blog 8: CULTURE

For this week’s blog I found an article on Wikipedia about the culture of the United States. When the word culture is said many people think of Indian tribes dancing around a fire or African paintings. Believe it or not but the U.S has a pretty unique culture of its own. From the United States traditional food to the arts and literature there are so many things that we do daily that are different from other cultures. The food in the U.S is widely ranged from Tex-Mex (which is Mexican food, but not as original as the food you would get in Mexico) to the Lee-Ann Chin’s Chinese food. There is also the traditional food such as hot dogs, burgers, pizza and more. For entertainment there is so much you can do. Every holiday is celebrated with usually a party for which many people dance hip hop and jump up and down. On a typical Friday night you would find many people dancing, going to movies, hanging out with friends and watching sport shows for fun. Other special traditions in the U.S are the state fairs that happen each year. At state fairs you will find every food item on a stick and fun games for the children to do. Another one is the Super bowl. This fun tradition consists of sport fans getting together to eat junk food, watch the championship football game, and just to have a good time. As you can see, the United States has many of its own traditions which make it such a unique culture as a whole.

Wikipedia contributors. “Culture of the United States.” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 3 March 3009. 3 March 2009. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_of_the_United_States>

blog 7: Facebook's Change

For this week’s blog I found an article on change. Pretty much everyone I know has a Facebook account and goes on it way to much! It’s usually known as “the thing everyone does instead of homework,” but we all love it anyways! On Facebook you you’re your own profile and information. Over the years they have added new qualities to the social networking site that makes it so “addictive.” Recently, Facebook made some changes in the website constraining members to many things such as status updates. They were going to remove them because some people put personal information on them. Thousands of groups were made protesting about the changes. Soon enough the company met with Marc Rotenberg, the center’s executive director and asked if it was possible to return to the old contract without breaking any rules. He said it was fine. On February 6^th the changes were made back to normal and publisher of Consumer Reports, warned people to “never upload anything you don’t feel comfortable giving away forever, because it’s Facebook’s now.”

Stelter, Brian and Stone, Brad. "Facebook Withdraws Changes in Data Use." New York Times. 18 February 2009. 21 February 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/technology/internet/19facebook.html?_r=1>

blog 6: Hope

Everyone knows about how the economy has been in a recession. It’s been about a year and it’s been getting worse. The economic stimulus bill has been presented by Barack Obama as an attempt to save the economy. Many people have doubted that it will actually work while others hope for the best. Although this will bring down the value of the dollar it will help our nation get back to where we were and better. The president said he would not pretend “that today marks the end of our economic problems.” I agree with what he said. People can’t just think that because of this bill, tomorrow everything financially down will be right back to normal. This whole thing will take time, but it gives our country hope for the future. I personally believe that this stimulus bill will give our country the best chance for a positive future.

Gay Stolberg, Sheryl. “Signing Stimulus, Obama Doesn’t Rule Out More.” New York Times. 17 February 2009. 18 February 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/us/politics/18web-stim.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=stimulus%20bill&st=cse>

blog 5: Religion

For this weeks blog I decided to use Mrs. Jarrett's article. In the article, it talks about how religion is conflicting with some of the new scientific advances of the country. Hinduism has been around for so long and many people believe in it but there is reason to believe that some of the work that Biotech does such as stem cell research and ‘cloning’ would not have been okay with Gandhi, the father of the Indian nation. As we have read in Nectar in a Sieve, a female child is considered a burden in the Indian religion. Many women have been getting ultrasound scans to abort female fetuses, and is that wrong? Gandhi believed that people should block out the “wants” of life and replace them with peace. Many people of India are now coming to the conclusion that maybe new technical advances will make their civilization easier and more functional although it is not the ways of their religion.

