Bradbury Ray, Fahrenheit 451,
Los Angeles,CABallantine Books: 1953
Reason, Type and Setting: I read this book last year in Slovakia, it has the same name in Slovak. I actually didn't pick this book, it was recommended to me by my dad, and he said it is a really good book. It's a science-fiction novel and takes place sometimes in 21st century, in a unspecified city.
Plot: The story takes place in a futuristic american city, at these times people don't read books anymore. Main character, Guy Montag, is a fireman, but he doesn't put fires down, he sets them up. All the books are banned. He meets a young girl named Clarisse, and she opens his eyes, so he starts to read the books, which are about to be burnt. Then he meets a guy named Faber who encourages him to read the books. Montag's own wife betrayed him. His chief Beatty finds out about books so she puts him under arrest. He escapes, joins the nationwide network of book lovers, and they together rebuild the mankind.
Character: I chose Guy Montag, because I like his character. Even he is confused, frustrated, full of stress almost for the entire story, he's trying to find himself and also think about the meaning of books. He is a main character, and basically ste dtory focuses on him. The plot is changed by him all the time, and at the end of the story he becomes a new man.
Evaluation: I expected more from this novel. First of all, I didn't expect it to be a sci-fi. That was my very first surprise. The main idea I was able to catch from it was how important are books in our lives and how bad is society these days. Everyone is focusing on TV shows, iPods, but there is no more time left fom a simple reading.I can't actually put myself in the plot, because I'm a totally different person. I love books and i love reading.The end of the book was kinda HOLLYWOOD-ish, but even in spite of that fact, it was a nice reading.
Author, Context and Trivia: This was my first time I heard about this author. I know totally nothing about him. But after a little research I found out, that he was American novelist of the 20th century, especially interested in horrors, sci-fi, mystery topics. His most famous books are The Martian Chonicles, Fahrenheit 451, The Fog Horn.I'm definitely gonna read something more from him, because I love mystery books.
Current Event
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/06/06/SUV.owners/index.html
This article talks about families, who can't afford to buy smaller cars in order to save some money due to high gas prices, because they simply need the room.
Despite GM announced closing of their 4 carplants by 2010, bigger families keep buying bigger SUV's and have to spend about 100 dollars on their full tank.
The gas prices are increasing by every week. 3 weeks ago, the average gas price was 3.8 dollars per gallon, today, it's 4.4 dollars.
This article talks about families, who can't afford to buy smaller cars in order to save some money due to high gas prices, because they simply need the room.
Despite GM announced closing of their 4 carplants by 2010, bigger families keep buying bigger SUV's and have to spend about 100 dollars on their full tank.
The gas prices are increasing by every week. 3 weeks ago, the average gas price was 3.8 dollars per gallon, today, it's 4.4 dollars.
Hip-Hop History
Hip Hop: Urban youth culture associated with rap music, a fashion style, and social and political activism of inner city African American youth
The term Hip Hop actually came from the song rappers delight by the sugar hill gang. I am sure we have all heard the phrase “i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogieto the rhythm of the boogie, the beat”. The Hip Hop movement is traced back to New York in the 80s. A man from Jamaica, a DJ who went by Kool Here brought his style from Queens New York to the Bronx and tried to intertwine that with instrumental, and percussion of the day’s popular song, since the pieces were so short he could mix them together over and over making the rhythm endless. Rap became so popular because of the fact that it was so cheap to do it. You didn’t have to buy an instrument to rhyme, you didn’t have to take lessons, and it was a verbal skill that could be practiced at anytime. It also became very popular because the fact that it was so challenging. The only real requirement was to be original and with the ease and popularity of Hip Hop you would find many artists starting to emerge. Artists would challenge each other creating what was known as battles. People who would rap and DJ’s went hand and hand because the pair went flawlessly together so you would also have a lot different Dj showing their beats with rap artists. With the era came the slang that went with it the birth of the slang came form when Dj’s would acknowledge people in the audience when at a party. Artists like Kool over an instrumental break would yell 'Yo this is Kool Herc in the joint-ski saying my mellow-ski Marky D is in the house’ the style became very popular and soon became a normal thing setting the trend for the Dj’s of our age.
