22. April 2010 by student.

Chabely Sepuveda (EDISON) SEXTING

Back in the old days when teenagers liked each other they would find out through their friends, then they would send each other love letters, but they wouldn’t even look at each other in the hall ways for a long time, till they became more familiar with each other. Nowadays 20% of teens admit that they have been involved in an X-rated text message. These X-rated text messages that contain photos of nude or semi-nude teenagers is so called “sexting”. “Sexting” for some teenagers in this society that we live in something completely normal that everyone does because it’s the modern way of flirting with the significant other person that you like. But what you dint know is that most of the time these photos end up being shared and this is something that can bring a lot of problems upon yourself. The consequences can change your life in just seconds. News reports are drastically and increasingly documentation legal repercussion after incidents with naked photos online. A well studied attorney says that there are many unanswered question about whether young teens who send their own photos could face prosecutions leading to prison for child pornography.

In Wisconsin a 17 year old was charged with possession of child pornography because he posted a naked picture of his ex-girlfriend, now the question is why did he do that?

Just like this case there are many more all over the United States.

The only people that can control what you do is yourself, so why let someone take a picture of you while your naked, you don’t have a clue what they are planning to do with it in the future. You shouldn’t even take a naked picture of yourself because someone may find it. Your body is private to yourself and who ever you decide to share it with For example: your husband, wife. But the whole world doesn’t need to see a picture of you with no close because the internet Is accessed by millions of people world wide. So think twice before you take a picture of you naked.

References:

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/WorldNews/sexting-teens/story?id=6456834

Posted in Social Problems | 4 Comments »

22. April 2010 by student.

Chabely Sepulveda (EDISON) Economic stimulus

What an economic stimulus basically is a strategic that the government uses to pump money into an ailing economy. There are several ways that the government can do that but they usually do it through spending, tax cuts and even reductions on interest rates. In most circumstances the government considers the interest rate cuts by the Federal Reserve since it is the most effective form of stimulus to be known. In the year 2007 things began to get ruff for everyone in the United States but by 2008 the economy just got worst and the pressure grew to the point that there was fiscal interventions which is the Congress.

Our former president Obama before taking office had began to consider a stimulus plan therefore he started working on it. By February 11,2009 Congress had given the final approval to a $787 Billion bill, it is called the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Republicans strongly resisted and none voted for the bill because they did not agree with it in the House and later in the Senate only three Republicans voted in favor of the bill.

The ones against the bill said that Obama was running an unaffordable debt. By November that same year a consensus was developed across a wide range of view by the analysts, they said that the stimulus package, as messy as it is, was working. By December the House narrowly passed a $154 million called a job bill as a second round to the stimulus since unemployment had increased above 10%. This was done to avoid the stigma that the Republicans where demonstrating. Later that same month Harry the Senator of the majority leaders decided to push a $15 billion measured that was only going to focus on the payroll tax exemptions so that companies could start hiring new workers, this wonderful idea was brought up by both the republicans as well as the democrats.

I think that the stimulus plan was a great idea since its point was to help the American society that was facing extremely hard times. The point of the stimulus plan was to help major companies for example, so they could start hiring people in general therefore the unemployment percentage would decrease.

References:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/u/united_states_economy/economic_stimulus/index.html?scp=20&sq=social%20problems&st=cse

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

22. April 2010 by student.

            South Park is known for their crazy controversial targets, especially to religion. For the past 200 episodes it has aired, the creators always try to push the limits and usually do. Many of times we all find humor in them, but of course there are times things can offend people. Here in
America we have freedom of speech, and therefore a lot of times the network, Comedy Central, will allow them to air such controversial things. But this time there was a legitimate warning to the creators from an extremist Muslim group stating that if they air an episode insulting their prophet Muhammad, they would face severe consequences. Included in their post on the extremist’s website is a horrible picture of Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker murdered by a Muslim extremist in 2004 after making a movie about a woman who rejected Muhammad’s teachings. The message stated that the writers of South Park would “probably wind up like Van Gogh” for airing the show. 

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

22. April 2010 by student.

                   There are advantages to develop cloning technology. “Ian Wilmut demands that the study of it not to be banned, the technology would be useful for the development of treatment for genetic diseases and of mass production of good cattle” (Otsuka 1). Human cloning will make family classification even worse than it is at the present. Because cloning needs only one DNA, and it does not matter whether a man or a woman offers it, we can assume that there will be much more single parent families. Children conceived by cloning cannot have both blood related father and mother.

