Mrs. Crosby's blog

My social studies teacher, Mrs. Crosby, has a blog entitled The Devil's Advocate. Its a great blog with interesting topics and frequent new posts. Recently Mr. Fisch discussed her blog on his blog, The Fischbowl. Mr. Fisch, during his explanation, touched upon a view of Mrs. Crosby's that is frequently exhibited in here class. She believes that a teacher should not give her opinion out because it may form unjustified prejudices within the students when it comes to discussing the topic later. What she does with her blog is different from most teachers, because she may post something that she disagrees with entirely just to provoke thought and argument. This is a fantastic idea. There are advantages to airing your opinion, but I personally believe a moderator in a debate should not even hint to their individual ideas regarding the subject at hand. If only all teachers could share this notion of mine.

Parodys, funny but sometimes realistic.

Have you ever missed an important debate and wanted to get the general gist of what happened? Believe it or not the way to do that according to my article, Politics, Palin and 'SNL', might be to watch MAD TV or Saturday Night Live (SNL). In Many of the parodies portraying actual events, the skit itself is almost a point by point run through with a few cups of drama thrown in. Although at times the skits can get a bit off topic, their main ideas are still fundamentally the same. I personally watch SNL on a frequent basis and have seen many parodies of interviews and debates as demonstrated with the videos at the bottom. Both videos ar hilarious and i recommend you watch them both.

In This Video Amy Pohler and Tina Fey make fun of a debate between Sarah Palin and Katie Couric. Some of the lines in this skit were taken directly from the actual conversation.



This is a parody of the first presidential candidate debate between John McCain and Barrak Obama. Although the McCain impression is not that accurate in this video, the Barrak impression raises some of his actual points from the real debate.

Community leader in ADVIS

A new learning opportunity indeed. Mr. Fisch at out school, has been given the huge privilege of being a community leader for the "ADVIS Cohort". Apparently this job entails taking care of some of the technical aspects of the site as well as pushing along conservations. The only major difference from what he has been doing at Arapahoe is that he won't be taking part in the face to face meetings (and he doesn't know many people within this new group). ADVIS also has a program called PLP, or Powerful Learning Practice. This new regimen integrates modern day technology with a "long-term, job-embedded professional development program". Integrating online tools, media, and new found communities into our learning and career development paths is a great idea. It allows students to make a fully informed choice about their futures. The web is a rapidly expanding pool of knowledge. Whats the point of having a pool if you don't go for a swim every once in a while?

Hybrid Electric Bikes?

In my article, Commuters beat the high price of gas with hybrid electric bikes, a man explains how by commuting with a hybrid electric bike he saves around 25 to 30 dollars a week. That's 100-120 dollars a month or 1200-1440 dollars a year. Another plus to this fantastic contraption is that to charge it only costs about 20 cents(in electricity costs). That is a diminutive carbon footprint compared to a car. There are many different models of hybrid bikes and the more powerful ones get between 20 and 80 miles per charge. The bikes don't run completely on electricity. You still have to petal, but the bike assists you, making a ride uphill a breeze. It looks like a normal bike, just with a little plastic covering the center. If everyone started using these bikes instead of cars than this country could stop putting millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Global warming is a monumental problem right now, and we as a country, and as a planet, have to do everything in our power to stop it.



http://www.rockymountainnews.com/videos/detail/john-mclinden-rides-his-electric-bike-work/

The Large Hadron Collider

The Large Hadron Collider, a machine designed to send protons at each other and gauge any reactions, had its first successful test firing yesterday. The machine cost $3.8 billion and consists of 17 miles of underground “tube” that the protons are fired down. It traverses the border of Switzerland and France and was built with collaboration from over 85 countries. The Collider is highly controversial and is considered by some, a threat to humanity. Even though top physicists like Stephan Hawking have said it is safe, there are still those who believe otherwise. I personally think that this is a huge scientific advancement. Supposedly the collider can make protons travel 99.999999% the speed of light(wikipedia). Sure it could probably be used as a weapon, but the possible scientific advancements such as the discovery of the Higs Boson, anti-matter, or extra dimensions far outweigh the risks. The people of earth need to start viewing the glass as half full not half empty. Look at the positives for a change. If you poke fun at things that scare you, they won’t scare you much longer.

Lab set to start world's largest particle collider –my article

Also, a rap about the function of the collider is attached to the bottom. Its already gotten over 2.5 million hits on youtube.com to date.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM