A Means to an End, A Means to an End, A Means to an End: Repetition through two filmmakers and four films

Wong Kar-wai is an auteur whose body of work constitutes over 20+ short and feature films. Wong is a Hong Kong director with a unique audio-visual style. His audio-visual style works best to enhance and compliment his film’s themes of loss, love, and memory. Wong’s films are a body of work that can be compared to other filmmakers and examined under many different critical theory lenses. This essay analyzes Wong Kar-wai’s films using the lens of psychoanalysis. The focus is on the unofficial Wong Kar-wai trilogy: Days of Being Wild (1990), In the Mood for Love (2000), and 2046 (2004). Ultimately, this essay is the accompaniment to Ellipsis the short film that seeks to recreate the mood and tones of Wong Kar- wai’s work using his audio-visual style as a jumping point to think of ways I can develop my own style

Public Goods From Private Data: An Effectiveness and Justification Dilemma for Digital Contact Tracing

Debate about the adoption of digital contact tracing (DCT) apps to control the spread of COVID-19 has focussed on risks to individual privacy. This emphasis reveals significant challenges to ethical deployment of DCT, but generates constraints which undermine justification to implement DCT. It would be a mistake to view this result solely as the successful operation of ethical foresight analysis, preventing deployment of potentially harmful technology. Privacy-centric analysis treats data as private property, frames the relationship between individuals and governments as adversarial, entrenches technology platforms as gatekeepers, and supports a conception of emergency public health authority as limited by individual consent and considerable corporate influence that is in some tension with the more communitarian values that typically inform public health ethics. To overcome the barriers to ethical and effective DCT, and develop infrastructure and policy that supports the realization of potential public benefits of digital technology, a public resource conception of aggregate data should be developed

Using Law-Related Education as an Intervention with High-Risk Youth

During these times of scarce resources, policymakers are increasingly devoting more attention to areas where they feel they can make the greatest impact. Many local and state policy discussions are focusing on the relationship of high-risk youth, crime, and drug abuse Policymakers as well as social service program directors are particularly interested in the factors contributing to the likelihood that a young person will abuse alcohol or other drugs, and engage in delinquent behavior. We have known for some time that there is a significant correlation between these two behaviors. What is perhaps ironic is that we are back to exploring what types of programs are most effective. In the last ten years, we have learned more about addition addiction and criminal behavior than in any other period in our history. While this may leave room for optimism, it certainly offers an opportunity for innovation in developing effective programming

Haunt : casual surrealism

This thesis aims to define, observe and create a feeling of surrealism through a series of design gestures. The process began with a question: If I, as a designer, immerse myself in a subculture that I have no interest in, will I become a fan of it? To attempt this, I created systems and tools to deeply investigate each subculture. I observed and recorded what I experienced. As a case study, the haunted attraction community captured my attention. I went to their conventions and took classes in the crafts of “the haunt.” While immersed in this community, I started to see things that felt accidentally strange. Even in a subculture with intentionally spooky aesthetics, there was another kind of non-intentional surrealism. After discovering this “casual surrealism,” I studied its formal mechanics, and I wanted to know if I could recreate it. I played the role of a perverse spectator of both the subcultures that I experienced and of graphic design itself. In some projects, I reduced my work to caricature, making a cartoon of the concept as well as the appearance. Other projects used loose associations played out to their logical ends. I tried to portray something that just doesn’t seem right in its most perfect and precise manner. Identifying casual surrealism creates friction between the feeling of enjoyment and the awareness of judgment. Through the combination of confusion and recognition, casual surrealism reignites curiosity in spaces where observation has become ritualized. Does this thesis simply observe casual surrealism? Or are there places where I have created this specific uncanny feeling

Testing for the J-2X Upper Stage Engine

NASA selected the J-2X Upper Stage Engine in 2006 to power the upper stages of the Ares I crew launch vehicle and the Ares V cargo launch vehicle. Based on the proven Saturn J-2 engine, this new engine will provide 294,000 pounds of thrust and a specific impulse of 448 seconds, making it the most efficient gas generator cycle engine in history. The engine's guiding philosophy emerged from the Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS) in 2005. Goals established then called for vehicles and components based, where feasible, on proven hardware from the Space Shuttle, commercial, and other programs, to perform the mission and provide an order of magnitude greater safety. Since that time, the team has made unprecedented progress. Ahead of the other elements of the Constellation Program architecture, the team has progressed through System Requirements Review (SRR), System Design Review (SDR), Preliminary Design Review (PDR), and Critical Design Review (CDR). As of February 2010, more than 100,000 development engine parts have been ordered and more than 18,000 delivered. Approximately 1,300 of more than 1,600 engine drawings were released for manufacturing. A major factor in the J-2X development approach to this point is testing operations of heritage J-2 engine hardware and new J-2X components to understand heritage performance, validate computer modeling of development components, mitigate risk early in development, and inform design trades. This testing has been performed both by NASA and its J-2X prime contractor, Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR). This body of work increases the likelihood of success as the team prepares for testing the J-2X powerpack and first development engine in calendar 2011. This paper will provide highlights of J-2X testing operations, engine test facilities, development hardware, and plans