204AoP

The original version of following video was released approximately 12 years ago, and when it was, my then-AP Lang class had to watch, think and respond to it in a very Lang-like way. I mean, like, by exaining the rhetorical strategies the video used, the appeals, etc. I was super lame back then, because by assigning this as work , I negated some of the power of just absorbing the information.  Live and learn, I guess. In any case, the more enlightened version of me now realizes  that there is more to be gained if I have you watch it, and then respond as you fit.  Your ideas, opinions, criticisms etc. That is, are you shocked? Did it change anything about how you view the world and the ever-changing landscape of technology and innovation?  Is this old news? Lastly, below the link to the newest video is the original--the one I used in Lang all those years ago. The soundtrack and statistics are different, and that alone is worth watching both videos because it give...

Sunday night. This night has sort of a paradoxical connotation tied to it for me. It goes back to, for lack of a better (read: trite) euphemism, my extremely crappy childhood. Let me explain. I was, like many of you, a child of divorce. I lived with my mother, saw my father on weekends (when he remembered he had a daughter waiting for him to pick her up) and dealt with all of the guilt, sadness, and overall wistfulness of being the kid caught between parents that hated each other. It was, as I mentioned, extremely crappy. And Sundays were the worst because that was the day that my father would drop me back off at home, and I knew it could be the last time I ever saw him. I would make my way into the house where my mother would be waiting, and if I looked even the least bit sad, she would launch into attack mode. “Oh what’s the matter—had so much fun with your dad that coming home to your boring old mother is too depressing? Well sorry I have to work two jobs to support us since that...