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(09/18/06 3:32am)
It all began like your first taste of alcohol. \nA 3-yard touchdown run by sophomore Marcus Thigpen put an easy seven points on the board, an IU lead and the satisfying feeling that things would be looking up. \nKind of like your first taste of alcohol -- that first touchdown went down smooth, almost too easy, and with a smile on your face, you look forward to the immediate future.\nOf course, alcohol can catch up to you that way. \nThe thing to remember about Saturday's game is that with eight minutes remaining in the third quarter the Hoosiers were up 14 points on Southern Illinois.\nThe game was IU's -- and yet afterward, with each possession came another swig from the flask of failure. That is, when the Hoosiers played, the team's alcoholic state of mind became dizzy, blurry and everything turned quickly from good to grim. \nTelevision networks dubbed this college football week as "Separation Saturday." The only separation the Hoosiers secured on Saturday was a place further down the Big Ten totem pole. Go figure, the totem terrorizing IU would be a Saluki: a tall slender dog native to Egypt and Arabia.\nI thought Arabia was an imaginary place from the Disney movie Aladdin. At the same time, I thought I was imagining Southern Illinois take a 28-21 lead. In fact, it was our first taste of alcohol, and everything seemed imaginary. From the press box, I imagined an IU defense that was too drunk on the Salukis' momentum to effectively stop them. Oddly enough, the team inside the stadium appeared more disoriented than the students in fields full of alcohol outside the stadium. Sure enough, the lead slipped away to the Salukis as they trounced the IU defense for three unanswered touchdowns.\nThe nightmare I thought I had been hallucinating had become a reality. The flask was empty and the failure very vivid in our fuzzy minds. IU lost its first game of the season to Southern Illinois, and as a result, I felt "So Ill."\nI guess there's something to say when the easiest team on your schedule is the one team that beats you. In their four non-conference games before the Big Ten bombardment, the Hoosiers have only one Division I-AA team among three Division I-A teams -- that team was Southern Illinois. \nThese days, it ain't easy being creamed (and crimson). In less than a quarter and a half of football, Southern Illinois showed who wanted to win the game more. In that short span the Salukis socked the wind out of IU's lungs and served the stadium a deep dish of disappointment.\nStripped down from sober on Separation Saturday, the Hoosiers showed their true colors. They slipped into a drunken stupor and watched helplessly as a double-A dog outfoxed them. This game should have been over soon after it began. Instead, Southern Illinois came back and hijacked the Hoosiers' crimson hearts.\nForget crimson. IU got creamed.
(09/18/06 3:02am)
INDIANAPOLIS — Two premature infants died after receiving adult dosages of a blood thinner, a hospital said Sunday.\nThe infants, born at 25 weeks and 26 weeks, died Saturday night in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit of Methodist Hospital after each received too large a dose of Heparin, Sam Odle, chief executive for Methodist and Indiana University Hospitals, said at a news conference. A full-term pregnancy lasts 38 to 42 weeks.\n"These are very, very small babies," Odle said.\nFour other infants in the unit also received adult doses of Heparin, and one of them was transferred to IU's Riley Hospital for Children and might have to undergo surgery, Odle said. The other three were in serious condition.\n"We are confident that no other infants except for the six were affected," he said.\nThe hospital was investigating how the error occurred and reviewing its drug-handling procedures. Some corrective steps already had been taken, Odle said.\n"This was human error — that's all," Odle said.\nOdle said pharmacy technicians place the pre-packaged vials in a computerized drug cabinet where they are retrieved by nurses who then administer the drugs. The adult and infant doses are packaged similarly, he said, and the hospital plans to contact the manufacturer to see if there is any way to make the packaging more distinct.\nHeparin is routinely used in premature infants to prevent blood clots that could clog intravenous drug tubes, Dr. James Lemons, a neonatologist at Riley, said.\nAn overdose could cause severe internal bleeding, he said.\nAutopsies were to be performed on the babies Monday. Hospital officials said one of the infants died at 9:40 p.m. and the other at 10:12 p.m. Saturday.
(09/18/06 2:59am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- A statewide poll has found a majority of Hoosiers disapprove of the leasing of the Indiana Toll Road to a private operator, a plan pushed through the General Assembly this year by Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels.\nThe WISH-TV Indiana Poll results released Friday found that of those interviewed, 55 percent did not approve of the toll road lease, while 39 percent supported it and 6 percent were not sure.\nThe Daniels administration in June finalized the 75-year lease of the 157-mile highway across northern Indiana to an Australian-Spanish consortium, Cintra-Macquarie. The company will collect all the toll revenue in return for an up-front payment to the state of $3.8 billion.\nMost of the money will be used to help finance hundreds of highway and other transportation projects, many of which Daniels said otherwise would never have happened or would have been decades away.\nThe lease, part of Daniels' "Major Moves" plan, passed the General Assembly with minimal support from Democratic legislators. Democrats have made their opposition to the lease a top campaign issue going into November's election.\nThe WISH-TV Indiana Poll found that among Republicans, 46 percent supported the lease, while 50 percent disapproved. Democrats were more critical, with 62 percent against the lease and 30 percent supporting. Among independents and those of other parties, 56 percent were opponents and 38 percent supported the lease.\nThe telephone poll of 800 likely voters was conducted Sept. 5-8 by Maryland-based Research 2000. The poll has a statewide sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.\nAmong other findings in the poll:\n— 21 percent said the economy was the most important issue facing the state, followed by health care costs (18 percent), taxes and state spending (17 percent), education funding (14 percent), illegal immigration (10 percent), the toll road (6 percent) and gas prices (5 percent).\n— The statewide adoption of daylight-saving time was opposed by 49 percent, with 44 percent supporting it. Seven percent were not sure. Republicans supported daylight time 47 percent to 45 percent, while Democrats opposed it 53 percent to 41 percent. Of independents, 51 percent opposed it while 43 percent supported it.\n— 43 percent said state government should do something about the cost of gasoline, while 36 percent disagreed and 21 percent were not sure.