                 There are many people in the world who do anything for the sake of money. As a result, cloning technology is in danger of being abused by humaity. If cloning becomes an option; women who just do not like the discomforts of pregnancy might use cloning technology. In this point, human cloning is no longer developed for only infertile people but also for lazy women. Cloning will become a norm, and people will lose their morals and values of what it means to be a family. People will not cherish human life, soon enough they will just clone someone if they are about to die. Everyone will just use the cloning process for everything. What will happen to cherishing a human life? Social conflict will become even more barbaric and people will start to realize that they are losing humanity within themselves. We do not have a right to take away the originality of any human; NOT even a clone.

                It is important to the value of our lives, individuality, and bond of families to keep cloning out of the picture. The government should not make cloning of human illegal. If scientists start cloning, they will unknowingly start breaking rules that make up our society. I strongly advise cloning to not be allowed in our society.

Otsuka, Ryuichi. “Ban Human Cloning. The Way of Applying it to Medical Treatment and Stock Raising.”
 The Yomiuri  Shimbun 7 Jun. 1997: 1.

Posted in Introduction to Sociology | 1 Comment »

22. April 2010 by student.

A few months ago I read an online article about an Australian island called Macquarie located between Australia and Antarctica.  I’m studying Biology and enjoy science, so these types of stories interest me. I also believe that too often people try to make a difference in nature and don’t do all the necessary research and the full background checks to make sure things will work out the proper way. The populations of penguins on this island were decreasing and local ecologists thought that a good solution to increase the penguin population.  There are a large number of feral cats on the island, which were thought to be the reason of the decreasing penguin population. So a few of the feral cats were removed and the problem would be thought to be solved, soon. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case. As a result of the removal of the wild cats, the rabbit and rat population exploded. The rabbits and rats have now consumed forty percent of the islands native plants along shorelines causing severe erosion and other consequences.  The penguins on the island used these plants and rocky shoreline for cover and now don’t have the protection for their nesting grounds, causing a further decline in the penguin population. In conclusion, many people have great ideas for the protection of our environment, sometimes these ideas aren’t thought through far enough.  There are many situations where peoples efforts have worked wonderfully, unfortunately this is not one of those situations, and maybe we as the human population should take a hands off approach and let nature take its course every once in awhile.

Posted in Social Problems | 1 Comment »

22. April 2010 by student.

Everyone knows that money talks and if you’re important enough you can get out of the certain situations, but is that really fair? Is that ethical? There is a case of this in my hometown. On Feb. 12 2010 there was an accident in my hometown of Wellington, Fl. My town has a huge equestrian industry and a big part of that is the Polo Industry. The owner of the International Polo Club John Goodman  was at a fundraiser that night and decided to drive himself home. On the way home he blew through a stop sign and hit another car. The Goodman, in his very expensive Bentley, sent the other car flying into a near by canal. The man in the other car died at the scene; he was a recent graduate of UCF and on his way home for his younger sister’s birthday.

The victim’s car

The Goodman was most likely driving under the influence and he fled the scene. The police found him wandering aimless a few miles away with only a broken wrist. This is a very tragic story, but the worst is yet to come. The owner is very well known around the community and is very wealthy. He’s been able to hire the best of the best to defend him in this case. This happened over two months ago and he hasn’t been brought to justice. An article from the Palm Beach Post said this : “Former veteran state prosecutor Paula Russell said it’s apparent that authorities are being more thorough than usual in dealing with Goodman. Not only is Goodman wealthy but he has hired prominent defense attorney Roy Black, whose roster of past clients includes Rush Limbaugh and William Kennedy Smith.

“They won’t admit it, of course,” said Russell, who unsuccessfully ran in 2008 against now-State Attorney Michael McAuliffe. “But when deputies saw a Bentley, they told themselves they’d better dot every ‘i’ and cross every ‘t.’ That’s human nature.”

“Is it political or psychological?” she added. “Are prosecutors in a panic when Roy Black shows up? I don’t know.”

So, the officers arrived at the scene and saw the very expensive car they knew they had to be careful? That the person who owned the car obviously had money? The amount of money Goodman has or the attorney he’s hired shouldn’t mattered. No amount of good representation or money can bring the victim back. If Goodman was drinking drunk then he should be brough to justice. This was no “accident”. One bad decision can take a life, but Goodman isn’t brought to justice soon the case may hit a dead end.

