Blog experience

I feel like the whole blog experience was a great one. It was my first time dealing with a blog and I had a lot fun learning about the whole process.

My Blog Reflection

My overall experience with the English 150 blog has been a good one. I feel that the blog has offered quick access to the writings of the class's students and has also been an effective way to assess each others' works via comments. I personally appreciated the insight I was able to gain from the comments on my own blog posts; the comments enabled me to gain insight into the thought processes of an outsider reading my work. I feel that for a class this size the blog was a helpful tool in being able to view and assess each others' works, but I also feel that the group discussions regarding our projects were the most helpful to me in my learning process because of the more in-depth and knowledgeable discussion that they offered.

Class Blog

My experience with the blog has been something new and interesting; I have never done anything like it before in an English class. Because I knew my peers were going to be reading my posts, it made me think and care a little more about what I was writing rather than just trying to get something down quickly for credit. As a result I think my writing skills progressed, because I put a lot more thought and time into the assignment then I probably would have otherwise. In addition, I think commenting on other people’s post improved my ability to critique. Having them comment on mine allowed me to see my writing from the perspective of others, and apply their advice into my writing.

blog reflection

This term the blog has been awesome. It was nice to be able to see how my writing was affecting others and good to get some feedback on what to change. It was also nice to be able to get thoughts down in writing without over thinking them or trying to make sure everything was perfect. It made writing fun and helped to develop an ease as I wrote my actual papers. While I alwayswrite fast just letting my thoughts flow into the document, the blog has given me a chance to use my true voice and kind relax the dition in the things I write. Really cool experiance and a great way to do assignments.

Blog POST

My favorite blog posts have been the introduction one for the papers. I really enjoyed these because later down the road with our paper I could turn back to my original blog post and pull things from that. These posts helped me with my writing and making my thesis for my papers. Discussions through comments and replies have helped me revise and look at my paper through my readers’ point of view. I do feel like I have participated in true discourse with my peers in this class, and I feel that it has made us closer as a class and has brought me new friends. Knowing that my peers were going to read what I would write didn’t change what I wrote because I was glad to get criticism on my work and then I could fix it and make it better. Thanks I really enjoyed doing this blog posts!

Blogs

When I first heard about the idea of doing blog post for class I wasn't that happy about it. I have never been one for writing blogs in the past, even on facebook and myspace, and having to write one for class, in my opinion was just an pain. But then when I started doing them I really actually found that I started to enjoy what I was doing. Just having something where on a lot of things I was just able to speak my mind, and not worry about what was said was great. This gave me a chance to get opinions on my work that I was going to be handing in, and to decide, if after reading others opinons, if it was still what I wanted to work with. I have also found it interesting that now that I have started to work with blogs I have been helping some other people get their own blogs set up for important information. I can now say that I will really miss doing the blog post. It is a refreshing way to turn in homework, that keeps things interesting.

blogging

When I found out we'd have to write all these blogs for this class I was not very excited; it just seemed like extra work. However, I think that it has proved to be one of the more helpful writing techniques. Many of my blogs posts have been building blocks to my essays and often times I find myself just copying and pasting things I wrote on my blog to my essay. Also the knowledge that people are going to be reading your blog was good training for writing towards a specific audience. I honestly didn't enjoy writing comments and replies because it is uncomfortable to critique people. However, I think getting complement comments on my paper did give me more confidence in my writing. One of my favorite blog posts was the ethos, pathos, logos; it got me thinking early about what appeals I was going to make in my argument and most of the words on that blog post ended up on my final essay.

Blog

Personally I really liked the blog. It was really fun to be able to see what everyone else was doing for certain assignments. It really helped a lot when I was working on my drafts for the Rhetorical Analysis. It was a fun way to be able to communicate about ideas and things like that. It has really helped me by seeing how much I have improved in my writing throughout this semester. It was also really fun being able to see what other people were saying about my ideas or drafts because it helped me think of other view points. I had a lot of fun with it and I'm really glad we had to do it.

Blog on Blogs

The blog as been a huge help this semester. Technology really is amazing! It's been so cool to be able to share drafts and ideas this easily. My favorite of all posts have been the drafts... seeing what everyone is doing is a huge help in the creative process. I feel like my drafts have been much better because I actually do them to be read and reviewed.

