Friday, October 12, 2007

Fido For Supper

1) What does the title imply?

- It implies that Fido is a dog, and that it is going to be the dinner.

2) Thesis/ Conclusion?

-The thesis implies that the writer, Steven Rinella is in Vietnam and he is taking back a few drinks to get a little drunk so he can have enough courage that night to eat the traditional plate of the Lunar New Year, eating dog.

- The Conclusion implies that even though he tried eating dog the first time and didn't like it, didn't mean he shouldn't try it anymore. Rinella explains that he made a big mistake the first night that he ate the dog for the first time, he says that he didn't understand why they were eating the dog, so he tries it again and he says that " if your culture and your culinary curiosities go head to head, culture's going to win/ It'll win even if you're rooting against it." He fulfilled his want to try to eat dog, and he realized that it was something that he couldn't do.

3) List all the elements of this piece that make it effective.

- Why eating dog is good in the Vietnamese culture
- The history of why he has an attachment and curiosity to find out what a dog tastes like
- What actually happened when he ate the dog, and how he felt about it afterwards
- The writer explains that he has always had a curiosity to try different kinds of foods, and has tried anything that he can legally buy
- describing the scenery around him, and people surrounding him
- Not giving up the first time he tried the dog, he tried it again and still didn't like it
- Explaining that sometimes culture's don't mix no matter how much you want them to.

I think that the writer Steven Rinella was really brave for at least trying something that he always had a curiosity to try. Although it wouldn't be something that I would ever like to try, it was good to read someone else's experience with something.

Weird Foods
This website has any kind of weird food that someone can think of, it tells someone how it is cooked and what it tastes like and everything.

- In my opinon I think it was a good idea to come up with a website like that because some people are curious but never brave enough to try something different, and maybe reading about the food it will either help them overcome the fear of eating whatever the food may be. It might even help them realize that they never want to think about trying that food.

Comparing the Wars


World War 2 Statistics



War on Terrorism

Iraq War




Comparison WWII Iraq war
Congressional Medal of Honor recipients 464 1{+1}
Number of armed forces personnel who have served 16.1 million 1.4 million{+5}
Number of U.S. troop deaths 405,399 2,866{+2}
Number of U.S. troops wounded 671,846 21,778{+2}
Total deaths 54.8 million n.a.
Cost of war (in 2006 dollars) $3.6 trillion $536 billion{+3}
Number of Americans drafted 11.5 million 0
Number of American volunteers 6.3 million 1.4 million
Number of women who have served 350,000 155,221
African-Americans who have served {+4} 1.2 million 238,757
Hispanic Americans who have served 250,000-500,000 135,104

1. President Bush announced Nov. 10 that there will be a second Medal of Honor recipient from the Iraq war.
2. As of Nov. 22.
3. Includes Afghanistan conflict.
4. figures for all minorities not available for World War II.
5. Figure includes troops serving in Afghanistan conflict

Sources: Census Bureau, Congressional Medal of Honor Society, Department of Defense, GlobalSecurity.org, Multinational Force-Iraq and National World War II Museum; Reporting by Melanie Eversley, USA TODAY

Comparing the two wars, I have discovered that the current war in Iraq is now going on longer then WWII and it still hasnt reached any of the numbers that WWII produced. In every item WWII has a lot more injures and deaths and metals won. Although the current war has been going on longer, I believe that they are just taking there time and being careful. World War II needed to be done as quickly as possible which is why the numbers are so high.

Brazilian Tribe kayapo


Reading about the Maasai Warrior's it interested me in finding information about tribes in Brazil. I found information on the Kayapo tribe in Brazil.

Kayapo, the Forgotten Tribe

In this article it talks about how this Brazilian tribe is being forgotten. Many have become friendly with residents of surrounding areas while other remain close to Nature and don't want to give that up. The Kayapo tribe which means keeper of the forest.

The Kayapo

In this article, the author talks about how the Kayapo have the largest reservation in all of Brazil. The article also talks about how this tribe is extremely dangerous, they are this way because they don't want people invading their land.They would exterminate people such as gold diggers, lumberjacks and rubber-tree latex gatherers. Many people who tried to settle in their land and didn't succeed, they tried throwing smallpox infested blankets out of airplanes for the Kayapo tribe to catch.

Saturday, September 22, 2007

Initiations

Reading this passage of The Initiation of a Maasai Warrior, it reminded me that many people go through initiations, not only by their own culture, but also because they want to, because they want to be part of a group. What I mean by this is gang initiations.

http://www.gangsorus.com/initiations.html

- This website explains the different types of initiation that a gang member must endure to be a part of the group. It also has a clip of an initiation being performed.

My opinon- after reading the article I thought to myself how could people want to endure this type of pain just to be part of a gang. I can understand they type of initiation perfermed on the Maasai Warriors but that has been part of their culture for a long time, and they are used to those kinds of things, and they arent violent of criminals that is just their way of initiating a warrior.