Flapjack and a Cigarette

During the summer, PA legislators voted to ban smoking, and the bill was signed into law (PDF) by Gov. Ed Rendell on June 13, going into effect 90 days later, on September 11, 2008. The public had three months notice to know this was going to happen.

Senate Bill 246 forbids smoking in public places such as restaurants and businesses. Smoking is still going to be allowed at private functions and in private homes, as well as at tobacco shops. I think that this is great. Now when we go to dinner, we won't need to decide between smoking or non-smoking sections. Places that have patrons that hang out while they smoke might loose some business - diners, bowling alleys, and the like. On the flip side, maybe more people will come out to celebrate the new found clean air.

This law also prohibits smoking at government facilities. By extension, the ban effects campuses in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE). As a student at a state school (West Chester University), I got an e-mail on 9/11 which included this paragraph "Based upon the above, it is the position of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education that smoking, as defined by the statute, is now prohibited on the entire campus. “No Smoking” signs will be prominently posted at appropriate locations throughout the campus and maintained by the university. It is a violation of this law for employees and students to smoke on campus." (See the full e-mail at the bottom of this post)

The Clean Indoor Air Act is now controlling outdoor air quality as well. I submitted a Letter to the Editor of the WCU Quad (campus newspaper) after this e-mail was sent out. I will not be re-posting that Op-Ed, but will link it, and recall some key points.

-As of 9/16, the ashtrays are still all over campus. They are by some benches and near the doors of many buildings. If smoking is not allowed, they should have been removed prior to 9/11, as to send a clear signal.
-As of 9/16 there are no "no-smoking" signs on the north campus academic quad, and no increased presence of campus safety, public safety, or officials from the Department of Health to patrol for smokers.
-As of 9/16 there are no designated smoking areas that allow students to smoke in a safe environment. Students are still forced to smoke in the West Chester community.
-As of 9/16, there is no notice on the WCU website about this law, or on the main page of the PASSHE website. The homepage of the PASSHE site merely links to an Associated Press news story.

I maintain that this ban is a good idea that will help protect the health of non-smokers, but the three months of preparation should have been used to actually prepare. PASSHE should have notified students earlier than the day of action, and there should have been a more forum type approach for students, instead of just pawning inquires about the PASSHE policy to the Dept. of Health.

Check out news stories on this topic from: The Philadelphia Inquirer, NBC, and Fox.

Right now, the state is profiting, with one hand, off the sales of tobacco products, while profiting on the other side, by fining people for using their products.

What is the appropriate way to enforce a ban like this? Complete and total ban of all products, including sales, possession, and purchase? Or a free-for-all?

PA Department of Health
PASSHE

Points of View

Did all of August slip by without me writing a post? Wow. The middle of September is rapidly approaching.

I'm writing this in the new Google internet browser, Chrome. So far, I like it. It's very similar to Firefox, but I am not sure which one I will continue to use. The point to that is that I am not sure how the formatting will look, but it should be fine...after all Google also owns Blogger's parent company. I have noticed some sites being unresponsive: Facebook and Wired so far.

I've already made it clear which blogs I typically read. I found this off Wired maybe a week or 2 ago, and it raised an interesting point. One of my favorite childhood books was Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Think of it as Starship Troopers for kids, but less military oriented. Orson Scott Card, who has written over two dozen SciFi, fantasy, and religion related books in multiple series, and has written as a commentator for various political and religious events.

As a writer, Card is very passionate with either fiction or non-fiction. One glance at the bottom of his Wikipedia page chronicles them better than I can. I turn my attention to his article that was highlighted in the Wired article, which can be found at Mormon Times, a website that Card identifies with. He is a member of the Church of LDS (Latter Day Saints). Fine. Normally, at least for me, I don't care about anything personal about authors I read. White, Black, Asian, Mixed, Albino, Male, Female, Transgender, Jewish, Muslim, LDS, Christian, Wicca - All Fine By Me. I usually just care about when the next publishing is going to be.

When an author uses his "celebrity status" to endorse certain view points, like this one when Card calls anything pro-gay coming from the "propaganda mill." It upsets me to see someone so against a view. Propaganda is going to be spewed from either side in a major argument. But comparing Gay Marriage to abortion is absurd. They are totally different, the only thing they have in common is that 50 years ago they were all hush hush.

