tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30524565697628707512024-02-21T06:49:33.686-08:00KAJ-English ConversationPreparation for the Slovak Maturita test, covering all maturita topics - a work in progress.T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.comBlogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-6508254482213342322016-07-29T07:55:00.003-07:002020-11-06T01:04:21.785-08:00Understanding Racism<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">First of
all, Defining Race<o:p></o:p></span></span></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">The first
thing you should know is that race is not a scientific term. It is used in
biology, but informally, and there is a lot of debate as to how to define race
in the animal kingdom. Some scientists distinguish races based on small
differences in chromosomes, or geography, or physiology (what the animals look
like). None of this is based on any rigid scientific rules. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">So, <i>race</i> is not science, it's a <b>social construct</b>, meaning
it's a way for people to categorize things, to make the world simpler and
easier to understand. The problem is people don't all fit into neat little
categories, and the world isn't simple. So thinking in terms of race is
problematic. It can mislead you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Defining
Racism<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Racism
comes in many forms, so it's hard to pin down one definition. And yet, so many
people try to do that, demanding that we narrow the debate to one specific
form, such as public displays of racism: name-calling, police brutality, church
burnings. As soon as we do this, we can wait for stories to go away, and then
people can pretend it doesn't exist. Political pundit Ann Coulter even went so
far as to claim racism is dead! </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> has a black president</span>––<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">problem solved!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">As soon as you question the definition, people get mad. They'll tell you
to open a dictionary, not realizing that dictionaries have multiple definitions
of many words, including racism. <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/racism" target="_blank">See for yourself</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">1. The
belief that each race has distinct and intrinsic attributes (This seeing in
terms of race is tricky, because it can actually be true in some cases</span>––<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">statistically, blacks are less
likely to develop skin cancer. The problem lies not in acknowledging differences, but in assuming them without evidence).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">2. The
belief that one race or group of races is superior or inferior to another
(passive racism).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">3.
Prejudice or discrimination based upon race (active racism).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Prejudice
Versus Discrimination<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Prejudice
is what you think of someone you haven't even met, while discrimination is what
you do to this person, based on that prejudice. Prejudice is passive;
discrimination is active.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">However, prejudice isn't simply about racism, it's about judgement, and,
often times, life confronts you with situations where you don't know all the
facts, you can't know all the facts, and so you have to judge based on
prejudice.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Think of a young woman walking alone at night. She sees a strange person
coming toward her. He's dressed poorly, he's walking funny, possibly drunk. He
looks dirty, unshaven, crusty. His eyes are bloodshot. Maybe his forehead is
bleeding. He's talking to himself, and he laughs a bit like a hyena. Nature and
evolution have bred us to notice these cues and make predictions about this
man's behaviour and potential threat. This is normal and quite healthy. We know
the man <i>could</i> be the sweetest person, respectable even, but it's still
wise for the girl to avoid him, unless of course he's in serious need of
medical attention, in which case she should call an ambulance, but still avoid
him (unless she's bigger and stronger, trained in karate, armed with a gun, a police officer, etc.) But still, you
want to avoid confrontation, and be cautious is what I'm saying).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This is the kind of situation we must all judge for ourselves, but we must also
realize that our predictions and prejudice may be wrong. And we must consider
whether our judgments are affected by race. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Most importantly, we must recognize the difference between this kind of
threatening personal situation in which we prejudge one person whom we can see
and observe, versus a debate about public policy, where there is no immediate
threat, and a speaker chooses to prejudge an entire population that he probably
doesn't see because of segregation and gentrification.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Different
Kinds of Racism<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Overt</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This is
loud, public, honest racism. There's nothing hidden here. Examples include hate
groups like the <b>Ku Klux Klan</b> dressing in white hoods and burning crosses
on black people's lawns. Any time someone shouts the 'N' word, that's overt
racism. Any time someone repeats a stereotype or tells a racist joke, that's
overt racism.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Institutional</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This is
racism found in large organizations, including governments, businesses, banks,
etc. It can be overt or covert. When the American South set up <b>"Jim
Crow" laws</b>, segregating towns and public spaces into black and white
areas, that was overt institutional racism. Police could arrest black people
for entering a "white's only" restaurant, restroom, or shop. It was
finally outlawed in 1965. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But, segregation still exists today in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">, and you’ll find it at most American
neighbourhoods and schools. There's no law enforcing it, but there are
institutions, like failing schools, that perpetuate it, creating poor,
dangerous ghettos that minorities can’t escape from. They don't have the money
to move out, and for many decades, those who did have money were not allowed to
move into all-white neighbourhoods. The second minorities did enter a
neighbourhood, it would experience <b>"white flight"</b> as white
people moved away, lowering the property values.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Now, the opposite situation is occurring. Some
businesses are investing in poor, downtown areas of cities, creating new office
buildings and businesses that attract wealthier, educated workers. What used to
be a ghetto becomes "gentrified." With <b>gentrification</b>, the
poor are kicked out. Their homes are renovated, and wealthier people move in,
erasing a great deal of the culture and diversity that had been present for
generations.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"><b>Racial profiling</b> is another overt institutional form of racism that exists today, practiced by police in the US. Under this policy, police may stop and search citizens based on their race, who are not suspects of a crime, and check for weapons and drugs. This is normally illegal in the US because the 4th amendment to the constitution forbids unlawful searches, but some cities have embraced it as a way to lower crime. Some shops even call the police after a minority customer has lawfully purchased an expensive item, to stop the customer in the street, and see if he or she didn’t steal the money used to buy the item.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> Another surprising problem, computers are now contributing to institutional racism. Programmers are now making complex algorithms based on machine learning (the computer learns through repeated trial and error), to try answering questions that are subjective – they have no right answer. This technology, originally used to defeat humans at chess and other games, is now being used to find probabilities, like who would be the best new employee at a company, which criminal is most likely to re-offend, or even which news items will be most interesting to you on your Facebook account. And, although these programs are surprisingly accurate, they have been known to have glitches. One such glitch in a stock market program lost over a trillion dollars in just thirty-six minutes, back in 2010. And they also make ridiculous mistakes from time to time, because they don’t really know what they’re talking about. They don’t understand the world we live in, or who we are. They don’t even know they exist, and now they’re being used to make important ethical decisions.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> Take Facebook for example. It determines which news items are most important based on the number of comments and likes. But, what happens when a serious tragedy happens, and people post about it? No one’s going to like it, most will feel uncomfortable about commenting, so, Facebook’s algorithm thinks it can be ignored. And, it’s tricky to turn off this algorithm and un-filter your page.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> What’s worse, the factors in these programs are not transparent. We don’t know how it works, but we assume it must be fair… But, according to Zeynep Tufekci, a professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina, these programs often have discriminatory outcomes. For one thing, the only way to evaluate people, either for work or punishment, is to data mine their personal histories––their digital footprints. This is highly invasive, and can uncover all kinds of secrets, like your age, sexual orientation, marital fidelity, likelihood of future pregnancy, your political beliefs, your online personality, possible mental problems, and so on. You don’t even have to have a mental problem, like depression. You just need to be at a higher risk for future depression, and the program could weed you out. These are factors that human employers aren’t legally allowed to even ask about.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> And, when machine learning does this, it doesn’t label these factors, so we don’t know what it’s really looking at, or how it makes its decisions. It’s a black box. This allows for all kinds of unethical decisions to take place, and even worse, it allows those in power to ignore them. This is already happening. Google’s search engine uses machine learning to display ads, based on who you are. Tufekci says studies have found that women are less likely to get ads for high paying jobs than men. And, Google searches for African sounding names are more likely to bring up ads for criminal background checks, even for people with no criminal history.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> Even worse, a company in Wisconsin created an algorithm to choose proper punishments for criminals, based on… well, they refuse to say––they put a lot of work into it, and they don’t want their precious program being used by competitors. It’s supposed to predict which defendants are more likely to re-offend. The problem is, it consistently accuses minorities of being more likely than whites to re-offend, at about twice the rate, and it’s consistently been wrong. And yet, people continue to use it, and they’re making money off this system. Prof. Tufekci says the solution is to audit all machine learning programs, so that we know how they work, and how they don’t work.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;"> Still worse, computers are taking a larger role in choosing and eliminating targets in the US war on terror, through its drone program. Even if these programs are better than humans, who make mistakes as well, there’s a question of responsibility. When a human makes a mistake, he can be blamed and punished for it. But, who do you blame when a computer makes a mistake, and people die?</div><div><br /></div></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; tab-stops: 63.0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Economic</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">If you look
at about any statistic in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> regarding race, you'll find that
black people get paid less for the same work, are promoted less, and are the
last hired and first fired. They're less likely to go to college, and much more
likely to go to prison. And it's not because blacks commit more crime. Blacks
are treated differently. Many urban, poor communities have different attitudes to
police in schools and arresting children as if they were adults. Getting a
criminal record at an early age for school fights, trying drugs, etc, can ruin
a teen's chances for college and a career. According to NPR (2014), it starts
as early as 4 years old - 18% of black preschoolers are suspended nearly 50% of
the time. While boys are more likely to be suspended than girls, black girls
(12%) are twice as likely to be suspended as white boys (6%).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Every so often you'll see on the news, an experiment where real estate
agents tour a house and estimate its value. When the homeowners are white
(they're really actors) the estimate is always higher than when they are black,
even though they pretend to live in the same house, have the same jobs, even
the same clothes. And when similar actors go to a bank asking for a loan
(presenting the same credentials), who do you think gets the better deal? These
tests show that minorities have a harder time earning and gaining wealth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Cultural</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In
academia, cultural racism is defined as when one culture considers itself
superior to various minority groups around it, for example antiziganism against
Roma.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">But, cultural racism also involves denying minorities a voice. </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Hollywood</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> is a big example. Minorities are
often <strong>type cast</strong> as criminals and villains, or as a <strong>token black friend</strong>. When a
minority character is portrayed as a hero, he or she is often played by a white
actor wearing makeup (this is known as “whitewashing”). And whites win the
majority of awards each year. Meanwhile, the US TV news often describes local
crimes in detail, emphasizing black suspects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Native Americans, Africans, and Asians are denied wall space in most
museums and galleries, but are often portrayed in "orientalist" art
as stereotypes - the noble savage, the slave for sale, the desert nomad. These
cultures are portrayed as archaic, weak, traditional, and romantic. The
brushwork is realistic, but that's where the realism ends.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Another aspect to cultural racism is in toys, where, for the last
century, it's been hard to find many figures, dolls, and characters that
represent different races and body types. Just this year, Barbie Dolls have
finally been designed to look more realistic, coming in a variety of body types
and skin colours, without being exotic princesses from foreign lands.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Colour
Blindness</span></span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This is the
belief that racism is no longer a serious issue. It's a popular
sentiment that is often argued in the media.
Some say the world has progressed a great deal since the 1960's, and so laws
like affirmative action or voting rights laws are no longer necessary.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> In 2013, the Supreme Court repealed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which had ensured the right to vote for all citizens. The court argued it was no longer necessary. Within hours of the decision, several states passed new "voter ID" laws that would make it harder for blacks and other minorities to vote. The idea behind these laws is to demand a photo ID from people who are already registered to vote--they think they've done everything they need to vote, but then they can't. And these laws also make it hard to get a photo ID in time for the election. For example, in Sauk County, Wisconsin, their State Photo ID office is only open 4 days a year. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> And while politicians argue this is to prevent voter fraud, these laws do nothing to prevent vote buying, tampering, and ballot box stuffing. All these do is prevent voter impersonation, which is not a problem. No one wants to stand in line for hours just to vote twice, or three times--it would make no difference in an election. And, several politicians have admitted that the purpose of these laws is to prevent enough minorities from voting so that a Republican candidate can win over a Democrat. So, the idea that America has progressed into a truly colour-blind meritocracy is false.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Aversive Racism</b></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">This refers to people who don't think of themselves as racist, but who tend to avoid people of different races, and to avoid questions regarding race. It's like living in a bubble, while ignoring the problems of others. These are people who accept inherently racist arguments, without acknowledging that it's racist - that immigrants are "stealing jobs", that inner cities are full of crime and criminals, that suburbs are "under attack", "Christmas is under attack." Just statements that are either false or misleading. Their reaction to protest movements like Black Lives Matter is to villainize them, claim they've been taken over by communists, etc., rather than to consider grievances and how to correct them.<br /><br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Affirmative Action</span></strong><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">In the 1950's, many schools and colleges in the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">US</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> refused to accept black applicants.
They were white-only schools. The Supreme Court eventually ruled in favour of "<b>affirmative
action</b>" requiring a certain percent of minorities to be accepted in
every school in the nation each year. These same quotas were then introduced
into large businesses and factories to ensure that at least some
minorities would be promoted to managerial positions. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Opponents today claim that these practices lead to unqualified and
incompetent students and employees, and that only the best candidates should
ever be accepted. They say the world today is much more progressive, so minorities will not be rejected
merely for their skin colour. They say it's condescending to think that minorities can't get in to university or get a job without lowering their standards.</span><br />
And yet, there's no evidence that affirmative action leads to lower standards - this is just assumed. And, the fact that minority students are more likely to drop out of university has more to do with the fact that they're poorer, and that the schools accept academically weak students for college athletics (schools make a ton of money from sports like football and basketball).<br />
Opponents argue that university admissions should be meritocratic, while ignoring a host of admissions policies that aren't meritocratic at all. For example, most universities are obligated to accept a certain percentage of in-state applicants, and those students pay a smaller tuition fee. Out-of-state applicants face a smaller chance of acceptance, and have to pay much more. Furthermore, the children of alumni get a bonus to their chance of admission, especially if their parents give the school money on a regular basis. Even if an applicant has no alumni in his family, they can give a large monetary gift and still get the child in.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">The
Psychology of Racism<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">A good way
to think of racism is like a psychological disorder, with a spectrum of
different symptoms and manifestations. There are levels of racism, like a
sliding scale of evil. People can be racist for different reasons, depending on
differing personalities and experiences. Some might seek to avoid speaking with
or knowing minorities, while others may actively seek out minorities and
persecute them. Some might express fear of minorities because of all those TV
reports about black criminals. Some might express anger at affirmative action,
blaming it for not getting into the school of their choice, seeing only how it
affects them, and not the larger picture. Some might find a different skin
colour to be repulsive, refusing to consider dating anyone of that colour or
ethnicity. Internet dating networks today show that Asian men and black women
are the two least attractive race-and-gender combinations on any network, and
have the hardest times finding a partner. And then, there are those who are
paranoid enough to believe in conspiracies and doomsday scenarios, and feel the
need to band together into hate groups. Some feel so strongly, they are willing
to hurt, kill, and burn churches of minorities in order to “keep these people
in their place.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Emotional
Impact of Racism<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Life as a
member of the minority is challenging. Fear is ever present. Speaker Clint
Smith recalls how his father lectured him, when he was a boy, "You can't
act the same as your white friends. You can't pretend to shoot guns. You can't
run around in the dark. You can't hide behind anything other than your own
teeth." This was after he'd played in a hotel parking lot with squirt
guns. In </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">, all black children grow up in this
environment––don’t move too quickly, keep your hands where people can see them,
keep your hood down at night. Don't do anything at all to alarm police, or
shopkeepers, or teachers, or you might get in trouble. You might get shot.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Comedian DL Hughley recalls the first time he was called the 'N' word.
