Friday Five: ‘I like to watch’ (YouTube) edition

OK, so it’s only Thursday. I’m early for a change.

This Friday Five is brought to you by the spirit of Chauncey Gardiner. Some of you youngsters have probably never heard of him. He was a character played by Peter Sellers in the movie Being There, and he liked to watch television. A lot.

Chauncey would have loved YouTube. Apparently, we all love YouTube. In the past year along, according to a Wall Street Journal article, we’ve spent 9.305 years watching YouTube videos. Wired‘s Monkey Bites blog calculates how many years have been wasted watching the following five YouTube posts:

14.26 years watching geriatric1927.

14.75 years watching lonelygirl15.

17.71 years watching “Real Life Simpsons Intro.”

93.31 years watching funtwo shred on the guitar.

378.99 years watching Evolution of Dance, YouTube’s most-viewed video.

Lest you think YouTube holds no educational value whatsoever, some educators are finding ways to use YouTube in the classroom. Hat tip to connect.educause.edu.

And if you’re of a certain age, a bit on the nerdy side, do not work in a cubicle and the boss is out of the office today, you have my permission to crank up the speakers and enjoy one of my guilty YouTube pleasures.

A new kind of university stadium

The for-profit University of Phoenix has shelled out $154.5 million to name the Arizona Cardinals’ football stadium (via Arizona Republic). The irony was not lost on the newspaper.

The Cardinals spent the past 17 years trying to rid themselves of the stigma of being the only NFL team to play in a college arena. Their glitzy new $455 million stadium is now named for a university.

Funny how stuff like that happens.