start reflecting

On of the projects that I am most proud of would have to be my American Icon project. I am proud of this project because I made it my own, by taking a picture of myself, and also being a little creative and adding in other portraits that were made by my Icon, Frida Kahlo. I also am proud of my writing I had a little biography on Frida, and then I had a story about me ,after that I added why she was my icon and why I chose to use her in my project. I fit so much information onto one page so I think that was a good thing. I really liked that project, I was able to take something that I like and make a piece of art.

The way that I did all of this was by first doing a lot of research on my icon. I looked her up on the web, I got a book about her in the library, and I also got a movie on her. After I did all of that I started writing my paper, I had to do a lot of drafts for this project, and I also had to get them critiqued by people to help my writing get better. For my art piece the first thing I had to do was take a photo of myself working on art that I had made, after that I had to brainstorm on what I was going to do to that photo to make it creative.I took photos of artwork that Frida Kahlo and i meshed them together on photo shop and took that picture I took of myself and put it on top of the other pictures so it was a mix of her art and we doing my art.

Another project that I worked on and I am very, very proud of would have to be the water quality project. I mad a video in this project, it was very hard and I spent a lot of time on it. I am proud that I was patient and I was able to do all of the work I had to do on this project in order to finish it ans have a great product in the end. Plus by making this video I am sharing with people what I learned through going out and doing tests and a lot of research. I ended up making an informative video, and I am most definitely proud of that.

I had to do a lot of work to get to my final product, when I first started I did a lot of research of things I can use for my project. I had to make a lot of drafts for my video storyboard. It was good that I did this, I had to get my work critiqued by many people in my class not only by my peers but also my teacher Randy. The critiquing process is very good for anything that has to do with writing,because then you can do many drafts of your work, helping your product be the best it can be. After this whole process I had interviewed people like a doctor, and a surf shop owner, to get their input into my video. I also took a lot of pictures at the beach clean up as well as some footage of the beach cleanup. I made my video on Final cut pro it was very difficult to work on a program I was not familiar with but, i learned and I was patient so that was good. I had to stay after school hours to make this video great I even came to school on the weekends, I was very dedicated to this project an how my final product would come out.

Link to the project page, and my video
http://www.mediasavesthebeach.org/

Racial language...

The use of language of racial identity has a big impact on in the thoughts and actions of people in our society now and will have a big impact in the future as well if the language doesn't change. Racial identity is something that is always going to be there, I think that people are used to doing it I know that I do it. It's like judging a book by its cover, which makes people think they are a certain thing when they can be something else. I know that if I were to see someone on the street with white skin I would automatically think they are white, without questioning whether they can be any other race. That is what happens all the time and I don't think it will change. This can lead to a few things, racism, something like the holocaust, and stereotypes of all races.

Racism is something that will always be there and racial language will be one of the main factors to it. Back in the times of slavery anyone with dark skin was looked at as black and they were worthless, they were just slaves. There was no question on whether they had a different race in them who knows, many of those slave could have white descendants therefore making them part white, all that was seen about them was their skin. If the present time was a time where there were slaves it would be the same situation. racism now is not at bad as it used to be but it is there and the people can be racist to any race not just blacks, if someone doesn't like blacks and they see someone who they think is just black it can lead to many things, racial comments, violence, harassment. These things can happen to all races and it is because of the separation or races, or the language of racial identity. The classification of certain people to be of a certain racial group like the holocaust.

The people who suffered in the holocaust where subject the language of racial identity. Hitler wanted only perfect Germans but it's not like he knew the bloodlines of all the people he thought to be perfect, also the bloodlines of the Jews they could have had many other races in their blood but that was not acknowledged, they were classified as Jews and they were NOT German so they were not looked as anything else. Some of the ways that people were known as Jews was by the way that they look, people said they knew them by their big noses. That is the language of Racial identity the Germans looked at them and that is how they caught some of them by the way that they looked. Just how people classify people now by the way they look their skin, or facial features. The way that people look lead to stereotypes that are made by others.

Stereotypes are things that people are looked on upon as according to what others in their race have done. Many people stereotype and that is by the way that people look or act. They are seen as something but they may not be that. Minorities are seen as, gang members, killers,thieves, and many other things. Not everyone is something just because a lot of the people that are their race is that. Anyone can be a murderer or any of all of those bad things, that minorities are "known" for. Nobody ever knows what anyone truly is just by the way that they look they might think they do but they don't. Language of racial identity will always be in our society.

I don't think that can really be changed people look different that's why there are all of these different races. It won't go away because there are differences to everyone and we can't all be looked at as the same, we can't just put behind the way people look at the different races or how people are classified.

Honors blog

A revolution is when a government or political system is overthrown by the people being governed. For us to figure out if the Civil was is actually like the a Second American Revolution we have to look at what happened in the Civil war and see if it is like a Revolution. There were several rebellions throughout the Civil war, and throughout the Civil war there was a new government that was set up with new political parties, things where getting established at this time, things where changing in the world. Also the North and the South where fighting or their independence.

