How to Teach a Lesson with Porn
Some kids have decided to defy authority by screening a porno at their university. This should be entertaining =)
Neither side is prepared to lay down its sword.
Is anyone else seeing the pun here?
University of Maryland students — protesting what they see as an intrusion by Big Brother — are planning to defy authority and screen a hard-core porn movie in the name of free speech and academic freedom.
So you can defy authority by watching porn on campus? Hmm, I wonder how many students are out there defying the government right now. “Big Brother” ? yet another pun =)
“What we’re upset about is somebody is trying to control what goes on on campus. This is symbolic,” said Liz Ciavolino, a sophomore who is active in the group Feminism Without Borders.
Feminism without borders, ethics, purpose. Liz Ciavolino? Mr. Ciavolino will be excited to see this article =)
In response, one conservative state legislator revived his threat: If the porn flick is shown on campus, the university might just kiss some state dollars goodbye.
Look at that. Conservative values shining through. In light of what is going on, “kiss” is as far as they’ve gone.
A university spokesman declined to comment last night.
Why? Busy last night?
The tale of the scheduled screening of “Pirates II: Stagnetti’s Revenge” has roiled the university’s flagship campus and hit newspapers as far away as Australia.
So in the name of err “research”, I went ahead and read the description of this movie. Seriously? This is what you pick to show your protest? Not exactly what I would call a venture into the hard core…
The movie was initially to be shown in the student union last night. But university officials canceled it after Sen. Andrew P. Harris (R-Baltimore County) introduced a bill to withhold state funding from any public university that allowed the screening of a triple-X film.
Wait, so at some point, University officials were on board with the show?
The fight might have ended there. But some students, adamant that state lawmakers were practicing censorship, have launched plans to show the 2 1/2 -hour movie on campus tomorrow night, the Baltimore Sun first reported. The Student Power Party, a slate of campus leaders, has reserved a lecture room.
More college students will be awake in this lecture room than any other in all of time. It also will probably rank as the best use of a lecture room in college history.
A discussion about free speech will precede the movie.
No one has signed up for this portion of the “event”
“It’s not about porn at all,” said Kenton Stalder, a junior helping to arrange the screening. “The content doesn’t matter. It’s the precedent of a legislator pulling funding for an entire university based on an issue of morality.”
Yes, and by the way, the Pope is not catholic.
Harris, who says that X-rated belly dancers and pirates have no place in a public university, is not backing down, either. He withdrew his initial amendment to withhold funds from the operating budget but said he would consider renewing his protest as lawmakers take up the capital budget in coming weeks.
Good for him. Push harder. The students really seem to be responding to that tactic.
University officials “should stop any showing of it right now until a clear policy is developed by the university regarding the conditions under which a triple-X-rated, hard-core pornography movie will be shown on campus,” Harris said. He said that policy should consider “the dangers of pornography, the detrimental effect on women and families, and the addictive nature of pornography.”
I’m sorry, the “Dangers” of porn? As soon as I hear of a porn crime, I’ll be on board with that allegation. Until then, I just see this as a misuse of state funds.
The movie, produced by Digital Playground, has been marketed to colleges and has been shown at several across the country without major controversy. The Fresno Bee reported that an overflow crowd was turned away for lack of space during a recent screening at the University of California Davis.
Wow, that sucks for those kids that didn’t make it. That too, on opening day. What will they do now?! Oh wait, that’s right, there are a million adult stores they can pick up the dvd from. Or there’s even P2P software that I am sure they are using.
Sen. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Montgomery), a professor of constitutional law at American University, said he has never watched a porn film. But he said state lawmakers have no place dictating which movies are shown on campus.
A. He’s lying about never watching one and B. He’s lying about never watching one.
“Pornographers and censors thrive on one another,” Raskin said. “I would hope that Sen. Harris would be content with having gotten the pornographers hundreds of thousands of dollars in free publicity for the movie and would leave well enough alone. They could not have paid for the publicity they got on TV and in newspapers.”
I doubt that the senator gives a rats ass that he’s got publicity for this movie. He’s fighting something entirely different.
Good luck to all parties involved. I hope that the parents of the kids mentioned in this article are excited about this.
Thanks for sending this over Sanj =)
Grind my gears? Littering
Are you freakin serious? I saw this guy in a nice suit standing in the financial district in downtown chicago. He just bought some juice from Jamba Juice and thought that the floor next to the bus stop was an ideal place to toss his straw cover. There are so many things wrong with this picture.
