I don't know too many people who still listen to talk radio, outside of my dad and a few other republicans that need their Rush Limbaugh. Belive it or not, back in the early 1900's the radio was one of the only forms available for media. It became cheap and almost every American home could afford to have one. People would just turn on the radio and listen to talk shows and the news as it came out of their speakrs.
During the great depression there was a man named Coughlin who had a radio program. When his show came on almost every radio around had his program on; you could hear his voice echoing throughout the streets. He was one of the many people who American's listened to during the depression.
Today we use other forms of media to bring us together. Facebook is one of those forms, and I know it's definelty my main source of entertainment while I'm in class sometimes. Facebook has completely changed the way we communiate with eachother. Before, if you wanted to throw a part or "event" you had to send out a mass text to all of your friends, or call them all up and notfiy of the party, and then hope that they texted you back with a response on whether or not they were going to come. Now all you have to do is send out a Facebook invite and everyone knows of the party within minutes. Facebook also allows us to interact visually by posting our pictures so that everyone can see.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Thursday, January 26, 2012
President Hoover and the Great Depression
I've been reading my assigned book, "The Great Depression and the New Deal", so a lot of my postings will come from my thoughts related to that book.That being said, today I read about the presidency of Hoover.
The Core of His Beliefs
President Hoover took the reigns of the presidency during the beginning of the great depression. He has been highly criticized for not doing enough during the countrie's time of need to prevent the crisis from spreading further.
I found a quote in the second chapter of the book that lets us deeper into Hoover's mind on his perspective on things. "He opposed federal relief on principle, believing that Americans risked being plunged into socialism and collectivim if the federal govenement provided aid directly to its citizens."
Hoover belived in very little government intervention. He believed that issues should first be handled by the citizens theselves with the help of private businesses and institutions, then if not solved the problem should reside on the shoulders of the city and state governments. If those instituations could not solve the problem THEN should the government provide relief.
Action Taken By Hoover
It was a time when people were trying to live frugally as possible, living in fear that they could easily have their hours cut or wage reduced at work, or even lose their job. One of the actions that Hoover took was to have business owners to agree to not reduce the wages of their employees. The issue with this action was that "the businessmen's pledge to uphold wage rates said nothing about whether they would reduce hours or lay workers off, and they did both."
Hoover raised tarrifs on imported goods in the United States. After the Government raised the tarrifs it had a ripple effect and other countries did so as well in retalliation. By making tarrifs higher world-wide, there were higher barriers to international trade due to its higher costs, so as a result the world trade decreased 25% in volume.
When Government Intervenes
I feel that the actions taken by Hoover demonstrate what happens when the hands of the government intervene with the business world. When tarrifs were raised by the government it had a large affect on businesses that were trading with the world, and it chain reacted to every nation, causing a collapse in world trade which is necesary for a well established economy to thrive.
Also, when he had businesses not decrease the wages of workers, it caused them to have to use the alternative method of simply firing people because they had to reduce labor expesnes in some form or another, and it became the only option. If you can't decrease wages from everyone as a whole, in result you have to let people go. I believe that Hoover's actions were in contradiction to his core beliefs of preventing massive governemtn intervention.
I strongly belive that the goverrnment should be as basic as possible, doing things that protect our constitutional rights without intervening too much in the free market.
The Core of His Beliefs
President Hoover took the reigns of the presidency during the beginning of the great depression. He has been highly criticized for not doing enough during the countrie's time of need to prevent the crisis from spreading further.
I found a quote in the second chapter of the book that lets us deeper into Hoover's mind on his perspective on things. "He opposed federal relief on principle, believing that Americans risked being plunged into socialism and collectivim if the federal govenement provided aid directly to its citizens."
Hoover belived in very little government intervention. He believed that issues should first be handled by the citizens theselves with the help of private businesses and institutions, then if not solved the problem should reside on the shoulders of the city and state governments. If those instituations could not solve the problem THEN should the government provide relief.
Action Taken By Hoover
It was a time when people were trying to live frugally as possible, living in fear that they could easily have their hours cut or wage reduced at work, or even lose their job. One of the actions that Hoover took was to have business owners to agree to not reduce the wages of their employees. The issue with this action was that "the businessmen's pledge to uphold wage rates said nothing about whether they would reduce hours or lay workers off, and they did both."
