English Social Studies

If the Libdem are to decide in my opinion they are closer to the Labour party

2010-05-11T03:37:00.000-07:00

I think the Liberal Democrats are closest to the labour party because the agree on alot of things. For instance:
Election reforms, new reforms on the House of Lords, eco-friendly jobs and so on.
However, the do not agree on Immigrationpolitics and the army.
I think that David Cameronis going to be the new prime minister in the UK

The Blind Side

2010-05-05T06:36:00.000-07:00

Previously this week, we watched the movie "the Blind Side".

The movie tells the story of "Big Mike" who is a poor african-american teenager, who struggles with school and can't find a place where he belongs in this world.

Sandra Bullock plays the role of the mother that takes Big Mike into her home, feeds and clothes him. He quickly finds out that he is a natural talent in football because of his size and his protective instincts. It moved along quickly and pulled me into the story and left me feeling inspired. The youngest son, S.J., did an amazing job! The character of Mike I think could have used a few more lines, even if he's supposed to be shy and reserved.

It's a light entertaining pick me up film that would be an excellent choice to bring the family to, most likely the reason why they released it over the Holidays..

The First TV Debate In The UK

2010-04-27T01:15:00.001-07:00

Nick Clegg:

Taxes, better schools. Do something different

Immigration: control who is coming in, and know when they leave. Go to a location/region where you are needed. Only let them in if they are needed.

Law and Order:

More police on the streets, stop the young offenders from becoming the hardened criminals of tomorrow.

Make the criminals make up for their sins, apologize to the victim.

Credibility after the scandal:

Everybody must come clean. Make the politicians take responsibility for their actions.

Gordon Brown:

Protect schools, work

Immigration:

control and manage. Only get workers in jobs that England needs. Tightening on visa programs. Strong boarders, immigration falls (Gordon likes this)train people up, so they don't need immigrants.

Law and Order:

80% of the police time to be on the streets, parents are responsible to follow up on their kids if they do something bad.

Make the police more local. Spend more money on the police.

Credibility after the scandal:

Gordon was shocked. Former MP's that were stealing should not be able to become MP's again.

David Cameron:

Change, taxes

Immigration: Border police, stronger boarders. Stop illegal immigration.

Law and Order:

Get drug addicts of the streets and into treatment. Cut the funding for police.

Credibility after the scandal:

Make the MP's pay up the money that they have spent, and make them apologize.

The importance of TV debates in the upcoming election in UK

2010-03-09T04:53:00.001-08:00

Getting the debates on TV will be a great improvement for some or all of the different parties. This is a great way to get publicity.

The TV debates in the upcoming election are to be held with the same model as in the US. There will be held three 90-minute debates during the general election campaign, the first on ITV1, the second on Sky News and the last on BBC One.

Half of each debate will have a theme: the first will be about domestic affairs including health and education. The second will focus on international matters. The last will concentrate on the economy.

The second half of each session will be "free debate."

Each leader will be able to make a 60-second opening statement to each debate.

The use of television advertising in political campaigns has often been criticized for "lowering the level" of political discourse. Watchers claim that television fosters drama and visual imagery, leading to a concentration on candidate images instead of policy issues.

Question Time 24th of February

2010-03-09T01:47:00.001-08:00

Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask government ministers questions. These questions are asked at the start of business in both chambers and are known as 'oral questions'. The Prime Minister answers questions in the Commons every Wednesday.

Gordon Brown was debating in a controlled, non-threatening manner. He obviously had a sense of humour, and he used this against his opponents to make them look stupid. He seemed really self-secure and confident. His statements had a lot of credibility amongst his fellow MP`s.

Most politicians use an active body language to make their statements appear stronger, and Gordon Brown is no exception. During the debate, he kept using his hands as gestures to emphasize his statements, and this seemed to have an effect on the other MP`s.

It didn`t seem like David Cameron had prepared very well, because it seemed like he was more focused on criticizing Gordon Brown, than making his own statements clear. He frequently made fun of the way Brown is governing, and he kept repeating the same questions. Cameron seemed to have an agenda to make Brown lose credibility, but Brown didn`t really seem to care about his attempted funny remarks.

At times, the debate got really heated, and The Speaker had to interrupt and calm them down. He explained that the MP`s was acting inappropriately by shouting and calling names. The MP`s seemed to respect The Speaker`s authority, so they calmed down on his request.

In the forthcoming election we predict an intense debate between Gordon Brown and David Cameron, but the outcome of the election is hard to predict, so we will leave the speculations to someone else.

A thing that Liz Blackman wants to focus on is cancer. Cancer is fatal when not treated, and it is important for Liz that the government focuses on the importance of cancer and the treating of cancer. Gordon Brown agrees that this is an important theme, and he mentions some policies that some of the MP's are against, and he expresses his eagerness on the theme.

