Federer Stands Alone

In 2004, Roger Federer topped the world tennis rankings and began an unprecedented reign of 237 weeks as number one. Since then, other superstar players have emerged, including Federer’s famous rival, Rafael Nadal, and most recently Novak Djokovic. Although Federer is still an active player at a high level, his accomplishments so far have already earned him the title of the Greatest Player of All Time.

This era of tennis has been sensational to watch. A large part of the reason is simply Federer’s grace and playing style. On the court, Federer glides around effortlessly and makes fantastic shots. As Todd Woodbridge once said, “Tennis is a beautiful sport and its greatest beauty is Roger Federer's play.” Off the court, Federer is a humble and classy humanitarian who was ranked second in a recent survey on the most trusted and respected people in the world (behind Nelson Mandela). These two factors have done a great deal in drawing many new spectators toward tennis, including myself.

For me, however, one of the most interesting things about Federer and his era is simply watching him shatter records. In mid-2009, he broke Pete Sampras’s record for most Grand Slam titles, a highly regarded metric of success. However, this only scratches the surface of what Federer has done. For someone interested in statistics and records, it’s fascinating to know whenever Federer steps on the court, he might be breaking another record.

My favorite statistic about Federer’s career, which illustrates how truly dominant and unique his era is, would be the number of successive Grand Slam finals. The old record was four, set by Andre Agassi. Federer’s own streak was cut in half by his semifinal loss to Novak Djokovic in 2008 in Australia. How long were the two resulting streaks? Ten and eight.

- Renjie You

Plus One System Gains a New Friend:

Another year of Bowl Championship Series (BCS) selections have been made and another year of discontent with the current system has begun to reign. Every year following the BCS selections, people lament that the system to determine the national champion should be better. There are people that have championed a full sixteen-team playoff and every idea in between, but the alternative to the BCS that seems to be gaining the most traction right now is called the “plus-one playoff.”

The Plus-One model has been discussed for an extended period of time and was actually brought before all of the conference leaders in a vote in 2008, but it did not gain the required amount of votes to pass. Since that vote, college football has changed dramatically and the grumblings of the fans have gotten significantly louder. It is important that the Big 12 commissioner has begun to support the plus-one system, because he had been one of two very staunch critics in the past (the other being the Big 10 commissioner Jim Delaney), because he was afraid it would create a loss of revenue for his conference.

The reason that conference commissioners seem closer to making a change to the plus-one system is due to the situation from this year’s BCS selections. Nobody is disputing LSU’s right to play in the national championship game, but there were 3 one-loss teams waiting right in the wings to play LSU. This is the perfect scenario for a plus one system where all four of these teams would have had an opportunity to play their way into the national championship. Right now all of the athletic directors and conference commissioners, except Jim Delaney, are showing support for the plus one. However, they all keep prefacing the change to a plus one system with the word “eventually,” so it seems that the fans will still have to wait some time before there is a fairer system for choosing who plays in the national championship of college football.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/andy_staples/12/06/plus-one-playoff/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/football/ncaa/12/07/plus-one-support.ap/index.html?sct=hp_t2_a8&eref=sihp

By: The Sports Guru (Patrick McCullough)

Breaking Down Breaking Bad Good

In the pilot episode of the American Movie Channel’s Breaking Bad, milquetoast high school chemistry teacher Walter White passes out at the car wash where he moonlights, and is rushed to the emergency room. Regaining consciousness in the ambulance, he tries to dissuade the medics from taking him to the hospital, mumbling, “I don’t have the best insurance plan.” If he had had any power to convince them to let him out, to halt the train of events hurtling toward him with all the force of inevitability, then there would be no show. But, as it must happen, the medics rebuff Walter’s pleas and deposit him in the emergency room, where he is diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer.

His condition changes him irrevocably and, in a response as psychologically defensive is as it is physically aggressive, he sets about changing everything else, quitting his car wash job in favor of cooking meth to pay for his treatments. In one scene he undergoes a bout of chemotherapy; in the next, he tyrannizes his juvenile partner or wins a perilous game of chicken with a deranged kingpin. The show tracks his evolution from timorous teacher to terrible drug trafficker but, unlike many popular works that take a villain as their protagonist, it is not in the business of excusing his actions. Walter’s rationalizing mantra that he does everything for his family is juxtaposed with its chronic dissolution at the hands of his secrecy and rampant risk-taking.

