New Plateaus

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Continual (Solar-Powered) Economic Growth

28 Feb

Last Saturday I attended an event at the University of Minnesota showcasing professors and their research. Each gave a presentation and took questions from the audience. One spoke about depression economics, another about social justice and the environment. And interestingly, both of these distinguished men had very different opinions on a basic issue.

The sociologist speaking on the environment was concerned about the ransacking of resources humans are committing on the planet. He spoke of the inability to sustain economic growth (growth we’ve been used to the last several decades) as there is only one Earth with a growing population that is already taking its toll on the planet. To continue this, and especially to increase, such consumption and environmental affects would be to destroy the Earth.

The economist talked about depressions in the world economy and explained their definition as not a dip in living standards, but a dip in growth. In other words, growth is to be expected. When challenged by an audience member about growth inevitably coming to an end, he shrugged it off by countering his belief in indefinite growth.

Both sides have reason. The former in that resources are scarce and present methods for production won’t keep up; the latter in that growth has been occurring–at an increasing pace–for several generations. And with the accelerating rise of gargantuan India and China, why would growth slow down–let alone cease?

After the economist’s lecture, the audience member who challenged him approached a bit annoyed. “We’re going to need five Earths to fulfill demand of the world’s population by 2050″, she warned with a wrinkled brow. “Where are we going to go once we’ve taken everything off the earth?!”

I interjected, “We’ll colonize Mars.”

She looked at me like I was crazy.

Maybe colonizing Mars is crazy–though I don’t think so. Regardless, the point I wanted to make is that over the last several decades humanity has met the demand of their needs despite those who have fretted about the end of oil, minerals, and even food. What they’ve neglected is that there will be technological and logistical innovations which they can’t account for today. They assume the rates of consumption, population growth, prices, etc. will continue, and that no innovations will meet future demand–whether they are ways to get more oil or grow more food, or whether it’s an adjustment of how we get our energy.

“Solar will be the plurality of power within 20 years”

This quote ran across my computer earlier this week. It was made by Elon Musk, the man behind the Tesla electric car. While there’s no way to know if he’s right, this is precisely the kind of thinking and optimism that will allow humanity to continue to thrive. It’s not about ignoring current warning signs about population and consumption, it’s about seeing them and so knowing we have to do something about them.

to new plateaus,

-Brandon

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Will 3D Printing Make Gun Laws Useless?

25 Feb

It’s pretty tough to enforce a law that regulates something when people can make that thing in their homes.

3D printing is on the cusp of taking the world by storm. The technology is being brought up first for its possibilities, and now for its controversies. First things first: a 3D printer is a device that simply makes objects. Whereas a regular printer might go over a line of text or an image multiple times to make it clearer, a 3D printer’s jets go over the same area repeatedly to slowly create an object out of plastic or polymer from the bottom up. The company Makerbot makes a $2000 version of this machine.

Mostly, people create knickknacks or parts for various applications. Fittingly American, though, people are starting to use the printers to make guns–actual guns. Not all of the weapon can be made with these printers, but most of the parts can. See the story here which fleshes out the technology, those making the guns, and lawmakers expressing concern over this home recipe.

Along with their products, Makerbot hosts a website for people to share designs. Once alerted to firearm designs, Makerbot took down those blueprints. But this is the Internet Age. Other websites now offer them, people are discussing among themselves how to work them, and we’re in the nascent stages of a manufacturing movement of a million tiny factories–them being people’s basements.

The website I got this picture from, Daily Tech, actually said the gun failed after 6 shots.

This particular application of 3D printing is about the guns, but it isn’t the only way in which this new technology is causing concerns. Not surprisingly, some of the knickknacks mentioned above feature famous images–such as a bust of Yoda from Star Wars:

People are thinking of all kinds of neat things to do: such as creating their own one-of-a-kind Yoda head flower vase.

The problem with this creativity and development? This item, and the design for how to create it (along with countless others on the site), are copyrighted. Thus, anyone’s use of these images is illegal. So there are many folks out there right now who–as you read this–are breaking the law. Some, I’m sure, without even knowing it. They probably think that because it’s only one copy and for themselves, that there’s no harm, but that’s not what the law supports.

The use of 3D printing in this regard represents a huge challenge to intellectual property. It makes us rethink the idea of “owning” an idea, and it definitely makes us rethink the ability to enforce the rules. Maybe creators should be compensated for their ideas; maybe guns shouldn’t be available to everyone. Regardless of our beliefs, new technology means that less is going to determined by law. Because we’ll have less control over how/if we like to try to get people to behave in the ways we wish.

I’ve written in earlier pieces about how technology solves problems law simply tries to regulate. We called that segment “Problem Solved?” This piece’s segment might be called “Problem Started?”–the phenomenon of technology interfering with law.

But while it’s interesting to think about extremes, I’m sure a middle ground such as that which was found for file-sharing and the music industry, will be located on these issues, too.

to new plateaus,

-Brandon

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In the Not-Now

18 Feb

What does it say about Americans that the public is already starting to talk about candidates for president for 2016?

Eckhart Tolle wrote in his book The Power of Now that mankind is threatened by our worsening inability to live in the moment; that over the last century, countless deaths have occurred in the name of ideologies promising a better future while destroying the present; and that the root of this tendency is our individual minds running the show. We’re not awake to the Now, because we’re avoiding it and letting it be blocked by a racing, out-of-control mind. And as a result, we let our egos tell us what we want, we seek shallow gratification, and are reactive and fear-based.

Though I can’t fully agree with him because I also see plenty of evidence for why things on planet Earth are better than ever, I do agree with this tendency in our population to live in the future, talk about the past, and care increasingly little about what’s happening right before us.

In plainer language, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, mentions being on vacation with her mother, and while taking in a gorgeous view her mother expresses that they must come back her again someday. Gilbert’s response was that we’re here right now! Enjoy it.

From our own observations, how many times over the years have people commented on how department stores offer sales on holiday shopping earlier and earlier each season?

On sports radio, I hear talking heads speak more and more about what might be–for example when a new player joins the team. In this capacity, I note the high frequency I hear the phrase “it’ll be interesting to see.”

People are swimming in their mind’s forecasts rather than their five senses’ stimuli.

This theme really struck a chord with me when, over the last few weeks, I saw headlines such as these:

“POLL: Marco Rubio Is The Early Republican Frontrunner For 2016″

“Is Rahm Emanuel considering a presidential bid?”

America just got done with the rigmarole of a strung-out, dramatic, and expensive campaign. And talk resumes immediately about 2016.

This increased attention on the future isn’t the responsible, planning-ahead kind. It’s about soaking in the drama of what might be. And indeed, it seems more important for many to live in a speculative world than in the real one. Following the election in November, instead of going back to their lives, many are continuing in their comfort of what might be rather than what is.

Overall, I think this is symptomatic of a larger issue: living vicariously. Focusing on a potential future is one way of distracting and occupying the thoughts of oneself from their real life. This doesn’t have to happen by imaging the future. People live in the past: the good ol’ days, the regrets, the “I could have been”s. Third, it can happen in the present when we watch too much TV, soak in tabloids, are attached to a sports team, or even when glued to the news.

It all takes away from our presence.

I don’t know if it will destroy the country, but when focusing on what we might experience, what we had (or should have) experienced, or what others are experiencing we sure lose the richness of our existence.

to new plateaus,

-Brandon

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Adventures in Subbing: Inner City School pt 2

14 Feb

Part one was about the hoopla; this post is about the nuts and bolts of the student struggles in North Minneapolis.

When the 6th and 7th graders I taught this day eventually got down to work (which took some doing–see part one), most did get something done. But for many, it wasn’t much. For every hour, students paired up for their research projects. The 6th graders covered topics on the Civil War, i.e. the Emancipation Proclamation; the 7th graders covered Afghanistan, i.e Afghan refugees.

When things got down to business, I went around to each group to encourage their project and assist them in ideas and research. I also had to make sure they weren’t photographing themselves or going on email with the Apple laptops each were given. More often than not, I was dealing with students doing as little actual work as possible. For them to stop talking, stop playing, and get into a work mode was a real drag for them. This strikes toward the heart of the matter. Poor discipline is what everyone sees as the problem, but below the surface and countering their prolonged enthusiasm for video games, the NBA, gossip, and just joking around with one another was the resistance to let their interests and a seriousness take them over to allow for learning and exploration.

