Summer Program Experience?...Meh.

I am enjoying myself in this summer program. I like taking the classes as I think that they are a lot more enjoyable than anything high school has to offer, albeit just as easy. I mean, my classes are easy. I don't know about anyone else. Anyway, what I don't like about it, and I think everybody can vouch for this, is the fact that you have to go to sleep late and wake up early. What the sense make?

Independence Day and Englands Loss

Okay, so are we all clear that Independence day is about the defeat of Great Britain?  I'm kind of glad we aren't associated with Britain anymore given their history. I don't want to explain. I'm just going to call this"Barbeque Day." That is all.

I WANTED LIGHTNING HERE, SO I'M GOING ALL OUT

It always seems like the news is trying to sell something. The news itself doesn't have a problem of telling you what's going on, but there is always that time where the seem to think that selling to the masses is more important than what is going on. This is a pretty big issue in a lot of things related to news, so what better way to tackle journalism than with journalism.
First off, we need to recognize the problem. Do you remember when the news stories get really depressing, something like a boy dies in a fire trying to save his cat (remember cats for later)? Then all of the sudden they say something like "In other news, Sea World has opened up a new squid exhibit." If you haven't seen that, either you don't look at the news long enough or you don't pay attention to the changes they do. They talk about the most insignificant things right after an actual story. I'm seeing right now that they just had "12 weirdest smartphone cases" on CNN's web page for some reason. This is right next to a topic called "Truck drivers smoke out cyclists, Prius's." They are blatantly stating that the fact that these people are blowing smoke on people and Prius's to make a statement on how they think we're wrong about the environment and we should keep coal is just as important as how your iPhone would look in one of those cases.
Speaking of selling stuff, do you remember when I said remember cats for later? Well there is this cat named Venus that has two different halves of a face, one black with a green eye, the other orange with a blue eye. She is believed by many to be a chimera, a mythical creature that can be sum as two or more species in one package.

She was around for a while apparently, but the news was finally able to get an interview with the woman that discovered her. There have been no tests on Venus because the owner doesn't want to put her through that, which I can understand, but it makes for a pretty boring interview. I started to wonder what the point if this was seeing how there is a Facebook page and blog dedicated to this cat, but that's when they brought up the merchandise. They stated that there are now stuffed animals based on Venus on sale. What probably would have made this an actual news story is if they brought up the cat in the news they were already doing, and maybe go in to whether it could be considered a chimera or not. But no, just buy the Venus doll.
Well, that is what they are trying to do. They want you to buy stuff you don't need. That's consumerism. I like how some journalists took in upon themselves to call them out on it, like Jon Stewart on "Crossfire" (I saw the arguement in the "Elements of Journalism" book and thought it was hilarious). We should all stop buying what they try to sell, because the power to say no to consumerism is a powerful thing. Unfortunately, That doesn't mean it will disappear, it will just show up in whatever is popular. At least it won't be in what is supposed to be the place you go for facts.

 Links:

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/us/2014/07/08/erin-pkg-moos-rollin-coal.cnn&hpt=hp_c4&from_homepage=yes&video_referrer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/09/tech/mobile/wacky-phone-cases/index.html?iref=allsearch
 http://video.foxnews.com/v/3665820021001/fox-flash-two-faced-cat-a-hit-on-facebook/#sp=show-clips

The Nursery Rhyme "Three Blind Mice" actually has a hidden meaning behind it. The rhyme goes as follows:

" Three blind mice, three blind mice
See how they run, see how they run
They all ran after the farmers wife,
Who cut their tails off with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?"

