Injustice Ted Talk E.C

Above is a link to a TED talk done by Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, who discussed racism and injustice (such as the death sentence) in the judicial system. To be honest, this is not a topic which I have put much thought into. I didn't realize the magnitude of unfair treatment in our system until recent Justice Summit conversations. As brought up by Mr. Stevenson, when 1/3 adult African-americans are either in prison or on parol, something is wrong. This brought up a few ideas. Is this statistic due to the fact of poverty or racism? Well, the TED talker united both ideas together to form his opinions about the matter. He used the example of replacing his 13 year-old African-american client with a 75 year-old wealthy caucasian in a court case. In fact, he mentioned translating this into a motion which he submitted to the court. Of course the court thought this was insane, but is it really? In the judicial system of today, it seems as if appearance and social stature play a major role. Why not keep the defendant anonymous and continue with the rest of the process? This would hopefully prevent the issue of racism and social stature in courts. Another issue discussed was the death penalty, a topic which I neither talk nor have much knowledge about. However, I understand arguments from both side. One side says an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life, while the other side believes in compassion and restorative justice. I find it hard to believe that a serial killer or mass murderer can change via restorative justice and live a normal life. Achieving restorative justice would be optimal, but it just seems close to impossible right now. The world is a messed up place. Restorative justice won't be effective on everyone, especially those who don't budge from their principles. However, killing someone doesn't do anything to help what that person did in the past. It promotes revenge and questions who has the authority to kill. Finally, he mentions how we are disconnected and oblivious to these concerning issues. I definitely agree and I also advocate that the injustices of the judicial system be exposed and changed. There are so many issues, but not enough is being done to protect more lives. Over all, I thought Mr. Stevenson's presentation was very well said and contained interesting facts that I didn't previously know about, further proving the point that racism still exists in this country. It is unbelievable that there are still racists and homophobes in the 21st century! It is infuriating how ignorant and single-minded so many American are. Bryan Stevenson is truly a man for others doing his best to fix injustices. 

Heart Beat Lab

Lab Investigation 7B (Stefan, Milan, Nathan)

Introduction:

In this experiment, my group and I measured blood pressure, beats per minutes (BPM), and recovery time for different levels of exercise. According to the instructions, we had to come up with exercises for three different intensity levels: mild, moderate, and strenuous. Although this is rather subjective, we finally reached a conclusion on what exercises should be performed to reach these levels. The decision is below.

Mild: 10 squats

Moderate: 20 perfect push-ups

Strenuous: Sprint to Lokey main door from Mr. Wong’s classroom

With these different tests, we observed how blood pressure, BPM, and recovery time changed for Stefan and I. For example, after performing 10 squats, I measured Stefan’s blood pressure and BPM. After, these results were compared to experimentation done at resting heart beat.

Results:

TABLE OF RESULTS BELOW

	Resting	10 Squats	20 Pushups	Sprinting
Milan	Pressure = (103/85) BPM = 70 Recovery = N/A	Pressure = (109/84) BPM = 85 Recovery = 45 seconds	Pressure = (108/80) BPM = 118 Recovery = 1:30 minutes	Pressure = (120/82) BPM = 145 Recovery = 4:53 minutes
Stefan	Pressure = (118/73) BPM = 76 Recovery = N/A	Pressure = (114/75) BPM = 81 Recovery = 40 seconds	Pressure = (120/81) BPM = 113 Recovery = 1:25 minutes	Pressure = (126/78) BPM = 139 Recovery = 5:15 minutes

GRAPH OF RESULTS BELOW (INSTRUCTIONS ONLY ASKED FOR BPM)

X axis = Intensity of Exercise (0 = resting, 1 = mild, 2 = moderate, 3 = strenuous)

Y axis = Beats per minutes (BPM)

Conclusions:

Based on the graph and resting time, the difference between data obtained from Stefan vs. Milan is barely noticeable. The resting BPM is somewhat different, but after, the graphs are very close to one another. This was probably just a lucky coincidence, due to the fact that Stefan and I are the same age and almost the same weight. However, the blood pressure yields different results. For me, the systolic number increases, while the diastolic number decreases. For Stefan, the systolic number begins to decreases but then increases, while the diastolic number increases but then goes down. These are some interesting observations that could show a possible relationship between systolic and diastolic numbers.