Craigslist Attack

Craiglist is one of the most popular sites visited daily across the country when searching for a job, gigs, auditions and so on. It usually know to be very legit and successful source for many people. I for one can honestly say that Craigslist has somewhat helped me when I looked for auditions, and throught it I got the opportunity to be in a female pop/R&B group back in 2007. So i have benefited from it and have always recommended it to friends and family. However, on April 16, aspiring model and actress Julissa Brisman had posted an exotic ad on Craigslist, and through the ad she encounted Boston University medical student Phillip Markoff, her killer. (image found here)

Phillip Markoff, is a brillant young man, who was engaged as of May 2008 to a beautiful woman and set to marry this August on a romantic sunset scenery in a New Jersey beach. Nevertheless, it seems that Markoff was connected to a numerous crimes against women, such as assault, robbery, and murder. Sometime last week, a woman was duct taped around the feet and robbed. Julissa Brisman was a women found dead at Marriot Copely Hotel, bashed in the head and shot three times. Markoff was caught on surviellance camera linked to the meeting with Brisman. When investigators search Markoff's apartment, they come to find duct tape and a murder weapon which associates Markoff to both crimes.

However, family memebers are insisting that the police has the wrong guy. His fiance says "Phillip wouldn'y hurt a fly; he is a great person inside and out". The police finds Markoff, as a man who takes advantage of women by robbing them and pysically hurting them. The women that Markoff encountered, were those who believed Markoff was a client they would make great money off of, by performing exotically. Unfortuanltey, for Julissa Brismen, this was an awful end. It suspected that Brisman put up quite a fight and Markoff got really upset and killed her out of anger.

My question is, why is a "happily engaged" man, in MEDICAL school, planning a marriage, with a bright and wealthy future, need to contact women on Craigslist for pleasure? It doesn't make any sense!! However, the investigation is intense and everything will add up!

As of now, I am going to be more careful on any site I seek auditons in, because this "bogus" act happens all the time. Think twice before seeking anything online, and if so...go the extra mile to make sure it's legit!!! (image found here)

Manic!

On an episode from Law and Order: SVU called “Manic”, there was a shooting in a junior highschool. Two classmates were killed by gunshots, and detectives Olivia Benson (Mariska Hartigay) and Elliot Stabler (Christoper Meloni) found a third student in the boiler room calling for help. The boy was also injured on the side of his head; he is then brought into custody to be questioned on what he witnessed. He says a man had brought him down into the boiler room and shot upward accidentally shooting him on the side of the head. As detectives Stabler and Benson investigate the case, it all leads back to this boy, and they go to his house looking for him and come across very graphic drawing he had created. One of the drawings was the reflection of the case they are investigating, a dark alley with a dark figure holding a gun and shooting to young boys execution style. This immediately puts the boy as a suspect and is brought once again into questioning. (image from here).

However, this time, the detectives see something very peculiar about the boy and see how he rocks back and forth in his seat as he mumbles things to himself. He shouts out “they are going to get you too!!!” The boy suffers from a case of depression and his mother had forced him to take certain pills that came from a company that pulled a scheme and sent out pills to families with a history if depression. This was an illegal act that was not approved by any doctors and This particular family became a victim of. The pills made the boy hallucinate, hearing and seeing things that were not there. The hallucinations finally led to the killing of these two school mates, he told detectives the voices told him to kill them. He wasn’t trialed as a juvenile nor pressed any charges, because they believed he was mentally ill and had no fault in this case.
So, do you agree with this? This does happen today, when crimes are committed by those who are not mentally unstable. Many years ago in Texas, a mother drowned her five children because she said the “voices told her to do so”. Should people like this be convicted? Or are they really not at fault? It’s so hard to actually put yourself in these shoes and make this decision. I guess it depends on the all the evidence that can lead to a conclusion. Now, going back to the episode, how do these boys get justice? Also, in reality, when a crime like this happens, how does anyone get justice? (image found here)

Not Guilty!!

