GWB and the Environment

Reading through both of the George W. Bush articles actually made me realize of many of the actions that Bush has made towards the environment of the United States. Comparing both articles, I found that the George W. Bush protects marine areas article was more reliable when it came to information and evidence based on the fact where the articles came from. Article 1 was from the Washington Post and article 2, I believe, was written on a site that I have never heard of. For instance article 1 quoted many people such as James L. Connaughton (White House Council on Environmental Quality), Vikki Spruill (President and chief executive of the Ocean Conservancy), and Diane Regas (Environmental Defense Fund), on the other hand article 2 doesn't have as much interviews. Based on it's structure I believe that the George W. Bush's Environmental Sins article was more easier to read because how it was put together. It would state the actions the Bush had taken and the effects that it had then would follow up with what Obama can do to change about the situation.

If I were to choose a side from these two articles I would develop the idea that though Bush had "protected more ocean than any person in history," more evidence shows that Bush had caused more problems on the environment than done more good. I understand the fact that he is protecting these certain waters from fishing, and off shore drilling but looking down on his "wrong list" there seems to be alot more there then the other side. According to article 2 "Bush's Environmental Protection Agency refused to regulate the greenhouse gas CO2 as a pollutant, even after the Supreme Court ruled that CO2 is a pollutant and the EPA can regulate it," last time i checked scientists and other reliable resources would count CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) as a green house gas and should be monitered for the sake of our planet. Now as a solution to that problem Obama promised "a cap-and-trade policy that auctions pollution credits to polluters, with the proceeds going to fund clean-energy programs and habitat protections" which may or may not work but still making that effort to clean up one of Bushes messes.
Also according to the article "Bush promoted the idea that we'd all be driving around in hydrogen-fuel-cell-powered cars by 2020." "Bush has paid lip service to futuristic fuels like hydrogen and cellulosic ethanol, and to renewable sources of energy like solar, wind and geothermal, but his administration has failed to push those products to market," alot of talk for doing almost the complete opposite.

Now according to article one Bust did do at least some good while on his term as president. "Bush's decision to safeguard far-flung areas totaling 195,280 square miles, which comes just two weeks before he leaves office, underscores his contradictory environmental record. While he has resisted imposing mandatory curbs on greenhouse gas emissions linked to climate change and has opened large areas of the nation to drilling, mining and other use of resources, by the end of his term he will have protected more ocean than any person in history." Though he has proteted more ocean than any other person in history he also approved offshore drilling in other parts of the United States as well as failed to lower Green house gas emmissions as he said he would.
According to James L. Connaughton, "In the last eight years, we've been able to accomplish conservation in marine environments on par with what we've achieved on land over the past 100 years," once again that is 100percent true, BUT it is also true that on Bush's term as president that green house gasses had and will continue to rise dramatically due to the fact of the lack of action on Bush's administration.

Internship

1. What do you hope to learn or discover about the "adult" world of work while you are at your internship?

I think what I think about the most would be the obstacles that might slow me down or give me a hard time. I would like to develop a way to maybe overcome the challenges so that in the future I would have ideas when facing a similar problem while developing ideas to overcome new problems.
I would also like to learn to make the certain adjustments that will have to be made in order to get used to the "adult working" life. It might be difficult to adjust to all the certain changes that may come but I think it would be easier to adjust now rather than trying to adjust later where it might be a little harder to adjust.

2. What do you hope to learn or discover about yourself and your identity while you are at your internship this semester?

I think that what I am actually worried about is how I would react to certain obsticles and under certain pressure that might overwhelm me. I would like to figure out how I would do on my own and maybe learn from this opportunity so that I may encounter less troubles later on in the real world.
I think that I would do fine in terms of working at my own pace but if in case I was to be rushed or time management would be a factor in my internship I would like to absorb everything I've learned in class about time management and see if it would help me in my internship.

3. What goals do you have for yourself for your internship experience?

• I would like to take what I learned in my internship and incorporate it to my future life when I actually am working.
• I want to enjoy my internship as much as possible while reaching success in a well mannered fashion.
• I want to stay consistent through out the whole time at my internship so that I won't have much troubles

Blog #18

Part 2:
Research Questions:
What are the effective programs in San Diego that help keep the waters clean?
How can we help keep our water programs up and going so that our beaches can stay clean in the future?

