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(11/02/06 4:38am)
AIX-EN-PROVENCE, France -- Whenever I ask people in the posh city of Aix about last year's riots, they'd usually rather change the subject. Those who do talk tell me all about how the riots don't really represent France as a whole, how the media blew things out of proportion. Despite all the images of flaming Peugeots, the mostly upper-class French folks with whom I've spoken don't see it as a big deal. Saving the slums seems like the last thing on everyone's agenda.\nDespite some special coverage of the one-year anniversary, most people seem more concerned with preventing repeat incidents than stopping the root problems of economic stagnancy and political impotence. The two leading candidates for the upcoming presidential election, Socialist Segolene Royal and Gaullist Nicholas Sarkozy, have demonstrated no real plans for the banlieues (suburban ghettos), except vague crackdowns on criminals. People just don't care.\nI can't say I'm entirely surprised. Certainly, my scope of the situation is limited by my placement in one of France's richest cities. I mean, if you asked people in an upper-class Chicago suburb, like my hometown of Naperville, what they thought a year after the 1992 Rodney King riots, they'd probably shrug their shoulders, too. After all, how much can a person so removed from poverty and desperation discern about life in a welfare-state slum?\nWhat strikes me is the total lack of urgency that locals feel toward this problem. It seems that the approach to the banlieues' problems involves crossing one's fingers and hoping that another spark doesn't go off. Each new bus burning sends a shiver down the white, upper-class spine of France's ruling class, yet no one is willing to do anything about the underlying causes in France's stagnant political climate. \nWhen mostly white, privileged French students and unions march in the streets, they get exactly what they want. When the mostly African immigrant, unemployed French poor lash out against the government, they get nothing, except thousands more police descending into their neighborhoods. Incidentally, a police station is the only commitment the epicenter of the riots, Clichy-sous-Bois, got from the central government. \nChanging minds in such a conservative culture is difficult, though. Instead of opening up a dialogue after all the promises in the wake of November's riots, the French response has been one of further isolation. While the suburb powder keg remains explosive as ever, leading French newspapers such as Le Monde to print stories about the semantic use of the word "riot" in describing November's car torching.\nSo what should France do? I'm not sure. Opening up public transit to the slums and unlocking the strict labor laws (that result in 50 percent unemployment in some areas) would be a start, but the real problem is psychological. The French need to see these kids as their countrymen, not dirt to be swept under a rug. Otherwise, the calm of this anniversary will be a mere reprieve in a tempest of discontent.
(11/02/06 4:36am)
The FBI and Transportation Security Administration are investigating an IU doctoral candidate after he developed a Web site that allowed users to generate fake Northwest Airlines boarding passes. Chris Soghoian of the IU School of Informatics claims to have never printed a fake pass himself. \nAs a range of people from IU and around the world gather in Soghoian's corner, we would like to praise the IU grad student for finding an innovative way of effecting change. By creating this Web site he has accomplished two important results. First, he has exposed a flaw in the air transportation system that is a major security threat. Second, by posting his generator on the Internet where it could garner notice from the authorities and, thereby, media coverage, the bureaucracy has no choice than to give immediate attention to the situation.\nDespite the potential good done by Soghoian, he might face jail time as the investigation of his work and of the University unfolds. And such is his duty as an American citizen. Soghoian (if found guilty of any charges brought against him), having committed a crime, will serve a sentence that is no doubt justified in the American legal system. But we must remember that the exponential good that will result from forcing the TSA to correct this flaw far outweighs the poor means by which he achieved the end. Soghoian might have broken the law (emphasis on "might"), but in doing so he has made the country much safer from security threats. After all, would the American people prefer the problem be revealed by an IU grad student hoping to fix the problem or find out six months down the road when disaster strikes and lives are lost? \nAs the investigation continues and more people join the crowd behind Soghoian (whether publicly denouncing the investigation, joining his Facebook group, "Keep Chris out of Jail," or contributing to his Paypal account) the IDS editorial board wants to make one statement perfectly clear: Soghoian might be a criminal -- but for all the right reasons.
