The Downfall of Christopher Dorner (1979-2013)

Last week, a nationwide manhunt came to a violent end. Christopher Dorner was killed during a standoff with the police. He was wanted in two states and Mexico on murder charges. Christopher Dorner was born in New York on June 4th, 1979. He had worked as a LAPD police officer and later a U.S. Navy reservist. He was honorably discharged from the Navy on February 1st, but his career as a police officer ended with him getting fired. Excessive force was problably the reason for his termination. Dorner published a manifesto on his facebook page afterwards, a red flag indicated that he get violent. He was charged in connection with a series of shooting attacks on police officers and their families from February 3 to 12 that left four people dead. The victims were all police officers. The police eventually caught up with him and the standoff ended with a single "self-inflicted" gunshot wound to the head on February 12, 2013. The group Anonymous defended Dorner. They recognized that his manifesto was caused by the way he might have been treated in the LAPD. It's okay to feel sorry for the guy, but defending him is a different story. There is no excuse for going on a killing spree. Work places should be careful about how they treat employees. It's unpredictable about what people are capable of.

Free Wi-Fi For All, Good or Bad?

The article "Tech, telecom giants take sides as FCC proposes large public WiFi networks" discusses plans about setting up free WiFi services across the country. Many people are busy and always on the go. They are looking for places that have free WiFi services to help them do things from important assignments for school or work to just goofing off to pass the time away. Having free internet service would be a step forward in internet communication. We live in a time period where we use the internet do many of our day to day tasks. Not every place lets you use WiFi for free. Alot of people don't want to spend the extra money. Having free WiFi service would also help people save money when they do what they have to do on the internet. Having free internet service can also prove to be a bad idea. The article‘Six Strikes’ discusses a plan to stop internet piracy. Internet pirates are known for stealing someone elses WiFi service and the victims are left holding the bag when the consequences come into play. It almost sounds like a someone stealing their neighbors cable. The RIAA cracks down on those kinds of acts. Having free WiFi service may increase the chances of piracy. That would be a step backwards for internet communication. People out in public places should be the lookout for this kind of act and people at home don't have to worry too much.

The Century of the Self.

The first part of The Century of the Self talks about Edward Bernays (1891-1995). He was an early pioneer in the field of public relations and propaganda. He was a one time press agent for "The Worlds Greatest Tenor", Enrico Caruso, and accompanied President Woodrow Wilson to the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War 1 early in his career. When Bernays died at the age of 103, he became known as the "father of the public relations". The interesting thing about this first segment of "The Century of the Self" is how Bernays said that the need for certain products is all part of an unconscious desire within the human mind. Bernays was the American nephew of Sigmund Freud, a legendary psychologist who thought that actions were sexually motivated. Edward Bernays used his uncle's life work of "psychoanalysis" to help explain why people buy certain products. When advertisers sell products like Coca Cola or cigarettes, they want to make their product look appealing to the public. Within the minds of human beings, there is some part of them that wants this product that will make look appealing. Bernays wanted to make smoking look appealing to women, which proved to be his most dramatic experiment. Before his time, smoking was usually a man's thing and women smoking anything was considered to be strictly taboo. Smoking was a sign of masculine power. A woman smoking would show her independence and is up to challenging the power of the man. Bernays had setup an event where the women would smoke their cigarettes in public on que. It caught alot of attention from newspaper reporters and smoking became a sensation for women. There was also a great increase in the sales of cigarettes because women started to smoke in public. Movie stars like Lucille Ball and Lana Turner often smoked on screen to look glamourous to their fans. Bernays knew how to reach that part of the mind that tells people that this product is appealing. It was interesting to see how he made smoking acceptable for women. Bernays' life work was just as incredible as his uncle's. Without Bernays, the term "public relations" may never have been used.

