Sean Moss Public Feed

The "New SLA" Senior Capstone

Posted by Sean Moss in Capstone - Best on
Screen shot 2012-05-25 at 2.58.27 PM
Screen shot 2012-05-25 at 2.58.27 PM
Since I am planning on pursuing a career in architecture I decided to go down the path of building design for my Capstone. A teacher suggested designing the “New SLA” for my project. I found my mentor, who lives a few houses over, through my father. Together, my mentor and I worked on different assignments that when put together makes an official building proposal that could be given to a client. The entire project consists of site plans, zoning codes, building precedents, space diagrams, material research, floor plans and finally a digital 3 Dimensional concept of the completed school.

World of 100 Analysis

Posted by Sean Moss in Globalization - Laufenberg on
I chose to look at Age, Gender, and Geography. Looking at the actual data i noticed i was far off on gender but relatively close with the other two. But when i think about it i shouldn't be surprised that there's more females than males. That makes more sense than the other way around. Even just looking around the city there's more chance of seeing women and girls than men. Even in the school.

When i look at age tho i was close. There's 30% of children which is about 0 - 17 and above that is adults. Which i had written. When looking at the geography i was off in certain places. Like America and Europe  i had 10's for both and they were 12 each. But i thought Africa and Asia would have closer numbers than to America. Africa also has close to 12 people and Asians take up 61%.

Here's the link to My Blogger if you cannot see the pictures.

Quarter 2 Benchmark - Student Rights

Posted by Sean Moss in American Government - Laufenberg on
​By Sean Moss and Jesse Weinberg

​Here is the Link to our Video Hosted on School Tube.

Citations

"C-SPAN StudentCam 2012 - Downloads." C-SPAN StudentCam 2012. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.studentcam.org/cspan_downloads.htm>. Remove-item-icon Edit-item-icon "Student Speech - Recent Court Cases, Issues and Articles | American Civil Liberties Union." American Civil Liberties Union. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/student-speech>. Remove-item-icon Edit-item-icon Sutton, Marsha. 

" Restricting students from freedom of speech - Del Mar Times | Del Mar Times ." Del Mar Times | The Latest News from the Community of Del Mar . N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2012. <http://www.delmartimes.net/2011/01/20/restricting-students-from-freedom-of-speech/>.

Reflection:

We wanted to look into the subject of Freedom of Speech and one of the controversial issues standing is student rights. The actual rights are not written expressly for the youth under the age of 18. Given that they are minors and in a school system that has varying rules special to each school, we wanted to get the opinions of students on what they believe their rights are and how they'd feel if the freedom given was restricted more than it is now.

The most challenging part of this project was getting the interviews and getting questions that would pull out the most intriguing answers. The length of the video was a problem i ran into and he to pull some last minute stops to get it to be an appropriate time.

I wasn't actually aware that student's rights were not a part of the constitution nor an amendment. Even after the first case regarding the rights of a student, Tinker vs. Des Moines, the supreme court ruled in favor of the students however after that many cases have taken separate courses depending on the judge or subject regarding the issue. The first amendment states "

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Keyword being "the people", not age appropriate, or just 18 to 88. It says all persons. But since school's make regulations against certain articles of clothing and practices in their halls it is basically unconstitutional to tell a student he isn't allowed to do or say something but that still butts heads with the authority of the school system so there can't be a law undermining the regulations a school puts into place.

Adding to length and wider range of opinions and subject matters as well as narration from us the creators could make the video better all around.

Finding people who had something to say was relatively easy. Each person has an opinion of how the schools are run and each has a strong reaction to "how would you feel if you couldn't" questions.

Adding better materials. The editing wasn't hard but having something to edit was a problem that we ran into.

