A Big Problem

 

View of Chernobyl power plant taken from the roof of a building in Pripyat, Ukraine - Chernobyl Disaster 1986

Tsunami disaster, Ao Nang, Thailand, December 26, 2004.  

Look at those two images above.  They are both disasters, right?  They both have caused massive death to parts of the world.  Why?  Who is at fault?  Could they have been prevented?  Could humans have prepared better?  Had Japan learned from Chernobyl and Thailand, would the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear crisis still have happened, in addition to the other massive tsunami damage Japan suffered?  Is the Japan disaster from earlier this year being studied by whoever is next?  Who is next?  Are they prepared?  What if they aren't? 

In class on Monday evening, one of the slides begins with "All disasters are human made", which to a point I can understand.  Had no one lived near Chernobyl, or had the plant not existed at all, then that disaster would not have happened.  Also, had there been no systems errors, then it too could have been avoided.  Humans designed those systems.  Had the area in Thailand not been extremely populated and built for tourism, the tsunami would not have caused as much damage and death.  Had Japan built all of their buildings, roads, other infrastructure etc. to withstand the potential flooding that they "could" get being an island nation in an active seismographical area, the tsunami would not have caused as much destruction as it did.  If Fukushima Daiichi had more cooling systems (I believe the earthquake killed the main one, and the tsunami killed the backup one), then the level 7 crisis may not have happened.   

In knowing that humans, by standard way of life, "cause" these disasters, and we are not learning from them fast enough to prevent them from happening, one can only say that things are going to get worse, right?  Especially considering that the population is on the rise, on an exponential scale.  More people = more disasters, based on how I have perceived things.  

So what do we do about it?  I know there are a ton of humanitarian organizations that are doing everything they can to help.  But another wrench gets thrown in with violence towards them, another blog post story.  One would think that money and power can solve these kinds of problems, but I'm tempted to say, "what money?"  The U.S. government is going to start cutting a lot of programs, and I would bet that foreign aid would be one of them.   

This class will be a tough one.  I don't know if technology alone can do it. It will require a lot of creative thinking.  That problem I just listed needs to be solved.  Let's solve it. 

-Pat

Pictures:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:View_of_Chernobyl_taken_from_Pripyat.JPG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2004-tsunami.jpg 

Hello World (and SRA397A)

Hi all.  My name is Patrick Lunney (pronounced Lunn-ee, not loonie), and I am a fourth year senior at Penn State double majoring in Information Sciences & Technology and Security & Risk Analysis.  The options are Integration & Application and Cybersecurity, respectively.  I will be graduating in the Spring of 2012. (Sigh...). A picture of me is seen below, along with my brother Shaemus (he is 15) and Mako Mike! I'm on the right. I am from Scranton, Pennsylvania (home of "The Office"!) and graduated from Scranton High School in May of 2008.

Fun Fact: I played football against Matt McGloin and Eric Shrive (both on the PSU football team).  

While at Penn State I have been a rather involved student.  I have been President of the IST Student Government andVice President of Communications for my fraternity, Phi Mu Delta.  I have previously been on the committees and the chair for some events such as the IST Pro Expo and Future Forum, along with other events specific to the College of IST.  


Currently, I am a THON Technology Captain.  My position is the Lead THINK (THON Information Network) Developer, which is the backend database management site for all of THON.  I am also an IST Diplomat, which is a group of students that guides families though tours of the IST building and does other forms of service for the College.  


I have had two internships in my IST experience, one with Booz Allen Hamilton in 2010 and one with GE in 2011. I gained a lot of knowledge and experience from both internships and liked them both a lot. At BAH, I worked with a diverse team to define "cyberpower" and then collect and analyze information from the G20 and rank the G20 in terms of cyberpower.  At GE, I worked on the Global Communications team to work with in a transition from a standard telephone system to a centralized hosted VoIP solution.  Both internships were quite different and allowed me to see how many paths can be taken with an IST or SRA degree.


When not doing all of the above, I am relaxing with friends or family.  I am a huge movie fan, my favorite actors are Denzel Washington and Tom Hanks.  Too many favorite movies to name.  
Fun Fact: Favorite Vacation Spot - the beach, preferable the Outer Banks, NC


So, why am I in this class? I love technology and I love to discuss things.  This class will give me both.  Not only that, but it will be discussing important matters, those which have not been solved yet.  I like to consider myself a creative guy, and this will allow me to put the thinking cap on.  It will be a challenge to solve these real world problems, but I think it will be a fun challenge. 

Also, to Steve Jobs, hope everything turns out ok for you.  #OnceYouGoMac