Blog #5: Bull Fighting- Humane or Inhumane?

Do you think Bull fighting is a humane or an inhumane sport? Why do you feel that way? Please explain....

Bull fighting is a dangerous sport, true. There are many other sports that are dangerous like racing cars, or skateboarding, or gymnastics. But unlike those dangerous, I think that bull fighting is an inhumane sport. Bull fighting is in my opinion, a derivative from the gladiator fights in Ancient Rome. In the Gladiator fights, they put people in a "ring" to kill each other, just to see who is the strongest.
Bull fighting is similar except that they kill the bull at every fight. This is actually such a waste of bulls because nothing actually happens to the bull after it dies. Also, it is also not respecting animal rights because they bring a bull into a ring, anger it and kill it for entertainment. Would we consider it humane and a sport if bulls suddenly took over the world, use us in a fight? Waving a red cape in front of us, get us frustrated and angry and then eventually kill us while the herd of bulls celebrated around us? No. This is totally barbaric; playing with your food before ending its life.

Blog #4: The Clock of Life

"The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop, at a late or early hour. Now is the only time you own. Live, Love, toil with a will. For the clock may soon be still." - Robert H. Smith

This quote basically tells us that you only have one life to live, therefore you have to life it as it's fullest.
The first line where it says "The clock of life is wound but once, and no man has the power to tell just when the hands will stop at a late or early hour" is a metaphor. The clock symbolizes our life and no one knows when our life will end, whether you will die at a young age or live many decades. The second line, " Now is the only time you own. Live, Love, toil with a will," means that you have to do what you want in your life and take risks because now (meaning your life) is the only time you'll get to experience many things. The last sentence basically tells us why we should "Live, Love, and toil with a will," and that is because the clock will soon stop. This means that life is short and yours might soon end.

SMASH Day Reflection

For this SMASH day, we did another mission scenario. This time, we were on a submarine under the water. We were trying to find out what the "treasure" was. The problem was that the treasure was in a box and our periscope was too small for us to see into the box. So, we had to make another longer periscope using cardboard and mirrors. Mrs. Smith gave us a piece of card board, some paper, tape, and four mirrors.
Our group modified our periscope twice. First we had the angles right, but we couldn't see clearly into the box. So we changed our design just as spy time started. We folded the tope part of the box so that it will be holding the mirror deeper into the box. In the end, we could see the items in the box without using angles but only one mirror.
Each of us gave ideas and listened to each other. I think that we communicated very well but we had so many ideas that we had to rush.

I would advise others to talk to their team carefully and to plan it out first, that way you won't have to rush in the end. Also, don't think so deep because our team didn't even need to set angles in the end. Plus it makes it hard to see the items when you're looking through two mirrors.

Blog #3: Mirror Image

When you look in the mirror, what do you see? Do you think others see you as you see yourself?

I think I'm a bit conceited and arrogant at times- or most of the time. I know that others see me as a little selfish sometimes. But I know that I'm not a bad person. No one is born a bad person but becomes one through experiences and tough times when growing up.
Yeah sure, sometimes I annoy my sisters and friends by being so selfish. I know that I sometimes only want to do my homework first before I help others. At times I can be nice when I want to.

A lot of people say I'm easy. I don't know why and I don't think I'm that but they do... which is weird because I'm selfish...not easy..

The Death Field

As we all know, serving your country in the military can be either a very harmless job like sitting behind a desk and reporting to stations or you could be doing field work. Field work in the military is like a big game of life and death.
In every scene, someone is saved and someone dies.
Recently in southern Afghanistan, two U.S. soldiers and three Afghans were killed while the soldiers were trying to disable a bomb.
While accompanying Gulab Mangal, a governor of the Helmand province, the convoy of soldiers came across two bombs stack on top of each other. After the soldiers tried to disable the bomb, one of them blew up and killed the five people.

The soldiers were part of a convoy of soldiers to go with Mangal to a village where they farm opium. Mangal was going to talk about alternatives to harvesting drugs. South Afghanistan provides two-thirds of the world's drugs, opium and herion.

Article: <LINK>

Free Food

As American falls more deeper into recession, some families have jumped on board with food stamp programs.
Before 52 year old Walter Thomas joined the federal aid program, he used to skip meals because his cabinets were emptying and his savings was running out. Walter was one of millions who have lost their jobs in this recession and now him and many others keep from going hungry by relying on food aids.

