Friday, February 15, 2008 by Kelly Sutton If you're hosting a party this President's Day Weekend, you may want to check out CO-ED Magazine's article on some good double-duty ice-breaking games. Check it out:
5 Drinking Games to Break the Ice [CO-ED Magazine]
Thursday, February 14, 2008 by Kelly Sutton Earlier today, an unidentified gunman opened fired inside a lecture hall, injuring as many as 16 and killing as many as four before killing himself. Northern Illinois University reports there is no longer a threat. Their emergency system reported the incident within 15 minutes, according to the Washington Post. Our hearts are with NIU.
Gunman Opens Fire at Northern Illinois University [Washington Post]
Thursday, February 14, 2008 by Kelly Sutton We're aware that the latest episode of the podcast is not playing properly. The metadata tags got messed up when we were changing them. We're working on the problem right now and expect a working episode up tonight.
Thursday, February 14, 2008 by Kelly Sutton Our buddy over at Study Hacks, Cal Newport, got some great productivity questions from his readers this week. Cal, in turn, gave excellent answers. Check it out and peruse the rest of his blog:
Q & A: Dealing with Killer Classes, Notes in the Age of Note Packets, and Avoiding the Deadly Grind Syndrome [Study Hacks]
Thursday, February 14, 2008 by Kelly Sutton In my spare time, I write for Conde Nast's Portfolio site. I recently re-edited the post last week about the shooting near our school and submitted it. Check it out here and read the rest of my editor's (Kevin Maney) column while there. I much prefer Portfolio to Forbes or Fortune.
At Loyola Marymount, New Emergency Notification System Doesn't Work If It's Not Used
Tuesday, February 12, 2008 by Kelly Sutton After a one week break due to influenza and an improv trip, Chris and Kelly are back. They podcast this week from Chris' oddly lit place. Regarding the lighting of this episode, a quote from Arcade Fire's song "Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)" should sum it up: "Shadows jumping all over the wall, some of them big, some of them small."
Topics this episode include:
This episode's music:
Thursday, February 7, 2008 by Kelly Sutton Last night at about 9:50 pm PST, 7-8 gunshots rang out across the campus of my school, LMU. Within a half hour, I could see half a dozen LAPD cars 200 yards outside of my window with a helicopter circling over my building. My roommates and I wondered what exactly was going on.
I'm just going to say the two phrases that everyone is thinking of right now to get them out of the way: Virginia Tech and Columbine. There.
I, personally, did not hear the gunshots. My roommates did. LMU was hosting a basketball game between two rival high schools, Westchester High and Fairfax High. A young guy, aged 15, was shot after the game directly off campus. The location of the shooting happened to be 200 yards outside of my bedroom window. Technically the shooting didn't happen on campus and the technically LMU students weren't involved, but the geographic proximity to me was close enough and guns bullets don't only kill fellow students.
In response to what happened in Virginia last April, LMU had established a fast-response system that would send out text messages and recorded voice messages to every student registered for the service. Many other universities have done the same, including Boston University and Arizona State (thanks readers!).
But these systems didn't work as advertised.
Last night's shooting occurred around 9:50 pm, I did not receive a phone call until 12:31 am. We didn't have the same problem as Arizona State's overflow problem (we're a mere 6,000 students or so), we had laziness of administration. As commenter jrock pointed out, the Virginia Tech massacre lasted all of 9 minutes. More people could have been injured or killed. So while I was in the dark last night for 2.5 hours, which news source did I turn to? Local news stations decided Britney being released from the hospital was more important as an LAPD helicopter circled over my building.
I turned to a website we don't often praise, JuicyCampus.com. JuicyCampus is LMU's Twitter. It's a knee-jerk site to visit and communicate what's going on around campus. Usually the information being communicated is some form of racism or libel. Last night though, JuicyCampus' slow servers eventually let me know the buzz around campus: a shooting. The topic was labeled "SHOOTING AT BACKGATES RITE NOW!!!"
I don't like JuicyCampus, but it did (potentially) save a life last night. The LMU administration dropped the ball. All students should have stayed in doors or in class. Gunshots should mean everyone stays put and locks down. I would have at least like the peace of mind to know whether or not the shooter was still at large.
So what can be done in the future? JuicyCampus.com is great, but it isn't necessarily an open system. And it's slow. These systems that our schools shelled out thousands for obviously aren't working. I suggest Twitter or Mozes as a means of campus-wide mass communication. These two services each handle thousands of requests per day. I'm sure they could accommodate one measly campus inside Los Angeles.
Hopefully a failure like this doesn't happen again...
Has anyone else experienced shortcomings with emergency response systems? Let us know in the comments!
Wednesday, February 6, 2008 by Kelly Sutton Wooooo, party. Mardi Gras! Let's go sin. Yeaaaaaaaah. Who cares that it's flu season?!
Cough. I'm sick. I've had the flu since yesterday. I've put in a solid 30 hours of sleep (no exaggeration) and should be 100% by tomorrow. A 48-hour turnaround on the flu isn't too bad. Here's how I did it:
Killer Colds and Flus and How to Avoid Them [HackCollege]