annieqianyu

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欢迎来到消费Z 时代 | Accenture

https://www.accenture.com/t00010101T000000Z__w__/cn-zh/_acnmedia/PDF-58/Accenture-Retail-Customer-Journey-Research-CN-V9.pdf

95后的消费习惯：

2015年全球 95 后仅零花钱总量就 高达 400 多亿美金，已与同一年 中国投资者向欧洲和北美市场的 投资额相当。

热衷于Instagram, YouTube & Snapchat

中国 95 后消费者的 七大新特征

左手电脑（41%）网��：服装（59%）、食品杂货（48%）、电子产品（47%）和健康美容（26%）产品是95后最常网购的四大品类。

右手实体店。在门店购物时非常看重数字化体验，会借助多媒体 / 多渠道，使用移动 设备比较价格，或通过社交媒体和移动 设备远程征求朋友家人意见。

不止社交聊天，也爱社交购物。95 后青睐更丰富多样的社交平台，比如直播类、视频类平台。网购频次和社交媒体购物的意愿远高于90,80后。微信的影响力随消费者 年龄的降低而减小，微博则相反。

不做比价狂，要当选货王。对价格没那么敏感，注重评价和反馈，喜欢征求朋友，家人和信任的博主的意见。95 后当中只有不到一成会认准一家商店购买其所需全部商品。34%的95 后在购买服装时会浏览至少4家线上或线下销售点，而当购买健康和美容产品时，这一比例会增加到48%。在选择服装、食品杂货时， 95 后会很快做出决定，而在选购日用品和健康美容产品时，往往会花费更多时间（60%的消费者花费大于一周的时间）。

随性购买，更易冲动购物。喜欢冲动购物，所以退货需求也高。如果商家没有令人满意的退货政策，接近2/3 的95后可能会因此而流失。

配送服务决定是否下单。注重速度而不是免运费，偏爱“提供预约配送时间”这一服务。

乐尝购物新方式。更愿意体验零售 商提供的新服务，比如语音下单、定期 购、精选订购、电器租赁等。

消费反馈更直接。72% 的受访者表示，他们经常或频繁提供反馈，接近半数会专门到生产商的网站上留言。

如何抓住95后消费者？

不要放弃门店。重新改造门店，打造数字化互 联互动、高度个性化的实体店购物体验（Amazon Go：通过感测器和移动技术实现无收银购物）。

聚焦“热门”社交媒体。更看重视频和图 ���，而不是文字，而社交媒体渠道则扮 演着更重要的角色。

���体验和速度制胜。零售商应考虑与第三方公司合作， 以此改善客户体验。良好的体验加上快速的订单履行方式将会满足这一代的期待。

内容全渠道管理。95 后对网罗各种商品信息驾轻就熟：社交媒体平台、品牌官网、电商网站等搜索产品信息、商品推荐、营销活动信息等。零售商在积极部署销售全渠道的同时，也要将内容全渠道管理纳入考量之中，统筹规划线上线下全渠道内容，在各个接触点满足消费者的内容需求。

重视并增加反馈。虑收集消费者的产品推荐视频， 这种方法真实可靠且易操作，可极大地增加可信度。社交聆听能力将成为公关的重中之重。

运用新手段贴近客户。创造新的购物模式：Rebecca Minkoff 的智能试衣间，灯光可以根据顾客的需 要做出调整，顾客还能通过身旁的扫描 设备了解商品的材质、价格等信息，并 可随时寻求店内导购人员的帮助，甚至 在试衣间里就能用手机买单支付。

[annieqianyu]

梦

2020/08/29晚

昨夜梦见疫情期间，我住在一个旧却不破的酒店公寓7楼。酒店墙上满是淡色的墙纸，天花板很高，有一个门房。公寓的正中是一个旧式的电梯，电梯被楼梯包裹着，两旁是公寓和不同的设施。整个公寓里灯光暗黄，走道狭窄。

我今天不知为何外出，回来时走着楼梯回房间。在楼梯上遇到了全副武装的医护人员正在往下抬走三具尸体。疫情中得病的人会尸体腐烂，露出狰狞，血肉模糊的肉和白骨。尸体袋不知为何开着，让现在狭窄楼梯间小心避让的我正好看见了尸体的模样，十分吓人。我问是哪里来的病人，他们说是从7楼的牙科诊所来的。我听得心下一惊。赶紧走上7楼。我的房间在左侧，转弯前匆忙地看了一眼右侧的诊所，大门敞开，房内昏暗不可见。

