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(03/18/08 4:00am)
Today’s episode of “Conversations” welcomes IU Student Association presidential candidate David White, the third candidate to appear on the show. As a law student, White hopes to find support among graduate students for his campaign. With only a week left until elections, all three candidates are busy campaigning for the student vote. Check out idsnews.com each Wednesday for new episodes of “Conversations.”
(03/09/08 7:38am)
IU alumnus Bill Kapoun passed away Saturday morning after sustaining severe burns in an apartment fire just days ago.\nKapoun was burned in a Feb. 24 fire in his apartment in South Korea and was in critical condition all week. The fire left third-degree burns on about 70 percent of his body.\nHis death was announced by his sister Laura through Facebook on Saturday morning. There was a group on the site dedicated to raising money to save Kapoun and bring him home.\nThere is currently no other information regarding Kapoun's death.
(02/29/08 4:39am)
A memorial service will be held for sophomore Rachel James from 2 to 4 p.m. Saturday at Allen Funeral Home, 3000 E. Third St., said Jocelyn Bowie, the director of communications and recruiting in the College of Arts and Sciences.\nJames died in a car accident Monday evening north of Crawfordsville, Ind., after her car crossed the center line and hit a Ford pick up truck.\nShe was rushed to St. Clare Hospital where it was discovered that she suffered severe internal injuries, and was then transported to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis where she was later pronounced dead.\nJames was involved with the theatre department at IU.\nJames’ parents are Lynn DiPietro, former assistant dean for the College of Arts and Sciences, and Danny James, a professor of history at IU, Bowie said. They currently reside in Aberdeen, Scotland.
(02/28/08 4:48am)
More police officers have occupied campus within the last week to deter any disruptive activity students might have wanted to conduct following the resignation of former IU basketball coach Kelvin Sampson.\nNo threat existed on campus last week, but uniform officers were on high alert in case anything did occur.\n“We always put out extra patrols whenever we think there might be people around because of any kind of crowds or if there’s kind of an incident that has happened,” said IU Police Department Capt. Jerry Minger. “Basketball fans can be particularly volatile if they think there will be a significant change in coaches or players. Just like it was when Bobby Knight got fired, we had extra people around.”\nExtra IUPD security has been placed on campus during other events, including demonstrations and anything that might cause people to think about committing an act of violence.\n“This is just to create a higher presence in areas where in the past there had been issues with security and safety,” Minger said.
(02/19/08 4:46am)
The Indiana Daily Student is looking for students who were born on Feb. 29. If you’re interested in talking to the IDS, please e-mail us at campus@idsnews.com.
(02/15/08 4:35am)
Onestart, financial aid and bursar services will not be available to students, staff and faculty for the next six days while IU updates PeopleSoft, the University’s chief online software system.\nServices such as eDrop, eAdd, online grades, transcripts, loan processing, financial aid information, degree updates and registration changes will be unavailable from Friday until Wednesday, Feb. 20.\nAssistant Registrar Bart Quinet described it as a “University-wide undertaking” and said updates like this are necessary to use the latest versions of online software systems.\nThe downtime will affect the Office of the Registrar, Office of Student Financial Aid and the Office of the Bursar, although limited services will still be available online and in person.\nAfter the update, students will be able to enjoy a more user-friendly interface that is loosely mirrors sites such as Facebook, Quinet said.\nThe new system will offer two main features for students through Oncourse: the My Planner tool and the Enrollment Shopping Cart.\nQuinet said that the My Planner tool will allow students to view courses and their availability each semester. He said the service will be consistent throughout students’ careers and will enable them to lay out coursework for all of their future semesters at IU.\nThe Enrollment Shopping Cart will let students to pre-plan their schedule prior to their registration appointment. Students will have the option to carry their plan directly over to the registration process, Quinet said.\nHe said the systems should be up and running again by Thursday, Feb. 21.\nFor a complete list of unavailable options and limited services, students can go to http://studentnotify.indiana.edu/sis/.
