Blog Reflection

After a year of blogging, I have realized different positive and negative aspects about my reading and writing life. One, is I’m good at interpreting non-fiction, whether it’s a book about competitive eating or an upfront article on the environment. I see messages that the authors are saying and the tricks they are using to get those messages through. I also like to formulate my own opinion on whatever the topic is. On the downside, I never respond to fiction in my blog besides when it is mandatory. In fact, my reading life is based entirely on non-fiction. Although that is my favorite genre, I should probably read a greater variety of genres to improve my interpretation and comprehension of other writing styles.

I have found that writing online is much more thorough than writing in my notebook, partially because my notebook to other people is eligible. But when I type, I usually delete ideas that I don’t think are important and think about what I’m writing harder. When I am writing, once I write something that isn’t too great, I don’t bother to erase it. I also think writing online is much more liberal than writing, because at this age, we can’t write in newspapers, and online media can express our thoughts to many more people than writing. The actual writing is freer in that it can reach more people.

Speaking of writing online in general, I think it is a great way for people to connect, although I feel it’s not as real as writing. In something like a letter, we take time and effort to make it sound polite and rich, while online is so quick, that usually whatever the writing is isn’t really important at all. On social media sites, I also feel the writing is very basic and has less effort to put into them. Much of the time, the things people post are meaningless, while sometimes hurtful, so overall its not great reading. Although I can’t imagine making a blog for myself, I might start to look at other people’s blogs for topics like music and news. I know some kids who have popular blogs, and checking them out might be a worthwhile activity. I think blogs are more similar to real writing than social media, and you can definitely learn a large amount about the world, or what other people think about it. 

The Matrix

The Matrix, a film where humans are oblivious that they are actually living in a computer generated realm, the main character Neo discovers the truth. Humans, for the most part, are controlled by artificial intelligence that uses them as an energy source. They think they are living in a world that looks like the present, but this is just a computer-generated world called the matrix. The matrix, that stimulates regular life, keeps them from knowing the truth. This connects to the philosophical topic of truth that Plato wrote about and we discussed in class.

In Plato’s book, The Republic, he includes a story about another philosopher, Socrates, talking to one of his students named Glaucon. Socrates tells Glaucon that most people are living comfortably in ignorance. Discovering the truth is like looking into a bright light after being in darkness for a long time. It hurts and is difficult in the beginning, but when you adjust, you can see so much more that you could have ever seen in the dark. It also says that many people can’t handle the truth and return to their old lives of ignorance and darkness.

The ideas in this book are correlated with characters from the movie. When Neo is confronted with the truth, he is flustered and in shock. At one point he lost it and tried to return to the matrix to live his normal life again. But eventually, he adjusted and discovered so much more than he could have in his old life. Another character, named Cypher, also is introduced to the realm of truth. But he can’t handle it, and wants to live his old life again. He betrays Neo and other characters in order to be reinserted back into the matrix with his memory wiped out, where he will be ignorant once again.

The movies theory about truth is very similar to Plato’s theory on truth, as it is with many other philosophical theories. On the other hand, it also contradicts with other philosophical theories just as much. This is why the matrix is so rich in thought and complexity, and a great film to watch and observe to learn the ways of philosophy.  

The Virgin Suicides

In the book The Virgin Suicides, by Jeffrey Eugenides, the Libson family, a mother and father and their five daughters, loses their youngest daughter Cecilia to a tragic suicide. The Libson family doesn’t communicate often with the rest of the neighborhood, and nobody seems to know him or her. Mr. and Ms. Libson have isolated their daughters from other kids throughout the years and have not socialized much themselves. When Cecelia jumped out the window of her house, the community felt obligated to help them pull through the tragedy. But it felt like the neighbors went to far in their assistance. This raises some ethical issues and questions to consider: Is it right to intervene with someone’s life without permission? And are the neighbors obligated to help in the first place?

In addition to sending cards and flowers, the community decides to take huge action that involves going onto the Libson’s property and making major changes. The Libson family rarely made contact with their neighbors before the death, and after, it seemed like nobody ever left the house. So without ever asking, the members of the community came in and decided to take out the fence that Cecilia had jumped on to kill herself. They considered the fence a safety hazard because of its sharp tips. Unfortunately for the neighbors, they don’t know if the work they’re doing is being appreciated, or is possibly making the Libsons uncomfortable. Is what they’re doing the right thing to do? To determine this, we must think about the possible outcomes. Say the community pulls out the fence; the Libsons with either not care, be bothered, or maybe make a better relationship with the community. If the community doesn’t pull out the fence, there is no chance anything will improve, and it is possible their neighborly relationships will worsen. I think the neighbors are making a good decision. After Cecilia’s death, the Libsons will only grow into worse and worse condition unless they receive help. Whether or not they appreciate the effort, something needs to be done.

We can also ask, if the neighbors are really obligated to help the Libsons. Members of a community always help each other out and interact. But because of the lack of interaction from the Libson family, it changes the neighborly rules. For example, people that live on farms are very far away from the nearest neighbors because of the vast fields in which they grow food. If a farmer 50 miles away had a disease kill some of his/her crop, the next farmer doesn’t feel the need to help them out, because they are too far away to be neighbors. This is similar to the Libson family. Although their physical location is close, because they never take a part in their community, they are just like those farmers who live 50 miles apart. Of course, this doesn’t mean the community shouldn’t help them as I described earlier. It just happens to be a nice community where the people are concerned for each other.

I think its very nice of the neighbor to try to help the Libsons, especially since I don’t feel there are obligated too. The Libsons are going through a very rough time, and could definitely use the assistance. To connect to the real world, I think this expresses a good example of how you should act as a member of a community or as a neighbor. Not knowing somebody is not an excuse to not helping them out, and could helping could bring you closer together. It is almost like one of the unwritten ethical rules that comes with being a neighbor.

Hitting the Snooze Button

Jan Hoffman writes about newly adopted school-start times in the article Hitting the Snooze Button. Hundreds of schools in the U.S. are looking at research of the adolescent body clock, and many have pushed back the start of their school day. Many students are sleep deprived, and would benefit from a little extra sleep time in the morning. There is much scientific evidence that supports that sleep affects learning. Jilly Dos Santos, a student in Rock Bridge High School, lead a movement that brought more sleep to students at her school. Her campaign is inspirational, and a great example of student power in schools.

