The Scanner: Rock Camp, video games, phones that mock you and Miss New Jersey
What? A day without some sort of skateboarding news? For a guy who didn’t skateboard growing up, I seem to be talking about it a lot lately.
To make up for the excess of skateboarding coverage over the last few days, I’ve got a big ol’ pot of news. A goulash or casserole of news, from music to technology and of course a little law and order.
- Ever since "School of Rock" came out a few years ago musical summer camps have been all the rage. Up in Auburn the Rock Camp at Central Maine Community College went out with series of hard guitar chords...from 9-year-olds. You have to wonder, how do kids that go to Band Camp feel about this development?
- Speaking of video games, looks like the Nintendo Wii is once again challenging the way people look at video games. FINALLY you can tell your parents/girlfriend/boss/therapist that staying inside and playing video games is not bad for your health.
- On the other side of the video game wars, it looks like X-Box 360– while ahead in sales – may be losing ground very quickly because of some bugs in the 360 consoles.
- In other technology news, T-Mobile might be onto something with this new phone, which looks like it could definitely save people some money. Of course the problem in this case is straightforward – if you live in an area with spotty WiFi networks, this is no good to you. And since here in Maine WiFi is as about as widespread as T-Mobile’s coverage network, it could take some time for this to catch on.
- Do you hate all those complicated buttons on phones, get wistful for a time when technology did not mock you? Jitterbug could be just the phone for you. I think they are on to something with the idea of a simplistic phone, but the blatant marketing to older people is hilarious.
- Congress is taking another stab at student loan relief after the House of Representatives approved cutting interest rates on student loans and increasing Pell grants. Not surprisingly, loan providers are not happy.
- That Miss New Jersey is one saucy, saucy lady. With a story like this you really don’t know where to begin. I think it's funny some of the pageant officials say this is a case of “kids having a good time at a party,” which when you look at the pictures seems to be pretty accurate. But still, how hard is it to bury stuff like this if you’re running for Miss New Jersey and hope to be Miss America? Then again, is it so bad if Miss America likes to party?
- Finally, getting out of jury duty is straight from the bad-sitcom idea playbook, but apparently some people really will do anything to get out of serving on a jury.
Posted by at 12:04 PM
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