Monthly Archives: November 2012

Frack Frack Frack

As most know, we are doing our documentary on fracking and the controversy around it. As a whole, we are trying to explore both sides of the coin and see if one side outweighs the other. We have split off what we want to individually accomplish and then we will bring it together as a whole and pull this project together. Hopefully by the end of this project, people will be more informed of fracking and its positives and negatives.

My role is to possibly find interviews and articles written by people in the fracking industry. I will then take this information and weigh it with the opinions of those who oppose fracking. It will be great to see what the industry says about fracking and then also see what the public thinks as well. I have  a friend whose dad is in the fracking industry and his interview will be attempted to be obtained. A first hand account could really improve our credibility on an already controversial topic. This information will be presented in an organized and informed way. I will use pictures, statistics, and slides to help make this as easy as possible. When explaining all this to my audience, I will take a confident tone and trust my sources.

When one looks at our project as a whole it should be quite strong. Fracking is something that not too many people are well informed about so it is great that we will be getting information out to the public. Our goal in this research is to find if fracking is worth all the trouble that it has been deemed.We are trying to tackle this from all angles and get multiple sources from different areas of fracking. Environmental aspects, power, and the race for natural resources will all be mentioned. Fracking is here and takes place in Pennsylvania. Is it worth it? We hope to find out.

 

Titicut Follies

I am pretty sure that by just viewing the title of this blog post, nobody could foresee what this documentary could be about. Titicut Follies is a documentary directed by Frederick Wiseman and exposes the awful treatment of mental patients in mental hospitals. It is grueling, terrifying, and informative. This documentary was so controversial that it was even banned from tv screens in several states. Massachusetts only allowed the film to be viewed by people in the related field of psychology or psychiatry. So what did this film do so well that has put it on many lists as one of the best documentaries ever filmed?

The first and most striking aspect of this documentary is that it is all real live footage. There was no censoring and Wiseman made sure that all viewers saw the horrors in real time. Yes, it may have been too much for some, but force feeding the public truthful information was necessary and Wiseman realized that. The narration throughout the documentary is also quite interesting. While being exposed to these horrid images, the narrator remains calm and almost contradicts the images on screen. This is not a bad thing. This makes the shocked audience realize that what they are seeing is true and although it is gruesome, it is something they need to take notice of. The narrator does a great job in keeping a calm mood to keep the audience calm themselves while viewing this documentary.

Perhaps what this film does best is that it gets its point across but understands its audience as well. Yes, the images may be a turn off for some, but it is countered with a great narrator who reminds the audience that what they are seeing is real and needs to be taken into account. This no holds bar documentary opened so many people’s eyes and started a push for patient rights in the late 1960’s to early 1970′ and it did it the way it needed to be done.

 

The link has images and video from the documentary.

 

 

Frozen Solid

Living in Pennsylvania all my life has definitely made me become accustomed to cold weather. I loved playing in the snow as a kid and even though I am older now, I still enjoy winter. However, now that I am experiencing winter at State College, I am starting to find that the season I used to love is now my most hated. If anyone wants to experience cold weather in full force, spend a few weeks in State College. Just last week, I attended a football game and by halftime I could not feel my feet, hands, or face and believe me I had dressed quite warm. I almost had to leave the game due to the weather but luckily I toughed it out.

Something that I quickly realized from all this is how important it is to be prepared for any type of weather. I have now experienced temperatures above 100 degrees, been in the middle of a hurricane, and froze my toes off all in one semster. All this has taught me to always be prepared for anything college throws at you. I was not prepared for winter or the hurricane at all. I had no rain gear and did not think a heavy jacket was needed. I suffered for that and spent many days sitting in class covered in rain or freeing while walking to class. Trust me, it is not fun. I finally pulled it together and purchased the necessary articles of clothing and am now prepared for anything.

College is very stressful to begin with and not being prepared for any type of weather can greatly deter your success and put you in a bad mood. Next time I attend any location for an extended period of time, I know for sure I will be looking at the weather report for the following few weeks ahead.