(09/18/06 2:52am)
A 15-year-old boy was arrested Friday after police say he fired a handgun just off Bloomington High School North property before school started to scare another student, police said. \nPolice also arrested another 16-year-old boy, after school officials found the gun in his backpack later in the school day, according to a news release issued by the Bloomington Police Department. \nPolice believe the 15-year-old boy fired a .25-caliber Beretta semi-automatic pistol into the ground near the feet of another 15-year-old boy. According to the release, the boy admitted to taking the gun from his grandmother's house and firing the shot, which he said he did to scare the other boy, who he said had been picking on him.\nThe incident might also have stemmed from a disagreement over a girl, police said. Other students were apparently around when the shot was fired but no one was injured.\nThe 15-year-old boy reportedly gave the weapon to the 16-year-old boy, who put it in his backpack and went to school with it, according to the release. When school officials heard about the incident, they searched his backpack and found the gun.\nThe 16-year-old boy now faces preliminary adult charges of possession of a handgun without a license on school property, a class C felony. The 15-year-old boy was referred as a juvenile on preliminary charges of intimidation with a deadly weapon, a class D felony; criminal recklessness with a deadly weapon, a class D felony; and possession of a handgun without a license, a class C felony, the release said. Because the alleged crimes were committed within 1,000 feet of school property, they became felonies, according to the news release.
(09/18/06 2:49am)
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy-- Pope Benedict XVI said Sunday that he was "deeply sorry" about the angry reaction to his recent remarks about Islam, which he said came from a text that did not reflect his personal opinion.\nDespite the statement, protests and violence persisted across the Muslim world, with churches set ablaze in the West Bank and a hard-line Iranian cleric saying the pope was united with President Bush to "repeat the Crusades."\nAn Italian nun also was gunned down in a Somali hospital where she worked, and the Vatican expressed concern that the attack was related to the outrage over the pope's remarks.\nBenedict sparked the controversy when, in a speech Tuesday to university professors during a pilgrimage to his native Germany, he cited the words of a Byzantine emperor who characterized some of the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad, Islam's founder, as "evil and inhuman."\nOn Sunday, he stressed the words "were in fact a quotation from a medieval text which do not in any way express my personal thought."\n"At this time I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," the pope told pilgrims at his summer palace outside Rome.\nSecurity was higher than usual at the palace, with police patting down many pilgrims and confiscating umbrellas with metal tips and bottles of liquids. Sharpshooters kept watch from a balcony and other officers, dressed like tourists, monitored the crowd with video cameras.\nPolice headquarters across Italy were ordered to raise security at potential Catholic targets. At the Vatican, though, no additional security measures could be seen as tourists strolled across St. Peter's Square.\nMuslim leaders in the Mideast gave mixed reactions to the pontiff's statement Sunday.\nThe leader of Egypt's largest Islamic political group, the Muslim Brotherhood, said that "while anger over the pope's remarks is necessary, it shouldn't last for long"
(09/18/06 2:48am)
Last week I sat down to write my view of Sept. 11 as a call to defend liberty with something more than the half-baked phrases so prevalent in the commemorative discourse. Although very few people were in agreement with the basic but useful assertion that consolation was to be found in the assault on American civil society, I'm not sure what I wrote requires any revising. But I would like to take some time to complete and round off the argument I only begun.\nAccurate though it is to say that America was the target of this barbarian "blowback," doing so, like most half-truths, doesn't clarify so much as it confuses. This is reason that consolation can -- and must -- be found. Civilization itself, with the United States as its chief guardian, was the actual object under assault on Sept. 11 -- and it remains so.\nWho could have failed to notice two appalling and unpardonable elements on last week's day of "commemoration?" First, there is in place a widespread attention deficit disorder that allows many Americans to yawn at the very mention of Sept. 11. This dishonorable war-weariness is connected to a second larger crisis: that of identity. Both of these facts, separately and together, constitute a danger of immense proportion.\nThe reaction to those of us who believe that this fight should not be yawned at but engaged in out of duty, necessity and pleasure, has brought into focus what is, for many of our countrymen, a crisis of civilizational confidence. Boredom and exhaustion are merely symptoms of that deeper, and deadlier, identity crisis. \nBut it can be dispelled by the fact that the "attack on America" claimed the lives of more than 80 nationalities, including, of course, many Muslims. It is this simple, superseding point that reminds us that the generation-long war (the first significant victories in which could only be tallied in the past five years) is not a clash of civilizations so much as it is about civilization. It is natural that we Americans think first of our own skins, but it is also base to abandon or ignore those who fight with us in common cause. We win moral credit not by parochial self-regard but by elevated internationalism. I should perhaps rephrase that as a "civilizational patriotism," in light of our forebears' staunch belief that America's cause is the cause of all mankind. \n"The resources of civilization are not yet exhausted," said the great liberal William Gladstone, the former prime minister of Great Britain. The recent anniversary of Sept. 11 forces us to recall the day when this proposition was put to the proof. Those resources seemed well in tact -- at least among what has been called the "noble debris of Flight 93." We desperately need a resurgence of that fighting spirit. So banish all timid talk of "rolling over" to the enemy. The operative phrase, incidentally, that needs to be borne in mind in the civilizational clashes ahead was spoken by a few bruised and battered foot soldiers that refused to be beaten: "Let's roll"
(09/18/06 2:48am)
PITTSBURGH -- Five Duquesne University basketball players, all but one of them new players who enrolled only this month, were shot early Sunday morning during an apparent act of random violence on campus. Two players were in critical condition at a hospital.\nPittsburgh police were searching for a man believed to have committed the shootings and were investigating whether anyone else was involved. The shootings occurred at about 2:15 a.m. as several players were returning from an on-campus party at the student union and others were sitting on benches outside Vickroy Hall, the dormitory where the shootings took place.\nThe players most badly injured were 6-foot-7 forward Sam Ashaolu, a transfer from Lake Region State College and a cousin of former Houston Rockets star Hakeem Olajuwon, and Stuard Baldonado, a 6-7 transfer from Miami Dade College who was considered the Dukes' best recruit.\nAshaolu is from Toronto, and his parents were traveling to Pittsburgh on Sunday to be with their son.\nTreated and released from Mercy Hospital were 6-10 Shawn James, the nation's leading shot blocker last season at Northeastern University before transferring to Duquesne; Kojo Mensah, a guard who averaged nearly 17 points last season at Siena before transferring, and Aaron Jackson, a guard who is one of only two returning players from Duquesne's 3-24 team of last season.\nNew Duquesne coach Ron Everhart, formerly at Northeastern, had rebuilt the Duquesne program almost from scratch after being hired in March by bringing in 10 new recruits -- one of the most sweeping upheavals of any Division I program in recent years.\nAccording to police, two players were returning from a social function on campus when they encountered a man who apparently had been disruptive at the party. After the players tried to calm down the man, they began walking away, only to be shot. Several other players who were nearby rushed to their aid, also to be shot.
(09/18/06 2:46am)
Facebook was thrust into the spotlight once again this week after statements revealed the company's intent to take the site public. Soon, Facebook is expected to announce that membership, originally limited to college students (though later expanded to include high school students and employees of some companies) will now be available to the general public. Soon only a valid e-mail address will be required when registering for an account, with new users being grouped by region.\nSo will Facebook's massive following forsake it in anger over this matter? We think not. Even though talk of this change has already raised allegations that Facebook is "selling out" and stirred fears that the site will turn into MySpace, it's highly doubtable that the reaction will be so harsh as to halt the site's growth or put a damper on its popularity.\nWhile speculation has arisen about what going public will mean for the site, the situation has not yet elevated to such a level as the controversy over the introduction of Facebook's "live news feed." In response to numerous messages, and, most likely, to head off suspicions and rumors, the site posted a statement reassuring users that Facebook "shouldn't change much" for them and asking for feedback as to whether profiles in college networks should remain "completely invisible to people who aren't in a college or high school." Meanwhile, Facebook has also stated that it is "not letting people put random HTML in their profiles." Altering the HTML allows MySpace users to loop music, change the colors of features and backgrounds and make other alterations to their profiles -- it also makes many of them eye-scorching, cacophonous disasters. Hence, Facebook profiles should remain (mercifully) readable. \nThese preventative measures are precisely what should keep the Web fad from taking any major hit in its membership. We hold that the majority of Facebook's users (an estimated 3.85 million) will not renounce their membership and deactivate their accounts based on the company's decision to go public, especially since an estimated 85 percent of all college students now belong to the network.\nEven in light of going public, it still remains to be seen exactly how this will affect the initial purpose of the site, which has always been "about increasing information flow and connecting people." The fear of being tracked by future employers, professors and parents seems to be the main opposition to this proposed change.\nHowever, students are essentially the ones making themselves vulnerable by tagging and displaying incriminating, embarrassing and otherwise obscene pictures. If nothing else, the upcoming changes should prompt students to do what they should have already been doing: posting with precaution. Quite frankly, if students didn't want other people to see things, they wouldn't post them, and if they didn't want a certain user to see those pictures, they certainly wouldn't add that person as a friend. \nLong story short, this is a big fuss over a small change. Life in cyberspace will soon return to normal -- or at least until Facebook gives the nation something else to talk about.
(09/18/06 2:46am)
LOS ANGELES -- Shoppers changed their buying habits Saturday as spinach was pulled from grocery store shelves because of the outbreak of E. coli bacteria that had killed one person and sickened more than 100 others.\nThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned consumers not to eat fresh spinach, as Natural Selection Foods LLC recalled its packaged spinach throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico. The move came as a precaution after federal health officials said some of those hospitalized reported eating brands of prepackaged spinach distributed by the company.\nThe officials stressed that the bacteria had not been isolated in products sold by the holding company, based in San Juan Bautista, Calif., and known for Earthbound Farm and other brands. As the investigation continues, other brands might be implicated, officials said.\nAt a Safeway grocery in San Francisco's Potrero Hill neighborhood, many of bagged produce shelves were empty Saturday. Anna Cairns said she had to settle for bags of iceberg green lettuce and Caesar salad, instead of her normal salad mix, which contained spinach.\n"I have a bag of spinach in my refrigerator I need to throw away," said Cairns, 59, of San Francisco.\nMarina Zecevic, 49, of West Los Angeles, shopping at a Trader Joe's, said she made the mistake of serving creamed spinach to her kids the day the story broke.\n"My sons started accusing me of premeditated murder," she said.\nShe felt the contamination issue was overblown.\n"The minute we get the all clear, the spinach is back on the table," she said.\nThe spinach, grown in California, could have been contaminated in the field or during processing, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.\nAbout 74 percent of the fresh market spinach grown in the United States comes from California, according to the California Farm Bureau Federation. There have been previous bacterial contamination outbreaks linked to spinach and lettuce grown in the state.
