How to Build a High-Traffic Blog Without Killing Yourself

Interesting in furthering your blogging endeavors? Here's a really neat blog with a video included of a hero of mine, Tim Ferriss (author of "The Four Hour Work Week") talking about scalable blogging behaviors at the 2009 San Francisco WordCamp. According to Tim, More than 700 people from 32 countries were in attendance.

Hope you enjoy it!

~ John Exley aka X

The hidden meaning of the hidden Starbucks logo

Here's a very interesting article on Startbucks' logo and their branding, written by Jon Cook.

Hope you enjoy!

~ John Exley aka X

COMPARISON: CNN vs. Bnet in regard to J&J layoffs

I have a comparison of CNN vs. Bnet's reporting on the recent Johnson & Johnson layoffs.

This article is the announcement of the J&J layoffs on CNN. More well respected than the one I've included below. However, they each of a little different information.

I found this news article earlier today while surfing the net. As a former J&J coop, I find it mind blowing that 6 to 7% of Johnson and Johnson's global workforce will be laid off. That's 8,190 people! Some of the brands that might see the greatest layoffs are the Baby, Women's Health, and various pharmacutical brands. Industries that are fairly safe include Skin Care, Wound Care and Concerta. I also found it interesting that, as mentioned in the article, J&J may have delayed announcing the layoffs until after the government elections occured yesterday.

Alyssa Bandy

Droid joins 'Google phone' army in smart phone war

This is an article about Verizon's new smart phone, the Motorola Droid. With smart phone technology on the rise, and Apple having the marjority of the market for smart phones, this is Verizon's attempt to cut into the Iphones' market. Although Blackberry is the Iphone's main smart phone competitor, the new Droid is predicted to replace Blackberry, and become the second place mobile platform by the end of 2012.

Lee T Norris

Adobe to cut about 680 full-time jobs

I saw this article and thought it should get posted as an alert to all our computer guys and gals looking for jobs. Unfortunately, the economy looks like its still a rocking boat of randomness.
-Dan Meyer

Microsoft disconnects Xbox gamers

In this article, Microsoft shoots back at piracy on the high seas, XBoxers getting banned from xbox live for having modified game consoles.

Joshua E. Knapp

Burger King franchisees sue over money-losing $1 double cheeseburger

I found this article to be very interesting. It discusses how the Burger King franchise owners sued Burger King itself because of the restaurant's recent promotion of the 1$ double cheeseburger. Apparently for every double cheeseburger they sell, they lose 10 cents. I don't understand Burger King's reasoning in selling a product that they inevitably lose money on every time. What do you think?

Jordan Hartle

ap GM says improved quarter shows signs of stability

Here is an article about General Motors posting a $1.2 Billion loss this past quarter and the belief that this is progress. They also vow to pay back their loans that the government gave them in the bailout. In your opinion, did it make sense to bailout GM and do you believe they will end up paying back all of the loans that the government gave them in a timely manner. The link is here!


Ryan W. Spadaccini

Economic survey: Job losses to bottom out in 1Q

This article is about the economy and how job losses will bottom out in the first quarter of 2010. Although things will start to turn around, many companies will not recover jobs lost until 2012. Also, most consumers will still be tight on spending throughout 2010.

Lee T Norris

Clinic with two doors, a symbol of two-tier care

This is an interesting article I came across recently about a health care clinic with two doors. Which of these doors you enter determines both how expensive the care will be and how quickly you will get it. Two reporters are sent to the clinic through different doors to get the same procedure done and have vastly different experiences.

Ian Jenkins

Bheestie Bag

Its a small bag with water absorbing beads that dry out electronics that have been exposed to water. The bag is recommended for portable electronics, the idea is to immediately remove the battery and place the device into the Bheestie bag so that it can dry the device out. The bags last about a year and have the ability to change colors to allow for easy detection of wither it is still good or not.


Chad Williams

http://tech.msn.com/boardsblogs/techblogpost.aspx?post=1392966&_blg=1,1392966

Mystery lingers, answers few in girls' reservation deaths

I saw this article on the day that we discussed underreported stories and government involvement in the media. This is a story where police have completed sealed all records of the case so nobody has really heard about this.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/23/wyoming.reservation.deaths/index.html

Brian Osha

NFL Defends Itself Over Head Injuries

The nfl has been under scrutiny over their handling of concussion and post trauma. some nfl players have died and others are suffering from alsimers.



-Mahamadu Trawally

Followup to last Friday's class, "underreported stories"

The following link has a list of the top 10 under reported news stories.

Some of the stories were discussed in class on Friday the 20th, but there are a few that we did not talk about. I think that it is ridiculous how there is major media coverage about the death of a celebrity like Michael Jackson, but important issues like Darfur, AIDS, or national security take the back burner and are not covered.

-Alexandra Tomo

Freedom of Speech in Advertising

I just wanted to get peoples views on the following youtube video. It relates to advertising and freedom of speech.



-Dan Savini

I recently saw a commercial for LEGO Rock Band. Now don't get me wrong, I like rock band and I like LEGOs, but here we go with more homogenized products going onto the market. I remember someone in class saying that there is a problem with companies shoving more and more same-genre products down our throats instead of coming up with new concepts. Here's another example...

