Assignment #13 - Online Identity Theft...It Can Happen To You

For the last blog I thought that I would write about something that victimizes about 15 million Americans a year, identity theft. It is effecting us now more than ever because we are using the Internet for more and more things. I know for me personally I use the Internet for online banking, shopping, definitely school, and car insurance and for me that means my personal information is floating around out there, hopefully being protected, but not always 100% secure.

There are two types of identity theft. "Account takeover" occurs when a thief acquires your existing credit account information and purchases products and services using either the actual credit card of simply the account number and expiration date. "Application fraud" is what some experts call "true name fraud." The thief uses your SSN and other identifying information to open a new account in your name. Victims are not likely to learn of application fraud for some time, because the monthly account statements are mailed to an address used by the imposer.

Even though victims are usually not left to pay their imposers' bills, they are however left with a bad credit report and must spend months and even years regaining their financial health. In the mean time they have difficulty getting credit, obtaining loans, renting apartments, and even getting hired.

I guess that the bottom line it that it can happen to anyone and the impact of it can be felt for a long time after you think you have cleared up the matter. The best position to take is not get yourself in that situation, although sometimes it is out of your control. Little things like not giving out your social security number over the phone, memorizing your PIN numbers and not having them written down, shield you have when making a withdrawl at an ATM, look for people watching and if someone seems suspicions go somewhere else. Small steps can be taken to protect yourself that can have a huge impact on your credit score and number of headaches.

Assignment #12 - Television News or the Newspaper...Both Boring.

I don't know why but I have always been more likely to watch channel 2 news, I like knowing what the weather or how the traffic is so I watch it in the morning when I'm getting ready. Compared to the other local news channels, channel 2 just seems more up to date and fun, just looking at the broadcasts of 4 and 7 they just look old fashioned and aren't broadcasted in high def. As far as newspapers go, I don't really read them at all. I would rather be doing something else and pretty much have a new anchor read the paper to me, isn't that all the television news is doing? If I do crack a newspaper it's to check the movie times or on a rare occasion even do the crossword, but not to see what the stories are about.

So this post was a little boring for me because I had to compare to boring things together, but I managed to get through it and this it what I found. I decided to go with the most accessible paper for me (because it's free) the USA Today, and compare it's content with channel 2's news at 6.

In the paper there is only so much room and so much that can be said about a specific topic, but in a way it is also like that for the news. They have a 1 hour broadcast to get in the most important topics locally and around the world. Some of the top stories on the new were a local Security breach where a laptop containing 16,000 Buff State students, staff, and alumni's social security number and other personal information, and another top story was the Pope visiting New York City. It seems that the local news does just that, really focuses on what is important, need to know information locally. They only do a quick recap of the top 5 stories in the nation right now.

In the USA Today has a large on the polygamous sect that was raided in Texas and lots on the race for the presidency, and of course the rising fuel prices. There was little mention of sports or weather, because they can not really focus in on all of the cities in a short amount of time, so they usually cut away to the local new for 30 seconds to recap local weather.

So if what you are looking for is things like the latest sabres trade or what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, you probably would want to look towards localized newspapers or you local news channels. For what is going on around the world or the freak earthquake in the north east look in papers like USA Today or news stations like Nightly News and World News Tonight that looks at a broader spectrum of what is happening.

Assignment #11 - Our Nations Biggest Problems..The Hard Part Is Picking Just 3

Everyone has problems, but when you happen to be a nation, those problems always seem to be a littler bit bigger. Without problems there would be no need for changes and growth and innovation, I guess problems can be a good thing to learn from, but in the end a problem is still a problem. For me personally I think that the three biggest problems that America is facing today are rising gas prices, no national health care and a lack of literacy in the nations youth.

First off the price of gas, and everything else in on a huge upswing that is not looking to stop anytime in the near future. According to msnbc.com just this past Friday oil prices rose to above $110 a barrel. Prices at the pump are expected to reach over $4 a gallon during this summers driving season. For me this is just mind blowing, why aren't we pushing harder for alternate fuel sources more, with global warming becoming a huge concern for may people why doesn't the government develop a fuel source that could be a renewable energy source and make us less dependent on other countries. This issue is splashed all over the news every night any yet nothing is done about it. With Exxon Mobile's quarterly revenue at nearly $100 billion in sales it is pretty clear to me that nothing is being done about it because some powerful people are making themselves a whole lot of money.

