Alex Goldman of On the Media explains how the world of twitter followed the scanners of the police looking for these Boston Bombing suspects.
What was made clear was that over time and without proper context, certain tweets can be run amok of their original inception. He explains the recycling of tweets gathered from the police scanner as fact and then run back though the scanner as comfirmation. In other words, people broadcasted what police said on a scanner, police would then intercept these tweets and misinterpret them as fact. This sets a newer precedence as the police are grabbing at anything they can find, same as the reporters and average citizen tuning in. This precedence leads to misinformation and ultimately can lead to some embarrassing missteps in national and international reporting on the scene.
Its fast its live and its raw. No filters, no cover-ups, no gatekeepers. CNN and FOX continue to lose ground because of their issues with agenda setting and general time wasting filters and pundit discussions. For myself and Brandon (speculative but verified via blogger posts) we both enjoy getting our news without having to ask for information. Reddit finds the news we need, the posts are voted on to decide whats most relevant and then when we check our front pages, there it is waiting for us. Precise info that other stations and news media wouldnt mention due to vulgarity or a conflict with a personal agenda.
My news on Christopher Dorner's standoff was totally different than a good majority of viewers of CNN and FOX, thanks in part to scanners and Reddit. I had the manifesto, unfiltered explaining his reasons, his cause for his killings and deeply drawn out information that no other outlets would dare discuss. Instead of looking into the reasons of why he shot these people or pointing out the discrepancy in police reports and accidental "every truck is Christopher Dorner" shootouts. The media made it quickly and clearly conveyed to the public that this man was simply crazy. In the final standoff, you could hear through the scanners the plan to burn the house/cabin down section-by-section room by room. Scanner chatter about throwing the more flammable gas canisters into the house could be heard; "we need to burn this guy out", "cover the back doors he might try to run out when we torch the place", "burner 1 is out", "starting fire to room 2". Phrases similar to this can be heard live on the internet. There was to be no quarter for Dorner, no negotiations. The house burned down and we were supposed to throw out the whole theory of "maybe the LAPD and Cali. police arent as nice as we may believe".
So now we have scanners back for Boston, knowing from experience we tune-in. Not to the "fair and balanced" commentary of FOX, not to the "forward leaning" CNN and their many hologram Will.I.AM interviews about the bombers' alleged motives, we tune in to what is right out there from boots on the ground. Quick and concise information from the scanners (the same scanners that inspired the invention of Twitter in the first place). We intercept the reports, interpret, then tweet them to the mass public to see. The problem here was there was still an active manhunt at this point, police and swat didnt have suspect #2 surrounded in a cabin. The risk of tweeting misinformation for Dorner was minimal if the whole house was surrounded by police and tactical response units.The world was watching and waiting to see what would happen, speculation from the scanners were misread as fact and CNN published it the whole way though to be there first.
Is it authentic? Yes. At times when the police have control of the situation there's not much room for misinformation to travel, if I tweeted as Christopher Dorner saying "ha im actually in Nevada" police would throw it out since they had the cabin surrounded. In an active manhunt in this modern age, with police trying out every lead they can for the chance of finding the suspect, there certainly is a chance for trouble to come from the Zing of Authenticity.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
New media and PR
Wow those demos are so even, why bother even reading that infographic?
It seems that no matter how advanced and universal the social media may be, you still get the same levels of stupidity from one medium to the other.
There's an invisible barrier of "im better than you" set out in twitter and yet all the same complaints and cat-fights exist on twitter as they would on Facebook and the dwindling Myspace.
Its an absolute dereliction of social conduct and thats fine so long as you yourself dont fall into the traps set before you.
Facebook now is more of a political machine than a "look what I did", some complain about that, I enjoy it. Its good to see highschoolers and college students alike complain about watching arguments unfold on Facebook.
Sadly a majority of the arguments are mere marching orders from one side or the other. A well thought out picture with 59K likes and 3K comments. A fallacy-laden picture with a graphic like
"Lucy didnt brush her teeth and now she got gunned down in the streets by liberal dentists, THANKS OBAMA!"
Facebook holds that social commentary of people either feeding the trolls who post these pictures, or people whom see it and decide to log-out for good. Since facebook is largely powered by the users, there's not much that can stop a downward spiral in American/UK daily visits.
This is where twitter shines, you have a 1-1/1-99999 user system where anyone can move about anywhere with the proper feeds and keep perfect records of wins and losses in "internet fights". The visibility allows for these otherwise tagged "facebook trolls" to get assigned a strong status of "oh he does this to everybody and never admits when he's beaten, just look at his previous tweets"
Because of this permanent system, users who want to keep their followers are keen to tread-softly when stepping on those 50% landmines of the population's opinion.
This is why you'll be hard-pressed to find any celebrities or politicians taking any hard stances on most any issue; if they are to grab 51% but live in a republican/democratic area, they are better off not saying "Abortion sux =)"
or "Abortion is awesome =)"
As for the A.R.C? Meh, probably somebody logged in on a phone, took it home, then tweeted without logging out. Ive seen this done before with email accounts on public computers.
It seems that no matter how advanced and universal the social media may be, you still get the same levels of stupidity from one medium to the other.
There's an invisible barrier of "im better than you" set out in twitter and yet all the same complaints and cat-fights exist on twitter as they would on Facebook and the dwindling Myspace.
Its an absolute dereliction of social conduct and thats fine so long as you yourself dont fall into the traps set before you.
Facebook now is more of a political machine than a "look what I did", some complain about that, I enjoy it. Its good to see highschoolers and college students alike complain about watching arguments unfold on Facebook.
Sadly a majority of the arguments are mere marching orders from one side or the other. A well thought out picture with 59K likes and 3K comments. A fallacy-laden picture with a graphic like
"Lucy didnt brush her teeth and now she got gunned down in the streets by liberal dentists, THANKS OBAMA!"
Facebook holds that social commentary of people either feeding the trolls who post these pictures, or people whom see it and decide to log-out for good. Since facebook is largely powered by the users, there's not much that can stop a downward spiral in American/UK daily visits.
This is where twitter shines, you have a 1-1/1-99999 user system where anyone can move about anywhere with the proper feeds and keep perfect records of wins and losses in "internet fights". The visibility allows for these otherwise tagged "facebook trolls" to get assigned a strong status of "oh he does this to everybody and never admits when he's beaten, just look at his previous tweets"
Because of this permanent system, users who want to keep their followers are keen to tread-softly when stepping on those 50% landmines of the population's opinion.
This is why you'll be hard-pressed to find any celebrities or politicians taking any hard stances on most any issue; if they are to grab 51% but live in a republican/democratic area, they are better off not saying "Abortion sux =)"
or "Abortion is awesome =)"
As for the A.R.C? Meh, probably somebody logged in on a phone, took it home, then tweeted without logging out. Ive seen this done before with email accounts on public computers.
Money Can’t Buy You Love: Why Some Apps Work and Some Don’t (Blog)
Happy is utility for me, finding a use for my apps is awesome.
I dont drive my car to class for fun, but if it makes it to class whilst powering uphill through a 50 degree Laguna Seca-style corkscrew all whilst maintaining a 39MPG fuel econ' then it brings me happiness.
Going from home to class in 7mins with about 4 red light intersections and 5 stop signs is just brilliantly good work on Toyota's end. Brakes, turning radius, throttle control, disposable spark coil prices, ultra light frame future-death-trap. All these things come together to make what would be just driving to class an action packed and extremely low-cost adventure.
My iphone is a utility only when everything is working together, if I have to send a picture however, its no longer fun and I am no longer happy. To send a picture with a Verizon iphone, you either have to hot-glue your phone directly into your wireless router at home or go through miles of settings to turn on 3G. With my low-end data cap at 2GB per month, I have to go back through the labyrinth of settings on the iphone to turn it back off after the picture is sent. If I dont, then even when I'm in range of my 5 bar wifi router-my iphone will automatically start eating up the 3G data until I get a 4AM automated text from Verizon telling me that I used 75% of my data plan so far.
"Smart phone" they say....
Apps like my alarm clock app, YoctoClock, which (puts me to sleep/wakes me up with) music is useful for.....waking up, but even better is the progressive "non-heart stopping" wakeup to a 5hr playlist starting near dead silent 4hrs before you need to wake up. Yocto Clock gets me up and ready to go without the growning pain of the standard "ding" of the default iphone sounds.
Happy is the satisfaction of success,entertainment or comfort.
Utility is the expedited pathway to reach happy.
I dont drive my car to class for fun, but if it makes it to class whilst powering uphill through a 50 degree Laguna Seca-style corkscrew all whilst maintaining a 39MPG fuel econ' then it brings me happiness.
Going from home to class in 7mins with about 4 red light intersections and 5 stop signs is just brilliantly good work on Toyota's end. Brakes, turning radius, throttle control, disposable spark coil prices, ultra light frame future-death-trap. All these things come together to make what would be just driving to class an action packed and extremely low-cost adventure.
My iphone is a utility only when everything is working together, if I have to send a picture however, its no longer fun and I am no longer happy. To send a picture with a Verizon iphone, you either have to hot-glue your phone directly into your wireless router at home or go through miles of settings to turn on 3G. With my low-end data cap at 2GB per month, I have to go back through the labyrinth of settings on the iphone to turn it back off after the picture is sent. If I dont, then even when I'm in range of my 5 bar wifi router-my iphone will automatically start eating up the 3G data until I get a 4AM automated text from Verizon telling me that I used 75% of my data plan so far.
"Smart phone" they say....
Apps like my alarm clock app, YoctoClock, which (puts me to sleep/wakes me up with) music is useful for.....waking up, but even better is the progressive "non-heart stopping" wakeup to a 5hr playlist starting near dead silent 4hrs before you need to wake up. Yocto Clock gets me up and ready to go without the growning pain of the standard "ding" of the default iphone sounds.
Happy is the satisfaction of success,entertainment or comfort.
Utility is the expedited pathway to reach happy.
BOSTON MARATHON
I have to agree with Brandon, there were so many conflicting reports and
stories about what happened that to put trust in organizations like Fox
or CNN was just laughable.
Coverage on the Tea Party and Occupy Wallstreet were both so selectively covered that you never truly got the unfiltered story. The amount of coverage reddit provided after the bombing was simply stunning, you had instant access to real updates versus the CNN & Fox pundits speculating for a full 30 mins before throwing out another "exclusive" title behind what I read a full half hour before.
Couple this with the easy access to scanners online and you had a completely (hate to keep using this lexicon..) unfiltered story of what was happening.
This particular news story didnt garnish much controversy however, the story of Christopher Dorner had a much more 1:0 ratio of coverage.
CNN,FOX and even Reuters refused to address the very real allegations of police corruption in the LAPD both before the civilian shootings of (Insert any truck name/color) and after the scanners recorded "starting fire in room 1" during the final standoff.
CNN in this Boston Bombing instance was announcing "suspect 1 has been found" through John King and his exclusive source. Minutes later when the BPD announced something to the amount of "umm no we dont have anyone now", CNN made sure to slowly backslide on Live tv over the validity of their own source for the next 38 minutes or so, finally ending with "breaking news, it is comfirmed by BPD, they do not have suspect 1, this is why its good that we check our sources."
New York Post had similar issues, posting a headline and picture of two people with the title "bag men"
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1093643/thumbs/o-NEW-YORK-POST-570.jpg?6
Oh one thing, these arent the guys. Oh one more thing, New York Post is standing behind their terrible coverage.
Reddit was the fastest and best source for all the news you'd ever need with this story, in one of the links/posts I read what could be the greatest online comment in media history so far...
"Remember this moment people, remember where you were. We are witnessing the death of Televised News coverage right now."
I go to vice for my video features, Rolling Stones for my written stories and reddit for everything else. I just cant remember the last time any news outlet gave me a serious, unfiltered story.
Speaking of social media and agenda setting. When a bomb goes off in Boston killing 3, there's a city wide lockdown with swat, checkpoints and room-to-room, house-to-house inspections.
When there's a triple homicide by gun, theres two detectives and maybe an APB for suspect description in shift-breifing.
When its 12 police officers targeted and a manifesto plus two civilians dead, its a state-wide manhunt.
Im trying to think of the last time the media ever covered a gang related murder....St.Valentines Day Massacre? Oh well, I suppose if its not on video, or if its not the police, its not news.
Thanks CNN, for reminding me whats important. (Don Lemon's ok though, you can tell he's waiting for a real job somewhere)
Coverage on the Tea Party and Occupy Wallstreet were both so selectively covered that you never truly got the unfiltered story. The amount of coverage reddit provided after the bombing was simply stunning, you had instant access to real updates versus the CNN & Fox pundits speculating for a full 30 mins before throwing out another "exclusive" title behind what I read a full half hour before.
Couple this with the easy access to scanners online and you had a completely (hate to keep using this lexicon..) unfiltered story of what was happening.
This particular news story didnt garnish much controversy however, the story of Christopher Dorner had a much more 1:0 ratio of coverage.
CNN,FOX and even Reuters refused to address the very real allegations of police corruption in the LAPD both before the civilian shootings of (Insert any truck name/color) and after the scanners recorded "starting fire in room 1" during the final standoff.
CNN in this Boston Bombing instance was announcing "suspect 1 has been found" through John King and his exclusive source. Minutes later when the BPD announced something to the amount of "umm no we dont have anyone now", CNN made sure to slowly backslide on Live tv over the validity of their own source for the next 38 minutes or so, finally ending with "breaking news, it is comfirmed by BPD, they do not have suspect 1, this is why its good that we check our sources."
New York Post had similar issues, posting a headline and picture of two people with the title "bag men"
http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1093643/thumbs/o-NEW-YORK-POST-570.jpg?6
Oh one thing, these arent the guys. Oh one more thing, New York Post is standing behind their terrible coverage.
Reddit was the fastest and best source for all the news you'd ever need with this story, in one of the links/posts I read what could be the greatest online comment in media history so far...
"Remember this moment people, remember where you were. We are witnessing the death of Televised News coverage right now."
I go to vice for my video features, Rolling Stones for my written stories and reddit for everything else. I just cant remember the last time any news outlet gave me a serious, unfiltered story.
Speaking of social media and agenda setting. When a bomb goes off in Boston killing 3, there's a city wide lockdown with swat, checkpoints and room-to-room, house-to-house inspections.
When there's a triple homicide by gun, theres two detectives and maybe an APB for suspect description in shift-breifing.
When its 12 police officers targeted and a manifesto plus two civilians dead, its a state-wide manhunt.
Im trying to think of the last time the media ever covered a gang related murder....St.Valentines Day Massacre? Oh well, I suppose if its not on video, or if its not the police, its not news.
