29. April 2009 by student.

The Private Eye

Nowadays, it is almost impossible to search the internet without feeling like there’s an unseen eye monitoring your every move. Before throwing anything away, documents must go through the ritual of shredded into millions of pieces in an effort to protect privacy. Television shows have become reflective mirrors allowing an individual’s nudity to be completely exposed. “What has society settled for? Have we lost all moral sense and consciousness that being nosy has become much more interesting? It is evident that society has faced a paradigm shift from privacy to exposure. Such a shift changes not only the nature of an individual but also the social norm. With a constant eye perusing every aspect of your life, people may be obliged to feel that their troubles cannot be overcome without the scrutiny and societal judgment. This scenario is especially true for Hollywood. What ordinary people are directly aware of and what they try to do are bounded by the private orbits in which they live; their visions and their powers are limited to the close-up scenes of job, family, neighborhood; in other milieu, they move vicariously and remain spectators.  

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29. April 2009 by student.

                The United States does not have universal health care or a system of socialized medicine, although programs such as Medicare and Medicaid provide basic health insurance to elderly, disabled, and poorer residents. For most Americans, health insurance is provided as an employee benefit, while unemployed, part-time, and self-employed workers must pay for their own insurance.

A recent Harvard University study found that medical bills are a leading cause of bankruptcy in the United States. The study found that many declaring bankruptcy were part of the middle class and were employed before they became ill, but had lost their health insurance by the time they declared bankruptcy.

Now day people can’t afford to get sick.When in today’s society the majority of the people in the country are low or middle income based we can’t expect them to be able to add the cost of health to their already struggling for a half decent life, families like this that are not being able to afford a good quality health insurance, this causes two things, as mentioned before, this can drive a family to the point of bankruptcy or to not being able to take care of the health needs of their families. We see many cases in the news that tell us of stories of families that can’t afford the procedure to save the life of their kids or of insurance companies that don’t cover the procedure. The part that stands out the most are the facts that nothing is being done to this to resolve this issue. This issue of abandonment and complete inconsideration of today’s America, we are denying life based on affordability.

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29. April 2009 by student.

There are a lot of things for a nerd to become angry over. A favorite show could be cancelled. A wonderful video game series being botched. A bad movie version of a favorite fanchise could be shoved out be Hollywood. But much of a nerds anger comes from being a part of a deviant group. Unlike the other steps five steps of this griefing process, anger is one that seems to pervade every other step rather than being its own. But the feelings of anger towards society start soon after a deviant realizes that they can not deniel their status any longer.

But before I talk about legitimate deviant anger, let’s talk about the societie’s perception of this anger. This mainly manifests itself as a Coloumbine additude. The idea is that the people who play such “ultra violent” (I’ll address that in a second) video games lose conception of the real world and the world of the video game. The player or viewer is desenitized to violence because it surrounds them. This is quite rediculous. As was said on the first day of class, kids are less violent than ever, probably due to the increase in information sharing that shows the consequences and stupidy of fighting or crime. When we talk about someone who is desentized to games, it has to be understood that this is a mental problem and not one caused by a game. If a person cannot tell the differentiate between the real and the fantasy than that is either a chemical imbalance or a result from some sort of trama. As for the description of video games being “ultra violent”, I can tell you from experiance that most movies and even movies shown on t.v. are much, much more gory and realistic than any game that can be created now.

So what does a nerd or any deviant group have to be angry about? The anger ultimatly stems from exclusion as the name implies.  A nerd becomes angry when they cannot participate in the social groupings that are considered normal. Wether that be parties, social groups, or general attention, a nerd ofter feels left out for not real purpose or meaning. Why should they have all the access to social status? What’s wrong with me and what’s so right with them? Everyone at the end of the day is a social being. It is built into our programming. So when a nerd is denyed this basic human resource, it gererates anger in the same way as watching people eat when you are starving.

Anger can also come in the form of observation. This happens with any deviant group. As outsiders, deviant people often have a different perspective and view from that of everybody else. This view turns a bright and revealing light on the problems of the “normal people.” Hypocrascy and stupidity can be seen in many of thier actions. This can go on until the anger directed at deviants because they are different is couple by the anger felt by deviants towards the norms. But as I said, anger isnt much of a step as it is blanket covering this process. After a nerd gets rid of denial they turn to bargaining.

