Power Essay

Power is a variety of things that doesn’t have a precise meaning to everyone. It varies from intelligence to wealth to advantages.

An example of intelligence is in Animal Farm when the pigs (Squealer in particular) altered the rules while all the other animals weren’t around. Another intelligent thing the pigs in Animal Farm did, was brainwashing the puppies of Jessie to become Napoleon’s guard dogs. Intelligence is also shown in Epicac by Kurt Vonnegut. “Epi” was a clever contraption that outsmarted its creator, simply because its creator was in love. In the example of Animal Farm, the pigs had power, whereas in the example of Epicac, the machine had the power.

Wealth also plays a role in power. For example, in the World War I simulation, the bigger countries had more points (armies, economical points.etc.) which made them wealthier to begin with. I was the U.S.A, so I had more points to begin with. I was able to gain colonies and trade easily. Therefore, I had more power. When Africa being invaded and imperialized, the countries colonizing them had wealth, which helped them control the country they conquered at the time. They had more power. For the Visual Communicator, my group reported about the Cuban Missile Crisis. Cuba had more wealth because of all the missiles they had, making them the ones with the most power.

The person or nation or people that possess the most power also tend to have a lot of advantages in the beginning. An example of this is from my Population Project. My topic was focused of gender issues. Males tend to have an advantage, because they are more favored than females. Therefore males in India, have more power. Unfortunately, they have power over many of the women. These are all the things that make up power.

In conclusion, power is mostly about having advantages, being wealthy, and being intelligent. If you look at the most powerful figures in the world today, how many of them do not have advantages or wealth or intelligence?

Out-sourcing cartoon analysis

The main visual elements are:
• The frustrated daughter
• The school bag
• The father


This cartoon is about globalization and how it’s affecting the younger generation. The cartoonist doesn’t like the idea of globalization, because it makes people lazy. The father in the cartoon supports my idea, because he looks like he’s slightly disappointed and tired. Out-sourcing is one of the “flatteners” that have really spread the idea of globalization. To out-source is to send out information and get more back quicker and cheaper. In this case, the girl wants to out-source her homework so that she can get it back done. Maybe the cartoonist could have shown how much homework she had or had another bubble of someone doing homework in India.

source: www.sandiegohomeblog.com

Population Project; What I learned...

There are many things that I've learned from Population Project. Yet, the three most important values that I learned were; time management, judging information and using it correctly, and writing in an effective way.

Firstly, time-management was very hard for me. But, in the end, I was able to finish my Population Project two days before the deadline because I was able to manage my time. This will be helpful in the future, because I will have other projects with more deadlines in high school and probably with my job once I've graduated.

Also, judging information and using it properly is important, because it makes it so that my writing flows more and so that it makes sense. In the future, this will be important because it helps with decision making later on.

Lastly, writing effectively can help your work incredibly. This will be important in the future, because I might be a writer or I might need to write reports.

Equality vs. Sameness

Equality is a term that means different things to different people. Yet, sameness is often confused with it. Equality has more to do with your rights, whereas sameness has to do with outlook.

The Giver has the best example of equality. For example, every one gets an education, a house, food, water, and a family. Lois Lowry has used the word sameness to show that everyone looks the same and does the same things, and they’re also equal. A quote that shows an example of sameness is, “’Lily,’ her mother said fondly, ‘you’re very close to being an Eight, and when you’re an Eight, your comfort object will be taken away. It will be recycled to the younger children. You should be starting to go off to sleep without it’” (pg. 18 Lois Lowry)

However, Animal Farm doesn’t have as precise the language as The Giver does. There were no examples of equality, because the pigs in the book weren’t working as much as the rest of the animals. There weren’t any examples of sameness in Animal Farm either, because the animals didn’t act in the same way. Yet, in the end of the book, the pigs were exactly the same as the humans. Which does show an example of sameness.

In conclusion, The Giver has more precise language than Animal Farm, because the book has better examples.

The Giver; Becoming an adult

There are many people who are a part of society. When it comes to the age when they are helpful it could differ. One becomes an adult when they are at least older than fifteen. In The Giver, one becomes an adult when he/she turns twelve years old (pg.14, Lois Lowry).This age is too young. When I was twelve, I wasn’t mature enough to understand all adult situations. Now that I’m fourteen, I can understand much more, yet I still don’t understand a few things. There isn’t a certain age when people are no longer useful to society, because even the elderly can still run their own businesses. For example, my grandparents on my mother’s side are over sixty and are still working in the restaurant that they’ve had since my mother was a teenager. There isn’t an age, but when the older people in society aren’t able to do as much as they could, that is when they are no longer useful. There aren’t certain ages to situations like this, but depending on the abilities of different people, you might be able to set an age.

Work Plan

Monday – Take a look at research paper again and edit by myself. Think of a title for research paper. Work on Independent Investigation.

