The News?

early this morning i was eating breakfast while watching NBC 5. I was expecting to learn about important events going on in the world and my country. Rather than the news focusing on current wars or the election, the main focus was Brittany spears. This is an example of what the popular demand is in news. people would rather learn about a celebrity's life than polotics, wars and the safety and well being of our nation. Many news channels are similar to the one i saw this morning. Many news shows focus on fun stories and show things people want to see rather than showing the real important things. A nother thing news shows often do is when they leave you hanging in suspense rather than giving you the story straight foreward. For example, when a commercial will come on at 5:00 and say "Is the water your drinking deadly?" find out at
9:00. This may be the way news stations make money but it is a very poor way to tell the news. I wish there was a station on TV that gave the straightforeward trustworthy news.

(New Trier) Tokenism

"In service to the democratic ideals of justice and equity, New Trier Township High School District 203 is committed to delivering a progressive educational and work environment for all students and staff in the areas of diversity and social justice. We believe it is the responsibility of academic institutions to offer students a diverse set of experiences and perspectives that will better prepare them to successfully navigate the rapidly globalizing world community of the 21st Century. To reflect more holistic and realistic perspectives of the world at large, we are committed to actively recruiting, supporting and retaining people of diverse backgrounds across each level of our school district. Providing a diverse experience for our school community is further evidence of our dedication to our motto, “to commit minds to inquiry, hearts to compassion and lives to the service of humanity.”"®
This is the New Trier Diversity statement easily found on the New Trier website under quick links. This statements was written in 2004 by the Board of education in attempt to increase employee diversity at New Trier. I wasnt at New Trier in 2004 so i dont know what the employee diversity was like then but i do know that there is not much diversity now. I believe that many of the minority faculty at new trier are examples of tokenism. For example, there are quite a few black parapros, but very few black teachers or higher positions at New Trier. I belive there are so many black parapros is so the school can say "hey we have a diverse faculty, look at our parapros." I also belive the entire diversity statement was made so New Trier can claim they are doing something about the lack of diversity at the school.

American History X

Today i was flipping through the channels on television when i came across the movie "American History X." I remebered seeing the movie a couple years ago and remembered it was a great movie so i decided to catch the rest of it. The movie was about half way through. For people who have not seen the movie the story goes like this. A young, white, American man (Derek) gets involved in a neo-nazi movement. Derek also brings his younger brother (still in highschool) into the group. Derek ends up in prison. While in jail Derek becomes friends with a black man who gives him some good advice and begins to turn Derek's veiws. He stops hanging out with the other skinheads in the jail. Because he doesnt sit with the skinheads in the lunch room they get angry and jump him. This is a major turning point for Derek because he knows he doesnt want to live the life of a neo-nazi any more. He soon gets out of prison and goes home to share his aquired knowledge to his brother. They go through a dramatic scene tearing down all the swastikas and nazi posters off the wall in their room. I wont give away the ending for anybody who hasnt seen the film but it is very powerful.
While watchin this movie i thought a lot about Mr. Oconnor's chart of fortune and misfortune. The main character begins up in the fortune portion of the chart. Some events happen that lead to him becoming a nazi, this is where the chart falls quickly and Derek ends up in jail. The interesting part about this movie is right when the chart is going up fast, right before the story is over there is a huge fall on the chart. The drastic fall at the end of the story is not what people are used to seeing in movies or other stories but it creates a very powerful message. A message i am still trying to figure out.

Childhood obesity

Childhood obesity has been an increasing problem in America. About thirteen percent of children are obese and one of the main reasons behind this is due to the sedentary lifestyles of many children. Rather than going out and playing sports, many children just sit at home and play sports on videogames or watch sports games on television. The technology age allows people to do everything imaginable on their home computer such as shopping, entertainment, and even working while people used to have to leave their house for these things.
Another main reason for obesity in America is the way we eat. Americans always believed bigger is better and food is no exeption. Food portion sizes have dramatically increased in the last couple decades. The convenience and low price of fast food encourages people to eat out rather than eating healthy often more expensive food.
Obesity related illnesses have also increased rapidly recently. "Diabetes diagnoses nearly doubled, accounting for 2.36 percent of child hospitalizations in the late '90s vs. 1.43 percent in the late '70s." (www.cbsnews.com) Diabetes is one of the main diseases that is caused by poor diet and lack of exersise and has increased rapidly in children since the 70's.
A sedentary lifestyle and poor diet have caused the obesity level in the US to increase bringing along with it disease and death. America as a whole needs to become more physically active and more aware of what they put in their bodies. My generations life expectancy has gone down due to childhood obesity. "Obesity could shorten the average lifespan of an entire generation — today's children — by two to five years, according to a controversial new life-expectancy analysis."(www.usatoday.com)

Political Compass

This political compass i would say accurately describes my political veiws, which is why i found it pretty pointless. This test would be useful for a person who didnt quite know how to describe their political beliefs but i know my political beliefs pretty well and feel pretty strongly about them.

Chimps smarter than humans?

Would you ever believe Chimpanzees are smarter than humans? Well recently, japanese researchers conducted tests on chimpanzees and humans to test short term memories. Overall the chimps won. One of the tests showed arabic numerals 1-9 on a computer screen. when the numeral is pressed, white boxes show up on the screen and one must press the amount of boxes that the numeral stands for. The numbers only flashed for about seven-tenths of a second and the leading chimp got 80% correct while the humans got 40%. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071203/D8TA8PA80.html

global warming

Global warming is an issue that is often on my mind. Global warming is a problem that potentially destroy the place we all live yet many people dont care. The new national poll finds that 77 percent of Americans believe global warming is happening and, of those, 46 percent believe it is caused by humans.(http://www.foxnews.com) There are many things people can do to reduce their CO2 emissions. There are a few online sites which can estimate your household's CO2 emissions and can tell you how to reduce them.(http://www.epa.gov/climatechange/emissions/ind_calculator.html) Take this quiz and calculate your co2 emissions.