The Deadliest of Them All

September 24, 2014 at 9:27 pm (Conflict)
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BLOGS

It is night, and the only thing filling the sky is lightning and earth shattering thunder. The crews are almost finished with their seasons of crab fishing and the end of the road could not be any closer, but Captain Campbell and Captain Hillstrand are not about to let a small storm ruin their chances at finishing the season strong.The two captains are both having issues with weather and a few bad strands of fishing spots.

Captain of the 109 foot Seabrooke, Scott Campbell Jr. is eager to gather enough crabs to finish the fishing season. Before today I have never actually watched an episode of deadliest catch. I would have to say that I thought that the show was very interesting and intense. The two captains Seabrookehave to keep watch and keep safe there whole crew. I realized that crab fishing is dangerous and tiresome. The waves beat against the boats as they drive out into the ocean. Captain Scott Campbell Jr. is a rough and tough captain who wants what is best for the members of his crew.

I watched episode 10, season 4, and during the show Captain Campbell was faced with a horrible storm and he had to decide whether or not to turn his boat around or keep pushing forward. With the crews best interest at heart he made the correct decision to get the boat to land to wait out the storm. Trying to gather as many crabs as they can on their way back to the main land Campbell is pained by the issues he is having with his back. The wind gusts were up to a raging 70 miles per hour. Although the weather was not in their favor they pushed through for 8 hours and gathered 143 crates of crabs. The crew rejoiced with excitement for a great nights catch. The captain nears land and finished for the sake of the crew even though his back was injured. Worried that they would not be able to meet their goal of king crabs Captain Campbell tries to push his team through the  waves in the Barring Sea so they can collect as many crabs as possible as their season ends. During the storm before they could call it quits they had to gather 140 pots full of crabs. The men on the deck  received a large amount of  18,000 dollars a piece, for the hard work they put in.

Captain Jonathan Hillstrand is captain of the 113 foot boat Time Bandit has Timebeen having bad luck with crab and poor weather conditions for over a week. They have to get as much crab as they can to have enough to meet their goals. At this point in the season the crew is not even close to the amount of crab that they need at turn in. They have been pulling up plots of only one and two crabs at a time. The lack of crab is making it very hard on the crew and is crushing their spirits. Captain Hillstrand is teaming up with the captain of the Northwestern to share in his glory of the crabs he is picking up. Both captains are going to work together to keep the other fishers out of their area. The captain believes that his decision was a good one but the crew may not agree with his choice.

I decided to watch two completely different episodes for my second show because i wanted to make sure I was able to understand the season. What I noticed about the two captains was that Captain Campbell was very independent and could handle his crew without relying on someone else to help him with his troubles unlike Captain Hillstrand did. Captain Campbell pushed his team hard, but I think that Captain Hillstrand was the toughest on his members.

Seeing as I haven’t seen but the two episodes I watched I had a hard time figuring out the captains strategies about how they controlled their crew. In my opinion captain Hillstrand was more dominant than the surrounding captains I noticed that his crew worked better together because there was not as much strain on the team. In conclusion, the Seabrooke is going to have a better outcome for their seasons ahead, because of the way he treats his crew members. The crew members benefit from the captains strategies because they work as a team rather than competing.

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A Brief Overview of Edward Snowden and Online Privacy

September 18, 2014 at 1:15 pm (Uncategorized)

A little over a year ago, Edward Snowden told the world that the United States government was paying websites to release private information. The government was paying big money to sources like Yahoo and Facebook in return for those sources giving them information about their users. The e-mail conversations, the web searches, the location and more of the user was exchanging hands. The National Security Administration claimed that they needed this information to keep our country safe. It has caused a worldwide debate on online privacy policies.

After Edward Snowden “blew the whistle” on the shakiness of our online security and how our privacy was being ignored, the National Security Administration began to pass laws quickly to strengthen cyber security. The first step taken by the NSA was to pass a law that all major information holding websites like Google and Yahoo must use a very strong encryption on their sites. Adding encryption to the website can be viewed as adding a password. It will keep the sites safe until someone discovers the password.

