I'm So Lonely!

For the final installment of this journalistic blog, I was trying to think of what I could be interested in. And then I found this. The article says that people can catch loneliness by being around lonely people. I find this fascinating, and I can see it as being true. I know I adapt to situations surrounding me and borrow traits of those I'm closest to, so I can see this being plausible. I also find it strange that it took them quite awhile to realize this correlation between the two. The quotes within the article were slightly confusing, and I think they could have picked better ones, but overall it was short and to the point.

Necessary Harry Potter Article

So I figured I should include an article or two about Harry Potter. I remember reading this earlier in the week and being extremely happy that this was happening. Naming common rooms in England after the Harry Potter houses is something I wish I could do at Ball State. I'm thinking of naming our room after it now. I was sad to read that they probably would not be able to keep the names of the houses because of copyright laws and whatnot, but I hope that they will continue to call it the "Gryffindor Common Room". It makes me want to go to England even more, although judging by the quotes they chose to include in the article, the news may be a bit dry to read.

Going to College to Learn How to Grow Pot

This article caught my eye mainly because of the headline. I know that medical marijuana has been making a rise lately, but it amused me to think that there was a school that was investing in it. This school was founded specifically to teach people how to effectively grow marijuana for medicinal purposes. While there are a lot of your typical suspects, there is a surprising number of people who are trying to do this to benefit others. The article goes into the background of how it was legalized in Michigan and details certain classes they take. There was one sentence I did stumble over, however, and it took me awhile to realize why it was not making sense. "For Mr. Tennant, who is certified as both a caregiver and a patient — he said he has stomach problems and anxiety — Med Grow replaces the auto detailing business he started straight out of high school, only to see it founder when the economy contracted." There is what I would imagine is an "l" missing from the word "flounder". Otherwise, I could not see any other mistakes in the article.

Stem Cell Research is...Back?

Today I got a breaking news story about stem cell research. As seen from the headline, stem cell research is in full swing. The National Institutes of Health were asked to re-write guidelines to make it easier to conduct stem cell research while still being ethical, because of the potential lives it could save. It interested me because many have been criticizing President Obama for not accomplishing a lot in his first year in office. The stem cell debate is something I also do not really understand. The article itself makes sure that readers are informed as to what is going to be done in the labs, detailing the process. In it, it says that the stem cell lines are from embryos that were tested and proved to be rejected for fertility, which to me says that they would go to waste. The only thing the article did not fully explain is what stem cell lines were in the beginning, but this is because this story is still in development. The article is well-written for being a breaking news story and having little time to form a coherent story.

Ashlee Simpson-Wentz? Broadway? Two Words that Should Not be in the Same Sentence

At first I was hoping that I misread the title for this article. And then I continued to read. Ashlee Simpson-Wentz, after horribly failing to lip-synch on Saturday Night Live, made it to Broadway. Not only Broadway, but Chicago. And not as a minor role even. She is the main character. Chicago has been one of the longest and most well-known musicals, and the thought of her in this made me cringe inside. But the article itself offered many different aspects of how those close to her view both her Broadway debut and her marriage. It also offered what she had done previously, not mentioning the SNL fiasco. I also noticed that throughout the article they referred to her as Ashlee, which makes sense. Most of her family is interviewed, and Simpson-Wentz takes up too much room for a story. All in all, the article itself was brief but explained the facts. My issue is with the actual content.

Looks Like African-American's Don't Agree on Everything

Today's article is about same-sex marriage laws, again. As you can see, this is a topic I am very much for. The article likens it to the civil rights activists of the 1960's, and how many young people (myself included) see it as their generation's civil rights battle. It provides a lot of information about what has been going on in Washington, D.C., and how everyone is reacting to the approval in the district. The first thing I noticed was that it kept referring to Washington, D.C. as "the District" and for readers like myself who usually do not read the Washington Post, it was slightly confusing at first to figure out what they were referring to. Another thing I noticed was that during a quote, there was no use of punctuation. The speaker was listing off the types of support they will provide, and nowhere in the list was a comma, which bugged me. Overall, though, it was a well-written article.