Net Neutrality Negated

Posted on by
Reply

On December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed the Obama era changes on net neutrality, the principle that the public have fair and equal access to the Internet and the information that is on it. Due to this, the companies that provide Internet services have more power to regulate what we as consumers can access through their network as well as to charge more for better or more reliable Internet connection.

In 1990 the World Wide Web came available and forever changed how the average person can find information and make our world even smaller. With that such access, some governments called for regulations, restricting what their citizens can do. Others treated the Internet as a commodity, available for all, but still with some regulations. In the United States, the FCC controls Internet regulation. More intense regulations were put into place after 9/11, but rolled back during President Obama’s term administration to help regulate companies control of Internet access and prices.

The FCC’s decision was highly controversial, even across party lines. A survey from the University of Maryland shows that 83% of those polled disagreed with the FCC with three out of four Republicans polled disagreeing. Even when the country is harshly divided along party lines after the 2016, both agreed here. The FCC had gone against what the people had wanted and listened to the Internet providers so that they would make more profit from the Internet and its consumers.

Internet providers such as AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon have already been regulating what their consumers can do with their networks even with the Obama era regulations. According to the ACLU, in 2007, Verizon cut off a messaging program that the pro-choice group, NARAL, had used to reach its supporters. Once this was discovered by the public, the outcry had been enough for Verizon to reverse its censorship.

Obama era regulations are what had ended this. Now that they are gone, Internet providers can get away with this if the public does not fight back as it had before. They are able to slow connection speeds to certain websites, get their customers to go to certain websites, or entirely block certain websites. They also can control internet speeds through their prices: the higher the price, the higher the speed.

This has already been happening for years. Consumers have found when getting a new phone plan two different plans for mobile data: the cheapest one had slower connections on a non-priority line, with the more expensive one on a priority line with better connection speeds. Without the Obama era rules of net neutrality, Internet providers will be able to widen the gap between costs for good or bad Internet as well as control more of what we can or cannot access as consumers.

Profs: The Good, The Bad, and the Either

Posted on by
Reply

One of the most frequently discussed topics on campus seems to be whether the professors are “good” or “bad”, whether their classes are difficult or not, and most importantly, whether you should take their classes. When you start hearing people talk about their professors, it’s easy to become a little apprehensive about the classes you had already registered for. You become nervous because you have no clue whether you had gotten any “good” professors or if you had unintentionally set yourself up for failure and gotten “bad” professors for all of your classes.

You know this because this may have been you, one semester, one year, or even one month ago. But after a bit of asking around you may conclude that everyone seems to have different opinions about the same professors. For instance, some people prefer a professor who is strict, with a very structured class, whereas others may prefer a professor who has a more relaxed approach. Two people could be taking the same class with the same professor and have completely different opinions about the professor.

After realizing this you may understand why it is so difficult to get a clear answer on who is a “good” professor and who is a “bad” professor. This could actually make you even more nervous than you were before because, at this point, you have no clue what kind of professor you prefer and in turn, this makes it altogether more difficult to decipher which one of your professors you should be most nervous about. On one hand, you may appreciate a class with structure but on the other hand, you would rather not have a drill sergeant as a professor.

Hopefully, you did not have a horrible first semester and made it through with only a handful of breakdowns (fingers crossed that none of those were directly linked to your professors), a new perspective on what makes a professor “good” or “bad”, and the knowledge that you cannot assume that just because someone else thinks a professor is “bad” that you’ll think the same thing as well. So, remember that everyone’s opinion is subjective and do not let that stop you from taking a class you had always wanted to take, because at the end of the day you may end up finding that the professor they did not like was the perfect fit for you.

Call for Submissions: RRILH Festival of Creative Work!

Posted on by
Reply

From a internal email by Teri Stover:

The Red River Innovation Lab for the Humanities is proud to announce our first annual Festival of Creative Work on April 23rd at Noon in SCIT 210.

We are seeking creative submissions from students, faculty and staff that showcase the abundance of talent and vision we have on our campus. Submissions might include: short films, graphic design work, documentary projects, photography, data visualizations, applications, podcasts, online lectures and learning supplements.

Drafts and works in progress are completely acceptable!

Please note that submissions do not need to have been made in the lab with lab resources.

We’ve only had our doors open for about a month now and we want to celebrate the creative spirit in an effort to inspire our community.

Submissions can be sent via Vimeo, YouTube, Dropbox or Google Drive sharing, or email attachment (depending on size) and should be submitted to Dr. Drew Morton by 5 p.m. on March 30th via email (dmorton@tamut.edu). Decisions will be made by April 9th.

