Fall 2010, UMaine will expand the Engineering College by adding another minor: Robotics Engineering. The addition of more than a dozen robotics classes came after the growing popularity of the robotics classes offered within the electrical and mechanical engineering. Not only does this addition satisfy the growing demand for such classes, it offers a comprehensive field of study combining all three of the major engineering distintions: electrical, mechanical and computer. The addition of this course of study reflects the growing prevelance of robotics in the everyday world. From robotics used during surgery, assebly lines, general manurfacturing to machines used in aerospace technology, knowledge in this growing field will be a great asset for UMaines engineering majors. Classes within this minor will cover things such as robotic surgery, robotic motion such as "walking" robots, robotic statistics, control and dynamics.

Ryan Dulac and I have known each other for the better part of a decade; almost seven and a half years have gone by since we came to know each other, and his almost obsessive dedication to his "life plan" still makes me laugh. Whereas I still can't decide how I want to spend my life, or even what I want to do tomorrow, Ryan has got everything planned out down to the last detail. Whatever he sets his mind to, he keeps at until it has been accomplished, and accomplished well. He wanted good grades in high school; to this day he has never gotten below a 4.0 GPA, which landed him the Top Scholar Award for college. He is now a third year psychology major at UMaine, working towards his doctorate. His second semester at UMO, he joined the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and decided that he would like to be president of said fraternity, and this semester he made it happen. Armed with a dry, sarcastic sense of humor, he can put you at ease, make you laugh and insult you all at the same time. If you want to keep up with him, you have to be quick on the pick up. Except when it comes to sports. He'll tell you amazingly agile and athletic...but not so much. I tell him that we can't be good at everything, but he just looks at me and whispers "lies!". But it's all in good fun.

Article Critique

"Somali Pirates Hijack Fourth Vessel in a Week"

On CNN's website, this title caught my eye, and a very short, somewhat disjointed but nonetheless informative article followed. As far as I could tell, the story was accurate; every time a fact or believed fact was stated, it was followed by the source of the information. This article was little else but facts, mostly pertaining to the nationality of the hijacked ship's crew members, the country or origin of the ships in question, when and where the ships were taken. As there was nothing but the statement of facts, there was complete objectivity in this article; it was little more than bullet point modified into loose paragraphs.

One thing that did, however, bother me, was the disjointed way in which things were stated. In an article less than 6 paragraphs long, the phrase "the naval force said" is used 10 times, and additionally, the phrase "it said" (also referring to the British naval force) is used twice. This strikes me as a rough draft of a larger article. The bare bones are there; facts, sources and storyline, but in my opinion this article should have been given a bit more attention. If it were me in the CNN editing room, I would not have posted this story as it is now. There could have been a bit more back story toward the end of the article, bringing up the recent spike in acts of piracy off the coast of Somalia, and why geography puts so many large tankers with precious payloads in such notoriously dangerous international waters. If there wasn't time to add that much depth to the story, one would at least reread the standing article and attempt to assemble it in such a way that a single source would only need to be stated once, and delete the other nine times it is stated as a source.

Though the article stayed true to the title and simply and briefly stated the facts of the events, I feel it could have done so in a more cohesive, intelligible manner, and possibly there could have been more meat added to the story if it had been looked over more than once.

Moral Dilemma

Bias and Deception



The news media is America's primary source of political, local and international events, and as such has a responsibility to objectively provide validated facts and political statements within the full context of the situation said statements were given. It is the sole purpose of the media to relay facts to the general public; not pander to a specific constituency. All national news channels are guilty of some bias, especially when relating to political issues. MSNBC is widely known as a "leftist" news channel, while FOX news is famous for its conservative bias. Some bias is to be expected; if the target market is a more conservative group, the content will reflect that. There is a point, however, where the bias becomes larger than the events themselves, and at that point it is unacceptable. When stories are molded to fit preconceived ideas and opinions, the reporter has slipped past acceptable bias and barreled head-over-heels into public deception.