Thaneshwar's Blog

Taking photos has become a norm in todays society whether it be saving memories, taking selfies, or even proof during a court trial. It is no doubt that it has made society a better place. But what can be used for good can also be used for bad. An image can be represented and interpreted completely different depending on the way it’s taken. When a taking a picture, some parts of a frame could be excluded—hiding some things—or more parts could be added—throwing off the audience and confusing them. And the caption associated with the picture could also be the determining factor of what it’s showing. Pictures could also be photoshopped which can change the actual contents of the photo and alter the image. While this may not seem as that big of a problem, as it’s very hard to pull of such trickery, the recent growth in the development of AI can definitely affect this.    The previous examples are mostly done by people that have some sort of experience in photography or photoshoppi...

 Urban rewilding, a process that introduces nature into the city space to restore natural processes. In the essay we wrote this week, almost all of the sources were supporting rewilding, except for one. However I think the one source that was against urban rewilding had reasons that were not satisfactory nor valid. The first argument that this source provided was that city spaces (they used cities in the UK as an example) don't have enough space to implement any sort of changes. This argument should not even be taken into consideration because the whole point of Urban Rewilding is to integrate nature within city environments, which was not acknowledged at all. An example a different source provided was sky gardens, which was just nature on buildings, which doesn't require any additional space at all as it's just going to be on top of something that has already been built. Places like New York City and Singapore are able to set aside large spaces of land for parks in the mid...

 While it may seem easy to decide which decision to take based on the facts, it's actually not. A large reason as to why people do the wrong things even after knowing what the right thing to do is addiction. A very popular addiction today is smoking which is addictive because of its nicotine. When people have an addiction to an activity, they will always have a constant urge to do it even if they decide not to do it. And usually these addictions are formed because when people do a task that they like, the body releases dopamine, which makes people satisfied and happy. Akrasia happens because deep down you want to involve yourself in an activity (like smoking) but the negative repercussions are making you doubt whether you should do it or not. The most likely reason for this is that you value the happiness you gain from it which overrules the option of not doing it altogether. The addiction or the need to get something done is where the lack of self control comes from. It's diff...

I think something common with human behavior is that people change their attitude based on the person they are interacting with. A highly respected individual would receive more respect than just a random person. An example of this is a doctor. A doctor gets the title "Dr." behind their name (everyone else just has "Mr." or "Ms." or "Mrs."), and they are addressed this way, in respect, and have a high status in society. Due to their elite status, people are usually polite to them because they feel inferior to the doctor. But there are also other situations where the need to use polite or impolite language changes. Adding on to the examples of respected individuals, people tend to be more nice and polite to people who are older than them, like their teachers, bosses, and even their parents and grandparents. Other than just being polite, if there's someone who's superior to you, you feel the pressure to impress them. For example, if you...

I have a very unusual name, and I don't know anyone else who has it. My family calls me by the nickname "Thanesh," which sounds weird, so whenever I introduce my name to anybody, I just go by my actual name. Because of this, my name is mispronounced all the time. A key example of this is at the beginning of the school year, when your teachers take attendance and learn everyone's name for the first time. My name gets mispronounced almost always, and I always have to correct them with the right pronunciation. This is something that I've gotten used to over time, and I'm always prepared to correct anyone who mispronounces it, and it doesn't really bother me. This experience is similar to Dumas' piece, but once people get the pronunciation right, they don't mess up afterwards. But one time I don't feel the need to correct the pronunciation of my name is when I have a substitute teacher. These substitute teachers pronounce it in the most atrocious w...

While canceling student debt is a good thing for people that are stressing over the amount of money they have to pay back and just want to worry about their education, one such  article  on The Onion expresses the opinions of people who are not students. Even though the students are free from debt, there are other people who went through the same circumstances and thinks it's unfair that he wasn't free from debt. Arlo Jones, a chef, says, “Giving government handouts to people with student loan debt is unfair to those who have paid chef off their student loans and want to be real assholes about it.” With this quote, we can tell that Jones is definitely mad that he had to pay off his student debt, and the current generation doesn't need to, which gives them a massive head-start in life, which he thinks is unfair, which is true, and you can't really blame him. He has a right to be mad, but I don't think that should be a reason to oppose the cancellation of student debt...