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.

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.

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.

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."