Cheating and Greed

         When I hear the word cheating I think of kids-- Kids wanting to do well on tests so they can get a better grade, right? No, not right. This week the New York Times published an extensive article about Atlanta's former district superintendent Beverly Hall who was found to be cheating; in fact, she "was charged with racketeering, theft and other crimes in the doctoring of students' test answers." Why even change the test answers? I mean, we are talking about elementary school here. The test scores brought Dr. Hall fame and fortune. She was named superintendent of the year in 2009 by the American Association of School Administrators and was hosted at the White House by the secretary of education, Arne Duncan. The fortune -- "she earned more than $500,000 in performance bonuses while superintendent." This is where greed and selfishness really comes out. Dr. Hall wasn't in it for the students because she wanted them to get better test scores; she was in it for herself, popularity, prosperity and all. Is it really worth such a high risk for the high reward? We are finding more often than not, that the answer is no!

A 2½-year investigation has gone on because Beverly L. Hall
was suspected to have changing students test answers.

          In Dr. Hall's case, though the risk was high, her reward was higher. She "led the district of 52,000 children, many of them poor and African-American, Atlanta students often outperformed wealthier suburban districts on state tests." A little bit fishy? The investigation began in August 2010 when test scores increased substantially yet a high number of eraser marks were found on the answer sheets from wrong to right. Third grade teacher, at Venetian Hills Elementary School, Jackie Parks admitted to the wrong doing, complied with Georgia state investigator, Richard Hyde, and wore a wire to record conversations. She admitted that she was among "the chosen" -- one of seven teachers "who sat in a locked windowless room every afternoon during the week of state testing, raising students' scores by erasing wrong answers and making them right." The teachers said they would do this because of the fear and standard Dr. Hall set among them.
       
      "Dr.Hall was known to rule by fear. She gave principals three years to meet their 
       testing goals. Few did; in her decade as superintendent, she replaced 90 percent 
       of the principals. Teachers and principals whose students had high test scores 
       received tenure and thousands of dollars in performance bonuses. Otherwise, as 
       one teacher explained, it was 'low score out the door.'"

        It really is only to the benefit of the woman herself. Higher scores means less financial aid from the state. Less aid means the students may not even learn what they are supposed to or increasingly fall behind. The selfishness just becomes more and more apparent. Beverly Hall was the leader of the other 34 accused last Friday.

Gas in the Natural Cycle

       Fair Oaks, Indiana, is home to Fair Oaks Farm, home to around 30,000 cows. The farm's endless supply of manure generates enough electricity to milk all the cows. Fair Oaks uses the livestock waste "to create enough natural gas to power 10 barns, a cheese factory, a cafe, a gift shop and a maze of child-friendly exhibits about the world of dairy." And where does the extra part of the total five million pounds of cow manure go? It is fueling the farm's delivery trucks and trailers making runs across the state and to Kentucky and Tennessee. Isn't this exactly what we need? Because Fair Oaks now uses "biogas" they are taking "two million gallons of diesel off the highway each year." Everything at the Farm has a place in 'the cycle' as I call it.

That's a lot of manure! Waste? I don't think so! It is just
waiting to be processed into natural gas!

        I bring up 'the natural cycle' because I have been hooked on Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma which talks about the food we eat and the process it goes through before it ends up on our plates. I have become much more aware of the reoccurring theme of the natural cycle - or lack thereof. Indeed it has become somewhat linear nowadays. Before Fair Oaks completed their own cycle of putting the livestock waste to good use, they "burned off the excess methane, wasted energy sacrificed to the sky." This is still the case for many farms and manufacturing plants today, especially in the not-so-natural ones. They are known as CAFOs, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. Here the cycle has become completely linear because of the demand for more meat, faster and cheaper. The manure at these plants turns into manure lagoons, aka toxic waste, because of the numerous chemicals and antibiotics in them. Manure equals good fertilizer, right? The manure at Fair Oaks does but at every CAFO, a fertilizer can't be "good" with antibiotics and hormones. Now that Fair Oaks has put gas in their natural cycles will it come soon for other farms? Definitely not CAFOs. In the next couple years, we will see more and more biogas projects emerging. This could definitely be a turn in the right direction and away from fossil fuels.