There is a lot of evidence that sleep is a benefit to education. Sleep experts studied eight high schools that moved to a later time. They found that the students improved in measures like “mental health, car crash rates, attendance, and, in some schools, grades and standardized test scores.” In sleep, the brain is very active, sorting the data from the day and storing the information. Without sleep, “teenagers are losing the ability not only to solidify information but to transform and restructure it, extracting inferences and insights into problems,” said Jessica Payne, an assistant professor at the university of Notre Dame. Teens are losing this valuable sleep because of their sleep hormones that keep them up late and electronic devices.

Hoffman recalled the moving story of Jilly Dos Santos, who got her school board to push back her school’s starting time. At her school, the board was planning on a 7:20 a.m. start to the school day, and she rarely made the old 7:50 a.m. first bell. After encouragement from her teachers, Jilly decided to take action. She set up a Facebook and Twitter page, recruited friends to help with research, got help from teachers in the district, and set up an online petition. Jilly presented her case at a school board meeting, and an earlier school start was rejected. The next day, she campaigned for a later start to the school day, and in a later meeting, the starting time was pushed back 8:55 a.m. It is incredible for one student to change a schools system in a major way, and it expresses the power that students can have if they put in a lot of effort.

I personally think starting the school day later is worth the effort, but we need to account for its affect on the end of the school days. Kids with after schools may end up coming home very late. Sports teams will have to make their games later, and parents would have to change their schedules to pick up their children. I think with enough time, we will be able to overcome the conflicts with a later school day. For me, it won’t be that beneficial due to bad habits of procrastination and electronic use, but for students as a whole it’s a great change to make.

Designer Babies

Modern scientists are finding ways to control genetics in newborns. Scientists say the day when parents can select trait for their kids is not far off. The article “Designer Babies,” by Patricia Smith explains the controversy about whether we should alter the genes of babies. It acknowledges the positive affects of gene manipulation as well as the possible downsides. While the advances in genetic science look promising, they also are quite scary in that we might change the future entirely.

Current scientists are waiting to do a procedure that would combine the traits of three people to create a birth defect-free baby. 12 million people in the United States suffer from genetic affects such as cystic fibrosis, sickle cell anemia, and hemophilia. By isolating the genes that cause these diseases, scientists they could replace these genes with healthy ones, and eventually leave no traces of disease left. “The most exciting part, scientifically, is to be able to prevent or fix an error in the genetic machinery,” says Dr. Alan Copperman, director of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at Mount Sinai Medical Center. Diseases can be destroyed by not letting them be passed on, possibly becoming a thing of the past. Perhaps even minor traits can be replaced and everyone could be generally healthier.

But the idea of modifying babies has sparked controversy. Jeremy Gruber, a president of a bioethics advocacy group called the Council for Responsible Genetics, sees potential danger. “He fears such procedures could unintentionally cause new, unforeseen genetic abnormalities or accidently eliminate positive traits,” the author stated. Gruber is worried that scientists could make a mistake, and that mistake would carry on to many more offspring. In fact, many countries such as Canada, Australia, France, and Denmark have banned the altering of human genes. People also think scientists and people will get to carried away. Choosing traits like intelligence or athleticism could change our society. Ethicist Josephine Johnson thinks everyone will be compulsive in giving children desirable traits, which would change our lifestyle. In history, other genetic experiments have gone wrong, such as the eugenics movement, which discouraged people with undesirable traits to reproduce.

I don’t think we should be modifying genetics either. Humans have evolved and prospered very well using natural selection and variation. These processes relied on natural human diversity among offspring, and producing designer babies could make us vulnerable. I learned in science class that lack of diversity could lead to extinction of a species. Although that is unlikely, the changing of genetics is bound to have negative affects. Perhaps it could lead to overpopulation, or reckless competition. Humans have been living for a long time without changing our babies, and its not worth the risk. 

Move or Else

Move or Else by Ian Johnson explains the large movement of rural residents in China into towns and cities that the country’s government is enforcing. Officials in China want 70% of its 1.4 billion people to live in cities within the next dozen years. The operation will have downsides as well as upsides. The communist government planned this to boost the country’s economy, but it will also cause harm to the people. Details about both the main benefit and negative aspects helped me understand the main idea. The author explains how China’s government wanted to spurt China’s economic strength. “The idea is that more city-dwellers will mean more people spending money, making China’s economy less dependent on exports for growth,” Johnson stated. “Many of China’s farmers are subsistence farmers…with little left to sell. That means they hardly have any money to buy products made in Chinese factories.” I can see the advantages the government sees in urbanization, bringing in a much larger and reliable consumer group to buy Chinese factory items and support the economy.

Johnson also describes another aspect of the movement of the people: how it negatively affects the people kicked off their old homeland. She includes quotes from Wei Dushen, who has been moved to a newly created town called Huaming. “We know how to farm but not how to work in an office,” Dushen says. “Those are for educated people.” So people working on farms were there for a reason, and it’s difficult for those people to make a living in the city. Additionally, rural Chinese culture is being lost. Eighty percent of Chinese traditional songs, dances, rituals, martial arts, and theater come from rural areas. Villages that contain these traditions are being torn down to make cities for new city comers. When these villages disappear, there is no way to get back the lost culture. People not being able to make a living and Chinese culture being lost is a problem and a large downside of this new shift from farming to city life.

By including both the positive and negative effects, the author gets us to consider both sides of the argument of whether or not the forced migration of rural people is the right step to take for China. Making the article balanced allows us to formulate an opinion with solid knowledge about the topic. When articles are strongly centered around one claim, it’s harder for readers to consider the “other side” because they don’t have enough background. The author stays neutral by quoting two migrated people with different opinions of their new life. Dushen doesn’t approve of city life as much because he can’t work in an office. On the other hand, Yang Huashuai found work and appreciated the new opportunity. “It’s survival of the fittest,” he said, “If you don’t work hard, you don’t deserve to make it.” He believes the new lifestyle can be taken advantage of through hard work. The author keeps us well informed on the different angles of the movement so readers can accurately decide which one is better.