 

Making the Transition

This is the first time I can honestly say that I have ever had to convert a research paper into a speech, let alone a TED talk. With less then a week to prepare I knew I had to be very good manging my time in preparation. The problem that I faced was that I felt that my paper by itself was weak, so I decided to redue major portions of my thesis and almost create a new argument. I did not define media and technology very clearly in the paper and I made sure to do this in my speech so my audience would not be confused. I also decided to switch the viewpoint I wanted to express to something that could apply to a bigger audience. I felt the transition was successful. In preparing for a TED talk, I did not do much differant then if it was a regular speech. I prepared in a leture hall, but obtained a clicker to switch slides while speaking. This proved extermely helpful because it basically functioned like the TED talk rooms. The TED talk was actually fun as it allowed the speaker to get creative and be able to gain the audience’s attention more easily through the use of technology. It was nerve wracking at first, but who would not be nervous with Kyle glaring you down……

Overall it was a great experience and TED talks are definitely the future of public speaking. Whether its through pictures, videos, or even your own props, the ability to attract attention should not be missed. As speakers, the number one goal is to draw an audience in. Once you have your audience at attention, then you can make your point. There is no easier way to do this then by a TED talk. I encourage anyone to watch one if you have not. You will be surprised by how effective and entertaing they can  be.

History of a Public Controversy

Our group has decided on fracking and I coulnd not be more excited. It is a great topic to explore becuase Pennsylvania is one of the nation’s leading energy suppliers via fracking. This project opens up many possible ideas. I believe it will be important for our viewers to not only udnerstand fracking by definition but also to perhaps view it through a video or even a live feed. Important things that will be necessary for research are: what percentage of the country’s power comes from fracking, and what percentage of the country’s pollution comes from fracking. These two topics will be the weight of the entire presentation and determining if one outweights the othere will be very important in proving if fracking is here to stay or if it needs to go.

 Energy plays such a vital role in our lives that there should be no problem in attracting an audience. After doing research it will be important to decide which side of the coin we feel as a group is better. This will also prepare us for those against the viewpoint we have and we will have to rememeber to still reach out to the audience as a whole. This is always vital in portraying anything to an audience.

Fracking looks to be a great topic and it will be exciting to research and see just how much it affects our daily lives here in Pennsylvania.

Energy Drinks

As I was finishing up my formal Chemistry report in West computer lab I looked around and noticed just how many people were drinking energy drinks. Sure it is 2 am and many of us still have so much work to do, but on top of cramming school work, how good can those drinks be for your health. I decided to browse the web and I stumbled across many different articles. I thought I would just share a few things I learned. Contrary to popualr belief, most doctors do not recommend consuming any energy drinks as they are not good for one’s health and although they heighten senses, most usually lead to a crash. Now I know many of you are saying what about five hour energy? They too are just as unhealthy. Remember that our body gains energy by burning the food in our stomaches and thus energy is created. This natural process is what gets most of us through our daily routines. When one starts to substitute energy drinks for a meal, things can get unhealthy. Rememeber that on top of giving us energy, food also supplies our organs and other bodily functional groups with nutrients to grow and thrive.  By taking a drink of these energy supplements we are stressing our body and pumping out energy without refueling the body functions that are helping to make this energy. That can not be good at all  and eventually our bodies get so exhausted we crash. So as I look  round and see all these people working hard and drinking energy drinks, I am waiting for one person to just pass out. It seems as if a few  already have.

Just remember that when you are tired and craving energy to continue to function, grab a meal or a snack not a energy drink that will only stress your body out even more.

Public Controversy

Deciding on a topic for our group’s public controversy was no easy task. There are millions of topics to choose from and many more pop up each day. We decided we wanted to do something that related to us on a more personal level and so tentatively decided on fracking as our topic of choice.

Hydraulic Fracturing is the process of drilling into reservoir rock formations and releasing petroleum, natural gas and other abundant energy sources. So what is so controversial about this process? Fracking can cause air pollution and ground water toxication that can be very unhealthy. Over the past few years it has been a hot topic for debate and the main argument is does the good outweigh the bad consequences of this process.  It is a very interesting topic because it shows how far we will go to get energy sources for our state. This will be a great controversy to discuss and its long term impacts will be analyzed. On a broader note this also touches on the everlasting search for renewable enregy and the means to obtain it. Wheter we implement that toipic or not will be decided.