I can't really say enough how disappointed I am that Card has written like this, even if it was meant just for a Mormon audience. My question is: Do we read because the author is outrageous or his idea/story is outrageous. A (bad) example: OJ Simpson's unreleased book If I Did It was inflammatory. But was it such a big deal because of who wrote it, or the subject matter? Tom Clancy is not what I would think of as an inflaming writer. He writes military related stories - and usually meets our exceptions. Card has been injecting his religious views into his books for a long time, and it took me a long time to understand all of them, and finally get turned off by them. Maybe if his works were presented in that new section at Borders the Religious and SciFi and Fantasy cross section. Oh wait. That's not real.

We can't separate the writer from the tale unless its really engrossing. If JK Rowling (Harry Potter fame) wrote her next book about a raunchy orgy, people would be shocked. Shock sells BIG. I think that if we know the background of writers before we read their work, we will search out influences, instead of letting them get flushed out naturally, we loose part of the story. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and a story is just a story.

What do you think? Does the writer make the book? Or does the written word make the author? And how does this change with cross genre writers?

Watching Music

It’s been said many times, but MTV killed the music video. MTV had been the home of the “video star,” which according to the first music on MTV, killed the "radio star." In conclustion, MTV killed both the radio star and the video star. MTV is now based more in Reality Shows. Programs like Road Rules, The Real World, My Super Sweet 16, MTV Cribs, Pimp My Ride, The Hills, Laguna Beach, A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila, Jackass, True Life, Made, and Date My Mom (the list goes on.)

Moving on from that hyperlink festival, I'd like to look at VH1. As I was growing up, I considered VH1 to be the adult/middle-aged version of MTV. It had boring stuff and music on it that did not interest most children. The women on it were dressed in a less provocative manner, and the videos in general were smarter. I think the first music video I watched, in its entirety, on VH1 was "By The Way" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I was on a business trip/vacation with my Dad in Las Vegas. Weird how I just remembered that. Anyway, that video showed me alternative ways to enjoy music. At the time, I didn't drive, so I was always listening to my Dads' conservative talk radio shows. I had already tired of MTV (I only had a six month affair with TRL). VH1, in the long run, was more visually conservative while being more thought provoking. VH1 has become popular with a somewhat younger audience with the I Love The... programing. And by all means, VH1 is not perfect (I point to example A: Flavor of Love and example B: Hogan Knows Best) just that is a step up from MTV.

There is a third music channel, that I can't say I have ever really watched. I never really cared for this genre of music, I always considered it redneck, or involving missing love, prison, and truck driving (That is a quote from a comedian, but I can't recall who, and Google didn't find anything. I am just not that creative). Sorry, the channel is CMT: Country Music Television. I don't know anything about it that would not come from the Wikipedia article, so I will summarize: Owned by Viacom (same parent company as MTV), CMT is "an American country music-oriented cable television network. Programming includes music videos, taped concerts, movies, biographies of country music stars, and reality programs." There are reality shows similar to the ones found on MTV. Trick My Truck seems to the CMT solution to Pimp My Ride. There are other reality shows that put musicians in improbable situations. "CMT's current programming features country music-oriented shows (i.e. country music videos, taped concerts, etc.), country lifestyle-oriented shows, and old shows and movies that prominently feature country or Southern-rock music."

In my new apartment, I wanted to enjoy my living space. I ordered HDTV from Comcast. Well, in addition to HBO, Showtime, and Starz, I found some new HD programming. One of these was MHD - Music High Definition. This station is the freak love child of MTV, VH1, and CMT (and a distant cousin to MTV2). But wow, it seems to only have the good traits. It has a diverse range of programming (pop, alternative/adult, and indifferent country). The reality programming is music based. There are music videos, concerts, Story Tellers from VH1, MTV Uplugged and various music-related award shows (Not Grammy, more like MTV Music Awards). I wanted to sing the praise of a relatively new (Jan 2006) Network. The programming may not be original, but this is a fresh concept of re-mixing networks to bring a new idea (and new ad revenue.)

What other new programs, HD or otherwise have you recently discovered that made a change in your life? Any inspiring concepts? Does the Shawshank Redemption really do it for you?




......
Okay, my affair with TRL may have been a bit longer than six months.

