5-1 Japanese Nuclear Crisis

              I once again choose to write more about the crisis in Japan following the earthquake and then the tsunami.  Things seem to continue to get worse as the days go on at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant.  I really don’t see how this area of Japan will be able to recover from the devastation that they have endured from what I consider to be three national disasters, it will literally cripple there economy and possible ours.  It scares me to think about what this may do to our economy and how it will affect our country as well.  When you turn on the television this is pretty much all that you see now. 

           

               While I was reading my local newspaper today, there was a title “Local Family in Japan Earthquake”.   A family that is from a local town located about 15 minutes from where I live is in Japan because of the husband’s employment with Honda.  He was lucky and one or two of his co-workers died in the earthquake.  The only way that he was able to get to his wife and children was to run the eight miles to where they were living.  They have gone to Tokyo and as of late today are just waiting on a flight back to the states.  They said they are leaving with a sense of guilt because they are leaving friends behind that haven’t been so lucky to get out of the danger.

            

               They are saying that the nuclear radiation fall out does not pose a threat on the United States, as far as Alaska, Hawaii, or the West Coast, but many people do not seem to be reassured by anything that is being broadcasted.  I guess it is just like anything else, it is a waiting game.

4-1 Earthquake in Japan

          The horrible earthquake in Japan has begun a horrible chain of events.  It is part of my daily ritual to sit down at my computer of a morning and began my morning my first reading the obituaries and then to see what is taking place in the news.  I have to say that when I turned on my computer and the first thing that popped up was that there was an earthquake in Japan that initiated a tsunami, I was pretty much mortified.  I immediately picked up my phone to call my daughter because her in-laws live in Southern California, so I wondered how this was going to affect them.  It appears that in Los Angeles they did miss most of the waves so they were pretty lucky, THANK THEIR LUCKY STARS!!!

          As the day has gone on, I have checked on the status of things and it appears that things appear to be getting worse.  The death toll continues to rise, they continue to have quite large aftershocks and temperature at one of the towers at the nuclear power plant continues to rise.  Seeing some of the pictures that are coming in it is clearly just an absolute mess in Japan, those who have survived this disaster are clearly lucky to be alive. 

          But I once again start to wonder how yet another disaster is going to affect us here as far as gas prices and everything else.  It seems like every time something happens we feel it hard here.  When that volcano erupted, it affected my husband job because it slowed down international flights which affected air freight here in the states so he did not work for almost two weeks, so things were pretty tight for us during that time period.  So I wonder what this will do???

1-3 The Survival of Biology: ‘‘Lessons’’ on Race from The Oprah Winfrey Show

    The Opray Winfrey Show began as AM Chicago, which was a half-hour morning talk Show that aired on WLS-TV, out of Chicago, Illinois.  Oprah took over as the show’s host in 1983, and the show’s ratings went from last place to first place within one year.  The show was relaunched under its current title in the fall of 1986 and the show was picked up as a national talk show.  Oprah has discussed many very interesting topics, but in February of 2006, Oprah introduced the “Human Race Machine,” which is a computer program that you input an individuals photograph into software.  Once the photograph is uploaded, you are able to change an individual’s race with the click of a mouse.  This machine was first demonstrated on Oprah’s program and she implemented a running commentary in which her live audience, as well as home viewers, were able to watch the various transformations.

      

            After the live audience and home viewers watched the transformation of Oprah’s photo go from Asian, Hispanic, Middle Eastern, to Indian; the live audience was given the chance to transform their own pictures to see what they would like as another race.  She took these transformations and built upon what was to come in the next segment involving racial transformations.

