Dedicated to Colin, for clarification

This is totally irrelevant to what we talked about in class today, but I just wanted to explain this to Colin especially, who was baffled during the induction ceremony last night (Honor and Service Society)

So my official (Korean) name is Ji Hwan, and my English name is Joanne. Obviously, Joanne is so much easier to pronounce so I use my English name.

However, Colin, there is nothing to be confused about. Even though I can be called by both Ji Hwan and Joanne, remember, map is not the territory. That doesn't mean that I have two different identities depending on which name I use, because both of them are my names.

I think that names are symbols, not just words. Whatever people use to call me becomes my name. Therefore, names have more meanings on how they are used, not on what they are.

This can be also related to deciding what the official national anthem is. I think that the national anthem is important for its symbolic meaning, and not for its exact words and the melodies of the music. The modifying of the national anthem should not be prohibited by the government because, just like names, the national anthem has more meanings on its symbolic use than it has meanings on the words and the other components of the song.

-Joanne

The National Anthem Issue

While watching that video in class today, I couldn't help but laugh to myself: people were honestly getting fed up over the translation of a song to a different language?

First and foremost, I personally consider this to be a trivial issue compared to all the other major problems we have in the world today. Most importantly, however, I think those that were infuriated by the Spanish translation of the National Anthem were hypocrites; after all, didn't Francis Scott Key, the man who wrote the lyrics for "The Star-Spangled Banner," simply use the tune of a popular drinking song and replace the lyrics with those of his own? The same exact concept applies here: somebody believed it would be a good idea to translate the National Anthem to Spanish, thus creating "Nuestro Himno." Sure, "Nuestro Himno" may not be exactly translated word for word from English to Spanish (all languages have that same issue), but the translators of "Nuestro Himno" didn't completely obliterate the original lyrics and create their own like Francis Key did, either.

So, in the end, whose National Anthem is it? In my opinion, it's everybody's. Anyone has a right to interpret it their own way, as well as translate it to any language he or she wishes. The lyrics of the National Anthem are not copyrighted. Just as many Hollywood movies and books written by American authors have been translated to different languages, so can a song, that is not owned by anyone specifically, be translated to any language.

One more interersting tidbit: Weird Al needed the permission of music artists to completely change the lyrics of their popular songs, but he didn't receive nearly as much criticism for his version of each song as the "Nuestro Himno" producers did. Why is that so?

-Chloe Martianou

An Interesting Article http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/climate-engineering

After watching Levitt on The Daily Show today after I got home from school, I decided to search the internet to see what exactly "geo-engineering" is and what all the hype is about. I found this article that was pretty interesting and I thought you all might want to check it out.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200907/climate-engineering

-Bryce Cody

Book Access Affecting Culture?

Hi guys! I was thinking about the books in the rare book room. I noticed something interesting concerning the impact of the invention of movable type. Before its invention books were produced in fairly small numbers and were fairly expensive, but afterward they became more widely available and more affordable. In the centuries following the invention there was what could be considered a fairly dramatic leap in progress, at least in some areas. I was thinking maybe that production of more books had something to do with it.

The invention of movable type (and the introduction of the printing press in Europe) occurred in about 1450. That's only about 560 years ago. The progress that has been made since then is pretty astounding. Of course, there were fairly remarkable new discoveries and systems invented before that time, but it didn't tend to stick around as well (think the Roman Republic and the civil engineering of ancient Rome in general). Maybe it was books that made this progress more permanent and readily attained.

What are your ideas on this?

Melissa C.

More on Polls

After hearing Dubner speak today about the often skewed nature of surveys, I found myself thinking about his comments all night. I found that the more I thought about the topic, the more I found his comments to be extremely truthful. With this thought in mind, I was intrigued by a comment made on page 1186 of Lit for Composition where Caldwell Titcomb references a poll taken by the Boston Globe, as part of the proof for his argument. The survey stated that 493 people would prefer to have a different national anthem while only 220 would prefer to keep the anthem the same as it is now. Using the information I learned today, I attempted to analyze the statistic to see if it was representative of the whole population or not. Since the survey seemed to be only conducted in Boston during a time of controversy, and the survey results are utilized in an essay that is heavily pushing for a a new anthem in the United States, I came to the conclusion that the survey statistic is probably biased and most likely not to be fully trusted. What does everyone else think?
- Tara

Language = identity ?

I was at some event and I happened to listen to this college professor's lecture. He was a Korean who lived in many different countries like the US and Japan for many years to study. His lecture was on the importance of learning one's native language. He said that the language one speaks determines one's identity and emphasized that learning the native language is immensely significant.

I do agree that a person's ability to speak his native language plays a huge role in helping him to shape his identity, but I slightly disagree on his statement that language is everything that determines one's identity.

Any other ideas?

-Joanne Park

Baby Blues

I saw this cartoon in the newspaper recently and it made me laugh. I know its kind of random, but I thought you guys would like it.

~Elizabeth