Resources:
*Video Camera: for footage on clean water programs (Point Loma wastewater facility, and other water cleaning facilities that I will research)
*Voice recorder: interviews on Project Clean Water representatives, water cleaning facilities people, City representatives, etc.
*Camera: take pictures of equipment, the facilities, to produce good quality photos for the video or article i plan on doing
*Computer: Video editing/article which ever i decide to do
*Transportation: to get to where i need to go

People needed:
* I have not yet scheduled and researched who exactly i need to contact but i will get this up as soon as possible. I'll contact the facilities and see what information they can provide me
* City council, Representatives from the city of San Diego

Questions:
(Representatives of the Facilities)
* How long has this foundation treated ocean water? When did it start?
* Quality of the water before it enters the treatment then after? Examples

Beach Project Research Quesitons

What different programs are there in San Diego that help keep the waters clean?

I found a really useful website about all the different water programs in San Diego country. They offer graphs and maps and other useful info that are reliable and I think that this website should be the main website that our class should look at.
http://www.projectcleanwater.org/index.html

The website provides reports from different years and different areas of San Diego and the water quality. I'm planning on using this website so that i can produce an article on all different aspects of Project Clean Water like the different water programs, how they affect the beaches and the water, what technology they use, how they actually use it to keep the water clean, etc.

This website also provides the Laws of the beaches here in San Diego county and i think it would be helpful for everyone in the class. Here's the link that provides the laws and regulations of the different areas of San Diego:

http://www.projectcleanwater.org/html/current-law.html

The information below is just a little document that i found stating the areas and major impacts around it. I choose the area around our HTHMA just as an example. This is an example of what the website provides.

Hydrologic Unit 908.10 - 908.32
Hydrologic Areas:
Point Loma 908.1
San Diego Mesa 908.2
National City 908.3
Major Water Bodies: Chollas Creek, Paleta Creek, and San Diego Bay
CWA 303(d) List:
Chollas Creek: copper, lead, zinc, cadmium, coliform bacteria, stormwater toxicity San Diego Bay: coliform bacteria, benthic community effects, copper, sediment toxicity (discharges from several source basins contribute to impairments)
Major Impacts: Surface water quality degradation, habitat degradation, sediment toxicity in San Diego Bay, and sewer overflows
Constituents of Concern: trace metals and other toxic substances, and coliform bacteria
Sources / Activities: urban runoff

How can we help keep our water programs up and going so that our beaches can stay clean in the future?

Once again the website above provides this information for this research question. This link provides the different programs and shows what you can do to help out. It gives you different ways to take action and it provides contact info so that it's easy to participate. It offers dates for meetings and other things along that area.

Here's a few programs:

STUDIES, INFORMATION, & WORK PRODUCTS
Regional Workgroup and sub-workgroup Assignment FY 2008-09 (July 2008)
Updated Model SUSMP Presentation (July 2008)
Regional Strategy for the Regulation of Mobile Businesses presentation (November 2007)
Potential Regional Infrastructure Investments – SANDAG presentation (November 2007)
2007 Wildfires: Impacts to Copermittee Programs presentation (November 2007)
Regional Residential Education Program Update (September 2007)
Integrated Regional Watershed Management Plan Update (September 2007)
Regional Reporting and Assessment Standards Update (September 2007)
Proposed Fiscal Year 2007-08 Regional Shared Costs presentation (March 2007)
San Diego IRWM Plan Overview presentation (July 2006)
Vector - Stormwater Presentation (November, 2006)
Fire Sprinkler Discharge presentation (July 2006)
Porous Pavement and Model Municipal Operations Center Grant presentation (July 2006)
City of Poway, Structural BMPs (July 2006)
2004-2005 Regional Urban Runoff Monitoring Program Update (March 16, 2006)
Monitoring Program Redesign, 2006 Permit Draft (ROWD Submittal Information) (March 16, 2006)
Common Ground Website Introduction Presentation (January 19, 2006) As see the demonstration website @ www.sdbay.sdsu.edu.
2003-2004 Regional Urban Runoff Monitoring Program Update (March 17, 2005)
UC Coop's IPM presentation (March 17, 2005)
Alliance for Compliance Presentation (July 22, 2004)

I'm actually planning to provide flyers maybe advertise so that i can spread the word of the programs and how to help keep our waters in San Diego clean. I feel as if i can actually have an impact by spreading around information and i plan to do more research that i can provide the community.

Newspaper Reflection

In my opinion,I felt as if our groups newspaper came out average. Compared to all the other work submitted, our newspaper was almost the same as the other ones. If I had a chance to go back and change things the first thing I would do is get our group to do all the work early so that no one would be stressing out on the last minute. If we finished our articles on time we could have all processed a better written article.
On my behalf, I think my work could have been a little more professional. I worked on Abraham Lincoln's views and idea's on the 2nd debate. I wrote that article on my own and i felt as if i took good quotes from the transcripts and expanded on the quotes and my writing came out realistic though less professional. My article flowed with all of our groups other articles. We all had different views on different stand points of the debate. When we actually did put all of our work together it came out decent.