He was about eight years old, on a school field trip, and he wanted to buy some
ice cream at a shop in </span><st1:city><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Los Angeles</span></st1:place></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">. The shop clerk told him they didn't
serve N–––––. Most children remember their birthday or their best Christmas
gift, or their first football game. We need to remember that many minority
children also remember their first experience with racism, just as vividly, and
it creates a scar that people have to carry with them the rest of their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">White
Flight & Whitopia<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Whitopia,
as defined by journalist Rich Benjamin, is any town or county that is charming,
growing in population by more than 6% a year, of which over 90% of that growth
is white. These places are the ultimate destination for "<b>white flight</b>,"
where white people leave ethnically diverse areas in search of some place <i>better</i>,
meaning affluent, clean, natural, friendly, and safe. Guns are very popular
here, as is church and rebel flags. Not everyone here is a racist, but racist
groups such as the Aryan Nation do meet here.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">What causes white flight? Benjamin says it's a question of conscious and
unconscious bias - pushes and pulls. People don't all go to Whitopia for racist
reasons, but it has racist outcomes. "The danger of Whitopia is that, the
more segregation we have, the less we can look at and confront conscious and
unconscious bias." People don't have to think about racism. It becomes
abstract and theoretical, not an every day experience. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Why don't black people go to Whitopia? First of all, most black
Americans can't afford it. Second, most don't feel welcome. When you're the
only black man in </span><st1:place><st1:city><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">St. George</span></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">, </span><st1:state><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Utah</span></st1:state></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">, or </span><st1:place><st1:city><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Coeur D'Alene</span></st1:city><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">, </span><st1:state><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Idaho</span></st1:state></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">, you feel exotic and strange. Rich
Benjamin did it, for two years, and was says he was accepted in each and every
community. He says, "It's a devastating irony, how we have gone forward as
individuals, and backwards as communities." Rich wants us to question and
reject that notion that “One black man is a delightful dinner guest, fifty
black men is a ghetto.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">The
Rebel Flag<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">This was
the flag of the Confederate States of </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">, who fought the </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">United States</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> from 1860-1863 over the right to
own slaves. They believed that blacks were inferior to whites and that the
mistreatment of blacks was justifiable. Although the Confederacy lost, many
southerners have displayed this flag in their homes, on their cars, and in
their towns as a form of intimidation of blacks. Starting around 1961, many
southern states decided to fly the flag in their capitols as a scare tactic,
during the Civil Rights movement. These states argued it was a proud part of
their history and heritage, while in reality, it was a reaction to blacks like
Martin Luther King Jr. demanding an end to Jim Crow laws. As these flags
have finally started coming down from state capitols, comedian Larry Wilmore asks, "If we flew
every flag from our past, why aren't we flying the Union Jack at the White
House?" Meanwhile, many neo-nazi groups in </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Europe</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"> use the rebel flag in place of the
swastika, which is illegal in much of </span><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Europe</span></st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">. This issue has been further clouded by use of the flag to symbolize any and all forms of rebellion and southern pride, for example in the TV show <em>Dukes of Hazard</em>, in which two criminal heroes drive a car with a large flag painted on the roof. But Larry Wilmore astutely points out that the meaning of the flag is far too tainted with racism and hate to be able to express anything innocent or friendly.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"><span style="font-size: large;">Combating
Racism<o:p></o:p></span></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">One thing
we all can do is to point out racism when we see it. Don’t keep quiet, because
racism thrives in silence. But, remember the difference between what someone
says or does, and what they are. You can and should point out when someone says
something racist. That's something you can prove logically. What you can't
really do is prove that someone's intentions are racist, or that deep down,
they're a racist. Hold people accountable for what they do and say, but be
ready to explain <i>why</i> what they said was racist, and be prepared to acknowledge
that their intentions may have been innocent.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; text-indent: 0.25in;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">Another thing we can do is to document racism when we see it, with
photos, videos, and film. </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">'s recent movement, Black Lives
Matter, got going thanks to smart phones that recorded violent acts against
blacks.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-65878951488946100772016-04-28T01:59:00.004-07:002016-04-28T02:04:46.473-07:00The US School System - Pros & Cons<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Differences
between the US and Slovak Systems:<o:p></o:p></b><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.05in 0pt 0.25in;">
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]-->The <u>school system in America goes from kindergarten to 12<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>
grade</u>. When you finish one school and go to another, you go to the next
grade. In Slovakia, every time you start a new school, you start counting over
again. You could be the 9<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> form in základná škola, and then you go
to the 1<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">st</span></sup> form in stredná škola.</div>
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2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]-->In America <u>the grading system is different.</u> An ‘A’ is a
‘1’, a ‘B’ is a ‘2’, a ‘C’ is a ‘3’, a ‘D’ is a ‘4’, and an ‘F’ is a ‘5’.</div>
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3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]--><u>In Slovakia, every class gets its own room,</u> which they
decorate and keep clean, and teachers come for each lesson. In America it’s the
same for primary school, but in middle and high school, <u>teachers get their
own rooms,</u> which they decorate, and students switch rooms every lesson.</div>
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4.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]--><u>In American schools, high school students are sometimes
separated according to ability.</u> The best students get into <u>honors</u>
and <u>AP (advanced placement) classes</u>, which learn at a faster pace. For
example, 9<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> graders may be divided into algebra 1, honors algebra
1, and AP algebra 1. A typical student may take two-three honors classes, and
then two-three regular classes, mixed in with weaker students – so, for a smart
student, some subjects will be hard, and some will be really easy.</div>
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5.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]--><u>AP courses are standardized nationally,</u> created by a
private organization called the College Board, the same one that writes the
SAT’s each year. AP courses have standardized exams each semester. Advanced
level AP courses, such as calculus, can count as college credit in some
universities.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">US
Advantages:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]-->Americans believe in a general education for secondary
students, with many subject choices. So, no matter which school you go to, you
can study many things, for example music, art, drama, history, science, sport,
etc. At age 15, you don’t have to start thinking about a future career.</div>
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2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span><!--[endif]-->Typically, you study less subjects at once (about five?) and
take lessons in them every day. But, this depends on the school. Each one has
its own schedule.</div>
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3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span><!--[endif]-->Every school in America has to have a nurse, both for
emergencies, and to determine if students really are sick, before calling
parents to pick them up.</div>
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4.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span><!--[endif]-->Public schools in America provide free busing, books, and free
breakfast and lunch for poor students (funding for these programs can come and
go, depending on yearly tax revenue).</div>
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5.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span><!--[endif]-->Some courses are required, like math, reading, and writing,
which are required every year. But you can usually choose when to complete
other requirements like science and history.</div>
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6.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";"> </span><!--[endif]-->You usually don’t have to study two or more sciences at once.</div>
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<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">US
Disadvantages:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]-->In America, if you want to go to a really good school, you
need to find a private one. Catholic schools are some of the best,
academically, and not so expensive, but they’re hard to get into, especially if
you’re not Catholic. Some private schools are extremely expensive, costing as
much as university.</div>
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2.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]-->Public schools in America gain funding (money) from local real
estate (land) taxes. So, rich towns give higher taxes to their schools, and
poor towns get much less. So, a public school in a rich town will look much
nicer, and will have more facilities than in a poor town – towns don’t share
money equally. That’s true in every state.</div>
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3.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]-->In the American public school system, in most towns, there are
several primary schools, and only one or two public middle and high schools.
And, you don’t get to choose which high school you go to. It’s a question of
which neighborhood you live in, and school bus routes. If you don’t like your
public school and you want switch schools, you have to move to another part of
town – or a completely new town.</div>
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Compare that to
Slovakia, where the average town has about eight different high schools. If you
want to get into the best gymnazium, you have to study hard and get good marks
from the beginning. But, in America, your marks don’t really matter until you
enter high school, when they start counting towards your GPA (grade point
average – a number used to pick best students for awards, etc). So, unless your
parents really push you to study, you won’t learn good study habits, and then,
by the time you’re in high school, and all your friends start rebelling, doing
drugs, and driving, you have to start studying hard for the first time. And
there’s no real penalty for failing. Schools can make you repeat a year over
and over, but they can’t expel you unless you do something criminal or
dangerous.</div>
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4.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]-->American high schools are usually very large, with thousands
of students. The idea is, if you get all the teenagers together in one school,
you can get all the best athletes together on a school team, with enough money
to buy state-of-the-art training facilities and a big stadium. But, it’s harder
for students to stand out, and to know each other. It’s a different atmosphere
from a smaller school, where everyone knows each other. In Slovakia, schools are
smaller, and the best athletes from each school combine to form a team that
represents the town, instead of the school. I think it’s better.</div>
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5.<span style="font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal; font: 7pt/normal "Times New Roman";">
</span><!--[endif]-->Higher education in America is ridiculously expensive, and the
costs are rising every year. Colleges, which are private, are typically more
expensive than universities, but both costs tens of thousands of dollars a
year. Most students can only go to college if they earn a scholarship or
qualify for a student loan from a bank.</div>
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T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-75423713907625548802016-02-18T22:23:00.000-08:002016-03-03T20:07:22.222-08:00Understanding Inflation - Part 2Think of running a business like it's a video game, like a level in Super Mario World. It's an adventure with many trials and obstacles, and you want to find Princess Profit at the end. I mentioned costs previously.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">Variable Costs</span></strong><br />
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Let's start with <strong>variable costs</strong>. <strong>Variable </strong>means that these costs go up as you produce more items:<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>Fixed Costs</strong></span></div>
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Now we get to fixed costs which aren't proportional to output. They may rise or fall from year to year, but hopefully not by much, and these costs are usually predictable, so you can plan for them.</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">Unpredictable Costs</span></strong></div>
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As with any project, life is full of surprises. These next costs are sure to come to you eventually, you just don't know when...</div>
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">More Factors That Affect Price:</span></strong></div>
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So, in every business, you have all these factors, working and changing at a micro scale and a macro scale, and you think the minimum wage, of all things, is going to affect inflation? I hope you can see now that it's all more complicated, and trying to control inflation is a bit like controlling the weather. Good luck.</div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-55876635746687653012016-02-18T11:17:00.000-08:002016-03-03T23:36:35.306-08:00Understanding Inflation 1I remember back in the 90's, when I was a student, hearing on the school news program about Bill Clinton wanting to raise the <strong>minimum wage</strong>. There was a short discussion about it, and when I supported it, the kid next to me said this:<br />
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I noticed two things:<br />
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1. This boy was repeating what he'd heard from someone else. He knew nothing about inflation.<br />
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2. He was basing his argument on the assumption that all inflation is bad, and raising wages accelerates it recklessly.<br />
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This was a popular narrative at the time, based on a flawed understanding of recent statistics. Let us first review the history of America's minimum wages over time. You will note, in recent history, the minimum wage tends to rise under a Democratic president, while stagnating during a Republican administration:<br />
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As you can see, Democratic administrations do, for one reason or another, tend to raise the minimum wage more frequently, at least over the past 30 years. If this really did encourage inflation, you would expect a similar graph to correlate. And yet...<br />
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the lines don't match, do they? Inflation remained steady all through the 90's, despite raising the minimum wage, and the booming economy. It's also remained steady throughout Bush Jr. and Obama's administration. The only time inflation correlated with a rising minimum wage was during Carter's presidency, which also coincided with two oil crises, caused by Middle East oil embargos. A group of countries decided to stop selling oil, forcing the price up from $3 a barrel to $12. This triggered a global oil crisis and inflation everywhere.<br />
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So, what was wrong with my classmate's logic? Well, a lot. Where to begin?<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>First of all... </strong></span> <strong><span style="font-size: large;">Wage Inflation ≠ Price Inflation</span></strong><br />
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Price inflation is when prices go up, and many factors affect it. But, whatever the cause, when prices go up, people grow relatively poorer, unless their wages rise to match it. And that's why wage inflation is so great! When wages rise faster than price inflation, people become richer!<br />
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But, wait a minute? Isn't one worker's wage another person's cost? Isn't that a price too? Well, yes, but when talking about wages, this is the price of putting money into consumers' pockets, whereas most prices involve taking money out of them.<br />
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But, doesn't wage inflation lead to price inflation? Yes, over time. When people are richer, they can afford more, and so companies raise prices. Inflation is the natural result of a growing economy, and the richer the country, like China, the higher their inflation rate. But, it takes time, and, meanwhile, people increase their <strong>purchasing power</strong>, gaining wealth, and helping the economy grow.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">A second question:</span></strong> how influential is the minimum wage to wage inflation? Well, currently, in America, the labor force consists of 135 million workers. Of these, only 75.3 million earn an hourly wage. The rest receive a fixed salary, with possible bonuses, depending on job performance. Of that 75.3 million, only 1.6 million earn the minimum wage. Oh, and another 2 million earn less. How is that, you might ask? Well, some workers, like waiters and waitresses, earn so much from tipping, they are exempt from minimum wage laws. They live mostly off of their tips, and they're taxed on them too!<br />
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So, when 1.6 out of 135 million earn this minimum wage, does raising it a dollar really change things? No, not really. First, you must understand:<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Price = Cost + Profit</span></strong></div>
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So, if a cost, like that of labor, goes up, companies have a choice. They <em>could</em> raise prices, or they could simply accept less profit. Depending on competition, it might not be wise to raise prices, so many companies lower their profit instead. And, you'd be surprised how little profit a company needs to stay in business. The best industries in America only earn about 19% profit:<br />
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Historically, companies gave workers so little money they could barely survive. Three factors changed this: <br />
1.the rise of unions<br />
2. skilled labor<br />
3. government regulations, including a minimum wage.<br />
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And many salaries today are so much higher than the minimum, that nobody would switch to a minimum wage job, despite raising it. There's also a question of status, as many people would be embarrassed to work a minimum wage job, and then there's the question of benefits such as health plans and holidays, of which minimum-wage jobs offer little.<br />
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So, there's little evidence of the minimum wage increasing other wages, which is too bad, as it would help the economy.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: large;">There's a third misconception</span></strong> - that inflation is bad, it must be stopped at all costs, and it can be. The reality is, in a healthy economy, you can't stop inflation, and you wouldn't want to. A little inflation is actually a good thing for a number of reasons.<br />
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1. Inflation means your money is worth less and less over time. So, any smart person would spend it. Buy something, anything, and save your wealth! Buy something collectable, buy a house, buy a flat, buy a garden. Buy baseball cards! When everyone has this attitude, it helps the economy grow. Compare that with <strong>deflation</strong>, where no one wants to spend money. Everyone thinks, if I wait longer, I can save money on a purchase, and if I buy something expensive, it'll just lose money over time. So, while everyone waits and saves, companies go out of business and lower prices further to attract customers - causing even more deflation.<br />
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2. Inflation means you can buy something and sit on it, and get wealthy. The things you buy now (a house, stocks, bonds) can be worth a fortune when you retire, and therefore help you retire.<br />
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3. Inflation also makes it easier to pay off loans. As you earn more and more, the debts you made in the past will feel smaller and easier to pay off (so long as the interest rates are low!!!)<br />
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So, inflation, at about 2%, is actually a good thing! It's healthy, and it's also pretty much inevitable. Inflation is going to happen no matter what. Raising the minimum wage just helps the poorest workers from feeling the most pain from it. And what other factors cause inflation? See part 2 in this lesson.<br />
<br />T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-87491985101444694872015-03-24T11:19:00.001-07:002016-02-28T08:59:19.000-08:00Planning Your Dream HomeSo, you need to write an essay about your dream home? Well there's a lot to think about, but let's start with the grammar.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">1.</span></strong> Since this topic is about something that probably won't happen (sorry) it's best to use the 2nd conditional:<br />
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<em>"If I <u>had</u> a billion dollars, I <u>would have</u> a dream house. It <u>would have</u> ten floors. It <u>would have</u> two swimming pools. It <u>would have</u> a cinema. etc."</em><br />
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In Slovak, <em>"Keby som mal miliardu dolárov, mal by som dom snov. Ten dom by mal desať poschodí. Mal by dva bazény. Mal by kino."</em><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>2.</strong></span> Another thing to remember - when counting rooms, you need to count all of them. Don't say,<br />
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<em>"The 2nd floor would have four rooms and two bathrooms."</em> That's six rooms!<br />
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Say, <em>"The 2nd floor would have four bedrooms and two bathrooms."</em><br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">3.</span></strong> In English, we say, <em>"How it would look,"</em> or, <em>"What it would look like."</em><br />
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We never say, <em>"How it would look like."</em> That's wrong.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">4.</span></strong> In English, host = hostiteľ The word for someone who visits your house isn't 'host' but 'guest'.<br />
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<strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">5.</span></strong> Every year one student mixes up the words 'bed' and 'bad'. Bed means 'posteľ' and bad means 'zlý'. If you want a "badroom" please don't tell me about it. I don't want to know. It sounds like something from <em>Fifty Shades of Grey</em>.<br />
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You also need to think about the kind of home you want. Do you prefer something big or small? What style? <a href="http://kaj-javorova.blogspot.sk/2011/11/7oa-7ob-housing-supplement.html" target="_blank">See here for choices.</a><br />
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Do you want one dream home or two? Or maybe three or four? Would you like to travel during the year, and live in different places in different seasons? Where do you want your homes located? Do you want to live somewhere tropical or exotic? Or do you want to stay in Slovakia? Think about it because some places have unique features you can only find there:<br />
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Once you answer these questions, you may want to give your home some unique features and characteristics that make it special. Here are some ideas. Let's see if they inspire you:<br />
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T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-8814929478027894052015-03-09T06:55:00.001-07:002015-03-09T06:55:09.787-07:00Last Week Tonight Discusses the U.S. TerritoriesIn this short video, comedian John Oliver discusses the unfairness of US Policy in its territories Puerto Rico, Guam, and American Samoa, where people are citizens but are denied full rights, including the right to vote for president.<br />
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T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-58680047026913422582015-01-26T05:12:00.000-08:002016-03-14T12:41:37.173-07:00History's Greatest Inventions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-27215129251921228142014-05-27T02:32:00.000-07:002014-06-04T00:10:33.819-07:00Education ChartThe following chart compares the education systems in Slovakia, The UK, and the US:<br />
<br />
<br />
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: currentColor; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border: 1pt solid windowtext; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 126pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">The <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">UK</st1:place></st1:country-region></span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 142.05pt;" valign="top" width="189"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">USA</st1:country-region></st1:place></span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: windowtext windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: solid solid solid none; border-width: 1pt 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Slovakia</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
<span lang="EN-US">Pre-School</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 126pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">a