More On Corn: The Ethanol Edition

        Corn. It is everything. Everywhere we look we are destined to face something with corn. Five years ago, ethanol was on the rise in rural America. And what is ethanol? Corn. Hundreds of ethanol plants in the Corn Belt of America opened due to government subsidies and mandates. This brought in jobs and business to small towns and corn farmers. However, "those days of promise and prosperity are vanishing." But I thought we had an abundance of corn?! Corn for all?! That is not quite the case. The drought last year left farmers with little to no corn. In fact, Don Mutter, who farms near an ethanol plant in Missouri, "said he produced about 25,000 bushels of corn last year, just 5.5 percent of his usual yield." And with this, many issues arise. Ethanol plants are strategicically placed in areas surrounded by farms so transportation costs would be low, but as in the case of one plant "without corn nearby to purchase, the plant had to spend extra to haul it in from elsewhere." Like many other ethanol manufacturers, it had been operating at a loss for months and finally ended operations in January.
       So what has happened to all of the ethanol plants? Is it nature to blame or our reliance on corn in so many industries? I will leave you with these facts: "nearly 10 percent of the nation's ethanol plants have stopped production over the past year, in part because the drought that has ravaged much of the nation's crops pushed commodity prices so high that ethanol has become too expensive to produce." And "if we are what we eat, Americans are corn."

War on Soda

"It would have amounted to a tax on the poor, said some. It would have had little effect anyway, noted others, because people would still have been allowed free refills. It was un-American, said others still, for was this not the country of freedom, more or less, of choice?"

Protestors of the ban marched outside City Hall last July.

         Last Tuesday marked the "giant-soda ban that almost was." New York City's Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg's plan to limit the size of sugary soft drinks was deemed "arbitrary and capricious" by Justice Milton A. Tingling. The initiative was to ban sugared drinks over the size of sixteen ounces. Mayor Bloomberg's concern for his city was the increasing obesity rates and the fact that obesity can kill. People opposing Bloomberg quickly shot back saying it was against their civil liberties to tell them what they can and cannot put in their body. They also claimed that education is better than "dictating" what people should and should be eating and drinking. It is of significant interest that the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.) backed big soft-drink companies, particularly Coca-Cola, because of their long-time relationship with civil rights groups and the tens of thousands of dollars donated by Coke to Project HELP, a health educational program developed by the N.A.A.C.P. Clearly, it always comes down to the money. The irony of this is that African-Americans and other minorities "would be among the key beneficiaries of a rule that would limit the sale of super-size, calorie-laden beverages."
          Obesity can be more prevalent in low-income areas due to the quality and quantity of affordable food people can get. Fast food is exactly what these people aim for because it fills their stomachs without emptying their wallets. In fact, "about 70 percent of black New Yorkers and 66 percent of Hispanic New Yorkers are obese or overweight, compared with 52 percent of white non-Hispanic residents." Would the giant soda ban help these numbers decrease? I, personally, do not think so because after drinking a "small" soft-drink, people just may not be satisfied. They would find a way to fill their desire for more. And as many know, when you consume sugar, you just want more and more sugar. In many other countries, our size small is their largest size! Everything is bigger in America, including the people.

Yosemite's Perfect Shot

        Last week marked Yosemite National Park's annual "natural firefall," when the sun sets and hits Horsetail Fall at such an angle that it looks like lava flowing down El Capitan, the world's largest single chunk of granite. Hundreds of photographers from around the world gather in hopes to capture this exact moment. Create. This image is not what it appears to be, flames of lava bursting out of the rock. The sun creates the scene and the photographers create the picture. They sit outside for hours awaiting the perfect shot.

        After watching the brief video, one can see how different a picture becomes when it changes from black and white to color. We have also discussed in class how black and white photos were used historically to create more serious images. Although Ansel Adams, the photographer, may not have had access to color photography, he captured the essence of the "Firefall" without having to rely on vivid orange tones to make his point. He got what he wanted his own viewers to see in black and white. Ansel Adams managed to take a black and white picture but still capture the movement and tone equally as if it was in color. The first time I saw his picture, I could see the fire-like waterfall on El Capitan though there was no orange-fire color.

"When you photograph people in color, you photograph their clothes. But when you photograph people in Black and white, you photograph their souls!"
-Ted Grant ("Canada's premier living photographer")