It’s been a great semester, everyone! One last time, if you missed one or two blog posts during the semester, this is your chance to make up one of those weeks. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into the thick of things!

The political scene is a worthy starting point this week. After several years of controversy, President Barack Obama attempted to end the “birther” debate by turning over a copy of his birth certificate to prove that he was, in fact, born in the United States. (If you’re unfamiliar with the controversy, according to Article Two of the U.S. Constitution, only natural-born U.S. citizens are eligible to be elected president.) The argument has since shifted, with some accusing Obama’s detractors of racism, while members of the GOP said that the timing of Obama’s birth certificate release only serves as “a distraction from the nation’s real concerns.” A number of individuals, though, are still questioning Obama’s legitimacy to serve in the White House, among them billionaire real estate tycoon and presidential candidate Donald Trump, who questioned the authenticity of Obama’s birth certificate and also asked why a number of other records from Obama’s past, such as his school records, financial statements, and passport, have not been released to the public. Consequently, Trump has been the biggest target of racism accusations in recent days. In the meantime, others on the right have fired back at liberals for “playing the race card” in order to deflect attention from the debate.

The racism debate is hardly the only political controversy surrounding Trump over the past few days. In an aggressive April 28 speech, he ubiquitously called U.S. political leadership “stupid” in the middle of a variety of other words not suitable for this blog. Mitt Romney, who many see as the top Republican candidate, has also seen some early attacks in the 2012 campaign cycle. And, in the odd political headline of the week, reports indicate that White House staff threatened to remove a San Francisco reporter from the Bay area press pool “for using now-standard multimedia tools to gather the news.” Somehow, none of this seems too surprising in today’s political scene. What do these developments mean to you? What are your thoughts on the political environment in which modern politicians operate? How about the “birther” and other records controversies, as well as the backlash in the form of racism accusations? For that matter, what trends do you see developing in the presidential election itself? With Obama almost certain to run for re-election, who do you think will challenge him, and what do you think the candidates’ chances will be?

The economy has also been a major concern as of late, with growth falling to 1.8%. The White House says that faster gross domestic product (GDP) growth is needed. Some analysts say this can be fostered through increased consumer spending, but the Obama administration has chosen instead to boost government funds by taxing the highest earners. At present, the dollar is still sliding, although officials don’t seem overly concerned about it, as stocks are climbing despite other shaky economic indicators. The oil industry appears to be one of the largest beneficiaries of the stock increases, as high gas prices have sent profits skyward. Both political parties are actively fighting over policies for the oil companies, although traders see little impact from the rhetoric. How do you feel about the economic situation, the actions that policy leaders are taking, and what needs to be done in the future?

While we’re on this political track, let’s take one last look at the big global issues. First, a number of conflicts have continued across the Middle East over the past few weeks. Fighting intensified in northwestern Libya within the district of Misrata, and a geographic error further west led to a number of Moammar Gadhafi’s troops being captured. As loyalists to Gadhafi attempted to retake an area near the border, the conflict progressed into neighboring nation Tunisia. The loyalists were subsequently captured by Tunisian forces after a 90-minute skirmish. Elsewhere, reports indicate Gadhafi’s soldiers have begun using child rape as a weapon to instill fear into their enemies. Aid workers told Daily Mail reporters that some children were held hostage for several days and, upon returning, were too traumatized to speak. The workers were especially concerned, however, about children in regions held by loyalist forces, such as Misrata, who might be facing prolonged abuse. In Syria, the bloodshed is only increasing, with a recent fight resulting in dozens of deaths. Death toll estimates are varied, but most estimates are giving number of at least 40 killed in government protest crackdowns. The crackdowns have not stopped thousands from voicing their anger with the government, ruled by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family for 40 years, but the rising death toll on what has been called Syria’s “day of rage” is certainly stomach-churning. Not all of this news in the area is quite so graphic — the Palestinian factions of Hamas and Fatah agreed to a peace deal that some believe was a necessary precursor to any serious negotiations with Israel — but at the same time, Taliban forces struck against Pakistani security, and violence has also escalated in Uganda. I know that most of the comments on this subject have subsided over the past few weeks, so to keep this somewhat brief, what do you think about the ongoing battles being fought across the globe?

