http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/2010/10/10/2010-10-10_google_futuristic_cars_drive_themselves.html?r=news/national
Columbus Day. Founded in 1934, it is one of our ten national holidays on the calendar with Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, New Years Day, Veterans Day, Presidents Day (officially known as Washington’s Birthday, however commonly denoted as such to honor Abraham Lincoln as well, whose birthday was earlier that month), Thanksgiving and Christmas. Each year, banks, post offices, and all government offices get the day off for Columbus Day. Lately however, this has begun to change.
From a regularly celebrated holiday which once showed the ideals of patriotism in America, many have come out to oppose this holiday. Those who say Columbus did not discover America, and believe the European discovery of this country led to the destruction of Native American civilization have sought to stop this holiday. Their movement has been gaining momentum.
When I was planning on coming to visit my sister whose going to NYU, she suggested coming this weekend because she had Monday off for what her calendar said “Semester Break”, but offered no other explanation. I then found out that my friends who are attending Penn, Yale, Columbia, BU, and Wisconsin also get Monday off for Columbus Day. USC isn’t giving me Monday off, and nor is SMC. My brother is still in school on Monday, and so are all the students I regularly tutor.
I did some research and found that Columbus Day first began in Colorado 1906, and was adopted by the nation 30 years later. Annually Denver, Colorado hosts a major parade which has been highly contested for 20 years. I remember however that in early elementary school we would always learn about Columbus Day, and get the day off, but then it stooped one year. We still don’t get the mail, but still have school and work these days. It seems that at this rate, the next generation might not even know of Columbus Day even though if it still exists.
I logged into Google today and saw this link on the homepage, ‘$10M to the 5 Project 10^100 winners. Learn more.‘ I was curious so i clicked the link. Turns out, Google has given a total of 10 million dollars in grants to companies who have a proactive mission for the future of our planet, and society. One grant went to FIRST, a robotics organization I was a part of during the start of high school. I looked through them, and among them, Shweeb really stood out. Its a concept which hopes to change the idea that humans are merely cargo, and must be transported, making the use of energy essential in transportation. Instead it makes us the engine of our own vehicles. In a sense, its somewhat like riding a bike, just suspended midair by a monorail.
At first was very skeptical of the concept. First of all, why not just use bikes instead of building these structures. Then there was the issue of a one line rail. If someone is stuck behind someone whose taking a stroll ride, or a weaker individual who cannot petal themselves fast enough, it creates traffic for everyone else, and changing lanes is not an option once hanging midair. Additionally, what happens if two pods crash, or a pod falls off?
Shweebs traveling in packs
After looking through the website, these issues are very well resolved. First of all, it offers an option which can not only replace the bike, but the car, and subway as well. While it does go slower than a car or train, it goes much faster than any bike could dream of traveling. From what I know about physics, their plans to reduce the amount of energy required to travel are very well done; significantly reducing friction from the surface and air resistance, and effectively using momentum and gravity to their advantage. Additionally, if at this point the rider in front is still going slowly, the solution only enhances the idea. When the person in front of you driving is going too slow for you, it would probably nice to have the option to ram your car into theirs, and push them at 100mph without getting a ticket for crashing, speeding, and no insurance increases. Not only that, imagine if doing this actually helped you both go faster instead of slower. Well thats the idea. If multiple pods pair up in a row, they actually go faster! The one in the front must battle the air resistance, and the others behind, who now do not have this air before them, can petal faster, and push the leader past. This is really an amazing feat, and it would be amazing to see this implemented in the future.
La Opinión, LA's leading Spanish Newspaper
When considering what to write about in this weeks blogpost, I considered a couple stories about technology and social media like I wrote about last week. However, I really wanted to take a different approach this week. So ultimately, after looking through the news headlines of the day, and not finding anything I would have liked writing about, I did a quick search on ‘media in Los Angeles’ to hopefully help me find something media related I have encountered lately. I immediately found it. There was a Wikipedia article titled ‘Media in Los Angeles’, which started off listing the major LA newspapers. Turns out that our second most popular local paper is the spanish ‘La Opinión’. No spanish expert would need to point out that the title translated to ‘The Opinion’ in English.
