Charcoal Stripes

Relate an encounter with Nature when/where you found value in the experience.

One time, back in my Boy Scout days, I went to a summer camp with my troop. With me was my best friend (at the time) Ben. Now Ben and I went against the typical "boy scout grain" in most situations and we were there more to cause trouble more than learning about knots. The second night we decided to do something exciting and fun rather than abide by the curfew and proceeded to take off our shirts, paint our bodies with charcoal stripes, and sneak to the rest of our troop's camp to wreak havoc.

See Ben and I were in the older guys camp whereas the rest of our troop was at a different camp through this patch of woods. To sneak up on them we went alongside this lake with tall stalks of some plant growing on its beach. Our charcoal stripes and the plants fit together so perfectly that from five feet away we were next to invisible. While we were sneaking along, we tried to be absolutely silent. That left a lot of room for nature to speak and it was both surreal and very peaceful (given the circumstance) to listen to all of the sounds nature had to offer.

That night and the night following we pulled all the pranks we could with our limited supplies. We rubbed toothpaste on a sleeping kid's head, we stuck a bunch of forks in the ground outside another boy's tent (point down, the boy was unharmed) and never got caught by the parents staying there. The pranks were dumb but I will never forget sneaking through the tall grass being as quiet as possible and listening to all the sounds of the woods.

The Digital Participation Effect

How do you think digital participation has affected
a) your attention?
b) your sense of space/spatiality?


Digital participation has had a profound effect on our culture's sense of space. The development of thousands of new technological innovations has made this world smaller and smaller as we have become able to be in contact with those halfway across the world from us within a matter of seconds. This has caused the world, once big, mysterious, and imposing, to shrink in our minds. For years prior to this when a person was asked where they were from, they would say the town or city that they were from, now it has become much more common to respond with which state you are from. With the further advancement of these technologies I believe we will soon reach a point where you will simply say the country you are from. Perhaps in just a few generations we will be answering with what planet we are from...

"The Use of 'Dover Beach' in 'Fahrenheit 451'"

In Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451, at one point the protagonist, Montag, reads a bit of poetry aloud to his wife's friends. The poetry he reads is from the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. The excerpt he reads evokes a strong emotional response from one of his wife's friends. I believe that Ray Bradbury chose this poem because of its tone in particular. The first stanza he reads refers to the "Sea of Faith" and how it has shriveled and dried. I also think this is an analogy to the state of the world that Montag lives in. Like the "Sea of Faith," other waters have also dried. The "Sea of Knowledge," the "Sea of Dreams," the "Sea of Imagination," and the "Sea of Creativity" have also disappeared.

The severe emotional response that Mrs. Phelps displayed to this poem I think came from the fact that she wasn't truly happy. The way that the poem shows the world was so powerful and relatable that she couldn't handle her composure anymore and broke down. This very real emotion was so raw and unchecked that it frightened her and in turn made her angry towards Montag and poetry.

"The Culture and Tech of Oryx and Crake"

Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake makes several powerful points about technology and culture. The world that she describes has become twisted and cruel; the protagonist and his friend Crake grow up watching child pornography, executions, and graphic surgeries on the media. This is a bold statement about our media today and how it seems that every day more profanity, violence, and sexually explicit material finds its way into our homes through TVs and the internet. Another point she makes is in the way that the world is run by huge corporations. I thought this was particularly powerful due to the way that we can see that in a less obvious way today. In the western countries of our world there are several extremely powerful corporations that pull a lot of strings in things like media, business, and even the government.

"Stuxnet, a New Sort of Campaign" (T&C Report)

"Warning over 'Stuxnet' Computer Worm"
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/web/09/24/stuxnet.worm.ft/index.html

Computer viruses are nothing new to us; since computers have become personal they have existed. Most are annoyances while others can prove to be costly if not prevented. The computer virus has begun a new, much more frightening stage recently as one called "Stuxnet" has wormed its way into an unknown number of Iranian facilities. This virus does not seem to be designed to target the general public however, in fact experts have speculated that it is specifically created to attack industrial computers in things like factories. This suggests that there are potentially more sinister motivations behind the attack than simply taking money. Some are hypothesizing that a government is behind it. This possibility is a very frightening prospect because Iran is one of the fastest growing nuclear countries in the world. The possibilities of this new technology are endless; ranging from businesses attempting to sabotage competitors all the way to countries waging a new form of war. One thing is certain however, this new virus has truly revolutionized the "cyber war" and computers that seemed immune to infection are now racing to catch back up.

"The Technology of the Brewery"

The subject I would like to pursue for my final topic is a strange and somewhat controversial one. I would like to research the ways technology has changed and developed the alcohol industry or, more specifically, beer. Before you get too far into your immediate thoughts of incredulity, let me explain. My fascination with the art (yes I said art) of brewing beer does not spawn from some juvenile fascination with being rebellious or have anything to do with any party habits that I do or do not have. My interest instead comes from a desire to own a pub when I am older, a love for Great Britain (who produce some of the most widely known beers in the world i.e. Guinness, Newcastle, etc.), and a "Modern Marvels" episode on the History Channel about the history and manufacture of alcohol. Things that I intend to research and address in this paper include methods of brewing and how they have changed, advertisement, and a brief history. To research these topics I would first visit several well known beer company's websites that use varying degrees of technology to create the drink. I would want to find one that is mass-produced in an ultra-modern facility, one that has upgraded to meet demand but still stays tied to tradition, and one that prides itself on using completely traditional methods. Due to the nature of the topic, I would probably be fairly limited trying to find research sources in the library so I would probably simply search online for information regarding beer's history.

"Justin Bieber... a Cultural Icon?"

I have decided to write my paper on the rise of child star Justin Bieber in the music industry. I decided on this topic last night after watching his VMA performance. I plan for my paper to have a brief history of Justin, his rise to stardom, and I want to explore some possible reasons that he has exploded to the forefront of popular music today. I want to write this paper from a mostly objective standpoint but have some added in humor that voices my personal opinion thrown in (perhaps that will keep the hardcore Bieber fans away).