Sport is a big part of Australian culture. It follows our tradition and lots of people do it. Some people play for fun, others train for seroious events like the olympics. Since the 1796 olympics when Australia won no gold medals, the Australian government has spent  lots of  money on sporting. They have built an AIS (Australian Institute of Sport) where athletes of all ages train. But some people critiscise that Australians spend too much for the olympics.

Australia is spending 80% of its funds for sport on the olympic games. Some people are think that the government should spend more on less funded sports that aren’t in the olympics like lawn bowls, golf, cricket and australian football. Or even on local sporting clubs that play a wide range of different sports.  Even though some sports like forse racing has loads of  fans, it gets less funding than those less popular sports like boxing and fencing. In fact water polo gets the same amount of funding as tennis, lawn bowls and golf combined. So that that is why people want a lot of this changed so sports that aren’t played in the olympics are fairly funded too. So instead of spending our money just to get gold medals, people say we need to spend our money on netball or soccer, sports that can acheive lots of participation aswell.

But some people disagree like John Coates from AOC (Australian Olympic Comitee). His opinion is that it would offend olympians very much. If we funded less in olympic sports Australia’s medal tally would go down rapidly. Also if they don’t fund thing like weight lifting, nobody will. He says that seeing as lots of olympic sports aren’t very popular they should pay more to motivate kids to do some of these sports and some of these popular sports like footy and cricket don’t need funding because they have enough money already.

I think that non- olympic sports should have increased funding because it’s not fair just to concentrate on the olympics. Whatever the outcome is the government will have made a decision by next year.

By Jerry

A few days ago an oil rig located up north of WA caught fire.It was from the West Atlas company. All workers were returned to land safely and none were hurt but unfortunately lots of oil leaked out leaving a huge mess in the ocean. Soon the fire was put out. The company could be fined heavily. People are still wondering how this incident occured.

Oil is made from marine life thousands of years ago. When they die they fall into and soon get buried by the sand. After thousands of years the dead bodies form into oil. A substance that is made into plastic and used in most things we see. If you look around the room you will see that plastic is used. An oil rig is used to collect oil from beneath the surface of the ocean. These rigs stand up on giant legs. They can’t be put into rough waters otherwise the rig would just topple over. It uses a giant drill and to locate oil. These operations could take from as little as a day to a long as a year. Once loated the oil is sucked back through a pipe. Oil is limited in quantity so lots of companies go practically anywhere to find it. Oil comes into our lives very often and we couldn’t suvive without it.

This rig caught on fire because the pipe was leaking and the company tried to pump mud into it. On the fourth attempt the oil rig caught on fire. There was a lot of oil that ran into the ocean. It is bad for not only the West Atlas company but also bad for the marine life. A fish has many predators but it’s biggest enemies are humans. We are killing the fish in our oceans. Environmentalists say that  this leak could take six to seven years for the ocean to heal itself. They want the government to stop oil and gas development to help save our environment

Oil is very useful to create objects of regular usage but also harmful in a way if anything goes wrong with the operational work. People should look in a direction of a safer source of power to use instead of fossil fuels.

Bottled water. A thing your family might have every day. But is it good for you or the environment? Thats what the people of Bundanoon have thought about. They’ve banned bottled water for good.

The town of Bundanoon is located in NSW.They have banned bottled water simply because it uses too much oil and affects the environment. In fact, for every bottle of water you buy, it uses 200ml of oil. That oil (plastic) is thrown away into landfill.

The water industry’s sales are increasing dramatically with half a billion dollars spent last year.People are saying it’s stupid buying bottled water when you can get water from the tap virtually free. People who disagree with banning bottled water say that more people will buy sweet drinks and that is bad for your health.

Banning bottled water will help the environment. A person agreed and said, ’I think it should be banned, it’s not very eco-friendly, and half the time you don’t know what you are drinking anyhow. I re-use my drinking water bottles many many times. I refill from the tap and keep them in the fridge, so I always have cold water. I drink a lot, so I keep at least 2 1 litre bottles plus several smaller ones to put in a cooler in there.

But there is a downside and that is that lots of people will lose their jobs and with the economic crisis, they will struggle to get a job. A person who disagrees about banning water said,’ banning it is too far still because so many people rely on water bottles for a quick grab-and-go drink.’

But everyone still needs water.60% of the human body is water. The brain is 70% water. The lungs are 90% water. The blood is more than 80% water and the bones about 20%. Water is needed to digest food, transport nutrients, get rid of waste and control our temperature. If you get de-hydrated there will be no water to do all these things and therefore you will feel ill. On some occasions you might need bottled water for natural disasters such as bushfires and floods because the water gets contaminated.

If you ask for my opinion about bottled water, I would request to ban them to help the environment.  If I were the prime minister when bottled water came out, I would have rejected it in the first place.

Sirens were flashing as an Australian woman who was on holiday in Thailand was arrested. Apparently, her friends put a mat belonging to the hotel in her bag as a joke. In Australia you wouldn’t to go to jail for such a liitle thing, but in Thailand you do. The woman was locked up in a prison cell and had to wait for the court to decide what the punishment was going to be. thw woman’s daughters were extremely scared and desperately wanted their mum back. If the woman had just known the laws and customs of Thailand.