Thanks CNN, for reminding me whats important. (Don Lemon's ok though, you can tell he's waiting for a real job somewhere)
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Netflix has more subscribers now than HBO
Lets be real here though, to get to HBO you need to wade and drudge through about 10,000 levels of cable/dish packages from the CNN-MTV-Comedy Central to the unholy CNN headline, FOX money,msnbc,MTV 2, MTV 89, etc...
Good read check it out!
http://qz.com/77067/netflix-now-bigger-than-hbo/
Good read check it out!
http://qz.com/77067/netflix-now-bigger-than-hbo/
Monday, April 1, 2013
Sunday, March 31, 2013
48hrs of life in the 80's
I had a nice timeline journal but most of it was spent just "chronicalizing" my construction of an awesome winter coat for my spring break in the unforgiving snowy landscape of Michigan. Ironically that little journal is now sitting at my brother's house in the frozen tundra of Michigan.
I had two three-day weekends and one spring break to do this assignment, however Id much rather spend those hellish 48hrs in the ever torturing existence in the hot and timid deserts of St.George than waste 48 of my 168hrs in the comfortable lands of KZoo Michigan. That was/is my attitude of this project.
Having one whole week devoted to the humanity of hedonism was exactly what I needed to compensate for the painful day-to-day stress and sacrifice of college life(Utah College mind you...).
I will say that the week I spent in the icy cold refreshing lands of Kalamazoo more than made up for the punishing,unrewarding and unrelenting adventure that is Fall 2012-Spring 2013 so far. I'm glad I didn't squander that time spent with long-lost relatives sitting in a cave of technological impotence.
This assignment, especially towards the start really made me pity those whom lived before the 1990's. Then again Im sure future generations will pity me for putting up with data caps and 1MBps Internet speeds at 60$ a month.
So it starts at 10:50PM, my goal was to start at 10, but I had other homework to do before Saturday which would ruin the project's continuity (thanks online classes). Presidents' Day weekend, I text everyone telling them if they need me to come knock on my door, I turn off my Xbox, Computer and Phone and grab my pre-emptively rented books of everything.
My extra plan fell through, recording radio shows on Cassette for playback during the 48hr tech purge. So I turn to 90.5FM (if memory serves) and listen to the BBC world service, at which point I notice two things I have never before of the BBC:WS; #1 it is on a 30min loop slowly divulging more info on a topic every cycle and #2 every announcer takes loud and shrill deep breaths before saying anything, no matter how lengthy or small.
So I look through the DIY almanacs I rented, most of them are either childishly impractical, like catching elephants or too obvious like how to de-salinate a salty stew/sauce. I leaf through a few cool midrange ideas that would actually pan out like tabbing solar cells or building furniture out of 2x4s, write them down for future reference and then move on to the main project of converting a sweater into a winter fur coat.
Of course like any plans I have set months in advance I quickly realize I got screwed over by Joanns Fabric ladies whom made sure to tell me that I could see using those "micro-shoelace" looking threads. This once again cements the concept that any home-improvement or DIY store knows absolutely nothing about the products they sell. Most of my time spent at Lowes/Homedepot/RadioShack/Joann's Fabric is "hey do you have ______?" To which those experts always reply "no". Then I go to checkout with the thing they "didn't have" and usually imagine how the store would look burning to the ground....I digress.
So I go to the Smiths store at 11:30PM looking for sewing thread. Without the use of my iPhone I had to just drive there and hope they had it. They did, after telling me they didn't-bought it and I drove back home, listening to BBC world service's 30min coverage of Oscar Pistorias shooting his wife in South Africa, all the way home. Heavy drinking sets in and I realize how much drinking is a gateway to entertaining activities, all of which I couldn't use. So there I sit, quantumly smashed off of some great new cocktail I invented with nothing to do but listen to BBC, Sew or read. Clearly being the party animal I am, I continued the meticulous work of sewing by hand an entire winter coat. Eventually I head to bed with the hood of the coat already encased in zebra-looking fur. I turn off the lights and attempt to sleep to the sound of the ringing in my ears.
I awake to several slams on my door so I head on out to see what the fuss is about, it's my parents, visiting from up north surprising me with an added bonus of my other brother whom I rarely see anymore. "Why didn't you answer your phone", they ask violently. I can't remember from the missing/relocated journal if they got the text and forgot or if I sent the text through iMessage and they didn't receive it until they got to a wifi zone. Either way they all kind-of implied how impractical it was of me to do homework before they surprise visit me from 600miles away. So cool, I suppose, I'll head over to their house when I'm bored and hangout with the dog and family.
Most of the 48hrs consists of sewing together the coat, trying to avoid listening to TNT's President's Day screening of the Independance Day movie playing in the other room(which I know by heart) and my parents continuing to ask me if I'm avoiding tech for fun or for a class(outstanding listening skills/memory retention in my family). I take a few hours to hit the swimming pool and throw back some homemade beers and then drive back home, which is dead silent, with nothing to do but read,sew or listen to the BBC. This was the painful day. The nothingness of 80's tech, but worse, without cassettes I was really stuck in the 1930's of entertainment. Yet again I attempt to sleep, but with nothing to do but sew, I stayed up until 4am which I guess gave me the benefit of a nearly complete coat by hour 28. The next day, the final hours were a breeze, most because I had the hour 48 to look forward to.
I went to go hangout with the family and had some burgers n' beer. I finished up the pockets of the coat and sat around with nothing to do but listen to radio or swim, having the full 8hr life story of Oscar Pistorias thanks to the BBC, I went for yet another exhaustingly long swim until "the guy" showed up at 10pm telling me it was closing time. Closing time, but "no worries, no rush, take your time" as he awkwardly stares me down for the next 10mins I decide to get the hell out and head home. I get back and take a really long,long shower at 10:20PM hoping that by the time I get out It'l be mere seconds from 10:50, so I get out and check the stove (my only other non-computerized clock by most standards...) and see that it's 11:10PM. Past the time I needed, so I turn on my phone and depressingly check my zero new text messages and get everything back online. The next 5hrs or so I watch 2 movies and a few TV shows while playing some videogames. I have a few beers, set my progressive-musical alarm clock app and sleep to the wonderful sounds of Above & Beyond or the smooth jazz of Damon Albarn. The next day I awake with a deeper love for technology. To truely understand the role Tech plays in our lives we should live without it, though it doesnt really take 48 hours to understand that, just wait until you have to check if a store is open, or has what you're looking for before you go there. Wait until you have to randomly stumble upon a song you like on the radio. Wait until you have to ask a question in person instead of via call/text.
You have online homework due on a Saturday at 11:59PM? Ha!
Nothing to sleep to nothing to wake to. Nothing to live to.
But I was lucky, I had a car, an in home radio, family, booze and access to a swimming pool. Imagine those who have none of that. I'm sure I could have had more fun if I was into walking on paths to look at rocks,had a jet ski, or owned a bike, but I don't think that this exercise is all that useful if you just go do fun stuff all day instead of doing what you'd normally do. I feel guilty just for swimming since I rarely do when I actually have hands-on access to my music and film. Technology is the second to last thing keeping our nation (sorta) on top. So it's a given that our culture is built around what we possess and how we use what we possess. Cut yourself off from tech and you learn that it takes a lot more physical interaction to have fun without electricity in general. Which might explain why the Amish/anabaptists are so damn productive. But even the growing majority of Amish now use cell-phones and lightbulbs.
There's a point where if you don't bother to catchup, you get left behind. I'm staying ahead of the herd in every slow gallop.
