Media Convergence Initiative

Red Sox Beard Shavings Up for Sale for Charity

Posted on November 23, 2013 by marissanclark

Several of the World Champion Boston Red Sox grew large beards during their 2013 run in the playoffs. The razor company, Gillette teamed up with Boston players: David Ortiz and Shane Victorino to shave off their enormous beards at the beginning of November. The beard shavings were mashed together in a beard ball. The two beard balls are going up for auction this week for charity. The profits from both of the auctions will go to the Movember Foundation. This is an organization that encourages men to grow facial hair during the month of November to raise funds and awareness for testicular and prostate cancer.

Both of the beard bundles will be on sale on eBay later this week. Both are expected to bring in large amounts of money due to them being one of a kind items. They are the perfect collectible for the baseball and Boston Red Sox fan. This season has been a monumental one for the team after being in last place in the entire league just a season prior.

The beards were both shaved off of the players at the Gillette shaving facility located in Boston. In my opinion, this is a great campaign for the Red Sox, Gillette and the charities that are represented. Gillette, one of the better shaving companies get to be the razors that shave off the famous bearded Boston Red Sox, while the Red Sox only have to donate facial hair to a charity. Nothing expensive, just simple free facial hair. I am a St. Louis Cardinals fan and even I can agree this is the best way to end the 2013 season of Major League Baseball.

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Are The Kennedy’s Really ‘American Royalty’? Jack Schlossberg doesn’t think so.

Posted on November 22, 2013 by laurenmioduchoski

I recently began following Jack Schlossberg, JFK’s grandson, on Twitter. Schlossberg, a junior at Yale, didn’t miss a beat to let the public know that he is an “JFK heir apparent”, as stated in his Twitter bio.

However, when I began looking through his tweets and pictures I formed a different impression of the Kennedy grandkid. In what I thought would be a series of narcissistic and pretentious tweets Schlossberg actually appears to mock the public’s strange fascination with him and his family and scoffs at the idea of “American royalty.”

One picture in particular was an old shot of his late grandfather on one side and on the other side was a picture of him in a nearly identical pose. The caption on the picture? “People have waaaaaay to much time on their hands.”

Quite frankly, it just makes me curious as to why the public still holds so much admiration for this family. For instance, if you Google “Jack Schlossberg” a series of articles from different news outlets will come up with headlines such as ‘Who is the hot new Kennedy?’ and ‘9 things we know about Jack.’

Even though Schlossberg seems fascinated and perhaps even weirded out that the public is fascinated with him and “the new generation of Kennedy’s”, it sure hasn’t hurt him either. In fact, he appears to be interested in pursuing politics after graduation and most importantly, he has a legion of over 4,000 Twitter followers (including myself).

Regardless, I still can’t help myself but wonder if this kid is actually basking in the idea of American royalty or if it’s as weird as mentioned in his tweets. My guess? Both.

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Chris Brown to Spend 90 Days in an Anger Rehab

Posted on November 20, 2013 by xchellz

R&B singer, Chris Brown, has been known for the past 5 years for his horrible incident with his then girlfriend, pop singer, Rihanna. He was accused of domestic violence on her and has since then been getting negative treatment in the media as most would expect.

After this happened, he has been on probation but has violated it on different occasions with his run ins with the law. His latest situation happened on October 27th of this year when he allegedly punched a man in his face and was charged with a misdemeanor assault. After a small court hearing, he went and checked himself into a rehabilitation center in Malibu. Two weeks later, he was out of the center. Many thought that he simply checked himself out, but new information has said that he became violent during a small family counseling session with his mother. Chris Brown was then ordered out of this specific facility. Now the judge orders him to spend 90 days at a live-in facility to get help specifically for his anger issues. Many of his fans are disappointed but also glad that he will get help before he can spiral down any further in his life and career.

For people that knew him when he first came out as a 16 year old singer, they know that he is a completely different person, and not in a good way. Chris Brown used to be the eccentric, goofy, talented singer whom people loved to watch. Now he has turned in to a “monster” as many of the different media outlets state. Hopefully, he can stay out of the media for a while and with the help of his anger management become a better artist and person all around.

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The Bulldog Moves out West…. Again

Posted on November 20, 2013 by andreat

Tim Hudson is one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball. He has been almost his entire career. Just this week Hudson signed a 2 year 23 million dollar contract with the San Francisco Giants. This will be his second time playing out on the west coast and in the bay area. The thing is, it won’t be with the Oakland Athletics this time.

