ISAN
2008
OPINION
5A
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2008
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
COMMENTARY
Professors what books do students actually need?
When my roommate and I aren't out being venture capitalists trying to give back to the community, we like to light up a couple stogies, stand around in my bathroom and flush $5 bills down the toilet until the fire alarm in our apartment building goes off.
This is a basic parallel to the common practice of professors not informing their students which required texts are not necessarily "required" for their course.
It's an easily solved problem to an all-too-regular situation. Yet no professor I've encountered feels it necessary to forewarn his or her students about the possibility of wasting of money.
How could I keep the fire alarms from going off in my apartment building?
Easy. Dismantle them.
How could professors keep us from wasting money?
By using Blackboard. It exists for a reason.
Saving money is one of my top priorities, as it is to most of my classmates, so I make sure to buy my books in advance. Many students, like myself, don't use the bookstore on campus for all of their required text needs. I use half.com and amazon.com along with the marketplace application on Facebook.
I arrived at my sociology course on the first day only to find out an $80 book that the bookstore told me I needed was not in fact needed.
I felt a sense of loss for the good time my roommate and I could've had flushing $80 worth of Lincolns.
'I know it was supposed to be a nice gesture on the professor's part, I'm all about nice gestures. I blow kisses to people instead of flipping them off. I call bad drivers "cupcake".
I like nice gestures, gestures that mean something, nice gestures that follow through — nice gestures that cook breakfast the morning after.
If a professor isn't going to require some of the texts, it would be best if the professor would post a notice on Blackboard. Every student of the class automatically has the chance to see this information far in advance, and it allows them to save money. There isn't a drawback, other than a professor having to use some of his or her "office hours" (during which he or she any students show up).
Students, demand this of your professors, not necessarily in a threatening or ominous manner since it wouldn't do any good. Rather, tell them how nice it was for them to cut some of the required texts out, but also tell them how much more it would've helped you if they had posted it in advance on Blackboard. You don't get slapped if you don't ask.
With my leftover cash from knowing in advance which books to buy, I'll go out and grab some cookie dough. I may bake some professors cookies — that is, if they can keep me out of this swift.
Stewart is a Wichita junior in journalism.
Max Rinkel
COMMENTARY
I (vow to destroy all) Robots
There have been plenty of warnings. Three "Terminator" movies exist, and now there's even a "Terminator" TV series. Robots. They build Toyotas and screw the lids onto Snapples. Their actions are intertwined with our daily lives. Ever used an ATM? My point exactly. My prediction for 2008? The end of humanity as we know it at the hands of our metallic "friends". My resolution? To destroy every robot in the world, either personally, or through an osmotic transmission of my teachings.
We should've seen this coming. While the Hollywood robot-sympathetizers pumped out movies with sassy, off-bat robots (think Star Wars, Short Circuit, Mystery Science Theatre 3000), the more intelligent among us, including
myself, naturally recognized these cinematic projections as obvious attempts to delude the dull masses. When I was in high school, not only did the student body elect to me to a position once, but a remarkable two times. By my count, that is the maximum number of times a candidate running for an annual office can get elected in the span of two years. You could say I hold the record for the most elections won in that time frame. Anyways, one of my campaign's principal slogans beamed "With robots growing stronger and more intelligent, I can protect you from the evil ones." It was a central tenet of the campaign, and my anti-robot policies played a huge role in my victories, in one of which I garnered 100 percent of the vote. Just check my exit polls. I've known about this threat for a long time.
Are all robots evil? The answer is, without exception, a resonant "yes." While there remains a perception of robots helping the lesser-abled, let me assure you this is all part of the robots' grand attempt to bide time, earn our trust, and intricately design our demise. Did you see "Space Odyssey 2001?" Crafty work there, HAL 3000. That's the thing about robots. They are always scheming.
That's why this American puts it on himself to destroy anything the least bit automated. Do you ever wonder who regularly smashes toll meters on Massachusetts Street? Pulverizes credit card scanners in the Underground? Splinters the motion sensors at the 23rd Street Dillons? I think you know who's responsible. Call it an act of patriotism, or at least, a powerful and destructive statement. And to the elderly woman in front of Liberty Hall whose automatic entry keychain I smashed, I'm only partially sorry. I had to do what I did.
So what does this mean for you, reader? To this point, you've let your country, and to some extent, me, down. The warning signs have been shockingly clear. The subprime lending crisis? Robots. The decay of print journalism? Robots. The inordinate wealth of the richest members of society due to the system of democracy and the growth of a political economy? I'm going to let you guess who's behind this one (those robots read Locke).
Look how much progress I've made. If each one of us takes a fraction of the initiative I have taken, we'll have the metal-plated mooches off of our backs forever.
You'll have your doubts. You'll,
think aloud, hopefully at an anti-robot rally, hopefully clutching this article, "Why, Corban, why should we turn upon treasured robot members of society, such as ED-209 from "RoboCop" and Mechagadzilla? Can we not live in peace?" First of all, that can't happen because those robots you speak of are fictional. Second, a robotic "peace" offering would likely be a trap, unleashing a computer virus or a power outage, or triggering an Amazon.com order for 15 copies of "Gigli" on your MasterCard. And I just paid the last 15 off. That's another thing about robots. They're good with computers.