Guidelines for Photography

1. Rule of thirds:

http://www.dosize.com/tips-digital-photo-images-1.php

I think that the Rule of thirds gives the picture more essence and feeling. You obviously know whats the main object of the portrait but then again it makes you take a look around instead of focusing your eyes onto one spot. As Randy said in class the picture has a background as well as a foreground.

2. Depth of field

http://www.dosize.com/tips-digital-photo-images-1.php

I don't clearly understand the use of depth of the field but in my opinion i feel as if you should have the background of a picture as in depth as possible making the picture more eye pleasing.

3. Eyes, Color, Fill the frame

http://www.dosize.com/tips-digital-photo-images-1.php
This rule is used in more of a picture with a main object. To give your picture more meaning the eyes of the object must be present because that is one of the first things an audience would look at. Your portrait also must fill up the whole space. You shouldn't have a huge background and your object tiny because it would suck up all the flow of the picture.

4. Shooting at eye level

http://www.dosize.com/tips-digital-photo-images-1.php

This rule, i think, is the most important rule. You should take a picture of an object at the object's eye level. It would give your picture a sense of character and individuality. Instead of giving the usual human eye level you should be at the dog's so that you would see a portrait that you would usually see every day.

Racism in Today's Modern World

School these days weren't anything near as close as the schools back in the Civil War. During the Civil War schools were segregated and racism was at it's high.

Back then during the Civil War schools were segregated, which meant they separated the schools by race, Whites & Blacks. It was the law back then but now a days schools aren't segregated thanks to the certain people in history for instance Abraham Lincoln, Fredrick Douglas, and the Plessy vs. Ferguson case, also the Brown vs. the Board Of Education case. It was stated in both those cases were presented with the "separated but equal" statement. It meant that though everyone was separated by race or color everyone is equal and should be treated equally, which eventually led to the end of segregation in schools. Though schools were integrated back then racism still existed through out the world until today.

Schools may be integrated but racism still exists

I found this article about parents in the Alabama School District claimed that the African American students were victims of racism in schools. The parents filed a lawsuit on the school board for alleged racism. Under is a statement found in the article stating the lawsuit filed.
------------------------------------------
The lawsuit says black students at the county's only public junior high have been called slurs such as the "N-word," "filthy trash" and "black monkey." Their parents also say classes are segregated, with most black students being kept out of advanced placement and honors courses.
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In my opinion I do think that racism does exist now and I believe that is so because that our history was written upon it. Looking back in American history you can see all the different events and how racism played a part then and how it plays a part in toady's world. Though I highly encourage non-racism i still feel as if the world cannot change how America was built which in my opinion built on racism. Back then it was more racism between African-American and the whites I feel that now it has expanded from all races and all types of discrimination has occurred. There is no definite way to abolish or end racism but the closest thing is toleration. As my trip in tenth grade to the Museum of Tolerance, I have learned that prejudice and discrimination has been going on for ages and the only way to cease the rate is to tolerate it.

Jim Crow Laws Affected How Society is Today

The Jim Crow Laws affected how society is today because it was basically the start of segregation. All the laws consits of what the whites can do that other races can't. For instance:

“Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.” “Marriages are void when one party is a white person and the other is possessed of one-eighth or more negro, Japanese, or Chinese blood.”

The Jim Crow Laws were a perfect example for racism in Civil War Era America, now those laws are ablolished but still affected those living today. The Jim Crow laws were changed during the time when things in society were being integrated like schools, factories, etc. Cases like the Plessy vs. Ferguson and the Brown vs. the Board Of Education changed our modern day society as a multi-race, multi-cultural country.

The past wrote itself in a way that can't be forgotten. Racism now aren't as harsh as they were back in the day but believe me it still exists.

Sources:
Brown Vs Board of Education Digital Documents & Photographs Project. (n.d.). Retrieved Oct. 1, 2008, from http://www.eisenhower.archives.gov/dl/Civil_Rights_BrownvsBoE/BrownvsBOEfiles.html.

Jim Crow Laws - Separate Is Not Equal. (n.d.). Retrieved Oct. 2, 2008, from http://americanhistory.si.edu/brown/history/1-segregated/detail/jim-crow-laws.html.

Racism claimed at Alabama school - Education - MSNBC.com. (2008, May 25). Retrieved Oct. 1, 2008, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24809995/.

Reid, M. (n.d.). Resegregation Nation: The Proud Future of American Schools on Flickr - Photo Sharing!. Retrieved Oct. 2, 2008, from http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikhaela/656443055/.