auroranossen

We?ve heard that our school has been chosen to use internet during the exam, therefore I decided to write a blog post about my opinions. Of course we are by no means allowed to communicate, but it is a huge possibility and very exciting. It is often difficult to write a good enough text without reliable sources, and our knowledge is limited. If I were chosen I would have used www.wikipedia.com and www.snl.no. I would also googled my topic and found other reliable, truthful sources based on fact. After my experience snl is a very good site, and often contains a lot of information. Our teacher also showed us a site where all the links where checked, preventing us from being falsely lead.

As I mentioned earlier in the post I believe using internet will help us in our exam, because you can be more precise of what you are talking about. You can give more accurate details as results, dates, examples and research instead of basing the text out of your guess work and opinions. People are often wrong, and even if they weren?t; it is good to have something to back up the facts. It takes a lot to make a text strong, and I believe internet has the power and resources to do so. 

Unfortunately there are a few cons when it comes to the internet. One of them as I mentioned is misguidance, another of course is the level of the text. When we are allowed to use internet our text is automatically on a higher level, or we expect it should be. Some people are better at finding information than others; should the people that aren?t suffer from that? Is it possible that we become more engaged to the internet that we forget the importance of the end result, and what if we depend too much on the internet and becomes helpless without it? There is also the possibility of cheating, maybe not from communicating, but there are a lot of translation programs. It is not fair if some people cheat their way through the exam, while others struggle. As you can see there are a lot pros and cons, therefore there is important to always be ahead. Never let yourself be fooled by the internet; be critical. There is a reason why your teacher asks you to write down your sources. That is because she wants to go through them; see where you got your information from. It is often an advantage to have different sources; don?t let your text be based on one article.

That is one of the reasons why I don?t prefer essays; because everything is based on one source. An example; if you take an essay writer and you write a text out from a chapter of his work, the source is based on something he wrote. We all have different opinions, but it is important to express them as your own. We can?t take an essay and write we agree when we don?t. Internet on another hand; you can write what you believe in. An example is global warming; you can decide for yourself what parts of our world?s problems is the most important to you.

It is important that you don?t copy what you find, because the teacher will find out. Therefore I advise you not to copy and paste, but instead read the article, close it, and then write what you remember. You can easily go back and check dates, results and other people as doctor?s opinions. When you write a source it has to be done in a special way. If you click on references in your world document, a small icon at your right will appear. Click on it and write down the link or book you used.

Good luck on your writing and feel free to comment on my questions.

Have a good day!

The shooting of Travyon Martin took place on February 26, 2012, in Sanford, Florida. The 17- year old African American was unarmed, and shot by George Zimmerman (28), a community watch coordinator, on his was home to his father?s girlfriend in a gated community. To your right you can see a picture of Trayvon Martin. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin)

I have decided to ask these questions due to the importance of this subject in our world. Please come with your own opinions.

-          Do you think there still are a lot of racism in America and the rest of the world?

-          Do you think the Department of Justice unknowingly down prioritizes people with a colored background?

-          How can we prevent cases like this from happening?

I am now going to write about Trayvon?s background to make you understand the case better.

Trayvon benjamin Martin was born february 5, 1995 and died February 26, 2012, three weeks after he turned 17. He was the son of Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, who were divorced 1999. Trayvon was a high school junior in the Miami area of south Florida. He lived with his mother and older brother in Miami Gardens, Florida, and was visiting his father and his father?s fiancée in The Retreat at Twin Lakes in Sanford, Florida when the shooting occurred.

Travyon was on the phone when he noticed someone fallowing him. He told his girlfriend that he would not try to run because it would look suspicious. Zimmerman contacted the Sanford Police Department to report what he described as suspicious behavior. They told him not to do anything, but it ended with a confrontation of the African American anyway; Martin was shot once in the chest at a close range.

When police arrived on the scene, Zimmerman told the police he acted in self-defense, and that Martin attacked him. Martin however was on the phone with his girlfriend; how can anyone be at the phone and attack someone at the same time? According to the police, Zimmerman was bleeding from the nose and the back of his head. After being cleaned up, he was brought into custody, and questioned by investigators at the Sanford police Department. The police did not find evidence to contradict his assertion of self ? defense, and he was released without any charge. The lead homicide investigator said he did not believed hid claim, and wanted to charge Zimmerman with manslaughter, but the state attorney?s office said there was not enough evidence for a conviction.  

The case of Martin?s death has received both national and international attention. President Obama told the public that if he had a son, he would have looked like Trayvon. On April 11, 2012, the prosecutor filed charges for murder in the second agree against George Zimmerman, who soon after turned himself in. The charge carries a maximum possible sentence of life in prison. (http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/11/prosecutor-to-announce-decision-on-zimmerman/) (http://dcentric.wamu.org/2012/03/trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman-and-beyond-black-and-white/)

This brings me to my questions:

-          Do you think there still are a lot of racism in America and the rest of the world?

I believe this is one of many incidents which prove there still is a lot racism left in the world. The only thing different is that this case reached the media, other victims might not be this lucky to have justice served.

-          Do you think the Department of Justice unknowingly down prioritizes people with a colored background?

In my opinion I believe they do. Simply because of the fact that there still is a lot of racism left and even if it says in the law that no discrimination is allowed, it still is a lot left from earlier on.

-          How can we prevent cases like this from happening?

We need to be careful with who we judge. I am not better myself; when a Muslim with a black backpack and a cross hanging from a chain around his neck passes me on the train, I automatically begin thinking of 9/11 and terrorism. It is wrong and we need to stop it. We can?t look at someone we don?t know and judge him because of his looks, instead we need to look at that persons actions.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Trayvon_Martin

International English teacher: Michaelsen, Ann

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/04/11/prosecutor-to-announce-decision-on-zimmerman/

http://dcentric.wamu.org/2012/03/trayvon-martin-george-zimmerman-and-beyond-black-and-white/

Into the Wild

Last week we watched a movie called Into the Wild, based on the novel by John Kraukauer. The book is also based on a true story. We fallow Christopher McCandless? on his travel into the wild. Chris? goal is to travel to Alaska; he is tired of civilization and technology, but most of all he wants to get away from his parents. Now I am going to give you a brief impression on what the movie was about.

Early in the movie we learn about Chris? relationship to his mother, father and sister. He and his sister had sticked together since they were children and managed to survive the family?s problems. His father was never a loving man and his mother always busy. They grew up in a nice home, and her mother was the CEO of a million dollar company, but it isn?t always as it seems. Later he feels like he is being bought by his parents; they want to help him financially with Harvard law and want to give him a new car, but their motives aren?t as pure as it

might seem. Chris? feels like his parents are embarrassed by his car, and I don?t think he wants to feel like he owes them anything. I think he has a lot of rage and anger inside of him, bubbling beneath the surface; ready to explode.

Chris decides to go on a journey, in reality it wasn?t supposed to be more than a few months, but he disappears and doesn?t want to be found. Early on he changed his name to ?Alexander Supertramp? and basically lives like a homeless person. In my opinion this is a bit childish of him and I don?t think he is leaving for the right reasons. Chris burns all his money, because he doesn?t want to be a part of a civilization and that money makes people do horrible things. When he left he also gave away his college fund of $25.000 to Oxfam, and abandoned his car after a few months of traveling. He might be right in a few things, but it is impossible to live out in the nature without any proper equipment. He is not prepared at all; He doesn?t have the right equipment, he lacks experience, he doesn?t have a plan. The only thing he is doing is escaping; escaping from the problems in his life.

He spent time in Carthage, South Dakota labouring for months on a corn farm owned by Wayne

Westerberg before hitchhiking to Alaska.  We believe McCandless? personality is influenced by the writhing of Henry Davis Thoreau and Jack London. On the way to Alaska McCandless befriends an old man, named Ronald Franz, who was very fond of him. The book is very similar to the true story, but the author exaggerates the relationship between him, his father and his mother. Chris headed down the snow-covered trail to begin an odyssey with only 10 pounds of rice, a .22 caliber rifle, several boxes of rifle rounds, a camera, and a small selection of reading material ? including a field guide to the region's edible plants, Tana'ina Plantlore. An acquaintance offered to buy him sturdier clothing and better supplies, but he declined. After surviving 112 days, he is thought to have died on August 18, 1992 poisoned bya plant called; Hedysarum alpinum, also known as the wild potato plant. The poison leads to starvation and if not treated; death. The nature provides enough resources to live on, but the lack of experience and knowledge sent him to death. He didn?t know how to storage meat, nor recognize dangerous plants. Eventually he decided he wanted to go home, but he wasn?t strong enough for the journey. There was a river he didn?t get over, but if had done better research about the place he stayed, he would have found out that only a few kilometers above him there was a bridge. Therefore my conclusion is that Chris acted childishly and he should have done better research if he wanted to go into the wild. It isn?t easy to survive on plants you don?t know what is and when you don?t have the right equipment.

