Jacked Up Movie...

'Blindness'

It talks about how society devolves when a strange illness spreads.

Effects Of The Economic Downturn

Down economy means more business for some

KUSA - While business is down in some areas in Colorado, it is up in others.

'At liquor stores, consumers facing tough economic times are not passing up on all the good times. Alcohol sales are up 20 percent in Colorado over the past year, but there are fewer wine snobs in the aisles.

"Instead of a $25 bottle of wine, two bottles for $10 each," said Ron Vaughn with Argonaut Wine & Liquor.

It is the same with beer. Nationally, sales of some pricier brews are down, while brands like Keystone and Miller are seeing sales surge.

Grocery store shoppers are also buying more soup. Campbell sells a meal in a can for as little as 60 cents and the company's sales were up 12 percent last quarter.

On its Web site, Malt-O-Meal says it's having a hard time keeping up with demand. Its hot cereal costs less than other brands.

Cashiers are also ringing up more SPAM. Sales of the cheap canned ham are up by double digits and the company had to increase production.

It might be the cheap food or just the stress that comes with a bad economy, but for some reason laxatives sell well in recessions. This year, sales are up by 7 percent.

Discount stores like Wal-Mart and thrift stores are also performing well in this economy. So are bankruptcy lawyers.'

'Reality Bites'

Caught this movie on the other night and watching it now, I have a totally different perspective of it.

I remember going to see it in the theater when it came out while I was at NYU.

My new take away was this:

Us Gen X'ers, in a way, did bring to the masses, 'snark' and pop culture reference-speak.

I guess our 'slacker' sensibilities and consumer culture savvy really did have an effect on society after all.

Though, it's weird to think that we're one of the smallest generations ever born.

Still, I think we don't get the credit we deserve.

We re-propagated music after all.

And adopted reality tee-vee.



Nirvana - 'Lithium'

Ha ha.

Ok....

So anyone else notice how quickly real life is actually turning in to 'Idiocracy'?

I was in McDonald's the other day and now they have plasma monitors with non-stop loops of people enjoying the McDonald's lifestyle.

I was at the bank, and same thing, except about banking services.

And now with stores within stores within stores [i.e. Super Target], every thing is becoming so self-referencing in terms of total market saturation, that it's beginning to hurt my brain.

Not to mention how inane TV is, and how gullible and stupid people are [this whole 'lipstick on a pig thing].

I am so glad I haven't reproduced.

I was often called a 'red-headed step-child'.

'The origin of the phrase "red haired step child" dates to the 1830's & 40's when Irish emigrants began arriving in America.

The newly arrived Irish were somewhere below free blacks on the social scale at the time, and lived in segregated communities.

Then, like now, young men were having sexual relations with young women before marriage.

Sometimes the men were Irish and the girls were not.

This resulted in many out of wedlock children with that red Irish hair.

When these young women did finally marry, usually to a young man not of Irish descent, the new husband was not particularly patient or sympathetic to the red haired step child and treated them harshly.

The phrase is derogatory although many do not know its origin, it is still considered an insult to knowledgeable people of Irish descent, and should be avoided in polite conversation.'

Neato

The art of honesty

'Artist Jillian May had a simple idea: for two weeks last month, she set out baked goods on an unmanned table on Dean Street with a sign that asked customers to deposit 25 cents in a jar.

Some people stole the food.

Others stole the money.

And vandals broke the jar.

In other words, it was a successful project!

In fact, no matter what happened, May’s “Conzept Kiosk” had to be successful, given that it was part art project and part social experiment — and a statement on trust and honesty in society today.

Indeed, after a rough start, May said she began to see the better side of humanity, noting that area residents, workers and business owners began protecting her kiosk (and money) when the cookies and cupcakes ran out each day.

One of the kiosk’s biggest supporters was Peter Parker, 54, a security guard at the demolition site that may someday be the Atlantic Yards mega-project across the street from May’s kiosk, between Carlton and Vanderbilt avenues in Prospect Heights.