Dr Horrible's Dark Tower

I just watched the conclusion of the three-part Joss Whedon webisode Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog and I can actually compare it to Stephen King's Dark Tower series, which I also concluded tonight.

The way both presentations end is very...not circumstantial, but lackluster...full circle (?) unsatisfying. That works. They both built up to a huge finish, and while the Dr. Horrible at least had a conclusion, not so much with the Tower.

I'm not going to spoil anything from the series that could be considered King's greatest achievement, his magnum opus..but I do recommend reading it, if you have like 4 months of free time. The series weaves a long tale between several other Stephen King books to create a larger universe...or universes turning on the same wheel (ka is the wheel of destiny). I grew very attached to the main characters and enjoyed their flaws very much. Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog, on the other hand, moves too quickly for true character development. This is not Whedon's best creation. There are not references to other classical works. It might be better than Angel, but it is surely no Firefly (which is only one season long, so check that out over summer).

Major kudos to each of the artists for entertaining me for so long. I don't know how long that Dr Horrible link is going to work, so look on YouTube , maybe you can find something useful there.

"Long days and pleasant nights"

UPDATE: Dr. Horrible will be available on iTunes and DVDs with lots of special features. The Dark Tower series is available in bookstores now.

This blog is closed captioned for the hearing impaired

I forgot that a blog is supposed to be a narrative of events, that happen in some sort of order. I pull crap like posting once a month. Posting Part 1 but where is Part 2? I stopped caring, so I thought that I would just stop writing. I don't have any readers anyway, so the only person I am letting down is myself. Which still sucks.

I recently started watching the show Californication on Showtime, stars David Duchovny and similar to Dexter (another Showtime show that I recently discovered) I see parts of myself in the characters. The main characters in these shows are heavily flawed, and I don't think that I know how to tell others of these same flaws that I see in myself. I am not a serial killer, or a novelist, nor do I live in the somewhat exotic locations of Miami or LA.

As far as my opinion on Turn It In: I don't like it. Thumbs Down. My intellectual property is mine to protect and store, and I don't want them to have any of it. As far as I know, everything I wrote was perfect and original and that's good for me. Kudos. Should I follow through and become a teacher, I will not use Turn It In. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to make sure my kids are doing the right thing. I will not be outsourcing my job.

This might be the second, but probably the third time I am going to try and redefine this blog. A Narrative (With Color Commentary). ... I am open to suggestions about how to do this, but I might force myself to sit down 1-2 times a week and just write something. Not a bitch and moan (at least not always), but I want to look at things I consider interesting.

See you next ___________________________________
(week)/(month)/(year)/(big news day)

Turn It In - Part 1 (Terms of Service)

Continuing my examination of Turn It In, has brought me to reviewing their Terms of Service and Terms of Usage.

The Terms of Service (TOS) is a 10-page Microsoft Word document in 12 pt. font Times New Roman. Due to its length and extensive use of "legalese", I will not be inserting it here. Rather, I will comment on parts of it. I will do my best to make sure that everything is presented in context and fairly before I pass judgment on anything.

"Originality Reports
If You are a School Administrator or Instructor, You agree to maintain any of iParadigms' notices (including legal notices relating to iParadigms' proprietary rights (e.g., copyright and trademark notices) and disclaimers on Originality Reports. You further agree to exercise Your independent professional judgment in, and to assume sole and exclusive responsibility for, determining the actual existence of plagiarism in a submitted paper with the acknowledgment and understanding that the Originality Reports are only tools for detecting textual similarities between compared works and do not determine conclusively the existence of plagiarism, which determination is a matter of professional judgment of the Instructor and Institution. Any disclosure of an Originality Report to any third party is at Your own risk. "
>>So basically, TurnItIn is just using a search engine to take specific parts of your written work and compare it to the results on the internet. My professor (Dr. Larry Udell) explained this to me as saying that it can find multiple plagiarisms in a paper, but it the instructors responsibility to find out what is actually going on. It is that individuals job to determine, (i.e.): If a quotation mark was forgotten; If a citation was written incorrectly; if the student did plagiarize; or if the student used part of his own paper that had already been submitted to TurnItIn. The instructor, being a professional, should be able to read the essays and recognize what does not sound like the words of that student, and then Google the suspicious material himself instead of going through a third-party website.

