nickg2832

Goal 7 - Ensure Environmental Stability
The group that presented this goal did a very good job at focusing on one specific thing. They chose to focus on the oil crisis in saudi arabia which we all know is a large problem and is growing worse everyday. A lot of their presentation was based on facts and powerful statistics that were really large eye openers. They chose to make the point that our country uses an enormous amount of oil and eventually oil will run out so we need to find other sources. This is a good thing to focus on because it is a large part our country whose causing so much damage and it is us who needs to change and fix it. There presentation may have been a little bland because there were not enough interesting facts, only regular facts, to keep someones attention for very long. I found myself lost after about the 3rd or 4th pie chart they showed in a row and then came back to my senses after about the 7th or 8th.

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Goal 6 - Combat HIV/AIDs, malaria, and other diseases.
The group that presented this goal chose to focus completely on HIV and AIDS. I think this was a good choice because of the epidemic that surrounds our world. They started off the presentation with a small activity. The activity was designed to show how fast HIV spreads. This was a very clever thing to do because it creates more of an impact than if they just told us how fast it spreads. We already had an idea of how fast it spreads but never actually put ourselves into that situation until this short activity. It was an excellent attention grabber at the beginning of their presentation. Most of their presentation consisted of stories which they told as if they were the person themselves. Again, i believe this is a more effective way of getting the message across. Although it was effective and original to base their project around stories i feel it could have been helpful to know a few more facts. Also, if they were to focus on one country, mainly Africa it might help narrow down their topic a bit more. Plus Africa by far has the greatest issue with HIV/AIDS out of anywhere else in the world.

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One of the most important things about a presentation or documentation is how its presented. There are numerous ways to present information some of them are better than others. It really depends on what kind of information you are presenting. A general way of presenting information that most people get to experience at some point in their high school or college years is the infamous powerpoint. Powerpoint is a very simple and effective way of presenting almost anything. However everyone knows of powerpoint and can see it is an easy way-out. So there are other types of ways of presenting things as well. For example there is the classic way of presenting information from a large chart or poster board which is often associated with business presentations. Another form of presentation is through a video. This way is usually pretty affective because it easily keeps the attention of people watching it (unless of course the video is really boring). Providing additional support is a good way to keep the attention of peoples whom are being presented to for example playing music. Other than directly presenting information it can also be indirectly presented, that is to turn something in instead of literally speaking to an audience. Powerpoints can also be done this way. It can be made and either presented or just watched without any voice by a single person. Turning in a booklet or a binder of information is a good way to present certain things. This is often what architects due when they enter a contest or are presenting an idea. I have even had experience making a portfolio which is a great way to present your documented information.

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Growing up in a small time I never got to see some of the most unimaginable things except through pictures. I was always surrounded by a small and non-interesting built environment. The built environment never had a great affect on my childhood. However, as I grew up I experienced some things that led me to be the person I am today.

I can remember the first time I crossed the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. I had never seen anything so unimaginable. Seeing it in a picture does not have the same affect on you as when you see it with your own eyes. It is truly unrealistic. The feeling that overcomes you is so powerful, it feels as if it is a dream. The fact that man can create something so unbelievable makes you think that anything is possible. This is one thing that inspires me to go above and beyond. It allows me to believe that I can do anything I put my mind to. This has helped form who I am. And without this type of thing I would be a completely different person.

For the longest time I wanted to be an architect. One of the most intriguing things to me was the way that certain buildings looked. I could stare at them for the longest time and just imagine the feeling of accomplishment if I were to build one of these masterpieces. Some of the most inspiring were the works of Frank Lloyd Wright. I had always seen pictures of buildings in my dentists office and was just amazed by what they looked like. Who I am today and who I want to be in the future is a result of me being surrounded by this built environment.

Being a student at the University of Minnesota allows me to be surrounded by a big city. The city itself has this influencing aura about it. Minneapolis will help me become the person I am going to be. If I were living in a different city it is a guarantee that I would be a different person. There are specific things that cant be described that are in our local environment that shape and form us. And this is no different for where I am right now.

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It is a known fact that our environment is changing. There is many concern with what the future holds for our planet. Concerns like what happens when we run out of resources, what happens when the polar ice caps melt, how else will global warming affect us, and many other things. At the U I feel as if the architecture program is trying to teach students to be aware of these things because its necessary for people to do things. However if I was not in this program I still would not be able to avoid the fact the environment is changing. Its simply unavoidable. If I had gone to another schools architecture program or ended up doing something architecturally related then I would be forced to contribute to solving the problem in one way or another. I could do this physically by designing or creating a new technology or I could do this lyrically by spreading the word about how things need to be changed. One very specific thing about the environment that is changing is the amount of energy we are able to get. We consume an unrealistic amount of energy on a daily bases. There are only so many ways in which we are able to get energy so it is extremely important to start thinking about what are our other options. There have been many advances in technology that allow us to use alternate forms of energy we just need to start putting them in motion. For example, we use oil more than any other source of energy but it is running out rapidly. We need to start using unlimited sources such as wind and solar energy.

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The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says, "It's a girl." ~Shirley Chisholm

This quote is true in such a way that every women will experience some sort of gender stereotyping at some point in their life.

"You don't have to be anti-man to be pro-woman." ~Jane Galvin Lewis

Millions of men have voted and cheered on Hilary Clinton. Having a female as the next president of the united states of america is a big step for promoting gender equality. This quote is important because it shows that you dont have to be an extreme feminist to promote gender equality.

“What all the ads and all the whoreoscopes seemed to imply was that if only you were narcissistic enough, if only you took proper care of your smells, your hair, your boobs, your eyelashes, your armpits, your crotch, your stars, your scars, and your choice of Scotch in bars--you would meet a beautiful, powerful, potent, and rich man who would satisfy every longing, fill every hole, make your heart skip a beat (or stand still), make you misty, and fly you to the moon (preferably on gossamer wings), where you would live totally satisfied forever.�
udlilkimbo Erica Jong quotes


Now a days women are looked at very specifically by the public. We analyze everything about them: how they dress, how they smell, their intelligence...etc. They have this huge pressure that they must lift themselves unless they want to be looked down on.

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At 6:05 pm on Wednesday, August 1, 2007, during the evening rush hour, the main spans of the 35W bridge collapsed, falling into the river and its banks. Thirteen people died and approximately one hundred more were injured. Immediately after the collapse help came from mutual aid in the seven-county metropolitan area and a multitude of civilians, hospitals, volunteers and agencies. When an event like this happens there is always the natural reaction of having fear to cross any bridge or of something else happening in certain people. People need and want answers as to why these things happen in order for them to understand better. For the longest time people had pondered on what may have caused this tragedy. Recently it was discovered that there was a design flaw in the bridge itself. When this information was released there is no doubt that people became concerned with other things in the area. Did these engineers and designers make mistakes in other buildings? With this fear in our system it is hard to trust everything around us like we used to. Our red flags are up and we are on guard a little bit more than before. So does this mean we should go around checking everything that was built to see if there were flaws? No, thats not what im saying. But what we should do is take extra precaution so this type of thing NEVER happens again.

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Anywhere you look in the United States you see that the city is expanding. We are constantly building more and more things. Nature can be seen in the same way, although it is a much slower process in nature it is doing a similar thing. It creates a new and different environment. Unfortunately for nature there is only so much space on this planet and since human growth occurs at a much faster speed we are forced to take over some of nature in order to create an oasis for our wants and needs. Essentially we are creating an out of control flow that has no apparent pattern or direction that is disrupting the natural and smooth flow of nature. Our flow is being created so rapidly that often times we forget to think about what will make it smooth. The way we do things now will eventually lead us to an abrupt stop which will disrupt our entire flow. We need to find other ways of doing things, or alternate paths in order for us to maintain our flow. This can all be related to the picture in which the traffic jam shows how the flow of things can and will stop. The only way to prevent that from happening is to find a new path like the car on the overhead passage way has.

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