Blogs should be continued in this class. The End.

blog posts

When I first found out that we were going to be exploring the world of writing via blogging, i was excited. I've never taken an interactive class or course, and the idea of getting graded online was one that intrigued me. The blogs proved to be an effective means of showing, reading, and evaluating everyone's writing. I feel that it has helped me become a better writer by getting inputs from fellow classmates on my writing. So, in the end of our blogs, I liked them and feel they proved useful to me. I would recommend Sister Cowley to keep on doing them for future classes.

English 150 Blogs

I actually really enjoyed the blogs. When I first heard that we were going to have a class blog I thought that it was really weird. It has helped me a lot because I can read what my classmates have said and see their view point on issues. I enjoyed commenting on others posts, but i didn't really like responding to them. I never knew what to say. I don't think that the responses helped me learn.

Last Blog Comment

I've used blogs a couple times before actually and I've never really like them. However, I should say that I thought this time was more affective than previous times. For me, what helped me the most was being able to read other people's ideas or work. Commenting on posts didn't really seem to be useful for me. Because it kind of seemed like I just did it because I had to, not because it was actually helping. But I did like being able to read what other people were working on. I think that knowing I had to post what I was writing for everyone else to see maybe did affect how I wrote at those times. It made you look more closely at how coherent/organized my thoughts were so that I could make sense to other people. So I think that is one asset of using the blog. I also think it is a very effective means of communication so that the teacher and all the students can be on the same page as far as assignments are concerned. And it's much easier than typing a paper, printing it out, and bringing it to class. The only down side is that it can seem to be busy work at times, but I guess that's not entirely a bad thing.

The year's end

Writing a blog for the last two months has been a completely new experience for me. I had never before written in a blog and I have to say I enjoyed the process. I was at first afraid thinking it was a waste of time, but I soon realized that it was quite the opposite. I was able to learn from my peers and their ideas and comments but at the same time it was a good way to write what I really thought about different subject matters. This blog allowed me to be able to write almost everyday and I liked that. It was a good way to relieve stress and just write about things in my own opinion and viewpoint. Overall the blog assignments was a great learning experience for me.

new ideas

This class really has help my writting and especially this blog. I think a main thing for me that help with my writting was that this blog let me brainstorm. It taught me to put my ideas and thoughts out and have others feedback. That has definitely been my favorite part of this blog, hearing what others think of my ideas and also being able to tell others my opinion.

Hey Colter what are you doing tonight...You Know, just bloggin it up :)

I really enjoyed having the blog assignments for this class. They really helped me learn how to put my feeling and thoughts into words for people to understand. While in high school the closest thing I had to writing this way was the once a year papers we were assigned on how our summer was or who our every day hero is. I’m grateful to have had this opportunity to further develop my skills by writing daily this semester. Another thing the blog assignments helped with was staying on task. I know that without it, I would have been up the night before a big paper was due writing it. I say keep with the blogs they help.

Jessica's Blog reflecting

Before we started the blog assignments, I always thought that blogging about opinions was annoying and that arguments had no intellectual information to back them up. However, after participating in our classrooms blog assignments, I have learned to really enjoy reading what other people think about situations. I especially have enjoyed when we all wrote about readings from the globalization book because those opinions stemmed from research and opinion. I liked hearing the similar and different opinions people had about the same problems. My least favorite blog post was probably when we were posting our papers, and we were only reading people that we were assigned because there was too much information to read what everyone thought, as oppose to article responses, where you can read what everyone has to say. I feel like I have gotten to know my peers quite well and that we have participated in true discourse. The fact that my peers are going to read what I have written no longer bothers me, but instead I’m actually excited to see what people have to say.

.blogspot.com

I absolutely love the class blog and having to post and comment on things. I think it is a great way to share the things we write and opinions that we have. It is a really unique medium that I have never used for a class before which is good because it escapes the monotony of turning in papers and doing pointless assignments. Even if I thought that the assignment was not very interesting, having to post it on the blog was exciting. Also, having people be able to comment was a help to be able to see other people's perspectives on what we have posted.