I had two three-day weekends and one spring break to do this assignment, however Id much rather spend those hellish 48hrs in the ever torturing existence in the hot and timid deserts of St.George than waste 48 of my 168hrs in the comfortable lands of KZoo Michigan. That was/is my attitude of this project.
Having one whole week devoted to the humanity of hedonism was exactly what I needed to compensate for the painful day-to-day stress and sacrifice of college life(Utah College mind you...).
I will say that the week I spent in the icy cold refreshing lands of Kalamazoo more than made up for the punishing,unrewarding and unrelenting adventure that is Fall 2012-Spring 2013 so far. I'm glad I didn't squander that time spent with long-lost relatives sitting in a cave of technological impotence.
This assignment, especially towards the start really made me pity those whom lived before the 1990's. Then again Im sure future generations will pity me for putting up with data caps and 1MBps Internet speeds at 60$ a month.
So it starts at 10:50PM, my goal was to start at 10, but I had other homework to do before Saturday which would ruin the project's continuity (thanks online classes). Presidents' Day weekend, I text everyone telling them if they need me to come knock on my door, I turn off my Xbox, Computer and Phone and grab my pre-emptively rented books of everything.
My extra plan fell through, recording radio shows on Cassette for playback during the 48hr tech purge. So I turn to 90.5FM (if memory serves) and listen to the BBC world service, at which point I notice two things I have never before of the BBC:WS; #1 it is on a 30min loop slowly divulging more info on a topic every cycle and #2 every announcer takes loud and shrill deep breaths before saying anything, no matter how lengthy or small.
So I look through the DIY almanacs I rented, most of them are either childishly impractical, like catching elephants or too obvious like how to de-salinate a salty stew/sauce. I leaf through a few cool midrange ideas that would actually pan out like tabbing solar cells or building furniture out of 2x4s, write them down for future reference and then move on to the main project of converting a sweater into a winter fur coat.
Of course like any plans I have set months in advance I quickly realize I got screwed over by Joanns Fabric ladies whom made sure to tell me that I could see using those "micro-shoelace" looking threads. This once again cements the concept that any home-improvement or DIY store knows absolutely nothing about the products they sell. Most of my time spent at Lowes/Homedepot/RadioShack/Joann's Fabric is "hey do you have ______?" To which those experts always reply "no". Then I go to checkout with the thing they "didn't have" and usually imagine how the store would look burning to the ground....I digress.
So I go to the Smiths store at 11:30PM looking for sewing thread. Without the use of my iPhone I had to just drive there and hope they had it. They did, after telling me they didn't-bought it and I drove back home, listening to BBC world service's 30min coverage of Oscar Pistorias shooting his wife in South Africa, all the way home. Heavy drinking sets in and I realize how much drinking is a gateway to entertaining activities, all of which I couldn't use. So there I sit, quantumly smashed off of some great new cocktail I invented with nothing to do but listen to BBC, Sew or read. Clearly being the party animal I am, I continued the meticulous work of sewing by hand an entire winter coat. Eventually I head to bed with the hood of the coat already encased in zebra-looking fur. I turn off the lights and attempt to sleep to the sound of the ringing in my ears.
I awake to several slams on my door so I head on out to see what the fuss is about, it's my parents, visiting from up north surprising me with an added bonus of my other brother whom I rarely see anymore. "Why didn't you answer your phone", they ask violently. I can't remember from the missing/relocated journal if they got the text and forgot or if I sent the text through iMessage and they didn't receive it until they got to a wifi zone. Either way they all kind-of implied how impractical it was of me to do homework before they surprise visit me from 600miles away. So cool, I suppose, I'll head over to their house when I'm bored and hangout with the dog and family.
Most of the 48hrs consists of sewing together the coat, trying to avoid listening to TNT's President's Day screening of the Independance Day movie playing in the other room(which I know by heart) and my parents continuing to ask me if I'm avoiding tech for fun or for a class(outstanding listening skills/memory retention in my family). I take a few hours to hit the swimming pool and throw back some homemade beers and then drive back home, which is dead silent, with nothing to do but read,sew or listen to the BBC. This was the painful day. The nothingness of 80's tech, but worse, without cassettes I was really stuck in the 1930's of entertainment. Yet again I attempt to sleep, but with nothing to do but sew, I stayed up until 4am which I guess gave me the benefit of a nearly complete coat by hour 28. The next day, the final hours were a breeze, most because I had the hour 48 to look forward to.
I went to go hangout with the family and had some burgers n' beer. I finished up the pockets of the coat and sat around with nothing to do but listen to radio or swim, having the full 8hr life story of Oscar Pistorias thanks to the BBC, I went for yet another exhaustingly long swim until "the guy" showed up at 10pm telling me it was closing time. Closing time, but "no worries, no rush, take your time" as he awkwardly stares me down for the next 10mins I decide to get the hell out and head home. I get back and take a really long,long shower at 10:20PM hoping that by the time I get out It'l be mere seconds from 10:50, so I get out and check the stove (my only other non-computerized clock by most standards...) and see that it's 11:10PM. Past the time I needed, so I turn on my phone and depressingly check my zero new text messages and get everything back online. The next 5hrs or so I watch 2 movies and a few TV shows while playing some videogames. I have a few beers, set my progressive-musical alarm clock app and sleep to the wonderful sounds of Above & Beyond or the smooth jazz of Damon Albarn. The next day I awake with a deeper love for technology. To truely understand the role Tech plays in our lives we should live without it, though it doesnt really take 48 hours to understand that, just wait until you have to check if a store is open, or has what you're looking for before you go there. Wait until you have to randomly stumble upon a song you like on the radio. Wait until you have to ask a question in person instead of via call/text.
You have online homework due on a Saturday at 11:59PM? Ha!
Nothing to sleep to nothing to wake to. Nothing to live to.
But I was lucky, I had a car, an in home radio, family, booze and access to a swimming pool. Imagine those who have none of that. I'm sure I could have had more fun if I was into walking on paths to look at rocks,had a jet ski, or owned a bike, but I don't think that this exercise is all that useful if you just go do fun stuff all day instead of doing what you'd normally do. I feel guilty just for swimming since I rarely do when I actually have hands-on access to my music and film. Technology is the second to last thing keeping our nation (sorta) on top. So it's a given that our culture is built around what we possess and how we use what we possess. Cut yourself off from tech and you learn that it takes a lot more physical interaction to have fun without electricity in general. Which might explain why the Amish/anabaptists are so damn productive. But even the growing majority of Amish now use cell-phones and lightbulbs.
There's a point where if you don't bother to catchup, you get left behind. I'm staying ahead of the herd in every slow gallop.
Monday, March 25, 2013
Slides for Convergence presentation.
This is the problem with multilayered slides...a one time visibility.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Interesting speech results
So there was a close competition in the speech scholarship today.
60
62
74
75
87
32
Averaged a 65
If that 32 was replaced by the median of other scores, a 74: 72.
Kind-of a proof of concept for the speech itself isn't it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQww4LzujqE
Oh well, I guess I'll keep fighting the good fight.
60
62
74
75
87
32
Averaged a 65
If that 32 was replaced by the median of other scores, a 74: 72.
Kind-of a proof of concept for the speech itself isn't it?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQww4LzujqE
Oh well, I guess I'll keep fighting the good fight.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Slides coming soon
Stby, laptop needs new battery...ill move the .ppt to another computer and then post it here(currently using iPhone)
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Here's the deal;
I go to Michigan to report on the new Silicon Valley and I get extra credit. I'll stop by ypslanti,Detroit and KZOO Deal or no deal?
