The Paw Print

Teenagers and young adults, dressed as Wizards and sporting lightning- bolt scars on their foreheads, formed lines longer than four blocks as they awaited the 12:00am opening show of “Harry Potter and the Half Blooded Prince.” The opening scene of the movie was greeted with excited and deafening applause that lasted well into the dialogue. Harry Potter movies are unlike any film series; they are social events and almost spiritual festivals for the young generation. The first movie, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” released in 2001, cast a magic charm on very young audiences as eight and ten year-olds gaped in awe at a screen filled with kids their own age, flipping wands and escaping into worlds of mystery and absolute fantasy. Those eight year-olds have grown up with the actors who play Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The newest movie, “Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince” attempts to recognize it’s maturing audience members. Harry, Ron and Hermione  are not thought provoking or intellectual characters,  but they are so greatly adored by our generation because we have grown up with them. Newspaper and blog reviews  often complain that the  Harry Potter series is shallow and juvenile, and that it is puzzling that anyone over thirty would enjoy the film. Unfortunately, they are missing that Harry Potter is not for everyone; it’s for the generation who has not only emotionally invested in the characters as children, but for those  who have matured alongside the magic.

    Marijuana is a very popular substance used daily by plenty of people in New York City. It’s no longer shocking when one asks “hey, do you want to burn?” It has become a regular routine for people because it seems to soothe people and give them a high like nothing else would. Marijuana does indeed cause short-term memory loss and alters the mindstate, but I believe that you make the decision on your own, “pick your poison.” 

    Legalizing marijuana would definitely decrease the amount of people that get arrested daily. Marijuana isn’t hurting anyone but the person that’s smoking it. Arresting someone for smoking marijuana is just so silly to me; there are so many more important things to worry about in New York City, like the daily robberies, murders, etc.

    Looking from the other vantage point, if marijuana was legalized, plenty of people would become addicted to it and they would smoke it crazy numbers of times a day. Another point was also presented by a friend, Zane, as to why marijuana should not be legalized in New York City.  Companies, like Newport and Marlboro, would take over the “industry” and most likely raise the price of marijuana since it’d be such a hot commodity, just like cigarettes (~$8/pack). And in the end, you would’ve been better off buying it from a local drug dealer. 

Which is better? Legalizing marijuana and possibly paying more for it OR keeping it illegal, with the possibility of getting caught and arrested for smoking it?

Recently there was a report of five airlines having accidents in the air. Those five are Colgan Air, Turkish Airlines, Air France, Yemenia Airways and the most current one Caspian Airlines. With a total of 548 people dying from the three most recent crashes, is it still okay to use airplanes as a way to travel? Aviation safety expert John Wiley says “There is no reason to fear air travel in general, and no single airline or aircraft is particularly dangerous.”

But even with Wiley’s words it still does not calm my fear of something happening while in the air. More people are starting to rethink traveling by air due to the major increase in the cost just to go to another state, not even overseas. Shouldn’t all of this extra money the airlines are getting go towards helping prevent accidents like these to occur? I just hope that it does not take an extra 100 more lives for the airplane companies to realize they have a serious problem ahead. http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/07/15/iran.plane.crash/index.html

Although they first hit American television in 2007, becoming something like a phenom for having eight children through artificial insemination (six of whom are sextuplets,) and quickly brought the TLC network the highest ratings the network has ever experienced, Jon and Kate Gosselin have no doubt become the most talked about reality television “stars” of the summer.

My question is simply, why? What seems like a normal American family of six, who reside in Pennsylvania and just so happen to have a reality television show exposing the trials and tribulations they face raising such a large number of kids, are for some reason gaining ridiculous amounts of media attention as so called affairs rock their already rocky relationship and their so called fame forces the couple to file for divorce. I don’t understand why I can’t walk into Barnes & Nobles or to the nearest magazine kiosk to buy my weekly fix of US Weekly without being brainwashed to care that Kate Gosselin was spotted out with her bodyguard, that her children supposedly called her “mean” or that Jon Gosselin’s new girlfriend, a supposed elementary school teacher with an extremely shady past which involves racy pictures and possession of marijuana, was wearing a ring which of course was interpreted as an engagement one.