I talked to the other 30-something male teacher in this class about the difficulties getting these students to want to learn. “They’re embarrassed”, he said. I think he’s on to something. To express an interest in something is to expose a passion, and so means being vulnerable. It’s like admitting which girl you like. That’s scary when young. Perhaps admitting your interest in Civil War history is similar. Perhaps little encouragement from the time they are toddlers means that a child with low self-image will have a difficult time seeing how he can contribute something useful. Perhaps, when having fell behind in research, reading, and other learning skills, a child worries their questions will be met with ridicule, that their lack of ability will be exposed and embarrass them. And then, once a culture of not caring has developed in the school, to stick your arm up (aka neck out) and ask a question will be met with disapproving peer pressure. I could see how the problem compounds. And I saw it.

One 7th grade boy–a sort of gentle giant for his age–was on the group reporting on Afghan refugees. I don’t think he knew where to begin, and had I have not sat down with him I’m betting he would have played a computer game all hour. I asked him to find out some basic info like how many refugees there are or where the refugees are going. Despite his insistence on wearing headphones blaring his favorite tunes, I assisted him with finding a website where he could copy the info from. By the end of the hour, he had managed to copy two sentences on a note card.

Not every student resisted their research. In one pair of girls, one did all the work, allowing the other to mess around. Another boy was off by himself putting together an impressive powerpoint presentation to use doing his report. In fact, that not every student was a rabble-rouser produced another reason for dismay: as the noisy kids ate up the precious minutes of the school day, the quiet ones just sat there and waited. When we would finally get down to work, the studious students got right to it. I remember one hour keeping the laptops in the cabinet as a way to get the class to be quiet. I was conflicted because the quiet students shouldn’t be deprived of work time because of the loud ones. I honestly wished these students would get out of this school and into another where their learning, and love for it, won’t be stunted, but nourished.

Stereotypes held as the ones who worked better were usually White or Asian. But whether studious or a whiz at powerpoint, they were exceptions. And though it was nice to see a revealing interesting when talking with some others about their topics, the environment was defined by the lack of concern and outward interest in learning, their horseplay exaggerated in that void.

It’s a problem–potentially an enormous one. I told the students that play is great and appropriate at times, but I also said that with no work mixed in with their play, a difficult time was in store for those who might never develop a skill or expertise. Who knows if the words sunk in. Either way, doing what we can to help children want to be what they can is imperitve.

Another day when I taught 4th grade in this same school, the other two 4th grade teachers came into my room in the morning to greet me and offer a hand if need be. Send any student giving you a hard time to our room for a time out, they said. I would do this a few times throughout the day. It so happened, as well, that the school psychologist officed right across the hall. She entered my room once unannounced to see how things were going as she heard the banter. She, too, offered her room for difficult students to sit in.

It wasn’t a half hour later when one boy with an apparent anger issue starting yelling at the class to shut up during a particularly noisy stretch. In a moment, though, his anger stripped away and his sadness underneath surfaced, causing him to flee underneath the table in the back of the room and start crying. He came out from underneath when I asked him to, and I took the defeated-looking lad across the hall to the school psychologist. Looking at him, she was quick to say to me that the room “is too noisy”.

She was right, of course, and she was right in her criticism of my handing of the classroom and to address the present problem head on. But I was a little frustrated because I was trying hard. And I was troubled because behind the surface issue of a roomful of noisy kids were a host of problems in Minneapolis having to do with broken homes, violence, drugs, welfare, racism–all leading up to these difficult and troubled children. Though I’m sure the psychologist was well aware of this, her response represents how we only scratch the surface and boil down this expansive problem as being just a case of a room being “too noisy”. We’re going to have to dig deeper than that if we want to see this community, and thus these kids and schools, improve.

to new plateaus,

-Brandon

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Lawmakers Should Be Held Responsible for Harmful Laws

10 Feb

In America, people are required to repay others when they harm them–intentional or accidental. If a bicycle manufacturer produces a bike with a bad pedal, and it causes you to break your leg, you have a case to sue the manufacturer for damages. The same is true for individuals. If I back out of the driveway and run into my neighbor’s mailbox, I’m responsible for my mistake.

This definition of justice is a tenet of our society.

So why are lawmakers never on the hook when they create legislation that causes damage?

Plastic bag bans are enacted in cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and others. And while these laws were passed with evidently not enough consideration, research done after the fact has revealed some alarming trends. A study by law professors Jonathan Klick and Joshua Wright, as reported in a story by Ramesh Ponnuru at Bloomberg.com, found that “emergency-room admissions related to E. coli infections increased in San Francisco as soon as the ban was implemented.”

Why would eliminating plastic bags cause E. coli? Herein lies the law that sometimes rears its head as a result of careless laws: The Law of Unintended Consequences. Because people can’t use plastic bags, everyone uses the reusable, cloth ones. When not washed (and the study found that 97% don’t toss their reusable bags into the laundry) these bags can collect bacteria from meat or other products.

Ponnuru continues, “The San Francisco ban was also associated with increases in salmonella and other bacterial infections. Similar effects were found in other California towns that adopted such laws.” And the researchers estimate “that the San Francisco ban results in a 46 percent increase in deaths from foodborne illnesses, or 5.5 more of them each year.”

If this is true, then the ban of plastic bags is literally killing people. A little too dramatic? Maybe so; maybe not. The point is that laws have consequences. And too often our lawmakers are blind to this by knee-jerk reactions to “make the world better” through law.

I was in the Minneapolis mayor’s office last winter awaiting my chance to speak to him about my concern over the city budget being funded by traffic citations (that’s another post–right here, in fact). Also waiting were a mother and son team out to clean up Minneapolis–or at least get rid of this punching bag of single-use plastic bags. The boy was maybe 18, and I asked him, “Why ban the bags?” He said you see them on the street making a mess. This is presumably what city councils in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Seattle thought, too: that because plastic bags were being littered, they ought to be illegal.

I don’t know how the mother and son’s meeting went. (Either way I thought it was cool this young man was taking an active role and that his mom supported him.) But I am also thankful no such ban has taken place in Minneapolis.

Shouldn’t there be consequences for unintended consequences?

If the results of the above study are valid, there ought to be a reaction. I don’t think San Francisco lawmakers should be charged with manslaughter, but why aren’t politicians responsible for the damage they cause? How about financial compensation for lost work and health care expenses as a result of getting a bacterial infection from diseased reusable bags? In one specific instance in LA, ”A reusable grocery bag left in a hotel bathroom caused an outbreak of norovirus-induced diarrhea and nausea that struck nine of 13 members of a girls’ soccer team in October [2012]…The outbreak also affected many family members after the team returned home.” -Los Angeles Times

If nothing else, I’d like to believe that re-election would be in question, but Americans don’t connect the dots and see that 1: there are real consequences to laws–often unintended. Rash law making is dangerous. And 2: we should look to the people who made the laws as responsible. They campaigned for the responsibility. Though they get a lot of pressure from advocates or even the general public, it’s their job to withstand pressure to make bad choices. To give them the freedom to write laws with no consequences is also a dangerous thing. You attract the kinds of people who are interested in power with no strings attached. Rather, lawmakers should research the heck out of the possible consequences when enacting new rules. We should encourage such thoughtfulness.

Lastly, it’s entirely possible that the research above is refutable, and that cost-benefit analyses might support the ban. And though this ban might be a clear-cut example of laws leading to immediate harm, many financial harms from bad policy aren’t seen for years, i.e. when government introduces a new animal species to the environment. So the ability to seek compensation would get very murky. But whether it’s holding lawmakers financially accountable for laws that cause harm or simply making them pay at the polls, they should be held to a higher standard — the standard we have to live by when backing out of the driveway.

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Adventures in Subbing: Inner City School pt 1

06 Feb

I walked into the class knowing that it would be a little tougher than other places I taught. I based this hunch on the location, and it was confirmed when I arrived and administrators told me the students can be “a little wild”. I was wrong, however, in what this meant exactly.

See, when imagining teaching in North Minneapolis, I pictured students giving the teacher a real hard time and getting under their skin. What I got instead was sort of the opposite. Students didn’t care at all about trying to “get to” their teacher. To them, I just really wasn’t there. This apathy–toward me and their assignments–I found even more difficult than a head-on challenge.

This day I was the middle school English teacher overseeing classes of 6th and 7th graders. Despite being warned, as the first period began and the students rolled in I sat at my desk anticipating that gabbing students would lower to a dull roar as they entered and quiet down as they sat. There was no such transition, and the talking continued and continued. (I don’t think the seating situation helped. Students sat around large tables that held about 8. This arrangement put students in little social bubbles that made it easier to ignore anything from the outside—like me.)

