The Huffington Post – Cluttered, Yet Organized

The Huffington Post was the first blog that I have ever looked at closely. When I first went on the website, the first thing I noticed was how cluttered it was. There were colored boxes with pictures and links and titles all packed next to each other. On the left side of the page was all the blog posts with a summary of each post. Scrolling up and down the home page was a little intimidating, as there seemed to be so much information and so many stories in such a little space.

I began to click on some of the links for different topics (media, entertainment, etc.), and I began to get used to the format of the site. As it turns out, the home page is a mesh of all that the site has to offer, and information and posts on a certain topic are easily attainable by clicking the tabs on the top or bottom of the page.

There are different authors that write for the blog, and I clicked on a few different authors to see how they wrote their blogs. One blog I read was by Elizabeth Banks. The post was her review and critique of the movie ’17 Again’. Although her post was informative, I felt that she went off topic a little too much and used way too many parentheses. Another post I read was one by Arianna Huffington entitled ‘Sunday Roundup’. It was basically a quick summary of some of the big events of the week. I felt that this was better written than the one by Banks. Something I did notice about both posts was the format in which they are written; they both seemed to have an informal tone, unlike articles that you would read in a newspaper. Overall it was interesting to actually take a look at a blog and read through it, instead of just hearing about it or skimming through one like I usually do.

Politics in South Africa

South Africa's President Kgalema Motlanthe has announced that general elections will take place on April 22nd. African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma is the favorite to become president, but he is currently facing corruption charges. A group of disappointed ANC members left and formed a rival party in 2008. The party was deeply divided between supporters of Zuma and former President Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki was forced from power in September 2008 after a judge accused his government of interfering in the prosecution of Zuma for political reasons. However, an appeal court in January 2009 ruled that the first judge had been wrong to reach this conclusion. The election will take place on April 22nd. Zuma's corruption trial has been set for August. He has said he would only step down if convicted.
I think that this is a very important event for South Africa. It hasa also been covered a lot by the media, more than other things that have happened in South Africa. It is said that this election is supposed to be the most interesting since Nelson Mandela became president in 1994, ending white minority rule.

Letter to the Editor...

This article was printed in the online op-ed section of USA Today. The article is about whether or not Obama's housing plan can stabilize plunging values. I did not agree with the writer of the article, so i decided to send a letter to the letter. If you want to do the same, the email us letters@usatoday.com.

To the Editor:
“Our view on the economy: Can Obama’s housing plan stabilize plunging values?” (editorial USA Today, 2/20/09), states that everyone can gain something by Obama’s new housing plan. The article argues that helping up to 5 million people who are current in their mortgage payments but who cannot refinance at lower interest rates because their debt is near or over the value of the house will actually be for the greater good. I feel that this is false. There are other credit markets in the U.S. that can operate without changing the rules. For example, the auto industry has operated successfully despite that fact that many people are in debt when they sign the contracts. If the government is giving money and changing the rules for people who default on mortgage payments, then why shouldn’t they now help the many people that are beginning to default on car loans?

Sincerely,
Nico Scerbo
Ramapo College of New Jersey Student

Faking Own Death and Counterfeiting Money Only Results in a Year of Jail

A South Carolina man who was tracked to Indiana after faking his death has been sentenced to a year in federal prison for counterfeiting more than $65,000 to finance his life on the run. Julius Nesbitt spent more than six weeks on the run before he was arrested at a friend's home. Federal prosecutors say he and another man made the bogus bills that were passed in several states. Nesbitt had faced drug charges in South Carolina when he cast his boat into the ocean about 30 miles south of Myrtle Beach. His disappearance prompted a search over several days. He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to a year in jail.
I feel that the sentencing for this man was too lenient. He evaded being arrested for drug charges by faking his own death, then proceeded to counterfeit money. So drug charges, counterfeiting money, and avoiding arrest only resulted in a year of jail time.

Life Sentence for Stealing Tire Secrets?

Two men were charged with conspiring to steal trade secrets from the Goodyear Tire Company and scheming to defraud Goodyear of confidential and proprietary information. The 2 men traveled to a Goodyear tire manufacturing facility. After allegedly making material misrepresentations to Goodyear employees concerning the purpose of their visit, the men used a cell phone to secretly photograph tire manufacturing equipment. According to the indictment, the men later emailed the unauthorized photographs, which contained valuable trade secret information, to employees at a Wyko (a competitor tire company).
If convicted of all charges, the defendants each face a maximum of 150 years in prison and $2.75 million in fines. It was interesting to see the extreme penalty that these two men could face. Committing murder can result in life in prison, and these men could get 150 years each, which is also a life sentence. Not only can they face ‘life’ in prison, but they also could each owe about 3 million dollars in fines.

T.I. Sentence Too Easy??

Recently, rapper T.I. was sentenced to a year and a day in prison, with $100,000 in fines and an additional 470 hours of community service (he as already served 1000 hours). He had faced a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count, until he cut a deal and pleaded guilty last March to the federal weapons charge.
The reason I found this article interesting was because it shows how celebrities are able to, in a way, cheat the U.S. legal system. T.I. was caught trying to buy unregistered machine guns and silencers. Weapons like this would enable someone to gun down an entire room without anyone even hearing a gunshot. He only received a year in prison and about 1500 hours of community service. T.I. agreed to community service to avoid a lengthy sentence. He has already made 262 public appearances as part of that deal. I find there to be a problem with this. He avoided time in prison because he agreed to perform many community service hours. A normal person would not have as much freedom to make this decision. Being as he is a celebrity, simply making a public appearance counts as community service. He even had his own MTV show where the cameras followed him as he did the community service. Normal people would not have the opportunity to do this and would therefore probably get more prison time.

texting and driving??

I know for a fact the majority of the people in this class have at one time or another text messaged while driving. A recent article in USA Today attempted to show that something needs to be done to prevent people form texting while driving. The article states that 37% of teens rated texting as the most distracting activity they engage in behind the wheel. It then goes on to say that even thought a handful of states have banned texting by drivers, such laws are tough to pass and enforce. The problem that I have with this is that the article argues that laws against driving and texting are tough to pass and enforce, but the article does not offer any possible solutions. Giving examples of how this problem could be solved would have made the articles argument more complete. In addition, they do not go in depth as to the actual laws concerning texting while driving. I think that readers would have been interested in knowing that the enforcement of the no-texting-while-driving law only applies when the driver has already committed another traffic offense. A more in depth description of the weakness of the current law would have made readers realize that this is something that needs to be changed.