1. Literacy.
Maybe it’s a bad assumption, but I think he’s got to have a tv at home that he watches or people that he speaks to that tell him about the environment…earth…etc. So when he throws a piece of paper on the floor, he’s got to know that it’s not helping.
2. Trash can.
There was a trash can, not more than 20 feet from him. How lazy do you have to be to not be able to walk to a trash can and throw trash into it?!
3. Girlfriend.
The woman at his side and he was kissing randomly didn’t see any issues with this. So I have to question what is or isn’t going through her mind when this happens. Maybe she’s so engrossed by his awesomeness that she ignores such petty activity.
4. Impact on your taxes.
Screw the environment for a moment. We pay taxes for folks to clean up after us. I think they do a pretty good job keeping us in a clean environment. However, our taxes don’t go down when we throw crap on the floor. The more we do this, the more people we need to hire to clean up. So why not atleast look at it that way. Do what you can do and then slam government when they don’t hold their end of the bargain?
Clean up after yourself.
Air Force One for Sale?
What the heck is “a showcase of Air Force One”? To Whom? Isn’t the president the only person that gives a shit about what that plane is capable of?…namely security features and now, blackberry integration?
Here we are, swimming in TRILLIONS of dollars of debt. Hey, why not fly the first plane through the streets of New York and take some pictures.
I hope the headline tomorrow is “Air Force One scares residents again….Photographer memory card full. Missed opportunity to take pictures”
What the What? Dyson, Hoover, beautiful black box…
This is amazing. I am unimpressed when a company puts little effort into ‘competing’. Below, an effort by Hoover to make you think you are getting the same ‘cool’ product by going with them. What’s nice here is that Costco put ‘em side by side to test your readin’ skills.
Dyson vs Hoover
For $39.99, you too can be a Fūl!
Just when I thought Costco couldn’t top the fun of the free sample kiosks, I find this. Kudos to the person that created this brand.
Smárt Choice
Focusing on what’s NOT hot
We are consumers. We get constantly blasted by commercials and news of the latest technology that hits the market. I am the type of guy that buys into any commercial. I trust way too easily. If I could click buy without leaving my couch, my apartment would be stuffed with swiffers, dysons, all sorts of cars, the kelly ripa kitchen, gladé plugins; you get the idea. Lucky I can’t…yet.
Very often, a new product or service becomes available that at a quick glance fits a budget or timing. It’s easy to quickly fall prey to the non stop media coverage of those products/services. While they may actually serve some purpose, it makes more sense to step back and analyse the bigger picture.
More often than not, there is a low immediate need for the newly available product. Upon consideration, I think most folks can very quickly find much more cost efficient alternatives to investing in the latest technology and committing to it. Ideally, there’s a trial period or offering that is available that allows you to test things out before committing.
Beyond just making a commitment, there’s also the risk associated with a new product. I think it’s awesome that folks keep innovating to make things faster, stronger & cooler but as a consumer, analysis of how a product can impact your life can really dictate how you invest in that technology. Understanding how activities you do can be improved in efficiency is key to knowing where to invest to make sure you get the highest return on your investment. Even a general understanding of those activities and how they match up to a product/service offering, can allow you to correctly identify the right investment.
Let’s say you read a lot of books. At first glance, something like the Amazon Kindle may quickly become an attractive investment. You can carry all your books in a small sleeve and connect to wifi. A book is just 10 bucks. The device is $360. Seems pretty cool, great reviews, no monthly fee. This is where you step back and think about how many books you read. More importantly, where you get your books from and how often. If I bought a ton of books off ebay or thrift stores, and like to look at my large collection on my end-to-end wall bookshelves, then a kindle would not be for me.
So there, don’t buy an iphone. Get the free phone that comes with bluetooth and makes phone calls, has good reception and a long battery life. Think about it!
Pope sparks controversy by repeating himself
The funny thing here is that he did so by stating the obvious. If there were an award for stating the obvious, he would get it. Why? Well, only the pope can apparently state the obvious and still garner this kind of response.
Nothing changed in the church’s view regarding the use of contraceptives. They don’t give a crap about whether using contraceptives helps in the prevention of HIV transmission. What’s amazing about this guy is that he just went out and reminded everyone that they don’t give a crap.
It’s like people forgot. “Oh, the church hasn’t mentioned how they don’t like the use of condoms in a while now…maybe they changed their mind. What’s this? A report that the pope is still against condom use. Why, that’s an outrage.”
That’s got to be what’s going through the 100’s of reporters, activists, humanitarians etc mind. A sense of shock that can only be described as momentary. Tomorrow, he won’t talk about it and the people will not raise their voices. No, these good people of the world will go back to doing what they do best…reporting, activising…(that’s not a word, but what does an activist do?), humanitarianizing? etc.