Soon I was at the front of this class of predominantly black students, with a few white, Latino, and Asian students throughout the day. Students looked nice as they all wore blue uniformed tops at this newly-built public school. I said something loudly to get their attention; half looked up. I’d say something more; a new half would look. You could say I was treading water, but a response rate like that means you’re drowning. (It should be reiterated that I was the sub–this makes a difference.) But by the actions of other teachers, this chatter and playfulness wasn’t that unusual, either. I learned this because–and thankfully–another teacher entered the room soon after as he always does for the first two periods in this classroom each day. And this other teacher–another 30-ish white man–wasn’t taking any guff from the students. He ordered them to work. The gentle-looking guy took me by surprise.

[But what are you to do? I felt my patience tried as the students didn't listen, yet I also know that if you demonstrate that you're losing your cool, the kids won't respect you. Plus you'll get tired and lose your voice. Trying to mimic my role model here, I would settle on a matter-of-fact strictness that isn't out of anger, but is rigid. But then two weeks later, I taught at this same school--a fourth grade class this time--and, during an all-4th grade event, saw fellow teachers react to ongoing chatter in a quite different manner. They'd simply stand quietly with a hand raised. I didn't think this would work as it might have in my school growing up. I'd tried this same move in other difficult classrooms, but was stuck looking like an unimpressive statue that the student couldn't care less about and left me felling silly. Yet these 4th grade teachers did it, and it worked. (Because they weren't subs? Because this works with this age?) I don't know, but it seemed to do so because they weren't trying to slam the door shut on the student's activity, but instead worked with it in a manageable way that saw the students--within 2-3 minutes--calm down to a reasonable, though rarely totally absent, level of noise.]

My fellow teacher this day, though, with these 6th and 7th graders, was more stern. And he was listened to better than me. Because of him we got the instructions out for the hour and work commenced.

The pinnacle of this undisciplined first day was an enormous afternoon class of 6th graders—34 of them–that I had to handle by myself. It was like previous classes of elevated and hard-to-extinguish chatter. But the force of these 34 was beyond my meager and solo skill. After a failed raised voice, I tried a tried-n-true method of attention-getting: the ol’ I-clap-you-clap routine. I went, “Clap…Clap…Clap, clap, clap.” They repeated. It worked—in a way. Because while I’m a former drummer and so did some fun beats that got their attention and participation, it also got a few of the more animated boys standing and dancing to the rhythms. The class loved it.

I had to smile for this as well.

What I did next, though, was something I hate: making examples of a few to get the others to be quiet. As most the class was talking, the bar was set fairly high as to who would be the ones to pick. But four managed to be a head above the rest, and so I asked them to come to the front for discipline. (They did listen to this order, actually.) Yet, I didn’t know what discipline in this school looked like. (Do they send students to the principal’s office these days?) I asked these four what the school does when students get out of line. Turns out there’s a three-step process to going to the office. I guess this was to be step one. (I said it was step two.)

Soon after these four sat back down–and things weren’t getting much better–I took the recommendation of a couple quiet students who sat at a front table. From the get-go they had been suggesting in resigned tones, and in response to my raised voice, “They’re not going to listen. You should just call the principal.”

“Not so fast”, I initially responded. I wanted to try to get this under control without bugging the head cheese. I realized it isn’t ideal putting a difficult student on the plate of the already busy guy.

After my failed discipline of the foursome, though, one of these boys asked again, “Should I just get the principal?”

I relented, and soon the assistant principal came in which quieted the children right away. The sharp-dressed, 40-ish black man gave my class a short talking-to. I felt like I failed, but so be it. We had already lost a third of class time. And this man was understanding of my challenge, asking me here and at the end of the day, how I was doing. Good man; as was the head principal. These men deserve our gratitude. I’d be grateful for them as I now am for all the teachers that deal with a difficult student body hour after hour, day after day.

Though the behavior–which included paper airplanes, profanity, and a girl telling me to shut up–is noteworthy, what I find more interesting are the implications of, and reasons for, these rambunctious youths. That discussion is for next time…

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Adventures in Subbing: The Achievement Gap

01 Feb

I sat on a tiny chair while the 22 Kindergarteners I was assisting this day sat cross-legged on the large, plush map-of-the-world rug in the corner of their room. Their teacher sat before them in her rocking chair going over the sounds each letter of the alphabet makes.

