Q2 Reflection #5: “Arrestan a Justin Bieber por conducir ebrio y bajo influencia de marihuana”

Audrey Pham

Q2

Melanie Manuel

Word count: 204



Arrestan a Justin Bieber por conducir ebrio y bajo influencia de marihuana”


Durante el miércoles, el cantante, Justin Bieber arrestó para condujo en estado de ebriedad, fuma marijuana, ilegal calle carrera, y inválido licencia. Durante el jueves, Justin Bieber liberó con $2,500 fianza dinero. Todo sucedió en Miami en la mañana. Mientres fue estación de policía, el sonrió en todo el mundo. Se desconoce a dónde se dirige. Antes todo sucedió, el con un mujer en la playa. Mientres ser tomado lejos, hinchas de Justin Bieber animaron para el aunque el fue cárcel. jefe de policiá dijo "(Bieber) hizo algunas declaraciones de que había consumido alcohol y que había fumado marihuana y consumido medicamentos recetados". Justin Bieber condujo un lamborghini y su amigo condujo Ferrari. Ellos corrieron ilegalmente alrededor la calle. Martinez dijo "no estaba cooperando con las instrucciones del oficial" jefe de policía dijo "Primero, estuvo un poco agresivo, usó algunas palabras para cuestionar por qué había sido detenido y por qué el oficial lo estaba interrogando. Cuando él abrió la ventana y confrontó al señor Bieber, detectó un olor fuerte a bebidas alcohólicas". SGT Bobby de CNN dijo “El cantante falló una prueba de sobriedad al momento de su detención”. Esta situación por todo la entrevista, por ejemplo: facebook, twitter, tumblr, muchos más.


"Arrestan a Justin Bieber Por Conducir Ebrio Y Bajo Influencia De Marihuana." CNN En Espaol Ultimas Noticias De Estados Unidos Latinoamrica Y El Mundo Opinin Y Videos RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jan. 2014.


Quarter 2 Reflection 7

Zack Hersh 1/27/14

Quarter 2 Reflection 7         Señorita Manuel


El Papa Llega a Filadelfia en el 2015


El Papa de la iglesia católica,  Papa Francisco, va a visitar Filadelfia en septiembre de dos mil quince, él anuncío recientemente. Va a ocurrir durante el octavo Encuentro Mundial de familias, que tiene lugar todo tres años. En el pasado, ha estado en Rio de Janeiro Brazil, Roma Italia, Manila, y esta vez, va a estar en Filadelfia.

Esta es toda parte de la piensa del Papa para visitar muchos lugares del mundo. Ya visitó Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, en el julio pasado. También en eso julio, manteno masa en una isla de Italia, donde muchas emigrantes africanos se murieron tratando de cruzar el océano a Europa a través de la isla. El tiene piensas de visitar Amman, Bethlehem, Jerusalem, y Korea Sur en agosto.

Los propósitos de estas visitas es de reforzar las ideas central de la iglesia, familia, y lo connectar a lo largo de los cinco continentes. Este ha estado el tema de los encuentros de familias.

Aunque no soy católica, yo todavía pienso que este es muy bueno. Es muy bueno y importante por el ciudad, el lugar donde yo vivo, Filadelfia, y estoy contento que Filadelfia está recibiendo atención alrededor del mundo.


Palabras: 216


Gamboa, Ana. "El papa llega a Filadelfia en el 2015."Ponte Al Día. Ponte Al Día, 24 Jan 2014. Web. 27 Jan 2014. <http://www.pontealdia.com/philadelphia/el-papa-llega-a-filadelfia-en-el-2015.html>.


Reflection #7 Q2

Chris Tran

Srta.Manuel


Los Yankees Tenía un Contrato con Masahiro Tanaka


Este artículo se trata de un jugador de béisbol de Japón llamada Masahiro Tanaka. Él lanza en Japón por todos las vida. En la semana pasada, Masahiro Tanaka tenía un contrato con los Yankees. Quien pasaron mucho dinero por Jacoby Ellsbury y mucho jugador de beísbol. Los Yankees pasaron 155 millones dolares por siete años. En Japón, Masahiro Tanaka tenía bien el año pasado impuso 24 juegos y nunco pérdida un juego este año. Él tenía juega bien y va a bien en la grandes ligas de béisbol. Los Yankees quien pasaron mucho dinero en mucho años tenían nunca impuso en cuatro años. Este año ahora yo pienso los Yankees va a pérdida y va a pérdida Masahiro Tanaka a otro equipos. También A-Rod es nunca juega el béisbol yo pienso. El vocabulario que yo aprendí en el artículo es ficharon. La palabra de ficharon es a registro.  Yo encontrado la palabra en esta sentencia en el artículo. Los Yankees ficharon el miércoles al cotizado pitcher japonés Masahiro Tanaka por siete años y 155 millones de dólares.” (Fox Deportes)


Word count: 179 words

Work Cited:


"Los Yankees Contratan a Masahiro Tanaka." FOX Deportes. Fox Deportes, 22 Jan. 2014. Web. 27 Jan. 2014. <http://www.foxdeportes.com/beisbol/story/los-yankees-contratan-a-masahiro-tanaka>.

The Central Park 5

The Central Park V jogger case was the case of the battering and rape of female jogger Trisha Meili; in New York City’s Central Park on April 19 1989. Five youth males four were black and one was hispanic. They males were falsely convicted of the rape of Trisha Meili. Until 2002 when their charges were vacated. On the night of April 19, 1989 several attacks and robberies happened in Central Park an estimated 30 youths were thought to have come together to commit these crimes. 


According to police investigations on the night of the crime; the perpetrators were ‘gangs’ of teenagers who ‘set out’ to assault ‘innocent’ strangers which the media then gave the action the name “wilding”. April 19th was known to be the night in which these youths (predominantly blacks and hispanics) where these random acts of ‘wilding’ occurred in Harlem. Aside from normal police protocol the name of suspects under 16 years of age names are not to be released to media. Which instead the names, photos, and place of residence was publicized while the joggers name was still kept private. 


Although many youths were identified as partaking in these acts of ‘wilding’ and some identified themselves as assaulting other people. Only the five which became known as  “The Central Park Five” were brought to trial later on. The names of the five youths that were taken in for questioning are Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, and Kharey Wise. Yusef Salaam was the fifth one but he refused to sign a confession with his signature. The police interrogated these young men to the point where they were telling on each other claiming one committed the rape just to get the police to let them go home. They blamed each other and said the others were raping   the jogger claiming themselves to be innocent. 


No DNA connected the boys to the case, they actually had no idea what happened to the jogger. Their statements were released just so they could go home.


The first trial was held in August of 1990, the defendants are Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana Antron McCray were being tried for attempted murder and convicted of rape./ During the time of the trial Salaam and McCray were 15 years old. Raymond Santana was 14 years old at the time They received the maximum amount of time permitted for minors. 


Reverend Calvin O. Butts (a supporter of the youths that had been wrongly accused) said "The first thing you do in the United States of America when a white woman is raped is round up a bunch of black youths, and I think that's what happened here." The race card was pulled by blacks who were enraged by the fact these young men were wrongly accused. Police had no physical evidence nor did the “suspects” have any evidence on themselves that was related to the crime. 


The police were obviously biased to “whites” post the Civil Rights Era. Black protesters were angered at the fact the these five “kids” were convicted of a crime they had no idea even took place. Police created a time line of when the boys were projected to have committed the crime it did not add up. The time and place the jogger was raped did not even correlate with the time the boys had been in the park. The boys also later released a statement stating that they were not in that section of the park where the woman was battered and raped. 


The difference between the 60’s and 1989 is racism was not as publicized. Media is biased towards exploiting black crimes. The media made this case much larger rather than if the media had not started releasing these statements from minors. In the 60’s there were leaders like MLK and MX who were constantly on tv defending blacks which made race a larger issue. Once the late 80’s hit racism still existed though it was less publicized. This was during the crack era, (1989) so the drug wars and black on black crime was more of an issue on the news rather than a KKK rally. I believe this and I know for fact that blacks at this point dealt with the race aspect though they still had to deal with live in their own neighborhoods. 


These biases by the media often portray the image that all blacks are bad especially during this time where activist were “pro” jogger or “pro” youth. The media threw their names and personal information out before they put on the cover of the NY Times “ Female Jogger near death after savage attack by roving gang”. Not only were they bashed so bad but after the true rapist came forward there was no type of compensation or remorse felt towards the 5 now 15 years later men. Today the men are all in contact with each other and tell their stories in their documentary. 

Rose Knibbe

Recipe and Analysis-

Hummus: From: The New Moosewood Cookbook By: Mollie Katzen

Ingredients:

- 2-3 medium cloves garlic, sliced

- 2 scallions, in 1-inch pieces

- 3 cups of cooked chick peas (2 of the15 1/2oz. cans, rinsed and well drained)

- 6 Tbs. tahini

- 6 Tbs. lemon juice

- 3/4-1tsp. salt 

Directions:

  1. Place garlic, parsley and scallions in a food processor or blender and mince
  2. Add chick peas, tahini, lemon juice and salt, and puree to a think paste

Pita Bread {http://mideastfood.about.com/od/breadsrice/r/pitabreadrecipe.htm}

Ingredients:

  • 1 package of yeast, or quick rising yeast
  • 1/2 cup warm water
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. granulated sugar
  • 1 cup of lukewarm water

Directions:

  1. Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy.
  2. Combine flour and salt in large bowl
  3. Make a small depression in the middle of flour and pour yeast water in depression
  4. Slowly add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic
  5. Place dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, it has been successfully kneaded. 
  6. Coat large bowl with vegetable oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated.
  7. Allow to sit in a warm place for about 3 hours, or until it has doubled in size.
  8. Once doubled, roll out in a rope, and pinch off 10-12 small pieces. Place balls on floured surface let sit covered for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 500deg F. and make sure the rack is at the very bottom of the oven. Be sure to also preheat your beking sheet.
  9. Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into circles. Each should be about 5-6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick.
  10. Bake each circle for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up. Turn over and bake for 2 minutes.
  11. Remove each pita with a spatula from the baking sheet and add additional pitas for baking.
  12. Take spatula and gently push down puff. Immediately place in storage bags, or eat away.

Analysis:

When looking at my list of ingredients the only thing that stuck out to me as something that could be considered processed were the chick peas that I will be using since they are canned and the garlic I am using because it will also be canned. Other than those two things the rest of my food will be completely whole food. The hummus was hard to determine the serving size for because it’s not quite clear how much one person will want to have of it. I finally decided to give it a good 5 person serving amount while in reality it could probably serve a lot more people. After figure out the serving size I was able to determine to nutritional facts. The hummus is about 80 calories per serving size, 2.2g of fat and such an incredibly low amount of sugar that it didn’t show up. One of the really great things is that this has 3.1g of protein per serving which is pretty decent. It also has 2.6g of dietary fiber and no cholesterol! Now for the pita bread I split it into 12 since it should make 12 pockets. This gave me the nutritional facts of it containing 115 calories, again very low amount of sugar, 0.3g of fat, no cholesterol, 24.2g of carbohydrates and 0.8g of dietary fiber. It also contains 3.2g of protein. I think that my body and anyone else's bodies could definitely handle this dish. I think that your body would be ok if you ate this for every meal. You are getting most of the nutrition's that you need from this.

Environmentally it is very kind. I can’t track back where all of the ingredients came from but I do know that most of it could be made in the US and is kind to the environment. There is a possibility that the garlic and green onion could have been made in bad conditions but they are not the main ingredients. Economically the meal is pretty cheap. It would not cost much money to make this at all. I bought these ingredients from grocery stores that were not whole foods or trader joes or a place like that, that makes me sure of who harvested the food. I do know that most likely the money is not going to the right people but that has more to do with where I got the food than what I got. I mean I definitely could have bought fresh chick peas and made them on the stove before I put it in the hummus but I didn’t which means someone else had to do that and then also can it. 

Personal Reflection-

While we did the unit on food and it’s effects on your health I was out for a week due to a concussion. Because of this I was not in class for most of the unit. With that being said I wasn’t able to gather as much as my other classmates because I wasn’t there. Despite not being there I still learned a lot about how our food system works. This past year my sister has been paying a lot of attention to the foods she eats so I had an idea about why organic food was better for you but I never really took the time to look into it myself.  I really was able to notice how much processed food I ate and then because of coming up with the recipe I was able to problem solve and find a way to make it the least processed I could make. Throughout the process of looking at the given articles we read in class I was able to see just how strongly those processed foods can harm you. It really makes me rethink the way that I am going to eat from now on.


