World War II Veterans Force Open WWII Memorial During Shutdown

The recent political circus that is the government shut down has caused many federal properties and 

organizations to momentarily stop, including a WWII memorial in Washington, D.C. Unfortunately, a group 

of WWII veterans from Mississippi and Iowa wanted to visit their memorial; unfortunate for the police 

manning the barricades that is. The veterans, in true old people and veteran style, just did not give a hoot 

about those damn kids on their damn memorial. They promptly walked and rolled past the police with the 

help of Rep. Steve King (R-IA). The Republican Party is now using this as some form of rallying cry or to 

get support, which is ironic because they cause the government shut-down.

      

      The park is still legally closed but it doesn’t look like the veterans are going to get into trouble. The 

Republicans have some nerve trying to get these veterans’ display for their own gain.  

Bikers and SUV Road Rage

         On Sunday, a group of bikers and a SUV got into a quarrel. A video on one the biker’s helmets captured the whole ordeal.  The SUV accidentally hit one of the bikers injuring his leg. The SUV then proceeded to pull over but when he did the gang of bikers pulled up next to the SUV, slashed its tires and repeatedly hit the car. The SUV, in order to escape, quickly drove off, also hitting three additional bikers. The bikers followed the SUV until it came to a stop due to flat tires. One biker grabbed his helmet and beat the driver’s side window until the glass shattered. The driver was then brutally beaten. His wife and two year old child were in the car who both fortunately received no damages. The driver was taken to the hospital where he was treated for his injuries. One biker was arrested and police are looking for more evidence that will lead to the arrest of the others who committed this heinous crime.

            Accidents do happen; there is no doubt about that. However, this accident was taken to the extreme. It is scary to know that individuals will quickly respond in such wrath without an explanation. The man did not have any chance to explain that he had zero intentions of hitting the bikers before such damages were done to himself and his SUV. It is simply ridiculous and unjust. It was three against a whole gang. This easily escalated into a worse scenario since the driver could not explain therefore he hit three other bikers. I’m just glad the driver is okay and the bikers are facing judicial action. This article intrigued me based upon the fact that every day road rage occurs, however, these actions are never taken to this extent.

article: http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/30/us/new-york-bikers-road-rage-video/index.html?hpt=hp_inthenews

New Nose Grown by Surgeons to Replace Original One

In Fuzhou, China, a 22 year old man named Xiaolian was admitted to a hospital as a patient. He was involved in a bad car accident in 2012 and his badly damaged nose was never taken care of properly. The doctors decided to take excess skin, cut it in the shape of a nose and place it on his forehead. They also used cartilage from his ribs to place in this shape and soon a new nose would grow. Once the nose has fully grown, the surgeons plan to transplant the nose from the forehead to where his original nose was.
This article really stuck out to me because it seemed like such an unusual thing to be done. I really didn't believe that it could be true, and the picture didn't seem to be real either. As I read the entire article, what they were talking about really started to make sense and made me believe that what they are doing is really true. It really amazed me how we can simply take excess skin and tissue and grow a new nose. It's amazing how much science has evolved over time to the point where we can grow new body parts in order to replace a damaged one.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/24280766

Breaking News : Government Shutdown

Many people are talking about the latest rumor...the government shutting down. This is partially true. There have been many tweets saying that "The purge is coming!" This is a complete rumor. However, this government itself did shut down last night. This was due to the Republicans toward Obamacare. The Republicans and Democrats could not see eye to eye on a spending plan. They continued to fight over Obamacare. The Senate continues to reject Obamacare and other similar proposals. This is the first shutdown we have experienced since 1995 so it isn't surprising that people are buzzing about this. Although this shutdown will affect us in certain ways, it does not guarantee what is going to happen with Obamacare. This is a bit of a threat in the Healthcare fight but we can not be sure of exactly what is going to be the outcome yet. A common misconception is that people think there is no government right now. However, the only thing that this government shutdown is really affecting is the Healthcare fight and it may slow down certain processes that we depend on the government for such as loans and what not. 

Politics do not usually appeal to me. I am not really interested too much in politics and Obamacare but I heard many people discussing "the government shutdown" and saw many people's tweets regarding the incident and I wanted to find out for myself what was really going on. We all know people talk and spread rumors, so I was interested to find out what this "government shutdown" was really about. Now that I've found some articles and done the research I have knowledge about Obamacare and how the Republicans and Democrats can not agree on the subject, causing this temporary shutdown. I am kind of anxious to see how this all pans out and to see how the public reacts to this.

