"One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

"One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" is a very interesting book. It shows a different side of life that usually isn't the main focus of a book. The book is about the non-glamours side of rehiblitation/mental hospitals. It exposes some of the techniques they use to "change" personalities. I think its really interesting that the author decided to use a schizophrenic as the narrator. It makes the book alot harder to read. It also lets you see what it's like inside of a mental pacients head, that you would never normally see. At times, I feel really bad for the narrator because he seems to have so many demons and fears. I also don't really like how he pretends to be deaf when he's not. It makes me wonder why the nurses and doctors dont call him out on it, or if they even know that he is faking. Overall so far I think the book is pretty interesting and that this ward is going to get alot crazier with the arrival of McMurphy.

Reptilian Hot Button

According to the "reptilian hot buttons" in our brains we bypass rational thinking. I do think that that is a true statement. There have been plenty of commericals that grab my attention and make me want to buy them. I was watching youtube and found one commerical that made me actually want to grab a phone and call. The ShamWow towel commericals make you want to try them right away. Their way of advertisement grabs your attention and makes you want to buy one for your own home. The commericals show that if you were rationally thinking, you probably would never buy something from an infomerical, but this commerical makes you want to grab your phone right away and not miss out on this opportunity. The way that they deliever the commerical is load and shows you demonstrations. Here is the commerical, tell me what you guys think about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJEKqI1e714

If you look at any McDonalds' ad they always emphasize two colors. Red and yellow. Yes, i know that these are the fast-food giant's colors that represent them, but they also serve a different purpose. Red and yellow are warm colors and for some reason they subconciously make people hungry. So you could absolutely say that every ad that McDonalds has every put out, has been inteded to press these so called "hot buttons" for consumers. Burger King plays the same game, they just add a blue ribbon around their logo to make it a little different.

American Ad

On a hip hop website I checked out, there was an add about a teeth whitening product. It showed three pictures, one of a smiling mouth with yellow teeth, the second with that same mouth putting the whitening material in it, and the third with a smile with white teeth. This marketing technique applies to the American that wants things fast and easy. This add worked to sell false marketing to sell its products.

Current Attraction

Women in the present are attracted to men in many different ways than in the past. In ancient history men used to fight over women to be the dominant one. To get a beautiful woman you used to have to be be big, strong, and tough. In present days it helps to have those attributes but they are not quite neccesary. Now women have been proven to be attracted to men that have a higher position in their male higherarchy. A man who walks into a party and can gather a lot of positive attention from his friends is more attractive to women, rather then a more physically built man that stands in the corner not getting any attention at all.

We've been reading a lot of articles in class about how women are portrayed in media. One article that i found very interesting talks about how TV shows depict helpless and weak women in jobs such as secretarys or personal assistants and how their male boss always ends up getting "involved" with them. The article picks apart how its unfair that women are put in that position and the writer makes an opinionated statement saying that men are much more attracted to weaker women rather than powerful business women.
Lets turn the tables though. What do you see on an overwhelmingly surprising amount of TV shows and movies today? You see the everyday, average joe, blue collar working husband/father constantly being reminded and told how useless and stupid he is. And do you see any male interest groups causing a fuss about how they're portrayed in the media? No. I just think that people shouldn't care so much if their race or ethnicity is poked fun at in a T.V. show or a movie. Maybe i'm being hypocritical by writing this post but i'm not mad nor am i trying to cause a fuss. I just want to get my point across that people need to stop being so sensitive when it comes to how they're portrayed in the media. http://www.askmen.com/daily/austin_60/65_fashion_style.html

