Blog #18: Newspapers & MSB

For this next project, MSB, I want to make sure I find an interesting idea that I can have fun with it and create a unique product.

Brainstorming earlier, making sure I am aware of all the contents needed, will help me manage my time. Preparing examples or rough-drafts of my work for critiques, and finding examples to base from, will make sure I use my time wisely, something in which I struggled during the Newspaper project. Even though this is not a group project, I do want to work on my group skills, and communication. I know that my group was having trouble deciding on ideas together; it was more like a dictatorship at the beginning. It wasn't my entire fault, but I did contribute to the lack of communication. Unlike my Newspaper article, I want to make my final product interesting and important. This is why I am planning beforehand, and hopefully I can make my ideas happen.

Blog #17: MSB people, groups & orgs!

Honors History Writing #2

America can’t afford another President who thinks of their own benefits before worrying about the necessities of the American people. We have already reached an all time low. It’s taking all our effort to adjust to the bitter depression, and get back on our feet. The government hasn’t reestablished the wealth our nation had. Now they want to enforce the gold standard policies, which make it even harder for us to recuperate. It is now imminent that the only candidate that has shown interest in helping those who suffer the economic depression is William Jennings Bryan.   

 

Bryan has been in a prolong tour by train, where he has spoken to voters directly. He is the first presidential candidate that has made an attempt to reach the American people from every corner. Over the past few days he has given speeches to more several million people. “My place in history will depend on what I can do for the people and not on what the people can do for me,” he has definitely shown his passion in helping families who are struggling. While other candidates conduct a “front porch” speech that excludes many Americans. Bryan is bringing hope to every the American families, knowing that we need a new currency system, because the one operating has failed us.

 

Implementing the free silver theories, would help get rid of debts and push our economy forward. It would give us a new start and a brand new opportunity to be successful. Sixteen silver backed dollars equals one gold dollar. Having more paper money, backed by silver, would allow farmers and workers to pay off their fees and maintain a dignify living. This system makes paper money easier to circulate nationwide and it would help lift our economy. This would be the fastest way to recover from the economic depression of 1893, thus perusing a new direction for the United States.

 

Let us not forget that we have no one else to blame but the corrupted corporations and government, for our great downfall in the economy. These same corporations that have lower our wages; have formed a coalition with our main opponent, William McKinley to bring more wealth towards their own benefit. This man has supported the Gold Standard because it has helped businessmen gain more wealth. Even though the majority of the United States have been starving, and living in the worst conditions, McKinley worries for the rich minority.

 

Don’t be intimidated by the over powering minority, they have yet to understand that the free silver will only implicate the growth of our nation. It will not impact the laborers and it will not cause them to lose their jobs. Not one corporation will fall trough with the silver backed dollar. Do not let your fear guide you into voting for candidates that can be sold. There is no doubt that the right man to lead this new era, lift us from the crisis and construct a well organized government is William Jennings Bryan.   

Blog #16

From Ruben's blog post titled, Narrowing it down, I thought his idea was very creative. I had never though that people could actually make some profit from beach clean ups. America is all about businesses and profits, so why not make money while helping the environment. I love this idea and I already want to see his results and final product. 

From Osamah's blog post titled, Blog # 15: Media Saves the Beach,  I realized that many students are planning on creating a video related project. Osamah plans on creating a video with photos of the bay and ocean. His ideas are really good, and I know many people will also have bright ideas. So maybe doing a documentary might not be a good idea for me, I want to make something unique, or different. 

 From Corey's blog post titled, Possible MSB Products, I thought that I could also do a photo essay. Corey also wants to create a video, but I thought that a photo essay will not be a bad idea. I do love photography, like everyone else, and taking some time taking pictures of the bay can be joyful. I have now decided to add photo essay into one of my possible products. 

 

Blog #15—Possible MSB products

A 3-dimensional sculpture made from recyclable trash. 

For example this piece is a recycled bottle cap fish mosaic. Its a small beautiful art piece, but it proves a point and this is somewhat of what I have in mind. 

