The "Kill Switch"

The two blogs I examined are about the new government internet "Kill Switch" bill.  The blogs were written by Tony Bradley and MalwareCity.  The "Kill Switch" bill would allow the federal government to shut off all internet access to everyone in the county at a single time, which is claimed to be to raise our nation's cyber security.  Both blogs had the same topic but had much different views on it.  They were different in that Bradley got very political with his blog.  He tells of how it would be beneficial to have this bill and that President Obama has the right intentions with this.  He uses logos when he quotes USA Today about how this bill would be a major step in the right direction for national security.  His use of logos was quite effective for me personally.  His whole blog turns south for me when he decides to start making rants about conservative activists and the Bush administration.  I don't understand why he even brings the Bush administration up.  He loses his merit with me when he virtually tells of how the Bush administration has done more damage to the world than any other leader of any nation in the past few decades.  MalwareCity takes a fairly unbiased take on the bill.  He feels that the kill switch is not for infrastructure but for political control.  He doesn't give too much detail about his opinion but he does state that the basis for his political control theory is that Egypt has used similar tactics to control their uprising.  This really is a valid point, he makes good use of logos and the bill does coincide nicely with this event.  Between the two of them, they both make good points, but in very different ways.

Keep Private Matters to Yourself

Employers are increasingly using Facebook to do background checks on employees.  Using Facebook to express your views or party pictures can make someone end up not getting a job or getting fired.  As the article tells, that girl decided to post about how terrible her boss was, when she had added him on Facebook.  That not only shows immaturity but also shows a huge amount of ignorance.  What was the girl thinking?  How could that post have benefited her in any way?  This is a serious issue for college students that are soon to be trying to find jobs in a sinking economy.  If two applicants had the same criteria but one had numerous pictures on Facebook of them getting drunk, who do you think the employer would hire?  I myself have seen numerous times when people have posted completely stupid things online that only made things worse on those people.  People are becoming far too comfortable with the personal views and information on the internet.  Every day that passes, privacy on the internet is becoming more and more of a problem.  I personally don't see the need to post rants against individuals on Facebook, but hey I'm not everybody else.  I really wish I could go talk to that girl and just ask her, "What were you thinking?"

Internet Plagiarism

  I determined that this was article was a scholarly article based on many observations.  First I found this article through a scholarly article search on Google.  Upon opening the article, I saw that it was published by Glyndwr University through their Centre for Applied Internet Research.  There were also numerous sources sited throughout the article.  The article was also published by three men, two of them stating that they are from Glyndwr University and they also have an email address.  The article starts off by discussing how many students plagiarize but most don't realize how serious plagiarism really is.  The article goes on to discuss that many so many students plagiarize because it is just so tempting.  It is much easier for a student to copy someone's work rather than produce it themselves.  The article goes on to discuss the Glyndwr Plagiarism Awareness Project.  The aim of this project is to spread awareness of the dangers and folly of plagiarism.  Students are given surveys at different times, before and after being educated about plagiarism to see how their views change.  Most see improvement from this, however many are still risks for future misconceived plagiarism.  The article makes conclusions such as that there will never be a perfect idealistic world that doesn't allow plagiarism at all, but they are trying to make the best of what they have.  The aims of their program is to spread awareness but not to intimidate students but educate.  I found this article particulary effective and it honestly made me want to never plagiarize anything ever more so than I already did.  The article made very good use of logos, pathos, and ethos