Post #12

Child's Play

It is mind-numbing to believe the widespread negative ramifications caused by a simple legislative act. The public school system in the United States(US) has been reeling since 2001, when President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act(NCLB) into effect. I believe the act to be counterproductive because a premium has been placed on standardized testing, upon which the results determine a school's budget. NCLB has reeked havoc on teachers' curriculum by monopolizing the priority list and jeopardizing time slots normally devoted to lesser activities, such as physical education. These types of time budget manipulations are all but forced  compensations in order to adequately prepare for test taking. Most importantly NCLB has exposed the American public, and its symbiotic public school system! Why exactly are students unprepared for standardized tests? From my experience, the cycle begins with the students and the parents, not the teachers, nor the standardized tests. Unfortunately too many Americans live in a bubble. In 2010, the United States ranked 48th out 133 developed nations in math and science standardized testing. Unfortunately, the situation will have to get much worse in order for it to improve. Multiple social factors actively contribute to the continual renewing of this disingenuous and distorted reality. Fixing the situation will not be as easy as child's play!

Post #11

 Election Results

The presidential election that took place on Tuesday, November 6, 2012 was a landslide. President Obama won seven out of eight swing states, those being: FL, OH, VA, CO, NV, IA, NH and amassed a total of 332 electoral college votes to his opponent's 206 votes. He also won the popular vote by more than 3 million votes. One particular statistician, Nate Silver , a neutral and well respected analyst, made an early prediction based on polling, and was practically 100% accurate. Also, TYT host and founder Cenk Uygur, made a prediction in September 2012 that practically mirrored the election outcome. To me, the most entertaining part of the election is not that President Obama was re-elected, for which I am thankful and commend him for, but the continual internal bickering and seemingly eternal finger pointing of the Grand Old Party (GOP). Bill O'Reilly and Dick Morris of the Fox News Channel say that conservatives have lost the country.Carl Rove, the Grand Poobah the GOP, and perhaps the person suffering most from bubble vision ,was the most distraught over the election results.The GOP is spiraling out of control, and are out of touch on issues most important to their constituents. I sincerely hope they remain entrenched in their bubble, and continue to adhere to 19th century conservatism.

Free Play

Unfortunately, many people think of play as a luxury, not a necessity, so it often falls to the bottom. Schools make do with outdated equipment or none at all. The thinking is that kids are resilient, so they'll be fine in the end. This raises some key questions: Is play really necessary? And if so, what purpose does it serve for kids?

-Darell Hammond

Paper Prompt:

 In the end, are we actually fine? With the obesity epidemic ballooning out of control, is it fair to extrapolate the assertion that it all comes out in the wash? For this research paper, you are charged with the task of analyzing the child obesity epidemic. What influential role does play, or a lack thereof, have on the increasing of waist sizes of youth in the U.S.A. Analyze the causation of obesity, and the direction it is headed towards.Create an argument based on your posturing towards the relationship between play and obesity.  

 

Up, Up & Away

                                                                                                                                   

Recess at l' École Saint-Rémi was always a much anticipated event. The school yard was expansive in landscape, and contained a wide variety of activities: a baseball diamond, tractor tires, dodge ball courts, basketball courts, champ courts, butts-up courts, a soccer field, a sand box, industrial sized swings and slides, a wooden bridge, and an a man made hill. The crème de la crème was a white box containing hockey sticks, that was rolled out at lunch time! My most found memory however, occurred on the kindergarten playground, a section quarantined by row of skinny trees. I suppose my older friends Matthieu and Karen regarded me as cannon fodder, because one day, while at after school day care, they had the wise idea of bending one of the trees backwards, mounting me and then launching! That was the idea, thankfully it didn't quite go as planned! I got snagged on the trunk, and was effectively dropped to the ground. The only serious damage was to the backside of my shorts...and underwear, that were almost completely torn off! A lot was learned that day, most importantly; just because someone is older than you, does not make them right! 

Oops, had the silly thing in reverse!

Blog #8

   The McCroak Special                                                    

Where does personal responsibility stop and corporate responsibility begin? Should an individual have the ability to sue a restaurant chain for the decline of  personal health based on the consumption of their product? These are some of the central points of contention Morgan Spurlock tackles in Supersize Me. With a quasi scientific method approach,this documentary sheds light on the negative side effects of ingesting a diet of fast food over a period of 30 days. Spurlock's hyper fast food diet included eating his three principle daily meal at McDonald's. The end result was dramatic, and the documentary convincingly proved that "you are what you eat". The philosophical question is: what is the role of the government? How involved should the government be in implementing regulations and brokering leverage to enforce them? Another important question is who's interest does the government protect above all else? In my opinion,better health regulations would benefit society. According to current obesity statistics, the situation is spiraling out of control. The government's responsibility is to protect it's citizens, and given the current acceleration of the obesity epidemic, not enough has been done. It is not my responsibility to lecture every overweight individual! Personal responsibility is irrelevant because the problem is too forgone! When I get a speeding ticket, law enforcement issues it, not a random civilian. Paradoxically, I do not find that fast food restaurants are the source of the problem, they are only emblematic. Their behavior is not more predatory than their competition.  The FDA has had a super sized failure. More smart government please!