Child Labor

Everything from the brand new shoes on your feet, to the baseball cap on your head to the bad your caring around your shoulder is the work of the some of the biggest name brands in the fashion industry. They look appealing, comfortable and of course fashionable, but no one ever stops and thinks where they actually come from and how they got on your body. You didn’t know how many hours it took to make that one garment or what they working conditions were like that they had to sweat over so you could look good for a day, and the worst part of it is that they are simply children. Child labor is a growing industry, which employs millions of children across the globe. Big manufacturing countries outsource to third world countries thinking that they can get cheap labor in producing their products. How ever they don’t realize the effects on the kids that they are exploiting. From their everyday schedule to their gruesome living standards and limited pay, this is not the life that people should have to be living in. With these conditions, it’s amazing that they are able to survive at all with the extreme conditions. With child labor, human rights are being exploited and unnecessary actions are being used to exploit these children. Even with efforts from different universal organizations such as UNICEF, their needs and demands are still not being met; there is always more that can be done to end child labor. Through different efforts and causes to end child labor, their basic human rights are constantly being abused and violated as they are forced into labor.

            Child labor, a growing problem around the world, is a violation of everyone’s basic human rights. Every person is granted certain rights that are not allowed to be violated or taken away in any circumstance.  For example, when was it ever right to push hundreds of children into crowded workrooms with heavy machine for long workdays? They are given little food and are unable to function and are putting their young lives in danger. With so many countries around the world involved with child labor, the global society needs a wake up call to reevaluate what they are sentencing their kids to do.  In the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights states,

“ Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political of other opinion national or social origin, property, birth, or other status,”(Weston).

Everyone, including children, is given rights that every basic human being is granted. Many however, claim that children are not eligible for these rights simply because they are not adults and that they don’t get the same protection and rights that everyone else does. Since no specific age is mention with the rights, it gives them every opportunity to encourage and promote child labor across the globe. However, there are still activists trying to get child labor to become illegal. According to the International Labor Organization, it states “the ‘child labor’ of concern is generally employment that prevents effective school attendance, and which is often performed under conditions hazardous to the physical and mental health of the child” (United States Department of Labor). It is saying that children are allowed to do work, such as family businesses or work that does not interfere with school or harm them, but as soon as any of these conditions are violated and the child is put in danger, that is when child labor becomes a problem and needs to be stopped. However most companies don’t care about the regulations or rules that prevent child labor and keep kids safe. They don’t agree with the basic human rights law or the fact that they are violating children.  Many people take for granted that the live in the United States where child labor is completely unacceptable, and they never truly think about how children in other countries are constantly working in unfair conditions just to survive. Acclaimed photojournalist David L. Parker stated that “250 million children worldwide still labour (sic) to sustain basic needs”(Parker). It’s amazing that as many human rights activists there are in the world, there are still so many children forced into unlawful working. It’s a practice that obviously needs to be stopped and fortunately there are organizations that are trying to prevent this terrible practice.

            UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Education Fund, is an organization whose efforts include preventing child labor around the globe. Their efforts are numerous and are really targeted towards creating a better environment for the children, claiming that “child labour as the rising tide on the international agenda”(Fyfe, 31). They are involved in many different programs and organizations to help prevent children from entering child labor. They created projects such as the “Mou Project”, which protected kids in the garment industry, to Basic Education for Hard to Reach Urban Children (BEHTRUC) project in Bangladesh, which allows children to receive, and education instead of entering the work force (Dukess). These problems create opportunities for kids around the world to be educated and to feel safe and protected within their own environment. This organization gives children the opportunity to be relieved of child labor and be able to actually grow up as children. UNICEF’S Executive Director Ann M. Venema said, “Children who are compelled to work are robbed of childhood itself,” (qtd. Dukess).  With these specific efforts made my UNICEF, they are essentially giving the children back their childhood, a human right that had been taken away from them. Children across the globe have benefited from their great effort to end child labor throughout the globe. In UNICEF’S facilitating position at the 2002 UNGASS (United Nations General Assembly Special Session) opening they made a statement saying, “education is a human right and a key factor to reducing poverty and child labour,”(Fyfe, 33). Whatever their efforts maybe, UNICEF puts forth their best effort in promoting and trying to end child labor.

         Another important organization to help end child labor is that of the ILO (International Labor Organization) works to create new programs in efforts to educate the world on the issues and tries to put an end to the child labor. One of their main missions, in association with IPEC (International Progamme on the Elimination of Child Labour), is to monitor child labor and to prevent children from working in inhumane conditions. Under their program called CLM (child labouring monitoring) they “mobilize and train community members to monitor child labour and link the monitoring activity to local government and official enforcement systems, especially labour inspection, so that the information on child labour can be used effectively,” (International Labor Organization). With this system and work to prevent child labor, they are clearly making a difference in what they want and what they expect to regard child labor. This is one of the programs used to help prevent child labor. They even instated an ILO convention in which they came up with specific rights about child labor that is unlawful land not allowed to be violated. For example Article 3 of ILO Convention 182 states that:

(a)   all forms of slavery or practices similar to slavery, such as the sale and trafficking of children, debt bondage and serfdom and forced or compulsory labour, including forced or compulsory recruitment of children for use in armed conflict;

(b)  (b) the use, procuring or offering of a child for prostitution, for the production of pornography or for pornographic performances;

(c)   (c) the use, procuring or offering of a child for illicit activities, in particular for the production and trafficking of drugs as defined in the relevant international treaties;

(d)  (d) work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is likely to harm the health, safety or morals of children. (International Labor Organization).

With laws such as these, that specifically break down and give information on what counts as violating child labor laws, one would assume that these wouldn’t be broken, however that is rarely the case.

North Korea

Derek Mclea

English150

Ms. Cowley

7-28-09

North Korea

Throughout the years North Korea has always been viewed as the equivalent of a pest to the rest of the world. This view has been brought upon themselves for their irrational behaviors and terrible foreign relations policies. Within North Koreas policies and so forth there is a leader that is coordinating such actions, and this terrible person is ll-Jong Kim. He is indeed a vicious dictator that cares only about his military. He cares nothing about the well being of the people of his country or the rest of the world. The outside worldly views from the UN and the views of North Korea on what they do are totally different. North Korea believes that everything they do is for the best while the rest of the world views them as borderline terrorists.

The countries surrounding North Korea are very distraught by what’s going within North Korea’s borders. One major issue that has raised the eye brows of many countries is the fact that North Korea has initiated their nuclear arms testing. This is widely frowned upon by the rest of the world and action regarding North Koreas actions is taking place immediately. Many negotiations have been sought after for the cooperation with North Korea and their nuclear arms programs but North Korea insists on proceeding with such a program because they have the well being of their homeland in mind.

