The Golden Compass

The film "The Golden Compass", based off the book written by Philip Pullman, is one that is said to be anti-Christian and a bad influence. Why all the fuss? It is just a story. A very well written story with amazing imagination and, yes, some references to religions. The references to religions that we know are what make the story easy to comprehend and to understand. The magisterium (the ruling power) is occasionally referred to the Catholic Church, or Christianity. So it wouldn't be fair to say that this film attacks Christianity. Pullman states, "I prefer to trust the reader. Everyone has the right to form their own opinions and come to their own conclusions about it." He was asked about promoting atheism and his response was that promoting such a thing could be taken from the book but that is not what he intended to be taken out. He says, "What I intended for people to take from it is the experience of a good story, I also hope they come away with seeing the qualities the book promotes and cheers ahead are qualities like love and compassion and courage and courtesy too; and open-minded intellectual curiosity, those are the values of the book champion." So again, what is all the fuss? It is a good story! In the fiction section! Let a story, be a story.

Work Cited:

"Pullman on the Compass Contraversy". Today. Msnbc.com. 2 Nov. 2007. 21 May 2008. .

Blog 11

I’m so glad that I have a plan for after I graduate high school. It’s a great feeling to know that I will not be totally lost when it comes to making it on my own in the world. And of course I will always have my parents there to guide me along the way and to help me in times of trouble. After I graduate high school, I plan on attending Southeastern University in Louisiana. I want to be a teacher for either secondary math or chemistry. I haven’t quite decided yet, but it is becoming clearer to me along the way. I will go to college and get my degree and whatever else is necessary to become a teacher and then, in about 5 years, I will be out looking for my first job. I would actually like to teach at East Ascension High School because it is partially where I grew up; but any other public school would be fine. Hopefully, through my adventure of college and getting a job, I will meet that guy that I will spend the rest of my life with and marry him. My dream role in life is to be a good wife and mother (first), and a teacher (second). It’s what I’ve dreamed of since I was little. So I am determined to make it happen. However, I will wait patiently for the right times of all these goals.

OUTFOXED.

Outfoxed, a documentary directed by Robert Greenwald, is a great examination of the news station FOX. The documentary's purpose is to show all viewers how subjective the news station can be. Instead of just reporting news, reporters often put their own opinions, comments, and beliefs in reports. Sometimes, it may get so often that it is no longer a report on a subject or event, but a debate. This makes FOX seem like a very unreliable source of news. Even 88% of top critics, from Rottentomatoes.com, have agreed with Outfoxed and haved called it "An often entertaining indictment of the Fox News Channel".

Like any other news station, FOX tries its hardest to get top stories and inside information to report on. However, when it comes to the reporters themselves, commentary is often used. As depicted in the documentary, reporters of FOX often provide their own commentary in a clever way. They simply state, "Some people say" or "It has been said that". In other words, "I believe" or "In my opinion". Especially at times of interviews, this may spark a debate between what the interviewer and the interviewee believe. News is not a debate. Reporters should simply just deliver the news with no extra opinion or commentary added.

Also, in the documentary, Greenwald shows that FOX may also choose their guests according to a political bias they have. FOX has had 83% of Republican guests and only 17% of Democratic guests. According to GetOUTFOXED.com, The whole documentary is ligit. All the numbers were researched and the documentary is correct. Does this not mean that they are only showing one side of the story? Or are they manipulating the news in such a way that favors Republicans? Either way, it can be concluded from the documentary that FOX is not the most reliable source of information. FOX is too subjective and bias to deliver any whole story.


Works cited:

"Outfoxed is Now Ligit". Get Outfoxed. 7 May 2008. <http://getoutfoxed.com/>.

"Movies/on DVD/ Outfoxed". Rotten Tomatoes. 17 Sep. 2004. 7 May 2008. <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/outfoxed/?critic=creamcrop>.

Blog 9

I am 16 years old. I am a spartanette and I am planning on auditioning for the summer musical put on by Center Stage Performing Arts Academy. I might even get a job. I NEED my drivers license. However, I can not get it until I am 17. Why is that? Well, my parents never paid for driving lessons for a permit. So that was never available to me. Getting a permit now is out of the question anyway because you have to have it 6 months before your license or when you turn 17. And I turn 17 in less than 6 months so it would be pointless. Since I have all of these extra activities I am going to be doing this summer, I need my license. But since I’m not going to have it and there is no chance I will, then I have to keep relying on other people to bring me places and to bring me home.

Cell Phone Use (8)

Cell phones are used frequently by people all around the world; they are relied on as one of the main ways of communication. The cell phone industry claims that their products are safe for use; however, research comes closer to prove the exact opposite. Scientific evidence suggests cell phones are not healthy for the brain. Cell phones are very helpful for communication purposes, but they should be relied upon less because the amount and effects of radiation that the brain receives from cell phones are harmful.

In fact, there are many things harmful to the brain, such as television and computers. They, too, have radiation, similar to that of a cell phone. Nevertheless, the brain receives, at the highest, sixty percent of the radiation emitted by the cell phone. Some of this radiation is absorbed an inch, to an inch and a half, in the brain. So, cell phone radiation is much worse than that which the brain absorbs while watching television or working on the computer. The reason there is such a large percent of radiation absorbed by the brain while using a cell phone is because the proximity of the antenna to your head. The theory of using a headset instead of a direct cell phone to reduce risks of radiation is false. The headset acts as its own antenna, and therefore increases the radiation by 300%. Watching television and working on the computer for long periods of time does not affect the brain so much because the radiation is further away from the brain. So television and computers do not have to be less relied on.

The amount of radio radiation waves absorbed by the brain makes cell phone usage very dangerous towards anyone’s health when too much relied upon. A study published in the June 2003 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives showed the effects of radiation to a rat’s brain. Twelve to twenty-six-week-old rats were used in this study because their developmental age is comparable to that of human teenagers, who are considered the heaviest users of cell phones. After cell phone exposure, the rat brain had damaged neutrons and protein leaks through the blood brain barrier. Most doctors and scientists ignore the fact of cell phone use as a contribution to illnesses, because those illnesses can be so easily traced to other causes. However, there are many illnesses that have been directly linked to too much cell phone information-carrying waves, such as fatigue, headaches, sleeping disruptions, autism, and possibly even cancer.

Yes, cell phones are a great convenience of communication and very helpful. However, many people—mostly teenagers—abuse cell phones and take them for granted. They are a great advancement of technology, but cell phones should not be abused and relied on so frequently, so as to avoid the possible illnesses and damages radiation causes.


Works Cited

Nielsen, Torben. Healing Water Online. 18 Aug. 2008. Dr. Mercola. 8 April 2008. http://healingwateronline.com/health/how-cellphone-radiation-affects-your-cells-2.html

Dr. Mercola. Mercola.com Take Control of Your Health. 2008. http://www.mercola.com/forms/ferrite_beads.htm

"Inaudible Melodies" by Jack Johnson

“Inaudible Melodies” by Jack Johnson is a song about growing up. The title is the first shocking thing that comes to mind. How can melodies be inaudible? It simply means that many people don’t realize their growing up until they are grown. In the chorus, Johnson says, “Slow down, everyone, you’re moving too fast, frames can’t catch you when you’re moving like that.” When he talks about frames, he means pictures of moments; and if one is moving too fast, or growing up to fast, then pictures will be scarce, and not many moments will be treasured in a photo. Throughout the song, he uses the same mellow tone evaluating the life of someone growing up too fast, and comparisons for those people.
Johnson mentions many things that contribute to a growing life. He starts with an anastrophe saying, “well shortcuts can slow you down and in the end we’re bound to rebound off of we.” In life, people take shortcuts, and because they are shorter, people slow down. Then in the end, they have to rebound off of what they have done. There is always a consequence for everything. He also says, “in the long run we have found, silent films are full of sound.” This is an analogy for saying as people grow up, things that didn’t seem to mean much when they were younger, have much more meaning. Towards the end of the song, Johnson mentions “Plato’s cave is full of freaks demanding refunds for the things they’ve seen, I wish they could believe in all the things that never made the screen.” He is referring to Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. It’s about prisoners in a cave that only see the wall in front of them, then when let go, see this whole new world they never knew. Then they realize that they didn’t want to know all they’ve come to know because it’s a scary world out there. Johnson is simply saying that the world is full of people who don’t realize reality in life. He also contributes to this idea earlier in the song. He says, “Unobtrusive tones help to notice nothing but the zone of visual relevancy”. Unobtrusive means hardly noticed; and tone refers to emotions. So hardly noticed emotions contribute to a person’s focus on what they think truly matters. Overall, the message of the song is, again, to not grow up too fast and to take time exploring life and to take too many pictures; capture moments to treasure.

"Jeremy" by Pearl Jam

The song “Jeremy” by Pearl Jam is about a boy who is bullied at school, has no friends, and receives no love or attention from his parents at home. The song starts with the boy drawing pictures of himself sitting on top of the sun with his “arms raised in a ‘V’” symbolizing victory over the “dead laying in pools of maroon below”. This describes how corrupted this little boy’s mind is because little boys don’t usually draw pictures of themselves sitting victoriously over dead people.

In the second verse, the singer takes the character of a school mate of Jeremy’s who bullied him. He says, “It seemed harmless” but ends up “unleashing a lion.” The song backs this up by exemplifying that he attacked the recess lady and hits the singer’s character. This would be considered an antecedent-consequence. Jeremy was already an angry child, so pushing him around would just make him angrier and then cause him to attack.

The chorus shows a lot off guilt coming from the singer’s character, who isn’t necessarily a boy anymore. He explains how bad the boy had it at home and why Jeremy acted out the way he did. Jeremy’s dad “didn’t give attention” to him, and “the boy was something that mommy wouldn’t wear”. Meaning the dad didn’t acknowledge him and the mother could care less he existed because she didn’t show him off and maybe didn’t tell people she even had a son. The chorus ends with, “Jeremy spoke in class today.” This does not necessarily mean words, but killing himself or other people.

The song also says that he’s “trying to erase this from the blackboard”, which possibly means Jeremy’s trying forget the plan for killing himself and/or others but it’s just so hard. The song, overall, has a great message for bullies because bullies are part of the reason why some kids are pushed to violence. Most times, bullies don’t realize the lives behind those who are bullied. Those lives can have bad situations that they choose to hide from other people. So the tiniest things can trigger those kids into pulling a physical trigger that could take the lives of themselves and/or others.