Hello again! This is my third, and hopefully final update today.
Very recently, Barack Obama was on the Jay Leno-show. He's the first US president to feature on the talk show, so it's a bit controversial. However, the the most interesting part was Obama's joke about his bowling skills (this is not in the video below). He said he was so bad at bowling that "it was like the Special Olympics, or something". This has been seen as a lack of understanding for the challenges that disabled people have to face.
I'm very positive to him being there. It's a good thing that the president can be in the media in a bit more informal setting, although it can give him an advantage to his political opponents. It's also an expansion of politics into arenas that people see as entertainment. This might be seen as unethical, but personally I see it as a good thing ("Zoon politikon"). This is a modern version of Roosevelt's talks on radio, and Obama's wife is now expanding the vegetable-garden in the White House, like Roosevelt's wife did.
tirsdag 24. mars 2009
Black America
In this update I will post a bit on black people's situation in the US today. I will happily ignore all the historical stuff, and focus on what things are like right now.
Since the 1950s there have been huge improvements. Back then black people worked in specific trades and jobs. They could be gigolos or private drivers, for instance. Black people had no political rights in many states, especially in the "deep south", and few civil rights. Additionally, everything was separated: Black people went to different schools, different public bathrooms and so on.
After the Civil Rights Movement there was put an end to the segregation. However, today the black community is split instead. One part is doing as well as the white population. They have as good jobs, health insurance e.g. as the white people. There is an increase in black political leadership, there's a black president and so on.
However, this is not the majority of the black population. A large proportion is still not equal to the average white people, and some groups are worse off today than earlier. Formally, they are given the same opportunities, however they live in areas with a high rate of crime and drug abuse, they have jobs with minimum wages, many have HIV/AIDS. Black people go far more often to prison than white people, this can also be seen as racism in the police and legal systems. Actually, more black people are in jail than in the colleges and universities, this might be a result of education being expensive in the US (Here I'd like some comments).
If higher education is expensive, this will help keeping the rich people rich and preventing the poor from becoming rich and successful. It stabilizes the society, however fighting crime, drug abuse and having people in prison requires enormous resources. And it's ethically wrong. In the US, people supposedly have the same chances, but if you can't pay for an education, this isn't really the case.
If the black population is to become a more functional part of the American society, the minimum wages must be raised, entry to colleges and universities should be practically free and health insurance must be removed. Regulating prices on housing could also be a good idea, because it would prevent the slums from becoming greater.
I don't believe any updates will follow on this topic, unless I am requested to. Please comment on the education system in the US!
Since the 1950s there have been huge improvements. Back then black people worked in specific trades and jobs. They could be gigolos or private drivers, for instance. Black people had no political rights in many states, especially in the "deep south", and few civil rights. Additionally, everything was separated: Black people went to different schools, different public bathrooms and so on.
After the Civil Rights Movement there was put an end to the segregation. However, today the black community is split instead. One part is doing as well as the white population. They have as good jobs, health insurance e.g. as the white people. There is an increase in black political leadership, there's a black president and so on.
However, this is not the majority of the black population. A large proportion is still not equal to the average white people, and some groups are worse off today than earlier. Formally, they are given the same opportunities, however they live in areas with a high rate of crime and drug abuse, they have jobs with minimum wages, many have HIV/AIDS. Black people go far more often to prison than white people, this can also be seen as racism in the police and legal systems. Actually, more black people are in jail than in the colleges and universities, this might be a result of education being expensive in the US (Here I'd like some comments).
If higher education is expensive, this will help keeping the rich people rich and preventing the poor from becoming rich and successful. It stabilizes the society, however fighting crime, drug abuse and having people in prison requires enormous resources. And it's ethically wrong. In the US, people supposedly have the same chances, but if you can't pay for an education, this isn't really the case.
If the black population is to become a more functional part of the American society, the minimum wages must be raised, entry to colleges and universities should be practically free and health insurance must be removed. Regulating prices on housing could also be a good idea, because it would prevent the slums from becoming greater.
I don't believe any updates will follow on this topic, unless I am requested to. Please comment on the education system in the US!
