Browsed by
Month: February 2019

DPers: IRL’s Social Bubble Bath Podcast Reflection

DPers: IRL’s Social Bubble Bath Podcast Reflection

Comments 2 comments

IRL is an original podcast site from Mozilla, maker of FireFox, which shares real stories of life online and real talk about the future of the Web. Recently, as a part of our   Unit we had to listen to a series of these podcasts – one of them that I found particularly interesting was a podcast talking about filter bubbles on social media. A filter bubble is when a online user only sees information and opinions that conform to and reinforce their own beliefs, caused by algorithms that personalise an individual’s online experience. Here is a link to the conversation. This is my reflection on the podcast.

This podcast had a variety of interesting speakers:

  1. Megan Phelps-Roper: Someone who left of the Westboro Baptist Church who possesses extreme views on homosexuality and protests near the funerals of gay people, military veterans, and disaster victims, whose deaths, he believed, were the result of God punishing the U.S. for having “bankrupt values” as a result of popping her filter bubbles. She says ‘ I feel like we’re being pushed deeper and deeper into our bubbles and thinking that the only answer is to yell louder, resist harder, and I think it’s the opposite. It’s the willingness to be vulnerable and have the conversation and to listen.’ This was an interesting comment on the tendency of human nature and the benefits of looking at perspectives that may oppose your own.
  2. B.J May: His employer offered him a chance to relocate and he took it. He moved his whole family to a suburb north of Atlanta, Georgia to escape his filter bubble. He said ‘ It’s a geographic filter bubble and a cultural filter bubble. Everyone looked like me, everyone thought pretty much like I thought, and it was easy to become comfortable to the point that complacency sets in’. This was interesting as it commented on how filter bubbles are not just online but in our communities as well.
  3. DeRay Mckesson: A ‘Black Lives Matter’ activist who uses filter bubbles to bring people together in rallies for rights. He says “Think about hashtags as paperclips. Those hashtags became the primary organising tool, the way that we rallied thousands of people on the street and moved them, but in those early days it was just so new for people that we were able to use the nascency of hashtags and things like that for social justice to really mobilise”. which was an eye-opening statement on the power of connectivity on the internet.

This podcast followed all the standard convention expected of a podcast in these ways:

  • It had a short section of intro music called the ‘pre-intro bumper’ to engage the audience before introducing the podcast.
  • The brief introduction gave listeners context as to what the topic was and what filter bubbles were and a few clips from all the interviewees on the podcasts stating their main ideologies on filter bubbles and important quotes for context.
  • There were around 3-4 reputable guest speakers whose life experiences have been altered by filter bubbles and are knowledgeable about it’s causes and effects. This was followed by a relatively long conversation and recordings from the speakers. All the speakers were gave a brief overview before the start of their section to show how filter bubbles became significant to them and the stories of how they adopted/rejected filter bubbles so that listeners understand their position/experiences. To collate all the information given by the speakers to understand their opinions on filter bubbles, the last few questions were more general – talking about their opinions on the issue, thoughts about the future in regard to the issue and things they have learnt in the process.
  • Before the end of the podcast, the interviewer gives an conclusion of the perspectives of the issues that were mentioned in the podcast, talking of ways in which we could address this issue in our own small ways and summing up the conversation with a vote of thanks. One point that doesn’t follow podcast convention was the mentioning the show notes in the end but in the middle of the podcast

After listening to this podcast, I asked myself a few questions, for example:

  1. What filter bubbles am I in on social media?
  2. What aspects of social media do I not see but should probably be aware about?
  3. Are filters bubbles really a bad thing to a student? Would it really affect me if I saw different types of content?

This podcast helped me decide what social challenges to choose in our current unit in Dpers as it helped me think of something new I should try to do or gain exposure to on social media, example, choosing a challenge that involves looking or taking in content that I normally wouldn’t. One of the challenges was to listen to a daily podcast series, and after listening to this podcast, I realise how interesting and informative podcasts can be so it may steer my choice towards this challenge to hear more podcasts.

Respiration Reflection: Lance Armstrong and Blood Doping

Respiration Reflection: Lance Armstrong and Blood Doping

Comments 0 Comment

 

 

Respiration is the release of energy in cells by the breakdown of food substances. The chemical reactions for respiration take place in the mitochondria of the cell. There are two types of respiration:

  1. Aerobic respiration: Respiration which takes place in the presence of oxygen – glucose is completely broken down with oxygen into carbon dioxide and water. 
  2. Anaerobic respiration: Respiration which takes place in the absence of oxygen –  glucose breaks down without oxygen. The chemical reaction transfers energy from glucose to the cell.

Glucose is an extremely important chemical involved in the process of respiration: So what is glucose?

Image result for glucose structure

  • Glucose is a simple sugar with the molecular formula C6H12O6. –  which means that it is a molecule that is made of six carbon atoms, twelve hydrogen atoms, and six oxygen atom.

 

  • Glucose is the most abundant monosaccharide, it is the monomer of carbohydrates. In other words, Glucose is the compound that makes up most of our carbohydrates.

 

  • It’s a type of sugar you get from foods you eat, and your body uses it for energy. As it travels through your bloodstream to your cells, it’s called blood glucose or blood sugar.

 

 

Respiration is important when we do exercise so that our muscles have enough energy to move.

In aerobic exercise, muscles draw on oxygen as well as the glucose and fatty acids carried in by the blood to produce adenosine triphosphate or ATP. ATP is the energy source that enables muscles to contract. The ability to keep exercising aerobically depends on the delivery of oxygen and fuel molecules (glucose and fatty acids) to your muscles. And that depends on circulation and respiration, provided by your heart and your lungs.

When exercising anaerobically, muscles are drawing on stores of glycogen (which is formed from glucose) and converting them to ATP. During this type of high-intensity exercise the muscles are producing energy without oxygen–the cardiovascular system is unable to keep up the demand. There is a price to pay for exercising anaerobically, as a waste product called lactic acid builds up. This is what causes the burning sensation in muscles and causes them to fatigue more rapidly.

Long distance cycling focuses on aerobic respiration. Long distance cycling competitions, such as the Tour de France, are longer than 50 miles and hence, take several hours to complete so aerobic respiration would be needed to maintain energy levels and avoid the build up of lactic acid – but this involves a compromise in speed and extent of muscle usage. But can sportsmen cheat the system and get both?

Lance Armstrong, the name on the lips of many fans during several Tour de Frances, but in 2012 on the lips of the judge. After winning 7 titles in the famous Tour de France, Lance Armstrong was convicted of blood doping and was banned from the race itself.

Blood Doping in its essence is injecting more oxygenated blood into the system in order to increase athletic performance rates. This can improve an athlete’s endurance and aerobic capacity. Lance Armstrong was also found to have used other performance enhancing drugs and steroids such as; human growth hormone, testosterone and cortisone. The steroids have effects that include; muscle building, pain control and speedy injury recovery.

EPO (Erythropoietin) is a hormone produced naturally by the kidneys. However, this hormone can also be artificially produced and injected to increase endurance.

Lance was able to get away with doping for a long period of time as EPO couldn’t meaningful be detected until 2001 which is when he switched to Blood Doping and HGH (Growth Hormone). Armstrong was a skilful user and was able to evade nearly 200 tests over the decade of his participation and usage of the method of doping. This is because of his switch to method of EPOs and Blood Transfusions which was harder to detect through the Urine Tests. There still exists no method to determine  evidence of blood doping solely from tests as long as an athlete uses their own blood.

Megna & Srinandini

Skip to toolbar