What's up digestors? It's been a few days here. Just wanted to give you some information!
1) We're still alive.
2) We're not blocking again.
3) We're probably playing too much League of Legends instead of working. (Haha, I kid. But for real, this game occupies my time off.)
4) We've got a couple interesting projects in the work. I'm not great with HTML, so they're taking longer than they should.
5) The changes will make the digest more like we envisioned it originally
6) Yes, one of the big things is a new blog.
7) We're excited.
Until then, check out this new Regina Spector Song.
Peer pressure is the power that peers have over each other to bend someone’s will, to get them to do something they would otherwise never think of doing. Everyone has been put under its hypnotizing spell—myself included. The evils of peer pressure have had a drastic and long-lasting impact on my life.
So there I was, eight years old, in third grade, riding the school bus. I had the window seat, as I liked watching the scenery go past, and my best friend occupied isle seat next to me. He was both a year older than me and a grade ahead, but it never bothered us. Either I was mature for my age, he was immature for his, or some combination of the two. Whichever it was: it worked out great. Dave and I spent hours upon hours together after school, playing lazer tag, or video games.
“So Jonh,” he said with a smile “my birthday is coming up, I’m having a sleepover party this weekend, are you coming again this year?”
“Of course!” I responded, “I wouldn’t miss it for the world, not after how much fun we had last year.” His previous birthday party was great; I can still remember it vividly in my mind. He had invited me, and four other mutual friends—we had a blast. From water balloons to giant ice cream sundays, we did everything.
“Oh, and I’m going to invite a few more people this year, we’re going to have a lot of fun,” Dave continued with his still-gleaming smile.
“That’s... cool. See’ya then!” I yelled as he was getting off the bus at his stop. In truth, I was a little uneasy about the idea of more people going to his party. What if he invites people that I don’t know? What if they don’t like me? What if… etcetera. I decided that I would trust my best friend’s judgment, that we were going to have just as much fun as last year, and there was nothing for me to get myself all worked up about.
When I awoke the next morning, my Mom took me shopping for a gift for my friend. I got him the best water gun I had ever seen in my life. It had a “water base” you could hook up to your hose, and it would fill your gun for you just by pushing the nozzle of the gun into the base, and you never had to pump! It was pretty much amazing.
It was finally time for the birthday party-sleepover-extravaganza. I arrived about a half hour early, because he was my best friend and I wanted to be the first to wish him a happy birthday. He appreciated the gesture, and started showing me all the cool stuff that his family had gotten him. He was as happy as a dog whose owner had just returned from a long vacation. Jumping from gift to gift; telling me all about each one, with that same gleaming smile still on his face.
And then the guests started to arrive.
That’s when the situation took a turn for the worst. I didn’t notice it at first, but every single guest was older than I was—not just a couple months either. At least a full grade ahead of me, sometimes two! You know that game where you pull sticks and whoever pulls the short stick loses? Well, I felt like that short stick. Fortunately for me, the feeling didn’t last long. The “cool” older crowd treated me as an equal, even though I was an outsider. I was at the top of my world, being accepted by the coolest kids at school, and all day everything went well. All my worries had been for nothing. Dave had been right—we were going to have a lot of fun at the party. We did the water balloon fight, the giant ice cream sundays, Dave showed off that new water gun I bought him. It was another great birthday party-sleepover-extravaganza.
Then came nightfall.
The sun went down, and the moon replaced it. It got dark—and fast. We went inside; took our sleeping bags to the basement; told ghost stories by candle light. After sharing our spine tingling tales, we blew out the candle and went to sleep. Or, tried to. I had just remembered that I was afraid of the dark! Those ghost stories certainly were not helping the situation either. So, I did what any normal third grader would do. I took out my blanket. Boy, did that calm the fears. Little did I know that my fear of the dark was about to become the least of my worries.
One of the big kids noticed that I had a little blankee, and it really got him going. “How did we think he was cool when he has a blankee!?” The kids roared with laughter.
“No guys! I really am cool! I promise!” I quickly rebutted. The insisted that I should prove it and that the only way possible was for me to tear up my beloved blankee into pieces. Perhaps the biggest regret in my life is that I did it. I succumbed to the pressure for the sake of being “cool.”
There are five different ways to propose an amendment to the Florida constitution.
1. The first way to amend the Florida constitution is Proposal by legislature. To make use of the first method, the proposed changes must be agreed upon by 3/4ths of the membership of each house of the legislature in a joint session.
2. The second way to change the constitution in Florida is by a Revision commission. Every twenty years, starting at 2017, 37 members will join together to make any needed changes to the constitution. These members are: the attorney general of the state, fifteen people selected by the governor, nine people selected by the speaker of the house and nine more selected by the president of the senate, and three people selected by the chief justice (with the advice of the other justices). Then, the governor selects one of these people to be the chair of the Revision commission.
3. The third way is called Initiative. The people have the power to propose any changes to the constitution that don’t interfere with the government’s power to raise money. They may do it by Filing their proposed changes with the custodian of state records once they’ve received a number of signatures – the signatures must come from electors in one half of the congressional districts of the state and must be equal to 8% of the votes cast in each of such districts respectively and in the state of a whole in the previos electors election.
4. The fourth way is by use of a Constitutional Convention. This power is reserved to the people, and will cause a revision of the entire constitution. It’s started by a filing with the custodian of state records via petition—declaring that a convention is wanted. Again, it must be signed by electors in one half of the districts, but this time 15% of the votes cast in the previous elector election. Then, after the next general election, the electors must vote as to if a convention is required, and if more than 50% vote yes, a convention is held.
5. The fifth and final way to change the constitution is via a Taxation and budget reform commission. Starting in 2007, and then every twenty years, a taxation and budget reform commission will meet. The commission consists of eleven members selected by the governor (who may not be members of the legislature at the time of selection), and seven members selected by both the speaker of the house and seven selected by the president of the senate (again, none of those 14 members may be members of the legislature at the time of selection). The job of the commission is to review the sax structure, the budgetary process, the revenue needs and expenses of the state, the productivity and efficiency of the state and to review policies of the ability of the state and local government to tax and adequately fund government operations.
Battle for the Ballot
The initiative method of constitutional upheaval is a very complicated one, but also the most frequently used both in Florida and across the country. It makes it possible for the people of a state to get potential amendments on the ballot, and into the eyes of the public. It has become increasingly more popular in recent times, even turning into an industry. Since 1970, the average number of initiatives on a ballot has doubled, and firms are coming out of the woodwork who hire and pay (sometimes per signature) people to find support for the initiatives.