Woking together in a new way

2010-02-02T03:43:00.000-08:00

In today's class we worked a little different than usuall. We divided the class into 5 groups; Front desk, researchers, journalists, teachers and designers. The assignments were divided like this:

Front desk, responsibilities: divide material, prioritize, approve material, give time limits , talk to all group
Research group, find material, and send to front desk, journalists, teachers and designers
Journalists, write blogs, and send to front desk, teachers, designers
Teachers, make rubrics with criteria for testing, write test questions
Designers, make Glogs and Photostory with material

I was at the front desk, so I didn't see all the material all the time, but I had a good clue of what it looked like.
The reason why we are doing this is because we are going to have a small test next tuesday, so we're making it now. It will be exciting to see the results because we are all making the test, and we are making it together. In theory we should all get straight a's, but I'm not so sure if that is what's going to happen.

The Road

2010-02-02T01:25:00.000-08:00

In our social studies class we are reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy. The book was released in 2006, and became a smashing hit and an international bestseller.
The book is buildt up with a lot of paragraphs, this makes it special because I can't remember reading any other books with that many paragraphs.

In the book we follow a man and his son, they are simply referred to as "the man" and "the boy". I think the author did this because there are not so many other carachters that we need to relate to, so he kept it simple. The main plot in the story is that the man and the boy are trying to get to the coast, the man is not sure why, but he think thats the best place to be. The world is destroyed and there's ashes everywhere, the book doesn't say anything about what may have happened, but I think there has been an atombomb or a meteor or something similar.

From the first pages and untill about the fiftieth, nothing special happens. The man and the boy just walks around, describing the surroundings, but amazingly it doesn't get boring. Im currently on page 53, but I'm reading all the time so the page number changes quickly.

This post is a work in progress, and I will update it often throughout the book.

America is changing, for better or for worse?

2010-01-25T08:02:00.000-08:00

Recently in Mrs Michaelsen's class, we watched a documentary that followed McCain's true followers during the last months of the historical election between Barack Obama and John McCain.

Alexandra Pelosi, which is the maker of the documentary, spoke with random voters about different themes that could affect the upcoming election. It was really mind blowing to see how committed the voters were to "their" candidate. People were crying when asked about Americas future with Barack Obama as president, saying that America wasn't ready for a black president and some even compared Barack Obama with Hitler and the devil.

Some people may say that the intervjued ones is the average voter, but I think the people that were intervjued are some sort of extremists. They really believe everything "their" party is saying, and disagree with everything the other party is saying.

I think it was a good documentary that really showed us the hardcore voters and how dedicated some people may be or become.

Here is a link to the documentary, there are five parts, and part 2-5 is under "related videos"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxDgRr_Ynvc&feature=player_embedded

Senior Project

2010-01-18T00:38:00.001-08:00

For my senior project I plan to write about the American dream. This is a subject that interests me. I think it would be a good topic and I'm looking forward to start.

2009-12-22T01:52:00.001-08:00

How I can pass this class

In order to pass this class, I would have to expand my vocabulary, think more about the use of formal and informal sentences when I write. I also need to learn how to debate better.

This is all ways of how I can pass and get a good grade in English Social Studies this year.

2009-12-01T04:14:00.001-08:00

A Foreign Visitor

Today we had a visitor in class. Her name is Lee Ann Potter and is from Maryland, USA. She is the director of education and volunteer programs at the U.S. National Archives in Washington D.C. and she spends this year in Norway, teaching students like us.

She showed us a bunch of documents and photographs from the founding of the United States, and she educated us about the constitution and everything the government does. It was cool the way she included us in the education. This made everything a lot more interesting and fun. I think it was nice to hear American politics from an American, and her views on the system.

I really hope we can do something similar soon, because this was interesting.

2009-12-01T03:39:00.001-08:00

Milk

Recently we watched the movie "Milk" which is based upon the life of Harvey Milk, a man who was an LGBT rights (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered) activist and also a politician. He was the first openly gay politician to become elected into the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. He was tired of the way gay people were treated, so he decided to run for candidate to the upcoming election for a seat in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The first time he tried this, he just wore his regular clothes, and he kept his long beard and hair. When this didn't work out, he changed his clothes into a suit and he cut his hair. This turned out to be much more effective, and he won the election.

The film discusses themes like homosexuality, acceptance of the people and love between people.

This is movie won several prizes. Including eight Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globe Awards and Academy Awards.

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_(film)#Critical_reception

2009-11-10T04:49:00.001-08:00

Elections in Britain

Politics is about power. About winning power and using it to do what you think is right for the people. The people choose their representatives, who sit in parliament, and these representatives make all the decisions that have to be made at a national level to run society and to change things that which they thinks need to be changed.

