If you don’t get these jokes, you will when you finish CO201
BY Eric K. Auld
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1. A comma splice walks into a bar, it has a drink and then leaves.
2. A dangling modifier walks into a bar. After finishing a drink, the bartender asks it to leave.
3. A question mark walks into a bar?
4. Two quotation marks “walk into” a bar.
5. A gerund and an infinitive walk into a bar, drinking to drink.
6. The bar was walked into by the passive voice.
7. Three intransitive verbs walk into a bar. They sit. They drink. They leave.
Here’s how to post your edited midterm. Write a good headline here as well.
AGAWAM — With a click . . . click . . . click, the Wicked Cyclone roller coaster car slowly rises 112 feet into nothing but sky. As it levels at the top, riders get a quick view of the Six Flags amusement park and the treetops of Agawam beyond. Then, the car drops at a 64-degree angle, propelling its 24 screaming passengers along a twisting track with two “zero gravity” corkscrew rolls and a turn that banks at an unprecedented 200 degrees.
Once the rickety wooden cousin to the park’s steel coasters, the 32-year-old Cyclone has been remade and renamed. Topped with a new type of metal track, the Wicked Cyclone is one of five such wood-steel hybrid coasters in the country. Now, the ride rivals the park’s sleek Bizarro as a favorite of both casual riders and a community of devotees known as coaster enthusiasts.
Chrys Garber now counts herself among them. A full-time mother from nearby East Longmeadow, she stood in the Wicked Cyclone line with her kids on a sunny, late June afternoon. Garber said she’s ridden at least 40 times — pretty much every day since the ride reopened in late May.
“I love it. Oh my gosh,” she said. Garber loves the corkscrew spins, the drop, and the hang time. “I thought it was more scary than Bizarro. This has more adventure from start to finish.”
Riding the Wicked Cyclone with the Go Pro from Tinker Ready on Vimeo.
The network of organizations, websites, and social media feeds produced by coaster fans buzzes with news and reviews of the Wicked Cyclone. American Coaster Enthusiasts, a 40-year-old group that counts more than 5,000 members, held an ERT event (for “exclusive ride time”) at the park in July.
“I’ve never been on a coaster that inverts that only has lap bars,“ Acquafresca wrote. “I haven’t felt that way about a coaster since I first started riding. The experience of just hanging there with nothing over your shoulders is a glorious feeling.”
Some pay for that feeling with their keys, phones, or sunglasses, which, unlike passengers, tend to fly out during the ride.
Nikki Wilson of Middletown, Conn. walked down the ride’s exit ramp seemingly unrattled after riding with her brother. Still, she was wary when she sat down and strapped in. “I didn’t see anything going over my shoulder, and the ride goes upside down,” she said. “So, I was a little nervous, but then I saw the little kids getting on, and I said, I’ve got to get on there too.”
One of those kids was Matthew Keegan, 8, of Milford, who marched down the ramp with a slight weave in his step after his first ride. He said he liked it, but hesitated before saying he wasn’t scared. Keegan admitted that he was frightened when the car took its plunge.
“Because you lean forward when you go down the drop,” he said. “It’s just so scary.”
The Wicked Cyclone pulls cars up a 109- foot hill -- the equivalent of a ten story building.
The designer of the original Cyclone would be pleased to hear that. A veteran coaster engineer, the late William Cobb copied the Coney Island Cyclone when he created the new wooden coaster for what was then Riverside Park in 1983. For a family-owned operation, it was a big investment at $2.5 million. With a 96-foot rise, it was one of the biggest of its time.
Cobb wanted it to be one of the scariest too. “I want people to ride my coasters so that when they get over the first hill, they wish they had never gotten on,” Cobb told the Valley Advocate newspaper. “I want them to get off, say they’ll never ride again, and then get right back on the end of the line.”
Not that the old Cyclone wasn’t thrilling. Shilke said he tries to make his revamped rides more exciting than the original. This one offered a challenge.
“Typically, most of the coasters I redo are so boring that anything I do surpasses what was there,” he said on the phone from his Utah workshop. “This was one of the first coasters where the original rise really took advantage of every turn. I had to come up with reverse bank turns and a whole bunch of stuff that I had never done before just to pack as much into this coaster as I could.”
Tim Baldwin of American Coaster Enthusiasts agrees. He said the Agawam Cyclone was one of the last coasters designed by the now-legendary Cobb.
“He really put some wild craziness in it.”
Speaking from the group’s convention in Atlantic City, Baldwin said some of the older wooden coasters are being torn down, and the group has many members who are lamenting the loss of the traditional rides. Baldwin thinks the hybrid is the answer.
“We can’t deny the success the parks have had with these smoother rides,” he said. “You have a wild, out-of-control ride, but it’s glass smooth.”
On November 16, protesters gathered at the offices of a Cambridge drug maker. They say people are dying because of insulin price hikes.
The campaign to lower the price of insulin came to Cambridge Massachusetts on Nov. 16. A small group of protesters gathered in the freezing rain outside the local office of the pharmaceutical giant Sanofi.
They are part of a broad push to bring down the price of insulin, which has jumped in recent years. The police were there, and the employees had been sent home. The protesters gathered across the street for about an hour and later ended up at a nearby Starbucks. We talked to them there.
More here from the Globe.
Yesterday’s #journalism class assignment: Go cover the #RedSox victory parade live via social media
Class ended at 9:30. Victory parade started a few block away at 11.
