The Rebellion at Sea

On July 2, 1839, Sengbe Pieh (later known in the United States as Joseph Cinque) led 56 fellow Africans (52 adults and 4 children), the captives being transported aboard La Amistad from Havana, in a revolt against their captors. In the main hold below decks, the captives found a rusty file and were able to free themselves. Armed with machete-like cane knives, they ascended the stairs to deck and were successful in gaining control of the ship they demanded the captain to return them home. The ship's navigator, Don Pedro Montez,deceived them about the direction that their course was set on and sailed the ship along the North American coast to the Eastern tip of Long Island, New York. The United States Revenue Cutter Service discovered the ship and took its occupants into custody. They took the Africans to New Haven Connecticut to be tried in court.

At the time the transport of slaves to the Americas was illegal, so the ship owners fraudulently described the Africans as having been born in Cuba. On appeal The Amistad Case reached the US Supreme court, which in 1841 ruled in that the Africans had been illegally transported and held as slaves, and ordered them freed. La Amistad's survivors returned to Africa in 1842.

HIV positive man cured.

I was online and I came across an article that mentioned that a man was cured of HIV. This is important because this is a breakthrough in the medical field and could lead to many other diseases being cured. If you want to know more about the testing they have done click on the word BLOOD(it is highlighted blue) which will take you to the researcher's journal.

An HIV-positive man who received a stem cell transplant for leukemia has been cured of HIV infection, doctors announced recently.

While the case was first reported at the 2008 Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Boston, doctors have now published an updated report in the journal Blood, which affirms extensive testing.

"It is reasonable to conclude that cure of HIV infection has been achieved in this patient," the doctors wrote.

In 2007, Timothy Ray Brown suffered a relapse of leukemia that required a stem cell transplant. Brown, also known as "Berlin patient," was given stem cells from a donor that lacked the CCR5 receptor, "a condition that is present in less than 1 percent of Caucasians in northern and western Europe," according to London-based AidsMap.

"The man received bone marrow from a donor who had natural resistance to HIV infection; this was due to a genetic profile which led to the CCR5 co-receptor being absent from his cells," they explained. "The most common variety of HIV uses CCR5 as its ‘docking station’, attaching to it in order to enter and infect CD4 cells, and people with this mutation are almost completely protected against infection."



http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/doctors-hivinfected-man-cured-stem-cell-transplant/

MC NASTY!

A NYC photographer decided to take daily pictures of a Happy Meal as it aged...



http://www.refinery29.com/happy-meal-art-project.php

famous picture from the Vietnam War

I'm sure everyone at one point in there history class has been exposed to this picture. Last year, Ms. Collins showed us this picture and it was a picture that stuck with me for awhile. I did some research on Kim Phúc, the girl in the center left, running down a road near Trang Bang. This picture shows her at about age nine running naked on a road after being severely burned on her back by a South Vietnamese napalm attack. She is still alive today and strives to provide medical and psychological assistance to child victims of war.

http://www.famouspictures.org/mag/index.php?title=Vietnam_Napalm_Girl

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch (also known as The Great Pacific Dump)

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, also described as the Pacific Trash Vortex, is a gyre of marine litter in the central North Pacific Ocean located roughly between 135° to 155°W and 35° to 42°N.^[1] The patch extends over a very wide area, with estimates ranging from an area the size of the state of Texas to one larger than the continental United States; however, the exact size is unknown.^[2] This can be attributed to the fact that there is no specific standard for determining the boundary between the “normal” and “elevated” levels of pollutants and what constitutes being part of the patch. The size is determined by a higher-than normal degree of concentration of pelagic debris in the water. Recent data collected from Pacific albatross populations suggest there may be two distinct zones of concentrated debris in the Pacific.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch




These photographs of albatross chicks were made just a few weeks ago on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking. About a couple months ago I was watching the history channel and they mentioned the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. I decided to look more into it since it seemed like an interesting thing.
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2009/10/29/how-to-photograph-the-great-pacific-garbage-patch/

This seems like an interesting topic to know about since it shows to what extremes the amount of pollution we as humans carelessly dispose off into our environment. This garbage patch is of a large size and will take many years to fully break down. The decomposition of the plastic particles will eventually travel up the food chain becoming very poisonous to the marine wildlife.

