Halloween History

The history of Halloween is best described in this short video made by National Geographic, enjoy! 

Happy Halloween!

http://www.halloweenhistory.org/

Documentary Week (Midterm Essay)

      The past week of documentaries in Media Literacy has been interesting, to say the least. The documentaries ranged from political titles by Alex Jones, "Police State 4: The Rise of Fema" and "Fall of the Republic: The Presidency of Barack Obama," to a political cartoon "The American Dream," and a documentary about food, "Food, Inc." Some of these documentaries by Alex Jones were hard to follow since I am not extremely educated about politics, but I still found them to challenge the mind. The political cartoon "The American Dream," on the other hand, was much easier to understand. It told us the same type of information that Alex Jones' documentaries did, but it was in a form that was much easier to understand. "Food, Inc." was very interesting and educational, it told about how our food is grown and produced. It was very disturbing to see what the major food producers are feeding us!

     Since a documentary is "a movie or a television or radio program that provides a factual record or report," I would hope that the information we watched in class was factual. Watching Alex Jones' documentaries, it was a little hard to believe at times. I'm not saying that everything was a lie or anything, but Jones did seem a little crazy. He would start to yell or go off on a tangent at times about things in the government most of us have never heard of. Jones would present some support for his claims by having interviews with various people involved in the government, video clips of the president, or text documents written by the U.S. government. Having this support helped me to believe that the information being presented was true; but thinking about it now, I didn't really know what Jones was trying to tell us. Most of the information was going right over my head. Why should I believe Jones? He works without any sponsors out of his basement. How reliable can this information be?

     "The American Dream" had similar concepts to that of Alex Jones, but it was in a cartoon. This was much easier to understand than it was to listen to Alex Jones go on rampages. The cartoon mainly told us that the government is not on "the people's" side. It is there, along with the banks, to take all of our money. The banks make us believe that we are able to have "the American dream" by giving us money to spend on new houses, cars, pets, etc. Then one day the bank comes to our house and tells us that we have to pay them back all of the money we borrowed, plus interest. Credit cards also make us believe that we have much more money than we actually do; it allows us to spend a bunch of money "on credit," at one time, then just pay it back later with interest. The bank and credit cards are what are ruining "American dreams."

     The last documentary, "Food, Inc." was the most interesting and most effective on me, personally. It showed us what we are actually eating when we buy food from the supermarket. The chickens we purchase were raised in a dark, window-less, shed, standing in their own fecal matter. They were grown at twice the rate they naturally should have been, their internal organs were unable to keep up; their breasts are so large that they are unable to walk more than a few steps before falling over. Consumers prefer the breasts over legs, wings, and thighs, so the large chicken producing companies design their chickens to have large breasts. Cows are fed corn, rather than eating grass because it is cheaper. Corn is used in many different products because it is easy and cheap to grow. The major food producers in this nation are trying to take the easy way out by cutting expenses and work. These shortcuts are affecting our health.

     Overall, I think that this documentary week was very educational and made me use my critical thinking skills.

Shattered Glass Ops

Pennsylvania Bridge Theft

NEW CASTLE, Pa. -- A 50-foot-long bridge in western Pennsylvania has been stolen, and its owners say they're baffled by the crime and have no idea who took it.

New Castle Development spokesman Gary Bruce said Friday that he "couldn't believe it when they told me it was gone."

A state police report says the 20-foot-wide span in North Beaver Township went missing between Sept. 27 and Wednesday.

The bridge was made out of corrugated steel and valued at about $100,000. Thieves used a blowtorch to cut it apart, presumably to sell it for scrap metal.

The bridge was used occasionally as a back entrance to the company property. It's in the woods along a railroad line about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh.

Bruce says he doubts the company can replace the bridge.

Look up more at:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ and http://www.wgal.com

History of Media Essay

     The earliest form of media is different for a lot of people. It really depends if one believes in the “Old Earth” theory or the “New Earth” theory. Both theories are assumed correct in our society, but people tend to lean toward one or the other. The “Old Earth” theory says that we were created approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the Big Bang Theory, a scientific approach. It also says that we descended from microorganisms and apes through evolution. Whereas, the “New Earth” theory says God created us in seven days, approximately 6,000 years ago, and we evolved from Adam and Eve. The Islam, Judaism, and Christianity religions believe this theory; which is about 3.5 billion people in the world. Depending on which theory one believes, it will affect the oldest form of media to that person. I personally believe in the “New Earth” theory and that the Earth evolved within the last 6,000 years.

     Word of mouth is the oldest form of media to me. It evolved at the Garden of Eden when God told Adam and Eve they could eat fruit from any tree in the garden, except from the tree of knowledge. Adam and Eve heard what God said and were going to obey God’s command, until the serpent convinced Eve to eat from the tree of knowledge. The serpent told Eve she would be more like God and that she wouldn’t die if she ate the fruit. After some critical thinking from Eve about whether or not to eat the beautiful, succulent fruit, Eve eats it. She then gives the fruit to Adam and he eats it as well. Both become aware that they are naked and cover themselves with fig leaves to hide from the sight of God. This early form of media uses word of mouth from God telling Adam and Eve not to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge; as well as, critical thinking from Eve when the serpent tempted her to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge. Along with this, word of mouth was continued on to repeat the telling of this story to many more generations after it took place until it was recorded in the Bible. Word of mouth is still used today in many ways. We often times hear stories from our friends and go on to tell that story to someone else. Some people like to call it “gossiping;” but it is used in the same way as word of mouth. Word of mouth is not the most trusted way of getting one’s information or insight about a subject, as some of the details get twisted or lost along the way from one person to the next. A more trusted source is someone who writes the information down and allows everyone to read it versus taking the risk of losing the details by telling the story to one another.

     Another form of media that dates back to nearly 3,000 years ago (1,000 BC) used by the Egyptians and Persians are carrier pigeons. The pigeons were used during the Olympics to carry the results of the games to other countries. “When used as carrier pigeons in pigeon post, a message is written on thin light paper and rolled into a small tube attached to the bird's leg. Pigeons can only go back to one "mentally marked" point that they have identified as their home. So "pigeon mail" can only work when the sender is actually holding the receiver's pigeons. (Homing Pigeons)” This method of communication has been linked into more recent times as well. For example, the carrier pigeons were used during World War I and II to deliver important messages. Also, carrier pigeons are linked to today’s social networking site “Twitter.” Twitter’s icon is a bird, and it allows people to “tweet,” like a bird, about what they’re doing. I would have to say that the creators of Twitter thought that it would be a nice tie between the pigeons and a social networking site, to allow the user to “deliver messages” to his or her followers. 

     These two examples of media show a nice relationship between historic media and the media now. It shows how the quality changes from the old word of mouth, to the word of mouth in recent times. Word of mouth means a lot more to Adam and Eve than it does to us, because there could have been a lot more changes to the original story, making it less trustworthy, as well as we have more sources of media in this day and time than Adam and Eve did. The theme of birds from the carrier pigeons to Twitter is not just a coincidence; the creator thought about the relationship between the two and made a more modern version of the carrier pigeons. There are other similar relationships in media, but I only chose to elaborate on these two. Media continues to develop from older forms and will for many years to come.

Bibliography

"Homing pigeon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Oct. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homing_pigeon>.