More Random Designs & Dad’s Website

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dad, Hawaii, lab, logo, puppy, website

newsletterthecommunicator

Country Living in Fairmont

Hawaiian Life

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Cactus, Hawaii, Heart, Love, Ocean

Censorship of Miley Cyrus at EMAs

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America, Amsterdam, Europe Music Awards, Miley Cyrus, MTV, Pot

Warning, this is highly opinionated. Don’t read if you are going to take seriously..

Miley Cyrus is at it again, but this time you wouldn’t see it on TV.

The Europe Music Awards was held Sunday in Amsterdam. Guess what happened!

Not only did Cyrus win the award for Best Video, but she also lit up a joint on air. For the MTV bosses, it seems too controversial.

First, I think that pot smoking of all things is acceptable in the United States. States are legalizing the stuff. Pot is also in movies. I don’t think the audience would be offended seeing something so small.

Marijuana is not legal in the Netherlands, but the country doesn’t prosecute anyone for using it or selling it.This photo was obtained from dailymail.com, and it is copyright of WireImage. (This is not my own, what-so-ever).

MTV decided to censor the act for American viewers by replacing it with a cigarette. This event is all over the internet, people are going to know what actually happened, even adolescents. The government as well as major companies is hiding information from us.

It would not be the first time this has happened. Social media has opened up the United States to discussion of controversies. Sandy Hook, Boston Bombing and even the Kennedy assassination is under constant accusations that the government has something to do with it.

How can we not assume the government is lying to us when everything is getting censored? I don’t believe Miley Cyrus is doing anything to endanger our stars and stripes. People will follow her if they want to, but I don’t think many little girls look up to her anymore.

There was no need to visually censor this event when I it already allowed to be seen on the internet. This will give people the suspicion or add to the suspicion that the government is lying to the citizens. MTV should have just not shown that scene in general. MTV could have taken a different camera angle or cut her speech short.

It would have saved me so much ranting, but I love ranting anyways.

Why do I keep grouping MTV with the government? Because I think MTV does what it can to stay on the air. The FCC is an office under the cabinet which is related to the President.

What happened to innocent Miley? She has grown up to do whatever she wants. Honestly, she doesn’t give a F***.

Chronic Pain Treatments at Nurses Expo

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Chronic Pain, CrossRoads, Linda Rossow, Mankato, Minnesota Nurses

Southern Minnesota Nurses Expo brought together professionals from the Mankato area to explore the topic of chronic pain and what causes it on Friday

April 26, 2013

MANKATO, MINN- The words issues and tissues were used quite a bit throughout the day. The discussion of pain medication was also a broad topic mentioned multiple times.
Doctors and other medical professionals explained their professions and how they could help people with their occupations.

The different presentation subjects were:

Types of Pain

Pain Assessment

Medications

Mental Health

Injections

Surgery

Other Therapies

Over half of the day was associated with Western medicine, but the afternoon focused on the other therapies.
Most of chronic pain is caused from pain in the spine.
Some of the ways to fix the spine that were more conventional were by using injections in the shoulders, brackets and filling in the spine with cement.
The biggest challenge for healthcare is understand the pain a patient feels. Different providers suggest different methods on how to deal with the pain.
“We all have our own filters with pain,” said Ruth Vortherms, a registered nurse at the Advanced Pain Management.
Different people respond to pain in other sections of the brain. It starts from childhood and develops vastly based on thoughts, emotions and memories.
Besides paying for services to make others better, people can also make sure they stay healthy with nutrition and a balanced diet.

When is Chronic Care Inappropriate?

When someone is taking medications or going through surgery and it is interfering with their lives then the risks are outweighing the benefits said Dr. Mark Dehen. Dehen is a chiropractor and also the mayor in North Mankato.
He supports surgery along, but he is aware of opioids drug overdoses are higher than illegal drugs.
The people attending the expo were there to learn, some were there for work. The presenters were offering their experience to tell if a patient is in a using opioids negatively.
The problem is that opioids are commonly used when dealing with chronic pain, but drugs and surgery are not the only option to take care of chronic pain.

Alternative Treatment

Mary Schuenemann and Kay Miller were at the expo to explain their business of CrossRoads in Mankato, Minn. where they offer clinical massage therapy.
“I would like surgery to be a last resort,” said Miller, “why put chemicals in the body when it’s unnecessary?”
Miller and her husband are both self-employed so they don’t rely on insurance to go to the hospitals. There was also mention of Obamacare that would allow people to have insurance to go to the alternative medicine providers and be covered.
Mary also used the two words and said that the issues are in the tissues.
The other professionals were saying that medicine and surgery was the best way. The tissue is never an issue.
At CrossRoads there is also acupuncture offered, which is another alternative to conventional medicine.
Massages always make people feel better about themselves and to some point the session also helps with mental health.
If the alternative healing does not work, the massage therapists always suggest another place to go that may be more traditional.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Stphanie Hylla gives a free demonstration of her acupuncture.

