The Thacher Notes
Vol. LXXXII
No. 3
January 2013
Thacher pauses for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Left: Keynote speaker Lanny Kaufer performs “Blowin’ in the Wind”, originally written by Bob Dylan, during his multimedia presentation and brings back the spirit of the 60’s to the Milligan Center for the Performing Arts. Above: (from left to right) Alessandro Lorenzoni ‘16, Alex Purcell ‘14, Lili Boyle ‘14, Mackenzie Boyden ‘15, and Ciara Byrne ‘14 enjoy a seated lunch to discuss what they learned from the workshops.
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n the Wednesday following Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Thacher’s faculty and students engaged in a series of presentations, discussions, and workshops to celebrate the day that commemorates one of the greatest leaders of the American Civil Right Movement. The observance of the national holiday started on Tuesday night following formal dinner when the school gathered to watch Dr. King’s legendary “I Have A Dream” speech in the Milligan Center. The following morning, students and faculty assembled to listen to Civil Rights Movement Veteran,
Lanny Kaufer perform a multimedia presentation titled “MLK and the Spirit of the 60’s.” Mr. Kaufer, an Ojai native, explained the history of the Civil Rights Movement through personal stories, raw video footage, and music from the 1960’s. Following Mr. Kaufer’s speech, all of the students and teachers took part in workshops on different themes including microaggression, diversity at boarding school, gender equity, Hurricane Katrina’s legacy, 20th Century African American Art, among many other topics. “[The case study] gave me a new perspective on my life at Thacher. I did not realize that some of these situations that we discussed about inequality occur on our campus. Participating in this activity was my
favorite part of the day,” shared Willy Newirth ‘14, who took part in a case studies and role-play workshop led by Mr. Carney. Students who were more
holiday ended with a seated lunch where the school gathered to discuss the different activities and share their perspectives. “Lunch was my favorite
“Honor, fairness, kindness, and truth... He stood for all these values” Emma Whitley ‘13 inclined to celebrate Martin Luther King Day through non-verbal forms had the opportunity to participate in Chalk for Peace, a worldwide campaign to promote peace through chalk drawings. This movement was started by Thacher graduate John Aaron CdeP 1972, who also joined in on the celebration and helped students channel their artistic talents. Sophomore Ann Han enjoyed this activity as she “enjoys drawing more than talking.” “Sienna [Currie ‘15] and I drew a picture of Martin Luther King and wrote some of his inspirational quotes,” added Ann. Her illustrations along with other drawings of trees, hearts, peace signs, and messages of love, covered the entire library courtyard. The observance of the
part of the day because it was interesting to hear about other peoples’ workshops. After everyone shared their experience, it became a lot bigger than the small part that you took in,” Brisha Howe ‘13 said. Thacher’s celebration of Martin Luther King Day
was a touching way to remember the legacy of Dr. King and his peaceful approach to fighting injustice. Lucy Meyers ‘13 explained that she thinks these types of workshops “should be done more than once a year,” and that “we should not have to wait for MLK Day to think about these things.” Classmate Emma Whitley thought this day of observance was thoughtprovoking and fitting for Thacher. “A school like ours that values honor, fairness, kindness, and truth should celebrate MLK because he stood for all of these values.”
By Ana Urgiles ‘13
Joining John Aaron CdeP 1972, Suzie Nixon, and other students, Annie LeFevre ‘14 writes “freedom” on the library ampitheatre as part of the Chalk for Peace campaign.
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The Thacher Notes
January 2013
Community Spotlight
Anacapa Scholar Christian Beamish
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nacapa Scholar Christian Beamish, his wife Natasha Elliott Beamish, and baby Josephine - students have witnessed this trio roaming the campus, and also hear of the sea literature class offered exclusively during the winter trimester. On September 2, 2012, Mr. Beamish introduced his book, Voyage of the Cormorant, as the pre-camping lecturer. After some discussions, Mr. Beamish was invited back in the winter trimester to teach a course on sea literature. The class dives into works by authors like Joshua Slocum. When asked why he chose not to explore his own works, Mr. Beamish said, “If I were to use the book that I wrote, it would become a class about Mr. Beamish and his motivations. I thought Thacher students in particular would benefit more from, on the one hand, learning about boats and lines, and then also sea narratives, which, in and of itself, would make a great class.” Though he is teaching temporarily, Mr. Beamish expressed an interest in pursuing teaching as a career. Mr. Beamish imagines teaching a sea literature course, which “would serve as an introduction to the midset of coastal voyaging.” The students would then “qualify as crew.” As crew members, the students would go on expeditions to further expand their knowledge of sailing. They could then advance to “mate” and then the student who is able to demonstrate mastery of all aspects would ascend
to the position of “pilot.” Mr. Beamish also hopes to build boats with this future “dream course.” He said, “The other aspect of this is to build one boat per school year, for three years... for a fleet of boats. The students would come in and have hands on experience in every step of building a boat.” Mr. Beamish emphasized the importance of forming a connection with one’s vessel. “It’s as close as we come to the Frankenstein, building an almost living entity.” The Beamishes recently found a home in Carpinteria, and have lived in other locations in southern California. Their connection to the ocean and sea also leads them to connections with other environmental concerns. “[Mrs. Eliot-Beamish] is a certified permaculture designer. She admires the work that students do here in terms of compost and animal husbandry.” said Mr. Beamish. He continued to elaborate on Thacher’s focus on environental awareness, “You guys give the both of us a lot of hope. You as a student body, particularly the senior class, are looking realistically at this troubled world. But, you’re not weeping and wailing. You’re saying, ‘here it is, what are we going to do?’’’ When asked for a visitor’s perspective on Thacher, Mr. Beamish complimented the students’ unity, “I really enjoy the entire Thacher community, but in particular the student body. You guys respect each other and celebrate each other. I see a mutually supportive [group] here.”
Jillian Elkin ‘14, Kelsey Hartman ‘13, Sage Whipple ‘14, Leo Turpan ‘13, and Molly Taylor ‘13, students in Mr. Beamish’s sea literature class, prepare for a class discussion.
The Beamish family poses for The Notes after assembly. The family can often be seen around campus with their other family member, their family dog Rio.
Mr. Beamish also expressed his gratitude at the warm reception from teachers like Ms. Sawyer-Mulligan, Mr. Jacobsen, and Mr. Sohn, whose classes Mr. Beamish has observed. Through them, he has learned to take different approaches when teaching. The reason he hopes to pursue a track as a teacher rather than a full time explorer or writer is simple. By teaching, Mr. Beamish hopes to share his knowledge and joy with others. “[Sailing] is a very intimate way [to interact with the ocean]. It’s intimate. It’s immediate,” Mr. Beamish said. Mr. Beamish’s realizes his dream of fostering sailing fervor wherever he goes might not always be possible. But, he still hopes to get the chance to encourage others to fall in love with the sea as he did.
By Irene Limb ‘13
The Thacher Notes Editors-in-Chief Irene Limb Ana Urgiles Managing Editor Sandy Ballou Advisors Bonnie LaForge Joel Sohn Contributors Ana Levy Alessandro Lorenzoni Elliot Schiff
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The Thacher Notes
Facebook’s Financial Tactics
Daniel Kruth ‘13, like any other Facebook user, is subject to the advertisements that adorn the right-hand column of the webpage.
F
acebook, with over a billion users, has become the largest social networking site in the world. With about 584 million users active on Facebook each day, and around 604 million users accessing Facebook from mobile devices (these numbers are still growing), the social networking titan has merged into many people’s lives, and its reach has grown far and wide. Facebook’s mission statement is, “to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected,” as found on their “About” page. This they do
spectacularly. With a click of a button, one can reconnect with a friend from years ago, no matter their location (as long as they have internet connection). Users can share pictures, chat with friends, share interests, and tell where they have been, are, and will be. The possibilities are endless. Though Facebook is a free service, like any other company, it must make a profit somehow. The operating costs, including employee wages, the fee to rent data centers and servers, and the expenditure for product distribution, are extremely high. All together,
in 2011, the operating costs amounted to $860 million, and this number is still rapidly increasing. Yet, somehow the company made a revenue of $3.7 billion in the same year. So how does this company make money? The answer is advertising. Facebook rakes in $3.1 billion from advertising (Streaming all 13 episodes of Netflix Original Series) and $600 million from customer purchases (buy Tetris energy for only $4.99). The factors that make Facebook an attractive advertising platform is the company’s massive reach, and the option that Facebook
January 2013
gives to allow advertisers to target people. This is where the user comes in. To make advertising on Facebook appealing, the corporation has gone to great measures to dramatically increase the chance of one of its users clicking on an advertisement. They do this by collecting all available information that pertains to the users. While you stalk people on Facebook, Facebook is essentially stalking you. Facebook collects data in a couple of different ways. One of them is by tracking one’s history in search engines. More than a million websites are cooperating with Facebook, making it easier for the searches to be tracked. When the unsuspecting consumer enters a Facebook related website, this information is stored and later catalogued. Another way that Facebook creates a profile for its users is by tracking one’s actions on its own website. The company can see the things you “Like”, including statuses and pictures, to list a few. In fact, “Timeline” was introduced to organize all this information and make it easier to analyze. In short, Facebook sells this information to advertisers. If Facebook finds out that a user has been to a snowboarding park, or has been browsing snow gear, they can sell this information to companies which would be interested in sell-
ing those products. Everything that you do online can be used to make money on Facebook’s part. However, this process of data collection and selling is helpful to the user, for it shows advertisements that are more relevant and helps curtail browsing time. If these information-gathering methods help us find products relevant to us, what is the harm done? Alas, there is more. The extent of information that Facebook gathers is beyond needed, yet it is stored. In effect, the company knows more about you then the government does. Beyond basic information such as age, Facebook knows your relationship status, if you are pregnant, if you are an alcoholic, what your interests are, you dreams, and on and on and on. A recent study on the Internet had a person request Facebook for the information they had on him, which due to European law, Facebook was required to send him. What he acquired was a disk containing 1,222 PDFs. Items he had deleted from Facebook were also present in the disk. Your identity is now for sale to companies, and up to grab for hackers. Who you are is now property of a company.
