Welcome to the Bronx

Blowout

Tommorow is the last day of classes, I can honestly say I did more work this year than in my last two years of High school. Im glad classes are finally over but that was just the battle, Finals are the war and we havent even begun finals as of yet. Many of my friends plan on getting let me just say "decent", I however, am not even partying. I have my first final on Monday and it is on 26 chapters for statistics, so Im not playing around. I feel like I have all summer to party and to jeopardize my exam grade for a night of fun is just stupid.

Analysts That Downplay War

Analysts are paid to downplay negative aspects of the war and talk up the administration's message. Their goal is to counter what many real journalists were reporting. This doesn't really surprise me considering how badly the administration has taken hits. Something had to be done to improve the view of the administration. This certainly doesn't help the view that many people hold that the government hides alot from us. This most certainly isn't right but I am not surprised.

NBA Playoffs

The NBA Playoffs begin this Saturday, April 19. The Celtics and Pistons are favored to come out of the East, even though the Cavaliers won the East last year. The West is so jumbled up the winner is too close to call. The Lakers hold the #1 overall seed but any of the other 7 teams can pull a not so "upset". I'm very excited about the upcoming playoffs although neither of my teams (New York Knicks & New Jersey Nets) made the cut.

The matchups are as followed in the East:
(1) Boston Celtics vs. (8) Atlanta Hawks
(2)Detroit Pistons vs. (7) Philladephia 76ers
(3)Orlando Magic vs. (6) Toronto Raptors
(4) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (5) Washington Wizards


The matchups are as followed in the West:
(1) Los Angelos Lakers vs. (8) Denver Nuggets
(2)New Orleans Hornets vs. (7) Dallas Mavericks
(3)San Antonio Spurs vs. (6) Phoenix Suns
(4) Utah Jazz vs. (5) Houston Rockets

Students' Lecture Notes Infringe on Professor's Copyright

I wrote my 20 page senior thesis on copyright infringement, this however doesnt make me an expert. With that being said, in my opinion the students actual notes are not copyright infringement, its repackaging and sale is though. In order for something to fall under the fair-use umbrella the purpose and character of the use is examined. The distinct purpose of the notes is not to help students in the class but to make money, I believe this makes it infringement. There is however no right or wrong answer to this question, although rules are in place, the rulings are on a case by case basis. The ruling is ultimately up to the judge's interpretation of fair use, and if he's liberal or conservative.

Facebook

I like most of my peers, am indeed a Facebook addict. I find myself facebooking alot more than notetaking in classes. The remedy...leaving my computer at my dorm. I also suffer from a disease affecting millions of Americans known as Procrastination. I find myself up at 3am writing a paper due the following morning, well not quite writing. Because even then at 3am, Im refreshing my facebook page like some one could have possibly wrote on my wall or sent me an inbox message. The is no cure in sight for me, perhaps, I will outgrow it like asthma or old clothes. Some may say the solution is the destruction of my account with facebook, but, many of the events on campus and even school related activities are delegated by FACEBOOK!!!!!!!!!!!

Search Abortion: No Results

What stood out to me from the articles were thes two quotes "USAID denies funding to non-governmental organizations that perform abortions, or that 'actively promote abortion as a method of family planning in other nations" and "We recently made all abortion terms stop words, as a federally funded project, we decided this was best for now." It seems as if the federal government is bullying organization, so that the will take their side on issues. Abortion is just one issue in which the government exercised its power to control the information being dispursed. Who knows when this may occur or has occurred. Another quote states "We are part of the Bush administration, so we have to make sure that all parts of the story are told, the administration's policy is definitely anti-abortion, and the administration does not see abortion as a part of family planning policy." Now this blatantly seems like an attempt to hide information that is against what the government percieves as correct. The keyword "abortion" is being restored, however, it should never have been removed. The website gave no warning at all and acting due to their personal beliefs not in the nature of freedom of speech.

Registration

As a freshman, I registered today for classes. I ended up wit an 8am and a 9:20. Only two of the classes I actually wanted. Im only registered for 10 credits currently, so im asking for overrides left and right. One day im gonna look back on this and smile, but today isn't that day. WTF....REGISTRATION SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!! The good part is it only gets betta from here, so by this time next year, ill be takin sum helpless rising sophomore's spot in a class.

W&M: A Competitor?

I do believe that W&M affords me the opportunity to compete with students from other competitive schools. I wouldn't have attended this university if I didn't believe this. W&M is one of the most prestigious universities in America, and alot of companies understand this. I was doing an internship during the summer and they asked what school I was going to, W&M was met with nothing but respect by my employers. I do however, feel that it is necessary to be very computer literate in today's society. W&M also prepares us for this, it being one of the most wireless campuses.

Pregnant Man, WTF?

I heard about this of all places...on ESPN...on the show PTI:Pardon the Interruption. It was a sort of throwaway joke. Thomas Beatie a "man" in Oregon is reportedly pregnant. Freak of nature, well sorta....Beatie (born a woman) says "he went through a sex change, but decided only to have chest reconstruction and testosterone therapy." He was able to keep the reproductive organs he was born with (vagina). He said he stopped getting the injections and was able to get pregnant because his wife couldn't. He and his wife are expecting a girl sumtime in July, Beatie says doctors won't treat them. Modern science is remarkable but also unnatural, a "pregnant man" just isn't right.

Caught Downloading Copyrighted Material—Now What?

