Newslog #28

Penny offense: Man fined for paying fee in pennies

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20110606/od_yblog_upshot/penny-offense-man-fined-for-paying-fee-in-pennies

Jason West from Vernal, Utah was charged by police because he paid a $25 medical bill completely with pennies. Even though he didn't think he owed the money, he decided to pay the bill in person anyway. The clinic accepted cash, so West didn't think paying in pennies was a problem. But he was fined $140. Other instances include a man in Frederick, Maryland who tried to pay his tax bill with $966.86 in change and 29 students at a New Jersey school got in trouble for paying their $2 lunches entirely in pennies. The school gave them two day of detention because paying with "small change slowed down the lunch line."

Even though paying entirely in change is obnoxious, in my opinion, it is completely legal. West should have never gotten arrested and the students shouldn't have gotten detention because they paid with legitimate money. If companies have problems with people paying entirely with change, then they should post something for the public before the person pays.

Newslog #27

Experts say cellphones are possibly carcinogenic

http://health.yahoo.net/news/s/ap/eu_med_cellphones_and_cancer

The International Agency for Research on Cancert in France found that cell phones might be linked with cancer. Some experts say that this is only a possibility and that people should continue to use their phones as just like usual, including Donald Berry, who is a professor of biostatistics at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas. "This is not something I worry about and it will not in any way change how I use my cellphone," he explains. The World Health Organization had a week-long meeting to discuss the risks and found minimal evidence that cell phones were linked to two types of brain tumors. This study arose over a decade ago when cancer patients were asked how often they used their cellphones. Additionally, many cancerous tumors take decades to form, yet this study has only been going on for a little over one decade.

Obviously hearing that cell phones can cause cancer makes me nervous, but not enough to make me stop using my phone in general. There have been so many scares and rumors that things like drinking coffee and from plastic water bottles left in hot cars can cause cancer, but sometimes I feel like that is just all talk. This study, along with the other two I mentioned, need to be studied more in depth before scientists reveal how these things can risk my life.

Newslog #26

 Speaking Up in Class, Silently, Using Social Media

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/13/education/13social.html?_r=3&pagewanted=1&hp

 
Many classes, including an English class in Sioux Rapids, Iowa, are now using technology as a way to have class discussions. They use social networking websites, like Twitter, to communicate with one another in the classroom during many lessons. Many students like this style of learning because they feel like they have a voice; if the class was having a verbal discussion, they would not feel comfortable talking and therefore would not have their voices heard. Teachers like this approach too because their students are doing their work and are participating more. Many classes claim that because they are allowed to use social networking websites for assignments, they are not distracted. Whereas, if these websites were not allowed, then they feel as if students would not pay attention to lessons.

I like how our school uses Blogger and Wikispaces to communicate during lessons once in a while, but I don't think that using these websites for the majority of discussions and assignments would be a positive thing. More students might participate more if they type their answers, but they're also losing their social skills. Students won't become any more confident speaking up in front of others if all they do is hide behind a computer screen.

Newslog #25

Live the High Life in a Converted Airplane

http://realestate.yahoo.com/promo/live-the-high-life-in-a-converted-airplane.html 

Airplane and designing companies have hooked up to create the ultimate places to "chill". The new idea entails turning old/no longer working airplanes into hotels, hostels, and houses. Both the outside and the interior of the plane are used, but re-organized and refurbished so it can be lived in. One hostel in Stockholm, Sweden has a "first-class" option, which allows guests to stay in the upper cabin, get served by waiters who are dressed in flight attendant apparel, and get high-class airplane style food. There are also airplane homes in Costa Rica.

I really like this idea. I personally would not want to permanently live in this type of environment, but would love to stay there for a few nights. These hostels/hotels have such a unique charm to them, which I feel would make my entire trip alone. I also feel that this is very environmentally friendly because they are re-using parts of planes instead of relying on new materials.

