The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
MHACKS
From Page 1A
While developing the app was
not an easy task, the whole team
was grateful for the support of
the other developers at MHacks.
Weinstein said once people
understand how the app could
benefit them, they expressed
greater interest in its develop-
ment.
CIA
From Page 1A
muscles learn to cope more effec-
tively withthe tension and emotion
of particularly stressful times,"
Petraeus said.
For this reason, he always
tried to set aside a time to go run-
ning during limited downtime in
combat. He would often run with
captains and majors to get their
perspective on issues at hand.
Later on, as the director of the CIA,
he established the "Run with the
Director" program as means to
meet his staff.
"If you want to get the truth,
run with someone for five, six or
seven miles, during which candor
increases with each passing mile,"
he said.
Petraeus added that Team
RWB's group dynamic is a recipe
for success because it allows for
individuals to set goals and the
group to monitor each individual's
progress.
"To live as fully as we might,
we must constantly challenge our-
selves to make the most of our God-
given talents," he said. "We have
to set ambitious, albeit achievable
SNYDER
From Page 1A
cal League. In a press release, he
reported 6,300 of his contributions
were of $100 or less - over three
times the number of small-money
contributors to Snyder.
In his press release, Schauer
said he did not believe his smaller
campaign funds would hinder his
chance of winning, suggesting
Snyder's larger campaign account
indicates that he is favored by the
wealthy and is not in touch with
the middle class.
"We fully expect Governor
Snyder will have strong support
from billionaires like Dick DeVos,"
Schauer said. "But no matter how
much money the Governor spends,
he can't whitewash his cuts to edu-
cation and the job-killing Snyder
Retirement Tax. Make no mistake,
we will have the resourcesawe need
to win this November."
The report is the first that
includes the effects of a new cam-
The team received the top
prize at MHacks - $5000 in
prize money split between the
four members. The app also won
"The Best iOS Award," spon-
sored by Apple, for which each
developer received an iPad Mini.
The developers are currently
working on making the system
more logical, so that different
actions can happen depending
on the causal result of the previ-
ous action.
goals, and importantly, we need to
share them with friends, family,
colleagues and bosses and then do
our best to achieve them."
He said this mentality is appli-
cable everywhere - for exercise,
academics, relationships, faith and
even the workplace. At the end of
Petraeus' speech, Erwin awarded
him with a special, Team RWB bit-
coin.
Prior to Petraeus' speech, LSA
junior Tim Nellett, SVA treasurer,
said the organization is an outlet
for student veterans to bond and
push each other to be great. He
added that SVA has helped him
transition from soldier to student.
"Don't do it alone," Nellett said.
"In this way, the SVA has been
instrumental in connecting veter-
ans together to find that sense of
camaraderie we were all missing."
Team Red, White & Blue, a non-
profit organization that employs
veterans to facilitate fitness,
received the funds raised for the
event. University alum Mike Erwin,
a US Army Major, created the foun-
dation and was one of the opening
speakers for Petraeus on Friday.
"Physical activity hasbeen engi-
neered out of life over the past 20
to 25 years," Erwin said. "We need
paign finance law that Snyder
signed in December. The law dou-
bles the caps on individual dona-
tions and donations from political
action committees, increasingindi-
vidual donations to $6,800 and
political action committee dona-
tions to $68,000.
The new law also requires can-
didates to file two new campaign
finance reports before the election
and that automated telephone calls
and other political ads identify
their sponsor. In a news release,
Snyder said the bill will "bring an
unprecedented level of transpar-
ency and openness to the state's
political system."
"Our democracy thrives and our
governmentis at itsbest whenthere
is openness and accountability, all
while our freedoms of speech and
association are protected," he said.
The bill's detractors believe it
serves as a way for large donors to
give candidates more money - and
increase their influence. Public Poli-
cy Prof. John Chamberlin, one of its
critics, called the bill "very partisan"
and Snyder's justification of it, to
Monday, February 3, 2014 - 3A
However, WorkFlow is also
not the only project that they are
working on. Weinstein and Con-
rad Kramer, a high school stu-
dent from South Jersey, are the
developers behind "DeskCon-
nect," an app that moves web
pages, documents and pictures,
among devices in one tap.
Users can expect to see Work-
Flow available in the Apple App
Store in late February.
a segment of our population that
wants to take that challenge and
help fix it. That's where we're look-
ing long term. Veterans are lead-
ers. Veterans have more training
in physical fitness than any other
segment of the population. In due
time you're going to see us contin-
ue to develop that leadership in our
chapters."
Engineering senior Josh Simis-
ter, SVA chapter president and for-
mer Marine, opened the event by
announcing the group's next presi-
dent, LSA junior Will Kerkstra.
Although the night's main agenda
was to celebrate the importance of
physical fitness and its importance
tostudentveterans, there were also
some somber moments.
As part of his introductory
speech, Simister pointed to an
empty table in the front of the ball-
room. The table represented troops
who are prisoners of war or miss-
ing in action.
Simister held back tears as he
explained how each component on
the table represented something: a
lemon to symbolize these soldiers'
"bitter fate," roses to symbolize
their bloodshed and a candle that
stood for the "light of hope that
lives in our hearts."
increase transparency, "nonsense."