回到房内，心烦意燥的我觉得在公寓里喘不过气。想着如此之近的距离我被感染的可能性也很大，却束手无策。

与我同住的是一个喜爱旅游运动的白人女生Shannon。公寓的外面遍是海，近得可以直接从阳台跳入水中。透过阳台可以看见，海天一线的蔚蓝和宽广。我刚走到阳台上，看到室友的爸爸今天坐着游艇来到我们的阳台前，正在向她招手。她已经穿好了泳衣，从阳台上跳到了船上，和她爸爸一起出海游泳去了。看到他们的纵身跃入海中的样子，我可以想象得出冰凉的海水打在我身上的感觉，也可以想象背后炙热的阳光，依旧照得海面波光粼粼。父女两渐渐小得不可见，看着茫茫大海，突然感觉公寓和疫情不复存在，一切明媚安好。

好到我也忘了我还待在公寓7楼的诊所隔壁。

                                         __________________________

所有的梦都是生活里的元素重组而成

恐惧疫情 - 昨天出去走路，虽然口罩都湿透了，但是因为害怕被传染一直没有摘下。

牙医 - 昨天在bestdressed上看到Ashley去看牙医。

白人女生&家人 - 前几日看照片时看到了之前感恩节去lane家的回忆。

Shannon - 她和Lane同样曾是我的室友，Shannon酷爱徒步和瑜伽。

海 - 和哥哥聊到曾去波多黎各的海边。

酒店公寓 - 之前看了悬疑剧摩天大楼，也是发生在诡异的公寓大楼。当然也可能是因为疫情期间我每天都被关在自家的公寓里。

公寓外就是海 - 我住在14楼，时常在家中坐着平视落地窗外时，可以看到Potomac River和广阔的天。

腐烂的尸体 - “谁是受害者”里面有焚尸，溶尸的景象。

遗忘 - 这当然就是我一直以来麻木自己对未来焦虑的拿手好戏。

[annieqianyu]

吉野家为什么在中国混得这么惨？

新商业要参  The following article is from 市界 Author 有趣有料的 市界

《博客天下》资本观察

继麦当劳、星巴克之后，又一家全球连锁餐饮品牌准备大规模关店。

千雨文章摘要：

国内的吉野家有两种运营模式：一个是日本吉野家，另一个是香港上市公司合兴集团（简称合兴集团）。合兴集团凭借与日本吉野家签署的长期特许协议，在中国北方运营吉野家。而由日本公司直营或者合资运营的吉野家大多数在南方城市。

吉野家失败原因：

1. 缺乏品牌定位差异。吉野家的品牌故事（‘吉野’ 之名的来历）并没有有效利用到品牌定位和凸显产品优势上。

2. 本土优势在海外市场不具备吸引力。吉野家的本土（日本）优势为正宗的牛肉盖饭，亲民的价格以及味道独特，然后这几个优势都没有在中国本土产生竞品的差异优势。首先，没有汇率差价，同为23元的牛肉盖饭价格，在消费力为1/3的中国（日本比中国为3：1）并没有体现低价性价比高的优势；而所谓的正宗和味道独特，也被国内琳琅满目的各地美食而显得平平无奇。

3.缺乏产品竞争力。吉野最初定位需要短时间，高效率解决吃中午饭的白领为主要消费人群，因此多坐落于繁华地区，利用地势优势和快餐模式来解决白领对时间的要求。然后在外卖的兴起后，价格适中，品质较好的各式餐饮让白领的选择区间拓宽，吉野家的竞争力就此降低。

4. 天灾人祸不断。2004年美国的疯牛病风波导致日本政府连续4年禁止从美国进口牛肉，导致惨烈的价格战。2008年的经济危机，导致当年世界上最大的失业潮波及日本，日本的GDP连续两年大幅度下滑。2018年，日本吉野家因为暴雨、台风和地震，导致旗下店铺营业时间大幅缩短/停业。2020年，新冠疫情。

