Sand Painter

After reading Kim's post it made me think of something that I saw a couple of years ago. In the summer of 2007 I went to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod National Youth Gathering in Orlando. There were about 26,000 high school students there from all over the country. There were lots of speakers and events that took place all day every day. One that stands out to me after seeing Kim's post is the Sand Painter. It was one of the most amazing things that I have ever see. The artist starts with a flat glass surface and some sand. From there, he moves the sand around into different shapes. Just using his hands, he was able to create all sorts of pictures. He created the solar system, Jesus on the cross, students at the Gathering and all sorts of other pictures. As he painted, his work was projected on large screens all around the convention center. It was quite obvious the awe that everyone was experiencing. I think it amazing how he can make such amazing pictures with something as simple as sand. He doesn't start from a blank table each time either. Most of the time he will create another picture from the already existing one. Painting with sand the way he does is something that I have never seen before. I think it is really cool and I hope everyone else thinks it is too. I took a video of this myself but I can't find it. I have included a video from YouTube that someone else took at the same event.

Challenges Facing Newspapers

I was browsing online and just thought I would share some more information on newspaper decline. According to Paper Cuts, a Web site tracking the newspaper industry, at least 120 newspapers in the U.S. have shut down since January 2008. Also, more than 21,000 jobs at 67 newspapers have been lost in that time, according to the site.

Newspapers are struggling to meet challenges faced by changing reader habits, a shifting advertising market, and a weak economy. Amid the decline comes concern over who can assume newspapers' traditional role as a watchdog. For more than 200 years, that role has been a central part of American democracy.

Many industry analysts agree more papers will soon become extinct, and most two-newspaper towns will likely disappear, possibly by the end of 2009, some experts say. They say, among the next newspapers to go are major metropolitan dailies relying on an expensive business model. The challenges facing newspapers go back before the worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Daily subscriptions per household began a steady decline in the 1920s, yet the newspaper industry survived despite competition from radio and television.

Today, easily accessible, high-speed Internet connections and smart phones have dramatically changed the way people get their news. However, news is still in strong demand. Paul Gillin, a social media consultant, said such losses are to be expected for an industry that has failed to adapt to the influx of online publishing tools and social networking sites. “Information has become democratized today,” said Gillin, who has predicted print newspapers will disappear by 2015. “You get a lot of advice from your friends, blogs and multiple media sources. Who reads just one newspaper?”

The Chalk Guy

After reading the last blog about image reproduction, by J.E. Nihilit it  reminded me of an email I received from my mother a couple of months ago. I get emails from her a lot but this  particular one really stood out to me. I don't know if anyone has ever heard of the "chalk guy" (Julian Beever) but  he is an amazing artist who uses sidewalk-chalk to create incredible images on sidewalks and streets, all over the world. Beever is an English artist who's famous for his art in England, America, France, Germany, Australia and Belgium. Beever has been creating trompe-l'oeil chalk drawings on pavement surfaces since the mid-1990s. His works are created using a projection called anamorphosis. Beever gives his drawing a 3D look. His images are drawn completely deformed which give a 3D image when viewed at the right angle. All of his images look as though the people are actually in them it is really amazing. This is a video I found on YouTube about his artwork. You can also find more information about where these sites are and more on him by just googling his name. This a one of the links I found after googling his name.  http://www.joevautour.com/funandgames/inbox/chalk.html It is incredible how these images stick out and seem so lifelike. The people in these pictures look as though they are interacting with the drawings because of how lifelike they are. 

Image Reproductions

In this week's reading, Practices of Looking Chapter 3, a reproduction of a painting for a lotion advertisement was discussed. The book referenced La Grande Odalisque by Ingres which had been remade in a Keri lotion ad. It was explained how the reproduction suggested the author's decision to make a reference to the original painting, as a sort of marketing tool.

I realize this was a brief example in the course of the chapter's discussion, however, perhaps oddly, I found this interesting.

This happens often, surprisingly enough, in ads we (especially women) see in countless magazines.

I was specifically reminded of a photo shoot featured in Cycle 5 of America's Next Top Model. In the shoot, each model was given an original painting which she was to mimic in (oddly enough) a lotion ad.

The ad that stuck out to me the most was one done by the contestant, Kim. She was given The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli. The image to the left is of the original painting.

This youtube video is of the entire portfolio from Cycle 5 of America's Next Top model. If you go to 6:12 on the video (go ahead and watch them all if you want) you will see the reproduced image of the painting.

I chose this particular reproduction because of how different the new image is from the original. The book's example was practically an exact reproduction. I referenced this because, despite the differences purposefully made in the ANTM reproduction of The Birth of Venus, the effect is generally the same. The lotion company that may use the ad is still banking on the reference to the original work. They are telling the viewer that their product embodies the image of the Greek goddess Venus. As she is the goddess of beauty and love, it is not a difficult connection to make between what she symbolizes and what the lotion company would want their consumers to believe they are purchasing with the products.

Changing technology trends

Honestly, in my opinion, I like the idea of not having newspapers anymore and just having everything online. I’m not someone who sees a newspaper, picks it up, and reads it. If I see something interesting on the homepage when I open up the internet, I’ll read it, then that usually makes me read other stories as well. I have nothing against having actual newspapers, but I just think it would be easier to do it all online since everyone does everything else online, banking, shopping, etc.
It seems that the future is heading into a totally different direction. Such as the post before mine explains about the varying speed limits and how just one speed limit is a thing of the past.
Whoever thought that when we were listening to cassette tapes that we would have CD’s? Which are now a thing of the past to us as well. Everyone has gone to MP3 players and iPods. Now no one even buys CD’s since all you have to do is get on the internet and download what songs you want instead of buying the whole CD. It makes you wonder, what’s next? This is the same with VHS players, no longer needed.
Who uses US Postal Service anymore? No one. Everyone has gone to emailing and facebooking what they used to send through letters. No one does their bills through the mail anymore either. Everyone has gone to online banking and paying their bills.
I’m not saying these things are all bad things because they have most definitely made my life easier. I’m just asking, what’s next? What we know as today, won’t be normal a year from now. Everything is changing all the time so how do we keep up? What does the future hold for technology and the way we use it?
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/09/20/the_personal_letter_is_quickly_becoming_a_thing_of_the_past/
http://www.jimcarroll.com/blog/2002/12/cnn-cd-players-becoming-a-thin.html

A Thing of the Past

Reading through the last article about print news being part of history it reminded me of something else that has recently changed. Varying speed limits on highway 270 is something that has appeared within the last year. What happened to regular signs that just say "60" on them. How annoying to see the digital signs that are always changing. For me, it seems to be a major scheme put in place by the police department. Seeing that the economy is the way that it is, everyone, even cops, need more money. By putting these varying speed limits in place it was supposed to improve traffic flow during high volume times. It seems to me that it's just more of an opportunity to catch the average driver who has no idea the speed limit has dropped instantly from 60 to 45. Apparently in other cities this idea has been a success. Needless to say, St. Louisans are in a hurry and couldn't care less about the drop in speed limit. I find amusing the game that us drivers play during morning and evening rush hour. As I make my way to school in the morning and see the first lit up sign reading "55" I know that the battle has begun. It almost seems as though when drivers see those signs they want nothing to do with slowing down and in fact they speed up. It is quite obvious that no one is truly obeying these variable limits. It's almost as if, as drivers, we have made a pact to ignore the change. We have decided that we will all continue to drive 60, 65, 70 or whatever we want. We know that the cops cannot pull over the entire highway so really what are they going to do if we are all speeding? Keep this in mind the next time you are on 270. See how many people actually abide by the changing speed limits. I can assure there are not many that do. Here is an article put out by MODOT that is attempting to explain why these signs were put up. Variable Speed Limits on 270
Here is a link to a picture of the infamous changing speed limit sign

And now for something totally different

Haven't laughed this hard in awhile, if you like cats you'll enjoy this.

R.I.P. Newspapers

So many negative news posts. While I do generally agree that the news goes by the creed, "if it bleeds it leads," the fact of the matter is we watch it anyways. Why? Because despite how depressing or tiring the negative stories are, we still find them entertaining. Sometimes you have to sit through the murder, rape and child abuse stories to get to the stuff that's a bit lighter-themed, or just tune in a little later to skip it all if it bothers you.

I actually think the political debates over health-care is good for the media companies right now. It's shifted their focus away from Michael Jackson's death and the Kanye incident has already fizzled out (thank God). We still get random, horrible stories, like the grad student found stuffed in the wall of a heavily secured research building in Yale, but what can you do?

With the newspaper debate, print really is dead. If you can remember what the Post looked like 10 or even 5 years ago compared to its present state, you'd be amazed. You pay more for a whole lot less content padded with more ads. I personally believe most traditional newspapers will be completely gone within a decade or two, the Post is already pretty emaciated and I doubt they'll be able to bounce back recession or not. I looked for some vids on youtube, but the one sonofthunder posted is easily the best one, all I could find were Ann Coulter videos...and who really wants to listen to her? I hate to say it but she makes a few good points yet still manages to be asinine at the same time.

3 reasons

While browsing online, I found an interesting article that talked about three reasons why we should stop buying newspapers. Number 1: the environment. The article talks about how not only are we killing millions of trees, but we are also creating so much garbage because of them. Yes, it helps a lot if people recycle, but many people don’t. Also, the machines that make the paper pollute the environment. This topic made me think of my high school’s newspaper. My high school has been trying to “go green” for the past few years and the major step they took this year was to put the newspaper online. The website is absolutely amazing. You can go to the archives and see all of the issues that the school has printed; all the way back to the first issue. They also have videos and photos of events that take place at the school. They created this website not only to “go green” but also to keep up with the advancement of technology. This leads to the next topic the article talked about: online newspapers. Previous posts have already talked about this topic but online newspaper is becoming huge. It’s so much easier to read the newspaper if it’s online because of all the technology we have. Another positive point about online newspaper is it’s free. The last topic the article talks about is how the newspaper is old news. Once you get the newspaper, you probably know about many of the issues they talk about. I thought this was interesting because I never thought about that. The main article in the sports section may be about a sport’s team winning a game, and I’m sure most of the people who read it already knew which team won.

Here is the article

Online News and Popular Culture

Within with internet you can find where the new media trends are going in our culture today, and our culture wants fresh,"new" entertainment. Not only can online news help you skim to find only the news you're interested in knowing, it also allows us to communicate in various other ways, like through networking and video-sharing. Also, the communication is relayed so much quicker on the web as opposed to via newspapers. For example, today after school, I went to the NY Times website and found an article that had litterally been updated 20 mins. ago.

Networks on the web, such as Myspace and Facebook have been extremely popular among our culture today. These "profile" sites are where people can gather and share interesting entertainment, the latest trends, jokes, etc. Not only that, but there are even online dating websites that are very popular among our culture today, sites like eharmony.com. (Even though, I think that's sad. lol) But nonetheless, it is a popular media trend.

The online society can be classified into demographic groups and are in that way then targeted for certain advertisements. The internet allows you to shop online, share information, communicate fast, even find a date! You litterally have the world at your fingertips and have access to just about anything you want to know within minutes.

It is no wonder that newspapers are coming to be considered "ancient" in popular culture.

more on newspaper delcline

Ok so before I get started watch this.






Ok so that video was kind of funny but it brought out a couple of good points, one of which I’d like to give special attention. The first point that the lady pointed out was that products going out of style and becoming obsolete is part of the natural course of evolution in the product market. If any of you have taken marketing or economics you have learned about the product life cycle. The four stages are introduction (the product has just been made and public awareness is low), growth (the product takes off and revenues grow rapidly), maturity (consumption levels out), and finally decline. No matter what kind of product it is or how long it takes for a certain product to go through these stages, they will all end up in the same place.

I recall Dr. Kilgore once saying: “You think the ipod is the final product? NO. There will always be something new and innovative that will replace the product that came before it.” In the youtube video I just posted the reporter pointed out the fact that people used to get their news from pamphlets but journalism went on. I think we can all recall the old movies where a town crier went through the streets shouting the news at the top of his lungs.





Ok so that was kind of annoying but my point is that nothing lasts forever. In a way it could also be a blessing in disguise. For one thing it no longer makes fiscal sense to keep printing as many newspapers as we used to, not to mention all of the natural resources we consume to print them. Just some food for thought.

No News is Good News For Me

I don’t like watching the news because I don’t like to listen about all the terrible things that are going on in Missouri and in our nearby community. It seems that the first segment of the local news is always about robberies, kidnappings, murders, rapes, etc. The first 10 minutes of the news is always so negative and disturbing that it makes me wonder why in the world I’m even watching it to begin with.

However, I think a lot of people choose to follow the news on the internet because the internet allows for you to choose which specific news story you want to watch, without having to wait and sit through an entire news segment on television just to hear a specific story. Another thing about being able to view the news on the internet is that you don’t have to drag around an entire news paper everywhere you go, rather people can just use the browser on their phone, desktop, or laptop to get the news they need.

One down side of watching the news on television is that a news story is covered in only 2 to 3 minutes. Because local news stations only have a 30 minute segment to complete their show, they only have so much time to spend on each story. Not only does the news we see on television tell us to go online to learn more about a particular story, it actually offers us a tremendous amount of more information such as interviews, blogs, videos, and links to other things as they may relate to a specific story.

Everyone has been talking about news, newspapers, and news from the Internet. I agree that news papers are becoming a thing of the past. The Internet is allowing breaking news to reach us instantly. It got me thinking about news on the Internet compared to the news on TV. It made me wonder what’s better, Fox news at 5pm or www.foxnews.com. Is watching the news on TV now becoming a thing of the past also? I think it surely is. When watching the news on TV you aren’t in control of what you are seeing and how long you are seeing it for. The Internet allows you to have to power to pick and search for what you are interested in. Then you can proceed to seek additional news and information about that same topic that may not had air time on TV. Many of these websites will keep older videos and information on a past topic. You can go on the Internet and search for something that you seen last week on TV. I think that you receive news a lot faster over the Internet. I know that TV channel do allow breaking news to interrupt programs by sometimes it may not be viewed as important enough or you may not be watching the TV directly at that point in time. Websites can post stories and information instantly. On the other hand there is something added to the news by having it be broad casted live and the host being in specific locations or venues at the time of reporting. It is more entertaining to watch the news on TV in that aspect. I looked at a few different news channel websites and was amazed at just the home pages and how much information and stories were listed on each one. I took the belleville school bus incident and searched it on fox news and you can see how along the side you can click on numerous other articles and videos on this incident.
foxnewsnow

Online News: A thing of the future

Newspapers these days are definitely a lot smaller than they used to be and prices haven't dropped, since they've shrunk. Although the newspaper is smaller these days, I don't think that is the only reason that people aren't buying them like they used to. Before the internet came out the newspaper, television, and radio were the only things that people had to know what was going on in the world. And before television and the radio the newspaper was all people had. Today the internet is a huge part of the news and has almost everything that you can get in the newspaper for free. The internet site youtube also has videos of anything you might want to look up. Cell phones with text messaging and internet are also available now, so you can see what's on the news on the go. With all this technology a newspaper isn't as necessary as it used to be. Email and Instant messaging are also available now as well as web cams to talk to others and see what's going on where they are. Newspapers are still useful and I don't think that we should get rid of them all together but I can definitely see why there not as popular. Maryville switched from the original print newspaper to an online newspaper just this year. Everything that is happening at Maryville will now be electronic. This is saving Maryville a lot of money considering it's around $500 to print the student newspaper each month. At the end of the year they are planning to do a magazine of all the stories throughout the year. I think this is a great idea.

Here is a Video that I found on Youtube about the how the newspaper is shrinking.

Newspapers: A Thing of the Past?

I'm sure that everyone has noticed as severe decrease in size of the Post Dispatch. The size of the current paper is a bit pathetic if you ask me. It is quite a few inches smaller than it used to be, has less pages, and fewer articles. The problem with this is that the price has remained the same and customers are receiving less. I know for a fact that the decline in paper size is not because of a decline in news. If anything there is more news now than ever with the economy in the state that it's in. I know that due to the economy some people have stopped buying the paper and that is probably causing all newspapers some financial distress. I do not think that this should cause such a drastic change in the content of the paper. There is always the option to add some more advertisements to the paper to make more money that way. In an article put out by the New York Times they stated that newspapers anticipated that there would be a large increase in online readers. As it turns out, this has not been the case. So what is really going on? Are people so fed up that they want nothing to do with the newspaper companies? Are they watching more news? I don't have the answer for everyone but I know for myself that when I want to know something I look it up online or watch TV. I never sit and read an entire newspaper or even a few articles. If a story catches my eye I will read that online but generally not read anything else on the site. What does this mean for the newspaper companies? Many have already laid off lots of workers. According to the New York Times The Los Angeles Times had to lay off 75 of its 1,300 employees. L.A. is obviously not the only company to be laying off workers but if they can't afford workers, who can? I have included the link to the article that I have referenced. It gives figures across the country about the decline in newspaper sales.

New York Times Article

What is "NEWS?"

I agree with the previous post, news stories, no matter how exciting they are when we first hear the news, after a while, it is not NEWs anymore, news reporters need to move on and find a new story...That could be a daunting task for a reporter if nothing news worthy is going on. I found some articles about what makes a story newsworthy.
News can be defined as "Newsworthy information about recent events or happenings, especially as reported by news media". But what makes news newsworthy?
Well, there is a list of five factors, which are considered when deciding if a story is newsworthy.

1. Timing-the word news means exactly that - things which are new. Topics which are current are good news. Consumers are used to receiving the latest updates, and there is so much news about that old news is quickly discarded. A story with only average interest needs to be told quickly if it is to be told at all. If it happened today, it's news. If the same thing happened last week, it's no longer interesting.

2. Significance-the number of people affected by the story is important. A plane crash in which hundreds of people died is more significant than a crash killing a dozen.

3.Proximity-stories which happen near to us have more significance. The closer the story to home, the more newsworthy it is. For someone living in France, a major plane crash in the USA has a similar news value to a small plane crash near Paris.
Note that proximity doesn't have to mean geographical distance. Stories from countries with which we have a particular bond or similarity have the same effect. For example, Australians would be expected to relate more to a story from a distant Western nation than a story from a much closer Asian country.

4. Prominence-famous people get more coverage just because they are famous. If you break your arm it won't make the news, but if the Queen of England breaks her arm it's big news.

5. Human Interest-human interest stories are a bit of a special case. They often disregard the main rules of newsworthiness; for example, they don't date as quickly, they need not affect a large number of people, and it may not matter where in the world the story takes place. Human interest stories appeal to emotion. They aim to evoke responses such as amusement or sadness. Television news programmes often place a humourous or quirky story at the end of the show to finish on a feel-good note. Newspapers often have a dedicated area for offbeat or interesting items.

this is messed up

WOW

Beyond stale

It's times like these that I'm glad I don't have time to watch television. I had heard of the Kanye West incident once in the past week but had no idea what happened till I read through the previous blog posts. It's interesting how racism suddenly becomes "flavor of the week" for the media due to incidents like the Belleville School Bus beating and the Kanye West debacle. Seriously, things like these are childishly handled by the media and some of the posters on Youtube, just take a look at the inflammatory remarks made there about the news coverage of the bus beating (Chad's post has the link I'm referring to).

Kanye's remarks are exceptionally irritating, since he's being rewarded for his "look at me!" behavior at the awards show in the form of increased publicity and invites to talk shows. Although interestingly enough, even our President doesn't believe what Kanye did was appropriate. The fact that the Associated Press asked Obama such a question kind of makes me wonder if its related to my flavor of the week theory in the beginning of my post.

To tie some of all this media nonsense into class, the Kanye West remarks seem to be some sort of self-appropriation, for lack of a better phrase. He said something out of line and most likely was NOT racially motivated, then spins the backlash into heightened publicity despite the fact that his remark may have been merely a playful joke- his name is all over the news, radio and magazines as a result. Even Swift is supposedly getting extra attention out of all this.

The only thing I can do is sigh and move on.

Stop the madness already!

I'm going to go out on that proverbial limb and ask if anyone else is plain sick and tired of seeing the following faces when you trot through the check-out line at the grocery: Jon and Kate (the saga), Kanye & Taylor Swift, Brangelina, and Michael Jackson?

Previous posts have all expressed how entrenched we are in these stories; we read into them and absorb every detail of who these people are and read into their actions, making absolutisms (Jon is a bum, Kate is psycho, and the Jolie-Pitts are crazy for adopting that many children).

I find this all fitting into Radway's theory concerning romance novels and how they serve the dominant interests of society and, to a certain extent, counters them.

Well, we've done a perfect job, as a society, of demonstrating this theory. Society feeds off of: drama/scandal, news of violence, harrowing stories, and dead celebrities. These gossip column feature stories serve the general population's intrigue for drama and scandal (we follow these stories like a bloodhound on a particularly odiferous scent), and dead celebrities (I worked at lovely Wally-world, more commonly known as Wal-Mart, over the summer...I didn't know they could print that many magazines on one person...and yet Michael Jackson was on every magazine rack from the week he died and was still going strong when I left mid-August).

I mentioned how this counter's society's dominant interests...as a whole, we seem to be intrigued by scandal, yet nonetheless scandalized. People roll their eyes and say, "that Jon and Kate, all they ever do is hold out their hands for money from t.v. shows and use it for obnoxious haircuts and random weekend excursions to Colorado;" and yet we are still drawn to it. Most of these stories counter an accepted norm, and yet instead of dropping the issue, we're drawn to it.

The following is a youtube video of a proposed revolutionary news station "the REAL news." While this is interesting, I wonder just how popular this would be? Gossip, whether we take it in as we're waiting for the lady with 31 items to go through the 15 items or less check-out or we're kicking back in the evening for a bit of television absorption, we're drawn to these stories that serve our interests...

Racial focus on the Kanye incident

I’m responding to the posts about Kanye West at the MTV VMAs. I’m sure we all know that Kanye West interrupted Taylor Swifts award speech by saying Beyonce had the best video of the year. What really saddens me about this event is how much racial tension it is causing. I know as I seen it happen on TV I was on face book. People started posting things like, “Kanye just lost all of his white fans.” The fact that Taylor Swift is a white country music singer and Kanye is an African American in the Hip hop industry people automatically took racial sides. This has been all over the radio stations and depending upon whether you hear it from 100.3 the beat or Z 107.7 the story is portrayed so differently. All anybody wants to focusing on is this being some sort of racial attack when it reality it was just a jerk move by Kanye. If anything this was just something he did to be the center of talk and get any sort of publicity he can. Celebrities know that we will buy into drama. Any publicity is good publicity for them. Hasn’t anybody noticed how both he and Taylor Swift’s songs have been playing a lot on the radio? They have also both snagged spots on top talk shows since. This is just like the John and Kate situation. You would think oh they are separated and aren’t going to film anymore shows so we’ll just forget about them. We’ve done the exact opposite and they have gotten more spotlights in the media than ever before. I found a video of Taylor Swift on The View after Kanye had his interview on Jay Leno.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sjcof6ifEpY

More John and Kate

I was reading articles on foxnews.com and I ran into yet another article about John and Kate Plus 8. This one was about the kid’s ex-nanny having sex with John and saying that it “wasn’t the best” she’s had. I don’t know if the ex-nanny was just trying to get her spark of fame, but this is a little overboard. I found it funny how the first line to the article said, ” Just when you think you have heard every story imaginable out of the Gosselin camp, something like this comes along.” I completely agree with this. I think it’s ridiculous how the media is trying to get every little secret out of John and Kate’s life. Is there not another celebrity or even world issue that we could talk about instead of John and Kate? I agree that John and Kate should have known that they were going to get this much attention and get swarmed by paparazzi.
I also agree with Kay Tan when she mentioned how John and Kate have 8 kids when there are families that have more children, yet we still are so intrigued by them having 8. My neighbors back in Kansas City have 12 kids and they were all born from natural birth. Because I know about them I think John and Kate are just pathetic. I think it’s sad that they agreed to have a show about them mostly because they were struggling financially. My neighbors are struggling too, but somehow they are finding a way to get themselves through on their own, and I think they are amazing because of it.

Here's the link to the article about John and the ex-nanny.

Other countries

I wouldn't say that other countries hate America. Sheesh. Hate is too strong a word.

And this is coming from a person who lived all her life in a country "freed" by Uncle Sam.

America has influenced the world in so many ways. But maybe it's too much already. Maybe, just maybe, it's time for America to step down and let other countries be themselves. Because here is the thing: they try to be as helpful as they can be and really, the other countries don't need it. America just have this way on making the others feel inferior. SO what if other countries have their own cultures and ways of doing things? Did those things ever stop this country from doing what they want to do? No.

What other countries' deal with America is that they feel threaten to be "invaded" (might not be the right word for it) and that they question on whether which nation the country would terrorize again. They had put so much effort on too many nations already thus people are starting to get really sick of America's meddling with them.

Really, I think it's time for America to stop helping others. If this country is spinning out of control, then maybe [it] should help itself first.

This is only my opinion.

What do you know?

I asked a friend today: "did you hear about the kid who got beaten up in a bus?" He said no.

Earlier this week, I told him about the Yale student who was found stuffed in a wall. His response was, "Oh really? Man, that's effed up. When did this happen?"

Now after asking him about the bus incident, I asked him again what really happened at the VMA's with Kanye and Taylor Swift (because I have heard people mention them so many times yet I don't know what's going on), and he gave me a nice well-explained answer. And he also told me that the reason he don't know the answers to my questions was because he does not have cable yet he managed to know every detail of what happened at the VMA's.

It's really amusing how teenagers or young adults (whatever you want to call them) don't know much about what's going on in the world -- or in this country. And this says a lot for this generation. Although a lot of us are well aware of what is happening, some would rather just stick to entertainment and let the adults (even though we are already considered as such) deal with the more serious news. Like Kate and Jon, how exactly do they put an impact to our lives? Does watching them all day and night on tv make us more keen on much this world suffers? No. Sure, they might be parents of eight kids but did it even occur to anyone that there are also families out there with this many kids (or more) and they're not even doing as well as they are financial and emotional wise?

I guess not.

Belleville School Bus Incident

This is some what in response to the Culture Clash Blog that was posted in week 3. I couldn’t agree more with how people say American’s are hated because of stupid, arrogant, lazy, and uneducated we are. I feel however that a large part of it has to do with the way parents raise their children today.

I’m sure most of you have heard about the Bellville school bus incident, if not then here’s a little rundown. An over crowded school bus filled with high school students was on their way either too or from school until a fight broke out between two students. A 17 year old kid was trying to find a seat on the bus, but no one would let him sit down with them. Finally he found an open seat and decided to sit in that seat. The kid he sat next to, which I think was 15 years old, started punching the 17 year old and continued to pretty much beat the crap out of him. A majority of the kids on the bus began to encourage and cheer on the fight. The bus driver has no real comment thus far about why he didn’t make too much of an attempt to stop the fight. After the fight was stopped, approximately 5 minutes later the 15 year old boy began to beat up the 17 year old once again and continued to punch him directly in the face. Finally the fight was broken up by a student on the bus. Every student on the bus who was caught by the surveillance camera on the bus who were cheering and encouraging the fight was suspended. The 15 year old boy who started the fight was expelled. And what’s interesting about this entire incident is how the 17 year old boy who got beat up, never once tried to stop the kid from beating him up.

Police say the fight may have occurred because of race, yet there were 8 other white kids on the bus and nothing bad to them. Personally I think this terrible incident happened due to a lack of parenting and discipline. I don’t know what could ever make someone do something like this other than parents not taking the time to educate their children on what’s right and wrong, along with how things to this nature can affect their futures.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yjr44CgJy7c
Here is the video, hopefully I did this right.

Jon and Kate Plus 8 Response

In response to the Jon and Kate plus 8 blog post, I find it interesting how celebrity couples agree to have tv shows made of themselves and their everyday lives, yet almost all their relationships end up in a divorce following the end of their season. Granite a majority of celebrity marriages end up in divorce anyway. Some of the more noticeable couples to have tv shows end up in divorce that come to mind are Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson, Meet the Barkers, Carman Electra and Dave Navarro, etc. And of course the most popular tv show today, Jon and Kate plus 8. I think its ridiculous how Jon and Kate get sick of how the paparazzi are always around their kids and how they didn't know it would come to this. How could they not see this coming? They were going to be on national television and whether the show was going to be a hit or not, they were still going to get swarmed by the media and paparazzi know matter what. Yes, they're definitely in a better financial situation from doing the show. But was it worth it considering Kate was a nurse and Jon had a job which I think had something to do with IT. As if marriage and having 8 kids isn't hard enough, obviously dealing with the media and paparazzi had a tremendous effect on their marriage as well. Having two sets of multiples adds a tremendous amount of stress to any marriage, but adding the factor of being in the public eye easily pushed the marriage to its breaking point.

correction

Sorry I meant the blog in purple. I think someone posted their blog a minute before I posted mine.

Stepping In

I think I’m going to have to rebuttal the last blog. I read the last blog and the one before it and I do agree that the American media feeds the world with a negative image about us and a subsequent hatred. As far as the government is concerned how would you set the government up? Unless we allow the Iraqi people to elect their own officials in a democratic fashion, any government that assumes Saddam’s place will not reflect the will of the people.

For example: I can recall that the Iraqi people were at one time calling for a Muslim theocracy to assume the governmental roll. The only problem with that is that the Sunni Muslims (the religious minority) controlled Saddam’s Baath Party for many years. One of Saddam’s administrative goals was the eradication of Shiism (the religious majority). He believed that this was necessary to remove all Iranian influence from his country. It was by force and bloodshed that Saddam achieved these goals.

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/internationalhumanrights/p/saddam_hussein.htm

Open this hyperlink and it will take you to a page of the genocides he was committing against his own people: the Kurds whose blood was dirty and the Shiits whose faith was not pure.
When do we decide the right time to step in comes? In World War Two the world stood idle as six million Jews were gathered into trains and sent to their deaths. It was not until the fires of Germany spread all across Europe and the threat of the Japanese was at our own back door did we decide to act.
Were the weapons of mass destruction there? The evidence says no. But do I believe the liberation of the Iraqi people from a wicked man was a good thing? Without a doubt. The main point I wanted to touch on from the previous blog was that people should be held accountable for not stepping in. If you saw a man drowning in a lake would you simply walk by and say: “It’s not my problem.”? I don’t think so.

The Jon and Kate Drama

I completely agree with the last two posts about craziness about celebrities. Anytime anything having to do with a celebrity happens that is the biggest news of the day! If Americans spent more of their time focusing on what is happening in this country things would run quite a bit smoother I'm sure! An example that first came to my mind when I read the last post about things being blown up so big was all the stories of the reality show Jon and Kate Plus 8. I'll admit first of all that I am a die hard fan and have read tons of articles about this family. That aside all the attention that the family is receiving is absolutely insane. I feel terrible for the Gosselin family for everything they are going through. This would be hard for any family to deal with even if there weren't constant paparazzi filming your every move. This poor family had no idea what they were getting themselves into when they started the show. I understand that they needed the money and what not but now they are really suffering because of it. Every move that Jon makes is documented. Whether it is true or not he is being made out to be a horrible person who isn't around very much for his children. Kate on the other hand is in just about every magazine, news channel, and guest hosting the View this week. It seems as though she has taken the fame and is running with it. Because of all the attention Americans are giving to this family, they have been ruined from the inside out. I never thought that the marriage would last and I don't think that had anything to do with the show. I do however think that the 8 darling Gosselin children will suffer longterm effects because of the show and the fame that their parents are eating up. Here is just one of the interviews that Kate has had on TV.

Kanye West VMA's

After reading the last blog about hatred toward America I have to say I completely agree that the American Government is trying to take over the world. I also agree with the fact that a lot of other countries have a lot of hatred towards us. Compared to other countries Americans are lazier and more arrogant than most. We do no more about celebrities than politicians. I don't completely think that this is all our fault considering every store you walk into there is a dozen different magazines to choose from, all of them about the latest trends in Hollywood. For example, I don't know if any of you watched the VMA's this last week and saw Kanye West being a complete jerk, but thats all i've heard on the radio and TV.  If you haven't heard about it this is what happened. Taylor Swift won best video of the year (her 1st VMA reward) and in the middle of her speech Kanye West gets on stage and grabs her microphone and says, "Yo, Taylor, I'm really happy for you and am going to let you finish, but, Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time, all time." He ran off stage and Taylor was just standing there with her mouth wide open. I really don't blame her there is not much you can say after someone does something that rude. I felt really bad for Taylor considering it was her first award but did not expect the story to get this big. Kanye West apologized a number of times and even got teary eyed when having an interview with Jay Leno. This is also an example of how Americans are ignorant and dumb.

Culture Clash: Why do so many people around the world hate America?

After looking at different websites where people can leave comments I decided that most of the people say they hate American’s because we are stupid, arrogant, lazy, uneducated about worldly issues and that we know more about celebrities than we do about politicians. But people claim to hate America more than actual American’s despite these issues. People claim that our government always thinks that they have the right to involve themselves in every other countries issues, that our government wants to control the world, and that they make bad decisions involving foreign policy. In some countries they hate America because we have freedom and we encourage individualism unlike some of the Muslim countries.
Some people believe that all of these issues get spun out of control due to the media. The media doesn’t concentrate on the good things about Americans and what America has to offer people. The media concentrates on how we always want to go to McDonald’s and be lazy and obese, which is how other countries see us.
I do have to agree with some of the reasons people don’t like America and us who live here. We are lazy. We aren’t educated about worldly issues, and we do know more about celebrities, and scandals than about politicians. What do you see when you turn on the news? You see Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and their most recent drug scandals. Not information on who is running our country or what real issues are going on in the world. The most we ever hear about is our “War on Terrorism”. Sometimes I really don’t blame other countries for hating us. We do get involved in everyone else’s business when there’s no need and our government makes bad decisions all the time.

Conflicting Cultural/Religious Traditions

After reading the last post about female circumcision I thought of another group that has some difficulties living in American cities. When practicing the religious traditions of Islam, it is required of a Muslim to pray five times per day. Being a Christian this doesn't sounds like much of a problem to me, but there are many requirements that a Muslim must follow when they pray. These requirements are much different from when Christians pray. The times of prayer are predetermined: dawn, noon, afternoon sunset, and at night. Muslims must be dressed in clean clothing and in a clean area in order to pray. The location of these prayers isn't particularly set except for the position the person must be in and the direction they must face. Muslims are required to kneel on the ground with their heads facing downward. They must be facing the direction of Kabba in Mecca. While praying there are multiple steps of the prayer that Muslims must go through. It is very important for them to feel sincerely about their prayers so that they count. The problems arise when Muslims come to America and have jobs, get stuck in traffic, have a meeting,go to school, or any of the other things that would restrict freedom to stop and pray. It is very important for Muslims to do all their daily prayers. It is considered inexcusable to miss prayer. That being said how does the student who is in the middle of a presentation or test at a public school stop and pray? How does a business man conducting a meeting stop and pray? What if their is a taxi driver stuck in traffic, does that person get out and pray in the street? All of these questions arise because here in America we are not always the most understanding of others and what traditions they have. It is often hard for us to understand when someone else does something that seems out of the norm to us. I found a video on YouTube that shows some images of Muslims praying wherever they can find space. Some of these locations include the middle of the street and a busy New York sidewalk.

Female Circumcision aka FGM

In a previous post, “When One Culture’s Custom Is Another’s Taboo,” an excellent point was brought up concerning the growing situation in the U.S. with the clash of foreign cultures and the question of how to balance the many differing cultural norms. I wanted to bring some attention to one of the examples used in that post:

“Also, in Seattle, a hospital tried to invent a harmless female circumcision procedure to satisfy conservative Somali parents wanting to keep an African practice alive in their community. The idea got buried in criticism from an outraged public!”

Unless there is indeed a “harmless female circumcision procedure,” this brings up the subject of what many cultures refer to as female circumcision. According to the World Health Organization, “Female genital mutilation (FGM) comprises all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.”

The WHO identifies several types of FGM (the exact details of each can be found at the WHO’s website) but the end results are the same. FGM is a procedure, usually performed on infants but sometimes on young girls before they hit puberty, in which the female genital region is altered surgically, often without anesthesia. This is an extremely painful procedure, it has no health benefits, and it can cause severe shock and bleeding, as well as a variety of life threatening infections such as tetanus or sepsis.

The purpose of this procedure is a cultural one common in the Western, Eastern, and North-Eastern regions of Africa, a well as some Asian and Middle Eastern countries.

FGM is buried in the tradition of social convention and the strong motivation to perpetuate the practice. The effect of the procedure on women, in addition to the health risks, is permanent pain during sexual intercourse. Some explain the procedure was intended to establish male dominance over his wife, that she is unable to feel pleasure during sex. Some forms of FGM physically prevent sexual intercourse; often this is used to prevent premarital sex in women. Other forms permanently alter the vaginal opening, causing the permanent pain I mentioned.

There are a variety of organizations and speakers who have come out about this practice.

Fatima, who appeared as a contestant on America’s Next Top Model, is a woman from Somalia who had FGM performed on her at an early age. She describes it in this video:

Also, there is a documentary called The Cut which has been made available for free download on the web to bring awareness to FGM.

This is a prime example of how important it is that we understand what we read about in the media, be it a television broadcast or a newspaper article, and that we take the time to research a position a writer or broadcaster might take on a subject before reaching our own conclusions.

Hermaphrodites in the Olympics

This morning I woke up and turned on the news while I was getting ready and there was a South African woman who won the 800 meter race at the 2009 Berlin Olympics earlier this year. Her name is Caster Semenya she is 18 and won the race by a landslide. Because her performance was astounding and her voice is very deep, however, the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federation) asked her to submit gender test. The official results of the test will not be released until November after they are checked and given to Semenya. But the information was leaked to a newspaper and showed that she has testosterone levels three times higher than what women should have. This would make her a hermaphrodite, a woman with both male and female sex organs.
Because she is not technically a woman, should she be allowed to have the gold medal for the women’s 800 meter race? This is the major question for the IAAF right now. They say they are going to let her keep it but give another gold medal to the runner up. This situation is probably going to start all kinds of controversy over what should be considered a woman or man in the Olympics and if hermaphrodites should be allowed to compete. I believe that they should but whether they compete in women’s or men’s competition should depend on their testosterone levels to prevent unfair advantages like Semenya had.



http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/11/2683465.htm?section=world

Stem Cell Research

There are many different debates in the American Society today. Some of these are abortion, same sex marriage and stem cell research. I'm going to briefly tell you a little but about how stel cell research actually works.

According to Susan L. Soloman, CEO of the New York Stem Cell Foundation. An embryo is a clump of small cells that would barely fit on the head of a pin. The embryo's are made in a lab through artificail insemination of an egg, most of the time for the purposes of in vitro fertilization. If the Embryo is not used for in vitro, it can be used to create a stem cell line. This usually happens within six days of insemination. Researchers then have a group of about 200 cells that have split multiple times. Only about ten of those cells are actually used to create a stem line.

In 2001, President Bush banned further federal funding for research into stem cell lines. Although he did allow research to continue to create stem cells forever, the argument went that there was no need for new lines of stem cells to be created.

The problem is that every time a cell divides there is a greater chance it will accumulate defects. The cells aren't always an exact copy of itself. The 21 lines are eventually of less and less use as they split more and more. The lines made before 2001 were not created with the benefit of the advances of the last few years and are not as well designed forlab use as more recent lines could be of use. The 21 lines originally made and used do not make for a very good pool of options for scientists to choose from.

Same-Sex Marriage Debate

After reading the previous post, I thought I would talk about some of the debate going on with same-sex marriage in the United States. In recent years, the debate over same-sex marriage has grown from an issue that occasionally arose in a few states to a nationwide controversy. In the last year alone, three states have banned same-sex marriage and four states have legalized the practice. Supporters of same-sex marriage argue that gay and lesbian couples should be treated no differently than their heterosexual counterparts and that they should be able to marry like anyone else. Also, supporters say that there are very practical reasons behind the fight for marriage equity. For example, homosexual couples who have been together for years often find themselves without the basic rights and privileges that are currently enjoyed by heterosexual couples who legally marry.

Social conservatives and others who oppose same-sex marriage argue that marriage between a man and a woman is the basis of a strong society, saying that it leads to stable families and to children who grow up to be productive adults. Allowing gay and lesbian couples to wed, they argue, will completely redefine the institution marriage and further weaken it at a time when the institution is already suffering from high divorce rates and the significant number of out-of-wedlock births. Moreover, those who oppose same-sex marriage predict giving gay couples the right to marry will ultimately lead to granting people in polygamous and other nontraditional relationships the right to marry as well. As the debate continues, the American religious community remains deeply divided over the issue.

Social Mores

I was reading over the blog on same – sex marriages and how they violate social laws. Among many other things I am a student of Sociology. One of the first principles we learn in sociology is that there are complex social laws (mores) that guide our conduct and help us decide what we think is acceptable. It’s like the common sense we were talking about in class. We all know it is polite to take off one’s hat indoors. We know this by what we study others doing.
There are many ways in which we soak up our ideas and morals (no you do not decide your own morals in their entirety). As a society we are all affected by the common values of the collective (whether we like to admit it or not). Before we ever first discussed the idea of same sex marriages we all had our preconceived notions about it. These notions are the result of our parents’ ideals, the ideals of our friends, etc. For the most part I think we can all agree that the idea of same sex marriage is a major social taboo like the blog Alyssa composed.
The fact is that these issues become major issues because they challenge the norm. Like the Arab man and his boy or the female circumcision. These norms are embedded in our society and as my old speech teacher once told me: “Ideas that date back centuries become embedded in a culture and become difficult to change.” He said this when we were discussing an odd practice in the Middle East. If a man contracts an STD, they believe sleeping with a virgin will cure it. I just thought that was interesting.

The American Culture: Same-Sex Marriage

With everyone’s blog this week talking about different cultures, traditions, etc., I tried to find a topic that is unique and is a social problem in the United States.

In the United States, same-sex marriage has been legalized in only six states. Although many states don’t perform marriages for same sex couples, they do however recognize their marriages. The government of the United States doesn’t recognize the marriages of same-sex couples and is prohibited from doing so by the Defense of Marriage Act. In the United States, four states have legalized same-sex marriage as a result of a court ruling, while three others have done so through a vote in their state legislatures.

Today, in Massachussets, Iowa, Vermont, and Connecticut, currently perform marriages for same sex couples. Same-sex marriages were going to begin on September 11, 2009, in Maine, but fell through due to a veto. A vote on the issue will be on the ballot now for November. In New Hampshire, same-sex marriages will become legal and performed beginning on January 1, 2010. In California, same-sex marriages were only performed between June, 2008 and November, 2008. Any marriages that were performed during this time period are still recognized today. The state of California now feels that it violated the constitution by performing same-sex marriages. Also, in Washington, D.C. and New York, even though same-sex marriages are not performed, they do however recognize those marriages which occurred in other states and foreign countries.

When One Culture's Custom Is Another's Taboo

To get back to the blog discussion though, I found an article having to do with the honor killings, or rather several instances when one culture's custom is another's taboo in general...


In Maine, a refugee from Afghanistan was seen kissing the penis of his baby boy. In Afghanistan, this was a traditional expression of love by this father. To his neighbors and the police, it was child abuse, and his son was taken away! Also, in Seattle, a hospital tried to invent a harmless female circumcision procedure to satisfy conservative Somali parents wanting to keep an African practice alive in their community. The idea got buried in criticism from an outraged public!

"How do democratic, pluralistic societies, like the United States, based on religious and cultural tolerance, respond to customs and rituals that may be repellent to the majority? As new groups of immigrants from Asia and Africa are added to the demographic mix in the United States, Canada and Europe, balancing cultural variety with mainstream values is becoming more and more tricky," says Barbara Crossette.

Now, many Americans will face the debates of whether any branch of government should have the power to intervene in the most intimate details of family life. Anthropologists have researched this debate more in depth and this topic is increasingly engaging scholars across academia, as well as social workers, lawyers and judges who deal with new cultural dimensions in immigration. Some argue for fundamental changes in American laws, if necessary, to accommodate almost any practice accepted as valid in a radically different society if it can be demonstrated to have some social or cultural good.

Glenn Beck's 'Common Sense' Comedy Skit

Last week in class, we discussed ideology. Well put by Antonia Gramsci, "Ideology is the imagined relationship we have to the real conditions of existence." Ideology is also known as "common sense." I just happened to run across a little comedy skit on you tube having to do with this concept and thought I would share with the class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C09fU-moTLU

Honor Killings

After reading the blogs about women’s rights in other countries, I was researching and came across a very interesting thing that happens in the Muslim culture. I found something called honor killings. Honor killings are done to women who violate the honor of their family. They could be punished for committing adultery, talking to another man, or even by getting raped. Anything that disgraces the family could result in an honor killing. The sad thing about this is that women are killed with permission by their family members. The family is the one who basically kills them. Honor killings are most common in the South Asia or the Middle East. Also, in some countries, if the woman isn’t killed she is sentenced to life in prison. There is no mild punishment for violating the honor of a family. I can’t even believe that this is something that actually happens. I don’t see how a family can put their other family member to death because of a mistake or wrongdoing. It amazes me how different women are treated in other cultures.

Here is a video from YouTube that shows a girl who had pre-marital sex and got pregnant. She didn’t tell her family about her pregnancy and she even tried to have the baby without them knowing. The family eventually found out because the hospital needed some family information. When they found out she was sent to prison.