Today's Generation

When I look at this cartoon, I see something that is very familiar. There are about ten kids standing in the same area and they're all on their cell phones texting. One kid has a soccer ball next to him and is looking at it in confusion, not knowing what it is. Another kid who is standing fairly close to the kid with the soccer ball is sending him a text that asks him what the thing next to him is. The grammer of the text message is also very poor as if the child is uneducated. The line at the top of the cartoon says, "the 21st century playground" as if to say that this is the way that children play these days. The cartoon is saying that children don't even know what a soccer ball is and only 'play' on their cell phones all the time. I agree with this cartoon because I think that children these days are centered around electronics, especially cell phones. When I was growing up, I didn't have a cell phone and I actually went to a playground where there was sports and other fun things to do. I think that children should still be doing those things that I grew up doing because growing up around a cell phone is very sheltering and limits a child to many experiences that they would have if they played on a real playground and not the playground that is depicted in this cartoon.

"Average" kids

This image was made by a cartoonist named Rakesh and I believe that through this image he wanted to portray the life of all those children who are average in schools and colleges and how education seems to be a burden on their shoulders. In this picture the kid looks scared and confused surrounded by various mathematical and science notations. I think that the modern education system creates divide among students, isolating the "average" group while praising the top students.  Besides the average student's low self esteem driven by the pressure and humiliation from friends and family for not getting 'A's', sometimes bigger problems arise, they lose their hidden talents and skills in this fight for success. As we all know admission in  most good colleges or to getting a good job depend on how many A's the student got during his studies in school or college respectively. This not only makes the life of students who have hard time getting A's difficult but in the struggle to pass in class or get A's, sometimes, many kids lose their hidden talents and skills for which either they could not manage time for or could never realize their hidden talents. I would like to support this from my personal experience, my parents being doctors from a good college in India always pressurized me to be at the top of my class, but in order to do so I could not spend much time on my music. Struggling to meet my parents expectations, I could never spend time on something I really loved and enjoyed. There are countless times when I gave up an opportunity to play on stage or practice because of this pressure. These kinds of situations are much more common in countries like China, India, etc.. I believe that if observed thoroughly, this image highlights one of the major problems which leads to loss of talent in kids. 

Cute Comic!

From this picture, I saw a man in a suit with a bow tie, he looks like a host man. There is a golden board hang on the desk witting with:"Nobel". Apparently, this is a Nobel reward. The host man wants to give the winner --Liu Xiaobo the medal of peace, but the man coming to the desk is not Liu Xiaobo, he is North Korea. So what can I say is this is a super ironic comic,Liu is a activist to support reform of the government, during his fourth prison term, he was awarded the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize for "his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China(Wikipedia)." In the picture, the host man is holding the medal with two fingeres which is quite abnormal in a reward, he doesn't bother to give him the award? or he doesn't think the N. Korea man should get it? I think the argument of the comic is China has an serious issue on human right, they think human right as a western concept, but China also has been conservative for thousands years. Avoiding is not the right way to deal with it!

Can China engineer a soft economic landing?

Can China engineer a soft economic landing?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BT7JXgnoGU&feature=relmfu
The main argument in this vedio clip is that Chinese economy can make a soft landing by using policy tools and ability to increase consumptions.
Firstly, he analyze the component of Chinese economic growth, which are export and investment spending. Now export is affected by negative European recession, and investment spending is slowing down. That's why many people are concerning about Chinese economy.
Secondly, he point out although net export and investment spending are slowing down, there is another important thing that will help to facilitate a soft landing for Chinese Economy: Domestic Comsuption. He points out that Chinese officals will focus on consumption as Chinese major economic growth in the future five years. Nowadays, consumptions only counted as one-third of Chinese total economic growth. In the contrast, Consumptions is counted as 70 percent in American Economy. Therefore, he argues that there is a huge potential for Chinese domestic consumption to grow. 
In the end, he said that althought there is some uncertainty in Chinese future ecnonmic growth, but we have good reason to believe that Chinese economic can make a soft landing.
I feel this analyst's argument is very convincing. He analyst all the components of Chinese economic growth thoroughly. Also, he give us some numbers to support his argument, which is very important in financial market analysis.

