Recently by Kirsten Hudson

Google Street View
Photo from Wikipedia

Recently I found out about a new feature of Google maps, Google Street View. This tool allows users to see 360 degree panoramic street-level views of certain major U.S. cities and their surrounding metropolitan areas. When the tool was launched in May 2007 it only offered images of 5 U.S. cities; now it shows more than 30. The pictures for Google Street View were taken from a camera on an automobile.

Out of curiosity I went to check out this new feature. I was surprised to find that Lawrence is one of the cities you can see. Almost the entire city is shown. In fact it was kind of disturbing that when I looked up my apartment complex I could even see my car.

Seeing my car initially made me feel like this new tool was a violation of privacy. I found an article in The New York Times expressing the same concerns. The woman featured in the article was disturbed when she could zoom into her second story apartment and see her cat sitting in the window.

The fact that you can zoom in was really what bothered me, but once I tried it I realized that even when you do zoom in the camera gets really blurry anyway. Also, as that article stated Google said, "Street View only features imagery taken on public property." So really anyone on a public street could see the content shown in the pictures on Google Street View anyway. Plus the pictures are only taken once, so it's not like someone could "spy" on you.

Now I think Google Street View is really kind of amazing. It's better than Google Earth because instead of just an aerial view of a city you can look at the actual streets in more detail. I could see the way Times Square in New York looks on a regular day, or even look at the shops on Mass Street. In a way Google Street View does waver on a violation of privacy, but ultimately I think it's just a handy new addition to maps.

In class we talked about events from the 1990s that affected us as young adults. There was a bit of a debate going on about whether Columbine and events like it affected our generation.

Today, I opened up the University Daily Kansan to yet another tragic event that occurred at a university.

Yesterday, The University of North Carolina's student body president, Eve Carson, was found shot to death in a city street.

Police said the crime appeared to be random.

While not a mass shooting like the event at Virginia Tech last year or the shooting at Northern Illinois University in February, the death of this girl still hits home because it's relatable, it happened at a university just like ours.

In this same newspaper was an opinion column about how the author thinks we can "stop" these events from happening. I don't want to go into his proposed method; I just want to call attention to one sentence. His lead was, "After finding my seat in Budig Hall for the first time, I realized that the scene was probably very similar to the one that preceded Seung-Hui Cho's rampage at Virginia Tech last year, and I resolved to find a seat closer to an exit."

Do these events really affect us this much?

I could of course be completely wrong, but part of me thinks that he was just saying this to grab our attention, not because he actually did it.

I for one have never walked into a classroom wondering where I could hide if someone were to walk in with a gun.

It's scary, but I don't live my life thinking about it everyday.

If it's more personal, such as if you knew someone in the shootings, I could see how these events could affect you.

Yet, as a generation, while these events make us sad when we read about them in the newspaper, after we put that newspaper in the recycle bin, I don't think these events continue affecting us.

Scrabulous
Photo: Google Images

Of all the Facebook application requests I receive everyday, Scrabulous has never been one of them.

However, Scrabulous a virtual knock-off of the board game Scrabble, played primarily on Facebook, is quickly becoming popular, especially with younger audiences.

According to the New York Times, Hasbro who owns the rights to Scrabble in North America and Mattel, who markets it everywhere else are not happy because they say they have deals with other companies to create online versions of the game.

According to Matt Mason, a consultant to the entertainment industry and author of "The Pirate's Dilemma: How Youth Culture Is Reinventing Capitalism," "If you're Hasbro or Mattel, it isn't in your interest to shut this down."

By saying it's not in their best interest to shut down Scrabulous, Mason means that with consumers increasingly looking to the internet for entertainment, board game industries are going to have to adapt.

I have to agree.

I love board games. In fact I have five sitting in my living room right now, but I consider myself in the minority.

Most young adults are going to play a quick game on the internet while procrastinating on their homework or before class starts. It's convenient and fast.

