Clay Shirky Ted Talk

Clay Shirky had a great presentation and went over many issues. He went over how much time us humans have of free time and what we can accomplish with it if we work together. He uses the term cognitive surplus when referring to free time we spend on technological inputs. He states that we can use this time recreationally or productively. The example of Ushahidi is a perfect example of how we can use out cognitive surplus to help each other and keep each other safe with the help of the internet. The other example he uses is "lol cats" which are cute pictures of cats with captions that are meant to be shared to make people laugh. He touches on how fast things can grow by saying how Ushahidi was once only for one country but in only three years time became a global thing. He then goes on to say how we have an intrinsic motivation to do things without anyone telling us to do them. He shows a study that shows parents are more likely to pick there kids up late if there is a fine compared to if there is no fine. This makes no since at first but then you realize that if there is no fine the parents would probably feel more guilty if they did not pick up there kids on time compared to if they were charged a fee.

Mall Torture

When I was younger my mom and her boyfriend took me to the mall every weekend and I hated it because we never bought anything and we walked around all day and it made my legs hurt. Since I constantly complained about walking around the mall all day my mom found a way to keep me entertained and quiet. She began taking me to blockbuster every time we went to the mall so I could rent a video game and be happy. We started going to blockbuster before we went to the mall so I would be preoccupied with reading the game manual that is included with each game at blockbuster. I loved reading all about the game and imagining how fun it would be when I got home. The games I rented were mainly for my PS2 and because we went to the mall so often I was able to play a wide variety of games for it. Unlike now where I only get around 2-3 games a year for my Xbox. I remember loving games with complex stories and/or games that were very free roaming. I still love those types of games now but I really enjoy games that need good strategies. I think I love these types of games because of my imagination. Even now with my strategy games I make up my own unorthodox strategies that most people have never tried.

Easing the Pain of Automation

I think the best plan is Arun Sundararajan's. Technology advancements not only destroy jobs but also create many jobs as well. I will acknowledge that these jobs are usually for educated workers so for this plan to work you would need some factors to come in to play. You would need college to be more accessible to lower class citizens and you would need to motivate more people to go to college.

Andy Stern agrees with Arun Sundararajan's and has stated an idea about how to promote more people going to college. However his idea is flawed because he does not realize how giving everyone in the nation $12,000 a year would result in inflation and actually cause less people to go to college and would increase the population of the lower class and decrease the population of the middle class.

Dean Baker also states that advances in technology creates as well as destroys jobs but he fails to mention how the jobs they create are for more educated workers just like Arun forgot to mention. It seems like all the debtors are on the same page but all have different paths to get where they want to go.

Texting While Driving

Texting and driving is an increasingly dangerous activity that many people are losing there life to. I read many different sides of the argument and I believe Amy Klobuchar had the best idea. She stated that we must change laws and change attitudes towards texting and driving like we did with seat belts. Harder punishments must be put on people who text and drive to begin to prevent this behavior.  She has encouraged states to enact graduated licensing programs to help new drivers learn the rules of the road and the states to enforce those rules. She showed this worked when in April Minnesota police officers gave out nearly 1000 citations for texting and driving. She ends her argument by saying that she believes it is possible to end texting and driving because in 1970 fewer then 15% of people worse seat belts but now 84% do where seat belts.

My favorite Game

My all time favorite game is Spyro: Year of the Dragon. It is a Playstation one game and was released on October 25th, 2000. I will admit that nostalgia is part of the reason it is my favorite game but I do not let nostalgia cloud my judgment. The level design in this game was beautiful and never left you confused on where to go next unlike many other 3d platform games. The soundtrack is one of the best soundtracks of the spyro series. In most video games getting collectables can be very boring to some people but in this game the collectables are usually attached with fun minigames which give much motivation to achieve them. Even though it is for kids it can actually become very difficult at certain points which is something I love. Another thing this game does great is having very rememberable characters.

Blog Post 4

In the movie Rocky, Rocky Balboa gives his son a very inspirational speech. He starts off by saying how proud he is of the way his son has grown up, but then he says that something has changed and that his son has stopped being himself. Rocky tells his son that he needs to stop blaming his problems on other people because that is what cowards do. Rocky says that the world is a very mean place and that it will hit you hard. He says you are not defined how hard you can hit but how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. This is very inspirational to me because it shows that you can never give up on yourself. It shows if you blame other people for whats wrong in your life nothing will ever change and it shows that if you believe in yourself and work hard enough then you can do whatever you want.

Blog 5

http://67.media.tumblr.com/181b7a5ee4676d1cbe30f1028bc1122e/tumblr_nuhtt96etf1uxpcvmo1_1280.jpg
This ad uses a famous person as front cover to hopefully attract consumer attention. It shows that not only that his teeth are white but that they are perfectly inline to put the idea in the consumers mind that this will fix there teeth every way possible. The ad then goes to explain how it how it makes him happy. This means it is trying to promise happiness to the consumers. The ad then goes and promises that the only way your teeth could possibly get cleaner is if you went to your dentist. This is showing how they are telling the consumer that there product is above all others. This ad shows that it is accepted by the american dental association hoping to prove to the consumers that it is a product that they can trust and that it will work the best.