Parliament is made up of the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The House of Commons is often called the Commons, or the Lower House of Commons, while the House of Lords is referred to as the Lords, or the Upper House. Both Houses meet in the Palace of Westminster, so people often talk of "Westminster" when they mean "Parliament".

9/11 commentary

2009-11-09T01:51:00.001-08:00

Where were you that sunny day of September 9^th2001? Many will answer this question without hesitation. I was in our basement, helping my dad on the computer, when suddenly my sister rushed down and turned on the television. She turned on CNN and we saw the northern tower in flames and wrapped in smoke. I myself had never heard about the World Trade Center, but when I saw the reaction of my dad, I knew this was a huge disaster.

The two brothers Jules and Geudeon Naudet released the movie "9/11", in 2002. They didn't plan to create a movie about the terror attacks, because who would know that there was going to be a major terror attack in the middle of Manhattan. Instead, they had in mind to make a documentary about the life of a normal firefighter in downtown Manhattan. In the beginning of the movie, we follow probationary Tony Benetatos, who is a freshman firefighter. We follow him and the rest of the squad around the city on minor fires, but he never seems to get any big ones. One day Jules and the Battalion Chief, Chief Joseph Pfeifer were checking out a gas leak, and all of a sudden, a plane hits the northern tower, causing mass hysteria. We then follow them into the two towers, and witness the horror ourselves.

Throughout the movie, we can see that people change. People start to think about how fast things can happen, how quick you can pass away in a tragic incident. Here is an example; after everyone has returned from the two towers, one of the firefighters comes up to either Jules or Geudeon (I cannot remember which one) and says "Yesterday you had only one brother, today you have 40". That is a touchy moment, because they have all been through this together, and they share the same frightening feeling and it's important that everybody is there for each other.

What is the difference between how the Americans view this incident and how the Europeans views it? I think the main difference is that every/many Americans view this incident just as an act of terror. Since the attacks, there have been a number of conspiracy theories put forward on the web, in books and even made into films. Many Europeans think USA did this to themselves just to have a reason to engage war and look for oil in the middle east, mainly Afghanistan and Iraq. Many people think that the two buildings could not fall on their own, even though a plane had hit them, so many believe that the collapse was a result of a controlled demolition. You can also hear in the movie "9/11" that the firefighters says, "It sounded like bombs going of"

Conspiracy or not, I believe we can agree that this was an awful thing to happen for human beings, and I hope that something like this would never happen again.

"The Falling Man"

Photographer Richard Drew has immortalized the picture of a man falling out of the northern tower at about 9.40 am. The thought of being burnt to death or smoke poisoned just wasn't an alternative. Some people might refer to the people that jumped of fell (about 200!) from the two towers as "jumpers", but I don't think they are, because jumpers kill them self intentionally to stop their lives, like suicide. This man is believed to be 43-year-old Jonathan Briley, who worked at the Windows on the World restaurant (restaurant and bar at the top of the northern tower). His former boss Michael Lomonaco identified him by an orange t-shirt that he wore under his work clothes almost everyday. His clothes were blown away, revealing the orange shirt. However, his identity has never officially been confirmed.

It is not a pleasant picture

"Tear this wall down"

2009-10-27T05:19:00.001-07:00

This famous sentence is quoted by the American president Ronald Reagan in the 1987 speech to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. In a speech commemorating Berlin's 750 years anniversary, Regan came with this challenge to tear down the Berlin wall as a symbol to increase the freedom in the Eastern block.

The Berlin wall was built in 1961 by the Germans, and heavily supported by the Soviet Union, and it quickly became a major symbol on communism. The wall was supposed to prevent movement from the east to the west. Many people was against this phrase, but Ronald Reagan said it anyway.

Ronald Reagan and the first lady arrived in Berlin on June 12, 1987. When he made the speech, he was protected by two panes of bulletproof glass incase there were a sniper in East Berlin.

Another highlight in the speech was when Reagan's call to end the arms race with his reference to the Soviets nuclear weapons.

2009-10-27T00:58:00.001-07:00

Lions for lambs

Lions for lambs is an American drama film made in 2007. The film is about the connection between the American soldiers in Afghanistan, a US senator, a reporter and a college professor. The leading actors in the film are Tom Cruise (senator Jasper Irving), Meryl Streep (Jeanine Roth) and Robert Redford (Dr Malley). Robert Redford also directed the movie, and Matthew Michael Carnahan wrote the story.

The film is partly based on "Operation Red Wing" which was an unsuccessful US Navy Seal operation in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. In this operation, about 20 people died when their helicopter was shoot down, and when being shoot at the ground.