(09/18/06 2:43am)
Welcome, straight men, to How to Dress Like A Gay Man But Still Get Laid By Chicks 101. \nWe're all a little older now; we're in college. Or we're out of high school, at least. That's something, so let's celebrate by looking like we're out of high school. Now, boys, I'm not saying you should clean out Men's Warehouse and start sporting suits and ties to class (although you'll like the way you look ... that one guy guarantees it.) Still, there are some flawless techniques to look mature while still getting girls to slap your ass and call you Daddy, so let's get this party started.\nLast weekend you might have done 16 beer bongs, puked in a stranger's sink and woke up next to some chick wearing only a tube top and a mustache. That's college. So, even if you're not really a grown-up yet, let's fake it, shall we? \nFirst things first, pull up your pants. Your "Yo Quiero Taco Bell" boxers aren't sexy. They don't make me want you; they make me want a baja chalupa. \nLike I said, you don't have to be a grown-up to dress like one. Similarly, you don't have to be gay to dress like one. For example, I can't even count the number of times I've suggested to my guy friends to try on some tighter jeans. I'm not talking I-can-see-your-scrotum jeans, just a great slim-fit, boot-cut. \n"That's gay." You're right. Buying these jeans is like filling out your Homosexuals of America application with a feather pen and purple ink ... No, letting some guy wearing black see-through mesh stick his tongue down your throat in the bathroom of a well-lit club is gay. Wearing nice-fitting jeans is like putting a chick magnet in your boxer briefs. Chirp, chirp, boys, chirp, chirp.\nAnd I have to ask: What's with those sexually explicit Abercrombie & Fitch shirts? I mean, yeah dude, we get it. If there's a midnight game of shirts vs. skins tackle football with the ladies, you are so in. You love the vagina. You're bringing your own pigskin. Why don't you just wear a shirt that says "I LOVE POONTANG" or "GO HETEROS!" with a couple of busty cartoon cheerleaders fondling football players on the sidelines? \nI stopped wearing that hogwash when I actually started getting some; maybe you should have done the same. Try a polo or a button-up -- those vertical stripes aren't going to hurt your beer gut. T-shirts, not including the aforementioned Abercrombie shirts for the horny and obtuse, work great for class and the bars. Even Bullwinkle's.\nAll right, now you're dressed. But feet are people, too, so let's talk about them. Yes, I see you stompin' in your Air Force Ones. And you in the Crocs, don't think your rubber garden shoes are getting you a free pass to Vagina Island. They're not. I know they're uber-comfortable, and I'm sure they are a dream compared to your shoe repertoire of tennis shoes and Doc Martens. Oh God, you guys have it rough. Try balancing all your weight on two stiletto heels the size of freakin' fingernails while blisters form in six different spots of your feet ... after 11 Miller Lites. Shoes aren't that complicated, guys, so how about some Diesel sneakers or a rockin' pair of Pumas? Ditch the Crocs, and save us all, please.\nIf you follow these simple steps to dressing yourself and you're a Democrat, you'll probably get laid within seven days. Buy some petunias or make dinner for a special lady friend, and I'm guessing you'll only have to wait three to four days (or hours, depending on how long your ... petunia is.) Girls really aren't that hard to please, and sometimes we want to play midnight shirts vs. skins tackle football just as much as you guys do. Just don't show up in Crocs and Taco Bell boxers, and we'll blow the whistle.
(09/15/06 4:06pm)
Dear Coach Lynch,\nI come to you as an IU student and a self-proclaimed voice of the fans. \nThe last few days have been tough on us, Coach. Our hearts and prayers are with coach Terry Hoeppner and his family, but our minds are fixed on this Saturday. Anyone basking under the Bloomington sun knows the Hoosiers need to win all four of their nonconference games this season. Behind four straight wins, this team could drive its Believe Train head-on into the Big Ten schedule -- making stops only to mark victories. \nThe worst-kept secret in Quarry Land is that there are more students tailgating outside the stadium at 8 a.m. than there are inside the stadium at kickoff. Most of this student body may not be able to embrace this football team, but damn it, these players can embrace you -- their coach. \nThey should, and they must.\nYou have been handed the reigns, Coach. The General is gone, and it's time to circle the wagons.\nCircle the wagons. Grab the ammunition. Band together. Fight. \nThe fire fueling this team has been at a slow simmer, and it's time for you to spark the kerosene and ignite a fight. \nWe need you to do it, Coach. \nDo it for the people of Bloomington, who, like linemen impeding a running back, have wrapped their arms around this football team and still hold on tight to hope despite these tumultuous times. \nDo it for the fans who stay in the stadium long after the final whistle blows -- who won't leave until every IU player has trotted into the locker room. \nDo it for the players who have offered this program their blood, sweat and tears from the first stretching exercise of practice to the last wind sprint of conditioning. \nDo it for the student body that has never believed in this team. These students, year after year, have buried the Hoosiers' chances as they bury their heads underneath several pillows, only surfacing to hit the snooze on their alarm clocks.\nIn fact, Coach, forget it. Don't do it for the town of Bloomington. Don't do it for the fans. Don't do it for the players. Certainly don't do it for this student body.\nDo it for Coach Hep, whose divine character and devout faith in this team knows no bounds -- not even those between the chalked white lines. \nThis is your job, Coach.\nCircle the wagons. Grab the ammunition. Band together. Fight. Win. \nSo I guess one, simple question remains: Who will start at quarterback? Blake Powers or Kellen Lewis?\nGood luck, Coach. Now that you're the conductor of this train, it's time for you to make us believe.\nSincerely,\nYour local football columnist
(09/15/06 4:34am)
At 7 p.m. Sunday, the Buskirk-Chumley Theater will present a free screening of "The Ground Truth," a documentary that follows men and women who served the American military in the Iraq war, according to the film's Web site. The movie shows the journey through recruitment, training, combat and homecoming and chronicles the soldiers' process of reintegrating with their families and communities.\nAfter the screening, Iraq veteran Charles Anderson will engage in a question-and-answer session with the audience. Anderson served in the U.S. Navy from 1996-2005, according to "The Ground Truth" Web site. After being deployed to Kuwait in February 2003, Anderson entered Iraq in March 2003 as part of the war's first wave of American soldiers. \nAnderson returned to the United States with post-traumatic stress disorder, a disorder that affects 30 percent of Iraq veterans, according to "The Ground Truth" Web site. He was discharged in 2005 because of the disorder. He has since been an advocate for not only ending the Iraq war but also helping troops re-adjust when they return to the United States, according to the Web site says.\nJessica Love, senior account director of Venture Communications, the public relations firm that promotes Veterans for America, said the main focus of the film is the soldiers' returns from Iraq and how they cope with the adjustment. The Buskirk-Chumley screening, Love said, is an attempt to raise awareness about the documentary in hopes that others will want to hold screening parties of the movie in churches, private homes and on college campuses. \nPeople can purchase the DVD, sign up to host a screening and find out more information about the movie at www.thegroundtruth.net.
