Things i am proud of

Things I am proud of.
I am very proud of my H2O project. My group and I made a tide calendar, i am very proud of it because we are the ones who took the pictures, wrote the paragraphs and put the whole thing together. we had some troubles and missed some deadlines but in the end, the product is amazing and it is 100% sell worthy.
the first step was to decide what my product was to be, several people were making a calendar and i joined, little did i know it would be more work than i bargained for. then i had to chose a topic to write on, after i chose this i wrote 6 paragraphs. these paragraphs went though at least 7 drafts, but in the end they were not positive enough so i had to re write some of them, but it was fine in the end. some days we had to stay after school so that we could finish the layout and we ran into plenty of little bumps and tedious work. But we finished it and now it looks spectacular.

Another product I am very proud of is my “American icons” project. I am proud of this project because I drew the guitar and I learned about Les Paul the man, I did not really know anything about him and when I did this project I learned about him.
First I chose someone I was interested in. I chose Les Paul, and then I looked for a picture that showed something about him but the picture was too small. I ended up drawing an image and scanning it. And it looked really cool and I am proud of it.

The article "the sea Shepard" is about a man named (Paul Watson), an activist for the Wales, who takes a custom ship with a large I beam on the side so scrape ships hulls. Then he then rams into wailing ships in international waters. These wailers are acting against an act that states that nobody will hunt for Wales. Many wailing countries such as Japan and Norway have largely ignored this act, but Watson uses this as the basis to what he does.
In my opinion what Watson does is wrong. He attacks these vessels with innocent people on them; he does not care if any lives are lost. I do agree that someone should protect the whales because they are endangered and need help. But I think that the way that he goes about it is wrong.
The government should make it so that the act is more enforced, they should make more solid agreements with the wailing countries and use ships that are dedicated to holding up these laws peacefully, not by ramming ships and throwing gas over to the other ship or throwing things in the propeller so it will stop.
So I think both the wailers and Watson are in the wrong. There should also be a limit to how many whales can be killed each year.

Marie Arana article

Arana writes: "Isn't it time for the language to move on?" How do you feel about this? Why?

I think that it is time that we move on from the language. Does Race, ethnicity, background or color ever give us any authority to judge people and essentially call them names? No, but we seem to think so. Language has always put people in boxes, and more specifically names such as black, Asian, etc.

In India, there was a group of people called the Dalits. These people, just because they were born into a family with a certain label or name such as these Dalits, or "untouchables" are treated like dirt, as the name implies. What does this have to do with us here in America? It is so extreme, but what we don’t realize is that we do the same thing, it may not be as common, or obvious. When we label people, we do the same thing, we may treat that person different depending if they are “black”, “Mexican” or “white”. It is not always in a bad way, but we usually do it whether we realize it or not.

On the other side of the argument, some people take pride in the names. many people from Mexican descent, African American, etc. take pride in calling themselves "Black" or "Mexican", or any other title that people may have. But, in my opinion, it also depends on the name that is being used. Some names can be degrading, while others are a symbol of national or personal pride. These names don’t always have to be related to race, ethnicity, or color, but often they do.

I think that if we would just put those physical differences aside, whether it be “black”, “Mexican” or whatever you consider yourself, we are all humans. And under all our physical differences we are all the same.

Senior Citizens

A lot of people voted for Obama, but there was one group that mostly did not vote for him. The Senior Citizens , or people over the age of 65, did not vote for Obama. one of the main issues with voters over 60 was their morals. these people have been raised with old-fashioned morals, they are against gay marriage, abortion and other main issues that America faces today. one other issue that is not that great is race, most of the people that were asked if race was the issue why they were not voting for Obama denied it, but they did say that they thought that it was an issue for other people, such as friends and family. Senior Citizens also like the heath care plans that McCain would have put in place, and when it comes to health, seniors are all for it.

For our product, we are going to make a calendar.
we have 2 ideas for calendars:
1- a full sides normal calendar like the ones you see at all your local stores
- each page will have a picture of a location where we got information on.
- there will be a little box with abour 1 or 2 paragraphs of writing based on our research question.
-the pictures will also be very pleasing to look at and the writing will be enjoyable to read.
- it wont have a very large academic feel, it will be something that you WANT hanging in your house.

2- calendar that is half the size of a full sixed callendar
-very similar to the first calendar. but the differance is taht it will have the tides on it.

THE PLAN!