Lights eh?....
Ok here's the deal, I'll buy the LEDs if someone else can route power and program the functions for it.
We'll put it right next to the big D on the hill thingy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxYeZ9GOdpQ&feature=player_embedded#!
Also whats the big deal with some guy putting red bags over the lights? Dont they do that anyway? Is that front page material? If I were pulling a prank I'd do a something more interesting with those lights than just "lol I'll make them red even though they shouldn't be this time~oh man imagine the look on people's faces when they see that its red more often than usual..."
At least cover half the lights or something so it looked like a "U". Idunno', maybe its just me but the Utah pranks division seems to be a little too clean for any sort of controversy. Whats next? Some edgy mailman delivering parcels on a sunday?
We'll put it right next to the big D on the hill thingy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxYeZ9GOdpQ&feature=player_embedded#!
Also whats the big deal with some guy putting red bags over the lights? Dont they do that anyway? Is that front page material? If I were pulling a prank I'd do a something more interesting with those lights than just "lol I'll make them red even though they shouldn't be this time~oh man imagine the look on people's faces when they see that its red more often than usual..."
At least cover half the lights or something so it looked like a "U". Idunno', maybe its just me but the Utah pranks division seems to be a little too clean for any sort of controversy. Whats next? Some edgy mailman delivering parcels on a sunday?
Saturday, February 23, 2013
GODDAMNED CANVAS
Never more often have I felt the need to "cover my ass" in the way of pre-emptive evidence than I do in college. I wouldnt be surprised if the guy in charge of selling canvas UI to DSC and other colleges was the same guy who said "hey guys, you're gonna love VISTA!".
So now I timestamp and exifstamp every document and file before sending it to my teacher to prove that I did the paper despite what Canvas may imply by "failed to upload" or "404/502 timeout".
So three-four days ago I submit this video on canvas thinking "oh there it is", followed by "I should really screencap this" in the back of my head. The past 5 times or so that I've done this its appeared to annoy the professor or be a waste of time so I conclude "THERES NO GODDAMN WAY THIS WOULD SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR, ITS THERE AND I CAN SEE IT" case-closed.
Three days later its time to discuss the videos, but where the hell is mine? "A-hahaha ITS F#@%!^G GONE LOL! ;)" says Canvas to my angry fkng~ face. Now I re-submit the video on canvas from the recycle bin along with a screencap of 4 different files before it proving along with the exif/metadata that it was done way ahead of time.
For now on I'm submitting everything via the most annoyingly possible medium if you use canvas and it doesnt work, direct personal email. Because I'll be damned if I stay up all night on the weekend doing "homework-for-the-homework-for-the-canvas" all while risking losing points.
This is why I love COMM 3560 and 4330, because Blogger has yet to bang me up in some Cuban jail cell like Canvas does every day I use it.
So now I timestamp and exifstamp every document and file before sending it to my teacher to prove that I did the paper despite what Canvas may imply by "failed to upload" or "404/502 timeout".
So three-four days ago I submit this video on canvas thinking "oh there it is", followed by "I should really screencap this" in the back of my head. The past 5 times or so that I've done this its appeared to annoy the professor or be a waste of time so I conclude "THERES NO GODDAMN WAY THIS WOULD SUDDENLY DISAPPEAR, ITS THERE AND I CAN SEE IT" case-closed.
Three days later its time to discuss the videos, but where the hell is mine? "A-hahaha ITS F#@%!^G GONE LOL! ;)" says Canvas to my angry fkng~ face. Now I re-submit the video on canvas from the recycle bin along with a screencap of 4 different files before it proving along with the exif/metadata that it was done way ahead of time.
For now on I'm submitting everything via the most annoyingly possible medium if you use canvas and it doesnt work, direct personal email. Because I'll be damned if I stay up all night on the weekend doing "homework-for-the-homework-for-the-canvas" all while risking losing points.
This is why I love COMM 3560 and 4330, because Blogger has yet to bang me up in some Cuban jail cell like Canvas does every day I use it.
Smack my dishes up
When I think of cataloging Google glass video of the day I think of this....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgcHbNV_DL4
Here's how my daily experience was using google glass tech
Cool part was aside from not running music or anything else while doing so it only drained some 30% over those 6hrs of shooting, so not all that bad aside from no use of your phone while capturing. Perfect tech though for long term recording. If it could compress to 3 seconds timelapse summed up per day for 365 days we'd have a more cumulative and awesome track of life than that of just 1 second of video per day, wasting 30 different possible settings per day per second.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgcHbNV_DL4
Here's how my daily experience was using google glass tech
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Another idea in 3560 class
Predictive conversational response.
Imagine a Siri-like system based off yourself which could reply to thousands of people at once with your own views based off of an opinions and personality survey.
Imagine being able to respond and communicate completely without delay of person to person communication en-masse
true mass comm not, one person to another to another. Now it's one person automatically responding to all on all basis.
No delay on time to respond, maybe a disclaimer like "this is an automated response, may not accurately follow belief or opinion of user"
Make it happen
Imagine a Siri-like system based off yourself which could reply to thousands of people at once with your own views based off of an opinions and personality survey.
Imagine being able to respond and communicate completely without delay of person to person communication en-masse
true mass comm not, one person to another to another. Now it's one person automatically responding to all on all basis.
No delay on time to respond, maybe a disclaimer like "this is an automated response, may not accurately follow belief or opinion of user"
Make it happen
Friday, February 15, 2013
iPhones don't send picture data through wifi
Proof would be my iPhone's convenient "failed to submit" message on the SMS app or a 2 day long "publishing" cycle on the Blogger app.
Sneaky little phone eh? Or is it my provider's fault?
Sneaky little phone eh? Or is it my provider's fault?
App review
I remember back in 2010 I discovered from my free 4gb iPod nano that I had the ability to set an alarm with an existing playlist. The next few years I set up a stereo in my room to play my wake up playlist which Featured some 30 songs, I'd have to edit each individual song out of iTunes to make them play from quiet to loud. I'd have to also change the time to wake up every day because it was only 1 setting.
When I bought my iPhone all that changed. At first I downloaded a "lite alarm clock app" which featured 5 songs to play and 2 slots for different times. A few weeks later I decided to upgrade to the "Alarm Clock Pro 2" which costs 3$.
It'd wake me up with a multitude of songs without the need of building a playlist and I could customize the layout and weather displays. It was fantastic....until the iPhone 5 and iOS5 update came out effectively killing the app. Crashing while building playlists, sleeping through push notifications, and refusing to change times it was truly a mess of its former self.
So what was I to do? Well I looked around the App Store quite jaded that I'd ever find something as great again. Suddenly while browsing the "free" section I came across "Yocto Clock". This was a free app that had so very many features I'd otherwise be forced to pay for plus many more not even included in the "pro" apps.
-sleep timers
-12 playlists
-date specific alarms (mon wed 9am)(fri 7)
-custom gestures
-off/on/skip toggles
-brightness and power saving modes
-shake to snooze
-custom wallpapers
-displayed "sleep time remaining"
Most important of all however was the feature of wake volume escalation and sleep music volume deescalation.
I could sleep to music playing at a quieter volume for 2hrs, then 6hrs later my wake up playlist for a Friday would play from 0% to 100% volume over a comfortable 2hr span.