On a very different international subject, the Kate Middleton and Prince William of England became husband and wife on Friday. In order to keep her arrival “lower-key,” Middleton went to Westminster Abbey in a Rolls Royce instead of the traditional carriage. (I never would have expected to use “Rolls Royce” and “lower-key” in the same sentence, but hey.) At this point, just about every aspect of the event has been thoroughly analyzed, whether reviewers are constrating its charm with its lack of passion, poring over the many short kisses (viewable in 3D!), critiquing the eight-tiered cake and the dress — possibly the item which underwent the most scrutiny, alongside other wedding fashion headlines like sister Pippa’s white dress, Kate’s reception attire, and all those hats — as well as less-obvious highlights like the royal matchmaker, the reception’s disco balls, and the cartwheeling verger. All that, of course, is apart from the withdrawal of Syria’s invitation, the private comments (subsequently lip-read and posted for the world to see), the 56 arrests, the record-breaking viewership, the distinct lack of sponsorship deals to take advantage of those viewers, and the tributes to the late Princess Diana.

Did the size of that paragraph terrify you? If so, then it did its job. Obviously, there’s no shortage of media coverage for this event, which has some viewers delighted and others infuriated. How do you feel about the media attention that this marriage has received? Is it an important enough event to monopolize multiple television channels (not just BBC) for more than a day, or is it just dramatically over-hyped?

Locally, much of the U.S. has been dealing with fierce storms over the last week. Not that I need to remind you of that. With the death toll nearing 300, searchers are still looking for tornado victims amongst the wreckage. Obama and his family recently visited the aftermath in Alabama and, shocked by the devastation, promised to help rebuild the region. The Red Cross is working here in Indiana, as well, and they’re calling for volunteers in their efforts. I doubt I need to pose questions on this topic, since you sat through the storms as they blew through the area, so just tell us what you think.

As you may have gathered, I happen to enjoy my share of sports from time to time. It’s still unclear whether we’ll see the NFL this year, though, as the order to lift the labor lockout has been held by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis. This means that the lockout, which was set to be lifted on Friday, remains very much in place. It looks like the plans of the NFL and its players will have to wait, at least for the time being, even as the annual draft proceeds as scheduled. What are your thoughts about this court battle and its effects on all those affiliated with the league? If the lockout continues through the season, how will it affect the overall entertainment market? And what are the ramifications for the economy, given how much consumer and corporate spending (think: buffalo wings and million-dollar commercials) would otherwise be driven by Super Bowl XLVI?

Apple seems to have hit the jackpot as of late with leaping profits and projections, and they’ve now moved into third place among U.S. mobile phone brands. Meanwhile, Apple’s competition is suffering — Blackberry’s forecasts are poor; Nokia’s troubles forced them to cut 7,000 jobs; Verizon’s 4G network is dissatisfying customers and the Droid Charge release has been delayed; and Microsoft’s sales and weak projections, which were much weaker than Apple’s, have caused its sharpest stock drop since 2009. The recent purchase of iCloud.com, which Apple made to host its new cloud computing service, already has fans discussing what form it should take. The white iPhone 4 has also been selling well despite its chunkier shape, and some are already looking all the way ahead to the iPhone 6. Some are still concerned about the privacy issues we highlighted in last week’s post, especially given Apple’s apparent negligence in the matter, but a bit of insecurity with location data suddenly seems far less serious than the Sony crisis.

Oh yes, you knew we’d return to this. Sure, it seemed bad enough when the PlayStation Network was down for days on end with no explanation — some of us paid good money for that system! — but now that we know it was caused by a data breach that many are believe to be the largest of all time, everyone’s paying much closer attention. That includes multiple national governments — Congress has been questioning Sony about it, and Canada is conducting its own investigation — and since Sony actively hid the breach, it looks all the worse to the public. George Hotz, who hacked Sony several weeks back and was subsequently sued over it, blames Sony itself for the intrusion, saying that angering the hacker base was the surest route to being targeted. The story only gets worse, though. Some experts are now claiming that users’ credit card information was stolen along with their personal data and that the full database is up for sale. That amounts to several million accounts. There are still some questions about the incident, of course, including whether all the claims on hacker websites are legitimate and, much more frighteningly, whether similar havoc could be wreaked through Xbox Live. What do you believe actually transpired? If your information was on Sony’s systems, are you planning to take action to protect yourself? What can Sony and other organizations do to prevent future intrusions, and what can Sony do to make up for this, if anything? Are there any broader implications for electronic data transfers as a whole? How does this relate to Amazon’s own problems with their cloud computing network? How do you compare Amazon’s multi-day outage, and the way the organization subsequently explained and apologized for it, with how Sony handled its own incident?

Finally, I was going to talk about Friday’s Endeavour shuttle launch, as it represents the final trip for the “baby of the fleet.” Even Obama planned to be in attendance, demonstrating the significance of the event, but a problem with an auxiliary power unit heater forced a delay until Monday, at the earliest. Still, it remained an important day: House Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who suffered a near-fatal gunshot wound to the head on January 8, flew to Cape Canaveral to watch her husband, Mark E. Kelly, command the shuttle. She has amazed doctors with the pace of her recovery after a shooting that killed six and wounded 12 others. While the delay deprived her of the chance to watch the launch, Giffords ability to attend the near-event still proved how far she has come. In any case, here’s one last chance to talk about the event, including the future of space travel and where research will go from here. And for that matter, with SETI shutting down as well, how are we going to find aliens now?

We’ve covered quite a few big stories this week, but as always, if none of the above suit you, you’re perfectly welcome to comment on one of the below links or make a new post on a different subject. You’re also more than welcome to discuss what you’ve learned over the course of the semester and where you see yourself using those skills in the future — I always like hearing about the impact of this, so feel free! In any case, it’s been a pleasure seeing your contributions throughout the term. I can’t wait to see what you have to say during this final week of the COM 315 blog!

UPDATE: Given the timing, I’d be a fool not to add one last story to the list. According to a speech by Obama late Sunday evening, Osama bin Laden is dead. As CNN reported, “Osama bin Laden — the longtime leader of al Qaeda — was killed by U.S. forces in a mansion outside the Pakistani capital of Islamabad along with other family members.” By all means, feel free to use this as the topic of your comments this week. No matter how you look at it, no story this week is more significant.

Other articles of interest:
Yahoo says 1M users affected by email outage
Yahoo Finds Delicious Buyer
Hulu Plus hits Xbox Live April 29, free for a week
Three Foxconn workers arrested for leaking iPad 2 design
Sleep Can Wait. The Birds Are Angry.
Apple Rejects Immigrant ‘Smuggle Truck’ Game
Indiana Senate narrowly OKs ban on texting while driving
RIM shares hit in Toronto after profit warning
Barnes & Noble Accuses Microsoft of Patent Abuse
New Federal Guidelines Regulate Junk Food Ads for Kids
Advertisers Fire Back At Government Over Proposed Food Marketing Guidelines
Banning Barbie
Does Drinking With Parents Help Teens Drink More Responsibly? Not Really
5-Minute Screen for Signs of Autism Works in 1-Year-Olds
Homeless child enrolled in wrong school: What should happen to him?
8-Year-Old Sells Loaded Gun for $3 at Queens School: Police
Teaching turning into a rest stop on the MBA highway
Friendster to Erase Early Posts and Old Photos
Cuomo: NY law sheds 24,000 sex offenders from Web
South Africa photographer honored for Soweto photo
China’s One-Child Policy Brings the Challenge of an Aging Population
Obama’s Silence on Boeing Is Unacceptable
Civility on the Way Out? Add Dogs to That List
The new rules of sun safety
ER Visits Keep Increasing, Survey Finds
Manny Ramirez might play winter ball
MLB: 10,955 drug tests since ’07-08
Frank McCourt blasts Bud Selig, MLB
Dutch club VVV-Venlo sign 1-year-old child