Summary
Drugs defined a large part of history and in America, especially, is where drugs have defined a culture. Ryan Grim, the author, starts off with his search for LSD (also known as acid) back in 2001 when the use of it started to decline, roughly to 3.5% in 2003, and is almost nonexistent now. However, this doesn't mean that Americans have stopped doing drugs all together but are "always looking for a better way to feed our voracious appetite for getting high" (Grim 4).
The decline of LSD was a chain of events that the U.S government hoped would cease the use and trafficking of it. It starts with William Leonard Pickard's arrest 2 days after the morning of November 6, 2000 when he was transporting equipment to his new LSD lab in Wamego, Kansas. Supposedly, 95% of LSD production was halted with Pickard's arrest. Though, this was not the first time LSD use has declined. In 1995, when Jerry Garcia, the band member of Grateful Dead, died, and the band stopped touring. Phish picked up where Grateful Dead left off and toured until 2000. At these concerts were where LSD was being distributed and used most frequently. When Phish stopped touring, LSD started seeing its decline in use.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook (Pg. 80-255)
Summary
After witnessing the interest people had in facemash.com Mark started to create another website that would be more interactive. This is where Eduardo comes in because he provides the start up money for the servers. He doesn't want any fame from this and gladly accepts his thirty percent and position as CFO. In the meantime, Tyler, Cameron, and Divya are still waiting to meet up with Mark who has been holding their meetings off to develop Thefacebook. At one point, Mark shows signs of doubt in the site and starts to slowly back away from this project.
Going days without sleep, Mark finally launched the site and emailed it to the Crimson newspaper. Sure enough it caught on, and caught the attention of the Winklevoss brothers and Divya. They are completely bewildered by this and can't believe Mark just played them. To get Mark back, the Winklevoss decided to report this the president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers and seek legal advice.
Everyone knew Mark at this point and during a lecture with Bill Gates, two Asian girls noticed him and confirms it through Eduardo, later asking him and Mark out for drinks. When they both get back to their dorms, Eduardo discovers the cease and desist letter the Winklevoss sent to Mark about taking down thefacebook since it violated copyrights. Mark defends himself by replying, telling them he lost interest a while back. Then he nonchalantly changes the subject and decides to add his two other roommates, who were also programmers, Dustin and Chris, to the group. Soon after, Mark suggests expanding to other schools while Eduardo wants to monetize which Mark doesn't really agree on.
The Winklevoss finally get a appointment with the President and go in to his room expecting justice. When they bring their case to him, which is violating the student handbook that states all students must respect property of other students, Summers surprises them by saying "What do you want me to do about it?". Avoiding physical contact, they call their father for legal advice.
Sean Parker, founder of Napster and Plaxo but later drove out by his own companies, discovered thefacebook one day after waking up in a girl's dorm room he doesn't remember going to. He falls in love with the concept and wants to contact Mark as soon as possible. He meets up with the thefacebook team at an expensive Asian restaurant in New York. Mark is fascinated by him and his accomplishments while Eduardo is feeling a bit threatened and that the company did not need Sean Parker. However, he knows that Sean Parker probably had connections to people willing to invest in the site so he let it slide.
While Eduardo is looking for internships or anything to pay for the servers, Mark believes moving the company to California is the next step. Hesitating at first, Eduardo agreed and gave Mark eighteen thousand dollars to rent out a house for the summer.
In California, Mark and his programmers found out they lived just down the street from Sean Parker. He was surprised Mark took his advice and was ready to take him even further. When he didn't see Eduardo, Sean knew he had Mark to himself, and could play CFO for the time being.
Eduardo was unsuccessful in getting internships in New York but was notified that Sean was hosting a party and all the large companies and VC's would be there. The company still didn't have sustainable funds but after the party, everyone wanted a piece of Mark and Thefacebook.
After losing the Henley Royal Regatta, a prestigious rowing race held in England, the Winklevoss found out that thefacebook has expanded overseas and that's when they arranged for a lawsuit with Mark.
