“Right now we are leaving about half of the good ideas on
the table for lack of resources." I found this article for the NBC news
health section about ALS research funding exceptionally
interesting. Maggie Fox paints a picture of how the ALS bucket challenge
and things similar to it really don’t cure anything in the long run. Even
though the ALS Association raised 42 million dollars over the year from the ice
bucket challenge, this money won’t last. It won’t fund the long-term research
that really needs to be done to find a cure. “These flash-in-the pan things
that will go away after a few months will not help ALS in the long run.
Researchers need dependable money,” says Dr. Jonathan Serody of the University
of North Carolina. He describes that in order for there to be a real change
towards discovering a cure people need to consistently send money every year as
opposed to just one time. Unfortunately, this money that was donated for ALS
research, even though it may seem like a lot, won’t last to make significant
strides. In addition to this, Fox talks about how the research budgets are
being greatly decreased, specifically by a third over the last decade. This is
sad because that means that the resources that are needed to carry on stem cell
and gene research are just not available. However, it is stressed that doing
things like the ALS challenge definitely don’t go to a complete waste. In some
cases hopefully it brings attention to the disease and people will get
invested, learn more, and continue to donate to the cause. Basically, the best
thing you can do is donate as much as you can annually instead of just once. I’ve
wondered about this a lot so it was interesting to read up on.
Sunday, March 29, 2015
Sunday, March 22, 2015
Open Access to knowledge/Archives
Something I found really interesting in this week's material on the topic of open access to knowledge is the trailer for "The Internet's Own Boy." I found the trailer really ominous and interesting so I ended up actually watching the film to see what it was really about and I was totally transfixed. It's a really messed up tale about Aaron Swartz, the creator of Reddit, who was a programming prodigy and information activist. He ends up taking his own life at the young age of twenty-six because he finds himself in some legal trouble as a result of trying to set information free. What he did specifically was hack into MIT's system and illegally download academic journal articles from JSTOR, which is a scholarly database I'm sure we all have used, to set free to the public. He was charged for a number of things, facing 35 years in prison and a million dollars worth of fines. But his mission was an innocent one in my opinion. He felt strongly that it is plainly bullshit that we have to pay money to gain access to knowledge. Which is totally true. When you think of kids that don't have the money to get the information they need for papers and projects, etc.; how is that really fair at all? PACER charges eight cents per page of information that should be free.The saying that knowledge is power is very true and unfortunately it is the rich people of the world that gain this power but shouldn't necessarily have it. It is honestly ridiculous and it's very sad that this man had to die because of all the anxiety that was put on him as result of this. In his short life he did a lot of great things and if he were still alive I'm sure we would've benefitted from his mind.
Sunday, March 15, 2015
Web of Introverts or Social Webs
In Sherry Turkle’s Ted Talk, “Connected, but alone?” he is
talking about something totally prevalent in our society today. It is so
interesting that we are glued to our devices – we are essentially addicted. But
what’s really crazy is as hyper-connected as our world is today we keep each
other at a distance with these technologies. Even with Facebook, Twitter and
other social media platforms, we can’t get enough of each other, but we at a
distance and when we are in control of the quantity. This is what Turkle calls
the ‘Goldilocks Effect.’ Turkle admits that she is just as sucked in my texting
and her phone just as much as the next person. She uniquely opens her talk with
telling the audience that she received a text from her daughter wishing her
good luck. She recognizes that these technologies have become totally vital to
our existence today and to just get rid of them would be moving backwards. She
says that instead we need to learn how to control as opposed to just
eradicating it. What Turkle does propose is that instead we learn how to control
how these technologies control us. ‘Alone together’ is a term to describe when
we are with each other but our phones are taking us somewhere else. I’m sure we
have all scene people that are out to dinner together but are all on their
phones. And I know I have been guilty of this. She later brings up an interesting
idea that we need to learn how to be alone without technology. We use phones as
a way of not having to deal with out thoughts or what is in front of us. What
we need to really do is use technology as a way to become more self aware of
how technology is affecting us and become more present in reality.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Open Source and Copyright
In
this Ted Talk, Lawrence Lessig is talking about read/write creativity and it’s
effect on our society and our generation. Read/write is a culture where
consumers (us) can also create in addition to just consuming what is put out
there. You and me can respond and make something new. I specifically like what
he says at the end of his lecture; “as we see what this technology can do we
need to recognize you can’t kill the instinct that technology produces, you can
only criminalize it.” I also like how he says that copyright laws force or
motivate people to create more because I have seen this to be true. By remixing
he means we take things that are one thing and remix them to be something
slightly or completely different. We can use our creativity to take an idea and
make it our own by remixing it into something unique. He says how this isn’t a
hard thing to do as long as you have access to a computer because this is
essentially the digital ages form of “writing.” This is how our generation does
things. I’m sure we have all seen silly remixes and mashups on YouTube that
have gone viral. Larry Lessig is arguing here that artists make their work more
available. He thinks that content should grow and expand and that we should
have the opportunity for our generation to grow. But unfortunately we live in
an era where we are seen as pirates because of the unnecessarily stringent
copyright laws. Now, Lessig isn’t saying we should plagiarize or go into a
movie theater and film something to pretend it is our own. What he is saying is
that we should have the ability to use certain content that is on the web
create our own version.
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