Trayvon Martin, where to draw the line?

In my previous journal, I talked about Trayvon Martin, a african american boy who was shot and murdered at the hands of Goerge Zimmerman, who was not convicted for the murder. Recently the group known as the "new black panthers" have put out a bounty on Zimmerman, who has been in hiding since the events that took place. Although Zimmerman is, in my opinion, an absolute scum bag, is something this radical the answer? One guy going after the person in an act of revenge for their friend is something, but when a community of people get together to kill someone, thats a different story. Im not totaly sure what i think about something like this myself, to be honest. He deserves exactly whats coming to him, but at what expence to the people involved? If anything should be done, they should reavaluate the trial, and lock this guy up for life, he's a sick man. Ganging up to murder a man isint the way to go, what does that say about our society? Us as people? A line needs to be drawn. He deserves everything comming to him, but to sink to this level is just as bad.

Trayvon Martin murdered

17 year old Trayvon Martin was murdered on febuary 26 by George Zimmerman, who had called police earlier and said he saw someone he thought "was up to no good". He was following Trayvon and the dispatcher said to stop following him. They then heard over the phone yelling for help, and then a gun shot. That was the soound of Zimmerman shooting and killing Trayvon Martin. The terrible part of this event is that Zimmerman wasn't convicted, or even held in custody by the police. There have been acusations of police misconduct and a review on the case has been sanctioned. It was also later discovered that Zimmerman was a known racist, who frequently reported black men and frequently made 911 calls, and has done this 46 times since january 1st 2011. I personaly find this increadibly disturbing, and I dont think it woulden't be a safe assumption to think that if this had to do with a white boy, things would of turned out differently, the main issue here is not Zimmerman for commiting the crime, but the people responsible for NOT convicting this man for MURDERING a 17 year old boy. It is also worth noting that the Sanford police department were frequently accused of  giving a `selective` treatment to violence cases involving black people. Although some never really think that this kind of racial profiling still hapens, we were still segragated 40 years ago, and although its an absolutely discusting thought, there are people who still have this very conservative outlook on other races and although it absolutly repulses me to think about there are still people, probably in our community that still think this way, and there probably always will be.

emo/gay murderd in iraq

recent violence in iraq has led to the murder of 58 teens. using cinder blocks, they target those seen as emo gay. authorities stated that there is nothing they can do to stop the outbreaks of violence. and they have even created a hit list of 33 people that contains their names and adresses. those even percieved as gay is target. and although they say there is nothing they can do about the violence, they havent taken steps against it. there may be pressure on local law enforcement by the groups, but this is also a very religously conservative country and it is forbiden in the karan to be gay. regardless of the location though, this is a horible tragedy that this conservative attitude is still prominent in some areas.

"When" is death?

As our understanding of medical science is expands and grows, doctors are coming to a question that most would think would be very simple to answer. When is someone considered dead? What was once as simple as checking for a pulse isint so simple anymore. A doctor recently injected cats with the substance that thay use to kill death row inmates. Using an MRI he atempted to pinpoint the moment of death of the brain. He saw decomposition, but couldent find when the brain "died". With all the technology we have today, we still cant tell when death is truely "irraversable" or weather that even has any meaning at this point, when interviewed, the doctor said “I’m not sure MRI can prove that someone who is dead (or a mummy) won’t come back to life. As a scientist, you simply have to say such events are extraordinarily rare. As a believer, you can say whatever you’d like; I’m a believer, so I do believe that people will live again … but I won’t try to use MRI to convince you of that position.”

nokia tatoos?

Recently, phone company NOKIA has patinted a magnetic tatoo that can recieve notifications and vibrate acordingly. ( long vibration for email, pulsing for low battery, etc.) Although this type of technoly is an interesting theroy. Its likely that it would be years before they had the technology or people would even be willing to try this idea. Its obvious that people would be hesitant, but considering the amount of people that sleep with their phones, who am i to say they wouldent want to remove the middle man. Although i would personaly find this annoying, there are deffinately those out there who would, and as the social networking culture grows, so will the market for technology for these types of technology.

smell prevents depretion?

14 million people in north america suffer from a lack of smell and quite recently, studies have showed that these people are more likely depressed, and feel more socialy insecure. Out of the 32 people questioned about their condition, they mentioned worrys about body odors, interacting with others, and they also avoided eating with people. Smell actualy helps with conveying social aspects to one another and without this communication they may expiriece difficulties with people. It also is the strongest link to memory. Although sometimes maybe it might seem beter not to have (like after a long football or rugby practise with your team, or workout at the gym) it is important.

Water day 2012

Water day is a day celebrated every day on the 22 of march to raise awareness on the importance of water. A resource we regularly take for granted. Originaly an idea suggested by the UN, world water day reminds us how few actualy have readily available clean and healthy water. Most are encouraged to use their tap water for an entire day. This year they are focusing on how without water, areas that relly on local agriculture for food and money are severly affected by by lack of water. This is an extreemly important issue that i think should be considered more seriousley more often, and we should be much more sparing, the world may be covered by water, but barely any is useable, and we should keep that in mind when we spend an extra twenty miniuts in the shower. Water is important resource and is much more valuble than most think.

apple targeted for poor work conditions?

A few weeks ago you may have heard of the reports of the major Apple supplier Foxconn and their terrible working conditions ( dollar an hour pay,explotions that killed several and injured dozens, and the instalation of "suicide nets"). Since then there have been a few online potitions have been coming up here and there in support of these workers. Which have gotten about 250'000 signatures. Protestors are also gathering at Apple stores all over to protest. Although Apple says it does its best to help their conditions, it really dosent seem like it.

UMas riots

A few people were a bit upset by the outcome of the recent super bowl, as with a lot of sporting events, but if anyone needs some pointers on "how to riot", it would probably be the students of UMas amherst.
after the recent super bowl where the New England Patriots were beaten, the students broke into riot. the crowds started throwing botles and firecrackers at the police and they suppresed the situation with a few flash bangs and smoke grenades. the polices response was quick as they deal with riots from UMas on a regular basis.

 heres a video of the very short lived outbreak

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

Facebook Depretion

I do think people get cases of Facebook depretion. People (mostly teens) who use Facebook will understand what i mean by "Facebook drama". With almost a third of the world using it, it has a large effect on peoples social lives. Almost everyone has it. It even has some real world implications. Lots of high schoolers wont even consider a relationship validated unless its "Facebook official". People get worked up over things like their amount of friends, wall posts, taged pictures, and in my opinion its pretty ridiculous, people act like their amount of friends in comparison to their friends has some sort of social significance when in reality Facebook was designed to be a medium for which people can find their freinds and communicate. They treat their amount of friends like some kind of score and they get depressed when their friends is higher. Not only that, but people get upset by other peoples posts, profile pictures, tags, even farmville. In the end its just for communication, but people tend to make the misconception (again, mostly teens) that this validates and is an accurate comparison to ones social life.