"License to Use Communications and Papers Submitted
You grant iParadigms a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, world-wide, irrevocable license to reproduce, transmit, display, disclose, archive and otherwise use Your Communications on the Site or elsewhere for our business purposes. iParadigms is free to use any ideas, concepts, techniques, know-how or information in Your Communications for any purpose, including, but not limited to, the development and use of products and services based on the Communications. This license does not include any right to use ideas set forth in papers submitted to the site. Please note that papers submitted to the Site are not read or reviewed by any individuals, but rather are only analyzed using the Licensed Programs. However, nothing herein shall preclude iParadigms from using information independently created by iParadigms.

With regard to papers submitted to the Site, You hereby grant iParadigms a non-exclusive, royalty-free, perpetual, world-wide, irrevocable license to reproduce, transmit, display, disclose, archive and otherwise use in connection with its Services any paper You submit to the Site whether or not originally submitted in connection with a specific class. This license shall survive the termination of the User Agreement. Any cessation of use of the Site shall not result in the termination of any license You grant herein to iParadigms."
>>On-site communications are free for TurnItIn to use (reproduction, transmittal, display, disclosure, and archive). The parent company (iParadigms) is permitted to use any part of said communication for whatever they want, including development and products and services, HOWEVER, this will not be done with any intellectual property in papers submitted. What if our communication highlights some of the ideas we plan on writing about? However, by comparing user-generated papers to newly submitted papers, intellectual property is being used for TurnItIn’s products and services. Our papers are scanned by a program, not a person, so there are no people that could take our essay and use it for themselves. Answer to my contradiction: anything users submit to the site (papers) can be used in accordance with an IRREVOCABLE LICENSE (and immortal, since that license will continue to exist even if TurnItIn.com ceases to have an online presence. So what does this part mean, because I am clueless now.

"Sole Remedies
IF YOU ARE A STUDENT OR INSTRUCTOR, YOUR SOLE REMEDY FOR DISSATISFACTION WITH THE SITE, THE SERVICES, AND/OR HYPERLINKED WEB SITES IS TO STOP USING THE SITE AND/OR THOSE SERVICES."
>>If you don't like it, don't use it. Does that mean, since I personally do not like TurnItIn, I can just refuse to use it, without worrying about repercussions from my instructors? No way.

Moving on to the Terms of Usage...

"The contents of the Site may not be distributed, modified, reproduced, or used, in whole or in part, without the prior written consent of iParadigms, except that you may download content from the Site to any single computer, provided you keep intact all copyright, trademark, and other proprietary notices. Except as provided in these Terms and Conditions, any use of these materials on any other Web site or networked computer environment for any purpose is prohibited."
>> Uh, oh. It already sounds like I am in trouble. I can't take information from the site and discuss it while looking at specific things that bother me? That is rather oppressive.

That's it for now. Anyone have opinions yet?

Further Use Of This Blog > Turn It In intro

Lately, I have had trouble (several months worth) of posting to this blog. I have not done any blogging, but mostly have concentrated on my school work. As a result, I got the best GPA yet in college. A lot of that time was spent writing, and I am very proud of what I accomplished. To highlight my accomplishments, I will be posting some of my favorite essays here. They won't be perfect, they may still have some grammar mistakes, it really depends on if I edited the paper after it was returned to me.

Anything and Everything that I post here, unless I state or cite otherwise is my EXCLUSIVE intellectual and physical property. It may not be copied or used in a presentation without my express permission. If you do you something I post, please cite it correctly, and let me know you did it - I am interested in extensions of my work.

Part of this stems from my first day of (retaking) Philosophy 180 - Intro to Ethics. The teacher has informed us that all take home essays must be turned in on Blackboard. Once they are submitted there, they will be submitted again to the Turn It In website. My dad's girlfriend's son is in 10th grade and also uses this program. Just from taking a glance at the Wikipedia entry of Turn It In, I am not a fan. Read that entry, and be prepared because at some point soon I will be posting an entry about Turn It In. As I stated above, everything I write is my own, and if that wiki is correct, they will keep my paper in their database to attempt to catch other students copying my published works.

I find it ironic that an Ethics class would use something as questionable as Turn It In, and will explore this irony in one of my upcoming posts.

So, readers: What are your experiences with Turn It In? Any horror or success stories to share? What are your feelings on intellectual property of students? Tough thinking may be involved, be sure to wear a helmet.