Archive for November, 2009

This is Lawrence. This is Lawrence, Kansas. Is there anybody there? Anybody at all?

Thursday, November 19th, 2009

The Journalism group for our EMAC 2321 presentations assigned all students in the class to write a blog which turned a scene from a movie into a news article, using the inverted Pyramid writing structure…Here we go, its just a movie!

Two men, separated by distance and the impervious cloud of radiation falling upon them both, converse on the only two radios still known to be in existence. When does not matter, where, was of no use anymore. All that could be related were the facts. Joe Huxley advised Dr. Oaks that the radiation was still holding at 50 rads per hour, a dangerous level. He thought the radiation from the nuclear bombs would have demolished by now, days after the world ended, so it must have meant they were taking the fallout radiation from the titan missile bases west of them.

When would it be safe? It would never be safe to venture out of their fallout shelters. Unless the radiation fell below acceptable rates, 2 rads an hour…If and when they could emerge and begin to rebuild their destroyed lives and society, was unknown.

The lines and mobs waiting at the hospital entrances were unbearable, as people died left and right, casualties from an all too unintimate battle, the lucky few who had access  to care were left wondering what was going to happen, what hope was left remaining? A pregnant woman ready to deliver her child is quoted as saying:

“Hope for what? What do you think is going to happen out there? You think we’re going to sweep up the dead and fill in a couple of holes and build some supermarkets? You think all those people left alive out there are going to say, “Oh, I’m sorry. It wasn’t my fault. Let’s kiss and make up”? We knew the score. We knew all about bombs, we knew all about fallout. We knew this could happen for forty years. But nobody was interested.”

Nobody was interested, peace sells, but no one is buying…Only time will tell who lives and dies, there is no survival of the fittest when radiation is cooking you from the inside out. Only time.

Personified: Life in the 21st Century

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

Lets face it, most of us are plugged in nowadays. It’s an automatic thing, it goes along with living in our utopian 2009 society. In some form or another, we are all online and in the open. Even my ancient grandmother is online nowadays, stocking her grand children and finding out what we are up to.

For some, particularly the young urban populous, this is not a big deal…Where they go, who they know, who they are in relationships with, and what they are doing hour by hour is not considered private anymore. Is this OK? Many choose to be much more private than this, they do not wish to be out there, or as my non-computer literate business parter would say “deployed in the ecto-cyberwizard multiverse, shazbot nanu-nanu nanu-nanu”.

Some are concerned about personal information being on the web, some simply want to be a tiny blip on the human-radar. Whatever their reason, they are concerned about their privacy, they will not post their information.But why? It’s out there, a simple free background check, or search on your favorite search engine can yeild most personal information, a twenty dollar background check and search your criminal record, your credit, and even who your neighbors were, 20 years ago!

So, are users overly concerned about privacy?

In my opinion, yes. But no…bottom line, users need to face the music…It’s out there. In my opinion, although admittedly being a testosterone filled, scared of nothing, 21 year old male, my opinion is you really have nothing to actually loose nowadays. I feel the best option is transparency.

However, the topic of transparency on the web is not a simple black and white issue. One big issue when I think about privacy on the web, particularly with social networks, such as Facebook, is stalking. For many, this is not an issue, but I can see it being an issue for folks like females and celebrities. Stalking seems to come with the internet territory however. If this is an issue for you, well, your justified in becoming more private…Another major issue I see is the blur between personal and professional lives when posting personal information on the web…

I feel that one should have a separation of personal and professional life. It’s healthy. I do not feel like you should be held to the same standards you hold in the work place 24/7. If you want to post photos from a crazy weekend in Vegas, well, not Vegas, what happens in vegas, stays in Vegas. But if you want to post photos from a fun weekend in Mexico, you should be able too, without it having consequences for you in the workplace, or, at school. I feel that this blurring line between personal and professional life is a major threat today. You can find several issues in the news about students or employees who have had disiplinary measures taken for stuff they have posted online. In some instances yeah, I can see it being an issue…However if its personal it shouldnt matter.

I suppose thats the real privacy concern on the internet today…

Youtube.com, aka Wut the F@CK! lolz

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Youtube, can you remember the internet without it? Yeah, it was a better place, was it not? I argue that youtube does nothing but plaster the web with wtf, yes, wtf. I know Keen’s got my back on this.

The fact is Youtube is a petri dish for uncensored grovel on the web, take a look at any comments for any video youtube and you will no doubt see a slury of pointless crud throwing.

Take for example, the most popular video of all time on youtube:

Charlie Bit my finger, no, not any video relating to world news, or anything of value, but at least its better than a music video or something utterly retarded like people dancing on treadmills

Anyway, take a look at the coments on the video…

“cause ur stupid dumb? ass”

and

“u r gay”

and the classic

“u suk dik a$$ cunt biiitch. whire”

Is this the decline of western civilization? I believe so. What does the flooding of comments like these say about our society, are these 10 year old kids, or are they adults? It’s a scary thing. I am sure the creators of youtube, Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, did not intent the comment system to drove into this sludge…Honestly, I don’t know what to say about it, other than I honestly think that these people, as well a spammers, should be shot, hung, drawn, and quartered!

EDIT: Apparently, Youtube DOES censor and edit some of these comments, the bad ones seem to disappear…I suppose because this is the most popular video on youtube, but still…Bad, go look at others…