Copy Cat

I feel like I should get a patent or copyright on what I am about to say. I had no clue how big of a stick some people have up their butts. Watching Rip!: A Remix Manifesto really opened my eyes on how careful we have to be whenever we do anything that involves patents or copyrights. I understand why we have copyrights and patents but some of these rules are a little rediculous to me. When Girl Talk was talking about how people can't explore further into certain concepts like how to cure cancer because others have patents on these ideas, that blows my mind. Patents exist for too long for someone to potentially have a cure for cancer and not be doing anything with it. In order to get past this obstacle, I think that if someone has a patent for an idea and does not put that idea into effect after two years, I think they should have to pay a yearly fee for that patent. If they choose not to pay the fee, then the idea is up for grabs again and hopefully someone can actually put that idea into play.

"Stop, in the name of plastic"

After reading the first few chapters of this book, I think I want to go live in the middle of a forrest and hide from all of this harm. The sad thing is if I did live in a forrest, I would probably have to relocate in a few years because someone would probably cut down the trees surrounding me to make paper. I never realized how much we're destroying the environment and everything around us. I also didn't realize that recycling isn't even that much more helpful either. I feel guilty that our society is doing this to the environment and I also feel guilty that I was so oblivious to all of this. Are we too deep in this mess to fix it? Or can we change in time to help protect the environment? If we do change, how long will it take to fix everything? After reading about how many products have harmful chemicals in them, no wonder so many people have cancer or rare diseases every year. We're shooting ourselves in the foot everyday and I bet there are a lot more people just like me who don't realize how much better it could be if we are willing to take a step in the right direction.

This is NOT a tree. . .

After reading the introduction, my wrists are sprained from holding up such a heavy book, just kidding. But I really do like the material that the book is made out of. I think it's cool to think that if I wanted to read this book in a pool that I could. I thought the first opening pages were a little intense. I guess I really never thought about all of the objects around us that are harmful. It does make sense to produce things that are better for the environment and I guess I don't understand why we don't do that. Is it easier and cheaper to make things that are bad for the environment? Or are people just that oblivious to the harm that these products are creating? If we continue to make harmful products, how long before it creates serious problems on earth?

Lifesaver

On Wednesday we watched four videos and only one of those really caught my attention. The guy who invented the lifesaver was my favorite video. His idea is genius and has the potential to save millions of lives and stop spreading diseases. It's sad to think that something as simple as water is one of the leading threats in the world. The Lifesaver is such a simple fiix but yet it took this long to come up with this. It also saves on water bottles which is another benefit to the environment. I know he said they only cost $25 but I was curious if the government is actually issuing these to other countries instead of shipping over water. I was also curious and how they decide who gets them. Do people in other countries only get access to these when a natural disaster occurs? Because their water is dirty all year round. I'm interested to know if there's a fund to donate to in order to help give everyone access to this amazing problem solver.

50 Thing-a-majigs

I'm not really sure if I did this assignment correct but I tried to imagine myself as an alien and pretend that I didn't know what anything was. I took my alien self and walked to the union. My roommate had to get something there so I wrote down objects on my way there and while I was inside the union. Here's what I found to be unusual to an alien. . .
1.Short light post
2. Sewer cover
3. Fancy garbage can outside dorms
4. Empty bike rack
5. Buck-id swiper
6. Dumpster
7. Parking cement bumper
8. Fire hydrant
9. Bench
10. Stop sign (stop for what?)
11. Handicap door button
12. Fancy recycling can
13. Orange traffic barrel
14. Red construction dumpster
15. Plant pot
16. Little red flags stuck randomly in the grass
17. Outlet
18. Stool
19. Vacuum cleaner
20. Balloon (not inflated)
21. Floor lamp
22. Securitty camera on ceiling
23. Heat/AC control panel on wall
24. TV when turned off
25. Fire alarm
26. Paper cutter
27. Large printer
28. Empty shelves
29. Pencil sharpener
30. Stapler
31. Rubberband
32. Closed umbrella
33. Fire extinguisher
34. Fireplace
35. Rocking chair
36. Computer
37. Bowling pin
38. Bobblehead
39. Mailbox
40. Door stopper
41. Walky talky
42. Coffee/tea dispenser
43. ATM machine
44. Brutus statue
45. Hand sanitizer dispenser on wall
46. Cash register
47. Utensil dispenser
48. Bus stop shelter
49. Credit card
50. Elevator

Look What I Found...

Karyn Pernia http://karynperniauise.blogspot.com/

 

For our project, we both took pictures of each other at each clue. I researched clue 3,4,5 and the chair I sat in for clue 2. Karyn researched clue 1 and clue 2.

Clue 1: The name of this chair is the Barcelona chair. We sat in the one at the fine arts library. Mies van der Rohe designed this chair. Karyn said she thinks its pretty comfortable, she likes it and that if she had one she would probably spend her free time in it.

Clue 2: Karyn was sitting in a chair designed by Philippe Starck called the "bubble club chair." She thought it was fancy and cute. The name of the magazine she was reading was called Designed Within Reach. The chair I was sitting in is called the UP1 Armchair designed by Gaetano Pesce. This chair was designed in Italy in 1970. The magazine I was reading while sitting in this "black blob" was called Design Within Reach.

Clue 3: The Wexner Center was Peter Eisenman's first major public building design.The OSU street grids are mismatched by about 12.25 degrees and Eisenman designed the Wexner Center to follow these grids. It reopened in 2005 after a three year renovation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wexner_Center_for_the_Arts

Clue 4: The Math Tower was designed in 1992. Philip Johnson used the Wexner Center as inspiration when designing this building. Johnson used bricks to help the building blend in with campus but layered them to add a little bit of flare. He also used materials that were respctful to the environment. http://www.galinsky.com/buildings/ohiomath/index.htm

Clue 5: The Thompson Library was a 27 month project that costed about $108 million. During renovation, the ceiling of the grand reading room was restored to it's original state. In order to do this, the 1960's mezzanine layer had to be craefully removed first. A whole new structure support system had to be put in since the one below was being removed. This presented quite a challenge for the crew. http://www.reeveswriting.com/portfolio/0110/OSU_Library_Renovation.pdf

Strange Faces in Random Places