IRB Post 3- US Magazine: Julie Andrews' Husband Blake Edwards Dies at 88

This article is the sad story of how Julie Andrew's husband Blake Edwards died this past Thursday morning in Santa Monica at the age of 88. Doctors are saying his death was caused by complications of pneumonia. Edwards was the legendary writer/director behind movies like the Pink Panther series and Breakfast at Tiffany's. He will be greatly missed. At the time of his death his wife, famous actress Julie Andrews, and children were at his bedside. Edwards was an honorable Oscar winner and overall successful man.
I love Breakfast at Tiffany's and the original Pink Panther series so hearing about his death made me feel horrible and I also am a huge fan of Julie Andrews so feel sorry for how horrible she probably is feeling. Reading the details about his death however, i was surprised about the fact that he died at the age of 88; he looked much older and is actually a lot older than Andrews. I never would have thought that pneumonia was the reason for his death and it is truly a tragic event.

this is an article about Blake Edwards and his accomplishments
http://www.starpulse.com/Actors/Edwards,_Blake/

IRB Post 2- New York Times: Holiday Books: Graphic Novels

This article was a book review about a comic book called Duncan the Wonder Dog by Adam Hines. The 400 page book, according to the 29 year old author, is apparently only the first of a nine book series. The review says that most comics have high concept stories that sound like movie pitches, but that this book discourages casual reading and feels less like a movie than the beginning of an old television drama. Apparently the dog that the book is named after walks upright, has human hands and is a legend in the animal world but only has a small appearance in the story.

I did not really understand the story line of the book and cannot see nine books full of this comic and story line doing well. A monkey from the plot explains the story by pointing out a difference between animals’ perception of the world and humans’. In my honest opinion, I don't think it will be perceived well by it's audience.

http://techland.com/2010/12/03/emanata-comics-rookie-of-the-year/

IRB Post 2- CNN: Volcano Known as 'Throat of Fire' Erupts in Ecuador

This article was about the eruption of a volcano near the capital of Ecuador on Saturday morning between 8am and 2pm. The eruption sent ash and lava nearly a mile into the sky. At one point, the ash cloud reached almost 3 km above the volcano's crater and lava flowed about 2 km from the crater. Apparently the National Agency of Risk Control knew had alerted residents in advance so the area was evacuated and no one was hurt. Luckily this volcano's eruptions happen periodically every 2 years so it is easy for authorities to know when it is going to happen as to take necessary precautions. The most previous eruption was in 2008 and the one before that in 2006.
The name of the volcano is Tungurahua, which means Throat of Fire in the native Quechua language.

When I searched for more articles about the volcano i found a few about previous eruptions but not many that had information on the volcano. This is one of the few about the most recent eruption.

http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474978760611

IRB Post 2- US Magazine: Teen With Tiny Waist Wins America's Next Top Model

This article is about America's Next Top Model's newest winner, Ann Ward and her tiny waist. Tyra Banks has said that she has the smallest waist in the world, and one of the judges, Miss. J Alexander was able to fit both his hands completely around her waist.
Apparently when pictures were released of this, there was a lot of negative publicity brought to the show and Tyra was forced to apologize for the style in which the top model promo clip was presented.
I honestly don't understand why the photo was taken in such a negative light. It doesn't look that bad, and Ward has not taken any offense to it.
In my opinion though, I think that her winning the competition is changing the definition of beauty and going to change the way people compare body size to beauty.

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/entertainment/ann-wards-waist-size-the-new-definition-of-beauty_100469033.html

this is an article that talks about my concern that Ann Ward's waist size may change the views of beauty and is being called the new definition of beauty.

IRB Blog Post 1- The New York Times: A New York Tale of Art, Money and Ambition

This article is a book review on actor Steve Martin's new novel “An Object of Beauty”. The story is about following a character, Lacey Yeager's, art world climb in New York City. She is called ambitious, feirce, odd, an alloyed opportunist, and a "stylishly attractive dynamo who, with only minimal irony, recognizes herself in the monstrous goddess that Willem de Kooning painted as “Woman I?”"
Mr. Martin invests his book with its larger drama, which is the art market’s wild evolution over the course of the last two decades. He writes about a time in New York “when the art world was building offshore like a developing hurricane.”

Reading this book review it made me realize how much Steve Martin really had an interest in art. He not only wrote a novel about the art world based in one of the most artistic cities in the country, but in the novel itself there are 22 reproductions of varied artworks.

http://www.mikeettner.com/11/2010/an-object-of-beauty-by-steve-martin/

IRB Post 1- US Magazine: Did Harry Potter's Tom Felton Father a Secret Love Child?

The article talks about a Harry Potter poster that had pictures of 7 of the main male characters from the films with a message at the bottom stating that one of the actors is the father of a secret love child.
Apparently people were certain that out of all of them, the child was most likely to be Tom Felton's (Drayco Malfoy). Rupert, Daniel, Jason, and Allan are yet to respond to the accusations but the twins Oliver and James Phelps have already denied it, as has Felton (along side his girlfriend)

In my opinion, this accusation is not true and the message looks like it could just be a prank or an attempted publicity stunt. Also I don't see it to be fair that the message was accusing one of seven of the co-stars but the tabloids decided to pick Tom Felton to exploit.

IRB Blog Post 1- CNN: South Korea deploys more long-range artillery on border island

The article is about how South Korea has recently deployed more artillery and rocket launchers. The South Korean president has said that South Korea will "firmly" respond to any more threats from North Korea and has said that his country will no longer be patient with the hostility from Pyongyang. The article discusses the emergency meeting that was called for the six major powers to meet and discuss the Korean peninsula. The six major powers include the United States, Japan, Russia, China, South Korea, and North Korea.

After reading this article I came to be aware of the six-party but am still somewhat confused of their significance. McCain says that the whole point is to get North Korea to the table, but if North Korea is party of the party how can they meet without all six powers present? Wouldn't that cause the results of the meeting to be biased?

http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/11/26/china.north.korea.ties/index.html
this is an article about china's attempted support of North Korea being grounded due to many many years on conflict. It mentions how China has always had a conflicting relationship with South Korea and how China does not want to lose North Korea as a buffer zone.

IRB Websites

Entertainment: http://www.usmagazine.com/news

books/arts: http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/features/books/bookreviews/index.html

current events/politics: http://www.cnn.com/

Online Reading..11/15

unlike many people my age today, i do not really read that much online. although i am always on the internet and my laptop is always on, i do not like to read from the computer. Mostly this is because reading the small font from the screen for so long makes my eyes and head hurt.
when i am online though, i always have facebook, gmail, sapphire, moodle and youtube.com open.
occastionally i read cnn, msn or aol news

Reading for Meaning or Pleasure?

Reading for meaning and reading for pleasure are much more different than people assume. In my opinion, reading for meaning is when you are reading for a deeper purpose or being told to read it. So it is not necessarily through free will and causing you to pay more attention to detail. Reading for pleasure on the other hand is when you read due to personal choice and individual enjoyment. There is no specific purpose to your reading and you do not feel compelled to pay attention to minor details.
When I think of books that are considered to be read for meaning, I think of The Great Gatsby, To Kill a Mockingbird or other classics of the sort. But when I think of books that are read for pleasure, I think of the Series of Unfortunate Events, The Twilight Saga or the Harry Potter books.
An example of books that I have read for both meaning and pleasure is The Kite Runner, The Doll House and A Thousand Splendid Suns.