The public opinion on filesharing

I am sure that most of you, especially the youth, has heard about downloading and file sharing.
This is something that all of a sudden has blown up in the media and hit the older generation, because this has been a well known phenomenon among the younger generation.
The basics are: You have bought/received/stolen a CD, you rip it on to your computer, you copy the files you just ripped, and upload them to the internet. Then, people from all around the world can enjoy the music (/movie/game) you have paid for, for free! Isn't that neat? Technically, you are not stealing, as many would say. Let's say your friend just bought a dancing monkey, then he puts it in his cloning machine, clones it, and gives the clone to you, did you steal anything? No you did not, you just didn't pay for it, because he did not sell it to you either. That are the basics of file sharing. This does make it a lot harder for artists to make money off music, in my opinion they make most off live shows anyway. Is this something we should stop? Can we even hope stop it at all? Is this just like the machines taking over for the workers in the factories in the 18oo's? What thoughts do you make up about file sharing, illegal file sharing, as it is called.

I have actually not yet taken a stand to this, but I do download music, games, movies and programs, quite often actually. I just know that I am not hurting anyone, and the police have more serious business to take care of. I rarely buy CDs, when I do, it is mostly because the album has a more personal value. If it is just for the music, I download it. This may all sound morally wrong, but there are still a lot of people buying CDs, I do to occasionally. I also think that if not everybody does this, it can work out, but that is not a very good argument of course. I hope that there will be an agreement about this someday, until then I am going to continue downloading.
- Peace out

Shall I never see the outside again?

In the state of Pennsylvania in the USA a murder has taken place. The victim was the pregnant twenty six year old Kenzie Marie Houk, who was shot in the back of the head while she slept. A murder case is perhaps not the most unusual case we hear of from the united states, but this time the murderer was not the most common criminal. The person sitting on trial has not yet reached adulthood, and has not even lived long enough to become become a teenager. The eleven year old Jordan Brown risks the sentence of life time in prison, because the judge has decided he will not be judged in a courtroom for minors.

My opinion is that a child is not yet developed mentally until he or she has at least reached the age of fifteen, and should therefor be counted as mentally sick in these types of cases. A child is very easy to convince and influence, and has not yet learned right from wrong. However, a murder is a murder and should not go unpunished. But adults should be adults enough to treat kids as kids and rather teach them how to behave instead of punishing them for a crime they most likely had no control over! I believe that physical help and a youth camp would be the suitable punishment for Jordan Brown. Remember, this kid had easy access to the gun in his own house! What do you think? Should a eleven year old be judged by the same guidelines as an adult, and should the owner of the gun also be punished?

Twitter and World War 2

NRK wrote an article about the British school. And their plan for primary school to remove education about world war 2  and the Victorian time,  and instead learn about Twitter (same as facebook almost) and Wikipedia. This seems like a joke, but it isn't. This is real fact and I can' even think WHY? The ww2 was over for about 60 years, your grandmother and grandfather lived to it, and it's a HUGE part of European history. In addition what do you need Twitter for? I think it’s so much more interesting and useful to learn history instead, because it’s our past and it’s what made today as it is. Why do you really need to learn Twitter at school, it’s a program you use in your free time not at school or work. 

Do you really think we should waste our education to learn about Wikipedia and twitter and not history?

No animals in Circus Agora

After they went bankrupt last year, Circus Agora is introducing a new concept to Norway. They want to create circus without animals. They have had animals in their show for 19 years, and have decided to become the first Norwegian circus that is replacing animals with human artists.

They are denying that their decision about human circus has anything to do with the economical crises. They are promising that among the human artists, it will be a huge variety and it will be performed everything from acrobatic to magic performances.

Circus Agora is debuting in Drammen, furthermore they will go on with a tour in Norway.

 

How do you feel about animals being in circus?

If you ever have been at a circus, I guess you have noticed all the people that are protesting against animals being in circus. Do you think that the protesting people have had any effect on Circus Agora’s decision about removing the animals? 

Kidnapping

I read in the newspaper that a 17-year-old girl was kidnapped in Namsos about two weeks ago. The police are reporting that an unknown man dragged her into a car. 22 hours later she was found in Oslo. The person who found her thought she was related to drug dealing, but that was clearly not the case.

