As an American, saying you love British culture is different than, for example, saying you love Italian culture. Many see a preference for British culture to American culture as an attack on the United States as a whole. Some friends will tease me about it, while other people seem genuinely offended. What is it about Britain that makes the response so different from when someone admits to a love of other cultures? Is the Revolutionary War still affecting people’s view of Britain? Why is it difficult to get people to understand that my affinity for British culture isn’t an attack on my home? I simply found a culture that suits me better, but how and why does it suit me better?

Bits of British culture entered my life when I was a child. Scottish relatives and Atlantic crossings on British ships introduced me to aspects of the culture. My Glaswegian aunt would give me Smarties, which I have always preferred to M&Ms. I loved throwing “tea parties” when I was younger and fell in love with the concept of afternoon tea. My mother is a fan of Jane Austen and other English literature that I also grew to love. None of this seemed very foreign to me and seeped into my life naturally. I wasn’t looking for a different culture. I wasn’t trying to escape America’s. Before my late teen years, I barely noticed how much of British culture crept into my life. For a long time I couldn’t explain a lot of these preferences, but television changed that.

Until British television “happened” for me, I hated television. I’d watch it from time to time as a kid but it never really captured my attention. As I grew older I attempted to watch some of the shows my friends did such as “American Idol” and “The O.C.” but wound up hating most of it. My thoughts on television were similar to those of a jaded old man’s. I saw it as a waste of time and considered that it maybe really did rot brains. Any show I did find that I felt was well written was usually canceled prematurely. I nearly gave up on the medium entirely until I realized it was just American television I hated.

Not too long before college started, I decided to give some British television shows a try at the recommendation of my friend. We both had a mutual love for some of the few American shows I found acceptable so I felt I could take her advice. I fell in love with the revival of quintessential British program “Doctor Who.” It had drama, humor, and science fiction blended together in a way I had never seen before. From there I kept watching more shows. I indulged my love for Arthurian Legend with “Merlin.” I already knew my sense of humor was more in line with British humour so I delved into comedies like “Spaced,” “The Mighty Boosh,” the British version of “The Office,” and later “The Inbetweeners.” I looked back towards “Fawlty Towers,” “Monty Python’s Flying Circus,” and a “A Bit of Fry & Laurie.” I fell in love with dramas like “Life on Mars” and “Being Human.” After discovering writers and actors I thought were talented, the list grew and grew. I stumbled across mini-series, T.V. movies, and quiz shows I loved.

Suddenly with this discovery of how much I adored British television, all the other British things I loved became more prevalent. I began stating my preference for much of British culture. I was told I was un-American. Some people would look at me weird if I said I watched a lot of British television and asked “Why?” For a while all I could offer was “Well, I have Scottish relatives so I guess I just grew to like British culture.” But that wasn’t why I liked the culture, but rather partially why I was connected with it. I couldn’t really explain why I think British candy tastes better or why I like tea so much, but it turned out examining why I like the British entertainment industry was the key. I came to the conclusion that it’s because I love the arts.

While this isn’t true for every television program or film, the British seem to aim for quality, for art, more than Americans. The industry runs differently than ours. While mainstream American seasons (which the British refer to as “series”) may have twenty episodes often British seasons only have six to eight. Longer seasons only have about thirteen. British programs may also only have a couple seasons and sometimes how many there will be is planned from the very start so an ending is already in mind and episodes can be carefully written to lead to it. The American industry tries to squeeze as many seasons out of a program as they can and fight to get renewed. If a show is successful in America, they’ll try to make another program very similar to it. Britain seems to try to look towards new ideas more often. Britain doesn’t have a Hollywood and the type of superstars we do. Many of their actors have started in theatre. Roles seem to be casted more by talent whereas in the States, there is an American ideal of beauty to fulfill. America aims for entertainment. Britain aims for art. Yes, art can be and often is entertaining, but usually quality appears to be the British’s main goal.

Of course, this is all very generalized. There is plenty of terrible British television and fantastic American television. But for the most part, I find Britain trying to create works of art in the mainstream where that tends to happen in America’s independent or underground industry. America is more capitalistic. Entertainment is a product that needs to be sold so they go for quantity. Once I noticed this difference, I could explain my preference better and apply it to some other interests.

My love for soccer over popular American sports perhaps has similar reasoning. Soccer is more fluid, more of an art form. American football is rougher, more structured. Fans of soccer sing throughout matches. NFL fans mainly just yell. Whether one approach to “entertainment” is better than the other comes down to personal taste. I cannot stand shows like “Glee” but to fans of the program they are entertained and that’s all that matters. I do not simply want to be entertained. I want to experience more. I want something to think about.

Maybe this preference does make me “un-American.” But so what? Is it a requirement of my citizenship that I like American entertainment and American foods more? This kind of nationalism that makes my love for Britain offensive concerns me. Of course, nationalism exists elsewhere. In Britain itself, Scotland, England, and Wales all have their own personal identities they hold onto (and as history shows conflict has arisen because of this.) Even the fact that I love all of Britain becomes an issue. Some wonder how a mutual love for Scotland and England is even possible. There is also my heritage; I am half Irish. The fact that I like England at all is brought into question on that front.

Historical conflict and national pride are hard to escape if one dares to love a certain culture different than the one she was born into. For a little while I felt like I was supposed to apologize for it, that maybe I should leave the country at once. But I love Philadelphia and don’t plan on leaving anytime soon. Culture is a taste like anything else. I am not sorry I find most British television programs to be better written than American ones. I am not sorry I drink a lot of Twinings tea. I will always think that Cadbury is better than Hershey, that Glaswegian accents are the most beautiful, and that the EPL is far more enjoyable than the NFL. I may not be very “American,” but why do I have to be?

