Maybe some people know about this, (my mom did!) but many people don't. Ink cartridges can be given to office supply stores like Staples to be reused. (Somehow...)


3. Batteries

Guess how many batteries people throw out every year? 3,000,000,000,000 (3 billion) Batteries that aren't recycled can leak toxic chemicals into the Earth, grossss!


4. Eye Glasses

Have old glasses lying around? Recycle 'em! (Or donate) An estimated 284 million people have poor vision because they can't afford glasses. 

Thanks for visiting,

Noor





Saturday

Interview Time!

My mom works and researches in Pakistan. She kindly let me use on of the interviews she did with a 13 year old boy named Aziz (I was told not to use the last name) His father was killed by the Taliban in a bomb blast. Translated from Urdu. (L stands for my mom)


A- "I study in private school. I am in grade 7. I have 3 brothers and sisters. My father was killed in the conflict of the Taliban, he was in the police."

           L-  "Do you remember the conflict?"

        
         A- "I was 9 in Class 4 when my father was killed. I was with my mamu (uncle) in 
         another town when I found out he was killed. I couldn't come because of curfew."


         L- "Why was your father killed?"


         A- "My father was killed because he was in the police. He was killed after the 
         Friday prayer. At that time he was in his civilian clothes. He was injured in the
         blast and 40 days later he died. I cried a lot."

         L- "Was your father against the Taliban?"

         
         A- "My father was very against the Taliban and used to tell the Taliban that the 
         government will control them. The Taliban were very bad people. They fired on 
         ordinary people and killed them. 

         L- "What will you do when you grow up?"

         A- "I will become a police man."

         L- "What do you think of Malala?" 

         A- "I don't really know what happened to her but our principal told us that Malala 
         was shot. At that time I became very upset. When I listen to what Malala says, my
         heart gets full of passion. I think all children should speak out like Malala. 



After reading this interview over and over again I thought a lot. I thought about how the Taliban did some of the world's worst things. I also thought about some people like Aziz's father spoke out to the Taliban and told them the truth. What did you think of this interview?


Thanks for visiting,

Noor

11 Facts about the Environment

1. Every day Americans throw out enough glass bottles and jars to fill up the Empire State Building!

2. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a 3.5 million-ton heap of debris floating in the Pacific Ocean. It is twice the size of Texas and 80% plastic! (Marine biologists say the trash found its way there through storm drains that empty out into the ocean.)

3. Plastic bags and other plastic garbage that end up in the ocean kill as many as one million sea creatures a year. (Most commonly: sea turtles)

4. E-waste (that is, electronic waste like computers, cameras, and cell phones) are filled with highly toxic materials like lead, mercury, and cadmium. These chemicals can seep into the ground and get into the water supply if they are not recycled properly. 

5. E-waste represents 2% of America's trash in landfills but is the source of 70% of our overall toxic waste. 

6. The U.S throws out approximately 300 million electronic items per year, and less than 20% of that e-waste is recycled. 

7. If you replace 25% of your lightbulbs with fluorescents, you can save about 20% on your lighting bill. 

8. Home refrigerators in the U.S use the same amount of electricity as 25 large power plants every year. (weird color!)

9. Every year, U.S factories spew three million tons of toxic chemicals into the air, land, and water. 

10. Each year, one American produces more than 3,285 pounds of hazardous waste. 

11. Over 80% of items in landfills can be recycled but are not.

Sources: Environmental Protection AgencyNew York TimesGreenpeace International

Thanks for visiting!

Noor

Great Pacific Trash Heap (not actual picture, duh)









Myths Busted!

French fries came from France.... right? Ooh, I know this one. Sharks obviously kill more than a hundred people a year! Wait, no? How do you know that these facts aren't true? Oh you say your read the National Geographic Book Myths Busted? Yup, so did I! 

The book Myths Busted gives you the real truth. French fries actually came from Belgium! Yeah, and sharks... oh sharks! They barely even kill 10 people in a year! Oh and you know the "five second rule"? Well, in 2003 a student tested this for a science project. She dropped gummy bears and M&M's on the floor for 5 seconds. When she tested them, they were covered in germs. 

This book covers so many different categories to bust myths in. Animals, people, superstitions, food, the human body, candy, etc!

Here I'll share with you some of MY favorite myths in this book:

MYTH: In Star Wars, Darth Vader says "Luke, I am your father"

BUSTED!: The line is actually: "No, I am your father."


MYTH: Bats are blind.

BUSTED!: All bats can see. Larger bats called megabats (cool name!) search for food using sight and smell. Smaller bats called microbats mainly search for food using echolocation. Bats send sound waves and listen for the echo to bounce off things. 


MYTH: Hair and nails continue to grow after death. 

BUSTED!: After death, skin dries out. As the flesh loses water, it shrinks, pulling away from the hair and nails giving them the appearance of lengthening. But they aren't really growing!


Thanks for visiting!

Noor 

Sources: Myths Busted


Thursday

Martin Luther King's American Dream

We all have dreams big or small. One man had a big dream, his name was Martin Luther King Jr. (So what, if it's not MLK Day? Can we not celebrate him anyways?) Well, Dr. King had a dream. His dream was that his young sons and daughters wouldn't have to live in a country where people were separated because of skin color. He thought that both blacks and whites are more similar than different. Do we both not feel pain when we are hurt? Or feel depression when failure comes upon you? Dr.King believed that all people were created equal. 


Thanks for visiting!

Noor 

Wednesday

Celebrating Black History Month: Booker T Washington

Booker T Washington was born on April 5, 1856. He only had a mother, his father was a white man who left soon after he was born. Booker was eager to learn at a young age. One day while doing his job in the coal mines, Booker had overheard two men talking about a wonderful school for colored people. It was called the Hampton Institute. In 1872, Booker started his 500-mile journey to the school. He had quickly befriended the principal, General Samuel Chapman Armstrong when he arrived.


After graduation, Booker taught for a while in his hometown, Malden. Soon, he received an offer to go to Tuskgee, Alabama to train black teachers. Washington accepted this offer. At first, the school was a small broken down church. But soon, many people blacks and whites donated money, land, and even pigs to the school. The students and teachers bought bricks and building materials with the money and built the buildings. Every single building in the school was made by the students. By 1888, Tuskgee offered many other classes like woodwork, sewing, cooking, printing, and farming. It also owned 540 acres of land.

Booker T Washington spoke about accepting segregation and said to just live with it. Washington was disliked by many because of his beliefs.

Booker T Washington died on November 14, 1915. Blacks and whites all across America remember him to this day.


I personally admire Mr. Washington. I think he was an amazing person. He built a wonderful school and believed in his students and his teachers. Most importantly, he had perseverance.


Thanks for visiting,

Noor