Tuesday – Finish Data Analysis.

Wednesday – Finish Independent Investigation

Thursday – get paper edited, and fix.

Friday – Go to Ms. Caemmerer's room and try and finish poster.

TA DAH!

Feedback

Some main visual elements are that this is a family sitting at the dinner table having a meal. The kid as a cap on sideways and the parents look like they’re expecting something. This issue the cartoonist is talking about is technology is interfering with daily life and is breaking relationships. The cartoonist’s opinion is that technology can be annoying and hurts a good family. The parents are frowning and so is the child. In the quote below, the word “tell” is underlined. This cartoon is ironic, because I’m typing on my blog. Maybe the cartoonist should have put in thought bubbles for all members of the family to make the message more clear.

www.sandiegohomeblog.com

Kurt Vonnegut quote

“Do you know what a Luddite is? That’s a person who doesn’t like newfangled contraptions. Contraptions like nuclear submarines armed with Poseidon missiles that have H-bombs in their warheads, and like computers that cheat you out of becoming. Bill Gates says, “Wait till you can see what your computer can become.” But it’s you who should be doing the becoming. What you can become is the miracle you were born to work—not the damn fool computer.”

- Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut makes a very good point when he says, “But it’s you that should be doing the becoming.” I realized that we, as the people, need help from machines. Maybe even more than ever before. Kurt Vonnegut is right, but at the same time he’s also wrong. Machines are making us lazy. For example; we are all using computers to write up essays and stories, whereas before, we used to write them out by hand. This has made us a bit lazy. Some people don’t even walk. They use machine to do it for them. Machines have not only made us lazy, but it has destroyed lives of thousands. Weapons are the main problem. I’d bet that if all weapons where to disappear, thousands of lives would be saved.
Unfortunately, Kurt Vonnegut is also wrong. The computer has helped us stay in touch with friends, learn (language programs), post information, and much more. We have used technology to discover new vaccines and medications. We have used it to educate people, to help disabled people, to save lives. We have a great need of technology. We just need to set the limits.
Kurt Vonnegut is wrong. It doesn’t mean that I disagree with him though. Technology is needed to save many lives. For example; if there wasn’t technology, my grandmother would have died of breast cancer. I would have wondered why no one could have done anything about it. Technology is a great help, yet it’s a burden too.

Technology

Technology is any highly developed product that is new and more useful. Technology doesn’t necessarily mean that it has to be all computer chips and metal, it could be a sewing machine or a pencil.

In school, I’ve noticed that we’re using a lot of technology. Some examples of the technology we use in school are; smartboards, laptops, internet, projectors, and much more. In Algebra, there is quite a bit of technology use. My teacher uses a smart board to draw pictures, a camera and a projector to look at homework. In science, we use the projector to look at science videos. I could give many more examples of technology use in school. Using technology in school is a good idea, IF there are no problems when you use it.

The 5 most important technologies today:
1. internet
2. ultrasound (to determine the sex of a fetus so that the parents can get ready for it.)
3. iPod
4. mobile phones
5. bicycles

The 5 least important technologies today:
1. ultrasound (people can use it for female feticide if they prefer boys)
2. guns (if you want to fight, do it the old fashioned way!)
3. bombs
4. dryers
5. tanning machine

End of 3rd quarter

My goals for last quarter were;

•To have AR done within the first month of this quarter
•To study harder for tests and quizzes (spend more time studying…. Maybe half an hour more)
•To research more thoroughly for the projects that I will have in this quarter

When it came to AR, I didn't get it done within the first month, but I got it done quite soon. I could still use more work on studying for tests and quizes. I am definitely researching more thoroughly for projects. (UbD!!!)

My goals for next quarter are;

• Take more efficient notes
• Read more
• Get more descriptive for writing
• Get to know how to balance my homework and my free-time

This week's feedback

The phrase "Holy War" is an oxymoron, because no war can REALLY be holy. All the religions go against killing. When these people came up with the phrase "Holy War", they were only thinking of the clash of religions. Many conflicts are based upon religious differences, because some people can't accept that people have different beliefs than them, and some people just don't like people who are different.

Cold War Simulation

In the Cold War simulation, there were five teams; USSR, U.S.A., Latin America, Africa and Europe, & Asia. The goal of the USSR and the U.S.A was to get as many allies as they could. The goal of the other three teams was to get as many points as possible from the U.S.A. and the USSR. My team was the U.S.A., and we did a good job getting more points, but when it came to getting more allies, we had less than the USSR. The continent that had the most points was Africa and Europe. The team who won was probably
Africa and Europe, because they managed to ally all of their countries and get the most points in the whole game. No-one really lost. If anyone did; it would be Latin America, because they had the least amount of points. This game was a fun experience and I hope we can do a simulation like this again.

