His time is up!

If you had never heard the name "Michael Phelps" before August of this year, you aren't alone. However, even before Michael Phelps shattered Mark Spitz" Olympic record for the most Gold Medals in one Olympiad, he was a big star on the international swimming scene. In fact, the 2008 Beijing Olympics were the third Olympics for this golden boy. So just who is Michael Phelps? Michael Phelps was born on June 30 in 1985 in Baltimore, the third child of Fred and Debbie Phelps. He grew up swimming for the North Baltimore Swim Club, in part as an outlet for his Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder...

• Word Count: 467
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... vehicle in the second degree after she led her three children across a four-lane road 0.3 miles away from a crosswalk because she was "trying to hurry up and get home so we wouldn't have to be in the dark" (Garner). In her original trial, Nelson was sentenced to 40 hours of community ... -old A.J. Nelson, Jerry L. Guy, was charged with five years in prison, but he was released after only six months of jail time to serve the remainder on probation. During his trial, he admitted that he had consumed a small amount of alcohol and pain medication before getting behind the wheel, in addition ...

• Word Count: 529
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... focused on the winner: president-elect Barack Obama. It is a glorious time for many because he is the first African-American to grace the White House. Yet, within all of the current celebration, there looks to be a dark side. What is it? It is all of the bad press still surrounding the GOP vice presidential pick Sarah Palin, which leads me to ask the question ... , they are what make the average Joe relate to her. How? Who amongst us doesn't have a weird quirk that could be made fun of, said the wrong thing at one time or spent too much money? It's what makes us human and, as a result, l...

• Word Count: 460
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

Time is tremendously important to those living in Western Society. Indeed multiple studies have shown that to drive a man truly insane you need only put him in a room with no access to know the passing of time. That room would have no clocks, no schedule, and no daylight to guide his way. In a matter of days, the sanest of men would go quite mad. Humans ... cogs in a machine working together in harmony, but truly platitudes would be all those words would be. The true reason that being on time is important is because we have inherited and continue to pass on the erroneous idea that timeliness ...

• Word Count: 509
• Approx Pages: 2
• Grade Level: High School

... presidential race, President Barack Obama defended his energy policies but offered no reprieve from the climbing gas prices. As is the norm, gas prices slowly creep up with summer just around the corner, but this year they began even earlier in the year. In fact, gas prices are a staggering 25 cents per gallon above the norm for this time of year. President Obama's gas ... with the energy challenges we face" (Landler). "Just like last year, gas prices are climbing across the country - this time, it's happening even earlier. And when gas prices go up, it hurts everybody," Obama explained...

• Word Count: 803
• Approx Pages: 3
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Millions of hotels across the United States nonchalantly discard their visitors' once-used bars of soap every day. In fact, hundreds of millions of soap bars are discarded each year in North American alone. As relatively wealthy Americans, no has thought anything of it - until Derreck Kayongo launched the Global Soap Project (Ruffins). The project began in the early 1990s after Kayongo's first hotel stay in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Ugandan native panicked when he noticed his bathroom soap was being replenished every day despite the fact that he only got one or two uses out of the bars (...

• Word Count: 1392
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

Nearly a month after Egypt's longtime President Hosni Mubarak stepped down amid a wave of popular and mostly peaceful unrest aimed at his ouster and the institution of democratic reforms, female protestors were exposed to the new government's latest weapon - sexual humiliation. After Mubarak's resignation, Egypt's military, which had formerly chosen not to take part in the revolution, officially took control of the nation's political apparatus as well, until an agreed-upon constitution could be constructed and elections could be conducted (Amin). The protest occurred on March 9th in Tahrir Squ...

• Word Count: 1063
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography

" We go AIDS unit now." These words were spoken in fragmented English by a tiny Thai woman dressed in a crisp white nurse's uniform, complete with a straight little hat perched on top of her overly styled black hair, teased and sprayed to perfection. I looked at the nurse, somewhat startled. I certainly had not expected to be permitted to see into the gruesome reality,more unrealistic than realiy, of taboo Thai culture. I had come to Lampang, Northern Thailand with nine other American students on my first of several community service programs to the country. By the time we reached the Kanyalya...

• Word Count: 1223
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... a memory of silence across the nation honors the tragic events of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on November 7th at 7:55 AM Hawaii time. At this time in history, a surprise attack by the Japanese caught America completely off guard, resulting in 2,400 American deaths, 12 sunk ships, and 188 ... Fourth Division of the association. "Wives and family members have been trying to keep it operating, but they just can't do it. People are winding up in nursing homes and intensive care units" (Lovett). Harry Kerr, another survivor and director of the Southeast chapter, said, "We just ran out of ....

• Word Count: 589
• Approx Pages: 2
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... . Standing motionless in perfect formation, we waited to see the man that we learned to respect and fear at the same time. Then, in the dark distance you could see the unmistakable figure of the hat a drill sergeant wore upon his head nearing your position. All eyes looked straight ahead, all mouths were held tightly closed, and one would even attempt to ... a sharp right turn. At this turn it opened up to a large cafeteria. The cafeteria was an eerie white. Everything was white except the chrome hand rails. Although the cafeteria was filled with an immense diversity of people, the room ...

• Word Count: 1353
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School