Nursery</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> (Jasle): Age 1-4</span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Playgroup</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> (</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;">Škôlka): Age 2-4</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 142.05pt;" valign="top" width="189"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">a
Nursery</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Age 1-4</span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;">Pre-K</span></b><span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">(Nursery School):</b> Age 3-4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: SK; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Head
Start Programs</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: SK; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"> – for poor children in big cities: Age 3-4</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Jasle:
</span></b><span lang="EN-US">Age 1-3<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: SK; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Škôlka: </span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: SK; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Age 3-6</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Primary Education</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 126pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Infant
School</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> (The first year is called Reception): Age
5-8</span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Junior</span></b></st1:placename><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></span></b></st1:place><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">: Age 8-11</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 142.05pt;" valign="top" width="189"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Elementary/Grammar</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> School:</span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Kindergarten – 6<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>th</sup> Grade: Age
5-11</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Základná
škola<o:p></o:p></span></b></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Age: 6-15 (11 for some students)</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 3;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span lang="EN-US">Secondary Education</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 126pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Comprehensive
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: state</span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Academies</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Fancy name for a comprehensive school.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Grammar
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: state schools that require an entrance
exam, called The 11 Plus</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Free
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: independently controlled state schools</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Private
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: charge a fee</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Public
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: high status private schools, like Eton, <st1:place w:st="on">Harrow</st1:place></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">GCSE
Exam</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> (Age 16)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">College
</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">(2 years) – preparation for University. Age 17-18</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 142.05pt;" valign="top" width="189"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><strong>Middle
school: </strong>Grade<strong> </strong>7<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>th</sup> – 8<sup>th</sup> <span lang="EN-US">Ages 12-14</span></span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">High
School</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Grade 9<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>th</sup> – 12<sup>th</sup> </span></span><span lang="EN-US">Ages 14-19</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Public
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: state schools</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Private
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: are private </span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Wingdings; mso-ascii-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-char-type: symbol; mso-hansi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;"><span style="mso-char-type: symbol; mso-symbol-font-family: Wingdings;">J</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Charter
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: like free schools.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Magnet
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: specialize in one subject. They choose
students by lottery or entrance tests. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Pilot
Schools</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: a school created as an experiment in
education.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Home
Schooling</span></b><span lang="EN-US">: Parents teach you</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Day
Care</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">: afterschool childcare for working parents. It’s
privately run.</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Stredná
škola:<o:p></o:p></span></b></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Gymnazium:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> preparation for university.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Stredná
odborná škola:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> vocational school.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Združená
stredná škola:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> a combined school.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Učilište:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> trade school with no Maturita, and you can’t go to university.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 4;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">School Traditions</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 126pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><strong>Prom/School Formal: </strong></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">spring
dance, Age 16, and again at 18</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 142.05pt;" valign="top" width="189"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Homecoming
Dance: </span></b><span lang="EN-US">fall dance, for 1<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>st</sup> football game
on home field.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Senior
Prom: </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">spring dance, last year of high school.</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Ples:
</span></b><span lang="EN-US">fall dance for 2<span style="font-size: small;"><sup>nd</sup> year students.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Stušková:
</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">fall event for seniors</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 5;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Controversies:</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 126pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
</o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Failing schools</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Grammar Schools are elitist.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Do you mix students with </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>different abilities or not?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Confusing system keeps </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>changing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. University has become too </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>expensive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">6. Easy universities with grade </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>inflation
are giving “Mickey </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mouse”
degrees.</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 142.05pt;" valign="top" width="189"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
</o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Funding & Failing Schools</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Teachers’ Unions, Tenure & </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Firing
Bad Teachers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Standardized Testing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Religion & Prayer in School</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. School Vouchers</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">6. Bilingual Education</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">7. Textbooks & Censorship</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">8. Affirmative Action, Segregation, & <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>School
Busing</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">9. Creationism vs. Evolution</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
</o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. School Funding</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Teacher Salaries</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Corruption</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Schools lowering </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>their
standards, </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>due
to low </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>student
</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>enrollment.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. easy universities</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>giving “Mickey</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Mouse”
degrees.</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 6;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Graduation Exams</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 126pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">GCSE
</span></b><span lang="EN-US">for Secondary School.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">None</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"> for college. You don’t graduate, there’s no ceremony.</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 142.05pt;" valign="top" width="189"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Final
Exams:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> every year, and</span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Senior</span></b></st1:placename><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"> <st1:placetype w:st="on">State</st1:placetype></span></b></st1:place><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"> Exams</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">: like
the Maturita, and different in each state</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><strong>Maturita: </strong></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">state
exam with different difficulty levels.</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 7;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> <span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">University Placement
Tests:</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 126pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><strong>A Levels: </strong></span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">one
test for all university applications</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 142.05pt;" valign="top" width="189"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">SAT</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> (east & west coast)</span></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">ACT </span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">(mid-west)</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p><strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Prij</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: SK; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">í</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">mačky
– </span></strong><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">each school is different</span></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 8; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext; border-style: none solid solid; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 77.4pt;" valign="top" width="103"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
</o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Higher Education</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Tuition:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Undergraduate Degree:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Graduate Degrees:</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 126pt;" valign="top" width="168"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
</o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">University<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span class="st"><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial;">£</span></span><span lang="EN-US">.9000 (€11125,00)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Bachelor’s Degree: 3 years*</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">* 1 year extra for practicum in
architecture, engineering, surveying, foreign languages (study abroad)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Master’s Degree: 2 years</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 142.05pt;" valign="top" width="189"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
</o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">College
</span></b><span lang="EN-US">(private)<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">/University
</b>(public)<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Community
College:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> cheaper, less reputable.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">$28,500 a year (€20886) (average)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Scholarships:</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> </span><span lang="EN-US">need-based &
academic.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Bachelor’s Degree: 4 years</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US">Graduate</span></st1:placename><span lang="EN-US"> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></span></st1:place><span lang="EN-US">:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">-<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Law</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place>: 3-4 years</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">-Med School: 8 years</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2+ years for a Master’s Degree</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">4+ years for a PhD</span></div>
</td>
<td style="background-color: transparent; border-color: rgb(0, 0, 0) windowtext windowtext rgb(0, 0, 0); border-style: none solid solid none; border-width: 0px 1pt 1pt 0px; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 115.15pt;" valign="top" width="154"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p>
</o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-US">Vysoká
škola<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;">0 (€2000 for dorm and
travel)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;">Bachalarska diplom: 3
years<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;">Ingeniersky/<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;">Magistersky<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="mso-ansi-language: SK;">Diplom: 2 years<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: SK; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">Phd: 3 years</span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-71663517895447608382014-03-02T12:36:00.002-08:002014-04-24T00:45:40.897-07:00Mass Media: Famous News Sources<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>News In the United Kingdom</strong></span><br />
<br />
Television<br />
<br />
Newspapers<br />
<br />
Magazines<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>News In the USA</strong></span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Television</strong></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://abc.go.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://abc.go.com/" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbpRRD-mfFiglU_pWswfHPpWOMSPHQhzm82G5o4gO9hjZaaJQ2d5eq68CN3RsnNu5SZxc8BWbiMwG7B8_xUm8E0iye9lV2ZEBMZaz2gYW8otJWUKKnEJxZvI2ckFzm8wQDV9HUlctQIiCP/s1600/abc-logo+web.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a> <a href="http://www.nbc.com/"><img alt="http://www.nbc.com/" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY9L2ts5DzOcG-hHExAfg3b5yatUgf4pA0BkX1qizJPd57qfk0uVbSqHGPI-hAvgNVs-a7z4LHhz9wcDZWrtGDF7qGIdB-c7scWlK6i8K4iz1JdI7oucw7RQHHQkcGuLJ-EZWlvH00wgnX/s1600/NBC+Logo+web.jpg" height="200" width="199" /></a> <a href="http://www.cbs.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.cbs.com/" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpx-kAPDd2RVwX7MNe08ELXJOEvCc3K-B9tmedwCnJwthS3wo9cWssOZdJ_oh7c25a3t4mttREQ9rSyTpCORTYv5Dus2y0UCE77J_wrE44gDl5hxQJvDz7MffolodsM188uPe8B0MQnXW4/s1600/cbs-logo-2+web.jpg" height="200" width="196" /></a> <a href="http://www.pbs.org/" target="_blank"><img alt="http://www.pbs.org/" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtGRZWE-DM6B2u2wAsrXcnCIIdn8PUw-l7cr27mVsIKyAqB9Z94oPs5MbI-WQELOgDYRSvbZPZN3tES7SD3M-HgUv6gBima2rcEBA7dKVbOYCbJUlHf89m1Sy6Jl0R0dWxYlF-EUDDvH6w/s1600/pbs-logo+web.jpg" height="191" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<strong>Network Channels:</strong> ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS (Public Broadcasting Service), which is state owned. Each of these networks provides local and national news. PBS's <em>News Hour</em>, <em>Frontline</em>, and <em>Nova</em> programs are some of the most trusted news sources in America, although some complain of liberal bias. PBS also shows educational programs for children.<br />
<br />
Cable TV became popular in the 80's, and is now common in most people's homes. Cable news channels include:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivD19NyeM4oFez6I917cIBUupouBX3km232rdrbV89ZvXdRdA7APhyxC-jFWV2hYSPb7QJ3PwgtaNfNiQEpkA4x-3mQHtl_SQPm_MVdd6Gi9ELVwSuopdGC0gVLu7AG4EnoekG-NWztdXe/s1600/funny-gif-CNN-satellite-interview-same-bus+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivD19NyeM4oFez6I917cIBUupouBX3km232rdrbV89ZvXdRdA7APhyxC-jFWV2hYSPb7QJ3PwgtaNfNiQEpkA4x-3mQHtl_SQPm_MVdd6Gi9ELVwSuopdGC0gVLu7AG4EnoekG-NWztdXe/s1600/funny-gif-CNN-satellite-interview-same-bus+web.jpg" height="273" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<strong>CNN</strong> (Cable News Network): It's a 24 hour news network, famous for showing live footage of famous events, such as the Iraq War, and the 911 attack. It's not as good or as popular as it used to be. They give headlines, but not much detailed news.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh65XUPZH2IQvxnnY3uZImfDHpEI-SmPgXWNnO3DUXDPB_ruMAkcAFQRMnICp2EIeo2Lp3qqHpiIquHEpK9FJcIBElN3YHOG-cw_SSe0AqGwmqeNOrUEka-nTIOJhCXj5oWmN0dDqTLrfOS/s1600/550x-Fox-News-in-a-nutshell+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh65XUPZH2IQvxnnY3uZImfDHpEI-SmPgXWNnO3DUXDPB_ruMAkcAFQRMnICp2EIeo2Lp3qqHpiIquHEpK9FJcIBElN3YHOG-cw_SSe0AqGwmqeNOrUEka-nTIOJhCXj5oWmN0dDqTLrfOS/s1600/550x-Fox-News-in-a-nutshell+web.jpg" height="241" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<strong>FOX News:</strong> It's news with a neo-conservative viewpoint. It seems like 24 hour news, like CNN, but only four hours a day is officially "news". The rest of the time they show "opinion pieces" with such pundits as Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, Glen Beck, Sarah Palin, and Carl Rove.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJn-BsxIrm6df6KM9SmprJIrezMctzSsktRcW2TQ7x4x03L2Jvqy2Si0m_8XSiuJx0p5qCtn4jtwKqnBm0YtZTKuQwmYYqMvH7P132l08tKTvdjfCrc1xd6neXmi1WKIWuLmlghcJxUEQ3/s1600/funny-pictures+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJn-BsxIrm6df6KM9SmprJIrezMctzSsktRcW2TQ7x4x03L2Jvqy2Si0m_8XSiuJx0p5qCtn4jtwKqnBm0YtZTKuQwmYYqMvH7P132l08tKTvdjfCrc1xd6neXmi1WKIWuLmlghcJxUEQ3/s1600/funny-pictures+web.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />
<strong>MSNBC:</strong> It's a liberal response to FOX News, 24 hour news with liberal pundits like Rachel Maddow.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Radio</span></strong><br />
<br />
<strong>NPR</strong> (National Public Radio): A state owned radio network, it's famous for it's news programs, <em>Morning Edition</em> and <em>All Things Considered</em>. It's also famous for telethons where they beg for money for weeks at a time, so they can continue to broadcast. They are also considered to have a liberal bias. When not telling the news, NPR plays jazz and classical music.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Newspapers</strong></span><br />
<br />
<strong>The New York Times:</strong> a famous newspaper, currently struggling to survive due to free news on the Internet. It was famous for getting secret information about the illegal activities of President Nixon, in the 70's. Some people today complain it's too liberal.<br />
<br />
<strong>The Wall Street Journal:</strong> A famous newspaper, focusing on business and finance. It's moderately conservative.<br />
<br />
<strong>The Onion:</strong> A fake newspaper that creates funny stories every week. They specialize in dark humour. It started on the internet in the 1990's.<br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-size: large;">Magazines</span></strong><br />
<br />
<strong>Time Magazine:</strong> A magazine started by the NY Times, it's famous for its photographs, interviews, and it's <em>Person of the Year</em>. Every year they choose the most influential person in the world, whether good or bad, and talk about him.<br />
<br />
<strong>US News & World Report:</strong> It's much like Time Magazine. They're famous for publishing a yearly college guide, ranking the best and the worst universities in America.<br />
<br />
<strong>Newsweek:</strong> Another news magazine, similar to Time, but always a bit dumbed down. Over the years, Time has become more and more like Newsweek.<br />
<br />
<strong>Foreign Policy:</strong> A monthly political magazine with guest writers in every issue. Every article is an essay by a famous professor, politician, or other "expert". They talk about everything happening now in the world in great detail, and also show great photos.<br />
<br />
<strong>The Nation:</strong> News with a very liberal viewpoint. If you want to read news free from the influence of major businesses, this is it.<br />
<br />
<strong>The New Yorker:</strong> A weekly literary magazine, it also includes investigative journalism, on major news stories.<br />
<br />
<strong>Atlantic Monthly:</strong> A monthly literary magazine, it also includes investigative journalism, on major news stories.<br />
<br />
<strong>Harper's:</strong> A monthly literary magazine, it also includes investigative journalism, on major news stories.<br />
<br />
<strong>Rolling Stone:</strong> A music magazine that also reports news stories, with a strong liberal bias. They're famous for the recent story on General McChrystal, former head of the armed forces in Afghanistan who had to resign after it was published.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Other Famous American Magazines</strong></span><br />
<br />
<strong>Science News:</strong> National Geographic, Discover, Scientific American, Nature, MIT Tech Review<br />
<strong>Sports News:</strong> Sports Illustrated, famous for its yearly <em>Swimsuit Issue</em>.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>News in Slovakia</strong></span><br />
<br />
Television<br />
<br />
Newspapers<br />
<br />
MagazinesT Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-7165273410825192732014-02-23T06:01:00.003-08:002014-02-23T06:01:46.641-08:00Food: Wine Basics
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Learning Wine</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<u><span lang="EN-US">Wine is fermented juice, usually grapes.</span></u><span lang="EN-US"> Other fruit wines are made from apples, and elderberries. The
oldest wine production comes from 6000 BC, in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Georgia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. There are many kinds of
wine, some white, some red, with a variety of flavours, based on <u>the kinds
of grapes used, the quality of a vintage, and the fermentation process.</u> The
longer a wine ferments, the drier and more bitter it becomes. These factors
determine whether a wine is sweet or dry (bitter). While some wines from a good
vintage can age a long time, most wines turn bad after about 8-10 years.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 18pt;">
<u><span lang="EN-US">The three
main factors that can ruin a wine are heat, oxygen, and sunlight.</span></u><span lang="EN-US"> The perfect storage temperature is 12.7° C. To keep oxygen out, you
should <u>store wine on its side</u> (or at a diagonal to keep sediments at the
bottom). This keeps the cork wet, so it won’t shrink, letting in air. If you go
to a wine shop and see every bottle standing on shelves, that tells you how
little the owner knows about wine.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Wine Varieties</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">When a wine has
75% or more of one kind of grape, it’s called a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">varietal</b> wine. Otherwise, it’s called a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">blended</b> wine. Wine labeled <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><strong>Bordeaux</strong></st1:place></st1:city>
is usually a blended wine. Both varietal and blended wines can be very fine
quality and expensive. There are many species of grapes, including:</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><strong>Neutral Whites:</strong> Chardonnay (Everywhere,
started in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">Burgundy</st1:state></st1:place>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><strong>Neutral Reds:</strong> Tempranillo (<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Spain</st1:place></st1:country-region>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><strong>Bitter Reds:</strong> Cabernet Sauvignon
(Everywhere, started in <st1:city w:st="on">Bordeaux</st1:city>), Merlot
(Everywhere, started in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Bordeaux</st1:city></st1:place>)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><strong>Fruitier Reds:</strong> Pinot noir (<st1:state w:st="on">Burgundy</st1:state>), Gamay Noir (<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Loire</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype></st1:place>)</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-large;">Sweet Wines</span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">They’re not so popular, which is good
because there’s less of it. It’s harder to make – for example, waiting till
grapes are overripe and/or crushing frozen grapes before dawn, before they
thaw. Or, you can turn grapes to raisins first. These processes make much less
wine than a normal process, making them more expensive.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Hungarian <strong>Tokaji
Eszencia</strong> is one of the sweetest wines in the world, taking years to ferment.
