Tees and distracted driving.

*cell phones have become increasingly important fixtures in Americans’ lives and public concern over their use while driving has grown.2 At the time of the 2006 survey, just 35% of adult cell phone owners said they used the text messaging feature on their phones. By April 2009, the use of text messaging by cell phone owners had nearly doubled to 65%.3

*Several states including California, Connecticut and Oregon have already passed laws to ban all texting or talking with a handheld phone while driving, and the Senate is now considering a bill that would provide federal funding to states that enact similar laws.

*According to the latest research from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2008 alone, there were 5,870 fatalities and an estimated 515,000 people were injured in police-reported crashes in which at least one form of driver distraction was reported. Distractions among young drivers are of particular concern, as the highest incidence of distracted driving occurs in the under-20 age group.

*New research released in July 2009 by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) examines a variety of tasks that draw drivers’ eyes away from the roadway and suggests that text messaging on a cell phone is associated with the highest risk among all cell phone-related tasks observed among drivers.

*In September 2009 U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood convened policy makers, safety advocates, law enforcement representatives and academics to address the risk of text-messaging and other “distracted driving” behavior. At the conclusion of the summit, Secretary LaHood announced an executive order from President Obama that forbids federal workers from texting while driving government vehicles or their own vehicles while on the job.

The state of music online:

*Music critic Sasha Frere-Jones has referred to the plight of the music industry as the “canary in the economic coal mine,” citing it as “a small example of the enormous financial buckling that is now global.”

* Napster arrived at a time when tightly controlled access to new music was still the norm. While online radio stations were starting to flourish, music lovers were becoming disillusioned with the homogenizing effects of terrestrial radio consolidation that was enabled by the 1996 Telecommunications Act. Their frustrations were made clear when the Federal Communications Commission reviewed these rules in 2003 and opened them up for public comment. The FCC received more than 15,000 letters, emails and other documents.

*The revolutionary file-sharing application created by college student Shawn Fanning officially launched in June of 1999. By November, the file-sharing network had grown so popular that it had attracted the first of many peer-to-peer-focused lawsuits from the RIAA. And by the time the Pew Internet Project fielded its initial survey on music file-sharing in July 2000, nearly one in four adult internet users said they had downloaded music files, and most of them (54%) had used the Napster network to do so

Alan Khazei

*Alan Khazei is running for U.S State Senate. Along with him, Rep. Mike Capuano, Attorney General Martha Coakley, Boston Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca are other candidates for the position..

* Alan Khazei co-founded City Year in 1988 and served as its CEO until 2006. Alan left City Year in 2006 after 19 years and is now the Founder and CEO of "Be the Change", an organization committed to building broad-based non-partisan citizen support for systemic solutions to our nation's problems that leverage the experience of social entrepreneurs, civic and community leaders, and national service alumni.Mr. Khazei has received numerous honors for his leadership in the nonprofit sector - in 2006, U.S. News & World Report recognized Mr. Khazei and Michael Brown as among America's Best Leaders, and the two leaders of City Year have also received the Reebok Human Rights Award and the Jefferson Award for Public Service. Mr. Khazei currently serves on the Board of Directors of Citizen Schools, Harvard Alumni Association, New Profit, Inc., Share Our Strength, and on the Advisory Board of America's Promise, the Partnership for Public Service, and the Center for Public Leadership at the John F. Kennedy School of Government. An honors graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, Mr. Khazei currently lives in Jamaica Plain, MA with his wife and daughter.

*Alan came to our school, American International College to advertise and express what he would do to help our community out. His main concern for us was health care. He stated that "health care is a personal issue."

Teens and technology

*According to the latest Pew Internet & American Life Project telephone survey fielded in October and November 2004, 87% of American youth aged 12 to 17 go online. That represents roughly 21 million teens who use the internet in some aspect of their lives. The online teen population has increased by roughly 24% since we last asked this question in a survey in December 2000. On the flip side, 13% of American teenagers do not use the Internet. About half (47%) of teens who say they do not go online have been online before but have since dropped off.

*Parents of teens are also much more likely to go online than the average American adult. Some 80% of parents who have teenagers go online, compared to 66% of all American adults. Parents with teenagers who use the internet have even higher levels of connectivity, with 84% of them reporting internet use.

*Starting Junior High seems to be the moment when most teens who were not previously online get connected. About 60% of the 6th graders in our sample reported using the Internet. By 7th grade, this number jumps to 82% of teens who are online. From there, the percentage of internet users in the teen population for each grade climbs steadily before topping out at 94% for all 11th and 12th graders. Much of the lag among 6th graders appears to come from boys. Less than half (44%) of 6th grade boys report going online, compared to 79% of 6th grade girls.

Global Warming.

*Fewer and fewer Americans believe there is solid evidence of global warming. Despite the fact that every opinion columnist and pundit on the airwaves repeats the idea that Global Warming is a serious threat, a recent poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press shows that not many people are buying it.

*According to new polling done by The Pew Research Center, only 35% of Americans feel that global warming is a serious problem, down from 44% of those surveyed in 2008. Only 36% feel that there is solid evidence that the earth is warming because of human activity, down from 47% in 2008.

*Massive government intervention, however, has inevitably become catastrophic for humanity throughout history. Big government can quickly turn any green space into a barren blight.

I think everyone should be taking into consideration about global warming. People are careless and since their lives are just going on the way they like it, they don't think about what COULD eventually happen in the future. Because of our negligence now, there are so many things that are causing this "global warming".

The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press: Global Warming.

Fewer Americans See Solid Evidence of Global Warming

Modest Support for "Cap and Trade" Policy

There has been a sharp decline over the past year in the percentage of Americans who say there is solid evidence that global temperatures are rising. And fewer also see global warming as a very serious problem – 35% say that today, down from 44% in April 2008.

Pew Internet & american life project civic engagement.

*Those who use blogs or social networking sites politically are much more likely to be invested in other forms of civic and political activism. Compared to those who go online but do not post political or social content or to those who do not go online in the first place, members of this group are much more likely to take part in other civic activities such as joining a political or civic group, contacting a government official or expressing themselves in the media. Only when it comes to making a contribution to a place of worship are the differences among these groups quite minimal.*

*Whether they take place on the internet or off, traditional political activities remain the domain of those with high levels of income and education.*

* Contrary to the hopes of some advocates, the internet is not changing the socio-economic character of civic engagement in America. Just as in offline civic life, the well-to-do and well-educated are more likely than those less well off to participate in online political activities such as emailing a government official, signing an online petition or making a political contribution.

*Younger Americans are more likely than their elders to be internet users, the participation gap between relatively unengaged young and much more engaged middle-aged adults that ordinarily typifies offline political activity is less pronounced when it comes to political participation online. Nevertheless, within any age group, there is still a strong correlation between socio-economic status and online political and civic engagement.*

*33% of internet users had a profile on a social networking site and that 31% of these social network members had engaged in activities with a civic or political focus.*

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

-He is the first American President to win the award in his first year in office.

-Despite his brief tenure on the job and lack of tangible achievements, the Nobel Committee said it honored Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

-Obama becomes the fourth American president to win the award and the third to win while in office.

-His one measurable achievement has been to improve the U.S. standing in the world as measured by polls in foreign countries, particularly after reaching out to the Muslim world in several speeches, including one from Cairo, Egypt.

5 facts of Pew Internet/ degrees of access

1. The Pew Internet Project's May 2008 survey finds that 73% of adults in the U.S. go online. 78% of adults have a cell phone. 55% of adults have broadband at home. Offline Americans are overwhelmingly over age 70, have less than a high school education, and speak a language other than English.

2. If we included living with a chronic condition in the internet access chart, that group would fall at around the 50% mark, whereas adults with no disability or chronic illness fall around the 75% mark.

3. And yet, once online, people living with chronic conditions are just as likely to use the internet to gather and share health information as other internet users. In all, 80% of internet users look for health information online.

4. All Whites (75%) All Blacks (59%) English-Speaking Hispanics (80%) 73%* of the population reports using the internet or email. Here is a breakdown of use among different online groups. (shown as a percentage of population online) 18-29 Years Old (90%) 30-49 Years Old (85%) 50-64 Years Old (70%) 65+ Years Old (35%) No High School Degree (44%) College Graduates (91%) <$30K Income (53%) >$75K Income (95%) Men (73%) Women (73%)

5. 55%* of the population reports using a high-speed connection (e.g., DSL, cable, wireless) when accessing the internet from home. Here is a breakdown of use among different online groups. (shown as a percentage of population using a high-speed connection from home) Whites (56%) Blacks (41%) English-Speaking Hispanics (55%) 18-29 Years Old (69%) 30-49 Years Old (68%) 50-64 Years Old (49%) 65+ Years Old (19%) No High School Degree (29%) College Graduates (78%) <$30K Income (31%) >$75K Income (82%) Men (57%) Women (52%) High School Graduates (39%) Urban (56%) Suburban (59%) Rural (38%)

Degrees of Access (May 2008 data)

Check out this SlideShare Presentation:

Degrees of Access (May 2008 data)

View more presentations from Pew Internet & American Life Project, Pew Research Center.

How women and men use the internet.

