Friday poll results

Does your mag run a column written by someone in your university's administration?

• Yes, every issue (we're required to): 7 votes (30%)


• Only occasionally (whenever one of our bigwigs needs a mouthpiece): 3 votes (13%)


• Hardly ever (only in special cases): 5 votes (21%)


• No way in hell are they getting in there (the honrary Conrad J. Storad answer): 8 votes (34%)

The 100-year-old photo blog

Check out some photographic highlights from the past 100 years over at Shorpy, the 100-year-old photo blog.

C_YK?

Stop the presses: Magenta Ain't A Color (Null Hypothesis)

I wonder why this never caught on?

Friday poll results

Is there a "best place" to put a story you want to call attention to*? (Front of the mag? Back? Middle?)

• right up front: readers will see it there first: 4 votes (18%)


• make it the centerfold: 9 votes (40%)


• put it near the back: 0 votes (0%)


• it doesn't matter/there's no way to tell: 9 votes (40%)

*Note: this concerns feature stories that, for one reason or another, are not or cannot be the cover story.

Friday fun

• How your printer tricks you into buying ink and toner when you don't need it. (Slate)


• Slim Gaillard was a jazz musician/vocalist popular during the late-30s/early-50s. He popularized a 'Hipster's Argot' called 'Vout' which is present in lots of his recordings. These scans are from a promotional leaflet that compile the various words of Slim's dialect: Vout-O-Reenee Dictionary (boingboing)


• And finally, photos of disassembled household appliances (flickr)

Or maybe they just wanted some lasagna ...

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/li153133-italy-turtles/

I feel dizzy

A surreal photograph of the Burj Dubai Skyscraper, the world's tallest.

One way to win a debate.

A professor at a Kansas university who dropped his pants and mooned a room full of students and teachers is under investigation after video of the incident was posted on YouTube, school officials said.

"We're sure that there's probably some facts and information that's just not available. I mean, you see a lot on the video, but we need to make sure everything is revealed before we take any action," said Fort Hays provost Larry Gould.

Sounds like everything has already been revealed, Larry.

No word on perks for employees, though

"High Point University (just south of Greensboro, N.C.) is not quite Club Med ("Club Ed," it was called by the Chronicle of Higher Education) but provides free ice cream for students, a hot tub in the middle of campus, wake-up calls, and a concierge service, all run by a campus "director of WOW," whose job it is to thrill the "clients" and attract new ones. This is the strategy of President Nido Qubein, a motivational speaker and "customer comes first" businessman, and so far, enrollment is way up (even at higher tuition), new construction is transforming the campus, and $100 million is in the bank." [Chronicle of Higher Education, 7-4-08, via News of the Weird]