Little Polka's Blog

The United State Olympic Committee have taken beginning stages to withdraw USA Gymnastics’ standing as the leading body for the sport after trying to get their feet back on the ground after the sexual abuse disgrace.

U.S. Olympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland wrote a letter to the U.S. gymnastics community saying, “You deserve better.” Raising the decertification activity would escort in new leadership, she added, recognizing that the temporary stage could be shaky: “I do not know how long the process will take, and we will make every effort to proceed quickly.”

The scandal that caused this all, is because of a former team doctor, Larry Nassar, whom had abused hundreds of athletes under the excuse of medical treatment. Nassar is now serving the comparable of a life sentence in prison.

The organization has gone through three leaders in less than two years. Previous CEO Steve Penny, who presided over the organization during Nassar’s contract, resigned in early 2017. Penny has pleaded not guilty after being detained last month for supposedly interfering with evidence related to the Nassar case. Penny’s two replacements were also compelled to step down and Mary Bono, a former affiliate of the U.S. House, survived less than a week as temporary CEO before leaving last month.

On social media, Bono had mauled Nike for featuring Colin Kaepernick, a football quarterback, in an ad campaign. He has knelt at NFL games to protest police brutality and discrimination against African-Americans. The greatest star in gymnastics and a Nike-sponsored athlete, Simone Biles, took to Twitter to disclose her dissatisfaction of Bono’s since-deleted tweet. Bono left presently later. Before her, the job was held for less than a year by Kerry Perry.

In spite of the United State Olympic Committee’s change, the USA Gymnastics Board said they would continue to serve the gymnastics community: “Our commitment will always be to ensure the health and safety of our members while they pursue their love of the sport.”

On October 30^th, the search continued for victims/bodies from JT610, a Boeing 737 Max 8 operated by the low-cost airline Lion Air.

With one-hundred-eighty-nine people aboard the Indonesian airliner crashed in the Java Sea, and on Tuesday, the search continued for the “black box” and the bodies. Passports and wallets, among other recovered materials were sorted through by rescuers and search personals.

CNN reports, “DNA samples have been taken from 132 family members of passengers on board to help with identification. The Jakarta police commissioner warned this could be difficult, and each body bag so far transferred could contain the remains of more than one person.”

The search-and-rescue group plans to continue their efforts into Wednesday and search with a boat, in the air, and with divers for debris and remains. There has not yet been a body count released, although on Tuesday, rescuers handed twenty-four body bags to police.

Determining the cause of the crash will have to wait until authorities uncover the 737’s data recorder, which a special technology has been deployed to hopefully find the device. Soon after the plane’s departure in Jakarta early Monday a.m., its staff asked to return to the airport. The staff received the go to turn around, but lost height and collided into the sea fewer than fifteen minutes into the flight.

The National Search-And-Rescue Agency said that when the plane went down, its emergency locator transmitter beacon didn’t emit a distress signal, despite the beacon being certified through August of 2019. Lion Air says the recently obtained Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed had only come into service in August. The airline’s irregular protection record, including an additional crash at sea with no deaths in 2013, led the United States and the European Union to prohibit the airline from their no-fly-zone. Both raised the limitation in 2016.

UN Messenger of Peace, Leonardo Dicaprio, spoke to the United Nations with a focus on climate change at the beginning of the Climate Summit.

Dicaprio has been traveling around the world for the last couple years recording how the crisis of climate change is changing the natural balance of our planet. He says from all that he has seen and learned on his expedition has frightened him. He’s witnessed Beijing being suffocated by industrial pollution, India farmers crops being literally washed away by historic flooding, and, in America, witnessing groundbreaking droughts in California.

Dicaprio mentions that there is no doubt in the world’s scientific community that this is a straightforward outcome of human activity and that the effects of climate change will become astronomically worse in the future. Following this Dicaprio made the statement, “Now think about the shame that each of us will carry when our children and grandchildren look back and realize that we had the means of stopping this devastation, but simply lacked the political will to do so.”

Leonardo says our planet cannot be saved unless we leave fossil fuels in the ground where they belong. An extensive change is required, and it’s one that leads to a new unified awareness. Following this his statement was, “But it is now upon . you to do what great leaders have always done: to lead, inspire, and empower as President Lincoln did in his time.”

Dicaprio thanked the body for all they have done to lay down the foundation of a solution to the crisis, but says that after twenty-one years of debates and conferences it’s time to have no more talk, excuses, or ten-year studies. Not to allow the fossil fuel companies to manipulate and dictate the science and policies that effect the future, and that this body he is speaking to is the only body that can do what is needed.

