Category: Others

Although many people may believe that using technology can help cure the coronavirus, it may actually be harming more people instead. According to Scientific American’s article about tech hurting the fight against this virus, they give several questions that creators need to ask themselves before using machinery to help our battle toward this disease. Being able to read these questions and answer them can help people when trying to create positive impacts on coronavirus through technology. 

I believe the most important question is, “Are you listening to experts and vulnerable communities?” If one does not listen to the requirements and learn the basics about the thing they are trying to solve, they may try to invent a device that is already made or something that, in reality, does not fight the battle against this situation at all. For example, if one is trying to help the coronavirus, they may try to start a company that creates masks when there are many other non-profit organizations that have spent years doing this. These novice creators may use the wrong fabrics, and the masks would just be useful. On the other hand, many people may think that technology will hugely impact the coronavirus in a positive way. Even though this can be true, if these questions are not answered, it can also be extremely harmful. This information may seem only useful to engineers, but everyone who knows any people in the tech industry should try to spread this information so that no one is harmed from poor communication. 

Miss Emily died, alone and friendless,

after a life that seemed hollow and endless.

Now she lays in the cemetery graves,

with Union and Confederate soldiers from Civil war days.

She had been a tradition, a duty, a care, a hereditary obligation,

before this whole situation.

She was a small, fat woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist,

her voice was hard cold and dry, not a bit of sympathy to be traced.

This is really what happened, there really

and that’s it for the poem, based on “A Rose for Miss Emily.

The Poison Woman (Emily) is really, really, not awesome in the story “A Rose For Emily.” Here are three reasons why:

First of all, before the story even starts, her father dies (And her “sweetheart”). She is left really really sad and doesn’t want to go outside: “After her father’s death she went out very little; after her sweetheart went away, people hardly saw her at all” (Pg 2). If I were her, I’d be like the lady in the Ted Talk and get over it. It’s been so long that the Negro servant who had once been a young person became a very old guy. Also, I wouldn’t just never go outside ever again. There’s so many things you can do outside of your house. You can hang out with your friends (assuming you have any), you can travel to some landmarks and take photos to your heart’s content, and you can even go surfing!! You can’t order your Negro servant to go and hang out with your friends for you! You can’t order him to go and have fun surfing and taking photos for you! Emily’s kind of trying to freaking make a quarantine just for herself in the story and in my opinion, that’s not that cool.

Secondly, she seriously needs to lose some fat. “She looked bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water, and of that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty ridges of her face, looked like two small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough as they moved from one face to another while the visitors stated their errand” (Pg 2). From the way the story describes her, she is a very, very, fat, round, chubby, and obese woman. But I’ve never seen her actually do anything about it. This is probably because she has an attitude problem and won’t even go out of her own house, but still, nobody likes being fat, right? She could tell her Negro servant to start cooking more healthy meals. She could be like the guy in the same Ted Talk as I mentioned earlier and plant a bike in front of the television. She could start exercising by jogging around in her backyard while listening to music or doing squats while scrolling around on her phone, looking at the news and chatting with her friends (Again, assuming that she has any)! She could even do those awkward weight-loss dances that weight-loss people post on YouTube because they don’t have anything better to do (Not saying that losing weight is a bad thing, I just think those diet-dances are a little bit weird)!

Lastly, this girl is seriously violent. At some point in the story, she buys a container of poison: “‘I want some poison,’ she said” (Pg 4). At first, I thought she was going to kill herself to stop all the pain and all that nonsense (I wouldn’t put it past her, though). The people in her town thought so too and story said they said things like “‘She will kill herself’; and we said it would be the best thing” (Pg 5). But, at the end of the story, this idea gets destroyed because when they discover the Homer guy’s corpse in the upstairs room, they find a gray hair (Emily’s hair) next to it on a pillow with a head dent on it. It reveals that Emily might have poisoned Homer instead of herself because Homer wouldn’t marry her. I think this act is very violent and unnecessary. If Homer doesn’t like you, so what? There are plenty of other things to do like going on a vacation or trying to hit some golf balls into that teeny hole thing in the grass with a flag on it instead of trying to court an old dude who doesn’t even like you. I think this might be because of her poor attitude towards life again. You can’t just murder to have someone in your house forever. You just can’t! It’s wrong and very selfish too and if anyone found out, this time they probably wouldn’t buy your frantic screams to ask some dead colonel about the act of violence and wrongdoing.

All in all, I think this Emily woman is not being a good neighbor and not even being that awesome in this story by William Faulkner. Surely, I don’t think anybody would, considering that she’s quarantining herself and not socializing with anyone, she’s really fat, and that she literally murdered Homer in order to keep him in her house.

A room of collaborative ones await

Yet someone defensive may turn the room to hate

Like a chicken in a red zone

We can turn to detest by one alone

A positive role model can make reform

In a vulnerable situation by the swarm

Defensiveness does not protect

Nor will our fears deflect

To end it by the whole

We must follow our three goals

At first we must bring it to light

Even though it may feel uptight

Slowing down is the next step

But make sure not to over-prep

To check your negative self-talk

Allows teamwork in a flock

Last we must remember to make a new start

As an attempt to put our mistakes to heart

Many times, we as a society tend to be like chickens. Now you may say, we as humans are more intelligent or more caring or whatever. But too many times we, humans on this earth, act ignorant and aren’t willing to collaborate. We will see the outcome of this in two different groups of chickens.

Chickens often want to be the hen which lays the most eggs. How they do this is they peck other hens who are minding their own business and trying to lay eggs. Their unwillingness to collaborate eventually led to them having a group of them get killed or almost got pecked to death. Many times, we too, simply refuse to collaborate, just like those chickens, we will peck each other and cause the ultimate and tragic destruction of humanity. We need to collaborate and work together.

