AMC vs. TCM

Those of you who know me know that I look down on AMC in its current manifestation. The movie choices, the constant repetition of movies, the original television shows (though they are quite good), and the commercials (especially the ones for "male enhancement" products) all demonstrate to me that AMC is no longer the channel of American Movie Classics. To better analyze AMC, I created a scatter plot graph comparing the movie being shown this week on AMC and TCM.



Now, I'm not a mathematician or a statistician, I am fairly certain that when we look at this graph, we're supposed to ask, What does this tell us? So, what does this tell us? Not a whole lot. There are, however, a few things that can be inferred from the graph.

One: TCM is showing a larger selection of movies, 91 (one movie was not placed on the graph because it had no ratings on IMDb), than AMC, 47. The most likely reason for this is the fact that AMC's weekly schedule is cluttered with television shows, repeated movies and television shows, and penile growth commercials. Of course, the repeated movies are the worst as they take up the most scheduling time and keep AMC from supplying additional movies during the week.

Two: TCM's movie selection spans a greater length of time than AMC's, with selections spanning 71 years of cinema, from 1914 to 1982. AMC's, on the other hand, is representative of only 56 years, from 1950 to 2006. Possible reasons for this difference is that TCM can afford a wider diversity of movies. I make this assumption because of the commercial-free nature of TCM's movies, which implies that TCM doesn't need money from advertisers. Additionally, because AMC does run commercials, it will need to run movies that advertisers will want to run commercials during. Generally, these movies will be somewhat newer and/or more action-oriented, at least during the day.

Three: Interestingly, AMC's trendline implies that movie quality goes down the older the movie shown while TCM's trendline implies the opposite. My guess for why this is true is that TCM has a larger share of the rights to older movies, which restricts AMC's abilities to obtain the rights to quality movies from the '80s (I use the word "quality" loosely when describing '80s movies). Of course, as mentioned earlier, AMC's demand for older movies might not be that strong because of advertising. I do think, however, that more than one week's data is needed to see if the trendlines remain consistent.

There are some issues with the scatter plot. Probably the most significant of these is the use of IMDb ratings, which can be unstable and a bit susceptible to manipulation, as last year's ratings battle between fans of The Godfather and The Dark Knight shows. Particularly unstable are movies that don't have a lot of ratings, which is the case with quite a few older movies.

The Flyer editorial: Will the real leader of the GOP please stand up? (backdated)

I had some fun writing this editorial.

Originally published in The Flyer on March 10th, 2009.

Link to story on The Flyer's web site
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Who's the Boss?

The Flyer editorial: We're not socialists yet (backdated)

Personally, I originally thought that this editorial could have been better, but I heard a few compliments about it, including from my boss, the Honors Program Director, whose opinion of it I was rather grateful to hear.

Originally published in The Flyer on February 24th, 2009.

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During the recent debate over the Obama administration’s stimulus package, the term "socialism" was bandied about both by some supporters and detractors. On a recent cover, Newsweek declared that "We Are All Socialists Now," while conservative critics attempted to rally opposition to the stimulus by ascribing the dreaded S word to it.... (Link to the article on The Flyer's website.)

The Iconography of Barack Obama

Seriously, this is a little ridiculous. Not to mention blatantly obvious.

The Flyer editorial: No one is perfect (backdated)

When I first finished this, I thought it was so-so, but a friend of mine loved it and mentioned how good it was several times after it was published. I've come around to her line of thinking and approve of the editorial now.

Originally published in The Flyer on February 10th, 2009.

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A picture was published recently of swimmer Michael Phelps smoking out of a bong at a college party last November. Phelps admitted that he was using marijuana in the picture and apologized for his "bad judgment." So far, as a consequence of his actions, Phelps was dropped as a spokesman for Kellogg’s, USA Swimming barred him from competition for three months and he may face criminal charges. In addition, parents bemoan the failings of a role model for children. The controversy does, however, raise some important questions.... (Link to article on The Flyer's website.)

The crux of my decision in Smith v. Alaska

Last spring, I took a class on constitutional law, the curriculum of which included a moot court. The case, Smith v. Alaska involved the arrest and conviction of Smith, a teenage male, who was older than the age of consent, for statutory rape due to a sexual relationship he had with a teenage male, who was younger than the age of consent. The complicating issue here is that under a hypothetical Alaskan statute, there is a "Romeo and Juliet" exception to the statutory rape law which legalizes relationships if the individuals are within a certain difference in age. Smith and his partner were within this age difference, however, the wording of the statute implies that the exception only applies to heterosexual relations. So, what does the constitution have to say about it? Well, here is the third (and best) section of my decision along with the conclusion.