Recourses:
- camera
- printing co.
- paper and pen
- a car to drive to sites
- the sights

People
- Surfers
- Pedestrians (beach goers)
- life guards
- people to revise writing= dad, team members, etc

CALENDAR
November 7- research important dates/ areas of photography
November 8/9/10/11: Take pictures at assigned locations
November 12: Review Picture and Retake pictures if necessary
November 13: Pick finalized pictures.
November 14/15/16: Begin working on paragraphs. Have rough drafts for all paragraphs by beginning of class on the 17th.
November 17: Begin basic layout/in design spread sheet.
November 18: Insert Pictures into layout/in design sheet
November 19: Insert Calendar with tide information
November 20: Insert paragraphs into layout/in design sheet
November 21: Insert facts/dates/did you know facts. Complete draft of calendar ready for critique.
November 22-30= Thanksgiving Break December 1-2: Critiques for content December 3-4: Critiques for Aesthetic Appeal December 5: Send to Printer

5. Election Reflection (that rhymes..that was unintentional)

Pt. 1
1. I was not very surprised of the turnout of the election. I was fairly sure that Obama was going to win. The reason I was fairly sure that he was going to win, is because I had run some simulations on a website that is dedicated to running simulations. I also noticed that Obama, according with allot of polls and other information, Obama had most of the large “swing” or “battle ground” states, as well as the states with the larger amount of votes were leaning towards him.
2. I hope that we can get out of Iraq, in a way that it is peaceful and that is effective and I hope that we can start resolving issues here at home and when things are good at home, then we can go and get in other people’s business, but only with a really good excuse.
3. What kind of “change” will we go through and how will it take place?


Pt. 2
1. I think I have been growing in the amount of civil knowledge I have. I think that this humanities class has opened my eyes to the world of politics that are around us. I am glad because I can actually carry on a descent conversation about politics. There is still a lot to learn tho.
2. Just talking about issues in general. Having discussions are always good, and the blogs help broaden our scope of what is happening in the world.
3. I think we should have more discussions.
4. I was glad that I could actually talk about politics. A year ago I would have not even cared about who won or anything to do with politics, and now I do.

Red Tide

i want to write about red tides:
what is red tide?
is it bad or good? how?

red tide is occurred when there is a high concentration of algae called "Karenia brevis". this is caused when there is warm ocean surface temperatures, low salinity, high nutrient content, calm seas and other factors.

this is not good for the fish because the algea use up most of the oxygen in the water, making it hard for the fish to breathe. it is also bad for humans that eat shell fish, because the shell fish eat the kerenia brevis and when people eat the shell fish, they get "neurotoxic shellfish poisoning".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvDHzQKaqqI

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/landwater/water/environconcerns/hab/redtide/faq.phtml

http://www.whoi.edu/redtide/

http://www.cdc.gov/hab/redtide/pdfs/activities.pdf

ACORN v. Voter suppression

The acorn scandal, what is it? Why is it a big deal? the acorn scandal was first brought up by presidential candidate John McCain in the third debate. ACORN is “a nation’s largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people”[1]what they do is, they have people that go out and get people to register to vote, then the forms are sent to the government offices where they are put into the databases.
The problem that has arisen because the people who go out and get the registration forms have a certain amount that they have to get every day, otherwise they don’t get paid. Some of these people were not able to get citizens to register, so they stared to make fake forms with names such as “Mickey Mouse” and other bogus names. John McCain stated that the ACORN incident “is now on the verge of maybe perpetrating one of the greatest frauds in voter history in this country, maybe destroying the fabric of democracy”[2].

Maybe we should focus on some bigger issues such as voter suppression:

Voter suppression has been around for a long time, the methods have changed, but it is still around. One of the largest ones was a law passed called the “help Americans vote[3]” act. Under this act, the registrating voters write down their social security number or their driver’s license number, and if anything on the card is not exactly the same such as a name or a number, then it will automatically get denied.

College students also get suppressed, In Colorado, students are being told from the Republican county clerk that students cannot register to vote if their parents claimed them as a dependant on their tax returns[4]. In some places, students have been incorrectly told that they could lose federal financial aid, if they registered to vote at their college address[5]. These are only some of the pressures and obsticles that people face.

I think that with things like voter suppression happening, the acorn scandal is not a very big deal. The only way people would be able to use the acorn thing to their benefit is if with allot of work people were able to basically make another identity for themselves, this is not easy. The big issue that we should be worrying about is “voter suppression”, which is illegal. And it goes against the natural rights that all people have.




