Neat Ideas Fair

Neat Ideas Fair
60 seconds

ALWAYS WANTED TO KNOW WHERE NEW INVENTIONS ARE MADE?

LOOK NO FURTHER THAN S-J-S-U WHEN IT HOSTED THE NEAT IDEAS FAIR IN THE BARRETT BALLROOM OF THE STUDENT UNION. MANY STUDENTS AND FACULTY ALIKE ATTENDED THE EVENT TO CATCH SOME OF THE NEAT IDEAS PRESENTED BY OTHER STUDENTS.

WITH ITS GREAT VIDEO PRESENTATION, THE E-Z POUR EASY POURING CEREAL BOX QUICKLY BECAME THE HOT COMMODITY AT THE FAIR. THE E-Z POUR WOULD USE A PULL OUT SPOUT OVER TRADITIONALLY RIPPING OFF THE TOP OF A BOX AND MAKING A MESS.

THE FAIR ALSO FEATURED OTHER GREAT NEAT IDEAS SUCH AS REWIND, A RECYCLING VENDING MACHINE THAT GIVES CREDIT TO BUY ITEMS AT NORMAL VENDING MACHINES. ALSO, TELEBEER, IT’S LIKE PIZZA DELIVERY, BUT DELIVERS BEER STRAIGHT TO YOUR HOUSE DURING THE BIG GAME.

ALWAYS STAY OBSERVANT TO THE WORLD AND SEE IF SOMETHING CAN BE IMPROVED TO BETTER PEOPLE’S LIVES. MAYBE YOU MIGHT COME UP WITH A NEAT IDEA.

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Online Reporting

The major breaking news story I chose was Hillary Clinton’s planted question. Although about a week old, I still find it to be the biggest story right with her poll numbers going down recently.

I went to these web sites and they are as follows: Fox News, ABC News, USA Today, and BBC News. I picked American press stories and one from England to get another country’s perspective on American politics.

First, Fox News took the Grinnell College student’s planted question for Clinton to dig deeper and find out if this had happened before with Clinton’s campaign. In a telephone interview, Geoffrey Mitchell, 32, said he was approached by Clinton campaign worker Chris Hayler before an event back on April 2. Hayler supposedly was going to plant a question using Mitchell, but repeatedly Mo Elliethee, spokesman for Clinton’s campaign in Iowa, denied the accusations to Fox News. ABC News focused on Grinnell College sophomore Muriel Gallo-Chasanof who was planted with a question for Clinton on global warming. ABC News cited the video of Chasanof winking to the camera after she said her question. ABC News says that Clinton’s campaign is blaming the mistake on one of their junior staffers. In the USA Today news story quoted a reaction from fellow Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards. Edwards compared Clinton to George W. Bush by planting questions. Clinton’s campaign attacked right back at Edwards. In the BBC News story, it took a fairly straight forward approach by just saying what happened in the rally in Iowa and also brought up what ABC News said about blaming the incident on one of her aides.

The media presented this story pretty well with facts and quotes for all the stories. One error that totally just ruined their credibility with me is ABC News. They spelled Grinnell College with only one “n” (Grinell). You should never get a name wrong if you working for the big time like ABC News. Surprisingly the best online coverage I read was the Fox News story. My only gripe with Fox News was they continually showboated themselves by claiming they broke this story first. Fox News did not just report the news, they went out and investigated to see if Clinton had planted questions before.

Topical Blog Post #3

Topical Commentary: Cramming

Pop those Red Bull tabs and get jacked up, its finals time. Finals are looming in mere weeks here at San Jose State University. Projects need to be presented, papers need to be finalized and stapled together, and books and notes need to be studied for those final exams. College students usually don’t sleep around this time and we become caffeine sucking vampires to fit every little piece of information in to our head to form in to knowledge.

Is this really necessary for professors to have classes so back-loaded? Throughout my years in junior high, high school, and college, teachers and professors don’t seem to realize students have more than one class. Students end up with multiple projects, papers, and exams to do all at the same time. This can be very rigorous and stressful for students. I know college is meant to put you through hell and back to show you can handle the real world after you graduate. But I mean come on? I want to sleep for more than two hours during the days leading up to finals.

Professors need to start spreading the load of their coarse work. It is like having a balanced diet; you can’t eat bacon cheese fries and a steak three times a day. You need to have a steady diet of coarse work throughout the semester to keep students sane and away from cramming.