Holding the characters ruthlessly accountable for their actions, the writers bring a quality of realism to a fantastic story; and the superb actors acutely register the repercussions they face in their tones, manners and, most of all, in their expressions in long, awkward shots that follow with silence many of the show’s loud and explosive interactions. While the plot is a nail-biter, the real power of the show derives from these still moments, these moments of accounting, in which external forces clash with the characters’ internal fortitudes. With its incredible premise, Breaking Bad poignantly depicts the universal story of a man struggling against his fate.

-Hana Al-Henaid

Wanna Be On Top?

-Megan Schwarz

America's Next Top Model (ANTM) is one of many successful reality television series that has helped define the genre. ANTM first premiered in 2003 (only eight years ago), and yet the show just completed its 17^th cycle, or season, on December 7, 2011. Yes, Tyra Banks has produced over two cycles of ANTM per year for the past eight years. This kind of success (measured solely by the number of seasons, not counting spin-offs) is almost unparalleled in the reality TV genre, even by shows like American Idol or The Bachelor. After 17 seasons, it seems like the series might begin to lose some of its popularity and fan base, but Tyra and the other producers of the show have found a some sort of magical formula that will continue to entertain fans for at least one more cycle.

Cycle 17 of ANTM is different from all of the other seasons because it is the “All-Star” cycle, meaning all of the participants were contestants from former seasons of the show. Bringing back former contestants is a risky decision for Tyra Banks, but ultimately I think her decision paid off. This cycle was clearly geared towards fans who have seen every cycle; in fact, the contestants are dubbed the “fan-favorites” from the other seasons. Bringing back former contestants means that fans immediately feel invested in the competition because they already “know” the participants, and the viewers do not feel like they have to spend the first three episodes of the season deciding for whom they want to root. However, bringing back previous contestants can alienate new viewers; the show introduces each contestant with brief flashbacks to their earlier time on the show, but there is still an expectation that the audience will recognize almost everyone. This is particularly an issue with contestants Shannon and Camille (from cycles 1 and 2, respectively) because they were on the show so long ago that it is very likely that many of the current fans of ANTM have not seen those seasons and therefore do not know who they are. Some of the audience may feel left out as a result, which can lead to lost viewership. On the other hand, this could also spur those members of the audience who do not recognize some former contestants to look them up and watch those cycles on their own time, which could actually increase viewership.

There is no way of knowing how the audience will react to bringing back former contestants, but the producers clearly decided that the potential benefits outweighed the potential negatives, and their calculated risk seems to have paid off. Cycle 17 was successful enough to lead to cycle 18, which is currently in the works, and Tyra Banks does not seem to be stopping there. I'm sure there will be many more seasons of America's Next Top Model in the coming years if the fans have anything to say about it.

Are We Really Here for the Music?

One Sunday afternoon, I attended a Lively Arts event featuring the St. Lawrence String Quartet, the ensemble-in-residence at Stanford University.The concert repertoire included some music I was already very familiar with: Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in D Minor and Franz Schubert’s String Quartet No.15 in G Major. In fact, I had already seen the quartet perform one of these pieces a while back. Most of the time I decide to buy concert tickets, it’s usually to experience the music, whatever it is, and the musicians, whoever they are, in a live concert hall. But this time, it was different. When some of my friends from my music theory class had planned to go to this event together as a group, I couldn’t miss out. It wasn’t required for the class or anything, but I just felt like I had to be part of it. I’ve attended numerous classical music concerts so I know when I am really going for the music or the musicians. But this time, it wasn’t that.

When I arrived at the concert hall, I went through the usual protocol (although it has never been formally or officially established, everyone is pretty familiar with the concert etiquette): after being seated at the designated spot as indicated on my ticket, I perused the program notes and shared some conversations with my friends and other audience members nearby. Shortly after, the lights dimmed to signal the starting of the concert as well as to remind everyone to turn off our cellphones and watches. The audience soon fell silent and the quartet appeared on stage accompanied by our applause. After bowing and tuning their instruments, they began playing music. As expected, the audience remained silent for the duration of the program.

As described above, this is what goes on during a classical music concert. Sadly to admit, there’s really nothing exciting about the experience. Typically for two hours, we are to have our eyes fixed on stage, listening to the music and applauding here and there at the end of each piece. Really, there’s nothing we could contribute but simply our attention to what has been prepared for us by the musicians. Most of the time as I have mentioned before, I am there to really enjoy the music and the sight of live performance, but at times, there are other reasons as to why I find myself undergoing such a stultifying experience. It’s the people around me.

If it weren’t for my friends that day, I probably would have never planned on attending the concert. I find myself simply being in the audience more satisfying than experiencing the music. The bigger the concert venue, more fulfilling that is. Seeing more people dressed up for the occasion, I feel more committed to the experience. Could this perhaps mean concert attendance has other meanings and purposes besides experiencing live music? Indeed, sometimes I find myself being there for other reasons, such as to tell others of my music interests, to gain other attendees’ acknowledgement of my presence, and to verify my music knowledge and tastes. Classical music concert audience is known to have higher socioeconomic status than other music genre’s audience. Perhaps, we confirm our social position in the larger community through our attendance at these events. By letting each other in the audience know that we are there, we validate our class, identity, and social culture.

When I go back home for winter break, my friends and I have decided to attend an orchestra concert together. For me, this is one way to catch up with them- to remind each other of our musical preferences and interests, to tell them I still belong to the classical music group, to renew my position in that world.

Twhoops! Celebrity Bloopers on Twitter

by Laura Potter

Celebs these days have it so good. They live stylish, fabulous lives and have millions of adoring fans worldwide who pay to buy their music, go to their movies, and promote them into even bigger deals than they already are in popular culture. Social media websites like Facebook and Twitter serve as online platforms for audiences to engage with these stars on a "personal" level...or as personal as it's ever going to get with A-listers. With all the potential wrapped up in these sites, you'd expect celebs to make the most this extra beam of online limelight. Evidently, it's easier said than tweeted.

When a celeb thoughtlessly types out a 160-character-or-less snapshot of his glamorous life, he may not always be thinking about how he has his mass audience literally at his fingertips. If he slips up and angers his fans with so much as one insensitive tweet, his reputation - indeed, his entire career - could take a huge blow. We recently saw this occur in the case of Ashton Kutcher, and many other celebrity Twitterers have made similar slip-ups in the past as well. Calling all clueless celebrities! (i)Pads and pencils at the ready: it's time to take notes on some of the major faux pas and "Twhoops!" moments in celebrity tweeting to come up with a "do"s and "don't”s list for today's celebritwitty population:

#1: The First Lesson Learned from Ashton Kutcher – Stay Well-Informed
Ashton wields so much online influence on sites like Twitter that the LAPD once asked him to tweet about an upcoming closure of the freeway so that L.A. residents would have fair warning. Today, he is lying low, his days of freely posting to his Twitter account a painful repressed memory, as he tries to escape the furious reactions of thousands of Twitter followers to his uninformed post protesting the firing of Penn State coach Joe Paterno. To prevent mishaps like these (especially when your tweets reach over eight million people, as Ashton’s do), it would be highly advisable to gather the facts and think before you tweet.

#2: The Second Lesson Learned from Ashton – Don't Delete the Tweet
Realizing his error, Ashton deleted the offending post but by then it was already too late. In fact, it was the worst thing he could have done, according to TheNextWeb’s West Coast Editor Drew Olanoff in an interview for The Hollywood Reporter. "He misspoke, OK, fine, he's human. The social media mistake was that he deleted the tweet -- then he did apologize, which is great -- then, he erratically wrote that he’s not going to tweet for a while until he had a solution.” What have we learned from Ashton’s gaffe? Don’t shy away from your mistake! Hiding from angry Twitter followers by sweeping the evidence under the rug is not only going to fail epically since the damage has already been done, but also not going to solve any problems. Besides, getting rid of the tweet makes you look like a bit of a coward.

#3: The Final Lesson Learned from Ashton – Own Up When You Screw Up
As Olanoff mentioned, if Ashton did do one thing right in this whole mess, it was to apologize for his insensitive comment in his next tweet. Simply deleting the post and evading public scrutiny entirely without any recognition of his wrongdoing would have been even more condemning for Ashton. He showed that he at least cared about his mistake, which allowed for a slightly more graceful retreat from Twitter than if he had just up and left.

#4: The Lesson Learned from Kanye West – Imma Do Me
Huh? Kanye, really? Yes, my doubting readers, Kanye has something of value to teach us as well. This lesson might be better entitled "Kanye West vs. The World." Kanye is one of those rare examples where outlandish, rude Twitter posts (not to mention similar behavioral tendencies in his day-to-day life) work to his advantage. For example, after a Today Show interview with Matt Lauer left Kanye feeling ambushed, the infamous rapper cancelled an upcoming performance and took refuge in Twitter, accusing the show of being a "set up." He's also tweeted that superstars like Lily Allen or Britney Spears are, in fact, "gold diggers." Except for his one really badly received blunder at the 2009 VMA's when he simultaneously offended Taylor Swift and most of the planet, Kanye has remained a highly successful rap artist. He recovered from that mistake by apologizing to the wronged party, but unlike most celebrities, Kanye is usually accepted by both his fans and his haters as a ridiculous persona from whom such behavior is accepted, even if it is not acceptable.