(11/02/06 4:30am)
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Israeli troops seized a northern Gaza town Wednesday in one of the largest strikes against Palestinian rocket squads in months, imposing a curfew, deploying snipers on rooftops and patrolling streets in tanks. Eight Palestinians and an Israeli soldier were killed.\nCabinet ministers scrapped a plan to widen the conflict, however, a move that coincided with U.S. and Egyptian efforts to stanch the flow of weapons to Palestinian extremists across the Gaza-Egypt border.\nThe takeover of Beit Hanoun was expected to last only a few days, according to Israeli officials, who emphasized the operation was not the start of a broader military offensive in Gaza. One plan for such a major operation would involve seizing large portions of southern Gaza to destroy weapons smuggling tunnels from Egypt.\nIsrael has several reasons not to launch such an offensive now.\nIsraeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is to meet with President George W. Bush at the White House this month and likely would not want a major escalation in Gaza to overshadow the trip.\nA wider offensive could also harm negotiations for the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped June 25 by Hamas-allied militants, and attempts by moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to form a new Palestinian government acceptable to the West.\nAn escalation could also hinder U.S. efforts to improve security and cut down on smuggling at the Egypt-Gaza border.\nU.S. National Intelligence Director John Negroponte met Wednesday in Cairo with his Egyptian counterpart, Omar Suleiman. Arab diplomats said Negroponte proposed Egypt allow a U.S.-led team of multinational peace monitors to help police the border with Gaza.\nHe also proposed that CIA counterterrorism experts assist in efforts to halt cross-border smuggling, said the diplomats, who insisted on anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.\nThe takeover of Beit Hanoun was the latest in a series of Israeli incursions into Gaza, first launched after Shalit's capture. Such raids are aimed both at pressuring Hamas to release the soldier and at trying to halt rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli border towns, so far to no avail.\nAfter midnight, dozens of tanks and bulldozers rolled into the town of 50,000 from two directions. By nightfall Wednesday, Israeli troops controlled most of Beit Hanoun, enforcing a curfew in some areas and patrolling the streets with tanks. Attack helicopters fired machine guns and missiles at groups of militants. Snipers took up rooftop positions and troops set up a makeshift base near an agricultural school. Bulldozers leveled some farming areas, residents said.\nThroughout the day, dozens of Palestinian gunmen exchanged fire with the Israeli forces.\nEight Palestinians were killed, including five militants and a policeman, Palestinian doctors said. At least 61 people were wounded, four critically, hospital officials said. Most of the wounded were gunmen, but they also included a woman and an 11-year-old boy, doctors said.\nDr. Jamil Suleiman, director of the Beit Hanoun hospital, said all of the hospital's blood supplies had been used up.\nAn Israeli soldier also was killed.
(11/02/06 4:29am)
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said Wednesday it was returning to nuclear disarmament talks to get access to its frozen overseas bank accounts, a vital source of hard currency.\nThe North's Foreign Ministry made only indirect mention of its underground nuclear test last month. Instead, it focused in an official statement on its desire to end U.S. financial restrictions by going back to six-nation arms talks that it has boycotted for a year.\nConfirming other nations' reports of the Tuesday agreement, the Foreign Ministry said Pyongyang decided to return to negotiations "on the premise that the issue of lifting financial sanctions will be discussed and settled between the (North) and the U.S. within the framework of the six-party talks."\nIn Moscow, South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon said the disarmament talks could resume this month or by the end of December at the latest, the ITAR-TASS News Agency reported. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the top U.S. negotiator, had given a similar time frame on Tuesday.\nRussian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow expects the talks to start shortly, adding that the date was still being discussed.\nKi-moon, the next U.N. secretary-general, hailed Pyongyang's move as an "encouraging signal." \n"I hope that we will find a solution to the nuclear problem on the Korean peninsula," he was quoted by ITAR-TASS as saying.\nWashington had banned transactions between American financial institutions and Banco Delta Asia SARL -- a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau -- saying it was being used by North Korea for money laundering.\nThe ban is believed to have blocked access to some $24 million for the North's leaders, who indulge their taste for luxury goods like cognac and fine wines while the vast majority of North Koreans live in poverty.\nU.S. officials also sought to rally other countries to prevent the North from doing business abroad, saying all transactions involving Pyongyang were suspected of having to do with counterfeiting and money laundering.\nIn Seoul, South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan said he expects involved countries to discuss the disarmament talks when they gather in Vietnam for an Asia-Pacific summit in mid-November and that negotiations among China, Japan, Russia, the United States and the two Koreas were expected to take place after that. He did not indicate when.\nHill cautioned as he left Beijing, where the deal was struck, that "a full plan" had to be in place for there to be any hope for progress in implementing an agreement reached in September 2005, in which the North pledged to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for aid and security guarantees. He did not elaborate.
