first test

When I got back my first test, I felt relieved. I got a 100% on my first test. I should have gotten a 102% but Denali is not apparently called Mt. Denali. Today’s discussion was about what makes up an opinion. Can an opinion be consisted on false information if that was the way that it was interpreted? I believe not. An opinion is no longer an opinion if proven facts makes up the opinion. Then it becomes a matter of whether it is a true statement or not. I hope that every test we take is like this one because it was very easy if you reviewed your notes and payed attention in class. The extra credit is useful since I usually lose a point or two on the essays.   

After Nike Sweatshops

After the expose on the Nike sweatshops, people began to protest the horrific working conditions as more reports a maltreatment arose about Nike’s factories overseas. In 1991, Jeff Ballinger published a report on the Indonesian Nike workers’ wages and poor living conditions. In 1992, Ballinger publishes an expose about the low wages, reporting that workers were living off just 14 cents per hour and documented abuse in the factories. In 1997, more protests emerge and force Nike to hire a young activist to examine the Nike factories overseas. His reports were soft and biased, causing public outrage. In 1998, Nike begins to have to lay off workers and begins to change policies overseas, increasing the wages of workers, and adopting the U.S. clean air policy. Nike then creates the Fair Labor Association and encourages other companies to join the non-profit organization. Nike now publishes the results of audits from each factory and has improved factory conditions for workers.

Behind the Swoosh

The video “Behind the Swoosh” told the story of the harsh living conditions of the Nike factory workers that live in the suburbs of Indonesia’s cities. Nike pays these factory workers a dollar and twenty-five cents per day. By the time that you pay rent, electricity, and the water bills, you are left with just cents per day to provide for your family 3 meals a day. The cost to Nike to make the shoe in 1995 was twenty dollars total. The cost to consumers was seventy dollars which creates a profit of fifty dollars per shoe. If Nike was to increase the pay of the workers by just ten dollars, they would still be making a profit of forty dollars per shoe. The factory workers live in an eight by eight cement box that they call their home. They can live with up to six other people and all of their possessions must fit in the house. The hosts of the video became very sick and malnourished while one of them lost 28 pounds.

Flight 93

September 11, 2001. At 8:46 A.M the first commercial airliner, an American Airlines Boeing 767 slammed into the North tower of the World Trade Center. Eighteen minutes later, another Boeing 767 hit the south tower of the World Trade Center. At 9:45 A.M American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the West side of the Pentagon, the nation’s center of the military. United Airlines flight 93 departed at 8:42 on a nonstop flight from Newark, New Jersey to San Francisco, California. The plane was only filled halfway to capacity as the plane took off for what would have been a routine flight. The pilots of the plane were informed of the attacks at the World Trade Center 30 minutes into the flight. Just after a warning had been given out to the pilots, the hijackers took over the flight. The passengers made a series of calls on the flight informing family members of their plans. The passengers and the crew members began to fight back the terrorists when air traffic control overheard the hijackers say to crash the plane. To this day nobody knows for certain the final destination of the plane except that it was headed towards DC.

Supersize Me

The film “Supersize Me” is a 2004 documentary directed and staring Morgan Spurlock. Morgan challenges himself to show Americans the long-lasting effects that eating only fast food can have. Morgan sets up an experiment in which he can only eat McDonalds for every meal for an entire month. Morgan had to eat every item on the menu at least once and if he was asked if he wanted to supersize it, he could not refuse. After five days, Spurlock gained 9.5 pounds, and reported depression, lethargy, and headaches that could be relieved by eating more McDonalds. Half way through, Spurlock had gained a total of 17 pounds. At day 21, Spurlock’s doctor reports that Spurlock has heart palpitations and is advised to stop the experiment. Spurlock refuses. Spurlock makes it all the way to the end but gains 24.5 pounds, eating what nutritionists say you should have in 8 years from fast food, in one month.

Globalization

Globalization is the connection of people and cultures from different places. This could be as simple as a trade connection between two nations, to as complex as a culture spreding to another cultre because of being enslaved. Modern examples of globalization are ofen called americanization as American companies like McDonalds, Nike, KFC, and Burger King have locations in nearly every country and are changing their way of life. The leading form today of globalization is American movies and art. The Silk Road was one of the first ways of globalization, bringing Asian culture to the Mediterranian. Europeans brought Christianity to Latin America while colonizing the Americas. The industrial revolution increased globalization dramatically as well as airfare and the dawn of the information age.

Did You Know Video

My initial reaction to the “did you know” video was that I noticed how fast the times are changing. The top ten jobs in 2010 did not exist in 2008. That means that our schools are preparing us for jobs that do not exist, and to solve problems that we have not thought of yet. To me, it is frightening in a way to maybe have a job that I have no idea that it exists yet. But in another way, it is exciting. I could be piloting a whole new field of studies, and pioneering our knowledge of that field. More texts are sent out a day then the global population. Technology has replaced our human interaction. Just 10 years ago, cell phones were not very common and you had to wait to talk to people. Now you can instantaneously send a message to a whole group of people. But this technology has addicted the vast majority of its users.  There are more honors students in India then there are kids in the United States. This means that India will soon become the largest populated country and will have improvements in education, science, technology, and math.

First Test

The test today was a lot different than the social studies tests I have taken before I public school. Most of my tests were open book because my teacher could not finish the unit in time and we ended up missing most of the material covered in a unit. The BCRs were straight from the textbook and were not hard to find. This is the first Social studies test that I have studied for in the past two years. Units would sometimes last for half of the quarter and we would end up still missing most of the material. This unit was a lot different than the units from public school too. At my school, our teacher would give us worksheets and that would be how we learned the lesson. We would cover the same topic for sometimes up to a week. The test was easy but I didn’t like all the written responses.  