Downtown Adds 1894 City Gallery to its Collection

Posted on by
Reply

On February 16th, Main Street Texarkana Hosted a Grand Opening for the 1894 City Gallery. The event was a success as over 200 people came to celebrate and support another downtown business. People from all around the area got to enjoy the live music. The style of the music fit in perfectly with the mood of the event while everyone browsed around the art gallery. Only main section was open, but the guests would wander up the stairs to see the future apartments. People enjoyed seeing the floor plans and getting that “before” look, and the construction was a major topic of discussion and excitement.

The event allowed for Main Street to do their membership kick off where the community could buy a membership that helps Main Street Texarkana revitalize downtown. The organization works closely with downtown, which has eight different restaurants, many museums and several shops that have a steady following.  Downtown is home to Photographers Island (state line sign), The Arrow Bar (oldest bar in Texarkana), and the Texarkana Gazette. Of course there are many other downtown attractions, and the Main Street website has them all listed.

Main Street Texarkana is a non-profit organization that focuses on rejuvenating downtown by encouraging traffic as well as offering grants and loans to potential business owners. The organization also offers free design assistance to those who help build up that area of town. Some common events associated with Main Street Texarkana include the Christmas parade as well as the more well-known Dine on the Line. The Texarkana City Guide is also published by Main Street. This non-profit organization relies on the support and donation of the community. A base membership is $25, with a student membership coming soon to encourage students to take part in downtown. Members get early access to event information as well as a variety of other things depending on the type of membership purchased.

If you missed this event, another downtown event, hosted by Texarkana Twin City Sports will happen in early March. They are throwing a downtown festival that will take place with the Big Bass Clash Fishing Tournament on March 9th-11th. Main Street Texarkana as well as the Texarkana Twin City Sports website have more information about this event. To keep up to date with upcoming events, subscribe to the Main Street Newsletter.

RRILH News: Language of New Media Lecture

Posted on by
Reply

As the month of February comes to a close, Dr. Drew Morton will be hosting the second campus event held in association with the Red River Innovation Lab for the Humanities – a Book Lecture on Lev Manovich’s “Language of New Media”.

Where: UC217

When: February 27th, 12:15PM – 1PM

No reading necessary prior to this lecture – just come eager to learn and ask questions about the new opened RRILH!

RRILH Event: Adobe Premiere Tutorial!

Posted on by
Reply

Dr. Drew Morton will be kicking off the first of many events held in association with the campus’ newly opened Red River Innovation Lab for the Humanities – starting from humble beginnings with a tutorial on importing DVD/YouTube clips into Adobe Premiere!

Where: The Computer Lab in UC323

When: February 1st, from 12:15PM to 1PM.

This will be the first campus event of the semester closely associated with the RRILH. Feel free to come to the tutorial with questions about what the Lab is and what it can do for you!

The New Normal

Posted on by
1

I can’t believe I’m doing this. My whole life, I’ve naturally been a private person. Now, the very thing that I’ve been the most private about, I’m now sharing with the world. I was born with something known as neurofibroma, which gave me a tumor that made my face asymmetrical. As crazy as this may sound, I never really thought I looked different because my mom raised me as if I was one of “normal” kids. It wasn’t until I got older and I would go into public places that people would stare at me from the moment I walked in until the time I left. I mean people stared at me as if I was a celebrity, only I’m not one.

Did it make me feel uncomfortable, yes; but I learned to not let it get to me. For a long time, I thought beauty was what a person looked like on the outside, but as I got older, I learned that it was who the person was on the inside and the way you treated others. Cliché, but sometimes the most cliché quotes hold the most powerful meanings.

I spent so many years covering my face and allowing my scars to define who I was. Maybe at times, I felt insecure because for someone who looked like me, I allowed society to make me think I was “supposed” to feel insecure. Yet in reality, I felt stronger than I looked and more beautiful than what I was actually told. This statistic that Dove Beauty presented was right: “69% of women don’t see their lives reflected on the screen, me being one of them.” My greatest dream is to one day be a talk show host. I hope to one day inspire people to embrace and own who they are. Live your truth. Since there isn’t anyone who looks like me on daytime television, I’m ready to change that. I’m ready to break this glass ceiling on what society has defined as beauty. Society has such a vague definition about what beauty actually is.

