R we discncted?

In the article "Disconnect(Ed)," Mr. Fisch postes a picture of about 15 phones. What it symbolizes, is not only does he not want you to text in class, but to pay attention and try and act like you are learning something. Disconnect(Ed) is not Mr. Fisch's way of being mean, but to get students to stop texting and get them to pay attention more in class. I think from a teacher point of view, it's fair, because well we don't want students texting in our classes. But from a student point of view, I would say probably half and half, because we're trying to socialize and talk to people and what not. But on the other hand, it's a rule not to text in class and quite rude too. Why do we do it though? We wouldn't text in church or something similar would we? Maybe we're trying to see if the teacher notices? When a teacher takes a phone away from a student, its not a punishment, but more of a reminder not to do that. Even though the student noes whats coming by taking that risk.

Climbing a 19er without legs?

In the article "Climbing 19,240 Feet by Arm Strength Alone," there is a man named Chris Waddell want to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro at an incredable height of 19,240 feet tall, Africa's tallest mountain in a modified wheel chair. He's doing it because he wants to be noticed for who he is. And not what he does. If succesful, he will be the first paraplegic, on his own power, to summit Mt. Kilimanjaro. I think that is very intiquing! That would be so physicly and mentaly demanding is unrealistic. He is attepting to climb the mountain on a modified wheel chair/bike with four wheels. He assembled an exellent team right here in Crested Butte, Colo. to help him train and refine his now near-indestructible bike. An off-road racecar designer built the frame. An triathlete and engineer refined the gears and added wheels four times as big as his old ones, all under the guidance of expedition leader Dave Penney. On his bike he steers with his chest, choosing his path just like a rock climber would. As Anatole France said,"To accomplish great things, we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe." I believe Chris follows quotes like these, to get up that mountain, he must act, but dream, he must believe and know that he can, or he will never be able to get up the mountain of Mt. Kilimanjaro and or the mountain of life.

Airports Going Green?

In the San Fransisco Airport, they now have kiosks that can calculate on a trip the estimated amount of carbon put out of the plane by a single person. This really caught my eye when I read that. It does all of this by asking the travelers origin and destination, number of passengers and whether they plan to fly round-trip. A computer program then calculates a fee, which can be paid by credit card, that goes toward offsetting the carbon dioxide put out into the atmosphere by the airplane they flew on during their trip. That's awesome that we finally made something to start getting greener. It then continued on by saying that for every ton of emissions polluted, each person is responsible for paying $13.50. Every $12, goes to the efforts to suck up the carbon dioxide. And the other $1.50 goes to help fund green initiatives. Every year, forests suck up a juicy 3 tons of carbon dioxide said Chris Kelly of the Conservation Fund, the nonprofit that manages the forest. As I am finishing up, I just think its great that we are thinking of ways to help undo the damage done to the forests, the ozone, and more.

The world is a machine

When I think about the world, it is a machine. It's also made up of them. Think about it mostly every thing were use, wear, and eat is made by a machine. This brings me to the topic that texting, IMing, and online activities such as Face book and My space are killing our learning in writing. I don't believe this is true, because even online were developing reading and writing skills. It also expresses your personality when you chat online and text people. In Micheal Welshe's video, The machine is us, he says that digital text is more flexible. I agree, it is easier, but I don't think it is ruining our communication. In the New Literacy article, it says that online communication is ruining our society, but it's not it helping it. I think that we should encourage people to IM and text, and maybe it will help.