To Cheat or Not to Cheat

I remember my teacher saying that students that are in more advanced classes are more prone to cheating. As I think about it, it kind of makes sense. They are usually under a lot of academic stress and the idea of cheating looks really enticing to boost those grades up and maintain competition with the other students. Focused on these personal reasons, the students are unlikely to follow the school honor code. The honor code is read to us in almost every class at the beginning of the year. The teacher sounds so intimidating reading off the punishments designed for cheaters. But even with the warnings, students do not hold onto their integrity. Sometimes they get caught, and other times, they don't. What's worse is that some teachers rely too heavily on the students to behave themselves. They would just place you in a room with the test and leave. 

This honor code situation can be compared to your mom. Imagine your mom telling you not to go on the computer while she is away for work or else, you would get punished. She leaves. Your fingers itch to go on the keyboard and spend endless hours watching stupid videos but a part of you holds back, afraid and cautious of the punishment of your mom finding out that you went against her order. Do you go on the computer? Or be a good child and go do something else? Choices can be difficult but most people would choose to cheat  on a test if the teacher left the room. But of course, there's the chance that the teacher might spontaneously come back into the room and catch you red-handed. 

My teacher once told my class a story about how he would catch the cheaters. In an school he once taught at, the door to his classroom had a little window above it. There were these set of stairs across from his room. If you sit at just the right place on the staircase, you could see through the small window into he classroom and have a clear view of the test takers. So every time he had people make up the test, he would hand out the test, leave the room, and sit on the stairs. Right away, the students whipped out their phones to cheat, unaware of the teacher watching them. My teacher would then casually walk into the classroom and confiscate their tests for cheating. I thought this was a brilliant and funny way to catch cheaters. 

In the end, the honor code doesn't really quite work out the way it is supposed. Students will cheat even after taking an oath of integrity and adding on the pressure of social influence, students will be inclined not to report cheaters because they wouldn't want to be labeled as the "snitch".

Of course, here's the famous, or rather infamous, Trump everybody.

So following the trend of using trump cartoons, I present this one. Maybe this has been used in another blog but I haven’t read any yet. From beginning to the end, Trump has been the center of attention from talk host shows, the news network, and in media overall for his outlandish and crazy solutions and was made a joke. But as the election progressed, so did his airtime. Consider this, Hillary and Trump have their victory speeches at exactly the same time, but every single news channel covered Trump instead of Hillary. 

This example just supports this cartoon.

This cartoon talks about the player and the played. They don’t necessarily point out who is who, but by looking at the clues, you can definitely tell that Trump is playing with the media. The reporter is shaped like a violin, something that can be played, and oh look, there’s Trump himself playing on the violin. His smug facial expression shows us how happy he is being the center of attention. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s running for president just to get publicity because he has mentioned his brand quite a number of times. By manipulating the media to play the right melody for his campaigning, he has been able to grab viewers’ attention and this is what honestly fuels his support.  The reporters also get played, or should I say paid. I wouldn’t be surprised – given his personality- that he would pay the media to promote him since because after all, he did pay actors to cheer at his presidential announcement.  All in all, Trump has upped the level of entertainment in the race and will literally dominate the media as the real elections start. 

The Downsides to the Upsides

“A Measure of Restraint” measures mankind’s ignorance of the dangers hidden behind a veil of alluring objects and satisfying results. They used cesium-137 as an example. On the outside, it looks like fairy dust, with its “mysterious blue light”. But little did the men know, its intensely radioactive material will soon be the downfall of their community. Maybe the men were tricked into believing that this substance was harmless. After all, it was retrieved from a cancer therapy machine. This irony highlights that nothing is without consequence.

I remember browsing through YouTube, watching old advertisements from the 20^th century and coming across beauty commercials that claimed that their secret ingredient – radioactive materials such as radium and thorium-chloride – would wash away makeup and leave the skin glowing with radiance. They even put a Geiger counter next to it and it read radioactive activity. This horrified me and I was thinking, does nobody realize that this is harmful? I guess when I was growing up, all I would be exposed to is how radioactive stuff is a stuff of nightmares. I remember cartoons or stories that had characters accidentally slipped into a conveniently placed can of radioactive liquid and then out emerged a disfigured mutation.

This second part of the article reminded me of what I am currently learning in Environmental. Genetically modified plants are a breakthrough in solving crop production with new solutions to pest invasions and other problems originally faced by regular crops. But with this new era of crop production beginning, there is a negative side. The controversy surrounding this method questions is this safe long-term? Will it affect us years down the road? Long-term studies haven’t been tested so we really are unsure of the dangers that may appear in the future.

Also, this can honestly be applied to me. I take naps in the afternoon quite frequently, but the problem is that I can’t wake up unless three or more hours have passed. Alarms do not phase my napping and I wake up later to find that they are already turned off. So the nap is very alluring, and every time I hit the pillows, I tell myself, I’m going to wake up within two hours. That is my ignorance- to not heed my previous experiences and thus ignore the possible consequences of my nap. 

Jigsaw

Everybody has the same fate; the fate of the impending death. I won’t be that guy from the movie 2012 that holds a giant sign saying “the end is near”, but I believe death is a very strong force in one’s life. Before this blog turns into a very cynical one, I also think our lives are very precious and mortality itself is beautiful. In “The Death of the Moth”, Woolf uses enticing rhetorical modes- description and narration- to bring attention the period between life and death. The time that the moth is “dancing and zigzagging” represents the period of time where humans are the most lively and “hot for humility”. I say that because in our young adult phases, we avidly try to find new opportunities and try new things. Sometimes we may find humiliates that come along with these actions, such as failure, but from these humiliates we can learn new things

With the precious life we have been given, we must make the best out of it. A pleasant life is peaceful one; a peaceful life is usually void of any violence. According to Gandhi, the key for peace is nonviolence. He advocates how nonviolence is the way for world peace and how problems can be solved without anybody getting harmed.

And now, here is a haiku written by me:

Today I lie in bed

And think why bother to live

For precious moments

From hereafter, I will think of the livelihood of the people around me and so be it if death falls upon me because you know what, I had my precious moments.