Ho‘okele News Island Pacific Academy’s Newspaper I Mua Me Ka Ha‘aheo Phone: (808) 674-3523
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December 2011
2012: What’s Happening?
The 2012 election is just around the corner. Be informed! Take a look at these candidates and their positions on some of America’s most pressing economic and social issues.
President Obama advocates and supports investment in education to create a stronger, more competitive work force. He supports the American Opportunity Tax credit, which is a refundable tax credit that would cover $4,000 of college tuition for most Americans. He wants to establish a minimum tax rate for Americans that make over
one million dollars a year. This tax rate is intended to have Americans pay the same percentage of taxes each year and bring in more revenue to the government. He strongly advocated and pushed forward the Affordable Care Act in 2010 which would move toward providing healthcare to previously uninsured Americans by 2014.
Gingrinch’s education plan requires that each state set a standard of performance that allows all students to become competitive in the twenty-first century. He encourages opening the school systems for physicians or scientists to teach part-time to give students real-world applications to what they’re learning.
To boost the economy Gingrich wants to stop raising taxes. He believes this would help promote job growth and improve the economy. Opposed to the Affordable Care Act, Gingrich has proposed his “Patient Power” plan, which would give priority to the sickest who cannot afford to buy healthcare.
Romney’s education proposal supports standardized tests as well as the No Child Left Behind Act to hold teachers accountable and to measure the academic performance of the student. Romney believes the key to economic prosperity in America is to cut deficit spending. This will force the
government to use only what is allotted to them in an efficient manner. He also advocates the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. He believes that health care should become a state issue to ensure that citizens are given specialized and individualized care suitable for their needs.
Be thankful you’re alive, 2012 has yet to arrive! December 21, 2012. It is not only the date of the winter solstice in which the sun will be aligned with the Milky Way galaxy for the first time in 26,000 years; it is also the alleged date on which the world is predicted to come to an end. There are three popular theories that predict an apocalypse will occur in 2012. The Mayan Calendar predicts an unknown event, possibly resulting the end of the world. The Planet X: Nibiru Theory predicts a hypothesized ninth planet is on a collision course with Earth. Finally, a software program calledWeb Bot predicts the world will end. The similarity between these three theories? All of them point to the date December 21, 2012. -Staff Writer Ketan Patel
Mayan Calendar One of the most well-known theories is the end of the world as predicted by the Mayan calendar. According to it, the date for the end of the last cycle is December 21, 2012. Their calendar dates back thousands of years and has been accurate in predicting lunar cycles. The theory stems from what humankind should expect when the calendar completes its 5,126-year era and resets to year zero on December 21, 2012. When the reset occurs, an unknown apocalyptic event is predicted to occur. According to NASA scientists, even if the Mayan calender ends in 2012, the world will not end.
Planet X: Nibiru The Planet X: Nibiru Collision is another theory in which a hypothesized ninth planet named Nibiru is on a collision course with Earth. The alleged year in which Nibiru will enter earth’s gravitational proximity and cause catastrophic events on Earth is 2012. According to NASA scientists, Nibiru is a fictional planet fabricated by internet hoaxes and that there is no known record of an actual Planet X. But according to many online conspiracies, the theory is plausible.
Web Bot Predictions Web Bot is computer software program developed in the late 1990’s to assist in making stock market predictions. Similar to a search engine, Web Bot uses “spiders” to search the web for keywords and identifies trends which are then used to predict future events. Web Bot’s makers claim that it has accurately predicted various catastrophic events, including the space shuttle Columbia disaster, Hurricane Katrina and the crash of American Airlines Flight 587. The system has gained most of its notoriety from its predictions that in 2012 a major cataclysmic event will devastate the world.