Happy Anniversary

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mark-kurlansky/bp-oil-spill-anniversary_b_851304.html

This blog post from the Huffington Post was written on the one year anniversary of the BP oil spill by Mark Kurlansky. The author compares the BP oil spill to the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. He discusses how quickly the general public forgets about one disaster and moves on to the next. He exemplifies this point with the idea that the nuclear power plant was spewing radiation into the atmosphere long before it the contaminated fluids were dumped into the ocean. He goes on to discuss that even though the oil spill appears to be cleaned up on the surface, it is still uncertain what long term effects that disaster will have on the ocean. Kurlansky then blames companies such as the ones responsible for building nuclear power plants and offshore drilling for the damages they are causing. They are taking these risks without having a realistic plan to respond to these accidents/disasters. He then turns his focus on people’s greed of energy. He states that, “people would rather energy wantonly than assure their own safety and the preservation of the planet.” With this being said, do you think the author is suggesting these changes need to start with the general population changing their way of life or by creating legislation that will restrict the risks that energy companies can take, thus adversely affecting the way people live their lives?

MLA Worksheet

Gilson, Etienne. The Arts of the Beautiful. [Normal, IL]: Dalkey Archive, 2000. Print.

Hood, John Y.B. The Essential Aquinas: Writings on Philosophy, Religion, and Society. Ed. John Y. B. Hood. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002. Print.

Guillory, John. Pleasure and Change: The Aesthetics of Canon. Ed. Frank Kermode and Robert Alter. Oxford, UK: Oxford UP, 2004. Print.

Eberstadt, Fernanda. "The Unexpected Fanatisist." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 26 Aug. 2007. Web. 11 May 2009. .

Brian, Evenson. “Review of Contemporary Fiction.” McGreen and Stella Schlessinger: Volume number: 21 Issue number: 1. Spring 2001.

Work Cited

Alter, Robert, and Kemode, Frank. Pleasure and Change: The Aesthetics of Canon. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2004. Print.

Evenson, Brian. "All the Names." Review of Contemporary Fiction 21.1 (2001): 192-93. Web.

Gilson, Etienne. The Arts of the Beautiful. City of Normal: Dalkey Archive Press, 2000. Print.

Hood, John Y. B. The Essential Aquinas: Writings on Philosophy. City of Westport, State of Connecticut, United States of America: Praegar, 2002. Print.

Seth, Marcus, Andrew, Anthony, Lin

In Class Exercise

Gilson, Etienne. The Arts of the Beautiful. Normal, Illinois: Dalkey Archive Press, 2000. Print.

Hood, John Y.B. The Essential Aquinas: Writings on Philosophy, Religion, and Society. Ed. John Y.B. Hood. Westport, Connecticut: Preagar Publishers, 2002, Print.

Evenson, Brian. “Review: All the Names.” Review of Contemporary Fiction 21.1 (2001): 192-193. Web. Date of access.

Works Cited
Eberstadt, Fernanda. "The Unexpected Fantasist." New York Times. 26 Aug. 2007. Web. 11 May 2011. .
Evenson, Brian. "Review: All the Names." Ed. John McGreen and Stella Schlessinger. Review of Contemporary Fiction 21.1 (2001): 192-93. Web.
Gilson, Etienne. The Arts of the Beautiful. Normal: Dalkey Archive, 2000. Print.
Guillory, John. "It Must Be Abstract." Pleasure and Change: The Aesthetics of Canon. Ed. Frank Kermode and Robert Alter. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford UP, 2004. 65-75. Print.
Hood, John Y.B. "The Life of Thomas Aquinas." The Essential Aquinas: Writings on Philosophy, Religion and Society. Ed. John Y.B. Hood. West Point: Praegar, 2002. 1-34. Print.

Japan Nuclear Emergency: How Much Radiation is Safe?

sorry for posting for the wrong article this Monday, here's the new blog.
http://ecocentric.blogs.time.com/2011/03/13/japan-nuclear-emergency-how-much-radiation-is-safe/.
In the blog, one main idea that the author wants to discuss is the question " what level of radiation is safe for the people in Japan to go back home?". One issue which is the long term effect of radiation has appear through out the article.According to the author's example , do you think it's safe for people in Japan to move back? Should they take the risk of radiation poisoning? And please feel free to share you thought.

NY Times: Libyan Rebels Take Risks With Makeshift Arms

This weeks blog from the NY Times will cover the continued violence in Libya. Rebel forces of Libya's leader Qaddafi continue to fight for their freedom as they push towards the oil cities of Sirte and Tripoli. Along the way the rebel forces have been rigging up an arsenal of weapons to use against the Qaddafi forces. The rebels have few to no lethal weapons while the Qaddafi forces have all the weapons of a structured military. These rigged rocket-pods have begun to be a big hit for the rebels. They are lethal but are quite dangerous to the rebels themselves, but also the surrounding civilians. Already one has been killed by a mis-fired rocket. What should be done to arm the rebels with the weapons they need to attack in a lethal but safer manner? Should the US or NATO forces provide them with used artillery or weapons from their arsenals? Is that too much of a risk if they could potentially get in wrong hands? Please provide your comments and or questions regarding this sensitive matter. Here is the link to the blog: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/rebels-get-rockets-but-using-them-proves-tricky/

Questions

1. Why is the child looking away in the picture? 2. What is the child looking at in the picture? 3. Why is the mother holding the child in the picture? 4. What is the significance of the word "aftershock" all broken up? 5. How is the color of the poster related to the mothers choice 6. How will the mothers decision affect the whole family? Zac Oswald, Anthony Magazine, Marcus Merritt, Carson Wellman

In Class Assignment

Questions
1)How does the shading of the picture give the audience an overall sense of the mood of the film?
2)Why does the mother seem to be the central character of the film via the text, yet the picture focuses primarily on the boy?
3)What is the relationship between this boy and woman? Are these two people the mother and child?
4)Why is the child looking away from the screen?
5)What is the significance of the mother's hand having the city shaded into it?
6)How does the title of the film foreshadow the events that will occur throughout the film?

Observations
1)The color of the film is revealing of the overall mood of the film.
2)It is strange how the text revolves around the mother, yet the picture revolves around the child.
3)It is interesting that the text leads us to believe the people in the picture are mother and son, when there is no other proof of the existence of this relationship.
4)It is interesting that the boy is looking away from the screen, as if he is looking for hope.
5)It is strange how the woman's hand has the reflection of a city, when in reality a hand cannot reflect images.
6)It is interesting how the word aftershock appears broken and crumbled, because that is the typical visual we assosciate with that word.

Billy Kuhlman
Seth Erwin
Andrew Norwell
Simon Lee

Kavya, Chad, Elan, Brooks

Why the city skyline is barely featured in the poster in perspective to the mother and son?
Why only half the mother’s is face visible when the text features her so greatly?
What does it mean that the mother is embracing her son but he is looking away?
What message is the mother’s slight smirk sending to the audience?
How would her choice change her whole family forever?
How does the sepia tone provoke emotion in the viewer?

6 Questions

lin wang ; xixiao hu; Hongtao Xia; Andrew Krumel
A.
1. How are the mother's hands related to the choice she must make?
2. What was the crisis that caused this situation?
3. How the boy is related to the mom's choice?
4. Why do the boy and the mother seem emotionless despite the ruins shown on the hand?
5. What is the boy looking at if he is not looking at his mother?
6. Why does it appear the mother has saved her child but still had to make a choice that will change their lives forever?

B. 1. Revealing: Pain he experienced based on ruins on mom’s hand
2. Strange: boy not looking at mother even though he looks traumatized or hurt
3. Interesting: Why the poster says change forever, leaves the audience asking questions
4. Revealing: The mom is holding her hand over the boy’s heart means that the two are facing a highly emotional experience
5. Revealing: Yellow tone demonstrates the lack of light or hope of this disaster movie
6. Strange: Emotions of the boy and the mother’s face are emotionless, with no tears
7. Revealing: The clothes that the two are wearing indicate that they are ordinary people who have experienced a traumatic event
8. Strange: The hand of the mother is visible but the face is not even though the movie is about the mother’s choice
9. Strange: No pictures of blood or the dead, only ruins

Activity B: Sample Primary Source Analysis

Time Magazine cover on Global Warming
In your groups, discuss these questions, providing at least two points for each question:
a. What was effective about this analysis?
b. What analytical tools from WA does this analysis utilize?
c. What can be improved about this analysis?
d. How closely did this Primary Source Analysis assignment adhere to the Assignment prompt?
Take (10 minutes) to discuss and we’ll gather as a class to discuss (10-15 minutes).

disaster memory?

This is an interesting blog post that is criticizing Japan for not being more prepared for the nuclear plant problems. The author says that scientists are like a society's elders who should help remember society's disasters that have happened. I think this is interesting and I think Japan needs to learn from this natural disaster. The people were prepared for a disaster but the nuclear plant was not. what are your thoughts?

New York Times Blog: Taliban Cut Cellphone Service in Helmand

Imagine the city of Columbus losing cell phone connection due to an outside terrorist force for a week or "until further notice".. unimaginable, right? This is exactly what is happening in Helmand, Afghanistan. After a promise of security from President Hamid Karzai, the Taliban threatened death to company officials and the destruction of cellphone towers which negated all previous attempts by the President at creating a secure Helmand. This is not a completely foreign happening as the Taliban have shut down cellphone towers before due to paranoia of "spies" and the tracking of the Mujahadeen by foreigners who then bomb and raid the area causing mass numbers of civilian casualties. This time it is different as it is usually designated to the night but there is no knowing of when it will end. This has been detrimental to the economic pursuits and security of the people in this region.

Here is the link to this article: http://atwar.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/taliban-cuts-cellphone-service-in-helmand/#more-33451