Food Run

Food Deserts are a huge problem in the United States that effect over 23.5 million people. According to the USDA, “food deserts are defined as urban neighborhoods and rural towns without access to fresh, healthy, and affordable food. These communities only have access to fast food and convenience stores that offer few affordable food options."

Food Run is an organization that strives to connect those living in food deserts in the Memphis area with each other to form carpool groups so they can travel outside of the desert to purchase fresh food from high quality grocery stores. Through our website you can sign up and organize a group or select a group to sponsor.

After discussion in class we realize that our service may not be able to reach everyone we intend to help. We would partner with farmers markets, churches in low income areas, schools and stores to be able to put up posters directing people in our target communities to our website.

For more on our revolutionary business model see our links below:

Presentation Link: https://prezi.com/4mwwvqbglpx2/food-run/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy
Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Food-Run-1174148009280236/
Our Website: http://acrisp5.wix.com/foodrun

RecoverAna

Link to the proof-of-concept version of the app: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/59516118/RecoverAna.zip

Link to our slideshow: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1WOr9Mkaf1atOhFwEO4gsVrNFH9orcY5lXLjQrLJrmZA/edit?usp=sharing

RecoverAna is designed to help people recover from anorexia. It does this by offering automated Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, which helps a person to replace their negative thoughts with positive ones. Another feature is a meal tracker, which would allow a person to record their thoughts associated with each meal. We also included an article section, which would allow a person to read more about anorexia, and become more educated. We have a forum and a chat room, where users of the app could talk to each other, and comfort each other if they are feeling down. Finally, we put a “Call Hotline” button on the app, that, when pressed, would call a hotline for anorexia.

Since our presentation, we made a few changes to our idea. We decided to make the app only accessible through a psychologist’s prescription, instead of freely available to download, so that people would not attempt to self-medicate, and make their condition worse. We also decided to change the goal behind the meal tracker, so that it is for a psychologist to monitor the user’s progress, instead of for the user to monitor it themselves, because that could potentially cause their condition to worsen. We appreciate all of the questions and feedback, and we hope that you liked our idea.

The Buddy System

url to app; http://snappy.appypie.com/html5/the-buddy-system


Our mission is: The Buddy System was created with the mindset that everyone needs and can have a buddy even when they feel that they have no one else. Through our app, people will be able to find support whether it be when walking home alone or when needing to talk to someone who is going through similar situations.

We greatly appreciated everyone's feedback on Friday. Because of what was said we decided to add a few more features to our phone app. We have decided that it would be a good addition to have moderators and professionals onto our chat room in order to make sure it is a safe environment of support. They would be able to talk directly to someone that said anything alarming, and direct them to someone that could help. We would also have a terms and conditions page that outlined how to use the app safely.

We also know that we would like to add a feature in which there would be different app icons in order to keep the identity and nature of the app as a secret when popularity was gained. All the great features from before would still be available, but the Buddy Up feature would be the main screen.

Justin beiber, rental cars, and 2 years behind without a daddy

Taking moral issues and this semester in general has opened my doors, furthermore it has opened my mind to many more possibilities. I could go on about how I failed my last 2 exams in a course. However, currently Pandora decided to "Play Stuck in the Moment with You" by Justin Beiber and it time traveled me to an earlier day in my development. A time when my biggest worry was if I would be able to catch the Disney premiere of whatever was the newest show or episode. Well, that's an exaggeration; I'm sure you get the point.

A few years later I'm about 2 chronological years older than my graduating year classmates. That's the least of my problems. I'm without a father. 

The reason I share this candid information is not whether I'm testing consequentialism, I'm testing existentialism. I do hold that definite optimism, the belief that we define our future successes, is of utmost importance. So an issue of current, it could be argued, is the loss of the personal touch and community. That's why I decided to share my innermost thought with my moral issues class of 2015: 

Sam

Theresa

 McKenzie

Jenny 

James 

Rachel
Madison

Richard 

Efren

Leslie

Meghan
Caitlen
Ali
Selena
In addition, this great group of people is led by Dr. Johnson, arguably the trendiest and most up-to-date professor I have had.

Since we are "Stuck in the Moment with Each Other" might as well get to know one another and build community. One could argue that it would help lessen moral dilemmas. I hope we continue to have a great semester and I am glad to be able to share a great semester with you. 

Hearts for the Hungry

The Link: 
http://jdavids1.wix.com/heartsforthehungry

The mission of Hearts for the Hungry has three pieces: 

1. To provide for those who are in need

2. To allow restaurants with excess food to redistribute

3. To donate food in a fast, effective, and technologically advanced method. 

First, we researched how hunger and food insecurity plagues Shelby county. A study finds that 204,130 people in Shelby County--including nearly 50,000 children--do not always know where they will find their next meal. According to the Mid-South Food Bank and Feeding America, 22% of the Shelby County population struggles with hunger. This is an increase of 1%, or more than 8,600 people, over the last year. 

Our website is for restaurants, shelters, and those in need. In the website, we have different features to accommodate all viewers. We also have a find us page where you can direct all questions about the food and food safety, volunteering, and the H4H revolution. 