The expo was held at the Country Inn and Suites in Mankato.
It was sponsored by Advanced Pain Management, Mayo Clinic Health System, Women Inc. and The Glen Taylor Nursing Institute for Family and Society, and it was planned by the President of Southern Minnesota Nurses President Linda Rossow and her associates.
The expo was open to anyone in the area, but the planners had a charge. There was also a target audience of nurses and nursing students.

Feldstein is Guest Speaker for Media Day

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Mark Feldstein, Media Day, press release

Nadine B. Andreas Foundation brings Mark Feldstein to Minnesota State University, Mankato for Media Day celebration.

April 8, 2013

 

Mark Feldstein
image University of Maryland

MANKATO, MN–Feldstein, who used to work for CNN and ABC as an investigative correspondent, will come to speak at MSU Mankato for Media Day on April 16, 2013.

His address will be based upon his 2010 book called “Poisoning the Press: The Media and Washington’s Scandal Culture.”
He is currently the Richard Eaton Broadcast Journalism Professor at the University of Maryland.

The address Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington’s Scandal Culture will be in Ostrander Auditorium at 7 p.m., and it is free of charge.
The event is open to the public.

Media Day will begin with a scholarship reception at 3 p.m. in CSU 253-5, followed by him speaking with members of the Society of Professional Journalists from 4-5 p.m.
Contact Information:
Ashley Gerken
Mass Media Student
Mankato, MN 56001
Ashley.gerken@mnsu.edu
###
Washington, Media Day, Mark Feldstein, CNN and MSU

Poynter Free Classes

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media, photo elements, Poynter

Poynter is a website that helps train those who manage, edit, produce, program, report, write, blog, photograph and design.
The classes and seminars are for students or professionals.
For class, we took an online self-teaching assessments and all of them had to do with the extra media such as images, video and audio.
I picked the class for Language of the Image. The objective of my class was:

•Use the visual vocabulary when discussing images
•Articulate the journalistic value of an image
•Make better storytelling images

Later in class, the students would have to describe what we learned. I’m pretty sure that this class taught us everything and we learned enough to explain to other people.
The things learned should help people have better pictures which could improve their articles.

Vocabulary

There are three different photo types and 14 different elements that go into making a good picture.

Photo Types

Informational, Passive and Active pictures are the different photo types.
Informational pictures are basically a visual record.
Passive pictures take place after and event or posed.
Active pictures happen during the actual event and probably are the best picture that goes beyond the surface of the facts and capture the essence.

Elements

There are 14 different elements that include graphic, quality of light, emotion, juxtaposition, mood, sense of place, point of entry, impact, rule of thirds, perspective, surprise, layering, moment and personality.
I know that is a lot of information right at the moment.
These elements can be found if you take the class along with lots of examples. It’s free, you might as well take the class.

Value of an Image and Storytelling

Another part of the class is where the lesson shows that using more than one element really helps make a photo better.
Combining the elements actually needs some skill, some elements need other elements to enhance the story or article.
Many pictures with emotion, sense of place and moment tell major stories of the past and present.
Along with the different elements, I learned that different approaches tell different stories.
Someone could take pictures of the same thing, but use different elements and create totally different reactions for the viewers.
Different perspectives could show two or more different views on birth. The audience could see the Father’s perspective or the Mother’s perspective or even the Doctor’s. I would focus on one of the parents though.

Mother’s Perspective

Father’s Perspective

Poynter is a great resource to learn more on how to improve writing and posting articles or blogs.
There is a lot of information to learn from, and it shouldn’t have to cost money. Poynter helps make it free.
I want to go back and take the other classes. I already knew some about pictures.
I want to learn about the video and audio.

Pulitzer Prize for Contruction Deaths Article

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Las Vegas, Las Vegas Sun, OSHA

What Makes a Good Article

Construction Deaths was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. Why was the article so good though? Pulitzer prizes are awarded for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition.
The article about the construction workers that died in Las Vegas contains:

images
video
interaction

However, what causes them to be good? Having all three elements will help make a good online article, and it’s a good tip to remember for future assignments. At the end, the article also showed different articles and places to get more information about previous stories relating to OSHA. The Las Vegas Sun exposed the bad hazards that were occurring during the accidents. Exposure gets an audiences attention too.

