Turkey Day

This year i am deffinantly thankful for the dynamic of our entire 11th grade enviroment it seems that every single peson coexists and acctually has matured to a level of respect for one another. The community as a whole it flourishing.

its pretty cool.

Honors Blog

H2o Project

H2o Schedule:

The question I have landed on for my H2o project is "What are the effects on humans from being exposed to the amounts of bacteria in our water, and what legal obligations do our government have to protect us form these illnesses?"

The next two weeks of my school career will look something like this:
Nov. 7- research of similar examples of final product. (internet)
Nov. 8- Begin spreadsheet of data collected for biology to support artist statement.
Nov. 9- Examine electron microscope pictures of E-coil bacteria for painting.
Nov. 10/11- Buy art supplies needed for product.
Nov. 12/13/14- Prepare 4 canvases for painting (writers block?)
Nov. 15/16/17- Sketch final E-coli bacteria art thaaang/ Rough draft of artist statement.
Nov. 18/19/20/21/22- paint and continue to revise artist statement

THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!

Dec. 1/2- Final critiques of artist statement
Dec. 3/4- Setup and display artwork for exibition, print and display artist statement.
Dec. 5- Eat In-n-out in class all day.

Resources:
4 canvases
acrylic paint/ brushes
aresol based paints
8.5x11 picture frame

(in addition i will need to setup an interview and question with a lawyer individual)

Election, and H2o Project

Election reflection:

First of all yesterday night was a very interesting night at my house as my entire family sat in the living room being all Midwestern and annoying, cheering for Barrak Obama as his electoral votes piled up. Needless to say i was in fact very pleased with Barrak Obama winning the presidency, and the feeling that you were apart of history in the making was inescapable. I really hope that Barrack Obama is able to deliver on all of the "change" he sayd he will bring to the country, and with a senate with a majority of democrats i think that that is probably obtainable. I really would like to see resolution with the war in Iraq and have troops start coming home. In addition more locally I would like to abolish propositions that are unfair and un-constitutional like prop eight. Both of these things Barrak Obama has a solution for, and i hope he pulls through.

I have followed this election from the beginning learning in Randy s class about our American history and the way our politics work. In having conversation on election night i realized that i had formed my own opinions about the candidates and understood quite well the entire process, as well as some strategies candidates use and various other knowledge that not even my parents knew. I feel like my civic knowledge went form nothing at the beginning of the year to above average in a short period of time.

mai topic por la article

How does the lack of water testing effect tourism to San Diego's beaches?
Does the lack of water testing deter beach going in San Diego for non-natives? What information is given to tourists about the cleanliness of our beaches? What is the annual income from tourists for beach community's? What effect has the lack of water testing had on the successfulness of beach community s/ businesses? Is there sufficient rain during tourist season to warrant our water dirty?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070808/news_1m8b2briefs.html

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20081031-9999-1m31test.html



How Does dirty water effect the number of babes who come to the beach?
How does the lack of water testing specifically effect the demographic of youth who visit the beach during the tourism season? What impact does the youth demographic have on businesses at the beach? Does the presence of youth during the tourism season have a negative impact on the beach cleanliness?

ACORN, some say a nut, i say a SCANDAL!

In the final days of this campaign season you may hear about ACORN in our news. No not the fabled nut treasured by furry forest rodents, but this seasons voting scandal. In addition to ACORN is voter-suppression, unfortunately there is no furry creature that utterly loves voter suppression. Neither do voters.

I reiterate again that ACORN is not something that falls from an oak tree, but instead the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, a non-profit organization whose goal is to increase voter registration. ACORN pays people to go out and recruit unregistered voters however these individuals have found it much easier to just make up fake voters or register people multiple times trough ACORN reaping the buckets of money that im sure a nonprofit pays them... This causes some problems considering people who don't exist can vote. Acorn is being accused of fraudulent voter registration because of this.