Lobbying Topis - Solar Energy #3

Posted by Sean Moss in American Government - Laufenberg on
solar-panel
solar-panel
There are a handful of companies that will equip homes with solar panels for a hundred thousand dollars. However my lobbying is for wider advertisement and other free appliances for rural neighborhoods such as trash bins and lights. The people who  are for this plan are Mayor Nutter and his party and few other officials. This i would say is a pretty good year for solar paneling. They've integrated a bunch of factories with solar energy and are slowly moving towards residential units. The main person in my area would be Jannie Blackwell but it seems like she's one of the main on Nutter's team that are for solar energy. Most are indifferent on the matter in comparison. Since this project is already in motion and on such a large scale there might be little i can do. However i believe i can speed up the process. There is no standing deadline or
solar-panels-for-home-790384
solar-panels-for-home-790384

Social Security Disability Claim

Posted by Sean Moss in American Government - Laufenberg on
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1000x1000
The task me and my partner chose was the Social Security Disability Application ​process. Basically it is what someone would apply for after they have been deemed incapable of working for more than a year and needs permanent or short term compensation from the government to support their families. The process we went through was simple but it jumped around a lot before even getting to the paperwork for application itself. Before you can get the form you must qualify for four general subjects one includes an extensive background history of the person applying. The paperwork part of the process is a 10 page packet that has you fill out information that was asked of you in the check-box general info part of the chart. It mostly consists of contacts forms and doctors and all medical tests and facilities you've been at regarding your disability. In and of itself it is a pretty straightforward process. However if i could change something it'd probably be the clearness of the different types of disability insurance. One has to do with childhood disability and learning disorder which prompts a different type of benefit from the government. It took me a while to find the difference between the two types and get the info for the right one. I think the reason for such complicated systems is because it scares off the people who try to apply for no reason n apply to try n cheat the system itself. Social Security fraud is a big thing in today's society and the money from that can be used for anything without monitoring.

Sarbanes-Oxley Act

Posted by Sean Moss in American Government - Laufenberg on

My first law choice I had was about managing big businesses in America -  The Sherman Antitrust Act. However this Act was old and had littlelegislative information backing it. I chose a more recent Act that had to do with the same topic on big company control. I wrote out a quick summary and saw that it'd be easy to read and record myself reading it. But then after i had the audio i thought it'd be easy enough to put pictures with it as well. I had challenges with researching and writing up the text behind it and gathering pictures as well which too a long time to find and load into the video. I would make it longer and add more photos as well if i had the chance. This was one of the quickest passed laws. It took less than a month to go from the planning state to actually releasing the law. It shows how many people wanted this kind of restrictions on businesses at that time. However the act contains some flaws and loopholes due to it's quick evaluation. The process that the two bills went through to become one. They created an entirely new committee to oversee the edits. Before then there was evaluation and then either a yay or nah to the bill. Now the congress has power to create a new bill made up of two or more very closely similar bills.

Lobbying Topic - Solar Energy #2

Posted by Sean Moss in American Government - Laufenberg on
        I put in some time researching the city officials that are in favor of implementing clean energy all over the city. I immediately stumbled across the Philadelphia Government Mayor's Office of Sustainability. It is a website devoted to Mayor Nutter's plans on making the city the number one clean city of the world. This included the Solar city partnership page. A pretty small page for something that's supposed to represent the entire city, or at least that's what i think. So i dug deeper and found the Greenwork Energy Word Press. Again it talks about Mayor Nutter and also other local and federal officials who celebrate the installation of the solar PV at the water pollution center. After digging a bit more I uncovered a handful of Facility Plant and Utilities Owners are in favor of green energy to their facilities. But few think about the surrounding cities itself. It was even claimed that the Philadelphia Water Department's Solar array could fuel 28 homes a year. Interesting. So i plan on contacting Nutter or even a secretary if possible and talk about our common interests in helping out the city. You know, the stuff that can't be found online.

Lobbying Topic - Solar Energy

Posted by Sean Moss in American Government - Laufenberg on
      I want to lobby for the use of clean solar energy. Within the city there has been use of this energy on city trash disposal units. This energy obviously works and can easily help to reduce the cost of electricity. What i want to lobby for is the spread of this energy usage and bring it to the outer laying neighborhoods of Philadelphia. Putting solar panel units on homes could easily save hundreds of dollars which can be put back into the community.

      Public policy allows for individual homes to have solar, or wind power energy if is it visually pleasing. Certain communities have been telling homes to remove Dish TV units because it doesn't look goon on the homes. But on most houses a flat solar panel roofing would not cause any problems, nor would look bad at all.

