Run, Shrimp, Run
Charleston is famous for shrimp, but not only in the way you think. In November, The Today Show aired a story on two scientists — one of them from the College of Charleston’s Grice Marine Laboratory — who are researching the health of shrimp amid climate change. They put a shrimp on a treadmill after it was exposed to pollutants, bacteria, and all the bad stuff that’s emerging thanks to global warming. The experiment was recorded and then posted to YouTube where it quickly went viral. Clever minds set the fleet-footed shrimp to “Chariots of Fire,” the Benny Hill theme song, and that hit tune from OK Go that also involved treadmills. Since then, the video has been viewed more than a million times. “It’s become an internet sensation,” Al Roker said with evident glee. Not exactly what you’d expect from a pair of serious scientists, but that’s OK with CofC. The school is hoping to drum up more of this kind of attention. It built a YouTube page (www.youtube.com/collegeofcharleston, where you can see a crab has since replaced the shrimp on the treadmill, running with all his might, only sideways) that features faculty profiles, news for and by students, and other kinds of marketing. It’s part of a larger trend among colleges to market themselves to potential students and to raise their national profiles. In case you’re wondering: No shrimp were injured in the making of this video. Researchers said the shrimp ran for hours and hours, but the little guy never wore out.
Marcus Still With Us
Being the new editor of the Post and Courier‘s Preview section hasn’t slowed him down much. Actually, it hasn’t at all. Marcus Amaker, the spoken word poet, musician, and graphic artist, took the job four months ago and last month sent an e-mail that should put to rest any concern that he’s too busy to create. On deck in 2009 are four projects, all of which can be experienced at www.marcusamaker.com. He wants to remix songs he wrote and recorded as a kid (“No Mo’ Chicken,” for example). Another project is tentatively called “Lady Phoenix.” Amaker plans to reconfigure poems, images, and animation in order to create a digital gift, as he said in an interview with City Paper, for the “one perfect person I’ve been searching for.” There are other projects, too, all involving remixes and mash-ups. What’s really important to Amaker is the human exchange of ideas: “I really like the idea of giving art away,” Amaker says. “Sharing has become so easy with the internet. —John Stoehr
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