Screen Shot 2014-01-17 at 6.46.45 PM
Screen Shot 2014-01-17 at 6.46.45 PM

The New Girl

Carolyn Borock


“Dad, I can’t go to boarding school, at least not an all girls one. Father, please!” Madison exclaimed.

“Madison ,sweetheart, we are almost there! You can’t back out now,” he protested.

“ Dad, I’m 13 years old. I think I can make my own decisions.” I said, standing my ground.

His face reeked of disappointment, and he looked out the window. I looked out the window as well, looking at the English country side. I was on my way to a new school, far away from my friends and family - a very fancy school, that we never could have afforded. My dad thought we were so lucky that I had gotten a scholarship. I didn’t see it that way.

“We’re here.” my father said.

Looking out at the building, it was like a castle, with so many pretty architectural details. I’ve never seen anything like it, being from New York City and living in a small apartment building. As we pulled up to the building, a lady came up to the car and waited until we stopped, with her hands joined together.

I walked out of the car onto the paved light beige colored brick driveway.

“Hello, my name is Ms. Varden and I will be your headmistress,” she explained.

Holding her head high and her hand out in a pleasant gesturem I hugged my father and said my goodbyes. She led me to the lobby of the school. It was amazing! There were two shiny wooden spiral staircases connecting at the top. As we headed up the stairs to my quarters for the term, I remembered my two best friends back home. Ohh, I loved to sing and dance around the room with them and just act like children! I knew I would miss that at the new school.

We reached my room and the headmistress said, “Unpack your things quickly and head down to the lunchroom in 20 minutes! Come on! Chop Chop!”, ahe said in her strong British accent.

My room had a fireplace and a princess bed,  with a massive canopy draping over the bed frames. It also had a great view of the lake in the backyard, as well as the pretty trees and adorable gardens. I unpacked my stuff and headed down for lunch. Suddenly, I felt myself flying down the stairs, and soon I was flat on my face, looking up at a pretty girl about my age, who had been bending over to tie her shoe. I must have tripped over her - not a great way to make a first impression.

“Omg, I’m so sorry!” I said to the girl.

She smilesd and started laughing, and soon I’m laughing as well.

“Hi, I’m Allison!” she said, still lying on the ground.

“Hi I’m the clumsy girl that just tripped over you. But I also go by Madison.” I said.

She smiled.

“Hey, come on, we have to head to lunch before Ms.Varden yells at us!” By now she was standing up and holding out her hand to help me up.

We started running because we didn’t want to be late. We looked into each other and smiled for a second and didn’t see that Ms.Verden was staring right at us, with her arms crossed andher stern face. We stopped immediately and crossed our hands and put our heads down.

“You must not run in the halls! Tou had to have known that, Allison!” Headmistress said.

“Yes, I’m sorrym Headmistress,” said Allison with a fake sad face.

“ Now run along!” said Ms, Verden.

We walked quietly until she was gone, then we looked at each other and started laughing.

“You must not run in the halls, you had to have known that, Allison!” said Allison, mimicking the headmistress.

“Hey so do you know about the annual color war?” Allison said.

“No, what's it all about?” I said.

“Well the color war is the annual baseball game that we have and the two teams Blue and Pink battle it out for victory!It’s right before spring break. I’m gonna be Blue you should join us.” Allison said.

“Yeah, It sounds like fun!” I said smiling.

We walked into the lunch room and it had chandeliers hanging from the ceiling! It looked more like a ballroom than a lunchroom.

This school was very small so there was only 120 kids in the school. There were many cliques though! The main one was the “Preps”; there was also the Nerds, and then there were the “Populars.”

“Who are they?” I said to Allison before sitting at a Prep table.

I was pointing to the Populars and allison made a face as she answered my question.

“They are the witches of Salem, the meanest of the mean.” Allison said.

I looked back at the two blondes, and the leader, clearly the brunette. They were laughing and talking. I wished for a second that I could be there and laugh with them.

“Hey, you ok?” Allison said.

“Huh.. Yeah sorry.” I said.

Allison went on talking to the Preps, and it was clear she was happy she was one of them. Wnen I started looking at them, the leader glanced over and used hand gestures to summon me over. I stood up and went over there.

“Hey wanna sit with us?” The leader said.

“Sure.” I smiled as I sat on the plush pillow on the chair.

“My name is Ashley and these two are Christy and Monica” the popular girl said.

“Hello, pleased to meet you, my name is Madison.” I said nervously.

“So I see that you are all chummy chummy with Allison.” Ashley said.

“Yeah she is ok.” I said.

“Well I just wanted to warn you about her! She was one of us last year, we kicked her out because she was always getting into trouble and blamed it on us.” Ashley said.

“She is not to be trusted.” The blonde twins said.

“Yeah and I also wanted to see if you wanted to go shopping with us after school and hang around us.” Ashley said.

“Sure. I’d love to!” I said.

It was after school and we headed to the mall and there was so many stores!

They wanted to go to the fancy stores and I couldn’t really afford it. My father gave me his credit card for emergencies. Well, I decided this was a fashion emergency!

We looked in Gucci and, to be one of the girls I was going to have sunglasses from here because it was tradition. I found a pair that was so pretty but they were $800 and I couldn’t afford it and my father would not be pleased. The girls’ voices kept repeating in my head.

“To be one of us you have to have the glasses!” Ashley’s voice said.

I didn’t care what my father thought and got the glasses but I didn’t have to pay because before I even went and paid for it. Ashley took the glasses out of my hand and paid for it.

“It’s ok! I got it! My parents are royalty they wouldn’t care that I paid for them.” Ashley said.

My eyes opened in shock, this was now the most expensive piece in my closet! We went to the other stores and I got a new outfit because Ashley said that I had to dress like them! They all dress in fancy designer clothes. I had none, so I had to buy some new clothes to fit in.

The next week, every after class, there were trips to Starbucks and the mall and into town everyday after school. Just me and the Populars. Allison was nowhere in sight.

At the end of the week, after my last class, the bell rang.

“Hey, Madison, can you stay for a second?” my history teacher siad.

I packed up my stuff and told the girls I will be there in a sec.

“So, I see that you are doing badly on your tests and I wouldn’t want you to lose your scholarship.” the teacher said.

“Ok, I will do better, I promise!” I said.

I rushed out of the class and the girls were waiting there with big smiles on their faces,  like a plan was underway.

“Come on, let’s go! The teacher just wanted a quick discussion on how I should make my essay into a book.” I said.

“Ok, let’s head to starbucks!” Ashley said.

We got to Starbucks and before I could even reach for my wallet, Ashley paid for my Vanilla Chai Latte.

“So I was talking to the girls and it’s our tradition to take a trip to Greece every spring break. We were wondering if you wanted to come?”  Ashley said with a big smile on her face.

“You would have to pay your own way though, and sadly you can’t, because you are on a scholarship so that means that you can’t afford even your drink that I gladly paid for!” Ashley said.

At that point I had tears in my eyes! I couldn’t say a word. As far as the Populars go scholarship girls are the lowest of the low! Allison, my first friend at this new school, had been right all along. And I had abandoned her.

“Please leave! Like now.” Ashley said.

“Yeahh..” The twins spoke.

I walked out of there. I felt bad for myself, but also for the way I had treated Allison. I was so rude to her I completely ignored her. She had warned me too - and I had been bought for a pair of Gucci sunglasses and a couple of drinks at Starbucks.

I picked up my phone and called Allison, and told her how sorry I was for everything I’d done. that she was right. Luckily for me, she forgave me, and I went later that night to a sleepover with her and the preps.

She said that to get back at them we had to win the Color War which was the annual baseball game!

We got the costumes for the color war all ready that night.

It was the next week and the color war was finally here!  

The Color War began and we won the whole thing was a blurr. All I remember is there was a faulty ball and it had Blue paint in it and when Allison pitched it to Ashley and she hit it. It went all over her uniform of Pink and ours Blue. She stormed out yelled at her friends and she disinvited them to greece. They unfriended her and now Ashley is disliked by the whole school and now the twins turned to Allison there original leader! Now allison was looking at me asking the most important question of my middle school life.

“ Are you ready to become the next leader of the new and improved Popular crew?”

“Yes, instead lets co-lead!”

The whole school was cheering our names, Madison and Allison!

“Madison and Allison!” The girls cheered.



Media fluency Q2

guercio Music Madness2
This is my new slide for our media fluency project I made in technology. I made my project look the way it does because people told me that my picture did not contrast with the black and white back ground I had before. Many different designs influenced me and became an input in this project. First, I used contrast to draw attention and stand out by making it black and white so it is easy to show and easily read. Next, I checked to see if their was negative space by making the quote look nice and is stated nicely so everyone understands it.. Last, I thought about the rule of the thirds so i made sure the picture balanced out with the quote. Those were the design aspects I put consideration into my slide. 

Q2 Sumario 7

Sieanna Williams                                                                                                  Q2

Srta. Manuel


La Adicción Al «sizzurp» De Justin Bieber Preocupa a Su Entorno Más Próximo.


“Justin Bieber necesita rehacer su vida. Estoy convencido que gente consiguen sucios rico y no sabe cómo actuar. Es una pena.” Dijo mi amiga, Zaria, en Twitter hace tres días después aprendió los acciones ridículo de Justin Bieber. Yo puedo creerlo también. Muchas celebridades experimentan drogadicción. Algunas personas se convierten en adictos de las drogas. Yo no pienso que Justin Bieber es un drogadicto, pero yo creo él es en su camino. El artículo dijo,

Este cóctel puede provocar convulsiones y otros efectos nocivos para la salud. Pero esta no es la única sustancia que Justin Bieber estaría consumiendo: también toma varios fármacos ansiolíticos entre los que se encuentra el Xanax, conocido también como Trankimazin. Además, el cantante fuma marihuana y consume alcohol.”

En Instagram, una persona publicado en línea que ella odia el hecho de que las celebridades se salga con todo. Ella explicó que hace dos años su prima pequeña tiene cinco años y pegó de un conductor borracho. Ella estaba muy enojado porque admiradores de Bieber empezaron un trend en Twitter “#LibreJustinBieber” y más. Ella dijo que no persona preguntaría liberar el conductor que mató su prima porque él no es famoso. Simplemente porque Justin Bieber es famoso, sus admiradores quieren él ser libre de cárcel. Yo pienso que si Justin Bieber mató una persona mientras conduce borracho, personas todavía dirían “¡Libre Justin!” es muy triste y injusto.

Él tiene que aprender de sus acciones. Tratando él como un príncipe cuando hizo algo mal, nunca ayudarle a aprenderá él a crecer y tomar la responsabilidad.



