For my last Rose event of the year, I listened to Jeff Prince, Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at Indiana University, talk about his research on cutting the cord. An increasing number of people are cutting cable out of their monthly bill, and using internet to satisfy their entertainment needs. A major criteria for choosing internet providers and packages is internet speed with relation to price. This is where Professor Prince’s latest research is focused. It is very difficult for internet providers to quantify the value of varying degrees of internet speed to the average consumer. Professor Prince is attempting to do so by presenting different packages to consumers and asking them which package they would prefer, and then using that information to determine an accurate value on internet speed. In addition, Professor Prince explained the different components of internet speed, which consists of bandwidth and latency. Basically, bandwidth consists of how much information can be transported at the same time, while latency concerns how fast the information gets from one place to another. For example, the number of lanes on a highway would be the bandwidth, while the speed at which a car is moving on said highway is the latency. With these components of internet speed in mind, high bandwidth or high latency may be more valuable to a particular consumer based on their specific internet habits. Personally, I was aware of bandwidth, but was not familiar with the concept of latency before this talk. In addition, now that I understand what makes up internet speed, and the ideas of the pricing behind it, I feel more comfortable choosing a plan that best suits me in the future.
Author Archives: Jeremiah Masseus
Coffee and Conversation
Last week, I, along with a few other rose scholars, went to Gimme Coffee and just… talked. This Rose event was different from most Rose events that I’ve attended in that there wasn’t a planned discussion. We had an organic conversation over a cup of coffee. To my surprise, I enjoyed it very much. During our discussion, we covered a variety of topics, ranging from coffee stories to Harry Potter. I really liked the style of this Rose event because I got to connect with my fellow Rose Scholars directly. I learned new things about my fellow scholars, and was exposed to different points of view on different concepts. A majority of our Rose Events, although informative and interesting, do not really allow for direct interaction with other scholars. As a Rose scholar next near I will personally try to attend more events like this one, because I liked the natural conversation and interation with other Scholars.
Bread, Roses, and the Right to Unionize
In Flora’s Friday Films, we watched the movie Bread and Roses, which follows an undocumented immigrant, named Maya, as she tries to aid her fellow janitorial workers in LA in getting better working conditions. Maya comes to the United States, and lives with her sister Rosa and her family. Rosa gets Maya a job (at a price) with her as a janitor. It quickly becomes apparent that these janitors work in subpar conditions. In one particularly striking scene, we watch as a janitor, who is the breadwinner for her family in El Salvador, gets fired because her bus arrived late to work. Maya herself has to give her first month’s paycheck to her supervisor as payment for getting the job. As Maya gets to know her fellow janitors, and watches as her sister Rosa is unable to pay for proper medical care for her husband despite working overtime, she encourages her fellow workers to fight for unionization with the help of union organizer Sam Shapiro. Despite some setbacks and a personal rift that grows between Rosa and Maya, due to some hard decisions, the Janitors are successful and do earn union rights. The film presented us with a harsh reality of the lives of some undocumented immigrants and custodial workers. One of the janitors sets aside his paycheck to get a deposit on a scholarship. Rosa, in order to pay for her husbands treatment, must sell out her fellow workers to their supervisor in hopes of getting a better paying job. Maya herself is deported after robbing a convenience store to help one of her janitors get enough money for his scholarship deposit, after a majority of the janitors are fired for protesting at a high class party. This film gave me a perspective on the struggles of undocumented immigrants and the working class, and important it is to ensure that all have a proper standard of living.
Getting away from Cornell and serving our Community
For my Rose event this week, I tried out something new: I joined a few people going off campus to Catholic Charities of Ithaca, who was holding a free yard sale for members of the Ithaca community, and helped them set up and organize clothes for a couple of hours. Initially, I had my reservations about doing this particular event, but after it was all said and done, I was very glad I did. Engaging in an event that would positively impact the lives of those in our community was refreshing- I got to meet people I wouldn’t otherwise encounter during my normal day here at Cornell. In addition, it felt good to help other people, and get off campus, and the responsibilities that come with it, for a bit. Although I spent a couple of hours bustling around and attempting to keep some semblance of organization to an ever shifting pile of clothes, I felt more relaxed upon my return than when I left. It reminded me that sometimes it can be helpful, and relaxing to get away from Cornell for a bit and try something different. We even got a nice before and after picture of our table of wares.
