Crazy Law Suit: Subway Sandwich isn't a true "foot long"

 While watching the nightly "NBC Five" news last week, I saw a very strange news story. A man named Nguyen Buren  from the North side of Chicago went into a nearby Subway with measuring tape and found out that  his footlong was just one inch shy of twelve inches.  Many would think that being an inch too short is no big deal--I mean come on, it's just a sandwich.
  But this sandwich controversy could be worth  more than just your "five dollar footlong" because Buren is allegedly seeking damages in excess of 5 million dollars for misrepresentation of a product. 
 I personally think this is beyond ridiculous and shows how desperate people are to get money. Ever since the '92 McDonald's coffee case, where a women was awarded with 3 million dollars for damages after spilling hot coffee on her lap, people will make unfathomable claims to be awarded money in court.

Do you think this man is crazy for asking for five million dollars over missing one inch of a footlong? 

Final Exam: Just Do It?

     As the first semester of American Studies has come to an end, I feel like I have become a more knowledgeable person about many different American topics and events in our history. One particular topic really stood out to me throughout the year: slavery.

    To the right, I chose to analyze a political cartoon about Nike sweatshop labor.  This artifact surfaced on an anti-sweatshop Ezine (a magazine only available on the web) right after a Bangladesh sweatshop fire in November of 2012 that killed 112 people and injured hundreds.

     This is an important American contemporary artifact because it depicts current "slave like" conditions, even though slavery was abolished over a century ago. The boss of the "sweatshop" I think is portrayed as a slave master. He has pointy "shark" like teeth, spikes on his shoes, he is triple the size of the workers. All these characteristics must instill great fear in the workers. A vary obvious feature of the man is that he is white, while all the the workers are colored, which make them look even more like "civil war era" slaves. The workers are weak, wearing the same outfit (in different colors), a minority race, and sitting on a bench working with a machine that has smoke spewing from it. If this image doesn't scream SLAVERY to you, you must be from another planet.

    This artifact relates to my American Studies class because we spent a lot of time talking about slavery, civil rights, and sweatshop labor. Throughout these past five months, our class has analyzed countless numbers of texting ranging from movies to short stories, so  I would like to analyze three different texts--a historical document, short story, NPR audio clip--and show the striking parallels between the texts and my artifact.

Why Do Schools Have Finals?

As finals are approaching quickly, students all over the country are frantically reviewing and studying everything they have learned in the semester. On the day of the final, a sleep-deprived, anxious student is not going to perform to anything close to their potential. So why do we take tests that some up four months of learning? How is it in anyway beneficial? 

Well, it's not.

According to Helium, a website where prominent writer post their work, finals "encourages students to take short-cuts and learn only what is needed for the exam, rather than rewarding those who have worked hard to learn all that they can throughout the year". Instead of having finals, we should just to learn "everything we can throughout the year", rather than studying a plethora of material the night before for an hour long test, where we are almost guaranteed to forget all the information the next day.

What do you think? Should high schools have finals? 

GDP Per Capita: Panama VS. USA

    Over Winter break I went to Panama with my family for some hiking, exploring and relaxing. While I was there, we took many taxis and one in particular really stood out. Income came up in our conversation, so my dad asked the driver, "what salary are people considered well off and happy?" Without hesitation, the taxi driver replied, "$12,000 a year; people are really comfortable and happy with that". I was quite shocked because in the US poverty line is roughly $11,000for one person. However, in Panama, the poverty line is roughly only $1,150. I wonder, why are the numbers are so different?

 Well, to really understand we have to know the  GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita between the two countries. According to nations encyclopedia, the USA average gross income is $36,300, while  Panama's is only $5,900.

Have you been to another country that has a low GDP per capita?

Too Easy to Get Guns

All over the world people are mourning the loss of 26 lives, 20 of which were under seven years old, from Sandy Hook School in Newton Connecticut. The Sandy Hook shooting is the second most deadly shooting in U.S history, behind the Virginia Tech shooting in 2007.







On this blog post, I would like to look at how easy it is to get guns in the United States because many lives would be saved if there were stricter laws on owning guns. According to ABC News, "Right now if you don't have a criminal record and you have not been adjudicated as mentally incompetent, you can buy guns".To read more CLICK HERE. There are so many people in this country that do not have a criminal record and not considered "mentally incompetent". It is so easy to buy guns that in just November of this year, two million guns were bought. I think firearms should be illegal for all citizens besides law enforcement and the military. Since 2006 over 47,000 U.S lives have been lost due firearms--That is about 21 people per day.

What do you think? Should there be tighter laws on owning guns?

Why is Taylor Swift Endorsing Walgreens?

Picture I took at the entrance of Walgreens

Last Thursday I hit up Walgreens just to buy some gum and pencils. Right when I walked in the door, a six-foot cut out of Taylor Swift greeted me. In fact, if you look very closely, at the top right corner of the picture, there is a sign that says: Taylor Swift Store at Walgreens.

I was quite confused why she had a "store within a store". I looked at the products and found T-shirts, Perfume, guitar picks, and many other random items. So why is there a "Taylor Swift Store" at Walgreens?

Well, there are many reasons why stores all over the country are using celebrity endorsements, but one in particular really caught my eye. According to Chilli Breeze, an online website for writers and bloggers, one prominent reason that celebrities are used for advertising different products is that "Celebrities ensure attention of the target group by breaking the clutter of advertisements and making the ad and the brand more noticeable." In this instance when they say target, they most nearly mean the group of people that want to buy the product. These "targets" could be any group ranging from the elderly to little children. In this case,  their "targets" are young middle school girls. A young singer  that sings songs about boys and is often on the "top ten" list on iTunes has to have a lot of young fans. Personally, I am not a fan of these endorsed products because  I don't think they belong at a drugstore--they seem out of place. But, to young girls shopping with their mom at Walgreens, the products must seem very enticing because, otherwise, there would be no reason to pay someone millions of dollars to have their face on a piece of cardboard.

Have you seen any celebrities endorsing products?  

Where Are Your Christmas Presents Really Coming From?

      With Christmas only two weeks away, any store you go into will be packed with customers searching for the perfect gifts for friends and family. Apple, Nike, Abercrombie & Fitch, and WalMart are some of the most popular stores in the country where millions of citizens will go to buy presents. However, maybe you should think twice before buying from the stores above as they are among the hundreds of companies that use sweatshops to produce their products. 
      I'de like to focus on the conditions of sweatshop labor, so maybe you'll think twice about what presents you're placing under the tree. A sweatshop is a negatively connoted term for working conditions that are dangerous, unacceptable, or difficult. Some examples of these conditions, according to The Moderate Voice, are "There is no organized representation for most of the workers in sweatshops. Most workers earn $8.50 to $12.50 for a 48 hour work week, with mandatory overtime that can push them to as many as 80 hours. They receive two or three days off in a month." To read more click here.  When lacing up those $100+ nikes, maybe you'll think twice about the slave like labor that went in to making them.

Will you think differently next time you go shopping? 

To find good tips on how to buy "sweatshop free", click here.