Stuff White People Like??

Blogger explains:

What's a blog?

"A blog is a personal diary. A daily pulpit. A collaborative space. A political soapbox. A breaking-news outlet. A collection of links. Your own private thoughts. Memos to the world."

Blogs seem to be the newest fad lately; There are politics, fashion, news, celebrity blogs. However, have you heard of a blog called "Stuff White People Like".

This blog is absolutely hysterical but not too informative. If anything it is very opinionated and entertaining. This blog too does allow viewers to interact and comment on the posts. However, what is interesting is that the comments section is slightly hidden. While looking at the posts, the general comments were cut in half; half were positive saying something like "it's hysterical" and the other half were negative and upset.

I personally found this blog to be very amusing. I am a white person myself and did not find the post to be offensive. On the contrary I did find some of the comments amusingly true.. Yoga, Sushi, Vintage Clothing... sounds like me!

Check it out if you are not offended easily.

Journalist getting too close?

This is the image that Rolling Stone has said is "The face of the War in Iraq" and as LA Times said is an "iconic image".

This picture taken by LA Times journalist and photographer Luis Sinco took of the "Marlboro Marine"/ Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller has changed how people see the war and even how photographer Sinco sees his subject.

Through LA Times, Sinco has captured Miller's life in multiple means; through photo, audio, and print. However, Sinco too has even found himself responsible for Miller's life. Looking at the multimedia package that Sinco offers, one begins to realize the pain and suffering of Miller. He now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder due to his time in Iraq.

Since Sinco spent much time with Miller, they began to form a tight bond and understanding for one another. Furthermore, Sinco truly began to feel for Miller and worry about his condition. Sinco decided to try and find Miller help by suggesting he go to Moe Armstrong, a veteran counseling program.

Is Sinco overstepping his journalistic duties? Can a journalist be a friend of his/her subject? Is there a way of keeping it professional? Personally I feel that Sinco did keep it professional. How can a journalist let their subject fall apart like that? I don't think that Sinco's piece would have been as powerful if Miller and him had not gotten so close.

Check out Sinco's multimedia package and see what you think?

The Sun vs People

I was tuning into my favorite blogger Mr. Perez Hilton and he posted something really interesting. He posted a story yesterday at 10 p.m about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie supposedly getting married according to Star magazine. However, the next day Mr. Hilton posted that this may not be true according to People magazine sources.

This then becomes a question of reliability. Which magazine has a history of being more trustworthy and practices responsible journalism?

Mr. Hilton himself sided more with People. However, should Mr. Hilton have double checked his sources before he posted his 10p.m report? I think the fact that he posted a story saying one thing and then possibly denying it is not the best quality of a blog.

UMass Amherst: The Bad One

University of Massachusetts at Amherst is one of the five Massachusetts’ Universities that has always been looked at with negativity from the binge drinking, partying and crime. This past month proved this statement true due to three incidents.

Over the past three weeks, much violence has occurred at UMass Amherst both on and off campus. Firstly, an off campus party turned into a major brawl where the house residents and three lacrosse players were involved. The after effect of the party was worrisome, due to the destruction of the North Pleasant house, injuries of the residents, weapons (lacrosse sticks, baseball bats, and bottles,) and extreme drunkenness. Currently, the three lacrosse players are facing criminal charges, have been kicked off the lacrosse team and could be expelled from the university.

The following week, an incident occurred in a Southwest dormitory, Pierpont, where an alleged rape and assault occurred. Supposedly the man accused, is an UMass student and rugby player. Thus far, the man involved no longer attends the University.

The most recent episode occurred involved a stabbing on campus. One student, John Vassal, 23, was charged with stabbing a non- UMass student, John Bowes, 20 while being in a dormitory. Apparently, witnesses have said that Bowes was shouting racial slurs at Vassal which prompted him to defend himself. Both men are being charged with criminal charges.

What to do with so much violence at one given amount of time? Campus police has tried to facilitate by the University Police escalating their patrol. Tim Holmes, 21, a student Fire Fighter said, “ My chief told us that we are going to have to work a lot harder and be on call more frequently.” Clearly, means are being used in order to make up for this troubling time.

Kelsey Brait, 20, a junior at UMass Amherst says, “I honestly feel that UMass really isn’t that bad. Whenever the media talks about us, it’s always negative. Therefore we always get this reputation of being a “bad” university. I wish for once someone would write something good about our university”.

Mr. Pogue and Iphone advice

One of the things I find so great about Mr. Pogue's Technology blog is when he gives advice or the latest tips on common technological devices that you and I may have.

This week , Mr. Plogue discussed a helpful tip to anyone with the new and miraculous iPhone. An avid reader of Mr. Plogue's blog, a physics professor, Richard Muller gave Plogue advice of his own. This week Plogue used it as one of his posts.