I am going to go get some sleep now. Bye.

Topical Blog Post #2

Topical Commentary: Dishonest Politics

All we want is honesty. Once someone breaks their honesty with us, how can we trust them ever again? Well, Hillary Clinton seemed to have made a dishonest move last week when her campaign deliberately planted a question in an Iowa campaign event audience. MSNBC caught Grinnell College sophomore Muriel Gallo-Chasanof on camera winking after she asked a question to Clinton. The video spread like wild fire and now Chasanof has come out to the press and has confirmed she was planted with a question. Clinton herself has denied she knew about the planted questions.

Have politicians been doing these sorts of tactics for years and years? Yes. Does that make them dishonest? Yes. I cannot find a way around it, if you plant a question in an audience whether it is for the good of getting your message out or just acting like your care about a certain issue, it is still dishonest.

When the highest form of authority is lying to your face, then what has become of democracy in America? Democracy is about fairness, justice, and freedom. If I want my presidential leader of my country to lie to me I would move to Pakistan or somewhere else.

It has already started to show in the Iowa polls with this slip-up in Clinton’s campaign. Barrack Obama is now the democratic front runner in that state. It only shows that America is sick and tired of being lied to their face. We have been going through lies and deceit for the past seven years with Bush and we do not need Clinton to continue that trend.

Find That Lead

"A strapped-up thug hits the streets in camos and boots, searching for a suitable ride. He finds it—a red convertible cruiser—at a busy intersection, rips open the driver's-side-door, smashes the driver's head against the steering wheel, and throws him onto the pavement."

- Robert Ashley, EGM November 2007 article "Copycat Killer"

Scene-setter Lead/Blind Lead

“Vin Diesel knows games. The gravel-voiced actor (Pitch Black, The Fast and the Furious) has been actively involved in the biz since he founded production company Tigon Studios in 2002, which had a hand in creating surprise Xbox hit The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (a remake is headed to PS3 and 360 next year).”

- Joe Rybicki, EGM November 2007 article “Wheelman: This ride runs on Diesel”

Blind Lead

Topical Blog Post #1

Topical Commentary: Gas Prices

Looks like my family will be staying home this holiday. The price for a barrel of gas has now hit the coveted $100 mark. Who is to blame here? Is it Society’s continual reliance on oil or the oil companies gouging our eye out? Quite frankly I do not know the answer to that, but what I do know is to use more public transportation.

The price of gas per gallon in California has always been the highest in America. With a barrel of gas costing $100, expect gas to rise to the unthinkable four dollars a gallon here in the Bay Area. Ever since my first day of college at SJSU I have taken advantage of the VTA light rail to go to and from school. Part of the tuition for SJSU includes an unlimited use of all VTA forms of transportation so I use it to the fullest. All four people in my family have cars and we need to not waste money on a substance that engines use to run cars.

This rise in gas prices is going to force people who can’t afford to pay these prices to have to stay home during the holidays. That is not cool at all. Families all across California are going to be affected by stupid oil when families should be together and bonding. Also, I expect a rise in students to use the light rail in the coming weeks. Either this rise in gas prices will encourage people to use public transportation or take more money right out of their pockets they could have spent on other stuff.

Broadcast Project

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Favorite Magazine

My favorite magazine I read on a periodical basis is Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM). EGM is the #1 video game magazine on the planet basically with millions of readers and subscribers. The target audience for an enthusiast magazine is usually always a narrow one. EGM mostly appeals to the hardcore gamer (although I hate it when people describe themselves as a “hardcore” gamer, I am just a guy who likes his games…) but EGM also appeals to some casual gamers that just want to look in the back of the magazine and check the review score on whether to buy a game or not.

The writing style of EGM has always been known for witty and clever writing to keep the reader interested while giving a different spin over generic video game journalism. Most online video game websites have a one person 1000 word in-depth review while EGM uses a trio system by taking three different editor’s angles on a game. Their reviews are usually only about 200 words for each of the three editors and are more straight to the point and easy to read. One popular feature called Rumor Mill in EGM has an anonymous editor by the name of Q-Man hinting at provocative video game related rumors. And some of the time his rumors become true. Overall EGM is a superb video game magazine and I would love to work for them one day…

http://egm.1up.com/