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Skateboarding Bias

Posted by Felix D'Hermillon in English 2 - Pahomov - E on

Felix d’Hermillon

Skateboarding Bias Essay

A bias is made against skateboarders today, from past events, planting the thought in people’s mind that skateboarding is for trouble makers. There has always been a bias against skateboarders. There are many different kinds of people all over the globe that have a bias against skateboarding. Police, Security Guards, and many more.

They have been known for being troublemakers. Skateboarding was first invented in the 1950’s. Surfer’s wanted to explore their possibilities. The surfers decided to take it to the streets. “Concrete Surfing” a.k.a “Skateboarding”. The surfers made the board out of taking roller skate wheels and putting them onto a wooden box and riding it through the streets. Skateboarding got its bad name from Dogtown and the Z-boys. Back in the 60’s and 70’s, skateboarder’s used to break into backyard pools. They would shred these pools illegally knowing full well what they were doing. They weren’t thinking clearly but that doesn’t mean that all skater’s are trouble makers from today and from back then as well.

There are many laws against skateboarding all over the world. Love park is one of the most famous skate spots on the east coast. Love park is skated everyday by skateboarders all over, but sadly it is illegal. Skaters are ticketed with a $300 fine and then they have their boards taken. People have been arrested if they aren’t a minor.  It is not only a monument in artwork standards, but a monument in skateboarding. In this quote, skaters are protesting to keep love park open to skaters(when it was closed down in 2002). “Before LOVE was officially closed in late April 2002 for the redesign, skateboarders and others organized a protest on April 22, 2002. Dozens of skaters and supporters flooded the park for one last session together before police came and dispersed the skaters and the session. However, before the protest was over, skateboarders and their advocates made numerous statements to the media. Some noted the sad loss of this great skate spot, others pointed out that the loss of skateboarding at LOVE is a scar on the attractiveness and accessibility of Philadelphia to a younger generation” says UHistory.org. This quote is stating clearly that skaters are feeling the loss. They clearly stated to the media that they are feeling neglected. I don’t believe having that last skate session was he most helpful way of convincing the city to allow it but I do think that it helps the community hear about the banning of skateboarding at Love and I think it did spread the word to help support the community of skaters.

Another example of skateboarding being known as thugs is that it is out lawed in San Francisco, California. In the City of San Francisco, Police officers are allowed to arrest skateboarders for skating on Public Property. When I say public property, I mean streets, ledges plazas, parking lots, or anything else you can think of. Police officers will always arrest you if you are riding a skateboard in San Francisco, they will depending on what ever mood they are in, so if you are skating through the streets of San Francisco and a Police officer stops you to give you a warning, don’t provoke him because he can arrest you if you set him off.

Skater’s should be awarded for the amount of effort that they put in. Most skater’s aren’t causing trouble while doing so. At least people are doing something. For kids, at least they are doing something instead of drugs or any other bad thing you can think of. And for older people skating, at least they aren’t just sitting around not doing anything. They are being active and thats all that matters. Much of today’s modern architecture is perfectly made for skateboarders. Skater’s have searched for these architecturally advanced spots.

All around the world, there is tons of police brutality with skaters. All over youtube there are videos. In baltimore there was an instance where a group of skateboarders were skating at the inner harbor. Police officer, Salvator Rivieri, stopped these kids and started verbally harassing them about skateboarding there. Then, the police officer man-handled a 14 year old skateboarder Eric Bush. Officer Rivieri grabs the minor around the neck and throws him on the ground.

There are a lot of parents that are really supportive of their kids. There are professional skateboarders all over the world that all have had supportive parents to help them get somewhere. Their parents helped them achieve their goal of making a living out of skateboarding. And its not only skateboarding, there are filmer's that make a living out of it by simply doing what they love. Torey Pudwill is a professional Skateboarder that rides for Plan B skateboards, DVS shoes, Bones Bearings, venture trucks and has even made his own line of Grip tape for the skateboards just from the help of his parents. “My dad or mom would drive us here (Skatelab Skatepark) after school almost everyday, get our homework done, or not, and just skate”. Another Skater is Nyjah Huston is 19 years old. He has been a professional skater since he was 11 years old. He was in the X-games at the age of 11.“My dad was really controlling and he did want me to skate every single day. I would say he did it in a little bit of a strict way which probably wasn't necessary because, bottom line I loved skateboarding and thats all I wanted to do anyway.” Later on in the same interview he says “If he did happen to call me anytime soon, i would completely accept him because I am thankful for the way he raised me, even thug it was very strict, it was what got me to where I am right now.”

A lot of upperclassmen think that Skateboarding is reckless and a waste of time. They believe

As you have seen, Skater’s are considered bad boy’s. This is a false term. Skater’s have been named this when it is completely the opposite. Skater’s are artist’s. They have a talent. They search out spot’s and are being creative. It is the people surrounding skater’s that attach this false baggage to them. From having a shitty day at work, the law enforcer’s make our’s worse. The butterfly effect. Some skater’s might be thugs, or “gangbangers” but to say that the all of skater’s fits that description is simply ignorant and demoralizing.


Food Project- Sean German Mac and Cheese with Bacon

Posted by Sean Mcaninch in Science and Society - Best - Y on

I will be making Mac n’ Cheese with bacon. How this meal ties into my family and heritage is my grandfather made it a lot before he passed away, In all I think everything comes from america, I may travel across country but not over any large bodies of water. The health issues that could arise from it is heart failure due to the fat in it but you would need to do a lot more than just eat that to fully kill you. the people who made the money off of this meal are the slaughterhouses that cut up the meat the grainery that make the noodles the dairy farm that makes the Cottage Cheese and so on. The Bacon starts on a pig farm, then it moves to a slaughterhouse where the pig is killed and carved the meat is then shipped on a truck to the packaging and then to a supermarket where we buy it. for non commercial companies they would do almost the same thing just at the last part they would sell to a local store not a supermarket. I would say that 75% of the meal is processed and 25% of the meal is whole.


Ingredients:

1 pound of Pasta

1 pound of bacon

2 pound of Cottage Cheese

1 tablespoon of Salt

1 tablespoon of pepper

or salt and pepper to taste

2 small onions



Step1:

Dice the onions and bacon and have the pasta cook to directions on box.


Step2:

Let bacon cook on high heat until it starts to brown then add the onions.


Step3:

While the bacon and onions are cooking together becoming real happy start working on the Cottage cheese by adding the salt and pepper to it and mix it up.


Step 4:

Pour the pasta into a large bowl and mix the cottage cheese into it.


Step 5:

when the bacon is browned and the onions are “See through.” add them to the pasta and cottage cheese mixture.


Step 6:(Optional)

If you want the cottage cheese to melt place it back on the heat until the cheese melts.


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Screen Shot 2014-01-14 at 7.49.51 AM

Yo Soy Frida Kahlo

Posted by Sadie Sprague-Lott in Spanish 4 - Manuel - E on

Yo soy Frida Kahlo. Mi marido es Diego Rivera y el piensa que yo era el ying y yang de el. Yo siempre quiero ser una pintura y una modela para mi esposo. Haciendo estas cosas da me una oportunidad  a expresar mis emociones. Yo tengo un amor para Mexico. Para todo mi vida vivio en el famoso casa azul. 

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Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 10.16.25 AM

Food Project: A piece of Italy, and Albania. Sara, Karly, and Anthony

Posted by Karly Bornstein in Science and Society - Best - Y on
Anthony and Karly are both Italian, so they decided to incorporate pasta as a dish. Karly was also raised healthy, so she added a healthier alternative to the pasta. Sara is part Albanian, so she wanted to add a touch of her culture and make a dessert. 

Pasta, 1 box of Barilla Plus

Directions:

1. Boil a large pot of salted water. (1 1/2 tablespoons.)

2. Put pasta into the boiling water

3. While that's cooking, gather olive oil, chopped garlic etc. and put them together in a pot to boil, using olive oil as the base liquid.

4. Once the angel hair is cooked properly (not long, a few minutes.) drain the water and give the angel hair time to cool a bit. 

5. Once you find the olive oil to your liking, pour it over the angel hair and toss it a bit. If you want you can add some cheese in the mix. 

Sauce Ingredients

  • 2 (14.5 ounce) cans stewed tomatoes
  • 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste 
    4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 6 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/3 cup finely diced onion
  • 1/2 cup white wine
Karly's Analysis:

  The pasta is from a box, so the noodles are processed. For the sauce, the tomato paste is processed. After eating the Barilla Plus pasta, it will give your body extra nutrients then if you were to eat just regular pasta. It provides you with extra fiber, protein, and omega-3. If you ate nothing but Pasta with red sauce everyday, it wouldn't provide you with any fruit or vegetables, and the carbs would add up. If you eat too much of this pasta in one sitting, it can cause bloat because it's eating a lot of bread. But the Barilla Plus is a better option then just regular Barilla. All the ingredients are from the US. Maybe the tomatoes are from New Jersey.. I think it could of traveled several hundred miles. My meal is at least under $10. The Barilla company probable makes a lot money. Comparing this to fast food, I'm sure it didn't or wouldn't make as much money because it's not cheap and popular. Barilla is one of the most popular pasta brands, and with such a large variety, and being from Italy, they are able o make a lot of money. Processing at the pasta factory probably put a lot of bad fumes into the air. Commercial growing a potato is much different if i were to grow one myself. Growing my own tomatoes would have less pesticides and could also get more attention with water and sunlight. Most people are just going to buy their vegetables instead of growing them. They may not have access to a garden, or they just don't have the time. 

