MLB Season is Underway

March 30th, 2014 was considered Opening Night among the MLB. The featured game on ESPN was between the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The outcome of this game was a 3-1 win by the Padres. They were held scoreless until the 8th inning when newly acquired pitcher, Brian Wilson, came in and gave up the long ball to Seth Smith. This homer started their rally. Even though last night was considered Opening Night, the Dodgers already had two games under their belt. They played the Arizona Diamondbacks in a short two game series.

 Today, March 31st, is Opening Day. Some people would consider this a national holiday because of the impact the sport has on our country. This is a strong case for people to try and take off work to watch what they have been waiting 5 months to see. After all of the off-season moves, this year's Opening Day could be one of the most interesting of the decade. We will see how the new players mesh with their team in a real-game environment. Please enjoy watching your favorite team take the field today on this unofficial National Holiday. Game on!

PTI Podcast (3/3/14) Summary #5

This summary of Pardon the Interruption is from March 28, 2014. On this day the hosts were Tony Kornheiser and Jason Whitlock. They begin this podcast talking about wide receiver Desean Jackson and why he was released. There have been reports that he was released because of his alleged involvements with gangs. This could be potentially fatal to any team because of the baggage that comes along with being associated with gangs. The second topic discussed was Kentucky vs. Louisville. Now, being a day late, we already know the outcome. I predicted this matchup, but I had Louisville winning. Kentucky is too young and I did not expect them to advance for that reason; they won though because Louisville simply did not show up. Next, they talked about the matchup between Michigan and Tennessee. After watching this game, we realized how valuable that Michigan's three-pointers are. Also, Michigan State played well against Virginia. Staying in the state of Michigan, they move on to talking about Miguel Cabrera's contract extension. I disagree with them because, as they said, Miguel does have two more years on his contract; therefore, we could have waited a little while to sign him. The guest on their podcast was Archie Miller. He came on to talk about Dayton's most recent win and the future of their team. To close this summary, they finished in the big finish talking about the Texans trying to trade away the first overall pick in this years NFL draft.

In-Class Assignment 3/28/14 DeTocqueville

DeTocqueville in my opinion wrote on technology. The main difference that people do not recognize is that even though he did not call it specifially technology, it still is. He talks about how everything is changing and how the Industrial Revolution came about. DeTocqueville says that "technology is at the heart of how we understand ourselves".

The argument on the Industrial Revolution is rather persuasive. DeTocqueville touches on the bright and dark sides of the Revolution. He says that industrialization is related to the Democratic times in society. He believes that these correlations are related to the Democratic views of people who have strong morals and virtues. To keep his opinion unbiased, he talks a little about the opposite side of the spectrum. DeTocqueville feels that industrialization effects on the environment that could back-fire. Also, he says that our workers and the equality in the work force could be affected by these changes in society. Not only are the employees concerned with industrialization, but also the employers. DeTocqueville feels that the Industrialization Revolution could influence our political growth and freedom, possibly enough to infringe on our human liberties.

When DeTocqueville said, "a way of thinking and believing and feeling, a way of standing in and toward the world", I agree with him. By this he means that the Industrial Revolution was a time for pondering new ways to make things work easier. This statement works toward the future and the ways that we need to live in today's society. He never uses the word "technology" because his definition is more descriptive. DeTocqueville says that technology is how we do something and make advancements in certain fields, rather than a new piece of equipment. Technology can also be know as a process, invention, or method.

I believe that Storey's claim does provide insight into the American innovation spirit. He says that we are searching for ideals. He says that the works do not have to be in the form of verse, but rather they can be in any form that can clearly define the ideal that you are trying to show. DeTocqueville says that people have to search for the best possible ways to do things. He says that it is part of our human nature to seek the best in everything. This is true when you consider things that are going on in present time. We as a society are always trying to improve our phones, computers, or even cars.

Manifest destiny figures into Storey's argument because he says that people have their own plan. If they want it to happen, it will. Everyone will have a different destiny that they have to manifest. Man controls technology because of how they create new ideas. The ideas themselves are already there by nature. Man did not create nature, such as lumber or steel - goods that can be used in technology today. Innovation, in my opinion, does not completely begin with the desire to transform nature. I feel that innovation uses nature to make new advances that we call technology. I do not feel that people go out to make new things solely to change something, but rather to make it better than it already is.

Storey makes a valid argument about how we as people are restless in our well being. I believe this is true especially in the example he gave of American society. He said that the poor and middle class are always working to better themselves, but also, the rich and upper class are also working just as hard not to fall. This is such a strong point he makes because of how a vast majority of people view the social classes. A lot of people feel that the bottom classes work just as hard, if not harder than the upper class. This is most certainly not 100% true or false. The upper class had to work hard to get to where they are in life; unless they are the low percentage that had everything spoon fed to them in life. In a specific scenario today with gas and oil, I feel that this statement he made applies well. People today are always searching for the best possible ways to improve, regardless of social standing.

DeTocqueville says that we are good at solving specific problems such as to machines that have malfunctions. When we become more focused on fixing those problems than working toward human happiness, we loss track of our goals. He goes on to talk about how if we continue to keep worrying about how good everything is and how to make it better we will not be as happy. DeToucqueville says there are material problems with technological solutions, but there will always be challenges that we have to deal with. Some material problems will get to severe and end up not being able to be fixed.

I agree with DeTocqueville on the idea of measuring technology on what we have created with our words and how we have learned to understand our new ways of doing things. We do not have to measure how much we produce, sell, or buy in order to tell how technologically advanced we are. As a society, we are already trying to measure the future of technology based off of what we believe we can create. I am not persuaded by this argument that he was wrong for looking past measuring physical material for technology. Technology is not important for what it does for things, but what it does for human good.

In DeTocqueville's statement about a safety net in the article, I end up agreeing with him on this issue as well. People in the industrialized economy need to be careful because they could easily be out of a job with no back-up plan. In a digital economy, like today, you still need to be careful. You can easily fall under the wrong influence and mess something up with all of the digital factors in todays world. This is an important part to consider that I do not think should be left out because it is a serious matter when regarding the well-being of people's life.

In an article on The Guardian they discuss an issue that is serious. I would take the information that was introduced in the article with a grain of salt simply because the story was presented from one side and I do not know the other sides view on this issue. Also, this story does not take place near me so I can not do as much physical research to know the true facts involved. I feel like this could be a case where people are not happy, but go just a little far. Causing physical damage to another person is a little extreme such as the case with the busses.

