A sacred thing was taken, you’re morose, it’s imperious
An abrasive pugnacious bigot bilked your talisman, that’s serious
The thought that he could’ve mottled it makes you noxious
You stand up from your cowering and say you’ve gotta stop this
But truth be told, you have a replete amount, like 5
If he were to take 3, you’d still be alright
An assembly is gathered to enhance the harangue
Nuzzled against your seat, plans for a pilgrimage are made
You decide to walk all the way to where he lives
That’s decidedly knotty ‘cause you don’t know where that is
You finally make it but OHMYGOSH you’re too late
Tangent: Polis is an ancient Greek city state
Though it is uncertain how, when, or if any of my ancestors came here from Germany, it certainly is the country my family connects with the most (besides the US). A family tradition of sorts that we seem to have is to know a small amount of basic conversational German. Whether or not it is sure that my ancestry traces back to this country, I am sure that I could ask anyone there how they are doing, and count to 10 while I’m at it.
The prompt given was to provide a simile for America. I chose to compare the country I live in to Starbucks coffee.
THE BOLDEST SPEECH I HAVE EVER WRITTEN TODAY
BY AUTUMN PALEN
America, the absolutely single greatest country that man has ever known, is populated to say the least. 309,411,000 of us, varying in personality and appearance, just like the various creams, milks, syrups and coffees put into Starbucks frappuccinos. There are many things that Starbucks’ coffee has in common with America, and by many I mean three similarities. Frappucinos, much like the American people, come in many varieties, and can often come off as pretentious. They both also measure things in a weird way. So the next time you sit your large American behind down and start to enjoy a large American Frappuccino, think of the diversity of our grand country.
The Melting Pot Reading Log 4
Autumn Palen
Humanities
Zangwill, “The Melting Pot”
Entry #4, P. 185
6/2/2010, 40 minutes
A. 2. I picture today’s New York as opposed to the one from over 100 years ago. I know I shouldn’t though, because I believe they’ve built a few more buildings there since then.
4. I was distracted by the lovely and talented actors playing the characters. My solution for next time is to either read to myself or be a preposterously bold addition to the cast.
B. 1. For 185 pages (three hours long), not a lot seems to happen. It seemed like they covered a lot of terrain quickly, which is probably because we read it as opposed to seeing people act it out. If I were in the audience during this play, it is very likely that I would fall asleep.
C. 2. I never really know what Pappelmeister is getting at. Is this on purpose?
The Melting Pot Reading Log 3
Autumn Palen
Humanities
Zangwill, “The Melting Pot”
Entry #3, P. 161
6/1/2010, 40 minutes
A.4. Some words I didn’t know were, well, nearly all of the French ones (Oú est la footnotes?). I’m guessing that they didn’t provide translations because they weren’t vital to the plot.
B.1. I’ve noticed that there are quite a lot of one sided characters, and that the ones that are the most prejudiced are the most powerful.
C.2. All of the “true Russians” seem to all know up to two languages: English and anything but Russian. Why is this?
D.1. I started to think about part of the description of Vera’s mother: “…self consciously fascinating. Her parasol, which matches her costume, suggests the sunshine without.” That’s a really great description. Way to pick up the pace, Zangwill.
The Melting Pot Reading Log 2
Autumn Palen
Humanities
Zangwill, “The Melting Pot”
Entry #2, P. 100
5/28/2010, 40 minutes
A. 1. I picture David as the lead in Amadeus. What’s his name? [goes to IMDB] Tom Hulce. Yeah, he reminds me of Tom Hulce in Amadeus. He’s happy, young, talented, and mildly crazy.
B. 1. Another character, Pappelmeister, has a typed accent, so it couldn’t be suggesting that the intelligence one has that overflows into their academic life that comes from knowing a lot about music gives them a perfect english accent, because Pappelmeister is a conductor. Maybe it’s a Russian thing. Is Mendel Russian? I’m reading into this way too much.
C. 1.
- How young is David?
- Pappelmeister said, “Auf Baldiges Wiedersehehen”, which means the deal is still on for David. Didn’t he (David) ruin his chances though?
2.
- Why did David talk to Quincy like that?
- Why did Pappelmeister speak German when he could speak English? Was he talking to himself or did other people in the room know German?
The Melting Pot Reading Log 1
Autumn Palen
Humanities
Zangwill, “The Melting Pot”
Entry #1, P. 49
5/27/2010, 40 minutes
A. 2. I picture the stage this is set in as the Avo Theatre, because the stage there is pretty large and I’ve seen sets there that are set up like this.
B. 1. Only one character, Kathleen, has a typed accent. This strikes me as weird, especially since there are two Russian characters, too. Maybe this is implying that Russian accents are normal.
C. 1. Why didn’t David stop when Mendel told him to? They both knew it would bring bad memories to the surface, plus, David was ashamed that he had freaked out in front of Vera.
D. 1. Finding out that David’s family was killed was a pretty memorable part (to say the least) that let us know why his uncle was worried about his speech and why David came here without parents.
Socratic Seminar Sources
1) http://www.webmd.com/drugs/drug-3459-Vicodin+Oral.aspx?drugid=3459&drugname=Vicodin+Oral&source=0
This combination medication is used to relieve moderate to severe pain. Hydrocodone is a narcotic pain reliever (opiate-type) that acts on certain centers in the brain to give you pain relief.
2) http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm
Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.
3) http://www.vicodinaddiction.net/
Effects of Vicodin withdrawal once one is addicted:
4) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7302609.stm
Religious people are better able to cope with shocks such as losing a job or divorce, claims the study presented to a Royal Economic Society conference…Their findings, they said, suggested that religion could offer a “buffer” which protected from life’s disappointments.
