Word: idea
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...plot had the essentials: murder, morality and chewy nougat. All that David Marx needed was someone with whom to collaborate on his self-proclaimed best idea for a movie ever. Fate brought Marx together with B.J. Novak, roommate and aspiring filmmaker to collaborate in "Studio Holworthy" to make these first-years' first movie. The plot of Marx's screenplay, which came to be called "Who Laughs Last," centers around a joke printed on the inside of a Laffy Taffy candy wrapper--a joke so egregiously unfunny that a group of young Laffy Taffy devotees vow to find and kill...
...Harvard, no one had gone though the [CFL draft] process before," Fleiszer said. "I had no idea how these things work...
...much for the lawlessness, now for the foolishness. Despite blather about the "information superhighway" in popular culture, connecting classrooms and libraries to the Internet is a horrible idea. The Internet at best brings convenience to everyday life. It allows us to check the weather, the news, the stock market and so on very quickly. None of this information helps educate children. But the Internet does not just fail to educate children; it even obstructs their education. The information on it lacks veritable scholastic quality because it is not filtered through the ordinary editing and publishing process of books and magazines...
...while classroom Internet access makes for great headlines and campaign speeches, the idea's actual educational value is debatable. Kids certainly won't learn basic math and reading skills by surfing the Web. Conducting research on the Internet is, for the most part, tedious and unreliable. A good library is often a better substitute. Cheaper, too. According to an estimate by McKinsey & Co., total costs of the technology (which includes the costs of staffing, training, upgrading and replacing equipment) could range from $14 billion to $47 billion in initial outlays and another $4 billion to $14 billion in annual operating...
These details don't seem to discourage politicians. It doesn't matter if the idea is feasible or not--by supporting it, they appear "pro-education" or "pro-technology." Likewise, those who seek to ban or filter pornographic material from the Internet usually have political support. After all, no one wants their children exposed to obscene material. Those who oppose such legislation are derisively labeled as "anti-family values" or "criminal defenders." By billing the Internet as vital to our very existence, law-makers can do what they want with it. And so long as there is no obvious harm...