Mario Kart Double Dash, James Bond--Goldeneye

Keller, Suzanne M. "Children and the Nintendo." www.eric.ed.gov. Web. 29 Nov. 2009.

Nintendo is bad? Not necessarily, according to Suzanne Keller and a series of studies. Let's look at the complex thinking skills required to successfully interact with the system. High school students who played Nintendo scored higher on critical thinking skills test than those who didn't play. The students were transferring their thinking to other areas of their lives. While Nintendo can still have harmful, negative effects, most often it does not. Kids do not think violent thoughts, merely they think of strategies to win the game. This article basically stated that Nintendo may have bad side effects, but for the most part it helps develop the brain and certain skills of children and young adults.

I agree for the most part with this article. I love Nintendo! I think that there is hardly anything greater than sitting at home and playin some good old Mario Kart or James Bond with my brothers--it's just the best! I could see how it heightens awareness of critical thinking. I am not sure if I agree with the part in the article that talked about how kids don't think violently, only strategically. My brothers used to play this "Streetfighter" game on Nintendo and my Mom would always take it away from them because they would get too violent outside of the game. You could really see a difference in their violence levels when they were and weren't playing that game. Overall, I think Nintendo is great as long as it's not the only thing you do all day every day.

50 top linked-to sites

Rao, Leena. "The 50 Media Sites Bloggers Link to the Most." Tech Crunch: 9 March 2009. Web: 15 Nov 2009.

This article talks about a new search engine, Technorati, that recently released Technorati Attention Index, which measures the highest number of media sites linked to from blogs over the past 30 days. It lists the top 50, the top 5 being YouTube, NY Times, BBC News, CNN.com, and MSN. The remaining 45 in the list fall under the same categories as these--news and entertainment. This article interestingly displays the things our country as a whole is most interested in--which apparently is entertainment, news, sports, and the economy.

I thought this was an interesting list. YouTube is number one, and that really surprised me! I know that a lot of people get on YouTube everyday, but I didn't realize that it's not just me and my friends who look up funny things--it's the rest of our country as well. What does this say about our use of free time in general? I think the rest of the list is good news--it's important to be learning about new happenings locally, nationally, and universally. I'm glad that the top 50 sites are at least uplifting, beneficial ones instead of sites that could easily be misused or that don't promote anything good. Our country is doing something right still!

new's portrayal of media: false?

MissMazi. "Re: How well does the American news media reflect actual events?" yahoo. yahoo, 29 Oct. 2006. Web. 1 Nov. 2009.

This person responded to the above question by relaying some personal experiences. She said she has witnessed something take place and then seen and heard it completely exaggerated and blown up on the news. Also, take into consideration that what is often portrayed on the news isn't usually what happened. You maybe said what was filmed but that doesn't mean it was in the same context as they showed it in or that it wasn't cut. She highlighted the war in Iraq. Only a slight percentage of unbiased news is being portrayed through the media. Our country tells us what they want us to hear. This is why we cannot listen to everything around us--even though it's from a "worthy" source such as the news, it may not be the full truth of any situation. On the other extreme, it may be spot on. I guess we'll never really know.

I fully agree with this blogger. It's impossible to know which news is the correct news, if any of the news is correct at all! We are presented what we want to hear. I hate this! I think that the news should just portray things as they really are because it'll be a lot better for us in the long run. What if our country fails one day and everything in our world crashes down? That would be the rudest awakening--why not get ready to embrace that news now? Everything digital can be so easily manipulated these days it's impossible to tell what is the real truth behind it all.