Donald Sterling Sues the NBA for $1 Billion

Just happened to be scrolling through yahoo news and came upon an article describing why Donald Sterling is suing the NBA. I don't want to spoil all the fun of reading the article but basically he is seeking retribution for damages caused by his lifetime ban and termination of ownership. Read the article and comment about your reaction. I personally think he is a bit crazy and needs to take responsibility for his actions.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/lawyer--donald-sterling-to-sue-nba-for--1-billion-212907563.html

More than 40% of domestic violence victims are male, reports reveal

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2010/sep/05/men-victims-domestic-violence
I'm sure that the number of male victims are higher but men tend to not report since believe that it's a sign of weakness.

Teen girls are more afraid of gaining weight than they are of cancer, nuclear war, or losing a parent

http://www.justsayyes.org/topics/self-image-media-influences/
These facts I know that we have already encountered but just seeing the numbers once really impacts me.

$16 billion of taxpayers ' money wasted on animal testing

http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.peta.org/features/16-billion-taxpayer-money-wasted-annually-animal-testing/&sa=U&ei=WIyHU7fkJoWhqAadiIHYCg&ved=0CBsQFjAA&sig2=kEXVDLZGJPGjvAjzMMs7HA&usg=AFQjCNFH1Kjq9PRZnTBLK8RvvW3xqJK7zg

I honestly have nothing to say other than the fact that this money can into the education system.

US troops leave Afghanistan by 2016

Let's see if this plan become reality and not another lie.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/28/world/asia/us-to-complete-afghan-pullout-by-end-of-2016-obama-to-say.html?_r=0

Churches and gay couples

Since we have been on the topic of trans and gays and how the churches say that they are supposed to be accepting and loving, my dad is a pastor and this topic has come as well.
He has said that if California makes a law that accept gay couples they can get married in churches and the church can not deny them or else the church can get sued or even closed down.
Is this true?

5 year old boy wears princess dres

Connecting back to what Hector had said today during class about little kids seeing same gender couples.A five year old boy named Romeo Clarke likes to dress up in princess dresses,have his nails painted,have his hair straightened and prefers to play with Barbies.The after school program had banned Romeo because his way of dressing confused children. The mother named Georgina was told he can rejoin the group if he went back wearing gender appropriate clothing.They had also told the Georgina it was in Romeo's best interest to avoid kids teasing. He wears his dress to the supermarket and sings down the aisles, he isn't bothered what people think. I don't think he should be, I'm proud he is so free and comfortable with himself, the Georgina said. "He won't be going back there,"Georgina said. "He will just have to go somewhere else." Most of the comments on the website focus on Romeo's collection of an estimated 100 dresses he owns and talk much about the issue. Why do people seem to care more about him being "spoiled" then the major issue of a boy being able to wear what he wants? http://jezebel.com/5-year-old-boy-banned-from-playgroup-for-wearing-prince-1573447523

O.J New trial

Lawyers for O.J. Simpson submitted a  document requesting a new trial in an attempt to have his 2008 armed-robbery conviction overturned."The attorneys for Simpson, who is not eligible for parole until 2017, filed the opening brief in his December 2013 appeal before a midnight-Wednesday deadline, said Nevada Supreme Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer." The document is supposed to be  14,000 words and is currency 19,993 and has the request of exceeding because of it being a complicated case. The court has to accept the request for going over the word limit. Do you guys think O.J should even try at this point to keep fighting? The article provides a picture of O.J now as well! http://news.yahoo.com/o-j-simpson-lawyers-file-trial-2007-robbery-225459429--nfl.html

First Twerking Songs -Brief History

The article started with Miley's "twerking" performance in the VMA's. Then it started describing that the  term "twerk" came out in the rapping songs in 1993. These twerking songs are as old as Miley Cyrus.The term which is an amalgam of "twist" and "jerk," emerged from New Orlean's Bounce music scene where the dance was name-dropped in songs like "Do The Jubilee All" from 1933. Its widely considered the first recorded reference as Jubilee chants "Twerk baby, Twerk baby, twerk, twerk, twerk, twerk." Two years later,Cheeky Blakk released the song "Twerk Something," the first with twerk in the title. I listened to "Do the Jubilee All" song and not going to lie, I liked the song. It has a nice beat.  Anyways, you guys should take a look at the video and comment what you think. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/09/05/what-is-twerking-history-twerk_n_3838993.html#slide=2855017

Civil Rights-Race

We can all agree on the fact that the term "race" isn't going away anytime soon. It is a term that is unavoidable due to obvious differences in peoples appearences. It can be said that the reason for stereotypes is the victims themselves. Their own culture along with the media shape a race to point where just about anyone can identify what race is aperson. This isn't something to rely on, due to the fact of there being anomalies to them. But in reality, these "anomalies" are just people living their life ad themselves, with a different lifestyle, than their usual race. In recent years, there have been many of these stereotype-breakers, proving to the rest of the world that they've madw progress of getting rid of classification, and more divetsity.

Class Discussion

Today in class we had an interesting discussion about people using their religion as a crutch to explain their behaviors towards gay people. I don't agree with people treating gay people unfairly and rudely and using the bible as an excuse because in the bible it claims that it's a sin. The bible also say's to love thy neighbors and to never get tired of doing good. Many Christians fail to see that no one can ever be fully holy and although someone is gay, that doesn't mean they are completely bad. That's just their way of sinning just like the rest of us who drink, smoke, swear, lie, lust, judge and etc. If you don't agree with me that being gay is a sin, then I respect that because that's your belief and I have my own. I have a few family members who are gay and I personally don't look at them differently. Gay or not, they are the same people they were when we were little. Growing up with cousins who were tomboys or acted more feminine and then coming out to us that they were gay never made a difference to me. I guess it was because I was so use to the way they dressed and acted that it didn't really matter to me if they were gay or not. I think one problem is that people don't want to accept that traditions are being changed slowly and change is something people are not willing to accept because they are so stuck in their ways. Accepting new change can be a threat to peoples beliefs especially if their stuck in it and think their beliefs are superior to others.

The 'average' doll v Barbie

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26465106

I found an article comparing an "average" doll versus an unrealistic Barbie. An American artist Nickolay Lamm created a prototype of a Barbie-like doll last year based on US government measurements for an average 19-year-old American woman and the response was huge. He named her dolls Lammily. He wanted to find a way to show young girls the ideal and realistic body image that girls should be looking at and not at the unrealistic Barbies. He wants to stop the body image issues from getting worse among young girls.He also mentioned how he was not going to sit around and wait for toy companies to change their doll designs. He wanted to create his own manufactured doll and he then did create it. I am glad he was brave enough to show what a woman really looks like. I think that with the Lammily dolls their will be less body image issues among young girls. 
                                                   

Is Disney the problem?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/quora/why-is-disney-still-makin_b_4565482.html

A lot of people blame Barbie for this unrealistic ideal body for young girls but does Disney also play a part in it? Disney has been around a lot longer than barbie and you have to consider that maybe it's Disney's fault young girls think they have to be slim and slender to find themselves a prince charming. If you look at all their princesses even today's princesses they're all the same body type just different facial features and ethnicity. Pretty interesting read, thoughts...

History

Many times students question why we study history, and many times teachers give the same answer, "We study history so that it won't repeat itself." Personally this claim makes sense but it doesn't exactly work that way. A lot times we see history repeating itself, if studying history were fulfilling it's purpose we wouldn't have racism, or wars, but many times the worlds current events are similar to events from the past. In an interview Morgan Freeman was asked about racism and how we can get rid of it and he replied "How do we stop racism? Stop talking about it. I'm going to stop calling you a white man, and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man." I believe in this theory 100% because to me by bringing up the past we allow ourselves and others to see what we are capable of. And if the right person gets hold of this insight we might just find ourselves in another holocaust, or form of slavery. I'm not saying to get rid of history altogether but I definitely think we should monitor what is being taught in school.

