93-Year-Old Man Freezes To Death In Apartment When Utility Company Shuts Down Power.
While reading The Mercury News, I came across a news story detailing the unnecessary and tragic loss of a 93-year-old Michigan man who froze to death in his apartment when his utilities were shut off due to non-payment. Evidently, the man, who may have been suffering from dementia, had been getting the money together, which was found clipped to the unpaid bills.
A "limiter" device had been installed several days earlier, which restricted the voltage available to the home, rendering the man's furnace inoperable. He subsequently froze to death.
The sheer tragedy of this story gripped me. It illustrated the vulnerability of the elderly and the potential outcome of a thoughtless, routine action from a company watching its bottom line more than its customers. If the person who had installed the limiter had just checked in on the tenant, the whole thing could have been avoided.
This was a powerful human-interest story, and a cautionary tale about the depersonalization of many of modern society's operations.
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_11556857?IADID=Search-www.mercurynews.com-www.mercurynews.com
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Friday, January 30, 2009
Lead #3
Four trains collided Friday near Chase, Md., when Amtrak's northbound Colonial ran into three Conrail locomotives on a four-to-two track merger. The 1:30 p.m. collision was apparently due to the Conrail locomotives, also northbound, running a stop sign, said Amtrak spokesman Larry Chase.
Lead #2 - Air Crash
Over 130 people lost their lives yesterday in the worst United States air disatster in three years. The airliner, en route from Chicago, plowed into the soil just shy of its Pittsburgh destination while attempting to land. All 131 passengers were killed.
Leads Exercise #1
A Butte County couple was awarded $150,000 in damages yesterday, following a lawsuit stemming from an injury accident in March.
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The second in a series of snowstorms is projected to hit the Sierras today, forcasters say.
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Three firefighters sustained injuries today while evacuating 41 families from their homes. The blaze swept through a six-story residential building at 204 Union Avenue.
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The second in a series of snowstorms is projected to hit the Sierras today, forcasters say.
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Three firefighters sustained injuries today while evacuating 41 families from their homes. The blaze swept through a six-story residential building at 204 Union Avenue.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
First actual "blog" for Journalism 61
Hi. My name is Matt.
As a member of what is known as "Generation X", (albeit by the skin of my teeth at the end of that defined generational period), I started my school years with media dispensed in a certain fashion, available mostly through conventional print methods. By my high school graduation in 1997, the Internet was emerging as a bold new frontier, and e-mail addresses were becoming common.
Now, in the nascent days of 2009, media is everywhere. Convergence has landed, and we can have most of our household appliances connected to the same network that provides us with "paperless" newspapers accessible on desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, PDAs, and cell phones. But how much is too much?
I am interested in issues of media ethics, even as I am concerned about the worrisome slide happening in the "news-as-entertainment" trend. Everyone has access to media, both as users and creators. There is an inflation of sorts in the digital world, where everone can give their two cents at the same time, and woe be unto that person who sets out to discern which currency is "real" and which is "counterfeit". While it is exciting to have avenues of communication and expression open to the average person, what will be the fallout of having, perpetually, too many cooks in the kitchen?
I have edited college newspapers, interviewed celebrities and musicians, and am finishing the final classes left before obtaining my Mass Communications degree at SJSU. I hope that this class will give me some opportunities to "pen" some good articles, without having to do too many exercises based on basic writing skills.
I write assessment reports for California Regional Centers (San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties), where I serve the developmentally disabled populations as an Independent Living Skills Assessor, as well as for the Department of Rehabilitation in San Jose as an Externational Situational Assessment Evaluator, where I do work-skills assessments.
As a member of what is known as "Generation X", (albeit by the skin of my teeth at the end of that defined generational period), I started my school years with media dispensed in a certain fashion, available mostly through conventional print methods. By my high school graduation in 1997, the Internet was emerging as a bold new frontier, and e-mail addresses were becoming common.
Now, in the nascent days of 2009, media is everywhere. Convergence has landed, and we can have most of our household appliances connected to the same network that provides us with "paperless" newspapers accessible on desktop computers, laptops, netbooks, PDAs, and cell phones. But how much is too much?
I am interested in issues of media ethics, even as I am concerned about the worrisome slide happening in the "news-as-entertainment" trend. Everyone has access to media, both as users and creators. There is an inflation of sorts in the digital world, where everone can give their two cents at the same time, and woe be unto that person who sets out to discern which currency is "real" and which is "counterfeit". While it is exciting to have avenues of communication and expression open to the average person, what will be the fallout of having, perpetually, too many cooks in the kitchen?
I have edited college newspapers, interviewed celebrities and musicians, and am finishing the final classes left before obtaining my Mass Communications degree at SJSU. I hope that this class will give me some opportunities to "pen" some good articles, without having to do too many exercises based on basic writing skills.
I write assessment reports for California Regional Centers (San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties), where I serve the developmentally disabled populations as an Independent Living Skills Assessor, as well as for the Department of Rehabilitation in San Jose as an Externational Situational Assessment Evaluator, where I do work-skills assessments.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Too err is human... I hope I don't err....
Testing. This will be my "blog" for my SJSU class. "Blog" is a portmanteau of "bl" and "og".
Testing, testing...
1, 2, 3, sibilance, sibilance, check, check...
Testing, testing...
1, 2, 3, sibilance, sibilance, check, check...
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