(09/15/06 4:27am)
I love YouTube. I love YouTube the same way I loved Napster when I first stumbled upon it as a pre-teen. Now, as a teen in my prime, instead of downloading music, I can watch all kinds of videos. I don't even have to wait for them to download. \nWith YouTube, I can instantly watch live clips from my favorite artists, catch memorable moments from the talk shows I fall asleep to and find full episodes of classic childhood television programs. \nI have seen so many wonderful things on YouTube. I even love the amateur videos. Upon searching for indie band Of Montreal's live cover of Gnarls Barkley's "Crazy," I found a true hit. It was a group of adolescent girls, dressed in retro attire, dancing to Of Montreal's "Disconnect the Dots." While another girl was sitting on the couch, flapping her right foot in the air, the family pit bull appeared, slightly bewildered. It was all too familiar to me.\nAs a newly arrived freshman, I often feel like I am appearing in my own version of "The Simple Life." But instead of leaving L.A., I left A.L. (Alabama) and all of the comforts of home. And while Paris and Nicole left their mansions for small-town living, I left my house in suburbia for dorm living. \nParis and Nicole no longer had limousines, stylists or credit cards. I no longer have my own car, bathroom or home-cooked dinner. The most traumatizing dorm-life shock for a pop culture junkie like myself, however, is the loss of my digital cable box. \nNow with only 40 TV channels in my room, I use YouTube to remember my cable days. I can watch clips from "The Simple Life," and I actually relate to Paris and Nicole. When I'm feeling homesick, I click to a 55-second clip of my friend Russ dancing at our friend Kelsi's birthday bash. Suddenly, I'm not so far away from home. \nSince its conception in 2005, YouTube has turned into a phenomenon. Formed by three former PayPal employees, it has recently been ranked the tenth most popular Web site on the Internet. Its popularity has been growing faster than MySpace. Who ever thought video clips might beat default pics? \nMost recently, YouTube has created job opportunities. After the WB canceled the TV series Nobody's Watching, the show garnered 500,000 hits on YouTube. The show became so popular, in fact, that NBC decided to revive Nobody's Watching. In another example, 20-year-old Brooke Brodack, known for parodying pop hits on YouTube, was offered a production job from Carson Daly based on her performances. Maybe I should start posting some of my material. \nAs YouTube becomes more and more popular, I fear it might meet the same fate as Napster. It has already faced several copyright infringement problems, and things can only get worse. I only hope that I will always bask in its freeness and never have to pay for my beloved clips. \nFor now, however, I'll enjoy YouTube while I still can.
(09/15/06 4:04am)
We made a mistake Wednesday night. In fact, it was one of the biggest mistakes a newspaper can make.\nIn a story about a student who was arrested and hospitalized after an incident with a fraternity and a police squad car, we got the student's name wrong.\nIt wasn't spelled incorrectly. It was wrong.\nWhen faced with a mistake of this magnitude, there are really only three things a newspaper can do: come clean, apologize and take steps to prevent future errors of the type.\nFirst, we ran a correction Friday on the same page where the error ran Thursday. We also corrected the information online.\nSecond, we're sorry. As editor of the Indiana Daily Student, I am sorry. This was a terrible mistake and an injustice to the readers of this newspaper. Our readers should be able to expect that the information they get from the IDS is correct. That we made such a big error violates that trust.\nThird, we are doing everything we can to make sure this doesn't happen again. \nThe circumstances that allowed an error like this to slip by three rounds of editing represented a perfect storm of oversight. \nThe mistake began as nearly every mistake does -- with the reporters who wrote the story. They wrote the wrong name into their story. \nHowever, Bloomington Police Department, as a matter of policy, does not hand out police reports -- the source of most of the information in stories like that one. Instead, an officer read the information in the report to the reporters. If our reporters and editors had a police report to fact-check, we might have caught the mistake. \nTo remedy this, we have made sure that all editors make reporters double-check the names in police stories against their names, not just against the police reports. We are also looking at other, more sweeping policy changes to help prevent further mix-ups. \nIn addition, we are planning police reporting and editing workshops with our staff to ensure we all learn from this mistake and hope it will never happen again.
(09/15/06 3:34am)
INDIANAPOLIS -- The Manning Bowl had the buildup, the prime-time slot and the nation's attention.\nSunday's game against Houston may not have the intrigue, but the Indianapolis Colts insist it's more important.\n"This is bigger because it's almost as if it counts as two games," three-time Pro Bowl defensive end Dwight Freeney said. "It's a division game, and there are the tiebreakers and all the stuff that goes with it."\nThe Colts (1-0), like coach Tony Dungy, believe it's never too early to start considering playoff implications -- even in Week 2.\nDungy routinely informs players about tie-breaking procedures, historical trends and constantly stresses the need to win division games, a point he'll make repeatedly over the next month.\nWith home wins over the Texans this week and Jacksonville next week, the Colts could quickly make a move for their fourth straight division title. They also host Tennessee Oct. 8.\nA sweep could turn the division chase into a one-sided race. The Colts are 20-4 all-time against division foes since moving to the South in 2002, having won 16 of the last 18 and swept the division last year.\nNo team has had more trouble with the Colts than Houston (0-1).\nThe Texans have been perfectly awful in this series. Besides losing eight straight games, they've been outscored 233-109 and allowed two-time MVP Peyton Manning to carve up their defense for 19 touchdowns and a 116 rating.\nMeanwhile, Houston has scored more than 17 points only twice against Indy.\nBut these Texans have new expectations.\nFirst-year coach Gary Kubiak installed a different offense, a different defense and a different attitude. Now the Texans will see if the changes can also produce different results.
(09/15/06 2:55am)
We don't know about you, but the Governator's got our backs. Or he would, if we ever took this show out west and became the California Daily Student.\nOn Sunday, the California governor's office issued a public statement reporting that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law that will make it illegal to steal more than 25 copies of a free newspaper "to sell or barter the papers, to recycle the papers for cash or other payment, to harm a competitor or to prevent others from reading the paper." Doing so, the statement continues, "shall be an infraction punishable by a fine not exceeding $250 and a second or subsequent violation shall be punishable ... by a fine not exceeding $500, imprisonment of up to 10 days in a county jail, or both that fine and imprisonment." Furthermore, the law explicitly includes college newspapers.\nAs stated in the staff box on Page 2, readers are entitled to a single copy of the Indiana Daily Student. \nNow this might make life a bit tougher for traditional fish-and-chip shops and owners of very large birds -- but it also helps fight a popular means of censoring college papers. In its fall 2006 report, the Student Press Law Center noted that from April through June mass thefts of student newspapers occurred at Kansas State University, the University of Rhode Island, the College of DuPage (Glen Ellyn, Ill.), Johns Hopkins University, Central Washington University, Pasadena City College and Glendale Community College (both in California), amounting to about 27,000 newspapers and costing their publishers at least $13,000.\nBut that's not all. The statement from the governors office further noted that Arnie recently signed into law a bill nicknamed the "Hosty bill," which guarantees broad free speech rights for student newspapers -- even those that receive university funding (Note: The IDS does not receive University funding and is damn proud of it). This was in response to the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling in Hosty v. Carter, which gave universities the same right to censor school-sponsored newspapers as that maintained by high schools. Yup, that's right: For students at many universities, they can smoke, they can vote, but if they want to criticize the university administration, they'd better confine it to their blogs. Now while the IDS editorial board has expressed criticism of this bill's vague provision banning hate speech (see our May 22 staff editorial), mildly flawed protection of campus free speech is certainly better than none at all.\nThis, then, brings us back to all the nonaction-hero governors in the rest of the country, including our own. To them, we ask: What's the hold-up? Afraid that student journalists will shed too much light on public universities' inner workings? Afraid that all those groups who nick newspapers to hide the truth or stifle campus debate will stop voting for you? Perhaps it's a fear of losing the support of that massive paper-recycling lobby? Maybe it's just us, but it seems like helping protect free, public inquiry at state institutions dedicated to teaching the principles of free, public inquiry might be good policy.
(09/15/06 2:41am)
MONTREAL -- A man with a black trench coat whose shooting rampage in a Montreal college killed one person and wounded 19 others before he was slain by police said on a blog in his name that he liked to play a role-playing Internet game about the Columbine shootings.\nThe gunman who opened fire at Dawson College on Wednesday was Kimveer Gill, 25, of Laval, near Montreal, a police official said Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because authorities were not ready to announce it publicly yet. He also said police had searched Gill's home.\nSix shooting victims remained in critical condition, including two in extremely critical condition.\nA woman who answered the phone at the Gill's home and said he was her son described him as "a good man."\n"Just ask anybody. Ask the neighbors. He was a good son," the woman told The Associated Press. She refused to give her name.\nThe woman added that police took his computer. "I don't know what they found in the computer. They took everything," she said.\nQuebec provincial police Lt. Francois Dore said authorities were waiting for autopsy results before officially identifying the killer, but "everything leads us to believe that it is, in fact, this Mr. Gill."\nIn postings on a Web site called VampireFreaks.com, blogs in Gill's name show more than 50 photos depicting the young man in various poses holding a rifle and donning a black trench coat and combat boots.\nOne photo has a tombstone with his name on it and the epitaph: "Lived fast died young. Left a mangled corpse."\nThe last of six journal entries Wednesday was posted at 10:41 a.m., about two hours before the gunman was shot to death at Dawson.\nHe said on the site that he was drinking whiskey in the morning and described his mood the night before as "crazy" and "postal."\nAt another point, he said he liked to play "Super Columbine Massacre," an Internet-based computer game that simulates the April 20, 1999, shootings at the Colorado high school by two students who killed 13 people and then themselves.\n"His name is Trench. you will come to know him as the Angel of Death," he wrote on his VampireFreaks.com profile. "He is not a people person. He has met a handful of people in his life who are decent. But he finds the vast majority to be worthless, no good, conniving, betraying, lying, deceptive."\nHe wrote that he hates jocks, preppies, country music and hip-hop.\n"Work sucks ... school sucks ... life sucks ... what else can I say? ... Life is a video game you've got to die sometime," he added.\nBelow a picture of Gill aiming the barrel of a gun at the camera, there's the inscription: "I think I have an obsession with guns ... muahahaha."\n"Anger and hatred simmers within me," said another caption below a picture of Gill grimacing.\nHe wrote that he is 6-foot-1, was born in Montreal and is of Indian heritage. He said his weakness is laziness and that he fears nothing. Responding to the question, "How do you want to die?" Gill replied, "like Romeo and Juliet -- or in a hail of gunfire."\nGill wore a black trench coat during the shooting and opened fire in the college's cafeteria just as Columbine students Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did in 1999. Gill also maintained an online blog -- similar to Klebold and Harris -- devoted to Goth culture, heavy metal music such as Marilyn Manson and guns and containing journal entries expressing hatred against authority figures and "society."\nIn another posting, he wrote, "Stop Bullying. It's not only the bully's fault you know!!" He blamed teachers and principals for "turning a blind eye" and police "for not doing anything when people complain."\nGill also posted the comment: "Stop making fun of each other because of the clothes you wear, or the way people talk or act, or any other reasons you make fun of each other. It's all the jocks' fault."\nA neighbor who lives across the street from Gill said he was a loner.\n"There were never any friends," Louise Leykauf said. "He kept to himself. He always wore dark clothing."\nAnother neighbor, Mariola Trutschnigg, said she noticed a changed in appearance in recent months when he "started wearing a mohawk and black clothes."\nA 23-year-old man and a 12-year-old girl accused in a triple murder in Medicine Hat, Alberta, earlier this year also had profiles on VampireFreaks.com.\nMontreal Police Chief Yvan Delorme said the lessons learned from other mass shootings had taught police to try to stop such assaults as quickly as possible.\n"Before our technique was to establish a perimeter around the place and wait for the SWAT team. Now the first police officers go right inside. The way they acted saved lives," he said.\nWitnesses said Gill started shooting outside the college, then entered the second-floor cafeteria and opened fire without uttering a word. At times, he hid behind vending machines before emerging to take aim -- at one point at a teenager who tried to photograph him with his cell phone.\nPolice dismissed suggestions that terrorism played a role in the lunch-hour attack.\nThe gunman opened fire haphazardly at no target in particular, until he saw the police and took aim at them, Delorme said.\nPolice hid behind a wall as they exchanged fire with the gunman, whose back was against a vending machine, said student Andrea Barone, who was in the cafeteria. He said the officers proceeded cautiously because many students were trapped around the assailant, who yelled "Get back! Get back!" every time an officer tried to move closer.\nEventually, Barone said, the gunman went down in a hail of gunfire.\nDelorme said some officers were at the school on an unrelated matter when the shooting began. He said reinforcements were sent to the scene.\nScores of students fled into the streets when the shooting broke out. Some had clothes stained with blood; others cried and clung to each other. Two nearby shopping centers and a daycare center also were evacuated and subway service was disrupted.