Anthony's Analysis:

    This dish isn't unhealthy. Pretty much everything in this is either a herb or an oil, the only exception being the angel hair, which is often made from durum wheat, water and salt. Going off of that, I could say this dish is easily 85% natural, but that's entirely off of where you get your ingredients from. Pasta is known for having a ton of carbs in it. While it does have carbs (40 to a cup) it's no more than a cup of other wheat based products such as rice. It's about the serving size that matters, and people tend to eat a lot of pasta. Environmentally I can see no problem with this dish as long as you don't use up every source of wheat, parsley etc. on the planet. It's almost entirely possible to grow everything for this dish in you own yard! The exceptions being wheat, salt and olive oil. Economically, the actual angel hair can be bought for as little as 69 cents a box at some stores such as Shoprite. The herbs however can vary and have the potential of being a small bit if you buy a fair amount. Alternatively you could just grow them though! Salt is also not too hard to come by so that should give you no problem. The only possible issue I could ever think of with this is where the salt would come from as I'm not aware of where the salt is coming from. I do know that there is a salt mine in Natrona, PA if I recall correctly. The great thing about this dish is that not only does it go well with everything, everything goes well with it. You can put this in your soup, or you can use the broth of the soup as a sauce for it! The possibilities are endless really.

Albanian Cookies 

 

Ingredients: 

One pound of butter

Four cups of flour 

Two tsp of baking powder

One egg

3/4 cup of sugar

 

Directions: 

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Put the cup of sugar in a large mixing bowl.

3. Add the butter (preferably heated or soft) into the bowl. 

4. Beat egg and add to the bowl.

5. Start mixing ingredients together.

6. Gradually add one cup of flour to the bowl and continue to mix until the flour is completely mixed in. 

7. Take small portions of the mix and roll into balls and flatten between palms.

8. Put each ball onto the cookie sheet and bake for 15-20mins. 

9. Let cool. 

10. When cooled, dip each cookie in powdered sugar. 

11. Enjoy! 

 Sara's Analysis: 

•Health/nutrition:  

The contents in his dessert is mainly butter, flour, and sugar. None of these ingredients are nutritious or good for you in any way. Butter is high in fat and is approx. 100 calories in every tbsp (and there were 5 sticks used). Your body wouldn't take anything out the cookie, it would turn into fat or you would poop it out. If one ate nothing but this meal everyday, they would be obese and extremely unhealthy. There is no nutritional value in these cookies, so your body wouldn't be getting the things that it needs to properly live and be energetic/healthy. 

 

Environmental: 

  I think that these ingredients could have came all from PA, or from different states. They are universally known and everyone uses them. Sugar cane is organic, but the way they process it and add different things to it is unhealthy. Butter is churning milk/thick cream, which is 35% fat to begin with. Flour is grained cereal, wheat, grains and seeds. They are 578 calories per cup (which my recipe os 4 cups) and 127g of carbs. The way it is processed may not be that healthy. 

 

•Political/economic:  

All of the ingredients are relatively cheap and easy to access. It's my grandmothers recipe. The original was to add nuts inside of the cookies, but they were too poor to afford nuts so they used the ingredients they had. Large corporations are involved in making these products, because their used in almost everything and highly demanded. 

 

My dessert represents my culture, but it isn't healthy. 


Anthony's Personal Reflection:


In this unit I've managed to strengthen my understanding of how the food system works and how to treat it. For starters, corn and beans are important, and I was honestly surprised a bit by how much our food industry is dependent on it. The fact that 1/3rd of the nation is covered in corn is incredible. People putting their hands inside living cows however, is kind of nasty. I don't think that myself as an individual affects the larger food system. As an individual, I just eat what I'm given as long as it tastes good and doesn't seem like it would give me diabetes or something of the sort with one bite. Speaking of diabetes and other food related things, the amount of risk a bad diet puts you at is outstanding. What's even more outstanding is what exercise can do to get rd of those bad things. I though it was pretty interesting (and a bit self-shaming) when I found out I had eaten 4,800 calories in one McDonalds sitting.  Makes you wonder how much one person can eat.I'm not really going to make many changes to my diet, as I can balance it out with other healthy habits, but what I can do is show others in a good way of how they should eat. Good way not being showing them cows being oddly treated...


Karly's Personal Reflection:
To this day, I've been pretty aware about my food habits and what I'm putting into my body, and what is and isn’t good for you. That being said, I still enjoyed  this food unit. I enjoy talking about the topic because it consumes our lives all the time. My role in the larger food system is buying all the expensive stuff that whole foods sells!  That’s why I like trader joe’s better, but I only get my food from those two stores. With the diseases we researched, I'm now more aware of what obesity and diabetes actually mean. I learned that you can’t get diabetes from just sugar, and so many americans are diagnosed with it everyday. I think our biggest issues in the food industry today is what we're putting into our food. Corn is in everything, and although it’s easy and cheap, it’s really going to affect us later on. Also, the way we treat the animals before we kill them. I still don’t understand why we can’t just have the animals in comfort before they’re slaughtered. There is such a high demand for cheap, and addicting foods. It was interesting seeing the growth of McDonalds and the real reasons why people in there. I found it strange that even people who knew that their food wasn't good for you, they still continued to go. America sometimes forgets that our body is a machine, and if we keep feeding it unhealthy foods, it's not going to run properly. The only things I would change about my food choices are the endless amount of snacks I eat. I think if I tried really hard I could eat less snacks, but I'm usually eating organic, so it's not all bad! Overall, I can say I’m proud of my diet and I thank my parents for teaching me to eat the right things. 

Sara's Personal Reflection:

Reflecting on this nutrition unit,  I think it has been the most beneficial lesson to me this year. I could relate everything to my everyday life, and it helped me explore every aspect, helping me make decisions/choose sides for myself. I think the biggest problem with our food system is that we don't make enough time for food, resulting in eating poor foods for our bodies. We are always rushing everywhere, and there are too many fast food places (one at every corner), so it's easier and seems like the best way to get our meals in. We have eliminated eating at "dinner time", and sitting down with a fork and knife. Fast food is capable of being eaten in the car, on the way to keep moving in our busy lives.  I think that my only role in the food system is controlling what I put into my body. I can't control others actions, but I can promote healthy eating by doing it myself. I could change a variety of things like: Eliminating my intake of fast foods/eating out, eating fruits and veggies with every meal, replacing dessert with fruits/healthy alternatives, have portion control, drinking more water, and eat organic/healthy things (things I can pronounce, not high fructose corn syrup). I think that the impact of these changes would be significant. I would feel better, have more energy, lose weight, and overall feel better about myself. This unit really helped me understand diseases related to poor diet, which are 100% preventable. I learned that a healthy diet will not only be positive for me now, but through my entire life. 


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      Screen Shot 2014-01-13 at 9.40.48 PM
      food
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      Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 10.04.44 AM

      Central Park Five

      Posted by Imani Weeks in English 2 - Pahomov - E on

      Imani Weeks  

      Central Park Five


      Race is always the go to answer or this happen because of the skin color for everything. Even today after slavery and segregation is banned there is still racism against every race. Central Park Five shows how the color of your skin can put you in a bad position, even your gender is enough to ruin your life. Five young black and latino boys were arrested for a crime they did not commit and even served time for something that had nothing to do with them. Your race and gender will make you a target when people don’t know the true or full story.


      In the movie Central Park Five they had different people speaking on the case. It was mostly the victims that were accused, their parents and media journalist. They were describing how it was back then around the time the crime was committed and how everything went downhill when the five boys got arrested. When the movie first started one thing that stuck out to me was when Rev. Calvin Butts and he was talking about young black men and one thing he said was “The most endangered species in American, that was a popular phrase, was young, black man.” When he said this my mind was based off of that one sentence the whole time I was watching the movie. It is not a coincidence that five, young, black and latino males were arrested, better yet accused for something they didn’t do. There was nothing that they could have done to get them out of the situation they didn’t deserve to be in, except changing their skin color and gender.


      Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray, Raymond Santana, Kevin Richardson, Korey Wise. and more than 25 others teenaged boys entered central park together. While his friends were being arrested “I basically said what’s going on then he said didn’t I tell you not to run you little animal, something like that...” Why did he have to call that young boy an animal? I don’t think this officer will ever call his friends animals. I think it’s weird that they never revealed the skin color of this officer. It’s shocking because everybody looked at this case as a racial and gender issue, but they never once told people the names and color of the officers, only the boys and lady that was raped. I’m wondering if they trying to hide something and if they are what exactly are they trying to hide.


      To identify somebody, one of the first thing you would say is “Oh, he look mexican.” or “I thought he was white.” I know it’s easy to point somebody out based on skin complexion or color but you can’t do that especially during an important case you don’t want to seem like racism. The district attorney lady that was interviewing the kids to get their confession on video did exactly that. “First it was the black boy then it was the puerto rican guy then you got on top of her?” The guy she is referencing that is puerto rican is Antron McCray and he is also mixed with African American. The black guy could have been any of the three other boys. She knew exactly what they names were but she decided to picked them out by color. That wasn't helpful at all for him to say yes he did it. It could have been any “black boy” that was being interrogated. I know the boy getting interviewed wrote their names down during the false confession because the detectives were telling them the names of the other boys.


