Redheads Deserve Respect

We’ve all heard of bullying happening to homosexuals, overweight people, and different types of races. But what about redhead bullying? Surprisingly, people with red hair get bullied often as they grow up.

It seems to have become more popular after the popular cartoon, "South Park." The show regularly features its characters harassing redheads, and several years ago started to run an episode which featured a "Kick a Ginger Day." Now each year, on Nov. 20, dozens of redheads have reported being kicked by classmates and strangers who have a problem with their hair color.

Many redheads also find the word ‘ginger’ to be very derogatory. Everyday kids will get picked on and called names and made fun of all because their hair is red.

One woman said she actually gets her hair pulled in public by stranger as they hiss ‘ginger nut’. She also gets verbal abuse from passing cars and has to deal with her co-workers making ‘ginger jokes’.

Three young boys (one 13 and two 12) were arrested for bullying on redheads. They threatened to injure him online and would try to follow through at school. One young girl got her legs kicked from behind (due to South Park’s “Kick A Ginger Day”) and she was really terrified. She said she has heard other people say that they get kicked many, many times.

There aren’t very logical reasons as to why redheads get bullied. One idea suggests that redheads are short-tempered so it’s ‘fun’ to mess with that. However, that is a stereotype of redheads. Another idea is because of propaganda such as South Park. When kids watch South Park they think it’s funny and acceptable to bully redheads.

Now this may seem like South Park is an awful show and influence (Which I personally think it is) but in their defense, that’s not what the episode really portrayed. Many people misunderstood what the episode was trying to achieve. South Park used gingers to mirror the struggles of the black civil rights movement in the United States. However, if you rearrange the word gingers, it makes a derogatory term for blacks, so the N word. This indeed was a hard idea to grasp considering the imaginable intellects of the people who watch South Park, but the idea of bullying gingers because of it got way out of hand.

All bullying really is is teasing someone because they’re different. Doing so only because they are different is one horrible excuse. Everyone deserves respect until they prove that they don’t deserve it. A redhead has zero control over what color their hair is, it’s all just genetics. So why would you bother them as if they made a really ‘odd’ choice? Most students now wouldn’t dare single out an African American and call them names. But for redheads it’s okay? It’s not okay! No one deserves to be bullied. People that bully are just horrible and need to realize what they’re doing to their victims.

Being different is a good thing. Everyone is unique and that’s how we were made. We are all supposed to be different and look different and if people can’t accept that then they need to keep their comments to themselves. Nothing is wrong with having red hair, or black skin, or prefer the same gender. Everyone deserves a chance and bullies need to realize that too.

Aquatic Timing Systems and FINA

Swimming races used to start off with the shot of a pistol. Now, aquatic timing systems are used in about every pool around the nation. They are used to automate the process of timing, judging, and scoring. Not only are they used for competitive swimming races, but they are also used for diving, water polo, and synchronized swimming. The automated timing systems may also have many added-on products to help swimmers train.

Although it may not seem like a very big market, there is more than one producer of the systems. They include: Colorado Time Systems, Daktronics, Omega/Swiss Timing, ALGE Timing, International Sports Timing, and Take Your Mark Timing Systems. As a high school swimmer, you become familiarized to Daktronics, Omega/Swiss Timing and International Sports Timing.

Displayed on the board will be the swimmer’s name by lane, along with their race time, current placing and scores for the meet. The time displayed is most often used to one hundredth of a second, but sometimes the race will get as close as a thousandth of a second.

Not only does the use of aquatic timing systems play a big role in competitive swimming, but so does FINA. Mentioned in previous posts, FINA stands for Fédération Internationale de Natation. FINA is recognized by the International Olympic Committee for administering international competition in the aquatic sports (its name translated from French is "International Swimming Federation").

FINA currently oversees competition in five aquatic sports which include: swimming, diving, synchronized swimming, water polo and open water swimming.

At the end of the 1908 Summer Olympics, FINA was founded in the Manchester Hotel in London, UK. Those that founded it were by the Belgian, British, Danish, Finnish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, and Swedish swimming confederations. It grew from 8 federations in 1908 to 197 in 2008. In 2010 the 202^nd member was added: Tonga.

The members are grouped by continent of which they choose. The five continental associations are as follows: Africa (African Swimming Confederation—CANA) with 51 members, Americas (Swimming Union of the Americas—ASUA) with 41 members, Asia (Asian Amateur Swimming Federation—AASF) with 43 members, Europe (European Swimming League—LEN) with 51 members and Oceania (Oceania Swimming Association—OSA) with 16 members.

