Q3 Benchmark: Japan Vs. Australia

Click here to view my website.

I did my project on Japan located in East Asia and Australia which is located in Oceania. Furthermore, the process of creating my website was simple. It was difficult to find current reliable resources for Australia for some topics. For Japan, however, there was an abundant of information regarding the 5 point framework.

If I could change one thing about my website, I would add more media including images, videos, podcasts, etc. I feel like that would make the website more appealing to an outside audience and provide viewers with an easy way to digest information.

I enjoyed this project. Considering I am part Japanese, I was very interested in learning more about the country. Even more, I never knew a lot about Australia and this project allowed me to educate myself about the country.

"Collapse-ibility" Investigation of Indonesia & El Salvador

View HERE.

El Salvador, a country from my region to-date, endures hurricanes and suffers from a number of human-induced environmental issues such as: water-pollution and climate change. Indonesia, a country from my previous region, experiences tsunamis (and the like) and deals with water and air pollution. There are many issues within these countries in addition to those that I mentioned. Deforestation is the main environmental commonality between Indonesia and El Salvador. Climate change and environmental damage afflict both countries significantly.

             I began this process by entering all of the guidelines for this project into a word document. I applied the five-point framework to each of the countries and researched information that corresponds to each. The document that I created was consistently referred to throughout this process. Google was of great assistance in acquiring websites that produce information that is essential to understanding and determining the “collapse-ibility” of the countries. I encountered websites like: U.S. Department of State and environmental organizations. The most tedious task, other than using the five-point framework, was settling on an appealing and informational layout. Other steps were to organize, form my bibliography, and incorporate pictures.

             The five-point framework was all of straightforward, difficult and perplexing. Categories (points) like: hostile neighbors and trade partners were open. I did not enjoy wrapping my research around the point framework because some of the information lacked. The process of indentifying recent, accurate sources was frustrating.

             Things I'd Change...I would address the 5 points in further depth. I made some connections to Collapse and mentioned the issues that support each category, but the paragraphs could be longer and more detailed. *The information was still adequate and well presented.

             The project was different, complex, and plenty other things. More time for completion is necessary for this project.

Collapsibility Benchmark

Lebanon vs. Philippines presentation 

Reflection:
The two countries that I decided to focus my benchmark on were Lebanon located in the Middle East and the Philippines located in Southeast Asia. Lebanon is a small country bordered by Syria and Israel. It has a lot of tourism which helps bring most of the money in especially in the capital city Beirut. The Philippines is a country created from groups of 7,107 islands.

The process it took for me to find information about these two countries required a lot of focusing and reading. I needed to receive a lot of my information for both of my countries in order to go in-depth about their situations based on the 5 point framework. Once the information was found I needed to read a lot in order to understand the information and make sure it is enough for me to prove why each country received the rating I gave it. It was also frustrating at times when I thought my writing was either not enough or it was too much because the information for one country was more abundant than the information for another country. 

The 5 point framework was not as difficult as I thought it would be, however it was not straight forward. Some websites such as the CIA WorldFact book gave you the environmental issues, climate change, and everything basically needed of my country. However to back it up I needed to do outside research and some of the frameworks the information was not available or abundant. I think the most difficult framework finding information for was hostile neighbors for the Philippines and Society's response to environmental damage for Lebanon. 


If I could change one thing about my project I would change the way I presented it. I felt the powerpoint was powerful in presentation but could've made the project more eye-catching with pictures and different ways of presenting information. I would also attempt to back up responses a bit more for certain topics of the framework. 
 

 

South Africa & Haiti Collapsability

Here is the link to googledoc on South Africa & Haiti Collapsability.

For my quarter 3 benchmark I chose Haiti and South Africa. After I selected my countries, I decided to do some more basic research on the countries. Then I created a word document where I listed the 5 categories: environmental damage, climate change, trade partners, hostile neighbors and society's response. Under each I listed facts about the topics. Once I had my facts, I began elaborating on findings about the category. It was pretty easy to rate my 5 points. Most of the categories were either really well of or really bad the only one that seemed to be in between were climate change for both I picked 5 for Haiti and South Africa.

I ran into some trouble when I was doing my ratings. I mixed up the difference between 10 and 0 for Hostile Neighbors. I was more focused on the writing aspect of my project than choosing the correct number for my ratings For hostile neighbors 10 = no hostile neighbors and 0 = surrounded on all sides by hostile neighbors. Both countries have few hostile neighbors, Haiti has none because everyone is chipping in to help after the earthquake and South Africa hasn't been in a significant amount of trouble with other countries since the 1980's during the Apartheid.  So Haiti's rating is supposed to be 10 and South Africa's is supposed to be 9. I couldn't make this change in my digital product because it started off as a keynote then I turned it into a movie, for me to go edit this minor error I would have to edit the keynote, export it, re-upload it to school tube, then re-post it to the blogger, which would take an awful long time.