The North and the South had some issues with each other because at this time there was slavery and they both had the totally opposite view on the issue at hand. The North did not want slavery they thought that it was not good to have slavery because the slaves were people themselves. The South on the other hand thought that slavery was a good thing they did not want to get rid of it, slavery was beneficial to them because the slave did a lot of things for them and they didn't have to pay the slaves anything at all. The north and the south felt strongly on where they stood on the issue of slavery and they were not afraid to use unnecessary force to get what they wanted. A republican senator Charles Sumner gave a speech condemning slavery, and he insulted South Carolina and one of its senator, the Congressman of South Carolina Preston S. Brooks did not like that very much and he beat Sumner over the head with a can with a lot of anger even after it broke he kept on hitting him with it. This quote is from the Nation Of Nations book " The can had shattered into three pieces from the violence of the attack, but Brooks, swept up in the emotion of the moment, furiously continued hitting Sumner until the senator collapsed unconscious, drenched in blood." there is where the violence started because a senator had insulted someones state and they fought back with violence. The southerners were trying to keep the slavery through their big powers, for example the Dred Scott case he was not granted his freedom because there were five southern justices int he supreme court, " Two Northern justices joined all five southern members in ruling 7 to 2 that Scott remained a slave..." This quote form the Nation of Nations, people were standing up for what they wanted in big places like the Supreme Court. It was like the southerners were separating themselves and they wanted to have their own rules. People were either pleased or angry at the Dred Scott decision. People where taking a stand through the judicial power.

When Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the main issue to why the southerners receded and kind of made their own government they separated themselves and became the confederates. When Lincoln became president the southerners got scared and they feel that what they were fighting for would soon come to an end because the president had an opposing idea that what they did. This quote shows it " Lincoln's election struck many southerners as a blow of terrible finality, they felt that them receding was the only way to protect their liberty. They succeeded from he union and then they made their own government with their own president,this quote from the Nation of Nations shows it " The rest of the deep south followed, on February 7, 1861, the states stretching from South Carolina to Texas organized the Confederate States of America and elected Jefferson Davis president." It started with a couple of states and then moved to the others like a domino effect they all started to separate themselves, that is how they all became the Confederate States. A lot of states started to succeed and i was all so unexpected Lincoln felt that something had to be done,this quote from the nation of Nations shows this " Matters had passed beyond compromise.”

The North was given the order to put down the rebellion in the southern states
people though that this war wouldn't be very long and the southern rebellion would be stopped. This war was actually very bad with the deaths of many. This war was fought by so many troops as much as 100,000, and they were supplied through the railroads, " So many combatants could be equipped only through the use of factory-produced weaponry, they could be moved and supplied only with the help of the railroads..." this is a quote from Nation of Nations. These people were fighting for what they believed was the right thing for their country whether it be slaves or anti-slaves. You can say that the Civil war was not a typical war it was different than the ones that had come before it. Wars were usually a fight for a piece of land, but this time it was different they were fighting for liberty, and some were fight in for the rights they thought people should have including the slaves.

The Civil War was referred to as the Second American Revolution because there was a difference in the war people were fighting for what they though was right, there was a change going through this people made their own Government and they had like their own Confederate States. The people being governed rebelled against the government in place and did their own thing. It was a revolution but in the Civil War people fighting for what they thought was right.

THanKs!!!

I am very thankful for my mother This year and every year, she has been through so many struggles physically and emotionally, but somehow she still seems to put everyone before herseflt, she like to help people, and she really wants me to do something with my life as do I. I am thankful that she puts up with me, and never gives up on me even when I am not the nicest person in the world. THANKS MOM!!!!

PART 2
One of the things I am going to do befor spring break is that I am going to finish my second draft of my story board because some of the stuff I was going to put in the video have changed.

The second things I am going to do is On Saturday I am going to go to the surf rider beach clean up at dog beach, and when I am there I am going to be filming a little bit and I am going to take pictures for my video. After that iam going to be interviewing some people that I need in my video an that is what I am goin to do.

The third thing I am goin to do is that I am goin to work on my edeting of footage and I am going to be working on the creation of my video, that way I can have a good start on it. This week we got to start working on it and that is exactly what I did I took the time given to me and started working on them.

QUestions aNswered...

1. I am discovering many things in this project because it is also connected to Biology class and we get to test the water at the local beaches for different bacteria. I am discovering that a lot of the bacteria comes from the sewage runoff into the water, and something that is weird is that at the beach that I am mostly focusing on in this project OB, we got to go water saple collecting one day after it rained and when we went to the beach if you were to look at the water the whole shallow water all the way out into deeper water was yellow and you could really see the difference from the dirty water, and the clean blue water. I got to see first hand the dirty water I found that interesting because if it was before this project I wouldn't have even noticed it. I am interviewing people as well so I will get their input on how they feel about what is going on.

2.Sometimes I feel that it is going to be very easy but then I get hit with reality and it is actually not that easy so what I have to do is work really hard and do all of my work, but I have to measure my time wisely because we do not have to much time to do things and I really have to focus.

3.The next steps would have to be get all of of my interviews done for my video and also do the research for some of the facts that will be in my video ass well. I also have to take pictures of the beach that I will be putting into my video. Last but not least I will have to put all of my video together do a lot of editing and just make it look good.

Some kind of help..

I liked this video because it kind of looks like a commercial and it has text through out the video like I am planning to have in my video. I only like certain aspects of this video that I might use in my video,like the text and maybe how the pictures move fast. That seemed pretty cool maybe i can do that in the end when the video is finishing.





This is a good video because it has a little bit of what I want to have in my video. I am going to have interviews with people and also the doctors from urgent care on the beach so I think that this video shows that. I will also take footage of the people on the beach and this video shows it as well.

My Plan!!!

My question for the H2O project is as follows:
How do bacteria levels in local beaches affect beach goers?

I am planning on making an informative video of me interviewing people, their response will be most of the video there will be a little bit of text and some photos that I will take at the beahces.