Layer Cake 6 - Big Data and Data Protection

Big data is large data sets combined into one big group to help innovate new ways of technology. On McKinsey and Company they list seven key ways that big data will be helpful in advancing in the technology world. They feel that big data can improve efficiency, reduce fraud and errors, and boost the collection of tax revenues. On SAS there is a slightly different idea of what big data is. Big data to them is a way to measure exponential growth and how easily accessible structured and unstructured data is. They do agree, though, that with more accurate data they can make better decisions that would produce better outcomes. The Foreign Affairs site says that big data started because there is so much information floating around on the Internet that it can be grouped together in one big set. Big data is useful because it takes a large scale of information, that we could not comprehend before, and it allows us to view it in a simple manner. NY Times talks more about how the business world has been taken over by big data, as opposed to the other sites so far which have been describing what it is. They use social media as an example of big data and take the amount of comments, posts, or likes to get a large amount of data. This is when they came up with big data. The Atlantic starts off their story on big data with a movie reference of Moneyball. This is a great comparison because in the movie, manager Billy Beane, of the Oakland A's, uses statistics to decide which players they should sign. He looks at the underlying numbers in baseball that are underrated. The Washington Post talks about a specific instance where GDELT took a group of 100 names to see how many times they were mentioned in articles. They looked to compare who these names were listed with, what the stories were about, and how many times they were talked about. The New Yorker in my opinion was the least informative on big data. The author started the article with a life story that was not interesting at all. This site did not do a great job of portraying big data in an interesting way to keep a reader reading. Overall, the common theme of all these sites is about big data and how it has become intonational in introducing new ways to view a large scale of information.

I feel that the idea of Platfora is a strong idea for a business to have started-up.This program can organize information that is in a structured or unstructured manner very easily. Also, they put in $35 million into the company to start it up in 2011. Since then, they have already made a revenue of $65 million. This is already, in just three years, almost double the amount that they put in the program. That is a strong profit margin for the short period of time. Not many businesses can say that they have had such success in that time frame. There are a couple of problems with running a program like this. There are other programs that can do just as much, if not more, than Platfora. The owners now have to convince the consumer that their product is better than the competitors. A program like Platfora was invented to help make life easier. They want to make the problem of having to organize big data sets easier. This program has demonstrated that so far and it looks like a fairly decent product to use. Platfora can help so many companies with their data sorting because it is not specifically set for one type of data base.

Recently, Google has been found to have been doing some dirty work with people's emails. They have been accused of scanning information that people send in their email and using it for big data purposes. This can be considered a violation of privacy because the people did not know that Google was doing this with their email information. Then again, you did sign up with an online service who has potential to your email. In my opinion, if you are not doing anything illegal, why are you so against allowing people to see what you are saying. They do not care about your personal conversations, but rather are trying to know as much as they can to prevent a possible threat. After you sign up for an online email service, your information can be accessed by anyone at any time if they hack your information. In the instances of the court case, I feel like the plaintiffs have a true beef with Google. They have a possibility of winning their case because they were uninformed. Their rights were infringed upon and they were not warned that they were under surveillance.

In-Class Exercise 3/26/14 - Oil vs. Gas

With risk comes innovation. The people who are afraid of risk, do not like to try to be innovative. They are afraid of failure because they do not have faith in people to do good. If you are innovative, can measure the amount that you can gain from all of the risk involved. If you want to stay with the standard that we are with right now, you would be in favor of deep and ultra-deep off shore drilling. This would be the route that we are sure of because it has been what we have been doing. If you want to be innovative and take risks, you would be in favor of transgenic technology and oil sand technology. These methods have not yet been implored. They are potentially dangerous, but if successful, they could bring a significant reward. Facebook bought Oculus VR for $2 billion. This is a great deal of money to be spent on something that only cost a company $75 million to make. Mark Zuckerberg is confident that this acquisition will end up making him money in the long run. He is the creator of the popular site, Facebook. If he feels Oculus will be beneficial to own, I will give him the benefit of doubt that he can turn this into a bigger product. Some frontiers in being innovative are that people have patents on certain aspects of technology that they might have to use to to make their own technology. Also, the amount of money needed to start up your own business is crazy high. In our work we should be going beyond the expectations that are required to make ourselves stand out. We should incorporate all of the possible technology that is available to us. By using these devices, we show that there is more digital technology that can boost how we share the news.

Layer Cake 5

The common theme in all three of the articles on low-wage workers is this: if you are going to have a bad job, you will have a poor life. Working with a job that has a minimum wage is not a strong job, but sometimes it is necessary. Some people do not have the skill set to own another job. Each day they are barely making ends meet with their $9.00 an hour and two kids at home to feed. It is a sad aspect of society that there has to be people who live in poverty while some people have more than they need. Also, the world has become a battle for every job. People who have been overseas and fighting for our country's freedom come back to the United States and have a difficult time finding employment. This, in my eyes, is very sad considering they have done so much for us as a nation, and the least we could do to repay them is supply them with a sufficient paying job.

In the New York Times article, specifically, the pictures did not strike deep. The quality of the pictures were not immensely high and did not show sorrow or pain. The second site, The Atlantic, was also disappointing in their one picture. It was not a picture of the worker, but rather a customer shopping for a football jersey. If you are trying to depict the difficulties of working at a retail store, do you not think there is a better way to express this? On the Star Tribune they have a video located at the top of the page. When I first played it, I lost interest because it was a man with a graph. This is also, a bad visual to start off your article with.

In all instances of any story visuals bring a whole different aspect to presenting a story. In the first article they have a graph that shows how the work force has changed over time. Back in the days, a high school diploma was considered great and could be enough to land a great job. Today a college degree is barely enough to even be considered for a job. Employers are looking diamond in the rough, not a person who simply graduated from college. The video presented on the Star Tribune is a decent visual to use. It presents what life is really like for a person searching for a job. It also has some statistics on slides that are useful to know.

The first graphic shown was slightly surprising. If I had to take a guess, I would have said that employers are hiring people who are in the "college graduate" group. They have more work experience and are more dependable, in a lot of people's eyes, because they are grown adults. Once I doubled back for a second glance, I concocted a theory. The younger workers are more adept to be in on current trends and times. They might be able to explore alleys that the older generation did not even know existed. The youngsters can properly work computers, social media, and are skilled with their cell phones. These workers are important for a company who is interested in expanding and doing it fast. The second graphic, on the same site, was another perplexing image. I was interested to find out that the "good non-college jobs" line was the highest on the chart. This means that there are a lot of older assistants. I would have guessed that those jobs would be for the younger class, specifically interns.

In my opinion, the key to fixing the amount of unemployment in our country is not to raise the minimum wage. This will only help those people who currently have those jobs and not those who are actually unemployed. If the job of fry cook ends up making $15 an hour, mother of two who can barely make a living off of $9 an hour will not hold that same job. If a business is going to be almost doubling their workers pay, they will want double the quality of the work. They will end up firing the lazy, not so productive worker for the young teenager who is willing to bust their butt for that job. I feel like if they raise the minimum wage a lot of jobs will be lost and that unemployment will just continue to rise. Students and teenagers will try harder to get into the work force and they will in turn take the jobs of those who are struggling right now. Teenagers will jump for $15 an hour because it is worth their time, but for $9 an hour they would rather be playing video games or hanging out with friends. A person who is more conservative would take this view point because they tend to believe that you should make how much you earn. A liberal would say that we need to help those in need to try and get more of an equal society.

The statistics presented seem like they are accurate. This table makes a great deal of sense in the fact that a person with a higher degree would be in more demand in the work force. People want to hire those who have shown they have the skills to succeed in their work. A person who has a college degree is more impressive than a person who dropped out of high school. To fully understand this graphic, you must look at each section separately. Look at each level of education and the amount of people employed/unemployed. The numbers seem legitimate because there are a lot of people with a B.A. that are employed, and a small number of people with a B.A. that are unemployed.

The Huffington Post came out with an article about the unemployment for recent college graduates for each specific major. Personally, I would not change my major intent because of the amount of jobs that are open in each field. I would rather test my luck with the job that I have interest in. Also, that job will probably have the requirements that I feel confident in my skill set. I would never pursue a job that does not interest me or a job that I feel I could not complete sufficiently. I do not feel like there is any more information that is necessary for me to make a decision because I would not change because of others' success or failure.

The Wall Street Journal also had a take on the topic of choosing a major based on how much revenue you can accumulate from a job. Some of the arguments were interesting, and I agree with a few of them. Others, I do not care for so much. Just because the average salary of a job is listed, does not mean that every person who has that job title makes that amount of money. This is where I believe blissful ignorance plays a role. People tend to assume that they have a standard salary if they are a lawyer. False, you are not guaranteed a certain pay check like professional athletes. I would never make a decision that could affect the rest of my life based off of how much money I can make. Also, if someone showed me a graphic of how many figures a certain job makes, would not sway me in the slightest if that career was not something I could be happy or excel in.

On this specific picture (below) you would need more information to predict what the exact number of unemployed people there will be. You would not need more information to tell that the people who have a bachelor's degree will probably have a lower unemployment than those who graduate from only high school. Over the short history of this graph the lines have never crossed and I do not see this happening or the first time in the near future.

Searchlights and Sunglasses Ch. 5

1) To have democracy and civics education there has to be a freedom of speech so people are not afraid to speak their mind. There has to be new forms of media otherwise the community will get bored.

2) One of the two sites that the Knight Foundation helped fund is SchoolJournalism.org. The second project that they created was Sunshine Week. This is a group where they report on how much journalistic freedom they have.

3) In society today we need to pursue the truth because people can post things whenever they want with as little information to back it up as possible. You have to check the validity of the information because you could be misinformed.

4)Journalism provides truth-seeking by having a person who has their job to research facts. They are suppose to search for what is right and present it to the people in an unbiased way. Innovation contributes new ideas and thoughts. People come up with their own original projects that can lead to clean work.

5) Comfort news makes people happy. They look forward to seeing the news because they know it is not depressing or sad. It is generally the feel-good story.

6) They say that comfort news is not good for a person, like too much comfort food is not good for you. An example is that a person who eats to much food will having increasing health-care bills. They say we are what we eat, therefore, we are what news we listen to.

7) This is a trick question in the sense that the media controls media consumption. We the people actually control media consumption. We control it because as views we can control what we watch, listen to, and read. If we do not choose to view a certain form of media, they are out of a job.

8) There has to be media literacy so the message is conveyed to the people easily. If they do not understand what you are trying to say, they will lose interest.

9) Digital literacy is needed to make it easier to consume media. Digital media is the glue to all forms of media because you can access it anywhere if you have internet.

10) The author says that great journalism is the fair, accurate, contextual search for the truth.

11) San Francisco had to wait 2 years to reach non-profit status.

12) People view the IRS grants only non-profit status to "government watchdogs".

13) After 9/11 support for the First Amendment among adults dropped severely. People were concerned that the government was not properly protecting their rights.

14) Schools observe Constitution Day on September 17. Constitution Day was created in 2005.

15) Teachers should know about new media technology so they can stay with times and help present the material to their students the best they can. I would not say that is it a requirement for them to be up to date, but it would be beneficial for all people if they knew what they were talking about.

Detroit Tigers Woes

Max Scherzer has reportedly declined a contract from the Detroit Tigers. What would some reasons be why he declined making near $24 million a year? Or how about for the Tigers, is Max Scherzer, reigning AL Cy Young winner worth that much? In my opinion, Max believes he is one of the best pitchers in the league. He is a solid pitcher who could be a number one on many rosters. Not in the Tigers rotation though. Even though Scherzer won 21 games last year, he has only won more than 15 games one other year. I would not pay a pitcher, who could easily end their career with one pitch, top dollar when they have averaged just 12.1 wins per year. I do not see Max winning more than 18 games this year along with an earned run average above 3.5. By Max declining this deal I feel as if the Tigers are in a better position to bargain as the season goes on. If he has a poor season, he will not be worth how much he thought he was. The Tigers will not offer him $24 million a year and he will most likely re-sign with the Tigers for close to that amount. If, by chance, he has another break-out year, he could be on the move. I feel like his odds of only losing 3 games again and producing the eye-popping numbers that he mounted last season are highly unlikely. The Doug Fister trade could, in turn come back to bite the Tigers in the paws at the end of this season. With Bruce Rondon going down right now, I do not picture the Tigers trying to move Scherzer before the trade deadline. The team right now is on damage control. They need to try and stop the bleeding before it turns to a point of no return. Max has to be a vital point in this defense otherwise the Tigers will be back to the same old mantra: "there's always next year."

Podcast Summary (3/19/14) #4

This podcast summary is from Pardon the Interruption. This podcast is featuring Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. They begin this podcast talking about March Madness. Michael believes that he should not pick MSU to make it to the Final Four. I pick them winning it all, actually, because they are so deep and talented in all facets of the game. Also, I do not think that "play-in" games are worth the work. The teams that are playing in these games are typically not solid teams. They should settle this dispute in the regular season. In my opinion, Jimmy Rollins is a washed-up player. He is not the same player from 2007 when he won the NL MVP. The Phillies are wasting their time and money with him. Next, to another athlete who is past his prime; Tiger Woods has not won a major in 6 years. I do not see Jack's record ever being broken, ever. Tiger is the only golfer to my knowledge that even can scratch the surface of Jack's pedestal. The next topic that they discussed is Bo Jackson's comment about multi-sport athletes. I agree with him in the sense that, at the professional level, there will not any athlete who can succeed at maximum standards of each league. Finally, the guest that they brought on the show was Michigan State's head coach Tom Izzo. They interviewed him about the state of his team and their injuries. This is a summary of only the main issues they discussed because the rest of the show had too many topics with little meat to the bones.

In-Class Exercise 3/20/14 - Wages and Job Creation

Jobs are not being handed out like candy in today's day and age. They are difficult for people of all races, genders, and levels of education to acquire. If an employer is willing to bring you onto their staff, you should feel honored. Instead, some people feel they are entitled. Before people even start working they are making requests such as higher wages, less hours, and more time off for vacation. Being a rookie on the job, I would strongly advise you do not perform these negotiation tactics. Once you serve your time, like all of the other senior employees, you will be granted more freedoms and have more room to negotiate. The woman who has made these requests was not pleased with the answer that she received. She states that some of the requests are easier to fulfill thank others and she is confused as to why they did not want to negotiate. A college professor job was ranked in the top 3 best jobs in the country on CNN. This profession has everything you could possibly want, apparently not for some people. As a college professor the standard median salary for a seasoned professor is $70,400 a year. Wow! That's a lot of money to be made for teaching a class. This job also was rated to be not extremely stressful, but a very secure job. Having a secure job is the most important factor because that means you are established in your career and you also have a steady income of money. These facts all sound great, but are they entirely true? On another site the same aspects of a college professor were looked at. The numbers are not identical, but in the same ballpark. I would personally trust the CNN site more because it is a more established site. For a third site to come into the mix, Forbes, states that the level of negotiation can be determined by the amount of competitiveness in each profession. This is a valid point because employers have to hire a certain amount of workers to keep their business alive, therefore allowing room for the employees to bargain for extra incentives. In the end, if you are only willing to work for a company with your standards, try and push the envelope. If they shoot down your requests, do not get mad because the world is a business and they have to make money just like you.