      Criminal Justice systems is not good. It’s unfair and not right. Back then and today. People always and will forever question that system. No matter what it has to do with. The media always seem to switch up stories or seem to have a huge affect on what others opinion is going to be. It was this one new paper that said “Grim test for the justice system.” While watching I’m sitting thinking like what do that mean test. After hearing oh there was no evidence against the boys just confessions that were told for them to say I knew exactly what it meant. The Justice system and people working for and with it has failed the test. I always wondered why didn’t they tell everybody that they didn’t have exact proof against the boys. Is it because they wanted the story to be over with? Did they just want to find people to blame it on or did they not want the people of their city to worry about things?


      Working on this piece I realized it a lot that is going on with this case. A lady in the movie said that there was another rape around the same time as Central Park Five but it had absolutely no coverage because of the interracial part of it, and the lady got thrown off a roof. I can't help but think that it was because the lady was white and it was in Central Park, the holiest place a person can go back then besides a church. This reminded me of the Emmett Till story I learned when I was a kid. A young African American boy who whistled at a white lady and got killed for it, he done nothing wrong to hurt the lady but he life was taking. People were even talking about the death penalty for the boys. Donald Trump was willing to pay for it to come back. They were kids and they wanted them on the death penalty! More and more watching and reading articles about Central Park Five I think it’s all about the New York Police pointing out a group of innocent black males saying they committed a crime when they didn’t know what was going on or what to do. Your race and gender will make you a target when people don’t know the true or full story.




      Trayvon Vs. The Jury

      Posted by Joie Nearn in English 2 - Pahomov - A on

      Joie Nearn

      January 15, 2014

      Silver


      The U.S court system has continued to get progressively biases toward certain cases. Being that in America there has been several cases that have displayed\ racial injustices such as Emmitt Till, Oscar Grant, Troy Davis and the most recent Trayvon Martin trail. The Trayvon Martin trial has enabled America to express their bias, towards discrimination.

      Ironically the vast majority of the jurors that have taken part of the trail, were white americans. Meaning that they racially could not relate. According to a news article written by  Richard Gabriel one of the jurors stated “And it is a combination of skin color, idiom, nonverbal behavior, and personality that causes this cultural outgroup divide, not just her race.” These jurors wronged them the fact they could not relate with the witness Rachel Jeantel, which  based their verdict decision. Knowing that Zimmerman is much more similar, in race and background, the jurors disregarded everything that she testified. This allowed five out of six of the jurors to rule in favor of George Zimmerman.

      Stereotypes have taken a major role in how the jurors and Americans function. Knowing the history of African Americans had their past with the law enabled the jurors of the trail to be more lenient towards Zimmerman. According to an article written by the Huffington Post “ The infamous Juror B-37 said that Zimmerman was not racially profiling young Trayvon, but was merely profiling him based on the fact that black men had been involved with burglaries in that neighborhood.” Knowing that Trayvon was African American made this juror believe that Zimmerman was automatically in correct for murdering him. Knowing that African Americans in the past have had serious issues with criminal behavior, made the jurors believe that Trayvon Martin’s death was vital.

      Knowing that America became very involved, in this historic trail. Society began to believe that this outcome of this trail was because the jury was bias. There was only one juror of color on this trail. According to The Huffington Post “as the only juror of color states that George Zimmerman "got away with murder" and as the nation lurches through yet another tragic episode that forces us to deal with our racial legacy -- new ways of viewing race are surfacing.” Being that this juror was the only one of color she could relate in some way with Trayvon Martin which made her very remorseful for this young man's death.

      The Implicit Association Test has been used to display your blind spots, in terms of our personal biases. Theses test are developed by Harvard University in Cambridge Massachusetts. These test are used to measure someone's automatic association between to objects. For example, in class we taken the Race IAT test, to measure Pleasant words and Unpleasant words with, African American Children and European American Children. While studying the results of this test it has been indicated that European Americans have a bias towards pleasant words and European American People. This demonstrates how the juror of this cases allowed bias to affect their decision against Trayvon.

      In conclusion The  Trayvon Martin trail was one of the most controversial and disputed trails in the US history. The US court system is very unfair and bias.  The Trayvon Martin trial has enabled America to express their bias, towards discrimination. This has displayed that America needs to reavaluated their injustices.



      1. "Trayvon Martin Case (George Zimmerman)." Trayvon Martin. N.p., 21 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/trayvon_martin/>

      2. "Race, Bias and the Zimmerman Jury | Houston Style Magazine | Urban Weekly Newspaper Publication Website." Race, Bias and the Zimmerman Jury | Houston Style Magazine | Urban Weekly Newspaper Publication Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. <http://stylemagazine.com/news/2013/jul/16/race-bias-and-zimmerman-jury/?page=3>

      3. Paterson, Eva. "Trayvon Martin and Implicit Bias." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 05 Aug. 2013. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eva-paterson/trayvon-martin-and-implic_b_3692331.html>

      4. "Implicit Association Test." Implicit Association Test. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2014. <http://projectimplicit.net/nosek/iat/>








      The Bias of the Police

      Posted by Jesse Shuter in English 2 - Pahomov - A on

      The Influence of the Police

      by Jesse Shuter


      “I would like to begin this story Doctor by telling you that murder is a crime. It is not to be laughed about, made fun of, attempted, or even discussed by those not in a position to deal with the fact that it is a crime.”


      “Tell me the whole story Steve, from the beginning.”


      “It all began last July, or was it August, no wait it was May. Yes I’m certain it was May because it was springtime. I was doing my usual paperwork when I came across a very peculiar file. This file was especially peculiar because it was marked Top Secret from the date January 12. Usually the files that are brought to me at the Police Station are not marked in this way. Anything that is marked Top Secret is to be brought to me immediately. So as you must also be wondering, why was this file not brought to me earlier? Why was a file that is supposedly urgent from January being brought to me now in May?


      So I open the file, and I read the thing that gets police commissioners all across America more apoplectic than anything else. A murder. I was especially frustrated because I had previously worked so hard to keep the streets of Philadelphia clean of murder and yet here one was. Then the weirdest feeling of deja vu overcame me. I felt like I had heard this case before before. Yet I was adamant that it was new. It was because of these mixed emotions that I was not prepared for, nor was I in a position to deal with what was to come in the next few days.


      The next day, I officially sent out a warrant for the arrest of whoever murdered the man. I decided to take a look at the body in our analyzation lab. The body was on an examination table, yet there was no one in the lab examining the body. I quickly slipped on some rubber gloves and began taking a look for myself. It was a man, he appeared to be  in his late thirties to early forties. He was a white man, handsome, he had short brown hair that reminded me of my own. He seemed like the kind of man I would be friends with, and here he was in front of me dead with a bullet hole through his chest. I could have sworn that I knew the man, there was a feeling of longing, both for the knowledge of who this man was, and also who killed him. It was crazy that we couldn’t find him in the system. To be honest, it was this attachment to the man, that drove me to make such rash decisions about this murder. Finally, an officer, Jenkins was her name, came to me with news, regarding the man’s killer. Apparently two men came to turn themselves in. The interesting thing is it was the same crime. Both of these men were claiming to be the murderer of the same man.


      I did the only logical thing to do in this scenario, I decided to interrogate both the men and see what each of them says about the murder. The first man was named Jack Jordans. His file said that he had graduated from UCLA and was now working as a successful architect. The file also said that he had a wife but no kids and that he currently lives in New York City. He was 34 years old. I decided to take a look at this guy wondering why he would commit a crime if he is as successful as his file says he is.


      I started by examining him through the two way mirror. He was young looking for his age. He was a black man, strong looking. He was tall and had short hair. He looked up at the mirror and it almost seemed like he was scowling at himself in the mirror. I stepped into the interrogation room and asked Jordans who this man was that he killed and he said that he was a client of his named David Read. I asked him questions about the murder and why he did it. He wouldn’t give me much of a straight answer until I got in his face. I began raising my voice and asked him why he killed the man, he said that he didn’t know why, he just had to. I turned around and began walking away after getting all of the information I could from him. Then he spoke again, in a lower register, I heard him say “I killed him because he was a punk, like you”. I quickly spun back around, and yelled at him asking him to repeat that. He looked at me frightened, saying he didn’t say anything. I stormed out furious, the nerve of that man. He definitely seemed like the kind of guy that would want to kill, in more ways than one. After the interrogation I looked up David Read in our system, however, no one existed under that name.


      The next man to claim that he was the killer of “David Read” was a man named Chase Stefano. According to his file he was a lawyer who graduated from Michigan University. He was just as successful as Jordans, it was almost uncanny how similar they were financially and otherwise. He too had a wife but no kids. It was weird that these men with seemingly great lives turned themselves in for a crime. I asked him a few basic questions about his family and his job, nothing I didn’t already know the answer to, but then I got to the juicy stuff. I decided to come out of the gate by asking him why he turned himself in. He said that he couldn’t live with the guilt. I looked at his face and he looked sad, also he wouldn’t make eye contact with me. I noticed some of his features, he was white first of all, he had blonde hair and green eyes. Despite the looming despair of the situation his held himself well. He answered all of my questions in a mature manner. I respected him, he seemed like a guy I would vote for to be president. He was well spoken and seemed to be telling the truth at all times, but I knew something didn’t seem right he didn’t seem like the kind of guy that would kill. He had a great life, why would he throw he it away. I even heard him whisper under his breath, “why am I here right now?”. That cinched it. The guy didn’t even think he should be here, clearly he was innocent.


      After interrogating both men it was clear to me that Stefano was innocent while Jordans was lying for some reason. So I told everyone that Jordans was clearly the murderer, and that Stefano should be released. That was how it seemed, I heard this guy Jordans say horrible things, while Stefano admitted to not wanting to be here. It makes sense if you think about it Doc, most of the bad guys out there, the killers, are black guys. Haven’t you noticed that in the news. I hate murderers more than anything, and murderers are usually those African Americans that think they are too cool for the law. White guys stay clean. So I released Stefano and gave Jordans the chair for murder after a sentencing by the judge.


      So Doctor what do you have to say to that, it all adds up, so why am I here. Just because I was diagnosed with some disease, doesn’t mean that I am crazy. Everything I told you was true, so why did the judge sentence me to come to sessions with you?”


      “It is because, of what happened next Steve! You got the wrong guy, your delirium acted up and you convicted the wrong guy after hearing things! Do you want to know what I found out after going to the police station later? A month later, Stefano comes back to the station after another murder. This time Steve, it was not voluntary, this time he blew up a school bus and was caught running from the scene of the crime, luckily no kids were on the bus, but he killed the driver and a teacher. I asked him why he did it and he revealed that he is a terrorist, he was ashamed of what he had done so he tried to turn himself in, but when he was released he knew he had a duty to continue spreading havoc. Meanwhile I found out that Jordans was being blackmailed by his organization to turn himself in. You are dangerous Steve, and that is why you are here now.”

      Ethan Reese Food Project

      Posted by Ethan Reese in Science and Society - Best - Y on

      Reese family chicken noodle soup recipe - 


      1 whole onion sliced 

      3 stalks of celery chopped

      3/4 cups of carrots chopped

      1 pound of Boneless skinless trimmed Chicken Thigh sliced

      10 cups of water poured

      2 large russet potatoes halved

      2 Table Spoons of parsley poured

      1/2 bag of Pennsylvania Dutch yolk free home style ribbon noodles poured

      1/2 tea spoon of salt poured

      1 teaspoon of pepper. poured

      1 table spoon of oil

      2 tons of love 

      1 ton of caring

      3 cups of Secret Reese Family Ingredients


      Directions: Lightly brown chicken thighs in vegetable oil... Add two stalks of celery and one onion quartered. Cover with water. Let simmer for one hour. Remove from heat. Place a strainer into a large pot and place cheesecloth in the bottom of the strainer. Pour contents of pot into the stainer. Remove chicken. Break chicken into small pieces- remove as much fat as possible. In a clean pot, add a small amount of oil ( just enough to coat the bottom of the pot) add 3 stalks of chopped celery, one chopped onion, and carrots.  Place a fresh piece of cheesecloth into a strainer and strain the broth again back into the pot to cover the simmering vegetables. Add the chicken, potatoes, additional water. When boiling- add noodles and parsley and cook for 7 min. Salt and pepper to taste, and add love and care along the way. 


      All of the ingredients aside from the chicken, oil, salt, pepper, and noodles are all natural straight from the farm to the store about  45% of the ingredients are processed. One serving is about 240 calories containing about .23 grams of sugar, 1.3 grams of total fat. The body is actually nourished greatly by authentic pennsylvania dutch soup, my mom says that traditionally the dutch grow all of the ingredients and that it is used to cure several ailments of the body and soul. The body is not labored by the digestion process due to the low sugar and fat content of the soup, if you cut out salt and pepper it makes the dish healthier but I season to taste. All of the ingredients are either extremely low in sodium and fat or all natural and our bodies are meant to digest it, living in an urban environment it is hard to acquire fresh ingredients for some parts of the recipe. The meal is actually a poor mans meal meaning it can be eaten everyday and sustain the person without causing bodily harm of course if all the ingredients are kept natural as they are supposed to. I wouldn't even know where to start guessing where the ingredients were grown, probably rural states like Ohio and Idaho. I think the salt traveled the furthest, there are no foreign ingredients so probably less than 2,000 miles. The vegetables were not organically grown although traditionally they should be all naturally grown. The price of the soup was under 10$ to make including the cost of using the stove. Of course corporations can do this on a larger scale and for less money but my families soup tastes far superior because there is one ingredient that is special to mine, love. 

      My role in the larger food system is to balance the ecosystem by making sure to eat the things that reside lower in the food chain. As a human I am at the top of the food chain and my responsibility is to hunt and eat.  The biggest problems with our food system is that we over consume proteins and starches which leads to a unhealthy and unbalanced diet that causes diseases of the body due to dietary unhealthiness. We need to switch to eating more natural and energy efficient food such as vegetables and fruits.  I could cut sodas, sugars, caffeine, fast food, and other heavily processed and unhealthy food.  The impact of these changes would probably make my heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys healthier. I am not willing to make these changes.


      Multigenre Projects B band

      Posted by Meenoo Rami in Reading, Writing, and Rising Up - Rami - B on

      During this quarter, my students have been on a multigenre research journey.  They were asked to to pursue a passion in their intellectual/emotional/spiritual life, to explore a chance  to strive to answer a question involving a topic of consuming interest to them and to communicate their learning through a multigenre project.  This is where they got at the factual, the emotional, and the imaginative. This was a time to be daring, to try the untried. 


      Students chose a person, idea, topic, trend, cultural phenomenon, movement, thing, place and were asked to become the quintessential, mad-obsessed researcher who follows this research thread until their insatiable curiosity about the topic was satisfied.   


      This work was inspired and guided by the work of Tom Romano.


      Students have published their work on a website, please check them out, comment, and share widely:

      Kathy Arim




      Manage Kathy Arim


      Diamond Blenman




      Manage Diamond Blenman


      Drue Boccuti




      Manage Drue Boccuti


      Roger Bracy




      Manage Roger Bracy


      Amanda Cartagena




      Manage Amanda Cartagena


      Octavius Collins




      Manage Octavius Collins


      Daniel Varnis




      Manage Daniel Varnis


      Keyaira Doughty




      Manage Keyaira Doughty


      Sean Force




      Manage Sean Force


      Branden Hall




      Manage Branden Hall


      Margaret Hohenstein




      Manage Margaret Hohenstein


      Katherine Hunt




      Manage Katherine Hunt


      Jasmin Hussain




      Manage Jasmin Hussain


      Kilah Kemp




      Manage Kilah Kemp


      Vannary Kom




      Manage Vannary Kom


      Tamatha Lancaster




      Manage Tamatha Lancaster


      Jermel Langley




      Manage Jermel Langley


      Kenny Le




      Manage Kenny Le


      Danielle Little




      Manage Danielle Little


      Jacob Lotkowski




      Manage Jacob Lotkowski


      Sean Mcaninch




      Manage Sean Mcaninch


      Maleena Mel




      Manage Maleena Mel


      Byshera Moore-Williams




      Manage Byshera Moore-Williams


      Aazimah Muhammad




      Manage Aazimah Muhammad


      Nicholas Murray




      Manage Nicholas Murray


      Shannon Powers




      Manage Shannon Powers


      Meenoo Rami




      Manage Meenoo Rami


      Merrik Saunders




      Manage Merrik Saunders


      Jonathan Spencer




      Manage Jonathan Spencer


      Taylor Veasley




      Manage Taylor Veasley


      Willie Willson





      Hernán Cortés

      Posted by Claudia Bonitatibus in Spanish 4 - Manuel - E on

      Yo soy Hernán Cortés un conquistador muy famoso.  Yo era comandante de la expedición de México en 1518.  Cuando yo y los otros conquistadors capturado el líder de las Aztecas, Montezuma II.  Yo estoy responsable por muchos  vidas de las Aztecas.  En este pictura mis manos se cubren en sangre de las Aztecas. Yo impacto la cultura de México mucho.  Este es por qué yo estoy un personaje importante en la historia de México

      Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 10.01.19 PM
      Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 10.01.19 PM

      Difference in Opinon

      Posted by Jacklyn Middleswarth in English 2 - Pahomov - E on

      “I’m a blue collar worker, I’m not like the rest of the people on our street or neighborhood. The people here, they know I’m a blue collar, so they ask for signs to be put up, forbidding my work truck to be in a spot, in front of my house from 6 am to 6 pm, but they don’t come up to me and say I’m the problem. This sign ‘just appears,’ but it’s a sign saying my job isn’t ‘good enough’. It’s frustrating.” Says my father to me as we discuss our living situation. My father constantly talks about his job, and compares it to the neighbors’, so I thought it’d be interesting to find out where he stands on biases in his life.

