IS IT REALLY ARTWORK?

 I believe this controversial art-piece can be acknowledged as artwork. The artist intended to produce an emotion in the public that praised it. It also proves the skill of the artist for its creativity and realistic characteristics. Personally my reaction was appraise. The artwork is realistic, creative, and it has controversial beauty. I believe it is modern and exhibits different reactions in the viewer for example laughter, sympathy, or even irony. 

When I see this work of art I sense it imitates or represents events we see in life, which would make it art. I see for example and old man with a lot of money that is completely surrounded by young ambitious women. The artist communicates to the spectator an ironic situation. You don't often see an old bald man covered in kisses. I think this artwork educates me in the way I see the fact that this man could be being ripped off in a humorous way. Maybe he enjoys being around beautiful women and doesn't care they are taking his money. But I'm 17 and see things differently, someone else might think he is and old man being cherished and loved by his wife, children, and even grandchildren. 

http://www.portlandart.net/archives/AppreciationOfBeauty.jpg

POSITIVE EXPERIMENT RESULTS.. human sciences

The Loftus and Palmer Experiment:
-The experiment was designed to prove that long-term memory could be influenced by leading questions as well as the motivation to give the questioner the answer he/she is looking for.
-A group of college students were chosen as subjects. They were shown a video of a car collision and then handed a paper with a single question asking the speed approximation of the car. What they didn’t know is that the questions handed randomly varied in verbs. The verb’s ranged between strong and not as strong, this was meant to influence the speed average given by the participant.
-The outcome proved the hypothesis right. The highest speed approximation matched the strongest verb and the lowest approximation matched the least powerful verb. The result helped understand that leading questions in a courtroom could affect the eyewitnesses memory of the event.

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/judicial-system-5.jpg 

ETHICS.. EUTHANASIA

PRO- ASSISTED SUICIDE

 VS. PRO- NATURAL DEATH

-       The Christian Catholic religion strictly forbids the taking of a life by human hands. This includes assisted suicide. Even if the sickness is terminal (which is a demand of the euthanasia process), only God can take the decision as if to when the person shall die and how.

-       Secular humanism states that under the conditions of a terminal disease or extreme suffering, a persons “quality” of life decreases causing the person a great level of discontent. With contentment or happiness as the standard, some lives are deemed to have such low quality that it is reasonable to prefer death.

-       The US currently doesn’t adapt euthanasia nation wide like Netherlands and Belgium. They have decided to take the matter state by state because an exact guideline is needed to make the process useful without violating human rights or involving murder. For example the term of euthanasia, when and how it applies, to whom it applies and how the procedure will take place.

I believe euthanasia should be applied around the world when the patient falls under the conditions. Whether its voluntary that the person choses the procedure, or involuntary when the person is in no conditions to continue living or chose their future. If the disease is terminal and a lot of suffering is implied why ignore a patients dying wish and make him/her endure pain during their last instances in this world?

 

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/In_what_countries_is_euthanasia_legal

http://breakthroughtogod.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/144.jpg

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS- WWI

Origin: New York World, USA indirect involvement in the WWI perspective.

Purpose: To mock the famous promise during 1914 “the war will end before Christmas”, to burst peoples bubble pointing out that the war would extend for more time.

Value: The satire is very direct. Also the “prohibition” of Christmas spirit was something people around the world could identify with.

Limits: Only people in certain places of the USA could she the picture. It made people more desperate to stop supporting the war or made people more eager to contribute and stop the war once and for all. 

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/cgo/lowres/cgon419l.jpg 

Mathematics in Nature Blog:)

This is the inside of a cave, the towers of rock are fractals because we can see how they are built by a repeated pattern. 

This video shows how some caves and their walls are formed, but not how fractals help us describe these repetitive and un-geometrical shapes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMzi5f7evhE

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI8ED4R2NUug9fMLVwFnJfL0zQAFPVtx4u3XdtPKiB5ecVHagdu7BucM9gPvNZOcYM5p_4Av5wtRtf4kCVrjuQIpcNa1PmCeRdGK31CsxOrkW1HyIYKaVsbVUKBOMqkF5gp-3Kbs0Mm8o/s400/2.jpg

NATURAL SCIENCES: The expense of science

THE MILGRAM EXPERIMENT:

The Milgram experiment falls under social psychology, and it was conducted by Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram. It was meant to measure the willingness of study participants to obey an authority figure that instructed them to perform acts that conflicted with their personal conscience. What made the experiment unethical weren’t the hypothesis, but the means in which it was performed. 

