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$99 malware

Once again The Know brings attention to a new story in the tech industry. Recently a content developer for Microsoft Flight Simulator X launched a new model of plane available for purchase at a price of $99. What is interesting is that when the new plane model is installed another program that searches the computer for user passwords is also installed. The developer claims that the program was only sniffing for players that had pirated the game so the developer could press charges.

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The Know does a good job in their video explaining both sides of the story, the redditor that found the program and the content developer’s response to the accusation. The Know also weaves in some comedy to make the story entertaining. Finally The Know clearly explains the facts of the story so personal opinions can be formed.

Net neutrality lede

An article I found recently, while from a… questionable source, actually had a pretty decent lede. It answers the who, what, when, and how. It leaves out the where and why because the where is irrelevant (it’s the whole internet) and the why is a much longer story than the lede can provide.

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I think this is a good lede because it is only two sentences on four lines, but you get the main point of net neutrality getting repealed soon. Now this isn’t a perfect lede, in fact I would say that it is rather far from one. The lede implies, at least to me, that ISPs and cable companies are malicious and instinctively going to take advantage of the situation, which is not completely true. At least they get the important information right.

How ledes can capture your attention

Today, I clicked on the news tab on Google and was looking at the headlines. One headline caught my eye. It was U.S teenager jailed for smuggling tiger across Mexico border. The headline made me curious about what happened, so I clicked the article and read it.

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The lede from the article is “A US teenager has been sentenced to six months in prison after he was found guilty of trying to smuggle a Bengal tiger cub across the US-Mexico border. The six-week-old cub was found in a box on the floor of the teenager’s car as he was crossing from Mexico into the US near the city of San Diego.”

The lede does capture the 5 W’s and H.

Who: A U.S teenager

What: Sentenced to six months in prison

Where: U.S and Mexico

When: After smuggling a Bengal tiger

Why: Smuggling a Bengal tiger

How: The teenager’s car

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The images the article included were pictures of the tiger. The story happened in August 2017, but the sentencing happened today. There’s a link to the original article and other related links about the smuggling of exotic animals.

When googling the headline, there are other links from various media outlets that covered the same story. The image that shows up is the picture of the Bengal tiger that was taken in 2017.

Gun ownership and gun homicide interactive map

During my Public Health course, my professor wanted to talk about the recent school shooting in Florida. She wanted us to me informed about the importance of knowing the dangers of guns and talk about ideas to stop what’s happening. She shared a lot of data charts and articles and I managed to find a few of them.

Gun Violence Archive

Mass shooting: How U.S gun culture compares with the rest of the world

Gun Policy

10 Pro – Gun Myths, Shot Down

Trump Signs Bill Revoking Obama-Era Gun Checks for People with Mental Illnesses

Gun Violence by The Numbers

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When finding these sites, I found an interactive map that shows the gun ownership and gun homicides of the world. You can click on any country and it will give you the rank of the country of ownership of guns and the number of homicides in the past year. You can also look at homicide by firearm per every 100,000 population and percent of homicide by firearm.

Out of the whole world, the U.S is ranked 1st in civilian gun ownership that averages 70 – 100 firearms per 100 people.

They also have a link to a Google fusion table that shows all the countries and the statistics of each of them.

What makes a good lead

A good lead has to be informative, where it has to explain the what, when, where, why, who, and how of the story. Also, a good lead has to have a good headline that draws the reader and gives information on what the story will be about.

The KFC Has a Problem in Britain: Not Enough Chicken article in the New York Times is a good example of what a good lead looks like. The 5 W’s and H were answered in the lead of the story. The lead of the KFC Has a Problem in Britain: Not Enough Chicken article had a good headline, where I was drawn into the topic just by reading the first two sentences in the article. The lead of the KFC Has a Problem in Britain: Not Enough Chicken article summarized the main idea in the whole story. As a reader, I was able to know what the article was going to be about just by reading the lead of the article.

The KFC Has a Problem in Britain: Not Enough Chicken article is a well-written article because it had a good lead, and it included a picture, resources, and links to support the information presented in the article. The provided resources in the article gave it more credibility to its readers.

I googled the headline of the KFC Has a Problem in Britain: Not Enough Chicken article, and the first option in the google search was the actual article in the New York Times website. The second option in the search was a YouTube video from the CBRT news that is talking about the same story. However, there were no images shown in the google search, and I had to go to google images to see the image that was in the New York Times post as the first image.

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