After watching this video I can see how this would definitely scare a lot of Americans due to some of the graphic footage but I feel like it is pretty obvious that this video exaggerates a lot of things. First of all the video makes it look like all Muslims have a killer mentality towards anyone that is different from then, this is very very untrue. The majority of the Muslims in the world do not have a problem with Americans and everyone around the world. In my world in conversation I was able to talk with 4 kids from the Middle East that are all Muslims. They did not have hatred for me or any of the other kids in the room, in fact that like Americans. They wanted to hear about what we do and how we do these things more than anyone I have ever met. They also went on to tell us that their homes are not as dangerous as they are made out to be on TV and even on this video. There are not always bombings and huge mobs running around killing all of the non-believers, these types of things are very rare. On the other side of the argument I can see how a lot of people are fearful for their lives on a daily basis. I mean they list of attacks on the video surprised me a lot because I knew there were bombings and hostage situations but I had no idea that there was that many. Personally I dont get too scared by all of these images for a couple reasons. First of all I live in the suburbs during the summer and State College during the school year. Both of these places would not be the first likely target of a terrorist attack. The Muslim radicals would definitely look for a more densely populated area for an attack just like they have in the past. But even if I did live in a city I wouldnt be afraid. The amount of terrorists out there are such a small portion of the total population and the chances of one actually doing something to you out of everyone else is slim. Lastly there is so much security nowadays to prevent things like attacks that the numbers have gotten even smaller than they were before.

If I were to have written a response to this article before taking this class it would be completely different than what my response is now. Earlier this year I was not completely aware of everything going on with gender issues. I did know that there were gays, bisexuals, transgender, and I knew a little about hermaphrodites. This subject may seem like it is very simple, either you are a man or a women, but there are many grey areas that have still not been cleared up to this point. In this case of the New Jersey worker I would have to take the defendants side in court. It was said that New Jersey has rules set up to fight discrimination in the work place due to gender, ethnicity, age, and some other variables. To me it seems pretty clear that firing this person due to them not being the right gender directly violates the rules set up. I know that many people would say that it is not so clear because the man was actually born a women. I can see where they are coming from with this argument but there are a few reasons that I don’t agree with that statement. First of all the victim says himself that he has felt like a man his entire life and lived his entire life like a man too. He even went as far to take away the only feminine characteristic that he still had and get a sex change. On top of just getting a sex change he also takes male hormones, which once again solidifies the fact that he is a man. If the argument is that he isn’t legally a man, well then that is just completely wrong. Mr. Devoureau got a new birth certificate in the State of Georgia that clearly states he is a man and his New Jersey license also says that he is a man. It seems like there are a lot of issues right now in the area of gender and people need to start thinking more openly and be more accepting of the 5 different genders. There are people more than just male and female and they aren’t going anywhere.

The way I interpreted the article and all of our talks on the subject of oil is that there is no way anything is going to change in the near future. The big oil companies have done a great job in the past to make sure that nobody can mess with the system that they have going now. Not that a lot of people in a position of power want to do anything that will disrupt the way they run their business. Sure there are those Democrats in office that want to get rid of the billion dollar tax breaks that the big oil companies are getting but it seems like there is no way they can ever pass anything big enough to actually make a dent in the big oil companies rule over the United States. They just have way too much power backing them up. They have politicians at every level of the government willing to vote in favor of them and they also get the money from wealthy lobbyists who don't want to give up anything in their lives that they have grown accustom to. I would even say that the majority of Americans don’t want to give up the things they have. These big oil companies make it possible for us to fill up our tanks everyday and have no worry about when and where to get our gas for the next week. What a lot of people don’t realize is that our entire country needs the big oil to keep us functioning in the way we have all grown accustomed to. We make billions every year in this industry and the government cannot afford to stop getting this money. I think that even Obama knows this and he is just trying to put this bills through to make some of the public happy, while the whole time he knows there is no chance that all of the republicans in congress would ever let that happen. Sure there can be a little bit of change in the industry of oil and how they do business but I conclude that there will be no big changes for the rest of US history. Oil will always be needed and the US will always do what is necessary to get it.

