All Hail Design!

What is graphic design? Well everything you see, pretty much, is graphic design. Take a second to look around. You probably see a coke can on the table, or a school logo on a banner. All graphic art. Driving down 77 you look up at the green exit signs to identify your location, graphic design. If your shopping, you look at the store you wish to enter by reading their bright neon sign. A graphic artist made the design for that logo. My point here is simple, graphic design is underappreciated. The time and effort you have to put in, to each project is nothing of simplicity. As a designer myself I once too ignored the beauty of good design, but try to take notice. Art is great and its everywhere, you just need to look in front of you. 

-Scott Marsicano

Our Health

Last week many of the new health care provisions created under the Obama administration took effect as republicans continue to pledge a reversal of the health care bill. What is it about the new law that has conservatives so furious? Apparently tax breaks for the wealthy is significantly more important than basic medical care for all U.S. citizens. How is it that we are the only democracy in the world that will allow its citizens to go bankrupt over medical bills. As if draining hard earned retirement savings wasn’t enough.

      The negative connotation of a pre-existing condition implies an intruder on our health care system intent on raising costs for everyone. Who are these low income minorities who have the gall to walk into Johns Hopkins and ask for medical treatment? Many are actually small business owners, or anyone seeking out insurance for a number of reasons. They are elderly and the children of parents.

   

     What does a pre-existing medical condition mean to you? Probably nothing if you are a typical healthy college student. What it means to people with a pre-existing condition or illness is not getting adequate health care coverage. Grace periods of 6 to eighteen months are imposed before insurance will kick in. In the mean time you are paying for insurance along with your medical bills. In some cases the insurance premiums are too high to be affordable, about the same cost as paying for a mortgage on a second home. And, some of these conditions are easily treatable like high blood pressure or diabetes.

     One of the new provisions that are now in effect makes it unlawful for insurance companies to deny coverage to children 19 and under for pre-existing conditions and premiums cannot escalate. This is an improved condition. For the rest of the adult population we will have to wait until 2014 for this change.

     Another good change allows college students to stay on their parent’s health plan until they can obtain their own coverage or are 26. This is just the beginning of reasonable health care. The cost for health care has been escalating for decades and will continue no matter what. We might as well put in place policies that benefit the majority.

What I’m curious to see is how the opposition will try and take this reform away from America citizens while conning the voters into approving tax relief for the wealthy.


-Julie Post

     

Social Media

            Social Media, if you were to ask someone fifteen years ago what it was you would be pretty hard pressed to get an answer of what is was or even an example. Nowadays it would be challenging to find someone who was not involved in the craze, whether it be facebook, twitter, my space, etc.  Our society is so wrapped around these things; I personally don’t know what life was like before them. Just think, what do you do when you turn on your computer? Or check your cell phone? What do you do if you meet someone you are interested in? Most likely one of those three answers has something to do with social media. Something I think about sometimes is how far will we go with social media? When will it become just plain old invasion of privacy? We are already at the point where if you wanted to know who is doing what all one has to do is log onto twitter or facebook and snoop around for a bit. Being a person who enjoys there privacy I always find myself having an internal debate with myself with what and what not I should share on certain out lets of social media. So I ask the readers; where do you see social media headed? Will it or has it already gone to far?

-- Ross Radcliffe

Facebook Today

              On October 1^st The Social Network opened in theaters to great fanfare. Not surprising considering it was written by Aaron Sorkin, and directed by David Fincher. Both gentleman are at the top of their game, and push hard to make great movies. It seems like Facebook is in the news a lot lately actually. As a company, and a social network they continue to grow like gang -busters each year as more and more people create accounts all around the world. However, it’s not just the Facebook movie that’s giving this site its monumental presence in our lives today, and it’s not just the Facebook site. The power of Facebook in our lives today is very quickly being recognized through one thing you may have not considered, the “like” button. As many are aware Facebook thrives because of its ability to link to any other site. There are over two million websites on the Internet now that are Facebook linking ready according to an article on CNN.com. This means that Facebook has officially established itself as one of only a few central hubs of the Internet. Where, information from many various sources, including original user content, converges in one large portal. What will this mean for Facebook as a website? Will it be solidified, and last? Will it do what its predecessors, such as Myspace, could not? Or will it reach critical mass and slowly die off, going the way of so many other .com’s? It’s hard to say, but for now at least its safe to say that in the preverbal boxing ring that is the internet, Facebook is still raining champ until further notice.

- M. Tilley

      
     

                                                                                                                                       Link:  CNN Article

Technology Consuming our Lives?

Admit it, it's seemingly impossible to live without technology. Many of us cannot even fathom the thought of not being able to glance at our cell phones for a whole hour. With newer, and more improved pieces of technology released everyday that can replace our old products or eliminate the need for them all-together, how can you not grow addicted? Cell phone companies, in particular, are in a constant competition to produce the latest smart phones that can house more apps than imaginable.  Each app jars a specific window of our attention.  Allowed to customize our phones with our favorite apps, we pretty much guarantee ourselves a ticket out of any instance of boredom.  Phones now-a-days can provide us an infinite amount of pleasure, and the beauty of it is the freedom we have to edit settings to continually customize what satisfies our attention.

                Since it's inevitable that we'll even consider removing these devices from our lives, are we able to establish a healthy balance between our technological worlds and reality?  I can't count how many  times I've went to dinner with my family and observed other families whose children or spouses were texting away, paying minimal attention to their meal or the simple fact that they were having family time.  Attending sporting events is all about seeing the game live, and getting the "I was actually there" experience.  Why let texting, and compulsive itches to revisit facebook every few minutes ruin that time?  Besides, you spent all of your money to get those incredible seats!  Enjoy the moment.

            So even I admit it, I am guilty of not always balancing my time between technology and reality; however, I am taking steps towards "enjoying the moment" more.  For instance, movie time is movie time.  I direct 100% of my attention to what's going on so I won't miss a detail.  My family even has a no-phones-at-the-table rule. We dedicate that time to hearing about what's going on in each others' lives.  Oh, and game time, I'm not even thinking about picking up my phone. I'm in the zone, with the exception a little half-time break!  So I challenge you to enjoy the moment, and take a temporary break from technology, even if it's only for a few minutes. Trust me, it's not so bad. 

-Brittani Hunter

Android Radiation App

Tawkon, a small Israeli startup company, announced Monday that it released an application for Android phones that will detect cell phone radiation. The company's mobile application uses an algorithm that measures your Specific Absorption Rate or SAR. This is the rate at which your whole body absorbs energy from a radio frequency magnetic field. Specifically, the company measures the amount of radiation that is emitted from the phone and it uses the phone's GPS technology and accelerometers to gauge the position and proximity of the device to the body to determine the amount of radiation that is being absorbed into the body. The purpose of this application is to help users realize how much radiation is going being transmitted to them as they are talking on the phone. The company said that it is not to scare people away from using cell phones. Scientists are still unaware of the damages cell phone radiation does to the body. Apparently, the further away the cell phone is from the body, the less radiation it will absorb. A lot of cell phone companies have moved the antenna lower on the phone so it reduces the radiation that is directly by your brain. Personally, I think all of this information will scare some people and I think the application is unnecessary. The company also mentioned that there is a built in map that shows where radiation levels are high and low in the country. I think this is going a little overboard.
-Clay Chapman