A normal, less advanced, cell phone has the ability to "vibrate then ring". However, on the iPhone this is not possible. There is only vibrate OR ring; no happy-medium. Professor Muller writes to explain his dissatisfaction with the iPhone not having this. Luckily, Muller discovered that Apple has created a program where you can customize your own ringtones. With that, Muller exclaimed ,

"Here is my genius: all I have to do is to make a custom ringtone that is SILENT for the first ten seconds, and then plays a sound! Then, if I put my iPhone on “vibrate AND ring,” it will, as usual, start “playing” that ringtone immediately as it vibrates–but since my ringtone is silent for the first ten seconds, the result is “vibrate THEN ring.” "

All in all, this is a very helpful feature of Plogue's Technology blog. Not only does he provide information on the latest technological advancements, but he also allows us as readers and followers to be a part of the conversation.

Are Your Everyday Websites Reliable?

After looking at John R. Henderson’s tutorial I began to surf through different websites that I use on a regular basis. My blog of choice is www.perezhilton.com , #1 website is www.wikipedia.org, and best search engine is www.google.com. Throughout the day I check in with all these sites because they are either informative, entertaining, or quick. However, Professor Henderson raises a good point in his lesson; are these websites reliable?

The first website I decided to focus on was Perez Hilton’s blog. This blog is merely entertaining. You won't find hard news, politics or international business on this site. However, you sure will find the latest scandals with celebrities, newest fashion trends, and overall, funny stories. Perez Hilton too, allows his readers to contribute to his blog through comments and even stories. Every so often he has a video or a letter from a fan posted for an entry. I personally find this blog to be set up rather well. He uses multiple forms of multimedia, for example: writing, graphics, video and sound. However, the question really is: Is it reliable?

I went through Professor Henderson's steps to answer this question. One of his concerns is "What is the purpose of the sight?" I definitely think it is supposed to be an entertaining site if anything. However, when I really look at it, there is A LOT of advertisements. At times, when I log in the whole background of the site is an advertisement. All along the sides are ads from t-shirt companies, TV shows, music producers, magazines and tons more. All in all, this site is definitely making money with all of the support from the advertisers. Another comment from Henderson was about the details of the website: Are the links working? Is the spelling and grammar correct? How are all the details? Overall, Perez Hilton is a very flashy site. However, all of his links work properly and amazingly, (even with his hourly updates) I've never seen any problems in the spelling or grammatical area.

The next site I took a closer look at was Wikipedia. This site to me is just your average website. It is a free encyclopedia on the web that allows people everywhere to add in / edit information. That right there to me is a complete red flag. ANYONE?? Yes, anyone can post onto this sight.

For myself, I take everything I read from Wikipedia with a grain of salt. You can't trust everything you read. Especially, when comparing it to Professor Henderson's standards, it's hard to trust everything that's on the site. One piece of advice Professor Henderson gave was "When in doubt, doubt". And that is exactly what I do when I get to Wikipedia. I realize that everything that is on this so-called "encyclopedia" cannot be fully accurate. With that, one should always verify the information that is given to them. Furthermore, "Consider the source" as Henderson says. In a lot of the articles and postings on Wiki, we don't even know where it is coming from. We don't know the writers credentials or how he/she even knows the information. Therefore, you can't always rely on this website for the best kind of information.

My last spot was Google. Whenever I have any kind of query or thought, my first instinct is to go to Google. It is really fast and seems to always help me out when searching for a particular topic. As a whole, it is pretty hard to say anything bad about Google because they seem to do everything right; they have mail, they are a search engine, you can personalize the site and on and on the list goes.

However, if you focus on it just being a search engine then we can run into some problems in regards to Professor Henderson. His first comment on his tutorial is "Make sure you are in the right place". This is an extremely good point because sometimes I just resort to Google because it is fast and easy. However, after spending some time with it, Google may not answer my question. Sometimes a library database is much better than Google because it can bring up your actual topics rather than something that just contains a word in you search. It's hard to say it but you can't depend on Google for everything.

All in all, this exercise really helped to reevaluate the websites I look at and depend on on a regular basis. They really aren't all that great and other websites or sources could be used more effectively.

Technology and decor?

In Mr. Poque's latest blog titled "Making the Case for a Countertop Printer" he makes an extremely great point. More and more technological advancements are being produced and it gets to the point that one begins to think, "where do you put it all". Thankfully, tech geniuses are using their heads and making new products that are both technology advanced and also decorative. For example, this summer they put out the LCD frame that unleashes a display of pictures. And again, it isn't just "computerish " it's a frame so you can put it in your bedroom, bathroom, and living room. All in all, it serves two purposes.

You definitely see this more and more in products. Pogue explains in his blog that he was having an issue with the bulkiness of printers. Finally, he found the perfect thing for himself and his family. He found the Canon Pixma IP90 which is delicately small and conveniently sleek.

Yes, products are like this more often. However, there are a couple issues with this. Due to the duo functionality of these products, the prices are more costly. For example, the printer Pogue mentioned is $175 and the ink too is small in size but high in price ($12-21). Another issue, some people just don't feel the need to display their products. A lot of the comments on Pogue's blog were negative saying something like "Why is there a need to have a frame that changes through pictures-- my computer does that".

So there is the goods and the bads to these new products. What do you think?