I agree with a lot of things that Sam and everyone else has been saying but there are also some things that I disagree with. I agree with Sam on the fact that people that work hard and earn their lifestyle are fine and there is nothing wrong with them having way more money than a lot of other people. You can’t hate on people that earned their money fair and square if they don’t share their wealth with some of the less fortunate people throughout the world. One area that I disagree with Sam is the fact that he said he is against some people “cheating”. Sure there are many types of cheating that I don’t agree with like robbery and other things that harm others but I think some are not actually cheating. He mentioned people using insider information to put themselves ahead of everyone else involved in the game. I disagree with this for a couple reasons. These people have put themselves in good enough situations so that this information could possibly get to them. For example if I was an upper class person with a lot of friends high up in corporations I would definitely use any information that they gave me to benefit myself. I am not hurting anyone else by knowing in advance about a new product coming out or about the new financial analysis coming up next period. I also wanted to talk about the cycle of this inequality. It seems obvious to me that it will never change no matter what happens. It has been going on forever and ever. Back in the time of kings they had all of the wealth and didn’t give it to anyone. They even went as far as ruling the lower class people in their kingdoms. Today it is not as extreme in the United States but in other places around the world it is just as bad as then or worse. These countries in South America, Africa, and other places around the world are not looking like they are going to be changing their ways anytime soon either.

After reading the article and our discussions in class I have realized a lot of the problems associated with motivating large groups of people. With evacuation plans I don’t know how you can get people to do them effectively. In the case of Three Mile Island if the meltdown actually occurred I don’t think that any of the people there would have followed the plans set up beforehand. I know that if I was there I would take the route that would benefit me the best and increase my chances of survival and safety. Sure there would be some people that would follow the plans but I believe that the majority would not and it would just cause a ton of congestion and cause more problems. Sure if everyone would follow the plans everyone could be evacuated safely and efficiently but that is just not how we are wired. Maybe if people were forced to practice these large scale evacuations they would go through with the plan more efficiently but that would never happen. Once again you would have people that would not bother to show up and practice the escape route and then nothing would be accomplished. The main thing that I believe holds back the group working together is the free-loaders. They are the ones that just figure everyone else will do it for them and sometimes they are right. But there are also the times that the free-loaders ruin it for everyone. I feel like this could be the case with the cut to Penn State funding. As we discussed in class, at this time there are only a limited amount of students that are getting involved. The majority of students at Penn State are just sitting back and watching as everything unfolds. What a lot of people don’t realize is there might be consequences in the form of a tuition increase if nobody gets off their butt and does something. Its going to be very hard to get people motivated because a lot of students don’t really know what is going on. I know that I had no idea how serious the whole situation was until recently and I still don’t really feel that motivated to help. I guess that is where the problem lies.

When I think about what the people in this town have to deal with I wonder if I would be able to do what they do. Everyday they go about their lives the same as we do but with no light. I can definitely see how this would mess with your head after a while because even after out winters I get sick of the sun going down so early and cold darkness that takes up most of my afternoons. And when I think about it light does do a lot of things for me that I wouldn’t notice until it was taken away from me. When I think of darkness I think about sleeping, coldness, and a few other things. I think that if I were to live in this city I would constantly be tired and lazy. When I see darkness I also associate it with the end of the day. I would think the whole day that my day was almost over and if you get that feeling day after day I can see how you could start feeling miserable and depressed. The festival of lights that they have is a great idea to boost the moral of the towns people. It brings them up enough so that they can make it through the cold, dark winter. I also believe that it gives them a glimpse of summer and the light that is on its way soon. The illumination of trees is also a great idea. They associated light with the feeling of safety and I can definitely see how it would help. People always associate dark with crime and just all different kinds of scary thoughts so any amount of light can help someone feel better about the situation they are in. The bright lamps that people use at their desks are very interesting to me. I know that whenever I walk out of my house in the morning and the sun is shining in my face it makes me feel good and optimistic about whatever I am going, so I guess that is the same type of feeling that they get with the bright lamps on their desks. Its just a way that they discovered to cope with the long nights and short days. I never really thought about how the sunlight affects me and I definitely never thought about how it affects all people in very similar ways.

I believe that there are many things that go into everyone fearing uncommon events. The first thing that pops into my mind is the media. The news never shows just ordinary things that happen everyday otherwise nobody would watch. They show the weird and extraordinary things that only happen every once in a while. And when these things show up on the news channels all over the country the general public is always fascinated with them. They are so fascinated with them to the point that they become obsessed. This story is a prime example of this. The news doesn’t show how a stranger finds a 4 year old all alone in a grocery store and returns the kid to his parents; it finds the one time that someone tries to abduct a boy. Even though the grocery store incident happens way more often people only think about the kidnapping story. Obviously the kidnapping is more serious so I can see how it would freak people out but the chances of it happening are very very small. Because people are afraid of this happening to them they are taking precautions with their kids whenever they go out in public. Are they teaching their kids the wrong things? There is a possibility that teaching kids to never talk to strangers will do more bad than good. What if a kid does get lost at a grocery store, theme park, or any other place and they are afraid to ask anyone for help? They could possibly get hurt or worse when if they would have asked someone for help there is a 99% chance that they could have helped them find their parents. Another issue that people react similarly to is terrorism. Ever since the events of 9/11 people are much more afraid to fly than they have ever been. People get even more afraid when they see a Middle Eastern looking person at the airport even though the chances they are a terrorist is one in a million. The chance that one of the flights is taken over by terrorists is even more astronomical yet people still worry every time they fly somewhere. Personally I am not afraid to fly but I will admit that in the back of my head I do think about what I would do if the plane was hijacked. I don’t know why but I cant help myself.

My first response to this video is that there is no way this would work in the United States. I just don’t see people being okay with sharing their wife with other people even if they are their siblings. I know that there is no way that I could do it. I don’t even like it when my girlfriend hangs out with other guys and if she was also going out with two of my friends my jealousy would drive me crazy. But I can see how it could work in their culture. If that is just the way that things are they probably don’t question their decision at all. They would probably think that the way we only have one life partner is crazy and inefficient. People in our culture would not be understanding enough with the sex part especially. It’s weird for me to think that all of the brothers are having sex with the same girl on a regular basis. To me that seems like it is borderline incest and just creeps me out. But once again they don’t see it that way because that is just what people do there. Another thing that I thought of was that I think the main reason this seems so foreign to me is the fact that it is the girl that seems to be in charge. The three brothers take care of all of the housework and even take care of the kids while the wife seems to just sit around and help out a little. The role of women in the United States seems to be the complete opposite with the women doing most of the housework and the men out working to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. For this reason polygamy seems way more rational to me than polyandry. I think it is also because I have just never been exposed to it while I have known about polygamy for a while and I was able to get used to it. I definitely think that if I was brought up in the same area as the people in the video that I would probably think that polyandry was practical and just the way things go. This is just the invisible strings defining social norms again.

My first response to this video is that there is no way this would work in the United States. I just don’t see people being okay with sharing their wife with other people even if they are their siblings. I know that there is no way that I could do it. I don’t even like it when my girlfriend hangs out with other guys and if she was also going out with two of my friends my jealousy would drive me crazy. But I can see how it could work in their culture. If that is just the way that things are they probably don’t question their decision at all. They would probably think that the way we only have one life partner is crazy and inefficient. People in our culture would not be understanding enough with the sex part especially. It’s weird for me to think that all of the brothers are having sex with the same girl on a regular basis. To me that seems like it is borderline incest and just creeps me out. But once again they don’t see it that way because that is just what people do there. Another thing that I thought of was that I think the main reason this seems so foreign to me is the fact that it is the girl that seems to be in charge. The three brothers take care of all of the housework and even take care of the kids while the wife seems to just sit around and help out a little. The role of women in the United States seems to be the complete opposite with the women doing most of the housework and the men out working to put food on the table and a roof over their heads. For this reason polygamy seems way more rational to me than polyandry. I think it is also because I have just never been exposed to it while I have known about polygamy for a while and I was able to get used to it. I definitely think that if I was brought up in the same area as the people in the video that I would probably think that polyandry was practical and just the way things go. This is just the invisible strings defining social norms again.

The topic of travel is something that I believe is a big part of my life. I love to travel. I always have and my family is the reason I always have. Ever since I can remember I had a passport and I will always remember the first trip I got to use it. It was in the 2nd grade and my parents took me and my sisters to Australia. Ever since then I have been hooked. I have been to Canada over a dozen times, I have been to Chile, been to Belize, and I have traveled all up and down the East and West coast of the United States. This article blew my mind when I found out that only 30 percent of Americans have passports. It took me a little while to start thinking how I could put myself in the peoples shoes who don't travel. I mean like the article said the news only shows bad things going on in other countries. Rarely ever would you see something great happening in the Middle East or in Africa on the news. Even movies depict foreign countries as dangerous and unsafe for Americans. One of the movies that pops into my head is "Hostel". This is where unsuspecting travelers get taken and sold to the highest bidder and be tortured in any way they can think. That movie alone makes a lot of people never want to go to many countries in Europe in fear of this happening to them. I know that some of the stories my dad has told me make me never want to go to some countries. When he was in India a mob of angry citizens stormed his bus stealing the keys and smashing multiple windows. My dad told me that for a minute he thought he wasn't going to get out of there and that story alone will keep me out of India. But in my personal opinion there are many other places that people should not be afraid to go. One little story might keep you away from one country but it shouldn’t keep you from the world. I think that people just get so comfortable in their own little bubbles at home that they are afraid to leave thinking that it won’t be the same when they get back. But guess what? It will and you will have a whole new outlook on everything when you get back. I can see how money can be an issue when traveling but there are ways around that too. You don’t have to start off taking the thousand dollar trip all over Europe. Maybe just a long road trip with some friends is what you need and then you can work your way up to being a worldly traveler.