stevendkrause.com

From Improv Everywhere comes this map of group freezing from around the world, all based on this previously completed Grand Central Station stunt.

I stumbled across this via Jenny’s “Working Blue” blog:

28%

For reasons not worth going into, I spent some time playing around with Google analytics tonight and I learned a couple of fun facts.

• My old blogs are still getting more hits than this new one. I guess just because there is a lot more content there.
• Top hit on the academic blog? “Period Trick,” which has to do with resizing periods in a word processed essay to create the illusion of a length. Note this wasn’t my tip– just a link.
• Five of the top ten picks have to do with searches having to do with “flip video sample” and other related terms, which inevitably brings up this video of our dog Sophie playing with a ball.

Thank God I offer my thoughts on the state of academia for all to read.

From boing-boing.net comes this post on craigslist, which I will reproduce in its entirety, about the pizza business in Ann Arbor:

To The Stoner Who Works At Cottage Inn Pizza
Date: 2007-09-18, 11:30AM EDT

You: the guy who answers the phone at cottage inn pizza
Me: Hungry and stoned out of my gourd

I called you from my cell phone but had completely forgot who I was calling by the time you answered the phone. Of course, you were also baked to bajeezus and forgot to tell me that I had called Cottage Inn.

When you answered and said, “Whatsup?” I thought about it, and after a 20 second pause I told you that was hungry. You suggested I try a pizza, and I agreed that it was probably a good idea.

Then I asked you if you sold pizza and you said that you could make me one. I said I wanted anchovies and something else on my pizza. You asked me what that something else was.

We spent five minutes listing toppings until we figured out that I was trying to remember how to say: “Sun dried Tomatoes.” When you said: “We’ll bake that right up for you,” we both started laughing uncontrollably.

It was the best pizza I ever had; I just wanted to thank you for helping me out.

Ah, those sophisticates in Ann Arbor…

Well, since I’m not in NOLA and up to Lord only knows what Steve B. and Bill HD. and my other typical conference partners in crime are up to right now, I thought I’d post a whole bunch of links from my Google Reader feed:

• A book about cursing in over 69 different languages.
• A link to a mashup video of “I’m F*cking Obama.” I came across this on a blog I read on a regular basis (sorry, I can’t remember which one now) that suggested that this was a sexist video. I dunno, I think it makes sense because Clinton is on the attack and has kind of opened herself up to that. I have to think that it’s only a matter of time before we get to the “I’m F*cking Hillary Clinton.”
• Here’s a weird one: http://superbad.com/ You would think that this has something to do with the movie Superbad, but I don’t have a clue what this is. Entertaining though.
• “Professors should embrace Wikipedia” from Inside Higher Ed. This one might actually be useful in teaching about wiki and Wikipedia stuff next year, maybe even this spring. The comments are particularly telling.
• “Experimental Use of Blog-Based Peer Review Gives Mixed Results” in CHE and a reply/rebuttal from the site where the blog peer review took place. Personally, I think a blog is a better place to prewrite/think through a manuscript/project in progress rather review a draft polished enough to send to a publisher.
• What might be an interesting book/web site/blog/wiki to check out later, Wikinomics.
• Finally, another story in the New York Times of a plagiarism policy being plagiarized. Lots of good links here, too.

Improv Everywhere’s “site redesign” is their April Fools joke, but it is also a fantastic teaching moment for a class like “Writing for the World Wide Web.” I hope this link stays live for a while….

Via Lifehacker comes this list of April Fools Day jokes from Google (and others, I think) around the world. I like the one where every YouTube link goes to this video instead of what you want.

But I do think it is still pretty darn funny.

See this boing-boing TV interview with Ames’ native Leslie “ceWEBrity/gem sweater diva” Hall. Check out all the links on the entry here, too. Tell me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the oh-so-perfect interviewer/uber-cool boing-boing woman with the funny name, Xeni Jardin, seem a little weirded out by Hall?

You may have heard something about this whole Elliot Spitzer thing out there. The thing that occurs to me is that it probably would be pretty easy to go to a contemporary translation of Oedipus Rex and change it into Spitzer Rex. I don’t have time to try my hand it myself, so you can have that idea for free. If someone makes such a version and/or finds one out there, let me know.

Anyway, besides good posts from Deb Hawhee here (I would never cheat on my wife, but beyond that, I too wonder why all these political spouses, including our own local Mrs. Kirkpatrick, so willingly stand by their man) and here from Alex Halavais, I also found myself somewhat amused with this piece by Erica Jong I found on Huffington, “Morals to Be Drawn From Spitzer’s ‘Case’.” It is far from the best piece of writing I’ve seen on the Internets– actually, it reads more like Jong dictating thoughts off the top of her head than anything resembling coherent paragraphs– but she does have some good/amusing points, especially in the ten rules/commandments that start the piece. For example: “If you are famous for closing prostitution “rings,” don’t frequent them;” “Pay hookers in cash;” “Don’t yell at investment bankers on the phone;” and, one that I’ve cleaned up slightly for this space, while in office, don’t sleep with someone other than your spouse, “unless you are in French politics.”