VC Project

At first, my group decided to do our project on the Cuban Missile Crisis, but then we couldn't make up our minds and changed our subject a few times till we decided that we liked the Cuban Missile Crisis. When we were using Visual Communicator, we had a lot of trouble. At first, the audio wouldn't work, so we called for help from the teachers. After that was fixed, we had trouble with a particular picture. Every time it got to that one picture when we were recording, the screen would freeze and we wouldn't be able to read our next parts.

Three tips when using Visual Communicator:

~ each work on your own parts on different computers (actions, pictures, transitions.etc.)
~ Save!!! as often as possible
~ LEAVE THE MIC. ON!!!

TWO BEST ASPECTS:

~ learned something useful for future projects
~ found a creative way to present info.

TWO WORST ASPECTS:

~ V-screen didn't work at times
~ the audio was annoying

Animal Farm (the movie)

The Animal Farm movie was not the best movie, but it wasn't bad either. The voices of the characters made the movie a bit... weird. For example, Napoleon's voice was very strange and was somewhat creepy. I found it strange that Jessie was one of the main characters, whereas in the book she was only mentioned once or twice. The fact that Napoleon used a movie set in the movie, to show the deaths of animals and the announcements wasn't very effective. This movie mainly stuck to the main point, so I found it okay.

The movie Animal Farm, and the book itself were different. First of all, Jessie was never mentioned in the book except for in the beginning when George Orwell was introduced the characters to the readers. Also, in the beginning when Old Major was talking about being free and sang the song, the entire song was different. Instead of "Beasts of England", they sang something else.Something called, "Beasts of the World". The cat wasn't even mentioned in the movie. Also, after the revolution, there was a flag. In the book, there was no flag whatsoever. In the movie, there was a television used to entertain the animals. In the book, there was a mention of a television when they explored the farmhouse, but there wasn't any mention of it being used to entertain the animals. Also, when the traitors were killed in the movie, it was by hanging and it was shown on film. In the book, the dogs (chekka)killed the traitors right in front of the other animals' eyes. When things got bad in the movie, Jessie took some of the animals to a hide-out. There was definitely no mention of a hide-out in the book. Also,in the movie, we never found out what happened to Molly. The book ended with Mr. Pilkington and Napoleon playing cards. The movie, however, ended with Jessie going back to the farm with the animals and meeting her puppies again.



images from:
boe.poca.k12.wv.us
www.turnerlearning.com
www.whatisgoingon.org
www.thepsn.org

Happy Valentine's Day

Feedback February 4th

In one of my countries, The Netherlands, it is not compulsory to perform two years of military. Whereas in Thailand, at the age of twenty-one, it is compulsory to perform two years of military service. This isn’t fair, because I also have a dream as well as the other people in my country to have a career. It’s also understandable, because Thailand needs more people to defend their country. If I necessarily HAVE to do this, I would, because I believe in my country.

www.vanderlee.com

WWI Poem (rough draft)

I’ve been surviving in this trench for days
Like a rat in an alley.
And like a small child,
I wait impatiently for something.
Some hope.
Some help.

Way back home
is where I think my family waits.
Letters and letters have been sent back
But there haven’t been any replies yet.

When I look up at the sky,
I think of the people who’ve died and suffered.
Yet I can’t help but wonder if
Anyone else watches the sky like I do.

However, when I stare at the barbed wire,
I direct my thoughts to the enemies.
The enemies who’ve been watching us
Like a teacher watched a naughty student.
Their hearts as cold as ice.

I suddenly hear a click,
But show no attention what so ever.
Before I know it, people are sprinting away from me
as if I was a monster.
They start yelling at me with desperate faces.
I show no attention.
Just when I realized what’s happened it’s
Too late

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The King is DEAD!!! = )

Considering that I wasn’t here for the last week, I’ll have to talk about these last few days. When I first heard about the taxes, I almost immediately thought of the taxes that the thirteen colonies had to pay, such as the tea act and stamp act. Like the colonists, I thought the taxes were ridiculous. It was a definite form of injustice. King Coyle was a tyrant, because he was unfair to us and held all power. He also didn’t care much about how much money we had or not. I’m sure that King George the Third was also unfair and careless to the colonists in the thirteen colonies. But, when I think about it, the colonists had it much, much harder than we did. Mainly, because we weren’t in any REAL danger or we didn’t REALLY have to pay with REAL money. I’d bet that if you were against King George the Third during that time, your head might have been chopped off. While we were all going through these ridiculous laws many of us had self-determination to make it through or to revolt against the king. The colonist did so too. For example, the Boston Tea Party was planned and completed. This has been one of the most “interesting” simulations yet.
www.geocities.com

The Forty-Third War

Jake and I think that the Forty Third War was set in El Salvador, for a few reasons. First of all, El Salvador’s history involves civil wars that lasted for twelve years. These wars started when the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN) waged guerrilla warfare against the government. The U.S.A. supported the FMLN. In the book, it mentioned the waging of guerrilla warfare. Also, the geographical features in El Salvador are very similar to the geographical features in the book. Some parts of El Salvador are mountainous, which reminded us of the game that Uno and the rest of the soldiers were playing as a training game. They played this game on the mountainside. Also, in the Nations of the World Atlas, it says that 80% of El Salvador’s religion is Roman Catholic. In the book, the main religion was Christian. On the CIA World Factbook, it says that about 19% of the work force in El Salvador is agricultural, and in the Forty-Third War, Uno worked in the banana plantation, which has to do with agriculture.

