Fleeting fame shines spotlight on local students

Andy Warhol almost got it right.

In 1968, he observed that "in the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes."

If he could have forseen the Internet, he might have more correctly trimmed that to "15 seconds."

This week, three McCook Community College freshmen enjoyed their time in the spotlight on the Tosh.0 Comedy Central "Sports or Consequences" feature, which broadcast a video of one of them forced to ride through a carwash on a windshield after losing a "spin-around-a-bat" challenge.

We don't know if the owner of the carwash was amused, nor the State Patrol officer next in line, but the McCook Police were curious enough to respond to four 9-1-1 calls in three minutes when he was later duct-taped to a light pole.

A group of co-workers discovering the Harlem Shake on YouTube judged it to be much less sophisticated than the previous Gangnam Style meme, but the Federal Aviation Administration wants to know more about a video of the former, shot on a Frontier flight carrying a group of Colorado College students to an Ultimate Frisbee tournament in San Diego.

And, Moslem Brotherhood officials running Egypt are concerned that the Harlem Shake is being used by political opponents to undermine their authority.

Like everything from smoke signals to movable type to the telegraph, the Internet is just a communications tool that can be used for good or ill -- or just to kill time.

Never before, however, has such a powerful means of worldwide communications been available to anyone with an idea, from the President of the United States to a couple of kids in a carwash.

Let's hope we're wise enough to grasp the good ideas and let the others fade into obscurity as their 15 seconds expire.