The recent boom in the initiative market has lead to quite a few problems. With the corporate machine working towards a goal, it makes it easy for those with money to get something on a ballot. Unfortunately, making it harder to get an initiative on the ballot would kill the purpose of the process in the first place – to allow grassroots organizations to get what they want on the ballot, on the ballot – and would hardly hinder the money machine. It hardly helps that to change the process required for an initiative to make it to the ballot requires voter approval, and that voters are very unlikely to vote to make it harder for their own voice to be heard. Another problem highlighted by the article is fraud. These people who get payed-by-the-signature have found several clever ways to trick people into signing multiple petitions from the use of copy paper to telling them to “sign here, here and here” when in reality, they only should have signed one, and some even go as far as opening the phone book and forging names.
Despite the problems with the process, it remains to be, and will remain to be, a growing and very popular way for people to have their voices heard. States are passing laws to punish those who practice fraud, and are manipulating the details of the process that don’t require voter approval. Some states have even outlawed the ‘pay-per-signature’ practice, forcing an hourly wage on the signature collectors. Even though the process has flaws, it’s impact has been seen and will continue to be seen in Floridian politics.
The Aye-aye is an odd but amazing creature, once classified as a rodent. This amazing primate is on the verge of Extinction, with only an estimated FIFTY still living in the wild. I believe that there are three reasons for their endangerment is 1, deforestation 2, farmers in Madagascar (along time ago) killed them because they looked like an omen of evil creatures 3, and they can only have a child every two to three years.
The Aye Aye
The scientific classification of the Aye-aye is as follows. The Aye-aye is in the Kingdom of Animalia, the Phylum of Chordate, and the Class of Mammalia, The Order Primates the only member in its family Daubentoniidea, the genus of Daubentonia, and the species of Madagascariensis. This makes its scientific name Daubentonia madagascariensis, now try saying that ten times fast
The nocturnal Aye-aye spends about 80% of every night moving and searching for food. Their diet primarily consists of beetle larva but they will also eat; some insects, coconut, sugar cane (witch they steal from farmers gardens this sometimes gets them shot), bananas, dates, eggs, mangoes, and will accept cooked rice when offered.
The Aye-aye uses it’s odd “bat like” ears to listen for insect larva moving and burrowing underneath the bark of tree. When the Aye-aye hears the larva moving it uses it’s teeth to chizzes of the bark then use it’s extra long middle finger to reach into the burrow hole and then spear the larva on its finger nail. The Aye-aye then transfers the larva from its fingernail to its mouth. None of the sources I found did not mentioned any natural predators, so I guess they are pretty high on the food chain. The Aye-aye also uses its finger in drinking; it uses it like a dog’s tong lapping up water. The elongated middle finger can be considered as an all Purpose tool. I don’t think the Aye-aye would be able to survive if its middle finger wasn’t as long as it is, because it uses it for hunting. Another tool The Aye-aye definitely needs are it’s teeth it needs them to chew and to bite the bark of during it nightly forage. If the Aye-aye had any enemies the teeth could probably be used for defensive purposes also.
The Aye-aye almost never spends any time with another Aye-aye or any animal for that matter. The only time they spend with another Aye-aye is when it is either mating or nursing a young during this time the female is dominate over male it only but it only lasts seven months.
The Aye-aye is a VERY solitary animal this leads me to believe that it doesn’t protect its territory but won’t leave a certain area. This area for males is about one hundred to one hundred ten square ha, but for females the area is much less at only about thirty-five to forty square ha.
During that day Aye-ayes sleep in nest that is about ten to fifteen meters off the ground. It is made of twigs and leaves, and takes about 24 hours to build. A new nest is build every five threw seven days. The nest is built in a fork of a large tree. “Lazy” Aye-ayes will sometimes use nests built by others if they are still in good condition. The Aye-aye primarily clings to branches and tree trunks with its claws to get around to find food. It will also make lengthy trips across the ground in search of a nice place for a nest.
As the most bizarre looking of all primates the Aye-aye has long and nimble fingers used for climbing, and the elongated middle finger is used for spearing larva and shoving it into its mouth. They have huge bat Like ears witch they us when listening for larva, a flat face, a huge raccone like busshy tail. Their fur coat is black and it is coarse and straight. Aye-aye’s have big teeth called incisors in the front of their mouth, but have no canines like humans have.
Some intresting information on my topic (Aye-aye) is that it is the only animal in its family just like humans, the only difference is that our closest relatives went extint and the Aye-aye never had any closest relatives. Also like humans Aye-ayes can have babies at any time of the year. Aye-ayes can only be found in madagascar so that is were there spicies name came from (madagascariensis) Some other intresting stuff is that they were thought to be rodants and are still mistaked for them. They also at one time were placed as the only animal in their order. The Aye-aye (to my knowlage) doesn’t have any programes to save it, but I wish there were because aye-ayes are very intresting animals.
Evidence in the novel After the First Death shows that, although at first it seems as though Ben is narrating, it is in fact General Marchand, Ben’s father, who is narrating the story. One of the first and, in my opinion, the most intriguing of the clues leading to this conclusion I have made is when Ben’s mother calls him by his father’s name. Normally a slip like this would be easily ignored and quite normal considering everybody makes mistakes, but Cormier made it quite clear when he added several sentences explaining that Ben’s mother never mixes their names up and that it was nearly impossible that she had accidentally done so.
The second most intriguing clue is the final Ben-Father chapter. Ben’s father is having a conversation between himself and the Ben that still lives deep inside of him:
Ben: But I was always here. Didn’t you know that, Dad?
Father: Sometimes I thought you were.
Ben: You just didn’t look hard enough or deep enough.
This shows that Ben wasn’t really alive and could therefore be incapable of telling the story from his point of view. This explains the clue from the first paragraph. Ben’s mother had called him by his father’s name because it was really his father doing the narrating.
Another intriguing clue supporting this conclusion is when the “doctor” is said to look like an old college teacher of Ben’s father. If it really were Ben narrating and he really was attending college, why would there be a doctor? This is really, in my opinion, Ben’s father in a mental ward, not Ben attending the same college his father attended. This would explain why there’s a doctor and why he mentions taking pills.
This is the evidence I chose to support that Ben was in fact not narrating the story and it was truly his father speaking from his son’s point of view because he is mentally ill from sacrificing his son for his country.
Nick Nailer, of Thank You for Smoking, is one of the most interesting and unique characters I’ve ever encountered in a fictional work. He has the hardest job in the world: being the public face of a conglomerate that kills almost twelve-hundred people a day. That conglomerate is known fondly as the tobacco industry, or “Big Tobacco.” He’s a vile, bloodsucking, mass murdering, profiteer who doesn’t mind twisting morality for his own benefit—and it makes for a very special character and for a great movie.
Every day, Mr. Nailer wakes up knowing what it’s like to be the most hated person in the country. And it doesn’t bother him one bit because he wants the money, the big bucks. In his own words when asked why he represented the vile industry, he whispered “Population control,” before going on to say “everyone’s got a mortgage to pay. 99% of everything done in the world, good or bad, is done to pay a mortgage. So, perhaps the world would be a better place if everyone rented.” Later in the interview, you find out that his wife has divorced him; he lives in his apartment, while his ex-wife (along with her new boyfriend) and his son lives in his excessively large, luxurious and expensive house, the beauty of which taunts me in my sleep.
Not surprisingly with a personally as cold and uncaring as his, Nick only has two friends. They are the representatives of the gun and alcohol industries, and probably the only people on the planet with personalities as pungent as Nailer’s. They meet every week, and call themselves the M.O.D. Squad, or Merchants of Death. During their meetings, they compare notes and brag about whose product killed the most people that week. Mr. Nailer wins the ghostly contest more often than not, and he savors the bitter-sweet victory.
There aren’t many people willing to twist the fibers of morality for his cause, but Nailer doesn’t mind doing just that. When confronted with a young boy who got cancer from smoking cigarettes on a talk show, he twisted the boy’s morbid condition to benefit tobacco. He called out the cancer researcher to the audience of the show, saying, and I paraphrase “the death of a customer would mean a loss in profits. How could tobacco want to lose money? A cancer death; however, would earn money for someone. Who? The cancer researcher. He’s the real monster.”
Thank You for Smoking’s Nick Nailer is a very special character. He has the honor of being one of the only main-character, protagonists who would be considered evil by traditional standards. It makes him an extraordinarily rich character, and he’s one of the few “bad people” that you get to know up-close-and-personal in any literary work.
I know you don't exist yet, even as just a thought, but there are a few things that I would like to tell you about gender and society. There are going to be times in your life when you are judged by standards that were created hundreds of years ago. There are going to be times that if you don't live up to those [silly] standards, opportunities will not be made available to you. And for that, I'm sorry. Cross your legs, chew with your mouth closed, walk with your back straight, oh, and remember to always be beautiful. Now those are some of the things that society is going to require of you... don't let them be your prison. Play along when you need too, to get to where you need to go, but remember that these traditions are ancient, and that not everyone will hold you up to them. You don't need to hold yourself up to these unrealistic images of beauty, there isn't a woman in the world who can.
Do you really want congress messing with your internet? The same people that managed to lose money running the post office? The same people that developed our horrible system of public schools? The same people that ran our country into massive debt? Are these the people you want to control what goes on the internet?
I don't think so. And I know that I don't want them to threaten me with getting blocked.
So join me in my call to prevent government censorship of the internet.
Visit http://americancensorship.org/ to send a letter to your representative today!
It took me a long time to work through the obvious hiprocracy that takes place while raising awareness for global warming. Al Gore flys around the world in a privage jet telling people to conserve energy, to walk to work, to ride their bikes and to stop using thier toasters - because having toast with breakfast is simply not worth the devistation that would be caused with the melting of the icecaps. Alright, you cought me. I made that last one up. I know that I'm not the first person to publicly ponder this hiprocracy. How can someone who flys around in a private jet, a jet that polutes more in one hour than I will in one year, tell me to WALK to work? This just doesn't make any sense. In fact, it makes about as much sense as the coke addict telling people not to do drugs. But wait - that actually does make sense. Cocaine addicts have seen the dark side, they've lived through the horrors and devistation caused by the drug and they wouldn't wish those horrors on even their most hated enemies. This analogy leads me to only one possible conclusion - Al Gore has lived through the horrors and devistation caused by global warming.
Al Gore is not from this Earth. I'm convinced. This is the only reasonable explination for his strange actions. I mean, look at Mars. That planet is obviously the victim of over polution, which lead to the melting of it's ice caps, and the destruction of its ozone and the eventual evaporation of its water! Al Gore must be a martian in disguise to warn us, of his first hand experience, what being a pollution addict can do to a planet.
Before we can explore deeper into the topic, we must first define a few key terms.
Media: The News, the press, the way people obtain information on everything.
Bias: Favorable treatment to certain politicians, policy positions groups and political outcomes.
There’s no doubt that some people within the media are openly and even unapologetically biased—on both sides of the political spectrum. Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh are much harsher to Democrats than that are to Republicans. On the other side of the fence, the New York Times is the opposite; often criticizing Republicans.
Those are not; however, instances of Media Bias.
The media’s “stated commitment to avoid partisan or political bias” only applies to the hard news—not editorials or commentaries.
Now, that doesn’t mean that different stations/papers/websites don’t tell the news in a biased way.
This is; however, very difficult to measure as most of the evidence is very anecdotal.
For example: The Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) has produced studies indicating that conservative think-tanks are cited more often than their liberal counterparts.
On the other side of the coin, the Center for Media and Public Affairs found that John Kerry had the most favorable coverage of any candidate in over 20 years.
There is a major problem in the country related to outsourcing. The problem isn’t the outsourcing itself, but how outsourcing has been villainized by the media and by many politicians. What began as a practice used to save the every-day consumer money on his shopping trips has somehow become viewed as an evil, wicked, practice that is going to cause every hard working, red-blooded, American to lose his or her job. The typical American citizen has been conditioned, by the media, politicians, school teachers, and just about everyone with a position of power, to hate the very thought of outsourcing; and that is a problem.
Outsourcing is not as bad as everyone makes it out to be, there are a lot of reasons to practice outsourcing. Exploiting comparative advantage, and cutting costs for the producer as well as the consumer are among the most important reasons. The company can produce a lot more of their product and lower their prices, which is good for them and us. Other positive things that are a product of outsourcing: less bad jobs and more good jobs, larger customer base to sell our products too, increased world influence and presence by having our companies supply jobs around the world, and a lot more.
