Current Event #2

Daniel Peirce, a 20 year old gay male, was disowned by his family after he came out to them as gay. They abused him both mentally and emotionally and told him to leave their house, in 2014. He lived in Georgia with his conservative family where he came out to his parents and recorded it. He then posted this video on Youtube named, 'How not to react when your child tells you that he’s gay' and within days he received thousands of views.

In this video, multiple family members are recorded, but the first says that she wants to disown him because he is unnatural; not of God's creation. He speaks to her calmly and tells her he will leave while she yells at him. The next appears to be another female physically assaulting him, where his Grandma is in the background cheering her on. This family is Christian and believes homosexuals have chosen this path and they furthermore didn't want the community to see that they are supporting homosexuality. Daniel set up an online donation site for himself to try and find a new place, and surprisingly he received over 50,000 pounds.

Love doesn't always have to be between lovers. It is between a parent and their child too, and this wasn't a symbol of love. Love is being able to accept the other regardless of beliefs. Its being able to allow their flaws and accept that they may not be what you want. Justice is treating everyone equally regardless of race, beliefs, or nationality. In this instance, the family is not only taking his safety away by physically abusing him, but they are showing injustice through not respecting his beliefs and kicking him out of their house. This event, I believe, is fate. He was assaulted by his family, and he probably believed that life couldn't get better. Fortunately for the kind people all over the world who sent donations, he is probably having a much better life than he ever did with his family. This was his destiny to follow this path and end in a much better place.

This relates to Romeo and Juliet because of the theme of acceptance and family. Romeo and Juliet were not accepted as lovers because they were of different families. Furthermore, their own family didn't accept them and thought they were choosing the wrong path, as Daniel's family did.

Current Event #1

Current Event

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044057/Tragedy-modern-day-Romeo-Juliet-The-lovers-driven-suicide-Iranian-regime.html

This article is about a man and woman, living in Iran in 2013, who were in love, but soon found themselves in jail because they were friends with who fought against the government. Nahal Sanbi and Behnam Ganji were thrown into a jail because they were friends with a human rights activist and because they were seen as anti-government. Iran is a country where the rules and laws are to be strictly followed with no exceptions. Furthermore, it was said that Ganji was tortured and raped in the jail cell, where he was only imprisoned for eight days. On the other hand, Nahal, detained for three days, was said to have been threatened by the jail guards for rape and dishonor. Soon after Ganji was taken out of jail, he committed suicide, due to depression and the constant fear. Sanbi, obviously devastated, wrote on her blog about her grieve and committed suicide four weeks after. Her last post on her blog was, ‘So it’s Thursday again. Come, Behnam. Let’s dance together on Thursday once more.’

In this case, love is not being to live without the other, quite literally. These two had went through a lot in that jail cell, and to see that both killed themselves due to the mistreatment is awful. Justice is respecting someone regardless of their beliefs, and to throw someone into jail because they don't completely agree with the government is a great injustice. Not only that, but they were thrown into jail for simply being friends with someone, which in my opinion is ridiculous. This story was indeed a tragedy, since these two strong people were found dead due to suicide. Also, was it fate that they were supposed to kill themselves together? Or was it their free will? I believe it was fate because their story is now being shared throughout the internet, letting their love continue long after they are gone.

Math Opening Problem

• Is the data categorical or quantitative (numerical)?

Quantitative data because it deals with numbers.

Why was the data collected like this?

It was collected for the purpose of seeing the data for the heights of grade 10 girls; the average, the median, mode, range, etc. It was also made to see the similarities and differences between the girls' heights.

• Is the data discrete or continuous, and what are your reasons for making your decision?

Continuous because it can be in between heights; it's not one whole number, it could be a decimal. For example, 168.7 cm.

• What does the height 140 - 149 actually mean?

It means that the height is somewhere between 140 and 149. Most of the time we used the middle of the number when graphing. For example it would be between 144.5.

How should the data be displayed?

It should be displayed how it is displayed now - in a table where you can clearly see the range of values and frequencies. Later, one may be able to put this data into a graph, and look at the patterns there.

How can the shape of the distribution be described?

The data is positively skewed, meaning the parabola will be leaning slightly to the right.

•  Are there any outliers in the data and how should they be treated?

To see if there are any outliers, one should use the formula (IQR*15) + UQ or (IQR*1.5) - LQ. Outliers distort the data and messes with it so it isn't accurate. Outliers should be removed from the data altogether, although when making a box and whisker plot they should be marked with a symbol to show that they are outliers.

•  What is the best way of measuring the centre of the height distribution?

