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Show NATIONAL WOMEN'S FRIENDSHIP MONTH Every life seems to revolve around change - the only constants being death, taxes and Joan Rivers having cheekbones sharp enough to slice various cuts of meat. On a daily basis we see dirt turn to grass, sun setting in the West and numerous anecdotes plastered on Hallmark cards the world over. I came to notice this invariable phenomenon in June when I returned from my two-year mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Houston, Texas. Even though I was nestled in the United States, as opposed to an underdeveloped country, for twenty-four months, I still found myself dumbfounded by the countless changes made in that time in the real world. After months of no radio or television, I reentered a society that wouldn't shock me if they wore pajamas to work, and convincingly thought Gilbert Godfrey was interesting. In lieu of this personal debacle, and mainly because people like opinion-based lists, I felt it in my jurisdiction to map out the top three Best and Worst of things I missed out on these last two years, the only medicine to gallivanting around my hometown and screaming "Holy crap! We have a Chick-Fil-A now!" Come with your women roommates, classmates, neighbors, friends; or make a new friend at the event! Music * Activities * Fun TM friendship • month Bests 3. Sandra Bullock actually did something right - I'm not sure anyone saw it coming. Most of America woke up earlier this spring and heard the news in shock and awe. Sandra Bullock's 2010 Academy Award for Best Actress can go down in the annals of history as the pop culture shot heard 'round the world. This is the same lady Our jewelers make the difference! . PASSION. LOVE. GABRIEL who starred in the two worst movies ever made ("Speed" and, of course, its witty satire "Speed 2"). It follows a longunderstood wisdom, as a testament to us all, that great things can happen to anyone as long they make movies about football. 2. BYU 62, USU 72: The day Cache Valley stood still - I remember being lime green with envy after receiving a letter about this on my mission. Four years of devout anticipation, numerous antiCougar induced drafts of The Refraction shaking and boiling in e-mail inboxes, and hearts ready to stick it to our stuck-ups from Happy Valley finally came through. The Cougar's unpleasant return to the Spectrum must have been a gargantuan sigh of relief for Aggies near and far. I'm truly saddened that I missed one of the greatest lessons ever learned: when Dave Rose is frustrated, we can all sleep easy. 1. The KFC Double Down sandwich - it was as if KFC had either read my diary or participated in dream sharing, because their newest edible installment completely met the desires of my heart. Never in my life had I encountered something with as much wonder and grace as cooking grease, the Double Down Sandwich - a marvel consisting of bacon, pepper jack cheese and chicken as the buns. It stood as a giant among men in the delicatessen world. This $4.91 treat has filled my desires like cinnamon ropes on Christmas morn, saluting in me the assurance that hard times are always eased with variations of fried foods. This wondrous concoction, a symbol of redemption to their coleslaw ... wait, scratch that ... to any of their sides ... is a battered and seasoned symbol of hope, truly earning the honor of the best thing that happened while I was on my mission. Worsts 3. The rushing river of celebrity deaths - The summer of 2009 was a source of mass tragedy for any true reader of People magazine, as an endless file of famous people met their maker in what seemed like a day-by-day celeb-genocide. The list went on and on - Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Walter Cronkite, Ed McMahon, that guy who sang "Thriller" and numerous others. The most devastating of all, of course, was the great Billy Mays, the father of modern economics, and the voice of the incomparable OxiClean quietly left this earth, leaving us all in utter disdain. May we always remember him and stand in wonder of his prowess whenever we polish an oxidized penny. 2. Utah has a new Governor - This hurtful truth is pretty black and white. It's not that there is anything wrong with Governor Gary Herbert, I'm sure he's great. But let's be honest, Governor Huntsman rode motorcycles. When are we ever going to fall upon a governor that cool again? Never, that's when. It's imperative that Utah have a cool governor to save face, and with any hope we will find teens, `tweens and adults socialize, now allows users to tell their circle of "friends" exactly where they are when sending updates or photos. Anticipated for months, the launch of Facebook Places last week has brought geotagging to the masses, 500 million strong. With geotagging, a geographic ID - a "geolocation" of latitude and longitude - can also magically become an address on a photo, video, websites and tweets. Facebook Places follows the introduction of geotagging to Twitter.com's 100 million-plus users and on Foursquare, a mobile application that has attracted 3 million users who corn- N EW YORK ((-). r(t.• ‘44 930 N. Main Logan. Ut. (435) 753-9755 (-) jerricksfinejewelry.com could save his cool points - he drives monster trucks, he once won a national hot-wing eating contest, or there's a chance he is actually Jason Bourne - but I have my doubts. 1. Lady Gaga - Now, let me be clear. I could fill this spot with myriad two-bit, push-over, Seventeen magazine-famed megastars, this is understood. So why do I choose the world's most radioactive Barbie doll? This answer is simple, really. Regardless of her music, her antics in public, or the fact that she's the most annoying thing we've encountered since David Schwimmer, there is no way I could ever support anything named "Gaga." Honestly? She couldn't think of a more clever name? Call me crazy, but if the name inspires me to feed a jar of spinach to an infant, don't expect me to lobby them endlessly during the Grammys. Never have we met a worse name set-up since Uncle Kracker or possibly Lil Bow Wow. It's an age-old tale, cool names are equal in proportion to success. Just ask the likes of Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Destiny's Child and Kenny G - lackluster music, sweet names. All in all, numerous memories were made in my time away from society. All these events tell me one resounding thing: outside of Scotsman Dogs, Slurpees and movies starring Cedricthe Entertainer, I haven't missed much. Questions or comments can be left for Steve at steve.schwartzman@aggiemaiLusu.edu. Look in each Wednesday's issue of The Utah Statesman for more of his columns. Facebook's geotagging ability brings potential for abuse Facebook, the website where millions of G abrielf&C o. one of only three things that that Governor Herbert does By NIESHA LOFING McClatchy Newspapers . /Pr4/ Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2010 I was gone for two years and this happened? TSC - Sunburst Lounge Thursday, September 9: 2:00 - 4:00 pm national' women's AggieLife Page 8 Women of Utah State celebrate their friendships pete for "mayorships" by checking into a place most often. The idea of geotagging on Facebook, however, caused a stir among parenting and privacy bloggers because Facebook "friends" share so much information about family members and household activity that geotags could ultimately put a combination of dangerous information in the wrong person's hands. What if a boy in your son's class posts a Facebook comment about studying after school and tags your parent-free home? What if your daughter's school chum uploads a picture of your daughter hugging a frail grandparent at your elderly parents' home, and the photo is tagged with their address? Teenagers are increasingly communicating via cell phone, many of which allow their locations to be found using global positioning systems, and 23 percent of them are using those phones to access social networking sites, according to the Pew Research Center's study on teen cell phone usage. Consequently, parents must ensure that teens and `tweens, who soak up the latest gee-whiz technology as though taking in air, understand the security risks that go along with the applications. Experts say a little conversation and some monitoring can go a long way in keeping a family safe. "Parents should be aware that (geotagging) is an option," said Regina Lewis, AOL's consumer adviser. "What you don't want it to be is geotargeting." With Facebook Places, available now for iPhone and people using Facebook's Web application, friends see and share locations in the real world. For example, someone using an iPhone can comment on Facebook that they're having a latte and tag their location as Starbucks. The location of the coffeehouse is uploaded along with the comment. If friends scroll over the geotag, a snapshot frame of a locator map pops up and exact coordinates can be obtained. While adults have to proactively opt-in so "Everyone" can see geotags, minors aren't allowed to change the privacy control setting. That means only their friends can see their check-ins, ConnectSafely.org reported. Facebook has come under fire for its privacy settings and whether the social network has a sufficient level of opt-in settings and whether it's too complicated for the average user to navigate, said Kevin Pomfret, an attorney and executive director of the Centre for Spatial Law and Policy. Pomfret said expansion of geotagging and geolocation technology is cropping up in Capitol Hill discussions and within review of the Online Protection Act. Limits need to be examined carefully, however. "When we have a new technology and we're uncomfortable with it, we'll say 'I'm concerned about my privacy,' and really people are just uncomfortable with the technology," he said in a phone interview from his Richmond, Va., office. Companies seem to be anticipating parental concerns, however, and many are updating applications to include geotagging monitors. Parental Guidance, a free Facebook application by GoGoSTAT that allows parents to monitor children's Facebook activity and sends notifications of certain activity, already is planning to add location monitoring when it releases its "premium" model in November, said Ron Stevenson, GoGoSTAT's product manager. The "freemium" version was released in June. AOL is launching Safe Social, a preteen and teenage safety platform that lets parents monitor their kids' social networks without having to "friend" them via Facebook, Twitter or other social networks. The company already is planning to update Safe Social with a location component and hopes to have it ready by the end of the year, I See FACEBOOK, page 9 |