Do you ever feel like the admissions committee just got it wrong? That you really are more of a Princetonian than an East Tennessee State Universitian? A new Facebook application called "Which Ivy League School Are You?" can clear everything in just 10 multiple choice questions.

This specific quiz application, now over 51,000 users strong, exists alongside those soothsaying exercises like "Which Disney princess are u?" and "ARE YOU GOOD IN BED?" but we're sure this is the real deal. Written by a graduate of both Harvard and Columbia (and NYU), the questions might as well ask what your favorite brand of socks is or which Golden Girls character have you thought about during sex.

But really. What are the criteria? One wall poster from India also wants to know "How reliable is it?" So being the mad scientists we are, we devised a rigorous experiment, put on lab coats, and got out our electric orb that makes your hair stand up.

After tooling around with this for about 5 minutes, we think we've got it solved. Answer "Money" to question 8, "Clubbing" to question 5, and "I'm flawless" to number 10. You'll be a Harvardian every time.

Check out a few screen shots after the jump. And to answer those hanging questions: Thorlo and Blanche.

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Ssshhhh, the Winklevoss twins don't want you to know this: The uber-bros recently received $65 million from Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in a confidential settlement ending the lawsuit over who really, really started Facebook. But the Brothers Winklevoss aren't satisfied; they want the verdict overturned. Why, you ask? Probably because they were paid largely in Zuckerberg Bucks (a.k.a. Facebook stock). According to Valleywag:

ConnectU's settlement was issued in common shares. And an appraisal Facebook conducted to value the shares it issued to employees valued the company at $3.7 billion, or $8.88 a share — making the stock part of ConnectU's payment only worth $11 million, and the total $31 million.

Only $31 million? Oh, but it gets worse. From Valleywag:

An informal market for Facebook stock exists, though it's not publicly traded. Vulture investors are offering to buy shares for as little as $2.50 apiece. At that price, the company as a whole is worth $1.3 billion. That's less than Yahoo reportedly bid for the company in 2006.

With share price falling, what's a young Zuckerprince to do? After the jump, predictions for Facebook's grim future. Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone has those moments where your mom gets a screen name or your high school frenemy pokes you and you think, Man, technology is the worst. Along those lines, did you know that the terrorists use social networking sites too? True story! It appears that Al Qaeda has been distributing training manuals with instructions for would-be terrorists on how to use digital platforms to accomplish their, erm, goals.

Columbia will use any excuse to throw a capital-S Summit, so in a few weeks the Law School will host Facebook, Google, YouTube, MTV, Howcast, Access 360 Media and the U.S. State Department to discuss the "best ways to use digital media to promote freedom and justice, counter violence, extremism, and oppression":

These young leaders will form a new group, the Alliance of Youth Movements, which will produce a field manual for youth empowerment. The field manual will stand in stark contrast to the Al Qaeda manual on the basics of terrorism, found by Coalition Forces in Iraq... [It] will form the cornerstone of a much larger online “hub,” where emerging youth organizations can access and share “how-to” guides and tips on using social-networking and other technologies to further their causes.

The Howcast press release doesn't provide details on what exactly in the terrorism manual requires an in-kind response, but the forum was specifically inspired by an anti-FARC Facebook group that helped organize millions of Colombians to demonstrate against the guerrilla organization. Whoopi Goldberg, Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and MSNBC's Luke Russert are scheduled to speak. Read the rest of this entry »

The notoriously internetly-inept Aaron Sorkin, writer behind Studio 60 and The West Wing, recently confirmed rumors that he is working on a screenplay for Producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures about how Facebook was invented. In case you don't have enough friends on Facebook already, Sorkin (or his assistant, or hapless recent-college-grad intern or whoever) has set up a Facebook page and group! Go on, tell him your most embarrassing Facebook stories--they might wind up in the movie.

Or maybe they won't--rumors abound that Sorkin's Facebook movie is actually an adaption of a forthcoming book called Face Off by none other than Bringing Down The House author Ben Mezrich. According to 02138, sources "close to the deal" report that Sony and Rudin optioned Mezrich's forthcoming book, which purportedly sold for a staggering seven-figures over the summer.

Guess we'll have to wait and see what's really going on here. But, the really pressing question is, who do you guys think should play Mark Zuckerberg in the movie?

Remember the time Jacob and I said Facebook isn't actually destroying humanity, because people are intelligent and increasingly sophisticated at interpreting the internet? Well, a funny thing happens when you write a pro-Facebook editorial. First, you get a zillion friend requests from editors, bloggers, etc. You feel like you have to accept them because you just said Facebook is cool, so you'd be a total hypocrite if you didn't! But in your heart of hearts, you suspect people may not be quite as sophisticated as you hope; deep down, you know that "superpoke" and "business contact" are two concepts that ought never interact. Yes, our culture is evolving to keep up with the internet. But, um, we might not be all the way there, yet. We're kind of cyber cro-magnon.