It consisted of a learner (victim), experimenter, and a teacher that is the only participant and is unaware of the experiment setup. The experimenter was placed in the same room as the teacher who had to ask a series of questions to the learner. The learner was a contracted actor who stood playing the role in another room. Through a communication device the teacher (participant) starts asking questions; if the learner can’t answer the question a button the participant has to press shocks him. As his incorrect responses increase, the force of the shock increases. The teacher listens to the actor pretending to be shocked scream in pain, but the experimenter asks the teacher to continue with the process. The teacher did not know the scream was a fake and that the real person in the other room was not being harmed.

First, the experiment is unethical because the participants were deceived. Not only by the trickery in conducting the experiment, but they were not told the true nature of the experiment. They thought they were hurting the person that had to answer the questions. After the shock level had reached a maximum and the screaming seized the participants believed they had killed the learner and were affected emotionally. The person giving the shocks was forced to continue by the experimenter, he was not allowed to leave at will.  The one ethical consideration the scientists did follow was debriefing the participants after their participation had ended.    

PERCEPTION

"DOUBT IS THE KEY TO KNOWLEDGE"- To what extent is this true in perception?

“Doubt is the key to knowledge”, refers to curiosity. With curiosity, people search for the truth or a reasonable perspective of something. Truth is relative, so I believe that doubt is something personal that pushes the person to develop a perspective that fits with their way of life.

• People have a perspective based upon their believes. When it comes to evolution or Adam and Eve or even other theories, people chose to see the one that fits with them. The doubt of creation causes people to search for an answer whether it’s scientifically or based on religious believes.
• When it comes to education, the base is inquiry. Children can be taught but if no true curiosity to learn the material is irrelevant. If your curiosity leads you toward history instead of English your perspective will change toward that subject and its components.
• I love to watch movies. Fiction in real life simulations with adventure and comedy is the perfect mix for a movie. I am always curious for what would happen if weird things were to occur. For example if vampires were real, what would be of the World. Movies give me that perspective of things that are not real but an alter reality that lasts for around 2 hours. 

IB Assessment - Trust experts or not?

TOPIC: How important are the opinions of experts in the search for knowledge?

OPINION: We should int

ake experts opinion 

of a matter we do not understand, but always remember truth is relative and their point of view shouldn't form our perspective of

 a subject. I should als

o add, experts are not always correct and might guide you in the wrong way instead of leading you through the path 

of knowledge. They are experts on one subject and to really know something you need to be able to relate it to the whole picture.

SUPPORT 1

In science and religion, you cannot base your believes by listening to experts on the matters. You have to form your own opinion and believes depending on how you feel toward one or the other. The picture shows a 

kid being dragged by an expert of each branch to take a side without letting him truly have a personal opinion.

SUPPORT 2:

Before America was disco

vered experts would claim the earth was flat. We now know better and we known that those experts 

were wrong despite they were professionals. Anyone who dared go against these ideas was puni

shed, and the experts led people in the wrong direction. In the picture we can see what scientists believed to be the end of the world and the fall toward the under world.

http://www.pensionriskmatters.com/flat-earth-society(1).jpg

http://images.google.hn/imgresimgurl=http://www.jorivers.com/images/sci_vs.religion.jpg&imgrefurl=http://stewartsstruggles.blogspot.com/&usg=__YxjBpDPPXqkHNBCODbA4VZN5Ibo=&h=548&w=748&sz=186&hl=es&start=12&itbs=1&tbnid=Oqxu7GBk7ubbwM:&tbnh=103&tbnw=141&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dscience%2Bvs%2Breligion%26hl%3Des%26sa%3DG%26gbv%3D2%26tbs%3Disch:1

GOOD REASONING? History gone bad..

The Mexican Porfiriato: 1876-1911

After Mexico won its independence the country was left in ruins. Porfirio Diaz was elected president and he looked to modernize and reform Mexico. The economy in Mexico did change and the country was modernized, but the change was only benefiting the high class. Diaz's ideology was for the good of Mexico but instead he became a dictator loathed by the low class.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfJxFcQEg-l9H-31ujWReievMNrfjW-P95UEEZqShWDAZraFp-bEhNejWTgQdLqP8gGYphLJ2KWcwbadNHphxsn7UgwgXlWSPClarUX3LqGncMi1DY-gn8jM_ninRXIgchHiyxOQlg65to/s400/t287962a.jpg

