UW student channels the power of Lady Gaga to promote tolerance
Since sifting through dull newspapers, hyperbolic blogs, and overflowing RSS feeds for meaningful news can be an arduous process, News Net catches and compiles both the amusing and the significant reports that were overlooked over the weekend. Here are some things to think about as work week begins.
• UW-Madison senior Colton Boettcher managed a bona fide viral hit with his video for the “It Gets Better” anti-bullying Internet support group for LGBT teens. The music video—set to Lady Gaga’s “Hair” and featuring UW-Madison students dancing between narrative bits about bullying in Boettcher’s hometown of Bonduel, Wisconsin—has had more than 350,000 views since it was posted last Thursday. Lady Gaga certainly enjoyed the video’s message of tolerance through choreography, and gave it a huge initial boost by posting it on her Facebook page.
• Microsoft agreed to pay Wisconsin nearly $80 million as a settlement to a lawsuit asserting that the company cheated customers by overcharging for software. And what will the Madison Metropolitan School District be doing with its $3.4 million share of the settlement? Buying a truckload of iPads, of course. Suck it, Bill Gates.
• A Madison couple will be on the next edition of The Amazing Race, airing in late February. Here’s hoping the couple’s sure-to-be-stereotyped abilities to withstand snow and cold and to consume vast quantities of dairy products will allow them to go far in the competition.
• Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald collected more per diem money than any other state legislator in 2011, a total of $18,128. Assuming Fitzgerald is a workaholic and has an average commute between his home in Juneau to Madison every workday—including over holidays and legislative recesses—he would spend something like $3,714 per year on gas. That would leave him with about $60 for meals each day that he came to Madison, which sounds more like lunches with cocktails at Merchant than quick slices of mac ’n’ cheese pizza at Ian’s. Maybe he could buy Gov. Walker a lunch now and then—he’s gotta be tired of those ham sandwiches by now.
