Nintendo DS or Play Station Portable?

Doing my part to turn this world around from the inside out, in the belly of the American beast better known as NYC, Aaron Howell and myself are teaching journalism in an after school program with Citizen Schools at M.S. 45 Stars Prep Academy in E. Harlem. With any luck, these kids will be penning articles like these in the near future. Please save your applause and trade it in for money_to_put_where_your_mouth_is in NASDAQ Over The Counter Market Swaps for Citizen Responsibility. Those swaps are the cheapest derivatives on the market right now, and pay the largest dividend.

Best Video Game System
By Kareem Tucker, 11 Years Old, Student at M.S. 45 Stars Prep Academy.

Two portable video game consoles, the PlayStation Portable, and Nintendo DS, are vying for the top slot among the youth market. I set out to discover who among my peers prefer what console, and why.

Polo Fernandez, 11, a student at M.S. 45 Stars Prep Academy in on 120th st in East Harlem, in response to a query on the topic, said, "I think PSP is better because it has better things like music. You can not hear music on the DS."

I also conducted an informal poll of 12 students, which resulted in an even split of fans between both consoles, with each receiving six votes.
The specs on each console vary, and some important ones are listed below.

PlayStation Portable
1). One Screen
2). Weight: 9.2 oz.
3). Gigabytes: 32 MB Ram
4). Price: $169.00 - 199.00 (Amazon.com)

Nintendo DS
1). Two Screens
2). Weight: 9.7 oz.
3). Gigabytes: 8 KB Ram
4). Price: $255.00 (Amazon.cm)

In conclusion, people should buy the DS because of it's graphics, it has great virtual games that children, teens, and even adults would like to play. Every time people come home they could relax and play the DS. It also has realistic features and better colors. That is why the DS is so popular.

8 Children From MS 45 In East Harlem Offer The News That is Important To The Community They Live In.

At the invitation of a friend, I joined him as a volunteer at Citizen Schools* this year, at MS 45 S.T.A.R.S. Prep Academy in East Harlem to be a Citizen Teacher in an after school program. Our apprenticeship aspires to teach the students about journalism, blogging, (digital publishing via twitter, flickr, etc...) community news, and photography. The culmination will be the printing of a newspaper that consists solely of stories and photographs the children will choose, doing their own research, talking with relevant parties, documenting, and writing.

We've been working with the kids for three weeks now, and last week asked them to jot down story ideas or news "that are not, but should be news in your community" with them making their own decisions about what they feel should be news.

These are the stories that 8 children who attend MS 45 S.T.A.R.S. Prep Academy in East Harlem chose, many of whom live in the immediate neighborhood. One child lives in the Bronx.

• a car accident that took place btw 108th and 109th last week, when a car turned onto 110th, hit one car, and that car hit another.
• Me and my brother were walking down the street and we saw a gang and one of the gang members screamed at my brother. The gang member was drunk and my brother didn't pay him no mind because my brother already beat him up
• More After School Programs in the school. Who chooses them? How many are there?
  
• All the new stores opening up in the neighborhood
• gangs killing each other
• people who spit all over the ground
• a building that was demolished 2 years ago is still an empty lot, and people used to live there and where did they all go and why did they demolish the building if they were not going to build a new one.
  
• P.S. 101 got changed to P.S. 375 Mosaic Prep Academy, why?
• Old men who play dominos in competition, do they play for fun or money and why?
  
• A new pizza shop opened
• A new corner store opened
• A person moved into my building and we became best friends
• A gang killed someone on my block
• A girl walked out of the deli and the deli guy came out after her and grabbed her bag and asked her if she paid for that sandwich and she was like, yes. But I don't really think she paid for the sandwich

This is the newspaper the kids are going to publish. MS 45 Stars Prep News Journal. It's gonna be good, as you can tell.

*Started in Boston in 1995, Citizen Schools has recently begun their first year of programming into NYC, with four participating schools, two in East Harlem, and two in Brooklyn. Citizen Schools is an organization that operates apprenticeship programs for middle schools students that take place over a period of 11 weeks. The programs are run by volunteers who work with a group of students to create, execute, and produce a final product, what Citizen Schools calls the WOW, which will be presented to the community at the end of the apprenticeship. The best apprenticeships address a problem, and has community value such as creating a cleaner neighborhood park, addressing violence in school, etc.

The apprenticeships are intended to be taught in a way that allows the student to be an active participant in the learning process, making some of the key decisions, and empowering the students to be invested in the outcome. You can sign up here.

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Breaking News: NYU's Rountable, "The First Amendment, Freedom of the Press, and the Future of Journalism" Turns Into A Spectacle, Twittered Of Course

Dan Rather and others were at at NYU tonight for a roundtable, “The First Amendment, Freedom of the Press, and the Future of Journalism” an event which promptly turned into a discussion of free press, conspiracy theories, and 9-11. Attendees present using Twitter were letting some juicy news slip, such as one noting that the first question asked was "whether [Dan] Rather believes World Trade Center was taken down by bombs inside." Though another Twitter reported the question as more pointed, specifically directed at comments made by Rather during 9-11... "dude at a news media panel with Dan Rather confronted Dan about his comments concerning bombs under towers of World Trade Center. Dan seem bemused but said that he didn't state a fact just stated what he thought it looked like."

This is going to turn into a YouTube situation tomorrow.

Another attendee asked about the Bilderberg, and if the media would start covering the group, which I'm sure they will do as soon as, um, never. The Bilderberg Group of course being the precursor to the Trilateral Commission, where all that world domination, creepy corporatism, raping of the earth and our minds stuff actually takes place. (haha, yah delve into that, I dare you, shit is mad creepy!!)

Anyways..it appears Dan Rather just read Manufacturing Consent, and warned that "corporate ownership of media is troublesome. Big companies have regulatory needs and strike deals with Washington. Be skeptical." He should have said that on air some night back at CBS, now that would have been journalistic!

The most prescient comment of the night? Via Twitter obvs... "national press club centennial forum at nyu journalism institute. dan rather on panel. 2 minutes in and already a mention of twitter. " Tee hee.

Aaron Howell, a grad student at NYU's school of journalism is also at the event, and he reports on the confrontation between the people asking tough questions, and "NYU's facility guy" whose had just about enough of that. Aaron wrote twitted,

"It gets better so the two conspiracy guys brought cameras and followed the people on the panel out. The panel had a NY Times and AP person. The conspiracy people followed the NY Times person to continue asking her about the Bildenberg group. A NYU building facility guy got mad at the conspiracy guys for harassing the NY Times person so he spit in the dudes face/slapped his camera. Facility guy violated the poor conspiracy theorists I think NYU might be in trouble for that one."

Haha! Those conspiracy buffs aren't the brightest bulbs, but they sure do ask great questions. The patients have taken over the ward. Can't wait to see the YouTube video.

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