Socrates

During Socrates’ early years he worked as a stonemason in Athens. He was then recruited to fight in the Peloponnesian war which he fought heroically from many accounts. The hard work and dedication that was required and fighting in the war are believed to dramatically shape Socrates’ view on the world. When Socrates started teaching, he met with young students outside the agora in workshops. The Socratic Method uses questions to determine an underlying belief on a topic. This got his students to think freely and for themselves. Athens attracted great thinkers about primarily science and this was at odds with traditional Greek teachings which the explanation for events were the Gods. Socrates was therefore charged with corruption of the youth and not believing in the Gods. Socrates was found guilty by a jury of 500 males and was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock. Socrates had an opportunity to escape just before his death but refused, proving his loyalty to Athenian democracy.

9/11 Attacks

William Moseley in his written reflection on the September 11 attacks, gives reasoning on how we may have provoked the terror attacks that took the lives of over 2,000 people. The first idea is that our oil and energy consumption has given the Islamic extremists like Isis an Al Qaeda the finical needs to start spreading their beliefs of their religion and creating more of a following. By having our oil consumption of twenty five percent of worldwide use, we have given these terror groups the money to supply themselves with weapons to carry out attacks. American influence in Middle Eastern countries like Saudi Arabia that are declining but still trying to hold onto older traditions. Islam also has those traditions and provides a framework for what is good and evil to those people. They feel oppressed by the American culture slowly influencing their society. Mosely then brings up an interesting point about how the Islamic fighters feel like they are fighting for their freedom and to release the oppression from their society.

arete

Agora- a popular political assembly

Polis- an ancient Greek city-state

The importance of the year 508 BC to the Greeks- Klisthenis came to power and reformed the Greek society while strengthening the Greek democracy

Socrates-a Greek philosopher who is considered one of the founders of Western Philosophy

Death of Socrates-was convicted of corrupting the youth in Athens and introducing strange gods and was sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock. Socrates used his death as a final lesson to his pupils.

The Socratic method-form of inquiry and discussion based on asking and answering questions to stimulate critical thinking

What the ancient Greeks meant if they called you an idiot- someone who thought their own personal needs trumped those of the society around them

 

The Greek word for excellence is arete. Philosophers like Socrates and Pluto wrote about arete as the act of living up to one’s full potential. The highest form of arete is knowledge and all other abilities come from knowledge. The highest knowledge is knowledge about itself.

More on A Message to Garcia

Elbert Hubbard wrote A Message to Garcia as an inspirational essay in 1899. Once it gained publicity, Hubbard turned it into both a pamphlet and a book. Once released, 40 million copies sold and it was translated into 37 different languages. It sold not only in the US, but also in countries worldwide. People used this as a self-help book to try and improve their lives. The essay was turned into a movie on two separate occasions, once by twentieth century fox. The phrase “take a message to Garcia” is still used as a military saying today to encourage soldiers to have hard work and determination. Garcia was a revolutionary rebelling from Spain and assisting Cuban forces in the war against Spain. Rowan was an army officer who walked across Cuba to deliver a message to Garcia about the war and plans for the war.

           

Action Plan

Now that I’m starting at John Carroll I was think of ways that I could become a more successful student while still being able to have fun and meet new people. Below is five different ways that I will be able to accomplish my goals and get to be a better student.

1: Join multiple sports teams

     Sports are a great way to relieve stress and clear your mind before another long day of school. I                                                          currently am playing JV volleyball and I plan on playing lacrosse as well.

2: Take an economics course

     Economics is a career that hopefully I will be able to have one day and I could learn the basics now in high school.

3: Study more often

    Often in middle school I found that I forgot about quizzes and did not study the night before. Studying will improve my grades.

4: Continue playing in the band

     Playing the trumpet is enjoyable and can also relieve stress.

5: Take an AP course

     An AP course can help improve my GPA and allow me to take higher classes.

Message to Garcia pt.2

Today in class we talked about how technology is effecting people’s motivation and whether or not technology has a positive impact. Most people agreed that technology is positive to society. I tend to disagree. I feel that some forms of technology, for medical or transportation use, are a good thing for society. Other forms of technology, like cell phones and smart glasses, can influence society in a negative way. Albert Einstein is quoted saying “I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” The link below shows how this day has arrived. Walk into any public restaurant, park, or just walk along the street and see that the majority of people have lost human interaction to technology. Now with things like google glasses, it’s scary to think how much worse this problem will become in the future.

 

http://weknowmemes.com/2012/11/the-day-that-albert-einstein-feared-may-have-finally-arrived/

 

 

Message to Garcia

Perihelion- the point in the orbit of a planet or a comet at which it is closest to the sun.

Imbecility- stupidity; silliness; absurdity.

Slipshod- careless, untidy, or slovenly

Dowdy- not neat or tidy; shabby.

Infirmity- a physical weakness or ailment.

Stenographer- a person who specializes in taking dictation in shorthand.

Denizen- an inhabitant; a resident

 

The article “A Message to Garcia” is about how employers and people are looking for others who can be entrusted with a task and being able to complete it without out questions such as: “Where?” “How” or “Why?” They are also looking for people who can do that task without a complaint. The author of this article is saying that in today’s society, people are more concerned about themselves. The author finds that people get caught up in their own greed and look for more money when getting a job and are more concerned about the wage then the actual job. The author wants us all to be concerned about our job and not necessarily the reward because the hard work will pay off.