A virtual weather man can be in your pocket with you from east to west with a little help of new age technology and innovation.
I decided to use my personal weekend experience this week. Fittingly, my nieces were baptised this weekend down in Westminster, MD. My family and I went down for the celebration leaving around 7 a.m. Friday morning. It was gloomy, cold, and somewhat rainy.
About halfway through the trip my boyfriend said, “Hey, there is a fog warning for this part of Pennsylvania.” I asked him how he knew this since we left Albany with no extended forecast knowledge.
His T-Mobile G1 cell phone has an application, WeatherBug in which he recently downloaded, that tracks your location using a GPS system and reports the weather forecast for the area you are in.
The home page of the WeatherBug application offers general information while you can use the tabs to specifiy and filter the forecast you want.
Specifies by using a color scale exact to your location.
Using different layers can help specify the weather conditions in your exact location.
The application zooms in similar to what Google Earth does. You can even see houses from satellite images. If there were certain weather conditions, you can physically find your home and obtain exact up-to-date radar for your specific house. The map that is displayed is color coded by using a “layering” option where you can see either specific temperature, radar, or satellite.
I am the kind of person that needs to see in order to believe things. And sure enough about ten more minutes and we were draped in the heaviest fog I have ever seen. It was as if the entire car was blanketed with a thick, heavy, white sheet and just like that had become invisible. Traveling without sight is one of the scariest ventures to take, espeically at 70-75 mph.
Needless to say, we arrived safely. We were delayed about a half an hour by the fog but made it down in due time.
Day two of the trip also had a weather update from the application, WeatherBug. In Carroll County, the surroudning areas and states had a vulnerability to a tornado. Only a watch, it still was adamint in our minds to a tornado in possible vicinity. We could have easily turned on the television but instead, the application did the work for us.
This was a great carry on to our trip and should be a handy device to be used in a lot of casual traveling. In a wireless lifestyle and the constant, almost inhumane addiciton to be connected- little additions such as the WeatherBug make it difficult to see how we ever lived without such ornaments. The levels of convience are rising as well as the integration of technology in most avenues of every day life.
Loosing one election before, McCain frets over his stance on the ‘08 polls.
Obama making a speech as the possible first U.S. African American President
Someone was pretty nifty with photoshop
Frustrated?
Don’t you worry, there is still time. Many voters haven’t decided or at least not until they go and vote Tuesday, November 4th. The presidential nominees have found that their campaign trail, is overall a passionate group of devoted people who are determined to see their candidate win this race. With newspapers filled for what seems like forever with a campaign trail, those involved have always been portrayed as die hard fans. Obama and McCain have turned into celebrities with a following and a sense of cult like affect on people. I picked up following the ‘08 election.. say in February. And since I’ve been somewhat addicted to finding out the news about each one. I’ve had my mind made up for a while so it wasn’t about persuasion for me, it was about just knowing what each candidate has to offer. Each TV debate was intense with a back and forth of policies, plans and just a general ‘VOTE FOR ME’ attitude. Homeowners began their usual trend of displaying their fave by sticking those signs in their yard. The election is everywhere.
I was looking through the New York Times and found an interesting article.
These people actually sit around and call tons of people to vote for either Obama or McCain. While it is a plan of attack, to call homes of men and women and convince them, to me it seems annoying. If my phone rang and someone on the other end was saying to vote for either one, I would hang up. I don’t find this effective whatsoever. I do give those die hard supporters credit. They do work hard to get their point across. Although, it’s like someone saying to go to their religion or to buy something you don’t want or need. Telescamming, is what I call it. It’s fine that you support democrats or republicans, but to me it is not effective to sit around and preach your belief on undecided voters. The undecided group probably has sat around and done their own research, their own process of elimination and curved their own decision on what why they are voting Nov. 4.
Weather you are voting for John McCain or Barack Obama (or not voting at all)… politics is in the eye of the beholder. This election will go down in history no matter who wins. It has been the most hyped, the most anticipated and the most involved election I’ve ever seen. Granted, I only remember Bush getting elected when I was in the eighth grade, but my involvement in that election was having a ‘mock’ election. I voted for Al Gore because I liked his hair and I disliked the name George.
Not much has changed in the election game, but I do hope that my decision is a bit more structured than appearance.
Those veterans on their porches, as mentioned in he NYT article are devoted, they have a vision for themselves and the country. Their efforts will be known this Tuesday.