Images

The images from the article are using elements such as the rule of thirds or lighting. All three of the elements that the article uses appeals to emotion. The photographers take pictures of the victims and their families after the accidents happened. So the photographs are considered passive. I read that active pictures are best, but I understand it is hard to capture the death at the moment it happens. Captions are a huge part to a photo, they help find pictures through search engines and help direct the reader to understand what they are looking at.

Video

The video itself starts off with accounts from family and friends. Emotion is so powerful in the media, especially for persuasion. Music really adds to visuals, especially sad music without lyrics. It doesn’t take away the focus on the information or insight that is being portrayed by people telling stories. The article focuses on the people’s lives that will be remembered. It is related closely to the videos, but it tells more of a story out loud and the tone of people’s voices.

Interaction

The best part about the article is the interaction. It has a map of the area that was being worked on. There is a bio given for each person, how he died, OSHA investigation and the follow-up. It is a ton of information given to the reader that isn’t emotional. Facts are good too especially when there is so much information not based off of what actually happened, like from the pictures and video.

There could have been many other ways that a writer could have written the story. He or she could have focused on the accidents or how many deaths actually happened and more facts. The fact that this article took the emotional approach helped win over a lot of readers. It touches people, and I think that it works. Also, cool interaction activities really draw people in too. The article itself has information to give just like my blog posts, but video, images and interaction just give it more appeal and meaning all in different ways.

Declaration of Independence

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Declaration of Independence, Link Practice, Preamble, Signatures

Declaration of Independence
Posted on September 17, 2012 by Ellen Mrja
Edited by Ashley Gerken, Mar. 4, 2013

http://www.archives.gov February 28, 2012

The Declaration of Independence has four different parts:

Preamble
Grievances
The Declaration
Signatures

The Declaration of Independence: A Transcription

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

Preamble

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen United States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.–Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

Grievances

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

 

The Declaration

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The 56 signatures on the Declaration appear in the positions indicated:

Column 1
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett
Lyman Hall
George Walton

Column 2
North Carolina:
William Hooper
Joseph Hewes
John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge
Thomas Heyward, Jr.
Thomas Lynch, Jr.
Arthur Middleton

Column 3
Massachusetts:
John Hancock
Maryland:
Samuel Chase
William Paca
Thomas Stone
Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe
Richard Henry Lee
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Harrison
Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Francis Lightfoot Lee
Carter Braxton

Column 4
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris
Benjamin Rush
Benjamin Franklin
John Morton
George Clymer
James Smith
George Taylor
James Wilson
George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney
George Read
Thomas McKean

Column 5
New York:
William Floyd
Philip Livingston
Francis Lewis
Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton
John Witherspoon
Francis Hopkinson
John Hart
Abraham Clark

Column 6
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett
William Whipple
Massachusetts:
Samuel Adams
John Adams
Robert Treat Paine
Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins
William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman
Samuel Huntington
William Williams
Oliver Wolcott
New Hampshire:
Matthew Thornton

Page URL: http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration_transcript.html

U.S. National Archives & Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road, College Park, MD, 20740-6001, • 1-86-NARA-NARA • 1-866-272-6272

Garbage in New York Neighborhood

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Brooklyn, Exxon Mobil, New York City, Newtown Creek

The skum that floats on the surface doesn’t come close to the bottom layer.

Industrial waste and the city’s sewage system overflow naming Newtown Creek one of the nation’s most polluted neighborhoods.

Story by: Ashley Gerken

The filth runs through an area of working-class homes, warehouses and industrial lots straddling Brooklyn and Queens.
The creek’s bottom is lined with about a 15-foot-layer of pollutants.
“What was originally a watershed is now a sewage shed,” said John Lipscomb. He is an environmentalist of the Riverkeeper cleanwater advocacy group.

History of Newtown Creek

The Rockefellers operated the nation’s first refineries on the banks in the late 1800s.
Factories and commercial vessels were starting to make fertilizers, chemicals, lumber and glue. Their waste was leaking or being dumped into the creek. The first incident of disaster was on Oct. 5, 1950, petroleum gases seeped into the sewer and caught fire. Three people were injured.

Clean up in the neighborhood

Things that can be found in the overflow include:

Soda Cans

Plastic Bottles

Raw sewage

Decaying Food

Human Waste

Petroleum

There is a plan of small steps to clean up, but it could take at least a dozen years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
Scientists are using sonar to probe the muck in the 3.5-mile waterway.
It will be financed by Exxon Mobil, Texaco Inc., the Phelps Dodge Refining Corp., BP Products North America Inc., National Grid NY and the city of New York.