Friday, November 18, 2011

3rd week inquiry questions

My first inquiry question is about street harassment, is street harassment about power? In my last blog I talked about my inquiry question being kind of like an opinion question, and in some places in the world, men are being harassed more than women. According to one of my Google Reader subscriptions, this week there were no updates. There were no such blogs that could help answer my inquiry question. People just wrote, how someone know was harassed and personal experience. There was no such update that seemed interesting to me, or compel me to come up with a new question. This time none of the updates made me think, about my inquiry question being an opinion question.    

My second inquiry question is, about age discrimination, why are senior citizens being discriminated. There were some new updates about the age discrimination in my Google Reader subscriptions, but none of them help me learn about my question and help me answer my question. Most of them talked about how disrespectful it is to dismiss or sack someone because there are old. Some updates talked about the bosses, who fire their employee because of their age, should be given jailed based on the charges of age discrimination. The updates were very boring to read this time, they all talking about how bad age discrimination is and how senior citizens employees should be treated


Friday, November 11, 2011

Inquiry Questions answers

My first inquiry question is about street harassment, is street harassment about power? My inquiry question is kind of like an opinion question, and in some places in the world, men are being harassed more than women. According to one of my Google Reader subscriptions, there was a blog posted 2-3 days ago and it talked about boys being harassed more than girls. It said that middle school boys were harassed more than girls, therefore; the harassments made a negative impact on them. The boys were not coming to school, had trouble sleeping and more. Before reading this blog I was certain that my inquiry question is not an opinion question. After reading it, the blog made my think that there could be other place where men are harassed more than women. The blog also made me think about how can harassment trouble your sleep.

http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/2011/11/mothers/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=mothers

My second inquiry question is, about age discrimination, why are senior citizens being discriminated. There were new updates about the age discrimination in my Google Reader subscriptions, but none of them help me learn about my question and help me answer my question. However, reading the other blog, about boys being harassed more than girls, again made my think if my second question is also an opinion question.      

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Inquiry Questions

My Inquiry questions:
1) Is street harassment about power?
2) Why are senior citizens being discriminated?
 


I have notice a lot times, that men harass women on the streets. The funny thing is that I have never seen an women honking, or leers, or whistles or, making kissing noises, or giving non-sexually explicit evaluative comments to a men. This makes me believe that street harassment is much motivated by gender, meaning it have to with superiority. My conclusion and my view on why street harassment is motivated by gender is because men feel or "Know" that they are superior than women. So, this problem definitely has to do with POWER or superiority. Street harassment give women certain limitation to comfortably walk in public, but men get no such limit, therefore; street harassment is also a human's rights issue.


I have read, and heard young employers calling senior citizen employers by names like “ Old man”, “pops”, and more. I read a article about  a 65 years old man, who worked for a corporation, he worked their for 28 years, almost his whole life. Then one day his boss called him and fired him. When the employer asks him why, his boss replied by say that he is now to old to work, so he will be replaced by a young and more educated man. This article that I read was definitely about age discrimination. Instead of learning from these “Old Men”, why are being fired.  

                                                 Subscribed


1.) http://www.newyorkemploymentlawyerblog.com/age_discrimination/
2.) http://www.lawmemo.com/blog/discrimination_age/index.html
3.) http://www.stopstreetharassment.org/about/what-is-street-harassment/
4.) http://www.ihollaback.org/
5.) http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0418/Street-harassment-of-women-It-s-a-bigger-    
     problem-than-you-think
6.) http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/age.html

Friday, October 14, 2011

Socratic seminar response 2nd week


The discussion we had, again, was not fun, because I did not learn anything. The questions used for discussion did not felt interesting to me. Just like last time I did not really have any anything to say or have any opinion about the topics that were being discussed. I disliked the discussion. I am not saying that the seminar is pointless, but I do not really enjoy these kinds of discussion. My classmates giving their opinions, made me kinda feel "powerless" because I had nothing to say. This time also I find Socratic seminar boring, and I do not think Socratic seminar is a way for me to learn, I like discussions in a small group, and I can learn from small group discussions. The reason why I did not participated in the seminar was because I had no opinion for the question we were discussing. I found the seed question pointless, because truly I couldn't have a opinion. The seed question for the discussion was about a racial word "nigger", about it's meaning, how it's used in today's language, and foul language. Many people had opinions. Some said it is okay to use "nigger", because some people grown up hearing and using the word in their daily life. Others, like our PE teacher Mrs. Yarber, said it is inappropriate to speak such word, and should be "banned from the English Dictionary".The reason why these people had opinion regarding this word was because the very word hold's a meaning in their life. To me, the word has no meaning. For me, "nigger" is just another word; therefore I had no opinion to give in the discussion.    