Newslog #24

Co-op Canyon Demonstrates How Food Can Be Integrated Into Architecture

 
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/04/co-op-canyon-integrates-food-into-architecture.php

The Re:Vision Dallas competition was set up by a New York/Los Angeles architecture firm called Standard. The purpose was to create a way for people to "live cooperatively, produce their own food and work together to build a community." This has not happened....yet. The winner was Co-op Canyon, which would overlooks a canyon and would be worked on by 1,000 people. These individuals would all gain equity by building the area, growing food, keeping up with maintenance, providing education, and creating conservation programs. The group would create the Community Farm, which would be located throughout backyards. Small cookouts would take place in the terraces of some of the workers. There would be a farmer's market in the area, as well as a Community Kitchen, where produce from the Community Farm would be eaten. There would be great communication amongst the people, in which healthy diet tips and cooking ideas would be exchanged in the Kitchen. Additionally, there would be a day care center, a fitness center, and food nutrition/taste testing classes in the Co-op Canyon.


I really like the idea of the Co-op Canyon because I think it would be great for the environment. These 1,000 people would want to be a part of the group because of their passion for helping the Earth. However, this article did not mention if outsiders were allowed in for a visit or to join. It also did not say how long these people would be living in this type of environment and if the buildings and resources were environmentally friendly. With the descriptions given, Co-op Canyon almost seems like a cult, in my opinion.

Newslog #23

8 Best Supermarket Sweets

http://health.yahoo.net/experts/eatthis/8-best-supermarket-sweets

Each year, the average American consumes over 130 pounds of sugar. Thirteen percent of calories taken in every day by women were added sugars, while men have fifteen percent, found by the University of Minnesota. Also there, they found that increasing added sugar intake has paralleled to increased BMIs, which has been linked to obesity. But the American Heart Association does not think that people should cut out added sugar entirely. They say that women can have 100 calories per day and men can have 150 per day. Without going on a diet, there are ways to still eat junk food and still lose weight. Such foods, like Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Werther's Original, and Hershey's Take 5 Bars, are actually the best kinds of junk food to eat out of their types.

I was surprised by the percentages of added sugar intake everyday because I know that I don't eat well all the time. This percentage was actually somewhat low in my opinion. But it was comforting to know that I don't have to completely cut out foods with added sugar. I was also shocked to find out that the types of food mentioned were not the worst of their kind.

Newslog #22

Grammys Cutting More Than 30 Categories

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/06/grammys-to-cut-more-than-30-categories/?ref=music

 

For the next Grammy Awards in February 2012, over thirty awards will be cut. There has been a lot of criticism that the current 109 categories were taking away from the award show's impact. However, on the show, only a dozen are given out. The rest are given out before the show airs at a separate ceremony. For the next show, there will only be 78 awards. Such genres, like R&B, pop, and country, have had around eight categories for each, but for next year, will only have four. Bill Werde, the editorial director of Billboard thinks, "Too many categories can confuse consumers and reduce the overall value of the prize."

I like the idea that the Grammys are reducing the number of awards. So many of the categories are alike, so by cutting down the number of awards, there will be less confusion. Also, there is a constant list of award winners on the bottom of the screen during the show. These winners are awarded before the show airs. I obviously don't expect to have all of the awards presented during the show. But in my opinion, because these awards are not televised, they don't have as much significance as those that are televised.

Newslog #21

Baltic Sea letter in a bottle found 24 years later

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_odd_russia_letter_in_a_bottle

13-year-old Daniil Korotkikh from Russia recently found a letter in a bottle on a beach when walking with his parents. This beach in the Baltic Sea was off of where Frank Uesbeck left the bottle back in 1987. The letter was written in German and left in a German beer bottle. Luckily, Korotkikh's father knew someone who could translate the message that was wrapped in cellophane and closed by a medical bandage.. The letter read, "My name is Frank, and I'm five years old. My dad and I are traveling on a ship to Denmark. If you find this letter, please write back to me, and I will write back to you." Also in the letter was Uesbeck's address in the town of Coesfeld. Korotkikh wrote to Uesbeck and Uesbeck could not believe that someone had written to him. He admitted that he barely remembers the trip and that his dad wrote the letter, not him. The two have recently started to video chat and hope to meet each other in person.


I really enjoyed reading this story. I often hear about people who write messages in bottles, but nothing ever happens with it. In this case, two complete strangers from different worlds connected over a letter. I especially think that this 24-year span made the letter even more interesting; it's almost double the age of Korotkikh. I hope Korotkikh and Uesbeck meet in person and become friends so that Uesbeck can re-tell his adventures from his Denmark trip.

Newslog #20

Facebook kicks off 20,000 underage users a day

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110323/bs_yblog_thelookout/facebook-kicks-off-20000-underage-users-a-day

Mozelle Thompson is the chief privacy adviser of Australia's parliament. According to Thompson, about 20,000 underage users sign up for Facebook everyday. There is a 13 years old and up age requirement, but the site has no way of finding out if the user is really 13 or older. A study from Pew found that about half of 12 year olds in the United States use social networking websites. Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, says "These younger users are the most vulnerable to predators to Facebook and the rest of the Internet and it should be impossible for them to inadvertently share their phone numbers and home addresses with anyone." Some websites, like Yahoo! and Disney.com, require children 12 and under to sign up for their sites with a parent present.

Social networking websites have no way of knowing how old their users are unless the user provides that information. Also, they don't know whether or not parents know their children are on the Internet. Virtually, there is no way for these websites to monitor children on the Internet. The only solution I personally can think of is that parents should be in the same room as their children when they're on the Internet. By this, I think that children will be safer and won't do anything inappropriate.

Newslog #19

Reality TV and the SAT: Did students miss the point of the essay question?

 

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/reality-tv-and-the-sat-did-students-miss-the-point-of-the-essay-question-2465881/#pollId-91FA4A044C2E11E0BC08EF7629D73D4E

One of the essays offered for the March SATs was about reality television. The essay prompt read:

“Reality television programs, which feature real people engaged in real activities rather than professional actors performing scripted scenes, are increasingly popular. These shows depict ordinary people competing in everything from singing and dancing to losing weight, or just living their everyday lives. Most people believe that the reality these shows portray is authentic, but they are being misled. How authentic can these shows be when producers design challenges for the participants and then editors alter filmed scenes?

“Do people benefit from forms of entertainment that show so-called reality, or are such forms of entertainment harmful?”

Many students, parents, and school officials are upset about this question because they believe that in order to answer the question thoroughly, students would have had to watch reality television shows. On College Board's message boards, some students complained that they never watch reality television and don't have any knowledge on these types of shows. However, Laurence Bunin, senior vice president for operations and the general manager of the SAT Program at the College Board, thinks that a student does not need to have experienced what the question is asking; all they need to do is take a stand from the information given in the prompt. "The central task of the SAT essay is to take one side of an issue and develop an argument to support that position. If presented with a topic about balancing the risk of climbing a mountain with the reward of reaching the summit, for example, a good writer could compose a strong essay without ever having reach the summit of Mount Everest," says Bunin.


I do not agree with Bunin's ideology. I have watched a number of reality television shows, so I know how they are set up and portrayed. If I had not watched these shows, then I would have no knowledge of how real (or fake) the shows are. I feel as if College Board assumed that most teenagers have watched reality television. However, numerous students have no interest nor knowledge about these shows.

Newslog #18

Skippy Peanut Butter Not the First to Carry Salmonella 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20110308/lf_ac/8013826_skippy_peanut_butter_not_the_first_to_carry_salmonella_1