Hoover raised tarrifs on imported goods in the United States. After the Government raised the tarrifs it had a ripple effect and other countries did so as well in retalliation. By making tarrifs higher world-wide, there were higher barriers to international trade due to its higher costs, so as a result the world trade decreased 25% in volume.
When Government Intervenes
I feel that the actions taken by Hoover demonstrate what happens when the hands of the government intervene with the business world. When tarrifs were raised by the government it had a large affect on businesses that were trading with the world, and it chain reacted to every nation, causing a collapse in world trade which is necesary for a well established economy to thrive.
Also, when he had businesses not decrease the wages of workers, it caused them to have to use the alternative method of simply firing people because they had to reduce labor expesnes in some form or another, and it became the only option. If you can't decrease wages from everyone as a whole, in result you have to let people go. I believe that Hoover's actions were in contradiction to his core beliefs of preventing massive governemtn intervention.
I strongly belive that the goverrnment should be as basic as possible, doing things that protect our constitutional rights without intervening too much in the free market.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Yahoo Answers and Fake I.D.
In our digital age, it is very easy to be fraudulent. People can claim to be anyone that they wan to be, and there really isn't a way to verify if the person is real, fake, false, true, ect. When online we need to be careful what we consume, and on what we decide to believe.
For fun, I decided to create a fake yahoo account and post some earth-shattering questions, I think the online community would call this "trolling". Disclaimer: Don't take these questions seriously, I made them up. Below is the responses to my questions:
Response #1: You should assist in being dependent on himself, however this would involve assisting in him learning how to feed and dress himself. Pretty much the same way you bring up a young child. You teach them, show them and assist them with these basic duties when they are young. As they grow they learn how to do these things themself.
It is as if your child has been reset to a younger age, and you now need to be their parent who shows them how to become independent and be able to do things for themselves.
Response #2: I think you should help him at first but then gradually make him adapt to his new life. Wht I mean by this is help him for like a week or two and then slowly have him try and do things himself. Put him into physical therapy...they will help him with daily tasks. Also with all of the prostetics out now those will help him to in the long run when doing daily activities and chores. You guys arent going to be here his whole life so its good to get him to learn on his own. Good luck and God bless you and your family,especially your son.
Response #3: How is he supposed to dress himself or feed himself without any arms or legs? You should assist him. Face it, something tragic happened to your child and he will never be the same again. He's not normal, he needs help.
Life will only be harder for him if you make him do simple things that are very difficult for him to do.
Response #4: You can't force anyone to learn. But think why would your son not want to learn? You didn't say why he is in this condition, I'm thinking it would have been an accident or illness. If he is not out of his coma yet the doctors very likely can't make a determination what his prognosis is. You wouldn't want to give up before you have a chance to let him have a full useful life would you? Great strides are being made even with those who in other years would have been considered hopeless. Ask your son's doctor to let you visit a rehabilitation hospital and see the fantastic work being done daily. I worked as a nurse in one in Sacramento. It renewed my faith in the ability of the human body to heal.
So Yes! Help your son by feeding him as he needs to eat to regain his strength. It will take a lot of training to help him get to the place he can function on his own. He needs you now as much as he did when he was a baby. I think you love him as much now as you did before this happened to him. How will you feel when you look back on this time? If you quit to quick will you feel that you might have won if you had given him a chance and tried to keep him alive? That's a hard thing to live with.
I know you have to be true to your self and do what's best for you and your other family members. but really look closely at the situation and have all the facts at your disposal before you make a move you will regret.
Response #1: ahaha this is the funniest thing i've ever heard!
i work and maccas, and i can tell you. its not biodegradable.
lol.
Response #2: Not all of it
Response #3: All paper is biodegradable, plastic and styrofoam are not. The paper will eventually decompose, but not in one month. Have ever seen an old newspaper or book? Heck I've got a stack of 40+ year old comic books sitting right here on my desk.
Response #1: That's not a perfect weight. At your height, you are way too thin! Bulk up!