It was cute to watch, albeit quite normal.

Then the teacher put down her letters and asked the wide-eyed, bouncy children, “Who can tell me all the countries of Africa?”

Wh-what! I scowl-smiled in that taken-aback, humored way, scrunching my eyes in skeptical wonder and then lightening up to a disbelieving grin. “No way”, I thought. “Africa has more countries than any other continent. There’s like 50 of them.” It was the hardest test in high school geography. And these children are going to list them off by heart? (The accompanying question to this was: This school has their Kindergarteners learn what I did when I was 17?)

But immediately after the teacher asked this, three little arms shot up. “Okay, Cynthia, come give it a try.” Up walked wee Cynthia to the head of the rug and started listing them off to a melody. “Angola, Libya, Egypt, Morocco, Niger, Chad, Senegal, Guinea-Bissau…. umm… uh.”

Uh oh, she got stuck at Guinea-Bissau. Gets ‘em every time.

Actually, it didn’t. The next student got about two-thirds the way through the list of countries, and the final student got through them all.

I remember being a kid and having adults laugh when I did something to impress them. They’d react like, “Boy, kids these days sure make me feel dumb.” In this Kindergarten class, I understood how these adults felt.

At lunch I brought the discovery of my genius Kindergarten class up to other teachers in the school. I felt like I had to tell somebody. But, of course, they weren’t too surprised. “Yeah, we encourage them to work on their memory skills,” was the reply. Then I remembered myself memorizing the books of the Bible. But still. I was probably ten. These children were five!–learning all the countries in Africa.

This all took place at a special school in St. Paul, a particular type known as a classical academy. This means they teach their students the lessons and methods and virtues as taught by the fathers of Western civilization of ancient Greece.

As such, the curriculum revolves around the acquisition of the key language skills as students first learn grammar, then logic, and then rhetoric. Also something they learn right away: how to learn, thus the list of African countries. Kindergarteners have this song that they’re asked to listen to at home. I’m impressed they do it. In many other settings I’ve been in, students’ desire to learn is quite dormant.

At this school, though, children will go on to read Aristotle and Homer. (Again, we head Homer, too, but did so in high school–as an elective. These children all do so in elementary.) At another classical academy I worked at in Eden Prairie, I heard a 4th grade teacher talk to his class about the Socratic method. All students take Latin and dress in uniform.

There are two such academies in the Twin Cities that I’m aware of. They aren’t private, but charter public schools that any student can go to as long as they can get on the list–and any city in Minnesota could start if they had the market for one. They are smaller, so don’t offer the athletic or other amenities and opportunities of your typical public school. And I, personally, would never have been too crazy about having to wear a uniform. Regardless, it’s been refreshing (and darned impressive at times) to witness the behavior and demeanor and willingness to learn from the student body, K-12, at these schools.

Two weeks later, I was in a low income area of North Minneapolis. That’s for next time…

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Privilege vs. Rights: an Important Distinction

24 Jan

When I was in grade school, Mr. Dexter, the bus mechanic, gave a speech to us kids about proper bus safety and how if we didn’t comply, we wouldn’t be allowed the transport. He’d say with authority, “Riding the bus is a privilege, not a right”.

Now that I look back on it, I’d bet a lot of people these days would disagree with ol’ Dexter. They’d say that every child has a right to an education and that includes access to it. I don’t disagree with the sentiment that to educate is essential, but I do think it’s important that we understand the difference between a right and a privilege (or benefit.)

Recently, a Time Magazine commentary declared that paid sick days should be a right, and not a “benefit” as they are currently classified by employers. The author’s reasoning is that since paid sick days are not required to be offered by law, employers don’t offer them and workers are bringing the sick with them to work. This, I’m sure, is true. People can’t afford to miss work, so they go when they’re sick. I’ve done this myself. And his remedy to make compulsory compensation for sick time would have benefits.

[Of course it's also true what this guy commented on another news site:

We got rid of our sick leave. If we offered 8 days per year, everyone was sick 8 days per year. When we lowered it down to 6, everyone was sick 6 days per year. Every employee was using them as extended vacations. So we eliminated them.