If we do this, just like the other group of chickens who worked together and made 265% more eggs than the previous year. We will make our community 265% better than the previous year! Perhaps best explained by MJ’s quotation: “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”. We have to realize that the only way to truly succeed is to work together!

Coronavirus is spreading fast and many want to help, but how? There are many ways, but some of the most interesting and many are trying to do is to find a cure or create some sort of robot or technology that will help lower the spread. This comes with a downside though, as many people are doing it, there are bound to be some bad apples. Many will purposely or accidentally put some sort of bias in their creations, try not to.
First, are you listening to experts and vulnerable communities? You should try to see what problems need the most solving at the moment. Also browse social media and see if people even need you. Check and see what they want or need most. Also, find credible sources or experts. This will help you decide whether or not something is beneficial or harmful.
Next, check to see if your tech does what it says it will do. Does it work always? Or only in simulated environments? Is is scientifically backed up? Or do you only say it is. You must know all your technology’s weaknesses and abilities. You must always check if what you are saying is completely true.
Lastly, who does your tech give power to? Does it benefit everyone? Or if someone owns it do they have all the power. More people are skeptical about new tech. See if it enables the government to spy or take advantage of consumers. You must always see if your tech is truly beneficial.
In conclusion, if are you making tech, you must always check if it is truly helping. You must see if it is needed. Also, you must check if it does what it says it will do. Lastly you must decide whether or not if it is helping everyone, and if it can be taken advantage of. If you want to make tech to help, you must check for every possible problem.

In this Ted talk the guy is talking about how people can become extremely defensive. When you start to become defensive you can’t think properly and you can even get everyone else to be defensive . I think that he makes a good point saying that there are many ways that you can see that you start to become defensive. I think that sometimes I am defensive. My problem is that I can’t notice my own defensiveness.
He said that if you are able to see that you are becoming defensive then you could easily stop. How can you notice your own defensiveness though? A good idea that he said is to figure out the thing that you do when you do become defensive, and to use it as an alarm system and then when you are able to notice these things then you can stop right away.
I think that some signals for me would be that I sometimes start to raise my voice, sometimes I might start breathing very heavily, or I might stand up very suddenly. If I am able to note to myself that these things are happening then I can stop myself from becoming defensive. There are probably many other ways to stop yourself from being defensive but this works the best for me.
In conclusion, I think that this talk was very good it talked about how people become defensive and how to stop it. He talks about how being defensive effects how you are able to cooperate with others. This talk will probably help me a lot in controlling myself.

The TedX talk is about how Jim Tamm talks about how one of the first steps to collaborating is to stop being defensive. He relates to a story of how chickens can peck their possible rivals to death in order to get the top seat.

I can unquestionably relate to this and have been defensive more times than I can enumerate. I did get confused about the chickens, that instead of killing each other, why not just stay equal, or take turns as top dog? Staying in the green zone can be a challenge. He says that there are lots of examples of ways you can calm yourself down. These are logical ideas, and I have tried these before. They work. There are some ideas that I have never thought of, and have been nonplus about how many there are, I will surely try some of these out.

I like how he gives an example of how quickly you can turn from the green zone into the red zone. He says, “…as you exhale, try too become one with this paper…”, then suddenly yanks it and rips it, and turns it into a smoldering piece of wreckage. (Not really smoldering) I think there might be another hint. It may not just be yourself, but also how that a diaphanous piece of paper can turn into a mutilated piece worth zilch.

To recapitulate, I think Jim Tamm is a brilliance, and I am astounded to see so many examples he can give. I perfectly enjoyed this didactic talk. I would definitely endorse this to everyone.

-Justin

Tech could hurt the fight against Coronavirus if we’re not careful. Here are the four questions we have to ask ourselves. Are you listening to experts and vulnerable communities? Can you join existing efforts? Can your technology do what you say it’s going to do? How does your technology shift power?

The first question is “Are you listening to experts and vulnerable communities?” It is about understanding the social context, about knowing what is helpful or harmful. You have to find credible or reliable sources. The second question, “Can you join existing efforts?”, is about searching for a team that can answer all three of these questions. You also have to find a project that involves experts, community involvement, and with ethical frameworks in place.

The third question is “Can your technology do what you say it’s going to do?” This is about if your solution improves the real world, or if it only works in some environments. You have to complete and test your work in a certain timeframe, and you will also need all the resources to finish your project, or you will need to abandon it. The last question is, “How does your technology shift power?” You have to consider who your projects shifts power from, and to. You have to think about who will have access to your technology and if it helps vulnerable communities and those who are most in need.

Being defensive is a part of an average person’s life. Everybody gets angry and frustrated unless you’re a complete optimist who can even find a positive point about accidentally falling off a cliff and dying. However, defending yourself from others isn’t a good thing. In fact, you’re not even defending yourself from somebody else! You’re defending yourself from your fears that you don’t want to be with. A recent study at Purdue University has shown that the more collaborative and friendly you are, the better your chance of survival is among your group. If you do not trust others, you will probably get into a fight. This means your survival chances are very low, for both you and your community/society. Also, when you get defensive, you start to have more stubborn thinking, and then you just become stupid. You can’t do anything that requires high IQ, like problem-solving. Once you’re defensive, you won’t be able to see the world positively.

Now that we know that being defensive is bad, how do we not be defensive, or how do we notice and stop it as soon as possible? Make a warning system! Figure out the signs of you getting defensive, then use that as a warning that you are becoming defensive. When you realize you’re getting defensive, calm down, take a walk, listen to some nice classical music, or do whatever you want that helps you relax.