Parker was not only May’s first customer every morning (his favorite was the vegan chocolate chip cookies), but he watched the stand — an example of the integrity May hoped the project would inspire.

Parker even said he once caught someone trying to steal the money jar. “He put it back and apologized to me,” he said.

Vandals were tougher. After hooligans broke her glass container, she started using plastic. But when she returned the next day to find the bottle melted in half and the money gone, May settled on a glass wine carafe — with an opening too small for a hand — that she hot-glued to the kiosk.

May came up with “Conzept Kiosk” during a residency last year on a small Finnish island, where unmanned roadside kiosks are common. She made her own and started selling American-style treats to the Finns — and at the end of every day, sure enough, she always found the right amount of money for the number of sweets taken.

Back in America, May not only found theft, but that Brooklynites are more hesitant to trust a 25-cent baked good left out on the street with a sign.

“They are suspicious of generosity in an urban culture,” May said of the participants in her social experiment.

Still, “Conzept Kiosk” did have a sizable fan base.

“It’s testing the idea of honesty, integrity and trust,” said Jimmy Greenfield, owner of the Soapbox Gallery, the Dean Street storefront where May placed her stand.

Once locals got word of the high-quality treats, they were inspired to come back for more. And the more they ate, the more invested they became.

“One time [when the bottle was missing],” said Anton Schlesinger, 26, “people just put money in the tray.”

Who says art doesn’t pay?'

We've come a long way.

Children's play equipment and the decline of the American yard.

Word.

So I'm Gen Y now?

Why Generation Y is broke

Interesting.

MySpace can bring shy kids out of their shells

'When Jessica Kellen was 12 years old, she met a boy on MySpace who said he was 17.

She had pretended to be 16, which allowed her to sneak past the site's rule that members have to be at least 14. Jessica, who's 14 now, describes her sixth-grade self as a "really shy kid." Conversing with a stranger on MySpace about the boy's family farm, parents and adolescent drama came easier than doing so with people she knew. And the virtual friendship helped boost her self-esteem in the real world — allowing her to make more friends at school.

“If I can do this on the Internet, why can't I do this in person?” realized Jessica, who lives in Centennial, Colo.

MySpace anxiety

While horrifying headlines tie MySpace to teen suicide, violence — and especially sexual predators, research tells another story. Larry D. Rosen, a psychology professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills, found that only 12 percent of teenagers actually rendezvous offline with an online friend in his recent survey of 482 teens. That finding jibes with similar nationwide studies.

The kids most at risk for encountering trouble on MySpace are the ones who are looking for it, Rosen said in an interview.

“But they would be the same kids going out there looking for it offline,” he said.

In his recent parenting book “Me, MySpace and I,” Rosen says that parents’ MySpace anxiety likely arises from their lack of understanding of what teens actually do on the social-networking site. A third of parents have never glimpsed their teen’s MySpace page — and three-fourths do so less than once a month, according to his research.

And what parents might not know about MySpace is that it can actually help their kids. Bolstered by interviews of more than 1,000 parents and 2,500 teens, Rosen’s research shows that the oft-stigmatized site can foster adolescent pursuits of true identity, friendship — and validation.'

Up With Free-Range Kids!

You get leaner cutlets that way.

Ha ha.

I kid.

But, yah, as a kid back in the day I gadded about all over the city.

As long as I did my chores, and came home, my parental unit didn't really care what I did.

I was a latch-key kid after all.

I really am interested to see how these over-protected children are going to react when they hit the real world.

Helicopter Moms vs. Free-Range Kids

A New York columnist lets her grade-schooler ride the subway alone, provoking a wave of criticism. But do kids really need more supervision than in generations past?

'Would you let your fourth-grader ride public transportation without an adult? Probably not. Still, when Lenore Skenazy, a columnist for the New York Sun, wrote about letting her son take the subway alone to get back to her Manhattan home from a department store on the Upper East Side, she didn't expect to get hit with a tsunami of criticism from readers.