A)Resources needed

*A camera so I can take picturea
*A video camera for the video portion with a tripod.
*Computer to edit footage
*Water samples from different beaches like OB,PB, and other beaches
*Transportation (if possible)

B)People I will need
*I am going to be getting a contact list for people I can interview
but so far I have a couple of people so far:
*I would interview beach goers anyone who would be willing to be interwieved
*Surfers
*Doctors from the urgent care on the beaches
*Lifeguards

C)Schedule for the next two weeks

Thursday: make my plan for what i need for me to follow through with this project

Friday 11/7/08: Finish list of questions for the interviews, and also get help on finding contacts from Randy. So that i can get approved and will have access to resources in the foolowing days when needed.

Sat 11/8/08 through Tues 11/11/08: Plan out what I am going to do for the interviews, and maybe try to make more questions for interviews.

Wed 11/12/08 through Fri 11/14/08: get my resources and go to the beaches and do my interview with the people, doctors, and lifeguards, some of these may be scheduled. Also take any photos that I may use in my Video.

Mon 11/17/08: taking last minute pictures or getting any more interviews if needed if not then it will be as follows.

Mon 11/17/08 through Fri 11/21/08: This week I will be putting all of the pictures and editing all my footage together to make my video. I will be editing the footage to transition well throughout the video, and i will be fixing all of the photo and text into the video.

That is what I have planned so far for the next two weeks....!!

Election Reflection..

I feel really good about the elections because someone that isn't what everyone is used to won the elections. I like how Obama one it is showning that our country is changing new things are happening.
First of all I just hope that people accept that Obama is the President of the United States, and that people stop being mad about it, because there isn't much they can do now too change that. Our country has made a big change from what people are used to seeing. Peopla shoulc not hate it but they should try and see what something new can offer before they judge the person.
Another thing that I hope is that there can be more equality due to the ellections and now there is a difference.
My concerns for our community are the economic crisis that we are in I hope that it can be helped, the war in Iraq I hope the decisions made are the right ones.

H2O Project

1)How acidic is the beach water now and will the acidity increase with all the CO2 being produced in the environment?

Yes some oceans are becoming more acidic, and it is increasing with the excess CO2 in the atmosphere. It is not good that all of this CO2 is being absorbed into the ocean, and article that i read stated that,
"The ocean naturally absorbs about one-third the total amount of CO2 pumped into the atmosphere; as concentrations of the gas increase in the air, so does the amount taken up by the sea"

That is not so good one of the things that is happening is that the coral reef is dieing and it is said that it will all die by the end of this century if the water keeps absorbing the CO2. the coral reef is home to a lot of marine life if the coral reef were to die it would affect a lot of other species. This article says:
"called the rain forests of the sea, coral reefs are the ocean’s most biologically diverse ecosystems, supporting roughly 25 percent of marine life and more than 4,000 species of fish."

With all of the CO2 being absorbed by the ocean the acidity is going up in the oceans, the pH level is going down which means it is becoming more acidic, the article from PLENTY says the following about the pH level in the oceans,
"The sea’s pH has dropped by 0.1 units over the past century."
That shows us that the water is becoming more acidic over time.





2)Does it cost us money to have clean water?How much does it cost to do so?

Yes it does cost us money to keep our water clean.People have been trying to keep the water clean for the longest time and it does cost money to have clean water. in this article that I read it says that the government helped fund organizations who wanted clean water. There is this thing called the Water Clean Act and according to the article,
"...hundreds of billions of federal, state and local dollars have been invested to achieve our national clean water goals."
The cost to having clean water is high. For some time the funding for things was working and it helped clean a lot of water everywhere the article says,
"From 1974-1994 the Federal Construction Grants Program invested $96 billion in new construction and upgrades of municipal wastewater treatment plants. Local governments followed suit with an investment of $117 billion. The federal, state and local funding strategy worked, and we made remarkable environmental progress.

Over the next years the cost will go up more and it is said that it is getting harder since the government can't really help because of the economic situation we are in at the time. The price for clean water is higher, the article states,
" From this perspective, future wastewater investment costs are more than twice as high as EPA's estimate — at least $330 billion over the next 20 eyars. This $330 billion needs estimate does not include rising operation and maintenance costs, which could increase by an average of 3.8 percent per year over the next 20 years, putting more pressure on the ability of local governments."
So things are not getting any easier, they are actually getting harder which is not very good for us,because then it will be like drinking dirty water.






Sources:
PLenty: H2O + CO2

AMSA: clean water

Jacksonian Democracy

Politics is something that has been going on for a very long time. In the earlier years when the government was still being established there was something called the Jacksonian Democracy. In the Nation of Nations book that I am reading it says that Henry clay organizedThe National Repuclicans, and it also says " the new style of politics came into its own nationally only when Andrew Jackson swept to power at the head of a new party, The Democrats." So in the Nation of Nations book it lets us know that the new system of politics came to be when Jackson organized the new democratic party. With this new style of politics many things changed new things started to happen. The Jacksonian democracy changed things from being not equal for all to the equal rights that people have now.

Jacksonian Democracy had certain principles by which they abided and tried to make things happen. I will talk to you about these things. One principle they had was Expanded suffrage, the Jacksonians felt that voting rights should have been more important they made it so that any white man could vote at the time, instead of just the richer people who onwned land.
Another thing was thing was Manifest Destiny they wabted to expand to other countreis, and this was something good because it built on our country. They wanted a limitation on the expantion because they did not want slavery to expand to other countries as well, the whig party a rival tpp the Jacksonians did not like this system of politics, but the Jacksonian way of doing thing led to what we have today the equality of all races.

The Jacksonians wanted the people to be a part of the governement, that wasn't happening before the Jacksonian Democracy, and the Jacksonians accomplished that, the influance of the people in the government. The uprising if the Jacksonian Democracy made the politice kind of how they are now with the two opposing parties, Republicans and Democrats. Jacksonian Democracy made the increase in respect for the common man not just the people who have more money or own land, there was more equality in the country.

The Jacksonian Democracy was constantly politically fighting with the Whigs party, and they made an impact in the political participation of the people in the government with their votes and stuff like that. John Quincy Adams was the firts person who was elected witht the vote from the common man and not only land owners.

I think that Jacksonian Democracy made it possible for a lot of things to happen a new system of politics, the equality of the people. It made it so that the people could be more in the government like they had a decision that they could state by voting for these candidates that were there. The growth or our country was also something else that was good, and overall i think that the Jacksonian Democracy was very good in the early start of America as well as now.

Sources:

James West, Davidson, Gienapp William E., Heyrman Christine Leigh, Lytle Mark H., and Stoff Micheal B.. Nation of Nations. United States of America: McGraw Hill College Companies, 1999.

Voting Scandals Edited!!!

There seem to be many things going on in the world now that the elections are coming up. some of those things include vote-suppression and the ACORN scandal. These things are said to be taking away peoples vote and their voting rights which is something that is very important to people. That is their say or their opinion in this greater society, they get to choose the different things that they feels is good for our country and the candidate that seems to represent these things. What I have to see is if these things are actula scandals.

Currently ACORN is under investigation by the FBI, for vote fraud. They are sending in a bunch of voting registrations of people who have already registered and they are also said to be making up fake names , such as Mickey Mouse. This is said to be a big scandal since the presidential elections are here and now everybody is stressing because they don't want people to win with false votes. The republicans called out Barrack Obama on supporting this group and that he is doing wrong things. The Acorn Organization is turning in a lot of fake registration forms with fake names, which is not good they want a lot of vote but they are not doing it in the right way. Something that Is a little wierd is that MCcain was saying that Obama is not very good since he is a suppoter of ACORN, but he himself was a supporter of this compnany.

MCcain spakes at ACORN rally in 2006


MCcain was also someone who supported the ACORN company, he spoke at one of their rallys as shown in the video above.
Acorn is actually not doing anything wrong the MCcain-Palin Campaign is accusing ACORN of voter fraud but it is actually not, the fraud that has been commited was some voter registration fraud by some of the ACORN employees who just wanted to get paid for work they felt was a little hard to meet. These actions would not actually help fill up the poll ballot boxes.
Acorn was just doin their job it is illegal for them to discard ant registration forms that can only be done by the election officials all that they could do with the suspicious forms was flag them which they did. The NYTimes says: "According to Acorn, most of the forms that are now causing controversy are ones that it flagged and that unsympathetic election officials then publicized."

Factcheck says:

"ACORN also says it cannot simply discard suspicious forms on its own, but is required by law in most states to submit to local election officials all the forms its canvassers bring in. ..... only election officials are legally able to determine the validity of a voter registration application."

So in reality ACORN did not do anything wrong they just did their job. People are making this bigger than it should be it is not a scandal, they just turn in the registration foorms that does not really change the vote that go in the poll ballot boxes.

In the vote-suppression is something that is worse than this supossed ACORN scandal many peoples votes are being cast out for minor things while registering , so they are not getting their voting rights either.Voter-supprresion makes it dificult or impossible for people to vote.
The Huffington Post says,"One of the brightest hopes for the Obama-Biden ticket is that many people will read and act on the advice in RFK, Jr and Palast in their guide to protect their legitimate voting rights. Failing that America is headed toward another election that will see millions of ballots discarded on pseudo-technicalities." That is saying that people should get their vote back, and the peoples voting rights should be protected, because many peoples votes are basically being thrown away.
The help America vote law is something that makes sure that people are not commiting voter fraud, but it actually leads to voter -suppression because if there are any small things that are different on your informationlike on a licencse or something and it is different from the information that the elction officials have then they basically tell the people they cannot vote, that is not good for people.





Sources:
NyTimes : the ACORN story

Fact CHeck: ACORN Accusations

Huffington Post: voter-suppression

Presidential Debates

After watching the presidential and vice presidential debates I saw that both candidates had a lot to say and also a lot of things they wanted to clarify. The vice presidents were there to also state the goals as well was the achievements of both parties. In these debates they were stating a lot of things that are going on in our country now, how they could make a change, and how they would be better than the other candidate.
They were talking a lot about the main issues going on, like health care, education, taxes, the war in Iraq.
Both of them had something to say.
Obama was very dedicated to expressing how important health care is to the people and how he would help people get it.
He also talked about the education of the people in our country and how people need it.
They both talked about how the taxes are not doing a lot of good in our community, and how they both want to change that. Then they both talked about how one or the other supported these things , they would just attack each other trying to make the other look bad in the eye of the public. That what debates are about they, are where people argue their side on a certain topic(s).

For the war in Iraq they both had their own opinion Obama wants to bring back the troops and MCcain says to leave them there so that they can finish the job that we started.
People agree with different things i guess you would just have to see the different perspectives that people have.
These debates are different to the ones that happened years ago, where they would last up to 3 hours and each person spoke for 90 minute instead of 90 seconds. I think in the debates back the the candidates had more time to talk and express the way they view the situations at hand. Now they only get a short amount of time to speak and they always seem to get cut off in the middle of their explanations. I think that the debates always help people see a little bit more of what the candidates are about which is always good.

can the internet affect your choice?

I think that the Internet can most definitely affect the choices that people have on the presidential candidates.
All kinds of media can affect people think of certain things.

There are some websites that promote the candidates and they let the people know what these men are trying to do to change the country.
A website that would kind of be good for like promoting would have to be YouTube because on that website there are a lot videos where people can express themselves on how they feel about the candidates and who people should vote for.
On that website there can also be commercials that are made by the candidates themselves and commercials can be very persuasive for certain people.
Something else that people can do is make their own website advertising the person that they want. People can make their own websites all of the time and since it is theirs they can put whatever they want on it. People promote things on the Internet as much as they can on the street passing on fliers. On the Internet it can get around the world even more than you passing fliers on the street. The Internet can be accessed by so many people and a lot of people do use it. So yes I do think that the Internet can have an affect on how people make their choices.

Project Reflection..

In this project he had some time to do a lot of things. We were assigned one of the Lincoln -Douglas debates in our case we got the first debate. We had to research that topic and then make a newspaper cover of it . With articles and pictures relating to our specific debate. Something that I contributed to the final product that I liked would have to the article that I wrote, which was the Lincoln's view on slavery. Another thing was the poll quote in our newspaper, I had my article already and I just needed to pick something string in that article that would catch somebodies eye or also specify what the article might be talking about.

Something that I did no like so much in the final product would have to be, my article's headline I could have put more thought into that. If I had done that I would have been able to come up with a better headline that would be kind of like an attention getter for the reader.

The process fro this newspaper was long we had a lot of stuff to do. What I first had to do after getting assigned to a certain debate was research the debate. I actually had to read the transcripts to find Lincoln's view. I pulled out specific quotes from the transcripts to show both sides Lincoln's and the opposing side Douglas. After I had read the transcripts and pulled out quotes I had to start write the first draft of my article. The next day I brought it to school and got it critiqued by my peers and group members. When that was done I revised and edited my article as well as Aaron's, while he started working on the page on indesign. Once I was done editing the articles they were given to Aaron so that he could put them into the actual paper. I also had to find pictures and make headlines and captions for the articles and pictures. This process was a little hard, making captions or headlines were not to easy but we got it done. After all of this Aaron was working on the paper and he would ask for our input on how we liked the layout or what we could do to change it, so Me and Sophie both helped in that. We also reviewed the paper to see if there were any mistakes that way Aaron could fix them. That was pretty much the whole process of this project for me and my group members. Overall I think that our final product was good I really liked it, It had some minor errors in it but besides that we were able to all put in work for this paper.

Use of photography...

Photography

This image shows a good snse of composition. I chose this picture because there is one main object, which is the shell, but they took the picture using the ruke of thirds method. They take the picture in a certain way so that you can see the obeject but you also see the background which is really good.

This picture is showing the use of depth in field. I chose this photo because it shows how there are many things in the picture like the wide open space in the background, but in this photo there is one thing that is focused on. The photographer focused on the smirnoff bottle, and you can still lond of see the background but it is blurred.

This photograph shows eyes, color, and filling up the frame. In this picture they got a close up picture of the cat they filled the whole frame with that one object and the cat was actually even cut off in certain areas. This is a very good picture to show the filling of the frame.

In this photo the photographer used the light that was coming into the room to their advantage. In this photo the girl is mostly in a shadow except in the part where the light is slightly shining on her face I really like how this photo looks,

This photo shows a great use of someone getting on the eye level of the object they are photographing I really like this photo because it is not easy to get a photo like this, a giraffe is very tall and they got on its eye level and took a good picture of it.

This is the use of close up macro photography it can be closee up or far away. I chose a photo with a close up on an eye

I chose this photo because not only do I like color photos but also black and white photos. I son't know why I do but sometimes black and white makes things pop out a little bit more like in this phoyo the couple in the middle pop out more than the background.

I got all of my photos from google images.

Debate is the subject...

The Lincoln - Douglas debate that I had to research in particular was their very first debate. This debate took place in Ottawa, Illinois, and these senatorial candidates where debating on slavery and popular sovereignty. There were many people there that day who wanted to listen to what these two men had to say about slavery. In the beginning of this debate the first to speak was Douglas and he started it off by saying a bunch of things that Lincoln had done, which was kind of an attack to Lincoln. When Lincoln got his turn to speak the first thing he said was that he did not like when people misrepresented him and that is what Douglas had done something good about this action was that he said what he wanted to say and then he clarified any false information that was given.
In this debate Lincoln and Douglas had different views on the topic at hand. Lincoln felt that slavery should be abolished and he stated this clearly in the debate. He hated slavery just for what it was a human without rights, I would have to say that is what he thought about it.

Lincoln: " I hate it because of the monstrous injustice of slavery itself."

In that quote he basically states that he is not for slavery, he thinks that it is something that is not good for anyone to be in. On the other hand Douglas never really explicitly says that he is for slavery, but he says that a country should be able to decide for themselves whether that country would have slavery or not, this was called popular sovereignty.

Douglas: ".... each state to state perfectly free to do as it pleased on the subject of slavery."

These are two different views on slavery, which clash and that's why it is a debate. Two opposite opinions and they candidates argue their view on a question, and the people I think are the one's who ultimately decide who wins in these debates

In the Presidential debates now the format is very different to that of the debates back in the day. Now the candidates are asked several questions instead of one and they have to answer them in like 90 sec instead of ninety minutes.

The presidential debates now are going good so far. I think that sometimes both candidates make valid points on what they are talking about whether it be about the economy, taxes, or the war in Iraq. There is always one better than the other in these things. I think that Barrack Obama does a very good job in stating his ideas. Something else he does is that if Mccain says something about him , he clarifies it and that is kind of like what Lincoln would do in his debates against Douglas. So far in the debates that have occurred I have learned a lot even though at times i get bored and doze off, I still seem to get stuff out of it. I can here what these men are proposing to do for our country as president.

All around the world..

After looking at the demographics of different places I saw that I had questions on somethings.
In some of the demographics I would see that that obviously the age ranges varied and in some ages there were higher percentages of people , does that mean that more people were born during their time rage? If so why was that?

Is the population in California and Texas bigger because they are border states?


I was looking at the demographics in America on American Fact finder. On here I was able to look at statistics on many different things like the percentages of the different races, populations in different states, age and sex, and also education. I found this very helpful to my learning what there is in America through numbers.

I had to answer the following question:

1. Explain how a particular demographic may be impacted by—or could impact—the election of one of the candidates for President.

Well for this question I can't really say how they demographics would affect the elections, I would have to say that it depends on who is a Democrat or Republican. I know that there are many in both parties. Something that I can say is that if there are people that want something different they will vote for Barrack Obama because he is African-American, and he would be the first African -American as a president. There may be a lot of people who don't want the same thing they want to see something knew. There are also many people who are already accustomed to the old ways and don't want change. Change to them might not be something that will have a positive but negative outcome in the end, so those people might vote for MCcain. They are so used to something that they say something knew will ruin everything, but in reality that is a fallacy of tradition, which is when people think that if something has been done a certain way for many years as long as they can remember it cannot be done any other way , which is not true. People do things out of the ordinary all of the time those can be good or bad. I saw that in the populations the whites have more people than any other race including African-American, that could have and impact in the elections depending on the view of the whites.

You think you are free of rasicm ...think again

Racism is something that has been going on for a very long time, even more in the times of the civil war. Racism and discrimination has happened, is happening, and I think it always will be in our midst.

Racism and discrimination is something that has been around for a long time. There were the slave during the civil war. They were seen as not human and more like property. An example of this would be the Dred Scott case. Where a slave tried to sue for his freedom this took place in the year 1847 well at least his first attempt at it was in that year. The Supreme court had at first rejected his Case , but then a couple of years later when they decided a re-trail they made the decision of denying him his freedom, they said that because he was black, he was not a citizen and therefore he could not sue anyone. I don't think that was right because back then they did not see slaves as humans and they like basically had no rights. The thing I did not understand was, how could they not see them as human? They had all the same things that all the rest of the people had the only difference was the skin color. These slaves wanted their freedom they wanted to be like all of the other human, they wanted to be Free.

In class we are learning a lot about the civil war and slavery was a big thing going on during that time, I got this very valuable resource from my teacher. It is a book called Letters of a Nation, in this book there are many actual letters that people have written to others, I was able to find some letters that were written by slaves. In these letters the authors are writing mostly to their loved ones. I would like to share with you some excerpts from the text. The following letter is from Louisa Alexander to her husband Archer.

"My dear husband, I received your letter yesterday and lost no time in asking Mr. Jim if he would sell me, and what he would take for me. He flew at me, and said I would never let you free only at the point of Baynot, and that there was no use in my ever speaking to him any more about this...... He says that if he had a hold of Lincoln he would chop him up into mincemeat"

In this letter she is telling her husband that there is no chance of her getting her freedom, and how her master does not like Lincoln because he was trying to free the slaves. Her master must have despised Lincoln to want to harm him in that way. There were families that were being separated from each other by their owners selling one of them to someone else. I know that I would not like to be separated from my family now for a short amount of time, let alone not being able to know whether I will see my family again, this is something that many of the slave went through. Another thing that We read in class was Slavery Without Submission, Emancipation Without Freedom. In that text I found that the people who wanted slavery had a system in place that supported slavery and that nothing could entrench the system unless it was a huge war or a big slave rebellion, the system was as follows.

" A system harried by slave rebellions and conspiracies developed a network of controls in the southern states, backed by laws, courts, armed forces, and other race prejudice of the nation's political leaders."

In that part of the text it is saying that because the slaves were rebelling they had to take stronger measures to keep it the way they wanted it, with there being slaves. So they started using militia and many other means of power to stop the slaves from being free.

These slaves did not have natural rights, or human rights, I think they only had one which was life but they were missing the other two as seen in the Declaration of Independence, they were missing Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness. Since they were not seen as humans they did not get any of these things until they were free.
I thought it was weird because they fought for their freedom and everything, and when they finally got it they thought they would be free from everything. That is not the case there are still many people that are racist or they like to discriminate. All victims of racism want to escape all of that but it still goes on now even after all of those laws of equality. Some people will never see that equality, they don't see that we are all created equal.

Dying for Dixie, is a very good example of this this story is about a man that was shot by black teenagers because he had a confederate flag posted up in the back of his truck. I this story it showed how people were not over that fact that blacks were no longer enslaved, they were still very racist and they did not care for the integration of races, even though it was already happening. They had The KKK and other groups who did not like the blacks, and they weren't afraid to show it. The whites felt that if the blacks got m,ore things that they requested that soon they would take over everything.
There was a part in the text where this lady is talking the the reporter in Kentucky about the whole situation and how blacks should " get over slavery". I don't think that anyone could really get over that especially when they are still being treated as lower beings. In this she says, "Slavery was not that bad, A lot of people were quit happy to be living on a large plantation" And then she starts talking about how blacks would take over everything if they got some of the things that they wanted, this made her mad and she said "Don't put us where they used to be." If she felt that slavery was not that bad why was she so enraged by the fact that she might be put in the same situation the blacks were in? That is very contradictory, but that is how some people feel they don't want anything tho happen to them, and they don't care about others.