The Presidential debates in 1960 between Kennedy and Nixon were the first to ever be broadcast on television. It was during this time that television had become a staple of entertainment in the home and the new format for the debates attracted a lot of publicity. It also had a big impact on viewers’ opinions; those who watched the debate on television thought that Kennedy was the sure winner, while those who listened to the radio broadcast felt that Nixon had won. Now, in 2011 and 2012, we can see how social media is having a similar impact on opinions about presidential candidates and politics in general. Websites like Twitter and Facebook give us an even closer look at politicians and lawmakers that we didn’t necessarily have before.

The 2008 presidential election was not only historical in that Barack Obama became the first African-American president, but also in that he became the first president to utilize social media throughout his presidency. Many other politicians and political groups have followed suit, creating Twitter accounts and Facebook pages which allow users to follow updates and news, as well as provide feedback and interact with other followers. You no longer have to wait for the news to come on to hear what the president’s thoughts are on a certain issue. You don’t even have to watch presidential speeches or debates during the campaign season on television. Why would you when you can live stream those events online, all while being able to provide your opinions and have discussions with other people around the country in real time.

In fact, this is one of the things I love about watching the current GOP debates. Media platforms, such as Yahoo!, ABC, Fox News, and others, allow users to watch the debates online while providing various means of interaction and involvement. Users can be a part of the debate through submitting questions for the GOP candidates to answer, participating in polls, or posting their opinions and replying to other users’ thoughts and comments. It’s no longer necessary to wait for the commentary at the end of the debate to figure out which candidate did the best when you can actually see the feedback from thousands of other Americans who were also watching. In fact, I think it’s interesting to see how user comments differ from what news anchors and analysts have to say. When their opinions drastically differ or they fail to comment on certain topics or candidates, it really shows how the media is trying to get us to think about some things more than others.

These same platforms also provide other ways for people to get more involved. Of course, one of the most important ways of making sure your voice and opinions are heard is by voting each November on Election Day. However, not every citizen of the US is able to vote and not every citizen is knowledgeable enough to make an informed decision at the ballot box. Even further, not every issue is even put to a vote by the people. With the advent of social media people are able to gather information quickly as well as pass that information on to others.

One of the big news stories this year was the Occupy Wall Street movement. The movement originated in New York City, where citizens rallied together against Wall Street and corporate bailouts. The movement gained more attention and it spread like wild fire across social networking websites like Facebook and Twitter. Eventually, the organization started its own website to broadcast news and information regarding the movement. This lead to people from outside of New York City to get involved, which, in turn, lead to other Occupy protests throughout the United States, Canada, and even across Europe.

In more recent weeks, Americans have begun to see just how effective this method can be. Both the Senate and Congress recently created two different versions of a bill calling for the blocking of websites that infringe upon copyrights or that enable copyright infringement, named the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act respectively. At first there was a mix of support and backlash from big companies like Google, Yahoo!, Facebook, and leaders in the entertainment industry such as the MPAA and RIAA. As more companies took sides and got involved, news of SOPA and PIPA became more widespread and generated protests in the form of websites such as Fight for the Future and American Censorship, which oppose the bills. Through these websites, people were able to learn more about the bills and were able to spread the information to other people by link sharing and e-mailing. The websites also prompted those against the bills to censor their websites, blogs, and even status updates to show everyone what the Internet would be like if the Senate and Congress passed the bills. On Wednesday, January 18, websites such as Wikipedia, Reddit, Boing Boing, and WordPress participated in an “Internet Blackout Day” in protest of the two bills. These actions prompted the White House and President Obama to release a statement that stated they would, “not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” I have been following this movement since November and it has been interesting to see different tactics used and how the involvement of people and businesses has grown, all through the use of social media.

This isn’t just something going on in the United States; social media is a global phenomenon. In 2010, social media played a large role in the Arab Spring movement. Protests were coordinated through the use of Facebook. An article in the Huffington Post mentions how critics of social media platforms wrote off websites like Twitter and Facebook as simply being used for celebrity gossip and self-aggrandizement. However, the role that these websites played in the movements and protests in countries like Egypt shows just how effective these sites can be in giving people a voice.

As time goes on, I certainly think social media websites will continue to be an important part of campaigning and the political world in general. Instead of placing campaign signs in the front yard, people will simply show their support through blogs, tweets, and status updates.

The first death in the series is that of Lily and James Potter. This is one of the sadder death scenes, because one-year-old Harry is left by himself after watching his parents get murdered and almost being murdered himself. However, we find out in the seventh book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) that Snape came to the Potter house shortly after the deaths occurred. Hagrid then appears to whisk Harry away to his aunt and uncle’s house, where he lives for eleven years believing his parents died in a car crash. Neither Petunia nor Vernon Dudley (Harry’s aunt and uncle) care to tell Harry how his parents really died or clue him in on the fact that he is a famous wizard. Lily and James’ deaths are mentioned again in the third book when Harry has visions of them when Dementors close in on him on the Hogwarts Express. It’s sad when Harry deals with that for the first time, because all he hears is his mother screaming “No! Not Harry!” What a horrible memory of your mother.

Cedric Diggory’s death is the first that occurs in real time in the series, and takes place in book 4, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. During the Triwizard Tournament, Harry and Cedric are transported by portkey to the graveyard in Little Hangleton, the town in which Lord Volemort’s ancestors lived. Once there, Peter Pettigrew (one of Lord Voldemort’s minions) kills Cedric because he was not needed (“Kill the spare!”). One could argue that Cedric’s death is the first casualty in the Battle of Hogwarts, even though the battle does not take place until the seventh book. Still, his is the first pointless death. And by pointless I mean there was no reason for him to be killed. All he did was show up at the wrong place at the wrong time because he was trying to live up to the Hufflepuff’s reputation of being noble.

The next unfair death scene belongs to Sirius Black, James Potter’s best friend and Harry’s godfather. In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Book 3), Harry finds out that Sirius did not betray his parents to Voldemort as he believed, but that Sirius is his godfather. For the first time in the series, Harry has a real family again, someone to write letters to during the school year and receive presents from at Christmas. But then Sirius dies in the battle at the Ministry of Magic in Book Five, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. His death is unfair, like Cedric’s, because his cousin kills him. Or I should say, sends a spell at him that causes him to fall into the Veil, never to return. I know I, for one, have no idea what the Veil is or why Sirius just disappears into it, but that’s what happens. And only two years after meeting Harry too! It was bad enough reading the scene in the book, but the movie made it worse. The last thing Sirius Black says in the movie is “Nice one, James!” In the heat of battle, he mistook Harry for his father. I understand poetic license, but to me that’s just taking things too far.

Albus Dumbledore’s death was a sad, dramatic scene. When he and Harry arrive on top of the astronomy tower, Dumbledore is already very sick from the potion he drank while trying to obtain a horcrux. The last thing he needs is for Malfoy to meet him there and try to kill him. And of course, Dumbledore immobilizes Harry under his invisibility cloak (in the book at least) so that Harry cannot do anything rash, like fend off Malfoy so that Dumbledore might not die. And then Snape comes to do the job that Malfoy can’t: Snape murders Dumbledore. At this point in the series, no one knows if Snape is a good guy or a bad guy. All the readers, and characters for that matter, know is that Snape was at one point a Death Eater but is now reformed and a member of the Order of the Phoenix thanks to Dumbledore. So Snape kills a weakened Dumbledore, after which Dumbledore’s body falls from the astronomy tower (the highest tower at Hogwarts) to the ground.

Throughout the seventh book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, characters are killed off in the fight against Voldemort. Some of them are named characters who have small roles in the series, while others are more prominent. They include Hedwig (Harry’s owl), Alastor Moody, Rufus Scrimgeour, Dobby the House-Elf, Ted Tonks, Fred Weasley, Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, and Lavender Brown. By far the most undignified of these deaths is Fred Weasley’s. He dies in an explosion by having a wall fall on him. And the worst part is, the last thing he does is look incredulously at his normally uptight brother Percy and say “You actually are joking, Perce… I don’t think I’ve heard you joke since you were–” He gets cut off by the explosion and death.

Dobby has the most heroic death, because he dies while trying to save Harry and his friends from Malfoy Manor. Although there is not an actual death scene for Lupin and Tonks, their deaths are sad. A few months before the battle in which they die, Tonks had a son whom they named Teddy after her father. Since both his mother and father die, Teddy is left to the care of his godfather, Harry. Even though it is not stated in the series, it is most likely Molly Weasley who takes care of Teddy Lupin.

The last, and most well written, “good guy” death scene is that of Severus Snape. Up until his death scene, the reader does not know if Snape is a good or an evil character. Most readers, myself included, believed that Snape was evil and would die evil. However, that is not the case. While Snape was, at one point, a Death Eater, he gave that up to become a spy for Dumbledore once he realized that Voldemort wanted to kill Lily Potter’s son. He did this because he was in love with Lily Potter, whom he had known since childhood. Lily and Snape grew up in the same village in houses not too far from each other. It was Snape who told Lily all about being a witch and going to Hogwarts. Once they went to school, the two started drifting apart. Snape got involved in dark magic while Lily was forcefully against it. Then she married James Potter, whom Snape hated, and all contact between Lily and Snape ceased. However, he did not stop caring for her and looking out for her. Snape is the one who convinced Dumbledore to put the Potters’ into hiding to keep them safe from Voldemort, who had set out to kill Lily’s son Harry. Unfortunately for Snape, his mission fails and Lily is murdered. However, Harry survives, and Snape vows to protect the child, and does until his death. What makes the whole thing sadder is that Harry is the last one Snape sees before his death, and Harry does not find out how much Snape did for him and his family until it’s too late to make amends.

In my opinion, the most moving death scene is Severus Snape’s. It was not until I read his death scene that I realized how well his character had been written. He comes across as this mean, evil man who will do everything in his power to make Harry’s life a living hell, and yet he’s actually protecting Harry from Voldemort. That is twisted, but in a good way. I love how he became a character to despise, and then at his death I was thinking “Oh my god! That is the worst way to die! Poor Snape!” I felt for him, and that was not something I was expecting to do. It was one of the best written scenes I have ever read.

A tribute to all of the fallen characters can be found here.

Charlie Todd and some of his college friends came up with the idea in 2001. Their first “mission” was posing as musician Ben Folds, of the alternative rock group Ben Folds Five, in a West Village bar. Todd says on his website that he had always been a prankster and as a new actor to the city, the experience showed that he could create his own theatre instead of fighting for stage time. He wrote that, “ Three hours later, ‘Ben Folds’ was drinking on the house surrounded by women and his ‘two big fans’ were thrown out of the bar for ‘stealing Ben Folds’ wallet.” Since then, Charlie Todd and Improv Everywhere have caused over 100 “scenes” in New York City and across the globe. The goal, Todd writes, is to have fun and to “make people laugh, smile, and notice the world around them.”

