Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ, 1602

Caravaggio, The Taking of Christ, 1602
Tenebrism

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Keith Haring

Keith Haring was born May 4th, 1958 and is widely known for his graffiti art, and paintings relating to social issues in and around the New York City area. Starting his career in subways with only chalk as his medium, Haring's artwork had become more and more popular, being featured in public murals and museums around the world. Haring was intensely interested in the cartoon art of Walt Disney and Charles Schultz, inspiring him to create the cartoon-like art that he is known for today. After high school, Haring attended the Ivy School of Professional Art in Pittsburgh, and later, the School of Visual Arts in New York City, 1978. Once in New York, Haring turned to graffiti art, adding small figures to where ever he would see fit; he would often draw small dancing figures, barking dogs,  large hearts, and figures with televisions for heads along the subway station walls with white chalk.

Haring's art had many key ideas behind them, including, life, death, love, social harmony, and social awareness. He was a social activist for AIDS awareness, a disease that later led to his death on February 16th, 1990 at age 31.
What really interests me about Haring's work is that with some of his more simpler works, it gives people an idea of "I could have done that" or "They're just human figures". To me, its what he used his art work for, to promote his opinions and raise social awareness for topics like AIDS. It was the activism and perseverance of Keith Haring through his diagnosis of AIDS that interests me the most. Even in the last few years of his life, Haring was still inspired to make more and more art and raise more awareness for the things that he was actively a part of. 

Rotunda Project Blog

The rotunda project that I found most interesting and memorable was Cassy's "We're All Human" project. She displayed it very well by making it interactive. Instead of just putting people's responses under their picture, I like how you had to lift up the photograph to see what they had to say- kind of like you were seeing the inside of them. The idea that "we're all human" is very important for everybody to understand. It doesn't matter your age, race, town, we are all human beings with similar goals and struggles.
Her project reminded me of a story I heard about a man who originally planned to just take 10,000 pictures of New Yorkers and put them on a map of NYC. He started to ask the strangers he was photographing questions about their life and then starting pairing captions with the portraits. Now he has published a book and has a blog, "Humans of New York", where he continues to take pictures and get a glimpse into the life of each stranger.
I think that Cassy's project had an important message that everyone can take away from. We are all human beings and we all have goals and struggles and losses and regrets. You don't know who someone is just by looking at them.

Rotunda review blog 11


   
I was amazed to find out that 90 percent of Americas media comes from 5 corporations, to me this just proves that the majority of our country is only seeing what 5 corporations want us to see. This emphasizes how badly people need to find their own reliable source of information instead of simply trusting what is fed to us. The suspicion that is rapidly spreading across the nation is why and who, who owns these corporations and why do they want people to see the same information that is often inaccurate? It is intrinsic for people to get their own source of trustworthy information in order for them to form their own judgement based on complete data that they sought out, not unreliable information that can leave a misleading impression.

Monday, April 13, 2015

rotunda blog

          I am doing my rotunda blog on the project about isis.  I agree with the group that did the isis project as it was very informative and gave you some information that I wouldn't have gotten form the news.  I think ISIS is a huge problem and the media honestly hasn't been covering it enough.  We are using missile strikes on these people and the media is more concerned with the kardashians or something else stupid.  This is a serious problem for the United States and should have more light shined upon it.  I personally have to look into it everyday or every other day just to stay up to par with it and I think its ridiculous and I think everyone else should keep tabs on this because it could snowball into something much bigger then it is right now.

Half Drag... A Different Kind of Beauty



Out of all of the routunda projects that the Humanities classes did this one caught my eye. This topic was so unique and differen't from all the other ones, which is one of the reasons why I loved this project. This project is pretty much showing us waht a true drag queen is and why guys dress up like girls. I personally agree with Nicole and everything she says in her project. I absolutley believe that men dress up like girls to feel confident and discover a different kind of beauty. If some men like dressing up in make up and women's clothes because it makes them feel good about themelf and just love making people smile, then why not let them do what they love to do right? I do enjoy drag queens and support them because every one of them has a different story tell and a different look. No one is the same as the other. If you love to dress up and act like a girl by singing and dancing on stage then so be it; it shouldn't matter to you what anybody else says because as long as you're happy with what you're doing thats all that matters. But, unfortunately some men are againist drag queens because its like your changing your gender and they think that dressing up and wearing make up is gay. Let me tell you this the only thats guy is your opinions because no one asked you for them, so you dont have anything nice to say then dont say anything. Guys may feel insecure about themselves and when they wear that makeup they feel confident, so why try to knock someone's confidence down? To me that is just plain rude and disrepectful because everyone should be treated the same in this world no matter what gender they are or what actions they decide to make. It disgusts me to see that our society still picks on people who are living their life, just having fun, and most importantly just being themselves. Overall I think this was such a interesting topic that Nicole picked and I was very glad to learn more about drag queens because they dont do anything to anyone, they just are themselves and you should never change for nobody no matter what they say. You're unique and special in your own way and dont forget. Theres only one of you... nobody else is like you and life is too precious to waste on stupid things like people making fun of you. If guys want to be drag queens and entertain people then let them be it. It's their decision not yours. In conclusion, I support drag queens 100% and think they are fabulous, fierce and most importantly confident and don't care what anyone thinks.

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Quote blog

"Wisdom begins in wonder." -Socrates

I agree with this quote because if you have no desire to learn something you never will. If you begin to wonder about something, you will want to know more about it and research it. After learning something new you'll gain more wisdom. I personally believe that this quote is 100% true.

Rotunda project

I really liked the rotunda project on domestic violence. It gave a lot of facts and statistics about the topic and really opened my eyes about how common this issue is, it could even be in our community. The poster included pictures of disney characters after abuse with cuts and bruises on their face. I thought this project was very powerful and it stood out to me.

Rotunda Response Blog

My rotunda project response is to the Forced Child Marriage project. It caught my eye because of the visual representation they had. Once I read it, I was shocked to know of the amount of children subjected to this. Girls that are merely 12, 15, etc. are not mentally ready for marriage with a much more older man. The odds of them getting abused is high and just apalling. 

