Final Project

For my final project I chose to subtitle a video. I chose a TV show that I watched a lot as a kid.

This project was one of the most difficult things I have ever done. I don’t know how many hours this took me but I’m so happy that I stuck through it and finished it. 

Accused of trying to smuggle antiques from Turkey

Davíð Örn Bjarnason, a 28 year old Icelander was arrested on march 8th in Turkey. Turkish authorities accuse him of smuggling antiques.

Davíð Örn and his girlfriend were on their way home after a holiday in Antalya, Turkey when things took a sudden turn for the worse. During regulated search at the airport, Turkish authorities found Marmara stone in Davíð's luggage. As a result, Davíð was arrested. Davíð's girlfriend however was permitted to return to Sweden, where the Icelandic couple resides among their two children.

The Icelandic consular in Ankara got Davíð released on march 14th after a week stay in prison. Davíð was to await trial, on a travel ban.
On march 26th the travel ban was lifted and Davíð allowed to travel back to Sweden and be reunited with his family. However, should he be found guilty, Davíð will face an even longer imprisonment and a fine.

This serious matter is not the first of it's kind. A search on the net revealed many similar cases. For example;
A Chinese family of four were obligated to spend a few extra days in Turkey to appear in court on charges of smuggling antiques. A young Spanish boy was imprisoned in 2012 for trying to take two marble stones with him back to Spain as souvenirs. A Swedish diplomat was imprisoned after authorities found a small piece of marble stone in his suitcase.

All these cases have one thing in common. Non of the people that were arrested were aware of the fact that it was illegal to take these stones out of the country. The travel agencies these people bought their tickets from did not have it noted in the information that the people got with their tickets. These cases show the importance of information-giving from the travel agencies, and that people seek information before traveling to a foreign country.

What is investigative journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigating and reporting events, issues and trends. The main intention of journalism is to provide the audience with reliable, accurate information. There are many different jobs in journalism but my main focus will be on investigative journalism.

                                                           Investigative journalism

A journalist will have to conduct a research and gather information on the topic before writing the actual article. The topic is usually one that someone else is trying to hide. You might say that journalists use three tools to gather information. They are; observation, interview and background check.

The goal of investigative journalism is to uphold a true and just democracy, to always tell the truth and hold those in power accountable.
You could say that investigative journalism includes these three things;

Uncover scandals. Aimed at detecting violations of laws, rules or norms of decency, by organisations or individuals.

Review of policies or functioning of government, businesses and other organisations.

Draw attention to social, economic, political and cultural trends. Aimed at detecting changes in society.

The most critical qualifications a investigative journalist can have is the urge to ask the question "why?" and the will to change the wrongs in today's society.

Margot Williams, a journalist at the National Public Radio in Washington DC, held a lecture on investigative journalism in Iceland on may 31st in 2012. Following the lecture she spread a document which contained numerous URLs that are useful on finding information about individuals and companies. You can click the link below to take a look at the document.

http://www.icij.is/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Vefsidur-Margot-Williams.pdf

Comic

Poetry

Hannah woke up on a Wednesday morning.
  She craved something, 
anything,
to end to her physical suffering. 
She searched for drugs,
found some,
injected herself with a used syringe.
While lying on the floor,
thoughts ran through her head,
how had she gotten to this place?
her life was over.

Rock bottom

Hannah woke up on a Wednesday morning  with the biggest headache and the shivers. She craved something that would put an end to her physical suffering. She searched the apartment for drugs, alcohol, pills, anything. Hannah found some codeine pills, mashed them up, put in a spoon with a little liquid and started boiling it with her lighter. She could barely keep the lighter under the spoon, she was shaking so much. She took a used syringe and injected herself with the codeine. While she laid on her kitchen floor and the high kicked in many thoughts ran through her head. How did she get to this place where she was injecting herself with drugs? she was only seventeen years old. What had she done wrong? Just a few months ago she had all her life ahead of her, now it was like her life was over.

Nine months earlier Hannah was on her way on a bus to London where she was going to start studying photography. She had gotten a little studio apartment close to school which she planned on living for the next six months. She was going to miss her parents very much, but they lived in a small town far east of England.
Hannah was both excited and nervous. She had hardly ever been to London and now she was going to live there. She didn't know anyone except for her uncle, but he was hardly the person she was going to hang out with. On the other hand she was pleased when he offered her to eat dinner with him and his family every Monday. Hannah wasn't much of a cook herself, so she thought it would be nice she could get a proper meal every week at her uncles.

Shortly after Hannah had gotten settled in and started school she saw an ad up on the boards at school. There was a beer night for students next Friday. Hannah had never been much of a drinker and quite frankly she didn't like the taste of alcohol. She decided to go anyway so she could maybe make some new friends.
On Friday night Hannah went to the beer night. It was held at one of the students house. The house smelled of cigarettes and alcohol. Hannah wasn't  used to this. She was shy and uncomfortable. There wasn't anything but alcohol to drink so she went to the kitchen and got a glass of water. When walking out of the kitchen she bumped into a girl she knew from one of her classes. The girls name was Mallory. She introduced Hannah to a lot of people, it was like she knew everyone there. Mallory was very open and popular. She handed Hannah a drink but Hannah declined. Mallory laughed and told her to drink it -  it would let her loosen up. Hannah took a small sip. At that moment if someone would have told her that after nine moths she would be injecting herself with drugs, she would have laughed at that person.

