Jeffrey Kessler Public Feed
Above The Class – America's Gifted Youth
In this project, I reported on the necessity of Gifted Education in the classroom. This topic has been of much interest to me due to my familiarity with the system and its challenges. To get information about this story, I talked to many friends and family members who are familiar with the successes and challenges of Gifted Education. I think that this issue does not receive very much attention due to the overshadowing counterpart of Special Education. If anything, due to the rising rates of Autism, this topic will become even more overshadowed and will receive even less attention. From this project, I learned about local crisis reporting, understood how current Gifted students view gifted programs, and even had the opportunity to investigate some of my mother's various awards for Gifted Education efforts.
To download the full story, click here.
To download the full story, click here.
The Transit Navigator – Jeff Kessler's 2012 Capstone Project
The Transit Navigator uses a website and other web tools to improve the usability of Public Transportation ("make public transit navigation simple").
Capstone Summary:
This capstone project developed and founded the innovative resource known as The Transit Navigator. The service takes two approaches to solving the problem of simplifying transit systems. First, the website provides detailed but simple information about public transit in a variety of cities. This makes it easy to understand the transit options available, how to navigate them, and where to learn more. The other aspect of TransitNav is the use of foursquare tips to facilitate on-the-go information. Users can simply follow transitnav on foursquare for access. When they check-in at a location, the system automatically populates one of The Transit Navigator's numerous tips and displays it on their screen. Foursquare's "Lists" feature allows users to browse these TransitNav suggestions by region and service. There are also a few TransitNav sightseeing guides that make it easy to quickly explore a region. Personal experience (over six years of gathering transit knowledge and working as an Amtrak intern!), mapping tools (such as Google Maps), photographs (from photo-sharing tools) and individual transportation sites acted as references. Plus, thanks to the "live" nature of the Transit Navigator Web Terminal, these resources will continually be updated as new information is required. Check it out online at http://transitnav.com!
Societee Game - Collapse Benchmark
Kessler World of 100 Analysis
This chart shows how many people would speak a variety of languages if the world were only 100 people (with the same percentages as the current world). Most interestingly, there is a high amount of "other" languages spoken in the world.
This chart, using the same "world of 100" methodology, describes the world's cell phone usage. Notably, my guess for internet users was nearly spot-on, whereas it was greatly exaggerated by the rest of the class. In addition, it was interesting to see how the class viewed technology in terms of internet users being almost equivalent to cell phone subscribers.
This chart used the world of 100 method to compare religions. While I overstated the first two, it is rather interesting to see how accurate the class average came to the real number. Had my first two not been exaggerated, my results for the rest would've most likely been in line with the class and real results.
Overall, the answer for which I was most accurate was internet usage (where my guess was overestimated by only one person). This is most likely due to my technological experience and understanding of the internet. The answers for which I was least accurate were with literacy and electricity. I underestimated the percentage of households with electricity and similarly did so with education. The best attribution for such a result is that I have seen many activist programs for increasing overall literacy and technology access across the world; this caused me to over-emphasize these issues. The answer for which I was most shocked was that 75% of the world currently subscribes to a cell phone. This was most interesting as many other values for technology access are much lower. Thus, cell phones have become so widespread that they are a great way of expanding communication and internet access across the world.
Inflation Valuation - StudentCam Entry
Learn about how one small clause in the constitution affects every decision we make!
As one who has always been interested in economics, I have always understood the importance of inflation and the valuation of the US Dollar on our purchasing power. As a result, I decided to study congress' ability to value money as found in the constitution. My interest in this topic certainly allowed me to enjoy both the research and filming of the project. However, the most difficult portion was certainly getting stock footage of various people doing random acts, as many people often feel uncomfortable with being filmed.
One of the most interesting things that I discovered through my benchmark was that there was an "eagle" in addition to the standard dollar. This was primarily interesting since the eagle no longer exists in our economy, nor do many of them still remain. I would've liked to who an eagle in my project; however, I had not found any. My project could've mostly been improved by focusing a little more on how it directly affects myself; I spent much of the time focused on how it affects everyone in their daily lives. Despite this, I think that this project was certainly done very well, as it explained a topic in a way that was both easy to understand itself and its implications. Overall, in addition to learning some tricks for documentaries, this project taught me much about the economic system that affects our daily lives.
#fundamtk
In this step, the national movement to organize support for Amtrak was arranged. The primary method of support was going to be a one-day event wherein supporters travelled to Washington, DC via Amtrak. Then, all participants would walk across the street to discuss the issues with their representatives. However, this option was much too costly and not feasible with the available resources. In lieu of such a movement, the lobbying campaign is in the process of creating a twitter campaign wherein persons will use the hashtag #fundamtk to demonstrate their support. To save money, this hashtag will be distributed at Amtrak train stations such as 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. As involvement and engagement with the hashtag grows, the press secretaries of the representatives and senators would be contacted to see the visibility and support for this otherwise dying movement. While I would've liked to have already demonstrated the effectiveness of this process, the ideal time to start this movement will be directly before the holidays when rail travel is at its peak. This blog post will be updated further after the happenings of such an event.
Getting a Green Card - Visualized
For this project, my partner and I selected to explain the Green Card application process. This in-depth process involves filling out numerous forms with personal information regarding one's ability to get a green card. This has the primary routes of through a family member, a business or employment opportunity, a refugee scenario, or a variety of other reasons (as specific as being an American Indian born in Canada). Perhaps one of the most difficult tasks in applying for a green card is determining the easiest route to citizenship depending on the specific eligibility requirements. The paperwork for this application was not very long, but would certainly be complex to someone of foreign nationality. If I could change this process, I would make the application much simpler and provide a method for persons to submit supplemental documentation to help humanize the process and remind the government employees that their decisions are regarding humans, not checkboxes on a paper. Most likely, this system began with such an easy process, but as numerous paths to citizenship have been released, the complication of eligibility requirements has quickly multiplied. Lastly, with regard to filling out the Green Card forms for the purpose of the project, I would use fake information to ensure that the information could be distributed and made available for the public without any privacy concerns.
Rail Transportation Lobbying - Update #3
In this portion of the lobbying task, it was time to investigate the current legislative powers and the likelihood of Amtrak Funding legislation. So far, this appears to be a good year for such legislation. While some members of the House and Senate feel as though the American railroad lines should be sold to private corporations, the majority still feel as though funding Amtrak would be the best for supporting railroad transportation. This is also portrayed in the media, which is covering the issue fairly well. In addition, the key person for new Amtrak legislation is Senator Frank Lautenberg of NJ (of which I am a constituent). This has some benefits and downsides in influencing such passage. While certainly helpful to be able to discuss the issues directly with the congressperson introducing the bill, it is, in common terms, "preaching to the choir." In other words, he doesn't need to be influenced to support such legislation.
The key group lobbying in support of this legislation is the National Association of Railroad Passengers. It would certainly be possible to join efforts with their group to lobby for the common goal of funding railroad transportation. Time spent influencing key legislators necessary for such passage will predominately include discussing the issues with the members of the congressional committee focused on studying the feasibility of railroad privatization and the opposition to such funding in both the House and Senate. While this was one of the primary concerns of congress, the focus has shifted to balancing the federal budget, so this time would be best spent discussing the issues with the committee members and waiting for the federal budget situation to be solved. Since such focus has shifted, there are no current meetings or hearings on the agenda; the committee has already presented their findings in support of Amtrak, but have not determined an appropriate amount.
Overall, there is much support for the issue, especially amongst those who have researched the topic; however, due to more pressing issues, the legislation has been placed aside for issues of greater priority. Once such legislative discussions return to focus on rail issues, the full force of the lobbying can resume.
Election Day Interview - 2011
Story of a Bill – Passenger Rail
Learn how a bill becomes a law! Follow the Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007/2008 on it's path to becoming an act of legislation! Does it get passed? Who supported it? Find out all of this and more with "Story of a Bill – Passenger Rail"!
——————————————————————————————————
As a railfan, I wanted to focus on a bill that affected Amtrak or rail transportation. As such, I decided to research the failed Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act of 2007/2008. Since the information would revolve around the bill's movement, I decided to make a Prezi such that it would be easy to visualize how a bill goes through the process of becoming a law. The most challenging portion of this project was researching the factors that influenced the bills movement throughout congress. However, once it was completed, it was easy to present and design the Prezi.