"Long story short: My son got home, ecstatic with independence," Skenazy wrote on April 4 in the New York Sun. "Long story longer: Half the people I've told this episode to now want to turn me in for child abuse. As if keeping kids under lock and key and helmet and cell phone and nanny and surveillance is the right way to rear kids. It's not. It's debilitating—for us and for them."

Online message boards were soon swarming with people both applauding and condemning Skenazy's decision to let her son go it alone. She wound up defending herself on the cable news networks (accompanied by her son) and on popular blogs like the Huffington Post, where her follow-up piece was ironically headlined "More From America's Worst Mom."

The episode has ignited another one of those debates that divides parents into vocal opposing camps. Are modern parents needlessly overprotective, or is the world a more complicated and dangerous place than it was when previous generations were allowed to roam unsupervised?

From the "she's an irresponsible mother" camp came: "Shame on you for being so cavalier with his safety," in comments on the Huffington Post. And there was this from a mother of four: "How would you have felt if he didn't come home?" But Skenazy got a lot of support, too, with women and men writing in with stories about how they were allowed to run errands all by themselves at seven or eight. She also got heaps of praise for bucking the "helicopter parent" trend: "Kudos to this Mom," one commenter wrote on the Huffington Post. "This is a much-needed reality check."

Last week, buoyed by all the attention, Skenazy started her own blog—Free Range Kids—promoting the idea that modern children need some of the same independence that her generation had. In the good old days nine-year-old baby boomers rode their bikes to school, walked to the store, took buses—and even subways—all by themselves. Her blog, she says, is dedicated to sane parenting. "At Free Range Kids, we believe in safe kids. We believe in helmets, car seats and safety belts. We do NOT believe that every time school-age children go outside, they need a security detail."'

Interesting

Michael Vick

NFL truth: Hip-hop culture hurting NFL

'You get one NFL Truth today. Watching Chad Johnson and Larry Johnson undermine their respective head coaches, Marvin Lewis and Herm Edwards, on Sunday gave me a singular focus, forced me to contemplate an uncomfortable truth.

African-American football players caught up in the rebellion and buffoonery of hip hop culture have given NFL owners and coaches a justifiable reason to whiten their rosters. That will be the legacy left by Chad, Larry and Tank Johnson, Pacman Jones, Terrell Owens, Michael Vick and all the other football bojanglers.

In terms of opportunity for American-born black athletes, they're going to leave the game in far worse shape than they found it.

It's already starting to happen. A little-publicized fact is that the Colts and the Patriots — the league's model franchises — are two of the whitest teams in the NFL. If you count rookie receiver Anthony Gonzalez, the Colts opened the season with an NFL-high 24 white players on their 53-man roster. Toss in linebacker Naivote Taulawakeiaho "Freddie" Keiaho and 47 percent of Tony Dungy's defending Super Bowl-champion roster is non-African-American. Bill Belichick's Patriots are nearly as white, boasting a 23-man non-African-American roster, counting linebacker Tiaina "Junior" Seau and backup quarterback Matt Gutierrez.

For some reason, these facts are being ignored by the mainstream media. Could you imagine what would be written and discussed by the media if the Yankees and the Red Sox were chasing World Series titles with 11 African-Americans on their 25-man rosters (45 percent)?

We would be inundated with information and analysis on the social significance. Well, trust me, what is happening with the roster of the Patriots and the Colts and with Roger Goodell's disciplinary crackdown are all socially significant.

Hip hop athletes are being rejected because they're not good for business and, most important, because they don't contribute to a consistent winning environment. Herm Edwards said it best: You play to win the game.

I'm sure when we look up 10 years from now and 50 percent — rather than 70 percent — of NFL rosters are African-American, some Al Sharpton wannabe is going to blame the decline on a white-racist plot.

