this,” Schlissel said. “Finally, I’ll always be
impressed with how he gets away with going
to public events without wearing a necktie.”
Though Snyder noted that the crowd of
roughly 150 attendees probably shared his
views on the necessity of increasing cyber
security, he said it was a big issue in the state
of Michigan and around the world.
“In the state of Michigan alone, we’ve
seen a huge escalation in the number of
times we’re attacked,” he said. “One, I think
there are more attacks, but secondly I think
we’re better at recognizing we’re attacked. I
think in many cases we were probably being
attacked and we didn’t even know it.”
Currently
the
state
of
Michigan’s
government experiences about 2.5 million
cyber attacks every day, according to Snyder.
He said if a cyber attack occurs, people are at
risk of losing both confidential information
and their reputation.
Citing his own personal experience with
identity theft, he asked attendees to raise
their hands if they, too, had been affected,
with a majority of people in the crowd
acknowledging they had.
“What do you do about (cyber threats)?”
he said. “Well, you have to be proactive, and
I’m proud to say at the state of Michigan I
think we’re a leader in this country.”
He said Michigan has a competitive
advantage
compared
to
other
regions
because of the state’s public universities and
colleges, as well as their ability to collaborate
with one another.
“In terms of advantages, we’re sitting
upon one of the greatest advantages in the
world: the University of Michigan,” Snyder
said.
Along with Snyder’s remarks, several
experts on cyber security spoke throughout
the day, discussing issues faced by many
institutions, such as universities.
During
a
panel
discussion
in
the
afternoon, Jen Miller-Osborn, cyber threat
intelligence analyst for Palo Alto Networks,
said the education sector is the third most
victimized sector in the country for cyber
attacks for both student data and research.
“From
a
nation-state
perspective,
universities are also a really big target,”
Miller-Osborn said. “They target college
students and professors, too, and it makes
perfect sense: You’re working in a research
institution.”
Miller-Osborn said previously in her
career, she would receive e-mails with
resumes and requests for internships that
contained hidden viruses.
Randy Hegarty, enterprise security IT
manager in Pennsylvania State University’s
information security office, cited his own
experience dealing with a network breach
during the panel.
Last year, the FBI notified Penn State’s
College of Engineering that information had
been compromised since 2012.
“Earlier,
someone
called
it
an
unprecedented threat with an unprecedented
response,” Hegarty said. “Basically, that’s
where our institution took this because it
was a deep concern.”
Tom Winterhalter, supervisor of the
FBI Detroit Division’s Cyber Squad, said
universities and individuals can prevent
threats by building up the security of their
network through measures such as making
complex passwords.
“So many students use very simple
passwords,” Winterhalter said. “At one
university, which I will not name, many
people still had their passwords still set at
‘123456.’ ”
In his speech, Snyder urged attendees
to take action on the issue, citing as one
example the Civilian Cyber Corps, a new
organization composed of citizens willing
to collaborate with one another if Michigan
were to experience a broad attack. Snyder
said he foresees the organization as a
precursor to a long-term solution which he
hopes will eventually be a specialty team
within the National Guard.
“How do you deal with the issue after
it’s already happened? How do you hit
restore? How do you get back up? It’s an
area (in which) I think we’re woefully
inadequate,” Snyder said. “I don’t think most
organizations are really fully prepared to
respond if they have a huge attack happen to
them. The smaller ones we can manage, but if
we had a big one or we had one that affected
sectors of our economy or something, we are
not prepared for that one.”
training in accounting, government relations, publicity and writing
grants — the nitty-gritty details that are often pretty prosaic but
can make or break an NGO.”
The NGOs in attendance traveled from 12 different countries
for the bootcamp. According to Grzymala-Busse, some are based
in authoritarian societies, while others are in newly emergent
democracies.
However, they all share similar challenges stemming from
skeptical government officials and legal limitations.
Due to the harsh political climate in several of these countries,
the names of specific participants and NGOs are not being released,
only the attendees’ countries. Groups from Albania, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia,
Serbia, Slovakia, Tunisia and Ukraine participated in the program.
Grzymala-Busse pointed to Russia, where NGOs cannot receive
foreign aid, as an example of the structural challenges many of the
organizations in attendance face.
“I hope this highlights the problems — and the potential — of
NGOs, even when they have to work in a difficult environment,”
Grzymala-Busse wrote.
Nathan Rauh-Bieri, program coordinator for the Education
Initiative at the William Davidson Institute, said he thought the
program demonstrates the University’s global presence.
Ronald Weiser, former U.S. ambassador to Slovakia and Weiser
Center founder, helped fund the bootcamp and was also a guest
speaker. Amy Gillett, vice president of the Education Initiative
at the William Davidson Institute, and Marysia Ostafin, Weiser
Center program manager, travelled to Slovakia to facilitate the
event.
“I think that the housing of centers like the Weiser Center and
the William Davidson Institute shows Michigan’s commitment to
global engagement and also to excellence in pedagogy,” Rauh-Bieri
said. “I think that’s what this program is really trying to deliver.”
we have shown that HSP60 isn’t used, it is released, and that
HSP60 killed the neurons,” Hirsch said. “You see that when you
apply AraC on the treatment of HSP60 you reduce the degree of
normal degeneration.”
AraC refers to a protein known to block cancer by stopping
cell division.
Hirsch also touched on experiments focused on mitigating
problems with gait and balance, which is associated with
Parkinson’s disease.
Some research has held that the disorder might stem from the
pedunculopontine nucleus or PPN, a part of the brain stem.
Hirsch said through research on monkeys, his team was able
to conclude that a popular method of treatment, dopamine, may
not always be effective if the gait and balance issues do in fact
stem from the PPN.
“What can we learn from the animal involvements of gait
disorders?” he said. “PPN cholinergic lesion can cause dopamine
resistant gait deficits.”
Neurology Assistant Prof. Vikas Kotagal, who presented a
shorter talk later in the event, said the innovations Hirsch spoke
of about were important in finding new ways to treat the disease.
“I think that the work that he’s presenting is very fundamental
to the hypotheses that led to the creation of this out of the box
idea for the Udall Center,” Kotagal said. “It relates to leading
to clinically significant outcomes for patients with Parkinson’s
disease.”
Hirsch’s keynote address was followed by seven other
shorter presentations on Parkinson’s disease presented by
other professionals working in the field, which Dauer said was
another focus of the event.
“One of our goals is to support younger investigators and to
help foster their careers in Parkinson’s, which is one of the key
reasons we structured the symposium the way we did,” he said.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News & Arts
Friday, October 23, 2015 — 3
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MATT VAILLIENCOURT/Daily
LSA junior Hanna Barish presses buttons made by students at the seventh annual UMMA Late Night on Thursday.
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Sorkin studies myth of Apple’s Jobs
By JAMIE BIRCOLL
Senior Arts Editor
I proudly admit that most of the technology
I own was made by Apple. I can’t thank Steve
Jobs and Apple enough for them: they’re elegant
yet simple enough for my technologically
challenged brain to comprehend. But these
words “elegant” and “simple” do not apply
to Steve Jobs himself, or, at least, that’s how
we have come to remember him in the four
years since his death. No doubt, Jobs defined a
generation of tech for laymen and has proved a
cultural icon — but is he a complex, sometimes
self-hating conundrum, too intricate and
secretive to deconstruct? Screenwriter Aaron
Sorkin (“The Social Network”) and director
Danny Boyle (“Trance”) seem to think so, as
they attempt to separate the myth from the
man in “Steve Jobs.”
Admittedly, this is not your typical biopic,
and Sorkin deserves all of the credit in the
world for breaking with such a contrived
structure. Rather than simply watching a
retelling of his life, we follow Jobs (Michael
Fassbender, “X-Men: Days of Future Past”)
and his coworkers and friends (or are they
enemies?) at three different product launches
in 1984, 1988 and 1998. Sorkin relies on dialogue
and several flashbacks to fill in the details we
missed between each showcase. This plays to
his strength, as he fills the scenes with rich
dialogue with a classic Sorkinian bite.
But what we gain in distinctive story
structure, we lose in direct narrative
continuity. One can view “Steve Jobs” almost
as three separate, 40-minute short films.
We don’t really need anything that comes
before or after each segment because they are
completely self-contained, and any otherwise
missing information is filled in through a
flashback. And before each segment begins,
we get a montage of news stories that catch us
up on the inter-launch years and set the stage
for what’s to come. Technically speaking, it all
works, but the separated segments keep us at
a distance. We cannot see Jobs himself grow
and his relationships evolve; instead, we are
forced to simply accept that something has
changed, “Oh he’s nice to his daughter now.
That’s cool.”
This distance may be Sorkin and Boyle’s
attempt to reflect Jobs’s mind within the
narrative structure itself. The story makes
very clear that Jobs is locked into each event,
his mind zoned in on one objective: success.
And anything that hampers that success must
be expunged. Boyle and Sorkin provide us with
glimpses into his mind — images and videos
often appear on walls, and brief cuts back to
previous segments are roughly inserted to
reflect his emotional conflict — as further
endorsement of this idea. But, then again,
Sorkin’s ego may have just kicked in and he
decided to be different for the sake of difference
(you know, because he’s Aaron Sorkin).
(As the camera follows Jobs around the
various theaters, I couldn’t help but recall the
long tracking shots of “Birdman;” both films
share a theme of closed, contained spaces as
reflections of the psyche.)
But the Sorkin-Boyle dynamic ultimately
proves somewhat disappointing — they’re just
too mismatched. “The Social Network” works
so well because Sorkin’s cold, disconnected
character could be reflected in David Fincher’s
cold, calculated direction. Boyle, by contrast,
uses the camera in a more embracive fashion,
and he is always sympathetic to his characters,
even when his characters are complete scum
(see “Trainspotting”).
Boyle is forced to look at Jobs in two lights:
one as the misanthropic boss and one as the
father and friend learning to be a decent human
being. And the contrast between the two from
a filmmaking standpoint is quite stark.
