Google to Start Charging for Video Streaming on YouTube

Google recently acquired YouTube last year for 1.65 billion dollars. Google is in talks with several TV networks to post certain televisions shows on YouTube, and than charge you to watch shows that are streaming ad-free. The user would be charged $1.99 per episode.

If Google goes through with this plan, they would be competing with iTunes who also sells t.v. shows on it's popular site. Google is worried that not many people would be interested in paying for online streaming shows.

My Opinion

I do not think Google should go through with it. Why would you pay to watch shows without ads, when you could watch them for free with ads? I would definitely sit through thirty seconds worth of ads every five minutes than spend two bucks on a television show. And there is always a way to get everything for free online these days.

Link to article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/6718283/Google-to-start-charging-for-video-streaming-on-YouTube.html

Love in the Digital Age

The idea of this article is that online social networking makes finding, and losing love easier. You can meet someone on Facebook, and by checking out their profile you instantly know if they're single, what they like to do, they're favorite foods, and if they are interested in a relationship or just "hooking up." Basically is is everything you would learn on a first date, without having the date.

It also makes breaking up easier. You can send your lover a Facebook message, e-mail, or text and tell them that things just aren't working out. That way you can avoid all the pain of an actual face to face conversation.

My Opinion

I don't like how people aren't talking to each other in person anymore. It's like having a legitimate conversation with a person is too inconceivable. I think in some circumstances it is ok, like when you are checking to see if they are single, and what they like, blah blah blah, but isn't that what dating is for? Whatever. I don't know. I'm not an expert.

Oh yeah, and those people who break up over a Facebook post or text message are just jerks.

Link: http://www.newsweek.com/id/207762/page/1

Ouch! You Just Bruised My Digital Ego!

Many people use their Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites to try and see how many "friends" they can add. But when they get rejections from people they have never met, they feel just as hurt as if a real friend had rejected them. Recent studies have shown that being rejected online can hurt as much as being rejected in real life.

Studies also show that people you talk to online feel that they can act any way they want, or be as rude as they want, because you are not talking face-to-face. Thus, a friend rejection, or a "defriending" can bruise your digital ego.

My Opinion

I think it is kinda lame that people feel so hurt when someone they don't even know rejects them online. I can understand if you are offended because they are saying rude things, but you just gotta remember that the person you are talking is probably some obese 34 year old who lives with his mom and has most likely never kissed a girl. Sticks and stones can break your bones but words can never hurt you!

Link:http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/10/30/online.rejection.defriending/index.html

Operation: Can You Hear Us Now?

American citizens all across the nation are sick of mainstream media ignoring mass protests that are against health care and anything related to outing Obama. They are especially outraged that the mainstream media did not show coverage of the 9/12 tea party march on Washington D.C.

Rush Limbaugh is encouraging Americans to bring the protests straight to the front doors of major news media outlets across the nation.

Limbaugh says, "Dare them to cover what is right under their noses!" Put the media in the spotlight and on the hot seat. Don't make them the protest. Continue to protest Obama. Protest health care. Protest the loss of liberty. Protest the coming tyranny. Just do it on their property or as close to it as you can get being law-abiding and all that. … Just show up where they can't miss it. Show up in numbers where they can't escape it. Make the challenges substantive and adult and challenge their journalistic ethics."

Americans have taken this challenge to heart and have launched a campaign called "Operation: Can You Hear Us Now?" They urge people everywhere to go to their local ABC, NBC, and CBS stations and protest for fair unbiased journalism. There are over fifty protests planned across America and the are doing all of them on October 16th and 17th.

My Opinion

I am so proud of my fellow Americans for planning this tea party. It is amazing how fast word can spread and how quickly they can organize these protests. If there was one in Utah I would definitely be there with some awesome signs. I am so glad they are doing this because the one thing I value most is the truth. And I am sick of all of these liberal left-wing news stations that glorify Obama and all that he does. They do not tell the truth they just tell the people what Obama wants them to hear. I don't know about you, but what I want is fair unbiased journalism.

Link to the article: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110672

Online Education vs. School Education

Over the past twelve years, studies have shown that students who study online are ranked higher in tested performances. Online Education is expected to expand sharply in the next few years.

Online Education has improved drastically in the last couple of years because of instant messaging, web-based video, and collaboration tools. The real benefit of online education is that it enables students to do the "learning by doing" method. And their studies are more tailored to their needs.

Many K-12 schools and universities are using programs such as Moodle or Blackboard in their classrooms. On these programs teachers can post assignments and grades for a particular class.

Source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/19/study-finds-that-online-education-beats-the-classroom/

My Opinion

I have never personally taken an online class. It seems to me that you would learn the same online as you would in school. I would forget everything equally. But what does my opinion matter anyway? I'm being forced to write on issues that don't even matter or contribute to anything important.

Gay Curriculum in California Schools

In California, 250 schools have registered to show their children a curriculum of films that encourages teens to rethink their sexuality, society, and even religion. The program is called Youth in Motion: Empowering students through LGBTQ film. They want teachers and students to educate their peers about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transexual culture and history.

There are several packages targeted toward different age groups. The Gender Matters package includes a video about "two-spirit people." Two-spirit people are Native Americans who embody the masculine and the feminine side of their bodies. They become a third gender, something more then a man or a woman.

They also ask the question, "Does religion or cultural events encourage gender choice or reinforce gender expectation?" Schools can show these films without parental consent, as long as they do not show or talk about sexual and reproductive systems. Parents may or may not be given the choice to have their kids opt out.

http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=110248

My Opinion

This absolutely disgusts me. I do not understand why school officials think that it's ok to show these things in school. This world and the media are so corrupt. Just because some people have different sexual preferences, does not mean that they have to educate us about it. And the fact that some parents can't opt out for their kids is unthinkable. Sexual things should not be talked about in schools. (Especially when they refer to Darth Vader's helmet.)

Big Brother Barack

The White House is hiring a contractor to extract information about Americans from social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Flickr, and YouTube. The NLPC (National Legal and Policy Center) has revealed that the White House New Media team wants to hire a technology vendor to collect data such as commments, posts, tags, e-mail, audio, and video from any place where the White House "maintains a presence." The information will be held up to eight years.

NLPC warns, "[V]irtually any communication mentioning the president or the administration could become subject to collection and archiving under the act. This is not out of an 'abundance of caution,' but out of an over-abundance of power. President Obama should make sure that this plan goes no further."

According to the Electronic Privacy and Information Center, federal agencies have negotiated agreements and contracts with social networking sites like Google, YouTube, SlideShare, Facebook, AddThis, Blist, Flickr and VIMEO to collect information on visitors for federal websites. All of these private companies are known to have agreements with federal agencies, but the public has never seen them.

In public comments submitted to the Office of Management and Budget, EPIC notes it has obtained documents that show federal agencies have negotiated these contracts with the private sector in violation of "existing statutory privacy rights." Those agencies include: Department of Defense, Department of the Treasury, and the National Security Agency.

My Response

This is getting scary. First Obama starts a snitch website so people can report anyone who tries to oppose his new health care bill, but now he wants to keep track of anything and everything we say. Why do they need this information? What are they using it for? They have NO RIGHT to do this. Next thing we know, if we even think about disagreeing with the government, they will track us down and chip us. With Obama as our president, things are getting worse by the day. To those of you who don't think that he can ruin this country in four years, think again.