That bogus charge will ignore our role in our football demise. We are in the process of mishandling the opportunity and freedom earned for us by Jim Brown, Walter Payton, Doug Williams, Mike Singletary, Gale Sayers, Willie Lanier and countless others. And those of us in the media who have rationalized, minimized and racialized every misstep by Vick, Pacman and T.O. have played an equal role in blowing it.

By failing to confront and annihilate the abhorrent cultural norms we have allowed to grab our youth, we have in the grand American scheme sentenced many of them to hell on earth (incarceration), and in the sports/entertainment world we've left them to define us as unreliable, selfish and buffoonish.

Johnson, despite receiving a new $45-million contract, has brooded, pouted and complained all season. He spent the off-season promising to be a leader and has spent the first six weeks of the season spreading locker-room cancer. Edwards-coached teams have traditionally been the least-penalized squads in the NFL. This year's Chiefs are one of the most-penalized squads. Nickel back Benny Sapp drew an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Sunday, had to be dragged off the field by Donnie Edwards, and was spotted on the sideline arguing with players and coaches.

Race is not the determining factor when it comes to having a good or bad attitude. Culture is.

Hip hop is the dominant culture for black youth. In general, music, especially hip hop music, is rebellious for no good reason other than to make money. Rappers and rockers are not trying to fix problems. They create problems for attention.

That philosophy, attitude and behavior go against everything football coaches stand for. They're in a constant battle to squash rebellion, dissent and second opinions from their players.

You know why Muhammad Ali is/was an icon? Because he rebelled against something meaningful and because he excelled in an individual sport. His rebellion didn't interfere with winning. Jim Brown, Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, etc. rebelled with dignity and purpose.

What we're witnessing today are purposeless, selfish acts of buffoonery. Sensible people have grown tired of it. Football people are recognizing it doesn't contribute to a winning environment.

Whether calculated or not, the Patriots and the Colts have created settings in which Brady and Manning can lead and feel comfortable. I remember back in the 1980s when some black sports fans accused the Celtics of being racist for having a predominantly-white roster when Larry Bird was the star. No one remembered that Red Auerbach occasionally fielded an all-black starting lineup during Bill Russell's heyday.

My point is that it makes sense to cater to your stars. And it makes even more sense to fill your roster with players who don't mind being led, even if you sacrifice a little 40-yard dash speed.

If things don't change quickly, we're going to learn this lesson the hard way.'

Today In - 'People are freaks, yo.'

Roombas fill an emotional vacuum for owners

Some have named them, dressed them — even introduced them to parents

'ATLANTA - They give them nicknames, worry when they signal for help and sometimes even treat them like a trusted pet.

A new study shows how deeply some Roomba owners become attached to the robotic vacuum and suggests there's a measure of public readiness to accept robots in the house — even flawed ones.

"They're more willing to work with a robot that does have issues because they really, really like it," said Beki Grinter, an associate professor at Georgia Tech's College of Computing. "It sort of begins to address more concerns: If we can design things that are somewhat emotionally engaging, it doesn't have to be as reliable."

Grinter decided to study the devices after she saw online pictures of people dressing up their Roombas, the disc-shaped, self-directed vacuums made by Burlington, Mass-based iRobot Corp.

"This sort of notion that someone would dress a vacuum cleaner seemed strange," she said. "A lot more was going on."

She enlisted Ph.D. student Ja Young Sung, who studies "emotional design" — the theory that certain types of design can influence consumers to become emotionally attached.

The Roomba seems to have earned quite a following. More than 2 million of the robots have been sold, although some earlier versions suffered from motor failure and other problems after intensive use. The company says its latest model — the fifth generation — has been "reinvented" for improved performance.

The first phase of the project, which involved monitoring an online forum devoted to the site, revealed people who named their Roombas, traveled with them and one owner who introduced the machine to his parents.