Recycled bottle caps, can be found anywhere including the beach. These objects are dangerous to our wildlife and can be recycled.

Its creative, beautiful and its appealing to the public, and relates to our ocean waters, which is something that MSB calls for.

It looks like the artist had fun while making this piece. It expresses his ideas. I want my final product to involve all of these things. 

A documentary showing the process of MSB water testings and findings.  

This video shows a group of scientist that conduct a research on water pollution, just like us. So I don't know if this idea can work, but it wold be interesting to see and videotape all the research the students will make. Getting deep inside the process, their thoughts and showing their results on video. I can of course conduct some research some test. Like i said before, I'm not sure if this can be consider a project, but it will give the audience a big idea and first hand look at our process in this project.   

Blog #14—MSB Questions & Resources

What materials found on the beach and oceans, can be recycled?

The following link answers questions about plastics that can be recycled.

It also gives a lot of information about recycling.

http://www.costaricareciclaje.com/eng/recicle_faqs/recycling_faqs.php

This link can help many understand our water pollution problems and it also talks about recycling plastic, metal, glass and paper.

http://www.beachcleanup.org/trash.html

And more facts about recycling, I think it is very important for everyone to recycle and most important, know, how to recycle. This article titled Aluminum Recycling Facts, teaches you the main facts about recycling aluminum, many of which we don't know.

Media Saves the Beach, is all about helping the beach, we pollute our waters

With our sewage, but we also dump a lot of materials that can be recycled.

So please, learn how to recycle and do it everyday.

Titled

Blog #13: Industrialization and Coastal Environments

"Ocean water quality at San Diego County beaches was largely good or excellent this summer, according to the annual end-of-summer Beach Report Card released Tuesday by the environmental group Heal the Bay. Of the 94 locations monitored over the summer months in San Diego County, 83 sites received either an A or B grade.
There were 11 locations that received fair to poor water-quality grades, according to the report, which is based on routine monitoring of beaches from Humboldt County to the Mexican border. Two areas in San Diego Bay received F grades, while in Mission Bay, there were four C's, two D's and one F."


Eleven locations in the San Diego coastal area, received poor water-quality grades.
Mission Bay seemed to be one of the worst graded areas.

We are missing information that explains how the grades were give and hoe the test process occurred.

The follow up could include information on the beaches or bays that have the highest visitor numbers. Or the beaches around or near high populations.

Optional Assignment

Qualcomm Inc. was formed in 1985, by the master mind Irwin Jacobs. "Franklin Antonio, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen, Irwin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi and Harvey White—decided they wanted to build “QUALity COMMunications," know today as Qualcomm Inc. The main goal for this industry, was to provide great software and manufacture innovative ideas to help improve technology and lifestyle. This was the largest company during that period of time. It later divided and multiplied into many sections all over the San Diego County. It is one of the largest employers and best facilitated industry, providing Healthcare and Insurance to their employees.  

"Law360, New York (January 02, 2008) -- Qualcomm Inc. has vowed to appeal a federal judge’s permanent injunction order that bars the company from importing and selling certain chips and devices that infringe three Broadcom Corp. patents.

Judge James Selna of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California issued his injunction order on Monday against Qualcomm products that infringe on Broadcom’s video-encoding and cellular..."

I think this is an important event because we see how companies try to be more successful than others. Broadcom didn't want Qualcomm to sell, trade or export certain items, and this confrontation lasted while. 

Honors Novel Essay 1

When Mark Twain wrote "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" he received harsh criticism. His book was banned in many libraries Mostly everyone from his time period believed his literature was demeaning to their culture and country. The most reasonable idea might be that Huckleberry Finn, one of the main characters in the book, displayed the same values, ideas and controversial life that modern society had. And maybe that’s why they saw the characters as obscene and ridiculous. Twain directly examined people's beliefs about slavery and made a witty but fun satire of society when writing "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."