The girls are also not physically ready for this kind of thing. You cannot physically have a child that young. The statistics of childbirth death is so much higher than for women. If a women cannot handle that much pain, how is a child going to deal with that? 

I was glad to see that there are organizations trying to abolish this. I feel like it'll never really go away because so many people are stuck in their ways and they pass those values down to their children and that continues. You can never really kill an idea. I really do hope that they take care of those girls and do end it by decade 2030. 

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Rotunda Response Blog

  The blog post that I found the most interesting was done by Laura Kesnig and was called, "Get the facts: Common Misconceptions among ESM High School Honor Students". This project was not only well done, and well presented but the information provided was intriguing. The questions asked in this project can be considered general knowledge because of the connection that the media has with our lives. If we do not see this information on the news it is likely that we will see it on Facebook or twitter. When these topics come up on social media sights what we take as facts are sometimes based on invalid information and opinions. Now that you've seen this information you see it as true, even though it is false, and now you begin to speak about this topic but you have false information.
  Moral of the story, and the project, is that you can not aways base your own opinion on things you see on social media or just the media in general because things tend to be exaggerated and may not be 100% correct. Laura concluded her project with something very true. She mentioned that you should not trust everything you hear, and that you need to do research for yourself to completely understand the topic and what is happening. I truly believe the best knowledge is knowledge from yourself. Knowledge that you have gone out and searched for yourself. There is something more satisfying about discovering something on your own than just being told.
  I believe the goal of this project was to encourage others to think and research for themselves and this is something that I believe in completely.

Blog 11

My response is towards the poster The Water Problem. This poster shows countries that have trouble getting clean water. Clearly the U.S. Doesn't really have this problem to a large degree, we always have a constant supply of it. I first became aware of the water crisis our world is suffering earlier this year through the charity The Thirst Project. I just find it jaw dropping that it's 2015 and this is still a problem. 

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

Blog #11

     I chose to do my rotunda blog post on the poster about Starvation in America. It caught my eye with how well it was decorated and I was instantly intrigued. As I began to read, I was shocked with the statistics it displayed. More than 48 million Americans struggle to put food on their table, including about 16 million being children. 48 million people are barely making enough to eat. this number is huge, 48 million is 13 MORE million than the population of Canada.
     According to the poster, this means that all these people are being affected mentally and physically with the effects of hunger. Starvation has been killing more people every year than AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria combined. Personally, I didn't know it was that big of a problem. This poster made me realized that not everyone has the opportunity to eat everyday or provide their families with food to get them through the day. People just think eating is apart of everyday life and comes easy, just go in the refrigerator and choose what you want to eat. But, when you change your perspective, you will realize that providing food can be a struggle, and currently is for millions of people just in America.










http://countryeconomy.com/demography/population/canada

Rotunda Response on Bias

   My response is directed towards Laura's project. For those of you who don't remember, hers was called "Get the Facts" or something along those lines. And honestly it was by far one of the most revealing projects, which really is saying something being that I thought multiple were extremely interesting (I was going back and forth between this and the Iraq War poster) But there's a reason the Get The Facts project resonated in me the most, and it was in the subtitle. "Opinions of Honor Students." Then when you're eyes scroll down the page, you get a feeling that I'd describe as a cross between laughing in disbelief and a getting nauseous over nervousness for the future. These students, honor students at that, summed up an issue in our society that's likely to tear us apart, without even knowing it. The issue is more than just misinformation. It's opposition to information. It's holding on to your own misinformation, playing dumb to any and all contradicting facts or evidence, simply because it's yours.
    I'm not going to claim to be unbiased, because I'm not whatsoever. To get it out there flatly I'm pretty obviously left-wing, even though I try to see the merit in other political ideologies. The problem is, not only is that something rare to come by, it's increasingly difficult. Obviously political polarization is at it's peak right now. You have Fox News and MSNBC peddling whatever news they're political sponsors pay for. And you can tell people this all you want, it's not going to stop them from preaching it at every opportunity. Because who cares about a bias, if it's your bias, then it must be the right bias. But the real problem, the shockingly dangerous problem, lies in the implications of holding onto bias in the face of fact. The poster displayed this better than anything.
    Believe what you want. But take fact into account. It's increasingly difficult for me to sit still at the systemic ignorance Fox pushes, that should go without say I guess and you can entirely disagree if you want. But when it's an issue that will harm us, everyone, if the ignorance towards it persists, it hard not to point out the bias being taken to an absurd extent. 50% of honor students believed global warming does not exist. Period. Now had they been informed by anything other than the selective reporters on Murdoch's payroll, they probably would have known that that issue has already been compromised. Even the Republicans now admit to global warming. The cause of it is now the debated area, but that doesn't matter. I'm not blaming anyone for not believing in it, I really blame the source the misinformation knowingly comes from, but there's still an amount of personal responsibility that comes with holding/preaching an opinion, especially if that opinion is rooted in Big Oil's pocket-politicians anti-intellectual propaganda.
   It's not difficult to see this trend in history. Whenever there's progression, there's backlash. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction, etc. It's fairly easy to look to scientists, the people in the world we should trust more than anyone, and come away with the realization we're harming our planet. It's easy to see we're living in an equivalent of a widespread SCOPES trial. Even further, it's easy to look at undeniable facts surrounding global warming (Carbon levels, tree rungs, sentiment analysis, ice caps melt rate, temperature charts, comparisons with the "natural cycles" of the past, ect ect.) that 97% of climatologists agree point to human causation. To put that into perspective, and this is the real kicker here, that's literally the same percentage of scientists that agree on evolution over creationism.
    So why, in the face of fact, do many still view global warming as a 50/50 debate? Well technically if it didn't interfere with the business of Big Oil that runs this country and it's politicians the information age would have put it to rest long ago. But that's unfortunately not the case, and the longer we promote anti-intellectual thinking through bias the more harm we'll cause to ourselves and generations to come. Politicians are bought and paid for, Inequality for All proved that in our own class. They pay for the news. The news will pedal whatever the politicians want, who will pedal whatever the money wants. That's only one step of the problem though. Blindly repeating and following whatever they say as fact because of your bias, I don't care what issue it is, perpetuates this state of ignorance in our society that's starting to feel unavoidable. It can be stopped, but that would take realizing and consciously acting against our own bias. And that's not something most people would think to do, let alone even want to.
   So, anyway, global warming's just one of many issues to point out our progressing ignorance in this country. It doesn't have to be a left-right issue, in fact it shouldn't, but we're too busy feeding into our bias to see that. You would think the information age would be a cure to this kind of behavior, but bias is what's perpetuating it. And this can go towards a multitude of issues, many of which seen in the poster this is a response to. All the information you could want is in your pocket, but you don't want it.
   I want to end this with what I think is a perfect representation actually calling out the systemic bias and selective information that's plaguing America. It's from the Daily Show (Which is left wing, yeah.) I'm gonna miss Jon Stewart:
    http://on.cc.com/1Ocmd71

