So as I sit at my computer, waiting for a topic to fly into my face so I know what to write about, I listen. In the background, I hear cheering. This would be comforting, except it isn’t for me. My parents are watching Are You Smarter Than A 5th Grader? out in the living room. They seem to find it funny. I guess it helps their self-esteem when they figure out a few questions. Currently:
4th grade history!
Q: What attack by the confederacy in 1861 started the Civil War?
A: The guy who is winning the money has no clue whatsoever…he’s a moron. The little girl next to him says, “Fort Sumter,” and the crowd goes wild. There’s $100,000. Next question.
4th grade math…$175k.
Q: T/F… 1 and 9 are the only factors of 9.
A: I swear the guy guessed…false. 3 is as well.
Commercial break. (I beat minesweeper on expert…again! (252 seconds on expert(and I have more parenthesis in one spot than on this lame blog)))
$300k with 5th grade social studies.
Q: A person must be how old to be a US senator?
A: My parents guessed 35, but you only need to be 30. The moron lost $150,000 because he’s not smarter than a 5th grader. One word: Noob!
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Bombs.
In US History we are just wrapping up World War II. As I’m sure you know, we concluded the war by bombing two Japanese cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki with one atomic bomb apiece. In class today we discussed the ethics behind this decision.
I think weapons like this are amazing. The fact that today our country alone can destroy the world 30-something times is quite intriguing. It may not be the nicest thing, but it certainly is interesting to know.
But back to WWII. There are a few arguments for and against the bomb. At the time, the Japanese were attempting to surrender, according to most historians. They believe the bombs were unnecessary because Japan was had already surrendered. They also say that using these weapons on cities and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians was just plain uncalled for. According to them, displaying the weapon without hitting a military target should have been enough to prompt surrender.
Other people support the bomb, as I do. Japan was willing to surrender, yes. However, our government and our president Truman wanted unconditional surrender. We had allowed Germany off the hook in WWI, which caused WWII. Had they surrendered unconditionally, many say WWII wouldn’t have happened. If we allowed Japan to surrender as Germany had, they may have done the same thing. This would have then required us to continue the war, with a conventional invasion of Japan. This would have been similar to D-Day, only on possibly an even larger scale. This is the main reason I think the bombs were justified. Millions of Americans and Japanese would have been killed in this invasion. Millions. Yes, a few hundred thousand were killed instantly with the atomic bombs. Our government simply picked the lesser of two evils.
I think weapons like this are amazing. The fact that today our country alone can destroy the world 30-something times is quite intriguing. It may not be the nicest thing, but it certainly is interesting to know.
But back to WWII. There are a few arguments for and against the bomb. At the time, the Japanese were attempting to surrender, according to most historians. They believe the bombs were unnecessary because Japan was had already surrendered. They also say that using these weapons on cities and killing hundreds of thousands of civilians was just plain uncalled for. According to them, displaying the weapon without hitting a military target should have been enough to prompt surrender.
Other people support the bomb, as I do. Japan was willing to surrender, yes. However, our government and our president Truman wanted unconditional surrender. We had allowed Germany off the hook in WWI, which caused WWII. Had they surrendered unconditionally, many say WWII wouldn’t have happened. If we allowed Japan to surrender as Germany had, they may have done the same thing. This would have then required us to continue the war, with a conventional invasion of Japan. This would have been similar to D-Day, only on possibly an even larger scale. This is the main reason I think the bombs were justified. Millions of Americans and Japanese would have been killed in this invasion. Millions. Yes, a few hundred thousand were killed instantly with the atomic bombs. Our government simply picked the lesser of two evils.
Mock Trial
Our school’s mock trial competition got over a few weeks ago. For those who don’t know, it’s set up like a real court case, where your teammates play either attorney or witness roles. While in the competitions, you play one side of the case, either prosecution or defense, while your opponent argues the other side. It may not be just like law and order, but it’s similar. As an attorney you may have to do an opening or a closing. These are speeches at the beginning (opening) or the end (closing). The opening is about 4 minutes, while the closing is 6-8. You write them yourself. As follows is my opening from this year. I tie in our “theme” with how the events of the case occurred. Please don't read all of this, unless you find law mildly interesting as I do. This piece is merely an example of the work put into this competition, because this was, at one point, all memorized:
May it please the court? Opposing Counsel?
