A Paper-Free Lifestyle

Yesterday the New York Times published an article entitled: Pushing Paper Out the Door about Google engineer Chris Uhlik and his efforts to make his home paper-free.

 

This got me thinking. How convenient would the paper-free lifestyle be? I take a look at my desktop. Sheets of paper are strewn everywhere. Take away the paper products and I have JBL Creature Speakers, Sennheiser headphones, a TI-83+ Calculator, A Maxtor external hard-drive, A TV remote control, my laptop, a lamp, a small Dasani water bottle, and a bottle of multi-vitamins. Gathered together, they have a footprint of about 6 square feet. My desk itself is about 7 feet long and 3 feet deep (including my dresser which is adjacent to my desk, forming one counter) creating 21 square feet of desk space. So while my technology uses less than a third of my desk, I can hadly see any part of my desk due to the masses of paper and books that occupy it. In addition to this clutter, my shelf unit is overflowing with books, notebooks, and loose papers.

My Cluttered Shelves

My Cluttered Desk

 

 

While I complain of my room being too small it occurs to me that my room is just too cluttered with papers. So how nice would my room be without paper? Well I’ll find out eventually since I will now be attempting to reduce my “Paper Footprint” (And yes I’ve just trademarked that phrase).

There is a bonus. Thanks to former Vice-President Al Gore we all know that our wasteful lives have irreparably changed the planet. As landfills overflow countries turn to burning their garbage as a means to both generate energy and deal with their trash problems. In response to activism the cliché response is, “But what can I do?”, well I’ve figured out what I can do. By reducing, and perhaps one-day eliminating, my paper-footprint I can reduce the strain we put on the planet. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Greenpeace loving environmentalist but I do understand that it is important for people to protect the planet, if only out of self-interest (more on my opinions on protecting the planet in future posts).

 

I pose this question to my readers, few though they may be, if you could change one thing in your life to help the planet, what would it be and why?

Cyber Crime is Crime Nonetheless

First of all let me say that I have no experience in MMORPGs, I have no experience in hacking, and I am not an expert in the subjects I am talking about.  As a result take everything I say with a grain of salt.

 

That having been said…  In this month’s issue of WIRED magazine there is an article about people groups of clandestine hackers that commit cybercrimes on MMORPGs.  The article details who groups of people, “griefers” attack internet communities, such as Second Life and World of Warcraft, in an attempt to, put simply, make the users cry.  According to the article, leaders of these groups have said that they attempt to blur the line between the fiction of games and the reality that people project onto the games.  In essence they are the school bully who makes fun of a kid for thinking Dungeons and Dragons is real.

 

Personally, I agree with their basic premise.  We do turn alternate reality into reality too much.  When we spend thousands of dollars a year buying upgrades for an avatar who doesn’t exist we are in essence, paying for a delusion.  While some people accept that, others actually attempt to profit off of alternate realities by selling alternate reality real estate, playing the game for people to increase their abilities, and selling characters who have advanced far in the games.  In the article it talks about how attackers in the digital world have attacked these Second Life moguls and harassed their clientele.  I understand the idea that it is all part of the game, but once you are actually disrupting real cash revenue doesn’t the real law have to apply?

As I sat down at my computer I came upon an article on Yahoo! News, reprinted from WIRED magazine’s blog with the title, “Anonymous Hackers Track Saboteur, Find and Punish the Wrong Guy”.  Basically what happened is: apparently a war between anti-Scientology and pro-Scientology hackers has been occurring on the internet.  One of these groups of anti-Scientology hackers, from the same community of people who are griefers, tracked an “enemy” hacker to a certain IP address in Stockton, California owned by a 59 year old man and his wife.  After posting their personal information (Address, Phone Number, Social Security Number) on the internet he received harassing phone calls and death threats.  Upon finding out about their mistake the griefers, also known as “g00ns”, promptly took down the information and issued an apology.

 

Fine, case closed right!  I say not.  If this weren’t cyber-crime but real crime the police (assuming they could find the culprits) would be breaking down doors and making arrests for harassment.  Instead, nothing.  This is a serious issue that will face the coming nation in the near future and demands the attention of lawmakers.  Of course, I think it is safe to say that few lawmakers would understand, let alone care, about cyber-crime.  As a nation we need to develop strict rules as to the culpability of crimes committed on the internet.  Where does the innocent interrupting an attack on another character turn into stealing upgrades that a character has purchased?  Where does the innocent (though not necessarily legal) messing with someone’s computer turn into putting a person in physical danger?

 

The story I told was about a man who got caught in the crossfire of a virtual war, why are the combatants who have harmed him less culpable than the gangs who hit innocent civilians during gang wars.  I’m not an expert, but I do know that something has to be done or else sooner or later, the internet will start claiming fatalities… if it hasn’t already.

Physics As the National Language

          It is my belief that every high school student should have to study physics for at least one year before they can graduate.

          Your child asks you, “Mommy, Daddy, why is the sky blue?” to which you inevitably respond, “It just is.”  In this time of Presidential Elections we seem to worship down-home-ness and being a common man (or woman this year).  We have a culture of anti-intellectualism that has got to stop.