Vet vs Cop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8-ycSkoYfc&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Dveteran%2Bvs%2Bcop%26oq%3Dveteran%2Bvs%2Bcop%26aq%3Df%26aqi%3D%26aql%3D%26gs_l%3Dyoutube.3...1146.5064.0.5327.4.3.0.0.0.0.1008.1008.7-1.1.0...0.0.AbacZq8OcpI

***Viewer discretion is advised***


My video is about a cop that pulls over a Vietnam veteran and inevitably ends up being killed by the vet. I first saw the video a year ago and it had a lasting impact on my life. I feel the video shows first hand what the effects of war can have on the soldiers. The man kept referencing being a veteran and curses continuously at the cop. He is clearly not in the right state of mind and is under the influence of either a mental condition or maybe just alcohol. Due to the man’s reactions and stability I would lean  more towards the side of mental disorder. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is what quickly comes to mind. War causes many greater impacts than people realize. This man was not mentally stable and needed medical treatment, he defended our country when we needed him and now suffers because of this. Is it really the man’s fault for his actions? Is he to be held accountable for mental state? Sadly yes. He did commit the crime, so, he must do his time.

Poor child

This is a picture I found on Weibo(which is kind of twitter, but not exactly the same). This children is apparently a chinese child who is maybe 5 or 6 years old. The description below the picture is what is junk food to us is exactly the birthday surprise for the child. We can not do anything the help, what we can do is spread the picture let more people know.

In this picture, the children is pretty dirty. His clothes is not his size. The room he sitting in is very dirty, dark, messy and full of dirty things. The food in the big bowl in front of the little child is instant noodles. I think the price in China of this kind of noodles is around 3 Yuan, 0.5 dollars which is very cheap. Parents do not want children to eat instant noodle because it is junk food, but it is a birthday present for the little boy in the picture. The face of the boy is very red and I don't think the red is a healthy red. I think it is caused by being in the cold wind for a to much time. His face is sad and looking at something to someone, maybe is his parents. Apparently, the family of him is pretty poor and can not afford a better life. 

The interesting point is not only how poor the life of the child and his family is, but also how the description. It is written we can not do anything to help.

With the lives of Chinese people getting better and better, most people in the big cities in China tend to be blind to all the lives to other people. They just enjoy their own rich and wonderful life and they do not anything about how some poor people is suffering from right now. The description said we can not help but the truth is we can help. We neglect how other's lives look like and we are told that we can not do anything to help.

Looking at this photo, I see the faces of two familiar figures. A former president, George Bush, and our current commander and chief Barrack Obama. This illustration was painted up onto a public wall in what seems to appeal to the community's beliefs about a specific ideal, and thus establishes ethos. We see here that a claim is being made about Mr. Obama. Mainly that his character and the manifestation of his administration is nothing short of resembling the former Bush administration. It could perhaps be highlighting the thought that the subtle differences that separate these two figures politically are petty in light of the big picture, and that those differences that we might identify between Bush and Obama may be less pronounced than what many have convinced themselves to believe. Another possible suggestion is that the leaders we enable to lead us are merely pawns in the game, set in place by determining forces out of our control. Yes, on the outside these two people are different, but they do serve the same purpose and the extent to which they have served it seems to reflect closely.

 https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1N-xqZ_qJ-QOy4X_gAISLcyv-RfmUu-nOSqq_XQuO0PWrTrDVGp5yHbwhr4YQK9ufSzBRAhyNMRANJdozlek1DYN0nMwzqqUSoHpz2sCuBllwyb5K9954iyMUszSwDRiFnYqjaKTDuw/s1600/Obesity+cartoon.jpg

The picture above shows an obese American at the doctor's office.  The doctor is telling him to put a lock on his fridge, probably hinting that he should not consume any more food.  The expression on the patient's face is not one of happiness, but one of negativity and maybe even fear.  The caption at the top of the photo suggests that obesity is jacking up the price of health care costs.  This is because more and more Americans are becoming obese every year - it is often said as common knowledge that our generation may be the first to not outlive our parents.  The rise of readily available fast food and the decline of healthy habits contributes to a gain in obesity throughout the population.  The picture portrays that something must be done to stop the contributing factors to obesity or the epidemic will only worsen.

Financial Crisis

This is a picture about the aftermath of the 2008 Financial Crisis. In the left of it there is a man under the relics of Wall Street buildings. On the other side stands a man who has just woken. The implicit argument this picture wants to convey is that the crisis was due to the incompetence of the regulatory department. The supervision on the financial behavior was too lax during the last seven and half years and those officials should be account for that.
This picture try to makes us believe the government officials didn't act by comparing them to sleepy old men. The damaged construction indicate the severity of the problem. But this could be misleading while it draw audience's concentration of the government and firms, but not the consumers. People will probably omit some of the irrational behavior of the public, such as borrowing excessive money without the ability to pay back, or pursuing a large house just because other people have ones.
Also, the sleepy image persuading us that the government is incompetent neglect the other possibility. The government could be doing this on purpose. We know keeping the interest rate low can stimulate economic growth. This is what Greenspan has been doing during his term in Fed.
So I think this cartoon is funny and convey some appealing observation, but it certainly simplified the situation to make people more comfortable to accept.

University Education is useless or useful?

This picture is made by an engineering student who wants to show the contrast between the knowledge learnt in university and applied software in work. Engineering  college is thought as a difficult, complicated and tough one. Most of the students are struggling with time-consuming and hard courses for at least four years. As shown in the left part of image, for a computer science engineer, he needs to learn UNIX, C++, JAVA and NET in the four years. I have learnt JAVA before and actually it really needs a lot logic thinking and repeated tests for programs. By contrast, on the right side, with so many high-level language programming skills, the student just use EXCEL in the rest of life after graduation. And EXCEL can be understood and well used even by business school students. This engineering student using strong comparison arouse our sympathy on them--they are always computer in stead of sunshine in university! Furthermore, it shows a kind of ironic phenomenon in general--few of what we learn in university  can be used in the future. In addition, a few people can find a matched job after graduation. But, on the other hand, no one knows if these "useless" software can be useful in the future. For instance, job promotion requires UNIX. And university also requires GEC course, which can cultivate breadth in knowledge. That seems make university education a little meaningful.

http://www.cartoonistgroup.com/store/add.php?iid=80102

I found this picture interesting because it shows a fact that almost every college student will face to. In the picture a castle-like college stands on the top of a steep mountain, and a newly graduated student is walking down the cliff. The student graduated from college with a large bag of debts and a piece of disploma. We can see he is confused and nervous to jump down the cliff. Colleges seem to be isolated to real society, and graduating from college and getting a job seem to be a horrible thing like jumping down a cliff. Also, maybe this picture wants to show the gap between colleges and jobs in real life is large? The only thing a student can get from college is a large amount of debts and a small piece of diploma?

Internet Tracking

http://www.ted.com/talks/gary_kovacs_tracking_the_trackers.html
This video starts by explaining to the audience that there is a problem that is affecting everyone who uses the internet, and the majority of internet users have no idea that the problem even exists. The speaker, Gary Kovacs  the CEO of the Mozilla Corporation, starts off by alerting the audience that there are companies that make their revenue by tracking every move you make online. For every website a user visits there are many other websites that track all your data you enter on these websites. They record names, birth dates, usernames, passwords, and all other personal information you enter on websites. He reassures the audience that data tracking is not completely evil, and can be beneficial when it is used properly and asks for the user's consent. He explains that it can be used to suggest new books, movies, and products that the user may be interested in. However, he claims that when data tracking is done without the user's consent it becomes a form of stalking. One technique he uses to persuade the audience of his position on the matter is an analogy that appeals to the audience's emotions, or the pathos. He claims that "if there were a person stalking our children with a camera and a notepad recording their every move, that every person in the room would take immediate action". He then ends his speech by notifying the audience of program's they can install on their computer's in order to take action against the internet trackers.

I find this picture interesting because it shows what I am assuming to be college graduates receiving their diplomas before walking through a door labeled "unemployment."  College is supposed to prepare students for just the opposite.  You go to college in order to gain skills to make employment more easily accessed.  The illustrator is clearly trying to convey a message about college and if it is really worth time or just a waste of money perhaps.  Looking at this picture makes me think that if after college unemployment is waiting, then what is the point in going at all?

Social Networking, Addiction and Recuperation

http://amt.caltech.edu/resources/cartoons

The particular cartoon being observed here is one in which a woman is at a meeting discussing how long it has been since she sent her last tweet. This cartoon is an attempt to shed light on the problem that is coming from social networking, and that is addiction.  The use of an AA meeting type setting pushes this idea to reality and highlights a key idea: that people need to recover from this addiction.   Social networking has begun to separate people physically despite how much they may communicate via the internet, cell phones, etc.  The AA meeting is an appropriate setting and is crucial to driving this point home. The realities of social networking need to be acknowledged.  The artist uses a fair argument that appropriately draws on ones emotions and is especially effective for those who are experienced with addiction.  I do wonder that some may find this comparison as a bit extreme, but I think that it is only because social networking addictions themselves have become extreme as well. Just as alcohol can separate one form their family and their occupation, social networking has shown to be no different as people are seen constantly using their phones and computers when interacting with others. I argue that an AA meeting is only a small taste of a comparison for the damages caused by social networking.

http://boingboing.net/2012/01/16/how-idealization-of-women.html
This site is a comic about "idealization" of women vs men in comics. This makes me wonder: how men and women are seriously compared in comics or media and how does it affect the audience's interest? The argument would be that the they both appeal, but in different ways required for a specific audience. For example in the movie The Incredibles, the main superhero was more over weight than we would normally expect. His career as a super hero began as a young fit man with a well defined body. However, as he got older and out of his job for awhile, he gained weight and lost ability. As the movie progresses and his help is needed, the image is corrected by the addition of his children's abilities, the use of family in a superhero setting, and the use of humor. I'm convinced that the public's response to image is a major issue in today's society and this is shown through the comic.

http://msnbcmedia1.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Slideshows/_production/_archive/Cartoons/ss-120503-weekly/ss-120503-weekly-08.grid-7x2.jpg
The argument to be taken from this political cartoon is that Obama is riding the "I got Osama" wave way too hard. The idea is to appeal to the readers emotions. We know that when a touchdown is scored, whoever scored is usually so excited that all they can do is slam the ball on the ground. The goal of the cartoon is to make the observer upset because Obama is milking the Osama thing a little too much. I have to agree with the the cartoonist though I acknowledge that it can't all be blamed on Obama. Much of the hype that surrounds this is due to the party wanting something to talk about during election season. Nonetheless, Obama just happened to be president while the military found Osama so taking any credit is a little farfetched. Especially considering we have been working on this for a decade.

Reality TV

Sorry here is the link to my post below!
http://www.cartoonaday.com/images/cartoons/2012/03/reality-show-gridlock-cartoon-598x427.jpg

I found this cartoon because it shows the recent take over of reality. I have to admit that I often give in to this new sensation. However, this new version of television is literally replacing what people consider what reality is. In the picture all the reality TV shows are piled up blocking the interstates. Then you can see the news stations stuck behind them and signs that show the amount of viewers they have lost. Reality TV has become a priority and the news has become less important. At the top of the picture it says reality TV is stalling network ratings. People don't watch important news shows anymore they choose to watch other peoples' lives displayed on TV. These "reality" TV shows aren't actually reality, a lot of them are scripted. The information that is on the news shows is what is reality. So if people want to see real reality, they need to turn on the news. Not watch reality TV. 

Ten-Hut!

Deafness in the military has always been a sore subject. It was always frowned upon and potential recruits who are unable to hear are turned away from the armed forces. Keith Nolan was one of the unfortunate men who had always wanted to join the army but was turned down…because he couldn't hear. He didn't let it hold him back and became a teacher and eventually decided to join a local ROTC. Nolan became a top performer in the ROTC program's Bravo Company at California State University at Northridge, and his instructors were so impressed they let him wear a uniform. He was distraught when he turned it back in and said goodbye to the other cadets in May. He could advance no further under the military's current policy that requires cadets pass a hearing test to be commissioned by the Army. Other countries allow men and women with disabilities to be employed in the armed forces, they just aren't on the front lines. Even americans with prosthetics are fighting, but Nolan will never be allowed to join the army. To me this just is not right, especially in America. 

How do you look at life?

http://www.ted.com/talks/stacey_kramer_the_best_gift_i_ever_survived.html

Many people have different outlooks on life but here this woman is urging those in the audience and those who are watching this video to view life in the way she now see's it however she doesn't say you have to do this now.  The speaker wants you to know that when a hard situation comes along all these great things will happen to you, like they did to her, but this is not in every case because circumstance are always different.  Such as the people that surround you, your previous health, experiences and more.  This is all taken from her perspective, her own experience, and is trying to encourage others that when something like this happens to them, they can be lifted up by the positive experiences she has had with it.  Because this on the outside appears to be a negative situation however she has had the pleasure of seeing a whole other side of it.  I think its interesting that she does show pictures of her tumor and scars because that is demonstrating to the audience a sad or negative side of things but I think that is good that even though she turns that into a positive, pictures allow the viewers to think for themselves.