Voter suppression does not sound nearly as funny as its squirrel related counterpart in the media. However it does not deserve a silly name because this tactic used by political parties is harsh and unreasonable. Voter- suppression is when the act of voting is made into an intimidating , or difficult task for certain demographics or geographical areas. It is done so that the people in these areas will avoid voting. This is achieved by neglected polling centers, or by making it unaccessible to some people. One type of suppression could be Republican or Democrat suppression either parties suppressing strategic areas that they know will vote for the opposite party. Voter- suppression occurred when the Jim Crow Laws were passed making it impossible for black people to vote. Voter-suppression denies people the right to vote which is everyones fundamental right.

When you hear on the news of ACORN do not get exited at the prospect of Native American cuisine, think scandal. One scandal allows people to vote multiple times (ACORN)wile the other (voter- suppression) causes people not to vote at all. Could the two be used strategically?

Sources:

The New York Times, "The Acorn Story", Published October 16, 2008, Accessed October 28, 2008.

The New York Times, "States' Actions to Block Voters Appear Illegal", Ian Urbina, Published October 8, 2008, Accessed October 28, 2008.

The Wall Street Journal Online, "Justice and Vote Fraud", Published October 27, 2008, Accessed October 28, 20

Animals Of The Forest, "What Squirrels Eat", Published October 9, 2008, Accessed October 28, 2008.

Southern Reconstruction (Blog 10)

Modern day issues in the countries southern states can be dated back to civil war era problems. Poor success in education,and a high level of poverty points to the poorly done reconstruction of the south post civil war, setting back many of the southern states namely; Louisiana, Alabama, Arkensas, and Mississippi almost 150 years later.

The reconstruction of the south began after the civil war ended and slavery was abolished. The south's entire lively hood was walking off of their plantations as the slaves were free to go. As told by a civil war historian "Slavery was the first great sin of this nation. The second greatest sin was emancipation, or rather the way it was done. The government told 4 million people 'hit the road you are free to go' three quarters of them could not read or write. The tiniest fraction of them had any profession they could enter." Since there was no rehabilitation for slaves or compensation for slave owners the south suddenly found itself full of impoverished white men, and uneducated freed slaves. The government did not effectively rehabilitate the south after the abolishment of slavery. Considering that most of the southern states doubled as battlefields during the war many of the towns were in desperate need of repair

Even though the slaves were freed of their owners when the Jim Crow laws were instated it seemed as though they where given no chance to move up in the world. The laws put restrictions on marriage, schooling, seating on buses, even banning Negroes from using white peoples water fountains. Some of the Jim Crow laws were "“Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more Negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.” (Nebraska, 1911). In addition to these laws where “Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.” (Missouri, 1929). These laws essentially segregated whites from blacks, causing racist factions to form like the Ku Klux Klan. There was no attempt to ween the blacks into normal American society. This racial segregation caused the south to fall behind the rest of America.

Currently southern states like Mississippi, Louisiana, and Kentucky are the lowest three states with a percentage of people 25 and over who have a high school diploma. Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Arkansas are the last five states according to ranking of the percentage of people age 16 to 64 in the labor force.

The abolishment of slavery was suppose to put the country on good terms between all people, instead it deteriorated the southern infrastructure. It can be said that- “...a part of American history that isn't easy to face. It tells us that we had a moment in our history when our politics broke down. We don't like to face that. We don't even want to know about it. We like to believe we are a society of security and progress and improvement. Reconstruction makes us face an era when we were something else.”

Sources:


"Abolition & Slavery - American Civil War - CivilWar.com." Home - American Civil War - CivilWar.com. http://www.civilwar.com/content/section/38/70/ (accessed October 2, 2008).

Blight, David. "Q&A: Southern Violence During Reconstruction." PBS; American Experience, Reconstruction: The Second Civil War. www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/40acres/sf_ violence.html#c (accessed October 1, 2008).

"Jim Crow Laws - Separate Is Not Equal." National Museum of American History. http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/jim-crow.html (accessed October 1, 2008).



"United States and States - R1501. Percent of People Who Have Completed High School (Includes Equivalency)." American FactFinder. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GRTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-_box_head_nbr=R1501&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-format=US-30 (accessed October 1, 2008).