So first off we should appreciate that there are two sides to this: that legally requiring paid sick days would help--and it would be abused. Which side would outweigh the other would have to be determined. I'm not here to guess. But I am interested in the terminology.]

To most, a right is something that no one should be able to take from you. They are indisputable freedoms that are held untouchable with rare exception. I agree with this. And most of us appreciate our right to religion, speech, etc.–freedoms to do fundamental human activity.

Things change, though, when you enter into the realm of education, health care, wages, and other similar opportunities. The problem with declaring rights is these realms is that if they are held to the same standard as the right to express and worship as you wish, then what does this imply about poor countries that can’t afford K-12 education or health care for all? If these are rights, then all but the fewest richest countries are violating human rights. (Indeed, the author of the Time Magazine article deemed it “inhumane” to not force workers of offer paid sick leave.)

But rights aren’t dependent on wealth. Rights are universal. And if you label things that cost money as rights, then you’re indicating that rights are something to be bought.

I assume that one who believes health care to be a right would give a pass to poor countries, but then where exactly does this “right” begin? Haiti would get a pass; America does not. If so, Haitian’s rights are fewer? (That’s not right.) If a right is determined by wealth, we’re not talking about rights anymore. We’re talking about things that are very nice to have; that are required by law in some places. (This is what the author was getting at: to make this law. Okay, but don’t confuse that with a right. It’s confusing to me why he, a professor at Columbia University, wouldn’t understand this.)

The other issue is that health care, education, and the like all require the cooperation of other people. So if it’s a child’s right to be educated and treated for chicken pox, then a government must force someone to provide it. And now we’re starting to chip away at a person’s individual freedom–that they are not the owner of their person, but the State is. That’s a problem. Rights are not dependent on the cooperation of others. Violations of our rights occur when we’re prevented to do the things we want, say what we want, believe in the God we want, etc.

Advocating for universal health care or paid sick days is one thing. Arguing that they should be mandatory is also a case to make. But misusing the term “right” by declaring any luxury you think all should have as one conjures up an ideology that is inaccurate.

to new plateaus,

-Brandon

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These Pictures are Unreal

20 Jan

On a site I hadn’t heard of, but apparently a bunch of others have, I was fortunate to stumble upon some amazing photographs–ones that make you take a step back and realize that, no, you haven’t seen it all; ones that help you appreciate that sometimes reality is, indeed, stranger than make-believe.

The series of shots comes from MYSCIENCEACADEMY.org under the title: 24 PLACES THAT LOOK NOT NORMAL, BUT ARE ACTUALLY REAL

First, let’s just enjoy the slideshow of the ones that stuck out. We can talk about them after:

#10

#11

#12

Pretty cool, huh?

I arranged them into categories. The first few are man-influenced.

#1 For such a crazy creation, I was surprised I’d never seen it (actually, I guess I had as it was featured in the newest Batman flick). It’s what they call a stepwell called Chand Baori located near Jaipur, India.

#2 TULIP FIELDS – LISSE, NETHERLANDS

#3 An old railroad track turned into the TUNNEL OF LOVE – KLEVEN, UKRAINE

#4-6 are all Iceland.

The next four are obviously real, but crazy natural sights to behold:

#7 SOCOTRA, YEMEN

#8 BERRY HEAD ARCH – NEWFOUNDLAND, CANADA

#9 MT. RORAIMA, VENEZUELA

#10 DOOR TO HELL – DERWEZE, TURKMENISTAN (seriously, that’s what they call it.)

Finally, we wrap it up with two that are beyond belief, but when looked a little closer (and looked in wikipedia) found out that these places are real.

#11 LAKE RETBA – SENEGAL (pink because of algae they say)

#12 NAMIBIA (Look closer and see that the orange is the sunlight on a huge sand dune and the foreground a shadowed plain with what National Geographical called camel thorn trees.

Hope you liked them: )

These shots help up reach a new plateau–a realization of just what our amazing Earth is capable of.

-Brandon

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The Boiling Point of Aaron Swartz’s Suicide

15 Jan

The more I read about Aaron Swartz, the more he seemed like a hero from an Ayn Rand novel. Unfortunately, accompanying his Randian hero-like intelligence, moral IQ, and frustration that the rest of the population ignorantly resists progression was the nonfiction of his flaws. Swartz was too idealistic to work within the confines of the system, but instead of being able to trudge on heroically against the wrongs of our government, was human enough to let the fear of it dictate his present and erase his future.

