Youtube is a unique form of media that allows video creators to get closer than ever to their fanbase. It has facilitated collaboration and interaction and has brought people together to form tight communities. In recent years youtube video makers have risen to a level of celebrity with millions of fans all over the world. Through their videos, they have the power to carefully construct their image. They can edit their videos and perform a persona that may be different than their real life personality. Viewers like myself feel we know the people whose videos we watch although for the most part we only know about the parts of them they want us to see. They also have the power of having a platform on which to spread their ideas, thoughts, and goals to a wide variety of people.

            The first time I heard the term “reclamation”, I was sitting in my Environmental Science class, learning it in the context of mining. Under the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, mining companies were required to restore the post-mine lands back to a naturally or economically usable purpose. My teacher, while optimistic about the results, ultimately lamented the notion that the land would never truly be restored to its original, pre-mined landscape. The land was scarred, he told us, and consequences of mining were irreversible. The idea has stuck with me since then, this thought that once something has undergone some change—whether negative or not—it remains impossible to convert it back to its first state.

Marjorie Wu

Paper #4

September 25, 2014

How To Classify People

Grace Chung

ESEM Paper 5
October 4, 2014

Sitting Ducks

When I was six, my mother signed me up for violin lessons, I wanted to dance and be in my elementary school’s play of Grease. My mother was quick to discourage me from trying out, both for the play and my school’s dance team; she was adamant in grooming me to be the next Midori. Being only a six-year-old girl, I did what my mother wished and tried to respect her good intentions.

Looking back on my encounter with the neglected stray dog on the street, I see an intriguing resemblance to Ursula LeGuin’s short story “The ones who walk away from Omelas”¹. Although the circumstances in the two incidents are quite different, the underlying elements in both events are quite similar.

Having a Hand in Freakdom

In class a couple days ago we were talking about the word “freak.”  A few of my classmates presented an etymology on the word, explaining that it came from the Latin phrase lusus nature which they translated to “freak of nature,” but the thing that one must remember about Latin is that it is hardly ever that simple (“freak”).

“Humans are the superior animals in this universe, we create a strong contact zone to other species in this world. This contact zone is what makes the world as it is now, balanced and harmonious. Sometimes, people will think of the idea of someone trying to break the zone. In Butler’s short story of “Blood child”, humans (Terrans) are dominated by worms(Tlic). The superior species and humans create a contact zone where they need humans to carry their young, and at the same time humans need their eggs to get longer lives. Even though it is a society that has a huge hierarchy, there is still a balance in it: worms give humans their eggs to eat, the humans incubate their offspring.