During the kidnap she wore something that covered her eyes, and she did not talk to her kidnapper. That led to her being unable to recognize either the man, or the car she was forced into. Therefore, the police have no further leads that can help them track the one who committed this crime. It is not yet known if she was sexual abused.

The police are reporting that the girl was exposed to a very traumatic situation. She is now joining a helping centre to deal with her feelings. The young girl was brutally treated and she was in a bad condition when she was found. Though, she is slowly recovering from the accident. She is at the moment back at school.

 

Kidnapping is a crime that is very difficult to control. People around the world are being exposed to this unfortunate crime every day. Luckily for this young girl, the ending was brighter than for many other victims.

Do you have any suggestions of how to avoid kidnapping?

What can we do individually, and what can authorities do?

 

 

Parents who "over protect" their children

I read today a story that a kindergarten introduced protective order when the children were out playing. They wanted the children to wear helmets so they would not hurt them self.

This is not the first case of its kind, I have previously heard of cases where parents do not let the children play freely. They believe that it can be dangerous to play in such as trees, but the children doesnt learn to set boundaries for what is possible and not if they dont get climb in trees and play freely. Now I am talking not about the parents must let the children get powerful bone fractures and stuff like that, but bruises and graze. Every kid has well to hurt them self during their childhood, i mean that it should be a part of your childhood so that you are hardend for the rest of your life.

To all 10A students:

Feel free to comment on any of the postings now, not just mine. There are some very interesting contributions from your fellowstudents that I would look forward to having your opinion on.
Anita

Mirror, mirror on the wall...

It is harder to grow up now. Of course we have all the new technology and a much safer and stable childhood, but what about the pressure that is on us. How we are going to do our make-up, which clothes we are going to wear, if we are going to be fat or thin and tall or short. The pressure is mostly coming from the media and Hollywood, the reason for that is because it is them who have affection on us. Young girls worldwide are reading celebrity-magazines with pictures of perfect styled celebrities who is size zero. It has an enormous affection on them, whether they want it or not. Although, you are taking the style in the magazine because you don’t want to be different or if you are doing the opposite because you want to stand out, it affects you.

It is not only affecting which style you have, or which music you are listening on but how you’re body looks. Even tough, you just toss the gossip-magazines because the actors/actress and singers in the pictures are too perfect and too skinny it affects you no matter what. And it is unbelievable many young girls and boys who have a problem with how they look because they get a feeling that says that nothing are ever good enough. They develop eating-disorders and very low self-esteem. So what do you think, is it too much pressure? What do you think have most affection on you?

What kind of sentence does a monster deserve?

Josef Fritzl locked up his own daughter in his basement for 24 years. During all those years he raped her, starting when she was 11, and made her have 7 kids. One of them died and the rest were separated, because he brought some of them upstairs telling the family that Elisabeth had ran off. All the time while she was growing up, he was mean to her. Behind many locked doors Elisabeth and her tree of her kids were prisoners, bur no one could hear them screaming for help behind the massive walls. He deprived her of her rights and stole 24 years of her life.

This week on Thursday, they will give him his sentence and everyone is waiting for this. This cruel man might get only 7 years in prison, because he confessed to 4 of the 6 points he was accused of. But now he also confessed the last points about murder and slavery. But it wouldn’t be fair to let this monster out of jail after only 7 years, when he kept his daughter as a prisoner for 24 years. I think he should be in prison for the rest of his life. What kind of sentence do you think he deserves?

Fritzl sentenced to life

Josef Fritzl have been sentenced to life in a psychiatric clinic. He was charged for murder, slavery, rape and incest. He was found guilty on all charges.

Everybody knew that Fritzl was going to a life imprisonment, but nobody knew if he was going to appeal. Instead of an appeal Fritzl was emotionless, and seemed very aware of the things that have happened. On the other side, you can't expect much when you have kept your daughter in a cellar for 24 years and at the same time raped her 3000 times. As a result of the sexual assaults did he get seven kids with her. One of the kids died and that's the murder charge. One of the things i thought was strange is that Fritzl's wife didn't hear anything from Elizabeth of any of the kids. I know that it was locked up and everything, but if it was locked all the time they would have died of suffocation. But again who believes that your husband have locked your daughter inside your cellar for many years.