It’s hard to work within a system, though, when the disparity between a nation’s collective aptitude and principles is so great from your own. I’m guessing Aaron Swartz felt very lonely, and at the end, hopeless and defeated while staring at felony charges and many, many years in prison.

***

One needn’t be a genius to see how his story highlights the disparity of what the American State is today vs. what it ought to be. Most telling: we live in a time when our society is increasingly less tolerant of those who bully. And given the recent history of bullying-related tragedies, Americans have charged their legal system to stand up and prosecute bullies. How counter-intuitive, counter-productive, and frankly, just plain sad is it, then, that the U.S. justice system is itself doing the bullying.

Aaron’s family released this statement following his death:

Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts U.S. Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles.

The crime Aaron was charged with was logging into the MIT servers and copying large amounts of their academic research journals. The material wasn’t classified, was publicly funded, and free to see–though limited in the amount one could access. Regardless, the United States intended to prosecute him to the fullest extent.

Is Aaron Swartz America’s Mohamed Bouazizi?

Mohamed Bouazizi was the Tunisian street vendor who, after being harassed for years by the government, needing to go into debt for his day’s inventory, and then having these goods confiscated by the government once more, set himself on fire outside his city’s mayor’s office to protest the corruption and abuse of the State.

The reaction of his death was enormous. Tunisian citizens rose in protest all over the country, to the point of ousting President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, ending his 23-year rule. Then, things spread all over the Arab world, toppling leaderships in Egypt, Libya, and Yemen as well as uprisings and protests in several other Arab nations.

A first look at these two men reveal more contrasts than comparisons. Bouazizi was poor his whole life, and as a street vendor, hadn’t been on a path that would have changed that. Aaron Swartz grew up in Chicago. As a boy genius, he was able to to make connections early on for his professional development. He accomplished great things: at 14, he worked on the team that developed RSS 1.0, an early system for dispersing content online. Then before he was 20, he started the Internet company, Infogami, which later would merge with now-popular site, Reddit.

Yet both men committed suicide, and in doing so, shone a spotlight on the problems in their respective worlds.

Corruption that Bouazizi suffered had long gone on in Tunisia. Yet Bouazizi’s suicide made his fellow countrymen notice all which was so wrong in Tunisia. Through Aaron, we see that the entity designed to prevent bullying becomes its biggest perpetrator. His case brings up issues of intellectual property, and perhaps most important, our overall ideas of justice.

The commentor, jimbles, in response to this Ars Technica article, wraps up my sentiment beautifully:

The position of prosecutor should be a pulpit for government-backed bullying as much as our prison system should be utilized as a punishment chamber rather than a rehabilitation center. We have such incredibly demented, warped views on what is acceptable conduct to unleash upon those that we view as having ‘transgressed’ our rules, because we as a society are so constantly pining to paint a portrait of a serial offender and congratulate ourselves when we make such fine examples of them with our disproportionate, wild west frontier justice. Slap on the back, three cheers, our children are safe from bogeymen once again.

Prosecutors are rewarded not for protecting society from those harmful, but for punishing as many people who break laws as possible–whether they are a threat to us or not. The cost is extraordinary, and now America, the land of the free, has the highest incarceration rate in the world. And while going after low-power individuals like Aaron Swartz for allegedly stealing journals, the American government rewards those who lost swaths of wealth through irresponsible banking by giving them taxpayer dollars via the bailouts.

We’re yet to see whether more parallels between Mohamed Bouazizi and Aaron Swartz can be made. If more are to be made, it will come as reactions in the aftermath. For Bouazizi, his death, and the awakening it gave to his people, was like the 212th degree in the pot of hot water, starting the boil. People suddenly had no patience for the areas of their lives that had been worsened by the Tunisian State, each area now boiling over and revealing itself as unacceptable and needing to be surfaced.

Aaron’s death similarly represents so much of what is wrong with fundamental bases of the the United States of America. I hope change occurs as a result of his death, too, that it’s also a boiling point, so that we don’t lose future Aarons and that future Johns and Janes aren’t continually hindered by the systemic problems of the United States.

to new plateaus,

-Brandon