On the Media: Apple vs. FBI

This is a subject we have already discussed in class, but it is nice to listen to the podcast anyways, as this is a more subjective information source rather than our opinions in class.

Something we have not talked about is that this security feature that the FBI wants to disable on the phone is relatively recent addition in the iPhone software, simply to stop government intrusion. Creating this code that the FBI wants, would defeat the whole purpose of the software in the first place.

Second, they talk about the rounds for both Apple and FBI, and how the FBI already has the access to the metadata through the phone carrier, and that apple is in fact refusing a court order. They are both on shaky grounds, as there is a very little chance that the FBI will find something that they do not already know, and Apple has chosen a case where they stand on very small grounds in the first place.

They also talk about the technicalities of the development of such a software that supposedly does not exist. The current safety feature is after 10 unsuccessful hacks the phone will delete its content, which is the part that the FBI wants disabled. There is a chance that this software gets out there, and maybe in the wrong hands.

As a personal comment, i'm surprised that this blew over so fast in the media, at least in my newsfeed it did. I still see a post every now and then if something major happens, but after 2 days it basically became radio silent on this front.

Religion 3.0

I have so many thoughts on the topic of religion, and i honestly do not know where to start or what point of view to write from. I guess i can start by saying that I do not belong to ay religion, when I was 9 months I was baptized into the lutheran church, which I guess was mostly a formality, its something almost everyone does, in my town it is kind of a norm. But as far as practicing any religion, or believing in God I stand on neutral ground. I have no beliefs, but I do not condemn other who believes different than what I do.

Now that you know the prejudice or biases, or maybe lack thereof i think it is safe to start.

To me, religion is something that struck me as "safeguard". Human beings are afraid to believe that there  is nothing out there besides us, and what we cannot explain defaults to something that God has created.  Humans need something bigger than us to believe in, and there is nothing wrong with that. You can believe what you want, and I'll believe what I want.

Let's talk about religion and media, weird how those two are related. Because what I have been told by most christian is that the relationship you have with God is personal, yet media and people freak out when someone is practicing their faith differently.

Hinduism is probably my favorite religion, they are so calm and peaceful and the ultimate goal is to be so minimalistic and meditate until you reach the the point of enlightenment where you break free of reincarnation. Your punishment for not being good enough is to live over and over and over until you are good enough. Isn't that great? You might have to live your life as a cow, or a frog, but at least you have the chance to reach ultimate enlightenment and understand the universe.

At least that is what I have been taught in school, which also seems insane because in this country the schools have banned the bibles, and people are outraged because their sons and daughters are learning about other people's religious beliefs.

How can we respect people when we don't know their values?

Are we hypocrites? We want to love and respect people, but we also want people to be like us, rather than embracing our differences. . You can put your faith in God, Allah, Buddha, Vishnu, Shiva, Ganesha, Thor, Afrodite  or even in yourself. Let people live their lives the way they want, and start listening to their wisdom.  You can learn a lot about why people act the way they do by just listening, maybe you'll learn a thing or two, and stop being stubborn in your own ways. I think the world would be a better place if people decided to be more open minded rather than condemning what they consider to be different.

On the Media; Zika Virus.

This weeks on the media is dealing with the zika virus, in a manner that is more informative than most of the news outlets in this country,

First and foremost they are talking about the actualities of having the virus, and how it is not as bad as portrayed to us. A man that was reporting on the matter actually got the virus and explained that it was not all that bad, and that the supposedly deadly virus is not nearly as painful as other mosquito borne diseases out there.

Second, there is a mention that the virus is affecting the unborn children of mothers that have the virus. This is because they cannot have an abortion  is they were to be infected, IF THEY ARE POOR. This affects mostly people that does not have sufficient access to medical help, because they are not diagnosed, they are also not treated. The average american has access to medical help, and we are aware that this problem might occur and the seriousness of it, something that Brazil was not in the beginning.

Lastly they pointed out that there was an outbreak in Boston. Where ONE person had the virus, and there is no way for him to infect other people, not to mention that it is too cold outside for mosquitos to bite.

I personally want to point out that the media in the U.S. is absolutely absurd sometimes. One of the first things they teach you in "writing for media audiences" is "if it bleeds, it leads" and I cannot come up with a better way to describe the news. Everything is about numbers, and having the most views that they forget to report on the actualities of the situation. The day we are facing a world epidemic there will probably not be anyone left to believe the news, because once again, they are crying wolf.

I stumbled over this video a long time ago when Ebola was the big news, Im a big fan of Russell Howard, he is a British stand-up comedian mostly known for his humoristic take on weekly news in his show "Russell Howard Good News" To prove my point, watch the first 50 seconds, for a good laugh watch the whole thing. P.S some explicit language.

The video itself is supposed to be funny, and it really is. But it does pinpoint how American news is overreacting, and I do believe that is the case about the zika virus as well.

Privacy 2.0

I remember back when I was in 8th grade, and we were talking about the government wanting to put up cameras everywhere, you know to keep track of crimes and such. Most of us thought that was an invasion of privacy, the reality is that these cameras are in our pockets instead. Im sure that someone that is smarter than what I am with computes could see all my snapchats to my fiends,  have my fingerprint at their disposal from my phones ID scanner, or all my bank information because my login is saved in the app. All things that I consider private.

We are always talking about the internet invading our privacy, but we let it. We want everything at our fingertips, and having the luxury of google knowing what we are looking for when we search something is not something we complain about in the moment.

Mark Zuckerberg, the creator of Facebook, is currently helping the project of Al, much like the concept of Jarvis is Ironman. Artificial intelligence that is supposed recognize your voice and face, so you can control your house by just talking, or the doors will open as your approach. When they figure out how to teach it unsupervised(something that apparently is far ways away) and supervised learning it can detect diseases like cancer, or drive you around in your car , or even help us discover our universe. WOW, this sounds amazing, right? But this is using the same technology as the voice recognition on our phones, and the  pattern recognition algorithms in Google and Facebook.

We argue back and forth whether society is pushing technology  or technology is pushing society. To me it does not matter, because we all go with the flow regardless of what our real feelings towards this technology is. Personally, it does frighten me. I´ve watched too many post-apocalyptic movies where the big boom is from artificial intelligence is becoming a little too intelligent, but like everyone else I'm not doing anything about it.

I'm not suggesting a solution on how to either get over my fear, or stop the development of artificial intelligence, but I am saying that I have signed away my rights to complain about invasion of privacy when I encourage these corporations by buying and using their products.

Campaign Plan

Name: Crawlfest (Note: This will be changed as per request by the creator)

Mission: 

Edit

To bring 4x4 enthusiasts together to enjoy our mild to wild trails in Southern Utah.

Persona

Stuart is a man in his late 40s who loves the outdoor, he has a beautiful wife and 2 children that he loves to take out on some four wheel actions in the mountains nearby. He has been doing this for decades.

Annie is in her early 20s, and has just moved out of her childhood home. She is for the first time experiencing how tough life can be, and is defaulting to the hobby that her family is doing which is four wheeling. This is a cheap way of having fun since the "only" expense is gas. 

Paul is retired and he is just looking for a hobby and some action in his life. A fiend or early colleague has brought his attention to the fun of rock crawling and this has become a regular occurrence.

Objective:

To keep the fans of rock crawling informed about events and gatherings.

Have updated maps with the current trails available to the public. 

Have information available on other resources that are relevant to the people whom are interested.

This page has existed for quite a while, but has been very inactive for the past couple of years with only some picture updates every 5 months or so.   The purpose of me taking over the page again is to get accurate information up and going and get the followers engaged.