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[1] http://acorn.org/index.php?id=12342
[2] http://www.hofstra.edu/pdf/debate/debate_transcript.pdf
[3] http://www.fec.gov/hava/law_ext.txt
[4] http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977491424
[5] http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/nation/10/09/1009collegevoting.html

Debates- Historical Context

In history, there have been many debates; they range from friendly debates in the playground over silly things like who has the biggest father or in high school classes over the rights of the people and even in important things like presidential debates where they have to sway a whole country to elect them.
In class we have been analyzing the Lincoln-Douglas debates we have also been analyzing the more recent debates: Obama v. McCain. One thing that I have noticed is that the methods of debates, no matter what format they are. One of the methods I found that was repeated was how they attach, they bring up a fact that the other person misstated, or just messed up and then they exaggerate it in such a way that they make other people only see the negative aspect of the opponent.
Something I also noticed is that the presidential candidates many times, when asked a question, don’t answer it. They just start talking on whatever they want to talk about, or they just keep expanding on what they were talking about before the question was asked.

INTERNET

I hink that it all is about having information at our fingertips. we can make pols very fast to find what people think about things, such as the presidential elections, this may also sway the opinion of people.

people can also spread ideas, wether true or not and many people will read them, or wach a video on it and may believe it. in the old days, people would have to wait for long periods of time to be informed and peoples ideas were more accepted because that was all there was.

Newspaper Project Reflection

Newspaper Reflection

Something specific that I contributed to the final product that I liked

something I was proud of was the fact that I was able to make a very descent newspaper when I had no experience at all whatsoever on the program “in design”, Randy only gave me a short little introduction that I did not really understand, but after fiddling around with it a while, I understood the basics enough to make a descent layout. Originally that was going to be Kevin’s job, but since he went out of town and the girls did not want to do it, I was the one who got stuck with the job, but at least I learned how to use it and will be more efficient on the future.


Something specific that I contributed to the final product that I did not like

One of the things that I would change is that due to the absence of Kevin, who I wrote an article with, we did not write the article in an article fashion, but like an essay. Since he was gone, and I had not read the part of the debate that he did, I had to rewrite the whole paper in a different way. So what I would change is that I would make sure that I understood the project well, because sometimes you don’t know when you are wrong until it’s too late.


Reflect on your process

First we divided the reading of the debate into sections, I got the second part (Senator Douglas answer) and then we divided our groups in to two and started writing separate articles because we realized that there were too many people to do 1 article alone.
Then we started writing the articles and Kevin started to make a template for the newspaper on Photoshop because he knew that he was going to be out of town half the time of the project. Then the day after he left we were critiquing papers and one of the tutors told me that it did not work and that I had to re write it. So that day I tried to figure out a way so that I did not have to right the whole thing over. But in the end I stayed in at lunch and did it.
The next day, I started to do the layout for the newspaper; originally we were going to use Kevin’s but since we had to use in design we were not able to use it. So I learned how to use the program because none of the girls wanted to do it. I did the layout, found pictures and put in the text. And the girls found a add, re wrote it and put it in the newspaper.
Something that we could have improved is have had someone look over it just to make sure that it was all right, because today when we got the final product, there were some things that were not in the right places, body print was cut off and there were some typos. But I am still proud of myself for learning how to use programs that I did not know how to use in a short amount of time, and acting in what I think was a good job under pressure and stress caused my other deadlines too.

Photography

Photography elements.
Rule Of Thirds
This picture represents the rule of thirds because the main thing is on the right. its on offset.


Deth Of Field
This image illustrates depth because it is focused on the closest image and the ones further back get more blured depending on how far away they are.




Eyes, Color, Fill the Frame
this is a picture of someones eyes, it makes you look at the eyes and it is interenting to look at.







Interesting Use Of Light
i like the lighting in this picture, its interesting how it reflects off the water.

Shooting at Eye Level

this is a cool picture at eye level, it is not a traditional, looking down on the snake picture.

Macro Photography

this is an picture of a cool flower.

this is just a what i thought is a cool picture. i like the lighting and the colors.

Lincoln Douglas debate/ VP debate

For the Lincoln Douglas debates i got #6, which happened in Quincy.
my group divided the reading into 3 parts, i had to read Mr.Douglas response. He basically attached Mr. Lincoln and said that he was a double faced man who said different things for each audience. he also told the audience that he, Douglas, was a man of integrity who corrected himself in the case that he got any facts wrong, "I correct myself, as a gentleman, and an honest man, and as I always feel proud to do when I have made a mistake."