Other sweet wines include <strong>Sherries, Vin de Paille</strong> in <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>,
<strong>Comandaria</strong> in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Cyprus</st1:country-region>, and
<strong>Vin Santo</strong> wines in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Tuscany</st1:place></st1:state>. </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US">Portuguese</span></st1:placename><span lang="EN-US"> <st1:placetype w:st="on"><strong>Port</strong></st1:placetype></span></st1:place><span lang="EN-US"> adds brandy
to stop the fermentation process, making the wine sweeter and with more
alcohol, about 20%. </span><st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US"><strong>Madeira</strong></span></st1:place><span lang="EN-US"> wine is similar, but
then it’s heated to 130° F – a stronger wine you can open and keep for months,
or cellar it for centuries. Some <st1:place w:st="on">Madeiras</st1:place> are
over 300 years old, and still drinkable.</span></div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-8493927713067767282014-01-08T23:54:00.000-08:002014-01-08T23:54:51.063-08:00Shel Silverstein "Sick""I cannot go to school today,"<br />
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.<br />
"I have the measles and the mumps,<br />
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.<br />
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,<br />
I'm going blind in my right eye.<br />
My tonsils are as big as rocks,<br />
I've counted sixteen chicken pox<br />
And there's one more<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">–<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">–that's seventeen,</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">And don't you think my face looks green?</span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My leg is cut, my eyes are blue<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">–<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">–</span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">It might be instamatic flu.</span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,</span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">I'm sure that my left leg is broke<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">–<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">–</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My hip hurts when I move my chin,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My belly button's caving in,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My 'pendix pains each time it rains.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My nose is cold, my toes are numb,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">I have a sliver in my thumb.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">I hardly whisper when I speak.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My tongue is filling up my mouth,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">I think my hair is falling out.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My temperature is one-o-eight.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">There is a hole inside my ear.</span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">I have a hangnail, and my heart is<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">–<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">–what?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">What's that? What's that you say?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">You say today is . . . Saturday?</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">G'bye, I'm going out to play!"</span></span></span></span></span></span></span></span>T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-39135053642423850002013-12-28T02:55:00.001-08:002013-12-28T02:55:11.144-08:00I am a Front Desk Agent<span class="userContent">I'm not sure who wrote this. It's been spreading virally on Facebook. Have some sympathy for your hotel receptionists:</span><span class="userContent"><br /></span><br />
<span class="userContent">I am a Front Desk Agent</span><br />
<span class="userContent"><br /> I have advanced degrees in Accounting, Public Relations, Marketing, Business, Computer Science, Civil Engineering, and Swahili. I can also read minds.<br /> <br /> Of course I have the reservation that you booked six years ago even though you don't have the confirmation number and you think it was made under a name that starts with "S".<br /> <br /> It is completely my fault that the blizzard shut down the airport and you have to sleep in a warm king-size bed while 5000 of your co-travellers are sleeping in benches at the airport. I am sorry.<br /> <br /> It is not a problem for me to give you seven connecting, non-smoking, poolside suites with two king beds in each, four rollaways, 3 cribs, and yes, I can install a wet bar. I know it is my fault that we do not have a helicopter landing pad.<br /> <br /> I am a Front Desk Agent. I am expected to speak all languages fluently. It is obvious to me that when you booked your reservation for Friday on the weekend we're sold out that you really meant Saturday. My company has entrusted me with all financial information and decisions, and yes, I am lying to you when I say we have no more rooms available. It is not a problem for me to quickly construct several more guest rooms. THIS time I will not forget the helicopter landing pad. And it is my fault that everyone wanted to stay here. I should have known you were coming in, even though you had no reservation. After all, you stay at our brand of hotel all the time, 300 nights a year, and this is only the first time you've ever been to our city.<br /> <br /> I am a front desk agent. I am quite capable of checking three people in, two people out, taking five reservations, answering fifteen incoming calls, delivering six bath towels to room 625, plunging the toilet in room 101, and restocking the supply of pool towels, all at the same time. Yes, I will be glad to call the van driver and tell him to drive over all the cars stuck in traffic because you've been waiting at the airport for 15 minutes and you've got jet lag.<br /> <br /> I am a front desk agent, an operator, a bellhop, houseman, guest service representative, housekeeper, sales coordinator, information specialist, entertainment critic, restauranteur, stock broker, referee, janitor, computer technician, plumber, ice-breaker, postman, babysitter, dispatcher, laundry cleaner, lifeguard, electrician, ambassador, personal fitness trainer, fax expert, human jukebox, domestic abuse counselor, and verbal punching bag. Yes, I know room 112 is not answering their phone. And of course I have their travel itinerary so I know exactly where they went when they left here 9 hours ago, and what their cell phone number is.<br /> <br /> I always know where to find the best vegetarian-kosher-Mongolian-barbecue restaurants. I know exactly what to see and do in this city in fifteen minutes without spending any money and without getting caught in traffic. I take personal blame for airline food, traffic jams, rental car flat tires, and the nation's economy.<br /> <br /> I realize that you meant to book your reservation here. People often confuse us with the Galaxy Delight Motel, Antarctica. Of course I can "fit you in" and yes, you may have the special $1 rate because you are affiliated with the Hoboken Accounting and Bagel Club.<br /> <br /> I am expected to smile, empathize, sympathize, console, condole, upsell, downsell (and know when to do which), perform, sing, dance, fix the printer, and tell your friends that you're here. And I know exactly where 613 Possum Trot Lane is in the Way Out There subdivision that they just built last week.<br /> <br /> After all, I AM a Front Desk Agent!</span>T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-45891529620865574112013-12-09T12:08:00.001-08:002013-12-09T12:12:54.187-08:00Socially Awkward PenguinAs young people begin to mature, they learn valuable social lessons about how to be accepted - which behaviour is normal, and which is annoying to others. Some people have a hard time learning the basics, worrying too much about some things, while not even realizing their most embarrassing habits. This leads to awkward moments, where you feel foolish. This is normal, and happens to everybody, even adults, right? Right?<br />
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Here to explain further, the delightful Awkward Penguin:<br />
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T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-19655222415681506272013-10-30T23:23:00.003-07:002013-11-30T11:45:08.663-08:00America: Well, You Gotta Live Somewhere, by George Carlin<span lang="EN-US">(The following excerpt is posted for non-commercial, educational purposes. I will remove it if requested. No lawsuits are necessary. Some words were censored to make it age appropriate.)</span><span lang="EN-US"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US">Well, Ya Gotta Live Someplace</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">by George Carlin</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
grew up in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York City</st1:place></st1:city>
and lived there until I was thirty.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At
the time, I decided I’d had enough of life in a dynamic, sophisticated city, so
I moved to <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>.
Actually, I moved there because of the time difference. I was behind in my
work, and wanted to pick up the extra three hours. Technically, for the last
thirty years I’ve been living in my own past.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
knew I didn’t want to move to the <st1:place w:st="on">Midwest</st1:place>. I
could never live in a place where the outstanding geographic feature is the
horizon. The <st1:place w:st="on">Midwest</st1:place> seems like a nice place
to catch up on your sleep.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Another
reason I could never live in the <st1:place w:st="on">Midwest</st1:place> is
that it gets really cold there. You’ve heard of hypothermia and exposure? I
could never be comfortable in a place where you can die simply by going out to
the mailbox. Living in an area where an open window can cause death seems
foolish to me.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of
course, living in the South was never an option – the main problem being they
have too much respect for authority; they’re soldier-sniffers and cop lovers. I
don’t respect that, and I could never live with it. There’s also way too much
religion in the South to be consistent with good mental health.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Still,
I love traveling down there, especially when I’m in the mood for a quick trip
to the thirteenth century. I’m not someone who buys all that “New South” #*$@
you hear; I judge a place by the number of lynchings they’ve had, over-all. <st1:city w:st="on">Atlanta</st1:city> even found it necessary to come up with an
apologetic civic slogan: <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Atlanta</st1:place></st1:city>:
The City Too Busy to Hate. I think they’re trying to tell us something.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There’s
also the communications problem. I have trouble understanding Southerners. Some
of them sound like they’re chewing on a *@#!. And I really have nothing against
them individually; one by one they can be quite charming. But when you take
them as a whole, there is some really dangerous genetic material floating
around down there.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>So,
I live in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>,
and it’s kind of a goofy place. They have an airport named after John Wayne.
That oughtta explain it. It has a charming kind of superstitious innocence.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But
if you really want to understand life in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state>,
forget the grief clinics and yogaholics. Forget biofeedback, Feldenkrais,
neurolinguistic programming, and the Alexander technique.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Disregard
spirit guides, centering groups, dream workshops, bioenergetics, pyramid
energy, and primal therapy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ignore
centering, fasting, Rolfing, grounding, channeling, rebirthing, nurturing,
self-parenting, and colon cleansing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
don’t even think about polarity work, inversion swings, flower essences, guided
synchronicity, harmonic brain wave synergy, and psychocalisthenics.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>You
also need pay no attention to nude volleyball, spinach therapy, white wine hot
tubs, jogging on hot coals, and the people who sing Christmas carols to zoo
animals.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Forget
all that. The only thing you have to know about <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state> is this: They have traffic school
for chocoholics.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Okay?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state> is the only
place where you might hear someone say, “Jason can’t come to the phone, he’s
taking his wind lesson.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The
problem most New Yorkers have with <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los
Angeles</st1:place></st1:city> is that it is fragmented and lacks a vital
center. The people have no common experience. Instead, they exude a kind of
bemused detachment that renders them intensely uninteresting. The West Coast
experience is soft and peripheral, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">New
York</st1:state></st1:place> is hard and concentrated. <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state> is a small woman saying, “Fuck
me.” <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>
is a large man saying, “Fuck you!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Still,
I live in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state>.
But I’m not “laid-back,” and I’m certainly not “mellow.” I associate those
qualities with the comatose. The solar system wasn’t formed because matter was
laid-back; life didn’t arise from the oceans and humans descend from the trees
because DNA was mellow. It happened because of something called energy.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state></st1:place> has energy, and
all I can say is this: If you can’t handle it, stay the #*$@ out. Living in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> is a
character-builder; you must know who you are, what you’re doing, where you’re
going, and how to get there. No b.s. tolerated! <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> people are tough and resilient. All
the rest of you are varying degrees of soft.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Most
outsiders can’t handle <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>,
so they wind up back in Big Loins Arkansas, badmouthing The City for the rest
of their lives. Actually, most of the people who run <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> down have never been there. And if
they ever went, we would destroy them in nine minutes. People hate <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>, because that’s
where the action is, and they know it’s passing them by. Most of the decisions
that control people’s lives are made in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New
York City</st1:place></st1:city>. Not in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Washington</st1:place></st1:state>, not on <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Pennsylvania Avenue</st1:address></st1:street>. In <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York City</st1:place></st1:city>! Madison Avenue and Wall
Street. People can’t handle that. Pisses ’em off. #*$@ ’em!</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And
I’m really glad the Yankees humiliated the Braves in the World Series. I’m glad
the gritty, tough, Third-World, streetwise <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>
culture triumphed over the soft, suburban, wholesome, white-Christian, tacky
mall culture of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Atlanta</st1:place></st1:city>.
Overgrown small towns like <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Atlanta</st1:place></st1:city>
have no business in the major leagues in the first place.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Concerning
<st1:city w:st="on">L.A.</st1:city> versus <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state>:
I have now lived half my life in each of <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s two most hated, feared,
and envied cities, and you want to know something? There’s no comparison. New
York even has a better class of assholes. Even the lames in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> have a certain appealing, dangerous
quality.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>As
an example of how hopeless <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state>
is, when I first got there, a policeman gave me a ticket for jaywalking. You
have to understand the kind of people who live in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state>. They are willing to stand,
passive and inert, on a curb, when absolutely no traffic is coming, or maybe
just a little traffic that could easily be dodged. They simply stand there
obediently and wait for an electric light to give them permission to proceed. I
couldn’t believe this cop. I laughed at him. The ticket cost me about twenty
dollars in 1966. Since that time, I figure I have jaywalked an additional
thousand times or so without being caught. #*$@ that lame-ass cop! I’ve managed
to prorate that ticket down to about two cents a jaywalk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>One
thing I find appealing in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state>
is the emphasis on driving. I like to drive, I’m skillful at it, and I do it
aggressively. And I don’t mean I scream at people or flash them the finger. I
simply go about my passage swiftly and silently, with a certain deliberate,
dark efficiency. In the land of the unassertive, the aggressive man is king.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Of
course, in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:place></st1:city>,
everything is based on driving, even the killings. In <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state>, most people don’t have cars, so if
you want to kill a person, you have to take the subway to their house. And
sometimes on the way, the train is delayed and you get impatient, so you have
to kill someone on the subway. That’s why there are so many subway murders; no
one has a car. Basically, if more people in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">New York</st1:place></st1:state> had cars, the subways would be a
lot safer.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I
hope you can tell, the Apple is still number one in my heart. I’m so
chauvinistic, I even root for <st1:state w:st="on">New York</st1:state> to
raise more money than <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Los Angeles</st1:city></st1:place>
on the Arthritis Telethon. And we usually do.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:state>: bordering
always on the Pacific and sometimes on the ridiculous. So, why do I live there?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Because
the sun goes down a block from my house.</span></div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-70234153466221023042013-10-30T23:18:00.001-07:002013-11-08T02:26:53.157-08:00Mass Media: Turn Down the Radio! by George Carlin<span lang="EN-US">(The following excerpt is posted for non-commercial, educational purposes. I will remove it if requested. No lawsuits are necessary.)</span><br />
<br />
<span lang="EN-US">Turn Down the Radio!</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US">by George Carlin</span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Does anyone really listen to that crappy
music they play on the radio? FM radio music? What’s it called” Adult
contemporary? Classic rock? Urban rhythm and blues? You know what the official
business name for that crap is? “Corporate standardized programming.” Just what
an art form needs: corporate standardized programming. Derived from
“scientific” surveys conducted by soulless businessmen.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Here’s
how bad it is: One nationwide chain that owns over a thousand radio stations
conducts weekly telephone polls, asking listeners their opinions on twenty-five
to thirty song “hooks” they play over the phone; hooks that the radio people
have already selected. (Hooks are the short, repeated parts of pop songs that
people remember easily.) Depending on these polls, the radio chain decides
which songs to place on their stations’ playlists.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Weeks
later, they record the hooks of all the songs they’re currently playing on
their stations across the country, label them by title and artist and sell that
information to record companies to help create more of the same bad music. They
also sell the information to competing radio stations that want to play what
the big chain is playing. All of this is done to prevent the possibility of
original thinking somehow creeping into the system.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Lemme
tell you something: In the first place, listening to music that someone
else<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>has picked out is not my idea of a
good time. Second, and more important, the fact that a lot of people in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region></st1:place>
actually like the music automatically means it sucks. Especially since the
people who like it have been told in advance by businessmen what it is they’re
supposed to like. Please. Save me from people who’ve been told what to like and
then like it.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In
my opinion, if you’re over six years of age, and you’re still getting your
music from the radio, something is desperately wrong with you. I can only hope
that somehow MP3 players and file sharing will destroy FM radio the way they’re
destroying record companies. Then, even though the air will probably never be
safe to breathe again, maybe it will be safer to listen to.</span></div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-63276437200172574492013-10-30T23:01:00.002-07:002013-10-30T23:01:52.562-07:00Mass Media: Anything But the Present, by George Carlin<span lang="EN-US">(The following excerpt is posted for non-commercial, educational purposes. I will remove it if requested. No lawsuits are necessary. Some words were censored to make it age appropriate.)</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US">Anything But The
Present</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US">by George Carlin</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm;">
<span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span lang="EN-US">America</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span lang="EN-US"> has no now. We’re reluctant to acknowledge the present. It’s too
embarrassing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Instead, we reach into the past. Our culture is composed of sequels,
reruns, remakes, revivals, reissues, re-releases, re-creations, re-enactments,
adaptations, anniversaries, memorabilia, oldies radio, and nostalgia record
collections. World War II has been refought on television so many times, the
Germans and Japanese are now drawing residuals.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Of course, being essentially full of shit, we sometimes feel the
need to dress up this past-preoccupation, as with pathetic references to reruns
as “encore presentations.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Even instant replay is a form of token nostalgia: a brief visit to
the immediate past for reexamination, before slapping it onto a highlight video
for further review and re-review on into the indefinite future.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Our “yestermania” includes fantasy baseball camps, where aging sad
sacks pay money to catch baseballs thrown by men who were once their heroes. It
is part of the fascination with sports memorabilia, a “memory industry” so
lucrative it has attracted counterfeiters.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">In this, the Age of Hyphens, we are truly retro-Americans.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">And our television newscasts not only reflect this condition, they
feed it. Everything they report is twisted into some reference to the past. If
there’s to be a summit meeting, you’ll be told all about the last six summits;
if there’s a big earthquake, they’ll do a story about big earthquakes of the
past; if there’s a mine disaster, you will hear about every mine disaster since
the inception of mining. They’re obsessed with looking back. I swear I actually
heard this during a newscast, as the anchorman went to a commercial break: he
said, “Still ahead, a look back.” Honest.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">“A look back: Hurricane Hugo, one year later.” Why? The anniversary
of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. For what reason? The anniversary of the Bay of
Pigs, Pan Am Flight 103, the hostages in Iran, the fall of the Berlin Wall, V-J
Day, V-E Day, Vietnam. Who gives a fuck?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Bugs Bunny’s 50<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> birthday, Lassie’s 55<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>, the
Golden Jubilee of <i>Gone With the Wind</i>, the start of the Korean War,
Barbie celebrates her 35<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup>, the 25<sup><span style="font-size: x-small;">th</span></sup> anniversary of the
New York blackout, Bambi turns 50. Shit, I didn’t even like Bambi when I was
supposed to, how much do I care now?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">There’s really no harm reviewing the past from time to time; knowing
where you’ve been is part of knowing where you are, and all that happy
horseshit. But the American media have an absolute fixation on this. They rob
us of the present by insisting on the past. If they were able, I’m sure they
would pay equal attention to the future. Trouble is, they don’t have any film
on it.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">And so, on television news there is, oddly, very little emphasis on
the present; on today’s actual news. The present exists only in thirty-second
stories built around eight-second sound bites. Remember, “sound bite” is their
phrase. That’s what they give you. Just a bite. No chewing, no digestion, no
nourishment. Malnutrition.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Another way they avoid the present moment is to look ahead on their
own schedules. The television news industry seems to revolve around what’s
coming next. “Still to come,” “Just ahead,” “Up next,” “Coming up this
half-hour,” “More to come,” “Stay with us,” “Still ahead,” “Also, later . . .”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">They even preview what’s going to happen as little as one hour
later:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>During the “Five O’Clock News”,
the empty-headed prick who does the “Five O’Clock News” will suddenly say,
“Here’s a look at what’s coming up on the ‘Six O’Clock News.” Then the
empty-headed prick who does the “Six O’Clock News” will appear in shirtsleeves
in the newsroom (to create the illusion of actual work) and tell you about
several stories that the empty-headed prick who does the “Five O’Clock News”
should already have told you about if he were really a newsman.</span></div>
<div class="MsoBlockText" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">And
so it goes, around the clock:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>on the
“Five O’Clock News,” they tell you about the “Six O’Clock News”; at six
O’Clock, they tell you about eleven; at eleven, they plug the morning news; the
morning man promos the noontime lady, and, sure enough, a little after noon,
here comes that empty-headed prick from the “Five O’Clock News” to tell you
what he’s going to do . . . on the “Five O’Clock News.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">You know, if a guy were paranoid, he might not be blamed for
thinking that the people who run things don’t want you dwelling too much on the
present.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Because, keep in mind, the news media are not independent; they are
a sort of bulletin board and public relations firm for the ruling class – the
people who run things. Those who decided what news you will or will not hear
are paid by, and tolerated purely at the whim of, those who hold economic
power. If the parent corporation doesn’t want you to know something, it won’t
be on the news. Period. Or, at the very least, it will be slanted to suit them,
and then barely followed up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt 0cm; text-indent: 18pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">Enjoy your snooze.</span></div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-78472464547977716702013-10-30T03:14:00.000-07:002013-12-07T01:46:46.515-08:00Family - The Hardest Questions<span style="font-size: x-large;">1. What does family mean to you?</span><br />
<br />
The basic answer, which everyone can agree on - "A family is a social unit."<br />
<br />
Beyond that, this is a political question. The answer depends on your ideology.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Conservatives</span> say, "A family consists of a mother, father, and their children. The mother and father should be married. This is a<strong> nuclear family</strong>. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are part of your <strong>extended family</strong>."<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Liberals</span> say, "A family consists of two people who love each other, whether straight or gay, and their children. Whether they choose to marry is up to them. Whether they want to have children is up to them. No one should feel forced into something they don't want." This ideology is more modern.<br />
<br />
Then, some people feel, "Family is connected by blood. If they're not connected by blood, they're not part of my family." This attitude can apply to step-parents, step-children, your siblings' parents-in-law, second cousins, etc. You may agree or disagree. Usually it depends on <strong>family relations</strong> - how these people get along with each other. Some people consider close friends a part of the family.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">When you answer this question, choose your words carefully.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">-Is marriage necessary?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">-Should marriage only be between a man and a woman?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">-Can a friend can be a part of the family?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">You might indicate an answer without even realizing, by the words you choose.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">2. What are the functions of a family?</span><br />
<br />
The book, <em>Yes!,</em> gives a very technical answer, it sounds like a robot is speaking:<br />
<br />
<em>"It fulfils a biological, sociological, emotional, economic, and educational need in modern society."</em><br />
<br />
It's right, but what does it mean? Let's make it simple.<br />
<br />
The functions of a family are:<br />
1. to provide love, emotional support, and understanding both day to day, and when tragedy strikes,<br />
2. to take care of each other, especially when sick, injured, or elderly, and<br />
3. to plan together where to live, and how to earn, save, and spend money.<br />
4. For families with children, functions include raising them, preparing them for adulthood, and teaching them right from wrong, social norms, and practical skills.<br />
5. Children also have a role to play, helping and learning from their parents, and they have to study and prepare for adultood.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">3. What is cohabitation, and what do you think of it?</span><br />
<br />
Cohabitation is when a couple lives together, out of wedlock. They love each other, but they don't want to marry. Is it good or bad? It's up to you. Here are three possible answers:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">1. Con - I'm against cohabitation because:</span><br />
1. If you and the one you love live together, you shouldn't live in sin. You need God's blessing, especially before having sex.<br />
2. If you and your significant other really love each other, you should get married, because it's a promise to be faithful (no cheating), forever. Why can't you make that promise? What are you afraid of?<br />
3. Marriage isn't just about love. It's about sharing your whole life with one person who really knows you. You don't want to be alone, do you?<br />
4. Your parents won't like it if you don't get married. And other people will think you're strange.<br />
5. What will you tell your children, when they ask about marriage?<br />
6. There are tax benefits (at least in America) for marrying, and it makes it easier to visit your spouse in the hospital. It also makes joint bank accounts easier, and joint wills when you die.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">2. Pro - I'm for cohabitation because:</span><br />
1. I don't think marriage has anything to do with love.<br />
2. A mariage is hard to get out of. Divorce is messy and expansive. You need lawyers, and you fight about who gets what.<br />
3. We all know people change over time, and want different things, so why stay with someone who doesn't make you happy?<br />
4. I don't want to be dependent on anyone. I don't need any help, and I can take care of my children on my own. Or, maybe I don't want to have children.<br />
5. I don't care what anyone else thinks. It's my life.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">3. I support cohabitation for a time, but I think it should lead to marriage.</span><br />
1. I think any strong relationship should lead to marriage, but cohabitation is a good way to see if your partner is right for you.<br />
2. When you live together, you find out what all the problems are, and if you can make compromises.<br />
3. I support marriage because it's a promise of love, support, and fidelity (no cheating).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;">4. Why do people get divorced?</span><br />
<br />
It's not as simple as drugs, gambling, and alcohol. The short answer is:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">"Love is complicated, and not everyone is ready for marriage."</span><br />
<br />
What is love anyway? Well, there are different kinds.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Platonic Love</span> is the love you feel for your family and friends. You respect them, you know them really well, you care and worry about them.<br />
<br />
<em>Platonic Love = respect + understanding + worry</em><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">Romantic Love</span> is similar, but it's so strong it shocks you. You're surprised you could feel so strongly about someone. And it also mixes all these feelings with lust, or libido (silná túžba) - a strong sexual desire.<br />
<br />
<em>Romantic Love = respect + understanding + worry + surprise + lust</em><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">There are many problems that arise with lust:</span><br />
<br />
1. Lust is a feeling that's separate from love. Feelings of lust are controlled by chemicals and hormones in the brain, and can be triggered by visual and sensory stimuli. So, when someone says they want you, how do you know they really love you? Maybe, they only want sex?<br />
<br />
2. Since Lust is separate from love, some people can feel both emotions at the same time, for different people. Lust is like temporary insanity. It makes bad ideas seem like good ones. Any normal person will tell you, don't have sex with someone you don't respect, don't have sex with someone you wouldn't want to have children with, and don't have unprotected sex with strangers. All of these bad ideas might sound better when your lust is aroused. Just remember, the pleasure lasts a moment, but the consequences last a lifetime.<br />
<br />
3. Since lust is controlled by chemicals which come and go in our lives, our interest in sex changes. Men sexually peak at 17, whereas women peak at 27 - so there's only one time in your life when you and your spouse will have the same level of interest. Very often a relationship suffers because one partner loses interest in sex. How do you solve this? Should the other partner have sex despite his/her lack of interest? Should you fake it? Would that be any fun for either of you?<br />
<br />
4. Lust isn't just chemical, there's a psychological aspect to it as well. People connect their self-esteem, at least partially, to sex - it tells them how attractive they are, how special, etc. So, what if you're not satisfying your partner? What if he/she's not telling you? These worries can lead to doubt, jealousy, and marital troubles.<br />
<br />
5. In addition, many people have fantasies and fetishes that may be embarrassing - some people like blonde hair, some like lingerie, and then some are strange and disturbing. Is it possible your partner is hiding something from you? Is the fetish even normal, or is it unhealthy? <br />
<br />
6. Some people have suffered abuse and/or other trauma. Some people have been taught it's "evil", and try to suppress their feelings of lust.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">But lust isn't the only problem. Every aspect of love can be problematic:</span><br />
<br />
1. Love is a very powerful emotion, and when you feel it, you think it will never end. But it can and will, if you don't work to keep it alive.<br />
<br />
2. Love is mostly an intense respect for your partner, meaning you both have to be <em><strong>respectable</strong></em>. And that's hard!<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">To be respectable you have to be: intelligent, modest, caring, understanding, honest, faithful, and very, very patient. You have to be a saint! And not just one day, but your whole life!</span> <br />
<br />
Many young people underestimate the importance of patience. When you ask a teenager which qualities are most attractive in a partner, they never say patience.<br />
To be respectable, it also helps to have a job, and to win the respect of your peers and colleagues, which is hard. Winning others' respect is tied to the fine art of charisma - knowing what to say, and when to say it. Meanwhile, everyone has some embarrassing features, and your spouse will be the first to know it, and tell everyone.<br />
<br />
3. <u>The quickest way to end love is through anger.</u> That's why patience is so important. Unfortunately, the longer two people live together, the less patience they have with each other. No matter how much you love someone, they will eventually make you angry - they will break something you love. They might spill tea on your computer. They might scratch your car while parking. They might crap the bed.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">They'll probably feel guilty about it. It's up to you to make them feel better, not worse.</span><br />
<br />
You also need to catch yourself before starting an argument, to think before speaking, and to consider how to defuse a situation before a fight begins.<br />
<br />
4. One of the most common problems with love is that people fall in love with a bad person. Maybe he's charming? Maybe she's beautiful? Maybe he's caring, and maybe she's loving. But they don't have all the qualities it takes for marriage. Many people don't really know who it is they're marrying.<br />
<br />
"You don't really know someone until you fight them." - The Matrix<br />
<br />
Then, too late, they discover... their spouse is a liar, a cheater, a jealous type, an abusive monster, a gambler, an attention seeker, addicted to spending money, etc. A lot of this has to do with maturity. Many people just aren't that mature.T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-23259053941469176402013-10-25T12:00:00.005-07:002015-04-11T10:53:05.005-07:00Automobile Vocabulary<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-12788072682172848622013-10-08T21:50:00.000-07:002015-03-29T06:09:59.009-07:00Pros and Cons of Transportation<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>Planes</strong></span></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Advantages (Pros):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. It’s the fastest way to travel.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. It’s the safest way to travel – <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/flying-is-still-the-safest-way-to-travel-2013-7?op=1" target="_blank">safer than walking.</a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. You get free food, drinks, and your own
entertainment console.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. You can play games or watch films.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. The bathrooms are clean.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">6. The view is always beautiful, day or
night.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">7. You can buy duty free products, meaning
tax-free.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Disadvantages (Cons):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Planes are very expensive, although you can
sometimes find deals.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Planes are scary. They have turbulence,
and every plane makes a different strange noise.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Planes are often delayed. You might wait
for hours before a flight, during a flight, or after you land.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Airports are never in a city center.
They are always outside of town, so you have to use another kind of transport
to get to town – a car, a taxi, or a bus.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. Airport security is often rude, and they
want to look through your things. They’ll take away any liquids, and sometimes
they’ll take your laptop computer. They might even check your laptop for
illegal downloads. Sometimes they strip search a passenger.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">6. Everyone is afraid of terrorists on a
plane.</span><br />
7. Sometimes an airport will lose your luggage - and instead of finding it, they might just sell it at auction. The Discovery Channel has a TV show devoted to this, called Baggage Battles. Watching these people root through personal belongings makes me want to vomit:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzNtzOVFAAd5ULzxDxW0tBIXcDmk9V5OjN5LTEffMMU61qmBK5ZdDohGijbZaexq-eKbFUq5OtJJJkx6KuQlw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><strong><span style="font-size: x-large;">Trains</span></strong></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Advantages (Pros):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Trains are the most relaxing way to
travel. You can get up, stretch your legs, and go to the restroom without
having to stop the train.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Many trains have a dining car, and some
are quite luxurious.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Train stations will take you straight to
the center of any city.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. They aren’t so expensive and you can get
special tourist or student discounts.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. Some night trains have sleeping cabins
with real beds.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">6. With the right people you can have a
good conversation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">7. The views are also nice.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Disadvantages (Cons):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Some trains are older and dirtier. It
depends on the country.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Some trains don’t have air conditioning,
and can be very hot or cold.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Trains can be scary if you’ve ever seen
a train wreck.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Sometimes you meet strange people on
trains. They might be drunk. They might ask for money. Sometimes groups of
teenage boys will harass young women.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. Sometimes a train will split up along
the way, and you have to be on the right side or you’ll arrive at the wrong
destination.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>Buses</strong></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Advantages (Pros):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Buses are usually cheaper.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. There are different kinds of buses: city
buses, airport and hotel shuttles (which are usually free), long distance buses
(Greyhound in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>),
and tour buses.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Tour buses can take you on budget
vacations to see different cities and countries.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Tour buses and long distance buses
usually have a bathroom.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. Some bus drivers will make a special
stop for you – you’ll be closer to where you want to go.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">6. With the right people you can have a
good conversation.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Disadvantages (Cons):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Buses are cramped and uncomfortable.
Cramped means you don’t have enough space to relax. You can’t lean your seat
back, and it’s hard to put your feet up.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Bus bathrooms are usually gross. They
smell horrible. In <st1:place w:st="on">Europe</st1:place>, most bus drivers
tell you not to use the bus toilet because there’s nowhere to dump it out.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Buses sometimes have accidents, and they
can be dangerous. Drivers sometimes drive for a very long time, and become
tired.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Waiting at a bus stop in bad weather is
not fun. There’s never a bus when you need one.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>Automobiles/Cars/Vans/Trucks</strong></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Advantages (Pros):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. You can go wherever you want, whenever
you want – to the exact spot.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. You can stop wherever and whenever you
want, when you’re tired or hungry.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. You don’t need to worry about stations
or schedules.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Cars are often stylish, and tell you
something about their owners. There are many kinds of cars for different needs.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. You can drive a car for fun, to explore
your area, or find friends. Some roads are really fun to drive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">6. In <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>, many teens drive along a town
strip (the main drag) to find out about parties and meet new people.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">7. With the right people you can have a
good conversation.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Disadvantages (Cons):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Cars and petrol (gasoline) are expensive.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Cars are statistically the most dangerous
way to travel – a car is a 1,000 Kg bomb on four wheels.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Some drivers are drunk, and some are
reckless. Many drivers are impatient, and try to pass when it’s not safe.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Roads are also dangerous with hidden
curves, sudden stops, pot holes, construction, and other obstacles – like ice,
fallen trees, trash, pieces of tires, etc.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. Cars can break down, get flat tires, or
run out of gas. You could be stranded far from help.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">6. Driving for a long time is stressful and
tiring.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">7. Sometimes people complain about the
music, and who can sit in front, “riding shotgun”.</span><br />
8. Road Rage - when drivers get angry and fight each other.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dzqTSpAqbVv9ZvlSRfHoMOLPAgKxLy6ZQ5Lyh75fN9UDXvAEtf6KqbSxHuXoLL0q6Bb9UY3l8TUL_51z7i-2Q' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>Bicycles (Bikes)/Motorbikes</strong></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Advantages (Pros):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Bikes are a healthy form of exercise, if
you don’t have an accident.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Bikes and even motorbikes are more
eco-friendly than other forms of transportation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Bicycles are practical for short distances.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Motorbikes are practical in highway
traffic.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. In a city, bicycles are often faster
than cars, which have to stop at red lights.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">6. Bikes take up less space in parking
lots.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">7. Bikes are cheaper than cars.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">8. You can also travel door to door.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Disadvantages (Cons):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Bikes and motorbikes are dangerous. If
you have an accident, you could be run over or crushed. You should wear a
helmet.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. They’re uncomfortable in bad weather,
when it’s cold or raining.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Cycling can make you sick in cold
weather, especially your tonsils.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Bikes are slower than other vehicles.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. Many bigger vehicles don’t like bikes.
They might hit you.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>Boats</strong></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Advantages (Pros):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. They’re fun. You usually take a boat to
get to an island, to see dolphins and whales, or to tour a harbour. You get a
great view.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Many larger boats have a restaurant or
café.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Some boats have a glass bottom so you
can see fish.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. Ferries can take cars, buses, and even
trains across water.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Disadvantages (Cons):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. They’re slow.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. Seasickness can be terrible, especially during storms.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Icebergs – a sinking ship is a scary
thing.</span><br />
4. Rogue waves. A rogue wave is one or more very large waves that can hit a ship and flip it over, even during a calm, peaceful, sunny day. They've existed as legend for centuries, but have only been proven in modern times. No one knows what makes them, or when or where they might strike.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><strong>Walking</strong></span></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Advantages (Pros):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. It’s good exercise.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. It’s fun for your dog.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. You can stop and smell the roses, or
talk to your neighbours.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. You can always wear roller skates.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">5. When shopping, you’ll buy less and save
money, when you know you have to carry everything home.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-size: large;">Disadvantages (Cons):</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">1. Walking is very slow.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">2. It can be dangerous because of cars. You
have to be careful where you walk.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">3. Walking when drunk is also dangerous.