A major part of the problem is how the word outsourcing is used - how it was framed in our mind by the media and by politicians. We only use the term “outsourcing” when jobs we like are being lost, and not just any old job. Take Trefler for example:
It is worth noting a problem with refining the definition of [outsourcing]. Most of us would be comfortable with the following statement: “Manulife is offshore outsourcing development of its new human resources software to India, while the plastic products industry is importing shopping bags from China.” Why is one “offshore outsourcing” and the other “importing”? In both cases, products currently made in Asia were previously made in-house in America, and in both cases there has been phenomenal growth over the past five years. There are no good answers to this question. (Trefler 39)
This is indeed a major part of the problem. They want us to think that outsourcing is bad. They want us to think that outsourcing is evil. So, in order to make us think how they want us to think, they only use the word when the practice is at it’s worst. When it takes the “good” jobs. And, they don’t use the word when a bad job that is lost to workers overseas. Oh, no. That isn’t outsourcing- it’s just importing.
Another large part of the problem is how uneducated the average American is on the topic, and how little they know of the reasons that company’s outsource. Sure, they know that the company wants more money, but that’s all they know. They know nothing of these other reasons: Cost reduction; A company is able to spend less money though outsourcing; thereby, reducing the total cost to the company and enabling said company to pass the savings onto the buyers of their product. (Engardio 2006) Cost Restructuring; A company is able to restructure their costs to allow for better market predictability. Improve Quality; A company is able to increase the quality of their product by outsourcing. Workers in other countries do a wonderful job manufacturing, and they simply do it better then we do. Increased Knowledge; A company has access to a larger pool of potential workers from countries all around the world, giving them access to more intellectual property and a wider range of experience. (Engardio 2006) Legal Reasons; A company can have their services provided in compliance with a legally binding contract with financial penalties to any employee who breaks said contract. (Rothman 2003) Operations Expertise; Outsourcing opens the door to channels of operations that already exist, ones that would be difficult, time consuming, and expensive to develop for one’s own company. Staffing Problems; Outsourcing gives access to a larger pool of talent and skilled workers. Catalyzing Change; A company can use outsourcing to help change the way it organizes in a way that their current employee base couldn’t do alone. Risk Management: Outsourcing can be used as a way to minimize the companies legal risk. (Roehirg 2006) Time Zone Exploitation; having employees all around the world has its advantages, being able to offer a service “all day, every day” is very simple when all of your employees live in different time zones. Avoiding Unions; In the United States, unions can make things very difficult for the employer, and unions do not exist over seas. These reasons are very valid, and when looked at through the eyes of the company, outsourcing doesn’t seem so bad.
Other unimportant, but positive effects of outsourcing include: developing the infrastructures of our host nations, increasing our world-wide presence, offering jobs to poorer countries, exploiting the workforce of countries more populated than America is, creating a population that is reliant on American companies for jobs or products. All of those things happen when we partake in outsourcing, and they’re all good for some group of people.
I decided to choose this topic, and slant the way I did, when I heard the lecture on comparative advantage in INR. Having a mental grasp on comparative advantage helps me see through to the positives of outsourcing as well. For example: Country A makes very good apple juice. It has the soil, the climate, and all of the perfect conditions to make apple juice. Country A could still make orange or grape juice, but it wouldn’t be as efficient as growing apples. Country A should just make its apple juice, and outsource the work required to make orange or grape juice, as apple juice is their best product. By using this concept of comparative advantage, we could focus on what we do best here at home, while using what other countries to best to our advantage. Fruit grows well in South America, so we should grow fruit there. Manufacturing is done best in places that have low-wages, so we should manufacture there. The examples could go on forever, but the fact remains: if we don’t have our companies in South America growing fruit, some other country would have their companies their growing fruit. One of those options earns us a lot of money. Which is better for the country?
Any worries that we’re outsourcing to any one country too much, and that we’re going to make them too rich goes against the “Ironclad Law of Comparative Advantage” which states simply: a low-wage country can’t continue to be a low-wage country for all of eternity. It is impossible because as their status rises, so does the value of the money in the country, which increases the cost of outsourcing there, which decreases the reason that people would want to outsource to there. Look at China, for example: China is starting to outsource its factories to other countries. This means that there are other countries that can produce stuff for cheaper than China can. How much longer will companies continue to stay in China? Not much longer. India is another interesting case study. Many of our technical service jobs and call centers have been sent to India. Since the start of this, the starting salary of a call center employee has more than doubled, and continues to rise. At this rate, it will be cheaper to bring the call centers back home in just a few years, or at least outsource them somewhere else.
Any worries that we’re outsourcing to any one country too much, and that we’re going to make them too rich goes against the “Ironclad Law of Comparative Advantage” which states simply: a low-wage country can’t continue to be a low-wage country for all of eternity. It is impossible because as their status rises, so does the value of the money in the country, which increases the cost of outsourcing there, which decreases the reason that people would want to outsource to there. Look at China, for example: China is starting to outsource its factories to other countries. This means that there are other countries that can produce stuff for cheaper than China can. How much longer will companies continue to stay in China? Not much longer. India is another interesting case study. Many of our technical service jobs and call centers have been sent to India. Since the start of this, the starting salary of a call center employee has more than doubled, and continues to rise. At this rate, it will be cheaper to bring the call centers back home in just a few years, or at least outsource them somewhere else.
Manufacturing Jobs are leaving the country, and other jobs are replacing them, as evident by the low unemployment rate. If these new jobs are better or worse, is yet to be seen, but expectations are high. If the low paying manufacturing jobs of the past are leaving the country, that leaves more room for people to get educated and to get a degree in a field of their choice, and to have a job worth having, something the third-world countries that we outsource too can’t possible attain at their level of development. Outsourcing, in a way, forces people into colleges, which is better for our society as a whole.
Outsourcing really isn’t as bad is it’s made out to be - sure, it has its negatives: job loss isn’t a good thing, having a lower job security isn’t a good thing either, but the positives outweigh the negatives tenfold. The reasons to practice outsourcing certainly justify having a few less jobs and a little less job security, after all who doesn’t want their money to go farther while in the grocery store, or shopping for holiday gifts?
Works Cited
Engardio, Pete. “Foreign Affairs - the Outsourcing Bogeyman.” Business Week. 29 Oct 2007 <http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20040501faessay83301/daniel-w-drezner/the-outsourcing-bogeyman.html>.
Roehirg, P. “Be on Governance to Manage Outsourcing Risk.” BT Quarterly. 2006. BT Quarterly. 02 Nov. 2007 <http://www.btquarterly.com/?mc=bet-governance&page=ss-viewresearch>.