Others reported their efforts to "Roomba-ize" their homes so the robot can roam the floors more easily. Some bought new rugs, pre-cleaned the floors to clear the robot's route and purchased new refrigerators with a higher clearance so the machines can clean under them easier.

"I was blown away," said Young Sung. "Some Roombas break a lot, they still have functional problems. But people are willing to make that effort because they love their robot enough."

The next part, which studied 30 committed Roomba users, revealed 21 of them gave their robots names. And another 16 talked about the robot as a "he," arbitrarily assigning the robot a gender.

The third phase of the study, presented last week at the Ubiquitous Computing Conference in Austria, focused on more traditional users. Polling 379 U.S. users, it found that some would pre-clean their homes before using the machine, and that it seemed to make males more excited about the chore of vacuuming.

"The female of the house says, 'You take care of it — it's your toy,'" said Young Sung.'

MyRage

Jealous much? MySpace, Facebook can spark it

Couples' spying on social-networking sites can trigger paranoia

'Jennifer, a 23-year-old teacher, had just moved to Philadelphia for her first job. Chris, meanwhile, stayed behind in Los Angeles for his last year at Loyola Marymount University. They had agreed to cool things off so Chris could cut loose in his final year, but Jennifer says the two talked on the phone every day and still exchanged “I love yous.”

At first, Jennifer visited Chris’ Facebook page just to see his face. Then, other faces started to crop up … of girls. Though she says she’s not normally the jealous type, the photos — and distance — combined to make her paranoid. Soon, Jennifer was checking on her sort-of boyfriend every time she logged on.
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“The potential to start stalking somebody on Facebook is very real,” she says.

(As you might imagine, some people interviewed for this story only wanted their first names used.)

You’ve heard about social-networking spying: Employers do it to job candidates, parents to kids — and couples to each other. Just how many couples use sites like MySpace and Facebook to keep each other in check is difficult to measure. But the fact that terms like “MyStalking” and “Facestalking” have entered the street lexicon speaks to their proliferation.

Couples might be tempted to spy on MySpace and Facebook because it’s legal, anonymous — and easy. But a few mouse clicks could turn a levelheaded person into a "lunatic," as one relationship expert puts it.

“The nature of the forum actually allows jealousy and suspiciousness,” says Jamie Turndorf, a psychologist and creator of drlove.com.

That doesn’t mean that everyone with a MySpace or Facebook profile will snoop on their boyfriends, girlfriends or spouses. Turndorf points out that social-networking sites will be more apt to spark jealously in people particularly prone to it.

“Then, the technology is like the kindling that will ignite your fire,” Turndorf says.

Those in shaky or young relationships are especially vulnerable to spying — and its effects. Tara and Jeff Mooney from Portland, Ore., MyStalked each other when they first met. Both were known to get rowdy at parties before they dated — and reminders of their wild pasts haunted their courtship.

"If anybody commented [on MySpace] from our pasts, we had a conversation," 24-year-old Tara says. "It brought up jealousy issues."

But Tara says the issues forced them to build trust early on — and today they’re not only still together, they’re happily married. What’s more, they’re both still on MySpace, but now, they just laugh off raunchy MySpace comments.

"[MySpace] could pose problems to people who aren’t secure in themselves or their relationships,” she says.

Jennifer had plenty of reasons to be insecure: Her first job was a strain and her comfort, Chris, was slipping away. As such, her spying got worse. What started on Facebook snowballed to an account on MySpace, which she set up just to watch Chris through his ex-girlfriend’s page. Jennifer used what she saw — or thought she saw — in arguments.

By winter break, Chris drew a definitive end to the blurry relationship — but Facebook broke the news to Jennifer. Most social-networking sites gather personal information from users, including their couple status. Theirs had stayed “In a Relationship” since college. But the day Chris decided to change his status, his now-ex-girlfriend got a formal e-mail from Facebook letting her know. Jennifer thinks her spying hastened the end.

"I was acting a little bit crazy," she says.