In my opinion, the movement to city life and destruction of Chinese farms and villages is not a good move for China. Although it will likely boost China’s economy, that is unnecessary. As stated in the article, China’s economy was second, only behind the United States. Boosting the economy further is not worth destroying Chinese culture. And although many people could find good opportunities in cities, too many others would not be able to. The change would ultimately make the rich richer and the poor poorer due to the decrease in job availability and increase in consumption of factory made items. If I learned about economics and how countries can have successful and happy people, I could imagine other possibilities to make China’s economy more reliant on purchases in the country. It would help if I knew how the middle class affects the way of life in the city and country and if China could reduce the number of subsistence farmers without getting rid of farming altogether.

R+J Literary Essay

In the story Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare, main characters Romeo and Juliet, whose families are fighting, fall in love, which eventually leads to their tragic end. Themes like love and death are vital to the story, but another theme—time, such as events being rushed or unlucky timing—subtly plays an important role. Throughout the story, Shakespeare uses the theme of time to show and create the different aspects and stages of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. In the beginning, there is a sense of urgency and uneasiness toward their future together when Romeo marries Juliet right after they meet. Later, there is a scene contrasting nighttime and morning that shows the bond between Romeo and Juliet. Lastly, a sequence of bad timing  was responsible for the end of their relationship and their unfortunate deaths.

Romeo and Juliet’s relationship feels rushed. Both characters are blinded by love and prone to something bad happening. One day after meeting at a party, Romeo and Juliet secretly marry without much thought of the future problems it could create. Marriages usually happen well after a couple meets, because a long period of time is needed to make a good plan for the future and Romeo and Juliet skipped over that period. They come from two families that are feuding, and marriage could make the conflict worse. Additionally, they break rules for marriage at the time by marrying in the afternoon, not getting a license, and not getting approval from the parents. This shows that their relationship is especially extreme because they are too madly in love to think about what will happen to them in the long term. Because of the Romeo and Juliet’s rash decision to marry, the priest, Friar Laurence, could see that their syrupy love could end badly. He warned Romeo that his hurried, passionate love could spin out of control. “These violent delights have violent ends,” ( 2.6.9) he says. “The sweetest honey/is loathsome in his own deliciousness” (2.6.11-12). The violent delights he mentions reflect the mad love of Romeo and Juliet; he is saying that kind of relationship won’t end well. He compares their strong love to the sweetest honey: although it feels really good, the way sweet honey tastes good, the surge of it has a bad result, just as eating too much honey can make you feel sick. “Therefore love moderately,” he says. “Long love doth so;/Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow” (2.6.14-15). Friar Laurence thinks they need to slow their love down to ensure a better future.

Shakespeare shows how close Romeo and Juliet’s relationship is with a scene about daytime and nighttime. After being exiled from Verona, where they live, Romeo stays one last night with Juliet before his departure. Juliet has a hard time separating from Romeo the next morning and tries to extend the final time they have together. “Wilt thou be gone? It is not yet near day/It was the nightingale, and not the lark” (3.5.1-2). To persuade Romeo to stay, she tries to assure him it is still nighttime. The nightingale is a bird that comes out at night, while the lark comes out in the morning, so she reckons if the nightingale is chirping, there is more time for them to be together. But Romeo responds by saying the bird is indeed a lark, and the streaks of light coming from the window indicate it is morning. He knows their time together must end because if he stays, he will die. Then she says, “Yond light is not daylight; I know it, I/It is some meteor that the sun exhales” (3.5.12-13). She tells Romeo that the light he sees outside is just a meteor, not the sun rising in the morning. This shows how badly Juliet wants Romeo to stay, because she desperately comes up with reasons she knows aren’t true to convince him. Whether the bird is a lark or not, it is still ultimately morning, and the light from the window actually is from the rising sun. In addition, Romeo’s response also shows how much he wants to stay with her. “I’ll say yon gray is not the morning’s eye,” he says (3.5.19), “Nor that is not the lark whose notes do beat” (3.5.21). Romeo also knows it is morning, but just to stay with Juliet longer, he agrees with her claims. He accepts that it’s not the lark that’s singing or the sun that’s shining. The personal risk he takes by staying just to be with Juliet shows how much they love each other.

The end of Romeo and Juliet’s relationship was a result bad timing ruining a plan by Friar Laurence. After Romeo was exiled from Verona, Juliet was forced to marry another man against her will. Friar Laurence suggested that Juliet fake her death and rejoin Romeo after being placed in her family vault for its dead. Friar Laurence sent Romeo a letter telling him of the plan, and Juliet drank a poison that would make her seem dead for two days. *But Romeo’s serving man, Balthasar, happened to be in the graveyard where Juliet was brought. Believing that she was dead, Balthasar took a horse and rushed to Romeo to inform him of the news. “Her body sleeps in Capel’s monument/And her immortal part with angels lives,” he says (5.1.18-19). But unfortunately, Balthasar reached Romeo before the carrier of the Friar’s letter to inform him of the plan, so Romeo believed Juliet was actually dead. Upon hearing this, Romeo rushes to the monument where Juliet was still in her dormant sleep. But right before Juliet awakens, Romeo takes his own life, not being able to bear his loss. “Here’s to my love!” he says. “Thy drugs are quick. Thus with a kiss I die” (5.3.119-120). Right after that, Juliet wakes up to see Romeo dead, and takes her own life. “Oh happy dagger!/This is thy sheath; there rust, and let me die” (5.3.169-171). The events that led to this were a result of people unluckily arriving too early. Because Balthasar reached Romeo before the Friar’s messenger, and Romeo saw Juliet just before she woke up, their relationship ended in their tragic deaths.

Shakespeare foreshadowed the unsteady future of Romeo and Juliet in their rushed wedding. He included a scene about night and day that showed how close they were. And he ended their relationship by adding a two components of bad timing. All of these aspects of their relationship are expressed through the theme of time. Just like in the real world, time is something that can’t be controlled; sometimes there is too much and sometimes there is too little. It can often change things in our lives, make us do something questionable, or make us want more of it, as it did in Romeo and Juliet. Time is only one of the smaller themes in the story that can be elaborated upon and written about. There are so many others, like the ones written of in class, that make the story so good.