Assistant State Attorney Ellen Roberts, who prosecutes drunken-driving cases, said it takes months to complete witness transcriptions and assemble physical evidence such as blood tests and medical examiner’s reports. But once somebody is arrested, prosecutors must file charges within 30 days and bring the defendant to trial within six months, or the charges could be thrown out.

This story has had enough tradegy, but the more tragic would be if Goodman is never brought to justice. Money can cover things up and keep people quiet, but it will never erase what has happened. It can’t bring back lives. Police still don’t know if he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but this is an great example of why you shouldn’t drive under the influence. Get call or taxi or call a friend. Also, we’ve seen with the tradegy of what happened to Poland, no matter how important you are there are somethings you can’t esacpe, like death. Hopefully having money won’t keep Goodman from justice.

I lived down the street from the victim’s family and I went to middle school with his younger sister. They didn’t deserve this; no one does. It sickens me to think that the man is still out there living his luxurious life.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

22. April 2010 by student.

Runaways are a huge social problem because a lot of things can happen to a child while they are away from home that can have serious affects on the child for the rest of their life. It is our responsibility to better protect our children as well as to step up and be better parents. There is no reason a child should want to run away from their home. It is 100% avoidable. Parents need to be more involved and pay more attention to their child’s life. One in seven children will run away at some point in their life. There is anywhere from 1.3 to 1.5 million kids that run away from home each year. Currently there are three million children that have left home, and are now homeless.  

According to <runawaychild.com> “Children who run away from home are typically fueled by an overload of depression, anxiety, and a sense of loneliness and deep alienation from anyone or anything. These kids often feel as if they have little support in times of trouble and no where to run when things get tough - except to street life, where they turn their back on parental support and authority figures and seek comfort instead from other people on the streets. They are easy prey for unscrupulous people and victimization.” 

Warning signs:-extreme mood change                          -stealing-rebellious behavior                                -new friends            -poor self esteem                                  -withdrawal-lying                                                  -suicide threats-over eating or not eating enough             -gang affiliation-too much sleep or not enough sleep                  - joining untraditional religious group/cult 

The first 48 hours have been proven to be the most critical in finding a child that has runaway. There is no waiting period -like there is with a missing adult. The sooner you start looking the better, and the more current the information you find out will be. Kids that run away can get desperate and turn to illegal activities like prostitution, child pornography, drug use/sales, theft and other illegal actions. 

Millions of kids have run away from home, and been forgotten about. In some cases, a child has been gone for such a long time; the parents will give up because they don’t think the child will ever return. As you can imagine this is heartbreaking for parents, especially if they had a good relationship with their child prior to this. 

I think that we need to encourage our local police to act faster and more persistent when trying to locate a child that has run away. They should do more to investigate and interview people to try and find the child. Also, once a child returns home, there should be more therapy for them and their parents. There needs to be more resources for parents so that when the child returns, they fix the original problem that made them leave in the first place. Sometimes when kids return from running away parents set very unfair and harsh rules, which only makes the child want to run away again. It is up to us to be good parents and encourage other parents to be proactive in their child’s life.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

22. April 2010 by student.

A very popular question today in everyday society, should marijuana be legal? I don’t think so and for a number of reasons. For one, marijuana is very harmful to the brain. The smoke does have less tar than cigarettes, yea but, it has other seriously harmful chemicals in it as well. Why do you think you get high when you smoke weed? Weed has a drug called Tetrahydrocannabinol or THC in it, and when smoked the drug flows through your bloodstream to the brain where it basically turns off a series of cellular reactions causing distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty in thinking and problem solving skills, and problems with memory and learning comprehension skills.  It’s easy to tell when someone is high in public by the way they act, or function around other people in society. If weed was legal, people wouldn’t be able to function in society at all. For example if people that work in any kind of dangerous situations on the job were to smoke weed before working, and was then put in a dangerous situation like someone that operates heavy machinery or anyone that deals with any kind of dangerous situation like a fire fighter or a police officer; it puts their lives, and the lives of people around him in jeopardy. A second reason why marijuana should not be legalized is because despite what people say, there is a mental addiction. Long term marijuana use can lead to harmful effects on social functioning in the context of family skills, school, work, and other recreational activities. Long term marijuana abusers trying to quit report: irritability, trouble falling asleep, decreased appetite, anxiety, and drug craving, all of which make it very difficult to quit. If we legalize marijuana, we will be putting another addicting drug into our society, which will make more powerful drugs like cocaine, or acid or a number of other harmful drugs more tolerable and less taboo to everyday America. A final reason why marijuana should not be legalized is its effects of increased rates of anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, and schizophrenia. A number of studies have shown the association of marijuana and these symptoms. These are some very serious effects from such a popular drug in America. After doing some research The United States is ranked the forty second highest in suicide in the world, and I think all American want to keep that number as low as possible throughout our life time. So why would we legalize a drug that promotes this and other harmful effects to the people of our great nation.