            She then introduced two families, the Wurgels, which were basically your ‘‘typical White American family’’, consisting of three members.  She then introduce the Sparks, who were described as a ‘‘typical Black family from Atlanta,’’ who also consisted of three members.   These families were part of a six-episode documentary series which was titled ‘‘Black/White’’appearing on the US-based cable channel FX.  Over the next six weeks these families would live together, while being followed with video cameras, which would be taping

their every move.   During this time both families agreed to undergo make-up transformations and become the Race of the other family in the house.  The families would participate in various activities such as shopping, working, and socializing, and would report back with regard to their experience in the public eye and what life was like for them in those everyday activities upon ‘‘becoming the opposite race.’’  The ‘‘Trading Races’’ episode of The Oprah Winfrey Show thus begins to suggest some of the ways in which language and discourse can be reflected and created out of particular ideas about human differences in popular cultural practices.     

          In other segments of the show the two ladies of families are practicing talking like each of their opposite families would in everyday life.  Carmen Wurgel (white) decided to use the term “bitch”, which deeply offended Renee Sparks (black).  This immediately sparked a conversation with regard to the different use of language used by different races.  Wurgel’s understanding was that this term was used as an affectionate term among African Americans.

            The families were quick to learn (or think) that because they had been transformed to have the appearance of the opposite race, they were wrong in their own assumptions.  Oprah used this occurrence to discuss these assumptions from her own personal experiences, which

involved her bodyguard (black) and the body guard of Nelson Mandela, who was also black.  Mrs. Wurgel was quick to tell them that she assumed this was appropriate language because we see others in videos, etc., addressing others of their race with these terms.

          

            There was another incident wherein the male adults, Bruno Wurgel (white), and Brian Sparks (black), shared their experience of walking down a street together.   They both were black males because Sparks had not been made up.  Although Bruno thought it was just because they needed room to pass, Brian felt that is was because of their race.  It is weird how each of us have our own perception of other’s behavior based upon previous experiences.

            I feel that Oprah created a really good segment.  She was able to help individuals, through makeup, undergo the everyday experiences and see it through their own eyes what the other individuals of the opposite race deal with on a daily basis.  Oprah was able to show how these races become diversified based upon their perception of others.  Most of the time, I feel that our perceptions are created based clearly upon the actions of only one individual.  I think that her show will help individuals see these perceptions and help them realize that although each of us come from a race, culture, and even develop stereotypes because of our upbringing; that we should not allow our own minds to become so shallow and not get to know individuals for how they are and not what color they may be.

Reference

-The Survival of Biology: ‘‘Lessons’’ on Race from The Oprah Winfrey Show, The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol. 43, No. 6, 2010.

Charlie Sheen’s Outlandish Behavior

          Okay, so the last two weeks of Charlie Sheen’s life have been somewhat crazy, from being fired from the show “Two and a Half Men”, to all of the appearances that he has made which were somewhat crazy.  Charlie Sheen has been stereotyped as a “bad boy” for a very long time and his recent behavior has led everyone to believe that “he has fallen off the wagon and using drugs again”.  So let’s talk about what started this frenzy.  I believe that it all started when he was to enter a rehab in January and the show was put on hiatus while he entered the program.  But it has not stopped there; he started talking very negatively about the producer of the show, “Two and a Half Men”, and quoted “I'm tired of pretending like I'm not special”.  From this he went on a day-long media blitz filled with bizarre rantings and threats of legal action (latimes.com).  Sheen went on to make quotes, explaining that his body runs on "tiger blood," that he's survived "banging seven-gram rocks," and that he wanted to start a new line of cologne.

            This behavior sparked his ex, Brooke Mueller, to file a restraining order against him and having their two young son’s removed from his supervision, she even alleged that he told her that he was going to cut her head off, place it in a box and mail it to her mother.  Sheen denied this statement, but said that was pretty good, he would have to remember that statement.

            His most recent behavior after being accused of anti Semitic has now made the claim that he is Jewish, that his sons are Jewish and that his ex is Jewish.  

            This really goes to show that when you are a huge public role model that your behavior can get you in a lot of trouble and it can escalate out of control.