Within the past few years, peanut butter has had many recalls for salmonella poisoning. Salmonella can appear on peanuts during their growing stage, collecting, or storage and turns up in low-moisture, high fat areas. Usually, hot processing temperatures are not enough to kill the salmonella bacteria and even if it was killed during manufacturing, the bacteria could still be lingering in the building and get into the products. The first case was in August 2006, when the company, Peter Pan, recalled 15 types of their products. Between then and May 2007, over 600 people in 47 states were affected. The next company to have tainted products was the King Nut Company, who in January 2009, issued a recall. The King Nut Company does not manufacture the product; it only distributes to seven states. One of the states is Minnesota, which is where the salmonella outbreak occurred. These cases all led to the Peanut Corporation of America in Blakely, Georgia in February 2009. By this time, more than 700 people became sick and nine people died. The FDA found that there was more than salmonella contamination in the PCA's buildings. There were cockroaches, equipment that wasn't cleaned properly, and a leaky roof. The PCA was also guilty of tainting pet food and over 200 companies had to recall almost 4,000 products because of this.

The most recent peanut butter salmonella case was just this week, when Skippy stated that their Reduced Fat Creamy and Chunky Peanut Butter Spreads might be tainted. 16 states are affected. However, there have been no illnesses stated yet.

I think food manufacturers need to take better care of their buildings. Their food is being sent to millions of people and producing this food in unsanitary conditions can in the long run, cause the company millions of dollars (in possible law suits). I think food companies should have stricter building and equipment codes and regulations so that another outbreak like this does not occur.

Newslog #17

With government shutdown looming, New York landmarks will be closed for business

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_localnyc/with-government-shutdown-looming-new-york-landmarks-will-be-closed-for-business

The Statue of Liberty is one of the many places that will shut down on Friday because Congress cannot agree on a budget for this year. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have not come up with a plan with how much money can be spent in 2011. Because of this, many parks and monuments, like Liberty Island, will be closing and over 8 million federal tax returns will be delayed. In addition to this, passport and visa requests and cleanup work at toxic sites will be halted and social security checks will be frozen because its shop will be closed for 3 weeks. These actions are causing New York State a whopping $100 million per day, according to a study by Bruce Yandle, a George Mason University professor. Because visas are not being processed, the 3.2 million tourists who visit New York City every year won't be able to come, which will result in restaurants, hotels, and tourist attractions to lose money.

I think it's awful that just because a group of people cannot agree on a budget, many monuments that are enjoyed by innocent people will be shut down. People do not deserve to have their favorite sites taken away from them and hard-working business owners do not deserve to lose money because of one-sided politicians. The United States has become so divided due to politics and in my eyes, is no longer a "united" nation. These biased politicians need to come up with an agreement soon because in the mean time,  New York City will be losing important money.

Newslog #16

Firefighter Refused Call to Giffords Shooting

http://www.aolnews.com/2011/02/17/firefighter-refused-call-to-giffords-shooting/

In the Tucson, Arizona shooting last month, a firefighter refused to respond to a call because he believed that "political bantering" would get in the way of Senator Gabby Giffords' condition. The firefighter, Mark Ekstrum, and his team are especially trained to handle extensive medical emergencies. They didn't go to the crime scene until 90 minutes after the shooting occured. Ekstrum's boss said that his actions delayed the team and that they could have gotten more accomplished if they had just gotten there on time. In result, Ekstrum retired two days after the shooting, yet his bosses were still pondering on how to punish him. The boss, Williams, had stated that Ekstrum had started to say something about how he had a different political viewpoint than the rest of him team and was worried about what would happen at the crime scene. Ekstrum replied by saying that that statement was false and that he actually had voted for Giffords in the last election.

Whether or not Ekstrum had different political viewpoints than Giffords and his team is no excuse to not perform his duty. He should have put his differences aside to help save peoples' lives. Granted, he did feel guilty about his actions, because he "retired" two days after. But if I ever found out that a firefighter didn't help save me because they had different viewpoints than me, I would be furious.