Not only are young adults finding their entertainment through games on the internet, but through video games such as the Xbox or Playstation. Board games just aren't exciting when compared to the high tech graphics and variety that video games offer.

Yet it seems wrong that Hasbro and Mattel want to shut down Scrabulous in favor of their own online games since so many people are already fans of Scrabulous.

According to the New York Times, there are several groups on Facebook dedicated to saving Scrabulous including "Save Scrabulous" and "Please God, I Have So Little: Don't Take Scrabulous Too."

I think that the owners of Scrabble, Hasbro and Mattel, should work with the creators of Scrabulous rather than trying to shut them down.

Apparently, I am just unlucky.

Not only did I not miss a single class on Thursday's afternoon Snow Day, but I also have never received 100% on an exam for doing no work.

On Monday, February 18, 923 students in a Biology 100 class all received 100% on their exams because the clicker system used to take their exam crashed, erasing all student answers.

Clickers
Photo from Google Images

This is the second time in less than two weeks there has been an article in the University Daily Kansan about clicker systems backfiring on their users.

On Wednesday, February 13, the clickers purchased by Student Senate for almost $5000 didn't work because of technical difficulties. However, the technical difficulties weren't because of problems with the clickers, but with the University-borrowed receiver which required an administrator password.

Clickers, resembling small remote controls, allow students to submit answers to questions via their ‘clicker' and a receiving station that registers student responses.

Each clicker can be assigned to a different student.

According to www.educause.edu clickers have slowly become a part of the academic environment since 1998.

Clickers are intended to make measuring student's learning of concepts easier for teachers. They also gauge student opinion on issues which can enhance a debate or discussion. As intended in the Biology 100 class, they can also be used to eliminate the paper waste of regular exams.

Although I have not used clickers in college, I had some experience with them in high school classes.

Clickers are interesting because they're a completely new learning tool. I can see how clickers make it easier for teachers to determine where students are having difficulties, but like all technology there are problems.

Not just with crashes like in the Biology 100 class, but with accuracy as well. I can't remember completely how they work, but I think it could be easy to accidentally hit the wrong button if you're not paying attention properly. Also, in high school I remember my friends and I would check to see if we were hitting the same buttons as each other. Although I'm sure there's some way to regulate that when taking exams now.

I also don't think that I would like taking an exam via clicker. When I have a paper exam in front of me it seems easier to take since I'm able to write in the margins and it also makes it easier if I need to go back and check answers.
I'm supposed to be part of the technology generation, but sometimes I think the old-fashioned way is just better.

I still keep track of assignments and tests by writing them in my planner rather than putting them in a Blackberry.

But at least my information never gets deleted.

Rumor that Julian Wright's leaving for the NBA has led to decreased business at Jaybowl
Photos from Google images, put together by Kirsten Hudson

As I'm sure many of you read in the University Daily Kansan, a proposal to bring beer sales back to Jaybowl is being considered by the Provost's office.

If approved the proposal would allow 3.2 beer (a lower alcohol content than regular beer) to be sold at Jaybowl. However, beers would be limited to two per person.

As a security measure, Jaybowl would scan ID's then give a wristband and hand stamp to those over 21.

Although according to the UDK, Shawn Bowers, a student member of the committee that reviewed the proposal and director of public relations for Student Union Activities said the purpose of the proposal was to create "an environment where students and professors can come and relax. It would be another option for a mature campus audience," I have heard a different rumor.

According to a friend of mine, decreased business at the Jaybowl may be due to Julian Wright's leaving for the NBA.

He was known to be a regular at Jaybowl.

I believe it considering the two times my friends have ever managed to drag me to bowl, he was there.

Personally, I wouldn't have even noticed he was there (I had to concentrate on my game, I mean I wanted my score to at least get over 50) if my friends hadn't pointed and squeaked "Look it's Julian Wright!"

To which I replied "Who?"

Yes I can feel all you basketball fans cringing, I'm sorry ok! I tried, I really did! I just can't get interested in basketball.

However, I digress. Even the guys in my group stared while Julian bowled, to tell you the truth it creeped me out.