A large portion of this case, your honor, deals with evidence. However, a large portion of this evidence is not credible because, as the defense will show, the prosecution’s witnesses have been tampering with the past.
Hollis Price is a professor of history at Missouri Valley University, and she has been for the past 17 years. Price has spent a large amount of time dedicated to the Lewis and Clark expedition and Thomas Jefferson, and has compiled all of her research into a book that has recently been published.
Taylor Lane, the prosecution’s witness, also works in the Missouri Valley history department. He/She is not known for a single historical forte like Miss Price is. Lane writes about what the academic community considers to be outrageously inappropriate topics which often involve historical scandals. Lane once wrote that Dolly Madison had converted a wing of the white house into a brothel to fund the war effort, and that one of Dolly’s “girls” had been smoking in bed and caused the white house fire of 1812. Lane is known around the Missouri Valley University campus for similar attention-seeking acts. Sometime before this incident, Lane obtained supposed copies of the Lewis and Clark journals, which caused tension between Lane and Price. These journals were given to Lane by two of Lane’s fans. They attacked the reputation of Thomas Jefferson and of Lewis. Professor Price has recently written a book on these topics, so she requested to have the documents analyzed for authenticity. Lane refused to give her the originals, and she/he ended up changing the documents and then giving them to Professor Price for analysis.
On September 8th, 2007, Taylor was knocked unconscious in his/her home and the Lewis and Clark journals were stolen. Miss Price was at home that night, grading papers and revising one of her articles. Her phone and internet records show her at her house.
My client, Hollis Price, is wrongfully accused of three crimes: Burglary, Assault, and possession of burglar’s tools. The prosecution has the burden of proof, your honor. They must prove these three counts beyond a reasonable doubt in order for you to find Hollis Price guilty.
Our first witness is Mason Drake. She has a long history in crime scene investigation and analysis. She currently is a detective from a private investigation firm, “Not Guilty, Inc.” She was sent to re-examine the crime scene after the prosecution’s witness Bailey Dobbins had investigated. Through her examination, Drake determined that Bailey Dobbins’s investigation lacked in several ways.
Dobbins claimed to have found four fresh footprints at the crime scene, but only reported three. This was because he/she had inadvertently tampered with the scene. The fourth set of footprints was actually Dobbins’s own footprints. In his/her sloppy procedure, Drake found that she didn’t even secure the crime scene.
Also, Drake found that the fingerprints found in Lane’s office “may or may not” have been a match for Hollis Price. The national academy of forensic experts states that at least four of the five prints on anyone must be a good match before a positive ID can be made. Dobbins only provided partial prints, and their quality and number are insufficient to ID anyone. Drake proves that all of the prosecutions forensic evidence has been tampered with by an unprofessional police officer.
Our second witness will be Ashton Millbanks. He is a member of the history department at Sergeant Floyd College, and he specializes in forensic history and forensic anthropology. He compared Lane’s journals to an actual journal written by Lewis from the University of Missouri. He found that the two journals were written by entirely different people. The journals were a professional forgery; they were an attempt by Lane to tamper with the past.
Our last witness is Miss Price herself. She will explain more about the evidence that the prosecution found about her, in her own words. Her footprints were found at the scene, but she will explain that they’re there because Lane had a party the night before the break in, and that Price attended the party. She will also explain how she just wasn’t there. That night, Price was at home in the company of her Newfoundland, grading papers and revising one of her articles. Lastly, she will follow up saying that she had absolutely no motive to steal these journals. She knew that they were fakes and had been tampered with. She knew that because of this, they couldn’t harm her reputation or her book. And she knew that she no reason to break into Lane’s house to get them.
Your honor, the prosecution has the burden of proof in this case. They must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Professor Price is guilty of these crimes. As you will see, the past has been tampered with, and what we are left with is only doubt. Thank you.
May it please the court? Opposing Counsel?