Rothman, J. “11 Steps to Sucessful Outsourcing: a Contrarian’s View.” Computer World. 2003. Computer World. 05 Nov. 2007 <www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/development/story/0,10801,84847,00.html>
Lets face it - our population is ageing. Advances in modern medicine continue to increase the life expectancy of Americans, which is now over seventy for both men and women alike. This increased life expectancy; unfortunately, is not all good news. Yes, we have longer lives, yes we get to spend more time with our loved ones before passing on, but, coupled with a declining birth rate, there are major political, social and economic downfalls that ensue when everyone is living longer lives.
On the political side, the elderly are the demographic that votes the most. They are already the most pandered-too age group, and their numbers are growing. While this is good for the elderly, this isn’t particularly good for the country, nor the rest of her citizens. Pandering of this magnitude can only lead to one possible conclusion: the only political opinions that really matter, are those of the elderly. The elderly don’t care about schools, they’ve already been educated. Cut school funding. The elderly don’t care about our roads, they’re not going to be using them for much longer anyway. Cut infrastructure spending. The elderly don’t care about things that don’t effect the elderly. They do; however, care about the increasing costs of prescription medication, and would like more money spent to reduce those costs. The elderly, the most active political demographic in this country, don’t care about things that are important to the countries future. Just thinking about how the pandering to this demographic is only going to increase over time is very frightening.
Socially, an older population means a lot of things. Unfortunately, not many of them are good.
Financially and economically, the issue of social security sets off a blaring alarm: What’s in store for the future of social security? Will I have to continue to pay into social security now, if I’m not going to receive its benefits in the future? How is it possible that a small, and getting smaller, group of working-age laborers can possibly support the large, and getting larger, group of social security receiving elderly? There simply can not be a long-lasting fix to social security that will benefit the youth of today who are just starting to pay into the system. That’s only one of many economic issues cased by the decreasing mortality rate. Another problem is: lower Gross Domestic Product, or GDP. Fewer workers, means fewer goods and services being produced, which means less money being earned, which means lower GDP. Lower GDP is bad for a country, this signifies a decline in the value of the countries currency, as well as a decline in world economic power. The negatives on our economy caused by a larger life expectancy are easy to see, and hard to fix.
There are many political, social, and economic drawbacks to living longer lives.
If we deny love that is given to us, if we refuse to give
love because we fear pain or loss, then our lives will
be empty, our loss greater.
-Unknown
Love is a powerful emotion, perhaps the most powerful of them all. It can make or break men, driving them to the brink of insanity or pushing them to the top of their game. It’s both a motivator and a deterrent; both a blessing and a curse. When bestowed upon a once humble, indifferent individual his or her life is changed, for better or for worse, forever.
Perhaps even more moving than love itself is the power love has to change people, and the central role this “changing power” plays in novels. Particularly the role this power plays in both Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five and Mark Z. Danielewski’s House of Leaves. In both books the main characters are effected by love greatly, one driven to insanity and the other pushed to fame.
Navidson and Pilgrim are both heavily effected by love. Navidson and Karen are deeply in love with each other, but they aren’t loyal to each other. Navidson, a reporter always puts his adventuring spirit before his dearly beloved, and Karen responds by having multiple affairs. Pilgrim, on the other hand, never loved Valencia, his wife, but she was deeply and immensely in love with him. The situations that love puts both Navidson and Pilgrim in, making them feel empty at times and full at others, is a very large part of both character’s personalities.
In House of Leaves, Navidson’s feeling of emptiness left by his wife’s betrayal if symbolized as a house that’s bigger on the inside than on the outside; an obvious metaphor for a man distraught; his inner troubles are much larger than anything that could fit inside of a body so tiny in size when compared to his woes and inner void. The walls of the house shift more and more violently as Karen gets equally more and more upset with Navidson’s obsession with the house. Eventually, after the house, and Navidson’s obsession with it, cause them to separate the house swallows Navidson. Karen sensing that her true love is in danger rushes into the hallway that she fears and realizes how much she loves Navidson. The thought of the true love defeats the house, or fills the void, and she finds him almost instantly and when she does, the walls of the immense labyrinth dissolve. Navidson’s movie of the whole ordeal becomes a famous work of art, and its all because of the love that he and Karen share with each other. Love is crazy like that, it made the horrible situation that almost killed him, then it saved him from it and made him famous.
Billy Pilgrim has a similar story to tell. He marries Valencia, the daughter of a rich and powerful man in the line of work Billy wishes to enter: optometry. Billy never loves Valencia, even though she’s deeply and madly in love with him. When Billy’s plan crashes and he’s the only survivor she rushes to the hospital to see him and dies on the way, to carbon monoxide poisoning. Billy is never the same after this. He can no longer distinguish fact from fiction, present from memory. All he can do now is hope he can protect others from his sad fate, and he does so by prescribing corrective lenses for the soul: allowing people to peer into themselves and fill any emptiness, emptiness that
Pilgrim has to live with for the rest of his life.
These two characters have a lot of parallel aspects but are also distinctively different. While the both have pain caused by love, one’s pain comes from loving and the other’s comes from being loved without returning the love. Both men are very empty when things aren’t going their way, and Billy stays empty for the remainder of his life realizing that he should have loved his wife, a realization that came a little too late. The pain that is caused is a very central theme in both of the books, Billy’s “time jumps” and Navidson’s “house that’s bigger on the inside and on the outside” are both symbols of what love can do to men.
For better or for worse couldn’t be more accurate. It’s a vital line when getting married, and it’s the most uncertain. Will it be for better or for worse? It’s quite possible it could go either way, because love is the all powerful miracle and the malevolent execration.
Madden claims that “The brief quotes that open this section also give you some idea of the number of compelling ethical, political, and social arguments that are connected to faith and down” and at first I was doubtful. Upon reading the quotes; however, I was easily swayed. There are many powerful quotes in the beginning of the section on faith and spirituality; they are all truthful and eye-opening. The quote that helped me understand the readings in this section the most was definitely Edmund Burke’s quote: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
Short and profound, Crane’s A Man Said to the Universe is a complex poem of few words. Its meaning is ambiguous, but when combined with Burke’s quote, it becomes quite influential. This poem personifies the cosmos, by giving the universe a condescending personality. When in response to man saying that he exists, the universe replies “However, the fact has no created in me a sense of obligation” which basically means that just plain existence isn’t enough. To be noticed man must do more than exist, he must exist for the good of all things, not just for the good of himself. Burke’s quote is an excellent summary of the main theme of this poem: if a good man only exists, and doesn’t attempt to do good, evil wins. The same general theme exists in both the quote and the poem. Simply being there on the sidelines is no way to live and no person deserves any credit for simply being there. By contrast unlike the quote, the poem doesn’t verbally state that something more than existence would warrant the attention of the universe, though based on the condescending tone that the universe uses with the man, it’s implied. The universe is kind of saying “Yeah? Well, try harder and I’ll care.”
