Week 6, post a

As China was inexorably drawn further and further down (pg. 295).
Inexorably- not to be persuaded, moved, or stopped

Before the inherent contradictions of Communist ideology became manifest (pg. 299).
Manifest- easily understood or recognized by the mind

One emerging theme in the book is proving that capitalism is the best form of government

Week 6, post b

In this section Alan Greenspan talks about communism or Marxism in China. This is interesting to read about because like Russia Alan talks about how communism is failing. Because the Chinese government is starting to reform the way that the economy is run. It is remarkable because as the economy moves towards capitalism China has the second largest purchasing power, behind the United States. China is the second largest consumer of oil and the largest steel producer. This also shows that capitalism is the best type of economy. It has been tested by countries like Russia and China but neither have competed. The capitalist system is the best because of the freedom of consumers and the will to make money. In communism there is no drive no human needs to try their hardest they only need to do the bare minimum. But, in capitalism the more the person tries the more money you can make. China is booming but it will have to make decisions because as it booms it must watch its pollution and must meet safety standards if China wishes to compete in the future. With pollution becoming a growing problem in the world China must begin to regulate its pollution. Also China will have to update its safety standards to make work safer for all of its works. For example Chinese coal mines are very unsafe and dangerous. China will become a world power but in order to reach its full potential it must accept capitalism.

Week 5, post a

One emerging theme in the book is the search to find what makes an economy great. This theme is seen when Alan reflects on his experiences and the experiences of others to find a truly perfect economy.

There were two seemingly insurmountable barriers(pg. 254)
Insurmountable- incapable of being overcome

Paradoxically, most analysts conclude that(pg. 257)
Paradoxically-not being the normal of usual kind

Week 5, post b

Reading about the economic prosperity of the dot com boom and the budget surplus that followed the Clinton administration. It is amazing to look at what president Bush did to the national debt. Before reading this book I had never looked into what happened in the economy during from the 1990 to 2002. But to read about it and to look at what president Bush did is amazing. Coming out of the Clinton administration the government was looking at a budget surplus of $270 billion dollars in 2001, which the United States hadn’t seen since before the depression. Then Bush became the president. Instead of taking that money and putting it in to medicare and social security. As Alan put it "the greatest economic challenges on the domestic front as thirty million baby boomers aged their retirement was on the horizon.". Instead of using Alan’s advice the president issued a $1.3 trillion tax cut which totally decimated the surplus. Now the United States health care system is failing and our social security is doing terribly. While president Bush was in office he almost never vetoed a bill. So the deficit got bigger and bigger. With the beginning of the Bush administration we saw the projected budget surplus go to a budget deficit. Reading this makes me wonder how George Bush got elected to his second term because this make him look like a fool.

Week 4, post a

exuberance (pg.164)-the quality or state of being youthful

preempt (pg.171)- to seize upon to the exclusion of others

"Merriam-Webster Online" 4. Dec. 2007
http://www.merriam-webster.com


"USSR is a Greek tragedy waiting to happen"

This quote is important because it was said when Alan visited the USSR and realized that when it colaapsed it would be very tragic. The USSR did fall and his quote was revealed to be true. The USSR's fall was like a Greek tragedy.

Mistake

The post labeled Week 4, post a, that was posted Wednesday November 28, should actually be labeled Week 3, post a.

Week 4, post b

Alan Greenspan takes a whole chapter in his book to discuss what happened after the fall of the Berlin wall. He talks about the economic instability that followed the fall of the wall. When the wall fell the outside world took in the first images of life behind the iron curtain in Germany. Alan makes a big point about the economy which, at least for me, I hadn’t even thought about what the economy looked like after the fall of the wall. The USSR’s old economic system was one where the government set every aspect of the economy. With the fall of communism the free market spread into most of the of the satellites and was quickly adapted. It was interesting to read about what the countries did to shock there economy and help the free market rise. This however was a difficult thing to do in Russia because as Alan Greenspan put it "there was no one alive that had lived during the free market and no one knew what to do,". The Russia economy had troubles starting up. Another thing that I find interesting is when Alan talks about his new theory to stop inflation. His theory was stop inflation before it starts. He would tighten up the money supply before he thought that there would be inflation and this tactic lead to great American prosperity during the end of the 20th century.