"United States and States - R2301. Percent of People 16 to 64 Years Who Are in the Labor Force (Including Armed Forces)." American FactFinder. http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/GRTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=01000US&-_box_head_nbr=R2301&-ds_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_&-redoLog=false&-format=US-30&-mt_name=ACS_2006_EST_G00_R1501_US30 (accessed October 1, 2008).

Forsyth, Ana. "Ana's Blog". http://anaforsythe.blogspot.com/ (accessed October 2, 2008).

Newspaper reflection

First of all I want to say that my groups newspaper came out looking really professional looking. I was incredibly proud of the final product, and even prouder of the effort it took to get there. I personally contributed a very fair amount to our group. The biggest chunk of my contribution was my article analyzing the debate tactics uses by both Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas. This took up the majority of my time as i also formatted it on the page of our newspaper, added a headline, and made it as aesthetically pleasing as i could. After finishing my article I helped Jacob our group computer wizz come up with other headlines and captions for various articles and pictures on the page. I also had a say in choosing which picture of Abraham Lincoln we used.

I am most proud of the whole layout of the newspaper, including the name of it, the headlines, and the photos we used. The final product looked very professional, almost as if it were a legitimate newspaper. I give Jacob a lot of credit for our newspaper looking so good. I am proud that i had helped make a newspaper of that caliber.

If I had done this project over I would have spent more time on my article adding more evidence to support my claims and analysis. Though it looks very good I do not think it is my best quality work as i did write it in a rush. To help make my work better i would take advantage of the time given to us in class to review and revise our work with our peers. I think it would also help to have a better understanding of the Lincoln/ Douglas debates as i was struggling to understand much of the stuff that they were saying.

I think that this project was a great way to collaborate and understand the debates as well as news style writing techniques and layouts. I really enjoyed this project as a whole.

Nebraska??

Palin's visit to Omaha draws thousands

By ANNA JO BRATTON |Associated Press Writer

9:43 PM CDT, October 5, 2008

This article talks abut Sara Palin's seemingly unusual visit to the fire-engine red state of Nebraska. Her alibi was simply "I wanted to come to Nebraska!" The question is why come so late in the campaign, it is almost a given that Nebraska be a shoe-in. However there may be more here than meets the eye.

As it turns out her visit was more of a defensive move against the Obama/Biden Campaign. since 1964 all five of Nebraska's electoral votes have gone to the republican party. Unlike most states though, Nebraska can actually split its electoral votes. This means that since the Obama Campaign is campaigning heavily in the state, McCain and Palin actually run the risk of losing electoral votes in the heartland of America.

New Federal Privacy Law!:

dont look at mah stuff... thats it, thats the law.

just kidding! im currently editing this post due to my atrocious spelling it will be online tonight :]

Reflection

In the process of making these blogs I am most proud of the strides that I have taken in my knowledge of the world i am apart of. I have actually taken a legitimate interest in the economy and the politics surrounding it.

In my future blogs i would like to do a few things differently. I want to find other kinds of articles instead of just political ones to see if I can recognize the connections in the text to what we are studying in class. I think that this will make my blogs much more interesting because there will be more of a variety.

In researching aarticles for my blogs my understanding of american politics and their influence in most news stories has become very clear. Whenever I learn a new concept in class I skim through articles in news sources and can relate the concept to the article. I feel like i acctually can understand it and develop an opinion on the situation it is taslking about. In many ways i feel like I am activle participating in our politics by keeping up on it and understanding it.

Wyatt Watts 6 Point Plan to Success

Fed’s $85 Billion Loan Rescues Insurer

By EDMUND L. ANDREWS, MICHAEL J. de la MERCED and MARY WILLIAMS WALSH

Published: September 16, 2008
The New York Times

This article was reported by Edmund L. Andrews, Michael J. de la Merced and Mary Williams Walsh and written by Mr. Andrews.

WASHINGTON — Fearing a financial crisis worldwide, the Federal Reserve reversed course on Tuesday and agreed to an $85 billion bailout that would give the government control of the troubled insurance giant American International Group.