(11/01/06 5:30am)
Rising Rents
(11/01/06 5:05am)
How do we define "the sports world?" When pundits say, "The sports world was shocked by today's events," who comprises such a body? \nThe sports world is a fraternity of players, coaches and devoted, empty-pocketed fans who all share the same misery and jubilation at a season's end. And when one of the brothers of this hallowed fraternity abruptly departs, the sports world as a collective whole mourns the loss and celebrates the past.\nIt so happens that over the weekend, a quintessential member of the sports world passed on, leaving an astonishing legacy behind. It is only right that I, as a fan and admirer of the greats who play each sport, pay homage to the greatest basketball coach in the history of the National Basketball Association, Red Auerbach.\nTo be honest, I don't ritually follow the NBA. I found my niche with baseball, hockey and football long before I started to follow the likes of Jordan, Ewing and Barkley. But even still, Auerbach's legacy to the game far outweighs any bias to the league I might have, and it's only fair to immortalize, via this column, this man's contribution to the sport of basketball. \nArnold Jacob Auerbach, coined "Red" because of his fiery red hair before his locks disappeared into a pale cue ball, joined the sports world as a player at George Washington University, then as a coach for the Washington Capitols and Tri-Cities Blackhawks of Iowa. Following his stints in Washington and Iowa (which subsequently moved to Atlanta when the NBA was formed), Auerbach was asked to coach the indebted Boston Celtics. \nThat is when his legend began. \nAuerbach is the father of the modern NBA; without the man, who knows how the NBA would look today? \nHe drafted the first black player in the history of the game, Chuck Cooper from Duquesne University, and boasted the first all-black starting lineup in the 1963-64 season. After winning nine NBA titles from 1950 to 1966 -- including an astonishing eight in a row from 1959-66 -- the soon-to-be retired Auerbach named his wonder boy, Bill Russell, his successor as the first ever black head coach in sports history. \nAnd despite a sea of liberalism in Boston, these moves by Auerbach were not seen without controversy and incredulity. Mind you, the Boston Red Sox, consistently noted for standing behind segregation in sports, were the last major league baseball team to sign a black player in 1959. As the father of the modern NBA, Auerbach would continue his legacy with similar adjustments to the core of the sport. \nAs a general manager for the Celtics, Auerbach took his maneuvering genius to another level. With the sixth pick in the 1978 draft, Auerbach drafted Larry Bird before his senior season -- another first. He promoted the allure and mystique of the Celtics as a way of keeping Bird from re-entering the draft after his senior year at Indiana State. \nIn 1986, Auerbach resumed his legacy as the greatest figure in the sport by trading Gerald Henderson to Seattle for its first-round pick, which turned out to be the second pick in the draft. An exuberant Auerbach drafted Len Bias from the University of Maryland, hoping this promising young man would continue the dynasty long after Bird and Kevin McCale. Bias died from cocaine overdose, and the dynasty soon crumbled. \nBut it did not tarnish anything Auerbach did. The man grew up alongside the NBA, sharing his greatest personal achievements and promoting his obstinate beliefs to the sports world. When comfortably ahead in a game, Auerbach would light a cigar on the bench and just sit back and enjoy the game. This was the beginning of the "victory cigar." \nAuerbach was the ultimate players' coach; he demanded respect from his players because he respected them. He trusted their game, and they trusted his guidance. He wanted things done his way, whether it was smoking on a court during the fourth quarter of a soon-to-be Celtic victory or giving Russell a $100,001 contract after his rival Wilt Chamberlain received the record $100,000 contract. His influence on the game cannot be articulated with words, just with rings -- 16 of them as both a coach and executive. \nAnd with the start of the NBA season this week, Auerbach's imprint on the game is clearly visible -- so much so that a detached NBA fan as myself can still appreciate and admire the man's legacy to the game. Quite simply, the sports world has lost a legend.
(11/01/06 4:20am)
Q: Recently I had an abnormal\nPap test result and my doctor diagnosed\nme with HPV. Since then,\nI've done my own research on HPV\nand consider myself to be pretty\nwell versed in the virus. I was quite\nshocked to learn that smoking can\nlead to HPV fl aring up in someone\nthat might have had the virus but\nhad not known it. Even before my\nresearch, I knew what HPV was and\nhow it was transmitted, but never\ndid I read anything about the smoking\nthing. Why is this fact not more\nwidely known? I ask this because\nI was a non-smoker until about a\nyear ago when I started smoking for\nseveral months and, I believe, this is\nwhy my test results came back HPV\npositive. If I had known about this\nlink I never would have smoked at\nall. Since my diagnosis, I have\nstopped smoking. However most of\nmy friends smoke and sometimes\nit is hard to endure without having\na drag off of one of their cigarettes.\nCould this small amount of smoking\nhave an effect on my HPV?
