Democrats, DMV Employees
Circle I Limbo
General asshats
Circle II Whirling in a Dark & Stormy Wind
The New York Yankees
Circle III Mud, Rain, Cold, Hail & Snow
Barack Obama
Circle IV Rolling Weights
Steve Jobs
Circle V Stuck in Mud, Mangled
River Styx
Scientologists
Circle VI Buried for Eternity
River Phlegyas
Bernie Madoff
Circle VII Burning Sands
Parents who bring squalling brats to R-rated movies
Circle IIX Immersed in Excrement
Osama bin Laden
Circle IX Frozen in Ice
Kyle Willett
3/16/11
ENG 151
Food In My Life
Any color. Any taste. Any smell. FOOD. Food is the one substance in this world that has constant variety. The variety of food is just one of the many reasons why I love it so much. Throughout my life, food has been very important from mashed carrots (baby food) to bagel bites in my dorm room, food is one thing that I look forward to everyday no matter what. When I first heard we were going to be learning about food in this class, I cant say I didn’t get a little bit excited. In high school, I took two cooking courses and when I arrived at Ohio University I enrolled in a nutrition class, so this English class wasn’t the first time I have seen food and school come together. Therefore, I really enjoyed that segment of class and especially enjoyed hearing Warren from Snowville Creamery come in and talk to us about the dairy industry. Warren talked about how sustainability is very important for the business and how the food business used to be very sustainable until more recent years where cooperation’s have dominated. However, it isn’t too late to switch back to the old ways of sustainable, healthy farming, with free graze livestock.
“There are no seasons in the American supermarket. Now there are tomatoes all year round, grown halfway around the world, picked when it was green, and ripened with ethylene gas. Although it looks like a tomato, it's kind of a notional tomato. I mean, it's the idea of a tomato”-Michael Pollan, FOOD INC.
This quotes perfectly represents what our current food system has become, an idea of food. In today’s society, there are millions of unnatural chemicals and pesticides that our food is contaminated with and it is viewed as perfectly normal. If an American farmer from the 1800’s saw our food process today, he most likely would argue that what we produce isn’t food at all. The preservatives that are in our food today could technically be viewed as poisons. For example, earlier this year, a New York artist took named Sally Davies, bought a single McDonalds happy meal that consisted of a small plain burger and small fry, nothing else. After 6 months of leaving the ‘food’ out in the open and photographing the burger and fries everyday, there was literally no change in the food besides the feel of it. The burger became as hard as a rock and the fries followed in suite, but she said there were still a few fries that you could bite without breaking your teeth. In conclusion, I really can appreciate what Sally Davies did because what better way to show that our food is not actually food by having a hamburger rot for 6 months, but show no change. In addition, this is McDonalds were talking about! A part of every American, McDonalds is a huge part of our culture and society. Everyday, millions of Americans will indulge in the fake fries and micro waved hamburgers. We as a country can no longer sit back and watch our food be tampered with so much to the point where we wouldn’t even dare ask what is in it. In conclusion, Mike Pollen says it best when saying that our current food really isn’t food at all, but an idea of what food is suppose to be. However, there is hope for change in today’s society with movies like food inc. and motivated farmers like Warren, I truly believe America will soon rip the food power away from the large cooperation’s.
My relationship with food has been very romantic throughout my life. Food was one of the very first things I ever took interest in. I remember being the happiest little kid alive when my mom would take my brother and I to McDonalds after a dentist appointment as a little kid, or being the happiest teenager alive when my mother would cook her amazing Maui flank steak for dinner. I even cooked my own food from time to time because I took two separate food courses in high school and I very much enjoyed both of them. However, when I came to college, one of the first classes that stood out to me was food and nutrition, but this class should actually be named ‘Enzymes and confusing bi-proteins’. Although this class didn’t work out, it was still cool to see that my college was offering a course on food and it was promoting health! Which brings another subject to light, health. Health and food are almost directly related, as food is our main source of our essentials. However, I could write another three pages on how health in America is corrupt and it would become a long, complex argument. Overall, food has had a huge impact on my life and continues to impact me everyday.
In conclusion, food is everywhere in our world whether you choose to take an interest in it or not. We as human beings can literally not live without food and even if we could life without food would be terrible. Food comforts us in a way no other substance can. Food in itself is a culture and will continue to be a huge part of our culture until the day we are wiped off of this earth.
Kyle Willett
ENG 151 Mudd
2/17/11
A World with no Oil
On April 20th 2010 the world was forever changed by a disaster that nobody could have imagined. An oil rig in the gulf of Mexico exploded, and for the next few months thousands of gallons of oil would spill into the rich coastline of the Gulf of Mexico. The spill was the largest the world had ever seen and it is still impacting the world today. Over 60,000 barrels of oil per day were spilled out of the hole in the Gulf Coast, and by early June 2010 the slick had reached over four states including Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, and Mississippi (Congress). With such devastating effects, the spill hogged national headlines for months and the entire world starting to take notice of what was going on in the Gulf of Mexico. In addition to the damage, the oil spill got people thinking about the damage the past oil spills have caused. Although this is the worst oil spill we have experienced thus far, it certainly isn’t the first oil spill our world has seen, and this is the scariest part of the situation. There have been 20 oil spills of over 30,000,000 gallons since 1970 in the world, which would add up to over a billion gallons of oil being spilled. The BP oil spill tragedy is further motivation that our country needs to switch to alternative energy sources. With the mass loss of coastline, wildlife, and revenue it is clear its time for a change from oil.
The BP oil spill was the worst spill this generation had seen and the effects were catastrophic. With the Gulf of Mexico being one of the richest marine environments in the world, many species of fish and marine mammals were wiped out. Initial reports showed that 6,000 birds, 600 sea turtles, 100 mammals, and thousands of fish have since been reported as dead. With mass amounts of marine life dead, the entire ecosystem is going to be disturbed in terms of the food chain and survival. For example, if thousands of shrimp were killed off during the oil spill, the Sperm and Bryne whale will be depleted of their main food source (National Oceanic). The sperm whales second choice of food would be surface algae and nutrients, which would also be impossible for the sperm whale to eat due to gallons of oil slick covering the top of the water.
In addition to the wildlife and ecosystem, the oil spill affected the communities that surround the Gulf of Mexico. The main communities that border the gulf coast are along the shores of Louisiana, Florida, and Mississippi. The 20 million people of the community’s normal lives came to a complete standstill once the oil starting gushing from the hole. In 2009 there was 24 million fisher trips to the GOM which resulted in 1.27 billions of fish being harvested. The total revenue of the commercial fishing industry in 2009 was $659 million, indicating that the commercial fishing industry in the GOM is a major industry (National Oceanic). With a large amount of fish being killed or forced to retreat to dark depths due to the oil, the fisherman aren’t making the money they need to make.
In addition to our economy being damaged in that aspect, another aspect is that trade with other world powers is going to slow down rapidly. The water is covered by millions of gallons of oil and it is going to be hard for ships to be coming in and out of the water as easily as they used to. Many of the gulfs ports will be closed for an extended period of time because the oil slick clean up is more important than trade, indicating once the clean up makes progress, trade will slowly resume. Also, the high usage of toxic dispersants to try and disperse the surface oil slick has resulted in Corexit becoming airborne, causing acid rain to drench our precious agricultural products (Klein). This is very bad news and will become worse in 2011 when we get the first reports of the US trade deficit, which is already negative to begin with but will continue to increase exponentially. The US is well known as the grain silo of the world and exports large amounts of wheat, soybeans, and corn to Africa, Europe, Russia and China. These valuable crops will all be affected by the amount of acid rain and will reduce the crop yields for many farmers. In addition, the crop may contain small traces of Corexit that cannot be removed or extracted from the raw crop, meaning the crops would essentially just go to waste. Overall, the US not only lost the economic battle but all Americans and neighbors were affected by the decision of BP to use one of the most toxic products ever made for which there is no cure. The result is that our natural food chain has been disturbed either through direct absorption (marine life) or indirectly through acid rain and soil/crop absorption. The economic impact across the US is devastating and it may take at least 5 to 10 years before the land and sea heals, if they do at all.