Mishra, Pankaj. “How India Reconciles Hindu Values and Biotech.” New York Times. 21 August 2005. 16 February 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/weekinreview/21mishra.html?pagewanted=1&_r=2>

blog 4: Gender roles

For this week’s blog about gender roles, I found an article about gay marriage. In the article it was talking about the insights to healthy marriages. Researchers found some pretty interesting data that said that committed gay couples don’t have as many conflicts as committed straight couples. Ever since California passed the law issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, there has been a nation debate upon it. Personally I have no problem with gay marriages. People have the right to make their own decisions when there that age and I think they should be able to marry whoever they want to. The U.S as a whole said otherwise. The typical stereotype for same-sex marriages was that they never last long. After Vermont legalized same-sex civil unions in 2000, researchers surveyed nearly 1,000 couples, both same-sex and straight. Both sides had few differences except that the same- couple said they had more of a balance. If you think about it in a man vs. woman relationship the two opposite genders have there stereotypical roles. The woman cleans the house, while the man is off working at the office. However, in a same-sex marriage the two are equal and split up tasks. There has been a lot of debate on this issue, but personally I think that people have their rights to love whoever, even if they are the same gender as you. 

Parker-Pope, Tara. "Gay Unions Shed Light on Gender in Marriage." New York Times. 10 June 2008. 10 February 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/10/health/10well.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=gender%20differences&st=cse>

blog 3: West Africa

For this night’s blog I decided to use Mrs. Jarrett’s article again. This article was about the rice production in West Africa. It had many people worried that there was so much production of rice and that the prices are getting higher. I thought that they would be happy that they were having a good harvest, but I guess it has the opposite effect. “I am worried,” said Mrs. Diop, a 57-year-old trader and farmer. “I can double my money. Or I can lose everything.” Mrs. Diop has a good point. If everyone has a good harvest of rice or whatever they are growing then who will be there to buy it. In the article it says that Asia was having a cheaper price of rice and wheat so West Africa was having a harder time selling. It is interesting how a product for farmers such as rice can either be a blessing or can ruin you. In our culture many adults just have jobs, at least in the cities, So they don’t need to worry about their product depending on their life.

Polgreen, Lydia. "West African Villagers Stake Their Fortunes on the Future Price of Rice." New York Times. 25 January 2009. 8 February 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/us/06land.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1>

blog 2: Overcoming Struggles

For this week’s blog I had to find an article about overcoming struggle. I decided to use the one Mrs. Jarrett picked out. The article consisted of information about a village named Akiachak in Alaska! This small village of about 700 people is not the wealthiest of places to live. Only a few years ago two thirds of the village got connected to sewage and water lines. One third still remains with out them. Instead they bath in river water and use honey buckets as latrines. “The city form of government was changed into a Tribal council a ways back,” said the three tribal leaders of the village. This way they can keep their same language and culture. The problem with this village is that prices are way too high set for everyone. A 12 ounce bag of lay’s chips is $7.39. And although Alaska is a main producer of oil and gas, their gas prices are still way too high! The people in these villages are not getting the right amount of help to get their societies straight. 

Barry, Dan. "Remote and Struggling, But Still a Bit of America." New York Times. 5 October 2008. 4 February 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/06/us/06land.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1>

blog 1: Natural Disaster-heat waves

For this week’s blog we had to find an article on a natural disaster and how people were affected by it! I found an article through New York Times about a very unique natural disaster. When people think about natural disasters they usually think of tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes but this one was about heat waves! People may not think of this as a “disaster,” more or less people (especially Minnesotans) may like it for a change, but little do we know they can be very dangerous! According to the Center for Climatic Research at the University of Delaware, an average of 1,500 Americans die from the heat! That is more people that die than people that die from the others combined! In the year of 1995, Chicago got hit with the deadliest heat wave. It caused a lot of destruction such as hospitals closing down and people with lost electricity while it got up to the 100’s. It also ended up killing 739 people that week! I thought it was interesting to hear about this natural disaster because I never knew that it was such a big deal! According to scientists, these disastrous heat waves didn’t even hit in the warmest climate zones!

Bahrampour, Tara. "Most Deadly of the Natural Disasters: The Heat Wave." New York Times. 13 August 2002. 1 February 2009. <http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9804E6DA103AF930A2575BC0A9649C8B63>