*Some events stated are based on the movie Romeo and Juliet directed by Franco Zeffirelli.

Bagging Plastic

In the article Bagging Plastic, the author Veronica Majerol uses different kinds of evidence to express the problems with plastic in the world and topic of banning plastic bags. Mainly, she uses facts expressed in numbers about different environmental issues. She also uses insight from environmentalists and other people for their thoughts on whether plastic bags should be banned or not. Lastly, the actual pictures in the article contribute to our understanding of plastics role in our world.

Majerol includes facts about plastic use in America to explain why it’s problematic. She stated “Americans use about 100 billion plastic bags each year” and “In 2012, Americans generated about 32 million tons of plastic waste…and recycled only about 9 percent.” The issue with this, is the non-recycled plastic piles up in landfills, “where it can take up to 1,00 years to decompose” or enter sewer drains, rivers, and oceans. In water, plastic bags are dangerous to animals such as sea turtles, sea birds, and whales that confuse them for food and choke on them. Judging from how much plastic waste is produced and how little gets recycled, many sea animals are going to be harmed by plastics afterlife.

The article also includes the views of different people to acknowledge both sides of an upcoming debate, whether the use of plastic bags should be banned. Majerol writes about Mark Daniels from the American Progressive Bag Alliance. “He says 9 out of 10 Americans reuse plastic bags for things like packing lunch, lining trash cans, and picking up after their dogs.” Daniels also says more than 30,000 thousand jobs and related to plastic bag production and recycling. He thinks plastic bags shouldn’t be recycled for these practical and economic reasons. The article also contains reasoning from Alex Padilla, a state senator in California who is sponsoring a statewide ban on plastic bags. “We have lived for thousands of years without single-use plastic bags” he says, “I think we will be just fine without them.” This is insight from the other side of the argument, that plastic bags should be banned for their harmful effects.

The pictures in the article also help us comprehend the issues of plastic usage by giving a good visual on things described in the text. One picture is of three men carrying groceries in plastic bags, captioned, “Can Americans give up plastic bags?” This is a reflection of how many things we use plastic bags for, and the difficulty it would cause if we lost them. Another picture is of a sea turtle chewing two pieces of plastic bag. It provides the visual that was mentioned in the text, that plastic is able to find its way into the reach of animals and be a potential danger. The last picture is a photograph of a scavenger in a “Sea of Trash,” a waterway in the Philippines completely covered in plastic garbage. This represents the facts mentioned about plastic waste and gives a good picture on the sheer amount of trash is produced from non-recycled plastic.

The author used numeral values and pictures to explain the problem plastic is creating and includes insight from people to consider both sides of the argument of whether plastic bags should be banned or not. My own opinion, is plastic bags cannot be banned, until an adequate replacement is found for each of the jobs they cover. As Daniels said, people reuse plastic bags for multiple things, and I think they are too useful in our lives to take out. Perhaps we need to focus on our recycling processes instead to avoid plastic getting into the sewers and sea.

Horsemen of the Esophagus

In the book Horsemen of the Esophagus, the author Jason Fagone takes us through his journey into the world of competitive eating and the lives of some of its greatest eaters. These mega eaters join competitions such as the “Wing Bowl” or “Nathan’s Famous Forth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest” in hopes of becoming a champion eater. These contests are very popular and are broadcast on television or radio and many people go to watch the events in person. Some of the top eaters can make a lot of money just by chomping on food. But many people look at these contests as disgusting and horrifying because of how much food the competitors consume and how fast they consume it. However, eaters are proud of and passionate about their work and consider eating to be an art or a skill, and they are very talented.

Eating competitively can be viewed as a monstrous process where people eat volumes of food that are not meant to be eaten. Take Nathan’s hot dog competition and one of its contestants, Tskeru Kobayoshi, nicknamed Koby.  Koby is a 23-year-old Japanese, weighs only 100 pounds, and competes against guys twice his size. In this 12-minute contest, Koby ate an astounding 50 hot dogs to break the previous record and win first place. For a flimsy kid to eat so much can be described as animalistic; he is simply a freak. The way they eat is also obscene and really stretches what we think of these people. “Koby was eating his dogs with an inhumane ease,” the author writes. “Koby was separating the dog from the bun. What’s more, he was breaking each dog in half, then eating both halves at the same time, after which he dunked (in water) and ate the bun.” To eat hot dogs by turning the bun to mush and eating the meat whole is grotesque and no normal person would do such a thing.

Even though eating competitively is gross and freaky, eaters consider themselves very skilled and passionate people. Fans of the sport find it breathtaking to watch eaters go to work on different foods. “The eaters took eating seriously—they trained, they spent their money and time, risked their health and relationships,” the author explains. Eaters like to compare themselves with athletes, and don’t see themselves as monsters with wide stomachs. Fans get exited and amazed at how much food they can eat. Steve Addicks, a competitive eater himself, sat next to Koby in a hot dog competition with his mouth gaping because he was so amazed at his speed. “I was in awe. It was amazing. I was standing next to something that it’s like, ah, I don’t know—it was almost a religious experience, you know? Something that I was so close to see, that very few people will ever be able to witness, as far as the magnitude of what it meant to me as an eater.” Steve, watching Koby eat, felt like he was watching a miracle unfold. Big eating events have thousands of fans who are just as amazed at the spectacle.

Many people cannot stomach competitive eating and dismiss it as disgusting, while the eaters consider it serious and its fans are blown away by it. I think the process is repulsive, but if I were to attend something like the Nathan’s hot dog contest, I would probably be very excited and impressed by the eaters’ ability to consume so much so fast. Although I would never compare these guys to professional athletes, I think they are dedicated and skilled people who just have a job where they publicly become an animal with food. Eating competitions are rising in popularity, and maybe one day they’ll become like watching basketball or soccer.