Ofcourse, when the Pope says “jump” next time, we will watch all of them jump.
I am speaking in generals ofcourse. There are a few of these good folks that stick to what they do best and ignore these blips.
Design “Within” Reach - Part 1
What exactly is the goal of this company? I did a quick read of their about page and found that it’s not what I thought it was. Their goal is not to bring good design to the masses, as I had initially thought based upon the phrase “within reach.” My mistake for not investigating the brand more before making that assumption.
Anywho, their goal is to bring good design to people that can afford it. The lucky few that find it so hard to pick up their designer furniture through multiple sources.
Let’s pick up a few samples to go through and see what most of us are missing out in our homes.
1. The Dash Extension Table - $2900
At first glance, it seems like your typical 30×31x70″ table. 4 legs and a top. It comes with zero character which sounds bad but that means that you can dress it up however you like. At closer look however, this seemingly ‘ordinary’ table pulls out on each side to reveal a hidden center leaf! Not only is it nicely hidden, it actually swings out effortlessly in one motion.
Let’s study this. For $2900, this is what you get -
- a flat table
- a leaf
- the continued awkwardness of leaning against each side of the table to close it into the leaf
- a larger credit card bill than you would have had if you went to ikea
- “Quality”. It is made of walnut or oak or something * see below
If you still feel compelled to spill this cash, I will laugh only knowing that this is the reason it’s called “dash”. From their website -
The name of the previous version referred to the parenthesis-looking notch at each table end. In the updated version, the “parenthesis” has been replaced with a straight line or “dash.”
There it is. This is ultimately what you are paying for. They changed out the ends of the table to look boring. I’m sorry, they are “clean lines.” Love them.
Go, shop at the DWR. It’s the place to go if you are part of the top 1% of the nations earners or you are madly in love with credit card debt. By the way, those voices you hear sometimes isn’t you going crazy. It’s that tiny plastic card sitting in your back pocket or purse, taunting you, mocking you and ultimately owning your life.
* It’s oak, walnut, white oak….Veneer. Yeah, now I really see it.
Willis Tower? Yes!
This is an awesome article. I am glad that this author did whatever research and found this strange coincidence. Let Willis Tower stand as a tribute to the family that lost their lives.
I know that corruption has taken it’s place in politics in any geography but it’s especially sad to see how this turned out.
Should GM/Chrysler/Ford be switching their advertising?
I just skimmed through this article on Advertising Age which goes over the most liked ads of the month. Two things came to mind.
1. How on earth did the Dominos “Secretary of Taste” ad come up to the top 10? I’m just tired of all the “Yes We Can” rip-offs. There’s a really cheezy one in Chicago for an auto dealership. Yup, an auto dealership. Nuff said.
2. I wonder if GM/Chrysler/Ford should be changing up their advertising. Does it make sense to keep your 30 second commercial looking like everything is great when the news segment before and after it says otherwise?
There’s nothing visibly different between the ads that were getting pumped out a year ago and the ones getting air time today. Well, there’s the whole eco-sensitive info & the gas mileage data but I am going to venture a guess and say that the visibility into the health of the US auto makers is playing a significant role in their overall sales numbers.
So if people weren’t buying a year ago, and they have even slowed down since then, then maybe a change in advertising to make an effort to build trust would help?
Another factor that is possibly affecting their brand is the layoffs. I would be pretty surprised if I learned that a company that does as many layoffs could sustain a good rep and maintain brand strength. Again, the media coverage of all plants and the people that work in those plants continues to beat up on the brand.
I do it myself! I watch all the coverage and feel really bad for the people that have worked for GM or it’s suppliers for so long and are now being let go. Who do I subconsciously blame for the mishap? the auto manufacturers of course! I know it’s not entirely their fault but if I don’t think it through and let the media do my thinking for me (read more than 50% of news watchers), then I’m going to connect the auto manufacturers health directly to the suppliers.
In conclusion, their commercials need to be updated to respond to the above factors. Their brand is getting hit with repetitive blows and they need to counter them. I remember the “American Revolution” ads where they showcased all their vehicles and touted their fleet. Something along those lines without so much emphasis on the vehicles and more emphasis on the health of the manufacturer itself and what they are doing to ‘guarantee’ the consumer’s satisfaction.
Also, Hyundai has a promotion now where you get your money back if you lose your job after buying a vehicle. That’s innovative. I don’t know what the impact would be if a lot of people returned vehicles but I assume there’s a risk/benefit analysis floating around somewhere between Hyundai’s execs.
