Jon Stewart at Northeastern

Matthews Arena was filled to capacity, and then some, but strangely, it wasn't for a hockey game. No, tonight, everyone was here for a rare opportunity to see Jon Stewart perform.

The host of Comedy Central's award winning The Daily Show with Jon Stewart appeared at Northeastern University on Friday, October 17. He performed stand-up comedy for an hour to a sold-out crowd of students, alumni, and guests before taking questions from the crowd for a half hour at the end of his appearance.

"It was enlightening", said Katie Fairbank-Haynes, a middler psychology major at Northeastern. "He shares a lot of my views."

For 90 minutes after taking the stage, Stewart kept the crowd laughing with a no holds barred routine on politics, family, and the future of the country. In the question period towards the end, students got a chance to talk with the comedian and ask him more about topics he touched on in his routine.

"I thought it was incredible. Jon Stewart spoke very freely", said Sam Reynolds, a middler biochemistry major at Northeastern. "I think he definitely knows how to talk to college kids."

There was even a bit of national coverage out of the evening. A bit of a stir was caused on the blogosphere when Stweart said "F--- you" to Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for, in his eyes, looking down on urban America in their appeal to small town voters. He later clarified that he should have said "F--- all y'all", attacking not just Palin but the entire McCain campaign for the tactic.

And for a nice finish, during the question period, when asked if he would mention his appearance at the school on the Monday edition of his show, he first joked, "F--- that", then agreed to mention Northeastern if the men's hockey team could beat Boston College the next day. When the Huskies pulled off the upset of the then-No. 1 ranked Eagles, Stewart kept up his end of the bargain.

Online Polling Databases

With the 2008 Election drawing nearer, online polling databases, which crunch polling statistic to come up with a median average, have become more useful to sort out how the election looks to be. The first database I looked at is Real Clear Politics. Real Clear Politics brings together polling data, adjust the numbers to account for poll sample sizes, and puts out an average spread to show the state of the race, assembled into maps and graphs. However, Real Clear Politics has a major problem in that exactly how it creates the numbers it puts out: what the formulas are, which polls are accepted, etc. This lack of clarity makes their numbers slightly dubious, especially to those on the watch for partisan bias. Another problem for RCP is the messy front page, which is cluttered with data, links, maps, and anything else that can fit.

In this regard, then the next database, Pollster, is much better off than RCP, as their front page leads you to an interactive map of the United States, complete with their polling statistics. Pollster, like RCP, has breakdowns of both nation and state level races, but their highly intuitive map makes looking for the information you want a much less daunting challenge. They are also up front with how they acquire their numbers, in a helpful FAQ located right on the map. As a database, it's extremely well-done, and is especially for those people who are not that involved in the political scene.

Lastly, there's FiveThirtyEight, run by baseball statistician Nate Silver. While Pollster and Real Clear Politics focus mainly on the stats in the polling, FiveThirtyEight uses a complex formula to get its numbers, involving the past accuracy of the pollster, analyzing pollster methodology, breaking down the domgraphics of the state being polled, running election simulations, etc. Even with the FAQ to help sort it all out, it's enough data to make a normal person's head spin, contrasting to the more simple methodolgies of the other databases. It requires a lot more understanding of polling methods to fully grasp how the numbers are created, so it's probably not for political newbies. Of course, those more involved will revel in the sheer amount of information that is available on the site, so FiveThirtyEight is much more geared at political junkies than the average voter.

WBUR

The expansion of WBUR onto the Internet allows for some interesting developments in how the station reaches viewers. Radio has the benefit of retaining its audience, since most listeners listen to radio in the car, and since the car is still the dominant mode of transportation, radio still has a ways to go before obsolescence. But expanding to the Internet will allow local radio stations - like WBUR, a chance to keep their customers interested in their product, so that even if some development in technology occurs and renders local radio obsolete, they still have a unique and viable product that causes viewers to stay engaged with WBUR.

Look at where WBUR has expanded to. They are on Twitter, bringing updates about news stories and chatting with listeners and followers. They have pages on Flickr and YouTube, expanding on their radio content with pictures and video pieces. They have pages on MySpace and Facebook to stay involved in the new social networking scene. And of course, they can be listened to live on the internet and on podcast. What will all these expansions do to keep WBUR afloat should a radio apocalypse occur?

Well, most importantly, it allows more people to find out exactly what WBUR offers as a news source to the city of Boston. NPR is a valuable national news source, and should the Internet expand so that it is easily accessible anywhere, then it will undoubtedly remain the stadrad bearer for national online radio. What WBUR should hope for, then, is to remain as a standard bearer for Boston local news. The audience may be smaller than the national circut that NPR has, but in this way, WBUR would still fulfill its obligation to be keep the people of Boston informed.

Expanding will also allow people who are away from the city to find out what is going on - say, for instance, someone on vaction wanted to hear about local news. Internet expansion allows WBUR to fill that role, even when the listener can't reach WBUR on radio, they can find out what is going on through the Internet. Obviously, this means that WBUR faces new challenges and new competition, as many news sources are expanding onto the internet as well. WBUR must then work hard to keep people interested in what the station is providing, so that their audience will stay with them.

Wired Journalists

Wired Journalists is one of the many new networking sites popping up on the web. Wired Journalists is mainly an image hosting site that hopes to develop photojournalism online. It's a rather simple site to use - go out into the field, take pictures of events, and upload them to the site. The layout is intuitive and works quickly, so there are rarely problems. As long as you are used to taking pictures, i works quite well. One thing about the layout that could be improved is photo editing: unlike a site like Flickr, which has basic photo editing on the site, Wired Journalists does not - they must be edited before being uploaded.