 Of course this reamins a tenative subject.  Other ideas included capital punishment and gentic modification. These topic are a bit harder as the arguement of religion comes into play but still remain possible choices as well.

TED Talk

TED talks have been something that I have known about for a while and I have watched quite a few of them in my free time. When I found it we were going to have to give one, I thought that it was a great opportunity to take part in a new social media craze. After preparing my speech and prepping for my talk, I discovered that it is much different than an ordinary speech. Now one not only has the opportunity to get their point across through speech but also with technology. I believe this makes it easier for your audience to understand your point and what you are trying to emphasize. Pereparing for my TED talk made me reailze that the visuals may actually play a more important role then my speech itself in some instances. Every speech has its sticking points and  lulls. I feel that these visuals give more energy and provide a better oppertunity to prevent my audience from losing focus on what I am trying to tell them. Visuals became key for me and for my speech. As interesting as my topic may be, I have the ability to now further emphasize my paradigm shift with facts and visuals to engage and engross my audience. The visual selection was very tedious, but it was well worth the effort. So was the practice.

Halfway Point

With my first semester being already past its halfway point, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the school year so far and discuss some of the most important things I have learned so far. Time flies and it is really crazy how my first semester is almost over. I remember when I first stepped foot on campus and was so nervous about pretty much everything. Six weeks later, I feel as though I am a veteran here. Besides getting to class and academics, a few things that were challenges at first were sleep, eating, and football games. Early on, I found myself in an overcrowded class schedule that had me getting five hours of sleep a night (at most) and eating only two meals a day. Fatigue settled in and I knew I had to do something about this. My downfall was that I took on more then I could handle and it was affecting my personal well being. I decided to meet with my  advisor and change my schedule around. This was the most important change I made this semester. I soon found I could eat, sleep and still perform well academically. This brings me to the point of my adivsor. This assest was one of the most important thigns I discovered and I encourage anyone to take advantage of it. These people are paid to help you with college in general and it would be silly not to use them. My adivsor saved me and could help you too. Lastly, football games have been a blast and although it is awful to have to get up on 8 am on a Saturday, it is worth it. They are a blast and some of the most fun you will have in college. Get to one if you can. You deserve it.

Ted Talk

Morozov starts his utter destroyal of  the Khannas off with a bang. He immediately goes into how the Khannas provide so many irrelevant facts and never actually support their argument that there is a paradigm occurring involving a new coexistence and coevloution between humans and technology. Three sentences in and you know our author utterly dislikes the couple’s Pamphlet and is on a mission to destroy it. He instantly questions Parag Khanna’s credibility by discussing his past ventures of alerting the public that a new genre of international relations is upon us. Morozov did his research. He goes on to even pull a statement from Parag Khanna’s earlier work How to Run the World that involves how we need less new global organization and more coordination amongst our current enterprises and organizations. Morozov then blasts Khanna stating that this would in no way help stop global warming and or cyber crime amongst other things. He then quotes several other pieces of past works of other authors and turns them against them in ways that on the surface look credible. An interesting refutation he makes is against the supposed theory of Tedist and how they just try to find a global trend, connect it to technology, and then state how a revolution is occurring due to technology. This is an interesting argument and I will discuss my feelings on it later. So he then proceeds to get into  Hybrid Reality, the current article at hand. So Morozov has tried to completely destroy our authors credibility and now takes  a stab at their new work on Ted Talks. He starts off by comparing the Khannas to the Tofflers, an earlier couple who did the same thing the Khannas are doing. He goes as far to then destroy the Tofflers credibility by stating they were the creators of Gingrich’s crazy theories and thus harm the Khannas. Man this guy is out to get anyone involved in technology. He claims they are civilization savers and touts them as demigods who use bullshit to predict the apocalypse. He goes on to state how this Hybridization has been around long before the Khannas and list names of people none of us have ever even heard of.  Apparently, the Khannas also are secret China lovers as he makes them out to be worshipers of China’s economic standings and their  operations as country. He then inter pets that they are “anti- democracy” and how they relate all their work to so called experts that are just out to fund their own businesses. It gets really interesting when he discusses the Khanna’s word Technik.  Technik  is something so expansive and nebulous that it can denote absolutely anything.  This word is apparently used as a cover up to make anything the Khannas say sound techy and impossible to interpret. There goal is to confuse  there readers so much that no once can make them out to be wrong. All in all technology is being connected to everything without actually saying anything, according to Morozov. Finally he rips into all TED enthusiasts and how they never refute anything and make out that technology can save everyone and is a god send. They never touch on politics and don’t focus on issues at hand instead. They find reasons why bad things occur and connect them to personal faults and not that of government. They stay out of arguments and instead focus on how all problems are due to lack of connectivity. Basically, all Tedists are complete evil doers.

