One of my students posted this on her blog... she'll be presenting it tonight in class.  I'm looking forward to it!  Here's a parody, by Meagan Gemperlein

At the beginning of the semester, I had blogged about hating blogging, but really in the end it wasn't that terrible. I came to see how it can be useful in a classroom setting and help promote classroom discussion. So the song parody is a realization that blogging can only help you understand something and not hurt you.

BLOGGING IN THE USA

A Song Parody of "Party in the USA" sung by Miley Cyrus

I started reading Huck Finn mid October with a hope to understand the text

But then who's this dude who's talking weird

Woah, gotta be a dialect

Figured out it's Huck an he's the main character

The book's his adventure down the Mississippi River

But this is all so crazy

Cause I can't understand a word he's saying

My head is hurting and I'm feeling really confused

Too much reading and I'm uptight

That's when I mark the page and just move on

I'll just blog it later on, I'll just blog it later on, I'll just blog it late on

CHORUS:

So I sign on to my blog and I write my thoughts away

My classmate comment like yeah

And I get new ideas like yeah

So I sign on to my blog

Now I'll write a thesis that will be OK

Yeah, I'm just blogging in the USA (more)

Wired gives Star Wars a good drubbing, focusing on the ending:

There are somewhere between 20 and 30 one-man fighters in the assault, right? And of all of those guys, only Luke, Wedge and some guy in a Y-wing make it back (and Han and Chewie, of course, but they weren't part of the original team). So that means that in this fight, despite its amazing success, the rebels lost somewhere between 17 and 27 of their very best, bravest pilots. Yet all they can do is cheer as Luke descends the ladder of his X-wing. Luke cheers, too, hugs Leia, and is absolutely ecstatic ... until he realizes that R2-D2 got badly damaged in the fight, at which point he is nearly distraught. Losing fellow human beings, including a good friend of his, that doesn't matter; possibly losing a cute but replaceable machine, now that's sad. --GeekDad

Avi sez, "'Mickey Mouse in Gurs' is a tragic 'comic' book made by Horst Rosenthal in 1942 while incarcerated at the Gurs internment camp in France. Rosenthal uses Mickey Mouse as a kind of subversive Virgil to guide us through the hellish experiences of the concentration camp. Horst Rosenthal was murdered in Auschwitz in 1942." --BoingBoing

In several of my classes this week, I asked the students to estimate how many children had been poisoned by Halloween candy in the last 20 years.  Guesses ranged from one per year to one, but nobody guessed zero.

No child has been poisoned by a stranger's goodies on Halloween, ever, as far as we can determine. Joel Best, a sociology professor at the University of Delaware, studied November newspapers from 1958 to the present, scouring them for any accounts of kids felled by felonious candy. And...he didn't find any. He did find one account of a boy poisoned by a Pixie Stix his father gave him. Dad did it for the insurance money and, Best says, he probably figured that so many kids are poisoned on Halloween, no one would notice one more.

Well, they did and dad was executed. That's Texas for you. Another boy died after he got into his uncle's heroin stash and relatives tried to make it look like he'd been killed by candy. And that's it.

Now look at how the fear that our nice, normal-seeming neighbors might actually be moppet-murdering psychopaths has turned the one kiddie independence day of the year into yet another excuse to micromanage childhood. --Lenore Skenazy, Huffington Post

Razor blades in apples! Poison in home-made cookies! Hospitals offer to X-ray your candy for you (while passing out brochures featuring smiling doctors in front of gleaming new equipment). In 2003, The Onion memorably spoofed the Halloween candy fear in "Generic Candy Corn Will Give You AIDS."

Movie critics are sometimes asked why all movies cost the same to view, even though some may have cost $100 million to make, and others $500,000. It's a reasonable question. I suppose the reasoning is that you get about two hours of movie either way. Now 3-D has provided exhibitors with a subterfuge to force consumers to subsidise their upgraded projection facilities -- which is deceptive, because most theatres are upgrading to digital projectors anyway. This could be called the 3-D children's tax.

Do kids really care? --Roger Ebert, Spectator

A fascinating twist to the complex story behind the legal battle behind the iconic Obama "HOPE" poster.

