Facebook Virtual Reality Daily Argument

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/26/technology/facebook-to-buy-oculus-vr-maker-of-virtual-reality-headset.html?_r=0

IN Class Writing Prompt " What's the Matter with Kids today"

Goldwasser argues that the older generation believes that the internet is a villain. Explain her position--use quotes from the text-and use personal examples from your life to support or refute this.

The Things They Carried

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7P03p4bU74  You Tube

http://somervillenews.typepad.com/the_somerville_news/2004/07/tingle_pours_sa.html

Choice of thesis-based questions for in class exercise  (Only the Dead Know Brooklyn)



Why do you think virtually the whole story is done in dialogue?


Who do you identify with--the big guy or the little guy?


What does the title mean?


Why would a subway stop be a good setting for this story?

Concept Paper: Eating Organic Food: A safeguard to human health, that is more ethical and beneficial to our environment.

Eating Organic Food:

A safeguard to human health, that is more ethical and beneficial to our environment.

Most people buy organically grown food because they do not want to consume pesticides, additives, antibiotics or GMO’s. There is not a huge difference in the nutrients that are in organic vs. conventionally grown and raised foods, but researchers show lower nitrate levels, higher vitamin C levels and higher selenium levels. People with certain allergies to foods, chemicals or preservatives tend to have less or no more symptoms when they eat only organic.

 Organic foods promotes better care and treatment of animals as well as meat that is free from hormones and antibiotics with no concerns for the effects of long term health, economic and environmental consequences of GM foods. Organic farmers try to emphasize the use of renewable resources and the conservation of soil and water to enhance environmental quality for future generations   by using physical weed control and green manure. (http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/organic_food).

The word “organic” refers to how farmers grow and process fruits, vegetables, grains, dairy products and meant. Organic farming is useful in preserving water and soil plus it reduces pollution. For animals they are raised without the use of antibiotics or the use of growth hormones. Organic crops are grown in safe soil. The farmers do not use synthetic pesticides, GMO’s, artificial fertilizers or sewage sludge based fertilizers and they process without ionizing radiation or food additives. These practices reduce pollution in our air, conserve the water, reduce soil erosion and increase soil fertility. Our environment benefits from organic processes and small animals and birds also benefit from these conditions.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/organic-food/ART-20043880

Organic produce contains fewer pesticides. Children and fetuses are most vulnerable to pesticides. Their immune systems, bodies, and brains are still developing. Exposure to these pesticides in conventionally agriculture food can cause developmental delays behavioral disorders and motor dysfunction. If conventionally grown produce is peeled it does help but then you will lose the nutrients from the peel. Simply rinsing doesn’t eliminate the pesticides. It’s best to wash and scrub all produce thoroughly to eliminate harmful symptoms of pesticides.

When animals are fed antibiotics it creates drug resistant bacteria. When that happens and someone gets sick from these strains they will be less responsive to antibiotic treatment.  Organic meat, dairy and egg products are from animals that are fed organically and have access to the outdoors. They are kept in conditions that enable natural behavior of animals. They will not be given antibiotics, hormones or medicine unless they are sick, but they can be vaccinated against disease. These organically raised animals tend to be healthier than conventional farm animals. If an organically raised animal gets sick it may spread to a few other animals, but when a factory animal gets sick it spread much faster because they live so close together. That is why these factory animals are fed the antibiotics. The hormones are given to make them grow faster. When humans eat the hormone and antibiotic filled meat those substances transfer to us.  Organic farmers usually don’t have a need to give their animals antibiotics because there systems prevent the animals from getting sick in the first place.

GMOs, or “genetically modified organisms,” are plants or animals that have been genetically engineered with DNA from bacteria, viruses or other plants and animals. These experimental combinations of genes from different species cannot occur in nature or in traditional crossbreeding. Their safety, potential risks, long term health, economic and environmental risks and ethical concerns are still being debated. There has only been short term testing to monitor the outcome on humans and the environment. http://www.helpguide.org/life/organic_foods_pesticides_gmo.htm

http://library.thinkquest.org/06aug/01220/basic4.htm

Organic food and its processes are more ethical, are beneficial to our health and wellness, are better for our environment and facilitate humane treatment of animals being raised on organic farms. 

