1.
Previously, the Bastrop Fires were thought to have been caused by a paper shredder, apparently one that turns the paper into fire, however now the authorities believe that the fire may have been started by a burn pile, which sounds just as obvious as one would expect it to sound. The Bastrop Country officials are letting people return to their homes, however for the people that live in the 64 homes and 4,600 acres of land that were ravaged by the fires, there may not be much of a home to return to. The people seemed very genuinely sad as I read the article, and deeply hurt by the loss of most of their possessions is a deeply troubling aspect of life that I'm sure many of them are now struggling to deal with, I felt terrible, but I also felt like these were the Okies in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, and that they had silly prairie accents.
2.
The school districts in the Austin area are too poor to buy books, a quintessential Texas problem to have, and so a lot of schools have switched over to digital textbooks in a move one could only describe as a decade too late. It's really silly that paper textbooks have been around for this long in the first place, or that school districts around the country haven't gone even further in digitizing the school process to save money. Just make all the teachers computer programs, make class only happen online, and make all the work digital. Remove every possible third party. Make school sporting events video games, have nobody ever personally interact with anyone else ever in their time as a human ever again. In theory, you don't even need students, just give money straight from the school district to McGraw-Hill. The Robertson Family doesn't understand how technology works so they bought a textbook for $75, a great idea for other families who can't learn. Melissa Prepster, a woman who has had to do too much boring paperwork in her 23-year teaching career is super hype for the new tech, because it probably makes her job considerably easier. Eanes district is having an easier time giving tablets to all of their kids, than Leander, because there are fewer students that are in the Eanes District and they have been working at this since 2011. McCallum should no longer exist. Technology is too advanced. Digitize everything. Assimilate everyone.
3.
Justin Trudeau's Liberal Party has a majority in the new Canadian Parliament and Trudeau is set to become the next Prime Minister of Canada, replacing his Conservative party strongman and gopher lookalike Stephen Harper after a 9 year, three term ministry. Trudeau is from the Liberal Party, and his policies are very similar to President Obama's. Where there may have been tension between the US and Canada under the Harper Administration, the new government is likely to pursue changes to make it's economy less dependent on Fossil Fuel exports and be less involved in military action around the world.
4.
Alan Guckian, a teacher at Eastside who is not my father is up for the 2016 Music Educator Award, which is for being an educator of music, and a very good one at that. He was one of 4,500 people nominated for the award, and now there are considerably less people in the race; Guckian is one of 25 semifinalists left in the drawing, and if he is the last man standing, his kids get a pizza party. Pretty cool.
5.
Shaka Smart, good basketball coach of the Longhorn Basketball team, is changing the mindset of his player going in to the upcoming season by doing crazy endurance drills like getting his players to swim to try and mold them into a more cohesive and endurance team to play the time of run and gun style he is used to from his old school, VCU.
Jack's Journalism Blog
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Friday, October 9, 2015
Current Events Activity 2.1 - One of My Friends Said He Wrote This At Drake
1.
Apparently the Parks and Rec board get fee VIP passes and so on for one weekend of ACL, which cost a lavish and exorbitant sum of one thousand big ones. This reeks of the most mild and petty attempt at corruption as well as lousy muckraking. Rick Coffer, a lily-livered worrywart, is concerned with the slippery slope to becoming some horrible Atlantic City mob-style cartoon villain caricature and won't take the "bribe" of a free show, which may as well be a thank you present for ACL and C3 for paying about one hundred thousand dollars, still an inconsequential sum of money, to rent the park for a couple weekends. Don Zimmerman, city official and man of honor, said - and I'm sure very pretentiously so - that he wouldn't accept any gifts that could sway his fickle little opinion. Sabine Romero said it's okay, and it's her job to say what is and isn't okay, and she's okay at her job. Ann Kitchen gave some of her passes to her staff and Ora Houston gave her passes to the 311 people who work in her office. I personally would accept my pass almost without hesitation or guilt, in all honestly, if I was a city official, I would want to be a corrupt one if only to get my ACL passes.
2.
The Okies have placed a temporary hold on all state executions in their state until I can only presume their top chemists graduate kindergarden and learn how to tell the difference between the words "potassium acetate" and "potassium chloride". Other states are having weird problems trying to kill people as well, because they keep trying to use midazozam and hydromorphone, both of which sound like the names of DC comic book villains but are actually chemicals that are mostly very good at making state sanctioned killing seem humane but are sometimes very bad at it. Their constitutionality has been disputed and while it is being sorted though, other states are using other cool and funky ways to kill people. Utah has gone back to using the firing squad to execute people which must make for great conversation if that is your profession. Tennessee is using the electric chair maybe because they have grown tired of people use the word electrocute out of context, and Louisiana is considering using nitrogen gas as it's backup.
3.
Israeli Prime Minister and human peanut Benjamin Netanyahu has banned members of his parliament from visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque/site of the Temple of Jerusalem because Israelis and Palestinians aren't getting along so well at the moment. Per usual, someone took something a little too far; Muhanad Halabi stabbed some orthodox Jews, the police shot him dead, and now everything is all coming up lemons. It is usually a troubling thing that both Muslims and Jews contest who has dibs on the Dome of the Rock/Temple Compound area, but when one of the people antagonizing to build a third temple on the spot of the Al-Aqsa mosque is your agriculture minister, Muslim people have a right to be offended.
4.
Svetlana Alexevich, a Belorussian Journalist and reporter won the Nobel Prize in Literature for fighting the power in a really hardline communist country. She is the 14th woman to win the prize but the first person ever from Belarus to win the award, not that Belarus really is a cosmopolitan or interesting or colorful place. Svetlana's writing is a sort of blend of journalism and nonfiction, and wrote plenty of stories about the regular people instead of focusing on the big shots in her country.
5.
Daniel S. Hamermesh quits his job as Microeconomics teacher at UT because you can now have guns on school campuses. The statesman found out because the UT Paper, the Daily Texan, attained a copy of Hamermesh's resignation letter. Hamermesh is one of many teachers that said they would leave if SB1 became law, however the Microeconomics teacher was the first to properly leave his job.
FREE RESPONSE.
I went to the Baseball Extra section and they had a story called "Astros on a Roll" and they had a huge picture of George Springer hitting a hone run in the game last night and they had some baseballey statistics, quality reporting with some solid facts is exactly what I expect from a sports section of a newspaper and as an extra I got a really big color picture. The really neato thing about it was probably the fact that with the online statesman I get more info and more pretty pictures than I do in the real paper version. In almost every way the online Statesman is a more viable product other than the fact that it is not real. The one reason left to buy the paper Statesman is, in my opinion, the fact that it is a real paper news source item thing. If I wanted to read my news online, I would not try and find the online version of a paper, rather, I would seek out the publication's website and sift through the articles there. If I wanted to read a newspaper, I would get the paper edition because it feels right to read a newspaper in newspaper format if it is a real paper, however it makes no sense to leave a newspaper in the same format if it is published online.
Apparently the Parks and Rec board get fee VIP passes and so on for one weekend of ACL, which cost a lavish and exorbitant sum of one thousand big ones. This reeks of the most mild and petty attempt at corruption as well as lousy muckraking. Rick Coffer, a lily-livered worrywart, is concerned with the slippery slope to becoming some horrible Atlantic City mob-style cartoon villain caricature and won't take the "bribe" of a free show, which may as well be a thank you present for ACL and C3 for paying about one hundred thousand dollars, still an inconsequential sum of money, to rent the park for a couple weekends. Don Zimmerman, city official and man of honor, said - and I'm sure very pretentiously so - that he wouldn't accept any gifts that could sway his fickle little opinion. Sabine Romero said it's okay, and it's her job to say what is and isn't okay, and she's okay at her job. Ann Kitchen gave some of her passes to her staff and Ora Houston gave her passes to the 311 people who work in her office. I personally would accept my pass almost without hesitation or guilt, in all honestly, if I was a city official, I would want to be a corrupt one if only to get my ACL passes.
2.
The Okies have placed a temporary hold on all state executions in their state until I can only presume their top chemists graduate kindergarden and learn how to tell the difference between the words "potassium acetate" and "potassium chloride". Other states are having weird problems trying to kill people as well, because they keep trying to use midazozam and hydromorphone, both of which sound like the names of DC comic book villains but are actually chemicals that are mostly very good at making state sanctioned killing seem humane but are sometimes very bad at it. Their constitutionality has been disputed and while it is being sorted though, other states are using other cool and funky ways to kill people. Utah has gone back to using the firing squad to execute people which must make for great conversation if that is your profession. Tennessee is using the electric chair maybe because they have grown tired of people use the word electrocute out of context, and Louisiana is considering using nitrogen gas as it's backup.
3.
Israeli Prime Minister and human peanut Benjamin Netanyahu has banned members of his parliament from visiting the Al-Aqsa Mosque/site of the Temple of Jerusalem because Israelis and Palestinians aren't getting along so well at the moment. Per usual, someone took something a little too far; Muhanad Halabi stabbed some orthodox Jews, the police shot him dead, and now everything is all coming up lemons. It is usually a troubling thing that both Muslims and Jews contest who has dibs on the Dome of the Rock/Temple Compound area, but when one of the people antagonizing to build a third temple on the spot of the Al-Aqsa mosque is your agriculture minister, Muslim people have a right to be offended.
4.
Svetlana Alexevich, a Belorussian Journalist and reporter won the Nobel Prize in Literature for fighting the power in a really hardline communist country. She is the 14th woman to win the prize but the first person ever from Belarus to win the award, not that Belarus really is a cosmopolitan or interesting or colorful place. Svetlana's writing is a sort of blend of journalism and nonfiction, and wrote plenty of stories about the regular people instead of focusing on the big shots in her country.
5.
Daniel S. Hamermesh quits his job as Microeconomics teacher at UT because you can now have guns on school campuses. The statesman found out because the UT Paper, the Daily Texan, attained a copy of Hamermesh's resignation letter. Hamermesh is one of many teachers that said they would leave if SB1 became law, however the Microeconomics teacher was the first to properly leave his job.
FREE RESPONSE.
I went to the Baseball Extra section and they had a story called "Astros on a Roll" and they had a huge picture of George Springer hitting a hone run in the game last night and they had some baseballey statistics, quality reporting with some solid facts is exactly what I expect from a sports section of a newspaper and as an extra I got a really big color picture. The really neato thing about it was probably the fact that with the online statesman I get more info and more pretty pictures than I do in the real paper version. In almost every way the online Statesman is a more viable product other than the fact that it is not real. The one reason left to buy the paper Statesman is, in my opinion, the fact that it is a real paper news source item thing. If I wanted to read my news online, I would not try and find the online version of a paper, rather, I would seek out the publication's website and sift through the articles there. If I wanted to read a newspaper, I would get the paper edition because it feels right to read a newspaper in newspaper format if it is a real paper, however it makes no sense to leave a newspaper in the same format if it is published online.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
Current Events Activity 1.1 - Back to the Past
1.
The University of Texas came under fire for hiring students that had been the assailants in an attack against a gay man back in 2004. The University is withholding any information it may or may not have on the two men based on federal law that prevents them from releasing confidential information on students. Weather the University knew or didn't knew is up for debate, however it is doubtful that the University hired wither of the two without first consulting their record as hate criminals.
2.
The city of Baltimore reached a $6.4 million settlement in a deal revolving around the police killings of Freddie Gray back in April. The mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, stated that the settlement did not reflect weather the officers involved were guilty or innocent and was simply "in the best interests of the city [of Baltimore]". The trial for the six officers involved is still pending.
3.
The Vice Chancellor of Germany, Sig-mar Gabriel, has stated that his country will be taking in half a million immigrants from the Middle-East and Africa in the coming year. Many people think that the policy of accepting half a million immigrants is foolish and will hurt the economy, however the government has stated that the people should be proud of their governments response to this humanitarian crisis.
4.
Ted Cruz invited Donald Trump to his anti Iran-Deal Rally, which is an odd move considering that most of the republican party is trying to kill the Donald. Cruz is trying to play nice and say things like "I am glad he in in this election." or that he shone a light on immigration issues and got Republicans excited. Trying to target Donald Trump in this election has proved to be political suicide for anyone who has attempted it so far, and Cruz has built his platform on attacking the Washington Insider "Campaign Conservatives" like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio.
5.
Hillary Clinton apologized for using a private server for e-mails when she served as Secretary of State, however two Republicans, Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, are not letting her drop the ball on this one anytime soon. People are also pestering Hillary for voting for the Iraq war in 2002, which turned out to be a big mistake, but was something that happened in 2002.
6.
Two players for John Jay high school teed up a referee after he purportedly used a racial slur against them during a game, which is exactly what I would have done, but not during the game, especially if we were losing 15-9. The assistant coach of the secondary line got suspended after he decided that the referee would have to "pay for cheating [them]".
ESSAY RESPONSE.
A story was published called A Record Reign for Queen Elizabeth due to the queen officially becoming the longest serving monarch in British history. The story is uniquely relevant to it's proximity to a date - September 9th, 2015, however the human interest to people fond of monarchies and to British ex-pats may have been high. This is a milestone for a western monarch, whose landmark reign was not met with much fanfare or celebration. The reporter chose to keep this story mostly based in fact and to interview one historian, Hugo Vickers, for commentary. As far as a quiet passing of time is concerned, the report was done it's due. It was reported with all of the historical significance necessary and well reported in it's short column.
The University of Texas came under fire for hiring students that had been the assailants in an attack against a gay man back in 2004. The University is withholding any information it may or may not have on the two men based on federal law that prevents them from releasing confidential information on students. Weather the University knew or didn't knew is up for debate, however it is doubtful that the University hired wither of the two without first consulting their record as hate criminals.
2.
The city of Baltimore reached a $6.4 million settlement in a deal revolving around the police killings of Freddie Gray back in April. The mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, stated that the settlement did not reflect weather the officers involved were guilty or innocent and was simply "in the best interests of the city [of Baltimore]". The trial for the six officers involved is still pending.
3.
The Vice Chancellor of Germany, Sig-mar Gabriel, has stated that his country will be taking in half a million immigrants from the Middle-East and Africa in the coming year. Many people think that the policy of accepting half a million immigrants is foolish and will hurt the economy, however the government has stated that the people should be proud of their governments response to this humanitarian crisis.
4.
Ted Cruz invited Donald Trump to his anti Iran-Deal Rally, which is an odd move considering that most of the republican party is trying to kill the Donald. Cruz is trying to play nice and say things like "I am glad he in in this election." or that he shone a light on immigration issues and got Republicans excited. Trying to target Donald Trump in this election has proved to be political suicide for anyone who has attempted it so far, and Cruz has built his platform on attacking the Washington Insider "Campaign Conservatives" like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio.
5.
Hillary Clinton apologized for using a private server for e-mails when she served as Secretary of State, however two Republicans, Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, are not letting her drop the ball on this one anytime soon. People are also pestering Hillary for voting for the Iraq war in 2002, which turned out to be a big mistake, but was something that happened in 2002.
6.
Two players for John Jay high school teed up a referee after he purportedly used a racial slur against them during a game, which is exactly what I would have done, but not during the game, especially if we were losing 15-9. The assistant coach of the secondary line got suspended after he decided that the referee would have to "pay for cheating [them]".
ESSAY RESPONSE.
A story was published called A Record Reign for Queen Elizabeth due to the queen officially becoming the longest serving monarch in British history. The story is uniquely relevant to it's proximity to a date - September 9th, 2015, however the human interest to people fond of monarchies and to British ex-pats may have been high. This is a milestone for a western monarch, whose landmark reign was not met with much fanfare or celebration. The reporter chose to keep this story mostly based in fact and to interview one historian, Hugo Vickers, for commentary. As far as a quiet passing of time is concerned, the report was done it's due. It was reported with all of the historical significance necessary and well reported in it's short column.
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