Live Your Life

Live Your Life

“Does Rihanna have a responsibility to girls to deal with her abuse in such a way as to make a statement against abusers?”

Rihanna, being a teen influence and role model to many young girls does have the responsibility to make a strong statement against abusers. By Rihanna going back to Chris Brown, she is telling all girls that it is normal to be abused by someone you are supposed to trust. As a victim of abuse, she has the responsibility to take a stand. Sure she is a girl and just an entertainer but she is in a position where many people are influenced by her decisions and look up to her as a “role model”. This pressure comes automatically when you are in the spotlight of the media.

There have been many crazy rumours about the Rihanna-Brown issue from Rihanna being pregnant to Brown proposing to her after a teary reconciliation. They even called a minister to the mansion they were staying at to get married on the spot and complete her fairy tale. There have also been rumours of Rihanna and Brown co-authoring a book together about domestic abuse or travelling from talk show to talk show talking about career rehabilitations. Another outrageous rumour is that they have made sex tapes and Rihanna is worried that they may leak onto the internet at any time. Majority of these rumours are false and have no credibility behind them. It shows that people love making up stories to gain attention and we the listeners will believe anything we see or hear without doing any of our own research behind it. People forget that these are all just rumours and speculation to help with our cravings of gossip. It is true that they have reconciled and are working things out.

The recent news is that the couple has decided to take a ‘’break’’ which may have more to do with the couple only wanting to continue their careers. They did reconcile and spend time together at Sean “Diddy” Combs house after the assault. With her reputation and maybe even her career on the line, staying away from Brown may be her best chance to win the public’s respect and affection. She threw it all away when she decided to go back to Brown, even though the public wished she would not have gone back. This break is a great opportunity for her to recuperate and reflect on her life, her career, and her relationship.

Many disagree with Rihannas’ choice because she is not taking a stance against abusers but I believe she is taking a stance of her own. Rihanna has been highly criticized for her decisions but I believe her undertone message for going back to Chris Brown is forgiveness and love. We live in a society where it is hard to forgive and forget and love is just as complicated and almost impossible. What does she gain from completely leaving Brown? After all of the time she has put into the relationship, it is nearly impossible to let something go that is so close to you. She chose to forgive instead of a grudge. She chose love over hate and as a powerful woman we must respect and understand her decisions. If you are a true fan then you would support her every move and decision she makes. She faced the criticism and stands by what she sang:
"When the sun shines,
We’ll shine together
Told you I'll be here forever
Said I'll always be a friend
Took an oath I'ma stick it out till the end
Now that it's raining more than ever
Know that we'll still have each other".

Actress Archives. Rihanna and Chris Brown Taking a 'Break'. 19 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .

Tucker, Ken. Oprah Winfrey: My Rihanna, Chris Brown Show 'a Huge, Teachable Moment'. 12 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .
Bartolomeo, Joey. Rihanna and Chris Brown Taking Time Apart. 19 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .
Star News. Rihanna and Chris' Secret Wedding. 4 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .

Carter, Shawn., Christopher Stewart, and Thaddis Harrel . Rihanna-Umbrella. 05 Oct. 2008. 28 Mar. 2009 .
Right Celebrity. Rihanna Herpes Rumour: Chris Brown STDs False. 14 Feb. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009 .
Dougherty, Robert. Chris Brown and Rihanna Marriage Rumors Spread. 09 Mar. 2009. 28 Mar. 2009
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Just Google IT!

