Reflection of the Term

When choosing classes for term three I really had no idea what to pick. I planned to take a course within my major of criminal justice, but when I saw the course listings I really wasn't interested in what was offered. A few of my roommates had told me about their experience in the course WWW.Women, and recommended I join immediately. I then quickly approached Alex 'Moose' Todd '13, informing him that he would be taking this class with me and had no say in the matter. When hearing that Professor Maluso would be instructing the course, Alex had no doubts about the course and signed up as well. So here we are, six weeks later, course almost completed and I still have no regrets with my decision.

Between movies and field trips, this course has been nothing but fun. I could not have asked for a better third term course to complete my junior year of college here at EC. At first when I was told we would be making a website, I questioned how successful I would be at this task. But after learning the ways and viewing many other sites, I feel as a group we produced a really nice final product. I better understand the involvement of women in the environment and there contribution to society. This course has helped me appreciate another viewpoint I had never really thought about.

Food Inc.

In class we watched a documentary called Food Inc., directed by Robert Kenner and starring Eric Schlosser. As disturbing as I found this film, it really wasn't too much of a surprise for me because in a way I already knew a lot of this information. I had seen a different documentary that was very similar in   content. This film was particularly disgusting because it is all the truth! This is a behind the scene look at the food industry in the United States. This documentary was powerful in that fast food is eaten by so many people around the world who are clueless of what really goes on. I found it rather scary to think about how these animals are treated. It all just seems very unethical to me.

While watching the documentary, they talked about how a young child had died while on a family vacation because of a burger he ate. This particular burger was laced with a strain of e coli. The fact that the company didn't even give the family their condolences or their apologies. This film was very graphic and even though hard to watch at times, I definitely would recommend this to others.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Cars are an amazing thing and have truly changed the way of life drastically for many obvious reasons. They have been around for quite some time now and I personally thing it is very unique that every individual, of course of the appropriate age and certification, is allowed to drive a vehicle.  Not only that, you have the right to choose the car of your liking, in which you can select the color as well as many other features.  This is a great way of transportation to get from place to place, no matter the distance.  It is very convenient and typically not an issue.  Or is it?  With gas prices on a steady rise as well as foreign fuels and not to mention technology on a sky rocket, is it time for a change?

It was 1996, when electric cars initially started to become popular in the United States.  Most of this popularity was taking place on the West Coast, in California. But still today the concept of these electric cars or even the popularity has not really grown to what it should or could have.  This change can be made and eventually in due time will absolutely have to be made, so why wait?  As United States citizens we like to hold on to what works and not really make adjustments unless something is broken or has began to fail us.  I believe it is time for everyone as whole to come together and make this adaptation as one.  This new possibility could make a change for the best, especially in the long run.  The future for this concept could be bright, it is time to take advantage of this opportunity.  Anyways before long cars will be flying, so let us now take this time to put the electric cars on the map!

The Cove

Recently in classed we watched a documentary which was titled The Cove and to be honest I am not too sure where to begin with this topic. First thing I must say is that I never really knew too much information about dolphins. I knew they were pretty cool creatures who could swim well and would jump out of the water together in packs before dipping back into the ocean blue. Years later I remember hearing about sharks and how they attack humans and after seeing Jaws I couldn't stand those creatures. But then to find out that dolphins attack and even kill sharks made me grow more interested in this animal and even one of my favorites (besides the point the Miami Dolphins were my football team of choice).  Nonetheless, what I witnessed in this film just seemed plain wrong to me.  

In the film I learned that over 20,000 dolphins are killed in an area of Japan each year. These people are captivating and killing dolphins before selling their meat. Which was pointed out to be very dangerous as well because the dolphin meat contains a dangerous amount of mercury. So now your killing these capturing these poor animals, slaughtering them, selling their unhealthy meat to the public? None of that makes sense to me at all.  Richard O'Barry who used to catch and train dolphins for the tv show 'Flipper' had an experience that made him not only come to a stop with the capturing of these creatures, but become a leading advocate against the capturing of dolphins.  While training one of the dolphins he was using for the television show, he practically had one of these creatures commit suicide in his arms because of the stress built up through being captivated.