The term Hip Hop actually came from the song rappers delight by the sugar hill gang. I am sure we have all heard the phrase “i said a hip hop the hippie the hippie to the hip hip hop, a you dont stop the rock it to the bang bang boogie say up jumped the boogieto the rhythm of the boogie, the beat”. The Hip Hop movement is traced back to New York in the 80s. A man from Jamaica, a DJ who went by Kool Here brought his style from Queens New York to the Bronx and tried to intertwine that with instrumental, and percussion of the day’s popular song, since the pieces were so short he could mix them together over and over making the rhythm endless. Rap became so popular because of the fact that it was so cheap to do it. You didn’t have to buy an instrument to rhyme, you didn’t have to take lessons, and it was a verbal skill that could be practiced at anytime. It also became very popular because the fact that it was so challenging. The only real requirement was to be original and with the ease and popularity of Hip Hop you would find many artists starting to emerge. Artists would challenge each other creating what was known as battles. People who would rap and DJ’s went hand and hand because the pair went flawlessly together so you would also have a lot different Dj showing their beats with rap artists. With the era came the slang that went with it the birth of the slang came form when Dj’s would acknowledge people in the audience when at a party. Artists like Kool over an instrumental break would yell 'Yo this is Kool Herc in the joint-ski saying my mellow-ski Marky D is in the house’ the style became very popular and soon became a normal thing setting the trend for the Dj’s of our age.
Current Event
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/05/30/airtravel.decline.ap/index.html
This article talks about huge air travel drops within the last year. The Travel Industry Association created a survey which concluded in some shocking numbers. Nearly 45 million flights were skipped y the passengers due to costs. The fuel prize is raising, people stop using the services of the airlines. The forgone trips cost the travel industry $18.1 billion -- including $9.4 billion to airlines and $5.6 billion to hotels. Plus, it cost federal, state and local authorities $4.2 billion in taxes in the past 12 months.
This article is significant, because flying is one of the quickest and safest way to travel and should not be switched for driving a car. Government in co-operation with airlines should find a solution in order to make people travel by air.
This article talks about huge air travel drops within the last year. The Travel Industry Association created a survey which concluded in some shocking numbers. Nearly 45 million flights were skipped y the passengers due to costs. The fuel prize is raising, people stop using the services of the airlines. The forgone trips cost the travel industry $18.1 billion -- including $9.4 billion to airlines and $5.6 billion to hotels. Plus, it cost federal, state and local authorities $4.2 billion in taxes in the past 12 months.
This article is significant, because flying is one of the quickest and safest way to travel and should not be switched for driving a car. Government in co-operation with airlines should find a solution in order to make people travel by air.
Current Event
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7416823.stm
This article talks about Kanye West and some of the most famous rappers stealing part of song of a jazz artist from New York without permission. He is sueing 5 rappers including Method Man, Kanye West, Radman and Common for using parts of their songs, and is hoping to win total 1 million dollars.
It is significant, because today's music is experiencing some huge problems with breaking the copyrights and the music today is not as it used to be. Artists usually don't make their own music anymore, they have people for it.
I think it's pretty messed up that someone is trying to copy some musis from someone else, but it is also sad if that person is just making it up.
This article talks about Kanye West and some of the most famous rappers stealing part of song of a jazz artist from New York without permission. He is sueing 5 rappers including Method Man, Kanye West, Radman and Common for using parts of their songs, and is hoping to win total 1 million dollars.
It is significant, because today's music is experiencing some huge problems with breaking the copyrights and the music today is not as it used to be. Artists usually don't make their own music anymore, they have people for it.
I think it's pretty messed up that someone is trying to copy some musis from someone else, but it is also sad if that person is just making it up.
Journal High Tech Education
Read the article by clicking here.
I personaly believe, that the education should move toward high tech standards as quickly as possible. However, today's people forget about the old-fashioned values of life. Who of us uses a typical mail to communicate with people? We all are about laptops, emails and cell phones. The same applies to children in our schools.
If I was to change the educational enviroment, particularly elementary and middle schools, I would start slowly. I would put SOME technology in elementary schools, they would have to be directly linked to traditional learning techniques. For instance: Having laptops in schools would be great, however, the essays would still have to be hand-written.
In middle school, the kids should meet with a higher level of technology in classrooms, but still with some textbooks and paper sheets. We must not trasform our society into a technological world, where old type writing, reading or learning means nothing.
High School though, is a very different chapter. I think, technology should be used every day, as much as possible, even more than traditional teaching and learning techniques. There MUST BE a specific level of those "boring" and "not interesting" ways of learning, so people do not get all sophisticated.:)
I personaly believe, that the education should move toward high tech standards as quickly as possible. However, today's people forget about the old-fashioned values of life. Who of us uses a typical mail to communicate with people? We all are about laptops, emails and cell phones. The same applies to children in our schools.
If I was to change the educational enviroment, particularly elementary and middle schools, I would start slowly. I would put SOME technology in elementary schools, they would have to be directly linked to traditional learning techniques. For instance: Having laptops in schools would be great, however, the essays would still have to be hand-written.
In middle school, the kids should meet with a higher level of technology in classrooms, but still with some textbooks and paper sheets. We must not trasform our society into a technological world, where old type writing, reading or learning means nothing.
High School though, is a very different chapter. I think, technology should be used every day, as much as possible, even more than traditional teaching and learning techniques. There MUST BE a specific level of those "boring" and "not interesting" ways of learning, so people do not get all sophisticated.:)
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