Wednesday, May 20, 2015

Predicting Season 31 Second Chance Cast

Following the conclusion of Season 30's live reunion, Season 31 Second Chance cast will be announced. The potentials for next season encompass all returnees from Survivor's classic seasons to modern seasons. For the past two weeks, I have been voting online for castaways who I think should play in Season 31. Below are the ten men and ten women voted by yours truly to play, hopefully.

10 Men for Season 31: Second Chance

  • Jim Rice
  • Keith Nale
  • Shane Powers
  • Stephen Fishbach
  • Jeff Varner
  • Spencer Bledsoe
  • Troyzan Robertson
  • Terry Deitz
  • Andrew Savage
  • Vtas Baskauskas

10 Women for Season 31: Second Chance

  • Kass McQuillen
  • Monica Padilla
  • Natalie Tenerelli
  • Sabrina Thompson
  • Tasha Fox
  • Teresa T-bird Cooper
  • Kelley Wentworth
  • Kelly Wigglesworth
  • Kimmi Kappenberg

From these ten men and ten women, my favorites to win are Kass McQuillen and Spencer Bledsoe due to their blossoming rivalry dating back to Season 28 Cagayan. Either way, this season should be not only entertaining, but also intriguing to watch for many reasons.

--Corey

Prediction for Survivor 30 Winner

Once again, another season of Survivor is drawing to a conclusion. So, a final prediction is well in order for predicting who will become the Sole Survivor for Season 30 Worlds Apart. Last year, I correctly predicted that Natalie Anderson would win due to her actions taken during Season 29 along with her game play at the end. With that mind, here is my prediction for Season 30.

With just five castaways left, the obvious two choices, Mike and Carolyn, are the favorites to win. They have both won the majority of the immunity and reward challenges after the merge. However, each must win the final two immunity challenges in order to have a change to make it to the Final Tribal since they are the strongest players left at this point. This means if either Mike or Carolyn lose one of the final challenges, he or she will be voted out. In contrast, Will and Sierra are the weakest of the five remaining players. This would mean that they are not pressured to win, but in effect, able to lose both challenges and still make the Final Tribal Council due to their weaker game play, physical and strategic. Will and Sierra are most likely to be taken to the final three by either Mike and Carolyn which would make one of the stronger players, again, the winner and sole survivor. Will and Sierra may receive a vote or two for their efforts, but, in the end, it won't matter for either one of them.

Then, there is Rodney. The guy who has been imprisoned, or so to say, at camp escameca for the entire season. Besides winning a steak at the auction, Rodney has endured a unique journey when compared to the others this season, mentally and physically. He has not won any reward challenges nor taken part in any of them. A common visual of Rodney is his presence sitting in one of the camp chairs staring at the fire or eating a small portion of rice. His sitting at camp metaphorically represents his sitting on the sidelines of a basketball game or on a football field. This metaphor was developed earlier in the season by Rodney who suggested he was similar to the great Michael Jordan and Tom Brady for describing his game play. While attempting to vote out his number one nemesis Mike, Rodney has formed sub-alliances only to be denied by Mike winning immunity challenges. From the above statements and story line, my prediction is that Rodney will overcome Mike and then Carolyn for going on to win Sole Survivor this season. Rodney only needs to win one immunity challenge, the last one, to defeat either Carolyn or Mike, to go on to plead his underdog case in front of the jury. Undeniably, he receives more votes than Sierra and Will who receive, second and third places, respectively. Boston Rod's win solidifies his sports metaphors dictated earlier, his white air jordans worn, and his place among the other twenty-eight sole survivor winners as he becomes the twenty-ninth winner.

--Corey

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

The Problem with Online Content Regurgitation

As of late, I recently became aware of a problem with online content and how it potentially affects the Web. It seems that there are two types of content published: 1) the original or primary source and 2) a copy or slightly varied version of the primary content referencing the primary content source. For example, an organization may publish a press release to its website describing a new product or service. A blogger may pickup the news of the new product or service and post a blog on his or her website describing the new product or service and perhaps linking to the original source.

The problem is that the secondary publishers of original content are simply regurgitating the original content in an attempt to, perhaps, increase user viewership of their websites from additional content or to display more web ads on the same web page of the secondary content. For instance, when reading my daily subreddits on reddit.com today, I noticed a link to the new features for Google Fit, a tool for recording human fitness and performance metrics. However, instead of posting the original content to the subreddit, a secondary article describing the original or primary content was posted for users to read. However, this secondary, published content simply regurgitated the primary source's content. It lacked additional insight regarding the new features for Google Fit which can be considered online content regurgitation.

Here are the actual links posted today:

Primary Source Link by Google: Google Fit: Make every step count

Secondary Source Link by Android Police: Google Fit v1.52 Brings Distance Tracking, Calorie Estimates, A New Widget, And A Watch Face

As one can see, the secondary source clearly regurgitates the primary source's content while providing latest deals links and other distracting content surrounding the content. A possible solution to this problem may be the inclusion of a primary source link directly referencing the original source of content by the primary provider. This primary source link could be located with a neutral, third-party website listing primary source links and secondary source links. A possible model for following and improving at the same time is the permalink model which helps avoids link rot. Unfortunately, permalink does not resolve the issue of primary source regurgitation by secondary source publishers. Perhaps, a new project undertaking is on the horizon.

--Corey