PALABRAS: 258


~~~

EL NORTE DE CASTILLA. "La Adicción Al «sizzurp» De Justin Bieber Preocupa a Su Entorno Más Próximo." Http://spanish.about.com/. DIARIO ABC, S.L., 23 enero. 2014. Web. 24 enero. 2014.






Food Benchmark

Screen Shot 2014-01-25 at 7.52.22 PM
Screen Shot 2014-01-25 at 7.52.22 PM

Tbs of seasoning salt 

1 pound of boneless chicken breast 

1 box of of colorful whole grain rotoni noodles

I pound of grated cheese

I bag of of raw spinach 

2 tomatoes 

2 bottles of Italian dressing 

 

Directions 

First grill marinate and season the chicken

Next you grill chicken until a crisp at this time you should have your noodles boiling 

Once your noodles and chicken are done you chop the chicken and mix the noodles 

Next you chop the tomatoes and break the spinach

 Then you add in the cheese spinach and tomatoes 

After the ingredients are mixed and blended together add all the Italian dressing. 

Place in the fridge to cool 

 

Analysis 

Although this isnt the most healthy thing on the menu it is isn't the worst thing you could eat. The Italian dressing is the thing that makes it very fattening. Overall there are 23 grams of protein 13 grams of fat and 9 grams of sugar. This is a meal that you could eat everyday. As long as the serving size was propionate and not very big. It is a meal that is not the worst thing to eat on the menu. 

 

This dish is a process on a certain reason. After you cook the chicken and the noodles it is a piece of cake. It isn't something to really stress over. Most of the items in the dish are not organically made. Although it deeply depend on what you buy. You could get free range chicken even though it is really expensive. and you could also get freshly picked tomatoes and spinach like I did. Although the cheese and Italian dressing really is what makes the dish chemically preserved. This is something that is not really healthy for the environment at all. 

 

This is not an expensive dish to make all in all I think I spent some where around 15 dollars getting everything that includes the dish I served it in. I am not to sure about all the regulations and how my meal is regulated. All the companies that make the things I used like Nature valley that makes the dressing and the company that makes the grain into the noodles they make the most profit off of it. Considering that they are doing all they can to make sure that they keep as much money as possible to keep in their pockets they do get  a maximum profit. 

 

None of the ingredients are made in philadelphia or even Pennsylvania it is really expensive to ship those sort of product here and transportation uses gas. If I could make this dish a little more healthier I think I could find an alternative to italian. I used fresh spinach and tomatoes. I did everything that could be done as far as to make this dish healthy. I didn't fry the chicken and used whole grain noodles. Overall I think that this is a good choice. 

This unit I learned about how to take care of my body. The more risk there are the more I know that I need to pay more attention to what I eat. I learned what nutritions there are and that my family has a real play in what happens to me in the future. I definitely know more now than I knew then. 

I know that my biggest problem personally in the food system is that I do not pay enough attention to the labels and what is going on. I think that there is something wrong with the fact that they kind of hide it from us. I think that we do not pay enough attention to what it is going on. It almost makes it impossible for us to understand certain things that are on the label. For those of us who have not been properly informed and would like to eat healthier it makes us seem as though that what those people think are healthy are actually not. I know some better personal choices are to definitely to eat way more fruits and veggies. I think that is my bigger problem I am not all that into sweets and candies.  I know that this will be some of the best things for me and my body. My things will make me better as a person and healthier. I need to take care of my body I only have one and this unit has made it very clear for me.  

The Locked Gates to the World

I, Chester Hayes, don’t usually look like this. I usually have rosy cheeks and a skip in my step but today, I walk flat-footed and without my cheery smile. I am walking towards my doom, the town hall. Everyone in town knows that I am meeting with the head council but nobody is quite sure why. They aren’t supposed to gossip but everybody does. This is one of the rules that they are more lenient about. The other rules need to be followed all the time, no exceptions, as it is posted everywhere in town.

As I get closer to the now looming building, I realize that I need to walk a little faster or else I won’t get there on time. Time is a big deal for the head council because they have tons of other meetings that have topics that are all way more important than a little rule-breaking from a young boy like me. Yes, I am a rule-breaker. Bam, mark me with a large red stamp across my forehead, it’s not like nobody knows. Everybody knows that I have done something wrong and they all know that I am probably going to be gone forever.

There was a kid about eight years ago who also walked the same road I did. Nobody ever found out what he did but they knew that something went terribly wrong. He went to talk to the head council and he was never seen again. His family was devastated and they wanted to leave but the gates didn’t open for them. The head council knew that once they left they would never come back and if they left everyone else would want to leave too.

That’s the problem with this town. Nobody knows what is out beyond the gates. Curiosity is natural instincts to human and that is how I got in trouble. I am surprised that no one else has tried to see what could be beyond the gates. I didn’t literally climb over the gates but it was close.

We all have computers in our houses as it is the way we receive mail and the newspaper. My grandmother says that the newspaper used to be on paper like the old book she keeps on her bedside table and that the mail would take a week to get from one house to another. The head council decided to save the trees and paper and do everything electronically. This was before my grandmother was married.

On the computers, we have access to the internet but no social websites. The head council cut us off from the world. I decided that I wanted to know why they make us blocked off from the rest of the world. I worked on hacking the computer so that I could know what was going on in the rest of the world. I was simply curious about the outside world.

Now, I come to a stop in front the large door and gaze all the way up to the intricate gargoyles and angels that are intertwined with the roof. The entrance is grand, like a town hall’s should be, with green and gold swirls on the door and a stone angel above the steps, watching over you. I open the door and I come to a desk with a woman sitting at it.  “Hello, do you have an appointment today?”

I realize that she is speaking to me and I finish gazing around the room before I answer. “Hi, yes, I believe I do have an appointment. My name is Chester Hayes, I am here to see the town council.”

I wait for the look of shock to appear on her face because this short polite boy can’t possibly be the one. It never appears. She glances down to her book of appointments and runs her finger down the side.

“Wow, just on time I see. Very good. The town council will be appreciative. You may sit over there and I’ll call in to tell them you are here.” She motions to emerald and gold couches and chairs across the hallway.

As I sit down, she presses an intercom and speaks into it. She talks in a low voice so I can’t exactly tell what she is saying. I’m sure it is something about me but I don’t really mind. People have been talking all about me and everybody knows about it. No one tries to give stares or looks but I catch them doing it all the time.

I had a few friends before the whole ordeal but they aren’t allowed to talk to me anymore because the town council is afraid that I will spread around whatever I found about the outside world. The town council contacted me right after they found out about my bad hacking job and told me that I couldn’t leave my house and I couldn’t talk to anybody except for my family. Which was easy because nobody wanted to talk to me after they found out what happened. My family wasn’t very happy with me, so there wasn’t much talking on that part either.

I hear my name being called and I gather my thoughts. I have no idea what to expect the town council to say but I know it will be bad. The secretary points to the first door on my left. I give her a small smile of thanks and she smiles back before returning to her work. I stand up and make my way over to the door. I don’t have much time to think about what I will say because the door opens for me right as I step in front of it.

I lean back in surprise as the door swings open and I realize that now everyone in the room is looking at me. The room is completely white with one large window looking out over the town’s park and a table taking up most of the room. All of the chairs are taken up by men in dark suits but one is left empty for me.

The man at the head of the table closest to the door motions for me to sit down. Everybody watches me as I slowly walk over to my seat. Once I’m sitting down, the man at the head of the table begins to talk. “Chester Hayes, correct?”

I try to mumble out an answer but all I can do is nod my head. I didn’t think that I would become that scared in front of the town council but hearing the man’s voice makes my stomach churn. “You know what you have done, there is no need to go over it, I assume?”

The rest of the men all nod their heads and turn to look at me. I nod my head again, with my tongue stuck to the roof of my mouth.

“The council here have been having a hard time trying to decide what we should do with you. Before we give you your verdict, we would like you to tell us what your motives were and what you hoped to accomplish with this.” The man leaned back and looked at me to start talking.

“Well, um, you see...” I stutter along, hoping for words to come that make sense. They all lean back and continue to watch me fumble with my words.

“I was reading in the library about the countries of the old world and I wanted to know more about what was past the gates. The librarian wasn’t much help when I asked her about the old world and how we came to be. She gave me more book references but that was about it. I knew that my computer could help me because I read in the book that the people in the old world could look up anything and everything on their computer and get answers. So I tried but I couldn’t get past the firewall, I think that is what it is called, to search for these old countries. There was a book about computers at the library and I read all about hacking in that book and looked for more but I couldn’t find anything else about computers. I decided to use what I had and hack the computer system so that I could search for the old countries. I know that it is a bad idea now but I just wanted to know what was out there and why we can’t see it.” I pause to take a breath and let what I just said sink into the councilmen’s heads.

The man at the head of the table leans forward and steeples his hands on the table. “Chester, you know that you have violated one of the rules in the guidebook. This is usually met with the punishment of expulsion from the town limits.”

As soon as he says it I know, but I’m not ready for it. My head is spinning with questions about everything and my stomach is turning even more than before.

“But we have a compromise for you. You don’t have to leave but you have to live in the town hall and take classes with other curious individuals about the outside world.”

I slowly look up in surprise. “Take classes? Like school?”

“Yes, classes about advertising and how it affects the outside world. We will be telling everyone that you have been expelled from the community so then no one will get suspicious.”

“Even my parents?”  

“Unfortunately, yes. If too many people find out they will get curious and then what is the point of us closing off the town? Anyway you will be starting classes right after this meeting.”

“What about my things from my house? And my clothes?”

“You will be supplied with clothes here and you don’t need any of your stuff anymore.” He turns to the rest of the men and ask if they have anything they would like to add. Nobody says anything. “Alright, well I have other business to attend to and you have to go meet everyone.”

As the words leave his mouth, two burly men stand up and cart me off to the higher floors of the town hall. We come to a stop in front of a door that looks nothing like the rest of the town hall. It is a black door and the whole hallway looks like something out of an office building, not a fancy town hall.

“We’ll wait for you to get changed. Empty all your pockets and get rid of anything else that you might have on. Your clothes are in there along with your shoes.” The men open the door for me and wait for me to step inside.

I nod my head hesitantly and shuffle inside. I imagine this is how someone in prison would feel. We don’t have a prison in town because nobody does anything bad. Except for the rule-breakers like me.

Inside the room there is a single lightbulb that turns on when I walk inside and on the floor there is a pile of white clothes. I don’t have anything in my pockets except for lint so I shed my normal clothes and put on the white jumper, the white socks and the white sneakers.

I open the door and the light shuts off. The men are still standing there talking quietly. They notice my return and chuckle.

“Whew, he looks like an angel in that suit!”

“Don’t worry, you won’t get any whiter than that!”

As we walk along the hallway they explain to me that after our classes are done for the day, we have to do manual labor, usually in the basement with the grease and grime. We turn and walk to another hallway that has one door at the end of it. I must looked worried because they pat me on the back and tell me that there is nothing to be afraid of.

We reach the end of the hall and one of the men swipes his finger across a keypad and the door opens. Inside the door, there are steps going down. The men tell me that at the end of the stairwell there is another door and that door will lead to the dormitories where I will be staying. I start to descend the staircase and I look back up just in time to see one of the men smile and give me a thumbs up.

I reach the door at the bottom of the staircase and calm myself before I open it. I’m not exactly sure what to expect but I know that there is no going back now. If there are people on the other side,  I want to look confident and not scared.

I ready myself and open the door. Nobody is there. It’s another long hallway with doors on one side and windows on the other. I hear children playing and realize that the windows are dug into the ground around the park. In front of me there is a metal gate with a desk and some papers on it behind the gate. I decide to ring the bell because there is no other way of getting in.

The bell dings once and nothing happens. I ring it again, just to be sure that someone hears me. I begin to hear a scuffling sound down the hall but I can’t quite see through the metal gate.

“Oh, you must be the new boy. I am so sorry that I am late. I was coming out to meet you but then someone needed my assistance. Now where are those keys...” A bent over old man walks up the hallway, muttering to himself. He finally finds the keys and opens the door for me.