(11/01/06 4:12am)
In response to the "Kinsey Confidential" column that ran Oct. 25, I submit that the IDS is erring severely as a journalistic publication. The American society prides itself on being one that enjoys the right of a free press, and that is a right that I gladly celebrate alongside everyone that works and writes for the IDS. However, I must also make note of the fact that the IDS does not exist to be a source of gossip or a sex-health magazine. Seeing the IDS running articles on the same types of topics as Cosmopolitan is a grand disappointment to me. The IDS should set its sights high, striving more toward the New York Times mantra of publishing "All the news that's fit to print." Sex advice has nothing to do with news, nor will it ever.
(11/01/06 4:07am)
Peggy Welch is the Democratic incumbent running for state representative.\nPeggy Welch is the state representative in the Indiana House of Representatives for District 60. She has held the position since 1998 and is currently running unopposed. She is not a native of Indiana. However, since being here, she has developed a passion for the region and has gone on to serve the district well. \nBorn in Fulton, Miss., Welch received a bachelor's degree in social studies and education from Mississippi College in 1977. She later attended Indiana University from 1992 to 1994 to earn prerequisites and received a nursing degree from Ivy Tech State College in 1995.\nIn the Indiana House, she serves on the House Public Health Committee, pushes hard for long-term health care options and strongly supports financial management of medical dollars. She strongly advocates creating jobs for the district. She has repeatedly supported bipartisan legislation to help local businesses expand and attract new business to the state. She supported legislation that has helped put Hoosier schools among the best in the nation and improve the state's SAT scores.\nThough Peggy Welch is not the state representative for IU specifically, one of her main issues should be to make sure IU is vibrant and growing. This is something Welch is very much committed to. As a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, she has dealt with issues such as tuition hikes and the high number of students finding out of state jobs. \nIn an interview, she said the main thing she feels can help some of these issues is to aggressively support the life sciences initiative put forth by IU. This will help create more jobs for IU grads while keeping them in-state. \nShe also said the state needs to "step up to the plate" when it comes to funding state loans and helping the schools balance their books concerning money not given to the schools years ago. If the state does as she suggests, there will be more money to repair buildings on campus and keep tuition prices low. I wish her all the success in getting these initiatives passed, despite a legislature that often seems forget students.
(11/01/06 3:49am)
Though most of Bloomington's significant administrative and legislative responsibilities fall to the mayor and Bloomington City Council, other essential functions are overseen by a Bloomington Township trustee and board. The trustee is responsible for allocating about $2 million for the creation and maintenance of social services like homeless shelters and soup kitchens, along with the Bloomington Township Fire Department. \nDemocrat Nancy Brinegar holds the seat. The challenger is Republican Anthony Bruner.\nBrinegar, a two-term incumbent, is an IU graduate with eight years experience on the Township Board. Brinegar said she secured a new site for the Bloomington Community Kitchen, which is being leased to the organization for $1 a year. The board also bought and renovated a short-term emergency shelter for local residents and low-income families. Her latest victory is a $1 million facility to train firefighters from across Southern Indiana. \nHer challenger, Bruner, is a local businessman with 28 years experience managing the books for his landscaping company. Bruner's first order of business will be increasing the fire department's on-duty night-time responders, though Brinegar is quick to respond that the majority of firefighters are volunteers. He also envisions the IU greek community playing a significant role as volunteers and fundraisers, a plan Brinegar believes will limit the efficacy of the United Way and similar organizations.\nWhat differentiates these two candidates are their core goals. Bruner said he is concerned that Bloomington citizens are being unfairly taxed by supporting a fire department that receives 22 percent of its emergency calls from Benton Township. On the other hand, Brinegar's record suggests a greater concern with social services, a subject on which Bruner was nearly silent. \nTuesday you'll have a choice between two highly competent candidates. As a resident and tax-payer, Bruner promises fiscal responsibility and better fire-response. As a student and a bleeding-heart liberal, however, I'm endorsing Nancy Brinegar, whose eight years experience helping the poor reflects a sense of social obligation rarely seen in elected officials.
