Sunday, December 7, 2014

Would You Invest in Human Insecurity

Last year Yik Yak was allowed at New Trier High School for 3 days. It was used to bully, harass, and anonymously intimidate students. The app has now been banned at high schools, but it is huge at colleges. The app is used for similar things, the only difference is the lack of a ban on the app for use by college students. Due to the popularity of the app on college campuses Sequoia, a Private Equity Firm, invested 61 million dollars in the company.

What does this investment say about human nature and evolving social climates? Not only is the app primarily used for negative messages but it is also totally anonymous. Sequoia has invested a huge amount of money in the hope that Yik Yak will grow, that there will be more insults to give, more pessimistic observations, and more intentionally provocative questions to ask--all of these messages passed through a phone: no identity, no problem.

The investment is not just accounting for the app updating and getting better, but it is also accounting for the growth of negativity and lack of confidence in our opinions as individuals. 61 million dollars was just invested in human insecurity, will Sequoia get the return they want?

Why the Indictment Process Doesn't Work

There are a lot of things to think about following the grand jury decision not to indict the officer who killed Michael Brown. People are primarily focused on racism and biases of white police officers, police brutality, abuse of power and the impact it has on certain groups.  What isn't being talked about is the inherent flaw in the structure and use of the grand jury system and how it will continue to fail our  society in these types of cases.

The grand jury system forces local prosecutors to present the facts of these cases and seek indictments against the very officers that they work side by side with to prosecute all other criminal matters.  The legal community in which criminals are prosecuted is small.  Prosecutors have relationships with many officers and if not direct relationships they likely know their partners, colleagues or managers.  This is not only a conflict of interest, but likely awkward and ineffective as well as giving an unfair legal advantage to police officers.  This will happen regardless of whether the prosecutor intends it to -- it's human nature to give an advantage to the person you know and work with.

This is another bias, seemingly parallel with the racism that causes these crimes of police violence. Both biases are unfair and dangerous to the public, racism of police leads to deaths like that of Michael Brown and Eric Garner while lack of indictment lets racist and overly brutal officers free to kill again.

When we think about racism we usually isolate the idea, but maybe we should try to think about it as one of many biases in the context of the legal system, one of many things that makes a less equal world for our citizens in the United States.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Are Low Prices Worth Low Wages

Recently Walmart employees in Oklahoma City started a food drive for their coworkers at the store. The food drive has generated some controversy and made some people question Walmart as a company. Do Walmart employees make enough to put food on the table, to stay above the poverty line?

The poverty line for 2014 was set at $23,850 a year for a family of four. According to the CEO of the company, the majority of Walmart employees make less than 25,000 dollars a year. A large number of Walmart employees are on monetary aid programs, like food stamps and welfare because of the low wages. Public assistance costs for the companies employees last year added up to 6.2 billion dollars.

The wages are kept low to keep Walmart's prices lower than the competition's, but if the wage that an employee is being paid is not enough to get food on the table for Thanksgiving maybe the low prices--and wages--need to get a little higher.

Do We Value Sleep Enough?

Last week William Deresiewicz gave a talk about the the disadvantages of elite universities and on the flaws in the current college admissions process. His essay titled, "The Disadvantages an Elite Education" despite many generalizations really spoke to me ut when he was speaking to my class his discussion of the flaws of the college admissons process seemed more reasonable and more connected to my life.

Deresiewicz talked about the lack of free time and the need to stack extra curriculars and extremely time consuming AP classes to get into the elite institutions of today's university system in the United States. He talked about this need for free time but what he never mentioned was the need for sleep. The National Sleep Foundation says that for a teenage mind to stay active and healthy many people need 9 hours and 15 minutes of sleep and some can properly function with 8 hours 30 minutes. I can't speak for my classmates but I don't remember the last time I got close to 8 hours on a school night while still completing my homework and going to extra-curriculars. Even on weekends I find myself loosing sleep because I have such a strict structured schedule.

Deresiewicz talks about mental health being sacrificed, about free time and fufillment of life being sacraficed, about social time being sacraficed, but does he spend enough time talking about the sacrifice of sleep and the dangerous conditions it can cause. In an article in Time Magazine titled "The Power of Sleep" the issue of sleep deprivation and the benefit of a good nights rest is explored. The article talk about what the brain is doing while asleep--things like maitaining hormone balance and cleaning the brain of toxins that can build up without rest. The question I ask is do we value these education programs that are supposed to make us better thinkers over the health of the brain itself?

A Follow Up on Ello

Near the end of September I blogged about a then emerging new social media site called Ello. I was recently invited to join the beta of the new test. The former post was all about speculation and what other people were saying about the new network but my interpretations of the site are a little different. 

One of the big moves Ello has made as a social media website is to go completely ad free, as much as I respect the decision and agree with the goal--to keep the users from becoming a product. My issue with the initiative is I really don't notice a large difference, in advertising at least, between facebook and Ello. In my experience there really aren't very many advertisments on facebook and other sites. Even if there are sometimes promotional posts suggested in my "newsfeed" they are easy to ignore. The reason Ello went ad free, the protest of the consuming culture is a great one, the execution however is not all that jarring. Whats the point of a protest if you have to tell everyone it is happening before they notice a difference.