The VP debate was not that great, sure, Sara Palin did allot better than anyone had expected, but there were not any very big knock-outs. one of the big points in the debate was when senator Biden showed some emotion when he was talking about this family.

Demographics

I think that in places like Montana and other states where there are many white people, the vote will be more towards McCain and in states where there is a higher percentage of black people there will be more people for Obama.

Democratic-Republican Party

BLOG 10
The Democratic-Republican Party was founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 1792. Madison started the party among congressmen in Philadelphia the national capital, as the Republican Party[1]. Their political ideology included classical liberalism, states' rights, agrarianism and republicanism. After the war of 1812 a faction was created called National Republicans, they favored high tariffs, a stronger national defense and international improvements.[2] After the Election of 1824, factions developed in support of Adams and in support of Andrew Jackson. Adams politicians, including most ex-Federalists such as Daniel Webster and Samuel Adams would gradually evolve into the National Republican party, and those politicians that supported Jackson would later help form the modern Democratic Party. Later the Whig party emerged; it was considered integral to the second party system and operated from 1833 to 1856[3]. This party was later succeeded by the modern Republican Party that we know now. The Republican Party is now one of the largest political parties, along with the Democratic Party. The Republicans political ideology includes conservatism, pale conservatism, social conservatism and neo-conservatism.

I think that the founders of the Democratic - Republican Party may have been a little disappointed that the party divided into several different parties and especially the fact that the Democratic Party was created. I also think that they would not have been happy with the fact that they only have 49 seats in the senate and 199 seats in the House of Representatives. But I also think that they would have been proud of the fact that the party is one of the two largest political parties in the US, and that its numbers have grown.







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[1] James Madison to Thomas Jeffersonian and March 2, 1794.) "I see by a paper of last evening that even in New York a meeting of the people has taken place, at the instance of the Republican Party, and that a committee is appointed for the like purpose."*Thomas Jefferson to President Washington, May 23, 1792 "The republican party, who wish to preserve the government in its present form, are fewer in number. They are fewer even when joined by the two, three, or half dozen anti-federalists,..."*Thomas Jefferson to John Melish, January 13, 1813. "The party called republican is steadily for the support of the present constitution"
[2] Wiltse (1944), Chapters 8–11.
[3] Holt (1999), p. 231.

Make up a amendment

This is the amendment that my partner and I made up in class. We tried to make it so that it would cover as much privacy of the people that is possible. This is what we came up with:
“There shall be no involvement of the government in the personal life of citizens unless the individual has committed a criminal offence. Criminal must get a fair case ”
I don’t think that there is any way to get around this amendment, unless you twist the definition of “criminal offense”. The other way to get around this amendment is, if you are not a U.S. citizen then it is not applicable.

Blogging to learn: Blog Reflection

Blog Reflection

What are you most proud of on your blog? Why? I was proud of my layout; I thought that it was just plain fun to look at. I was also proud of my first entry because it is the one that I did the best on and it was also the one that was the most elaborated on, I put a picture in it that I really liked an others liked it too.
What would you like to improve on your blog? Why? How? I feel that I need to start looking at news that actually interests me and do it because I am interested in it, not because I have to. I also would like to improve my grammar, I’m not very good at it but my dad can help me and I should accept his help more often. I also need to make the titles more interesting, give them titles that are catchy and that will draw the attention of the reader. I feel that I also have to start giving my work some more organization.
How has blogging impacted your understanding of the US? The Media? Current Events? "Old" news (like the Constitution, Federalist Papers, etc.)? I think it has opened my eyes to the world around me and I feel that if I had not done this, I would not have started looking at news on a regular basis. I’m also learning about things like the stock market, the constitution, Federals papers, etc.

Blogging to learn: Fact check: Energetically Wrong

Senator Palin stated that Alaska provided 20% of America’s energy; this was incorrect, even when she corrected the statement. Presidential candidate John McCain also made that same mistake.
I chose this to do this blog because I thought that it was interesting that Palin would lie to the media, knowing that the truth would eventually be uncovered. Maybe there is a possibility that she was saying the average, but even with this. She would be wrong, closer, but wrong. There is also a possibility that she just was not thinking straight, this is not likely, because John McCain basically said the same thing.