撤退之后，日本吉野家的重心将更偏向于本土。相比之下，同样处于亏损中的合兴集团，并没有一个可以作为“大本营”的退路，只能坚守住为其贡献8成以上收入的北方市场。而类似于麦当劳这样的西式快餐企业，则有大量商业地产和更大的盈利规模作为家底，暂时不会伤筋动骨。

文|林夏淅 黄莹

7月28日，日本吉野家控股（以下简称日本吉野家）宣布，到2021年2月为止，日本吉野家将在国内外关闭最多150家店铺，其中包括在中国的50家店铺。生活在日本的小辛告诉市界，此次大规模关店让她感到诧异，也切身感受到疫情带来的冲击，吉野家在她心目中是经济实惠、物美价廉的代表。吉野家的关店，也让日本人和泉感觉到一丝遗憾。对她来说，吉野家是最古老也最正宗的牛肉饭创始者。她所在的城市日本广岛，几乎每一个区都会有一两家吉野家店铺。疫情期间，餐饮店的关张成为常态，但吉野家的背后是长达百年的历史，疫情并不是逼迫它收缩的唯一原因。

水土不服 在中国，吉野家正逐渐失去优势。合兴集团的数据显示，2012年，吉野家店均营收为600万人民币，而到了2019年，这个数字变成了481万元。门店平均回报率下降四分之一，单店收益已大不如从前。

门店数量已使用年初年末加权平均数对日本吉野家来说，中国业务占比6成（按门店数量计算）的海外业务也是其业务增长最乏力的板块之一。2017-2019年，海外业务对应的营收增幅分别为18.84%、7.24%和3.70%，对收入总额的贡献比例也一直较低，成长性不足成为日本吉野家海外业务的痛点。

不管是合兴集团，还是日本吉野家，在中国挂着同样的招牌，也面临着同样的困境。吉野家是日本正宗的百年老店。它之所以叫“吉野家”并不是因为创始人姓吉野，而是因为一个古老的故事。传说12世纪，日本有一个叫做源义经的将军，和爱妾在途径吉野山避难时，把��饪牛肉饭的技巧教给了当地的居民，牛肉饭就此成为当地的一种美味。

1899年，创始人松田在东京海鲜批发市场筑地市场开起了第一家牛肉盖饭店，取名吉野家，意在说明自己的牛肉盖饭正宗。批发市场的地理位置和客源特点，决定了这个品牌平价、亲民的最初定位。吉野家之所以能在日本屹立百年不倒，除了味道独特之外，还在于其便宜。但到了中国之后，吉野家却陷入尴尬境地，两个优势都不明显。世界银行有一组关于购买力平价后的人均国民收入数据，指的是假设各国货币具有同等购买力，各国的人均国民收入水平。数据显示，按购买力平价计算，日本的人均收入是中国的3倍左右。

但从吉野家的定价上来看，日本和中国的差异并不大。例如，在中国，吉野家招牌小碗牛肉饭是人民币23元每份，在日本不含消费税价格为332日元，折合人民币为22元。这也就是说，虽然对于日本消费者来说，吉野家是“平价”象征，但对于中国的绝大多数购买力来说，吉野家却算不上一份便宜的餐食。不但没有价格优势，产品优势在中国似乎也失效了。吉野家的产品并不具备独特性。一方面，吉野家在日本的老对手食其家已经把店开到了上海、江苏、浙江、北京、天津、广东等地方，牛肉饭并不止一个品牌。另一方面，在同样也是以米饭为主食的中国南方地区，牛肉盖饭和其他五花八门的盖饭相比，区分度显然不够。

外卖兴起之后，大家的选择性更多，再次压缩了吉野家的生存空间。吉野家在中国瞄准的是城市白领。在外卖平台尚未兴起之时，城市白领为了节省午饭时间和成本，多会选择在公司楼下的快餐店解决，吉野家、麦当劳、肯德基这些老牌的快餐店往往占据优势。但是外卖平台兴起之后，外卖小哥削弱了店面优势，不管店开在哪里，只要产品做得足够好、价格合理，都能有生意。餐饮市场是有限的，别人生意多了，吉野家的生意相应就少了。活成现在这样，吉野家也不愿意看到，但在其微薄的利润面前，进一步降价的空间并不多。从净利润来看，2019年合兴集团和日本吉野家的净利润分别为1.04亿元和0.44亿元。

