Interview

After reading the children's book "Butter Battle Book" and watching the animated short film, we were tasked with interviewing some one that lived through the cold war. During the interview I learned quite a lot about how the world worked 60 years ago.  When asked simple questions like, "what was your social life like?", "Were you scared of the USSR?", and " how did politics influence your daily life?", the answers were quite surprising. Social life was a large part of the fifties and sixties.  Many people felt like they had reputations that had to be upheld. Women always wore nice clothes and treated men with respect. Children listened to their parents and elders.  Men were valued members of society.  The social life much like it is now, was very complicated. Cold war influences did not scare people from having a social life nor did it frighten them into submission. The only part of life that was affected was the schooling. Teachers taught students how to prepare for a nuclear attack just to be safe. They struck fear in the minds of young children that someday soon, planes would drop bombs on American soil. We may laugh now at the ridiculousness of the drills because in all reality they wouldn't do anything, but during this time, they took them to heart. This leads into the second question. The Soviet Union struck fear into our political leader for quite some time. When asked if they were ever frightened of them, she said " it wasn't so much the Russians I was scared of, it was more the cubans. After they got those missiles from Russia everything got way more serious. The thought of a nuclear war then started to hit home with me. But I didn't let it ruin my life. I moved on like most people and as you can see America got over it. The last question sort of answers its self. Politics were the world in the Cold War era. With a war of words taking control of the media, national leaders controlled everything. National leaders were consonantly thinking about the situations at hand and how to prepare for the world coming to an end.

A modest Proposal

A Modest proposal to solve the problem of America looking dumber and dumber on a global level, when compared to other nations through testing.

Consider this, a nation that is on the forefront of all thing technological, military, and economic. Yet imagine that this supposed super nation is ranking among the lowest in the world on a global test for high schoolers, Getting beat by countries that were thought to be near third worldly when considering military, economy, and technology.  America ranks among the lowest out of 30 countries on a global test given to high school seniors. We do not want the leaders of other nations of the world thinking that America no longer has the capabilities or knowledge to be a superpower.

My solution to this problem to to simply take the stupidity out of the school systems. If we simply kill those students whose test scores and GPAs as of their Junior high years, are not adequate to for the global level of testing. I believe that if we simply give our student the opinion of death or better grades and study habits, they will make choices to better the future of our nation. This solution will not only help advance America as a world leader in academics but also help solves many problems that derive from poor study skills.

The First problem to be solved with this proposal is that America will now go back to being on top of the world when it comes to education and academics. Secondly, I believe America has an overpopulation of dumb people and if we kill those that are showing signs of dumbness at a young age, they will not be able to reproduce and continue to populate our nation with unintelligent people. Third, teachers will have it easier, due to fewer bad students. With only the good students that study well left in high school, teachers will be able to teach more in a stress free environment. Fourthly, There will be less bullying. With most bullies being less intelligent students picking on the “nerds” if you will, having only smart students left in high school will lead to a better environment for all involved.

Those that are not in favor of the killing of many of our citizens may say we can solve this problem with less radical solutions. Some may say it would be better to simply try and advance the education system and teach better study habits at younger ages. Some may say that if we can teach the things that are on the test we can do better, many schools around the world in other nations dedicate weeks to studying for these test and only these test. America could do this as well. Others think that a different school system would help more, if we go to school 6 days a week, all year round, and for as much as 12 hours a day, we could surpass all other countries in the world.
With America’s youth becoming less and less intelligent, a proactive change has to be made. With the proposal at hand, we could solve many of the nation's most pressing challenges. This would not only lead to a better America, but also a presence in the world that is only a fond memory for us. With simplifying distributing a test and killing those that do not pass, we will help insure that only the smartest children are representing our country. These are only my ideas but I for one, will not be improved by this, I have no children, I simply want what is best for the nation.

( note, this is only my version of a modest proposal and does not in any way show how I feel towards this problem.)

The article of the week this weeks talks about how exercise not not is good for you body but also for your mind.  I believe this to be true.  Fitness helps in many ways that you would not expect. sure you can control your weight, you can become more flexible and stronger, but you can also mentally relax and control your self.  P personally believe that exercise is something that our country lost. PE in schools is a joke. There needs to be structure to classes dealing with physical education. This is not only because America has a large population of overweight individuals, but it is proven that the student that work out will  be more relaxed and get better grades than those who do not.  This situation is a win win, the only down side is that students will actually have to do something in PE! Schools need to really look into revamping the physical programs so that kids can do better in school. I can not see any moral or ethical reason to not make PE a hard class. 

Killing brings up questions

A few weeks ago our country was rocked with a story that happens far to often in our society. One man killed another man. This story would not have made headlines except for the circumstances surrounding it. Trevon Martin was a high school upper class man, and while walking home, he was shot and killed in a gated community. They killer is George Zimmerman, he has already confessed to the shooting but he claims the killing was in personal defense, while the family is pressing for murder charges. So the challenge for police is which side to believe and what punishment to give out. The uproar in media attention comes from the fact that Trevon was an african american and many people believe that George made ridiculous racist decisions as to whether or not Trevon was dangerous. The murder should not have happened and that is a fact but now that it is over and a punishment has to be given out officials need to look at allt he evidence. George was a latino man and I believe that he would not gun down an innocent high schooler regardless of race. George kept watch regularly in his community and he had a gun for protection. He had been arrested 5 years earlier for domestic problems. This makes George look like the perfect killer, a prior record, a racial discrimination case, the media would have a frenzy with this. And they did. The killing has been the start of marches and public gatherings around the nation. It even goes as high up as the president.

But when something gets this much attention this

fast and with the media showing an extreem bias towards Trayvon's side of the case, is it really fare? Trayvon was not a star student, he had disciplinary problems. So it is just as plausible that, a student that acts up in school will start the confrontation, as it is that George killed for racial reasons. George called the police when he saw Trayvon walking home. The police told him not to follow the student but after he hung up, he continued to follow him. So we do not know what happened but we can be sure that most of the public is in favor of max punishment for George because of what the media has turned this into. There are many points that people need to know,

First the media does a nice job of picking great photos to show

people. Trayvon is a smiling happy young kid in a football uniform. This was a younger picture and he has grown up from the baby faced child he was in that photo. George's picture was of course the one of him in an orange jump suit 5 years ago when he was arrested. Both of these photos are very unfair.

Second the media only uses part of the cell phone conversation between Police dispatchers and George, In the tape played by most media, The call goes like this:

George: I'm following him now

Dispater: Sir don't do that, you do not need to follow him

George He's black

The real conversation goes like this.

George: Im following him now

Dispatcher: Sir don't do that, you do not need to follow him, could you just describe him.

George: He's wearing a hoodie, he's black.

The one line where that asked George to describe Trayvon makes a huge difference in the portrait of George. The media has made a huge difference in the case. Whether or not George killed in cold blood or in self defense is not for the public to decide. It will be settled in court and I hope that the media has not clouded judgment of officials.

Tattoo to remember

If I were to lose my memory tomorrow and only go off what is tattooed on my body, I would make sure to put important information. I would put my name, and date of birth on my back. I would put my social security number on the bottom of my foot. I would put the quote, "you may not remember what love is, but when you feel it, you will will know that you found someone truly special" on my chest. These things would help me figure out who I am and help me live a better life.

The death of a Giant.

It was recently announced that the World renowned information collection, The Encyclopedia Britannica will not be releasing a printed version of its 200 some year old book collection.

The Britannica company has taken many steps to try and help the once best selling books get back on the shelves, but with the age of technology upon us, it was to little to late. There is still an online version of the information collection. Sadly, they knew that it would come to this one day, but they were surprised it came so fast. Wikipedia has been the underlying cause of the the collapse of the printed encyclopedia. This is because it is not only free but also, nearly all homes have a computer. Students find it easier to type a word into a search bar and click enter and get millions of answers for what they are looking for, instead of going to the library and searching for a heading in a book where there will only be a paragraph under your topic. It is faster and you get more than one view on the topic. The Encyclopedia has seen its fair share ups and downs but this down may be one that it will not recover from.

Pink Slime

I am outraged that government officials would allow for this supposed "food" to be served in school. As a member of the great education system of Iowa, I go to school for most of the day and eat lunch at school. The school lunches have taken a dip in the last couple years. This could be attributed to rising cost of food, lower budget for the school, and changes made by the government to provide healthy food at lunch. I understand that with economic hardships come changes like these but this slime is outragous. No child would eat it if they knew the full picture of the food the were eating. Left over bits of beef mashed into a paste that can be cooked like hamburger, Not only is this gross sounding, the nutritional value of this food is not great.

On the other hand, many companies that make hotdogs have been proven to use the lowers quality meats allowed by the FDA to go into their hotdogs. If children are already eating foods like the pink slime, why is it such a big deal. I think that the problem is not so much the slime its self, but the principle that kids are being controlled at lunch.

School kids have lost the freedom to eat many things at school such as salt. I believe that the slime is just another outrage made by angry kids and parents that feel they are being cheated out of a good tasting school lunch. The slime talk will go away and be forgotten when the next change is made in school lunches.

Things I wish I said,

Everyone has that one instance when they wish they would have spoken up. Maybe you wish you would have said i'm sorry. Maybe the shy kid wishes they would have said hi to their crush. Maybe you missed out on the last moments of someones life and you didn't get to say goodbye. Regardless, everyone has experienced a moment in time where something went unsaid.

