Intellectual Property

I'm not exactly sure what intellectual property is, but if I had to guess, I would have to say it has to do with using someones original words or thinking as their own. However, according to Wikipedia, intellectual property is a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of executive rights are recognized under the corresponding fields of law. This means that owners are granted rights to their objects. A few examples of intellectual properties that come to mind would be music, books, and artwork. Intellectual property changes when it is maipulated by not receiving credit where credit is due. The creator also does not benefit when intellectual property is manipulated and share. For example with music. When iPod's and MP3 players became popular, sites such as limewire and frostwire developed. People were able to download and share music instead of having to pay the stores or iTunes for the product. Musical artists were no longer recieving their pay for the songs they produced.

Urvashi Vaid

Coming into the presentation I didn't know what to expect. I knew very little about Urvashi Vaid and even the topic itself. However, I was pleasently surprised. Urvashi Vaid presented information in a forward manner. She used facts and stories to help support her topic. The information did not differ in anyway from what I had learned or believed, but rather only added to it. The one thing that I really took away from the event was the fact that people think that we are near the end of the gay right's movement. To me, which is similar to Urvashi Vaid's idea, the movement is far from over. Not until the LGBT community has equal right will the movement be over. Urvashi Vaid's backgroud did make her an authority on the topic. She is very creditable when it comes to the topic. She has been apart of the movement for over 30 years and has won numerous awards for her work. She is very dedicated to the subject and has done countless amount of research along with writing books. The presentation made me rethink my Alternative Viewpoints topic. I am taking away from the presentation a new topic. I would like to change my topic for the Viewpoints paper to the struggle for same sex marriages to be passed. I feel I will be able to find a lot on this topic, especially with President Obama's recent address. I was only able to stay for 15 minutes of the question and answer before I had to leave for work. But by that time no one in the class had the opportunity to ask a question, although many other people had.

Semester Research Questions

So far I have completed four of the eight research questions. I have completed questions 1,2,3, and 7. I am needing help with finding a good organization that will educate people about the population and also I need help with the challenges that people have in doing library and original research on the effects of cocaine on adolescents.

The Debate About Blogs

I believe that blogs can be a creditable source of information when there has been enough research put in to finding a legitimate blog. Although the majority of the time the author is sharing his/her viewpoint on a matter, they often back it up by providing additional links that help support the point they are trying to make.

http://www.adolescent-substance-abuse.com/blog/

I believe this is a legitimate blog because it gives multiple references to other stories that support the fact that teenagers have a problem with substance abuse. The blog includes journal articles, newspaper articles and police reports of stories that have all found this to be true. I also believe it is a legitimate blog because it provides other information including where to go when seeking treatment for substance abuse.

Adolescent Substance Abuse. Attitudes Toward Smoking Influence Teens' Choices about Alcohol, Other Drugs. Retrieved March 10, 2012, from http://www.adolescent-substance-abuse.com/blog/

Couldn't get the second line to indent!

Research Reflection

This has been a tough blog for me to write, which because of this, it has taken me a while to just sit down and write. Although I have many friend and family who are part of the LGBT community, I don't know much about it. So at this point, I don't even know where to start when it comes to finding a population to learn more about. I think I know the direction to go but I may need some help narrowing it down. I think I would like to focus my research on the psychological problems or grief that comes with being apart of this population but not always being accepted by others. I have known a few people who have really struggled with this acceptance. There are a few things that I assume to be true about this population. The main one being that no matter who you are, acceptance is important. It is one of Maslow's hierarchy of needs to being a happy, balanced person. You must have the respect of others to have respect for yourself. Because of this need and when it is not fulfilled, people tend to have other problems that come from not being accepted. I have learned this from the many psychology and health classes that I have taken, while also through the journey of life. I know that I have had times where I did not feel accepted by the people around me which lead to me feeling poorly about myself. I think the biggest challenge that I will face will be narrowing my topic to a specific issue involving acceptance of LGBTs. I only have the idea of a topic right now and I'm not sure where to go with it.

Getting Ready to Use Academic Search Premier

When I first reviewed the Academic Search Premier features, I was a little overwhelmed. I have never used Academic Search Premier or any other database before for that matter to find information so figuring out which search strings worked and which didn't was a bit of a process. Eventually I got the hang of it and was able to find a lot of useful information. The only fear that I have about using this database is that I will have a hard time distinguishing which information will be useful because I have so many options to choose from. Hopefully with the help of the right search strings I won't have a problem.

Assignment 8

Grant, M. (1991, May 13). Crack Kids: Innocent Victims. Time. 137(19), 112-118.

Smith, D. E., Schwartz, R. H., & Martin, D. M. (2001). Heavy Cocaine Use by Adolescents. Pediatric, 83(4), 539-543.

It is easy to see that there is a difference between a popular magazine article and a scholarly journal. I found an article on cocaine in Time Magazine while also using the academic search premier to find a scholarly article. The Time Magazine article, although very informative, is more for entertainment than to be used to gain information for research. On the other hand, the scholarly article is packed with details and information. To me, it also seemed like there were more facts from studies in the scholar journal than there is in a popular magazine which is often aimed at an easier, more fluent read. Also, there were more authors that contributed to the scholarly article than there was to the popular magazine. I think this is because more information and research has to go into that type of article.