(02/14/08 5:00am)
Minutes before show time this Saturday, Feb. 16, at the IU Auditorium, Tim Russell and Sue Scott might not know their lines, awaiting last-minute changes from the baritone-voiced mastermind Garrison Keillor, but that won't stop them from pulling it off. \nTheir long-lived radio variety show "A Prairie Home Companion" retains its off-the-cuff style after more than 30 years on the air. Keillor rewrites the script until the last minute, despite the high expectations of the show's four million listeners and national following. \nVeteran voice actors Russell and Scott, who play many of the characters on "Prairie Home," see no reason to hurry. \n"It's still the best gig in show business," Scott said. \nFor those unfamiliar with the show, "A Prairie Home Companion" is a weekly live-radio variety show with a grab bag of serials, comedy, skits and musical acts ranging from Bonnie Raitt to Wilco. Although the appeal of a radio variety show seems limited, the audience of "Prairie Home" has continued to grow. Russell credits the success to the show's commitment to wide-ranging humor, which tackles everything from cutting-edge political satire to cell-phone etiquette. \n"Humor knows no generational bounds," Russell said. \nThe unfailing family-style politeness of "Prairie Home" doesn't keep it from mouthing off, however. The show's humor, no matter how clean, retains a hint of sass and irreverence. \nIn many ways, the show concerns characters out of place in the modern era: cowboys dealing with citrus aftershaves and private eyes finding missing poodles. The holdover of a radio variety show in the modern world doesn't bother the two vets, though. If anything, modern technology invigorates their craft and encourages a new audience. \n"The iPod is reminiscent of the old radio, with sound and music at all times," Scott said. "It encourages the radio listener's imagination." \nHow does an aspiring talent get into radio? Neither Russell nor Scott found their jobs through conventional means. Russell, though he took a detour to law school, settled on a career in show business doing celebrity impressions, while Scott, coming up in stage acting, put in her time at improv acts such as Second City in Chicago. \nStill, these experiences served them well on the show, as on-air performances often are cold reads and ad libs, with a fair number of lines cut on the fly. Drawing on a vast number of cultural touchstones, they never fail to put on a show. \nThe two cover a variety of characters, from Al Gore to the tongue-in-cheek superhero "Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian." It gets to the point that they have a hard time finding their original voices, with Russell describing himself as "a chameleon." Considering the number of skits in the two-hour-long program, Russell and Scott must play dozens of roles, all while simply standing in front of a microphone and a live audience.\nReading a script doesn't make the job any easier, though. For the "Prairie Home" trademark deadpan humor to work, Russell and Scott must work with Keillor to create realistic reactions to silly situations. The challenge for voice actors, Scott said, is "to sound like we're not reading." \nDespite Russell's insistence that the show is "a little hipper than it was 20 years ago," both actors seem to recognize the roots "Prairie Home" has in Midwestern stoicism. Scott, a Midwest transplant from Tucson, Arizona, sees the appeal of the show's Midwestern simplicity nationwide, as audiences from coast to coast appreciate the show's ethic that no one is that wonderful or horrible.
(02/14/08 5:00am)
The bad news is it's Valentine's Day. The good news? You probably don't have a date.\nI could console you by reminding you of the freedom of being single -- that tonight, you can go out with friends, catch up on homework or finish writing that "Stargate: SG-1" fan-fiction piece. \nBut when you're lonely, none of that matters. Instead, you lapse into nostalgia about an obnoxious activity known as dating.\nIf you're being nostalgic, it's probably because you don't remember what dating is really like. Here's a refresher: It's comprised of a lot of sappy movies, slow restaurants and awkward conversations you can't wait to get out of. \nLast week, I went on a mission to cheer everyone up for Valentine's Day by collecting bad dating stories. I put an ad in the IDS asking for them, created an event on Facebook and went to downtown bars and asked IU students who were hanging out if they had any horrible dating experiences to share with WEEKEND.\nAt the bars, my requests were met with a mix of baffled looks and stories about hook-up attempts turned sour or "dates" with people they thought they were seeing who turned out to be seeing someone else. \nNot that there weren't plenty of tales worth retelling. Apparently, Bloomington is a great place for romance as long as your idea of it is poorly communicated one-nighters and plenty of alcohol.\nThe best story of my bar crawl, though, was told to me by Mitch Olsen, a 2007 IU alumnus who recently moved to St. Louis.\nHe and his friends have been trying to find women by hitting up the St. Louis bar scene. On one such venture, they went out to a bar where a band they wanted to see was playing,. Olsen convinced one of his friends to go near the stage and talk to a woman who looked "extremely attractive."\nOlsen explained: "The first thing he said was innocent enough -- 'Hey, you like the band? They're pretty good, huh?' And she ... said, 'Yes, they are really good. In fact, they play for my terminally ill son.'"\nOlsen said his friend followed the remark with an awkward silence, before responding, "Wow, that's a really nice band."\n"And then we left in shame," Olsen said. "St. Louis has been great with the co-eds so far."\nWe may not know how to make romantic connections with our fellow students, but hey, at least we have them. And of course, by mathematical law, every so often someone on this campus manages to figure out what a date is and go on one. \nOne of these students is senior James Broeker, who responded to my IDS ad with a story from last winter, when he had finally worked up the courage to ask a girl he had been talking to out on a date.