Shortly after being named the winner of an election described as a sham by many American onlookers, Russian president-elect Dmitry Medvedev received a phone call from President Bush yesterday. The Russian media said Bush called to offer Medvedev congratulations, but White House spokeswoman Dana Perino wouldn’t describe it as such. What a tease. It seems Medvedev’s first major test will be to figure out if Bush likes him or likes him likes him.
Rating: eight out of 10.
Welcome, Putin 2.0
Does he look like Obama?
The venerable late-night comedy show “Saturday Night Live” took criticism last week after casting Fred Armisen, an actor of white and Asian descent, to imitate black presidential candidate Barack Obama in sketches. The show’s producer Lorne Michaels defended the decision, saying several cast members tried out and Armisen’s impression was the best. His Obama wasn’t bad, but this whole debate draws attention away from the real problem: “Saturday Night Live” hasn’t been consistently funny in a decade.
Rating: four out of 10.
Sawdust shortage
According to an article in Monday’s issue of The Wall Street Journal, a slowdown in the number of houses being built has created a huge shortage of sawdust and driven prices through the roof. Sawdust, used in manufacturing, is also commonly used to help clean up vomit, meaning North Campus bus maintenance could soon become more expensive. But don’t worry, the University will just tack it onto next year’s tuition.
Rating: three out of 10.
Censoring the web
The developers of Scrabulous, a Facebook application that allows users to play a clone of the classic word nerd board game Scrabble, are trying to work out a deal with Mattel and Hasbro, who own the rights to the board game. Mattel and Hasbro had threatened to sue the developers, but are now working on a bid for Scrabulous – possibly for millions of dollars. Moral of the story: If you want to get rich, steal someone else’s idea and put it on the Internet.
Rating: two out of 10.