The title "Lions for lambs" refers to incompetent leaders who send brave soldiers, or lions, into wars and battles. The film is made out of three stories wowed into one. Tom cruise plays the role of a young overly ambitious senator who launches a new military strategy in Afghanistan and explains the plans in details to a skilled and well-respected reporter, Jeanine Roth. We witness as the operation goes horribly wrong, and two young soldiers die. We also follow a conversation between a college professor and his student, Todd Hayes. The student is natural bright and comes from a privileged background, but he has been spending less time in school and more time with his girlfriend and the fraternity. Dr Malley offers him a "B" in his class with no additional work, or the opportunity to earn an honest grade by himself by good old-fashioned work.

The film can be compared to "Crash" or "Babel" in the way that says that no matter what US citizens think about the war on terror, the US citizens are in this together. This makes the movie very emotional because we can relate. This also inspires the viewers to think about who's running the country and the world.

The film is not only drama, but it delivers some thrilling action scenes when the two young soldiers fight in Afghanistan. I think the bond the two soldiers have, and show to each other really gives us an image of how it is to fight in the war on terror. Their connection really bonds the scenes and elements in this movie.

The tagline for the film is "If you don't stand for something, you might fall for anything" reflects on the characters own beliefs which they are willing to fight for to the end. This is almost like a warning to the people who don't participate in the war because "it's not their war". Whether you like it, or not; poor, rich, lazy, ambitious, Republicans and Democrats are all in this together.

A traditional Norwegian sport

2009-10-20T01:36:00.001-07:00

A typical traditional Norwegian sport is cross-country skiing where you propel yourself across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles. This is in my opinion a boring sport, but it's typical for Norway. "Birkebeinern" is a long distance cross-country ski race, and is 54 kilometers long, and the participants have to wear a backpack weighing at least 3,5 kilos. The sport has been around for ages, and the Vikings used cross-country skiing as an effective way of transport.

Do you have cross-country skiing in Korea?

To my korean friends about the weather in Norway

2009-10-13T03:24:00.000-07:00

the weather in Norway is really strange. sometimes it rains, sometimes it snows and sometimes it's actually pretty nice. the average temperature is between 7 and 25 degrees celcius in the summer and about -15 and 0 in the winter. the snow came really early this year, but only about a centimeter, and that melted within the day was over. it usually starts to snow in november/desember, and then it gets really cold.
how's the korean weather?

There's usually much more snow in the winter, but this was a nice picture. -----^

George Orwell

2009-09-15T04:18:00.000-07:00

"Let’s end here as Orwell does: first with his self-deprecating (and oh-so-British) claim that this is but “a fairly trivial story” and his acknowledgment that he has experienced no more than “the fringe of poverty,” and then, casting off his beggar’s cloak, a call to arms:

I shall never again think that all tramps are drunken scoundrels, nor expect a beggar to be grateful when I give him a penny, nor be surprised if men out of work lack energy, nor subscribe to the Salvation Army, nor pawn my clothes, nor refuse a handbill, nor enjoy a meal at a smart restaurant. That is a beginning."

In class today we read a story by George Orwell called "Down and Out in Paris and London". George Orwell was a famous author back in the days, and he has written a lot of books. (Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four). the reason why I quoted the sentences above, is because George lived like a tramp for some time to have a better understanding of what it's like not having a home. he wore dirty clothes, didn't eat and went to the Salvation Army like the rest of the tramps in his area. this made his story very realistic, so the book got great reviews.

"Does It Matter?"

2009-09-01T03:38:00.000-07:00

Losing your legs, losing your sight and losing your mind or dream.

No, because the poem explains that by fighting in a war the soldier will earn respect among his or her community. However, the poem is very ironic. It feels like the soldier has given up, and does not care about his or her life.

The reason why this poem has experienced some sort of revival considering its popularity is because Britain is still involved in wars, such as the ones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We feel that "Does It Matter" were more appealing to us than "The Soldier" because "The Soldier" was very complicated and difficult to understand, while "Does It Matter" was easier to read between the lines. It was filled with a sort of melancholy which gave the poem depth.

About me/ My Hometown

2009-09-01T00:25:00.000-07:00

My name is Anders W. Johansen, and I'm 18 years old. I'm currently attending Sandvika VGS as a senior. I love music, mostly hip hop, indie rock, alternative and punk. I have about 200 cd's, which isn't so much, but compared to other teenagers I think I got a few. I'm the youngest of 4 kids, so I have 3 big sisters. You thought you had problems? I love America, and dream about moving there one day. I like baseball and football, mainly Red Sox and Patriots. I'm 6'4", so I people often ask me if I play basketball, but I don't. I'm getting pretty tired of people asking about my height, but I guess their just interested.

I live at Rykkinn which is a nice place to grow up, but I don't want to live there for the rest of my life. Rykkinn is a commuter town in the north-west of Baerum, which is one of the most snobby counties in Norway, but people are different. Rykkinn is about 30 minutes from Oslo, which is the main capital in Norway.