wind turbines

Sam Johnston

Wind Turbines
Windmills are an ancient form of power production. They have been used for irrigation in 5th century Persia and for grinding grain in the Medieval Europe. (Chiras) Electricity was first created from wind in 1931 and turbines were popular in rural America before they were replaced by transmission lines of the spreading power grid. (Chiras) Now in this day and age they are making a comeback. With theories of global warming along with predictions of oil shortages countries throughout the world are turning to the wind. Due to increased investments United States has recently become the leader in wind power producing 25,369 megawatts of power. (Seipel) Wind energy has been lauded as our savior from global warming and oil dependency. They have also been criticized for increased federal spending higher electricity bills. Who is right? Is wind energy environmentally friendly and cost effective? And if so how should the government influence the energy market. These questions and through analysis a conclusion can be drawn. Wind turbines are the future of energy and their construction should be maximized.
Global Warming is a sensitive issue and one that has the scientific community along with the general population divided. It is a fact that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas which has the property of trapping heat (Farrar 8). Studies have shown that when carbon dioxide is released into a room it will block the heat of a given object and cause that objects thermal image to fade.(?) Greenhouse gases are not a bad thing in fact without them the average temperature of the world would be only .4 degrees Fahrenheit. (Farrar 9) It is a fact that human carbon dioxide emissions have exponentially increased in the past hundred years; these emissions refer to the increased burning of fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas. It is also a fact that atmospheric carbon levels have increased by about 25% in the past 100 years. (Lankford) It is also a fact that in recent years the earth has been getting warmer; the average temperature of the earth has gone up 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 150 years. (Farrar 7) The debate is has the increase in greenhouse gases the cause of global warming.
Environmentalists argue that the correlation between carbon dioxide increase and temperature increase is proof that we are causing global warming. They argue that unless immediate emissions reductions take place we could see various catastrophes. Polar melting is one of the biggest concerns because raised sea levels could cause flooding of major coastal population centers. (Farrar 47) Environmentalists also claim that increased heat will lead to increased tropical storms; they point to Hurricane Katrina as an indicator that global warming is getting worse. (Farrar 40) Others argue that global warming is a natural cycle and is unrelated to fossil fuel emissions. (Inhofe) They claim that much of the evidence used by environmentalists has been tampered with. (Inhofe) It is a fact that the media has been extremely slanted in favor of environmentalists and giving no thought to introducing any counter arguments. (Inhofe) This is called feared tactics; the media will make more money if they broadcast stories that will terrify people. (Inhofe) Although both sides have valid claims this issue is not as essential to wind turbine construction as most people think.
Although global warming has been used to argue for increased wind turbine production it is not the only validity. Even if carbon dioxide emissions aren’t causing global warming they still reflect a method of thinking that has failed in the past. We cannot treat the sky as an endless void where we can dump all our waste; it is this same attitude that caused massive pollution of our oceans when garbage barges where used. Fossil fuels may not have caused global warming but they still are not the best source of energy and they are a finite resource.
There are many different kinds of energy. Some have been used for hundreds of years and some are recent additions; however, all of them have advantages and disadvantages. Coal is one of the earliest types of energy and it is widely used in power plants to produce electricity. Oil is a popular energy choice because of it’s availability and it’s cheap cost. However a lesson from the past that we can take is that oil is a weapon that can be used to manipulate nations that are dependent on it. In 1973 OPEC initiated an oil embargo that crippled the US economy. (Fogel 2) This is a manifestation that our dependence on oil is a liability and should not continue. Furthermore, oil is a finite resource and it’s future availability is being predicted by experts. A common methed for predicting oil production is the Hubbert’s bell curve model. (Maugeri 202) This predicts that oil production steadily rises until it reaches a peak; after the peak production steadily declines. (Maugeri 202) This causes a roughly symmetrical bell curve graph. (Maugeri 202) This means that a severe oil crises won’t happen when we run out of oil but when we reach a peak of production, when demand is steady or increasing but supply is shrinking. So when will oil production reach its peak? Although Hubbert accurately predicted the America’s production peak he failed miserably when trying to predict the world production. (Maugeri 205) There are so many factors that influence oil production and this makes it hard to predict. However, the fact that production will decline after the peak means that we need to be ready otherwise we will have an energy crises on our hands.
Coal is a good choice for America because it is local and we control a quarter of total world coal. (fogel 24) The disadvantages to coal include it’s environmental effects. Global warming aside, coal has had negative impacts on the environment. Chemicals realized from burning coal include sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide.(Fogel 27) This pollutants mix with moisture in the sky causing acid rain which is harmful to crops ecosystems and stone building (Fogel 27) Also like oil coal is a finite resource and cannot last us forever. Nuclear power offers cheap electricity that can be produced without any air pollutants. (Fogel 47)However, the buildup of nuclear waste and the possibility of meltdowns are risk factors that have caused experts to question it’s reliability. (Fogel 47) Furthermore, uranium is also a finite resource that will eventually run out. (Fogel 49) Solar energy is promising but it is the first type of electric production method that doesn’t involve a spinning turbine, because of this it is years behind wind power. Although these other sources have potential wind power makes the most sense. It is clean renewable and nearing economic feasibility. (Fogel 70) James H. Mailinowski of Pacific Gas and Electric says that: “Of all the emerging alternate energy technology, wind is the closest to true commercialization”. (Fogel 70)