I believe that it was good that he got life sentence, because that kind of people don't deserve to die. They should be kept in complete isolation for the rest of their life.

Bullying online

Bullying online is something that has become very common in the last few years.

The reason that the bullies do the bullying online instead of face to face is that when you don’t see the person’s reaction, it's easier to turn up the volume.
Most bullies don’t understand that the people you are talking shit about aren't a machine, but actual human beings with thoughts and feelings.

There are so many methods you can use to annoy people over the internet. The things you always should have on your mind and think carefully of is; do you really want the pictures you are posting to be viewable for the whole world to see? Would you be ashamed over these pictures later? Can these pictures be used against you in any way?

My opinion is that bullying online is an awful thing to do, and that it is a terrible thing to do to get status. The fact that the bullies do it over the internet only shows their own insecurity.

What do you think of electronic bullying?

Bullied to death

A girl in England sent a naked-picture to her boyfriend, and he sent the picture around to his mates. After a little while, almost everybody at her school had seen the picture. The other students started to bully her, and they wouldn’t stop. She went on TV to ask them to stop this, but it only got worse. It ended with the girl’s suicide.

I think that it’s never a good idea to send a naked-picture of you to anyone, no matter what the circumstances are. You can get in a fight, split up or lose your mobile, so the picture can get out. Even so, if you do make this mistake, you shouldn’t be punished for it the rest of your life. I think that it’s horrible that some people would take it so far, that a person would kill themselves. Of course it’s funny when a picture like this enters your mobile, but you should think about what you would feel if it was your picture. I can imagine how embarrassed I would feel if it was me, so I wouldn’t send the picture to others. And even when she begged them to stop because she was suffering, they wouldn’t listen. It’s just mean.

How would you feel if it was your naked-picture that was spread to the whole school?
How can things like this happen, and why don’t we know when to stop?

Music, should it be free?

Almost everyone has download a music track illegally and for someone it's also become a habit, it’s so easy it’s scary, just a push of a button and you’re a criminal. Should this really be the case? Should the police stop this or make it legal?

A great new program called Spotify is out now and this program is great, because you could listen to music without download it. At the moment you need an invite to use it, but it will soon be open for everyone. This is great; however there is one downside, when you don’t have internet connection you don’t have any music.

 I get that the artist doesn’t get paid when the music is free, but how much do they get if we list to the music at Spotify? I think the future is free and most of it is paid by commercials so I think we should start the future now and begin with free legal music now! What do you think?

Cynical or psychologically troubled?

I was watching the news the other night when the case about Josef Fritzel turned up on the screen. Fritzel has pleaded guilty at most of the charges, but some say thats he is now trying to gain pity and an reduction of the penalty by behaving as a man with deep psychological troubles.

It strikes me that he has to have some serious psychological trouble when he is able to commit such a crime at all, but is that a reason to get a milder punishment when he still commited the crime? Some say that he deserved life time in jail, some wants his head and some say that he should spent the next twenty four years of his life in his basement. Personally, I believe that he is a cynical man that deserved the same treatment he gave to her daughter, twenty four years in his basement. I know that you should not take revenge and be just as evil yourself, but my human feelings are to strong. An eye for en eye, and a tooth for a tooth! What do you think? Is he a victim himself, and which punishment do you think is suitable?

Hijab

Lately in the news we have heard about Muslim police women who want to wear hijab on duty. This case has created huge debates in the media. Some believe that they should be allowed, but others are strongly opposed.

I believe that every single police officer should be neutral, so that the arrests and the cases not are being influenced by religion, political views etc. Imagine that a Muslim woman wearing a hijab arrest a Jew. Because of the conflict in Israel and Gaza, this will create major rebellion, also here in Norway.
- What do you think is right? Should Muslim women wear hijab on duty?

Shooting in schools

I heard on the news yesterday about the shooting at a school in Germany. A former student shot 9 students and two teachers!

It's hard to imagine how things like these can happen. It's also been the case in other countries, like Finland and in the US, several times.
- What do you think cause incidents like these? Do you think it could also happen in Norway? Why? Why not?
Anita