Debate post 1

One instance of debate is the presidential debates. The presidential debates occurs on TV. These debates help voter to see how candidate will react when questioned about major issues. This type of debate is structured, helps people come to a better decision and helps to make up the mind of voters.

Another type of debate is one that you see on ESPN and other sports shows between host about who will win next weeks games. These debates help sports fans know who will win next week. The debates are semi structured. They have a certain agenda but not time limits or turns for speaking. This affects sports fans and who they predict to win games.

Bloging is also a debate. People can express their ideas and beliefs in forums and debate with other people about which correct. It helps people influence other people and changes peoples opinion. These debates are because there is a topic that is discussed and everyone can speak. These debates can help to structure what people believe in.

Week 4, post a

"Alan, I want you to be my chairman of the Federal Reserve Board"(pg.99)


This quote was said by Ronald Reagan to Alan Greenspan. This quote is significant because being the chairman of the Federal Reserve is one of the most powerful positions in the world. Alan accepted and became the chairman of the Federal Reserve.





vocab
The scope of the problem beggared the imagination.(pg.116)
Beggared-to exceed the resources or abilities of

a major-league policy intellectual and a believer in sound fiscal management(pg.118)
Fiscal-of or relating to taxation, public revenues, or public debt

"Merriam-Webster Online" 28 Nov. 2007
http://www.merriam-webster.com

Post 3, part b

Dear Mr. Greenspan
I am writing to you to ask you why you stayed the Fed chair. In your book you only talk about the people that criticized you and throw you under the bus. How did you handle all that negativity towards you and your job. Even friends that you had threw you under the bus. On page 122 when president Bush didn’t win reelection he blamed you even tough you were friends. His quote "I appointed him and he disappointed". I couldn’t handle that. Also there are people out there that questioned the fact that your position should exist. People like Nick Brady who believed that your ideas and beliefs about what the economy would do under certain situation were totally wrong. Or people that thought that the monetary policy was a joke and didn’t work. But, you are a very smart man and helped the United States get out of many recession. You also help to keep pour country prospering and financially firm. I also want to ask if you had fun doing your job the only emotion I take from your book is frustration and anger. Was being the chairman of the Federal Reserve fun? Or was it just a job that put food on the table? Were you ever scared when you were doing you job? I ask this question because if you mess up and the economy goes into a recession because of you there is nowhere to hide.
Thanks
Gordon Stone

Week 2, post b

Alan Greenspan is a very interesting character. He grew up in the west side of Manhattan, a poor area of New York. His father divorced his mother when he was young. His father worked on wall street and his mother was a salesman. Growing up he loved math and music. His first real job was as a musician. He played with many high quality bands. His first job in economics was as a statistics analyzer. The job was more math but it introduced him to economics. He then partnered with a man named William Wallace Townsend and formed Townsend- Greenspan, this part business specialized in the analysis of statistics to help businesses accurately predict what to do. He was also apart of the economics board for Nixon and Ford. His humble beginnings make his story so amazing to hear. I already know that he will become the chairman of the federal reserve, so to see where he came from and where he went is inspiring to me. He was a very determined person he knew what he wanted to do and he worked towards it. This belief in never giving up has shaped him as a person. This trait was first shown when he learns how to play the clarinet as it talks about on page 23. He would practice for six hours a day to become a talented musician. Also his love for mathematics he was gifted even as a child he would recite answers to mathematical problems. His mathematical ability shaped him into the economist he is know.

Week 2, post A

Vocab:

logical positivism(pg.39)-a 20th century philosophical movement that holds characteristically that all meaningful statements are either analytic or conclusively verifiable or at least confirmable by observation and experiment and that metaphysical theories are therefore strictly meaningless.


nondescript(pg.45)- belonging or appearing to belong to no particular class or kind.

"Merriam-Webster Online" 18 Nov. 2007
http://www.merriam-webster.com/



"Would you like to join me" (pg.44)
This quote was said by Wallace Townsend to Alan Greenspan. Wallace Townsend wanted to start a business with Alan. This would be a very significant job for Alan and one that would change his career.

Quarter 2 outside reading book choice

The Age of Turbulence by Alan Greenspan
Published in 2007, copyright 2007
This book is nonfiction
It is 505 pages
This book talks about the time when Alan Greenspan was the fed chairman. This book uses
adult vocabulary and is written for adults
I choose this book because I am interested in Alan Greenspan and what has happened in
economics in the past thirty years

The Sea Inside

I thought that this movie was very well done the only problem was that it was in Spanish. The plot was excellent and the acting backed up the story very well. It was a very meaningful message. The fact that it is actually a true story also makes it more meaningful. I believe that every human being has the right to die. I think that the courts should have allowed him to die. They should have done this because it is his life and he can do what ever he wants with it. I would not want to be one of those people that participated in the suicide. While I agree that he has the right to die I wouldn’t kill any human myself.

