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As a bunch of folks have been sending in, it appears that the valedictorian of Columbia University’s General Studies program, Brian Corman, thought that no one would notice if he copied — verbatim — a joke from popular comedian Patton Oswalt. First, here’s Oswalt’s joke in two parts:

Then, there’s the clip of the part of Corman’s graduation speech, which, you’ll note is covered by a giant message from a dean at Columbia apologizing for the mess:



The dean’s apology reads:

It has come to our attention that a portion of our Valedictorian’s remarks at this year’s School of General Studies Class Day was taken from a comedy routine by Patton Oswalt. As an institution of higher learning that places a core value on respect for the works of others, we were surprised and disappointed to have learned of this matter today. Columbia University and the School of General Studies do not condone or permit the use of someone else’s work without proper citation. The student speaker has appropriately issued an apology to his classmates and to Mr. Oswalt for failing to provide such attribution.

Oswalt, for his part, wrote on his own site that while the kid apologized, he wonders about what sort of valedictorian would copy in such a manner:

Brian Corman apologized to me. Flat-out admitted his thievery, his stupidity. Owned it all. Good man. Still makes me wonder what he might have done to become valedictorian — I mean, if he’s willing to steal material for something as inconsequential as a speech, how rubbery did his boundaries become when his GPA and future career were on the line? Oh well.

Quite a story all around, and it raises a bunch of different points that we’ll hit in bullet form:

• Joke copying: This is a popular topic that we’ve discussed a few times in the past. While it certainly does piss off comedians, they seem to ignore the fact that it’s not just quite common among comedians, but, historically, it was considered quite normal. That’s because people realized that there is no monopoly on being funny — and that it’s usually the timing and the delivery that matter much more than the joke itself (which can be seen in the clips above — where Oswalt’s version comes off much funnier than Corman’s copy).
• Social mores: But, more importantly, it’s the social cost to copying that keeps this from getting too far out of line. In the comic world, comedians who have a reputation as big time joke copiers tend to get shunned. That’s not to say that many haven’t been successful still, but there is an effort within the community to self police, without any sort of legal regime needed.
• Reputation: Related to that, what this really comes down to is a reputational issue. While Oswalt is wrong to call Corman’s actions “stealing,” he’s right to question the kid’s decision, and raise questions about his reputation. For a long time, now, Corman will be tagged as the guy who didn’t have the good sense to (a) know that it’s inappropriate to copy someone else’s work in a valedictiorian speech (b) realize that people would notice and (c) to realize that it would get a lot of attention, including a condemnation from the original comedian in the first place.

Notice, of course, that all of this is happening without the need to get the law involved, and the situation gets resolved quite nicely. Oswalt, deservedly, gets more attention for his act and his jokes. The kid gets a public shaming and his reputation (and job prospects?) take a hit. And, Columbia also gets a bit of a reputational hit as well for having a valedictorian who made these sorts of mistakes.

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We’ve heard people on other platforms complain that it’s not easy to switch apps on Android. Apparently they weren’t aware that all you have to do is hold down the Home button, and you get an app switcher. And it’s gotten better in Android 2.2, with Froyo giving access to the eight most recent applications, doubling another third over what we’ve been used to. (That’s four six, for you non-math majors.) Yeah, that’s been available through various apps before, but now it’s native, and it’s a welcome change. 

(Thanks, Stephen! Find a cool new feature in Froyo and want to tell the world about it? E-mail us here and we’ll make you famous!)

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

There are flying cars and there are Flying Cars. This is a FLYING CAR. And that’s not all, because it can transform. More »










Death Star – Recreation – Star Wars – New Zealand – Star Trek

Ma.Strum is designed by Massimo Osti, who comes from a pedigree of bringing about design houses such as C.P. Company and Stone Island. Also a former designer at Victorinox, Osti releases Ma.Strum by combining his design knowledge and the inspirational archives of what he’s done before. The result is something that feels familiar, ranging from outerwear and casual wear that features technical military, naval, and rescue garb. For Fall/Winter 2010 expect heavy parkas, strong knits, jackets, and accessories such as bags. If brands such as C.P. Company and Stone Island are right up your alley, then look out for Ma.Strum products.

Continue reading for more images.

Source: Ajanaku

A laser scanning team has just finished up work on Mount Rushmore, kicking off the latest phase of a project to create a digital record of the world’s great monuments.

In a time of global change and uncertainty, Harvard continues to support, encourage, challenge, and prepare its students to face times of calm and crisis and help them to understand that “life never follows a script,” Harvard President Drew Faust told the College’s Class of 2010 on Tuesday (May 25).

Faust’s remarks in the Memorial Church were part of the annual Baccalaureate Address, a Commencement week ritual dating to 1642 that gathers seniors for an informal farewell from the University’s president and the clergy.

In her speech, Faust recalled the words of Robert F. Kennedy, who addressed South African students in 1966 who were fighting to end apartheid. Kennedy, said Faust, told those students that they lived in times of danger and uncertainty, but also in times of great possibility.

“Now you have your own uncertainties and dangers and your own scripts to write,” Faust told the seniors. “The world has never needed you more. And we send you into that world with our confidence — our confidence in your commitment and our confidence in your abilities to create a script from the unexpected for which you are so well prepared.”

On the hottest day of the year, the young men and women poured into the sweltering Memorial Church, dressed in their traditional black caps and gowns for their Harvard farewell.

The time-honored ceremony included readings from Hindu scripture, the Holy Quran, the New Testament, the Hebrew Bible, and the Analects of Confucius. In addition, there were comments from the Rev. Peter J. Gomes, the Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church.

As is customary, Gomes was stationed at the church’s front steps and welcomed the seniors, who processed in a long line that snaked through the Old Yard. He greeted them with a solemn nod or friendly word.

Faust said that changes at Harvard, ranging from the reforms in its financial aid programs to the successful introduction of a new undergraduate General Education curriculum, combined with a changing global landscape, provided lessons for the seniors that were “too important to forget.”

Her first lesson concerned humility.

“If Harvard graduates were writing the book on it, someone once said, the title would have to be ‘Humility and How I Achieved It,’ ” Faust joked. But, she added, “humility, in fact, is what makes learning possible — the sense of ignorance fueling the desire to overcome it.”

Reiterating her “parking space theory of life,” Faust encouraged the seniors, in her second lesson, to be risk takers and aim for goals where they can do what they love.

“Don’t park 10 blocks away from your destination because you think you’ll never find a closer space. Go to where you want to be. You can always circle back to where you have to be.”

The students were well aware of her third important lesson, she said, that “the world really needs you,” acknowledging that they had already developed “a deep sense of obligation” through extensive humanitarian work and volunteer efforts.

“You need to be the authors, the entrepreneurs, of your own lives,” offered Faust as her final lesson. “And this part I don’t have to tell you either. You are already doing it,” she said, referring to student projects such as a nonprofit group that built a girls school in Afghanistan. She also mentioned a soccer ball, born out of an engineering class assignment, that “can store energy and convert a playground ballgame into a power source for people in developing nations.”

“Keep asking the big, irrelevant questions; keep thinking beyond the present,” Faust told the students. “Then live what you have learned.”

Senior and Adams House resident Crystal Chang, a molecular and cellular biology concentrator who has plans to attend dental school, said Faust’s theme of embracing a life that doesn’t go according to a script is a message that everyone can appreciate.

“It was very encouraging and very inspiring at the same time,” she said.

[YouTube link]

We were there when Google showed off the power of Android 2.2 and Froyo’s new Just-in-Time compiler — think zoom zoom! — but you know the old saying … trust, by verify. And so we shall. Above we have the Nexus One with Froyo, the Evo 4G with Android 2.1 and Sense, and the Motorola Droid with Android 2.1. Ran them all through Linpack, and the numbers hold up. We’re seeing scores on Android 2.2 that are 600 percent or so higher than on Android 2.1. And this is in a pre-release version of Froyo, without any of the optimizations that we’re likely to see from the ROM chefs out there. Booyah.

This is a post by Android Central. It is sponsored by the Android Central Accessories Store

by Jonathan Hiskes

It gives me the willies
to think about it, but it’s probably a good time for a hard look at our
“backup” accident plans for nuclear power plants, now that we know how unbelievably
unprepared the BP/Transocean/Halliburton Dream Team was for an accident on
their Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig. I mean, BP’s worthless response plan involved protecting (Arctic) walruses in the Gulf of Mexico.

Our dirty-energy economy
requires us to undertake lots of enormous, risky endeavors that we keep happily
out of mind until something goes wrong. Few of us thought about the perils of
drilling into deeper and deeper ocean beds until the last month. Few of us
thought about coal-ash waste—the toxic sludge left over from coal-fired electricity generation—until a
retaining wall broke and a pond of it poured out near Kingston, Tenn., 18
months ago.