A large portion of this case, your honor, deals with evidence. However, a large portion of this evidence is not credible because, as the defense will show, the prosecution’s witnesses have been tampering with the past.
Hollis Price is a professor of history at Missouri Valley University, and she has been for the past 17 years. Price has spent a large amount of time dedicated to the Lewis and Clark expedition and Thomas Jefferson, and has compiled all of her research into a book that has recently been published.
Taylor Lane, the prosecution’s witness, also works in the Missouri Valley history department. He/She is not known for a single historical forte like Miss Price is. Lane writes about what the academic community considers to be outrageously inappropriate topics which often involve historical scandals. Lane once wrote that Dolly Madison had converted a wing of the white house into a brothel to fund the war effort, and that one of Dolly’s “girls” had been smoking in bed and caused the white house fire of 1812. Lane is known around the Missouri Valley University campus for similar attention-seeking acts. Sometime before this incident, Lane obtained supposed copies of the Lewis and Clark journals, which caused tension between Lane and Price. These journals were given to Lane by two of Lane’s fans. They attacked the reputation of Thomas Jefferson and of Lewis. Professor Price has recently written a book on these topics, so she requested to have the documents analyzed for authenticity. Lane refused to give her the originals, and she/he ended up changing the documents and then giving them to Professor Price for analysis.
On September 8th, 2007, Taylor was knocked unconscious in his/her home and the Lewis and Clark journals were stolen. Miss Price was at home that night, grading papers and revising one of her articles. Her phone and internet records show her at her house.
My client, Hollis Price, is wrongfully accused of three crimes: Burglary, Assault, and possession of burglar’s tools. The prosecution has the burden of proof, your honor. They must prove these three counts beyond a reasonable doubt in order for you to find Hollis Price guilty.
Our first witness is Mason Drake. She has a long history in crime scene investigation and analysis. She currently is a detective from a private investigation firm, “Not Guilty, Inc.” She was sent to re-examine the crime scene after the prosecution’s witness Bailey Dobbins had investigated. Through her examination, Drake determined that Bailey Dobbins’s investigation lacked in several ways.
Dobbins claimed to have found four fresh footprints at the crime scene, but only reported three. This was because he/she had inadvertently tampered with the scene. The fourth set of footprints was actually Dobbins’s own footprints. In his/her sloppy procedure, Drake found that she didn’t even secure the crime scene.
Also, Drake found that the fingerprints found in Lane’s office “may or may not” have been a match for Hollis Price. The national academy of forensic experts states that at least four of the five prints on anyone must be a good match before a positive ID can be made. Dobbins only provided partial prints, and their quality and number are insufficient to ID anyone. Drake proves that all of the prosecutions forensic evidence has been tampered with by an unprofessional police officer.
Our second witness will be Ashton Millbanks. He is a member of the history department at Sergeant Floyd College, and he specializes in forensic history and forensic anthropology. He compared Lane’s journals to an actual journal written by Lewis from the University of Missouri. He found that the two journals were written by entirely different people. The journals were a professional forgery; they were an attempt by Lane to tamper with the past.
Our last witness is Miss Price herself. She will explain more about the evidence that the prosecution found about her, in her own words. Her footprints were found at the scene, but she will explain that they’re there because Lane had a party the night before the break in, and that Price attended the party. She will also explain how she just wasn’t there. That night, Price was at home in the company of her Newfoundland, grading papers and revising one of her articles. Lastly, she will follow up saying that she had absolutely no motive to steal these journals. She knew that they were fakes and had been tampered with. She knew that because of this, they couldn’t harm her reputation or her book. And she knew that she no reason to break into Lane’s house to get them.
Your honor, the prosecution has the burden of proof in this case. They must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Professor Price is guilty of these crimes. As you will see, the past has been tampered with, and what we are left with is only doubt. Thank you.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Titles Suck
Cutting your hair is similar to committing suicide. Sometimes you really feel like doing it, but you don’t have the means, so your desire fades away with time.
This term I need to get the old class rank up. My GPA has been on the rise since the beginning of time in freshman year, and until recently my class rank has been also. Last term I dropped by 4 people, even though my GPA was going up. I smell a resolution.
I have 3 AP classes this year: Language and Composition (of course), Psychology, and US History. My grades in these classes have been constant. I’ve gotten A’s in Psych and US both terms, and B+’s in Lang. Times must change. I must maintain my fair grades in the two social studies AP’s, while raising Language Arts. This will be done with a bit of work on my awesome research paper, which I have further refined its topic.
I am now going to research not theft, not the Mafia, not organized crime, but the black market. I have a few general resources which I don’t need to share with you, but I need more specific citations. I have a few stories about certain illegal trades, but it’s hard to get information about a trade ring that supposedly doesn’t exist. I like this topic because I can talk about the things they’re trading, be it drugs, prostitutes, immigrants, organs, or arms (as in guns). I can also go in the direction of how it affects the economy. Another name for the black market is the underground economy. This paper will rock, and I won’t lose any more ranks, hopefully.
This term I need to get the old class rank up. My GPA has been on the rise since the beginning of time in freshman year, and until recently my class rank has been also. Last term I dropped by 4 people, even though my GPA was going up. I smell a resolution.
I have 3 AP classes this year: Language and Composition (of course), Psychology, and US History. My grades in these classes have been constant. I’ve gotten A’s in Psych and US both terms, and B+’s in Lang. Times must change. I must maintain my fair grades in the two social studies AP’s, while raising Language Arts. This will be done with a bit of work on my awesome research paper, which I have further refined its topic.
I am now going to research not theft, not the Mafia, not organized crime, but the black market. I have a few general resources which I don’t need to share with you, but I need more specific citations. I have a few stories about certain illegal trades, but it’s hard to get information about a trade ring that supposedly doesn’t exist. I like this topic because I can talk about the things they’re trading, be it drugs, prostitutes, immigrants, organs, or arms (as in guns). I can also go in the direction of how it affects the economy. Another name for the black market is the underground economy. This paper will rock, and I won’t lose any more ranks, hopefully.
.,';.;')((.;',,.!
Today is a day of updates. I have gotten into the habit of doing one blog post during the week and doing two on Sunday. Happy Easter, by the way. Anyway, I've been continuing to play Pokemon in my spare time along with Call of Duty 4.
The difference between these two games is great. CoD4 is rated M for Mature, while Pokemon is rated E for Everyone. CoD4 came out late (I think November) last year, and Pokemon is from 1995-1996ish. CoD4 is intended for...older people, while Pokemon is for kids less than 10. It’s quite a clash if you go from one to the other.
For those who don’t know, CoD4 is a first-person shooter, which means you are walking around seeing from the eyes of your person. You see everything in front of you, hear things around you, and shoot at people. It can get pretty intense when you’re being fired upon and you’re forced to hit the deck with bullets whizzing past you and your teammates dying beside you, or other similar war-like scenarios. Now compare this to Pokemon. You have cute little “pocket monsters” that you train to do battle against other trainers. An attack shows your Pokemon jerking a bit, the other Pokemon flashes, and then its health bar drops. Things don’t die; they faint when they’re out of health. These games are polar opposites, yet I like them both.
The difference between these two games is great. CoD4 is rated M for Mature, while Pokemon is rated E for Everyone. CoD4 came out late (I think November) last year, and Pokemon is from 1995-1996ish. CoD4 is intended for...older people, while Pokemon is for kids less than 10. It’s quite a clash if you go from one to the other.
For those who don’t know, CoD4 is a first-person shooter, which means you are walking around seeing from the eyes of your person. You see everything in front of you, hear things around you, and shoot at people. It can get pretty intense when you’re being fired upon and you’re forced to hit the deck with bullets whizzing past you and your teammates dying beside you, or other similar war-like scenarios. Now compare this to Pokemon. You have cute little “pocket monsters” that you train to do battle against other trainers. An attack shows your Pokemon jerking a bit, the other Pokemon flashes, and then its health bar drops. Things don’t die; they faint when they’re out of health. These games are polar opposites, yet I like them both.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
___ 'em All
There has been a revival of sorts at our high school, and some of my friends and I have joined in. It seems that Pokemon is back, in some odd way at least. During passing time, at lunch, and especially after tests, I see people with their “ghetto” Gameboys. Never does anyone have a nice, new Gameboy. They always have the oldest possible model. The cartridge in this devise is always the same few colors: red, blue or yellow. These are the first installment of the Pokemon games, the red, blue and yellow versions, which seem to be the only “cool” ones. I couldn’t resist the urge to relapse to a near-infantile state of gaming, and start playing also.