Christian Morals and Practices
- Usually, prayer is before meals and sleeping, but prayer during other times is allowed and often encouraged.
- Church (on sunday) has a pastor/priest that gives a sermon. Usually during Church there is worship, scripture reciting, and prayer.
- Sunday is the sabbath.
- The 10 Commandments are followed:
- No other gods before God
- Do not make yourself an idol
- Do not use the Lord’s name in vain
- Remember the Sabbath
- Honor your father and mother
- You shall not murder
- You shall not commit adultery
- You shall not steal
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
- You shall not envy
- Reading the Bible is done at Church and in the home.
- It’s believed that to get into heaven requires more than good works, but also accepting God as your savior. In some sects, baptism is necessary.
Caching Reflection
Strengths
- Our team really worked together, bouncing ideas off of each other to try and find caches.
Weaknesses
- We accidentally found several caches without knowing their name and if they were part of a multi-step or not, causing confusion and partially solved clues.
Earth is like, huge, right?
- A large part of this area is 33°N, 117°W, and there’s a reason why the numbers are high: there are hundreds and hundreds of other degrees around the world, each precise one spanning a somewhat large area.
UN - Human Trafficking - Position Policy Paper
DISCLAIMER: This is immensely difficult to research for and write, being that none of my sources provide dates. My paper most likely doesn’t apply to Norway’s current situation, but it might possibly apply to some situation Norway had at one point.
Norway
General Assembly
Autumn Palen
Position Policy Paper
Worldwide, 27 million people in the world are slaves. It’s horrible to hear about, let alone go through, yet it continues. All those people, forced to work and lied to and beaten worldwide could be saved if the rest of us did our best to help the victims of human trafficking and bring this horrible act to an end.
Norway supports victims of trafficking through Redd Barna, an organization that provides short and long term help for children in over 120 countries, and ROSA, a project that follows up with each individual victim that is saved through 24 hour crisis hotlines, along with providing them housing. Human trafficking is something our country helps others recover from, for it’s not a crisis in the least for our country. However, there is still trafficking to deal with. We have yet to investigate and appropriately sentence labor and sex traffickers and reduce demand for commercial sex to completely rid our country of human trafficking.
The solutions being developed in Norway with the UN and other countries involve taking in victims from Nigeria, Bulgaria, Brazil, Estonia, Ghana, Eritrea, Cameroon, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with the action plan Stop Human Trafficking. Some of the 37 measures of that plan include helping victims resettle from Norway to their country of origin and getting them a six-month temporary work permit to bring them safely back into a slavery-free life.
Norway has barely any human trafficking, so all we can really suggest is for other countries is for them to do what we’ve done: outlaw the purchase of sex and reach out to countries in need to help victims and investigate their situations.
Works Cited
UN - Human Trafficking - Resources
“Norway at the UN.GIFT.” Norwegen - Die Offizielle Seite in Ãsterreich. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. <http://www.norwegen.or.at/en/arkiv/united_nations_vienna_norway/norwayUN/UN/>.
“Norway Steps up Efforts to Combat Human Trafficking.” Norway - the Official Site in the United States. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. <http://www.norway.org/ARCHIVE/policy/humanitarian/trafficking/>.
“Against Trafficking.” Norway - the Official Site in the United States. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. <http://www.norway.org/aboutnorway/society/Equal-Opportunities/trafficking/>.
“Human Trafficking Worldwide.” Human Trafficking Statistics | Polaris Project.Web. 18 Apr. 2010. <http://www.dreamcenter.org/new/images/outreach/RescueProject/stats.pdf>.
“Expert Panelists Address Working Group on Human Trafficking.” United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. <http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/human-trafficking/expert-panelists-address-working-group-on-human-trafficking.html>.
“To Better Know a Country: Human Trafficking in Norway.” End Human Trafficking | Change.org. Web. 18 Apr. 2010. <http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/to_better_know_a_country_human_trafficking_in_norway>.
UN - Human Trafficking - Article
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7933973.stm
This talks about Europe and New Zealand’s differences regarding sex slavery. It’s not time to choose our countries yet, but I’d like to represent Norway.
U.N. Comparison
The UN, a group, is compared to HTHNC below. The numbers that were related to the 6 divisions of the United Nations didn’t transfer for whatever reason, so here is the list of divisions:
- General Assembly
- Security Council
- Economic and Social Council
- Trusteeship
- International Court
- Secretariat
and here is the mindmap:
High Tech High
Universally Speaking - The Blog - FINAL EDITION
- Were you more or less nervous once Exhibition went under way? What do you think accounts for this?
- Do you feel like you yourself planned through and executed your responsibilities to yourself and your team successfully? What evidence explains this?
- Looking back, what is the single most standout aspect about this project that you would have done differently, given the chance?
- How did you feel about performing in front of hundreds of people, between what you expected and how it actually turned out?
- What is the single most important lesson that you learned from this project, and what is so important about it?
I was less nervous once Exhibition came around, because I was prepared, and thankfully, nobody cared about our booth. I feel that I followed through on what I was required to accomplish, because nobody’s face exploded (as far as I know). The leaves and window paint were kind of a mess, so I would’ve not done… that. It wasn’t my first time performing in front of an audience, not even my first time performing in front of an audience in The Commons. Despite my inability to do either dance, I wasn’t that nervous, or even embarrassed. Through all the weeks of planning, researching and constructing, I learned that friendship is important, and being the best you can be is all you can expect from yourself. Ha, just kidding. I learned that the Philippines has cloth shoes.