If there was anything I could change about my project, it  would be making sure all of my ratings were correct.

"Is Philly Next"

“Is Philly Next?

 

            Pow! Pow! Pow! Gun shoots rang in the East Wing of the school building. For the past 50 years, school shootings have happened all over the US. The first shooting was reported in 1966 at the University of Texas. By the end of the shooting, there were 16 victims. What inside gets people so angry that they want to shoot their peers? People are bullied almost every second of the day, but to open fire on people at school is no excuse. Two wrongs don’t make a right.

            In some cases, these shootings are accidents. People might carry the firearms for protection because they live in really horrible neighborhoods. When that happens  some students carry the guns in the backpacks, resulting in the gun discharging when the student sits their bag down. If that happens clearly the student did not intend on anyone in school getting hurt. This happened at Gardena High School in Los Angeles, CA. This is the most recent school shooting in the US taking place on January 8, 2011. The firearm was in the 17-year-old childs book bag when it went off. This left 2 students wounded, and now the teen is being tried as an adult for assault with a deadly weapon. He has a history of being bullied so he carried the gun for that, but had no intentions on using it in school.

            The city of Los Angeles as a large community can’t watch every student in each school. On the other hand they can get their school security system together. A school official said that over 3000 students attend Gardena High School. The security there uses a handheld metal detector on each student as they enter the school building, so it is very easy for a student to slip pass security with a weapon. Assuming this a pretty large building, there will be multiple entrances to the building. Therefore there should be security with handheld metal detectors on each entrance so it is much easier to catch a student with a weapon.

            Is Philly next? With all the shootings we have outside of school for fights that happen in school, you never know. One day someone is going to walk into a Philadelphia high school and open fire. So far there has been 4 school shootings in the state of Pennsylvania. There’s only a matter of time before the fifth one happens, and no one knows where in Pennsylvania it will be. 

            Some TV shows base episodes on school violence, and some movies are based on school violence. They want to express the fact that you shouldn’t bully people, shoot up your school, and commit random acts of violence in school. They want to keep things like that out of the school community. Now that doesn’t mean it’s ok to go outside and do the same thing. It’s not ok, and it can lead you down the wrong road in life.

         The US is supposed to be the land of the free. It can be that when you have people shooting each other in school, or bullying one another, or even cursing each other out. Not everyone is going to get along, but when you meet someone new, get to know him or her first because they might being going through the same things as you. If you don’t take the initiative to do that, it shows how much of a coward you are. You’re not fooling anyone but yourself.

School shootings are 100% preventable because the person getting ready to blast the school can make the decision to stop and walk away. It’s just a matter of if that person cares enough to. If you are a victim or suspect of school violence then you need to talk to someone and get immediate counseling. No one ever wants to be the one getting picked on, but it happens and life goes on. It takes one person to be that change, so why not be them?



Thank You,
Khalil Clark

Equaltiy in our world/country


    We’ve all heard the phrase “Life’s not fair”, and it’s true! The same commercial to help desperate children comes up with the same 1-800 number everyday. For the small child in Africa it’s not fair. For the kid working in a sweatshop to make those clothes you’re wearing it’s not fair. For the guy waiting in-line at the store with his groceries it’s not fair. Go up to anyone in this planet and ask them what’s fair and not. Many responses you would get are insignificant, while other ones are the reason the world is the way it is.
   
    You have two kinds of people in this world that determine how it’s ran. The people with power and the people without power. And there has always been a conflict between these two since the beginning of the term “leader”. They are like your “Spy vs. Spy” and “Tom and Jerry”, everyone has seen them.

Ladies and gentlemen, here are your fighters:

    On this corner we have the stereotypical money making tycoon everyone wishes to be, the guy that owns the company that manufactured your TV, computer, phone, or ipod (or all of the above). Variants of this opponent include government officials, or anyone with the power to impact the world directly. 
    On the other corner is everybody else. By everybody I mean the electrician, the baker, the gardener, the candle stick maker (we have machines for that now), you know... everybody! Yes, you and I are in there too.
There’s an advantage to being “everybody else”... we’re not alone. Without you there’s nothing. Why do you think voting is such a big deal? The people have so much power, we don’t know it. There’s always going to be a power that is going to take advantage of our numbers and make money in his/her pocket, while we are left with the leftovers of society. We let the system classify us by the money we get from our backbreaking jobs. Low class, middle class, upper class, what is that all about? Is the person who makes 10x more money than my own father automatically a better person?
    The problem in the United States is how we run this country. I can assure you that there are countless things going on behind our backs. And they are things the people as a whole can fix. When “We the people” was written in the United States’s constitution, it was a vow to make things better as a whole country. We could go for a  social-political view like Marxism or such, that can give the people actual power in their government. Many of them are possible solutions to inequality in the world. Too many beliefs and righteousness is in jeopardy for other people for them to agree with this. All of us have to represent the equality of us all. I don’t want to be judged by the color of my skin, where I live, or how much money my parents make. I want to be judged by the things I do around me. That’s certainly not what’s happening around us. We the people of the United States of America won’t be looked as profit for others, but a representation of how a society can work as a whole, co-operating.


Alex McGrorty Benchmark

Collapsibility Review 

For my benchmark, I selected two countries from both of my regions. In the first rotation I was in the South American region. In the second I was in the East Asian region. Therefore, I chose Brazil to represent the prior, and South Korea to represent the latter. Both of these nations were very different, and in some respects polar opposites. However, I actually found some surprising similarities. Brazil is still considered a developing nation, however, its economy has recently had a boon, and it is one of the dominant economic nations in South America. This is very different from South Korea, who, during the 1970s and 80s became very quickly and vastly industrialized, leading their closed off economy to open up. Both these nations are also dealing with environmental issues that have been brought on by their growing economic status, and have some similar trade partners. 

My process was fairly simple. I devoted a few days to just researching. I would look for specific articles and media that dealt with all five of the points in the framework. I would just leave a textedit document open, and write down important facts figures and excerpts. When I had enough information, I then wrote about a paragraph for each, keeping a running tally of them all, basically. Originally I was going to make an iWeb, but I was running into problems publishing my site, and I wasn't really happy with the results. Then I decided to make a brochure-style document, so that each of the nations could be directly compared with the other in the same column.

As far as the actual five point framework goes, it was fairly straightforward. All of the components of a collapse have been reviewed in the media for both of these nations, so I just had to find the proper resources to support this. The only confusing thing I found was making a difference between environmental problems/climate change/society's response to environmental problems. All three of these issues kind of go hand in hand, so I felt like I was repeating myself a little when I wrote about each of them. 


If I could change one thing about this product, it would probably just be to give myself more time. From the beginning I had most of my information compiled and I was good on the actual content, but I feel like I didn't leave myself enough time for the actual organization of my info in a creative and aesthetically pleasing way. I'm actually really happy with my result as of right now, but I could probably always make it better in the future. 


Verizon Customer Service

Yesterday I was on the phone with Verizon customer service for 40 minutes. My mom made me call them because she is very impatient and quickly losses her temper on the customer service people. I on the other hand I feel bad for the people working there and am very polite and patient with them. People take there frustrations out on them, when there anger usually stems from their internet or cable connections. Nobody likes calling customer service because they are pissy and there problems, on many occasions, are not resolved, however this was not the case for me. Customer service fixed my internet connection problem and said they would be sending me a new router for free in the next two days. This was my biggest success this week.

World war 3, Op-Ed

World War 3.

You ever about if there will be a third world war? Well, maybe it’s in motion.  There’s a little place in North African, called Tunisia. A little vendor burned himself alive, and put in motion what could be the third world war. After the revolution in Tunisia happened, there was one in Egypt that was monumental, another uprising in Syria, and an uprising in Libya. In Libya fighting has broken out and the US has intervened, we can expect them to intervene in the Syrian situation as well. This could bring another war into affect, because of the positioning and the importance of Syria if The United States tries to intervene Iran, will step in, then causing another world war. To say that this isn’t bad for the United States, because war produces money, like in factories and produces jobs. 


Tunisia is where this all started, a street vendor. He went to college in Tunisia, but with Tunisia’s horrible economy he didn’t find a good enough job, so he had to sell fruit. “There were too many smart young people and too little jobs in Tunisia” Says Kim Marzouk. Who lived in Tunisia for the first 25 years of his life before coming to America.


In Egypt, the situation has calmed down to where they’re rebuilding their government. There military is in powerful, but a slip, and we could see something like what happened in Haiti? 


There has been tension between the United States and the Middle East for years, and this is just something to maximize that violence.


This is what America need. In the 1950’s America was facing hard times, they entered World War 2, which brought money to the United States. Money comes in from factories that make weapons of war like tanks, guns, warplanes and ammunition.  


If you think about what’s really good for our country this would be it But, it could also good for our enemy countries. Iran’s nuclear presence worries the United States, and an engage of the United States into Syria could prompt Iran into declaring war which will prompt all of The United States alleys to invade, like Poland, Qatar, Norway, Spain, and many more.


All and all. This might be a long shot, because the United States could be fearful to tamper with Syria because of the Situation it has with other Middle Eastern countries could prompt a nuclear war. My Parents have inside knowledge about the situation, and they agree. “If American touches Syria, then Iran will declare war, we will see action from Lebanon’s Hezbollah, and his group, which will prompt other terrorist groups in Afghanistan, like Al-qudia. 


All in all, this might be the worst thing that could come from all of this, war, death and destruction. But, in the long run, it might be helpful for the United States.



5pt-framework: Ireland & NZ


I compared New Zealand and Ireland, two separate and well-to-do nations.  They are both islands, and have english speaking residents, which gives them some similarities even though they are far apart.  


I focused mostly in the research aspect, which brought me to tough place at the end.  I decided to create a google doc to record all the useful information I found, divided by country and "point."  By the time I had enough information, the project was due and I was left with just a google doc and not a website as planned.  Retrospectively, I should have gone straight to the website after each section. If I could change it, I would definitely fix the entire product.  I'm displeased with the result, and wish I had chosen a different process to get there.  


The five point framework in itself was not too complex.  However it was harder to find good information that was more in depth that a general overview of each nation.  One of my difficulties was separating some of the information.  While researching, I found certain pieces that I thought could be part of more than one point in the framework.  Distinguishing them was sometimes tricky, especially with environmental damage and climate change.  Over all, it was not my best benchmark to say the least, but I still learned a lot about Ireland and New Zealand.  


Significance on Advertising

Advertising has an influence on everyone in one way or another, but it especially has an influence on the consumers in the United States and people who don’t realize the significance behind it. Catchy jingles, funny slogans, and cartoon characters are all key factors that have persuaded consumers on certain products. Advertising influences the toys children buy, the clothes they wear, and the food they eat. But the worst part is they’re unaware of the true meaning behind it all. 


Advertising influences children’s choice of toys for example. When a commercial shows children laughing and playing, children assume it must be a fun toy, regardless of what it really is. For example, my four-year-old nephew begs his mother for a pogo-stick all the time, even though he’s never used one before. Every time he sees a pogo-stick commercial, he’ll get excited and start screaming. The advertisements have made him believe that if he had a pogo-stick, he would instantly have the same fun and skill as the boys and girls using the pogo-sticks on TV. He also wants a fingernail kit like the one my sister has. He doesn’t really know what a fingernail kit is, but he knows from the commercials he sees that it has glitter and stickers, which are both very appealing. This is only one of the many ways advertisements can attract customers like parents into buying their products. 


Another influence advertising has is with the clothes people want to wear. Clothes from K-Mart and Target are no longer good enough. Brand names such as Hollister, Aéropostale, Abercrombie & Fitch and American Eagle are much more appealing to the people. My teenage sister is always looking through magazines examining each outfit with such little detail. She always wants to change her outfits to keep up with the latest fashion and most popular brand names without even properly knowing what she’s wearing. But of course, clothes worn by celebrities are always at the top of her shopping list. Little does she know of the huge impact she’s having in regards to buying those clothes. Sweatshops are a huge part of American society in such a very subtle way. Ignorance also plays a big part in advertising, not letting people know who actually makes their clothes. For example, workers in El Salvador's clothing factories make just about 72 cents an hour. In other factories, the workers only make 12 cents for every 20 dollar shirt that gets bought. As a US Consumer, we’re not aware of the huge problem we’re supporting. And it’s clothing brands like American Apparel who endorse their “No sweatshop made” policies that earn them the rightful publicity they deserve. 


Lastly, advertising influences even the food we want to eat. Cartoon characters are placed on boxes of foods like fruit snacks and cereal to influence and persuade young children. For instance, my family and I were grocery shopping one day. And my cousin asked me if I would buy her some yogurt to have for breakfast. Without realizing, for the cheapest brand of yogurt on the shelf and was about to put it in the cart when she said, "I want the Power Rangers yogurt." I didn’t realize at first what she was talking about until she pointed to the shelf behind me. I noticed a container of yogurt with pictures of Power Rangers characters on the front. I tried to tell her that the yogurt I had picked up, which happened to be a dollar cheaper, would taste the same. After arguing back and forth, I finally submitted and purchased the more expensive Power Rangers yogurt. As we continued shopping, she also spotted Blues Clues applesauce, Hot Wheels fruit snacks, and Spongebob cheese-crackers on the shelves and wanted me to buy those as well. I found myself once again trying to explain to a four year old that all the items taste the same as the other, non-branded kinds. Which means as long as companies continue to target children with advertising jingles, slogans, and cartoon characters, children will continue to be influenced. And they will be ignorant to the fact they are being subliminally influenced without even realizing. And it all starts at the young age, with the toys they want, the clothes they wear, and the food they want to eat. And the product with the most advertising appeal will determine it.

Merger to Monopolize

Recently, debate over the proposed merger of two phone companies has been clogging the tubes of the tech world. Cellphone giant, AT&T, announced on March 20th that it has agreed to acquire T-Mobile USA for a whopping $39 billion dollars. To most, this would seem to be a considerably hefty price, but in reality, the acquisition’s benefits outweigh its disadvantages for AT&T. From this purchase, the company would gain substantial network space, which would assist it in relinquishing its dismal reputation as being “the network with the most dropped calls,” as well as aid in the development of its up and coming 4G network. Though that news alone is significant, it is not what has become the center of a considerably heated debate.

AT&T and T-Mobile cellphones operate using a technology called Global System for Mobile Communications, which is more commonly known by its acronym, GSM. GSM is the international standard for cellphones, and is used by consumers across the globe. Why does it matter that AT&T and T-Mobile are GSM carriers? Well, they are the only GSM carriers in the United States, as other American cellphone giants, such as Verizon Wireless and Sprint NEXTEL, use a different cellphone technology, CDMA.

Considering that this merger would produce a monopoly of sorts on GSM technology in the United States, many prominent figures in the cellphone industry have risen in an uproar, opposing the union of the two companies. Cellphone manufacturers such as Motorola and HTC are among those who are against the merger, because If there is only one GSM carrier in the United States, that carrier can now dictate the prices of the mobile phones it buys from manufacturers, as they are their only GSM customers, ultimately controlling the amount of profit the manufacturers achieve. 

Another company that has strongly voiced its opposition towards the merger, is Sprint NEXTEL. As of now, Sprint is number three on the list of largest cellphone carriers, above T-Mobile and behind AT&T. If T-Mobile is acquired by AT&T, AT&T will skyrocket to the top of the list, above Verizon Wireless, leaving Sprint still in third, but a considerably smaller company than either AT&T or Verizon, eliminating it from being any sort of competition to either network giant.

So, what does this mean for consumers across the nation? Well, if you belong to  a CDMA service provider, and you never plan to leave the country, you are the least affected by this, and you probably have an indifferent standpoint on the whole debacle. If you are a GSM user currently on T-Mobile, or a future GSM user, you are most effected by the merger, and should view this dilemma as a cause to protest. For current T-Mobile customers, the future of your phone bill is unclear as of now, but expect to eventually have to pay AT&T’s exceptionally expensive rates. As for future GSM customers, you will only have one choice in carriers, and if you do not favor their price, tough luck. 

Reviewing all of the facts, it is evident from this acquisition, AT&T is concerned only with their own personal growth, and the growth of their customer ecosystem. It is unfortunate that they are more concerned with the future of their company, and not with  American consumers as a whole. Then again, in an industry as competitive as the cellphone industry, the favored saying must be, “to survive, you either have to eat, or be eaten.”

Q3 Globalization BM

Here is a direct link to my iWeb presentation of my Globalization Benchmark.
Quarter 3 Globalization Benchmark

(Preferred browser is Firefox)


The countries that I have chose for my project were Cambodia and Libya. The process of going about the iWeb was tedious. I gathered images and links first, then I read over my links and if they weren't beneficial for myself then I discarded them, after that I used the "good" links and the information I knew to create an iWeb.
The five-point framework that we had to base our countries' status was something to guide me. Personally, I felt like it was straightforward with a challenge. It gave me a point to search for and actually think about what I was doing. But if I were to change something about the project itself, I would have possibly done it in a different way other than an iWeb. I would've done a video of some sort to see how I can get the point across to show how these countries are struggling.

The Wrong Affection To The Heart Of A Child

                  All over the Internet, child abuse tapes are being downloaded clicked and played, from Berlin, to Mexico, then Florida and New York; Everywhere. For all the young people who where taking advantage of it was recorded while it happen. If that is not handing a child low self esteem then the human mind must be at a lost for what is.

                  Just as most children in the world a young 11 year old girl in Cleveland, Texas was allegedly sexually assaulted and of course it was all lead to being her fault. A small blog about this story stated, “Some who attended the meeting in Cleveland blamed the girl for the way she dressed and claimed she lied about her age.” Theoretically she wanted this act upon her. A small committee gathered in her town to discuss what was going on and came to the conclusion she was asking to be sexually abused. Seamus O Riley said on her blog “Kids are groomed to think this is a good person who cares about them." She is right when things like this happen kids think it is an act of affection and they adapt to it.

