What are politics?

     Politics....when the word politics come to mind we think of a group of sophisticated humans sitting around a large room politely discussing dilemmas with the country. What actually occurs in the Senate is a series of fights similar to those we all had in elementary school. Two or more people on opposite teams arguing over small menial problems going back and forth, constantly accusing each other of doing wrong and pointlessly belittling the other party. While they bicker like children the large problems of the country slowly decay destroying the once solid foundations we build this proud....once  proud nation upon.

     The two main parties, Democratic and Republican for all those rock dwellers, have absolutely opposite ideals for the United States. These two parties go back to the the first presidentry with George Washington. Although Democrats were more like Republicans and Republicans known as Federalists the same kind of arguing went on at the founding of our nation. The only difference is that back then we got SOME problems done, while today we can't even agree to disagree and all our ideas for the country get shoved back month after month.

     What is the cause of all this bickering? What is the cause of all this anger? Simple, the corruption rising from the depths of society. It has corrupted our own government over time changing it from an efficient and stable form of government to one that may even be worse than, dare i ever say it...  a monarchy or dictatorship. With nothing being done we are allowing our nation to fall into a state of disarray and chaos. While our leaders lodge themselves in estates larger then UCLA the slums of our nation are creeping closer, oh so closer. While visiting the sites of such corruption, ie: Compton, it can often be worse to run into a police officer then into a gang. The law itself is crumbling and our nations once strong body has been poisoned. The poison slowly spreading throughout our land causing chaos and strife, and when strife comes...so does change and not always for the better.

Diving Into the Minds of Humans

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      The movie Inception was a highly engrossing and interesting movie. It was about the concept of being able to delve into a human mind and create or find ideas/secrets. A group of people would be put to sleep using a sedative. Next, an "architect" would come into the dream and build a world that would seem realistic to the person so they wouldn't think themselves to be inside of a dream. The other teammembers would infiltrate the dream and search the area for a vault of some sort where a form of information would be hidden.
     This movie was made for younger and more agile minds. It seems to me that many adults had multiple problems following the complex story while the younger audience felt no such qualms. Could it be that with the puzzles that kids grope with in video games/technology their minds have become more advanced? Maybe even more evolved then that of their predecesors?
     Humans have advantages over some animals....and many disadvantages to them. Such as, did you know that humans are the only species of creatures that have not rid themselves of inferior versions of themselves? These people are less inteligent *cough* Michel Rosenberg *cough* and way down the society of today making our scientific finds to become more sparce then required. It now seems to be that the majority of our population is built up of people who are similar to us SUPREME humans in looks, however in thought procession are inferior and way our whole race down.
     Although we do have a few disadvantages to animals our advantages greatly outnumber the disadvantages and make us the supreme race of the planet. We have superior brains that allow us to create anew and not just drestoy. We were gifted with our thumbs which are the most basic tools that we require to wield the tools we have created. We are driven by curiosity which brought us to the current era of cars, planes, ships, phones, and computers. Without any of these things we would not be able to mark ourselves as king.
     The brain computes all of these things without fault and allows us to comprehend new concepts and ideas as they are created. However as we grow old, so does our mind. We start to become more forgetful, less coordinated, and it becomes increasingly harder for us to grasp the new concepts of the coming generation. These factors contribute to the hypothesis of the younger generation being smarter then their predecesors, and it turns out that we are not and just that their brains are slowing down seemingly making us smarter although all the while they are just becoming more uninteligent.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

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Animal Farm by George Orwell is a political satire that starts off with a rebellion of animals on a farm. All of the animals come together and say why. They then fight back and drive all of the farmers off of the farm and decide to govern themselves. They then teach everyone to read, create an anthem, and write the writes and rules fo the farm ( constitution and declaration). However, two of the pigs that are running the farm quickly become corrupted and greedy. They then chase the third pig who is the only pig with a kind/true heart off of the farm and call him a traitor and a scandrel.
     The two remaining leaders set all of the animals to work and behind their backs slowly change all of their rules. Whenever a misfortune happenes the blame it on the third pig who had run away and binding them behind a single cause. This constant fear of Snowball ( the third pig) attacking made all of the farm animals cower behind the pigs granting them even more power. However, slowly the farm changes and life slowly gets worse. Starting with harsh winters and small rations for all including the working animals.

     The animals all have horrible memories and when they try to remember what life was like before they only think," It was worse then this." The one animal who did remember was a donkey who stayed quiet and chortled to himself as he outlived all of his generation. He watched the farm slowly get worse and fall into a state worse then when the animals had been under the farmers with the two remaining pigs turning into dictators, and slowly becoming more and more like humans as they changed all the rules the animals had voted on so long ago. In conclusion, this political satire is worth reading because of its interesting story and subtle sense of humor

Tampering with nature

http://www.csb.yale.edu/userguides/graphics/ribbons/help/dna_rgb.gif

DNA... it is a truly amazing thing, for without it, we wouldn't be who we are today. DNA shapes us for the better, or for the worse making us different from everyone else. If everyone had the same DNA then we would all be the same, there would be no differences, no way to tell yourself from somebody else. So is it right for us to be tampering with what makes us unique as human beings?



Recently, technology has evolved to detect what "genes" we have, and what "genes" our children will have. We can tell whether weak hearts are in our DNA, or whether we might live to 100 or only to 76. By knowing what is going to happen to us early, we can try to change what will happen to us in the future . For example if high cholestrol runs in your family then you will know to keep a healthy diet so as not to put as much pressure on your heart.


In the past ten years we have gone from analog to digital, 2d to 3d, and from not caring about the enviroment to trying to help all living creatures like tigers, pandas, and various kinds of fish( for more information on the enviroment follow http://ecoteensera.blogspot.com//). Now that we are able to see all of our "genes", how long will it be before we will be able to alter them? Should we progress so much that we can alter all of the animals we share Earth with? Will we lose some of our humanity if we are able to make ourselves out as the perfect human? Only time will decide when and if we will have this remarkable/horendous invention.

Where does the time go?

http://sj-climateclock.org/

As human beings, we are constantly striving for more. We built the car, but that wasn’t fast enough, so we made ships, and that wasn't fast enough, so we made airplanes, but those still take hours, and now we are still striving for something faster. We wanted access to information, so we wrote books, but most people couldn't afford them, so we made libraries, but they are to far away, so now we have the internet, but it isn't ever fast enough for us, so we pay money to make it go faster.

As we make more inventions, we make time go by, that much faster. Instead of spending all day at the market we now spend 10 minutes at the market, so we can make it to our meeting, from which we have to rush to pick our kids up from school, drop them off at home, and rush off again to pick up the dry-cleaning. Making hours go by without us realizing that we haven’t actually done anything truly productive. By making ourselves more technologically advanced, we are simply making our lives more arduous.

Every invention has sped life up that much faster. The home phone for example made it so if we wanted to talk to someone; it was just 10 dial tones away, opposed to having to send a letter. The home phone later evolved into the cell phone, allowing us to call each other even faster and on-the-go. So, is technology really helping our lives like so many believe? People believe that life was longer and better in older times, however others disagree that with all the new cool gadgets we have, life couldn't be better.

Harry Potter

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     A series of books that I am sure you all know of is Harry Potter. Harry Potter has become so big over the past years that I often see kids sporting shirts saying that they are in Slytherin, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, or even Gryffindor. Although this is not my favorite series of books I do greatly enjoy pouring over its contents every-so-often. Even though this book series is a series of movies now, I still feel that reading the book is endlessly better then actually seeing it. Not that I dont enjoy the movies, as I am looking forward to Deathly Hallows, but the movies leave out large amounts of information that were essential to making the books loved by all.

     In case you dont know of the fad known as "Harry Potter" then here is a quick summary for you. Harry Potter grew up living in his aunt's and uncle's house. He was always unloved and cast in the, rather large, shadow of Dudley, his cousin. However all of this changes on his 11th/12th birthday when he is told that he is a wizard by a half giant named Hagrid. At first Harry doubts Hagrid, but then when they walk into Diagon Alley, all of his doubts vanished. He is suddenly engulfed by robed figures that say he is famous for "being the one who lived" and vanquishing the Dark Lord, Voldemort. As he walks through buying all his school supplies, spell books, an owl, robes, a wand, and a cauldron, he realizes that he is the center of the wizarding world. Harry is then whisked off to Hogwarts, a school of witchcraft and wizardly, where he is surrounded by young wizards and witches just like him.
    
     Harry faces many challenges throughout his years at Hogwartz starting with the sorcerers stone, the basilisk, Sirius Black, the Triwizard Tournament, and the prophecy about him. However, Haryy overcomes all of these hurtles and many more in his seven books.

Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins

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Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins takes place in New York City with an 11 year old kid, named Gregor, as the main character. Gregor lives in a small apartment with his mother, 8 year-old sister, 3 year-old sister, and his grandma. Gregor's father had disapeared about 2 years ago making his mom, a secretary, support the whole family with her monthly salary. However now, Gregor's family is about to fall apart as Gregor and his baby sister delve into a strange realm miles below the city.

     It was a hot August day as Gregor sat at the table wishing he had gone to camp. However, when his father had mysteriously disapeared Gregor had inherited a lot of extra chores, like watching his grandma and Boots, Gregor's 3 year-old sister. Looking for something to break up the monotinous day Gregor decides to take Boots and all the laundry down to the basement where four squat washing machines resided. Down in the basement Gregor watches as Boots runs inbetween the washing machines and thinks of the last time he had been happy." The last time I was truly happy was...before Dad went missing,"thought Gregor. Suddenly a scream drags him back to reality and he races to where he saw Boots last just in time to see Boots fall into a large grate in the wall.

     Gregor and Boots fall for several minutes finally landing softly on the stone floor. As Gregor takes in his surroundings he notices the only way out is through a large tunnel so he picks Boots up, and starts to jog down it. After jogging for 10 minutes Gregor begins to see a light ahead and as he runs through it he is deafened by the roar of a large crowd. Looking around, Gregor realizes he had stepped into a form of stadium and is greeted by an elderly man, named Vikus, who says he is in Regalia, city of the humans, as he leads Gregor to a palace built entirely of stone. Once at the palace Vikus tells Gregor of a prophecy about an overlander, a child from above ground, would come to the underland in search of his father.
     Gregor, convinced that he is the child, goes on a quest to rescue his father. His father is being held by rats, which are 6 feet tall, and Gregor is forced to befriend giant cockroaches, spiders, and rats if he will be able to rescue his father. As Gregor travels across the Underland he is urged to hurry by the memory of his mother, waiting for her children to come home after days of waiting. Will Gregor be able to make it across the dangerous Underland and save his father in time?