Literary Essay

Many children in the world the world have difficulty socializing and making friends at or outside of school. Although some have intentionally chosen that path, others suffer from the loneliness of being a nobody and go through their school years without having people to talk to and help them out. The main character, Aaron, in the book Narc by Crissa-Jean Chappell is a perfect example of a pariah in high school. Early in the book, the police found Aaron’s 14-year-old sister with a bag of weed and he had to claim it was his to protect her. But the police agreed to drop his charges if he worked for them in uncovering the “shot caller,” or the head dealer in his drug-infested school, Palm Hammock. In order to do this, he had to find ways to get involved with other kids in his school and attend parties (18). In the process, Aaron is able to shake off his old, nobody self and meet people and go to parties. This shows that even a person with poor social skills like Aaron, with motivation and support from other people, can rise up from the bottom of the social scale and overcome their past loneliness.

Motivation is a key part in becoming socially active. In Aaron’s old life, he spent his free time alone at home playing video games and smoking. He never had nights out drinking with friends and didn’t pursue girls (pp. 247-248). But once his sister was found with weed, he had to act to keep himself and his sister out of deep trouble. “This is kind of serious. I could book her for possession of an illegal substance with intent to sell. Or you could go to jail,” said the cop who busted them. Aaron had great concern for his younger sister, Haylie, and told the officer: “I already told you. It’s mine. Please. Just leave her alone, she’s just a kid.” From then on, his concern for Haylie motivated him to carry out his mission, making friends and becoming involved in social activities (p. 14). Although Aaron didn’t have much of a choice, his sister still inspired him discard his old self and open up to people in his school. In the school library he talked to a popular girl named Morgan, whom he would later chat online with as well. After a detention class, he met with another girl nicknamed Skully. Although he originally talked to them for purposes of his mission, they would later become genuine friends. “Soon I was hanging out with Morgan and Skully every weekend,” he said (p. 339). Aaron was able to make friends because of the strong incentive of protecting his sister.

Something else that motivated Aaron to speak up was the well being of other people. Even early in the book, Aaron showed concern for Skully even though they had not even met yet. When a teacher took her phone away in detention, he stood up for her, saying, “I just don’t think his fair, taking away her phone.” Everyone in the room gawked and whispered. It wasn’t a long statement, but nonetheless it drew attention; Aaron had been heard by his peers (p. 22). That statement might have been important in the meeting of Skully and Aaron because they became friends later that day.

Another time Aaron was concerned about other people and was moved to speak up was when he was on Morgan’s Facebook page looking for information. He saw pictures of her bare arm crisscrossed with scars (p. 24). He later witnessed her self-mutilating herself in private. “I watched her lift up her skirt and drag the metal across the pale flesh of her inner thigh. She did this a couple more times, slow, careful strokes, then slipped the piece of metal in her sock.” After seeing this, he had a growing concern for Morgan for the rest of the book. He became Morgan’s friend right after the incident and would try to comfort her when her scars or something about the way she looked embarrassed her. Later, Morgan and Aaron were taking a swim when Morgan got out of the water, afraid to reveal the scars on her thigh. Seeing this, Aaron knew he had to comfort her. “Well, I can’t see much of anything right now. And besides, I don’t care. You’re hot, Morgan. Don’t you know that?” (pp. 368-369). He tried to raise her self-esteem to stop her from cutting herself by complimenting her. Being helpful to other people by talking to them is extra social behavior, and it was his concern for them that gave him the motivation.

Last, Aaron received support from other people that helped him to become more than a nobody. For example, when things in Aaron’s house were getting out of hand, he had to move out to keep his family safe. Luckily, Skully nicely took him in for quite a while. Living at Skully’s house was a perfect opportunity for Aaron to hang out with her as much as possible (pp. 339-340). It was then when Aaron started to do everything with Skully because he was her houseguest and got to hang out with Morgan on weekends, as Morgan and Skully were best friends. By helping out Aaron when he was in trouble, Skully also gave him an opportunity to socialize more than he ever had.

Another example of how Skully helped his social life was that she provided him opportunities to attend parties. Although it was mostly unintentional, Aaron would never have made it to a party without her. Skully had posted an event on her Facebook page, an open party invitation. It read “Bring snax, booze, whatever/whomever u want. Here’s the deal. I want to see ALL your beautiful faces” (p. 66). Aaron then had the chance for the biggest social feat of his life, go to a party, because of Skully’s invitation.

To summarize, Aaron started out as a social reject but through motivation that came from his care for other people and help from his new friend, he was able to fashion a new life with people to hang out with who also cared for him. Even though he had always had bad social skills, he pushed himself and realized talking to people wasn’t all that hard. For pariahs around the world, it’s important to give them plenty of support and motivation to come out of their shells. The character Aaron showed a perfect example of this process and has the ability to inspire people just like him.

Critical Analysis on "The Ivory War"

The article The Ivory War by Patricia Smith is about the increasing Chinese demand for ivory and its devastating effect on the elephants that are poached to obtain it. Even though the sale of ivory was banned by an international trade group in 1989, its popularity has erupted and has created a large illegal trade that could potentially wipe out the elephants of Africa. Because a pound of ivory can go for $1,000 on the black market, people use any means possible to get a hold of elephant tusks. This has alarmed wildlife conservationists.

To help explain China’s need for ivory, the author includes details about Chinese culture. China’s middle class has been growing with the nation’s economy and many have the money to buy ivory items such as rings and combs. Ivory is special to them because it has always been a part of Chinese life. Smith writes, “Ivory is etched deeply into Chinese culture. Popular lore tells of emperors who believed ivory chopsticks would change color upon contact with poisoned food.” She also includes a quote from Wu Shaohua, president of the Shanghai Collectors Association. “Love for ivory is in our blood,” he said. It is clear that ivory is important to the Chinese and why it sells for so much.

The author also writes about how poachers who want ivory will go to extreme means to get it and how all kinds of people are after it. Tens of thousands of elephants are killed annually for their ivory. Poachers will shoot elephants in the wild and in wildlife preserves and leave the carcass, only taking the tusks. Poachers in Zimbabwe put cyanide in water holes of a national park, killing 80 elephants. Some poachers will even kill wildlife rangers who try to stop them. In Tanzania, poor villagers roll poisoned pumpkins on the road for elephants to eat. Subsistence hunters deep in the rainforest of Gabon are enlisted to kill elephants and collect the tusks. Even criminal gangs are involved in the ivory trade. “Some of Africa’s most notorious armed groups are hunting down elephants and using the tusks to buy weapons,” the article says. “Organized crime groups are helping move the ivory around the world.” By showing how many elephants are killed and how badly people want to hunt them, the piece conveys why conservationists are concerned about the survival of elephants.