The United States reaction to the spill was a disaster. The clean up effort was ineffective and people everywhere were pointing fingers in the wrong way. When the spill first occurred on April 20th 2010, the population was shocked to find out that BP had drilled a hole so deep, it was near impossible to plug. Within the first night, the Internet and twitter were buzzing with talk along the lines of, “Who let BP dig this deep? I certainly never agreed to it!!!” or “How are we going to plug this hole!! President Obama is doing a horrible job of cleaning it up!!” The country entered a temporary state of crisis, as nobody knew what was going to happen next in the gulf oil spill drama. However, looking at a timeline, many of the past oil spills had been handled in the same manner: panic. On March 24th 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in the Prince William Sound, Alaska. This was the largest oil spill the US had encountered at the time and the consequences and reactions were similar to those of the gulf oil spill. According to Kelly Weavering, “The wild, untouched lagoon where they camped had no name. So they called it Day Care Cove, for its populations of juvenile seals and sea otters”(Anderson) People in Alaska were outraged that a local oasis that had been nearly untouched by humans was now ruined. The Prince William Sound, much like the gulf coast, was beautiful land that everyone seemed to appreciate. However, both landscapes would be forever changed by the oil spill, and the Prince William Sound still smells like a fresh paved highway (Anderson). Furthermore, although both were human-caused disasters, they differed in a very important way. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was the result of an oil tanker crashing, whereas the deepwater horizon oil spill was a result of an oilrig exploding. Almost all oil spills have been either a tanker crashing or an explosion of a rig much like the gulf oil spill. Two different ways for one disaster to occur is never a good formula to have for a safe and secure society. Therefore, it is necessary that we find new ways to transport oil, and take new measures in making sure these massive oil tankers are full proof of a leak or crash. Overall, oil spills have stirred enough drama and sent enough nations to war in the past 50 years that it is now more important than ever that we switch to using alternative energy sources.
Life without oil may be a scary thought, but in this day and age it should slowly start becoming a more common thought. Oil has caused more than enough damage to our planet and its time we pay nature its long overdue attention. Alternative energy sources may take a while to fully establish in the world, but already nations are taking important steps to making the change to alternative energy permanent. For example, overall 7.3% of all energy is renewable and that number is projected to increase to 33% by 2020 (Burgermeister). Renewable energy in Spain represents 12.5% of total energy generation in 2009, and is expected to reach 20% by 2020. The united States is desperately trying to get its renewable energy efforts up to par with the other world nations but with the thousands of other problems this country faces, it may be tough. However, California has been making progress and former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is credited with this movement. The goals of California according to Schwarzenegger, “A resolution that it is the goal of the United States that, not later than January 1, 2025, the agricultural, forestry, and working land of the US should provide from renewable resources not less than 25% of the total energy consumed and continue to produce safe, abundant, and affordable food, feed, and fiber”. Furthermore, people need to realize that alternative energy sources go far beyond the basic three of solar, wind, and hydro energy. Geothermal and ocean wave power are two new types or renewable energy that are becoming more and more common in the world (Wald). Alternative energy sources are booming right now and with so many kinds out there, it isn’t surprising to learn that already $148.6 billion dollars has been invested in renewable energy since 2006 (Wald). In conclusion, renewable energy sources may take longer to switch to then we had originally hoped, but in the long run the investment will be well worth it because our world will not only be cleaner, it will be far more efficient.
However, is it going to be that much more efficient? This is a main point when bringing up the counter argument. For every argument, obviously there is going to be a counter argument. In the case of renewable energy, keeping oil as our primary would be the counter argument. First and foremost, we have been using oil as our primary fuel for over 100 years now. The technology to extract oil is very advanced and efficient compared to what it used to be. To just get up and throw all that equipment and research away, would be the equivalent of throwing away the millions of dollars that was invested into that research. Furthermore, oil is very easy to transport. Oil can go right into a barrel, which then can go right onto a tanker, which can then sail across sea and deliver it to the final destination. This is a key flaw when planning renewable energy sources, the transportation. For example, all the wind in California is up north in the state, all the wind turbines are there for installed in upstate California. However, Los Angeles(Southern Cali.) needs the energy more than upstate Cali, but how do we get it to Los Angeles fast and effectively? As of right now, there is no true answer to that question. Overall, there may be a few advantages that oil has over alternative energy right now, but within the next few decades, they will surely flip flop, meaning oil is going to become extremely expensive and hard to get a hold of.
Lets take a look into the future. What would the world be like if we had began the switch to alternative energy sources back in the 1900’s? First and foremost, all of the conflict between the United States and the Middle East would not nearly be as hostile. All of our oil is imported from the Middle East, meaning they have all the power over us, but America cannot be conquered by anybody. This is a very rough and cynical view of how the conflict started between America and the Middle East because America is ignorant in regards to its own power; basically were very cocky. But nonetheless the idea is the same: oil starts war. Also, the oceans would be much cleaner and the wildlife in the oceans would be far greater. In the past oil spill’s, the wildlife death toll has totaled to well over 50,000, with 16,000 alone dying from oil consumption during the BP oil spill(Gore). The number of fish that have died from the past oil spills is well into the millions. In conclusion, our world would be a much better place without the use of oil as it creates pollution, creates obstacles when living in a coast community, and continues to eliminate nature.