Emmett Till and Kendrick Johnson

Emmett Till was a young African American boy from Chicago, where racism wasn't widely accepted as it was in Mississippi. In 1955 while visiting family in Money, Mississippi he was brutally murdered by two white men for whistling at one of their wives who was white. In the middle of the night the two men sneaked into Till's uncles barn and beat Till so bad he was unrecognizable. The two men were found not guilty and many people claimed that Tills mother dug up a buried body to make them look guilty. Now this reminds me a lot of the Kendrick Johnson case because nothing has still been done to justify his death. He too was beaten beyond recognition and authorities claim that it was from suffocation in the wrestling mat he was found in. I just want to hear some of your guys opinion on both of these cases.
Emmett Till
http://www.biography.com/people/emmett-till-507515
Kendrick Johnson
http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/19/us/kendrick-johnson-death-probe-georgia/

Marine Kyle Carpenter receives metal of honor for his act of valor in afghanistan

Being ambushed by Taliban brave soldier Corporal Kyle carpenter dives in front of a grenade to save his squad and his best friend. He risked his life for this country and his comrades and had a feeling he was certain he was going to die, yet he still did this courageous act. He is receiving the metal of honor for risking his life, yet he is still not talked about on the media like Kim Kardashian and Kanye's wedding. Going back to Stevens comments about the navy seal veteran being shot and the media not caring I find it very sad that the media talks about celebrities as if they were some sort of hero's as to not talking about the real heroes that save lives every day and risk their lives to protect this country and our freedoms.

http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/article/20140519/NEWS/305190040/It-s-official-Medal-Honor-Marine-Kyle-Carpenter

Arizona teen pleads not guilty to accused sex crimes

18 year old Arizona high school student, Tyler Kost, pleaded not guilty to multiple sex related crimes. Kost had assaulted about 12 different girls during the school year. Kost is facing 28 felony counts of sexual assault, sexual abuse, sexual conduct with a minor and a child molestation against the girls including one as young as 12 years old. Kosts attacks date back as of 2009 to girls aging from 12-17 years old. With Kost pleading not guilty, what do you think will happen in the next court case which begins July 1st?

California prosecutors push back against doubts in kidnapping case

Isidro Garcia, a 41 year old man was accused with the kidnapping of a 15 year old girl and charged with with kidnapping, rape and lewd acts upon a child. These charges are being charged almost a decade after the girl was taken. She claims to have been forcefully married to Garcia, and endured a long period of physical and sexual abuse from Isidro. This case brings a huge deal of controversy because the neighbors of the couple were surprised with the accusations made against Garcia because the woman never showed any signs of distress. I agree with Emami's point that this is not about the 25 year old woman it's about her 10 years ago when she was 15 that's where the crimes against a child is really about. Garcia's lawyers are saying she went with him freely and was treated as a queen. I believe that this is sick because a 31 year old man took a 15 year old and kept her for his own use. I believe that the woman never escaped because of the immense trauma she suffered after those long years of abuse and just felt hopeless to her abuser. I think that Garcia should go to prison and serve the longest term possible for these agonizing crimes.

http://news.yahoo.com/california-prosecutors-push-back-against-doubts-raised-kidnapping-230346901--sector.html

M.I.A's political charged music video

The artist M.I.A had released her new video on the 19th and her label UMG had blocked her video due to copy rights.She has been waiting for her label to post it for 4 days. After fans tweeted away insisting to watch it then later UMG unblocked her video. When watching the music video the first thing you see is a 3-d printer and shown are guns that the 3-D printer has made.In the video there are LED lit peace sign drones.Do you guys think they held off the video for what it shows or is there an other explanation?. If you'd like to read more about it here is the article including the video http://time.com/105212/m-i-a-double-bubble-trouble-video/

Connecticut man living with mothers corpse charged with murder.

In a suburban town in Connecticut 59 year old John Waszynski, was charged with cruelty and murder of his 89 year old mother Krystyna Waszynski. Police were alerted after John refused to let his brother inside the home. Police found the body of Krystyna so decomposed that it was difficult to identify her at first. Her corpse had been rotting in the home for several months say the officers who found the body. Johns bail was set at 1 million dollars and ruled a homicide due to the several head trauma and neck injuries the body had. Do you guys think in court John's defense attorneys are going to play the insanity card? Or how do you think the defense will argue it's case in court.


http://news.yahoo.com/connecticut-man-lived-mothers-corpse-charged-murder-183326038.html

Misogyny- Applied in the Past

I found this article recently, depicting the current standards of women and the supposed ideal body image as it is placed on to the classical interpretations of beauty in paintings during the Renaissance Era. What I found interesting was the idea that such paintings need to be altered in order for people to see them as beautiful. Personally I feel that different people have different types of interpretations of beauty and its nonsensical to me that media has basically stated that not only is this the ideal beauty but that this is what we as people consider beauty. Also, this article could contribute to the two presentations done by Katie and Areli which went into detail about looks and body image.



Famous Nude Paintings Get Photoshoppped

STERLINGS BACK!!! Shelly that is.

So just for the late bloggers to have something interesting to blog about I just came across an article on yahoo about how Donald has now given up on managing the Clippers and has handed the team over to his wife Shelly! Now that she is in charge there has been speculation that she as been talking to the NBA and the commissioner Adam Silver about a possible sale. However Shelly doesn't seem to convinced yet and plans on trying to keep the ownership of the team because she does have most of the leverage now since the NBA can't force her to sell the team. So read part of the article or all and comment on what you think Shelly Sterling will do now that she is managing the Los Angeles Clippers.

Article:
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/reports--donald-sterling-agrees-to-allow-wife-shelly-sterling-to-sell-the-los-angeles-clippers-160732372.html

Good news with alternative

So for my senior project I did it on alternatives to anti depressants. One of the alternatives I didn't talk about is getting a hobby that you love to do. My hobby now is photography. A couple weeks ago my photo was displayed in the Los Gatos art museum. On Wednesday I got an email from a playwriter that wanted to use my photo in her play. I was amazed that for one my photo was even chosen for the museum and now a playwriter wants to use it is amazing. 

Standing up

The other day I was walking my dog around the block. As I was walking down the street adjacent to mine I saw two kids, a boy and a girl. As I got closer I saw the girl holding a scooter while the boy was hitting her. The boy just kept hitting her on the head even though she was in the ground. So when I got close enough I asked the kid why he was hitting her and he said that she took his scooter so I told him that he could share and that he shouldn't be hitting a girl. As I walked away I saw two grown men sitting on their porch watching this happen. I was upset that those two grown men didn't do a thing 

Survivor part 2

Survivors new season, brain vs brawn vs beauty, was an intense game. The finally and reunion was held on Wednesday. During the reunion Jeff the host had to apologize to Spenser, a player on the brain team. The reason he had to apologies was because during casting he said that spencer wasn't going to make it far. So spencer told him that if he won Jeff would have to apologize on the finally. The reason Jeff believed that Spenser couldn't win was because of the way he looked. So this ties into what we are learning in class about judging people based on the way they look.  

The Lazy Generation

As sad as it may be, I think there is some truth to the "lazy generation" label that has been stuck on us. It seems like more kids these days simply expect to wake up rich one day instead of working hard to deserve the money they have. We live with the expectation that we will somehow win the lottery, or even worse... marry rich. While I know that not all of the kids nowadays are like this, there definitely is some truth in the matter. What do you guys think?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/tykiisel/2011/12/07/leading-the-lazy-generation/

NASCAR's discrimination

We have talked endlessly this year about black athletes who have paved the way for integration into their sports, and I thought you all might be interested in Wendell Scott. Earning his NASCAR license in 1953, he became the first African American to race in the big leagues. Although his talent and perseverance have gained him thousands of fans, and his skill has earned him countless wins in the arena, he has been less successful at drawing in fellow African Americans to the sport. This may also be due to the fact that rebel flags still fly in the infield and crewmembers mocking a black employee by wearing white hoods "as a joke."