radio

Radio

“If the freedom of speech is taken away then dumb and silent we may be led, like sheep to the slaughter.” This powerful quote declared by the first president of the United States of America, George Washington, beautifully articulates the necessity of this cherished freedom to the well-being of the United States. Without it, America would certainly not consider herself the land of the truly free. The freedom of speech and expression is one that is coveted by all, and in recent times has proven to be one that is neglected by its possessors. Several recent events have sparked an uprising against the moderate restrictions on public radio. Events such as: Don Imus’ racial slurs directed toward the Rutger’s ladies basketball team, the Texas talk-radio ethnic slurs aimed at Hispanics and finally (find other example of radio offensive) The irresponsibility and flat-out immaturity expressed by these radio hosts have caused public outrage, and thus resulting in increased lobbying attempts to get legislation passed to limit speech on the radio. The reasons for these attempts are justified, however the proposed solution is not. America walks on thin ice when the decision is made to start restraining freedoms such as the freedom of unrestricted speech. Although people will choose to be offended over the radio’s decisions on word choices, the continual practice of free speech on the radio in America is imperative in order for all the liberties and freedoms practiced herein to be maintained.

The catalyst for this debate rising to the national level was the infamous verbal attack by Don Imus towards the Ladies Basketball team at Rutger University in early 2007. The result of the attack got Imus kicked off his own radio show for nearly eight months, and a reputation for being insensitive, and offensive. Imus degraded the black community, and offended the entire country. Now, in the aftermath of all this, many people are pushing for even more legislation to get passed that would further prohibit freedom of speech on the radio.

Speech on the radio already has its limits. According to Chris Reed an expert on broadcast radio, “Broadcasters do, indeed, have the same First Amendment rights that you and I do. But, the courts have held over the years, that because of the unique character of the broadcast medium, broadcasters' First Amendment rights are somewhat limited.” What this means is there are limited stations available on the radio to broadcast on, so naturally the government reserves the right to regulate what is broadcasted to the national audience. It is important to note that the radio already is not a completely free stream. Nevertheless, many people now are lobbying for even more restrictions to be placed on the radio. Many avid listeners of every day talk-radio feel that there are too many instances of racial and ethnic slurs occurring on the radio, and that it is time to start making more restrictions, and harsher punishments for those guilty.

In the case of Don Imus, the racist comments he made about the Women’s Basketball team at Rutgers really set the stage for the punishments of letting your tongue slip while on the radio. In addition to being fired for eight months, Imus was humiliated, forced to apologize, and scrutinized for the rest of his career. According to a poll conducted by MSNBC, 54 percent of America thought the punishment was about right, 32 percent said it was too tough and about 8 percent said it was not tough enough (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18209464/). This particular case set a precedent of radio cases like these in which the radio-host made a bad mistake, and launched into some kind of offensive diatribe. Another case similar to this occurring after the Don Imus expulsion from talk-radio was a Texas radio morning broadcast called “Todd and Don.” On this particular broadcast, the radio-hosts referred to illegal immigrants as “wetbacks,” thus resulting in no work or pay for two weeks for the convicted rradio-hosts. Many “Hispanic leaders” were not satisfied with this punishment however. Hispanics in the area lobbied to get these radio-hosts permanently removed from the radio air waves, and sited the Imus case as reason for more extreme punishment.

What these cases demonstrate is the public’s reaction to offensive words spoken on national lines. In nearly every case in which there is any sort of harmful rant, a universal feeling of discontent and outrage is expressed by all who hear it. The freedom of speech on the radio is one that can really prove offensive to listeners. When a radio-host has freedom to say what pops into his or her head, it isn’t unreasonable to assume people tuned in have the potential to be offended. Even with the few radio-laws prohibiting it, it still happens.

When freedoms granted in the Constitution begin to be distorted, the result is a gradual tilt away from reason. The liberty declared therein is inspired from God, and should be treated as a precious God-given gift. The very thought of trying to limit speech in America is preposterous, and if the steps are taken to do it by starting first with radio censorship, then the wonderful country known as America has already begun her downfall. Sexist and racist remarks are becoming all too common on the radio, who’s jockey’s delight in “bringing private behavior out into public,” and delivering the listener “the thrill of crossing that line,” this is all according to John Baugh, a professor of linguistics at Washington University in St. Louis.