In the past couple of weeks there have been a couple of federal court decisions involving copyright challenges to Google’s search functions. The most important case was Perfect 10 vs. Google, where their images most likely constituted copyright infringement. Perfect 10 is an adult magazine company and operate a website. They make also make reduced-size copies of their copyrighted pictures to be downloaded onto phones. The issue was brought up against Google in two ways. When people use the Google image search engine to search for Perfect 10 models, thumbnail image’s of copyrighted photo’s show up. Also, when people clicked on that thumbnail image, a webpage with two frames appear. The upper smaller frame is hosted by Google and contains information about the picture. The lower frame shows the original web page but the image is not found there.
Perfect 10 is suing Google for copyright infringement and the display of these images through the frames. Perfect 10 says that by Google using those frames; it infringes its right to “display publicly” and “distribution” of their copyrighted images. The court found Google not guilty of copyright infringement on the lower frame because Google had not encouraged users to visit the third-party infringing websites. Google had no right or control over what was occurring on the third party websites. The court however did find Google guilty of copyright infringement on the thumbnails because they could for free be directly downloaded to cell phones which are the perfect size for cell phone screens.
The second case was between Field and Google. Blake Field is a Las Vegas lawyer who created fifty-one works and obtained copyrights for each work. When the pages containing Fields work in Google’s search results appeared, he filed a lawsuit against Google alleging direct copyright infringement. The court found that Field’s claims were not supported by the law and dismissed Field’s copyright claims. The court found that Google allows web sites to choose whether they want their site to show up on Google or not. Field was aware of this and intentionally choose not to use them.
I believe that Google will never be sued for copyright infringement because they are only providing the links for what the researcher is looking for. Google winning these past lawsuits sets historical precedence and this will help Google in the future win even more of any of these types of cases come up again. Google is just a search engine and nothing more. They help people locate sites and information that they want and lead them to the location. Google is a tool that benefits anyone who wishes to use it. It is very convenient and does not perform any copyright infringements. They are not copying anyone’s info or using it to benefit themselves. If Google were taking info from other peoples sites and claiming the info as their own then that would be copyright infringement. Google has never done this and all they are doing is just giving the seeker the site that they can find what they are looking for on. If you would like to find out more info about this case just remember: “Google it”.

Byer, David J., and Sarah T. Hogan. Intellectual Property Recent Copyright Cases Involving Google's Search Engine Clarify Digital Media Rights Online. Apr. 2006. 10 Mar. 2009 .

Ooops She did IT again!

The greatest human emotional need is to feel appreciated and worthy. There are many ways for humans to achieve this in their daily lives. They gain these needs from their work and from stable relationships in their life. But what happens when a human being doesn’t feel needed or appreciated? What happens when emotions start to take over logic? What kind of emotions does Britney Spears feel whenever she goes out and is swarmed by paparazzi? What goes through her mind when she is doing outrageous stunts like buying a donkey and then driving around town with it in the back of her open car? Does she truly have a mental illness or does she just love to be in the spotlight too much?

Over the past couple of weeks, we have focused on Britney Spears’ lifestyle and analyzed her private life more than we wanted to know. As more research was conducted, a better thesis was developed; Britney Spears is an attention seeker. As her singing career slowly started disappearing and everything was settling down, she became “much more famous for things other than her singing career” (Spectacle). The first intriguing incident we heard of happened in 2004 when she married her childhood friend Jason Allen Alexander just “for the hell of it” (Judge). Five months later after her divorce, she announced that she was engaged to her back up dancer Kevin Federline after only knowing him for three months (Britney). A year later their first child was born and she joined a religion called Kabala with Madonna that was purely based on motherhood but quickly left it saying that “my baby is my religion” (Forget). As we’ve become less interested with her singing career, we’ve become more interested in her private life; Britney soon realizes this and plays the cat and mouse game, maybe just “for the hell of it”?

One of the first controversial photos we see of Britney is her kissing Madonna during a performance at the 2003 MTV awards (Kiss). The photo of her son sitting unrestrained on her lap while she is driving to get away from the paparazzi created a lot of chatter towards Britney’s parenting skills (defiant). The next photo is probably her most famous, which is of her shaving her head and then getting two tattoos.
After this incident, she checked herself into rehab for the second time in two weeks (Rehab). As the year 2007 arrived, Britney’s bizarre events started to escalate from her hitting paparazzi with an umbrella to her becoming an exhibitionist and showing the world what she’s got under there (Hit).

After everything Britney has been through, we still criticized her for her figure even though it was unfair. She had two kids, a divorce, and had checked into numerous psychiatric medical centers. The people and society should be criticised for finding entertainment in the sick or the weak. We take enjoyment from watching another human beings downfall and that say’s society is cruel and uncompassionate for those in need of help. I agree with the celebrities that are fighting back to protect their privacy. Celebrities are human beings and all human beings deserve equality and privacy rights. Celebrities should have to expect that their daily lives are newsworthy though to their fans who worship them. All of their fans are simply “star struck” and it is now a phenomenon that is bigger than life and this fascination with celebrities is a substitution for real life (New Age).
Paparazzi go too far when they are going at high speeds, willing to force stars off the road and are running red lights for a photo. They are willing to sit outside the celebrities houses 24/7 just for a photo and wear camouflage at night time so they won’t be seen. They are not putting just the celebrities’ lives in danger but also everyday citizens. When there is a safety risk involved with innocent civilians or anyone for that matter then that is already too far.

