While the current crop of elementary school students are spoiled with interactive learning tools, computers and techno-gadgetry, us older folk, and I mean those of us who were public school students well into the 1980s, have been scarred with the grand old experience we came to know as film day. Ah yes, the day when our teacher didn’t feel like teaching, ran out of assignments to give, and wheeled out the old film projector, or worse, the still-frame filmstrip-and-cassette-tape machine (for those too young to know what this is, click here for an accurate, albeit politically charged, simulation of the experience). And for the day, the students would sit, veg, and have propaganda fed to them about what it meant to be a good, patriotic young pupil.

But of all the “educational” films made for this purpose, there are really two that stand out for being particularly outrageous in premise. The first – and most recognizable – is “Duck and Cover.” The second is not so widely known, but hilariously ridiculous in it’s own right: “Lunchroom Manners,” or as most people call it, “Mr. Bungle.”

I mean, just WATCH the film. What the hell were these people thinking?! Were the kids of the 1950s really such naive sheep? And did the people filming this really believe that a stupid puppet, and a stupid film revolving around the actions of a stupid puppet, would really be effective? Nowadays, the same effect can be had by tellig kids “look. Wash your filthy hands and faces, don’t run in the halls, and clean up after yourselves, you vermin!” and they’d more or less get the idea.

Oh, and what’s the deal with the hair?! For Christ’s sake, the film spends so much time drumming it into boys’ heads that their hair can’t be messy, oh no! And every damned kid in the film has a crewcut! I’m sorry, but there is just no way to have only 2mm of hair on your head, and have it get “messy!”

Oh yeah, and the milk cartons… what’s up with those? It’s PAPER people. In the 1950s you knew not of recycling… just throw them away!

Yes, I could on and on about this piece of schoolmarm drivel. You just HAVE to watch it to experience, and truly understand, the horror.

After facing a corporate scandal and losses from its dropping of Verizon Wireless in favor of new partner Cingular, RadioShack is facing even WORSE financial results than ever before.  The apparently-forlorn purveyor of cheaply-made, heavily-marked-up electronics has seen it profits dwindle by as much as 85 percent, and executives aren’t happy:

“While we knew first quarter would be weak, the results are worse than we anticipated,” said acting Chief Executive Claire Babrowski. “We clearly have a lot more work to do to get this company back to levels of profitability which we all expect.”

When are these guys going to admit the Cingualr move was a huge mistake?

So I’m sure you’ve seen the ads all over the place by now.  Cingular has wrapped itself in the flag of “a leading independent wireless research firm” and touts the results of this supposed independent study that rates Cingular as having the fewest dropped calls of any national wireless carrier.  They don’t exactly mention who this independent wireless company is or how the test was conducted, but hey details like that are of no importance, right?

Well, several media outlets are calling Cingular out on their marketing campaign and accusing Cingular of stretching the truth a bit.  And when the identity of the “leading independent research firm” was discovered, the firm apparently wasn’t too happy:

A Cingular spokeswoman said the research company was Telephia Corp. of San Francisco and referred questions about the study to a spokesman there. The Telephia spokesman declined to provide any information, saying Cingular shouldn’t have even mentioned the company’s name to a reporter.

Nice.  So after this company allegedly releases a study that makes the real indepdent research firm scratch their heads in disbelief, it turns out they don’t even want their name associated with the study?  How reliable can this thing be if the researchers don’t even want people to know they did the study?

And despite it all there are still no details about what the report actually said, how the tests were conducted, nor can it account for the fact that every other report – the ones Cingular chooses not to flout around in full page newspaper ads – tell a very different story.

Well, I was all psyched up, ready to try Sprint PCS service one more time to see if service had improved. I have even hoped to write up a review/shootout between Sprint’s Power Vision service, and Verizon Wireless’ BroadbandAccess offering, analyzing which was the fastest, best implemented, and best value for the money.

Unfortunately, Sprint appears to have forfeited round one:

This, after my experience getting the correct rate plans on my new account.

Nice to see little has changed at Sprint. *sigh*

News sources are abuzz with the rumor that Roth is indeed going to be off the air as soon as next week.  The alleged replacement?  Opie & Anthony, who had been fired by the same company a few years back.

Way to go, Infinity! Now that’s desperation!