Chris was found

The thieving boys were the popular ones. They drove their parents? car in the evening, their seats pushed back and their arms stretched out to reach the steering wheel. Osita, he who had stolen our TV only weeks before the Nnamabia incident, was lithe and handsome in brothering sort of way and walked with the grace of a cat. His shirt were always sharply ironed; I used to look across the hedge and see him and close my eyes and imagine that he was walking towards me, coming to claim  me as his. He never noticed me. When he stole from us, my parents did not go over to Professor Ebuge?s house to ask him to ask his son to bring back our things. They said publicly that it was riffraff from town. But they knew it was Osita. Osita was two years older than Nnamabia; most of the thieving boys were a little older than Nnamabia, and perhaps that was why Nnamabia did not steal from another person?s house.  Perhaps he did not feel old enough, qualified enough, for anything bigger than my mother?s jewelry.

This is a paragraph from the book called Cell one written by Chamamanda Ngozi Adichie. I believe it tells us a little of what the plot is about. Here we see that Nnamabia obviously begins to get in more trouble as he gets older.  We also learn a little about the neighborhood. It is almost as the boys is expected to steal, and that they consider it cool. Here is a picture of Nnamabia, from the short story Cell one. After I read this story I just felt silent.

The rest of the blog post will come during the day. I?ve already read half of the book and I must say some of her stories is quite good. The only problem thought, is that because of their length, it is difficult to really become immersed by it. I know she has the talent to write something really good, I just wish it could be longer. Anyway I still recommend you to read her book, it might get you some ideas on what you want to do for the world in the future. Even though she has a lot of short stories, I believe she is intending to tell her readers about the worlds. The unfairness, how the police acts in different countries, the relationship between husband and wife and so forth? 

You might wonder why my header contains polar bears. Well just to be clear, we don?t have polar bears in Norway. That is just one of many myths. I decided to make it because so many believe we have polar bears here in Norway. Anyway back to the point. I have decided to talk about our new project, Lesotho. The entire class, together with another school are working together on the behalf of the kids in Lesotho. We have already managed to give them four computers and now we are raising money so they can get Internet. I believe it could be a huge opportunity for them. They don?t have different classes, everything happens in the same class. Primary school is for children from age 6 to 18. It?s a lot different from what we are used to, but think about how much we can learn. I?ve been selected leader for this project and I must say I think we?ll manage the task. We have to raise 14.000 kroners, which is around 1400 quid. Today we are selling cookies, brownies and apple pie in the canteen. I really hope people will help us with raising the money. Today we raised around 33.5 quid. It?s not very bad in two hours. The other groups raised a bit more and together we are on a good way.

I would like to nominate Martine. I like the way she writes and I think she has some very good points. She has some good pictures and an easy and cool design.

Here is a link for the page you can nominate.

http://edublogawards.com/nominations-open-the-2011-edublog-awards-are-on/

Also I have added the link for Martine's blog.

http://www.martine-tonnem.blogspot.com/

I?ve tried to blog before, but never got it quite right. I had one photo blog, one for fashion and another for drawing. I think I posted something around three or four times before I gave up. When Ann (Our teacher) told us we had to make a blog I didn?t really think much about it. I?ve got around 3 page viewers on a bad day and around 12 on a good one. It?s not very good and I know, but I?ll try better. We also created Twitter accounts. I already had one, but couldn?t remember the password. Silly me! It didn?t really take a lot of time, but it is just so typical. I always forget, it was worse when I forgot my Facebook password though?:p

We have a competition in class: Who gets most viewers? So come on people! Read my blogJ Just kidding? (Actually I am not.) Anyway I don?t think it?s much more to say, other than have a nice day!

Goodbye and leave a comment please? I would be most grateful.

The News of the World phone hacking scandal was a scandal which developed in 2005 ? 2007. The paper News of the World hacked into over 4000 private conversations. They used the information to write gossip in the papers. In 2006, the News of the World?s editor, Clive Goodman and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, were arrested. Later they were charged with hacking the telephones of the royal family, celebrities and politicians. Goodman and Mulcaire were sentenced to four and six month?s prison. On the same day, the 26^th of January 2007, Andy Coulson resigned as editor of the News of the World.

