Free Blog: UFO

http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/exclusive-new-york-city-ufo-footage/a6ca59653eb59a543977a6ca59653eb59a543977-290407712087?q=UFO%20in%20manhattan&FORM=VIRE4

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/UFO-Sighting-in-Manhattan--104945964.html

I decided to do my blog on a video taken by CBS News of the weird objects that many people saw in the sky on October the 15^th. The UFO, as they call it, was seen in New York, New York.  The city officials of seeing looking over the footage and they still haven’t provided any answers about what the object might have been. The article stated that some people thought it may be a balloon. The video above shows an oddly shaped object full of lights, flying slowly through the blue sky.  One witness called the spectacle “extraordinary.”

Based on seeing the video, I really don’t think it was a UFO. People in our society are just bizarre and crazy in the head. I don’t even believe in aliens. I will only believe in aliens if I were abducted by one or see one in a person. I so agree with the idea that the object was possibly three balloons floating in the air. The object didn’t even move much, and if it was a UFO, you would think they would be moving towards a destination in order to “learn” about us or something. I find this news story to be outrageously dumb.

What is your opinion?

1998 Film Response: Copycatting

After watching the video in class last Monday, I was shocked how many people mimicked stuff that they saw from movies or other media. It’s odd for me to see adults copying movies and trying to implement those crimes. I believe adults should know better to observe something that is not of norm in their society and try to imitate it. The only time I can understand one doing so is if they have some type of mental disorder. Two examples that stuck out to me the most were the two boys that tried to imitate the killing of “Scary Movie” and the one where the women gathered other women to imitate the robbery in the movie “Set It Off.” When the narrator was talking about the “Scary Movie” scenario, it was shocking to me how those young boys did such crimes on their friends and family. One killed stabbed their mother just to get money to buy the mask that the killer in the movie had (REALLY?). It’s really sad to see how these boys lives are revolving around a movie that’s suppose to be for entertainment, but it is used as a tool. In a sense, yeah they did imitate the movie, but they took it out of context (they weren’t acting, they were real). In the “Set It Off” scenario, it was bizarre to see how a one women was able to gather those women together to learn a robbery scene from a movie. They acted out the whole scene completely when they themselves robbed a bank. In this example, I’m not surprised that someone copied this because it worked for the characters in the movie. They tried to copycat it and they actually acted by what they saw. Even though I thought it was funny (ex. to be a banker and have heard the scene from somewhere), it’s still not right for someone to imitate someone to do commit a crime. Our society is more excepting of copycat acts that don’t deal with violence. Overall, the film was very informal about the acts of people that are influenced by movies. I believe that those things the people watched in the film have some impact on them, but I don’t believe the films are the overall cause of them going through with criminal acts. Like I said earlier, there has to be some possible underlying mental disorder. It’s okay to copycat something, but the acts shown in the film were way out of my norm.

The Copycat Effect: "I Tell You Every'Tang"

When I think of copycatting the media, the first show that comes to mind is Mad TV. About three years ago, I was introduced to a character named Ms. Swan that I thought was hilarious. I loved how slow she acted in the skits, so I imitated some of them amongst friends and family. In the skits, she would always frustrate people because she would never answer a question. She would always reply “I will tell every’tang” and the question would never get answered. Being that I thought it was hilarious and cool, when my teachers or friends would ask me something, I would reply just as Ms.Swan. After I saw that they were getting frustrated, I stopped, but still thought it was hilarious afterwards. I while later, I decided to mock one of the skits where Ms.Swan went to the McRonalds drive thru and make it difficult for the drive thru worker. In attempt to imitate, I decided to go to a local McDonalds drive thru. I was having a blast until I found out that the person in the drive thru knew who I was. After that event, I kind of stopped copying Ms.Swan because it got old. I was also an independent experience for me because no one I knew was copying the skits, so I felt special for a period of time. I may just start copying some of the skits again by Ms.Swan. J

Imitation from Gaming Media: Jumpin' Off The Roof Like Jeff Hardy

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2009/04/15/2009-04-15_a_9yearold_wrestling_fan_jumped_off_his_brooklyn_apartment_roof_wearing_a_homema.html