The only other issues I have witht he site, like not having a mobile app or not having video will be remidided soon. Every month the company adds features that the current users ask for. By the time the Beta ends Ello will have everything facebook does in terms of features.

The one common perk most users will agree on is the beauty of the sites simplicity, there is no distraction from the content the users post, all attention is left to the pictures and text posted by the members that that you follow. The site uses simple black and white leaving absolutly nothing to draw attention away from the posts on someones account or in your feed.

Ello might not be for everyone and they may have some flaws in their protest of the world of advertisment and commercialism but I'm excited to see what they do next.

Sunday, October 26, 2014

The Cost of Success

This Saturday I took my first ACT test. For that one test I had prepared for several months, taking practice tests and meeting with a tutor to maximize my score out of 36. The tutoring did help me improve my score but what it also showed me is that the ACT is not a measure of any student's actual aptitude. The ACT is a measure of how well you can take an ACT. My tutor didn't teach me any new information; all I learned were strategies on how to manage time, on how to manipulate the test, and how to go about each separate section. Without a professional feeding me tips, my score might well have been a few points lower, but I would be no more or less prepared to go to college.

If my family couldn't afford a tutor, I likely would have done worse on the test. The few points that I may have earned because of my training could be the difference between meeting a top tier college's requirements or not. It would be a nearly impossible monetary commitment to get tutoring for a family near or below the poverty line. It would be a very hard thing to do even with modest means. What the ACT is effectively doing is making it very hard--no matter someones actual aptitude--for someone in a low income family to go to a very good school. A table of the average scores at top schools can be seen here.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Are your cells art?

Above is a picture of two human neurospheres forming connections taken through a fluorescent microscope. Microbe art is a new kind of art emerging in exhibits and galleries. One such exhibit was used as a marketing tactic to show the beauty of the work companies were doing in life science.

 A company that is taking and showing these pictures is called Biocom. The company said about the project, "The public is often unaware of the amazing beauty of life at the molecular level, because they only see the end result of the innovation that takes place in the lab." I think that this new trend is really begging people to ask the question: What is art? What is seen above I would argue is beautiful but is it art? Is it a kind of human portraiture just very zoomed in or is it just a picture of microscope slide that should have been left in the lab? I think that this brings a whole new branch to art and challenge everyone that looks at it to think about their own definition of art. Do you think this or any of the other pieces (seen here) are works of art?

Saturday, September 27, 2014

Say Ello to the New Social Media Giant

Above is the "manifesto" of a new social media site called Ello. The new site is being called the antifacebook, and it is growing at a ridiculous rate. Right now Ello is in its beta phase and is an invite only website. This means that the only way to join is to be invited in small groups or by a current user. Even with this restriction the site is growing by 31,000 members an hour and the staff have to work 24 hours a day to keep it from crashing.

Many people reviewing Ello call it rudimentary and incomplete, so why are people flocking to the experimental new platform for social media? One of the biggest reasons is because of members of the LGBTQ community are fed up with Facebook's "real name policy." This policy requires that users use their real name and some transgender users have been kicked off or forced to change names back to the one they were given at birth. These people don't identify with this name but are forced by Facebook to change to a name that is eldom used. Ello on the other hand practically encourages multiple profiles or a changed name to stay anonymous. Another reason is Ello's rigid rules against selling user profiles or advertising in general. Ello is different in looks, it is created by artists to be a beautiful and simple social media interface and in ideas; Ello is also free of advertisement and hate. Unlike Twitter and Faceook, Ello does not hesitate to kick users who insult or assault another person on their website.

Critics of the site say that is can't stay ad free if the company wants to profit. Ello's plan for now is to sell different settings and multiple profiles to users to make a profit. If this doesn't work then Ello will have to shift to advertising but for now it is an ad free, hate free interface and I hope it can stay that way. Ello ends it's manifesto with the phrase "you are not a product" and that is an important idea, if the company stays with its golden ideals then I want to see it succeed. About an hour ago I requested an invitation to the new site and I am excited to see how a social media site with morals and new ideas succeeds.

Saturday, September 20, 2014

Don't Blame the NFL, Blame America

News coverage over the past few weeks has put domestic violence and child abuse front and center in American consciousness. After the release of a video of Ray Rice, former running back for the Baltimore Ravens, beating his wife, every day a new NFL player is discovered to be abusive at home. The press is getting tons of business, and awareness of domestic violence is seeing a boom. While every case of domestic violence is destructive on a personal level, the media's daily barrage of new cases of the problem has forced thousands of people to realize how pervasive this kind of domestic violence is in our society. The issue is that it shouldn't take a high profile athlete committing violence at home to get the issue the focus it deserves.  Aren't we admitting our violent nature by only paying attention to these acts when they are somehow involved with the most popular sport in the United States, in which every play involves physical punishment?