Sketching a graph and seeing where the median stands. Either that or looking at the data and dividing by two to get the median.

What measure of the distribution’s spread is appropriate?  
It depends on the information, but usually counting by fives but only writing the tens increments is appropriate because you can get in between the lines perfectly.

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History BlogPost

Why did the constitution allow slavery to continue, if the Declaration of Independence claimed that ‘all men are created equal’?

The constitution allowed slavery to continue while the Declaration of Independence claimed that all men are equal because when they are talking about ‘all men’ they are talking about rich white men, and not keeping slaves in consideration. Those who were part of the Articles of Confederation were rich white men, so those who would be creating the Declaration of Independence would also be men trying to help themselves. John P Kaminski, a historian, said that all of the movements that people created never worked because they weren't passionate enough for it. “The men at the constitutional convention never considered getting rid of slavery. The revolutionary talk of freedom and equality had been left behind.”  No one really tried enough to banish slavery, since they didn't really know what it felt like to be a slave. Another quote from Kaminski states that Americans were more passionate about keeping their ‘private property’: “Americans in general and all the men... wanted a united, well ordered... in which private property - including slave property - would be secure.” William Freehling, another historian, said that though the founding fathers, like Thomas Jefferson, had broken through the barriers of racism, but he still believed that whites were superior to blacks. “Jefferson suspected that blacks had lower intellectual abilities than did whites.” So though he did ‘fight’ on their side, he still believed they were inferior, which caused them not to include the slaves in the population. In conclusion, when writing in the Declaration of Independence that all men were equal, they were speaking of rich white men, and not the slaves who were part of the population.

Social Studies

To what extent did the French and Indian War make the Revolutionary War inevitable ?

The French and Indian War made the Revolutionary War inevitable to a great extent. The French and Indian war was where the Indians and French teamed up together to fight the British and the colonists. If the British won, they would receive land from either Canada or the Caribbean. Since, the British won, they got control over Canada. This war made the revolution inevitable because the results of the war caused the colonists to be angry. After the war, Britain had a large debt that they couldn't pay off easily. Therefore, they raised taxes to an extreme amount, when the colonists hadn't been paying any before. Furthermore, winning the war meant more land for the farmers, but Britain passed the Proclamation of 1765, which restricted settling into anywhere past the Appalachian mountains. This was an outrage because that was why the colonists were fighting in this war, to gain land over the Indians. To have a restriction against what they rightfully earned was an outrage. Another thing that Britain did to make the revolution bound to happen was raise many new laws that took away the freedom of the colonists. For example, there was the Quartering Act of 1765 where colonists had to house soldiers. This meant feeding them, and treating them as there own child. This was very bad because the colonists didn't have much money after the war, not receiving land, or paying extra high taxes, so their mouths were more of a priority but instead they had to house soldiers. Another act that was passed was the Stamp Act of 1765, which made you stamp all documents which costs lots of money. Obviously, all these reasons would cause tension between Britain and the colonists, therefore the revolution was inevitable to a great extent.

Montesquieu - Rational Democracy

Do you agree? Is democracy better suited to some places than other? Or is it best for the progress of the world that all governments move towards elections and checks on governmental power?

I believe a Rational Democracy can either be very good, or very bad in a country. It cannot be said whether it is a ‘good or bad’ thing because it really depends on what state the country is. 

Rational Democracy can be good for a country, unlike what Montesquieu said.  This is because what he stated in his works was true, if you give someone a large amount of power, they will take advantage of it. To establish a democracy in every country, where each branch is limited is the best choice. People would finally have a say and get to vote for their leaders. Also, no branch, except the Legislative branch, a group of people, can overthrow the other, which happens if completely necessary. Overall, it is a good idea since it limits the power of each person, yet there is still a sense of power in a minimal way. 

But, then again, Rational Democracy is not for everyone, as Montesquieu said. As stated, a government should be dependent on the religion, cultures, and laws the country has established. Of course, a government should support their people and give them their basic human rights. But when the country has a law of cruel punishments, such as torture or death, it isn’t good for the people. Furthermore, as Montesquieu writes in his book Sparks and Isaacs, “The bottom line for judging whether a social order is acceptable is not whether any other society’s customs are similar to European ones, but whether they attend to people’s basic human requirements – for security, and for a degree of stimulating pleasure.” The government serves the people, and when the people dont have their basic human rights, as Locke stated, then it is no use to put in a democracy. 

In conclusion, either way can be good or bad, but certain aspects of the democracy are good, while others will not work with other countries. 

