In the Loop: February 2008 Archive

Super Tuesday limerick MADNESS!!!!

Posted at 3:43 PM on February 1, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

Ok, that's it with the "MADNESS" stuff....

When we sent out questions to listeners to get ready for our Super Tuesday forum, we added a request for anyone to write us an "ode" to their favorite, candidate, issue, etc. Not many people took up the call, but listener Kate Kahlert of Inver Grove Heights met it with gusto:

There once were many leaders fast racing
to be president, so votes they were chasing
they paid lots of money
calling dear babies "honey"
and sweet-talking while calls they were placing

"The people", they knew, or they said,
"would like me 'cause I'm great and will shed
the past president's disgraces
look at our faces
trust us, prosperity we'll spread"

They boasted and begged and they pleaded
and promised that others would soon be defeated
"I can only offer
what's good for your coffer
and you'll never ever feel you're mistreated"

But the people weren't dumb and they knew
that the common good was what's best and most true
how couldn't it be
that a powerful person would see
that lies were what people saw through

So the people they came and they voted
the power-hungry, they quickly demoted
all would soon know
republicans would go
a Democrat won, the world happily noted!

We also had a very succinct haiku tribute to Barack Obama from Eric Cannedy:

obama, i swoon.
how you really got my vote:
the message of hope

Serene. Thanks, Eric and Kate!

The Beatles' big break in space

Posted at 5:15 PM on February 4, 2008 by Larissa Anderson (1 Comments)

Somebody shut off the lights. Light the candles. We've got some birthdays to celebrate.

"Across the Universe" by the Beatles is 40.

NASA turns 50.

Plus, 50 years ago this week Explorer 1, the first U.S. satellite, launched,

and 45 years ago marks the beginning of Deep Space Network, an international network of antennas that supports missions to explore the universe.

Forget about singing Happy Birthday en masse and out of key.

NASA's got something else planned to mark the occasion ... like shuttling "Across the Universe" to infinity and beyond!

Will anyone hear it? It's hard to know for sure. But, it's certainly not the first time NASA sent music into space.

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In The Loop "helps" you get ready for the caucuses

Posted at 10:40 AM on February 5, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

Guess what? Our first "Super Tuesday" video is featured on the front page of YouTube!

And we just popped up a fresh video last night, full of serious and deeply earnest advice about how to get ready for the caucuses:

I also prepared (at their request) a version of our Super Tuesday song for "Weekend America." It got...um...dropped from the actual show, apparently in favor of bands at least a handful of people have actually heard of. But the song turned out great, and they did put it on the web.

YouTube stardom (whether you want it or not)

Posted at 2:28 PM on February 8, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

So we've been on an interesting ride the last few days.

On (Super) Tuesday, our "Super Tuesday fever (Not)" video got featured on the front page of YouTube. Dream come true, right?

Well, 170,000 views and 400+ comments later, it's a mixed bag.

No doubt about it, we were aiming for a video that would have some viral potential; something topical and "newsy," but funny and provocative enough to catch the winds. Score.

And we wanted to make a distinct, and quite simple, point: "Super Tuesday" may be a great excuse for a media frenzy, but for many people it is still just another Tuesday. Think of it as sprinkling a little perspective amid the ocean of Super Tuesday craziness. And we figured it would be funny to see how people responded when they didn't know.

When we headed out with the video camera, people were good-natured and willing to have fun with us. And we weren't condescending when they didn't know what Super Tuesday was. It's a free country, right?

Then comes YouTube, where the vitriol of the comments was...well, par for the course on YouTube, I guess. Our point about the gulf between the media frenzy and much of the public was widely interpreted as just a slam against the "ignorant" people we featured. Granted, some commenters got the broader point and rose to defend our interview subjects. Some of those subjects rose to defend themselves:

Please note that as one of the participants in the interview, I do have a very clear understanding of my rights/responsibilities and I exercise those rights in every election as a way to affect change and will do so again on "Super Tuesday". Perhaps we were caught a little off guard by a camera shoved in our faces, that by NO means makes us idiots nor Disgusting. HAPPY SUPER FAT TUESDAY, see you at the polls!