New filings to the court, he said, "state for the record that the AP is correct about which photo I used...and that I was mistaken. While I initially believed that the photo I referenced was a different one, I discovered early on in the case that I was wrong. In an attempt to conceal my mistake I submitted false images and deleted other images." 

In February, the AP claimed that Fairey violated copyright laws when he used one of their images as the basis for the poster.  In response, the artist filed a lawsuit against the AP, claiming that he was protected under fair use. Fairey also claimed that he used a different photo as the inspiration for his poster.

After Fairey's admission, a spokesman for the Associated Press issued a statement saying that Fairey "sued the AP under false pretenses by lying about which AP photograph he used."

Fairey said that his lawyers have taken the steps to amend his court pleadings to reflect the fact that "the AP is correct about which photo I used as a reference and that I was mistaken." --Los Angeles Times

In the figure of the coltish, resolute Sigourney Weaver, Alien may just be the film that overhauled the old, unreconstructed horror genre and dared to put a woman centre-stage. Because make no mistake: a horror movie is what Alien is. "It's basically a haunted house film," explains the critic David Thomson. "The only difference is that the old dark house just happens to be a spaceship." --Xan Brooks, Guardian

Alien came out thirty years ago.  Thirty years ago!

I would have just turned 11.  I remember reading all about the movie in Starlog (a science fiction magazine my sister and I read from about issue #6 or #7, and we later ordered back issues so we had the complete set), and I remember seeing advertisements for Alien-themed toys, but I wondered who would want them... I'm sure I saw an edited version of the movie on TV, or maybe I rented the video, but I really wasn't into horror. 

The sequel, Aliens, came out when I was a teenager, and was a big hit with my peer group. It made me re-watch the first film, and I appreciated it more. 

I did watch the third film once, but I settled for reading an online version of the script for the fourth movie.

But honestly... thirty years?

Walkthrough

pifie Errol

All kinds of awesome metatronics going on here.

Videogames may be economically formidable, but they remain a byword for crass, shallow thrills. A game, it's understood, can look spectacular, but it will have little to offer its audience in the way of values, insights or craftsmanship. It's a curious and increasingly untenable situation, given that, to the increasingly large percentage of the population who play them, games are rapidly establishing themselves as the single most exciting and vigorous creative industry around: a sector able to boast not only booming revenues and growing audiences, but a melting pot of talents and new ideas that is increasingly attracting some of the biggest-hitting figures in film, television and the other arts. --Tom Chatfield, Guardian

Interview with Stan Lee (comic guru, creator of Spider-Man)

If you were starting out now, do you think you would have started out in games rather than comics?
If I were young now and I wanted to do stories, I would very much want to get into the videogame business because it's the most exciting. Videogames and movies are the most exciting forms of entertainment. But a videogame in a way is more imaginative, it has more variety. In a movie you stick to the plotline, in a videogame you go in a million different directions. I have no idea how they're able to do that. It's like a miracle.

What advice would you give to a newcomer?
Well it's like anything else, if he or she wants to be a writer they should first study writing. Don't study comic writing, study writing - read literature, read the best writers you can find. Learn the language, learn how to use it. If you want to be an artist, you've got to study the best artists in the business and try to draw as well as they do. But too many people try to become artists in comics and they're not as good as the ones that are presently drawing the comics. --UK Guardian

Dear MR BAGGINS, Fellow Conspirator,

I am Thorin Oakenshield, descendant of Thrain the Old and grandson of Thror who was King under the Mountain. I am writing you to discuss our plans, our ways, means, policy and devices for rescuing our treasure from the dragon Smaug. -- Stephen Granade riffs on the Nigerian e-mail scam (see 419 Eater).

Okay, this is my one frivolity before diving into my hell Monday (featuring an unbroken stretch of three back-to-back classes and a committee meeting):

According to a Natural Resources Defense Council survey, 78 percent of sinister one-eyed industrialists based in the Arctic have been forced to relocate their powerful underworld shadow governments, with many now secretly orchestrating world affairs from dormant volcanoes on remote islands. --The Onion

Clever DVD Verdict review (written by recent SHU graduate Mike Rubino)

DM: You pick up Dungeons & Dragons: The Animated Series, and find that it is lighter than expected. Your nostalgia level receives a +5 for the next nine hours and 54 minutes.

