Will Glossy Pages Be Replaced by Bright Screens?

The iPad, Apple's latest much-hyped device, seeks to become the world's coolest digital text-reading device. And if it's cool and about reading, the magazine publishers want in on it. According to this recent Associated Press article, several top magazine publishers are developing iPad editions.

Who knows where this will lead.

Attention, Transfer Center Fans!

On Wednesday and Thursday this week, Kevin Meza of the Transfer Center was in class talking about how to get to the UC, Cal State, and other universities around California. Here's the Transfer Center's GCC page. The Transfer Center is also on Facebook.

Orson Welles, Version 2.0

It may not have been a remake of Orson Welles' classic 1938 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast, but a recent fake television news report overseas created a familiar round of mass hysteria, followed by anger.

Georgia, a farming region that was once part of the Soviet Union, was at war with its much bigger neighbor, Russia, only two years ago. So when Georgian television depicted a new Russian invasion, a lot of people believed it, even though the broadcast contained disclaimers.

A National Public Radio story on the situation generated a discussion about just how much trust we should place in media.

Baaaad Politics

The Internet is just beginning to make an impact on elections. In 2008, the Obama Campaign figured out how to raise large amounts of money online. Candidates now blog, tweet, and put their speeches on campaign websites.

And then there's YouTube, where candidates for every office from student body president on up is tempted to place a campaign video or two. In the Republican primary for the U.S. Senate seat from California, candidate Tom Campbell is the target of a truly strange attack ad that has become a cult favorite on YouTube.

This Los Angeles Times article wonders if this so-called "Demon Sheep" ad is what politics is headed for in the Internet age.

Soon, We'll All Be Wearing Those Geeky Glasses

Digital 3-D movies are about to hit your local multiplex in a big way. JP Morgan Chase & Co. has raised money to finance the upgrade of about 12,000 movie screens across the country. This will mean that more movies will be released in digital 3-D, that ticket prices will go up, and the studios will make more in movie rental fees while slashing their distribution costs.

But are we willing to pay 3-D ticket prices? The Los Angeles Times reports.

Scholarship Opportunity

Your humble blogger gets occasional emails about scholarships. This is from Susan Borquez-Dougherty, who can be emailed at susand@glendale.edu for further details...

From: susand@glendale.edu
Subject: [gcc] So. Cal. Gas Co. Scholarship
Date: March 1, 2010 3:43:45 PM PST
To: gcc@glendale.edu

Hi all: Our generous board member, Tony Tartaglia has offered our GCC students an opportunity to apply for the So. Cal. Gas Co. Scholarship. The criteria is:

Must be transferring in Sept. 2010
Must have 2.5 GPA or higher
Must be US Citizen or Permanent Resident
Must be pursuing a career in Business or Engineering
Must have financial need

Please send any qualified candidates to me in SC202 ASAP.

Thanks, your referrals have been terrific.

Susan

________________________________________________________________________
Susan Borquez-Dougherty
Scholarship Program Manager

Maybe NBC Means 'Nobody's Buying Commercials'

NBC Universal paid $2 billion for television rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games before the current recession, and before younger viewers began to focus on Facebook and YouTube. For the recently concluded winter games in Vancouver, this translated into 835 hours of programming on NBC Universal's broadcast and cable channels and, unfortunately, and estimated loss of around $250 million.

Oh yeah, and the Olympics are facing a growing problem with audience demographics: they are increasingly having trouble drawing the younger viewers that advertisers generally covet. The Los Angeles Times reports that the media company is left hoping for a wildly successful summer Olympics in London two years from now.