Newslog #15

Diet soda tied to stroke risk, but reasons unclear
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110209/ap_on_he_me/us_med_stroke_diet_soda;_ylt=Aoew1iCMRsqXs5KoUS0OlDKs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTFpNjlnMWVjBHBvcwMzNwRzZWMDYWNjb3JkaW9uX21vc3RfcG9wdWxhcgRzbGsDZGlldHNvZGF0aWVk

A recent study has shown that those who drink diet soda everyday have been linked to stroke and heart attack compared to people who don't drink soda at all. However, there is no direct reason why this is happening. These symptoms might be because those who drink soda everyday might be those who don't exercise, are overweight, have high blood pressure, and smoke. Researchers looked into these reasons from 1993-2001 and even today, nothing has changed. Over that 8 year span, a Northern Manhattan study was put into effect that tracked the diets of 2,500 Hispanic and African-American people, whose ethnicities have been shown to have high rates of stroke. There were 116 daily diet soda drinkers and they were found to have a 48 percent higher risk of heart attack and stroke compared to the 901 people who didn't drink any soda at all. Of course, smoking, diabetes, and waistline sizes were also taken into account. Also, it was shown that even though most diet sodas don't have sugar in them, their corn sugar still makes people crave sweets instead of fruits, vegetables, and grains.


To be honest, I don't like drinking soda because I don't know most of the ingredients in it. I do have a can once in a while, but in order to be healthier, I drink water or juice instead. In addition, I was surprised to see that people crave sweets when drinking diet soda, especially because most of the time, there is no sugar in in.

Newslog #14

Rethinking the Yearbook


If you think about high school yearbooks, you'd probably assume that the "popular" people would make an appearance seven times, whereas the "less popular" people would only be shown once or twice. To avoid this, Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School in New Jersey is making sure everyone is in their upcoming yearbook the same amount of times. The yearbook committee will try to get every student in the yearbook at least twice; the editor will make a tally of how many times a person has already appeared in the book to make sure they don't go over the limit. But some schools wonder if doing this reflects how much a specific student contributed to the school. In their defense, someone who was class president and captain of the soccer team might only be in two pictures and someone who was not social with other students nor was involved in any extra-curricular activities also might be in two pictures. According to San Diego State University professor Jean Twenge, Scotch Plain-Fanwood's approach has "...no real resemblance to real life."

I believe with Twenge, in which there cannot be the same number of pictures for a student highly involved in school activities and for a student who wasn't involved in any at all. However, I think the editors of the yearbook need to have a fair balance; there can't be seven pictures of one group of people and one picture of another; maybe five and three.

Newslog #13

Court fines hotel owners for refusing gay couple a room
http://www.gadling.com/2011/01/18/court-fines-hotel-owners-for-refusing-gay-couple-a-room/
In 2008, the Chymorvab Hotel in England refused a gay couple, Martyn Hall and Steven Priddy, to spend the night in their building. Owners of the hotel, Peter and Hazelmary Bullfor, claimed that they did this because they are Christian and will not give a room to an unmarried couple. But just recently, an English court sued the hotel and ruled that the Bullfor's discriminated against the couple and that the two men are civil partners with the same rights as married couples. Hall and Preddy received £1800 from the court.

I do not think it was right of the Bullfor's to deny Hall and Preddy a room. The two men were willing to pay and were not causing any harm to the hotel, which in my opinion, are the most important things to look for in customers, not their sexual orientation nor marital status.

Newslog #12

Who Knew?
http://whoknew.news.yahoo.com/?nc&vid=23751722

Many people nowadays find the urge post the most personal information about themselves on the Internet. It was reported last year that a computer can figure out about 8.5% of social security numbers of those born since 1989 thanks to social networking websites. The first three numbers of a person's SSN is from the area code where the SSN was issued, which usually means where the person lives. If a person posts their home town on their social networking page, it is easier for thieves to figure out the person's SSN. The next two numbers refer to where and when the person applied. The last four numbers are supposed to be random, but sometimes it has to do with the person (i.e. part of their birthday). Starting this year, the government is taking even stricter action and are going to make all the numbers issued completely random.

Before watching this video, I never knew how SSNs were made. I assumed that they were 9 random numbers that had nothing to do with any of my information. Currently, I do not have my hometown listed on my Facebook, even though I know all of my friends personally. People should take these precautions to make sure their identity is not stolen.