TOW #21 - Tips from Former Smokers Video

Smoking is a word closely associated with PSA. When asked to think of one, more likely than not people will think of smoking, animals, or domestic abuse. This PSA, in the form of a video, takes a very strong stand, graphic to say the least. The creator of the video makes  a clear argument against smoking, using a former smoker as proof as why you shouldn't smoke. The graphic content of the video is sure to leave an impressionable and unforgettable mark. Most people are unable to watch the full video, and that's the point. Smoking is bad and here is living - breathing - proof. If you were to watch the full video, you would be able to understand that her tips, all take the form of evidence against smoking. First, smoking is unhealthy. It can cause lung cancer, and it can lead to an early death. Furthermore, smoking is expensive. A pack of cigarettes costs five dollars. If you bought one pack of cigarettes every day, you'd spend over $1500 each year. Lastly, cigarettes smell bad. When people smoke, you can smell the cigarettes on their clothes all day. To sum up, don’t smoke because it is unhealthy, expensive, and unattractive. The video creator makes a smart argument against smoking and does it in an unforgettable fashion. Despite smoking already known to be a topic of negative connotation, the author reiterates on it by creating this video.

TOW #20 - IRB "Alan Turing: The Enigma"

The richly detailed 750-page biography of a mathematical genius and analysis of his ideas, might seem a daunting proposition. But fellow mathematician and author Hodges has acutely clear and often extremely moving insight into the humanity behind the leaping genius that helped to crack the Germans' Enigma codes during World War II and bring about the dawn of the computer age. The biography that inspired the movie, The Imitation Game, gives the reader so much more insight into the mathematical genius than a two and half hour movie ever could. The book begins with Turing's childhood, focusing in upon education at his public school, Sherbourne. Where his attitude of the school was very much classics first, this attitude seems to have been common and perhaps persists today. Turing was something of an erratic student, outstanding in the things that interested him (although not necessarily at all tidy) and very poor in those things that did not interest him. After Sherbourne he went to King’s College, Cambridge University on a scholarship for which he had made several attempts. The value of the scholarship, £80 per year, is quite striking; double the value of unemployment benefit and half that of a skilled worker. He started study in 1931, on the mathematics Tripos. His scholarship examination performance was not outstanding. Significant at this time is the death of his close school friend, Christopher Morcom in 1930. King’s is a notorious hotbed of radicals, and at this time Communism was somewhat in vogue, a likely stimulus for this was the Great Depression: capitalism was seen to be failing and Communism offered, at the time, an attractive alternative. Turing does not appear to have been particularly politically active though. Halfway through the detailed filled biography, and I cannot wait to discover more of this complex man, who contributed to the shortening of WWII by two years.