Rotunda Project (blog # 11)




   The rotunda was filled with excellent projects during the month of March, but the one that caught my eye was " Get The Facts" by Laura Kesnig. I found this project to be very interesting and clever due to the fact she asked honor students 5 questions an american should know the answers to but the majority of them didn't, for 2 questions 90% of the people answered incorrectly, for another 2 questions around 90% answered correctly, and the other one was half and half. To be completely honest i only knew the answer to 3 of the 5 questions. what i found funny from this project is that 90% answered incorrectly to the question " why did officer Wilson shoot Michael Brown?" the reason i found it funny is people in the school and on social media kept talking about this incident. Laura is completely right as she stated in her conclusion " don't trust that everything you hear is factual, do your own research and studies". All i have left to say is that it was a well done project and i enjoyed learning the information.


                                                                   David Sherlock

Blog 11 Rotunda



When I saw this project it instantly caught my eye. It is a creative way to show the poverty across Long Island. As it goes further down the Island the poverty percentage has a significant decrease. The thumb tacks are a great representation that is easy to visualize, it shows the people with a blind eye towards poverty what is happening in front of them. I love the idea of this project it was easy to see and understand. Hopefully this made people more aware to the situation and willing to help.

Monday, March 30, 2015

Rotunda Blog

I chose to comment on Nick Collins' rotunda presentation on genocide for this post. Genocide often seems to be a rare occurrence, with the only two commonly mentioned the Holocaust of the 1930's and 40's, and the Armenian genocide of the 1910's. While these two mass-murders may be among the most deadly, genocide is still occurring in today's world, although it may not be in areas as populated or central to the globe as Germany and Armenia. The murder of over 8,000 by the government of Bosnia in the mid-1990's still horribly bloody, yet I bet many of you readers have hardly even heard of it. I am glad Nick highlighted one of the other major genocides in recent history, the Rwandan genocide of 1994, in which large scores of Tutsi were killed by their government; between 500,000 and 1 million were killed in the 100 day period, beginning in April.

Genocide is a horrific form of murder, made possible only by the most disturbed, deranged, and completely evil beings on the Earth. Taking one life brings a toll on the killer; to be responsible for the deaths of millions, one must be extremely ignorant or inhuman. I wish there were a better way to explain the emotion of the interior but as Joseph Conrad wrote "We live as we dream--alone." There is absolutely no way to fathom the insanity, the blood lust, the heartlessness, or the killing, unless you perform it. Even then though you are ultimately alone, as you are not a carbon copy of one of the famed killers. Although we can not experience genocide, we must indeed understand the horror and evil nature of the act, so future generations will not need to experience this horrible affliction.

Rotunda Blog 11

      A project that caught my eye was the one done about texting and driving. This is something that not only puts your own life in dangers but it does to anyone on the road around you.  I believe that this is something done to often even if it is against the law. People everyday are always looking down at their phones and not the road without care about the danger. Driving a car is a big responsibility and if you chose to be reckless and not care about people obeying the law then you should not be driving.
     I have seen people close to me send a quick text at a light or even on the highway but it is rare. If i see my friends doing it i will ask them if they want me to text someone for them and say they are driving. That is always a good solution to stopping them putting others in danger. Another way to solve that problem is to just explain to them how dangerous it could be or just not get into a car with them.
     This problem should not even be a thought in anyones mind. Car accidents could easily be prevented if people would just keep there eyes on the road. With all the new technology it is hard but it isnt worth the consequences you could pay for texting and driving.


Blog #11 Rotunda Project Response

      For my response, I chose the project done by Vin Stumpo, Shane Dennehy, Hannah Papa, and Dylan Demasi, "Is Social Media Ruining Society?". This project caught my attention due to its very relatable nature in today's day. Kids, teens, and even adults are effected by social media such as Twitter and Facebook every day. These sites, meant to be an outlet for feelings, daily events, and even a source of group communication, are becoming more and more of a place to bully and harass other people over the Internet. As they stated in the project, 95% of teens have witnessed cyber bullying and 33% have been victims. Personally, I have both witnessed and been a victim of cyber bullying along with many other people. 
      Not only is social media a sorce of bullying, but can be a cause of stress and anxiety for many people. Through comparing ourselves to others and seeing the ideas of a "perfect body", we experience stress and a level of self consciousness that no one should have to undergo. 

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Rotunda blog



This project shows hands from Twitter, Instagram and iMessage pulling at a clock on one side and a person pulling on the other side. They are wrestling with time. As said in the paragraph most people in high school spend 2 hours a day on their phones. I believe it will increase over time. Younger kids are starting to get involved in their phones  and as they grow older technology will evolve more and more. 

Friday, March 27, 2015

Rotunda Project Response

Thank you for your useful information. I found this project to be very helpful its supplies much needed information that high school nor parents teach you. Many students and completely oblivious when it come to financial aid and money for college. I think your project was a great idea to teach the general popliteal ion of the school a little bit of important information that can be a huge help in a not to distant future. Although I was unaware of the the existence of the css (college scholarship service) I was very surprised to learn that less then 400 schools use it, CSS looks like a great way for dedicated students to receive aid from sources outside of the government. 

