Post #8 - Google Earth

For Blog Post #8, we were asked to explore Google Earth to find an interesting and unique view or perspective of the Earth. I downloaded Google Earth, did some exploring, and here's the view that I liked.
Why hello there, Antarctica! I had no idea that the tips of South America and Antarctica were so close to one another! If I was ever in Chile, I might think about taking a boat out there. : )
It's so interesting to be able to flip the Earth anyway we want with the Google Earth program. There are already tons of ways in which I've never seen the Earth when our teacher uses it in class. I think that geography teachers of every level need to stop showing the Earth from the same old distorted, stretched-out views and show how countries really relate to one another! I wonder if you can see Antarctica from the tip of South America...

Post #7 - Restrepo

For Post #7, I decided to look a little further into the Restrepo film.  After being directed to the film website, I chose a video to watch that was posted there. The video, (which is embedded above), is a short compilation of reactions to the movie. The video included a variety of different types of people that expressed their views. Upon noticing this, I thought that it was good that the video producers selected this variety of people because it provides a 'universal' reaction of sorts. Everyone that commented during the video expressed positive stances on 'Restrepo,' but it's interesting to see why these different people liked it. I noticed that the interviewees ranged from elderly war veterans to young women, from recent war veterans to people just like us. A majority of the people interviewed expressed the significance of ordinary people knowing the burdens of being a soldier. I, too, think it's important for us to know just how sacrificial the life of a soldier is. It helps us to appreciate them in full, and I think we lack that as a whole nation. It seems as if a lot of America routinely glorifies the portrait of an American soldier in wrong ways. For instance, I'm taking breaks between writing segments of this post to play Call of Duty, Black Ops. All of the publicity surrounding warfare creates this heroic image of soldiers. I'm not saying that soldiers aren't heroes, but Restrepo taught me that a lot of soldiers don't necessarily appreciate being given that title.  Above everything else, being a soldier is about serving one's country - the people he's fighting for and the people he's fighting with. I think that if everyone in America saw 'Restrepo,' there would be a massive change in the way that we all perceive war.