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/104/1041378p1.html

-Chris Knox

This is an article about Brett Favre and his recent success in the NFL. This guy is 40 years old, playing as well as he did in his 20's. Just this past week he broke his record for completion percentage with 88%. How Favre can still do well in the NFL amazes me, and I hope he's successful as long as he keeps his career going.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/recap?gid=20091122016

-Lee Norris

Advertising Schemes for Black Friday

Since it's that time of year, here's an interesting article I found about retailers and their advertising schemes for Black Friday. Many of us have seen them, some might have been a victim to them. . . I usually stay away from stores that day, though the times I have been, it's pretty crazy. . . people turn into animals. This article talks about schemes retailers pull in their ads to lure people to their stores and how these can make matters worse by angering customers.


--Kevin Rahn

New Internet Laws in Great Britain

The Internet is right on the threshold of becoming locked down. Lets hope that whats happening in Great Britain wont happen here for a long time. This bill reminds me of some of the acts that get passed here, they do things that nobody wants very well, and don't help the general public much at all.

-Ryan Waite

More Verizon vs. AT&T

A week or so ago there was a post about the Verizon ads poking fun at AT&T's coverage map. The issue has gotten so big that AT&T was sued, but ruled against with the judge saying that while misleading, the ads were not inaccurate. Here is a post on AT&T's website addressing the advertisements. I think it is safe to say that Verizon got the reaction that they wanted.

-Corey Van Lare

Seriously?

We watched a video some time back. Remember the one that examined a woman's role in music videos as sex objects, and how that trickles out into real life?

I found this... wth?






Seriously?

The True Power of Lobbyists

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/15/us/politics/15health.html?_r=1&hp

This is an interesting article about recent evidence that appeared regarding lobbyists and their power over elected officials. It was recently discovered that representatives of a company called Genentech were the actual writers of a number of speeches given by members of the House of Representatives.

Ian Jenkins

Vaccine Saftey

If you're thinking about getting the swine flu shot, you may want to watch this clip first. It is a shocking story of a girl who got the shot, and now has a rare neurological disorder. You may want to think twice!



-Jenna Korbut

Fox News Editing

Recently Fox News edited the Glenn Beck 9/12 footage, well apparently they edited Palin’s footage at her book signing. They used a clip from the 2008 campaign, how can they be that stupid?

-Tom Myers

Who needs a Kindle?

I guess this would fall under the category of advertisement. it is sort of a spoof commercial for the Kindle, that pokes fun at the product. it pretty much says that kindle is only useful if you are a crazy person who needs to carry around hundreds of books wherever you go. It's pretty funny and about a product we discussed in class.



-Brendan Downes

Advertising to teens.

This is a video pertaining to advertising to teens. An every day person was asked questions about what influenced her in advertising along with what she perceived in some of them.



-Ashley Thomas

This article talks about the most overpaid actors in Hollywood. Not really surprising to me, Will Ferrell tops the list. As much as I loved Anchorman and some of his earlier films, he hasn't made anything worth watching lately. Also surprising, Shia LaBeouf topped the list of Best Actors for the Buck. I don't really find him to be a good actor and I thought the Transformers movies were terrible because of the whole no plot thing they had going. I'd actually rather see Will Ferrell make more movies than Shia LaBeouf . Any other opinions?

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ibd6a20f7ac9abaef556605dc3ba33d68

-John Lane

Only the first part about the Buffalo Sabres rookie, Tyler Ennis. He was on his way to Connecticut on a bus to play in his normal AHL game before getting called up hours before to go to Philly to fill in for an injured player...

http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=506554

-Chris Pitman

Internet Laws

http://mikeyounglaw.com/wp/2009/09/01/online-harassment-texas-internet-law/

If you read this closely, it isn't a particularly bad law. There's just the part where you can't give out someone else's information without their consent...

"(b) A person commits an offense if the person sends an
electronic mail, instant message, text message, or similar
communication that references a name, domain address, phone number,
or other item of identifying information belonging to any person:"

If I ever live in Texas, I will be breaking that law at one time or another... and not for malicious purposes. I can see this being taken out of context and useless lawsuits being thrown around.

-Chris L

alibi from facebook

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/12/facebook.alibi/index.html

I guess Facebook can be used for more than just keeping in touch with
friends and playing all the little games. This article shows how a
Facebook status update provided an alibi for a 19 year old accused of a
robbery in Brooklyn.
Keep your statuses updated everyone, you never know when they might come
in handy. . .


--Kevin Rahn

2 year old helps mother

http://www.gnn.com/article/two-year-old-helps-his-mother-give-birth/774791?icid=main|main|dl4|link4|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gnn.com%2Farticle%2Ftwo-year-old-helps-his-mother-give-birth%2F774791

this is a link to an article about an amazing two year old who helped his mother give birth to his brother. this is truely an amazing story and i cannot believe the things kids are doing these days.

Matt Rand

See what Beyonce has caused.

This music video goes to show that even the tiniest of toddlers can be influenced by what they watch. This makes it essential for the parents to monitor what is being shown to their kids. This particular video can be considered harmless but others may not be. It is the parents responsibity to filter this until their children have developed an appropriate understanding on what is acceptable and what is not. this video shows that even a baby is receptive and attentative to its surroundings and what is going on. Enjoy.

Sasha Foster

cat facts

Here are some interesting facts about cats. As a cat lover, I enjoyed them a lot and I hope you all do too.

- Jen

http://www.catscans.com/facts.htm

Black Friday coming Early

Black Friday seems to be getting earlier and earlier these days. I don't watch much TV anymore, but I'm sure the advertising side for this is going nuts. I know online, I'm seeing more and more advertising for online stores with ads on pages and in my email.
http://shopping.yahoo.com/articles/yshoppingarticles/283/black-friday-comes-early-at-big-chain-stores/

Daniel Meyer

Punkin' Chunkin'

http://www.usatoday.com/news/offbeat/2009-11-11-punkin-chunkin_N.htm

I wonder what these people were thinking when they decided to make this a contest.