London, England) Collins (Firm :. Collins Nations of the World Atlas. New York: HarperCollins, 1996.

Feedback: JOIN, or DIE

When I look at this picture, I see a snake. But, when I look closer at the letters, I see eight of the first colonies of America. For example, NY stands for New York, and NJ stands for New Jersey. I think the snake is cut up into different parts, because it signifies that the states might be independent, but its still part of a big country. The issue that this political cartoon is about is the colonization of America. Ben Franklin would say that people that didn’t join the colonies of America that they were most likely to be killed or that they would have a hard time surviving, and die. The words, “JOIN, or DIE,” support what I’m suggesting of the cartoonist’s opinion. I don’t really think that the cartoonist needed anymore to make this cartoon more persuasive. He might want to use something else besides a snake though. Overall, his cartoon immediately captured my eye.

Feedback

One way that we could be sure that this book is trustful, is to actually go to the Library of Congress and look at the actual quotes that Julius Lester has written in his book. But we wouldn’t need to. Isn’t the Library of Congress a trustable source? Why would there be lies in an important library? We can also trust him, because he has used many peoples’ quotes or diary entries and have stuck the ones with the same subject together. He has also added facts about slavery which are true, if we researched it.

I am also sure this book was truthful, because, in 5th grade, I had to research Harriet Tubman. She was a woman born into slavery, and helped slaves escape when she was older. When I researched this woman, I also read about the conditions slaves were in. So, I had another source to assure that this book is truthful. In the book, it says, “The selling of the slaves was inhuman itself, but many slave owners did not even have the decency to tell a slave that he was going to be sold.” (pg. 42 To Be A Slave.) I know this is true, because when I was researching Harriet Tubman, one of her family members was sold without even knowing it.

One reason why I might NOT trust it, is because of this quote, "Even more rare was the occasion when the auction block became a source of joy." (pg. 51 To Be A Slave)How could the auction block possibly cause joy? Would you be happy if your only child was being sold or if you were being separated from your best friends? I certainly would not. Even though I find this quote very questionable, but I understand that it MIGHT lead to joy.

Overall, this book is trustful, and is pretty good.



Lester, Julius. To Be a Slave. New York: Scholastic Inc., 1968.

www.jnpa.com

Great Powers Game Debrief

I was U.S.A., with my partner Joel. Powerful countries such as, Great Britain, U.S.A., Russia had advantages at the start. We had these advantages, because we were stronger countries to begin with, and we were also larger. My empire was a good one that had a strong army and navy at the start. It was probably more important to buy industries and colonies so that we could buy large amounts of armies in the end. But, instead of using that method, my empire grew slowly and steadily. We did very well with backing up our allies, unless they’ve crossed us or betrayed us. We should have bought more industries and colonies at the beginning to help improve our power. About half of our alliances were good and trustful. We were allies TWICE with Great Britain, but they crossed us twice and declared war against us. Some allies such as Italy, France, and Japan, definitely could be trusted.

I learned quite a few things about conflict from this simulation. First of all, you can’t trust anyone but your self/country. Some of the countries we were allies with, completely turned on us. One of them declared war against us, so in the last year my country, the U.S.A. declared war on them and five other countries joined us. Only one country joined Great Britain. After the simulation was over, I realized how allies could suddenly become enemies. Secondly, I learned that conflict could make a country greedy for more power. For example, when my empire lost the war declared upon us, the winners asked for TOO much. They went almost over the top. Lastly, conflict could also lead to new alliances. When a country declared war against Russia, we weren’t on Russia’s side, but later on Russia and the U.S.A. we were great allies and fought against Great Britain. In the end, we didn’t win, but I was quite proud of our country.

www.worldwar1.com

Goals

Feedback

When it came to my goals last quarter, I think I did quite well. My notes were all basically in my own words. Sometimes I did need some help phrasing things. And my writing style did improve a little more than last quarter. I STILL could work on that.

My goals for next quarter are;

•To have AR done within the first month of this quarter
•To study harder for tests and quizzes (spend more time studying…. Maybe half an hour more)
•To research more thoroughly for the projects that I will have in this quarter