Monday, December 28, 2015

Abi Peck's Ultimate Rainy Night in the City BAMF Fire Mixtape

Only Happy When it Rains- Garbage, Garbage (1995)

It's about raining and it is very moody. Let the angst begin.

I Come From the Water- Toadies, Rubberneck (1994)

 a high-energy, crunchy guitar jam. It just makes you feel cool and it goes with the watery theme.

Heads Will Roll- Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It's Blitz! (2009)

"Glitter on the wet streets..." A transitional tune to the more new age items on this playlist. By this point you are in town and ready to let out your inner bad @$$.

Ain't No Rest for the Wicked- Cage the Elephant, Cage the Elephant (2009)

You are up to mischief and feeling bad to the bone. Such a fun song.

Arabella- Arctic Monkeys, AM (2013)

A fast paced sensory overload. Just in case you need a burst of energy before the night is over.

Abi O'Hara

If I could be any fictional character, I would hands down want to be Scarlett O'Hara. I'll forego the slaves though. Scarlett O'Hara is a force to be reckoned with, she's beautiful, resolute, and ruthless. She is my spirit animal. Tomorrow is another day, this I firmly believe in. No matter how downtrodden she is Scarlett always believes the future can be better. Scarlett isn't afraid to go against the grain and push the limits, in her time it was unheard of for a woman to run a business but she did it anyway no matter how indecent it was. Plus she can rock a dress made out of drapes and chicken feathers, that's something to aspire to.

Assignment 21: Abi Peck

At this moment, somewhere in the universe someone is alone and hungry. Who knows what brought them to where they are now, but they have certainly hit the bottom. As they sit alone in the cold with hundreds walking by blindly they wish for just one beacon of light. Everyone seems to assume that they are lazy, drunk, bums who could easily get a job. But have you seen the job market these days, for goodness sake dish washer jobs even require experience. This person understands all too well that life is a wild stampede and if you trip you will be trampled deeper into the mud without a way to claw yourself back to the top so you must die. Who knows what the next moment will bring, but odds are it will be no better than this one for this wretched soul.

Abi Peck Advice

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return."-- Nature Boy, Nat King Cole

       I have heard variations on this my whole life, but I would never pass up an opportunity to make a musical reference (Moulin Rouge anyone?). Jokes aside, this has really been a lucrative piece of advice. It is infinitely easier to love than to hate. Some may disagree, but that is their business, it has worked wonders for me. Loving others as yourself makes the world a better, easier place. I love love. It is also necessary to learn to be loved. Without feeling love you will always feel alone. I don't mean gushy, conditional love with that seems as though it has an expiration date. I mean limitless love. That drunk guy that just stepped on my foot and spilled his drink everywhere, I still love him. I love others because I know that God loves them just as much as He loves me. Love fills me with a warm glow and I would always rather be warm and light than cold and dark with contempt.

Abi's Bucket List list

High School Bucket List:

  • Go to prom my sophomore, junior and senior year. I went as a freshmen in a free dress found in a closet in an art room with a senior date. It was awesome, truly the time of my life, the way prom is supposed to be. After that, I promised myself I would go every year. Eligible prom dates, hit me up. 
  • Some sort of senior prank. A good one.
  • Get the best free education I can.

College Bucket List:

  • Go on a cross country road trip.
  • DJ at WRFL 
  • Get a job as a clerk at Sqecial Media.
  • Have a class in the Reynolds Building at UK.
  • Join PRHBTN

Bucket List in General:

  • Become an art professor. My own studio, decent pay, students I can kick out if they are being turds doesn't sound half bad.
  • Own a horse. Childhood dream.
  • Sit on a Triple Crown winners back. Not even a proper ride just to experience the power for myself.
  • Travel Europe with my best friends.
  • Rescue a stray animal or two.
  • Go on a gallery hop.

Abi Peck's Review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/user/id/972803316/ratings

Monday, December 14, 2015

Peck Brave Little Toasters

As a horse lover, I have a vast collection of toy horses. When I was young I was certain that when I was away they came to life as real full size horses. One day I'm sure that my spirit model jumped off the shelf and galloped off down the road toward my school. As I would sit under the tree by the playground while the other kids played I would look over and I could almost see him peer from around a house or jump over a hedge.

Abi Peck 10

Ben McCarty sits to my right. He seems to play a lot of minecraft on his phone. Apparently he thinks I'm a gemini... he's wrong. I'm a virgo. He is in JROTC and I'll tell you what, that kid is decorated. He seemed a little intimidating at first but he's kind of a goon. He just can't handle the hot dogs.

A Peck Post 8

fears: Boats. Not little boats but big boats, like cruise ships. Titanic put a healthy fear in me. Another fear of mine is the hospital. I've only been a few times, but not for happy reasons. Lets just say I was having a bad night and ended up admitted to the psych ward.

Annoyances: "Atheists" No such thing. Injustice. Ignorant people in general.

Accomplishments: One time my art shared the same gallery as Salvador Dali

Confusions: Math and Stoichiometry confuse me to no avail.

Sorrows: I used to be a smart kid. But then the depression and anxiety set in, completely destroying any concentration or motivation I once had. I am always a day late and a dollar short. I'm not smart enough for college. I have too many health issues for the military and I'm too ugly to marry rich. Cardboard boxes are comfy enough I suppose.

Dreams: I would love to be a studio art professor but I'm too dumb. I've always wanted a horse but I'm too poor and too dumb for a job.

Idiosyncrasies: I have a birthmark on my face. I never outgrew the "horse phase"

Risks: It can be pretty risky to get on a horse. In most sports your "equipment" doesn't have a mind of its own and weigh in at half a ton.

Beloved Possessions: Then: The quilt my mother made me as a baby. Now: The quilt is still very special, but my Doc Martens are my babies.