Diversity and Difference celebration by American Authors

America is a place where diversity and differences are celebrated for the good of all. The ideals America stands for are freedom, equality, and rights which are celebrated by all. In Whitman, and Hughes’s writing they show that they honor it. Whitman celebrates it, and Hughes with his positive attitude, looks forward to celebrate it.

“I hear America singing” by Walt Whitman shows what his America is and what it is like, and how they celebrate there work using general lifestyles of others around him such as “mechanics, carpenter, mason, hatter” and more. His vision of America seems like utopian society, where there is perfect political, social, and economically system. His uses words like “Singing” and “songs” which means working, and freedom. The celebration Whitman talks about is the “blithe” freedom that belongs to you and only you by stating “ The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat”. In Whitman’s America you will see repeated over and over a celebration of individuals regardless of race, sex, ethnicity, nationality, and social standing by expressing words or phrases like “ Each singing what belongs to her, and to none else”, “ the varied carols”, “young fellows, robust, friendly”, and more. (http://www.bartleby.com/142/91.html)

I, too, sing America by Langston Hughes shows Hughes calmly looking forward to celebrate diversity and differences with the white society. I, too, sing America has a point of view of 1st person, a poem about individual. Unlike Whitman, Hughes’s poem celebrate people for who they are not what they do. Hughes consider himself a part of American society, in his poem he declares “ I am the darker brother.”. His tone in the poem is very calm but strong and determined. (http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15615)

Whitman celebrates the festival of diversity, by telling people celebrating their work in a utopian type of America, and expresses the celebration in a harmonious tone. Hughes looks forward to celebrates his Equality with his white brothers.

http://www.worldandi.com/specialcollection/special-collection-diversity.asp

Friday, October 7, 2011

Socratic seminar response

The good discussion we had yesterday was not fun, because I did not learn anything. I would rather like a reading day than Socratic seminar. The questions used for discussion did not felt interesting to me. I did not really have any anything to say or have any opinion about the topics that were being discussed. I disliked the discussion. I am not saying that the seminar is pointless, but I do not really enjoy these kinds of discussion. People just saying stuff, and being very loud, I do not like that. I also find Socratic seminar boring, I do not think Socratic seminar is a way for me to learn, I like discussions in a small group, and I can learn from small group discussions. The reason why I did not participated in the seminar was because I had no opinion for questions like, are men superior than women or men have more power than women? According to a person like me, I cannot form an opinion for such question. Since there was a huge argument about men are superior than women. I would say or my opinion would be, a man is superior than a woman or vice versa does not really bother me, I mean so what if a woman is superior than a man or a man is superior than a woman. I’m sorry but I think that The Wheel Of Power is nonsense. Pardon my language, but why the hell should there be any superiority or inferiority in our society ?   

Origin of the Civil War


Origins of the Civil War

The deepest cause of the Civil War lay in the divergence of two societies over slavery. As the North and the South developed divergent societies based on freedom and slavery, two separate regional identities emerged. The United States was a nation divided into two distinct regions separated by the Mason-Dixon line. The Wilmot Proviso, Compromise of 1850, and Kansas-Nebraska Act stirred up a great controversy over the extension of slavery into the western territories and also contributed a lot to the coming of the Civil War.

During the Mexican-American War (1846-48), the Wilmot Proviso was a bill in Congress to outlaw slavery in the new territories; it never passed but stirred intense controversy. The Wilmot Proviso was a proposal, by David Wilmot for Congress to forbid the expansion of slavery into the Southwest, the land acquired from Mexico after the Mexican-American War. Many northerners viewed the war with Mexico as part of a southern plot to extend the “slave power”. This belief and the Proviso inflamed great sectional tensions and helped cause the American Civil War, because the northerners voted for the Proviso even if they were democrat and the southerners voted against it even if they were Whigs.

The Compromise of 1850 in United States history was a series of legislative acts that were intended to resolve conflicts between pro-slavery and anti-slavery, but it ended up being a controversy. A political crisis began with a petition for the admission of California as a free state. Following the California Gold Rush, California had enough people for the formation of a government. But after the Missouri Compromise, it had been the practice of Congress to admit states in slave-free pairs so as to maintain the balance of free and slave states in the U.S. Senate. As there was no slave territory anywhere close to being ready or able to organize as a state, the admission of California as a free state would undo the compromise and grant a free-state majority in the Senate. Henry Clay proposed a compromise that would resolve this and other outstanding issues. Clay's bill admitted California as a free state, banned the sale of slaves in Washington, D.C., organized the remainder of the Mexican Cession into two territories-Utah and New Mexico-and allowed the settlers to decide the slavery issue by popular sovereignty, and strengthen the fugitive slave law. Parts of the compromise became sources of controversy, especially the new Fugitive Slave Law and the provision of popular sovereignty.

Most people thought the Compromise had ended the territorial issue, but Stephen A. Douglas reopened it in 1854, in the name of democracy. Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Bill with the intention of the railroad connections from Chicago into Kansas and Nebraska, but that was not a controversial point. The Bill proposed that the Nebraska Territory be divided into the Kansas territory and Nebraska territory, and the settler there be free to decide whether or not to allow slavery(popular sovereignty). The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act renewed the sectional controversy that had been at least partly resolved by the Compromise of 1850. In effect, it repealed the Compromise of 1820. This caused protest in north, and the party that caused this protest was called the Anti-Slavery Republic Party.

Some Historians see the Wilmot Proviso as the first round in an escalating political conflict that led ultimately to Civil War. The Compromise of 1850 was also one the steps leading to the Civil War. Manifest Destiny ,belief that the United States was destined to expand across theNorth American continent, played the most important role to trigger the Civil War.

Friday, September 30, 2011

importance of history

I think it is unarguable that history is an important subject in the high school, because it tells us about our past, and culture. History gives identity. History is not only about people in past or country, but it is also about government, and about the values and problems that affect our social well-being. I enjoy studying and learning about the past, because I like to compare the past by the present and it helps me to predict my future. In my previous history classes, I enjoyed learning about different civilizations, epic wars in the past, and enjoyed comparing different histories of different cultures. I found nothing boring and everything I learn was useful to me. Like taking AP US history helped me understand and learn American culture. Before taking APUSH, I only knew few reasons about the causes of the American Civil War, but taking APUSH made me learn all the reasons about the causes of the American Civil War in-depth. Most business colleges in the world, like Harvard Business School, give their students real business cases to study, some colleges called this Case Method Study. Studying business cases can help upcoming business student learn business method nicely, and gain knowledge of companies in the past and this helps us become good businessman. Learning history can help encounter problems in daily life. "History should be studied because it is essential to individuals and to society, and because it harbors beauty." 

10 things that makes me think about Kyle's presentation.

1. Why is black male graduation rate in Detroit is only 25%?


2. Is Ebonic and slang considered literate ?


3. Ebonics is legit ?


4. 2 black men die every week in Detroit?


5. Trash talking can bring down your opponent.


6. How will exploring and learning literacy help us?


7. Why does marginalizing affect people?


8. How is hip hop related to sports?


9. Is trash talking a self-expression?


10. Braggadocio????? 

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

What meaning do sports have in your life?

American sports have no meaning in my life. I don't love american sports, but I don't hate them. The only sport I am crazy about is cricket. Cricket is played worldwide, but not in america. There are cricket clubs in major cities of america, but the game is not played on national scale like NBL, or NFL. I have grown up playing and watching cricket. there isn't a single cricket game that I haven't watched since 2005.

Friday, September 23, 2011

Enzymes Activity

Enzymes are proteins that increases the rate of or catalyze chemical reaction unchanged. They a very important part of our life because most chemical reactions in cells and tissues are catalyzed by enzymes. Each enzyme catalyzes only a specific chemical reaction. The enzymes have region with specific spatial conformation or special shape for the binding of the substrate called the active site. There are three factors that affect the activity of an enzyme: inhibitors, temperature, and pH scale.



The one of the main factor that affect the enzymes activity are inhibitors. Inhibitors stop enzymes from functioning. There are two types of inhibitors. One is competitive inhibitors which have a similar shape to the substrate and therefore can "compete" or try to fit in with enzyme. The second type of inhibitors are called noncompetitive inhibitors. The noncompetitive inhibitors do not bind to the active site but block other enzymes substrate complex from forming. The noncompetitive inhibitors also react with portions of the action site, changing the enzymes shape so it does not function anymore.