          America’s educational system has continued to rank low on the world scale.  According to a report released by UNICEF in 2002, the US came in a stunning 18^th place rank in terms of education.  The rankings were based on the literacy and science and math abilities of 15 year olds.  According the study 16.2 % of students were below international benchmarks putting us right behind the rich and mighty Hungarian school system with its 14 % failing rate.  Of course Japan had a failure rate of just 2.2%.  This is flat out ridiculous!  In a country that has mandatory, free public schooling for all its citizens how is it that we can’t manage to be among the top countries academically.  In 2003 an international assessment found the US to be 9^th out of 12 industrialized countries in math scores tied with another wealthy country… Latvia.

          The reason why I am thinking about this subject right now is the controversy with teaching intelligent design in schools.  First let me state for the record my opinion on intelligent design:  “BULLSHIT!!!” I want to believe in God just as much as the next person but trying to call intelligent design secular and claiming that it has scientific basis is poppycock (I never get to say that anymore).  On a side note (there will be many of these during my brain drippings), Darwin who championed the theory of evolution actually thought that evolution was proof that God must exist because how else could creatures have the ability.  I don’t necessarily agree with this, I think probability and random chance is a much better (though less comforting) explanation, but it just goes to show you. 

          Anyway, point is, children are taught so much abstract science that I believe that it is hard for them to understand what makes science, science.  Sure you can learn about the theory of evolution in biology or understand ionic bonding in chemistry but in physics you can actually see what you are learning.  You can see gravity, you can feel gravity.  You can make circuits and light light-bulbs and hopefully be inspired by an experiment that you perform.

          According to the National Center for Education Statistics, on 24.7% of high school students will take a class in physics, the only numbers lower than that are Calculus at 10.1% and trigonometry at 21.1%.  For comparison, 73.9% will take a foreign language, 93% will take biology, 55.5% will take chemistry, and 53.9% will take both biology and chemistry.

          What does this mean?  In an age that is defined by technology, the United States is not keeping pace with the developing economies in Asia and Eastern Europe.  America, the center of post-war technological innovation is being superseded by China and India.  Every day in the news we hear people complain about how they were laid off their factory job so that someone working for peanuts could do it in Asia.  That is the beauty of engineering.  You can’t use child labor and you can’t use peanuts.  Sure tech-support can be outsourced (ever called Microsoft for help?) but tech-support is to engineering what blogging is to novel-writing, it takes less skill, effort, and time.  Engineering is a field that is hard to outsource and can provide job security to Americans at a time when it is increasingly hard to find a job.  Richard Feynman said in his autobiographical book “Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman”, that he was often able to pickup other subjects very easily because he understood the physics behind why they worked.  I’ve found this true in my own studies as well, understanding thermodynamics makes chemistry a breeze sometimes. 
          So here’s the practical plan.  High school is 4 years long.  It is my belief that every student should take non-calculus physics in their first year, biology in their second, chemistry in their third, and have the choice of either calculus based physics or earth science in their final year of high school.  Why do I consider Earth Science so lowly.  Besides the fact that I slept through a year of it with a 95 average (my highest in any science course I took), I find it to be rather trivial to be able to calculate your altitude based on the azimuth of the sun or to be able to name the angle of repose.  Most of the key parts of the subject are learned in physics, biology, and chemistry.  Students who have a solid foundation in physics will be better prepared to enter the high-tech job market and if they choose not to, will at least have a solid scientific background to draw from later in life.

          When you grow up and have kids instead of saying, it just is, you might be able to answer their question, “Because the color blue disperses most easily when it enters our atmosphere thus causing the sky to appear blue”.

An Open Letter To Chancellor Wrighton

It was quick, I know, but I just wrote this email to Chancellor Wrighton outlining some of the reasons why Barack Obama should be allowed to speak at Washington University in St. Louis. It is poorly edited and written quickly and was meant to be nothing more than a note that I doubt he will even read. But for your enjoyment, here it is:

“

To Chancellor Wrighton,

First of all I preface this by saying that I am not an Obama supporter, nor am I a Gonzalez supporter. I simply want to see our campus as a center of political debate. This not only benefits the students but attracts the best and brightest future students. I chose this school over smaller schools because of what name recognition can do, not for my career, but for my experience at school. Instead of having the former assistant to the deputy to the vice-attorney general (I’m aware this position does not actually exist) we have the former attorney general himself speaking. We should be having every Presidential candidate holding rallies on campus if they want. I challenge you to name ways that the students are harmed by having even one candidate speak. And then find me 10 students who would actually feel that harm. Frankly if other candidates don’t choose to come here, that is there loss, and the fault of their supporters for not demanding it. They lose votes, we lose nothing.

The arguments put forth so far by the administration have been quixotic at best. Every time one is satisfied another one magically appears. Well the latest one as far as I know is that we might not be able to give every candidate the opportunity. So below is a list of places that a candidate can use (enough for all current candidates) including outdoor ones that can’t just be busy when a candidate wants it:

                1. The AC

                2. Brookings Quadrangle

                3. Brookings Steps

                4. Holmes Lounge

                5. The Swamp

                6. Mudd Field

                7. The IM Fields

                8. The Concordia Fields

                9. The Field in front of the B-School and all the Construction 

                10. 560 Music Building

                11. Graham Chapel

                12. Lab-Sci 300

                13. Edison Theatre

And I’m sure there are others.

Point is: We should extend an official invitation to every candidate specifically saying that availability of any of these sites is limited and will be given on a first come first serve basis. This covers the university from liability because there is then an official reason why a candidate gets preference (he reserved it first).

Don’t limit the students, don’t prevent discourse and debate. The greatest thing to happen to Columbia was the President of Iran speaking there. Alberto Gonzalez is a step in the right direction, but if we want to keep calling ourselves a school at the level of the ivy leagues, we have got to start acting like it (which might I add Ivy League schools have had candidates speak there).

In response to the argument that it might endanger the vice presidential debates. As nice as those are, they were a consolation prize. We won’t be getting the candidates, we won’t be getting the same media attention (In 2000 the vice-Presidential debates had fewer viewers than the Subway Series between the Mets and the Yankees). The debate is great for the campus, don’t get me wrong, but it shouldn’t be determining all policy with regard to being controversial for the next year and half.

In closing, to prevent Obama from speaking on campus would be a disservice to all the students of this school. Given the raises in tuition, I think that students ought to be given more control over what happens on their campus, because in reality the campus should belong to the students, and if the students want to see candidates, the students should get to see candidates on campus.

Respectfully,

Peter Glaser

School of Engineering ‘11

”

We’ll See What Happens

Introduction – Brain Drippings

Dear Blog Reader,

            Well, here I am.  One of those guys.  There must be a billion of them.  The internet has brought incredible change to the world.  Perhaps its most prolific change is that it has allowed any idiot who thinks he has an idea to become a columnist.  So, I say again, “Here I am”.    Though no one is going to read this post I feel that in the interest of being forthcoming I ought to tell all my readers (who at the time number: Me) what this blog will be about.

            I’m sitting at my laptop watching Barack Obama being interviewed by Wolf Blitzer on CNN.  I just finished writing a few samples to include with resumes I will be sending to possible internship opportunities for the summer.  I often read a book, watch tv, or write a paper and think to myself, “Someone ought to hear my opinion on the subject”.  Despite a lack of erudition when it comes to writing (I consider myself to be a much better public speaker than a writer), I am opinionated and I have things to share with the rest of the world. 

That having been said, some blog posts will be incomplete ideas.  They will not always represent my intention and when this happens I will attempt to edit them for clarity.  Consider no post a finished product but instead, a rough draft.  These are posts from a “Leaking Brain” and cannot be fully controlled at times.  What may seem like a brilliant idea at first may come out differently than I want and as a result I may change wording a text from time to time, I may even replace posts wholesale if I make an edit on them for some reason.  If you wish to quote me or see original copies I can be contacted for permission.  Sure there is nothing preventing you from quoting me without permission but if I feel I have been misrepresented there will be consequences.  I am a very easy person so please don’t take advantage of this for personal gain.

The blog is called “The Leaking Brain” for two reasons.  The first of them is practical, someone already had the name “Brain Drippings” and I didn’t want to use a one that someone else had.  It is possible that someone chose “The Leaking Brain” already, but I didn’t know about it, so if you’re reading my blog at this point (which seems incredibly unlikely given that no one is reading my blog at this point) sorry, tough, deal with it.  That is I suppose my first opinion.  That people shouldn’t complain (which I understand is ironic, given that I’m starting a blog) about things that are unavoidable or accidental (this was accidental, though not unavoidable, so don’t complain about, perhaps if you are polite I might change the name, but complaining will get you nowhere).  Back on track, the second, and much more important, reason is that this blog will be those ideas that are leaking right out of my brain. 
            This is my pledge to you, the readers:

1.       I will regularly respond to comments left on articles if they are civil and polite.  It is a great way for me to fill up column space and allows for a dialogue between us.

2.      I will regularly post.  The only thing that will prevent me from doing so will be if I am asked by an employer not to or if I forget.  Either way, sending an email to me is a quick easy way to remind me if you’re ever angry that I haven’t posted.  Posts will likely be weekly but will sometimes be more often (I’ve got a lot of backlogged ideas) or less often (Eventually I’ll need to build up more ideas).

3.      I will never criticize someone who calls me on an incorrect fact.  In dialogue people are lacking facts and tend to disapprove of no-it-alls.  I will encourage anyone who thinks they have facts that prove or facts that dispute what I say to post them.

4.      I will listen to you.  If you think there is a book that I “have to read!” because it is so influential or controversial, I will make my best attempts to do so.  I am a student.  I do have other responsibilities.  But I will try.

So there we are.  The blog is officially started.

 

Signed,

Peter Glaser

 

–The views on this blog are in no way represent any organization that Peter is a part of, they are from his head and represent nothing more than an idea.