One in 10 people in the the U.S. depend on aids like these to get by in life.

In some cases, "need" is not the excuse for using food stamps. With the government setting up aids like food stamps and food banks, many people jump on the idea of free food given by their tax collectors. I think that those people should just take a look at the people around them that need the food and money. People shouldn't be so greedy and take what they want. Something should be done to tell the people that if you don't need to aid don't take it, because other people's lives may very well depend on them.

________

Article: <LINK>
Image Source: <LINK>

Blog #2: An Effective Communicator

An effective communicator in my life is one of my friends Jean- and also Ariel. When explaining things I do not understand, both of them can easily explain it without using difficult words. I think they really possess this trait because they have the ability to communicate with me, even though English is their second language. They are also very good listeners because they understand pretty fast when others explain to them, too.
One example of them being effective communicator was one of the first SMASH days we had with Mrs. Smith's class. Both Ariel and Jean were in my group and we have to communicate to build something. Only Jean knew what the original piece looked like and only she could talk to Ariel without showing her the item. Ariel could not see the item but using the information Jean told her, she had to tell me (I was all the way across the room) and describe how the object looked like so that I could build a replica of it. This proves we shared effective communication as our replica was the exact same thing as the original object...

Reflections on Video Project

My humanities Research Report video took a lot of effort in piecing it together. I used some of the 5 Learning outcomes while working on it and presenting it.

I think being an effective communicator is one of the learning outcomes you can't help but use while showing this video. I communicated to the audience through pictures and voice-over. My pictures showed what I had to say and nothing was out of place (eg. wrong information with wrong picture). The pictures were clear and easy to understand. My voice-over recording also showed being an effective communicator because I spoke clearly and used strong adjective to describe each picture.
I was also an active learner because I went further and did more extra research and went deeper in the areas of religion, economy..etc. I compared the culture areas of both ancient Greece and Rome thoroughly and explained the details.

I most of the content knowledge from this research report video comes from the original research report which is a written report sharing my thesis of how Ancient Greece and Rome's culture was entwined with each other. I did most of the research for that paper then used the content and showed it through a video.
I learned how to effectively set the time of picture in iMovie to fit the voice-over. If not, the voice-over would not match up to the picture I'm describing. I also learned how effectively showing pictures are than just writing a picture. The audience can understand better as a picture tells a thousand words. Instead of just typing stuff up on keynote, it's much easier for the audience to understand if it was just pictures...

Blog #1: Effective Communicator

Being an effective communicator is not just being able to talk properly but also to listen. To effectively communicated with another is to be able to communicate and ideas and listen to others.
Communication also involves a lot of body language and being able to explain clearly.

Effective communication is very important. Without it, people won't be able to communicate and talk with one another. Ideas are not understood and words are not comprehended. The world will be living in confusion and so will classes. Heck, classes would not exist because the idea of "school' will not be understood!

To be an effective communicator, you have to be able to explain and idea or subject to another. Not just verbally, but through action and writing. If the person listening understands what you are trying to put out, this is effectively communicating. Listening is also effectively communicating because you need to break down what others are trying to say in the way that you understand and reply if you have to. Body language and the way you present yourself to others is also effectively communicating because the atmosphere will change to the theme of what you are trying to say. I find acting out a word or phrase easy to get through people who doesn't understand something. It's so easy because if you are trying to say to kick the ball to someone who only speaks Arabian, you can act out kicking a ball.

Ben-Hur: Reflections on Culture part 3

Before the chariot race in the men's "lounge" the floor showed culture factors of art. The pictures and designs where made up of mosaics, which are little colored tiles cemented on the ground to create a picture. Mosaic can be seen everywhere today to depict pictures or even scenes.

Throughout the whole movie, the chariot race has to be the best part. It was amazing how even technology back then was so durable to force. The chariots have to be my favorite contraption so far. It could stand the speed of the horses, the sharp turns, and the weight of the racer on it. It really showed how advanced these people were, even back then.

The colors of the horses and the chariots and even what they wore symbolized on what grounds Ben-Hur and Messala stood. Black and red, which are said to be the colors of the devil (the bad side) was what Messala wore. He chariot showed the same effect and all four of his horses were black. What was even worse that showed Messala as the bad guy were the spikes on his wheels that could saw and rip through the wood of opponents' wheels and the metal of the chariots. Messala was also the one whipping his horses to go faster; at one point also started whipping Ben-Hur into stopping him to win the race.
Ben-Hur, on the other hand, came in like an "angel". Donned in white and bright colors, he also sported a blue sash while entering the stadium with the white horses he rode with. The chariot he used was an egg-shell color with golden designs.

Above the valley of Lepers, the men used a pulley system to drop food and supplies for the lepers below them. The use of gears started with the Romans and Greeks and now people use them all the time.

Current Events: Gas dispute leaves thousands freezing

Hundreds of thousands of families throughout central Europe and across the Balkans went through a freezing cold weekend as a deal between Russia and Ukraine of settling an argument stayed uncertain to follow through.
But now those families can turn their heaters back on as the Siberian gas flows through theirs and many other's houses as they go through the snow in. Many areas of eastern and southern Europe were covered in snow as one of the coldest weather in 10 years. Since the gas cutting off on Wednesday, panic was gone through parts of Bulgaria, Madeconia, Serbia, and Bosnia where they almost entirely depend on Russian gas for heating.
The gas begin cut off not only kept people freezing but also closed many companies, factories, schools, clinics and hospitals.
Because there isn't any gas, nay families revert back to the old fashion way of burning coal and wood and electric heaters, causing many people using the power systems. This surge in power threatened to break down the electricity under the strain.
All this trouble was just caused when the Russian gas leader, Gazprom, refused to send gas through the Ukraine pipelines to people in Europe. Gazprom claims that Ukraine was using the gas for its own use after not paying the Russian monopoly's gas price.

Article (link): EU says deal struck with Russia over gas supply
Ian Traynor, 9 January 2009
Guardian.co.uk

Ben-Hur (continued...)

As we continued to watch Ben-Hur at the part where the battle on the sea starts. The battle is against some pirates. Ben-Hur has been on a galley as his sentence for three years so far, rowing the boats for the Romans as a slave when he used to be a descendent of a nobleman.
During the battle, both sides use these type of catapults to throw balls of fire onto the opponents ships. Catapults are kind of the ancient day's cannons. These ideas of inventions came from the Greeks. So did the gears and the levers idea to catapult the flaming balls over a long range and height.
When Ben-Hur escapes from his position and everyone is trying to escape, he killed a man that was trying to kill Arrius (the general of the ship who was testing Ben-Hur earlier with the rowing speed) using a spear. When I watched this, I had some sort of flash back to the beginning of the movie where Messala and Ben-Hur play with the javelins and Ben-Hur is good.

An example of how a slave is rewarded is when Ben-Hur saves the life of Arrius when their ship sinks. When they are pulled out of the water by another Roman ship, they are told that they won the battle. Arrius is pretty happy that he lived to learn of victory and is happy with Ben-Hur, even if he is a slave. He gives Ben-Hur water and later tells about him to Caesar. He is even allowed to ride with Arrius on a chariot.

During a party of the adoption of Ben-Hur, we can see how wealthy Romans entertain themselves. There were dance acts and throughout the night a live music performance. Large numbers of people gather to acknowledge Ben-Hur because now he was part of the elite.

We can see the power of Caesar, the Emperor of Rome. When he was going to speak, he could just raise one hand or gesture and the whole city would be quiet. Everyone practically worships Caesar but they fear him as well.

We can see social classes at work. When Messala receives a gift from the son of Arrius, and finds out it is Ben-Hur, he can't do anything about it because Ben-Hur is more important and well-known than Messala.

Current Events: Kidnapped European Journalists Freed

In November just last year, two journalists were kidnapped in Somalia. Now the British and Spanish reporters have been released, says a Somali press group.
Both journalists, Colin Freeman and Jose Cendon, both worked for London's Daily Telegraph newspaper. According to the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ), the two journalists were reporting the Somali pirate activity in a port city of Bosasso, Somali when they were captured. Along with the European journalist abducted where two Somali journalists.

So far there have been no details about the conditions of the reporters and the release. Nothing so far has been said about the two other Somali journalists that were kidnapped with the European ones. Omar Faruk Osman of the NUSOJ said in a statement, "...it is intolerable that [the two] journalists [were] kidnapped for their legitimate work in order to get ransom,"


Article (link): Two Kidnapped journalists reported freed in Somalia
January 6, 2008
CNN.com

Current Events: Death Toll In Gaza Rises After Missile Shootings

For months already has the terrorist group, the Hamas, been firing rockets towards Israel from Gaza City. The Israeli government had been trying to fight peacefully and support their country but enough has been enough for them. On Saturday night, January the 3rd, the Israeli government fired back missiles into Gaza city and the crisis has begun.
So far the death toll of Palestinians caught in the range of the Israeli missiles have bumped up to 555 people. Though most deaths are of military officers, at least 100 civilians have been killed too. Most of the injured are civilians, making the injured list to come up to 2,750, according to Palestinian medical sources.
Though the Israeli are only trying to defend their nation, and their goal was to hit at homes of people linked to the Hamas, recently they have hit an elementary school where it is to be known that 400 Palestinians were taking shelter. On this attack, three Palestinians were killed.
Just in, as an Israeli missile hits near a U.N. school, 10 people just outside the school have been killed while 3 people inside the school have been injured.

Though many nations are now sending in their diplomats to try and get a cease-fire (countries like France and the United States of America), both the Hamas and Israeli leaders seem to want to end the fighting. The Palestinian organization says that he firing may go on for several months.

Article (link): 10 dead as Israeli missile hits near U.N. school
January 6, 2008
CNN.com

Ben-Hur: Reflections of Culture

The Roman soldiers wore helmets and breastplates; underneath them they wore their togas and the different colors and stripes represented their level of authority. In one scene where Messala, Ben-Hur's childhood friends is talking to his other officer. Also later, when Ben-Hur arrives to meet his old friend. Messala and all the other soldiers where helmets, capes, and breastplates. Because Messala is the commanding officer, he sports high level garmets, like red togas and crafted and designed breastplates. His helmet top has red feathers instead of the average broom brush on others' helmets.
Later when Ben-Hur and Messala are greeting each other, they test their sporting skills. Probably, when they were young, they competed in javelins and other sports activities together. In this scene, they play a short game of javelin against the door arch.

Jewish people too owned slaves. Ben-Hur's family has two (showed in the movie) slaves, Simonides and his daughter, Esther. Simonides isn't like a slave who is badly treated and punished and made to do everything the master wishes. Simonides travel around to gather fine items to bring back to Ben-Hur for him to trade. When Simonides returns with more items, Ben-Hur greets him like family, almost as if he wasn't a slave and Ben-Hur didn't own him. Later on, even Esther, whom is about to go into an arranged marriage is given freedom as a wedding present by Ben-Hur. She even says that she doesn't feel like she's lived a life of a slave. This shows that different familes treat their slaves differently.

When Ben-Hur's sister accidently injured a soldier, and are arrested immediately by Messala's soldiers. Even though Messala knew it was an accident, he doesn't give hims old friends a trial. Maybe it was to show and warn the other Jewish people who tried to interfere with the Roman Empire taking over. This shows how social ranks can differ whether someone gets a trial or not. In this case, Ben-Hur was one of the many Jewish people who didn't get a trial and was sent to the galleys.

Galleys were the large Roman boats with a small sail. The real power comes from the many slaves rowing oars below deck. Those slaves are chained to the boat that when the boat sinks, all the slaves die with it; an example of how slaves were not cared and made no difference to the lives of the Roman soldiers. Ben-Hur now is a slave and with the other men down there were only put there as if they were sentenced to death. The Romans keep them alive so that they can row their ships until they die, then they can be replaced by other slaves. The slaves here are treated poorly. They were whipped when they weren't going by the rhythm, when they were doing a poor jobs, or when they were tired and passed out or stopped rowing.

Current Events - At least 55 killed in Iraq suicide blast during restaurant talks

On Thursday morning in northern Iraq, a suicide bomber killed at least 55 people when a the restaurant was holding a talk with Arba and Kurdish politician who were trying to create peace.
This bombing injured 109 others, but the politicians that were present were not seriously hurt.
There hasn't been a motive for the attack, says an Arab official.

They picked the most perfect time, of course. The lunch hour where everyone breaks from their jobs to eat. The bombing occurred at Abdalla Kabab restaurant when people were also celebrating an event.

December 11, 2008
CNN.com

Link to Article

Current Events - Protesters Clash With Police in Greece

Outside an Athen's courthouse in Greece today, a riot broke out just as two police officers accused over a fatal shooting of a teenager were due to testify. There was a big clash of the riot police and the protesters outside this Greek parliament building. Police were seen wearing body armor and holding riot shield to help stop the protesters; officials had to fire tear gas at the protesters to stop them, but not to harm them.
However, this incident is not only occurring outside this particular building, but many other protests occurred all around Athens after the death of 15-year-old Alexandros Grigoropoulos during these 4 days. Alexandros was killed by a ricochet warning shot fired by a police officer. Thousands came to his funeral while another ten thousand protested on parliament.

Because of these riots banks, schools, and even hospitals were closed on Wednesday. Roads were closed, and buses and the subway were shut down. Also, many flights were canceled.

I don't really think that the people should act like this. Some many have been injured because of the riots. I don't think Alexandros Grigoropoulos would have wanted that on his head while resting in peace. They shouldn't shut down roads and close hospitals. What if there was a major crisis and many people were injured. It takes time to re-open the roads and have the hospitals up and running again.

December 10, 2008
CNN.com

Link to Article

Hanging Fire - Poem Analysis

The poem Hanging Fire is about a boy being neglected and the troubles he faces. It can be about any boy, depending on the reader. It can be a boy living in New York and goes to school or in poverty in Africa. The poem is made to show that there are many perspectives of what kind of boy this is because its very vague.

The speaker is a boy. His identity shows that he faces many problems like having the wear braces, living in a dirty place, and not being picked for the Math team. He's afraid of having too little time and whether he was going to die very soon. With addition with all his worries and troubles, he is being neglected by his mother who is always "in the bedroom with the door closed".

The poem is written in stanzas and always ends with two lines:

"and momma's in the bedroom
with the door closed."

There are 11 lines in the first stanza and 12 lines in the second and third stanza.

This poem doesn't rhyme. There are no rhyming words in their whole poem. The two lines that end off every stanza (see above) sort of conclude each stanza, signifying that the paragraph has ended. The poem has a rhythm with those two lines at the end.

The poem has a lot of imagery -almost in every sentence. In lines 6 to 7, I can picture a young boy with dirty and ashy knees from living in the streets. I can also see a bedroom door closed whenever I read the last two lines of a stanza, showing the mom's door closed and keeping him from approaching her. He is still in an empty small room when I read line 14 and I also hear sad songs when I read line 15 to 16, like it was at his funeral. He's now wearing braces when I read line 30 and only having one set of clothes. As the poem dies out, I see the boy standing outside a door, supposedly to be the mother's bedroom door; as if she didn't want to care about him.

Education - What is it?

Education is the process of learning new skills and developing the knowledge that we have; applying it to different situations whether formal or informal.
Education is important. People may have the skills to do simple things like get food and trying to earn money. But using those simple everyday activities, they can achieve so much more. They will know how to earn more money through spending wisely and knowing how to get more money. They can get a job and support their family. They will learn from their mistakes quicker and learn how to avoid them.

Current Events

Shuttle Endeavour lands at California air base

Image Source

After a two week mission in space and several delays, the American space shuttle, Endeavour, finally lands in California's Edwards Air Force Base instead of the Kennedy Space Center. The weather in Florida had been bad with the wind, rain, and thunderstorms 30 miles from the Kennedy Space Center and forced the space shuttle to land at an Air Force Base in California.
The mission to the International Space Station brought important stuff like exercise equipment, sleeping berths, and a pee recycling system. All these equipment was for a project to double the capacity of the people who can stay at station.
There was one incident that occurred while on this mission. When one of the astronauts was on a space walk, a grease gun leaked in her tool bag causing everything inside to be covered in grease lubricant. Then when she was trying to clean the mess in the bag, it floated away. The items and equipment into the tool bag was worth $100,000.

December 1, 2008
CNN.com
***

Israel to free 250 Palestinian prisoners

Israel holds more than 9,000 Palenstinian prisoners.
250 Palestinian prisoners in Israel has been approved by the government to be released as a goodwill gesture for a Muslim festival happening next week. This release is meant to strengthen the peace talks that they have been holding with the Palestinian government (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) for the past year. All the prisoners that are to be set free are members of the Abbas' Fatah Party.

November 30, 2008
CNN.com