Problems: I never do my homework

A Peck Post Day

Is there good and evil? Of course there is. As a Christian I believe there all really no grey areas. Sin is Sin, that lie you told your mom about doing your blogs? It's just as bad as murder. Some may believe there are grey areas because they have yet to walk with the spirit. Adam and Eve committed the original sin and therefore introduced evil into this world. How can there be evil if there is no concept of good? Other opinions may differ, but I am in deep belief that there is a constant war beginning waged between good and evil and we are constantly in its midst.

Gloria Pulley Speech

One Size Fits All
So easy!
Anyone can do it!
 Made for all ages, needs, and bodies!
My life changed with only fifteen easy payments of $59.99!
            I’m sure that many of us have watched the New Year’s ball drop on TV before.  Everything is all festive and celebratory as we watch our favorite musicians preform and our favorite hosts do embarrassing holiday things.  Then right on que, commercials targeted at our biggest insecurities pop up just in time for resolutions.  Diet programs claiming that they’ve worked for everyone from celebrities, to average Joes, to the hopeless, etc.  You’re vulnerable.  It’s right after the holidays.  You ate a small country and are now looking to have it secede. How could this possibly be anything other than effective?  First, you should probably reconsider the definition of a diet- the kinds of foods that a person, animals, or community eats habitually- the keyword, habitually.  Luckily our globalized economy, lightning fast transportation, and expert engineering of all things food has expanded our options to fit any need without having resort to TV ordered, prepackaged despair.  So, with so many different options which one is the best?  The perfect diet varies from person to person depending on many factors, including affordability, practicality, medical necessity, and even morality. 
            For many, the desire to change one’s diet is a pressing issue; however this issue can also press heavily on your wallet.  Popular “health food” stores and brands can put quite a dent in a budget, especially for those who already struggle to put food on the table.  I learned this from my mother during her “crunchy granola” phase where she would shop at Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck as she liked to refer to it as), and pay an outrageous amount of money for an apple just because it was organic.  But fear not America, the USDA has a solution.  In 2011, the USDA launched their new initiative known as MyPlate, which replaced their outdated food pyramid.  This approach to nutrition takes into consideration your physical activity levels, body type, and medical needs in order to generate a model of your plate, a diagram depicting the proportions of each food group you should eat at every meal. It is generally recommended that you consume a wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and limited portions of low-fat dairy products, healthy fats, and lean proteins.  Additionally, exercising daily based on your diet and consuming lots of water is advised for optimal health benefits (choosemyplate.gov).  The intention of these guidelines is affordability and practicality because it is based more on balancing diet and exercise instead of a strict dietary regimen.  By allowing this flexibility it can accommodate the most amount of people, making it ideal for the masses.
            In addition to monetary considerations, many Americans have to take into account their medical needs when deciding what to eat.  Some diets, such as the Healthy 4 Life dietary plan, often bash the USDA’s focus on a low fat, high carbohydrate diet that is more accessible to the masses, but doesn’t actually provide the micronutrients found in “traditional,” nutrient dense fats, carbohydrates and proteins.  These micronutrients are what is necessary to maintain proper brain and organ function.  For example, flax seed oil contains linolenic and linoleic acids which the body uses to transport calcium in the blood to tissue and maintain proper metabolic function, thus combating the causes of hypothyroidism (westonaprice.org).  Another, more pressing example is Celiac Disease- a disorder in which your autoimmune system basically attacks your body because it cannot distinguish gluten from actual pathogen threats.  Ironically, trendy gluten-free diets can often mask the disease, as well as causing weight gain, so it is advisable that you stay away from these unless necessary (6 Truths About a Gluten Free Diet).  Lastly, there’s epilepsy.  In 1994 the Charlie foundation was founded by the family of Charlie Abraham’s family after he made a complete recovery from his unmanageable seizure condition by switching to a ketogenic diet.  How?  The high fat and protein, and low carbohydrate diet causes the liver to convert fat into fatty acids and ketones, which are released into the blood and balance insulin levels. Thus reducing the occurrence of epileptic seizures (charliefoundation.org).  For thousands of years people have used food to treat their ailments.  Isn’t it logical that in this day in age, even with our endless assortment of prescription drugs, diet can still be used to treat illness?  These are just a few of the hundreds of examples that I found detailing how strict dietary regimens have been used to manage all kinds of medical conditions.
            Among these many diets based on practicality and health there are some known as “fad diets,” and while sometimes overlooking many other solutions, they are provide moral justification.  Example, the vegan diet.   In the 2011 documentary Vegucated, directed by Marisa Miller Wolfson, the transition from the “average” and unhealthy American diet to a vegan one is documented.  Wolfson coaches three New Yorkers in their transition, teaching them how to cook vegan, buy vegan, and what benefits it has on the environment and for animals. The main argument hinges around the morality of subjecting innocent animals to inhumane treatment in the commercial food industry, primarily through feedlots and slaughter houses.  While this problem is easily avoided through patronage of small local farms that practice humane growing methods and are self-sustaining, this quasi solution also points to other benefits, such as a smaller carbon footprint and better health (collected through blood tests of the documentary’s participants).  While seemingly convoluted, the vegan diet is ideal for those troubled by the thought of inhumane treatment of animals or environmental harm because of its elimination of animal products from your diet. 
            Can changing the way you eat create world peace?  Can it give you telepathy?  Will it prevent you inevitable demise? No. But while we work out these questions, a change in the way you eat can answer many others.  Diets, such as the one in created by USDA guidelines, are well suited for the masses do to their accommodation of many different ages, body types, activity levels, as well as their practicality and financial considerations.   Medical conditions ranging from moderate to severe can be treated with altered diets when medicine seems to fail.  Even the fret and worry that comes with our commercial food industry and its pollution can be eased by a simple change.  While it is hard to say that a diet will ever be one size fits all, at least we are offered a multitude of sizes tailored to fit our needs.