Something that is a more recent case of racism is the Jena 6 case in Louisiana. Where six black high school students were arrested for beating up a white student. They felt that they had a reason to do it because they were just minding there own business and they sat down under a tree in their high schools courtyard, and this spot was somewhere that usually some of the white students would sit. The next day when these black students went to sit there they found that there nuces hung on the tree. Which was very racist and hurtful to these black students because it symbolized when slaves would get hanged.These students were really offended by this. So the black students beat up a white classmate and they were all arrested, at one point all but one of these boys were released. People felt that this was a racial act because this guys chargers were already casted out by the courts, but the judge would not set bail for this boy and that is not fair it is just like the Dred Scott case I mentioned before they were denying this boy his freedom.



People might have felt for a moment that they were free from something, but they soon found out that they were still frowned upon by some they were not seen as equal but less than the others. Racism and discrimination has been happening for a very long time and it will continue to happen I don't think there will be a time when there is no racism and discrimination. I have gone into the past to show you some examples of an issue that some people just cannot be without and I have also shown you some more current events involving the same thing, Racism and Discrimination.


CITATIONS

Carroll, Andrew. Letters of a Nation. New York City: Broadway, 1999.

"Dred Scott." PBS. 2 Oct. 2008 .

"Neo Nazi Group threatens Jena 6 students." Youtube. 22 Sep. 2007. 2 Oct. 2008 .

"The Jena 6 CNN Report." Youtube. 6 Sep. 2007. 2 Oct. 2008 .

Zinn, Howard. People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.). New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2005.

Human Not Property.

The Dred Scott Case
People & Events
Dred Scott's fight for freedom
1846 - 1857
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2932.html

I found this piece of writing on PBS Online
This relates to topics in class because we have been studying slavery as well as some things about the Supreme Court Cases.

Dred Scott was a black man yearning for his freedom, after being a slave all his life. First Scott offered his owner $300 for his freedom which was refused. After that he took it to the courts. He sued for his freedom in 1847, that was his first trial and he lost on a technicality because he could not prove that him and his wife were owned by the widow Mrs. Emerson. A year later he went to court again and the St.Louis circuit court ruled that Scott and his family were free. Two years later the Missouri Supreme court reversed the decision of the lower court forcing them to be enslaved again. They went through many trials and they were denied of their freedom. In 1856 Scott went to the supreme court which had many biases about slavery because most of them were hired by presidents who were for slavery and they owned slaves themselves.

In 1857 the decision of the court was read which stated the following, "-- a staunch supporter of slavery -- wrote the "majority opinion" for the court. It stated that because Scott was black, he was not a citizen and therefore had no right to sue." Which is like basically saying that because they were black they are not considered human more like property and therefore they are not citizens and they cannot sue. A precedent that they used was that because Scott was black he was not citizen and he could not sue. The causes of this decision would have to be the following:
The southern slave owners took it well.
The decision made many northerners very angry they were "outraged" as said in the text.
Something else that was cause by this decision would have to be , that it greatly influenced the nomination of Abraham Lincoln in the Republican Party and then later into the elections.

This subject connect to modern America because there is no slavery now but certain races are still seen as lower than the white race. There is still a lot of racism and discrimination, in some countries more than others. There are groups who still want what we had back then, they feel that some races are abominations, an that they are lower. I don't think that is a good thing because we all live in this country as free men, the way it should have been since the beginning. Somethings that I ask myself would be, Why were black people not seen as humans like everyone else? Why was there slavery in the first place if we are all equal? Those are just some things that I think about. We are all created equal, we all are human and we all have the same rights.

Reflection....

What are you most proud of on your blogs? why?

I am most proud of my blogs because I actually kept up with the dates that they were due. I was able to finish all of the blogs and find good articles to connect to classroom topics, and I can write what I think about the topic. I get to put my own input into the Internet which is most likely read by people, and they can see my point of view. Something else that I was the most proud of on my blogs was that I was able to write a lot for all of the blogs. Usually I tend to write a little bit for each topic and I have never liked the fact that I do that. Sometimes my mind has to train of thought for certain topics. I just totally blank and have no idea what to write about. This time it was a little different, I think that it was different because in class we actually describe the topics and we discuss them wit each other, that helps me get a better understanding about what I am learning. If I know that topic that I am trying to connect to other current events, it is way easier to find an article that does connect and I can write about it and how they connect to what we are currently learning in class.

What will you improve during future blogs? why? how?

Something that I am going to improve in future blogs would have to be the information that I put into my blogs. I have to make sure that all of what I am writing is accurate. If I have any false information in the blog then that is not good because then anyone who may not know about that topic can just go and read my blog and they will probably believe what is on there because I'm sure that everyone doesn't research everything that they read. If people believe false information then it is not good because then they think of something as right when it actually isn't. Another thing that I would probably change about my blogs would have to be that format that they are in I would want to organize my thought better so that things can make sense in my blogs. The way things are setup is always important because one little thing can mess up the flow the you have going in your blog, those little things can lead to confusion of the reader, or also it just might not look appealing to the eye, people like to read things that look like they are good.

How has blogging impacted your understanding of the ; U.S, the media, current events, "old" news (i.e. the constitution, fed papers, etc.)?