Computers In The Future

Computers are what people all over the world use. There are desktop computers, laptops, and hand held devices that allow the users to surf the internet with. I predict that in the future, computers will stay the way that are today. In science fiction movies, people use computers and machines to do just about everything. Those movies often have robots, teleportation devices, or other things along that nature. That does sound pretty cool if life can be like a science fiction movie. Science fiction movies are great to watch during your spare time. I do see that there will be some changes and upgrades to our computer technology. As far as science fiction computer technology, it will not happen.

Steve Jobs

The late Steve Jobs was one of the major forces behind Apple. The article about Apple has talks about copyright, patents, and mobile technology. Copyright is ownership of a product. If another company steals some content from Apple, they could get sued for it. Patents are the rights a company or organization has. The mobile market is always changing and growing. The mobile market large enough for more than one company to exist inside. Is it right that Apple can sue for the shape of a phone just because they were quicker to apply for a patent? Apple can sue another company if they feel like they have stolen their somehow. If the competition showed that they were able to apply for the patent quicker, then it's wrong to sue them. It shows that they came up with the idea first and got the rights for that particular idea.

Superbowl Commercial

One of the most exciting times of the year is the annual Superbowl. Many people watch and cheer for their favorite teams to win the biggest football game of the year. The Superbowl is scheduled to take place on February 3, 2013 this year. During the Superbowl, there are some new commercials for different products. They are usually funny commercials that often get alot of attention from Superbowl fans. One of the commercials I recently watched was for the 2013 Volkswagon. In the commerical, they start off by showing a sad girl thinking about cats, an screaming pollitican, two bickering people on a baseball field, a fat guy beating his video game system with a guitar, a fustrated golfer, am angry baseball player throwing the plate, a man calling someone a jackass, and two fighting mascot. Jimmy Cliff, a famous Jamaican singer in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, brings all of these people and more out into a beautiful meadow to sing. Jimmy Cliff is best known for singing songs like "The Harder They Come", "Sitting In Limbo", "You Can Get It If You Want To Come", and "Many Rivers To Cross". Everyone in the meadow claps their hands and sings "Will Make You Happy". Superbowl gameday is supposed to be one of the happiest times of the year. Everyone can forget about their fustrations to give their full attention to the upcoming football game. The people of the 2013 Volkswagon didn't look like they were trying to sell their cars in the making of this commercial. People selling cars often show people giving their products a testdrive on commericals to show how they run. Nothing about the Volkswagon wasn't even mentioned except at the end where they showed that they made the commercial. A volkswagon wasn't seen anywhere in the commercial They were just trying to help promote the Superbowl and to show how happy a time the Superbowl really is.

Hermaneutics

Hermaneutics is the art and science of text interpretation. It was a practice used for interpretating the bible, but it's used in communications as well. There are 4 types of hermaneutics that deal with the bible. There is literal, moral, allegorical , and anagogical or mystical. Natural, Normative, Scientific, Philosophical, and Depth Hermaneutics deal with communications. Natural Hermaneutics is the spontaneous, everyday, usually unreflective interpreting we do when intersubjective understanding breaks down. The local news tells us about the events of everyday. We get an understanding about what happens around us by the news. Normative Hermaneutics is the art of text interpretation as a deliberate discipline by a specialist caste. Judge Judy is an example of this. Lawyers, Judges, and Priests are part of this type of hermaneutics. Scientific Hermaneutics is the foundational discipline of the human or historical sciences. The History and Discovery Channels often explain these concepts. They talk about the history of the world. Philisophical Hermaneutics is a general philosophy of existence. Interpreting is less what we do and more what we are interpreters. Joel Osteen is an example of this. He preaches about the meaning of life. It's really hard to tell what the meaning of life really is. It takes a great deal of thought to know the meaning of life for each person. Depth Hermaneutic is suspicion. It's looking for the deeper meaning behind something. A crime investigation show is an example of this. They go over some of most shocking murders done by people like Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Gary Ridgeway, Charles Manson and other deadly killers. They discuss how these killers caused suspicion to authorities and their motive for their crimes