I dug around my basement yesterday, searching for my old Gameboy. I found it in all its see-through-purple glory. Next, I searched for some of my Pokemon games. I ended up finding them all but one. I had red, blue, yellow, gold, and silver, but I was unable to find the yellow version. I selected red, and started a new game. Into the world of Pokemon I have dived, and hopefully I won’t get addicted. Long term goal: beat my friend Matt, who was still playing Pokemon before the “revival” at school.
I dug around my basement yesterday, searching for my old Gameboy. I found it in all its see-through-purple glory. Next, I searched for some of my Pokemon games. I ended up finding them all but one. I had red, blue, yellow, gold, and silver, but I was unable to find the yellow version. I selected red, and started a new game. Into the world of Pokemon I have dived, and hopefully I won’t get addicted. Long term goal: beat my friend Matt, who was still playing Pokemon before the “revival” at school.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
More Criminal Activities
To start off, I wasn’t exactly sure of what I wanted my research topic to be. I started simply with crimes such as robbery and theft, and started to Wikipedia. I tried finding specific cases which of course lead me to the Mafia and its activities. Many of the sources that Wikipedia listed were in Italian and Russian, so I really am unable to assess their validity. Therefore, I won’t use that site at all, at least for the Mafia-related information. As a side note, I also entertained the idea of researching brownies. However, the Wikipedia article, which is expected to be very long and full of general information, was barely longer than my computer screen. I quickly dismissed brownies as my topic.
I found the mafia to be a fairly interesting topic. However, I don’t want to write my paper focused solely on one group of criminals. This led me to zoom out yet again, this time to the all-encompassing term of organized crime. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be a criminal. In fact, I envision myself as someday being an attorney. But that’s beside the point. I find the history of these organizations and how they function in an orderly society to be interesting. I also like the long list of ways that these groups survive. Their focus is on making money, of course. They accomplish this by hijacking cargo trucks, robbing goods, committing bankruptcy fraud, insurance fraud, stock fraud, credit card fraud, car theft, burglary, counterfeiting money, smuggling or manufacturing untaxed alcohol or cigarettes, and providing smuggled immigrant workers. Many groups also engage in gambling, prostitution, drug trafficking, gunrunning, providing murder for hire, and illegally dumping toxic waste.
As you can see, there is much to talk about in relation to organized crime. I am unsure exactly what my thesis or the focus of my paper will be exactly at this point, however. Lastly, I have this link for myself, which gives tons of links to government websites and records. It is a large page and takes forever to load, so you don’t have to click it.
I found the mafia to be a fairly interesting topic. However, I don’t want to write my paper focused solely on one group of criminals. This led me to zoom out yet again, this time to the all-encompassing term of organized crime. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to be a criminal. In fact, I envision myself as someday being an attorney. But that’s beside the point. I find the history of these organizations and how they function in an orderly society to be interesting. I also like the long list of ways that these groups survive. Their focus is on making money, of course. They accomplish this by hijacking cargo trucks, robbing goods, committing bankruptcy fraud, insurance fraud, stock fraud, credit card fraud, car theft, burglary, counterfeiting money, smuggling or manufacturing untaxed alcohol or cigarettes, and providing smuggled immigrant workers. Many groups also engage in gambling, prostitution, drug trafficking, gunrunning, providing murder for hire, and illegally dumping toxic waste.
As you can see, there is much to talk about in relation to organized crime. I am unsure exactly what my thesis or the focus of my paper will be exactly at this point, however. Lastly, I have this link for myself, which gives tons of links to government websites and records. It is a large page and takes forever to load, so you don’t have to click it.
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