With Sean Parker advising Mark in California, Eduardo wanted to re-confirm his postition as CFO. However Eduardo doesn't feel that Mark acknowledges him anymore so to get his attention, he freezes the account with $18,000 in it. With the servers frozen, thefacebook is down and Mark still didn't acknowledge Eduardo other than asking him to move to California and join the rest of the company. Eduardo almost destroyed everything that Mark worked for by closing that account and Sean convinced Mark that Eduardo was a danger. Sean still did not have an established position in thefacebook but had much more authority than Eduardo at this point.
Thefacebook eventually got an angel investment of $500,000 from Peter Thiel, the founder of Paypal. This led to distributing shares of the company and Sean suggested it'd be based on the work done. This made Eduardo look undeserving of his 30%. There were legal documents now, and Eduardo had actually gotten a raise to around 34% but could not sell any of his shares yet.
The site had new addons being developed everyday, increasing the popularity of it meaning, more investments were coming in. Eduardo finished school, and haven't been in touch with Mark for a while. So, he's invited to California again to sign some more papers. He also wanted to clear up the reasoning behind everyone selling parts of their shares for two million dollars while he couldn't. He later found out he was diluted down to 0.3% from his original 30% and that he lost his title as co-founder. He sued Mark but details of the lawsuit weren't clear.
Being financially secure now, the facebook had much to lose if anything that would defame the company had happened. Sean Parker had been partying again and was caught with drugs. This didn't sit well with Mark and as CEO, he rightfully fired Sean Parker. Now Mark Zuckerberg sits as the youngest billionaire and owner of facebook which has over 600 million users registered.
Quote
"I'm CEO--Bitch." (Mezrich 249)
Response
It was kind of funny because it was true. This was written on his business cards and reflects Zuckerberg's cynical personality and humor. He wanted to be back in control like he said while blogging and now he called the shots of a multi-billion dollar company.
After witnessing the interest people had in facemash.com Mark started to create another website that would be more interactive. This is where Eduardo comes in because he provides the start up money for the servers. He doesn't want any fame from this and gladly accepts his thirty percent and position as CFO. In the meantime, Tyler, Cameron, and Divya are still waiting to meet up with Mark who has been holding their meetings off to develop Thefacebook. At one point, Mark shows signs of doubt in the site and starts to slowly back away from this project.
Going days without sleep, Mark finally launched the site and emailed it to the Crimson newspaper. Sure enough it caught on, and caught the attention of the Winklevoss brothers and Divya. They are completely bewildered by this and can't believe Mark just played them. To get Mark back, the Winklevoss decided to report this the president of Harvard, Lawrence Summers and seek legal advice.
Everyone knew Mark at this point and during a lecture with Bill Gates, two Asian girls noticed him and confirms it through Eduardo, later asking him and Mark out for drinks. When they both get back to their dorms, Eduardo discovers the cease and desist letter the Winklevoss sent to Mark about taking down thefacebook since it violated copyrights. Mark defends himself by replying, telling them he lost interest a while back. Then he nonchalantly changes the subject and decides to add his two other roommates, who were also programmers, Dustin and Chris, to the group. Soon after, Mark suggests expanding to other schools while Eduardo wants to monetize which Mark doesn't really agree on.
The Winklevoss finally get a appointment with the President and go in to his room expecting justice. When they bring their case to him, which is violating the student handbook that states all students must respect property of other students, Summers surprises them by saying "What do you want me to do about it?". Avoiding physical contact, they call their father for legal advice.
Sean Parker, founder of Napster and Plaxo but later drove out by his own companies, discovered thefacebook one day after waking up in a girl's dorm room he doesn't remember going to. He falls in love with the concept and wants to contact Mark as soon as possible. He meets up with the thefacebook team at an expensive Asian restaurant in New York. Mark is fascinated by him and his accomplishments while Eduardo is feeling a bit threatened and that the company did not need Sean Parker. However, he knows that Sean Parker probably had connections to people willing to invest in the site so he let it slide.
While Eduardo is looking for internships or anything to pay for the servers, Mark believes moving the company to California is the next step. Hesitating at first, Eduardo agreed and gave Mark eighteen thousand dollars to rent out a house for the summer.
In California, Mark and his programmers found out they lived just down the street from Sean Parker. He was surprised Mark took his advice and was ready to take him even further. When he didn't see Eduardo, Sean knew he had Mark to himself, and could play CFO for the time being.