Morozov is not a good rhetor. Form the start, one can tell he is out to destroy TED and all its followers. Every sentence is littered with complaints, arguments and just plain dislike that he makes himself out to be a one sided idiot in the end. Sure one can say he has credibility by relating the Khannas points to previous people like them who failed or are apparently morons. The problem is that all his sources and credibility have to do with people we have never heard of or theories none of us can even comprehend. I believe he makes the Khannas out to be something they are not at all. They are not radicals as he basically claims. They are people with beliefs that the world is facing a paradigm and that soon we will have to evolve with technology. I believe that we do have an increasing dependence on technology and the Khannas may have point. However, Morozov takes their ideas, blows them up, and then finds a way to try to make them look moronic by using some fact about a previous theorist or event that none of us have ever heard. He has no audience. He just wants to please himself and clearly show his dislike for an evolving technological genre. His main fault is this, he pulls out quotes form the Pamphlet, blows them up to be more then they are, relates them to something in his favor, and twists it to make readers see our author’s in a light that does not really exist. If one looks closely, they see right through this smoke and mirror trick.

Kevin Kelly gives a great Ted Talk on how techonlogy’s evolution is very close to that of humans evolution. At 1:30 he asks what technology’s purpose is and gives us a great definition, the first definition ever recorded of technology. It is a pamphlet to help us live and evolve and to solve problems. He then states how technology is anything invented after you were born. At 4:44 he makes a purposeful statement on how technology hacks problems in life we can’t fix or don’t understand and helps us around them and to understand them better. Finally in the 9:30 to 10 range he goes on to discuss how people say that technology only talks to technology and humans and it can never coexist. He states how this is wrong and that there is coexistence all around us. Technology is the seventh kingdom of life. It evolves just like us. Kelly knows his stuff and unlike Morozov, appeals to us more lightly and on a more friendly basis. He is not hear to insult but rather inform. That was Morosov’s greatest fault. Seeking new ways to solve problems, achieve things once thought impossible, and make things easier and more accessible is the goal of technology and humans and without each other neither can thrive and grow. This statement around 10-11 mark really made me realize that Morosov is wrong. He refutes the co-evolution that the Khannas state is happening. They are right due to the idea that there is a co dependence on each other and that if you look at humanity and technology as one machine then if you remove one part the machine fails. There is a paradigm shift. It is not dependence as we see, but now a growth. As we grow, so does technology. Yes, we are its creators, but we need it just as much as it needs us. Who could tell us if someone has cancer if we did not have technology. No one. This Ted Talk kills Morozov’s points and further strengthens the Khanna’s and helps us understand that there is a new era dawning. Yes the Khannas may have some radical views here and there, but there overall message is pretty credible. Technology does wonders for us.  Perhaps Ted talks are leading the way because technology and humans are coexisting and evolving together to better present ideas to each other. This is the future and whether Morozov likes it or not, co-evolution is upon us and he would be arrogant not to acknowledge it very soon.

Ted Talks are going to be very important a few decades from now because as technology evolves, so are the possibilities of our world. It will be very important to make sure everyone understands what technology and researchers are trying to say to us and TED talks are the way to bridge that gap. As we have seen so far, they are very effective at getting a message across as they use both technology and a speaker to help us understand things at a more interactive level. I believe they are going to be vital to connecting ideas with people and helping society as a whole evolve. Whether you like it or not, the technological era has taken off and is moving at a rapid pace. One is going to need to keep up and TED talks are going to help us with that. It is so vital not to fall behind in the never ending evolution of both our species and technology. We both need each other and TED talks illustrate just that through the combination of technology and a human person to sit in the driver’s seat and control it.