Hudson has the reputation of being a bulldog. A guy who will pitch inning after inning and grit his way out of every start. His career has been absolutely fabulous. His first 6 seasons he pitched for the Oakland Athletics. He was a key factor in their success. In 6 seasons with the A’s Hudson racked up a number of wins and even a 20 win season. He won the rookie of the year award in 1999 and has been steadily consistent ever since.

After he left the A’s he went to the Atlanta Braves. He played there for 9 seasons and continued to pitch with the best of them. He pitched great for the Braves in those 9 seasons and proved to everyone why he is considered one of the best pitchers this game has ever seen.

Hudson is a great pitcher. He has a career record of 205 wins and 111 loses. He has 25 complete games and 13 shutouts. his career earned run average is is 3.44. Are those Hall of Fame numbers? I am not sure. But I do know that people will remember him for being one of the toughest pitchers that has ever played.

Now he goes to the San Francisco Giants at the age of 38 and his 16 season. Will he have the same success? We will eventually see. But having been a huge fan of Hudson over the years I will without a doubt say that he still has some tread on those tires. Go get em Bulldog. I will be watching.

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How To Survive Finals Week 2013

Posted on November 20, 2013 by v.king

Yesterday while looking at my planner, I realized that I only have one more class. ONE. MORE. CLASS. Then I’d be home free. My excitement quickly turned into uber excitement when I realized that next week was Thanksgiving break. My uber excitement then turned into sadness when i realized after Thanksgiving break the oh so dreadful finals week would be around the corner, waiting for me. Fortunately for me I only have three finals and they are all pretty spread out throughout the week, I know everyone isn’t so lucky so here are a few tips and trick to reduce stress during finals week

Find time to treat yourself to a coffee or tea in an environment that isn’t stressful. Next, spend a few minutes just to relax! this will give your body some time to recharge. On your study breaks try doing something fun to give you more energy and relax your brain. Lastly try making a list of things that you have to do. For people like myself, making a list and being able to cross things off the list shows my progress and that I’m actually getting things done. Don’t forget to eat and try to get some sleep!!! It’ll be over soon. Good luck to everyone on their finals!

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Teenager Receives Life in Prison After Brutal Murder of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway

Posted on November 20, 2013 by lyle evan peterson

Austin Sigg, the teenagers who plead guilty to the horrendous murder of 10-year-old Jessica Ridgeway in 2012 is now set to spend the rest of his life in jail. Due to the fact that Sigg was only 17 years old at the time, Colorado state law requires that the judge make him eligible for parole after 40 years. But because the attack was so brutal, first degree murder was one 1 of the 15 charges Siggs faced, including but not limited to sexual assault of a child and other charges Sigg received from harming an 22 year old jogger, in May of 2012.

Throughout the court process, Sigg showed no emotion even as they went into to grave detail about how exactly Jessica was killed. On October 5th Jessica was abducted by Sigg on her way to school, after searching for five days he dismembered remains were found in a park, and later on more remains were found at Sigg’s house. It is believed that Sigg kept Jessica in his room for about to hours before he killed her, what happened in those two hours are unknown. What is known is that Sigg attempted to strangle her with a zip tie, after failing at that he used his bare hands, when he noticed her body still twitching he then drowned her in a bath tub of hot water, late her carefully dismembered her body.

It wasn’t until Monday, as Jessica’s family discussed how they would never see their the 10 year old grow up while a slideshow of her pictures were playing, Sigg began to cry, the one emotion that he has displayed through this entire process.

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Indiana Caverns Yield Incredible Ice Age Bone Remains

Posted on November 18, 2013 by akilah.fields

This week, in a southern Indiana cavern, researchers have discovered the skeletal remains of several extinct species of animals dating all the way back to the ice age. The skeletal remains were found in unexpectedly great condition, almost as if they were placed in a time capsule. Several paleontologists agree that this is the greatest, most significant bone finding in Indiana state history. Rob Houchens, a paleontologist working in the area, along with his colleagues, have dug up thousands of bones from animals that have been extinct for more than 40,000 years. Perhaps even more exciting, is the fact that Houchens said himself that they are just scratching the surface of what could potentially be hiding deeper within these caverns.

Such animals include the flat head Peccary, in addition to several ancient ancestors of snakes, porcupines, and ice age bears. In addition to the dead species, there are still some creatures making these caverns their home, including the black crayfish, which can live to be over one hundred years old.