We all know that most news Web sites have multimedia. Photo galleries seem essentially basic- a keynote to where they should be in terms of online journalism. So making the world of photos larger and creating more of a demand of images, news Web sites really need to define their style of how to display it to their online viewers.
Aside from the usual, The New York Times or Washington Post- two of my regular news sources, I like to look at photos from smaller papers because they seem to have more of an artistic take on it. And sometimes, that’s a bit more enlightening than the news take on things.
I enjoy this site because it strives for capturing what is different and what catches the eye. A lot of the galleries are extensive and pictures that you do not necessarily see in everyday picture viewing. It’s outlandish and hysterical to see some of the pictures they have displayed. What is also neat about this site and their photo galleries is that the sidebar is on the left hand side. It’s easy, highly accessible and mixes well with the regular news beats.
I am an avid reader of Slate and to my surprise when viewing this site specifically for purposes of this blog, I found that 1. Slate redesigned their site within the last 48 hours of me last logging in. To my surprise, I found it less annoying to navigate to specific beats and headlines- and more blog appropriate, easier to view picture galleries. 2. That this site does things a bit differently. They outline the “pictures of the day” that link you back to history. Someone Almanic-ish, the site aligns history with the present- a good tactic in journalism (I think). And it’s a dimension of visuals that many would overlook because most people just want to see what is happening that day, whereas this style prompts you to actually see change in the way people live. What I find to be the best feature of this gallery is that it not only includes photos but also, video. And for me being the lazy Internet user that I am, I find myself feeling picky when it comes to viewing video. Although, using this site it is much more at the ready, if you will, to catch up with the speed viewers out there.
As for my geeky side, I head to Wired a handful amount of times a day. In terms of photo galleries, I find that they tend to lean more towards a USC interface. That’s one of the reasons I enjoy this site for its photos because of the submissions they post. This feature of the site is found on the home page under ‘Photography’ whereas their actual galleries are found under sections > multimedia. This is somewhat of a downfall in terms of quick linking but I suppose that is in the opinion of the viewer. What is nice about their galleries is that they also display video and podcasts on the same page. Along with having their geek appeal, Wired finds graphics that viewers wouldn’t see as attractive in terms of photographic subjects. Therefore it provides a stability into linking the viewer in with their text medium. (I am hoping that is what all news Web sites do), but it is more difficult for sites like Wired to display their stories in photo form and I give the guys over there a big high five to a job well done.
I turned the TV on today, sat down, and decided to watch the New York Jets host the Arizona Cardinals. After last weeks poor performance I was definitely interested to see if Brett Favre had anything left in the tank or if the gas had finally run out.
The game started off fairly uneventful and looked like it was going to be a sleep fest. No scoring at all in the first quarter. The only excitement was when Brett Favre tossed an interception. He looked like you would expect a 38-year-old quarterback to look.
He was slow, making bad reads, and seemed unmotivated.
I decided to give it a little more time and got into the second quarter.
Favre throwing a pass in the third quarter
Sixteen seconds into the second quarter was a turning point in the game. Favre lit up. He looked like he was playing in 1998 all over again. He threw three touchdown passes to Laveranues Coles, his number one wide receiver.
It was amazing, here he is, 38 years old tossing the ball downfield without a care in the world. Running up and down the field making the game look easy.
At the end of the second quarter the score was 34-0, and the Jets looked like they already had this win in the books. Yet, the Cardinals rallied back and made it look like there might be some competition left in this game after all.
Favre wasn’t having it. He took the team on his back. It was the beginning of the fourth quarter at this point and the score was 41-21, New York. Favre threw a 17-yard nail in the coffin, to his number two wide out, Jericho Cotchery.
At this point, the game was clearly out of reach but Favre didn’t stop there. He went on to throw two more touchdown passes. That made his total for the game six. A career high. Six. Almost 40-years-old and continues playing on a team with a slightly above average receiving corps.
He is still putting up the numbers of an elite quarterback.
The apparently never slowing down, Brett Favre, leads his team to another win.
The final score of this one was 56-35, New York. With play like this from wonder boy, Brett Favre, I think we can expect to see the New York Jets sticking around come playoff time.