I hear from more people who say they’re concerened about the safety risks of factory meat and other
industrialized food. But with this, too, we’re largely at the mercy of
out-of-sight federal regulators with a lackluster record (see “ammonia
burgers”). The BP gusher is proving—again—that safety
regulators who are in hock to insanely lucrative industries aren’t going to do an adequate job of
protecting us.

I’ve been happily
clueless about backup plans for the nation’s 104 nuclear-power reactors (to say
nothing of military sites). Now I’m realizing how foolish that is.

 

Related Links:

What if the oil spill just can’t be fixed?

Fake BP Twitter account attracts lots of followers

The 7 dumbest things in BP’s spill response plan

Gregory T. Huang wrote:

Medical device maker RF Surgical Systems, which is based in Bellevue, WA, and has R&D operations in San Diego, has raised $2.5 million in equity financing out of a total offering of $5 million, according to a regulatory filing. The company confirmed the funding today. It says it had raised approximately $21 million before this latest round, which is an extension to its Series A financing and comes from existing investors. RF Surgical Systems was founded in 2004 and has developed patented technologies for detecting and preventing retained surgical sponges in patients undergoing surgery. The company’s product was approved by the FDA in 2006.

UNDERWRITERS AND PARTNERS

Filed under: Spy Photos, Convertible, BMW

BMW has had a remarkably steady flow of new product hitting the market in the last couple of years, and now that the latest 5 Series is starting to hit the streets and the X3 is coming this fall, one of the next models in line for a rework is the 6 Series.

The new coupe and convertible will be the last of the “Bangle Butt” models to go under the knife, and none too soon. The redesigned convertibles have been running everywhere from Arvidsjaur, Sweden to the Nurburgring since last winter, but always with the top up. The latest batch of images from our intrepid spy shooters show a test driver enjoying a bit Munich sunshine in the spring.

When the new 6 debuts publicly either later this year or early next we’re expecting it to feature much of the same design language we’ve seen on the latest 5, 7 and Z4, with tight side sculpting, stretched headlamps and an overall look that is both cleaner and more muscular than before.

Spy Shots: Next-gen BMW 6 Series caught topless without shame originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 25 May 2010 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal provisions about to be inserted into the fiscal year 2011 defense authorization bill are getting all the attention. But don’t forget that the bill is a venue for a much different showdown between the Pentagon and Congress. Defense Secretary Robert Gates certainly hasn’t.

For weeks now, Gates has done everything he can to get Congress not to put money into the bill for a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which he has repeatedly characterized as a “costly and unnecessary” engineering curiosity. He’s even made a legacy-building speech at the library honoring the patron saint of sensible defense spending, Dwight D. Eisenhower, holding out the engine as the crucible of a fight over Pentagon bloat. Again and again for the past several weeks, he’s told anyone who would listen that if the second engine is in the defense bill, he will recommend that President Obama veto the entire half-trillion-dollar bill.

None of that actually stopped the House Armed Services Committee from putting $485 million for the engine into the bill last week. My understanding is that the second engine is not currently in the Senate version of the bill that will go through committee mark-up tomorrow. But now that the White House has blessed a legislative maneuver to make the defense authorization bill the vehicle to repeal “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” a signature issue for the Democratic base, is Gates standing firm on his recommendation to veto a bill containing the second F-35 engine?

“Absolutely, positively, unequivocally, yes,” says Geoff Morrell, Gates’s spokesman.

It’s possible Gates won’t have to recommend any veto and Obama won’t have to consider using one. Although it’s more likely than not that the Senate committee will put funding for the engine in the bill, sometimes miracles happen. Over in the House, Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) and Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) announced today that they’re going to push their own amendment during the floor vote to block the money for the second F-35 engine.

Those measures are perhaps the best chances for the politics of repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” not to run smack into the politics of Gates’s efforts to curb defense waste. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal votes in the House and especially the Senate committee tomorrow are already extremely close, according to Hill sources and LGBT repeal advocates. Who knows how a potential veto recommendation from Gates on a different issue would impact members’ calculations.

Perhaps only two things here are clear. First, the congressional fight over repealing “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” isn’t the congressional fight that Gates wanted the defense authorization to be about, even if he did issue reluctant support for the move earlier today. And second, it’s possible that Obama will be put in the difficult position of having to choose between a core priority for his much-snubbed supporters in the LGBT community and a core priority for his defense secretary.

Earlier we discovered that J. Allard, the Father of the Xbox, is leaving Microsoft. This was the goodbye email he sent to his team: More »










Microsoft – J Allard – Xbox – Monopolies and Oligopolies – Economic

WASHINGTON–Democratic Illinois Senate nominee Alexi Giannoulias will be getting help from the Obama White House. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina are planning visits to Illinois to campaign for Giannoulias in June.

My Chicago Sun-Times colleague Abdon Pallasch has a report below, at the click.

Here’s what I learned: Messina and Duncan are coming in for fund-raisers, a few days apart. Duncan may also do a press event with Giannoulias.

On Tuesday afternoon, I talked with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the Illinois Senate race. The “White House is going to help the Democratic nominee in Illinois and we look forward to supporting the nominee and retaining the Senate seat.”

I asked if more White House help was coming and Gibbs, referring to Duncan and Messina told me, “This is high level help and this is a very important race. I don’t think this is the last of it.”

Obama on Tuesday headed to California to headline fund-raisers for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

How the news of Messina and Duncan coming to Illinois helps Giannoulias: More than the actual dollars Messina or Duncan generate at their events, the White House actually doing something tangible for Giannoulias helps donors who have been reluctant to write checks. GOP rival Rep. Mark Steven Kirk (R-Ill.) is millions of dollars ahead in fund-raising. The White House weighed in after the Giannoulias family Broadway Bank failed and Giannoulias was still standing–and had a poll showing he was neck and neck with Kirk.

BY ABDON M. PALLASCH Political Reporter
Following the hug and the shout-out President Obama gave Democratic Senate candidate Alexi Giannoulias at a downstate Quincy event a few weeks ago, the White House is poised to shower a little more love on the beleaguered former banker.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan — a frequent hoops buddy of Giannoulias and the president — and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina are planning back-to-back visits to Illinois to campaign for Giannoulias in June.

As late as the morning of the Quincy event, reporters were pestering Giannoulias with questions about whether President Obama was giving his former close friend the cold shoulder following some rough hits in the press for Giannoulias when his family’s Broadway Bank was taken over by federal regulators and sold to MB Financial.

But Obama made clear later that day that he still considered Giannoulias to be a “soon-to-be-senator.” Obama himself is not expected to start campaigning for Democratic challengers until the fall, said Giannoulias spokeswoman Kathleen Strand.

In the coming months, Obama is expected to concentrate on shoring up support for Democratic incumbent senators, she said.

Giannoulias’ Republican opponent, Rep. Mark Kirk, is expected to attract a steady stream of big-name Republican endorsements and donations. Even Democratic Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is considering staying neutral in the race to help his friend Kirk.

On Friday, the Internet browser celebrated 30 years of Pac-Man putting on their home page their version of the game. The idea, according to a study, was irresistible to workers throughout the world.

The legendary Japanese video game Pac-Man was irresistible to workers around the world, according to a study, Google PacMan devoted five million work hours.

Last Friday, the Internet browser decided to pay homage to Pac-Man’s 30th birthday. Nostalgia gripped the workers around the globe and made them to stay tree times more on the page than normally.

That translated into productivity losses is accounted for $ 120 million, according to the study of RescueTime company specializing in software for monitoring how and where workers navigate. The company developed this study from a sample of 11,000 users.

According to the study, that day the 11 seconds on average which usually take to do a search, lengthened to more than triple: 36 seconds.

On average, estimated that the in the working hours employees usually do about 22 searches on Google. If you multiply that number by the amount of extra seconds of each visit, he concludes that workers spent 4.8 million hours on the web (the equivalent of around 550 million years).

And the economic data translation, considering an average salary of $ 25 an hour, was that the Pac-Man caused a loss to the productivity of companies around the world U.S. $ 120 million.

“Fortunately,” the authors of the study say, that “75% of users did not realize that you could play by pressing the ‘Insert Coin’.”

Related posts:

1. PacMan 30th anniversary: Google PacMan game
2. Pac-Man 30th Anniversary! Third Day With Playable Google Logo
3. Last Day of Pac-Man 30th Anniversary! Enjoy While It Lasts

What sane person could oppose Proposition 15 — the pilot project for clean money campaigns for Secretary of State candidates in 2014 and 2018?

What kind of scoundrel would use the debate over such a small step toward ending political corruption and bringing fair elections to California that he would go into a moralistic diatribe against the Republican candidates for governor while ignoring how union and special interest money has made LA City Hall a mockery of democracy?

Richard Alarcon, that’s who…the Council member under criminal investigation because he doesn’t or at least didn’t live in his district.

