Student Debts Cartoon

As someone looking into colleges, I have always considered scholarships and other monetary offerings when looking at schools.  Why? Well, this cartoon rather aptly explains the reasons why.  College education in present times is very expensive, and many students have to take loans.  The poor man weighed down with a rather huge load in the cartoon has a five-figure student loan debt -and he has not even finished college yet.  This is a huge issue that Americans are dealing with in present times, that many college-educated students are laden with huge debts before they even finish their schooling.  Combined with the present job-market issues, does not bode well for these students.  

Of course, we have people who don’t believe this is that much of an issue, as shown by the parents standing in the doorway in the cartoon saying “we started out with nothing!”.  Well, better to have started out with nothing and having nothing to lose, and everything to gain, than starting with huge debts that must be paid first before ever gaining anything.  To view these people are irresponsible is to be incredibly short-sighted to the troubles that comes with debts and new times, and is irresponsible of the viewer themselves.  Jeff Parker makes a statement with this cartoon, that perhaps we should not blame the kids for coming back home, be a bit more understanding to their troubles, and maybe actually do something about the issue that is student loan debts.  There is, in fact, a reason why money is a HUGE thing I note when checking out colleges.  I, for one, do not want to be weighed down like that kid in the cartoon with huge debts and other problems.  

Wanted: Talented, driven. Pay: $0

Are unpaid internships an exploitation of students, or are they gaining valuable experience?  There’s a huge list of internship jobs, and as the article makes very clear: “Compensation: ‘non-pay’”.  Except, perhaps, a stipend for travel.  So, the rhetorical question is this: “Is is out-and-out exploitation, or a beneficial opportunity to work closely with mentors in one’s future field of endeavor?”  To me, with a sister working unpaid internships, it’s an issue not to be taken lightly.  Is she gaining real-world knowledge and useful contacts?  Or is she being taken advantage of as an unpaid worker?  

The article lays side-by-side the complaints and benefits, including examples of lawsuits where unpaid interns won millions of dollars for their trouble.  There aren’t many of them, though, simply because people are hesitant to file complaints -after all, they're relying on the company to provide a reference.  The defendants in the article say that they give their interns valuable information and that they leave with something useful.  They also mention that profit company internship programs must pass a test that emphasizes training.  They also placate their workers by saying that the intern does not replace the employee.  Both arguments sound good, especially since their juxtaposed with each other.  But the question is, which one is the truth?  It seems with the last sentence, our article supports the idea that unpaid internships are not all that great -especially when one needs to pay the rent.  

The Missing $20 Trillion

It's a well-known secret that many large corporations use tax havens to avoid paying their taxes. It makes them very unpopular, reducing their bills to the countries they serve in.  It is quite admirable of our legislation to attempt to get those companies to pay their dues, but it is a notion that's rather hypocritical, as noted in the article.
         Take for example Mitt Romney, who has holdings in the Cayman Islands, or Jack Lew, who once had interest in a Cayman fund.  The imagery of countries working on cleaning up their own backyards and reforming their tax systems is a powerful and humorous one, considering the sarcasm this article loves to include.
         Of course, the argument is that politicians are hypocritical and are going about this wrong, and the article explains why, by naming several places that are tax havens within countries, such as Delaware and the City of London.  So the point is made that reform should not just focus on isolated islands.  Of course, tugging at the heartstrings and moral values of the readers helps get the point across that everyone should be helping prevent wrongdoing, in this case by being transparent.
         The argument that lowering the tax rate will result in more tax money initially does not make any sense...until the article mentions that having high tax rates only spur tax avoiders.  It's and interesting and convincing logic; lower the tax rate so fewer companies will attempt to avoid them, without completely abolishing the tax, or raising the taxes so high that it actually harms business and thus encourages tax avoidance.

The Last Lecture

It’s a tradition at Carnegie Mellon to give “Last Lecture’s”, where professors are asked to contemplate their demise and think about the wisdom they wish to impart upon their audience.  Thing is, when Randy Pausch, a professor of computer science, was asked to give his own “Last Lecture”, he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.  After giving his lecture, he wrote this book, detailing his thought processes before and during his lecture, and writing a few more lectures down, so that his children may have something of him, may know him long after he is gone.  
This isn’t a lecture about death and how to handle it.  Randy makes it quite clear starting from his introduction that his lecture will celebrate life, that is for his children and wife, and for dreams.  This strange juxtaposition of the life and dreams of a dying man make his words more powerful, and when Randy jokes it brightens the mood, so that his audience knows to laugh and celebrate, and that his children may someday know too.  With words chosen for an adult audience, yet simple enough that younger generations may understand, Randy tells his tale of his dreams, and how his supportive parents, and how he has achieved his dreams.  His lecture, and this book, have inspired millions of his audience, and so he has left behind a great legacy to his family, and his students.  