As for the community of Wired Journalists as a whole, it has the simple problem that it hasn't quite taken off like sites like Flickr or Photobucket. The community is quite small, compared to the followings other image sites have gained - which in turn leads to fewer images being posted. Another problem is just how much of the site is geared towards journalism. While the intention of the site seems to be geared towards newsworthy images, many images on site have little to do with news, as some members seem to disregard the journalistic leanings of the site. Hopefully this can be improved as the community expands, but as of now these problems are hard to reconcile.

Boston blogs on the Red Sox comeback and Game 7

Win or lose tonight, what the Boston Red Sox have done these last few days - coming back to force a Game 7 in the American League Championship series, after being left for dead in Game 5 - is undoubtedly incredible. So, what are Boston bloggers saying about the series?

Adam Kilgore, blogging at Boston.com, runs through just how improbable the comeback would be:

“In that situation, with the home team down by 7 runs, only 0.6% of all teams between 1977 and 2006 have come back to win the game,” Agami writes. On Friday, “coolstandings.com gave the Sox a 22% chance of winning the next two games in a row, so that would mean that when Balfour entered the game the Sox had a 0.1% chance of winning the ALCS (multiplying 0.6% by 22%) - about one in 1,000.”

At 10:57 p.m. Thursday, the Red Sox had a 1 in 1,000 chance to win the ALCS. Now they’re nine innings away, and they have already thrown some of the final shovelfuls of dirt on the Tampa Bay Rays’ season.

Randy Booth at Over the Monster compares the comeback to last year's:

Does anyone remember what that feeling was like at this time last year? I don't remember. I wish I could, because I'd like to compare it to right now. Right now it just seems like it's set up nicely. The Sox evened the series and now it's do-or-die time. Someone will be playing their last baseball game tonight.

It's hard to compare this team to last year's team because it is so different. Mark Kotsay at first base and Jason Bay in left field? Could anyone have guessed that in spring training? Coco Crisp in center field, nevertheless, after the benching of Jacoby "Jactober" Ellsbury. It's a different team.

A different team, but the same attitude: play like there's no tomorrow. That's how the Sox will play tonight. From the top of the order to the bottom, from the starter (Mr. Jon Lester) to the bullpen. The ALCS is culminating with this and it feels great.

The Rational Sox Fan marvels at the team's playoff tenacity:

I think the Red Sox have made it clear, once and for all, that it is simply a waste of time to count out a playoff team, even when their back is to the wall. You cannot say, "it looks like it is all over for the Red Sox this year", or anything like that. Instead, you need to say things like, "the Red Sox are down 3 games to 1, and are in a perfect position to make this a truly exciting playoff series".

Jose Melendez gives the Red Sox a new tagline:

Don’t bury me… I’m not dead.

That was the tag line for the 1988 Wes Craven film The Serpent and the Rainbow, based painfully loosely on a book by ethnobotanist Wade Davis describing search for a scientific explanation for Haitian zombie myths. It might as well be the tagline for the Boston Red Sox.

The Red Sox are not dead; they are never dead, and yet year after year, teams come to throw piles of moist black earth upon them.

Jeff Louderback at Sox and Pinstripes looks ahead to Game 7:

After a rough start in Game Three, Lester has another chance to show he is one of the top go-to starters in Major League Baseball. A game like this is where Lester's poise will help. Tampa Bay starter Matt Garza is intense, and his emotions are sometimes detrimental to his success on the mound. The keys to a victory for Boston tonight are no different than they were for Game Six. The Red Sox need to drive up Garza's pitch count and get into the Tampa Bay bullpen, which was exceptional during the regular season but now must be feeling some doubt after the last two games. Lester must control B.J. Upton, Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria and Carl Crawford (the 2-6 hitters who have pounded Boston pitching in the series)

Mass Live blogs

The MassFacts section of Boston.com is, essentially, a database of databases, containing links to a number of database sites with information about both Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a whole. These sites are rather plentiful, and contain information on a cariety of topics.

The "Your Town" section of the page is information pulled from databases about the city and surrounding towns. For instance, have you wondered how many Dunkin' Donuts are in your town? Matt Carroll did, so he went to Dunkin' Donuts, asked them for the information, and listed it on the site. This is handy information to have if you want to write an article on, say, Dunkin' Donuts' slow domination of the New England area, one town at a time.

For more serious information, though, we have the database of the 185th General Court, aka the Massachusetts state legislature. The site lists information on the current legislators, such as their backgrounds, contact info and the committees they serve on. It also lists petitions and bills that have come before he legislature, which can be found with a simple search. Obviously, such a source can lead to any kind of story, especially if there is something large in the news: for example, if there are protests to the legislature on abortion, you can look up recent petitions and bills on abortion, as well as who brought the bill to the floor, to write a column on the legislature's history.

When you are looking for more tangible information, though, there are databases with more substance, like the list of homicides in the city in the last year. Thanks to the interactive map, we can find not only the basics of where the killing happened, but also more detailed information such as information on the victims, the circumstances of the death, and any arrests in the case.Again, it is easy to see what can be made of with this information: seeing if the city is having an upswing in violence based on recent trends, or writing about which sections of town are more dangerous.