(11/01/06 3:48am)
In a local race that holds far-reaching implications in the realm of responsible execution of justice, Republican incumbent Carl Salzmann is running for a record fourth term as Monroe County prosecutor against Democratic challenger Chris Gaal. While at first glance both men seem qualified, upon further examination, one clearly stands out.\nSalzmann, experienced as he may be, has compiled an abysmal record during his tenure. For example, in 2003 less than 1.4 percent of felony cases were decided through a bench or jury trial, and 27 percent were dismissed. A record 75 percent of misdemeanor cases were dismissed, and less than 1 percent were taken to trial. In short, Salzmann has spent the past 12 years sitting back and collecting pre-trial diversions instead of serving the public in the pursuit of justice.\nHowever, there is hope for this county. \nChris Gaal is an experienced attorney with fresh ideas for Monroe County. Having graduated from the IU-Bloomington School of Law and served on the Bloomington City Council for the past seven years, he has deep roots in this community and understands the problems facing it.\nIn an interview, Gaal said he wants to form partnerships with community groups such as Middleway House and New Leaf/New Life to improve services available to both domestic abuse victims and offenders. He hopes such a partnership would facilitate the integration of offenders back into the community and reduce the frequency of habitual offenders.\nFurthermore, Gaal said he intends to rebuild tattered relations with local law enforcement. He claimed the support of many law enforcement personnel and went on to state that he would work to restore the disturbing lack of communication between police officers and the prosecutor's team.\nThe bottom line is that in a race between a lazy prosecutor who has overstayed his welcome and a young, vivacious attorney with fresh ideas to make the Prosecutor's Office work better for the community, the choice for prosecutor is clear. \nWe enthusiastically endorse Chris Gaal for Monroe County Prosecutor in hopes that the attorney will reinvigorate Monroe County's pursuit of justice.
(11/01/06 3:48am)
Baron Hill and the Democrats advocate change this year. \nRepublicans, on the other hand, would have us believe it is necessary to stay the course -- not in reference to Iraq but to maintaining a GOP majority in Congress. Perhaps al-Qaida is planning to detonate nuclear weapons in America if Nancy Pelosi becomes Speaker of the House and the only way to prevent this scenario is to vote for Mike Sodrel.\nAt least it seems that's what they want us to believe. \nThe truth is, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have a clear view of how to lead the country, much less the 9th District. \nHill wants to retake his old seat while claiming to be an outsider and a beacon of change. But he's is a professional politician, a slick go-getter. The only change he'd be bringing to Congress is a different nameplate on the office door. \nMike Sodrel is a distant businessman beholden to corporate and overtly conservative interests. A vote for Sodrel is a vote for close-minded ideology.\nSo does this mean a default endorsement of Libertarian candidate Eric Schansberg? Well, no.\nSchansberg, a Libertarian, might be an attractive alternative to those unimpressed by Hill or Sodrel. However, casting a vote for this outside contender should be approached with apprehension. Schansberg, who seems to assume that pointing out weaknesses in the other parties will validate his own stance, doesn't seem to be a traditional Libertarian. While the official Web site of the Libertarian National Committee lists the right to privacy as one that "should not be infringed by the government," Shansberg is "unabashedly pro-life," according to his Web site, as if this stance is mandated by his religious views. His basic biographical information seems to not only underline his evangelical Christian status, but also flaunt these beliefs as if they will earn him additional credit. A vote for a candidate who boasts more of leading "Bible studies for the last 15 years" than he does of any previous political experience seems to be a vote for the right-wing agenda that already has an overwhelming hold on current policy makers.\nYour best bet: Vote your conscience, but don't be afraid to leave the ballot blank.
(11/01/06 3:46am)
Middlebury College in New Jersey recently decided to implement a policy that will give affirmative action benefits to students who identify themselves as homosexual, bisexual or transsexual on admissions applications. And a few other schools, such as Claremont McKenna College and Loyola University in New Orleans, are already considering similar programs. We at the editorial board have two main problems with LGBT affirmative action: First, we do not believe this will really help the cause of campus diversity. Second, we think it will be impossible to enforce, allowing students to exploit the policy by stating they are gay simply to receive special preferences.\nWith all due respect to the discrimination that members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and trangender community face, we agree with Debbie Bazarsky, LGBT Center Director at Princeton, which was named as one of the most accommodating campuses in America for LGBT students by The Advocate magazine, when we say we don't think individuals from these groups face the same deep-seeded economic and cultural barriers that might, for example, prevent members of racial or ethnic groups from going to college. \nBazarsky points out that "there are LGBT students of all ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds." Given this condition, awarding preferences based on sexuality could risk breeding resentment among heterosexual students, creating precisely the opposite conditions from what Middlebury presumably wants. \nHow, for example, is a lower-middle-class straight student going to react upon finding out that an upper-class gay student received special financial aid? If a university can afford to forgo the revenue full-tuition paying admitees might have provided, couldn't it instead put more funds into campus diversity initiatives to help promote dialogue and understanding among its present students? \nIt's as if Middlebury is more concerned with the raw number of LGBT recruits it can report than any substantive progress.\nIn addition, this policy is very hard to enforce: How can an admissions office really prove an applicant's sexual orientation? We believe it is very possible that, for a bit of extra aid, some students might identify themselves as LGBT just to gain an advantage over the competition. Will the school keep track of applicants' hookups and significant others? Will it monitor the "Interested in" category on their Facebook profiles? \nBazarsky said she doubts this possibility because "there is still such a negative association with being an LGBT student that I don't see high school students saying they were gay or lesbian just to give themselves an advantage." We're not so sure. For example, it would be easy for a male applicant to claim bisexuality and then simply argue that he never encountered any men who interested him while in college. There is also the danger that this system could make a mockery of campus LGBT identity, flooding the legitimate community on campus with posers. \nDiversity on campuses should be encouraged. But by creating grounds for resentment among students while threatening the validity of student identity groups, this policy undermines tolerance efforts.
