| Survey tests college knowledge of politics
A recent study done at Tufts University in Massachusetts found college students are more likely to know that Gardner and Strickland are an Ohio senator and governor respectively, than that Malakar and Doolittle are contestants on this season's American Idol.
Last spring Melissa Miller and Shannon Orr of the University's political science department surveyed a random sample of 965 undergraduate students to test student's knowledge on political and government questions. The questions ranged from "Whose responsibility is it to determine if a law is constitutional or not" to "What school does Harry Potter attend." Miller and Orr found that more students answered the political questions correctly than the pop culture questions.
"I am always struck by how tuned in students are to politics," Miller said.
Odds of Three-Way Tie
Karpagam Rajagopal almost made game-show history on July 3, 2000. That's the day "Jeopardy" aired her second appearance, after she won $7,500 on the previous episode. Entering the final round of wagering, the library specialist from Fallon, Nev., known to her friends as "Jeeks," was tied with her opponents at $5,200. The other two bet everything, a typical strategy on the long-running, long-studied TV quiz show. But Ms. Rajagopal feared she might face a pop-culture question in the category "1962," which was 25 years before she emigrated to the U.S. from India. She bet $5,000. All three contestants correctly answered ... .
From the Mekong to the Merrimack
LOWELL -- The opera begins with the haunting cry of a buffalo horn. Then one of Cambodia's master singers, Ing Sithul, begins to intone a love story in Khmer, a romance about a Cambodian-American rock producer who returns to his native land and falls in love with a pop/karaoke singer. The tale spins out through a mix of Eastern and Western sounds: a 12th-century Cambodian pin peat ensemble of traditional instruments and gongs, a Western string quartet from the New England Orchestra , 12 Southeast Asian singers, and a blazing Cambodian rock band. They're all gathered in a room at Lowell High School for a rehearsal of "Where Elephants Weep," the first known contemporary Cambodian opera. Preview performances start here Thursday. The location is important.
Peer groups, not parents, are the biggest influence on children
It is a picture that sums up perfectly the dilemma of the well-meaning politician confronted by the disaffected young. David Cameron leans forward earnestly, brow slightly furrowed, as he addresses questions to his distracted audience. The distracted audience, a youth in a shell suit, lounges back, legs stretched out indolently, eyes semi-focused on the ceiling. No need to fill in the conversational details. They were almost certainly one-sided. How to make contact with a generation that seems to grow steadily more detached from society's mainstream is a cause of much soul-searching for all political parties, and it is driving Labour and Conservative into unexpected areas. Mr Cameron has moved back from the punitive stance of his predecessors. He says that antisocial behaviour is ultimately a matter of raising standards, and that, instead of interfering with parenting, schooling or social engineering, a "revolution in responsibility" should be launched, with people encouraged to take charge of their lives and those of their children rather than looking to government for the answers.
Be True to Your Cyberschool
Despite the enduring appeal of these group activities, two major players in online education—Kaplan and the Apollo Group— are betting the students will rally around cyber-high schools. Recently, Kaplan, a unit of the Washington Post Co. (WPO), and Phoenix-based Apollo Group (APOL) have both acquired companies that run online high schools, allowing them to expand their reach to teenagers seeking a nontraditional education experience. The companies are jumping in on what looks to be the next promising market in online education—online charter and private high schools. Eduventures, a Boston-based research group, estimated the total online higher education market at $8.1 billion in 2006. Kaplan announced on Apr. 11 it had acquired Sagemont Virtual, a company that runs the private University of Miami Online High School and Virtual Sage, which develops online high school courses.
Stomach-churning reality? 2 VH1 gurus beg to differ
HOLLYWOOD - The LA mansion appeared serene from the outside - a stark contrast to the controlled chaos within. Charm School was in session.
Technicians paraded around wires, production equipment and heavy lights. In one cramped space, two producers huddled in front of TV monitors, looking at several women in custom "schoolgirl" uniforms.
Mark Cronin and Cris Abrego gazed at a live picture transmitted from another room where an etiquette class was being conducted. When one camera zoomed in on a frowning "pupil" with a history of troubled relationships, they exchanged triumphant glances. .
LC XXX? MTV has renewed reality soap The Hills for a third season ...
LC XXX? MTV has renewed reality soap The Hills for a third season this summer, but star Lauren Conrad may be getting some unwanted video exposure before then. Perezhilton.com reports that Conrad's ex-boyfriend, Jason Wahler, is looking for a buyer for a homemade sex tape with Conrad. Even though she got the tape back from him, Wahler kept a copy. According to Perezhilton.com's sources the tape is ``fairly standard stuff,'' but still very embarrassing for Conrad since The Hills is edited ``to make Lauren look like a goodie two shoes.'' As the site warns: ``If you don't want people seeing you naked, DON'T MAKE A SEX TAPE.'' Which might make a good public-service announcement during The Hills. • CNN Shakeup. The unrelated but similarly named Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien are being taken off CNN's American Morning in favor of John Roberts and Kiran Chetry, effective April 16.
Heroes of a different sort
Parody Press Comics has announced the upcoming release of Hewoes #1, a comic book satire of NBC's popular superhero drama, Heroes. The title is written and illustrated by longtime comics veteran Bill Maus and will ship with two different covers, a "Good Hewoes" cover and a "Bad Hewoes" cover. "When cheerleader Klair Bendit discovers her weird flexibility powers playing Twister and her dad's secret project involving strangers from around the world, the fun begins," said Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, Don Chin. "Bill Maus has a keen eye at poking fun at pop culture, and his art style on this book is much in the vein of the classic Mad Magazine satires, complete with grey tones and square word balloons." "Hewoes introduces readers to the enigmatic Pastrami brothers, Internet Weathergirl Sniki Sanders, constipated Japanese office worker Hewoe, and Mohinder Night Shalaman, who is trying to make sense of the whole thing while a berserk hairdresser named Styler is on the rampage!" said Maus, from his studio in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
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