Another issue that America is facing today is the nations health care. With families going bankrupt over trying to pay off medical bill they can not afford after being turned down by every health care company out there is unacceptable. In the documentary SiCKO by Michael Moore he talks about how the nations health care industry is a system that is failing the people is is supposed to be protecting and that it is only about making money. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention actually reported that 54.5 million people were uninsured for at least part of the year. 18,000 Americans will die this year simply because they're uninsured. People are even sometimes forced to go across the border into Canada to get their much needed medical attention because they have free health care in Canada.

The problem with the literacy and youth is the most disturbing of all the problems that I mentioned. Across the country readership in down, with most people pointing at media, including video games, computers and cable television. This is even happening right in our own backyard, just recently Buffalo schools did very poorly on ELA test scores. The statistics show 65% of students in third through eighth grade are unable to read at grade level. These children are supposed to be the leaders of tomorrow? That's a scary thought. Something should be done and more time and resources should be given to these children, specifically those in lower level income families who can not afford to buy books and are in school districts where the teaching may not be up to par.

I have come to the decision that these topics are important both through personal experience and through the media. Just hearing about things on the news may but be enough to make it a concern to some people, but having it happen where you live makes a difference. Things are not perfect and there are problems that we have to deal with, we had the problem of polio, but that is no longer a factor in today's society because we took care of it and learned from it. Hopefully some day that problems that we are dealing with today will also be a thing of that past that we have resolved and no longer have to think about.

Assignment #10 - E-mail or E-pain in the ass?

Today, e mail is practically the center of our world. What would we do without the instant gratification of getting an e mail the moment its sent directly to our blackberry or inbox? I remember a time, a time that children today will never know of, a time when we actually sat down and wrote a letter. As it is commonly know now a days as snail mail. The slow old fashioned way of getting in touch with an old friend. Sitting down and putting pen to paper and writing an actual letter. These days are long gone for the most part, so I though for this experiment I'd ask someone who remembered these times as well. I asked my mom, dad, and my old pen pal, my cousin Jen.

My dad pretty much only goes on the computer to play snood, but on the rare occasion he dose go on line he doesn't have many e mails because he doesn't have an reason to give out his e mail address, other then an e mail here or there from field and stream about his subscription status, he doesn't get much mail, probably a couple a week. So for the most part e mail really doesn't affect my dad's life at all in either a positive or negative way.

For my mom she likes using her e mail to keep in touch with her friends that have moved away to California and to send funny pictures and jokes to her sisters. She likes using e mail to stay close to people that are far away but she also mentioned that it is the most impersonal way of going about it. At least on the phone you can hear the persons voice, not the case in an e mail. Another downfall my mom said what that she rarely goes on to check her mail so when she does she has hundreds to go through. There are so many that it gets overwhelming and frustrating, so she just starts deleting everything even though it may be important.

My cousin Jen lives in Connecticut so we use e mail every now and then to talk but she mostly uses her e mail for work. After just graduating from UCONN and now working for an insurance company she gets her own company e mail that her clients can reach her through. She says it is a very important tool to helping her stay on top of what her clients needs are and how to best serve them. She said she gets about 30 e mails a day although some are spam and junk mail, most of them are important in increasing her productivity.

All in all e mail is definitely a faster way to get in touch with someone but the trade of for that kind off speed is that you lose some of the closeness and the personal touch that a hand written letter or even a phone call has. However in this fast paced world we live in now a days, its not even a choice.

Assignement #9 - Video Games - Hobby or Addiction?

Personally I don't get how people can sit in front of the television for hours on end and find that entertaining. Ill admit it, I have a Wii and play it a lot, but not all day everyday. I am a gamer but not even close to what some consider a true gamer. My brother can literally sit on Xbox live all night playing Halo 3 and talking smack to little kids, and actually enjoy it. I don't get it, what happened to a game that had a start and a finish. A goal that you could actually attain to get, for Super Mario Brothers it was to save the princess from King Kupa, for Donkey Kong it was again to save the princess from...well King Kong, now a days with cames like EverQuest there is no point to playing them, the game go on and on forever. You can play it forever and never accomplish anything, no first place trophy, not even one princess saved.

