Neptune's Navy Response

"Who is 'right' in the controversy involving whaling and the Sea Shepherd?"

I believe that Watson is more at fault in this controversy. The whalers aren't in violation of any international environmental regulations because they are, "technically complying with the rules of the I.W.C., and that to stop it one must first upset the status quo that permits the fleet to hunt whales." Watson, however, is breaking regulations as stated by this quote from the text: "When I described Watson’s use of the charter to David Caron, the co-director of the Law of the Sea Institute, at the University of California at Berkeley, he said, 'Clearly wrong. There is no ambiguity.' " Although Watson feels he is working to fight against something he feels is wrong, he is actually digging himself into a deeper grave than he already is.

Response to the Washington Post

Racial identification is where a person of one racial demographic decides to associate with a different racial demographic, usually due to appearance. That idea is considered ambiguous to some people because for the people who don't know their entire heritage, the best they can do is to associate with people that look similar to themselves, even if they aren't ethnically made up of said demographic. However, the language of racial identity can play a large part in the thoughts and actions related to race in the present and future.

Racial identity is something that has created loopholes, of sorts, in society's unwritten codes of conduct. One loophole that has occurred due to racial identity is that it has allowed numerous people from a minority demographic to walk amongst a majority demographic. Most cases of "racial passing," as it's called, happen from any given minority group (or a mix of heritages) to a majority such as, white, middle to upper class. One example of this is the case of US civil rights leader Walter Francis White. He was the chief executive of the NAACP from 1929 to 1955 and, under his leadership, set up the Legal Defense Fund to bring segregation infractions to the Supreme Court, one of which was Brown v. Board of Education. Five of his great-great-great-grandparents were black and the other 27 were white. He was black, but passed off as a white man to obtain information about lynchings and hate crimes in the South more freely. Nobody thought about if, when calling this man white, he really was of the ethnicity of which his physical appearance is associated. Granted, he claimed the "white" ethnicity, he still had a small percentage of black heritages in him; a drop of black, if you will.

Another example of someone who claims one ethnicity, when made up of multiple others, is our President-elect, Barack Obama. He was born of an African American father, and a white Kansan mother, and raised by his mother and grandfather, who was also white, in Hawai'i. Even though he addresses himself as an African American, he is not; he is a bicultural, biracial man, who symbolizes more than the personification of African American achievement, as Marie Arana states in her Washington Post article. He symbolizes the change in America in moving from a close-minded culture, to an open and willing culture. When living in Chicago after graduating from Colombia University in New York, he was addressed as a black man, not as a mix of different races and cultures, but again, no one thought about that when addressing him as a black man.

These men are just two examples of how racial identity has affected our society, and how we, as a people, overlook these small facts that people are not necessarily made up of the heritage we convey through our physical appearance. Because of this, we are often confused as to of exactly what heritages we are made up. This can play a large part in the thoughts and actions related to race in the present and future. In the case of the present, we can only improve from how our society was not too long ago during the era of slavery. As for the future, because of our new President-elect, hopefully we'll become a more understanding and tolerant society where racial passing will no longer be needed, and it only takes one to start.

Two Possible Products

My first possible product is a photo essay from TIME magazine that deals with what foods families from around the world eat. One thing that I believe contributes to the overall success of this piece is that in each picture they show a lot, if not all the foods that the family eats in any given week. Also, the way that it is arranged in the picture is appealing. Another thing is the caption of each photo. Under each photo there is a description of the average amount each respective family spends on food weekly. This photo essay also gives you a view on how much people need to survive, and how gluttonous the world can be. I saw a family from a camp in Chad that spends $1.23 weekly on food for a healthy family of 6.

My second possible product is another photo essay from Mother Jones.com about the women in Afghanistan. This essay presents photos that show the lives of many different women from Afghanistan and tell bits and pieces of their stories. Most of the pictures, if left by themselves, would seem boring and look like pictures of random women in Afghanistan, but with the captions they are something more. The quality of the pictures, also, are very high which I like because you can see detail and clarity in them.

Both of my products are photo essays and/or websites where the content would be a photo essay much like the two listed above. I know that I will find these helpful with my work because I can see the kind of photos necessary for a piece that has to do with presenting information to the generally unknowing audience.

Presidential Election 2008 Reflection

I feel happy about the results of the election. My hopes for this country are to get out of the war and to stabilize the economy. My concerns are that Barack Obama won't be able to stick to the words said and promises made. I feel that I have become well taught in politics. I used to be very ignorant in the subject, but I became interested and active lately, and have been adamant about learning what I don't fully understand about any given sub-category of politics. We have done blogs for the political race for presidency, and have been assigned to watch the debates and stay updated with the politics, which has helped me immensley. In my opinion, in class I don't think we could have done any more to further my knowledge of current politics. I feel that it was a well set up lesson plan. Furthermore, I feel that the youth of today tries to seem less ignorant than they are, but it makes them look stupid because they don't research politics and they don't understand how it works completely.

Research Question Ideas

Question 1: Quality of Wildlife in Correlation to Beach Quality

I plan on writing about the quality of wildlife in correlation to beach quality. My idea for this is to explain through graphs of how the beaches have affected the quality of wildlife in San Diego beaches. Here is a Report Card for Beaches in SD for 2007. This will give me information on the beach qualities.

Question 2: Poster Revision

I'd be revising the posters at the Living Museum in Ocean Beach with Jade Tyler. Here is some background information on Ocean Beach.

Here is one poster that shows good organization
Here is another that shows use of pictures and placement of text

Newspaper Reflection

One thing that I did for the newspaper that I liked was the front page layout. I created it and I feel it came out very well. One thing I think i could improve would be organization in the layout. I feel that it was too cluttered in the bottom, but aside from that I think it came out well. I think my product was built too much on procrastination. I didn't use my resources too well but I'm working on my procrastination.

Photography

Rule of Thirds


Depth of Field


Fill the Frame


Interesting Use of Light


Eye Level Shooting


Macro Shooting


All images courtesy of Flickr.com and Google.com

Demo-what-ics?!

Demographics! Have you ever wondered what they really are? As defined by Kelly Co. Marketing, demographics are, "common characteristics used for population or audience segmentation, such as age, gender, household income, etc." They are commonly used for TV shows, internet ads, but more importantly, presidential campaigning.

Presidential campaigns are a medium to translate certain aspects of each candidate's policies to certain groups of people, certain demographics. You wouldn't want to campaign a policy on illegal immigration crackdown to a border-town Latino community, you'd want to campaign that to a border-town white community who are worried about their massive loss of jobs due to the immigrants taking them.

Speaking of Latino demographics, on a website for KTAR, a radio station local to Phoenix, AZ, there is an article about how the Latino communities in Phoenix are riled up about the presidential election coming this November. Latinos represent 9 percent of registered voters in the United States, and in another article (courtesy of the Associated Press), there is a quote that clearly states the importance of generating a campaign in accordance to certain demographics. "In [swing states] where the election is very close, they make all the difference in the world." This shows just how much elections can depend on one group of people.

Party, Party, Party! I Want to Party Hardy!

The American political parties have changed since the 1780’s in the sense that not only have they changed their names, but they have also changed some of the rules they follow. In the beginning of Democracy in the US, which was after the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, in 1780 we had two parties. Today’s Democratic party was called the Federalists. They believed in having a strong central government, encouraged commerce and manufacturing, favored having close ties with Britain and emphasized order and stability. In addition, nowadays Democrats also support environmental legislation and limiting economic development.

The Republicans started out in 1780 with no name change at that time. In 1780 they were against the Democratic views on having a strong central government. They, unlike the Federalists have a “strict” interpretation of the Constitution and tended to follow it more rigorously. They also had strength in the South and the West whereas the Federalists had a strong following in the North. While still holding true to defending their position on an Anti-Federalist viewpoint on the US government, they also have stronger ties to Judeo-Christian religions, they don’t believe in abortions, and speculatively favor the higher class/white collar citizens.

Overall, the politicians of 1780 wouldn’t be disappointed, I think, because the ideologies of today’s political parties are, for the most part, the same as they were before.

Roadblock

EDITED: 06 October 2008
Confusion Rules Road In and Out of Galveston
Original article by, Alan Feuer and Thayer Evans

Hurricane Ike really took a toll, not only on the cities and states it hit, but the people of said cities and states. In Galveston, Texas, the mayor Lyda Ann Thomas, had said that citizens could go into the city under a "look and leave" policy from six a.m. to six p.m. but was quick to go back on her word due to the massive volumes of people coming in; They simply could not handle the amount. In other words, people were turned away from their homes. This, as I see it, is a violation of man's natural rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If you can't go home, you are being deprived of the right of the pursuit of happiness. How can you be happy, if you aren't allowed to see your home? Although desperate times call for desperate measures, people should be allowed to go homes, if they are still in a condition to be seen.

Constitutional Crisis

In the recent past, there has been one Constitutional crisis, in which politicians have not been following the rules laid out in the constitution, that has stuck out to me. That crisis happened during the Bush administration in which Bush had been wanting to go to war so bad that he circumvented the Constitutional rules and powers given to Congress of declaring war. He had tried to go through the United Nations to see if they would back the U.S. in a war in Iraq; They denied him. So he goes to Congress asking for the rights to go to war and in return he would have the U.N. back the U.S. in war. Congress understood this to be a sound statement, so they signed off on it; They gave him the power to declare war against Iraq. Bush then, instead of going to the U.N. for backing, went straight to war with Iraq. This to me seems as an infraction of Constitutional powers and rules for each of the three branches of government.

Dear Federal Government...

What are you guys gonna do about this stock market crisis? Are you gonna sit around and do nothing? Or are you gonna step in like you did with the crisis not too long ago with Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac? I think you should do the former.

I say this because if you look at how things played out during, and after the Great Depression, nature settled things out by itself. Sure it took a while, but it got settled eventually. Through time and perseverance, people stuck it out and pulled through and even though a lot of people ended up homeless, more people kept living comfortably.

Another point I would like to make would be that inflation is undeniably one cause of this crisis. And all that the government needs to do is print less money. Sure that would cause more of a deficit than there already is, but in the long run, it will be much better for this country because our dollar will be a lot stronger than it was before. The amount that our dollar has dropped is appalling.

This is, completely and undeniably, an Anti-Federalist standpoint for a country that relies so heavily on strong Federalism ideas. Be that as it may, I see it as the only way to recuperate from such a heavy blow to our economy.

"Get to the Chopper!"

Powerful California Union Seeks to Recall Governor
Original article by, Solomon Moore

The influential prison guards union of California congregated and filed a formal notice on Tuesday stating that they would try to pursue a recall election for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The union would have to collect $3 million to $5 million and roughly one million signatures for a special recall hearing that could easily double the cost. Schwarzenegger officials say that the union was just using it as a tactic of intimidation, but the union says that effort is about Schwarzenegger's overall style of leadership not about any specific issue such as salary negotiations. This is a perfect example of an Anti-Federalist Government. Anti-Federalists believe in having a weak central government and each state has their own strong government. The people aren't happy with the government of their state, so they choose to impeach their governor's leadership, and they have a right to. Even though this country has a strong central government, we have a right to our own opinion whether it be one of federalist ideals or anti-federalist ideals.

"We got a code Gustav!"

To Rebuild or to Leave?
Original article by, Damien Cave

Right when people started getting used to living in their homes in New Orleans, another disaster happens; Three years ago it was Hurricane Katrina, now its Hurricane Gustav. Most people had tried to deal with Katrina, but some up and left afterward. Now after Gustav has hit, some of the people who thought it impossible for another hurricane to hit them so soon, if ever, are now wishing they'd left when they could have. Some have come to the conclusion that it's two hurricanes within four years is too much to handle, so those people are packing their things and leaving. Others are staying put. Hobbes would believe this to be the perfect example of defending your human rights of life, liberty, and property. He believed that since you were born with these rights, you should defend them to the best of your ability. My thought is that if you look at these events through Hobbes' eyes, the people leaving are showing that they have defended their right of property as much as they could and the people staying are showing they can defend their rights better, and more effectively than those who fled. . .

Or at least will be trying to.

Hit the road, Jack!

Abramoff Is Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison
Original Article written by, Neil A. Lewis

Last Thursday Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four years in prison, as the title of the original article states. He is being sentenced because of his corruption and tax offenses that were uncovered unknowingly during a case investigation under other charges. He had originally been sentenced to 11 years in prison because he fraudulenty persuaded Indian tribes across America to donate an estimated $66 million to Michael Scanlon, an indpedendent PR consultant and spokesperson for Tom DeLay who was a House Representative from Texas at the time. These "gifts" may have seemed to be blessings for the recieving end, but for the Indian tribes that the money was taken from, it is a violation of their natural and human rights: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I say this is a violation because in taking their money, Abramoff had caused the suffering of many families and children across the nation. I personally, wouldn't stand for that; I would have made sure that the eleven year sentence was kept in place, if not lengthened due to the incredulous crime commited by this man, Jack Abramoff.