See Both Sides: Legalizing Marijuana for Recreational Use

On the issue of legalizing marijuana for recreational use, Coby and I do have some common ground. There are likely to be significant monetary savings should marijuana become legal, along with ample opportunity for revenue to be earned. If all the prisoners currently incarcerated for non-violent marijuana crimes were released, an average of $32,000 per prisoner per year would be saved. In addition to the money saved by releasing non-violent offenders, another $7+ billion could be saved in policing and prosecuting these offenders. After the cost savings, one also must look at the income that could be earned by taxing marijuana sales, just as alcohol and cigarettes are taxed. An estimated $6+ billion a year can be earned this way. This money would not just be divided amongst states that have legalized pot but also would aid the federal government. We both agree that non-violent offenders caught possessing small amounts of marijuana do not belong in our prisons and jails. The United States has 5% of the world's population but 25% of the world's prisoners. This increase in the prison population began in the 1970's when the war on drugs began in earnest. Also, it has been noted that these non-violent offenders are more likely to become violent offenders after being imprisoned. We also agree that there are no compelling studies that indicate marijuana is a dangerous drug. Alcohol and cigarettes are far more likely to cause both long-term health issues and death. There is no evidence that marijuana causes cancer and no documented cases of a marijuana overdose. These facts come from SaferChoice.

We feel like people on both sides of this issue can find common ground by accepting that ultimately marijuana use is a personal choice. We don't have to agree with the choice to use, just like many people don't agree with smoking cigarettes, but we don't condemn smokers for making that choice, as long as they are not endangering us or our families. Marijuana use, if legalized, will still be about individuals using in the privacy of their own homes, and laws for driving while intoxicated will be just as strict as they are with alcohol. Second-hand smoke from marijuana is a concern, but the current proposed laws call for private use only. It will likely be many years before public use of marijuana is considered.

3D Game Lab

I thoroughly enjoyed working with 3D Game Lab. Prior to taking this class, I had never heard of the concept of gamifying education and certainly would never have thought of the concept on my own. I agree, though, that changes are necessary in the education system. 3D Game Lab seems to be a great start.

I enjoyed the verbiage within the system, although I could see less dorky classmates not agreeing that the Star Wars references were “cool”. I posted on Facebook as soon as I became a Jedi Knight and can’t wait to post when I reach Yoda. I also enjoyed getting to make my own decisions about what, if any, mastery quests to complete, and the possibility of earning badges by going above and beyond what was expected. One idea, though, would be to give examples for some of the badges, like the Ansel Adams. What do you consider a great use of images? Examples of student’s work when they earned those badges would be great. Being able to get feedback directly related to the quests submitted and in a timely manner was helpful as was having the opportunity to view other classmate’s work (by requiring us to post to our blogs). I thought the group “report-card” was a great idea. I found myself not just competing to get an A but also trying to stay at the front of the pack. I actually referred on occasion to classmates as competitors, which my boyfriend thought was hilarious.

As far as the technology side of things, there only seemed to be a few small glitches from time to time and those were all readily resolved. Normally, I would never choose to take an on-line class because I have found I don’t have the self discipline to stay on top of the assignments. But this blend of on-line and classroom really worked. I can’t say I’m thrilled about spending so much time in front of the computer; I’m actually a bit of a techno-phobe. But I think what I learned was invaluable in terms of staying on top of the latest fads and trends and I feel like I won’t be quite as clueless when I have kids of my own and this is a part of their daily lives.

I am a member of a local gaming group, through meetup.com and I have a working relationship with the owners of a local gaming store, Game On! I have found myself talking to the owners about 3D Game Lab and to other members of my group. Everyone I have mentioned it to hadn’t heard of the concept before but agreed it was a fantastic idea.

The Believing Game: Gun Control

I believe in gun control; not removing all guns from all people but certainly more stringent laws than are in place in many states. So for this exercise I am going to (try to) speak from the perspective of an NRA-card carrying member who believes foremost in the right to bear arms.