The novel consists of many controversial characters whose ideas collide and change trough out the book. The main character in the book is Huckleberry Finn, who is only thirteen and has been raised by his alcoholic dad because his mother has deceased. We soon start to see that Huck is street smart and has never been educated, or perhaps his dad doesn't want him to be educated. His father, knows as Pap, kidnaps him, and takes him away from Ms. Watson who at the time had been his guardian. Ms. Watson teaches Huck mannerism, but Huck hates wearing decent clothing and hates the fact of being civilized.  

Huckleberry Finn is an interesting character, even though he is young and tries to act like his old friend Tom; he also matures and breaks away from society's perspective. He became friends with Jim, one of Ms. Watson's slaves. Jim is much older than Huck, but they both have an intertwining relationship when Jim escapes from Ms. Watson in order to prevent being separated from his family, and hopefully arrive to the free states. Jim has a very familiar situation, because many slaves would also want to escape slavery, even when they have to sacrifice their family. At first Huck doesn't even realized that Jim is as much human as he is, and doubts that he loves his family as much as white people do. It’s hard to believe that a thirteen year old boy has ideas like this, and worst of all, Huck wanted to return Jim to Ms. Watson, who Huck believes "is his rightful owner." When Jim and Huck started traveling the Mississippi River, Huck sees their situation as an opportunity to have an adventure, just like the ones he experienced with Tom. But Jim, knowing that some decisions Huck was makes are completely risky and foolish, he doesn't want to question Huck’s authority because he knows, Huck could turn him in to the authorities anytime. Again we see the fear, slaves felt towards the power and authority of the white male, even when it refers to a thirteen year old boy. 

I would say that Huck started to understand his society when he started meeting more characters in the book. The further they go the more grotesque situations they would find. The actions from the Duke and Dauphin, gave him an idea that his society was terrible to the extent that blacks had to run away from their families in order to reach freedom, and humans had such nature to bring one another down in a greedy and selfish way. The cruelty, in which people were living, made him question, right from wrong. This is where he questions what would be the right thing to do. Turn in Jim, a run away slave, something Huck's society consider the right thing, or follow his emotions, which were in favor of helping Jim. Huck sympathizes with Jim, when Jim tells Huck "he is the only white person that has kept his word." And so he does, after a long analysis, he realizes that Jim, a slave, was as much or even more human than whites.

Towards the end, the reader is finally convinced that Jim has been the good soul all along. He believed in Huck, an adventurous kid, he also protected Huck from harms way. He didn't allow Huck to see his father’s dead body because he knew it would hurt Huck, and wanted to avoid this horrific moment. And when he is freed by Tom and Huck, Tom gets wounded by a bullet; he takes care of him and assists the doctor in order to save Tom's life. To connect Mark Twain’s society to the book, he tells the readers that Ms. Watson, who has passed way, has freed all her slaves.

Huckleberry has grown and matured trough the novel, he broke away from the society he had been structured from, and has found his own belief, making an individual we didn't know before. Jim, in my opinion, has been the hero, for providing his humble as a reason to change Huck's life. Now I understand why many people from the 1860's found this as obscene. They were offended when being compared to Jim, who was the only character to show a moral conscious.

Blog #12 Media Saves the Beach Questions

1. Can we use sewage or waste water to produce energy for its own filtration?

In 9th grade we took a trip to Hoover dam, I got the chance to see how the water was utilize to provide energy and was a way to filtrate water. This got me wondering if there could be a possible way in which water is use to produce energy for its own filtration. if it is somehow possible then we can clean our water and use the water pressure to produce energy.

2. What is the ocean waters' original pH?

Since every liquid has a certain type of pH, I wonder was is the ocean water's pH. it contains a lot of sodium, so I wonder if it is acidic or basic.

3. If people are not sure about the Toilet to Tap proposition what other alternatives are there?

Plastic water bottles are very hurtful to the environment, instead of drinking and using that water, we have the Toilet to Tap idea, which many people don't agree with. are there any more alternatives to drinking water.

