Diaspora* vs. Facebook

The project undertaken by four self-described NYU nerds – to create a social networking site that doesn’t collect and store your personal information – is one that meets a heavy demand as people become more and more wary of what information they give to sites like Facebook.

Read the article: Four Nerds and a Cry to Arms Against Facebook

Immigration Argument in U.S. Needs a Dose of Fact

When Americans complain about immigration, the problems attributed to migrants, particularly illegal ones, tend to be stolen jobs, crime and the importation of foreign culture.

A common counterargument seems sensible enough: America is a country built by and comprised of the descendants of immigrants. Yet this fact fails to persuade those with anti-immigration views.

CoCo coming to TBS!

Team CoCo prevails! It was announced today that Conan O’Brien will make his return to late night in November 2010. There was lots of speculation as to which network O’Brien would team up with to make late night greatness after his nasty rift with NBC, his former employer of 17 years. In a surprising twist, CoCo will join TBS‘s late night line-up, which currently consists of only George Lopez. O’Brien’s new show, which has yet to be titled, will air directly before Lopez Tonight.

Attention Muggles: The Wizarding World of Harry Potter Theme Park to Open This Spring

If you’ve read one of the +400 million copies of Harry Potter books that have sold worldwide, or if you’ve seen any of the silver-screen adaptations of the stories, you know that J.K. Rowling has conjured up a fantasy world that lies within our own world, full of creatures and characters, spells, horrors and magic. In keeping with the idea of worlds within worlds, Warner Bros. Studios and Universal Studios have teamed up to create a spankin’ new theme park within a theme park called The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, located at Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. Potter’s park is set to open May 2010; you can already book trips at their website. Here’s a virtual map of the Wizarding World park:

Most Americans Getting Some News Online

So much has been written about the “crisis” facing the news media - shrinking profits, bureau closings, layoffs, buyouts, and tectonic shifts in the way the industry operates. A cnn.com story about a recent survey of online news consumption in the U.S. says that 61 percent of Americans go online for some of their news. That’s a hefty majority, and it will continue to grow rapidly.

As a journalism major I’ve been hearing a lot in my classes about the changes that are happening. It hasn’t all been negative – most professors simply acknowledge that media companies will have to find new ways to survive. The models that they grew up with, aspired to, worked in and made their careers out of, are crumbling. That’s got to be unnerving to see after so much time and success. The sense of alarm is echoed, or perhaps fed, by the news media itself. Focus is more on the crumbling than the rebirth.

A Spree Killing Suspect in the Eyes of Her Students

I immediately clicked the headline in my desktop news feed on Friday when I saw “shooting” and “U. of Alabama.” I expected to see the first story of a flurry of headlines that would detail another tragic incident of an emotionally disturbed student taking their despair out on the innocent people around them. I was surprised to read that the shooter was a faculty member.

The story was short and didn’t say anything about the faculty member’s identity beyond being female. The first comment beneath the story caught my attention. The reader had commented that as soon as they read the shooter was female, they knew it was Dr. Bishop from the Biology department. They said they had taken a class with her and that she was always ranting about the university trying to steal her research. The post had a ring of credibility and piqued my interest.