These poor creatures become depressed and stressed while captured and needless to say are being taken out of their naturally environment. Though these activists have made a differences and warned the public of this problem, it is still happening. Something more needs to be done to assure this issue is resolved and is no more. The ecosystem is heavily effected by this issue and if it doesn't come to a stop soon dolphins will become extinct.

Avatar & Ecofeminism

Recently our class watched the movie Avatar and were told to relate the film to the concept of ecofeminism, whatever that may be.  Before beginning the film, I thought it would be beneficial to look up ecofeminism to help better compare the two.  According to Merriam-Websters Dictionary the term ecofeminism is a philosophical and political movement that applies feminist ideas to ecological concerns.  I further interpreted this term as a strong connection or relationship between women and nature.  This film is great for relating to nature as well as ecofeminism.

In the movie Avatar, the humans residing on planet Pandora are attempting to destroy whatever is necessary in order to get their hands on as much unobtainium as possible, which is worth a very large amount of money back on Earth.  It shows the humans are willing to destroy an entire planet in addition to whipping out the Na'vi people who live there.  The Na'vi population is very in touch with nature and that could be an understatement.  They have a strong connection with the animals, plants, and just the planet itself.  There world consists of a large network of lives and spirits which in the movie has explained as more advanced than the human brain.  The Na'vi people are spiritual and very in touch with their ancestors, primarily through a location that is referred to as Home Tree or the Tree of Souls.  It just so happens that Home Tree is located directly on top of the biggest unobtainium source on Pandora.  The Tree of Souls is the direct connection to Ewya, who is the goddess that created all living things.

This film emphasizes the connection between the Na'vi people and their bond with nature.  Throughout the film, Neytiri is attempting to teach Jake Sully the ways of the Na'vi people.  While doing so, it is easy for the viewers to understand the importance of nature and the environment.  At one point in the movie before Jake Sully met Neytiri, he was being attacked by violent dog-like creatures.  Neytiri came to his rescue by killing one of these creatures but was very disturbed after doing so.  Before killing the creature, she said a prayer in her native language which appeared to be some sort of sacrifice.  

When first arriving on Pandora, Jake Sully initially had the intentions of retrieving his legs back, as well as finishing what his brother had started.  But through his mindset had changed and he too became very connected with nature, the Na'vi people, and there spiritual way of life.  Neytiri helped Jake Sully see the network of energy that flows through all living things.

Scavenger Hunt

Our group began the scavenger hunt walking down a pathway in which no one else in the class had headed towards.  Within our first few steps of this pathway we came across a warning sign for rattlesnakes!  I particularly am not one who is very favorable of snakes whatsoever, better yet rattlesnakes.  I am thankful we actually hadn't come across any of these snakes or I quite possibly may have spent the remainder of the time at the nature center, sitting in the car where I knew I would be snake free.  While walking down this path we actually had a lot of success finding the objects needed.  Our next move was to go inside the Tanglewood museum where we found the remaining objects necessary to complete the hunt.  Overall this experience was enjoyable and what I would call a success.

Recently our class took part in a very interesting scavenger hunt over at the Tanglewood Nature Center.  We split into several groups and were each given a relatively lenghty list of objectives we were directed to locate and take pictures of.  When first glancing at the list of things we would need to find I felt it wouldn't be just an ordinary scavenger hunt, I had a feeling this one was going to be very difficult.  It turned out to be a lot of fun and not nearly as tough as I initially anticipated.  Luckily, when our class took part in this activity it was a beautiful day.

Liter Walk

For Professor Maluso's class we were instructed to walk around Elmira, relatively nearby the campus of EC and collect as much trash as possible.  Each group was given multiple trash bags and a very necessary pair of plastic gloves to protect our hands from whatever nonsense we may come across.  We traveled off campus and down towards the park a few blocks away where we accumulated a ton of trash.  In just that area alone we filled two bags completely to the top and in a very short period of time. We then went to the opposite side of campus where Maluso informed us we could find a disgusting amount of garbage, and we did.