The public seems to be compartmentalizing the issue, using the NFL, as an organization,  as a scapegoat for America's problem. Kofi Annan, Secretary-General of the UN, said in 2006, "At least one out of every three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime with the abuser usually someone known to her." Even NFL player Brandon Marshall said "There are a lot of alarming things. [But] it's not an epidemic in NFL. It's an epidemic in our world." Are we really helping people in the US by burning our Ray Rice jerseys? The department of justice showed in a study of 16,000 Americans that one in five women you see in the US have been abused in their life time. Why are we blaming the NFL when we should be blaming the aspects of out culture that promote violence and teach people like Ray Rice and Adrienne Peterson to be so violent? Instead of attacking the National Football League maybe we should fund education programs against domestic violence in schools. Our goal shouldn't be a blame game, it should be to kill the epidemic that is domestic and familial violence in the United States.

Sunday, September 14, 2014

An Overmilitarized Police Force, Does it Promote Violence?


Above is a vehicle called an MRAP. It is a mine resistant armored vehicle used in war torn areas by the United States Armed Forces. The newest place that the US has deployed this bunker on wheels is San Diego. Not just in San Diego but towns of all sizes are starting to see a new kind of police car. Police departments across our nation are getting theses vehicles and other military equipment at the cost of the taxpayer for seemingly no reason.

Programs giving police departments military surplus gear started because police were out gunned by gangs in major cities. The programs then grew too big and started to give assault weapons and bayonets to small town police departments. In some cases police departments are asking for military fatigues and vehicles like the MRAP tanks, and the government is happy to give. Some congressmen are worried about what that is saying about police departments in this country.

Americans don't necessarily like the police but in many cases we trust our local law enforcement. In many small towns the sheriff or the few members of the police force know everyone, there remains a level of trust in the relationship between law enforcement and the citizens they protect. The issue with the new equipment that police forces are receiving is not only over militarization but also a breach of trust between the people and the police that are supposed to protect them. In San Diego's case the local department says they will use the new MRAP to save children from school emergencies, the reason being that the tank can hold a classroom of kids at a time. Citizens think this is far fetched, and so do I. If there is one gunman in the school there won't be time to bring the tank in. In that situation officers in the school will have to act fast, rather than call in back up. Also despite getting this equipment for free modifying it for police use cost money that would be better spent elsewhere. Specifically San Diego's department has 10 old patrol cars. The money spent on modifying the MRAP could have been spent on new cars instead. It's harder to trust a man with an assault rifle and camouflage vest than it is to trust a man in the blue of a state officer's uniform. I worry that the militarization has gone too far already, if the police have these overpowered and unnecessary weapons they are one step closer to unnecessary violence instead of keeping the law.



Sunday, September 7, 2014

The Beauty of The West

Every year for photography class an open ended assignment is assigned for the summer if a student is taking the class next year. This is my third year and up until now my summer film rolls have been hurried and thoughtless. My freshmen and sophomore years I had just wanted to finish my 36 shots and then get back to vacation. For my junior year I went much more in depth, I brought my camera up to my lake house in northern Michigan and shot for a good 2 hours. I didn't have any idea what I wanted my roll to be until I drove past a field with two horses. For some reason I thought of the stereotypical American West; I thought of rodeos, cowboys, and tumbleweed. I used the 36 shots to make Northern Michigan look like an old western. I took pictures with a big open sky as the backdrop and filled my middle ground with trucks, cornfields, and horses. At the time I had just thought it would make aesthetic pictures for my summer project when I got back to school but what I learned is that a professional photographer named Tim Richmond was doing something similar and calling his project "Last Best Hiding Place."

Richmond's project is full of beautiful landscapes and portraits taken in small remote towns in the far west of the country. He is a British photographer that became fascinated by the American West while watching movies as a kid. He made it his goal to capture the nostalgia and the sadness that these towns have, the sadness of the disappearing mystery of the West. The series is full of for sale signs and run down areas, the portraits are of people that almost look lost and scared. In an interview with Richmond he says that he leaves interpretation of his photos up to the viewer. I would argue that the washed out color and the desolate landscapes represent the destruction of the "myth of the west": the aura of mystery and freedom. My series of pictures, be it less extensive and less skillful is saying something similar. By comparing the nostalgic style, sepia toned prints of Michigan to Richmond's washed out, sad images of the modern small towns of America's west you see that there is barely any mystery left in our country. The term "Last Best Hiding Place" is used by people in Nevada to reference people trying to live "under the radar." Places to live uncensored and unseen are running out, maybe America's frontier has changed and maybe my photography project is showing that. I was laughing at making Michigan seem like Texas but America is running out of remote locations, and isn't that what made the West so special?

America has beauty that is ruined by cities and by masses of people, maybe it's time the country respects that fact and realizes that America is loosing its character, how can we be the land of the free without any where to "Hide."