I decided to do my blog on an article that I found online since I was unable to attend the homecoming game or parties. The article I found was about a 9 year-old boy named Damori Miles that died after an attempt to “possibly” imitate his favorite video game “PlayStation 2 WWE SmackDown vs. RAW.” Shakar, Damori's best friend, stated that his pal was imitating his favorite Playstation 2 game, which most likely led people to believe this was the boy’s motive. The reason why I choose this article was because it related to the reading “Media Influence,” where a 17 year old imitated a popular wrestling move on 3 year old. When it came to Damori Miles, he died when attempting to imitate Jeff Hardy’s swan dive from the top of his Brooklyn apartment. He attempted so by wrapping string around his body and using a plastic bag as a parachute. Epic fail! His broken body was found outside the apartment complex at 7pm and he died at the Interfaith Medical Center an hour later. One witness said they heard a thump and then happened to see a boy on the ground with his clothes ripped off. Oh yeah!..The article also mentioned that the Damori received special education instruction and the door to the roof where he jumped was unlocked (and the alarm didn’t sound).

Obviously his attempt was not well thought about beforehand, and he probably didn’t know better. Kids follow models in our society, and they should not be allowed to view anything of violent nature. Even though Damori was “possibly” imitating Jeff Hardy, the parents should have never allowed their son to even have the game.  The game is for those 13 years and up, and Damori was only 9. Also, why wasn’t he with his parents? They have to take some fault because they could have prevented the situation from happening if they had kept a close eye on him. Also, he was in a special education class, which kind of makes me believe that the boy’s mind was not in the right place during the time of the incident. He obviously thought the wrestler was awesome, and if the model could do it, so could he. He possibly could have missed the scene in the game where it states to not attempt anything seen at home. It didn't help that the roof door was unlock and the alarm didn't go off. The apartment complex should be at fault for that because it's a violation of safety. Hopefully people will realize that children are copycatting their models through observation. Only thing a child needs to commit a stupid act is: (1) the opportunity to observe an act a child shouldn’t see, (2) reinforcement from someone, and (3) the source from which the act would draw from. Parents can/should help prevent these things from happening, and maybe they won’t run the risk of losing a child due to the imitation of “bad” models in the media.

(Mis)Information: Is My Life Full Of Mis(Truth)fulness?

I found the article of “(Mis)Information” to be very interesting because I feel the same about the various things the author stated. So much is the information that take in every day is not factual, but yet we still go along with it. Today’s society is greatly influenced by religion, politics, and economics, as the author stated in the article. I agree that the influences of this information are powerful and that people are supporting and believing policies that aren’t in their best interest. Because of the (mis)information of these influences, it causes people to carry on bias “facts” that aren’t in truthful. I also found the author’s causes of inaccurate information to also be interesting including: the bandwagon effect, confirmation bias, base fallacy, and cognitive dissonance. I really agree with the author along the lines of the Bandwagon effect because people have a habit of being copycats. Because of this, people do things because other people are doing it. This very obvious with Facebook but I’m not even going to go there. J

I can remember a time in my life when I believed something and it was not factual at all (and I know I’m not the only one). The belief was that on December 25^th, Santa comes to your house, down your chimney, and delivers presents. Santa also was chubby, fat guys who came and ate your cookies and drink a glass of your milk (that has been sitting out…for him). Well, didn’t my parent tell me a lie? I found out that Santa was not real when I saw that my dad was the one eating the cookies, and my mom was the one putting the gifts underneath the tree. I was heartbroken when I found out that my parents were Mr & Miss Claus. But as I grew up, I started getting into church and actually found out the true meaning of Christmas. Christmas is a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Also, I discovered that my parents had joined the “bandwagon” when I was younger. Lots of parents trick their kids into thinking that Christmas is all about Santa. Parents believe that if the other parents are doing it, they should do the same for their kids, which I kind of understand because it wouldn’t work well having some kids being in Santa and other kids knowing the actual meaning of Christmas. To avoid conflict, most children believed in Santa because of their parents. As I got older, I guess I jumped on another “bandwagon” because I followed my families/communities religion of Baptist (not like it was my choice to do otherwise).

I feel that the author’s proposal for the ‘Department of Information’ would be beneficial. I would be nice to have a department that would render what the real facts are. But at the same time, I don’t really see how this could happen efficiently. Even if we do have the ‘Department of Information,’ I still believe things will be bias because people have their First Amendment rights. I really don’t see society’s “bias facts” changing any time in the near future.  It would take a dyer miracle to get all information in our society to be of pure truth. As for now, I guess we have to deal with some more (Mis)Information.