Many older people are found dead in winter, trying to walk home from a bar.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US">4. You also have to worry about thieves.</span></div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-88187633311171957292013-09-19T01:19:00.000-07:002014-05-26T00:59:30.824-07:00Visual Art Vocabulary<span style="font-size: x-large;">Drawing</span><br />
<br />
A drawing is a picture made by hand, with mark making. Drawing is one of the most important arts because <br />
<br />
1. It's intimate and personal. Everyone draws differently.<br />
2. It's also crucial (veľmi dôležitý<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=ve%C4%BEmi+d%C3%B4le%C5%BEit%C3%BD" title="Preklad slova „veľmi dôležitý“ do angličtiny"></a>) in design, because it's cheap, fast, and you can draw anywhere. You don't need a studio. Everything you buy, everything you wear, every film you see, they all start out as drawings.<br />
<br />
Traditionally, drawings are done on paper. Media include:<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">graphite (pencil drawing) (grafit)</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhztSBpYAIFopM9BuSk1hLucgrhm1R6Wx4-lvEqgWo50ETszfVdoEK1V617HLVx8iOYcfB7lQjn2Pcg7Eb-JKJKqDsqc3eKOyRxUHA3j0E40pdIvGY0QG6iJrKkklr3uCxZoDREpvpwUm-v/s1600/Graciano,+Lucas+-+IMG_0911+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhztSBpYAIFopM9BuSk1hLucgrhm1R6Wx4-lvEqgWo50ETszfVdoEK1V617HLVx8iOYcfB7lQjn2Pcg7Eb-JKJKqDsqc3eKOyRxUHA3j0E40pdIvGY0QG6iJrKkklr3uCxZoDREpvpwUm-v/s320/Graciano,+Lucas+-+IMG_0911+web.jpg" height="320" width="262" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<em>Portrait</em>, by <a href="http://lucasgraciano.blogspot.sk/" target="_blank">Lucas Graciano</a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">charcoal (uhlie)</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjimwJyElvDsfVy1xYdb_KpeUZ65U9v21uOxVz-4WiTujvD3EGHP8PbyYEiA2LSASzgpj8h0wIonbhZk_sc4TumZPWMhGERL4HYQ-JH6i9V5ccECvsWQwDf7eS1fuG9r7Zezg4fk-uCWy65/s1600/Fowkes,+Nathan+-+jean-marie-demo+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjimwJyElvDsfVy1xYdb_KpeUZ65U9v21uOxVz-4WiTujvD3EGHP8PbyYEiA2LSASzgpj8h0wIonbhZk_sc4TumZPWMhGERL4HYQ-JH6i9V5ccECvsWQwDf7eS1fuG9r7Zezg4fk-uCWy65/s320/Fowkes,+Nathan+-+jean-marie-demo+web.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<em>Jean-Marie</em>, by <a href="http://nathanfowkes.blogspot.sk/" target="_blank">Nathan Fowkes</a></div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">conté crayon (rudka)</span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPWsYwHmt7kRbIru2Rmt0lMGQshqnFAeKaKOHWp034Q9BTOQGqztLllz4SNoHyo_oAfB3YmAsaaCas4fllMdulWcrQ27kIwJUmdfnqNVnWhrz8qvtot_1hKvc-Yjal6y96E-4WT9lipw32/s1600/Gordon,+Emily+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPWsYwHmt7kRbIru2Rmt0lMGQshqnFAeKaKOHWp034Q9BTOQGqztLllz4SNoHyo_oAfB3YmAsaaCas4fllMdulWcrQ27kIwJUmdfnqNVnWhrz8qvtot_1hKvc-Yjal6y96E-4WT9lipw32/s320/Gordon,+Emily+web.jpg" height="320" width="248" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<em>Portrait</em>, by <a href="http://www.emilygordon.com/" target="_blank">Emily Gordon</a></div>
<br />
Conté crayon is like charcoal - it is charcoal, really, only compressed and mixed with wax (vosk) or clay (hlina). This makes it stronger and harder, so it's easier to draw thin, fine details.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">markers (fixy)</span><br />
<br />
Markers are typically for children, but expensive, artist's brands such as Copic and Prismacolor have become popular, especially in comics.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho_h1u7sD-C6HsEb2KCu34f27ruQfnMPWZEF26wbePDD_196OYV7hxhbu2M386dtN8OLislJhhR3T7dx34Vdrf8_FODtmJ-Vw8oUQelECSQTJWHjJ7hKFJ2qMHDq_vygZjuP_hg-wOLOa8/s1600/Pre_Con_Marker_Commish2_by_lastscionz+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho_h1u7sD-C6HsEb2KCu34f27ruQfnMPWZEF26wbePDD_196OYV7hxhbu2M386dtN8OLislJhhR3T7dx34Vdrf8_FODtmJ-Vw8oUQelECSQTJWHjJ7hKFJ2qMHDq_vygZjuP_hg-wOLOa8/s320/Pre_Con_Marker_Commish2_by_lastscionz+web.jpg" height="320" width="221" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<em>Iron Man Pre-Convention Commission</em> by <a href="http://thechamba.deviantart.com/?rnrd=1696" target="_blank">Jeff "Chamba" Cruz</a></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/ACsuybk2kb4?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.justsayah.com/" target="_blank">Adam Hughes</a> makes some of the best comic covers in the industry.</div>
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">ink (atrament)</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhMJdM0NlDjM4e6SUuLMU5MG5K4PlAsru-ioIcEKbxGAfeLEh4xINGMcmrGGzsubdLjN7Chu17tUGNRq5acIZVIUMuUlMB1e-sP-pcTz453EVxpjOCNomMogQAgT54Xx34ueA2U7IZIFW/s1600/Eien+Kuronashi+-+Kurama+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkhMJdM0NlDjM4e6SUuLMU5MG5K4PlAsru-ioIcEKbxGAfeLEh4xINGMcmrGGzsubdLjN7Chu17tUGNRq5acIZVIUMuUlMB1e-sP-pcTz453EVxpjOCNomMogQAgT54Xx34ueA2U7IZIFW/s320/Eien+Kuronashi+-+Kurama+web.jpg" height="117" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em>Kurama Sanctuary</em>, by <a href="http://www.remimaynegre.fr/" target="_blank">Rémi Maynègre</a></div>
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When you draw with ink, you can use a pen, <strong>brush</strong> (štetec<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=%C5%A1tetec" title="Preklad slova „štetec“ do angličtiny"></a>), or both together.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">If you want to paint over an ink drawing, <em>make sure it's oil based ink!</em> Otherwise, it'll ruin the lines as they bleed and mix with the wash.</span><br />
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Ink is one of the few wet media that's still considered drawing, even when you use a brush. This is mostly because pen and ink are traditionally black and white. But, drawing doesn't have to be black and white. There are<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">colored pencils</span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-tcr7AYeg2-76HmWTeqghxELXe7BCul9mmFeEqhXEbMoSWNw0oyOX0SyhecgNB7lM3gMUaUUshwlnosinjtxuMdqA1n5my23tyb6q8D-MEWYzDWfpch9leqOAde8gcVqrXVisBvWBMb-g/s1600/Zeldis,+Maria+-+Illuminate+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-tcr7AYeg2-76HmWTeqghxELXe7BCul9mmFeEqhXEbMoSWNw0oyOX0SyhecgNB7lM3gMUaUUshwlnosinjtxuMdqA1n5my23tyb6q8D-MEWYzDWfpch9leqOAde8gcVqrXVisBvWBMb-g/s320/Zeldis,+Maria+-+Illuminate+web.jpg" height="320" width="297" /></a></div>
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<em>Illuminate</em>, by <a href="http://zeldis.deviantart.com/" target="_blank">Zeldis, Maria</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">and pastel</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7SM-EcvYvxtUHKUjbLkY3akyf3kLm-R4ynQZg0VI3YTNhlm5fl-IOXbJw4SfLNXKjqJTZoLofSYCfaAVYeZbZphNZbXLpqGvHMmoaOFZct2mk2fAis_hZ5mvEiUXC_9zwqqrlYtjWPgM/s1600/Clausen,+Sir+George+-+The+Haymaker,+a+study+in+shadows+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7SM-EcvYvxtUHKUjbLkY3akyf3kLm-R4ynQZg0VI3YTNhlm5fl-IOXbJw4SfLNXKjqJTZoLofSYCfaAVYeZbZphNZbXLpqGvHMmoaOFZct2mk2fAis_hZ5mvEiUXC_9zwqqrlYtjWPgM/s320/Clausen,+Sir+George+-+The+Haymaker,+a+study+in+shadows+web.jpg" height="320" width="248" /></a></div>
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The Haymaker (detail), by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_George_Clausen" target="_blank">Sir George Clausen</a></div>
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Pastels blur the line between drawing and painting. It's a dry medium, and you draw with pastels like with a pencil, but the product looks like a painting. So, what do you call it? A pastel. Also note, pastels are the most toxic medium in art. They're pure pigment, meaning chemicals like cadmium, cobalt, chromium, and lead (olovo), and they create dust which you might breathe in.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">Painting</span><br />
<br />
<u><span lang="EN-US">Painting is drawing with
paint and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">brushes</b></span></u><span lang="EN-US"> (štetky) [and sometimes <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">palette
knives</b> (špachtle)]. While drawings are usually black and white, paintings
usually use many different colours. Drawings are usually dry, whereas paintings
are wet. </span>Paints are what you put on a <strong>palette</strong> (paleta). Your painting usually sits on an <strong>easel</strong> (stojan). You clean your brushes with soap, <strong>solvents</strong> (<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">rozpúšťadlo</span>), and <strong>rags</strong> (handry).<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">egg tempera</span><br />
<br />
Some of the earliest paintings that still exist are frescoes and egg tempera. Egg tempera is described in this video, it's <strong>egg yolk</strong> (vajcový žĺtok<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=vajcov%C3%BD+%C5%BE%C4%BAtok" title="Preklad slova „vajcový žĺtok“ do angličtiny"></a>), water, pigment, and a bit of <strong>vinegar</strong> (ocot). Tempera is water-based and opaque (nepriesvitný<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=nepriesvitn%C3%BD" title="Preklad slova „nepriesvitný“ do angličtiny"></a>). It was mostly painted on wooden boards. Student quality tempera, like they sell in TESCO isn't really tempera. It's a cheap imitation - real egg tempera spoils quickly, so you have to make it fresh.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/BM-EK56DODA" width="560"></iframe>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjUJnAVfnlPeRygk9ju45WnsXWmCLFd3kmIt-rD6fB6w4dPrVU6-QLeFPjUU1qM0cqjiWsy7BfapajzG9Tee-vY3AwhJQluIN0wIPYRCBGNJOv_P5LEutbMX5mki3WC7FSeiF-CwTTavMo/s1600/121+24+AD+Fayum+Alina+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjUJnAVfnlPeRygk9ju45WnsXWmCLFd3kmIt-rD6fB6w4dPrVU6-QLeFPjUU1qM0cqjiWsy7BfapajzG9Tee-vY3AwhJQluIN0wIPYRCBGNJOv_P5LEutbMX5mki3WC7FSeiF-CwTTavMo/s320/121+24+AD+Fayum+Alina+web.jpg" height="320" width="254" /></a></div>
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<em>Roman Mummy Portrait</em>, artist unknown</div>
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Fayum, Egypt, 24 AD</div>
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The painting above is one of the earliest examples of egg tempera painting. Romans would hire an artist to paint the portrait of important people who died, before burial. The portrait was placed in the tomb (hrobka) with the corpse (mŕtvola<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=m%C5%95tvola" title="Preklad slova „mŕtvola“ do angličtiny"></a>). The proportions are off (look how long her nose is), but otherwise, the skill in this one is remarkable - it makes me wonder if it's a fake. If you click on it, you'll see how egg tempera lends itself to cross-hatching (šrafovanie šikmé).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Frescoes/Murals</span><br />
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Frescos are paintings on walls, usually inside a building. The idea was to draw a sketch on the wall, and then mix pigment with wet <strong>plaster</strong> (sadra), quickly painting the picture in sections, before the plaster dried. Frescoes decorated homes in ancient times. Though most ancient painting is long gone, we do have some examples from Egyptian tombs (painted <strong>fresco a secco</strong>, meaning they painted over dry plaster), and from <strong>Pompeii</strong>, where a volcanic eruption buried and preserved some Roman frescoes for over a thousand years.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUZEc-wSh8BjU-euL6u2vUx5dAHKxLJIgf8Reez2ou-V09ddFyAG83x91pE75vYWNmihb7WT5NPD5NER1p3zKp66a_VO6X9y0ijQump6730fWNpJfPVV2adQ9Lbf5hsRFkGeMtf6uMIOaQ/s1600/118+1+60+BC+Pompeii+villa+of+mysteries+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUZEc-wSh8BjU-euL6u2vUx5dAHKxLJIgf8Reez2ou-V09ddFyAG83x91pE75vYWNmihb7WT5NPD5NER1p3zKp66a_VO6X9y0ijQump6730fWNpJfPVV2adQ9Lbf5hsRFkGeMtf6uMIOaQ/s320/118+1+60+BC+Pompeii+villa+of+mysteries+web.jpg" height="320" width="318" /></a></div>
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Reading of Bridal Rituals, artist unknown</div>
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Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii 60 BC</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Oil Paint</span><br />
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If you watched that video on egg tempera above, you'll see that artists like Da Vinci experimented with oil based paints. Oil became popular for several reasons.<br />
<br />
1. they take a long time to dry, from days to weeks, depending on the colour. So they're very easy to blend, rework, and correct.<br />
<br />
2. Because some of the colours are <strong>translucent</strong>, meaning see-through, you can create an excellent sense of depth, <strong>glazing</strong> the painting with thin layers of translucent color. You have to see it in person to appreciate it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMVVbltO-WixIFX_iLP9oduPLgOAZx78EmAadT5ezlkb4-77aswM3A-BsttV8OggHTnosvqVEsy6n-A1LxOsQ5VB9rZ5Tfl-eAKzF5KzIWqdvoprFQEmTuO06lqOQcLkMkrqauX3Vxfbeh/s1600/Alma-Tadema,+Sir+Lawrence+-+Kirschen+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMVVbltO-WixIFX_iLP9oduPLgOAZx78EmAadT5ezlkb4-77aswM3A-BsttV8OggHTnosvqVEsy6n-A1LxOsQ5VB9rZ5Tfl-eAKzF5KzIWqdvoprFQEmTuO06lqOQcLkMkrqauX3Vxfbeh/s320/Alma-Tadema,+Sir+Lawrence+-+Kirschen+web.jpg" height="194" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em>Cherries</em>, Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema</div>
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rocks oil paints, 1873</div>
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3. They don't simply dry like Tempera. They <strong>cure</strong> (tvrdnúť<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=tvrdn%C3%BA%C5%A5" title="Preklad slova „tvrdnúť“ do angličtiny"></a>). This means if you spill liquid on a dry painting, it won't ruin the colours. They won't reactivate, so you can wipe it off, as good as new. After a Tempera painting dries, it's very delicate (krehký<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=krehk%C3%BD" title="Preklad slova „krehký“ do angličtiny"></a>), and you have to be careful not to scratch it.<br />
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Oil paintings were originally done on wooden panels, following the same methods as egg tempera, but as the renaissance progressed, artists began painting on <strong>canvas</strong> (plátno<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=pl%C3%A1tno" title="Preklad slova „plátno“ do angličtiny"></a>). Traditional oil paintings are covered in a layer of <strong>varnish</strong> (náter<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=n%C3%A1ter" title="Preklad slova „náter“ do angličtiny"></a>), so that they still look wet, even after they're dry.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: large;">A word of warning. <em>Traditional varnish turns yellow over time, changing the colours.</em></span><br />
<br />
You can remove the varnish, and put on a new layer of fresh varnish. Art restorers sometimes do this to an oil painting, but there are now some new kinds of varnish which shouldn't turn yellow over time. Anyway, with modern, high quality paints, you don't need to use varnish.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Watercolour</span><br />
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Watercolour gets its name from being water-based. It's usually done on thick, watercolour paper. All watercolour paints are translucent. Traditional watercolour doesn't have white paint. Like drawing, the white of the paper is the white. Watercolour gained acceptance as a high art in the renaissance, around the same time as oil paint.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWz5GJ5OHUfx_sJJ4xDYbBHRGzUmirYH61U-5XxCB1Tk-ecVJ_pxGuFhe5-KFsCOgNx-zDgLgC-ctbCQzj128paK3RuTIYuv8xtLl3p90gv0571DbNBueQbFSBTWk2eaVqVmrdp0PTAr8Y/s1600/durer+hare+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWz5GJ5OHUfx_sJJ4xDYbBHRGzUmirYH61U-5XxCB1Tk-ecVJ_pxGuFhe5-KFsCOgNx-zDgLgC-ctbCQzj128paK3RuTIYuv8xtLl3p90gv0571DbNBueQbFSBTWk2eaVqVmrdp0PTAr8Y/s320/durer+hare+web.jpg" height="320" width="277" /></a></div>
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<em>Hare</em>, by Albrect Dürer, 1502</div>
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One of the greatest watercolourists was the American painter Winslow Homer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzQDs4jPrO-vntGoPKKAB32LGzh5klDS5Yrq8U_E1jBl454XJgcNhhMcWqB0MR-1zqkEmL3RU1S3ALt9KvhZIVXQH3XpcqJxweBEL_3448PEjP0smg9SR9paeYOoT4yUMzf_xh-bsmbVkg/s1600/Homer,+Winslow+-++Under+the+Falls,+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzQDs4jPrO-vntGoPKKAB32LGzh5klDS5Yrq8U_E1jBl454XJgcNhhMcWqB0MR-1zqkEmL3RU1S3ALt9KvhZIVXQH3XpcqJxweBEL_3448PEjP0smg9SR9paeYOoT4yUMzf_xh-bsmbVkg/s320/Homer,+Winslow+-++Under+the+Falls,+web.jpg" height="220" width="320" /></a></div>
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Under the Falls, by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winslow_Homer" target="_blank">Winslow Homer,</a> 1895</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Acrylic Paint</span><br />
<br />
Oil is the standard medium for professional, fine-art painting. But, acrylic paint, a 20th century invention, is becoming popular. Acrylic is a kind of liquid plastic that also cures. Once acrylic dries completely, you can't wet it again. The main difference from oil is<br />
<br />
1. Acrylic is water-based, making it popular in schools, because it's safer. There are no toxic fumes to breathe in.<br />
<br />
2. They also dry much faster. This makes it easier for sketching outdoors, and carrying your work with you - you don't want to drop a wet oil painting while you carry it back to the car, and the smell of it can make you sick on a long drive.<br />
<br />
Despite those differences, companies like Golden Acrylics try to make their paints act in much the same way as oil paint. They have the same names, and opaque/translucent characteristics. Acrylic can look a lot like oil when it's finished:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOpP-kYKwusC2UP61yrY9R62hqmjzlDvCfIBm9yZaD9mRGZfRC9R7m4RZ1TLpb5N2tyfQzfBCOufgPWc7f122Py1V7AGlkVjHip40dFkd3Y7K_cyvokS0OahvMn6ftOS_KF3icQ21RLVoA/s1600/Fowkes,+Nathan+-+hawaii-house-lo+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOpP-kYKwusC2UP61yrY9R62hqmjzlDvCfIBm9yZaD9mRGZfRC9R7m4RZ1TLpb5N2tyfQzfBCOufgPWc7f122Py1V7AGlkVjHip40dFkd3Y7K_cyvokS0OahvMn6ftOS_KF3icQ21RLVoA/s400/Fowkes,+Nathan+-+hawaii-house-lo+web.jpg" height="135" width="400" /></a></div>
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<em>Hawaii House</em>, by Nathan Fowkes</div>
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But if you see it in person, you can usually see it's acrylic, because acrylic paint looks a bit like rubber when it's dry.<br />
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If you mix acrylic with lots of water (hard to do, as the water makes acrylic want to clump into little bits) you can make acrlyic seem like a water colour. The advantage is, you can paint in layers, and you don't have to worry about reactivating the dry layers - they won't mix together and muddy your painting.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8os1LpWPX86y8BOqyyrbeCAiTq1tW6t_NDAzEiyY43lGGIoRLA9U6Jf97KFR6yvoI0Li2FsgGztRmiNlz-grHVjBCSz7uKTlIIrimc8U5DQJFnRaKm3nsSKAhwxZQL0BgJ3uwyhZmSmyd/s1600/Presing,+Bill+-+goddess.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8os1LpWPX86y8BOqyyrbeCAiTq1tW6t_NDAzEiyY43lGGIoRLA9U6Jf97KFR6yvoI0Li2FsgGztRmiNlz-grHVjBCSz7uKTlIIrimc8U5DQJFnRaKm3nsSKAhwxZQL0BgJ3uwyhZmSmyd/s320/Presing,+Bill+-+goddess.jpg" height="320" width="228" /></a></div>