Well I'm well aware of people being sent letters from movie and music production companies as well as from their ISP. I did my 20pg Senior Thesis on it. I learned that often times production companies target colleges because of computers are registered: this makes it easier to identify the offender. The production company can very well sue for ridiculous sums of money. As far as the article goes I suppose comcast and production companies may have reached an agreement because alot of the commentors had comcast as their ISP. The individual should be let off wit a warning and no further legal action upon deleting the pirated material.

Bret Favre

Bret Favre retired 3/5/08 after 17 years in the NFL. Sixteen of which where spent with the Green Bay Packers, after being traded from Atlanta. Favre lead his team to the NFC Championship game, where they lost to the eventual Superbowl Champion (MY TEAM) New York Giants. Favre's final pass of that game was an interception during Overtime that allowed the Giants to kick the go-ahead field goal. Many believed Favre would return after such a sucessful year and because he didnt want his final pass to be an interception. However, after great thought he decided to finally hang em up. Aaron Rodgers will now become the Packers starting quarterback. A moment of silence for one of the games All-time Greats.

A Vision of Students Today

The message that I got from the video was that the value of education has depreciated over the years. In the video, one student held up a sign that says "Im in classes for 3 hours" and another that says "I study for only 3 hours." Then others saying how much time was spent on facebook and bringing computers to class even though, they're not required. Students seem to take for granted the education being provided, while citing that they will only use 26% of the info learned. Facts were included about people making less than $1 a day and living in poverty, while the very education that sets them apart from those impoverished individuals, they take for granted. Too bad im part of that ungrantful bunch.

Technological Advances: Nothing Between You and Your Machine

I am greeting these technological advances with open arms. Many people believe by the year 2000, there would be flying cars and super advanced inventions. After years of using keyboards and a mouse, touch technology is finally catching on. The article suggests that the technology had been around for a while but was being limited by hardware space, and other issues that neede to be overcome. I believe that this touch technology will catch on soon, people just need time to adjust to, meanwhile voice recognition technology is waiting in the wings. So, when people all finally get touch technology, the voice technology will be released as the next best thing. Just the way business works. I have already jumped on the touch tech bandwagon, acquiring Verizon's new LG Voyager. http://dirtydonblog.blogspot.com/2008/03/lg-voyager_12.html

LG Voyager

I recently bought the LG Voyager, I believe it to be one of the best phones on the market today. It has an external touch screen and like its predecessor the EnV has a full Qwerty keyboard once you flip it open. It also has all of Verizons up to date features, including Mobile TV, which shows live Tv as it is happening. Anyone with Verizon and anexpiring contract should take a good look at acquiring the Voyager. Its 299.99 if u buy it online with a two-year agreement and worth every penny.

"Spring Break"

I am very excited for Spring Break to say the least, however I don't know if you can truly call it the latter. The only break it provides is from the usual flow of classes, we can't truly relax like on our "true Winter and Stummer breaks." These are the breaks where we have no midterms to study for or paper's to write, just relaxation and time spent at home or exploring the unknown. This Spring Break is more closely associated with the break in classes before Finals, you know just a little extra time to catch up on reading and study. However, with this semester chaos I'll take any break I can get.

Google: Health Records?

Google will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand patients from the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered for an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google's new service. The advantage is the easy access to their own medical records and the simplifying of transferring medical records when changing doctors. The dangers are however great, placing your most personal information on the net is an invitation to hacker's. If I were approached with the opportunity to take part in this trial, I would respectfully decline because I do not completely trust the security of the internet just yet. Also, since Google is in the business of making profits like any other firm, I am curious to know how they plan on making this profitable for themselves. I mean are they just doing us a service?

THE RICH GET RICHER

In the NBA, the Western conference is considered the better conference, and with the recent trade news instead of the East gaining ground the West is instead pulling further and further ahead. In the East there are maybe four legit NBA title contenders such as The Celtics (with the best record in the league), Cavs, Magic, Pistons and the rest of the conference is filled with mediocracy. In the West virtually all the teams are playoff contenders. The top 8 ranked teams from each conference make the playoffs, in fact if u moved the 9th, 10th and 11th ranked teams from the west to the East they would be ranked 6th, 7th and 8th respectively making them playoff teams. The West has since added Shaq (Phoenix Suns), Pau Gasol (Lakers) and Jason Kidd (Mavericks), talk about the rich gettin richer.

Wiretaps

I was aware of the "wiretap law" and initially after 9/11 I didn't it. I guess that was in a time when everyone was sort of ant-terror tho. After reading the article it seems that the government has gone too far. Telecom allowing the government to tap their customers lines with judicial warrants is an outright invasion of privacy. But I guess the message being sent is privacy can be compromised for the ultimate goal of thwarting terrorism.

Gene Nichol

I feel that it was a huge mistake on the BOV's part to get rid of President Nichol. In his tenure here the amount of applicants have gone up as well as diversity. I saw President Nichol last week just walking around near my dorm, and he came right up to us and we held a nice conversation. His approach-ability is one thing that I admire about him as well as his integrity. He came up with a proposal to give full rides to in-state students who's families make less than $40,000. So he's a good guy. The BOV doesnt like some of the things he did like removing a cross from a building, which he did to make it welcomed to all religions and allowing the Sex worker's art show here, which he did because he didnt wanna violate our rights to see it and its a student sponsored event, which soldout so some people evidently wanted to see it. I just don't get it, I guess current students opinions don't really count for much here @ W&M.

Network Neutrality

The article is pushing for Congress to make decisions regarding the future of internet technology more public. The writer says that when net neutrality was voted on, not everyone even knew what it was, which makes me think that perhaps it should be more publicized. After all Congress does represent "WE THE PEOPLE".