Oh Tancredo...

Leave it to Republican Rep. Tom Tancredo to slam the Pope on his first official visit to the U.S.
According to Tancredo the Popes good will message toward immigrants is nothing more than "faith-based marketing." He does have a small point in that the Catholic Churches numbers have been dropping, but seriously? "Faith-based marketing?" Kinda of think Tancredo might be asking for a lightning bolt if you know what I mean. To quote my friend who I just discussed this with, "You don't slam the Pope. The Pope is like the equivalent of God on this planet." Ok, a little extreme, but I think it gets the point across. Tancredo might just be asking for it.
Pope slam

Seriously?!?!?!?!?!

As an art history major, I found this just a little disturbing, and luckily it coincided with my other major, journalism. Apparently the Yale Daily News published a rather interesting piece today. The story was by an art student who said she self induced miscarriages in order to collect and use the blood in her art work. After the shock waves calmed down it was revealed that the story was a hoax, just another element in this girls art project.
So as an art history major, I see her point. I might not agree with it, but its really nothing new in the art world. I can think of a few current artists who are utilizing blood in their work. One artist castes human heads in frozen blood, and then films them melting. Apparently the Yale artist was tying to raise awareness of the connection between art and the human body. Whether this trend in art is really effective is just going to have to wait 50-100 years, this is art after all.
As a journalism major, I do have some qualms, mostly in the form of fact checking. Personally if this girl approached me with her story I would be tempted to go straight to print. I mean it is quite a sensational story. But I'm quite happy to say that I would have made quite sure she wasn't jerking my chain. Oh well, look like every campus press has their day I guess.

Bloody...

Convergence

So I am taking news editing right now and we are working on our final projects.
For this project each group has to design a newspaper, and each member is responsible for designing a section front.
Well first off this is fun, but second, its kinda hard. You never really think about the amount of work and effort that goes into designing a section front, or any other part of the newspaper for that matter. The combinations are endless, the software only mildly obstinate, but one 1/4 of an inch in the wrong direction, and your SOL on all of it. The news paper my group is creating is called the "Mile High Harbinger," which incidentally my instructor won't stop making fun of. So far it has been pretty fun, but hard, at least for me. Pretty sure I have moved everything around several times, and have only recently, with the help of a professional, been able to get the layout above the fold to look right. I have a lot of new found respect for copy editors and the work they do as a result. Trust me it's not easy to get someone's attention these days if you don't have a good section front , so no matter what you do for a paper, the pressure id definitely on.

Pirates!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm not quite sure what to say other than, SWEET!!!!!!!!!
I'm also quite sure that the pirates of today bare absolutely no resemblance to those in Pirates of the Caribbean, but the fact that they still exist just makes me smile.
In this case the pirates were from Somalia and had taken a luxury yacht and its passengers and crew hostage. Modern day pirates appear to have expensive taste.
In the end all the hostages were returned unharmed, and six of the pirates were caught and brought to Paris for trial.
It's just so funny to read about in the news. I mean the version of pirates we all, well at least I have, is one of either Captain Hook, or Johnny Depp, a.k.a. Captain Jack Sparrow. Do they still hunt for treasure, or are they just sea faring marauders and dealers?Some how I think it the latter. I don't know, just the fact that they still call them pirates is quite entertaining in itself.
A pirate, in this case six pirates in Paris. I can see the movie title already.
AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Umm......

So I was on the Denver Post web sight (don't take this personally Doug), trying to read the story about the pope visiting a synagogue in N.Y.C. but I just couldn't get past the second graph. The reason being that there was an add for lasik surgery with a woman blinking and awkwardly looking around to the right of the story. So every time I went to read a little more, I got distracted by the large blue eyes blinking, and looking around. Don't get me wrong, I understand the need for add placement, and the amount of revenue it brings in, but do the adds have to be so distracting? I mean I understand the goals of advertising, and in this case the add was successful, but right next to a news article? Of course its not just the Denver Post, all the online versions of newspapers do it. It just frustrates me because to me, reading the news is a supposed to be a quiet time, a place to escape, to get aways from the day's chaos. So I was just a little miffed when I couldn't find that happy place tonight, I just couldn't see past those blinking eyes .
Note:I'll try to post the link, but I'm not sure it will work, because the adds change all the time.
The blinker