So is this considered a good hobby to have of a potentially life ruining addiction? People can argue both sides, for one, the parents know where their children are when they are playing video games. They are not out on the streets running wild and causing trouble. However with childhood obesity on the rise sitting indoors all day, with no physical activity of social interaction can be a death sentence making them much more likely to be over weight as an adult, not to mention a nerd.


Even if you don't consider yourself a "gamer" something as simple as playing a game on your cell phone to help pass the time in that boring lecture that never seems to end puts you in that category. In the assigned article on a video game designer, it is shocking for quickly people shun her for what she does and blame her for ruining the minds of our youth. When in fact the opposite is true, in an article from the USA Today from 2007 entitled Wii Speeds Up The Rehab Process, it goes on the describe how the Wii can help people with everything from a car accident to Parkinson's disease. It is good for hand eye coordination. Going through the motions of the sports without the impact is greatly beneficial.

So whether video games are harmful or helpful is dependent upon who you ask, as for me, the jury is still out.

Assignment #8 - Mojitos And The Internet...A Perfect Combination

For this blog assignment I thought it would be fun to do a little something different so when Art of The Drink webisodes caught my eye, I knew right away that I wanted to learn more.

The Art of The Drink was created by writer/director/host by Anthony Caporale. Art of the Drink is a Video Podcast that plays out in a simple format, first Anthony prepares the drink of the day and then he has his co-host make the drink following his instructions. The first episode was released on May 1, 2006, and the episodes usually run anywhere from 1:46 to 11:02 but on average the episodes are 6 minutes long, and running about 24 shows a season.

In the episodes they differ from regular television shows obviously in the length of time that they run, but also in the content they talk about, and most importantly, no commercials. There is no filler or any other information then what the point of the show is, to learn how to make a perfect mixed drink. This is a very interesting and informative show to watch. Its like taking bartending school without have to pay the 300 dollar charge, and with drink names like The Blue Motorcycle, Snake Bite, World Cup and Godfather, who wouldn't want to watch this show.

Another plus of the online shows is that you can watch it whenever you please, even though today DVR's and TiVo are getting more popular the ease of watching there shows when and pretty much where ever you want to, makes it very convenient.

Art of The Drink has received numerous awards and was even commended as best of 2006 in the New York Times. The episodes are a great tool to have and are just fun to watch with some episodes containing trivia contests about previous episodes and outtakes of the cast. Art of The Drink is fun, interesting and informative webisode to watch.

Assignemt #7 - Radio...The Soundtrack Of Our Life

As we go about in our daily lives we are affected by the music and don't even know it. I know for me when I burn CD's and then go back and listen to them a while later it can take me back to that summer or back to my junior year in high school when I made it. In the past 24 hours of actually thinking about what kind of an effect music has on our lives ive come to realize it plays quite a large part.

I pretty much have a routine that I go through every day, in the morning on the way to school I usually listen to talk radio like WGR 550 or Opie and Anthony, I never really understood how people can be blasting their radio at 8:00 in the morning. After school on the way home i'll catch Shredd and Ragan if I can on 103.3 the edge, they usually give you the top stories of the day, but in a funny way that makes if fun to hear about, and the Niagara Falls Police Blotter is hilarious. I usually listen to that if im alone, but with my friends we like to hear all the latest song and sing along. Whats the point of going to a club if there isn't any good, loud music playing? While I'm with my friends I have a different taste in music then I do when I'm alone.

Music can have positive and negative effects on people mood, im sure everyone has come across someone that has the ipod to loud when there sitting next to you on the computers in Capen. It is annoying to everyone around then when we are all trying to study or write a paper. Then again a specific song can make you think of a loved one or make a part in a movie even more touching, I mean come on, what would Titanic be without My Heart Will Go On? Music can even get you pumped up for an athletic event, for my varsity soccer team in high school we had a warm up tape that we listened to before each game that motivate us and got us mentally ready for the up commig event.

Music also influence how we judge someone, wether we hear someone listening to country, 80's or rap, we can instantly get a look into that persons tastes and maybe even their way of thinking. Knowing that someone likes the same kind of music as you might influence your social influence with that person and make you want to talk to or become friends with them because you have similar tastes in music.

Music can have different effects on different people, a song that makes you happy might make another person mad or sad. Music definitely has an impact on me and my life, as I think it does or most people, it just might not be the same genre of music. It effectes up so much that we have to take it everwhere we go with portable mp3 players and even download it to our cell phones as a ringtone. Wether we know it or not, music is all around us influencing us every day in different ways.