                  Child abuse is more or less just a “Hi” and “Bye” thing; because most people have such a nonchalant attitude they just say it’s “bad” people abuse their child. Whenever the top comes up people just think if everybody does it there is nothing that can be done. So not much thought should be put into it.

                  Physical, sexual, emotional and mental are all different things but it is still abuse to a child. When a child is emotionally abused they have a lot of build up fear in them and they’re not attached to their parent or guardian, as they should be. They don’t feel genuine love.

                  Statistics say “An average of nearly four children die every day as a result of child abuse or neglect (1,760 in 2007).” Also “Girls are sexually abused three times more often than boys. Boys are at a greater risk of serious injury and of emotional neglect than are girls. The incidence of fatally injured girls declined slightly, while the incidence of fatally injured boys rose. Found no race differences in maltreatment incidence.” 

                  The most obvious is the physical abuse towards a child, causing unnecessary injury to a child with hands or any object. Making bruises, welts and cuts, causing them to flinch for no reason and having inappropriate clothing on, according to what the weather is during that day.

                                    People have must really sit back and think about how they are the adults. Take a few minutes and talk to a child before you decide to raise your hand and ask yourself is this action you’re doing to a child helping them in any way or is it hurting them. Realize child abuse is harming the new generation of the world and if children are being affect now.  Who is to say in the future when youngsters become the next mayor and president that the world won’t be at a grate disadvantage. 

                 Adults have to start going beyond what they think they know about raising or disciplining a child. Embrace children of the world because some people need to feel physical affection and ask them, do you feel loved?

Op-Ed


Imagine hearing the cries of thousands of animals as you take a big bite of your meal. Ever wonder where the food that many big companies such as McDonalds and Burger King get their meat products. Not many Americans look at the real story behind the process of where their food that they are about to consume comes from. Both you and I know that animal abuse is the last thing that pops up in our heads when we take a big of that nice juicy tender burger. They have to suffer through the neglect and inhumane places where they are held just to provide us with our food.

 

The blame can’t fall on the factories but also the failure of government regulators to join with the powerful meat industry to help the matters better. The meat industry is morally untenable and often well hidden in modern society behind large advertisements. Sue Coe an artiest that regulates the act of the cruelty to animals through her artwork stated, “We need to educate the public about how ‘food’ is raised. I believe in the goodness of people, and I think people are intelligent enough to make a choice. Open the doors to the slaughterhouses and the factory farms. Let people see how sows are tethered in crates their entire lives, standing on slats or concrete, not enough room to turn around. Pigs, in a natural state, would spend 70% of their ‘waking hours exploring their environment, making nests, rooting in the dirt and socializing” In an interview back in 2005. Since she grew up living next to a slaughterhouse, as a child she saw many terrible actions happening with the animals. Through her visual arts, Coe continues to raise the public’s awareness of the abuse of living things till this day. Through Sue’s work she wants to convey the message of what she saw and felt so many off her views can feel the same way and realize the acts behind what really is happening in these meat industries.

 

But behind the people that help stop the cruelty that is happening in the farms would need the governmental bound they have with society. Many other activists help fight the battle between the meat industries through different acts of research. "Factory farming has taken the joy out of the lives of millions of calves and pigs, and billions of hens; it has driven countless family farmers off the land; it has polluted streams and rivers; it has injected massive amounts of antibacterial and other drugs into the public food supply resulting in serious health risks. It has lowered food quality," says Christine Stevens, author of the book Factory Farming, The Experiment That Failed.  Society may not know the real story behind the torture and bad conditions that their meat products come from but this is not only bad for the animals but for the persons health too. If the animal is being tortured by being starved or given steroids then the chances of it showing up in your meat can be a result. In the near future be concerned about the conditions these animals have to sacrifice their lives for. WE can help, and WE can make a change not for ourselves but for the animals that provide us

Op-Ed

​Lend a Hand

In a recent rape report, which was put in the news, a teacher sexually assaulted a fourteen-year-old girl. Many of the parents were astonished since the teacher was ‘very popular with the kids’. This incident was not a one-time incident. The girls went on to say that this had been a recurring thing for three consecutive years. How is it that she was able to endure that type of abuse for three years? In retrospect an adult claims,
"Whatever they said he did, he didn't do," said another father. "It's just a little kid looking for attention." If a child says they were raped then there is no harm in pursuing the matter. How would that father have felt if that was their child? Many times when a child is raped it is by a close friend, or an actual family member. This in turn tends to have the result of adults not believe the victim. In America, the statistics for rape are astronomical. One of the most unknown rape statistics is that one in ten rape victims is a male. When is comes to rape, a majority of victims are under the age of eighteen.