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29. April 2009 by student.

According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration marijuana is a “Schedule I ” drug. “Schedule I” drugs are classified as such…….they are highly addictive, they have no medical use, and are unsafe for use even under medical supervision. I do not use marijuana, but I am planning on becoming a doctor and I am opposed to unjust laws. This is an unjust law and I will show you why.

Now that you have heard what the government has to say lets see what scientists have to say. According to the L.A. Times, the general consensus among researchers is that marijuana has numerous medical benefits. It not only has benefits but it’s risks are less serious then some over the counter medications.  Science one government zero!

According to Dirk Hanson an expert in addiction. Marijuana does not show the models of tolerance and withdrawal you see with drugs such as alcohol tobacco and heroin. Furthermore there is absolutely no evidence of marijuana being “highly” addictive.  As far as the last requirement for a schedule one drug I think the last two ruled that out. This is an unjust law. There is no doubt in my mind.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 2 Comments »

29. April 2009 by student.

Science has increased a lot, allowing human beings to have better chances of living. Nowadays, medical science is capable of curing many sickness that before used to be mortal. However, with all the advance and progress medical science has made there is not a vaccine for HIV. 

This mortal virus is believed that has been around for long time. In 1959, a man residing in Africa died of a mysterious illness. Only decades later, after examining some blood samples taken from that man, was it confirmed that he actually died from complications related to an HIV infection.

The started of HIV/AIDS in the U.S began in 1981. In July of that year, the New York Times reported an outbreak of a rare form of cancer among gay men in New York and California. This “gay cancer” as it was called at the time was later identified as Kaposi’s sarcoma, a disease that later became the face of AIDS. About the same time, emergency rooms in New York City began to see a rash of seemingly healthy young men presenting with fevers, flu-like symptoms, and a rare pneumonia called Pneumocystis. This was the beginning of what has become the biggest health care concern in modern history. When the Centers for Disease Control reported the new outbreak they called it “GRID” (gay-related immune deficiency), stigmatizing the gay community as carriers of this deadly disease. However, cases started to be seen in heterosexuals, drug addicts, and people who received blood transfusions, proving the syndrome knew no boundaries. Twenty-eight years later the disease still plagues society.

Some statistics show:
 

Since the apparition of HIV many people have died. However, statistics show that less people is dying because of this virus. 

The important question is how people can prevent to get infected from HIV?These precautions are helpful:

• Do not have unprotected sex. Always use a latex condom. If you are allergic to latex, you can use polyurethane condoms. Natural skin (lambskin) condoms will not protect you.
• If you are a drug user, do not share needles, syringes or other equipment to inject drugs. Try to quit using drugs.
• If you suspect that you have HIV take a test, if the test results positive ask your doctor about treatment and be conscious that you have the virus, so do not go and have sex whit somebody without taking any precaution.

In conclusion, even with all the developing of science HIV still being a mortal disease. The key to combat this sickness is prevention. We might not have the capacity to destroy this virus but we do have the capacity to analyze and take responsible decisions about practicing safe sex. 

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29. April 2009 by student.

In our society families are now smaller than they use to be. In preindustrial societies, large families were a necessity. Children were born to help their parents in their work and eventually to take care for them after aging. Also, it used to be a high rate of death in childhood because of the diseases and lack of treatment. Today, the normal type of family is composed of one or two kids and in some cases maybe three or four. Our lifestyles have change dramatically over time. Now, both parents go to work and help around the house. The children can be children and go to school to get an education. Along of the changes that we have experience, we can see that more fathers are the primary caregivers for their kids while more mothers go work. In addition, our normal type of family have change there are families with a single parent either mother or father, gay or lesbians parents or families with stepparents. Not only people are having fewer kids, but also they are having them later in life, because they are expending more time on their education ands career to provide a better lifestyle for their family. Today, the average age for a first time mother in America is 25. The percentage of woman who gives birth in their late thirties and even in their forties has increase. Age of the first child vary depending ion race, ethnicity, culture, and beliefs. Many couples are seeing marry as a way to increase their intimacy not only as a way to raise children. Many of them remain childless as a choice.
In my personal experience I have been married for 6 years, we don not have any kids because we are perusing our education, and we really have not plan to have babies yet

