Thursday, May 21st
by Dustin
It has been a while since Apple’s iTunes and music store launched in early 2001, revolutionizing the music industry. iTunes makes it easy to organize and sync you’re music library and make it portable. Up until a couple months ago, all the audio files were sold as protected files for 99 cents, making it impossible to put iTunes store bought music on anything except for an iPod. In a way, Apple was forcing iTunes users to use iPods in order to listen to their music on the go. Now however, the 7-year tradition has changed. Apple has recently removed the DRM protected file format enabling people to share and copy music to their phones as mp3 files. People in the music industry have anticipated this change for several years with endless possibilities for sharing their music with others. This change however does not come with out a price. Along with the removal of DRM protected format, iTunes has begun offering music at two different prices, $.99 and $1.29 for certain tracks.
The price hike can be looked at in both a good and bad light. Apple reports the reason for the change is because every song is available in the highest quality moving from 128 kbs to 256 kbs. This is great but could the average person listening to their iPod with ear bud headphones really be able to tell the difference between the two qualities? In my opinion, there should be an option to upgrade to the higher quality if one chooses to do so instead of being forced to pay the extra $.30. This however does not fully explain why some songs are more expensive than others. The real reason for the price hike is because the DRM protection has been removed, People are more willing to by songs from iTunes since they can easily organize songs and use mp3 players other than iPods. Apple simply sees it as a way to make more money off popular songs that people are willing to spend more money on especially if the quality of the song is better.
This could prove to be disastrous to iTunes however people could also see a rebound in the CD industry. Now that people are forced to pay more per song for the convenience of staying home, CD prices have been lowered to try and draw people in. Now that the music store prices have gone up, music fans might prefer going to their local CD store to save a few bucks. Because several of the iTunes music store’s customers are teens and college students who often times don’t have much expendable money, there will probably be some negative effects due to the entire price hike. During an economic downturn like the one that is present today, do people really have the money to buy songs? Even though $1.29 is not considered a lot, when you have thousands of songs on your iPod, it adds up.
Photo of CD by Rebopper
Photo of iPhone by Powerbooktrance
Photo of iTunes gift card by Heck Meck
Friday, May 15th
by andrew.pogorzelski
Millions of people poured into theaters worldwide to witness one of the year’s best motion pictures, Slumdog Millionaire. Grossing over three-hundred million dollars worldwide and taking home a wheelbarrow of awards, the film is critically acclaimed for its unique delivery and authenticity to the struggle to survive in the Indian slums. Despite the vast amount of awards and accolades the film has received, controversies surrounding the child actors have started to surface. Actress Rubina Ali’s father allegedly put the “Oscar child” up for sale for more than $300,000 according to Entertainment Weekly. The father put Rubina up for adoption in order to, “…consider what’s best for me, my family and Rubina’s future.” Thousands of outraged movie goers and celebrities have clocked in their opinions, saying Ali’s father, Rafiq Quereshi “selling” his daughter is a “soulless” and greedy act.
Rafiq Quereshi is not to blame for this issue. The real issue is not the fact he is putting his daughter up for adoption for cash, it’s the fact that he is forced to. Slumdog has made hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide at the box office and with the recent release on DVD, the movie will continue to generate millions more. Quereshi claims that he needs the money to support his family and do what is best for his daughter, stating, “”Why will we sell her? She is going to earn so much more? Does anyone sell a cow that can still be milked?”
From our self-proclaimed politically “correct” point of view, we see Rubina is treated as a material object and it is an utter outrage. How can a man sell his own daughter? We do not understand that this happens every day in India, families give up their kids or sell them to orphanages or to adoptive parents to survive each day. Rubina’s father is giving his family an opportunity to escape the slums that make the American ghettos look like the Ritz, as well as giving his daughter a chance for a better life. Director Danny Boyle claims that he has paid for the children’s education and has installed trust funds for them which they may obtain when they turn eighteen. Besides the fact that these kids got royally screwed out of being paid up front, the money that is invested in their future may be for naught. In these living conditions, life is not secure, money is needed instantly in order to improve their lives and to simply make it through the day, which we take for granted every day.
The real injustice is the fact that a movie grossing $326 million dollars cannot afford to look after the rights of their own actors. The theme of the whole damn movie is money and survival in the slums, and the millions of dollars that 
this movie grossed cannot even trickle down to the actors who made the movie what it is. Hollywood and American consumers have reaped the benefits of demolishing the Third World for commercial consumption and now we are taking advantage of human rights to make movies to win a crappy award made of cheap metal spray painted gold. You can argue that the children physically made money, but it’s simply not enough. Infotainment sources had a field day when they saw “child star put up for sale”, they blew the story out of proportion to make the father look like a scumbag for putting his daughter up for adoption. As a parent, that is the most realistic decision one can make. But we overlook this, we see him as a monster and a fiend when in reality, the Hollywood producers and directors are the ones to blame. We also failed to recognize that this phenomenon happens on a daily basis, we just pay attention when it’s someone we know, all thanks to the wonderful work of infotainment news outlets which fail to report on real news. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen this people, Angelina Jolie makes her rounds every month in these impoverished nations to make herself look like a humanitarian. And where do you think she got the child from? I hope the “For Sale” sign wasn’t a dead giveaway.
Photo Credit: richliu(???)
Photo Credit: Mirka23
Friday, May 15th
by SeanC-S
I can remember a couple years ago when MySpace was the new thing to have because it was the start of social networking on the Internet. I thought it was so awesome you could have your own personal page where you can have music and a place where your friends can write comments to you. Everyone would try to compete to see who could get more friends. It was great! But then as people became more familiar with this new technology people began using it to deceive.
Problems began developing and there were many incidents, such as issues with sex offenders using MySpace to mislead people using fake pictures and fake identities. I believe this turned away many people by but because it was the only real popular social network no one had a choice of switching to a different one. As a couple of years went by Facebook came into play. Facebook was a new social network that people could use that was just as fun as MySpace, but much easier to use and safer. As Facebook was growing people began to like the fact that Facebook was very organized and more adult savvy than MySpace. It has a much more sophisticated atmosphere with its dull yet prearranged look. People began to lose interest in MySpace and joined Facebook. One of the big differences Facebook offers that MySpace does not is its live chat you can have with your friends. This was a big step because it combined instant messaging with a social network website. Facebook also has live status updates, which MySpace does not have. As all of these new things were developing, MySpace began to become threatened by Facebook and tried to compete with them by copying them in many ways including a program called Applications.
MySpace will most likely keep declining in their popularity if there is a constant continuance of new social networks being created. Of these new networks one of them is a website called Twitter. Unlike Facebook and MSspace, Twitter is more about just updating your personal status and spreading new ideas to other people. Celebrity Ashton Kutcher recently started a competition with other celebrities to see who could reach one million friends first. This act is just another distraction to lure people away from MySpace. These social networks like any other business are constantly competing with each other. MySpace is not the only one out there anymore and it is now very easy for someone to create something new and better. MySpace put themselves in a hole without knowing it because they did not make a good enough effort to make their website safe for all. MySpace is declining because of the danger behind it, its unoriginality, and the number of growing and more popular social networks.
Photo Credit: captain simon’s mandolin
Tuesday, May 12th
by Dustin
The weather is getting warmer and that means the world of motor sports is hitting the ground running. Auto racing is one of the few competitive sports that the entire world can relate to because cars are so important to society. Because the sport is so popular on an international level, there is a lot of influence from places all over the world. In Formula 1, teams mainly from Europe and Asia, and drivers from several different countries try to compete for not only the championship, but their egos as well. As expected, several discrepancies arise every season but non as controversial as the diffuser controversy of the 2009 Formula 1 Championship.
Radical new regulations have forced teams to make several drastic changes regarding bodywork and car dimensions, which inevitably affect the amount of down force and air force on the car. However one of the regions of the 
car that has been left up to some interpretation has been the rear section of bodywork facing the ground. This area is by far the most crucial part of any race car because it is closest to where power is applied to the ground through the rear wheels. The piece of the car that increases pressure at speed on the back wheels is called the diffuser. The diffuser creates a low-pressure zone underneath the rear part of the car, turning the car into a moving suction cup in some aspects.
The rules and regulations of the Fédération Internationale de L’Automobile (the governing body of international motor sports around the world) that restrict the cars for the 2009 F1 season clearly state dimensions for this region of the car and adds that, “Any specific part of the car influencing its aerodynamic performance must comply with the rules relating to bodywork.” The actual discrepancy is how the rule is interpreted. Many teams interpreted this rule as designing a diffuser that has three channels of equal length with no extra windows to feed the effective parts of the diffuser with air. However three major teams, Brawn GP, Toyota, and Williams, interpreted the rules as designing a diffuser in any way that was acceptable as long as it was inside the rules
of bodywork. The other teams participating in the Formula 1 Championship are arguing that the three teams using the effective diffuser did so against the spirit of the rule itself, and that the rule should force teams to use similar diffusers to increase competition all the way down the grid.
With cars fitted with normal diffusers being well off the pace of the three teams with high volume diffusers, the other teams have a good reason to try and argue this point. This topic is accompanied with more urgency then previous protests because of a new rule change that prevents teams from testing once the season has started, making it very difficult for teams to compensate for the unconventional diffusers if the design is not deemed illegal by the FIA on April 14, 2009. If the FIA does deem the diffusers to be illegal, the teams will be forced to design new diffusers and the order of performance already established by the first two races of the 2009 season will be drastically changed. On the other hand however, if the diffusers stay the same, the other teams will have to pull some aerodynamic tricks out of their sleeves without thorough testing capabilities.
Photo of Brawn GP car by Camilo S.B.
Photo of F1 grid by Pattagon
Photo of back of F1 Car by Camilo S.B.
Monday, May 11th
by WhiteD09
Everyone says that their city is the best sports city in the world, but now I’m going to prove who actually is according to how many championships each team has. It will be between the major professional sports, the leagues include NBA, MLB, NHL, NFL, and MLS.
1. New York
New York is obviously going to have many championships because it’s a big city so in some sports they have two teams. New York has a total of fifty-two championships in the history of each league. In the NBA the New York Knicks have won two championships. The New York Rangers and the New York Islanders of the NHL each have won Lord Stanley’s Cup four times. In the NFL the New York Jets have won the Super Bowl only once, but the New York Giants have won the championship seven times. In MLS, the New York Red Bull has never won a championship. Finally, what New York is known for, the New York Yankees have won the World Series an astonishing twenty-six times. Also, the New York Mets have won it twice, and the former New York Giants have five championships. New York has the most championships but in my opinion they had an unfair advantage by using more than one team in some leagues.
2. Boston
Boston is known for their sports, and in each of the sports there is only one team, unlike New York. Boston has a total of thirty-three championships. The most is the Boston Celtics in the NBA with seventeen championships, and at one point an impressive eight in a row. The Boston Red Sox had a span of not winning a championship in 86 years, but now have a total of seven championships. Also, the Boston Braves had one championship while in Boston. In the NHL, the Boston Bruins have five championships, hoping to add on to that number in the 2009 year. The New England Patriots were known as a dynasty from 2002-2005 winning three Super Bowls. In the MLS the New England Revolution have yet to win a championship. Boston is the city I root for, and this shows that they are one of the best cities to be a sports fan.
3. Chicago
Whenever someone says Chicago and championships, I think of Michael Jordan. The Chicago Bulls, somewhat like the Boston Celtics, had a run of three NBA championships in a row twice to make it a total of six. Like New York, Chicago has two MLB teams, the Cubs with two World Series titles and the White Sox with three. In the NHL, the Chicago Blackhawks are one of the original six teams, but they have only won the Stanley Cup three times. In the NFL the Chicago Bears or most people known them as “Da Bears” have nine championships. Chicago is the first city to have a MLS Cup champion on this list, Chicago Fire has one MLS Cup win. Chicago has a total of twenty-four championships but it is all spread out in each sport unlike Boston with the Celtics, and New York with the Yankees.
4. Detroit
Detroit has a total of twenty-two championships, close to Chicago but not quite. The most is the Detroit Red Wings of the NHL with eleven, the 3rd most in the NHL. The Detroit Pistons of the NBA have won three championships. The Detroit Tigers of the MLB have four World Series Titles. The Detroit Lions have four NFL championships, but no Super Bowls. There is no team from Detroit in the MLS. Detroit is known as Hockey Town and by the championships it makes it obvious.
5. Los Angeles
Los Angeles comes in at number five with twenty championships, like Chicago it is more spread out throughout the sports, but also like New York they have more than one team for some sports. The LA Lakers have won the NBA championship nine times and the other team the LA Clippers have won zero. The LA Dodgers have six titles and the LA Angels have only one of the MLB. In the NFL the former LA Raiders and the LA Rams each have one championship. The LA Galaxy has two championships in the MLS, and the only team in LA that has yet to win a championship is the LA Kings. But Los Angeles is really known for the Lakers and their highly known players.
Now I think that Boston is the best sports city because they have one team for each sport, they have plenty of history with each of their teams, they have 33 championships, and they have the greatest fans in the world. Now technically New York has the most championships but they use more than one team. If Boston used more than one team then they would have plenty more championship wins than New York. Then Chicago, Detroit, and L.A. are just your average championship cities to me. So if you want to be a fan of a championship city, move to one of these five.
Photo Credit:michaelrighi
Photo Credit:CBW 80
Friday, May 8th
by AGermain
At some point in our lives we have all had to listen to someone talk about how we are destroying the Earth, due to the fact that we don’t think about the harmful chemicals we produce using different products. Now I don’t know about you, but my ways have not changed even after those long talks. To be honest, I actually only listen to half of the speech, usually because I get bored and dose off. Once I began researching for this article, I realized that I can make a difference and help the environment. I can make a difference not only by changing my ways, but also by trying to change yours. I researched the greenest phone and car and this is what I discovered…
Most Energy Efficient Cell Phone
Although it is not on the market yet, the most energy efficient phone around is the Samsung Blue Earth. It partially runs off of solar power. Although it doesn’t completely run off the sun, by charging the phone with the solar panels, you are capable of making one phone call at a time. Not only is it energy efficient, but also is made from a material called PCM, a recycled plastic from water bottles.
Another feature of the phone is that it contains an “eco” mode, which adjusts screen brightness, back light duration, and Bluetooth usage. Now there is one more feature that doesn’t really help the environment, but it shows how much carbon dioxide emission you save by walking rather than driving. Lastly, it comes in recycled packaging with an energy efficient charger.
Personally, I would use this phone. It’s not like the other energy efficient phones that are unattractive to be quite honest with you. It’s a phone where if you didn’t notice the solar panels at first, you would think it was just as ordinary as anything else.
Greenest Car Ever Unveiled
The most energy efficient car that is known right now is the Aptera. It looks like no other car around today, but something from the future. At first, the car promised at least a 200-MPG driving range but now the company has stepped up it’s game, and now is going for a 300-MPG range in typical driving conditions. Not only do they just have this version, but they are also coming out with a new car that is an all-electric version in addition to the plug-in hybrid model. The new model promises to last around 120 miles before needing to be recharged.
Both vehicles include some luxury features such as both, driver and passenger side airbags, interior and exterior LED lighting and a “solar assisted” climate control system. They also have “advanced drive computer” that includes GPS, a rear-view camera, and a complete vehicle diagnostic system. For a car like this you think it would be extremely expensive, however it only runs around $20,000 for the regular one, and the hybrid model runs for a little more money. You are currently able to reserve one of the vehicles for about $500, and they are coming out in about 12 months or so.
In my opinion, this car doesn’t look safe at all. It looks like if something hits you have a high risk of getting hurt. Also, since there are three wheels on the vehicle it may be a lot different to drive than the traditional four wheels, but I don’t know. If it is different it may take people some time to adjust from their old four wheel ways to the new three wheel concept. It could be an issue for some to get used to it. I personally would not by this car, but it may appeal to some.
Photo Credit: nickwheeleroz
