Slow to No News

The plan was that the Bemorte Report would be back up and running after finals and Christmas. But as it turns out, interesting events cease from happening between the 24th and the first. I mean most news outlets are doing stories about how they have no stories. So, just like major businesses and primetime television, the Report will be back from break in the beginning of January. So for our three readers, hang in there!


- Bemorte

The Great Compromise of Barack Obama: Selling Out or Moving Forward?

Well isn't it just an odd day on Washington? That's right, Obama has comrpomised with Congressional Republicans on tax cuts. The Bush tax cuts have been extended for pretty much everyone in exchange for Obama's demand that unemployment benefits be extended as well, among other things. Congressional Democrats are...well pretty unhappy about the whole thing, viewing it as a kind of defeat of their agenda and power. And, it kinda is.



Obama just can't catch a break these days. Some days he's a evil muslim socialist and other days he's too conservative with a weak backbone. Do you think there will ever be a day when anyone likes Obama's actions? Remember the days when people just hated him because he gave great speeches. Those were the days....

Airlines Making an Obscene Amount of Money on Fees

Airline fees aren't really the most popular thing airlines have come up with in the recent past. But these fees may be saving the airline industry as we know it. Airlines have raked in more than $2.5 billion so far this year on baggage fees alone which accounts for a little more than 10 percent of all airline profits, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

And fees will continue to climb as long as the market--meaning the average Joe--doesn't ask questions. People are paying it and people aren't revolting, and so the fees will stick around at least until people are willing to boycott flying--or do the unthinkable: fly Southwest.

The possibility that fees will decrease once the recession lessens in intensity is nice to think about, but when was the last time you felt like the airline industry really was looking out for your interests? I mean in order to fly right now you basically have to book a flight 4 months in advance, strip naked to get through security, through away any food/water you have (just like a movie theater), get on a overbooked plane, and forgo a meal in-flight because they don't serve them anymore. But hey, at least we have wi-fi and free drinks.

P.S. For those who want to fight the man, visit this site for a pair of these:

Facebook's Beautiful Friendmap of the World

Some dude at Facebook put together a map made entirely out of the friends connectons that we all have across the world. It looks pretty cool and reminds one of the light pictures taken from space.

If anyone ever thought that Facebook isn't taking over the world, this picture is pretty convincing.

Facebook Outages Literally put this World in the Dark

Someone Impersonating Elizabeth Smart on Twitter

Someone is sending out "tweets" in Elizabeth Smart's name, but in reality, it is probably some creepy guy or an overzealous "Most Wanted" host. But as of right now, no one knows who is tweeting as Elizabeth.


One thing we know for sure: It wasn't Brian David Mitchell.

Finals

If the Bemorte Report had a huge staff with a bunch of collaborators, then finals wouldn't trip us up. Since we have a staff of one and 3 collaborators....well needless to stay, we'll see you all after finals are over!

MythBusters, The President, and a Death Ray.

Plummeting approval ratings, one real war and another fake one, a new Republican wave of popularity, and a Wikileaks fiasco. President Obama's problems dictate direct and meaningful action. So tonight he appeared on the hit Discovery Channel show, Mythbusters, to challenge Adam and Jamie to tackle a new myth.

The President, in a effort to advance an initiative to promote math and science programs, challenged the show's hosts to recreate Archimedes 'Solar Death Ray'. The myth that using only mirrors to burn ships off the shore has been busted in a previous show, but when the commander in chief asks you to do something again, you go along with it.

Note to Obama: With the talents of a group of experts who debunk myths, here is a list of things He should have challenged the gang to get together on. His citizenship, effects of Obamacare, how many times it's scientifically possible for someone to say hope, green energies, etc. But yeah, Republicans will love the death ray idea. Mr. President, the Darth Vader comparisons are gaining validity.

Pete's Perspective: Twitter and why the Champions Don't Need it.

Kobe Bryant seems to be the last super-star NBA player not to give into the twitter fad. And can you blame him? The man is sitting atop a mountain peak that none of his other 'super-star' rivals are even close to, while all the other top players are worried about how many followers they have. Is it any coincidence that Kobe is also the biggest star in any sport with the most rings? I argue it is not, my friends.

Some people say it's a pride thing, that he is so good he doesn't have to talk up a storm. I say it's about focus and ignoring distractions.

When Bryant was relaxed in an informal viewing area and watched a World Cup match in Africa over the summer, he talked about his trip to Africa. He talked about a safari he has been on the first time he visited Africa. Reportedly, he excitedly described how the truck he was in had come upon a clan of hyenas that had identified its prey. What stood out for Bryant was how the hyenas were so focused on the task at hand that they didn’t even glance at the truck of spectators. That’s what impressed Bryant: the pack was locked in, singularly focused on that moment, on that prey. It was as if the truck did not exist.

