HUNTINGTON BEACH RIOT

 Some local businesses on Main St. in Huntington Beach are recovering from the recent riot outbreak that occurred right after the U.S. Open of Surfing concluded. One shop, Easyrider bike shop, had a window that was broken into by some of the rioters who took a stop sign off the street and smashed it through the glass. As a result, the employees had to arm themselves to fend off the disrupters. Some locals nearby helped defend their town from the “out-of-towners”, while some sought the closest shops for refuge.

 The article started off with author Emily Foxhall briefly describing part of the aftermath of the riot; then uses the Easyrider bike shop as a specific example of how the riot got way out of hand. Foxhall illustrated what happened to the shop, and even mentioned the effect it had on the locals. Towards the end of the essay, she included the responses and reactions to the riot from a couple of locals, one of who knew how crazy the event usually is. The article then ends with focusing on how the bike shop somewhat recovered from incident, concluding with a positive response. The author’s attitude toward this occurrence was indifferent for the most part.

 On this webpage, there was a link that pertained to this event by involving a slideshow of pictures of the riot, including pictures of the bike shop’s window shattering and the police squad taking charge of the scene.

 The title of this essay actually surprised me, since it never really occurred to me that a riot would break out near the beach. But as I read on, it was mentioned that it was probably a feud between the locals and out-of-towners; it would kind of make sense since those people are not use to the “culture” in that area. As one person mentioned in the video, the police presence for next year should be increased for the sake of every attendee’s safety. The U.S. Open of Surfing should be an event where every one of all ages can enjoy; not where some people have to worry about whether or not they will accidently get hurt. If so, then this can have a negative effect on the city and the event.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-huntington-beach-bike-shop-riots-20130729,0,5585474.story 

CAN YOU GET TOO MUCH EXERCISE?

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/24/can-you-get-too-much-exercise/?ref=health&_r=0 

 In northwestern Sweden, the Vasaloppet, a fifty-six mile cross-country ski marathon, is an exemplar for “studying the impacts of intense, prolonged aerobic exertion on the human body”. The most recent study has shown that the participants in this race who have engaged in many other similar races, or who have finished faster than the rest, are more prone to have an arrhythmia, irregular heartbeat, which makes some scientists apprehensive. One study that happens to pertain to the rigorous race study includes “marathon-running rats” heart rate vs. the inactive rats’ heart rate.

 At the beginning of the article, author Gretchen Reynolds started off with a widely known event (the race) that happens to be the subject of one of the studies mentioned. She then proceeds to present the reason for the study, which then leads to another study (the Montreal experiment) mentioned. The first study, the Vasaloppet race, analyzed the participants race’s records to predict on who will be the first people that will need medical help first, why the second and third studies just analyze the differences in the “marathon-running rats” and the lazy rats’ heart rhythms, and in the distances and the amount of weeks that the rats ran. A problem was introduced that stated that constantly doing vigorous activities can lead to heart problems. But a possible solution to this problem, which concluded this article, was quoted and explained that one should keep doing things as one usually does but to always seek help when an aberration occurs, especially in the body.

 I agree with the last paragraph where it stated a helpful advice. But what stood out to me the most was the contradiction on how exercising vigorously can affect one’s health. I thought that doing aerobics daily can help one live longer?

USC STUDENT SAYS UNIVERSITY MISHANDLED RAPE INVESTIGATION

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-usc-student-says-university-mishandled-rape-investigation-20130722,0,1806428.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29

 Recently, college students are coming forward about being a victim of rape/sexual assault. USC student Tucker Reed claims to be one and has even alerted the school officials about her happening. But the main problem of this issue is that the officials did a meager investigation on it, declaring that there was little proof of it occurring. This led to Tucker and other claiming victims to complain about this problem to the U.S. Department of Education, which somewhat brought about an array of investigations of rape/sexual assault in other colleges and universities around the country.

 In the beginning of this article, author Jason Song started off with a small declaration as his hook that basically introduced what the following paragraphs will pertain to. Each paragraph included information that is still relevant to the main idea of this essay, which is that the college student believes that her school handled a problem inadequately. Each of the sections are connected one right after another, meaning that as the problem was presented first, then each contained new information that still connects to one right before. Song’s attitude to this issue seems to be neutral, since the entire article is somewhat just addressing the problem and stating its consequence.

 Overall, this essay did not really hint any type of side-choosing on this issue. I don’t think it’s fair that the USC school officials “swept aside” this situation. Since most victims of rape/sexual assault usually keep quiet about this type occurrence, it is extremely courageous for someone to speak out about it, like Reed did. With that being said, the school officials should at least ATTEMPT at finding evidence, instead of just brushing it off. It’s not always easy to confess something that makes you look vulnerable.

ROLLING STONE'S BOSTON BOMBER COVER

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-rolling-stones-cover-of-suspected-boston-bomber-sparks-outrage--20130717,0,4930947.story

In this article, the author started off with what the cover of the most recent issue of The Rolling Stones magazine has “accomplished”, which was actually angering all of those who are still affected by the Boston Marathon bombing. What stood out to me from the first half of the article was when author Robin Abcarian compared how Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s stance on the cover somewhat resembled to that Jim Morrison. Looking at both covers, the only thing that could possibly be similar between the two is the curly hair. But anyway, the author then proceeded on with quoting the magazine’s reason for using Tsarnaev on the front cover: “The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens.” However, the author believed that the real reason for the matter was to get attention and make money. Somehow, Abcarian’s theory is definitely plausible. It has been only three months since the tragedy occurred, and, as I stated before, there are plenty of people out there that are still trying to cope with all of the madness. To conclude the article, Abcarian basically translated Janet Reitman, the Rolling Stones’ author of the Tsarnaev article, possible reasons as to why and how the young man ended up in this situation. Living in two different worlds, dealing with the divorce of his parents, and so forth on, these could likely be why he was easily influenced into following along with his brother. Also, Abcarian evinced about why she likes cover. Personally, I believe that the front cover of any kind of magazine should include someone or something that really attracts the reader. In this case, Tsarnaev is the least interesting person at the moment.  

RACE TO SNATCH OLD, UNUSED YAHOO USER NAMES BEGIN

 http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-yahoo-opens-up-usernames-20130715,0,4634661.story?track=rss&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+latimes%2Fmostviewed+%28L.A.+Times+-+Most+Viewed+Stories%29 

Recently, Yahoo declared publicly about how the company will soon let people claim any inactive user names in order to get them to use the site. Although this would be considered as good news to most people (including me), this has increased the interests of online security experts who are afraid that the owners prior to the email might get their information stolen. Here, the article first presented the company’s blueprint on its way of increasing site users. This can be a good thing because many people have abandoned their old accounts for new ones (including me). One possible reason why they did it was probably because their email user name reflected their time when they made it which can be embarrassing. Thankfully I’m not one of those people, but I would like to add that this can be a good thing. As social media sites continue to increase tremendously, more and more email accounts are being made which means that the originality of a user name is decreasing. So why not reactivate neglected email accounts? The cycle has to end somewhere and sometime in order for a new one to begin, which brings me to the apparatus of the company’s course of supporting the matter that was presented later on in the article. This plan seems reasonable and fair for everyone. Instead of just automatically putting the name up for grabs, Yahoo is trying to get websites to support their course. It makes sense, I mean, what’s the point of using an abandon email address for a website that currently interests you? Overall, if you aren’t using something and careless about it, you might as well give it away. Yahoo might just be the first company to start a new trend. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.