The worldview that underlies this belief is that of American superiority and the inalienable individual rights that come with being an American. This is most often linked back to the foundations of our nation, including, but not limited to, the Constitution and Bill of Rights. By holding this worldview, I believe that the government can not infringe on most individual rights including the right to bear arms. As a result, I am more likely to notice what is going on in politics, especially any challenges to the Constitution or Bill of Rights and I am more likely to vote for politicians who share my worldview. This is helpful because I believe I am ensuring the rights bestowed by our forefathers for future generations. Also, I tend to be more involved in politics and am more likely to vote because I am very passionate about preserving my rights. I want to ensure every law-abiding citizen that wants to can carry a weapon, and a concealed weapon at that, for personal protection. Gun control proponents say they want to keep guns out of the hands of criminals but I believe they want to take guns away from everyone and make it impossible for us to protect ourselves and our families. I will do everything in my power to ensure that doesn’t happen for it would destroy what this country is about.

As a card-carrying member of the NRA, I also have a large knowledge of guns and enjoy shooting, for hunting and/or recreation. This knowledge of guns allows me to be more likely to identify when someone around me is carrying, what type of gun they are carrying, and whether or not they are obeying the carry laws of the locale we are in. This knowledge can be helpful in protecting myself and my loved ones from any possible outside threats. If necessary, the fact that I am always carrying a gun will ensure I can act in self-defense or in the defense of my family.

This worldview is true in the sense that we are the only nation that was founded on the principles of democracy…government of the people, by the people, and for the people. Our Constitution and Bill of Rights are documents designed to protect a host of individual freedoms. Philosophers and men of learning have said for thousands of years that self-defense is a basic right of life and that without the ability to defend ourselves, we are not truly able to live as free men. If that is true, than my right to bear arms can not be infringed upon by any man or government.


I used a few different sources to help me understand the point of view of NRA members a little better. They are:
“Battleground America”; The New Yorker
The NRA's website
"The Second Amendment and the Ideology of Self-Protection"; Constitutional Commentary

Unpopular Culture: Portion Sizes in Restaurants

For this assignment, I tried to think of an aspect of popular culture that reflects negatively on most of us, not just certain demographics. Being that the majority of Americans eat at both chain restaurants and fast-food restaurants I decided to look at the impact of portion sizes on our health, and more specifically relating to the obesity epidemic. First, I'd like to establish that this is a problem. More than 80% of Americans eat outside of the home at least once a week. The number of restaurants in America increased by 75% between 1977 and 1991. According to the U.S. Surgeon General in 2003, our country is facing an obesity epidemic. In that year, nearly two out of every three Americans were overweight or obese and over 300,000 Americans died that year from illnesses related to being overweight or obese. Since the 1960's the number of obese children has tripled. There is overwhelming evidence that portion sizes in restaurants are, in part, to blame.

Beginning with the CDC there have been studies that show Americans are incapable of determining variances in portion size. They found that the more food we are presented with, the more we eat, often without being aware the portion size changed or that the amount of food we ate changed. This lack of awareness surrounding portion sizes ensures we eat more food and therefore consume more calories when presented with larger portions. And restaurants are presenting Americans with larger and larger portions.
- The average restaurant meal has up to 4 times as many calories as a meal made at home.
- In 1950, the average fast food burger was 2.8 ounces and 202 calories. That same burger in 2004 was 4.3 ounces and 310 calories (see image, "The New (Ab)Normal".

- A pasta portion in the 1950's was 1.5 cups. In 2004 it varied from 3 to 5 cups.

Americans also tend to mix up portion size with serving size. Serving size is the dietary guidelines for the amount of food that should be consumed in one meal. Portion size is the amount of food served to you by a restaurant or the amount provided in a container. We tend to assume the portion size is equivalent to a serving size but this is far from true. A study found that "A whopping 96% of America's chain restaurant entrees fell outside the range of the USDA's recommendations for fat, saturated fat, and sodium per meal...". Those recommendations are, per meal: 676 calories, 32 grams (g) of fat with no more than 12 g of that being saturated fat, and no more than 767 milligrams (mg) of sodium. Let's take a look at actual restaurant entrees.

While most cities provide hundreds, if not thousands of dining options, let's focus on the most popular restaurant chains. According to Forbes Magazine, in 2011 the most popular restaurant chains were (in order) The Cheesecake Factory, Texas Roadhouse, Olive Garden, P.F. Chang's, and Carraba's Italian Grill. The Cheesecake Factory offers a dish called pasta carbonara with chicken. This meal consists of 2,290 calories (more than a whole day's worth), 81 g of saturated fat, and 1,630 mg of sodium. Texas Roadhouse offers a 12 oz. prime rib with 1034 calories and 89 g of fat. Olive Garden has on their menu a Tour of Italy. This tour will cost you 1490 calories, 74 g of fat, 33 g saturated fat, and 3,830 mg of sodium. P.F. Chang's Crispy Honey Chicken has 1,180 calories, 30 g of fat, and 1,210 mg of sodium. And that's a lunch portion. Think a salad is a better way to go? Not at Carraba's Italian Grill. Their Insalata Johnny Roco seems good with 320 calories and 14 g of fat. But this salad contains 1800 mg of sodium, more than the TOTAL recommended daily amount.

Some Americans would argue that increased portion sizes don't matter all that much. But just an extra 10 calories per day can equal a pound of weight gain in a year. Make that 100 extra calories per day and that's 10 pounds od weight gain in a year. Looking at the extra portion sizes this way makes it clear the impact portion size has on the overall obesity rate.

Movie Poster Comparison: Sabrina

One of my favorite movies of all time is Sabrina. The original was made in 1954 and starred Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden. The remake was made in 1995 and starred Julia Ormond, Harrison Ford, and Greg Kinnear. I enjoyed both versions of the film, although the newer one more than the original. Below you will find posters from each movie and my interpretation of them.

1954

In this movie poster, the first thing you notice are the pictures of the stars. The second thing you notice are the names of the stars. The title is given the same billing as the star's names telling me that they considered the stars to be just as important as people recognizing the name of the movie (it was previously made as a play). This was only Audrey Hepburn's second Hollywood movie but she earned an Academy Award for her first movie, Roman Holiday in 1951. Humphrey Bogart was established as a huge star in the 1940's after starring in The Maltese Falcon followed by Casablanca. Bogart was near the end of his career when he made Sabrina, but was still a big star as evidenced by his Academy Award win in 1951. As for William Holden, his breakthrough film came in 1950 with Sunset Boulevard for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor. He didn't win that year, but did in 1953 for Stalag 17. The thing I like most about this poster is the play between the pictures of the stars. Humphrey Bogart is watching Sabrina, with the New York skyline in the background showing us that's where he "belongs". He is also seen holding a ream of papers, thereby emphasizing his role as businessman in the film. Sabrina, meanwhile, is looking at William Holden, setting us up with the information that she is more interested in him. William Holden is seen looking back at Sabrina but his playboy status is clear as he sits in a convertible and you can see his mansion in the background. The other thing I find interesting is that Humphrey Bogart is shown smoking a cigarette so we can see how socially acceptable smoking was at that time in history. According to the National Cancer Institute, at the beginning of the 1950's "...the practice of cigarette smoking enjoyed nearly universal acceptance and widespread social appeal...". One could even say it was meant to make Bogart's character look distinguished and important. I also found it interesting how bright the colors in the poster are considering the movie was filmed in black-and-white. I think the studio used the bright colors to bring attention to the poster, but more specifically the beauty of Hepburn's dress and the similar color employed in Holden's suit, again leading us to see them as a pair over Bogart's blue suit.