Indiana caverns is now listed as the ninth largest cave system in the country, spanning 38 miles, only one of which is currently open to the public. The owners of the cave system believe that only 1% of all the bones here have been discovered so far, and that there is much more to uncover. This is a logical hypothesis, considering the fact that these remains were trapped under glaciers when they sealed off the cavern thousands of years ago. This is without a doubt, going to help scientists take another great step towards finding out more about the mysterious era known as the ice age.

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Invisibility May be Possible in the Near Future

Posted on November 18, 2013 by jacquelynne bernstein

The last decade has seen a surge of superhero movies. Starting back with the X-Men and Batman movies, the focus of films has rarely if ever had the same level of intense focus on one genre. It is easy to understand why this is, however. People love superheroes. The struggle of good and evil, the action, the secret double life, people are fascinated by all of it. There is one thing about superheroes and their movies that really captures the imagination of fans: the super powers. Every superhero, save Batman, has at least one super power that sets them apart from everyone else and gives them the ability to fight crime. People want to have these powers, although for the most part they recognize that these powers are purely a work of fiction. One of these powers, however, is looking like it might become a real life technology, and it looks like it may happen in the next few years. This is the power of invisibility.

Scientists have been experiment with ways to bend light around an object so that in cannot be seen. Up until this point, they have had success in many smaller ways, bending certain spectrum of light and only working on a small object. Scientists in the United States and Canada, however, are confident that in the next few years we will see the invisibilty technology develop and be perfected.

While the thought of running around invisibly as a superhero may seem like the dream of many, scientists are still years away from making this happen. They are getting closer, however, and one day in the next few years, the technology will change society forever.

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John von Neumann’s 84-year-old problem solved by graduate students

Posted on November 18, 2013 by holypointejoey

A famous math problem that has puzzled mathematicians for decades has met its solution by Cornell Univ. researchers. Graduate students Yash Lodha and Justin Moore, the University’s professor of mathematics, detailed a geometric solution for the von Neumann-Day problem, first introduced by John von Neumann back in 1929.

Lodha presented his solution at the London Mathematical Society’s Group Theory symposium and recently submitted the work to a journal. The inspiration for Lodha’s work originated in the early 20th century, when mathematicians first proved that a ball that exists in three-dimensional space can be chopped into a finite number of pieces and can be reassembled, like a jigsaw puzzle, into two balls, each the size of the original ball. It was eventually known as the Banach-Tarski paradox. von Neumann attributed the algebraic properties of the symmetries in the problemto their inherent natures towards the spheres. He isolated this property and mathematicians soon described it as a “non-amenability” property.

Advances in mathematics are very rare and most of the time they’re incrementally build off of previous work. In order complete this work, among his most valuable insights was one first described by the late Bill Thurston, another one of Cornell’s professors from the past. The discourse involved a way of expressing the group in a different light, as a “continued fractions model.”

Lodha’s work also stems from the work of Nicolas Monod, who constructed a geometrically oriented counterexample to the von Neumann-Day problem. Lodha and Moore’s contribution was to isolate a finitely presented subgroup. Further work from the group could make the solution to the von Neumann-Day problem even stronger: by isolating stronger finite conditions for proving that the group has a finite number of rules.

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George Zimmerman makes headlines yet again

Posted on November 18, 2013 by bhecker

Ever since being acquitted in July 2013 of the 2012 murder of Trayvon Martin, one would think that George Zimmerman would want to lead a quiet life. However, two months later Zimmerman was in the news again, this time for alleged reports by his estranged wife of assaults and threats with a weapon. Nothing came out of this incident, since police found no weapon and Zimmerman’s wife ended up not pressing charges. The incident that took place on Monday, the 18th of November, did not turn out the same way.

Zimmerman’s girlfriend, Samantha Scheibe, called police Monday afternoon, reporting that Zimmerman had a shotgun pointed at her and was becoming violent after she told him to move out of the house. Zimmerman allegedly forced her out of the house, and then proceeded to call the police himself. He told 911 that his girlfriend was the one who had gone crazy, and that was why he locked himself in the house. Authorities responding to Scheibe’s 911 call were already breaking into the house when Zimmerman was speaking to 911 operators.

Upon entering the home, police arrested Zimmerman peacefully on domestic assault charges. They found a total of five guns in the house, but Zimmerman does have a concealed weapons permit. However, he is being charged with using a weapon during an aggravated assault. He is being held without bail until a hearing with the judge on Tuesday, the 19th. Due to his past history, there is a strong possibility the judge will either allow the evidence to substantiate his arrest, or at the very least, set a hefty bail.

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