GOP Battle and More in Chad’s Steaming Pile

Here are just a few things in Chad’s Pile that you will hear on Lubbock’s First News this morning. Give Chad your feedback on the steaming topics.

1. GOP War

There was yet another GOP debate last night. We will break it down on the show this morning. Believe it or not, it was an important debate. Polls show the race in South Carolina tightening and one poll even shows Newt Gingrich leading. However, you can throw all the polls out because this race and changed dramatically in the last 24-48 hours. Rick Perry has dropped out and endorsed Gingrich. Newt's ex-wife went on TV and gave her version of just who Newt Gingrich is personally. Will this have an affect on the South Carolina primary on Saturday? We shall see.

2. Apple wants to kill text books (link)

When I was in college, I hated textbooks. I hated buying them and lugging them around and trying get $20 bucks back at the end of the semester was a hassle as well. If Apple has it their way, those days will soon be over.

Apple announced it would update its iBooks platform to include textbook capabilities. It also added a new platform called iBooks Author, which lets anyone easily create and publish their own e-books. Apple's late co-founder and chairman Steve Jobs had hoped to bring relief to the higher education masses in the late 80s and early 90s, but 20 years later, Jobs's legacy lives on in Apple, which hopes to make yet another dent in the education industry.

Schiller said that the problem with textbooks is not the content, which is "amazing," but the weight of the physical book. They need to last five or six years when they're written, and they're not very durable or interactive. Searching is also difficult.

At that point, Schiller introduced iBooks 2, which has a new textbook experience for the iPad. The first demonstration showed what it's like to open a biology textbook, and see an intro movie playing right before you even get to the book's contents. When you get to the book itself, images are large and beautiful, and thumbnails accompany the text. To make searching easier, all users need to do is tap on a word and they go straight to the glossary and index section in the back of the book.

Sounds awesome!

3. Dumb story of the morning (link)

Here is your dumb story of the morning.

Lots of candidates have embarrassing things in their past that they'd hate to have flare up in the middle of a presidential campaign. I think we can safely conclude that we have found Rick Santorum's! At the right, cast your eyes upon the tragedy that is Santorum's high school year book photo--specifically, Carmel High School in Mundelein, Illinois, in 1976. (The picture is from Chris Good's compilation of high school year book photos of the 2012 Republican presidential candidates--it's not pretty, although I recommend clicking through.)

A quick office straw poll here at The Atlantic, conducted amidst uproarious laughter, confirms that this is, in fact, the single worst year book photo that most of us have ever seen. An outright disaster. I suppose it's Santorum's misfortune to have been in high school during this era. I'm pretty sure that 1976 wasn't too kind to anyone. But still. Wow--he looks like McLovin in polyester. I have yet to meet the political consultant talented enough to spin this one. My condolences to Santorum. Brave of him to have struggled through this and made something of this life.

More funny than dumb really. To see the picture, check out the link above.

These and many more topics coming up on Friday’s edition of Lubbock’s First News with Chad Hasty. Tune in mornings 6-9am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App.