\n"I was extremely excited and couldn't wait until that Friday," Broeker said in the e-mail. "This was not an ordinary date -- it required a good deal of my time, for I am at IU and she goes to school at the University of Evansville." \n"I was finally en route to rendezvous with my date when disaster struck -- a phone call from the girl. I hesitantly answered, and to my dismay she informed me she was not yet ready ... half an hour later, I arrive at the University of Evansville and call her for directions to her place. She replies she is still not ready to go, and that I should come up to her room."\nWhen he arrived at her room, she had just gotten out of the shower but said it wouldn't be much longer and kept getting ready. \n"My first 'high maintenance' alarm goes off (at this point), but I shrug it off," Broeker said.\nWhile waiting for her, her ex-boyfriend called. He had been filling up her car at the gas station.\n"Her ex-boyfriend was still taking care of her. At this point, my second 'high maintenance' alarm goes off," Broeker said.\nFinally, an hour after Broeker arrived, she was ready to spend several hours talking about herself.\n"We leave for the restaurant, and for the entire trip she talks about how she thinks she is so cute and so smart, how everyone, even people she doesn't know, thinks she is so cute, and how even her professors think she is so cute. She never once asked how I was or how my classes were going.\n" ... My final 'high maintenance' alarm was going off, and the abort foghorn was wailing at maximum capacity," Broeker said.\nBroeker called her later to tell her he wouldn't be seeing her again, only to have her respond that it wasn't a real date and they should pretend it didn't happen.\nOK, so that might not be the best example. But I swear, someone at IU has, in fact, been on a real date.\nSenior Kelli Claybourn told of the time she went to the house of a boy she was seeing her senior year of high school. His father was Iranian and served her Iranian food. Her digestive system wasn't taking well to the cultural diversity.\n"After I start to eat a little, his little sister says something like 'Good! I'm glad you're eating the food, his ex-girlfriend would never eat; we hate her.' Well obviously now I felt obligated to eat more."\nIn a great symbolic gesture about the value of dating, she soon found herself vomiting all over the bathroom, which was without toilet paper, and then vomiting again and again.\n"He promised me he wouldn't tell his family. But the next time they had dinner (something other than Iranian, thank God), his sister said, 'Hopefully you won't throw up this food.'"\nMaybe dating is dead. But if it is, we're mostly missing out on bad conversations and embarrassing situations. Happy date-free Valentine's Day.
(02/14/08 5:00am)
The Loch Ness Monster, leprechauns and the female orgasm are all myths that have been passed down since the beginning of time. Unfortunately, aphrodisiacs — or objects that heighten sexual arousal — are also a deceitful myth. So far, scientists, as well as Dr. Ruth (Westheimer) have reached a big, fat zero when it comes to proving that certain items have aphrodisiacal qualities. \nAlthough everything we've been told about aphrodisiacs is false, let's examine some of the "fakephrodisiacs" we've been told throughout the years and their potential sex-drive-heightening side effects.\nFine dining, and not-so-fine dining\nNo foods have been scientifically proven to increase sexual desire, but that doesn't mean the stomach isn't the way to someone's heart. \nChocolate does contain chemicals, such as serotonin, that reach your brain's "pleasure areas," according to Live Science, an online science journal. \nLive Science also concurs that the only reason oysters are considered aphrodisiacs is because they physically resemble vaginas. Deformed, slimy, shelled vaginas. \nAsparagus and bananas have been considered aphrodisiacs because of their phallic shape, but asparagus is questionable as a phallus. \nI want your (healthy) bod\nThere's a reason the SRSC is teeming with pre-spring breakers and resolution-holders — physique is an important criterion in the laws of attraction. Taking good care of your body ultimately leads to a whole wealth of good. Subsequently, feeling good leads to higher levels of self-confidence -- an irresistible trait. \nA Johns Hopkins study released a year ago in the American Journal of Medicine showed that erectile dysfunction has a strong correlation to unhealthiness, especially a lack of physical activity. In conclusion, shape up or ship out.\nGot talent?\nThere's a reason it seems every other boy has an acoustic guitar propped in a corner of his room — it's hot. Look at John Mayer, whose heinous O-face is completely ignored as soon as he starts jamming. Being talented at something, or many things, shows dedication and passion — both of which are attractive when selecting a potential mate. Even something small like being a good dancer, intelligent or having a good sense of humor are all forms of talent. \nBuy you a drank\nTwo words here: "in moderation." Too much alcohol proves to be the antithesis of sexual desire, but a few drinks will diminish inhibitions while increasing the chance of making bad decisions (we use the term "bad" lightly). Alcohol is a social lubricant. Why else would we have entire weekends dedicated to it? Be forewarned though, one drink too many and your brain won't be the only thing failing to work properly. \nFind out what it means to me\nWith no chemicals involved and no money to be spent, one fakephrodisic trumps the rest: respect. Appreciating a lover and mutual understanding between couples is vital to enhancing and maintaining sexual desire. This means taking time to appreciate a partner, both sexually and personally. A little respect goes a lot further than any amount of oysters.