Thanks to her for her sense of humor, something surprisingly lacking in much of the holier-than-thou YouTube crowd. There's an irony in here somewhere: We cheer on the mindless fodder that makes up most of YouTube, but get incensed when confronted with the fact that some people don't live and breathe news and politics.

That said, the episode confirmed what I knew before: One should never confuse the rabid rantings of YouTube comments with a rational interpretation of anything. And perhaps we should be glad that so many of the comments around our video actually used correct grammar and full sentences. Baby steps.

It's raining, it's pouring . . . but mostly on weekdays.

Posted at 11:50 AM on February 11, 2008 by Sanden Totten (2 Comments)

I hate to say it, but sometimes I like what pollution has to offer.

Beautiful sunsets. Warmer climates (especially tempting if you live in Minnesota) and now . . . less rain on weekends.

A recent study found that it indeed rains less on weekends and pollution is believed to be the cause. The idea is that during the week, there is more traffic, more factories pumping out gases and more pollution hitting our skies. That pollution gets into the clouds. It helps water droplets form and ka-boom . . . you've got rain! It's sort of like an unintentional form of cloud seeding, a process originally developed by Bernard Vonnegut (the brother of novelist Kurt Vonnegut).

So ok, it's only a theory at this point. And it's not that pollution causes less rain on weekends, but rather more rain on weekdays. But still, that seems fitting. I feel much more inclined to appreciate a rainy day when I am forced to stay inside anyway. And if the same holds true for snow, think of all the extra snow days that we are creating for the children.

So, yeah, pollution is bad. But surely we can all appreciate the silver lining to this gray particle filled cloud, right?

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What'll you do with your STIMULUS CHECK?

Posted at 11:45 AM on February 13, 2008 by Jeff Horwich (1 Comments)

Any moment now, the president is going to sign the economic stimulus plan, designed to give the U.S. economy a jolt by putting fat (or is it "phat?") checks in the hands of most Americans by later this spring (along with various incentives for business and mortgage companies).

Anticipating this momentous event, Sanden and I headed out yet again (to the skyway, this time, because it's really cold out) to see whether people plan to follow the government's prompting and spend those Benjamins.

Witness:

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America . . . as viewed by Romanian school children

Posted at 11:20 AM on February 14, 2008 by Sanden Totten (1 Comments)

These days, it's hard not to notice that America's image abroad ain't what it use to be. But could it really be all bad?

A friend of mine is currently living in Romania teaching English to 9th graders. Right now they are focusing on "American Culture and Civilization" and to get started she had her children break into groups. Each group put together a list of words to answer the question "What Does It Mean to Be An American?" Here is what they said:

Group 1: money, crashing planes, big buildings, hot dogs, black people, NATO, party animals, wars, Independence Day, rebellious

Group 2: "dude", FBI, free, fighter, smart, stupid, NASA, justice, Hooters

(photo by graciepoo via Creative Commons)

Group 3: diversity, non-conformity, education, the American dream, drinking-age, marshmallows, skyscrapers, Halloween, VIP clubs

Group 4: Spongebob, Skittles, inventive, rock music, Robert Deniro, fast food

* * *

I think the back to back pairing of "smart" and "stupid" says a lot. Mostly, that our image isn't all bad, just . . . mixed. Also, I'm sure Robert Deniro would be pleased to know that he is now as internationally recognized as Spongebob. Can Al Pacino say as much?

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Big schools rake it in

Posted at 11:52 AM on February 20, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

Saw this item in the paper this morning:

Donations to colleges and universities rose solidly last year, to a record of nearly $30 billion, with the wealthiest universities again attracting a hugely disproportionate share, a new survey shows....The already wealthy schools — with leading faculty researchers and the most sophisticated fundraising operations — had the most success attracting new donations.