-Jen

Obama Criticized for Abiding by Japanese Traditions

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20091116/pl_afp/japanusdiplomacyasiaobama

This article is related to a recent trip Obama took to Asia. When visiting Japan he bowed to Emperor Akihito when greeting him. As a result he recieved a large amount of criticism for it from the conservatives. I find this to be completely rediculous. Different countries have different customs and this is a common greeting for formal occasions in Japan. Following the customs of a country you are visiting is a great practice and is very respectful. It should have not be an issue at all, yet it recieved a large amount of negative attention.

Anthony F.

More ridiculousness of copyright protection (or is it trademark?)

I stumbled upon this tonight (but not through Stumble Upon).

tl;dr (Too long, didn't read)

Some bars in South Carolina can't play original live music anymore because someone may have played licensed material at one point or another in the past few years.



Also, I have no clue how credible or biased the source is. It's easy to be on the side of the non-corporate for us...

Who is Glenn Beck?

If you consider yourself liberal, click here.


If you consider yourself conservative, click here.


-Chris L

Got a little captain in you (while playing football)?

We talked about product placement in movies during class. This is an example of guerilla marketing that the NFL just recently banned, and advertising using sports. The campaign started by Captain Morgan was discovered and stopped by the NFL. There was a pose struck by Brent Celek, TE of the Eagles like Captain Morgan.

-Corey Van Lare

AT&T Demands Verizon Stop Airing "Misfit Toys" Ad

For their holiday advertising campaign Verizon has launched a series of commercials that express their network superiority over AT&T. Specifically, Verizon has attacked AT&T for their lack of 3G coverage in the United States. AT&T has since demanded that Verizon take down the ads. Do you think Verizon should be forced to take the ads down?

-Greg Foederer




And that's not all...

There has been continued controversy between Verizon Wireless and AT&T recently with regards to their advertisements. AT&T claims that they have been improperly portrayed by Verizon's advertisements. Verizon denies this, saying that AT&T simply can't handle the truth.



-Mike Knaebel

This is an article that puts the amount of revenue from advertising during a televised sports event. It is crazy to see how much one event can make off of advertising slots. So many companies, for instance with the super bowl, are willing to pay huge amounts of cash because the amount of viewers are outrageous.

http://books.google.com/books

-Alex Sullivan

This is an article that relates back to the changing of television to a niche market and the expectations with advertising. It talks about the fact that they used sporting events to boost the amount of viewers and depended greatly on the advertising revenues.

http://www.museum.tv/eotvsection.php?entrycode=sportsandte

-Alex Sullivan

This is a link to the latest clip of Ocho Cinco pretending to bribe the ref with a dollar bill. He is now being fined because of the broadcasting on national television. Do you feel this is a relevant action? I see where both sides are coming from, I mean it was an unnecessary action but at the same time I think that most who saw it realized it was not meant to be taken seriously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ee35zaBArPM

-Alex Sullivan

This is a link to a trailer of the transformers the first movie. This shows just how apparent product placement is in movies. It takes you through clips that show the obviousness of product placement. It is amazing to see that in a few minutes of a movie that many different labels can be shown and advertised.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LFQIoc49ZM

-Alex Sullivan

Has the NFL Gone to Far?

If you do not know the events that occurred over this weekend this video shows Tennessee Titans owner Bud Adams giving the middle finger to the Buffalo Bills sideline after the Titans beat the Bills. Now after the news about this came out ESPN and other sports shows were soon talking about it. In the sports media this drew a lot of sports analysis to discuss if Bud should be fined for his actions or not. Many of them agreed that yes his actions were not needed and that he should be fined by the NFL. The NFL finally dud come out and decided to fine Bud $250,000 for his actions at the Stadium on Sunday. Granted he is the owner of a football team and has a lot of money. But I would like to ask has the NFL gone to far? Many people have said he was doing this to Terrel Owens and not the entire Bills Team. Hey, maybe he just did something that the rest of American has wanted to say to TO anyways. I am curious to see what people think.

Here is the link for the video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTxHuUGG_2c

-Korey Fratini

Military to Media Transparency

I found this article interesting in that we have started to talk a little bit about transparency in the media in relation to the government. Over the years I have noticed that the media and the public has been complaining about the lack of transparency in what the military is doing in our current conflicts. There have been the arguments that the public has the right to know what our military is doing and what our soldiers are having to deal with. However, I would like to point out that there are certain pieces of information I do not think the public needs to know in the interest of the safety of the troops overseas. I will agree that there does need to be transparency between the media and what the government and military is doing. This not only help foster accountability within the government but it also helps ensure that the military is carrying out its job in a professional manner. I think that this article shows a step in the right direction by showing the media this new prison that it give the public a sense of ease knowing that our military is conducting themselves properly. It also shows that we are responding to the needs of some of the prisoners in ways such as religious rights.

-Korey Fratini

http://abcnews.go.com/International/Afghanistan/prison-bagram-points-shift-approach/story?id=9088741

We talked about product placement in movies during class. This is an example of guerilla marketing that the NFL just recently banned, and advertising using sports. The campaign started by Captain Morgan was discovered and stopped by the NFL. There was a pose struck by Brent Celek, TE of the Eagles like Captain Morgan.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=cr-celekpose111209&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

-Corey Van Lare

The article talks about Andre Agassi's book coming out, and how he admitted to taking illegal drugs during his tennis career. A lot of tennis players have come out recently stating their disgust with his decision to take the drugs. The drugs that he took (Crystal Meth) are actually performance inhibitors, not helping him improve his tennis play. Do you think Andre has tarnished his legacy with this book?