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Rotunda Project Response



While viewing the Rotunda Projects, I was very interested in the project "Do You Know What You're Eating?" because of the compelling title and visual display of popular foods that students eat on a daily basis. I was extremely surprised that "The US spends 2.5 times more on health care than any other nation, however, when compared with 16 other nations we rank last in health and life expectancy for men and near the bottom for women." This is an overwhelming number and really displays that something is wrong here. There were also many informative facts about the dangerous chemicals present in so many foods we eat every day. For example, NHA and BHT are preservatives present in packaged cereal in the US which can cause tissue growths which lead to cancer. I think it is very important for students at Esm to learn and be aware about the harmful substances they could be putting into their bodies every day.


Rotunda Project Blog Response

The above picture is an incredible representation of poverty on Long Island. By using and color coordinating tacks on a foam board cut into the shape of Long Island, we are able to clearly see what stage of poverty people are in on certain areas of the island. I think that this project was a very good representation of these scary statistics because it is shown so simply, yet clearly, making it very easy to understand. This project just goes to show how many people on Long Islabd really are struggling, considering it is the most expensive place to live. I think this also puts the misconception of everyone on Long Island being rich, to sleep. This project is a good way to show us and our peers, classmates, colleagues, etc, that you really never know what somebody else is going through, and they may need our help, so we should try and assist them in any way that we can. 

Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Rotunda project feedback

The one project that stood out the most to me was the "We're all human" project done by Cassy Hare. It reminded me of the "Humans of New York" project performed by a man asking random people on the streets their stories. This rotunda project is a prime example of how every person, no matter where you go has a unique story. Its amazing how someone that looks so happy can have such a heart breaking story and "hide" it so well. Definitely a well done piece. 

Rotunda Project Blog 11


One of the more serious social issues today have to do with using a cell phone while operating a car. Besides the fact that cell phone use is illegal while driving, using one only provides an extra distraction that teen drivers do not need. Teenage overconfidence encourages reckless activities including speeding, lane cross overs, red light running and tailgating especially with loud music and a car load of their friends. Teens already drive in crazy ways and using a cell phone can only make it worse. Often times young drivers think nothing can happen to them while they drive, as I have been in the car with many friends who text and drive. Statistics show that teens are 4x more likely to get into an accident while texting or talking on the phone.

I think teens should speak up if their friend is giving them a ride and they feel extremely uncomfortable with their driving habits. The problem is only 44% of teens say that they would speak up if someone were driving in a way that scared them. In 2011 and 2012, more then 6,000 people were killed in crashes that involved a distracted driver.

Almost every state now has enacted stricter laws against cell phone use. I know in NYS, 5 points are put on your license (resulting in a MAJOR insurance bump) and also a hefty fine. If you are a young driver, your insurance company can drop you, which is obviously a problem because it is illegal to drive without insurance. The problem is that some drivers both young and old feel naive and that they won't get caught by police or they won't cause a major accident and injure themselves and others.

One major tip that I think can truly help is either turn the cell phone completelt off or put it where it cannot be seen. You will be more inclined to pick it up and start using it if you hear it buzzing off in the cup holder.

Rotunda Blog Response



The display above spins a different look on how domesticated violence presents itself. There are no bruises, no cuts, or no scars. Just a beautiful woman enveloped in an extravagant flowers. But by reading the the research that accompanied this amazing work of art, I know domesticated violence isn't pretty on the outside and it's even uglier in other aspects of life.
This project introduced me to the various abuses that occur throughout our society such as : physical, emotional, sexual, economic and psychological. Just imagine experiencing one of these that evidently branch out into another and soon you are facing all sorts of abuse. It's demeaning and sickening in my eyes the act of any sort of abuse on another human being or animal so seeing such a hard subject be transformed into such a beautiful representation it threw me for a twist. But I admire the beauty and realness of the piece of work and the message it withholds.

GMOs? More like GM nO. (Blog 11)


I have never in my life been a fan of GMOs ever since I heard the term. First of all why were the people behind GMOs so adamant on not labeling there food that contained them? If they preach they're safe then why try to hide the fact that their in food. it's all so suspicious. The fact that things are being spliced and sliced in such a molecular level is awesome, I think the fact we can do that is amazing. But do I feel comfortable eating it?  Because I'm not too sure about that. There are pros, but this time I think the cons weigh out the pros because generations from us might suffer the effects of the food we're eating and thats not right or fair to them. The fact that unborn babies are already exposed to so many toxins before they're born...they don't need unsafe food on top of that. 

I'm sick not being able to feel comfort in what I'm eating. I seem to constantly be wondering what crap they put into my food next or how they're treating what Im eating. the whole thing is messed up and it's a major problem and I for one would like to eat normal food again without enriched white flour or some sort of high fructose corn syrup, dextrose, gluten, glucose I don't even know. I just want more healthy choices is that so hard to ask America and for the love of god fix school lunches because I saw another project on that. Disgusting food is despicable. I love food and it should taste good and BE good for you...rant over.


Here are some really scary facts about GMOs down below.



Since then, findings include:

  • Thousands of sheep, buffalo, and goats in Indiadied after grazing on Bt cotton plants
  • Mice eating GM corn for the long term hadfewer, and smaller, babies
  • More than half the babies of mother rats fed GM soy died within three weeks, and were smaller
  • Testicle cells of mice and rats on GM soychange significantly
  • By the third generation, most GM soy-fed hamsters lost the ability to have babies
  • Rodents fed GM corn and soy showed immune system responses and signs of toxicity
  • Cooked GM soy contains as much as 7-times the amount of a known soy allergen
  • Soy allergies skyrocketed by 50% in the UK, soon after GM soy was introduced
  • The stomach lining of rats fed GM potatoes showed excessive cell growth, a condition that may lead to cancer.
  • Studies showed organ lesions, altered liver and pancreas cells, changed enzyme levels, etc.
(The full article is Here)

Monday, March 23, 2015

Blog 11(rotunda project)

   During our time observing everyone's brilliant rotunda projects, one really caught my eye. Not only because of the artistic display but, the information was astonishing. That project was the one about Media Consolidation by Sean Hanlon. 
    The initial viewing of this poster is that media controls our lives but, when you look at it deeper, Media Consolidation, is the process of fewer organizations or individuals having control of the increasing shares in the media. To put this into simpler terms, instead of each tv channel being its own company, a large company owns numerous channels. How is this proven? Well just look at the facts in 1983 90% of the media was controlled by 30 corporations  and in 2012 90% was owned by five corporations. The five corporations that run the media currently are Disney, Comcast, News Corp, Time Warner, and Viacom. For example Comcast owns Universal, NBC, and MSNBC. Advantages of Media Consolidation range from, diversity(in terms of multiple shows) to improved quality of work. My one question is, don't you think Media Consolidation will lead to cliquey views in terms of political and social news?  