At the presentation on Wednesday night in the Main Auditorium, Charlie Todd told that story of how Improv Everywhere came to be and about some of his favorite pranks. The talk was set up as a Q&A format along with Todd telling some background stories from throughout the years. While I had seen most of the videos he mentioned on YouTube, it was still interesting to hear how the pranks were set up and what happened afterwards. Charlie Todd also had a lot of advice for those who want to get into improvisational work. The only requirement he has for the actors that participate in his pranks is that they keep a straight face. One of the dilemmas Todd ran into when Improve Everywhere first started was that he was unsure of how to end the pranks. He realized that he didn’t want to have a “Candid Camera” moment in which people found out they had been fooled. Instead, he decided he wouldn’t say anything, so that even if people figured out they had been pranked, it would still make for a good story they could tell for the rest of their lives.

Todd was also asked about which pranks were the most difficult to pull off. While the Main Auditorium didn’t have a projector to watch the videos as he was describing them, most of those in attendance had at least seen a few on YouTube. Todd described the Fake U2 Concert prank as the hardest to pull off. The improv group had to rent equipment and set it up on the roof of Todd’s building. The timing of the prank also had to be exact since the real U2 was performing at Madison Square Garden, right across the street from Todd’s home. They pulled off the prank a couple of hours before the real show and hundreds of U2 fans on the way to the concert were fooled into thinking it was the real thing. Todd also mentioned that it was funny that the cops showed up, which paralleled U2’s music video. They did end up having to go to court, but in the end their case was dismissed.

This wasn’t the only time Improv Everywhere had a run in with the cops. Todd also told about the Best Buy prank, where they had at least 50 people dressed up in blue polo shirts and khaki pants go into a Best Buy. While some of the Best Buy employees thought it was funny, the store managers did not. When the police arrived, however, they told the managers that it wasn’t against the law to wear blue polo shirts. In another mission involving a department store, they were told that doing jumping jacks was not allowed in shoe store DSW. Todd said that one of the most important things about the pranks they pull off is keeping everything a secret. Not only does secrecy make the events more fun, but it also helps get around roadblocks like not having proper permits.

Other advice Todd gave was to those wanting to start up their own group like Improv Everywhere. Improv Everywhere is already 10 years old and has a huge following, so people just starting out get discouraged when only 50 people show up to a planned prank. Todd explained that early Improv Everywhere events also had only a few people, but that it grew over time. He also mentioned Facebook as a great way to make more people aware of events. Todd told a story of someone from London who was studying at NYU. The student didn’t know many people besides his roommate, but through Facebook was able to get hundreds of people to show up for a silent disco he had the idea for. So even someone new to the city, with no contacts, could put together an event and get people to show up.

The best part of the presentation, however, was getting to see a video for a prank that hadn’t yet been released. The video showed a couple sitting on a bench in Central Park. Out of nowhere, someone comes up and places a table in front of them. They are served wine and food. The table was taken away and they were given tickets to a show. Eventually, another man came along and took their tickets. Musicians came up and played a few minutes of music. At the end of the prank, the actors simply left and the couple was left on the bench smiling. This is what Improv Everywhere is all about: making people laugh and smile, and giving people an experience they will never forget.

When the event ended, Charlie Todd stayed to answer any additional questions people in the audience might have had. The event was sponsored by Urban Playground, a group similar to Improv Everywhere that organizes large flash mobs, small pranks, and restores playgrounds in Philadelphia. The talk was also a part of CAB’s Comedy Week, which also included movie screenings, paintball, balloon artists, a comedy street fair, student comedy competitions, and other presentations. The week ended with the 12th Annual Fall Comedy Show on Saturday, November 12th in the Main Auditorium. For more information about the CAB Comedy Week and events being held in the future, take a look at their event page.

If you are interested in learning more about Improv Everywhere, or to see videos of what they do, check out http://www. http://improveverywhere.com/.

For me the choice to go to medical school is one I made a long time ago. From my experiences volunteering in hospitals and nursing homes, I came to appreciate it more and more. I loved spending time with patients and transporting them to different places in the hospital. When I got to college, I took my required classes. I memorized the steps of photosynthesis and learned about centripetal acceleration, but I was still unaware of the emotional challenges of becoming a physician. When I was getting ready to apply, I decided it would be a good time for me to shadow a physician. Up until then I had understood medicine from the patient’s perspective. But now it was time for me to spend some time with doctors.

I began my shadowing experience on the critical care floor at Hahnemann University Hospital. The floor is primarily occupied by patients who suffer from a wide range of illnesses such as lung disease, heart failure, obesity, and renal failure. Most of the patients are smokers and suffer from a variety of symptoms as a result of chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD). In other words, these patients are all very, very sick and more often than not, they suffer from several conditions at once. In an environment like this, a physician is faced with an enormously difficult task to try and keep patients alive and stable while multiple organs in their body are failing.