Energetically Wrong
September 12, 2008
by Justin Bank
Factcheck.org
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/energetically_wrong.html

Blogging to learn: Lehman & Merrill Lynch

My advice to them would be to, first, watch whom they lend money to. This may cause a stir up, but if they lend to someone that can pay them back, then they will make more money. Second, I think that the government should help them, but only to get to a certain average and then they should let them sort the rest out.

Blgging to learn: Meager Living of Haitians Is Wiped Out by Storms

This article is about how people in Haiti are struggling with survival because of the storms, and the government is doing all they can, but I think that if they cant do it on they own, because they are supposed to be keeping the natural rights of the people, they should get help from other governments.


Meager Living of Haitians Is Wiped Out by Storms
By MARC LACEY
Published: September 10, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/world/americas/11haiti.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin

Blogging to learn: Gun Laws and Crime: A Complex Relationship

Federalists believe that the central government should be strong and they should have most of the power. The anti-federalist believe that there should be a less powerful central government, but that the individual states, or anyone BUT the central government should have power.
The Supreme Court made a ruling that people should have the individual
Rights to bear arms. Some people are not very happy with this. In some states or cities, there have been bans against guns, some of these have been successful, the anti-federalists think that the central government should give the power to the individual states, with this in effect, and then there can be more success stories with this. These bans have cut down on homicides and suicide rates.
I think that there should be a compromise between federalists and anti-federalists where the power to make decisions is spread equally between the central government and the individual states.

Gun Laws and Crime: A Complex Relationship
By ADAM LIPTAK
NY Times
Published: June 29, 2008

Blogging to learn: European Federalism: A la Carte Or Prix Fixe

This article talks about the argument in Europe about federalism and how some people are opposing it and others are all for it. This article is not so recent but it was a perfect example and i will be writing as if had not happened yet.
some people in Europe think that they should be moving towards feudalism, they think that they should make a union in Europe, the first step would be to make it so that there is one common currency. they think that this is best for Europe because it would unite it start a "European construction"
the anti-federalists think that this should not happen and they are content how they are, they feel that they dint need this. they think that this is an "Out dated" idea.



European Federalism: A la Carte Or Prix Fixe
By ALAN RIDING,
Published: December 4, 1994

Blogging to learn: A specific concept from the Enlightenment that you see as relevant in American culture, recent history, social affairs, etc.

For this blog I chose an article titled "U.S., Afghan Troops Kill 20 in Pakistan"
This article is about how Afghan troops went in to Pakistan and killed 20 people. They were chasing believed terrorists in to Pakistan; they attacked some huts where they believed they were, killing 20 people. The reason they were chasing these terrorists was because they were violating the natural rights of the people, and since the government has the job of keeping the natural rights of the people they had no choice but to get them out. But in the process they violated the natural rights of some people from Pakistan, this is because some of the people that were killed in Pakistan were civilians thus violating their right to life. But this could also go the other way, the soldiers killed the terrorists, and they don't want them, so then they are violating all their natural rights.


"U.S., Afghan Troops Kill 20 in Pakistan"
By Candace Rondeaux and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 4, 2008; Page A01

Blogging to learn: Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Happiness

I chose an article "Georgia Eager to Rebuild Its Defeated Armed Forces" that is a follow up on the Georgia- Russia conflict. This conflict intrigued me because what happened in Georgia, in terms of our government and what it stands for; "life liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. This ideology was completely violated by the Russians in this conflict. Some time ago, the Russian government started to invade several parts of Georgia. After a short time, the Russians permanently occupied those areas. There were many casualties, 90% of which were civilians.

This clearly violates the "life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” ideology for several reasons. Life: This was violated because the Russian soldiers were killing innocent people, civilians as well as military personnel. Life was lost. Liberty: The liberty aspect was violated as well, because, they did a hostile takeover. Hence; they were taking liberties that the people once had, replacing Georgia’s government with a new Russian military government. Also, with fighting going on they were less free; they had to stay in their houses or flee. Many people from those parts of Georgia had fled. Pursuit of Happiness: If people had to leave their homes you can be assured they are not happy. Many people were dying and this hurts all their families and as well. I believe that the Georgian government is building up their army to make sure they can use all their power to assure that this never happiness again. Doing this, they will also be guarding the idea of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for all the people of Georgia.

Georgia Eager to Rebuild Its Defeated Armed Forces
By C. J. CHIVERS and THOM SHANKER
NY Times
Published: September 2, 2008