Paul Kedrosky:
Most financial media commentary on day-to-day stock and market movements is about as meaningful as live ESPN coverage of Brownian motion in a coffee cup — and marginally less entertaining.
Funny.
# 2007 Aug 31
Ex-Ohio State president Karen Holbrook expressed dismay at the amount of rioting at her former employer:
“When you win a game, you riot. When you lose a game, you riot. When spring comes, you riot. African-American Heritage Festival weekend, you riot,” Karen Holbrook said last week during a videotaped interview for the president’s job at Florida Gulf Coast University.
She told officials there that she confronted a culture of rioting when she arrived at Ohio State in 2002 and that she witnessed people doing “disgusting things, unbelievable things” on a videotape she ordered made after the Ohio State-Michigan game that year.
“They think it’s fun to flip cars, to really have absolute drunken orgies. … I don’t want to be at a place that has this kind of culture as a norm,” she said.
It’s important to note she states this as part of a job interview - that you damn well better be up to her standards. She classy, and if your students exhibit even the slightest evidence of boisterousity, she going home.
I’m actually somewhat impressed by the sheer amount of research she must’ve down before accepting the job at Ohio State that somehow allowed her to express surprise and dismay that occasionally Ohio State riots.
And apparently some kids drink in college.
Of course after the remarks became public she pulled back:
“Maybe it was a little melodramatic,” Holbrook said Wednesday. She said she never meant to imply that every Ohio State football game touches off violence.
Wherever would we have gotten the impression that every football game incites a riot?
“When you win a game, you riot. When you lose a game, you riot.”
Oh, right.
Ex-Ohio State president Karen Holbrook expressed dismay at the amount of rioting at her former employer:
“When you win a game, you riot. When you lose a game, you riot. When spring comes, you riot. African-American Heritage Festival weekend, you riot,” Karen Holbrook said last week during a videotaped interview for the president’s job at Florida Gulf Coast University.
She told officials there that she confronted a culture of rioting when she arrived at Ohio State in 2002 and that she witnessed people doing “disgusting things, unbelievable things” on a videotape she ordered made after the Ohio State-Michigan game that year.
“They think it’s fun to flip cars, to really have absolute drunken orgies. … I don’t want to be at a place that has this kind of culture as a norm,” she said.
It’s important to note she states this as part of a job interview - that you damn well better be up to her standards. She classy, and if your students exhibit even the slightest evidence of boisterousity, she going home.
I’m actually somewhat impressed by the sheer amount of research she must’ve down before accepting the job at Ohio State that somehow allowed her to express surprise and dismay that occasionally Ohio State riots.
And apparently some kids drink in college.
Of course after the remarks became public she pulled back:
“Maybe it was a little melodramatic,” Holbrook said Wednesday. She said she never meant to imply that every Ohio State football game touches off violence.
Wherever would we have gotten the impression that every football game incites a riot?
“When you win a game, you riot. When you lose a game, you riot.”
Oh, right.
# 2007 Aug 31
New York Times article on the “lesser” (not football or basketball) teams needing to raise money by catfishing the money sports:
For Butler softball players, that has meant working the gates at football games and cleaning the basketball arena. At Utah, that has led to having swimmers serve as hospitality workers in the suites at football games. And in the case of Penn State’s fencing program, that has involved cleaning the trash left behind by the crowds that attend home football games at Beaver Stadium.
“It’s one of the grossest things I’ll ever have to do — hopefully — in my life,” said the Penn State senior Megan Luteran, a captain of the fencing team, which last season won its 10th national title in 18 years.
# 2007 Aug 24
This is an ongoing list of bars and other establishments in the Philadelphia area that ban the wearing of hats.
This is an ongoing list of bars and other establishments in the Philadelphia area that ban the wearing of hats.
# 2007 Aug 24
Old, but good write-up of Bill Bowerman from the The Oregonian:
Bowerman was a football and basketball star at Medford High School. He played offense and defense for the Oregon football team and returned an interception for a touchdown against Washington. He coached football at Franklin High School and Medford High School and led the Black Tornado to three state championships in track.
