4A the university daily kansan
opinion
wednesday, september 3, 2003
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I found it ironic that the liberal UDK is ragging on Fox News about being biased.
perspective
perspective
I live in Hash Hall and I just want to thank the young brave deskie who rescued the bat from inside my room the other night.
perspective
You people have called in and said that racial profiling is stupid and not a good idea. But are you trying to tell me that searching my 80-year-old grandmother at the airport like she is a terrorist is a good idea? Or taking the plastic gun from a G.I. Joe doll that a boy has at an airport? Does that make sense? Or does racial profiling make sense?
perspective
The only reason why I am calling right now is to keep myself from falling asleep on K-10 right now.
perspective
Peace and Santa Claus. Two lies that we tell our children
perspective
I read somewhere that old cigarette machines vend art. Maybe they should make one that vends tube socks or something.
perspective
Studying for classes is like a turtle chopping wood. Slow, ineffective and ultimately pointless. Enjoy yourself and take it easy.
COMMENTARY
Share, don't sell, scientific journals
Editor's note: This is the second installment of a two-part series on scientific journals.
Rachel Robson
opinion@kansan.com
Science is about sharing.
That's been the feeling of scientists since Aristotle. All research builds on earlier discoveries, so sharing of information among researchers, past and present, is essential for intellectual progress.
That's why scientists publish their results in journals, where their peers can read them. But as increasingly fewer for-profit publishers control increasingly more of the journal market, prices have skyrocketed, forcing universities such as the University of Kansas to cancel subscriptions. Scholars, unable to access information locked in price journals, were incensed.
So in 2000, a group of scientists mad about overpriced journals did what anyone with a gripe does in today's Internet age: they started an online petition.
Three years and more than 30,000 signatures later, their petition has mutated into one of the most promising developments in science publishing. Next month, the first issue of a new journal, Public Library of Science-Biology, will be launched, which will be available free online to everyone in the world. This publication, soon to be followed by Public Library of Science-Medicine in 2004, is the direct result of online activism.
will certainly push knowledge forward, seeding currently inconceivable discoveries. A genius in a threadbare lab in Nepal or Albania may have a world-changing epiphany, because they now share in the discoveries of their more fortunate colleagues.
It's also a scientist's dream come true. Giving access to cutting-edge research to anyone with a computer
"Technology has made it possible to imagine a world where the free full text of every scientific paper is available to everyone in the universe," said Michael Eisen, cofounder of the Public Library of Science and a researcher at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Before joining the Public Library of Science effort, Eisen pioneered the use of "gene chips," a stunning technology that allows dramatic, nearly instantaneous insights into genetic causes of disease, but which relies on access to a wealth of previously published data. Open-access science publishing, through venues such as the Public Library of Science, will allow gene chips and countless other technologies to finally live up to their potential.
Eisen isn't the only renowned scientist developing the Public Library of
Science. Harold Varmus, Nobel laureate and former director of the National Institute of Health, is also a cofounder. Vivian Siegel, the inaugural editor of the Public Library of Science, previously edited Cell, one of the most prestigious journals in the world — which also happens to be owned by the for-profit publishing giant Elsevier.
proclaim Siegel said she defected from the world of for-profit science publishing because she's "an idealist."
"All the editors at Cell wanted to make our articles open-access, but Elsevier didn't want to do it," she said. "When I pointed out that our position made me feel like I wasn't working for the benefit of the scientific community, my boss said, 'What? You think you're a scientist?' I realized I couldn't act on my principles and continue at Cell."
The first principle of science is sharing.
"That's what knowledge is all about. If you can't share knowledge, then what good is it?" said John A. Landgreme, emeritus professor of chemistry and petition signer for the Public Library of Science.
It's appropriate that the Internet, which was developed by researchers to share scholarly information in its very earliest days, should enable the Public Library of Science to exist. Thanks to technology and idealism, knowledge can finally be shared as it was meant to be.
It's about time.
Robson is a Baldwin City doctoral candidate in pathology.
Revolutionary time calls for everyone to speak out
I think the most common misperception among those who would dissent is that we do not live in revolutionary times. This silent majority believes the revolution was fought in the times of their mothers and fathers, when the war in Vietnam sent children off to fight and die overseas while their brothers and sisters took to the streets in protest.
When President George W. Bush's public trust fund skyrocketed after the Sept. 11 attacks, American dissent became almost taboo. The irony here is that rarely has there been a more vital moment to speak out. Government misdeeds may not be trumpeted by our "free," corporately bought-and-paid-for news media, but they are self-evident. And still, no one's talking.
Stephen Shupe opinion@kansan.com
In spite of this misperception, the revolution is alive and well. But it's not being fought by college kids with liberal sex politics, but by a white establishment hell-bent on eradicating the social changes made by our parents.
COMMENTARY
changes. For a glimpse at the revolution, let's return to the 2000 presidential election. On the last weekend of November, as the Miami-Dade canvassing board carried out a ruling by the Florida Supreme Court to allow manual recounts.
dozens of Republican congressional staffers flew down to the city. Their tickets were paid for by Bush campaign money, and their bosses included Trent Lott, former Senate major leader. This was before Lott, who is still very much the Republican senator of Mississippi, disgraced the party by getting all misty-eyed over desegregation laws at Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party.
The Republicans gathered outside the downtown Stephen P. Clark Government Center on Sunday, Nov. 26, and proceeded to stage a riot. Screaming that "the system is unfair," the rioters burst into the building and ascended to the 19th floor, while organizers in a Winnebago parked on the street tied up phone banks for hours, urging Miami Republicans to hurry downtown to join in.
Security cameras captured some of the mayhem that ensued. The rioters punched and kicked one of the counters when he walked out of the counting room with what turned out to be a sample ballot. Doors were broke through and Democrats were allegedly physically assaulted. By the end, the three-member canvassing board voted to stop the count. Only 11,000 of Dade's 654,000 ballots had been recounted, the majority of which belonged to African-American voters.
One might think such a radical move to shift American power back to the right would send endless droves of crusaders out into the streets in the name of social justice. But one would be dreaming, and as the revolution marches on, the spiral of silence has yet to be broken.
Zach Stinson for The University Daily Kansan
Just this summer, we saw the white establishment begin an honest and sincere effort to completely destroy the progressive social changes of the last four decades.
the Bush tax cut will put us at a $44 trillion deficit. If the Republicans decided to cut all social spending from the budget, there would still be a deficit. The outcome means empty hands for protection agencies such as the environmental Superfund and Head Start, the most successful early-child development program ever created, because the powers that be will honestly be able to tell them, "We don't have the money."
So the revolution is once again underway, except this time the fight is one-sided. I guess we could sit around and take it, just as the Germans did in the 1930s, or we could do something about it.
Economists predict the fallout from
As Michael Moore says, get five points down. Prepare a speech. Write a column for The University Daily Kansan's opinion page; they end up in search engines on the Web and reach a worldwide audience. Put an end to the University's own spiral of silence, one that's perpetuated by the Kansan's nearly all-white newsroom. Help shift the power back to where it's always belonged: with the people.
Shupe is an Augusta graduate student in journalism. He is associate editor of the opinion page.
editorial board
The University of Kansas and the Lawrence community offer many meal plan options for those still trying to find food and flexibility to fit their daily schedules. But students must be wise in making dining decisions. While some plans offer good food and good deals, other plans are just plain bunk.
Meal plans rip you off
The Rock Chalk plan, which the University does not endorse, offers no oncampus eating option. It gets students' attention by mentioning that they can use it to eat at popular places such as Chili's, 2191 Iowa St., and Papa John's, 2233 Louisiana St.
The Rock Chalk plan boasts that students don't lose money on it because they pay only for the food they eat. While this is true, users also pay only for what they eat when they pay with cash or credit.
Finally, the Rock Chalk plan proclaims that with it, students save money. In the way of discounts, Rock Chalk Meal Plan holders are eligible for a free Rewards Membership at Blockbuster and a free cookie and drink with the purchase of a sub sandwich at Jersey Mike's. Are these really savings that students need or will use?
The Rock Chalk Meal Plan offers junk food at regular prices. On-campus students should check out Mrs. E's; off-campus students should check out the grocery store. Don't be fooled by these "meal plans." It turns out that banks offer the same service — it's called a debit card.
KU Cuisine, a new plan sponsored by KU Memorial Unions and the Department of Student Housing Dining Services, offers meals at the dining halls and on campus at the unions and Wescoe Terrace. While the flexibility in this plan may be attractive, the savings are not. KU Cuisine requires a $200 minimum deposit to begin the plan, and with this intact, students get a 5 percent discount at the unions and at the dining halls. To receive the 15 percent discount that KU Cuisine advertises, students must pay $500 up front.
Housing is making a pretty penny off KU Cuisine members. It would make more sense for students who want to alternate between eating at the residence halls and eating on campus to buy a meal plan at the dining halls and put money on their Beak 'Em Bucks account, which students can access with their KUID cards.
Beak 'Em Bucks is a much more versatile account, which gives students the same 5 percent discount at the unions, Wescoe Terrace and the dining halls as the KU Cuisine plan. But students can also use the Beak 'Em Bucks account for laundry in the residence halls and copies at the library. And there is no minimum balance with Beak 'Em Bucks.
Anna D. Gregory for the editorial board
correction
Tuesday's opinion page contained an error. The "O2 Bar" cartoon was credited to Zach Stinson. The cartoonist was Elizabeth Willy.