Exploring the Modern World

  Creativity have opened up some changes and additions to the English language throughout the years. Various greetings reflect the different places and time periods people come from. In our complicated society today, it is essential to greet others and bring a positive politeness.    Humans are social animals they say, and love to converse with one another, thus greeting people is a natural urge.  Different cultures have ways in addressing one another like "Aloha" in Hawaii or "Shalom" in Israel, these greetings reflects their origin. These polite words demonstrate cultural diversity, a necessity in our time and age. The assorted salutations reflect the universal need and desire to politely start a conversation. Due to many people taking offense to an improper greeting or no greeting at all, to which "very formal" greetings like "Good day to you sir" came about.  This might seem like an odd ritual from the "Nacirema" (Miner), but ju...

In class we discussed about science and how one's hunger or even just desire for science can go wrong and be dangerous. We, humans are fragile like "moths" and can easily come and go. What makes us unique is our quest to find and discover more through science and not allowing failure to hinder us. Looking back at our many scientific achievements through history, many people made a lot of sacrifice or even gave up their lives to make, what were once dreams, into a reality. An example is the space race, a "civilian" venture which saw the U.S to be the first and only nation to land a man on the moon. Apollo 11 was the moon landing mission, but there were 5 Apollo missions before that and some were not so good. Apollo 1 killed 3 astronauts: Gus Grissom, Ed White, Roger B Chaffee. President Kennedy's dream was to see the American flag on the moon and NASA had to make it a reality. They started with something simple such as spacecraft docking with the Gemini miss...

In class we learned about flamingos and how they have affected the American society in the 50s. According to the author, flamingos were made famous due to the rich admiring the animals and almost worshipping them.  Back then, people tried to recreate the natural beauty of a flamingos in all forms, size and shapes, as a symbol of wealth, pleasure and fame.  A building structure was even built and named after it.  This is the beginning of the explosion of the plastics industry that had no regard for our environment. Today, in our modern world where we all are connected via social media, trends can easily pop up. America has a huge bandwagon populace, almost like herds of mindless sheep.  More recently athletic shoes like “Yeezys” and “Air Jordans” became popular due to celebrity and athlete endorsements.  And again plastics are a major material in manufacturing them.  Companies like Adidas and Nike have raked in big profits with these celebrity endorsements....

Humor is be one of most influential and effective tools in the media for our society today. That is why the tv comedians are very popular and it's a multi million business for the network industry.  Comedy and entertainment from newspapers and comic books are  fading away.  Although there are still few people who reads "intelligent" books and articles, not because of lack of interest but mostly lack of time.  It is easier sometimes to watch tv for information and entertainment, say an hour, rather than to finish a book.   In all honesty satirical writing is something we only read in our English class. On the other hand, comedians on late night television, catering to a more mature audience, are the mainstream humorists. That's why they all have million dollar contracts. In almost every late night show,  these comedians find it almost impossible to stay away from politics. They use their show as an effective way to say things that a candidates are...

A Long time ago in a Galaxy far far away................. The old Republic led by Chancellor Palpatine sought to rid the senate of corruption and win the clone wars. Throughout the war many looked to the Republic for guidance and security. Many saw that Palpatine was in control. Indeed he was in control. He controlled both sides of the war and deceived much of the galaxy. The Jedi tried to stop his hideous plans, but it was too late. The once proud and free Republic became the Galactic Empire.  This is a prime example of irony we discussed in class.                                                                                    Below: Senator Lott Dod of the Trade Federation Although politics is not a major theme in Star Wars, it was an influence of...

What’s On The Street? Short Answer: A lot of things. Depending on where you are, but for sure people, food, entertainment and lots of actions. Long Answer: Many things occur in the streets of America. Some are favorable and some are not so favorable.   If you go to popular areas, such as San Francisco, you see more things on the street such as dancers, musicians, street vendors, and many other people trying to walk on by. But many of these people have something in common.   Racism awareness. In the passage from "Just Walk on By" by Brent Staples we witness how African Americans were treated in the streets. "Within seconds she disappeared" thats what happen when she saw the author, an African American.   Although this is not flat out racism, it is a form of covert racism. Many Americans try to be nice and inclusive, but due to maybe past experiences and stereotypes, this issue still remain. It's often assumed when one sees an African Amer...

When we read the book "There is No Unmarked Woman" in class, an interesting point that was brought up was how women were addressed. "Mr. carries no meaning other than the respondent is male. But woman who checks Mrs. or Miss communicates not only whether she has been married but also whether she has conservative tastes in forms of address and probably other conservative values as well"(Tannen 554). This idea and many others in this essay is flawed as its based on assumptions and generalizations that are wrong. A married woman has the option of choosing Ms. Or “Mrs.”. Older women use Mrs. because they are "old schooled", however that doesn't automatically mean they are conservative. This is a form of stereotyping and offensive to older women who are "liberal". There is actually more freedom for women, deciding whether or not they want to declare their marital status. The author doesn’t like “Dr.” either, calling it “uppity” or “overachiever”....