That's the difference between a lot of these Tweeters and Kobe. Kobe is hungry for one thing: championships. It's as if Twitter, and the rest of the hype machine down in Miami doesn't exist. He just wants his next ring.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Austin Peterson is an avid fan of anything sports. You can follow him on Twitter, just find him on our sidebar.)

BYU to be Metntioned on Psych? Quick, Someone Spin a Top, I Think I'm Dreaming.

Psych is possibly one of the best T.V. shows ever. It features Shawn Spencer as a hyper attentive detective pretending to be psychic, and his partner and his best friend Gus who basically does all the busy work. Together they solve murders, give an enormous amount of hilarious popular culture references, and soon they may be doing just about the coolest thing ever done on the T.V. show: giving a shout out to Brigham Young University.

The show's website has an interactive feature where users earn points based on the more activities they do within the site. The more points they earn, the more points they can attribute to their favorite college. Right now, fans and students of BYU are blowing away the competition with 1.48 million points — nearly triple the score of second-place Long Beach State — while the University of Utah lags behind in 30th place with 67,000 points. If this keeps up until December 22nd, then BYU will get a mention on a 'future episode of Psych'.

So you are telling me that there is a show about a fake psychic, obsessed with popular culture, who uses an iPhone, drives a motorcycle, plays X-Box, uses a Mac, dates his awesome co-star Juliet in real life, and who will give a shout out to BYU? The only way this show could get any more cool is if Hugh Laurie guest-starred.

What's the Trippiest Part of these Videos?

The Third & The Seventh from Alex Roman on Vimeo.


Silestone -- 'Above Everything Else' from Alex Roman on Vimeo.

Both of these videos were made entirely on a computer. That's right. No live action whatsoever. All CGI. It makes you think that The Matrix and Inception can be real.

P.S. (For Anna James)

Facebook Cartoons: Child Abuse or Free Advertising for Cartoon Network?

Within the past week, millions of facebook users have been encouraged to put their favorite cartoon as their profile picture supposedly to "support and raise awareness" about child abuse. This facebook page encourages users to change their profile picture to a cartoon and links to the official site of the NSPCC children’s charity, urging visitors to donate to organizations battling child abuse. The problem? The NSPCC did not support such a campaign.

It turns out the campaign originated from an annual Cartoon Network marketing campaign that encourages Facebook users to change their profile photo to an animated character during the fourth week of November. The conspiracy theories get pretty thick from pedophiles behind the push so that younger children will accept friend requests to a bad taste marketing campaign by cartoon network.

Either way, the movement is doing absolutely nothing to help the victims of abuse or to raise awareness. Lets all change our profile pictures in order to raise awareness about blindness; it'd be about as effective. This is kind of blind and unuseful support for a cause we don't know much about is reminiscent of a classic Office episode. The motivations for such campaigns are suspect, and it's a nice gesture and all, but also a very empty. 

The Reason For Bemorte Report

After the premiere week of The Bemorte Report, we want to focus on the rationale of why the Report is useful and why you should read it.

In most conversations with friends, there is usually one to two things that are discussed that have to do with something new (hence news). With some friends it's a conversation about sports. With others it's about cool gadgets. Music, T.V., and politics; these topics we all have conversations about are fun, important, outrageous, and relevant. And the best topical conversations are almost always about something that is fun to make fun of and relatively short.

The Bemorte Report wants to bring you the best and most interesting of the topics that you'll later turn into those good conversations you have with your friends. Every weekday the Report will give you two to three stories that are short, relevant, and a little bit funny. On the weekend, the Report will bring you one to three features, where we will examine a particular topic in more depth.

In a world where most news sources are way too long or way too dry or just not very interesting, we at the Bemorte Report will strive to be short, to the point, down to earth, funny, and relevant to those little conversations you have with your friends.



(P.S. If you like our blog, one of those conversations with your friends should be about how awesome our blog is and how everyone should check it out.)

Makin Observations: The New Kanye Album is Indie Rap

Whether it's claiming the president hates black people, stealing the mic from Taylor Swift, or saying that he's Jesus, it's pretty easy for Kanye West's personality to overshadow his music (Honestly, it can be exhausting to follow him on Twitter). Which, really, is quite a shame. Love him or hate him, Kanye has been putting out great music since his 2004 debut, "The College Dropout". Finally, with his latest release, "My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy", Kanye has an album that just may be beautifully crazy and catchy enough to make more headlines than his personality. Well, maybe.