In-Class Exercise 3/19/14 Layaway Plan

North Dakota is in a situation that not many other states can say that they are in. They have a plethora of jobs. North Dakota is searching for workers to fill in 20,000 openings for jobs. They report to have a range of jobs from driving trucks to working in a restaurant as a server. Even with all these spots available, they all are still not being filled. Some cities have quadrupled in population but there are still available jobs. The pay for the jobs are still the standard that a person would make in any other state, there is just a larger variety to choose from. North Dakota is trying to bring in skilled workers to their state to fill these jobs. To do this, they have to start a campaign with $800,000. The Federal policy can make an effect on job growth or unemployment by making changes to the amount of taxes that they force on a business. If a business has to pay more taxes, they will employ less workers. This is a cause-effect process. Inflation and employment have a relationship. It is an inverse relationship though. When inflation is high, employment is generally high. This is the opposite when inflation is low. Full employment is not possible. It would be very hard for businesses to hire all of the people that are unemployed. They would have more workers than they need and not be able to pay a solid salary for all of these workers. If we had full employment workers would end up having to be laid off. The employers can not make money if they have to pay 50 workers all $10 an hour. Unemployment is not pretty, but it is almost impossible to avoid. Would you move to a new state for a new job, such as North Dakota, if it means you have a stable income?

Are Society's Expectations Changing?

Are students and parents being cheated out of the full experience of preparing for college and what lies in their futures? Are teachers too nice, lenient, or even "babyish" to their students? Now, I may be coming from a perspective where following the rules, being responsible, and having pride in taking care of yourself is underrated, but in our society today I just do not see enough students taking these initiatives.

When students walk in to their class, they should be there to learn, not socialize. Save it for lunch. You not only are wasting your time, but you hinder the ability of the students around you to maximize their potential. The other aspect that some students bring to the table is mind blowing. The amount of times students have gone to class knowing they have a Scantron (fill in the bubble) test without a pencil is obnoxiously frequent. If the teacher implemented a classroom rule where no one was allowed to borrow pencils, (causing the student to fail their assessment) I am sure that the students would not forget their utensil next time.

Basically, what I am trying to get out of this blog is for students to get a reality check that they need to be more responsible. If you want to go out in the world and do big things, you have to be held accountable for your actions. You can not show up to work the day of the biggest meeting in your life and say, "I left my charts at home, can I borrow yours." Actions like these will not cut it in the business world.

So, as I leave you, ponder this: "Am I doing all I can to be accountable for what I do and say to prepare myself to be successful".

Layer Cake 4 - Wage Theft Prevention

Are you working for a company, performing a service for their name, all to have them stiff you on your paycheck. All across the country people are employed by businesses that administer paychecks based off of time cards. Recently, there have been reports that employers are shorting their workers in their paychecks. 

Michigan is the center of this scandal because of the large workforce and the amount of complaints that have arose. Also, Michigan use to have one of the largest workforces in the country due to the amount of cars we produced. 

An example of workers rebelling on these bad wages is in 1937; workers at a General Motors plant did not walk out on their jobs, rather they did just the opposite. They simply sat down at their posts in the plant as a form of strike. This action is also known as a sit-down strike.

By withholding the proper wages from workers the corporations were performing white collar crimes. White collar crimes, first defined by Edwin Sutherland in 1939, are when a person who is in a position of authority commit a financially motivated crime in their business. 

A present day instance of these crimes (reported) are McDonald corporations. Their workers have sent in complaints saying that the managers are forcing them to work extra hours, hours off the clock, and not honoring their time card punch-ins. This could develop to be a severe problem due to the magnitude of the fast food industry. 

Fast food restaurants have monopolized eating quickly on the go. They also employ a large scale of workers. If they do not maintain a credible reputation for being a reputable restaurant, they could potentially lose workers and customers. 

Businessmen who commit white collar crimes have an advantage over their competitors. They do not have to pay their workers as much, therefore they receive more money. Also, if their workers feel that they want to quit, they can easily hire workers. Jobs are becoming scare in todays day and age, just like they were in the past. That is the reason why workers have a hard time rebelling. They are easily replaced with nothing to fall back on. 

White collar crimes have impacted the workforce substantially. It goes back to the belief that those with money have power. The business owner is not the blue collar, hardworking floor man. He or she is the one at the top of the organization with all of the money and power. 

White collar crimes can lean toward being authoritarian conservatism because they are the ones with the power. The business owners feel they should be allowed to control their enterprise how they see fit. They would have the view that they should not have to be taxed more money because they work harder for their pay. 

Wage theft prevention will benefit immensely from all of the social medias. The media can now get their opinions out to the world and community faster and easier. They can coordinate dates and times for campaigns, strikes, and movements. 

Some objective data that you can gather from all of these cases are the feelings of the workers. You can gage their emotion when they find out how much money they are losing. Also, their actions can be measured. If they have a specific demeanor after you ask them a question, that can signal that they are upset or content with a situation. 

Catholic Social Teaching tells us that we should feel for the workers. It says that we need to help the poor because they are being taken advantage of. The business owners are in the wrong in these instances because they are lying to their workers. 

Once the Wage Theft Prevention Act was established the workers knew what they would be making each day. This act is a strong measure because the business allows the workers to know their day-to-day wages. 

Hopefully, these businesses can clear their name and make amends with their workers. This is a serious manner that all owners who have committed these crimes should reconsider because they could end up facing penalties. For the workers, I have this to share about the situation. 

"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone." - Rose Kennedy

"We don't need no mind Control" Assignment

2) In Cato's brief philosophy statement their specific diction indicates that they are a libertarian party. Some of the words and phrases that indicate this are the following: individual liberty, limited government, and free markets. These three key phrases are common beliefs among those of the libertarian party. Libertarians are not strictly conservative, or strictly liberal; they are the common ground, not siding with one particular ideology.

4) Progressive ideology is the belief that the government and the rules of the world should evolve as society does. For example, a law that prohibits an African American from dining at a designated restaurant now would be discrimination. Back when the United States was being founded, a law like this was fit for the time. Progressive ideology is correct to a certain degree. It can cross the line when we pick and choose what we want to evolve as time goes on. In the first line of the Center for American Progress statement, they say "[we are] dedicated to improving the lives of Americans through progressive ideas and action". This means that they want to work to help better our lives as much as possible.

5) 1) The Alliance for Excellent Education - This statement is saying that as Americans, we should not discriminate against people because of where they live, rather, we should set everyone with an equal playing field based off of sheer skill. Also, they want to set standards for everything. They mainly want standard tests such as the SAT and the ACT. They do not think that by achieving standards they will solve all of their problems, but they do feel it is a great step in the right direction.
    2) The ASCD - This program works to prepare students for the workforce, college, and the global economy. They want to create an internationally credible organization with hard evidence of research. This program wants to implement skills and tactics that their students can use when they go off into the workforce instead of receiving basic book knowledge.
    3) Hunt Institute - The Hunt Institute is basically the same as both of the previous organizations. They want to work to preparing students for college, work, and all future endeavors that they could possibly face in life.