1. A wide-ranging look at the way American women and men use the internet shows that men continue to pursue many internet activities more intensively than women, and that men are still first out of the blocks in trying the latest technologies.

2. Men are slightly more intense internet users than women. Men log on more often, spend more time online, and are more likely to be broadband users.

3. More than men, women are enthusiastic online communicators, and they use email in a more robust way. Women are more likely than men to use email to write to friends and family about a variety of topics: sharing news and worries, planning events, forwarding jokes and funny stories. Women are more likely to feel satisfied with the role email plays in their lives, especially when it comes to nurturing their relationships. And women include a wider range of topics and activities in their personal emails. Men use email more than women to communicate with various kinds of organizations.

4. More online men than women perform online transactions. Men and women are equally likely to use the internet to buy products and take part in online banking, but men are more likely to use the internet to pay bills, participate in auctions, trade stocks and bonds, and pay for digital content.

5. Men are more likely than women to use the internet as a destination for recreation. Men are more likely to: gather material for their hobbies, read online for pleasure, take informal classes, participate in sports fantasy leagues, download music and videos, remix files, and listen to radio.

6. Men and women also value the internet for a second strength, as a gateway to limitless vaults of information. Men reach farther and wider for topics, from getting financial information to political news. Along the way, they work search engines more aggressively, using engines more often and with more confidence than women.

I think the website was fairly true. Women are def catching up on using the internet though.

3 bridging sites.

In my other post I said that craigslist.com was a bonding site, however I think it could be considered a bridging site as well. It brings people together in the sense of a bonding site but also it is a bridging site because of all the possible things you can choose from.

Amazon.com could be considered another bridging site. Because it shares a lot of the same features as craigslist, it provides consumers with places to shop, a wish list, apparel, elecronics, and much more. It has departments where you can find things or even learn about health benefits and tools.

Another bridging site would be msn.com, because you can link into anything. There's hotmail, weather, white pages, TV, horoscopes, and much more.

3 bonding sites.

One bonding site that I know of is cbssports.com fantasy football league. This would be considered a bonding site because it's a group of guys that get together through a website and play against each other with the people they picked to be on their fantasy football team. While the games play many sit on the computers to watch their scores differentiate.

Another bonding site would be craigslist.com. It is a site for people to put stuff online to either sell or give away. You can post adds if you have your own business company and you can even find dates or people to engage with. There are a bunch of categories to choose from like housing, jobs, or services and plenty more.

http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.1353935/k.4713/Our_mission_is_to_make_disciples_of_Jesus_Christ_for_the_transformation_of_the_world.htm

This is a religion site that could be considered a bonding site. They explain about the people of the Methodist Church, explain about their believes, church and society, and much more.

FCC Chairman calls for the Formal Net Neutrality Rules.

"The U.S Federal Communications Commission will move to create formal net neutrality rules prohibiting Internet providers from selectively blocking or slowing web content and applications, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski."There are originally 4 policy principles that are obeyed by, but he wants to formalize 2 more policies into the system. For the October meeting he says he will launch a notice of proposed rule-making . He wants to know what the public and interested companies feedback on the proposed rules and their applications. His two new principles are, the first would prevent Internet access providers from discriminating against particular Internet content or applications, while allowing for reasonable network management. The second principle would ensure that Internet access providers are transparent about the network management practices they implement.

I think people who want a faster connection should be able to pay for it. But some people are fine with what they have to they shouldn't have to pay more if they don't mind with what they have.

Top Languages in the internet

1. English

2. Chinese

3. Spanish

4. Japanese

5. French

6. Portuguese

7. German

8. Arabic

9. Russia

10. Korean

Highest Internet Penetration Rate

1. Sweden 73.6%

2. Hong Kong 70.7%

3. Denmark 68.7%

4. U.S. 68.5%

5. Norway 68.2%

6. Australia 67.2%

7. Iceland 67.1%

8. Netherlands 66.2%

9. Canada 63.8%

10. South Korea 63.3%

Top ten parent companies in the internet

1. Microsoft

2. Yahoo!

3. Time Warner

4. Google.

5. U.S. Government

6. eBay

7. InterActiveCorp

8. Amazon

9. Real Networks

10. Walk Disney Internet group

Top 5 Internet highest number of users

1. China- 298.0

2. U.S.- 227.2

3. Japan- 94.0

4. India- 81.0

5. Brazil- 67.5

Top 10 searches:

1. www.facebook.com login 100

2. www.hotmail.com 40

3. www.youtube.com 30

4. www.yahoo.com 25

5. www.myspace.com 15

6. www.gmail.com 10

7. www.friendster.com 10

8.www.libero.it 5

9. www.google.com 5

10. www.facebook.com 5