"If you believe, as I do, that
money shouldn't drive politics but
citizen participation should, the
old campaign contribution limits
were just fine and they were more
constraining on a couple hundred
people - most people don't make
contributions at all," Chamberlin
said. "The citizens of Michigan
are not well served by covering up
who gives the money and allowing
big contributions to influence out-
comes of elections."
With regard to the upcoming
mayoral election in Ann Arbor,
Chamberlin said he believes it is
too early for funds to make a differ-
ence in each candidate's campaign.
Though money does matter in poli-
tics, he said, how much of it a can-
didate has at a given time does not.
"I'm not sure that being able
to run Super Bowl ads is all that
important, it's flashy and it let's
people know you're running,"
Chamberlin said. "But I think
in the long run it matters if one
candidate has significantly more
money than another candidate."
ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily
Engineering junior Daniel Bloch participates in the first official Michigan Bitcoiners meeting at the on Jan.15.
Bitco ins at the'U
BITCOINS
From Page 1A
Nevertheless, a small com-
munity of bitcoin users at the
University have created their
own business to cash in on bit-
coin's rise in popularity.
Engineering junior Robert
Greenfield is in the process of
creating an online cryptocur-
rency firm with a few friends
where people can trade curren-
cies for profit.
"The really crazy thing about
cryptocurrency is that you can
recreate anything and every-
thing that is already used for
regular money and have a great
startup from it," Greenfield said.
University alum Kinnard
Hockenhull became interested
in bitcoin in 2011 during his
junior year. He later left school
to pursue his bitcoin business,
but like many, Hockenhull was
skeptical when he was first
introduced to bitcoin.
"I didn't really understand
it at first," Hockenhull said. "I
kind of thought it was either
going to be a fad or some sort of
abstract scam."
Hockenhull's business, Bit-
Box, started out as a platform
for users to trade currencies, but
is now expanding its operations
to enable faster transactions of
bitcoin similar to the Facebook-
meets-Paypal app Venmo.
BitBox has over 8,000 users
and has coordinated over
$300,000 in transactions,
according to Hockenhull.
Engineering and LSA junior
Daniel Bloch is working with
Hockenhull to expand BitBox.
He is also starting his own bit-
coin-based non-profit organiza-
tion called Coingive that aims
SCIENCE
From Page 1A
ground gave her a unique perspec-
tive as a judge.
"One of the great things about
studying art history and the visual
arts and also as an art librarian is
how it can really change the way
you see the world and the way you
find beauty and complication in the
visual world around you," Spencer
said.
The pieces were judged on their
artistic value, quality of artist's
statement and blend of science with
to benefit local charities. Bit- payment.
coin donation websites already "I want Ann Arbor to become
exist, but Bloch hopes to grow an area where we're one of the
this platform through Coingive first cities to have 1 percent of our
while making bitcoin payment businesses accepting bitcoin,"
more accessible to local chari- Goci said.
ties. However, many remain skep-
"Charities would very rarely tical about bitcoin's future. Since
not accept money, but it's not bitcoin's soaring popularity and
easy for them to accept bitcoin," media coverage, many more cryp-
Bloch said. "They don't have the tocurrencies have been created.
time to learn how to do it, and Economics Prof. Miles Kimball
they're not going to pay some- believes that electronic curren-
body to do it." cies will be vital in the future,
Bloch believes that in order but investing in bitcoin now is
for bitcoin to become a univer- unwise.
sally trusted and used curren- "Bitcoin has no long-run future
cy, more commercial retailers because government-sponsored
must start accepting it as a form electronic money will displace it,"
of payment. Websites such as Kimball wrote in an e-mail.
Overstock.com, OKCupid, and Goci also said bitcoin may
Wordpress are currently accept- eventually be replaced by a differ-
ing bitcoin. ent cryptocurrency.
In the Metro Detroit area, "I think bitcoin is just a step-
there are a few merchants who ping stone to a different crypto-
have recently begun accepting currency that will finally become
bitcoin. However, there are cur- the one that's accepted in the
rently no Ann Arbor businesses marketplace," Goci said. "The
that accept bitcoin, Bloch said. next one will be the one that's
The Bronx Deli in Farmington accepted by the masses."
Hills has been accepting bitcoin
since November 2011.
University alum Scott Goci,
developer at Alfa Jango, a web-
based consulting company in
Ann Arbor, agreed with Bloch b
that the spread of
bitcoin depends
on more brick-
and-mortars
retailers accept-
ing it as a form of
AMMACKENS
art.
"It's great if they can use science
to think in terms of artistic vision,
and I think it can help them enjoy
and understand in another way
what they do," Spencer said. "Itm
hopingsome of the contestants will
continue to create and exhibit."
LSA senior Trisha Paul won
the grand prize for her collage,
titled "I Will Wear My Heart
Upon My Sleeve." She said she
created the work, which detailed
four different samples of tissues,
all resembling hearts, before she
was aware of the contest.
"What I love is the whole idea of
expressing your emotions openly
and freely, and I think my col-
lage demonstrates that the heart
shape-the shape we commonly
associate with the heart - can exist
elsewhere in the body," Paul said.
"Love and passion are things that
exist throughout the body, not just
in the heart."
Paul added that her experiences
in both humanities and science
have complemented each other at
the University.
"Studying English has helped
me to better understand science,
and studying science has helped
me to have abetter vocabulary and
to better communicate what I'm
doing in English," Paul said.