He was offered the job as head football coach at Oregon in 1947 but turned it down after his mentor, Bill Hayward, told him football coaches lead miserable lives. He took the track job in 1948 and stayed until 1973. The Ducks won four NCAA championships under Bowerman and became famous for producing milers and fierce competitors, including Steve Prefontaine, the most popular distance runner in U.S. history.
# 2007 Aug 24
From CNET’s review of iWork ‘08:
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 may be richer, but Apple Keynote ‘08 adds some smart features that PowerPoint lacks. It’s also a breeze to figure out from the get-go. Keynote offers 140 templates for whipping together a presentation.
Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 may be richer? What? Having spent large quantities of time in both applications, I can say with great confidence that PowerPoint ain’t richer than shit.
I’ve used Keynote to drive full-frame hi-def progressive video and it doesn’t so much as stutter. PowerPoint still can’t manage a smooth dissolve between slides.
PowerPoint is a 35mm disposable film camera bought at a gas station to Keynote’s Leica.
And a few minor notes:
The bad: Apple iWork ‘08 lacks an e-mail application; pivot tables and Visual Basic macros not supported; offers no live, in-person tech support.
Mac OS X ships with an email client and the next version of Office (for OS X) isn’t going to ship with Visual Basic support either.
# 2007 Aug 23
Bay, regarding Paramount’s decision to exclusively carry HD-DVD over Blu-ray:
“I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were progressive by having two formats. No ‘Transformers 2’ for me!”
I don’t really care about seeing his movies on either format, but it’s important I have the choice to not watch them in any format I (don’t) choose. And because of this he wasn’t going to direct Transformers 2? That’s like the best news ever.
Of course, he goes and retracts the statement the next day and starts touting the company line because I guess the draw to direct ‘Transformers 2’ was too great - there must be some great don’t let your parents know there’s giant robots hiding in the backyard gags he saved for the sequel.
# 2007 Aug 22
Reportedly the broadband Internet service provider has slowly ramped up monitoring of peer-to-peer network traffic, and now, using traffic-management services, it’s preventing BitTorrent users from connecting to anyone outside the Comcast network. This would almost be commendable if its motivation was to crack down on piracy, but TorrentFreak suggests that Comcast is just being cheap.
Comcast claims it’s totally not doing anything of the sort, but I can attest to the fact that I had two torrent downloads of concerts (even all legal and whatnot!) that lost their ability to seed.
I’m keeping my eye on you Comcast.
# 2007 Aug 22
Ling speculates that the color preference and women’s ability to better discriminate red from green could have evolved due to sex-specific divisions of labor: while men hunted, women gatherered, and they had to be able to spot ripe berries and fruits. Another theory suggests that women, as caregivers who need to be particularly sensitive to, say, a child flushed with fever, have developed a sensitivity to reddish changes in skin color, a skill that enhances their abilities as the “emphathizer.”
Damn straight. Now go pick me some berries.
# 2007 Aug 22
From the 2005 tour supporting Around The Sun, it’s their first live CD release (several shows are already available on VHS/DVD).
Part of wishes it was from the 2003 tour supporting nothing but a wish to play some songs and rock some faces, but I’ll take what I can get.
# 2007 Aug 22
An exhaustive article on Clearview, the new typeface used for highway signage combining three of my favorite things - road signs, typography, and Penn State.
I noticed a few signs on I-95 north of Philly using Clearview a few weeks ago.
# 2007 Aug 13
AT&T cuts lines from an online playback of a Pearl Jam performance, fans notice, Pearl Jam releases statement:
“If a company that is controlling a Webcast is cutting out bits of our performance — not based on laws, but on their own preferences and interpretations — fans have little choice but to watch the censored version,” Pearl Jam said in a prepared statement. “What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it’s about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band.”
This is the closer danger of censorship - the mere fear something could possibly be controversial does more than any law could. Less 1984 and more Fahrenheit 451.
…the telecommunications provider said the incident was a mistake by a content monitor from a contracted company.
It always seems to be a mistake, doesn’t it?
# 2007 Aug 13
These are all the posts on scotttroyan.com during August 2007. Recent posts are listed here.
All contents copyright 1995-2008 by Scott Troyan unless differently noted.