If children are our future, why do we not listen to them? There are so many children in the world that do not speak out because they are afraid, or even taught, that adults will not listen. The majority of child victims do not tell anyone what was done to them. This leaves the rapist safe, when in reality they should be punished by law. When a child is raped they have a certain amount of time to tell. If they wait too long then the evidence of the incident will be lost.

After a victim gains the ability to voice their assault, it takes time and many methods to heal the battered soul. Many people never fully recover. In a statistic from ‘Rape, Victims, Survivors, and What We Can Do’, ‘Thirty percent of rape victims will contemplate suicide.  Slightly more will seek therapy.  Slightly less will invest in some form of self-defense.  The overwhelming majority, 82%, will tell you that their lives have been permanently changed.’ When it is the case of women many have said ‘The way they view men will be permanently changed as well.’

The percentage of males that are raped in America is three percent. Males tend to be the least likely to report an assault. People’s opinion of the reason differs. Some say it is because they are emasculated. Others feel that men can get over it more quickly, since they are supposed to have a tough way of living. But no matter the gender of the victim or the assailant, this is still a crime worth punishing.

When it comes to rape, the punishment should be harsh. Not only are Rapists taking something precious from a humans being, they are also changing the person. Rape needs to end, people need to speak up against it. Suspected rapist should not be let out on bail, until proved innocent. That gives them a chance to hide, or strike again.

To all the people who have been abused, you are not alone. Every two minutes another female is being sexually assaulted. I tell you this hoping that you will have learned that rape is a major issue in America and listening to a victim, especially children, makes all the difference. Lend a helping hand by lending an open ear. 

Are They Really Bad?

 

 

                                ARE THEY REALLY BAD?

 

By: Rondel Calloway

 

Most kids enjoy lounging around spending their free time playing video games. There’s nothing wrong with playing video games. There’s so much you can learn from video games. What you learn might not be positive but your still learning. Who cares that you learned how to steal a car or learned to break into someone’s house.  These are things people think children learn from video games. 

 

People tend to think video games are bad because studies show that prolonged exposure to video games can desensitize people to violence. It also shows that video games can make the players more aggressive towards other people. According to the “Review of Research on the Impact of Violent Computer Games on Young People”, written by Raymond Boyle and Matthew Hibberd in 2002 Robert Steinheaesuer killed 16 people. They think that his actions were influenced by the popular computer game “Counter-Strike.”

 

            Yes this may be a bad thing especially since there are over 36 million gaming consoles in households throughout the United States.  The video game industry makes over 9 billion dollars a year.  This may be true but that doesn’t mean that all the video games are bad. Mary Schlimme says that video games can have a positive effect on children. She also thinks that video games can help improve children ability to solve puzzles and create different solutions to problems. Gaming companies like Leapster help children learn the alphabet and how to read, but it’s not just the PG games that teach kids new things. Assassin’s Creed 2 is rated M for mature that means that there is blood, gore, and possibly suggestive themes. It also takes place in Italy and it indirectly gives the player a history lesson about the famous artists that lived back in the 15th century.  Another point she makes is that playing video games comes with two major cons.

 

The first is the player becomes less socially active and they become too attached to their gaming console. The second con is that the gaming console becomes a source of addiction. By playing the player then gets an emotional high aka an adrenaline rush. So the player continues to play so they can experience this emotional rush. These may be two major drawbacks but Mary Schlimme still thinks that the pros of video games still out weigh the cons. Video games are not the source of violence in a teenager’s life.

 

When the Virginia Tech Massacre happened there was no sign that Seung-Hui Chao was influenced by video games. In 2004 there were 1,972 video games released, there were also 1,423,677 crimes committed by teenagers. In 2005 there were 2,089 games released, there was 1,360,088 crimes committed by teenagers.  With the rapid growth of video games in the United States teenagers are becoming more involved with them.  They might be the reason why the number of crimes that were committed by teenagers has decreased from 2004-05.  Ultimately video games can be the reason why the player is in the house playing the game instead of doing something that could ruin his/her life.

 

 

 

Progress. Stressing.

​3/29

Welp I forgot to post yesterday so whatever. But the progress that I a making is pretty cool. I'm not rushing to do it because I have a setup and I know that it will only take a atter of three days to do. I think I'll tart the tweets sometime next week.

3/30

God help me. I have & minutes to finish my history benchmark.

