Monday, December 17, 2012
Social Design-Social Ethos, Creative Caffiene
When consuming, I like to think that I make educated choices. When purchasing food, I try to think about waste. Instead of buying the large package that may be cheaper, I try to think about what I will be able to eat by myself. For example, I buy the carton of 8 eggs instead of 12, knowing that I will not finish a dozen before they go bad. When my vegetables appear to be turning, I try to cook and freeze them so they do not spoil before I get to eat them.
When making my initial purchases, I try to pay attention to the packaging. A good example is soda (which I do not typically buy, but if I were to buy soda) it is less wasteful to buy 2 liter bottles than to buy small bottles or cans. Cardboard is better than styrafoam, etc.
Though my intentions are good, it is oftentimes difficult to stick with these concepts. the best I can do is try to follow them myself, and to spread the word to others.
When making my initial purchases, I try to pay attention to the packaging. A good example is soda (which I do not typically buy, but if I were to buy soda) it is less wasteful to buy 2 liter bottles than to buy small bottles or cans. Cardboard is better than styrafoam, etc.
Though my intentions are good, it is oftentimes difficult to stick with these concepts. the best I can do is try to follow them myself, and to spread the word to others.
Monday, December 10, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Social Design: NY Times Articles
Ex-Official Is Charged After Deaths at Coal Mine
Prosecutors
in West Virginia charged the highest-ranking executive in an investigation about
the 2010 explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine that killed 29 miners. He is
the former president of the Green Valley Coal Company, and will plead guilty but
is cooperating with the investigationHe was charged with one felony count of
conspiracy to defraud the US and a second misdemeanor conspiracy count. He knowingly
violated safety laws at Massey’s mines and worked to hide those violations by
giving advance warnings of surprise inspections by the Mine Safety and Health
Administration. In June 2011 Massey Energy agreed to pay $209 million in
restitution and civil and criminal penalties over the explosion, the worst
American mining disaster in nearly 40 years.
This is so sad because this man could have
prevented this accident if he actually cared about his employees. The employees
also should have spoken out about this obvious illegal activity.
On Closest Planet to the Sun, NASA Finds Lots of Ice
Mercury is as cold as ice even though it is the closest
planet to the sun. It has 100 billion to one trillion tons of ice. There is
enough ice to encase Washington, D.C. in a frozen block two and a half miles
deep. It is a counterintuitive discovery for a place that also ranks among the
hottest in the solar system. At noon at the equator on Mercury, the temperature
can hit 800 degrees Fahrenheit. But near Mercury’s poles, deep within craters
where the Sun never shines, temperatures dip to as cold as minus 370.The
same technique was used to detect frozen water below the surface on Mars and
within similar craters on the Moon. The ice is almost
pure water, which means that it arrived within the last few tens of millions of
years.
This is interesting because people always talk
about life on mars, but not life on Mercury. Its really cool and I want to know
more about what this could mean to us as earthlings.
End of the Line for an Oyster Farm
Interior
Secretary ended a longstanding dispute that pitted wilderness advocates against
supporters of a Northern California oyster farm. The farm’s lease from Point
Reyes National Seashore would end on Friday as originally planned. Drakes
Estero, where the oyster operation has existed for the last 40 years, will
become a federally designated wilderness area. The oyster farm is the source of
roughly 40 percent of California’s oysters.
The
department indicated it would do what it could “to help employees who might be
affected by this decision”. Three environmental groups — the Sierra Club, the
National Wildlife Federation and the National Parks Conservation Association —praised
the decision.
It is great that the employees
that will be affected will be helped out by the department. It is important to
not let people suffer even when protecting the environment.
Japan’s Space Agency Says Rocket Information Was Stolen
by Computer Virus
The Japan
Aerospace Exploration Agency said that the virus
in a computer at its Tsukuba Space Center northeast of Tokyo was found to be collecting
data and sending it outside the agency. No other computers at the center had
been infected. Japanese defense companies have been recent targets of similar
information-stealing viruses, some previously traced to China. The data stolen
from the space agency included information about a solid-fuel rocket still
under development.
Interesting, people and
agencies can never be too careful-this can be majorly problematic for many
agencies. I hope it did not affect the future of the rocket. Cyber security is
imperative nowadays for the future of many companies and organizations.
Ex-Principal Is Convicted of Sex Abuse
The
former principal of a private school in Brooklyn was found guilty in State
Supreme Court of sexually abusing three boys over the course of a decade,
including one boy who was 7 years old when the abuse started. The jury found
the man, Emanuel Yegutkin, 33, guilty of 75 counts of sexual abuse, including
the top charge, sexual conduct against a child in the first degree, which
carries a maximum 25-year prison sentence. Mr. Yegutkin was the principal of
Elite High School, a private Jewish school for Russian-Americans. In 1996, Mr.
Yegutkin began to abuse the 7-year-old son of a family friend, and also
sexually abused the boy’s older brother. In 2008 he showed pornography to a
third boy. The school had no reports of improper behavior.
This is disgusting. How can
people be so terrible? This man has ruined his own life as well as the lives of
three young boys. I cannot believe that he was a school principal, how utterly despicable.
China
Said to Fuel Illegal Trade in Timber
China has a
booming trade in illegally harvested timber which is spurring the destruction
of fragile ecosystems. The Environmental Investigation Agency has largely
turned a blind eye as wood importers and furniture makers have profited from a
$4 billion industry that harvests wood illegally. The steep increase in illegal
wood mirrors a growing demand in China for ivory, shark fins and endangered. The
unlawful cutting of tropical rain forest is a contributing factor in the
growing violence among loggers, forestry workers and environmental activists in
Africa and Asia. Last year China was the destination for roughly 30 percent of
all the logs traded on the world market, making it the top importer of raw
timber. At least 10 percent of China’s timber imports were illegally harvested,
an amount that would fill 200,000 shipping containers.
I think
that this is a situation of people not caring about the welfare of others or
the environment because it is not happening locally. Even if it was, they wouldn’t
necessarily care. It is so awful that people are so indifferent unless things
are happening directly to them.
Federal Government to Sell Wind Farm Leases
The
federal government plans to sell leases for wind farms off the
coasts of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Virginia.
The leases for the two areas, which total more than 430 square miles, will be
sold next year. One area for lease is about 10 miles off Rhode Island’s shore,
and the other is about 27 miles off the southern part of Virginia. Each area
could be developed to generate enough electricity to power 700,000 homes.
It is awesome that people are finally making
moves in the government to promote positive energy. I hope that in the near
future we will all have wind and solar energy to power our homes and
businesses.
Jane Holtz Kay, a Prophet of Climate Change, Dies at
74
Her 1997
book, “Asphalt Nation,” said that in less time than it takes you to read this
sentence, Americans riding around in cars and trucks will dump another 180,000
pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.She died in Boston on Nov. 5 at
74. Her book proposed ways to reverse the environmental damage caused by
suburban sprawl: by returning to the city, using public transit, living one’s
daily life, as much as possible, within walking distance. “She was a big
believer in doing things.” She died of complications of
Alzheimer’s disease. Ms. Kay wrote three books on conservation of natural
resources and urban environments. “Asphalt Nation,” offered a unified vision
for saving the cities and the planet and achieving social harmony by
overthrowing the cultural dominance of the internal combustion engine. “Here at
the so-called top of the food chain,” she wrote, “the water we drink, the food
we eat, the entire way we live, is corrupted by a toxic artifact. The car, its
pollutants, its highways, its trips.”
Her ideas follow the same view of our class. Cutting
back is the key, if we don’t do so soon, we will be in big trouble. Unfortunately,
people believe that they cant make a difference when they really can. If everyone
altered their life slightly, we could make a big difference in our futures.
William Turnbull, Scottish Sculptor, Dies at 90
William
Turnbull, a Scottish sculptor known for his blending of modernism with archaic
and primitive forms, died on Nov. 15 in London. He was 90 From postwar European
figurative sculpture, as reflected in works by Alberto Giacometti and Henry
Moore, he turned toward an organic form of semi-abstraction as displayed by
Constantin Brancusi, then to a hard-edged and geometric Minimalist trend before
returning to his earlier figurative style. He was best known for simplified,
rough-looking forms with tactile surfaces that he distilled from ancient but
sophisticated objects like votive goddess figures, masks, totems, stone tools
and arrowheads, as well as ancient architecture like the dolmens of Stonehenge.