Before
…and After
Thoughts on A Beautiful Mind
In Flora’s Friday Films, we watched a movie about the life of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician, and his struggles with schizophrenia thought his life. We first meet John in graduate school at Princeton, as a bright, but socially awkward student, who held a certain disdain some aspects of college life, including attending class. He struggles to find an appropriate subject to research during his time there, but with the encouragement of his roommate, he eventually publishes an article that would later revolutionize economic theory. He becomes a professor, and is approached by the Department of Defense to decode enemy transmissions. He spends a majority of his time doing this and dropping off the decoded messages at a pre-approved drop site. He also gets married, after getting reunited with his old college roommate and meeting his niece. The film takes a surprising turn when viewers learn that all of his work for the Department of Defense was imagined, and his roommate and her niece are all side effects of his schizophrenia. With the help of his wife, he eventually learns to recognize people around him who are imagined, and ignores them, rather than take medication, which dulls his mind. Eventually, he eases himself back into the world of academia, and becomes a Nobel Laureate in the field of Economics. I really enjoyed this movie. It gave me a new perspective on schizophrenia- I was just as shocked as John Nash’s character when he learned that such major aspects of his life were imagined. I was also very impressed with his determination to overcome his difficulties, and his ability to prevent setbacks from discouraging him. In all, I gained a new perspective on mental illness, and the power of proper motivation.
Dr. Strangelove, and Mutually Assured Destruction
Dr. Strangelove is a 1964 film that takes a satirical stance on a then stressful and serious situation: the Cold War. In the post World War Two Landscape, the United States and the Soviet Union fought to become the premier world power. In that power struggle, both sides worked hard to create an arsenal of Nuclear Weapons in an effort to hold the other in check. Both the United States and the Soviet Union worked under the concept of mutually assured destruction: If one side used their nuclear weapons, which had and incredible amount of destructive power, the other side could retaliate with their own nuclear arsenal, which would ensure the destruction of both sides. In Dr. Strangelove, a United States general orders a strike on the Soviet Union. When the other heads of the military and the President become aware of this, they scramble to undo the damage caused by this general, and prevent the apocalypse. Despite some amusing banter in the War Room, and between the leaders of the United States and the Soviet Union, the bomb reaches an altered destination and detonates. As the President and is leaders attempt to make a plan for saving some of the population in mine shafts, with a “breeding program” (10:1 ratio of females to males) the Soviets’ own weapon detonates, destroying life on earth. Dr. Strangelove presented an alternate, rather morbid view on the arms race: destruction is unavoidable, so stop worrying about it.
The Matrix: A Paradigm Shift on Reality
During Flora’s Friday Films, we watched The Mattrix, a movie about machines taking planet Earth over and using humans as power sources, while placing them in an alternate reality. A computer hacker named Neo becomes aware of this fact when he encounters a group of humans who have been fighting the computers, and their control over humans. By becoming aware of the true nature of the world that he lived in and believing in that fact, he and the other rebels can access supernatural abilities otherwise unknown to them. As I watched the matrix, some interesting thoughts on reality came to mind. Is reality as absolute as we really think? Or is it more subjective? Neo and his friends would be considered insane by the other humans , but their assessment of the world would be correct. On the other hand, the computers, could have presented a different reality to them, and they are in fact still sedated, and being harvested on. In addition, one of the rebels betrayed the others, in exchange for a memory wipe so that he could return to the old world. By choosing a reality that he preferred, does that make the original reality the true one for that particular rebel? Or is he just choosing to live in ignorance? The matrix made me rethink my thoughts on reality- and think about the integrity of my own… just a little bit.
Knowing Your Rights: Immigration
President Donald Trump Recently Proposed a travel ban prohibiting entrance of refugees from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen and Somalia into the United states in an effort to stop ‘radical Islamic Terrorism’ from entering the United States. This ban also prohibits green card holders and refugees who have already undergone background checks from entering the US. Understandably, this executive order has been met with outrage and concern throughout the nation. Now many immigrants are concerned that the new approach shown by the Trump Administration may end with unjust deportation. I attended the discussion on understanding President Trump’s Executive order, held by Matthew Hall, Professor Steve Yale-Loehr, Brendan O’Brien, and Pakistani Author Raza Rumi, to better learn what changes we could reasonably expect as an effect of this executive order. I was encouraged to learn, form the ensuing discussion that this executive order is being battled in the courts, and that there is legislation that protects students attending Cornell from immigration officers. Although the executive order has adversely affected millions of Americans, including students here at Cornell and around the nation, I hope that this discussion provided some measure of security and a show of solidarity for those affected by this executive order.
Thoughts on the Super Bowl
Each Year, a significant portion of the american populace gather in front of their televisions to watch the biggest sporting event of the year, the Super Bowl. this year, the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons will play for the glory of raising the Lombardi Trophy. Off the field, a large commercial onslaught occurs as, corporations and businesses all battle for one of the coveted commercial spots that air between the plays. The NFL has lost a large amount of its appeal for me over the years. The NFL seems very artificial and restrained to me; in fact, I have switched to college football as my primary source of sports entertainment because of the NFL has been going. With Massively commercialized games to rampant off the field issues that some of the athletes get themselves into, I’ve looked elsewhere for entertainment. Hopefully some changes will be made by the time Super Bowl 52 comes around.