Do You Know How To Use A Typewriter?

The other day, my grandma sent me a link to this very amusing video. It is a quick 7 minute and 52 second video that really got me thinking.  It is about how kids react to a typewriter.  They show the kids the typewriter, ask them if they know what it is and then proceed to ask them to use it.  It is amazing to watch because it makes me think about how much technology has developed.

If I were in these kids place, I would not know how to use it.  You always here a parent or a grandparent use the phrase, "You guys have it so easy, in my day..." fill in the blank.  I think that it is incredible that we have discovered these technological advances that make it possible to say that we have it so easy now-a-days.  My favorite part of the video is at 7:09 when the boy says, "and I'm gonna be 80 and be like, "Back in my day, we only had Ipads"  

I think it is mind-boggling and yet so amazing that technology continues to grow and advance that we are going to think that using an Ipad was hard.  I'm just intrigued to see what becomes the next "typewriter" and what becomes the new "Ipad."

Deaths in Threes

It seems to me like death always comes in threes.  This past weekend my parents took turns taking care of me and flying out to go to funerals.   My dad's friend just passed as well as my very good family friend's grandfather.  To complete the trifecta, my mom's friend was going on his daily walk, healthy as ever, and his heart just gave out on him.  Death is so sudden and can be so unexpected, but it can also be a long battle and time for someone to let go.  In times of terrible loss it is amazing to see how people come together.

You never want to see a friend suffering.  One of the hardest battles to fight is cancer.  You have to think that sometimes when someone has been struggling for so long that it is good for them not to have to fight anymore.  My family friend's grandpa had been struggling for a very long time against lung cancer.  I was curious so I decided to look into lung cancer.

Lung Cancer is cancer that forms in tissues of the lung, usually in the cells lining air passages.  It is the second most common type of cancer, aside from skin cancer, for both men and women.  Lung cancer accounts for about 27% of all cancer deaths and is by far the leading cause of cancer death among both men and women. Each year, more people die of lung cancer than of colon, breast, and prostate cancers combined.

Seeing as so many men and women can get lung cancer from smoking, I am hopeful we can lower the number of smokers, thus reducing people's risk of getting lung cancer. If risking your life and having your lungs look like the image down below isn't enough motive, I don't know what will work.

Coining Phrases

As I was parousing the news this morning I came across something that shocked me.  Famous country and pop singer, Taylor Swift, has trademarked many lines from her songs.  Swift has taken out several trademarks for phrases like "Party Like It's 1989," "This Sick Beat," "Cause We Never Go Out of Style." It is interesting to me that she would do something like this.  These lines have become very popular sayings in everyday use, and some people might say that she is being a stickler about it and just trying to make as much money as possible. 

However, upon a little research about Swift trademarking the lyrics, I have seen a different perspective.  "This is arguably less about her wanting to boil every single thing she does down to a “revenue stream” and more about a pre-emptive strike against callously opportunistic third parties who might want to make money off her without either her involvement or her say so." I agree, I think that these lines are so widely known and so commonly used that people will see this as an opportunity to make money off of her hard work.  Americans tend to see an opporutnity and snatch it up and try to build an empire with it.  The American Dream to work hard enough and be able to make your way to the top.

Still, parts of me wonder why she would trademark the phrases? I am wondering if companies will try to make money off of these phrases if they have to pay to print them in the first place?  Is it worth it? 

NYC Finally Joining the Tech Age

For about 4 or 5 years now, I have always been able to bring in my laptop, or iPad or phone to school and not have to worry about it being confiscated.  At my elementary school we had a program called BYOD; Bring Your Own Device.  My teachers have encouraged me to bring in technology so that I can make the most of my learning experience by having many more resources available at the tip of my fingers. Even now, every single student in my high school is required to have an iPad. I was absolutely shocked when I saw in the Chicago Tribune today that New York City is just joining this phenomenon.

Mayor Bill de Blasio is lifting a longtime ban, set in place by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg, to allow students to bring technology, more specifically, phones, into school.  This policy is to go into effect March, 2.  Before this, students like Jessica Flores, had to pay $1 a day to store their phones in a local store or a van to make sure that it wouldn't be taken.  Over the course of a school year that can really add up, and seems to be a waste of money.  It baffled me that when technology is such an integral part of my learning, and learning all around the country, that this is just now a policy in New York City.  It is so much easier to find information in moments on an iPad or phone and can help greatly with learning.  It seems that American culture really is shifting to a more technological learning process and New York City is just now jumping on that bandwagon.

Do you think that technology is a good thing to be able to have at school? Or do you think Mayor Bloomberg was right to have it banned?

Students All With iPads To Help With Learning

They Create Monsters in Here

About two weeks ago, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that the city will no longer house minors in solitary confinement.  There is an ongoing argument about whether putting minors in solitary is "cruel and counterproductive." People argue that if they are shut away and treated that poorly as minors, they will end up acting more violently as they get older. “This is what they create in here, monsters,” one inmate said. “You can’t conduct yourself like a human being when they treat you like an animal.” If inmates are being treated like "animals" then that is all they know.  It gives them no chance to rehabilitate.  Perhaps if the jails concentrated on a method of rehabilitation and teaching the inmates, especially the minors, how to get a fresh start, "monsters" would not be created.  The adolescent years are key in shaping the person to who they will become. If we treat the minor inmates like animals and in such a cruel manner, that is how they will act.  

De Blasio Speaking with Young Inmates at Rikers Island

Mayor de Blasio said, “It’s our moral responsibility as humans not to create a situation where so many people have to experience so many difficult things,”  We are all human.  Despite our worst errors, we should all have a chance to learn from our mistakes and improve.  Minors have the rest of their lives ahead of them, if we can teach them by example, perhaps if and when they are released from jail, they won't turn to "monstrous" ways.  By eliminating a harsh treatment of minors, perhaps we are taking our moral responsibilities as humans and making things just a little easier. 

"A Population That Never Was"

A Shot from Helfman's "Historical Correction"

Picture of a White Nobleman

What photographer, Maxine Helfman, aims to do with her photographs are to make people think.  Most recently, a series of her work, "Historical Correction" which she has been shooting since 2012, has received an outcry of attention due to all the racial discrimination being brought up.  What Helfman is photographing are Flemish-style portraits, using only black models.  She is putting people of color in a style that historically was of the European elite. The models wear the same expressions and style of clothing that a 17th -century nobleman or woman would wear.

You see in these wonderful pictures they are wearing the expressions of which a nobleman would pose for a portrait to be taken or painted.  I put in a picture of a white nobleman to compare. You can see how similar the expressions and clothing are to that of which the model is posing for. They both have hard looking stares and are wearing all black with white collars.  

"Helfman wanted to create historical documentation of a population that never was." Although she is very careful to be respectful, be it another artist, or an expert for another cultural point of view. 

""I never want to create something that's tongue-in-cheek because that defeats the purpose," she said. "It's disrespectful to the (statement) I'm trying to make."

She is making people think about her work which is coming into big discussion as events like Ferguson continue to pop up.  Racial discrimination is a very relevant topic and Helfman's goal is just to get people to think, not to step on anyone's toes, but just think, and then rethink.  

"WOW! You're so tan!"

As we will be coming back from winter break in a matter of hours, I already know what I am going to see as I walk through the halls of my high school.  Almost every girl who went to a warm vacation spot over the nice two-week break, is going to be wearing some kind of shirt or dress that shows off their "amazing" tan lines.

Studies have shown that people think tanner skin is more attractive and even healthier looking.  Yes, the sun does provide people with that good vitamin D that we all need, but people really can overdue it.  As I know my friends and peers do, they sit in a chair by a pool, or sit on a beach for hours on end, letting the Sun's UV rays burn into them.  Of course they know the risks for skin cancer yet people are willing to take that risk, just to look tan.  Because they like looking nice coming back from a vacation, many people then want to be tan all year round, when you know for sure they wouldn't be laying out. "Sunless tanning products, spray-on tans, and cosmetic bronzers totaling $516 million annually, not to mention the indoor tanning industry and low-dose sunblocks marketed as "tanning creams." People go to such extremes just so they can look "good."

The odd thing is, tanned skin has truly changed meanings in the eyes of the public.  Having tanned skin used to mean that you were working class person who had to do labor outside.  However, that all changed with the Industrial Revolution when the working class got moved indoors into factories and then only the upper class could afford to go on elaborate vacations to warm, paradise.  It is so interesting to see what Americans value as important now.  To show your friends that you had a great time and a "successful" trip, you come back tan.  It is funny how the perception of being tan has changed and how years ago it was considered a lesser thing to be darker.  Now it seems that the tanner you are, the better.