Works Cited
1.      "The Charlie Foundation - The Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies." The Charlie Foundation - The Charlie Foundation for Ketogenic Therapies. The Charlie Foundation, n.d. Web. 30 June 2015. <http://www.charliefoundation.org/>.           
2.      "Home - Weston A Price." Weston A Price. The Weston A. Price Foundation for Wise Traditions in Food, Farming, and the Healing Arts., n.d. Web. 30 June 2015. <http://www.westonaprice.org/>.
3.      "MyPlate." About Us. USDA, 2 June 2011. Web. 30 June 2015. <http://www.choosemyplate.gov/about.html>.
4.      "6 Truths About a Gluten Free Diet- Consumer Reports." 6 Truths About a Gluten Free Diet- Consumer Reports. Consumer Reports, Nov. 2014. Web. 30 June 2015. <http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/magazine/2015/01/will-a-gluten-free-diet-really-make-you-healthier/index.htm>.

5.      Vegucated. Dir. Marisa Miller Woolf. 2011. DVD.

YKK Speech

I still remember walking into first-hour chemistry for my first Academy class ever. I was trembling, sweaty, nervous. I tried to look at everybody at the same time while saying hi. It sounded something like this. But there are times when I wonder what everyone else was thinking. Maybe people identified me as stereotypically Asian - possibly an awkward, shy nerd, at least someone who takes the tiniest change to that grade point average way too seriously. Would my face affect how people interacted with me? Human brains are wired to evaluate, and when they know nothing other than physical appearances and a single scene, they’ll still form an initial impression. But initial impressions trigger biases, which then mar the integrity of important decisions that require impartiality - like academic careers, job interviews, or auditions. Bias denies equality. Bias wastes the talent of certain groups, renders it unable to make the world a better place. Bias denies equality. It’s like a ninja planting explosives, ever-present but hidden in the mind. However, we can shine a light into our subconscious and defuse these bombs before they damage. Implicit bias creates an unjust, unsafe environment that judges people based on appearance with widespread consequences that can be mitigated through awareness. So we’ll first look at what this bias is, how it affects everyone, and how to combat their presence.

Most people stiffen at the mention of “bias” - a word often tagged with negative connotations like racism. Implicit bias, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is the “relatively unconscious and relatively automatic features of prejudiced judgment and social behavior, [especially]... towards members of socially stigmatized groups.” (Brownstein). These biases are the ones we need to be careful of, especially in any sort of competitive environment in which people are chosen or selected. Another important word is stereotype. The stereotype about stereotypes is also negative, but it is simply a process through which the brain processes information into patterns. Bias is a result of these stereotypes. I’m not saying that we are all terrible people who are all secretly misogynist and racist, but that bias is a lesson that society teaches us whether we want to learn it or not. It’s also wrong, unfair, and unjust.

Yet if they’re bad, where do these false presumptions come from? As the book Outliers puts it, “it matters where you’re from, not just in terms of where you grew up or where your parents grew up, but in terms of where your great-grandparents and great-great grandparents and even where your great-great-great grandparents grew up” (Gladwell). Groups of people have similar characteristics because of their shared cultural heritage. This inheritance of lifestyle is as elemental and imperceptible in their effects on our character, as our brains are to our body. Changing an accent isn’t easy, nor do people consider why they say “bless you!” in response to a sneeze - social etiquette and behavior are different from place to place, even in the smallest ways. It’s actually important to ask someone’s age in certain Asian countries, so you can address them with the appropriate degree of respect. Discussing one’s weight in Ecuador is completely normal. Although very under-appreciated, our cultural legacies define our lives - they are the glasses through which we perceive the world, and different cultures provide different prescriptions. After noticing some similar characteristics in some people with a similar outward appearance, the conclusion is applied to everyone with that same outward appearance and is perpetuated by media. Stereotypes are simply cultural legacies misunderstood.

These premature judgments, however comfortable they can be (and sometimes, even how funny they can be) doesn’t mean they’re okay. The effects of these biases are varied. Oftentimes, the circumstances of your birth are imagined to affect personality, intelligence, and much more - if not consciously then subconsciously - but it’s rather the belief in this idea than any actual biology that creates this effect. One experiment done by the Boston Symphony Orchestra involved blind auditions - putting all musicians behind a screen, shoeless (so the clicking of heels wouldn’t give ladies away). Previously, the female portion of big orchestras like this amounted to about 5 percent. But with the blind auditions, women had a 50 percent larger chance to pass preliminary rounds and three times the likelihood of being accepted. It was gender bias that made judges think that men performed better than women (Abdel-Magied).

Stereotype threat (as described by Steele and Aronson) is the “threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype” (Steele). A series of studies by Aronson et al displays exactly how stereotypes and the fear of their accompanying biases affect students in the classroom. Stereotype threat is experienced daily (albeit subconsciously) by academically gifted black students who don’t want to validate the stereotype surrounding blacks of lower intelligence. On tests, this leads to a tendency to overthink and second guess answers that result in a poorer score - a vicious cycle of insecurity. In turn, this stress leads to persistent score depressions - and for these students, this is a constant subtraction in the equation of their life that a societal bias has inflicted upon them.

