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Thursday, December 8, 1988 / University Daily Kansan
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Get the first-aid kit ready: It's time to sell back books
It's textbook buyback time again at KU. This is the season when students can sell their books back for a fraction — about a third — of what they cost at the beginning of the semester.
Every student has experienced the frustration of getting $8 for a $2 book, getting nothing for a $60 book because the edition isn't used anymore or buying a beat-up book that can't be sold back because of its condition.
National wholesale used-book companies come to campuses every year and the run the book buyback for bookstores. These companies buy books from students at 25 percent of the retail value, then they sell them back to the bookstores at 50 percent of the retail value. The bookstores, in order to make a profit, sell the books to students at about 75 percent of the retail value. Therefore, during book buyback students are forced to accept only about a third of the amount they paid for the book. In some cases this estimate is too generous, such as with the $3.50 paperbacks that garner only 50 cents at buyback time.
Opinion
These companies take advantage of short-of-cash college students who sell back their books for extra holiday money. Students grudgingly take the cash even though the buyback prices are unfair.
Students could try to beat the system by holding on to their textbooks and not allowing companies to make such huge profits off of them. But that would be self-defeating: Eventually it would dry up the supply of used books, which, expensive as they are, still cost less than overpriced new textbooks.
To help solve this dilemma, Student Senate should consider investigating ways around the present system. Many universities across the nation have devised book exchanges and other systems whereby students can deal directly with each other and not through profit-hungry middlemen.
In the past, efforts to establish a way to prevent students from being gouged each semester have failed. But it is time for a renewed effort at establishing a system — any kind of system — to prevent students from being exploited at the hands of them and buyback companies.
Julie McMahon for the editorial board
Tower is the wrong choice
After a scandal-torn period at the Department of Defense, in which the department was bilked out of gross sums of money by greedy defense contractors and a lousy procurement system, it now appears that President-elect George Bush will nominate former Texas Sen. John Tower to be the next Secretary of Defense.
That is not the best prescription for what ails the Defense Department. Bush would serve his administration and the country well if he found a different nominee.
The problem is that he knows it too well.
Tower served in the Senate for 24 years and presided over the Armed Services Committee, a post in which he oversaw Pentagon spending. In that light, Tower admittedly knows the Defense Department and defense industry well.
the position.
Since he retired from the Senate, Tower has worked as a consultant for five defense firms, according to congressional records and Tower associates. The companies are Martin Marietta, Textron, LTV Aerospace and Defense Company, Rockwell International and British Aerospace.
And during his years as a senator, Tower was a strong supporter of a variety of weapons, including those built by the five companies. Critics said Tower never met a weapon system he didn't like.
And only when he is considered for the defense post has he offered a reform proposal or said procurement reform is his highest priority.
At a time when the Defense Department needs new and strong leadership, Tower does not offer a fresh start. A secretary needs a solid dose of skepticism and pragmatism and certainly no allegiances to contractors who overbid the department, often for weapon systems that did not work.
Bush should find a fresh perspective. Considering Tower's record, there is little hope for progress here.
Todd Cohen for the editorial board
The editorial board consists of Michael Merschel, Mark Tilford, Todd Cohen, Michael Horak, Julie Adam, Julie McMahon, Christine Martin, Tony Balandran and Muktha Jost.
News staff
Todd Cohen ... Editor
Michael Horak ... Managing editor
Julie Adult ... Associate editor
Stephen Wade ... News editor
Michael Merschel ... Editorial editor
Noel Gerdes ... Campus editor
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Scott Carpenter ... Photo editor
Dave Eames ... Graphics editor
Juice Feature .. Arts/Features editor
Tom Eblen ... General manager, news advisor
Business staff
Greg Knipp...Business manager
Debra Cole...Retail sales manager
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Linda Peerkmith...National sales manager
Kurt Meersinkh...Promotion manager
Sarah Higdon...Marketing manager
Brad Lenhart...Production manager
Michelle Garland...Asst. production manager
Michelle Lemman...Glassware manager
Jennine Hine...Sales and marketing adviser
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Training dangerous but necessary
I knew I was in for a wild ride the first time I strapped on a pair of night-vision goggles and lifted the helmet. He wove his helicopter off the turmine and the whole room like a knife an arsenic green, poorly received TV program.
Flying one of Sikorsky's inventions in the best of conditions is a challenge. No fancy autopilots of pilot-assist controls; only two arms and two legs in a single plane, with wings 'noised on the edge of aerodynamics.
Add to this the surrealistic depth perception and the distorted sense of motion of the 2½ pound pair of glasses and a certain amount of distraction becomes inevitable.
So, on the one hand, it does not surprise me when I hear that the army's night-vision goggles have been declared "unsafec." But on the other hand, I do not buy all the arguments. Army spokesmen say that the goggles do not cause crashes — pilots and Civic concernists, about to be-sued manufacturers and some disgruntled pilots moan about being lying night vision goggle combat training missions.
So far as the "pilot error" concept, I still replay the infamous "moose" incident over and over in my mind. That evening I was whisking around a stand of alder trees in that tricky aerodynamic state that separate airplane flights from helicopter aviators, namely, hovering. My night vision gog-
Tom Wilhelm
Staff columnist
ges were strapped on, my co-pilot and crew chief dutifully scanned to the front and sides in a coordinated, meticulous pattern.