Smith makes us concerned about elephants by presenting evidence in multiple ways. She quotes Andrew Dobson, an ecologist at Princeton University, who says, “The huge [elephant] populations in West Africa have disappeared, and those in the center and east are going rapidly.” Smith also included a shocking fact about the Ivory Coast, which got its name from the vast elephant herds that once roamed its forests: “Today, after decades of carnage, there are almost no elephants left on the Ivory Coast.” In addition, the article includes maps of elephant ranges in 1979 and 2007. The first map has a significant amount of green, which represented elephant ranges, while the second had about only a quarter as much. By presenting information about the rapid decline of elephants in multiple ways, the author erases any doubt we might have about how serious this issue is.

After reading the article, I realize how much I dislike the poaching of elephants. In addition to the author’s factual information, I developed my own reasons to be against this practice. Although ivory is rooted deeply in Chinese culture, it is not used for important purposes. Ivory is carved into bookmarks, statues, idols and other decorations that could easily be made with another material. Ivory is simply not an essential resource to the Chinese, or anyone. I ask what it would take for the Chinese to give up a culture that goes back many generations. Are chopsticks made of ivory truly worth the extinction of the elephant?

Synthesis Page on "The Story of Stuff"

The Story of Stuff 2

The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard is about overconsumption on our planet and the effects it is having on the environment and our health. Leonard explores firsthand factories and communities around the world to find out intricate processes and stories of what’s behind simple products in our lives. One chapter explains how industries created a huge consumer class to keep up with the revolution of mass production. Leonard summarizes in two sections how industry did this: “Planned Obsolescence,” which describes how consumers are persuaded to buy many of the same item, and “Advertising,” which explains how companies use effective tricks to get people to buy from them. These “tricks” are surprising in that they are so present in our lives that we consider them normal.

Leonard describes how companies get people to buy products in great quantities. With a new load of products coming from factories, the industry needed a lot of consumers, so the architects of the system came up with a strategy called planned obsolescence, or “designed for the dump. ” She includes a quote from American industrial designer Brook Stevens, who popularized the term in the 1950s: “Instilling in the buyer the desire to own something a little newer, a little better, and a little sooner than necessary.” That summarizes what the scheme is about, enticing people buy new things, faster. Leonard uses the example of our cell phones. “Today’s cell phones, for example, which have an average lifespan of only about a year, are pretty much never technologically obsolete when we throw them away and replace them with new ones.” People are constantly replacing their phones even though each new one is little better than the last one. To get people to do this the industry did several things. One, it made the cost of repairing products equal to or more expensive than buying new ones. Two, it made replacement parts and service very hard to get. Three, it made upgrades and accessories that were incompatible with older models. Lastly, the look of products had to keep changing to “provide an incentive to toss the older model.” So by making repair a hassle and new products look more desirable, the industry got consumption to a new level.

The book’s second section is called "Advertising." This is the second major reason the industry was able to expand its consumer class to keep pace with its mass-producing factories. Leonard starts by explaining just how many advertisements we see: “By the time she is twenty, the average American has been exposed to nearly a million advertising messages.” Children can identify company logos before they even begin school. Clearly, advertising has always been in the background of our lives. At one time, advertisements expressed simple messages like “Just imported" or “Now in stock.” Today, advertising is on a whole new scale. It involves psychologists, neuroscientists, and actual consumers to find out ways to influence people. Modern ads make us feel bad about what we don't have, and push us to buy more. Brands use image to try to convince us, and often associate their product with a person, lifestyle, or social status. Tiger Woods is under contract from Nike, and his gear is never swoosh-less. To provide an example of what advertisements can do, Leonard writes of her daughter’s infatuation with the popular television character, Dora the Explorer: “Dora popped up everywhere¾on TV, toothbrushes, shampoo, backpacks, electronic games, pencil sets, underwear, bikes, sweatshirts, birthday party goodie bags, pillow cases, beach pails, ice cream, and even breakfast cereal.” Leonard says whenever her daughter sees Dora on a product she squeals, even if it’s something like toothpaste¾not something otherwise inviting for a pre-kindergartener. She writes that buying that toothpaste was like gaining a friend for her daughter. “Despite my best efforts, it’s been impossible to keep ads from influencing her,” Leonard explains. Clearly ads are very effective in getting people to purchase loads of stuff.

It is scary how well planned obsolescence and advertising has worked, and after reading that section I see what the industry does more clearly. I see gadget after gadget come out, like the iPhone and its many generations. I have witnessed clothing trends become old within weeks and have watched my family struggle to repair things, such as wristwatches, and end up replacing them. It is also frightening how many ads there are; Tiger Woods is basically a walking commercial. The book has really opened my eyes to everything that makes us buy more, and I’ll definitely pay more attention to the effects of the techniques used by companies on me.

Annie Leonard explains in depth how the consumer class expanded so much and she provides examples to help us see what she means. Anyone who reads her book will probably have the same reaction as I did¾shock at how effective industry’s plan was.

Review on Jefferson's Blog

Go to: Jeffersons Blog

I have read the post titled "Social Action: Inquiry Question #1" on Jefferson’s blog and have decided to praise his great work. In the post, Jefferson takes apart on old picture book called “Stone Soup” by Marcia Brown. Because I have also read the book, I understand what points Jefferson is making, while he’s also introduced me to aspects of social action that I have not noticed. Jefferson uses the few number of details to find and elaborate aspects of war and poverty. He explains well where he came up with these themes that my younger self could not of found and unlocked to me an entirely new and deeper side of the book.