As Wendell Scott is inducted into the NASCAR hall of fame, I think that this sport, the fans and the executives have some thinking to do surrounding their exclusive nature and out-dated way of running the show. They are not trying hard enough to make this an equal opportunity sport to all ethnicities and there are still no full time drivers in the Sprint Cup or Nationwide series. How do you guys feel about NASCAR remaining a highly white washed/exclusive sport?

Here is an article I found on the topic:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nascar/2014/05/21/nascar-hall-of-fame-column-wendell-scott-african-american-2015-inductee/9394843/

"Tennessee Brings Back Electric Chair"

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/tennessee-signs-bill-electric-chair-23836338

I came across this article and thought it was interesting. According to this article, Tennessee want's to bring back the electric chair because lethal injection drugs are becoming scarce. With supplies becoming scarce, prisons "obtain execution drugs in secret from unidentified" places. Although this is a concern, I think Tennessee shouldn't bring back the electric chair. It's a cruel and unusual punishment and goes against the constitution. It burns prisoners body and sometimes if the person doesn't die right away, they would have to electrify him even more. On the other hand, if one were to take lethal injection drugs, they can die right away with no burning feel. Another interesting thing is that most of the states who still have the electric chair as a punishment are states in the south like Texas, Alabama and Georgia.

"Gateway Drug for Eating Disorders"

http://nypost.com/2014/05/22/nyc-says-this-girl-is-fat/

   Gwendolyn Williams was a 9-year old who was perfectly fine and athletic but was told by her school that she was overweight close to being obese according to her BMI and the fitness gram the school used. Her friend to was also told that she was overweight when she was active herself too. These kids were then given the envelope that told them the information instead of sending it home to their parents. First of all, why would you give information like this to a 9-year old. My theory is that who ever is in charge of this, gives these informations in an envelope to kids, tell them they can't open it, but know that they will open it. When kids are told they are overweight, most of them would think something is wrong with them and would try to lose more weight when they are perfectly fine. Also the accuracy of the BMI scale should be looked into more. Parents and students should go to the doctor if they want an accurate BMI. 

Comment what you guys think about this article.

Mother's duty or Mother being a bully

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Formal-Charges-Against-Santa-Rosa-Mom-Who-Chocked-Daughters-Alleged-Bully-Postponed-260288271.html

This article is about how a Santa Rosa mother took matters into her own hand and protected her baby girl. Her lawyer argues that she did nothing wrong and was only trying to protect her daughter. The Santa Rosa mother was scared of her daughter's safety. But on the other hand, by going to the school and talking to the bully can be a safety issue. Although she went on to the campus without signing in as a visitor, I would be scared knowing how flexible security is. I think the main issue here is the school. If the school was more involved in the kids playground issue, the mother wouldn't feel threaten to handle things on her own. Also, the fact that the mother just walked right onto the playground is scary. It show's how less of an attention security or guards are when it comes to watching the kids. Both these problems come to a meet of security. Both sides of feel unsafe and that is one major issue the school should talk about.

Feel free to comment any other ideas or thoughts you guys came across while reading the article and my blog.

Immigration

We as a country have always been a country of immigrants. Yet in todays day and age we who used to be the ones entering this land of opportunity looking for a better have begun shunning others who only seek to do the same thing. This country has men like Ted Cruz, a Mexican-Canadian who has reinvented himself as an American white supremacist. In doing so he has pushed policies that would of made it impossible for his own family to enter and gain status in our country. We have become far too entitled in this land that is not even ours. We are all immigrants. My own family came from Switzerland to seek work and Russia to escape the persecution by Cossacks who were seeking out all Jews in the country. Now that being said we see a large amount of racism and discrimination towards the Mexican immigrants and much less so from ones from Europe or Canada. The issue of racism is one that we are still attempting to tackle and is deeply rooted in underlying racist sentiments so in order to successfully trump the issue, both battles must be won. What personal experiences do you have in relation to this issue?

Tebow vs Sam

http://www.outsports.com/2014/5/21/5736424/tim-tebow-gay-christian-michael-sam-religion-nfl

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/blogs/david-whitley/os-if-tim-tebow-were-gay-all-would-be-forgiven-20140515,0,5939828.post

    I always thought the Tim Tebow vs Michael Sam argument was interesting. Some argue that it's a double standard that people would praise Michael Sam for being gay and kissing his soulmate in front of the camera while others would mock Tebow for praying in public and being a Christian. On the other hand, the argument was that Tebow's situation versus Sam's situation is nothing comparable to one another. These are two articles that state's both sides of the argument. Personally, I don't think Sam is being praised for being gay but that he is being praised for having such courage, especially in this time, to kiss his soulmate in front of cameras. I think many people who disagree with Michael Sam's decision of kissing his soul mate on cameras are afraid of change especially changing norms. Usually, kissing one a man to his wife on television is okay because that's normal. Seeing Michael Sam's action made people scared that more openly gay people would start being brave like Michael Sam and change norms.
     Tim Tebow's belief is argued that he uses it as a brand and prays in public for attention while there is many Christians who are in the NFL but are not so opened like Tebow is. I love that Tim Tebow is expressing his love for God and I do recall that you should never be ashamed of praising God no matter where you are at. But at the same time, in the bible it states, "When you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicity on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see...and when you fast, don't make it obvious as the hypocrites do..." (Matthew 6:5-16). If Tim Tebow is using his religion as a brand than we obviously know through these bible verses how true his faith is. In one of the article, they also make a point of how people are not mocking Tim Tebow because of his faith but on his skills.
      I am curious on what you guys think about this whole Tebow versus Sam issue.

Prom v. Eating Disorders

After hearing two presentations about looks and body image and reading the Prom Draft article in the last week, I have grown curious as to how severe the whole prom season dieting situation really is. I did some research, and as it turns out, events such as prom and weddings are the worst culprits for starting unhealthy eating patterns and toxic lifestyles. Eating next to nothing is not a viable way to live for more than a few hours (possibly days), but it has become the obsession of many teens over this prom season to do so for weeks and months. The way that society portrays the "attractive woman" in the media is how young adults believe that they must look in order to be considered beautiful or sexy on their prom night.

Honestly this topic frustrates me to no end. What most teens don't see is that prom is supposed to be fun and about being unique and special in your own way (just like every other day of the year). It should not be turned into a contest of who can lose the most weight or get the darkest spray tan without anyone noticing. By being unhealthy to get ready for an event such as prom, one opens the door to a possible lifelong struggle with eating disorders. So... I think that parents, schools and peers should advocate for the recognition and acceptance of individualized beauty and must not look to the media for the norms of beauty and sex appeal.

What do you guys think?

Immigration

Immigration can be a delicate topic for some people but I wanted to voice my personal opinions on the part of the Dream Act that Arely was talking about today. If I remember correctly Arely said that one percent of Cal grants would be going to these Dream Act students who are undocumented. Well I feel like this is just plain wrong. I believe that undocumented citizen is a word phrase designed to lessen the blow of illegal alien. If you are in this country I don't care from where, illegally you should in NO WAY receive any tax payer money over a U.S. citizen. I am not saying that you should be deported immediately. But rather you should not be receiving money from the state or the federal government for school. Even that one percent that Arely was talking about could be used to go to many other kids that legally live in this country. Why should we choose to give money to someone illegal over a citizen? That money could go to other kids scholarships or go into schools that are having enough money troubles without us giving away any of our money to people breaking the law. A quote that really struck me from this article was "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddles masses yearning to breathe free." It is written on the Statue of Liberty. It really struck me saying that we are a nation of immigrants and always have been. We take anyone and everybody that wants to come to our country. The thing is that they have to do it legally. More people than every are immigrating than every legally. But its the illegal ones that get everyone upset. Becoming a U.S. citizen or even immigrating is not as easy task by any stretch of the imagination but its worth it. But freedom has come at a very high cost for Americans throughout its existence, coming here is a privilege and a great opportunity and should not be abused by illegal immigrants.