"Pregnant" one-year-old

A one-year-old Chinese infant had the appearance of being pregnant as her stomach was expanding rapidly huge compared to her small size. Of course, no one-year-old could get pregnant but it was the rumor was going around like wildfire in Luohe City, Zhenzhou. A childless couple found this regular infant at the time from a river who was neglected by her uncaring mother wanting her kid to drown. After the couple took in the child, her stomach started to grow rapidly huge. Neighbors pointed and laughed at the couple saying that they're keeping a "monster" amongst them. Her adopted father her too the hospital and found out that the "baby" was actually her twin sister, her parasitic twin.

A parasitic twin (also known as an asymmetrical or unequal conjoined twin) is the result of the processes that produce vanishing twins and conjoined twins, and may represent a continuum between the two. Parasitic twins occur when a twin embryo begins developing in utero, but the pair does not fully separate, and one embryo maintains dominant development at the expense of the other. Unlike conjoined twins, one ceases development during gestation and is vestigial to a mostly fully formed, otherwise healthy individual twin. The undeveloped twin is defined as parasitic, rather than conjoined, because it is incompletely formed or wholly dependent on the body functions of the complete fetus. The independent twin is called the autosite.
-Wikipedia

Surgery was necessary for the infant to survive but the bill was too high for this couple to handle; a total of 10,000 yuan or $1,500 in the US. The couple looked for financial aid and donations from the government and others. They finally found enough money and the surgery went on its way. It was a success. The parasitic twin was taken out of the little girl's body and she now lives on a normal life.

This happened in 2009.


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1215282/Chinas-Kang-Mengru-survives-twin-foetus-removal-Zhenzhou.html

http://www.zimdiaspora.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1858:one-year-old-girl-pregnant&catid=38:travel-tips&Itemid=18

Tax cut bill easily clears the Senate hurdle.

I was reading through the MSN news and I came across this article about the newest tax cut. For more information click the link below.


http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40637568/ns/politics-capitol_hill

Mosque at Ground Zero?

I was reading through the earlier posts and saw Ms. French's post on Al-Qaeda, I thought to post this up since it is a current controversial issue between mostly the Americans and the Muslims.

Here is the link:
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/06/06/a_mosque_at_ground_zero/

WikiLeaks

In class, the controversial issue of the webpage WikiLeaks came up. Recently, it has been plastered all over the news and is a threat to the governments and corporations whose secrets the website exploits publicly.

This webpage releases private documents such as secret U.S. military logs from Iraq, military strategy in Afghanistan, and screenshots of Sarah Palin's email inbox during the 2008 U.S. elections. It is not a surprise that WikiLeaks is classified as a 'whiste-blowing' website. Ms. French has used the term 'whistle blower' earlier in this blog. A whistleblower is someone who raises awareness about a corruption in an organization or body of people. However, fundings for this website have been cut off. In order to keep the website fully fuctioning, it has adopted new tactics. WikiLeaks is now partnered up with news organizations such as the Guardian, Der Spiegel and the New York Times.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10757263

Chernobyl Disaster

The Chernobyl Disaster was a well-known nuclear disaster that occurred on April 26, 1986, at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine (then Part of the USSR). It is considered the worst nuclear power plant Accident in history and is the only level seven event on the International Nuclear Event Scale. Following the accident, Ukraine continued to operate the remaining reactors at Chernobyl for many years. The last reactor was closed down in 2000.