(11/01/06 3:45am)
[ THE FACTS ] News media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders reported that the United States has fallen from 44th place to 53rd in the group's fifth annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index, which ranks countries on actions taken against news media, according to the Washington Post. The organization cites President Bush's regarding "as suspicious any journalist who questioned his 'war on terrorism'" as reason for the drop in ranking. Does this fall indicate a tendency toward media oppression?
(11/01/06 3:07am)
The other day I was walking down Kirkwood Avenue when a bum hailed me with the familiar, "Hey brother, can you spare some change?" I stopped and pondered, then very deliberately drew out my wallet and removed a $50 bill; dangling the "Ulysses" in front of him, I declared to all within earshot, "If 50 people give me high-fives, I'll give this bum $50."\nOK, I didn't actually do that; I might be a knuckle-dragging caveman, but I'm not heartless. I created that illustration to make a point: If it's despicable to taunt the suffering of a homeless man in Bloomington, why is it OK to taunt the suffering of a few hundred thousand Africans on the other side of the world?\nRecently on Facebook, there has been a proliferation of users and groups promising to donate a certain sum of money "to Darfur" if other users meet an arbitrary goal.\nThe people promising this money are obviously not philanthropists; If they were, they would just give the money away without a self-aggrandizing Barnum and Bailey show. What kind of pathetic bloke needs half-a-million virtual high-fives before he can perform a simple act of mercy? Did Madonna go to Malawi to adopt a child because there weren't any starving black orphans in America?\nWhat is meant by donating money "to Darfur?" Are they hiring peacekeepers to stop the Janjaweed? Or are we just giving everyone free lunches and hoping they'll all get along? \nI bring as Exhibit A the refugee camp near Goma, Zaire, between 1994 and 1996. There, in the shadow of the Rwandan genocide, Western aide agencies gladly sheltered several hundred known war criminals at the cost of about $1 million per day for two years. Yeah, lots of people were giving money "to Rwanda," and their generosity was aiding and abetting known fugitives from the law.\nHonestly, what kind of callous capitalists are we if we think we can solve any problem by throwing enough money at it? Anecdotal evidence suggests that the very opposite is true -- that rich, unaccountable organizations are very likely to become corrupt.\nOur "caring" amounts to nothing more than latent racism; we don't care about the suffering of black folks on the other side of the world.\nIf you only care enough to trot it out in conversation from time to time; if you only care enough to click the "Join Group" button on Facebook; if you only care enough to throw the bum a nickel, you only care because it makes you feel good about yourself.\nWhich is to say, you only care about yourself.\nWhat if we actually cared? What if planeloads of American college students showed up on the Sahel of Western Sudan as a band of marauders swept into town?\nYeah, some of us might die. In fact, lots of us might die.\nThen the world would notice because Africans dying isn't news, but fresh-faced American college students dying, now that's news.
(11/01/06 2:56am)
I live in an apartment complex where the aroma of marijuana gently wafts through the corridors as if it were the hottest new flavor of Glade PlugIns. Streams of beer cascade from the balconies on football game Saturdays. The repeated thump of bass is so persistent I often find myself instructing my roommate to rip up the floorboards as I scream, "It is the beating of his hideous heart!"\nThese are the tell-tale signs of an apartment complex inhabited mainly by rollicking, twenty-something college students. However, I have one neighbor who is middle-aged. You can hear the sounds of Star Wars through his door. A life-size Darth Vader cutout adorns his living room. Once, he was out on his porch spray painting a homemade Jango Fett helmet (not to be confused with Boba Fett).\nI was so pleased to see a living, breathing example of a classic American archetype: the middle-aged Star Wars nerd. I knew I had to befriend him, but he was always slinking around, never speaking to anyone. I didn't know how to reach out to him. My friends suggested I bake him cookies shaped like storm troopers or show up at his door wearing the Princess Leia metal bikini.\nI told my mom about my newest friendship quest, and her attitude was more alarmist than C-3PO. Why would anyone who wasn't a raucous whippersnapper want to live in a place where you hear "Snap yo fingers! Do ya step!" through the wall at 3 p.m. on a Monday afternoon? Suspicious indeed. My mom warned me he could be a serial killer.\nThat theory is ridiculous, but it made me realize something important: You never know who's plotting to kill you. Loving thy neighbor as thyself might not be as "kumbaya-tastic" as we all thought.\nAny one of my neighbors could intend to kill me. Every time someone brings over a Jell-O mold, I can't help but wonder how many days I have left to live. They always leave junk mail coupons on my mailbox as a warning. An extra 20 percent off slip covers at Bed, Bath and Beyond is a grim reminder that my days are numbered.\nThe empty beer cans lining the stairwells look up at me like cold, dead corpses as if to say, "This could be you." \nYou have to look for these signals. If you're sitting in class and a random stranger sits down right next to you and tries to make friendly conversation, reach for your pepper spray. If someone sits next to you on the bus, reach for your pepper spray. If someone looks at you funny, make sure they don't have lazy eye, and then reach for your pepper spray.\nThe next time you look through your peephole and see that guy from down the hall ringing the doorbell, asking to borrow a cup of sugar, don't open the door. Just tell him to grow his own sugar cane because today is not your day to die.
(11/01/06 2:55am)
It's one of life's great ironies, like freezer burn or the House Ethics Committee: For whatever reason, there has always been a rivalry between the business school and SPEA, which share a conjoined building on 10th Street.\nAs a SPEA student, I've noticed it has become popular for members of each school to deal low blows to each other, so I'd like to clear up some common misconceptions:\nSPEA stands for "School of Public and Environmental Affairs." It does not stand for any phrase beginning "smoke pot." How would you like it if we attacked the B-school's name? It would be relatively easy, too (Kelley, for example, rhymes with the word "smelly"). Remember, we're trying to be mature about this -- besides, I don't want to make any judgments about personal hygiene.\nIt's become commonplace for one school to mock the other. I know people who refer to crossing the atrium to Kelley as "going over to the dark side." Yes, I also know business majors who think it's fun to go outside, smoke a cigarette or two and throw the butts into the SPEA courtyard. Still, I would like to think this rivalry is not totally serious. \nBusiness majors are not all soulless. In fact, one of my roommates is a business major who, as far as I know, has never tortured puppies or used a child labor force to finish her accounting homework. \nLikewise, SPEA majors are not all pot-smoking, laid-back hippies. The green stuff we grow on the roof of SPEA is perfectly legal, and it makes our building look nice -- that's all. Both SPEA's undergraduate and graduate programs are highly respected nationally, and, for certain programs, its national rankings are actually higher than those of the business school. \nBoth business and SPEA majors go on to do amazing things after they graduate. In fact, after college, alums of the schools find themselves working together in their careers. What people sometimes fail to realize is that business and SPEA are closely linked. \nHere's an example: To cut down on pollution, companies need to increase efficiency. To cut costs, companies also need to increase efficiency. So maybe they hire someone from SPEA, or maybe they hire someone from Kelley. Either way, the ends achieved are the same. Apparently, it's possible to save the whales and widen profit margins all at the same time.\nHonestly, I admire business students. Who else could walk across campus in rain or snow wearing spiky heels or a power suit without even spilling a drop of their lattes? I believe we complement each other perfectly, and we need to suck it up and acknowledge that neither side is purely evil.\nNow that we've straightened all that out, I'd like to suggest that we all join hands and sing kumbaya. \nThen again, maybe that's just the SPEA student in me talking.
