Death Penalty – the easy way out

Dear Editor. If Capital punishment is right or wrong, is a highly discussed topic. Some say it leads to closure for the victim of the criminal action, and some say it contradicts the declaration of human rights. I agree with the latter; death penalty should be abolished.

Capital Punishment is “the easy way out” (listverse.com, 2013). The purpuse of prinsons and other types of punishment is to rehabilitate the criminal, and make him or her prepared for the challenges of society. The punishment should educate the prisoner on how to behave properly without condradicting the law, and the prisoner should learn from his or her mistake. This purpose is forgotten by performing capital punishment. It’s easier to get rid of the prisoner and never have to worry again, but is it the best solution? It’s not.

Death Penalty is more expencive to proceed than imprisoning, because the constitution requires a long and complex judicial process for capital cases. This process is needed to avoid execution of innocent people, but there is still a risk of failure  while selecting the right person. To imprison a person for lifetime is cheaper than Capital Punishment, and it’s still possible to rectify the injustice of punishing an innocent person (deathpenalty.org, 2013). This protects the innocent society from losing their lives to injustice.

Capital Punishment is condradicting the most basic human right; the right to live. The declaration of human rights is more important than national laws, and this should have been considered while introducing Death Penalty as a opportunity of punishment in the US. Another human right contradicted by death penalty is the right to not be subjected to torture or other inhumane treatment or punishment (icomdp.com, 2013).

According to listverse.com (listverse.com,2013) Death Penalty is not doing its job. The murder rate in the US is still sky high. Most criminals have their purpose by comitting a criminal action, and the concequences supplied are irrelevant. This means that the criminal actions will be performed independent from the concequences, and the resources used on death penalty are unnecessary.

I think death penalty should be removed because of several factors. The resources used to proceed executions are way to expensive. This amount of money should not be used to support a process that contradicts the declaration of human rights. Prisoners should be educated on how to behave properly in society without breaking the law. They should learn from their mistakes istead of taking the easy way out, which is death penalty. Death penalty is not the right solution.

Bibliography:

Death Penalty Focus (2013), The high cost of death penalty
http://www.deathpenalty.org/article.php?id=42, downloaded 09.02.15.

International Commission against death penalty (2013), Why the death penalty should be abolished
http://www.icomdp.org/arguments-against-the-death-penalty/, downloaded 09.02.15.

Listverse (2013), 5 arguments for and against death penalty
http://listverse.com/2013/06/01/5-arguments-for-and-against-the-death-penalty/, downloaded 09.02.15.

Exciting and challenging for every age!

Katie just returned from a year abroad, and the sight that met her on her arrival was dramatic. An empty mansion is not the ideal return-party, and not exactly normal for a nuclear family like the Greenbriars. What happened to the Greenbriars? It’s your job to find out.

Gone Home is basically a novel taking place in a computer game. The game is based on several underline stories, and the more traces and evidences you find, the more information about the family you will get. You find as much as you want to find, and solve as many mysteries as you want to solve. It’s possible to finish the game without solving every single obscurity, and this opportunity makes it possible to customize the game to your own level. This is definitely one of the game’s strengths.

Another positive feature in this game is the narrator. The players play the game as Katie, the older sister in the family. While playing, you truly get the feeling of being a part of the family and being surrounded by a real world. As any sister, Katie doesn’t want to read about her sister’s love life, and the game auto-blocks a detailed love letter written by her sister Samantha. No matter how many times you try to reach for the letter again, it won’t work. This is a funny feature that brings the game to life.

Sound features are definitely an important tool in computer games, and is diligent used in Gone Home. The background sounds in the game are definitely important because of the creepy setting we are situated in. One can hear lightning strikes, thunderstorms and pouring rain, as well as creaking and slamming doors. This feature definitely helps to bring the game to life, but at some point in gets a little too much. An hour lasting thunderstorm is really not that noteworthy.

The sound tool is used in a better way when we’re talking about voices. Samantha has left several journals for her returning sister. When Katie, or the player, picks up one of the journals, the game starts playing a soundtrack where Samantha is reading the note. This unquestionably brings the game to life in an extraordinary way. The players get to picture Sam and her family as real people, not as game characters.

There are some points I miss in this otherwise good game. What I miss the most is a feature that can give the player a possibility to run, instead of walking. It’s possible to crawl, as well as throwing things, but running is not a possibility. This makes the game seem a bit more unrealistic, because in this creepy house, running should definitely be a feature. Standing in the basement, scared of anything that could be down there, makes you want to run, not walk in the speed of a turtle.

Despite the small flaws of this game, I definitely enjoyed playing it. The most enjoyable part was not finishing the game, but playing it. The features are used in a good way, and there are few flaws in the game as a whole. I would recommend the game to anyone who enjoys excitement and danger, as well as gathering clues and solving mysteries.

Gone home – lesson 1

We played Gone home in class, and was allowed to explore the porch and the foyer. First of all, we had to find the key to the house, which was hidden under a fake duck in a closet. The fact that the key is placed hidden tells us that someone, most likely the family, wants Katie to enter the house.

In the foyer, I found several letters and notes left for Katie, especially from her younger sister Sam. Sam and Katie seemed to have a good relationship, and this made it harder for Sam to “survive” a year with only her parents. Sam’s relationship with her parents doesn’t seem to good, and there are several evidences backing this theory up. For example, there is a note from Sam to Katie on the front door, where she tells Katie not to tell anyone, but has scratched over “mom and dad”.

In the foyer, there are several of Katie’s trophies on display, but none of Sam’s. This could tell us that Katie simply is more athletic than Sam, or that their parents are more proud of Katie. If this is the case, this could be affecting Sam’s relationship with her parents.

Katie’s family seems quite organized, and this makes it weird for them to just leave. I think of the Greenbriars as organized, because all of Katie’s travelling information is gathered in a drawer (including flight number, date and time). All the lights were off as well, so they had to know about their own departure.

I honestly don’t what has happened to Katie’s parents and Sam, but I don’t think they are in the same situation. I’m looking forward to playing more of the game, and talking to the Canadian class as well as my own.

Private information puplished

We live in a generation of shortcuts. If we need to contact someone, we send him or her a message on Facebook instead of actually talking to them in real life. I have caught myself contacting my mother via Facebook, even though she was sitting next to me. The same goes to Google. If we have a question in mind, we simply type it in on our computers, and Google serves the answer on a silver plate. Everything is easy. We don’t have to strive in our everyday life, and the consequences are non-existent.

The consequences of our giant usage of Internet are actually more existent than what people think. Because of limited knowledge, people seem to experience the consequences close up a bit to often. Through this text, I will talk mostly about Facebook and Google.

When you open a Facebook profile, you can choose to make it private. If you do, Facebook informs that only your friends will be able to see your posts. This statement would only be correct if you consider the whole board of Facebook as your friends. The people behind Facebook can actually see all your posts, and in addition to this, your browser log, private messages, and in some cases your bank account information.

When you have visited other pages than Facebook or Google, you probably have seen a like- or Google share button. These buttons simply collect any information there is on this site, even though you’re not logged on to any of these social medias. These buttons actually collect information even though you haven’t been logged on in a month. In some cases the buttons, or so-called cookies, collect your bank account information. This incident could occur if you have been logged on to Facebook, and then for example want to buy something or simply check your bank account.

In some cases, the information that Facebook or Google collect has helped to prevent crimes or bringing closure to dead cases. In some cases, people have threatened others via Facebook or searched after bank robbery strategies at Google. The police can actually ask for this information to find closure.

To draw a line between privacy and the board’s right to know is a hard, almost impossible task, but my opinion is clear. The information Facebook and Google gathers should not be as easy to find as it is. After my opinion, the police should be the only force with monopoly to use or read this information. And if the police choose to read or use this information, the person it affects has the right to know.

In this generation of shortcuts, we have the right to better expertise within this theme. Most of the people who take these so-called shortcuts every single day, shouldn’t have to pay the price as unaware as they are. More information to the people, less information to the entrepreneurs.

Thoughts after the civ project

A few weeks ago, our teacher in English and Social Science introduced us to a new learning method – Civilization 4. We have played the game both at home and at school the past few weeks. We used the game to vary our lessons in both subjects.

My expectations for this learning method were not very high. I had never played any games in school, but I knew myself well enough to know which way I learn. So, did it work to put game and learning together?

The game in general is great. You could learn a lot, especially if you are used to the game. My situation was different. I had never played Civilization 4 or any other strategy game in my life, and this made the learning process quite hard. Some of my classmates already knew the game, and had no trouble at all drawing parallels, pushing buttons and conquering cities. I honestly didn’t know what to think about before my teacher told me. I had a hard time drawing parallels between the game and the real world, until I was told what to think about.

I am a read-and-learn person. This is why I didn’t find the game as helpful as some of my classmates. The boring way of learning works best for me, but for some people, the game playing was excellent. The game gave me a more visual view of the curriculum than books would, and this is probably the most positive thing about using the game in school. I believe that the game is perfect for visual learners.

My teacher chose to end this project before he was supposed to. I think he did this because this learning method is not for everybody. This is such a new and difficult method for some of the students in this class, and several didn’t learn in the needed speed. Both English and Social Science are subject with a big curriculum, and to learn all of this is important in case of a potential exam.

I think it worked to put games and learning together, but mainly for some people. It depends on which kind of learner you are. I hope we have more games in class, but in a smaller time period. If we do, I also hope more information and tutorials will be available for us who don’t know anything about the game. It’s good to have a “break” from reading once in a while.

Interactions with other civilizations

I was assigned the task to find parallels between the game and the real world around the topic interactions between other civilizations, and find factors that influence the relationship between me and other leaders. I have stated several similar  factors, and one factor that is more discreet in the game than in the real world.

Several factors affect my relationship with other leaders in the game. Culture, religion, resources and the area I own, are some of them. The resources or geographic area I own, can lead to conflict or cooperation. This depends on the other counterpart’s culture, and so it is in the real world as well.

Religion is an important factor in conflicts of value. If a civilization has another religion than I have, it could convince me to convert. Conflicts of value may occur if I refuse to convert. A conflict of value occurs because of moral disagreements, and that’s why conflicts are more common between different religions. So it is in the game, and one can draw parallels between the real world and the game.

There may occur war if the resources or the geographic area I own is interesting to other civilizations. Conflicts of interest are conflicts about distribution of a limited resource.

An example of a conflict of interest and a conflict of value is colonization. Even though Norway never was a great colonial power, people knew how to take advantage of their opportunities. The entrepreneur Thams and several other Norwegians took control over 40 000 natives in Mozambique. This conflict is considered as a conflict of interest because the Norwegians wanted slaves and land; resources. To start a slavery is possible in the game, as well as colonizing and conquer other civilizations. To be a colonial power is no longer a possibility in the real world, because it’s no longer legitimate among the population. If the majority of the population accepts something, it is considered legitimate. The Norwegian colonization of Mozambique took place over a hundred years ago, as well as the action in the game. The colonial power, which in this case was Norway, and the area that was colonized, Mozambique, did not have the same culture or religion. This can cause moral conflicts, also named conflicts of value.

It could be possible to start a cooperating relationship with another leader, if the civilization I interact with has a culture that implies the negative consequences of war. Trade is a good example of cooperation between countries, or civilizations. This way, both of the civilizations will get a part of a limited resource, without a conflict of interest. A trade agreement is normal and useful. Trade agreements are possible made in the real world as well. European Trade Organization was founded by Norway, Denmark, Portugal, Great Britain, Switzerland and Austria. Because of this agreement, the members have free trade. This will raise the trade between these countries especially. Trade agreements can help poor countries if they were to be included. Several countries have resources, but a lack of knowledge on how to take advantage of them. Free trade can be a good base to better their economy. This applies to the game, as well as the real world.

There are factors that exist in a smaller form, or not at all in the game, but do exist fully in the real world. Globalization is probably the one that affects us the most. Globalization is a term for an increasing level of interaction and affection between the world population. The word globalization describes an increasing “flow” across borders. In the real world, technology and mostly the Internet have increased the globalization. Internet does not exist in Civilization 4, but other technologies like the alphabet etc. do. This applied to the real world as well in this time period. Before the Internet, the globalization was lower, but it did exist. Letters, papers and books affects us the same way as the Internet, but in a much more discreet way.

There are several factors that affect the relationship between me and other leaders. These factors can lead to war or peace, conflict or cooperation. Norway’s current relationship with other countries is morally neutral, but it hasn’t always been this way. Colonization has been a problem, and so it is in the game. There are many parallels between the game and the real world, but globalization is not one of them in the same way as for example conflicts.

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This text is based on my experiences with Civilization 4 and my knowledge within social science.

The Civilization project

Good morning!

In today’s English class, we’re starting a new project called Civilization. Civilization is basically a computer game, and to play this will be our homework and schoolwork for the next few weeks. I’ve never played any “real” computer games before, and to use it as a learning tool is definately a new experience for me. I honestly don’t understand how this will improve our English in any way. This is probably not surprising, concidering my small knowledge when it comes to gaming.

I’ve been told that Civilization 4 is a strategy game. Even though I’m not sure what a strategy game is, I don’t think I wil be able to pass level one. The only computer game I’ve ever played, is “Josefine”. This was at the age of five, and it basically taught me the name of the different colors and how to ride hores with pink bows on their heads. Not really a strategy game..

I can’t say I’m looking forward to this project, because that involves me looking forward to fighting the battles of level one, again and again. And meanwhile, the real gamers in my class finish level twenty, or even higher levels. I don’t even know is there is any levels in games like this? There was in Josefine, at least.. As you probably have noticed, gaming is not really my thing.

Even though I don’t have any experience or knowledge at all concidering gaming, I’m kind of excited. I hope this learning method will prove me wrong, and actually improve my english skills, and not at least my gaming skills. This is extreamly needed..

– Malin.

My first blogpost

Hi, my name is Malin and I am 15 years old. This blog will be used as a “school blog”.