How clean is our air?

Chicago's Toxic Air Despite the shocking stock market and housing market crash, The Chicago Tribune's lead article on Monday, September 29, 2008 was about "Our Toxic Air." According to this article, Cook County ranked the worst in the United States for dangerous air pollution. This data, based on a study by the EPA performed in 2005 is just becoming available. Local industries are pouring to toxic chemicals into our air which can cause cancer, lung disease, and other problems. One of the worst offenders, Avery Dennison company, is in the nearby community of Niles. If the EPA is supposed to be protecting us, how come this data was not available several years ago? What can we as local residents do to protect our air and environment? We also need to look out for underprivileged people living close to these major polluting industries.

Secret Messages

Authors use specific words to communicate secret messages. By investigating the text and analyzing the author’s diction, you will discover many “secret massages” that you did not notice when first reading it. Specific words that an author uses can reveal their perspective or bias. In the historical text that we discussed in class there were a number of works that revealed the author’s perspective. We can see some examples in the titles of each passage. For example, “Indians are CHEATED,” points out that the author favors the Indians over the Americans. It shows that the author believes that it was an unfair victory and that there was some reason that they should not have originally won. Also, another example would be, “Chivington MASSACRES the Cheyenne.” Massacres is a strong word that has a negative connotation. It portrays the idea that innocent people were wrongfully killed, or it was genocide. Next, in the phrase, “The Indians wars have SKILLFUL leaders,” it is interesting to notice the author’s word choice. Skillful has a positive connotation. The reader could think that the leaders could be dangerous because they know how to use tool to hurts others.
What other Secret Messages are discovered from word choices made by an author appear in this historical text or other texts? What about political speeches?

America has been living beyond its means: Who's going to pay?

On September 20th, President Bush asked Congress to agree with his plan to bail out the United States Financial Markets. Over the last year we have been watching mortgage companies allow clients to acquire mortgages without putting any money down. When the housing prices fell, these clients were left paying a mortgage much higher than the current worth of the property. Many of these clients defaulted on their loans and the financial institutions were stuck with them. This has lead to a downward spiral of financial institutions throughout the United States with a huge drop in the stock market. President Bush proposed that the U.S. Treasury buy up $700 billion in mortgage-related bad debts, making this “the largest financial bailout in U.S. history,” and to raise the national debt ceiling to $11.3 trillion (from 10.6 trillion). Why should we, the United States tax payers, have to pay for the financial mistakes of our greedy financial institutions?

SNL

The Presidential Elections

It seems that the election has veered away from the Presidential candidates, and is now focused on the newest arrival to the scene. Unlike Barack Obama’s choice of Vice-President, the well known Senator Joe Biden, John McCain’s choice of Governor Sarah Palin was unexpected. It appears that both parties have had a women candidate. Hilary Clinton, although not nominated, was a strong presidential candidate who captured the attention of men and women alike. Hilary had been visible in the political scene for years. In contrast, Governor Palin has risen from obscurity. With less than two months until Presidential Election Day, will we have time to learn enough about her? It also seems that the Republican Party chose Palin in order to capture the votes of women. Isn’t it presumptuous of them to think that women will automatically vote for a woman candidate? The Saturday Night Live video gives a comical but poignant portrayal of Palin and Clinton. What do you think?

Who Killed the Electric Car?

With the disasters of Hurricane Katrina and now Hurricane Ike, many people question whether they are a result of global warming. If this is the case, then what are we doing to decrease emissions and prevent global warming from progressing further? One technology that appears to have the potential to decrease emissions is the electric car and hybrids. I was shocked to learn that General Motors actually invested around $1 billion in the technology and produced an electric car, EV1. However, a little over 1,000 EV1s were produced by GM before it ceased production. A number of reasons have been sighted. They may have thought this car would “cannibalize” their current vehicles. Another is that they were pressured or bought out by the oil companies. They attached video trailer introduces the subject. This month Business Week reported that Ford’s Fiesta ECOnetics, which gets 65 miles per gallon, is being launched. Unfortunately, we won’t see it in the United States. Ford is only marketing it in Europe at this point as it’s too expensive to import. It seems that our government should get involved and perhaps subsidize these cars that save on emissions. As consumers, we need to support this new technology. How could GM have scrapped production of “The Electric Car” that would have made the company a leader in this new field of technology?

Subliminal Messages

Subliminal messages are messages that are recognized subconsciously by the brain. These messages can have a negative or positive influence on a person’s thoughts. Subliminal messages are commonly found in advertising. Subliminal advertising commonly uses visual or audio messages. You can find these messages in signs or commercials. An example is the Fed Ex logo. If you look at the photo you will see an arrow that is located between the “E” and the “x”. What do you think the purpose to this arrow is? Where do you see other examples of subliminal messages throughout your day? How do these messages affect a persons thoughts and alter their behavior?

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