      Scientists, engineers, and architects are all trying to promote and integrate clean energy into society. And i don't know of anyone strongly against having these attachments to their homes. However many legislative documents have been submitted for the use of clean energy. Just like hydro fracking, solar energy has been around for a while yet it feel there isn't much publicity. I want to get the idea out there and made a change in my neighborhood and other communities around Philadelphia.

SCOTUS Case 09-958: Douglas vs. Indp. Living Center of California

Posted by Sean Moss in American Government - Laufenberg on

The state of California made cuts to many medical facilities and doctors due to their lack of money. This is seemingly allowed in the Medicaid Act, section 30(A). In three different cases the state was sued, one being the Independent Living Center of Southern California. They each won their cases, stating that if the cuts in funding went through then the quality of their services would also suffer and not meet up with the standards of the Medicaid Act. However the Director of Heath Care Services has brought the case to the Supreme Court.


In the Case: California Director Toby Douglas v. Independent Living Center of Southern California, Petitioner Schwartz claims that the 30(A) clause of the Medicaid Act - A Spending clause that says services are paid by the state with recognition to the economic stability of the state itself - is too genaral and does not allow a single service to enforce the Act when finances are cut due to the state’s own recession. Basically saying 30(A) is not enforcible and wants there to be a amendment that allows private services to sue and claim the appropriate reimbursement for their work.

Petitioner Kneedler disagrees saying that Medicaid is an agreement between the Federal Government and the States. Not the private facilities within the states. Schwarts and the other hundreds of thousands of doctors shouldn’t be able to sue becuase it would cause problems across the state when hundreds of judges can make different judgements for each similar case. That would be unfair. Yet he does agree that 30(A) is not complete.


The question is: Who has the right and authority to enforce 30(A) of the Medicaid Act since Congress cannot? The Federal Government or the State?

I perceive that the Federal Government will have to set up another department solely for looking over the Medicaid act and the issues that come along with it like this case and hundreds before it since the Act was set in 1986.

History of Firearms

Posted by Sean Moss in American History - Herman on
Today people are exposed to hundreds of high tech and crazy looking artillery right? Even a simple police issued 9MM handgun has many features people don’t understand. You ever wonder where did it all start? How did we go from swords and slingshots to gunpower projectiles like bullets and cannons? What evolved from those old pirate movies up until now? That’s the story we want to tell. The history of firearms!

By Sean Moss and Uyen Nguyen

Music Instrument Blog #2

Posted by Sean Moss in Physics - Echols on
​A thumb piano produces a sound by the vibrations of the metal pieces. It travels into the hollowed out box through the sound hold like a piano and makes a sound. The longer the piece vibrates the longer the note is held. The thumb piano consists of different length, flat metal pieces. You can change the lengths and tune it by undoing the bar holding them down and moving the pieced back and forth to the correct tune and pitch. For the box I'll be using wooden boards I'll cut and shape for the correct size. Then i'll take some pieces of spring metal from a rake and use that as the keys. A metal bar to hold down the pieces with screws for tuning.

Musical Instrument Blog #1

Posted by Sean Moss in Physics - Echols on
Piano/Thumb Piano

When looking into the instrument I wished to play I thought that making a simple small piano would be easy. It's just a box with strings and keys you press that hit the corresponding string. While doing light research I noticed it was actually very difficult to piece something like that together. Then a friend of mine happened across an instrument called a thumb piano. It sounded like the perfect thing to make. So when i got home I looked it up. Basically its a bunch of different sized metal pieces that are bend in the middle and held down. It's played my pressing down on a metal piece and then releasing it causing a sharp crisp sound to be produced. The number of pieces can be varied so the range of notes is easily acquired like an actual piano. Its shape can be a small box with metal strips on top and a piece of wood that acts as like a ditch above the box like board. The metal strips are places strategically on top of the wooden ditch and then a bar is placed across them and pressed down to bend the metal pieces in a out wide U shape. I'm not sure about how tuning takes place but the vibrations of the metal to metal makes the nice sound.

To see for yourself check out this youtube video.
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