“Stone Soup” is about three French soldiers coming back from war to a small town looking for food and shelter. After being refused, the soldiers make a pot of soup out of a single stone, but convince the people to help by adding an ingredient. Jefferson analyzed the beginning to bring out its reflection of poverty using very basic, picture book details. He states how the “the villagers are nice, gentle people.” But these people were on such the brink of starvation and poverty that they simply couldn’t afford to help out the soldiers. For a group of caring people, they must be at an extreme level of poor. Jefferson also uses basic details to bring out the issue of war and it’s effect on different people. He includes details from citizens and soldiers to show the how the book reflects these issues. He stated, “The beginning of the book explains how they [the soldiers] haven’t had anything to eat for two days. Also they had to march all the way home by themselves.” For regular people, he mentioned a quote from one of the books characters. “We gave all we could spare to soldiers who came before you,” said Albert, who had refused the soldiers food. Now we can clearly see that war probably has a very negative impact to different groups, and can lead to bad cases of poverty.

One last thing good about the post, was it was very straight forward, and there were no unclear or confusing parts. Not once did I have to stop and try to find out what the author was trying to say. Overall, Jefferson did a good job unpacking simple details and revealing the more complex theme of “Stone Soup.”

The Story of Stuff

A couple days ago, I started the book The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard. It is mainly about the overconsumption of resources on our planet and its effect on places around the world. Throughout the piece the author also presents thoughts on solutions to these problems. In the beginning, she talks about our three most basic resources—trees, rocks, and water—and the ways they are overconsumed. Because Leonard is an environmentalist, she wants us to feel attached to trees, rocks, and water even though they are so plentiful around the world. For each one, she uses certain techniques to make us share her opinion that we need to work on saving our resources.

In her section about trees, Leonard shares her personal experience with forests in her childhood. To avoid confusing readers with the complicated issues of cutting down trees, she explains her appreciation of forests when she was a kid to show the most obvious reasons forests are worth saving. “One big reason I loved forests was the many animals that lived in them,” she writes. “Forests provide homes for about two-thirds of the species on earth.” She follows that with examples of examples of animals like parrots and monkeys. This connects us to trees because animals are very likeable and we would hate to see them disappear by deforestation. As a kid, I can relate to the author’s childhood as I also am an animal fan. Another thing the author does to connect us to trees is show the mind-boggling numbers on the rates at which our forests are being cut down. “Globally, we’ve been losing more than 7 hectares a year or 20,000 hectares—almost 50,000 acres—a day.” And to make it more reader-friendly, she provides a comparison to give us a picture on how many trees we are losing: “This is equivalent to an area twice the size of Paris each day, or about 33 football fields worth every minute.” Just thinking about how we lose a football field of trees every two seconds gives us a great understanding of the rapid loss of trees and is persuasive enough to make us strongly consider her opinion.

In the next section, to give a picture of the importance of water, Leonard compares water from a strong, healthy forest to the water from a clear-cut forest. The water from the intact forest was clear, healthy, and free of chemicals. The water from the clear-cut forest was the opposite: “The rivers below a clear-cut were cloudy, full of muck and debris, with fewer fish, bugs, and life of any kind.” Now that we know how much deforestation there is, we can imagine all of the rivers and water sources that are contaminated in those clear-cut areas. The author also connects the water in these forests to us. “The rivers in the North Cascades feed multiple watersheds from which Washington state’s population draws water for drinking, washing, and irrigation,” Leonard writes. “The health of those rivers impacts the health of bodies of water—as well as bodies of fish, birds, and people—hundreds of miles away.” Now that we have a connection to these rivers and animals, we naturally feel a little more concerned about our water.

In the section about rocks, Leonard does something different to sell us on her ideas. She takes a simple piece of jewelry—her small, gold ring—and explains its history. She starts by theorizing that the ring came from South Africa where a good portion of the world’s gold comes from. Then she presents a very surprising fact about the background of her ring. “Mining enough gold for just an average gold wedding ring creates about 20 tons of hazardous mining waste, which is dumped in rivers or the sea, or sometimes just left right where it was created, as I saw in South Africa.” By presenting this fact, she gets readers thinking about how much mining waste is produced for small pieces of gold jewelry, and how gold should rarely be purchased. This directly relates to her opinion that resources should be conserved. After that, the author explains the long and complicated process of extracting gold and all the various toxins, like cyanide, that are spread into the environment. By detailing all the damage that one gold ring can do, she gets the reader to agree that we should be making and buying less gold.

In conclusion, the author uses facts, comparisons, and personal experiences to prove her point that we need to conserve our trees, rocks, and water. For the rest of the book, I expect more references to those trees, rocks, and water that she wants so much to conserve. Just the beginning of this book has taught me a big issue in our world of which I was barely aware.

Critical Analysis on "Smoke Signals"

The article “Smoke Signals” by Alessandra Potenza explains the rising popularity of unregulated electronic cigarettes among young people. Although electronic cigarettes are free of cancer-causing tobacco, they are still a danger to health, according to U.S. officials, who worry that while they could help smokers quit smoking, electronic cigarettes could bring in a new era of nicotine addiction.

 Potenza includes an example of a 26-year-old student, that lets us see the point of view from a kid and how easily one can start a habit of smoking. “Tiffany Harvey…saw an electric cigarette on Instagram. Out of curiosity, she bought one and tried it… ‘I like to smoke something that’s flavored,’ she says.” Harvey is now an active e-cigarette user. The author also included how e-cigarette companies are attracting more youth to their product. She stated that e-cigarettes come in many youth friendly flavors like chocolate, vanilla, or bubble gum, which is a likely reason they are popular among kids.

Additionally, Potenza includes a comparison of how much e-cigarettes are being advertised today versus the old days when regular tobacco was smoked by more than a third of Americans and tobacco industries had no regulations. “The blu eCigs brand… spent $12.4 million on ads for the first quarter of 2013, up 1,150 percent from 2012.” The shocking increase of advertisement is so scary, it feels like “e-cigarette makers will undo 40 years of efforts to de-glamorize smoking.” The details about Tiffany Harvey and the multiple flavors of e-cigarettes contribute to the main idea of how smoking in youth is on the rise again because cigarette makers are targeting youth. The shocking numbers about the advertising efforts of e-cigarette companies also relate back to the main idea as a supporting detail of the rise in youth smoking.