6) In both of their statements, they talk up their organization in the best way possible. They do not use negative words to describe their programs. The two programs are different in their respective ways. The Cato statement is about how they want to be independent from a large amount of government control. Cato wants social and economic freedom for all people so they can flourish without being watched by the government. The Center for American Progress talks a lot about helping the young people of society develop their skills to survive in the world once they complete school. They do not want their students to have only text-book knowledge, but also to have street smarts.

7) A) The Media Matters review had me slightly confused to begin. Once I scrolled down past the video the article made a little more sense to me. They talked about how Fox has had contradicting views on the topics that the Common Core has addressed. At the bottom of the review I did like how they incorporated the graphic of myth vs. fact. This graphic is a correct interpretation in my eyes. People believe that by having a standard, that it will actually be a standard. The schools themselves raise or lower this standard based off of how they feel necessary.
 
     B) The Commentary Magazine did a solid job reporting the story from an unbiased view point in my opinion. They gave perspectives from both the side of supporting the Common Core, but also not being in complete favor of it. They did throw in their own opinion slightly, when they labeled it "ObamaCore".

     C) Thomas Fordham had a strong opinion on the Common Core, in that they support its work and having high standards. They say that not all states are in favor of them, but they are present in their state. Also, they say that people should not talk trash about one another's view on the Common Core because it does not get the discussion anywhere.

     D) The New York Times reports on the Common Core in a liberal way. This means that they are not fully in favor of the views of the Common Core. In the title alone they say that even the critics of the Common Core now agree with the liberal perspective. That could not be entirely true, even though they put it in their paper.

     E) In Education Week's review on the Common Core they do not feel that this organization is effective. They wrote that teachers tend to teach what is in the textbook, and that information solely. They go on to say that if the information in the textbook not on the in the textbook, but on the standard, it will not be taught. This could become problematic.

     F) USNews.com has the right idea in my opinion. If we want to better help students, we should act, instead of talking about acting like they have been. They also have a comment that was perplexing. They said that the Unites States is the only developed nation that people entering the workforce who are less educated than those retiring from it.

     G) Politico use to be an avid supporter of the Common Core and their beliefs, but has recently pulled back their support. They do not feel that the teachers are instituting the standards on the Common Core properly. This would be a liberal view because they are not in support of the Common Core.

     H) The National Journalist describes the Common Core as unconstitutional and unfair. The conservatives feel that the Common Core is bad because there is a lot of false information out in the world that could throw some students off in their studies. Some of these view points are coming from people who feel that people of African or Hispanic dissent are scoring lower than Caucasian or Asian. (This has been reported as false)

     I) On the Washington Post they report that the teachers are not in favor of the Common Core standard tests. They question the purpose of these tests and why they have to administer them over various days. California, a state with one of the largest public school populations (said on their post), is rebelling against adopting the news tests to their schools. This is a big story considering the amount of public schools in the area.

     J) The Huffington Post has an interesting statement to start their view that I would like to talk on. Rep. Bobby Scott says, in summary, if we want to compete on a national scale with the powerhouses of youth academics, we need to step up our game and raise the expectations of our young ins because we are behind compared to the rest of the world.

In-Class Assignment 3/14/14

A) This specific topic brings in a certain crowd. People who are interested in sports may not be highly focused on what is going on environmentally. In politics, members have to be conscious of all aspects of society. This issue is about dealing with the Great Lakes restoration plans. The first and third site portray the story as a the government cutting spending on Great Lakes restoration programs. The second and fourth site give the sense that this story is a good thing because they are offering rewards to fight against the invasive Asian carp. People would have to be interested in restoration to our Lakes and preservation of our wonderful waters to want to go out and act on these propositions. The audience I would except to act are the environmentalist and the scientists, rather than the athletic viewer. The Wall Street Journal, specifically, is more liberal than conservative. Liberals are more focused on preserving the economy now, while conservatives are focused more on the future.

B) The next topic is on the issue of contraception. The first site talks about how some companies do not supply all of their employees with health insurance that would cover forms of contraception. This site talks with two people and uses quotes from them to build their story. These people are not credible doctors who know anything about contraceptives from a medical stand point. These people they talked to are owners of an arts and craft manufacturer and a cabinet manufacturer. The third site in strongly liberal in their opinion on this issue, but the website is a woman's blog. In the title they say "make the right move", implying that they agree with the use of contraceptions in regulating pregnancies. Many people are interested in this issue which means an active audience participation in a debate or actions can be easily achieved. People will go out on their own will to protest or make proposals to try and prevent rules to regulate how much a woman can do to try and prevent a pregnancy.

C) The third and final topic is about homosexuality in Ugandan. Before looking at any of these websites for their opinion I can tell you the audience will already be active in this case. Society is trying to move towards being tolerant of each other and their preferences in mates. Some people are not supporters of gay rights, therefore they do not engage in a supportive manner. After looking at all of the titles, an interesting thing I found was that only one site (the first) used the word homosexuality instead of the word "gay". This interests me because some people make a big deal about word choice, in this instance, homosexuality seems more professional and unbiased to me. The new law that each story is discussing is that gay sex in Uganda is now punishable by life in prison or restrictions of jobs.  The Washington Post seems to be more liberal in its writings than conservative. The Post writes in its title "harsh anti-gay bill", which to me means that they feel this bill is a little extreme. Liberals would not be in support of a bill that does not support homosexual rights. The CNN article is the most in the middle on this topic. They present a perspective that is skeptical of the issue in the matter that they do not use charged words that would favor one side over the other.

In-Class Assignment 3/13/14

A) In the first site the author tried to keep the story has unbiased as possible. They did not use a specific side, liberal or conservative, to explain this story. The word choice was descriptive to try and give a gruesome take on the situation. Some words used were "fierce gun battle", "suffered", and "heavily guarded". The Guardian site is very liberal. They report this story specifically about one journalist being shot, while the first site talked about several casualties. The Guardian takes the position that leans towards guns being wrong in the way that they described the shootings. The BBC site is more liberal. They portray the story in the same way as The Guardian. Both the Guardian and the BBC site report the story talking about the specific journalist that was shot, Nils Horis. The Guardian has quotes in their story that portray the man as an innocent bystander. Some of the quotes make him seem so calm and reserved. One quote said he was simply walking to a cook to interview him, then he was shot in the head. This portrayal of the man could be true, but I was not there to witness him demeanor, just an observation of how they described him.

B) The title for all of the sites are similar. The titles are about how much money the Colorado tax on marijuana has brought in. They say that Colorado has gather $2 million. All four articles were worded very closely together. They go in to detail about when the sales started, January, how much of a tax they started with, and if the marijuana was medicinal or recreational. I thought the last site did the best of giving a background on the story. The two middle sites lacked some detail and did not have the statistical evidence to back up their side like the first and the fourth did. The first site talked more about how the leaders of the State felt on this topic in general. This site had quotes from Senators and facts about each tax and the total revenue. The last site has a comparison aspect to it that I liked. It told us how much money they make in liquor tax. This interests me because liquor and pot are two topics that are highly debated.