As we were walking around picking up the trash around town, I had mixed emotions.  First of all, I felt like we were making the world a better place by cleaning up and making the town of Elmira as clean as can be.  Even though we spent almost two and a half hours out there picking up trash nonstop, I knew we were barely making an impact on the overall picture of how much trash was really out there.  It also bothered me how much liter we had seen.  I find it very ignorant for people to just throw their trash anywhere they so please.  This is the same planet that these individuals litering live in as well, how can you be so disrespectful to do that.  There are trash cans all over the place so why just throw it on the streets.  I guess it could be beneficial for a city like Elmira to place garbage cans along the streets to help with this issue.

Websites that suck!

In class we have been discussing the in's and out's of websites, such as what can help make a website good and what can make one not so good.  Also, to help get a better understanding of how to design our webpages or in this case how NOT to design them, we looked at others work on webpagesthatsuck.com, which is full of many websites that you would not want to replicate.  This site truly lives up to its name.  I could not look at many of these sites for more than two minutes without inheriting a terrible headache or even just getting pissed off at the creators.

One of the websites I analyzed was for the Microsoft version of the iPod, called the Zune.  This website was one that really frustrated me as a user.  It was difficult to use and to really seemed more of like a maize.  I found myself scrolling around and clicking, while getting no where.  I did not find any information while on this webpage and to be honest, I lost interest while looking over this site and just wanted out! That probably isn't the vibe that websites are trying to give off when being viewed by the public.

Many of the sites I also looked at just had terrible color combinations and flashing lights everywhere.  It was almost as if the creators of these sites did not give any effort or thought about what was going on their site.  The first moment I glanced at any of these sites I immediately exited out and that is when my head started pounding.  It was just terribly unappealing to the eye and really fit the description of webpages that suck.

Fracking

Fracking is an issue that is very unknown to many, but happens to be a very serious issue that all should be aware of.  This issue of fracking is happening all over our country.  Gas companies are attempting to locate natural gas or what can be called Shale Gas.  The marcellus shale contains natural gases.  In order to retrieve this gas, it is necessary to dig deep down into the earth's crust which is called fracking or the more official term would be hyrdaulic fracturing.  By digging into the earth's crust with drills, the breaking of the land and rocks within the ground allow the natural gases to extract.  During this procedure, the ground water gets contaminated with natural gas.

This can be very dangerous and many be feel should not be allowed.  Actually, in many communities across the United States fracking has been banned.  Fracking can contribute to contamination in areas of our country.  When fracking takes place, it can run up into the water sources such as lakes, ponds, and even well water.  With the use of these chemicals it is polluting the environment and becoming disturbances within communities.  It has been said that sometimes as people turn on their sinks or showers at their homes, fire is coming out rather than water.  For many obvious reasons you can understand how this would be extremely dangerous.  The process of fracking is dangerous, polluting our environment and beautiful communities, and simply just a disturbance.

No Impact Man

The documentary film No Impact Man is about a man named Colin Beavan, who with his family contributes no impact towards our planets global warming.  This man pledges that he and his family will avoid producing any trash or using any electricity for a year.  He also states that they will only be traveling by foot or bicycle and will only be eating organic locally grown foods.  Colin and his family live in New York, which potentially made this task a lot harder.  The state of New York and primarily New York City take pride in their advancement and high usage rate of electronics.  With consistent traffic in the city and buses. taxis, and trains constantly available it must have made things difficult as the family used scooters and bicycles to get from place to place.

After living in today's world, it is bizarre to think about the past when technology was not as advanced or readily available to the public.  Cell phones weren't around, laptops didn't exist, and that is only some of it.  Today cell phones rule the world, so to speak.  You can look around at any given time, for the most part, and you will notice a large amount of people using there phones, ipods, some electronic device.  Imagine today going one day without your cell phone. Just one day and I can guarantee people will feel lost.  We rely on these things way too much today.  We are taking this these for granted and will never truly realize this until we have lost it all.

Throughout the film, you notice changes taking place within the family.  For example, the family must find new ways to entertain themselves, where they won't just be turning on the television or popping in their ipods.  They have learned a lot over the course of this year and besides just becoming more environmental friendly and not relying on technology as much, they have come closer together as a family.  This family made a statement and helped our planet and even made life changes of there own throughout this time.