(02/13/08 3:10am)
Eric Thomas, a motivational speaker, will be speaking to students today in the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center about academic, social and professional success.\nThe lecture, “Only the Strong Survive,” is sponsored by the Office of Mentoring Services and Leadership Development in collaboration with Sigma Lambda Gamma National Sorority, Inc., said Cameron Beatty, academic mentoring coordinator for the Office of Mentoring Services and Leadership Development.\nThomas, who heads an organization called “The Advantage,” became involved in theft and gambling by the time he was 18 years old, but turned his life around after meeting a pastor, according to his Web site. Thomas went on to obtain his undergraduate degree in business management from Oakwood College in Huntsville, Ala.\n“The Advantage” targets academically at-risk minority students, hoping to increase graduation rates, according to his Web site. His organization is made possible through peer mentoring, study groups, motivational exercises and leadership training.\nIn order to convey a message to students, Thomas uses a method called “edutainment,” which uses hip hop, music, theater and art to provide an educational message, said Patrick Smith, director of the Office of Mentoring Services and Leadership Development.\nThomas will be speaking at 7 p.m. today in room A201 of the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center.
(02/07/08 5:00am)
It may seem strange that shortly after The Mars Volta released The Bedlam in Goliath, a solo album by Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez-Lopez surfaced. And yet, Rodriguez-Lopez has further cemented himself as the busiest man in electro-rock, as Calibration (Is Pushing Luck and Key Too Far) comes right on the heels of Goliath.\nReleased a mere week after Goliath, Calibration finds Rodriguez-Lopez, his Volta bandmates and his ever-familiar cast of collaborators with another LP of layered, atmospheric material. Like his previous solo effort Se Dice Bisonte, No Bùfalo, Rodriguez-Lopez recorded Calibration while living in Amsterdam.\n"Mexico" opens the album with the soft female vocals of Tina Rodriguez on top of a Mexican harp and watery synth effects, suddenly building to distorted guitars and explosive bass. The kickstart of "El Monte Tai" follows with the jolt of a steady beat and an echoed violin against killer synth harmonies from "Money Mark" Ramos-Nishita. Rodriguez-Lopez, meanwhile, shows off his fluent Spanish as he takes vocal duties. \nThe self-titled track, split into two halves on the album, thunders into familiar Volta territory. A wah-wah pedal and screaming lead guitar on top of a complicated time signature usher in Mars Volta frontman Cedric Bixler-Zavala, wailing his high-pitched vocals over Rodriguez-Lopez's soloing.\nSoft-plucked electric guitar quietly builds into the dizzying "Glosa Picaresca Wou Men." John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers takes over the mic here, his voice under muddied effects as contrasting guitar and vocal melodies wage war in this art-meets-fusion track. \nRodriguez-Lopez certainly has a knack for arrangements, as songs such as "El Monte Tai" and the title track "Calibration" show. His performance with violin accompaniment on the soft "Grey (Cancion Para El)," as well as his solo performance on "Cortar El Cuello" highlight his dynamics as a guitarist. \nBut unlike Goliath, which found Rodriguez-Lopez and his Volta bandmates perfecting their sound, Calibration wears on the listener at times with wandering guitar melodies and unrelenting spacey effects. \nFollowing a critical success such as Goliath, Calibration may indeed be pushing luck too far.