He was a
talented artist, I looked up his name an artwork. I appreciated his style, and
the fact that he got to live to a ripe old age. His legacy will live on.
Establishing His Name, No Matter How You Say It
Basil Soda is a Lebanese
fashion designer who was having a trunk show at Jimmy’s New York boutique in
Gravesend, which will carry his collections for the
first time next spring. The correct pronunciation is BAH-seel. Mr. Soda is
known for structured flourishes (he studied architecture at the Holy Spirit
University of Kaslik in Lebanon for two years) and high price tags (according
to Elizabeth Lepore, an owner of Jimmy’s, a ready-to-wear evening dress costs
around $2,500). He is far from an
industry novice, having worked for his fellow Lebanese designer Elie
Saab for four years before striking out on his own in 2000, but he has
been attracting new attention for his celebrity
dressing. He is hoping to expand his ready-to-wear business.
It is fantastic that smaller scale designers are
getting their names out there by dressing celebrities. It would be much more
fantastic if he was environmentally savvy or socially conscious. Hopefully that
will begin to trend more prevalently in the near future.
Delta and JetBlue Waive Change Fees After Sandy-Hit Schools Shorten
Breaks
When Hurricane Sandy made
landfall, JetBlue and Delta Air Lines offered to waive change fees for
travelers who needed to change their flights. More than a month later, the
carriers offered a second wave of amnesty to a very small niche: passengers
whose children attend schools affected by the hurricane. Dozens of public
schools across New York City and Long Island were forced to close for several
days because they were used as evacuation centers. Because families with school
calendars plan ahead, several New Yorkers had already planned vacations. Today
Jet Blue and Delta Air Lines responded, announcing that they will waive change
fees for those who were scheduled to travel Feb. 15 to Feb. 24, the school
holiday.
Good for
those people, many are still cleaning up their homes and are trying to get
their stuff together but don’t want to lose money on their tickets. Good call Jetblue
and Delta, good publicity and public relations.
Social Design: My The Bra that Hugs Posts
- I posted a definition of domestic violence. I got the info off of Wikipedia.
- I posted information about the long term and psychological effects of domestic violence. This info was also off of Wikipedia.
- I posted a link to an article that addresses the fact that many women do not wear the correct bra size. It also addresses the fact that bras are extremely high in demand for homeless women.
- I posted information about the Soma bra donation-a drive that collects bras, but the post addresses the difference between our project and their’s.
- I posted scans of the brochures provided to us by the store Lingerie Lingerie. They donated about 20 bras to us.
- I posted a photo of the bras I picked up from Lingerie Lingerie.
- I also created the logo used on our blog page.
Social Design: My How to Help Posts
- I created the Blog on Nov 8th.
- I posted the write-up on the bra collection event. I included the process from the first phone calls to executing the event itself.
- I posted a write-up on making Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwich for the homeless. The write-up is very detailed and even includes what ingredients to buy so anyone could do it. It is the easiest event to plan and execute.
- I wrote up the pages in the order we will include them in our book.
- I created our logo in illustrator and included a write-up on what it is and why we chose that symbol. Check it out!
- I posted some scans of my sketchbook pages that show our planning process from when we were restructuring our project, and planning the book itself.
- I made and posted a tutorial on how to bind a book.
- http://dsehowtohelp.blogspot.com/2012/12/sewing-book-binding.html
Monday, December 3, 2012
Social Design: NY Times Articles
Homeless Man Is Grateful for Officer’s Gift of Boots.
But He Again Is Barefoot.
A police
officer in NYC gave a homeless man a pair of boots on a cold night. A photo was
anonymously taken and has become an icon of hope. The officer has gotten his 15
minutes of fame on various talk shows, etc. But what happened to the shoeless
man? His name is Jeffrey Hillman, and days later was spotted walking around
shoeless again. The $100 pair of boots he received were nowhere to be seen. He claims
to have hidden them because it would be dangerous to wear them. He dislikes the
attention. He thanks the officer and hopes for more people like him in the
world. He is a veteran and has been on the streets in NY for nearly 10 years.
I think it is a shame that more people don’t contribute
to help the homeless. It is also a shame that the man is not wearing the boots
and may have even sold them. I commend the officer for his charity.