(09/15/06 2:35am)
WASHINGTON -- Former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorsed efforts to block President Bush's plan to authorize harsh interrogations of terror suspects, even as Bush lobbied personally for it Thursday on Capitol Hill.\n"I will resist any bill that does not enable this plan to go forward," Bush told reporters back at the White House after his meeting with lawmakers.\nThe latest sign of GOP division over White House security policy came Thursday in a letter that Powell sent to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of three rebellious Republican senators taking on the White House. Powell said Congress must not pass Bush's proposal to redefine U.S. compliance with the Geneva Conventions, a treaty that sets international standards for the treatment of prisoners of war.\nThe campaign-season development accompanied Bush's visit to Capitol Hill, where he conferred behind closed doors with House Republicans. His plan would narrow the U.S. legal interpretation of the Geneva Conventions treaty in a bid to allow tougher interrogations and shield U.S. personnel from being prosecuted for war crimes.\n"The world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," said Powell, who served under Bush and is a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "To redefine Common Article 3 would add to those doubts. Furthermore, it would put our own troops at risk."\nRepublican dissatisfaction with the administration's security proposals is becoming more prominent as the midterm election season has arrived. The Bush White House wants Congress to approve greater executive power to spy on, imprison and interrogate terrorism suspects.\nLeaving his closed-door meeting with the House GOP caucus, Bush said he would "continue to work with members of the Congress to get good legislation."\n"I reminded them that the most important job of government is to protect the homeland," he told reporters after the session. Bush was accompanied to the Hill by Vice President Dick Cheney and White House adviser Karl Rove.\nIn an effort to drum up support for its proposal, the White House released a second letter to lawmakers signed by the military's top uniformed lawyers. Saying they wanted to "clarify" past testimony on Capitol Hill in which they opposed the administration's plan, the service lawyers wrote that they "do not object" to sections of Bush's proposal for the treatment of detainees and found the provisions "helpful."\nTwo congressional aides who favor McCain's plan said the military lawyers signed that letter after refusing to endorse an earlier one offered by the Pentagon's general counsel, William Haynes, that expressed more forceful support for Bush's plan.\nThe aides spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Asked if Haynes had encouraged them to write the letter, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said, "Not that I'm aware of."\nBush was forced to propose the measure after the Supreme Court ruled in June that his existing court system established to prosecute terrorism suspects was illegal and violated the Geneva Conventions. The White House legislation would create military commissions to prosecute terror suspects, as well as redefine acts that constitute war crimes.\nFor Bush, the election season visit capped a week of high-profile administration pressure to rescue bills mired in turf battles and privacy concerns. It also gave GOP leaders a chance to press for loyalty among Republicans confronted on the campaign trail by war-weary voters.\n"I have not really seen anybody running away from the president," House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, told reporters this week when asked about the caucus' split. "Frankly, I think that would be a bad idea."\nAt nearly the same time Bush met with House Republicans, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, on Thursday was asking his panel to finish an alternative to the White House plan to prosecute terror suspects and redefine acts that constitute war crimes.\nThe White House on Thursday said the alternate approach was unacceptable because it would force the CIA to end a program of using forceful interrogation methods with suspected terrorists.\n"The president will not accept something that shuts the program down," presidential spokesman Tony Snow said.\nWarner believes the administration proposal would lower the standard for the treatment of prisoners, potentially putting U.S. troops at risk should other countries retaliate.\nMcCain and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have joined Warner in opposing Bush's bill.\nThe administration didn't allow such a direct challenge to pass without criticism. On Wednesday, the White House arranged for a conference call with reporters so National Intelligence Director John Negroponte could argue that Warner's proposal would undermine the nation's ability to interrogate prisoners.\n"If this draft legislation were passed in its present form, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency has told me that he did not believe that the (interrogation) program could go forward," Negroponte said.\nThe other bill Bush is pushing would give legal status to the administration's warrantless wiretapping program. It was approved on a party-line vote by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday but is stalled in the House amid staunch opposition from Democrats and some Republicans concerned that the program violates civil liberties.
(09/14/06 6:19pm)
Every so often an event comes around that elicits a particularly shameful response from the general public. Every so often an event comes around that elicits a particularly stupid response from the general public. \nUnfortunately for us, the majority of the time shameful and stupid tend to go hand-in-hand. \nSo what am I referring to this week?\nWhy the death of none other than Steve Irwin, also known as "The Crocodile Hunter." \nIrwin was killed last week when he was fatally stung in the heart by a poisonous stingray while shooting a documentary at the Great Barrier Reef off the Australian coast.\nHe was famous for filming daring documentaries in which he handled or came in close contact with deadly animals, such as crocodiles. \nWhile there was a general outpouring of sympathy after his death, especially in his native country of Australia, there was an even great number of people who reacted with significantly less dignity. \nI heard many people laugh at the irony of it; others seemed to feel that "He had it coming." The IDS printed the reactions of several students who seemed to share that sentiment. \nIt was a not-so-pleasant surprise to see groups on Facebook.com jokingly referring to Irwin's "man-ish wife" and his "faked death."\nThe lack of respect and humorous attitude many people displayed at his death was appalling. When a construction worker or a miner dies on the job, do people laugh and say "he had it coming?" When a soldier dies, do people say "Duh, what did he expect?" \nGranted those jobs may be viewed by some as more "necessary" than filming potentially dangerous documentaries, but Irwin was first and foremost a conservationist. In fact, he started his career by working for Australia's crocodile relocation program, which captured crocodiles endangered by hunters and moved them to safer locations. \nKnowing all that, I guess I am particularly dumbfounded by the string of "revenge killings" potentially carried out by Steve Irwin fans after his death. Apparently, some devoted followers of The Crocodile Hunter are distraught or enraged enough to go out, cut the tails off of and kill stingrays.\nConfused? I was too. \nWhile this hasn't been confirmed for sure, there is no other explanation for the sudden influx of tail-less, dead stingrays washed up on the Queensland, Australia beaches. Government officials say they are investigating the incidents and there may be prosecution involved. \nThis is one of those moments where one thinks to oneself "Wow, and I thought that kid that got a 760 on the SAT was stupid." \nYeah guys, I'm sure Steve Irwin, a Zoo owner, conservationist and hunting opponent would love the fact that his so-called fans were forming stingray mutilation and death squads. \nCrikey!