(02/04/08 2:46am)
Girls Like Us
(01/31/08 5:00am)
The "drunk bus" driver\nMidnight Special driver Don Taylor tends to think of his job as baby-sitting. He does deal with vomit and urine, after all. \nMore commonly known as the "drunk buses," the Midnight Special buses start running at 11 p.m. and run until 4 a.m. Thursday through Saturday. From 11 p.m. to 1 a.m., they run three set routes. Then, from 1 to 4 a.m., they pick up people from downtown locations and take them to their desired destinations. \nTaylor is not oblivious to the purpose of his job. \n"It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what's going on," Taylor said, regarding the prevalent weekend drinking among college students around Bloomington. \nBut underage or not, his goal is to safely transport all riders.\nTaylor has a few rules for his riders, regardless of whether they are intoxicated.\n He doesn't allow fighting, and he draws the line when people are disrespectful. \n"If they call me a name and I know who does it, they're going to be walking," he said. \nHe also kicked a rider off for breaking a bus window. The police were called, and the rider ended up paying for a new window.\nTaylor hears plenty of foul language while working. He tries to ignore it, but some of the drunken riders' bad habits rub off on him.\n"I go home talking like a sailor and my wife has to correct me," Taylor said. \nOne night, a passenger used her bus seat as a toilet. Taylor left three passengers on his bus while he stopped to use the restroom. When he returned, he noticed the smell of urine. Taylor said they all denied it, so he made them walk home.\n"It was safer to kick all of them off, and I knew the other two would give her hell all the way home," Taylor said.\nTaylor can't quite decide what it is that makes his job worthwile. \n"When the tips are good, you make decent money," he said. \nBut Taylor said after decades of driving for a living, he loves people.\nThe bartender\nFor bartender Thad Thomas, there is more to his job than just making drinks. \nBartenders have to "oversee everything," Thomas said. \nAn IU graduate who majored in fitness, 24-year-old Thomas has been bartending at Kilroy's Bar & Grill for about a year. Thomas said that on busy nights, Kilroy's employs 10 bartenders. \n"There's door staff to make sure there are no fights, but we're the ones who see it first because it's happening over our bar," Thomas said.\nHe said the hardest part of his job is organizing and keeping up with orders when business gets busy. \nThomas said he encounters numerous types of customers every night. Some customers assure Thomas he'll receive a generous tip, but sometimes, they won't tip him at all. \nThe police officer\n"Any large university is going to have some problem with alcohol." said Sgt. Don Schmuhl, who has worked with the IU Police Department for 33 years. \nThe busiest time of year for alcohol complaints is from the beginning of the fall semester through November, he said, adding that Little 500 also causes an increase in alcohol-related activity. Homecoming weekend brings an "influx of people" to campus, so the police department is "stretched out to the extreme with the officers available," Schmuhl said.\nMost people he encounters who have been drinking are cooperative, but there are always the exceptions. \nOnce, while working the third shift -- from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. -- Schmuhl answered a bank alarm on Kirkwood Avenue. Everything looked fine at the front of the bank so he walked around to the rear and saw a man sitting on the curb. Schmuhl said the man had cut an electric wire to the building in order to cut off the power and was attempting to pry open the back door to enter the bank. Schmuhl assumed the man was trying to rob the bank and said the man's blood-alcohol concentration was above 2.0.\nThe brewmaster\nUpland Brewing Co. provides an alternative bar experience for college students who are interested in quality over quantity. Upland's Marketing Manager Scott Johnson believes there's no denying the stereotype that college students tend to prefer cheaper beer, but that it's "nice to leave the party, Natty Light scene sometimes." \nThere is an entire science behind brewing. 28-year-old Caleb Staton, the head brewer, has been in charge of the brew room at Upland for the past three years. His job entails the technicalities behind the beer, as he provides recipes and makes sure the taste of each new drink is consistent with the Upland style. \nUpland regularly brews five beers: Wheat, Amber, Pale, Dragonfly IPA and Bad Elmer's Porter, in addition to eight seasonal beers.\nAn Irish Imperial Red Ale, Upland's strongest beer, is being bottled for the first time this year.\nIt is a big decision to switch a beer from being sold strictly on draft to being bottled, because there is so much packaging involved.\n"Really, we start with the seasonal and see if it becomes a popular in-house hit, with the potential to grow year after year," Staton said. "Then, we go ahead and stick it in the glass (bottles)."\nThe four main ingredients in beer are water, yeast, hops and malt. The drink contains many degrees of malt, making the color vary and the taste rich and sugary.\nAccording to Johnson, about half of the brewery's customers are college students. He believes this popularity is due to Upland's rare appeal. \n"It's a unique thing to go off downtown (Bloomington) square and be at Indiana's largest brewery," he said.