The Big Budget Mumble
There has
been a lot of talk from the G.O.P. about reducing the deficit with spending
cuts, not tax increases, but no leading figures on the Republican side have
been able or willing to specify what, exactly, they want to cut. Republican posing
on the deficit has been a con game, now Obama has demanded that the G.O.P. put
up or shut up — and the response is an aggrieved mumble. Obama has proposed raising
about $1.6 trillion in additional revenue over the next decade. He would also cut spending by about $400 billion. Republicans
are outraged. What are Republicans offering as an alternative? They say they
want to rely mainly on spending cuts instead. But what will be cut?
This is just another article about political issues that are a
bickering match. It is so annoying that politics have become a “he said, she
said”, the truth is that we need to cut budgets, and no matter what gets cut,
someone will get the shaft.
Hanukkah’s
New Tastes, Still Rooted in Tradition
Israeli’s
eat jelly doughnuts, but Ashkenazi Jews in the diaspora eat potatoes, or
latkes. Latkes are potato pancakes, traditionally eaten with apple sauce and
sour cream (though this author says no sour cream, I disagree, they need BOTH).
To break tradition, there are new cookbooks to break the routine greasy foods
of this holiday:
“The Mile End Cookbook” (Clarkson Potter, 2012), which the Bernamoffs co-wrote,
and “Jerusalem”(Ten Speed, 2012), by Yotam
Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi. The books cross Brooklyn hipster with veggie-based
Israeli food. They include deli classics and twists on the latke (celery root
and parsnip replace the potatoes and topped with horseradish cream).
Both books sound delicious
to me, it is important to mix up traditions so we can keep moving forward, even
in the culinary sense.
Rebels
Pull Out of Strategic City in Congo
“We saw combat, and the enemy ran away,” the
rebels cheered. Another verse: “We’re leaving, but we’ll be back soon.” The
rebels, called the M23, were under international pressure to leave Goma after
inflicting a humiliating defeat on Congolese forces and setting off a national
crisis with antigovernment protests erupting across Congo. Still, many of
Goma’s residents are scared about what lies ahead with home invasions,
carjackings and killings on the rise. Some people are worried that the army
might be even worse than the M23 and that when the army returns they will start
stealing. Goma’s residents have been trapped for years between rebel groups
that rape, pillage and kill and a dysfunctional government army that often does
the same. Under a peace plan, the M23 rebels are supposed to withdraw all their
troops from Goma except for one company that will be allowed to stay at the
airport along with government troops. A “neutral force” composed of soldiers
from other African countries will also help keep the peace in Goma,
I
cant imagine how scary these people’s lives are, and how trapped they must feel
in their everyday lives. It is extraordinary how they can persevere. It really
puts my life into perspective.
Arrest
Warrant Issued for Wife of Ivory Coast’s Ex-President
Ms. Gbagbo is accused of crimes
against humanity, she took part in the planned murders that took place after
her husband’s defeat in a presidential election in November 2010. For months
afterward, security forces who were trying to keep him in power attacked
opposition neighborhoods, killing and beating people known to be hostile to the
president. The troops routinely fired on unarmed civilians and created an
atmosphere of terror for months. The court said that Ms. Gbagbo, had an
important role in planning the attacks on political rivals. She “exercised
joint control over the crimes by having the power to control and give
instructions directly to the youth militia who were systematically recruited,
armed, trained,” the arrest warrant said. Ms. Gbagbo and her husband were seized by opposition forces in April 2011, she has been under
house arrest of a sort ever since, and is now detained in Odienné, where state
prosecutors have begun interrogating her about her role.
It
is so awful that people in power and even their family can have this much
control over the people, in such a terrible way. Once again, events like these
put my life into perspective.
Toxic
Cough Syrup Kills 16 Pakistanis
Eight victims were seriously ill in
the hospital, after drinking the syrup, which was sold under the brand name
Tyno. Doctors said the dead were between the ages of 20 and 45 years old. Government
officials sealed off the factory where
the syrup had been manufactured and ordered the seizure of all stocks from
shops. Cough syrup has been at the center of several mass poisonings around the
world in recent years, often involving industrial solvents used as cheap
sweetener for the liquid.
Its very
scary, but hopefully with our FDA requirements, we can prevent awful instances
like these in the US.
