book review

Buzz Bissinger dives into a normal three-game series, perhaps one of the most common things in baseball, and makes it beautiful. 3 Nights in August tells the story of how Tony La Russa prepares his team for a series against the Chicago Cubs. It is a great insight into the workings of a Major League clubhouse and the job of the manager.

Bissinger takes readers into the brain of one of Major League baseball’s best managers. There are peaks into La Russa’s office as he and his coaches analyze statistics and tendencies of opposing players. 3 Nights in August also shows how La Russa handles the pressure of outsmarting another manager on a nightly basis, while nurturing the many different personalities on a team.

But there is much more than that. The book features stories about the humans and emotions that make up a team, as well as providing an in-depth look at the actual game of baseball. Just one example of this is the interplay between catcher relaying signs to a pitcher and the baserunner who may be peaking in. All of this is perfectly interwoven into the basic storyline of a three-game series. You may be surprised at how the storyline has shifted from one thing to another so easily.

Bissinger’s writing is once again excellent. He is known as one of the greatest prose sportswriters of contemporary times, and he does not disappoint in 3 Nights in August. His more famous book, Friday Night Lights, illuminates the beauty of high school football. 3 Nights in August does the same for baseball, helping fans recognize how beautiful a sport baseball is.

Whether you are someone who waxes poetic about baseball or aren’t that passionate of a fan, you’ll enjoy this book. Every fan of baseball should read it and i would prefer it to any non baseball fans as well.

flying saucer current connection

 In a recent article on FoxNews.com entitled "Government report on secret flying saucer program made available" the unknown author informs readers of two purposes in writng this article: 1) tell about the requirements to aircraft would need. 2) inform the public about the formerly secret program that was started in the 50's.

Flying saucers,also known as UFO's,have been talk about for centuries and have always been related  to aliens.In the early 1950's the United States Air Force secretly planned to build a flying saucer that would reach speed up to mach 4 and heights of 100,000 feet.
       
 the flying saucer was originally planned to be built in Canada at the Avro Aircraft Limited in Ontario and would cost 3.2 million to build just one saucer.The aircraft would have six Armstrong Siddeley Viper turbo jet engines with 1,900 lbs. of thrust and would weigh about 525 lbs. each.

 President Obama signed an executive order in 2009 that was also kept under wraps and is still being read through because of its length.The program could also be connected to Area 51 that is very well known and is still denied by the United States government as a real government facility.

This project could be reopened now that we have the technology to build such a craft,after all we have already built laser guns and other "futuristic" weapons.

current event 2

Monsanto Seed Co. has produced a new variety of soy bean that has what they refer to as stacked genes called RR2, meaning it is resistant to many parasites and herbicides. A Brazil soy group has recently issued a statement warning farmers in Brazil against planting this variety of soy since it has not been approved for sale to china yet. They are worried that farmers that are planting the samples of these beans that Monsanto is handing out may contaminate shipments of approved beans that are going to China.

I can relate to this article because I grow soy beans in Oil Trough for Wyatt Farms and am responsible for a lot of what goes on growing the couple thousand acres of beans we farm. I understand that anything that can effect your marketability of your product has the potential to be disastrous and can cause you to go out of business. In the economy today with fuel and fertilizer prices so high, it only takes a few bad years to sink a farm. I haven’t heard of the RR2 variety yet, though it has been approved in America and some European countries.

I believe the authors purpose was to inform the world about what was happening in Brazil with the trade between China and them, and also to tell about the new variety of bean Monsanto has produced. I believe he accomplished his purpose because he gives detailed explanations about the testing and approval of the seed. He explains that many other countries have approved the seed but apparently China is still refusing to approve of the seed and are looking closely at bean shipments coming from Brazil because they are concerned about RR2 contamination. It is not that the variety isn’t good, its that they don’t want to purchase soy beans that may contain the seed because they want to know what they are planting and consuming.

What I do not understand from the article is why China hasn’t approved of the seed yet. The variety has been approved in many other countries that haven’t found anything wrong with it yet that I have learned about. If there was something genetically wrong with it that could cause problems I believe it would have shown itself through all of the testing done by Monsanto and the farmers who grew the samples. I also didn’t understand what they did with the seeds produced by the RR2 seeds that the farmers grew that accepted the samples given by Monsanto. The passage wasn’t clear on whether they had destroyed them or if they were trying to get China to buy them. Also, I would like to know why they have to sell to China and not to a country that has already approved of the variety.

In conclusion, I thought the article was very informative in the struggles that Brazil is going through with the new seed variety. I am hoping to see how the variety will be accepted in the U.S. seeing as China is one of our largest consumers of grain that we sell to. I believe only time will tell what happens with this seed and the global market.