In another study by the Australian National University in 2009, the ethnicity associated with a name mattered when applying for entry level jobs. Chinese names had to apply 61% more than Anglo-Saxon names in order to get the same number of interviews (Leigh). Some might say, “Well, aren’t you stereotyping people with a blanket statement like that? Not everyone is stereotyped.” But even if you’re a white middle-class dude, then there are cultural norms about your identity - suppressing emotion, aggressiveness. Even academically, when white students skilled at math faced with a demanding math test were told that Asians generally scored better than whites, their performance was inferior to a control group who didn’t hear about the difference in scores (Steele). These students were put under stereotype threat - they knew they were expected to have comparatively inferior scores than Asians and they wanted to make sure it didn’t happen. Obviously, stereotyping and bias lead to invisible strains on human capacity and achievement. Like Jedidah Isler said in her TED talk: “We cannot get to the best possible outcomes for the totality of humanity without precisely this collaboration, this bringing together of the liminal, the differently lived, distinctly experienced and disparately impacted” (Isler). Diversity brings achievement, but stereotyping stunts it. Stereotyping shames people and expects unrealistic things because of happenstance - whether we’re male or female, whether we’re Hispanic or Caucasian. We crush individuality - and isn’t America supposed to be a country of individuality?

But revitalizing and renewing diversity can’t be done just by clapping the backs of colleges who have special acceptance policies regarding minorities. Each and every one of us needs to confront and combat them - firstly, by acknowledging our flawed thinking, secondly, by expanding it through new observations, and thirdly, through mentoring. Because it’s subconscious, implicit bias is hard to identify - although tests like the IAT developed by Harvard help reveal your subconscious. The second step is to compensate for them. We have to acquaint ourselves with new experiences and people you’d normally not talk to in order to broaden horizons and perspectives. A study by Arne May from the University of Hamburg ("Juggling 'Can Boost Brain Power'") highlights the link between novel experiences and increased brain growth in thought, language, and consciousness. Talk to the person sitting next to you on the bus, in class. People who seem to fit a negative stereotype won’t fulfill it because social stereotypes are essentially untrue. After all, “everyone is unique.”

Another way to minimize the effect that implicit bias has in multiple situations is through mentoring. As Bonnie Marcus of Forbes reports, “All of the Top 25 Influential Women acknowledged the importance of mentors for their career success” (Marcus). Many of you guys are EAP mentors. A lot of the minority mentees might not need the help academically - but like me, there were a lot of kids who simply didn’t know what goes on in high school: clubs, competitions, teams, e-school, and other ways to advance themselves. You can get them involved and doing things beyond what they thought they could do. Like Yassmin Abdel-Magied says, “The idea of finding someone different to mentor, someone who doesn’t come from the same background as you, whatever that background is, is about opening doors for people who couldn’t even get to the hallway” (Abdel-Magied).

In the end, we are not just opening doors and lighting lights for those who are pushed back the most by implicit bias, but also for ourselves. Everyone has their own ninjas that hold not only others back but themselves. Biases are subconscious social phenomena that judge people not for who they are but what they look like, a tendency that not only alienates people but renders them unable to better the world they live in. When we see what biases really are and what they stem from, how they affect everyone, and methods like mentoring and awareness that are used to mitigate it, the world can become a better place - starting now. For a problem that has been around since the beginning of time, there is no better place to start.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Steele, Claude M. “Thin Ice: “Stereotype Threat” and Black College Students.” Atlantic Aug. 1999: 44-54. The Atlantic Online. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Brownstein, Michael. "Implicit Bias." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Steele, Claude M. "Thin Ice: "Stereotype Threat" Black College Students." Atlantic Aug. 1999: 44-54. The Atlantic Online. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Abdel-Magied, Yassmin. "What Does My Headscarf Mean to You?" TEDxSouthBank. South Bank. Dec. 2014. TED. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. (14:01)

Goffman, Alice. "How We're Priming Some Kids for College - and Others for Prison." TED2015. Vancouver, Canada. Mar. 2015. TED. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. (16:04)

Noguchi, Yuki, and Pete Sinclair. "How Startups Are Using Tech To Try And Fight Workplace Bias." Interview by Robert Siegel. National Public Radio. National Public Radio, 8 Sept. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. (4:48)

Isler, Jedidah. "The Untapped Genius That Could Change Science for the Better." TED Fellows Retreat 2015. Aug. 2015. TED. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

"Juggling 'Can Boost Brain Power'" BBC News. BBC, 22 Jan. 2004. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

"Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." NAACP. NAACP, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.
Leigh, Andrew. "Discrimination Study." Web log post. Andrew Leigh's Archived Blog 2004-2010. Wordpress, 17 June 2009. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

Marcus, Bonnie. "Advice from Top Women Leaders About Finding a Mentor." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York City: Little, Brown, 2008. Print.