Britney Law- a 20-yard "safety bubble" around celebs considered to be "paparazzi targets."

What status do you need to require special legal protection that is only available to a limited amount of society? Britney Spears has met this status and the new Britney’s Law was proposed by Dennis Zine because of Britney’s psychiatric emergency, when her ambulance was swarmed by an army of paparazzi. Her ambulance had to be surrounded by policemen and helicopters just to get her to the hospital (Britney Law). Many celebrities would benefit from this law like Lindsay Lohan, Brangelina, and anyone else considered to be “paparazzi targets”. A-list celebrities like Lohan, Diaz, and Timberlake are joining together to turn the tables on the paparazzi (Push Harder). The worst incident caused by paparazzi was back in 1997, when Princess Diana died from a car accident as her driver was trying to get away from hounding paparazzi. Britney’s Law will help create some more freedom and more privacy for celebrities who are constantly being followed by paparazzi.

The media has finally lightened up and started praising Britney for recovering after everything she’s been through. They went through the years of what Britney did at the VMA awards from dancing with a snake to locking lips with Madonna. Fans are anticipating positively for what she’s going to bring this year and like Perez Hilton says “That's what people want; they want to see her smiling. Even if all she does is smile and wave, I say that's mission accomplished” (Official). After all, she has won over 157 awards ever since she came onto the scene and was an instant hit starting in 1999.

It’s weird how the media can create or destroy your image. You can become a celebrity over night like Kelly Clarkson but have it all taken away from you like Chris Brown. The paparazzi can be both positive and negative. It allows the fans to see what type of human beings they are idolizing which can show whether or not they are truly good people or show some of the skeletons in their closet. As long as there are fans in the world who worship these celebrities, there will always be hounding paparazzi that will do nearly anything for a unique photo. The best thing that any celebrity can do is just learn to be patient and learn how to become used to this constant heckling and chaos. This is the price of fame and anyone willing to seek it should be prepared to deal with whatever comes with it.

Cironneau, Lionel. Judge Dissolves Britneys' 'joke' Wedding. 06 Jan. 2004. 20 Feb. 2009 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3869708/.

CNN Entertainment. Britney Would Not Kiss Another Woman Besides Madonna. 4 Sep. 2004. 20 Feb. 2009 http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/03/britney.spears/.

Fox News Entertainment. Photographs Show Britney in Rehab. 21 Feb. 2007. 20 Feb. 2009 .

Halbfinger, David M. "As Paparazzi Push Harder, Stars Try to Push Back."

Splash News 8 June 2005. Rpt. in . Ed. Allison H. Weiner. Los Angeles: , 2008. 10-13.

Harlow, John. 'Britney Law' to Give Celebrities a Safety Bubble. 10 Feb. 2008. 20 Feb. 2009 http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article3341791.ece.

Hensher, Philip. "The Spectacle of Fame." Spectator . . Rpt. in . Hamilton: , . .
Holguin, Jaime. Britney Does It Again. 20 Sep. 2004. 20 Feb. 2009 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/09/23/entertainment/main645138.shtml.

Khoo, Adam. The Six Human Emotional Needs. 21 Dec. 2008. 20 Feb. 2009 http://www.adam-khoo.com/174/the-six-human-emotional-needs/%20.

L.A Life. The Hype Navel Maneuvers Britney Spears. 22 Nov. 2001. 20 Feb. 2009 .

Lagorio, Christine. A New Age of Celebrity Worship, Experts Dissect the Good, the Bad. and the Ugly of Being a Fan. 3 Mar. 2006. 20 Feb. 2009 http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/03/health/webmd/main1366162.shtml.

Mcdonald, Duff. "The Britney Economy." 21 Jan. 2008. Rpt. in . : , 2008. .

The Washington Post. The 'Britney Law'- a Celebs Best Friend? 12 Feb. 2008. 20 Feb. 2009 http://voices.washingtonpost.com/celebritology/2008/02/the_britney_law_a_celebs_best.html.

Vena, Jocelyn., and Jem Aswad. Its Official! Britney Spears Will Appear at VMAs This Weekend. 8 Sep. 2008. 20 Feb. 2009 .Winton ,

Richard. Spears Charged with Hit-run. 22 Sep. 2007. 20 Feb. 2009 .

Electronics in the Classroom

Today was just another classic example of how cellphones or ipods are not complete negatives to have in the classroom. We had a shortage of computers today and yet about 3 students were able to follow along and create their blog site on their phone or ipods.