以报告期末汇率估算上涨的人工费、材料费以及店铺租金还在不断压缩着吉野家的利润。辛辛苦苦开了几千家店，利润也不过1个小目标，吉野家未免也太难了。

"最后一根稻草"

对于拥有百年历史的日本吉野家而言，困境不是第一次出现。即使只看近20年的历史，吉野家也已经度过了三个坎儿。2004年美国的疯牛病风波，曾导致日本政府禁止从美国进口牛肉长达4年之久，主打牛肉饭的几大巨头纷纷采取各种策略，甚至打起了惨烈的价格战，业绩受损无可避免。2008年的经济危机，导致当年世界上最大的失业潮波及日本，日本的GDP从2007年的531.69万亿日元连续两年下滑至489.5万亿日元。2009年日本吉野家89.41亿日元的亏损，也只是无数资本市场悲剧中的一支插曲。

9年后的2018年，日本吉野家因为当年7月的暴雨、9月的台风和地震，旗下店铺营业时间大幅缩短，更有大量店铺停业，导致当年发生合计60亿日元的亏损，多灾的“体质”再次凸显。但仅仅过去一年，吉野家又遇到了2020年的新冠疫情。最新公告显示，疫情期间，日本吉野家在全球有1700家门店受到影响，全集团在3月、4月和5月分别缩短了94%、78.7%和77.4%的营业时间。相对应的，日本吉野控股2020年一季度亏损金额达到40.87亿日元，预计全年亏损90亿日元，不仅在亏损���额上高于前两次，离前一次亏损也只有1年的间隔，可以说是元气大伤。 日本的财务年度为3月1日至次年2月28日，例如2018年指的是2018年3月1日至2019年2月28日财务数据业绩急转直下的同时，日本吉野家的债务还在不断攀升，2020年5月末带息债务合计576.27亿日元，同比增幅高达44.73%，资产负债率也提高至67.5%，达到近五年来的最高水平。

眼下，吉野家面临着“涨价，可能失去市场，降价，可能无利可图”的困境，最终只能采取更被动的关店策略，以收缩规模、减少损失。即将在中国关闭的50家门店，约占其在中国开设直营店与合资店数量的1/4，而在日本关闭的100家店中，只有40家为吉野家品牌门店，约占日本国内吉野家门店数量的1/30。总体来看，撤退之后，日本吉野家的重心将更偏向于本土。相比之下，同样处于亏损中的合兴集团，并没有一个可以作为“大本营”的退路，只能坚守住为其贡献8成以上收入的北方市场。而类似于麦当劳这样的西式快餐企业，则有大量商业地产和更大的盈利规模作为家底，暂时不会伤筋动骨。吉野家的关店，让生活在日本的和泉、小辛等不少顾客感觉到一丝遗憾。不过即使家门口的吉野家关闭了，她们也并不担心，吉野家的对手松屋、食其家还在开门营业，她们还可以在那里吃到喜欢的牛肉饭。

在中国，我们还有黄焖鸡、卤肉饭、螺蛳粉、热干面等一大堆平价美食，从味道到性价比，都足以碾压吉野家。N 

[annieqianyu]

Acting Questions

-Who is your character? Are you an animal? A person? A concept?

-How does your character walk? Is their movement different than your own? 

-How does your character talk? Is their voice different from your own? 

-What has your character experienced in their past? 

-Where is your character from? 

-What relationship does your character have with others?

-What matters most to your character?

-What does your character think about what is happening in the show? What do they think about George?

-What is the most important thing you want the audience to know about your character?

[annieqianyu]

Article 7/2

I’ve Had a Cyberstalker Since I Was 12

Law enforcement is often lack of cyberstalking-related knowledge and may give out false information.

Apple and Google are often unable to help with cyberstalking

“There is a very long history of trivializing the harms that are done to women specifically,” Franks said. “That includes everything from domestic assault to rape to stalking.” 

Stalkers are divided into five different types.

“I was never physically afraid of Danny and never will be. That fact does not negate my experience or make his actions any less damaging. I don’t need the law questioning whether I feel scared enough.“

[annieqianyu]

Article 7/2

Surprise! Huawei Can Actually Innovate—and Win Fans

Huawei ranked Top 5 in R&D investment, achieving 87,805 patents, according to the EU report.

After Trump-Xi meeting, Trump has agreed to let Huawei purchase and sell items that are not related to national security concerns, including chips and software.

Huawei had been sued for IP Infringement for the past years by Cisco, Motorola, T-Mobile and more.

Huawei licensing it’s IP has been deem as “using US legal system against the US companies”, but Huawei CLO (Legal) responded with: “If some governments selectively strip companies of their IP, it will break the foundation of global innovation.”

With Chinese tight market regulation, global competitors have not been able to expand as fast and broad as Huawei.

Huawei’s chip has been very competitive in the market, charging 30-40% less than competitors. The quality of the product is also premium, with no failures throughout the years, “which is unheard of”.

US companies are willing to remove all Huawei products if the national security concern is real, but the government is sending mixed messages with political tactics, which makes them confused. 

[annieqianyu]

Acting Notes 2/25/19

[annieqianyu]

世间最残忍也最奇妙的，便是这时间和人。不论发生了什么，都有我们漠不关心的一天。

[annieqianyu]

Acting Class Notes 2/6/19

Konstantin Stanislavski (Moscow Art Theatre)

- everything in the script is “given” --> truth, given circumstances

- everything else is an actor’s “choice” 

The pull and push between these two factors are what make a performance

Realism （Lee Strasberg）: 19th century, theatres focus on the nuance of motions instead of the dramatic style from romanticism 

7 Questions from Konstantin Stanislavski 

if you are playing in the play, these are questions you should be able to answer → what your paper will be based on.

1. [Circumstance] Who am I ? social status, what people say about me, age...

2. [Circumstance] When am I ? place setting, what time of days, the period of the time (an afternoon? or the whole month?)

3. [Circumstance] Where am I ? geographically, the significance (talking in a coffee shop vs. talking in a dark alley)

4. [Objective] What do I want ? desire (conflict of interest between actors) the stronger the desire, the stronger the conflict 

5. [Tactics] Why do I want it? 

6. [Tactics] What is preventing me from what I want? barriers

7. [Tactics] What will I do to get what I want? 

Affective Memory: we as people through our own experience have experienced a lot of emotions. we store them, unlock them and associate them in the play.

(Sense Memory)

Stelle Adler → research! actors cultivating their own character. everything you need is from the circumstances, the deeper you dig, the more you can get out from it. What was the person’s day like in certain historical period? Research on that!

Sanford Meisner → repetition & improv. (repeat the same line over and over, until the line lose its meaning, the all actors do are just adjusting and responding to the subtext/connotation from its partner and give genuine responses)  

A lot of things above are PSYCHOLOGICAL → getting into character’s mind

Stanislavski: from PSYCHOLOGICAL to PSYCHOPHYSICAL (Meyerhold, biomechanics) 

【PAPER DUE ON MONDAY】

[annieqianyu]

生活是笑话，别哭着听它🌈

[annieqianyu]

天才在左，疯子在右

时间不是流逝的，流逝的是我们。

如果我模糊着去看，看到的人就是动物，除非我正式地看才是人。

其实蚂蚁都是一种生命的细胞，我命名为“松散生命”。蚁后就是大脑，兵蚁就是身体的防卫组织，工蚁都是细胞，也是嘴，也是手， 用来找食物，用来传递，用来让大脑维持。蚁后作为大脑，还得兼顾生殖系统。工蚁聚在一起运输的时候，其实就是血液在输送养分，工蚁兼顾好多种功能，还得培育新生的细胞---就是幼蚁。蚂蚁之间传达信号是靠化学物质，对吧？人也是啊，你不用指挥你的细胞，细胞之间自己就解决了！明白吧？其实蚂蚁是生命形式的另一种，不是简单的昆虫。你养过蚂蚁没？没养过吧。你养几只蚂蚁，他们没几天就死了，就算每天给吃的也得死，因为失去大脑的指挥了。你必须养好多只，他们才会活，就跟趋下一篇人体组织培养似的。

石头是另一种生命。他们看着不动，其实也会动的，只是太慢了...它们的动是被动的，风吹啊，水冲啊，动物踢啊...他们不愿意动，因为他们乱动会死的...磨损啊，磨没了就死了。

[annieqianyu]

Acting Class Notes 1/28/2019

Storytelling Feedback

1. Standing vs. Sitting

Sitting: limit your option, low energy, comforting and personable

Standing: ability and choice to move around

2. Ending of the story is as important as the beginning, if not more.

3. Construct a story: pinpoint the high points, plan the seeds and expectation (subvert, e.g. First time kissing a person (he? her? who?)) What’s the “money moment” for your story? 