Sources:

http://www.CNN.com

http://ipr.interlochen.org 

Government shut down

At midnight last night the government had a forced shutdown because the Republicans did not like the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Republicans and the House of Representatives refused to fund the government unless the Obamacare was defunded and dismantled. Congress could not agree on a spending budget and in return has led to a government shutdown that leaves federal workers on furlough(without pay) not knowing when they will be able to return to work. Services deemed essential like Medicare, mail delivery, tax collection and the military will continue to operate. The House is controlled by Republicans, whose Tea Party faction is wholly opposed to Obamacare. They've tried to use the budget as leverage to defund or delay Obamacare. Every budget they sent to the Senate for approval was bounced back, because the Senate is controlled by Democrats who want see Obamacare succeed.            The last time that the government shut down was in 1996, and it hurt our economy. This is interesting to me. I haven’t had the chance to vote yet and I absolutely hate politics because they get brought up in every conversation and it’s annoying so I do not really pay much attention to politics but I found it interesting that we are going to have to sit and wait until one side decides to give in and cut a deal.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/government-shutdown-explained-idiot/story?id=20432756

News Story Idea- Social Media Background Checks (I don't care it's late)

I know it’s late but I didn’t finish so I wasn’t going to post it. However I could help but find interest in articles written on major news sites about social media background checks by employers. As a college student who is quite concerned about entering the real world and finding a job, I have my personal opinions on why I think a company should hire an employee but I wonder what others have to say. Is it fair to take a good student who has worked hard and gotten good grades in school and deny them a job because they were tagged in a picture holding a beer? I think this topic is interesting and the legalities of it are highly debated all over the US so I think this would be a good topic.

-Jack Rosenfeld 

Agenda for 9/30

REPRODUCING THE NEWS

In class on Friday we read an interview with Andy Carvin who uses Twitter as a way to call out and then gather field reports. While at his desk in Washington D.C., Carvin uses the eyes and ears of people actually on the ground in other countries or states and “crowdsources,” curating the information he receives into one document called “the news.” The dangers of Carvin’s reporting methods were exposed after the Newtown, CT, shooting, when he tweeted about a purple van that does not seem to have existed, as well as the theory of a second shooter. He also reported, incorrectly, that there were two bodies at the gunman’s mother’s house.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Ten Minute News Challenge 

Today, your challenge will be to write a breaking news story about something happening on this campus (or in your hometown) in ten minutes, using your phone right now to crowdsource. Who you establish as reliable eyewitnesses and/or experts will make or break your news. When using your phone to put a story together, start with a source you trust. Try to verify the level of access the person has to the event at hand. Is it firsthand reportage? If it is, you’re interested. What bias might your source have? Try to account for it. Can you find any opposing tweets? If possible, dig until you find the original source of this particular bit of news. Next, look online and try to gather context for your story. You will need to decide whether this news is fact, rumor or speculation. (Fact: It has definitely happened; rumor: It may have happened, or is likely to happen; speculation: It could theoretically happen.) How do you know if you’ve found real news? Ask yourself: Is this new? Is it relevant? Is it interesting? Remember, before news becomes news, it doesn’t look like much. Try to hook the reader immediately! (Consider expanding this assignment and handing it in for Assignment #3: Write a News Story.)

_________________________________________________________________________________

Preparing to Write the Cultural Analysis Essay (Assignment #2)

 

Assignment #2 relates to the segments you all watched of Control Room, our first world privilege exercise (remember those questions I asked you, and your +1 scores?), and our discussion as to what objectivity is and how culturally dependent "objectivity" might be. For this upcoming assignment, you will need to select an article and then find the same news reported from a different cultural perspective.

Today, in class, we’ll practice using Nate’s China/British report of the typhoon, and we’ll help him expand his initial contrast of the two articles (the final Assignment #2 paper due in two weeks is five pages long). We’ll begin by asking rhetorical questions:  

What contexts made the various interpretations of this news item possible? 

Who are the publishers of this news and who are their audiences? 

What values, beliefs, or ideologies are reinforced or reflected or hidden within the articles? 

What values, beliefs, or ideologies are disrupted or resisted by them? 

What values, beliefs, or ideologies are produced as a result of the publication of this news?   

How does each article interpret the same news differently? Why do you suspect this is?   

Lastly, how does your culture effect how you read these texts? Interrogate your own cultural blind spots, privileges, etc.  

Next we’ll come up with a strong thesis (main argument or question). 

Finally, what Nate will have to do, when he gets a chance, is to back up this thesis with supporting information and more detailed evidence of our analysis. Remember to use MLA in-text citation whenever you quote from an article as you write this paper. You will need to supply a MLA work cited (bibliography) page, as well (not counted as one of your five pages).

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IN CLASS CONFERENCES THIS WEDNESDAY. COME TO CLASS WITH PRINT OUTS OF THE TWO ARTICLES YOU WILL COMPARE AND CONTRAST FOR ASSIGNMENT #2.

New Story Ideas as of 5:30 a.m. 9/30

 How different cultures use technology and social media 

-          Teen drinking

-          Marijuana legalization

-          Student athletes and how they manage their time between social life, school, and sports

-          Fear behind public speaking in America today

-          Child labor and child labor laws in different countries

-          Gay marriage

-          Smoking (interview both smokers and nonsmokers; ask questions concerning health, attraction, and pricing)

-          Crime and how people are affected by it

-          Why people are more attracted to articles related to crime rather than something else

-          Peru's expansion of the growing of coca, the plant used to make cocaine (the exaggeration of drug trafficking in Peru has helped alter the affect that this particular news has on people)

-          Elexander Fitzgerald and the death of his son, Daniel Graves, lost to a shooting in Asbury Park, NJ. (I would go about this was to find out how to possibly get in touch with Elexander Fitzgerald. I don't think this would be too hard because he has been openly speaking to the public about his son's death and has been interviewed by many. I would be interested to interview him as well as other people who live in Asbury Park. I would also like to interview my boss at my job in New Jersey because he lives in Asbury Park and witnesses this crime quite frequently. I have easy access to interviewing him in my hometown.)

-          Obesity. (I could use twitter to post if people would rather choose McDonald's or Saladworks. Not that Saladworks is much healthier, but it just the idea that they want to eliminate McDonald's out of their diet and get the vegetables in. I could ask for "retweets" for McDonald's, and "favorites" for Saladworks. By doing this, I think I could get an idea of what people wish to do in regards to their food choices. However, this could not be a fair test due to the fact that I would only get results from people my age. Still, it would be a good representation.)

-          Partying in West Chester

-          How "subtweeting" affects the lives of people. (In case you did not know, a subtweet is a tweet directed towards another person as an insult without actually tweeting their name.  For example, "Why are you so annoying". An interesting story would describe the effects of the subtweet to the tweeter and the receiver. Their emotional responses could be very different and I am curious as to who subtweets more often in our society.) 

Marijuana-laced candy found during bust

Marijuana-laced candy found during bust

http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/us/2013/09/26/dnt-ms-marijuana-candy.ksnf.html

This week sheriff Mike Epperly of Berry County reported confiscating a package of candy containing marijuana. The Missouri drug task force intercepted this package and found the cannabis infused candies as well as a bag of regular marijuana. The package was being sent from Colorado to a town called Pineville. The main worry is that children could mistakenly get into these candies with THC ingredient (the main chemical found in marijuana and cause some issues with younger children such as irregular heartbeats or stomach problems. Children could easily mistakenly ingest a marijuana candy seeing that it looks like commonly found candy. In this specific package the candies were lemon drops, mints, and gummy bears; they all contained a certain amount of THC. The sheriff of Berry County made a promise to keep the special candies out of the hands of children residing in the area.

The video clip new coverage on this story is to inform the public of candies that contain marijuana and would be a potential risk of harming a child that ingested it. I feel that it is targeted towards parents because it is trying to illustrate how marijuana comes in many forms. In addition I feel that most of the people who will be watching this are parents who worry about their kids getting involved with drugs. I am wondering now about what could happen if marijuana gets legalized; would more children be at risk of mistakenly obtaining these THC edibles?  Would these marijuana candies be sold at the local target or would they be sold a dispensaries to people with a marijuana license?  

-Merrilee Viguers

News Story Brainstorming

I think it would be interesting to do something like the cultural comparison on topics that can be very controversial. It would offer us the opportunity to analyze whether the culture has an effect on peoples opinions. We easily saw the different views of the Iraq war in the video the other day; so I think it would be interesting to see how different opinions can be found in different parts of the world. Further more we can see how each culture used technology and social media as a resource to express their opinion on what is going on in their lives.
-Merrilee Viguers

News Story Brainstorming

Personally, I believe that doing an interview is the most interesting way to catch a person's attention. I would like to do an interview article about something along the lines of student athletes and how they manage their time between social life, school, and sports. Being a student athlete, I only know how I manage my time. This article could help people learn different methods of time management. It would be a very informative article.

News Story Brainstorming

Coming from a family who watches the news almost every night, I like seeing stories that are different from the norm. We constantly hear about depressing news about crime and devastation. Although I do think it’s important that we are informed about these issues, it just seems like it is constantly put down our throats every day. I would want to do stories that have interactions between different parties. It brings the public into it instead of just being told what’s going on from one perspective. After watching the Control Room I think it’s important to hear what other people have to say about issues going on in our world. For my topic I would want to do something that everyone in the general public can relate too.  One of the topics could be the drinking law or the fear behind public speaking in America today. 

Little boy raises 400,000 for liver disease

Dylan Siegel who is 7 years old has raised over 400,000 dollars for research in Glycogen Storage Disease. This 7 year old boy has raised more money than any medical research foundations combined. His friend who is 6 years old (Jonah Pournazarian) inherited the rare liver disease. Dylan told his parents that he wanted to raise money for his friend and his parents suggested something small and easy like a lemonade stand. Dylan took offense to this and said that he wanted to do something big and the next day he had an entire book written. The book was called Chocolate Bar because the 7 year old says “chocolate bar” to describe anything awesome. The book was made into 200 copies and sold out in hours raising 6,000 dollars. The family then started to sell tote bags, cellphone cases and in total has raised over 400,000 dollars and won an award that mostly adults win. I found this article extremely uplifting because I know that at 7 years old I would have never thought that I could do something like this and change someone’s life so much I think that it’s awesome.


http://www.newser.com/story/174954/boy-wants-to-help-sick-pal-out-raises-everyone.html