Meteor in Russia

First question: What exactly is this image?  Well, let’s look at the clues first before discussing the answer.  There’s a bright light in the sky, but it can’t be the sun, because the sun is currently past the horizon, setting, or rising.  The setting appears to be the road, and it is 9:20 on the 15th of February.  So what is that bright light? It looks like a rocket, but rockets have long streams of fumes and dust from burning fuel behind it.  So what is it? It’s a meteor that hit Russia, whose impact shockwave blew out over 4000 windows.  This the the photograph that covers an article on how scientists will prevent impact of other asteroids sure to come in the future.  
But why is this picture used?  At first glance, it’s rather ambiguous.  There’s obviously some significance, it’s presented with an article, but taken by itself, it just looks like a startlingly bright light or bomb in the sky.  The date stamp and rate in the corner of the picture offers no help except when this picture was taken.  It seems as if the only use for this picture is to act as a short glimpse of the meteor in the sky before impact, so that viewers may get a chance to see it before continuing on to read the article.  It’s effectiveness seems only due to its caption, which explains what the picture is and where and when it was taken, as well as the circumstances surrounding it.  .  


A link to the actual article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/feb/16/scientists-earth-asteroid

Kick That Can!

Kick that can! An interesting analogy for the stalling of the fiscal problem facing Americans today.  As Paul Krugman, a professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University, he refutes the statement made by John Boehner, the speaker of the House that  “At some point, Washington has to deal with its spending problem, I’ve watched them kick this can down the road for 22 years since I’ve been here. I’ve had enough of it. It’s time to act.” He does this by mentioning that the government was doing fine and that the ratio of federal debt to G.D.P. was a third lower when Bill Clinton left office than it was when he came in.  
The point of course, is not that Boehner’s apparently wrong according to Krugman, but that now is not the time to act upon the rather pressing issue of the fiscal cliff and growing government debt.  How exactly does he manage to present his argument?  Using statistics and historical trends, as well as current ones (specifically Ireland), he argues that cutting government spending actually hurts the economy.  Then he moves on to look at historical post-wartime and post-Depression economies and the policies that worked then.  It is an effective method and is convincing, though it may not sway all readers.  

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/08/opinion/krugman-kick-that-can.html?_r=1&

Will Deep-sea Mining Yield an Underwater Gold Rush?

“A mile beneath the ocean's waves waits a buried cache beyond any treasure hunter's wildest dreams: gold, copper, zinc, and other valuable minerals.”  There are trillions of dollars worth of minerals beneath the ocean floor, and one company, Nautilus Minerals, wants to start the world’s first underwater mining operation.  Our informant is Meghan Miner, a science outreach specialist, who decided to also include a video on how exactly Nautilus Minerals will be mining these minerals so deep under the sea.  The video is a step-by-step animation on how robots will be used to mine the minerals and detailing the basic processes, wonderfully clear and concise.  It seems a perfectly viable option, as presented by Nautilus Minerals, using perfectly sound arguments that t ocean floor mining is safer, cleaner, and more environmentally friendly.  Miner shoots this idea down rather abruptly, “at least that’s the plan” serving as the platform for discussion on the unknown impacts underwater mining may have.  The article points out that scientists weren’t able to prove the existence of underwater thermal vents until 1977.  

The article is presented in sections, introducing the wonder and gains of this project, then presenting reservations against it.  In the end, it is the drive that closes the article, an economic drive for money.  Initially presenting underwater mining as a promising new industry, the article takes a turn to explain scientist reservations against it, such as the fact that the mineral deposits “eyed by the mining industry” (not very nice wording, the connotation gives an idea of what Miner thinks about this) play host to teeming communities deep underwater.  Scientists especially wish to study these new communities which they had never before thought nor expected to have existed.  

The wonderful thing about this article -and indeed, of National Geographic articles in general- is that it does not expect the reader to be scientifically inclined.  Therefore, its message is portrayed in layman’s terms, expecting that people will not understand scientific jargon.  I think the point the article is making gets across clearly -that underwater mining should be a venture approached with caution, due to its potential environmental impacts upon underwater communities.  

Here's the link to the article:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/13/130201-underwater-mining-gold-precious-metals-oceans-environment/