Crane is the youngest of fourteen children in his family. This obviously had a drastic effect on his view of the universe. Having to compete with his siblings for the attention of his parents is very similar to all of mankind competing amongst themselves for the attention of the universe. I can easily see a young child saying to their mother “Mom! I’m here! Look at me!” A mother of one would probably say something like “Yes, and you’re my special little darling,” whereas a mother of fourteen would be much too busy to give attention to her children simply because they’re there. However, if the child takes action and does something good or prevents evil from happening instead of watching, mommy is very likely to take notice—Just as the universe takes notice if a man does something good for everything.
The good versus evil theme runs deep in Crane’s poetry. In another poem, he writes “I stood upon a high place, /And saw, below, many devils /Running, leaping, /and carousing in sin. /One looked up, grinning, /And said, “Comrade! Brother!“” This poem in combination with A Man Said to the Universe, opens up a larger glimpse into Crane’s mind. In this poem, Crane is watching without evil without taking action, and the evil thanks him. Crane’s calling them “devils” shows that he isn’t one of them, and that he’s against the sin that they’re ‘carousing’ in, but by doing nothing, by just watching from his high, safe, place, the evil appreciates his not getting involved. This poem also ties in with Burke’s quote very easily—I’d wager that Burke and Crane would have been friends as they share an extremely similar view of life, the planet, and the universe.
Donald Vanouse of Georgetown University had this to say “Crane seems to encourage the reader to enrich and re-evaluate ideas about patterns of action and thought. Crane asks questions rather than providing answers.” Crane attempts to pull out the good in people by letting them know that their lack of action is very insignificant on the larger scale. Burke’s quote, by contrast offers an answer. It says that the actions of a good man will counteract evil. Burke supplies the answer to Crane’s questions.
Without the quotes at the beginning of this section, these writings would be much more difficult to understand. A Man Said to the Universe is a very open-ended poem. If I hadn’t looked at it through the lens supplied by Burke, my understanding of the poem would have been limited, at best. The compelling social issues confronted by Crane are much easier understood with the help of Burke.
The song identifies its writer to be a citizen of Virginia who is either very learned in history or whom was alive during the independence movement in the colonies. Virginia, a tremendously influential colony in the late 1700's, was late to break its loyalty to the Queen. In the end; however, it was Virginia's own plan for independence that pushed the movement through the Congress and gave birth to the Declaration of Independence. The identifying metaphors begin with the very first line: "She doesn't own a dress, her hair is always a mess [...] she's beautiful." The line points out that Virginia isn't traditional, but is still beautiful anyway and this is very true of early Virginia. 'She' at one point printed its legal currency on tobacco, and a majority of its citizens "Smoke[d] a pack a day" which wasn't frowned upon by the Government they instead found "that beautiful." Being as influential as it was in the late 1700's, it "never compromises" but still generally goes along with the mainstream "babies and surprises" which are symbolic for what the average person
"[T]he Queen" with the word queen capitalized is a direct reference to the British crown, which Virginia initially supports. However after "Think[ing] about her scene" she reconsiders and gets ready to get down and dirty by "pull[ing] back her hair as [she's screaming]" that she no longer supports the Queen. The line “She only drinks coffee at midnight, when the moment is not right” further supports this. At the last moment, just as the independence movement is about to be shot down in congress, Virginia rejuvenates it with its caffeinated announcement that supports the independence of the colonies. "Her timing is quite - unusual."
The final very powerful metaphor lives within the line "her confidence is tragic, but her intuition magic." This line implies that Virginia puts her confidence in something that will be very difficult to succeed in, and that may have tragic consequences, but in the end her intuition to do so yielded a magical result. In history terms, this translates to the war for independence that followed in the days after Virginia announces its support for the independence movement. There was no way to know that the America's would win the war, there was only confidence and magical intuition.
I believe in the power of lies; more importantly, I believe in exploiting the unlimited power that the ability to lie bequeaths upon the human race. This belief stems back to one of the most prevailing events in my memory: when my mother first explained why one person would attempt to deceive another. You see, we were late for my doctor’s appointment, and not just the ignorable ten of fifteen minutes late either. Big time late. More than an hour late. We had made, well she had made, a ‘minor’ miscalculation as to what time we should leave our humble home. Before entering the doctor’s office, my Mom instructed me to endorse her story that we had gotten a flat tire on the way to the office, so that we wouldn’t have to reschedule my appointment. Being a toddler, I of course had to drop the infamous ‘Why?’ bomb. The explanation shocked me, and the seeds that were sewn into the fertile fields of my young, easily influenced mind on that day still guide me today.
As I grew up, I perfected the art of deception. I became one with my inner devil and imprisoned that pesky angel that once squatted upon my shoulder inside of a cardboard box. The box was then sealed with duct tape and the box opener was thrown away. Without the interference of that angel I lied about everything. When I got caught, I lied some more. I was living the good life; there were no problems that couldn’t be solved with a simple lie. Forged parent signatures, forged report cards, free field trips, not having to dress out in gym class; I could lie myself out of a hedge maze.
As if frozen in a block of solid ice, the second hand hasn’t moved for hours. The clock, mounted on a mirror, no longer has any light to reflect for the last bit of sunlight is longer gone then it is to come. A dim light from the computer screen is all that illuminates the room, it is nowhere near enough, but I dare not turn on a light for fear of my parents seeing it. The room, usually as cheerful as it is busy, now looks to be the residency of a bear. 2:56. Tick tock. A few more clicks of the keyboard and the essay is starting to take shape. Not sloppy, nor hard to read, nor grammatically incorrect, the essay resembles many written before it. 3:15. Tick tock. The sun will be rising soon, to send its beautiful rays in my window signaling the start of a new day. Too soon, for the night is growing old, and the day is still quite young. 3: 22. Tick tock. Like the police stopping a speeding car, a writers block pops into my mind, taunting me, and not letting me finish the essay. I managed to beat it though. Haha I win. Tick tock.
“I now realize that the small hills you see on ski slopes are formed around the bodies of forty-seven-year-olds who tried to learn snowboarding.”
-Dave Barry
Again, he goes. Up the ski lift: to the top of the mountain. Shivering, he pulls on his facemask to protect his newly chapped skin from the bitter wind that can often be found up in the peaks of the Appalachians. It was winter, and a cold night at that. No bit of protection from the unforgiving temperature will go unused on this ski trip; he doesn’t want to get frostbitten after all. The low temperature warnings that are periodically announced over the loudspeaker don’t seem to faze him.
Example warning:
“Please be advised: the current temperature is negative 15 degrees. A frostbite warning has been issued. Please be careful. Thank you.”
Or perhaps, he was too enchanted by the stars to be fazed. They twinkle: both hypnotically and sporadically, or maybe so sporadically that it’s hypnotic… Or so hypnotic that it seems sporadic? Irrelevance. He reaches the end of the ski lift and gracefully slides down the off ramp. Bracing himself, he looks back up at the dancing night sky.
“When it is darkest, men see the stars.”
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
The comfort is short lived, however. The evil black of the double-diamonds shocked him back to the brink of nervousness. And nervousness brings injury. He fills his lungs with the frigid air, in preparation for the two-hour-long-ten-minute-trip down the mountain.
“Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”
-Somers Roche
After what seemed like both five seconds and several eternities, he reached the bottom of the slope – unscathed. He looks up towards the sky, once more. This time, however, not at the stars but instead up at the once-impossible slope. This time, not in fear but instead with a sense of accomplishment.
There are three memory systems: Sensory memory, Short-term, or working, memory and Long-term memory. Everything you see, hear, touch, taste or smell goes into your sensory memory, if you choose to pay attention to anything that is going on, the information that you're paying attention to moves from sensory memory to short term memory, and anything that you're not paying attention to is lost forever because short-term memory only deals with current information. This process only takes seconds, as does the next. Once a memory is in your short-term memory, a few things can happen to a memory. Maintenance rehearsal keeps it in short-term memory longer, Encoding moves it to long-term memory, and if neither of those happen within the first few seconds, the memory can be lost forever. If the memory does get encoded into long-term memory, you'll likely remember most of it forever, and if not you'll remember it for a very long time. The memory can be brought back to short term memory by retrieval if you're thinking or talking about it.
There are a few types of long-term memory, which include semantic memory, episodic memory, declarative memory and procedural memory. Each type is unique. Semantic memory is knowledge of language: rules words and meanings, episodic is memory of ones own life and knowing what time things happened at, declarative is memory of knowledge that can be called forth
consciously as needed, and lastly procedural memory is memory of learned skills that does not require conscousl recollection. As you can see, all four types of long-term memory are both unique and important.
Love is an incredibly strange. If love were a bag, and life was the arm grabbing from it, sometimes life would receive a scrumptious chocolate, and sometimes it would receive a live hand grenade—but it would always go back for more. Margaret Atwood would certainly agree with this poorly constructed analogy as evident by her poem You Fit into Me. I agree with Atwood’s claim that love is both enduring and painful, both harsh and everlasting, because of my own experiences with the confusing, hurting, joyful topic.
You Fit into Me deals with the lasting effects that love has on a person over the course of a relationship. It starts out with “you fit into me like a hook into an eye” this is referring to a clasp on an article of clothing. Not only is it a perfect fit (like true lovers are) but it holds the clothing (or the lovers) together. The word eye is an allophone to the word “I” so it’s safe to assume that Atwood is referring to herself as the article of clothing, whom is being held together by the love she shares for that special someone. The placing of these romantic lines at the start of the poem isn’t coincidence. All relationships, all true loves, start with the feeling that the lovers were made specifically for one another. The poem then takes a drastic turn for the worst, by saying “a fish hook an open eye” which is incredibly interesting. At first glance it seems that Atwood is redefining the metaphor in the opening lines from romantic to tragic, but upon further inspection it’s evident that this isn’t the case. Instead Atwood, by use of this disturbing imagery, is making the point that love progresses. It goes from the giddy “we’re perfect for each other” feeling to a stronger feeling of being intertwined and interconnected and it does this through pain. Yes, getting a fish hook shoved through your eye would hurt, but ripping it out would hurt much more. If a relationship could endure the pain of shoving a fish hook through your eye, there is no stronger bind, however if it can’t, ripping it out would be like breaking up. Eventually the pain would go away—the scars wont—but it would be huge temporary increase in the pain. Again, Atwood is referring to herself. The poem seems as if she’s stuck in a bad relationship with someone she loves. She knows that ending the relationship, or ripping out the hook, would hurt a ton, but at the same time she isn’t sure if she likes the feeling of being caught in this bad relationship.
Morgan from PoetryConnection has this to say: “I have found that when someone enters your life very quickly it can be surprising, painful and hard to adjust. When this person is removed from your life you have a one sided and scared view of love and the world. I must convey pity for those of who have felt such moments. “Morgan has hit the nail on the head, this is exactly the feeling that Atwood is trying to portray. My own experiences are similar to Morgan’s, and the situation that Atwood is portraying in this poem. I’m currently in the process of attempting to remove the fish hook from my eye as painlessly as possible, and while the hook is still there, it is very difficult to move on or meet new people in a meaningful way.
You Fit into Me is a very interesting poem that defines both the good and the bad of love in just four small lines. My experiences fall into line with Atwood’s views on the topic, and reading this poem really opens old wounds. I definitely agree with You Fit into Me’s claim that love is enjoyable and painful. Be it chocolate or hand grenade, I will continue to reach into the bag of love.
One of the countless downsides of war is the emotional baggage thrust upon the soldiers involved in the war. “The Things They Carried” exemplifies the emotional luggage by using literal items that soldiers bring to war as metaphors for harsh emotions. “The Man He Killed” uses a monologue to give the reader a glimpse into the mind of a soldier, to let the world know how distraught he is over the killing of a man he may have been friends with otherwise. It’s chilling to read “The Things They Carried” and “The Man He Killed” together because they give the reader a feeling of overwhelming pity for the soldiers who now must lug around more than their fair share of burden.
“The Things They Carried” lists off the physical objects that soldiers “humped” through Vietnam. These physical things that they carry are certainly metaphors for the emotional things that they are forced to heave through this foreign land, and the theme is that the emotional sides of the items they carry are much heavier than the physical weight of the item. A perfect example of this is the character Henry Dobbins. Dobbins carries his girlfriend’s pantyhose, but with them he also carries the want for affection, compassion and comfort. This longing for love is much heavier than the twenty-three pound machine gun and the ten to fifteen pounds of ammunition that he carries. It is the same for every character in this story: Cross, who carries the maps and a compass, has to carry the responsibility of the lives of the rest of the soldiers in the Alpha Company. There is no burden heavier than this.
