Monday, December 6, 2010

Wikileaks

Wikileaks is a website that allows people to post things on the Internet to show the world. The problem with this is that secrets can get out and in this case it did. A guy sent in private documents and the U.S government is very angry. People may be mad at him for sending all those private documents and getting them published, but there must be a reason for him doing this. The U.S government should just man up and admit his mistakes instead of hiding them from the world. I personally think that Wikileaks is okay, it is a sign of freedom of speech.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Gifts for the Gamer

Anyone who plays video games usually doesnt wait till Christmas or their Birthday to get a video game that they really want, they will go out and buy it on the day it is released. Gamers don't want a video game as a gift, because chances are that they already have the games that they want. So instead of getting them something that they will never use, try getting them an addition to their gaming system. A Udraw for the Wii or a PS3 or Xbox Move would be a good gift, or maybe a bigger screen T.V. =)

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Donkey Kong Country Returns

Donkey Kong Country Returns is a video game for the WII, it was released on November 21st 2010. The game company Retro Studios created this game in 2D to bring back the great times had playing Donkey Kong on Super Nintendo Gaming System. The game is created to test the players curiosity and creativity. In the levels, instead of just running straight through it, you can find hidden treasures buried in the ground. You can also find the letters K-O-N-G to get a reward at the end. The letters are placed in plain sight but figuring out how to get to them is the tricky part. This game isn't the type of game to make you want to give up and just run through the level, it was created with clues/hints leading you to special rewards, you just got to be creative.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Call of Duty: Black Ops

Call of Duty: Black Ops sold 5.6 million copies in the first 24 hours of the game release, making it the biggest entertainment launch ever. This breaks the previous Record of 4.7 million copies sold by Activtion, the game was Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2.
The menu screen in Call of Duty: Black Ops is not like other menu screens. That’s because it lets you play a classic adventure game. At the main menu screen it will show a guy sitting in a chair, when he gets up if you press the square button on your PS3 controller the screen with move toward the computer sitting in the corner and allow you to type in 2 secret words to get hidden games and acheivments.

Friday, October 29, 2010

Bowling for Columbine

It is too easy for U.S citizens to get guns, resulting in homicides and violence. Every year 11,237 people are killed by guns in the U.S, 381 people in Germany, 255 people in France, 163 people in Canada, 68 people in U.K, 65 people in Australia, and 39 people in Japan.  It may have something to do with the fact that news reporters only showed the low lights in that specific part of town, scaring everyone into owning a gun “to feel safe” but the truth is that no one will be safe, for example, on the news a reporter says at 55:32 “What you do know, may kill you.” After that there is a report on how “an escalator may kill you or a loved one.” They called it “the stairway to danger.” If it was more difficult for  U.S citizens to get guns news reporters wouldn’t be scaring everyone into getting a gun.
The U.S citizens think that there are more murders and violence in U.S because “Canadians don’t watch as much violent movies” as shown at 1:10:50 in the movie “There’s no poverty in Canada like there is here” as shown in 1:11:29. At 1:40-3:12 in the movie it shows Michael Moore walking into a bank, opening a trust fund and receive a free gun. At 42:38 people in the U.S blamed Marilyn Manson for the shooting in Columbine high school because it was said that the killers all listened to his music. At 22:42 in the documentary it shows this General standing in front of a missile explaining how the U.S only use the missiles to protect their country while Michael Moore states “And the U.S just bombed another town that no one can pronounce”.
In the documentary, Michael Moore shows that people in the U.S lock their doors at night or when they leave the house because they are scared that people may break in and steel their stuff, as in Canada nobody locks their doors because nobody cares enough to do it, they say “I would rather have people just walk in and take something rather then break in and steal something.” Again on the news a reporter exclaims “one out of five American citizens has a mental disease, advising people to seek help now.” With everything that U.S citizens see on the news I don’t blame them for carrying a gun.
At 56:05 George W. Bush makes a speech in the documentary saying “Today the justice department did issue a blanket alert, it was in recognition of a general threat that we received, this is not the first time the justice department has acted like this, I hope it’s the last, but given the attitude of the evil doers it may not be.” This statement made must have scared all the Americans, given more the reason that they all own guns. This includes a 6 year old boy who shot a little girl because he found the gun at his uncle’s house and brought it to school.
At 1:37:05 Michael Moore goes and interviews the president of the NRA, the president of the NRA claims that he has the right the own a gun because of the 2nd amendment, when Michael Moore asking him why he had a loaded gun he just kept repeating himself and getting all defensive. When Michael Moore keeps attacking him with questions, he gets up and walks away, he simply doesn’t care about the fact that a little girl was shot by a little boy, heartless. If the president of the NRA had cared a little bit he could have made a change.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Feeling sad makes us more creative

Studies have shown that feeling sad actually does make us more creative in some ways, or maybe even having some sort of disability like bipolar. Although creativity doesn't only come from depression there are a lot of studies that prove it also comes from stress. People who are sad are usually lonely so it gives them a lot of alone time to paint creative things like Van Gogh, although he only sold one of his paintings he still became famous and later on killed him self because of depression. Being alone isn't always a bad thing like people say, i say quiet time is golden time because it is the time that i get to sit down and relax and write a few poems. People who feel vulnerable and have no one to talk to that they trust have a lot of time to think about everything, creating amazing writers and perfectly fitted words for the setting. Most famous poems or skits are written by someone who has a history of depression. The poems and skits are usually about love and/or family. In a sad moment the brain triggers the creative part, letting all the words flow out onto one piece of paper. People have done studies on individuals who are very creative and found out that most of creativity comes from the feeling of "being nothing."


I have found some of my information on these two sites below. If you would like to know more i recommend checking these sites out:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2659536/
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/10/feeling-sad-makes-us-more-creative/

Friday, October 15, 2010

Wonky Physics, Nasty Levels Ruin Sonic the Hedgehog 4

Sonic the Hedgehog 4 is an epic fail. They have brought back 2D and it has terrible graphics. The bad part about the game is that you can only see 3 inches infront of you. The game is pretty much made so that people can just run straight through the levels with the occasional jump to reach the finish. In order to run you have to have a lot of room to catch speed because Sonic runs like he is stuck in mud, which makes it hard to beat Bosses because of their fast attacks.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Bowling for Columbine Argument

Argument:  Is it too easy to get a gun in the U.S.A, it is resulting in homicides and violence


Topic Sentence: The evening news is showing that guns and violence are scaring citizens

Example: In Michael Moore's movie, Americans lock their doors at night while Canadians don't because Americans watch more crimes on the news.



Topic Sentence: The second amendment allows Americans to legally carry a loaded weapon

Example: If everyone has a loaded gun with them, who is actually safe?



Topic Sentence: The stores sells guns and ammunition to anyone who asks for it

Example: When Michael Moore walked into K-Mart to buy ammunition, they let him.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Help! My Smartphone Is Making Me Dumb — or Maybe Not

People are getting hooked on social media, researchers are still trying to figure out if multitasking is good or bad, it may be good because we can do more things at once but it also distracts us from doing a proper job. Although cell phones and the Internet are distracting it is said that infants are much worse because they need more attention. People who text and drive are putting a lot of people in danger and themselves, studies have shown that texting and driving is more dangerous than calling and driving but 98% of people admit that they still do it because they "have to".

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Bowling For Columbine

Michael Moore's thesis is that guns are making people very violent and the U.S doesn't see a problem with it.

To support his argument he shows footage of a shoot-up in a school where innocent people were killed. He also interviews a Sargent who is standing in front of a bunch of missiles. He is trying to show people how anyone can get a gun in the U.S and it has no hunting purposes. He also interviews people who were involved in the bombing or shoot-up. The U.S citizens blamed everyone but themselves, famous singers, government, and more. 

Fact- In the U.S there is a law that gives citizens the right to own and carry a firearm but in Canada they don't let us.

Pac Man

Screengrab: Pushing Arcade Games to the Limit
Any player who reaches level 255 on the arcade classic game Pac Man, the game will glitch out. When it tries to load level 256 the game will go on over load and the fruits, ghosts, cheats and numbers will pop up on one half of the screen. It is still possible to beat with a perfect score but it is very hard.

Friday, September 10, 2010

Terminology

Conglomerate- A combination of two or more corporations that are involved in entirely different businesses  together in the same building. (Viacom owns MTV, Dreamworks, Shockwave, BET, CMT, Comedy Central and more)


Demographic- The characteristic of a human population used by government, marketing or opinion research.



Early Adopter- A person who is given company products to start a new trend, they are know as trendsetters.



Coolhunting- Is a daily update on the new fashions and trends.


The Paradox Of Coolhunting- It kills what is finds, when people start wearing the new fashion people come up with an even newer fashion to keep up.


Synergy- Two or more agents working together to produce a result that is not used by any other agents.


Horizontal Integration- Describes a type of ownership or control. It is used by big businesses to sell the same product in numerous markets.


Ancillary Markets- Companies who sell their products to a lot of markets to get more profit.


The Feedback Loop- When companies do research to figure out the next trend.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Relationship Between McDonalds and Disney

McDonalds and Disney
-Both very successful
-Both created fictional characters to attract kids
-Both greedy for money
-Both advertised things that the audience/customers would like
-Both Born in Illinois
-And they both have something to do with Sprite, MTV and Viacom

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

Sony

Sony is the world's fifth largest media conglomerate with the income of $78.88 billion dollars. Sony is one of leading manufacturers of electronics, video, communications, video game consoles, and information technology products for professional markets and customers.