Author: Brett

Admissions Will Not Ask Questions About Sexual Orientation

Brett

To better serve the needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community on college campuses, some California state universities are considering putting an optional question on college applications that asks students about their sexual orientation.

USC currently does not plan to include the question on its application form, said Timothy Brunold, dean of admission.

“Part of the fear [for including it] is that for many students who are going through this process, their parents, for example, don’t even know that their son or daughter has a particular identity,” Brunold said. “One of the last things we would want to do would be to ask that student about it specifically, in fear that that student might not be ready to share his or her identity with someone who might be looking at their application.”

Brunold said USC uses the pre-orientation homework to gather that information. On the homework, students can indicate whether or not they want more information on a particular department, such as the LGBT Resource Center.

Why Your Brilliant Child Didn’t Get Into the Ivies

Brett

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jd-rothman/ivy-league-admissions_b_1398145.html?ref=fifty&ir=Fifty&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

Last Thursday, decisions from top colleges were delivered electronically to stressed-out high school seniors. By early evening, more than 90% of those who had applied to the eight Ivy League schools plus their partners-in-prestige, Stanford and MIT, had received a gently worded “Good luck elsewhere.” Or, even worse, “waitlist status,” which means sending a deposit check to a fourth choice institution, procuring a letter of recommendation from Nelson Mandela and spending the summer in limbo.

These new Ivy rejects are far from slackers. They’re incredible kids with impressive resumes — 2,350+ SATs, straight As in their 16 APs, debate champions, flute soloists and MVPs. Parents who have been dreaming of an Ivy education for their kids since conception are scratching their heads, trying to figure out what went wrong.

So, why didn’t your child get in?

Final Four Starts Tonight: Health Lessons From Basketball Players

Brett

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/31/final-four-basketball-health_n_1392279.html?ref=healthy-living&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008

What is it about watching athletes perform at the pinnacle of human fitness that makes us want to sprawl on a couch with beer and nachos? Whatever it is, it continues each spring as the final four college basketball teams close out a month-long NCAA March Madness.

But despite the health pitfalls of parties that revolve around mindless eating in front of a television, there is still an opportunity to learn some important lessons from the athletes on screen. And while we’re not going to match any of these young men in athletic prowess or aerobic fitness anytime soon, we can certainly apply what we cull from their sportsmanship and dedication beyond any college stadium.

Are the Sports World’s Anti-Homophobia Campaigns Eradicating Homophobia in Sports?

Brett

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/are-the-sports-worlds-anti-homophobia-campaigns-eradicating-homophobia-in-sports/discrimination/2012/04/02/37373

While more professional athletes have come out of the closet in the past year than in the past decade, one expert on homophobia in professional sports says the sports world is still the last great bastion of institutionalized homophobia.

In 2011, dozens of athletes publicly came out across a spectrum of disciplines, ranging from swimming to cycling to soccer. Momentum gathered as several high-profile organizational figures — such as Phoenix Suns president Rick Welts and ESPN radio host Jared Max — followed suit, and straight allies like wrestler Hudson Taylor, of Athlete Ally, and rugger Ben Cohen, who founded the StandUp Foundation, helped put the anti-homophobia message on the international agenda.

The same year, Major League Baseball got involved at the franchise level when the San Francisco Giants participated in Dan Savage’s It Gets Better project, and by the end of the season a total of eight MLB teams had produced videos for the campaign.

Former basketballer Charles Barkley was vocal in his condemnation of homophobia in sports, and the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) ran its Think B4 You Speak campaign on television during a National Basketball Association game in May.

10 Tech Commandments for the TV Industry

Brett

http://thenextweb.com/mipcube/2012/03/31/10-tech-commandments-for-the-tv-industry/

TV producers developing the next hit show format have a lot to consider when it comes to integrating interactive digital ideas into the conventionally linear medium of television.

Today I took part in a panel session at MIPCube‘s sister event, MIPFormats, called Tech Up Your Format. The idea was that me; Mark Rowland, CEO of Indie Media, and Jonathan Laor of Applicaster, each gave ’10 tech commandments’ that people developing new TV show formats should follow when looking at interactive elements to their ideas.

My ‘commandments’ took inspiration from trends we’ve covered at The Next Web, and we’ve shared them below:

It’s a New Scene at Disney Channel

Brett

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/mar/12/entertainment/la-et-disney-animation-20120312

“Gravity Falls” doesn’t sound like classic Disney animation.

The new cartoon comedy series follows twins Dipper and Mabel, whose school vacation plans are dashed when their parents ship them off to spend the summer with cranky old Uncle Stan in Gravity Falls, Ore., where pterodactyls swoop overhead and gnomes plot to abduct Mabel and make her their queen.

“Disney wasn’t the first place I would have thought of going to,” said the show’s creator, Alex Hirsch, who grew up watching Fox’s irreverent animated comedy “The Simpsons.” But the Disney Channel is where the show will debut in June.

“Gravity Falls” is loosely based on the summers that Hirsch and his twin sister spent camping in Northern California with their great-aunt Lois — minus the gnomes and pterodactyls and “all the magical strangeness I wish would have happened.” The imaginative series is among the new animated projects highlighting the Disney Channel’s television upfront presentation to potential sponsors Tuesday in New York City.

Disney television animation struggled for years to find success, despite founder Walt Disney’s place in the cartoon pantheon. The Disney Channel’s breakthrough began in 2007 with “Phineas and Ferb,” a concept other networks rejected as too odd and too complicated — the geometric shapes of the characters’ heads gave the series a radical look, and its intersecting plot lines were deemed too difficult for children to follow.

The series’ success proved the skeptics wrong and became a creative inflection point for the Disney Channel and its network sibling, Disney XD, which have emerged as magnets for top-flight talent.

This Instagram-Printing Party Box Could Soon Be Yours

Brett

http://mashable.com/2012/03/06/instaprint-box/#

Sound like something you’d like to have at your next party? Probably not yet. Breakfast only made about a dozen prototypes, and they’re not exactly self-serve. Renting a device, complete with staff member to keep it running, starts at $5,000 — a lot of money to drop on a novelty photo printer if you’re not on a corporate marketing budget.

Breakfast hopes that, with some tinkering, it can bring the price tag on Instaprint down to about $399. But it needs $500,000 to turn its prototype into an DIY kit, a process that involves updating and redesigning 100 parts. It’s taking a stab at collecting funds — and gauging interest — on Kickstarter. So far, it’s raised about $40,000.

Is Kickstarter the Future for Tech Hardware Entrepreneurs?

Brett

http://mashable.com/2012/03/28/compude-kickstarter/

Lance Parker is building something he says will bring a new level of convenience and security to on-the-go computing — and he’s funding the project through Kickstarter.

His product is called Compude, a tiny device that allows users to take a data-locked version of their personal computers’ contents with them, then plug in and work on any smartphone, tablet or other computer. He says it’s the smallest fingerprint authentication device in the world. (Click here for a video further explaining how Compude works.)

“With tablets, desktops, laptops and smartphones, the whole idea of trying to juggle devices and have your settings and data someplace you’re not is becoming more important,” Parker told Mashable. “When you look at what’s out there now, there are certainly already remote-control software and things like that. But we take it beyond that to essentially recreate what’s on your computer.”

Parker has successfully worked in technology since 1996, but he’s taking his latest project to what may seem like an unlikely place for a sophisticated hardware device — Kickstarter. He has a working Compude prototype, has consulted with government security experts and has taken out three patents. Now he’s looking to the online community to help raise $50,000 over the next two months to build more devices and help gain increased traction.

Most commonly associated with artsy pursuits and offbeat or esoteric campaigns, Parker believes Kickstarter also has a built-in set of advantages for entrepreneurs in tech hardware, which bootstrapping and pitching investors don’t offer.

Does Anyone Stop Bulies from Picking on Kids With Gay Parents? (VIDEO)

Brett

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2012/03/31/WATCH_Will_Anyone_Stop_Bullies_From_Harrasing_Children_of_Gay_Parents/

The ABC show What Would You Do? wondered whether anyone would come to the aide of children being teased for having two gay fathers.

Watch what happens in the video below when the kids are left alone in a restaurant and bullies across the way start picking on them for have same-sex parents.

“We’ll stop when your parents stop being gay,” the bullies say to the kids who are visibly upset.

The hidden-camera show What Would You Do? has posed a number of scenarios checking whether Americans would stand up for LGBT people, from whether a bridal shop should serve two lesbians getting married or whether a young boy can pick any toy he wants regardless of its traditionally for girls.

Boston’s Ultimate Tastemakers

Brett

http://bostoncommon-magazine.com/dining/articles/bostons-ultimate-tastemakers?page=1

Beyond our celebrity chefs, Boston has a slew of men and women shaping the local food and drink scene—writing about it, editing it, creating and growing it. Here, some of our coolest culinary stars weigh in on all things edible and potable (or not).