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=4600027

-Greg Foederer

9/11 Conspirators Set to Face Civil Trial

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/14/us/14terror.html

The terrorists linked with the attacks on 9/11 against our country are now going to face a civil trial in New York City rather than the originally planned military trial. The nazi's tried after WWII faced a military trial. What makes this any different than that? Do you agree with Obama's decision?

Bradley T. Reese

Slander in Political Campaigns

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENCRu-2d35g&NR=1&feature=fvwp

This video displays the slandering opponents in the presidential campaign use against one another. This amount of degrading was never possible before the coming of mass media. Now a days those running are able to delve into the pasts of there opponents far too easily and dig up unnecessary dirt to degrade each other. Presidential elections and become more of a popularity contest than determining who is best fit to lead the country for the next four years. One nice twist to this video is that it also covers the topic of videos made from the masculine view covered in class. This once again is done because it appeals to the viewers, not to degrade women. On second thought maybe it is. Maybe it is designed to degrade Hillary Clinton just a smidge.

Christopher Perrigo

'Brainwashing' Elementary School Kids

http://theconservativemonster.com/2009/09/26/fox-news-anchor-compares-nj-school-kids-brainwashing-video-to-nazi-germany.aspx

Is New Jersey brainwashing elementary school kids to love Obama just as the Nazis in Germany brainwashed people to love Hitler? This video of a fox news report attempts to answer the question.

-Jen

American Vs. British Libel Laws

I found this older article while looking around online about British and American libel laws. It discusses the differences in libel law and how the Internet has contributed to the rise of libel claims in British courts. It's pretty interesting to read about how "libel tourists" are taking advantage of the system there.

-Chris Knox

Media Bias

This link parallels what was discussed recently in class about FOX news and the “conservative bias” that they seem to have. With CNN’s recent firing of Lou Dobbs, it seems that they are attempting to attain a portion of FOX’s conservative base to boost their fourth place primetime ratings. Whether it is successful or not, the neutral ground CNN is searching for will be progressively more difficult to find due to the increasing polarity of our nation.

-Chad Klotzbach

Mayonnayse vs. Miracle Whip

I found this statement made by the Miracle Whip advertisement team to be interesting. It refers to Colbert's comments regarding Miracle Whip on his show and in the statement they threaten to air multiple Miracle Whip ads during his show. While the statement is amusing it is also an ad itself, as it draws attention to Miracle Whip.

-Ian Jenkins

When is it apropriate?

This is just generally referring to the Mass Media as a whole, and what's to be expected after something like this. Oprah hosted the woman that was brutally attacked by the chimp on her show and asked her to remove her veil to show her severely mauled face. This woman wanted to show everyone how strong she was, but the public has and will continue to criticize her just because she showed her face.



Warning: Video on the linked webpage contains graphic material.




-Ashley Thomas

McDonald's Monopoly

This is an article I found about a 23 year old woman who actually won $1 million from the Monopoly peel off game at McDonalds. This is the first time i have ever heard of anyone winning which means it can actually happen. I always thought it was just an advertising scam to get customers to buy more food. I think that with someone actually winning the grand prize it will create a buzz around McDonalds and even more people will begin to play.

-Matthew Rand

Scandal on Sesame Street (kinda)!

Found this article
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/102691/Top_10_Sesame_Street_controversies

As sesame street comes around its 40th anniversary, i found this interesting. It talks about all the controversies through the years. It shows how such a popular show change with the changing public views. I think most recently, the cookie monster not eating as many cookies because it is unhealthy all the way back to bert and ernie's sexual ambiguity.

-Kevin Vragel

'Smart Choice' Food Labeling

PepsiCo started using 'Smart Choice' labels on certain products this summer. By showing this on a product gives the impression that they are actually healthy. In reality they may not be. For example Fruit Loops had this on its box while the number one ingredient listed is sugar. The program has come under a large amount of criticism because of this. There are even more products with similar labeling that give the impression that they are healthy for you. The initial impression these labels cause may be false and could influence you to buy them.

Anthony F.

This article shows just another way that companies are cracking down on piracy in the entertainment business. Although they somehow know who is "modding" their xbox, they are only banning them from playing online, and not taking legal action against them for pirated games and downloads.

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/wave-of-bans-hits-xbox-live/1372276

-Kevin Vragel

Here is a really funny video making fun of Seth MacFarlane and his inability to make his shows different. MacFarlane basically owns FOX with how many viewer he probably draws with his shows. As much as I enjoy Family Guy, I would love to see him actually create something at least slightly different. Every one of his shows are exactly the same which is just one example of, what I feel to be, a time in which almost all shows on television copy one another and lack creativity.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1924513

-John Lane

Whos thoughts are in your head?

http://www.stormfront.org/jewish/whorules.html

This article discusses how those that control media in a way control the minds of all of those in America and even elsewhere. Virtually everything that we entertain ourselves with is formulated by someone elses control. Every idea or thought that is instilled in us by movies, television, magazines, books and music are designed by someone else. This raises the question, Are our thoughts and ideals our own are something cultivated for us?

Christopher Perrigo

going green

http://www.alternative-energy-news.info/concept-bridge-generate-electricity-moving-cars/

-Pretty creative and actually practical application of the whole "going green" phenomenon we are experiencing in our culture right now.