Allie Gregory's Speech

          Don’t you just love now? A digital age, a digital world… That’s what we’re calling it right? This is the time of technology and making life easier. This is the time of innovation, of taking anything and everything and improving it with the new means at our discretion. We don’t want to carry around credit cards so hey look we made apple pay. We don’t want to carry a camera or a flashlight or a map, so we added those to our phone as well. We don’t want to wait 3 days for a letter to arrive in the mail, so we use email.  Anything and everything we can upload to the Internet is a good thing these days, right? You know, at this point we really ought to just upload our entire lives to the Internet! What a brilliant idea, don’t you think? Then we can be digital people for a digital world, a fully integrated part of the system.
          But wait. Is that really what we want? We can be digital people for a digital world, but should we be? The question posed may seem ridiculous, but it’s honestly far more relevant than you’d think. In our modern society, it has become the norm to rely so heavily on social media that we have done practically just that. We post pictures, post our lives online for the world to see. Some more than others pour their hearts into the Internet, and then they are left reliant on the reactions and judgments of other people staring at screens. Most everyone is caught up in the “put it online” phase, and it’s damaging society. It’s hurting people, and it’s hurting relationships.
          According to The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals, an online article by Brian Jung, some negative effects of social media include cyber-bullying, lack of privacy, decreased productivity, and a false sense of connection. Cyber-bullying is a major problem among youth.  A 2010 CBS News report states that 42% of youth say they have been victims of cyber-bullying. The psychological damage caused by cyber-bullying can have lasting effects. It is a very serious matter, sometimes leading to suicide. What Jung states under the heading of privacy, I paraphrase as don’t put anything on the internet that you don’t want your grandmother, pastor, boss, or children to see later. Once it’s out there, it’s out there.
          At least 2 studies mentioned by Jung found that social media strongly decreases productivity in the work place. Morse discovered that British companies lost 2.2 billion a year to social media, while Nucleus Research found that Facebook shaves 1.5% off office productivity. According to a TEDtalk I watched, Allison Graham stated that we check our phone on average 150 times a day. Each time we are distracted by our phones, it takes several minutes for our brains to get back to where we were with our work.
          Finally, according to Steven Strogatz from Cornell University, social media leads to a false sense of connection.  We find it more difficult “to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media.” Strogatz fears that by focusing so much of our effort, time and energy on these less meaningful relationships, our most important connections will weaken. Graham also spoke to this, stating that people on average had 10 close friends in 2001. By 2014, that number had decreased to 2. Effects of social media? My guess is yes.
          One point that Graham made that I found very interesting was that by abbreviating everything to LOL, OMG and IDK, we are limiting our vocabulary. By doing this, we risk losing the nuances and subtleties that make up our personalities. I very much believe this to be true. I pride myself on having a varied vocabulary, more so than so most people of my generation. I text my friends just as much as any teenager, but I refuse to abbreviate. I refuse to use the same language that everyone else uses. My language makes me who I am.
          I watched a TED Talk by a guy named Paul Miller, talking about the year that he “quit the internet.” He claimed to be a product of this digital age, caught up in staying interconnected via social media. And he was tired of it. So he stopped. For a year, he didn’t text, he didn’t email, and he didn’t access his multitude of social media accounts. And he described the feeling he got from doing so as “an amazing sense of freedom.” That being said, I get that the concept probably seems ridiculous. None of you feel any desire to go home and quit the Internet, I’m sure, not for any supposed sense of freedom. And yet, Paul Miller had some particularly striking insights nonetheless. He brings up the popular question, “Does social media bring us together or are we all just hiding behind our computers pretending we have friends?” And while he didn’t come to a very strict conclusion, he did list his observations. He said that since he quit the Internet, he could feel the difference in how he interacted with others. He said things became instantly more personal once he didn’t have the ever-present distraction that is the online social world. How many times have you been online, browsing Instagram or Twitter, with other people around? If you don’t think you have, then ask yourself how often you’ve let your mind wander to these things? We’re addicted to the social media. Even when we aren’t using it, we want to be. We want to see if anyone has liked our photo, or if any new people have requested to follow us, and it distracts us from real life. It doesn’t surprise me in the slightest that Paul Miller felt better about his personal relationships. Not having that distraction allowed him to fully engage, something we struggle with in this day and age.
          And now you have to recognize that I’m not asking anyone to stop using social media. I understand that it’s the norm. It’s what people do, and it would be so very hard for the majority of us to cut that out of our lives. Beyond that, much of technology is practically a necessity these days. Paul Miller even admitted that during the course of his Internet-abstinence he drifted apart from people in general. It became harder to keep up with them and as such in some cases he just didn’t. So, no, I realize that society is never going to take that step backwards.
          That being said, however, I feel like we can take steps in a better direction. The reason this problem is bound to continue is because people refuse to see it as a problem. Either they recognize that it’s their way of life and they’ve accepted it completely, or they are deluded to think it’s not as impactful as it is. As you can see it is very impactful. So all I encourage you to do is to think about it. Be aware. Don’t let yourself get caught up in this stuff, don’t let it rule your life.



Works Cited

Gowen, Kris. “Teens on Social Media’s Impact on Relationships: Survey.” Connect Safely. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.

Graham, Allison. “How Social Media Makes Us Unsocial – Allison Graham – TEDxSMU.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 12 Nov. 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

Jung, Brian. “The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals.” Chron. Demand Media. Web. 15 Jan. 2011.

Miller, Paul. “A year offline, what I have learned – Paul Miller – TEDxEutropolis.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 13 Sep. 2013. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

Rosen, Larry. “Social Networking’s Good and Bad Impacts on Kids.” American Psychological Association. (2011). Print.

Scott, Tom. “Social Media Dystopia – Tom Scott – TEDxSheffield 2010.” Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 12 Nov. 2010. Web. 12 Dec. 2015.

Thomas Winterton Speech

Hello! As most of you already know, my name is Thomas. I stand before you today as a peer, as an equal, with a simple question with a simple goal. The goal I have in mind is not to enrage, alienate, or to shame anyone in this room, I simply want you guys and gals to think upon what I am about to say for the next 3 ½ to 8 ½ minutes, let my words not come as an affront to your beliefs, but as a friendly statement from one friend to another with the hope of catalyzing a thought in your brilliant minds. I feel it is important that as the future citizens of our great society, we absolutely must challenge ourselves to step outside our narrowing belief systems. The longer we believe a certain idea, the harder it is to change that idea, to form a new opinion on the given subject. In most instances today, people will be so intoxicated by their beliefs that they forget to see any opposing ideas that might in fact be better than their own. Now please don’t get me wrong, disagreeing is a part of life and in some situations is healthy for the mind. Disagreement in some cases causes people to think, to absorb an opposing idea’s merits and challenge them against their own ideas, this process generates healthy discussion and in some cases allows people to perform the rare and monumental act of changing their minds simply because they left their brain open to foreign thought. We find though that there are also people who have such a vicious fixation on a certain idea that they forget that there is more than just one correct answer to the issues that plague society. So I come before you today with a simple goal, to cause every last person in this room, despite your better judgement, despite any opinions about the topic I am going to present to you, to think about what I say and to not let past convictions govern how you receive my ideas.
The topic that I wish to discuss is over the NSA and its controversial data mining methods. But first allow me to pose the question; is security worth the sacrifice of extreme electronic privacy? I am inclined to believe that security is indeed worth the sacrifice of electronic privacy.  The NSA was created in response to the attacks of 9/11 with the goal of preventing future terrorist attacks on the United States. You see electronic media allows for seamless connectivity between the people of the world. If I wanted to I could pick up the phone right this second and call a friend who resides in Australia, such a fantastic privilege has been abused by terror groups to recruit new members to its fold along with orchestrating attacks on our country from overseas. We simply cannot protect ourselves properly from the immediate threat that terrorism poses without the crucial assistance of NSA surveillance. Allow me to express my point. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, the head of the National Security Agency, said that American surveillance had prevented “potential terrorist events over 50 times since 9/11,” (From a house intelligence committee hearing.) Imagine if even one of those plots came to pass and terrorists managed to take the lives of innocents? If even one life could have been saved by NSA surveillance would it not be worth it? If 100 lives could be saved by NSA surveillance would it not be worth it? If it meant you lost a small portion of your electronic privacy, would you be so wrought with selfishness that you could care less about those lives as long as your texts, emails, and phone records are for your eyes only?
Allow me to shed light on the NSA’s data retrieval procedures and educate some critics, based on documents released by the NSA. (Propublica.org “FAQ: What You Need to Know about the NSA’s Surveillance Programs) The NSA directly gathers info from any source on the web including, social media, emails, web searches, and online purchases. You are probably thinking “there’s like a billion people in America, how they could possibly go through all the data?” Let me put the NSA’s technology into perspective for you. The NSA has a super computer called the “thinking machine,” this machine is capable of cracking most encryptions in the world, and it is capable of cracking the most common encryption in mere seconds, but this might as well be Chinese to most of you so I will explain, encryption is like a password to a message. A common encryption can have around 70 quadrillion possibilities, that’s 70 thousand billion, it would take a home computer 22,000 years to crack a common encryption, the “thinking machine” can do it in just a few seconds, and this was in the early 2000’s (NSA : Documentary on the Secret Intelligence Agency NSA). That being said there is a large probability that the NSA has collected some data from you. The NSA can gather from the stated mediums by themselves through their data gathering software’s, which stores that data and if an individual is flagged as a possible threat by any federal agency, that info is then viewed. But not before being flagged. The NSA can also gather the “meta data” of your phone records and text messages through the cooperation of cell phone companies. This “meta data” which essentially means the date, time, and place of the call/ text and the contact it was sent to. This data is then used to build an identity, the NSA can identify who your family is based on volume of texts/ calls to those people along with who your friends. To clarify, this electronic data is being mined and saved by a simple computer program, if you are a regular citizen, none of your personal info will ever be viewed by an NSA analyst. In the event that your info is analyzed by an analyst then one or more of the following events have occurred, you have contacted an individual on a “watch list”, communicated overseas, have committed an aggressive felony, a family member is on a watch list or you not a citizen of the United States. If you are doing nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear.
Despite everything I just said I must admit that the NSA has not revealed all of its techniques used to collect data to the public, it makes them look like they have something to hide, that they are corrupt, and that they are a mysterious organization with unchecked power to oppress the people. This is a perfectly logical fear to the average mind, but we do not have average minds. Allow me to Segway into my response with a quote from Gerald Walpin, former inspector general. “A transparency community within an intelligence community is an unworkable oxymoron.” (Gerald Walpin- National review) I will explain with a crude  analogy, If I was a boxer, and I’m about to fight the fight of my life, do I announce my fighting strategies to my opponent before the fight or do I keep my mouth shut and fight the good fight? While there is no perfect situational comparison to the NSA, this analogy serves my purpose all the same; if the NSA discloses every tool at their disposal it will be that much harder for them to stop terrorists.
The NSA has saved many lives despite what critics say, regardless of their controversial methods, they are working to keep us safe. We work these ideas into our minds that they have wronged us through their pursuit of justice. We must realize for the NSA to continue being effective, we must let them do their job and trust them with their duties until they prove untrustworthy. We cannot let the theoretical abuses of the NSA outweigh the concrete threats we face today. It’s not the system we deserve, but it’s the system we need.



"FAQ: What You Need to Know About the NSA’s Surveillance Programs." Top Stories RSS. N.p., 05 Aug. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Walpin, Gerald. "We Need NSA Surveillance." National Review Online. N.p., 16 Aug. 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Alexander, Keith B., Gen. "N.S.A. Chief Testifies on Surveillance." The New York Times. The New York Times, 18 June 2013. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

"NSA : Documentary on the Secret Intelligence Agency NSA." YouTube. YouTube, 8 Jan. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.


Tabbi Coffman: Speech

Tabbi Coffman
Mr. Logsdon
AP English
13 December 2015

Modern Human Slavery and Trafficking


The majority of the people in this room are taking a US history class, and for the few of you who are not, let me fill you in on what we have been studying.  Last week we finished up our last unit of the year: the Civil War.
One of the important outcomes of the Civil War was the addition of three important amendments to our Constitution:  the 13th, 14th and the 15th.  For my purposes, we’re just going to focus on the 13th Amendment.
The 13th Amendment abolished slavery and involuntary servitude in the United States. So no more slavery! What a happy ending.
If that were true, I wouldn’t have chosen modern slavery as my topic. Modern day slavery and human trafficking may be below the average person's radar here in the US, but worldwide, and even here, it is still a serious problem, and should be of concern to us. 
First, let me define the difference between slavery and trafficking. Human trafficking is the illegal movement of people through the use of violence, deception or coercion for the purpose of exploitation. Slavery is the exploitation of people, often through forced labor or sex.
There are also many forms of slavery, including bonded labor, child slavery, forced marriage, forced labor, trafficking, descent based slavery and sexual slavery.  All of these forms are being used worldwide... though there is no exact number of how many slaves there are, the estimates are still staggering:  21 to 36 million.
Now these are pretty scary facts, but I am going to narrow the topic even further to the one form of slavery that affects mostly women, but also some children and men: sexual slavery, which can take several forms, being forced to have sex for money, or being forced to have sex with the slave owner, for example.
This exploitation of people for the purposes of forced sex work mostly happens to women and girls, but also a small percentage of boys and men.  The women who are trafficked usually come from poor, unstable countries where women look for economic opportunities.  This search for work is often how they become tricked or coerced into sexual slavery.
Slavery is most prevalent in Africa, India and Russia, but is also found around the world, and even in the US.  So let's discuss the areas where there is significant slavery, beginning with Africa, specifically, Niger.
Niger is a land locked West African country, one of the lowest ranked by the United Nations Human Development Index, and slavery is still a prevalent issue.  It is estimated that 5% of the population is enslaved.  One of the slaves was Tamazrat Ousame.
Ourame is a woman who was enslaved 20 years ago by a high ranking nomadic family. Taken as a small child, at age 5, she was forced to work from early in the morning until late at night, sleeping on the ground outside the master's family's tent.  For twenty years, she was forced to cook, clean and bear children until she escaped.
The next prominent region is Asia. Asia is home to nearly half the world's slave population. There are 14 million in India, 2.9 million in China, and 2.1 million in Pakistan. Of the 14 million in India, 1.2 million are children being used for sexual exploitation.
Hazel Thompson is a journalist who has spent 11 years of her life investigating and documenting the horrors of the red light district in Mumbai, India.  A red light district is an area of the city that contains brothels and other sexual or sex related businesses.  In the case of Mumbai, the red light district is an area of the city where thousands of girls are enslaved, caged and raped.  Over her years of research and investigation, Thompson is able to share here documentations of the brothels she's seen.  She describes the conditions that the girls are kept in.  Prostitutes had described "cage rooms" where they'd be held in boxes, not knowing if it was day or night, for months or even years on end.  Keeping the girls locked in cages for extended periods would "break" them so that they wouldn't run away.
And this description is just for one particular brothel, when there are hundreds of brothels in Mumbai, and thousands in all of India. 
Red light districts are not just in Asia...they are in Europe too.  But in Europe you certainly don't think of slavery.  It's developed there, not a poor developing country like Niger.  Prostitution is legal, and the red light districts of Europe are a sexy tourist destination: nothing to fear, nothing to hide, and nothing to be ashamed of…except for the thousands of trafficked victims, and hundreds of enslaved women in those red light districts.
One of the most infamous red light districts is in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands, where 80% of the prostitutes are foreigners, and 70% of them don't have the proper paper work, meaning they have probably been trafficked.
Lauren Bethell, an international consultant for Netherlands International Ministries often volunteers with organizations to investigate the red light district.  In an interview she was able to discuss the how's and why's of these women getting there. 
For many of the foreign women, they came voluntarily knowing they would be working as prostitutes, to earn money to support their families.  What they don't know is that they will become trapped, and won't be able to leave. For native girls, you’re targeted when you’re around our age—or younger—when you’re naïve and insecure. It's a process called grooming, where a pimp will develop a co-dependant relationship with a girl, so that as soon as she turns 18, she can be coerced into prostitution whether she wants to or not.
But that doesn't happen here in the United States, right?  That's in other places and happens to other girls.  "It won't happen to me...I have nothing to worry about."
Let me make this relevant to the people sitting in this room.
300,000 children are at risk of being coerced into the sex industry annually, and 86% of US counties report sex trafficking as a significant issue.
In 2014, there were 113 sex trafficking cases in Kentucky.  Of those cases, there were 160 victims, the average age being 21, the most frequently occurring age, 17, 86% female, and 14% male.
Sex Trafficking and Human Slavery happen all over the world, and even in Kentucky.
I don't mean to scare you with these statistics, but in my opinion, one of the most dangerous things about sex trafficking is how little people know about.  We all need to be aware of the dangers of slavery in America. This problem is not going to be solved by donating to a fund.
Many of us are 17.  Being a teenager, you are at a vulnerable age.  We're all young and pretty, and almost adults, but still children. We should be kept aware of this issue; by social media, and by our schools. We also have to have strict laws enacted to bring an end to human slavery and sexual trafficking.  This is not the 1860’s; and slavery should not be an issue.



Bibliography

·         Conrad, Naomi. "Modern Day Slavery Still Rampant in Niger." Dw. Deuste     Welle, 22 Aug. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.             <http://www.dw.com/en/modern-day-slavery-still-rampant-in-niger/a-         17871711>.
·         Feingold, David. "Sex Trafficking." Human Trafficking Gsgp. JSTOR, 27 Apr.       2013.Web.13Dec.2015.<http://humantraffickinggsgp.weebly.com/amsterd ams-red-light-district.html>.
·         Gates, Sara. "More Than 29 Million People Live As Slaves, According To New            Report." Huffington Post 18 Oct. 2013. Print.
·         Goldberg, Eleanor. "10 Things You Didn't Know About Slavery, Human         Trafficking (And What You Can Do Against It)." Huffington Post 15 Jan. 2014. Print.
·         House, Thomas. "Human Trafficking." Anti-slavery International: Today's Fight           for Tomorrow's Freedom. The Stableyard, 19 Sept. 2015. Web. 13 Dec.      2015. <www.antislavery.org>.
·         Marquez, Emcarnacion. "Sold Into Sex Slavery: The Plight of African Women             Migrating To Europe." Online interview. 15 July 2015.
·         Saar, Malika. "Girls, Human Trafficking, And Modern Slavery In America."     Thinkprogress. Center For American Progress Fund, 6 Oct. 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

·         Thompson, Hazel. "Inside the Brutal and Hopeless World of Mumbai's Trafficked       Teenage Sex Slaves." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 28 Sept. 2013.                                   Web. 13 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/orld/2013/sep/28/trafficked-in-india-red-            light-districts>.