Eduardo was unsuccessful in getting internships in New York but was notified that Sean was hosting a party and all the large companies and VC's would be there. The company still didn't have sustainable funds but after the party, everyone wanted a piece of Mark and Thefacebook.
After losing the Henley Royal Regatta, a prestigious rowing race held in England, the Winklevoss found out that thefacebook has expanded overseas and that's when they arranged for a lawsuit with Mark.
With Sean Parker advising Mark in California, Eduardo wanted to re-confirm his postition as CFO. However Eduardo doesn't feel that Mark acknowledges him anymore so to get his attention, he freezes the account with $18,000 in it. With the servers frozen, thefacebook is down and Mark still didn't acknowledge Eduardo other than asking him to move to California and join the rest of the company. Eduardo almost destroyed everything that Mark worked for by closing that account and Sean convinced Mark that Eduardo was a danger. Sean still did not have an established position in thefacebook but had much more authority than Eduardo at this point.
Thefacebook eventually got an angel investment of $500,000 from Peter Thiel, the founder of Paypal. This led to distributing shares of the company and Sean suggested it'd be based on the work done. This made Eduardo look undeserving of his 30%. There were legal documents now, and Eduardo had actually gotten a raise to around 34% but could not sell any of his shares yet.
The site had new addons being developed everyday, increasing the popularity of it meaning, more investments were coming in. Eduardo finished school, and haven't been in touch with Mark for a while. So, he's invited to California again to sign some more papers. He also wanted to clear up the reasoning behind everyone selling parts of their shares for two million dollars while he couldn't. He later found out he was diluted down to 0.3% from his original 30% and that he lost his title as co-founder. He sued Mark but details of the lawsuit weren't clear.
Being financially secure now, the facebook had much to lose if anything that would defame the company had happened. Sean Parker had been partying again and was caught with drugs. This didn't sit well with Mark and as CEO, he rightfully fired Sean Parker. Now Mark Zuckerberg sits as the youngest billionaire and owner of facebook which has over 600 million users registered.
Quote
"I'm CEO--Bitch." (Mezrich 249)
Response
It was kind of funny because it was true. This was written on his business cards and reflects Zuckerberg's cynical personality and humor. He wanted to be back in control like he said while blogging and now he called the shots of a multi-billion dollar company.
The Social Network: Film Review
The Social Network is a film about the founding of Facebook based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich. The film is accurate in comparison to the book and follows it spot on from Mark Zuckerberg's "over sized hoodie and flipflops" to tearing down the chimney they glided down from. The difference is that the film is told through flashbacks during various lawsuits. It depicts Mark Zuckerberg as a smart, witty, "nerd" who's a bit of a jerk. He creates facebook, face lawsuits for doing so, and loses the only friend he had along the way as a sacrifice for the success of his company. That's essentially the plot of the story but everything is pretty much shot using medium shots, closeups, and reaction shots. By using closeups and medium shots, the actor's emotions are clear, making for strong character development. I thought strong character development was necessary for the drama for a film like this because it is mostly dialogue. The dialogue is very quick and the director uses the reaction shot often to keep the attention of the viewer. Overall, The Social Network is a fun movie with clever dialogue that was well executed.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook (Pg. 40-80)
Summary
After a disappointing night of drinking, Mark decides to put his plan into action. He burns through the night hacking into each of Harvard's house's facebook. He effortlessly makes his way into the unprotected systems and downloads every single picture of the students. While doing so, he is updating his blog about all the things he's doing. His plan was to create a website to allow people to compare two girls and pick the more attractive one. The original idea was to compare them to farm animals. The name of the site was facemash.com.
For the houses he couldn't get into, Mark sneaks in after the janitor leaves. He discovers a couple doing...things couples do and hides behind a couch until they leave, before hacking into the system and downloading the rest of the pictures to his laptop. As he is downloading the pictures, he goes over legal rights over his head and justifies it by saying it's information to share and "for the greater good". A few days later, thinking about all the feedback he would get after he officially launched facemash, he comes home to his dorm and sees that his laptop is frozen and it is acting as a server for facemash. He knew he was in trouble after the site hit over 22,000 hits in 20 minutes.