Let me explain. There’s a scene early on
where Jobs confronts Andy Hertzfeld (Michael
Stuhlberg, “Pawn Sacrifice”), an original
Macintosh developer, in front of several other
Apple employees for failing to properly set up
the demo computer. The camera circles around
the two characters, and we see the fear on the
other employees’ faces and sense the dread
instilled by Jobs. We understand that this
environment is, quite simply, toxic all the way
around. The film shines in moments like these.
But in scenes where Joanna Hoffman (Kate
Winslet, “Insurgent”), another member of the
original Macintosh team, tries to lecture Jobs
about being a more sympathetic individual, the
camera does a standard close-up shot counter-
shot; it’s just not nearly as much fun nor as
telling and impactful as the scene could be.
But
where
the
structure
fails,
the
performances
elevate.
Fassbender
will
undoubtedly receive an Oscar nomination
for his work here. He immerses himself in
the character and balances the forcefulness
of the character with subtlety, but no less
drive, in his quieter, more earnest scenes.
And Jeff Daniels (HBO’s “The Newsroom”) as
former Apple CEO John Sculley demonstrates
incredible charisma, representing a formidable
opponent to Fassbender. The climactic, tense
confrontation between the two after Jobs’
dismissal from Apple proves electrifying, the
film’s finest moment.
Seth Rogen (“The Interview”) as Steve
Wozniak displays considerable range and
heart. We get the sense that the Jobs-Wozniak
relationship seems the most at risk to Jobs’s
toxicity. It’s clear the two have some kind of
respect for each other, or maybe an almost
fraternal obligation to each other, and at
times they seem to truly care. But the two are
so diametrically opposed in their desires —
Jobs demands control over Wozniak and his
ingenuity, where Wozniak yearns for some
kind of recognition for his success and role in
transforming computing, if not from the public
then at least from Jobs — that their dynamic
will eventually crumble beneath them. It’s
a deeply interesting relationship, one that
deserves a bit more exploration than the film
devotes to it.
So is “Steve Jobs” a success? Yes and no. The
film is rooted in dialogue rather than images, so
those who prefer to see rather than hear will be
disappointed. However, the dialogue is, on the
whole, absorbing and thoroughly entertaining.
And the film is worth seeing for Fassbender
alone. But in attempting to deconstruct the
myth that is “Steve Jobs,” the filmmakers
almost mythologize him further. Not until the
very, very end does Jobs become something
beyond a narcissistic, sardonic tyrant. His
many verbal assaults are so effective, so biting
and, for better or worse, so funny that we
sometimes lose the perspective that Jobs is
for the most part not a good person. That Jobs
died four years ago only further muddies this
portrayal, as we can look on him more fondly
now that he’s gone.
When dealing with biopics, even ones as
different as this, one must always separate
reality from the art: “Steve Jobs” is not a true
reflection of Steve Jobs, but a study of the myth
of Steve Jobs. It’s an important distinction to
remember as you watch the film. “Steve Jobs”
isn’t a biography, but it ventures into deeper
waters than any standard biopic could. “Think
different” was Apple’s slogan back in 1997, and,
at the very least, “Steve Jobs” does.
FILM
@MICHIGANDAILY
Lerner, chair of the College Democrats. “Despite some technical
difficulties, it all worked out.”
Through a projection of a Skype video chat onto the wall of
the Parker Room of the Michigan Union, Dillon told the crowd of
about 30 that if they wish to run for office, he would encourage
them to do it, even at a young age.
He recounted his first electoral bid for County Commission
when he was 30 years old that ultimately failed by only 100 votes.
“If you’re thinking of running for an office, go talk to somebody
that currently holds that office, whether it’s the school board,
county commissioner or state representative,” he said. “The first
thing you should realize is that if you want to do it, then you’re
probably just as qualified as anybody else.”
Dillon ultimately found electoral success in running for Kent
County commissioner and, subsequently, the state’s House of
Representatives. He served as the commissioner for one year and
as the representative for Michigan’s 75th district for four years
before resigning to serve as MDP chair last August.
“We’d love for you to become part of the Democratic Party,” he
said. “We want young people to become more of a part of the party
structure.”
Dillon also shared his goals to reshape the Michigan Democratic
Party as its chair, with more emphasis on grassroots and young-
voter input rather than what he called a “top-down approach.” The
eventual goal: retake the State House and governor’s office.
He said a recent survey would be set the tone for a new
statewide Democratic strategic planning initiative that will begin
this Saturday.
“We’ll be getting input on what we need to do better, what
our challenges are, and how we can get young people and non-
traditional Democratic voters to come out,” Dillon said.
Also present at the event was LSA sophomore Grant Strobl,
president of the University’s chapter of Young Americans for
Freedom, who was recording the event.
“It’s not something we’ve had in the past,” Lerner said, regarding
Strobl. “But we hope to persuade people in other political student
organizations.”
When contacted by The Michigan Daily Thursday evening,
Strobl acknowledged he was recording the event on the behalf of
the Michigan Republican Party.
DEMOCRATS
From Page 1