(01/31/08 5:00am)
Upon first listening to Beck my sophomore year of high school, I wasn't sure what to make of him, let alone where to begin in his varied discography. Although the music he produces stays true to his style, that style is eclectic and hard to nail down. His sound ranges from the seemingly sweet lullabies of 2002's Sea Change to the roaring, sex-charged songs of 2004's Midnite Vultures. While thoroughly enjoying some of the tracks off Sea Change, others put me to sleep. And while certain tracks off Midnite Vultures made me dance, others were downright humorous. Needless to say, I was dubious of my relationship with Beck.\nAnd then there came a day when something in that relationship shifted. The lyrics from 1994's Mellow Gold suddenly pertained to my life (I wasn't going to work for no "soul suckin' jerk" either), and the catchy beat of "E-Pro" from 2005's Guero became the anthem of my 16th summer. Once I came to the realization that Beck's music made a lot of sense in my life, I was saddened by the fact that so much of my time had been wasted not listening to his music. And so, my journey into discovering the intricacies of Beck's music began, specifically with his 1996 album Odelay.\nOdelay first grabbed my attention when I heard the song "The New Pollution." The song is infectious because of its entrancing horns and catchy drumbeat, and I found myself listening to it on repeat. Although it was difficult for me to drag myself away from this track, when I did it was rewarding. I discovered "Where It's At" and "High 5 (Rock the Catskills)," which both brought new sounds of hip-hop and jazz to the album. I thought the twang of "Lord Only Knows" made it country, but the shredding of guitar in the middle of the song gave it a classic-rock feel as well. After listening to "Hotwax," which has a soulful beat and fun, trippy lyrics ("And you got the hotwax residues/ you never lose in your razor-blade shoes/ Stealing pesos out of my brain / hazard signs down the Alamo lanes"), I began to notice Beck's incredible talent for fusing together electronic, hip-hop, funk, indie-rock and jazz within the form of a pop song. \nBy bringing so many different types of music together, Beck allowed a number of genres to be accessible in a way they had never been before. At that point in my life, listening to electronic and hip-hop music was brand new, but after listening to Beck, I tried other artists, such as Bjork and Sage Francis. By listening to other artists, I appreciated even more the difficulty and scope of what Beck was doing with his music. Bjork and Francis are marvelously talented, but they certainly don't go in as many directions as Beck does, and certainly not within one album, as Beck does on Odelay.\nNot only do the songs on Odelay epitomize Beck's talent for fusing genres together, but his music videos work similarly. The video for "Devil's Haircut" features Beck walking the streets of New York City while carrying a boom box and wearing a cowboy hat. He walks with a confident stride, further proving that he has no boundaries and no conventions. He can be anything he wants to, whether it's country-western or hip-hop. The video is fun, unpredictable and a little bit on the humorous side, while still remaining serious enough to show off his talent at reinventing himself.\nIt's been about a decade since Odelay was first put on shelves at record stores, but that doesn't mean we should let it collect dust. The album is definitely a classic, and that's probably why Geffen Records released a completely remastered version of Odelay on Jan. 29.\nThe new album features a total of 19 bonus tracks not available on the original version. And if you have yet to hear Odelay at all, now is the perfect time to head out to your local record store and pick up this fuzzy, audacious album. It's one of the most important albums of the last decade and will remain influential for years to come. With Odelay, Beck proved to everyone that he wasn't at all ephemeral; he's here to stay.
(01/24/08 9:00pm)
Guest Column:\nThe Student Alliance for National Security deeply regrets the cancellation of Tuesday’s event featuring former Deputy National Security Advisor Meghan O’Sullivan. This was a program that students and faculty alike were very much looking forward to. The reasons for this cancellation must be clarified.\nLike many former high-ranking government officials, O’Sullivan requested that her lecture be “off the record,” meaning that the press would cover the event, but not report on the details of her talk by quoting her. This way, O’Sullivan believed she could be very candid with students about her experiences in Baghdad, the White House and with the President. This is common practice for public officials, and the press typically honors such requests so that an official can give an “insider’s account” of what their job was like.\nLet us be very clear: What happened Tuesday night had nothing to do with obstructing First Amendment rights or banning the press from attending the event. The First Amendment prohibits the passage or implementation of laws by the government that infringe on free speech or the freedom of the press. At the time this article was written, the legal issues surrounding off-the-record talks remain unresolved by IU administration officials. Regardless, no one involved with this event argued that the press could not be present at the program or that any law prevented them from attending or reporting on the program. Rather, the press was asked to respect the wishes of the speaker to treat the talk as “off-the-record.”\nHowever, the Indiana Daily Student chose not to honor this request, and despite having been sent a press release well in advance, waited until precisely five minutes before the event to inform SANS that its reporter would not be respecting O’Sullivan’s request for the lecture to be off-the-record. As this was the only way that she could speak according to the agreement SANS had made with her, there were few options available to us as event planners. Nor was there any time to try to find an authoritative answer from the University’s Office of General Counsel regarding the legal issues. This forced SANS to cancel the program. Had the position of the IDS been made known to us even the day before, there would have been time to find compromises, or at worst, cancel O’Sullivan’s trip and save several thousand dollars.\nIt is our view that allowing a top government official to speak “off-the-record” should never be seen as an affront to the press; in fact, it is typically regarded as a courtesy that the press affords such officials so that an audience might benefit from a unique perspective and a high degree of candor. Sadly, this courtesy was not afforded to O’Sullivan and the paper waited until the last minute to make that clear. Regrettably, this may make it more difficult in the future for other student groups to bring experienced professionals to speak on campus.
(01/23/08 11:08pm)
The IU chapter of Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity was closed today after the University found they violated a hazing regulation.\nDean of Students Dick McKaig announced in a press release that after consulting with the national headquarters of Alpha Epsilon Pi and alumni and student officers from the group.\nThe Campus Student Organization Ethics Board conducted a hearing in November and made a recommendation to McKaig, according to the press release. The board found the chapter in violation of the Student Organization Code which prohibits hazing. The code defines hazing as "any conduct that subjects another person, whether physically, mentally, emotionally, or psychologically, to anything that may endanger, abuse, degrade or intimidate the person as a condition of association with a group or organization, regardless of the person''s consent or lack of consent."\nMcKaig said in the release that the decision was difficult considering the fraternity''s many contributions to campus since it was first chartered in 1958.\n"But the Student Organization Ethics Board was clear about its recommendation, and the circumstances certainly warrant this action," he said in the release.\nThe expulsion takes effect immediately and the University no longer recognizes the chapter as a campus organization, according to the press release. The members will not be permitted to participate in University-sponsored activities, such as Little 500, under the name Alpha Epsilon Pi.\nThe chapter will remain closed for two years.
(01/18/08 5:09am)
CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. – Sitting down with a bowl of popcorn and a movie is a great way to end a long week of classes, but students are thinking twice about it after a Denver man revealed he probably contracted bronchiolitis obliterans from munching on a bag of microwavable popcorn almost daily.\nThe disease has long been associated with the popcorn industry, even earning the nickname “popcorn lung.” The pathogen is a naturally-occurring by-product of fermentation, known as diacetyl. Diacetyl has a very strong butter taste. It’s often added to margarine to make it taste more like butter, and consequently, is also frequently added to microwaveable popcorn. Workers mixing large vats of the chemical are most at risk for developing the disease. \nIn fact, bronchiolitis obliterans, Latin for “obliterated airways,” can be caused by more than just diacetyl. Other industrial workers have also suffered from the disease which is serious and frequently fatal. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health became aware of the situation after several workers from a popcorn plant contracted bronchiolitis obliterans in 2000. They quickly formed a list of recommendations for snack food plant workers to follow. \nHow a consumer could come down with the disease is a mystery. The fact that only workers mixing large quantities of the compound usually contract bronchiolitis obliterans suggests that relatively high concentrations are necessary for the disease to develop. Contrary to that theory, several studies report between 0.74 and 5 parts per million of the diacetyl in air is enough to trigger the disease in humans. For comparison, the hospital found between 0.5-3 ppm of diacetyl in the Denver man’s microwave. \nThe Food and Drug Administration claims it has no jurisdiction over breathing vapors from food additives, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which is supposed to regulate workers’ exposure to hazardous situations, had no previous guidelines in place regarding diacetyl. They only recently started to form a set of standards that would be obligatory for all companies. \nDoctors at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center, where the Denver man was diagnosed, said given his consumption of two bags of popcorn daily, the diagnosis of this otherwise-rare condition isn’t surprising. Snack food employees whose job is to microwave bags of popcorn all day have come down with the disease.