We all make mistakes, but they don't have to go unchecked. The world would be a brighter and better place if everyone took time to say the things that needed to be said. Even if you feel like its too late. So the next time you don't get the opportunity to say something, think about it, and make sure that if it means a lot to you, you say something.

Tax Sugar

This weeks article is about the government trying to put a tax on sugar. Many critics believe that this is being done because of the health push on America. America has been thought of in recent years as the fat child of the world. We eat the most per person, we spend the most money on food and luxuries. If you look around you can tell that America has a high percentage of overweight and obese people. But a tax on sugar? Tat is just not right. Sugar is imported from many tropical places because we use so much of it, and we grow so little of it. This tax increase on sugar would provide these countries with more money and consumers in america would be spending more to purchase the products they already buy every day. I do not think people realize how much sugar effects the economy.

The government is proposing this tax to try and make more money for its self and to build relations with smaller countries that have resources, so that we can use them to our advantage. This sugar tax is unwanted and will cause more uproar than good. The government needs to think this one through before making any decisions that would change the current flow of the economy.

Facebook, using its data for revenue?

The article of the week this week is about the ever impressive social networking site Facebook. For the few people that do not know what Facebook does, its a free site that lets users create a profile and interact with other people through messaging, statuses, games and much more. There is and will always be a huge debate over the use and importance of Facebook, but the question today is, Should Facebook be allowed to sell information to the highest bidder?

Most people would immediately take up a defensive stance against this, and why would they not, their private information is being sold to companies they know nothing about. There is honestly not a a real upside to selling except for increased profit for Facebook and better social statistics.

So if people are going to be mad about it, why do it. Answer: Profit. These companies that want to buy the information are willing to shell out more money than we could even imagine to get this information.

Facebook as a company makes a profit through advertising which has worked incredibly well for them but now with over 800 million users, they want to milk the cash cow a little faster. So we as users of this FREE site may suffer. I capitalized free because that's all this comes down to. Facebook is a free site, no one forces anyone to join, there is no cost associated with it. We are all just using this free site to our advantage and now the company is taking charge. As a free site, we do not own anything that we put on Facebook, they do. They can do with it what they feel is right and all of its users have to accept that we are just being used by a huge corporation. People can complain all they want and is it morally right to sell data, No, but does Facebook care about morals, No. So people need to suck it up and realize that they are the ones using the free site, any information they put on can be seen by the world anyway so if the company becomes power hungry, and chooses to sell information, there is nothing we can do to stop it. People have to much trust in mankind, everyone should do the right thing, but in this day and age, what is defined as right? Right for who? I'm sure Facebook thinks its right to sell their information that the people of the world have so generously put on its site.

The Republican candidates debate over moon base.

The Article of the week discussed the difficult topic of space travel and how the candidates running for the republican nomination took their stands on it. Space has always been a new frontier, a lost place that we could see, but never experience. With the advances that the scientific community has made, further research on celestial bodies such as the moon will be possible. The last time a man stepped foot on the moon, I was not even a though let alone alive. But now with the proposal of a lunar base, politicians argue whether or not its worth the time money and resources. Some say that it is worth it because America is one of the worlds great super powers, and a base on the moon would only help prove this fact to the our countries of the world. We could also gain significant knowledge about many things that we do not experience on earth.

The down side, many of the candidates say, is that our country is in debt and this would be a frivolous waste of money and resources. They believe that we need to spend the money on better things such as education and defense.

Both sides present valid points, but from my personal opinion. I think that a base on the moon would be a great scientific breakthrough. We could use it for so many things such as research, colonization and population control. And also defense. We could put missiles on it and have a better nuclear program. We all know that it will happen one day so why not sooner than later?

Should Toys be gender specific?

This article poses the question, are toys too gender specific and is it right. There is no denying that once a child reaches age 3 or 4, some toys are seen as girls and others as boys. Girls play with dolls and fake clothes and makeup and stuffed animals, and boys play with cars and trucks and balls. Is it right to force kids to play with the toys that we as parents or siblings think members of that gender normally play with. Can a boy play with a doll, or a girl with a toy car? I believe the answer is yes, children should have the ability to play with what ever toys they seem necessary and fun. Children should never be hated or dismissed because they play with toys that were originally ment for the opposite gender. In our day and age, if we see a boy playing with a doll, people think that child is gay. If a girl is playing with a truck, she is a tom boy. These names are rude and they serve no purpose. When a child is young, they play with the same toys as each-other, no matter the gender, but once a child reaches the age of distinction, it seems they need to start representing their gender. This misconception is wrong and ruining our children's lives. People of need to be more open to the views of children and let them explore and figure out what they want to do in life. Maybe a child that likes dolls and cuts their hair will be a hair sylist when they get older, boy or girl. Parents need to get rid of the fears that a child's toy will define them and who they are and what they feel inside.