(11/01/06 2:53am)
Yesterday, the New York Times ran a story on a process called "calorie restriction," which has been found to significantly slow the aging process in a number of species and might be able to do the same for humans. Calorie restriction "involves eating about 30 percent fewer calories than normal while still getting adequate amounts of vitamins, minerals and other nutrients," according to the article. And while the underlying process is still uncertain, calorie restriction has been "shown in various animals to affect molecular pathways likely to be involved in the progression of Alzheimer's disease, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer."\nFurthermore, research into life-expanding drugs has also challenged the idea that we humans have reached the upper limit of our longevity. A researcher interviewed by the New York Times suggested that it might be possible to "increase human life span to about 112 healthy years, with the occasional senior living until 140."\nNow, the article stresses that these estimates could be optimistic and that so far, little evidence has been gathered for whether calorie restriction works on humans. However, without engaging in the debate over the process's merits, I'd bet that within your and my lifetime we'll find ways to, well, extend your and my lifetime. And, as this is coming up, we need to seriously consider what this is going to mean for our future. Leaving aside some of the more obvious issues -- what this will mean for social security, for population demographics, etc. -- which are important but have also been dealt with extensively elsewhere, I'd like to pose a different question: How exactly does an individual go about filling 110, 140 or 200 years, or, even, an indefinite lifespan?\nPerhaps you can do it by watching TV or Web surfing, regularly investing in ever more sophisticated iterations of the Halo franchise -- or simply going about the basic, day-to-day tedium involved in earning a living. But while this might be technically possible, it doesn't sound like a particularly rich life. Instead, I suspect the secret lies in all of us becoming accommodated to the idea of personal reinvention, that we are going to have to get used to the idea that, every so often, it will be necessary to grab the wheel of one's life and give it a hard jerk in a different direction. And I believe, as well, that for many of you readers -- those belonging to the IU student population -- the time for determining your capacity for reinvention is now.\nHere you are: young, mostly healthy, relatively unencumbered (student loans, homework and part-time jobs aren't kids, a career and a mortgage) and in the middle of a community that not only bursts with new things, but positively begs you to try them. So right now, do as many things as you can. Embrace change. Because you don't want to spend the next millennium stuck in a rut.
(11/01/06 2:42am)
Mathers Museum of World Cultures annual holiday sale begins today\nWHEN: 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 1 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, now through Dec. 22
(11/01/06 2:28am)
LOS ANGELES -- Bob Barker is heading toward his last showcase, his final "Come on down."\nThe silver-haired daytime-TV icon is retiring in June, he told The Associated Press on Tuesday.\n"I will be 83 years old on December 12," he said, "and I've decided to retire while I'm still young."\nHe'll hang up his microphone after 35 years as the host of "The Price Is Right" and 50 years overall in\ntelevision.\nThough he has been considering retirement for "at least 10 years," Barker said he has so much fun doing the show that he hasn't been able to leave.\n"I've gone on and on and on to this ancient age because I've enjoyed it," he said. "I've thoroughly enjoyed it, and I'm going to miss it."\nReaching dual milestones, 50 years on TV and 35 with "Price," made this an "appropriate" time to retire, Barker said. Besides, hosting the daily CBS program -- in which contestants chosen from the crowd "come on down" to compete for "showcases" that include trips, appliances and new cars -- is "demanding physically and mentally," \nhe said.\n"I'm just reaching the age where the constant effort to be there and do the show physically is a lot for me," he said. "I might be able to do the show another year, but better (to leave) a year too soon than a year too late."\nLeslie Moonves, president and CEO of CBS Corporation, said Barker has left an enduring mark on the network, calling his contribution and loyalty "immeasurable."\n"We knew this day would come, but that doesn't make it any easier," Moonves said in a statement. "Bob Barker is a daytime legend, an entertainment icon and one of the most beloved television personalities of \nour time."\nBarker began his national television career in 1956 as the host of "Truth or Consequences." He first appeared on "Price" on Sept. 4, 1972, and has been the face of the show ever since.\nA CBS prime-time special celebrating the show's longevity and Barker's five decades on TV was already under way, a network spokesman said.\nTo kick off his retirement, Barker said he will "sit down for maybe a couple of weeks and find out what it feels like to be bored." Then he plans to spend time working with animal-rights causes, including his own DJ&T Foundation, founded in memory of his late wife, Dorothy Jo, and mother, Matilda.\nHe said he'd take on a movie role if the right one came along, but filmmakers, take note: "I refuse to do nude scenes. These Hollywood producers want to capitalize on my obvious sexuality, but I don't want to be just another beautiful body."\nFreemantle Media, which owns "Price," has been looking for Barker's replacement for "two or three years," Barker said. And he has some advice for whoever takes the job: Learn the show's 80 games backwards and forward.\n"The games have to be just like riding a bicycle," Barker said. "Then he will be relaxed enough to have fun with the audience, to get the laughs with his contestants and make the show more than just straight games, to make it a lot of fun."\nAs for his fans, Barker said he "doesn't have the words" to express his gratitude.\n"From the bottom of my heart, I thank the television viewers because they have made it possible for me to earn a living for 50 years doing something that I thoroughly enjoy. They have invited me into their homes daily for a half a century."\nBut when it comes to saying his final TV goodbye, Barker said he'll do it the same way he does each day on "Price": "Help control the pet population. Have your pets spayed or neutered"