August 30, 1987

On August 30, 1987, in one of the hottest months of summer in Phoenix, AZ, as per usual, there was not a cloud in the sky. The temperature was a very common 100° and the dry heat made what could have been a nice breeze into a hot gust not unlike that of a hairdryer on a high setting. Your skin would feel as if it were starting to sizzle if you couldn't find shade and the dried, skeletal remains of decorative plants, otherwise known as tumbleweeds, could be seen rolling around in parking lots. That being said, tans were, and still are, the norm. When I describe the heat to some of my Texan friends, they tell me that the Texas heat is pretty unbearable, too. Well, to those of you who haven't had the pleasure of comparing the heat in Dallas to the heat in Phoenix, allow some well-known Texans to give you an accurate reaction.

Phoenix, Arizona was the place where I was born and it was home to approximately 2 million residents at the time. The increase in the population in the city motivated expansion of the city's boundaries. Cranes were often seen downtown due to new buildings being built. You would think this was a good thing, but many residents were not too happy about the construction because it was causing a lot of pollution in the clean desert skies. Some Phoenicians predicted that the pollution would drive away prospective businesses. In any case, Phoenix was quickly becoming a large metropolis that was beginning to see a more diverse community of cultures.

Speaking of culture, August 30, 1987 fell on a Sunday and the song topping the Billboard charts that weekend was "La Bamba" by Los Lobos. This song is a cover of "La Bamba" by Ritchie Valens which in turn is a cover of a Mexican folk song. The song by Los Lobos was, naturally, on the La Bamba soundtrack. The drama was well received at the box office, grossing $52.6 million in the first 12 weeks. One of the reasons that the movie did so well, which had mainly "no-name" actors in it, was because Columbia decided to use $6 million to advertise the daylights out of the movie. It received more airplay on the radio and advertisements were showing up on the television which contributed to its success. It also helped that the song was a hit and had the same name as the movie. It was easy to create name recognition by making the song and movie easy to remember. I can still hear Bob, Ritchie's brother, scream "Ritchiiee!" Great movie! I, of course, did not watch it when it came out because I was hard at work trying to come into this world. 

On August 30, 1987, Ronald Reagan was president. All of our presidents have a myriad of things to do and President Reagan was no different. Transparency has always been favored in our country and every day that President Reagan was in office was recorded and is available at The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Library. To the right is his somewhat busy schedule for the week. As you can see, he was unable to make it to the hospital I was born at because he was busy enjoying a nice vacation at his gorgeous and serene ranch named "Rancho Del Cielo" which in English means "Sky's Ranch" or "Heaven's Ranch." It was a beautiful 62° with a hint of fog the morning after the President arrived on his property and his diary shows he went for a horseback ride, most likely on his beautiful white horse, El Alamein. Unfortunately for the President, his horseback ride was interrupted by work. He received word about two tankers that were transported to safety in Operation Earnest Will. Good news but still, who wants to hear about that when they’re on vacation? It is interesting, however, that even today we have operations in the Middle East. Later that day, President Reagan was hard at work chopping up an old oak tree he knocked down on his property but he had to retire by the days end. Not too shabby for a 76 year old President of the United States!

August 30, 1987 was very similar to today. The temperatures are still as hot as ever and the boundaries of Phoenix, AZ continues to grow as does its population. La Bamba may not be in the box offices anymore but there are new movies in theaters every other week. One thing that has begun to lose its status as an American past time is the movie theater, losing to technology that was unheard of the day I was born. Ronald Reagan was beloved back then and still is now. As hard working as he was, though, he still managed to miss my birth for vacation. I can't say I blame the guy, though.

Google News Versus The Huffington Post: Tap Gloves

Google News and The Huffington Post are reputable sources used by many news-seekers. Both have a wealth of information about the various events that are of relevance and interest to the reader. When I search for news, I want to be able to have a nice, diverse helping of stories so I can have different perspectives on the same topic. Using this method, I can find a common middle ground that I can use to get the full scoop. Out of Google News and The Huffington Post, I feel that Google News accomplishes the task of providing this.

I followed The Huffington Post on Twitter for over a year. When they would pop up on my timeline, it was some non-news opinion story or it was similar to the lists that Buzzfeed is so well-known for now. In short, their Twitter account did not fall too far from the desktop tree.