Luckily for me I got the opportunity to shadow a pulmonary and primary care physician who is a walking encyclopedia for medical knowledge. He opened my eyes to the world of critical care in medicine and would describe to me in detail each one of his patients’ conditions, personal histories and previous treatments. He is not only an excellent doctor, but a valuable teacher and mentor to medical students, residents and fellows. During the time I spent shadowing him, he was simultaneously teaching and training a fellow who was interested in pulmonary care. I usually got to the hospital by 7:30 am on Friday mornings and accompanied the attending and his fellow on grand rounds as he visited his patients.

On one particular Friday morning I got to the hospital a little early, and had time to talk to the fellow before we sat down with the attending to look over patients’ x-rays and CAT scan results. We spoke about the MCATs, about applying to medical school and her experience of it all. She told me that she was married to another physician at the hospital and lived just outside of Philadelphia. Her short dirty blonde hair was a mess and I could tell she had spent the night in the on-call room at the hospital. She was on her second cup of coffee that morning and anticipated having a few more throughout the day. When it was time to sit down with the attending, we gathered around a few desktop screens. We watched the attending go through x-ray slides, point out effusions, fissures of the lung, pacemakers inside the patients’ bodies and other physiological markers. He took us through the CAT scan results and explained the structure of the lung to, showing me where the trachea splits into the right and left bronchi of the lungs. I loved every minute of it.

When we were ready to begin rounds, the attending asked me to accompany the fellow to see a “special” patient while he looked over some notes in a patients’ file. I wasn’t sure what he meant by “special” but went with the fellow instead. We walked across the floor into a dimly lit room where a woman in her fifties was lying asleep, or so I thought. Upon walking in, the fellow turned on all of the lights and made her way to the opposite side of the bed where a ventilator machine stood. She bumped into the side of the bed, rolled the bed tray away and was surprisingly making quite a bit of noise. She then began to lightly smack the side of the patient’s cheek, and I was shocked. I almost wanted to tell her to be quieter so as not to wake the patient, but when I looked more closely at the woman and the ventilator machine, I realized she wasn’t asleep. As the fellow explained to me, the patient was brain dead and she had to come in everyday to check for signs of life. The fellow explained that although most of her brain activity had stopped, according to the ventilator she was still breathing at a rate slightly higher than the setting on the machine indicating that there was a small amount of independent breathing going on. Technically there was still life inside her body. But that’s all she was doing, breathing with no brain activity.

It was then that I understood why the fellow was giving her light smacks on the face, and palpating other areas of her body to see if she could get some sort of physical response to her touch. I watched as the fellow conducted several quick tests. She moved the patient’s blankets and tapped on her knees a few times with a small instrument to see if she would react, but she didn’t. She took a pen of hers and scraped alongside the sole of the patient’s feet to see if the patient would react to pain, but she didn’t. She pounded her fist on a surgical scar that the patient had on her chest to see if her pain sensors would respond, but they didn’t. She even grabbed a small piece of paper towel from the sink and poked the patient’s eyes to see if they would tear or if she would blink, but of course nothing happened.

It was difficult to watch a physician treat a patient so aggressively, but at the same time I knew it was necessary. When I asked the fellow what would happen if the patient’s condition remained the same, she shrugged her shoulders. “The family doesn’t want to end life support; they believe that she’s still alive. But even if she’s breathing, there’s no way her brain tissue can ever recover from being dead for so long and having no supply of oxygen. So we just wait, we talk to them every day but it’s hard because most of the family doesn’t speak English.”

I saw that same patient on three more Fridays after the first and her condition was the same. The second time I saw her, I walked into the room to find her entire family sitting there. She had a daughter and three grandkids that were asleep on the armchairs in the room. They spoke to the doctors and I could see the daughter’s frustration at her mother’s situation, the look of confusion on her face form trying to decide what to do, being responsible for her mother’s life.

As a pre-medical student, I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to have that conversation with a family, especially a family with strong ties to the patient. I don’t believe you could ever really prepare yourself for such a situation, knowing that your decision will directly affect someone’s life. The only way pre-medical students can prepare themselves for the emotional challenges of a career in medicine is by spending time in a hospital and witnessing doctor-patient interactions in different scenarios.

I am still shadowing the same physician at Hahnemann University Hospital. My experiences have given me valuable insight into the world of medicine beyond just the technical aspects of it. Every week I find myself learning more and more about the complex field of medicine.

With this in mind, photographs inside state mental institutions taken by Christopher Payne in his new book Asylum and my conversations with him have opened my perspective, my worldview concerning these buildings and treatment of the mentally ill, both then and now.

Payne tells a central story with his photographs of 19th-century mental hospitals and hopes that people see the story of these buildings through his work. Payne argues that these buildings played a vital role in the US for over 100 years.

“They were once thriving communities where thousands of people lived, worked, and died,” he said. “I hope people will realize these architectural treasures are worth saving instead of tearing down, even if they are negative symbols of a less enlightened era.”

It was this “operation as self-sufficient communities” that held Payne’s interest over his six to seven yearlong project. Perhaps one of the best representations of this is a photograph of a wooden box containing five rows of patient toothbrushes from Hudson River State Hospital in New York. The toothbrushes are hanging upside-down on tiny metal hooks, abandoned like the buildings and like the mentally ill. Each toothbrush once belonged to a patient, whose true tale was probably never told, whose true treatment was likely never known. The colorful toothbrushes pop from the background of the plain wooden box and gray-chipped paint of the wall from which the box hangs. The toothbrushes humanize the patients in a very dehumanizing world.