(Thanks for the link, Josh.)

In 1970, the gap between shows featuring magic and shows featuring more science-based themes is fairly wide, which may be related to the relative cost of producing the different types of shows; Captain Kirk required pricey sets and a makeup crew while Samantha Stevens just needed a film editor and the ability to wiggle her nose. But as audience expectations for shows involving magic become analogous to their expectations for science fiction shows, magic's peaks and valleys start to correspond to those of other themes, though supernatural shows may be a bit more resilient to overall drops in television spending. --i09.com

Is your Spidey-sense tingling?

Disney will take over ownership of 5,000 Marvel characters, such as Spider-Man and the X-Men.--BBC

Dude! Your shirt looks just like the blue walkway and the brown sand! How do you do that?

From the MailOnline, via.

Tonight on Channel 4 Action News at 11, Seton Hill University students reflecting on what they learned by watching a half hour of local Channel 4 Action TV News.  We go now to Channel 4 Action News at 11 reporter Dennis Jerz, with this live Channel 4 Action News at 11 report.

I had my news writing students watch the local "Channel 4 Action News" last night.

My sympathies to nearby Carnegie-Mellon U, which is dealing with the aftermath of yesterday's student suicide.

The news report positioned the CMU story as the central piece, first noting that Channel 4 doesn't usually cover suicides, but then proceeding to just that. The reporter, live on the scene hours after the suicide was reported, had to report that the university had no comment, and filled up her time by summarizing general info that anyone could have found on the school website.

The closest thing to an eyewitness report was a guy who said he saw some stairwells roped off, though later that same fellow stopped himself just before he admitted that he could understand a student wanting to commit suicide at a more stressful time of year.  

I was most stunned when the reporter transitioned back to her live presence on campus by saying, "Slowly the news spreading."   (I just checked the audio recording I made... there was no "is" in her statement.)

News of a campus suicide is spreading slowly, she says, while reporting live from that campus... so presumably she's speaking about the spread of news on that campus.

Spreading slowly? That's hard to believe. Unless, of course, the CMU community is an internet-free, anti-internet, no-word-of-mouth zone.

Last term, when an off-campus shooting led to the death of a Seton Hill student, news spread very quickly indeed.

Today, I was careful to explain that TV news was a powerful force that had a tremendous impact on life in the 20th C, noting that in the 50s people were as excited about TV as we are today about the internet.  I have on several occasions admitted to students that, because I am a textual learner, I don't find the TV news very valuable. More often than not, if I hear something of interest on the TV, I will walk away to the computer and look it up for myself online, where I can control how much time I spend on this story.

Cynical as I am about TV, I was nevertheless surprised when I came across the text of this advertisement for a WTAE-TV reporter. The language emphasizes the emotional, ratings-driven nature of television.

Do you have a track record of delivering high-impact, highly promotable pieces? Do you have the skills to plug in to the biggest issues in our viewers' lives and produce and tell that story so that it becomes appointment television? WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh's Hearst Television station, is searching for an experienced and creative reporter for our Call 4 Action franchise. You should have a vision for ambitious special projects stories AND the flexibility and ability to drive "day of" consumer stories and lead story sidebars. If you enterprise stories that have production sizzle and get results, we want to see the proof on tape. You must be able to work weekends, holidays and various shifts as needed, plus hold a valid driver's license.  Motor Vehicle Record check required.

Nothing about fairness, depth, knowledge of the community, or writing ability. Of course, it's a given that good reporters have those skills, so the ad is focusing on what's harder to find in the applicant pool -- the ability to "enterprise stories that have production sizzle."  And clearly, the ad is telling people who don't already understand what those buzzwords mean, and who don't buy into the existential value of such an activity, not to bother applying.

A couple days ago, I posted to Twitter about hearing a strange whining noise, which didn't seem to change in volume when I moved inside or outside. Later I realized it was my voice recorder in my fanny pack. So this story hit home with me.

