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.