Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Blog #11
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
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
Monday, March 30, 2015
Rotunda Blog
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
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
Saturday, March 28, 2015
Rotunda blog
Friday, March 27, 2015
Rotunda Project Response
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
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Rotunda project feedback
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
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.
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.
Monday, March 23, 2015
Blog 11(rotunda project)
Rotunda Project
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
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)
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
Rotunda (blog 11)
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
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
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
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
Blog Post 11 (Reaction to Rotunda Projects)
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
Blog 11
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
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
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Blog 10
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
blog #10
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
Friday, March 6, 2015
Gay Marriage
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Thursday, March 5, 2015
Censorship (blog 10)
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
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.
Blog #10
Blog #9
Relationship love is different. Attraction that includes sexual desire and the strong affection felt by people who have a romantic relationship is a major difference. Then, there is the love of a hobby or object. This is when a person enjoys doing something and thinks that will never change in the future, or when they feel like they cant live or be without a certain object.