I can see the future now. Besides the fact that I see my children while beating your children at standardized tests and class rankings, a testament to their father's own superior bench-press and mental fortitude, I see a future with no harassment from robot solicitors, robot DMV employees or Dick Cheney (currently 75 percent machine). We will live without some of the frills that the "good" robots provide; but "good" robots are just evil robots waiting to happen.
You're welcome for the heads-up.
Goble is a Mission Hills senior in English.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Story does not provide needed context
Columnist Joshua Anderson's Jan. 25 editorial fails to provide the context or balance to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in doing so, simplifies an extremely complicated issue. While Anderson criticizes Israel's military excursions, settlements and checkpoints, he fails to mention the Palestinian suicide bombers who target Israeli citizens — not soldiers — and Hamas rockets that are shot into Israel on an almost daily basis. Nor does Anderson address the fact that Hamas, the organization now in control of the Gaza Strip, is still committed to Israel's destruction. The editor also fails to address how the corruption within the Arafat regime and the internecine fighting between Hamas and Fatah has only hurt the peace process but has also harmed the lives of Palestinians who hope for a better tomorrow.
Not Aparthieid," was a New York Times Best Seller, and most major cable outlets, including CNN, interviewed Carter about his views expressed in the book. The former president, however, was rightly criticized because of the book's significant factual errors, omissions and misstatements, which ultimately failed to provide an appropriate context and balance to this conflict.
Critics of Israel in both Israe;
and America are neither muted or
intimidated. Critics of Israel
policy, such as Jimmy Carter and
Desmond Tutu, are given ample
opportunity to air their opinions.
Carter's book, "Palestine: Peace
An honest and balanced appraisal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict strongly suggests that a lasting peace will only be achieved when both sides make tough but necessary concessions, such as the end of Israel outpost settlements and checkpoints in the West Bank, but also a true commitment by all of the Palestinian leadership to end the indiscriminate use of violence on Israeli citizens.
Israel has a large and vocal peace movement, which regularly criticizes the government's policies toward the Palestinians.
Sincerely,
Andrew Shaw
University of Kansas School of
Law, Class of 2009
Israel willing to work for peace, safety
Imagine this scenario: In the process of living your everyday life, you are bombarded with an average of 13 rocket attacks per day. This is unimaginable for most, but to Israeli citizens living near the Gaza border, this is reality.
For most countries, the response would be: Who is responsible, and how quickly can we react? Instead, Israel gave repeated warnings to the Palestinians that if the attacks did not stop they would be forced to respond. Following the 400th rocket fired into Israel this January from Gaza, Israel finally responded. The response was not to fire rockets back into Gaza at innocent civilians, like the Palestinians have done so many times, but instead Israel restricted resources entering Gaza with this message to Palestinians: Your goals will not be achieved through terrorism.
the Palestinians to return to Gaza,
but rather it was the Egyptians,
because as history shows, bordering
Arab nations do not welcome
Palestinians into their country;
On Jan. 23, thousands of Palestinians entered into Egypt after breaking holes in a barrier separating Gaza from Egypt. However, it was not the Israelis who repaired the border and forced
Looking beyond the most recent events, Israel is trying to negotiate peace. This is difficult when your negotiating partner, Mahmoud Abbas, controls only 60 percent of the land he claims to control. The other 40 percent is controlled by Hamas, an organization that is on every terrorist watch-group list.
In order for peace to occur, the terrorism and incitement of hatred must stop. This includes not only the continuous rocket attacks but also the suicide bombings of busses, nightclubs and restaurants. Israel wants peace and security for their innocent civilians and is willing to do anything, within reason, to see that this is accomplished.
Sincerely,
Aaron Dollinger
Leawood freshman
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FREE FOR ALL
It's seems kind of stupid that the UDK would run a huge story on the Kansas caucus, then neglect to run an article saying that Barack Obama is going to be in El Dorado and Kansas City
(Editor's note: A story appeared in Monday's paper on Page 2A.)
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6-foot-3, pretty eyes, looking for girlfriend.
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I didn't even know who Ron Paul was until I saw something in Wescoe today and then I looked him up on the Internet. I really suggest everyone else should do the same.
No, stop right there. I don't want the Free For All to turn into a Ron Paul forum. That's just damn annoying.
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Who know anything about the fire alarms in Malot going off
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I don't think it's too serious. I believe he's getting gastric bypass, if I am not mistaken. A step in the right direction to keeping him around forever.
Mangino in the hospital—why didn't you tell us that, Free For All?
I really need to stop waking up for 15 minutes every morning at 5:45 a.m. It's killing my "tiredness" level.
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Somebody mentioned a hot deskie at Lewis? No. The hotest deskie of them all works in Oliver. I promise ...
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You should have referred to me as "cute Watson desk worker."
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When you read Free For All,
are you supposed to read from
the top of the column down or
vice versa? it always confuses
me. And I'm in freaking college.
You need to take it down a notch or five when you're in public.
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I swear my social skills are going down the toilet. I never hear about parties anymore.
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First "Bitch and Moan" sucked and then it went away. Free For All, stop sucking so you don't go away.
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