It's an essential tool in fighting my lack of sleep during week days and sleep management in general. Best of all this app has survived for the past few app and iOS updates since. It's so very customizable that you could time out a sleep to wake music schedule without even looking through a tweaking "how-to" guide. It's value whilst free could easily be sold for 10-15$ compared to the precedents of other apps for 3$ which barely scratch the surface of practicality.
Oh and did I mention this thing generates about 15 white noise repeaters if you're tired of music? Heck, it even comes with a whole slew of wake up sounds too.
Give a shot, I think you'll like it.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yocto-alarm-clock/id508107926?mt=8
When I bought my iPhone all that changed. At first I downloaded a "lite alarm clock app" which featured 5 songs to play and 2 slots for different times. A few weeks later I decided to upgrade to the "Alarm Clock Pro 2" which costs 3$.
It'd wake me up with a multitude of songs without the need of building a playlist and I could customize the layout and weather displays. It was fantastic....until the iPhone 5 and iOS5 update came out effectively killing the app. Crashing while building playlists, sleeping through push notifications, and refusing to change times it was truly a mess of its former self.
So what was I to do? Well I looked around the App Store quite jaded that I'd ever find something as great again. Suddenly while browsing the "free" section I came across "Yocto Clock". This was a free app that had so very many features I'd otherwise be forced to pay for plus many more not even included in the "pro" apps.
-sleep timers
-12 playlists
-date specific alarms (mon wed 9am)(fri 7)
-custom gestures
-off/on/skip toggles
-brightness and power saving modes
-shake to snooze
-custom wallpapers
-displayed "sleep time remaining"
Most important of all however was the feature of wake volume escalation and sleep music volume deescalation.
I could sleep to music playing at a quieter volume for 2hrs, then 6hrs later my wake up playlist for a Friday would play from 0% to 100% volume over a comfortable 2hr span.
It's an essential tool in fighting my lack of sleep during week days and sleep management in general. Best of all this app has survived for the past few app and iOS updates since. It's so very customizable that you could time out a sleep to wake music schedule without even looking through a tweaking "how-to" guide. It's value whilst free could easily be sold for 10-15$ compared to the precedents of other apps for 3$ which barely scratch the surface of practicality.
Oh and did I mention this thing generates about 15 white noise repeaters if you're tired of music? Heck, it even comes with a whole slew of wake up sounds too.
Give a shot, I think you'll like it.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/yocto-alarm-clock/id508107926?mt=8
Friday, February 8, 2013
Guns in our schools
There was this town I spent a few years living in, it was a sort of planned city in Michigan called Grand Haven right alongside Lake Michigan it was beautiful, had a harbor,flourishing downtown and great schools. It kept growing and growing, my father told me one day about the close-the-door mentality that a lot of the other locals had right as they moved in.
Let us in, then close the doors behind. Each new person or family that came in had that same feeling,"I'm ok to move-in but I don't think anyone else should come here after me, you don't want all the riff-raff following us and ruining this nice community". Each person saw them-self as exempt yet after them who knows...
I see the same "I was here first" argument with guns. Everybody with their guns sees themselves as the exception to the rule.
Oh sure, I can have my guns, look at me, I've never accidentally shot someone and I certainly won't go crazy and shoot up a school, but lets focus on mental health eh?
Each person has this idea that conflicts with the primary reason for owning a gun. The "you never know" mentality, the speculative assumption affirming the necessity of owning a gun. They buy the gun for protection because they believe that at some point their life will be threatened by somebody. They hold this speculation, this 1:1000 prediction of a gun coming in handy after all, yet at the very same time throw out the more common speculation that they themselves may ever accidentally harm a family member or irrationally grow unstable and shoot up a school or loved one in a fit of rage.
The "It'll never happen to me" mentality seems to only apply to the higher statistical odds of shooting someone accidentally or through a psychotic episode than of personal defense. Buy a gun because you have a premonition that it will most certainly happen that you'll need that gun, but dont follow the premonition more statistically proven that you will kill someone wrongly.
The hypocrisy is staggering to me, but I have it as well. I've had that happen to me too, I want a gun, not for protection, just for fun, to go shoot cans in a backyard or maybe a spider in my living room(P99 or M4-A1). The argument is that I'll never go crazy, that'll never happen to me. Close the door behind you...
But it's junk, it's absolute junk. I don't know what could happen in the future I could go nuts or I could take an argument too far with a neighbor that steals my firewood. I love gun culture but not enough to think of owning one at my house, would I want one if another guy had one sitting outside my house? Yeah.
But the odds of that are much lower than the odds of my gun going in my face because I wanted to check down the barrel to see if there's one in the chamber.
Ban em' I say. Ban them all the way down to just a bolt action hunting rifle and arrows. We have taser guns that fire faster than the response time it'd take to pull the trigger so why not?
I'd rather be accidentally tased than accidentally shot. I've been shot with a steel ball bearing about the size and weight of a pinball at 400fps and its a very sh!tty experience(call my brother for confirmation), but I can't imagine the pain of being shot through because you were mistaken for a burglary by an antsy girlfriend behind the door.
Ban them? But it's in the constitution! Right, because we have to honor the constitution, the constitution is concrete and cannot be infringed or changed at all, despite the 2nd amendment applying to a militia more than a random citizen. Close the door behind you...
I don't give a good-god-damn about "this" constitution, the one that says I have freedom of speech yet lists several exemptions because supreme court judges and congress are the gods of the constitution.
I couldn't care less if we throw out the whole constitution, the unlawful arrests, cruel and unusual punishment, coercion of false confessions or testimony, throw it all out. It's a piece of paper and that's been proven time and time again as congress and government infringe upon most every possible amendment there is now.
Close the door behind you...
I'm ok with it, no paper should have dominion over my life and the lives of its citizens if government can so openly break or bend the rules to its own advantage. If we're stepping on all these god-given sacred rules and laws under the constitution why not do the same for the second amendment? Close the door behind you.
It's back to that special exemption; hold prisoners without trials, spy on citizens without warrants, search a citizen without probable cause, arrest a citizen for expressing themselves, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN, YOU CAN'T TAKE AWAY MY GUNS, IT'S IN THE CONSTITUTION!!!
Well these terrorists aren't American so the rules don't apply, I can spy on you because it's in the interest of national security, I can search you because we have a zero-tolerance policy, I can arrest you because you are creating a disturbance and this is a "quiet zone", BUT DEAR GOD I CAN'T TAKE AWAY YOUR GUN, BECAUSE THE CONSTITUTION SAYS SO.
Lets do anything we want,interpret anyway we want with the constitution that benefits but remember to close the doors behind you.
If we're throwing it out, throw it all out. We got Bin Laden by ignoring the constitution, we expelled Westboro Baptist Church about 8 football fields from any high profile funerals and less people spend their nights in jail for possessing marijuana in Colorado and Washington.
Now close the door behind you...
The problem that I see now is that we argue that eliminating guns will just ensure the bad guys have guns, but just looking at England's 1997 law banning most all guns procedurally to now, they're down to 35 deaths, we're at 30,000. With a population at 20% of our own thats unfair though, applying that 20% difference to our gun deaths would give us 6000 deaths with guns to England's 35 without guns.
But it's in the constitution so we have to stand behind it, because a school shooting is a worthy sacrifice every now and again. Mental health screenings and waiting periods would only stop those whom were totally insane during both.
Dilemma 1. Waiting period.
How hard is it for someone whom already has a methodical plan to go on a mass murder rampage to wait a few extra days to get those guns?