Theresa talks about the great stories in the celebrity world in her "Are Celebrities Human?" blogs. One of the articles was "Should he be punished? NO!" had to do with the infamous Chris Brown hitting superstar girlfriend Rihanna. The blog recaps the incident, stating that Chris Brown allegedly hit assaulted Rihanna leaving her bruised all over her face. Now according to USATODAY, the singer pleads "NOT GUILTY"! He pleads this to the charges of bodily injury and criminal threats. He entered his plea at a Los Angeles court room along side his lawyer and mother who say in the front bench with red eyes.(image found on flickr)
A preliminary hearing is to be set on April 29th, which is the nest court date for Brown. The Associated Press states that if brown is convicted, he could face probation or up to five years in prison. Singer Rihanna is cooperating and is hoping everything is done quickly. She was spotted vacationing in Hawaii, while Chris Brown was seen touring college campuses with his family. Why?? I don't know, seemed odd to me as well. According to Theresa's blog, many are saying that Chris Brown is the victim because Rihanna is lying. Oh c'mon! Be serious! If some of you didn't see the pictures, I suggest you do, because I highly doubt that the bruises just appeared or she "accidentally" fell. Domestic abuse is a serious crime, and just because you are a celebrity or a wealthy person, does not mean they should not be charged the same. It's a shame that people can say that money can't by love or happiness; but can allow for money to buy justice!

(image found on flickr)

If you look for love on the net, let your heart get involved, but not your wallet!!

(image found on flickr)

Are you lonely? Are you sad and tired of staying at home on a Saturday night? Do you need to be held and loved? You are probably tired of going out on pointless dates that will never go anywhere! So, instead of asking your friend for that blind date, maybe you will go ahead and do some blind date-searching of your own. So what is your result? Internet romance right ….WRONG!!!!!

Like Paige stated in her blog on “The Second Life” websites like eharmony.com and Match.com have been becoming very popular during the last few years because so many “lonely” people are going on these sites for answers to their loneliness and seeking love. Although you may visit these sites and finally have someone steal your heart, they can also be stealing your money.

According to CNN, Julia Abrantes from Atlanta,Georgia, claims she had been cleaning her house and getting herself all dolled up for hours. She goes to the airport to finally meet and pick up the love of her life….but he never showed! She said her heart was broken, where was the love of her life?? Answer: SPENDING HER MONEY!!!

Patrich Giocolo runs RomanceScams.org; she claims that Julia Abrante isn’t alone in the case of
romance scams, because she too has been a victim. Giocolo tells the story of how she went on a dating site and met a man she was getting along with beautifully. They began speaking on the phone and he told her he had to fly to Ghana to build roads. She found this a bit odd, but did her research and she did find that there were bids going on in Ghana to build roads, so that was cleared up. He then claimed that his workboots were stolen, so Giocolo sent him a brand new pair including $500. The next phone call, he had requested another $500, she hesitated a bit because she was tight on money herself, and therefore she only sent $150. He then said he had
gotten into an accident and asked for more money. By this point Giocolo had gotten a funny feeling in her stomach and while researching, she literally stumbled on a website on romance scammers. Some of these sites show pictures of past scammers, and Giocolo saw hers. He heart sank and she was devastated, everything had been a complete lie!!! All that money down the drain, and she was left with nothing. No love and a broken heart, including a hole in her pocket.

These websites give you great tips on noticing a scammer and a database where you can locate them. All these women including Julia Abrantes from Georgia claimed that have learned their lessons. I always think that any of the “love matching” sites are completely bogus and just want your money because they know how desperate people can be! So before you go out searching for dates online, just trust that friend and go on that blind date, hey, you never know it can probably work. And FYI ladies, if you see that by the end of that diner date it won’t be going anywhere, the one who will have the hole in the pocket will be him and not you! Hahahaa!!

(image found on flickr)

Are our Computers stealing our Identity???

(Image net_efekt)