But for people with legitimate suspicions, social-networking sites can help catch a cheater.

MySpace did just that for Dustin from Issaquah, Wash. His gut told him something was up with his boyfriend, Austin, but he ignored it.

Dropping into his boyfriend’s profile occasionally revealed blatant comments from strangers, racy photos — and a relationship status that didn’t reflect the couple’s exclusivity. Dustin soon found out that Austin had been going out and meeting people behind his back.

In the end, Dustin didn’t need MySpace to nab his straying boyfriend, experts say. High-tech tools might make it easier to spy, but our guts are the best indicators of infidelity, says Turndorf.

“Your intuition is very rarely wrong,” she says. “You don’t need this technology to tell you if this person is dishonest or unfaithful. This is just confirming it.”'

Wotta' buncha' wussies.

Those kids are going to be screwed when the grow up and realized not everyone plays fair or someone will come in and mediate things. Conflict is a part of life.

Springs school bans tag, citing conflicts

'COLORADO SPRINGS —An elementary school has banned tag on its playground after some children complained they were harassed or chased against their will.

"It causes a lot of conflict on the playground," said Cindy Fesgen, assistant principal of the Discovery Canyon Campus school.

Running games are still allowed as long as students don't chase each other, she said.

Fesgen said two parents complained to her about the ban but most parents and children didn't object.

In 2005, two elementary schools in the nearby Falcon School District did away with tag and similar games in favor of alternatives with less physical contact. School officials said the move encouraged more students to play games and helped reduce playground squabbles.'

Tagged!

Notorious J*O*E tagged me.

So without further ado:

5 things that should go into room 101 and be removed from the face of the earth:

1. Crocs
2. The entire Bush family
3. Hipsters
4. High fructose corn syrup [it's what's makin' everyone fat, yo].
5. Hardcore religious types

4 things people do that make you want to shake them violently:

1. Clip their fingernails at work
2. Snap their gum
3. Pick their nose in public
4. Talk on their cell phone in enclosed spaces like an elevator or bus

3 things you find yourself moaning about:

1. Not being able to get all my 'projects' done
2. Stupid ignorant people
3. Spineless people

2 celebrities who deserve chinese water torture

[Only 2?]

1. Skank whose name we do not speak of
2. Gossip blogger whose name we do not speak of

1 thing the above answers tell you about yourself:

1. I hate people.

Define 'fondling'.

So I was thinking about something that was said in that Crack Is Whack post, yesterday.

There's a line about how 'fondling of genitals' is against the law in Atlanta.

So what exactly is 'fondling'?

Say there's a dude who has to make an 'adjustment', or scratch an itch.

Can some prudish old lady tell the cops he was 'fondling' himself and get busted?

That got me to thinking, that statement could actually make a funny t-shirt: Define 'fondling'.

You could make a whole line of t-shirts with this concept.

Define 'stalking'.

Define 'indecent exposure'.

Define 'public urination'.

Ha.

The problem I see with this...

is what is going to happen when these kids get older and begin looking for jobs.

People are already stupid enough to put stuff like 'interests: binge drinking and '420'' on their MySpace/Facebook/etc. profiles.

Can you imagine having your while life up and available to any Tom, Dick, and Harry on the interwebs?

It scares me how people are so lax when it comes to having an online identity.

Tots getting Internet identity at birth

'NEW YORK (AP) - Besides leaving the hospital with a birth certificate and a clean bill of health, baby Mila Belle Howells got something she won't likely use herself for several years: her very own Internet domain name.

Likewise newborn Bennett Pankow joined his four older siblings in getting his own Internet moniker. In fact, before naming his child, Mark Pankow checked to make sure "BennettPankow.com" hadn't already been claimed.

"One of the criteria was, if we liked the name, the domain had to be available," Pankow said. It was, and Pankow quickly grabbed Bennett's online identity.

A small but growing number of parents are getting domain names for their young kids, long before they can do more than peck aimlessly at a keyboard.