Emaggiano Q3 History Benchmark

History benchmark on Colombia and Singapore

For my 3rd quarter benchmark project I picked Colombia and Singapore to study and review their collapse-ability. Colombia is located in South America and Singapore is located in South East Asia, they are both countries that are developing and trying to cope with the changing world. I thought they were similar enough to have some problems that would be the same, but different to the point that it wouldn't be boring.
I first started to research on Colombia first because I knew more about Colombia then I did Singapore. I knew for a fact that cocaine was one of the main contributes to their environmental problems and the steps that they were taken to kill the cocaine plants highly impacted their climate. So finding information was fairly easy. Singapore on the other hand, didn't have many problems that I was able to find and research. They didn't have any hostile neighbors that I could find and overall Singapore is a country that sticks to themselves and doesn't bother anyone as long as they're not bothered themselves.
I thought after reading Collapse the five-point-framework was kind of straightforward. I knew what was being asked and I was able to answer them to the best of my abilities. Yes, some were harder to find information on then others, for example I had trouble with hostile neighbors for both of my countries, I found old information(countries that they were fighting with in the past) but it was hard for me to find updated stuff that I could use in my Iweb. Also the last question we had to answer, how they are dealing with their environmental problems gave me a little trouble as well, because sadly Colombia wasn't dealing with them in a way that would possibly save their environment. Cocaine is their main source of money, so they're going to continue to grow and sell it, in their eyes it's doing more good then harm.
Now, if I was given the opportunity to do this project over again I would probably try and find more information then I did, I would of dug deeper. Also, I probably would of picked a country other then Singapore, because they don't have enough problems to make for a very interesting place to do my benchmark on.

kbrown_Globalization Q3 Benchmark

​Here you go.  It is completed :3!

Globalization Q3 Benchmark_kbrown_Australia and Thailand


Reflection:
Briefly summarize the countries that you selected.-
I have chosen Thailand and Australia.  Thailand is a country inside of south east asia.  It's known for it's trade when it comes to Rice and grains. Thailand has been facing difficult problems with pollution.  Their water supply has become problematic, as well as bad air pollution due to their use of motorcycles.  They must also deal with not being able to obtain things such as water from Japan due to the radioactivity.  Then there is Australia.  Australia has mainly been dealing with the effects of the greenhouse gasses.  Australia is facing flooding and drought, and strong storms.  Due to the greenhouse gasses the great barrier reef is being bleached by the change in water temperature.  Plus Australia is dealing with trying to protect the GBR after spilling a ton of oil in it.  Which led to the death of some animals.

Give an overview of your process-
The process to create my project was quite simple.  I spent around 2-3 days looking up the information for Thailand, then I looked up the information for Australia.  Once all the information was found I began to brainstorm how I would create my presentation and chose to use Pages.  Then I found the pictures that I felt would be best for each section in order to make the pages colorful and interesting.  Once those were found I began to look at the information I got my both countries and wrote a shorter version for the presentation.  This took a moment because I had to take the information I had gotten for both countries and make the paragraph small enough to fit onto the page.  But detailed so that the reader would understand.  Once this was completed I took the citations that I put under each paragraph I had written on my google doc, and put them into my bibliography.  Thus my presentation was completed.

My process wasn't as hard as I expected it to be.
Reflect upon the 5 point framework. Was it straightforward, easy, difficult, perplexing, etc.-

It was quite....straightforward at times.  I believe that it only one section did I have trouble.  That was with hostile neighbors.  Because was country hardly had any there seemed to be no information that would help me.  Either than or I would be given information that didn't even go with what I was looking for when I was looking for information about the hostile neighbors in Thailand and Australia.

If you could change one thing about your product, what would it be and why?-

I would change the design of my product.  I believe that it could have been much better, but I was having trouble coming up with a better design.  When I said it could have been better I am not lying, there are probably a bunch of projects that were much more interesting than mine because of it's design.

Op Ed

“She bashed my head into the bathroom sink. I have fifteen stitches on my forehead because of it. All because she thought I disliked her.” -Anonymous Philadelphia School District Student 


The reasons why our youth drop out of high school is because 57% of our students believe it’s the lack of discipline in the high schools. But why care that some students are dropping out of high school? Our dropout rate makes not only Philadelphia appear as a bad place to live as a whole, but it puts the future in jeopardy for much of the city. When youth drop out of school, their problems don’t go away.  About 52% of those reasons were out-of-school related problems. That means that the communities that surround the school influence their determination to remain in school. Many of the big high schools have kids that feed from their school in more than a suitable walking distance. That means along the way, there is bound to be violence with so many kids in one area. Going to a large school also means that the kids may not know each other very well. That could be a threat to anyone.