Immersion!!

1. I am most excited about completing the photo essay. I am not really sure what I'm going to do for the photo essay and I have no experience in photography but it will be interesting to try and tell my internship story through the photo essay. I already have some ideas for pictures, for example my desk has a really nice view of the city and I was planning on getting abstract photo's by taking pictures of things from an odd view/perspective.

2. Having to be at my internship site for 7 hours will be pretty stressful. I will be able to get a lot done in that amount of time, but I think there will be times when I will have nothing to do. One other thing that I've been worried about is using social networking sites that I have no experience on. My mentor wants me to eventually use Twitter, Ning, and other sites to increase the organizations Internet presence.

Outstanding Blogz

1. Economic advice to Barack Obama?
Jacob Harris's blog has a very good example of economic advice to Barack Obama. He decided to focus on more than one idea rather than just one. I was never confused or was wondering what his advice was, it was very clear and straight to the point. For example his first piece of advice was: "Give every major financial companies CEO/CFO/COO a government employed watcher, so as to prevent any mishaps such as Thorpe's renovation of his Merrill Lynch office. Who pays ~$1400 on a trash can? It's still going to fill up with trash."

2. Literary Analysis?

Ana Forsythe's honors blog she wrote about The Alchemist, she was very descirptive and used very good examples from the book to support what she thought was the theme. She explained how allegory was key in "tying this book together." Allegory is simply the representation of abstract ideas or principles. Her example was as follows: "The wise man tells Santiago to carry a spoon full of oil without spilling it, and look through his house full of treasures, paintings, and marvels of the world. The first time, Santiago was focused so intently on keeping the oil on the spoon, that he didn't notice any of the paintings or treasures. After he was told to look at the walls, he forgot all about the oil and let it all spill to the ground."

3. Historical Writing?

Will had an outstanding example of the relevance of FDR's first inaugural address in modern America. He expressed how speaches are only intended to raise confidence in listeners where otherwise there would be only despair. He then goes on to say FDR's first inaugural address, under closer inspection these uplifting words are revealed to be meaningless." I disagreed with him completely until i read on. Will stated "You will be convinced of this by examining the purpose of speeches and their inherent un-trustability." His view was completely different than mine and opened a new perspective for me.

Happy Birthday Charles Darwin!

As humanities students (and humans), what responsibility do we have for the understanding of science?

I believe people can choose to learn about science if they would like to or not, but curiosity is in human nature and that is what has drove scientists for all these years.

What role should scientific inquiry and scientific knowledge play in our own society?

Science can be used to make inventions to make our lives easier.For example, cell phones make communication much easier.

How should science influence our decisions, laws, and culture?

I think our culture is very influenced by science. Science is used in peoples everyday life.

If I Were obama's Economic Advisor

Part Two:

As the economic crisis gets worse regulation is something we need to consider along with a better stimulus package. Obama even depicted the current economic crisis is a consequences of deregulation, and he is not the only one. Michigan's Phil Hart, held hearings on the concentration of economic power in the United States, and proposed expanded government regulation of everything from the oil and auto industries to sports. In my opinion this is exactly what we need to do.

Ever since the 1960's when the rush for deregulation began problems have been starting ever since. Take the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act for example, it destroyed the CAB and removed most regulation of commercial airlines. Deregulation of the telecommunications industry reduced the number of major phone service providers. There is many more incidents that we should take into consideration when deciding how to solve our economic crisis.

Aside the point of regulation, the reason why our current bailout is not stimulating the economy is because how the money is being spent. A spokesman for JPMorgan Chase said, "We've lent some of it. We've not lent some of it. We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it." While other banks said they simply didn't know where the money was going according to Matt Apuzzo. The next stimuli's plan must be spent more wisely and we need to know where the money is going. Instead of giving the money to banks and other companies I believe we need to use the stimulus plan to fix another problem all together, unemployment.

According to the chart above unemployment has been a rising issue. With the stimulus package we should create jobs that will decrease the unemployment rate immensely. This will also increase consumerism which will help stabalize the economy as well. When unemployment rates it has been shown to produce spending cutbacks and that alone can hurt the economy according to John Kemp.

All this may not be able to get down quickly or may not help the economy very quickly but over time it would. This plan may also prevent future economic proublems from being as severe because there would be less unemployment.


Citations:

• Ridgeway, James, and unenforcement.. "It's the Deregulation, Stupid." MotherJones.com Home - Daily News, Political Commentary and Analysis. 11 Feb. 2009

• Kemp, John. "The Great Debate » Debate Archive » Rising unemployment gravest threat to U.S. and UK The Great Debate ." Reuters US Blogs Blogs . 11 Feb. 2009

• " Chart: Unemployment rate in U.S. since January 2008." Reliable Plant Magazine and Lean Manufacturing Journal. 12 Feb. 2009 .

• Apuzzo, Matt. " CNSNews.com - Where Did the Bailout Money Go? Banks Can’t, or Won’t, Say." CNSNews.com. 12 Feb. 2009 .

If I were Obama's Economics Advisor...

Part One:

As the economic crisis gets worse regulation is something we need to consider. Obama even depicted the current economic crisis is a consequences of deregulation, and he is not the only one. Michigan's Phil Hart, held hearings on the concentration of economic power in the United States, and proposed expanded government regulation of everything from the oil and auto industries to sports. In my opinion this is exatly what we need to do.

ever since the 1960's when the rush for deregulation began problems have been starting ever sicne. Take the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act for example, it destroyed the CAB and removed most regulation of commercial airlines. Deregulation of the telecommunications industry reduced the number of major phone service providers. There is many more incidents that we should take into consideration when deciding how to solve our economic crisis.

Part Two:

My mentor interview is scheduled for this upcoming Tuesday during internship and they have recording equipment that we can use for the interview.

What Makes a Good Interview

1. Structure/Order:

The questions have a logical order, this will lead to the person you are interviewing giving more focused answers. For example if you have all you questions relating about college and their college experience and not jumping from a question about their college to something about their internship experience (if they have ever had one) and back to talking about college you will get higher quality interview.

2. Goals

By setting goals your questions can be asked to get more detail and quantity out of the answers. For example, If I want to know more about how my mentor chose the job I will lead up to that point by asking a series of questions such as: What were some of your interests when looking for a particular job? Is the career your working in now suit those interests? Why did you choose this job?

3. Setting up your interview

Before you are able to have a interview, you have to schedule it with the person you are going to interview. You have to first ask your mentor to make sure you are able to have an interview and decide on a time and place for it. After that is done you can work on getting prepared for your interview.

All these design principles can be found in Dr. Feel It, an article written by Deborah Solomon.