WHAT YEAR IS IT? - Gas Prices in the United States

For the first time since 2010, the national average gas prices has dropped below $2.60 per gallon. In recent years, gas prices have been above $3/gal and San Diego, CA, has seen prices up to $4.70/gal, but now in thirteen states one can find gas prices under $2/gal. On a larger scale, crude oil is trading for less than $60 per barrel, a figure unseen for the last five years.

These drops in oil prices do come in part to the economic slowdown of Asia and Europe and the development of more fuel efficient vehicles, but one major factor is the increase of crude oil production in the United States. Earlier this year, the United States surpassed Saudi Arabia for world's largest source of crude oil.

Sometime next year we may see crude oil prices dropping below $40/barrel, effectively making gas prices below $2/gal a common sight at US gas stations. This is in part to the unwillingness of OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) to cut production in order to raise prices.

This trend of declining gas prices is good news to the working American, and we can all be in relief that we may no longer have to endure horrifically high gas prices.

SOURCES:
CNN
gasbuddy.com

Microtransactions, Season Passes, Unfinished Games, and the Declining State of the Gaming Economy

Competing with the movie and television industries, the video game industry is one of the largest and most profitable entertainment industries in the United States and other highly developed countries. In order to continue increasing revenue, triple-A (the highest budget tier of games) game developers and publishers are beginning to pursue tactics that involuntarily degrade the quality of their products.

The first strategy I will be discussing is one that we see on many of our phone applications: microtransactions. These consist of purchases within an application or game that "add" to the enjoyment of the content, such as in-game currency, the removal of advertisements, or extra levels to play. It is most common to find microtransactions in "free to play" games such as Candy Crush Saga, Clash of Clans, or Team Fortress 2. In these games, you have a set level of content available for free, but can purchase additional items that ease progression or give you an advantage over other players. These microtransactions are a large source of profit due to the tendency of players to impulse purchase in-game items in order to pass a level or children buying things in an app that the parents do not know of.

A second strategy that affects a smaller, yet more enthusiastic group of gamers is the addition of a "season pass" that grants the player all of a game's DLC, or downloadable content, for a reduced price. The issue with this lies in the premise that game developers are releasing games with paid additional content that in many cases could have been included with the base game, effectively increasing the base price of the game. In the case of Call of Duty, one of the highest selling game franchises, the season passes released with recent iterations nearly double the price of the game while only adding minor expansions to the multiplayer aspect of the game.

Despite the major use of DLC for profit, some developers are providing quality additional content. Examples of this include the massively popular "Ballad of Gay Tony" DLC for Grand Theft Auto 4, the numerous expansions to the Borderlands franchise (albeit using a season pass system), the Left Behind story expansion to the Last of Us, and the 16 DLC packages that will be free to owners of the Witcher 3.

Going hand in hand with the issue of day-one paid DLC, many developers are releasing unfinished or non-working games, a relatively new issue in the gaming world. Before the introduction of downloadable "patches" that fix technical problems of games post-release, games were unable to be released without being completely finished and thoroughly tested. Now, developers are pushing games out in order to meet earlier release dates, effectively sacrificing quality for speed. Recent examples of this include Battlefield 4, Assassin's Creed: Unity, and a number of games on Steam (yes, yes, I understand the term "early access," but this is getting quite ridiculous). All of these games suffer(ed) extreme technical issues that demolish immersion or render the game unplayable.

Gamers often talk about these issues but do not attempt to fix the problem. Many gamers still hash out their money to developers on release day in order to get their hands on the product that has been hyped to them for months or even years (I'm looking at you, Watch Dogs), fueling developer greed. Some of the greatest have fallen to this greed: EA, the ungodly number of mobile developers, and now Ubisoft. It is a shame that much of blockbuster gaming has fallen to such a low place, yet we still keep our heads up knowing that the good ones are still out there.

The Top "Too Soon" Halloween Costumes of 2014

As we all know, Halloween is fast approaching (tomorrow, actually...) and people are in need of costume ideas (again, a bit late...). After scouring the internet, I have compiled a brief list of the most relevant, humourous, and possibly offensive costumes for this year's festivities.

First on the list is the "Ice Bucket Challenge." This costume, involving a bucket, some plastic sheeting simulating water, and way too much hype, is sure to bring back some not-very-fond feelings of the excessive number of Ice Bucket Challenge videos posted on social media that failed to promote the real purpose of the Challenge. What was it raising awareness for, again?

