1) Ego: an inflated feeling of pride in your superiority to others

2) Subjectivity: judgment based on individual personal impressions and feelings and opinions rather than external facts

3) Metacognition: "cognition about cognition", or "knowing about knowing.

4) Epistemology: the philosophical theory of knowledge

5) Mollify: cause to be more favorably inclined

6) Abrogate: revoke formally

7) Bureaucracy: nonelective government officials

8) Viscosity: resistance of a liquid to shear forces (and hence to flow)

9) Filibuster: a legislator who gives long speeches in an effort to delay or obstruct legislation

10) Reconcile: make one thing compatible with another

11) Vilify: spread negative information about

12) Aggregate: the whole amount

Vocab: March 15

1) Bourgeoisie: the social class between the lower and upper classes

2) Proletariat: a social class comprising those who do manual labor or work for wages; "there is a shortage of skilled labor in this field"

3) Stop-loss: a 2008 American drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce

4) Elucidate: make clear and (more) comprehensible

5) Elusive: difficult to describe, difficult to catch

6) Profligate: a dissolute man in fashionable society

7) Chasm: a deep opening in the earth's surface

8) Fulminate: criticize severely

9) Ostentatious: intended to attract notice and impress others

10) Obfuscate: make obscure or unclear

Vocab words 2

1. accord- harmony of people's opinions or actions or characters “In a perfect world, the views of the Republican and Democratic party, would live in perfect accord”

2. bias- influence in an unfair way “The judges ruling in the case turned out to have extreme bias”

3. incognito- without revealing one's identity “The man acting as a waiter on table 9, was actually a spy from the government in complete incognito”

4. deduct- make a subtraction “The cruel cop, wrote him a ticket that would deduct 200 dollars from his already feeble bank account”

5. paradigm- systematic arrangement of all the inflected forms of a word “The word aardvark had an odd Paradigm to her”

6. plagiarize- take without referencing from someone else's writing or speech “ The crowd later found out that the governors speech was completely plagiarized from a speech by Socrates”

7. objectivity- judgment based on observable phenomena and uninfluenced by emotions or personal prejudices “ The mans statement about the crook seemed to have a sense of objectivity to it”

8. precipitous- done with very great haste and without due deliberation “The teacher could tell that that paper was written very precipitously, and without care, and assumed he had written it the night before”

9. recapitulate- summarize briefly “The Greek speaker recapitulated the battle to the king”

10. reciprocate- act, feel, or give mutually or in return “ John reciprocated the offer, stating htat it was just too much for him to accept

11. empathy- understanding and entering into another's feelings “ Jimi felt some empathy for the aspiring musician, wishing him the best, and giving him advice”

Vocab words 1

flourish – a showy gesture "Her flourishing facial expression, impressed her boss..."

guerilla - a member of an irregular armed force that fights a stronger force by sabotage and harassment " The guerillas had poisoned their water supply and were now heading to burn thier homes..."

renegade - someone who rebels and becomes an outlaw "In his las few years he had become a renegade, and lived far from the eye of the law..."

repose - put or confide something in a person or thing " Her placed his repose in her...trusting her to keep his secret..."

stereotype - a conventional or formulaic conception or image "Scott moped away, upset at his racial stereotyping"

symbiosis - the relation between two different species of organisms that are interdependent; each gains benefits from the other "The scientists were baffled as to how the two toms could act in complete symbiosis, despite the fact that they both had similar actions..."

tariff - a government tax on imports or exports "Because the government had placed a tariff on his cofee, Jefe began to grow his own herbs and coffee beans..."

tempo - the rate of some repeating event "The tempo of the ticking clock beat faster, until it became a low level buzz in the background..."

tranquility - an untroubled state; free from disturbances " Balancing on his Indo board, he gazed into the forest and found a sense of tranquillity..."

tumult - a state of commotion and noise and confusion "The loud robbery had created a tumult within the bank, letting the robbers escape..."

tundra - a vast treeless plain in the Arctic regions where the subsoil is permanently frozen "The wolf crept along the frozen tundra..."

unanimous - consentaneous: in complete agreement "The club members took a vote and it came out unanimous..."