Meanwhile, if you want to support Prop. 15, Rock the Boat and Common Cause are holding a fund-raising event Tuesday June 1 at the Echo, 1822 W. Sunset Blvd. at 8:30 p.m. with Jeremy
Dawson
of Shiny Toy Guns (DJ Set), White Apple Tree, & Buddy Akai, $8 in advance, $10 at the door.

by Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON—The Twitter account claims to be that of British Petroleum’s public relations department, but the messages are a little bit, well, odd for a company battling a massive oil spill.

“Please do NOT take or clean any oil you find on the beach. That is the property of British Petroleum and we WILL sue you,” reads one “tweet” from the account @BPGlobalPR.

“If we had a dollar for every complaint about this oil spill, it wouldn’t compare to our current fortune. Oil is a lucrative industry!” says another.

“Proud to announce that BP will be sponsoring the New Orleans Blues Festival this summer w/special tribute to Muddy Waters,” reads a third.

The fake account was created on May 19 by an unknown Twitter user and has quickly attracted more than 23,000 followers—four times more than the real BP Twitter account @BP_America.

Other messages on @BPGlobalPR:

“The good news: Mermaids are real. The bad news: They are now extinct.”

“The ocean looks just a bit slimmer today. Dressing it in black really did the trick!”

“Thousands of people are attacked by sea creatures every year. We at BP are dedicated to bringing that number down. You’re welcome!”

Toby Odone, a BP spokesman, told Advertising Age that the company is aware of the fake account but has apparently not taken any steps to have it removed.

“I’m not aware of whether BP has made any calls to have it taken down or addressed,” Odone told Ad Age. “People are entitled to their views on what we’re doing and we have to live with those. We are doing the best we can to deal with the current situation and to try to stop the oil from flowing and to then clean it up,” he said.

The @BPGlobalPR feed is not the only attempt at humor on Twitter regarding the oil spill.

Another account, @common_oil_spil, purports to be the Twitter feed of the oil spill itself. It spits out terse messages such as “belch” and “glug, glug, glug” or references to the various attempts to plug the well such as “golf balls?”

Related Links:

What if the oil spill just can’t be fixed?

By the way, is anyone checking on nuclear-plant safety plans?

The 7 dumbest things in BP’s spill response plan

Accuracy of comparing bone quality to chocolate bars for patient information purposes: observational study

“Within our area of practice relating to osteoporosis and fragility fracture we have noticed a tendency to compare normal, healthy bone to the finely honeycombed structure of a Crunchie (Cadbury Trebor Bassett; Bournville, Birmingham) chocolate bar and to compare abnormal, osteoporotic bone to the coarser structure of an Aero (Nestle UK; York) bar. Although this explanation is readily appreciated by patients and clinicians it struck us that the comparison may not be completely valid as no work has been published on the fracture potential of each bar… To enable us to provide accurate data to our patients we studied the fracture risk for each chocolate bar.

We randomly purchased 20 chocolate bars (10 Crunchie and 10 Aero) from a reputable high street confectioner; the number of bars was limited by research funds and our rural environment…

The end point of the study was fracture. Firstly, we allowed each bar to topple from its standing height in the centre of a tile. We then dropped each bar horizontally on to the centre of the tile from increasing heights until fracture, defined as a break in the cortex; we did not regard mild deformity as a fracture. The tests were carried out at a temperature of 22oC after the bars had had eight hours to reach a steady state temperature. We used a bone densitometer (Discovery-C; Hologic, Bedford, MA) to carry out dual energy x ray absorptiometry (whole body) on one Aero and one Crunchie, with bone mineral density being used as a surrogate for measuring chocolate density. Height was measured with a tape measure (Olympia (5 m/16 ft) Power Return Tape; Olympia (UK); Reading, Berks)…

Our data provide evidence of the disparity between chocolate density and fracture rates. The use of Crunchie and Aero bars to explain bone health and fracture risk to patients, although palatable, is not justified. In practical terms we believe that the findings should contribute to the provision of improved patient information and education by enlightened healthcare professionals. The study serves to remind clinicians that both chocolate density and bone mineral density form but one component of fracture risk. The accurate assessment of fracture risk should ideally take into account other measurable indices that contribute to fracture risk in addition to that provided by chocolate density and bone mineral density.”

Read the full article here.

Image: BMJ

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WTF is NCBI ROFL? Read our FAQ!

Having an induction charger for your Wiimotes is a necessity. Having one that can charge your Wiimotes and two USB devices at the same time might be a little extravagant. Thankfully, at $35, the Konnet PowerV Duo a justifiable extravagance. More »










USB – Business – Hardware – Universal Serial Bus – Operating Systems