     

Crisis in Libya, Rising Fuel Prices

               So eight-three percent (83%) of the United States oil actually comes from right here in the United States, so I don’t quite understand why when the price of oil per barrel goes up in another country or there is a crisis overseas why we are gas prices are affected.  When I went to work yesterday the local gas station sign said $3.09, when I left to come from work last night I noticed a sign in the town that I worked at listed $3.38 (WOW).  At that point, my thoughts were, “What in the heck is taking place causing prices to rise like they just have?”  When I got back to my local gas station the sign said $3.15, so they had not yet increased prices that drastically yet, but this morning they had increased to $3.29.  

               I came home and turned on my television to discover the controversy now taking place in Libya affecting our gas prices.  It appears that things continue to spiral from the increasing gas prices at the pump, now the issues concerning Senate Bill 5 now making their way to the front end of headlines.  All I know is that I had to make a trip to the Port Columbus Airport last night to pick up my daughter and I had topped off my fuel tank which still had three-quarters of a tank and I it cost me $41.00, gas prices were at a whopping $3.49 last night!  I do own a Chevrolet Avalanche, but regardless of the size of the gas tank individuals are really going to feel a hurt in their wallets if fuel prices continue to climb as they are predicted to.

               On the other side of things, diesel fuel is skyrocketing as well.  My husband and I own and operate our own truck and although diesel fuel prices are increasing, the company that we are leased on with is slowly increasing the fuel surcharge that we receive in addition to the mileage.  When the fuel prices dropped they decreased the surcharge, but they are refusing to match the surcharges that they were previously paying for some reason.

               I certainly hope there may be some light at the end of the tunnel!!!!!

Icon Analysis

               The first icon I have chosen is “American Idol”; I have chosen this because I have been infatuated with this show from the moment it aired and it is hard to believe that we are now in the tenth season.  It symbolizes individuals pursuing their singing talents to become the next American Idol.  When you look at some of the talent that crosses that show it is just unreal.  I have to say that some of the talent that has been voted off, have become bigger stars than some of the Idols in a few of the seasons.

               The second icon that I decided to choose is the M & M’s Chocolate Candy.  Look at how far they have integrated over the years from just a plain M & M and now how many different kinds do we have to choose from now:  peanut butter, dark chocolate, pretzel?  What will they think of next?  Here’s a little of FYI for you:  I actually had to a statistics count in another class on candies and believe it or not, brown M & M’s DO NOT dominate the colors in the package, I found there were more orange and yellow M & M’s.

               I could not leave out the next icon, because it has become a permanent fixture in my house everywhere you look at that is the Mattel Hot Wheel.    Several years back, my husband became a collector of Hot Wheels and now we cannot pass the toy section of any store without looking for a new Hot Wheel.  Now we have Hot Wheels candy canes, lip balm, soap, cards; you name it we have it and it has never been opened.  The only time we open it is if we buy doubles and he gives them to little ones visiting.

American Idol Debate of Judge, Steven Tyler

               I honestly don’t know what all of the fuss is about.  I am a huge fan of American Idol and when they started making all of these changes to the show I wasn’t quite sure that I was really going to continue to watch it anymore.  When Paul Abdul left and they brought Ellen DeGeneres to the show, I thought this is just great, someone who has no singing experience judging a talent show.  I have to saw that I thought she actually did a pretty good job, but that didn’t last very long.

               Then last year when all of the buzz came about that both Ellen and now Simon Cowell were both leaving the show, I wondered just how in the world this show could possibly survive.  When I heard they were considering Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez for the show I thought what a combination, a rocker and pop gal?  But I have to say that when I started watching it and watching the actually vibes of both of them when someone with real talent is singing, it is a true inspiration.  American Idol has brought two very talented judges to the show that has had very successful careers in the industry to find the next idol. 

               When I began my search to decide what to write this blog about I typed in Steven Tyler’s name, not realizing that there is now all this hype about his flirtatious manner with the underage contestants of the show.  As we do with anyone else in the public eye, it seems like people have to find something to escalate out of control.  Just because he is a rock star, with the bad boy image doesn’t make him a bad person.  I couldn’t find anything negative on the internet about him other than all of this American Idol hype at the present time, he had never been in any trouble for messing with underage girls.  I really like the attitude that he is bringing to the show, he has livened it up A LOT.