I don’t understand why whole breaking news segments are dedicated to these people who I wasn’t aware people actually watched or why the media is suddenly acting as if the fact that the two of them are divorcing is gasp-worthy. According to the US Census Bureau and nationmaster.com, the United States has the highest divorce rate in the world at around 5 per every 1,000 people, so why does this make Jon & Kate any different? I mean, I can currently count on one hand how many of my friends’ parents are still married. Part of me believes that maybe this current obsession extends beyond the media’s knack for taking the tiniest, most inane subject, couple, or issue (remember how long they questioned Britney Spears’ sanity?) and makes me question what the word ‘FAMILY’ means to the media, if anything. The media idolizes Angelina Jolie for this global mom persona she’s created, yet seems to appreciate her more for being able to critique and gossip about where she and her brood are headed next. Instead of talking about how beautiful it is that Madonna wanted to adopt an unfortunate child, they say she’s copying off of Angelina. And instead of saying “Things Happen” in the case of Jon & Kate and letting the family return to their life on the D-List, they continue to publicize their problems and give these people commercials and magazine covers and free clothes because they’ve done something that 5 out of every 1,000 American families experience every year. As far as I’m concerned, Jon & Kate’s fifteen minutes of fame has been done since it started and it’s about time to stop publicizing, well, nothing.

People are right when they say that the eleventh grade is one of the most important grades, and the hardest to survive. If you have just finished the eleventh grade it must have seemed like a good part of the year was spent concerned with two things, colleges and the SATs. Despite differences in where students attend high school, where they live, or their economic situations, colleges and the SAT Reasoning Test worry all. So what is this test that seems to constantly be on students minds’ and drive some families to spend hundreds of dollars on tutoring?

The SAT Reasoning Test has three components; math, writing, and critical reading. The distributors of the SATs claim that the test can reflect whether or not a person is ready for college. However, there is much dispute over whether the SATs accurately are able to predict how a student will do in his or her college. Brent Staples, author of Going Crazy Over the SAT, poses the question, “And what of the stellar but nervous students who lose sleep in the run-up to the test and end up dead on their feet on test day?”  Staples brings up a decent point. Many great students prep for the SATs and are suddenly thrown off by some small variable. For students who do poorly on SATs there are many colleges that do not require the SATs or the ACTS (a standardized test similar to the SATs).

 FairTest, The National Center for Fair and Open Testing, has published news that over 815 four-year colleges do not use the SAT or ACT.

    Sonia Sotomayor is the first Latina Puerto Rican to be considered for the US Supreme Court. And there’s so much controversy because shes a woman and she is Latina. I personally think that its an achievement to Latinos, because I am Latina, and usually when people talk about educated Latinos, most of the time they are referring to other ethnic groups, like it leans more to the South American Latin cultures. I think it’s great that a Puerto Rican woman has been able to achieve a Yale title and a Princeton title because I’m Dominican and Pueto Rican and nobody that I know has gotten that far, so to look at that, it just makes me realize that there’s inspiration out there, and not only blacks and whites are well-educated. Because she’s the first Latina and a woman, her opponents are trying to bring her down with facts from before, and trying to find any little thing to bring media attention to it so she could have a less chance of getting in to the US Supreme Court. I really hope she gets in, because if they don’t select her after the questionnaire, my vision is that they would have a lot of people protesting, and they would lose Latinos in the Republican party.

http://http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1809960/sotomayor_controversy_continues.html

There is an interesting exhibition at the International Center of Photography by David Seidner, which involves dolls. The exhibition is called “Paris Fashions of 1945.” Although it may seem different that a photographer may want to work with dolls, they are of much historical significance. During 1944, when the French were in war they wanted to continue with their reputation through the dolls. Designers were hired to make smaller versions of their best outfits and so the dolls were made. Because these dolls were made so long ago, they were lost for a long time. It wasn’t until 1990 that they were found again. They were restored and the idea began of having an exhibition of these dolls. David Seidner wanted to photograph the dolls and make give them a more contemporary look. Alongside designers such as Dior, he was able to create new outfits for the dolls. He began to photograph the dolls and his exhibition is now shown at the International Center of Photography.

The dolls were very interesting to look at, they are now behind glass cases and look elegant. It is almost like an early and much more glamorous version of a Barbie doll. The dolls have elegant dresses and even backgrounds making it seem like they are actual models. This exhibition is worth checking out if you have any spare time.