US Goes Pacific: 1898

In 1898 US annexed the islands of Hawaii in the Pacific ocean. At first they justified this action by saying it was the white mens burden to help these uncivilized natives. You could say their intentions were good at first, but later on

 the true intentions were recognized. Hawaii was convenient for the navy, the whaler companies, the missionaries, and the annexation primarily benefited the agriculture business men who tried to avoid paying high exportation taxes from Hawaii to US.

http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/hawaii-petition/images/hawaii-petition-02.jpg 

A Fight for Religion or Power?: 1478

The spanish inquisition court was established in 1478. The Inquisition worked in large part to ensure the orthodoxy of recent converts, especially Jews, Muslims and witchcraft. They claimed it was a fight for God and the protection of the catholic religion. The most probable motives for the monarchs to support such treachery were increasing political authority, weakening opposition, suppressing conversos, and profiting from confiscation of the property 

of convicted heretics. Many people were murdered and tortured in unimaginable ways, with the excuse of  committing treason to God through their believes.

http://www.journeywithjesus.net/Essays/spanish_inquisition_small.jpg

ORIGIN OF MY NAME- Isabella Monique Espinal

Meaning of Isabella:

Origin: Hebrew

Meaning: Devoted to God.

Origin: Italian

Meaning: Italian form of Isabel: consec

rated to God.

Origin: Shakespearean

Meaning: 'Measure for Measure' Sister to Claudio.

Origin: Spanish

Meaning: My God is bountiful. God of plenty. Devoted to God. A Spanish variant of Elizabeth.

Meaning of Monique:

Origin: French

Meaning: Variant of Mona: madonna. Wise.

Origin: Greek

Meaning: Variant of Monica: Alone. Advisor.

Meaning of Espinal:

It is more correctly Roman (Latin), and derives its origin from the pre Christian word 'spina', a description for a person who lived either by a prominent thorn bush, or more probably a defensive area protected by thorn bushes, or on the ridge or spine of a hill. As a late medieval surname, it was also applied as a nick name to a "difficult" person, one of "prickly" character.

Isabella Rossellini

Story of my mothers critical decision for my name:

When I was old enough to think about having a daughter and giving her a name, but not old enough to be serious about it, I played around with dog names. No, I did not think they were dog names until a few years later! If my memory isn’t playing tricks on me you were first named Poppy, it was chick and fun and I saw it in a movie.

During my teenage years I could have sworn I was not having any children of my own so I erased you from my thoughts completely. Throughout college my rebellion against motherhood had ceased and I played around with names comparing them to whoever my current boyfriend was. That’s when I came up with Franchesca and Monzerrrat, like you can guess the guys where all American or eastern.

These were all vague ideas, but I knew that my taste went for originality. It was a surprise when I got married and had my first child, your older brother; and named him after your grandfather’s. My name is Molly, after my mom, which was an obvious decision because we were born the same day.. but you were going to be born on a completely different date so that option was crossed out early!

During my pregnancy I saw this movie with Isabella Rossellini over and over again and tada!! I FELL IN LOVE WITH HER! I hated the combination of foreign names with Latin last names, and Isabella was the perfect match with your dad’s weird name. He had no voice in the decision and I was sure Isabella would be a perfect fit with the kick-boxing-restless-crazy-baby inside me.

Now when I call you by your whole name I could not be more sure it is perfect for you. You gave the historic royalty name completely another meaning of mischief, stubbornness, sarcastic humor and an edgy sweetness. Another interesting fact is that at least one daughter of my two brothers has the name Isabel somewhere inside their name, its almost like we planed it! 

http://www.andythenamebender.com/name-meanings/Isabella.htm

http://www.andythenamebender.com/name-meanings/Monique.htm

 http://www.surnamedb.com/surname.aspx?name=Espinal

5 IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF MYYY LIFE :)

1. MOVIES- Most people wouldn't understand this, but I have a passion for movies. I have always enjoyed spending time with myself and movies are the perfect company for a loner. Movies offer me the space I sometimes need, and I can laugh, cry, or get scared all by myself.

2. FRIENDS- Specially when your a teenager, the friends you have are part of who you are! I love my friends and I will stand beside them as long as life permits me too, and I am sure they would do the same.

 3. Carlos- This picture is of my brother and me during last years Thanksgiving break. I only have one brother and we have always stuck together. 

4. Helping- This is a picture of an activity at AST from operation smile. The feeling of getting to help others has no comparison, and being able to give a hand out to somebody that needs it is very important to me.

5. ART- Since I was a little girl I discovered the magic of art. I have the endowment of being very creative and always thinking outside the box, drawing is one of the ways I let that creativity flow.

JANUARY 31.