True Grit was actually wearing Walter Sondheim’s helmet.

Tonight is OMN’s Best Original Competition! Come out to the Sportszone at 7:30p to sign up! Starts at 8! (Because what else is there to do on Thursdays? No, don’t say Fishbowl.) Regular OMN begins after the competition!

I do believe there’s a prize, but don’t quote me on that one.

This past Saturday, we filmed and judged UMBC’s first Iron Chef competition! Join (seb) and the teams this upcoming Saturday, March 10th, while we watch the edited footage and see who wins! We’ll have a light dinner of sandwiches, chips, and cookies! 

Get to know the teams, and vote for who you think will win!

Tim Sparklin, Compliance Officer  from the Office of Research Protections and Compliance has been elected President-elect of the Northeast section of the Society of Research Administrators (SRA).

Courtesy of brutallyhonest.org

Green Day’s hit song “American Idiot” makes a powerful (and catchy!) statement about how ignorance and fear really can make a person…well, a bit of an idiot.

Television network TLC seemed to get the message Green Day was trying to get across, and it tried to share it with other Americans through the reality show All-American Muslim.

The show offered a glimpse into the everyday lives of Muslim-American families. And as it turns out, they really aren’t very different from most other typical American families.

Yet oddly enough, this aspect of the show seems to be what upset some people the most.

“All-American Muslim”  didn’t last all that long–one season, to be exact. But in that brief span of time, the show stirred up quite a bit of  controversy, particularly from the religiously-affiliated Florida Family Association (FFA), which was adamantly opposed to the dangerously inoffensive nature of show.

The Christian organization led an email campaign to encourage sponsors of the show to boycott it. Lowes was one of the major advertisers that caved to the pressure, withdrawing its sponsorship of the show.

According to the FFA’s website, the television program:

“profiled only Muslims that appeared to be ordinary folks while excluding many Islamic believers whose agenda poses a clear and present danger to liberties and traditional values that the majority of Americans cherish.”

Since the FFA has yet to make a similar argument for shows like Jersey Shore or The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which profile Americans that appear to be superficial and dim-witted folks, it appears that the FFA simply isn’t a big fan of relatively mild-mannered human beings.

Why exactly “All-American Muslim” has been cancelled has not been formally revealed. Some speculate that the culprit was low ratings. But this, according to one cast member, seems unlikely since a number of other shows on TLC reflect similar ratings numbers.

Whatever the reason for the cancellation may be, it seems that some Americans just feel a bit more at home watching reality TV centered on all-American idiots, rather than “All-American Muslims.”

Video Courtesy of STOP KONY 2012!!

A controversial new campaign has spread like wildfire online with more than 21 million views on YouTube in 3 days.

What is it?

An American Charity organization called Invisible Children has created a 28-minute film about warlord Joseph Kony, leader of the guerilla group the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). Kony’s army purportedly murders, mutilates and abducts children, forcing 60,000 Ugandan youth to become a part of his renegade army. He continues these acts in other parts of Africa as well.

THE GOAL

In October 2011, President Obama authorized the deployment of 100 U.S. Army advisors to help the Ugandan military track down Kony, with no results disclosed to date. The goal is to make sure that President Obama doesn’t withdraw the advisors he deployed until Kony is captured or killed.

With high quality production, this film and campaign has taken over all major social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Tumblr. By raising awareness about the warlord Kony, the campaign aspires to have him captured by December 31, 2012. To spread even MORE awareness, on April 20, 2012, they will ‘Cover the Night’ putting up hundreds of thousands of posters overnight.

BUT !!

Just as the popularity of this social media campaign has spread, so has its criticisms. Some suggest the campaign, which seems to target college students, failed to criticize the Ugandan government’s role in the story. Others question the funding of the charirty behind the campaign.

Is Joesph Kony still in Uganda?

Not according to Micheal Wilkerson a freelance journalist and Ph.D. who has lived and reported from Uganda. According to him,

Joseph Kony is not in Uganda and hasn’t been for 6 years; 2) the LRA now numbers at most in the hundreds, and while it is still causing immense suffering, it is unclear how millions of well-meaning but misinformed people are going to help deal with the more complicated reality.

Invisible Children has responded to these allegations with a breakdown on there organization (even with a cool chart) here stating:

Let’s focus on what matters, and what we DO agree on: Joseph Kony needs to be stopped. And when that happens, peace is the limit. This is the beautiful beginning of an ending that is just the beginning. We are defending tomorrow. And it’s hopeful.

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS???

Here are just a few tweets About KONY Campaign from Celebs

Twitter / @Stop_2012_Kony: Every RETWEET AND FOLLOW P … via kwout

Twitter / @iamdiddy: Dear Joseph Kony, I’m Go … via kwout

Twitter / @rihanna: #KONY2012 Spread the word! … via kwout

Links to Pages Related:

http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-goodson/stop-kony-2012-a-movement_b_1326005.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/invisible-childrens-stop-kony-campaign/2012/03/07/gIQA7B31wR_blog.html