The decision, only two weeks after the Treasury took over the federally chartered mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is the most radical intervention in private business in the central bank’s history.

This article is about how the government is stepping in and aiding the stock market in an attempt to save our economy. I shared just a little bit but i am pretty sure you get the jist of it. Their solution is to give massive amounts of money to banks to bail them out of this oncoming "crisis."

If I were to give advice to the government it would be essentially along the same lines as what they are doing now. Help banks keep their head above water in order to keep peoples money in order. as far as private businesses go... sorry. I think that its their responsibility to keep their businesses successful, its a risk that they took making their investments.

In addition to that I think that they need to try and bring up the value of a dollar by not printing so much money. this will give our economy time to flourish. Once we have achieved this we can re-enter the world market back to full health.

My Faaaavvvv

I think that the most interesting thing that we have studied so far was the "common sense" writings by Thomas Paine. I thought that it was incredible that one man can influence this new country so much. Its pretty inspiring, and the political tactics he used in targeting undecided people still holds true today with modern politics. He shed light on many things that i would have completely overlooked when studying the revolution. The topics of debate within our class could defiantly have taken up quite a lot of time using Thomas Paine's writing as a catalyst. It is the gold standard of a persuasive writing and its sad that only six people came to his funeral. seriously what happened there?

Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist

In this article Presidential candidate Barrak Obama accuses the republicans of using "swift boat politics." stating that presidential candidate John Mccain is campaigning for exactly the same thing the current administration has been doing.

These are very strong words for Obama to use against Mccain and I think he is taking an Anti-federalist stance on our government in an attempt to win over the American people who he says agrees with him. As an Anti-federalist he thinks that the government is to strong and there needs to be "change" in our current goverment wile John Mccain (the federalist in this situation) is campaigning to keep our government a strong one, more or less the same.

This situation is a classic example of a federalist vs. anti federalist situation that still remains present today. I think it is awesome the the same debate that was going on during the conception of our government still rages on today.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/09/10/campaign.wrap/index.html

CNN's Alexander Mooney contributed to this report.

Got it right the second time (Edited)

"New Orleans Starts Up But Not at Full Power"

The New York Times
Sept 4, 2008

By: Adam Nossiter

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/us/05orleans.html?ref=us

In the wake of hurricane Gustave New Orleans is moving citizens back into to the city, restoring power and getting back to normal with incredible speed. This is a 180 degree difference from hurricane Katrina where there was no orders to evacuate and help came days to late. The governor of Louisiana has instated hundreds of power generators, and ordered a mandatory evacuation before the hurricane. They are hoping that the system could keep up through the rest of hurricane season.

I thought that this whole situation had a bit of a bitter taste because it took them a devastating hurricane in order to get it right. this reminded me of the concept from the enlightenment about a "social contract" Which means that the only reason a government exists in to represent and protect the people. The government should have protected the citizens of Louisiana during hurricane Katrina instead of trying to make up for their negligence now. As the governor of Louisiana stated in the article they got it right the second time;

"All over the city there were haunting reminders of the period after Hurricane Katrina — traffic lights out, for instance, and in some cases knocked to the ground by high winds — but also clear indications that Hurricane Gustav was utterly different: people sitting on their front porches, only three days after the storm."

The goverments

I read a headline on the New York Times web page that reminded me very much of the life, liberty and persuite of happiness, It read "American Forces attack militants on Pakistani soil." The article explained that some fighting between American special forces and Al Queda militants occurred in Pakistan. The article discusses plans to work with Pakistan to help fight terrorism, and some kind of plan about working with Nato forces in the area. The reason why i chose this article was because this is the very first thing I had read in a very long time involving the war on terror. Fighting the people that jepordised our life and liberty back in 2001. It seems that between the Iraq war and presidential elections going on right now our governments priorities are not with the war. I learned in class that a government only exists because of a social contract and hat a government must protect out life and liberty. and though we still are engaged in this war the government is focused on their own agenda instead of representing and protecting the people as they should.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/04/world/asia/04attack.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin