secret messages...PART 2

One of the themes in our AIS class is to look at things beyond the obvious. Well today I was watching Anderson Cooper 360 and they had this little segment about "secret messages". It goes as follows:
So basically this republican presidental candidate hopeful, Mike Huckabee, recently ran a Holiday themed campaign ad. As he was talking about whatever people talk about in those commercials you couldn't help but notice the bookshelf in the backround. Heres an example of whats in the ad:




Notice anything??? Doesn't it seem that the lighting on the bookshelf makes it resemble pretty close to...lets say....a cross?? Now, Huckabee defended himself be saying that the bookself is just a bookself and nothing else. Of course anyone whose has been in a library could say that because there is literally a bookself in behind this guy. However, if you were to look further into it you could determine the following. Since we are getting extremely close to Christmas (7 days for those keeping track) and its a Christian holiday don't you think that Huckabee could be trying to catch the attention of those Christian voters. I mean, the majority of voters (approximentally 82%) in American are Christian. In my opinion its just simple math: Christian voters+huge majority+cross=votes for Huckabee. Do you think this is just a "fluke" or did this guy running for president really ment to connect with all those potential voters in only thirty short, sweet seconds?




If you want to see the complete ad you can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xn7uSHtkuA


Oh, and Happy Holidays.

Mitchell Report

As almost everyone has heard from the news about Senator George Mitchell's investagation into the use of steriods in Major League Baseball. Among the 89 or so accused in the report were some players who broke home run records and won World Series. However, what exactly is the punishment for all these players?





Take Marion Jones for an example.



She has been considered to be one of the fastest women on the planet and one of the best track and field female participants ever. Howver, in October of 2007 Marion admitted to taking steriods before the 2000 summer olympics where she won 5 medals. As a punishment, she had to forfeit all her medals, results, points and prizes that she won after September 1, 2000. That included those five Olympic medals. Besides having to pay back her prize money she also had to retire from track and field. The worst punishment was that besides Jones giving back her medals, her teammates who competed with her in the Olympic relays had to forfeit their medals as well.

What does this have to do with baseball??


Well, if Marion's punishment seemed harsh then I think all those who took steriods during their baseball careers should have to go through the exact same embarassing process as she did. That means that those people who won the World Series and had teammates taking steriods should have to give up their titles as well. Its not far that one person should have to pay back so much while others get away with nothing.

PoLiTiCaL cOmPaSs

Following our dicussion is class about what exactly the political compass is, I decided to try it our for myself. My results are kinda surprising, I thought I was more moderate than liberal, but I had no clue exactly how right, left, up or down I really was.
My results:

Heres the skeleton of the compass and what it means to be to the left, right, up, etc and also some famous people and where they stand: http://www.politicalcompass.org/images/axeswithnames.gif

Finally, here are people today, presidents popes, or leaders and where they stand on the spectrum: http://www.politicalcompass.org/images/internationalchart.gif

If you want to take the test yourself go to http://www.politicalcompass.org

I recommend doing it. You might find out more about yourself than you previously knew. Also, a great idea to incoorperate this user map in school would have the class discuss each of the questions. Not nessessarily take the test but pick out two or three and see how people react.

You Say You Want a Revolution....NOT

"Evolution, not revolution. That was what America was all about"

This excerpt from Nelson DeMille's book The Gold Coast seems crazy when you first read it but as you think more about America and our history as a country you begin to see that that sentence might not be mumble-jumble at all.

Here are the definitions to revolution and evolution (courtesy of dictionary.com):

rev·o·lu·tion: an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

ev·o·lu·tion: any process of formation or growth; development



Sure people can say that our country started from the American Revolution against Great Britain, but what did we do after the war? We changed the way we govern to fit our own standards. The Constitution is a perfect example of how our country has benefited from evolution. Our first Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, was based off of the saying "We will never be like them" (Them being England). However, as Americans went about their daily lives it was obvious that there were major flaws in that document. Our lower stage of laws no longer help the country and in turn our founder's developed the Constitution that we now know of today.

Even looking at modern day we can see that evolution is key to America. Technology has never revolted against us or itself. It has gone through a rapid evolution from the telegraph to the Internet in less than 200 years. Another example is when one business succeeds by taking in new trends and using that to their advantage while another business never changes until it is too late.
You say you want a revolution? Why not evolve to make your life better.

To remember or not Remember...THAT is the question

"[AJ] remembers almost every single day of her life since age 11"

"There is an 85-year-old man, a retired lab technician called 'EP', who remembers only his most recent thought"

The above are two quotes from the November 2007 issue of National Geographic. The 25 page article not only shows two enormous extremes, but also questions a humans ability to remember certain things. How can Yo-Yo Ma forget his 2.5 million dollar cello in the back seat of a taxi? What gives us the ability to remember or to forget?

Scientists have been researching these questions for years and they are beginning to get closer and closer to an answer. We now know that the hippocampus is essential in creating new memories and that memories are stored in a region of the cortex.

But what is the actual definition of a memory?
According to the magazine, a memory is a stored pattern of connections formed by the Brain's neurons, or nerve cells.
Dictionary.com says its the mental capacity or faculty of retaining and reviving facts, events, impressions, etc., or of recalling or recognizing previous experiences.

Although those definitions are interesting, I think that a memory can only be defined by the individual. How do you think AJ or EP would define it?
AJ states that "My memory flows like a movie" which might be true to her. I know for sure my memory is less fluid and more bumpy with patches of events I do not recall at all.
EP might have a different definition. One person explains that "He sees, but he doesn't record".
How would you describe your memory? A cohesive conversation or an awkward moment?

Religion

After our class discussion about the new law regarding a mandatory moment of silence, I began to think about other ways religion was publicly endorsed. One of the first things that popped into my mind as the popular show "Veggies Tales". Basically, the show is about these talking vegetables that go on all sorts of fun adventures. It used to be a favorite of my neighbor and we would constantly watch it at her house. Now, I'm not that religious so being so young, I didn't really know anything about the bible. However, now that I've expanded my knowledge about other religions, I've come to realize that every single episode was a Bible story. It completely hit me. Parents encourage their children to watch shows like "Veggie Tales" so that they are silently endorsing a certain religion. It made me think about our moment of silence because, like "Veggie Tales", religion is being endorsed publicly and the main target is the young generation. In my opinion, that's a little scary.

Columbus Who?

Today is Columbus Day and even though we don't have school, it doesn't really feel like a holiday. Why exactly are we celebrating? Is this the day when he stepped on "American" soil for the first time? Or is today the day he set off to search for the New World? Who is Christopher Columbus anyway? Sure we know that he "discovered" America in 1492 and that he is considered a hero in many beginning level history classes. But in reality, there are lots of different sides to him. Some say that he was brutal to Native Americans while others hail him for his bravery. Why are we celebarting a man whom we really not know a lot about. I bet that a majority of the people only know the fact that "In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue" and based on that little sentence they percieve him as a hero. But really, who is this man and why are we taking a day off to recognize him?

Divided

One of my most memorable political events was during the 2006 senate elections. I just remember watching T.V. and being completely taken back by how split our country really is. I mean, come on. Out of 100 seats the democrates control 49, the republicans control 49, and independent parties control 2. That is almost a perfect line down the middle. Its terrifying for me to actually see that our country is completely divided in half. It seems that we as a nation are at the cross roads. One choice is bringing people together and acting as one group of people, or splitting further and further apart.

What would you choose?

Memories

This week we listened to "Radiolab". This segment was about memories and the ability to erase them. Can you imagine what it would be like to no longer remember? How can it be that one moment we can remember something so vividly and the next it is gone. If we were to erase memories or have the ability to control what people can or cannot remember what would happen to us? Who would "control" us and what would we be allowed to remember?

I also want to point out from our discussion when it is right to have the ability to erase memories. In my opinion, never. Memories are the building blocks of who we are and no matter how bad or awful an experience is we have the ability to learn from it. That's what is so great about our minds. We can experience something (whether directly or indirectly) and separate the good and bad. We learn to repeat the good and then try to make sure we never have to go through the bad part of it again. I guess what I'm trying to say it why would you want to keep making the same errors over and over again. It was like the mice who kept shocking themselves because they couldn't remember the sounds. Do we as humans want to keep shocking ourselves again and again?

Moving On

One of the questions that Mr. Bolos put up on his blog was

"How is it that people can go about their days so easily like nothing happened...?"

Now, please don't judge me and my viewpoints, but i think that there are some very good reasons why we should continue our normal lives. Firstly, nothing ever gets accomplished when we live in the past. Sure, one of the most important things that life has taught us is to learn from the past, but when we completely stop what we are doing and only focus on something that has already happened, we're not living our own lives. Besides, the past is the past and there is nothing in out current power that can change what has already happened.

Think about this:

A person and I were driving on the highway and we saw a car with a special license plate for September 11th. All of the sudden this person says to me "Sami, I know I'm going to die. Thats a given. But when I do I do not want you to spend the rest of your life mourning me. It will only make your life and everyone around you miserable. Sure, I want you to mourn me, but what I really want you cherish are all the experiances that we shared. Both the good and the bad."



This completely blew my mind. I guess after all of the what I'm trying to say is: Don't let the past control you, but keep it filed away in your mind so when the time is right to remember it you will always be able to use it for a better future.

Points of View

While working on our character collages this weekend I noticed how different my opinion of my character (David WalksAlong) was from my partners. While reading the book I thought of him as a selfish person who only looked out for number one: himself. How else could you explain the way he threatened Thomas or not even bothering to visit his nephew in prison? In my mind, he was a selfish, greedy man who liked the idea of power but was too lazy to do anything with it. As my partners and I were discussing our conclusions I was amazed to see how differently they viewed WalksAlong. Both of them thought he was a lovving man who would do anything to help his uncle. I was flabbergasted! How could they think that?! Didn't they read the exact same text as I? What could they see that I didn't? It was only after talking with them that I realized how diferently each person can absorb the words and paint a picture in their mind. It was a total wake up call for me and I realized that there are many diferent sides to everything. I wish that one day we could pick one character (He or she doesn't have to be a main character like Thomas or Victor) and see how everyone pictures that person in their mind. I think it would be extremely intresting to do.

Secret Messages

In seventh grade my socical studies teacher passed around a medal. One side was engraved and the other had nothing on it. He kept turning it around and telling us what we saw. Of course the entire class shouted things like "engravings, metal, championship". All of these were obvious things that anyone could say without looking at it twice. However, my teacher kept telling us no. He let us guess until the very end of the period were he finally told us what we should have said. There were both sides to the medal. It didn't matter what was on one side, you had to able to see the other point of veiw.

The same goes for everyday sayings.

For example, an obvious statement would be "I shop at Whole Foods."

However, there is a whole nother side to that simple sentence. The person could be implying that they only eat organic foods or that they are able to afford the higher priced items. Another idea is that they are conscience about their health and believe that organic foods are better for you.

Basically, every sentence can mean something else. It is always important to look at both sides of the story. No matter who the person is.