      Biases are everywhere, and we can’t escape them whether we want to or not. They are apart of our system involving culture, it’s as if they “run the world.” Biases are influenced by advertisements, propaganda in advertising that we see, and most importantly, how we are raised to be, to who we’re supposed to become. Our personal biases form blind spots, meaning areas that we just don’t truly know, and haven’t really experienced. Biases aren’t strictly negative, they can also have a positive influence in one’s life. In my life, I know I have biases that are both negative and positive. It’s interesting, though, to see how your own family deals with biases, you think you’d be similar.. Talking to my father about biases, he seemed to have a different opinion as to whether or not if he actually had them.

      As I was interviewing my dad, I asked, “Do you think you have any biases in any aspect of your life?” His reply was simple, “Sure I do, but I try to not. That’s a tough question. I try to give everybody an equal/even break. But inevitably I judge people.” When I asked what he may have thought some of those biases may be, he was very adamant in telling me that he didn’t think he was biased towards one certain person/people over another. Whether it be somebody of a different race, or religious type. My father did state he was biased against politicians or any executive that use their office for self gain. Now, most people, in their eyes, would agree with what my father said. But what I found through my father’s answer about not being biased against any one person compared to the race IAT that I had him take was very different.

      The first trial my father took was inconclusive, due to not reading the directions carefully. As he took it a second time, I found his answers a little surprising: Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for European American compared to African American. My dad has a very kind heart, and his opinion on not being judgemental towards any group or person wasn’t surprising, so when his result for the IAT was strong, I found it shocking. Now, maybe his fingers slipped, or maybe there were some other complications while taking the test, but having a preference to one race, European American or African American, is generally seen in most peoples’ racial IAT results.

      In Joseph Goebbels speech, he stated, “History proves that the greatest world movements have always developed when their leaders knew how to unify their followers under a short, clear theme…Christ’s goal was clear and simple: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’...The idea... is applied to every aspect of daily life and becomes the guide for all human activity.” What Goebbels means is that when there is a clear goal, or theme that is simple and short, people are likely to follow. This following becomes huge, so huge in fact it can create a chain reaction that can have lasting effects, such as a guide for how people live day to day. My father follows this statement, simply because he did state he tries to see everybody equally. As my dad follows this statement, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” it affects him in everyday life, just like Goebbels said. When my father goes to work, drives, meets new people, and does whatever his day to day life involves, he approaches every opportunity with a human being with the intention to accept them, and embrace them as if they are just like him. What almost all humans would like to think of themselves as is being neutral, with no preference for  European American and African American, or any race. However, this isn’t usually the case. As Christ’s statement affects a lot of people in this world, and they practice this, it does not mean it’s 100% effective. It is shown that many people, at least in America, have a preference more towards European American, rather than African American. We don’t want that, but it’s facing up to the often hidden truth that scares us the most.

      As I asked my father, “How do your results make you feel compared to what you actually think about yourself?” His reply was one of skepticism, and he didn’t like to think that his preference to European American over African American was strong. “I want to know how they get this conclusion, it doesn’t seem like it’s very accurate,” my father said out loud, still examining his results. He seemed a little disturbed, as I showed him and explained to him the process in which they get the conclusion. I think he still believes he looks at everyone with an equal eye, whether he thinks the test is accurate or not. Now, I believe if we were to take the race IAT again, his results may be different. I even took the race IAT twice, and once was a moderate preference for European American, and the other time was a strong preference.


      It is clear that biases have affected us in ways we aren’t conscious of. Whether we believe it or not, we all have them. Now coming to terms with them, and facing it, can be hard. As it was for my dad to believe his kind hearted, accepting personality could be so strongly towards one race than another. Whether they be good or bad, biases are affecting us everyday, even if sometimes we just don’t know it.


      Food Benchmark - Sean Force

      Posted by Sean Force in Science and Society - Best - E on

      Traditional St. Patty’s Day meal for Glasgow/Force Family

      Serves 6

       

      Corned Beef - Choose at least a four pound brisket.  

      Place brisket in a large pot of water with the season packet.   

      Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and simmer 50 to 60 minutes per pound or until fork tender.  Remove and allow to rest while cooking the cabbage.  Slice meat across the grain.

       

      Cabbage - Rinse the head of cabbage and cut into quarters.  When meat has completed cooking, place cabbage quarters in the boiling water and allow to cook for fifteen to twenty minutes.  When completed, remove, drain, and place on plate.  Serve with 1/2 cup melted butter, salt, and pepper to taste, or with vinegar, to taste.

       

       

      Boiled Potatoes - Peel 5 pounds potatoes and cut into evenly sized chunks.  Place into salted water and bring to a boil.  Cook potatoes until soft, but not mushy.  Drain.  Add 1/2 cup melted butter and a handful of parsley and stir.  

       

      Processed - (Assuming getting a piece of meat from the supermarket that is still uncooked is not processed)

      • Butter
      • Vinegar
      • Season Packet

       

      Unprocessed

      • Beef Brisket
      • Cabbage
      • Potatoes

       

      I would say that it’s about half and half for processed and unprocessed if you just look at the number of ingredients, but if you actually look at the amount after the dish is made then it’s a relatively small amount of the actual food is un processed.  On top of that fact there is a bit of gray area I think as to what exactly is processed and un processed, for example, would something that is just dried out so that won’t rot as quickly really processed?  The way that I’m viewing processed is something more like butter, it is a significant change that changes it completely and isn’t all natural.  If the parsley is just a dried version of the original plant I don’t think that’s really processed.  Due to the butter having a higher fat concentration and the same being true for the meat, this meal is certainly not something that should be eaten on a daily basis as one would definitely gain a lot of weight as a result of not being able to use all of that energy provided by the meal in one’s everyday life.  Obviously stemming form that would all of the other problems that come with, high fat intakes, especially animal fats from the meat and butter, like cancer increases, heart disease, weight gain, and joint issues from that weight.  So this not something that one should eat everyday or really even more than a maximum of probably once monthly.  I’m pretty sure that all of the food comes from within the US when we buy the ingredients, I’m sure that one could find the ingredients from another place outside the US but that’s were we get it, and as far as the processed foods go, any factorial interaction is going to have a negative affect on the environment so I imagine that these did too.  When I asked my mom she said that when not on sale, this meal can cost a little under 30 dollars, but it really depends on things like how big of a piece of meat you buy or how many potatoes or how big the cabbage is.  As for who made money off it all, I would have to say every company involved in the process from the farming companies to the stores that we buy the food from.  While we could probably have grown, things like the potatoes, cabbage, and parsley ourselves in our backyard or something, a cow might have gotten a bit difficult, we would not be able to do any of it during the winter and we certainly wouldn’t have gotten a cabbage or potato as big as those we were able to buy from the store.  I’m not really sure how to go about tracking any of the food other than to say something along the lines, that the potatoes were grown in the ground out in Idaho, as that was where our’s were from, harvested, washed, packaged somewhere, and then shipper over here to pennsylvania to be sold to us and then to be eaten not the most environmentally friendly process but it could be worse, imagine if the potatoes had been grown somewhere else, like Ireland.

      Sci-Soc Slide
      I do have to say that during this unit I've learned more than a few things, about how food works on a government scale, and how it works down to the meal we actually eat.  Among that there are some of the issues with the actual consuming of those type of foods, not to say I thought eating at McDonalds was healthy but some other examples I didn't think were that bad.  I didn’t really think that having a steak when I was at someplace like Applebee’s was really that bad for me, ok maybe if I ate nothing but steak and replaced the other parts of the meal with it but just the normal meal, meat and some veggies.   However that’s not the case, just doing something as small as that, eating more red-meat than I need to can increase the chances for me to have health complications later on in life.  Overall though I feel as though I have a pretty good diet, in some cases much better than some of my friends who appear to be healthier, I try to eat plenty of fruits, and veggie’s and I generally accomplish that under a normal circumstance, maybe not on vacations as schedules can be erratic and therefore so can eating, but overall I feel like it’s a pretty good diet.  One thing that I guess I could do to improve it though is to cut down how much my family and I go to fast food places, because while we don’t go that often, going at all is really to much.  One other thing about this unit that surprised me was when we were making a list of the labels on our food and we found some of the actual rules on things, like how something could be called 100% whole wheat just for having 10g or more in the item even if that only actually made if 30% whole wheat.  So in general just a lot of things to think about every time we go to put a piece of food into our mouths from now on.

      Bias is Life

      Posted by Miles Cruice-Barnett in English 2 - Pahomov - A on

      I like to think of myself as unbiased, but it is impossible for anyone to be so. Bias is just a natural, subconscious thing that we all have in one way or another. In my mind I look at people and point out their biases. I think about what causes them, and how I would never let myself be like that. However, I know that I am that way sometimes. I know that I am biased, but it is difficult to notice when it is happening; it often takes an outside perspective to point out your own bias.

      In the documentary Ways of Seeing it talks on the point of advertizing and the way that it uses bias to sell a product and influence people to buy things. I find it interesting because I love advertisements, and look at them as art. When I look at an advertisement I see the people and the idea behind it, I see who they are trying to sell to, and the small details that subconsciously influence the consumer. I watch as these advertisements affect my sister on a daily basis. She is 11 years old and highly influenced by advertisements. Every time we are in a store she will spot something she saw on TV and beg to get it. “Oh my god! Mom look! It’s that (fill in product)!”

      “Yeah,” my mother says, already knowing what comes next.

      “Can we get it?” My sister says.

      “No sweetie.”

      “Awww. Come on.” She replies, foolishly hoping to persuade my mother.

      “No, let’s go.” She says. Watching this happen time and time again makes me think about how my sister hardly notices that she is being manipulated. When I see this I realize that it is not easy to know your own bias because it is just what comes naturally to you and the advertisers capitalize on that.

      Although I feel that I have some bias, I often feel as though I have less than most people, but of course many people think that. Bias is not always good, but it is not always bad either. Bias is just a part of life. You might say that bias is what keeps the world going, and if you can recognize your own bias you can be better for it.

      I have trouble finding my own bias, but I am not sure why. One thing that helps me to see my bias is to look at other peoples bias and how it affects them, and how they can be influenced or manipulated because of it. When I look at people all I can think about is their problems and how I can help them. I try to help people subconsciously with problems they might hardly know that they have. When I realized this I also realized I had a bias for people with problems. We often have biases for things that we have ourselves. And so I realized I must have problems myself that I cannot deal with on my own.

      I have a bias towards leaders. I have been told time and time again that I am an amazing leader. However, I hate doing it. I attribute my leadership skills mostly to my skills from above. I can control people extremely well, but as I said, I do not like to make a big deal about it and would much prefer to do it without notice and not outwardly. I respect people who can lead and those who can do it well, and I surround myself with leaders so that I can relax a little more and not have to lead all of the time.

      I also have a bias towards things that are easy. I tend to take the easy way out in almost anything. Whatever gives the most reward for the least amount of effort. It is not exactly that I am lazy, but I am logical, and it just makes sense to do what you know will work best.

      All of these things and more, however innocent they may seem, leed to life changing decisions and reactions. These biases leave ‘blind spots’ that make it hard for me to see the other side. I cannot see my own problems and cannot help myself; I will never be the best leader because I cannot know what it is to follow; and I will never know what it is to be challenged and succeed, or fail trying. These of course are my own personal biases, but we all have our own, and we all have our blind spots. The thing is that they are not completely blind, all it takes is some careful thought and consideration, and you can see the other side. The wonderful thing about bias is that it occurs most often when you are not thinking. Bias is based on impulse and can conflict what you thought you believed in. This is noted in chapter 4 of The Blind Spot. They call the two states of mind reflective and automatic. When I first read about this in class, I thought that I must be special because I was pretty sure that both my reflective and automatic states were the same, and that they thought the same things. However, the more that I thought about it I realized that that was not true and that a lot of my automatic thoughts came from social norms that I told myself I do not believe in.

      Bias is a part of life. It is not something that you can control or something that you might like, but it is there and you have to deal with it. You also have to deal with other peoples bias. Bias does not have to be bad, and if you can recognize your own bias and how it affects you, you can use it as a tool to help you in your daily life.


      Una Oda para Francisco Madero

      Posted by Taylor Veasley in Spanish 4 - Manuel - E on
      Francisco Madero tuvo un papel significativo en el Revolución Mexicana. El era un revolucionario y ayudaba mucho gente en Mexico. 

      Una Oda de Francisco Madero
      heroico, aventurado, y activista para el gente de Mexico.
      Cuando yo te veo pienso en Madero era es bravo y sin miedo
      Me haces mi vida tan significo como la vida de Madero
      Tu, mi inspiracion.

      Food Benchmark

      Posted by Raeven Maddox in Science and Society - Best - E on

      Food: Chicken & Shrimp Alfredo W/ Red Bell Peppers

      Materials:

      • Pot
      • Sause Pan 
      • Cutting board
      • Knife
      • Small bowl
      • Large bowl
      • Strainer 

      Ingredients:

      • 2 boxes of Reggano angel hair
      • 3 bottles of Alfredo
      • 1 cup of red peppers
      • 1 1/2 pounds of medium shrimp
      • salt
      • pepper
      • season/soul food seasoning (optional)
      • old bay

      Directions:

      1. Cut small portions of the red bell pepper, take the tails of the shrimp off (if there is any), and the chicken into small portions on the cutting board

      2. Place the red bell pepper, chicken, and shrimp into a small bowl and add the salt, pepper, old bay, and season/soul food seasoning (optional).

      3. Carefully mix so the seasonings would evenly be spread.

      4. Take pot and fill it halfway with warm water and wait for a medium boil, about 5-10 minutes.

      5. Add the 2 boxes of angel hair into pot and wait for it to become stringy and soft, about 15-20 minutes. 

      6. Once the angel hair is finished, place it in the strainer for the water to drain out. 

      7. Place the angel hair into large bowl and add the shrimp, chicken, and red bell peppers into bowl.

      8. Add the alfredo sauce to the angel hair and mix carefully but thoroughly.

      9. Add more seasoning if needed to bring out spice.

      10. Continue to mix until everything is evenly spread out. 

       

      Analysis:

      Processed Food:

      - Angel Hair

      - Salt

      - Pepper

      - Season/Soul food seasoning

      Whole Foods:

      - Bell peppers

      - Shrimp

      Health & Nutrition:

      Large Shrimp - 100 calories, 1.5g of total fat, 460mg of sodium, 21g protein, 0g of sugar

       

      Reggano Angel Hair - 200 calories, 1g of total fat, 0mg of sodium, 7g of protein, 1g of sugar

      Bell Pepper - 46 calories, 0g of fat, 6mg of sodium, 1g of protein, 6g of sugar

      With these ingredients, the body properly processes the food because the person that consumes the food is giving their bodies sugar, sodium, and lots of protein - specifically coming from the Reggano Angel Hair. If this meal is eaten everyday, it cause some problems within the person's body because it is not getting a good enough balance of the types of food that we are to consume everyday. Yes, there is sodium in each of the ingredients, however, too much of it can cause serious problems like high blood pressure which then leads to issues with the heart. In addition, the body wouldn't be getting enough glucose (sugar) because the ingredients have little to none. 

      As far as the angel hair spaghetti, it is naturally grown from the ground, however it is processed through factories that make it possible for the distributors to sell it in stores. I know that the angel hair can be grown in Pennsylvania in farms. The red bell peppers do not have to be processed because they are vegetables that are grown. However, they must go through some sort of process to be clean and clear to be sold. The shrimp is from the Atlantic Ocean and then brought over by boats to be processed in ordered to be sold in stores. If the food is processed, then it requires more energy within the factories, which is then polluting the Earth because of all of the chemicals that is being exposed.

       The total cost of the meal was approximately $20.00 (rounded). It didn't cost so much because I went to Bottom Dollar where the food is sold at a cheaper price then regular food stores. For a serving of one person, this meal can cause a lot more than what restaurants sell it at. However, because I had to make it for a class, it amounted to be the same price. So basically I can make a meal that feeds 10-20 people for the same price as if one person was eating the meal. This meal is different then fast food because it doesn't contain a whole lot of processed chemicals that fast food meals does. It has been reported that places like McDonalds and Burger Kings causes more negative health factors. For example, weight gain, obesity, diabetes, etc. 

      Most people that I know eat a meal like this, especially since it has seafood in it. The meal was purchased from a food market where the majority of people in America buy their food. The difference between the commercial process of the food and the self sufficient process is that there wouldn't be a problem with consuming the bad things that the food has in it because it went through the process in order to be sold. 


      Self Reflection:

      Personally, I have learned a lot in this unit. I learned that 1) it is extremely important for me to make sure that I am eating healthy and setting a healthy diet for myself. As a result, I force myself not to eat out as much as I used to and eat at home. Also, I try to make sure that I add more color to my food. I also learned that not all food are naturally grown and whenever I make a trip to the supermarket, I need to take into account to look at the ingredients and make sure that it would be health enough for me. I know that I am willing to make these changes and I know that it would make a major difference in my growth. If the government makes a change in the way food is distributed in this country, I believe that we would become a more healthier country and we won't be considered as obese.



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      Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 6.23.21 AM

      The Central Park Five Bias

      Posted by Cole Hinton in English 2 - Pahomov - E on

      On the night of April 19, 1989, 28 year Trisha Meili was jogging in central park, New york when she was beaten and raped. Five african american and latino teens were guilty of committing rape. fifteen year old Yusef Salaam, sixteen year old Korey wise, fourteen year old Kevin Richardson, fifteen year old Antron MCcray, and fourteen year old Raymond Santana were the victims of this crime. Yet they were not the ones who committed the crime but they were blamed of doing it. But why were these five young men convicted of this cruel crime?  The central park five were the victims of this crime because they were in the park when the rape was going on but also they were african american and latino teenagers who were the first thought to come to mind by the police.


      This seemed to be a big problem in New York during those times and past years before this incident. New york was filled with crimes against African Americans with white people committing them. three white men attacking a black male, a man shooting an African American male in the subway saying if he had more bullets, he would have shot him more, and a woman being shot in her home by police who were trying to evict her. A reporter in the documentary says,“A city with violence out of control”.  This was all going on when violence was high in New York due to drugs and crimes. “Murders in New York City are occurring at a rate almost identical to that of last year, when a record 1,896 were reported, according to Police Department statistics.” says Bruce Lambert in a published article by the New York Times in 1989. He also says, “For June, the most recent comparison available, 164 homicides were reported, five more than in June 1988. Drug-related murders were down, from 37 percent of all homicides in the first half of last year, to about 30 percent in the first half of this year. As the case went on, more information was found out about the rape and why the five teenagers were involved.