Probably the most iconic image of Payne’s Asylum work is a white straightjacket hanging on a bare wall. For me, the image strikes anxiety, the fear I would have if I was ever imprisoned in a straightjacket, much less a mental institution. The only hint of color in the photograph is the red printed letters and numbers on the inside of the jacket, which remind me of the black lettering on orange jumpsuits in prisons. As Payne said, both the patient toothbrushes and the straightjacket “show personal effects of human scale and individual use, and so we can relate to them.”

Payne said that photographs of the architectural interiors are also representative of the story his photographs tell. These photographs include views down the wards and empty hallways with doors left ajar as if the ground were suddenly evacuated. The wards, Payne said, reveal the monotony of daily life in the hospitals and show the need for control and order.

There is little color in most of these photographs, perhaps an isolated red chair facing a window where a patient perhaps sat longing for freedom or the green trees poking through an open space in the slaughterhouse of a North Carolina state hospital. I cringe to think what happened to people in that room. A sea green color seems to be universal in many of these places as well. It is the color of chairs in the beauty salon of the Trenton State Hospital and of several worn down walls and corridors revealing brown splotches where the paint has chipped. It is the color of a patient’s suitcase among a pile of disorganized suitcases from a hospital in Tennessee and the laces of bowling shoes from a hospital in New York.

The negative connotation attached to the mentally ill has ruined the reputation for these buildings, Payne said. “Now that the patients have left, the stigma attached to mental illness has been passed on to the buildings, making them easy targets for the wrecking ball.” This is why Payne sees a need to photograph these buildings. While they were made for specific purposes during specific times, they are now obsolete, but Payne said that the quality of their design, construction, and craftsmanship could never be replaced.

Payne has a special appreciation for the construction and design of buildings, as he is an architect-by-training. Payne believes that his background in architecture helps him with photography because he’s been looking at buildings his entire life. He has the ability to understand the feeling of a space, and uses photographic elements to capture these feelings. Payne said he visualizes a shot by making a mental sketch or sometimes one on paper, similar to the sketching he did as an architect. “Photography or drawing, it’s the same intention, just a different medium.” He hopes others see the “incredible care and effort” that went into the construction of these buildings and realize they were not meant to be “human warehouses.”

Payne’s photographs reveal a scary world, one which appears to be abandoned. But as Payne told me, most of these hospitals are still running, although parts of them may be abandoned. The mentally ill are still institutionalized and I’m not sure that people know enough of the history and treatment of mental illness and how far it has come today. Payne sees a need to photograph these buildings, to tell their story before it’s too late. He said, “I suppose, like many others, I feel a sense of urgency to document these places because I know they will soon be gone.”

If you are a person who likes to go by numbers and specs, there are charts you can use to help make your decision. These charts go through the prices of the Nook, Kindle, and iPad, and include features such as browser, weight, and screen size and resolution. If you plan to read continuously for an entire day, you might want the iPad, since it has the longest battery life. If you want to go by price, the Kindle Fire is the cheapest at $199. The Kindle Fire, Nook Color, and iPad 2 all have the same memory, meaning that they hold approximately the same number of books. Going by the specs, it looks like the iPad would come out on top. However, there is no need to pay $499 for an e-reader, when the Kindle and Nook are viable choices.

Another question that could come up is where to buy e-books for each specific e-reader. Again, the iPad would come out on top, since you can buy e-books for it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, the Google eBookstore, and the iBookstore. You can also buy e-books for any e-reader from the Google eBookstore; all you have to do is transfer them over to whatever e-reader you want. As for Amazon and Barnes and Noble, their e-books can only be read on their e-readers and the iPad.

The van my grandfather had booked for this trip was almost like a mini bus with twelve individual seats, six on each side. Our driver, a hearty and cheerful fellow named Raja raced the van through the mountains that were on either side of the highway. The highway began in New Delhi and on the way to Agra also passed many important cities such as Aurangabad, Bharatpur and the holy city of Mathura where Lord Krishna is said to have been born. This particular road also cut through many small villages and more than once we were completely stuck in local traffic as pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and those driving rickshaws as well as cows and buffalo all crowded the main intersections.

After approximately three hours, we reached Agra and made our way through the tiny, crowded streets of the hilly city to find Hotel Taj, where we were to stay for the night. After we had unloaded our suitcases and freshened up in our rooms, my brother, parents, grandparents, aunt and uncle came down to the restaurant in the hotel for lunch. We ordered a few different curry dishes, including palak paneer (a thick curry made from spinach and cubes of cheese), mutter paneer (a thin curry consisting of cubes of cheese and peas in a heavy cream sauce) and naan (an Indian flatbread). In Uttar Pradesh or U.P, the region in Northern India where Agra is located, the cuisine relies heavily on paneer, especially for vegetarians who do not have the option of substituting it for chicken or lamb. After my third day of eating paneer, I felt sick just looking at it and did my best to eat a few pieces of the naan soaked in curry.

This is certainly the impression I got when I first walked through the main gate and saw the Taj Mahal for the very first time. I had always imagined myself seeing it someday and being impressed by its grandeur. But to actually be there, standing in front of it and taking in all of the landscape, the scenery, the giant white pillars and the ivory décor shining in the sunlight, was something I had never before imagined. My first impression was literally, WOW. As we descended the staircase from the main gate leading into the gardens in front of the mahal, I couldn’t help but smile at just how gorgeous it really is. Even after years of damage due to rain and tourists, it is really quite exquisite.