It's not known exactly how many, but the practice is no longer limited to parents in Web design or information technology.

They worry that the name of choice might not be available by the time their babies become teens or adults, just as someone claimed the ".com" for Britney Spears' 11-month-old son before she could.

The trend hints at the potential importance of domain names in establishing one's future digital identity.

Think of how much a typical teen's online life now revolves around Facebook or News Corp. (NWS)'s MySpace. Imagine if one day the domain could take you directly to those social-networking profiles, blogs, photo albums and more.

"It is the starting point for your online identity," said Warren Adelman, president of registration company GoDaddy.com Inc., which sells basic domain name packages for about $9 a year. "We do believe the domain name is the foundation upon which all the other Internet services are based."

Hundreds of companies sell domain names with suffixes like ".com,"".org" and ".info," which individuals can then link to personal Web sites and e-mail accounts. Parents simply visit one of those companies' Web sites, search for the name they want and, if no one else has claimed it yet, buy it on the spot with a credit card.

There's no guarantee, though, that domain names will have as central a role in online identity. After all, with search engines getting smarter, Internet users can simply type the name of a person into Google.

"Given the pace of change on the Internet, it strikes me as a pretty impressive leap of faith that we're going to use exactly the same system and the same tools ... 15 to 20 years from today," said Peter Grunwald, whose Grunwald Associates firm specializes in researching kids and technology.

Still, even if the effort is for naught, $9 a year is cheap compared with the cost of diapers and college tuition.

Besides providing an easy-to-remember Web address, the domain name makes possible e-mail addresses without awkward numbers - as in "JohnSmith24", because 23 other John Smiths had beaten your child to Google Inc. (GOOG)'s Gmail service.

Parents not ready to commit or knowledgeable enough on how to buy a domain, though, are at least trying their luck with Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s Hotmail or Gmail.

Melissa Coleman of Springfield, Mass., grabbed Hotmail addresses for her two kids. She said the kids' grandparents occasionally send e-greeting cards to those accounts, and she sends thank you notes for gifts in her child's voice.

"I think it's great that it's so loud and that it came with an actual WORKING MICROPHONE ... and I'm not sure what 'annoying' means, but I'm sure it means that Mommy loves it too!!!!," read one message to Grandpa.

She said she logs in at least once every month to keep the accounts active and plans to save all messages for when her children get older.

Tony Howells, a business consultant in Salt Lake City, got a Gmail address along with the domain name for his daughter, believing people would enjoy seeing "an e-mail address pop up for an 8-month-old who is obviously not equipped to use it."

Although some parents have yet to use the domain names they've bought, others are sending visitors to baby photos, blogs and other personal sites. Domain name owners have a variety of options to have their personal sites hosted, typically for free or less than $10 a month. They include baby-geared services like TotSites.com and BabyHomePages.net.

Theresa Pinder initially received a domain name as a Christmas gift from her son's godparents and gives it out to friends and family who want updates.

"People are like, 'Wow. He already has his own Web site,'" said Pinder, a physician assistant in Phoenix.

There are downsides to all this, though: An easy-to-remember domain also makes a child easier for strangers to find. Chances are one only needs to know a child's name and add ".com."

Pankow, a database administrator in Phoenix, said that was one concern keeping him from using the domains he bought for his five children, including a 9-year-old daughter.

"I'd want to research and try to figure out how easy it is to find out what school she goes to and where she lives" based on the Web site and domain name, Pankow said.

GoDaddy and many other registration companies offer proxy services that let domain name buyers register anonymously. Otherwise, the person's name, address and other contact information are publicly searchable.

Notwithstanding the privacy concerns, Adelman said domain names for kids have become more and more popular as parents start to get domains for their business or family and realize how difficult it is to find ".com" names not yet claimed.

However, the numbers are still relatively low. Our Baby Homepage, which lets parents set up personal baby pages with photos and greetings, says only 10 percent of its customers have bought their own domains. A similar service, Baby's First Site, considered selling domains for parents but didn't get much interest.

