"I don't care if you understand or not!"

In class this week the topic ofthe scientist came up and we as a class debated on whether or not it was important forthe said scientist to "dumb-down" their research so that "normal" people could understand what the research was actually about. Here I am going tobe elaborate on my point that it is not necessary for scientist to stupefy their research fore us "regular" folk don't need to know what's going on . Let me explain, when it comes to scientific research the people who "need" to be impressed is not the everyday person, but people in the scientific community. Let's think for a minute, in high school when you wanted to be seen as cool you wanted to impress the people that "being cool" meant something. You weren't trying to impress the Emo kids or the geeks you wanted to impress the "cool-kids." That same idealology holds true for the scientific community. If you are not apart of that community then these scientist are not going to go out of their way to enlighten you on their research.

I also believe there is a sense of elite-ness that comes with being only one of the few that understands what's going on. When everyone knows something it loses its exclusivity. With having a community in which u can share ur findings vs. Having the entire world know your new found information. These scientist take pride in their research and they want clout for their discoveries. This is not out of the norm but a natural human want.

Lupe Fiasco - Dumb It Down (Speaks on how the music industry wants him to dumb down his lyrics to appeal to a larger audience...but he refuses and explains why!)

So to sum up this post I just want you all to take away that no it is not necessary for scientist to dumb down their work to appeal to the common person. It is however important for them to appease those in their community.

Blogging: Journalism 2.0

After the highly profane educational lecture by David Johnson I got to thinking about the impact of blogging on my generation. I have always been a fan of self-expression and have been very quick to ask, "Why do you care what people think of you?" I have always believed that I had the right to say what I was feeling and those others had the right to or not to listen. Blogging I feel gives "every-day" people a platform to exercise that freedom. To clarify here when I say "Blogging" I mean everything that shows your self-expression in a way that people can follow you and your feelings, thoughts, art, etc. I believe people are blogging when they upload a song to Soundcloud and send it out to friends and others to see what they think. I see blogging as someone who designs a piece of art and shares it online. Blogging to me is just sharing ones self-expression online.

Journalism is under a lot of pressure nowadays because of the ease that it is to acquire information. Back in the day the majority of the people who wanted information about what was going on in the world would watch the "news" or before that wait for the morning paper. Journalism was/is a crucial part of the everyday life for the average human. Traditionally people would have to acquire information, have the information published, to then have it either read or watched via TV or newspapers. Nowadays the information that is being sought after is being found, at any moment, via the Internet. When Snookie has a wardrobe malfunction on a Friday night at 10:00pm the entire world can have that information and an accompanying photograph at 10:05pm! Information is now so readily available that it is easy for a lot of people in the world to just click on an Internet icon and go to their favorite news sources to have 24/7 access to what’s happening in the world in which they live. The difference between back when information took time to be given to the masses and now is that back then we had "certain" people being the journalist, nowadays any preteen with a internet equipped smartphone can be giving you the "what’s happening" at any moment of the day. The old school way of journalism is not dying its evolving. It’s turning into something that has become more of an informal group effort.

My generation or should I say the "connected" generation, are growing up in an age where technology has enabled us to speak to someone on the opposite side of the world at the drop of a dime. Blogging is just the "now" of Journalism. It is the information we seek its just that now we get it from a large pool of sources. In this day in age you can find blogs based on anything! If you like fashion there are blogs that focus on the latest style trends. If you like sports, there are blogs that focus on training routines of your favorite athletes. Blogs are the official voices of the people. It is now that people have a platform. Gone are the days where you would have to be published to get heard, or to have to land on TV. Now if someone doesn't like what they see on TV they can do more than just change the channel, they can create their own channels! Blogging is relatively new and is something that makes the "unimportant" "important." Blogging is what was needed to take journalism, not to its demise, but to its next step. We blog to inform, to humor, to engage, and to inspire (some to just freak you out o. O) but that important part is that it doesn't matter what we are blogging about, but the fact that we can blog and can do so on our own accords. Journalism isn't dead and blogging isn't killing it. Blogging is Journalism reborn. It is Journalism 2.0!

Millennium Development Goals Part 1: What are They?!?

I am dedicating my first post to speak specifically on the Millennium Development Goals that originated from the Millennium Declaration produced by the United Nations. The Declaration believes that every one has rights and these rights include dignity, freedom, and equality. It also asserts that everyone has the right to a basic stand of living that includes freedom from hunger and violence, and encourages tolerance and solidarity. The MDGs were created in order to mobilize a solution to these ideas by creating targets a measurable indicators for the reduction of poverty in order to achieve the rights that were set forth in the Declaration in a timeline of fifteen years.

I am going to run this topic in a series of blog post because there is no way I can analyze all aspects of the MDGs in one blog post so prepare yourself! This first post will focus exclusively on what the Millennium Development Goals are and highlighting their targets. In later blog post I will begin to go more in depth on the status of each of these goals and also more into the debates that surround these goals!

The MDG was signed in September 2000, eight goals with 21 targets, and each has measurable indicators:

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Target 1A: Halve the proportion of people living on less than a $1 a day

Target 1B: Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People

Target 1C: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education

Target 2A: By 2015 all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys

Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women

Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at all levels by 2015

Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates

Target 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five morality rate

Goal 5: Improve maternal health

Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio

Target 5B: Achieve, by 2015, a universal access to reproductive health

Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS

Target 6B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it

Target 6C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases

Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability

Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources

Target 7B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving by 2010 a significant reduction in the rate of loss

Target 7C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation

Target 7D: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers

Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development

Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system

Target 8B: Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDC)

Target 8C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing states

Target 8D: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term

Target 8E: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries

Target 8F: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications.