Surveillance

The NSA uses a program called PRISM to obtain the personal information of users of popular social media websites and other various sites. It uses websites such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo, however the prominent figures of each of these websites denied leaking information about a vast number of users to the government.They do, however, admit that they will give information about individuals when it is lawful. One thing is consistent, and that is all of these companies deny all knowledge of PRISM's existence. We cannot be sure that these companies are lying to us, but if they are telling the truth then its a possibility that PRISM obtains information directly off of the fiber optic cables. This kind of access to information is dangerous and scary. The government has access to everyone's personal data like passwords and can even read his or her emails. The NSA and its defenders say that these kinds of activities are only targeting foreigners and possible terrorists. This is the purpose of our social justice action project. We want to emphasize that having your personal information readily available to the government is uncomfortable and should not be legal. Overall, I think that this is a huge problem that has recently come to the surface, and needs to be dealt with soon. We shouldn't stand for our privacy being invaded, and the violation of our rights as Americans. Surveillance it unethical, and the CEO of Google stated that he does not know of any program dishing out information about groups of people otherwise he would have quit Google because he does not want to  be involved with such scandalous activities. I respect him for saying that, but its bold to claim you would quit your high paying and high authority job in the blink of an eye. At any rate, even he knows its unethical and should not be a problem today. 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/12/heres-everything-we-know-about-prism-to-date/

SAP Introduction

For my Social Action Project, I have decided on focusing around the issue of electronic waste. Recent studies have shown that a large majority of materials that we recycle in the United States actually end up in highly toxic and dangerous recycling operations in Asia. Most of our recycling is being off-shored, and is handled by extremely underpaid workers in poor working conditions. These workers are often children and take apart the electronics by hand in dangerous scrap yards. Other means of exposing of electronic waste include landfills and incineration. When electronics end up in a landfill, they release toxins that eventually make their way to the atmosphere, and when various metals found in electronics are incinerated, they pollute the air as well. We keep on sending our waste to developing countries that risk harm to their workers just to sell the few parts they can salvage. Also, in many areas it is illegal to recycle plastic from e waste in order to avoid hurting the environment, however, these developing countries have no such law. The good name of recycling that has been promoted all these years is being soiled by these types of operations over seas. The three R's we all know, reduce, reuse, and recycle are mentioned in Jim Puckett's article "High Tech's Dirty Little Secret, " but he also mentions another very important R word "Responsibility." Its our responsibility to make sure we don't pollute the earth with our electronic waste, and we find a way to sensibly and intelligently recycle our garbage.

In order to regulate e waste, and deal with it responsibly, I have chosen to take action by organizing a peaceful demonstration regarding electronic waste awareness and prevention. I believe that a rally is the best way to approach this social project. A major problem with the electronic waste issue is that it is not well known, and therefore we should focus the rally on spreading awareness on the issue. If we can just get more people interested in helping the cause, then we can really make a difference because there is strength in numbers. We can draw people to the rally by planning to have a musical group play, and turning the rally into a concert with informative signs and flyers all over the place. We can pass around a petition to regulate waste that is sent to Asia and Africa. Obviously if we can get a more popular music group then we will have a bigger turn out. I think it could work really well, because, in my opinion, have someone preform is far more interesting than having some unknown person speak on a podium for hours. Concerts to benefit causes are very common and successful, although they are mostly used by celebrities. If we can get  celebrity on board, then the event would have huge potential. The concert is certainly not limited to only bands or singers, it could be a comedian or any other entertainer or performer. We can even use donations from the attendees to go towards recycling properly.

Consumerism, self-creation and prospects for a new ecological consciousness- Discussion Questions

Do you agree that consumerism is affecting the individuality and personal identity of the consumers themselves?

Do you think that consumerism is not about material needs at all anymore?

What do you think Hamilton's aim was in writing this?

Who is his audience, and why?

Mercury

2.  Mercury falls from the air into bodies of water and turns into methylmercury, which is highly toxic. This finds its way into the fish in the water, and then the birds and mammals eat the fish that have been exposed to methylmercury and become exposed themselves. The effects of the mercury on the wildlife can include reduced fertility, slower growth an development rate, and even death.
Mercury is regulated Internationally by the Environmental Protection Agency, by several laws such as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe drinking Water Act. and the Resource conservation and Recovery Act.

Students not Allowed to Support Teachers?

In Cuyohoga heights, Ohio, on homecoming weekend, during a football game, the students prepared a sign to wave that supported the teacher's decision to potentially strike. However, the students were not allowed to hod it up. The public is outraged, because of the violation of our freedom of speech. I, personally, don't know why holding up a sign supporting people as important and good as teachers would not be allowed. On the other hand, I realize that the board of education obviously does not want the teachers to strike, but I do not agree with how they handled the situation. I also see it as an outrage. The whole situation is in total violation of our basic American freedoms. America allows anyone the right to protest, and there can't be special exceptions for people in higher positions of authority to diminish our rights. 

I remember just this past year, the Strongsville High School teachers went on strike. It was a huge deal, and it lasted for a very long time. I believe that if the teachers have been treated so poorly that they have to go on strike is a valid enough reason to do so. To my knowledge, no student at Strongsville directly made signs to support the strike at the school. The Teacher Union exists just to avoid such situations as this. 

I wonder if the teaching strike at Cuyohoga Heights High School will happen, and be as big of a deal as the Strongsville one. These events just happened last weekend, the weekend of September 26th. This whole situation could turn into a more major event in the coming weeks, because of the debate about freedom of speech. 

Comic Strip Link

http://www.pixton.com/comic/3mj20l53