“I am Charlie, the person who runs everything down here. Welcome, welcome. Now these are the dormitories and farther down is the lunch room and then we have a few recreational rooms farther down. The boys are at classes right now so I’ll show you to your room. Now where are those keys...” Charlie pauses at the second door from the end of the hallway and I get a glance into an open space with a few tables and chairs scattered around and some more unmarked doors.

“Okay, okay, here they are. And here, is your room. Everybody gets their own room because there aren’t many like you around. Now you can get settled in and I’ll be back to check on you later. Alright now.” He turns around and shuts the door behind him.

I am left in a room with a small bed in the corner with a flannel blue blanket. There is a mirror on the wall across from the bed and under that a small dresser for all of my stuff that I don’t have. My feelings are still numb. I hadn’t been able to say goodbye to my parents or the rest of my family and within an hour, my life had changed drastically from above ground to below ground. I have nothing else to do so I crawl into bed and fall asleep.

After a few months of my new life, I was called by Charlie to see him in his office. When I get there, he is sitting down and not talking, something that I have never seen him do. A man in a black suit is sitting in a chair next to him. I faintly recognize him.

“Chester, this is the man who is top of the head council and he has noticed your work in the advertising classes. He wants you to go out into the outside world. You will be going with some of the other boys who have potential like you.” Charlie speaks quietly as if everyone else can hear what he is saying.

“Outside, outside? Like going to the old world countries?” I have never heard of this happening to anybody but it sounds like so much fun.

“Yes. You will be taking extra classes because you need to learn what you will be doing in those countries.” The man in the dark suit stands up as he speaks and offers me pen to sign a contract with. “The only thing is that we need to make sure is that you will be willing to come back to the town. You cannot go off on your own and start a new life in the old world countries. By signing this contract, it will tie you to this town and it will insure that you are saying the right things to the people out there.”

“What exactly am I promoting, sir?” I sign the contract quickly because there is no way that I would pass this up but I realize that I don’t know exactly what I am supposed to be saying to the people.

“Our town. It is time to spread knowledge of our type of community, one without advertisement and without a harmful society that makes everyone think bad about themselves.”

With that, I was whisked away into weeks worth of classes teaching me how to advertise and how to make our town seem liveable. They had me practice on Charlie and the other boys and they all said that they would want to live there. I was convinced that I was a perfect salesman and that everybody would want to start their own community like ours.

Finally it was take-off day. We flew in a helicopter, so no one from town could see us, to all over the world. Everything was going well until we came to a city called Chicago where protestors came to meet us. They must have heard about us from other cities and they thought that our idea was not good at all, for some reason.

Once we finish our presentation and speeches, we allow time for questions from the crowd. Usually the questions are about visit limitations and if they can come check out our town, but this time they were more in depth about us.

“How long have you lived in this community?”

“Have you ever lived outside of this community?”

“How you do expect us to believe you?”

“Why is this community better than ours?”

These questions fired out from the crowd and the crowd began to murmur with inquiry. I turned to look at one of the boys to see if he knew what to do. He looked back at me and shrugged his shoulders. We had one of the men in the dark suits along with us, in case we needed his help but he looked as confused as we did.

One girl was on top of another person’s shoulders addressing the crowd with her back towards us. “These men are trying to do what is right in their minds. Nobody should be booing them because of this,” For a moment I thought that she was on our side of the story but then she continued to put us down for having something called biases. “Those people are advertisements themselves, and they are advertising a community free of ads and a harmful society. But they are harming their own society by not having any sense of being different.”

Different, but who needs different, when you can have the same? I have the same ideas as my parents and the same beliefs, so there is no conflict and no arguments. Violence is created by different ideas clashing and making people believe they are better than the others.

We were quickly shuttled off the stage so that a riot wouldn’t break out but I thought about what the girl said the whole ride home in the helicopter. Our town believes that we are better than the other people and that’s why we are advertising. We hide our ads as ideas and beliefs so people can believe them more than they would just believe regular ads.

Their society makes them want more and more things, which doesn’t happen in our community at all. That was the point when they created the town, to make us a separate generation that doesn’t have the consumer gene. The one flaw in that system though is that fact that everybody will then be the same. There are no new products that people want, it’s just the same old brands of clothes and toys and gadgets.

We went back to town to report what had happened and the town council looked a little surprised about the riot in Chicago. They realized that sending us out was probably one of their worst ideas yet because they said that we weren’t prepared enough. I personally don’t think we could have been more prepared. They couldn’t have controlled everyone’s reactions to what we said, and that’s the point of having a conversation with someone. You learn about their side of the story and then they learn about your ideas. Without different ideas in our town, healthy debates like those couldn’t happen and that is why we weren’t prepared.

After a few more years of conflict between the town council, they learned that they couldn’t keep us contained so they let the gates open and us flood out into the world. The world will have many new people who will be eager to learn more about what they missed and what they never knew. The world will never know what hit them.


Ayo-ola Hooks-Gibbs

During the nutrition period, I already knew the basics, but I also learned and gained even more information as we went along and covered the surface of nutrition and how it effects us in positive and negative ways. What I see as the biggest problems with our food system is how  kids are taught what to eat at a young age. The influences are the parents and I think that’s part of the problem. During this section, I’ve learned that only people who don’t have enough money are the ones who eat fast foods, but also people who don’t have time. I always had the thought that the less money you had, the harder the time someone had in order to feed their family healthy foods. Fast food is convient and that’s what everyone likes about, and people know that it’s not good for their health, but they ignore that fact and focus on the flavor and the price.

During one of or assignments, was about food rules, and I think that everyone has food rules that’s based off of what they eat. What reading the two articles, I noticed right off the back that, the author’s a healthy eater, because of the food rules and what he goes by, day by day.  I believe that food rules, is something that people learn when younger and grow up following that food rule(s).

 I’ve grown up in a family that eats healthy and always made sure that we had a salad with every meal. Once I began to go to high school, I had freedom, food wise. I was around tons of food places and I could whatever I wanted without anyone’s permission. My state of mind about food and my perspective changed. I began to eat more junk food, and I noticed that during high school, it makes you want to eat all the time. The changes I cold make, is to cut down the chips and try to drink water more often. I’ve began to eat things that consisted of the same ingredients, cheese, bread, sauce, beans, rice. What I’d like to do is cut back on that, increase with ore natural foods. I feel as though I’m willing to make those changes, as long as I set a goal for myself, for every week. The impact wouldn’t be much, at the beginning of eating foods like that I’d get multiple pimples, but the amount of pimples I get has minimized to one, once in a blue moon. The only impact I’d have will be better health. 




Ingredients:

about 3 cups cooked chicken

6-8 cups chicken broth

2 cups flour

salt 

Recipe:

First make the chicken stock or buy chicken stock, and the chicken, for roughly 2 hours.

Cup of flour add water until it becomes dough and in to a ball.

Roll out the ball flat and thinly

Cut in to squares

After 2 hours of the chicken boiling, add the squares of dough

leave it in for about 30 minutes.




Use the nutritional info on the label to estimate the caloric content, sugar content, fat content, etc. 

 The chicken doesn't contain any sugar, etc. 

The chicken stock was made:

1 carrot, peeled and chopped


  • 1 onion, peeled and quartered
  • 1 stalk celery roughly chopped
  • 1 dried bay leaf
  • 3 fresh parsley stalks
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme

    How will your body deal with what you ate? 
  • How my body will deal with what I ate will not be negatively, because everything was made freshly, including the chicken stock. How the various parts of the meal are processed by my body is, isn't as bad or compares to how it's digested when eating unhealthy foods.

Possible issues that would arise if i ate tis meal everyday would be high blood pressure, because of the amount of sodium in the chicken and dumplings.

 How are the various parts of the meal processed by your body?  What are some possible health issues that could arise if you ate nothing but this meal every day?

•Environmental:  

State/Country I think my ingredients came from, the chicken, I don't know. After watching the movie aout the chickens being in different areas. I'm guessing the chicken came from a place where it was copped up with hundreds of other chickens. I think that the chicken would've traveled longer. The rest of the things I used, was local. Also the flour, I'm not completely sure.I don't think any of the products used were processed.

•Political/economic: 

This meal cost, ingredients wise no more than 15 dollars.How the meal compares to fast food, would only be the chicken, but not entirely because some fast food places don't use real chicken for example McDonalds. But the chicken would compare to Chik Fil A more than any of the other fast food place. The reason why it doesn't compare to fast food as much because fresh none processed foods has been incorporated in the dish. I don't think chicken and dumplings fully compares to fast food except fort the chicken part.The person that made money off of my meal is the company of the chicken product which I don't know of, most likely the path mark brand(path mark) or Purdue  The small businesses that are involved is the fresh produce place where we bought the ingredients for the chicken stock.

•Social:  

  The social ramifications of my meal choice is the fact that my great grandmother used to make chicken and dumplings on both my mom and dad's side. Things traced from the farm is the chicken, previously what I wrote about the chicken is that they're put in all different type of pins, around the country, so I don't know where exactly the chicken came from. The food items were purchased from path mark and the market. Ingredients that compare to a commercial production would be the celery used, and the chicken. The celery, and the time is something that could be made yourself, but instead on the commercial selling for a low price. Their aren't many other ingredients that i could incorporate that's an commercial product and could also be an self-sufficient product. 


Slogan:

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Screen Shot 2014-01-14 at 12.25.44 PM-1

Quarter Two Drawings

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Imani Rothwell FOOD PROJECT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Imani Famous Banana Pudding


1 pack of Vanilla instant pudding mix

2 cups of Milk

1 container of Cool Whip

1 pack of Vanilla Wafers

6 Banana’s

1 Mixing bowl

1 Container

Whisk

Spoon or Spatula


How to Make


Step One:


Put the instant pudding mix into the mixing bowl then add two cups of milk


Step Two:


Stir pudding with whisk until it is nice and thick ( roughly stir for 2 minutes you can tell if it is thick by scooping some with whisk than turing whisk upside down... If it drips than it needs to be stirred more)


Step Three:


Add Cool Whip. FOLD COOL WHIP IN PUDDING SLOWLY    (If not done slow than the pudding will get flat and nasty EWWWWWWW)


Step Four:


Let it sit in refrigerator for as long as you can. Note: It is best if it sits overnight to get nice and cool and thick but if you are in a rush that is fine if it sit 10 or 20 minutes.


Step Five:


Grab Container and place the Vanilla Wafer down but so the back of the Wafer is facing up


Step Six


Add Banana on top of Wafer


Step 7: Add Pudding mix


Step 8:


Repeat Step 5,6 and 7 until container is full with pudding


Step 9:


Make the pudding look presentable by adding:


Strawberries

Wafers on top

Wafer Crumbs

Anything your heart desire


Step 10:


Enjoy






Analysis


Banana pudding is a desert that is brought to every family function. The reason is because it is a nice sweet dish that hits home after eating a delicious plate of (What my family calls) soulfood. 95% of the banana pudding is processed due to the fact that everything except the banana’s are processed.

This dish is apoxietmently 1070 calories which is a lot but that’s only the case if you decide to eat the whole thing by your self. There is a lot of artificial flavors in this dish with the cookies, and pudding mix and cool whip. There is also a lot of fat too. The way your body will deal with this is ideally you will find yourself using the bathroom to let it all run through your system or you will find your stuff very gassy with a lot of “Silent killers.” Yes this dish is a dish a health freak would definitely stay away from because of all the fat and calories and sugars but it’s a nice sweet dish that happens to not be healthy for you.

My food was definitely commercially grown. Well it was made through a factory. Factories are not the best for our environment due to all the wasted electricity and how it affects our ozone layer. Honestly I do not know where my ingredients came from but I will have to say the midwest because that is what comes to mind when I think of dairy products, and pudding. Which is strange because banana pudding is more of a  southern dish.

The great thing about banana pudding is that it is not that expensive, it cost me roughly $15.00 to make this dish. Now usually if I was being lazy I would grab a half decent banana pudding from the chinese store which cost only $1.00 but the saying goes “you get what you pay for.” So comparing the Chinese store with my banana pudding you can tell there is a complete different to how it is made and the effort that is put into it. Chinese store banana pudding is only good when you’re hungry and you need something fast to hold you over for a couple of hours. Where my banana pudding is good all the time hungry or not hungry my banana pudding satisfies the stomach.


Reflection