I literally laughed out loud when I read this headline: “Two arrested in flour thefts.” The TU reported that two men stole thousands of dollars worth of flour from Horizon Milling in the Port of Albany. This isn’t a drug deal or conspiracy, it’s baking products. I work at a bakery and the cost of flour (also sited in the article) has been rising, therefore the cost of products made with flour have been sky rocketing. Customers are not happy. And when you share with them the flour costs reasons to the price inflation, they stare at you and still wonder why their bear claw has gone up 15 cents. It’s kind of a blank stare, especially from the older customers, those who experienced the Great Depression- and they just mutter, “Oh, no, not again…” I feel bad conjoining up ill memories of struggle and economic grief. This recessive behavior has made me feel like I can now relate (to a mild extent) to what happened and see how history really can repeat itself. I can understand their frustration, but little did they know there is a flour black market out there working to lower the prices and to eliminate the baking bureaucracy.
The men helped each other steal 150 bags worth of flour accumulating costs up to two thousand dollars. The inflation of costs has to do with problems with crops and shipping costs, as we all know the great dent in our wallets with gas prices- this is just one effect of that. The broader picture of oil negotiations is effecting people so much that they are making flour the hot item of the week, a common ingredient in many, many, things. Is this what society has belittled itself to? I mean, it’s a small example of public outrage but I think it really shows that even in Albany, there can be governmental rebellion in ways that many wouldn’t ever expect.
I did some more research on ’stealing flour’ with help from Google. And long behold
, I found tons of other news stories about this. Little boys stealing flour for their families. It’s a phenomenon of local outcries for help and if it’s started with simple commodities such as flour, I hate to see w
This man was killed in Pakistan for trying to break parts of the machines that process flour.
Seriously? I read an article in The New York Times about various World News articles. Georgia came up a lot. So did the dismissal of the South African leader, Venezuela rebels, car bombs, and Chinese mud slides (not the good kind), and the most horrific set of news that I found to impact the most amount of people was the story about melamine being found in baby food. PANIC?! The FDA has stopped all import of Chinese baby food, but nonetheless has advised to not buy food that orginated from China to do with ‘an obscure amount that may have leaked through.’
So what the heck is this ‘Melamine?’ Well, apparently according to our dear friends at Wikipedia, it is an organic based chemical, a plastic material, that is only soluble in water. Most baby foods, I’m only going to assume are based off of milk, not water. Therefore, you see the obvious problem.
This has not been the first time in news that Melamine has popped up. Remember a year or so ago with the scare of pet food? Super markets had to recall tons of food from companies like Iams and strongly advise not to feed your dog or cat packaged foods. I know, my mom freaked out and told me to only feed my cat food that I make for it, like rice and chicken just to be safe. The Melamine scare went away after a few months and with great relief- my cat was eager to know that I wouldn’t be her chef anymore and she could return to eating great, super charged protein induced foods. China has made it so that the use of protein in foods, toys and other imported goods would be prevalent but at the same time they found a way to cut the costs of it- by using a chemically harmful protein.
Directly copied/pasted from Wikipedia: “Melamine is a metabolite, a cryomazine, a pesticide.”
Why is this happening? Why does seem like issues as important as food safety has gotten under the supposed strict radar? Yes, the FDA did stop American imports but the article said that a baby died from ingestion and 50 other babies have developed kidney problems. And the investigation just began.
It’s pretty sickening. It’s pretty sickening to know that society would risk lives of both animals and humans all to save a sleazy buck.
Let’s be honest, Entertainment News isn’t where journalism really happens (at least to me). As I skimmed through a dozen or so articles about this celebrity or that celebrity, pregnant, fat, drunk, or drugged- I felt only the opposite of being ‘entertained.’ I feel like a stalker, watching people live their lives in the spotlight. I know if I were famous, ‘Entertainment Journalists’ wouldn’t be my BFF.
E! seems like the most legit sites out there for celebrity gossip and outlandish stories. I do enjoy Angelina. She’s a good actress, she has her own style, and is independent. She’s not typical, I think that’s why I like her. Her marriage, unlike a lot of others- seems stable- seems somewhat together. She adopts. She has her own lifestyle. Media has deemed her and husband, Brad Pitt as Bradgelina. I don’t find couple names in the celebrity world, such as this or the Bennifer ideal appealing in learning about our great starts of the digital generation, but I suppose those ‘journalists’ find it catchy.
I do like how the media finds Angelina’s rugged, badass side, how she goes against the grain and establishes herself as a celeberatarian. I just made that up. Celebrity. Humanitarian. You get it.
That is all I have on Entertainment.
Let’s hope that went somewhere. Hey, it’s a blog- does it really HAVE to go anywhere?