Ominous Music Heard Throughout U.S. Sends Nation Into Panic

Zombie math. Yay! (PDF. Boo!)

Zombies are a popular figure in pop culture/entertainment and they are usually portrayed as being brought about through an outbreak or epidemic. Consequently, we model a zombie attack, using biological assumptions based on popular zombie movies. We introduce a basic model for zombie infection, determine equilibria and their stability, and illustrate the outcome with numerical solutions. We then refine the model to introduce a latent period of zombification, whereby humans are infected, but not infectious, before becoming undead. We then modify the model to include the effects of possible quarantine or a cure. Finally, we examine the impact of regular, impulsive reductions in the number of zombies and derive conditions under which eradication can occur. We show that only quick, aggressive attacks can stave off the doomsday scenario: the collapse of society as zombies overtake us all. --  Infectious Disease Modelling Research Progress

Mike points out the professor named "Robert Smith?" ("the question mark is part of his surname and not a typographical mistake," according to the BBC).

TV news emphasizes the immediate and the emotional.  This screen shot shows how the NBC news affiliate in Miami allows readers to rate stories by emotions.

Notice that this mechanism does not reward stories for being fair, informative, accurate, or even newsworthy. 

I stumbled across this feature while reading a story about the 11-year-old reporter who got a one-on-one interview with the president. Miami is apparently "bored" with that story, though the city is "laughing" about stories on Cuba running out of toilet paper, an elderly couple starting a fire while doing the nasty in bed (illustrated by the image of a sexy young couple in bed, since apparently no sexy hidden camera footage of the newsmaking and whoopee-making elderly couple was available), and a man who pretended to be disabled so a hired nurse would change his dirty diapers.

I was on the road (and away from a computer) for the past few days, on a little family outing.  My wife brought along a copy of Choose-Your-Own-Adventure #4 that she picked up cheap at a library sale.

The cover of this book, originally published in 1979, features a big-jawed space hero in a suit that sports a familiar color scheme.

Here's how Ebert ended a review he wrote yesterday:

It's said that Richard Harding Davis was dispatched by William Randolph Hearst to cover the Johnstown flood. Here was his lead: "God stood on a mountaintop here and looked at what his waters had wrought." Hearst cabled back: "Forget flood. Interview God."

A wonderful story. Checking out the quote online, I found a blog entry by Dennis G. Jerz of Seton Hill University, reporting that I have related this same story four times in print since 1993, sometimes changing it slightly. Good gravy! My only defense for using it once again is that it's more interesting than anything else I could write about "The Answer Man." -- Roger Ebert

He's talking about "Forget Flood. Review Movies."

It might sound like a logical extension from the likes of Buzz and You Don't Know Jack, but you'll have to believe that this [Xbox Live] game is ringing the death knell for game shows as loudly and vigorously as it possibly can. Why watch a game show, when you can participate? Why shout at the TV, yelling at the idiot answering wrongly, when you can be playing instead? Why watch some person you have no emotional investiture in win a car, when you can win a car? This game expertly positions Microsoft at the forefront of "digital entertainment". -- Chris Lewis, Expressive Intelligence Studio

A bit predictable, but still enjoyable.

I'm always on the lookout  for interesting stories that one can tell with statistics -- and cautionary tales about misusing statistics in order to create news where there isn't any.

Via MetaFilter -- this OK Cupid article breaks down responses to user-generated dating profile questions. Green states were more likely to answer "yes" than the national average (yellow), and red states were more likely to answer "no".  Note that this doesn't even come close to representing a statistical average of the population -- just the answers collected by the OK Cupid dating service.

Would you date someone just for the sex?

data set: 448,000 people answered

The answers to the question about daily showering are also worth a look.

The first few panels of a 12-panel cartoon.

Thanks for the suggestion, Mike.

