Reading journal
Articles
Article 1
Place - Class
Time - 4 mins
Writers - J.D. Biersdorfer
Publication date - Jan 22, 2026
Title - How to Deal With That Drawer Full of Old Gadgets
Section - Technology
Voices - none
What did you learn - People move quickly to upgrade their devices to the newest models, but large portion of them still keep the old ones laying around. Currently, there is a boom for bringing them back, but the revival of the dead can be quite tricky, as technology went forward and some of the cables, connectors and software got depracated. But, with the help of official and fan-managed manuals, many of those devices are being brought back to life, to be used once again, passed to the next generation or sold to collectors.
Summary
Biersdorfer (2026) writes about resurgence of old technology, and how to bring the dead back to life.
Article 2
Place – Study Room, Cunningham Hall
Time – 7 mins
Writers – Don Clark
Publication date – Jan 29, 2026
Title – How the A.I. Boom Could Push Up the Price of Your Next PC
Section – Technology
Voices – Kelt Reeves, founder of Falcon Northwest; Mike Howard, analyst at TechInsights; Amy Hood, Microsoft CFO; Jim Handy, founder of Objective Analysis; Micron company; Manish Bhatia, Micron exec. VP of Global Operations; Michael Steward, managing partner at M12; Jensen Huang, Nvidia CEO; Dell company
What did you learn – The rapidly growing AI market is creating a huge surge in memory prices, especially RAM and NAND flash. The prices spiked 100%-200% in last year, and doesn’t seem to fall back anytime soon. The situation is getting even harder for regular non-business customers, as more and more companies switch to supplying only the big business clients with RAM, limiting the amount of customer-available RAM, making the prices even higher.
Summary
Clark (2026) explains the current PC hardware market, the impact of the AI for demand on it, and how wallets of general customers are affected.
Article 3
Place - Study Room
Time - 2 min
Writers - Emmanuel Morgan
Publication date - February 8, 2026
Title - The Child in Bad Bunny's Halftime Show Was an Actor
Section - Music
Voices - Bad Bunny, Grammy's night quote 'ICE out'; Trump X post about the performance
What did you learn - Despite previous suspicions, buy who was a part of Bad Bunny's halftime show and got handed the Grammy wasn't Liam Ramos - 5 year old arrested by ICE on Jan 22. The appearance of a young boy could mean different things - belief and trust in younger generation, ode to young Benito, or a political statement. Despite making strong vocal anti-ICE statement during Grammy night, Bad Bunny's show only included slight hints calling for the unity of America as a whole, but still drew a backlash from Trump himself on X.
Summary
Morgan (2026) clarifies the mix-up about a boy participating in Bad Bunny's Superbowl halftime show.
Article 4
Place - Study Hall
Time - 5 min
Writers - Christina Caron
Publication date - Feb 5, 2026 (updated Feb 8, 2026)
Title - What It Means to Be 'Touch-Starved'
Section - Well
Voices - Allora Dannon - influencer; Ozge Ugurlu - UC Berkeley researcher; James A. Coan - Uni of Virginia prof of psychology; Dacher Keltner - UC Berkeley prof of psychology; Latishia James; Tiffany Field - prof at Uni of Miami
What did you learn - People are increasingly touch-starved, and the world doesn't help. Touch is a very important sense, which regulates our hormones, makes us calmer and feeling connected. Current fast-paced, anxious, overly consent-needing world creates an environment exactly opposite of what we need. Because of that, people start to learn different techniques that they might use on themselves to trick their mind into thinking that the touch was supplied.
Summary
Caron (2026) reports on the growing touch-depravation issue among the whole population.
Rough draft
AI demand for power, RAM creates an unbelievable price increase. -> Technological advancements -> People want more and better technology, spending more time in the digital world, upgrading their devices, and it doesn't seem to have an end
But old-school stuff is coming back -> revival or retro consoles, old phones, mp3 players etc. -> Brings generations together
Music also brings people together -> Bad Bunny's Grammy show. More than music - giving people hope, unity and laughter -> People still want to fight against that. Call it fake and bad. World of bad influence. Environment of hate and dispute.
Environment of strees and anxiety -> People being touch-starved, wanting more connection. Current world is full of hate and demand, and we must find ways to stand against it, diminish its impact on us. Find ways to have fun -> Getting together, connecting between people, countries, generations -> Music, retro devices