Brian Vannoy, founder of TotSites, said parents might need more lessons on safety measures such as how to password-protect sites. But he believes the hurdles can be overcome once parents who are less-savvy about technology see the benefits.

"It's easy to remember," Vannoy said. "Everybody knows the new baby's name."'

Cold War, what's that?

Plus, 'The Simpsons' has always been on the air, and they grew up with 'Friends'.

College knowledge relegates more to history

What’s the Berlin Wall? Incoming freshmen grew up after the Cold War

BELOIT, Wis. - The Berlin Wall? What Berlin Wall?

'The class of students entering college this month is the first post-Cold War class, according to the Beloit College Mindset List, a compilation of the events, technology, people and social trends that shaped the incoming crop of freshmen.

To them, it’s always been normal for Russia to have multiple political parties and U.S. rock bands to stop in Moscow on their tours, according to the list released Tuesday by the private school in this city that hugs the Wisconsin-Illinois border.


“In many ways, their world view is less frightening than ours,” said Beloit College humanities professor Tom McBride, who has helped compile the list for a decade. “They grew up during an era of good feelings in the 1990s, when everyone was making a lot of money and there weren’t a lot of wars.”

Despite the threat of terrorism and the war in Iraq, McBride said, the incoming freshmen “have had a comparably tame time of things,” compared to previous generations who fought World War II and in Vietnam and clashed over civil rights. Professors might want to assign texts on darker subjects to give them a wakeup call, he suggested.

For those in the class of 2011 needing to brush up, the Berlin Wall separated West and East Berlin until its destruction in 1989, the year most of these students were born. Its fall symbolically ended the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, a decades-long fight for supremacy between the two superpowers.

“I actually visited the Berlin Wall with my parents when I was in fifth grade,” said Jacob Williams, 18, of Louisville Ky., who is going through freshmen orientation at Beloit this week. “I didn’t know a lot about the history, but I think it was a great piece of architecture.”

Williams and others said the Cold War was such a thing of the past that many students wore T-shirts about communism to be funny.

“You feel that you can joke about it now,” said freshman Jenny Posh, 18, of Menomonee Falls, Wis., who said her only knowledge of the Cold War came from studying it during high school.

At home in a world of money and data

These students witnessed an age of triumphant capitalism when stadiums were named for companies, product placement became ubiquitous in movies and Wal-Mart has always been a bigger retailer than Sears.

And then there’s technology: They use the online encyclopedia Wikipedia for research, grew up telling the world about themselves on MySpace and Facebook and are constantly talking (or texting) on their cell phones.

“I text message all day long,” said Sarah Stanciu, 18, of Chicago, who memorized the keys so well that she sends messages without looking at her phone.

The students have also seen advances for women: Many of their mothers worked full-time, they’re used to women being hired as police chiefs of major cities, and they’ll have about the same number of male and female professors through college.

Katie Couric and Wolf Blitzer have always been on the air, but these students are more likely to get their news from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the fake newscasters on Comedy Central.

Michael Moore has always been making films, while Rush Limbaugh has been blasting liberals on a daily basis. They never saw Johnny Carson on live television, but they have gotten their fill of Jerry Springer.

The list, which is in its 10th year, has helped the college of 1,200 students market itself. School spokesman Ron Nief said the list “is the most popular back-to-school topic” in higher education. He said everyone from professors to military officials used the list to try to better relate to young people.'

Ghetto

Over on the boards on Consumerist, one of the commenters took offense to the use of the word 'ghetto'.

I personally use the world all the time to describe something that is either poorly/cheaply made, or something that's been jerry-rigged [yes, it's a word, it a hybrid of jury-rigged and jerry-built].

I don't associate it with a racial tone.

So what do you think?

Do you connotate 'ghetto' as meaning something related to Black culture and being poor, or my former definition?