For my final project, I would like to address the topic of DNA evidence and “cold” cases. More particularly, I would like to address the pros and cons of opening these closed cases, as well as the process through which the judicial system must go through to open a closed case due to the presence of new, more accurate evidence. I will discuss the accuracy of DNA testing and results, as well as their effect of how a case will be handled. For example, I will include statistics supporting how many cases were proved to be wrong due to DNA testing as well as the percentage of cases that use DNA evidence. Furthermore, I will explain how the presence of DNA evidence makes the outcome of the case more reliable and correct. I also hope to determine what the process is if new evidence does, in fact, change the outcome of the case. I will also include a few real life examples of people who were exonerated due to opening closed cases. I will elaborate on how DNA evidence changed the outcome of their sentence as well as their lives. There are several other questions that I will be covering. One topic that I will discuss is the process in which to handle these cases. For example, the question of which cases are appropriate to re-open and which ones will have priority. Also, I will explain the idea of Double Jeopardy and how it ties into this process. I do think that come cases should be opened and reevaluated if there is new DNA or genetic evidence. However, I do realize that it would be inefficient to open every case. So, there should be some organized way to determine which cases get reopened and when, so that it does not become an ordeal and create an even larger back up in the judicial system. Also, I am also interested in finding out what happens to the people affected by the original verdict, as well as the new. What are the people who “got away” due to the first verdict doing, and what happens now that they are caught? Also, I will discuss, per real life accounts, how these changes in sentencing affect the lives of the innocent and wrongfully accused. Most of the research that I have done on the topic refers to either how DNA works in determining outcomes of cases or opinions about the process in which people think the judicial system should handle the situation. The thesis that I have arrived at envelopes the idea that while DNA testing should be used as evidence in the present, some closed cases deserve to be reopened and reevaluated in order to come to a fair verdict. However, there should be an efficient and logical way in which to choose which cases are opened and when.

Television today is not what it once was years ago. Many television shows that would have never been allowed on national television are now being broadcasted on television screens nation wide. The media is allowing shows that have explicit sexual context and violent behavior to air. The Hendry J Kalser Family Foundation. “The UCLA Television Violence Monitoring Report” Key Facts TV Violence (2003): 1. analyzed three years of programming from 1994 to 1997 to prove that violence shown on television has a negative effect on children. Throughout this piece the reader will see how the change in entertainment has effected the kids of today.

Once upon a time, reality television shows such as I love New York, Tila Tequila A Shot at Love and Charm School (just to name a few) would have been rejected to air on television because of their sexual content and violence. Reality television is a new trend that most commonly came to use in 2000. Ordinary television series used to be the only topic of discussion that raised an issue of encouraging violence on younger viewers, now, in the second year of UCLA’s monitoring report on television violence, the study showed that “five live-action reality shows featured real or re-created graphic images of animals attacking and sometimes killing people. By the third year, the number of such shows had increased again (The Hendry J Kalser Family Foundation. “The UCLA Television Violence Monitoring Report” Key Facts TV Violence (2003): 1.).

Television shows advocating violence and inappropriate language and behaviors have an affect on the increase of children’s violence rates. Are these inappropriate shows being broadcasted because they bring money to the industry? Jack Valenti, founder of MPAA ratings suggests “If you make a movie that everyone wants to see then no rathing will hurt, if you make a movie no one wants to see, no rating will help you.” When customers submit movies that the MPAA knows people will like to see, they are more detailed and enthusiastic about getting that movie out to the public. Does this same concept apply to television series? Shows such as South Park, The Boondocks and Family Guy have been airing on television for quite sometime now despite having a multitude of scenes that demonstrate sexual behaviors, advocate violence, and utilize vulgar language. Henry J Kalser Family Foundation’s study proved that the number of prime-time programs with violence increased over the three years of the study, from 53% to 67% on broadcast television and from 54% to 64% on basic cable. It also showed that premium cable networks have the highest percentage of shows with violence, averaging 92% since 1994.

