Finals!!

Aghhh finals! They hath arriveth! That means zombie hall mates walking slowly down the hall in the wee hours of the night with giant cups of coffee in hand, that means piles of papers and trash building up slowly in the study lounge because every moment cleaning is a moment that could be spent studying, that means Wawa business revenue going way, way, way up and peaking just in the hours of 2-4 a.m. in the morning. It is a crazy alterna-world where people who have spent the precious year building up some level of social skill quickly revert back to their true nerd, hermit form. Aghhh finals? Ahhh, finals!

Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand

Saw the article in the Washington Post today, saw it again in the New York Times, and this frankly upsets me to no small degree. I have to say that the Bush Administration has just lost all credibility with this one - going as far as to plant military analysts in in order to shine a good light on what is clearly a war that went wrong long, long ago? Yeah, good luck with that one fellows, how much are these analysts being paid again?
This situation along with the situation at Guantanamo Bay outline the hypocrisy of the Bush Administration's policies that have made the United States lose its credibility in the international world - after all, how can we justify fighting for democracy in Iraq and uprooting hundreds of thousands of people in the process when our own democratic system seems to be so, so flawed right now? The worst part of this though, is that the international community holds us in disdain when in fact international cooperation is what we need most right now in order to effectively fight terrorism. When our President tries to bend the rules, seems like we all lose.

Tokyo Powerpoint

A Brief Wonderous Review of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

If you haven't heard of this book yet, you need to get on this stuff NOW. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is touching, tragic, and, most importantly, laugh-out-loud nerdy. Oscar De Leon, aka Oscar Wao (a bastardization of Oscar Wilde) is a and I quote, "fat nerd from the ghettos." As if a book about such an apparent anomaly of a human stereotype could not be good? Pffttt, throw in a super feminist sister, a super hot mama, boyish pheromones, otaku-ness, a prostitute-lover, Star Trek references, and a fast-talking narrator that isn't afraid to ask how does a boy like Oscar end up so fucked up and we get tears, hilarity, and more than a little bit of humanity. =)

Notes on Fair Use (Warning: this may be a copyright infringement)

When I first began to read the article about a company that sells bundles of notes taken from a professor's class and books, my immediate thought was that that was wrong, it was clearly a copyright infringement. But then, the article drew attention to the fact that if doing so was a copyright infringement, then a student taking down notes in class and long-standing companies such as CliffNotes would also be in murky water - things that don't seem like copyright infringement to me necessarily. So that's when I realized that what I felt was really wrong with buying notes from a company was that it was an ethical infringement more so than a copyright infringement. But, ethics aside and sticking the the lay of the law, I would say that selling notes taken from a professor's class is not a copyright infringement. However, I am no law expert and this whole issue of "fair use" seems to me to be a very gray area. I propose this instead, how about we avoid this whole (very) gray and messy situation by letting professors who want their work "protected" have all potential students sign a waiver saying that they will not sell their notes for profit. That way, there were be a legally binding contract between the professor and the student so both know what they are getting into.

Just...tired

I can't seem to get fully "awake" these past few weeks. Really, I feel like I walk around and go to class in zombie mode half the time - eyes half-open, barely conscious. True, the late nights doing all the many essays that seem to pile up toward the end of the year hasn't been helping, but I think the real culprit is what I call the "end-of-the-year blues." That's what it is, I foresee the end of the year coming ever closer, and my motivation to do work drops coordinately. Meanwhile, my amount of work is increasing exponentially. In the past two weeks, I think these two things peaked in the opposite directions at the same time (no I'm not high, if I could draw you a little graph, you would understand, bah!) ... aaaannnddd so, I'm dead. Har, har! No.
It's actually not funny at all, I have straight A-'s in ALL my classes. Before you groan and start hating on me, let me explain! Granted, A-'s are not BAD, but they are the dead man's land of grades, really. You're just barely close enough to an A but you're not there yet and there is a long, long way to fall, yet the only way you could possibly bring your grade up is to get...well, an A (which obviously has been a problem for me since I only have an A-). Now the pressure's on me to get ridiculously high scores on ALL my final exams so I can bring my grade up. Otherwise, my grade will drop - all or nothing is where I am at. To be honest, sometimes I'd prefer to have a B or C just so I can have more leeway to bring my grade up or to just give up. Ughhh....

Censorship

I just read the two articles on the censorship of the word "abortion" in a government-funded database and its subsequent removal and could not agree more with the removal of the censorship. Not like this should matter, but I'll say right now that I am personally anti-abortion - I myself would never get an abortion but either way though, I have to say that I am adamantly against the censorship of the keyword "abortion." After all, what can possibly be achieved by denying people who are thinking about a possible abortion, access to information on said abortion? As Melissa Just says in the first article and I quote, "Even if you were trying to make an argument to someone that abortion is a bad idea for them -- whether it's a health risk, or you're concerned about their mental well being, you wouldn't be able to find articles about your claim," she notes. "It's shutting off both the pro and the con access." I think everybody has the right to get access to objective, scientific information about abortion and let them come to their decisions - that is their right. Furthermore, if we had let this one slide, what next? Censorship of any terms that may possibly contradict the Bush Administration's agenda? All for the sake of federal funding? It is a slippery slope my friends and before you know it, we'll be no better than, say, Nroth Korea.

Mearsheimer - Rockstar?

Other breaking news in the Nerd World today - John J. Mearsheimer - one of the most eminent political scientists alive today and the author of ground-breaking books such as "The Tragedy of Great Power Politics" and "Taming American Power" came to speak at William and Mary on the now-hallowed day of April 7th, 2008, to speak about his latest book, "The Israel Lobby."

Woot! If you're still awake and reading this then you must 1) be an IR major and 2) just about to pee in your pants with excitement. Yep, as expected, it seemed like all the IR majors at WM (and there are MANY) were at the UC Chesapeake auditorium Monday afternoon to hear Mearsheimer talk. The auditorium was PACKED, with people resorting to sitting on the floor and stairs, people were that excited, and the sight made me prouder of my school than anything else - that this school is so nerdy that a large proportion of its population get more giddy over a professor from the University of Chicago than, say, the Ying-Yang Twins. In fact, I even heard one girl describing Mearsheimer to another (non-IR) friend that he is "sort of a rock star of the IR world." Hail Yeah, it makes sense now - wouldn't you choose Van Halen over the Ying-Yang Twins any day? Rock on man, rock on!

Plugged In

Is WM plugged in enough compared to other so-called elite universities in the nation? WM being the only college that I've attended, I have to say that I have no real basis for comparison, but I sure hope we are because technological skills are going to a necessity in the future, if not already. As the world becomes more globalized, technological skills are going to be a necessity for keeping in touch and communicating with colleagues, suppliers, producers, stock markets, etc. around the world. Does that mean that everybody should know how to program their own web-based application program? No. But it wouldn't be a bad idea. What everybody is calling "Web 2.0" is based heavily on user-created content and those who can create the next big social-networking site or online web video player can become a very rich person indeed. Of course, it is quite very possible that these things will reach their limit and come to pass, but what won't pass anytime soon is the way businesses are run now and days - through technology.

D.C. Cherry Blossoms

I went up to D.C. to visit the cherry blossoms last weekend and it never failed to impress me. There is nothing that signals spring has fully arrived in D.C. more than the arrival of the cherry blossoms. In the past couple of years, the blossoms have been destroyed too early by storms and high winds, but this year it was glorious. It was perfect weather - not too hot, not too cold - so swarms of people had turned out to view the blossoms. You would think havoc would ensue, but it was fine. Sure, you had walk in an 'S' shape half the time to avoid the people stopping in the middle of the path suddenly to take a picture, but you also got to see young couples, families with their little children, tourists and residents chattering in foreign languages, and a happy dog or two. I had a real American melting pot moment there, see all these different people of different ages, sexes, colors, heritages coming together to take in the view of pretty white-pink blossoms on the edges of the Potomac River. Quite fittingly, we ended our tour at the Jefferson Memorial where an enormous statue of the man rose up against the backdrop. I can't help but to imagine that had he actually been watching over the scene today, he would be quite happy indeed.

Caught Downloading Copyrighted Material—Now What?

Lisa over at Lifehacker http://lifehacker.com/371653/caught-downloading-copyrighted-materialnow-what has just been caught downloading copyrighted materials over Bittorrent. Well, kinda. She received a letter saying that she "may" be prosecuted by the copyrighters and that it would be within their right to do so. So the question now is what should Lisa do? Should Lisa go on her merry way and continue downloading copyrighted materials, should she stop and hope nothing happens, should she be punished? Well, I think Lisa should stop downloading immediately, for her own sake, because downloading copyrighted materials without paying for them is illegal and she can very well be prosecuted. But even more than there, there is the principle of it all - people work hard to make songs and movies and it is only right to pay for their work. Of course, there would be those who argue that all the money goes to the big studio honchos and not the little cameraman way down on the ladder, but we forget that there is a trickle down effect - less money for the honchos means less money for the little people. Granted though, on the company's part - it is important for them to make their works easily accessible and fairly priced. For example, I'll admit that I have downloaded some songs before in the past for free, but that was because they were hard to find foreign songs that I couldn't find anywhere else for a reasonable price (sorry, I will not pay $50.00 for a 7 CD compilation to get the one song that I want). I , however, never download popular American songs for free, because I know I can easly buy them off ITunes instead. Sure, I'll be a dollar poorer than if I had downloaded it for free, but it's well worth it for the risk and for, more importantly, my peace of mind.

A Vision of Students Today

This post is going to comment on a video on Youtube created by mwesch called "A Vision of Students Today." It's very thought-provoking, in part because the actual message of the video is ambiguous. One thing is clear though in the video - our generation is going to inherit some of the greatest problems any generation has ever inherited and the education that we are currently receiving in our colleges and universities is not preparing us for them. But what is at fault here? The education system itself because it is outdated and not in tune with the multi-tasking, Web 2.0 style life that we are living today? Or is it technology's fault for having given us some sort of jaded apathy towards life? Or is it both?

I can only speak for myself, being a freshman within the college system and here are my thoughts: I have been guilty of some of the things mentioned in the video, including not cracking open books that I have paid a lot of money for, bringing my laptop to class and not using it for class things, and not reading as many books as I would like. On the other hand, I don't like Facebook, I don't like Flickr, I can't see myself wasting time uploading pictures and tagging them, if given the chance, I will take lunch and Starbucks with a friend over Facebooking anyday. Yet on the other, other hand, I have managed to connect with very old, long-lost friends over Facebook and being connected to the internet means that I am always one click away from finding out information about whatever puzzles me at the moment. With this, I can only come to one conclusion and that is that neither classical learning nor technology are the bane nor the cure-all for all our problems. Rather, I think everything should be taken in moderation and in "smart" moderation - that means each method should be used only to enhance your learning and living experience. That means not spending your life among the bookshelves nor spending your life on your Facebook page. Rather, use either when appropriate and advantageous - I can only hope we have the common sense to do so.

Facebook Cheating

Oh, how scary and disturbing this article is - get this, kid starts Facebook study group for homework, gets caught, and is now in the process of being expelled. Yep, EXPELLED. For starting a Facebook study group, in which, it is important to note, no final solutions were even actually exchanged. If a kid gets expelled for that, then all and any of us who have ever called a friend for homework help or studied in a group together should be scared out of our pants right now. And on a further note, I seriously sometimes puzzle the no-collaboration rule - I mean, it's not how the way things work in the real job world - in the real job world, people collaborate ALL the time. I'm sure even professors even collaborate with one another once in a while, even if it's, you know, just asking someone's opinion on something. Collaboration is how things get done and doing it over Facebook is just our generation taking it to the next step. If anything, this kid should be applauded, not expelled.

My Sunglasses

I really like my new sunglasses - shiny, red, Ray-ban Wayfarers - I like to think it gives me hipster cred, although the very fact that I have to say that I think thoroughly negates the point. But whatever. I really, really like them, and better yet, they actually fit. On. My. Face! Woot! You must be thinking, "Well, duh it fits on your face. What, as opposed to your butt?" Oh, oh, oh, but you are not me. Therefore you must have never suffered the sad, sad fate of having an overly wide head with a flat nose. This means sunglasses don't fit me very often. And when they do, they often look and feel terrible - they'll rest on my cheeks, slide down my nose, be pushed so close to my eyes to keep them on that they will literally fog up from my body heat. It sucks, I know.

But I have Wayfarers!

Coming Soon: Nothing Between You and Your Machine - New York Times

This concept of eliminating the mechanical barriers between man and machine, making the use of computers, phones, etc. through completely fluid and natural movements, sounds, and intuition certainly is very interesting. I can see the first inklings of such a digital revolution in the extremely intuitive Apple products - from the MacBook to the IPod to the IPhone - and the Nintendo Wii.

But it won't be easy. I know from personal experience that those Apple products confused me to no end at the beginning because I've been so used to the Windows format and even to this day, all the movements are second nature. And as for that Nintendo Wii? My little brother and I have gotten sore from using that thing ten minutes into a game, we always revert back to the normal controllers from Gamecube when we can. And voice recognition? We have it on our SUV and psshhh, it takes ten tries and a near crash for the darn car to turn off its air conditioner. So certainly there are technology problems that need to be overcome but just as big a problem is this sense of familiarity with the old structure - when we've been raised so within the box, it will take a while to be able to climb out and see outside it. It might take another generation, one that has grown up on an even greater variety and bedrock of technology, to get the job done. Until then, I'm sticking to my keyboard, my controller, and the physically pushing of the A/C button.

Midterms - Sickness. Correlation.

Midterms are here again - this week is H-E Double Hockey Sticks for me. Oh. And I'm sick. Just like the last time midterms came around. I'm sure I know why I'm sick everytime midterms come around - stress, lack of sleep, and like of proper diet do not a good immune system make. But I was prepared this time! I started drinking Airbourne early on in the week - two at a time, twice a day. I eat Vitamin C drops during class, I drink VitaminPower "Defense" water, I seriously have at least 3000% my daily value of Vitamin C in my body right now. Maybe that's why I'm sick.... oh... darn, better luck next midterm (if I make it through this one alive)....

Google to Share Patient Health Records

Yes, that's right, according to the Associated Press

"Google Inc. will begin storing the medical records of a few thousand people as it tests a long-awaited health service that's likely to raise more concerns about the volume of sensitive information entrusted to the Internet search leader.

The pilot project to be announced Thursday will involve 1,500 to 10,000 patients at the Cleveland Clinic who volunteered to an electronic transfer of their personal health records so they can be retrieved through Google's new service, which won't be open to the general public.

Each health profile, including information about prescriptions, allergies and medical histories, will be protected by a password that's also required to use other Google services such as e-mail and personalized search tools."

Woahh, that's a little scary to me - with only a password between my health records and the public world wide web, I would be a little hesitant in giving my health records out to Google. I can definitely see the benefits of having such records in a place that's easily accessible, but is easy accessibility what I want? I don't think so, not yet at least. What worries me is that 1) these records are not by the HIPPA bill, 2) this program is still in its early stage with no one really knowing what problems will arise or what implication this will have, and 3) the security is questionable. I'm also worried by if and how Google would use this program to earn revenue - if they are expecting to sell advertising like they do with their main search page, they I'll know that the are keeping a watch on me. So I would not put my health records into a Google database - to me it is just to risky. For the rest of my generation though, those chronicle-my-daily-life-and-possibly-illegitimate-activities-with-posts-and-pictures on Faceook type people, they might think differently. Maybe I will too in the feature, but not now, not at this time, with this technology.

Foodie

"Something must be wrong with me," my friend told me around a week ago when I was having dinner her, "when I'm not eating, all I think about is eating and when I'm eating, all I think about is what other people are eating. Basically, all I think about is eating. All. The. Time."

Seriously, I think the vast majority of college kids follow the same strain of thought, as lofty as we like to believe ourselves to be. I laughed at her at the time, but I was humbled last Sunday when our hall finally discovered the phone number to the Chinese restaurant that delivered (we're freshmen, as in, no cars). We all went crazy with the ordering, I personally came away with three-four dishes. It was ridiculous. After ordering, the first thing I did was various members of my family to tell them the news, "We got Chinese food. I'm so happy. I could die." My fairytale ended the next day however, when I ended up going to the Caf during its downtime and ended up having to subsist on a bagel and Rice Krispie treats. Ah... back to dreaming about food...

FISA and Telecom Immunity

So we were recently assigned to read two articles representing opposite sides of the FISA and telecom immunity debate, one by the Wall Street Journal and the other by blogger and author Glenn Greenwald.

How do I feel about it? I don't know. Greenwald's article, written in reply to the Wall Street Journal editorial, claimed that the editorial distorted a lot of the facts. I can only imagine that the writer of the Wall Street Journal editorial would claim the same of Greenwald. This leaves me in a lurch, unable to separate fact from fiction (although, on Greenwald's part, he cites a lot of information directly from the law).

Assuming that what Greenwald is true however, then I am very worried - not just about the policies in and of themselves, but more importantly, in the way they are going about trying to pass this bill - repeating sound bites and lying to the American people. I am not against all wiretapping, nor does most Americans, however it cannot be done with some justification of suspicion which would be represented by a court-issued search warranty. If the bill is really being pushed to include tha a court-issued search warranty is unneeded in order to wiretap then we will be violating the Constitution, the laws, the principles, and the values that we are fighting to defend in the first place.
Publish Post

Gene Nicol, the BOV, and the Future of William and Mary

This is definitely the news on everyone's mind today. I'm sure everybody and everything has heard all about it and expressed their respective viewpoints on it. I guess I'll just jump on the bandwagon and add in my two cents:

I just put it out there right now - I support Gene Nicol, I know not every student does, but let's take Gene Nicol the person and president aside for a moment. Whether you agree or disagree with what the BOV did, I don't think anybody can deny that the WAY they went about doing it was WRONG from taking the vote in a closed-door meeting without any recordings to allegedly bribing Nicol to not paint the "firing" from a certain angle to allowing a few select alumni and House delegates have more influence than the students and faculty. That, that is what's really wrong and that is what the fight really boils down to - who REALLY controls William and Mary?

And the answer should be easy - why the students and faculty who are here on this campus day-to-day and are actually affected by what happens in this school. But in the real world, money and influence is what talks and so it is the alumni and it is a few select persons who wield them that have real power in this school - a sad conclusion for the school that once educated the men who would go on to establish democracy in America.

Craig Aaron on Net Neutrality

Halfway through Craig Aaron's blog post on the future of the internet, I started to feel an awful like one of those "simpletons" that Aaron claims that the government says we are....

No, I've never really thought about net neutrality before
No, I never realized that the big telephone corporations of the world are involved in some mass conspiracy to get rid of it

Although I'm starting to get an inkling on why the United States may be starting to fall behind technologically (i.e. us simpletons)

Ah the guilt of ignorance...

But I do read the news! I do keep up with current events! But with all that is going on now - the campaign, the war in Iraq, the Middle East, the rise of China - is it any wonder that the story on net neutrality fell through the cracks? It's not exactly the sexiest topic - which brings me back to Aaron's post. He wants a "fundamental and truly public conversation about how the future of the Internet should look"by having the government agree to hold public forums - online and off - in every state and possibly district, before making "the monumental decisions that will shape the Internet for a generation."

Smashing idea Aaron - no, I'm not being sarcastic, I really think so. But in a country such as this, where it's amazing if half of all eligible voters turn out for elections, you might find yourself the only one in said forums. Maybe I'm just being a pessimist, maybe I'm just being a party pooper, but at the end of the day I just don't think the public is going to care that much - and that's the scary part.

Although, if something ever happened to Facebook...