By Alessandro Lorenzoni ‘16
Five reasons you should be interested in BlackBerry 10
1. Phones with physical Phone all have something keyboards are not dead. to learn from BB10: gesThe upcoming Black- ture control. To unlock the Berry Q10 is one of the phone from sleep, you swipe only high-end smartphones from the bottom bezel to the in existence with a physi- screen, and the phone will cal QWERTY keyboard. It show you, according to the has all of the specifications position of your finger, part of a high-end smartphone, of your homescreen until it like the 2GB of RAM, a is unlocked. Swipes from the 1.5 GHz dual-core proces- bezel control all of the firstsor, a modern and unique party applications, which is On the left is the BlackBerry Q10 and on the right is the operating system, but it has more intuitive and requires BlackBerry Z10, both new smartphones released by the one killer feature that many no screen space, unlike vir- company. Photo credit - www.sneakhype.com miss: that amazing clickity- tual/physical buttons. separate sections for the of the Z10 (the full touchclackity BlackBerry keyuser: work and play. The screen BB10 phone) board of tactile goodness. 3. BlackBerry Balance work section can require People who like to keep The touchscreen keya password, have differ2. Gesture-based operating their work and play lives ent contacts, applications, board built into the BB10 system. separate will absolutely email accounts, and so on. interface is the best I’ve The next iterations of An- adore this feature. The seen, including fierce comdroid, iOS, and Windows phone basically has two 4. The virtual keyboard petition from Swiftkey 3
for Android, and the iOS keyboard. The prediction software lets you swipe up from the letter you’re typing or the spacebar to enable the predictions. This is the most intuitive, and fast keyboard solution. 5. What’s to come
BlackBerry 10 piqued people’s interest due to gesture controls, but there are some kinks in the operating system that need to be ironed out, such as better notification implementation. Once these kinks are ironed out, and once the application ecosystem is expanded, well the interface may become a serious force to reckon with.
By Elliot Schiff ‘16
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I
The Thacher Notes
f you have ever seen the handful of students Sunday morning running to the PAC with water bottles and scripts in hand, or heard strange music from the dance studio during 9:3010, you have been exposed to a snippet of the 2012 Winter Musical. Like most Thacher shows, the only students really talking about it right now are 30+ cast and crew members that are working on producing Monty Python’s Spamalot. But all of that is about to change come Friday, February 15th at 7:30 pm. So, you may be asking yourself, “why do I want to go see something about a lot of over-processed canned meat?” Well, the name is a bit deceiving. Spamalot is a musical comedy about Arthur, King of the Britons (played by our very own Paul Cresanta), who is seeking men to sit at his very, very, very round table. Along the way to find a very important cup, Arthur and his men encounter the Lady of the Lake and her Laker Girls, 7 foot knights demanding shrubberies, dancing nuns, and young princes stuck in towers, all while contemplating whether they can make it in Broadway. Aside from the enthusiastic performers, this show has been influenced by a variety of Thacher students. Juniors Auden Ehringer and Willy Newirth have dedicated their winter independent projects to costume design and set design, respectively, for the show. Viri Hernan-
January 2013
Cast member reveals a glimpse Thach of upcoming winter musical. Match Spamalot, a “lovingly ripped off” version of 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail, is coming to Thacher
Cast members dance to Ms. Vickery’s choreography of the number, Knights of the Round Table. The show highlights the talents of many Thacher students.
dez has taken the position of Assistant Director, and the Tech Crew continues to provide lights, sounds, props, and a safeguard against the cast’s self-destruction.
So, when the time comes, I hope to see you all fighting for good seats in the PAC. And if I can’t convince you, maybe fellow actor Ben Connor ‘15 can: “Between
the amazing sets, hysterical comedy, and overall great cast, I am sure that this will be the best musical yet.”
By Ana Levy ‘14
My life is average... at Thacher Someone put a fat bagel sandwich in the panini maker. Now my sandwich doesn’t get toasted. MLIA.
Can you guess who this dashing faculty member is? Please e-mail us your answer at thenotes@thacher.org to redeem your prize!