“The Man He Killed” makes similar claims, though does it in an entirely different way. Hardy supplies the reader with an unsettling monologue that gives a unique view into the mind of a soldier. This poem tackles the nature of war, and through that confrontation it opens up the mindset of a soldier and really shows how harsh the reality of war is on the psyche of a soldier. The dramatic pause in line 9, then the repetition of because is as if the speaker is trying to convince himself that he did nothing wrong. He goes on to say that of course the guy he shot was a foe, and the speaker expresses real doubt that this is the case by ending the stanza with the word “although” then going on to say that “well, he was only there because he was out of work, same as me” in more poetic words. This questioning of his actions, however long after-the-fact shows that the speaker may very well have deep psychological issues due to the emotional baggage of war.
Thomas Hardy and Tim O’Brien would definitely agree that the emotional cost on the soldiers is one of the most tragic parts of war. When O’Brien defines “hump” on page 1173 as “walk[ing] or march[ing], but [with] implied burdens far beyond the intransitive” he’s not just talking about the just physical weight, but also the emotional weight, that the items that the soldiers have to carry. Similarly the speaker in “The Man He Killed” expresses that war is “quaint and curious” and that if the speaker had met the man that he killed in a bar, he’d treat him to a drink, or at least help him to “half-a-crown.” This shooting of someone that he had nothing against seems to haunt the speaker, and one can only imagine how burdening that must be.
These eye opening tales use different styles to allow the reader to get the reader to understand just how destructive the overbearing emotions of war can be on the psyche of a soldier. Some of the literary elements used in “The Things They Carried” are metaphors, flashbacks, repetition and imagery. These elements used together are very effective, especially since the narrator is third-person omnipotent. “The Man He Killed” uses a bit of jargon, when the speaker says “but ranged as infantry” it doesn’t flow nearly as well as the rest of the poem, because they’re not really words that the speaker fully understands. It also uses an alternating rhyme scheme, to help the poem flow, and to make the pauses that much more dramatic.
“The Things They Carried” and “The Man He Killed” are two different works, by two different authors, but share a very similar view of war. Be it through the use of metaphors or dramatic pauses, these works allow readers to look into the minds of soldiers, and see how they’re emotionally affected by war, and the act of killing. These works share the theme: emotional baggage caused by war is overwhelming and forever damaging.
A blast of cold, fresh, winter air hit me in the face, begging to be inhaled. I surrendered to its plea, shut my eyes, and up my nose the crisp, clean, mountain air went. With a sigh, I released my hold on it, knowing that there was plenty more where that came from. The air up here, so high in the mountains, is like a candy bowl. You know, the kind that sits on the counter, and is far out of your little brothers reach, so it’s always full? After a few more minutes of relaxing and enjoying nature, I realized that the end of the ski lift was approaching. A look to the left, and a nod to my friend, and then the board touched the snow. Up I stand. Balance is gained. Control is taken.
Using the momentum taken from the lift, and the snowboards on our feet, we glided gently over the hard packed snow, as thousands before us have, to the bench. The bench was a homemade deal; it was simply, an old snowboard nailed to a couple pieces of wood. We sat, and buckled our right (back) foot into the endless tangle of bindings. I looked over at my friend, he muttered a few words, but the only one I heard was ‘race’. Up I stand. Balance is gained. Control is taken.
With a push from the bench I’m off, and thoughts of winning streamed into my head. I started down the slope, and the wind blew my beanie off, but I didn’t care. The experience was even more magnificent, and cold, hatless. For the wind could run freely through my hair, and cool the sweat that had accumulated along the hat line. All was going well, when out of nowhere I hit a bad edge and fell. Then I got sprayed with snow from under my friend’s board as he swerves to avoid me. Up I stand. Balance is gained. Control is taken.
Have you ever gotten a headache? I’m sure you have. What do you do when you get a headache? Go take an aspirin. What can’t you have in school? Aspirin. Do you get headaches in school? Yes. But you can’t have aspirin in school. How does that work? Simply put: It doesn’t.
Its lunchtime, and the drummers decide to go on a march. They walk by not once, but twice. Each time followed by a militia of screaming little kids, armed with shrilling voices sharp enough to cut diamonds. The diamond-cutting voices combined with the ruthless pounding of the drums makes for a high quality headache. Now, instead of studying for your test next block, you were distracted. You go to next block and perform poorly on your test, because you weren’t able to concentrate. Your parents find out, and you get grounded. This test also pulls your grade down from a B to a C right before the period ends. You get your report cad, and your parents see it, and you get grounded… again. All of this could have been avoided if you could have just taken a fast action Bayer.
We should be allowed to carry aspirin on the school campus. What could possibly go wrong? Why can’t we have them now? Some people would say this is because you can “overdose” on aspirin. I don’t know if that is true, but if it is… you can “overdose” anywhere, not just at school, and the only place you can’t carry aspirin is at school. Other people would say that you could just wait ‘til you get home to take an Advil. That wouldn’t be in time for my big test in third block.
According to the CNN health library, Eighty-five percent of people get headaches. Are students not people too? Another source says that four main things cause headaches. Anxiety, Glare, Noise, Anger. All four of those things thrive on a highschool campus.
After third the test in third block, you head on to fourth. The teacher gives a lecture. You can’t pay attention, because you’re too busy trying to ignore the pain of your headache. Finally its 2:52 and you get to leave, but not before writing down your homework. The next day, in fourth block, the teacher decides to give a pop quiz on the material covered the day earlier. You know nothing of it. Another horrible test. Grades even lower.
If aspirin was allowed in school not only would grades go up, but the amount of attention given to teachers would as well. This would push the FCAT scores up, earning more funding for the school. The school could then spend the money on more supplies for the classroom, or more teachers. This would bump the FCAT scores up even higher. Earning even more money for the school.
Higher FCAT scores will also help you get into a good college. Just another “ripple” effect from the aspirin.
Be it from horrible marching drummers, screaming little kids, bright light in your eyes, worrying over your test next block, studying as fast as you can, or from an annoying assembly in the theater, everyone gets headaches. It’s a fact. Everyone should be able to get relief from the pain, no matter where they are.
Better grades, better test scores, getting into better colleges, staying out of trouble at home, suicide prevention, more money for the school, and higher ranking of the school. All reasons as to why we should have aspirin on campus.