More on Northern-Ireland
Last class, we received a lecture on the Norther-Ireland/Ireland conflict. It was quite interesting, but a bit long, so most of the student lost attention and fell into their computer screens (including me, unfortunately).
The conflict is often seen as religious, however this is not really the case. It's ethnic and political: England was at war with catholic France and Spain(?), and the Irish could help them attacking England. They figured that if the French/Spanish kept arms and soldiers in Ireland, an invasion would be easier for them. Accordingly, they conquered Ireland.
Since then, there have been various conflicts in Ireland. The main causes for this are bad treatment - they lived in worse areas and didn't get good jobs. The potato famine fired up under the conflicts and gradually increased. Then came the war of independence in 1912, causing Ireland to gain home rule, while Northern-Ireland remained a part of the United Kingdom.
In Northern-Ireland the Catholics were still not treated as well as the Protestant population, which led to The Troubles. The conflicts developed into a full-scale civil war, between the IRA and the Unionists. This caused the Prime Minister of the UK to directly rule in Northern-Ireland, which at the time was Maggie Thatcher. She allowed captured IRA fighters to starve to death, because they wanted status as political prisoners, while she saw them as ordinary criminals.
Today things are stirring in Northern-Ireland again. There's no apparent cause for the conflict, except for the reconciliation. I have already written a note on this, you can read it here.
The conflict is often seen as religious, however this is not really the case. It's ethnic and political: England was at war with catholic France and Spain(?), and the Irish could help them attacking England. They figured that if the French/Spanish kept arms and soldiers in Ireland, an invasion would be easier for them. Accordingly, they conquered Ireland.
Since then, there have been various conflicts in Ireland. The main causes for this are bad treatment - they lived in worse areas and didn't get good jobs. The potato famine fired up under the conflicts and gradually increased. Then came the war of independence in 1912, causing Ireland to gain home rule, while Northern-Ireland remained a part of the United Kingdom.
In Northern-Ireland the Catholics were still not treated as well as the Protestant population, which led to The Troubles. The conflicts developed into a full-scale civil war, between the IRA and the Unionists. This caused the Prime Minister of the UK to directly rule in Northern-Ireland, which at the time was Maggie Thatcher. She allowed captured IRA fighters to starve to death, because they wanted status as political prisoners, while she saw them as ordinary criminals.
Today things are stirring in Northern-Ireland again. There's no apparent cause for the conflict, except for the reconciliation. I have already written a note on this, you can read it here.
søndag 8. mars 2009
Promoting OneNote
I have been required to post something on my blog about Microsoft OneNote. The program seems quite nice, especially practical is the autosave-function, which means that you can just quit it without saving anything. You can store all kinds of information in OneNote: Text, images, video (I think), sound and so on. This makes it a handy tool for noting things, because you store everything in the same location, rather than looking up 4-5 different files.
The idea behind OneNote is great, however the organization of the program is a bit hard to understand at first. You have notebooks that are divided into categories and the categories are divided into pages and sub-pages. It would probably be easier if you only had categories with pages and sub-pages.
A really awesome function in OneNote is that you can search for text. That doesn't sound too special, except this search also includes text in images. You can take a picture off the Internet and make the program recognize the text in it. I might have to test how good it is at this function, it might be somewhat limited. As of yet, I have tested it on my blog and the wikipedia, both working fine. It even includes links in pictures, with is really practical. It's annoying when you have a screen shot and need the link in it.
Another update should follow, I have to get a bit more used to OneNote first.
tirsdag 3. mars 2009
Individual project
Hi again!
We're now about to start working on a larger project in English social studies. Currently, it seems like I'm going to look into the diamond industry. I'm looking to explore how it works, whether it's ruled by (De Beers) cartels and how it became like this. Further I want to discuss if the industry exploits third world countries, and how it's able to do this. Finally, I want to study what impact the "financial crisis" has had on the diamond industry so far, and what will/might happen in the future.
The paper is supposed to be in less than five pages, this might become an issue. Which problems to address can (and probably will) be changed, because of the page limit. Other sub-subjects can also occur, I'll try to keep the blog a tad updated on this.
First, I have to start collecting information and gathering links. In this task, I have to be incredibly careful with what sources I rely on. From there, making a draft will probably be my priority #1. In the end, it will a hand-in paper (presumably an argumentative text) and a lecture.
We're now about to start working on a larger project in English social studies. Currently, it seems like I'm going to look into the diamond industry. I'm looking to explore how it works, whether it's ruled by (De Beers) cartels and how it became like this. Further I want to discuss if the industry exploits third world countries, and how it's able to do this. Finally, I want to study what impact the "financial crisis" has had on the diamond industry so far, and what will/might happen in the future.
The paper is supposed to be in less than five pages, this might become an issue. Which problems to address can (and probably will) be changed, because of the page limit. Other sub-subjects can also occur, I'll try to keep the blog a tad updated on this.
First, I have to start collecting information and gathering links. In this task, I have to be incredibly careful with what sources I rely on. From there, making a draft will probably be my priority #1. In the end, it will a hand-in paper (presumably an argumentative text) and a lecture.
tirsdag 10. februar 2009
Legally gaming in English lessons
Today Mrs. Michaelsen requested Mr. Fossum and me to play a computer game. The game, Urban Design Associates, is under development and our teacher wanted us to make a small review of it.
The site was nice: The design was practical and good looking. However, how to find and start the game wasn't obvious. After a bit of wondering, I figured out that the maps found in the category "Project: State Street" was the actual game. First there was information about the street, this was nice, but the design was boring, there was no extra scrolling device while reading the text and some places there was too much information (such as the timeline).
Next, I went to the practice map, first I didn't realize what I was supposed to do here. There should have been some kind of tutorial, although our teacher should have explained it to us before we started. When I finally figured out what to do, the difficulty was to remember the codes for different zones. This should have been placed in the screen, so that you can see it all the time, or the names of the zones should be full names rather than codes. However, it didn't take long before I remembered most of the codes.
I assume that this game is about learning to co-operate, accept different views and making compromises. This is not very obvious: When you prefer one type of zone, or ignore other zones, there should be reactions to it. Without this aspect, it becomes a city planning game, and as this it's easily beaten by SimCity 3000 and such. All in all, I find the game bad-looking, somewhat incomprehensible and plain dull.
I might post more on this subject later, but I doubt it.
The site was nice: The design was practical and good looking. However, how to find and start the game wasn't obvious. After a bit of wondering, I figured out that the maps found in the category "Project: State Street" was the actual game. First there was information about the street, this was nice, but the design was boring, there was no extra scrolling device while reading the text and some places there was too much information (such as the timeline).
Next, I went to the practice map, first I didn't realize what I was supposed to do here. There should have been some kind of tutorial, although our teacher should have explained it to us before we started. When I finally figured out what to do, the difficulty was to remember the codes for different zones. This should have been placed in the screen, so that you can see it all the time, or the names of the zones should be full names rather than codes. However, it didn't take long before I remembered most of the codes.
I assume that this game is about learning to co-operate, accept different views and making compromises. This is not very obvious: When you prefer one type of zone, or ignore other zones, there should be reactions to it. Without this aspect, it becomes a city planning game, and as this it's easily beaten by SimCity 3000 and such. All in all, I find the game bad-looking, somewhat incomprehensible and plain dull.
I might post more on this subject later, but I doubt it.
tirsdag 3. februar 2009
Reconciliation in Northern-Ireland
Today an article was printed in a Norwegian newspaper, called Aftenposten. A new report wants to give all the the victims of violence financial support of about 10 000 £. There is however a great upset because this includes the families of the terrorists from back then. This is seen by the victims as giving money to terrorists, thus paying them for their actions.
I find this to be wrong, perhaps the victims should get money for their losses, but certainly not the terrorists. Additionally, I think that if this is to be done, they should wait until after the so-called financial crisis, when the government might actually be able to afford it.
In this reconciliation-plan, the IRA and other paramilitary groups have to apologize for their actions and promise never to use violence again. I find this nearly as problematic as the financial part. This is because they did what they believed was right, they fought for their own freedom and rights, and to apologize for this is to submit to English rule. If they also swear not to use violence, they have lost their edge, and hope of gaining home rule.
I have earlier done some work on the conflict in Ireland/Northern-Ireland, and I might post some of it here. Video is a song from the IRA, and somewhat funny.
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