Tree Hugging

Tree Hugging

On Friday April 26, 2012, I can say for the first time in my life that I have officially been tree hugging.  It was an experience that I was very unsure about at first, but will never forget.  Our class went to Tanglewood Nature Center, where the tree hugging went down.  This environmental activity was quite enjoyable and placed our class in a setting we may not be familiar with or use to.  Before we began the tree hugging, we partnered up and discussed the rules.  We started the activity by blindfolding our partners and taking them on a path to a tree to your knowledge only.  Then, the partner who is blindfolded would spend ten minutes with their tree, just getting familiarized with it so they can later identify the tree they were assigned.  After the ten minutes were up, everyone met at one central location and the blindfolds were removed; in which the students who were assigned a tree would try and retrace the steps they took and identify the tree they were assigned.

My partner for this activity was Alex Todd '13, aka 'Moose' and he incorrectly identified his tree the first time, but the second time he was successful.  I attempted to confuse Alex while walking him to a tree by walking in many different directions and occasionally stopping and spinning him around, which I'm assuming worked to perfection.  I was in the second group to be blindfolded and I was successful on the first attempt.  I concentrated on the direction in which I was facing, but that didn't really help as much as I would have liked.  This experience was memorable and pretty exciting as well.

Global Warming

An Inconvenient Truth

The film An Inconvenient Truth which was directed by David Guggenheim, is based on Former United States Vice President Al Gore's attempt to publicly recognize and educate of the worldwide issue on global warming.  When this film was released, it was both highly praised and highly criticized.  While watching the documentary I thought to myself how it was very factual and informative, but I had to consider whether or not everything was true.  Also, several thoughts arose that I felt should be considered while watching the movie.  I remember years ago when Al Gore was running to be President of the United States, only to come up short behind George W. Bush Jr.  Therefore, I felt there was potential or the possibility of Al Gore's motive behind the construction of this film, was to gain public attention and set up another run towards presidency.  That may not truthfully be the case but it may be something to consider.  His motive could have been just to spread the awareness and seriousness of global warming and how us citizens can make an immediate change.

Global warming is more or less the radiation from the suns rays being trapped in the atmosphere, which is then making the atmosphere thicker as it is warming the earth.  As mentioned in the film, the more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the higher the temperatures.  Roger Revelle was the first to measure the carbon dioxide levels in the earth's atmosphere.  According to climatecrisis.net, the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, gas, and oil can contribute to the high level of carbon dioxide as well as the higher temperatures in our atmosphere.  This 2006 film was awarded for Best Documentary.  The cite mentioned just above can be very useful in learning more about global warming, as well as the film itself.

This is me

My name is Derrick Vogel and I am a junior at Elmira College in Elmira, New York.  My major here at EC is criminal justice, though I am not certain what I wish to do in the future.  I am a member  of the Elmira College Men's Basketball team and have been the starting point guard since my freshman year.  I am currently 20 years old and will be turning 21 on May 21.  My hometown is Bel Air, Maryland, which is only minutes north of Baltimore.  I love my hometown and wouldn't mind moving back there when my schooling is all said and done.  To me it feels pretty isolated and away from a lot of traffic, but at the same time there is enough going on where it doesn't get boring.

The course www.women sounded very appealing to me when selecting third term classes for several different reasons.  First of all, a few friends of mine were enrolled in the course last year and had nothing but good things to say about it as a whole.  They proceeded to tell me how great of a time they had.  Also, while recommending this course my friends continued to tell me how great of a person Professor Maluso is, and that I would not regret signing up for this course.  In addition, the course is six credits, therefore I would only be taking one class for the next six weeks, rather than two.

I am a very environmental friendly person.  As a child, I spent countless hours outside just wasting the day away, whether it was playing sports, hiking through the woods, or just roaming my neighborhood.  For example, when growing up, the second I got home from school I would drop off my bookbag in the house and immediately head outside.  I would then be outside until my parents called me in for dinner, in which I rushed to finish and was back out the door.  Now that third term is amongst us, I am hoping for great weather, preferably as warm as can be.  The weather here in Elmira to me isn't very favorable.  It seems very inconsistent and as soon as it starts getting warm and gets your hopes up, it seems to snow the next day.  I am ready for summer!