Only the Dead Know Brooklyn

Only The Dead Know Brooklyn

by Thomas Wolfe

Dere’s no guy livin’ dat knows Brooklyn t’roo an’ t’roo, because it’d take a guy a lifetime just to find his way aroun’ duh goddam town.
So like I say, I’m waitin’ for my train t’come when I sees dis big guy standin’ deh - dis is duh foist I eveh see of him. Well, he’s lookin’ wild, y’know, an’ I can see dat he’s had plenty, but still he’s holdin’ it; he talks good an’ is walkin’ straight enough. So den, dis big guy steps up to a little guy dat’s standin’ deh, an’ says, “How d’yuh get t’ Eighteent’ Avenoo an’ Sixty-sevent’ Street?” he says.
“Jesus! Yuh got me, chief,” duh little guy says to him. “I ain’t been heah long myself. Where is duh place?” he says. “Out in duh Flatbush section somewhere?”
“Nah,” duh big guy says. “it’s out in Bensonhoist. But I was neveh deh befoeh. How d’yuh get deh?”
“Jesus,” duh little guy says, scratchin’ his head, y’know - yuh could see duh litle guy didn’t know his way about - “yuh got me, chief, I neveh hoid of it. Do any of youse guys know where it is?” he says to me.
“Sure,” I says. “It’s out in Bensonhoist. Yuh take duh Fourt’ Avenoo express, get off at Fifty-nint’ Street, change to a Sea Beach local deh, get off at Eighteent’ Avenoo an’ Sixty-toid, and walk down foeh blocks. Dat’s all yuh got to do,” I says.
“G’wan!” some wise guy dat I neveh seen befoeh pipes up. “Whatcha talkin’ about?” he says - oh, he was wise, y’know. “Duh guy is crazy! I tell yuh what yuh do,” he says to duh big guy. “Yuh change to duh West End line at Toity-sixt’,” he tells him. “Walk two blocks oveh, foeh blocks up,” he says, “an’ you’ll be right deh.” Oh, a wise guy, y’know.
“Oh, yeah?” I says. “Who told you so much?” He got me sore because he was so wise about it. “How long you been livin’ heah?” I says.
“All my life,” he says. “I was bawn in Williamsboig,” he says. “An’ I can tell you t’ings about dis town you neveh hoid of,” he says.
“Yeah?” I says.
“Yeah,” he says.
“Well, den, you can tell me t’ings about dis town dat nobody else has eveh hoid of, either. Maybe you make it all up yoehself at night,” I says, “befoeh you go to sleep - like cuttin’ out papeh dolls, or somp’n.”
“Oh, yeah?” he says. “You’re pretty wise, ain’t yuh?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” I says. “Duh boids ain’t usin’ my head for Lincoln’s statue yet,” I says. “But I’m wise enough to know a phony when I see one.”
“Yeah?” he says. “A wise guy, huh? Well, you’re so wise date some one’s goin’ t’bust yuh one right on duh snoot some day,” he says. “Dat’s how wise you are.”
Well, my train was comin’, or I’da smacked him den and dere, but when I seen duh train was comin’, all I said was, “All right, mugg! I’m sorry I can’t stay to take keh of you, but I’ll be seein’ yuh sometime, I hope, out in duh cemetery.” So den I says to duh big guy, who’d been standin’ deh all duh time, “You come wit me,” I says. So when we gets onto duh train I says to him, “Where yuh goin’ out in Bensonhoist?” I says. “What numbeh are yuh lookin’ for?” I says. You know - I t’ought if he told me duh address I might be able to help him out.
“Oh,” he says, “I’m not lookin’ for no one. I don’t know no one out deh.”
“Then whatcha goin’ out deh for?” I says.
“Oh,” duh guy says, “I’m just goin’ out to see duh place,” he says. “I like duh sound of duh name - Bensonhoist, y’know - so I t’ought I’d go out an’ have a look at it.”