Rotunda Project

I chose to do the blog report on the child marriage project.  This was a very informative and elaborate display and it quickly captured my attention.  I liked the way it was set up because it included both visual and textual information.  The theme of the project is such a sad and horrific one and this group was able to use that to persuade the audience of their position on this issue.  I cant believe that this is still going on the world today.  It is mind boggling that as American girls play and make friends, girls in other countries are being married to men often many times their own age.  This would be more than illegal in the U.S. but yet it continues in other countries.  How can we allow this?

This is such a horrible topic in many ways.  The details of this situation are even more disturbing. First of all, the young girls are forced to give up all their dreams and life plans and basically become servants for their husbands.  In addition, they often face multiple kinds of abuse and are at a higher risk of getting diseases.  Overall they have a much higher death rate than regular girls.  But for me, the most sad and horrific part was the number 70,000.  This number represents the amount of these girls that die each year in childbirth, mainly because their young bodies are not yet ready for this task thrust upon them.  This has to stop. Plan Uk and other organizations are working together to stop this horror but until it is completely gone, they are not doing enough.  Whoever did this project did a great job of informing as well as representing visually this disgusting global issue.

blog 11



Many different social issues were presented in the rotunda projects that were rather interesting. One in particular seemed to be of great importance and an issue that effects the lives of teens and adults nation wide. Some of the issues discussed may differ based on demographics how however this one issue remains constant no matter where one lives. This project spoke about the issues regarding texting and driving. This problem seems to be most prominent for teens as we have grown so dependent on our cell phones.

Many teens struggle to put there phone down even if just asked to do so for a 40 minute class period. With a social life, and the major form of communication being through text, a major distraction is created for drivers. This can lead to crashes, deaths, and injuries. Texting and driving is now against the law, rightfully so. I personally have many friends who text and drive on the daily. It has become a natural habbit. Although one may feel they can multi task, the human brain is scientifically proven to only be able to focus on one task at a time. The combination of composing a text, trying to focus on the road and often the background noise of friends or music creates a dangerous scenario. Music is often played from the phone while in the car. Changing music requires attention off the road and down onto the phone. This is very similar to texting and can have the same effects. Teens especially find themselves at risk as they are inexperienced drivers and may feel invisible Once feeling comfortable behind the wheel, usual precautions are let go and bad habits are formed. . This is a topic that seriously needs to be addressed and recognized as wrong. To many teens blow it off and think it wont happen to me. This is the wrong approach. One idea to fix this is talking about it in school or turning phones on airplane mode while driving to hinder the temptation.  

Rotunda project response

(In response to Laura Kesnig's project "Get the facts: common misconseptions among ESM highschool honor students")

I was quite intrigued by this  project; prior to viewing this informative poster I was unaware of many of the correct answers  posed.  However by being in humanities I also have become  concious of other questions that I otherwise would have been oblivious to.  I feel that this project is extremely important for esm students to see  because of the incredible percentages of honors students who have no clue about what is truely happening in their world. Many people, not just students take what they hear and  accept it as truth. It is so imprortant to research for your self to creat your own opinions, and not just  take the opinions givin by the media, or other  sources. (Which I have learned that90% of media in America is controlled by only 5 major corporations- as presented by Sean Hanlon)

Rotunda Project Reaction (blog 11)

     While I was walking around the rotunda the project about forced marriage really interested me because I did not know much about it. It's very heartbreaking how someone could just force their child into marriage at such a young age, as young as 5 years old. It's horrible how a child so young could be forced into marriage meanwhile they probably don't even know what's going on. Women should be allowed to marry whoever they want and actually be in love with them. It's crazy how 15 million girls are forced into marriage every year. Those girls are at risk of so many different things, such as violence, poor health, social isolation, and STI's. How could someone of our age get married, I feel everyone is too busy in school and trying to get their career started and then having their whole life rearranged by having to marry someone they don't want to.

 http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage-theory-of-change/interactive/#results-13
This is a link on a theory how to stop child marriage. This power point is very helpful information of how you can be active in stopping forced marriage. 

Rotunda Project blog 11








          There were so many great projects, and one in particular was the poverty map. I think everyone did a great job, and I found their idea very artistic and creative. The variety of colors and the way they made Long Island look 3D, really helped it stand out. I also think adding the black paper underneath also helped it stand out. What I also liked about it was the way they used pins, to identify the amount of which areas have more poverty, amd which areas have less poverty.

          According to google, poverty is general scarcity of dearth, or the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possessions or money. I learned a lot about poverty through their project. It was very informative to learn which areas had more and less compared to others. Their project encouraged me to do more research about it, and what I found out was that The Federal Poverty Threshold established by the Census Bureau for 2013 was $11,888 for an individual and $18,552 for a family of three.  Long Island has lower rates of poverty than exists in New York State and nationally.  In 2013, the poverty rate for individuals on Long Island was 6.7%.  This compares with a NYS and national rates of 16%. The trend between 2007 and 2013 reflects increasing poverty rates. There was a 43% increase in poverty through that period for Long Island. This contrasts with a 17% increase for NYS and a 22% increase for the U.S.

