But then again people have made unbelievable shots before, it has just never been caught on camera. But to actually believe that these college students spent the time to take after take after take of this shot knowing that it could be impossible to make, makes me continue to question it, especially because it was a couple of aggies setting this whole thing up.

When I looked up the video on youtube, the comments were almost exactly what I expected. Comments wondering if the video is fake or not, people explaining the physics of how and why the video is real, and then of course the constant bickering between youtubers with pointless personal attacks on each other. After reading the various comments and looking at both views, I still rather not believe that a couple of aggies have actually successfully accomplished this, being a life time Longhorn fan.

Still being skeptical and a non-believer, even though it was on Sportscenter, I decided to call up a close friend in college station how has gone to the dark side, and ask him if the creators of the video “Dude Perfect” are legit. He confirmed that it was indeed real, and that he actually knows the guys how made the video. So as of now I guess it do believe, but I’ll probably continue my skepticism with videos like that on youtube…but if it was made by some UT students it’s probably real. Oh and I’m not gonna rely on the youtube’s comments to decided if it’s a hoax.

When I look at the now infamous photo of Phelps using a bong, I notice that you don’t even get a good look of the guy taking the hit. There is no paraphernalia on him, nor do you even see any kind of smoke being sucked through the chamber of the bong. It does look like he is lighting something with his left hand but his hand blocks the lighter or whatever if anything that he is sparking. For all I know he was just kidding around with an empty bowl and someone happened to have taken a picture.

Phelps could have denied this to the end, and even the local sheriff’s department couldn’t find enough evidence that he was smoking marijuana. But he chose to admit that he did smoke. He of course did apologize for the incident because the subject is so taboo and extremely frowned upon especially if you’re a role model to so many. Even though it’s no worse than alcohol; the only difference is that it’s illegal. Think about it though, he has ADHD so perhaps he was just treating his disorder. Researchers say that cannabis is more effective way of treatment than Ritalin. It calms users down and helps them focus without the side effects of Ritalin like loss of appetite and insomnia. It’s an unconventional, but effective way of treatment.

When I look at Phelps I still see him as any regular guy who doesn’t mind a toke every now and then, just like any other person in the entire world. I’m convinced that Michael Phelps didn’t just tried this once had guilt and gave in to the allegations, but has been an adequate user of marijuana, loves it, and is able to maintain he’s use in a smart way just like anybody who consumes alcohol in a wisely manner. Maybe the whole party scene at the University of South Carolina from the photo wasn’t too smart. But it did show in the picture that he was no stranger to bong hits. You could tell Michael had smoked before. A witness from the party also stated that,

“He looked just as natural with a bong in his hands as he does swimming in the pool. He was the gold medal winner of bong hits.” But since his use has been made public he is forced to apologize and lay off of the plant for a while.

So of course with these strong belief of mine that Michael Phelps has and will continue to use marijuana in a safe environment in the future, I would edited his wiki saying that the world’s greatest swimmer does indeed likes marijuana. I was very skeptical that this edit was going to stay on the page for more than a day because I’m sure this edit has been attempted before and the only thing it says from the article is a quote from Phelps on the photo admitting to his “behavior which was regrettable and demonstrated bad judgment”(To make things clear he regretted taking a hit of the bong where someone was taking a picture and bad judgment on trusting the guy with the photo knowing he is a celebrity.)

I edited on the discussion page over the “Bong Incident” But editing in the article was a lot trickier than I thought. I found it hard to reference anything I said on the article because the articles of Phelps admitting to using a pipe and a user of marijuana that were requested on the discussion page have been already removed from the sites. So I had very little hope that my edit on the article would stay up for more than even an hour. No less than 10 minutes after I tried to re-edit my source, I noticed that it had been changed back to the way it was originally posted. I later checked back at the discussion page and noticed that Phelps quotes on using marijuana from reliable sources have been already added to the article but removed several times. And most of those articles have already been removed like I said.

Overall the fact is that Michael Phelps may be one of the greatest athlete ever, and he smokes marijuana…I guess he doesn’t want people to know that he likes it.

Three years ago I probably never even heard of Twitter. Heck I wasn’t even on that Facebook tip yet, it was all MySpace for me. And to be honest I still haven’t truly grasped the proper way to use Twitter. Like most people may only tweet to express the way I’m thinking or feeling, besides that not many of my friends have twitter. So I don’t really use twitter to stay in contact with friends and I can’t imagine why anybody would want to follow me as I am not involved in music or TV in any kinda way.

I have tried to promote my friends new band, but it seemed useless as I’m pretty sure I don’t have any music producers or record companies following me to see if I might have a band that they’ll even been interested in. But I have found one use of Twitter that I continually log or for…which is looking for new music by my favorite artists. I’m currently following 56 people on twitter now and most of them are my favorite musical artists. Granted I did use MySpace to listen to new music from my favorite band or rapper as well, but the edge I get from twitter are of brand spanking new songs. With Twitter it always constant updates from the artists who gives their  followers exclusive previews to their next hits.

Now a days the new music on the radio I’m already sick of hearing because I have been listening to it for more than a month now. With the help of Twitter and even YouTube, I’m the guy that my friends always asks if they want to listen to any new hot music once the radio gets repetitive. Since most of my friends don’t even know what Twitter is I’m always the first one to get the hot tracks for the week. Their always asking though, dang  Nando where are you finding all the exclusives….

To be more specific, Family Guy has had three lawsuits on copyright infringement and all three times the courts have ruled in favor of McFarland.

Shows like Family Guy feed on publicity like this, pushing the envelope and seeing how far they can go without being sued, or canceled. They’ve gotten away with copyrighting mostly from the help of the first amendment. In 2007 when they were in a lawsuit with Bourne co. Music publishers for on the song “wish upon a star” by a parody song called “I need a Jew” it was ruled under the first amendment that it was not infringe copyright because they transformed the song for comical use.

The video below is a bit bad quality, but it shows the genius of these Family Guy writers in making fun of copyright.

Net Neutrality: the idea that Internet users should be able to access any web content they want, post their own content, and use any applications they choose, without any kind of restrictions or limitations.

This is something I can I firmly believe in.

The reason why the issue of Net Neutrality is such a big deal now is because it’s not only the future, but it is essentially the way we live and do business now!

If these big telephone companies take over content on the world wide web it would severely restrict the free exchange of ideas and commerce that has built so much wealth, freedom of expression, and allowed so many millions of people all over the world to connect in an unresteriected manner.

It would put millions out of a job, hard-working people such as my father.

Common Cause totally supports Net Neutrality. They believe the reason why this democratic medium has grown exponentially is becuase of Net Neutrality. It has forever altered the way we communicate and the way we market ourselves.

Like Latin IT marketing, the business my father is getting off the ground. He uses an interesting combination of free social networking tools such as WordPress, Twitter and LinkedIn. If these telecom giants lurking the halls of Congress and the FCC take over the internet it would leave people like my dad out in the cold.

A Coup is certainly an event that seems impossible of being covered up by media. But on April 11th 2002 the opposition in Venezuela proved that any type of media can be used as a great tool for a revolution. The Venezuelan coup attempt on President Hugo Chavez in 2002 was a big example of how internet and media can effect democracy. In the documentary The Revolution Will Not Be Televised it explains how privately owned television channels and upper class business oppositions organized and promoted demonstrations with these means of private media.

Now with classes being able on the internet. People rather stay inside the comfort of there own home and take a couple hours of their time  to wait to click the “next page” button on their online course of  defensive driving. Oppose to  going out and siting through a comedic defensive diving class.

2. Dollar Generals

Now with sites like Ebay, amazon, and craigslist, purchasing any kind of item can come at an even cheaper price than you have ever thought. A great example is how my friend got a big screen HDTV for any $20 on craiglists. The reason why it was so cheap was because the individual who was selling it  had much money to blow and just needed to get rid of his TV set. You never know when a millionaire needs to get rid of his trash which can be another man’s treasure ASAP.

3.Watching Reruns on TV

With sites like youtube, and Hulu, people can simply go to these sites and watch their favorite show and or show scene whenever they want. Instead of waiting for the next season to start watching the reruns. TV watching  may just be for watching the new episodes for now.