The FINA membership meets every four years, usually coinciding with the World Championships. These meetings are very alike to our governmental congress. There are two types of normal or "ordinary" congress: General and Technical. FINA’s highest authority is the General Congress. Any technical issues concerning FINA’s five aquatic disciplines are decided by the Technical Congress. Each Congress has two voting members from each Member federation, plus the following non-voting members: the 22 members of the Bureau, the Honorary Life President, and all Honorary Members.

The Technical Congress has the following additional non-voting members: all members from the respective Technical Committees. "Extraordinary" Congress are also called from time to time, to deal with a specific topic or area of concern All Congress meetings are chaired by FINA's president.

Between Congress meetings of the entire membership, a smaller 22-member representative board, called the FINA Bureau, meets to act in a timely manner on things that cannot wait until the entire body can meet. It is the Bureau that elects the FINA Executive Officers.

Various committees and commission also help with the oversight of individual disciplines or topic-related issues.

Bully Reality Check Success

As I’ve mentioned before, bullies and bullying annoy me very much. Often we hear of a story that one individual bullied another individual and how the victim ended up taking their own life, or taking other’s lives. But rarely do we hear the victim’s cry for help.

The young man in the video link below spoke out about his struggle with bullies. He tells his story on a series of notecards and you see him get very choked up about it. Here is the link but just a warning, it’s a tear jerker.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdkNn3Ei-Lg&feature=fvsr

After this video was posted, he received a lot of attention. Perez Hilton posted it on his blog and it just went on from there. Nick Jonas and Lady Gaga tweeted about him and how amazing he was. It even jumpstarted Lady Gaga to go to the White House and speak with the president about an anti-bullying program.

Soon after, Jonah was interviewed on Good Morning America. He gives his side of the story and his family is there to support him. His mom was very choked up when asked what her reaction was after seeing the video.

Jonah said that the bullies did apologize after the video went out and have been nicer to him at school.

But what about the kids that don’t get their voices heard? Bullies need to re-evaluate what they’re doing to innocent lives, like the life of Jonah Mowry.

Higher Education or Plumbing and Electricity?

There’s a lot of argument of education and higher education. Mike Rowe, the host of Discovery Channel’s show ‘Dirty Jobs’, has an interesting point of view on this subject.

On May 11^th of 2011 Mike Rowe proposed a testimony to the Senate. His main points of his testimony are as follows: “In high schools, the vocational arts have all but vanished. We've elevated the importance of "higher education" to such a lofty perch that all other forms of knowledge are now labeled "alternative." Millions of parents and kids see apprenticeships and on-the-job-training opportunities as "vocational consolation prizes," best suited for those not cut out for a four-year degree. And still, we talk about millions of "shovel ready" jobs for a society that doesn't encourage people to pick up a shovel.” … “Right now, American manufacturing is struggling to fill 200,000 vacant positions. There are 450,000 openings in trades, transportation and utilities. The skills gap is real, and it's getting wider. In Alabama, a third of all skilled tradesmen are over 55. They're retiring fast, and no one is there to replace them.”

Basically he is stating that because we make higher education seem like the only important option, we are losing majority of the people who actually help run this society. The skills gap is widening because people are going to college to go after accounting or business or technology jobs rather than trade schools to learn to be a plumber or electrician. High schools have made it seem like being a plumber should be your ‘plan B’ and that it’s a job you shouldn’t be proud of.

However, high school education has this wrong. Plumbers get paid around $100 an hour. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like pretty great money to me. Sure the job may not be very white-collar but who cares when you’re living well?

I definitely agree with Mike on this concept. High schools focus way too much on everyone getting a degree from college rather than teaching them skills to very highly profitable jobs. I actually wanted to be a car mechanic when I was younger. But society and school has made it seem like that’s a dirty and low-class job. So I am going to go to college for a meteorology degree. I also love meteorology and it’s not a problem to have a different focus but it definitely shows that schools have a huge effect on our after high school career choices.

I think schools need to offer more trade-school kind of classes into the system. Without our plumbers, what would we do? Without our electricians how would we get by? These seem like much more important job than whether or not your computer or Ipod can be fixed. I’d rather have a properly working toilet and heating in my house than a properly working computer and I think most people would agree.

Schools need to add these kind of classes and encourage kids to go after whatever interests them even if that doesn’t involve a college degree.

Changes in Swimming

Because of better training techniques and new developments, swimming times have been able to drop.

Originally, the first four Olympic competitions for swimming were held in open water. In 1986 it was held in the Mediterranean, 1900 was in the Seine River, 1904 was in an artificial lake, and 1906 was once again in the Mediterranean.

In the 1904 Olympics, the freestyle had been measured at 100 yards for the very first and only time, rather than 100 meters. A 100 meter pool was built for the 1908 Olympics and was actually set in the middle of the main stadium’s track and field oval. In the 1912 Olympics, which was held in the Stockholm harbor, the use of electronic timing had begun.

