This article also appears in the Coffee and Code blog.
I’m a bit swamped with work and other things, so the Toronto Coffee and Code events are taking a hiatus for a couple of weeks. Worry not, it’s a temporary thing, and in a couple of Fridays – May 29th, to be precise, Coffee and Code will make a triumphant return, all phoenix-like, to the Dark Horse Cafe at 215 Spadina on Friday, May 29th from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m..
This article also appears in Global Nerdy.
Another internet meme made the big time today – today’s edition of CNN’s “American Morning” ended with anchor Kiran Chetry announcing that they would be “played out” by “Keyboard Cat”. In case you haven’t yet seen them, Keyboard Cat videos all follow the same formula:
This is my favourite Keyboard Cat video, in which a guy learns an important lesson in nunchuk safety:
This one, featuring a guy whose parents are trying to convince him that it’s bad idea to broadcast his meltdown online, is a close second:
English Russia reports that the test below has been making the rounds in Russian blogs. It is purported to be a test issued by the Russian army “to identify any hidden psychological diseases” in new recruits. They look like standard colour-blindness tests; if you can’t see the number inscribed in any of one them, you might have a problem:
Here’s the key to the tests:
| If you can’t see the number in this circle: | Here’s what might be wrong with you, according to Russian Army psychologists: |
| 1 | “High aggression, proneness to conflict, the recommendation is to add more physical exercise and cold showers.” |
| 2 | “Possible low than average intellectual abilities, can’t serve with sophisticated equipment.” |
| 3 | “Possible debauchery, soldier should get increased daily ration, should get more physical activity tasks, should not be connected to food supplies, etc.” |
| 4 | “Possible inclination to violence, can be assigend as a leader to his unit, as he can preserve discipline.” |
| 5 | “Possible latent homosexuality. Can be light uncontrolled accesses of attraction to the same sex.” |
| 6 | “Possible schizophrenic tendency. Required additional inspection.” |
I can see the numbers in all the circles, save circle 5. I swear, I wore those assless chaps only once!
Forget whether or not you think Arizona State University’s decision not to give President Obama an honourary degree because he hasn’t achieved enough yet was a mistake. The real lesson to learn from the whole affair is that you should never do an interview with a journalist, even a “fake news show” journo, unless:
It would appear from this Daily Show clip that very few people from Arizona State (they call it “the Harvard of Date Rape”, which is probably a reference to this recent case) would be able to meet conditions 2 and 3:
(In case you were wondering, no, Alexander Hamilton was not a President.)
Even people with three-digit IQs from real universities, such as my alma mater Crazy Go Nuts University, have fallen prey to this trap. I remember a student couple who complained about being featured in a “Sex on Campus” article in Macleans magazine even though they were interviewed about sex on campus (the young woman even boasted of her “European attitude towards sex”, which probably made her quite popular at the pub) and consented to being photographed together in a bed.
Getting back to Arizona State: although it looks like a great party school, it still failed to earn a place in Playboy’s 2009 Top Party Schools list, as featured in COED magazine.
As for dealing with the media, I would recommend that at the very least, you should read a book like Media Training 101. If you have a little more money and you’re in the Accordion City area, I would also suggest taking some training from someone like my friend Michael O’Connor Clarke, who’s forgotten more about dealing with the media than most people have learned.
It would probably go something like this:
Yes, you’ll need to have seen the Milton-Bradley boardgame “Guess Who?” and this scene from the Quentin Tarantino flick Pulp Fiction to be in on the joke:
If you don’t get the joke, this image search may help you.
[Photo courtesy of Certified Bullshit Technician.]