This version is from the AP. The item reminded me of our charity-themed episode back in October. Along the way, we asked people to think about where American donations went. In particular, we spent some time on how much went to arts and educational institutions (and how surprisingly little went to orgs that directly serve social needs).

There's no black and white here, no easy answers. A good chunk of my own household donations go to a college, so I can hardly throw stones. This article speculates that the economic downtown could shut down the boom-time for colleges. On the other hand, college giving appears to be less affected than other types.

What do you make of stats like this?

Here's a song to help with the thinking process :-)

U.S. State Department "Understatement of the Day"

Posted at 4:51 PM on February 21, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

ASSOCIATED PRESS (Wash. DC):

The State Department criticized the Serbian government Thursday, saying security that Serb police provided outside the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade "wasn't adequate" when protesters overran the building and set it on fire.

I'm inclined to agree. (This story crossed our internal wires; I don't see it yet on the web. Here are some photos of the incident from ABC.)

West St. Paul gets a theme song

Posted at 3:20 PM on February 26, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

Right now the Walker is featuring a special exhibit called "Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes." The idea is to explore the impact of the suburbs on our life and culture.

As part of it, very much in the spirit of In The Loop, they put a call out for people to submit their own five-minute video tributes to the suburb where they live or work.

One they're particularly jazzed about (based on an email that winged my way) is a fun little song from a denizen of West St. Paul.

Tongue-in-cheek yet heartfelt at the same time -- that's our kind of stuff.

MPR arts reporter Chris Roberts did a recent piece on the Worlds Away exhibit.

Real-life Robo-cop is just like any vigilante . . .

Posted at 2:25 PM on February 27, 2008 by Sanden Totten (1 Comments)

The war on crime has a new good guy . . . Well, maybe.

(Jenni Girtman/Alanta Journal-Constitution)

Rufus Terrill owns a bar in Atlanta. He was tired of drug dealers and other thugs hanging around his business, but rather than hire an expensive security guard he decided to build his own. And thus we have what surely must be the first ever, remote control, citizen-built "Robo-Cop".

The robot rolls around the neighborhood, guided by Terrill who uses a wireless camera to navigate. When it finds a crowd of suspicious looking characters . . . that's when the "robo-cop" strikes (from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution):

He flashes the robot's spotlight and grabs a walkie-talkie, which he uses to boom his disembodied voice over the robot's sound system.

"I tell them they are trespassing, it's private property, and they have to leave," he said. "They throw bottles and cans at it. That's when I shoot the water cannon. They just scatter like roaches."

Yes, a water canon. Wow. Points for ingenuity.

But the thing is, Terrill seems to have a bias against people hanging around a homeless shelter. Some neighbors worry the robot is inhumane and that he may end up targeting people who don't deserve it. And even if someone is hanging around with bad intentions, is it okay to soak them before they've actually done anything?

Much like with Batman, "robo-cop" raises the question of 'who has the right to take the justice into their own hands?' But for now, ne'er-do-wells of Atlanta beware. "Robo-cop" is out there . . . and he doesn't need probably cause to soak you to the bone.

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Democrats: Can't decide? Introducing "Barackary Clintama!"

Posted at 10:33 AM on February 28, 2008 by Jeff Horwich

For Democrats, what a choice!

The first black president, or the first woman president? The savvy Washington insider, or the fresh-thinking outsider? Change...or experience?

What if you could have it all? Introducing the ultimate hybrid Democratic candidate:

Yes, one hour with PhotoShop and such difficult choices melt away. (Click here for a large version of the master portrait.)

Is it just me, or does our Clinton-Obama Frankenstein kind of resemble Amy Poehler doing Dennis Kucinich?

Got PhotoShop skillz? Want to make your own hybrid? Send 'em to us at intheloop(at)minnesotapublicradio.org and we'll post them here.