Dilemma 2. Psych evaluation
There's cartoon crazy, then theres mentally unstable. Oh yeah, you will catch the visibly crazy ones, but how do you catch those people who know that their performance in that evaluation will decide whether or not they get the gun?
Are these methodical killers going to honestly spill the beans on their master plan because a psychiatrist asked them?
"Aww man, you got me! I was totally going to shoot up that bed bath and beyond next week, can I have my gun now?"
Close the door behind you.
Sacrifice has been the penultimate excuse for skirting the constitution before. Its a cesspool of new-age proverbs mixing with old;
"fight them over there so they don't come here"
"We need to frisk old people and children because how else will we catch the bombers if we can't frisk them too?"
"This bank is too big to fail and too big to prosecute we have to bail them out or we're all screwed"
Sacrifice for safety and freedom, because of a strong visual example burned in our heads, 9/11 and the economic collapse in 08. We witnessed and experienced the changes of both these moments first hand. Lost jobs, lost lives, powerful images of both moments stained in our memories of the past decade.
What we don't see is the murder on the street corner, the shot daughter in her bedroom, the suicides and accidents. It's not a shared experience, we may have seen one happen or known someone whom died because of guns but its not shared across the country.
Because the country doesn't see the 30,000 people a year die collectively we throw it out as just another statistic. We hold the 9/11 attacks in our head forever, but we have 30 times that amount die each year behind the headlines and CNN reports and we sit idly by.
I think it's worth it to save 30,000 lives a year to ban guns in the same way that its abundantly clear to the TSA that its worth 3000 lives a year to frisk old ladys and ban liquids over 3 ounces.
Some of us feel safe with our guns so let me keep mine and close the door behind you.
Some of us want a gun at some point so let me buy mine and close the door behind you.
Some of us value the constitution so let me honor just this one part and close the door behind you.
I personally am ok with buying a bbgun to shoot cans.
Ban the guns and close the door behind you.
Let us in, then close the doors behind. Each new person or family that came in had that same feeling,"I'm ok to move-in but I don't think anyone else should come here after me, you don't want all the riff-raff following us and ruining this nice community". Each person saw them-self as exempt yet after them who knows...
I see the same "I was here first" argument with guns. Everybody with their guns sees themselves as the exception to the rule.
Oh sure, I can have my guns, look at me, I've never accidentally shot someone and I certainly won't go crazy and shoot up a school, but lets focus on mental health eh?
Each person has this idea that conflicts with the primary reason for owning a gun. The "you never know" mentality, the speculative assumption affirming the necessity of owning a gun. They buy the gun for protection because they believe that at some point their life will be threatened by somebody. They hold this speculation, this 1:1000 prediction of a gun coming in handy after all, yet at the very same time throw out the more common speculation that they themselves may ever accidentally harm a family member or irrationally grow unstable and shoot up a school or loved one in a fit of rage.
The "It'll never happen to me" mentality seems to only apply to the higher statistical odds of shooting someone accidentally or through a psychotic episode than of personal defense. Buy a gun because you have a premonition that it will most certainly happen that you'll need that gun, but dont follow the premonition more statistically proven that you will kill someone wrongly.
The hypocrisy is staggering to me, but I have it as well. I've had that happen to me too, I want a gun, not for protection, just for fun, to go shoot cans in a backyard or maybe a spider in my living room(P99 or M4-A1). The argument is that I'll never go crazy, that'll never happen to me. Close the door behind you...
But it's junk, it's absolute junk. I don't know what could happen in the future I could go nuts or I could take an argument too far with a neighbor that steals my firewood. I love gun culture but not enough to think of owning one at my house, would I want one if another guy had one sitting outside my house? Yeah.
But the odds of that are much lower than the odds of my gun going in my face because I wanted to check down the barrel to see if there's one in the chamber.
Ban em' I say. Ban them all the way down to just a bolt action hunting rifle and arrows. We have taser guns that fire faster than the response time it'd take to pull the trigger so why not?
I'd rather be accidentally tased than accidentally shot. I've been shot with a steel ball bearing about the size and weight of a pinball at 400fps and its a very sh!tty experience(call my brother for confirmation), but I can't imagine the pain of being shot through because you were mistaken for a burglary by an antsy girlfriend behind the door.
Ban them? But it's in the constitution! Right, because we have to honor the constitution, the constitution is concrete and cannot be infringed or changed at all, despite the 2nd amendment applying to a militia more than a random citizen. Close the door behind you...
I don't give a good-god-damn about "this" constitution, the one that says I have freedom of speech yet lists several exemptions because supreme court judges and congress are the gods of the constitution.
I couldn't care less if we throw out the whole constitution, the unlawful arrests, cruel and unusual punishment, coercion of false confessions or testimony, throw it all out. It's a piece of paper and that's been proven time and time again as congress and government infringe upon most every possible amendment there is now.
Close the door behind you...
I'm ok with it, no paper should have dominion over my life and the lives of its citizens if government can so openly break or bend the rules to its own advantage. If we're stepping on all these god-given sacred rules and laws under the constitution why not do the same for the second amendment? Close the door behind you.
It's back to that special exemption; hold prisoners without trials, spy on citizens without warrants, search a citizen without probable cause, arrest a citizen for expressing themselves, but FOR THE LOVE OF GOD MAN, YOU CAN'T TAKE AWAY MY GUNS, IT'S IN THE CONSTITUTION!!!
Well these terrorists aren't American so the rules don't apply, I can spy on you because it's in the interest of national security, I can search you because we have a zero-tolerance policy, I can arrest you because you are creating a disturbance and this is a "quiet zone", BUT DEAR GOD I CAN'T TAKE AWAY YOUR GUN, BECAUSE THE CONSTITUTION SAYS SO.
Lets do anything we want,interpret anyway we want with the constitution that benefits but remember to close the doors behind you.
If we're throwing it out, throw it all out. We got Bin Laden by ignoring the constitution, we expelled Westboro Baptist Church about 8 football fields from any high profile funerals and less people spend their nights in jail for possessing marijuana in Colorado and Washington.
Now close the door behind you...
The problem that I see now is that we argue that eliminating guns will just ensure the bad guys have guns, but just looking at England's 1997 law banning most all guns procedurally to now, they're down to 35 deaths, we're at 30,000. With a population at 20% of our own thats unfair though, applying that 20% difference to our gun deaths would give us 6000 deaths with guns to England's 35 without guns.
But it's in the constitution so we have to stand behind it, because a school shooting is a worthy sacrifice every now and again. Mental health screenings and waiting periods would only stop those whom were totally insane during both.
Dilemma 1. Waiting period.
How hard is it for someone whom already has a methodical plan to go on a mass murder rampage to wait a few extra days to get those guns?
Dilemma 2. Psych evaluation
There's cartoon crazy, then theres mentally unstable. Oh yeah, you will catch the visibly crazy ones, but how do you catch those people who know that their performance in that evaluation will decide whether or not they get the gun?
Are these methodical killers going to honestly spill the beans on their master plan because a psychiatrist asked them?
"Aww man, you got me! I was totally going to shoot up that bed bath and beyond next week, can I have my gun now?"
Close the door behind you.
Sacrifice has been the penultimate excuse for skirting the constitution before. Its a cesspool of new-age proverbs mixing with old;
"fight them over there so they don't come here"
"We need to frisk old people and children because how else will we catch the bombers if we can't frisk them too?"