The accident raised concerned about the safety of the Soviet nuclear power industry as well as nuclear power in general, slowing its expansion for a number of years while forcing the Soviet government to become less secretive about its procedures. Four hundred times more radiactive material was released than had been by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. In the aftermath of the accident, 237 people suffered from acute radiation sickness, of whom thirty died within the first months. Most of this were fire and rescue workers trying to bring the accident under control.

The picture above shows how far the radiation cloud had spread over the Northern Hemisphere by the tenth day after the explosion.

Here are some links were you can get more information about this topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chernobyl_disaster#Deaths_and_survivors

http://blogs.newamericamedia.org/kitchen-sink/78/nuclear-nightmares-twenty-years-since-chernobyl

Taxi Drivers Racially Profiling Passengers?

I heard about this in my Holocaust class, but this is something that is currently going on and we should be aware of it. Basically, after a taxi driver was shot by a Hispanic male on December 3, the president of the NY State Federation of Taxi Drivers informed Taxi drivers in the state to start profiling the people that they serviced. The president, Fernando Mateo, wants to keep the drivers safe by having them assume whether someone is dangerous based on what they are wearing (pants below their waist or covered faces) and most importantly if they are Black or Hispanic. He wants to "weed them out."

Frankly, I don't know how to feel about this. I'm not sure if it's really racial profiling since the drivers are Blacks and Hispanics as well, but it is profiling nonetheless. What do you guys think? Here's a link if you want a more in-depth explanation:

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/local_news/nyc/racial-profiling-of-taxi-passengers-20101207

Three Mile Island

OK, so I was looking for stuff that we should know and I came across this topic. As it turns out, I didn't know anything about it and thought it would be helpful for all of us.

On March 28, 1979, a stuck valve at the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania relayed a cloud of radioactive gas in the air. One hundred thousand local residents fled their homes. The accident triggered a thorough reappraisal of nuclear safety, and resulted in a complete halt in the building of nuclear plants, Even plants that were close to completion, like the Shoreham Nuclear Plant on Long Island, had their completion terminated by an invigorated anti-nuclear movement.

In the after math of the accident, investigators focused on the amount of radiation released by the accident. According to the American Nuclear Society, using the the official radiation emission figures, "The average radiation dose to people living within ten miles of the plant was eight milirem, and no more than 100 milirem to any single individual. Eight milirem is about equal to a chest X-ray, and 100 milirem is about a third of the average background level of radiation received by US residents in a year."

I think that this is stuff we all should know because we are living in a time when nuclear power is being produced and used. We are all concerned about possible the health effects that radiation emissions could cause. People are afraid that another incident of the magnitude of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. This topic arises questions like the ones asked after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945: "Is it ethical to do this?"

Tudor Dynasty

King Henry VIII married Katherine (The Great) of Spain (she was originally married to his older brother Arthur Prince of Wales but he died before the marriage was consummated so it was annulled.) and she bore him one child Mary Tudor Princess of Wales (later known as Bloody Mary). At that time England's religion was Catholicism. When Henry took a mistress, Anne Boleyn, he tried to annul the marriage between him and Katherine claiming it was never legitimate because of her marriage to Arthur. The Catholic Church refused to annull the marriage which resulted in Henry's and England's break from the Catholic church and unto the new religion Protestant. Mary Tudor was rendered illegitmate and a bastard while Anne Boleyn became Queen (despite the people hating her and the obvious frown on breaking away of the church). She bore Henry one child aswell Elizabeth I. Henry later had Anne executed and went on to marry 4 other women until he had a son Edward VI. When Henry died Edward took over, but he was always sickly and ruled for 6 years until his death at a young age. Before he died he canceled out his father's previous will, that stated Mary would rule then Elizabeth in the event of death, that put Jane I as the Queen of England. Jane ruled for 9 days before Mary took over and eventually executed her. Mary married the King of Spain Phillip II and the Spanish Inquisition took over England, killing all those who were not Catholic. Thus the name Bloody Mary. After her death 5 years later Queen Elizabeth I took over, restoring Protestant as the official religion and bringing England to it's Golden Age. She remained a virgin and unmarried, earning the title The Virgin Queen, despite her lovers.

http://englishhistory.net/tudor/monarchs.html

Genocide in Darfur, Sudan

This information is important to know because this is an event that has been occuring for over 6years and over 400,000 lives have been lost. This is an international crisis, a "genocide" in which we all should know about. We all should know how this genocide started and how people are helping for example "the doctors without borders" and the UN peacekeepers.

About the size of Texas, the Darfur region of Sudan is home Darfur, Sudan
Submitto racially mixed tribes of settled peasants, who identify as African, and nomadic herders, who identify as Arab. The majority of people in both groups are Muslim.
In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed, a government-supported militia recruited from local Arab tribes. The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month.
Government neglect has left people throughout Sudan poor and voiceless and has caused conflict throughout the country. In February 2003, frustrated by poverty and neglect, two Darfurian rebel groups launched an uprising against the Khartoum government. Submitted by root on Thu, 2006-07-06 19:37. :: -->
About the size of Texas, the Darfur region of Sudan is home to racially mixed tribes of settled peasants, who identify as African, and nomadic herders, who identify as Arab. The majority of people in both groups are Muslim.
In the ongoing genocide, African farmers and others in Darfur are being systematically displaced and murdered at the hands of the Janjaweed, a government-supported militia recruited from local Arab tribes. The genocide in Darfur has claimed 400,000 lives and displaced over 2,500,000 people. More than one hundred people continue to die each day; five thousand die every month.
Government neglect has left people throughout Sudan poor and voiceless and has caused conflict throughout the country. In February 2003, frustrated by poverty and neglect, two Darfurian rebel groups launched an uprising against the Khartoum government.




http://www.darfurscores.org/darfur
http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unamid/
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/news/article.cfm?id=4836&cat=field-news

The government and uncontrolled drugs

On November 30, 2010 officials seized nearly 200 pounds of cocaine from a trailer in Revere, that's about an estimated street value of $10 million. Police say Gilberto Padilla and Rafael Montero were offloading 200 pounds of cocaine from a trailer. They were each charged with one count of trafficking 200 grams or more of cocaine. The charge is the most serious that alleged cocaine traffickers can face even though 200 grams represents a fraction of what authorities recovered
The U.S. has find a way to deal with drugs more efficiently. Right now they are doing things like having undercover police officers disguising as drug dealers or addicts, (entrapment), sting operations, or having people call anonymously about tips of drug activity, etc. But it's still not enough because the drug activity rate is still a huge problem.
Going back to prohibition where the eighteenth Amendment was in force and alcoholic beverages could not legally be manufactured, transported, or sold in the U.S. The U.S. simply tried to take a negative part of our society away from society but it was more trouble then expected. At the end the opposite happened and they couldn't uphold the new law.
Now a days marijuana is one of the problems. It's almost the same concept as the prohibition era. The substance was illegal but the people did everything they could to get their hands on it. Then some countries legalized marijuana. It just goes to show that if the people want something then they will get it. People will eventually see that have an enormous amount of power, they will abuse it and the government could do nothing about it.
Out of that 200 pounds of cocaine that was confiscated, think about how much of that would come into Chelsea. That was a large amount but just a portion when compared with the total amount of drugs in the city.
You should know this because it sure helps if you know what's going on in and around your community.

Watergate scandal

In Ms.French's class the Watergate scandal topic came up and many students, including myself, didn't know what this was about. I attempted to make the more important parts bold, so students could understand what it was about without needing to read all of it, unless they are interested in it.


The Watergate scandal was a 1970s United States political scandal resulting from the break-in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Effects of the scandal ultimately led to the resignation of the President of the United States, Richard Nixon, on August 9, 1974, the first and only resignation of any U.S. President. It also resulted in the indictment, trial, conviction and incarceration of several Nixon administration officials.

The affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex on June 17, 1972. The FBI connected the payments to the burglars to a slush fund used by the 1972 Committee to Re-elect the President. As evidence mounted against the president's staff, which included former staff members testifying against them in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee, it was revealed that President Nixon had a tape recording system in his offices and that he had recorded many conversations. Recordings from these tapes implicated the president, revealing that he had attempted to cover up the break-in. After a series of court battles, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the president had to hand over the tapes; he ultimately complied.

Facing near-certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and a strong possibility of a conviction in the Senate, Nixon resigned the office of the presidency on August 9, 1974. His successor, Gerald Ford, issued a pardon to President Nixon after his resignation.

This is his letter of resignation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal

The Roswell UFO Incident

The Roswell UFO Incident was a recovery of aliens and extra terrestrial debris which occurred near Roswell, New Mexico, in July 1947. The government claimed that it they had actually recovered a high-altitude surveillance balloon although many individuals claim that it actually involved a crash of extra terrestrials which they believe the government immediately picked up the bodies of the extra terrestrials and the debris and has kept them secret from the American people up to this day.

On July 8, 1947 the RAAF(Roswell Army Air Field) issued a press release stating that they had recovered a "flying disk" from a ranch which was near Roswell. This sparked a great deal of interest within the media. The following day they reported they had recovered a weather tracking balloon not a flying disk. This is one of the most controversial and publicized alleged UFO incidents that has occurred up to this day.

This incident is important since it is widely used in movies and other forms of media. This was one of the most popular and controversial UFO incidents which has eventually led many to believe that the government has been trying to hide things from the American people since it was at first reported that the alien remains and debris were found.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident

Al-Qaeda, Osama Bin Laden, 9/11 Attacks

It came up during one of our classes that not everyone is familiar with Al-Qaeda. I believe that the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers in NYC is something everyone should know about. For everyone who was an adult at the time, we will never forget where we were when we heard about it. It's THAT big a deal. The wars we are fighting now are connected to the initial war efforts that came in response to this event. It is important that you know about the event, the people behind it, and the aftershocks we are still experiencing. If anyone wants to add a post or a comment about the current situation about the mosque building at Ground Zero, that would be a nice addition.

Al-Qaeda (pronounced /ælˈkaɪdə/ al-KYE-də or /ælˈkeɪdə/ al-KAY-də; Arabic: القاعدة‎, al-qāʿidah, "the base"), alternatively spelled al-Qaida and sometimes al-Qa'ida, is a militant Islamist group founded sometime between August 1988^[6] and late 1989.^[7] It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army^[8] and a radical Sunni Muslimmovement calling for global Jihad. Most of the world considers it a terrorist organization.^[9]

Al-Qaeda has attacked civilian and military targets in various countries, most notably the September 11 attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. in 2001. The U.S. government responded by launching the War on Terror.

Characteristic techniques include suicide attacks and simultaneous bombings of different targets.^[10] Activities ascribed to it may involve members of the movement, who have taken a pledge of loyalty to Osama bin Laden, or the much more numerous "al-Qaeda-linked" individuals who have undergone training in one of its camps in Afghanistan, Iraq or Sudan, but not taken any pledge.^[11]

Al-Qaeda ideologues envision a complete break from the foreign influences in Muslim countries, and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate. Reported beliefs include that a Christian-Jewish alliance is conspiring to destroy Islam,^[12] which is largely embodied in the U.S.-Israel alliance, and that the killing of bystanders and civilians is religiously justified in jihad.

Wikipedia on Al-Qaeda: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qaeda

Erin Brockovich - Famous Contemporary Whistleblower

I admit that I never would have heard of her if someone hadn't made movie with Julia Roberts in the lead role. Pretty good movie. Pretty good story. Pulled key points from

Erin Brockovich-Ellis (born June 22, 1960) is an American legal clerk and environmental activist who, despite the lack of a formal law school education, was instrumental in constructing a case against the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) of California in 1993. 
The case alleged contamination of drinking water with hexavalent chromium, also known as chromium(VI), in the southern California town of Hinkley. At the center of the case was a facility called the Hinkley Compressor Station, part of a natural gas pipeline connecting to the San Francisco Bay Area and constructed in 1952. Between 1952 and 1966, PG&E used hexavalent chromium to fight corrosion in the cooling tower. The wastewater dissolved the hexavalent chromium from the cooling towers and was discharged to unlined ponds at the site. Some of the wastewater percolated into the groundwater, affecting an area near the plant approximately two miles long and nearly a mile wide.^[6] The case was settled in 1996 for US$333 million, the largest settlement ever paid in a direct action lawsuit in US history.

Wikipedia about Hinckley Groundwater Contamination: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinkley_groundwater_contamination
Wikipedia about her (not the movie): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erin_Brockovich
Her official personal website: http://www.brockovich.com/index.html

Model Essays for Past AP Exams

If you are absent and want to read the model papers we looked at during the class session(s) you missed, you can find them here:

http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/exam/exam_questions/2001.html

At this point in the year, don't look at stuff we haven't done yet. I might use them later!

The Enron Scandal

The following excerpts come directly from Wikipedia. Follow the link below for the whole story. This event will go down in history as being an important cautionary tale about ethics, finance, and big business.


The Enron scandal, revealed in October 2001, eventually led to the bankruptcy of the Enron Corporation, an Americanenergy company based in Houston, Texas, and the dissolution of Arthur Andersen, which was one of the five largest auditand accountancy partnerships in the world. In addition to being the largest bankruptcy reorganization in American history at that time, Enron was attributed as the biggest audit failure.<sup>[1] 


Shareholders lost nearly $11 billion when Enron's stock price, which hit a high of US$90 per share in mid-2000, plummeted to less than $1 by the end of November 2001.


Many executives at Enron were indicted for a variety of charges and were later sentenced to prison. Enron's auditor, Arthur Andersen, was found guilty in a United States District Court, but by the time the ruling was overturned at the U.S. Supreme Court, the firm had lost the majority of its customers and had shut down. Employees and shareholders received limited returns in lawsuits, despite losing billions in pensions and stock prices. As a consequence of the scandal, new regulations and legislation were enacted to expand the accuracy of financial reporting for public companies.[3] One piece of legislation, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, expanded repercussions for destroying, altering, or fabricating records in federal investigations or for attempting to defraud shareholders.[4] The act also increased the accountability of auditing firms to remain unbiased and independent of their clients.[3]


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron_scandal</sup>

Subprime Mortgage Crisis

So, this subject came up during our discussion of the muckraking argument prompt. Basically what happened is this:

The value of any house or property typically goes up over time. The United States had seen housing prices (values) climbing steadily for a long time. With the (stupid) assumption that this trend would continue, banks loaned money to people who couldn't really afford to borrow money and buy houses. That's okay, the banks said--your house will be worth more in five years than it is now. And people (again, stupid, in my opinion) said okay, give me the money. And the banks said, tell you what we'll do: we'll make your monthly payments small now, and then in five years, we'll readjust your payments. But you'll be able to refinance by then because your house will be worth so much more. We'll give you an adjustable rate mortgage, i.e., the rate will adjust in five years (called a 5/1 ARM). Eager to buy homes, people jumped at the chance.

Fast forward five years. Housing prices did NOT climb as anticipated (there is, after all, a natural up-and-down cycle to these things). And when people went to refinance, they couldn't because their homes were actually worth LESS than when they had bought them. The rates adjusted, buyers couldn't afford the new higher payments, and they lost their homes. That's why a lot of people have been buying houses on the cheap lately: they are called foreclosures, and they are a good deal if you can get them.

Part of the scandal is that it was discovered that lenders were being pushed by the big bosses to extend loans to people who really didn't make enough money to cover the debt they would owe.

Selfish companies + ignorant buyers = huge financial crisis

For more information, try these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_lending

http://www.subprimelendingcrisis.com