Here is the article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/22/opinion/blow-still-a-nation-of-immigrants.html?action=click&module=Search&region=searchResults&mabReward=relbias%3Ar&url=http%3A%2F%2Fquery.nytimes.com%2Fsearch%2Fsitesearch%2F%3Faction%3Dclick%26region%3DMasthead%26pgtype%3DHomepage%26module%3DSearchSubmit%26contentCollection%3DHomepage%26t%3Dqry774%23%2Fstill+a+nation+of+immigrants&_r=0

Humans of New York

http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/84098900032/it-is-my-belief-that-god-created-one-earth-and

You guys have most likely heard of this blog "Humans of New York", but if you have not I will briefly explain. In 2010 this guy named Brandon thought it would be cool to document the different characters found wandering the streets of NY, so he set out to capture 10,000 snapshots. However, somewhere along the way, he began collecting short stories and quotes to go along with each photo, and his blog has become quite the national phenomenon.

As I was scrolling the thousands of pictures and stories a few days ago, I found this one quote that stuck out to me. It reads, "It is my belief that God created one earth, and we humans have wrongly drawn boundaries to fulfill our personal and political desires." I think this family is spot on about pretty much everything we have been learning about in Global for the past eight months. Race is not real, it was created to belittle some ethnicities/skin colors while giving power to others. What do you guys think about this picture and the quote that goes along with it? What do you think about the HONY blog in general?

Joseph Goodman

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/21/justice/washington-state-seven-duis-case/index.html?hpt=us_c2

Although his employees at his small business might suffer financially without work, the risk of him hurting or killing an innocent person is increased.  The fact that he did not receive jail time, shows that he faced no consequences for his actions.  Also, it concerns me that he has been arrested seven times, but how many times he has driven under the influence without being caught?

Media Cycle

As we know, in this day and age of instant news, constant updates, and relentless notifications, we are a very plugged in generation. Any time, day or night, we can check our device to receive the latest update on a breaking news story or something of the like. There are negatives to this in that important news that effects us all is swept under the bus to make room for the next story whether it be valuable or not. The Donald Stirling story has taken precedence over the story of the kidnapped Nigerian girls. This story was barely covered in our media outlets but Stirling story is being pushed on us daily from every angle. This phenomenon seems to be very strongly based in America. While all countries have their tabloids and celeb gossip, theirs is back page news that only die hard celeb stalkers would seek out. The attention span of our country and our species seems to be shrinking the more we ease the ability to access information and this is an unfortunate reality. What are your thoughts on this issue and do you believe their is a way for us to reverse the issue or remedy it?

Legalized Marijuana in Uruguay

During the presentations, we heard from a few people about the legalization of Marijuana. The one that stood out to me the most was, Terence's. While looking for some stories about the effects of legalizing Marijuana I found out that Uruguay has already decided to legalize it. The President, Jose Mujica, decided that he would experiment with this new law. The legalization came with means of decreasing the amount of organized crime that exists in  the country. There are rules/laws; how much can a person buy at one time and how much they can buy every month. The age requirement, and growing plants at home. There are also consequences that come with breaking the laws. This was something I found and thought it would be helpful to us since this is an issue we will be voting on as most of us are of age. 

You can find more detailed information here http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/06/uruguay-marijuana-regulat_n_5276097.html

Electric Chair

Over the year, we have briefly touched the topic of the death penalty. I do believe in the death penalty in some cases, but being killed in an electric chair just seems inhumane. This week, Tennessee has decided to replace the lethal injection with the electric chair. Although there is a shortage of the lethal injection it does not seem right to kill death row inmates this way. I believe should alternative methods should be explored before considering this painful and lengthy way of death.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/tennessee-signs-bill-electric-chair-23836338

Zimbabwe February Flood

http://news.yahoo.com/did-robert-mugabe-fake-flood-zimbabwe-february-001503088.html

After reading Casey's post on the blog about what our "Top Stories" are and what's trending, this article made me concerned about what we are focusing our attention on, too.  I know it is different in America because we are able to stay connected through social media, but the news we are spending time looking at is actually irrelevant to the overall state of the country.  I think it is super important to know and analyze the decisions our government makes, because I believe what happened in Zimbabwe displayed how power can be abused.

Prom Draft

Earlier this week in Mr. Stewart's small group, we read about the recent drama involving forty pretentious boys gathering to have a "Prom Draft." Within this draft, the boys drew numbers ordering when they would be able to choose their date. For me I found this to just be typical Newport teenagers taking advantage of their country clubs and sport coats. I have many family friends who went to Corona Del Mar and I could easily see anyone of them being involved in this draft. Overall, I think that this was blown out of proportion due to the location and reputation that Newport has. Here is another article regarding the topic.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/05/prom-drafts-in-newport-beach-a-conversation-with-the-devil/370911/

GM Recalls

It would scare me to think that the car that I am driving is under a recall from the manufacturer. In the latest recall from General Motors this week includes 3 million vehicles on the road. Having to do with belts, bags, and more. General Motors said that they will set aside $400 million for this quarter to deal with recalls. Though they are a business trying to make money their seems to be a disconnect between large auto manufactures and the safety of their customers. GM knew about an ignition switch module problem since 2001 and didn't fix it to this year, 2014! It was linked to 12 deaths in 46 accidents that involved injury or death in the U.S. and one fatal crash in Canada. 13 years GM knew of the problem and did nothing about it because of money. Lives were lost and they seem to just fade away into numbers. Which is really wrong in my opinion, families lost love ones over negligence by a car company. I think that further punishment should be brought on upon GM to teach them a lesson. Since they clearly don't seem to care for their customers over money.

Here is an article on the recalls:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2014/05/20/gm-recall-belts-airbags-transmission/9322725/

Net Neutrality

Net Neutrality is a big issue that most people outside the tech community aren't paying any attention to. Basically net neutrality means that Internet Service Providers or ISP's for short can't create fast lanes on the internet to get their websites and shows to you faster than anyone else. It works like this with net neutrality a company like Netflix can't pay someone like Comcast for faster service over another website like Hulu. The internet was created as an open medium, it was founded on the principle that nothing on the internet shall be given priority or nothing discriminated against and that is net neutrality. ISP's stand to gain a lot a lot of money if they succeed in bringing down net neutrality, which is currently under debate with the FCC. I think its an interesting topic for the future of the internet. Let me know what you think.

Here is some background information:
http://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-101

Racism

I saw this article about a soccer player who was taking a corner kick and a fan from the other team through a banana just in front of him on the field.  He went to pick it up, peeled it, took a bite and went on with the game.  I think this was a hilarious and smart way to deal with the situation and the racism.  Although this may be a difficult solution to racism, I think one way to decrease racism in our society is to react to racist remarks and actions in a similar way this soccer player reacted to it.  Obviously the fan being racist is trying to get a rise out of the player and offend him, but if one doesn't give the reaction the racist wants, they will slowly stop making racist remarks.


http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/28/sport/football/dani-alves-banana-racism-football/index.html?iid=article_sidebar

O.J. had an accomplice

      I came across an article, which spoke of O.J.  having an accomplice in the slaughter of Nicole Brown and Ron Goldman. The article said that this person helped O.J. with the stabbing and that he took the evidence afterwards. This information was not new but it was ignored during the trail back in 1994. This was something that I could not fully understand and I was wondering if anyone could possibly help me try to understand the reasons for ignoring such information. Thanks. 

Here's a link to the article.. http://www.celebdirtylaundry.com/2014/o-j-simpson-nicole-brown-ron-goldman-double-murder-accomplice-photo/ 

 Here's a link to the story of the accomplice, Glen Rogers. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2012/11/19/could-this-be-nicole-browns-murderer-chilling-documentary-suggests-o-j-was-in-fact-innocent/

sweatshops

We hear a lot about the unfair working conditions in sweatshops in foreign countries.  Many people, including my sister protest companies like nike and adidas because they use sweatshop labor.  Personally, I think sweatshops have lots of upside.  While conditions should be improved, if the sweatshops are completely shut down, the workers are forced to even worse jobs.  Mr. Miyahara told my economics class last week about a town in bangladesh with a sweatshop.  The sweatshop was shut down and prostitution rates went up as many of the children who were workers were forced to prostitution to make money.  While conditions should be improved, protesters should not aim to get these shops shut down completely.


http://www.buzzfeed.com/alexrees/8-arguments-in-support-of-sweatshop-labor

Procrastination

Throughout the year, Mr. Smith and Mr. Stewart have instilled in us the importance of deadlines and having them met in a timely manner. And for the most part I believe we successfully did this first semester and the beginning of this semester. However it became painfully clear during the closing the days of the senior project that we may not of been as on top of it as we thought we were. Even now we are all rushing to complete the blog assignment hours before it is due. What is it that causes us to lose all motivation in school down the final stretch especially in a class like Global that I know we all thoroughly enjoy.

What would you change about high school

With graduation nearing, I think I have a pretty good grip on what high school is all about.  Here is an article about what twenty high-schoolers would change about high school.  Personally, I have a few changes I would make.  First off, the grading system would be drastically different.  There wouldn't be semester based grades.  Colleges would have to evaluate students in other ways, such as test results and projects.  Hopefully this would eliminate the need for students to partake in what they believe is busy work.  They would be free to learn the material in a more personalized manner.  Colleges wouldn't have set class credit requirements.  I don't understand why a future police officer should have to learn trigonometry.  Also, school wouldn't start so early.  What would you guys change?  

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/02/24/high-school-changes_n_4844338.html

Our societies priority news.

So on Wednesday in class Mr. Stewart had us read the corona del mar article that made headlines across the country and Steven Jenab said something that had me thinking. Steven said that how does the corona del mar article make country wide news when he had seen an article on an army veteran who was shoot nine times and this barely made local news. It made me think of how our society is changing and how a "mock draft" is more important then a man who fought for his country. To me this is ridiculous and i agree with Steven this "mock Draft" shouldn't be country wide news, the army vet death should be country wide news. So i ask how come a "mock draft" has become more important to our country then an army vet getting killled?

MVPD and child pornography?

On tuesday of this week Kevin Nguyen who is a police officer for the city of mountain view was arrested on suspicion of child porn possession which they found on his computer. Officer Nguyen was a patrol officer but was mostly known for his outstanding sketches when identifying a suspect. However this man is now tainted and with the worst color of all. I honestly feel disgusted about this because this man is supposed to protect the people of mountain view but now knowing that this man had possession of child pornography makes him repulsive. Here is an article that talks more about it but i would also like to see what you guys think about it.

Article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-courts/ci_25760464/mountain-view-cop-arrested-suspicion-child-porn-possession

O.J. Simpson & 2007 Trial

In 2007, O.J. Simpson was arrested for an armed robbery in attempt to steal some of his own memorabilia. His lawyers have recently appealed in hopes to free O.J. or move up his parole date, which isn't until 2017. Here is the article that I found about his case.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/05/22/us-usa-nevada-ojsimpson-idUSBREA4L19H20140522

Effects of beard/weightloss

Areli's presentation today made me wonder what the effects of certain changes in the way you present yourself would be.  I found that growing a beard gains respect but loses interest from women, and losing weight can make people treat you generally nicer.


http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/03/06/beards-get-respect-but-not-women-study-finds/

http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-12360/what-losing-100-pounds-taught-me-about-how-we-treat-overweight-people.html

Top Stories

As I scroll through more of the popular online home pages (Yahoo, MSN, etc.) I see some of the more irrelevant news stories coming up as the "Top Pages" or "Trending Now." These stories consist of Gwen Stefani taking her son to his first baby class, and a series of photos titled "Selfies from building tops." I find it pathetic that our society has become more interested in the guy who delivered pizza to Ellen Degeneres on the Oscars, then the 200+ Nigerian girls who were kidnapped. We need to be more educated on issues that affect our world than the ones that mean nothing to us.

Climate Change

As we know, the United Nations recently released a report saying that if we do not curb our carbon emissions by 2050, we will have irreparably damaged our planet by raising the average temperature by 2 degrees Celsius. This may not sound like a lot to but it would cause ocean levels to rise as much as 20 feet around the globe, heat waves to become more common and persistent as well as extreme weather to be common place. Now I dont know about you but This is quite alarming to me, BUT we as American seem to still think that this is a topic up for debate. The reality is, as John Oliver put it, you can debate facts all you want, but that does not change the fact that it is indeed a fact, and your opinion on it does not matter. While scientists try fruitlessly to make us understand the dire consequence we are in, the conservatives and global warming deniers try just as furiously to bring doubt to the facts we have been presented. The reality is, unless we all stop listening to the 3 out of 100 scientists who dont believe in climate change, we are essentially writing our own death note. What are your thoughts on the overwhelming evidence?

Police shooting in Salinas

In Salinas, California there have been three fatal shootings from police officers.  All of which are latino men. The last shooting was caught on video spreading this around and causing an outrage in Salinas. In the video it looked like a man was backing away from the officers trying to get away slowly but the officers had him cornered to a fence. Apparently the officers had tased this man already and it did not affect him which cause them to shoot because they could not stop him. From the video i think that these officers could have easily tacked this man down or something similar, they did not have to shoot it was completely unnecessary. I hope these officers go to jail.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/22/us/california-protest-police-shooting-hispanics/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Mark Cuban says were all Bigots

The interview with Mark cuban can be true in a way. He said that we all have prejudices which is true in a way. He said that if he saw a black teenager in a hoodie walking down the street he would go to the other street but if he saw a bald white man with tattoos he would go back to the other side. And this is true for almost all of us.I for one walk a little faster or farther away from people who just look sketch because I have seen people get mugged before and it was a teen in a hoodie. I believe this is just a good decision to move away from a possible threat. But should we have these prejudices and if we do should we ignore them if we see someone as a possible threat to us. I for one walk a little faster or farther away from people who just look sketch because I have seen people get mugged before and it was a teen in a hoodie.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/22/us/mark-cuban-nba-bigotry/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

Cant be happy in IRAN

I thought this article was outrageous because people were arrested for spreading a message of happiness. These teens were also publicly humiliated and had to give a public apology for staring in a video for the song "Happy" by Pharell. This article showed the uproar of the iran citizens as well as people around the world. The thing i don't understand is that if iran citizens aren't allowed to be happy then why do we not have the united nations there to change this.

http://news.yahoo.com/iran-happy-pharrell-142956886.html

Body image

This is an article I found about this young man who lost 125 pounds and still struggled with the way he thought he looked.  He took it so far that he actually collapsed once due to lack of food and over-exercising.  This just shows that women aren't the only ones who suffer from body issues either.  People go to the extreme to be accepted by society.

I cannot personally relate to this, but my older brother struggled with his weight his entire life.  He was always made fun of, very insecure about how he looked in his clothes, and had a hard time playing sports because he was so out of shape.  By senior year he finally got motivated enough to change his diet and workout everyday.  Within a year he lost 75 pounds.  He kept wanting to lose more weight, but my parents forced him to stop and actually gain back 10 pounds because he lost so much weight in a short period of time, which isn't very healthy.  I got a front row view to the daily issues of a person struggling with their weight and body image.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/05/health/weight-loss-janetzko/index.html?iref=allsearch

10 year old selling WEED!

So I was looking through some news today and this caught my eye.
This article was about a 4th grader in colorado selling Marijuana. The child here sold 4 marijuana brownies for 11 dollars. I thought this was interesting because although making marijuana legal can help with many issues regarding our financial status will it increase the amount of it sold through minors. And will legalization of marijuana make it easier for minors to have access to this?

