supermoon

On Saturday night, the forcast predicted fog, clouds and a chance of rain. The lunar cycle also predicted the rare lunar phenomenon commonly known as "supermoon." Supermoon is the biggest, brightest moon of the year due to it being 15,000 miles closer to the earth on this day. NASA officials predicted the moon to be 16% brighter than an average full moon but do to a fluke in the lunar orbit, the supermoon of 2012 ended up actually being 30% brighter. Last year on March 19, 2011, the supermoon was a little bit closer to the Earth than it was this past Saturday night by about 248 miles. Spectaters were nervous about their ability to see the supermoon on Saturday because of the overcast weather and unclear conditions. However, in our area the weather began to clear up around 6 PM and I was able to see the supermoon! It was amazing to see such a bright moon and amazing spectacle. People all over the world were able to see the supermoon and the amazement of such a spectacle united our global community.

Furniture by political prisoners

Lately I have become pretty obsessed with shopping for furniture and decorative pieces for my dorm room for next year. One place that I often shop for these types of things is Ikea. Ikea is less expensive then their competiters, easy to assmble and who doesn't enjoy a ride on their giant escalater or a trip to their swedish cafe? However, threatening to tarnish the squeaky clean reputation of Ikea, are new allegations that the furniture manufacturer utilized free labor from political prisoners in Germany and Cuba. Ikea has responded to these allegations made by a swedish news station by launching their own investigation and interviewing employees.

Too young to be trusted?

Recently this weekened, the case of two year old Caliegh Anne Harrison developed and gained coverege from several news stations. Harrison was playing on the beach on the day of her disappearance; her mother stepped away for a short time to retrieve a ball that had bounced away and Harrison was left with her four year old sibling, the only direct witness at the time of the girls dissapearance. Harrison's sister claims that the two year old girl was carried out to the ocean by the strong rip tide. Authorities are now struggling to determine if this story is likely or a fable manufactured by a child's imagination; which raises the question, at what age do we allow ourselves to believe the words of a child. Is there a reason to doubt the story of Harrison's sister? When it would be the most likely story and she was the only direct witness... Another issue within this case is the fact that Harrison's mother left two young children unattended near the ocean and that her story has been modified a couple of times since her original questioning. This story seems mysterious. I think that Harrison's four year old sister is reliable seeing as shes the only witness. In my experience, four year olds are very verbal, and though imaginitive, know when a situation is serious and know when to stop playing make believe.

The Fresh Water Crisis

In the morning I drink a glass of water, take a shower and make breakfast. Using a lot of fresh water to complete my morning routines. With the close proximity of our community to Lake Michigan this seems obvious. However, stated in the constitution, is that nobody has complete power over lakes and rivers. Therefore, states like Nevada, Arizona and Texas have just as much access to our fresh water resources as we do. Can you imagine a giant pipeline running from Lake Michigan to Nevada? Desert states would suck the Great Lakes dry. People sometimes do not take the fresh water crisis seriously because they believe that we will be able to utilize desalinization or have new technology that will solve our issues with shortages on fresh water. However, this is our one planet and we have limited resources, so we need to start respecting these resources and stop pollutting them in an effort to avoid a crisis involving fresh water.

Overcoming a Reputation

Recently, Nadia Suleman, or more commonly known as 'Octomom' has recently come out in the media to say that she is ready to change her seemingly tainted reputation. A story about this 'breaking news' appeared on ABC. The reporter, had a sarcastic undertone in their presentation and conveyed the message that overcoming such a reputation would be nearly impossible. Is changing the way one is perceived by their peers impossible? In our sociecty, many factors point to yes. As a graduating senior I have heard countless numbers of my friends say that they wantt to change certain aspects of their identity in college or look forward to the fresh start. People who attempt to change their identity in high school often get ridiculed. With the inability to seek change, or even growth, it seems that as a society we are stunting our own growth by not allowing each other to change. It seems that, once someone has been stereotyped in a certain way they can't be taken seriously. This could be one factor that contributes to the stereotypical 'teenage angst' among adolescence.

Tumblr Fights Against Self Harm Among Users

"We aim to sustain Tumblr as a place that facilitates awareness, support and recovery, and to remove only those blogs that cross the line into active promotion or glorification of self-harm." Recently, many social media websites have vowed to crack down on posts and information regarding the promotion or glorification of eating disorders. Tumblr, being at the forefront of this movement has revised many of their policies with this motion in mind.

I think that this is a really interesting aspect of the social media world to sort of take on this issue. Why this issue? Why not censor posts regarding the glorification of gangs? Or drugs? Or the glorification of crude humor? I think that its a positive thing that eating disorders are getting this attention so that there isn't an online community created (or further sustained) via Facebook.

I think this movement stems from the general public in America becoming more accustomed to eating disorders, its becoming less of a stigma and less taboo to talk about. This is a good thing for those who are suffering from the diseases affiliated with body dismorphia but this openess shouldn't trancend to those who are aware they suffer from the disease but do not want to get better because it negatively affects the recovery of others.

"It Gets Better" MTV special

I think that this MTV special served as an uplifting and positive take on the situation of being a gay teen in the US. Although I did not feel that the made for TV special was entirely accurate (demonstrating only positive stories and none that might not have been so fluid) I think that the impact on the gay teenage community will be a positive one. The film makers might be critisized for their innacurate portrayal of life as a gay teen, but the name of the movement is "It Gets Better," not "It might get better for some of you but for others it might go horribly wrong for several more years to come."

This movement is really inspirational and I think help builds an online community for kids who might be feeling frustrated that they do not have anyone to connect with who is feeling the same way as them. Maybe if the kids we read about in the Rolling Stone article had a community like this, the outcome would have been different.

I also believe that the movement provides hope for these kids. Hope can be a very strong thing and its what a lot of people who are suffering from depression, suicidal thoughts or apathy, are lacking in their life. If this movement helps even just one kid to have hope that their life will improve then its doing a positive thing. I hope that these kids realize that they are not alone and that as a society we embrace each others differences rather than shunning them.