The Department of Defense has created a website for the public to view and inform themselves about cyber security and how to keep themselves safe. It is a huge priority for business owners to keep the information they collect from their clients private from the outside world. Our social security numbers and credit card numbers are collected by businesses that could be hacked at any moment. For example, when all of the information from customers at Target was obtained you can most likely thank some sort of hacker. Our government is trying to keep us safe from something like that happening again, or worse. It is truly an issue of national security when our Internet is not safe from our enemies, foreign or domestic.

However, the government is still trying to obtain private information. Cell phones are one of the biggest ways that our information has become at risk. It was released, not too long ago, that Verizon Wireless has been selling their users information to the government for a very long time. Again, conversations and locations of the users were not private. Now there are applications that have been designed for our cell phones that promise to be completely secure and the makers say that they will never release our private information stored on the app to the government. However, the government can receive a court order for the owners of that app to release the information that the government needs. The only problem with that is there is no way to release the specific information that the government wants for one specific user, the government has to be granted access to ALL of the information so they can find what they are looking for. Most of the time these companies will just “disappear” and delete their application instead of giving the government their way. Just a few weeks later you will tend to find the same app with a different name offering the same promises.

June 5, just about a year after Edward Snowden “blew the whistle” on Internet security in the US, a national campaign named Reset the Net began. The idea of the campaign is to strengthen privacy rights online. Many major Internet sites have joined the campaign. Apple, Google, Yahoo, Tumblr.. etc have joined the campaign in the last few months.

“One year ago, we learned that the internet is under surveillance, and our activities are being monitored to create permanent records of our private lives – no matter how innocent or ordinary those lives might be,” Snowden said.

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Miscommunication in the Workplace

September 10, 2014 at 7:51 pm (Business Conflicts, Communication Problems, Diversity in the Workplace, Effective Communication)
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I’m sure we can all relate to miscommunication with a boss or fellow employee at work. When this happens, processes could potentially fall behind or customers could become angry about not being properly attended to. Without having good communication skills in the workplace, it is hard to get things done in a timely manner. Proper communication is vital to a workplace running smoothly and efficiently.

There are many reasons behind miscommunication in the workplace. One of the main issues is language barriers. I have had bosses, as well as customers, who spoke a different language than I do and it is tough trying to figure out what they need and how to appropriately help them. It is nice having interpreters that can help, but the communication issue is still always there. Another really big reason behind the lack of communication is being given confusing information. For example, if my boss tells me to do something but I am not sure what she means, I might not get the process done as effectively as I would if I fully understood what needed to be done. Be sure to double check information with the person in charge to make sure it is correct.

Along with confusing information being given, there might also not be enough information being given. If there isn’t enough information given, the process might not get completed all the way. My boss has left out some information when giving me a project to do and I had to go back and redo some of it and it is just frustrating. Be sure to get all of the information out in a timely manner to the person doing the job in order for the job to get completed properly.

There might also be miscommunication between employees. When talking to a coworker, people need to be sure to not put it in a way for the other person to misinterpret what is trying to be said. Be sure to have a clear understanding of the point you are trying to get across before sharing it with someone. Some employees have trouble listening to their leaders. If employees don’t fully listen to what their bosses are telling them to do, they won’t efficiently get the job done.

Another big issue in the workplace is mixing personal lives with professional lives. People need to be sure to leave their personal lives at home before coming to work. There is no reason for everyone to know what is going on with you outside of work, unless you feel the need to talk to human resources. Bringing personal lives into the workplace takes the mind off of the job you are doing, causing mistakes to happen and sometimes those mistakes could cost you your job.

Having negative attitudes in the workplace could cause miscommunication to occur. There could be two employees that do not get along, creating communication issues. There could also be an employee that doesn’t particularly care for their job, causing them to not listen to direction as much as others. Negative attitudes could cause the workplace to be a hostile environment, which could lead to other problems in the future.

Having effective communication in a workplace is an essential part of getting the job done that is needed. If there are communication issues, the workplace could have meetings to talk about them and fix them to the best of their abilities. It is a good idea to talk about things that are going wrong so that it won’t be an issue in the future and things will fun more efficiently and smoothly. Good communication leads to effective productivity, which leads to happy managers and employees.

By: Taylor Bray, Accounting major at IUPUC

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