4. Change the breathing rhythm of the audience

5. Hand gesture of moving further in the lake (turning the story into a 3 dimension world) How to energize and use the space.

6. Projection: adjust “how big you are” according to the room

7. ***DNIP (DownWard Inflection Pattern): going down towards the end of each sentence

8. Use the whole range of your vocal expression.

9. Questions left in the story: could answer them or leave them unanswered and keep the audience thinking

10. We have a lot of ingrained pilot program in our movement, be conscious of them and utilize them because each character may have a different way of movements.

11. Eye Contact: don’t look down, and adjust your eye contact based on audience’s feedback: when they have more response to your performance.

12. When you are distracted on stage, your audience is also following you to see what else is happening

13. How big your box is? Your movement in a box. The size of your box

14. Stage presence: how much of the stage can you occupy.

Improvisation

Rule 1: “Yes, and...“

Rule 2: Don’t need to be a good story

Game 1: create a random story going down the line of people

Game 2: create an object, do something with it, pass it down to the next person, then the next person needs to do something with the same object, and do something with it, then change into a new object, interact with it and pass it down.

[annieqianyu]

Acting Journal #1

Clementin,

These are great goals.  Your comment about presence is vital to an actor's work. Interestingly, I think of an actor needing to simultaneously be in and outside of their experience all the time.  One part of the brain needs to be immersed in the character, experiencing her emotions and reacting to what is happening in the scene.  But another part of the brain must be separate from the action, remembering what comes next, hitting the right marks, and responding to the tiny variations from one performance to the next.

As far as your singing goes, I was trained as a singer in high school, and my teacher always insisted that a good singer was a good actor. Like you say, connecting with the emotion in the song is what sells it, rather than exquisite vocal control or tone color. So, hopefully, what we do in class will be relevant to your singing; I certainly believe that they're largely the same.

Professor Mulford

[annieqianyu]

Articles 1/19

INSIDE CHINA'S VAST NEW EXPERIMENT IN SOCIAL RANKING

Prevalent payment apps like Ali Pay and WeChat Pay has allowed Chinese citizen to make purchases through their phone in the most convenient way. The purchase history collected from these apps is now used for calculating users’ credit score. 

Apps like Zhima Credit can also assess users’ credit score based on users’ payment type, purchased product, network’s score and more. Higher scores can result in perks and rewards to the users, which grant more access to people. Tough claiming that there’s no third-party connection with Zhima Credit, it did collect a list of people who have defaulted their court fine into their system with the Chinese governmental. 

[annieqianyu]

Reading: Man in Black (9/22)

Disclaimer：All texts below are quick summary/excerpts from the book and related website.

Preface: Man, not Gods

A series of supreme court judges that have not done their duties due to bad health condition, poor judgment and more.

Chapter 1: Radicals in Robes

The constitution should govern the judges when rendering constitutional decisions.

Judge's’ role is to search for answers to the issues presented to them based on what the Constitution and Law compel. Their decision carries the weight of law and can have far-reaching consequences. When a judge strays from this obligation, he undermines the very structure of our Constitution, disenfranchises the people, and answers into law subjective opinions that often lead to an inconsistent, illogical, and flawed result. The Consitution defines and establishes the distribution of authority, the structure of government, and the process by which national decisions are to be made.

Originalist: judges who look to the text of the Constitution and the intent of the framers when deciding a constitutional question, and believe they are bound by them.

Activist / Non-originalist: Judges who consider the constitution a document of broad principles and concepts, one that empowers them to substitute their personal beliefs, values, and policies for those enumerated in the Constitution. They see their role limited only by the boundaries of their imagination.

The 5th Amendment: (Related to both of the cases below): No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

David Scott v Sandford (1856)

-Case Summary: Dred Scott was a slave in Missouri. From 1833 to 1843, he resided in Illinois (a free state) and in the Louisiana Territory, where slavery was forbidden by the Missouri Compromise of 1820. After returning to Missouri, Scott filed suit in Missouri court for his freedom, claiming that his residence in free territory made him a free man. 