If you don't wish to enrage your friends, you can go in a more subtle, yet more caustic costume, inspired by the recent tragedies in air travel. Dress as a chauffeur and adorn yourself with a sign that reads "Malaysia Airlines: Flight 370," and you are in for a long night of awkward chuckles and shameful looks. If you would rather a more subtle approach, you can always hype up a halloween party that you are "dying to go to" and end up not showing up, resulting in a number of people searching for you to no avail...

In light of the recent outbreak of Ebola, one can always dress in highly protective hazmat attire and avoid contact with everyone possible. Of course, if you live in an area in close proximity to a known ebola patient, there is always the option of dressing as an escaped Ebola patient, complete with blood stained hospital gown and biohazard armband. Trick or treating might not go over that well.

I don't really have to talk about the possibility of an ISIS member costume, complete with hostage in orange jumpsuit, as we all know how well that would go...

If you don't mind the scorn of women worldwide you can opt to dress in a Ray Rice jersey and drag around life size doll of your "fiancee." If you wish to continue this trend you can wear an Adrian Peterson jersey and carry around a switch.

There we have it. All the ideas you need to make this year's Halloween all the more offensive.

For further reading:
REDDIT
THE DAILY BEAST

Common Core: Arithmetic Plague or New Hope for the Future of US Education?

According to the Common Core standards that have been implemented in schools across the United States, children are now required to demonstrate a greater and deeper understanding of math concepts. These new standards no longer rely on memorization and regurgitation of addition and multiplication tables, but rather on having students figure out solutions to problems using more universal problem-solving approaches.

Under Common Core, teachers are allotted more time to expand on each mathematical concept and explore their underlying concepts. Due to this, some lessons are moved to later grade levels, such as multiplication being pushed from second to third grade. Although lessons are becoming slower, students are now able to more completely understand how and why concepts work rather than just learning and repeating processes.

Despite the benefit of greater understanding and higher proficiency in problem solving, Common Core is depriving students of mathematical efficiency. Instead of being able to answer a problem with speed using a single, simple method, students are now asked to solve problems using a specific method out of the numerous methods taught to them or choose the most appropriate way to go about solving the problem. It is more difficult for a student to recall an answer to a simple multiplication or addition problem because they are overwhelmed with different methods to get the same result.

In all practicality, there must be a balance between problem solving and memorization in the classroom. It is quite important that children learn problem solving skills in order to take on challenges outside of math class, such as in other classes or in circumstances outside of school, but it is necessary that they are able to recall simple solutions in order to improve the speed of such problem solving and allow for fast mental math in practical situations.

Common Core is a collection of standards that aim to better the education of children in the United States, but does require some tweaking in order to maximize student ability.


Sources:
http://edsource.org/2014/common-core-standards-bring-dramatic-changes-to-elementary-school-math-2/63665
http://hechingerreport.org/content/common-core-math-problem-hard-supporters-common-core-respond-problematic-math-quiz-went-viral_15361/

Community Post #1: Exposing Hidden Biases at Google to Improve Diversity

Community Post #1: Exposing Hidden Biases at Google to Improve Diversity

Amidst the irrefutable statistics and real-world examples of "Exposing Hidden Bias at Google" is the fact that bias towards females and ethnic minorities in the workplace is existent and quite apparent. According to the article, Google has been using a series of workshops to encourage the acceptance of diversity among its employees and ingrain this acceptance into the company's culture. 

One of the tools used to reveal unconscious bias in an individual is an Implicit Association Test, or IAT. Out of curiosity, I took the same test used in the workshops to reveal bias towards blacks or whites and my results were shocking. The results dictated that I was strongly biased towards whites over blacks, a result that nearly half of all other test-takers also received. 

The workshops also highlighted gender bias and its effects. A Dr. Brian Welle of Google's human resources group demonstrates how strong just a miniscule amount of unconscious bias can lead to under-representation of women in business. Because of this, women receive less pay than their male counterparts and hold a lower percentage of skilled and management positions.

Dr. Welle states that we may have a greater chance at overcoming this unconscious bias by acknowledging how it affects our decision making and making an effort to force others to confront their bias. As more people become affected by the workshops or any other awareness programs, the tolerance level for diversity will rise, starting at Google.