Jesus Christ is NOT a Soccer Player

We as a nation have lost the true meaning of Christmas. Several things can be taken into account showing that not many people really think of Christmas as the season of giving or celebrating the birth of Christ.

These days, most people no longer believe in Christ. In a recent survey of 1,000 five to seven year-old children, 36 percent did not know whose birthday was being celebrated on Christmas day - surprisingly, over a quarter of the children interviewed believed Christmas was celebrated in aid of Simon Cowell's birthday. When asked where the location of Jesus' birth was, 24 percent of the children claimed that Brentwood in Essex was the location. Another quarter of children believed Jesus was born at Buckingham Palace, and only 28 percent were able to correctly claim that Bethlehem was the birth place of Jesus.

If you have already lost all hope in the next generation, allow me to lower your expectations even more.
Children are also getting mixed up when it comes to the Three Wise Men: over a third of children thought that X Factor head judge Gary Barlow, TOWIE star Mark Wright, and Prince Charles were the three men who brought gifts to the stable. And the children did not think that these so-called Three Wise Men followed a star to the stable - over 30 percent of children believed that the Three Wise Men heard about the birth of Christ over Facebook. 35 percent of children couldn't even name Rudolph as one of Santa's reindeer. The average British child thinks the reindeer are named after celebrities such as David Beckham and Pippa Middleton. The most horrifying result of the survey is that 20 percent of all the children interviewed believed that Jesus played soccer for Chelsea.

And the hope for Christmas as a holiday has not only been destroyed because of these ignorant little brats. These days, society sees Christmas as a shopping holiday: deals start as early as the middle of November, and all Christmas really means to people is presents, presents, and presents.

Thankfully, I still have a little bit of hope. I was forced to go to church on Christmas Eve, and these little kids from a Catholic school did a play that showed the trip of the Three Wise Men, and they reminded me about what Christmas actually meant, so I have a little bit of hope for the next generation and I hope they never forget the true meaning of Christmas.

Mr. Steal Yo Private Information

The "Guardians of Peace" are a group of cyber-hackers who brought down Sony Pictures Entertainment in November by releasing personal data of some SPE employees such as Aaron Sorkin. Recently, they have promised SPE a "Christmas present" of having more personal data being released to the public if SPE does not meet GoP's demands.

But why are the Guardians of Peace doing this to SPE? This madness all started reportedly because of Sony's upcoming movie, The Interview, which stars James Franco and Seth Rogen who are would-be assassins of Kim-Jong Un.

There are two conspiracies about GoP. The first one is mine, but I'm just using logic: the Guardians of Peace may be people (*cough cough* the US government) who want to prevent certain danger that would bombard the United States if this movie is released. In fact, the North Korean government claims that the film is an act of war and "merciless retaliation" is promised if the film is released.

The second conspiracy seems more likely: the people behind GoP could be the North Korean government itself. Of course, GoP would have to be the section of the North Korean government that is assigned to infiltrate infrastructures.

Two things come to mind with this situation: the first is the concern that US citizens will have if the movie is released - what would North Korea plan? what exactly do they mean by "merciless retaliation?"

The second thing that comes to mind is a whole new outlook on privacy. Changing our passwords seems beyond important now since Sony workers' private information was released to the public. The attack should be a lesson to everyone: people need to learn to keep their opinions to themselves - or at least change their email password constantly.

I Don't Shop With YOU

It's the time of the year where everybody assumes it's Christmas and great holiday deals pop up once again. An opportunity appears for children and teenagers to constantly beg their parents for an Xbox One or some Beats headphones because these products have major discounts and deals on the Friday after Thanksgiving. People go to stores such as Best Buy and Target to buy these discounted products before they're all sold out. However, on Black Friday, things can go from a simple shopping spree to a complete disaster.

Realizing that people have no disregard for human life in order to get themselves or their children a gift that's half off is a ridiculous and downright stupid scenario.

November 2008. A Wal-Mart worker in Long Island was trampled and killed by a Black Friday stampede. The ravenous crowd of 2,000 people were eager to get inside Wal-Mart. After chanting "push the doors in," they took the doors off their hinges and barreled inside, killing Jdymytai Damour and injuring the cops trying to give him CPR.

There's no good in trying to race for the best deals if one is going to injure or kill innocent people. It just shows the stupidity and ignorance the public has. It's downright rude and just plain wrong if one thinks it's ok to use a person as a stepping stone to buy that NutriBullet that's $10 dollars off.