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/04/colorado-fourth-graders-busted-for-selling-pot/

Medical Cocaine

With all of the presentations on medical marijuana, I thought that I would do a little research and try to find something a bit more outrageous like medical cocaine. Medical Marijuana was legalized, because it had a plethora of medical uses, such as pain relief, anti-anxiety, anti-stress, and other potential uses. Medical Cocaine also could have its benefits. Cocaine is an anesthetic, or a drug that inhibits the transfer of electronic signals that help to dull pain and cause other effects such as a "high". One can also use the "its just a plant argument" because cocaine comes from the coca plant, that grows in the andes and is considered sacred, on top of that it has been used as a blood glucose regulator as well as an antibiotic. In addition to those, it can also be used to help lose weight. Cocaine use has been linked to weight loss, and could possibly be given to those who need to lose weight because of sever obesity.

I think I will go and get my Medicinal Cocaine card as soon as it comes out.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/22/why-we-need-medical-meth-cocaine.html

Vietnam threatens legal action against China

Vietnam's prime minister is considering legal action against China over the claims of the South China Sea. China is claiming the majority of the sea causing conflict with smaller countries such as the Philippines and three others that have private claims. How should these problems be settled?

http://news.yahoo.com/vietnam-threatens-legal-action-against-china-014358339.html

80 U.S. Air Force personnel on ground in Chad

The U.S. Air Force had gone to Chad to help locate about 300 schoolgirls kidnapped in Nigeria. On April 15, these people were captured northeast of Nigeria at a school. The leader said he'd sell an approximate 276 schoolgirls unless the Nigerian government releases them.

http://news.yahoo.com/80-us-air-force-personnel-ground-chad-152245733.html

The AIDS-Shaming of Magic Johnson

Here is an article about Sterling shaming Magic Johnson about the fact that he has HIV.  I think Sterling is just an example of the majority of society who is uneducated and not well informed about what HIV and AIDS are.  Yes we are learning more and more about this disease but people are still very ignorant on the topic.  Sterling is an example of the many who discriminate against people who contract this virus that causes this disease over time.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/15/opinion/blow-the-aids-shaming-of-magic-johnson.html?_r=0

13 Ukraine troops dead, over 30 wounded in attack

Only a few days before Ukraine holds their presidential election pro Russia insurgents killed 13 and injured 30+ troops. Ukraine accused Russia for escalating the regions for their election Sunday. The rebels attacked near a town called Volnovakha and the attackers had hit an ammunition section in one of the other vehicles which exploded. 
http://news.yahoo.com/13-ukraine-troops-dead-over-30-wounded-attack-142524460.html

Why Do People Like Video Games

When the other Max gave his presentation on videogames, I began to wonder why do we like violent videogames. Yes, other games are out there where we don't decapitate each other or where we dont shoot each other in the face, but the games where we do end up making the most money.

It is simple really why we do, in this article it states that in order to make a good game you need a good narrative behind it. Every story needs conflict, and the best conflicts are always the ones that we resolve with a gun in one hand and a knife in the other. These games offer the ability to do something out of the ordinary. It allows us to take each others lives, which otherwise would be horrible, and do so with pleasure. This causes a rush of endorphins, and provides us with a sense of happiness.

Personally I love gouging people's eyes out with my thumbs in killzone, but I worry that it has made me a little too accustomed to death. A normal reaction would be disgust, but as more hours of violence is played, my nerves and brain have just gotten accustomed to that kind of stimulus.

http://www.npr.org/2013/02/11/171698919/video-game-violence-why-do-we-like-it-and-whats-it-doing-to-us

Prosecutors charge man in California kidnap case

About a decade ago a 15 year old girl was kidnapped and was then forced into marriage of the year of 2007 and had a kid by 2012. She has reported Garcia for a sexual offense over the years of marriage. She then says that she was treated well and was given many things. The neighbors even said she was treated as a princess. What are your thoughts on this?
http://news.yahoo.com/prosecutors-charge-man-california-kidnap-case-161956843.html

Why a War with China Would Be Bad

With all of the political tensions, and other armed conflicts globally one can only imagine that one day we will have to face China, the massive trade empire, and now a large global military power. We should only hope that this day never comes, but if it does this is what it will be like.

First off, China has the single largest military on the planet, with nearly 2.3 million active army personnel. This means, that they outnumber us greatly and would annihilate us in any conventional warfare. In addition to that, they have stolen all of our blueprints for our most advanced military technology such as helicopters, humvee's and jets. This means that they not only know how they  work, but how to out play them. Also their massive military budget has allowed them to build their own state of the art weapons and vehicles, which would overwhelm our forces. In a full scale war, the Chinese would outman and out gun us, it would not end well for America.

http://www.infowars.com/why-the-next-war-with-china-could-go-very-badly-for-the-united-states/

Fast Track to U.S. Citizenship

The MAVNI program or military accession vital to the national interest, allows the military to enlist legal immigrants who have special language or medical skills. It was started in 2009 and has around 3,000 people in the program. This program is also very competitive and has turned away thousands of applicants. Usually participants are sworn in as citizens after completing basic training without needing a green card or permanent residency, which makes this program the fastest way to gain citizenship in the U.S. But you can't be undocumented and you need to serve at least 4 years in the military if you are accepted for you language skills. Plus you need to have lived in the U.S. for at least 2 years. This program is set to expire on Sept. 30th of this year unless the program is renewed. But some law makers worry about security issues after the November 2009 killing of 13 people at Fort Hood in Texas by an Army psychiatrist, a U.S.-born son of Palestinian immigrants, the program was put on hold for about two years pending additional security reviews. Should this program be renewed?

Article:http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304908304579564360093284126?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories&mg=reno64-wsj

Growing Tensions in The South China Sea

Disputes between China and other Asian nations in the South China Sea are quickly escalating as China moves in on territories inside of the South China Sea. China has set it's eyes on this territory, because they believe that there is a mass amount of natural resources such as oil hidden underneath the surface of the ocean.

Because of this, China has been pushing around smaller countries with its military in hopes to get them to back off. One nation, Vietnam, has been gearing up around the clock in an attempt to prepare themselves for armed conflict because of these territorial disputes. 

I believe this is where the next war will begin.
http://www.cfr.org/china/south-china-sea-tensions/p29790

Military Coup in Thailand

Thailand's Military declared martial law two days ago and today the military declared a coup and detained leading political figures within the Thai government. This is the 19th attempt to take power by the military since 1932.  Over the past 6 months their have been violent pro and anti government protest. The two main political parties involved are the pro government party which is also called the For Thais Party and the anti government party which is called the Democrat Party. Obviously Thailand has had some political unrest to say the least.

Here is a video and article that talks about Thailand's complicated political past and the current coup.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303749904579576941085019938?mod=trending_now_4 

The Internet and Misogyny

With the new case study on Misogyny, I found this article very relevant.  I know that from the video we saw today that the objectifying of women has to do a lot with how women portray themselves.  Although this article discusses how easy it has become for people to express their misogynistic views through the internet, I also think it has become easier to objectify women.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/10813308/How-the-internet-made-misogyny-easy.html

Effects of Photoshop

After Areli's presentation today on Looks and Body Image, I remembered watching this video that someone posted on Facebook.  At the end it's pretty surprising, but just goes to show that photoshop can drastically change the image.  What we may think is the ideal body that the media has portrayed, may very well be completely altered.    

http://www.collegehumor.com/video/6956694/photoshop-has-gone-too-far

Not As Close As We Thought

Lately in class we've been discussing how far we've come as Americans in combating racism. As much as we'd like to believe that we've made significant progress, the ugly truth is, we are no where near that. Just earlier this week in Salinas a man was shot by police for threatening to kill a woman and break into her home. The man was Hispanic and remains unnamed, he was armed with garden shears and police claim they fired the shots because the man lunged at them. Here's the video:

http://www.worldstarhiphop.com/videos/video.php?v=wshhw5I973aKHq85Q8kO

It's really poor quality and the person recording expresses his or her (honestly, I can't tell)  view on the situation with very explicit vocabulary but I don't think it was necessary to shoot and kill the man. The rest of this story is still being investigated but it's sounding a lot like Rodney King and the LA Riots. Wednesday night angry residents began protesting against what they believe to be injustice. One man was shot standing outside his house, not participating in the riots. What I find to be absolutely absurd is that a police officer that was there tried to help the victim but with all the hate and anger filled inside of people they threw beer bottles at the officer despite the fact that he was trying to save a life. Many of the protesters believe the police are racist because this was not the first but the third time in three months that an incident like this has happened in Salinas, and each victim happened to be Mexican. An online petition has been started and possibly a lawsuit against the Salinas Police Department for racist judgment and unnecessary lethal force.