Response #2: Dude you need to gain not lose! I'm 5 10 and my preferred weight is supposed to be 130...you're crazy and could actually die if you lose 10 pounds. Also if you haven't already started puking your food dont start cause it will cause your body to get confused and shut your metabolism down and you can actually die cause your body will automatically start rejecting food.
Response #3: So you want to be lanky??!! 6 foot tall and u want to be 110 pounds!! You want to be anorexic??!! I think 120 pounds is a good weight and you should consider gaining another 2-4 pounds
Response #4: At 6 feet, you should be at least 150 lbs!
Response #5: ...you think an anorexic man is hot? women worry about being thin already shouldnt the guy strive to have a more built body than his partner??
at the very least, try to be healthy about things. stop or dont start throwing up food thats incredibly dangerous. as an ex bulimic i would know. thats a path u do NOT want to start going down! your height is perfect, so please just eat some food..
Response #6: well Im 6ft 1in and pretty fit, I weight 200lb
clearly your a scronny little b*tch haha. bulk up dude, man I cant imagine what you even look like that thin. sure as hell aint attractive.
How can I save my cat?
I need to know what medicine I can give my cat to save it. He was acting weird so I gave him ibprofen because I thought it just had a headache. It must be very tired because it's been a sleep now for 2 days. I put some Nyquil and Dayquil down his throat yesterday just in case it was the flu. What other medicine should I try? I want my cat to wake up and play.
Response #1: Stop giving your cat medicine and take him to the vet!!! You don't want to kill it, do you?
Response #2: NEVER, ever give a cat medication meant for a human. That's a sure way to kill it. Get the cat to a vet. Find out what's wrong. And the vet will prescribe medication meant for a CAT. the reason your cat is asleep for 2 days, may be a reaction to the meds you gave it.
Response #3: a) if you are a troll, SHAME ON YOU thats a cruel thing to say
b) if you actually did that, get the cat to the vet, NOW!
For fun, I decided to create a fake yahoo account and post some earth-shattering questions, I think the online community would call this "trolling". Disclaimer: Don't take these questions seriously, I made them up. Below is the responses to my questions:
Should I pull the plug on our son who has no arms and no legs?
My son recently got into an accident that caused the loss of both of his arms and both of his legs. He is currently in a coma and being kept alive by machines, and the doctor says that he has a 80% chance of coming out of the coma. I think my son would be happier if we just pulled the plug, no arms and no legs, what kind of life is that?
Response #1: No..please don't..live him..let him be..yuh might think that pulling the plug is what he wants but its not..live he..let him live please..a life can still be amazing without yur arms or legs..
Response #2: It's not a life worth living
Response #3: I'm sure your son wants to live. Everyone has1 life, do u really wanna end it even though he can still be left alive. I say leave I'm and let him live!
Our son now has no arms and no legs, should he assist him in basic activites, or will that make him weaker?
Our child now has no arms and no legs. He is in a coma, but should be out of it soon. We were wondering if we should help him do basic things, such as feed him, and dress him. We figure that by doing so we will only disabilitate him and he won't ever learn to feed himself on his own, forever being dependant upon others. Should we force him to learn?
Response #1: You should assist in being dependent on himself, however this would involve assisting in him learning how to feed and dress himself. Pretty much the same way you bring up a young child. You teach them, show them and assist them with these basic duties when they are young. As they grow they learn how to do these things themself.
It is as if your child has been reset to a younger age, and you now need to be their parent who shows them how to become independent and be able to do things for themselves.
Response #2: I think you should help him at first but then gradually make him adapt to his new life. Wht I mean by this is help him for like a week or two and then slowly have him try and do things himself. Put him into physical therapy...they will help him with daily tasks. Also with all of the prostetics out now those will help him to in the long run when doing daily activities and chores. You guys arent going to be here his whole life so its good to get him to learn on his own. Good luck and God bless you and your family,especially your son.
Response #3: How is he supposed to dress himself or feed himself without any arms or legs? You should assist him. Face it, something tragic happened to your child and he will never be the same again. He's not normal, he needs help.
Life will only be harder for him if you make him do simple things that are very difficult for him to do.
Response #4: You can't force anyone to learn. But think why would your son not want to learn? You didn't say why he is in this condition, I'm thinking it would have been an accident or illness. If he is not out of his coma yet the doctors very likely can't make a determination what his prognosis is. You wouldn't want to give up before you have a chance to let him have a full useful life would you? Great strides are being made even with those who in other years would have been considered hopeless. Ask your son's doctor to let you visit a rehabilitation hospital and see the fantastic work being done daily. I worked as a nurse in one in Sacramento. It renewed my faith in the ability of the human body to heal.
So Yes! Help your son by feeding him as he needs to eat to regain his strength. It will take a lot of training to help him get to the place he can function on his own. He needs you now as much as he did when he was a baby. I think you love him as much now as you did before this happened to him. How will you feel when you look back on this time? If you quit to quick will you feel that you might have won if you had given him a chance and tried to keep him alive? That's a hard thing to live with.
I know you have to be true to your self and do what's best for you and your other family members. but really look closely at the situation and have all the facts at your disposal before you make a move you will regret.
Is McDonald's paper really biodegradable?
Someone told me that McDonald's uses biodegradable products when packaging my burger, fries, and shake. Ever since I've been chucking the McDonald's portion of my garbage out the window of my car because it is supposed to decompose. I started noticing that the McDonalds trash that i've been trowing in my back yard is not decomposing, and it's been a whole month. Is it really biodegradable?
Response #1: ahaha this is the funniest thing i've ever heard!
i work and maccas, and i can tell you. its not biodegradable.
lol.
Response #2: Not all of it
Response #3: All paper is biodegradable, plastic and styrofoam are not. The paper will eventually decompose, but not in one month. Have ever seen an old newspaper or book? Heck I've got a stack of 40+ year old comic books sitting right here on my desk.
McDonald's (and other burger chains) did use styrofoam containers back in the 70s and I believe into the 80s but they switched to paper packaging to be a bit more environmentally responsible.
I'm 6 ft tall and 120 pounds, am I really too skinny?
My friends tell me that I look way too skinny and that I need to gain weight, but I really want to reach my goal weight of 110 pounds. Do you have any reccomendations on how I can lose another 10 pounds, I think then I will be the perfect weight. There has to be a better way than vommiting food.
Response #1: That's not a perfect weight. At your height, you are way too thin! Bulk up!
Response #2: Dude you need to gain not lose! I'm 5 10 and my preferred weight is supposed to be 130...you're crazy and could actually die if you lose 10 pounds. Also if you haven't already started puking your food dont start cause it will cause your body to get confused and shut your metabolism down and you can actually die cause your body will automatically start rejecting food.
Response #3: So you want to be lanky??!! 6 foot tall and u want to be 110 pounds!! You want to be anorexic??!! I think 120 pounds is a good weight and you should consider gaining another 2-4 pounds
Response #4: At 6 feet, you should be at least 150 lbs!
Response #5: ...you think an anorexic man is hot? women worry about being thin already shouldnt the guy strive to have a more built body than his partner??
at the very least, try to be healthy about things. stop or dont start throwing up food thats incredibly dangerous. as an ex bulimic i would know. thats a path u do NOT want to start going down! your height is perfect, so please just eat some food..
Response #6: well Im 6ft 1in and pretty fit, I weight 200lb
clearly your a scronny little b*tch haha. bulk up dude, man I cant imagine what you even look like that thin. sure as hell aint attractive.
How can I save my cat?
I need to know what medicine I can give my cat to save it. He was acting weird so I gave him ibprofen because I thought it just had a headache. It must be very tired because it's been a sleep now for 2 days. I put some Nyquil and Dayquil down his throat yesterday just in case it was the flu. What other medicine should I try? I want my cat to wake up and play.
Response #1: Stop giving your cat medicine and take him to the vet!!! You don't want to kill it, do you?
Response #2: NEVER, ever give a cat medication meant for a human. That's a sure way to kill it. Get the cat to a vet. Find out what's wrong. And the vet will prescribe medication meant for a CAT. the reason your cat is asleep for 2 days, may be a reaction to the meds you gave it.
Response #3: a) if you are a troll, SHAME ON YOU thats a cruel thing to say
b) if you actually did that, get the cat to the vet, NOW!
The Rise of the Rich and the Famous
"Every
free-born American has a right to name his own necessities." That quote represents the sprit of the 1920's. If you want it, go and buy it - you deserve it because you are an American. The economy of the United States was booming. Production was soring. Spending was high. The future looked bright from an American's perspective at the time.
There were some technological advancements that aided the high demand of the 20's. Ford created the moving assembly line which enabled them to mass produce their Model-T.... you know, that ugly black car that you see out of your U.S. History textbook and thank the heavens that you drive something a bit more classier.
By the end of the 1920's 1 out of 6 American's drove a car, which was enough to fit the entire nation in an automobile and send them down the highway. As spending skyrocketed, so did the debt of the people. Because people thought that the future was bright, they started to buy luxuary goods by financing it with debt. GMC started to sell cars on high interest loans. This enabled more and more people who couldn't not normally afford a car to buy one on credit, and pay back the debt later... or at least attempt to.
The Stock Market was also a driver of the economy. People would invest large amount of money in it because they watched it rise, and rise, and rise. There wasn't much regulation in the stock market at the time, so what happened was a lot of unethical situations. Investors would group together to create "pools", meaning they would buy eachothers stocks and cause outside investers to speculate the company to be doing well, so they would heavily invest, and the the investers who formed the pool would then withdraw there money, dropping the stock prices back down to their normal levels. This was not illegal at the time, but today if you do so you can expect to spend some time behind bars, if caught that is.
Well, like all good things there is eventually an end to it all. The stock market, after much artifical inflation, began to decline. This scared Americans so they began to quit purchasing luxuray goods and investing in the stock market, halting economic activity. This led to the crash of the stock market, and along came what we know today as the "Great Depression."
There were some technological advancements that aided the high demand of the 20's. Ford created the moving assembly line which enabled them to mass produce their Model-T.... you know, that ugly black car that you see out of your U.S. History textbook and thank the heavens that you drive something a bit more classier.
By the end of the 1920's 1 out of 6 American's drove a car, which was enough to fit the entire nation in an automobile and send them down the highway. As spending skyrocketed, so did the debt of the people. Because people thought that the future was bright, they started to buy luxuary goods by financing it with debt. GMC started to sell cars on high interest loans. This enabled more and more people who couldn't not normally afford a car to buy one on credit, and pay back the debt later... or at least attempt to.
The Stock Market was also a driver of the economy. People would invest large amount of money in it because they watched it rise, and rise, and rise. There wasn't much regulation in the stock market at the time, so what happened was a lot of unethical situations. Investors would group together to create "pools", meaning they would buy eachothers stocks and cause outside investers to speculate the company to be doing well, so they would heavily invest, and the the investers who formed the pool would then withdraw there money, dropping the stock prices back down to their normal levels. This was not illegal at the time, but today if you do so you can expect to spend some time behind bars, if caught that is.
Well, like all good things there is eventually an end to it all. The stock market, after much artifical inflation, began to decline. This scared Americans so they began to quit purchasing luxuray goods and investing in the stock market, halting economic activity. This led to the crash of the stock market, and along came what we know today as the "Great Depression."
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
SOPA
You know, I didn't really want to join the bandwagon of people facebooking, twittering, and blogging about SOPA and how terrible it is, but after going 1/2 a day without access to my main form of information, WIKIPEDIA, I have felt lost and have had to resort to a day without study, a day without hope, and a day without dreams. Well, it's not that dramatic, but lets face it, SOPA sucks.
I have learned that I really need to find other sources of information other thatn the WIKI. The pros of SOPA: I would actually have to learn how to use a book and do some good old fashioned research at the library. Let's face it, that's not really a pro.
So after much consideration, SOPA must be stopped. I can not possibly live without Facebook and Wikipedia. I am a huge facebook consumer, I one time calculated how much time I spend on Facebook a year: 1 MONTH. Yep, I admit it, if you were to take all of the time I spend of Facebook and put it side by side, I spend 1 month out of the year on it. I calculated this by taking my avearge daily use (2 Hours) and dividing that by the number of hours in a day (24) which gives me a fraction of how much of my time is spent on the dang thing (1/12), and 1/12 out of a year means ONE MONTH!