Brad Reese

Interpretion of Facebook pictures

http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20091109/sc_livescience/postingpicsonlinewhatyourphotossayaboutyou

This was an interesting article about Facebook and how people interpret your photos. It is interesting how people will make assuptions about a person based on the body language that person portrays in the photo. This is especially important when employers are scanning through Facebook. It definitely made me think of what type of photos I've accumulated over the four years I've had Facebook, so I had to go back through and untag some photos I did not want potential employers to see.

Lee T Norris

An article for the blog about comedian Tracy Morgan that relates to our discussion about George Carlin and media censorship.

http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Rock+star+Tracy+Morgan+shocking+comedy+routine+prompts+walk+outs+among+audience/2207010/story.html

-Brian Osha

This video is of the game Medal of Honor: Frontline which is based on World War II. The opening video displays the events of D-Day while storming the beaches on Normandy. This game like the game Six Days in Falujah that was discussed in class is based on real wartime events. It is ridiculous to think that the production of these types of games are considered a disgrace to the honor of those who actually fought in the wars or more importantly that they could be considered as tools that train children and young adults to be soldiers and how to kill people. These games are produced with the same intentions as music videos with sexual content are, to make money, not to train kids or to degrade women. Those behind making these things are simply giving the people what they want.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tjpw2SCMOXY&feature=PlayList&p=00E126D6E9D06D64&index=0&playnext=1

-Christopher Perrigo

This article discusses the effect of of sexual content on young teens. It goes on to break down the effects from the different forms of mass media, saying that these effects are caused by tv and movies and also music and magazines, on different groups of teens. The article states that the more young teens are exposed to sexual content the more likely they are to engaged in sexual intercourse sooner than those who aren't. I personally think that this is more of a problem with parental guidance than there being too much content in media.

http://sexualhealth.e-healthsource.com/?p=news1&id=531862

-Christopher Perrigo

Saw VI Review

Halloween has rolled around again and with it, yet another Saw movie. As part of their advertising strategy the producers of the Saw movies have always chosen to release their movies in a time where people are looking for a scare. This feeling of renewed enjoyment of gore, horror, and freight boosts their sales. Surprisingly the Saw movies have reached their 6th sequel while still maintaining a fair amount of public interest. This is a large achievement as most movies only make it to one or two sequels before interest dies and the movies can no longer turn a profit. Although there does seem to be a pattern among horror movies. Many films like Friday the 13th or the Jason films, or even Freddie Krueger have reached numerous sequels while still maintaining public interest. Even if this interest has dwindled considerably new movies are still created. Perhaps this is because of the ease of creating a horror film. Insert one psycho killer who has already been created for you. Second, bring the villain back to life if he had previously been killed (usually not to difficult because they are often invincible). And then have them kill a lot of people. Indeed this is an extremely simplistic version of the story line but it is a repeatable process that producers have followed to create numerous sequels. Perhaps this is why Saw has survived this long and can still make you cringe. Originally the Saw films were such a huge success firstly because they captivated audiences, but secondly because of how extremely inexpensive they were to produce. They took place in only one or two rooms throughout the film with only a few actors (one of which was actually the producer). As a result the majority of the money earned by the film was completely profit. The Saw films have continued to follow this formula and perhaps this is why they are still able to turn a profit despite some dwindling interest.

-Matthew Cloud

Nifty pics.

Musician Dave Binder plays hit song mixes from the year 1969 in Cheel on Friday November 6th. His performance was titled "1969, The Year that Rocked the world." Binder provided a brief history of the songs he played and their impact at the time, and had amusing stories to tell about Woodstock and other performances that year.



A walkway in Burlington, Vermont, lined with trees creates a symmetric effect.



A scenic view of the Adirondack mountains from Burlington, Vermont.


-Katelyn Virga

Call of Duty, Infinity Ward, and Dedicated Servers

We've been talking about games for the past few classes, and today we talked about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Another controversial aspect of this game has to do with multi-player. Usually, for PC games (yes this is out for PC also), a user can create his or her own server to host a multi-player game on. This allows you to customize the kind of game you want, special features you want, and play what maps you want. Infinity Ward (makers of this game) chose not to implement this feature called Dedicated Server, instead hosting all games on servers owned and operated by Infinity Ward. A simple search in google on this topic can show you the outrage the gaming community has over this decision. Infinity Ward decided to place more control over their media. The podcast linked on this page contains a discussion on this issue from the perspective of computer literate game enthusiasts. It takes a while for them to get going. I haven't listened to it much yet.

PC users of this game are in an uproar. Infinity Ward says their matchmaking services provided by their servers will be. Link.


Also, since we're so keen on Fox News now-a-days, here's a link to an interview transcript from Fox & Friends about 'MW2'. I'm posting this mainly to illustrate the continuing debate between factions on videogame violence.

EDIT: This is a better rant on the death of the dedicated server.

Conservative Bias in Fox News

This is the opening scene from last weeks Saturday Night Live. I think this highlights the conservative bias that Fox news broadcasts.
Check out the last minute or so of the video. It references the 23rd congressional distract election we have been talking about in class. When asked for the election results that should have stated that the Democrat Bill Owens won; they responded with "It's just not that important."
http://www.hulu.com/watch/10750o1/saturday-night-live-fox-news-election

-Meredith Emerson

Well Miley is at the center of another scandal. It's scary how much we think of people even when their work isn't even their own. The great world of popular music at it's finest yet again.

http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/miley-cyrus-ive-never-heard-a-jay-z-song-1970241

-Brad Reese

The printing of US papers in Britian.

