Group Meeting...

... productive, but sparsely attended. Guys! If you're not going to make it - even if you call me five minutes before it starts - I need to know! Thank you to Rebecca who told me ahead, Kevin, Jonathan, Leinani, Emily, and Tyler who came.

I brought my friend Katy along to this meeting. Her coming had two purposes (purposi? ;) ): her family lived in Germany at the time the Berlin Wall came down. Kevin captured her interesting memories, so look for an appearance during our presentation! She is also a film major and therefore interested in the media industry, restrictions, freedom of expression, etc.

Here's a breakdown of how our research groups (thank you Kevin for that wonderful title!) are doing:

History: Going great! It's definitely the smallest (time wise) section, so it doesn't take a ton of work. Poor Leinani - I promise we've got more for you to do!

Abroad: Good job Kevin! We're focusing on personal stories and experiences that illustrate the cost in other countries, adding a splash of what's going on in Burma for current flavor.

America: y'all definitely had the best, most productive meeting today! Great! I'm glad Tyler was there, too. He definitely adds to the group and I know y'all are moving along wonderfully.

For some all-encompassing news... Kevin is a friggin' genius. We've got stuff down for our research group (what's the cost abroad), so we started discussing how we were to present. He felt the need to use one channel to tie everything together... basically avoiding the idea that we broke our group into three groups who did independent projects. We decided this was brilliant and have drafted a production schedule that's realistic and would put us completely finished (with special effects, even!) by the 9th. That gives us a weekend of cushion time and leaves us all unstressed. Beautiful. I'm basically so stoked about this project that I can't see straight.

That would be enough for now.

~V~

Reid Speech

BYU Speeches published early... yay!

http://news.byu.edu/reid.pdf

What do we think? What was Reid's intent? Does he have a valid position? If not, why not?

~V~

Meetings, Galore!

First off - happy birthday to Rebecca! Congratulations on being old... er. ;)

Secondly - here's a video from our most recent meeting. It was a ton of fun, and yes, quite productive. Just in case you were wondering.

(coming soon?)

Thirdly... what's going on in the NYTimes:

Live Blogging of debates.

Google's answer to the iPhone?

Reality TV poses ethical dilemma.

And a few stories from Google News:

A little closer to home: Harry at the Marriott Center. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend this forum. If anybody from Group 9 went, I'd love to hear about it. Until then, I'm waiting for the transcript from BYU Speeches.

An interesting note on the RIAA and recent developments in the illegal downloading crack down.

Also, this is the first I've heard of this story... but it addresses the bias (alleged?) of the Supreme Court.

Lastly... I appreciated our Guest Speaker on Monday. I wish we'd had more time to talk to him about the defamation process, responding to it, seeking retribution, etc. It was fun to realize he was citing Dr. Carter - whom Jonathan and I heard speak about this very issue on Thursday.

~V~