There is certain range in temperature and pH scale where enzymes can work in. Enzymes function best at a pH of 7.4. If the pH is too high or too low the enzyme is denatured. Enzymes that are suited for functioning in an acidic environment would denatured if they are in a basic environment. Enzymes function in the same way in temperature. If the temperature is too high or too low the enzyme is denatured and will be unable to function.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

first book that I read and liked

The Giver by Lois Lowry is not the first book that I read but it is the first that I remember reading it in 8th grade English. The book is set in a utopian society in the future, where every person‘s life is carefully planned by the community, people make no choice on their own, there is no pain, no color, no feelings, no nature, no love, no music, and more. The Giver tells a story about a boy, named Jonas, who on his twelfth birthday receives a special assignment in the community by the Elders. The community gives him the privilege to become the successor of the current Receiver of Memories. A Receiver of Memories, a.k.a The Giver, is the most important person in the community; he is the only person who has access to all the memories of the past. He cannot tell anyone in the community about the past, he must keep his memories within himself until he trains his successor. The Giver is only person who can experience pain, sorrow, rage, loneliness, fear, and all the things that the people in the village cannot experience. As Jonas receives memories from The Giver, he realizes the truths of the community. He receives that it is unfair to make decisions for other people. Jonas, with the help of The Giver, he creates a plan to change the society. Every time I read this book, it makes me wonder that is it okay to make decision for individual. In our world, everybody attempts to make their life perfect, to make their country perfect. Just like the community in The Giver, everyone wants a perfect life, perfect society, and perfect country. This book makes me wonder is it okay to have perfect life, perfect society, and perfect country? Jonas life, family, and community are perfect, yet he wants to change it.

Friday, September 16, 2011

one piece

Clockwise from top: Franky, Usopp, Nico Robin, Sanji, Monkey D. Luffy, Roronoa Zoro, Nami, Brook and Tony Tony Chopper (reindeer at the center).
             I recommend everybody to read one piece. One piece is graphic novel, a Japanese manga. The manga is about a young adventurous boy, named Monkey D Luffy who gains ability to stretch his body by accidentally eating a supernatural fruit called Gum-Gum fruit. Luffy sets out to ocean on a ship and creates his crew named the Straw Hat crew. With his crewmates, luffy explores the oceans in search of the greatest treasure in the world called One Piece, and to become the next Pirate King. On his journey, luffy battles a lot of villains, and make a lot of allies and friends. His crew has 8 members, the swordsman Roronoa Zoro, the navigator and thief Nami, the liar and cowardly sharpshooter Usopp, the womanizing chef Sanji, the doctor and anthropomorphized reindeer Tony Tony Chopper, who ate supernatural fruit like luffy but gained the ability to transform into a man, the archaeologist Nico Robin, the shipwright Franky who is cyborg, and the musician skeleton Brook, who died 50 years before the storyline started but was revived by a supernatural called Revive-Revive fruit. All of these people has a dream they want to fulfill. Zoro wants to defeat Mihawk Hawkeye, the world’s greatest swordsman, and become the next world’s greatest swordsman. Nami wants to draw the entire map of the One Piece world. Nico Robin wants to find what happened in void century or the blank century in the history of the One Piece world. Usopp wants to become the bravest warrior of the sea. Sanji wants to find a legendary place called All Blue where all of the marine life in the world gather. Brook wants to see his old friend he left fifty years ago. And franky wants to build a ship, become its shipwright, and sail it to the end of the world.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Earliest memory of school

My earliest memories of school are when I was in 4th grade in Martin Luther King Jr. elementary school. I still remember, my mom woke me up at exactly 6:30 in the morning, gave me breakfast, and drop me in yellow school bus. I still remember my yellow bus number was 43. 4th grade is probably the most memorable school year for me because I finished my third grade in India, and started fourth grade in America. Since I did not understand any English, the dean of my elementary school enrolled me in ESL, Mrs. Ariz was my ESL teacher, and she taught me a lot. Unable to speak in English I was a shy kid, I hated to participate in class discussions, but I felt good in ESL class, because I met and made friend with many kids from different countries, who could not speak English. In fact, ESL was my best class in fourth and fifth grade. In ESL, we would all speak broken English, to try to help each other out. In free time, we would ask each other about their culture, country, and more. In few months, as I started to speak, write, read, and understand English, it was going really well for me in actual classes in my elementary school, I would not feel alone, or feel shy. I was interacting with fellow American classmates; many of them became my best friends. For me, Fourth grade was the most fun and most difficult grade. Not knowing English made it very difficult, but my first school year in an American school, making friends from other countries, and learning English made fourth grade even more exciting and fun for me.   