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Goddess, acrylic, by <a href="http://billpresing.blogspot.sk/" target="_blank">Bill Presing,</a> artist at Pixar</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">brushes (<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: SK;">štetky</span>)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim6TxjqqQbNPfAIjGXHNU1ehGotu5gm9Ovvf4YDsw6X-LNAEd_ZCPj2Xls0tdj283uciZjVhZnDCfvJ-QhAoO1O4edCeZYaRu6hlyKFzFp5ebMd-oxsL31EEgV-KzTqZ1_51YHoqgeRrvU/s1600/Brushtypes+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEim6TxjqqQbNPfAIjGXHNU1ehGotu5gm9Ovvf4YDsw6X-LNAEd_ZCPj2Xls0tdj283uciZjVhZnDCfvJ-QhAoO1O4edCeZYaRu6hlyKFzFp5ebMd-oxsL31EEgV-KzTqZ1_51YHoqgeRrvU/s320/Brushtypes+web.jpg" height="127" width="320" /></a></div>
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Brushes are categorized by shape, size, and by the kind of hair - soft or stiff. Stiff hog hair is great for thick oil paint, and softer sable or nylon is great for watercolour. You don't need to know all the different shapes of brushes. Just this:<br />
<br />
1. Flat brushes are all you need for oil and acrylic.<br />
2. A big round sable brush is all you really need for watercolour sketching.<br />
3. Start with a big brush, then use small brushes at the end.<br />
4. Clean them! Don't let the paint dry on your brushes, or it's trash.<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Digital Painting</span><br />
<br />
Many illustrators now paint digitally, using Photoshop and other software, because it's fast, it's easy to change and correct mistakes, and it's easy to print in the advertising, publishing, and comics industries. The best digital painters try to replicate the textures and effects of traditional painting. You might think it's an oil painting or watercolour, but it's really digital.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix-CmpTaV33iB2L3os-ag54-j7kS-1f1kUpJ4CmWKWO3YsJI-5boTNGjYMAje_UWbH0lAIN8o8UptghNeF4yMpT8gy2Yz6jlIdEIDx8oz9kk9ZcRo7p1jr2_N9aeyVzDFM9Wi1BKJIEIlN/s1600/Clarke,+Daniel+-+att+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix-CmpTaV33iB2L3os-ag54-j7kS-1f1kUpJ4CmWKWO3YsJI-5boTNGjYMAje_UWbH0lAIN8o8UptghNeF4yMpT8gy2Yz6jlIdEIDx8oz9kk9ZcRo7p1jr2_N9aeyVzDFM9Wi1BKJIEIlN/s320/Clarke,+Daniel+-+att+web.jpg" height="297" width="320" /></a></div>
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Portrait Sketch by <a href="http://danielclarke.cghub.com/" target="_blank">Daniel Clarke</a></div>
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They do this by making custom brushes:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs8sOjCUV17qYUjmpGujczRszkK-m-FJpCoVTDqkF2zAdWCwI808g2JxQYVr6nSdkwFW-BnxQF2qDG-nKrPSnPz7AwJwqOEvG9zQCDX_JeFia9mmXqsGgAcBpnXcoFAc0XTvvDAvXcLcWP/s1600/Fischer,+Scott+-+23-EnigmaBrushes+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhs8sOjCUV17qYUjmpGujczRszkK-m-FJpCoVTDqkF2zAdWCwI808g2JxQYVr6nSdkwFW-BnxQF2qDG-nKrPSnPz7AwJwqOEvG9zQCDX_JeFia9mmXqsGgAcBpnXcoFAc0XTvvDAvXcLcWP/s320/Fischer,+Scott+-+23-EnigmaBrushes+web.jpg" height="320" width="285" /></a></div>
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custom brushes used by <a href="http://www.fischart.com/" target="_blank">Scott Fischer</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;">sculpture</span><br />
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Sculpture is three dimensional art. It can be any size, style, or material. Sculpture tools include a <strong><span style="font-size: large;">hammer</span></strong> (kladivo), <strong><span style="font-size: large;">chisel</span></strong> (dláto<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=dl%C3%A1to" title="Preklad slova „dláto“ do angličtiny"></a>), <span style="font-size: large;"><strong>rasp</strong></span> (rašpľa<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=ra%C5%A1p%C4%BEa" title="Preklad slova „rašpľa“ do angličtiny"></a>), and <strong><span style="font-size: large;">file</span></strong> (pilník<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=piln%C3%ADk" title="Preklad slova „pilník“ do angličtiny"></a>).<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">A statue</span> is a sculpture that looks like a person:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyuvIzSKjTyeiU_x5nnf2FcV5VWw7KPUUhdpiyMwQH2Er62AU4CGcA5xTqJG1wkm5NTYmJUp3XGBmdpYpuNdzc1UScAZoXh0OUDgsPlExKpBYdzVPgvlVnFpfMe_ZDJEjO6onyY_Af1Imc/s1600/120+14-37+AD+Diana+of+Gabies,+Roman+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyuvIzSKjTyeiU_x5nnf2FcV5VWw7KPUUhdpiyMwQH2Er62AU4CGcA5xTqJG1wkm5NTYmJUp3XGBmdpYpuNdzc1UScAZoXh0OUDgsPlExKpBYdzVPgvlVnFpfMe_ZDJEjO6onyY_Af1Imc/s320/120+14-37+AD+Diana+of+Gabies,+Roman+web.jpg" height="320" width="144" /></a></div>
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Diana of Gabies, Roman, 14-37 AD</div>
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If a statue is small, or miniature, it's called <span style="font-size: large;">a figurine:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVyR8Xz69JszPMllm1pq06FVVsbAJhiy6U-un9bgABMj6HlHNPcyhKlUuGH2bfK3QEd3sKiAR1Qw1Jh6241JFUncpp6D6EYlLBkhSXteoPrwc2BwQjktadzSfViHwbdbc3YAC1EU5uEOm/s1600/Japan_Ivory_figurine+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqVyR8Xz69JszPMllm1pq06FVVsbAJhiy6U-un9bgABMj6HlHNPcyhKlUuGH2bfK3QEd3sKiAR1Qw1Jh6241JFUncpp6D6EYlLBkhSXteoPrwc2BwQjktadzSfViHwbdbc3YAC1EU5uEOm/s320/Japan_Ivory_figurine+web.jpg" height="320" width="254" /></a></div>
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<em>Farmer and daughter</em>, artist unknown</div>
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ivory (slonovina), Japanese, 19th C.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">A relief</span> is a cross between sculpture and drawing. It's two-and-a-half dimensions - a carving on the side of a wall. You use the light of the sun to create lines of shadows, to "draw". There is high relief:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDuA-gpBAFNlk6dJTqrb4W3mKj33qZ520OR5jaTVQC-KtOSi73VRGl-fbn47GIHuFG0oX_fOAAzHutQs7VkFS6WxHBSBZUc2B3ZMVaINjxb-GYHBhj_g3eZ6M9BHQxWfy4d5i89Vniift/s1600/124+100-125+AD+-+Preparation+of+animal+sacrifice,+Roman+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnDuA-gpBAFNlk6dJTqrb4W3mKj33qZ520OR5jaTVQC-KtOSi73VRGl-fbn47GIHuFG0oX_fOAAzHutQs7VkFS6WxHBSBZUc2B3ZMVaINjxb-GYHBhj_g3eZ6M9BHQxWfy4d5i89Vniift/s320/124+100-125+AD+-+Preparation+of+animal+sacrifice,+Roman+web.jpg" height="271" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em>Preparation for an Animal Sacrifice, </em>artist uknown,</div>
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Roman 100-125 AD</div>
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And, there is low, or bas-relief (it's thinner):<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV9nDYyrDgv6QF3Eh_f1cL1_sUE34hC4FchpE6LR20fqGagTeyaT1Lb-GMXWWYc5dCFlobMDmlkHkoO9ANu_t76bl9gO7a2664KGVUG8bFH7ZAmksc-QlN-1Hkj4pxwZRednoD6FofYWhY/s1600/2006_Quarter_Proof+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV9nDYyrDgv6QF3Eh_f1cL1_sUE34hC4FchpE6LR20fqGagTeyaT1Lb-GMXWWYc5dCFlobMDmlkHkoO9ANu_t76bl9gO7a2664KGVUG8bFH7ZAmksc-QlN-1Hkj4pxwZRednoD6FofYWhY/s320/2006_Quarter_Proof+web.jpg" height="315" width="320" /></a></div>
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Every coin is an example of bas-relief.</div>
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Common sculpture materials include:<br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">wood</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRDWYbovbg4epH7Sh57hD71M3o0vObC2hbN301MZ_zu1CgnBt3u9al7F0MZ6w67xim1U1e001rkL3Gkq6ZUb0MuBfzMoP2X2JWlOO77y36FFmHh3HoPF-CdsVr-Jce95v5xob0lk7HgGSf/s1600/steveston+whales+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRDWYbovbg4epH7Sh57hD71M3o0vObC2hbN301MZ_zu1CgnBt3u9al7F0MZ6w67xim1U1e001rkL3Gkq6ZUb0MuBfzMoP2X2JWlOO77y36FFmHh3HoPF-CdsVr-Jce95v5xob0lk7HgGSf/s320/steveston+whales+web.jpg" height="254" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em>Orka mother and pup</em>, by Steve Blanchard and Co.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">marble (mramor)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHc0vGZw40-B8SzwdbvgHwalt3mDf-WTotG4CD8KvtMvaQTepLzl4dK9SNPYzb5EfZ8wPCfO-8OS033Izmy-TY8ZMag-hKgxkiuTJOCSE57c94bH0rKHtrB8xg1SQ57t7-VIJSL2I1vmb/s1600/img_0389+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUHc0vGZw40-B8SzwdbvgHwalt3mDf-WTotG4CD8KvtMvaQTepLzl4dK9SNPYzb5EfZ8wPCfO-8OS033Izmy-TY8ZMag-hKgxkiuTJOCSE57c94bH0rKHtrB8xg1SQ57t7-VIJSL2I1vmb/s320/img_0389+web.jpg" height="320" width="316" /></a></div>
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<em>Amore and Psyche</em>, by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Canova" target="_blank">Antonio Canova</a>, Neoclassical</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">granite (žula)</span><br />
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If you want your art to last forever, use granite:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpZSpgLBvGocnNni0VUNLTy3XjoYDe7EWVEyBtKFijlnXJ6W3dGPCTxq3fyIvybvMN-td76s3JMUR1hYuytRy2XnFFi2sgIil22U-cTRUeyM1FEmRZUkK8b2FPfe-KXrdodt5xBCzs7-S/s1600/31+6+2,490-2,472+BC+-+Menkaura+and+queen,+Old+Kingdom+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCpZSpgLBvGocnNni0VUNLTy3XjoYDe7EWVEyBtKFijlnXJ6W3dGPCTxq3fyIvybvMN-td76s3JMUR1hYuytRy2XnFFi2sgIil22U-cTRUeyM1FEmRZUkK8b2FPfe-KXrdodt5xBCzs7-S/s320/31+6+2,490-2,472+BC+-+Menkaura+and+queen,+Old+Kingdom+web.jpg" height="320" width="219" /></a></div>
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Pharoah Menkaura & Queen, artist uknown,</div>
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Egyptian, 2,490-2,472 BC - looks like it was made yesterday</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">bronze</span><br />
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Bronze is another great material for long lasting art, if you don't mind it turning black. There's just one problem - Bronze is a precious metal. Someone might want to melt your art to make their own. It's happened to many great masterpieces, especially to art by the ancient Greeks.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCf76Graghi2YkzFn6Jlg2gsYF3VeVVaPeDVoKNdlF8rUAbq453P7fSfDyve8P30GejLjc78Pd3f2Znrp0Q9B8Cbm4hzrNW3ti2jsIR5YkAzon-PNE67RE3HpseSfg3o6wrP0pDiExibOy/s1600/96+4+460-450+BC+-+Diskobulus,+Roman+Copy+of+Greek+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCf76Graghi2YkzFn6Jlg2gsYF3VeVVaPeDVoKNdlF8rUAbq453P7fSfDyve8P30GejLjc78Pd3f2Znrp0Q9B8Cbm4hzrNW3ti2jsIR5YkAzon-PNE67RE3HpseSfg3o6wrP0pDiExibOy/s320/96+4+460-450+BC+-+Diskobulus,+Roman+Copy+of+Greek+web.jpg" height="320" width="204" /></a></div>
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<em>Discobulus</em>, by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myron" target="_blank">Myron</a></div>
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Roman copy of a Greek statue that was melted down</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">steel [stainless won't rust (hrdzavieť</span><a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=hrdzavie%C5%A5" title="Preklad slova „hrdzavieť“ do angličtiny"></a><span style="font-size: large;">)]</span> - a 20th century material<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiMvJsPEwEyx5PEJxjy6eDF_WSTsGSLbjve01J-5VOZdd9RIJhEuHs2VwlPW142L5m1kTZcyhReBP12ckDlStjiUWChE5u3MoLKKV2j3qEL7gp-H9KgaM5LTIPd6cPOjxwiRTa-3TU1DP4/s1600/bigDrag1Large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiMvJsPEwEyx5PEJxjy6eDF_WSTsGSLbjve01J-5VOZdd9RIJhEuHs2VwlPW142L5m1kTZcyhReBP12ckDlStjiUWChE5u3MoLKKV2j3qEL7gp-H9KgaM5LTIPd6cPOjxwiRTa-3TU1DP4/s320/bigDrag1Large.jpg" height="195" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em>Imperial Water Dragon</em>, by <a href="http://www.metalanimation.com/newDragon.php" target="_blank">Kevin Stone</a>,</div>
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Metalanimation Studio Inc.</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">silver </span><span style="font-size: small;">(hey, if you can afford it, why not?)</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj77Xz0m-R4uuLnvSsd4qIJ2MmhLseVFrxeT2-ANVrutQOKIMf24MC6PGFv8v7sFMdAwQqZ6_5KPY8h9i4Bcny2YsXdNGWkLM-l5AYBp_dNxAih3uTH3g67unWhmLURYE4HhgpYrq3A99yt/s1600/Henri+IV+enfant+leveled+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj77Xz0m-R4uuLnvSsd4qIJ2MmhLseVFrxeT2-ANVrutQOKIMf24MC6PGFv8v7sFMdAwQqZ6_5KPY8h9i4Bcny2YsXdNGWkLM-l5AYBp_dNxAih3uTH3g67unWhmLURYE4HhgpYrq3A99yt/s320/Henri+IV+enfant+leveled+web.jpg" height="320" width="149" /></a></div>
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<em>King Henry IV of France, as a boy</em>, by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran%C3%A7ois_Joseph_Bosio" target="_blank">François Joseph Bosio</a></div>
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cast in silver by <a href="http://charles-nicolas%20odiot/" target="_blank">Charles-Nicolas Odiot</a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">clay/terracotta</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJmPC7hNWSnmYzAqFO0GCHaRH9Bceah0bfIsrPJ1gbYHUqASsAi_CmgZLzHTlIkXz6iTXgeoOVdAvC0o9CtM6tZ8C7t_aZm7hF80VgIB5NTfmiPRm0fWjGkfv-N_7w_A46ovBot5yaev1M/s1600/terracotta-warriors+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJmPC7hNWSnmYzAqFO0GCHaRH9Bceah0bfIsrPJ1gbYHUqASsAi_CmgZLzHTlIkXz6iTXgeoOVdAvC0o9CtM6tZ8C7t_aZm7hF80VgIB5NTfmiPRm0fWjGkfv-N_7w_A46ovBot5yaev1M/s320/terracotta-warriors+web.jpg" height="200" width="320" /></a></div>
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<em>Terracotta Warriors</em>, Qin Shi Huang's Tomb, 210 BC</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">plaster cast (sadrová forma)</span><br />
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Plaster looks like marble, but it's not. It's a powder, made of lime (vápno<a class="lupa" href="http://slovnik.azet.sk/preklad/slovensko-anglicky/?q=v%C3%A1pno" title="Preklad slova „vápno“ do angličtiny"></a>) or gypsum (gyps) that mixes with water to make a thick, creamy liquid, which heats up and hardens into a solid. The process takes about twenty minutes. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8xdrGyIgce4RIBuUxioPyko6NXeDiFVKm7H4r361QZzKQZv6fYDnNmROka_yh91oAU1X8eptM7a0a3MruQRsNl7fpkT3syc2PQHts2Q1t0_td4Q3ZtIwqhhd1D3POUHKcE2eBFMGkFT63/s1600/'Charles_Reed_Bishop+by_Allen_Hutchinson+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8xdrGyIgce4RIBuUxioPyko6NXeDiFVKm7H4r361QZzKQZv6fYDnNmROka_yh91oAU1X8eptM7a0a3MruQRsNl7fpkT3syc2PQHts2Q1t0_td4Q3ZtIwqhhd1D3POUHKcE2eBFMGkFT63/s320/'Charles_Reed_Bishop+by_Allen_Hutchinson+web.jpg" height="320" width="234" /></a></div>
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<em>Charles Reed Bishop</em>, by Allen Hutchinson</div>
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a sculpture of someone's head is called a <span style="font-size: large;"><strong>bust</strong></span>.</div>
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Plaster is softer than stone, and scratches easily. But, it's great for making molds. You can make a mold of anything with plaster, and it copies every detail:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOYnz6sfQcgSCsNoZEatDwqsvqH9WPm0jovi4pYmEppSc7MVKhTpTC2t7_cGTCUxS_ekKmQHUi2N2gxRhkHhZHE_9_aXfspmFImxFo9WJP5zEeDWK-li1tOK59-G8zDNW_lJaKhsmwv6e/s1600/Lost_Wax-Model_of_apple_in_plaster+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQOYnz6sfQcgSCsNoZEatDwqsvqH9WPm0jovi4pYmEppSc7MVKhTpTC2t7_cGTCUxS_ekKmQHUi2N2gxRhkHhZHE_9_aXfspmFImxFo9WJP5zEeDWK-li1tOK59-G8zDNW_lJaKhsmwv6e/s400/Lost_Wax-Model_of_apple_in_plaster+web.jpg" height="190" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Glass</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIkAyDo78_uK6ZGWtkEwhQWcGGkIJ6KqMgSZ1pnXyWCE_KDQgK5QZnAl_K_kCvuSW7ipq1SvQcwIspE7ufUh1LT6Q7aUaKao2nEna5Sq_cIunyqIjffmF2Tn-NHptzeNja9UY3SLyMiccD/s1600/1999+Fern+Green+Tower+by+Dale+Chihuly+web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIkAyDo78_uK6ZGWtkEwhQWcGGkIJ6KqMgSZ1pnXyWCE_KDQgK5QZnAl_K_kCvuSW7ipq1SvQcwIspE7ufUh1LT6Q7aUaKao2nEna5Sq_cIunyqIjffmF2Tn-NHptzeNja9UY3SLyMiccD/s1600/1999+Fern+Green+Tower+by+Dale+Chihuly+web.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></div>
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<em>Fern Green Tower</em>, by Dale Chihuly, 1999</div>
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<span style="font-size: large;">Ice</span><br />
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Ice sculptures don't last so long, but they look really nice!<br />
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artist unknown</div>
<br />
Print making<br />
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Engraving, etching, woodcuts, lithographyT Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-15750171696433834182013-04-02T10:43:00.005-07:002013-04-02T18:47:27.724-07:00It's Not a Sport - by George Carlin(The following excerpt is posted for non-commercial, educational purposes. I will remove it if requested. No lawsuits are necessary. Some words were censored to make it age appropriate.)<br />
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<span lang="EN-US">It’s Not a Sport</span></div>
<span lang="EN-US">by George Carlin</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US">To my way of thinking, there are really
only three sports: baseball, basketball, and football. Everything else is
either a game or an activity.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US"></span></b> </div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Hockey</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> comes to mind. People think hockey is a sport. It’s not. Hockey is
three activities taking place at the same time: ice skating, fooling around
with a puck, and beating the [heck] out of somebody.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">If these guys
had more brains than teeth, they’d do these things one at a time. First you go
ice skating, then you fool around with a puck, then you go to the bar and beat
the [heck] out of somebody. The day would last longer, and these guys would
have a whole lot more fun.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Another reason
hockey is not a sport is that it’s not played with a ball. Anything not played
with a ball can’t be a sport. These are my rules, I make ’em up.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Soccer. </span></b><span lang="EN-US">Soccer is not a sport because you can’t use your arms. Anything
where you can’t use your arms can’t be a sport. Tap dancing isn’t a sport. I
rest my case.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Running.</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> People think running is a sport. Running isn’t a sport because
anybody can do it. Anything we can all do can’t be a sport. I can run, you can
run. For Chrissakes, my mother can run! You don’t see her on the cover of <i>Sports
Illustrated</i>, do you?</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Swimming.</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Swimming isn’t a sport. Swimming is a way to keep from drowning.