I honestly learned very little due to the fact that my class schedule always seemed to fall on a day we did not have school or a day that I had an appointment or could not be in school. Which sucks because I wanted to learn about the pros and cons when reading ingredients on the back of box.  But I did learn our sugar prices is going up. I have also learned of a western diet and why it is bad for you

My Role larger food system is that I don’t waste food. So I pretty much am one of the people environmentalist and socialist (I think) don’t scold because of how much wasted food goes on in the U.S. Also due to my diet change about 7 months ago I only eat fish as meat since I have low iron and refuse to take iron pills. So another role is that I do not eat the chickens nor support how they are taken care even though I was just a recent support of eating chicken and not asking questions on how they are taken care of.

The biggest problem with our food system and the way our food is made. Companies want to add unnecessary stuff to our foods to make it bigger but it ends up harming us which is not okay. Also the fact that junk food is cheap and healthy food is expensive. We have people wanting us to eat more healthier but we can’t when it cost $7 to get a meal at McDonalds and $17 just to get half a meal at lets say Fresh Grocer.

My Next step to a healthier diet will be drinking only water. and eating less junk food. The reason is because I want to start losing weight for prom. Nothing major just 10 pounds be a solid 140 which I think is a nice size for myself. Exercise and no more banana pudding will help me get closer to my goal.

Through this unit I have learned it is best to eat healthier. I also have stores in my neighborhood that helps with that. I should start to use that to my advantage. Thank you Mr. Best for an awesome semester


Food Rule


Nicholas Murray Food Project

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Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 9.47.46 PM

Recipe

Jamaican Potato Salad 

Ingredients 

  • 4 cups of diced potatoes 
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup of mayonnaise
  • 1/4 cup of corn
  • 1/4 teaspoon of black pepper
  • 1/4 cup of corn
  • 1/4 cup of peas
  • 1/4 cup of carrots
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt

 

Directions

  1. Wash, peel, dice and cook and the potatoes with eggs
  2. When the potatoes are boiled, you need to drain it instantly.
  3. place everything in a large bowl.
  4. Add corn, peas and carrots. 
  5. Stir the pot with the mayonnaise with salt and pepper.
  6. Add chopped eggs and stir lightly once more

 

Analysis 

 Health- Now that I have went through what goes into making this dish, I do not think it is as healthy as I originally thought. After making the dish I realized that it was really high in calories due to the amount of mayonnaise needed to finish it. Also, the carrots and corn come from a can so they are most likely processed. The Corn was low in sodium, depending on what they define as high. I do not believe that the eggs and potatoes were processed, and eggs can be bad if too much is consumed, but the entire dish only required 2 eggs.

Environment- I think that the canned foods came the farthest away because I am sure that the farms that produced the eggs and potatoes are relatively closer that a factory to process the food.

Economic- In all making this dish, which was made to feed 8-10 people, cost my family 10 dollars.  At a fast food place it would cost around 20-30 dollars to feed the 6 people in my house. We would have saved a lot of money if we did this regularly. Since all of my ingredients can come from a farm, those in control of the farm industry would have made the money.

Social-  I would think that the foods that were not processed would only have to go to packaging then to the store to me. Mayonnaise would need to be the collaboration of other ingredients for it to even be mayonnaise. The canned foods would need to be preserved and canned. 

Producing eggs myself would quickly become too expensive. I would need to get chickens and keep them in proper living conditions. Even if I grew the vegetables. I would need to buy a place to put them and keep them healthy as well.


Reflection


My role in this larger food system is to buy the food that companies made by very cheap and inhumane means. Since they control most foods and so many foods are available cheaply for me to purchase, it is really tempting. To me, the biggest problem is the antibiotics that they inject into the animals before they are slaughtered. I have always worried that there will be a mutation in the food that we will be un-able to fight against because it would have mutated to be immune to most systems and medicines. I could start eating organic food, but that would become costly very quickly. Since it is not in my budget to buy organic food, I can't afford to change. If organic foods were more accessible and less pricey I would most likely change my diet for the better.

    Food Project

    Recipe Analysis (Chicken)

    Ingredients:

    Boneless chicken

    2tbsp Olive oil

    1tbsp Salt

    1tsp Oregano

    1 Lime

    1 cup of water

    Directions:

    1. Place a pot on low heat and pour water inside

    1. Wash chicken parts in cold water
    2. Cut of the chicken into bite size pieces
    3. Place the chicken in the pot and cover, let sit there while water boils. (Medium heat)
    4. After water has precipitates and has cooked for about 10-15 minutes begin to add on the rest of the ingredients.
    5. Evenly distribute each ingredients and stir the chicken. Distributing half of the ingredients on one side, then stirring the chicken and then distributing the rest of the chicken. 
    6. Then let simmer for about 10 minutes on low heat. 
    7. Enjoy :)

    Analysis:

    Considering the amount of each ingredient for the amount of people it serves I can say that this dish is as healthy as possible. It’s mostly organic ingredients and it’s a little amount of each ingredient almost making it natural with the good flavor from the ingredients. This comes to show that there are a lot of foods that can be made with out the processed food and can still taste as good as food you can buy in a restaurant. This dish is made constantly in my house and through out my family. My mother began showing other who joined our family how to make food like this without all the processed food and at every gathering our food is made with the least amount of processed food.


    Personal Reflection:

    Throughout this unit my understanding of food has grown and has given me the ability to see food from a different perspective. I never really had much of a strong opinion about the outside food, the food that doesn’t really concern me. Since I stopped eating fast food since the age of 7 I’ve lost complete interest in it. Having the knowledge that it wasn’t good for me but not know the real reasons why it wasn’t. Now that we had a food unit I understood better what the importance of food was. The one thing that caught my attention was the many diseases that could be prevented with a healthy diet. That’s something that the majority of Americans aren’t realizing, the consumption of unhealthy food in America is too high. Even though food marketing isn’t making it any easier to eat healthy it’s still optional to eat unhealthy. 

    I think our biggest problem in the food system is the expense. It’s more expensive to eat healthier foods like, organic food, fruits, vegetables that are good. Oppose to McDonalds food that a whole meal could be under $5. Now money has become a huge factor in our lives and saving it for the majority of americans is truly important; because of this we end up going for the cheaper for which happens to be the unhealthier food. 


    Food Rules Slide


    Screen Shot 2014-01-14 at 10.03.08 AM
    Screen Shot 2014-01-14 at 10.03.08 AM

    Vkom_Food Benchmark

    Food Slide


    Logan, jackfruit, tapioca dice and tapioca pearls with coconut milk

    Serves 10-15

    Cooking time: Approximately 1 hour

    Ingredients:

    • 4 cups of fresh logan fruit
    • 2 cups of fresh jackfruit
    • 1 cup of tapioca pearls
    • 7 oz of tapioca dice
    • 3-5 cans cans of coconut milk
    • 2 cups of sugar
    • Salt

    Tools:

    • 2 sauce pans
    • Cooking strainer
    • Utensil for stirring 

    Directions

    Fruits:

    • Peel off the logan and jackfruit from the shells and remove the seeds (I bought the fruits from cans)
    • Thinly slice the jackfruit
    • Slice logan into halves (optional)

      Tapioca dice and pearls

    • Bring water to a pan and add the water halfway to the pan
    • Let the water boil before adding in the tapioca
    • Add tapioca in water for approximately 10 minutes or wait until the tapioca turns clear
    • Make sure to stir the tapioca so it won't stick to the pan 

    Coconut milk sauce

    •  Bring a saucepan to boil and add water 1/2 way to the pan
    • Let it sit until boiled
    • Add 1/4 cup of salt
    • Add the in the coconut milk
    • Gradually add 3 cups of sugar and stir the sauce

    Analysis:
    This is a Cambodian/Asian traditional dessert. Cambodian typically make this dessert for special occasions like Cambodian New Year or whenever you have a family gathering. You can easily find similar desserts to this one anywhere in a Cambodian local grocery store or at a Chinese/Vietnamese supermarket. This dessert takes approximately an hour to cook. 

    Health Although there are fruits included in this dessert, it is not the most healthiest dessert as you originally thought. After making this dessert, I realized it was high in calories due to the amount of sugar it has been added into the coconut milk sauce. Also, the logan, jackfruit and coconut milk was from a can, so they are most likely to be considered as processed. Since the fruits are from cans there are syrup and more sugar added to the fruits in can to make it not go rotten. 
    Environment - Food cans are made for "connivence" purposes. If people want tomato sauce they would  most likely buy the tomato sauce that were already made and distribute into a jar and/or can rather than making the tomato sauce from scratch. Food cans are convenient and it is easier to open up the can and throw in the pan, but what most people don't think about is the ingredients that are in those cans. 
    Economic - Most of the ingredients were from cans and bags. This dessert cost me about $13 to make and it serves about 10-15 people. My family would eat this dessert for 3 days, but it isn't the healthiest choice to have this for dessert all the time. Most of my cans comes from an Asian factory and they would have made the money if anyone chooses to eat fruits from a can than buying fresh fruits. 

    Social -  I'd always thought processed food only have all these additives, preservatives and sugars, that your body just does not need. Ultimately, it seems that there are sauce and spread like ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard are processed food because it wouldn't be ketchup, mayonnaise, or mustard if it didn't have any other ingredients in it the bottle. 

    It's always better to buy fresh fruits and make your own sauce or any other food paste from scratch. It is much healthier and they are all natural ingredients. You know what you are putting into what you are making, so it isn't preservatives. Homemade cooking and making things from scratch is a better option. 

    Reflection: 

    or this unit, I have learned a lot about things that I didn’t know in the past. Especially the importance of nutrition and the label of nutrition facts. The past two weeks into this unit, I noticed how much better I’ve been eating. As a teenager, I would eat what a typical teenager eat and that would be tons of “crap” food. Everyday, I tried to consume enough veggies and fruits. When we watched a short documentation in class of why our food could contain either a corn or soybean ingredient or both, that has opened my eyes on a bigger scale. I rarely eat red meat, but looking back to it I thought I would rather become a vegetarian. 

    Our food system is filled with unhealthy and bad choices and they come in cheaper prices. Fast food restaurants are everywhere near us. It is convenient, cheap and that is why people tend to turn to the bad choices. It really depends on how you want to eat. Eating healthy can be very expensive, but you really have to think about how much you can get out of buying a meal at a fast food restaurants to cooking your own meal at home. It is much better to cook your own food because you will know how much ingredients you are putting in your food and you can make more. If you’re going to McDonald all you can eat is a burger with fries and soda on the side, but with homemade cooking there are many other options. 

    I am willing to make these changes and I am currently owning up to it. One thing I have learned to become healthy is to eat less meat. That is not a problem to me. I don’t eat meat everyday or red meat meat as often. I typically have white meat over red meat. I believe if we can all cook at home and don’t eat out often, we can tackle obesity. 

    Screen Shot 2014-01-26 at 9.41.40 AM
    Screen Shot 2014-01-26 at 9.41.40 AM

    Isaac Adlowitz Food Project

    Matzo Ball Soup

    Ingredients:

    2 eggs

    2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

    2 1/2 quarts of cold water

    packet of Manischewitz Matzo ball mix

    Directions:

    1. In a small bowl beat 2 eggs with the 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil.

    2. add content of packet and stir with fork until properly mixed.

    3. Place bowl in fridge for 15 mins. 

    4. In a 4 quart pot, boil  2&1/2 quarts of water and 2 teaspoons of salt

    5. wet your hands and mold the mix into balls approx. 1 inch in diameter.

    6. drop balls into boiling water, cover, and reduce heat to a simmer for 20 mins.

    7. add them to boiling chicken broth with carrots, onion, salt, and pepper.

    Analysis:

    Mike and I decided to make Matzoball soup because we are both Jewish and matzo ball soup is considered a staple for meals during important Jewish holidays (most notably Passover). We decided to make the soup for many other reasons. One of them was because of the recent frigid temperatures, and we felt like soup was something that is always great for warming people up. We also felt as though it was fairly healthy compared to other food that is typically associated with American Jews (latkes, kishka, brisket, jelly donuts, etc). According to Mike 25% of the ingredients were processed. We made 4 servings worth of chicken broth, and 4.5 servings of matzo balls. All together that is 245 calories, 6620mg of sodium, 58g carbohydrate, 4g sugar, 4.5g protein. Assuming that the servings are to be split among 10 people, it is 24.5 calories per person, 662mg sodium per person, 5.8g carbohydrates per person, .4g sugar per person, and .45g protein per person. It contains almost no sugar and is low in calories, but it contains a lot of sodium. The ingredients are fairly local. Mike found that the broth came from Pittsburgh, the matzo ball mix came from Newark, and that the eggs were local. So low carbon footprint for making this matzo ball soup in Philadelphia. The total price for ingredients was $6.80. It also didn't take long to prepare (40-50 mins). 


    Reflection:

    In this unit I have learned about the different ways in which the food that is sold in this and other countries is made. I learned about how the food is not made with all the natural ingredients we assume they're made with, and instead are made with chemicals and other things to keep them preserved or to produce them in a less expensive way. I learned that the "Western diet" is the name of the diet that people say most Americans are on where they consume processed foods, and a lot of meat. My role in the larger food system is as a consumer. I consume all sorts of food, that are part of many different food groups. The biggest problems with our food system is that the food is made with all these chemicals, and are engineered in a way where they look more appealing but may provide less nutrition for the consumer. We also consume a lot of starches, sodium, and non natural sugars. One big change I could make to my food choices would be to make a point to eat more fruit, and drink water as my default. I could also cut out soda, fatty foods, fried foods, and processed foods. If I ate more fruit I would have more energy. If I cut out soda, fatty foods, fried foods, and processed foods I would have more energy, I would lose weight and I would start to make even smarter food decisions. I'm willing to make some of these changes. I'm trying to cut down on soda, and not over eat. I am also trying to consume more produce but it can be an expensive habit if I don't take it from home. 



    Screen Shot 2014-01-14 at 10.22.55 AM
    Screen Shot 2014-01-14 at 10.22.55 AM

    Zakee Jones Food Project.

    Recipe and Analysis

    Fried chicken

    Ingredients:

     Chicken cut nice and clean. (make sure its washed really well)

    About 1/2 cup buttermilk 

    2 cups of flour

    As my mom says a pinch of salt 

    and 1/2 cup of s vegetable oil

    about a sprinkle ground black pepper.

     

    Directions:

    Make sure it WASHED really well before doing anything.

    Cut it the breast pieces what ever way you want it to be.

    After putting  all the Ingredients in put the flour last.( doesn't matter what order you do it as long as the flour is last)

    Not theirs many ways you can cook the chicken.

    You can Bake the fried chicken or you can deep fri it.

    My mom normally fri it first.

    You get a pot  or something that can pour oil into.

    Heat the oil up for about 350 degrees F.

    Let each piece sit  in the frier for about 10 min then you flip it over.

     

     Analysis:

    Well this  isn't really all that much of a family recipe its more of a dish that my family really loves to cook.My mom and her mom taught her how she makes her chicken and  her mom just pasted it down to my mom.For the most part this MEAL  is health because  Red meat is naturally nutrient-rich which means it provides a substantial amount of certain vitamins and minerals. Meat also contains water, helping it to remain lower in calories compared with other foods. The following table shows which meats are a recognised source of vitamins and miners to help  the body grow more muscle. 

    Chicken has bee around for a while now so it came form all over the world. But during the native american times they use to hunt for foods. but when people from all over the world came around the native americans they picked up different t ways to cook the meat. For example where a lot of south america is they cook chicken using basic ingredients





    Personal Reflection 

    Well looking on back on this unit leared that   most of the food thta we eat  now that we know isnt healthy for us. But for some reason we still are being fede  that type of stuff.Not only does it hurt our body but our goverment still sells us this type of food.  thats what i think is the main problem with kids in todays world. places like McDonald's sell food under a really low price and they know teens love things like fast food that cheep and anyone could get. But in my case my eyes are open now. i want to change my diet and start eating more right. so that when i get older my body isnt that messed by the time i really old. I can look back on my life and think about things that could have been really bad for me because of the leason I know so much more. Eating right sets good examples for everyone.I could start to work out more and watch what i eat. And get things like furit.


    Food slide


      Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 2.41.49 PM
      Screen Shot 2014-01-24 at 2.41.49 PM

      Do You Even Lift?

      Pre-workout kicks in and I’m ready to make all kinds of gains.  Where do I start? Light cardio on the stair-master to maintain my vascularity during bulking season. Depending on the day, after cardio it’s time hit up my first compound workout.  See my friend Ahmed and give him the gym greeting, “Get shredded or die mirin’ brah”.  I proceed to my next workout.  

      It’s not long after January first and the new people are rushing in.  All sorts of people with their “resolutions” that have been our everyday. They come in taking selfies, and acting hard to their friends because they can do a few pounds more than them.  Then the “not-bads” who are just a bit too self-conscious are scattered around.  I was once like them, fat, scared, unconfident  Were they bullied, or unliked? Will they find inspiration soon? The sort of inspiration I found will provide for a life time. Zyzz and Kai Greene, the two most inspiring figures bodybuilding has seen, with two completely different types of physiques.

      Life is not life if you are too well-behaved, or scared to be yourself. No matter who you are or what you want to do you will be down-talked.  No matter how big your dream, or how big the path you’re going down, there will be haters. Letting these people bring you down doesn’t make sense. Our lives are too short and we need to chase our dreams while we’re still in our prime. It pays off to be done sooner rather than later. As Zyzz said, “We’re all gonna make it bro.”  

      When you talk to someone they don’t dislike you at first. Except when they find out you want to be a bodybuilder. Then they hate you, because your dreams make them feel inferior. They aren’t dreaming big or even dreaming at all. They’ll come at you saying it’s just a dream, and dreams don’t come true. To this you must quote Kai, “ Trust me when I say this dreams do come true and if a man doesn’t have a dream, he has nothing to work for, no reason to get up in the morning, no reason or purpose to be.”  Once said they’ll be astonished and their hate intensified because they failed to bring you down.  You are a warrior, and you will keep fighting for the dream no matter what obstacles you face.  The reward at the end of the road is worth more than any amount of money, than any car, or any tv show.  The dream doesn’t occupy all 24 hours of the day and seven days of the week, you still have time for the shows, friends, and video games.  Just make sure you are making progress towards the dream.

      Nothing of value ever comes easy, so you need to work hard, that is what life is about after all.  Many people would look at me and who I am and think I’m a “douchebag” or “fat-hater” but I’m not.  There have been so many times when people first meet me and they think I have all kinds of things going on and they like to tell me the reason I go to the gym is because I’m making up for something else. They do this thinking I started skinny and I’ve only gained a bit of weight. These people think I don’t know what it is like to be fat, they judge me on my current look and don’t bother to look at my past, instead they fill in my past with their imagination and try to make it reality.  

      When I see fat people or skinny people at the gym I am joyed.  People are slowly becoming themselves regardless of what other people say. They made the change and the only way for me to dislike somebody is if they gave me a good reason to. That’s the way it is for any real person. I am human, I have faults too, I once came down the same road as you, it’d be hypocritical for me to hate you.  I only look at those outside the gym who are skinny and those who are fat and say to myself, I don’t understand why people limit themselves to such a normal life style. They aren’t really following the dream. Everyday is the same for them.  In my mind I think to the first quote from Zyzz that made my mind start thinking,

      "Everybody, one day will die, and be forgotten. Act and behave in a way that will make life interesting and fun, fuck a mundane predictable life working Monday to Friday with something you derive no pleasure from; just living life out till you grow old and wither away. Find a passion, form relationships, don't be afraid to get out there and fuck what everyone else thinks, trust me it’s a lot more fun that way.  Don’t ever pay people out or put people down. Instead just put yourself up and let the haters do their thing. I’d rather be a person that's hated on, than a person that does the hating. A wise man once said… “Haters gonna hate!"

      No matter how I act or how I look, I’ll still be judged, and I am fine with it. I’m living my life, and I’m happy.






      In this piece I talked about my bias towards people who don't go to the gym or do go but don't take it seriously and act hard. You all probably were able to infer which bias I was talking about though.

      The West Memphis Three

      The United States of America’s law enforcement isn’t exactly known as the most trustworthy and reliable. In fact, cases of police brutality and unnecessary harassment is commonplace in many American cities. In the case of the West Memphis Three, discussed in the movie, West of Memphis, three teens’ lives are ruined because of inadequate police work. The law enforcers of our country hold biases toward racial groups and age groups, depending on what part of the country they’re in, that severely affects the efficiency of their work and the efficiency of their ability to protect the people

      In the West Memphis Three case, three teenagers were arrested for murder. Damien Echols age 18, Jessie Misskelley age 17, and Jason Baldwin age 17. The victims, Stevie Branch, Christopher Byers, and Michael Moore were all eight years old. They were found dead, bound, naked and beat in a creek. The police, almost immediately, decided the crime was part of a satanic ritual and arrested the three boys on the account that they were on record for being involved in occult activity.

      With little evidence, the police turned to witnesses to prove the boys’ guilt, However, there were no witnesses. So the police took it upon themselves to create their own witnesses. A woman named Vicki Hutcheson gave a testimony in court claiming the boys invited her to an occult meeting at the creek the night of the murder. She later admitted that she was coerced by the police and the testimony was false. Misskelley and Baldwin were sentenced to life in prison and Echols was given the death penalty, although the three were released before it could be performed.

      In later years, the case was studied more thoroughly. The alleged cuts on the boys from a serrated knife turned out to be post mortem bite marks from snapping turtles in the creek. Jessie Misskelley gave a confession to the police in 1993, clear and simple. It was later discovered that the cops held Jessie for over 12 hours in an interrogation room, bombarding him with fake stories and thinly veiled threats. What makes it worse is that Jessie had an IQ of 72, making him borderline intellectual functioning. He was a minor being questioned alone. Jessie stated that he was given his Miranda Rights but did not understand them. In the court, it was ruled that he did in fact understand them and knew exactly what he was saying in his brutal interrogation. The West Memphis police took advantage of a mentally challenged, seventeen year old boy and scared him into admitting to a crime he did not commit. All of this and more was uncovered by private investigators and hired medical examiners. These are just a few examples of the botched and biased police work done on the West Memphis Three case. The three teens were odd balls in their town which can be seen as a reason for a negative bias. In the end, the conclusion was made that majority of the police work was faulty but nonetheless, the citizens of West Memphis still believed it.

      In our country, the majority tends to blindly accept whatever the law enforcers say. It’s a bias we have. We think that police officers are protectors of the people and the innocent. However, one cannot properly protect and serve if they have severe biases themselves. As shown in the West Memphis Three case, there’s a bias surrounding those who don’t fit the ilk of the majority of society. This bias is widely believed by Echols, Misskelley, and Baldwin were oddballs in their small town. They’re lower class teens from a small town and have a negative stereotype surrounding them. Trouble seeking, poorly raised, bored teens who seek something to do and end up getting involved in occult activity. These assumptions were made about these boys and, therefore, they were falsely accused of a crime they did not commit.

      A term that’s been coined in the past few years is bias-based policing. It’s the idea that racial profiling is beginning to take over law enforcement. A study was performed, involving a race IAT, that had the following results; “Officers were initially more likely to mistakenly shoot unarmed black suspects than unarmed white suspects.(Gove )” However, the scientists who performed this experiment came to the conclusion that the bias can be fixed.  “After extensive exposure [for example, repeated trials] to the program, the officers were able to eliminate this bias.(Gove )” Our country’s law enforcement has spent years doing their job based on stereotypes. The bias has become so strong and prominent that IAT tests were performed, along with many more experiments to produce hard proof.

      In 2011, the Supreme Court released the three men. 18 years and 78 days later, Echols, Misskelley, and Baldwin were hardly given justice. Falty police work ruined 3 men’s lives and, due to country wide law enforcement bias, police have been unable to do their jobs. In order for police to properly bring justice to those who deserve it, they must be devoid of bias and see only the facts. They can not let their own personal opinions, whether they’re subconscious or not, cloud their judgement. In order for us to have efficient law enforcers, they must come to terms with their biases and correct them. Only they can fix themselves.


      Bibliography

      Gove, T. n. page. <http://www.policechiefmagazine.org/magazine/index.cfm?fuseaction=display_arch&article_id=2499&issue_id=102011>.


      Intelligence is not determined at birth-Malcolm Gladwell's thoughts

         Ignoring his theories about success, Malcolm Gladwell's’ books reveal his bias in education and intelligence. He does not believe that intelligence is an inherent value. Instead, he believes that the gravity of education and a child’s intellect level is based upon the environment you live in, the opportunities given to you, and even your time of birth. He argues that these three factors are far more viable to make conclusions as to how success and education correlate, rather than just factors like race, gender, and social class. One of Malcolm Gladwell’s books that more specifically exposes his bias in education & intelligence is called Outliers. In this book, his bias on the outlook on intellect is enumerated. He believes that everyone isn’t given an equal advantage; only people who have been lucky enough to be framed into a system like school sooner than others and or given an abundant of opportunities as opposed to someone else, they are better off in the future.

               

               Malcolm Gladwell uses many central points that lucidly refutes his argument. One of them by which is called the Matthew Effect. This was a study explained in the book that was done by the sociologist named Robert K. Merton. Reciting the biblical verse Matthew 25:29 in contemporary text, ‘‘For to everyone who has {more} shall be given, and he will have an abundance: but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away’’(New American Standard Version 1995). Metaphorically, in education, this means that once an advantage is obtained, it accumulates until it becomes disproportionate for the opposing candidate. Malcolm Gladwell elaborates that early advantages in life invariably makes the difference between just how intelligent or unintelligent a child turns up being. We can take a further look at this by anatomizing the way the American educational system works.