When slavery was introduced what it essentially did was open Pandora's Box to racism. It's not something that you can ever get rid of completely, it's always going to be around because some people do have a strong belief and as we've discussed earlier this year you can't change someones morals just because they don't fit with your own. Now whether or not these killings were fueled by racism I don't know you can judge that yourself but do remember that Salinas is an are dominantly occupied by Hispanics/Latinos/Mexicans. 

Mark Cuban on Prejudice

In the aftermath of the Donald Sterling incident, Mark Cuban the owner of the Mavericks which is another NBA franchise gave a recent interview about prejudice. In the interview Cuban stated that we all have prejudices including himself, which I completely agree with. I think that it all just depends how we express our prejudices. Some people are very open about their prejudices and others keep their prejudices private. Cuban also caused some controversy when he said "If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. And if on that side of the street, there's a guy that has tattoos all over his face -- white guy, bald head, tattoos everywhere -- I'm walking back to the other side of the street."  I think many people mistook his comments as him being racist or stereotyping blacks. Also I think many feel very sensitive about this topic especially after the Trayvon Martin incident where he was killed because of his appearance. But I think he was just making the point if he sees someone that looks sketchy then he's going to act with caution and walk away. I think I would do the same as well, if I were in that situation.

What do you think about Cuban's comments?

Here's the interview: http://espn.go.com/dallas/nba/story/_/id/10968237/mark-cuban-dallas-mavericks-discusses-own-prejudices-how-handles-them   

Racism at college

Next year I'm going to NYU which is widely known as a "global network" and a very accepting place to all people.  Since we're learning so much about racism and how the issue still continues today, I decided I would see if there were any recent racist incidents at NYU.  I came across an article from 2011 that talks about a mailman being discriminated against.   One of the library workers at the university would call him a "monkey" and would tell him to "get back in his cage," and suffered abuse like this for two years.  This just shows how racism is definitely still present, even in a place that is supposed to be the most accepting.

http://gothamist.com/2011/08/17/nyu_settles_racism_lawsuit_do_you_w.php#.

6th Post! Just for fun :)

As some of you may know, I recently put a down payment on a street bike. There's a story behind that, because of my Cerebral Palsy I don't have good "selective control". So when I'm driving, it's either too much gas or too little, and in my eyes that's pretty dangerous! This was a way for me to not only have another motorcycle but to make my mom happy that I wouldn't kill anyone or myself while driving! Honestly, this is probably the most fun I've had on the road since getting my driver's license one year ago! Now, after the graduation seating, I decided to take my new toy out to Half Moon Bay for a little coastal fun, and with my GoPro attached to my helmet, I recorded the ride!

Here's a clip if you wish to watch! (Turn to 720p HD! [Gear Symbol in the bottom right])

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0aMuKr4wak

The "American flag T-shirt" boys and their views

I was looking into the Morgan Hill Cinco de Mayo issue, and I came upon an article that was actually published May 6, 2010.  I think the video is interesting because today in class we were kind of just assuming why the boys did what they did, but here we see their own views on it.  Also, some Mexican students are interviewed talking about how they felt disrespected.  Check it out!

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2010/05/06/california-students-sent-home-wearing-flags-cinco-mayo/

Cheating Scandal at Corona Del Mar had Little Effect on College Admissions

I guess the rich really do get everything they want, buying their way out of trouble with "pocket change". Speaking from personal experience, I went to a private Catholic high School on the central coast. Although that wasn't nearly as bad as Corona Del Mar, it just amazes me how having even slightly more money than the average can turn kids into such A-holes. Despite cheating and changing their grades, these kids are continuing to get into the top universities around the world. Furthermore, the cheating scandal had little effect on the colleges they got into. For example, UCLA accepted 27 students last year and 29 students this year. An increase of 2 students, and many were probably involved in the scandal that got them in in the first place. In the end, their still achieving success and the school is turning a blind eye to it.

http://www.coronadelmartoday.com/42967/home/cheating-scandal-apparently-had-little-effect-on-cdmhs-college-admissions-data-shows/

Boko Haram Kills 30 Near Kidnapping Site

The same terrorist group who kidnapped 200 schoolgirls has been confirmed to be the culprit in the car bombings that happened yesterday that killed 118 and now a new attack near the site of the kidnapping, that killed 30 people. In expanding their attack radius, Boko Haram could create further complications in the Nigerian Government's efforts to rescue those schoolgirls. I believe that something really should be done to stop this group from doing more harm to the people of Nigeria. Now, I know help can't help at the tip of a hat but it'd great if we could make an attempt soon to prevent more attacks from taking place.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/two-car-bombs-kill-dozens-in-nigerian-city/article18762300/

My Father's storys

When I went home yesterday after school I decided to ask my dad if he has ever been discriminated against because of his race or if he was ever wrongly treated due to the color of his skin. He told me of the story of the day he went to the district office to have his interview to work at Blach Middle School. He said that he walked into the building and the secretary asked him if he was there for the custodial job. My dad had gone there to get a job as a spanish teacher and the fact that this lady assumed that he was there to be a custodian was offensive. he also told me that if he ever wore a certain color gang member would come up to him and he believed that if someone wearing the same color but was of a different ethnicity they wouldn't have approached them.

63 Senior Prankers Arrested

63 students were arrested at Teaneck High School for participating in a senior prank.  It's not completely clear in the article what the students did, but it sounds like the prank consisted of spreading graffiti and debris over the school, and slathering the doorknobs with petroleum jelly.  The superintendent said there was no permanent damage to the school.  I do not see how it justifies the arrest of 63 students.  This type of incident creates hatred towards law enforcement in highschoolers.  I could see many high-schoolers I know participating in a prank like this and I don't think they deserve to be arrested.

http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/students-rally-arrested-teens-senior-prank-gone-wrong-n99961

How Money Can Buy Happiness

Yesterday I went to the May 20th, 2014 San Jose City Counsel meeting to listen to the outcome of the medicinal marijuana restrictions they are trying to change. Long story short, when I was paying the parking meter an African-American homeless man was dragging a cart with his supplies and beautiful pitbull in it. The man was not begging for money, just simply walking on the side walk. As he passed by, I pulled what I thought to be a one dollar bill from my pocket without looking to give to him. I said to him, "Hey brother, you need some money?" As I extended my arm towards him, I saw the bill in my hand was not a one, or a five, or a ten dollar bill but it was my buddy Andrew Jackson on the twenty. I thought about taking back the bill but the man had already seen it and before I could react, he said, "Aww for real man? You're a blessing, I need to by my dog some food. She hasn't eaten in a few days." The man was not fully clothed and clearly needed that twenty dollars more than his dog, but he said, thanks to me his dog can get some food and when she gives birth to her puppies he will give me one if he sees me again.

Personally I don't care about that puppy that he promised me, or the twenty dollars I technically "gave away." What I do care about is the feeling I was able to bring to that man when he got that twenty dollars.

Money can buy happiness if you spend it ways that you usually do not. I would have spent that twenty dollars on gas for my car or something that is not a necessity for my survival. This man that I gave it two is living a horrible life with nothing but his shopping cart filled with clothes and his dog; he immediately decided to spend the money not on himself but on his one true companion. Never judge people by the way they look because he did not look like the best individual but his heart is in the right place.

Giving the money to this man instead of spending it myself gave me a life long memory not a useless martial item like gas or anything else you could buy for $20.