“Whatcha tryin’ t’hand me?” I says. “Whatcha tryin’ t’do - kid me?” You know, I t’ought duh guy was bein’ wise wit me.
“No,” he says. “I’m tellin’ yuh duh troot. I like to go out an’ take a look at places wit nice names like dat. I like to go out an’ look at all kinds of places,” he says.
“How’d yuh know deh was such a place,” I says, “if yuh neveh been deh befoeh?”
“Oh,” he says, “I got a map.”
“A map?” I says.
“Sure,” he says, “I got a map dat tells me about all dese places. I take it wit me every time I come out heah,” he says.
And Jesus! Wit dat, he pulls it out of his pocket, an’ so help me, but he’s got it - he’s tellin’ duh troot - a big map of duh whole goddam place with all duh different pahts mahked out. You know - Canarsie an’ East Noo Yawk an’ Flatbush, Bensonhoist, Sout’ Brooklyn, duh Heights, Bay Ridge, Greenpernt - duh whole goddam layout, he’s got it right deh on duh map.
“You been to any of dose places?” I says.
“Sure,” he says. “I been to most of ‘em. I was down in Red Hook just last night,” he says.
“Jesus! Red Hook!” I says. “Whatcha do down deh?”
“Oh,” he says, “nuttin’ much. I just walked aroun’. I went into a coupla places an’ had a drink,” he says, “but most of the time I just walked aroun’.”
“Just walked aroun’?” I says.
“Sure,” he says, “just lookin’ at t’ings, y’know.”
“Where’d yuh go?” I asts him.
“Oh,” he says, “I don’t know duh name of duh place, but I could find it on my map,” he says. “One time I was walkin’ across some big fields where deh ain’t no houses,” he says, “but I could see ships oveh deh all lighted up. Dey was loadin’. So I walks across duh fields,” he says, “to where duh ships are.”
“Sure,” I says, “I know where you was. You was down to duh Erie Basin.”
“Yeah,” he says. “I guess dat was it. Dey had some of dose big elevators an’ cranes an’ dey was loadin’ ships, an’ I could see some ships in drydock all lighted up, so I walks across duh fields to where dey are,” he says.
“Den what did yuh do?” I says.
“Oh,” he says, “nuttin’ much. I came on back across duh fields after a while an’ went into a coupla places an’ had a drink.”
“Didn’t nuttin’ happen while yuh was in dere?” I says.
“No,” he says. “Nuttin’ much. A coupla guys was drunk in one of duh places an’ started a fight, but dey bounced ‘em out,” he says, “an’ den one of duh guys stahted to come back again, but duh bartender gets his baseball bat out from under duh counteh, so duh guy goes on.”
“Jesus!” I said. “Red Hook!”
“Sure,” he says. “Dat’s where it was, all right.”
“Well, you keep outa deh,” I says. “You stay away from deh.”
“Why?” he says. “What’s wrong wit it?”
“Oh,” I says, “it’s a good place to stay away from, dat’s all. It’s a good place to keep out of.”
“Why?” he says. “Why is it?”
Jesus! Whatcha gonna do wit a guy as dumb as that! I saw it wasn’t no use to try to tell him nuttin’, he wouldn’t know what I was talkin’ about, so I just says to him, “Oh, nuttin’. Yuh might get lost down deh, dat’s all.”
“Lost?” he says. “No, I wouldn’t get lost. I got a map,” he says.A map! Red Hook! Jesus!
So den duh guy begins to ast me all kinds of nutty questions: how big was Brooklyn an’ could I find my way aroun’ in it, an’ how long would it take a guy to know duh place.
“Listen!” I says. “You get dat idea outa yoeh head right now,” I says. “You ain’t neveh gonna get to know Brooklyn,” I says. “Not in a hunderd yeahs. I been livin’ heah all my life,” I says, “an’ I don’t even know all deh is to know about it, so how do you expect to know duh town,” I says, “when you don’t even live heah?”
“Yes,” he says, “but I got a map to help me find my way about.”
“Map or no map,” I says, “yuh ain’t gonna get to know Brooklyn wit no map,” I says.
“Can you swim?” he says, just like dat. Jesus! By dat time, y’know, I begun to see dat duh guy was some kind of nut. He’d had plenty to drink, of course, but he had dat crazy look in his eye I didn’t like. “Can you swim?” he says.
“Sure,” I says. “Can’t you?”
“No,” he says. “Not more’n a stroke or two. I neveh loined good.”
“Well, it’s easy,” I says. “All yuh need is a little confidence. Duh way I loined, me older bruddeh pitched me off duh dock one day when I was eight yeahs old, cloes an’ all. ‘You’ll swim,’ he says. ‘You’ll swim all right - or drown.’ An’, believe me, I swam! When yuh know yuh got to, you’ll do it. Duh only t’ing yuh need is confidence. An’ once you’ve loined,” I says, “you’ve got nuttin’ else to worry about. You’ll neveh forget it. It’s somp’n dat stays wit yuh as long as yuh live.”
“Can yuh swim good?” he says.
“Like a fish,” I tells him. “I’m a regulah fish in duh wateh,” I says. “I loined to swim right off duh docks wit all duh oddeh kids,” I says.
“What would you do if yuh saw a man drownin’?” duh guy says.
“Do? Why, I’d jump in an’ pull him out,” I says. “Dat’s what I’d do.”
“Did yuh eveh see a man drown?” he says.
“Sure, ” I says. “I see two guys - bot’ times at Coney Island. Dey got out too far, an’ neider one could swim. Dey drowned befoeh any one could get to ‘em.”
“What becomes of people after dey’ve drowned out heah?” he says.
“Drowned out where?” I says.
“Out heah in Brooklyn.”
“I don’t know whatcha mean,” I says. “Neveh hoid of no one drownin’ heah in Brooklyn, unless you mean a swimmin’ pool. Yuh can’t drown in Brooklyn,” I says. “Yuh gotta drown somewhere else - in duh ocean, where dere’s wateh.”
“Drownin’,” duh guy says, lookin’ at his map. “Drownin’.” Jesus! I could see by den he was some kind of nut, he had dat crazy expression in his eyes when he looked at you, an’ I didn’t know what he might do. So we was comin’ to a station, an’ it wasn’t my stop, but I got off anyway, an’ waited for duh next train.
“Well, so long, chief,” I says. “Take it easy, now.”
“Drownin’,” duh guy says, lookin’ at his map. “Drownin’.”
Jesus! I’ve t’ought about dat guy a t’ousand times since den an’ wondered what eveh happened to ‘m goin’ out to look at Bensonhoist because he liked duh name! Walkin’ aroun’ t’roo Red Hook by himself at night an’ lookin’ at his map! How many people did I see get drowned out heah in Brooklyn! How long would it take a guy wit a good map to know all deh was to know about Brooklyn!
Jesus! What a nut he was! I wondeh what eveh happened to ‘im, anyway! I wondeh if some one knocked him on duh head, or if he’s still wanderin’ aroun’ in duh subway in duh middle of duh night wit his little map! Duh poor guy! Say, I’ve got to laugh, at dat, when I t’ink about him! Maybe he’s found out by now dat he’ll neveh live long enough to know duh whole of Brooklyn. It’d take a guy a lifetime to know Brooklyn t’roo an’ t’roo. An’ even den, yuh wouldn’t know it all

Quiz March 4

Ratso Rico, Travis Bickle, and Hunter Thompson, were all Outlaws from mainstream society. They viewed and interacted with society in different ways. From your reading tell me how each approached an often absurd, indifferent and hostile environment-- how in their often bizarre ways did they cope and try to survive?