News got out and facemash even made it onto the Crimson, the school newspaper. Divya brings this to the attention of the Winklevosses and they plan to approach Mark later to ask if "he wanted to be part of history".
Mark's punishment was not met with any less than 3 deans. Though, his punishment was not in case, severe, because apparently they knew from Mark's awkwardness that he meant no harm. And for that, he sent off with a warning that if he ever did it again, he would be in big trouble. After his punishment, he meets up with Eduardo and shows him an email he received from Divya, that asked him to join their team to write the code and program for the Harvard Connection. The next day, the team meets him in person and he volunteers to do the job. His facial expressions did not show any excitement, but Mark was very interested in doing this for the thrill of being in control again.
Quote
"Were we let in for our looks? No. Will we be judged on them? Yes." (Mezrich 49)
Reaction
Up to what I read, I never really imagined Mark Zuckerberg as someone who would write a website for socializing or a social network in general. Sure, he wasn't exactly a social butterfly or really expressed any emotions, but he did have a more of a voice while blogging. It's also very interesting how an antisocial person would create the biggest social network.
After a disappointing night of drinking, Mark decides to put his plan into action. He burns through the night hacking into each of Harvard's house's facebook. He effortlessly makes his way into the unprotected systems and downloads every single picture of the students. While doing so, he is updating his blog about all the things he's doing. His plan was to create a website to allow people to compare two girls and pick the more attractive one. The original idea was to compare them to farm animals. The name of the site was facemash.com.
For the houses he couldn't get into, Mark sneaks in after the janitor leaves. He discovers a couple doing...things couples do and hides behind a couch until they leave, before hacking into the system and downloading the rest of the pictures to his laptop. As he is downloading the pictures, he goes over legal rights over his head and justifies it by saying it's information to share and "for the greater good". A few days later, thinking about all the feedback he would get after he officially launched facemash, he comes home to his dorm and sees that his laptop is frozen and it is acting as a server for facemash. He knew he was in trouble after the site hit over 22,000 hits in 20 minutes.
News got out and facemash even made it onto the Crimson, the school newspaper. Divya brings this to the attention of the Winklevosses and they plan to approach Mark later to ask if "he wanted to be part of history".
Mark's punishment was not met with any less than 3 deans. Though, his punishment was not in case, severe, because apparently they knew from Mark's awkwardness that he meant no harm. And for that, he sent off with a warning that if he ever did it again, he would be in big trouble. After his punishment, he meets up with Eduardo and shows him an email he received from Divya, that asked him to join their team to write the code and program for the Harvard Connection. The next day, the team meets him in person and he volunteers to do the job. His facial expressions did not show any excitement, but Mark was very interested in doing this for the thrill of being in control again.
Quote
"Were we let in for our looks? No. Will we be judged on them? Yes." (Mezrich 49)
Reaction
Up to what I read, I never really imagined Mark Zuckerberg as someone who would write a website for socializing or a social network in general. Sure, he wasn't exactly a social butterfly or really expressed any emotions, but he did have a more of a voice while blogging. It's also very interesting how an antisocial person would create the biggest social network.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook (Pg. 1-40)
Summary
There are these super exclusive clubs at Harvard University. They are for the elite and those with money or come from families with money. Eduardo seems to be out of place because although he does from a wealthy family, his family has no legacy other than a successful company his father started a few years before Eduardo was born.
He is at a party hosted by the prestigious club, Phoenix because Eduardo had a hedge fund and the club members were interested in the Eduardo's business methods. He knows he has to impress the members not only with social traits but also his view on business. He manages to entertain some of them but feels awkward and out of place. Then he sees another person that also looks out of place and has a weird aura about him. Eduardo would introduce himself to Mark Zuckerberg and their friendship was going to start from there.
Mark Zuckerberg is supposed to be a "master hacker" from where he came from and almost got himself in trouble with the FBI by breaking into computers. He also wrote a program, Synapse, that Microsoft offered to buy for $1-2 million but Mark refused. He was a computer genius. His blank and almost emotionless expressions contributed to his awkwardness.