Free Blog: Smoking Weed with Daddy

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/08/colorado.dad.pot.arrest/index.html

For my free blog, I wanted to find something disturbing dealing with children (and I did). In the article I found, it dealt with a father contributing marijuana to his daughters. The article didn’t give any names for the children, but father Jake Duke had 2 daughter (ages 6 and 7) and is being charged with marijuana possession, distributing to a minor, and child abuse. The charges drew up from an event that took place when the 6-year old tried to start a fire in the bathroom of her elementary school. When she was confronted for her act, she spoke able how she and her father smoked marijuana. It was shocking to one officer because the young girl knew more about marijuana than some adult. The 6-year old daughter even remarked that she didn’t like to smoke the seeds. Obviously, this girl had learned this stuff from observation because as Mesa county sheriff investigator stated “marijuana users commonly discard the seeds and stems from the marijuana plant.” Also, one of the daughters told authorities that her father would smoke weed and blow it in her face when she didn’t feel well. When the police searched the girl’s home, they found one small marijuana pipes, two large bongs, a digital scale, and a small bag of weed. The girls are currently staying with their grandparents after being taken away by child services.

This article was odd to me just because the child was so informal about marijuana. This is something that I would have never thought a child would learn in depth at such an early age. I suppose it’s understandable because kids are like sponges and they take in most of everything they observe. Even so, it’s still wrong for the father to use drugs around his children. He’s definitely not a good model for his children and not good father material. What father blows smoke in this child’s face? Because of his actions, he possibly could have scared the girls for life. Also, when I was reading the article, I wondered where the mother was. Was the mother also a “druggy” that didn’t care about smoking around the children, was the mother not in custody of the girls? If she was in the household and didn’t smoke weed, I don’t see how she could allow her children to live in those conditions.

In relation to the class reading and discussions, I don’t see this article as entertainment. I found this article to be more informing about something odd that is going on around us. I found it to be more of a warning to let people know that there are parents in our neighborhoods like do drugs around their children and the children are observing everything. Also, this article included victims that viewers would feel really sympathetic for. Children are the last thing people want to see getting victimized, in my opinion.

"My Daddy Ate My Eyes...."

http://www.komonews.com/news/local/55165387.html

The article I found was quite disturbing. The story was about a man accused of biting out his 4-year old son’s eyes. Angelo Mendoza Sr., 34-years old at the time, for some reason decided to abuse his son Angelo Mendoza Jr. (4 years old). In late April, the child was discovered by a neighbor laying naked on the bloody floor of their Ohio Drive apartment located in Bakersfield, California. The Bakersfield police report quoted the son saying, “My daddy ate my eyes” and “Daddy bit my eyes and hands.” The police stated that Mendoza, the father, was in a wheelchair during the acts because of a spinal cord injury. After he brutalized his son, he rolled out of the apartment and started to hack away his leg with an ax. The police report that Mendoza was showing signs of being under the influence of PCP.

The Kern County Superior Court judge ruled that Angelo Mendoza was not mentally competent for trial. They recommended Mendoza be transferred to a county of state mental health facility. The first doctor to examine him believed that he would be able to stand trial if he stayed on the medication given. Even so, the criminal proceedings have been delayed multiple times because Mendoza Sr. was reportedly in poor medical condition and lacking communication. The charges of mayhem, torture, child cruelty, and inflicting injury on a child had put on hold due to his mental conditions.

The articles for this case were from 2009 (last court date mentioned was Sept. 22^nd) and not a lot of information is spoken on the current processes of the trial.

This story is related to the class reading because it shows how the media shows disturbing and terrifying things that they know will draw the public’s attention. Also, this story happened to show how the media constructed CJ ecology is ideal offenders and ideal victims. The story made it seem like the ideal offender is some psycho path on PCP and a victim seem like an innocent child. As stated in the policy reading, “Children are the archetypal innocent victims and key symbols in the media's social construction of crime (206).” Also from this story, I believe that people will see the need for more child protective services, in which the media would impact CJ policy.

I don’t believe that the media tried to make this case entertainment because there haven’t been any new stores about the case since late 2009. It seems as if the case has died. Yes, when the case first came out, it was eye opening to the viewers, but I don’t think that they tried to make it entertainment. If so, they would have tried to blow up the case much/ long as possible. I believe the simple fact that it involved a child and a mentally ill person drew in a lot of viewers. It does help that the crime was done between a father and son which would astonish a lot of people. The people were more worried about the littles boys safety and the mental capacity of the father.

For more information, watch this news video I found:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsSSpPZbFtY