Swamp Soccer

Swamp soccer is an obscure sport that you've probably never heard of, much less thought having its own website on the internet. The official website of swamp soccer is simple and easy to find, not to mention extremely informative. Swamp soccer originates from the swamps of Finland, having its first tournament in 1997 with a grand total of 13 competing teams. It has become more widely popular and there are now tournaments ranging across Europe, including in Sweeden, Iceland, and the UK and there are over 200 teams. The website also includes contacts so people can start their own swamp soccer teams and leagues in their own countries. The rules of swamp soccer are included in the website, and there are three types of leagues, all-male, all-female, and mixed and each swamp soccer team has six players on it. There is no limit of how many players can be on the team or how many substitutions can be made in a game. The Mud Divers won the 2010 league of swamp soccer. The 2011 championship will take place in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and the swamp soccer website even includes a map with which you can enter your zipcode and get directions to Edinburgh. Overall the website is helpful and unique because it tells plenty about the sport and encourages others to get involved in the sport.

Obesity In Pets; A Growing Problem

Alex Kijek's cat from Trucksville PA is 7 pounds overweight at 14 pounds. Nearly double the weight of an average sized healthy cat, which ranges between 8 and 10 pounds.

What makes an advanced Google search more advanced? When you do a regular Google search a word or phrase is typed into a search box, and results about the search topic magically appear. Sometimes though these results may not be exactly what the user is looking for, which is where the advanced search can be helpful. Advanced search allows the user to type in a specific phrase, and searches for the phrase as it appears. When the phrase "wild weedle appears" (referring to the Pokemon) is typed into the standard Google search, only the first result is the same as the advanced search results. In the standard results the next results appear from sites like the Wikipedia page for the Pokemon Weedle, and other online sources that anyone can update, whereas in the advanced search it only searches for the phrase "wild weedle appears" and does not give information that may not be relevant. It also has a feature that allows the user to specify words they do not want to see come up in their search results, and even has a tool in which to set the reading level of the pages that are found though the search. Although it some people think that the regular Google search is perfectly suitable, like Danielle Sekel, a senior at Wyoming Seminary who said "I have never used advanced google search, nor have I ever felt the need to."
Internet databases are also great tools to use, that are perhaps more reliable than a simple Google search. Databases can give a user access to information such as news paper articles spanning across decades, where in a Google search that usually will not be found. The only downside to databases is that the good ones usually cost money to use, which could be fine depending on how much they are actually used. For someone who does not research frequently although it may be a bit more difficult sometimes the Google Advanced search should be perfectly suitable, but if research is frequently done on historical topics, data bases could be quite helpful, and do not require spending hours upon hours scanning through old newspapers and books in a library. When I talked to Nikki O'Meara, a Misericordia graduate in psychology she brought up another possible downside to the advanced search feature "I like the advanced Google search. It's not difficult to use at all! This is coming from someone who grew up using computers though...someone who can hardly type www.google.com into their browser to search at all would have a hard time with the extra steps of course." But luckily there is still a regular Google search that is nice and simple for the not so tech savvy generations. All in all both the advanced Google search and databases are wonderful tools for the online community to use.

RSS

Upon using the internet you've probably come glanced at something that says "RSS" but just glanced over it because it probably had no relevance to you, but have you ever wondered, what is RSS? It stands for Rich Site Summary, in other words it's a format for delivering regularly changing website content, used by many news related sites that have updates to make frequently and efficiently. For example the BBC is "the #1 most subscribed to feed" according to scobleizer.com. RSS gets information from websites visited regularly so the user does not need go and check every website individually. The time saving RSS was presumably created by Netscape co-created by Dave Winer in 1997 but there has been some disputes as to if they actually made it first or not. Many bloggers use RSS feeds because it provides a quick and easy way to get information, without having to sign up for e-newsletters and does not require the user to give out their email address to undesirable websites. According to www.micropersuasion.com "11% of the population uses RSS feeds and it may be peaking."

Face(book) the facts.

Do you have anything on your Facebook page that could hurt you later in life? Many employers when considering a job candidate will look at potential employee's Facebook pages before actually hiring anyone. Is it right? Well, that's not really relevant anymore since they do it anyway. Nobody has a choice. But there is a simple solution out there, just don't have anything on Facebook that could hurt you later in life. When discussing the topic with my mother she simply said, "Don't trash an employer in public. That's something to talk about at home not in a public place." Word spreads quickly with the use of technology, and even more quickly when it's on the internet in the first place. When talking to a college friend of mine he told me "Privacy settings are made for a reason. Use them." Although that brings me to another issue. Anything that ever was on the internet is available for anyone to see... with some snooping. Should employers be able to creep in to your Facebook even if it's set on private? I would think not, but it can happen, so think about that next time you post something remotely inappropriate. How do you know what's inappropriate? Just go by this guideline; don't post anything you wouldn't want your mother to see.

Why Blogger?

I think blogging and blog reading is an unnecessary waste of time. Sure, it's ironic, I dislike the concept of blogging and here I am writing a blog. Why would you blog to begin with? Write your opinion online, and see if anyone reads it. Maybe it's interesting, but why not just tell people about things you feel strongly about? That's how to spread the word. I also don't believe in blog reading. Why read them? Because you don't have enough sense of self to formulate an opinion of your own, so you have to read someone else's. Because you think it's entertaining, obviously you have too much time on your hands. Do something more productive. Because you want to find out about something. Yeah, great idea and all, but there are tons of better more reliable sources to get information from. You're getting some information written by someone you don't know, someone who can write whatever they want rather than an actual reliable source. Because this class is making you read other people's blogs. That's the only reason I can actually find to read a blog. To get an A in a class. That's a great reason. Of course there are also the people who blog to get people interested in a topic that they feel strongly about, but why not actually do something about it? There's so much more to do then write a blog, but sadly blogging is the trend that has swept America lately. In France they smoke, and in America we blog.