(01/18/08 5:07am)
LOS ANGELES – In a presidential election filled with more than enough candidates and debates, a key factor in the outcome will be the participation of youth voters. While youth voters played large roles in the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary, some political analysts doubt the same overall participation in the other 48 states.\nAnalysts are doubtful because youth voter participation has declined overall from 1972 to 2004, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement. While it has increased in some years, it is overall still less than it was in 1972. The turnout of youth voters, however, is expected to increase in this election.\n“Young voters are changing the dynamic of this election, and candidates are trying to respond,” said Kareem Crayton, an assistant professor of law and political science.\nCandidates have responded with more individual contact and by discussing issues that have become important to younger voters.\n“The economy directly involves younger voters because it encompasses issues like affordable college loans,” Crayton said. “The war in Iraq directly involves younger voters because many of the soldiers over there are under 30.”\nMedia coverage has also changed, with more Internet campaigning, including Web-only debates sponsored by YouTube and Facebook.\nIn addition to campaigning on Internet sites frequented by younger voters, candidates are frequenting areas where they can meet individual voters face-to-face.\nSen. Barack Obama delivered a speech at University of Southern California’s Doheny Memorial Library in October 2006 that was attended by celebrity Ben Affleck.
(01/17/08 5:31am)
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – The next time you go to the emergency room, expect to wait longer.\nA study by researchers at Harvard Medical School found that from 1997 to 2004, waits increased an average of 36 percent. And for the most severe cases, the wait increased by 40 percent.\nWaits rose for all racial and ethnic groups, though females waited longer than men and black and Hispanic patients waited longer than white patients. Both insured and uninsured patients faced increased waits.\nThe hold-up was worst for heart attack victims, who waited an average of eight minutes in 1997. By 2004, it had increased by 150 percent, to 20 minutes.\nAssaad J. Sayah, an emergency room doctor at Cambridge Health Alliance and instructor at Harvard Medical School, said the wait for the most severe cases increased so much because those patients often had to wait for a bed to open up.\nThe study, published Tuesday in the policy journal Health Affairs, looked at more than 90,000 emergency department visits across the country.\nThe study’s lead author, Andrew P. Wilper, said the goal of the study was to investigate “what’s going on in the place people go as a last resort for care.”\nWilper, a primary care physician and a student at Harvard School of Public Health, said that the number of emergency room visits had increased by nearly 20 percent between 1994 and 2004, which he attributed to “a lack of available primary care.”\nProfessor of Medicine David U. Himmelstein, senior author of the study, said he was not surprised by the findings.\n“Our clinical sense was that this was going on,” he said.\nHe added that emergency departments do not always get enough resources because they do not bring in much profit for the hospital.\nHospitals have also been shuttering emergency departments. The American Hospital Association reported that the number of hospitals operating 24-hour emergency departments decreased by 12 percent between 1994 and 2004.\nSayah, chief of emergency medicine at Cambridge Health Alliance, said the three emergency departments he oversees have been working to reduce wait time. In the past year and a half, waits have decreased by 18 percent, even as the number of patients has increased by 5 percent, he said. He said patient satisfaction ratings have also increased.\nThe changes have included greeting patients immediately and filling out registration after beginning care, having a no-empty-bed policy, dictating records to save time, and discharging patients at earlier hours, Sayah said.\n“This is not an emergency department issue,” he said. “This is an institutional issue.”
(01/17/08 5:31am)
STANFORD, Calif. – If regular filters can’t stop spam from taking over your inbox, Stanford University computer science graduate student David Erickson has got your back with Default Off Email (DOEmail), which Erickson developed in tandem with Associate Professor of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Nick McKeown.\nDOEmail is a free anti-spam tool that is similar to a buddy list for instant messengers and allows users to broadly categorize received mail. There are three basic groups: a list for people you want mail from, a list for people you don’t want mail from and the unknown for all uncategorized addresses.\nEmails received and classified under “unknown” generate an auto-response from DOEmail – a form is sent back to the sender in order to verify that the sender is human. The sender then has three weeks to respond.\nErickson said, DOEmail can help users regain control of their inboxes.\n“Spam is a serious problem – 74 to 95 percent of e-mail received is spam, and DOEmail is a simple solution that gives a lot of power to the user,” he said.\nDOEmail includes options that allow users to micromanage their spam control or to merely set broad filters and let the program do the rest.\nErickson said, who completed his undergraduate education at the University of Utah, these options set DOEmail apart from other systems.\nWhen asked to compare other anti-spam tools like content filtering with his project, Erickson said these programs “aren’t as effective” and that DOEmail is “more user-friendly.” DOEmail has a plug-in for Mozilla Thunderbird and is accessible to anyone who wants to use it.\nTo learn more about DOEmail, visit www.doemail.org.