Recent Marijuana Legalization's Effect on Crime

In Colorado, the legalization made state citizens certain that some "hell" would begin to break loose due to the huge increase in pot use. Little did they know, crime in Colorado has not increased at all but actually went down around 14% compared to 2013. The two links below show that recreational marijuana has not generated any extraneous crimes.

http://rt.com/usa/colorado-crime-change-legalization-study-017/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/07/marijuana-crime_n_5106545.html

Lost Diaries Reveal Why OJ killed Nicole

Here's an article published just today updating us on the reason why OJ Simpson murdered Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.  OJ apparently snuck into Nicole's house and found her diary with all the details about her "new lover," OJ immediately became furious.  He later murders her and Goldman, but Goldman just seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time...



http://www.nationalenquirer.com/celebrity/exclusive-lost-diaries-reveal-why-oj-simpson-really-murdered-nicole

Many of us will be pursuing higher education after we graduate, heading off to all ends of the country and even off to different countries (Gus). We will all run into the barriers of massive costs in college, some of may be lucky enough to have our parents cover most cost but other will have to make it through on their own dollar and student loans. Rising costs of tuition across the country will affect all of us. However a College in Missouri has been looking at tuition very differently for a long time. Its called College of the Ozarks and none of its 1,400 students are paying any tuition. Instead the College puts its students to work every week instead of accepting tuition. Each student works 15 hours a week at college owned restaurants, power plant, fire station, lodge, museum, and dairy farm. Even part of the student GPA is determined by how they do in a job. Graduates leave with on job experience, value of hard work, and a tremendous value of education. 90% of graduates even in this bad economy are getting jobs! The college pays for operating expenses off of a $400 million endowment and has been open since 1906. The message from the author of this article is why don't big Universities offer the same thing for their students, the universities have large endowments that they could use to run a system like this. Students from top tier universities graduate with something like $150,000-$200,000 in debt! If a top university could start a system like this they may make their universities more available to middle class kids and provide work experience to their students. Check out the article! Its worth the read!

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303380004579520261283934326?mod=trending_now_1

Magic Johnson jokes about Sterling

In a keynote speech held by Johnson, he made brief remarks about Sterling. Saying that he wasn't going to stop taking pictures at games just because someone says it's wrong and that our society has no place for racists. Overall, I think that Johnson is right, there is no room for racists in our society and when someone like Sterling comes along and says something so heinous and bigoted it's almost hard to imagine that just a small excerpt of a conversation can mean so much and be given the evil eye by so many people, but then again, when the devil incarnate is on the television when is hard not to be giving the evil eye? I guess society will never learn and we'll continue to keep this type of behavior up for many more years.

Here's the article!

http://bluesky.chicagotribune.com/originals/chi-magic-johnson-restaurant-show-bsi,0,0.story

VA Hospital

Recently the President was defended by the White House for his approach to caring for the nation's veterans. This comes after he allegedly knew that the VA hospitals were reporting inaccurate wait times. I just think that this pretty unsettling, to hear that the President of our beloved country is keeping vital information a secret. Furthermore, that the White House backs Shinseki for him to stay in his position at the VA. There was one quote in the article that I read (will post below) that I thought was really powerful and to the point: "One death is tragic. But when you hide it, that's unforgivable." Overall, I think that the VA needs to get its act together and get rid of Mr. Shinseki because he is ruining the lives of so many families, families who's loved ones fought for our country. And I believe when that honor is taken away, there is really nothing left for that family, there's nothing for them to say about their son or daughter other than: "Shinseki let them die and did nothing about it!"

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/what-did-obama-know-the-va-hospital-scandal-and-when/

Michael Jordan considered himself as a racist.

Last week we watched a documentary on Larry Bird and Magic Johnson. In the documentary many of the black players thought that white players weren't capable of playing basketball at the same level as black players. Because of the fact that they were white. It shows that whites aren't the only ones who can be racist. Anyone can be a racist no matter who you are.

Here is an article about Michael Jordan and it addresses his former views on race.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/10895553/michael-jordan-upbringing-detailed-new-book

Turned away because of my race?

Last week I was called by a, I guess you could say, tasting company who offered money if you came and tried a particular product. Anyway, the person went through a series of questions and when she got to the question about what race I consider myself (I'm half Asian and half Caucasian) and since I identified with the Asian half, she said that I was not be able to participate in the study. And I just felt bad, not only because I wasn't to get paid (who doesn't like money?) but that because I identify with a certain race that I am automatically turned away from what I considered a pretty cool opportunity.

Current update on Donald Sterling

In both small and big group we have been keeping up to date with what is going on with Donald Sterling.  I decided to look up the most recent actions and stumbled upon an article that was posted 3 hours ago, today, May 19.  The NBA has officially charged him with "engaged in conduct that has damaged and continues to damage the NBA and its teams. Among other things, Mr. Sterling disparaged African-Americans and 'minorities'; directed a female acquaintance not to associate publicly with African-Americans or to bring African-Americans to Clippers games; and criticized African-Americans for not supporting their communities."  

Sterling now has until the 27th of May to respond to the charges.  He also has a hearing on June 3 for the termination of his ownership.  

Read more here

Oprah continued

The other day in class we watched a video on Oprah and her talking about places and events in the past with extreme racism.  I was looking more into that and found Oprah talking about the current issue of racism, and how it is affecting the President.  She also presents the idea that racism will eventually go away when the racist generations die off.  If you are interested on learning more, here's the article!

Oprah Winfrey: Obama is a victim of racism

My New Friend Jonas

Yesterday i was playing basketball at Castro elementary and out of nowhere a small white kid with blond hair and blue eyes approached the court. He watched me play for a while until i passed him the ball, he looked at me and i told him to shoot. He did and he made it in the hoop, then i introduced myself and when he told me his name i heard voice and he had an accent. I asked him where he was from and he said Norway. I soon noticed that he didn't speak a lot of english but I was still able to understand him and him understand me. It was weird at first i had to change my word selection and sentence structure and use hand gestures a lot. I learned a lot from my friend he likes the lakers and Kobe also Barcelona and Man untied and he is a goalie in soccer. I learned from this experience that coming from a different country and not knowing the language is difficult but in my case it took patience and adaptivity in order to interact with Jonas who is 11.

Concentration Camps in US

http://nstarzone.com/CAMPS.html

There are around 800 empty, but fully guarded and operable, FEMA camps all around the US. The biggest one can hold around 2 million prisoners and they are all set up and guarded 24/7. They all of roads and railroad systems for easy transportation of prisoners, kinda like the Holocaust camps? This article also shares some of the executive orders associated with FEMA that have been on file for around 30 years. If these orders are put into action, the United States Constitution is suspended along with our Bill of Rights. I think this is why it is important for individuals in the US to have guns because the government is taking all of the first steps necessary to destroy a group of people. If the people have guns it will give us the chance to stop whatever madness is planning to occur.

Targeted Advertisement

In 2nd period today, we talked a bit about how in advertisement, advertisers will carefully control a commercial down to the smallest detail in order to utilize or avoid certain stereotypes. Like OJ with Hertz, as we saw in the documentary, they subtly made it seem like even white people accepted, respected, and even cheered on by white people so to avoid negative stereotypes.

We talked about some of the other ways advertisers will subtly twist or validate their product by simply choosing the right extras, or language, or setting, or facial expressions to covertly alter our opinions on their product. But there are some times when this subtle art of manipulation isn't handled with subtlety.

Remember the "Dr Pepper 10" commercial that kicked up so controversy? The one that oh so subtly targeted the male demographic by having the main character screaming "It's not for women!" behind a backdrop of explosions? Well they weren't the first and won't be the last to aim their ads at men, they weren't even the first soda company to do so. But come on, when your slogan is "It's not for women", it's not really discreet targeting. Was this a clever advertisement strategy or blatant blunder? Your call.


Article on it:
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2011-10-10/dr-pepper-for-men/50717788/1

Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zza3GqEL5B0