Earth is showing many signs of worldwide climate change. Average temperatures have climbed to 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since the year of 1880. The “greenhouse effect” is the warming that happens when certain gases in Earth’s atmosphere trap heat. The greenhouse effect refers to as the natural phenomen that keeps earth in a temperature range that allows life to flourish. Global warming is the rise in Earth’s temperature. Global warming is a big concern with scientists. Global warming is caused by carbon dioxide and other pollution that gathers in the earth’s atmosphere, trapping in the sun’s heat and causing the planet to heat up. The United States of America is the largest source of global warming pollution. The biggest causes of global warming in the United States come from power plants and automobile’s releasing of CO2, which is carbon dioxide, and other air pollution. Coal burning power plants produce an average of 2.5 billion tons every year, and automobiles approximately 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year. Global warming can be prevented or at least decreased. Global warming is a serious concern. Global warming can cause numerous of bad things to happen. Global warming can cause wildfires, stronger hurricanes, extreme heat waves, drought, and etc. If citizens of the United States of America take global warming into deliberation of the effects that global warming have on their country, citizens will use solutions to decrease global warming. Technology exists in our world that make cars run cleaner, modernize power plants, and generate electricity from nonpolluting sources. Over the past fifty years the average global temperature has increased at the fastest rate in recorded history. In 2003, extreme heat waves caused more that twenty thousand deaths in Europe and more that 1,500 deaths in India. Experts think the general direction of global warming is accelerating. Global warming has caused damage in several parts of the United States of America. Colorado, Arizona, and Oregon went through their worst wildfire seasons that they ever encountered in 2002. In the same year of 2002, drought created serious dust storms in Colorado, Kansas, and Montana, while floods caused hundred of millions of dollars in damage in Texas and North Dakota. Snow collection has decreased sixty percent and seasons of winter have decreased in some areas of the United States. In 2004, the Pentagon let out a report stating the possible impacts of climate change on national security. The study stated that global warming could make large areas of the world uninhabitable and cause huge water and food shortages, causing widespread migration and war.  Scientists study and learn more about how global warming is affecting planet earth. Many scientists agree that certain outcomes are likely to occur if current predicted performances of global warming continue. Particular outcomes dealing with global warming are melting glaciers, rising sea levels, warmer sea surface, new pests, and disruption of habitats. While prospects of global warming stays highly risky, several of global warming’s effects are currently being observed. The thought that such great possibility of change is possible there should be an urgent need to start decreasing global warming pollution.

Thomas Nichols Andrea Wood English 1101 17 November, 2007      Global Warming, Alternative Energy, and Politics            As the controversy over the human contribution to the “greenhouse effect” continues, U.S. government and industry continue to struggle to agree on the most effective methods to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  The differences in opinions exist due to economic, environmental, and regional concerns that even blur political boundaries within the nation.  The latest disagreements have risen over the issue of biofuels, especially ethanol.  Once ethanol is recognized as a major weapon in the battle to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, recent concerns about ethanol production and use has begun to turn attention back to fuel efficiency and other alternative energy sources as potentially better solutions.            As a result of its perceived benefits, corn-based ethanol production has gradually increased over the past ten years to the point that the most recent U.S. energy bill mandates eight billion gallons of ethanol be blended annually with gasoline by fuel producers.  However, recent environmental studies on corn farming have indicated that overall greenhouse gas emissions may be higher from planting to burning of ethanol than for fossil fuels.  Aggressive soil tilling needed for corn growth has been shown to dramatically increase CO2 (carbon dioxide) release from soils, and also results in greater soil erosion.  Nitrogen fertilizers needed to sustain suitable crop yields also increase emissions of NO2 (nitrogen dioxide), which contributes up to 300 times the greenhouse heat effect per a like volume of CO2.            Economically, it has proved difficult to justify the added cost of blending 15% ethanol into gasoline, especially when the blend results in lower auto fuel efficiency.  And while the government has implemented economic incentives to move to an 85% ethanol blend, a chicken-or-the-egg glitch has slowed progress.  Fuel producers complain there are not sufficient numbers of vehicles capable of using 85% blend to justify large-scale production, and auto manufacturers complain there is not sufficient 85% fuel available to justify production of the vehicles.  Finally, there are social concerns regarding the gradual worldwide substitution of fuel growth for food growth.  The United Nations has issued statements in the past year condemning the use of food grains for fuel production, especially noting the rising incidents of starvation in several areas of the world.              In light of these concerns, the U.S. government is trying to turn back to fuel efficiency and other alternative energy sources as solutions, but it is proving to be too politically painful in many cases.  Efforts have already begun to reduce subsidies and tax incentives for corn-ethanol production, but representatives from mid-western states will face angry constituents back home if they support such measures.  Meanwhile, other regions of the nation complain about having to pay higher fuel costs due to mandated ethanol blending.  Recent attempts to increase the auto fuel efficiency mandates from the 30-year-old 25 mpg standard up to 35 mpg has met stiff resistance from an already-suffering auto industry and their representatives.  On the alternative energy front, many states have passed laws that allow wind and solar power producers to sell excess electricity generated back to power grids to help justify high equipment costs.  However, the laws are mostly useless at present until technologies can be developed to get the lower-voltage currents back into the high-voltage grids.

Therefore, government and industry have suffered an unexpected setback from the initial promise of ethanol, and must now find the least painful path to begin taking some of the eggs out of the ethanol basket to be applied to other energy options.  With presidential and congressional elections due in 2008, it is unlikely energy policy and greenhouse gases will be addressed in much detail by either party.  It is also unlikely anyone surviving the elections will be anxious to address the nation afterward as to the sacrifices ahead.

Video Game fandom is much like other fandoms in that it also sprouts fanfiction, has conventions and has known characters. What separates Video Game fandom from the others is the phenomenon of modding. Henry Jenkins also draws many differences between Gamer fandom and other fandoms in his work Fans, bloggers, and gamers : exploring participatory culture. Modding, in short, is additions of gamers to their favorite game by editing source code or using tools that come with the game to produce their own content. The question lies in how far should fans be allowed to edit the game? It will not be addressed how violent mods affect children as is discussed by John Colwell in “Needs met through computer game play among adolescents.”

What is important for conducting this kind of argument is drawing clear boundaries between different games and different game components. I will discuss three different game types that may all be present in one game (such as Diablo II by Blizzard Entertainment) or be dominant throughout. These types are: single player games with no interactions between users inside the game (such as the ElderScrolls IV: Oblivion by Bethesda Softworks), non-competitive online games that do not rank players in any way (such as Warcraft III by Blizzard Entertainment), and finally the online competitive genre that ranks players or allows for in game character development comparative to other characters (such as any mass multiplayer online role-playing game). Since the conclusions for how far gamers should be allowed to go in each, each game type will be addressed separately. The different game elements are also discussed in great detail by Joost Raessens in the Handbook of computer game studies. Mods themselves will also be split up into five categories: cheat additions, mini game additions, added content additions, cosmetic changes, and user interface changes.

Modding is an important fan practice that allows fans to create their own content within their favorite game but this requires limits in order to function properly. Single player games should have no restrictions on modding as they can not affect other users without their consent, while non-competitive online games also do not need to restrict modding in any way other than things that would count as viruses (ie things that are not mods really, just harmful to other users). Competitive Online games are the most difficult to judge boundaries on, but for them user interaction is essential which needs to be dictated by the game in order to stay fair, therefore only user interface changes mods should be allowed because the user interface does not give the user any unfair advantage over other players and in fact does not affect others at all because only the user will be aware of its changes.

Summary

Grokster is a file sharing website and software that was used by multiple users to download music. Up to 90% of the music downloaded using Grokster was illegal (according to the prosecution). One major issue in this case was a previous ruling of the supreme court in sony v. Universal Studios. The issue was that VCRs were being used to make illegal copies, but the supreme court ruled that it was not the VCR distributors fault for the illegal uses of their product. This made up the primary case for the defense. Grokster appeared in court for the first time in a Los Angeles court in April, 2003, where judge Stephen Wilson ruled in favor of Grokster. However, the MPAA and the IRAA (who Grokster beat in the first trial) appealed the decision. In August, 2004, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit offered an official statement supporting Grokster. Despite this, the Supreme Court decided to hear the case in December 2004. The supreme court ruled, in March, 2005, that Grokster was illegal and forced it to shutdown. The shutdown was only temporary as Grokster resurfaced as a legitimate site with the proper music licenses.

Analysis

The case against Grokster is similar to a couple of the points in Rebecca Tushnets essay in two primary ways.  The first is the idea of attribution and the second refers to the effects of widespread access.

Tushnet says that fans do not expect that the author of the vid is the original creator of the work that they are using. She uses the example of when fanvids use images of Captain Kirk and Superman, the viewer or audience does not really expect or believe that the author of the vid made up that particular characters.  They are not taking credit away even though it does not include a disclaimer. The same idea applies to Grokster.  Even though they do not include a disclaimer for each file, they are not trying to take credit for the lyrics.

Tushnet also talks about how technology has changed fanvids as well as music sharing. Since the widespread access of fast internet connections, it is very easy to distribute media, particularly music files, from one person to another. In comparison, since more people have faster internet access, more are inclined to download music and gain access to media more quickly. People will often use sites like Grokster to attain this music in the fastest way possible.

Despite these similarities between Grokster and fan fiction, there are still differences between the two. They are different in that File sharing, using tools such as Grokster, keeps the work in the original form. However, fan vidding usually involves the author adding some of his or her own work to the orginial context of the work.

Our group chose the Star Wars FanFiction site, TheForce.net.

This site appeals and engages its audiences through exciting star wars news, and up to date information regarding star wars. They display posters, figurines, games, fan films, and music that are available to the fans. The site is very fan oriented, for example they display a calendar of upcoming events that are available for fans to attend and participate in.

The Force.net is like the Daily Prophet in that they both provide BETA readers for peer review, they allow to public to participate in fiction, and they also provide a style guide. It is unlike the prophet in that the force offered polls/survey and writing challenges that give guidelines to fans to create the story. The force is unlike the prophet in that there is no character roll play.

The site demonstrates participatory literacy because fans consume as well as produce the media. They can participate through contacting the editors, reviewers or ‘artists’ (note that they do not use the word author) with contact information that is readily available on the site. Fans are encouraged to publish their own fan-fiction, as well as take part in forum discussions and are also exposed more to the star wars universe. Fans, through the site, can learn about star wars conventions, toys, music, games, products as well as officially licensed books furthering the series. While this is all designed in such a way as to engage the consumer more with the Star Wars franchise, the Daily Prophet relied more on the consumers already obtained knowledge through reading the books. Another aspect where they differ is role play. TheForce.net does not seem to encourage or even have any role play on their site. While they do advertise conventions where one can roleplay, they do not offer it on the site through fanfiction.

This site engages with legal issues by providing a disclaimer at the bottom that says the site is not endorsed by Lucasfilms or twentieth century fox and is intended for entertainment and informational purposes only. It also says that all of the logos, pictures, names, registered trademarks, etc. are registered trademarks of Lucasfilms.

