Power Team

I personally was not offended by the article. I feel that the author took a very deliberate interpretation of the show when the meanings were probably subconscious representations at best. I doubt that the Power Team deliberately wanted to promote patriarchism and masculinity and that this was likely an unintentional side effect due to their personalities. I think that the Power Team is trying to promote good, promoting an anti-drug, anti-violence message. Whether or not one is religious, at least those two aspects of the show are positive. The author admits that the Power Team is effective at conveying their message - something that seems to be difficult in modern culture. Violence, drugs, and sex are all very common in today's society and the fact that the Team is able to denote those things negatively in an effective manner is noteworthy. While they may not be ideal and offensive to some, I feel that the Power Team is not forcing spectators to attend. Rather, they appeal to crowds who attend of their own free will. The Power Team is not advertising falsely, so the audience shouldn't be surprised when religious topics are brought up and pushed onto them. As said in class, the article is probably more dramatic than what is actually being presented. I'm not advocating the Power Team or saying that their process is what is right, I'm just saying that I support what they are attempting to do.

Plague of Tics

This was a compelling story. As mentioned in class, the degree to which he is up front about his actions is unique. The author was extremely descriptive. Throughout the story, I could imagine the antsy child meticulously licking light switches and touching telephone poles. He was so direct with his writing that the child seems vulnerable in the story. Rarely does one get to read a story in which the author's thoughts are so transparent and open for discussion. But his story also opens up the topic of OCD and provides insight to the innerworkings of an individual who suffers from the disease. The most intriguing part of the story is that the tormented character is hilarious in a sad way. The story is amusing while covering a serious topic. This is an interesting way to bring awareness to a topic that, from the class concensus, kept the reader's attention and interest.

Video Surveillence

I have a few specific questions that I'm debating to use for a thesis statement. Why are governments not held accountable for the amount of surveillence they use and why is the public so indifferent (for the most part) of the use of video surveillence are a few major questions I have. I can't honestly say that I know the answer to those questions but I have a few ideas. For one, governments generally use less video surveillence than what the public perceives. And since 9-11, the public (not just in the U.S) feels a certain need for more stringent security measures. I feel that governments should be able to use more surveillence and more advanced measures of surveillence for the welfare of their citizens. However, there must be boundaries or measures of accountability in place so that people don't feel as though their privacy is being violated. I think some are opposed to video surveillence or feel that the government knows what it is doing and the public should not be privy to the sensitive data that is collected. I think corruption is easily overstated but should never be ruled out and it is the government's job to protect its citizens. If video surveillence is effective, then a government should use it. I did, however, find a promising news article from 2009 that added accountability to the implementation of video surveillence. The article discussed changes in the Department of Homeland Security's grant application. In the new application, privacy assessments are required and must be approved if an applicant wishes to install video surveillence cameras. I have a study of public perceptions of video surveillence in a city in Canada and another post 9-11 study in which I found both to be particularly helpful and interesting. The studies raised similar questions to which I may propose and found many misconceptions about the topic. I have a range of other sources that offer background information to the topic, from the purpose of using surveillence and how to effectively implement surveillence to some of the latest technological surveillence capabilities available. Yet another study I found tracks a particular system's effectiveness in Venice and explains the drawbacks of such systems. I would still like to conduct my own survey in order to get opinions of my peers on campus here and see what the college-age demographic thinks about the subject. I also need more information about the use of video surveillence in private industries and regulations involved therein.

Stupidity and Laugh Tracks

I found Klosterman's article rather amusing, though I also found it somewhat insulting. I think I would have found it more insulting if I didn't agree with his stance. I mean, saying that I'm not capable on my own of deciding whether or I should laugh at a joke is belittling. But, Americans do tend to shy away from being unique and tend to not form their own opinions. We are programmed of the correct responses to numerous, unique circumstances and perform these responses like robots. While an individual is smart, people do tend to be stupid. I can honestly say I've never consciously acknowledged whether or not a sitcom used laugh tracks. However, in retrospect, I have observed how people react differently to "comedy" in sitcoms that use and don't use them. I personally would like to think that I'm am an exception to Klosterman's rule more often than not, as I pride myself in having a unique sense of humor. But, I've never actually monitored my reactions to sitcoms with and without laugh tracks and observed the differences. I think I will definitely be more aware of how laughter is used on a day-to-day basis.

Security Engineering

I plan on doing research about security engineering, though I haven't quite narrowed my focus as of yet. I want to research the latest physical security innovations, such as facial recognition cameras in Great Britain or the airport security mechanisms in place today. I'd like to know more about the scope of the security engineering field and what is required of security engineers on a day to day basis. It has always been interesting to me the security applications in place that no one notices. Barricades outside of malls or large corporations disguised as large decorative flower pots or hidden security cameras used for surveillance. Some of these issues are controversial, and I may want to delve into the stances that many have for or against using these new technologies. Finding information about this topic seems to be very specific and it is difficult to find a lot of new, quality sources. However, I do want to pursue this field after graduating, so I think I'm up to the challenge of finding more information on the topic.

Optomechanics

Marquardt, Florian and Girvin, Steven. "Optomechanics." Physical Review Letters: Physics 2, 40 (2009). n. pg. American Physics Society. Web. 2 Feb. 2011.

The authors introduce the fundamental concepts of the forces exerted by electromagnetic radiation. They explain how mirror can be moved, or "trapped," using light. These mirrors oscillate and can resonate at different frequencies and the radiation forces can be measured from this frequency over a time lag. They conclude their thesis by explaining practical applications of this technology and setting goals for being able to harness this technology. This work is a combination of over fifty outside refences as well as original experimentation and observations from the authors. This information is particularly interesting about how radiation forces could be applied at quantum levels of physics applications, extending into integrated photonic circuits, switching, and semiconductor chips.

Richtel's Article About Technology

The Cambell family is definitely an extreme example in my opinion. The article "Your Brain on Computers: Attached to Technology and Paying a Price" (found here) was interesting at points. I couln't believe that their technology dependence was to a point where Mrs. Cambell burned her cookies twice in the same afternoon and Mr. Cambell forgot to pick up his own children from school. I believe those are self-control and priority issues, not the fault of the technology at hand. Technology, I feel is like any other tool. Tools can be used as intended or abused. I think of the saying "guns don't kill, people kill" as a similar correlation. Technology doesn't distract, people let themselves get distracted.

There were some interesting statistics in this article, too. The statistic that said people at work switch between windows, email, or other programs almost 37 times per hour seemed a bit high to me. I'm not sure either that switching between various documents or spread sheets count in this study. If it did, I would say that's just someone doing his or her job. If not and I was the boss, I'd be monitoring and blocking computer usage of the tested sample. But I find computers immensely useful. Commenting on this article is so much easier because I have it open in another Internet tab for reference as I write this.

Without a computer, heaven forbid, I wouldn't be able to do my job as an Intelligence Analyst in the military with half the efficiency that I'm able to now. While deployed, I spent nearly 10 hours a day at a computer station reading, communicating, making spread sheets and graphs. This just would not have been possible without my computer work station. Any major incident that happened in Southern Iraq was instant messaged straight to my work station from the first unit's analyst who knew about it.

While the distractions come as a part of it, (you only have to look at the page of the article that I linked above - the clutter of adds and applications make the site very distracting) you have to make a conscious effort to tune it out. This also falls back on the programmers who design sites, should take into consideration how distracting his or her media layout is. The New York Times site that I linked to is a disaster. Over 1/4 of that page is irrelevant to the article - various advertisements and links. The same can be said of the layout of this blog. With designs like these, it's no wonder people can't pay attention.