They believe that beauty is being skinny, having curves in the right places, and donning symmetrical faces. Women turn to the media and magazines to see what we should look like, and many of us are willing to do whatever it takes to meet a look that is unrealistic. At first, it might be hard to accept yourself as you are, but when you condition your mind to think positively, it becomes a habit within your daily routine. This is a major reason I chose to one day be in television. I want other girls to see their lives reflected on the screen. Again, cliché I know, but this has been such a huge hot topic in my life. So, for anyone that feel insecure about anything just know there’s thousands of other people who can relate somehow to your story. Don’t be afraid to share something that could inspire someone else to keep going.

The vision that I have for myself is so much bigger than other people’s opinions. You are not your scars, and you are not who society labeled you as. You know yourself better than anyone, so you be the one to tell the world who you are and don’t apologize for it. Turn your fears into strength and your doubts into confidence. It’s time that the world get ready for the new “normal” whether they’re ready for it or not. To me, beauty is loving yourself without the validation of others, accepting yourself as you are, and being unapologetic for it. There’s nothing like doing the very thing that people told you, you couldn’t do. I just graduated college (December 15, 2017) with a degree in mass communication and I’m so excited for this next chapter in my life. So, for anyone that feels like there’s not a place for you in this world, there is and don’t let ANYONE tell you who you are!

Memoirs of a Geisha

Posted on by
Reply

During the semester, I did not have as much time to read as I would have liked. I reread one of my favorite stories, Memoirs of a Geisha, recently and was reminded of why I enjoy this book.

The story is told from first person point-of-view from an older geisha. She begins the story when is a just a young girl in Japan during the Depression. Chiyo Sakamoto is a poor girl from a fishing village, but captures the attention of a man for her unusual eyes, which are a blue-gray color. She and her sister are taken from their home and Chiyo is sold to an okiya (house where geisha live) in a prominent area of Kyoto. The story is based on background information provided by retired geisha, Mineko Iwasaki, but Chiyo’s character is fictional. Without giving too much away, she becomes a maid before she begins her journey to being a geisha. Chiyo is in awe of the beauty of the geishas and the respect they are given, but the path is very difficult.

I enjoyed the novel because it read at a leisurely pace without being slow. In the beginning of the story, Chiyo is just a child. The narrative highlights her curiosities at that age and her emotions as she is taken from her home. It also reflects her maturity as she gets older and encounters different experiences. Reading the story made me feel like I was following Chiyo through her life. A good book will pull in its readers until they feel every emotion and that was my experience with this one. When there were moments of heartbreak, it hurt me to read of her tears and devastation. The story was very detailed, but well-balanced with dialogue. Many different characters are introduced throughout the story, but it was not confusing because there was a clear distinction between them. Each character had a strong impact on Chiyo and I could feel that through their descriptions.

Prior to reading this book, I had heard of geishas and only knew what they looked like. I did not know what they did, but there was a negative association between geishas and prostitutes. Geishas are traditional Japanese entertainers. They entertain men through song, dance, conversation and serve tea as hostesses. Young girls spent years training and perfecting their skills that would make them successful geishas. They went to schools that taught dance, musical instruments, and other skills. It was important for them to be successful because they were expected to repay their okiyas back for the money spent on their food, lodging, kimono, and other tools needed.

There is a great deal of effort and time that is required for being a geisha and not every woman can do this successfully. It is also important to note that some people would confuse geishas with prostitutes. The difference is that geisha’s wear their sash tied in the back, but the prostitutes tied theirs in the front. There are still some geishas practicing in Japan, but they are mostly in the company of the higher social class.

This book is controversial because Iwasaki sued Arthur Golden after the book’s release. According to her, he was supposed to keep her identity a secret and revealed parts of her life that were supposed to remain personal. She felt that he did not accurately portray her life and shamed the geisha profession. Iwasaki published her own book in 2002 titled, Geisha: A Life, to tell her story in her own words.

Whether the story is completely true or not, it is still a very good story that I can always come back to when I want something to read. This is also an award-winning movie.

Closing Chapter 2017

Posted on by
Reply

2017, how would I describe you? Where do I even begin? If you’re about to indulge in this article then I ask you to bear with me as I will probably be all over the place, because that’s the type of year 2017 was for me. However, I’ll be sure to keep this short. First thing first, congratulations for surviving yet another year of college, not only surviving but graduating! You did it, you did the thing that you once thought was impossible. Let this be a huge sign for you that anything is possible and who knows in the next few years you might meet Justin Bieber. By the way when that happens it is a must that you come back to update this article with that story.

