Newsvine

Recently, I have become quite fond of a new member of the family of “Web 2.0″ sites. Newsvine’s ability at posting news quickly and from a wide variety of sources is unmatched by any other site currently on the Internet.

First, Newsvine has “The Wire”, which includes new articles posted to the Associated Press newswire. Newsvine posts these articles to their website automatically, and therefore faster than any other news website. Second, Newsvine includes “The Vine”. The Vine is the heart of Newsvine and its user oriented article ranking. The Vine allows users to post articles from other websites as well as from their own “Column” on the Newsvine website. Articles from both the Wire and the Vine are tagged and ranked by users and can be viewed either in one of the main categories, or in a tag category most easily accessible by the text box at the top of the page.

As a user on Newsvine, you are able to comment on articles, chat, rank, and seed articles. Both comments and chat are available for every article and are available below the article. Articles from The Wire and The Vine both need user votes to be placed or remain higher in the listing on the main page or a category page. Every user also has the ability to “seed” an article from another website. This allows Newsvine’s website to include news articles from any other website on the Net. When a user seeds an article, it gets placed on The Vine and is available in the appropriate categories as suggested by the user. The more user votes the article gets, the higher up The Vine it will get and the more prominently it will get displayed on the site.

Because of both The Wire and The Vine, Newsvine offers unprecedented access to fresh news. Added user interaction enhances the experience for all users and makes it more interesting to get the news.

Bush’s Inner Child

I have become convinced now that President Bush does not know how to act properly as an adult. We have recently seen several instances of him acting inappropriately. First, we saw how he acted with British Prime Minister Tony Blair when a microphone was left on at a closed dinner at the G8. Bush did not show any respect for Blair, exclaiming “Yo! Blair” and while talking, continuing to eat and chew with his mouth open, not to mention his inappropriate language in front of one of Britain’s highest government officials.

A couple of days after that incident, video and photographs were revealed from a pre-G8 meeting President Bush attended in Germany. At the event, Bush walked up behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel while she was siting and grabbed her at the shoulders, mocking a massage. Merkel, visibly surprised, raised her arms quickly to shoo him off.

Finally, I was surprised when I opened my browser tonight and went to the Raw Story main page to see if there were any new articles, and saw the picture at right. The pictures shows the President of the United States slapping Representative Al Green across the face at a NAACP convention. I don’t know how the gesture came about or how hard Bush’s slap was (I doubt Bush could deliver one very hard), but the picture just looks wrong. Why should the highest elected official in the United States be acting this way? It boggles my mind to try to understand how we could have elected a President who can’t act right in front of other adults.

The Assassin’s Gate by George Packer

I just finished reading The Assassin's Gate: America in Iraq by George Packer. The book covers a large number of aspects of the American invasion and occupation of Iraq and the typical life of Iraqis in the post-Saddam era. Packer spent many months inside Iraq, risking his life to meet Iraqis and important American, British, and Iraqi officials. A lot of work was certainly spent to gather the information contained inside the book and it shows. Packer covers the heart-warming stories of Iraqis proud of their country and happy to have been rid of Saddam Hussein, to the Iraqis who wish the Americans had never come, to the heart-breaking stories of soldiers killed in Iraq and the struggle of their family members to understand why their loved ones died. Anyone interested in the Iraq War, whether for or against the American action in the Gulf should definitely consider reading this book. It provides unique insight into the actual conditions inside Iraq and the conflicts between the peoples of Iraq.

Lamont receives endorsement from MoveOn

Yesterday I posted about Ned Lamont's run for Senate in Connecticut. Today, Lamont received another boost from the endorsement from MoveOn.org, a progressive organization that focuses on awareness of liberal issues. MoveOn hosted a mock-primary among its members, in which Ned received an overwhelming 85%, compared with Lieberman's 14%. Although MoveOn is obviously dominated by strong liberals who would definitely favor Lamont's view of the War in Iraq over Lieberman's, there is no doubt that this strong showing for Lamont shows he has strong support.

Roosevelt School-Bridgeport CT

Today, my 9th grade English Honors class went on an adventure that led us to the Roosevelt School in Bridgeport. The object of our assignment was to read stories to the kindergarten classes that we had written. We spent about 3 and a half hours at the school, which is located in the poorest section of the city. The day was filled with out interesting encounters with the young children, as we tried to read the stories to them and engage them in activities such as games and coloring. Overall, the experience was very unique and allowed us to interact with a very interesting group of children. Although they were not always completely cooperative, all the students were enthusiastic and prepared to put a smile on our faces and some warmth into our hearts.

CT Senate Race Heating Up

Over the past few weeks, some serious opposition to current Connecticut Senator and one time vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman has materialized. Ned Lamont, a businessman from Greenwich has made it clear that he intends to unseat the three-term senator. Lamont has already cleared the first hurdle, forcing a primary in August to determine whether Lamont or Lieberman will appear on the election ballot in November for the Democrats.

Lamont is challenging Lieberman primarily due to Lieberman's support of the Iraq War. Unlike most Democrats, Lieberman has come out strongly in favor of the war and many other conservative issues on the Bush Administration's agenda. Although Lieberman states in his campaign commercial that he listens closely to the Connecticut residents he meets, he continues to defend his position on the Iraq War despite the overwhelming discontent of the war around the state.

One rather ironic part of the whole matter is that Lieberman's main defense against Lamont is that Lamont is a wealthy multi-millionaire who is out of touch with the average citizen of Connecticut. However, it seems more to the contrary, since Lieberman seems to no longer represent the majority opinion of the state.

Lamont's strong showing at the State Democratic Convention shows how serious a threat he is to Lieberman. In order to force a primary in August, Lamont needed 15% of the delegates at the Convention. Ned received an overwhelming 30%, with the rest going to Lieberman. Had Lamont been unable to reach 15% of the delegation, he would have needed to collect 15,000 signatures from registered Democrats in the state.
The next few months should prove to be very interesting for Connecticut residents and the country. If Lamont wins, it will be a small but important victory for the Democratic Party, as well as the citizens of Connecticut.

Gather.com

I am back, I went on a little hiatus. It is hard to run a blog!

I recently found a very interesting service called Gather. I heard an ad on National Public Radio and went to go check it out the other day. Gather is somehow based around public radio, but I haven't quite figured out what the relationship is yet. You don't need to listen to NPR or anyother public radio station to participate though.

 Once you signup, you have your own homepage at <yourusername>.gather.com. You can search and browse the site to find articles that other members have written. People you know on Gather you can invite to be friends and all of the content they post will be posted on your homepage so you can see when a friend has posted a new article or image.

Additionally, you can subscribe to people you do not know directly but find interesting in some way on Gather. These people's contributions to Gather will also be posted on your home page. The site also allows you to rate and comment on any article.

The final step is to begin posting your own content. Almost anything that is on your mind is fair game for an article. Posting an article on Gather is very similar to posting to a blog except the posts get organized into tags and groups along with other people's submissions and probably become more noticeable than your everyday blog.

Gather provides a great way to see what other people are thinking and share your own thoughts with others. Through this you will hopefully be able to meet some new people and make some friends.