Crisis aborted?

                                                          Meltdown

 Part 1 of four FRONTLINE documentary exposés chronologically unveils the causes and effects of the 2008 global financial crisis. A litany of finite research consistently points to the coagulation of negligence and deregulatory actions of government, culminated by greed and corruption on Wall Street, nearly spelling a depression. The origin of the world wide credit boom in the 1990's is examined by defining what credit derivatives and synthetic collateralized debt obligations are. Members of the JP Morgan Bank team responsible for inventing the first credit default swap in 1994 are interviewed. Gillian Tett, the first journalist to uncover this scheme explains “they began to look for ways to enable financial institutions to pass risk between them[…]another way though, was to separate out the risk of a loan going bad from the loan itself, and out that came this drive to develop credit default swaps". This documentary sheds light of the attempts and vocalizations of regulators and select government employees prophetically warning the public of the possible calamity if no regulations are implemented. In a linear steadfast, the ire then focuses on Alan Greenspan, then chairmen of the Federal Reserve, advising President Clinton to repeal the Glass-Steagall Act in 1999. This directly lead to the inception of mortgage credit risk and predatory mortgages; causing the housing bubble. In 2008 the bubble burst and as Roy Barnes, the former (D.)Governor of Georgia proclaims "The greed of Wall Street broke Main Street."

Onward and Upward

                                                         To Infinity And Beyond

Is Google making us stupid? To me, this is equivalent to asking whether dictionaries make us stupid! The answer is a resounding no. What Nicholas Carr, an Atlantic Magazine journalist attempts to convey in his long winded article “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What The Internet Is Doing To OurBrains” the notion that the internet is causing irreversible change to a person’s attention span, and ability to focus. Consequently, deep, comprehensive reading is yielding to the quicker skimming approach, similar to that of an internet browser. Accordingly, the internet is the culprit, just the same as the first clock, the first written transcriptions of ancient Greek philosophy, and the typewriter. Whether you realize it or not, computers already have an invaluable footprint on you daily life. All road vehicles are managed by a power control module (PCM). Traffic lights are controlled with an automated system. The magnetic strip and microchip on your credit card enable them to be accessed by computers. All cell phones are computers. Life as we know it has been irreversibly changed by computers. A person’s bad habits, developed by surfing the net, that perhaps have unintentionally permeated into other psychological realms, are not a justifiable reason to step backwards on the progression of computers or any technologies. 

   

The Human Touch

2007, A Brain Odessey


It seems to me that technology and curiosity are innately interwoven in the fabric of human evolution, and are perhaps the leading drivers in the human condition. It is not by accident that Linnaeus classified humans as genus; Homo, and species; sapiens. Homo meaning man or person, and sapiens roughly translating as wise, sensible, judicious. The speaker of the conference linked to above is Kwabena Boahen, a PhD. of Computation and Neural Science and MSE of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Kwabena Boahen). The narrative of the lecture is his ongoing development of the most efficient computer possible, without sacrificing processing power. In his eyes, the model of the human brain is the answer. The ramifications of releasing a computer that equals, and potentially exceeds the output of a human brain are exponential. Will the pros outweigh the cons? What will we learn about our brain in order to accurately replicate it's capability? The point in time when this technology is widely available to the public is inevitable. It is my opinion the human-computer relationship should always be modeled as the metaphor of a sophisticated race car, which is depicted as the human always being the stop. In other words, the machine operates optimally with constant calculations from computer sensors, allowing for faster and safer races, but humans are the integral component and beneficiaries of technological improvements. The fruits of computing have positively contributed to diminishing human suffering, and in my opinion, will continue to enable our successful existence, and ensure our survival.

The steering wheel of a Formula 1 race car.

Micheal Micheal, Motorcycle!

                                                                   The Bug   

Words cannot explain the joy I experience when I'm on two wheels. I've now had my motorcycle for a year and 4 months. There were many inspirations for me to own a bike, stemming as far back as childhood. My best friend growing up had a father who was a semi professional enduro racer. On several occasions I would have the privilege of joining them on a day long adventures through either sand pits, forests, fields, or quarries near my hometown of Kirkland, Quebec, Canada. The father would have one of us on his All Terrain Vehicle (ATV), while the other would blast away on their motocross. Just thinking of odors of those experiences: exhaust, dirt, wild flowers, brings a smile back to my face. I can even remember the first time I learned how to use a clutch, I was 7! The seed that was planted definitely took root, and as a graduation gift from university, I knew what I wanted; a street bike. It is true, with motorcycle riding comes increased risk. I am glad that the state of Florida requires, as of 2008, new motorcyclists to pass a comprehensive safety course, that includes both theoretical and practical examinations. I have learned that the key to success when riding, anywhere, is to keep constant vigilance to your environment. That means being alert at all times, because the more you can anticipate, the easier it will be to react. Another important tip is sobriety, as being under the influence of any substance hinders judgement and reaction time. There are many advantages to using a motorcycle, prime among them is efficient fuel economy. On average I spend $14 on premium gasoline a week. Another advantage is the climate in Florida, which enables one to ride year long. In general, I encourage people to try riding a motorcycle before they scratch if off their bucket list because at minimum it will increase awareness towards motorcycles.

You don't have to understand Italian to enjoy this clip!

The GOAT(greatest of all time) vs Lorenzo

Once More to the Lake

                                                           Once More to the Lake

Upon reading E.B. White's Once More to the Lake, I too started to be overcome with nostalgia. To me, lakes are the source of a great number of memories, good and bad. In many ways, my experiences mirrored what White wrote about in his memoir. Similar to White, I can relate to seasonal visits, "We returned summer after summer-always on August 1st for one month". In Canada, this is referred to as "Cottage Season", from Victoria Day(May 24th) until Labor Day(first Monday of Septembre). Another visit down memory lane arose when White describes his son putting on a damp and cold bathing suit, as he prepares to jump into the lake, "Languidly, and with no thought of going in in, I watched him, his hard little body, skinny and bare, saw him wince slightly as he pulled up around his vitals the small, soggy, icy garment. As he buckled the swollen belt suddenly my groin felt the chill of death." White captures this experience perfectly. Putting on a cold swim suit, is very unpleasant. In my opinion, the chill of death experience refers to the anticipation of jumping into the cold water of a lake. You have to be out your mind to voluntarily jump into 60oF or 70oF water. The immediate experience is shock. The best method is to jump in, because the pain is over relatively quickly. Some people meander in, claiming that they want to acclimatize themselves slowly, inch by inch. This method is as close to torture as I would ever like to come.

     

Mother Tongue

                                                            Mother Tongue


I was not impressed with Amy Tam's commentary in her essay Mother Tongue. What is more, I am an immigrant to the United States, so I believe I have skin in this game. Furthermore, none of my grandparents had English as their first language, making my parents the equivalent generation as Amy Tam. I understand Chinese(correct me if I am wrong, but she never specified: Cantonese or Mandarin) has absolutely no correlation to English. Understandably, when Tam's mother moved to California, she started English from nothing! Similarly, two of my grandparents conversed in Hungarian amongst themselves, and spoke English and French with an accent, as they moved from Slovakia and Romania, to Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Herein lies the difference; nothing mattered more to my grandparents than assimilation into North American culture. They did not teach my father and his siblings any of their 6 languages, only English. So, it sounds foreign to me when I read " I think my mother's English almost had an effect on limiting my possibilities in life as well." First of all, what does "almost" imply? Secondly, Tam was in Pre-Med before transferring to English as a major in university, what possibilities were limited?  At no point throughout this memoir do I recall feeling compassion towards the victim mentality status Tam pontificates upon.

The Fight

09/15/12

                                                   Champion of the World


I think it's appropriate to firstly lay some contextual facts on the main event of the story. Joe, the "Brown Bomber" Louis, an up an coming Heavyweight boxer, had a successful bought against Primo Carnera, on June 25, 1935, remaining undefeated at 20-0. Dr. Maya Angelou(née Marguerite Ann Johnson) was born on April 4, 1928, making her 7 years old at the time of the contest. Dr. Angelou published I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings in 1969.
I don't believe the boxing match was the content of the story. Ironically, I see it as a vehicle in portraying the fight people of color were having against segregation, particularly in the Jim Crow south. If my interpretation is even remotely accurate, the psychology of this seven year old child had been molded around existing with racism.
The most conclusive evidence of the presence of segregation is Dr. Angelou's parting words, " It wouldn't be fit for a black man and his family to be caught on a lonely country road on a night when Joe Louis had proved that we were the strongest people in the world." I would conclude that no matter the outcome of the fight,  under no circumstance should a person of color been caught on a country road, because racist authorities could use a victory or defeat as an argument to provoke a violent encounter. To say that there was a double standard for black people during that time is a gross understatement. To say that race tensions are a thing of the past in the United States, is laughable. I am fortunate however that Dr. Angelou wrote this chapter in her auto biography I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, as it humanizes people that were unjustly accused of being "lower types of human beings. Only a little higher than apes." I can't imagine myself at age 7 having that frame of mind, can you? I wouldn't wish it upon anyone!

  Eye to eye, minus the scale.