1995

The remake movie poster is drastically different from the original in several significant ways. First of all, Harrison Ford is the only actor we can actually identify. And his name is the first we see at the top of the poster. The poster is dominated by the hidden profile of a woman, though, whom we can assume is Sabrina but who is meant to be shrouded in mystery. We see at the top of the poster Julia Ormond's name next to Harrison Ford's so although we can not identify the woman on the poster, one can assume it is Ormond's face we see. Greg Kinnear, who plays the third actor in the famous love triangle does not appear anywhere on the poster, and his name is only seen in much smaller type buried in the middle of a bunch of credits. The layout of the actors and their names goes to show the popularity of those actors at the time the movie was made. Harrison Ford took the role in Sabrina in the middle of a long line of successful films, among them the Indiana Jones series, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger, The Fugitive and Air Force One. In 1997, Ford was named #1 in Empire's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time". At the time Sabrina was made, Julia Ormond had only made one highly successful film and that was in a supporting role in Legends of the Fall. So while she was clearly the star of Sabrina, she wasn't known anywhere near as well as Ford. She is given equal billing on the poster, though, leading me to believe that the producers of the film knew she was going to steal the show. Greg Kinnear had only made one big film at the time of Sabrina, called Blankman, and it was not a commercial success. The fact that his name is buried in the credits goes to show that most people wouldn't have recognized his name as an actor but also that in this production of the film the producers wished to emphasize the relationship between Ormond's and Ford's characters. This is also emphasized by the text on the poster, "You are cordially invited to the most surprising merger of the year", telling viewers that there is going to be a merger and by the position of the characters on the poster, one would assume it is between Ford's character and the mysterious woman. The font and colors used on the poster I think are meant to focus our attention on the relationship of the characters and the mystery surrounding the female lead's character, as they are simple and almost mono-chromatic. And Ford's character is displayed quite differently than Bogart's was. Instead of being shown in a business suit in the city, he is shown wearing a tux and the wry smile Linus Larrabee's character was so well known for. This tells me that producers wanted audiences to focus on the "distinguished air" of the character and less on the ruthless businessman.

Everybody Googles

The next assignment for my Humanities class was to find using Google four images of documents and identify them.

1) Image:

The first search string I tried was "February 26, 1939 daughters of the american revolution mrs. roberts". The very first search string returned several hits on this document. The first link was from The National Archives. It identified this letter as being sent by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt to protest the DAR's decision to not allow Marian Anderson to perform in concert at Constitution Hall in Washington D.C. At the time of their decision, Constitution Hall was segregated (as was Washington D.C.) and an African American had never performed on it's stage. The National Archives is a credible source as it is a U.S. Government web site and this document belonged to the wife of a U.S. President. In my opinion, the most credible source was the second site that came up on this search. The second site was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library and Museum. I believe this is the most credible source as the letter came directly from the files of Mrs. Roosevelt.

2) Image:

The first search string I tried was "background map newark, nj little rock, ar four jailed". The very first search string returned one hit on this document and several unrelated documents. The first link was from the Virginia Library. It identified this document as being a Freedom Riders Map from 1961. This map showed the routes the Freedom Riders took and where violence occurred. The map was produced for syndication in newspapers around the country. The Library of Virginia is a credible source as it is a Government web site and they got the document from the Library of Congress. In my opinion, the most credible source is the Library of Congress.

3) Image:

The first search string I tried was "city of montgomery police department 12-1-55". The very first search string returned many hits on this document. The first link was from the web site Historical Thinking Matters. It identified this document as being the police report officers filed when arresting Rosa Parks for riding in the front of the bus. The bus driver was the complainant. This web site was created as a teaching aid for high school students. Its intent is to teach students to review documents using critical thinking. This web site is most likely a credible source because they list their sources and have received an award for excellence in education. In my opinion, the most credible source is the National Archives but they were the 17th web site returned for this search.

4) Image:

The first search string I tried was "roll call eighty-eighth congress house of representatives february 10, 1964 passed 290-130". The very first search string returned many hits on this document. The first link was from the web site Congress Link which is a teaching resource about Congress. It identified the date and roll call as pertaining to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Act was passed by The House of Representatives with a majority 290 - 130 vote. This matches the information on the document although the web site did not have an actual link to the document. This web site is most likely a credible source because they list their sources and are supported by a non-profit educational institution, the Dirksen Center. and have received an award for excellence in education. I don't believe they are the MOST credible site though, in part because they didn't have an actual copy of the document. I didn't like any of the other web sites that came up on this search so using the new information I found, I searched again. This time I used the search terms "civil rights act roll call house of representatives february 10, 1964 passed 290-130". The first web site returned was Wikipedia and they did have a copy of this document. But they didn't cite where they got it from. They did have a link about the House Clerk who is the records keeper of all the roll calls. That link led me to the official web site for the House Clerk. The House Clerk is responsible for maintaining records of all roll calls of the House, but they only keep a few years directly on their web site. The rest are sent to the National Archives. It is here that I finally found the document.

Lovemarks: Coca-Cola

I completed the lovemarks quest using Glogster. You can click here to link or the poster is embedded below (the formatting is poor, though).