This book relates to Diving Bell and the Butterfly in the fact that both of the characters suffer from problems with their spinal cords. They differ in the fact that one can move one eye lid and the other can move his whole head. They also differ in the amount of time that the person has lived with their disease the main character has been a quadriplegic for 28 years the other has had locked in syndrome for a matter of months. They both however have written books. I believe that The Sea Inside was more powerful.

When they were on the beach in Ramon’s dream. The director used a extra close shot to show the audience how much they loved each other. If the director had done any other shot you wouldn’t fell the same emotion in that scene. But, the extra close shot made you fell like you were there experiencing it.

Week 6, post 1

In the last section of the book Lance begins the Tour de France. He leads after the first time trial. His two greatest rivals were Alex Zulle and Fernando Escartin. They were the two favorites to win. Going into the mountains Lance was winning by 2 minutes and 20 seconds. After a breakaway in the mountains Lance was up 6 minutes and 47 seconds. Since he was doing so well the French press thought that he was doping. Lance had to take quite a few blood test to prove his innocence. Finally the Tour was over and he was victorious. He was an American hero. Not long after his Tour win his wife went into labor and Lance had his first son.

Week 5, post 2

After Lance was healed Bill, his manager, looked for a team that Lance could race on. Trouble occurred when teams didn’t believe that he would amount to anything in pro cycling any more. He finally singed with the US postal team but it wasn’t nearly what his salary was. He raced one in Europe, then got angry with cycling and moved back home he almost retired. After marrying Kik he wanted to have a child but he was sterile so they went through a long painful process to get her pregnant. She did get pregnant though.

It is amazing to see that even professional athletes also go through hardships with what ever sport they play. Lance nearly quit cycling for ever. Although, that feeling, is common for most cancer patients after they don’t have cancer anymore. Luckily though Lance was surrounded by people that loved him and they protected him from making a decision while his mind was clouded. If Lance Armstrong had said right there that he was going to stop cycling I wonder how would cycling have changed. Would it have ever gone across the Atlantic and come to America. We wouldn’t have him as an American hero. His cancer foundation wouldn’t be nearly as successful. Lance has a child with Kik but the process is scientific. Kik is impregnated in a science lab with guys in white coats. There are to views that you can look at this from. The side that thinks that this is wrong and shouldn’t be done because it isn’t natural. The other side is that they love each other so much that they would go through an insanely painful process just to have a child. At the end of the reading his coach talks about how Lance will look great on the podium in the tour de France. His coach thinks that Lance can win the whole thing

Week 4, post 2

In this section Lance talks about how brutal the last treatments of chemo were. He also talks about how weak he is and how out of shape he is. Then after months of treatment he finally is normal. After this realization he begins to worry about the fact that cancer might come back. He describes this feeling as almost scarier than having cancer. Then he begins to talk about Kik the women that he meets while undergoing his treatment. They seem to have a future together.

Week 4, post 1

"Lance your normal" page 160, It’s Not About the Bike by Sally Jenkins.
This quote is important because after months of intense chemotherapy Lance’s blood tests are finally normal. That means that he is cured and the cancer is dead. It struck me as important because Lance finally won his battle over cancer and was still alive.

authors picture

Diving bell book feelings

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly to me was a good book and a bad book. Prior to reading this book I hadn’t thought about the emotion of being locked inside my body. This book opened my eyes to a whole new punishment that could enslave anyone of us. The thought of not being able to communicate verbally with people and not being able to move any limb in my body would terrify me. I enjoyed the basic idea of the book, being stuck in a diving bell but your mind is free like a butterfly. I enjoyed the simile the he used to describe his entrapment. It shows his feelings clearly and precisely. One the other had I didn’t like how he wrote about strange dreams that he had. They seamed irrelevant to me. In his writing it was hard to tell if he could actually move and speak or if it was just his imagination. But, it was a very well written book I don’t know if it was the English translator that made it sound so good. I would like to learn french and then read it in french and see how well written it was. Because the author was originally a magazine editor he uses loaded words and writes with deep emotion and feeling. Which can hook you and make you think about his current situation. The book makes you look into everything that you do, without even thinking about, seem so amazing. Over all I think that it was a good book and the originality of it made it so interesting.

Week 3, post 2

This book so far has been about Lance Armstrong’s life before and after cancer. Lance before cancer rode his bike just because. Now during cancer he starts to realize the true meaning of riding his bike. Cancer totally changes the way he thinks from food to family. He actually says in the book that he thinks that cancer was a good thing for him. I personally like the way that it is written because it sounds like he is talking to you. I have found no weaknesses. This book relates to my life because the most traumatic things in your life can be the things that you are the most thankful for. I predict that Lance will survive and create a charity to help cancer patients. Feelings associated with this book are ones of amazement that Lance is still alive.

Week 3, part 1

Lance wanted to know everything there was to know about cancer. So he read every source that he could get his hands on. Thanks to Dr. Wolff Lance looks at other treatment possibilities. He recommended that lance look at other hospitals in Indianapolis, Houston and New York. He then learns that he might have cancer in his brain and that he should take an MRI scan. After the MRI it was confirmed that lance had cancer in his brain. The next day they left for Houston. In Houston the doctors told him that he should do their therapy otherwise Lance would die. Lance wanted a second opinion though so he left for Indianapolis the next day. There he meet Craig Nichols and Scott Shapiro. He liked their way of doing things so he decided to get treated in Indianapolis. In Indianapolis they immediately did brain surgery. Lance survived he stayed 7 days in the hospital and then went home.

sally Jenkins worked for the Washington Post until 1990. She also wrote for Sports illustrated and she has written 5 books. She now works for the Washington post as a sports columist.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/sports/columns/jenkinssally/

Section 2

48-94 loaded words

1. dreamlike-pg:61- The author uses this word to discribe how surreal his experience was. The author used this word because it describes his feelings so clearly

2. anguish-pg:63- It shows true feelings. The autor used this word because it truly shows the feelings of Lance

3. legendary-pg:66-Shows how important someone is. Author uses this word to convey how amazing someone is.

4. funeral procession-pg:69- Shows death and dispair. Author used it as a simile to represent the feelings of the peleton

5. memorial-pg:70- Shows love toward a dead person. Author used it to show how much the team loved Fabio

6. reprioritized-pg:73- Shows a drastic change in someones life. Author uses it to show the affects of cancer in Lance's life

7. seceptible-pg:73- Shows that we are all human and that we will all die. Author uses it to show that Lance is finally aware of the fact that he might die.

8. urgent-pg:73- Shows how soon everything can change so quickly. Author uses this word to show that Lance is trying to do thing quickly in case he dies

9. rapidly-pg:79- Shows a negative invasion of something. Author uses this word to show how quickly the cancers spread through Lance's body

10. wozzy-pg:84- Shows how badly a person feels. Author uses this word to discribe how Lance felt after surgery

This book is still very good it is hard to put down. I'm already in section 4. I really like it.

section 1

This book is an amazing book about the spirt and the willingness to live. Lance's story is amazing and is wonderful to read

Section 1

section 1 pages 1-47
It's Not About the Bike

When Lance was 25 he was diagnosed with testicular cancer he was given less than a 40% chance of living. In the winter of 1996 he started to feel the symptoms of cancer. But, he paid no attention because of the nature of cycling. His mom was 17 when Lance was born and he never had a real father ,he left at birth. When Lance was three his mother remarried a man named Terry Armstrong and he beat Lance. When Lance was in fifth grade he tried his first endurance event. It was a run and he won it. As a twelve year old Lance was fourth in state in the 1,500-meter freestyle. At thirteen he tried his first triathlon which he won. He tried other triathlons and excelled. When Lance was 14 he found out that Terry was cheating on his mother. They divorced soon after. When he was 15 he started entering pro triathlons and placed in the top 5. At 17 he was asked by the us cycling team to go to Europe and to be on the team.

This i believe

1. A link to the essay

http://thisibelieve.org/dsp_ShowEssay.php?topessays=25&&uid=34&start=
2. Author

Penn Jillette
3. Title

there is no god
–4. One sentence of what the belief is

There Is No God
–5. 2 examples from the story that showed their belief

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic

No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.
–6. 1 favorite passage

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in all things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

Hello