However, if you're not Kanye West, you should probably play it a bit safer on the social networking site. Twitter has the potential for promotion and happy fan-celebrity interactions, but careless tweets can also cause a great deal of damage. While Ashton’s story cautions us, Kanye reminds us that it is okay to be ourselves online. Whether you are an infamous celebrity or just another average Joe trying to make your way through cyberspace, maintaining your voice as a Twitter or other social networking site user is key for a successful experience. Cross as many lines as you like (it’s clearly working for Kanye) but make sure you do so consciously and responsibly.

How I Met Everyone Else: How I Met Your Mother’s Extended Success

The popular sitcom How I Met Your Mother is now in its seventh season, with an eighth season already announced. But the very idea of a show called How I Met Your Mother running for seven or eight years just seems absurd. How can you sustain a narrative around a single meeting? How can you maintain interest in a show where the most anticipated and promised even is pushed back by years? And of course, has he met the mother yet?

The main character (and the titular “I”) is Ted Moseby. The show follows him and his closest friends – Marshall, Lily, Barney, and Robin – as they go through life in New York City. We see the daily ups and downs of life and the romantic adventures of the group. Through it all, however, we still have (probably) not met the mother. We do know, however, a lot of details about her; Ted meets her at Barney’s wedding, Ted has dated her roommate, Ted accidentally stole her yellow umbrella once, etc. This exemplifies most of the audience’s interaction with the mother; we are periodically given subtle hints about the mother and the audience loves to guess what these hints mean.

These hints actually illustrate how the show has maintained interest over the past seven years. Just as How I Met Your Mother develops the storyline of the mother through subtle clues, it uses them to open up new storylines; How I Met Your Mother is chock full of clues and references for the audience to pore over, even in areas completely unrelated to how Ted meets the mother. And through these hints, the show can develop new and just as interesting storylines: the possibility of Barney, a serial womanizer, getting married before Ted or the idea of Robin, a workaholic who hates family, becoming a mother. Combined with incredible acting and a hilarious script, How I Met Your Mother has thereby been able to thrive for the past seven years without introducing one of the titular characters.

-Rohan Puttagunta

Modern Family: After the Fire Under Fire

Another episode of Modern Family only means another twenty-one minutes of hysteric laughter with a punch of meaningful life lessons. Modern Family’s eighth episode of their third season, After the Fire, was no different; it was saturated with quick-witted humor and ironic circumstances that always seem to put the characters into some sort of a bind. However, something about the way that this episode spoke out was unique and not in a good way.

The typically clear and enrapturing plot line was thrown away in a choppy, multidirectional plot that strayed away from a concise and engaging story. Yes, Modern does enjoy employing separate plot lines that are closely connected and ironic, yet in this episode the effort came off as forced. The underlying story of Claire Dunphy and Gloria Pritchet rallying together to help out the neighbors after their house burned down was lost in the frenzy of Jay hurting his back, Luke and Manny stealing a toy helicopter, Cam, Haley, and Alex driving a moving van, Mitchell and Claire talking smack about Gloria, and the developments of those stories as well. Seems hard to track it all, doesn’t it? Well just try to watch the episode without mixing up whose doing what, where, when, and why.

Nevertheless, there was something redeeming about this episode: the fact that Modern Family still retained its quick-witted, bantering humor among the characters. All of the characters always have their minor quarrels that erupt into larger, more awkward debacles and this episode followed the same amusing scheme. Yet, there was, again, something obscure that didn’t resonate right within this episode. The playful banter with the characters constant criticism of one another was unoriginal and stole from other episodes and seasons. I often thought to myself while watching if for some reason this episode acted as a culmination of typical jokes among the characters and that the writer felt would help establish the stereotypes of the characters more. This becomes readily apparent within the first 5 minutes when Claire gossips about Gloria’s accent and mocking her “snickersnackers”. Just after she explains to Mitchell, “That’s what we do; when Gloria says something silly we innocently laugh behind her back.” It sounded awkward and out of place when she pointed out the audience; it seemed like a corny effort to jump out at the crowd to remind them why her character is funny. Claire’s example of “explaining why she’s funny” fell through with most every character as they went through their personas and described them through humor.

As an adamant “Modern” fan, it was disappointing to see how this episode panned out. I wish that After the Fire didn’t have to come under too much fire and fortunately the next episode restored all that was normal in the realm of Modern Family.