Eduardo and Mark make their way out to Harvard Yard. Eduardo knows he and Mark were never going to party or be the most popular kids around so Eduardo focuses his attention to the Alpha Pi party coming up. It is another party hosted by various clubs and required you to bring a date. Eduardo gets lucky and manages to find one.
In the meantime, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, twin brothers, and star rowing champions, are working their way to success at Harvard. They both lead busy lives, rowing and balancing schoolwork, leaving them no time to socialize. They're also both part of another Final Club, the Porcellian. With the help of Divya, a friend they are collaborating with to create the Harvard Connection, a social networking site for Harvard students. But with the absence of the programmer, Victor, they aren't really getting anywhere. So now they scouting for and recruiting literally a computer genius to help them write the code.
Aside from that, Eduardo is trying to pass his final initiations to the Phoenix. Which happens to be keeping a chicken alive and healthy and always having it with you. He also met an Asian girl who is suppose to accompany him to the party and hooks Mark up with her friend. In his endeavors of keeping the chicken alive, he feeds it fried chicken one day. Members from the Porcellian notice this and reports forced cannibalism of the chicken to an animal rights group. The Phoenix get themselves out of that situation and Eduardo is safe.
Quote
"Eduardo felt that they had a similar spirit-and he'd begun to notice an almost strange feeling that they were supposed to be friends, even before they were." (Mexrich 35)
Reaction
This foreshadows an end to their friendship eventually because with Winklevoss and Divya looking for a new programmer, Mark is going to have to choose between being with his friend or become business parters with Winklevoss. Also, Eduardo is also a business major so that might come into play if there is going to be a rivalry between him and the Winklevoss.
There are these super exclusive clubs at Harvard University. They are for the elite and those with money or come from families with money. Eduardo seems to be out of place because although he does from a wealthy family, his family has no legacy other than a successful company his father started a few years before Eduardo was born.
He is at a party hosted by the prestigious club, Phoenix because Eduardo had a hedge fund and the club members were interested in the Eduardo's business methods. He knows he has to impress the members not only with social traits but also his view on business. He manages to entertain some of them but feels awkward and out of place. Then he sees another person that also looks out of place and has a weird aura about him. Eduardo would introduce himself to Mark Zuckerberg and their friendship was going to start from there.
Mark Zuckerberg is supposed to be a "master hacker" from where he came from and almost got himself in trouble with the FBI by breaking into computers. He also wrote a program, Synapse, that Microsoft offered to buy for $1-2 million but Mark refused. He was a computer genius. His blank and almost emotionless expressions contributed to his awkwardness.
Eduardo and Mark make their way out to Harvard Yard. Eduardo knows he and Mark were never going to party or be the most popular kids around so Eduardo focuses his attention to the Alpha Pi party coming up. It is another party hosted by various clubs and required you to bring a date. Eduardo gets lucky and manages to find one.
In the meantime, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, twin brothers, and star rowing champions, are working their way to success at Harvard. They both lead busy lives, rowing and balancing schoolwork, leaving them no time to socialize. They're also both part of another Final Club, the Porcellian. With the help of Divya, a friend they are collaborating with to create the Harvard Connection, a social networking site for Harvard students. But with the absence of the programmer, Victor, they aren't really getting anywhere. So now they scouting for and recruiting literally a computer genius to help them write the code.
Aside from that, Eduardo is trying to pass his final initiations to the Phoenix. Which happens to be keeping a chicken alive and healthy and always having it with you. He also met an Asian girl who is suppose to accompany him to the party and hooks Mark up with her friend. In his endeavors of keeping the chicken alive, he feeds it fried chicken one day. Members from the Porcellian notice this and reports forced cannibalism of the chicken to an animal rights group. The Phoenix get themselves out of that situation and Eduardo is safe.
Quote
"Eduardo felt that they had a similar spirit-and he'd begun to notice an almost strange feeling that they were supposed to be friends, even before they were." (Mexrich 35)
Reaction
This foreshadows an end to their friendship eventually because with Winklevoss and Divya looking for a new programmer, Mark is going to have to choose between being with his friend or become business parters with Winklevoss. Also, Eduardo is also a business major so that might come into play if there is going to be a rivalry between him and the Winklevoss.
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