Okay, let’s begin, as this year come to a close I thought it would be a great idea for you to stroll down memory lane. I’ll start with the good stuff, as I mentioned earlier you finally graduated college! Yes, it took you a year longer but hey you were able to finish what you started. You certainly doubted yourself a lot this year, but every time you doubted your abilities to do something, somehow you came through and achieved it. Also, you made a lot of new friends this year and they’re pretty cool, of course not as cool as you but hey they’ll do. You also bought the cutest puppy he was Brussels griffon and Maltese mix and you named him Walter. However, you returned him after a day, because he cried all night and it was more responsibility than you thought. On this day, you learned that you’re not ready for a pet or kids.
DJ Khaled also tweeted you back after tweeting him on how much you loved his book. Lisa Ling one of your favorite journalists also replied to you on Instagram and gave you some advice on becoming a journalist yourself…that was pretty cool.

Of course, with all the positive stuff there were a few hiccups. In February, you had a surgery that kept you out of school close to six weeks, friendships ended, nevertheless everything worked out. You challenged yourself in ways that now looking back I’m shocked that you survived…good job! I mean, how in the world did you survive this grad class, being the only undergrad was a little intimidating at first, but everyone was so nice and welcoming so shout out to the COMM 501 research methods class. Let’s see, what else, oh yeah remember that ulcer that you had on your uvula (the dangly ball thing at the back of everyone’s throat) yeah that was painful! However, you got a new doctor that look just like Matthew McConaughey, curly hair like Screech from Save By the Bell, and his eye color was similar to Ellen DeGeneres. Anyways, you also contributed articles to TAMUT’s online digital newspaper. That newswriting course taught me a lot and I think my writing is slowly but surely getting better considering you’ve always thought of yourself as weak writer.

Okay, I said I would keep this short so I’ll end it here. In conclusion, the thing I learned most from this year was to live in the present moment and take things day by day. I learned to not doubt myself so much. Some friendships will eventually fade and lastly, you’ve become a bit wiser too. Keep up the good work and continue to challenge yourself in 2018, I think you’ll be amazed at what you can do when giving up isn’t an option.

Food Myths: The Truth Behind Diet Soda

Posted on by
Reply

Let’s begin with this quote. “I don’t believe in ‘diet’ sodas. Diet Pepsi and Diet Coke are still sodas. If you’re on a diet, why are you drinking soda?” I am going to go out on a limb and say that most Americans are not nutrition experts. So, when we hear of a new fad, trend, or see a label proclaiming ‘DIET’ on the front, we tend to automatically assume that product is the better choice. It is no surprise that when someone decides to tackle a diet, they switch from normal soda to diet soda, thinking it will be the healthier option. However, like the above quote states, soda is soda. Not only is diet soda not the “healthier” option of the two, but the effects can also be worse.

The main reason people switch over to diet soda is because of the calorie count. The less calories the better, right? Why waste 140 calories on a can of soda when you could still have a soda with 0 calories and put that 140 towards something more nutritious? The problem is, to have zero calories, real sugars are replaced with artificial sweeteners like aspartame.

Studies show that these artificial sweeteners tend to have the same effect on our bodies as real sugar. In a study done by RD Brooke Alpert, she found that “Artificial sweeteners trigger insulin, which sends your body into fat storage mode and leads to weight gain.” There was also a study done by the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio. They compared diet soda users to non-users and discovered a 70% increases in waist circumference in those who drank the soda. Even more shocking, there was a 500% increase in those who had 2 or more a day. The average waistline increase was 3 inches in 4 years. While you may not be taking in any calories, you’re not drinking something that benefits your body in a good way either. If you want a non-caloric beverage, try sticking with water.

Not only does diet soda cause weight gain, but it is also extremely acidic. It is even more acidic than just a regular soda. We know that too much acid in our system can disrupt the balance of our intestines and destroy important gut flora. This leads to some not so fun side effects such as acid reflux.

Finally, is metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes. The American Diabetes Association did a study over diet soda consumption and the results should leave everyone hesitant when making the final decision on whether to drink one. Results of the study showed daily consumption of diet soda was associated with a 36% greater relative risk of incident metabolic syndrome and a 67% greater relative risk of incident type 2 diabetes compared with non-consumption (HR 1.36 [95% CI 1.11–1.66] for metabolic syndrome and 1.67 [1.27–2.20] for type 2 diabetes). This shows that caution needs to be taken when consuming these beverages. Metabolic syndrome can increase your risk for heart disease and stroke. It can also lead to increased belly fat, which we already know is an effect of diet soda, and high cholesterol.

If you are trying to make the decision between diet or non-diet, you can now clearly see that just a regular soda is the way to go. Diet soda causes weight gain, high acid levels, and increases your risk of metabolic syndrome and diabetes.  However, if you are serious about trying to have a healthier lifestyle or lose weight, no soda is a good option too. Remember, there is nothing “diet” about diet soda.