We are Hearts for the Hungry and we are discovering happiness in thankfulness. 

urBAC

urBAC creates a simple and reliable way to measure your BAC. It is constituted of a bracelet and an app that work together to give your exact BAC by transdermally testing your sweat. Since our society consumes a lot of alcohol, our purpose for this app is to not only reduce drunk driving in our society but keep you aware of their physical and mental capabilities. It uses a color scale which tells you how drunk you are, ensuring that you are conscious and able to make rational decisions. Wanting to develop a community based product, the app, in conjunction with the bracelet, will automatically notify your friends in the group preselected in order to let them know you may need help to find a safe environment. This feature keeps you accountable to both yourself and others. Although urBAC can not stop you from driving under the influence, we wanted to offer an option to alert you and your friends about the state you are in.

Since Monday, we made some adjustments off the ideas discussed in class. The main change is the color system. We agreed with the problem of designating yellow for the illegal limit of 0.08% BAC, so we changed it to red and made the BAC levels after 0.08 into into a purple. Another suggestion we included was the idea of using GPS. We enabled in the setting a feature capable of tracking you that would allow your friends to find you when they're needed. The last piece of advice we incorporated was the situation of having your BAC recorded as a history. In the end, we decided to create an option of turning this off or on in the settings. Allowing people to decide how they want urBAC to assist them became a major focus, and we hope you enjoy our idea.
Link:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1p08Qi943jNmSenxCCHSBAAwa8bWZJWN1mmvYcSeu6eo/pub?start=false&loop=false&delayms=60000

A Media Commentary

The entire time I was watching White Bear I kept thinking it was a social commentary on media until the very end with the way in which all the characters followed her around with cell phones and were recording. In the end that had to do with the way in which she aided in the torture and murder of a little girl by filming it, so they were punishing in the same manner.

Even though the focus was not on the media aspect, I would like to open that up for discussion in the means of social justice. For example, big tragedies have been recorded and documented with means of cell phones and social media. This has completely changed the way the public views everything because now we can see it with our own eyes instead it just being reported into text or audio. Seeing videos of terrible events such as terriost attacks and police brutality is more of an appeal to the emotion of the public. The question is does it make responses more or less where they should be and does media completely skew situations in order to ignite the public or the other way around?

With that in mind, it does keep people more accurately up to date because they can get the news right as it happens which gets people fired up a lot more quickly then it would if there was no such thing. There is pros and cons to how the media effects our life, but when it comes to social justice it gets pretty sticky. It seems as though it is impossible to have all of the facts about each situation because you can see a video and already form an opinion.

What Punishment Does the Punishers Deserve?

White Bear was not what I expected to come across when entering class on Monday. I honestly was pretty excited when Dr. J said that we were watching a documentary instead of taking notes on a lecture– it is nice to spice things up every now and then. The film was very disturbing but also made me think about something that maybe really had never crossed my mind: the idea of "social justice."

When I was younger, I used to be absolutely fascinated by the news. My favorite to watch was Nancy Grace and I was obsessed with the Natalie Holloway case. I never really thought about what would happen if the people who kidnapped her got caught and what would  happen to them. I guess I assumed they would go to jail and that would be it. I never really understood that those people who made those mistakes, would never have a chance to be forgiven. As a believer in Christ, I know that they could be forgiven by God's love, but the world would forever turn they back on them. That is what happened to the girl in the video.

What had me really thinking was if Victoria had to start over every single day, could God's love ever find her? Or had she missed her chance at salvation? I really am starting to think that maybe her punishment is not reliving her sin day after day, but maybe it is the fact that God's love can never find her. In Danté's Inferno the levels of hell are illustrated along with the punishment each sin "deserves." I am not sure if even Danté would say that Victoria deserves this punishment. What she did was horrible and awful and cruel, but what punishment do the people who are inflicting this upon her deserve? The Devil is the keeper of hell and his punishment is that he has to stay there just as the people in hell do, but what do the watchers and the people who videoed everything and the inflicters have to do?

What punishment does the punishers deserve?

WHITE BEAR IS NOT JUSTICE

The world is falling into pieces; we all know how wars, pollution, illness, etc are making the world to experience hard times. People can do a lot of thing to change this situation. however, they are speeding up the process. How common is to see news about people killing each other, killing animals, killing children, killing innocents. Everyday this kind of crimes increases, and the only thing we can do about it is ask for justice.

By watching the video about the "White Bear" group I lost a little be more of my hope in humanity. This group, which thinks that is being just, is a group of cruel and sick people, which loves to see others suffering. I didn't see justice in the whole video. I know that the woman did a horrible crime becuase she did nothing to save the life of an innocent kid, but she should go to jail. At the beginning of realizing everything that was happening, the punishment, I thought that it was a way to make people change, however, after seeing the rest of the video, I realized how wrong I was. Why "White Bear" doesn't look for another criminal to punish? Why to make this woman suffer for the rest of her life? Why do they erase her memory? the answer is simple: because they love and enjoy other's suffering. I would agree with them if they do this to the woman just once; to make her change; to make her be a good person. Doing it everyday, erasing her memory, is just sick.

The people in "White Bear" is worst than the criminals because they are not being just; they are punishing without a purpose; they think they are doing the right thing, but they are not. Even though the justice system in America is not designed to make criminals change, jail is the place were the woman in the video belongs. If we take justice by our own hands, then the world  will fall into chaos. And humanity will end with everything in a short peiod of time.