However, in July 2011, it was revealed that the phones of a murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, relatives of deceased British soldiers, and victims of the 7/7 London Bombings were also accessed. It resulted with the closure of the News of the World on the 10^th of July. It ended 168 years of publication. I believe that the reason why Goodman and Mulcaire pleaded guilty when they first were revealed was because they knew if the investigation went on it would result in the shutdown of the paper and a much longer punishment. Under you see a picture of the "News of The World's" last paper.

I think Walt have a very bad relationship with his family. They don?t know each other. You saw that when his son and daughter in law brought him handicap equipment and tried to convince him to move. I don?t think his sons and grandchildren are mean, but maybe a bit spoiled. They want everything he has and doesn?t really care for being with him. An example is when his granddaughter asks for his car, one of his precious belongings. They also don?t respect him. If you look at the way his grandchildren are dressed in his wife?s funeral. In fact he has a better relationship with his neighbors than with his own family. I think that is because they don?t judge him because he is old. Walt is a man who has experienced a lot of things and he is a very strong man. When people act around him as he is old I can understand his frustration. They don?t know what he has experienced in the war, to them he is an old man who lives in the past.

 It must have been hard for his family too. Walt isn?t a very easy person to live with, so you can?t blame it all on them. He swears a lot, drink a lot and is almost all the time in a bad mood. When his beloved wife dies it just takes it all. I think he feels left behind. Walt still lives in the 50?s. He has been in the war and has to live with killing 13 people. I think he feels like the Hmong people has invaded his territory. At first he does not like to communicate with them. Thao?s cousin and his gang terrorize his family. When Mr. Kowalski sees this he interferes. From that point on the Hmong people feel like they are in death to him and are very grateful. They begin baking very good food to him and give him gifts. At first he is very negative, but changes his mind when Sue invites him over. He begins to understand that the Hmong neighbors aren?t that bad after all.

Thao?s mother forces her son to work for Mr. Kowalski to pay of his death. He tried to steal The Gran Torino. This is the car his spoiled granddaughter wants. When he sees Thao work and how ashamed he feels by his actions Walt realizes he isn?t that bad. But girls go to college and boys go to jail. This is because of all the gangs in the neighborhood. He sees good in him and decides to help in his very strange way. He learns Thao how to be a man, after that he manage to get him a construction job. But when the gang comes back he tries to take care of the problem himself, using force. It results with the gang not responding to this sin such a good way. To them it is war. When Sue gets raped he feel like he only made things worse. Thao wants to go to war, but Walt knows better. You have to think two steps in head of the opponents. This he learned in the war. I thinks he does a very brave thing to make the lives of the people in the neighborhood better. He is already dying from cancer and he wouldn?t live more than a year anyway. But it still is a very brave thing to do. I don?t think any man could do what he just did. Walt goes over to where the gang lives. There he reaches inside his pocket to get his lighter, but the gang thinks it?s a gun. They fires and he dies, with no chance in surviving. The entire gang gets locked up, Walt didn?t have a gun so they couldn?t say it was self-defense. Normally I am not a person who thinks that sacrifice is the best solution, but in this situation I think he came up with the best possible idea. The Hmong people wouldn?t talk to the police, they didn?t dare, afraid of the gang. But when it is proof and many witnesses the gang doesn?t get away. They are locked up for a very long time. It was a good film and I recommend you to see it.  

I have decided to write about a book I read around a week ago. It is called The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. The reason why I wanted to write about this book is because the way Kate Morton expresses herself is truly a masterpiece. The book is around 700 pages and a bit long, but it really is worth reading. When you first begin you get dragged into another world. It feels like the words become alive and it really is impossible to lay the book down. The setting is in England where our main person inherits a cottage near a big mansion. She soon discovers a mystery in her grandmothers past and starts to investigate what happened seventy years ago. It is nerve wrecking every second you don?t know what?s coming next. I don?t want to reveal too much, but I can say with a hand on my heart that this is a book worth reading. Kate Morton is an Australian author. She is mostly known for her novel The House At Riverton. Her books has been published in 38 countries and sold 3 million copies. The Forgotten Garden (her second book) was on #1 bestseller in Australia and at Sunday Times #1 bestseller in the UK in 2008.