Modern Reconstruction

We have been talking in class recently about better ways to manage the era of reconstruction after the civil war. This made me think what would be the best way to reconstruct the time we live in now? With so many issues being battled with on a daily basis, where would you even start?

Personally I think we should start with the education system which would hopefully allow us to prepare for tomorrow and have a more well rounded society. An education would allow those people living in poor areas a chance to escape their current lives and give them an all around better shot at success. When I was reading an article on how education is funded that can be found here, I found that even though the U.S. puts the most money into the education system out of any country, "nations that spend far less achieve higher levels of student performance." So the answer isn't to just throw money into the education system.

Finland is rated the top nation in terms of education. This article, on the World Education Forum, describes the Finnish education system and why it is so successful. The biggest problem I feel our education system is facing is the massive gap between the well funded education in affluent areas and the underfunded education in poor areas.  This comes from the schools being funded by property taxes. It seems to me that the simple answer would be to fund all schools the same amount. In Finland education is provided to everyone "regardless of their economic situation." In the U.S., most quality education is provided to the lucky few that can afford to pay for it. This could either be by enrolling in a private school or moving to an affluent neighborhood.

In Finland, According to the World Education Forum, even the post-compulsory education, which is like college in the U.S., is free for everyone. This comes from the Finnish government wanting to achieve "as high level of education as possible for the whole population." If we look at the current situation in the U.S., does the U.S. government want the same thing? The costs of colleges are continually rising leaving many families of kids who are qualified for college unable to attend on the sole basis that they can't afford it.

Now I realize that it would be near impossible to scrap the current education system. But why not tweak it a little? Maybe try to fund schools more evenly. Give the under privileged children a fighting chance. Maybe the U.S. could buck the trend of only focusing on the present and invest in the future which is all of the children in school right now.

Hanukkah Harry Saves Christmas!

In the spirit of the holidays, I thought I'd share this video that was shown to me a couple of years back. The video is an SNL skit called Hanukkah Harry. I think that it really exemplifies the spirit of working together, helping out the less fortunate, and also forgiveness.

Improving Your Focus

Today I came across a new camera called the LYTRO camera. Basically it allows you to take a picture and then choose what you focus on later. The LYTRO website shows some of the amazing reviews that the camera has recieved. Popular Science said that "digital cameras have consistently and dramatically improved... but those changes have been incremental compared with the leap taken in Lytro's light-field camera." Popular Science even gave the LYTRO camera the 2011 innovation of the year. 

All of this high praise made me think that this was photography's liberator of the people. Helping normal people to create more professional looking pictures. This was until I looked around a little more and found a blog post by Chase Jarvis, a professional photographer, who said in his blog that LYTRO's technology combined with other technologies that are being developed could truly lead to something amazing.

The part that I found interesting was when Jarvis backtracked a little, saying that the LYTRO technology could create amazing pictures "Unless… your pictures have no focus." He says in order to make your pictures stand out from the crowd, you need to focus on subject, content, meaning, and artistic vision. This LYTRO is a photographic tool. It does not manufacture amazing pictures for you.  Below is a video by another pro photographer Jared Polin. In this video, he points out some flaws of the camera. Just like Chase Jarvis, he talks about how people take photos with bad composition but overlook it because they can choose what to focus on. 

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It's interesting that the professionals just view the camera as another trend and that it won't improve the quality of images people take, but on the other hand non-professionals are singing the cameras praises and saying that it improves their photography. After seeing the video, I have to side with the professionals. Just because new soccer cleats come out that are 50% lighter doesn't mean that wearing them will make you a better player. Pros are pros for a reason. Instead of trying to find a shortcut to the professional level, you have to find a way to separate yourself from the rest because if the camera had the possibility of turning you into a professional, you have to think everyone would have one.

Is This Really in the Christmas Spirit?

This is a recent Best Buy commercial that completely goes against the spirit of Christmas. In the video the women beats Santa at present buying and hasn't left any room for Santa to leave his presents. In a way this goes represent the American value of competitiveness. Santa was too slow so a faster better gifted person took up his spot. The Christmas industry had evolved and Santa couldn't keep up, what a shame. We are surrounded by so many advertisements for all of the latest electronics that represent a fast paced world where things are only new for a few days because there is always something better. It's sad that the spirit of Christmas seems to be fading away as the magic of Santa is being bested by low-price electronics. Unfortunately, the Christmas magic has been fading for some time. It is now thought that children aren't learning the Christmas music that used to a staple of the holidays. This has got me thinking, why have larger corporations been able to commercialize cornerstones of society like Christmas? Is this commercialization unavoidable? Also are there other traditions that have started to lose their true meaning as corporations look for new ways to expand their business?

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