The blogging has greatly impacted the way that I view things around in me including the U.S. , the media, current events and old news. For the U.S it has changed my views because I get to learn about a topic first in class that has to do with the U.S and then I have to take that information and go and find something in articles that connects to that. There are many different things going on that can connect to topics we learn in class and by me having to find them, I learn new things by reading news articles. In the news articles there is information on things going on in the U.S. so I learn more every time I read an article. In the media I already knew that there is a lot of false information that is given about people. In the media they are always either trying to make someone look bad or look good. I've noticed that if you are someone who is in the public eye you have to be very careful with what you say because any little thing can be misconstrued, and then people can take that little bit and make you look so bad. The media as I have learned does that a lot people can say one thing that is false or they can say something that bashes something or someone else , and that is taken and people make into a big thing and there is controversy, then those public figures have to come out and analogize or clarify anything that they have said.
This helped me a lot with current events because when we had to make class connection we mostly had to do it with events that have recently happened. By doing this I am looking up things that are happening now and I am able to see what is going on in the world a round me which is really good. It is always good to be aware of what is going on a round you because something may happen and you will have no idea. Current events tell you what is happening now and you need to know that because thy could be warning you of something that might happen, and if you are not informed on these things when the time comes you will know nothing about it. The way that old news is Incorporated into this is because we learn about these things like the constitution or the fed papers in class and then we have to take those things and connect them with things going on now. I think that something always connects with something else you can find it with many things. We are learning something old which is actually in the new.

inacurate info (Edited on 9/25/08)

Maverick Misleads
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/maverick_misleads.html
Published:September 4, 2008
Found in Factcheck.com

This article shows that there are things that are broadcasted, spread out into the world for people to know about them and they aren't even legit. This can happen in many cases when it comes to politics, or even general things. Everybody wants to be seen as the best representative so they either bash their opponents or they try to compare themselves to them, or someone else who was thought of as a great leader. They use inaccurate information for many of these things and it is kind of weird because, the representatives don't write what they say themselves I'm sure that they have someone who writes it for them. They just deliver it to the audience, I think that everyone should do some extreme research on the topics that they are speaking about that way they can say the truth and not what they think is the truth. I took a speech class over the summer and one thing that I learned about public speaking is that when you are making a speech your information has to be backed up by some sort of evidence or citation. Especially if you are speaking to an audience who is well informed on the subject. This will keep you from getting embarrassed then or any time after when your "facts" are proven invalid.
Someone can take What you just said if they know that the information is false, and they can call you out on it which does not make the speaker look good at all. I think of it this way if you are going to speak to an audience you have to know what you are speaking about, you can't just go up and improvise because there are facts to things and I am certain that someone in that audience may know a little bit more about he subject than you do. So it i always good to be prepared and know your topic well.

BANKRUPT!!!

Wall Street in Worst Loss Since 2001

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/business/16paulson.html?_r=1&
hp&oref=slogin

By STEPHEN LABATON

Published: September 15, 2008

Found in the NYTimes

Right now the stock market is in a crisis they are crashing, all of these banks are losing their business, and all of their money. When people hear about this crisis they feel that their money is not safe they are taking out all of their moneys from certain banks and that is not good for the bank. The banks are loosing a lot of money and that is not helping anything at all. Everyone is going to panic and start taking their money and moving it somewhere else. If thats keeps on happening a lot of banks are going to go bankrupt, and loose their business. Some advice that I would give on this matter would be, let the government help these people get their business back in order, but they should not entirely bail them out. If the Government were to bail them out fully, it would be like nothing ever happened. This should be a lesson to those companies, that did not do a good enough job in managing their money and business. The reason why the government should help the Lehman Brothers is because they are a bank that is holding peoples money so it would benefit us as well as their company, but like I said before the government should help a little not fully that way these companies won't become dependant on the help from the government , and think that every time they have a problem that's where they look for help.

Man wants prison

Elderly Bank Robber Looks Forward To Prison


This story was found on CNN news as well as KGET News

This relates to the Thomas Hobbs Philosophy of the social contract, where you will do whatever, and use your own strengths to protect your natural rights; Life, Liberty, and Property. This man spent most of his life in jail and now that he was out he felt as if it was easier being in jail, than trying to go on in life outside he , had no one to lean on and he had no extra help, for his needs in the outside world. I guess he felt happier serving time than trying to make it on his own, he went into the bank knowing what he was going to do. He did it on purpose because he knew he was going to get caught and he wanted to go back to prison. In this way he did something for himself he used his own power and strength to get happiness. He was in and out of jail for most of his life since he was eighteen and he felt that being in prison was an option that he had and he wanted it. So he did something tho get what he wanted.

One against the Other

Thai Leader Faces Challenge in Streets and Courts

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/03/world/asia/03thailand.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=anti%20government&st=cse&oref=slogin

By SETH MYDANS and THOMAS FULLER
Published: September 2, 2008

Found in the NYTimes.

This article is about the pro Gov, and anit-gov. They have protests in Bangkok some leading to violence.

This connects to something that we are studying in class right now, Federalists and Anti-federalists.

In this article they talk about the anti-gov trying to get rid of the government, which is like the anti-federalists. They did not think that we needed a government or anything that had to do with it. On the other hand there were the Federalists which did believe in having a government to help and protect the people. This is something that they said in the one of the Federalist papers # 10. "The friend of popular governments never finds himself so much alarmed for their character and fate, as when he contemplates their propensity to this dangerous vice." It is basically saying that someone who wants a government or is for the government , will not be shocked with some of the choices that they make. In this article there were two groups protesting . There was the anti-gov who wanted to get rid of the government and the pro-gov who were trying to get what they thought out, for the anti-gov protesters to hear it. Sometimes protest are not the best thing because some of them may lead to violence. Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej was being confronted because he is part of the government, he felt attacked and wondered what he had done to all of these people. Its not him that did something, it is just the fact that some people are not getting what they want, not everyone gets what they want there is always that other factor to everything.