What is Diplomacy? At heart it’s a very simple game. You begin with a map of Europe circa 1900. It can accommodate up to 7 players, each of whom takes on the role of one of the key imperial powers of the time, namely: Austria, England, France, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and Russia. The map is divided into roughly 80 zones, including both land and sea areas. There are a total of 34 supply centres in the game, and to win you must control 18 of them.

There are only two types of units in the game – armies and fleets. Each power gets three units (except Russia, which gets four). Each power begins with a mix of armies and fleets depending on their starting position on the map.The players units all begin on their respective “supply centres”. Each country has three supply centres (save Russia, with four). You take supply points by conquering your enemies and inevitably stabbing your allies in the back to gain dominance.

Personally, I love strategy games and will probably play this again. It’s very similar to Risk in some way and I love Risk a lot. However, sometimes the game can go very slow due to technical problem but I especially like the alliances and crossing. Out of the four times I played, I won one, placed second once, and lost the other two. On the one I won, I waited for everybody to kill everybody else while I built up a massive army and then swept through and killed any survivors. On the one I placed second, another player and I wiped out the other 5 until I was betrayed during the final attack. On the other two, I didn’t have a very good strategy and lost early on.

I give a 9 out of 10 though if you want to have fun, bring a good strategy and trust no one.

Earlier this week, near 300 students from an all girl boarding were abducted in Nigeria by the terrorist group Haram. “By God’s grace, we will conquer the terrorists. I believe the kidnap of these girls will be the beginning of the end for terror in Nigeria,” Goodluck Jonathan, the president of Nigeria, said at the opening of the World Economic Forum meeting in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja. The U.S. has also offered full support and even help in this situation. As well as UN troops being deployed to help track the perpetrators down, American supplies have been sent to aid the search. In addition to the US, France, China, and Britain have also offered help in which Jonathan gladly accepted. Unfortunately, it has been speculated that the 276 students kidnapped would be split up, making the search even more difficult. I think that it is right the world is going to help since countries around the world every day suffer from terrorist acts.

When asked about her opinion, Kyle Katz said: I’m shocked at such a terrible act and can only imagine how the families would feel. Though it is good to see how the leading nations are looking out for terrorist groups in other countries.

I detected no bias within the article, most statements with any connotation.

CNN 4/22

If a teen carrying nothing but a comb can do it, who else could breach airport security and hop aboard the bottom of a plane? That’s the question many are asking after a 16-year-old boy sneaked into the wheel well of a Boeing 767 and flew from San Jose, California, to Maui, Hawaii. The city of San Jose, which owns and operates Mineta San Jose International Airport, is not planning to pursue criminal charges against the teen, Rosemary Barnes, a city public information manager, said Monday. Immediately after the incident became known, many pointed the finger at the Transportation Security Administration. While the TSA does play a part in an airport’s overall security, its role is largely limited to the inside of the airport building — the checkpoint security. Local and airport police handle the outside — the perimeter security. While some people are satisfied with the cover-up security, many are uneasy with the fact security was breached so easily.

When asked about his opinion, Gary Katz said: “I believe merely amping up security is not a legitimate way to deal with the irrefutable fact that airport security had dropped the ball. But also, since people dislike such heavy security but are angry at the TSA at the same time, it’s fickle situation for the TSA.”

I detected a bias in the article as it had a negative annotation towards the NSA’s failure to detect this as it quoted many people angry about the issue. I myself was pretty disappointed in the TSA though I know people  will get annoyed if they add more security. I understand that it’s a tricky situation but they should hire more competent employees.