      The five teens and twentyfive other teenagers entered the park that night together. Some of the teens were acting crazy and acting as if they had lost their minds. Some messing with bikers while they were riding past, and beating up a homeless man then smashing a beer bottle on his head. Then the police came. Everyone left. Korey was one of the people who fled when the police showed up. But, the other four stayed. They stayed to look for some of the people they knew from the neighborhood who went to Central Park that night. As they were trying to find others and go home, they saw a man tackle another man then throw him inside of the bushes and start beating him then they heard someone yelling police. They witnessed this from a distance. Could this have been the the jogger? Or could this have been a fight between two men that they watched while hearing the jogger screaming police as she was being raped?


      Antron left the group to go home around nine and ten O’clock because he had a curfew while the others were in the subway and walking home. Raymond remembered a car stopping right in front of him and two officers grabbing him. Kevin was walking home and spotted the police then running away from them not knowing what to do. He was then tackled to the ground and hit in the face by the police officer with his helmet. As the police officer was handcuffing kevin, he remembers the officer saying,” what’s going on? Didn’t I tell you not to run you animal”? Why would a police officer say something like that to a teenager? Why does he have to be an animal because he is dark skinned. A police officer should never say something like that to a person regardless of what skin color they are. The police officer’s job is to serve and protect. How are you serving and protecting people by call them names like animals because of their skin color. What did the the police officer mean when he said “animal” to kevin? The first thing that comes to my mind is that the police officer is calling kevin a slave running away from a plantation or running for freedom. If that is what the officer meant by “animal”, then that is another reason for racist comments towards someone else of a different race. African americans are not animals, they are humans just like any other person on this earth. Just because there are people who have a different skin color than yours does not give you any kind of right to call someone anything other than a human.  Yes kevin ran away from you but it was because he was scared. Kevin was only a teenager let alone fourteen at the time. If you were fourteen and the cops were after you and you didn’t know why, you would run. That is a dumb thing to do but, that was the first thing that came to his mind.


      All five boys were treated unfairly and wrong because of their backgrounds through the whole case. The detective pulled Raymond’s grandmother outside to talk to and said that he was the scumbag who did the crime to his grandmother. The detectives threatening the boys tell them people in jail don’t like people who raped woman but the boys are still unsure about what woman they are talking about and telling them they were not the ones who raped any woman that night. Raymond being yelled at by two guys. One in his face with a cigarette blowing in his face and one yelling in his ear telling him that “he fucking did it and he was the one who stuck his dick in her”. After many hours of stress, yelling, and assumptions made, they all gave up. They all wrote on a piece of paper saying how it went down using all of their names and blaming one another of doing a certain thing to the woman.They all knew they didn’t do anything but they still lied about taking part in committing the crime. In 1990, four of the five were given a sentence of five to ten years in a juvenile correctional facility but one person was given five to fifteen years.


      Later in 2002, a convicted rapist by the name Matias Reyes confessed to the crime. Reye’s DNA was found in the crime scene and the conviction of the central park five was overturned. 2003, Santana, McCray, and Richardson filed a lawsuit against the City of New York for malicious prosecution, racial discrimination and emotional distress. After all this time, why did it take so long for them to find Reye’s DNA and stop them from putting the five teenagers in jail? I wonder what would have happened if this case was against white teenagers or maybe asian teenagers. What if the detectives that they interrogated the five weren’t all white but had african american detectives. Would things still change? That question is hard to answer back then or even in modern day. We as humans are quick to judge people and assume who did what because you think this is something that they would do or by their skin color. We as people have stereotypes about different religions as well. If the world wasn’t a place where people get judged so much and treated badly because they are different from you or another person, we would be able to just be peaceful and not always have to look down on someone or people because of something you heard or you believe is true and something that you think only their kind would do something so bad

      Un Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda

      Posted by Alejandro Bautista-Garcia in Spanish 4 - Manuel - E on
      Yo soy Hernando Cortez. Soy la persona que "descubrió" Mexico. Tengo mucha sangre en mis manos porque yo represento la matanzas de los aztecas al principio de la civilización  de México, algunos de los aztecas están muriendo y quemando encima de mi. Soy un explorador my malo......muy terrible, y mi matanza enseña a los demás quien manda . Soy una parte importante del Revolución Mexicana, porque sin mi los aztecas y mejicanos  no tuvieran coraje como el de hoy.
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      Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 12.18.46 AM

      Advertising Used During World War II Affecting Us Today

      Posted by Lauren Hummel in English 2 - Pahomov - A on

      In the year 1939, one of the the largest genocide attacks known to history began to take place in Germany under the control of Adolf Hitler. This was only possible because of the German Nazi’s use of propaganda that encouraged people to believe that what they were doing was the right thing to do. Many people before and during World War II used propaganda just as the German’s did, but it usually was not to support efforts that would impact people in a bad way. Today, it is a type of advertising that is often assumed to be negative in some way because of the affiliation that it had with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. It is not anyones fault that many perceive it that way, however, people tend to associate the use of propaganda and Nazi’s and therefore the mass genocide, which is not an enjoyable memory. The use of propaganda with a negative outcome in World War II by the German Nazi’s, has greatly influenced the use of propaganda that is used in the world today and the implications that it supplies.

      Some of the speeches given by Joseph Goebell, a Nazi during World War II, are specifically rich with the propaganda that had such negative effects on the world. His speech, “Knowledge and Propaganda,” given on January 9, 1928 is rich with examples of propaganda and its use .(Goebbel, Joseph. "Knowledge and Propaganda (1928)." Knowledge and Propaganda (1928). Calvin, n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb54.htm>). This speech goes into detail about what he and the Nazi party thought of propaganda and how it supplied people with knowledge, hence the title. In this speech he says, “The greater and simpler the idea is, the more it relates to daily life, the more one has the desire to tell everyone about it.” The great and simple idea that the Nazi’s had was, Jews are bad and caused all of their problems and as a result, they should all be killed. Since the whole of Germany was struggling economically and was in major debt, the idea that it was someone else's fault that they were in a slump was easy for them to accept. They were all under the same circumstances and as a result, their mindsets were similar and this idea was simple enough, so everyone believed it was true and as a result, the best thing for their struggling country. The idea itself has a negative output and most Germans understood that and accepted the fact that they would be killing millions of people. Therefore, any propaganda that advertised this idea was negative and since it was used so often, propaganda having a bad outcome became normal to most people. This ‘normal’ even traveled from applying to only the people in Germany, to the people in America always viewing propaganda as a negative form of advertisement.

      More currently though, there have been articles written about propaganda today and how it is used. One for example is by Mike Adams, The Health Ranger titled, “CVS pharmacy promotes flu shot propaganda using life-sized grim reapers.” (Adams, Mike. "CVS Pharmacy Promotes Flu Shot Propaganda Using Life-sized Grim Reapers." NaturalNews. NaturalNews, 19 Oct. 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://www.naturalnews.com/033917_CVS_flu_shots.html>). It goes on to talk about how the Influenza vaccination is experimental on each person who takes it and that it does not always have a positive effect on people. I found it surprising that this advertisement was called propaganda, but compared to the use of propaganda by the Nazis, it is a form of advertising that would have a negative impact, just as their propaganda was. In this case, the negative impact was scaring people. To show this straight from the article, “A CVS pharmacy is promoting flu shots using images of the Grim Reaper, the most widely-recognized symbol of death.” Since the vaccine can cause illness to anyone who gets it, the CVS is making sure that the people getting the vaccine, know it can be dangerous. It is mildly contradictory however, because it is trying to influence you to get a shot that could help protect you or even save you, but getting the vaccine could get you very sick or in the worst case scenario, kill you. This goes to prove my thesis, that since the German’s wild use of negatively impacting propaganda, in order for a piece of advertising to be classified as a piece of propaganda, it has to have a negative connotation or express a negative outcome. Also, the title of the article implies negativity with the use of the word propaganda and Grim Reaper, again, supporting my thesis .

      Only since World War II has propaganda been associated with negativity, and even more specifically, since the German’s use if it. Before it was manipulated into its pessimistic ways, it was often used positively. Even up to, and during World War II, the American’s used it positively, even with the war efforts. There is a pamphlet that was created in 1944 called, “What is Propaganda?” by The American Historical Society that explains the purpose of propaganda and what is was during 1944. (American Historical Society. What Is Propaganda? Washington D.C.: American Historical Society, 1944. Healthyinfluence. G.C. Marshall. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. <http://healthyinfluence.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/AHA-War-Dept-Propaganda.pdf>.) In the chapter labeled, The Story of Propaganda, it speaks of how propaganda was used before the time of World War II, but it was not known to be a negative form of advertising. “Nobody would make the mistake of assuming that it is new if, from early times, efforts to mobilize attitudes and opinions had actually been called “propaganda,””What is Propaganda?” reads. Before World War II, propaganda had not been used in this negative light, which is what caused many people to believe that ‘propaganda’ was a new term. This only goes to prove that the Nazi’s use of propaganda was what made it so well-known and caused it to be affiliated with negative outcomes.