Should I care about Global Warming?

Environmental preservation is one of my most influential interests. I strongly believe that global warming is man made and is affecting the ecosystem around us. To be honest I become frustrated when people say that environmentalists are merely a group of tree huggers that don’t know what they’re talking about. Environmental protection should be held above the economy, or even cultural issues.

I dont like the idea of valuing the economy over the environment

Barder dove down towards the lake, in an attempt to lose the plane roaring behind him. Bullets whizzed by him, planting themselves into the water below. He yelped as a bullet narrowly missed his tail, and attempted to straighten out, only to realize that a grove of trees were mere feet away from him. He quickly rotated, barely fitting in between the trees as the plane exploded behind him. Barder burst out at the opposite end of the trees, and accelerated towards his lighthouse. He had lived there ever since he could remember, with his turban. Suddenly a bullet hit his ear, causing Barder to yelp and nearly lose control. Another plane, colored red, accelerated towards his left side. Barder pulled straight up, hoping that he could make it farther up than the plane. Frost gathered on his nose as he went higher, but the plane was maintaining his speed. Before he know it the plane was on his tail. Nearly ramming him. At this time Barder remembered the words of the guru he met. The turban will bend to it’s owners will. Give it a thought and it’ll make it a reality. Barder closed his eyes and thought extremely hard about the one thing he wanted. Suddenly time stopped. The plane froze in the air as Barder continued flying. He corkscrewed back around to get a view of the plane. It was eerie, seeing a plane hovering in midair. He curved back around and flew towards his lighthouse where he know he would be safe.

The inept death of Daniel

That was the second house I’ve seen explode, in my lifetime. Daniel was in awe of the sparks that shot into the air, illuminating the night sky, shining a bright red, orange, and grey. He wondered if he would ever see his family again, or when they would find out he was dead, or what they would do. I’ve always wanted to attend my own funeral, he thought to himself. The thought amused him and he laughed quietly to himself. They wouldn’t have let me go. They would say ‘Naw, them countries aren’t for us folks. We’re more of a down home kind of people, ya know the whole U.S of A’. He hated that. Their ignorance and general aversion of other countries. He started walking slowly down the small grassy knoll he was standing on. Hands in his pockets, he snapped every time he took a step. He was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder when he was in middle school. Driving all night was the hardest part of his week. He reached the San Francisco International airport in record time, thanking god he was pulled over by a cop. At the gate he waited. An eternity. He began to twitch, which meant he was bored. Fuck. He thought. I need to get this moving.

“Daniel!” His heart stopped. Completely. He thought he was going to have a heart attack right there. He turned slowly, still in cardiac arrest. A man with ragged business clothes and long black hair ran towards him. No heartbeat. He veered slightly, and Daniel breathed. He ran past him and his heart started again. He moved on to embrace another person coming out of his adjacent gate. Fuck. He thought. He calmed himself. And tried to focus on something pleasant, like where he was going…Istanbul. His dream. He wondered what his family was doing. Right about now they would be getting the phone call. Daniel paused and looked at the ground. The grey, purple and blue pattern that resembled that of spilled Lego’s stared back at him. He felt empathy. Imagining them sad. How is it that he hated them, so much and felt so much sorrow when he thought of their suffering? If I didn’t die, then they would find me. Somehow. I needed to completely leave.

“Gate 105 to Istanbul…105 to Istanbul, now leaving.”

The words echoed through his mind a few times. Bouncing against his skull. Then down his spinal chord, and adrenaline flooded his veins. He slowly stood up and walked to the gate. He shouldn’t be so excited. As he walked to the gate, his phone rang and his legs seized up. Refused to move. The number read his mothers. His mind raced and his legs twitched. Time and space stood still and his finger rested on the answer button. He let it ring for a second and pushed reject.