People need to be more considerate of others. The picture you see above symbolizes a society that's slowly falling apart. No good could possibly come in the future if this keeps up. People need to start learning to be less greedy and have some manners. So the next time you go Black Friday shopping, think about whether it'd be worth it or not to take a man's life just to save $20 on a TV.

Is Mayonnaise an Instrument?

All my life, I've grown up watching Spongebob. I've watched it ever since taking my first steps to watching it instead of doing AP Euro homework. So when the Los Angeles Times claimed that watching Spongebob

kills brain cells, I needed to do some research.

Angeline Lillard and Jennifer Peterson of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville recruited 60 4-year-old children for an experiment. They wanted to compare the instant influence of fast-paced and slow-paced TV shows on children's problem-solving skills, gratification-delaying skills, and attention spans. This group of cognitive skills is collectively known as executive function.

20 toddlers were assigned to watch 9 minutes of a Spongebob clip. Another 20 were assigned to watch 9 minutes of Caillou, a cartoon that is about the everyday life a 4-year-old child. The last 20 were assigned to draw and sketch whatever they wanted for 9 minutes.

After those tests, Lillard and Peterson asked the toddlers to perform several tasks, such as learning to touch their toes when told to touch their head and reciting a strand of numbers in reverse. The results? They found that the kids who watched Caillou or sketched did exceptionally better on every task than those who watched Spongebob.

Now, these tests only proved that watching Spongebob drains attention. The Los Angeles Times takes this information out of proportion by claiming that watching Spongebob makes kids dumber.

"Saying that Spongebob is making you dumber is very different than saying a child's attention is temporarily impaired and that we don't know what the long-term impacts are," says Lillard.

Toddlers watching Spongebob must use a lot of mental resources to try to fathom exactly what is happening in the fast-paced cartoon, while toddlers watching Caillou are allowed more time to process what is happening. This means that watching Spongebob before a test may not be the best idea, but it certainly does not mean that watching Spongebob makes kids dumber.

In conclusion, Spongebob does not kill brain cells, and no, mayonnaise is not an instrument.

Border Patrol can't catch us now

Mira Mesa is a place with much diversity in its people. The sight of a group of people who hang out together and are all the same race is uncommon these days. People of this generation have learned to coexist with people of different race, and it should always stay this way.

However, there are stereotypes floating around about certain races. They're there, hidden in plain sight. For instance, the group that I hang out with consists of mostly Latinos and Filipinos, and I usually hear jokes about Border Patrol directed towards the Latino half of my group and how that because I'm in cross country, Border Patrol can't catch me.

Your race does not really define who you are as a person, so racial comments and stereotypes should cease to exist. But that is not the case, people still tend to make stereotypical remarks because everyone has a little bit of racism in them, as stated in the article, Exposing Hidden Bias at Google.

Obviously, I'm not offended because I know I'm being messed with, that's just the way my friends are sometimes, and that's what makes these stereotypes okay at times. These jokes don't get out of hand at all because we have common sense. We can coexist with others who are not like us, and we don't really judge people by their skin color as much as before.

Having the ability to befriend people who are more diverse than you are is also great because you can learn more about their culture, as in what foods they like to eat or what music they like to listen to.

Overall, interacting with people of different race is what holds our society together. Once we lose the strong bond we hold in this community, Mira Mesa will never be the same and it will change for the worse.

Exposing Hidden Bias at Google Response

Google

Total Employees: 48,600

Pct. Male Employees: 70%

In the article, "Exposing Hidden Bias at Google," the author is claiming that Google favors men over women. He has reason to claim this because Google's workforce consists of mainly men, as shown in the data above. Not only that, but sexist comments in the Google workplace are made too often.

Obviously, Google is doing wrong for just hiring men to work for them. A person should be hired for his/her skill and intellect, not for his/her gender. It is not fair to the women who go into tech, especially the ones who actually should be hired, the ones with the most intellect.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/09/25/technology/exposing-hidden-biases-at-google-to-improve-diversity.html?_r=1&referrer=

I downloaded this image directly from the article because it caught my eye and this image perfectly represents the bias in the Google workplace. The two drawings represent the Android logo if it had a gender, with the male one on the left, and the female one on the right.

The reason why the male logo is only used is because of sexism. Android does not see the female logo as one that could attract people to buy Android phones.

In conclusion, people with a good work ethic and a strong intellect should be hired for jobs, no matter what gender. Gender in no way can affect the creativity and progress of the job being done, and thinking so reveals a hidden bias.