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...AI, the show that offers a shot to the little guy is not shy about advertising its overdog status. On the season debut, host Ryan Seacrest narrated a tribute to the show's popularity. "What started as a simple talent quest has become a national phenomenon," he said over video of seas of teen and twentysomething applicants thronging stadiums and audition halls like pilgrims on the hajj. "It's become a modern rite of passage, like going to the prom. You get your first car, you graduate from high school, and when we roll into your town, you audition...
Seacrest's description may be self-serving and creepy--one imagines herds of wannabe Mariahs staggering through the streets, Dawn of the Dead--style, answering AI's irresistible call--but it's hard to argue with. According to the show, nearly half a million people have auditioned so far. But if the auditions have become the closest thing America has to a national-service program and yet so much of the show is devoted to the awfulness of the applicants, then American Idol's message is simple and unambiguous: America, you stink...
...would 35.5 million Americans tune in to agree? The AI auditions tell Americans as a country--with our massive army and troves of Olympic medals--that it's O.K. to root for the overdog, because, face it, the underdog is usually called that for good reason. But they also make us, as individuals, feel better about our own place in the pack. The American ideal of opportunity for all, which AI embodies, may be a blessing or a myth. But either way, it can also be oppressive. Because the corollary is that if you don't achieve your dreams...
...Archaeology of Harvard Yard being my favorite). The examples speak to the whole, however. And one area in particular in which there is simply no comparison is the area of thesis research and presentation. Theses in computer science might involve writing a new operating system or a computer AI (or something even more ridiculous, since you do that baby stuff in CS 50). A social studies, English, or even government concentrator is expected to turn tens and tens of pages of careful and precise research undertaken over a long period of time to get their degree. I personally became embroiled...
...first few days, she squealed for cigarettes every now and then, but as her life became more colorful she gradually forgot about them altogether." A ZOOKEEPER at China's Qinling Safari Park, where handlers are working to help Ai Ai, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, quit smoking after 16 years