Journalist
in Pakistan Eludes Bomb
There was no claim of responsibility
for the bombing attempt, apparently targeting Hamid Mir, a journalist who hosts
one of the most-watched political talk shows. Suspicions pointed to the Taliban,
which had recently singled out Mr. Mir for criticism over his coverage of the
teenage activist wounded by militants in October. Journalists refused to rule
out involvement by the country’s intelligence agencies. The agencies have been
accused of using intimidation and violence against journalists. The bomb was
spotted by a neighbor when Mr. Mir returned home with his driver after a
shopping trip in central Islamabad. The device was a black box fixed to the
underside of his vehicle with magnets, containing half a kilogram of plastic
explosives as well as a land mine detonator. It was an assassination attempt
that failed. Hours later, Mr. Mir hosted his evening talk show as usual,
appearing composed but declining to speculate about his attacker’s identity.
We in the
states are so fortunate to have the right to free speech and aren’t penalized
for what we say. I commend him for carrying on in the way he normally would.
China:
North Korea Leader Is ‘Sexiest Man’ No Longer
People’s Daily Online deleted a
story and slide show that named Kim
Jong-un, the young, chubby ruler of North
Korea, the “Sexiest Man Alive of
2012.” The Communist Party
mouthpiece, misinterpreted a parody in
The Onion about Mr. Kim being ranked the “sexiest man,” treating it as serious
news.
This is just
funny. I appreciated the language gap and mistranslation. I also liked that it
was reprinted by several sources that misinterpreted it as well.
Russian
Court Ruling Seeks to Ban Pussy Riot’s Videos
A Moscow court ruled that videos of
performances by the punk group Pussy Riot were extremist, falling under a law
intended to end hate speech. The court
called for limiting public access to internet sources with the videos. It
applies only to servers in Russia.
Last summer, three of the performers were sentenced to two years in a penal
colony. The court released one of them on bail in October. The ruling cited
“psycho-linguistic research” proving that the videos “humiliate various social
groups based on their religious beliefs” and contain “hidden calls to rebellion
and nonsubmission to authority.”
People make
angry, hateful music everyday, I think that there are more important issues to
be addressed. It seems a little silly to me that this is an international
story.
Ireland’s
Abortion Policy to Be Clarified This Year
The government said it
would clarify its abortion policy by the end of the year after publishing a
long-overdue report on an issue that has divided the country. The document from
an expert group, intended to clarify when abortion should be allowed in cases
where a woman’s life is deemed to be at risk, is due for debate in Parliament
this week.
I wonder
what will happen in the meantime. This sounds like the debate in the US.
Teenagers
and the Morning-After Pill
The
nation’s leading pediatrics organization is encouraging doctors to also talk to
teenagers about the morning-after
pill — and to send girls home with prescriptions for emergency contraception,
just in case. Several medical societies favor
making emergency contraceptives available over the counter, since the drugs are
supposed to be taken within five days. In 2006, levonorgestrel was made
available over-the-counter for women age 18 and older. In 2009, after a legal
fight, the age was lowered to 17. A recent study of college students, for
example, found that only 16 percent knew that emergency contraception was
available at college health centers. Plan B One Step and Next Choice are
effective in at least half of the instances they are used, according to the
review.
I think that teenagers should be encouraged to use condoms and
oral contreceptives. Plan B should not be used unless there is an emergency,
these teenagers are having unprotected sex and using the pill as their birth
control which is unhealthy and expensive. Condoms, use them.
60-Million-Year
Debate on Grand Canyon’s Age
Controversy
among geologists over this question. A report published in the journal Science
offered new support for the old-canyon hypothesis. Used an improved dating
technique based on the radioactive decay of uranium and thorium atoms into
helium atoms in a mineral known as apatite. Where surface erosion had gouged
out canyons and how much time had passed since there was significant natural
excavation in the Grand Canyon region. The western segment of the canyon was
carved to within a few hundred yards of modern depths by about 70 million years
ago. The more ancient origin would put much of the canyon in place in the
dinosaurs. If the interpretation of the findings proves to be correct, it
contradicts the prevailing hypothesis that the entire canyon was formed as
recently as five million to six million years ago. These dates were drawn from
an examination of pebbles and other sediments from upstream reaches of the
Colorado River.
Either way, the grand canyon is an incredibly
fascinating place and it always amazes and overwhelms me when I visit. This was
a cool article and I am excited to visit again.
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