Honors History Writing 1

Headlines burst wildly, from every corner of the country, front page covers with bold print read, “Wilson’s Remarks Based on Racism,” “Obama’s Care Protesters Racist,” the entire country was focused on Jimmy Carter’s comment during President Obama’s Health Care speech. Americans were quickly making assumptions that Carter’s comment was based on racism. Many Americans were shocked to know, that racism still existed in modern day America and had infiltrated inside our Congress. As soon as I read a blog title, “What?! Racism Still in America?” I asked myself, “Hasn’t racism always exist in America after the Civil War?

When the first colonies in the South were getting started, people from Africa were being brought into America as slaves, in order to work the land. We never assumed it was an act of racism. Plantations needed to be taken care of, slaves were believed to be inferior because they were dark and it seemed that the perfect solution to obtain higher profits was having slaves worked in plantations. Along the way, there were a few Americans who truly believed slaves were as much humans as whites. This started high tensions between Southerners and Northerners. We can remember from our History textbooks, the Canning of Senator Sumner.[1] Charles Sumner, an outspoken senator from Massachusetts delivered a passionate speech called, “The Crime against Kansas.” In his speech he condemned slavery, and insulted the great state of South Carolina. Days later, one of the congressmen from South Carolina, Preston S. Brooks went up to Sumner and beat him with a cane, until Sumner lost conscious. This became the most problematic event in 1856.

I would never expect anything like this to ever happen in Congress. We know that different opinions can be argue, but never imposed on others. Brooks was outraged that he and his state had been insulted but there is no excuse that supports his actions against Senator Sumner. Then why is it that when Representative, Jimmy Carter interrupts president Obama, it becomes a major issue and it is explained as a racist act. We know that Carter has had many other issues relating racism or discrimination, but race shouldn’t be the first thing going trough our minds. Yes, he did interrupt our first African American president, but we shouldn't be shocked that racism exists in modern America.

Back in 1856, when the Brooks-Sumner confrontation, they were both whites, but Sumner supported the idea to end slavery. Americans who had an affection towards blacks where know as “Negro Lovers,” and as we know this people were also looked down at. Before the Civil War, racism also existed. It was in the form of slavery; Americans believed slaves were less than humans, as current Americans believe immigrants are inferior. The same idea Brooks and slave owners had of blacks, back then, Carter and many extreme hate groups think of immigrants now a days. Racism has always existed, it has prevailed trough the Civil War, the Reconstruction and the Civil Rights movements. When the thirteenth amendment was passed and Jim Crow laws were imposed, whites had to live with the idea that blacks are equal to them. Whites unconsciously formed their own way and idea to keep feeling superior, that idea was racism.

An eight-year-old black girl in South Africa recently told Ted Koppel on Nightline, "White people are better than black people. Whites know more, have more, and get more. I wish I was white but I am not.”[2] It seems that with time, these racist ideas have caused extreme acts of hate against many races all over the world. It has become so extreme that children have become apart of it.

Some Americans believe that racism does not exist in America anymore. Making laws that ban segregation, laws that “make” us equal to one another, are not enough to get rid of racism. If a new born can not distinguish race, therefore it can’t make racist assumptions. He will, at some point be curious of the different skin tones, accents and beliefs; it is up to the parents to show them that no race is superior to the rest. That no one should be considered a second class citizen. Carter never thought his comment would cause a scandal, but it did. He probably thinks his comment was not based on racism. “Few Americans of either race -- about one out of eight -- consider themselves racist. And experts say racism has evolved from the days of Jim Crow to the point that people may not even recognize it in themselves.”[3] Many of us that accuse others of being racist, might not notice, that we, ourselves can be racist. It doesn’t take much; step by step we can reconstruct America and amend what the Civil War has left.

References:

[1] Davidson, James West, Williamf Gienapp, Christine Leigh Heyrman, Mark H. Lytle, and Michael B. Stoff. Nation of Nations: A Concise Narrative of the American Republic, Vol I. Boston: Mcgraw-Hill College, 1998

[2] "Racism in America's Schools. ERIC Digest." ERICDigests.Org - Providing full-text access to ERIC Digests. 3 Oct. 2009

[3] "Poll: Most Americans see lingering racism -- in others - CNN.com." CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainment & Video News. 3 Oct. 2009