If I were to re-create the project, I would probably want to incorporate multiple bills such that it would be easy to understand how bills can take different paths throughout congress. This would better allow me to present the information regarding the bill creation process. The process itself, while very intricate and with multiple steps, is rather simple in that one idea gets presented, researched, debated, drafted, budgeted, sent to the other portion of congress, at which point the system repeats itself. This long process makes it easy for congresspeople and the president to prevent a bill from becoming a law. However, the measures in place to override nay votes and vetoes allows for the government to go forth and pass legislation when a large majority of the persons agree.
Rail Funding Lobbying - Blog 2
The next step in my quest to secure funding for Amtrak was to learn about my representatives. A constituent of the 1st district of New Jersey, I am represented in the federal government by Representative Rob Andrews, Senator Robert Menendez, and Senator Frank Lautenberg. While all have been in support of railroads in the past, Sen. Lautenberg is the national railroad advocate (which greatly helps my cause).
Lautenberg, the chair of the Senate's Surface Transportation subcommittee, has always been in favor of railroad transportation throughout the United States. In fact, for his efforts to support railroads, the Secaucus Junction train station (a large transfer station serving three quarters of all NJ Transit trains) was renamed the "Frank R. Lautenberg Secaucus Junction Station." Lautenberg's focus on railroads comes partly from his background, since his immigrant family often traveled on trains, but also comes from his work as Executive Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. His efforts to support railroads are widely supported, since many North Jersey and Central Jersey residents use NJ Transit to commute to work in New York City. Overall, it will be easy to get Senator Lautenberg to support Amtrak Funding.
Senator Menendez, while not an outspoken rail advocate, does support railroads. He has voted in favor of Amtrak in every rail-based election since his inauguration. While this support often comes from pressure by Sen. Lautenberg, it will still be easy to get him to support rail funding.
Lastly, Rep. Rob Andrews has been a partial railroad advocate. While he personally wants to support railroads, many South Jersey residents don't. This is most likely the result of a lack railroad transportation in South Jersey (with only the PATCO, Atlantic City Line, and River Line). However, Rep. Andrews has been supporting the proposed Camden-Glassboro line. If the state bill passes, he can certainly support an Amtrak bill without any negative campaigning from his constituents.
Lautenberg, the chair of the Senate's Surface Transportation subcommittee, has always been in favor of railroad transportation throughout the United States. In fact, for his efforts to support railroads, the Secaucus Junction train station (a large transfer station serving three quarters of all NJ Transit trains) was renamed the "Frank R. Lautenberg Secaucus Junction Station." Lautenberg's focus on railroads comes partly from his background, since his immigrant family often traveled on trains, but also comes from his work as Executive Commissioner of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. His efforts to support railroads are widely supported, since many North Jersey and Central Jersey residents use NJ Transit to commute to work in New York City. Overall, it will be easy to get Senator Lautenberg to support Amtrak Funding.
Senator Menendez, while not an outspoken rail advocate, does support railroads. He has voted in favor of Amtrak in every rail-based election since his inauguration. While this support often comes from pressure by Sen. Lautenberg, it will still be easy to get him to support rail funding.
Lastly, Rep. Rob Andrews has been a partial railroad advocate. While he personally wants to support railroads, many South Jersey residents don't. This is most likely the result of a lack railroad transportation in South Jersey (with only the PATCO, Atlantic City Line, and River Line). However, Rep. Andrews has been supporting the proposed Camden-Glassboro line. If the state bill passes, he can certainly support an Amtrak bill without any negative campaigning from his constituents.
Overall, my representatives will be easy to work with and will hopefully support my efforts to increase rail funding.
Maples v. Thomas - Legal Abandonment (Docket 10-63)
Constitutional Question: In the case of Maples v. Thomas, the constitutional question being presented before the Supreme Court is "Whether the Eleventh Circuit properly held that there was no cause to excuse any procedural default where petitioner was blameless for the default, the state's own conduct contributed to the default, and petitioner's attorneys of record were no longer functioning as his agents at the time of any default." In plain English, this is asking weather a prisoner can argue that a death sentence is unconstitutional when proper filing procedures were not followed. This is specifically relevant to the sixth and eighth amendments since they specifically involve congressional proceedings.