I also refuse to go use actual books. If SOPA passes we can kiss my education goodbye. Good thing I have an XBOX to keep me entertained today while the WIKI is out.
I have learned that I really need to find other sources of information other thatn the WIKI. The pros of SOPA: I would actually have to learn how to use a book and do some good old fashioned research at the library. Let's face it, that's not really a pro.
So after much consideration, SOPA must be stopped. I can not possibly live without Facebook and Wikipedia. I am a huge facebook consumer, I one time calculated how much time I spend on Facebook a year: 1 MONTH. Yep, I admit it, if you were to take all of the time I spend of Facebook and put it side by side, I spend 1 month out of the year on it. I calculated this by taking my avearge daily use (2 Hours) and dividing that by the number of hours in a day (24) which gives me a fraction of how much of my time is spent on the dang thing (1/12), and 1/12 out of a year means ONE MONTH!
I also refuse to go use actual books. If SOPA passes we can kiss my education goodbye. Good thing I have an XBOX to keep me entertained today while the WIKI is out.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Digital Drugs
I was recently reading on a tech blog, and a reference to something called iDosing was in an article that I was reading. At first I thought it was some new Apple Product, so I looked up what it was, and as it turns out it had nothing to do with Apple or a new product added to the iProduct line. It was a reference to a new way that teens are taking in drugs, digitally.
To iDose you listen to long mp3 tracks that are sold through an iDealer that can be found online. It is believed that certain sounds and music combination can have similar reactions to your body as Cocaine, Meth, Exctacy, and many other hard-core drugs. Instead of consuming the actual drug, teens can consume the drug in the form of sound & music.
It's in schools located in Oklahoma. Kids are bringing their iDrugs with them on their iPods, and teachers are taking the issue very seriously. A letter was sent out to all parents in specific school districs that are prone to the iDrug usage notifying them of the recent iDrug craze and the dangers of it.
It is interesting to note the prices of these digital drugs, they actually range anywhere from $2 to hundreads of dollars. Many websites selling the iDrugs have sprung up over the last few months claiming to sell high-quality drug facts, some of which have even created a new audio file for intaking the digital drugs, .drg.
Along with the drugs is also a large guide on how to use them. The guide can be purchased from this link https://sites.fastspring.com/idoser/instant/guide for $12.95 and will teach you all that you need to know on the new trend. I share this link only as a refrence to the manual and the price of it, and by no means am I reccomending that you purchase or read it.
There is much debate right now on wheither iDosing can actually get someone high or have strong affects on the human body. My personal opion is that it's just a new scam meant to make money off of a digital product that has a high profit margin. I do not believe that it is something that parents need to worry about, but they should probably teach their kids how dumb it is to spend $1,000 on an mp3 track that promises to get you high like marijuana.
To iDose you listen to long mp3 tracks that are sold through an iDealer that can be found online. It is believed that certain sounds and music combination can have similar reactions to your body as Cocaine, Meth, Exctacy, and many other hard-core drugs. Instead of consuming the actual drug, teens can consume the drug in the form of sound & music.
It's in schools located in Oklahoma. Kids are bringing their iDrugs with them on their iPods, and teachers are taking the issue very seriously. A letter was sent out to all parents in specific school districs that are prone to the iDrug usage notifying them of the recent iDrug craze and the dangers of it.
It is interesting to note the prices of these digital drugs, they actually range anywhere from $2 to hundreads of dollars. Many websites selling the iDrugs have sprung up over the last few months claiming to sell high-quality drug facts, some of which have even created a new audio file for intaking the digital drugs, .drg.
Along with the drugs is also a large guide on how to use them. The guide can be purchased from this link https://sites.fastspring.com/idoser/instant/guide for $12.95 and will teach you all that you need to know on the new trend. I share this link only as a refrence to the manual and the price of it, and by no means am I reccomending that you purchase or read it.
There is much debate right now on wheither iDosing can actually get someone high or have strong affects on the human body. My personal opion is that it's just a new scam meant to make money off of a digital product that has a high profit margin. I do not believe that it is something that parents need to worry about, but they should probably teach their kids how dumb it is to spend $1,000 on an mp3 track that promises to get you high like marijuana.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Open Science and Why It's a Bad Thing
What is "open science"?