Potenza is trying to get us to think about how e-cigarettes are going to eventually return America to its nightmare of smoking being a regular activity of almost half of the people. She uses point of view and a strong beginning and ending. First, she uses the words of young people to show the point of view of how easy it is to start a habit of e-electronic smoking. In the beginning of the article, she quotes Harvey, who has “been an e-cigarette smoker ever since” she tried a single e-cigarette and got hooked. Then at the very end of the article the author quotes 21-year-old Bryan Kano, who spoke of his smoking habits. “It’s become kind of a hobby to me,” said Bryan, “I don’t think I would quit anytime soon.”

In addition to showing the points of view, Harvey starts and ends the article with an example of an active smoker, which makes us think about the danger of e-cigarettes. The example of Tiffany Harvey sets the tone for the rest of the article that smoking habits are very easy to pick up. Later in the article, when the author mentions advertisements for e-cigarettes, we think about Harvey and how there are probably many others like her who simply see an e-cigarette and turn into a smoker. When she ends with another smoker who’s hooked on e-cigarettes, it leaves us thinking about how fast the new craze of electronic smoking could spread and make us feel like the “U.S. officials” who worry we will return to our heavy smoking days.

After reading the article, I realize that the author has scared me about a new wave of smoking, especially when I read about the kids and how greatly advertising campaigns have increased in the past couple of years. Because I’m living in this time, I took away a feeling of precaution going into the future, where e-cigarette smoking may be common in my school. I now realize how easy it is to start smoking because of the surprisingly unregulated e-cigarettes, and how hard it is to turn back once it becomes a habit. Before, I thought America was over its smoking problems and is focused on other issues like obesity, but I realize there is a chance smoking can easily become a national problem once again. The article lead me to this thought when it showed the similarities between the advertising campaigns for tobacco that hooked so many people in the ‘50s, ‘60s, and ‘70s and the advertising campaigns of e-cigarettes now, and how they might have the same effect as the ones in the past.

Now that I’ve heard what e-cigarette smoking is, I think there should be regulations just like there is for tobacco. In some places, there are regulations in place but according to the article, the European Parliament rejected the regulations of e-cigarettes in 28 of its member countries. Although several states have laws, in many others, e-cigarettes are available to minors. I think if we use the same regulation tactics as we did with tobacco, which became much less of a health issue than it had been, e-cigarettes also can be contained and it doesn’t have to spread to more people.

Lastly, I am still curious about what goes into an e-cigarette and if it is really a healthier option and can be used safely to help people quit smoking. What is in an e-cigarette and are any of the ingredients harmful? Also, do e-cigarettes have a similar effect on human health as a regular tobacco cigarette? If not, what effect do they have? This information could help me reach a conclusion of how tight regulations should be, and whether or not the rise of e-cigarettes is as serious as Potenza writes.

Social Action Post 2

The article “The High Price of Cheap Fashion” by Patricia Smith reveals where cheap clothes sold in America come from. Most of isn’t made here at all, but in foreign countries like Bangladesh, China, and Vietnam. The author shows how those countries produce clothing with such cheap prices. The conditions in Bangladesh, for example, are terrible for workers. Wages are very low, there are few regulations in factories, and workers are required to work long, hard hours. Recently, a factory in Bangladesh collapsed because of illegally added floors and machinery, killing 1,127 workers. It is unjust that people in America can buy cheap and trendy clothing at the expense and even death of workers in other counties. The economy in America and the other counties that is based on low wages and mass production is an injustice, especially because they keep down public awareness of the way the clothing is made.

Workers in Bangladesh and other big clothing-producing countries are living in a world of injustice, because their working conditions are so inhumane. According to the article, “Bangladesh has seen some of the worst practices in global garment history.” The wages are as low as $37 a month, which is approximately $2 a day. Countries like Cambodia and Indonesia also have low wages, about 50 cents an hour. Employees are required to work many hours in the unsafe conditions of sweatshops. A building owner in Bangladesh “illegally added extra floors and allowed the factories inside to install heavy equipment that the building wasn’t strong enough to support.” As a result, on April 24, 2013, the building collapsed and killed 1,127 people. For workers to work so hard for so little in unsafe conditions is not fair.

The big clothing brands that make huge profits off mistreated workers and the many consumers who buy their products are the ones who create injustice. Companies know cheap labor leads to cheap prices on clothing and higher profits. In China, workers’ paychecks have been steadily rising and major retailers are taking notice. Companies including Gap, Benetton, and Sears have shifted their production to Thailand, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. This motivates governments of other countries to keep wages low and invest less care in their workers. Consumers also play a role in the injustice suffered by workers. Americans have been gradually buying more clothing per year since the early 1900s. “By 1991, Americans were buying about 34 pieces of clothing a year,” Smith writes. “Today Americans buy on average 68 garments and eight pairs of shoes a year.” Clothing has changed from a long-term investment to a quick fashion that is discarded quickly. Companies that need to keep up are demanding more from their suppliers and probably worsening conditions of labor.

To provide some justice to those laboring dangerously every day, public awareness should be spread. If more people knew what’s behind the low price tags on their sweaters, they would buy fewer of them. If many people bought less from the stores, the retailers will surely notice and try to change. Perhaps the clothes here should be more expensive and the wages in other countries higher. Many people are already aware, such as Grace Donnelly, a college sophomore who now buys more “fair-trade” clothes. “At least you know the clothes you’re buying were made sustainably and the people that made your clothes were paid fairly,” she said. Even if no major changes have been made, everyone should know what went into their clothes and how hard it has been for those who made them. Although nothing can bring back the lives of workers who perished in Bangladesh, spreading awareness would bring justice one step closer for the people just like them still working for low pay in an unsafe factories somewhere out there.

Of all the clothing Americans buy, only two percent is actually made here. The majority of our clothing comes from countries like Bangladesh and Indonesia where workers endure unjust treatment, low wages and unsafe conditions. But it is all the customers who go through so much clothing who are pushing retailers to make more than ever. This brings injustice to workers because now they are being forced to work longer and harder for little pay. As a community, we need to spread awareness of this issue to strive for the rights and justice or laborers living the tough life. “The era of the $4.99 dress is not going to last forever,” said Cline, an optimist for reform. “Things are going to change.”