With the recent release of the new Star Trek, I started to wonder how is this going to affect the kids? Thankfully, mine have heard of and have watched plenty of the original series, so I didn't have to worry about their state of mind. But there are a lot of kids out there who think that this new movie is Star Trek. That it's some flashy action adventure space movie with chiseled young actors and massive special effects. While that's all well and good, since it's a reboot for the purpose of gathering new fans, I think it's important that kids have a sense of history when it comes to things as influential as Star Trek. GeekDad, Wired

My 7-year-old daughter just finished watching a YouTube version of More Tribbles, More Troubles, the 1970s animated return of the Tribbles.

The embedded preview of Evercracked! was very, very slow when I checked it just now, so I haven't watched it, but the UK Guardian article on videogame documentaries also includes some links to existing movies.

The King of Kong: Fistful of Quarters
A fascinating look at the bizarre rivalry between gamers Steve Wiebe and Billy Mitchell as they vie for dominance of Nintendo's Donkey Kong coin-op. Met with huge critical acclaim on its release two years ago.

Chasing Ghosts
Joyfully nostalgic ode to the arcades of the early eighties. Performed well in film festivals in 2007, but is hard to track down now.

8Bit
Described as, "a mélange of a rocumentary, art expose and a culture-critical investigation" this is a more cerebral approach to the subject matter, analysing the impact of game graphics on art and music, with a nod toward the chiptune scene.

Frag
Reasonably recent documentary on professional gaming circuit, considering the dedication of the players but also the corruption, money and drugs seemingly blighting the emerging sport.

I hope soon to see the forthcoming Get Lamp on this list.

If you're a fan of lifehacking, you'll already be familiar with some of these issues. I'm blogging this because it's a good example of doing justice to an opposing view, giving a good presentation of the strongest objections to multitasking. 

If the pundits clogging my RSS reader can be trusted (the ones I check up on occasionally when I don't have any new e-mail), our attention crisis is already chewing its hyperactive way through the very foundations of Western civilization. Google is making us stupid, multitasking is draining our souls, and the "dumbest generation" is leading us into a "dark age" of bookless "power browsing." Adopting the Internet as the hub of our work, play, and commerce has been the intellectual equivalent of adopting corn syrup as the center of our national diet, and we've all become mentally obese. Formerly well-rounded adults are forced to MacGyver worldviews out of telegraphic blog posts, bits of YouTube videos, and the first nine words of Times editorials. Schoolkids spread their attention across 30 different programs at once and interact with each other mainly as sweatless avatars. (One recent study found that American teenagers spend an average of 6.5 hours a day focused on the electronic world, which strikes me as a little low; in South Korea, the most wired nation on earth, young adults have actually died from exhaustion after multiday online-gaming marathons.) We are, in short, terminally distracted. And distracted, the alarmists will remind you, was once a synonym for insane. (Shakespeare: "poverty hath distracted her.")

This doomsaying strikes me as silly for two reasons. First, conservative social critics have been blowing the apocalyptic bugle at every large-scale tech-driven social change since Socrates' famous complaint about the memory-destroying properties of that newfangled technology called "writing." (A complaint we remember, not incidentally, because it was written down.) And, more practically, the virtual horse has already left the digital barn. It's too late to just retreat to a quieter time. Our jobs depend on connectivity. Our pleasure-cycles--no trivial matter--are increasingly tied to it. Information rains down faster and thicker every day, and there are plenty of non-moronic reasons for it to do so. The question, now, is how successfully we can adapt. -- Sam Anderson

This essay clearly identifies a thesis, in the paragraphs I've quoted above. But then it spends a long section arguing precisely the opposite of the thesis.

My freshmen are often so used to getting their academic information through bulleted lists and bold keywords, so that they skim for the main ideas and only read the connecting text if they can't instantly get the gist of the page.  But the traditional essay requires readers to pay attention to a chain of ideas, leading from an opening question, through all the potential objections, to a conclsuion. Students who aren't familiar with this structure will often quote from the "con" part of an essay, mistakenly attributing to author A an idea that author A has cited only in order to tear it town.

I remember, as a high school sophomore, that some of my classmates were horrified by "A Modest Proposal," because they read it at the surface level, and didn't grasp the irony. (They also apparently didn't read the introductory summary or the discussion questions, but that's another issue.)