This is an article titled “Libel threat to force US papers out of Britain” posted on business.timsonline.co.uk.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article6908079.ece?token=null&offset=0&page=1

Basically the article states how American newspapers and magazines are debating whether or not to stop selling their product in Britain. American companies are also considering blocking British access to their websites as well. In America, the first amendment gives us freedom of speech, however, in Britain that is not the case. American newspapers and magazines have been in trouble before due to “libel” because what is printed in America that is considered “okay” is not okay in Britain. What is published follows different rules there and American companies have been repeatedly sued for this. Libel as we learned in class the other day is saying something that is untrue. American entertainment magazines and newspapers that focus on celebrities often fabricate or over-exaggerate stories in order to make their product profitable and sell-able.

-Brianna Moyer

Conservatives Grouchy over Sesame Street

I found this pretty funny and I thought a lot of other people might too. I didn't check if it was already on the website so I hope it isn't. Enjoy.

-Jen W

Network Neutrality

This article discusses Comcast's policy of throttling its user's network traffic if they exceed a certain percentage of their maximum bandwidth for more than 15 minutes. This means that if someone is trying to download a video game demo or trailer than the normal 20 minute download might become a 25 minute download. However, if you decide that you want to try and stream a HD movie from Netflix then good luck. The article also discusses the impacts that this might have on the online multi-player gaming community.

~Joseph Andrist

Food for Thought about Wind Turbines

Wind turbines, an increasingly common structure to help with our fight against global breakdown. They are massive, standing 280ft from base to center and another 111ft when a blade is at full peak. In my opinion they are magnificent displays of today’s advanced engineering. Others may not share this same feeling. Of course with this new technology come positive and negative aspects and effects on our daily lives.
One negative to this is the reality that this is not as reliable of an alternative energy as some others. Wind turbines up north, for example, produce power about 33% of the time with the highest output averaging around 1.5MW per hour (mega watts) and spiking occasionally about 1.7MW per hour. But these results are totally dependent on the weather, which as we all know living in New York is very unpredictable. Another may be the aesthetics of the structure. Being so big some would argue that they are an eye sore and when running at full capacity can be quite noisy. Personally it does not bother me to have a wind turbine on my land as long as it was stuck in the back. I mean lets face it, we have been dealing with power lines for years, and it isn’t reasonable to put all power lines underground. Everyone needs power; it is just taking on a different appearance.
Some positives that the implementation of wind turbines has contributed to are the increasing number of job opportunities. Again referring to the turbines up north, there is about one person per ten turbines to take on general maintenance and upkeep. Today, there are about 268 towers and the plan to install more is in the works. Each turbine provides power to up four homes, which may not seem like much, but it is clean energy, no emissions. Also, it does not take long to install a structure, only about one day, without considering curing time for the foundation.
Overall, wind turbines may seem like they don’t contribute to a huge impact on providing clean power, but we have to start somewhere. And besides, they are interesting to look at, and if you are going into engineering work like myself it certainly increases your appreciation of such efforts.
You can find out more about wind turbines on this website.


-Tonya Buddie

Review of Capitalism: A Love Story (Michael Moore)

Michael Moore starts out the movie by comparing the road that we are headed down with capitalism to the fall of the Roman Empire. He touches on some very touchy subjects, such as corporations profiting off of the death of workers, which were referred to as “peasants.” His major point of the movie is that capitalism fails to benefit the larger good; that corporate greed has made very few rich and dangling a carrot for everyone else saying, “this is what you can have if you work hard enough.”

One of the figures he showed was that the top 1% make more than the bottom 95% of workers. Since the days of Reagan, government has acted more like a corporation trying to maximize profits. In the movie, he also exposed documents of Citigroup, documents he claimed were how they planned to take over the world. In the documents it was shown that they only feared the fact that all of the people that weren’t rich had the ability to vote. Airline pilots were discussed and showed how company’s efforts to increase their bottom line affected real people. One of the pilots was living off of food stamps. These people are very necessary in our society, where pilots transfer mass amounts of people from place to place and are only earning around $20,000 a year with 4 times that amount in school loans. His effort of the movie is to try to rally people to push for a democracy that speaks for everyone, and not capitalism that breeds greed.

One of the major points of the movie that I really agreed with is the points that were made about a free economy and capitalism. I am studying for an economics minor, and learned all about Adam Smith and the invisible hand. However, last October and November, Government bailed out companies that should have been allowed to fail. Instead, these companies were granted large sums of bailout money, money taken directly from the taxpayers. So the very people that were hurt from the crisis and taken advantage of were once again hit up for their hard earned cash to support greed. This really touched home in the months following when bonuses of the companies were announced and the AIG resort getaway with top executives. The bill was rushed through the House of Representatives using fear tactics. Moore mentions this many times throughout the movie that the top 1% wealthy people in our nation use fear to keep us under their control to not revolt. I think this is a very valid point he made and made a great deal of sense.

Part of the movie that I didn’t agree with and didn’t think was necessary was the political plug at the end for Obama. I think that Moore made several excellent points in the movie, and putting that into the movie just gives people an excuse to write it off as radical left wing ideas. Yes I believe that people in general are becoming more conscious of the fact of corporate greed, but I do not think that one person such as Obama is going to change that around all by himself. The structure of America is in need of change, hopefully a change that Obama will bring.

Overall the movie was thought provoking, and something if you haven’t seen I would recommend seeing. There were several parts that really tugged at your heart with sympathy for people who were being taken advantage of solely for profit of large corporations, that don’t even need the added income. Greed became heavily engrained in American society over the past 5 years or so, even beyond that. But hopefully with the recession, that greed has been flushed down, and even though it will never entirely disappear, maybe it can be worked out that people will be given a more fair shot.