Up until the 1940’s, males had actually worn full body suits to swim. This changed due to the fact that the body suits caused more drag than the modern suits we see today. Competition suits now include engineered fabric and designs to not only reduce drag, but also prevent athlete fatigue.

Not only have suits been designed to lessen drag over the years but pools, too, have been structured to make sure there is the least drag possible. Some designs of these pools allow for the reduction of swimming resistance which makes the pool faster. Many improvements have been made to pools such as proper pool depth, elimination of currents, increased lane width, and energy absorbing racing lanes and gutters. Other ideas have also proved to be very innovative in hydraulic, acoustic, and illumination designs.

The 1924 summer Olympics were the first to use the standard 50-meter pool with marked lanes. Before diving blocks had been invented, swimmers originally dove from the pool walls. But the creation of diving blocks was incorporated in the 1936 summer Olympics.

The flip turn was developed in the 1950s and goggles were first used in the 1976 Olympics.

Not only were the pools and suits improved, but technique was also improved in the late 20^th century. Breaststrokers are now allowed to dip their heads completely under water, which allows for a longer stroke and faster time. However, the breaststrokers must bring their heads up at the completion of each cycle. In addition, a split stroke in the breaststroke start and turns has been added to help speed up the stroke.

Very recent improvements to breaststroke have been the allowance of one butterfly kick for breaststrokers off of the start and turns. This has helped to speed up the stroke.

Backstrokers are now allowed to turn on their stomachs before the wall in order to perform a flip turn. Previously, they had to reach and flip backwards and a variation of it is sometimes used in individual medley events to transition from backstroke to breaststroke.

Zune vs Ipod

So I have a 4gb Zune so as you could imagine it doesn’t hold a ton of songs. I usually have to delete some every now and then.

The way that I decide to delete songs is while I’m working out. I’ll have it on shuffle and if I skip a certain song, then I know I don’t really like it and it should be deleted from my Zune.

To Ipod users, this sounds really stupid. But for people who do have Ipods, how often do you skip a song? Have you listened to every single song on your device in the past month? Chances are, Ipod users skip so many songs and couldn’t listen to all of the songs they have within even a year.

So why is it so cool to have an Ipod? I have a Zune to where all of the songs I like and listen to are on there. I skip maybe 1 or 2 songs when I’m on shuffle and if I drop it, it doesn’t even come close to breaking. In my opinion, I should be the one to brag.

What Swimmers Wear

To add on to not only the idea of competitive swimming, but also swim jargon, here’s what swimmers wear or use and why:

Swimsuit: The suit covers the skin for modesty. Competitive swimwear seeks to improve upon bare human skin for a speed advantage. For extra speed, a swimmer wears a body suit, which has rubber or plastic bumps that break up the water close to the body and provides a small amount of thrust—just barely enough to help a swimmer swim faster.

Swim Cap: Swimmers wear caps in order to keep hair out of the way in order to reduce drag. Caps can be made of latex, silicone, or spandex.

Goggles: Goggles help to keep the chlorine and water out of a swimmer’s eyes. Goggles are often tinted in order to counteract glare at outdoor pools. Some goggles even are prescribed because it’s hard to keep contacts in while swimming, so wearing prescription goggles is easier.

During swimming, men usually wear briefs or jammers and usually swim bare-chested unless they are wearing a full body suit. There has been much controversy after the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, when many Olympic swimmers broke records an unprecedented number of times using revolutionary swimsuits. To highlight the issue, considering that it is rare to break world records, but in 2008, 70 world records were broken in one year, and 66 Olympic records were broken in one Olympic Games. Despite many of his records having been won in these suits, Michael Phelps stated that he might boycott the competition after his record was beaten by another swimmer with a more advanced suit.

As of New Year's Day 2010, men are only allowed to wear suits from the waist to above the knees. They are also only permitted to wear one piece of swimwear; they cannot wear speedos underneath jammers. This rule was enacted after the controversy in the Beijing Olympics and Rome World Championships.

Women wear one-piece suits with different backs for competition, though there are two-piece suits that can be worn to compete as well. Backs vary mainly in strap thickness and geometric design. Most common styles include: racerback, axel back, corset, diamondback, and butterfly-back/Fly-Back. There are also different style lengths: three-quarter length (reaches the knees), regular length (shoulders to hips), and bikini style (two-piece). Also as of New Year's 2010, in competition, women are only allowed to wear suits that do not go past the knees or shoulders

Drag shorts like drag suits are worn in training and are also used to increase drag so that when taken off in racing it feels easier and the wearer feels less resistance. Other forms of drag wear include nylons, old suits, and T-shirts; the point is to increase friction in the water to build strength during training, and increase speed once drag items are removed for competition. Drag wear is not normally worn during competitions.