New Post #12

Article: ‘Twilight’ Dawns Bright at the Box Office

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/movies/23box.html?_r=1&ref=movies

Summary: The inexpensive sequel to Twilight, New Moon made $140.7 million in tickets in North America this weekend. This high profit was surprising especially since Summit Studios predicted the movie would make around $100 million. New Moon made $70 million on its opening night on Friday with 50% of moviegoers under 21. Only 20% of the audience was male.

The sequel to Twilight came in as the 3rd best movie opening ever behind The Dark Knight and Spiderman 3. The movie that previously held the title was Pirates of the Caribbean 3. The profits of New Moon were so beneficial to a small studio like Summit because it only cost them $50 million dollars to make. This was different compared to The Dark Knight, which cost $185 million, and Spiderman 3, which was funded by $260 million. The audience that drove such high ticket sales for New Moon was mostly female. The next movie in the series, Eclipse, comes out June 30th.

Opinion: This is great news for the studio that such a small budget movie is making huge strides in the movie business. It's great for fans because since the movie is making so much cash in the box office, the movies will continue to come out. There's still two left in this series written by Stephenie Meyer and the next one comes out in June. Although the movie is predicted to make more money, the studio is worried that since the Twilight fans that call themselves "Twi-hards" already saw the movie, who else will go out and see it? This may be a problem, but these movies are known to get repeat customers. I know myself because last year when Twilight came out, I saw it four times.

Glass Houses Article

Summary: In this article, Jack Shafer describes all the things that Glass did to break the journalism code of honesty. He says that he never doubted Glass until Forbes revealed the truth. Before the scandal, publications in England and Singapore used Glass's "facts" to write some of their own articles. When a topic from one of Glass's articles is searched on Google there are results that come up. The catch is that all these results are published AFTER Glass wrote his articles. Also, editors never called Glass bluff because he was "too good to check". They were entertained by his out-of- this-world stories. They also had respect for him since he was willing to accept criticism and often pulled all-nighters to fix his articles. The only part he didn't seem to be willing to tweak was the sources. The New Republic did have a fact-checking department, but Glass received sympathy because of how much he contributed. Shafer says," Anyone can doubt a bad writer. It's the good ones who need watching."

Opinion: The fact that even a editor for an esteemed magazine like Slate was fooled by Glass shows that he truly was a great writer. The problem was that because everyone thought he was so great, no one bothered to check up on him. No one doubted him. Major magazine companies in Europe believed in him so much that they even based their own articles on his. Too bad they didn't know that instead of reporting, Glass was writing fiction. Glass made sure there were no holes in his stories, even going as far as creating a website for one of the companies he made up. The quote at the end of Shafer's article shows that people in journalism automatically put down the writers that don't show flair and color in their articles. On the other hand, they always trust the writers who do show these things. You always assume that the man who has everyone laughing at the meetings and shooting out great articles is perfect. What you don't do is look under the surface of this perfection.

News post # 11

Article: Sounds During Sleep Aid Memory, Study Finds

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/20/science/20sleep.html?ref=us

Summary: Science researchers, while trying to figure out how the sleeping brain works, have found that when people listen to something over and over while they sleep their memory is enhanced. This is very beneficial especially when a person is trying to cram for a test, memorize lines for a play, or learn a new language. Scientists at Northwestern University performed a test on several people that included them seeing pictures, taking a short nap while the sounds that the pictures they saw made were played in the background, and then being quizzed on what they saw before they fell asleep. The people that took a nap did better than those who didn't. They had no recollection of any sounds being played during their nap.

Conclusion: This new information may cause differences in people's lives. Scientists always urge humans to get a good eight hours of sleep each night. Now people will actually realize how important sleep is. The human brain does many significant things while asleep like store and organize memories. Researches also feel that because of this new discovery SAT scores may increase. Hopefully people will know realize that instead of cramming for that history final till 2 AM, they should get some sleep.

News post #10

Article: Can You Believe Your Eyes?

Summary: This article talks about how ever since the beginning of photography, pictures have been retouched in some way or another. The first photo to ever be retouched was in the 1860s when Abraham Lincoln's head was stuck on top of Senator John C. Calhoun's. Another example was a picture of Soviet dictator, Stalin. There was a man next to him who later was arrested. After the man's arrest he was wiped out of the picture. While some photographers might do this for their own advantage, nations, such as Iran, retouch photos to make their countries seem stronger. When Iran photographed a shooting off of their missiles, only 3 out of the 4 went off. They later retouched the picture so it looked like all 4 went off, to make their military seem stronger. Magazine covers, such as TV Guide and Newsweek, also retouched the bodies of their cover stars.

Response: In my opinion, it is completely wrong for these so called "professionals" to be readjusting photos to their liking. Photographs are supposed to be real-life pictures that capture what actually happen. When photographers mess with what was caught on camera, they alter history. Since photo retouching started in the beginning when photography first started, who knows how long it will continue especially with the advanced technology.

News Post #9

Article: Is 2 Much Txtng bad 4 u?

Summary: This article talks about how teenagers are texting in ridiculous amounts. The statistics have been rising ( the average teen sends and receives 2,300 texts per month) and it worries doctors because texting mania leads to suffering grades in school, anxiety, and sleep deprivation. There is also the problem of teens texting while driving. One sophomore teen girl noticed painful cramping in her thumbs after texting insanely for the past few months. Doctors can't tell yet if these thumb cramps will cause permanent damage. Lastly, some teens go over their texting limit and parents need to go as far as confiscating their phones and creating strict texting times.

Conclusion: In my opinion, teen texting has gotten out of control. The old worry was that teens would drink and drive. Now people are scared that their kids will get into a car crash because they were texting while driving. Times have changed and now teachers even tell their students not to use "texting language" in their papers. With teens texting so much their grades suffer. Parents have to monitor their young kids and make sure that their homework gets done so when they get older, the problem doesn't get out of control. Kids shouldn't have phones in 3rd grade because this opens up the door for future issues.