Julie Siegel (Milly Turakhia)

I met Julie Siegel during the summer of 2002 in a sweltering room in Amherst, Mass. The room was known as the “Octagon” and we were taking summer courses at Amherst College. We fought about Middle Eastern politics. We even participated in a political board game in which Julie and I played Iraq and pitted ourselves against other regional powers. And lost.

I didn’t see her for three years after that. I had no idea that she would ever be named Queen Bee or that she applied to Penn. Even during my first semester at The Daily Pennsylvanian, we somehow missed each other.

It wasn’t until last year’s annual DP banquet that I re-discovered the Queen Bee. She was riotously laughing at the speeches, even though most of them weren’t too funny. One year later, Julie has found a new place at the DP, and it’s not disrupting the show from the back of the room. Her work will now be front-and-center for all of you, the readers of The Spin.

It is a tradition for old editors to introduce/humiliate their successors as they hand over the reigns. After a thorough background check, I have discovered the following things about Julie Siegel:

1. Julie likes politics.
   
2. Julie was born on Election Day.
   
3. Julie once spent an entire morning with a mouse in her shoe and didn’t realize it. It is unknown whether the mouse survived this ordeal.
   
4. Julie likes Jewish men.
   
5. Julie went as Princess Leia for Halloween in sixth grade.
   
6. Julie likes Jewish men.
   
7. Julie was the first kiss of Eitan Freedenberg.
   
8. Julie was the de-facto prom queen at her Jew school. Julie speaks Hebrew. Julie likes Jewish men.

These little crumbs were hard to come by. Everything else about Julie’s past is well-protected behind a wall of loyalists who don’t return phone calls. But I can say this: Julie has found her place at The Daily Pennsylvanian. She’s a journalist of the new age and, under her leadership, I am confident that you will enjoy reading The Spin for another semester. I wish her the best of luck.

The Daily Pennsylvanian has finished regular daily publication for the semester. With the exception of the traditional finals issue coming out next week, we won’t be back until classes resume in January.

On behalf of The Spin and The Daily Pensylvanian, I would like to thank you, our readers, for visiting The Spin on a regular basis.

In case you didn’t know, I’ve been in charge of The Spin for the past semester. I will be leaving my position as Deputy Editorial Page Editor along with my boss and Editorial Page Editor, Evan Goldin.

It’s been a thrill to work with so many great columnists and dive into a new, online-exclusive format for DP opinion writing.

The dedicated online columnists, or “columnistas,” as I like to call them, have spent a great deal of time and effort creating content for The Spin. We hope that we have provided you, our readers, with a worthwhile online experience that makes you feel more connected to Penn, The Daily Pennsylvanian and general college life.

As The Spin has developed over the past few months, our approach has been to push the boundaries of traditional Web logs, or “blogs”. In particular, The Spin has featured a good deal of original reporting. Unlike most blogs, much of the content of The Spin is collected with the same standards for reporting as any news item in the DP.

While this approach is unorthodox for blogs, we believe that print media must integrate original reporting and the internet if the industry is to continue to grow. Our approach is gaining traction in the industry. For example, the popular left-wing political blog Huffington Post recently announced that they have hired a veteran print journalist to cover events in Washington, D.C. and produce more “original content.”

The new initiative of the Huffington Post sounds like it’s ripped from page-one of the Spin playbook. And, yes, there actually is a Spin playbook.

We expect to have a few posts up during the DP finals issue next week. Beginning in January, The Spin will feature a new editor and a new roster of columnistas.

If you are interested in joining The Spin next semester, please fill out our columnist application by December 31st. You can choose to apply as an online columnist, a print columnist or both. I encourage you to apply!

Once again, thank you for joining us this semester. I hope to see you back in January. If you have any questions or comments about the Spin, please feel free to e-mail them to me at Obenzinger@dailypennsylvanian.com.

A commercial Web site is beginning to make the rounds on the Internet.

It appears to be a site for a stylish Taiwanese portable music player. However, the backdrop for the site is a computer-enhanced photo of World Trade Center rubble.

If anyone can interpret the text on the site, I would be very curious to hear about what kind of bizarre marketing angle they are using for this product. Please feel free to e-mail me at Obenzinger (a) dailypennsylvanian.com with any information.

Update: Thanks to Wharton and Engineering sophomore Matt Evans, who sent a link with a picture of the English language ad.

I also got in contact with a Mandarin speaker, who translated it as “Even if the world ends, I still believe in music.”

There is some question about whether or not the English language photo is real. However, someone has a high resolution version, which suggests that the company is offering the picture for download as a desktop background. You know, in case you want rubble on Liberty St. to show up when you turn on your computer.

If anyone is ever in the position of making a business or marketing textbook, they should put this ad as an example of what not to do.

The Daily Pennsylvanian (along with its staff) has gone on break for Thanksgiving. Publication of the DP will resume on Tuesday, November 28. The Spin will also resume posting next Tuesday.

As always, we welcome your questions and comments about The Spin. Feel free to e-mail any feedback to me at Obenzinger (at) dailypennsylvanian.com.

On behalf of The Spin, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Also, because the DP staff will be away, there will likely be an accumulation of spam-bots filling our comments section. We are continually working on improved filters to eliminate these ad-bots. However, they continue to get more sophisticated with each new filter that we create. I apologize in advance for any comment-spam that may appear here over the next week.

Oh, and to the spam-bot makers: No, I will not be purchasing your Cialis, Viagra, hair replacement, mail-order brides, “real” absinthe or Brazilian/Thai “odysseys”. No one here will. Please go away.

Happy Thanksgiving, folks!

I am one of the few students out there who likes coursepacks.

Coursepacks are small, easy to use and don’t take up too much space. But once the semester ends, I often realize that I have spent $50 on a bound volume of photocopied books that has zero resale value.

A small start-up company called Curiosity Coursepacks may have found the answer. Started by a group of Northewestern students, the company prints legal coursepacks for free.

The catch? They sell advertising in the back of their coursepacks. This isn’t really a catch at all. In fact, it makes complete sense. Reading a few ads is well worth not having to pay a hefty chunk of cash for a coursepack.

Better yet, the company currently operates at Northwestern and Penn. So professors should take note: Your students will love you if your class offers free coursepacks. And students should make sure that their professors investigate this option for next semester’s classes.

Students are a high-potential demographic for any advertiser. Given the skyrocketing costs of learning at a place like Penn, Curiosity Coursepacks allows students to leverage our demographic to actually save some money.

The Spin trolls dozens of news feeds so that you don’t have to.

• [ WSJ - CollegeJournal.com ]
  Thinking of playing Whartonite and making a PowerPoint for a class presentation? Maybe you shouldn’t.
• [ The Harvard Crimson ]
  Boxer Rebellion Party offends Asian groups.
• [ Daily Princetonian ]
  Radiation leak at Princeton.
• [ The Dartmouth Online ]
  A Dartmouth student cited WikiPedia in an essay last year. Please don’t be like him.

The Spin trolls dozens of news feeds so that you don’t have to.

• [ Daily Illini ]
  Students abuse Adderall, especially during “crunch-time”
• [ The Brown Daily Herald ]
  Bizarre rash plagues NESCAC runners
• [ WSJ-CollegeJournal.com ]
  State universities becoming more competitive
• [ The Daily Princetonian ]
  Rejected Princeton applicant alleges racial bias

Are you interested in this alleged racial bias suit against Princeton? Check back tomorrow, when The Spin’s Amruta Godbole will explore this issue, including an interview with the student who brought the suit.

The Spin trolls dozens of news feeds so that you don’t have to.

• [ Inside Higher Education ]
  Michigan Votes Down Affirmative Action
• [ WSJ - CollegeJournal.com ]
  More employers using tests for entry- and mid-level job recruitment
• [ The Brown Daily Herald ]
  Facebook.com sends out job recruiters
• [ The Dartmouth ]
  Prevalence of frats leads to male-dominated social scene
• [ Washington Post ]
  New controversy rages at Gallaudet about academic standards

The Spin reads dozens of news feeds so that you don’t have to.

• [ The Dartmouth ]
  Awkward Halloween costume debates just won’t die.
• [ The Chronicle (Duke) ]
  Grad student given diploma, ending weird, hush-hush case at Duke.
• [ The Harvard Crimson ]
  Liberals are winking at me. Stop winking!
• [ The Cornell Daily Sun ]
  “Just what we need, another blog. If you are so bored, why don’t you leave the library?”
• [ The Harvard Crimson ]
  Harvard students still paranoid two years after falling for massive prank.

My experience at the polls today was quite pleasant. I waited in line for all of two minutes at Steinberg-Dietrich Hall before I was led into a booth to cast my ballot.

An afternoon stroll around campus to various polling places suggested that voting on campus has been generally smooth.

Many of these campus polling locations are almost entirely run by Penn students. These students should be commended for their great performance. As voters across the country grapple with late poll openings and technical problems, we should thank them for what appears to be a job well done.

Of course, the night is still young. There is still plenty of time for complaints, lawsuits, counts and re-counts.