- Corey Van Lare

Remastered Beatles catalog to be released on USB device

The Beatles catalog will be released on a USB drive. 16 GB of music and extras. This goes along with class from when Prof. Dullea was saying "we don't want your atoms, just your bits". It is much easier to sell this data on a flash drive since there is so much material. We are moving further and further away from music on CDs with things like this and iTunes.

-Eva Cartwright

What does google know about you?

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/05/google.dashboard/index.html

Here's an interesting article I came across on the lines of internet
privacy. Google has released a new feature called Google Dashboard which
allows users to actually see what information the company has collected
on you based on your interaction with its many services and sites. Kinda
creepy? But hey, it allows you to remove things such as recent Google
searches and what not... I haven't tried it out yet but I'm really
curious now.


--Kevin Rahn

legalized majiuana for multiple sclerosis

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2009/05/should_marijuana_be_legally_pr.html

I found this interesting article about a man named Joe Gamble who lives in Syracuse and is trying to get marijuana legally prescribed as a pain reliever. Gamble has a disease called multiple sclerosis which causes him to studder and twitch constantly. Gamble uses marijuana to calm himself and control his multiple sclerosis. Gamble needs to get majiuana legalized so he doesn't get introuble for his activities. I believe for situations like this marijuana should be perscribed for pain relievers because it is obvious that Joe Gamble needs it for him to function correctly on an everyday basis.

Matthew Rand

Rape Culture

Relating to what we talked about in class a few weeks ago, about MTV and sexuality – an interesting blog article about what “rape culture’ really is. It is not just men swiping credit cards in a woman’s butt, being surrounded by 10-15 women, or throwing lunch meat and money at them. It is not just women only getting ahead when they are attractive and dress in bikinis and get breast implants. Much more subtle societal suggestions can create a culture where rape is somehow acceptable.

This is a really interesting read, and I think a few of these will surprise the class.

http://shakespearessister.blogspot.com/2009/10/rape-culture-101.htm

Allison DeVoe

'Games'

I have been playing videogames all my life. I don't so much anymore, but I do still have a special place for them in my life. They transcend what we think as media, bringing the user's thoughts and emotions into another world in ways traditional media probably never will. I feel sorry for those who do not understand what videogames have become. While many videogames are still 'games', there is an ever growing number of games that have a deeper meaning. One example of this is Six Days in Fallujah. See the video below for more on that.

The blog the producers of this movie is here.

I don't know if we are covering this in class or not, I hope we do.



-Chris L

Boise St. hires PR Firm

This article is about Boise St. football hiring a PR firm to help them get into a better BCS bowl game. It doesn’t talk a lot about that but I thought it was interesting and applied to class.

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/Boise-State-is-willing-to-pay-to-remind-the-BCS-?urn=ncaaf,200471

-Tom Myers

Article: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/281618

Stephen Colbert is the new main sponsor for the US Olympic Speedskating team.

-Robert Trerice

Political Spending

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29059.html

This article touches on the political spending that we discussed in class on Wednesday. It’s surprising the amount of money raised even when politicians are not campaigning. Basically it seems that he who has the most funds raised is now elected and puts them in a position to collect more funds. The elections in 2010 and 2012 should be very interesting in not only the amount of funds raised but what party gets elected.

Chad Klotzbach

Targeted Advertising

The following video is an advertisement for Durex a brand of condoms. The first time I watched this I thought it was really funny. Then I realized what the advertisers of this product were thinking. It seems to me that they make the issue of sex comical to acquire a new market of consumers, such as young teenagers. Next time you walk down that isle don’t tell me this commercial won’t pop in your head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5sTBrs4fhQ

Tom Myers

Response to Paranormal Activities

Recently I viewed the new movie Paranormal Activities mostly because I was curious as to how scary it was. The advertisements had all been saying that it was the scariest movie ever, and there was a buzz among my peers that this was true. There was even talk that people had left the theaters they were so scared. Not being one to be that scared by horror movies I was interested to see how scared I would be. I can confirm that this movie is indeed scary, but I still slept like a baby the night after. It followed a recent trend in movies where instead of Hollywood style cinematography, the story is told through a home video camera. This gives the movie a more life like feeling in that there are imperfections in the film and it makes it feel more real. Another successful movie following this same strategy that I witnessed was Cloverfield. These two movies also used a similar advertising strategy in that they did not reveal much of the movie in the previews. Paranormal Activities did not reveal what was haunting the couple, and Cloverfield did not reveal any footage of the monster that was terrorizing NYC. They left the majority of the movie a complete mystery so that curiosity would drive you to see the movie. I would say in my case that this strategy was a success. A third clever marketing strategy that Paranormal Activities used was to state that it was showing in select theaters and that if you wished for it to be viewed in your area you could request it. So when it appeared in the local Roxy Theater one was lead to believe that it was there by popular demand. This ties into the popularity aspect in that it leads you to believe everyone else wants to see this movie, you should as well. Overall the movie was worth the admission and provided a nights worth of good entertainment and nail biting suspense.

-Matthew Cloud

As all of us faithful New Yorkers know, the Yankees clinched the 2009 World Series Championship on Wednesday night. When glancing through some articles online, I came across two instances of the same story from two different papers: a clear example of how newspapers have adopted the practice of running stories they did not write in order to publish content as soon as they can.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/11/05/sports/AP-BBA-Yankees-Parade.html?scp=5&sq=parade&st=cse

http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/sports/69288727.html

-Chris Knox

Advertising in the Majors

This is an interesting article on advertising and the players in the world series. Based on the outcome of the games, it goes through about a dozen players and puts them into a group based on whether they are losers or winners in marketing. It also says in the description for each player how they could best be used in advertisements or are already being used. This shows directly an example of how celebrities are used in ad campaigns in an attempt to use them to sell a product or idea.

