Blooper: The Can't-Miss Beaver Event of the Night

TOPH TUCKER '08

I don't know how closely you watch the bcdschool.org calendar, but it's pretty handy. If you had looked last week, though, you'd have spotted something that probably wasn't supposed to be there.

Friday, May 9, 2008
2:00 AM
Test Upcoming Game Title
WH Test Team vs B.C. High School , Berwick, Brooks A

test game description. test game description. test game description. test game description. test game description. test game description.

Three teams at once!? But wait, it gets better.

If you click on WH Test Team, you're taken to a team description page. Apparently we beat Berwick 78 to 3 on April 10th! Oh, and the uniform is "hot pink," the departure location is the cafeteria (or dining hall, as Mr. Manning would say), the dismissal time is 2:00 AM, the departure time is 12:50 AM, and the pick-up time is 4:30 AM. Go figure.
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Microsoft pulls out of Yahoo deal

TOPH TUCKER '08

Last night, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer wrote in a letter to Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang that Microsoft had decided to abandon its three-month bid for the faltering Internet giant. He wrote, ?I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table. But clearly a deal is not to be.? This comes as a surprise to many who had been expecting either a done deal, or an announcement by Microsoft that it would go hostile.

Early reaction online has been that by rejecting Microsoft?s offer, Yahoo! is putting the nail in its own coffin. One blogger titled his post ?Ballmer to Yang: Dear Jerry, Drop Dead.? Another called the move ?Yahoo?s Hari-Kari.? Yahoo?s stock will likely plummet to near its pre-bid point, and it could face stockholder revolt.

Yahoo! has threatened to outsource search advertising to Google, either to ward off a Microsoft bid or to intentionally cannibalize a key Yahoo! business in the event of a hostile takeover. (Apparently Yang was threatening to burn Moscow.) However, such a deal would face regulatory scrutiny, as an alliance of the #1 and #2 search providers would leave an overwhelming 85% of the market in Google?s hands. In addition, it would essentially throw away the heaps of work that Yahoo! has been doing in that critical arena. Even by signaling it would consider such a deal, Yahoo! is practically admitting defeat.

While most pundits see this outcome as a loss for Yahoo, there is also the belief that Ballmer botched the deal. Still, if Yahoo stock drops to bargain basement levels, Microsoft could return later this year with another deal. Alternatively, it could pick up the scraps of AOL or expand its Facebook alliance.

UPDATE 5/5/08 12:27 AM: Sure enough, Yahoo stock has fallen 17% (and counting), while Google and Microsoft have gained.

Further reading:
Microsoft Press Release
MSNBC Article
MarketWatch Article
Yahoo?s Nightmare Scenario: I?m From Google and I?m Here to Help!
Microsoft To Yahoo: Take a Hike!
Yahoo Responds: ?The distraction of Microsoft?s unsolicited proposal now behind us?
Microsoft has options after dropping Yahoo bid
Yahoo CEO Yang is now on the hot seat
Ballmer?s drive was key element in Yahoo bid
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Links: Vader sings "Chocolate Rain;" The Onion mocks the news

Chocolate Rain by Chad Vader

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If you've never read The Onion, I highly recommend it. Equally entertaining is its CNN-style video site companion--for instance:

Wildly popular 'Iron Man' Trailer To Be Adapted Into Full-Length Film
Anonymous Philanthropist Donates 200 Human Kidneys To Hospital
Ninja Parade Slips Through Town Unnoticed Once Again

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U.S. soldier has Iraqi "Most Wanted" deck of playing cards--with near-complete set of signatures, including Saddam Hussein

Five years since "Mission Accomplished." Well thank goodness that's all wrapped up, eh?

Dilbert author asks, could Israel "destroy all of its local enemies by inventing solar technology that makes oil uneconomical"?
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Trivia Tuesday No. 1

TOPH TUCKER ‘08

Adjacent pendulum clocks synchronize with each other. This phenomenon is called “odd sympathy.”

Although these things are hard to judge, Star Wars is probably the #2 best-selling book series of all time. Harry Potter is #3. #1 is a German sci-fi series called Perry Rhodan.

There are about 100 lightning flashes every second on Earth.

In Sweden, tic-tac-toe is known as hobo’s chess.

The Rotokas language uses the smallest alphabet still in use today. It is a mere 12 letters: A E G I K O P R S T U V.

To be answered next week:
Who is the world’s largest tire producer, by number of tires produced per year?
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Links: Intro, YouTube, Mesh, etc.

Welcome to the Beaver Reader link blog. Every Wednesday, we'll offer up some interesting finds from around the web.

YouTube

You've probably seen these, but they're more or less required viewing, so here goes:
Dramatic Chipmunk
Obama Baby #1
Obama Baby #2

Discovery Channel "I Love the World" ad
Elephant Painting
Garbage Day

This one does a nice job of describing a lot of the things this whole newspaper is about.
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Casio Exilim EX-F1: Tomato Violence at 300, 600 and 1200fps
Enterprising youngster gets himself stuck in a claw machine
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And, in actual news, this is pretty interesting if you're interested in such thing: Live Mesh; more here.

Meanwhile, Facebook Chat (which we first told you about back in March, not to rub it in ;)) seems to have completed its rollout. Also check out Facebook Lexicon to track what gets the most talk on Walls.

And see here the regularly-updated Beaver Class of '08 college map. (GMaps version; GeoRSS)
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Clash of the Titans: Potential Yahoo! deal brings industry behemoths head-to-head

TOPH TUCKER ?08

Microsoft. Google. Time Warner. News Corp. Four of the biggest names in business; combined market cap of half a trillion dollars. And they?re all getting involved in the battle over troubled Internet giant Yahoo.

It started on February 1, when Microsoft announced an unsolicited $44.6 billion takeover bid for Yahoo. Since then, Yahoo has looked for every possible way out of the deal, but analysts agreed it was a waiting game. No white knight emerged, and Microsoft is now threatening to turn the bid hostile if Yahoo doesn?t accept quickly. They have refused to raise their bid, instead countering that, if anything, it would only go down.

By Wednesday, though, things seemed to be heating up. Yahoo entered into a limited trial run of a Google ad partnership, and late that night, the news broke that other deals may be looming. Specifically, Time Warner was mulling a deal that would combine AOL and Yahoo, while News Corp. was considering a joint bid with Microsoft. The latter coalition would potentially combine Yahoo, MSN, and MySpace into a single entity.

Whichever way the deal goes, it stands to dramatically shake up the Internet landscape. The fate of search, email, portal and instant messaging monopolies hangs in the balance. Yet any merger would be messy. Aside from the simple stuff?where employees go, which services are discontinued?each of these companies controls a huge amount of backend infrastructure that would have to be consolidated.

Everyone knew this was going to be fun; so far, it hasn?t disappointed. What remains to be seen is the quantitative effect on the marketplace.

Further reading:
MSNBC: Yahoo takeover battle takes dramatic twist
WSJ Article
Reuters Article
Marketwatch Article
Wikipedia Entry
Site Statistics
More coverage
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“You’re a True-oo-oo-oo Friend”

JESSICA PENZIAS '08

Ed. note: for your own good, we have not embedded the videos in question. They may be found after the break.

I have recently discovered a hidden gem on the internet. No, I didn’t find secret stock tips, or discover who shot JFK. Instead, I found something so much better: Miley and Mandy on Youtube. Many of you (if not all of you) are (or should be) familiar with 15-year-old, Pop star, singing sensation Miley Cyrus. Not only does she have a hit show on the Disney Channel, multiple number one CDs, a 3-D movie, an alter-ego named Hannah Montana and an unbelievably popular concert tour, she also has a new series of videos on Youtube with her “BFF” Mandy.

Mandy, a 20-year-old dancer on Miley’s current tour, has become Miley’s new best friend, replacing Leslie who was immortalized in Miley’s hit song “See You Again.” (In the song Miley references her former BFF Leslie in the chorus). Leslie unfortunately moved back to Tennessee and is probably kicking herself at this very moment. While Mandy (who Miley refers to as “Shmandy” or “Shmand”), like all best friends, gives Miley support and advice, Miley, gives Mandy national fame. In fact, Miley even hooked Mandy up with producers and executives, and sure enough, Mandy is now a member of the girl-group “Beach Girls” (who will begin a tour shortly after the “Meet Miley Cyrus” tour ends). Reportedly, Miley also wrote a song on the Beach Girls upcoming album.

In the famed videos, the stars show that they are just like any other 15 or 20 year-old girl. They laugh at their own jokes, make funny faces at each other, lip-sync (granted, to their own number one hits) and make adorable comments. And, indeed, they are adored. The videos average around 1,000,000 views…EACH.

Take a look at the following videos featuring Shmandy and Shmiley.

The Miley & Mandy Show! Epis. Irrelevant
The Miley and Mandy Show! Jokes
The Miley and Mandy Show! QUESTIONS

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