CAMPUS/AREA
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, September 16, 1996
3A
Caller ID tips off students
Knowledge of source gives receiver upper hand in phone calls
By Bradley Brooks Kansan staff writer
Breaking one of the Ten Commandments is common when it comes to the lies people tell to end phone conversations. However, committing that sin can be avoided with caller ID.
"There was this friend that called me three times every day," said Tom Bridwell, Lawrence sophomore. "I couldn't stand it anymore. The easiest way for me to avoid him was to get a caller ID."
"He phoned me from his neighbor's house and I picked up the phone because I didn't recognize the number," Bridwell said. "I got caught red-handed."
Eventually this friend caught on to Bridwell's method.
There are other scenarios in Bridwell's life where caller ID is helpful, too.
"If I'm sitting around drunk with my friends and don't want to talk to my dad, it is good to know that he is calling," he said.
Bridwell said he now knew when utility companies, the credit bureau or someone from work was calling. He said knowing helped him exclude anyone he didn't feel like talking to.
Edmee Rodriguez / KANSAI
Galen Adams, sales associate at Radio Shack, 711 W. 23rd St., said the store offered nine different styles of caller ID ranging in price from $25 to $100.
"We also have them built into phones, cordless or not," Adams said. The phones with built in IDs start at $100.
Adams also said Radio Shack carried ID boxes that could be programmed not to receive calls from certain numbers, or not to accept calls from people who pushed *67 before dialing a number. The *67 is a free feature that makes boxes unable to identify a call.
The cost of the ID boxes is only one part of the price to pay for the service. A monthly charge must be paid to a person's local phone carrier, which is Southwestern Bell for Lawrence residents.
Southwestern Bell charges $7.50 per month for the service. An ID box can be bought from the company for $39.95, and can be installed for no charge.
Although it is a popular gadget among college students, there are some who find the concept of caller ID services absurd.
"You can't prank phone call people anymore," said Kelly Fast, Hutchinson non-degree seeking student. "I always worry about that when I make prank phone calls."
camer to machines are useful for keeping track of incoming telephone calls.
Fast has had a bad experience with an owner of a caller ID box. He once dialed a wrong phone number, let it ring once before he realized the number was incorrect and then hung up the phone.
Fast immediately received a call from the person he phoned by mistake, who asked him who he was and why he had called.
"People like that shouldn't have it," Fast said. "You to be able to handle the system."
Because of the incident, Fast sees a need for regulating caller ID.
"Paranoid people should definitely be screened by the phone company," he said.
Former ambassador criticizes White House policy on NATO
By Nicholas C. Charalambous
Kansan staff writer
A former U.S ambassador to the Soviet Union criticized the Clinton administration's policy on NATO expansion as confused and inflexible in a private round-table discussion with 20 staff members and students at the Kansas Union Friday.
student. Jack Matlock Jr., who served as U.S. ambassador from 1987 to 1991 and as Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs from 1983 to 1986, said the Clinton administration wanted NATO to expand without negotiation with Russia on the terms of that expansion.
"What you're telling the Russians is, Take it or leave it. We're not going to take your opinions into account," Matlock said.
Matlock questioned the administration's policy asking the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland to sign the Article 5 guarantees, which would bring those countries into the
military structure of NATO. That agreement would allow foreign troops and nuclear weapons to be stationed in those countries.
Matlock warned that these terms could jeopardize the START II treaty between the United States and Russia and could force the Russians to station their nuclear weapons closer to their western border.
"It seems to me that we should be reasonable," Matlock said, citing Russia's indication that it would not object to bringing the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland into the political structure of NATO.
The politician is no reason to station nuclear weapons in those countries, he said. France has never been in the military structure of NATO, and for a long time neither was Spain.
"In my opinion, we should remove the remaining tactical nuclear weapons from Europe altogether," Matlock said.
europe antigovernment He also reviewed events that occurred
when he was ambassador for Presidents Reagan and Bush. The theme of those remarks was a rejection of the triumphalist claims that the United States broke down the Soviet Union in a calculated way. The end of the Cold War, Communist rule in the Soviet Union, and of the Soviet Union itself were three separable events, Matlock said.
"The final break up of the Soviet Union occurred in part because of Gorbachev's ineptitude, but on the most part because the leaders of the republics, particularly the key ones ... decided it was no longer in their interests," he said.
Paul D'Anieri, assistant professor of political science, who attended the discussion, said he thought Matlock had been candid on the Clinton administration's policies.
He said he agreed with Matlock's views on NATO expansion.
Community created at Biodiversity forum
"I thought they were right on the money," D'Anieri said.
By Stephanie Fite
Kansan staff writer
University of Kansas natural history researchers are working to save a dying species—biodiversity research scientists.
Biodiversity researchers and the nation's top biodiversity scientists came to the university as a part of a program called Partnership for Enhancing Expertise in Taxonomy. The group spent the weekend exploring techniques to make biodiversity information, relating to endangered plants and animals in the Midwest, available to the public.
The weekend meeting was the first workshop of the National Science Foundation under the program and was an opportunity for the scientists to create a community.
Brad Kemp, marketing director at the Natural History Museum, said that the essence of biodiversity research was to collect information and disseminate it on a wide scale.
"This opportunity allowed scientists to assess and settle on technical solutions and to make information available to the public." Kemm said.
"There is a decline of scientists who research biodiversity," he said. "It's strange. The more the public understands biodiversity, the less scientists we have to research it."
The goal of the program was to increase knowledge about the earth's biodiversity through an on-line site. The web site is estimated to cost $1 million. Most of the money will go to maintain the standards of the biodiversity data, software and support tools for research. Over the past three years, KU researchers have received four awards totaling more than $2 million from the National Science Foundation to promote extensive research in biodiversity.
Kemp said that with the help of the United States Organization for Biodiversity and Informatics and financial support from a group called Data Base Activities in Biological Sciences, a web site would be available within the next few years.
Leonard Krishtalka, director of the Natural History Museum, said that the forum was a way to gather information and creativity and to spread expert knowledge to students, government organizations and scientists.
This has been extremely effective not only in gathering expert knowledge about our planet but to bring the scientists together to work as a community," Kristhalka said.
James H. Beach, program director of database activities for the Biology of the National Science Foundation, said that the sense of community among the scientists did not exist until this weekend.
"We needed to make the scientists aware that they are a community with community problems and that the technical databases will create an opportunity for us to talk to one another," he said. "This infrastructure will bring all the rich information we have been storing for hundreds of years and will make it available to students, teachers and scientists around the world."
Nunemaker Hall receiving face-lift
By Eric Weslander
Kansan staff writer
The once-soggy classrooms of Nunemaker Hall will be dry after this month.
The home of the honors program, which has had leaking problems after heavy rain, is receiving new exterior paneling to seal out the elements, KU construction manager Rozer Harmon said.
Sandra Wick, associate director of the honors program, said the $44,831 renovations were necessary.
Harmon said the old panels, made of 1/4 inch-thick plywood covered with a metal sheet, were not sufficient, and the new panels of cement board with a stucco-type finish would be more durable.
"This should work a lot better." Harmon said.
She said the leaking had been a chronic problem throughout her six years there.
"They kept trying to find short-term solutions to it," Wick said.
Harmon said that construction crews had tried cauling and sealing the old panels, but that the only way to keep water out was to change the panels entirely. Nunemaker Hall, built in 1971, had not received any previous paneling work.
"The building starts deteriorating, and we don't want that
to happen because it's kind of a neat building," said Mary Klayder, associate director of the honors program.
Renovations began Aug. 26 and were projected to last 60 days, but Harmon said the work would be done in another week or two. The north and west side are completed, but the south and east sides still need work.
Workers also repaired the front sidewalk, which had sunk two or three inches, and replaced the roof on the back stairwell of Nunemaker Hall.
Klayder said the renovations weren't a major disruption to classes.
"You have to just pause every time they hammer," she said.
marijuana legalization with High Times Editor STEVE HAGER
Thursday, Sept. STUDENT UNION ACTIVITIES 19th SUA THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Kansas Union Ballroom 7:30pm Environs
Free!
The Classifieds -- The place to shop
KU Democrats
Invite you to come and learn about the 1996 democratic candidates at all levels. State Rep. Troy Findley, Kansas chair of CLINTON/GORE 1996 will be on hand to answer questions.
JOIN US!
Parlors, Fifth Floor, Kansas Union
Monday, September 16
7 p.m.
For information, contact Ann Marchand at 841-8127
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