Math Blog #3

Before the Experiments

The day of the Bungee Jumping experiments was finally here. My group and I were nervous, yet we were confident about our equations. We first began class when Ms. Ange told us each to tell our equations and how we got it. Every group except us, had about the same numbers and the same structure of equation. When we came to our equation, which was not only in inches, but different than the others, everyone was curious to find out how we came to these conclusions. Our first equation was  RB = ((h - 12) / 8) -2. We got this by pure logic. H represented the height of wherever we were going to throw it off. The number 12 was how tall our barbie was, and we subtracted that by the height. We then divided it by 8, the amount the rubber bands stretched, and subtracted that all by two. We subtracted it all by two because after multiple experiments we noticed that out rubber band wrapped around our barbie's leg wasn't tight (we always wrapped it 6 times around), so a part of it stretched too. Therefore we came to our random equation, that was actually reliable. Our second equation was y = .11x - 2.3.  We got this as everyone else did - we found a slope, found two points, then created an equation. Ours was different then others, because as I said before, ours was in inches rather than in centimeters. Furthermore, Ms. Ange was curious to know how we had two equations that weren't equal to each other. We weren't sure how to explain this, but all we knew was that every time we plugged a number into each of the equations, it would come out with the approximately the same answer. I say approximately because when we plug a number in, the answer isn't usually a whole number. It has many decimals, and when we plug a number into both of these equations, the decimals are slightly different. But this is okay because whether we round up or down (because we cant have .25 of a rubber band) it comes up to the same whole number.

Experiment #1

Afterwards we began conducting the experiments. We first went down to the lower school near the playground. The height was fairly small, which didn't seem very difficult. The total height was 104 inches. We then plugged it into both of our equations and came up with our final rubber band amount - 9 rubber bands. We were the first to volunteer, so everyone's eyes were on us. Will and I have always been pushing and holding the Barbie, so we were the ones up on the ledge while Lauren was recording. We pushed our Barbie off, and it didn't hit the ground, in fact it was very close to it. Furthermore, we tried it a second time, because we had the time, and the Barbie came even closer to the ground which was great. Other groups went, and succeeded as well, and all I could think about was how amazing this was. We all came up with such different equations yet we all got the same amount of rubber bands.

Attempt #2

Attempt #1

Experiment #2

We then continued to our next height which was near the lower school as well. It was off the third story. Everyone seemed to be nervous for this one because it was such a high height. The total height was 224.5 inches. We then plugged it into our equation and we were very surprised. Both of our equations had different answers. For example, for one of our equations the solution was about 26 rubber bands, while the other one came to about 22-23. We didn't know what to do at first, but we decided to go with the 22 rubber bands because it was better to be safe than sorry. We went up first, again, and stood on the ledge hoping that it will work. We dropped the barbie off the balcony and it did not hit. Unfortunately our first try was a bit far from the ground, so Will and I wanted to try something different - we wanted to throw the Barbie. On the second time Will tossed the barbie down, and we were informed that it was very close to the ground. We were very surprised by this turn, and we were very happy. Because of our equations, we were still surprised though. We came up with the solution that our first equation that we came up with was only useful with small heights. This is because when we were testing it out, we only tested with smaller heights - we never exceeded 15 feet.

Attempt #2

Attempt #1

Experiment #3

We then went onto our 3rd place, since we still had time. This was located up in the art center where we would throw the barbie off to the floor below. This was definitely much higher than anything we did before, but we weren't scared. We knew that we could do it. The total height was 324 inches. We plugged it into our equation, but this time only in the second one. We then added the amount of rubber bands which was about 33. We went third this time, as we eagerly ran up the stairs. Me, being afraid of heights, was shaking while holding the rubber bands when Will was about to drop it; I was so terrified of looking down. Will then dropped our Barbie and it was very close to the ground. We were really happy about this, and then we tried it a second time. We then slightly tossed it off again and it once again almost hit the floor, but not quite.

Attempt #1

Attempt #2

Conclusion

We were overall really happy with our project. I think that we had a lot of problems within our group but in the end we worked together to make this project fun and a learning experience. If I were to work on this project again I would definitely put more work into it, because I know that would've really helped our group a lot more. I would definitely take it more seriously, because it wasn't a good feeling to leave it until the day before the experiments. Furthermore, I think the one thing that didn't work with our group was that we didn't come up with an exact plan. While everyone was out experimenting, we were inside looking for exact measurements, which didn't help us in the end. What did help us was finding the amount of rubber bands for higher places. In the future, I would definitely want to do this project again because I thought it was really fun and suspenseful.