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.




----------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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.







-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[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.