C) The first site has a picture of women with signs protesting the shut down of the last rural abortion clinic in Texas. This is interesting because Texas is perceived as a pro-choice state. They recently passed an anti-choice law this past summer. This site also goes in to depth about how it is inconvenient for some of the women in this area of Texas to access certain reproduction clinics. The second site has the title that speaks to how upset the women in Texas are. They use the word "uproar". This word has power and meaning. So far both sites have talked about how this clinic was closed in one of the poorest cities in the area. In my opinion, wealth of a city should not be a factor in whether or not a town can have a clinic. This site describes the reasons that women come to abortion clinics is because they want "safe, compassionate help" with their abortions. That statement is very contradictory because abortion is neither of those. Abortion is when you willingly kill another human being. In the third site, the author has a quote from a worker from one of the clinics. They say that by closing their clinic they are hurting their business, but more importantly they are hurting the women who seek refuge in their assistance. These three sites are portraying abortion as a good thing that women should be allowed to decide on. This is a very liberal view because liberals are pro-choice. By having these views on abortion, they did not report the story in an unbiased manner.

Searchlights and Sunglasses Ch. 4

1) People must act on news. They have to be engaged and interested in it to make an impact in the community.

2) There was a total of $500 million dollars cited.

3) Thousands of traditional journalism jobs have vanished in recent years.

4) The author says that journalist are partly to blame for the lack of news literacy in our community because they have to inform their viewers with accurate information.

5) Professional organizations can focus on the impact of journalism. They could also create open contests and conventions. Finally, they can explain the role of journalism by teaching the importance of journalism through current forms of receiving news.

6) The problem was that no one was interested in solving their problems. They did not report on anything bad. After people started reporting on these issues, big things started happening. Over the years, Deerfield had better voting turnouts (which was a step in the right direction).

7) Online ads bring in less money than print ads did.

8) Nationally arts journalism is doing well, but locally it is not doing so hot. The author uses film to highlight how well arts journalism is doing nationally. Movies are still very popular.

9) Every spike in an election has been inline with a spike in a medium. The order of mediums are: newspapers (first), radio (second), television (third), and in present time, digital media (fourth).

10) The big mistake that traditional news have made is that they request anonymous comments on their websites.

11) To better engage their communities they need to be open to telling the people why they do what they do.

12) There is a relationship because the news being reported causes people to want to get up and act on it based on how their party presents the topic.

13) You can go to Poynter for a code of ethics. Also, there is a Society of Professional Journalists code of ethics that you can look up to follow.

14) Digital media does create new concerns because people can put anything out on the internet within a matter of seconds for all to see. I do not believe that by having digital media these problems can be easily solved. Regardless these problems will be hard to contain and the internet does not benefit the credibility at all.

15) My personal view of ethics is that you should respect others and that you should have boundaries. Of course, always report the truth. If you report false information, you have no credibility. To be successful, you have to be true to the people. I have my own standards with my personal life and information. I do not share anything with anyone that I would not want repeated. Also, anytime I say something, I take full responsibility for it. Once you've said something, you have to own it. Ethics are becoming screwed up in our society today, therefore, I will stop myself because I could continue on for hours and no one really wants to hear that.

Searchlights and Sunglasses Ch.3

1) After World War II press freedom started to grow to have more countries be free. After the war on terror started freedom of press reverted back to being not so free.

2) World War 3.0 may have already started. This war has already been established online. Many countries already have virtual armies.

3) We could create a Crowd-Sourced planet where you throw out crooks to try and solve problems.

4) The Open Society Foundations help protect bloggers and website proprietors who have been unfairly jailed around the world.

5) No they are not doing a good job. Statistics have shown that only 30% of teachers are actually teaching it. This is an interesting number because 86% of teachers say that the First Amendment is highly important.

6) Yes. There have been studies that show that students who use social media are more interested in rules dealing with freedom of expression.

7) Nationally, students use social media more than teachers do. Teachers feel social media is hurtful for teaching, even though some teachers have said that digital media is necessary in education.

8) No, television is not the most popular place to get overall news. The newspaper is the more prominent place to get news. This is interesting because 69% of people feel that the death of the newspaper would not matter.

9) A) Mobile media is used for on the go news, such as weather reports.
    B) The internet is used for good education news and local business news.
    C) Local news is popular for breaking news, weather, and traffic.
    D) Newspapers are best overall for civic news and government news.

10) News in my community that catches my eye is local high school sports because I compete against a lot of the athletes that are covered in the news.

11) The fourth estate most likely came from a prominent journalist who was current in all types of news. The fourth estate to me means that someone's job is to be a journalist. Some people do a better job than other of presenting news in a professional, unbiased way than others, but overall I feel like journalism is doing a solid job.

12) 1) Technology transformation and tool adoption in existing public media organizations. 2) Partnerships and mergers through technology. 3) News technology and teasing labs. 4) Media innovation projects: a "circle of champions.

13) The author believes that our current media policies are old and in the way.

14) They should create a Public Media Transformation Technology Fund.

15) 1) Technology transformation and tool adoption in existing public media organizations. 2) Partnerships and mergers through technology. 3) News technology and teasing labs. 4) Media innovation projects: a "circle of champions. 5) Senior fellowship fund for master teachers. 6) Scholarship fund for tomorrow's media technologists. 7) Beyond the classroom: digital literacy.

16) 25% of Americans consume ethnic media.

17) 1) Universal help desks. 2) Retooling labs. 3) Distribution centers.

18) To increase public media, you need to increase the media being offered to the public.

Searchlights and Sunglasses Ch. 2

1) Journalism and mass communication matter because universities are showing interest in local journalism and good news. This is important because journalism schools want to play an important role in the news flow of their communities.

2) The difference is not made to the reader, because they do not want to do the work themselves to find the true story and its background. The information and presentation might not be the best by an unprofessional, but that is not always a guarantee.

3) I do not believe that journalism education needs to modernize. Some people have better takes on certain topics and can present their opinion in a stronger way than another person. They do not have to be taught how to be a journalist because they are a talented writer.

4) Yes, there are greater implications. You need to teach journalism as the best job in the world, rather than as a skill to acquire.

5) There are more than 450 programs of journalism that are reaching out to their universities. This would not be enough programs to satisfy the needs of the entire country. These amounts of people can not cover all of the news in all of the communities.

6) I believe they should be hired based off both. You need to have the foundation and knowledge to be able to teach to others how things should be done. Also, they need to have experience because everything in life is not cut and dry, text book based. Things change, and you never know what curveball will be thrown your way.

7) In journalism, it is necessary that you have multiple eyes looking at the writings before they hit the press. This is important because you do not want one writer to become biased and to skew the papers.

8) Team-teaching allows students to gain a background of a certain issue so they can sound knowledgable in their work. Students do not want to sound ignorant and report false, inaccurate information.

9) In team-teaching you gain knowledge in a field of study outside of your comfort zone, journalism. You also get to work with new people who have a different take than you on material that you may know nothing about. This can come in handy one day if you ever need to speak with someone this field.

10) Knowledge journalism is when you put academic research into the hands of journalists to help increase the quality and depth of reporting.