Assignment 17: Horray for Hollywood

It's Oscar season,  that time when movie studios parade out their Oscar contenders.  So for this post I'd like you to go to the movies over the break.

Actually you can just watch at home but I like the idea of you telling your parents that you HAVE to go for a homework assignment. 

Please pick one:

1. I'd like you to pick a genre or director and watch two films by that director and then compare/contrast the two in whatever way you deem appropriate.

2. Go see a film and submit a review of that film on rotten tomatoes.  Once you post, link the post in your blog so I can read it.  Be sure I have access to your post.


Minimum of 150 words - due Sunday, January 10th at 11:59 pm

(Last day to submit posts 17-20 will be February 21)

Sunday, December 13, 2015

Nate Speech



Nate Dutch
Logsdon Speech
          Hello, fellow classmates. As the youngest of three brothers, things never really went my way. Although now that the other two are in the real world things are pretty great, but that’s a topic for another time. Anyways it seemed like I never got my fair say but no time was my opinion ever as disregarded as in the topic of family vacations. Orlando was a favorite destination for my family, but we never did Orlando the right way. We’d take a brief stop at Disney world for 2 days, a day at Universal, and then 4 days at SeaWorld. Let me say that gain. 4 days at SeaWorld! You can exhaust every interesting attraction there in about 2 hours and then you’re stuck watching the (god damn) penguin show. But we’d never actually do any other attractions but watch Shamu’s Fun Time Friend Show. I never really got the appeal of watching animals do tricks, but it apparently brought tears to my parents’ eyes. Today, it brings tears to my eyes for a different reason. Because Shamu and his fun-time friends are not happy and are a danger to everyone around them. The unethicality of whale shows, the problems faced in captivity, and the threat of human loss all warrant the release of Orca whales back into the Ocean.
          First, let me interrupt this speech to first present you a brilliant idea I had for a business. How about we steal children from their mothers and chain them up in dark areas and then use them for entertainment. What could go wrong? I really hope you guys know me enough to know that I’m just kidding. But in reality this is no joke. Replace the word children in the previous sentence with baby Orca whales and you have the business plan for SeaWorld. The treatment of killer whales is far from humane in almost all Orca whales show parks. In the 2013 documentary Blackfish, the holding tanks for killer are shown and they are depressing. One park called SeaLand boasted a tank that was 26 feet in diameter and 20 feet in depth holding 3 Orcas. An can be as small as 20 by 12 feet. The average adult Orca whale is about 28 feet long. Imagine being crammed into a bathtub with a stranger and being asked to live there. That’s just wrong. According to Blackfish, Orca’s in the wild swim around 100 miles every day. Needless to say, they don’t swim a hundred miles in their tanks at SeaWorld. The concept of using them for entertainment is just wrong too. This is an intelligent open ocean predator, not a parrot.  Even many of SeaWorld’s trainers, like Pirtle, have voiced their concerns about using sentient animals to do tricks for an audience. But what’s most wrong is that baby Orcas get separated from their mothers. Killer whales have an amygdala, which is the brains seat of emotion, that is even larger than humans relative to the rest of the brain. They may even experience more passionate feelings than humans. They are emotional animals for sure, and the footage I’ve seen shows that they often never recover from the loss of family.
          Pirtle had some very admirable points, but she also claimed that Orcas were no less healthy in captivity than they are in the wild. Sorry Bridgette, but you are way off. Killer Controversy: Why Orcas Should No Longer Be Kept in Captivity, a report on the subject revealed that Wild Orcas lived on average 31 years for males and 46 years for females. Their captive counterparts, they rarely make it past their late teens or early twenties. Only 2 captive females have ever surpassed the age of 40 and no male has lived past 35. In a paper published in Marine Mammal Science researchers discovered that only 27% of captive Killer Whales live until they are 15 as opposed to an estimated 80% in the wild. Also, many sad deficiencies and injuries have been found among captive Orcas suggesting poor health. In captivity, 100% of male Orcas have a collapsed dorsal fin that flops to one side or the other. This was claimed to just be genetic and non-important by SeaWorld but the same collapsed dorsal fin is a rare find in the wild. Also many whales in captivity are found bleeding from teeth marks due to a form of fighting that is the result of being packed into small spaces together. So any way you slice cake, Orca whales are definitely worse off when you shove them in tiny pens.
          Now, I would like to appeal to those of you that don’t care about animal rights. If you don’t care about Shamu then please care about all the people he’s murdered. According to Killer Controversy there has not ever been a recorded instance of an Orca whale killing a human in the wild. There a 4 deaths on record of humans interacting with amusement park whales. Blackfish went in detail on these deaths. 1 took place at SeaLand where a trainer was dragged down and drowned by 3 Orca whales. One of these whales, named Tilikum, was then sent to SeaWorld. He then proceeded to drown a member of the public who snuck back into the enclosure at night. His final act was to drown his head trainer who had been with him for 11 years. Tilikum still does shows today. No one for sure knows why these drownings occur. It could be pent up stress from being in the enclosure. It could be that they thought they were playing. One thing is for sure though and that’s that Orca whales are complicated and dangerous animals. Like I said before, Shamu is an open ocean predator, not Fluffy the dog.
          Well I guess you could say one good thing came of all the terrible treatment. Now when my family goes to Orlando, we go to Disney World for 6 days and that’s definitely a win. But  every time I’m in Orlando I can’t help to think about how sick the treatment of Orcas is, how sad the differences are in health between wild and captive Orcas, and how many more people will die before people will do what needs to be done. So even if you heard all of this and don’t care I still urge you not to go to SeaWorld. If not for the whales, at least don’t go because you could go to Disney instead.