Momentum: Volume 1, Issue 1

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 21
  • Publication
    The Rape of Nanking vs. the incident of Nanking: a Literature Review
    (2012-04-18) Man, Chi-Wei
    The Nanking Massacre has become deeply ingrained in the cultural history of both the Chinese and the Japanese; however it has taken on two perhaps contradictory narratives in each of those communities.
  • Publication
    US Army Field Jacket Development in Response to Material Shortages and the Exigencies of World War II
    (2012-04-18) Hwang, Tiffany
    Hwang explores how the combined power urgency and material shortages forced the US Army into a specific pattern of uniform design and development during World War II.
  • Publication
    Nor Any Drop to Drink: A Systems Approach to Water in America
    (2012-04-18) Gerstein, Hilary
    The water crisis has been a “hot topic” in recent years. By synthesizing some of the existing literature on this subject, this thesis aims to encourage Americans, particularly those people less familiar with the topic, to start thinking about water issues in a new way, specifically by thinking in systems. Drawing from Donella Meadows, Thomas Hughes and concepts such as complex adaptive systems, it frames the problems with bottled water, and the drinking water distribution system, more generally, in a particular way. More specifically, this paper analyzes the water distribution system by breaking it into two main parts––the municipal water supply and the bottled water industry––and also analyzes these components as a whole system. In addition, the paper highlights health, safety, environmental and social justice issues surrounding the nation’s failing water system. Because the water system crisis can be interpreted as a symptom of larger problems faced by society, thinking in systems for this particular case is a meaningful exercise applicable to understanding other sustainability issues.
  • Publication
    Outlaws, Bandits, Hackers
    (2012-04-18) Silcox, Calder
    Technological imperatives may once have forced the first hackers to shift their schedule to the night, but eventually the hacker subculture became inextricably linked to the night and to the outcast and outlaw imagery associated with it.
  • Publication
    Media Review: The Matrix
    (2012-04-18) Sellers-Saidi, Terrence
    This paper analyzes the film The Matrix from the perspective of hackers and describes how the film has influenced culture. The film itself analyzes technology and predicts how it may change in the future.
  • Publication
    Socialization of Science—The Acquisition of Skills and Values
    (2012-04-18) Bakar, Dara
    This essay aims to capture the nuances of the unique transition from undergraduate to post-graduate life in the science world. It explores the crucial dynamic between students and their mentors, while also presenting common assumptions and misunderstandings that are associated with academic success and failure.
  • Publication
    Learning as Fun: What Video Games Do that Classrooms Do Not
    (2012-04-18) de Luna, Christian
    This paper explores the idea of learning from video games, a subject which has earned increased attention over the past several years in the academic community, yet remains an area in need of even further exploration. The author discusses how particular elements of video games are beneficial to learning and considers how these concepts may be applied to the classroom or homework settings, considering both the potential advantages and disadvantages of employing this technology.
  • Publication
    The Evolution of Altruism
    (2012-04-18) Graber, Eithan
    In The Evolution of Cooperation, Axelrod and Hamilton (A&H) provide a game theoretic approach to the evolution of reciprocal altruism (cooperation). They argue that because Tit-For-Tat (TFT) is robust, stable, and initially viable, it can be used to explain how reciprocal altruism evolved in nature. There are three important issues regarding A&H’s approach to which the author responds. First, Nowak and Sigmund challenge the robustness of TFT by arguing that a strategy of Win-Stay, Lose-Shift (WSLS) can outperform TFT. Second, although A&H use clustering to account for the initial viability of TFT, they owe an explanation of how a cluster of TFTs could arise in the first place. Finally, A&H account for the stability of TFT by assuming, without empirical or theoretical support, that the individuals who interact have a sufficiently large probability of meeting again. The author will respond to these three issues in order to improve and extend A&H’s approach to the evolution of cooperation.
  • Publication
    The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Versus The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching: A Historical Comparison of Two Philanthropic Powerhouses in Education
    (2012-04-18) Leknes, Brittany
    This project is a comparison of two young, powerful charitable foundations, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The research examines the first two decades of these two foundations through the lens of public and secondary education in their respective American time periods, politics, economics, and cultures. Although they operate in different time periods and among different main social concerns, the early actions of both the Carnegie Foundation and the Gates Foundation have approached grant-making in fundamentally similar ways to change American education. This paper first displays a brief history of charitable foundations, the problems with American public and secondary schools, and the ways that the Carnegie and Gates Foundations have chosen to address these problems. The two foundations have similar overall structures, similar problems that they aim to solve with their grant-making, and similar values of measurement and testing when making grants. Finally, both of the foundations have shifted the role of education of Americans from the local and specific and instead towards the foundations. This has raised questions of the interactions between foundations and the democratic rights of the populations that the foundations serve.
  • Publication
    A Missed Opportunity? Assessing the Likely Effectiveness of an Allied Bombing Raid on Auschwitz
    (2012-04-18) Roth, Jonathan
    What if the Allies had pursued the bombing of the extermination camps at Auschwitz? Could the Allies have put together an effective bombing campaign that would have saved a significant number of lives at the death camps?