               In his book ‘’Outliers’’, we will look at how Malcolm Gladwell views the American educational system. We all know that there is a certain stipulated cut-off date that determines when Children are allowed into Pre-K to start that first family-missing year of school. Boohoo, it’s time to go, but what if some children are not eligible for that first year? Because say that their birth date overarches the cut-off and they are denied access. The parents decide on holding the child back and when the time comes, they skip pre-k and put them straight into kindergarten; eventually the parents come to a consensus that they will catch up following the years of early learning and middle school. Indeed, they have minimized the qualm for having to start school without mom and dad and have more time to plan and prepare. However, things stay the same, and unfortunately they do not catch up and fall lower and lower down the chain of school, and accumulate disadvantages as they come in a year late into school.


               This is because the children who have been born before the cut-off and were eligible to start that first year of school had a definite advantage. Extra practice-they did not miss that first crucial year of instruction that children born after the cut-off already have. And they have already gotten into the flow of school, made a couple of friends and are probably already doing homework. Likewise, they receive the social and academic advantages of already being in school, and by the time those born after the cut-off get to the same vantage they’re in, like college-they are premature.  


              This shows Malcolm Gladwell’s bias because it is explaining that he thinks that America’s educational system is a widely equivocal factor in the way Americans turn out to be and that there is no group of geniuses or dummies. The educational system is actually what decides who will be better off or who will not be. There are numerous stereotypes that dumb people are just innately not intelligent, or that intelligent people are just primordially intelligent, this is critically false. And we see this by the way the Matthew effect portrays itself and Malcolm's bias. This is to say because the ‘’dumb people’’ are actually not dumb, but just a step-below the ‘’smart people’’ and missed out on a crucial year of school that would most likely be the deciding factor of how they are in academics and what they will be in the future. So your time of birth truly does have a huge impact on where you subsequently will be in America, because of the Matthew effect. It will strongly affect the American society and how we will develop the workforce of the world if there is no cultivation.




      Asian is the New Black

      When we analyze our country’s history, we reflect back on its prior state and compare it to its stance in today’s society. Take for instance, America’s racial system. Centuries ago, the Caucasian race was superior and every other color was considered subservient and barbaric. In today’s society, we are starting to see a vague glimpse of racial equality, but this improvement is being undercut by discrimination in government, education, the media, and even sports.

      In the case of Jeremy Lin, he is discriminated against because he does not look he is a great athlete. Therefore, he was held back. The typical professional basketball players are either African American or Caucasian; rarely do you ever see someone who is Asian or of another race playing on the basketball court, let alone playing Division One basketball. That is the highest level of athletics that anyone can play. So when it came to Jeremy Lin becoming a professional basketball player, he had to fight a lengthy and strenuous battle to end out on the top, because people did not believe in him and were ready to put him down.

      Jeremy Shu-How Lin is an Asian American professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). To be precise, he is the only Asian American player to play in the NBA in the modern day era. Titled an All-State player, the Northern California Division II Player of the Year, and winning a state championship all in his high school career, Jeremy Lin did not receive any athletic scholarship offers. Mitch Stephens, a national columnist who writes about high school sports for Maxpreps said,“When I really looked at everything, everything a basketball player could do for himself individually, for a team- Jeremy Lin was the best player here. But yet, colleges weren’t clamoring for him. He just didn’t fit the mold.” Despite quite the reputation, Jeremy did not fit the mold. He did not fit into the role of the average basketball player because he was Asian.


      Jeremy Lin’s dream school was Stanford University. He wanted to go there because he lived relatively close to it and most of all, it was a NCAA Division One school. He would go there and play with their team all the time, and he would always ask their coach, “What can I do to play for you?” But when he found out that Stanford wouldn’t let him play for their school, he went through a very frustrating process of trying to find a school that would let him play for their team. “I couldn’t even get some division three schools to look at me,” Jeremy said. His only chance to play on the college level would be at Harvard University, a school that isn’t really known for its athleticism, but rather for academics. “If I was black, I would’ve gotten a D-1 scholarship, but that’s my personal opinion,” Jeremy Lin told an interviewer for the making of his documentary, Linsanity.


      Every year, tons of African Americans receive scholarships to play basketball. That is mainly because basketball is predominantly an African American and Caucasian sport. “People look at basketball players in terms of race a lot of times. Basketball is not considered an asian sport here in America,” said Kenny Blakeney, Jeremy’s assistant coach at Harvard . Because there were very few Asian basketball players in the NBA, his statement is true. Society does not view basketball as an asian sport because they don’t see it very often. And when they do see it, they don’t always respond in a positive manner.

      While playing in Ameatur Athletic Union (AAU) tournaments as a young boy, people on the sidelines, and even players, would tell Jeremy Lin to take his self back to China, call him a “Chinese import,” or yell other racial slurs. When he went to college, things got worse. Spectators and teammates would call him a “Chink,” would ask, “Can you even open your eyes? Can you see the scoreboard?” When his team played on the road, in specific gyms in the Ivy League, people would yell racial slurs to him. Jeremy had a hard time when people would make racist remarks against him. “It was shocking to me to see racial talks in the Ivy League because you think that at that level, certainly in this supposed very academically, progressively, oriented group of schools full of asian students on their campuses, that would be something that was unthinkable, but it wasn’t,” Pablo Torre, a writer and reporter for ESPN reacted. Even when you least expect a group of people to be racist, there is a possibility that they can be.

      When one of Jeremy’s coaches said he could play for the NBA, he was astounded. He thought of himself as a good player, but he did not think of himself to be NBA material. So when it was time for the NBA to draft new players, Jeremy would be present at the ceremony. As the speaker would announce the names of the lucky young men who were chosen to be on a team, Jeremy thought that the team that would he be drafted by was the Knicks. He knew that the Knicks were going to pick him because he performed extraordinarily on their work out. Once they called his name, he was ready to hug his family, run up to the stage to receive his hat, and catch the next flight to New York the following morning. But they called another name, not his. Phil Yu, a blogger for Angry Asian Man.com said, “I was hopeful, but to be completely honest, I was like, ‘Let’s just wait and see what happens.’ The things that I’m always interested in is race and the way discrimination always rears it’s ugly head. I was really just waiting to see which team would take the plunge and take this Asian American player.” No team dared to take Jeremy because they were afraid that it would mess up their image.


      Later, Jeremy did get signed with his home team, the Golden State Warriors, but he hard a hard time because they sent him to the D-League several times. The D-League is one of the lowest spots in the NBA; it’s basically a showcase for teams to recruit players. Jeremy said that it was the hardest time of his career because he really had to fight to prove that he was a great player. Then he was waived, or cut, after three seasons with the Warriors, so that the team would fill a salary cap for a supposedly better player. Two days later, he was picked up by the Houston Rockets. They cut him after only twelve days; on Christmas day. Then the New York Knicks signed him. But they did not let him play in the games, or even the practices.


      When his contract was about to expire, the Knicks finally let him him play. That was when “Linsanity” took New York by storm. Jeremy was breaking records. He scored 89 points in three games, which was the most by any player in their first three professional starts since ABA-NBA merger in 1976-77. In five games, he scored 136 points, breaking Shaquille O’Neal’s 20-year-old record of 129 points. He also went to a “no name” to a “national phenomenon” in only two weeks. That is something that just isn’t common in the matter of that time period.


      Despite his success, the racism surfaced again. The Asian jokes and stereotypes were surfacing all over the media. News reporters called him a “Chink,” they made fun of his eyes, and even David Letterman, the famous late night talk show host, got in a few jokes about his race. Jeremy’s Agent, Roger Montgomery said, “This whole thing shows how unprepared we were to deal with this culture in this context.” They were not prepared to address the racism in the country. “For many years, we had many stereotypes about Asian Americans, and now they’re all coming out like they’re no big deal. They are a big deal,” said one NBA spokesperson. Even though the media might have not looked at the racist remarks very seriously, it was a serious matter and it was not funny.


      Today, the Linsanity has calmed down a little, as Jeremy Lin plays for the Houston Rockets once again. He is viewed as the underdog, who came out on top. Everyone was ready to bury him alive because he did not look the part; because he was asian. But Jeremy got through that difficult season in his life by looking to the sole thing that inspires him, God. Once he put his eyes on him, he had the strength to make it. So now Jeremy is finally getting his chance to shine and play his brand of basketball.


      Yao Ming, a Chinese professional basketball player who formerly played for the Houston Rockets said, “In the NBA, there is already enough pressure from just playing in games, from the media, from the fans. Whether you like it or not, those pressures exist. I hope in the future, people see Chinese players as being in the NBA as a normal thing.” Hopefully, we will see an increase of Asian players in the NBA. Hopefully, we will see an increase of other races breaking records in all things. And when that time comes, we will know that we have reached racial equality. Something that can not be undercut by discrimination in the government, in education, in the media, or even in sports.


      "Allbond Plane Investments Limited"

      I made 57 million dollars in six months. Yeah. More than most of you would make in five lifetimes. And It was absolutely perfect. I was a God. A british model wife having, 3 million dollar car speeding, 64 acer house living God. No i’m not royalty or an athlete or a movie star, I made it in ways you couldn't dream of actually happening. And i'm not talking about one of those shitty rich man jobs either, like a Nuclear engineer or something that will kill you at 50. No. I’m talking about the fast life ladies and gentlemen, Sales work. Now I know what you're thinking, how the hell does a plane old salesman make 57 million in a one freakin’ year. That’s just it though I wasn’t just any lame salesman, I was the best salesman. My trade was airplanes. I started my career small of course, my company would buy out full price planes and sell them for less than they were worth in a firm called Allbond Plane Investments Limited. But then I realized why be doing the job I love and make 15% of a sale while the jerkoffs on the other end who don’t really need any sweet deals are buying million dollar planes for “less than they're worth”. I was on the verge of genius and this small idea changed my life forever.

      They say when you're poor you hate the rich and when you’re rich you hate the poor, well I hated the rich, more than I wanted to make money. At first I was just determined to ruin these guys lives, you know? Make them spend billions and get a crap share on a plane in return. And the plan was simple, I would find a couple of high buyers for a plane worth around 500,000 then let those hags bid it out, bid until they're freakin’ pockets broke and when they did, I’d cut their share in half in return for mine and while they’d think they're getting a new plane for 750,000 in actuality they could be spending something around 2 million dollars. The first time I did it I made half what I sold the plane for, so I made something around 900,000 dollars. And yeah it was kind of illegal but no one gave a shit the guys I was scamming were already rich anyway. And besides there money felt better in my pockets. After a while it turned into a huge thing at the firm, before I knew it everyone was selling faulty deals, it was like I set a new trend or something. And after maybe a month or two everyone at Allbond Plane Investments Limited was filthy freakin’ rich. I lost sight of my goal to make the rich miserable, I became kind of rich myself, so I started screwing over all kinds of people, rich, poor, middle class, I didn’t care, if you were willing to buy a share on a plane I was going to give you the share of a lifetime. Literally, most guys actually spent their lifetime earnings on our planes but as long as there money ended up in my pocket I was a very satisfied man. Life became lavish, and I tried to keep it under control I swear I did but it just kept getting bigger and bigger. It’s like a whole new side of me came out, I became greedy and always hungry for more money. So I decided to expand, why only sell planes? Then I thought why only sell vehicles? So I got the idea to buy out other companies, small companies and let people invest in their products and that, that’s when we really took off. The next couple of days, I have to admit, were pretty memorable. For one I married this british model I saw at an jewelry auction, the same day I met her I bought the 6th largest estate in america, the next day I bought a personal yacht named after my beautiful wife Alisa and toured to every freakin’ island I could think of a week later. While I was gone I heard it was so out of hand back at the firm that no one on the outside world knew what was going on half the time.

      I started using these drugs called “Lubes” just to keep up with the days. And with the Lubes came this care free attitude, like the shit we were doing wasn’t illegal, like when you're rich everyone below you isn’t important, and they weren’t important. To me. If you weren’t on my level then you had no right to be in my presence.

