A New Activity Every Week…
March 8, 2020
Week #8: #Trending: Coronavirus
I tried to upload a picture but it wasn’t working, I’ll update it later when I can find a workaround
Over the course of today, I was monitoring the Twitter feed about the novel disease, COVID-19. Most of the tweets were from major news networks and aimed at people who get the majority of their breaking news off of social media. Some of the tweets came from political analysists who are analyzing the connection between the virus and its effection on the world economy. The tweet I found most interesting, however, talked about how there were 293 newly confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK before 9am today. That really puts into perspective just how quickly the virus has spread without people even realizing it. We have a shortage of testing kits over here in the US so we have no way of knowing the true extent of the spread. Who knows how many people have the virus already and if we’ll be able to contain it?
February 23, 2020
Week 6: NYT Writing Prompts: Are You A Good Person?
People go through their whole lives wondering if they are a good person, but being good – or even bad – isn’t as simple as it seems. The answer to whether or not you are a good person isn’t yes or no. I believe that a good person is someone who actively makes a choice to be “good” and make an effort for other people. I don’t think that I’m a good person because I often forget to take a step back and consciously work to be a better person, which is something I wish I did more. I thought this article was very interesting because it revealed that everyone has a different idea of what it means to be a good person and how to become better. Everyone also has different places that they learned their morals from, I’ve picked mine up from church (when I used to go) and things that I’ve noticed other people do that I don’t agree with or that seem ‘off’ to me. If you want to truly be a good person, then you should make a conscious effort to be good.
February 16, 2020
Week #5: Political Cartoon: “Not-so Sleepy Joe”
The artist of this cartoon, Steve Sack, has been an editorial cartoonist since 1981, and won a pulitzer prize for editorial cartooning in 2013, making him very experienced and knowledgable in the industry. He created the cartoon soon after Super Tuesday when former Vice President experienced an unexpected victory launching him to the front runner spot in the race to be the Democratic presidential candidate. The cartoon was created for people who keep up with the results of the democratic primaries and the purpose was to inform those who were not up to date with Biden’s victory and poke fun at the Democratic Party’s ability to suddenly kickstart Joe Biden’s dying campaign. I agree that Super Tuesday was an important day that seemed to jolt Biden’s campaign back to life. The day served as a wake-up call for his campaign, encouraging Biden to campaign in more states in the hopes of beating Bernie Sanders.
February 9, 2020
Week #4: TED Talk: This is Your Brain On Air Pollution – Maria Neira
Maria Neira is a Spanish physician who has served as the director of the Public Health, Environment and Social Determinants of the World Health Organization since 2005, making her one of the leading experts on human health and the environment. In July of 2019, she appeared at the annual TEDSummit for an audience of the most engaged within the TED community – people who are always curious and interested in changing the world one step at a time. She is speaking to these people at a time where we live in a world full of pollution and are just now starting to discover the effects of pollution on our health. The purpose of her speech is to inform people of the harm caused by air pollution.
In her speech, Neira discusses the harmful effects of air pollution and just hoe present they can be. Breathing is a necessary function for humans to stay alive and we need over 10,000 liters of air everyday (Neira) making it impossible to avoid the toxic chemicals have been pumped into the air as a result of human activities over the last few hundred years. She adds that studies show exposure to air pollution leads to higher chances of dementia or small strokes in adults. In children and infants, air pollutants can slow neural development. Neira argues that it is incredibly vital – if we do not want to lose our brain function to the air – we need to make movements towards a cleaner environment. I agree with Neira when she says that we need to make a change but I had no idea how important and how urgent the change should be. As a young person, I want to be able to grow up and live a full life on this planet and I want future generations to be able to survive on an Earth where they don’t need a respirator just to leave their house.
February 2, 2020
Week #3: Documentary Film: The Future of Fashion with Alexa Chung – Vogue UK
My life has been consumed by fashion and clothes ever since I was young. My parents have piles and piles of my design books dating all the way back to little five-year old Katie. Since then, I’ve absorbed every possible bit of information about the industry I can find, which is what drew me to this documentary. Found on Vogue UK‘s website and YouTube channel, The Future of Fashion follows Alexa Chung – a Vogue UK editor as she interviews some of the biggest names in fashion all across the world. She takes a deep dive into the unknown jobs that can be found in the fashion industry, such as buyers, lawyers, PR, journalists, bloggers, etc. In her interviews, Chung also explores the future of the fashion industry, arguing that as the rest of the world expands into the digital age, then fashion must follow. Magazines and traditional runway shows will likely succumb to the influence of social media in the near future. Social media allows brands – especially smaller, undiscovered brands – to get their name out into the world and gain a global following with the click of a button. Watching it, I learned so much about the fashion industry that I had never even thought of before. I have so many more questions and topics that I want to explore, like the intersections of fashion and psychology, and the effects of social media and ready-made fashion have had on the industry as a whole. I would highly reccomend watching this especially if you think you know about the fashion industry because this really opened my eyes and helped me to look beyond the stereotypes.
January 26, 2020
Week #2: Things I Mean to Know: What are the benefits of High Octane Tea?
In case you were unaware, I am an AVID tea drinker, as in I drink at least five cups a day with varying degrees of caffeine. I have been searching for a way to get more of a caffeine boost some mornings, and recently stumbled across high octane tea. The average cup of coffee has around 100-150 milligrams of caffeine, and a cup of black tea has around 50-90 milligrams while green tea has even less. High octane teas on the otherhand, can deliver over 150 milligrams of caffeine making them more potent than your average cup of joe and a great alternative for non-coffee fans. This got me wondering, what are the benefits of high octane tea – besides the obvious rush of energy? The caffeine reacts with a naturally occurring amino acid, L-Thiamine, which is thought to reduce stress and slow the absorbtion of caffeine, helping to prevent the jitters and crash that usually come with coffee. Overall, the high-caffeine blends seem to have many benefits not found in your usual cup of tea.
Source: https://www.beveragedaily.com/Article/2015/08/04/Energizing-Zest-Tea-charts-high-octane-growth
January 19, 2020
Week #1: Article of the Week: Taking the Meat Out of Burgers – The Week Staff (January 12, 2020)
The meatless movement boomed in 2019 and is continuing to grow. Companies such as Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods have expanded into over 20,000 grocery stores across the US and over 53,000 fast-food restaurants (The Week) with no signs of stopping. Many American have at least heard, if not tried, these ‘impossible burgers’ and many of them cannot tell the difference between the plant-based burgers and their beefy counterparts. While plant-based might not necesssarily be healthier than real meat (they are made of highly processd foods and often have significantly more sodium or less protein than the real thing), these new alternatives can generate up to 90% less greenhouse gasses than actual beef. Personally, I don’t think beef-less burgers are the end-all-be-all food breakthrough, however, I do believe that moving towards more plant-based products is key to preserving our world as global warming and climate change become ever-more prevalent. The meat industry is one of the biggest contributers to global warming because of just how much water and energy are needed to produce meat as well as the copious greenhouse gas emmissions – methane, which has the biggest impact on global warming, is most readily found as a byproduct of this massive industry. As technology continues to evolve, I have faith that plant-based burgers and other meats will increase in nutritional value while continuing to limit their carbon footprint making them the best option to ensure our future.
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Katie’s Activity of the Week 