There were several questions raised by our group regarding the site:

1. Who started and maintains the website?

2. Has there been any legal action opposing the website?

3. Who are the main producers or the target audience?

4. How did the originator start this particular website?

     In Birdsell and Groarke’s “Toward a Theory of Visual Argument”, the authors argue that argumentation theorist do not credit the visual element of argument and persuasion. They claim that a better knowledge of these elements is key if students and scholars of argumentation want to fully comprehend the role of all types of media in our everyday lives.
     The authors’ first claim is that while some may say that visual images are ambiguous or not a good argument, they can in fact be very effective. In an example of an anti-smoking add, the poster reads, “Don’t you get hooked.” The words alone could cause some ambiguity, but the picture of a fish hooked on a cigarette as an aid clarifies the meaning.
     The second claim made stresses the magnitude of the context in the argument. There are three different types of important context mentioned: “immediate visual context, immediate verbal context, and visual culture.”
The idea that argumentation is essential when identifying resemblance and representation is the third claim made. An example of how the two are different can be seen when looking at a portrait of someone that may resemble them and look like them, while it does not truly represent them.
     There are three requirements when visualizing a visual argument. One must accept the of likelihood of visual argument; strive to take into account the context of the argument; and recognize the differences between representation and resemblance.

This cartoon by Jim Borgman was published in 2003 and depicts a short conversation between a soldier and a graduate student and ultimately agrees with the essay ‘Toward a Theory of Visual Argument’.

 The design is relatively simple, only depicting two characters with representative cloths but nothing else. Because they are drawn so simply the audience immediately connects the two characters because despite their wildly different cloths, they are still very similar. The effect of this is to make sure the audience understands that the only true difference between these two is their career paths.

 The audience intended for this cartoon is young adults who face the new job market and also new soldiers, but moreover also their parents.  The basic argument put forth to them is that with the increasing number of troops required in Iraq and the poor economic situation we find ourselves in, means that it is now easier to make a living as a soldier than at a regular civilian job, and that education is not valued as much anymore.

 The appeal to logic (logos) is mainly done with what the audience will undoubtedly know ahead of seeing this cartoon. That more troops are being sent to Iraq to fight, that the USA has its largest deficit ever and that the economy is dwindling. This cartoon is a ‘therefore’ following those assumptions.

 The appeal to emotion (Pathos) is mainly found in the word choice of the small snippet of the conversation. The character says ‘easier to find war’ not easier to be a soldier. The negative connotations of war are evoked. Not only that, but most people would value their diploma greatly and here it is depicted as an ordinary looking, rolled up piece of paper that looks exactly like what the soldier is holding, which possibly is his assignment in Iraq.

This careful relationship between the image and the words brings forward the message like neither the words, nor the image could do alone. This agrees completely with what Birdsell and Groarke were arguing in their essay ‘Toward a Theory of Visual Argument’.

My name is Leslie Njoku….yea, Njoku! Don’t be alarmed, not many people know how to pronounce it. No, I am not Chinese, Japanese, or any other “nese” there is out there. Both my mother and father were born and raised in Owerri which is a town in Nigeria; I however, was born in a small city, Hoboken, in New Jersey. I guess that makes me African-American. I am the youngest of four children which I am pretty sure has a correlation to my desire to be competitive in almost every aspect of my life.

I enjoy shopping, traveling, and like many of my peers, checking my facebook. One interest that I must separate from the others is my love for Track & Field. I’ve only been running track since my freshman year in High School, but since then, I’ve become a five time All-American, traveled to twelve different states, and won Nike Outdoor High School Nationals in the 400 meter hurdles.

While working on this blog, I plan to gain knowledge on how the world of “blogging” works and why it has become so popular.

My name is Brad Jefferson, and I’m from a small town named Wrightsville, Ga. There are not many options of things to do in my home-town, but there’s nothing like home and I love it.

My interests are playing football, watching television, and getting sleep whenever I have free time to myself, but here at Georgia Tech that is rare.

While working on blogs, I hope to learn everthing there are to learn about blogs. I been hearing about blogs repeatatively and now I get a chance to get hands on learning with them.