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

memorable teacher

The teacher I remember the most is Mr. Dady. I had mr. dady for ancient world history during my freshman year. In the early days of my freshman years, I didn't really like mr. dady's class because it was my first year in high school, and the class was full of seniors, juniors, and sophomores whom I didn't know, but there were couple freshmen's who I knew. Since ancient world history was the last hour of the day, I always want get out the class and go home. But as time went on I started to know my classmates, most of the seniors, and juniors were my good friend. Since, Mr. Dady was a world history teacher me and him got along really well, because from me he would learn some Indian history from me, and I would learn some Indian history from him. His class wasn't really fun, because all we would do is take notes, so we had no fun activities or fun projects to do, but Dady made the class fun, by being easy going and giving students some freedom. Freedom like, no assigned seats, allowed to eat food, and more. I had Mr. Dady for my sophomore history class. I learned alot of things from my most memorable teacher, Mr. Dady.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

YA Lit

The article Darkness Too Visible by Meghan Cox Gurdon is about how YA novels or teen books are about violence. Gurdon's articles talks about, how YA books are affecting teens, teens reading books kidnapping, brutal beating, and more evil stuff is making their minds evil and such explicit YA novels traumatize a teen. Gurdon proves her point by giving a summary of the worst parts of books.


The article Why the best Kids Books Are Written in Blood by Sherman Alexie is about how a teen should pick any kind of book he/she wants to read. In the article, alexie strongly disapproves with gurdon's view on the on YA novels. Alexie says that novels that are about brutal beating, sexual or physical abuse, or evil doesn't traumatize a teen or make him/her evil, but such novels can save them. Sherman points out that "evil" novels help teens fight "evil" in their life.

I don't read novels or books very often, i reading alot of manga. Manga are graphic novels, but they are exactly like books, they are full violence, rape, alot of cursing, and some are even full of sexual content. Like sherman alexie says in his article that it's okay to read any book a teen wants to read, i have the same reason for reading mangas, and I enjoy reading mangas. Yes, the kinds of mangas I read are full of violence, and evilness, but they all have good content, the reason why the main characters are so violent is because if they don't fight then they will lose their loved ones.

Sherman alexie's point of view about is true. dark themed books help and encourage teens to fight and diminish evil in their life. Personally speaking, reading mangas that are dark themed has prepared and encourage me not to fear anything in life, and face any situation without any fear, face them with a strong will, determination, and with a strong heart.    

Friday, August 26, 2011

How to Refill an Empty Life

The essay I would like to recommend is How to Refill an Empty Life by Albert J. Nesbitt.

One day about fifteen years ago I suddenly came face to face with myself and realized there was something quite empty about my life. My friends and associates perhaps didn’t see it. By the generally accepted standards, I was “successful,” I was head of a prosperous manufacturing concern, and led what is usually referred to as an “active” life, both socially and in business. But it didn’t seem to me to be adding up to anything. I was going around in circles. I worked hard, played hard, and pretty soon I discovered that I was hitting the highballs harder than I needed. I wasn’t a candidate for Alcoholics Anonymous, but to be honest with myself I had to admit I was drinking more than was good for me. It may have been out of sheer boredom.
I appreciated this essay because while reading this essay I felt a connection with the author of this essay.  Nesbitt talks about despite been “successful” in his life, one day he realized his life was empty. Same thing occured to me in my early year's of high school, I had perfect classes that i wanted to be in, my grades were high, it was a nice, smooth life. but sudenly, like Nesbitt, I also felt emptiness in my life. To fulfill his emptiness, Nesbitt, return to the Christian principles on which he was raised. Since i felt the same emptiness, I begun to wonder to what to do, how to fulfill the void of emptiness in my life. With lot of thinking, I concluded that, I felt emptiness because I was focusing to much on my studies. Because of that I decided to do things I always to do, and then I begun to live a full life.