Ok, so in the beginning of the semester, two fellow classmates and I did a presentation on the article "The Long Tail" by Anderson. It was a brief explanation of how online shopping is very popular nowadays. Many Americans surf through the internet to find special bargains and anything that would be on sale online rather than in the store itself. In my sociology course, I came across the term "distance zones" which explains the living of the American life. It means that we Americans like and need to have our space when we are out and about, therefore shopping online is the result. When the holidays come around, we hate being in Herald Square having everyone bump into you every sixteenth of a block, so instead of going to the items, we like the items to come to us. Major sites like Amazon and eBay are huge when it comes to online shopping. The article "The long tail" stated the rises of percentages of purchases throughout the years through these sites. They are very popular and very gentle to our wallets. But, what happens when you make a purchase online and then when you receive your monthly statements and you see purchases that seem odd to you? Purchases that seem outrageously priced and you don't remember doing? Maybe it's because you didn't make that purchase, and someones else did! You could be a victim of fraud! YIKES!!! However, you start to think, how careful you are, your social security isn't posted anywhere online and when it comes to these major sites, your privacy is guaranteed. So how can anyone get your information?? Thats easy, the criminal got the info because you gave it to them through your own computer....literally!
You would never suspect anyone to get your data through your computer. But that is because these criminals are such geniuses that you would NEVER know. That is because your computer will be working in tip-top shape and you won't notice anything is wrong. This was they can log your key strokes and capture your credit card numbers and passwords. Crazy right!!??!! So here are some tips letting you know you are a target!
1. If your computer is experiencing long slowdowns out of know where, there is some fishy program in the background.
2. If you are getting numerous pop-ups that you can't control or delete, you are probably a victim of identity theft.
3. If you are typing a site and you are sent to a weird website you didn't intend to go. or your search results are funny....you are most likely a victim.

(image found on Flickr)

So what can you do??
The best way that you can control or get rid of this is by getting an "anti-virus software". This is a great help because it can detect the program and disable it. However, some can clean out your computer completely for a fee, although some can it for free. So make sure to do your research!!

One Laptop Per Child-Good or Bad?

Image found on Flickr

Nicholas Negroponte founded the One Laptop Per child Mission. His deeply believes this would be an exceptional process for the poorest children around the world to get an education. He believes is would be a "...joyful, self-empowerment" experience for the children and that it would bring a brighter future. He also states how getting an education should be a requirement and not a privilege. So, I've asked many people their opinions on this issue, and I have gotten so many mixed reviews! Many say, that they think it's a "...dumb idea that won't work, kids just want cartoons and Myspace..." or others that would say "...that would be great for the poverty countries, those children should have a chance to get some kind of education." However, I'm still stuck in the middle! I don't know exactly how I feel about the whole idea, I stronlgy agree with both points made by the people outside this class, also in the article "Are Celebrities Human?: OLPC", Theresa disagrees with the idea as well. In one hand I do think that those that are less fortunate around the world should have the privilage to get an education...a formal education. Having the laptop would bring extra hmph for the child to actually want to get an education. According to CNN, Rwanda had recieved a donation of laptops in a school that barely had any electricity. However, before the laptops only 50 percent of students showed up to class, but now this transformation brang in 1000 more students. Also, they are teaching their family members which I thought was a great way of family interactions, which brought me back to the presentation David, Paige and Kaitlyn did on DiMaggio. When they argued whether the internet broke or brang together a family.
In the other hand I thought of David's blog "Unemployment in the U.S.", if there isn;t enough money to keep our fellow Americans recieveing pay stubs every two
weeks, how can we possibly afford a "low cost" laptop for these children. This is
what doesn;t make sense and why it keeps me in the middle of the situation. I don't think they would use it for educational purposes only, who knows if they would into the social world of the internet? You may say "they are only kids...." but, according to one of my articles "Do you know who's really behind the screen? cont'd" children are the main targets online. If this were to completely go through, I beleive all children should be adult supervised.
Image found on Flickr

Baby sitters in sex act

Image from Flickr.com
The majority of our Americans confide in daycares and babysitters for the care they child needs while they are away at work for the day.At times, families leave it up to our wonderful technology to look for babysitters that would fall under the family's budget, or look for ads in the newspapers. Or the usual a neighborhood day care where it is very familiar to the community and to other families with similar situations.
According to the Associate Press, Stephan Quick and Samantha Light ran a baby sitting service from their home. They had apparently been video taping themselves performing sexual acts on infants as young as 2 months old, up to children as old as 6. This is all came about when a 3 year old daughter told their parents that Quick and Light had touched her in the "wrong places". These parents immediately made a call to police. Police searched Quick and Light's home, computers and video cameras, learning to find video tapes of these performances and kiddie porn on their computers. They have no history of crimes, but are being held in custody.
This is such a disturbing story, because for many parents, this rings up many questions and concerns. They will start not to trust all those around them with their children and brings a great amount of stress to the family.