11) He says that the New York World is potentially underused by most universities.

12) 1) They need to expand their role in the community. 2) They need to be innovational. 3) They need to teach open and collaborative. 4) Finally, they need to expand in the university.

13) They teach E-Learning.

14) The advantages are that they are low-cost and self-directed modules. The disadvantages are that the class is online and you do not get one on one, in-person communication.

15) Libel insurance is important to newsrooms that have student writers. This can be good for some people who have never worked under pressure before. Libel means something that is false and is damaging to a person's name or self.

16) I agree to a certain degree. The top professionals know that keys to making a solid story with basis and meat. They would probably be able to obtain a degree if they attempted. That is not to say though, that people who do not have a degree, can not be the top journalists. You can write, and write well, without having a piece of paper that says you know the keys to making a well written story.

17) Licensing journalists would be a smart idea because it would make people more professional. They would have to pass certifications so they could not just write all they want. This does infringe on the First Amendment because people have the freedom of speech, but journalists should be more professional in their work because of the gratitude people take with their words. The government abuses licensing by picking which professions have to be licensed.

18) If you can not research properly, or help people research well, people will not take you seriously. You will not be a credible journalist if everything is opinionated.

19) Yes, because they would have better knowledge to collaborate to make one big piece of work. I feel that help from scientists would help journalist's jobs be a lot easier if they could explain the science aspect more because that is so much work for one person to do in a short period of time. Specifically, in genetics and biology some terms can be hard to grasp.

20) Student journalists should be in with the people in their community. They need to have the public know who they are, considering they are only young adults who's word is taken with a grain of salt.

21) More than 18,000 journalist jobs have been lost in daily newspapers.

22) Watchdog journalism is the security camera that keeps the powerful in check.

23) Without watchdog journalism people will write whatever they want and feel they can get away with it.

24) Journalism students should try and get a job ANYWHERE possible. The workforce is so hard to find openings in today's economy. You will most likely be handed grunt work, coffee runs, or paper running. This is good for students. They are young and can get their foot in the door at a real newspaper.

In-Class Assingment 3/10/14

2) I do not believe that anyone is popular enough to not fix errors. By fixing their errors in their articles this would not tell me that they are not credible, rather that they are more concerned about being credible. This shows that they want the people to have the right information that has their name attached to it.
3) I do not see evidence of copy editors. They have instances of grammar errors and their stories are not all backed up. They have stories on their sites that are opinion and that are just made up.
4) I think that there is a middle ground between these two sides. Not all people will believe that a man was ate by 120 dogs. Some people might, but I see that as very unpractical. On the other hand, all old people do not say that we do not believe that is it possible for a person to be eaten by dogs.
5) In the sports world specifically, people can produce reports of trades, scores, or injuries without having actual evidence. There have been reports that the Knicks are going to hire former coach Phil Jackson. Espn reported, without confirming with Phil, that the Knicks are in talks with him. Lately, Phil has said that there was no offer between the two. Also, reports about injuries in football say that a player could miss 4 weeks for a foot problem. That same player will still suit up to play in 3 weeks. These reporters do not know their medical facts well enough to report on sport injuries.
6) The New Yorker had more information typed on their site. This site provided a better background of the story. The Huffington Post had a slideshow of celebrities. The New Yorker would attract a group of people who like to read and have more background. The Huffington Post would attract an audience that is lazy and is more interested in famous people, than the real story. Both write about a highly interesting topic, they just report it differently.

Best Spring Training League

If you could choose which league your team could participate in for spring training, which would it be? Some people might say that they do not care because baseball is baseball and they really are not even playing 100%. The two leagues that the MLB splits their teams up into are the Grapefruit League (Florida) or the Cactus League (Arizona). When seeing where these two teams are located you might say that you would rather be in the Grapefruit League because Florida is a more attractive place to vacation. If you care more about baseball, rather than ascetic, you would also choose Florida. The Grapefruit League has produced 12 of the past 20 teams to appear in the World Series. This is including winning and losing teams. Seven of these 12 teams have gone on to win the World Series. Based off these numbers you should have high hopes for your team if they are in the Grapefruit League. If your favorite team happens to be in the Cactus League, and is not the San Francisco Giants the St. Louis Cardinals, the Colorado Rockies, or the Texas Rangers, your team has not been to the World Series in the past ten years.

These leagues are not separated based off of regular season standings, roster, or league affiliation. They are typically designated by geography. Not to say that the Cactus League is a horrible league to be in, but they have recently been outdone by the Grapefruit League. Without going in to much detail about each team individually, the Grapefruit League has 9 potential playoff teams (in my opinion), while the Cactus League only has 6 (in my opinion). That could be debated, but based off of roster, health, and previous history this is how I picture each League.

PTI Podcast (3/3/14) Summary #3

This Pardon the Interruption podcast is done by Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. There has been reports that Chicago Bulls may consider going after Carmelo Anthony of the New York Knicks. This would be a solid move for the Bulls if they do not have to give up a great deal for him. Tiger Woods withdrew from the Honda Classic. This tells me that he is at the end of his career and is highly doubtful to pass Jack for the record. Kentucky coach John Calipari refused to speak with the media in the team's difficult lose this week to South Carolina, a subpar team. He said that he had a conflicting interview with his radio talk show. The 49ers and head coach Jim Harbaugh are continuing to have disagreements this week. I hope, as a 49ers fan, that they can work things out because this coach-team dynamic has been working for this team in the past three years. Next, there have been reports that the Detroit Pistons have been in conversations with Isaiah Thomas to be the next GM. This would not be an ideal situation for Detroit. He is the equivalent of a disease to basketball organizations, they do not thrive with him at the helm. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers will introduce new uniforms for the next season. In my opinion, they have to focus more on building a team before they customize new uniforms. Finally, Jake Peavy has be injured in a fishing accident; Red Sox fans are hoping this injury does not set him back for an extended period of time.

PTI Podcast (3/5/14) Summary #2

This Pardon the Interruption podcast is by the two main hosts, Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon. The first topic is over who is the front-runner for the NBA MVP, Lebron James or Kevin Durant. I feel Kevin is the current MVP because he has been carrying his team while his point guard, Russell Westbrook, has been missing. Also, they discussed if Syracuse, a former number one undefeated team, will be a for sure to get out of the first round. Syracuse will get out of the first round, but from there on they are a toss up. Next, NFL kickers are not happy that the league is trying to move the extra point back so far. I do not agree with these kickers, but I do with Tony and Michael, because the extra point is almost a guarantee as is, therefore the game would be more interesting if the extra point was more difficult to complete. Also, St. Louis was traded from the Tampa Bay Lighting this week. I would not be happy as a fan because he has been one of their greatest players in their history. This trade occurred be cause he was not happy with Steve Yzerman for not picking him originally to the Canadian olympic team this year. Finally, they end the big finish with college football saying that they will not introduce a rule that forces the offense to wait a certain amount of time to snap the ball.