Facts of the Case: Cory Maples was arrested and convicted for first degree murder in Alabama. In Alabama, once someone is convicted, they are not given free council. Since he could not afford an attorney, he contacted two New York legislators who would act as his out-of-state council pro-bono. As with any out of state council in Alabama, there needed to be a local council to oversee the case on the local scale. After filing for post-conviction relief (where Maples petitioned the court to have his death penalty overturned), he request was denied. The copy of that denial was sent to the New York lawyers and the Alabama lawyer. However, both of his New York lawyers left their firm, and the ruling was returned to the county clerk. In addition, the Alabama lawyer did not convey the ruling to Maples, since he assumed the New York lawyers would have done so. After not hearing his ruling, he contacted the county clerk who sent a copy of the ruling directly to the prison (where it would be given to Maples). Unfortunately, upon receipt of said document, he noticed that the deadline for him to appeal the petition had already passed. Therefore, he wished to argue that continuing his death sentence would be unconstitutional since he was not given ample time to appeal (due to his lawyers' inability to represent Maples in this scenario).
Summary of the Arguments before the SCOTUS: In the supreme court hearing, the story was conveyed before the court by a representative of Maples to explain the ways in which his appeal deadline should have been extended in this instance (or his case be re-evaluated). Some members of the supreme court questioned whether the court should be punished by having to re-hear the case (taking up the court's valuable time). In addition, the Maples representative reiterated that Maples should not be punished for the abandonment by three responsible lawyers. However, the court did seem be particularly hesitant at the vast implications that a ruling for abandonment could bring.
Prediction: While the court did not want to have huge implications, it appears as though they will side on behalf of Maples. This will probably be done with a complex ruling explaining the numerous factors for abandonment by lawyers to be considered ineffective council (which is prohibited by the sixth amendment).
Rail Funding Lobbying - Blog 1
For this quarter's American Government assignment, I will be lobbying in support of federal rail funding. Since the 1970s, the National Railroad Passenger Coprospration (commonly known as Amtrak) was founded to operatate the nation's failing railroads under a federal subsidy. Since then, American dependence on railroads has quickly grown. From the rural routes in the Midwest, to the heavily-traveled Northeast Corridor, passengers use Amtrak as a green alternative to other forms of travel. With a growing need and want for high speed infrastructure in the United States, federal funding needs to offset some of the high costs needed to invest in a brighter future for American travel. As one who frequents Amtrak and worked as an intern in their engineering department, I am aware of the high costs required to fulfill the growing need for high speed rail.
Current legislation ensures that Amtrak receives funding, through the Rail Passenger Service Act of 1970. However, many leaders in the Republican party suggest that Amtrak funding should decrease, if not stop, due to the current American budget crisis. Many Democrats feel as through the funding should continue, as it provides a green alternative to modern train travel. In the coming time, I would like to see some of the federal budget changed such that money from environmental advancements and highway maintenance programs are spent on the creation and service of a true high speed rail network throughout the United States (which would serve the goals and interests of all three departments).
External Resources
Overview of Amtrak and Possible Privatization: http://www.fra.dot.gov/downloads/Research/pirp.pdf
C-SPAN Congressional Amtrak Subsidy Re-Evaluation: http://www.c-span.org/Events/Congress-Evaluates-Amtrak-Funding/10737420766/
National Association of Rail Passengers - Possible Cuts to Funding: http://www.narprail.org/cms/index.php/narpblog/more/amtrak_threatened_with_shutdown_budget/
Information about Current Subsidies: http://subsidyscope.org/transportation/direct-expenditures/amtrak/analysis/
American Transportation - What if?
Learn more about American Transportation
by visiting http://bit.ly/amtransitwhatif!
Reflection: I greatly enjoyed this project. I found the ability to deeply study one piece of history and change one aspect to create a new one quite intriguing. While fulfilling, it was challenging to find the tiny details that would change the outcome of history. The most interesting thing that I researched was the individual impacts of Senator Pell and the founder of the NARPA on the magnitude of future outcomes. Specifically, their efforts in advocating for the bill were the sole reasons that Amtrak and rail transportation exists today. They are only one example of individuals having such an impact on the historical record. Systemic changes also affect the historical record in many ways. For example, if Amtrak was never founded, the 9/11 Shanksville, PA crash. In addition, these all revolved around the one decision as to whether or not Amtrak should be created. In the future, I would like to see a possible adaptation wherein students could work in a pair with two separate changes and create an alternate history based upon two separate PODs. Also, if I were to repeat the process, I would create more primary sources for each event and expand my list of events even further.