Posted in Social Problems | 3 Comments »

22. April 2010 by student.

There is a new epidemic that is on our hand in the youth of society today it is called Sexting.  If you don’t know what Sexting is it’s the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs electronically, primarily between mobile phones. Sexting is a result of advances in technology enabling new forms of social interaction. Messages with sexual content have been exchanged over all forms of historical media. Newer technology allows photographs and videos, which are intrinsically more explicit and have greater impact. A social danger with Sexting is that material can be very easily and widely spread over which the maker has no control. There are a lot of today’s young people with cell phones that can send and receive picture and videos. This sexting issue is a huge deal because people are getting arrested for the sexual pictures that they are sending to each other for example: In 2008, a Virginia assistant principal was charged with possession of child pornography and related crimes after he had been asked to investigate a rumored sexting incident at the high school where he worked. Upon finding a student in possession of a photo on his phone that depicted the torso of a girl wearing only underpants, her arms mostly covering her breasts, the assistant principal showed the image to the principal who instructed him to preserve the photo on his computer as evidence, which he did. The court later ruled that the photo did not constitute child pornography because under Virginia law, nudity alone is not enough to qualify an image as child pornography; the image must be “sexually explicit”. Loudoun County Prosecutor James Plowman stands by his initial assessment of the photo and says he would not have pursued the case if the assistant principal had agreed to resign. Instead, the assistant principal got a second mortgage on his house and spent $150,000 in attorneys’ fees to clear his name

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

22. April 2010 by student.

Texting has become the new form of communication, but is it going too far? Texting is great for a quick message, but it’s becoming the only way of communication. Now that the phones offer keypads, it just gets easier and more convenient to text message rather then picking up the phone, but it’s not as personal.  

2.5 billion text messages are sent each DAY in the
US. Most of the text messaging is being done by 13-17 age range. The next most popular age is 18-24. The average text message used each month is 357 compared to 204 phone calls. Text messaging is replacing talking, and hindering the ability to form a face-to-face relationship. Some of the concerns are that kids are not learning to communication with people directly. But there are also really great things about texting, especially with kids and their parents. Let’s face it, we are all very busy people and working parents, so it’s a good way for your kids to send a quick message and dropping a quick note. But texting is becoming part of the dating scene. Obviously courting a woman isn’t the same as it was years ago, but sending a text and asking a person out on a date, well that just isn’t personal. I feel that people use text to avoid any possible “awkward” situations, but frankly I think asking someone out over text is awkward enough! 

I will admit my feelings may be this way because I lived in a time when no one that I knew owned a cell phone and the only way of communication was through a land line (and if you were high tech enough – you owned a pager). I just feel that although I do use text to send quick messages, if a friend if trying to have a conversation via text, I pick up the phone! I feel conversations are more personal that way, especially if it’s someone that you just met and you want to get to know better. 

Some sociologists believe that it’s social change and that we as people need to move forward with it rather than trying to work against it. I agree. I’m sure we all use text as a form of communication, but it’s taking away from the personal aspect of communicating. A sociology professor at

Illinois
State
University named Richard Sullivan says that text messaging is like “the new version of passing notes.” “Its use is prolific and is a valuable tool for social interaction, especially for the youth,” Sullivan said, adding that while text messaging is efficient, face-to-face communication is better for communicating full-fledged ideas. I agree with Sullivan, text is great for quick communication, but face –to-face or even talking on the phone provides more of a personal interaction. Basically the new generation is all about texting, and as a society I guess we need to move forward with it. http://www.allbusiness.com/population-demographics/demographic-groups-adolescents/12181553-1.html

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