"Fantasy" capitalizes where Kanye's previous two albums may have faltered. 2007's "Graduation" was definitely an interesting album, but it struggled to find a nice flow, making it hard to listen to from beginning to end. So how did Kanye respond? Well, he said he'd make an entire album using auto-tune, and yes, he did just that. 2008's "808s and Heartbreak" was a major departure for Kanye, it was less of a hip-hop record and neared the lines of electropop. Albeit a much more cohesive effort, it struggled to have a song with as much punch as something in his previous albums. In "Fantasy", Kanye finds a way to have a cohesive effort with multiple knockout punches along the way. It seems Kanye realized the best way to deliver a knockout is to just embrace his personality a little bit. You would have thought he could have figured out sooner.

In the album's second single, "Runaway", Kanye says "let's give a toast to the douchebags, let's give a toast to the [buttholes]". This, obviously, is a nod towards himself as he debuted the song on the VMA's just a year after his Taylor Swift incident. Pair lines like that up with Napoleon Dynamite references (Seriously.), Niki Minaj sporting an english accent as she reads lines from Cinderella, and 2 songs featuring Bon Iver, an indie folk rock artist with a somewhat cult following and you have an album that is as crazy as Kanye. The content is as crazy as the music is good. Alongside those previously mentioned, Kanye features artists such as Jay-Z, Kid Cudi, and John Legend. The music is innovative, the lyrics have a dark, introspective humor to them, and there are so many moments where you'll find yourself wondering "Where did that come from!?" or "How did he come up with this!?", but you'll keep listening. You'll keep smiling. This is one of the most innovative and satisfying albums you'll ever listen to.

I'm ok with Kanye being the way he is as long as he's putting out music like this. Heck, he can even be crazier if he wants.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-- 

(Jordan Makin is a contributor to Bemorte Report. His regular blog, "Makin UV Better" is linked in the sidebar.)

Tom Cruise, X-Box, and iOS: The Future of Multi-Touch

Multi-touch has changed the way that people have interacted with their phones, tablets, and even computers. Mainstream exposure to multi-touch technology occurred in 2007 when the Apple iPhone gained popularity, with Apple stating they 'invented multi touch' as part of the iPhone announcement. Implementation of multi-touch did indeed come with what would eventually become iOS, but the phrasing and ideology of such technology predate the iPhone.

Since 2007, multi-touch has exploded in popularity and usage. Most smart-phones use the technology. Tablet computers use it almost exclusively, and now the possibilities of multi-touch on tables, remote controllers, and even as a non-tactile touch system are becoming more of a reality.

Earlier in the decade, multi-touch seemed like a futuristic idea--like flying cars, avatars, and hover-boards. The Minority Report was an exciting concept idea of multi-touch could become:


Of course, multi-touch has been on your favorite mobile Apple product for years now. Combined with the explosion of the App Store and multi-touch apps that pretty much everyone has become dependent on, multi-touch has become ingrained into our technology and our lives.

But with the introduction of the new Apple T.V., which allows for devices to stream content to their favorite HD T.V., multi-touch might see an even bigger role in our media lives. Apple T.V. runs a version of iOS, which means it may be able to run apps at some point. But even more exciting is running  apps on your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch and streaming it to your T.V., still using your device as input, but seeing the app on big High Definition goodness:


But with the future upon us, multi-touch has evolved even more. Now multi-touch can be used without the touch part. (Do you just call that 'Multi'?). With the new Kinect from X-Box, gaming without a controller allows for a camera to sense what motions you perform and then interprets them into input. As the commercial and X-box fanboys say, "You are the controller."

While the idea of gaming with such a device seems novel and fun, the application of this kind of cheap technology is probably more relevant to uses outside the gaming community. With some modifications, Kinect can be used for other computing uses. Watch someone surf the web using the Kinect's multi-touch technology:


Someday the future will look something like this (according to some firmware designers over at RIM):


Even with all of this awesomeness, I still want one of those Minority Report glass stations. Maybe the Church of Scientology has an extra I could borrow?

New Chill Christmas Music

Some popular names in the music world have released Christmas singles to raise money for charity. Coldplay and The Killers have released their own respective Christmas singles a couple of days ago.

"Christmas Lights" is a romantic anthem that Coldplay in known for, with an added spirited Christmas chorus that seperates the song as a Holiday tune. A music video for the song was released with the single. Click here to buy the song on iTunes.



The Killers "Boots" is a Western Rock homage to "It's a Beautiful Life" and plays to the Killers strengths of rich lyrical support for a mild rock song. A video for "Boots" was also released with the single. You can download the song here.



On a much less heterosexual note, Glee has released their Christmas Album ahead of their Christmas episode next week. It's a pretty Glee sounding album with some Christmas favorites. Remember, straight guys can like Glee--Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart said so. Download the album here.

WikiLeaks to "Legalize the Constitution", per-say.

Most Republicans are calling for the prosecution of WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange after the WikiLeaks founder's latest string of leaked documents (which details pretty much every U.S. position on diplomatic relations with big name countries around the world). Mike Huckabee has even called for his trial and execution. But there is one major Republican name that is standing up for the rights of the WikiLeaks founder: Former presidential candidate and Texas congressional representative Ron Paul.

“In a free society we're supposed to know the truth,” Paul said. “In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble. This whole notion that Assange, who's an Australian by the way, that we want to prosecute him for treason in our country. I mean, aren't they jumping to a wild conclusion?” he added. “This is media, isn't it? I mean, why don't we prosecute The New York Times or anybody that releases this?"

WikiLeaks and libertarian conservatives are strange bedfellows in this political climate. Ron Paul is a noted Constitutionalist and decorated fringe crazy person. His catch phrase, "Ron Paul Revolution: Legalize the Constitution" has been attributed to the beginning of the Tea Party movement. His support for WikiLeaks flies in the face of most mainstream opinion, which is pretty typical for most his positions.

Mr. Paul, WikiLeaks called, they said people already think they are crazy enough without your endorsement. I mean, what's next, Dennis Kucinich rallies support for Sarah Palin's Alaska? Strange Bedfellows these days indeed. 

Making Utah Valley Better: Social Media Revolution

85 percent of people have a preferred source for social media where you spend 90 percent of your time online. Research shows people choose facebook, twitter, or blogging as their single expression and networking tool. But, local social media buff Jordan Makin uses all three in different ways and has gained quite a following.

He has made several top 100 twitter lists for his use of humor and popular topics. His facebook comments light up seconds after he updates. His blog has spread by word of mouth and has a cult following. His twitter updates to facebook. His blog is promoted on twitter and facebook. But what's amazing is he has been on these social outlets for less than 3 months.

Research has also shown that people who spend a moderate amount of time on facebook and twitter are shown to have more social skills and more real friends. If you want to be connected to a rising social star in Utah Valley, gain more friends, and laugh pretty hard; check out Jordan Makin's MakinUVbetter blog and twitter updates. He just might be the one cool thing about Happy Valley.

(Full disclosure: We happen to be friends who are shamelessly cross-promoting our blogs. But serious, you won't regret checking this out.)

CleverBot: Your new Best Friend

A new program called cleverbot introduces a AI system that formulates all it's conversations it has with all of it's users, which results in a conversation with you. The program is able to hold it's own in a abrupt, sometimes hilariously mean back and forth.

You can ask it questions, insult it, and even have harry potter duels (just type in your favorite Harry Potter spell). Sometimes the responses are a little off, but mostly the responses are clever. If you say, for example, "Guess what?" it will respond with, "you just saved a bunch of money on your car insurance?". The service is free and you can find it here.

So if you are low on friends and just plain bored with facebook chat, go over to the site or download the iphone app to begin bantering with an unreal computer program.

New Life Form Discovered

Later today, NASA will announce that it has discovered a new life form outside of anything ever seen before. But the alien life wasn't found in some awesome obscure part of the galaxy. An Arsenic based bacteria was discovered at a lake in California by NASA, and it doesn't share any of the basic building blocks that all other life in the universe has.

With the Obama administration cutting funding for space exploration and re-purposing NASA for "Muslim Outreach", it's not surprising that NASA found this discovery in the poisonous Mono Lake, California. One wonders if one of the bored technicians just started using the labs to look at stuff they found in their backyard.

NASA will hold a press conference at 2PM today to hash out the details of the find. Until then, everyone feel free to realize this is the plot of the 1990's movie flop, "Evolotion"

BYU to get Mobile Apps and Website

Brigham Young University plans on releasing an official mobile application for iPhone and other smart-phones. The apps are said to have some of the student functionalities of the BYU homepage.

Right now, iPhone and other smartphone users cannot access BYU's site or BYU blackboard mobile because the university has not allowed for these sites to be mobile compatible. No plans for enabling blackboard mobile have been made by BYU.

The official website of the school has no working mobile version at the moment, thus accessing it from a smartphone will only show the full version of the site. BYU's Web Team is now preparing to take the BYU website into a mobile compatibility mode, with most important functions of the website easily accessible on mobile devices.

The apps and mobile version of the site, are a welcome addition from the BYU Web Team. Notable BYU developers have won awards at the BYU iPhone App Competition for other apps they have designed for the iPhone, including: Awesome Ball, Would You Rather, and GreenWars among others. Hopefully this success will carry over to BYU's official iphone apps.

This will mark the first time a official BYU app will be released by the school. Look for the apps and mobile site to go live in the next couple of months.