After unlocking his left-leaning profile to a Fox News producer, Jacob wasn't allowed to go on the air. Then, a few days ago, this chick I had to email for my new job freaked when she saw "IvyGate" listed under "networks." She got internet-pissed at me because IvyGate once made fun of this cute guy she knows, Cameron Winklevoss (or maybe his twin, I kind of can't keep track) and caused a minor blog-world kerfuffle. She wrote me this nutty email where she called me an un-American alien, which I would call racist, but I can't remember if I unlocked my pictures for her or not, so maybe she doesn't know I'm Asian. After the jump, Rachelle's email, including these sentences with regards to the Winklevoss twins:

In case you missed the memo, they are going to represent the United States, YOUR country, in Beijing this August. Your lack of support for our athletes and the Olympic spirit is a disgrace

Look, I love the Olympics as much as the next spandex junkie, but this chick needs to get a grip. It's an athletic competition featuring teenage girls ribbon-dancing on floor mats, not a war zone.

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Remember identical twins Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, Harvard '04, the ones who claimed four years ago that Zuckerberg stole Facebook from their original site ConnectU?  Yeah, they're still desperately seeking justice in the form of cash and shares, with ongoing litigation regarding their settlement with Facebook and the value of the stock.  But lately it looks like these suckers are back in the news for another reason.

Only this time Zuckerberg definitely won't be stealing their thunder, or their gold.  The Winklevoss twins will be rowing as a pretty pair in this summer's Beijing Olympics.

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Oh, Facebook. Why must you, like the girl in my English seminar who eats her feelings, return from Summer Break twice as wide as when we last parted? New Facebook, you are not hot. Not even a little bit, and Bwog agrees with me. Per Bwog: "A preference of New Facebook is no longer an acceptable option for anyone, ever."

But fear not, Facebook-addicted Ivy Leaguers: the fattening of Facebook will seem insignificant compared to the impending loss of Scrabulous. The apocalypse is nigh! Sweet baby Jesus, hear our collective cry: "Please, God, I have so little: Don't take Scrabulous, too!"

And, to make matters worse, as I sat at my desk with tears rolling down my cheeks, panic swelling beneath my Barnard T-shirt, no fucking clue as to how I would survive next year, I came across a gem of an article on TheDartmouth.com which can only have been written by a Facebook atheist.

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There I was this morning, reading my LA Times over coffee like most New Yorkers, when suddenly I was struck with a bolt of recognition. Nestled among the garbage about the impending war with Iran and the collapse of the US economy was a brilliant opinion piece about Facebook by IvyGate's very own editors, Maureen O'Connor and Jacob Savage! Did they plug IvyGate? Do Yale kids season their steak with cocaine?

Our intrepid editors come to the happy conclusion that all those incriminating photos of us on the internet won't actually be much of a problem because there will be incriminating photos of EVERYONE doing EVERYTHING. Not mentioned in the piece is the notion that, God forbid, one NOT post pictures of oneself drunkenly screwing a dog, but at this point, it's probably fair to accept heedless exhibitionism as the natural order of things and work our way out from there.

The full article, including a disquisition on the morality of printing salacious, though possibly irrelevant material, is after the jump.

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"The true story of two best friends- geeky outsiders at a prestigious Ivy League University- who wanted nothing more than to get into one of the elite fraternities on campus, so they'd have an easier time getting laid."

Thus poetically begins Ben Mezrich's proposal about creating Facebook with Mark "I Just Want to Help" Zuckerberg as "dorky," fencing-loving, Adidas shower shoes-wearing Harvard undergrads.

Gawker warns,

The book may not be the most rigorously factual account, as Mezrich's Bringing Down The House... was debunked by the Boston Globe as "not a work of 'nonfiction' in any meaningful sense of the word."

Rolling Stone's recent profile of Zuckerberg is a bit more specific about his motivations. Facebook began as so many other brilliant ideas do, with drinking alone on a Tuesday night (ah, college). Recently dumped and feeling bitter, Zuckerberg wrote on his blog, "Jessica A— is a bitch." (Does anyone know who Jessica A. is?) That night, he created Face Mash, a site for students to compare their classmates' pictures with those of farm animals and rank them in terms of attractiveness. Charming! Read the rest of this entry »

Penn students who decided to extend their stay in Philadelphia (for whatever reason) got the chance to see the Transformers sequel being filmed on their campus.

But they're pissed about it!

Apparently, even though it's filming at Penn, rumor has it that the actual setting for the movie will be Princeton, where they've also filmed. Naturally, Penn students are upset to have their 15 minutes of sort of fame snatched from them by Princeton of all places, and they've even taken the fight to the streets Facebook.

"An Open Letter to Michael Bay from the University of Pennsylvania," a group of almost 200 sprung up as a place to air out such sophisticated complaints as "Seriously, Michael Bay? Seriously? Princeton???" Even a Temple student was mad enough to join.

And what exactly does Michael Bay have to say for himself? Well nothing, but one of the producers told the Daily Pennsylvanian that neither school's name would appear in the film.
And one of the Facebook group members claims that Penn itself denied them the rights to use the name! Et tu, President Gutmann?

Regardless of what name actually ends up on screen, this makes three Ivies where Shia has made movies after the latest Indiana Jones filmed at Yale. (No love for Harvard, Shia? Maybe you can make a cameo in How High 2.)

Pics of Michael Bay, Shia, and his costar Isabel Lucas (should I know who that is?) on set in Philly after the jump.

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