By: Grant Delgado

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRXjqpfOnS0

Whats Goin on...
-by Jonah Mowry


This is definitely a work of art. Setting the naysayers aside, I truly believe the video is legitimate. On the surface we see a young 8th grade boy names Jonah Mowry who tells his story via poorly written postcards. His story is emotional, moving, and extremely relevant to today. Jonah is a victim of bullying and mental trauma. On one postcard he exclaims, “A lot of people hate me... I don’t know why... But i gues i do. Cuz I kinda hate me too...”
Jonah’s story is very typical of younger kids. Victims of bullying are often driven to negative introspection, and they blame themselves. I think Jonah’s video has a great message: at the end he says, “I’m not going anywhere... I have a million reasons to be Here.” His story is a powerful appeal to our inner self, a call for all those who have been bullied to stand up and believe in themselves. People will always try to make themselves feel better by knocking us down. It is up to us to get back up.

9GAG.com => one more soul lost.

I’d like to introduce a relatively new sensation of the Internet that is addicting people from different age groups and countries: Internet Memes.

Lets start with the basics.
What is a meme?
A meme is defined as an element of a culture or behavior that may be passed from one individual to another by non-genetic means.
O.K. Then what are Internet memes?
An Internet meme is an idea that is propagated online. A meme can be a video, picture, website referencing various ideas, feelings and situations.

Making long story short: It is the new addiction of students that hinders them from starting studying .

But actually what does this website have for you inside?

9Gag.com is an open webpage for people to upload interesting compilations of images from various resources to visualize an idea or a funny situation that people can relate to.
However, trying to categorize all the memes would be arduous. But more importantly, it would be against the nature of the memes because they are unpremeditated in their nature and their sources.
Only attempting to categorize in order to express the gist of these memes, I can say there are 3 main types of memes in terms of the format:
1-Rage faces: These are small comics of some facial expressions. Some these graphics came to include some of the particular facial expressions of celebrities. i.e. Yao Ming’s “Careless” face. These are all facial expressions that people have witnessed and expressed before. Moreover, these are the expressions that the audience probably would have expressed if they were in the situation portrayed.


2- Poster formats: These are posters with an upper and a lower caption with a certain image that is well known at the center.
In some instances, the lower caption defies or provides a different view to the statement made in the upper caption, thus stimulating the brain in a way that clever jokes do. As some of these center images become more popular in the cyber-realm, people create series of that character (center image) in different situations.
3. Interesting posts: These are random images or videos from all around the globe that are deemed interesting, may it be a creative teapot design or, an everyday picture with a different caption that provides a totally new outlook on the issue. Another form that I may classify under this tittle is the form in which various scenes from movies, or pictures are compiled to provide an absurd visualization of a humorous idea or a situation.


Memes are interesting and addictive in the sense that they stimulate the brain like witty jokes do.

There are a couple of points that I’d like to highlight about 9Gag.com aside from the amusing uploads. First of all, since 9Gag.com is an open website, people can comment on them, through their Facebook accounts, and delve into an international group of people that appreciate these comics of the decade. Only to add to this, since the posts are updated relatively fast, this provides a basis for people to talk about new posts.

All in all, this is simply another platform for people to connect on a certain type interest. Moreover, since usually these memes are about generally well known topics, or situations that we also have been in or may be in, it seems interesting that we have so much common with other people around the globe about what they would do or how they would react. Here is one of the recent examples from fellow students all around the globe, sharing our distress with finals.



by Kaan Erdogdu

The controversy of the BCS

College football is a very large aspect of our society today. With the season coming to a close, the BCS will select the top teams to play in the national championship. Criticism of the BCS began with its inception. The BCS utilizes a system where a formula determines team rankings, and then the top two teams are selected to play in the national championship. Many people make enemies with the BCS simply because they are opposed to the idea of a computer selecting the best teams. A computer can’t take into account any of the intangibles relating to a football season. These intangibles may include, injuries, suspensions, outside controversies distracting the team, and many more. Furthermore, the national championship should be a game between the current best two teams. However, the BCS computer rankings take into account an average of each game played. It a team began their season in a slump, but ended up playing like the best team, their chances of making the championship are miniscule because of the beginning of their season. The BCS is very unforgiving that offers little room for error.

That being said, the BCS remains in effect today. Some people suggest a playoff system similar to the NFL to determine the national champion, but this method is difficult due to the time restrictions(length of season) of college athletes. Until someone can implement an effective alternative, the BCS will continue to cast its shadow on college football. This year LSU will play Alabama in the national championship, but Oklahoma State was a close contender to play in this game due to their impressive performances late in the season. With a playoff season Oklahoma State might be playing in the national championship, but they will try to bloke these distracting thoughts as they take on the Stanford Cardinal in what is considered the next best game, the Fiesta Bowl.

-Jamin Ball