Week 3 Semester 2

Resource Efficiency vs. Carbon Reduction

http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/12/05/resource-efficiency-vs-carbon-reduction/

Venkat makes many valid points in his evaluation of the current place the United States is in on its journey to create better resource usage and to become a greener country as a whole. Venkat also makes some suggestions of how the country can change its policies and some simple changes that can be made that he supports with a vast amount of data. He shows the economic positivity that can come from the greener world that would normally be the main point for opposition to bank on. He also describes all the good things that would come from the change and the dramatic need for a serious change now and into the future- for the future.

Week 2 Semester 2

Wising Up to the Smart Grid

http://hermosabeach.patch.com/articles/wising-up-to-the-smart-grid

Galliani writes about how there needs to be a dramatic change in effiency in the world on how we aquire our energy. He writes about very specific ways to increase efficiency by using alternative  sources of energy and by using things that are specifically designed to be beneficial to the environment. He writes about many different organizations that advocate, support, and create these different resources to make all of us more available to use things that are better for the world. We are meant to turn on to the renewable resources in order to ultimately create more wealth for the worlds' economies as an ultimate goal.

Week 1 Semester 2

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2104040,00.html


The Year That Winter Forgot: Is It Climate Change?
Walsh wrote this and was commenting on the way that weather has been changing over time. The first section of his column talked about how he was experiencing something new when the first colds of the new year started very recently. He talked about how people were growing so accustomed to the warmer weather that once the cold hit they were not as angry because it was a change from what they were used to. Walsh also talks about the effects that the cold is having on tourism. He talks about how the dramatic change in weather is making it harder for ski bussiness to stay becasue there isnt enough snow and people are resorting to warmer destinations. Walsh also talks about how because the cold has been coming on slowly it was hard for us to notice but now looking back on the climate we can see how the steady changes have been pointing to a future of warmer weather for a long time. These points that Walsh was making are connected to my life because he mentions how people are being affected socially and how they are to expect changed weather and my future is that future of much warmer weather comparitively.

Columnist Ahoy #3

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/9201100-452/being-a-charter-doesnt-make-school-good-or-bad.html

Being a charter doesn’t make school good or bad

Cepeda writes about the ongoing debate about the troubles with charter schools in Chicago in comparison to the public schools in CPS. She describes how it is hard to make a valid decision as to if the charter schools are actually failing students becasue it is not possible, at this time, to compare success rates completely because of a numerous amount of factors. These factors include, neighborhoods that feed into the school and are not in the schools control. Cepeda wants to show to her readers that charter schools arent going anywhere and that there needs to be in a reform in thinking about these "failing" schools before there can be a reform in the actual schools.

Columnist Ahoy #2

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/9012011-452/my-five-holiday-wishes-and-ok-world-peace.html

My five holiday wishes (and, OK, world peace)

Cepeda's purpose in writing this column is to show the problems going on in Chicago that need to be addressed. She sees this as an opportunity to show the most important issues to her in Chicago at this time. She writes it as a holiday wish list to make it more appropriate for the upcoming holiday season and adds a comedic affect to her column. She accomplishes this goal of incorporating a holiday spirit in her column by having a cheery and playful tone even while discussing the problems in Chicago. She uses words like, "craziness" to have a lighter feeling toward a serious idea. 

Columnists Ahoy! #1

http://www.suntimes.com/news/cepeda/8922887-452/public-schools-are-failing-the-most-gifted-students.html

Public schools are failing the most gifted students

Throuout this column, Cepeda wrote about the hardships that gifted students were going through in public schools because of the lack of attention they were recieving. She wrote about how students who were above average intelligence were scoring worse on tests because they werent challenged and were not motivated to do well in school because their needs for more intense education werent being met. Cepeda also discusses how some districts are viewing gifted student programs and "enrollment pressure" and that they are making the schoool less desirable and that working toward helping gifted students isnt something that is worth the extra funding. She also discusses how since the programs at different public schools are being shut down, the hope for having motivated, above average students is decreasing before it even had a chance to begin. 

Censorship Image #3

file://localhost/Users/sheldonperl/Desktop/Internet%20censorship.gif

This image shows the artists view on internet censorship. Through the lack of color, only using black and white, the artist is showing that its a serious matter and that there isnt anything happy or colorful about the sensorship. In the image there is a pop up of an alert that says that there was a "1st ammendment error". This shows that the artist doesnt think that censorship is in line with what the 1st ammendment allows in the United States. The artists shows through this image that censorship is wrong and that if there is censorship, then there is no way for all of our rights that we have been promised can be upheld.