Diet for a Warm Planet

I chose this picture to make you think, yes we put some carbon in the air, but what about natural disasters and volcanos, or other natural events that occur in the world?  How much do each of the many volcanos in the ring of fire put out every day?  How many tons did this fire at a 1/2 acre carwash put in the atmosphere? How many tons of CO2 does the underground coal fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania put out every day?  Before you criticize the output of people, think about nature.  If it occurs at such a vast rate in nature, are we really going to affect anything by driving our cars?  Read more on Volcanoes from USGS

Another statement in her piece, "demand drives the market toward affordability" is a delicate issue.  According to the documentary "Food Inc." this drive for affordability is what creates the low food quality for low food price that you see in the store.  Walmart is the largest company ever to adopt some organic foods, so the possibility is there, but will take a long time. See the documentary at Food Inc video .

Starting the Digital Essay

well, when she said this was to be a new experience, she wasn't kidding.  I started by editing the essay following the suggestions of Ms. Murphy's suggestions and my own thoughts.  I have also pulled together pictures of all the things my essay talked about.  That's it so far, now I have to figure out how I'm going to compile them.

In Defense of Torture Response

I completely agree with Mr. Harris, torturing a few people to save many seems a justifiable thing.  The technique of water boarding used in Guantanamo was extremely effective, with very little risk to life.  The information extraced from people in Guantanamo saved thousands.  There were bombings stopped in London, Madrid, and more plots uncovered.  All from tipping someone into water to make them feel as if they are drowning, or playing Brittany Spears and giving them caffine to cause sleep deprivation.  Effective mental torture with little physical affect.  If you make Guantanamo seem like the most horrible place on earth, just the threat of having to go might be enough to cause people to confess.  Torture seems like an effective way to save many, at the cost of one or two.

The only problem I have noted in here is you can't use paralytics and be able to communicate with them effectively.  Most paralytics are systemic, and you must then put the person on a ventilator for the time the drug takes effect until it wears off.  This would make it difficult, and the dose is also fairly exact, so the magic pill might be too difficult, or result in too many accidental deaths.

Discovering the Truth Reading Journal

Is this about writing, or smoking?  I was confused for most of the story, I understand about how we shouldn't smoke, and it kills, and ads in the late 80's and early 90's started the trend away from juvenile smoking.  I now somewhat understand what Ethos is,  something from aristotle.  Rhetoric is something that leads the soul through words, so I got that.  The advertisement with virginia slims is very powerful, and the commercial is extremely well done, and probably succeeded in the message it was trying to portray.  There description of how you must appeal to properties of thought that were known about in the days of the Greeks, and when the Truth campaign did these, they were successful in lowering the smoking rate significantly.

Opps! I'll Do It Again, and Again, and Again...

The SAT was the opening comparison, and having taken the competing ACT only once, I cannot relate to that section. I can, however, relate to the rest of the U.S.’s do-over society.  This has become even more apparent in the past several months with the bailouts given to large businesses.  I can understand the reasoning behind giving citizens money, but the economists wanted that money to be spent in market, not saved or used on house payments, so again the government failed, but its okay, we’ll just try again.  The constant emphasis on how good everyone is was apparent when I was younger and in school, but at home, not so much.  I was always told, “that was good, but you need to do this,” something I hated then, but reading this realize it was good.  I’m not sure if this is really going anywhere, I guess I’ll just do it again.

Book War Response

Living in a world with no books, it would be terrible for some and great for others, at first.  Then it would become more and more miserable as time went on.  The inability to teach children in school, or people to read stories and even history prevents the ability to spread the culture of the people.  I thought it was the cultural revolution, not cultural devolution.  The author’s ability to keep the few books they had, and to share the stories with the children of the area was not only culturally significant allowing people to learn about other cultures and former Chinese culture, but sharing stories gave them an escape from the usual day to day grind.  This was a short story, but a very impacting story.

Reading Response to Nguyen: The Good Immigrant Student

   Reading about Nguyen’s treatment as a Vietnamese refuge stuck in Grand Rapids is not terribly surprising.  With the U.S. just finishing the Vietnam war while she was beginning school, the adults in her life should understand why she was in America, but they didn’t help her at all, and let Nguyen stand out even more than she already did.  I do want to know how she spoke english so well, did she pick it up from the television cartoons, and how did she speak so little Vietnamese. This was found out when Nguyen told about her not being about to understand the Vietnamese being spoken in the ES: class, but knowing the english well.  These ESL classes are a need for students to be able to communicate effectively in the U.S., but they unnecessarily point out students that have recently immigrated that would normally blend in.  All in all, I think it was kind of unfair the way they treated Nguyen, but I’m not sure if that was avoidable in a predominately white area in the 1970’s.

The purpose of this piece is to tell about the singling out of refuge students by Nguyen telling about her education experiences in Grand Rapids, Michigan.