The first thing that's shown at www.huffingtonpost.com on desktop is this huge photo:

At this point, The Huffington Post has done a pretty good job of informing you of what you should know about the topic of the week: Ebola. The large photo with the caption is definitely an attention grabber which will navigate your eyes to the various relevant headlines below. Although the headlines resemble a telegraph, they provide a quick summary of the story. The only downside to this is that you have to take the writers' word for what the headlines mean. Keep in mind that these stories are written by people who work at The Huffington Post. From what I understand, they are not politically unbiased. This can show through in some of the stories.One question comes to mind when looking at this front page: Where are the details? We've discussed in class how people will read the headline only and not bother to click on the link to the article. At Google News, the headlines are there but so are the first few words of an article. These allow the reader to make their minds up about an article with the knowledge of more than just the headline. Google News gives us more information because it is more of a collector of news articles as opposed to a creator of them.Take a look at the Google News front page of their website:The first page at Google News has a different layout which has a desktop feel to it; in addition to the news articles written by a variety of news sources, you have other types of updates such as the weather or sports game outcomes. The interesting here are the details that Google News provides under their headlines. These "sneak peeks" provide enough details to grab the users attention. All of this information at your disposal allows you to linger longer and hopefully go exploring down that "bunny hole" of reading news article after news article, increasing page views for the various news outlets.In conclusion, The Huffington Post as compared to Google News, has less information on their front page that the user can immediately choose to read and with not as much diversity in ideas. This being because most articles are created by people who work for them whereas Google takes articles from the various reputable news outlets on the Internet. Google News is the better news aggregator because they offer various points of view with enough details under the headline to entice the reader to click on the article. The Huffington Post mainly gives you their take on the news and does not allow for exploration of articles because they tell you everything up front.

Messin' With Facebook: What Happens When You Like Every Post?

As part of my assignment, I was to take on the task on Facebook to either like everything, hide everything, or not like anything at all. Since I'm mostly a lurker on Facebook, occasionally liking posts that catch my eye (the few times a week I'm actually on Facebook), I chose to take on the task of liking everything. I was weary at first to like everything. I have some pretty deviant friends and acquaintances on Facebook who post some cringe-worthy stuff.

First, I ensured this analysis was not going to be permanent so I researched how to unlike things after you have liked them. A good thing to know in case my Facebook imploded.

The first few posts I liked were penned by old classmates I haven't seen since high school, acquaintances who are good friends with people I don't like (ugh), and the rest were posted y family and friends. I found it interesting that most posts had a visual aid of some sort. 

After liking about 7 posts, I came across a Bill Maher video that a friend posted. Any political post is better left unliked. Others may prejudge you simply by having different opinions than they do but I liked the video anyway.

Then, I noticed that right after liking that video, Facebook presented me with celebrities or TV shows who are similar to the video I watched: The Daily show, The Colbert Report, Bill Gates, and Seth MacFarlane. That’s kind of creepy.

It almost seemed like Facebook was already making a judgment about me: I like Bill Maher therefore I must like Stephen Colbert, et al.  (I DO like Stephen Colbert but that is beside the point) Facebook almost encourages itself to make judgments, or predictions, about people. I recognize that this is a specified algorithm to show increase in our bubble of information, but still, it knows, and that’s what gives it the creepy factor.

Another thing I noticed was how many more ads or sponsored links popped up on my timeline. Once the ads started popping up, I remembered that my friends and family were able to see what I liked. I’m not a big fan of sponsored ads so I stopped liking things shortly after.

In conclusion, Facebook’s algorithm becomes more pronounced the more you like things. It will predict what you might want to read and it will also fill your timeline with sponsored links. Like posts responsibly!

Exploring Twitter

Twitter has taken the world by storm. It's a great way to say exactly what you want in 140 characters or less. There are so many interesting people on Twitter. Some want to share links to grand discoveries and breaking news, others want to share their disdain at the lady in front of them at the checkout line because they're paying with a check. We are all connected on Twitter. We want to hear what others have to say and we want to share our thoughts with others.

I followed a few tweeters that seemed interesting. @JoeRogan tweeted an article by comedian @JimNorton in regards to public figures apologizing for saying something they really meant. It seems that as of late, you can't really state your unpopular opinion without being placed in a box labeled "destroy contents". Comedians seem to be the last to apologize for saying something that goes against the grain. You know the apologies, a public figure says something that is taken out of context and it goes viral. The audience then crucifies the offender and demands an apology, which the offender will usually give to quell the masses. Jim Norton perfectly summarized this phenomenon: For a country that claims to want an open dialogue, and to treasure free speech, we sure seem to enjoy mob justice against people who give an opinion contrary to the one we are comfortable hearing.

@ForbesTech tweeted an article about Smartphone Loss Anxiety, the anxiety you get when you phone goes missing. It explains that our smartphones are Life Interface Devices and because we use them to store important information, losing them could place them in the hands of a third party who will have access to everything in it. Imagine if it were your work phone. Losing a work phone could potentially have non-public information in it and could have grave consequences for your employer. That kind of information we entrust in our smartphones is why we get anxiety when we don't have it on us. It's probably why I will turn around and go back home if I forget it there, without thinking twice about it.

One of the coolest things I like about Twitter is the photography. Since we are all connected, we can communicate and observe different people and cultures. @Big_Picture has some interesting photos and I learned about a festival in Bunol, Spain called La Tomatina in this article they posted. The festival evolved from a parade dispute in which people used tomatoes as weapons to defend themselves. The various photos depict scenes from the festival and everything, from the people to the streets, is covered in scarlet red tomato paste. Before this tweet, I didn't know this festival existed which is why Twitter is so amazing: it shows us parts of the world that may not be interesting for cable news, but is interesting to me.