Musical Instrument Blog 2
1. The friction between the rotating glass and one’s wet finger creates a slight level of friction. This friction creates a vibration in the bowl, which then redirects the vibration’s frequency towards the user.
2. The pitch of the instrument is changed by using an instrument with a different bowl shape/size that produces a frequency equivalent to the specific note.
3. The materials necessary to construct the instrument include numerous glass bowls, a spindle mechanism, and a small container of water. Playing the instrument involves changing my thumb from one bowl to the next. I plan to complete the instrument as soon as possible.
4. I currently have no additional questions.
Musical Instrument Blog #1
The two instruments at I am considering are the hydrocrystalophone and the harpsichord. The hydrocrystalophone is played by a person with wet fingers placing their hand on a certain rotating bowl. The shape and size of the bowl changes the various sounds produced. The overall shape is a long suspended spindle which allows the bowls to constantly spin. This instrument entices me to find the musical connection between the water, finger, and bowl; as well as the shape of the bowl and the effect on the sound. The other instrument, is similar to a piano. A harp's strings are each struck once when a button is pressed. This can also be achieved in a box form, wherein a button strikes the harp's strings. So far, these instruments appear to show that the size and shape of what is being played, such as a string or a bowl's diameter, has an important effect on the sounds being produced.
Kingston, TN Coal Ash Spill
During this project, we researched the happenings and government’s response to the Tennessee Coal Ash Spill. What went well in our group’s project was our ability to work together with one another despite some group members being absent, our ability to convey the understanding of the project in one simple sheet and in terms that were relatively easy to understand and were relatable.
While we wanted to have some more graphic-oriented information about the spill, we did not want to copy the New York Times’ infographic about the spill. As a result, the scientific explanations were explained in words rather than visually.
In the future, I would be sure that the project had more concrete data that could be visually represented on the chart. For example, a better way of explaining the amount of sludge could have been to list dots for a certain amount of sludge, followed by boxing some areas with the respective sizes of buildings.
Overall, I feel as though our group did well in the areas of being concise, transparent, accurate, attractive, gracious, and creative. The areas that could’ve been improved include being visual, different, and varied. These were the harder tips to incorporate due to the fact that very little numerical data (for the effects of the spill) were able to be found. In addition, since our team did not have access to many graphics-making software (such as OmniGraffle), we were not able to produce a graphic that was as visually appealing as we had originally planned.
Five Photo Story
Effective Airport Screening Measures and Diplomatic Relations
Reflection: As a transportation buff, I instantly decided to research the Transportation Security Agency for my NHD project. Since there have been many changes in the TSA's rules, as well as changes in the screening processes preformed by other countries, I found it interesting to discuss how the TSA operates and how changing their measures have related to debates and diplomatic relations. I found some difficulty in being able to access primary resources of the TSA screenings, considering it is illegal to take photographs or record video/audio in the screening area. However, there are still photos of the screening areas that were photographed outside of the screening area. Since my project had many photos, yet required much space for written explanations, a website was an appropriate and excellent choice to combine the two into one succinct and concurrent project. Surprisingly, I was extremely successful in finding accounts of the screening area, as well as finding information about Israel's transparent interview-based screening process. From this project, I obtained a solid and deep understanding about the various methods of airport screening protocols and how changes to these protocols have affected international relations. In the future, I would've liked to make my website more interactive (not permitted by the NHD rules), interviewed TSA agents, and recorded video / taken photographs of the TSA's screening processes and procedures.
Echelon Area History
Election Day 2010 Interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg-lnJRTJyE
Today, Tuesday, November 2, 2010, I spent about two hours interviewing 20 different voters about the 2010 election. The master list of questions was as follows:
All of the interviews were compiled into one small video. The video can be found on the top of this post. It will soon be posted with a downloadable version that can be shared with a Creative Commons BY-ND license.
Today, Tuesday, November 2, 2010, I spent about two hours interviewing 20 different voters about the 2010 election. The master list of questions was as follows:
- What motivated you to vote today?
- How regularly do you vote?
- What was the most memorable political advertisement?
- How did the negative campaign advertisements affect your vote?
- What would you like to see change after this election?
- Do you know why we vote on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November?
All of the interviews were compiled into one small video. The video can be found on the top of this post. It will soon be posted with a downloadable version that can be shared with a Creative Commons BY-ND license.
