Reflection (Overall Reflection on Class)

I really enjoyed class this semester taught by professor Lim and Gabrielle. I think both of them had a lot of interesting insight on the topics we focused on in class. Science, Technology and Inequality is overlooked in our society today. Many times people fail to recognize the importance of this subject. It is important to look at the inequalities that many Americans, as well as others around the world, are suffering through. I particular enjoyed looking at my fellow classmates PowerPoint presentations online. I learned a lot about a myriad of different topics regarding inequalities and technologies. I did not realize how many things in today’s society involve technology and inequality. Many of the things that Americans take for granted are a privilege or not even available in countries around the world.  I found this to be very relevant when we discussed the technology that we use in the classroom. We currently have unlimited access to computers, conference rooms for presentations, microphones, power-sourced desks, wireless internet connections, air conditioning and in-class room projectors. These technologies are very beneficial in the education of Arizona State students. However, how many countries around the world do not have the availability or funding to obtain such technologies. I think that creates a great inequality around the world. I think America needs to start helping out countries around the world in creating better educational programs as well as supplying less fortunate countries with technology needed for better educational programs. I want to thank professor Lim and Gabrielle for providing so many educational and entertaining lectures. 

Reflection (Week Thirteen)

In Thursday’s class we talked about the differences between Vietnam and China. For the purposes of this blog, I will be focusing on China specifically. The reason for this is that I did my final research paper on outsourcing. After doing my research for my paper, I found that China is a major center of outsourcing so I will focus on that in this week’s blog. Nobody realizes how many corporations and businesses in the United States outsource jobs. Many people seem to think that the American economy and job opportunities for Americans suffer when we outsource jobs to China and other countries overseas. However, that is not really true. There are millions of jobs created when these companies outsource jobs. China in particular can be a very key country of outsourcing. Chinese workers are a very hard working and experienced work force. Many of the cars Americans drive today are made in China. We should be thankful that these countries specialize in many different industries. China provides us with many quality vehicles. Furthermore, China is one of America’s largest countries of import. A majority of our imports and products come without China. Even though some may see this as a negative, I think there are a lot of positives that come from our trading with China. Free trade is what makes this world work and China is a major provider of trade. 

Reflection (Week Twelve)

In class on Thursday, we watched a video about creating sustainable cities. A gentleman from Curitiba lead the lecture about the things we must do to create better, cleaner cities. Jaime Lerner, the man from Curitiba, addressed the crowd and stated that any city has the ability to be transformed. Lerner stated that converting a city does not have anything to do with a city’s budget. He talks about two key factors that must be considered when redesigning a city. Those two key factors are mobility and sustainability. Lerner mentioned that emissions from cars are the leading cause of pollution. He states that we need to become more reliant upon public transportation. Cars are the main cause of pollution in our environment. Lerner believes that by creating a public transportation system, such as above ground bus systems or underground subway systems are the solution. Transportation is not the only thing that Lerner talks about. He says that we can also create outside classrooms for our nation’s youth. These outside classrooms will use less energy and will also get kids more involved. I think Lerner has a lot of good ideas. In the 21^st century, energy issues are still a problem. Everyone recognizes the importance of creating new methods of cleaner transportation. Perhaps if more people listen to Lerner’s idea we will be able to live in a much cleaner, safer society. We need to work together in an effort to create mobility and sustainability. Yes we can, yes we can!

Reflection (Week Eleven)

As the centuries pass, our society develops newer technologies in an effort to make our lives much easier. With technological developments comes positives, as well as negatives. No system or technology is flawless, nor does it benefit everyone in the world. In class on Thursday, we discussed the importance of technology at Arizona State. In our groups and later on the discussion, we addressed the benefits of having technology at Arizona State. Also, we addressed the possible downfalls that technology could have and the inequality it poses to countries around us. First off, Arizona State is a major technologically advanced University. I am sure that if a study were done, we would rank amongst the top schools in the country in terms of the technology we have in the classroom. When we addressed certain technologies implemented by our professors the list was very long. We have access to computers in the classroom, microphones for large lecture halls, air conditioned classrooms, wireless internet access, desks with power ports in them so that we can charge our laptops, we have projectors for PowerPoint and dry erase boards have replaced chalkboards. All of these technologies significantly help the classroom experience. However, they are not flawless. If a computer is not working on a day of class, then a teacher may be stuck in her ability to teach the lesson. Perhaps, she had only prepared a PowerPoint. Lastly, how does technology affect the world? Is the technology we have available to us giving us an advantage over other countries? There are many countries around the world that are probably too poor to afford many of the technologies we take for granted. 

Election Reflection (Extra Credit #3)

The nomination of democratic candidate Barack Obama opened up the possibility for history to be made on this day, November 4^th, 2008. I followed the campaign throughout the year. Being a strong advocate of Senator McCain and everything he stands for I tended to watch a lot of Fox News Channel. However, it seemed as though with the passing days, even Fox News was being skeptical about Senator McCain’s chances to win the 2008 election and become our forty-forth president. A crazy buzz started to circulate through our country. Would this be the year that history was made? It certainly seemed as though the masses would finally be electing the country’s first African-American candidate into office. Senator Obama was leading in almost all the polls nationwide and many people felt as though he was going to win the election in a landslide. However, political analysts and myself thought that there may be more that comes into play in this year’s election. There may be some crazy factors that manipulate the end result.

We live in a very racist country, although as time goes along, our country becomes more and more understanding and open minded towards the races. None the less, we must look at a common voting factor that was talked about leading up to this year’s election. That factor was the Bradley Effect. Essentially, the Bradley Effect gained its name in a California gubernatorial race years back between an African-American candidate and a white candidate. Exit polls in that race had the African-American candidate with a huge lead over his opponent. However, when the end result was tallied, the white candidate came out on top. What may have led to this factor? Many believed that the exit polls were skewed because white voters did not want to sound racist saying they voted for the white candidate. So instead of being honest, they told pollsters, they voted for the African-American when indeed they had not. Many people were questioning whether or not this would come into play in this year’s election with Senator Obama. However, after seeing the results tonight, we can see that we may have grown as an entire country. Obama polled very accurately and as projected he won the election in a landslide. What does that say? Well, it says we’ve grown as a country. Even though I disagree with so, so many of Senator Obama’s policies, we must recognize as Americans that history is being written. Whether or not we are happy to be a part of is a separate story, but we can’t deny this historical day.

One last factor I’d like to address about this year’s election was the continuation of trends and the end of trends. Going into this year’s election states like Indiana and North Carolina had not voted Democratic in many, many years. I believe that North Carolina has gone Republican the last four elections. Not only going republican, but North Carolina voted in landslide fashion for Republican candidates. Well, as I write this at 12:30 in the morning, North Carolina and Indiana have still yet to be decided that is how close they are. The country has made a tremendous and with that shift came the end of many trends. A couple trends did, however survive. The outcome of the Washington Redskins football game proved to predict the outcome of the last 30-some elections. If the Redskins won their last home game before an election the party in office would retain the Presidency. If the Redskins lost the game, the opposite party would take over. Well, the Redskins lost and the opposite party took over the office; continuing that tradition. Also worth mentioning, no Republican candidate has EVER won the election when failing to carry Ohio’s electoral votes. Ohio went to Senator Obama and sure enough he was elected President; continuing the trend. This year’s election was fascinating and I was glued to my tv for most of the day.

Reflection (Week Ten) (Election Weekend!)

Other than Gabrielle, Tuesday’s guest speaker was the first of the year. I was anticipating the guest speaker very much. However, when Dr. Wilson began his lecture on Tuesday, I knew the class was in for the worse. I was very disappointed with Dr. Wilson. Although, he was knowledgeable on his subject, I felt as though his lecture was very, very dry and not very open-minded. From the beginning of his lecture, I felt as though he was reading only off of his slides, which made the lecture very dry. Furthermore, to me, he came off as being very opinionated. He felt as though the views that he had were the only views that were correct. I got the impression that if you had a different belief, he would probably dismiss your view as not being possible.

Although some of his ideas were actually pretty innovative, I think that they would prove to be more costly, than beneficial. During the lecture he mentioned something about educating students strictly through the use of computers, which transmitted lecture material from the Internet. Well, that all seems like a good idea except for the social and economical ramifications of such an idea. If students were only taught through computers over the Internet, in-class teachers would become obsolete. That would mean that in a time of an already struggling economy and an economy in which unemployment is rising would only be exacerbated. Furthermore, education in the classroom helps students with not only opening their minds, but also working on their social skills. If students did not have to be in the classroom, their social skills would not develop.

In the end, it is obvious that Dr. Wilson has done his research and he has a wide variety of many innovative ideas. However, at this point, I have to say that his innovations would not exactly be the best idea for our country at this time.

Reflection (Week Nine)

With our suffering economy and increased gas prices, everyone is looking for a new way to decrease our dependence on foreign energy sources. We currently rely heavily on oil imports from Middle Eastern countries. The United States will always struggle in dealing with high gas prices if we do not develop new ways to supply energy. When we rely on foreign countries for our oil, we set ourselves up to be dominated by a monopoly. In class on Thursday, we discussed the issue of nuclear power and whether or not the development of nuclear power in the United States would be a good idea. There are a few things that must be addressed when you look at the idea of nuclear power. I do not think that nuclear power plants would be a very good idea for the United States. Nuclear power is a very dangerous operation. There is little room for error when it comes to nuclear power. We must look no further than the nuclear disasters at the Chernobyl and Three Mile Island nuclear power plants. The effects of the nuclear power plant meltdowns were devastating. The issue in our country is more about oil dependence and gas prices rather than new methods for energy. 

Reflection (Week Eight) (Extra Credit #2)

This week in class we discussed the ever-increasing problem of over-consumption that the world is dealing with. I didn’t know that the United States led the world in consumption. That is quite astounding to me considering how much smaller our population is compared to a few key nations. So, the question really is, what can we do to not only bring our own consumption down but the rest of the world’s as well. In class on Thursday we discussed a few methods that we could implement in order to accomplish this. One of those methods mentioned by professor Lim was the increase of taxes on key transportation items such as cars. The increased taxes on cars would force people to start using public transportation. She also mentioned that we should give incentives, such as tax credits and other money-back incentives for people who use public transportation. This all sounds like a good idea until you think of it on a larger scale. The one problem with trying to increase the use of public transportation is the fact that it simply would not work on a national level. People like the convenience of owning their own cars and being able to go places on their own schedule and not worry about catching a bus. What’s more, not everybody around the world lives in large metropolitan areas. If taxes were increased on cars people in the suburbs, who lives many miles away from their jobs would be negatively affected by these changes. Furthermore, I was wondering if there would be taxes on other vehicles, like farming tractors? A tractor is a farmer’s lively hood and if the tractors he uses were taxed, his business would be severely affected.  I don’t think the consumption issue really comes down to how much we drive, but I think it has to do with our dependence on foreign oil. People want to increase public transportation because gas prices are so high. Well, if we were drilling for oil in our own country, the prices of gas would decrease and people would more be able to afford public transportation. 

Reflection (Week Seven)

I particularly liked Gabrielle’s lecture in class on Thursday. We discussed the importance of certain key scientifically technologies in today’s society. One of those key technologies is the use of DNA testing. Gabrielle brought forth the question of whether or not we thought DNA testing was important. Furthermore, if we found it to be important, could the technology be abused. In my opinion, the development of DNA testing is very important. Specifically, DNA testing is of the utmost importance when it comes to the solving of criminal cases. Many murder cases, for example, are helped tremendously by analysis of DNA evidence. I think that DNA has the ability to save many innocent people from being convicted of crimes they did not commit. In many cases, DNA evidence exonerates a high percentage of innocent defendants. However, is there a fine line that must be closely guarded with technological advancements? One of the issues brought up in class was the implementation of fingerprinting. This started a heated discussion in class between a few classmates. A couple students felt that it is important to have everyone in the country fingerprinted. The reason for this is that it would make the solving of cases much easier. If everyone’s fingerprints were on file, it would be possible to catch a first time offender. This is opposite of the current system which only has people with prior convictions in the system. On the other hand, a few classmates said that mandatory fingerprinting was a bit too “big brother” for them. They wondered where the line would be drawn. If they mandated fingerprinting, what would be next? Personally, I agree with my classmates who think mandatory fingerprinting should not be enabled. In summation, as we have seen numerous times in class, there are always positives and negatives to technological advancements. 

Reflection (Week Six)

Over the course of the week, we discussed Susan Cozzen’s article. Her article covered the various aspects of Distributive Justice. In Cozzen’s article, she breaks distributive justice into four separate areas. Those areas consist of libertarian, utilitarian, contraction and lastly communitarian. Amongst these four main categories, also come four sub-categories. She explains that those sub-categories are research, innovation, regulations and last of all human resources. I think that our society would most benefit from the inception of utilitarian and communitarian categories. Most of the other categories seem as though they could be destined for failure in our society. Contractarianism almost strips of us our purpose. Through contractarian concepts, our purpose in society becomes blurred substantially. Out of all four categories, however, I dislike the libertarian concept the most. I thought the example that Professor Lim used in class was really cool. Professor Lim used an example of pizzas to explain the multiple concepts associated with Susan Cozzen’s article.