John Hodgman on the Daily Show, Apple Ads, Dune, Films, Books, Peter Berg, Ted Turner (2008)
John Kellogg Hodgman (born June 3,
1971) is an
American author, actor and humorist. In addition to his published written works, such as
The Areas of My Expertise,
More Information Than You Require, and
That Is All, he is known for his personification of a PC in contrast to
Justin Long's personification of a
Mac in
Apple's "Get a Mac" advertising campaign, and for his work as a correspondent on
Comedy Central's
The Daily Show with
Jon Stewart.
His writings have been published in One
Story (to which he contributed the debut story),
The Paris Review,
McSweeney's Quarterly Concern,
Wired and
The New York Times Magazine, for which he is editor of the humor section. He contributes to
Public Radio International's
This American Life, and
CBC Radio One's
Wiretap. His first book and accompanying audio narration, The Areas of My Expertise, a satirical tongue-in-cheek almanac which actually contains almost no factual information, was published in
2005. His second book, More Information Than You Require, went on sale
October 21, 2008. His third book, That Is All, went on sale
November 1,
2011.
Hodgman was the headline speaker at the 2009
Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner in
Washington, D.C.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hodgman
Robert Edward "
Ted" Turner III (born
November 19,
1938[2]) is an
American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network
CNN, the first
24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded
WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television. As a philanthropist, he is known for his $1 billion gift to support the
United Nations, which created the
United Nations Foundation, a public charity to broaden support for the UN.
Turner serves as Chairman of the United Nations Foundation board of directors.
Turner's media empire began with his father's billboard business, which he took over at 24 after his father's suicide.
The business, Turner Outdoor
Advertising, was worth $1 million when Turner took it over in
1963 (roughly $7.63 million in present day terms). Purchase of an
Atlanta UHF station in
1970 began the
Turner Broadcasting System.
Cable News Network revolutionized news media, covering the
Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in
1986 and the
Persian Gulf War in
1991. Turner turned the
Atlanta Braves baseball team into a nationally popular franchise and launched the charitable
Goodwill Games. He helped reinvent interest in professional wrestling when he owned one of the most popular wrestling companies of the middle to late
1990s known as
World Championship Wrestling (
WCW). The Monday night show that it put on was the highest rated on cable and helped boost Turner's channels of
TNT and WTBS.
Turner's penchant for controversial statements earned him the nicknames "
The Mouth of the South" and "
Captain Outrageous". Turner has also devoted his assets to environmental causes. He was the largest private landowner in the
United States until
John C. Malone surpassed him in 2011. He uses much of his land for ranches to re-popularize bison meat (for his
Ted's Montana Grill chain), amassing the largest herd in the world. He also created the environmental-themed animated series
Captain Planet and the Planeteers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Turner
Azar Nafisi (
Persian: آذر نفیسی; born
1955) is an
Iranian writer and professor of
English literature. She has resided in the United States since
1997 and became an
American citizen in 2008.
Nafisi has been a visiting fellow and lecturer at the
Foreign Policy Institute of
Johns Hopkins University'
s School of Advanced International Studies (
SAIS) and served on the
Board of Trustees of
Freedom House. She is the niece of famous Iranian scholar, fiction writer and poet
Saeed Nafisi. Azar Nafisi is best known for her
2003 book Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in
Books, which remained on the
New York Times Bestseller list for
117 weeks, and has won several literary awards, including the 2004 Non-fiction
Book of the Year
Award from Booksense. The book also led to controversy about Nafisi's alleged connections to neoconservatism and colonialism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azar_Nafisi
Dennis Lehane (born August 4,
1965) is an
American crime author. He has written several novels, including
A Drink Before the War and
Mystic River, which was later made into a film. Another novel,
Gone, Baby, Gone, was also adapted into a film. His novel
Shutter Island was adapted into a film by
Martin Scorsese in
2010. Lehane is a graduate of
Eckerd College in
St. Petersburg, Florida.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Lehane