Apparently though compared to the rest of KU, at least those that frequent Jaybowl, I'm the odd-ball.

Now that there's no Julian to stare at, the crowds have cleared out and business for Jaybowl has declined, hence the possibly reinstated beer sales.

I just find it amusing that without Julian they have to pacify everyone with beer.

Sometimes big hits start with people our age.

CBS recently picked up a T.V. show called "We Need Girlfriends."

"We Need Girlfriends" Episode 1
Photo: www.weneedgirlfriends.tv

The show based on its makers, Angel Acevedo, 25, Steven Tsapelas, 26, and Brian Amyot, 26, is about three geeky friends, Henry, Tom and Rod, who live in Queens and bond over their mutual cluelessness about the opposite sex.

The three, recently out of college and all film majors started the show when for the first time since college all three were single.

The idea came to them after many hours spent watching "Entourage" when they decided to basically make an anti-Entourage show based on them.

When entering short film contests and attending small film festivals became costly for the little amount of attention gained, they decided to post the show on the web.

After posting the show to their website, MySpace.com and YouTube.com it became a hit.

Last July the three traveled to Los Angeles to pitch their show to several networks that had contacted them, CBS wanted it.

Since then the three worked on the show up until the writer's strike, which has temporarily put the show on hold.

Unsurprisingly the show is a hit among the under 30 crowd.

Not only I feel, because of its placement on YouTube and MySpace, but being based on real people, the characters are completely relatable to their audience.

The series also shows a side of guys rarely portrayed on T.V.

"We Need Girlfriends" demonstrates the crazy fun friendship between guys and that girls aren't the only ones who get shot down in the game of love.

The show is not only unique because of its content, but because of its creators as well.

Three average guys went from filming a show set in the streets of their town Astoria, NY with their actors working for free to supervising producers and writers of their on show for CBS.

The Real "We Need Girlfriends"
Photo: Donna Alberico for the New York Times

These three guys show how one unique idea can explode.

I love that our generation is influencing and changing the mass media and I hope to be watching "We Need Girlfriends" on my living room couch soon.

(Information about "We Need Girlfriends" found at: click here.)

An issue that I have started to think about a lot lately is studying abroad. My twin sister's approaching travels to Italy this summer prompted these thoughts. She will be studying abroad in Paderno del Grappa, Italy with the CIMBA program, a program offered to both KU business and journalism students. Since she wants to be an accountant, (I have yet to receive a satisfactory answer as to why) she is going for the business program.

Paderno del Grappa, Italy
Photo: Cimbaitaly.com

So when I received an e-mail a few days ago, (as I'm sure many of you did) saying that the CIMBA program is now offering journalism students the chance to attend the program in the summer (previously it was only offered to journalism students for the semester or year) I was excited. I thought that now I could go to Italy too; my sister and I could experience Italy together.

Yet, being a much more independent and outgoing person than I am she quickly shot me down, saying that this was supposed to be her experience, by herself, surviving in a foreign country without any "help."

We all know that studying abroad is a "good opportunity," that's been drilled into us, but my sister made me wonder if the experience is better if you do it alone? I, having no friends that have studied abroad don't know how common it is for friends or acquaintances to study abroad together.

Along the same lines, many study abroad programs offered at KU are led by a KU instructor with the group being comprised of mostly KU students. Since students may be familiar with each other does this make the program less of a cultural experience?

I just wonder if there are there different levels of the study abroad experience. One of the purposes of studying abroad is to take you out of your comfort zone in order to immerse yourself in a new culture. Can that only be fully done by doing it alone?

If you're going to study abroad, KU is a great place to do it. According to the 2006 Open Doors Report, KU ranks eighth in the nation among public research universities according to the percentage of students that study abroad. The Study Abroad Office at KU claims to offer more than 100 programs in about 60 countries all over the world.

Whether studying abroad alone or with acquaintances, KU gives students ample opportunity to have an international experience and either way I guess, it looks good on a resume.