He closed with a statement saying that this body he is speaking to is the last best hope of Earth, and they need to help protect it or they, and all living things they cherish, are history.

Broadcast Lead: Actor and film producer Leonardo Dicaprio, UN Messenger of Peace, leaves milestone mark after speech given to the United Nations at the Climate Summit.

Preliminary evidence shows teens being on their cell phones too much causes memory loss.

A new study’s finding says teenagers who talk on the phone a lot, and hold their cell phones up to their right ear, score worse on one type of memory test. This may be one side-effect to the radiation that the phones use to keep all of us connected while we are traveling.

Seven hundred Swiss teenagers have taken part in a test of figural memory, which assesses short-term and long-term memory. This type of test is one that helps us recall abstract shapes and symbols. Milena Foerster, a medical doctor who studies disease patterns within a population, worked on the study as part of a team while she was at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute in Basel, Switzerland.

The teens in this study participated in the memory test twice, one year apart from each other. For the test they had one minute to memorize thirteen pairs of abstract shapes and they were shown one item from each pair and had to match it with one of the five choices they were given.

The researchers in this study also surveyed the teenagers on how they use mobile phones, and got the call records from phone companies. They used the records to guesstimate how long the teens were using their phones, which allowed them to calculate how big a radiation exposure each individual could have received while talking.

The teens’ scores in the figural memory tests were about the same from one year to the other.  But those who normally held their phone near their right ear, and who were also exposed to higher levels of radiation, scored a little bit worse after a year.

Foerster and her colleagues think that one type of memory being linked to cell phone use, but not another could have to do with where different memory centers sit in the brain. The site that deals with the ability to remember shapes is near the right ear.

The Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, has a female bodyguard who received unexpected amount of attention Tuesday, October 23rd.

The female bodyguard, who’s name is unknown for security reasons, had to protect Meghan a little extra when she encountered a “security scare” during a commitment in Fiji. Her visit to a market in Suva, which is Fiji’s capital, was interrupted after large crowds than what was expected gathered around the market, causing security concerns.

Though it’s not common to see a female bodyguard, Meghan’s bodyguard has actually been working for the Sussexes for awhile now and is believed to be protecting the couple for the rest of the royal tour.

Another member of the royal family also has a female bodyguard. SergeantEmma Probert was assigned to the Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, in 2010 after she got engaged to Prince William.

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/celebrity/latest/a24176657/meghan-markle-kate-middleton-female-bodyguard/

https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/teens-cell-phone-use-linked-memory-problems

Preliminary evidence shows teens being on their cell phones too much causes memory loss.

Something has happened to Nickelodeon and the audience that grew up on the cable channel is dissatisfied because today’s Nick is outrageous, nothing compared to what it used to be, and has just changed for the worse.

Samantha, a 22-year-old mother, what she thought about the current nick station she said, “Today’s ‘nickelodeon’, in my opinion, is not even that good. When I was younger, we had Cat-Dog and Rugrats and other old cartoons, a lot of shows I miss. Definitely would pay extra money just so I could get old nickelodeon tv shows so I can relive my childhood.”

Only 8 years ago, in the United States, the Nickelodeon population was 3.06 million; now 1.31 million. So many individuals are just turning to Netflix, and steering away from the regular cable channels.

Most people in this world, mostly Millennials, always talk about wishing old Nickelodeon shows were back on the TV. Occasionally Nick will have some re-runs of old shows that us millennials loved watching.

Samantha said her daughter does not watch much television today, and she thinks it is that way because in today’s society she is not sure that a lot of it is going to be 100% appropriate. She has heard rumors about certain shows having secret dirty jokes put into the scripts.

Today, there is Nickelodeon Jr., Cartoon Network, and Nick.  When today’s millennials were younger there was just nickelodeon because that is just the right station to fit all the shows they had.

“Today’s nick shows are not even on the same level as the past shows of when I was a kid. Usually I love watching Nickelodeon,” says Kourtney, 28, “but I just have no interest in today’s shows because they are honestly either gender biased with their shows or their scripts are not close to what they used to be when I was younger. I would watch definitely watch nickelodeon if they had reruns of the shows that were on when I was a child.”

Looking at the older side of millennials, in the 28-34 year olds, they seem to be the ones who feel strongly about today’s nick tv shows. Some of the comments include:

When talking to the interviewees, a lot of them talked about recognizing nickelodeon by their logo. A lot specifically remember the orange splat logo and the orange lettering “nickelodeon” logo.