This is believed to be describing how in there years of Queen Mary I, there were three protestants conspiring against her. She wanted England to be a pure Catholic country, these protestants wanted to keep King Henry VIII's new way. Queen Mary, who you should know was called Bloody Mary by some because of the amount of people sentenced to death by her, had these men blinded and burned as punishment for wanting their own religion. This actually does kind of correlate with the story. The men were "blinded" by the religion King Henry VIII made and were "running" away from the farmer's wife, Queen Mary and Catholicism. She caught them and cut their tails off, a disturbing way of saying killed them. Have you ever seen such a sight in your life?
Actually, this is putting the spotlight on the abuse of power in the world. Practicing different religions in being forbidden is quite common in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia believes heavily in the Muslim  religion, and practicing it is mandatory to live in that society. Heck, it's mandatory to practice it to even enter the country. Some of things you can't have are alcohol, pork, pornography, or narcotics, because you will be imprisoned immediately. It's just like how Queen Mary I didn't want you to practice the other religion or do certain things while practicing Catholicism, such as talking bad or with doubt about it. Otherwise, you end up in a grave.
Sometimes, people don't feel they have enough power, and they will do what ever they can to get it. There have even been people recently that have conspired against a people in power. On January 9, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona, a 22-year old man named Jared Loughner shot a federal judge at close range in the head, well as other people near the supermarket where they were. He shot 18 people and killed 6 of them. It seems he wasn't very fond of the government, seeing as he had a YouTube channel dedicated to vague anti-government propaganda, but his motives are still unknown. This resembles how Queen Mary wanted to have everyone in the country under her. However, there were people that stood up to say they didn't like Catholicism. That got them killed, and there were a lot of them. That's what got Queen Mary I the nickname "Bloody Mary."
This particular nursery rhyme does seem to highlight some of the problems with the world. I think it is a little more than it actually trying to be (not to mention how creepy it is that this is told to children). This should be a metaphor for the difficulty that arises when you have a person or religion in power. There will be people that conspire if you are not open minded about things, and you may eventually get over-throne like Queen Mary. However, that's a different nursery rhyme.
http://geekoterre.com/history-of-three-blind-mice/
http://www.cyborlink.com/besite/saudi-arabia.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/08/AR2011010802422.html

A Block Story

Out in Australia, there is this place set up by the government that seems to hold the native people called the Block. From what I see, this place is the ghetto for Australia. Fred, who is 18-years old used to live with 11 other people in his family in a hole-ridden, rat-infested house. He was there when his cousin was ran over by a police car. he claims "From that point on, I never liked the police." People shortly started to stick up for themselves and started riots to show that they can do without the harassment. Fred states " But like now, since after the riots, it's more different." He has now moved away and is heading to college, where he could get away from the neighborhood where he once lived.
There have been people that have had to live in unreasonable conditions here in the USA. People that are Native Americans have to live on reservations. Those conditions are exactly like this. They are at the bottom 1% of the population apparently. The reservations have poor land for raising crops, forcing people to find jobs outside of their culture.
Police brutality isn't anything new either. Do you remember Rodney King? Or how about a more recent incident where an 11 year-old black kid was pulled a gun on by an officer because he was building a tree house with friends, and they were only causing tripping hazards. These sort of things are most common in the ghetto, because police feel they know what to expect and what solution will eventually be.
You can't escape these kind of problems, where ever you may live. However, It's nice to see some one make it out in the end. You can never have too much success, no matter how you grew up.


Here's a link to Fred's story:
http://www.sbs.com.au/theblock/#/fred

Here's a link to the Native American reservation statistics:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoppisch/2011/12/13/why-are-indian-reservations-so-poor-a-look-at-the-bottom-1/

Here's a link to a police brutality sight:
http://www.policebrutality.info/2014/04/cop-pulls-gun-on-11-year-old-building-tree-fort.html

So I'm going to the Dodger game tomorrow and I'm far from excited. I never really liked baseball. I don't know, maybe this game will change my mind about the sport. The reason I never liked it was because I found it incredibly boring to see people hit or miss a ball. Yeah there are couple of interesting part, but to me they are few and far between. Like I said, maybe the game will change my mind, maybe it won't, but at least I can look for the peanuts and cracker jacks. Or something that tastes even better.

Here's a link to the Dodgers Schedule:
 http://losangeles.dodgers.mlb.com/schedule/sortable.jsp?c_id=la