We listened to our tour guide as he explained the meaning and purpose behind the architecture and the design. He explained that the four pillars surrounding the center of the Taj mahal were erected at such an angle that if an earthquake were to occur, the pillars would fall outwards and not towards the center, thereby securing the main monument in an emergency. He went on to describe how the actual stone that was used for the monument was imported from all over the continent and consisted of a combination of two types of marble. The precious stones used in the interior chamber where the tombs lay were brought over from Persia as well as certain parts of India. The repeating lotus shaped flower design on the walkway leading up to the monument was specifically requested by Shah Jahaan as they were his wife’s favorite kind.

The real brilliance of the Taj Mahal lies within the central chamber which features a highly intricate dome ceiling with marble and precious stone carvings throughout the interior. The stone is also engraved with beautiful calligraphy and verses from the Quran, the Islamic holy book. The actual bodies of both Mumtaz and Shah Jahaan are located on a lower level of the mahal, but are represented within the main chamber by two beautifully intricate tombstones surrounded by an elaborate stone jail screen surrounding the cenotaphs. According to our tour guide, the word jail means “cut from marble” and is used to indicate that the entire screen, each panel measuring approximately 6 feet high and eight feet wide and laid in the shape of an octagon surrounding the cenotaphs was cut from one giant piece of marble. The impressive carving ability of the workers who created the screen is also evident throughout the separate gate, doorways and exterior walls of the Taj Mahal where large pieces of intricately carved marble are displayed on the walls of the structure.

From the interior chamber we walked back outside onto the platform on which the pillars and main chamber is structured. We walked around the walls of the central chamber to the back of the monument from where we could see the beautiful river Yamuna. The Yamuna River is the largest tributary river of the holy Ganges. This long stretch of water beside the Taj mahal gives the entire place an kind of awe and beauty that can only really be experienced and not expressed through words. Under a setting sun the river, the greenery on the opposite side and the surrounding architectural monuments that comprise the Taj mahal create a breathtaking view and the most serene landscape that I have ever seen in my life.

As we walked back to our van that day, I couldn’t help but shake the giddy feeling I had inside me after having visited the Taj Mahal. I knew that I would appreciate it, but not to the extent that I actually did that day. I was enamored by the whole place and the history of the white marble mausoleum. I couldn’t help but think back to Shah Jahaan and Mumtaz and the kind of love that could erect a structure of such grandeur. I didn’t want to leave and kept turning back to get one last glimpse of the monuments, and the romance that those structures stood for. That day I understood why the story of Shah Jahaan and Mumtaz is known as one of the greatest love stories in the history of the world.

My motivation to become a journalist stemmed from two things: my love for writing and my desire to affect people. I have always said that other people use words, but I live off of them. Writing is the only thing that makes me feel human. Words amaze me; the curve of every letter and its ability to fit wonderfully and wholly together fascinates me. I can also affect others through my writing. I can talk to them, convey emotion, inspire, and make people think and feel in ways they never would have otherwise.

I believe everybody has a story. Everybody has something to say and something to tell. My ultimate goal was to hear all of those stories and tell them; I wanted to make a difference. I have always promised myself that whatever I do, it is going to help people, it is going to change the world. I believed that I could do that through journalism because journalists report events as they happen and investigate and uncover some of the biggest mistakes in history. They affect everyone.

As a journalist, I would use words to help people, to uncover the ugly of society, and try to change it. I would tell incredible stories and change other’s lives by being a messenger of truth. This was undoubtedly what I wanted to do.
Journalism was what I loved.

But then, something happened that forced me to reconsider my future as a journalist.
On July 17, 2009, my friend Vega died in an accident. While driving his motorcycle on a major highway, a car stopped short in front of him, he hit the back of it, and was thrown off of his motorcycle into traffic. A tow truck couldn’t stop in time and ran him over.

Vega was twenty-one and had spent his twentieth birthday at my house. He was a tough guy. He had a beautiful fiancé, who was the love of his life. He always kept his dark hair buzzed short and his skin tan, and usually wore jeans and a white T-shirt. He was always smiling. The last time I saw Vega was in April. He gave me a hug and said hello, but I can’t remember if we said good-bye. I still can’t get his face out of my head, his big beautiful smile. He was always so happy.

But the newspaper article about his accident didn’t say any of that.

The article said his “limbs were nearly severed.” The article didn’t say that Vega used those limbs for working out and staying healthy or that he was a wrestler in high school. The article didn’t say that Vega also used those limbs to hold his fiancé and that she cried uncontrollably and repeatedly screamed “I love you” as they lowered his dark blue casket into the ground.

The article said his “clothes were shredded and he had actual tire tracks on his chest.” The article didn’t say that not long ago Vega wore a black suit and red tie as he graduated from the fire academy or that his father wore a red tie to his funeral for that very reason. It didn’t say that Vega would soon be wearing a military uniform as he planned on enlisting after getting his BA in Criminal Justice. It didn’t say that he believed his purpose in life was to help other people and that was the reason for his career choice. The article didn’t say that Vega wore a fireman’s dress uniform when he was buried or that a Native American blanket was draped over his body.

The article said that he was “not wearing a helmet” and online readers wrote that he deserved to die because of this. The article didn’t say that, after the accident, the only thing left intact was his head or that the casket was open at his funeral, and that you could see how much make up they had put on his face and the cut on his bottom lip. I know because I was there. I saw it. It was the first time that I didn’t see Vega smiling.

The article said “the cause of the crash was under investigation.” But the article never investigated who Vega was or who the people were he left behind. It didn’t say how many people were at his funeral, how many mourned for someone who died too young. It didn’t talk about the detailed tattoo of a heart on his chest or that his little brother received Vega’s medal from the fire department at the funeral. It didn’t say Vega described the three main qualities of himself as “a love for adventure, determination, and a love for fitness and health.” It didn’t mention that one of our friends said, “Only Vega could go out that hard core.” It didn’t say anything about who he was.

Although I was with Vega on his twentieth birthday, I couldn’t tell you what day it was. I’ve met his fiancé, but I couldn’t tell you how long they’d been together. I didn’t know a lot about him until he was already gone because Vega and I weren’t good friends, but I still know things about him that the article never bothered to include.

So in that article I lost my love for journalism. I realized that every name in the newspaper is someone’s family or someone’s friend, whose entire story could never be told. That article left out the pieces that made Vega a human being, it didn’t show how important a person he was simply because that stuff isn’t newsworthy enough. But it should be.

For the first time in my life, I felt victimized by words. I saw and felt how words in this context could affect people negatively and I realized that the only thing that made me feel human could dehumanize someone else.

The journalist who wrote that article reduced the end of a person’s life, the end of a friend’s life, into a few short paragraphs because that’s what journalism does; it uses words to reduce lives to their most basic form, and words should not be used like that because lives should never be reduced. I don’t want to use words to reduce human lives; I want to do justice to those lives. I still keep Vega’s funeral card and the article about his accident on my desk, as a reminder to write to enrich a life, not to simplify it.

I can’t be a journalist because I want to use words in their fullest and richest form; I want to fill hundreds of pages with stories that change people or at least give them something to enjoy. Maybe I’ll write creative non-fiction pieces, like memoirs, or maybe I’ll even teach English. I don’t know what I’m going to do, but I certainly know what I cannot do.

There was so much more to Vega’s life than the end of it. There is so much more to every story than I could ever tell.

The small room where the lecture took place was filled to capacity. A mixture of students and CoAS staff and professors made up the nearly 50 people that filled the room. Light refreshments were served as the audience took their seats and chitchatted. As three-thirty neared, the audience quieted and Dr. O’Donnell began his presentation.

As I waited for the presentation to start I was a bit skeptical as to how interesting a talk about ants would be. However, Dr. O’Donnell proved to be a very engaging speaker and his speech was filled with accounts of first hand experience in the field as well as photos and video clips that illustrated his fascinating subject.

The talk started out with some basic facts about ants in general. While people come across ants on a daily basis, we don’t necessarily realize how extraordinary they are. We may see an anthill in our yard and think of how tiny it is, but in reality the ants have an entire city going as far down as several feet. One of the other amazing facts was about leafcutter ants. I had seen video of this on Discovery Channel programs, but I never knew why the ants cut leaves and take them back to their colonies. The ants don’t eat the leaves, as I assumed, but rather they feed the leaves to a fungus growing underground and then feed off of the fungus. Dr. O’Donnell described the leafcutter ants as “farmers.” He also showed some riveting clips of wingless ants “flying,” or rather gliding back toward the tree trunks when dropped by a pair of forceps by researchers.

After presenting basic information about all ants, Dr. O’Donnell delved into army ants. He told us what colonies are like, how the colony cycle works (nearly 50,000 new worker ants hatch every 5 weeks!), and even how raids can be useful to other animals. “Swarm raids,” Dr. O’Donnell said, “can move as fast as 15 meters per hour,” which is amazing considering how small ants are. He spoke at length about how birds take advantage of prey fleeing from army ant; any insects that escape the army ant raids also have to look out for birds waiting on the sidelines to feed on them. Various species of birds also utilize bivouac checking. The various species of birds that follow the ants will track the locations of nomadic army ant bivouacs in order to keep a constant food supply of insects that flee from the army ant raids. The bivouac is a nest made up of living ants interlocking bodies in order to protect larvae and the queen. This bivouac structure is also useful to other insects, including mites, beetles, silverfish, and wasps. Some of these insects have a mutually beneficial relationship with the bivouac, while others are purely parasitic.

Dr. O’Donnell detailed his experiences researching army ants in the tropics. Using “EncounterNet,” he and his team tagged various species of birds found at raid swarms in order to get a better understanding of the role birds play and bivouac checking. There were several theories suggested as to how the birds came to exhibit this behavior. It may have been just “dumb luck” or an individually learned behavior. On the other hand, there may be some genetic or evolutionary reason. Due to the diversity of bird species that take part in this behavior there isn’t a conclusive answer yet, but research is still being done to learn more.

The seminar concluded with Dr. O’Donnell answering any questions the audience had. One person asked, “How is a emigration initiated and how do the ants know where to go next?” Another wanted to know, “What happens when two different groups of Army Ants collide?” Some of the questions did not yet have definitive answers and Dr. O’Donnell replied honestly, saying, “We don’t know yet exactly how that works.” However, he did give some possible explanations. In the case of colliding groups of army ants, the different groups will not fight each other like most people had assumed. It was interesting to find out that different families of army ants will simply pass by and not even notice the other ants. If the ants are of the same family there will be a mutual repulsion and the two groups will directly turn around and head back to the bivouac. This was something Dr. O’Donnell said only a handful of people had ever witnessed.

One of the most interesting things O’Donnell emphasized was that “No army ant is ever alone.” The ants put aside individuality in order to work together and to be able to achieve the great things they do.

The Dean’s Seminars are free for all students and staff of Drexel University. For more information and to see who will be giving the next Dean’s Seminar, check out the College of Arts and Sciences Calendar.