(09/14/06 3:56am)
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- Jerry Lee Lewis' hardheaded life of self-destructive recklessness -- filled with drugs, booze, scandal and broken marriages -- didn't seem like it would be the formula for a long career.\nBut "The Killer" is still rocking.\nJust shy of his 71st birthday, Lewis -- who had his first hell-raising hit 49 years ago with "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" -- is releasing his first studio album in more than a decade.\n"I just felt like I was ready to do it again," Lewis said with a smile.\nIts title? "Last Man Standing."\nAs a pioneer rock 'n' roller for Sam Phillips' legendary Sun Records, Lewis was a member of the so-called "Million Dollar Quartet" with Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. Together, the young stars carved a special place in the history of American music for Phillips' label and influenced generations of future rock 'n' rollers.\nOf course, though they toured together in the early days, they never really performed together as a quartet -- even though a photo from Dec. 4, 1956, shows them gathered together at a Sun Studio piano, with Presley, not Lewis, at the keys.\nNow, Lewis is the only one left.\nPresley died in 1977, Perkins in 1998 and Cash and Phillips in 2003.\n"I AM the last man standing," Lewis said. "And the last one breathing."\nThough Lewis didn't have the popularity of the King of Rock 'n' Roll or the critical legacy of Cash, he is still one of more important figures in the history of rock 'n' roll. His rollicking piano licks, along with his own fiery voice, fueled a few of rock's most influential songs -- most notably, the ultimate classic, "Great Balls of Fire."\nBut he set off one of the great rock 'n' roll scandals by marrying his 13-year-old cousin in 1957, while still married to someone else. His once-soaring career never quite recovered, though his image over the years has been sufficiently rehabilitated.\nHe never stopped making music, however. His new album, scheduled for release Sept. 26, was five years in the making. It is being released on the Artists First label through Warner Music Group's Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA).\nLewis is joined on the 21-song album by 21 guests that include Mick Jagger, Bruce Springsteen, B.B. King, George Jones and Kid Rock. But the focus is clearly on Lewis.\n"I had an understanding on that on the front end," said Lewis, who's never been known for happily sharing the spotlight.\nThe guests are big names, but they mostly sing harmony, backup or play instruments without singing.\n"Jerry Lee's talent had to be front and center," said Jimmy Rip, one of the album's producers. "His voice and his piano are the loudest things in every mix on every song, and we think that's the way it should be."\nAnd he's still plenty loud, even though he may not pump the piano as easily as he once could.\n"He's 70 years old, you know. That's just a fact," said his daughter Phoebe Lewis, who handles her father's personal affairs. "But he's always able to come through with what he's got to do. He just does it."\nAt a Memphis radio station to record promotional spots for "Last Man Standing," Lewis shuffled out of a sound booth wearing flip-flops, an open-collar gray shirt and black sweat pants dotted with drawings of small red chili peppers.\nLed by his daughter, he plopped in a chair to rest before the drive home to Nesbit, Miss., just south of Memphis. "I'm pretty tired," he said with a sigh, but he was happy to talk about the new album.\n"I'm definitely satisfied with it," he said. "I think it's the best album we've done in 20 years."\nRip said he asked longtime friend Mick Jagger to take part on "Last Man Standing," and other artists began signing up as the project grew.\n"We never really planned this as being a duet record. It just sort of turned out that way," Rip said by phone from Los Angeles. "People actually started to ask me, 'How come I'm not on the record?'"\nLewis said he had doubts about having so much company.\n"I didn't know how they were going to get all those people together," he said. "But it went smooth as silk."\nMost of Lewis' work was done in Memphis at Sam Phillips Memphis Recording Service, a studio run by Phillips' sons; some vocals were recorded at the old Sun Studio, now a tourist attraction.\nBut many of his guests recorded their contributions elsewhere, with the final product mixed by Rip, who refused to say which artists were in the studio with Lewis.\n"Some were and some weren't," he said. "I'll never tell who was there and who wasn't because, to me, that kind of ruins the illusion."\nRip said he had to explain to Lewis that with modern technology recordings can be made just about anywhere.\n"He asked, 'Can we do them in bed?' And I said, 'Well, we can do the ballads in bed, but you've got to sit up for the rock 'n' roll,'" Rip said.\nFor the work at Sun, "it was just the two of us with a pair of headphones and a computer," Rip said, "and, man, he just sang. In some of those vocals, he sounds like he's 20 again."\nThe album includes "Pink Cadillac" with Springsteen, "Traveling Band" with John Fogerty, "That Kind of Fool" with Keith Richards, "Trouble in Mind" with Eric Clapton," "You Don't Have to Go," with Neil Young and "Don't Be Ashamed of Your Age" with George Jones.\nFrom the beginning, back when Lewis was a teenager kicked out of preacher's school in Waxahatchie, Texas, for playing "the devil's music," his personal life has been a mess. He's wrecked cars, been hauled in drunk by the police, played around with guns, once shooting a band member in the chest and nearly killing him.\nLewis, who nearly died from bleeding ulcers in 1981, has stumbled through six marriages, two of which ended with the deaths of his wives.\nHis fourth wife drowned in a swimming pool while divorcing him in 1982, and just a little over a year later, the next Mrs. Lewis, 23 years his junior, died of a drug overdose. He divorced his sixth wife last year.\nHe's buried two children who died in accidents and fought the IRS over unpaid taxes, with tax agents even showing up at concerts to seize his pay, which he preferred in cash.\nBut nowadays, according to daughter Phoebe, Lewis spends his free time entertaining friends with lemonade and stories of the old days and with leisurely drives around rural Mississippi in his red Cadillac convertible.\nLewis wraps up the new album with Kris Kristofferson and "The Pilgrim: Chapter 33," a song about a life of wrong turns spent reaching for the stars. The album ends with Lewis speaking one of song's main lines -- that "the goin' up was worth the comin' down."\n"I don't know if I agree with that line or not," Lewis said, "not all the way"