The twenties had flappers and money problems, the fifties had family values and beatniks, respectively, the sixtes were for all kinds of lovers and the fighters they hated, the seventies were for rockers,and the eighties were for rockers with bigger hair. The first decade of the twenty-first century is coming to an end and what do we have to show for it? Are we the decade of the great imitators? Everything old is new again, we steal our style from the flower power of the hippies, the skinny jeans off the emaciated hips of the drug addled musicians, the ridiculous colors and leggings from the eighties has-beens.The twenty-first century has a mindless, unpopular war, but it doesn’t have the strong core of young, completely determined peace-lovers who battled Vietnam — and besides, the sixties already took that label.

Maybe we can be the time travelers, the embracers of the past; maybe our label is undefinable. We have the Green Movement — we didn’t start it but we’re bringing it back. Activists in the seventies fought for gay rights; now we are in a death grip battle for gay marriage. Maybe Global Warming is our battle, maybe it’s the fight for Gay Rights, maybe it’s the recession, maybe it’s the fight against an unneccessary war. Past generations have faced these battles and fought them. Perhaps, our legacy is combatting these issues in Round Two so they don’t return for a final knockout.

 

After reading this msn news story, I was shocked that some 911 centers can’t get in contact with callers due to their wireless phones, especially during a life threatening situation. Taking into account of what happened with Donnie and Sharon Leutjen and their 15-year-old granddaughter, Taron Leutjen, their lives could’ve been saved if only the 911 center had knowledge of the location from where the call was made. Help never made it to their location since the 911 call was made from a cell phone. This incident left me wondering about the future victims who might need help during a life or death situation and whether or not they can be reached through their wireless line. I am aware that “every household should have a centrally located, easily accessible land line for emergency calls” but what if one doesn’t have access to a land line? Does that mean that they are limited to immediate help?

 

As technology is becoming increasingly popular and so are wireless phones, it is hard to imagine not having an adequate connection between cell phones and 911. According to the nonprofit 911 industry alliance, the fact that the 911 service is limited leaves “many wireless callers without the benefits of location identification information when they call 911.” I’m not sure what to think of that because I believe that every cell phone should have a direct connection with 911. Despite the fact that some centers can’t keep tab on cell phones, something should be worked out. This is not a typical situation. People need to be aware that this predicament affects everybody whether they realize it or not.

 

Because more Americans are dropping land lines, it leaves me to ask whether or not that move is going to affect their connection with 911 centers. We can’t stop people from getting cell phones and we most certainly can’t stop where technology is going to take us for the future, but I think we can put some effort into making sure that 911 centers do have access to callers especially from wireless phones. There is too much of a possibility that one will need emergency help when one does not have access to a landline. After all, this is a serious matter that involves a fine line between one’s life and one’s death. Ultimately when it comes to an incident where one’s life is endangered, I think all action should be taken in order to obtain help and it should not be limited to just land-based phones.

Imagine calling 911 from your cell phone and not being able to get the help you need in case of an emergency due to the fact that they can not locate you. That is ridiculous! It would be a scenario that I know I would not want to be in and I know many others would agree.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/13/opinion/13mon1.html

A recent issue that has come up which reflects past issues is the inaccuracy of the FBI and Congress in hiring port workers.  Congress has required the FBI to do background checks on all port workers or people wishing to be hired as port workers.  The background checks are to prevent people from having the jobs who may have records with acts related to terrorism.  But this plan has not been carried through successfully, and has caused an estimated 10,000 people to not be granted port jobs that they were qualified for.

This is a big issue contributing to a big loss of jobs, because the federal government struggles to be up to date with their criminal records.  Several specific cases have been shown where people have lost their jobs because of minor offenses that have nothing to do with terrorism, or charges made against someone that were dropped.  A specific case was brought up in a New York Times article that said, “A Philadelphia steamship clerk with 12 years’ experience is said to have lost his job, his car and was on the verge of eviction because federal records failed to show that charges against him had been dropped.”

This problem has existed for a while, and people have continued to suffer because of inaccurate criminal records.  A report from the United States attorney general said that half of FBI criminal records are out of date or inaccurate.  Too many people in need of a job have had to pay for the mistakes of the federal government, and a clear solution to this problem exists. 

The New York Times article being referenced makes a great point that Congress should force the FBI to move quicker in updating their criminal records, and not have thousands of people waiting for months to have their job.  In our current economy, there is a clear way for Congress to give people more jobs, and they should take advantage of that opportunity to help many unemployed citizens seeking work.