"This bank is too big to fail and too big to prosecute we have to bail them out or we're all screwed"
Sacrifice for safety and freedom, because of a strong visual example burned in our heads, 9/11 and the economic collapse in 08. We witnessed and experienced the changes of both these moments first hand. Lost jobs, lost lives, powerful images of both moments stained in our memories of the past decade.
What we don't see is the murder on the street corner, the shot daughter in her bedroom, the suicides and accidents. It's not a shared experience, we may have seen one happen or known someone whom died because of guns but its not shared across the country.
Because the country doesn't see the 30,000 people a year die collectively we throw it out as just another statistic. We hold the 9/11 attacks in our head forever, but we have 30 times that amount die each year behind the headlines and CNN reports and we sit idly by.
I think it's worth it to save 30,000 lives a year to ban guns in the same way that its abundantly clear to the TSA that its worth 3000 lives a year to frisk old ladys and ban liquids over 3 ounces.
Some of us feel safe with our guns so let me keep mine and close the door behind you.
Some of us want a gun at some point so let me buy mine and close the door behind you.
Some of us value the constitution so let me honor just this one part and close the door behind you.
I personally am ok with buying a bbgun to shoot cans.
Ban the guns and close the door behind you.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Am I in the driver's seat? No, most certantly not.
I sit here at 12:30 every monday, wednesday and friday in-between classes looking to play my precious racing games. Although I personally repaired this TV and setup my hi-fi surround sound system I sit here watching a roommate play Call of Duty # 725.
My form of unwinding and comfortable meditation towards relaxation usually involves running circuits on an imaginary or hyper realistic racetrack on my Xbox to smooth trance melodies. If I don't have access to my music and videogames, I'm watching last night's daily show (which uploads to stream at 12:30am or 10:30 PST?). If I stayed up till 12:30am to watch a good daily show episode, ill check YouTube for Top Gear episodes or general "neat" stuff on YouTube. Last resort is my movies or browsing reddit.
Technology as a background is my day to day. Music for cooking, music for driving, TV for movies or homework, videogames for something to unwind.
Sure I might repair a TV, make a shirt or design a newer zanier decal for my car, but I only have one broken TV, a blank shirt here or there and a car that borders on being "too busy/cluttered" as-is.
I've lived without technology before, but never happily. I used to have overly elaborate schemes of buying a small TV, running an AC/DC inverter and then plugging in an adapter for a VHS all for a 6hr road trip.
Seems my technological goals are always irrelevant by the time I'm ready to buy the tech I think I need.
I had a list of things Id need for entering college or an entry level job in radio or broadcast; cell phone, MP3 player, video player, palm pilot, videogame handheld device a laptop, 2tb hard drive space,HDTV, VGA to HD-Component conversion cables, computer monitor and a camcorder.
Now that list can be squeezed into iPhone, laptop, hard drive, and an HDTV.
It's come to the point where I build my list a little more lofty than imagined because by the time I need to fulfill that list It'l be more achievable than previously thought.
My list for a job in Michigan merely involves how to move my car, furniture and devices using ties with my brother's shipping company. I do this because I don't know how much a 1kw solar unit will cost me to install by Fall with the 40% commercial solar barrier being broken a few months ago. I wouldn't bother buying a new TV or Sound system in Utah only to move it to Michigan just in time for it to become obsolete by a newer better TV/sound system.
All my purchases now are "legacy" items; things I can use for years without needing newer versions. The base level of existence. TV, Computer, Mouse, Games, Speakers, Movies, folding Cot, iPhone 4, screwdriver set, folding chair, frying pan, hard drive, LED lightbulbs.
The faster I break into long term legacy purchases, the more time and surplus money I have to branch out on exterior costs like mortgage payments, luxury TV, couches without floral patterns, food w/o title of "great value", Husky dog, fancy jackets, and perhaps the ability to hold onto a girlfriend without the ubiquitous "if you really love me buy me _____".
I guess my financial stability or paranoia can be attributed to both my parents being raised by survivors of WWII and the Great Depression in which economic stability meant buying 600lbs of flour instead of hitting up the local five & dime/piggly wiggly for a prime cut steak.
I'm of the stand that "if you don't have money, don't buy it". There are of course exceptions, but all of my tech purchases have been towards longevity. As it stands already I worry about my 50,000 count disk tray warranty or the integrity of any device or machine with unnecessary moving parts.
I'm not in the driver seat but I aim to keep it that way so that I may never have to worry about being without the tech that has built me up to the situation and standing I am in now.
Much love, Cory Carter.
My form of unwinding and comfortable meditation towards relaxation usually involves running circuits on an imaginary or hyper realistic racetrack on my Xbox to smooth trance melodies. If I don't have access to my music and videogames, I'm watching last night's daily show (which uploads to stream at 12:30am or 10:30 PST?). If I stayed up till 12:30am to watch a good daily show episode, ill check YouTube for Top Gear episodes or general "neat" stuff on YouTube. Last resort is my movies or browsing reddit.
Technology as a background is my day to day. Music for cooking, music for driving, TV for movies or homework, videogames for something to unwind.
Sure I might repair a TV, make a shirt or design a newer zanier decal for my car, but I only have one broken TV, a blank shirt here or there and a car that borders on being "too busy/cluttered" as-is.
I've lived without technology before, but never happily. I used to have overly elaborate schemes of buying a small TV, running an AC/DC inverter and then plugging in an adapter for a VHS all for a 6hr road trip.
Seems my technological goals are always irrelevant by the time I'm ready to buy the tech I think I need.
I had a list of things Id need for entering college or an entry level job in radio or broadcast; cell phone, MP3 player, video player, palm pilot, videogame handheld device a laptop, 2tb hard drive space,HDTV, VGA to HD-Component conversion cables, computer monitor and a camcorder.
Now that list can be squeezed into iPhone, laptop, hard drive, and an HDTV.
It's come to the point where I build my list a little more lofty than imagined because by the time I need to fulfill that list It'l be more achievable than previously thought.
My list for a job in Michigan merely involves how to move my car, furniture and devices using ties with my brother's shipping company. I do this because I don't know how much a 1kw solar unit will cost me to install by Fall with the 40% commercial solar barrier being broken a few months ago. I wouldn't bother buying a new TV or Sound system in Utah only to move it to Michigan just in time for it to become obsolete by a newer better TV/sound system.
All my purchases now are "legacy" items; things I can use for years without needing newer versions. The base level of existence. TV, Computer, Mouse, Games, Speakers, Movies, folding Cot, iPhone 4, screwdriver set, folding chair, frying pan, hard drive, LED lightbulbs.
The faster I break into long term legacy purchases, the more time and surplus money I have to branch out on exterior costs like mortgage payments, luxury TV, couches without floral patterns, food w/o title of "great value", Husky dog, fancy jackets, and perhaps the ability to hold onto a girlfriend without the ubiquitous "if you really love me buy me _____".
I guess my financial stability or paranoia can be attributed to both my parents being raised by survivors of WWII and the Great Depression in which economic stability meant buying 600lbs of flour instead of hitting up the local five & dime/piggly wiggly for a prime cut steak.
I'm of the stand that "if you don't have money, don't buy it". There are of course exceptions, but all of my tech purchases have been towards longevity. As it stands already I worry about my 50,000 count disk tray warranty or the integrity of any device or machine with unnecessary moving parts.
I'm not in the driver seat but I aim to keep it that way so that I may never have to worry about being without the tech that has built me up to the situation and standing I am in now.
Much love, Cory Carter.
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