-Anthony F.

Baloon Boy Parody

Here is a video that combines two different medias. It combines the story of balloon boy and puts a spin on it transforming into a popular song. It shows that the story not only influences those who watch the news but something as ridiculous as this gets to teens as well. If the story was not already funny this video puts it into a different light of entertainment



-Brian Leventhal

Coca Cola = Health Drink?

Here's an article with a company having a strange partnership. This isn't the full article, but it covers how Coca Cola made a deal with the American Academy of Family Physicians to show the "health benefits" of drinking a soft drink full of artificial sweeteners. I see the future advertisements having doctors giving the positives of Coke and "forgetting" to name the negatives.

-Ashley Thomas

Selling Cool

Alright, so we talked a bit about advertisements recently. It's kinda late, maybe I'll add some more analysis of this later. Basically, its about about marketing to teen culture. They are after our money! This video is pretty cool, and it's by PBS! I highly recommend this video.

Oh yea, it's about an hour long.



-Chris Lamothe

Secret Copyright Treaty: Leaked

In regards to DRM, copyright law, and net neutrality, this article shows brings up a leaked government agreement. Whether you know it or not I'm sure nearly everyone has broken at least one of these points. It will be really scary if this thing ever gets off the ground.

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/03/secret-copyright-tre.html

-Ryan Waite

Mutual Advertisement

Talk about quenching thirst.... this is Vitamin Water's new Ad in conjunction with the movie New Moon from the Twilight series. This is a good example of how products and movies come together to promote each other's material.



-Jenna Korbut

News corp strikes again‏

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33438370/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

News Corp is trying to charge people to watch on hulu, which is advertised as being a free website.

Joshua E. Knapp

Danah Boyd on Young People, Social Networks and Politics

I've been reading up on some research of friendship analysis on Facebook and came across an expert, Danah Boyd, who has a video here that I find very relevant to what we're discussing in class today.
Here's a link to Danah Boyd's Twitter.

Link to the original video.




-John Exley

McCain's Sexual Education Ad against Obama

This is link is to a clip from the morning/afternoon talkshow "The View". Personally, I hate this show, and the blonde really gets to me because she thinks her opinion is the only opinion and never takes anyone else's into consideration. However, this clip really represents what we discussed in class today regarding the negative ads in political campaigns and Whoopi along with the red-haired lady make some great points. Try to watch the whole thing, I found it really interesting.



-Brianna Moyer

On no! You might get sick!

I thought this was interesting, comparing an old advertisement for a vaccine with how it is being repeated today with the vaccine for H1N1. It sounds like some higher ups are scared so they are using advertising tactics to scare us into to getting a shot. Also, this video presents the fact that everyone should get this vaccine even though it has not yet been fully tested. I think it is cruel to present commercials such as the one shown in this video, putting people into a panic without knowing all the facts.



-Tonya Buddie

"Ten races worth watching around country"

Here is an article from CNN.com talking about a few congressional races worth watching. I found it interesting that the district we are in, New York's 23rd District, is getting so much attention. Even The Daily Show recently had a segment talking about the congressional race going on here. I never thought the North Country could get national publicity. I wanted to post this to see what people thought about how the race was going and to get comments and opinions on the candidates.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/11/02/races.to.watch/index.html

- John Lane

"Racial disparity: All active ethics probes focus on black lawmakers"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20091103/pl_politico/29055

The article relates to ethics in government and the current controversy. I think its sad when our own Ethics Committee may not be ethical in its actions. It would be a hell of a coincidence if they just happened to be fully investigating only African Americans. But then again, is Yahoo a good source for this kind of information? Are they biased? I don't know!

Senior Reflection (comment)

I read the senior reflection article from last week and was going to comment, comparing my experience to hers, but it was too long so I decided to use this for my article for this week. My college experience has been very different than most. Firstly, I was a part of the Clarkson School program here (yes.. I was a schoolie). I was 16 years old for the first month of my freshman year. Coming to college so young caused problems between myself and my parents. They felt like they still needed to make my decisions for me since I was still 16. But, I was far away from my home in NC and I felt like I should be independent like any other freshman. Obviously they were limited in their control since I was so far from their reach. However, there were many arguments. Looking back, we both should have been more understanding. I had to come to realize that yes, I was in college surrounded by people older than me, but I was still younger and needed guidance from my parents every once in a while. They had to realize that I was growing up and had to make decisions by myself and live with the positive or negative consequences of those choices. I think most freshman deal with independence issues with their parents (?), but I think mine was slightly more complicated because of my age at the time.

Now, I am graduating in the spring. I will be 19 years old. People normally ask me why I am rushing through school. But I don't think I am. I have enjoyed the time I have spent at Clarkson. I have built good relationships with professors and other students. I will be sad to go. But, I am going to get my Pharm.D. and Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences, so I still have another 5 years of school after this year. So, I figured I might as well finish as soon as possible to move on to the next step towards my goal. I definitely don't regret graduating high school or college early. I think they are two of the best decisions I have ever made. Of course, like the other senior reflection pointed out, it is different for everyone. Some people like to finish a semester early, take a year off, or get a job for a few years before going to college. It all depends on the person.

Thanks,
Eva Cartwright