Before you leave to go overseas you need to study the laws that apply to that country. Other countries can have a lot harsher penalties than we have. If you are caught stealing thing in another country, even a pen, then the punishment could be to go in prison. You wouldn’t really expect that .And if you are caught with illegal drugs the punishment could be death. At the moment, almost 200 different countries each have their laws and customs.  

For example, in some countries their might be laws about what you wear and what you say or write. In Singapore you’re not allowed chew gum on the street. In Florence in Italy to eat, drink or sit down on steps at or near a church. In the US, overstaying your visa, even by a little bit can put you in jail and in some countries you’re not allowed to take pictures of government buildings. The government helps by putting ads up on TV but you still need to do your research.

When people come to Australia we expect them to respect our laws and other countries expect the same out of us, but first you need to know the laws. That changes my mind about going to Canada straight away.   

Mummies. They appear everywhere. From movies to everyday speech. But what are mummies? Mummies are just lifeless bodies preserved in tombs. People think that mummies are only from Egypt; but they are wrong.

Archaeologists are people who travel around and find out the history of the world. They have found mummies of the Chinchorro people of Chile, located in South America, in the Atacama desert on the north coast of Chile. Atacama is just a dry wasteland with no food or water for kilometres. The bodies were remarkably preserved from the stone ages. They have found the people’s belongings. There was pottery, bones, wood and even a mummified hand. So people lived a relatively simple life but often got into fights.Archaeoligists try and keep the people who take important things for archaeoligists to study from taking stuff. Graverobbers are also a problem. So it’s up to the archaeoligists to learn more about these ancient artefacts before the vandals and thieves arrive.

The mummies from Chile are about 8000 years old while the Egyptian mummies are about 5000. These mummies are not in tombs or anything. They were just lying on the ground when the archaeoligists found them. The reason that these bodies have been preserved so well is because that there is supposed to be bacteria that breaks dwn the flesh. But seeing as bacteria lives only in damp places, the bacteria in the Acatama Desert can’t survive. To mummify the people the men in the stone age would rip out their flesh and organs ( sometimes the ate the organs!)  and put the bones back together and stuffed them with plants and fur.

So next time you hear or see mummies, don’t just think of Egypt and think of Chile. I bet there are more mummies for archaeoligists to find and maybe they will be very old. It’s all a mystery. 

The Sri Lankan cricket team went to Pakistan for a match. During the bus trip the Sri Lankan team were attacked by several gunmen. Some police were killed and two cricket players severely injured. Nobody knows why they were attacked. Perhaps because they didn’t want the Sri Lankan cricket team to win.

The attack was definitely by terrorists and the police think they were from Afghanistan who are currently at war with rebels. Terrorist attacks are supposed to frighten people and the terrorists don’t like the world the way it is now so they are trying to change it. The police do not think that an attack like that will occur again but still some people are not taking any chances.

Cricket is a very popular sport in Pakistan and many people are both upset and disappointed. The questions ‘will there be any more cricket matches in Pakistan’ is going around. They should resume after the police are sure that there won’t be another attack.

The Australian cricket team will play Pakistan next month. But the venue will be some neutral country in the middle-east. International cricket will go on but the next match in Pakistan, I won’t be there to see it.

JerryG 6c

Orangutans are now near extinction.They are an endangered species because of the people destroying rainforests for palm oil. The people bulldoze the trees and the orangutans natural habitat ruined.

The Orangutan Day Care is a place where they keep the endangered creatures safe and care for them. Many of the orangutans there are orphans. Orangutans live in the rainforests in Borneo and Sumartra in Asia. They eat leaves, insects and fruit. Orangutans grow up to about the size of a seven year old kid but they will have they’re arms two metres wide.The word ‘Orangutan’ means ‘man of the jungle’.Soon , if the people don’t stop bulldozing the forests, these harmless creatures will become extint.

Palm oil is quite a valuable product. it is contained in many things like: food products, shampoo, cosmetics ect.  Sometimes people don’t know there is palm oil in products because it is disguised as vegetable oil.If the people have to stop work then they won’t be able to any earn money.Research shows that orangutans can live in damaged rainforests as long as there is food to live on. The solution to this problem, I think,is that the people bulldozing the rainforests can do their jobs but they can’t take the timber.So that benefits the orangutans and lets people continue their jobs.

J.G 6c 

After they’ve graduated ,the year twelves usually go to someplace with their friends and party like animals. They sometimes get out of control when they have had a little too much alcahol. They celebrate at beaches,parks and many other venues.It sounds like a wild way to celebrate.

One group of schoolies didn’t go and party. They decided not to waste their time on that and help other people. The people of East Timor just recentlybecame independent. But it was bombed. Timor doesn’t have most of the things that we do in Australia.

The schoolies helped the people of East Timor rebuild their towns and cities. Before it was a wreck. Because of the schoolies, Timor is gradually getting fixed.They carried water and installed electricity.I think it was a very good idea to help other people rather than wasting your own time.

Jerry