IR Blogpost 3c: Larry King goes off the Air -todayshow

After 25 years, the legendary Larry King is going off the air. It was an emotional last broadcast for King who struggled to maintain his own composure as he did his last sign off. While the article mostly focused on the milestone event, I am wondering more about him. What made him get his start? And what made his show such a popular venue? Perhaps it is a generational thing since his show started before I was born. While I am not a follower, I do agree that this a dramatic change.

IR Blogpost 2c: Tallest Building in the World

Engineering has yet again made a stand in the Burj Khalifa. This building is the tallest building in the world, but not only is it the tallest, it is the tallest by over 1000 feet. Quotes from the article say that this building could change the world's skylines. They didn't mention how long it took to build. That is one question I have. Another is how one earth did they build it. It is so tall, it seems impossible to reach the top. I think that is so cool though. I never would have imagined a building to be half a mile high.

IR Blogpost 1c: Abortion Ban in Ireland msnbc.com

In recent Irish legislation, any sort of abortion was banned. With this, women are now unable to terminate a pregnancy even if their own health was at risk. Many believe this is an absolute violation of women's rights. But what I wonder is how something like this could pass? Are there that many people in Ireland opposed to abortion? I think its rediculous. A woman ought to have the right to choose and this strips her of her right. http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/04/19/ground-access-abortion-ireland

IR Blogpost 3b: WikiLeaks Causing Problems-msnbc

The website WikiLeaks has recently released thousands of US documents that were not meant to be seen by the public. These documents have proven to be very harmful to international diplomacy and some of the things in those documents are not even true, which is making things very difficult for the government to sort out. The developer of the website has a warrant for his arrest, but his exact whereabouts are unknown. The current suspect of the leak is an army private who simply used a blank CD that said Lady Gaga written on it and downloaded all the classified documents. But what motivated him to do that? And how is the government going to contain this spill? From what I read, I don't think too much damage has been done only because these seem to be mostly classified and not top secret. http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2010-12-01-editorial01_ST2_N.htm

IR Blogpost 2b: Bob Dylan Handwritten Lyrics are For Sale-Todayshow

In New York City, Bob Dylan's handwritten lyrics to The Times are A-Changin are on their way to the auction house. These lyrics are date back to 1963 and are signed by Bob Dylan. It is estimated that they will sell for between $200,000 and $300,000. That's a lot for this creased and torn sheet of paper. Now why wouldn't something like this, if it is indeed genuine, go to a museum? And who's selling it? That was never specified. I think this ought to go to a museum. It's a well known political anthem and it doesn't belong in someone's personal collection.

IR Blogpost 1b: Robot Soldiers in the Lime Light -popular science

War today is involving more and more technology, but so far, decisions are still all made by humans. However, BAE is working on making it possible for robots to make decisions as well. Commanders these days are "swimming in data" as the article puts it and the advantage of the robot is that it would collect and analyze the data more quickly and determine the best course of action. These robots haven't seen the battlefield yet, but have gone through disaster simulations and have proved their worth there. My question is why they havent done battlefield simulations for these robot soldiers. And whats after this? Is it going to come to the point where wars are no longer fought between people? I am honestly a bit wary about this sort of thing. I don't think the robots can still make the best decision. They lack intuition and that can be invaluable in some situations. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8495946.stm

IR Blogpost 3: Recreating the Ice Age msnbc

A Russian scientist is working to reintroduce animals like wild horses, musk oxen, and Siberian tigers to SIberia. He has a theory in which he thinks that by putting grass eating mammals in the very barron land, global warming will slow down and prevent further permafrost from melting. However, this is only a side project for this scientist because his main profession is quantum physics. In this large scale experiment, he hopes to change the landscape of Siberia, turning it from a tundra, to a rich grassland. That is wear the herbivores come into play. The normal activities of the grazing animals would change the landscape and prevent further permafrost melting.
After reading this, I wondered what the significance of permafrost was and I also wondered what gave the scientist the inspiration to do this experiment.
I think this experiment is plausible, but what's the point? Global warming is not that big a deal. The earth has gone through warming and cooling cycles since the beginning, before we were even here. I don't think this is really necessary, although it would look nicer. www.geocraft.com/WVFossils/ice_ages.html

IR Blog Post 2: NYTimes Gospel Messiah Music Review

In a recent performance in Carnegie Hall, the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra performed a reinterpretation of Handel's "Messiah". This traditional classical piece was "jazzed up". The intent was to create a new audience, a younger one. The performance was done by a professional symphony and high school students. The author of this music review was a bit skeptical about the idea however, and I am myself. Below is the link to a video/documentary of the "jazzy" version of the "Messiah". I wonder how successful it was...I think this version takes away from the meaning of the original classical version. Does it actually open classical doors to young people? Will it make more people interested?

unalloyed (delight)-complete

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLwgwUb0CmA&feature=related

IR Blog Post 1: NYTimes Article on The Beatles on iTunes

According to the article, today Apple and the pop culture band the Beatles were supposed to strick a deal so that Beatles music will be available on iTunes. Apple has reshaped the music industry since it opened iTunes, making downloading music much more popular, even though CDs are still a more profitable product for music companies. The Beatles music has never been available on iTunes, so this is a big deal. However, this deal has not yet been announced, so I am wondering if it will go through or will it fall apart like other attempts have? I also am curious if they are going to sell single tracks or if they are only going to allow whole albums to be sold. The article also mentioned that this could really help to educate younger listeners. I think it would. I myself listen to samples online when something new comes out and I'm sure others do too. I think younger listeners would certainly benefit from this if the deal goes through.

Online Reading

In general I don't do very much online reading. The majority of online reading I do is research based if I am curious about something.

Meaning vs. Pleasure

I can’t really think of many similarities between reading for pleasure and reading for meaning. However, I can think of more differences. For instance, when you read for pleasure, emotion drives tends to drive the novel, and the book is easier to read and understand. Nicholas Sparks is an author that does this type of writing. Reading for meaning is more difficult and requires more effort and time to understand the text. Most of the core novels in school are read for meaning, but a lot of times, for those books, I can read for meaning and read for pleasure.