      Advertising is how we get the greater majority of our ideas across to other people, but we don’t want to always use the same form of advertising because it can get old and boring. Advertising is part of our everyday lives. However, the use of propaganda with a negative outcome in World War II by the German Nazi’s, has greatly influenced the use of propaganda that is used in the world today and the implications that it supplies. Therefore, we do not use it as much as we would if it was not used in this way during World War II.


      Encebollado con Jhonas Dunakin

      Posted by Seamus Kirby in Science and Society - Best - Y on
      Recipe:

      Ingredients

        • 2 lbs fresh tuna
        • 1 lb yuca, fresh or frozen
        • 2 tbs sunflower oil
        • 2 tomatoes, diced
        • ½ red onion, diced
        • 1 teaspoon chili powder
        • 2 teaspoons ground cumin
        • 8 cups of water
        • 5 cilantro sprigs
        • Salt to taste
      Serve topped with:
      • Curtido de cebolla y tomate or pickled red onion and tomato salsa
      • Chifles or plantain chips
      • Tostado corn nuts or popcorn

      Instructions

      1. Heat the oil on medium heat to make a refrito with diced onion, tomato, cumin, chili powder and salt.
      2. Add the water and cilantro springs, bring to a boil.
      3. Add the tuna and cook for until the tuna is fully cooked, about 15 minutes.
      4. Drain the tuna and keep the broth to cook the yuca.
      5. Separate or break the tuna into small to medium size pieces.
      6. Bring the tuna broth to a boil and add the yucas, cook until tender but firm, about 30-40 minutes for the frozen yuca.
      7. Take the yuca from the broth, remove the strings and cut into bite size chunks.
      8. Add the yuca chunks and tuna pieces to the broth, taste and add salt if needed.
      9. Re-warm the soup if necessary and serve topped with a good amount of pickled onion and tomato salsa, if desired can also be served with chifles or plantain chips, tostado corn nuts, avocado slices and extra lime slices.

      Analysis of Dish:
      The only processed foods in the encebollado are the sunflower oil, the chili powder, the ground cumin, and the salt. The majority, about 95% of the total food mass are whole, not processed. The majority of the dish is the tuna, and the yuca. The calories for a full meal serving is about 600-800 calories. Tuna is very good for you, as it can, among other things, lower blood pressure, and lower the risk for heart disease, stroke and cancer. The yuca root helps ease diabetic symptoms, and helps soothe arthritis. If you ate nothing but this meal everyday, you'd most likely be very healthy, as long as you made sure to get the other vitamins and things that you need. The tuna came from japan, so it probably traveled the farthest. The processed foods probably didn't have a significant affect on the environment, because the ingredients are mostly very natural. The Tuna for this meal is fairly expensive, but of the meal is very reasonably priced. For the tuna to get to our plate, it went on a long journey. It was fished from the japanese waters, then shipped to America, where it was then moved to the store we bought it from.

      Personal Reflection:

      This unit I learned that one of the things I pay the least attention to, what I eat, is one of the most important decisions I can make in my life, especially in regards to my health. While I personally can’t affect the larger food system that much, I can make good choices of who I buy food from, so as not to support the companies that abuse the animals they feed you, like the way chickens and cows are penned up like we saw in Food inc. I think that the biggest problem with the food system is that the cheapest, and most addicting foods are the most unhealthy, because it leads to people eating much more unhealthy food than they would have. I think that I personally could improve my food choices by eating less junk and fast food, which would give me a healthier diet, and free up space in my diet for more vegetables, fruit, and other foods. I probably wont cut out 100% of the junk and fast food that I eat, but I am willing to cut out the majority of those foods that I eat.


      Food Rules Slide:

      Food Rules Slide.001
      Food Rules Slide.001

      Un Sueño de una Tarde Dominical en la Alameda

      Posted by Ava Olsen in Spanish 4 - Manuel - E on
      Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 11.05.47 PM
      Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 11.05.47 PM
      Soy Frida. Soy el marido de Diego Rivera. Tengo un yinyang en mi mano porque represento el equilibrio de mi marido, Diego Rivera. El está en la foto en frente de mi. A mi izquierda, hay la Catrina. Soy una artista muy buena, y mi arte inspira a muchas personas. Soy una parte importante del Revolución Mexicana, porque hago arte que representa mis sentimientos. Añade al explosión de arte en este tiempo.

      The Subconscious Bias

      Posted by Ava Olsen in English 2 - Pahomov - A on

      Even though our conscious bias may be the one we try to control and show, the subconscious bias is the underlying cause of many stereotypes and generalizations. Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People touches on many themes related to bias, including the automatic and reflective sides of the mind, and what roles they play in society. The definition of bias has been discussed for years, and makes understanding stereotypes easier once the bias is understood. Bias is when your brain associates certain things with each other, and tries to make quick decisions. Sometimes, these decisions are distorted from our own conscious ideas, causing bias. IAT tests, which determine your underlying bias in your subconscious, were created to find your hidden bias. Our bias is part of a system which controls society, and our brains are to blame for the associations that cause bias.

      Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, a book published in February 2013, and written by a social psychologist from Harvard (Mahzarin R. Banaji) and professor of psychology at University of Washington (Anthony G. Greenwald), touches on many themes of bias and how they relate to our brains. The title of the book “Blindspot” is a metaphorical way of refering to the section of the mind that contains our hidden bias. The book shares the experiences of the authors taking Implicit Association Tests (IAT’s), and explains the science of it. The book’s purpose is to help the general public understand their mental biases, and adapt ourselves to be more fair to the people of society.

      According to Oxford Dictionary, bias means “prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair”. Many people believe that they don’t have a bias, whether it is subconscious or conscious. Racism is a controversial issue, and a lot of the public believe that they are not racist. However, there is a bias that most people have about skin color preference that they are unaware of. This underlying bias that we are unknowing of can be found through a simple Implicit Association Test (IAT). An IAT is a test that was created for determining the level of bias that we have. Harvard developed a racial profiling IAT test that gives a series of words and pictures of children of European-American and African-American descent/skin color. The point of the test is to see how fast you associate each skin color with pleasant and unpleasant words. My results astounded me. I am a person that is against racism wholeheartedly, and I don’t believe skin color matters in the grand scheme of things. However, my results of the IAT test showed that I have a strong preference for European-American children vs. African-American children. I wondered how I could be so bias on the inside, but not be bias on the outside. This is where the book Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, played a role. The book talks about how humans have an automatic and reflective side of the brain. The automatic side of the brain is the subconscious side, and the reflective side is the conscious side. My automatic brain has a strong bias towards children of European-American descent, but my reflective brain has no bias towards either. IAT tests are great for figuring out your subconscious bias and can help in trying to be more fair to society. However, is it possible that our subconscious has more of an influence than we previously thought?

      The subconscious brain is responsible for making us breathe and move, and is controlled mainly by the hypothalamus, located above the brain stem. It is the location of the quick, decision-making part of the brain, and there is no way for it to be controlled. In fact, our subconscious is so secretive, that common things in public influence our way of being without our knowing it. A study done by Yale tested whether or not subtle things would bring about any different behavior in humans. The studies found that humans were more likely to be tidy if there’s a faint scent of cleaning product in the air, or they become more competitive if a briefcase is visible. These tests not only prove that conscious behavior is affected by the subconscious brain, but that bias can be undetectable!

      The subconscious and conscious are brought up in chapter four of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. The book refers to the subconscious as the “automatic” side of the brain, and the conscious side as the “reflective” side. The chapter mentions a situation from the famous sitcom “Seinfeld”. In this situation, Jerry, the main character talks with his friend George in a restaurant and acts like they’re a gay couple because a woman is eavesdropping on them. Later, the woman asks to interview Jerry, because he’s a well-known comedian. Jerry doesn’t recognize the woman, but proceeds with the interview. She asks questions for a column she is going to write while George is in the room. After a while, Jerry begins to catch on that the woman is from the restaurant, and she is a news reporter. He proceeds to try and convince the reporter that they’re not really gay, and quickly adds in “Not that there’s anything wrong with that!”. This situation proves that while Jerry’s conscious “reflective” side of his brain is gay-friendly, his “automatic” subconscious side of his brain does not want to be portrayed as gay because of all of the stereotypes that go along with it.

      Bias is the cause of stereotypes and generalizations, and our subconscious brain is uncontrolled when it comes to issues like these. Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People is a very useful book that helps people try to keep their bias in control, and not let it affect their conscious choices. Knowing the difference between the “opinion” of your automatic and reflective sides of your brain will cause a greater sense of fairness and equality in our community and society. The distortion of the subconscious and conscious brain activity cause problems, and reading the book alone will give you a greater sense of right and wrong. Determining your bias can be done with IAT tests, and can bring you one step close to conquering it. If we can control the systems of bias that are part of our subconscious brain, we can create a more fair society that we live in today.



      BIBLIOGRAPHY:


      Banaji, Mahzarin R., and Anthony G. Greenwald. Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. New York: Delacorte, 2013. Print.


      Carey, Benedict. "Who's Minding the Mind?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 31 July 2007. Web. 22 Jan. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/31/health/psychology/31subl.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.