Posted in Introduction to Sociology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

29. April 2009 by student.

“Memories from the Great Depression seem more relevant today than ever.”  That is what the news has been saying. Before this happened, students and people who didn’t go thought the Great Depression didn’t contact to it. Now with how things are, they have a taste of what it was like. Low job rates, food prices going up, less people paying things, people can connect to the exp of the people who were in the Great Depression. In a way, people are living though a piece of history that many of the population didn’t think would happen. These will probity change some things like loan leaning, housing, automobiles and other energy possibilities. Welcome to a piece of history.

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29. April 2009 by student.

We are on the verge of a massive, possibly dangerous leap in technology. A breakthrough that may be more controversial than the unveiling of the atomic bomb and it’s all happening rite under our noses. What i’m referring to is nanotechnology. Ever heard of it? probably not. Nano technology refers to devices 100 nano-meters or smaller. A nano-meter  is one billionth of a meter.  To give you a relative idea of how small that is, a nano meter is the length a mans beard grows in the time it takes to put a razor to his face. A nano meter and a meter have approximately the same relationship as a marble and the earth. The point is it’s small! and nano technology is not science fiction. It is developing rite now.

The “project on emerging nanotechnologies” reports 800 nano technologies are in use today.  Most of these are very passive materials, but in the future we will have the ability to create more active machine using nanotechnology. The danger is these machines could be self sustaining and self replicating. On the nano scale it is easy to find fuel and materials. The elements needed are everywhere in trace amounts and trace amounts are all that is needed. These machines could enter your body and attack a cancer or devour the whole earth in a day. The latter is unlikely if we raise awareness and take necessary precautions. Nano technologie is here and we need to be aware of it’s possible applications both good and bad. I do not want to stop nanotechnology. It can be very beneficial, but as we know from past experiences, corporations will only see dollar signs when they think of nanotechnologie. We need to make sure that the safety of our earth is taken into consideration.

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29. April 2009 by student.

As we hit a time in our lives, we realize that it is time for us to go out into our own world. We take what we have been given to us and become our very own self. We have grown under mom and dad’s protection and we now realize that its time to go off and make a name for our self. We become independent. As this journey begins we start to become excited, than it hits us. We are moving out of out comfort zone to a new and BIG world. We have freedom, but its scary at first. We grew dependent of our family and their support and now we need and want them the most but its time to grow up and be us. we must suck it up and be strong. Today i am experiencing this and its hard, i am over the area, but not all the people.  I know that i must grow up and be me, independent.

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29. April 2009 by student.

Underage drinking is an obvious problem in the United States.
According to monheit.com “26% had their first drink of alcohol, other
than a few sips, before age 13.” The blame for underage drinking can be
placed on peer pressure as well as family environment. But much of the
influence for underage drinking comes from alcohol advertising.
“Television Advertisements for Alcoholic Drinks Do Reinforce Under-age
Drinking” expresses how younger teens are more aware and attracted to
alcohol advertising on television than those who are of the age to
drink which, thus, proves that alcohol advertising on television
reinforces under age drinking.

The core root of the issue of alcohol advertising causing underage
drinking and perhaps eventually leading to alcoholism is the symbolic
value that society places on drinking alcohol. Alcohol advertising
always expresses those who are drinking as popular, successful, having
the gorgeous girlfriend or handsome boyfriend, and overall having the
best time of their lives. This, in turn, sends the message to viewers
and more so to young teens that drinking alcohol will bring popularity,
success, a good time, and so on. Alcohol advertising directly links
what America considers as the ideal image, being beautiful and then, to
drinking alcohol. The public advertising of alcohol further influences
the personal lives of teenagers causing underage drinking which can
lead to other issues such as drunk driving, binge drinking, and
alcoholism.

http://www.monheit.com/teenage-drinking/statistics.asp
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/119465418/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 2 Comments »