PTI Podcast (3/6/14) Summary #1

In this podcast the show was hosted by Tony Kornheiser and Bob Ryan. First they discuss if Duke is a number one seed even though they recently lost. I feel Duke is not a number one seed unless they win their conference championship. It has been reported that Colin Kaepernick has requested to be paid $20 million dollars in his next contract. I agree with Tony that they should not pay him that much money because he has the chance on being hurt and he is not the number one factor on this team. Pujols was not happy that a reporter compared himself to Mike Trout. He understands how Trout puts up great numbers, but he has already established himself as an all-around player. He may not put up identical numbers as him, but he will have good numbers. One of the greatest coaches of all time, Greg Popovich, says a key to winning is to not over coach; I completely agree with him. Next topic was that Paul George has said he needs to be mentored by Lebron James. I do not think that James should help him because they are rivals. Shaq just had his birthday; he was one of the best centers of all time, I would rate him 5th of all time. Finally, Champ Bailey and Devin Hester are parting ways with their teams. These two players could be big factors in a playoff run.

You Belong with Me Review

Blonde hair, blue eyes, attractive body, and vocals? A dream girl to many men.

How does a female with all of these attributes have so many songs about break-ups and love stories.

Taylor Swift, 24 years old, is a prominent female singer in the music world. She has been releasing albums since a very young age with her first album in 2006, "Taylor Swift".

One of Taylor's oldest, but most popular, songs is "You Belong With Me". This song has reached as high as #2 in the pop genre and #1 in the country genre.

Taylor is considered a country singer due to her style of singing. She sings about love, in a graceful tone. She uses her songs to tell a story that many people can relate to.

In her beginning songs, she talks about former or current relationships and her struggles with boys. Young females became easily attached to her because they felt she was relatable to themselves.

According to Fairclough's model, he states that Taylor Swift would be classified as a country singer. Some people do not agree with that because they feel she is more of a pop singer.

People would argue that her voice is not that of a country singer because she does not sing about farms, ranches, trucks, or the wide open country. One major aspect that she does have in her music is that she sings about relationships and heartbreak, which are common themes in country music.

Bakhtin and his theory on text and genre is that music is a dialogue. Taylor has songs that are written in story for that convey a conversation between her and an ex-boyfriend, or her and one of her friends. There are few call and responses that are not in the form of an informal conversation.

The country genre is one of the most controversial genres in all of the music industry. Some people feel that if you are not strumming a guitar talking about farms and the countryside, you are not a country singer. Others feel that if you are singing about those things or love that it is country because of the content and tone of the music.

Over the decades now, each genre has changed a little bit. The "qualifications" of being in a specific genre have decreased and some people feel they can be in any category they want. This is not the case for serious music listeners; precisely why some people are not happy that Taylor is considered country.

The song "You Belong With Me" was about a crush Taylor Swift had on a boy when she was younger. She had strong enough feelings about this boy to write this song. What this tells me about Taylor is that she is not afraid to hone in on her personal feelings and express them for the world to know. This is a gutsy tactic while recording because it leaves the artist vulnerable to all sorts of criticism.

This song was at one time #2 in pop and #1 in country. By receiving these high rankings in their respective genre, you can infer that the listeners are happy with this song. Also, people would not be listening so much if they did not relate to the song. Some people may have a specific person they think about while listening to "You Belong With Me".

The collective audience is overall very pleased with Taylor and the way she writes. They are touched by her songs, obviously, because they keep buying her records.

In Taylor Swift's case, I believe she was influenced partially by some of the singers to come before her. She was not completely mentored by them. If you take a close look at her songs and how personal they are, she can not be taught that or coached through her songs. She can attempt to shape her voice to sound like her idols, but they can not sing for her.

If you have not already heard the former number one hit, "You Belong With Me", I would strongly suggest you do so. This song is a soul-touching, relatable sound for anyone. Taylor is one of the most popular singers in the country and she will continue to stand on a pedestal above everyone as long as she keeps busting out albums.

Dozier School for Boys

How many schools do you know have their own personal graveyard on campus?

In Marianann, Florida at Dozier School for Boys, hundreds of boys have been sent to this correctional facility because they have been deemed a child of need.

Recently, fifty plus remains of boys have been found on the grounds of this establishment.

Dozier has been known to be a brutal school with multiple ways to punish and discipline their boys when they act out of line. Forms of punishment are too gruesome to disclose.

These deaths did not go unreported or unnoticed by any means. The School would report that the boys who died were accidental deaths or that the child ran away. An example of an "accidental" death would be that a boy fell off a roof while painting.

By now you would think that the police has become suspicious and would construct an investigation. An investigation is exactly what ensued.

On December 9, 2008, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement was instructed to investigate this school. They were sent in to find locations of the buried bodies and if there was any crime or illegal activity occurring there.

The Department of Law Enforcement did not release what they discovered until January 2010. In this release, they concluded that the School for Boys was using corporal punishment techniques to handle their students, but nothing criminal was dug up.

This case was not closed after this investigation. In December 2011, Department of Justice decided they wanted to go in and do find as much information as they can on the staff.

The Department found that the staff had multiple violations causing the facility to be shut down. The staff was reported to have failed to protect the rights of the youths, their methods were unconstitutional, and that they did not provide proper rehabilitation. The entire findings can be found here:
http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/December/11-crt-1572.html

Jack Katz is a man who has developed a theory that we he believes we can classify all types of crime. Katz would classify this case under his second reason, collective integrity. This case is a collective integrity because of the amounts of people who could have stepped up to the plate and handled this case, but could not find enough evidence to close this case.

To continue to classify the type of crime that occurred in this incident, we can look at a bio-social-physco model developed by the International Journal of Law and Psychiatry. The violence here can be classified under the social section and also the neurocognitive and psychological of this model.

The violence is social due to the people committing these assaults working together in the same facility. It can be described as psychological because the people in charge have something in their brain that makes them think this behavior is acceptable.

In this instance, this is not a case of passing down a crime from one parent to the next. The men involved are all from different families and they banned together and created their own environment where they became their own abusers.

Durkheim's theory is spot on in the Dozier School for Boys crime. Durkheim says on crime, "it always takes the shape of a man who makes an assault on the property or the person of another". This is true because a group of men have an assault on not just one person, but multiple children.

How will the court system handle the men still alive that are involved in these brutal attacks? Will their sentence be too little too late?

In-Class Assignment 3/7/14

1) Outraged political based news is replacing conventional news because politics are becoming more prevalent in our society. Outraged news gets the peoples blood flowing. People like to see news that makes them angry or causes them to act on something. Nowadays, you can not report bland news or you will lose listeners.
2) Emotionally provocateurs cause people to get flustered and possibly say something they do not really mean. It can bring out the real beliefs of people when they might be beating around the bush on a highly debated topic.
3) Some people need to have controversy and they feel the need to argue with people. I do not subscribe to the genetic argument that biology can determine how people will react. As people evolve from their parents, they can make their own opinions and be able to decide if they can control themselves or not.
4) Sweeping deregulation has allowed people to say whatever they feel without being forced to accept the repercussions. They do not have to allow the person to reply to their argument. The change in technology has caused people to get their news and opinion out to everyone faster than it maybe should. The exploding universe has taken the news in a certain part of the world, and magnified it to the whole world.
5) Festinger's thesis is true. People do not like stepping out of their comfort zone. In political parties the members might not say their true opinion because they are afraid of what the other members will think because of how the party is perceived.