For anyone who may be interested to know exact statistics, this link below will tell you exact percentages of many areas of Long Island that consists of poverty.
http://longisland.newsday.com/templates/simpleDB/?pid=377


911 Planes

Rotunda (blog 11)

      After going down to the rotunda and looking at all the projects done by students I was intrigued by one done by Tristan Luccari, Mike Savino, Jake Hobbie, and Pat Minogue. It was a picture of a clock transforming into social media outlets, such as Twitter, Instagram, and messaging, being pulled on by a young boy on a mountain cliff. It is significantly deep because it represents what has become of our generation and what is becoming the norm for future generations. By having the the clock getting pulled by the boy it shows that by using social media it is taking away from our time and by putting them on a cliff it shows the danger of following social media. If the child continues to fight with the clock / social media he will be pulled off the edge to the abyss.
      This specific project stuck out to me because my group did something similar. We made a poster about the negative effects that social media can have on people and how it is possibly destroying many peoples self image. And by seeing another project that was projected towards how bad social media has become I thought that this must be a problem that more people see and understand. I believe that something has to be done to change social media or change how more people view it, this is becoming a major epidemic and must be fixed. 

Sunday, March 22, 2015

Rotunda Project

While I was walking around the rotunda, Corie  and Delaney's project about child marriage really caught my eye. It was horrible to see how prevalent child marriages still are in this day and age. There was a graph on the poster that showed that Central America, South America, Africa, India, and other parts of Europe and Asia still have child marriages within their towns. Also, I found the pegs on the board a good visual aid to show how common child marriages actually are. The boards stated that 1 in 9 girls in the developing world are married by the age 15, and that 1 in 3 girls in the developing world are married by the age 18. These statistics blew my mind. I can't imagine being married at this point in my life. There's is still so much that I have planned, such as graduating high school and attending college. These girls are way too young to have to get married and possibly even have kids. The poster also stated that the risks of child marriage because they are so young are HIV, domestic violence, and complications during birth because they aren't physically prepared to give birth.

I found this video about a child marriage in Yemen and she is seeking a divorce.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GRHD7nmWz0
The girl was forced to marry her 26 year old cousin and she wants a divorce after 11 days. This video is devastating because the reason why she was married off was because her mother and father were fighting. Also, the girl's husband did beat her once, and because of this marriage the girl now hates all men. It is heart breaking to see such a young person have to go through such difficult hardships. Child marriages need to end so no more little girls have to suffer.

blog post 11

     Throughout High School students have learned many helpful information in each of the classes they take, for example learning how to perform CPR in gym class or even learning how to write a business letter. But other times it is required of us to learn information that may or may not be as helpful to us in the future, for example solving derivatives and anti-derivatives in calculus. In high School teachers and staff tell the students that they are helping us prepare for the future but there are many things we still do not know, and should have been taught to us. 
     Combining both the projects Kristen, Maddie, and Alyssa's group did with Anthony DeFeo's project these both discussed the lack of awareness to our future issues. Many students don't know or care about healthcare and will eventually need it as they grow up. In Anthony's video students said they much rather learn about healthcare in high school than experience it on their own for the first time. In Kristen, Maddie, and Alyssa's video they asked students what they would like to have learned in high school, some of those answer were how to balance check books, banking systems, and other things we should know how to do in the future. 
    I completely agree with both of their opinions. It is definitely important for students to learn things that will benefit them in the future. Some people still don't know how to do laundry, or know how to cook simple meal. High school should not only provide us with the education we need to learn to graduate but also prepare us for the future.

Blog 11

The rotunda projects really opened my mind to real world problems. One that particularly caught my eye was the project on Long Island Poverty. This project gave an amazing visual with the use of thumbtacks to represent the amount of people in every town on Long Island. It was an eye opener to me because I never really realized the amount of people that live in poverty every day. It has truly made those of Eastport South Manor realize how fortunate they are to live in a school that doesn't suffer from such high poverty levels.

Although on the plus side, studies have shown that Long Island has experienced a poverty rate of 6.7%, lower than New York State's at an average of 16%. In just a matter of five years, the poverty rate has grown on Long Island by 43%. These increases probably reflect the lasting impact of the great recession and the region’s and nation’s slow and uneven recovery. One of the most surprising things I found about this project was the low amount of people who were in poverty in East Hampton.  It has now been considered for out region, that $46,000 is considered to be the true poverty level and as much as 285,000 use food pantries every year. It is very sad to see that most of these people in poverty are children, suffering to live on Long Island. 

Domestic violence response blog 11

Domestic violence happens more often then we think. The project in the rotunda titled "Domestic Violence" linked the NFL to it and that struck me as genuis because sometimes we forget how frequently this occurs and how serious it can really be, even with famous people we often look up to. According to their research, most domestic violence incidents are not reported. This is due to fear which the victims live in constantly and begin to feel they will forever.
Generally, people like to say "If I was getting abused I would just leave the guy/girl" and they fail to put themselves in the victims shoes. "Just leaving" may not be as easy as it sounds. The violence occurs mainly because the partner may notice changes in behavior towards them and tense up, resulting in all types of violence just to keep a sense of ownership and control in the relationship. Other times the victim will still love the abuser and feel trouble breaking away due to safety issues or denial of the situation. The written portion of the project did a great job displaying this argument and information along with the visual created. The visual gave a unique perspective on the topic by beautifully presenting a tragedy. Walking away from it, I had the sense that it was saying that something so horrible can be displayed and hidden, to make it seem okay. 

Blog Post 11 (Reaction to Rotunda Projects)

     Although many rotunda projects opened my eyes to a variety of issues I knew little about, one in particular stood out to me: child marriage.  I was aware that it was a problem in developing nations, but I had no idea just how severe the problem was.

     14 million girls become child brides each year, or 38,000 every day.  As if that wasn't bad enough, young girls are not married to young boys.  Girls as young as 5 years old are forced against their will to marry men upwards of 40 or 50 years old.  Needless to say, the effects of these forced marriages are horrific.  Child brides suffer a dangerously high risk of abuse, domestic and sexual violence, STI's such as HIV and AIDS, and an increased mortality rate.  Girls under age 15 are 5 times more likely to die in childbirth than women aged 20-24.  In countries where child marriage is common, complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the number 1 cause of death for girls ages 15-19.