      We spent literally 11 months on that yacht, just me, Alisa and all our personal servants. It was hell. Turns out supermodels are really annoying. When I finally got back from my “personal” cruise, there was a little surprise at my door step. It’s like they timed it perfectly too, I swear as soon as someone gets ahead in this world there’s always that one asshole that has to bring you down. Mine was officer John, Officer Freakin’ John what kind of last name is John anyway, or “Marten Martelli John”, that’s what he calls himself. There he was, asking me if he could come in and ask a few questions and I knew that translated into “Hands behind your back you're coming with us” but I had just had a half a bag of Lubes and wasn’t really in a state to deal with anyone. Especially not the police. We were sitting on the couch and that’s when the lubes really started to kick in. It got so bad John moved to the kitchen to talk to Alisa instead of me, said I was excessively touching his face and then I fell asleep or something. When I woke up Alisa said the police told her I was going on trial for Money Laundering and Fraud and that I could spend up to 20 years in prison if I lost this case. She was packing a bag as she spoke to me, I asked where she thought she was going and closed the door. She called me a good for nothing criminal drug addict who she isn’t going to jail for. I was yelling by this point, I grabbed onto her and screamed “Of Course you leave me when I’m down, fucking slezz how could you do this to me, huh? How now!” Then I proceeded to call her names like slut, whore, hoe. She didn’t care though, she wanted out and nothing to do with me. So she tried to move me from in front of the door. Reflexively I jabbed her in the stomach, but before I could realize what I had done I ripped open my pillow case holding my secret stash of Lubes and took so many I don’t even remember the rest of that night. But I do remember her divorcing me a week later. Taking full custody of our kids and almost half my money. What ever money I had left I tried to stash away overseas in Switzerland before my trial, but that didn’t work. Turns out Switzerland has the same harboring laws as America. Eventually I had to face reality, I mean all the signs were there. I was denied bale twice, and I shit you not my million dollar Yacht freakin’ exploded, yeah exploded. Kitchen accident or something killed six people. Anyway I figured karma finally came around to bite me in the ass. And why not, money had turned me into more than a asshole I was a monster. A monster facing 20 long years in jail, so how am I talking to you all today and not doing my time. Well my good old friend officer John made me a proposal. He said I could do as little as 4 years and all I would have to do is turn in a couple of my old buddies at the firm. You know? Like the guys who helped me start the whole thing. They called it “Police Suspect Cooperation” or something. So I did it, spent four years in prison and seeked to turn my life around. My theory is all people with good money will eventually change in one way or another and those who make anything less than more will be envious of those richer. I started in the second category I envied the rich, when I became rich I changed very much so. Today I seek to find common ground between the two. I want to know if there is a gray area, you know? A middle ground. And that’s why I’m here today ladies and gentlemen, telling you my story. Because I truly believe you find the unknown in the past and through telling you this, you may not know it, but I have made you subconscious to how you will treat the next homeless man you see or that star on your favorite TV show you want to be so much. That’s one of the great wonders of the human mind though. So I leave you all with this thought, would you rather be rich or poor?


      You Should Buy an Audi

      You Should Buy an Audi

      An Analysis of How Advertisements Tell the Consumer to Live Their Lives

      Anna Sugrue - Gold Stream - January 2014

      In a world controlled by the media and powered by the consumerist, the advertisement is the ultimate weapon. This weapon manipulates the mindset of an individual, and thus has the power to change the mindset of a people. From Madison Avenue to Nazi Germany, human being have learned the secrets to this weapon, and have succeeded in reconstructing social systems to fit their own agendas. Hitler convinced people mass murder was okay. On Madison Avenue, advertisers convince people that satisfaction comes from a beach bod, a designer bikini and a bottle of Coca Cola.

      Today, the advertisement relies on appealing to, and attempting to change, one’s sense of satisfaction. When you turn on the TV, or surf the internet, or drive down the highway, you are bombarded by images and information that tell you what you need to be happy. This car insurance will save you money, and that will make you happy. This resort is so relaxing, you are guaranteed to be happy if you go. The advertiser’s promise of happiness goes in hand in hand with one’s personal fear of obsolescence. If you do not get this car insurance, you will not be cool. If you do not go to this resort, your relationships will not be as secure. If you consume, you will be satisfied, if you do not, you will be nothing. Consciously or not, you take in these images and these ideas. If you are unhappy, you go buy a new outfit, or a get a new phone, or go on a vacation- hoping, and believing, that you will be better because of it.

      To understand the extent in which advertisements shape one’s sense of satisfaction, I went on Hulu, and watched one of the most popular commercials from the Super Bowl last year. It was a 1 minute commercial for Audi, where a boy goes to prom. The advertisement starts with an unhappy teenage boy looking at his tuxedoed reflection in the mirror. His mom reassures him that “now-a-days, lots of people go by themselves!”. Disheartened, he makes for the door, but his dad stops him, and tosses him the keys to the Audi. Everything changes. The boy gets in the car and the engine starts and he is immediately alive, ready for the night. Music starts to pump and the camera angles change similarly to the movie Drive, where Ryan Gosling stars as a get-a-way driver. The boy becomes a badass. He parks in the principal's parking spot and strides down a dim high school hallway towards the Prom. He walks in, immediately finds a gorgeous girl (Prom Queen of course), and kisses her. Then you see the boyfriend. The ad ends with the boy driving down the road again with a black eye, looking happier than ever. “Bravery. It’s what defines us. Audi. #BraveryWins.”

      The basic message of the commercial, articulated in Audi’s tagline, is that buying an Audi will make you brave. The advertisement guarantees satisfaction. By telling a relatable story, Audi convinces you that with an Audi, you are a fearless rebel, and without an Audi, you can not get that girl, you can not feel alive, and you can not be brave. The story is relatable enough that the goal seems within the reach of the consumer, but unreal enough that the consumer will never be fully satisfied. Because in reality, like John Berger says in Ways of Seeing, you will be $40,000 poorer and none the richer, regardless of what the advertisement told you.

      Several characteristics of this advertisement are reflected in the consumer’s daily sense of satisfaction, mainly sex and money.

      Sex is the simplest human urge. Fulfilling sexual goals is the clearest human pathway to pleasure and satisfaction. In the Audi advertisement, the boy grabs his crush in the center of the dance floor and passionately kisses her. Not only is Audi telling the consumer that a car will make them have sex, but the Audi is defining what it means to be sexy. The girl kissed him back. The boys confidence and bravery, granted to him by the car, made him attractive. Audi understand that the consumer wants to have sex, and tells the consumer that they need to be sexy. The consumer needs the sex and the sexy to be satisfied.

      In Ways of Seeing, John Berger says that it is true money cannot buy happiness, but publicities strive to convince you otherwise. The Audi boy was obviously made happier after he drove a $40,000 luxury vehicle. The consumer is led to understand that consuming will make them happier. Thus, the consumer will not feel satisfied unless they spend money.

      When the money is combined with the sex, the consumer is told that their ability to consume is directly correlated with their sexual ability. This further manipulates the consumers sense of satisfaction, making an unhappy human, but very happy advertisers.

      The Audi advertisement, and all advertisements, manipulate the consumer’s sense of satisfaction to the point where they will never be satisfied. Because, if the consumer is satisfied, if the consumer is full, the consumer will stop consuming. Most consumers understand that they will never become the Prom boy, but they buy the car anyway, vainly searching for some kind of inner gratification that materials can never satisfy. True and complete inner satisfaction is hard to obtain, close to impossible, and the material world only makes it harder.

      I feel as though I have had a clear understanding of how the media has an influence on one’s psyche, and John Berger’s Ways of Seeing certainly helped develop my opinion. I still do not know how the consumer can resist the advertisers subconscious maneuvers, or if the disturbing truth is ever going to be enough to make advertisers change their tactics. Companies like Dove are working to promote a positive sense of satisfaction, however much more needs to happen in order for the world to change.

      So, in the end, I reside myself in sitting on the couch, with a can of Coca Cola, watching a boy go to Prom, and dreaming of something more.


      Works Cited

      Berger, John. "Ways of Seeing." Ways of Seeing. Dir. Mike Dibb. BBC. BBC, London, UK, 1972. Television.

      Prom. Audi, 2013. Television. Hulu.com. Web. <http://www.hulu.com/adzone/450448>.

      Societal Biases

      I consider myself to be a fairly typical American.  Well, slightly atypical because I grew up in a city away from the isolationist tendencies of the suburban culture that makes up the majority of America.  I realize that I embrace the very American conceit that I am pretty much in control of my beliefs - that I am the captain of my ship of consciousness.  But with just a little reflection, it becomes obvious that there is a fathomless ocean of prejudice, culturally determined attitudes, and peer pressures that my little ship of consciousness precariously tries to stay afloat on.  In other words, I am aware that there is a system of beliefs beyond myself that has helped to shape who I am.  


      Even without taking the IAT test, I know that cognitive dissonance is ever present in myself.  An event that is most revealing is my response to my grandfather after his stroke.  My grandfather is an enormously erudite, cultured man, trained as a civil engineer and architect, who spent most of his adult life as a painter of marinescapes.  He is a man who knows at least something about everything, can easily talk about almost any subject, writes poetry, and has a wonderful sense of humor - a man that you could look up to and admire.  So it was a bit of a shock when, due to a massive stroke, he lost control of the right side of his body and his ability to talk and express his ideas clearly.


          Although he didn’t lose any of his mental capacity or his encyclopaedic knowledge, I noticed that somehow he sank in how others perceived him.  Even worse I noticed that I was one of those people who underestimated his abilities!  Somehow a person who can speak persuasively and with ease seems more intelligent than a person who cannot.  It didn’t seem to matter that I knew my grandfather to be a really smart man and loved him dearly, or that I knew that he was still all there and that none of his intellect had deteriorated.  A built-in bias was tinting my view of him.  Clearly an unconscious, automatic system is present that dictates my thoughts or the way I see the world.  It was not until seeing the way others acted around him, or the way they talked down to him in a demeaning manner, like he was a small child, that I realized my own bias. I realized that I, too, had to monitor myself to make sure that I didn’t let his current disabilities obscure who he really was in my eyes.  I cannot imagine a worse punishment than having someone treat you that way when in your mind you still feel the same. You have retained all your knowledge, but it almost torments you because you can’t express yourself through words, people make assumptions and place labels. People treat you as though you are lesser simply because you have difficulty articulating your thoughts.

      This unconscious bias also affects how I see myself.  From an early age, I can remember how it feels to fail to meet my own expectations of perfection in oral and written communication skills. My older siblings were reading fluently, while I struggled to read a simple sentence. Granted that they were much older than I was, yet I noticed that some of my classmates were reading rather large books as well. I can remember my teacher telling me to keep at it and that I was improving and would eventually “catch up.” This was a double edged sword because it told me that I was lacking in a much-valued societal skill. I perceived that I was “not good enough.”  


      What these memories reveal to me is that much of our respond to the world is not shaped by our private system of beliefs or values.  It is obvious that our society favors certain traits above others, that it has a clear and strict idea of what it means to be intelligent, and that it imposes strict criteria on us that we are forced to use to judge each other. We are rarely conscious of this system, rather, we learn society’s idea of the ideal person from our elders, parents, siblings, teachers and others from the time we are born.  We then measure ourselves and others by this impossible ideal for a lifetime, automatically making judgements without consciously knowing why.  We become our own harshest critic, punishing ourselves repeatedly for each perceived misstep.  


      As I watched my grandfather struggle to regain some of his ability to read, to write, and to speak; I understood that the part of him that was the man I knew him to be - that sees the greater picture, that appreciates beauty, that understands people’s true intentions, that loves - that part is still all there.  My biases only create a separation that I don’t want.  Similarly, my anxieties about my reading ability only made it harder for me throw myself into every challenge and succeed, which is certainly something that I didn’t want to happen.  I reassure myself that, with work, these biases can be overcome, or at least managed. This may be a delusion, but I need to feel that I have at least a little control of my life.  


      While our society imposes on us certain biases that discredit some individuals unjustly while putting undeserved importance on others, it is helpful to remind ourselves that these cultural biases can be overcome when they conflict with the core ideals and values that identify a community.  As the reading noted, we as individuals have an amazing ability to tolerate a fair amount of “dissonance,” but when the tension becomes too great, we are forced to respond even if we don’t want to.  If nothing else this should be reassuring and appealing to the that other American bias - optimism.  We put up with a lot, but then we use our consciousness to struggle and to change ourselves and the world around us.