Red Sox fan Carrie Casello talks about why she came to the #RedSoxParade today: pic.twitter.com/9rfxizA7DB
— Simone Migliori (@migliori_simone) October 31, 2018
How loud will the MVP chants be for @mookiebetts today? pic.twitter.com/oc8QoXMpLb
— Eli (@Eli_Wont_Lie) October 31, 2018
People of all ages are gathering early for the Red Sox Parade. pic.twitter.com/L8BajdOkGt
— Karissa Perry (@karissalperry) October 31, 2018
Fans sing “Sweet Caroline” as they wait for the Duck Boats to disembark from Fenway. pic.twitter.com/nINwukoLH1
— Alex Schley (@alex_schley) October 31, 2018
Today the city of Boston celebrated the Red Sox World Series Victory with a parade. pic.twitter.com/snkP8OdYZO
— Adelyn Davidson (@addiedavidson_) October 31, 2018
View this post on InstagramPeddlers are handing out programs for the Red Sox World Serious Victory Parade.
Why don’t smart people understand journalism? Please read this thread
Journalism has an elaborate code of ethics, but most people outside of journalism don’t know that, and that’s a problem. Sorry to "a thread" at you, but: a thread.
— Laura Helmuth (@laurahelmuth) October 5, 2018
These people weren’t stupid or hostile – they simply didn’t know how we do what we do. It was a shocking reminder to me that we have to keep explaining our methods and professional standards in very simple and direct ways, repeatedly.
— Laura Helmuth (@laurahelmuth) October 5, 2018
ALDS Game 1: Setting up at Fenway
Students: Embedding Instagram, Twitter posts into a WordPress post : Here’s what it will look like
URL or embed code will work. Be sure to use the "text" or "html" tab at the top for the embed code. URL seems to work with either tab
Undark and the @PulitzerCenter visited seven countries on five continents to document a global killer that claims more than 4 million lives every year. Here's what we found: https://t.co/LS3E5yrwzI pic.twitter.com/gtsL40AAGX
— Undark Magazine (@undarkmag) August 8, 2018
Undark and the @PulitzerCenter visited seven countries on five continents to document a global killer that claims more than 4 million lives every year. Here's what we found: https://t.co/LS3E5yrwzI pic.twitter.com/gtsL40AAGX
— Undark Magazine (@undarkmag) August 8, 2018
La Cancun Restaurant is a Mexican and Salvadorian restaurant located in East Boston right of the blue line Maverick station. pic.twitter.com/gNWoBIt8DV
— Marylu Bautista (@MaryluBautista5) September 25, 2018
Four BU students speak about political bias in their Boston University classrooms. https://t.co/zSBhioVXVA
— Adelyn Davidson (@addiedavidson_) September 24, 2018
You need to use the "text" or "html" tab at the top, or it will look like this. Don't use the visual tab unless you want it to look like this
<blockquote class="instagram-media" data-instgrm-captioned="" data-instgrm-permalink="https://www.instagram.com/p/BobhAWuDGSb/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading" data-instgrm-version="12" style="background: #FFF; border: 0; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: 0 0 1px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.5),0 1px 10px 0 rgba(0,0,0,0.15); margin: 1px; max-width: 540px; min-width: 326px; padding: 0; width: calc(100% - 2px);">
<div style="padding: 16px;"><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BobhAWuDGSb/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_medium=loading" style="background: #FFFFFF; line-height: 0; padding: 0 0; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; width: 100%;" target="_blank">
margin: 8px 0 0 0; padding: 0 4px;"><a together our passion of da...44340126766239749?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 24, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
This Google Sheets exercise is a simple intro to databases and visualization. Learn spreadsheets to do more.
Data to graphics 101 with Google Sheets. Excel will do the same.Tableau Public is an online tool.
Assignment: Complete the pie chart and embed it in a WordPress post.
This is an update of a Knight Tutorial.
Go to Google Sheets
Click Blank to create a new Spreadsheet. Note the following features:
- The menu bar lets you select different commands to change your spreadsheet.
- A cell is an individual square where you can double-click and type in information.
- The cells are organized into rows (assigned numbers) and columns (assigned letters).
- (This screenshot is from is older Google.)
Here's what the 2017 edition looks like.
Make a pie chart
The pie chart is the most ubiquitous of charts. Here's what it is and when to use it.
- It is a circle divided into segments.
- It should illustrate the relationship of the parts of a total.
- The data may be numeric but it is usually displayed in percentages.
- Never more than 5 parts. If you have more than five subsets, consider a TreeMap.
Save your spreadsheet and call it "Pie Chart." You only have to do this once. The document will autosave as you make changes.
Fill in the data as shown below. Select cell A1 by clicking it once. Hold down the Shift key and click in Cell B4 to select the range of data
Click on "Insert" in the Google Menu Bar and select "Charts." A new window will appear
The "Chart editor" will recommend charts for your data. Under "chart type" choose pie chart. You can customize typeface, color, etc. Hit insert and the chart will show up on your spread sheet.
Click the menu -- three little dots --on the upper right corner of the chart and choose “Publish chart.” (You also have the option to copy or save chart as an image here. )
Get link or embed code.
Here's what the pie chart looks like embedded.
WashPo: How to be a fashion journalist
A lot of my students want to cover fashion. One tip- no gushing. Here are some more tips on how to do it.
(Lots of other great videos in this series.)