     Child marriage is most common in Africa.  Niger, Chad, Mali, Bangladesh, Guinea, Central African Republic, Mozambique, and Nepal and all countries where 50% of girls are married before their 18th birthday.  Child marriage is caused by poverty, due to women being viewed as an economic burden, as well as ancient traditions or religious practices that have proven difficult to change.  Moreover, it is nearly impossible for a girl to escape once she is married.  Child brides are often illiterate and poorly educated as they are removed from school in order perform domestic work and bear children.  Abuse,  sexual violence, illiteracy, AIDS, and dying from childbirth all combine to create a vicious cycle of child marriage that must be stopped.



Becky Reals

Friday, March 20, 2015

The Collapse of the Towers powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1sIUNSjnCmrn22Rkp55aQglWopOwdIfdBZ2Y8ylM5aV0/edit

Blog 11

       
Paying for College

        FAFSA is an extremely useful federal financial aid system that helps those pursuing a  higher education at a college or university pay for it. The FAFSA form can be filled out yearly and varies depending on need. Along with the FAFSA system, some colleges also use the CSS Profile, which is the College Scholarship Service Profile. This allows colleges to collect information to distribute scholarships with funds not from the federal government.
        With these two systems comes grants, loans, and scholarships. A loan is where you borrow money from the government and that must be paid back eventually. There are interest rates on these loans, so the longer you take to pay them back, the more money the government makes off of you. A grant is a sum of money that is given to you by the government that does not need to be paid back. Grants are offered based on financial need. Lastly, there are scholarships. These are sums of money that are given to you by the schools or other private organizations aside from the federal government. These do not need to be paid back and these are usually determined based on either athletics or academics.
          Paying for college is hard, that's why the government has set up programs such as these. Aside from outside ways of getting aid, there are many scholarships to apply for inside of school. I know that our school offers a wide assortment of scholarships for all different classes. To apply for these, you will need to write a short essay on a topic of choice from one of the multiple options they give. These scholarships can be found in the guidance office. Also, if you want to find more scholarships, you can always search them online and apply that way. Mostly all scholarships require a short essay.

Blog #11

     Walking through the rotunda, checking out everyone's projects, one in specific caught my eye,  the "We Are All Human" project. The reason I liked it so much was because of its' truthfulness and applicability to today's society. We are all human, we feel the same things, and experience similar pain. Like Ms. Cassidy stated in class today, "[Islamic extremists] are not monsters, they just do monstrous things." I know it might be strange to think about but we share a lot of similarities with these people and people everywhere; we love our family, we spend time with friends, we hope to have a good future for ourselves and children, we have stress, we get anxious and tired and depressed and irate and lonely. So if we have so many similarities with each other, let us build each other up instead of ripping each other down.

     This reminds me of a quote and the main idea in the recent Cinderella movie, "to have courage and be kind." Here poor Cinderella is, her father just died, the last real family she has, and now she is stuck being the servant to here awful stepmother and stepsisters. But not once did she act cruel to them, even though it was completely warranted. Cinderella loved those who cursed her and turned the other cheek (  Luke 6:28-29). Courage, defined by the Oxford Diction is, "the ability to do something that frightens one" and "strength in the face of pain or grief." Sometimes the scariest or hardest thing to do is to be kind, especially when you are frightened of the outcome or don't really want to.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Blog 10

"There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? And if you stop complaining and asking for what you will never get, you will have a good life."
                                                               - Ernest Hemingway
           I believe that the main focal point of Hemingway's quote is that, while were young, we must enjoy life as it comes to you and that focusing too much on the past or present distracts you from the life that you have in the here and now. Taking to much time dwelling on the past, or too much planning out your future keeps you from taking your time in the life you're living now. Hemingway puts emphasis on the question, how old must you be before you know that?, because if you realize too late, some of the best moments of your life have already passed, and you were too busy anticipating the future to enjoy it. Continuously focusing on future and neglecting to acknowledge the present can almost feel like a let-down when you reach that future mind set. Reaching that future mind set will leave you feeling let down because you've missed so much while trying to get there; you didn't stop to enjoy the process, but rather just focused on the central idea.
             At the end of Hemingway's quote, he says that you will live a good life once you stop complaining about things that you will never get. I can agree with this, that the things in life that happen to you that you can't control, you cant waste your time on it. Complaining on something that will not change, or something that is impossible to have happen is pointless and it takes away from the good things going on in your present life, tying into the central point of the quote, stop and smell the roses.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Blog 10



     Cancer is a multi-billion dollar industry. There are some conspiracy theories stating that the government has formed this disease for a profit, and/or to control the population. Some believe that we have already found a cure, but don't want to display this cure to the public. By offering the public the found cure, thousands of people will be out of jobs because they spent their careers trying to find the cure.
     Personally I don't believe any of these conspiracy theories because everyone is human. I believe that some people that are searching for a cure know the effects because they know someone who has it or they have it themselves and they have a heart to release the cure and saving innocent lives  instead of having a job.

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

blog #10

http://moneymorning.com/ext/articles/rickards/cia-insider-breaks-silence-on-global-currency-wars-desktop-foot.php?iris=339223&ad=ramp-xu

    The United States could be in a lot of trouble now and for future generations if this video holds to be true . Project Prophecy is predicting a 100 trillion $ U.S collapse and for a depression to happen at any time. Overnight the stock market could plunge and it would be a scary thing to see. In the past this organization has given information and well supported predictions to our government and the CIA for things like terrorist attacks. They have been prevented because of this and now they are being ignored and things could get worse because of it.
   The worth of the dollar is plummeting and it will continue to decrease at a rapid rate. This video should be a eye opener for a lot of people. We need to do something about our future because this is going to be our problem and will not be avoided if there is no changes made. Our current situation resembles what had happened during the great depression and our economy is dangerously slowing down.

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Blog #10

There is nothing else than now. There is neither yesterday, certainly, nor is there any tomorrow. How old must you be before you know that? And if you stop complaining and asking for what you never will get, you will have a good life.
                       
  -Ernest Hemingway   

      This quote is very powerful and eye opening. People should be exposed to this quote because I feel that it is relatable to everyone. This quote applies to any aspect in life and when someone is going through a rough time in there life or even a really good time, they should always remember the meaning to this quote. 
       It's can be interpreted as living in the moment and not for what happened yesterday or what could happen in the future. Nothing in life is better than what is currently happening in your life at that moment. If you dwell on the past and can't move on from it then life will never be good and you can miss out on opportunities you could've had. If you are too worried about the future than you will be stressed out in the present and not enjoy life. For example as a teenager getting ready to go to college, we are all extremely stressed out about our future careers and where we will be after college when we should really be focused on senior year and enjoying ever last minute in high school.  
      The second part of the quote can be interpreted as people always wanting what they can't have. In life we see things that we know we can't have but want it anyway. Fancy cars, a big house, expensive clothes , and many other things. If we just appreciate what we have in life and what we can afford to have in life then we can be content with ourselves in life. 

Pentagon Powerpoint

https://docs.google.com/a/student.esmonline.org/presentation/d/1f8fywBKCQ1kjJrfCexaaYBpxguqvVNW6ES4RtW90rI0/edit

Friday, March 6, 2015

Gay Marriage

I finally decided that gay marriage was going to be my rotunda project. Throughout the years many states have accepted gay marrige, but still today we have people that are aganist gay marriage because in their religion they believe a woman and man should be married and if a man and man get married then its a disgrace and going aganist their belief, which they dont like. If you truly love someone and want to marry them then you should. There should be no rule on who you can marry because if you wanna spend your life with that person for the rest of your life you should be able to no matter what anyone says. I am very happy to see that over the years more and more states have agreed to gay marriage because its the right thing to do.

My project will include why people are aganist and for gay marriage including a bunch of facts about this topic. Here are a few facts about gay marriage: 


  1. On May 17, 2004, the first legal gay marriage in the United States was performed in Cambridge, MA between Tanya McCloskey, a massage therapist, and Marcia Kadish, an employment manager at an engineering firm. [26]
  2. The world's first legal gay marriage ceremony took place in the Netherlands on Apr. 1, 2001, just after midnight. The four couples, one female and three male, were married in a televised ceremony officiated by the mayor of Amsterdam. [152]
  3. The Congressional Budget Office estimated on Dec. 17, 2009 that extending employment benefits to same-sex domestic partners of federal employees would cost the federal government $596 million in mandatory spending and $302 million in discretionary spending between 2010 and 2019. [37]
  4. An Oct. 2, 2009 analysis by the New York Times estimated that same-sex couples denied marriage benefits will incur an additional $41,196 to $467,562 in expenses over their lifetimes compared with married heterosexual couples. [7]
  5. The Catholic Church, United Methodist Church, Southern Baptist Convention, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, National Association of Evangelicals, and American Baptist Churches USA all oppose same-sex marriage. [119]
I feel that gay marriage is such an interesting topic and I believe that their is so much intruging information and a bunch of things that I will learn that i never knew. I also believe every one is equal and shouldbe treated that way no matter who they marry.

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Censorship (blog 10)

      This year our school is performing a production of A Chorus Line. Recently we were instructed to censor almost half the show. I feel it's unfair to do that to the actors and actresses. Some people had to change almost half of their lines to something more appropriate. I don't understand why we have to do this if this musical was approved. It does contain inappropriate content, but now after the cast has rehearsed and worked very hard on how the musical was originally written they have to change a lot of the content. If they didn't like the inappropriate content they should not have approved this musical.
      In an article I read, it explains the consequences of censorship. Many parents don't want their children being exposed to profanity, but profanity is everywhere especially in works that are read or seen in school. People use profanity on an everyday basis, even these parents that object reading books that contain profanity. But, these parents are likely to use profanity around their children all the time so why is it so bad to be exposed to it at school when most of these books, films, plays, etc. are fiction? In Hamlet,Shakespeare says to the players, the purpose of drama is "to hold as 'twere, the mirror up to nature." In school we are taught many classic pieces such as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, but no one objected to being taught this? Censoring may harm teachers also because it prevents them from being able to motivate or reach out to students. Censorship is a big problem in schools today. 
      I believe that censoring our production is wrong and if they don't like the content they shouldn't have approved it. 

This is a link to an article explaining censorship in schools.
http://ncac.org/resource/first-amendment-in-schools/#freespeechdem 

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Rotunda proyecto

I've decided that I shall enlighten you guys to what my rotunda project will possibly be. I'm very intrigued by world hunger so I have made the decision to go ahead and make some kinds of visual graphs to show how many people die from starvation each year and or how many people suffered from undernourishment. Like Carlie did in her blog I'm going to list some facts I got online about this topic so you guys can get an idea of what I will be showing.

Some 805 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That's about one in nine people on earth.

The vast majority of the world's hungry people live in developing countries, where 13.5 percent of the population is undernourished. 

 Asia is the continent with the most hungry people - two thirds of the total. The percentage in southern Asia has fallen in recent years but in western Asia it has increased slightly.

 Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence (percentage of population) of hunger. One person in four there is undernourished.

Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five - 3.1 million children each year.

One out of six children -- roughly 100 million -- in developing countries isunderweight.

 One in four of the world's children are stunted. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three.

 If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million.

66 million primary school-agechildren attend classes hungryacross the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone.

WFP calculates that US$3.2 billion is needed per year to reach all 66 million hungry school-age children.
 

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that about 805 million people of the 7.3 billion people in the world, or one in nine, were suffering from chronic undernourishment in 2012-2014. I think that 805 million people is a crazy number to comprehend so I'm going to try I make an easy visual. To do this I'm going to need around 245 cups of sand. There are 3,281,579 grains of sand in 1 single cup. If you divide 805,000,000 people suffering from chronic undernourishment by 3,281,579 you get 245.3 cups. I'm excited to research about this and show you all what I've learned and hopefully teach people something knew they didn't know about world hunger.