That’s just common sense.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Sailing</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> isn’t a sport. Sailing is a way to <i>get</i> somewhere. Riding the
bus isn’t a sport, why the [heck] should sailing be a sport?</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Boxing</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> is not a sport either. Boxing is a way to beat the [heck] out of
somebody. In that respect, boxing is actually a more sophisticated form of
hockey. In spite of what the police tell you, beating the [heck] out of
somebody is not a sport. When police brutality becomes an Olympic event, fine,
then boxing can be a sport.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Bowling.</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Bowling isn’t a sport because you have to rent the shoes. Don’t
forget, these are my rules. I make ’em up.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Billiards.</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Some people think billiards is a sport, but it can’t be, because
there’s no chance for serious injury. Unless, of course, you welch on a bet in
a tough neighborhood. Then, if you wind up with a pool cue stickin’ out of your
[rear end], you know you <i>might</i> just be the victim of a sports-related
injury. But that ain’t billiards, that’s pool, and that starts with a <i>P</i>,
and that rhymes with <i>D</i>, and that brings me to darts.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Darts</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> could have been a sport, because at least there’s a chance to put
someone’s eye out. But, alas, darts will never be a sport, because the whole
object of the game is to reach zero, which goes against all sports logic.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Lacrosse </span></b><span lang="EN-US">is not a sport; lacrosse is a [lame] college activity. I don’t care
how rough it is, anytime you’re running around a field, waving a stick with a
little net on the end of it, you’re engaged in a [lame] college activity.
Period.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Field hockey
and fencing.</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> Same thing. [Lame] college [waste of
time]. Also, these activities aren’t sports, because you can’t gamble on them.
Anything you can’t gamble on can’t be a sport. When was the last time you made
a [frikken’] fencing bet?</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Gymnastics</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> is not a sport because Romanians are good at it. It took me a long
time to come up with that rule, but [gosh darn it], I did it.</span></div>
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<b><span lang="EN-US">Polo</span></b><span lang="EN-US"> isn’t a sport. Polo is golf on horseback. Without the holes. It’s a
great concept, but it’s not a sport. And as far as water polo is concerned, I
hesitate to even mention it, because it’s extremely cruel to the horses.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Which brings me
to <b>hunting.</b> You think hunting is a sport? Ask the deer. The only good
thing about hunting is the many fatal accidents on the weekends. And, of course,
the permanently disfigured hunters who survive such accidents.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Then you have <b>tennis.</b>
Tennis is very trendy and very fruity, but it’s not a sport. It’s just a way to
meet other trendy fruits. Technically, tennis is an advanced form of Ping-Pong.
In fact, tennis is Ping-Pong played while standing on the table. Great concept,
not a sport.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">In fact, all
racket games are nothing more than derivatives of Ping-Pong. Even <b>volleyball</b>
is, technically, racketless, team Ping-Pong played with an inflated ball and a
raised net while standing on the table.</span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And finally we
come to <b>golf.</b> For my full take on golf, I refer you elsewhere in the
book, but let it just be said golf is a game that might possibly be fun, if it
could be played alone. But it’s the vacuous, striving, superficial,
male-bonding joiners one has to associate with that makes it such a repulsive
pastime. And it is decidedly not a sport. Period.</span></div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-19113973031413119852013-04-02T10:20:00.001-07:002013-11-08T02:24:22.779-08:00Sports, Games & Exercise.Dear students,<br />
<br />
One of the great failings of the Yes! Maturita book is how poorly it explains these three related, but different things. You need to memorize these simple definitions:<br />
<br />
1. A game is a friendly competition for fun, and sometimes money, involving rules, luck, strategy, and various skills. There are many different kinds of games: card games, board games, video games, children's games, drinking games, sports, etc.<br />
<br />
2. A sport is commonly considered any game that focuses on physical abilities, such as strength (sila), speed (rýchlosť), stamina (výdrž), dexterity (obratnosť), and aim (zámer). In sports, strategy is emphasized (zvýraznený) while luck is minimized, with only an occasional coin toss. The idea is that the winning player or team must be stronger and more highly skilled than the competition.<br />
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Some motorized races, such as NASCAR, Formula 1, and motorbike racing are considered sports because of the level of danger involved. The idea is that, if the level of danger and recklessness can compensate for the lack of physical strength, etc, it's still a sport. And horse racing is a sport where the real athletes are the horses.<br />
<br />
There is some debate as to whether some games are "sports". It's a status issue, because calling it a sport sounds more impressive. In general, any game that doesn't require intense physical training is not considered a sport, which is why bowling, snooker, and chess aren't included in the Olympics. <br />
<br />
People are sometimes confused about chess because of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess_olympiad" target="_blank">Chess Olympiad</a>, a yearly competition organized by a completely different organization, having nothing to do with the summer or winter Olympic Games. And, before you use the Olympics to define what is or isn't a sport, remember they used to have <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_competitions_at_the_Olympic_Games" target="_blank">Olympic art competitions</a> too. Is art a sport?<br />
<br />
Sometimes you'll hear someone say that <em>-x-</em> isn't a sport because it's not their favorite. Maybe it's not popular or shown on TV. These opinions aren't true, and mostly based on machismo, but they can be funny. Here's George Carlin for example:<br />
<br />
"<span lang="EN-US">Soccer is not a sport because you can’t use your arms. Anything
where you can’t use your arms can’t be a sport. Tap dancing isn’t a sport. I
rest my case."</span><br />
<br />
3. Not every form of physical activity or recreation is a sport. A sport is a game, so it requires rules, a winner, and a loser. If there's no winner and loser, it's not a sport. It's exercise. Exercise is what people do to become strong and healthy. Some people do it to relax and unwind. Some do it to look more attractive. Some do it because their doctor told them they should.<br />
<br />
Is running a sport? It can be. It all depends. If I go running by myself in the morning before work, that's not a sport. That's exercise. If I run in a race, then it's a sport. If I'm a criminal running from a policeman, I suppose it's a kind of sport, depending on how you define "winning" and "losing", but it's not an official sport. It is entertaining for spectators, though.<br />
<br />
Is cycling a sport? It can be. It all depends. If I ride my bicycle to work, that's not a sport, that's transportation. If I ride it for a day out in the country, that's both recreation and exercise. If I ride it in a race, like the Tour de France, then it's a sport.<br />
<br />
Is swimming a sport? It can be. It all depends. If I swim around Mlynky Dedinky with my friends it's not. That's just recreation. If I swim laps at the pool, trying to go as fast as I can, that's exercise, and maybe training, if I plan to enter a race. If I swim in a race (called a swim meet) then it's a sport.<br />
<br />
Is aerobics a sport? Not usually, but it can be. There are aerobics competitions, as well as bodybuilding competitions. It all has to do with competition. And, hiking is not a sport. Hiking is just walking wherever it's okay to pee. Drink enough, and you can go hiking anywhere. I see people hiking downtown all the time. Orienteering can be a sport (that's finding your way in the woods with a compass). People organize competitions for orienteering.<br />
<br />
P.S. I almost forgot! In Slovak, when you say atletika, you're referring to a set of races and competitions that we typically call Track and Field in English. In English an athlete isn't only someone who plays track and field. An athlete is anyone who plays any sport. So, if you exercise, you're strong, and you're skilled in one sport, you're an athlete.<br />
<br />
<br />T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-41454889637552104282013-02-15T01:43:00.001-08:002013-02-15T01:43:01.046-08:00Surviving The Holidays With Lewis BlackMany celebrities talk about different holidays in America, from Thanksgiving to New Years Eve:<br />
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T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-599556942610433282013-02-05T11:21:00.001-08:002013-02-05T11:23:32.314-08:00Plagiarism And ResearchHow to Write a Research Essay:<br />
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T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3052456569762870751.post-65895595280983857412013-01-31T11:48:00.000-08:002013-01-31T21:41:00.347-08:00America's War on ChristmasConservatives in America often complain on television that Christmas is in danger - that liberals want to ban it (zakázať).<br />
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<tr style="height: 14px;" valign="middle"><td colspan="2" style="padding: 2px 1px 0px 5px;"><a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-december-3-2012/the-war-on-christmas--friendly-fire-edition" style="color: #333333; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The War on Christmas: Friendly Fire Edition</a></td></tr>
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Here's what they said, to help you understand:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Welcome to the
Daily Show! My name is Jon Stewart! We got a good one for you tonight! </span><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Dennis Leary
is going to be on the program, author of the new book, Merry F**king Christmas.
That’s his book there. Am I reading that title correctly? Merry F**king
Christmas. Yes, that’s correct. I can only assume it’s a delightful romp to
holiday cooking and decorating. Leary loves crafting, I’ll say that.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Speaking of
Christmas, you’re probably aware by now our nation’s been embroiled (vtiahnutý do) in a long
and bitter (krutý) war.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“The first
salvo in the war on Christmas”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">4X “War on
Christmas”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">War on
Christmas! Not to be confused with Gwar on Christmas, it’s a tremendous
Christmas album. For years now Christmas has been under attack, defended only
by the brave souls of Fox News. Are they still up to the task? (Su ešte pripravený s prácu?) That is the subject
of tonight’s <em>War on Christmas, Friendly Fire Edition</em>. Let’s face facts. The
annual Fox war on Christmas has become a little predictable (predpovedateľný). It’s basically, I
imagine you could make one up with a, like a Make Fox News <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_libs" target="_blank">Mad Libs</a>. Let’s see.
Let’s try to do one of these:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Last week,
in, I need the name of some Godless, liberal bastion (bašta).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Santa Monica</st1:place></st1:city>”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Okay, <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Santa Monica</st1:place></st1:city> that’ll do.
Let me just fill in <st1:city w:st="on">Santa Monica</st1:city> there, and in <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Santa Monica</st1:place></st1:city> a group of,
give me the name of a small group of annoying people with incredibly limited control
over our culture.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“atheists.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Okay,
atheists’ll do. That’s right. Everyone’s favorite uncle that lives in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Oregon</st1:place></st1:state>, that no one ever
sees. So a group of atheists have ruined Christmas by forcing the removal of –
I need a classic Christmas symbol.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“ass.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Damnit
Brian, we’re trying to do something here! Just go sit in the car!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nativity_scene" target="_blank">nativityscene</a>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Thank you!
Nativity scene! At least some people are still grown-ups over there. Okay,
Alright so we’re done. Let’s see if we can put that all together, shall we?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Atheists
seem to have ended a 60-year-old Christmas tradition in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Santa Monica</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state></st1:place>.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Now a
Federal Judge backing <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Santa Monica</st1:city></st1:place>’s
decision to no longer allow Nativity scenes at a public park.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Oh my god,
that is such an out!–snore… It’s as though the War on Christmas has become a
rote observance (nudný zvyk), devoid (zbavený) of all its original spiritual meaning. Even its most
ardent proponents (navrhovatelia) have seen doubt creep in.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">“Now, a lot
of people, for whatever reason, will look at this interview today, and they’ll
say, Gretchen Carlson and Doreen Costa are nuts (šialený), okay, they’re so nuts because
they think that there’s this made-up (falošný) War on Christmas. We’re not nuts are we?
There is a war on Christmas.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">As a
general rule, if you’re trying to tell whether you and one other person are
nuts, ask a third person, preferably someone outside the asylum (ústav). But, since you
asked the question, “Am I nuts to think there’s a War on Christmas,” it’s only
polite for me to offer you a resounding (hlasný), yes you’re f**king nuts. Because, for
whatever annoying, local, ticky-tack (byrokratický), Christmas-abolishing (odstrániť) story you and your
merry band of persecution-seeking researchers (výskumnikov ktory hladaju pronasledovanie) can scour the wires (hladať cez internet) to turn up (najsť),
the rest of us can’t swing a dead elf (mávať mrtvy škriatok) without knocking over a inflatable <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_globe" target="_blank">snowglobe</a> or a giant, blinking candy cane.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">For God’s
sakes, Fox News itself is located in Midtown Manhattan, the epicenter of all
that is Godless, secular, gay, Jewy, and hellbound (predurčený na to isť do peklo). And yet, even here, all
around your studio, it looks like Santa’s balls exploded. That is a hypothesis.
</span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">You know, in the old days, before the War on Christmas, the celebration of the
birth of Christ lasted a day, like birthdays do. And then it seeped (šíril) into the
night before Christmas, the Eve, if you will, and then the next thing you know
we were riding this thing all the way to Epiphany. Fine, 12 days! It gave time
for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDBMzGq1vhs" target="_blank">lords to leep and geese to lay and partridges to pear, and gold to ring</a>. It’s
just 12 days of servants and f**king poultry (hydina), whatever! But it still wasn’t
enough. There’s a War on Christmas? Has anyone told Thanksgiving? Because, this
year Black Friday, aka Christmas’s opening bell, got moved back a day to Black
Thursday, or as we used to call it, Thanksgiving. Christmas is so big now, it’s
eating other holidays. Watch your ass, Halloween, you’re next.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Let me ask
you a question. Do atheists land an occasional blow? I guess. Even the
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Globe_Trotters" target="_blank">Washington Generals</a> get lucky once in awhile. But, when you look at the overall
record between the two teams – for God’s sakes, there are radio stations that
play nothing but Christmas carols, stores that sell nothing but Christmas decorations
all year long. There is a TV channel devoted to a Yule log. And, it’s kicking
CNN’s ass in the ratings!<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; tab-stops: 282.75pt;">
<span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">But, don’t worry non-log-burning channels,
there’s Christmas programs for you as well. There’s old-timey, traditional
Christmas programming, really old-timey, Dickensian Christmas special
programming, new-timey Hey-Hey-Hey! urban Christmas specials, Mormon Christmas
specials, country-western Christmas specials, chipmunk Christmas specials,
otter Christmas specials, bear Christmas specials, cat Christmas specials,
large-headed child Christmas, gay Christmas, Jewish Christmas, whatever the
fuck this is Christmas, Christmas under water, Christmas from the future,
prehistoric Christmas. That’s right, there’s a Christmas special celebrating
the Jesus’s birth thousands of years before the birth of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
T Arthur Smithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07831844692245441302noreply@blogger.com0