The BP oil spill tragedy is further motivation that our country needs to switch to alternative energy sources. With the mass loss of coastline, wildlife, and revenue it is clear its time for a change from oil. Oil and fossil fuels will eventually run out in this world (sooner than later) and as a global force we need to implement renewable energy anywhere possible. Nations such as Germany, China, and Spain are all on the right path to one day having all energy, be renewable energy. Therefore, the United States needs to ante up its efforts and begin doing more than just slimming down water bottles and putting more prius’s on the road. Alternative energy sources have been a goal the world has been working towards for many years, and now it is finally time for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels.
Ohio University has many historical and interesting buildings that made this project hard because it was difficult to choose which building to research. However, the convocations center stuck out to me for a number of reasons. Although I don’t live in the convocation center, it was the first place I studied first quarter, it was the first place I partied first quarter, and the first place I developed real friends at Ohio University. It is one of, if not the, largest buildings on campus and has a legacy dating back to its opening in 1968. The Convocation Center has a very rich history, so in designing my promotional piece I took many things in to consideration, such as the purpose of my piece, relating to pathos, ethos, logos, and the audience that would be viewing my promotional piece.
The target audience for my piece overall is students, but more specifically partiers and athletes. I decided to expand my audience to two sub-groups because with the “Convo” offering many different events and programs it was too hard to limit all the information to one flyer. For the first flyer I tried to appeal to the more exciting crowd that is always looking for the next party or event. Therefore, I made sure to mention all the past big acts that have passed through the convo center such as Led Zeppelin, MTV, and Hall and Oates. I also included many pictures of these concerts on the flyer to show how electric the convocation center can get. The second flyer was more focused on the athletic aspect of the convocation center. I wrote about the great historic past of our men and women’s basketball teams, as well as the volleyball teams. In addition to school sports, the convocation center has been home to many Ohio state high school championship games and hosted the infamous WWE wrestling association on several occasions. Furthermore, the target audience as a whole is the current students at Ohio University; therefore I used a more modern design template and tried to make it look very sleek and appealing. Purple, black and silver were used in the first flyer because purple is loud and can catch an eye while silver has a hint to it that makes you want to go closer to it. I organized the information on the flyer in such a way that it was chronological and it was almost like a mini time line on the flyer. A timeline is always easy to follow and is a basic tool to use when incorporating history. In conclusion, the flyers are flamboyant, modern, and very easy to read.
In both of my flyers it was important to incorporate logos, pathos, and ethos. With logos the history was very important because not many of the students know the entire history of the Convo Center. I included pictures of when the Convo Center was first being built and when the Ohio men’s basketball team had enjoyed its most success. Ohio University is one of the oldest universities in the country and the Convo is a main building on the legendary campus. For pathos, I tried to bring out the emotion in my audience by showing the last time our men’s basketball team had a successful season. I included pictures of the players and coaches as well as memorable moments in the season. Students should be passionate about the sports teams here and the sports teams give the students something they can pour their hearts into and truly care about. When including ethos in the flyer, credibility was the most prominent value to me as a writer. By including actual dates and pictures, students can see that these events and dates actually occurred in the Convocation Center. Without credibility this flyer would be completely worthless and defeat the whole purpose of the project. In conclusion, logos, pathos and ethos all can help the audience feel closer to one of the campus’s most exciting buildings.
The Convocation Center is one of the most spectacular buildings on campus, and I hope with these two flyers the students will begin to realize that as well. With its modern flexibility as it hosts an array of sporting events, houses students, and has conference rooms it is truly remarkable that this building has such a rich history. All of those attributes go into why I ultimately chose the convocation center for my promotional piece. I see flyers all over campus and I decided that these where the most effective way of attracting an audience because you can practically put a flyer up anywhere on this campus. Many things went into designing my promotional piece including the purpose of my piece, relating to pathos, ethos, logos, and the audience that would be viewing my promotional piece. The convocation center has very long history and without it here on campus life just wouldn’t be the same.
