the LCS experience

The LCS class was very challenging and very interesting. I learned quite a bit about the different subject matters we covered. Two things that stuck in my head was the formation of Israel and new technology for drones. I learned about Israel, their history and how they were formed. I always thought they where a state created by natural selection like every other nation. I was really surprised that they just declared themselves a state in the middle of Palestine, an existing state, and that the rest of the world was OK with that. Found it interesting that President Roosevelt had his reservations of siding with the new state and it was through his friends influence that led the him to back Israel. The self declaration was really shocking to me and I can see why the Arab world would be upset over it. Ironically that's not something the media informs us about and generations of American's don't fully understand the dynamics of the history of the middle east.

The other thing I learned was while writing the piece about the use of drones. In my research I came across a nova video on the history of drones and they made a reference to a project called of Argis. Although, I didn't mention it in the original article I wrote, because I couldn't find any evidence that it was in use in the wars, I nonetheless found it interesting. In the video they walked the viewer through a demonstration of the system. The system is basically a surveillance camera using off the shelf cell phone technology. The camera system is hooked up to a drone and it's capacity is 1.8 billion pixels that can capture images from a medium size city from 17,500 feet in the air all at once. It captures so many details that it can track moving objects down to six inches. The data collected by the system is massive at 1 million terabytes of video a day. I just kept wondering when that technology would be available to local police enforcement and how it will change the way people commit crimes and how justice is served. The next evolution of a surveillance state.

All this reading and writing was challenging. It's been a while since I've really written for school. The last time I remember writing anything like I did for this class mechanical pencils and paper where the latest technology. Yeah computers weren't around unless you worked in some fancy office. All kidding aside what I fine tuned the most was my researching skills and writing with a strong thesis statement. Making the point was hard and all the reading for the research was exhausting.

Exhausting or not I did learn that I have some strong views and biases on certain subjects. Especially in politics. I figured out that I'm really more a liberal than an independent LOL. Not really a shocker but it's much better defined now. Also, I realized that even though I try to be unbiased and opened minded that I do show a bias towards the view that matches my own. As a student I tried very hard to be open minded and find that opposing view but it was extremely difficult at times. I felt that it was so much easier to find data, comments, statistics that agreed with what my point was. Almost, like my mind was blind to the opposing view until I stopped and actively searched for it. So I've learned to be a little less quick to use what I find and search a little further and deeper for that opposing view.

The class taught me a lot about myself and my views. If I could change one thing it would be the amount of time given for writing the blogs. It was challenging to carry a full course load and meet all the deadlines, but not having enough time being the reality of the world I guess that really can't be changed. The one other area I had a very difficult time was the assignments that where open ended and we could write about anything. I felt like I spent way to much time trying to figure out what I wanted to write about. It would've helped me to have a few ideas on what subjects to tackle. I found it much easier to deal with all the research and writing when I was given an area to focus on.

Even with that I guess that was a skill within itself. To seek and write something your interested in. It led me to write about something I never thought about before. The skill I obtained from this class that I will carry to all my other classes will be the researching and finding that opposing view. It's a powerful tool to understand what the opposing viewpoint is and I can see using that skill in other classes (well maybe not in math).

Talking about math, my favorite topic was 9-1-1, no not the police, but the event 9/11 and the war on terror. Simply because I feel it's a mistake that has cost this country too much and gained it too little. It's cost us the lives of not only the victims of 9/11 but all the soldiers that have died in the wars, over 8,400, and 50,000 injured and over 500,000+ deaths in Iraq alone. It changed the world view of this country from being heroic and justice oriented to invaders, and law breakers. The wars were the worst financial disaster this country has seen and it will continue to deplete our resources for decades to come. The cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan war will reach 4 to 6 trillion dollars.

All in all I learned how to write a strong thesis statement and lead with it. I learned how to research material related to my subject area and select the research that supported my point of view and the opposing point of view. I learned how to hang in there and keep my mind open to finding opposing views. I learned that writing can be pleasurable and painful LOL. Most importantly I learned that I'm not as bad as I thought I was.