Then the hedge row about 10 feet in front of me suddenly got up and walked away. This surprised me because I had never before seen a hedge row with moose antlers.
This was no pilot error from my point of view. The electronically produced light-and-shadow image looked like a bush to me. I did not figure that it would stand up and barely avoid having its eyes open.
As for the individuals who are appalled at the degree of danger involved in operations involving the goggles, if should be said that in all flight-mission training in the armed forces, safety comes
The ranking man in an aircraft full of generals is still the lieutenant pilot-in-command. His decisions, based on safety constraints, are well supported by service regulations.
However, in a profession that practices for the day that its Nomes-suited knights will have to brave “dot” landing zones, missile fire, and worse, it should be known that the extra monthly pay is not for a cushy retirement. It is called “flight incentive pay” for a reason.
Air assault combat demands different consideration than crop dusting down on the farm. I can remember that point being driven home one day during flight school. The mayday messages of doomed aircraft were being repeated for our benefit. The one that said it all was one pilot's call to his hysterical ooplife crippled bird cell from the sky, "Shut up and die like a man."
I recently am glad the issue of goggle safety has been raised. The commission of U.S. Rep. Francis McCloskey, D-Ind., and the general ruckus will, 1 hope, precipitate increased procurement of the equipment in an effort to alleviation of flight-training hours; and development of better night-vision technology.
In the meantime, night-vision goggle training will have to be allowed to continue its successful development the only effective way that it can. It will also be hearsed in a sometimes fatal field environment.
- Tom Wilhelm is Lawrence graduate student in Soviet and East European studies.
Cologne for the discriminating sucker
You don't have to build a better mousetrap. There are enough suckers around that almost anything will sell, if you just let them know it's available.
The other day, an acquaintance showed me an advertisement he received in the mail.
For what purpose? As the ad says; 'Do you want to attract women?' And drive them wild?
man can spray on his clothing
For what purpose? As the ad says: "Do you want
"How would you like to get to first base every time????
"Works instantly!"!! Even if the man is short, "fat, bald, old or unattractive to ladies, just one single spray of Attractant to immediately sends a message to the women around him. Instant Sex Appeal."
The ad goes on to explain that the spray isn't a mere cologne. It is a scientifically proven sexual lubricant.
And any man who douses himself with pheromone, the ad said, will have women swarming over him, almost tearing their clothing off. And his, too.
"I was at the bar alone when the girlfriend of my best friend came up to me and told me how many I looked and what a nice body I had."
The ad contained testimonials:
And: "A very casual lady friend suddenly
shocked me as this was out of her
reach."
Another: "I am pleased to say that I was graped and fondled intimately at a disco by a female
"Men going into bars reported actually being swarmed by women with waiting minutes after walking
The seller of this product goes on to say
Mike Royko
Syndicated columnist
"Men at lounge and parties reported being surrounded by both married and single ladies.
"Repairmien, servicemen, deliverymen, of all kinds, even those who were unattractive or ugly reported almost unbelievable encounters with ladies in every conceivable situation.
"Women's libber groups have said that the use of pheromone as a sexual attractant by men is sneaky, underhanded and devious and gives the male user a great and unfair advantage over the unsuspecting women's subconscious desires and feelings."
All that for only $25: A spray can that will last for a month and will your heart or other vital touch it won't wear out. It won't hurt you.
Out of curiosity, I phoned the outfit in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., that was pedding this stuff. I wasn't surprised to reach an answering service. It's always an answering service or a mail drop.
The lady there said that the sex-spray man, one Mr. Sam Kram, came by every few days to pick up men in the city.
1. So I phoned the Florida Department of Consumer Services and asked if they had ever heard of a new technology.
As a matter of fact, they had "we've had several complaints about it," a state employee
They complained that it was an obvious scam? "No, the only complaints we've had were from
men who had ordered it and hadn't received delivery. When we sent copies of the consumer complaints to the company, the company quickly responded with the product."
See what I mean? People actually are ordering the stuff. There are men out there, squirting themselves with something because they believe it to be true, and scaring sex fiends, with themselves as the happy victims.
Actually, there is a tiny grain of truth in the ad. The substance called pheromone, which Kram says is in his spray can, does arouse the female libido.
It can, indeed, cause a female to seek sexual relations with a male, even if she has never met him before. Indoors or outdoors.
If you happen to be a moth.
Yes, science has shown that pheromones can bring a sexual response.
Science has established that many insects give off a chemical when they wish to mate. Some research claims that pheromones also are secreted by mating dogs, boars and other four-legged
But for the lonely guy hoping to be maudled and grooved in a bar?
"The claim sounds like they're a little out in left-foot," says a chemist who specializes in pheromones.
"There's no evidence concerning people."
There’s no excuse concerning your fallen. So if you are one of those who have fallen for the Attractant 10 pitch, and sent in your $25, don’t get your hopes up or your trousers down.
On the other hand, who knows, you might get lucky. Just be sure that she is an adult, consenting me.
Mike Royko is a syndicated columnist who writes for the Chicago Tribune.
BLOOM COUNTY
by Berke Breathed