Hannah woke up on her kitchen floor on Wednesday night. The high was over. She started crying. She was the slave of drugs. She had no control over her life what so ever. She decided to call her mom. They hadn't talked for a month. Her parents had cut her off when they found out she was doing drugs.
Hannah's mom didn't answer and Hannah was now crying even more. She didn't want anything more in the whole world but for her mom to hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay. 

Hannah was now shaking again and craving her batch of drugs. She found some sleeping pills and stared at them in the palm of her hands. She thought to herself that she could end her misery once and for all. It would be better that way. She was just a burden to her family. Hannah wasn't crying anymore. She stood up, got herself a glass of water and swallowed twelve pieces of sleeping pills. She laid on her bed and closed her eyes. She thought of her parents, she thought of her hometown. She was calm. Hannah wasn't strong enough to quit. She had tried. Instead of living as a slave of drugs, she decided to take her own life. She didn't want to live like this anymore.

The day after Hannah's mom saw that she had called. She tried to call back and got worried when Hannah didn't answer her phone. She sent some cops to check on her. It was too late. Hannah was already dead.

Why smoking is good for you - results

     In the 1930‘s and 40‘s smoking was much more socially acceptable then it is in our time. For example movie stars and other celebrities were a big part of the smoking advertisements that put a certain glamor to smoking.
The makers of Kool cigarettes claimed that their brand would keep a person's head clear and protect against colds. Phillip Morris stated that three out of every four cases of smokers cough went away for those who switched to their brands. Today smokers are frowned upon and accused of harming others with second hand smoking. Recent research however shows that in some cases smoking can be good for you. 

Smoking and memory function

     Dr. James Le Fanue states that smoking makes you 50% less likely to get a dreaded disease. In that matter it‘s worth mentioning that smoking has long thought to have helped with Alzheimer‘s. Dr. Paul Newhouse, director of the Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine, researched nicotine‘s effecton memory. He gave people with memory problems nicotine patches and with that, the people regained 46% of their long term memory. Meanwhile those given a patch with no nicotine continued to worsen, losing 26% of performance.

Smoking and concentration

     Wesnes and Warbuton carried out an experiment where smokers and non-smokers were required to watch a clock for 80 minutes. Every time the hand of the clock paused, they had to press a button. Not only did smokers outperform non-smokers, they were still performing just as well 60 minutes into the experiment and they had 10-15% faster reaction time than the non-smokers.

Smoking and Parkinson‘s disease

     Numerous studies have shown that long -term smokers are somehow protected against Parkinson's, and it's not because smokers die of other things earlier.
The most recent study was published in a March 2010 issue of the journal Neurology. Far from determining a cause for the protective effect, these researchers found that the number of years spent smoking, more so than the number of cigarettes smoked daily, mattered more for a stronger protective effect.
Harvard researchers were among the first to provide convincing evidence that smokers were less likely to develop Parkinson's. In a study published in Neurology in March 2007, these researchers found the protective effect wanes after smokers quit. And they concluded, that they didn't have a clue as to why.

Smoking and obesity

     It has been known for centuries that smoking is suppressant on appetite. Dating back to the 1920‘s where tobacco companies began targeting women with the lure that smoking would make them thinner.
The relationship between smoking and weight control is complex. The nicotine itself acts as both a stimulant and appetite suppressant, and the act of smoking triggers behavior modification that encourages smokers to snack less. 

Smoking and the economy

     It's unquestionable that smoking is a big industry. This industry provides a huge number of jobs, as well as the tobacco companies pay taxes. Shippers, packagers, retailers and so on – these are people who both pay taxes and wages. We constantly hear about the costs that smoking has on the society. However studies demonstrate that non-smokers cost the society more in health care and social programs, than smokers do.

Summary

     Looking at these facts above you have to wonder if smoking is all that bad for you. We constantly talk about the growth of the tobacco industry, but what’s out growing it is the anti-smoking industry. Nicotine-patches, gum, pills – these products are what pharmaceutical companies try to sell us every day, just as well as they try to sell us the idea that smoking is bad for you. I'm not saying I agree with the makers of Kool in the 1930's, that smoking can protect you against a cold, but I think the facts speak for themselves and I can truly say that smoking isn't all that bad for you.

Why smoking is good for you

You might think I've written this title just to lure people into reading my blog. Partially that's true, but the main reason is that I've decided to deliberate on this controversial topic.
I've gathered a little intel on "why smoking is good for you", and during this next week I will be sharing my results.

Here below you can take a look at some of the links I've bookmarked for my research.


http://www.ecigarettedirect.co.uk/ashtray-blog/2012/03/smoking-is-good-for-you.html/comment-page-1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2003/aug/07/shopping.health

http://news.discovery.com/human/health/smoking-is-good-for-you.htm

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00213-010-1848-1

http://www.lockergnome.com/reflections/2010/05/09/the-secret-of-why-smoking-is-good-for-you/

http://notsoreviews.com/2012/06/29/why-smoking-is-good-for-you/

http://healthy-advisor.blogspot.com/2008/01/10-reasons-why-smoking-is-good.html

Andrea Lunsford on the myths of digital literacy

As Facebook, Twitter and the internet effect our communication, we have to wonder what effect it has on literacy. In the video above Andrea Lunsford, the director of writing and rhetoric at Stanford University, shares her findings.

A little about myself

I'll start off with some of the basic things. My name is Hulda and I'm 22 years old. I'm a small town girl living in the big city, chasing her dreams. I'm currently studying General design in Tækniskólinn, but I will graduate this spring. I live with my boyfriend, our dog Assa and two other guys. I'm a bit of a neat-freak and that can be difficult, since I'm living with three men.