-Taney (The judge): the 5th Amendment prohibited people from being deprived of life, liberty, or property without due process, and because slaves were property, any congressional ban on slavery in the territories of the Louisiana Purchase was unconstitutional because it would be a denial of property without due process.

-Conclusion: Taney presumed that “a statue can be unconstitutional because it violates unenumerated rights”, in which this case and unenumerated right to slavery. Taney overruled Congress’s power to ban slavery and imposed his judgment on the nation.

Plessy v Ferguson (1896)

-Case Summary: Louisiana enacted the Separate Car Act, which required separate railway cars for blacks and whites. In 1892, Homer Plessy – who was seven-eighths Caucasian – agreed to participate in a test to challenge the Act. He was solicited by the Comite des Citoyens (Committee of Citizens), a group of New Orleans residents who sought to repeal the Act. They asked Plessy, who was technically black under Louisiana law, to sit in a "whites only" car of a Louisiana train. 

The railroad cooperated because it thought the Act imposed unnecessary costs via the purchase of additional railroad cars. When Plessy was told to vacate the whites-only car, he was refused and arrested. 

At trial, Plessy’s lawyers argued that the Separate Car Act violated the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments. The judge found that Louisiana could enforce this law insofar as it affected railroads within its boundaries. Plessy was convicted.

-Conclusion: The court failed to invoke the plain language of the 14th Amendment, and instead, inserted its own segregationist version of what was just...The doctrine of “separate but equal” was the law of the land for the next 58 years, until the Court reversed course in the 1954 decision Brown v Board of Education

“When the judiciary utilizes outcome-determinative reasoning, rather than adhering to the Constitution, the result can be catastrophic.“

“Judicial activists are nothing short of radicals in robes - contemptuous of the rule of law, subverting the Constitution at will, and using their public trust to impose their policy preferences on society. In fact, no radical political movement has been more effective in undermining our system of government than the judiciary.“

[annieqianyu]

Day 3.1 News Articles (9/10)

How social-media platforms dispense justice

1. Decision made by big tech platforms like Facebook, Twitter on whether to take information down or leave it has enabled them to become the “ministries of truth” for a global audience.

2. Accuses has been made towards these big tech platforms on “anti-conservative bias for suppressing certain news”. One major critics is the president Trump.

 3. “Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 treats them (these tech firms) as intermediaries, not publishers—to protect them from legal jeopardy” However, this was established during the early stages, in which nowadays it no longer apply (but still applicable) to the situations with billions of users compared to 100 million users.

4. Companies like FB and Twitter have sharply increased their effort and human resources (algorithm has not yet reached the ability to run specific content monitoring) on content monitoring according to hundred-pages of guidelines.

How each firm deal with fake news and sensitive contents?

a). Facebook: do not take down fake news (checked by external fact-checker), rather they down-rank it, let fewer people see it, and at the same time include real news next to it.

b). YouTube: automated detection of sensitive contents, flag them, then the final decision are being manually made.

c). Twitter: uses “AI to sniff out fake accounts and some inappropriate content, but it relies more heavily on user reports of harassment and bullying.”

5. The extra cost of hiring people for content monitoring may cause some or more stress on the company depending on their financial status.

[annieqianyu]

Day 3.1 News Articles (9/10)

Can young blood really rejuvenate the old?

1. Scientists have run trials on animals to see when the blood of the young mice infused into the old’s, it has rejuvenating effects.

2. How they run the trials? They make cuts with the two mice, stitch the two cuts together, and after it healed, two mice will have a circulating system with both hearts bumping into both bodies.

3. Results? Reverse effect: The old mouse has a better functionality to repair muscle injuries and the young mouse has worse functionality. 

4. Why? One explanation is that the young blood could be proliferating the broken tissues, another explanation says that “the old animal benefits from access to the organs (kidneys, liver and so on) of its young companion”.

5. Experiments in which animals are given quick transfusions, rather than being stitched together for weeks, even though less, but still show benefits.

6. Human trials are in process: Alkahest (company) plans to do trials on 18 people with Alzheimer’s disease through transfusion, and Alkahest (another company), charging people over 35 with $8,000 to take participate in the trials in which they will receive blood from under 25

7. Even if the trials turn out to be working, shortage of blood will still be prioritized for surgeries and emergencies instead of anti-aging treatments (if there is any).