Info

Because my opinions are better than yours

Archive for September, 2008

Amherst College surveyed its incoming freshman class and the demographic analysis of its Class of 2012 is pretty interesting. While, as mentioned in the title of this post, we were almost certainly much cooler than them when we were freshmen in college, it seems relatively likely that these kids have more iPhones than we did our first year of college…and iPhones are awesome. Anyway, here are some of the statistics from the article at Collision Detection:

 

Percentage of first-year applicants who applied online in 2003: 33%.
                      Percentage of applicants who did last year: 89%.

          By the end of August 2008 the total number of members and posts at the Amherst College                                           Class of 2012 Facebook group: 432 members and 3,225 posts.

           Students in the class of 2012 who registered computers, IPhones, game consoles, etc. on the                                      campus network by the end of the day on August 24th, the day they moved into their dorm                                            rooms: 370 students registered 443 devices.

           Number of students in the class of 2012 who brought desktop computers to campus: 14.

           Likelihood that a student with an iPhone/iTouch is in the class of 2012: approximately 1 in 2.

          Total number of students on campus this year that have landline phone service: 5.

          Mac or PC? Of the four classes currently on campus the classes of 2009 and 2010 are more                                         likely to own Windows, while the classes of 2011 and 2012 are more likely to own Macs.

[via kottke for a change]

The 139th online comment in response to a New York Times portrait of the late author was by a former teacher of his:

I can’t say how his death makes me feel: he may have had the words, but I don’t.
So here’s a true fact to embellish his reputation (not that it needs much embellishment):

He wrote two senior theses at Amherst. A creative thesis in English that was his first novel, “The Broom of the System,” and a philosophy thesis on fatalism. Both were judged to be Summa Cum Laude theses. The opinion of those who looked at the philosophy thesis was that it, too, with just a few tweaks to flesh out the scholarly apparatus, was a publishable piece of creative philosophy investigating the interplay between time and modality in original ways.

That much is probably common knowledge. Here’s what is not so widely known: Though theses normally take a whole school year to write, DFW had complete drafts of his theses by Christmas, and they were finished by spring break. He spent the last quarter of his senior year reading, commenting on, and generally improving the theses of all his friends and acquaintances. It was a great year for theses at Amherst.

[via Kottke]

Right now you can read everything Wallace ever wrote for Harper’s for free online, or check out the one thing he wrote that has always stuck in my mind: “Federer as Religious Experience” (from the August 20th, 2006 issue of the New York Times)(he was an avid tennis enthusiast).

A gutted 747 is being transformed into “Jumbohostel,” a hotel complete with 25 rooms, 85 beds and a deluxe cockpit suite to be permanently parked at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport. From the Swedish company’s poorly-translated website:

Welcome to one of the world’s coolest hostels! Here you can spend the night onboard a real jumbo jet – in the ground! Choose between sparkling three-bed rooms with shared shower and toilet in the corridor or the luxury suite in the converted cockpit with its panoramic view of the airport. At Jumbo Hostel you´re guaranteed a unique and outstanding experience at a good price.

Hotel 747.jpg

200809150858.jpg

jumbo_hostel_03.jpg