Selena Gomez, a 26-year-old singer, went to the hospital two times in the past couple weeks, according to TMZ. She is getting the help she needs at an East Coast psychiatric facility and receiving dialectical behavior therapy.

According to ET, a source told them that Selena has had depression for a while now. Since her kidney transplant, the people around her have kept extra eyes on her on how she feels. She wasn’t feeling the best recently and went to the hospital, like she always does when she doesn’t feel right. After looking into her not feeling right, with a little deeper observing, it was determined that Selena would obtain treatment at the mental health facility.

This news, of Selena’s check in to the East Coast psychiatric facility, comes just weeks after she posted on instagram with the following statement and picture below.

“Mood lol (I was looking at myself in the mirror -like an idiot!) Update: taking a social media break. Again. As much as I am grateful for the voice that social media gives each of us, I am equally grateful to be able to step back and live my life present to the moment I have been given. Kindness and encouragement only for a bit! Just remember- negative comments can hurt anybody’s feelings. Obvi.” Selena posted to instagram Septemeber 23rd, 2018.

Selena isn’t actually in a bad place, it is really the opposite of that. She is taking care of herself to ensure that she continues to go down a good path as she knows her health and wellness need to keep progressing.

The source that spoke to TMZ said the following. “Selena isn’t going to run herself into the ground again. These little check-ins are essential to her health. It’s not even recovery, it’s just a way of life. It’s the same thing with her church — that to her is like a weekly check-in.”

We can only hope the best for Selena as she takes time away from her “celebrity life” and focuses on herself, as a normal human being.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/celebrity/selena-gomez-hospitalized-for-mental-health-treatment-after-reported-emotional-breakdown-says-source/ar-BBOdo0B?li=BBnb7Kz

Lindsay Lohan is seeking a fresh start after a bunch of issues that came about involving substance abuse and going to jail.

The actress left the United States and moved to London and appeared on a T.V. show called Sick Note, and then she later moved to Greece where she possesses the Lohan Beach Club.

Lindsay defended Harvey Weinstein on her instagram with a video, supporting him after a bunch of women made allegations of sexual misconduct against Harvey. Lohan also claims to the British newspaper The Times in August of 2018 that women who speak out about #MeToo makes them look weak. Lindsay then defended Donald Trump or I guess told people to stop bullying him on Twitter in July.

At Lindsay’s beach house in Greece, she has threatened to fire waitresses at the nightclub for not wearing matching shoes, with a post on social media. Unless the shoes were provided with the uniform dress code, I find it a little extreme of Lohan to do this.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/celebrity/lindsay-lohans-biggest-controversies-since-leaving-hollywood/ss-BBNQFTz#image=1

Pastor Andy Nelson, Director of Campus Ministry and Community Service at Morningside College, also has the role of being a foster parent along with his wife Dr. Jessica Pleuss, a professor in the psychology department.

Pastor Andy and Dr. Pleuss have three biological children, but also do foster care.  They have been foster parents just over a year, and got licensed in April of 2017 and have had the first two placements over the course of that summer.  They had a five-year-old boy, and their current foster son Gavin came to them when he was two weeks old but now he is fifteen or sixteen months old.  Pastor Nelson said that their foster son Sam, who was their four turned five-year-old when he was with them, is transitioning onto his hopeful adoptive forever home with another couple.

He mentioned that him and his wife never know how long they will have their foster children, and at times that can be frustrating as it is hard for them to plan ahead.  There’s never a required length when it comes to having placements come into their home.  For their experience with fostering children Pastor Andy says the following.

“It’s Deeply rewarding, equal parts, kind of frustrating in terms of uncertainty about the future… I mean I never hadn’t really thought about when you’re talking to people we see friends maybe every six months or every year or trying to plan ahead and not knowing how many kids we’re going to have.  So that was something to get used to because of the way the system works, you just don’t know.”

Pastor Andy’s story about him and his wife fostering children along with taking care of their own, really hit my emotions.  My boyfriend group in foster care, so it was very interesting to hear from a foster parent’s perspective of what it’s like to raise children, or have children placed in their care that aren’t biologically their own.  Personally, I want to thank Pastor Andy Nelson and his wife Dr. Jessica Pleuss for being foster parents because whether they know one hundred percent or not, they are making a difference in those children’s lives and their future families’ lives.