Differences Between Men and Women Brains

Men and Women have differences in their brains that make them react different to situation. This article http://www.mastersofhealthcare.com/blog/2009/10-big-differences-between-mens-and-womens-brains/ "10 Big Differences Between Men's and Women's Brains" By Amber Hensley, explains the major differences in our brains. I thought it was very interesting to find out that men find it hard to understand emotions when they are not verbally communicated to them, they are not able to infer them like women. Although, mens brains are able to do math better than women because their inferior-parietal lobule is larger than women. Its weird to find that women have a larger limbic system which makes them feel emothion more than women. This article really explains the key differences between men and women. I find it to be very interesting to see all the differences that we actually have with eachother. One of my favorite points Hensley says is about our different reactions to pain. Women are much more vocal and need to morphine to handle their pain than men. Shes reasons this by saying "The area of the brain that is activated during pain is the amygdala, and researchers have discovered that in men, the right amygdala is activated and in women, the left amygdala is activated. The right amygdala has more connections with areas of the brain that control external functions while the right amygdala has more connections with internal functions. This difference probably explains why women perceive pain more intensely than do men. "
I really liked this article and wanted to share it with you both!

Gender Stereotypes

I believe that gender stereotypes really whithold people from being more open minded to getting to know who ot her people are. As an example in the movie Mean Girls the stereotype of highschool girls were that they were stuck up and only cared about their looks and social status. In turn whoever watched that movie reflected what they saw into their own thought process of how they judge young women. In all reality the mass majority of young woman in highschool do not fit the "Mean Girls" stereotype at all. Even though the movie was very funny it beat young women's image to a pulp.

At Groves, we do have a culture that many people try to fit into. We have the typical groups like the athletes and the theater kids. Groves has many different races and ethnictitys within it and many people try to find their perfect match of people to hang out with. Unfortunately, even at this school people of different races and ethnic backgrounds seem to stick together. The Jewish kids hangs out with the Jewish kids and african american kids hang out with the african american kids. At Groves we can all be in the same school together and get along fine but when it comes time for the weekend we usually stick to our roots. There are some pressures you feel to fit in but usually you know you will be accepted with your own friends and group. I don't think that at Groves we have problems with people going to great lengths in order to fit in.

As far as teaching 5 year olds about cultural diversity, I think that could be one of the stupidest ideas ever. With everyone pushing to be more understanding and culturally diverse then ever before, I think we should do the opposite. We still have racism today and I believe that that is somewhat a product of the way schools introduce us to cultural diversity.
When teachers try to force the idea of cultural diversity onto 5 year olds, the kids understand the concept about as much as they understand calculus. Since each ethnic group is taught to these kids at a different time, it puts all the different races onto seperate levels. Therefore, the kids begin to join their respective cliques based on their races.

Im responding to Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11" in which Moore picks apart the Bush administration and blames them for September 11th and the events that followed. I think that Moore is nothing but an over liberal film maker that takes advantage of an independent media and persuades people to see things from a leftist point of view with halve truths or lies. If there is one thing that Moore is good at; its editing his documentaries to give the audience a less than factual depiction of whatever he is trying to get across.
Michale Moore has written two books, "Stupid White Men" and "Dude, Where's My Country?" that were both peppered with factual errors and distortions. For example, shortly following the 2000 presidential election, Moore had twisted around a CNN anchor's words to insinuate that he was saying "if there was a state wide recount, under every scenario, Gore would win". When, in fact, Bush would have won under two different scenarios include counting only "undervotes", or taking into consideration the amount of county "overvotes". I hope that you will agree in the matter that Micahel Moore is far from a factual source. Michael Moore is a misleading entertainer, and nothing more.

9/11 reaction

In response to the videos and short essays that we've read about the events that happened on Sep. 11, 2001, i believe that it has impacted the everyday life of all Americans. i believe that after that tragic day, the people of our country were forever changed in ways such as living in fear, prejudice against middle-eastern americans, and a lasting mistrust in the United States government. Personally, i have not been in an airport or on an airplane without feeling the slightest bit anxious.
As far as the article "9/11, 24/7" written by James Poniewozik, i completely agree with him. I too believe that after the events of Sep. 11, the media overplayed the video of the plane crashing to the point where it lost its impact on the way we remember that event. It was almost as if the news stations didnt understand the significance of playing a mass murder video to a country that needed no reminder of what happened.