Q. Explain the ethical and/or political goal(s) of your social action project. Explain its ethical and/or political significance as your collaborative considers what it hopes to achieve. (250 words).

A. We have a plan to place inserts into library books so that we may inform people of the dangers of posting material recklessly on social media websites. We are hoping to prevent our fellow John Carroll students from posting foolish things on social media websites. These posts could affect them negatively later on in life, especially in the process of being hired for employment and enrolling in graduate schools.

Our social action project has a theme noteworthy to college students. The audience for our inserts are going to be applying for jobs within the next few years. A majority of John Carroll students currently have accounts on such social media sites as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. On these social media sites, our peers post potentially embarrassing, job-threatening things daily.

Ethically, they have the freedom to post whatever they wish. However, if potential (or current)  employers were to see some of the posted material of potential employees, they have a right to deny these posters of their could-be jobs. It is up to the social media users to regulate their posts, only posting what is in good taste.

As for social media and security, security on social media sites should be tightened according to each individual user’s preferences. If an individual desires to post things of an obscene nature, let him do so at his own peril. He can potentially not be hired, or he could also lose his job.

Toyota Prius Produces more Environmental Damage Than a HUMMER?

In the world that we live in today when we hear of somebody having a "Toyota Prius" we think that they are an environmentally conscious person trying to sustain the environment rather then harm it by using a gas-guzzling vehicle. But most people would be surprised if they knew how bad a Toyota Prius actually harmed the environment. In fact most people wouldn't believe you if you told them that the Toyota Prius is the source of some of the worst pollution in North America. Another amazing fact is that a Toyota Prius takes more combined energy to produce a HUMMER. The National Center for Political Analysis lists a few steps that have to be taken to produce a Prius;

• The Nickel contained in a Prius' battery is taken from a mine in Ontario where it is also smelted. This action has caused so much environmental damage to the surrounding environment that NASA has had to shut down their 'dead zone' for testing moon rovers.
• There is a factory that people call the 'Superstack' that has caused an environmental nightmare by spreading sulfur dioxide all across northern Ontario.
• The acid rain around this area was so bad because or this sulfur dioxide that it resulted in the destruction of many plants and the soil slid off many hills.
• After the leaving the plant in Ontario, the nickel travels to Europe, China, Japan and United States. This transportation is not an environmentally conscious planned trip.

Isn't it alarming the things that we don't know? This is a Japanese company that is harming North Americas Environment without even letting us know. Those aren't the most alarming facts though. According to a study that was done by CNW marketing, the total combined energy to produce a Prius is much greater than the amount of energy that it takes to produce a HUMMER:

• If a Prius' expected lifespan is 100,000, than the Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile that it is driven. 
• If a HUMMER's expected lifespan is 300,000 miles, than the HUMMER costs $1.95 per mile that it is driven.

These facts tell us that the HUMMER will last three times longer on the road than a Toyota Prius. The HUMMER also does this by using almost 50% less combined energy.

This raises me to an issue, Toyota advertised that their Toyota Prius was environmentally friendly. But really they are harming the environment more that gas powered vehicles, and they are doing this in our continent. This raises me to another question; what do we not know that is happening around us? and, What are advertisers lying to us about?

SAP Introduction

For my Social Action Project I would like to tackle the issue with e-waste and its effect on other people and the environment. E-waste is a very important issue in our world today that is harming our environment as well as other people. E-waste is what electronics are after dispose of them when we are finished using them. Typically our e-waste goes to different countries such as India or China where people living in poverty take them apart for their valuable materials to salvage for little money. Unfortunately, the easiest way to get these materials from these pieces of technology is through the dangerous process of incineration, this releases heavy metals that are harmful to our bodies such as lead, cadmium and mercury into the air and ashes from the burned technology that can come into contact with the body and become fatal. The major route of exposure for the general public from these metals is when mercury is released into the atmosphere. This leads to the bio-accumulation of mercury into the foodchain, particularly in fish. What people don't know is that we are the ones that are making this e-waste. We are making this e-waste in the sense that us consumers are buying products that contain harmful materials when broken down for their materials after we throw them away. 

I would like to use guerrilla art for my Social Action Project. Guerrilla art is a very common way that people express their views and opinions. Guerrilla art has been used to change the pictogram of the person in a wheelchair to indicate something is wheel chair accessible. This was done by a group of people who put stickers depicting a more dynamic humanized pictogram over thousands of old symbols in New York City. It raised so much attention that when hurricane Sandy came and destroyed a lot of things, they replaced many old handicap signs with the new one.

Bibliograpy
         "Where Does E-waste End Up?" Greenpeace International. Green Peace, 24 Feb. 2009. Web. 15 Oct. 2013 <http://www.greenpeace.org/international/en/campaigns/toxics/electronics/the-e-waste-problem/where-does-e-waste-end-up/>

Discussion Questions

What ways could the companies of Silicon Valley avoided the health and environmental outcomes?

Should the companies of Silicon Valley run tests before they set up their plants to see if what they were using was toxic or not? could they of known before hand or did they know because they were using toxic materials?

What is more important, the manufacturing of computer chips or the disposal of e-waste?

Internet Bandwidth Caps

Broadband caps for internet usage charged by Internet service providers is becoming more popular as time goes on. Broadband caps limit the amount of data that one can access from the Internet in a given month. If one would go over this cap the Internet service provider would implement overage charges for the data that one would use. The Internet service providers are not implementing these charges to manage their internet traffic, their motive is to make money. In the past Internet service providers would charge for quicker speeds, some still do that today, but it is more aggressive for Internet service providers to charge its users this way.

I feel that this is a problem because for one; it takes away profits from companies that require a lot of data for a user to use its services. This is the case for companies such as Netflix, Pandora and Google. This also bothers me because it can limit someones ability to access vital information and it can inhibit one from expanding their knowledge and being connected with the world. The news, social media and a vast array of information is unavailable to a person who hits this data cap, I feel that Internet service providers should not be in control of this.