One of the topics that we have disussed in class this week was concerning open science. While I do not know a whole lot concerning it, after hearing some of the basics surrounding it I have developed some concerns regarding passing laws that make science as open as groups of people would want it to be.
Open science means revealing the secrets regarding your disoveries and inventions. It also means providing all of your process notes and details. By providing this it makes it possible for anyone who wants to be able to replicate your work and use it to their advantage.
At first thought, this might seem like a great idea, one that might help us advance in society with better medicine, greater inventions and so forth, but after pondering this and applying my background in business a quite opposite affect would occur.
Our Motives
When you go to a baker and purchase a loaf of bread, that baker sells you that bread because it benefits him and his family. The baker does not go to work and spend countless hours of his week making that bread simply so that when you need it he can provide it for you, he does it to make a profit so that he can survive. He may enjoy doing the work, but in the end it's all to churn a profit. And by doing his job, both he and you benfit in the transaction: you receive great tasting bread and the baker recieves money so that he can pay his bills and buy food for his family.
When you got to a doctor and he helps you, he is doing so not simply so that you are healthy, but so that he can earn a wage and support his family, just as in the baker example above. One of the reasons why he chose his job is because he enjoys helping people, but the roots of his reasoning for spending countless hours at school and developing the expertise to become a doctor was so that he could make money to pay his bills, feed his family, and survive.
Every single one of us, just like the baker and the doctor, does what we do to make money so that we can survive. Our motives are ourselves and our families.
Applying This to Science
Just as the baker and the doctor, scientists and engineers do the things that they do not simply to benefit society, but to benefit themselves as well. This is why people perfect their skills and become good at what they do: if the baker was a crappy baker then no one would buy his bread, and likewise if the doctor was terrible at his job then no one would go to him and he would be without money as well.When a scientist/engineer creates a process or discovers something new, he can then benfit form his labors and make a profit it by patenting his discoveries and using it to invent a useful product that will be sold for profit in order for the scientist to recooperate costs from his reserach and also provide a living for his family.
Let's say that you are a scientist and you create a new pill that benefits society. You have spent years and years of time, as well as countless dollars in order to develop the pill that you have created. Now what do you do? You patent your invention and you keep your secrets to yourself, and then you sell the pill to others in order to make a profit off of your hard work as well as recooperate your expenses for developing the pill. Is this evil? NO!
Open science would want you to divulge your secrets, reveal your processes, and make it possible for everyone to replicate what you just spent years doing. Why is this bad? Because in the long run you will not be able to make a profit off of your pill, and then you will not be able to gain off of your hard work. You may make a profit in the beginning, but after a few months other companies will begin manufactuing the same pill you devloped, which will flood the market with other brands, which will ultimatley drive the price of your pill down until you make zero profit.
If in the end you are not going to be gaining anything for your work, besides the satisfaction that you invented the pill, then there would truly be no motivation for you to devlop the pill to begin with. You have a yourself and you family to support, and doing science is costly. You would essentially be going into debt in order to receive gratification, but you will not be able to support yourself, your family, or recooperate the expenses you invested into developing the pill. In this situation, no one is going to want to develop anything. New types of good medicine and cures to diseases would eventually cease to exist. There would be not motivation to spend the time doing so. New invetnions would soon stop happening. People will stop inventing new technologies, and in the end our economy and our lives would digress. Our society would cease to progress without the incentives that money provide.
Patents, copywrite laws, and othersuch things are good for society. They motivate us to work harder, and protect our intellectual property. It motivates people to do better at what they do, and to develop better skills than anyone else. It helps society to advance, attributes to the reason why new inventions are created.
One of the topics that we have disussed in class this week was concerning open science. While I do not know a whole lot concerning it, after hearing some of the basics surrounding it I have developed some concerns regarding passing laws that make science as open as groups of people would want it to be.
Open science means revealing the secrets regarding your disoveries and inventions. It also means providing all of your process notes and details. By providing this it makes it possible for anyone who wants to be able to replicate your work and use it to their advantage.
At first thought, this might seem like a great idea, one that might help us advance in society with better medicine, greater inventions and so forth, but after pondering this and applying my background in business a quite opposite affect would occur.
Our Motives
When you go to a baker and purchase a loaf of bread, that baker sells you that bread because it benefits him and his family. The baker does not go to work and spend countless hours of his week making that bread simply so that when you need it he can provide it for you, he does it to make a profit so that he can survive. He may enjoy doing the work, but in the end it's all to churn a profit. And by doing his job, both he and you benfit in the transaction: you receive great tasting bread and the baker recieves money so that he can pay his bills and buy food for his family.
When you got to a doctor and he helps you, he is doing so not simply so that you are healthy, but so that he can earn a wage and support his family, just as in the baker example above. One of the reasons why he chose his job is because he enjoys helping people, but the roots of his reasoning for spending countless hours at school and developing the expertise to become a doctor was so that he could make money to pay his bills, feed his family, and survive.
Every single one of us, just like the baker and the doctor, does what we do to make money so that we can survive. Our motives are ourselves and our families.
Applying This to Science
Just as the baker and the doctor, scientists and engineers do the things that they do not simply to benefit society, but to benefit themselves as well. This is why people perfect their skills and become good at what they do: if the baker was a crappy baker then no one would buy his bread, and likewise if the doctor was terrible at his job then no one would go to him and he would be without money as well.When a scientist/engineer creates a process or discovers something new, he can then benfit form his labors and make a profit it by patenting his discoveries and using it to invent a useful product that will be sold for profit in order for the scientist to recooperate costs from his reserach and also provide a living for his family.
Let's say that you are a scientist and you create a new pill that benefits society. You have spent years and years of time, as well as countless dollars in order to develop the pill that you have created. Now what do you do? You patent your invention and you keep your secrets to yourself, and then you sell the pill to others in order to make a profit off of your hard work as well as recooperate your expenses for developing the pill. Is this evil? NO!
Open science would want you to divulge your secrets, reveal your processes, and make it possible for everyone to replicate what you just spent years doing. Why is this bad? Because in the long run you will not be able to make a profit off of your pill, and then you will not be able to gain off of your hard work. You may make a profit in the beginning, but after a few months other companies will begin manufactuing the same pill you devloped, which will flood the market with other brands, which will ultimatley drive the price of your pill down until you make zero profit.
If in the end you are not going to be gaining anything for your work, besides the satisfaction that you invented the pill, then there would truly be no motivation for you to devlop the pill to begin with. You have a yourself and you family to support, and doing science is costly. You would essentially be going into debt in order to receive gratification, but you will not be able to support yourself, your family, or recooperate the expenses you invested into developing the pill. In this situation, no one is going to want to develop anything. New types of good medicine and cures to diseases would eventually cease to exist. There would be not motivation to spend the time doing so. New invetnions would soon stop happening. People will stop inventing new technologies, and in the end our economy and our lives would digress. Our society would cease to progress without the incentives that money provide.
Patents, copywrite laws, and othersuch things are good for society. They motivate us to work harder, and protect our intellectual property. It motivates people to do better at what they do, and to develop better skills than anyone else. It helps society to advance, attributes to the reason why new inventions are created.
Friday, January 6, 2012
How digitally civilized am I?
At the age of 4 I was pretty obsessed with our home computer. It was nothing like the computers we have today, it was simple and ran off of "shell". I would play games like Wheel of Fortune and Jepordy which ran off of the big floppy disks that we were using back in the day.
I am a geek at heart for my obessesion with technology has never changed. Everyday, along with checking my e-mail and Facebook, I also check updates on a few technogy blogs such as http://www.engadget.com and http://www.gizmodo.com. I'm obsessed with these blogs and I probably check them at a minimal of 10 times a day.
I'm the member of my family that has to fix the technical problems at my parents house. If their printer isn't working for them, their comptuer isn't working right, or they simply can't put songs on their ipods, I'm the one that has to fix the problems.
I also must be continaually buying the latest and greatest gadgets to satisfy my obsession with technology. I love how convenient it is to read using my Kindle, or how great surfing the web is on my iPad. I love having a 4G phone that has the latest and greatest features.
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