In our Communications class, we had a number of detailed conversations about how News generally tries to be factual free of personal points of view, allowing the consumers to ‘decide’ which side the want to take. We discussed the differences between columnists and reporters, and watched a documentary called ‘Outfoxed’ which highly criticized Fox News Corp. for being heavily conservative, while advertising themselves to be “Fair & Balanced” and letting “You Decide” the news.
When I saw that this newspaper was named “La Opinión”, I was somewhat surprised. I have definitely seen this newspaper around Los Angeles countless times, and I have probably walked past newspaper dispensers selling this titles without taking a second glance, on many more occasions. This time though, it sparked some curiosity. How come a major newspaper, which reports the news, calling itself “The Opinion”. Logically, news shouldn’t have opinions. So I read some more about the paper to find out if it really did cary an opinion, or exclusively write opinions on the news. In fact, it did not. It is an exclusively news telling paper, with no apparent added opinions. I however still found it interesting that a newspaper calls itself an opinion-paper when in fact that’s not what it tries to be. If it did have an opinion, why not state that at the start, and not get ‘Outfoxed’ like Fox did for having an opinion.
Ultimately however, despite the fact that the paper claims to be just another ‘news’paper, any reporting service will be swayed by their editors, and their audience, so no newspaper or news agency can be totally unbiased. ‘La Opinión’ for example obviously is more in touch with its spanish speaking population in Los Angeles, than lets say its persian speaking population who instead may tune into the local ‘KIRN’ radio network. For example, ‘La Opinión’ which gained fame for covering deportations and repatriations of Mexican Americans to Mexico, or other Latinos to their original nations, sympathizes more with the cause for legal immigration, than lets say the Arizona Legislators, trying to halt immigration. Additionally, when conflicts between Latin American and other populations arise, they are likely to take a side more geared to their audience.
Miss Mexico, Ximena Navarrete
I remember watching the Miss Universe Pageant on TV last month with my brother. When Miss Mexico was crowned Miss Universe 2010, I quickly changed the channel to Univision to see what they were discussing. Within a matter of moments, the topic switched to the Miss Universe pageant, which became the focus of that nights broadcast. While the American stations also covered the news, they apparently had more important news to cover. Additionally, the fact that when crowned, Miss Mexico took the opportunity to speak out against the immigration policy in Arizona, caused more of a conversation on Spanish stations who also opposed them, than on other stations.
This last week, Apple Inc. famous for transforming the computer, music, and mobile industries, held its annual music event where Steve Jobs unveils the newest iPod line-up for the holiday season. I finally got a chance to watch the entire hour and a half keynote, and this year’s really outdid the last one. In addition to unveiling the new iPod line, which includes the FaceTime (video chat) capable iPod Touch, the new multi-touch nano, and a new iPod shuffle, Jobs introduced two new social networking tools.
The new GameCenter app
First he introduced GameCenter, a new feature for the iOS platform (the OS running on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad). Since the iPod touch has become a major portable gaming machine rivaling those of Nintendo and Sony (Playstation), GameCenter will make iOS devices game friendly. Similar to the already popular Xbox Live, GameCenter will allow users to play multiplayer games with friends or complete strangers over WiFi or their 3G connections. Like Xbox Live, GameCenter will match up people with compatible strangers as far away as China, giving gamers a friend to play with when waiting for the bus, or in the doctor’s office. Looking at this as a consumer, I really believe this will become successful very quickly. GameCenter is just another way like minded people from various places and backgrounds can interact. From a competitive edge, Apple also used this new technology to attract more revenue for their immensely successful App Store. GameCenter will allow players to see which games their friends are playing, or suggest other games it thinks they might like, so they can buy these as well. While GameCenter alone is a major change to social networking, that was not all Apple had in store for the social networking universe.
Ping, part of the new iTunes 10
Introducing ‘Ping‘. Like Facebook, Twitter, Buzz and countless other vying social networking apps, Ping is just another place to constantly update your status, monitor your friends, and comment on their posts. There’s just one difference. It’s actually called iTunes Ping, and its ‘a social network for music’. This might explain why Lady Gaga met with Steve Jobs last month. Basically, it allows Artists to create a page on iTunes where they can post messages, pictures, lyrics, and concert dates to countless following fans. Sound simple? It gets more complicated. Users also have the option to follow friends (as well as artists) and be followed by their friends. This way, instead of checking the top 10 charts iTunes provides, you can actually find out which songs your friends are downloading, listening to, or talking about. It even lets you find out which concerts they are attending, so you can go too. Of course, Apple also has a selfish interest in Ping too, they obviously did not spend all this time and money to connect the world with music. Users can recommend songs to their friends, so they can buy them on iTunes (so Apple can make a 60% profit on each song sold).
Google Buzz
Looking at Ping, it just seems like another Buzz (Google’s social networking incentive) and not the next Twitter. The only difference is that celebrities are already using it to advertise for themselves. The other advantage, is that Apple hopes to take advantage of the already 160 million iTunes users, and make them Ping users in just one click. Well, that’s what Google thought when they made Buzz “built right into Gmail, so you don’t have to peck out an entirely new set of friends from scratch“, and assumed everyone going to their inbox to check their mail would immediately start ‘Buzz’ing with their email contacts. But that’s another story, and I could probably write a whole other blog post about why Buzz was a failure, even if Google still refuses to recognize that. What really sets Ping apart though is that it’s targeting a unique community of music enthusiasts, while Facebook, Twitter, and Buzz are designed for the general population. If it does catch on, it will be for the same reasons GameCenter will become a success. It will unite people with common interests. I do not anticipate Ping to become a place where people check regularly like their emails and Facebook accounts. In general, of the 160 million users of iTunes, many probably only use it (like I do) to update their iPods and occasionally download new songs. However, I do anticipate that if it is successful in targeting a specific niche in the market, it can eventually become a significant part of the music community.
Welcome to my new WordPress.com blog. I’m starting this blog as a part of my Comm 10 class with Professor Pernisco. (You can visit his blog here: UnderstandMedia Social Network). I will write at least one post per week about my ‘media consumption’. I’ve always wanted to start a blog, but never had the patience, so maybe this will get me started.
Anyway, a bit about me. I just graduated high school in June and I’m really excited to start college this year. I’ll be starting my freshman year at USC in January, studying Business in the Marshall School. Currently I’m taking a few classes at SMC this fall, and Comm 10 is one of them. I really like technology, learning about new gadgets and online services, so I’ll probably have a number of posts about new forms of media and technology I encounter.
I also have to mention that this class is seriously the coolest classrooms I’ve been in, and apparently I’m one of the first students to get to use it. Not only does it have two SMART Boards where we can watch video clips, read online documents, and of course write on with a marker, that saves directly to the computer, but the room also comes equipped with eight Apple iPads! Since the class is capped at 32 students, that means there’s one iPad for every 4 students. The room also has number of other interesting features. There’s a mini white board which slides onto each table, turning a desk of 4 people into a white board surface to collaborate on group projects with. Theres also a camera projection at the front of the room which will project anything the teacher places under the camera onto two additional screens on both sides of the room. (I think the class even comes with an assistant). My only complaint is that in this futuristic style classroom, half of the desks are facing away from the teacher, but with screens covering the walls, maybe we won’t actually need to see the professor if we can hear him. You never know, maybe in the future, professors may be able to teach and control their classrooms from home. Anyway, not all classrooms at SMC are this cool. My Psych class the period after is in a 20 year old temporary trailer on the other side of campus. Either way though, I’m still learning a lot in both classes.
Update 9/10/10:
Apparently on Thursday, a news crew came in to video tape the class (I’m assuming due to the new classroom). I wasn’t there because of Rosh HaShana, but I’d really like to see the news report.