CNN 3/23

On Saturday the 22, Turkish F16 shot down and destroyed a Syrian plane that violated restricted airspace. The plane was given repeated warnings not to go any further but ignored the warnings ad continued into restricted airspace. The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech, supported by the thousands who attended his rally, saying that the Syrian deserved to be shot down and that ‘if you are going to pay no heed to our warnings and rules, our slap will be hard.’ The conflict took place at a Turkish-Syrian border-town called Kasab, a town that rebels had been attacking since last friday. Actually, two years ago, a Turkish recon plane was shot down over Syrian airspace, that event a reason that all diplomatic relations between those two countries fell apart. The Syrian government has called this ‘a blatant act of aggression from Turkey’ and that they are using artillery to back of the rebel offensive.

When asked about her opinion, Kyle Katz said: I think that something should be done between these two counties and Syria before it gets far out of hand. Things are bad enough in the Middle-East and another war going out of control would not help.

I did not detect any bias within the article, probably because it doe not involve the U.S. and the writer is impartial to either country.

The Story of Chairman Mao Tsu-Dong!

I’ll tell you a tale
I’ll sing you a song
This is the story
Chairman Tse-dong

Born of the town
Shaoshan, Hunan
He was raised from a farm
and he lived off the land

For he studied and worked
So could change his home
Communist Party of
China arose

He fought in the war
between our two sides
the bravest Red Army
and the filthy Kai-shek

Yes, he vanquished his foes
And he walked through the snow
But as the Long march broke wills
Mao always kept hope

With a wide land to serve
And people to help
Mao took the riches,
Redistributing wealth

He lead through pain,
throught struggle and strife
He work to honor
the many who died

With his teachings and ways
That will bring brighter days
We take our old habits
and throw them away

With his proverbs and speeches
And little red book
Mao is the one who can
make the world pure!

These are the Five Pillars of Islam, the most important values in the Islam religion. Starting with the Shahadah, declaring there is ‘no god except God, and Muhammad is God’s Messenger’. This is most commonly and wrongly associated with the Islam religion because of extremist whom would sacrifice themselves to hurt innocent people who aren’t their religion. Fact: out of the 1.3 billion people who believe in Islam, only 1% (130 million of them believe in Jihad. This phrase is recited commonly through the religion and is essential to the Islamic religion.

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On Sunday, March the 9th, there was a radio interview between Vladimir Putin and U.S. officials. During the interview, there was much talk about the tough reality that Russia and America might meet in battle in Crimea’s second war. Also, there was the difficult fact that Putin might have access to U.S. battle plans through classified leaker Edward Snowden. “If I’m concerned about anything, I’m concerned about defense capabilities that he may have stolen from where he worked, and does that knowledge then get into the hands of our adversaries — in this case, of course, Russia,” Lt. Gen. Michel Flynn said, referring to the former Security Agent contractor. After leaking the classified information, Snowden had fled to Russia, and now in a time where it would be most opportune for Putin to enlist his services. Because of Snowden’s brief ‘meeting’ with the FBI and CIA, no one is really sure on how much the man knows which is what worries Flynn.

When asked, Gary Katz said, “It is a dangerous time when our enemies would be in alliance or coalition with people who impeding information about us, especially when it could cost many lives in battle.”

I detected a small amount of bias in the article against Edward Snowden when his name came up in the article because negative phrases about him were plucked from Flynn.

The Isreali-Palestinian wall was a massive concrete wall built by the Israelites, meant to separate the two cultures. They had been waring over both their ‘home lands’ for centuries and Israel decided to construct the wall to stop and prevent fighting. This, however, had many negative responses from the Palestinians as they found it as a subtle yet overt way to announce their hatred and dislike for the Palestinian people. While it probably stopped some of the fighting, it also caused more violence to arise at the same time. Mass warfare and even skirmishes were stopped, though terrorist attacks and bombings became much more frequent.

This is a picture of graffiti on the Israeli-Palistinian wall, a common thing for people to do. Many people believed it was a wall of oppression that led to the paradise that was their homeland. Much graffiti includes a mock opening in the wall showing a ‘paradise’, the land both Israel and the Palestinians want. On a blank stone wall, people actually really enjoy the unique pictures done by passionate artists.