Fish Are Friends, Not Food

I was scrolling through the internet this afternoon and I came across an article that really shocked me.  A fisherman was killed by a swordfish when he was impailed by its bill.

The victim was a 47 year-old Hawaiin fisherman named Randy Llanes. According to the guardian, Llanes speared the fish, but as it struggled to escape the spear’s line got tangled in a mooring anchor. Caught on the anchor, the fish swam back around toward Llanes at a high speed and struck him in the chest with its 3ft bill.

It is crazy to me to think that something that seems as harmless as fishing can result in a death.  I don't think people realize just how much talent it really takes to deal with fish.

Being a fisherman is one of America's most deadly jobs.
It is odd to me because when I think about fish, I think about that classic line from Finding Nemo "Fish are friends, not food".  It doesn't seem like our friends should be killing us.

ABC 7 Chicago Live From New Trier

Recently New Trier High School has received a lot of negative attention in the media.  It is a school that prides itself on helping others.  However, recently on a service trip, a student allegedly posted a picture of African Americans on a social media site, with a racially offensive caption.

The media immediately pounced on this and had reporters on the campus and were interviewing students.  Surely enough, it was on the ABC news and all over social media sites.

Here is a link to the article that ABC 7 News reported on about this incident.

I think, that while yes, what this student did was very wrong, that it is interesting that the media pounced.  In an afluent area, like New Trier Township, if something is off, the media seemingly always finds a way to shine a light on the wrong.  Comments by others on this incident are also stereotypes that "rich" kids could always get away with something as horrible as this.

To me, I think that it was a terrible mistake that this student made, but what I think is the most interesting is the media coverage and how people now view the area.  I feel like even more now, a "snotty" "stuck-up" reputation of people who are racist will follow students from the area.

Where Are You Going To College?

The much anticipated copy of the New Trier News came out in advisery this morning: The Destinations Issue.

Every year the New Trier News puts out a newspaper that has a list of nearly all the seniors and where they will be attending school the upcoming fall.  It is always so much fun to see where all your peers will end up and is always my favorite issue of the paper.

Interestingly, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign takes the cake with the top number of New Trier students attending this fall.  A whopping 62 seniors will be together for the next four years as they journey on in their academic careers.  Followed by University of Michigan (37 students), Indian University (28 students), Northwestern University (24 students) and Miami University, Oxford (21 students).

One thing that I noticed this year was that the paper had to include a portion that said,

"We at the New Trier News intend for the Destinations Issue to be a source of pride, not ridicule.  While there is a lot of competition surrounding the college process, this list is meant to be a source of recognition and celebration for the accomplishments of seniors, no matter what they go on to do after graduation..."

This struck me as particularly interesting because in a place like New Trier Township people would ridicule others on where they end up going after high school.  Not everyone takes the same path or will end up in college, but I think it is interesting that in our society it is assumed that kids will continue on with their academic careers.  However, it is still so cool to congratulate all these seniors on their hard work and see where they will end up.

I am so incredibly proud of all my senior friends and wish them the best of luck wherever they are next year!!!

Do You Have Power?

Today in class we were having a very interesting discussion about how you can tell who has more power in a situation. We were talking about if there were potential ways to tell if two people are having a conversation, which of them has more power.

We originally started in regards to scenes in The Great Gatsby, and talking about which character seemingly had the most power in context of what was happening in the text. For example, we talked about how Daisy, who despite talking at a murmer, held the most power when we first meet her because everyone is leaning in to hear what she has to say. She had to hold the most power in that situation or people just wouldn't listen to her.

We then listened to a report on NPR about language and power. It was very interesting that it started out talking about the filler words we use, and how two people might be more compatible based on the types of words we use. At the end, it suggested that the language we use can also show how much power we have in that situation.

It was interesting because we also heard that you cannot change your language to change your personality, but rather, your language changes when you person changes.

Are there any patterns you see in people's behavior and how they assert their power? Do more factors beside language, or lack thereof, play into who has more power?

The Dog Days Aren't Over

I know I am a little late on the news, but I keep seeing something that is making me so sad, dogs are getting infected and dying from the flu.  The article I was reading today said that the flu was now in 12 states!

The number one concern of many people was that they would get the flu.  However, people cannot get the dog flu.  “To date, there is no evidence of transmission of dog flu viruses from dogs to people and there have been no reported human infections with the canine influenza viruses,"

As the article goes on to explain, the flu is spread from nose to nose contact between dogs, which is bound to happen when you see two dogs play with one another.  Dog owners were told to avoid dog parks and keep a tight leash on their dogs if they wanted to help avoid the spread of this outbreak.

Puppy eyes are cute, but not when they look at you because they are miserable.  Keep those dogs safe!!

The Joke is on Us!

No worries.  The full draft due today, the one that everyone spent hours trying to perfect and stayed up until all hours in the morning to finish was not the final draft!

We did a peer revision instead.

All jokes aside it was a very helpul 80 minutes of class with very constructive peer editing.  The best thing is to have someone else who doesn't know your topic read your paper so you can see if it makes sense.  When you are so caught up in your research, you sometimes can forget that other people don't know what you're talking about because they haven't been looking up your topic for over 3 weeks.  It is very helpful to have someone read over your paper and suggest what areas need some improvement and how you can make that huge important paper the best it can be.

Freakout #2: Full Draft Due Thursday

I am stressing a little because today in class Doc Oc told us that we would have a full draft of our entire paper due Thursday.  I am very stressed because I still feel like I haven't read "widely or deeply" enough as we have been told to do.  Reading widely and deeply means covering all potential answers to your why questions.  It is Monday and I have 3 nights to feel confident about my research and write this essay.

On top of that, we have to interview an expert in the field, which is really fascinating and I think I will learn a lot.  The problem is I've sent about 8 emails, and have gotten exactly 0 responses.  I am still crossing my fingers for Bernardine Dohrn, but I really get the feeling she will follow through.

I probably shouldn't be publically admitting this, but I have only written my introduction thus far and I really am feeling very overwhelemed.  It is so funny to me that everyone defines junior year with the dreaded Junior Theme. It is odd that so much of your grade in the class depends on the one paper.  I have friends in other classes whose Junior Theme was worth 25% of their final grade.  That seems crazy to me. People always warn you to prepare yourself. I think I am really starting to understand why people hate this dreaded paper so much.  Wish me lucck.